Non-Actionable Puffery

A fun little meme borrowed from chestnut_pod: give us the links to your fics with the most hits, second most kudos, third most comments, fourth most bookmarks, fifth most words, and fewest words.

Most hits by far, with twice as many as the runner-up, is "Climbing Garden Walls", a nearly twelve-year-old fic for Attack on Titan, a fandom I was in for about a minute in high school, and that mostly because sandavier was into it. (I've heard it ended horribly, haven't been keeping up.) Definitely the case of publishing a fic in the right fandom at the right time to get a lot of interest, and it still dominates my stats.

Second most kudos is "Special Assignment", and unlike in hits, this one is actually close - it's only 10 kudos behind Garden Walls and I expect it will overtake at some point. It's a Star Wars fic, Obi-Wan/Alpha-17, written as a pinch hit in the 2020 round of swrarepairs, and is a product of my Emails Phase. Its (relative) popularity has always surprised me, as I've never been particularly satisfied with it, but re-reading it with some distance, I think I'm a little fonder of it now!

Third most comment threads is "Climbing Garden Walls" again (beaten handily by #1 "Letters from Himring" and closely by #2 "Special Assignment").

Fourth most bookmarks is "necessity", a very short Star Wars fic about Depa Billaba's apprenticeship that was written very specifically for independence1776 - I didn't care at all if anyone else liked it, and am pleasantly surprised by how many people evidently do!

Fifth most words is "Special Assignment" again.

Fewest words is "Chicken Soup for the Ranger's Soul", a true drabble featuring Aragorn & Gandalf - and some Tolkien fic makes it into this meme at last!

Wow, it has been a hot minute since I posted here! It's been a busy couple of months. (Happy Easter and/or Passover, as applicable!)

I had an absolutely marvelous time with worldbuilding_exchange this year!

I wrote "The Earliest Years of the Sun" for narya_flame, which is a funky little piece of in-universe meta I summarized as "A Gondorian academic in the Fourth Age explores the development of a solar calendar system among the Noldor in Beleriand." Unsurprisingly to anyone who knows me, it has footnotes *g*

And I received a magnificent gift from Callmesalticidae: "Notes Toward a Proposal for Renovating the Temple Refectory System" is a fun and extremely clever look at the logistical challenges of a multispecies society like the Jedi Order. I'm over the moon at such a great gift!

Here's a non-exhaustive list of other fics from the collection I particularly enjoyed:

"Into the Wood" by elementalraven is a beautiful canon-divergent Narnia fic about Jill and Eustace in the Wood between the Worlds, offering intriguing glimpses of many other worlds.

fiona15351 wrote delightful casefic for Robin McKinley's Sunshine: "Never Fall Far from the Tree" is a supernatural police procedural in the vampire-killing-stake orchard, with an engaging and endearing OC narrator, and I can personally attest that it's a lot of fun even canon-blind!

"Bullies, bugs, and birds: a case study on competition between introduced Squawkabilly and a native Fletchling population" by crowloft is Pokémon in-universe meta that's an uncanny recreation of an academic paper – right down to a "Retrieved March 11, 2023" timestamp at the top! Plus, it has graphics.

"burn for what you believe in" by flyingfanatic is a Locked Tomb fic about Pyrrha, the early days at Canaan House, and the founding of the Houses that had me unhinged.

And "Grown Deep" by Hokuto is a lovely Earthsea fic about a wizard reluctant to leave Roke; Hokuto recreates the Earthsea vibe really well!

I love this exchange just as much in its second iteration as I did last time – I can hardly wait for next year!

Another seasonsofdrabbles round is at an end, and – as always – it was tremendous fun! I love how much leeway a drabble exchange gives folks to be experimental.

I wrote two fics:

"sorrow for sea-fare" for zdenka
Tar-Míriel/Uinen, double drabble sequence (600 words)
Summary:
And it came to pass, while the wood of Nimloth burned, that Tar-Míriel – who had ever loved the night-blossoming Tree – slipped from the palace, and came in secret to the westward shore.

