A friend and coworker of mine has a short story being offered for free on Amazon this weekend:

The Undertaker's Bride

Folklore, witches, and zombies :D. She and I have a mutual writing support thing going, so if it sounds like your thing, check it out!

Here's the story I wrote for prillalar for our second annual sekrit story exchange - I've been wanting to write for this fandom FOREVER. It has three of my favorite things: soccer, pretty boys, and angsty backstory. Did I mention soccer? Feel free to ask me "What the hell is Giant Killing?" and I will try to pimp you into it!

Title: Prodigal Son
Fandom: Giant Killing
Wordcount: 2000
Notes: For prillalar!
Summary: They have a lot to work out :).

( Prodigal Son )

I wish they were more searchable, but I couldn't face posting them all individually and tagging the genre keywords. They're organized by author, on a (mostly) sliding scale of kink from light to heavy. I have a set of unpublished/free recs (not very long at the moment) and a longer set of published recs.

A few words:

- I read a wide variety of kink, so you will find that reflected here. A lot of these are romance, some have external plot elements, some are purely about the kink. I like power dynamics, good writing, interesting and unique characters, and satisfying sex.

- Everything I've included here I think is worth checking out, but some are particular favorites, so I've marked them out as Recommended. I've included caveats where I thought appropriate.

- All the links for the published work go to their Goodreads page, where there are links to purchase at your site of choice.

- Summaries are taken from what the author/publisher provided.

- The only warnings I've given are for physical violence (sexual or otherwise and consensual or otherwise) and for anything I found emotionally disturbing (obviously subjective, so feel free to ask me for specifics). The Goodreads page has additional warnings.

- My kink levels are light, medium, and heavy. Light for me is explicit sex without props; medium is explicit sex with the use of toys and pain in an erotic/playful way; heavy is explicit sex with elements of sexual violence and dubious consent. This is not a perfect scale, so there may be overlap, and your assessment may be different from mine. You are welcome to ask me for specifics on a story.

- I've given genre keywords for each story; I think they are mostly self-explanatory, but feel free to ask me about any of them.

I think that's it. Enjoy!

( On to the recs )

Hello, hello :). I have stuff to say and pictures to share - I went to Istanbul! It was amazing! I also have lots of original m/m recs to share, because it's pretty much all I've been reading since spring, and my Kindle tells me I'm up to 91. I should buy stock. And! I'm visiting prillalar and laurashapiro in a week, which makes me gleeful beyond words.

In other words, I've been doing stuff that I want to share, but right now I want to share something I didn't do, which is a podfic ursa1ita did of And It's a Whole New Ballgame. I can't tell you how awesome it is to hear someone reading your story, and I love ursa1ita's voice. It feels perfect for the story.

I'm actually still sorting through my Istanbul pictures, but I'll post some soon. And talk about all that other stuff. I hope all of you are doing great as well :).

Happy Birthday to prillalar! Hal, you're as awesome as ever and I'm so lucky to know you. Patches says happy birthday, too! It must be a nemesis truce, or maybe she's lulling you into a false sense of security.

Also, we need to get cracking on that robot army, or at least get a couple of personal robots. My house isn't going to clean itself!

♥♥♥ Happy Birthday, and enjoy all the things!

Title: Cause and Effect
Pairing: Sanada/Kirihara
Rating: PG
Word count: 3500
Summary: Sanada and Kirihara don't flirt like other people.
Notes: Written for anonymous for the top_cagnotte challenge and originally posted over there.

Thanks a million times over to prillalar for beta and hand holding.

( Thirty laps was generous, but Kirihara still spent the time thinking about facing Sanada on the court, Sanada on his knees after a devastating six-love defeat, cries of you're number one in the background and none of them for Sanada. )

The top_cagnotte authors and artists were revealed, so I can thank 52wk for the gorgeous Kirihara/Jackal art she did for me. I love them, and this, so much. I'll post the story I did for the challenge here in a bit.

Also, prillalar and I did our own tenipuri holiday challenge, which was SO MUCH FUN and I got to make her write Rikkai (ha!), and she wrote me this so totally spot-on Yanagi/Kirihara story that I think she needs to write Rikkai all the time. The Brown (or Common) Rat: Care and feeding of. It's so Renji and so Kirihara that I just want to bottle them up. And it's so Hal, too, so you know it's an awesome story :D.

