like harvard, west point, and google all rolled into one

Well, I have to say, this has been one of the busiest holiday times I've had in a lot of years! yagkyas was just as big as last year, coordinating about 40 new Generation Kill stories through the challege. I was so delighted to receive The Right Time, a wonderful Rudy/Pappy story by demonic_fish. There's just not enough Rudy/Pappy in the world, and it makes me so happy that this exists!

For yagkyas, I wrote two stories: first, the Haven/Generation Kill crossover Family Confidence which posits Nate Fick as Nathan Wuornos' cousin (not that kind of cousin). Honestly, I wish it could have been more fleshed out, but I'm very glad it exists and it was fun to try and figure out.

Second, I wrote Not Only the Living, a Battlestar Galactica-Generation Kill fusion that makes Bravo Two the Colonial Marines on Galactica in the show. I was ecstatic to be able to write this--I'd wanted to do a BSG fusion for a long time, and to be able to do it for yagkyas was the icing on the cake. I think it should make sense to folks who aren't too familiar with BSG--just think of Bravo Two as Space Marines--but I'm also proud, because I think it was a solid fusion that showed the potential of mashing the two fandoms together.

Because I'm ridiculous, I also modded the dresdenficathon, the first time that challenge had been run since 2008. Dresden Fandom poses some interesting challenges--namely, it's not really a cohesive fandom in the least--but we got 18 awesome new stories out of it, which I encourage you to check out. I didn't receive a story for dresdenficathon, but I did write two stories, both about Harry Dresden and Harry Raith. The first is Trade in Kind, which is about Thomas' proclivities not being as put-upon as the books suggest (or as Harry thinks); and Facing Down, about Thomas and Harry and the stupid things Morgan le Fay's sons do. It's been fun writing Dresden--I haven't written much, so this was a great opportunity to be more active in the fandom.

I did the Inception dream_holiday exchange as well, writing To Continually Descend, a Penrose steps PWP featuring Arthur and Eames, which was cute, and a lot of fun. I received Of Postcards and Love Notes, which was a beautiful multimedia story about the correspondence between Arthur and Eames over the course of their relationship. It's just lovely. <3

Also, earlier this month, I did a couple of pinch hits for happy_trekmas. First, Countermeasures, a Star Trek XI story with Jim Kirk and Bones McCoy and the challenges of the holidays. I also wrote The Vertical Expression of a Horizontal Desire, a Star Trek Voyager Paris/Kim story where Tom takes Harry dancing. That was a lot of fun to write--I hadn't thought about Voyager in years.

And then there was Yuletide. I contributed 6 stories to the main Yuletide challenge this year, which I will enumerate after the new year. I was so lucky to receive two stories this year, both of them for Haven. The first, Two Men, One Woman and a Christmas Tree, is adorable and hilarious, and the second, Proverbial Trees, is wonderfully slow and nuanced with an amazing Nathan perspective. Thank you, Yuletide santas. <3

And now, well. I'm going to watch 24/7 Flyers-Rangers and try to muddle through the last few days of the year. I think I'm going to go see the Portland Winterhawks play for New Year's Eve, and I'm pretty excited for the Winter Classic on Monday. (Have I mentioned I love hockey? I love hockey. Hockeyyyyyyyy.) Mostly, though, I just want to sleep--maybe even until the new year. <3, everyone, especially shoshannagold, my co-mod for yagkyas this year, and to everyone who helped me get through the last month. It's been a trip.

yagkyas stories are live! We should have the master list up soon, to make it easier for folks to find the stories that were written for them. 39 new Generation Kill stories, be still be heart! While I never want to see another fic header again, and my holiday challenge season is far from over, I'm very pleased with the excitement and response over yagkyas this year. You never know, when you start these challenges, how the fandom will react; in the case of Generation Kill fandom, there's such a sense of support and stewardship that it makes it a pleasure to run. Thank you to everyone who's participated--you're what keeps yagkyas going!

I received Rudy/Pappy this year, which you may all remember is my favorite thing ever in the world. The Right Time hits all my narrative kinks and I love it to pieces. Go give it some love too! Rudy/Pappy should be shown all the love it deserves. Thank you yagkyas santa!

