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tmblrcolouredpaper · 8 months

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Hiding Tears

Lee Felix/ Reader

Friendship Fluff

circa 1900 words

You are stressed out and overwhelmed and Felix is simply there for you.

Way too much happened over the last weeks. While you were dealing with everything that was thrown at you, you had not much time to think, reflect, let alone release emotions and stress. It wasn't too bad in the beginning. You welcomed the change, less time to be bored and overthink, more tasks that actually mattered.

Automatically, you used your phone less, and if you did, there was intention. It felt good, and you wanted to establish a less screen-focused lifestyle, so Felix took you to a bookstore after you mentioned current alterations.

'This one?', he asked and pulled out a book from the shelf.

It was his idea to get a bunch of books, so you have something to read whenever you feel bored. You had no idea what new books you should get, rather interested in rereading the same few that you knew you enjoyed than getting into new stories.

'Don't know.', you mumbled and felt frustration rising in your chest.

You walked along the shelf and had a hard time paying attention to the book titles. The various colours, some shimmering covers, and glittering fonts overwhelmed you. A few shelves behind you sounded the voice of other customers. They laughed and excitedly read out loud the blurb of a book.

'They sound like they found something.', you mumbled, and Felix stepped next to you, carrying three books in his arm.

'What did you say?', he asked and handed you a book he was holding to give you a chance to read into it. You took the exemplar and turned it around, already annoyed by the green cover with black glitter. Fantasy books were always so unnecessarily extravagant, in your opinion. Who wants to have a hand full of glitter while reading? The blurb didn't convince you either. It was the regular plot of the protagonist suddenly discovering that they have superpowers, that they're actually special as if anyone needed to be extraordinary to be special.

'I don't think fantasy is the genre.', you announced, and Felix nodded and brought the books back to their destined spot within the alphabetical order of all authors that perpetuated their personal fragments on those pages.

'I think I'll just order a bunch of books online.', you planned, and your friend looked up from a new book he just picked up.

'Wanna leave?', he questioned and fondly smiled at you when you nodded. After he put the book back, he took your backpack and threw it over his shoulder. With his hand on your upper back, you were led out of the store, saying goodbye to the cashiers and wishing them a good day.

Fortunately, there was a bus stop right in front of the store, and the bus itself didn't take long to arrive. All seats were taken, so you and Felix had to squeeze in between the crowd of people standing in the hallway. The motor was loud, and the air was sweaty. People towered over you, and there was no space to move without stepping on someone's feet when you lost balance due to the bus's sudden stops and turns.

Tears started burning in the corner of your eyes, and when the stupid-looking book covers didn't already overwhelm you enough, then sure, the bus ride did. The bus took another curve, and there was no pole to hold onto for you. Everything was blocked or already conquered by the other people. Quickly, Felix circled one free arm around your waist and gently pushed you against him. He was holding onto a horizontal pole above him, too high for you to reach. His grip was tight, and he probably needed a lot of strength to stabilise himself already, muscles flexed and body stiff to keep up with the vehicle's movement.

'Hold onto me.', he instructed quietly and kept his arm around you. His hand rested warmly on your back with a calming effect, and once you held onto him by simply hugging his torso, he started gently caressing up and down, his protective touch never leaving you.

With each stop, the bus started getting emptier and emptier, people leaving busily, and even though there now was enough space for you to stand freely by yourself, you kept standing close next to Felix whose hand kept resting on your shoulder. When you finally arrived at your stop, Felix adjusted the backpack and took your hand to walk out.

He actually was quietly taking care of you, and it seemed so natural that you began tearing up again. Too much bad, too much good, it didn't matter anymore. The second you felt something slightly intensely, it brought you close to breaking down. You wondered how long it would take today.

You stopped walking, and Felix turned towards you. You expected him to be surprised, questioning why you didn't keep walking, but there was no sign of that. He just looked at you patiently, rubbing your upper arm in a comforting manner, and all you wanted was to fall forward into his embrace, hiding from the world, hiding from yourself.

Suddenly, you looked away, pretending that something next to you was very interesting. You searched for something that could genuinely distract you. Your sight landed on two kids giggling at each other, one holding some daisies in their hands. You smiled and felt your tears going back.

Ready to look at Felix again, you wondered if you should tell him what you felt or if you were collected enough to just ignore your sudden overwhelm and keep walking.

'You good?', he asked, and before you could even think of how to answer, you were already shaking your head, and the sting of tears appeared again.

In a hurry, you turned around and pretended that you had to cough.

'Bit thirsty.', you laughed it off and continued walking, just wanting to be home and hide away. It was already embarrassing enough how often you could have started crying today, but you were even more embaressed by your weird attempts on hiding your tears from Felix, especially knowing that he had no problem with experiencing people crying.

Arriving at the front door of your apartment complex, you expected Felix to give you your bag back, but he just stood there, unimpressed, looking at you with a calm and knowing gaze. Hesitantly, you pointed behind him.

'Uhm, do you want to keep that?', you asked and thought he may have simply forgotten that he was carrying your stuff, but he shook his head immediately as if he was ready, already waiting for you to ask.

'Okay?', you asked, a bit amused by his mysterious quietness.

'I thought we could spend the whole day together. I have nothing else scheduled for today.', he explained straightforwardly and added, 'If that's okay for you, of course. I'm not gatekeeping your belongings.'

You huffed, feeling the tears again. However, this time, because you were happy to have such a great friend. You nodded repeatedly, 'Sure, sure.', turned around and opened the door, holding it open for him and then took quick steps up the stairs. Maybe you would end up so out of breath that you had no energy left for crying, you hoped.

His quiet behaviour today was unusual for him. You thought that he just didn't talk much to not annoy the people in the bookstore, but now that you fiddled with keys and opened the door with him standing behind you, still all quiet, you realised that he'd been like this the whole morning.

The second the door closed behind you two and the safe, familiar atmosphere of your apartment was supposed to engulf you, you recognised the chaotic state you left it. The way you forgot about the unwashed dishes that piled up next to the sink, the laundry that was waiting next to the washing machine, probably smelling already and the random objects that were laying around, not at their destined place, made you feel deeply embarrassed.

'Sorry, I, ahm, didn't tidy up. I forgot that it's a mess here.', you informed Felix who was taking off his shoes. He looked up and snorted when he looked around.

'You know, you're probably the only one I know who would consider this a mess.', he reminded and listed how his apartment's default setting was three times worse. '..., but I have pretty lightning in my room, and that easily overshadows my mess.', he laughed.

