Never Tried Wondering (1600 words) by kathryne
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Last Tango In Halifax
Relationships: Caroline Elliot/Gillian Greenwood
Characters: Caroline Elliot, Gillian Greenwood, Alan Buttershaw, Celia Dawson
Additional Tags: Post-Canon
Summary: A posh pub, a family meal, and Gillian on edge, worrying about the future.

This was meant to be a little ficlet for a tumblr prompt ('Caroline/Gillian, a stolen kiss'), but it got a tiny bit out of hand.

Crossposted from http://tellitslant.dreamwidth.org/1402735.html with comments; comment there or here.

slow and steady (2427 words) by kathryne
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Scott & Bailey
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Julie Dodson/Gill Murray
Characters: Julie Dodson, Gill Murray
Additional Tags: Post-4x08, Friends to Lovers
Summary: After Gill's retirement, she and Julie must negotiate the balance between Julie's continuing career and their relationship.

That brings this year's word count up to a paltry 4927. Ouch. Here's to more words in 2016, or at least no fewer.

Crossposted from http://tellitslant.dreamwidth.org/1401651.html with comments; comment there or here.

I haven't had time to look through any more of the Yuletide archive, and I'm not sure when I will, so I wanted to plug my gift fic before too much more time had passed:

et faisons la grasse matinée (1597 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Phryne Fisher/Elizabeth MacMillan, Phryne Fisher/Jack Robinson
Characters: Elizabeth MacMillan, Phryne Fisher
Summary: "I do love you," Mac says. She's not fond of saying it.</p>

This is a really lovely Phryne/Mac piece that just makes me feel warm and happy all over. *g* I love the shape of their relationship here and how its history informs every line of the text. If you're a MFMM fan, you should definitely check it out - I am very pleased to have received it and it made the early morning of my Christmas Day a good deal brighter. :D

Crossposted from http://tellitslant.dreamwidth.org/1400253.html with comments; comment there or here.

STAR WARS

I haven't read anyone's posts, so please comment/link me in the comments/whatever! No matter your opinions!

( major spoilers with squeeCollapse )

Crossposted from http://tellitslant.dreamwidth.org/1397890.html with comments; comment there or here.

I have seen a couple of things lately - one play and one tv series - about which the best I could say in review was that the casts had deserved better. They both had pretty bad scripts, decent to good production values, and good to very good casts; in both cases, I was very critical of the writing. And yet I enjoyed them, for the most part, and with the tv series I watched it all the way through. Granted in both cases I was also watching for specific performers, so I had reason to stay, but still.

And yet I was thinking afterwards about what makes me give up on texts, and I think I'm more likely to stick out something with bad writing and good acting than vice versa. This kind of surprised me - as a writer, you'd think I'd be deeply offended by poor work, but possibly being able to pick it apart and laugh at it makes me able of getting some entertainment out of it. Bad acting just bores me, for the most part, but I think I'm most likely to drop a show or leave a play if it has bad production values. I just find that so sloppy - lighting, cinematography, sound: there's no excuse for fucking those up. And good production values can elevate the mediocre.

What's your make-or-break?

Crossposted from http://tellitslant.dreamwidth.org/1393562.html with comments; comment there or here.

Hello, lovely writer! I'm so excited that you've offered one of these little fandoms, and I'm so looking forward to seeing what you write! If you've already got an idea, feel free to ignore all this: I'll give you a couple of dislikes, but everything outside of that is fair game. But if you want to know more, I'll try and give you a general sense of what I like as well as some more specific things I enjoy about each canon. I hope you have fun this Yuletide!

FYI, you can also check out my fic on AO3 under kathryne.

( do not wantsCollapse )

( general likesCollapse )

And if that's not enough, a few more canon-specific thoughts, in reverse alphabetical order because why not:

( miss fisher's murder mysteriesCollapse )

( last tango in halifaxCollapse )

( killers kill, dead men dieCollapse )

Thanks for reading, writer dear. I can't wait!

