thisbluespirit: (S&S - Silver looks up)
[personal profile] thisbluespirit
(This is one of those posts where I am Not Really Here, or basically am posting this in passing & not catching up with comments & other posts.)

Anyway, I noticed my gift fics were not getting an awful lot of love & realised that is because I have not recced them at all. So, for Yuletide, I received an abundance of Silver. Yes, dear flist, this was a trying disappointment, but I have come to live with it... Oh, all right. So I've been gloating over the fact even before the reveal when I worked out what fandom my story must be. Now that has been joined by two treats via Madness, my gloating knows few bounds.


And If You Believe (1857 words) by Anonymous
Fandom: Sapphire and Steel
Rating: General Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Sapphire (Sapphire & Steel), Silver (Sapphire and Steel), Steel (Sapphire & Steel)
Summary:

Sometimes, Silver is called to take care of interesting technical problems, like magic chests.



This is really sweet & fun - it is basically Silver vs a magic box, but what it does which is v interesting (if you are me) is explore a little of what it's like from Silver's POV to turn up midway through an assignment. I especially love that he pauses to watch the other two, because that is so v S&S, that they're all as intrigued by each other as we are, or nearly.

There were also two treats in Madness:
Elemental Chemistry (90 words) by Anonymous
Fandom: Sapphire and Steel
Rating: General Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Sapphire, Steel (Sapphire and Steel), Silver (Sapphire and Steel)
Summary:

Inspired by Lost_Spook's Yuletide letter: "I like how Sapphire/Steel is this frozen, beautiful thing, but once you throw Silver in it becomes a sort of dance."



This is 90 words, but beautifully sharp little word picture of the three of them. (I am intrigued by who wrote this, as I thought at first that it must be a flister, but now think probably not, or not the person I imagined...)

Reconfiguration (535 words) by Anonymous
Fandom: Blake's 7, Sapphire and Steel
Rating: General Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Silver (Sapphire and Steel), Deva (Blake's 7), Roj Blake
Summary:

Silver has a job to do on Gauda Prime



A Gauda Prime fixit in which Deva is actually Silver there to put a wrong timeline right. (There are no spoilers as such, but it probably would make more sense to someone who only knows B7 than someone who only knows S&S. But it is only 500 words, no spoilers if you want to try anyway.)

I also am curious about this mystery writer, too, because they paid such attention to my waffly letter that it is like someone took stuff out of my brain and then wrote something I would never ever have thought of, and therefore my brain exploded when I read it. In a good way, of course.

So yay! All I wanted for Christmas was Silver, and I got a triple helping!!


Also, because everyone keeps reccing The Tough Guide to Yuletide: ALL the Tough Guide fics are amazing. Go read them now - it's not the sort of fandom you need to know: http://archiveofourown.org/tags/Tough%20Guide%20to%20Fantasyland%20-%20Diana%20Wynne%20Jones/works

(The first 4 are Yuletide 2011 fics.) The Tough Guide to YUletide is indeed amazing, and should become required reading. (The what to put in your Letter is particularly true and funny.)

The Guide to Fantasy Cities is... well, an update for the Guide for those dystopian/supernatural/steampunk books that have become so popular. (So, so funny - and the endnote about the 387 different versions of post-Victorian LOndon... :lol: Plus, Twilight-ribbing is involved, but not in a really malicious way.)

A Limited Time offer updates the Guide to poke fun at Low Fantasy in the form of a letter to a disgruntled customer, who didn't like the traditional Tour, which is genius. Because a) the fun-poking and b) I'm sure we can all think of a difficult customer who we'd like to send on that Tour.

And then there is one treat, this time a letter from another dissatisfied customer who accidentally got the Mills & Boon version of the Other Continent Tour. The consequences being as you can imagine. Well, actually, probably not... Priceless!

Taken altogether, I can't think of a nicer end of year tribute to the magical lady who came up with the original idea.

