@tateypots Thank you so much for hosting this wonderful Appreciation April! Self-rec can be so hard, and we should do it more, because it's our work and we're allowed to gush about it, feel proud about it, and share it as much as we want to. And yes, all this is a reminder to myself, lol! Because I always struggle with doing this.
The first work I posted? It was in 2024. Gosh! It amazes me that it has been two years since I started writing.
My first fic was "Sunrise." It's a drabble, with no specific Pedro boy and a gn-reader. It all came out of a whim. It came out, as I've said before, as a reaction to a fat-shaming anon a moot received. I remember writing it in a rush and posting before I could talk myself out of sharing, wanting for anyone who read it to feel good about their bodies, especially with all the beauty standards we keep being pressured into in our daily lives.
The support I got blew my mind! And despite a part of me wanting to take it down, because if I read it, I cringe at the mistakes I made, the other part of me, the bigger one, is really proud of it, of putting myself out there and discovering that I can write, that it's something I enjoy, that is something I have gotten better since I started writing, even if I don't see myself being one of those writers that write stories of 100k words. It's a story that will always be very dear to me, because it also helped me connect more with people around here and start making proper friendships, and find people to share my writing process with.🥹♥️
@milla-frenchy @bergamote-catsandbooks @schnarfer @thedilfdiaries @encasedinobsidian @thundermartini love you all so much!♥️
Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers. Let's spread the self-love 💗
Bond Fics
dispatches from the division
I am usually so hesitant OCs because I never think anyone will care, but I was too intrigued by the idea of telling Bond and Q's story through the eyes of other 00s. And lots of people did care!
the right hook
A fic about boxing, hands, worry and superstition. Speaks to my personal kinks, which is why it's on this list.
put me to the test (honey, i'll blow you out the water)
Bond hangs around like a persistent cat while Q does the agent tests. What's not to love?
Inception Fics
I really do write two kinds of fics.
like a hole in the head
Lots of sickfic H/C with some wrangling with guilt and ethics and the problems of Arthur and Eames' profession. Maybe it's recency bias, but I worked so hard on this fic for so long and I'm still so attached to it. A fledgling I am still watching leaving the nest.
what lies beneath
Just guys thinking about their dicks.
Thank you for asking @mswhich <3 I've been feeling rubbish about writing this week, so it was nice to find some pride in my work again.
Rules: Reply with your favorite five fics that you’ve written, then pass on to at least five other writers.
I'm feeling good about my writing after a few weeks of feeling decidedly meh about it, so I'm jumping on this while the mood is right. I'm going with favorite chapters instead of fics, because I've only posted four fics on ao3. One of them happens to be a longfic that 4/5 of my favorite chapters are from: All My Friends Are Sad & Bright (Dragon Age, M, Lucanis/Rook, 108k words) so spoilers abound!
This gets real yappy ok here we go:
#5. All My Friends, Chapter 23
Summary: The Lighthouse Christmas party
Commentary: Maybe it's just because it's that time of year, but this chapter holds a special little place in my heart. All My Friends is the first fic I ever posted and also the first one I ever FINISHED, and at this point in the writing process I was feeling great about how things were wrapping up. This is the second to last chapter of the entire fic, and the last chapter where the whole gang is all together. I needed one last chance to let them all bounce off each other and show that they're all a little better off than when the fic started. Because of love and friendship and shit. Mostly, I was just feeling so good about seeing the finish line. Are there plot points I think I handwaved over or resolved too fast? Yes. Would I tweak a bunch of things if I was doing it all over again? Probably. But this crew was always going to get a happy ending, and, based on the year-in-the-life premise I set out with, I knew it would end at the holidays. This chapter just really screams The Holidays. (Plus it includes the Illario & Caterina Do Schitt's Creek reference that birthed this mini-monstrosity.)
#4. All My Friends, Chapter 13
Summary: Rook and Lucanis do laundry.
Commentary: This chapter is their relationship in a nutshell. So much of this fic is character work. Yes, I put them in Situations, and yes, the Situations are often ridiculous, but where my heart truly lies is in the Normal Shit. Maybe it's an age thing or an introvert thing, but there's nothing I love more than romanticizing the mundane. My writing process for most All My Friends chapters began with thinking about either a specific scene (ie. St. Patty's Day Party) or a specific emotion I wanted to evoke in the reader. Here, it was emotion. This chapter comes after some big group moments and big feelings (not to mention their first kiss!), and I knew we needed a calmer beat before shit really hit the fan in the next few chapters. So it's just about them being together. It's soft and sweet and a little melancholy. Also Shale is there.
#3. All My Friends, Chapter 18
Summary: Lucanis goes to see Rook at the hospital after an accident.
