Rectober, week 3 part 1

[birdsofshore]

Title: Tuesday Nights
Author/Artist :firethesound
Pairing(s): Harry/Draco
Rating: M
Word Count: 15k
Summary: The absolute last place Harry expected to see Malfoy was in a rundown Muggle cinema on a Tuesday night.

Why I loved it: You should all friend firethesound immediately. She's posting fab stories regularly at the moment and I haven't read a duff one yet. This is a charming and funny account of Harry's path crossing with a down-on-his-luck Draco. She writes romance and smut beautifully, and to quote from my comment, the sex is "hot and shy and awkward and ardent." Just how we like it.

***

I'm a bit behind on my reading, but these two are gems from hd_fan_fair:

Title: A Future Unknown
Author: as yet anon
Pairing(s) Harry/Draco
Rating: NC-17
Word Count: 25k
Summary: Draco had always thought that the ability to see the future would have saved him a lot of grief. The choices are no easier, however, when he is cursed to see an endless set of futures featuring Harry Potter.

Why I loved it: This fic is a real treat. Draco's visions are all scenes showing himself in romantic situations with Harry, which proves wonderfully tormenting. The UST is marvellous, and Harry, with his intriguing tan and string of love affairs, is quite delicious. When Draco and Harry start to build a real-life relationship, there's wonderful flirting and an unforgettable scene at the Hampstead Heath ponds. There are also lovely appearances from Pansy and Hermione (and one hilarious reported remark from Ron. :DDD You'll know it when you get to it).

***

Title:Thou Art More Lovely and Potter's Poetry
Author/Artist: as yet anon
Pairing(s) Harry/Draco
Rating: NC-17, PG
Word Count: 8,400
Summary: For Thou Art More Lovely:
When Harry Potter is cursed by an innocuous looking book, he is rendered incapable of speaking in anything other than rhyming verse. Harry struggles through his treatments with a gleeful Healer Malfoy all while faced with the prospect of becoming the Wizarding world’s worst poet in living memory. Things take a turn for the worst when Harry discovers that the curse has its own unusual and typically poetic cure.

For Potter's Poetry:
After finding himself on the receiving end of the infamous Sonnets of a Sorcerer curse, Harry Potter decided to draw on his experiences and produce ‘Potter’s Poetry’, a selection of poems which have absolutely no discernible theme which ties them together.

Why I loved it: I'm reccing these two together because they are companion pieces, and both completely delightful. Thou Art More Lovely is such a sweet and fun fic, full of banter, humour and flirting, and also some very clever and witty poetry.

Potter's Poetry is such a clever collaboration of art and parody, all wrapped up as a spoof book, published (and annotated) by one Draco Malfoy. The art is gorgeous, and the poems are hilarious and clever. The whole thing seems far too real to be just a product of fandom's imagination - I think we simply must be able to buy it, as the accompanying order form promises. Now if only I could find my wizarding money...

***

Lastly, a bit cheeky sneaking this one in, as it's a real book rec, not fandom related, although I did once read a very saucy fic about Morrissey and the members of Franz Ferdinand. Oh, god, it's all coming out now. My RPS predilection has HISTORY. ANYWAY.



Morrissey's autobiography. WOW. I have loved Morrissey for approximately 29 years now. Good Lord, how is that possible?. I do cringe approximately 50% of the time these days whenever he opens his mouth, but, you know, you can forgive such things in a long term relationship, yes?

Well, this could have been utterly perfect or frankly unreadable. I'm only a third in, but I am tending towards the former. It starts with four and a half pages of solid prose before we get a paragraph break, which is a bit off putting, but then it began to make me laugh.

Naturally my birth almost kills my mother, for my head is too big.

The humour is deliciously sly. I had to reread this twice to see if he really meant that his own conceit led to a near-fatal delivery, but I'm pretty sure he did. In other places, he over-labours the punchlines a bit, and several times I have stopped and thought "well, I don't know who edited this, but omi_ohmy or who_la_hoop would NEVER have let that through," but the humour is gloriously bitchy and dry all at once, and, as usual, makes me forgive all else. His accounts of growing up gay (or whatever Morrissey is - I am not really sure, but I hope to find out as the book progresses) in 1970s Manchester are especially wonderful.

On this particular day, spotting the New York Dolls sleeve resting on my desk [...] Miss Power grabbed the LP sleeve and held it aloft for the entire class to examine:
'LOOK AT THIS!' she demanded of everyone. 'LOOK AT THIS!' and everyone looked at this. 'THIS is sickness. These are MEN making themselves sexual for OTHER MEN!'

The descriptions of his school days are by turns chilling and full of black humour:

I think back to that day when fat Bernadette wrapped a leather belt around her neck and proceeded to pull it tightly in both directions, thus possibly killing herself as she sat at her wonky desk in the classroom of B2. "I'm gonna do it!" she shouts at Miss Dudley, who casually reaches into her shopping-bag for her newspaper which she then unfolds on her battered desk - completely ignoring damaged and needy Bernadette, who is still shouting "I'm gonna do it!" Miss Dudley seems irritated only by the fact she is taking so long.