While we put the finishing touches on the challenge this year, I wanted to point you all to a really fantastic series of posts by Matthew Phelps, a Marine Officer who came out after DADT was repealed and has been chronicaling his experiences. He's a talented writer, at least with this subject matter, and his series on taking a date to the Marine Corps Birthday Ball this year was phenomenal. Part One, Two, Three, and Four. Highly reccomended.

Now on to the dresdenficathon and then, yuletide!

Hey there, Slash Reporters! If you've stumbled here, it means you might've listened to this week's episode of Slash Report. I had the delightful pleasure of joining mklutz and rageprufrock on this week's episode to wax philosophical about comic books, aka the thing I love most in the world that isn't Generation Kill.

Comics are--well. Comics, and its insane fandom, are about the craziest shit in Western media there is. The main characters, and comic book titles, have been around for more than seven decades. They've gone from 10-cent cheap weeklies for boys to squabble over to a respected, robust creative industry to the relative mainstream media they are now. Every major (and most of the minor) heroes have died, most of 'em have been revived or had their mantle passed on to another individual, and just like in 1938 when Superman was first introduced to the world, fanpeople have been eagerly stalking their local comic book stores or desperately hitting refresh on their iPads to read the newest issue to find out what happens next.

I started reading comic books when I was a teenager. I was obsessed with Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and a friend of mine (from the internet!) offered to send a bunch of already-read Buffy comics my way. I had never really thought about comics--which was suprising, because I was the girl that played Magic with the boys in the back of the band room--but figured anything to do with Buffy was all right with me.

Then came Sandman.

Then came minim_calibre and her dangling Birds of Prey in front of me like a shiny toy.

And the rest, shall we say, was history. And a $35 per month reading habit.

Not everyone is going to be as devoted to and obsessed with comics as I am. That's okay! It's also totally okay if your interest in comics is peaked from watching X-Men First Class, or Captain America, or Batman: The Dark Knight. That's what those movies are for: to introduce you to a world of entertainment that you might not otherwise have been interested in.

I went over a bunch of great comics to ease you into the media with this week's episode of Slash Report, and provided some links for you to get started. But I thought it might also be helpful for folks who haven't been moved to read any comics before to provide a quick primer of where to start.

The thing to note with all of these recs, though, is that the characters and situations you see in the films tend to be stories unto themselves. The graphic novels and issues I'm going to point you to won't be exactly the same characters as on the big screen--but you should give them a chance, because they're pretty freakin' amazing. (A parallel would be Star Trek XI--you didn't need to watch all of Star Trek's canon before you watched the eleventh film, but it is definitely worth going back to check it out.)

Comic Books for Moviegoers, Marvel Version

If you liked Thor, try Thor by Walter Simonson. The eighties were a revolutionary period for comic books--authors had license to go out and experiment in ways they weren't allowed to in earlier years, and a lot of titles got rebooted into new versions. Simonson's work is generally credited with making Thor exciting and relevant again, and it still holds up two decades later. This is a good way to become more familiar with Thor's backstory.

If you liked X-Men First Class, try New X-Men Volume 6. The key thing to remember about X-Men is that the cast of characters for this particular section of Marvel is huge, and the story is only occasionally about Magneto and Professor X and their decades of tragic manpain. Most of the time, it's about Xavier's students and the hero team he builds. Grant Morrison, who is one of the comics industry's top authors, constructs a solid introductory story to Magneto's antipathy towards the X-Men and Xavier in particular. For a broader look at some of the greatest X-Men stories told, I reccommend this list, which is a pretty decent guide. Just...be prepared from some rad eighties hair and a few bikini thongs.

If you liked Captain America, I highly, highly reccomend Captain America Omnibus, volumes one, two, and three. This is the fifth version of Captain America, and headed by Ed Brubaker this story is easily one of the best recent Marvel series period. Don't let the title of the second volume dissuade you--if you want to know about Steve and Bucky, Steve and Tony, and just how amazing Steve is, these are the books for you. Top notch writing and storytelling, even in the middle of the stupid Civil War.

