Recs, or, Come on, look at them! They're cute as a button!

[jlh]

I just sent 10,000 words of Rymon to poor dana_kujan and how do I repay her? By writing a "Cake" Rec Post. All recs are always for samgrrrl because she likes recs. There isn't a lot here, just four authors that I'm willing to say you should read, one of which you absolutely must (that means you, sistermagpie).

Ah, Cake: Chris Richardson and Blake Lewis. Never before, in the three years I've been floating around American Idol fandom, have I ever got myself involved in singerslash; just never found any of the pairings particularly interesting. But one day on idolslash there appeared not just a story with two of the singers, but three—a MMF threesome. And it was really hot. And Chris Richardson and Blake Lewis were two of my favorites on the show. I was hooked, and it was all lillijulianne's fault. But more on that later. Wank from the VoteForTheWorst boards led to these lovely cakefics being removed from idolslash and all the cakers hunkering down over at cakeforever. All of the following links will lead you to cakeforever, and you'll have to join to see them.

Some notes on cakeforever: It's a big comm, and it moves quickly, especially now with everyone posting all their photos from the tour and the latest gossip and interviews. And for reasons I am not interested in going into, there are a lot of rather young and tinhattish fans. So if you want to explore the Land of Cake further than my recs below, my advice is to just click on the fics, or ask the lovely allysonsedai for further recommendations.

So you know how we're always talking about how we want our porn to be really smart, and tell a story through the sex, and not be all "ew girly bits"? Ladies and Gentlemen, meet lillijulianne. My links at del.icio.us include the dates she posted the stories and I suggest that you read them in that order. 42 stories, though each one is fairly short, and a lot of it also includes Kat McPhee (hence the "McCake"). She's given us not only really layered takes on these "characters" but also an intense emotional arc. These are the kinds of stories that we're always trying to find, the kind you can really sink your teeth into, and I can't recommend them highly enough. No, really, run don't walk.

For really well-written, mostly smutty, ship fic, I also recommend two other writers, birdisland and ruby_fruit. Rubyfruit's 12 stories are incredibly hot, inventive, with that little bit of humor at the core that makes them really fun to read. Birdisland's 8 stories are in a more impressionistic style, but no less sexy.

Then there are writers who are writing stories that feel like you could have written them yourself, and you're just so glad they're writing, too. For me, the latter is lessthangreat—except she's a lot more prolific than I am; I've linked to 19 stories here, and all are funny and loving with a sweetness underneath. She does great dialogue and her stories really, in the end, are just fun to read. Some are lighter than others, but I recommend them all.

Comments

[lessthangreat.livejournal.com]

Ohmigosh, I've been recced! *is insanely flattered*

I gotta say, I'm always really happy when people say they enjoy my dialogue, because dialogue for me has always been what carries stories and novels. It's why certain chapters of LOTR were extremely difficult for me to manage - eight pages of description of trees and suddenly I've forgotten what we were doing in a forest anyway - and why I love the HP series so much. Communication via spoken conversation is so key to real life that it just always seemed natural to put a good deal - though not all, which I understand is important - of the focus on dialogue.

/ramblings

♥ Thank you, hun! :)

[jlh.livejournal.com]

This will have to stand in, for now anyway, for like, reviews? Because you're so damn prolific? Except continue Rymon plz.

[lessthangreat.livejournal.com]

XD Sounds good to me. And yes, I will definitely continue the Rymon. There are a handful of Cake bunnies I need to flesh out first, but then I have a list of Rymon bunnies to write as well. So it's all good. :) No worries.

[lillijulianne.livejournal.com]

ok, i...may stop blushing in about six years.

thank you.

[jlh.livejournal.com]

So clearly my goal is like, never!

[dana-kujan.livejournal.com]

The 10,000 words of Rymon are payment enough!

I think tomorrow's my last day of work for the week; so, I should be able to send you feedback sooner than I thought.

[locumtenens.livejournal.com]

Hee. You've probably read more than I have!

But, for posterity's sake, here are the fics I have on my del.icio.us (http://del.icio.us/allysonsedai/Cake). Basically I rec anything andthatisthat and elvensorceress (who also writes fantastic RENT fic) has ever written.

Memory-ing this post for future reference!

[samgrrrl.livejournal.com]

Hooray, recs!

ps. I've been reading a ton of HPfic in preparation for finishing book 7. And seriously, found a new love for Slytherin, of all things.

[jlh.livejournal.com]

Dude! I'll have to ask you what you were reading!

Congrats on the license by the way! You rock! I was sending good vibes your way that day!

So dude, Ali and I think that you and Yvonne should come to Harold's restaurant. I'll send an email but are you interested?

I'm also rather annoyed with this week's results. *pout*