#notuslethe

[queercore-curriculum]

The Silver Gleam of Trees by NotusLethe, illustrated by Stan Stanley/ @snakewife

My contribution to the 2021 Rusty Quill Big Bang! Binding, graphic design, and layout by me. Linocut for the cover designed by Stan Stanley, carved and printed by me. Bound in custom silk dupioni and linen bookcloth, moiré endpapers, and hand-dyed linen thread using a blackstitch binding technique I developed for this project. 

Getting to work with these two unimaginably talented artists has been an absolute privilege. The Silver Gleam of Trees is an epic, utterly brilliant daemon AU that takes the RQG characters to places I could never even imagine. Beautifully written and wildly creative—it’s truly an extraordinary accomplishment, and I can’t recommend it enough! And Stan, I’m such a huge fan of yours, and getting to print your work in one of my bindings is a total dream come true. 

Thanks so much to @pilesofnonsense​ for all your work on this incredible event. It’s been a blast, and I couldn’t be prouder of what we created together. 

More pics below the cut!

My favorite section breaks I’ve ever made!

Perfectly fills out my Rusty Quill ficbinding shelf <3

[swissmissficrecs]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Word count: 18,227 Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms, Enola Holmes (Movies) Rating: Explicit Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Sherlock Holmes/John Watson, Enola Holmes/Viscount "Tewky" Tewksbury, Enola Holmes & John Watson, Enola Holmes & Sherlock Holmes Characters: Sherlock Holmes, John Watson, Enola Holmes Additional Tags: Victorian Sherlock Holmes/John Watson, well as victorian as enola homes is, Anal Sex, Rimming, Oral Sex, Enola befriends everyone, Competent John Watson, homoerotic wrestling, Domestic, Holmes' Black Moods, Victorian Medicine, Period-Typical Homophobia, Sort Of, Teasing, Medical Procedures, Fluff, First Time, Getting Together Summary:

Over the years, John Watson gets to know his new flatmate, Sherlock Holmes, and the man's clever ward.

***

"Would you mind, ah, telling me about one of your cases? I haven't had a mind to know what's happening in the world, and I would like to hear about your accomplishments." To Watson's surprise, for what little he knew he didn't think Holmes would be one to succumb to more tender emotions, the man flushes red in his cheeks and along his ears. He clears his throat. "I am not much of a storyteller." "That's alright. I've a good imagination and I'm very keen on asking questions."

======

Rec: This is the first Enola Holmes-verse fic I’ve read, and it was very enjoyable. The focus is on Holmes and Watson, with Enola making a few key appearances. Since we know basically nothing about Watson in this adaptation, the scope for interpretation is wide open, and I really liked the direction it was taken here. He’s strong, smart, and self-assured and handles Holmes well. He also has a secret or two that, if you read very closely, you may just figure out before Holmes does.

One thing I particularly liked was the framework of the narrative threaded across a series of loosely connected scenes: they seem at first to depict random moments in the lives of the two flatmates, but on closer inspection, they turn out to be the trellis through which the vine of Holmes and Watson’s bond weaves, growing until it blossoms into a thing of mature beauty.