Commentary: This is the only Lucanis POV chapter in All My Friends, and one of the only longterm plot beats I planned from the beginning. I'm really proud of the distinct shift in character voice, after being in Rook's goofy head for so long, and for the tonal whiplash of plunging into this POV after the cliffhanger ending of the previous chapter. I feel like I actually flexed some serious writing muscles here for the first time, instead of fucking around for fun like I had been for most of the fic. It was also a great exercise in restraint; up until this point, we only know about Lucanis from what Rook observes and what he tells her, and I really had to fight the urge to infodump all the backstory shit I'd made up for him. I also really like that the very first thought in his head when we do finally get into his POV is about Rook. Because he's basically always thinking about her. Really patted myself on the back for that one:
Other things, less quantifiable but just as important: her laugh is his favorite sound, her tattoo of a smiley face is over a very ticklish spot on her ribs, she has a faint Southern accent that only comes out after she’s been drinking, she buys her cat better food than she buys herself, she loves music but can’t sing. She pretends not to be sad.
Lucanis has never been good at pretending. Avoiding, deflecting, ignoring, yes. But not pretending.
#2. All My Friends, Chapter 6
Summary: Lucanis teaches Rook how to make tiramisu.
Commentary: This is the first chapter where Rook and Lucanis intentionally hang out solo. The first time she sees his apartment. Lots of firsts here, and I think I nailed the fine relationship line between "I like my new friend this is great" and "Oh no I might be attracted to this person?" It also contains some of my favorite banter:
“Holy shit, I might steal this.”
“It’s pretty heavy, I don’t know how far you’d get.”
“The adrenaline rush would power me through it, like when a mom lifts up a car to save her baby.”
He opens up a vacuum sealed container of coffee beans and grabs a scale.
“So in this analogy, you’re the mom, the espresso machine is your baby, and I’m…the car?”
Rook thinks about it for a second. “No, I think the espresso
machine is the car. And also the baby?”
“And I’m just an innocent bystander?”
“Well I’m stealing your baby, so maybe not.”
“The espresso machine is our baby?”
One of my favorite things to do with these two (and with two characters in general) is to get them to a point where I can have them banter back and forth about something dumb with no dialogue tags. I think of it as Gilmore Girls writing. (My number one favorite banter between these two is in Chapter 5, about nuns wearing jeans.)
#1. The World As We Know It, Chapter 1 (Dragon Age, M, Lucanis & Illario, 20k words so far)
Summary: If Illario knew the world was about to end, he wouldn’t have gone to check up on Lucanis. He would’ve sped through every red light on the way to his ex-girlfriend’s so he could at least get laid a few times before the Denerim Flu took out 99% of the world’s population. If Lucanis knew the world was about to end, he wouldn’t have let Illario into his condo. He would’ve given up wrestling with his inner demons and done enough drugs to kill a small horse. One of those Li’l Sebastians.
But neither of them knew, and now they’re stuck together. They survived the end of the world, but they might not survive each other.
Commentary: This is, I think, the best thing I've ever written, and also the hardest sell to a random reader. It's a modern au, it's gen, there are no ships, and it's mostly about making two of the most adored Veilguard characters kind of detestable. AND YET. The pacing is as close to flawless as I'll ever get. The character voices are on point. Every word is exactly right. The split POV, the mirroring beginning and ending sentences...the vision I had for the chapter in my head was fully realized on the page, which almost never happens for me. I knew what parts of Illario and Lucanis I wanted to focus on, and I knew I wanted them to be pathetic and horrible and relatable. In a way, it's similar to All My Friends in its sheer normalcy. The little details are where all the truth nuggets lie: Illario drinking vodka sodas and being on Grindr, Lucanis cooking steak and eggs and loving The Princess Bride, etc etc etc. Unlike All My Friends, (whose Chapter 1 I like but don't love) this fic's ending will be a lot more bitter than sweet.
Well, thanks for reading, friends! Tagging @dags-over-caravans, @adejareve (in 12-18 business days), @blightwashed, @slothquisitor, @gloaminghagette, @genjyoandgojyoandhakkai, @gatesofminrathous, @thewyvernrising, @cravingcoconutredbull and anyone else who managed to make it this far and feels like doing some not-so-humble-bragging.
On a late night call with Pen, Colin confesses how low he's been really feeling — compelling her to tell him how loved he is. Now Colin must confront his real feelings for his best friend, whilst also learning some new things about himself.
A love story, one RED album song at a time. (now complete)
Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers. Let’s spread the self-love 💗
Hiii thank you for sending this! I have been thinking about how to answer it all week because I have *checks both ao3 accounts* 129 fics. I posted my first fic to ao3 in January 2022, which puts me in the fifth year of writing fic. 2026 is yet young, so I've picked one per year and 2 for my most prolific year.