If you liked Iron Man and Iron Man 2, do not stop, run directly into the arms of Iron Man Extremis. Now, I caution that this is a book that doesn't really resemble the world of the film much at all, but what it does do is explain Tony Stark. This illustrates Tony's relationship with Iron Man, and the kind of dissociative relationship he has with his hero self. It's so tightly paced and written--I mean hell, it's Warren Ellis--and the story is just amazing. Even talking about it makes me want to read it again. ComicMix also has some additional suggestions for good titles to read once you've read Extremis from cover to cover.

I don't think anybody liked Hulk--it's gotten a really poor treatment in cinema in the last decade, which is a shame, because there's a lot of potential there. The Incredible Hulk #240, "Let Darkness Come" is a heartbreaking story that shows us Hulk's compassion and loyalty. The Incredible Hulk, "The End" by Peter David (<3) makes the Hulk's wish come true, with awful consequences. Give Bruce Banner a try! He'll be appearing in the Avengers.

If you liked Spiderman, um, well, I will probably like the new one a lot better than the previous three if only because they won't have Tobey Maguire. But Spiderman is a key hero within the Marvel Universe, so I'm going to give him a little credit here. If you're just interested in Spidey, and not so much how he plays in the rest of the MU, I'd steer you to Ultimate Spiderman, which incepted a lot--I mean a lot--of people into loving the web-spewing wonder. For a quick jaunt through Peter Parker's world (man, Marvel loves alliteration), I'd suggest the 10 Greatest Stories, because it's self-contained but will introduce you to everyone.

Comic Books for Moviegoers, DC Version

I have a whole rant about how disjointed DC's movie franchise is, but I won't repeat it here. Suffice to say, they do kind of a shitty job, especially compared to Marvel. And they don't do as many, as often. But we'll mine the back catalogue for you anyway.

If you liked The Dark Knight, there is free therapy available in the lobby. I kid, I kid. The first two have been really stellar films, and jump-started Batman back into the public consciousness. It's been broadly assumed that The Dark Knight was based on and influenced by Frank Miller's Batman series by the same name, which may or may not be the case. Suffice to say that Miller's Batman stories are not where I would start anyone looking for an introduction to the character, but let your own judgement prevail. I'd start with Year One, and use that as a jumping off point for The Killing Joke and The Long Halloween. But I also maintain that the Bruce Wayne: Murderer/Fugitive story arc is amazing, because it not only gets you Batman, but it introduces you to the entire fucked up, dysfuctionally wonderous Batfamily. At least, it incepted me, so there you go.

They haven't made a film yet about Dick Grayson (except for the execrable Batman & Robin) , Jason Todd, Barbara Gordon, Cass Caine, Tim Drake, Stephanie Brown, or Damian Wayne yet, but I can point people to books on any of of those Batfamily characters upon request.

If you liked Superman Returns, well, there's nothing quite like that out there. Absolute All-Star Superman is Grant Morrison's take on Big Blue, and he does a fine job. Lex Luthor: Man of Steel is one of my favorites, because it inverts expectation in a delightful way and makes you root for Luthor the way only Smallville could. Kingdom Come is an alternate universe future and a self-contained story that gives the darker edge, if that's your thing.

If you liked Catwoman, um. Let's just skip ahead. I loooooove Selena. Catwoman, version 2 volume 1, is a great place to start for a very entertaining series of stories by Ed Brubaker. But I also love the contained story When in Rome, which was just delightful to read when it was being produced. Tim Sale does absolutely beautiful stylistic art in this, and Jeph Loeb's story is charming while still pointing to that thread of deceit that's inherent in the Catwoman title. Love it.

If you liked Green Lantern, first of all, Hal Jordan is a tool and thankfully he is not the only Green Lantern. There's a bunch of them. There's hundreds of them, actually, but only a few over time that have been assigned to the sector of space including Earth. But if you want to read about Hal, the original Earthman GL, try Green Lantern Rebirth. However, I really like The Sinestro Corps War, because it is awesome and features a wide cast of characters. (perpet_fic, I expect you to give better recs than me in the comments.) (ETA: More suggestions from perpet in the comments.)

