Beyond the Roundels

[Just like Blue Peter, appropriately - a post I made earlier!]

I decided to put together a rec set for hc_bingo square "Shipwrecked" - and here it is! \o/ There are a mix of fandoms with a mix of sailing ship wrecks and space ship wrecks and all contain at least some measure of hurt/comfort.

Warnings/content notes in the recs are minimal, but all links go to AO3 where they are fully tagged and rated - please note all original author's tags, warnings and ratings etc. at the link.

( 10 recs in Doctor Who, Goblin Emperor, Good Omens, Legends of Tomorrow, Sapphire & Steel, Sid Halley, ST: Voyager, Star Wars & Twelfth Night )

Part 2, and I'm not doing well at keeping this short, but fannish talk is a cheering thing at least.


From tozka: 13. favorite writing song/artist/album of this year.

Me and music has been a funny thing for years, because of the ME/CFS and my sound intolerance, but I have got to the stage now where I can listen to music that doesn't hurt my head while I write again. So, often, it's just whatever works, but actually I have more and more - within those constraints - been choosing things again of late, like music from the era I'm writing for historical things, or a Blake's 7 vid when I'm writing that.

I have had one album I've used more than another this year, though! Primarily still for being easy and not hurting me, but I liked nearly all the songs on it - Cartwheels by Ward Thomas. I got accidentally caught in a country loop on YouTube and ended up there & there were some nice touches in the lyrics as well as not-hurting me, I thought. So, yeah: Almost Easy, and Good on You, Proof, and Lose Me, which I used on some of the more lively things (but not too much, because it's more tiring), and a few others. (I think it was Dirt and Gold I first landed on, though. I wanted to vid to it, but let's not go there...)

In more writing-specific answers, Secrets & Lies by Ruelle has become my Divide & Rule vignettes song, Clare Wyndham's My Love Will Never Die and Kingdom Fall for S&S and other more serious things.


22. events you participated in this year

I did Chocolate Box for the first time, which was great all round, Remix, and signed up for Yuletide, even though I had to default. I also took part in a few bingos - hc_bingo, genprompt_bingo and crossoverbingo particularly.


From astrogirl: 15. something you learned this year

I suppose that the ability to write multi-era DW accidental marriage crackfic has not entirely deserted me yet. Which is something, it's true.


25. a fic you read this year you would recommend everyone read

Nothing's for everyone! This also presupposes that I remember anything. /o\ (Me: Wow, this fic is great! I can't believe I missed it before. *goes to comment* *finds earlier unknown self has already commented saying exactly the same thing I was about to this time round* *worries*)

I do counteract this by bookmarking a lot, so here are three things I've read this year that I thought were excellent, and which weren't for recs lists, although the gift-for-me I have obviously mentioned before.

Signs on the slow path (5638 words) by Selena
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005), Doctor Who (1963), Doctor Who (Big Finish Audio), Sarah Jane Adventures, Torchwood
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Twelfth Doctor & Missy, Twelfth Doctor & Nardole, The Doctor/The Master (Doctor Who), Sixth Doctor & Evelyn Smythe, Twelfth Doctor & Evelyn Smythe, Ashildr | Lady Me & Twelfth Doctor, Twelfth Doctor & Sarah Jane Smith, Twelfth Doctor & Jack Harkness, Twelfth Doctor & Ace McShane, Seventh Doctor & Ace McShane, Twelfth Doctor & Donna Noble, Tenth Doctor & Donna Noble, Twelfth Doctor & Susan Foreman, First Doctor & Susan Foreman
Characters: Twelfth Doctor, Missy (Doctor Who), Nardole (Doctor Who), Evelyn Smythe, Ashildr | Lady Me, Sarah Jane Smith, Jack Harkness, Ace McShane, Audrey McShane, Donna Noble, Susan Foreman
Additional Tags: Character Study, The Vault (Doctor Who), Friendship/Love, Past Relationship(s)
Summary: The Doctor has a lot of reasons for choosing the twentieth and twenty-first century on Earth when guarding the vault. Some he even admits to. Though not necessarily to the people in question.

As everyone will probably have noticed, I love a good multi-era DW fic, and this is indeed a good multi-era DW fic.

Spidersong (4855 words) by TheBigCat
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Doctor Who (1963), Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Seventh Doctor & Ace McShane
Characters: Seventh Doctor, Ace McShane
Additional Tags: Friendship, Christmas Eve, Storytelling, Music, Spiders, Alternate Universe - Fusion
Summary: There are cobwebs in the library.

A fusion, not usually my thing, but KittyEden is really great at Seven and Ace, and this in particular goes from cosy to downright creepy before you know where you are, and I loved it.