'Funny.', you plainly remarked and wondered if you just needed more light in your life that could overshadow your mess. Felix might have realized by now that you were truly uncomfortable because he stepped closer and playfully poked your cheek. 'If it's bothering you', he nodded towards the general space of your apartment, 'let me help you tidying up. Maybe you can finally relax then.' A bit quieter he added, 'You've been tense all day, am low-key worried.'

There they were again, the tears that desperately wanted to escape, freely fload down your cheek, but you fought against them once again.

'Sure.', you spoke, voice shaky, so you cleared your throat, 'I'll just get some, ahm...'. An excuse to leave him for a moment was what you were searching for. The best you could come up with was, 'Boxes. I wanted to sort the plates and bowls into boxes.'

Without waiting for his reaction, you left to go to your bedroom. Some small cartons that you kept from stuff you'd ordered online were under your bed, covered by a layer of dust. When you returned to the living area, Felix was already busy washing plates, bowls, and clutter. To your surprise, he was almost done with everything, and you wondered why you thought the task would've needed at least half an hour to be completed.

'Got the boxes?', he asked and turned around, a wet plate in his hand.

You nodded and weakly waved them in front of you, not able to smile the slightest. A tear rolled down your cheek, and you turned around in shock. You didn't realize what happened, when you dropped to the floor in heavy sobs, the cartons still in your hand as if that was the only thing that you could hold onto - a silly excuse.

Silently, drying his hands with a towel, Felix sat down on the floor in front of you, patiently watching you. He slowly extended on arm, offering you his hand. You didn't take it. However, he didn't pull back. He just waited. After your sobs calmed down and the tears silently ran over your skin, you managed to look up at him, realising that you still held onto the cartons.

You placed them on the floor next to you and looked at Felix's hand and then up into his eyes questioningly. He just nodded, and you shyly placed your hand in his. Gently, he pulled you up against him and, with a sight, embraced your ebbing figure. He didn't say a single word and just held you, rocking you from side to side in a soothing manner.

The rest of the day was defined by tidying up your apartment with quiet music as background noise, Felix always by your side the second you start tearing up again. He wouldn't hug you immediately. He would just stand there. Sometimes you took his hand, sometimes you leaned against him, and sometimes you just looked at him and automatically broke into a thankful smile.

It was weird how he didn't talk much today, but you understood that his company was helping you to deal with your emotions without any distractions, but with all excuses and all followed break downs that you happened to come up.

#straykids imagines #stray kids fanfic #kpop fanfic #kpop imagines #lee felix fanfic #lee felix x reader #lee felix imagines #skz scenarios #skz fluff #lee felix fluff

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justalittlebluetiefling · 2 months

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question, have you never heard of a genre or did you just forget it in the heat of the poll making

LISTEN

I actually said this in the comments of that poll but it was a combination of just forgetting in the heat of poll making because my partner was riling me up about different ways people might categorize their books. It also just seemed so logically to be part of "author" to me that I didn't think twice about it until after I'd posted it and gotten some responses. And also because about 95% of my books are fantasy/sci-fi so there isn't much a point for me to sort my own by genre instead of fiction/non-fiction and I know that might count as genre but it's not like, SPECIFIC genres so I don't count it. I just do alphabetical by author's last name and then by series/release date within that. But you know what? The Long Walk by Stephen King is one of three horror novels that I own and it is going to be right after Robert Jordan like the alphabet intends.

However, the more I think about it, the more wild I think it is for people to sort books in their home by genre, too, because like, I worked in a bookstore for years. I know why bookstores are sorted by genre. But I do not have a computer in my home that I can use to scan my books and tell me which category it belongs in (listen shut up I don't WANT to do that on my phone) and there are some books I would consider contemporary romance that are sorted into the "novels" section in a bookstore or via their isbn and there is not enough consistency across the board for it to make sense in my brain.

#i did not realize that i have very strong feelings about sorting books until my partner was laughing at my alphabet piles yesterday #and then i went and looked at the bookshelves in his office and i wanted to faint #anonymous #erin answers things #anon i'm not telling YOU to shut up that was honestly a more reactive comment to my inner thoughts

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godzilla-reads · 11 months

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#godzilla reads #please don’t choose color I’d die #bookish polls #polls #book blog #booklr #bookshelves

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jurassicpark1990 · 11 months

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📙📚🧡🖤🤍💛 for the books ask!

thank you so much gaelen 🥺💗🥺💗 i'm putting them all under a read more because i rambled so much

📙What’s your favorite genre to read, and do you have any recommendations within that genre?

always been a big fantasy person and there are soo many i could recommend depending on who it's for. my go to rec is the green bone saga by fonda lee because it's the best version of urban fantasy and imo accessible for non-fantasy fans. however, for hardcore fantasy people i'd recommend robin hobb - her stories are Slow but some of the best character work i have ever read

📚Do you have a go-to reading spot or do you read everywhere?

bed <3 either mine or my boyf's depending on where i am. unless i'm on the train, i hate sitting up to read

🧡Is there a particular book cover that you find absolutely stunning? Share a picture or describe it!

i did talk about some i loved but i'll also give a shout out to these editions of raybearer and redemptor (some truly fantastic ya fantasy if that's your thing too)

🖤 Are there any book series that you’ve been meaning to start but haven’t gotten around to yet? Which ones are they?

oh gosh soooo many. i really want to read more robin hobb and that's my main priority because i know i'll love them. other series i'm interested in include dandelion dynasty, joe abercrombie books, the poppy war trilogy, the city of brass trilogy, foundryside, a memory called empire, the baru commarant(?) books and the list goes on...

🤍Do you have any reading goals for this year? How are you progressing so far?

i'm hoping to read 35 books for the year and i'm on track at the moment because i've been reading manga (i'm at 32 books which is surprising!) my other major goal is to prioritise the books i own instead of buying new ones constantly (i found a loop hole tho and have still been buying books and reading them first lol)

💛How do you organize your bookshelves? By genre, author, color, or in a completely unique way?

i have a couple of systems. my main bookshelf is in alphabetical order by author's last name and it includes all my all time fav books. then the rest of my shelves are by genre - this is because these are cube shelves so each cube contains one genre (within genre they are also by author's last name)!

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memurfevur-archive · 10 months

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Archerrrr hi! How big is your book collection! And how do you organize them, just in shelves by Dewey or some other way :>

"This may sound a little silly, I'm sure, but I love organizing books a little too much, hmhm! I have a small study dedicated to my book collection, and every bookshelf is, by itself, organized by genre. Then the books are organized by authors, and within that sorting it is organized alphabetically by title (the is cut and lopped at the end of the title, for convenience). All series are also grouped together by order they come in narratively.