Also, if you liked Green Lantern, try Green Arrow! I'm almost glad they haven't made a Green Arrow movie, because the Arrows are my second favorite after the Bats and I looooooove Roy Harper. Year One does a superb job of introducing you to the ridiculousness that is Oliver Queen, but for my pennies I like Kevin Smith's (yes, that Kevin Smith) Quiver and subsequent volumes better. Roy Harper, Oliver's first sidekick and hero in his own right, is a character designed to make you cry, but I love him all the more for it. Try Outsiders. I love it so.

Fundamentally, DC just hasn't made as many films from their titles, for any number of reasons. But DC has a rich history of stories and a wide field of characters that are equal to Marvel--especially in terms of slashiness, to where it concerns slash fandom. (In both the male and female persuasions, can you dig?) There's also the whole section of film adaptions that have shit-all to do with the mainstream superheroes, so--

Comic Books for Moviegoers, Other Titles Version

Alan Moore's Watchmen remains one of the germinal critiques of superhero culture to date. They did a decent job with the film, but the book is so much better--though it's probably best read shortly after reading some of the above titles.

Andy Diggle's The Losers is significantly different from the film by the same name. There's a lot more depth, more stories told, and a resolution to the whole arc that the film just couldn't achieve. It's a great action-political story with some tight art.

Alan Moore's V for Vendetta is--well, I'm going to get tired of calling Alan Moore revolutionary, but he was, and this story was. Highly reccomended for even the most casual of comics interest.

Don't even talk to me about The League of Extraordinary Gentleman movie; it doesn't exist for me. But the graphic novel basically fueled the invention of Steampunk, and offers a rollicking good tale of intrigue and investigation. If you like the idea of Sherlock Holmes and Spooks, give this a go.

For anyone who's watching Grimm or Once Upon a Time right now, drop the clicker and run straight for Bill Willingham's Fables, which did it first and did it better. We talk about it in the podcast, but this is an engrossing story using the fairy-tales-are-real convention.

Powers is a big, big favorite of mine by Brian Michael Bendis, aka my personal hero. If you like noir, if you liked Watchmen, if you like basically any procedural on television, you will like Powers.

The Authority gave us the canonical relationship between male heroes Apollo and Midnighter, and while it's worth reading for that alone there's so much more. Thank you, Warren Ellis, for being grumpy with comics and revolting by creating this.

If you liked, uh, any of the movies Robert Downey Jr. was in while he was on drugs, try Transmetropolitan. That's either a glowing or insufficient reccomendation, but these books are fucking brilliant so give 'em a try.

This really only begins to plumb the depths; there's just so much more that I feel even this primer is inadequate. Things I wasn't able to get to: the dominance of male heros and male authors who write the books about male heroes; the recent shift in DC comics to reset everything; what an "event" is and why Civil War is a perfect example of how terrible they are; how many times Superman and Captain America have died. But it should at least get you started, and you're always welcome to come back and ask me for more.

Resources for the Nascent Comic Book Reader

First of all, find your local store. Those nerds behind the counter are going to be your best, most knowledgeable and opinionated resource for comic books. Don't let the whole "girl in the comics shop" thing dissuade you. You are there to give them money in a down economy; don't take any shit, and only walk away with what you're interested in, not what they think you'll be interested in. I hate that this is still a pervasive characteristic of the fandom, but it is, even though I've always had really positive relationships with my comic book store vendors.

Most older traders and issues aren't terribly expensive. You can usually find them used for the price of a new paperback book. Just be warned that comics grow like mold in your house, and they take up a lot of room. For the last five years I've been focusing more on digital comics, so I have more detail on those resources than on hard copies.

On your computer, your Android or your iDevice, Comixology is an excellent resource for reviewing, purchasing, and reading digital comics. They're reasonably priced to the print versions, and their back catalogue is constantly growing. Excellent easy entry into comics, especially the older titles that are being digitized.

DC, Marvel, and many of the smaller publishing houses all have individual applications for purchasing and reading their digital comics, but Comixology is better by far--not in the least because you don't have to switch applications just to read a different title.

For as long as there have been digital scanners, there have been people scanning comic books to digital files. I'm not going to give you direct links to where you can obtain them, but torrents are key. Demonoid.me is probably the best online repository of digitally scanned comics out there, and it's reasonably well curated. There may or may not be a livejournal community dedicated to these efforts as well, but I'm not going to publically post the name of it.

