What to read between Friday ITL Postings?

[Mountie]

OK I have checked around and looked for an Online Stories to Read topic and I can not find one.

I have read everything on matthewhadlemantime.com and was making my way through Living matthewtime.com but the site is currently down.

I have read and enjoyed SilverMoon28 aka Vani's HP fanfic.

I have a list of free online reads that you all may want to peruse while waiting for our Friday installments of ITL. 

You show me yours I'l show you mine?

[CourtneyLee]

I've heard good things about London Calling.

There's the always amazing Special Forces, which I'm not sure I'll ever reread because my chest gets tight and my palms sweat just thinking about it. It's such a roller coster and I don't know if I can start from the dark, horrifying crime and torture in the beginning to the giddy, effervescent, ultimately stisfying happiness of the ending. I'm incredibly happy that I read it once, but doing it again may be beyond my emotional reserves. Fucking brilliant piece of work, though. Egads. 

Then there is the treasure trove of Gay Authors, but you have to sift through a lot of chaff to get the wheat, especially if you're like me and like pure fiction, not slash fanfic. One I utterly adored was Gabriel Morgan's Stonegate Staable, but for the love of all that's holy, if you want the HEA to be preserved in your mind as going on for eternity, DON'T READ THE EPILOGUE.

Other than that, I got nuthin'. 

[Dena]

If you're looking for slash original fic, then check out the_slash_pile over at livejournal has a lot of good links.  (http://community.livejournal.com/the_slash_pile/).  It's going to be spotty, since it's a rec comm, and a lot of people have different tastes, but I've found some great stories to follow there.  Some of my favorites are Twisted Hilarity (http://twistedhilarity.com/), and Captive Prince (http://freece.livejournal.com/).  I also really loved The Godeaters (http://chartreuse.studiowhippingboy.com/g_e_index.html), which is available in print but can be read free online too.  The Godeaters is finished, but he's got quite a few other WIP projects that are all good and quirky too.

If you're looking for more fanfic type things, you can always check out the crack_van (http://community.livejournal.com/crack_van/), which has a bunch of different "drivers", so you get a wide range of fic.  There's also Unfitforsociety Recs (http://unfitforsociety.livejournal.com/) which is all one writer's rec, so you either like the kind of things she does, or you don't. 

I don't know what fandoms you like, so I can't be much more specific.  And I'm hardly on the same level, but have a pimp to my fiction journal as well!  Dream_Country (http://dream-country.insanejournal.com/).  I'm in the process of moving everything from there over to the AO3, but haven't finished yet.

And for published fiction - At Swim:  Two Boys was really very good.  For lighter, more fantasy fare Mercedes Lackey has a number of gay and lesbian characters in her Valdemar series. 

[CourtneyLee]

Here's a question for you, Dena: how much of it is HEA romance and not just erotica? 'Cause manlove is all fine and good for me until breakups, betrayals, and death ruin my fun. I'm a happy ending addict.

[Dena]

Twisted Hilarity is generally pretty fluffy with happily ever afters, even if it takes a while to get there.  Captive Prince doesn't actually have a lot of sex in it - it's a lot of plot and character development, and very political, and fairly dark.  On The Slash Pile, generally there's a lot of all kinds,  you just have to read the summaries/recs to sort through the kind of thing you want - you can use the tags and memories to navigate.  The Godeaters is pretty dark, and while it has a generally happy ending, it's not very fluffy at all.

The same goes for the fic recs - quality and content vary widely, so you have to just scan for what you want.

Not all of it is actually erotica either.  There's a lot of stories I've read or follow that are slashy but not at all explicit.

[CourtneyLee]

I'm reading Twisted Hilarity's stuff right now (read all the shorts and just started Captive Prince) and I'm enjoying it a lot. I'm completely okay with angst, drama, darkness, and a fantastic story and I'm also okay with not a lot of sex. One of my favorite MM novels has almost no explicit sex in it, actually (Tigers and Devils by Sean Kennedy at Dreamspinner Press--excellent book). I just don't want to read a story about a relationship that ends up failing. That totally harshes my mellow. Love loses in real life a lot, so when I read fiction, I want love to conquer, to survive, to win the day.