"I also have a bookshelf entirely dedicated to books I have not yet to read, also organized similarly.

"And if I run out of room I simply buy a little basket or smaller shelf to house them in, near their respective parent shelf.

"I enjoy organizing, and I do suppose I got carried away with these but it's a system that works best for me, personally."

#Archer asks

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tuawards · 1 year

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Quick list (details under the cut):

Best Flash Fiction

Best One Shot

Best Multi-Chapter

Best Series

Best Collection

Best Gen

Best Drama

Best Action/Adventure

Best Suspense

Best Comedy

Best Romance

Best AU

Best Crossover

Best NSFW

Best Episode Tag

Best Use Of Formatting

Best Challenge Response

Best Comfort Re-Read

Best Non-English Story

Best Author

Word Count: (Any genre except NSFW)

Best Flash Fiction - Up to 500 words - Can be part of a collection if it does not require reading any of the other entries

Best One Shot - Must be one single chapter with more than 500 words (501+) - Can be part of a collection if it does not require reading any of the other entries

Best Multi-Chapter - Must have two or more chapters - Can be part of a collection if it does not require reading any of the other entries

Best Series - Must be comprised of at least two individual (single or multi-chaptered) stories - The stories within the series must be completed

Best Collection - Individual stories within the nominated collection must be completed - Collections themselves can be ongoing (as there is no option to mark a collection “complete”)

Genre: (Any length)

Best Gen - No specific focus on pairings, romance or sex

Best Drama - Think Angst, Whump, Hurt/(no)Comfort

Best Action/Adventure - All the fight scenes and explosions

Best Suspense - Think Mystery, Thriller, Horror, Crime

Best Comedy - Including Crack fics

Best Romance - Fluff, slow-burn, There Was Only One Bed™ – anything to make the heart flutter - Only the vanilla kind please – anything explicit goes in the NSFW category

Best AU - Think “Private Eye Diego Hargreeves”, “Brellies In Space”, or your classic Coffee Shop AU™ - Includes all Number Eight Hargreeves, No Powers, xReader and xOC types of stories - Crossovers have their own category - Please make sure all Omegaverse fics go into the NSFW category unless they’re vanilla (and let’s face it, they’re probably not)

Best Crossover - Also includes crossovers between TV show and comics that make the distinction between the two sets of characters (if the author simply tagged the story in both fandoms but uses only one set of characters, it does not count as a crossover)

Best NSFW - This category overrides all other categories - Please nominate anything rated Explicit in this category ONLY

Form and Structure: (Any length and genre except NSFW)

Best Episode Tag - Missing scenes, different POVs or inner monologues of actual events in the show, transcripts and the like

Best Use Of Formatting - Five (Plus One) Things/Five Times, modern epistolary (Twitter convos, Group Chat™, Five’s apocalypse diary, Viktor’s biography), mixed media (use of fanart, images and the like within the story)

Best Challenge Response - Stories specifically written for MerMay, Whumptober, Bad Things Happen Bingo, or just any old prompt from whichever source - Please note stories rated Explicit must be nominated for the NSFW category only which will probably be most Kinktober stories

Unranked: (Winners will be listed by author and alphabet instead of 1st/2nd/3rd place; can be any length/genre except NSFW)

Best Comfort Re-Read - Having a bad day? Burrow into the cosy, warm feeling of re-reading that one story for the 5000th time to get you out of your funk.

Best Non-English Story - Any length/genre except NSFW

Best Author - Must have written at least one story within the nomination time frame - When nominating, please submit the name and AO3 link to their bio in the text field that will be provided in the survey, and if you'd like, you can also add links to stories you liked written within the nomination time frame

#The Umbrella Academy #Umbrella Academy #TUA #UA #TUAwards #TUAwards S1 #Categories

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aurorasulphur · 2 years

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Panfandom Longfic Recs

All over 50,000 words. In alphabetical order by author. Fandoms include Stargate, Marvel, Austen, Star Trek, ATLA, Good Omens, and Transformers, although many (most?) can be read fandom blind.

By Design by AmandaRex

Link: http://ao3.org/works/6482863

Ratings/Warnings: Teen And Up Audiences, No Archive Warnings Apply

Central Character or Relationship: Leo Fitz/Jemma Simmons

Word count: 68,562

Author summary: Jemma Simmons and Leopold Fitz are rival board game designers, each at the top of their profession. They’re offered the opportunity of a lifetime—but only if they can work together. Conflicting work styles, a tight deadline, and utter confusion are all that stand between them and the completion of the most ambitious project either of them have attempted, but what else will they discover along the way?

My pitch: TAKE YOUR FANDOM TO WORK DAY FitzSimmons

Tag teaser: Game Designer AU, Awkwardness, Misunderstandings, Angst, Slow Burn, Take Your Fandom to Work Day

My comments: I know absolutely NOTHING about game design and I adored this fic to the point that SIX YEARS LATER I clearly remember certain scenes.

Meet Cute: A Team Engineering Group Writing Project by AmandaRex, capnamvrica, chinesebakery, dot11, DrsFitzSimmons, EclecticMuse, everyl1ttleth1ng, lettertoelise, lucyrinner, overworkedunderwhelmed, reymanova, santiagone, SuburbanSun, TeamEngineering, XOLove47

Link: http://ao3.org/works/7331314

Ratings/Warnings: Mature, No Archive Warnings Apply

Central Character or Relationship: Leo Fitz/Jemma Simmons

Word count: 133,620

Author summary: (excerpt from a review of the new show, "Meet Cute")

Meet Cute, a show that could have been mindless hiatus-filler, promises weeks of effortless chemistry mixed with surprising emotional twists. In a throwback to old Hollywood, leads Leo Fitz and Jemma Simmons trade biting snark and witty banter, but with a decidedly modern sensibility.

As part of the experimental conceit of the series, each episode features entirely new characters and a new premise, with one coherent running thread — the leads meet and fall in love each week. In a further nod to Coulson's paradigm-transcending concept, every character on the show is named after the actor who plays them.

Jemma Simmons (Nothing Personal) is a surprising standout as lead, showcasing her versatility and effortless emotional range. Starring opposite is Leo Fitz, known best for his well performed turns in the short-lived series Yes Men, Chaos Theory, and Watchdogs, who shines as Jemma's romantic foil. Together, they bring a spot-on, electric chemistry that seems to transcend the confines of the small screen, stunning enough that fans are already starting to refer to them as “Fitzsimmons”.

My pitch: Fitz and Simmons are actors, and they take the lead in an anthology series about falling in love, and fall in love themselves along the way.

