Fic rec and other squee

[sophinisba]

-Are you reading the new WIP at kinkme_merlin where Arthur is a BNF and Merlin is his beta? If not, don't you sense that you life would be better if you were? Listen, I don't usually believe people when they say "You don't have to know the fandom to enjoy this" and I don't always like metafic, but this is really so much fun, I want you all to enjoy it. So many familiar little details just make me grin the whole time I'm reading it, whether it's Merlin chatting with Gwen while trying to be nonchalant about responding to a comment, or Arthur doing his best to ignore the haters at fail_fandomanon. It's got me thinking too about our relationships, how you can be attracted to someone or consider them one of your good friends without knowing things like how they pronounce their name or what they look like or what gender they are. Comments on the story have also been fun (although I'm hoping the little subthread about BNFs in Merlin fandom doesn't go any further).
ETA: Completed and reposted in three parts! Pairing: Pendragon/Merlin

-I've been liking the kink meme a lot lately. I used to really dislike the format and feel like it wasn't a good place for me but, besides seeing a lot more interesting rareship prompts and fills than I used to, I've really gotten to like the idea that anyone can post anon (or not) and just make their own decisions about whether and when to claim it, and other people respect that. And I'm always so impressed with the job the mod mice do. Did you see this fanart of them? So awesome.

-I've been doing a lot of podfic recording! And some editing! (I used to not get how people could say recording was the fun part but I understand now! These characters!) It's a little weird holding back on them, because I'm used to posting stuff as soon as I've finished and listened or had somebody listen to a draft. I think it will be especially weird with this longer one I'm doing where I think, eh, I could probably finish it in the next week or so, but big bang posting isn't until April. It makes me feel like I should take on something BIGGER, but then I think about all the other things I should be doing, so it's hard to know.

-The camelot_fleet Finishathon looks really awesome. Lots of great work from briar_pipe and themadlurker to help each person design their own challenge and get the support they need.

-Among many reasons for ♥ing my friends on LJ and Dreamwidth and Twitter, I love that I get to see so much spontaneous squee over awesome ladies, including Rose, Martha, Donna, and Amy, as well as both Gwens.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Super clever and very panfandom-ish--thanks for the rec. (I just skimmed the whole thing while waiting for my computer to back up--such a fun, quick read!) Although there's something profoundly disturbing about a fic in which we imagine not only our protagonists but ourselves, the readers and writers, as men, isn't there? M.

[sophinisba]

It's true. I've thought about that a few times over the last couple days as I've been enjoying it. I mean, part of why I like the fic so much is that it reminds me of couples I know or stories I've heard of people who fell in love through fandom, but they've all been women (including one woman who thought the BNF she was reading was a guy but when they met up she turned out to be a woman too). I like stories about girls who write fanfic and I've even written fic about Gwen and Morgana writing it. But I know a story about girls would never have the same kind of general appeal that that Arthur/Merlin one does, and I'm not sure if even I would enjoy it as much as I have this fic. There is something about boys being insecure and angsty, and something about boys being lovey-dovey once they get together. I still find it irresistible.