Stalk On (6074 words) by Cyphomandra
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Sid Halley - Dick Francis, FRANCIS Dick - Works, Sapphire and Steel
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Sid Halley & Charles Roland | Charles Rowland, Sapphire/Silver/Steel (S&S), Sapphire & Silver & Steel (S&S)
Characters: Sid Halley, Charles Roland | Charles Rowland (Dick Francis), Sapphire (S&S), Silver (S&S), Steel (S&S), Jenny Roland
Additional Tags: Crossover, Case Fic, Timeline Shenanigans, The Royal Navy
Summary: Far up in the stretches of night; night splits and the dawn breaks loose;/I, through the terrible novelty of light, stalk on, stalk on;/Those great sea-horses bare their teeth and laugh at the dawn. (W.B. Yeats, High Talk). Sid spends another pleasant evening at Aynsford.

I signed up for Chocolate Box, as I said, and in an exchange with 300 word mins, received case fic crossing two rare fandoms and wound up with a new flister; what more can anyone ever ask for? (I think it should be readable from either end, because it's just weird and inexplicable as usual for S&S, and a very strange day with very strange people for Sid and Charles, but obv. YMMV.)

And since it was astrogirl asking, I think you might like Look to the Skies by a_pheonixdragon (a short Eleven, Amy, Rory & TARDIS reflective piece).

And probably more that I forgot and didn't bookmark, lol.

Dear Chocolatier,

Thank you for making something for me! This letter is bound to be long, but tl;dr: I love all kinds of things, I love the fandoms and character combinations I've chosen, and as long as you don't write my few hard DNWs, I I'm bound to love whatever you come up with. Prompts are intended purely for inspiration, not to restrict your choices. Take what's useful and leave what isn't, and I hope you have fun.

That said, here is the long version...

( General Likes etc. )

---

( Requests: Arrowverse, Blake's 7, Doctor Who (BFA), Dracula - Bram Stoker, Dracula (TV 1968), Once Upon A Time, Sapphire & Steel, Sid Halley, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Tenko )

What I've just finished reading

Tracing Your West Country Ancestors by Kirsty Gray, which was pretty much what you would expect, but useful/interesting enough from my point of view, although I am still eyeing it askance for failing to mention the Monmouth Rebellion even once. (This is not quite as bad as adaptations of Lorna Doone that skip the Battle of Sedgemoor or film it in a hilly Welsh wood*, but I am judging the lack, as you can guess.)

I also read Whip Hand by Dick Francis, which was really interesting because it's both a book in a series by the original author and sort of pro-fanfic for the TV series The Racing Game. This happened because Yorkshire TV turned Odds Against, Dick Francis's first book about Sid Halley, a jockey who injures his hand and turns to being private investigating, into a 6 part series (1 part adaptation, five parts new adventures), but the twist is that Francis really liked it and the star Mike Gwilym and was inspired to write more about Sid - the result being Whip Hand. Having now read the other three books, I was intrigued to read this (which is even dedicated to Mike Gwilym and the producer of the show). It really does try to mesh the TV continuity into the original and he keeps the casting not only for Mike Gwilym as Sid, but clearly for Mick Ford as Chico and James Maxwell as Charles Roland (so you see where I fit into this equation). (I had no idea till I read Odds Against shortly before this that there was any fundamental difference, because of the way that he actually made the two fit as closely as possible retrospectively. The books have an extra injury! I suppose this shouldn't even be surprising...)

Anyway, I liked this one the most, probably not unrelated to its being the most TV-influenced, and also because it had the most Sid & Charles, and they have a really great relationship, which comes to a point here. (Charles is Sid's father-in-law, a retired admiral with a posh house and they initially hated each other, but later became such good friends that their relationship outlived Sid's marriage to Charles's daughter. Sid's narration says things about how Charles is the most important person in the world to him, but of course they never say things like that to each other. But he tells Charles, when he turns up in trouble in this one, that he came home and they both know what they mean. <3<3<3)

(The last one Under Orders isn't as good but it does have a priceless bit where Sid introduces his new fiancee to Charles and then gets jealous because Charles non-seriously flirts with her as Charles is HIS ALONE.)


I also read another Daisy, Sheer Folly, which is a later entry into the series, but an enjoyable one - a unique restored grotto that Daisy is writing an article about gets blown up with somebody inside it. Could it be murder? Of course it could. Alec is annoyed again, because he was coming down to join Daisy for a couple of days off and instead when he arrives he has to dig a body out of an a lot of rubble underground and unofficially assist a murder investigation. It's hard being married to a murder-magnet, although a DCI of Scotland Yard is the best candidate for it, really. (Luckily, she's cute.)


What I'm reading now

I am still reading The Surgeon's Mate, and in my family history note-taking, I have started We Danced All Night: Britain Between the Wars by Martin Pugh, which is proving to be both highly relevant and readable so far.


What I'm reading next

Well, I do have another Daisy out from the library...


* Sedgemoor is situated in the middle of the Wetlands in the Somerset Levels, so you know, there could be a clue as to the landscape in that fact.