wesleysgirl | Entries tagged with original fic that's not mine

Just wanted to rec

janedavitt's lovely new novel, Wild Raspberries -- it's a wonderful story, beautifully written just like all of Jane's books. Delicious sexual tension and two men who don't always see eye to eye, which makes things all the more interesting!

Jenna Jones has written a fantastic modern novel called Chiaroscuro. Here's what I wrote about it:

Jamie Makepeace has his eye on his co-worker, the sweet, blue-eyed Micah Ferguson. At nineteen, Micah is the boy wonder of Virtuoso Games and looks up to Jamie, who's not only older but also British and therefore interestingly foreign. When Jamie takes his best friend, Dune, as his date to a work-related wedding, he ends up kissing the man who made the wedding cake in a pantry. Ben, the baker, finds himself drawn to Jamie, but Jamie takes Micah home from the wedding, and what follows is both complicated and compelling.

This book is an utter delight from start to finish. The characters are genuinely likeable despite their imperfections, and there are no true villains -- even when the characters behave abominably, it's possible to forgive them. And this isn't a story with a limited cast -- there are many characters, all of them interesting and well-drawn. There's a thread of humor throughout the story, so that even the more serious and emotional scenes aren't lacking in it; on more than one occasion I found myself grinning widely while reading.

The writing is impressive; the combination of easy-to-read yet precise language gives the book a charming style. The story shows you everything you need to know, including enough exposition about the character's pasts to make them even more interesting than they already are without ever seeming clunky or awkward. It's a deliciously long story, and there are times when it's difficult to predict what's going to happen next. The sex scenes are both erotic and meaningful, and the ending, when it comes, is completely satisfying in every possible way. Very highly recommended.

I've just finished reading Lolly Winston's Good Grief, and I really enjoyed it. I picked it up at a library book sale, strangely drawn to both the cover and the title. The fact that it VERY loosely resembles the most basic plot of a romance novel I've been working on didn't hurt, although the plot can be summarized as "woman's husband dies and she has to create a new life for herself" and that's pretty much where the similarities end. This book isn't a romance (although there are elements of it.) It's not the lightest, most cheerful topic in the world, but it somehow manages to be fairly light reading despite it. Written in present tense, which I like and which works nicely for the story.

I'm a little bit loopy with antihistamines, so blame that if this post is less coherent than it might otherwise have been.

You should read In the Lion's Den Book 1: He Shall Be Cast. It's the first in a planned trilogy of original slash novels by

que_qiao, and utterly brilliant in ways I'm completely incapable of expressing. The two young men are so real - they almost haunt me, their voices and stories following me around regardless of whether I'm awake or asleep. The setting is perfectly described, the little world that's been created so wonderful that I'd love to step through into it. As always, the author's use of language is fantastic; beautiful without ever slipping past that into purple prose. The story itself is incredibly compelling. 120k words that make me more happy than I can say.

Go! Read! Leave feedback for the writer! :-D

Today I did two betas. Go, me!

Are there Ellen Kushner fans on my flist? I think there must be (other than

wordsofastory, I mean.) I've still only read Swordspoint, the original book, but I've also read some really lovely fanfic in case people are interested. All of these are NC-17, Alec/Richard, and superbly written.
Over a Lake of Cracking Ice by

rm
Secret of Its Skeleton by

wordsofastory
Come Back by

wordsofastory

Also, I wanted to pimp some truly fantastic original m/m fic by

que_qiao (aka Magpie.) The series is called School of The Tiger, and the stories, in order, are:
Reach for the Moon
The Gravedigger
and Show Not Tell Part 1 Part 2 Part 3
These are such wonderful stories -- the characters are so vivid they practically jump off the page.

Oh! And thank you so much,

justhuman, for the little tree on my user page! I love it. :-)

I'm so excited!

janedavitt's incredible novel Drawing Closer is out today from Torquere Press.

This is seriously one of the best stories I've ever read. It's incredibly well-written, the characters are fantastic, and I just love it to pieces. Definitely one you don't want to miss!!!

I first mentioned R. Beck's Elements of Recovery back in this post from June of 2006.