2022
38 works
HEARKEN STILL UNSATED (Daeron/Maglor, M)
The harp’s clear music resounds against the ceiling. Daeron is afraid to open his eyes, for the warmth that pools inside him with each spill of sound presages what he might see there. So his memory would betray him even here, in the very heart of this fenced and guarded realm, in the presence of that holy instrument.
His eyes are open. There, upon the stool of the Queen, Maglor sits. His fingers, as solid and real as those that once deftly braided Daeron’s hair with vines, dance across the strings. The golden light still shines, even brighter than before. Daeron burns.
He shrouds himself in the blackness of his anger. “No,” he says. “It is not you. No Child of Eru can play upon that instrument, you least of all.”
This was the work of my heart. It's a love letter to Daeron, Maglor, and Tolkien. I would say, "I'd write it differently now," but, truthfully, I wouldn't write it at all now. And that would be a shame, because it's a special fic. Ambitious as hell and unapologetically romantic. A major turning point in my writing journey, when I really started to think about craft and find my voice.
“Are you sure– are you absolutely sure we have been released? Not just pardoned – released? Even though we swore by the One beyond the Circles of the World?”
“I am pretty sure,” Eärendil said, sounding unsure. “That is what Manwë said, in any case, and he talks to Ilúvatar, doesn’t he?”
Maedhros’ gut lurched. “Wait – he does?”
“Yes, or that’s what I’ve heard anyway.”
“You realise,” Maedhros said, head spinning, “that if I have indeed been released, if it was possible for us to be released, that everything I did was for nothing?”
“Hm,” said Eärendil, pausing to think for once. “I had not considered that.” He brought a finger to his lips. “Although – if you had not sacked Sirion, Elwing would not have ended up in the Sea with the Silmaril, and she would not have come to me, and I would not have come to the Enchanted Isles and escaped their enchantment, or come to the Shadowy Seas and passed their shadows, or landed, first of living Men, on immortal shores*– and so really, what you did was terrible and bad but not for nothing. You see?”
“Hrmph,” Maedhros answered, and rubbed his temples.
I launched 2023 with this unhinged sex comedy/meta on the oath of Feanor. Another turning point in my writing journey: when I realised writing could be a horny hoot.
2. IF YOU ARE THE HEALER (Maedhros/Maglor, E)
Maglor speaks, and his breath slowly fills the shell of Maedhros’ ear.
He says, "You have chosen to make Ñolofinwë king, and I will not speak against you. But I cannot ever imagine anyone but you as my king. Not before, and not now. I will bow to our uncle, I will perform whatever is expected of me, but in my heart I will only ever call you king. Forgive me, my liege, for I can do no other.”
The profession of devotion pours into a hollow space that Maedhros did not even know was there. It rises up into his chest, stops his throat, and builds behind his eyes. Maglor’s body beside him is a bed of coals grown too hot, and when Maglor rubs a thumb over his palm, Maedhros’ thoughts thicken and stop.
I spent several months poking at this one-shot. I wanted to see if I could convince myself of this ship. I sure did.
2024
17 works
TWO HALF-KINGS AND FULL LAKE BETWEEN (Fingolfin & Maglor, M)
co-authored with @melestasflight
‘Do you mean to kill me?’ Celegorm asks, slamming Maglor’s face to the ground.
Maglor’s mouth fills with the dry, bitter taste of dirt. ‘If I must,’ Maglor grits between his teeth. He spits dirt and finds it thickened with blood. Celegorm hisses with laughter. He has him pinned, straddling his back. Maglor cannot move.
‘You could never,’ Celegorm taunts, his breath hot in Maglor’s ear. ‘You are a poet, brother, not a warrior. Keep to your place, a lord of the dark elves who love you for your songs, and I will keep to mine. Do you know why these soldiers follow me? They love me for my strength. As our father did. And he made me commander, Canafinwë, not you. Not Maitimo. Do not forget that.’
Some magic happened when Melesta and I decided to write this for Epistolary Week. A few letters between kings exploded into Finwean drama of the highest order. We both still occasionally gape at what we pulled off.
2025
13 works
AND LOVE GREW (Elrond & Elros & Maglor, M)
Elrond pulled his knees up, folding his body into a ball, and shook. His tears were hot and uncomfortable and his stomach clenched with every sob. Why couldn’t he be brave! Mama was brave, Papa was brave. Beren and Lúthien had been the bravest of all, and they were his forebears. Even Gwereth was brave, wasn’t she? At that thought, a memory lit up of Gwereth holding a rod of metal, fending off an enemy. Who was it? Where had they been? He sifted through his tattered memories, looking for the face of the enemy, some clue about where they were, but it was just Gwereth, bravely defending them.