I hope you are all having good hols, if you are having them, and if you took part in Yuletide that you had as much fun as I did. I have managed to read a few things, but not really very much. (It's like having a box of chocolates to hand and not being able to eat them. "No! You will get a headache/ be too tired to speak to relatives! Put that laptop down!" :lol:)

Date: 27 Dec 2011 12:49 pm (UTC)
ext_3965: (David Collings Jo Lumley Sapphire & Silv)
From: [identity profile] persiflage-1.livejournal.com
Ooh these sound like fun! *staggers away to read*

Date: 28 Dec 2011 12:24 pm (UTC)
ext_3965: (David Collings Silver Hmm)
From: [identity profile] persiflage-1.livejournal.com
I didn't read the B7 one yet, nor the Tough Guides - but now I'm home, I shall endeavour to do so in the next few days!

Date: 27 Dec 2011 04:21 pm (UTC)
lferion: (SeasonWinterSolstice)
From: [personal profile] lferion
Yay for excellent Yuletide presents! I have not had much chance to read beyond my own gift-fics either -- though I have laughed my way through both the Tough Guide to Yuletide and the Octopus as the drunk texter of the cephalopod world fic. I've got one more fic to write, and then I can wallow in fic for a while.

Must check out your Silver fics though!

Date: 27 Dec 2011 09:09 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] jjpor.livejournal.com
Hooray, more David Collings...kind of. I actually saw that Miss Marple with him in as the vicar only the other day, shortly after listening to him in Litefoot and Jago. So yes, he's everywhere...

I'll have to read these at some point soon. I'd have put my newfound Sapphire & Steel knowledge to use by writing you something too, but I haven't written anybody anything this Xmas, 'cause I've been a bit rubbish like that lately. ;)

Date: 4 Jan 2012 11:10 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] jjpor.livejournal.com
I'm just lucky like that, I guess...

Regarding S&S, I liked it very much. Quite a unique thing, and I loved Lumley and McCallum (and Collings!) in it. My favourite one was the railway station one, which I gather is kind of the conventional answer in that regard. Very creepy, with a nasty ending. Oh wait - wrong choice, didn't have Silver in it! ;D Or indeed the pillow of death!

I might do a post soonish on my impressions regarding the series, but you know me and posting lately. ;)

Date: 7 Jan 2012 10:44 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] jjpor.livejournal.com
Huzzah! The Queen! etc.

I think one of the things I took away from S&S was how influential it seems to have been with regard to other sf/fantasy things I've watched. It seems like one of those things that maybe wasn't particularly popular or widely-watched at the time that it aired, but which stuck with the people who did enjoy it. I mean, I don't think whole chunks of NuWho and even more of the first two seasons of Torchwood would even exist if it hadn't (and not just the two TW episodes that were actually written by PJ Hammond!). Are you my mummy? etc etc.

I'm using my Gerald and Harriet icon, btw, because Sapphire and Steel/Edwardian Torchwood crossover strikes me as something that would work exceedingly well, really. ;D

I do like Lead a lot too, actually. And I don't know, there's something about nursery rhymes in conjunction with ghostly Roundheads that resonates deeply with me. Goosey goosey gander...brrr...

But yes, poor old Silver does have a pretty rubbish exit, really. You know, considering that he's Silver and everything. If I ever read about David McCallum being assaulted in public with newspapers etc, I will know the true story! :)

Date: 9 Jan 2012 08:40 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] jjpor.livejournal.com
I don't suppose S&S would ever get out of Cardiff, if they did involve themselves in TWood continuity. Too much to do... So their only reason for being there would be to shut TW Three down, for the good of the universe. Actually that's interesting - S&S as mysterious antagonists appearing out of nowhere, with no explanation, and Our "Heroes" of the Institute haven't got a clue what's going on or what they're up against. Hmm. Although you're right about the clash of tones and what is/isn't shown. And they'd no doubt be very subtle about the "shutting down" bit - Gerald etc would only realise the trouble they were in when it was far too late...

But I kind of know how the Gerald-Harriet era ended really, even if I'll never get around to writing it. Didn't involve Sapphire and Steel or even Silver, you'll be glad to hear. ;)

The thing is, you could actually believe that. :D So, the best place to end the audios seemed to the people making them to be something like the ending of the TV series? I can see that, I suppose. I hope nothing bad happened to Silver in the end too.

