Island of the Lone Sane Thought

One of my favorite artists is sigune. I met her ages ago at a con, and immediately knew she was awesome. Her artwork is reminiscent of Aubrey Beardsley, but she's got her own style as well, and it's marvelous.

She's been working on a draft of a set of graphic novels about King Arthur, Gawain, and some of Arthur's backstory. It's absolutely amazing. Even though this isn't the final artwork, it's beautiful and masterfully drawn. She pencils, inks, and scans in three pages per week, and I've been following it avidly. She's just finished the second set of pages, and I thought this would be a perfect time to recommend this.

The Gawain Project (takes you to all tagged entries for tGP; if you'd like to see all entries, you can click here, which is the final entry for the Prologue, and it has all links for the other pages of tGP)

The Darkest Hour chronicles Uther and Ygraine

I highly recommend both series. These are insightful, beautifully drawn works. They move slowly at first, but then they draw you in, and the storytelling unfolds like a mystical flower. I really love both series so much and I can't wait for more work. Sigune has a great ear for dialogue and a talented eye, and the story is engrossing and well-told. There is heartbreak, there is magic, both dark and light, there is love and war and the land beyond the mists. Sigune's drawings are spare and yet convey so much. Her beautiful lines captivate the eye.

If you're looking for something interesting during the short dark days of winter, then definitely stop over at her journal and check out her interpretation of the Arthurian legends. Not to be missed!

The ever-lovely tinx_r has written a spooky vampire Riptide fic for me called Portrait of the Vampire. Rated NC-17, full of yummy Nick and Cody, and as tasty as all of Tinx's writing is. I enjoyed it very much--it's like watching a new episode. Er, an NC-17 episode, that is.

Summary: With Murray in the hands of the vampire, Nick and Cody must work fast to find him in time...

Portrait of the Vampire: Part one, Part two.

So y'all know that I have a major weak spot for hurt/comfort fics. (I would even say that I have always had this jones--but that's for another essay.)

Anyway, for me there are certain characters who work in that role, and others who just don't. Even though there are many Remus h/c fics out there, I've never been very interested in them, for example; it was only Snape who really intrigued me in that role.

Even though I think of myself as primarily a HP fan, I do wander off into other fandoms occasionally. Especially older fandoms whose heroes I remember liking.

Recently I discovered the Riptide fandom on LJ. I found it because of 10_hurt_comfort, which I usually skip over because it contains anime pairings I don't recognize or fandoms I'm not interested in. I have a very specific taste for h/c, lol.

( More about small fandoms like classic BSG, Riptide, Emergency!, etc., and some links. )

As always, lady_branwyn manages to pack more insight and characterization into a short story than many authors can in a novel. Her latest set of short stories, A Handful of Valentines, is wonderful and fascinating, covering characters as diverse as Bill the Pony and Barliman.

If you have a few minutes, and you're a LotR fan, you should not miss these. She's a masterful writer, and each sip is worth its weight in gold.

If you're only going to read one, then make it Outlander, a short story of Boromir and Éowyn.

Right now I've been quite entranced with Dangerous People, a Snupin WIP by evecat (evegenia on IJ). It's post-DH, contains DH spoilers, and so far is pre-slash, though I have a feeling that it will not remain so for long. The author's warnings are: language, violence alluded to, character death alluded to, but I would add that the violence alluded to can get a bit gory. Just a bit.

There's no real summary, so I'll just say that Snape and Lupin are on the run from a Wizarding World gone mad, and end up in the Chicago, trying to blend in with the wizards and witches there. That sounds hokey, but it is entirely not. The political situation in both countries is explored, and Snape and Lupin do their best to keep up with their cover stories.

( More )

The plot is so unexpected, moving here and there, and I love not being able to guess, even though some of the issues faced are quite logical. People complicate things, and this is where the story shines--in all of its complications, in its lovely, stubbornly fixed pace, and its well-realized characters.

This is one of the reasons I love fandom, finding stories like this.

( Other thoughts, and an excerpt )

Here is the link to Chapter one on LJ. Keep in mind that the author has now switched to IJ, and anything beyond chapter 7 is available there instead. Also, some of the chapters have links and some do not; some of her links lead only to her journal. I've compiled a set of links for the chapters--it's under the cut.

Chapter 1: Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs

( Links to the rest of the chapters )

Holy cow. I've been reading most of the Snupin Santa entries, and as always, there's a grab bag of "good," "lots of fun," and "not my cup of tea."