"stands yet the wallstone" for Microscopium
Object and concept anthropomorphism, triple drabble
Summary:
The city had no name.
This was a new state of affairs, and the city was still getting used to it.

I'd been re-reading some of Oscar Wilde's fairy tales before sitting down to write, and I think it shows: the first is reminiscent in some ways of "The Fisherman and His Soul", the second of "The Remarkable Rocket" – only a little bit, and a very poor reflection, but the influence is there. fiona15351 very kindly betaed both, and she was the one who suggested using a line from "The Ruin" to title "stands yet the wallstone", which gave me the idea of titling "sorrow for sea-fare" with a line from "The Seafarer". (In retrospect, "stands yet the wallstone" would have been an excellent title for "Deep Roots", my TRSB fic this year, but…well, hindsight's 20/20.)

I received two fics as well:

"blessed" by sincereously
ASOIAF, Baelor the Blessed, single drabble sequence (700 words)
Summary:
Seven perspectives on Baelor, for each of the seven gods.

Folks, "blessed" is the Baelor fic of my dreams! It's a nuanced and beautifully written take on a deeply complex character, and might just be my favorite Baelor fic out there. I genuinely teared up reading it, and I truly can't recommend it more highly.

"annealed" by allegoriesinmediasres
Maedhros/Fingon, paired single drabbles
Summary:
"... and the Orcs fled before his face; for since his torment upon Thangorodrim his spirit burned like a white fire within… "

― Quenta Silmarillion, "Of the Ruin of Beleriand and the Fall of Fingolfin"

"annealed" is a lovely and poignant Maedhros character study, with some sweet Russingon as well. For its word count, it packs an outsize punch!

I wrote "nidicolous" for AllegoriesInMediasRes as my assigned recipient in the summer round of this exchange, and I think I was their assigned recipient this time, so we clearly have tastes in common! I think I'll keep an eye out for their prompts in the next round…

All in all, definitely a very good time, and I'm looking forward to the winter round!

The collection is open and authors have been revealed!

I wrote one fic, for allegoriesinmediasres:

nidicolous
Fandom: Silmarillion
Summary: Sometimes a family is a large waterfowl, an astronomical body, and two Half-elven boys.

The prompt was "A cracky AU where star!Earendil and goose!Elwing raise Elrond and Elros," and it was so fun to write!

I also received an exquisite gift from aroberuka:

All That Glitters
Fandom: TGCF
Summary: After her ascension, Yushi Huang settles into her new home.

I love it to pieces!

The other Silmarillion fics are both gorgeous:

Sleep could I never on the sea-beds by cravetherose
This one's about Berúthiel, and I love the writing style; cravetherose takes advantage of the short format to really lean into something unusual, and in my opinion it's very effective.

Land's End by LookingForDroids
A wonderfully atmospheric piece about Númenor!

And this "Object and Concept Anthropomorphism" fic is beautiful too:

As Below, So Above by archea2
The characters are "Walled Garden" and "Mermaid Statue"; if you've ever read any of Oscar Wilde's fairy tales, it reminds me a little of those.

Amid the chaos of starting the new semester, here are six(ish) sentences from the same SWTOR fic I've posted bits of before:
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For Six Sentence Sunday, six (very rough) sentences from the same SWTOR WIP I posted an excerpt from in September: ( Read more... )

For Six Sentence Sunday, here are (approximately) six sentences from one of my SWTOR WIPs:
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Meme from thisbluespirit: List the first lines of your last 10 stories (if you have fewer than 10, just list them all!). See if there are any patterns. Choose your favorite opening line.
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Lightsider (440 words) by Ermingarden
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Legends - All Media Types
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Kam Solusar & Luke Skywalker
Characters: Luke Skywalker, Kam Solusar
Additional Tags: Dark Empire era, S'vivon | Dreidel, Crack Treated Seriously
Summary:

Luke Skywalker and Kam Solusar play a game, in which Kam's future and Luke's very life are at stake.