While he still had his head buried between his knees, an arm wrapped around him. Maglor scooped him up; instinctively, Elrond clung to his shoulder. Almost at once his head nodded, he drifted to sleep with a blur of questions floating around in his mind: Why had Maglor taken them into his care? Why was he so kind to them? What business did an elf-warrior have with him and Elros? Mama was gone, and Papa was away at sea. They needed someone, but Maglor was a stranger. He need not have burdened himself with them.
They would bring danger to those who harboured them, Maglor had said. Maybe no one wanted them. Why would Maglor want them?
What would he do when danger came?
If Hearken Still Unsated was the work of my heart, this was the work of my head. Not to say it isn't an emotional work (boy is it ever, and it was exhausting to write), but the amount of thought behind this fic is way, way beyond anything else I've ever written, including my Master's thesis. I don't think I'll ever do it again, but I'm proud of the fact I did.
Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers (or not. you can do whatever). Let’s spread the self-love 💖
❤️❤️❤️
Listen to Your Instincts (They Might Have Something Interesting to Say) - Stetopher | 26.4k | Complete | Explicit
Peter Hale's Wooing Woes - Steter | 19.4k | In-Progress | Teen
The Secrets of the Fox - Steter | 18.5k | In-Progress | Teen
It's been a while since I tootled my little trumpet and I'm having a bit of a week, so herewith, Things I'm Proud Of, A Retrospective:
[PODFIC] The Death of Anklebones -- Rubynye wrote a truly lovely piece inspired by an ancient Kazakhstani archaeological find, about a hardcore gamer girl, and I loved every minute of recording it.
Ancient History, Gen, Major Character Death, approx 13 minutes, podfic here, original fic here
[FIC and PODFIC And set them as a banner -- A post-Reboot mostly-retirement fic for Zhang Qiling and Wu Xie, mostly focussed on the one reading the other's journal, with all the grand events and the details of mundane life mixed in, and works through feelings about companionship and desire while he's at it.
Daomu Biji, M/M, T, Slice of Life, approx 50 minutes/7k, fic here, podfic here
[FIC] The Beauty of Hangzhou -- A kid-fic for Wu Xie, Xie Yuchen, and Huo Xiuxiu, with a side of The Parents. I did so much research to get the pretend archaeology parts reasonable, You Have No Idea. And it still delights me to reread it.
Daomu Biji, Gen, Kid-fic, Humour, approx 1.5k, fic here
[SERIES] Love and Other Disasters -- some shorts set before-and-during the Beeb Musketeers series of 2014, mostly regarding Aramis and Athos's failboaty encounters, but also Aramis and Adele Bessett having a lovely time which will lead to no consequences whatsoever. I'm weak for tenderness, okay?
The Musketeers, mostly T, Aramis/&Athos, Aramis/&Adele, entries <1k, entire series here
[FIC and PODFIC] Stolen -- A short-short written after the big night-time conversation where Wei Zheng has been rescued, and is prepared to divulge interesting facts about the 12-year-old disaster while editing out things Not Relevant To Jingyan... and Jingyan steals back afterwards and sees more than he's quite ready for. Every now and then I get to write something that's almost a poem, and this feels like one of them.
Nirvana in Fire, M/M, T, <1k, fic and podfic here
[FIC and PODFIC] The Thing with Feathers -- Genderbent version of Eros and Psyche, as told before the endings is known. Eros and Psyche is a story that fascinates me, and I like what I did with it here, including the narrator's.... poetic-but-dispassionate retelling of what she knows. This was also part of a group of ten loosely linked stories, if you want to see what else I was writing.
Eros and Psyche, F/F, T, <1k <10 minutes, fic and podfic here
[FIC] Drinkin' Down the 'Dush -- Imoen and Sarevok friendship fic! Friendship with knives, but undoubtedly friendship! Written for a long ago Yuletide, and oh, the nostalgia...
Growing Up by Jancys_Blue_Bayou (@jancys-blue-bayou)
Rating: T
Warnings: Child abuse
Relationship(s): Jonathan & Joyce, Jonathan & Will, Jonathan/Nancy, Jonathan & Lonnie
Summary: A series of scenes of Jonathan through the years growing up in Hawkins.
Genre: Character study/fluff/angst/drama
Recommendation: My most Jonathan-centred recent fic.
Additional notes: Please check out all my fics bc they’re literally all Jancy fics and all feature both of them heavily, the POV shifts. Also heavily featuring Byers fam as a whole. And Jonathan with the Party. Ratings G to E, everything from fluff, smut, angst, drama etc. Some canon compliant some canon divergence some AU.