Crossposted from http://tellitslant.dreamwidth.org/1392927.html with comments; comment there or here.

what I just finished:
The week I missed: I finished the last eight V.I. Warshawski novels in time to pick up the most recent only a day after its release date, last Wednesday. Finished that on Thursday, then, hmm. At some point I went to the store with a gift card and picked up a couple of books, including one by Libba Bray, but immediately got sidetracked into Beauty Queens, a different one of hers. Surely I read more than that. Maybe not, though - I spent a lot of the weekend packing stuff.

what I'm reading now:
The aforementioned Libba Bray novel, the first of her new (trilogy? series?), The Diviners. It came out a good three years ago and I'm astonished I hadn't read it yet, since I love the Gemma Doyle trilogy. (Aside: how the FUCK did The Sweet Far Thing come out in 2007, jfc didn't it come out like yesterday, how even.) This one's set, not in Victorian England, but Prohibition-era New York City. Loving it so far, and the next one comes out later this month, so my timing is perfect.

what I'm reading next:
No idea. The Diviners is a rather large physical book, so I need to find some kindle books to get me through folkfest weekend. Light. Fluffy. Good. Thoughts?

Crossposted from http://tellitslant.dreamwidth.org/1392663.html with comments; comment there or here.

what I just finished:
In the last two weeks, since I missed last week: Broken Harbour by Tana French, which didn't creep me out this round as badly as it used to. I started re-reading French's Secret Place but got sidetracked by the discovery that there's a new Sara Paretsky book out next week, so I'm re-reading all the V.I. Warshawski novels in advance. I've finished the first eight so far.

what I'm reading now:
Tunnel Vision, the ninth Warshawski novel. I really love these books, but I haven't re-read the whole series in a very long time. I'm finding it interesting to re-read them and think about their feminism as related to the era in which they were written. It's also quite interesting to read them adapting with the times - I re-read all the Kinsey Millhone novels earlier this year and they are resolutely grounded in the 80s, while these keep up with the calendar and the technology even as I think they keep V.I. at an acceptable age to continue detecting. I'm also enjoying thinking about the times at which I originally read these - when I started the series, which books I picked up as they were coming out. I think I started reading them in high school, so it's been a while.

what I'm reading next:
I have eight more Warshawski novels before the new one comes out on the 28th. I'm spending a bunch of time in airplanes and airports over the weekend, so who knows, I might make it. :P I also seem to have missed one novel in the group, or at least I don't remember it from the synopsis, so, yay, it's like two new ones!

Crossposted from http://tellitslant.dreamwidth.org/1392415.html with comments; comment there or here.

what I just finished:
In the Woods and Faithful Place by Tana French. Re-reads both, but not for a while. I am so desperately, perpetually in love with French's prose. Also Dreaming Spies, by Laurie R. King, which is one of her better recent Mary Russell books, if a little problematic even if you assume the Orientalism is meant to be period-appropriate.

what I'm reading now:
Broken Harbour, also by Tana French. Definitely the one of this series I re-read the least often, because it is creepy, but here we go. As well, "Coriolanus," because I'm seeing it on Friday.

what I'm reading next:
No idea. I just rescued my grandmother's copy of Wolf Hall from the pile to go to the used book store, so possibly that, finally.

Crossposted from http://tellitslant.dreamwidth.org/1392317.html with comments; comment there or here.

what I just finished:
When I finished Uprooted (see last week's post, but: definite recommendation if you like magic and fantasy and female protags and... lots of good stuff), I couldn't think what I needed as a followup, but it finally hit me: Kristen Cashore's Graceling trilogy. I re-read Graceling and Fire while on the island and now I really, really, really want more from her.

what I'm reading now:
I am a few pages from the end of Bitterblue, the third of the Graceling novels. I love these books and their unapologetic feminisms and their brilliant characters and their insistence on working through terrible things.

what I'm reading next:
I finally bought the most recent of Laurie R. King's Mary Russell novels, Dreaming Spies. I should probably re-read some of the previous ones first, but I don't think I have them handy. Still, I think that's up next, and then possibly some Val McDermid.

Crossposted from http://tellitslant.dreamwidth.org/1391689.html with comments; comment there or here.