Question: when you say "slash" or "slashy", what do you mean, precisely? The way I know it is "slash fiction" and I thought the term was only used to denote gay fanfiction about a pairing between characters who aren't gay in the story of origin, like Harry/Malfoy stories. Or Batman/Robin. Recently I've been hearing the term "slash" used in other contexts, though, that never made it clear what "slash" is refering to even though I got the impression it wasn't refering to fanfic. So now I'm all 

I'm not really a fan of fanfic in general and I have intellectual issues with imposing a different sexual orientation on people/characters (I don't think it's wrong, I just don't read or get involved in it) so when someone says a story is slash fiction, it's a gauranteed way to make me run in the other direction. But if they're simply using the word "slash" when they mean MM, then I'll be interested.   

[LilacMajesty]

Personally, I'm completely absorbed with the Kradam pairing.  (Adam Lambert and Kris Allen)  The best place to find those fics is a Live Journal community called Kradam AI.  And yeah, I know several of you said you weren't into fan fiction - but what can I say?  Its all Matthew's fault!

[anaskee]

The only fandom I'm with is the Queer As Folk fandom and I usually go to Live Journal for that.  Lots of amazing fanfiction in there.

If you like Special Forces, you'll like The Administration by Manna Francis.  All the stories are online and free and can be found here: http://www.mannazone.org/zone/admin/index.html

One of my favorites series in LJ was written by Brian Hennessey called Gone.  This one made me cry but has a happy ending.  You can find the beginning here:  http://big-brian-o.livejournal.com/2006/11/05/

[Dena]

Slash generally did refer to fanfiction, but it's something of a catchall term to denote m/m stories these days, or at least as I've seen it.  It can also be used to talk about fic where the canon characters are gay, so it doesn't necessarily always denote interpreting sexuality differently.  Captive Prince I will warn you IS a WiP, and I honestly have no idea how the relationship will work out, so proceed with caution if that truly bothers you. 

I was a fan of the series, anaskee, but can't say I ever read much fanfiction for it.  I remember seeing the refrigerator grocery list fic when it was going around the rec comms though, and loving it.  And "Brian Kinney Saves the World", which was hilarious.

And I've never read any real-people type fic, but I know Adam Lambert pairings have eaten half of my f-list on LJ.  lol.  They seem very popular.

[CorsonBrenn]

You could try Tickie Stories at: http://tickiestories.us/Main.htm

I've read many of the stories by E. Walk, Etienne, Hankster, Scotty, Tickie & Tom Bordan.

They are pretty good, I've read some of the other authors on there too, but I can't remember all of them.

There is also CryBoy at: http://www.crvboy.org/

I am currently reading stories by Jeff Allen on here. I've so far read "When Love Comes" and am half way through "Love of a Lifetime", and I am loving them so far. "Finding Family" also continues on with these two stories, but obviously I haven't started it yet. I haven't read any other authors on here, so can't recommend any others.

I am sure that you all probably know aboui the Nifty Archive at: http://eu.nifty.org/nifty/gay/

Unfortunately you have to sift through many of the stories to find the good ones. Personally I like the stories by RimPig on here, otherwise known as the author Bobby Michaels. His are really good.

That's all I can think of at the moment, sorry. If I think of any others I'll let you know. 

Corson

[anaskee]

I was a fan of the series, anaskee, but can't say I ever read much fanfiction for it.  I remember seeing the refrigerator grocery list fic when it was going around the rec comms though, and loving it.  And "Brian Kinney Saves the World", which was hilarious.

Dena, I'm a recovering fanfic addict  and my supplier is www.queereyes.net.  Valerie, who wrote "Brian Kinney Saves The World" also wrote "Blissed," the funniest short fic I've read.  Few of my favorite fanfic writers are Plumsuede, Luceononuro, and Just Visiting for writing "A Matter Of Time."  For absolute hotness, I like TriciaQAF and Burnitbackwards.