To manage those files, I really love ComicRack, which pulls down metadata on all your files and organizes everything for you in a really neat fashion. Comical and CDisplay are both programs that allow you to read scanned comic files, in their native formats, on your desktop. ComicBookLover is singlehandedly the best application to organize digitally scanned comics on your iDevice. I'm sure there's a comparable one for Android, but I'm not aware of it.

ComicVine and the Comic Book Database are very helpful resources when you're trying to figure out how to order your new collection, or in what order to read things. Goodreads is actually a pretty solid source for guidance on what to read and in what order as well, as long as you're going by the graphic novel trades.

Scans Daily on DW is a great community of dedicated fans who regularly talk about comics and will provide you with the best education on the hilarity that is comics fandom. Comic Store News is a fandom newsletter that routinely rounds up not only fiction, but pieces of meta and fanworks around comics.

And...that's all I've got. For now, anyway. This really serves to get you all into reading comics; for an introduction to comics as a fandom, and to comics as a fanfiction fandom, I'd need a whole other series of posts and an indication that it would be helpful. Either way, I hope you find something new to read, and that you enjoy comics even a bit as much as I very much do. Thanks!

To Continually Descend
by templemarker

Notes: For xxxholiclover in the dream_holiday Inception holiday ficathon. Thanks to samjohnsson for beta! Happy holidays!

( He smelled like the cigarette he had that morning on the way to the coffee shop, a whiff of espresso mixed with the cologne he favored, a bit like hair wax but mostly like himself.  )

Property Taxes
by templemarker

Notes: Written for indyhat in yagkyas 2010. Upon re-reading this, I got a stitch in my side laughing, so that's a good sign. Ray/Walt, NC-17.

( The day Walt agreed to let Ray move into his house, Ray went and got his ass tattooed with 'Property of Walt Hasser.' )

Hello to people who've come looking for an introduction to Generation Kill! I am very pleased to have incepted you thus far.



Generation Kill fandom is sourced originally from the 2008 HBO miniseries, produced by Ed Burns and David Simon (of The Wire and Homicide: Life on the Street fame) as well as Evan Wright, author of the book Generation Kill which inspired the series, and in turn was developed from a feature article Wright wrote for Rolling Stone in 2003 after his time embedding with a team of men from the 1st Reconnaissance Battalion of the United States Marine Corps.

The miniseries is comprised of seven hour-long episodes and is arguably one of the best contemporary fictional(ish) treatments of the Iraq invasion and subsequent war, and military life during the early period of American warfare in the last decade. While its source material has been subject to some controversy, the general attitude of most towards the miniseries is positive, particularly for its accuracy and detailed perspective on the spring of 2003 in Iraq.

The fandom sprung to life in short order after the miniseries premiered, and slowly grew from a handful of stories in 2008 to a bustling, much-beloved fandom by the miniseries' one year anniversary in 2009. Now, in 2011, it has been disqualified from Yuletide due to its size, and despite the limitations of closed canon the fandom is still enthusiastic and producing wonderful stories.

I personally think it helps to be a fan of the military in general to fall in love with Generation Kill and our erudite, researched fanworks, but that is most certainly not a deal-breaker. My goal here is to give you all the links and material you need to get going, so without further ado:

The generation_kill community is bar none the key linchpin of the fandom; the vast majority of fanworks are located on LJ, but there are some resources available on DW as well. generation_kill has an excellent list of resources once you start jonesing for more. (Most posts in this community are locked, and you need to be a member of the community to view them. I don't think membership is moderated, however, and I promise you it's worth the extra clicks. There's a funny relationship this fandom has with real people--we skirt but don't quite cross the line of RPS, primarily because the miniseries is a fictional rendering of real people. Don't let this deter you. That's why the comm locks things.)

The community periodically hosts a rewatch of the miniseries, and to facilitate that there is a comprehensive resource post specifically devoted to helping you watch this program, though the DVDs are inexpensive on Amazon and are also available on their instant video service. Frustratingly you can't stream it from Netflix, but they do have hard copies in their service. And if none of that works, shoot me a PM and I'll point you in the right direction.

