Fandom: CSI
Pairing: Nick/Warrick
Author Website: Jen's Iphicles Slash Fiction Site, which actually contains all her fics from different fandoms

Why this must be read: This really is a PWP. Well, no. It's a story about friends with benefits and even then, at some points, you wonder if they're really even friends. The fic is told from Warrick's POV and does a pretty good job of sounding like Warrick. But what I'm trying to get at is - here be some porn.

FYI, *points to icon* the black guy is Warrick, the other is Nick.

Playing to Win

Fandom: SPORTS NIGHT
Pairing: Dan Rydell/Casey McCall
Author on LJ: nestra and shrift
Author Website: Nestra's Pantheon and shrift's fan fiction
Why this must be read: This is almost always the first Sports Night story I recommend to anyone I'm trying to pimp into the fandom. Shrift and Nestra are very talented individuals, which should automatically tell you something about a story created through their combined efforts.

Some two years after it was originally posted, I still think of "Last Minute Trade" as one of the hottest SN fics I've ever read; honestly, it's among the hottest fics I've read in any fandom. I was reduced to a puddle the first time I read it, and it gets to me on every repeat reading, too.

Although it doesn't exactly have a complicated -- or, um, any -- plot, there are a number of wickedly funny moments. Some of them are inside jokes, so you might want to check out the TKTV summaries or the Television without Pity recaps of episodes like "Small Town" and "Dear Louise" (which is a nice introductory episode) beforehand. But even if you don't do that, I think you'll still find yourself laughing out loud at several scenes and the classically Sorkinesque dialogue. Also, all of the major characters from the series make at least a brief appearance, and they all come across very clearly.

That aside, though, I'm willing to bet that you'll enjoy the story because it is undeniably, scorchingly hot. It emphasizes in how many different ways Dan and Casey are perfectly suited for each other as partners, not the least of which is their physical spark. "Last Minute Trade," like Dan and Casey, is sexy, fun, sweet, and practically perfect in every way. Read it, and see what I mean.

"Last Minute Trade"

Fandom: FASTLANE
Pairing: Van/Deaq
Author Website: All her fics

Why this must be read: If you read slashfic in Star Wars tPM or The Professionals or Smallville or any number of fandoms, the odds are, you've run into Anne Higgin's work before. I can't speak for her other work (although, I have it on pretty good authority that they're worth a read), but I *can* say that I really enjoyed Vision in Green. It's a kinky story (cross dressing and spanking), so it's not for everyone, but if you're willing to keep an open mind, the sex is HOT! For those who are squeamish about spanking, read just past the first sex scene and you'll be fine. Oh and if you care, the fic has some interesting insight into the characters and their motivation. ;)

Vision in Green

Fandom: SPORTS NIGHT
Pairing: Dan Rydell/Casey McCall
Author on LJ: nestra and shrift
Author Website: Nestra's Pantheon and shrift's fan fiction
Why this must be read: It's the sequel to "Last Minute Trade," and both stories are very high on my mental list of Things That Make Me Go Guh. Very simply put, "Next Day Delivery" is twice as long as "Last Minute Trade," and equally delicious. Characters other than Dan and Casey show up a lot more in this story, but there's also a lot more D/C sex, so readers win all around. *g* Read, enjoy, and send gushing feedback.

"Next Day Delivery"

Fandom: Pop
Pairing: various
Author on LJ: paintedmaypole
Author Website: Mainly In the Plain

Why this must be read: I have a bizarre fondness for AUs. Pop is bursting with them. In a lot of ways, most of the stories really are original fiction, but they're also literary crack (those two thoughts seem discordant, but they aren't). This is one of my favorite popfic AUs (and if I can find the zombie fic I want, I'll recc that one, too. Who would have thought there were so many zombiefics?) Anyway, back to *this* story. This is set in Boston, and, well, it's a damned soap opera! Tres tres entertaining with high melodrama, some tight writing, and lots of attention to detail. If you're looking for different, this's it. JC is just so wonderful and human here. It says that it's a WIP, but I think the last part stands as a decent ending for the whole shebang, not that I didn't want it to go on forever, mind.


The Haircuts

Post a comment below to take a turn pimping any or all of the Star Trek fandoms. A week in advance of your assigned month you will be notified with a reply to your comment. During that time, you agree to post a minimum of 1 fic per week in the following format:

Subject: Title by Author (Rating)

Fandom: YOUR FANDOM
Pairing: (no abbreviations, please)
Author on LJ: (if applicable)
Author Website: (author's fics, if available)
Why this must be read:

Emphasis should be on fics that you feel are especially outstanding and accessible examples of your fandom, e.g. it plays on a repeated theme in the show, it's a fandom or a personal favourite, it was a controversial fic, it's good smut. Whatever.

Warnings are not required beyond what the author has posted on their own stories.

Thanks for playing and remember, kids! Without you, the crack_van will run out of gas!!

(snerk)

Fandom: EVERWOOD
Pairing: Bright/Ephram
Author on LJ: lalejandra
Author's Website: LJ Memories
Why this must be read: This series is like the sweetest crack. Told from Bright's POV (mostly), it takes the reader through the fucked up twists and turns of a teenager at the brink of discovering...something. Bright thinks about Ephram far too much for his own good, but he's not gay. You know. He's not gay. Really, he's not. Each vignette is a tight rollercoaster of sexual tension, leaving you with the biggest mad-on for them just to kiss already. Well, don't worry, they do.

Better that when Ephram looks up and meets Bright’s eyes from across the room, like if he was a chick they’d be in one of those sappy romance movies Amy and his mom liked, Bright will absolutely not say to the person next to him "I wonder if Ephram Brown’s stomach is as soft as Gemma’s." He will also not say, "I bet Ephram Brown gives great head. Look at that fucking mouth." And he definitely will not say, choking a bit on his own breath, "Those...fingers." When did Bright start caring about anyone’s fucking fingers?