Some people, overreacting like that... ;D

Date: 17 Jan 2012 10:00 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] jjpor.livejournal.com
Oh, I know quite a fair bit about them by now, 'tis true. There are a couple of started and partially-finished bits about them lying about my hard drive, so you never know. I should probably just make the plunge and outright rob them, shouldn't I? File the serial numbers off, job's a good'un. They're only really guest stars in the one I wrote this year, but if you get the chance to read it I'd like to hear your thoughts - takes some historical figures in vain too, I'm afraid. :)

To be honest (and without any false modesty), I worry that I'm not a particularly great prose stylist, or at least I don't have any stylistic touches I haven't robbed consciously or unconsciously off authors I've read. And I tend to write the way I talk, sometimes, so strange tics and grammatical faux pas everywhere (or so it seems to me). But I guess that's nothing editing and beta reading can't cure. Now, Clocket on the other hand...I'm jealous of Clocket's prose, tbh. I think she's great, and wish she had more time to write in her busy life.

I am very glad to hear that you're pretty sure of getting back to normal, because believing it is the first step, isn't it? I wish you all the best and hope you're well soon. :)

And Collings vs Gatiss...?! Don't worry, you're not the only one who wants to listen to that!

Date: 27 Dec 2011 09:33 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] justice-turtle.livejournal.com
Oo, lovely! I've been stalking flisters' gifts without waiting for them to rec them (you can do that, I am pleased to report), so I already saw these, but they are still lovely.

I am curious who you thought / think wrote the middle one. (I'm always curious. XD I should almost have a cat instead of a turtle in my username.) That's a very intriguing sentence: "I thought at first that it must be a flister, but now think probably not, or not the person I imagined." Positively timey-wimey. ;-) Might you explain it after reveals or sometime?

Date: 1 Jan 2012 02:30 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] justice-turtle.livejournal.com
It was me! XD And it was totally inspired by the periodic table discussion. (I completely failed to notice that that was f-locked - I shall have to pay more attention next year! ;P)

As to the British spelling, you can thank/blame Eponymous_Rose; I have never been known to remember the second "i" in "aluminium" on my own initiative, but she threw a Britpick in with her last-minute beta there. ;-)

(Which means you can now ask me for a sketch / "drawble" of some sort. Not, I note, that I can actually draw, but I said people who guessed one of my stories before author reveal would get an attempt at drawing. *g* Would you like Who, Collings, or something else? I mean, feel free to be rather more specific than that - I want to practice drawing fanart-y things and can't decide where to start. And quasi-realistic or vaguely chibi-style? I'm a bit better technically at the chibi-style, so you know, but not everybody likes that.)

/overly long babbly comment

(More Shakespeare babbling when I am not tired, probably. Or less tired. *g*)

Date: 4 Jan 2012 06:40 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] justice-turtle.livejournal.com
I considered not putting my betas' names on, but I was starting to forget which ones I'd had betaed and who'd done it (and half of them were non-flist betas from the beta post anyway), so I figured I might as well give people a better chance at guessing it was me. ;-) I am the sort of person who pinches presents and gives broad hints anyway...

'I wouldn't have thought anyone would just in text for S&S.'

Well, now you know. *g* I kind of make it a rule to use British spelling / terminology for British fandoms and American words for American ones (since I've got sort of a "North Atlantic" style myself, through reading such quantities of British kidlit. "Aluminum" is one of the very few words I don't skip back and forth on, if left to my own devices...)

Date: 5 Jan 2012 03:27 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] justice-turtle.livejournal.com
'gray is just not the same as grey'

*nods* That's one where I actually use both, whatever country I'm writing "from", because in my head they're two different colors. Grey is more silvery and has associations with Gandalf and mallorn-bark; gray is darker and less metallic, sort of a gunmetal-battleship colour.

XD I don't use "colour" as much though, because... honestly, because I'm a lazy typist and like to use the shortest spelling possible! ;P But also because "colour" makes me think specifically of saturated jewel-tones - red-purple and teal and gold and so on - while "color" is a more, um, workaday word?

/long rambly waffling ;-)

Date: 31 Dec 2011 02:40 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] belantana.livejournal.com
Duly bookmarked!

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