I'm not going to front: this is often not easy to watch, particularly if you're uncomfortable with realistic depictions of violent scenarios. But I can't stress how worth it the program is. There's humour, and there's heartbreak, and it's cinematically gorgeous. The actors were basically put through boot camp by several of the actual Marines they are portraying, and they filmed in Northern Africa to try and render the story as fully and realistically as possible. They did so.

Maureen Ryan at the Chicago Tribune wrote a fantastic overview/review of Generation Kill when it was being aired in July 2008. If you're new to the miniseries, I would suggest reading this alongside watching to help understand what the hell is happening. It is very, very handy.

Once you've seen the miniseries, or before you've seen the miniseries, there are a couple of great books that are must-reads for the fandom (I told you we had a booklist):

"The Killer Elite" by Evan Wright (Rolling Stone 2003); I apologise for the terrible punctuation on this. I'll replace it with a better copy if I come across one. This is the original feature Evan (Reporter) wrote for Rolling Stone, and is a strong, relatively quick introduction to the story we work with.

Generation Kill by Evan Wright; after the feature, the article was optioned into a book. Evan's meticulous note-taking and long embed with Bravo Two offered ample material to flesh out the story from just before the invasion of Iraq in March 2003 to the Battalion's regrouping in late April.

One Bullet Away by Nate Fick; this is Nate's autobiography of his life becoming a Marine, and his version of the story that Evan tells. Nate and Evan became friendly during the course of Evan's embed, and after Nate separated from the USMC they became good friends. Evan helped Nate with the book, though I don't believe Nate needed any help getting it published. It was one of the early (by which I mean pre-2005) memoirs of an active duty officer who had seen action in Afghanistan and Iraq, and holds a place of significance outside of providing more canon for the fangirl machine. (Not that it's relevant or anything.)

All pdf's, for universal use.

The thing is, this is a pretty confusing story, especially if you have limited familiarity with military jargon or, you know, the military and warfare in general. Fandom, especially this fandom and especially the dynamo that is oxoniensis, stepped in to help you there. After Action Report is a comprehensive website to help you figure out what happened when, who the fuck everyone is, and what the hell they said that one time at the bridge.

And so, the fanfiction. There's a lot of it. We've all been writing relentlessly for nearly three years, and the quality of fanworks is staggeringly great. (Have your tissues handy, people, you're going to need them.) alethialia, who holds a somewhat fixed place in my heart due to her epic awesome, has done legwork for you, me, and everyone by putting together a comprehensive GK recs list: Part I | Part II. I believe this was last updated in late 2010, so while there's a lot of wonderful stories that have shown up in the last year, this is an excellent starting point to take you through fandom's greatest hits.

I also encourage you to check out yagkyas, or You Ain't Generation Kill, You Ain't Shit--which is our plucky fandom's annual winter fanwork challenge. We're gearing up for our third year running, but there's a hundred stories in there begging for your attention, and they're all amazing.

Another excellent place where you should read everything is Get Some, a porn skirmish (variation on the Porn Battle but just for GK) that was held in 2009 when the fandom was really hitting a peak. There's some wonderful, hot as shit stories in there in a hundred different combinations (or at least a couple of dozen). I still go there for prompts when I need something to trick me into writing.

And if you want a low bar of entry, first of all, you get a gold star for reading this far (no actual star available), so thank you for that. Here's five stories I unremittingly love; these are not necessarily the most epically best stories in the fandom. They're just the ones I love that I think you'll love too.

Managing Expectations by alethialia -- I mentioned this one on Slash Report, so hopefully you're already keen to read it. Alethia is a smashing writer with a real talent for drawing profound character observations out of a handful of words. This story, though it came out in the past week, reminds me so much of the first heady months of Generation Kill, when everything was still fresh and the fanon hadn't formed. Wonderful.

Rudy's Guide to Auras and Fair Game Play by sparky77 -- It is no secret to anyone who's talked to me for five minutes that I am the most ardent lover of Rudy Reyes ever there was. This story is fucking hilarious, and so spot-on for characterization and voices. I loved this story so much that as soon as I finished it, I asked for permission to podfic it. You can hear me laughing in the podfic. It's tragically amazing.

Patience by kaneko -- Unf, so hot. This is like all the sex possibilities of Brad and Nate rolled into one slice of heat and fire.