Title: Freshman Fifteen
Pairing: MomoKai
Rating: R
Word count: 3000
Summary: High school's over, and Momo's slacking off.
Notes: A little MomoKai written for prillalar to promote good will for rivals everywhere :D.

( Freshman Fifteen )

We should always get Christmas Eve as a holiday. Shopping is done, writing is in process, and I just need to clean up a few things around the house before heading to my parents for Christmas Eve dinner and movie watching.

Before that, some ( Prince of Tennis recs from top_cagnotte )

Everyone have a safe, relaxing, wonderful holiday/break/time off/weekend! ♥

I need to remember to schedule a night out for the days when I get my hair done, because now I'm all cute and bouncy and in a rare mood to socialize, only of course everyone else has their own plans.

So come talk to me! Ask me what my favorite thing about you is. Or ask me who the hell I am and why I'm popping up on your flist, since I only post twice a year. Give me a prompt and I'll write you comment fic. Or ask me for a prompt and entertain me with your comment fic. If you're doing yuletide, come procrastinate and I'll try not to gloat because I'm already done with my holiday challenge fic this year :D. Rec me a story and I'll rec you one back.

Or, you know, anything. Come be chatty ♥.

Hal, I'm really not sure what I'd do without you! You're one of my closest friends, the ultimate beta and writing partner, an enabler of fandom crushes, and a seriously smart and cool person. I'm continually happy to have you in my life.

I hope you have a happy, lazy, indulgent, tennis- and Drew Barrymore-filled day. :D

♥♥♥HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!♥♥♥

I was supposed to be working on something else, then this came along instead.

Title: Attachment
Pairing: Sanada/Kirihara
Rating: PG
Word count: 1800
Summary: Kirihara has some issues.
Notes: Love to prillalar.

( Kirihara's arguing again )

Title: Winning Prospects
Pairing: Atobe/Sanada
Rating: NC-17
Word count: 6000
Summary: Not everything changes. Future fic.
Notes: Many thanks to prillalar for beta. I can't believe it took me five years to actually watch the show.



( Winning Prospects )

Thank you everyone for the snowflake cookies! They made me feel all warm and fuzzy. I'm not actually gone, just not around LJ much, but I'm finally writing after an eleven-month drought. So I can't complain :).

And fourfreedoms, I haven't forgotten that I still owe you kissing fic *g*.

Hello there, fellow American Idol fans. Help. What are one's options for watching/downloading a performance that, you know, maybe didn't get recorded to the DVR because American Idol can't seem to keep its time limits in its pants?

I keep reading the ESPN article I have open--"Flawed Terps are Williams' main concern"--as "Flawed Terps are Flawed." A more accurate summary, I think. Last Saturday's game against Miami is the first MD game I've deliberately not watched in, like, eight or nine years. I'm just glad they ended up winning.


I just finished Stephen King's DUMA KEY over the weekend--it's a thick book but reads quickly, so it only took a few days. I haven't read a lot of King's recent work, and haven't been that thrilled with what I have read, but I saw DUMA KEY listed as one of WaPo's top books of 2008, so I gave it a shot.

I really enjoyed the book--nicely creepy without some of the full-out terror I have in reading his early stuff. I liked the characters, and loved the conceit about art, creativity, and that particular sideways thinking into all kind of scary depths that can be used and manipulated by even scarier creatures.

One quibble: ( cut for spoilers )

Pretty minor quibble, though, and I'd definitely recommend the book.

For prillalar's birthday, I was going to give her a robot army. Then the union went on strike and the robots rebelled, and I had to dismantle them all to prevent global catastrophe. I also thought about getting her a big stuffed Momoshiro, but when it came in the mail I decided to keep it, even though it talks a lot and occasionally steals my socks.

So instead I will just say ♥♥HAPPY BIRTHDAY♥♥ and point you all to her birthday fic she just posted: Show Your Work, which is adorable and awesome, even though it's InuKai. :-P

And as always, Hal, I'm so glad I know you :D.

I meant to link to this when I first read it, then had to go dig it back up from the WaPo archives. Anyway, a pretty cool article from back in December on the speechwriter for Obama's inaugural address:

Helping to Write History

I don't know what to do now that I can no longer be cynical and angry about U.S. politics and government. It's like a huge part of my identity for the past eight years is gone. Or like looking outside on Christmas, realizing hey, they really did get me that pony!