At some points you might need an affection for Morrissey to carry you through - he spends about three pages describing what TV programmes he watched as a child, for instance - but his voice is, to me, very engaging, charmingly self-mocking and bombastic by turns:

It was he who told me the reason why girls fluttered around me at St Wilfrid's, and what it was that they wanted. He told me this because I didn't know, and even when I knew, I was less interested than when I didn't know. I had no idea that it was anything other than a mere spout.

And:

"You!" he shouts at me, as if at nine years of age I had already scarred England.

His passion for music and poetry shines out, and I am planning to spend the next week basking in it all. In short, I am loving it, and unless you loathe the Smiths or find them baffling and depressing, as I know some people inexplicably do, I think you will too. If nothing else, the cover is DIVINE. The fourteen-year-old Smiths fan in me wants to sit in a coffee shop stroking it and looking soulful. In fact I might just go and do that now.

Comments

[kedavranox.livejournal.com]

I've been thoroughly enjoying firethesounds's fics as well!!

I'm always hesitant to add people though, because ..well..what if they don't friend me back? D:

(omg I am Draco Malfoy!)

[kedavranox.livejournal.com]

Oh...nevermind. We're already friends. LOL.

(sigh)

[birdsofshore]

So you don't add people in case they don't friend you back? Would that be really distressing? (only slightly smirking here, and not going amywhere near the Draco Malfoy thing... :DD)

I think if you are nervous about friending, you could PM and ask if the person a) minds and b) would like to be friends back? I just friend willy-nilly, which is silly of me and sometimes leads to Embarrassing Situations :-/

[who_la_hoop]

*sniggers* For... reasons :D

[birdsofshore]

*wags finger*

[hd-fanfair-mod.livejournal.com]

♥ Thank you for your recs!

[birdsofshore]

You are welcome!

[lijahlover.livejournal.com]

Thanks for these great sounding recs. :)

[birdsofshore]

You're welcome! I enjoyed writing them!

[awickedmemory.livejournal.com]

*adds to my ever-growing fic list* Thank youuuu, bb ♥ ^o^

[birdsofshore]

You are welcome! I love the way your emoji looks like a Snitch :D

[awickedmemory.livejournal.com]

LOL - that never occurred to me, but you're right - it totally does!!

[firethesound]

Oh gosh, thank you so much for the rec! You say the nicest things about me and my writing and it's so incredibly flattering! :)

[birdsofshore]

I just like your stuff a lot, and I notice not everyone on my flist is reading it, when they should be :D

[raitala.livejournal.com]

Thanks for these recs! I hope I'll have time for reading soon. I've opened about five fan_fair fics so far and just not been grabbed (I have far too many fic peeves for my own good), so I was getting a bit despondent. But I haven't tried these :)

[birdsofshore]

Oh, no, please don't tell me which ones you didn't like! *paranoid wibble* Anon fests can be so anxiety-making, LOL!

I hope you like these. There's a gorgeous piece of art/fic which just posted today, as well, for one of my prompts, and it is really special.

[raitala.livejournal.com]

Oh no! I didn't mean to make you wibbly. Really, it is my own problem that I'm only pleased by a quite narrow set of story types/ themes. I have a low tolerance for fluff, for example. What I like or don't doesn't necessarily reflect the quality of the stories at all (though everyone is inclined to think that what they enjoy is brilliant). I do miss having the opportunity to discuss both the good and bad points of the fic I read. I used to have a few reading buddies, but they've moved on. Its certainly something that must be very carefully handled and off LJ, because I really appreciate the HP fandom culture of if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all. I think its great to have a space where you can share your work and not expect it to get torn into by anyone.

I do know the feeling of wondering if the absence of a comment from someone whose opinion you value means that they didn't like your piece or just didn't see it or didn't have the time to comment. A bit fraught, but then you work on the next thing and start worrying about that instead ;)

You're right about your prompt piece being lovely!

[birdsofshore]

Oh, I was being ridiculous! I had this sudden flash of you saying "for instance, did you read that terrible one about *insert plot of birds' fic*" DDD: LOL! As if you would say that in a public place like this anyway! I completely agree, we all have our own likes and dislikes, and it's not always related to quality or otherwise. A more extreme situation, but it can be a bit mortifying if you know a friend is probably waiting on a comment from you, and you can't even read their fic because it has x y z.

I also enjoy the safeness of LJ, and don't really welcome criticism, even concrit, from anyone except trusted betas, if I am honest. But it can be interesting to discuss the good and bad points of a fic and I do sometimes do that via email with a friend. I often come at it from the angle of wanting to learn more about writing - "in this fic, abc just didn't work for me and I don't really know why. Why did that happen? What would have made it better?" Rather than "bloody hell did you see that utter tripe?" :D Feel free to email if you would like such discussion (having checked first it is not mine, auugh)

I am just going back to comment further on my lovely prompt art <3