Now that I've posted an overview, back to recs:

Fandom: SOUTH PARK
Pairing: Stan/Kyle; Cartman/Wendy; Kenny/Butters
Length: 115K
Author on LJ: formerdinosaur (SP writing journal for hollycomb)
Author Website: here on FF.net
Why this must be read: The Stan/Kyle first-time high school romance story has been written about a zillion times in the South Park fandom. Everyone's written one, basically. I have. This one's worth reading, all 100,000+ words of it, because it changes the formula by taking the boys out of high school and putting them on the road. Writing a road trip is hard, because the characters are stuck in a car, but Holly keeps the tension palpable by giving the trip a meaningful bookend: the boys are driving from South Park to LA to drop Stan off at college, where he's starting football training camp in the fall. When writing this first-time S/K story most authors create anxiety for Stan and Kyle by forcing them to wonder whether they'll end up at the same college. For Kyle in this story, the definitive end of the road trip represents a real goodbye, so instead of framing a gay romance around a mystery, there's only angst and tension. Like the characters, you might start to feel trapped in that car, dreading what happens on the other end.

Also, Holly writes some of the best porn ever. When you get to the porn -- and yes, there will be porn, a lot of it -- it feels totally justified.

The Scenic Route

Another short one and another by sinemoras09. I had no idea they had the same author until I came to post them since their moods are so different.

Fandom: Naruto
Pairing: None
Genre: Gen.
Length: About 1700 words.
Author on LJ: sinemoras09
Warnings: None.
Author Websites: Deviant Art, Tumblr
Author's Summary No longer a jinchuuriki, Gaara struggles to regain his abilities.
Why this must be read: Having your demon extracted is normally fatal for a jinchuuriki in the Narutoverse, so Gaara not only surviving the process but retaining many of his abilities is something of a first. This story takes a brief look at the challenges he might have faced, the support his family might have offered, and in the process looks at the politics and pain of what Gaara was/is and might be.


All Your Desert Songs by sinemoras09.

Fandom: SHERLOCK BBC
Pairing: none
Length: 2659 words
Author on LJ: morganstuart
Author Website: AO3, FF.net
Why this must be read:

It was hard to pick just one story by Morgan Stuart - pretty much all of them are great reads. I decided on "Not Dying Today" because I get a kick out of Sherlock and Anderson being forced to work together - and doing it well too.

There is a podfic available, read by the incomparable lunchee. I got an iPod recently and I love having people read fics to me. PS. it took some experimentation to get the iTunes/iPod and a Sony speaker dock to work properly with the fanfiction. If anyone has questions - write me. I may be able to help.

( Try a sample... )

Not Dying Today
Not Dying Today podfic

Fandom: THE PROFESSIONALS
Pairing: Bodie/Doyle
Length: Short story
Author on LJ: elizabethoshea
Author Website: Elizabeth O'Shea's storylist at palelyloitering.com
Why this must be read: Anyone who knows me knows that my favourite Pros story is by Elizabeth O'Shea. It's been recced here before, and by me in other places many times, so I shan't do so again (though it's Voice-Over, in case you're wondering *g*). By Any Other Name was written (or at least published) a year later, and Elizabeth O'Shea's understanding of the lads, and of Doyle in particular, shines through again. Bodie has been taken, and Doyle is having to hang around until Cowley decides it's time to go and rescue him. In a few perfect pages we see him wandering impatiently around the premises, just thinking - but this is thinking written well, and so we're right there with our Doyle, feeling everything he feels, seeing it as he feels and thinks it.

( Excerpt )

By Any Other Name by Elizabeth O'Shea