jlh | they also serve who write happy things

First, thanks to everyone who replied to my previous post about being a bad fangirl. It's crazy how often any of us feel that way! (it's crazy.) The most frequent reply I received was that if I'm having fun and not harming anyone I can't be doing it wrong. I rarely think of fandom as something that I'm doing for my own self-satisfaction, so I'll have to think about that statement for a while.

A friend asked for my definition of a "good" fangirl, and while I gave it to her in the comments I decided that rather than laying it out here, I'd flip it and talk about the things that I do that I feel aren't really in that definition. (Turning negatives into positives makes me feel a lot better.) This isn't about disparaging the majority, hopefully, but about celebrating the minority!! So today's aspect: schmoop, fluff, comfort, domesticity.

I do love a good domestic story where all that really happens is that a plate was put back in the cabinet, or in the old cliche, some curtains were hung. I love little moments of peacefulness, and even longer stories that meander a bit and might not have much in the way of conflict. I'm not saying I want only that, but given how much of our storytelling is about death and destruction and violence and dark/angry sex and people hurting each other--Holly Black once said that someone always has to die, and I think Joss Whedon is on the train of needing death or the threat of death to make a story meaningful--it's nice to also have stories where someone gets a puppy, or has a nice dinner, or watches their kid take her first steps. These stories can be meaningful, too.

So of course I can't tell you guys how excited I am about

schmoop_bingo! There's been several great stories posted for K/Mc certainly. Sometimes I get a little frustrated because the stories I've seen aren't really schmoop--schmoop/fluff should be all but conflict-free, not just h/c that's a little heavier on the c, or h/c that ends happily. It's more like all comfort, no hurt. I know that the fangirl preference is for angst and most people prefer to write a lot of it, but I dunno, then don't write schmoop? Write some h/c, or any of the other bingos? Just a thought.

The highest compliment I've gotten from readers is that they think of my fics as comforting and reread them when they need to feel better. That's how I feel about my favorite fics and books too. I don't write angst because I'm not very good at it; that whole way people talk about gleefully torturing their characters just isn't how I write. So when the big bangs are done and I start in on the bingo cards--kink, schmoop and kiss--expect a lot of that from this quarter. Be forewarned! (I'll also pick back up the comfort fic series I started a while back.)

Anyway, I got two really splendid comfort fics a few weeks ago and wanted to share them with you all! (I wrote some recently as well, but like all my comment fic it needs a bit of a clean up before I post it)

Dear

amyamy wrote me some Kirk/McCoy, Seeking Slumber, the night before I left for Infinitus. I had to get up at ridiculous o'clock to get on a plane and a conversation with a friend had both gone too late and upset me a good deal; she came on chat and calmed me down and I was able to get to sleep. When I woke up, this adorable little fic was in my email.

Last month someone posted a fandom secret about how they often wrote comfort fic for their friends but no one wrote it for them. In the comments I sympathized and noted that when I'd been mugged not long ago I'd asked just for links to comfort fic and didn't get many. And then in the comments of

fandomsecrets,

shadowbyrd wrote me some delightful Percy/Oliver fluff!

Link me if you can--what's some fluffy/schmoopy fic that you've been enjoying?