[Susanne]

 I know some of you said you don't care for "slash fiction" but I do have a few authors that are amazing writers and even have had some of there work published, but they do write RPS mostly of "famous" hot , sexy actors 

But there writing is fantastic !! They would be second best in my opinion to Matthew, Matthew by far is the best, anyone who can come up with 8 wonderful, sexy, smart, funny siblings with different color hair and eyes and a whole new world and new languages and countries has got to have the most outstanding imagination and intelligence.

Theres "legomyarrow" which you can find her on LJ unfortunate the one amazing series of her I would recommend she had published so it is no longer on her LJ is called "The Archer."  She does have a lot of other really great stories to offer still on her LJ if you do click on a story and it doesn't come up then that was probley one of her stories that got published.


"Greymist", now she has been missing in action for sometime but her stories are on the site called Mirrormere...  Silverbloom.net another amazing writer I would highly recommend "The Dark Dream Series" they go in this order:

Keep it secret, Keep it safe --- Ghost Rider --- Cost of Passage

Absolutely amazing !!!  You can also find some of her work on the same site collaborating with another writer it would be under Greymist & Ara I would recommend (and read in this order):

Cost of Friendship --- Success can kill

There's also a couple of other good writers you can find on LJ  "Doylebaby" and "lirel1810"

Liz can back me up on a few of these, I know she has enjoyed them to.  Hope you all check them out and enjoy.

[LilacMajesty]

I'll back you up on everyone but Doylebaby.  lol

[CourtneyLee]

The author that published "The Archer"...did she publish it at Dreamspinner? About six secret agents who have to work together to find the Archer, but the Archer is one of them? If so, I have that book and it's fantastic. 

[Susanne]

The author that published "The Archer"...did she publish it at Dreamspinner? About six secret agents who have to work together to find the Archer, but the Archer is one of them? If so, I have that book and it's fantastic. 

That does sound like it    I think her name is Amanda? Before she had it published and had to change the characters she used Sean Bean, Orlando Bloom, Eric Bana, Karl Urban, Viggo Mortenson, David Wenham and a few others I loved it !!

[Susanne]

I'll back you up on everyone but Doylebaby.  lol

Well I like her writting 

[CourtneyLee]

The author that published "The Archer"...did she publish it at Dreamspinner? About six secret agents who have to work together to find the Archer, but the Archer is one of them? If so, I have that book and it's fantastic. 

That does sound like it    I think her name is Amanda? Before she had it published and had to change the characters she used Sean Bean, Orlando Bloom, Eric Bana, Karl Urban, Viggo Mortenson, David Wenham and a few others I loved it !!

Cool! The author name she used (don't know if it's a pseudonym or not) is Abigail Roux. She's written several excellent books with other writers, one of which is one of my favorite MM books of all time, Caught Running with Madeleine Urban.

Sean, Orlando, Eric, Karl, Viggo, and David would not be kicked out of my bed for eating crackers, that's for sure.

[Susanne]

Cool! The author name she used (don't know if it's a pseudonym or not) is Abigail Roux. She's written several excellent books with other writers, one of which is one of my favorite MM books of all time, Caught Running with Madeleine Urban.

Sean, Orlando, Eric, Karl, Viggo, and David would not be kicked out of my bed for eating crackers, that's for sure.


Yes that's her !!  I must be thinking of a totally diffrent author....lol  I also read Caught Running before she had it published, that was a Viggo/Orlando story with a bit of Eric/Karl and a few others 

Sean Bean....~~~~dreamy land ~~~~  ...hehehe

[CourtneyLee]

So she used the names and faces of Viggo/Orlando and made them gay high school baseball coaches? Not that I can't see the appeal, of course, given that they are scorching hot, but I don't think I'll ever be able to get past the fact that when they're being called Viggo and Orlando, they're straight actors. At least, not enough to enjoy the story as much as I'd want to.

Now if they made a movie of it and Viggo and Orlando were the actors... Though I'd rather pair Eric Bana with David Wenham. Orlando is too damn pretty and Viggo is too rugged. Because of that, I'll have to keep him for myself. 

[anaskee]

Hey, I have "The Archer" but I haven't read it yet.  I have about 100 ebooks I haven't read yet but I'll put The Archer at the top of my list.  This topic just made my list of "Stuff To Read" longer.