The back of the book says:

As children, Shep and Cameron were best friends. As adolescents, they were lovers. But as adults, they become strangers. Shep, now married, receives a wedding invitation from Cameron and his internal struggle begins.

There are so many things I love about this story that I'm at a loss about where to start. The characters are totally real, from dialogue to the ways that they behave. It took about a chapter for me to fall hopelessly for Shep, who's been doing his best to ignore the fact that he's been in love with Cameron forever, but is married to Paige. They have a good marriage, a good relationship, and it's not until Shep gets the invitation to Cam's wedding that things go bad, and then they go very, very bad. It's hard to get across what I like about this book without spoiling potential readers, so I'll try to stop there. But the dialogue is fantastic, the characters -- all of them -- believable and intriguing. The scenes are vivid and really draw the reader in, even the casual ones, and I found the ending immensely satisfying.

Wow.

I've just finished the first part (77 pages) and... wow. I can in no way be said to be a history buff, although that may be because of the ways in which it's been presented to me, kind of dry and focused on dates and the names of battles rather than given any sort of a human touch. This book is FANTASTIC so far. Not that I expected otherwise, but I'm still... pretty much just coming back to "wow." The main characters are VERY real, the writing style is vivid, the sentence structure complex in the best of ways, and I'm totally spellbound by how wonderful it is. I'm sure I'll post about it again when I'm further in. Really excellent stuff. I'm so glad there's lots left to read.

1. Happy birthday to the lovely, kind and quick-witted

up_your_peach, whose LJ name makes me grin every time I see it. Have a wonderful, wonderful day, honey!

2. I just sat down and read the first chapter of

nancykayshapiro's What Loves Means to You People and I am just... blown away. I shouldn't be surprised, because I knew it was going to be amazing, and I'd already seen other people say as much all over the place, but I'm still stunned by how gorgeous it is. In one chapter I'm totally drawn in, feeling like a voyeur in the most delicious of ways. The language is precise and flowery at the same time -- the characters vivid and sharply drawn, three dimensional -- and I'm shivery with the anticipation of finding out what happens next. I'm going to be strong and do what I do when I know that a book is going to end up meaning a lot to me; I'm going to read it slowly, one chapter at a time instead of racing through it, savoring every word. OMGawd. Buy this book. You will not be sorry. *Is stunned with delight*

This morning I bought the following from Torquere Press:

Heat by Tory Temple

911 by Chris Owen

Keep You by Cindy Rosenthal

I'm really, really looking forward to reading all of them. :-)

Okay, if you ever buy original fic at all and you like slash, here are some stories/books you don't want to miss!

janedavitt's Broomsticks and Stones. This story is part of Torquere Press's new Birthstones line; I had the honor of proofreading the story before Jane submitted it and it is easily one of the best stories I've read in the past year. It's unique and tinged with magic and deliciously smutty and so FUN.

Willa Okati's Dreams and Daymares. This is a collection of short stories, and they're all excellent. I don't tend to get excited about short stories, either individually or as anthologies, because they're usually just too SHORT -- I generally want something long that I can really sink my teeth into. But in this case I'm so glad that I didn't miss these stories. They're so GOOD.

Chris Owen and Jodi Payne's newly released Deviations: Submission. I haven't even had a chance to read this one yet, but I'm totally confident about recommending it because I know how these authors write. Get it! It's the first of a series of four books -- yay! -- and sure to be incredible.

I ordered and am eagerly awaiting the arrival of all three of Torquere Press's books in print -- Bareback by Chris Owen, Three Day Passes by Sean Michael, and Jumping Into Things by Julia Talbot. Whee!

You most definitely want to go read

mogigraphia's The Gravedigger, which is a heck of a story. Original slash, real and honest and powerful. I was blown away.

(This story is a sequel to her Grabbing Hands (grab all they can), both of which can be found here, but read The Gravedigger on LJ so you can leave feedback. You'll want to.)

Many thanks to

faemovana for pointing it out in the first place.

The God Eaters by Chartreuse. Lovely, long, western/fantasy slash with delicious characters and a fantastic story.