And then there's "HOLY SMOKES THIS IS AWESOME." You know--the kind of story that defeats you as a writer, because you wish you had written it, and that you haven't makes you unutterably sad.

Modern Love, written for vibishan, is one such story. 11,000 words, PG-13, post-DH but with some DH events not occurring. The summary is: Set several years after DH, Remus and Severus are in a relationship and raising Teddy together. On the surface things seem wonderful, until you take in insecurity and miscommunication.

It's one of those fics where you are literally immersed in their world, where everything is written so realistically and meaningfully that each paragraph just rolls off the page and into your mind. The characterizations are terrific. I generally avoid any fics with children in them because most I've read have featured some sort of pod-child who bears little or no resemblence to real children--but Teddy, in this fic, is so incredibly well-written that he actually elevates the story instead of hindering it.

Writing a characterization of Severus as father sounds like a challenge--but this story proves that it can be done, and with style. The incredible touches in this story are the things I always long for in wizarding stories--not only does Teddy spout off about potions and magical creatures, but the adults even talk about magical affairs.

There is no graphic content at all. The PG-13 rating says it all--this is a nuanced, lovely piece of work, a story that makes one feel right at home in the wizarding world. I felt like I had slipped into the family and was sitting on the hearth, surrounded by magic and yet still human, full of emotion, feeling, and especially the regret--or sometimes pride--we feel from the choices we make.

...and that I rarely find any HP-themed poetry.

Well, thanks to a rec from crack_broom today, I've found a terrific, thought-provoking series of poems. It's very spare, humorous, bleak, and full of tiny electric particals that will buzz within you long after you finish it. Even better, it is very accessible, whether you enjoy poetry or not--it's so tightly and fluidly written that it's sure to affect nearly everyone.

It's called Silence and Esoterica, by cedarlibrarian. It follows Severus through his many decisions and thoughts. It's pre-DH, so Severus's core rests on a different weight than what we know now, but don't skip it because of that--it's still relevant, and it's full of dark, creeping thoughts. It was written for kinda_lush with the prompt "Honor."

It's a progression of poems. A taste of the first few lines:

Just Before My First Year

I knew
from the beginning
that popularity and security
and a predictable future
were
for anyone but me.

If you have any taste for poetry, you should run, not walk, to this work. It's haunting.

If you want to read a great, funny short story (and also this fits in with my recent musings on jeans and being a big girl), run over to BBW (Big Beautiful Witch). It's by anguis_1 and it's on porkish_pixies. It's Bulstrode/Crabbe, but don't let that hinder you...this is pure gold. Rating is PG-13.

Summary: Vince has never claimed to be the brightest light in the chandelier, but once he gets an idea in his mind, he hangs onto it like a hippogriff with a nice, juicy ferret. Unfortunately, he’s always had difficulty expressing himself.

It's fun, sweet, and hilarious!

The incredible sigune has finally finished her astonishing graphic novel of the Prank. It really is amazing. Her dark lines, her wonderful dialogue, the great characterizations...this is not to be missed! It's an incredibly inventive and very canon-based look at the Prank itself. It's G, about eighteen pages long (they go by very, very quickly, though), I think, and NOT TO BE MISSED if you are a fan of the Marauders, or especially, Snape.

It's fantastic.

She doesn't seem to have a tag devoted to this series, so this link will take you to the last page, and there are links to all of the other pages in the beginning. It's well worth it. The finished pages are at the end of each entry, though the preceding commentary in each entry is not only a fascinating glimpse into the mind of an artist, but also a wonderful way to learn about the methods of composing panels and narrative flow in artwork.

I just received an update alert from fanfiction net that Potions and Prejudice by slipper balloon has been updated.

You all know that I am not into HG/SS. But for some reason, this fic really caught my eye. HG/SS shippers might think it clichéd, but (mainly due to my recent Pride & Prejudice obsession), I'm intrigued by it.

What fascinates me is that it's been ages since it was updated. Seriously. At least a year, if not a year and a half. I remember it from one of my earlier bursts of energy, when I was going through recs pages and trying to look at everything, so it has to have been awhile.

It interests me that she mentions how many people urged her to continue, privately, by email. I mean, I have one or two who occasionally mention it, but after last year (when I only updated three times or so), I lost a lot of people...people who seemed to disappear into the fandom nexus. Anyway, it's so sweet that enough people cheered her on, and she updated. Makes me think that fandom isn't quite the black hole it appears to be sometimes.