Strength and Guile by shoshannagold -- This is really a story about Brad, more than anything, and about fucking with Brad's world, which is one of my favorite things ever. For context, real!Brad's next assignment after returning from Iraq was training Royal Marines in the UK, where they don't have a pesky little thing called Don't Ask Don't Tell. (AND NEITHER DO WE ANYMORE FUCKING FINALLY.)

Just One Life by queeniegalore -- I, quite literally, read this story four times a year. It is permanently placed on my iPad and any other device I could ever happen to be reading on. It is one of the most truthful stories about the person that's left behind in a military relationship I've ever read, and continues to inpire me to write more, and write better. Ray/Walt, fucking wonderful.

Every Marine a Wolfbrother by dira -- Dira has only recently come into GK fandom, but for me, personally, she saved my writing relationship with this fandom. After three years I thought I'd done everything I came to do; but then I read this and learned that I was very, very wrong. Unlike anything else you'll read in this fandom; a magical realism alternate universe that takes military culture and turns it up to eleven, which I did not even know was possible in this fandom.

Okay, that was six, but here's a bonus just because, well. Just becuase.

The Care and Keeping of the Iceman, by Ray Person, Cpl. USMC by romanticalgirl and bijoux -- I actually hurt myself laughing. Best read immediately after the series.

So there you go. Everything you need to start your own love affair with Generation Kill. This is a permanent fandom home for me; I am never very far away. And because no intro post is complete without some form of a plug, here's my mostly up to date contribution to the fandom as well. Comment if you have any questions, or if you just want to capslock your glee at me. Picspams also welcome. Stay frosty, kids.

ETA:

Some picspams for the reference and the pretty and the incepting!

1. The glory of Brad Colbert.
2. Pic by pic introduction of the characters and show.
3. Some gorgeous caps and a lot of the amazing lines in the show.
4. Ugh, I could stare at these all day.
5. Handy Gen Kill walkthrough.

Some recs for additional pairings as well.

Also, Brad was totally scammed by the dragon and the sword:

You know, the most exciting part of Yuletide for me--beyond the general thrill of getting an assignment--is pinch hitting. I love picking up stories in the kind of roulette wheel that is the pinch hit list, writing things I never considered writing before, taking on all new kinds of challenges. I love it, the thrill of chance.

Dear Yuletide Author,

Hello! Thank you so much for doing this and for writing for me. I don't have a lot more to say apart from what I wrote in my signup, but I want to emphasize that I will love a story that you have loved to write. Around the holidays I tend to prefer lighter stories to darker ones, and I will always love a good run at curtainfic, but honestly--the story that inspires you will be the one I like best!

I asked for:

The LXD, which I love love love. The story of Jato and Katana is such a fundamental part of the story but it's never told in full. But anything that explores the backstory, whether of the current League or the previous iteration of the League/OX, that would be great.

Newsflesh--a recent but awesome addition to my interests. There's so much crazy and complex emotional dynamic in there, and anything that explores George, Shaun, and Mahir's relationships would be welcome. Any combination is great, and you should feel free to go from gen to PWP on this.

Threesome is hilarity, and kudos to you for trying to take on the particular humour and manner of the show. If you want to talk about Richie and Alice before they had Mitch, or what it's like after Lily has arrived, that would be great! I'd also, as I mentioned in the assignment, love something that has Mitch stretching his boundaries a bit out of love for Richie. They are awfully physically affectionate with one another, mm?

Finally, Haven! I guess my one angle on this is that I really do prefer Audrey/Duke/Nathan rather than a pairing in this fandom, and I'd generally prefer an established or first time relationship than a gen story. But! Anything that shows them being kind to each other, the ways they take care of each other, would be well loved.

Thank you again!

<3, templemarker

anatsuno has posted the remaining two parts from the long conversation about podfic I mentioned earlier this week! You can find parts two and three over at her journal. We'd love to know what you think--it was a lot of fun to talk about. And while dodificus chimed in as the first to listen all the way thorugh (and thus can claim the easter egg) I will happily honor another couple of them for folks who listen all the way through. (But don't skip to the end! That's cheating.)