Evolution: Staring; Mitzvah; Fiercely; Cheered; Anger; Queer; Decisions; Dream; Maybe; Hiding; Talk; Following; End/Begin

Fandom: Due South
Pairing: Fraser/Kowalski
Author on LJ: n/a
Author Website: Chez Crysothemis

Why this must be read: "Post-Call of the Wild fiction" is practically a genre unto itself in dS fanfic--stories that follow Fraser and RayK after that moment when they sled off together into the sunrise, and conjecture a future for them.

Within this genre, "True North" is a classic; it was one of the first (if not *the* first) long, substantial post-CotW stories out there, and I think serves as a kind of landmark for everyone else writing such stories (even if one is sort of writing against it, as I have done). I'll admit it's not my favorite post-CotW story--I have quibbles with the characterizations here and there--but it holds an enduring place in the affections of dS fans, or at least those of the F/RK persuasion. Crys is a solid and skillful writer, and she does a lovely job of leading the reader into an emotionally convicing dark woods, and then back out into the sunlight of a happy ending.

True North

Fandom: due South
Pairing: Vecchio/Kowalski (with undertones of Fraser/Kowalski)
Author on LJ: _aerye_
Author Website: aerye
Why this must be read: Cutting hard against my immediately preceding rec, this story is very recent, and written by an author relatively new to dS; it's short and tightly focused; it posits a much bleaker aftermath for Fraser and RayK; it presents a pairing (Ray/Ray) which is still sort of marginal within the fandom. And it doesn't bring the happy ending. *g* Rather, it gives us a quick slantwise look into a possible future for these characters where there's no real possibility of a happy ending, if that's defined as getting what you want; as the title implies, if you can even get what you *need*, you're doing damn well. It's a razor-slice of a story, clean and merciless.

It's also part of a larger story still in progress; aerye recently posted another bit, Taken, and I am impatiently waiting for more. I am not, by the way, recommending these stories because I was lucky enough to beta them; I think dS is freakin' lucky that we have a writer of this calibre joining us. I will continue to rec the classics here, but I will also from time to time highlight things that I think are classics-in-the-making.

You Get What You Need

Title: Full Circle
Fandom: Pirates of the Caribbean
Pairing: Jack/Will/Elizabeth
Author on LJ: molly36
Author Website: http://www.voyeuse.net/

Why this must be read: I swear I'm going to rec more than Jack/Will/Elizabeth, but I keep on finding ones that I love. This story is from Will's perspective and he's more cynical and bitter than most Will's. He loves Elizabeth, but doesn't see why she loves him. Basically the story is about Will and Elizabeth going through the motions of respectable life until they are free to find Jack. It has a bit of angst, lots of prettiness, and a kick ass Elizabeth that I adore. Jack doesn't show up until the end, but like the smell of rum on a pirates breath, he permeates the story (um... story about that, I'm feeling a bit poetical tonight).

Title: The Terrible Conflagration Up at the Place
Fandom: Smallville
Pairing: Clark/Lex
Author on LJ: hackthis
Author website: dysFUNctional

Why this *must* be read: Lex tries to do good. It doesn't quite work out the way he'd hoped.

Also, it has lines like these:

Burned brownies smell like tar, and there's no reason microwave brownies should be so difficult to make. If you're supposed to take the cover off before nuking the little fuckers then they shouldn't be covered at all.

Fuck freezer burn.

Fuck trying to cook for a boy who's mother won three blue ribbons at the Lowell County Fair earlier this year.

This is one of my favorite 'feel good' stories to read. For those of you not in the 'know', Zahra writes a gorgeously intricate Lex Luthor in her stories, no matter the genre and this piece is a goodie. This is one of those stories that pulls you in so much, makes you *laugh* so hard that you find yourself looking in the pantry for brownie mix and actually pitying Lex Luthor's poor, put-upon cook.

Read, love, laugh and tell her what a good time you had.

For your ease, as I'm the new reccer this month:
Smallville Overview, from velvetglove

Title: Transference
Fandom: Witchblade
Pairing: Gabriel/Ian
Author on LJ: viridian5
Author website: The Green Room version 2.0


Why this must be read: A shorter fic, and one of the only good Gabriel/Ian stories I've ever been able to find. These two have always held an enormous amount of...potential, and viridian5 captures that quite well. Their interaction is vivid here, and it definitely fits these characters.

Title: Walking in Your Boots
Fandom: Enterprise
Pairing: Tucker/Sato
Author on LJ: ozchick
Author website: None that I know of.

Why this must be read: Because Ozchick has a splendid facility for spot-on characterization and a rousing good story. (Okay, I'll admit it, I'm her beta, but she rarely needs more than a few typos corrected.) Here, she takes a classic fanfic plot and has some fun with it. This story always makes me chuckle :)

Hoshi watched the captain exit sickbay and stiffened as he burst out laughing just as the doors slid closed. Vague images of her foot connecting solidly with Jon's ass flitted through her mind. Did that qualify as insubordination?

I had a great deal of difficulty choosing which one of her stories to recommend, so let me also recommend Opposing Forces, which is a Tucker/Sato story in an entirely different vein, both heart-wrenching and sad.

Title: Malcolm in the Middle
Fandom: Enterprise
Pairing: Archer/Tucker/Reed
Author on LJ: Not that I know of.
Author's website: Her site

Why this must be read: It's hot hot hot. Did I mention hot? This fic and its sequels (A Trip to the Wild Side and Johnny on the Spot) are outrageously hot and sexy, with a bare minimum of plot. Juli does a great job with this threesome and I adore the series immensely :)