Tag teaser: Alternate Universe - Show Business, various AUs acted in each chapter, AUs within overall continuity

My comments: This concept kills me every time. It reminds me of Yulin Kuang’s Kissing in the Rain webseries, and I do sincerely wish it were a common genre of work! The POSSIBILITIES.

Five Times Frederick Wentworth Had the Breath Knocked Out of Him On the Ice (and one time he let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding) by AMarguerite

Link: http://ao3.org/works/36935755

Ratings/Warnings: Explicit, No Archive Warnings Apply

Central Character or Relationship: Anne Elliot/Frederick Wentworth

Word count: 83,672

Author summary: Frederick Wentworth has always loved to skate, but skating has not always loved him back. Especially when it came to his Olympic dreams and pairs figure skating career with Anne Elliot.

(Persuasion Olympics figure skater/ hockey player AU.)

TW: for some mild modern racism-in-sports talk, and Louisa's canonical head injury.

My pitch: Anne Elliot and Frederick Wentworth always thought they’d go to the Olympics together, competing in pairs at the 2014 Vancouver Olympics. Life has other plans.

Tag teaser: Friends to Lovers, Alternate Universe - Olympics,

My comments: Look, I really just blanket rec everything AMarguerite writes. I adored her Pride and Prejudice retelling wherein Lizzy and her brother Jamie were ice dancers, Pyeongchang and Prejudice, and I was very sad to learn it had been permanently shelved. However, then she came out with THIS, and I possibly love it even more. What a way to translate this story to the modern era!! Do be warned that covid is a plot point, and while aspects of that are hand-waved for Drama Purposes, some of it is not. Can be read fandom blind.

An Ever-Fixed Mark by AMarguerite

Link: http://ao3.org/works/8523001

Ratings/Warnings: Teen And Up Audiences, Major Character Death

Central Character or Relationship: Elizabeth Bennet/Fitzwilliam Darcy, Elizabeth Bennet/Colonel Fitzwilliam, Jane Bennet/Charles Bingley

Word count: 190,537

Author summary: One would think that having the name of one's soulmate appear on one's wrist on one's sixteenth birthday would make matrimony much less complicated. It mostly does not. And not at all for Miss Elizabeth Bennet of Longbourne.

(A deconstruction of the "soulmate identifying mark" trope, using "Pride and Prejudice." Trigger warnings in the tags.)

My pitch: Incredibly thorough deconstruction and analysis of the soulmark trope, using Pride and Prejudice as the lens. Has multiple alternate endings if you prefer!

Tag teaser: medicine sure was fun before germ theory, Elizabeth Bennet/ Mud, is the true OTP, Slow Burn, Reaaaally slow burn, Burn so slow it takes like six chapters to defrost first

My comments: The Major Character Death is Colonel Fitzwilliam, whom Elizabeth has married. In one of the alternate endings, he survives, and Lizzy does not go on to marry Darcy.

a sequence that you never learned by annataylor

Link: http://ao3.org/works/1077361

Ratings/Warnings: Explicit, Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Central Character or Relationship: James T. Kirk/Spock

Word count: 64,624

Author summary: "'Spock,' Jim breathes out, completely overwhelmed by the gesture—not quite believing that Spock knows him so well, that's he's already started researching, that he trusts Jim with a member of his own endangered species."

When Jim gets it in his head to adopt an eight year old Vulcan, Spock presents a logical solution to the issue of Jim's humanity: marriage to a Vulcan citizen.

My pitch: Spirk kidfic

Tag teaser: Kid Fic, Fake Marriage

My comments: I know so little about Star Trek that I was essentially going in fandom-blind, and it did not negatively affect my enjoyment at all.

The Fourth Estate by catie56 (catharsis)

Link: http://ao3.org/works/163688

Ratings/Warnings: Teen And Up Audiences, Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Central Character or Relationship: Elizabeth Bennet/Fitzwilliam Darcy

Word count: 59,496

Author summary: There are people who believe that romantic connections are the province of fate and destiny, the result of an alignment of constellations and conditions that bring two people together. Others tend to discuss falling in love as the product of rational decisions that acknowledge attraction and compatibility. Some people, however, seem to think these two seemingly-opposite perspectives are really just two sides of the same coin. Sometimes, after all, destiny just requires that two people make a single choice.

A modern/AU Pride & Prejudice.

My pitch: P&P Celebrity/Normal Person AU

My comments: I’ve reread this one a lot. I only wish it were longer! Absolutely readable fandom blind.

Freedom's Reach by dr_girlfriend

Link: http://ao3.org/works/34860640

Ratings/Warnings: Explicit, No Archive Warnings Apply

Central Character or Relationship: James "Bucky" Barnes/Clint Barton, background Steve Rogers/Sam Wilson

Word count: 67,810

Author summary: Clint is about to move on when his eyes drift up to the lettering at the top of the window.

FREE PASSAGE TO THE WEST!

Clint knows that the circus folk mock him — call him too trusting, too soft-hearted — but even he knows nothing in this life comes free. The words puzzle him, and he reads them again carefully to make sure he hasn’t made a mistake.

His eyes are drawn to one posting at the very bottom corner, different from the others. This one is sun-faded and starting to yellow, curling at the corners. Clint crouches down, brow furrowing and lips moving as he sounds out the unfamiliar words.

Western Man Seeking a Husband — I am a kind and unassuming man of good financial means seeking a helpmate and companion. I have lost my arm in the service of our Union, but am otherwise free from disease. I am not particular as to looks, but am seeking an individual of equal youth and vivacity with whom I can share my affection and devotion. I am a man of quiet habits, moderate temperament, and kind disposition and would seek the same in my husband.

My pitch: Clint Barton needs to get out of town. Bucky has advertised for a mail order husband. What could go wrong?

Tag teaser: Marriage of Convenience, Deaf Clint Barton, Introducing Gosh!Clint Barton, War Veteran!Bucky Barnes, Circus Veteran!Clint Barton, Matt Fraction-inspired Clint Barton, Comic!Clint Barton, Fraction/Aja!Clint Barton, Homophobia Doesn't Exist, Natural Disaster (Tornado), Misunderstandings, Mutual Pining, Romance, Slow Build, Slow Burn, Idiots in Love, Touch-Starved

My comments: Not pairings I usually read, but this was recced to me and I was drawn in IMMEDIATELY. Excellent characterization, predictable in all the right ways, and the payoffs really felt earned.

