Hi! I'm so happy to be driving the van for this month, and I'm heading straight for the Stargate to the Pegasus Galaxy. I'll be rec'cing a bit of everything from old favourites to lesser known authors and even the odd non-McShep story. I wanted to start with one of my absolute favourites.

Fandom: STARGATE ATLANTIS
Pairing: Sheppard/McKay
Author on LJ: cupidsbow
Author Website: Complete Listing of cupidsbow's fanfic
Why this must be read: This is a story I go back to again and again when I want to laugh and smile. It's classic SGA when the world was new and shiny, and one of the very best of the variety of "Sheppard uses shiny Ancient gene to power-up new tech with interesting consequences." It's got good banter, action and adventure, and it's just plain fun. A great way to start the new year.

( Congratulations, Colonel, I suspect you've just managed to be the first person in history to have an accidental orgy. )

Read the story / Feedback the author: The Scientific Method

Hi, I'm phaballa and I will be your popslash driver this month! Please excuse my enthusiasm. I have an unhealthy love of... everything.

Fandom: POPSLASH
Pairing: Justin/JC, Nick/Howie
Author on LJ: isilya
Author Website: http://untruism.net/index.html
Why this must be read: This fic is one of the cleverest, lovliest fics I have ever read, period. Justin is a BSB fanfic writer, and the way in which all the NSYNC guys are connected through fandom is so absolutely brilliant and yet achingly sad at the same time. He's writing his sort of last love letter/flame ball to fandom--a Nick/Howie epic AU in which BSB are fanfic writers. It's meta WITHIN meta, Justin's fic reflecting his own fandom experiences and all of it concentrating heavily on the writing process itself. I reccomend this not just to popslashers, but to anyone who writes fic, because it's really not about Justin at all, it's about being in fandom and what that means, good and bad.

( Kind of a litany of unpopular fannish truths... )

Not Based on A True Story

Hello all. As the first driver of the year for our fair fandom and I've decided to start it out with some spanking brand new fic. :D

Fandom: SMALLVILLE
Pairing: Lois/Clark
Author on LJ:ljs_lj
Author Website: my fanfiction
Why this must be read: A new shade of kryptonite turns Clark into a girl and Lois into one turned on woman. It's funny, it's hot, it's even a little sweet. It's the first Smallville crack fic of 2008.

What more can I say?


Lavender

My New Year, which was pretty good to begin with, thanks, was improved even more by an email from crack_van asking me to do another round of Sports Night recs this month. I think of Sports Night as The Little Fandom That Could; occasionally it experiences a wave of renaissance, oftentimes it seems on the verge of dying out altogether, but somehow it always keeps on ticking over. Long may it continue to do so. Maybe some of these recs will encourage new readers and viewers to check the show out – wouldn't that be lovely?

I'm starting with a wonderful little Natalie pov fic (just under 2,000 words), from April of last year.

Fandom: SPORTS NIGHT
Pairing: Casey/Dan
Author on LJ: flaming_muse
Author Website: Adventures in the Jossverse

Why this must be read: Natalie knows something, and she wants to tell many, many people, reads the author summary. Imagine, if you will, Natalie as a squeeful fangirl; and then imagine that that squeeful fangirl has just found out that the hot gay boys in her office have finally stopped acting like idiots, got their act together, and got it on. Then imagine how Kim (another squeeful fangirl) would react to the news. And Elliott, who's a little slow to catch on. And Jeremy ("[They're not doing it] right now? Isn't it time for the show?"), whose initial doubts are allayed by alliteration. And … Isaac. Oh, Isaac!

Well, stop imagining – unless you've gone to a really happy place, and if you have then come back when you're through – because flaming_muse has already done it for you, and has recorded the results for us all to see. And to reread, time and time again. There's no graphic description here, it's all allusion and inference, and yet it couldn't be hotter if the boys were making out right in front of our eyes. Or at least – not by much. Wonderful work, and I'm happy to be able to make it my first rec of the year.

Doing It

I'm Pepper and excited to be your Starsky and Hutch driver for the month. I'm pretty omnivorous so watch for a bunch of different kinds of fiction. I'm kicking off the ride with a great story that's timed out from the excellent zine, "Blood and Destiny."

Fandom: STARSKY/HUTCH
Pairing: gen
Author on LJ:http://troyswann.livejournal.com/
Author Websites:
http://salieri.bonuspoints.net/
http://shslash.kassidyrae.com/
http://starskyhutch.kassidyrae.com/

Why this must be read: When I read Salieri's fiction, I feel like things are just right, even when they far from it. She's got a way with words that goes right to my heart in a brutal, honest, melancholy way. Is it enough to say that there isn't anything she's written that hasn't made me hold my breath?

Here's a taste:
"Usually people's bodies reacted before their minds did. Starsky had seen some weird things over the years. Sometimes you told a parent that their girl or little boy was dead and they'd laugh. They'd laugh right in your face and that was the train wreck, the sound of collision. He'd seen a father fold double like he'd been kicked in the chest. Lots of times people stepped backward, held their hands out like the truth was coming at them teeth and claws out of the fog. Starsky almost expected to see defensive wounds on their forearms. He'd told Hutch that one time, and Hutch'd nodded and said, "Stigmata." Starsky had looked that up and felt the word stabbing through his hands for days after.

More than once, a mother or a father had punched him in the face. The first time he'd deflected the blow by reflex. After, he'd learned to stand still."

The Trouble With Normal

Hi, I'm thady and I'll be your due South reccer for this month. I read practically everything with emphasis on Fraser/Kowalski, so expect a mixed batch.

Fandom: DUE SOUTH
Pairing: Fraser/Kowalski
Author on LJ: arrow00
Author Website: http://arrow00.com/

Why this must be read:

This is a gorgeous piece of fanfiction, beautifully written without being too pretentious. arrow00 manages a graceful tightrope walk of conveying exactly what is happening through an unrealiable narrator. I don't want to give away too much here, because part of the charm is figuring out what exactly is happening.

( Snippet )

All of Us Drown