historical AUs—send all recs!

[jlh]

So there's been an avalanche of fail recently, regarding historical AUs, both RPF and "FPF." I've been thinking about writing a post, a kind of "how to write one and avoid horrible fail!" But to do that, I need your recs!

Please rec historical AUs that you really love, that you feel avoided these kinds of fails but still managed to deal with the historical issues. Many of us have written the equivalent of a costume drama—like, putting the characters in a Regency Romance—that completely avoids the issues of the time. That's totally fine! But those AUs are not the ones I wanted to look at for this project.

I'd love to have AUs from a wide range of fandoms, and various time periods! Feel free to pimp this out to your own flist, and if you have suggestions for things I should think about to include in the eventual post please let me know! (Or, if you'd like to read it over—I think I'll definitely need some "betas" on this one, and I can't force sistermagpie and ali_wildgoose to do all of it!)

Thanks!!

Comments

[turlough]

Here through mahoni.

Going through my bandom recs I came up with these fics that I think might be the sort you're looking for.

- A Lovely Apparition (or, The One Where Gerard's A Crossdresser in the 1790s) by jezrana is mainly a romance but it doesn't sidestep the issues of crossdressing and homosexuality (21,720 words)
- These Walls Are Built To Fall by jezrana is also mainly a romance (this one taking place vaguely in the Edwardian period) but it doesn't sidestep the class and sexuality issues (6,930 words)
- Up the Line by tabula_x_rasa takes place on the Western front during the last months of WWI and it's firmly rooted in its time and place, very little prettifying (54,630 words)
- The End of the Beginning by tuesdaysgone is a post WWII story about soldiers home from the war and the wives who've been living without them for so long (14,920 words)

[jlh]

Wow, what a treasure trove! This is exciting!

I think I'll need mahoni to give me a little bandom primer!

Thank you so much, this is really excellent!

[turlough]

You're welcome! I love reccing stuff and have an insanely tagged Delicious :-)

I think the most comprehensive is probably the one in crack_van, it deals with most of the bands and was last updated a year ago.

[jlh]

Thanks again!

Wow, you do have a lot of tags! I was thinking about alternate tags for AO3 fics but my tagging is pretty bare bones, gotta say. pairing, rating, a note about timing, general length, that's about it. You are very organized!

[turlough]

Well, my delicious isn't "just" for me. It's the place where I collect the weekly rec posts I've been making in my journal for the last three years so I try to imagine what kind of things people would like to search for. And I love tagging, I'm forever fiddling with them :-)