fic rec: Unobserved Observations

Unobserved Observations
by pelirroja_ljc
Breaking my habit of only reading fanfic on Sunday and I'm glad I did. This is a lovely Inara-centric character studyset some unspecified time in the series. She's really got Inara's phrasing right, as well as having a very nice tone.

that writing meme

10 ways to know you're reading a SpikeDru fic:

1. It's been at least three months since the last one.
2. The POV is strictly held in a given chapter or scene because
3. There'll be stuff about perception (e.g. the differing views in Hurt/Comfort).
4. At least one English English word will slip though the net.
5. There's a technical word for it, which I have forgotten, but lots of descriptive sentences will take the form "pronoun verb adjective noun, blah blah blah" instead of being two seperate sentences. E.g. "There were hurried noises as the walking wounded reboarded the bus, the mosquito whine of Andrew a distant irritant." from Nineteen Days.
6. Spike or Mal will be partially nekkid. (well, Mal will be in Cowgirls when I get to the right chapter).
7. There will be almost no "he said" or "she said", or thesaurused versions (she exclaimed).
8. Canon is your friend and the story will dart between canonical elements like a fish in a stream (i.e. no AU, rarely any OC). Well, OK, Kali Dances is AU, but I started writing it before Angel series 5 aired and finished it after.
9. It won't be epic or mammoth and will rarely be in chapters (Cowgirls is the first to come out as a WIP in chapters).
10. It won't use the whole cast. I tend to pick two or three characters to use and I don't feel the need to cram all the others in just to show that I'm using them.

fic: Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, Part 1

Yes, I'm putting up Chapter 1 before 3 and 4 are finished off despite the fact I always worry about finishing WIPs. I should update every fortnight - leave me rude feedback if I don't.

Even Cowgirls Get the Blues
by SpikeDru
Spoilers: post-Objects in Space, eventually for the Big Damn Movie
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Drama/Romance
Summary: Her touch was usually a commodity and her palm had tingled with illicit pleasure at being freely given.
There are all sorts of ways to feel blue, and the women of Serenity feel them all.
Notes: This fic was basically inspired by Even Cowgirls Get the Blues by Tom Robbins - or more precisely by the title. Each chapter's title is also a title of a Western film (or a variation thereof). Chapter 1, The Best Little Whorehouse on the Rim, focuses on Inara. Later chapters focus on others.
first published January 2006

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1: The Best Little Whorehouse on the Rim

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It was the finest outhouse on the stinking moon. The wood was smooth and sand clean, and the red tiled floor gleamed. Nandi's girls clearly took care of it. A couple of flimsy moving images hung on either wall: a restful sunset over a beach and a sweet meadow wavering in a spring breeze. Unlit incense rested on a little ledge to one side, ready to banish any unwelcome smells. The back of the wooden door was hung with silken embroidery scenes and the crystals hanging in the small star-shaped window twinkled with the brash sunlight from outside.

Inara sat and cried.

[click here for the rest of the chapter]

help needed

I'm finally cracking into chapter 3 of Cowgirls but I need a smidgen of help. Like Buffy and Angel before it, Firefly seems to have some strong fanon (i.e. non-canonical events, backstory, etc which is none-the-less treated as if it were canon). So Mal was always raised by his mother and the farmhands. What I need is a guide to the most common fanon. I need to know the ideas which, whilst as illegitimate as any other fanfic ideas, are generally seen as highly plausible and taken at some level to be 'true'.

This is on account of the fact I need more on Zoe's probable background.

Can anyone suggest some good places to look?

6,110 / 8,000 (76.25%)

award nom time: The Strawberries

The Strawberries, the Firefly fanfic/fadvid awards are open for nominations until 31st January.

self-pimpage alert!
It's Wrong to Wish on Space Hardware is valid for this award. It could go under Pre-Movie - Romance - Canon.

On the other hand, if you love some of the Firefly fics I've recced over the last few months, go ahead and nominate them instead. I won't be hurt. Much.

fic rec: Insomnia Ain't Always a Bad Thing

Insomnia Ain't Always a Bad Thing
by corellianjedi
Firefly, post-movie. Mal and Inara talk late at night about mothers, teddy bears, and each other. Very light angst and fluffy in a gentle way (i.e. not sickeningly fluffy). Aw.

Easy, Tiger

I've been a cover pixie for Bam's wonderful It's Not Porn, I Swear site for a little while. When I am trolling around the local charity shops, I make for the bins of Mills & Boon paperbacks and buy any whose covers strike me as snark-bait, then I scan them and send them over for Bam to be all editor-like about them. Yesterday was my first Saturday troll for a couple of weeks and to my delight some people had clearly donated a ton of books in a New Year clean-out as there were lots of new ones. I have a thing for the 70s/80s designs which are often either very orange, very alarming in their depictions of apparently rohypnolled heroines, or both. So my eye was caught by one cover because it was orange and in the 70s design. Then I looked closer, as something in the corner caught my eye.

Click for a closer look just at the corner. It's on the cover of a book called 'Tiger Man', published in 1981.