Stories for a winter's night

Day 3

In your own space, post a rec for at least three fanworks that you did not create. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so. See if you can rec fanworks that are less likely to be praised: tiny fandoms, rare pairings, fanworks other than stories, lesser-known kinks or tropes. Find fanworks that have few to no comments, or creators new to a particular fandom who maybe aren't well known or appreciated. Appreciate them.


1. Don't Say Forever by Ayngelcat. -- This is a wonderful little Smokescreen/Swindle story, a little moment in time glimpse at the scene where Swindle is about to go into the Decepticon mind prison and their final good byes. Yes it's sad, but there are so few Smokescreen/Swindle stories out there, and this is one of the best, in my opinion.

2. Where Wise Mechs Fear To Tread by Exactlywhat. This is an interesting story telling a tale that is a combination of G1 and Bayverse wherein a newly minted Prime seeks out new soldiers and finds himself at Sentinel Prime's old banishment colony - a small, backwater moon designed to house those Autobots that the Brass wanted to forget about. There is also the companion piece, When Wise Mechs Are Banished, to check out. It's a series of shorts providing background as to why all the mechs at the 84G1-07MVE-VR5E Base were banished in the first place.

3. Make Love Not War and Swindled by Ultharkitty -- These two stories aren't done yet, but they are coming along nicely and are telling a great Vortex/Smokescreen/Swindle story as well as one of the most interesting End of the War tales that I've seen. The Combaticons put an end to the war by taking out the Decepticon command element and they offer peace to the Autobots. That peace seems to be coming with a price, and all the while Smokescreen is busy dealing with the various skeletons in his closet. "Make Love Not War" is the main story and "Swindled" is a side story. Kind of. Seriously, if you haven't read these, go check them out. Or, really, anything by Ultharkitty.

4. In Another's Shoes by Splinter -- This one, sadly, is not done yet, and with a year between updates, I'm not holding out a lot of hope. Still though this story is worth the read, even if it kind of peters out at the end. The plot is simple; Splinter gets sick and tired of the boys always fighting so he forces them to spend time in the roles of their brothers. Leo is now with wisecracking slacker, Raph needs to act as the tech wizard, Mikey is in charge, and Donnie is the rebel. The writing is good and the characterizations are spot on. Seriously. Sadly, FFNet has done it's normal thing and the formatting is a bit shaky in some areas. Please be warned.



Now I'm trying to keep to the spirit of the challenge and only reccing fics that appear to be lesser known or don't seem to be getting much needed love. That being said, I want to add a special mention.

5. Anything by Scifigrl47 but specifically Some Things Shouldn't Be A Chore. Now she is clearly a known-in-fandom author, often getting hundreds of reviews on 4 chapter stories and having her works turned into podfics and translated into multiple languages; so she doesn't really fit with the spirit of the challenge, but since she writes Avengers fics, I thought that maybe the TF and TMNT fans may not have seen her stuff. Her writing is wonderful, the dialogue is smooth and natural, and the relationships are totally believable (even to the point of managing a tension between Pepper and Captain America after Tony and Steve hook up without it devolving into Pepper-bashing).

I promised myself that this year would be different and that this year I would change things. Part of that promise to myself is that I would be less hard on me. I need to get out of my shell and stop hiding. The more I hide, the louder the voices get and the harder it gets to break out. ... yes, I'm probably mildly depressed. It runs in the family and I'm sure I have it too, but I think that if I can get out there and be with others, well, then maybe I can brighten things up for myself.

To that end, I'm trying the Snowflake Challenge this year. I need to allow myself to believe that my work isn't all crap and that a ton of reviews is not the be all and end all of writing. I write because I want to, because I have a story to tell; not because I want fame or notoriety.

We all have a story to tell, be that through writing, or music, or baking, or whatever. We need to get out there and let ourselves be known and open ourselves up to the world. So, here I go ...




Day One

In your own space, post a rec for at least three fanworks that you have created. It can be your favorite fanworks that you've created, or fanworks you feel no one ever saw, or fanworks you say would define you as a creator. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

So, as hinted at above, this is hard for me, but here goes:

I am particularly proud of The Polyhex Candidate. It's not done yet, but I will be finishing it this year.

My personal favourite is still Plague of Need. I find myself going back and re-reading this one periodically and contemplating a sequel to it.

And then there's Forced Fit. I don't have a lot of TMNT fics, but I plan to change that this year. This one is my favourite of the few I've written and I'm going to be coming back to my Tales of Don stories this year.