The Dragon-King's Temple by Kryal

Link: http://ao3.org/works/6211903

Ratings/Warnings: Teen And Up Audiences, Graphic Depictions Of Violence

Central Character or Relationship: Crossover: Avatar the Last Airbender and Stargate SG-1

Word count: 196,311

Author summary: Through the spite of the spirits or plain rotten chance, a door that would have been better left untouched has opened. On the other hand, with Fire and Earth as one's allies, sometimes escaping is the easy part.

Even the Dragon-King's temple floods.

My pitch: The Stargate folks stumble across Toph and Zuko, and have to overcome the cold, an evil entity, and a language barrier in order to get the kids home. (Yes, Toph finally gets her field trip.)

Tag teaser: Stealth Crossover, Ridiculously Long Notes, Friendship, Adopted Sibling Relationship, Languages and Linguistics, For Science!

My comments: My only complaint is I WANT A SEQUEL! Definitely readable fandom blind on the Stargate side. Presumably also readable fandom blind on the ATLA side.

PROOF SPIDER-MAN LOVES CLICKBAIT by mauvera

Link: http://ao3.org/works/16084490

Ratings/Warnings: General Audiences, Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Central Character or Relationship: Peter Parker, some Harley Keener/Peter Parker later on

Word count: 87,736

Author summary: When Peter Parker gets a job working at Buzzfeed there's really only one subject he can write about: superheroes. And what superhero does he know better than everyone's friendly neighborhood Spider-Man?

What he didn't expect was that everyone would think Peter's new obsession with the hero would be interpreted quite like That.

My pitch: Peter Parker, Buzzfeed writer, digs himself into some holes. His fellow heroes laugh uproariously before helping him out again.

Tag teaser: Iron dad and Spider son, Peter is a Little Shit, everyone thinks peter is in love with Spider-Man whoops, I am cherry picking canon, Social Media, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Identity Reveal

My comments: This is so full of shenanigans, and great for some laughs. A blend of MCU and other Marvel canons.

Can't Take the Heat by memorizingthedigitsofpi

Link: http://ao3.org/works/4256748

Ratings/Warnings: Explicit, No Archive Warnings Apply

Central Character or Relationship: Leo Fitz/Jemma Simmons

Word count: 70,361

Author summary: When Fitz's air conditioner breaks, Jemma lets him crash on her couch. Soon, the heat wave isn't the only thing raising the temperature.

My pitch: FitzSimmons smut, pure and simple.

Tag teaser: Summer Lovin', havin' a blast, AC's broken, Fitz is aghast, Jemma lets him, stay at her plaaaaace, Fitz is gonna, get to third baaaaaase, summer dreams occurring to me, whoa oh oh those summer nights, well-a well-a well-a UNF, TELL ME MORE TELL ME MORE, is this gonna be smut?, tell me more! tell me more!, hell yeah I tell you what, and now for the real tags, UST, Smut, Explicit Sexual Content, Fluff, Sci-Ops Era (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.), Mutual Pining, Crushes, Secret Crush, Unresolved Sexual Tension, Resolved Sexual Tension, the resolution just takes a while is all

My comments: This fic is the absolute PINNACLE of tagging for me. They grabbed my attention IMMEDIATELY and then I fell in love with all of pi’s works.

Slow Show by mia_ugly

Link: http://ao3.org/works/20395261

Ratings/Warnings: Explicit, No Archive Warnings Apply

Central Character or Relationship: Aziraphale/Crowley

Word count: 95,505

Author summary: In which temptations are accomplished, grand romantic gestures are made, and two ineffable co-stars only take four seasons of an award-winning television program to realize they’re on their own side (at last, at last.)

My pitch: A. Z. Fell and Anthony Crowley are co-stars on a very popular television show. Slowly, they fall in love.

Tag teaser: Show Business, Secret Relationship, Pining, First Time, Internalized Homophobia, Past Drug Addiction, Ineffable Husbands (Good Omens), Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms, Excessive Drinking, Coming Out, Slow Burn, Oh my god they were co-stars

My comments: There is a substantial amount of spin-off fic of these versions of A/C, as well as some solid fic for the fictional show, and even some in-universe RPF! You can probably read this fandom blind, since it’s an AU.

Demonology and the Tri-Phasic Model of Trauma: An Integrative Approach by Nnm

Link: http://ao3.org/works/20177950

Ratings/Warnings: Teen And Up Audiences, No Archive Warnings Apply

Central Character or Relationship: Crowley and HEALING

Word count: 99,423

Author summary: As soon as Aubrey Thyme, psychotherapist, had opened her office door and seen her new client, Anthony J. Crowley, sitting in her waiting area, she was observing and assessing him. At first glance, she paid attention to the following:

--His clothing was expensive and stylish;--He wore very strange but noticeable cologne;--His relationship to the seat he occupied could only, very loosely, be described as “sitting;”--He looked angry;--He was wearing sunglasses.

What Aubrey Thyme, a professional, thought, upon first seeing her new client was: you’re going to be a fun one, aren’t you?

My pitch: Crowley’s therapist is one-of-a-kind, and both she and Crowley know it.

Tag teaser: Crowley goes to therapy, outsider pov, Everyone deserves a good therapist, Seriously if you identify with Crowley after the fire therapy would be a good idea, Crowley works through his problems, aziraphale gets carried away, eldritch angelic horror, Of course the DSM was the product of demonic influence, love is a four letter word, gardening advice

My comments: My entire friend group regularly screamed about this fic when it was initially in-progress, and even now periodically someone will reread it and we all spend the next few days awash in feels. You absolutely cannot read this unless you know either the book or the show, and probably both.

nor need we power or splendor by shellybelle

Link: http://ao3.org/works/4053391

Ratings/Warnings: Mature, No Archive Warnings Apply

Central Character or Relationship: Clint Barton/Laura Barton/Natasha Romanov

Word count: 242,662

Author summary: She hadn’t been sure, at the time, what had finally driven her away from the training center, brought her to book a flight to Waterloo and rent a car for the drive out out to the farm. But when she had packed a bag and headed to the nearest airport, it hadn’t been her apartment in New York or her condo in DC or her London townhouse or any number of hidden bolt-holes she kept around the world that she’d flown to, but a creaking, busy farmhouse in Iowa. (Or: It's been a long journey to get to where they are, and it'll be an even longer journey home.)

My pitch: After Ultron, Natasha finally comes home to Laura and Clint.

Tag teaser: the best solution to a love triangle is an ot3

My comments: This fic makes me so sad for all the unrealized potential the three of them had in canon, but especially in fic!! Why did more people not jump all over this??