While I'd been aware (ha) of pod_aware, I didn't really have any time to contribute to it in the course of last week. But after talking with anatsuno, we thought there was still enough there to have a conversation about podfic--and ended up with nearly three hours of impromptu podcast.

anatsuno took on the journeyman task of editing the thing down into parts, so this is the first of three. This part covers:

• why we podfic, with a long digression into our beginnings as podficcer and about Sabotage, qlskdfgsldjfgh, and Calico’s amazing writing talent.
• blanket permission;
• some general reflections about podfic as an art form as well as a community of practice;

a few rambles here and there.

You can download the MP3 file (25MB) from Dropbox, or stream it here over at anatsuno's journal.

There may or may not be easter eggs at the end of the whole thing. You'll just have to listen and find out. :)

I have two secret santa letters that are woefully overdue. I apologise, people who received me! The life-work balance hasn't been so great, as of late, but I am striving to do better. So, belatedly but with great affection, here's my letters to the recipients of my YAGKYAS and Dresden Ficathon assignments. Thank you to everyone who has signed up for participating in the challenges this year! It means a lot to me as a mod to have so many folks choose to spend their time writing for these challenges.

Dresden Ficathon:

First of all, <3 for signing up for this challenge. I hope you enjoy it, and that it's a fun way to spur on some writing over the next couple of months. I'd be happy with anything--gen, featuring any of the characters I listed, or slash with Harry and John. I'd love a crossover (or a fusion!) with Haven, though you shouldn't feel any pressure to go there. During the holiday season, I gravitate much more towards mellow and happy fic. Angst doesn't comfort me, though if that's where your writing takes you, don't be afraid to go there! Drama is good too. I like humour, and porn, especially porn where the participants are laughing, but I'd be just as happy with a PG rated story as a more explicit one.

I guess what I'm saying, O Delightful Fanperson, is that I want to read the story that you best want to write, and you should feel free to take the liberties you need to accomplish that story. Have fun. Don't stress out! I'm going to love what you do, especially if you love what you do.

<3!

YAGKYAS:

You rock for taking this challenge on! Thank you for participating. See above for all my words about writing to your strengths, what you're interested in, etc. I want to read the story you want to write! That being said, I love Rudy and Pappy, and especially Rudy/Pappy, and I would happily enjoy a gen or slash story that features them both prominently. I also chose Evan (Reporter) as a featured character because, in the forward to RL!Rudy's book, he was so damned fond of Rudy that it came out through the pages. I'd love to read a story that shows how Rudy and Evan kept in touch after the initial embed.

I prefer realism very, very strongly to fantasy in this fandom, but I would be happy with any rating from gen to explicit. If you go the slash route, I like curtainfic and romantic comedy more than the angst and the drama, but you should definitely go where your writing takes you. For the Hawaii 5-0 crossover, feel free to do it however you like--traditional crossover, fusion--but I'd prefer not an AU. I don't really want to see Rudy Reyes play Steve McGarrett, no matter that they both could scale thirty-story buildings with their belts and a stick of gum. I think it would be hilarious to see the Navy SEAL-Recon Marine jokes that could come out of these characters being in the same scene, but use your own best judgement.

In short, I love Rudy Reyes. I'd love it if you could tell me a story about him.

<3!

---

So, Yuletide has still not started up, which I guess is the usual--it always makes me nervous, though, as both a challenge moderator and challenge participant, when the window gets ever narrower on signup to deadline. I feel like you need at least two months to prepare, as a participant, and it seems like Yuletide has gone from three months to two months to six weeks, which is bizarre given the sheer number of participants.

Usually I pick up three or four pinch hits there, too, which is always fun (and manic--gear up, minim_calibre, this is the real reason iMessage was deployed). I'm also pinch hitting for happy_trekmas, which is a trip; I haven't written Star Trek in a couple of years now. And I'm doing dream_holiday, which I feel weirdly uneasy about despite still loving Inception from afar.

If jamponygifts happens again this year, I will be fucking delighted. I want to write Dark Angel again, but I'm not sure I have any stories independent of a prompt for someone else.

I love challenges. They're so...challenging. (Leave me alone, it's far too late for me to be anything but recursive.) What challenges are folks doing this year?