Ruth Sadelle Alderson

Yuletide Story for Me
Someone wrote me Unasked. Rizzoli & Isles fic, just for me!

Yuletide Guessing Game
I wrote one story in the main collection and one in the madness collection. I talked to many of you about my story in the main collection, so those of you who heard about it are ineligible for guessing on that one, but I didn't talk to anyone about my madness story since I didn't know I was going to write it until I did. Anyway, if you guess what I wrote, I will write you a snippet of your choice!

Yuletide Recs
I surprised myself by how few Yuletide fandoms I actually wanted to read stories in. (The sexism/misogyny of so many of the requests I read on the spreadsheets of all requests also soured my enjoyment of the whole thing. Really, fandom, we're still doing that?) Of the things I did read, the following are the stories I liked best. AO3 usability hint: if you hate the Yuletide banner/margin, delete "collections/yuletide2011/" from the URL and it'll show the story without the Yuletide stuff around it.

open problem (Push, gen) - This is a fantastic post-movie story that manages to incorporate the same kind of twists and turns the movie does, and there's a line in there that is just a phenomenal perspective on the whole plot.

And You're Overdue ("You Make Me Feel" video, Gabe/Sabi) - I liked a lot of things about this video, but hated the way it reinforces the supremacy of couples and coupledom. This story fixes all that by making it a soulbonding story in a world with empaths, succubi, and other supernatural types. It also has this fantastic piece of dialogue about Gabe: "You were easy to find. Everything about you is very loud and your tour schedule is on the Internet."

All the Little Lives We Could Have Lived (Titanic RPF, Kate/Leo) - This is not a pairing I would have ever thought of on my own, but the fact that there was a story on some commentfic meme a while ago made me click on the fandom in the Yuletide collection. This is a lovely story that spans decades. I loved both the portrayal of their relationship and the way they are both such interesting characters.

Amy Potter and the Monkey of Salvation: an America's Test Kitchen Adventure (Cook's Illustrated/TV Commercials, gen) - I was curious about cookbook fic, and I have a soft spot for fic about Mayhem, so of course I had to read this. It's great. It's adorable and it made me laugh.

Three Scenes from Tiny Cooper's 2014 New Year's Eve Party that Will Definitely Be in His Autobiography (Will Grayson Will Grayson, Tiny/Will) - I was iffy about Will Grayson Will Grayson fic because the book is so fantastic, but this story didn't disappoint at all.

Other Holiday Challenge Recs
I read a handful of bandomstuffsit fics today, and there were two I absolutely loved.

Food Of Love (Play On) (Alex/Ryland) - This is a semi-AU where Cobra Starship never got off the ground, so Ryland is a waiter/aspiring actor who also plays in Gabe's band on the weekends. He meets up with Alex again when Alex becomes the new sous chef at the restaurant. This story is so perfect. It's romantic and funny and delightful. I almost emailed one of you a rec today, and then I realized the person I was going to email probably wrote the story and had to put it in a post instead.

the times, they are a-changing, or: a modern marriage of convenience (Brendon/Spencer) - There's sort of a plot here - Dallon suggests that since they're both single at the holidays, Brendon and Spencer should hook up - but mostly there is a really hot, kinky sex scene with Spencer subbing.

Let me start with a seemingly unrelated story. We were chatting in belly dance last night about shows that get better (one of the women in the class said Lie To Me gets better after the pilot, and the current other fangirl in the class said someone tried to get her into Smallville by saying it got better in season 8, which I laughed at), and I realized that I forgot to turn on the DTV box, which means I taped static instead of Supernatural. I thought that it would be okay because I could just watch it online. So this morning when I was ready to watch while lifting weights and making lunch, I spent twenty minutes trying to find a watchable video. Of the two I could get to play, one of them had the audio so out of sync I wasn't willing to put up with it, and the other got all wonky and stretched out on full screen. (I'm sure someone will come along to tell me this could all be easier if I used BitTorrent, but that's not the point of this story. It would also be easier if networks would realize people will watch their shows on their sites with ads if they post them the next day, but that's also not the point of this story.) I finally got frustrated and decided I would just watch Burn Notice instead, since I also usually catch up on that on Fridays. So I'm watching this week's ep, and all of a sudden, "Hey, it's that guy!" That guy, in this case, was Joel Gretsch, who played Tom on The 4400. Here's where this story starts to relate. Push starts out with a scene that takes place ten years ago. Guess who's in that scene? Yes, that's right: Joel Gretsch, playing the father of Nick, our protagonist. Now here's where it relates even more: we also see Nick ten years ago. I was watching it thinking, "Wait, is that?" And then, "No, no, you're only thinking that because it's Friday and you usually watch SPN on Fridays." But, no, my first thought was right. Young Nick is played by Colin Ford, who also played young Sam in two SPN eps.

That seems like an auspicious beginning, and indeed it was. As far as sci fi goes, Push is not as awesome as Babylon A.D., but I still very much liked it. In fact, aside from a (not insignificant, I admit) point to be made about how our heroes are white and the villains are almost all poc, I don't think there was anything I disliked about it.

( Spoilers )