Written by the Victors by Speranza

Link: http://ao3.org/works/15

Ratings/Warnings: Explicit, No Archive Warnings Apply

Central Character or Relationship: Stargate Atlantis

Word count: 52,843

Author summary: Caroll, Franklin R. Atlantis Revisited. New York and London, Routledge, 2011.Chapman, Denise. Several Kinds of Genius: The Life of Rodney McKay. NY: Harper Perennial, 2015.Croft, Rosalind. City of Spires: A Memoir. Toronto: The Mercury Press, 2009.Dugan, Paul. A Political History of Atlantis. Oxford: OUP, 2012.

My pitch: Fictional bibliography of Stargate! Readable fandom blind but probably better if you know canon.

Tag teaser: Alternate Universe, Footnotes, POV Outsider, War, secession, Unreliable Narrator, Epic

My comments: No, that fic ID is not an error. One of the earliest fics posted to the archive.

Give Thanks to Broken Bones by thepartyresponsible

Link: http://ao3.org/works/20128243

Ratings/Warnings: Mature, Graphic Depictions Of Violence

Central Character or Relationship: Tony Stark/Jason Todd

Word count: 109,628

Author summary: The bodyguard is incredibly well-respected in the superhero single parent community. He is also, Tony’s realizing, something of an asshole.

My pitch: I know that relationship seems like a weird one, but trust me. It works.

Tag teaser: Kid Fic, Domestic Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Slow Burn, Team as Family,

My comments: The timelines (both internally and in broader canon terms) do not make any sense at all, so just handwave them aside.

Xenoethnography (series) by Therrae (Dasha_mte)

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/series/913458

Ratings/Warnings: Gen/Teen, No Archive Warnings Apply

Central Character or Relationship: Original Character & Optimus Prime, although arguably it’s Original Character/Optimus Prime

Word count: 407,378 (series), 61,950 (first fic)

Author summary: It also didn’t help that the average glyph message was only three characters long, used no articles or prepositions, and usually had no verbs. What was the proper response to:: Curiosity; Sensation of great speed? Was it a question? A comparison? Why, after a brief visit by National Security Director Mearing, did four different ‘Bots send:: Emphasis; overlapping? Why was a particularly bad joke by Bulkhead derided as ::Undercharged when there were actual glyphs for Not funny and Humor fail? How did any of that work?

My pitch: Kim wasn’t sure what she expected to do with her sociology degree, but it certainly wasn’t “assist the ruler of a group of aliens acclimatize to Earth culture while preparing to introduce said aliens to the world.” Easily read fandom blind.

My comments: SUCH great characterization and plot development. Complete series.

#an aurora original #fic recs #longfic #fitzsimmons #good omens #stargate #atla #pride and prejudice #persuasion

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chickenleavesandcornerwater · 1 year

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Plays Plays Plays

Sudden temptation to be a hater. Am I a hatr on tumblr? Maybe it's because I have to be nice on twitter to all my colleagues and the organisations who might pay me to write something at some point. Appeal of the unfamiliar, you know? So just a little hate to get it out of the system. And we'll cut it with a little love. (For Lucy Kirkwood <3) I'm reading a fantasy novel that is doing my head in. There is Deep Textured Immersive worldbuilding and yet everyone talks like suburban American teenagers. This makes no sense. There's a relish in referentiality without the mass media that enables referentiality. There are people describing things as 'A-grade' when they don't sit exams or use latin letters. There are jokes about things being warcrimes or hatecrimes made by characters who are chattel slaves. It doesn't make much sense for them to be arch about the very idea of human rights if they've never had them, or if liberalism was never a movement within their written history. Good job we did and it was in ours, I suppose? The joke lands for us. The joke also flattens the character who makes it. it collapses the universe they occupy, however elaborate, because the author's conspiratorial asides upstage their material.

It's Henry Ford, right? You can have it in any colour as long as it's black. You can go anywhere in the universe but it'll be America. You can rim a lizardtwink in your cabin on a spaceship as long as you make a joke about hecking pupperinos afterwards. I describe this register as teenage because the affect is knowing but it absolves you of actually knowing anything about how people think or feel or talk in any of the places or times you haven't lived. Why bother? They're basically the same as me, right? I don't need a book where characters say 'thwompoob' instead of 'gamut' because their world's equivalent of the greek alphabet's character gamma is the thwompian alphabet's character thwomp and the note we call do or ut they call oob. I don't need self-serious immersion. I like a narrative voice that knows I know what I know - I just prefer that that narrative knowing voice not be sold to me as the voice of a 9th century peasant if it's going to make jokes about pineapple making your cum sweeter. I just need the prevailing mood to not be one of deflationary irony. I need to feel like the book isn't both complacent and defensive, both refusing to dig any deeper than it did and denying that it is possible to dig any deeper than it did. I read sci fi or fantasy for wonder. Wonder is bound up with incomprehension, an encounter with alterity. I like books that dramatise how hard it is to understand things. One of the things I love most about the Hainish cycle is that it's first contact without aliens - it's an extended exploration of how other other humans can be from each other. (Very.) but I don't need every book to be the Hainish cycle. Good job, because not much else lives up to that standard. All I need is for a genre novel to NOT introduce a cool idea and then have the characters blithely handwave it into the category of The Already Understood or The Not Worth Understanding. This is Grand Tour condescension with a veneer of relatability - everything exists for my benefit, and where it doesn't benefit me or interest me I can dismiss it. I didn't expect Rome to be so dirty! 3000 years, you'd think they'd think of street cleaners! There's a twist, which is that sometimes this sneery orientation towards otherness gets laundered as queer resistance, sexy gay chaos with a #subversive sting. It is Good and Progressive for a gay dragonrider to quip his way through a merman's account of some ancient, sacred, boring, rite practised by his people. The xenos' self-seriousness stands in for something deserving of our mocking. The monocultural whiteness of post-Tolkien fantasy or something? Patriarchy? (We get it, jeez, stop mermansplaining.)

Except this kind of snark has very little in common with, say, camp as written about by Isherwood or Sontag (or Mikaella Clements in that piece about dyke camp I like https://theoutline.com/post/4556/notes-on-dyke-camp#:) They describe it as failed seriousness, as a sincerity that is only legible couched as a transparently insincere disavowal. It is legally and socially impossible to say I am a man who likes to be fucked by men. I dress in drag, and that failed artifice - who really thinks I'm a woman singing about her sailor lover coming back to her? - reveals the other failed artifice - who really thinks I don't mean every word I'm saying?

Sneery dragonriders don't have much to do with this. Camp is a queer sensibility because it is a marginal sensibility, a joke the marginalised play on themselves for themselves. It negates the given because the given does them no favours. If it skewers false-seriousness it does so from a serious commitment to doing better. Condescension is a cosmopolitan sensibility. Or maybe metropolitan is the better word. Because really we're talking about the incuriosity of the metropole, the parochiality specific to the centre, the belief that things only matter inasmuch as they're legible to me and mine. I think that's a fair characterisation of this sensibility in genre fiction that wrecks my head. In anglophone genre fiction, as everywhere else, we're mostly talking about writers living in centres of world power writing for people living in centres of world power. So I find this kind of lazy sneer jarring from them, particularly if they're sneery about the presence of potatoes in post-Tolkien medieval European fantasy settings. If we're going to be rigorous about the dietary norms of the 21st century anglosphere, why not its affective norms too? Do we really enjoy smug conspiratorial incuriosity so much that we have to sneak it in somewhere?

On a simpler level: endless banter fucking sucks. It's irritating. I hate reading it. I tell my teenagers that banter takes as much as it gives. It's good for establishing the fact of an intimacy but conceals the contours of that intimacy. We see the relationship but not the people. Woods, trees, all that. Watching people trade zingers tells us something about them, it's true. Literally ANY other reaction to a zinger - taking offence, ignoring it because you really need them to sign the tempory guardianship form - tells us much more about them and their situation and their world. Banter can tolerate backstory, but only middle-distance backstory that the character's have come to terms with. That's because banter's job is to make time go by inoffensively. Which, in real life, you want to do all the time. Which, in writing, is not really the point. Not every conversation has to be high drama, but retaining the possibility for it to teeter into high drama is not a terrible idea. Real conversations are precarious! We say things we don't mean! We are understood ways we don't mean! We hurt people when we didn't mean to! Lucy Kirkwood writes really good, really justified, really considered, banter. It doesn't get away from her. It doesn't devolve into endless cosy asides that ingratiate the writer with the audience at the expense of the scene's integrity or inquiry. She has a gift for dropping genuinely great punchlines into a scene without deforming it. This is why she could write a really good play set in 1759. It's as good as her plays set in the present, and yet it sounds totally different from them. The craft is at the level of dynamics rather than vernacular. These are the first two scenes of the Welkin. There is humour in them. More - there is wit, there is sophistication. Sally Poppy has never drunk champagne, but she is alive to nuances of her world. She can work with details to achieve power over the whole, which is a better working definition of sophisticated than Dresses Fancy or Has A MUBI Subscription. She makes a lot of jokes in this scene but it works, because the jokiness - quippiness even - is rooted in something. It's ostentatious, performed, but she's performing for a reason. She's just killed a child. Compared to the consequences she is now facing, there is little Fred can do that would frighten her. He prepares to beat her - tells her to lift her skirts, put her hands on the wall. General banterousness might seize on the sexual subtext - "Missed me that much, did you?" It's always funnier to bring sex into it somehow, and it's always funnier to imply the sex is a bit kinky! Was that true in the 18th century? Who cares, audiences NOW will laugh! The point being that joke might land, but it doesn't lead us anywhere. Instead we get her contempt for the worst he can do. "Pick one. I can't do both." There's a dark punchline here. She's unafraid. Not because a beating is nothing, but because what comes next is so much worse. She's not stepping outside of the scene, but she is looking beyond it. Her humour has an orientation in time - it moves us forward. It does not collapse into a series of gifable instants. There is no Lucy Kirkwood Out Of Context twitter account. Thank fuck.

#the welkin #lucy kirkwood #plays #plays plays plays

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allbeendonebefore · 2 years

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so in the past year and a half i had pulled all the books that my brother had sorted in piles on the basement floor upstairs into shelves and i’ve been going through the first bookcase (which is for stand alone novels or anything that isn’t in a series, sorted alphabetically by author’s last name) and it’s taken me that time to read.......... 15 of those books. I am two books away from finishing the letter A, which is barely halfway through the first shelf.

A good 90% of these books are probably scholastic book order books so they’re not terribly difficult to read and I am trying very hard not to dwell on what a voracious reader I was in my youth and how many books I would finish in a week let alone a year... and instead I’m focusing on how nice it feels to read for pleasure again. It feels like the first sprouts of new life after a forest fire, because university really damaged my relationship with reading in ways i didn’t expect.

and the other nice thing is that a lot of them are books i’d never read before, either because i didn’t have time to get to them or because they were part of a siblings’ collection that i didn’t have interest in at the time. and if i do get to a book i’d read before it will be a pleasant revisit i’m sure : ) And even within a single author there are a ton of different genres represented which is neat.

#personal hapo #hapo rambles #the exercise was supposed to be about deciding which books i NEED to keep #but i can't even properly conceive of that now lol

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waterdeep · 2 years

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4, 21, and 26 for the book questions!

4. genre you constantly read?

fantasy and scifi 🙏 i do love nonfiction as well but i was burnt out for a long time bc of uni. need to get back into reading nonfic for fun!

21. how do you organize your bookshelves?

i’ve tried a few different ways over the years, but i always end up going back to: genre -> author surname. genre order atm is:

mystery - classics - artbooks - lorebooks - graphic novels - manga - science-fiction - fantasy - nonfiction

and then within each genre the books are organised alphabetically by author’s surname! 😌 i’d love to more properly organise my shelves but constrained by available shelf space... alas.

26. do you like to re-read books?

yes! i think with big fantasy/scifi series, especially, you can get a lot out of rereads. the stormlight archive is an excellent example bc there are so many seemingly random + unimportant throwaway lines and appearances that suddenly make you !!! when you go back and reread after reading books that come later in the series.

i do tend to go a long time between reading and re-reading, though, the exception being when a sequel is coming out. in which case, i try to reread the books that come beforehand so everything is fresh.

BOOKISH ASKS

#misc: asks #about #ty!! 😚💟

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quoteablebooks · 5 months

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Genre: Fiction, Adult, Historical Romance

Rating: 2 out of 5

Content Warning: On page sex, misogyny

Summary:

He was a Highland rogue— wicked with a bow and just as wicked with the ladies.

Declan MacGregor hadn’t a care in the world beyond finding a soft bed and willing woman…until he had to escort Lady Liadain Campbell to the English court. The woman needles him at every turn, but he can’t just abandon her to that vipers’ nest without protection.

She never asked for a bodyguard…

Liadain wasn’t thrilled to be left in the care of her clan’s archrival. It was as if the man never had a lady tell him no before! And yet as whispers of treason swirl through the court and the threat of danger grows ever sharper, her bitter enemy soon becomes the only one she can trust…

*Opinions*

So I am doing the alphabet challenge this year and I know this is shocking, but there are not a lot of books that start with the letter ‘X’. So I went onto the Libby app (shout out to public libraries) and found this book while scrolling through the ‘X’ titles. I thought that this would be a fun romance set in the historical beauty of the Highlands of Scotland. Well, it is set in Scotland, that much is true. As for fun…well…it happened.

Now, I am not going to sit here and shit on mass-market paperback romances because a lot of them are fun and easy reads that pull you into a world for a couple of hours. That being said, I believe that this novel has all the issues with those fun romances and none of the fun. I found the characters very flat and not in the predictable stereotypical way. Neither of the main characters is especially likable, and even when you’re in their heads you don’t get anything more from their personalities. All the side characters were equally forgettable and I don’t think I am going to remember anything from this novel except for the fact that for some reason the author had the Gunpowder Plot as a plot point. That’s right, Guy Fawkes is a character in this novel and the main character is implicated in a plot to kill King James which you know he going to get out of the moment it’s introduced.

The writing in this novel was not good and I honestly felt as if it could have done with a couple more pass-throughs by an editor. The same words were used for descriptions within the same paragraph that were very noticeable. While I get that the author was attempting to mimic the Scottish accent and speech, I think it was used far too liberally and at times gave me a headache while reading the book. I wasn’t expecting this to be a literary masterpiece, but at times this was to read. Don’t even get me started on the overt misogyny in this book because there were points where I could not roll my eyes hard enough. As this was published in 2013, there is really no excuse, just because it’s a historical novel does not mean you have to hate women except the super special ones that you like.

This is a romance novel so if the romance between the characters had been good, I would have given the whole Guy Fawkes being in this book a pass. Unfortunately, the romance was not emotionally fulfilling and the sex scenes were a mixture of closed door and erotica that did absolutely nothing for me. Both MacGregor and Liadain never really gave any reason why they liked one another other than they found each other hot. Literally, that’s it. Liadain keeps saying that MacGregor has a sweet side because he shows her an ounce of decency before treating her horribly. Also, if I see the ‘word’ rogue one more time I will scream. Also, this man is supposed to be great in bed and had all these women, yet the sex scenes don’t last more than two paragraphs? The math aint mathing.

This is a two-star read because it didn’t actively make me angry and in the end, I don’t think it is supposed to be taken too seriously. It would have been two and a half but I honestly could not get over the fact that the Gunpowder Plot was a plot point in this novel. I will not be reading any more in this connected series and hope to find something a little different if I try to do the alphabet challenge again next year.

#X Marks the Scot #Bad Boys of the Highlands #Victoria Roberts #booklr #book review #2 out of 5 stars

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dollycas · 5 months

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Special Guest - Stacy Wilder- Author of A Christmas Conundrum: A Liz Adams Mystery #AuthorInterview / #Giveaway - Great Escapes Book Tour

A Christmas Conundrum: A Liz Adams Mystery by Stacy Wilder

It is my pleasure to welcome Stacy Wilder to Escape With Dollycas today!

Hi Stacy. Please tell us a little bit about yourself. I live in Houston, TX, and I love to read and travel. It took me fifteen plus years to write the first book, Charleston Conundrum. I have a day job as a contract consultant. I also did not have a lot of confidence in my writing skills, but I had a huge passion for the story. After spending time learning the craft and interacting with other writers, the second book, Carmel Conundrum, took me about a year. My husband and I have always owned Labrador retrievers. The main character in the series, Private Investigator Liz Adams, has a sidekick, a Lab named Duke. He’s modeled after our current Lab, Eve, who is a communicator. Eve is a rescue. I donate a portion of the proceeds from the books to causes that support homeless pets and people. What are three things most people don’t know about you? Well, I’m pretty much an open book (no pun intended), but some people may not know that I was born in Honolulu Hawaii. I’m a fish; I love to swim, love water aerobics, and I love the beach. My favorite wine is an Australian Shiraz, Molly Dooker, The Boxer. I still mourn the passing of each of our Labrador retrievers but most especially Buddy and Rudy who passed within two months of each other. OK, that’s more than three : ) What books/authors have most inspired you? Beatrix Potter. Not only have I read her children’s books; I’ve also read her journal. I’m a huge fan of her stories, her art, and her legacy. She wanted to be a botanist, but it was difficult for a female to pursue that path in those times. Her first book, Peter Rabbit, was self-published. She loved animals, and she left a lot of land to the Royal National Trust that is preserved to this date. She’s my hero. Sue Grafton. I love her alphabet series and wish that she’d been able to complete Z. Julia Cameron. She’s the reason why I followed my writing dream. I worked through her book “Artist’s Way” with other creatives more than once. Life changing. Dr. Seuss. I loved these rhyming books as a child. Mary Oliver. Her poetry is beautiful. Wild Geese is one of my favorites. Oh my. I could go on and on!

What kind of research do you do, and how long do you spend researching before beginning a book? Because my books are set in real locations, I do a lot of research. I tend to explore as I write. I’m curious by nature and enjoy the process, but I can also tumble down a rabbit hole. Do you ever suffer from Writer’s Block? Oh my, yes. As a mystery author, it’s easy for me to get stuck working out the plot and trying to plant clues and misdirects. Although I aspire to be a plotter, I’m a pantser. The characters tend to dictate the story. I’m also an avid journaler. During my morning journalling, I will often get ideas that help me get unblocked. What advice do you have for someone who would like to become a published writer? Do it! The two goals I set for myself were 1) join a writer’s group, and 2) enter contests. I joined the League of Romance Writers. They offer in-person and online classes. They also helped me identify my genre. I’ve found the author community to be very supportive. The writing contests gave me great feedback and a lot of confidence to continue with the story. It takes grit and determination. Don’t expect to quit your day job unless you get lucky. Do it for the joy of it.

When you are not writing what do you like to do? Garden, visit with friends, read, walk our dog, do yoga, swim, hang out at the beach, travel, connect with other readers and writers. If you could travel anywhere in the world where would you go and why? Ireland. It’s at the top of my bucket list, and I have plans for Cork Conundrum. I’d love to spend a night at Ashford Castle. They offer falconry which is also on my bucket list. I’m a bit obsessed with hawks. What is next on the horizon for you? Cayman Conundrum is in the works. And the ideas just keep coming! I have one for a stand-alone romance set in New Smyrna Beach, FL. Stay tuned. Thank you so much Stacy for visiting today. Keep reading to find info about Stacy's new book, A Christmas Conundrum.

Read the full article

#Christmas #cozymystery #SouthCarolina #StacyWilder #WildHawkPress

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