So, very soon now I plan to make a post about how my life is totally insanely busy right now because work is kicking my ass because the fucking Texas state legislature keeps making new laws that ITS manages to turn into WEEKS' worth of more work for me on top of like, the job I am actually supposed to be doing. But now is not that time. Now, I am reccing a story that I just read because I'm pretty sure it was for me even though I dropped out of aiholidaybash for above mentioned reasons:

Physics Makes Us All Its Bitches

Go! Read it! If I know my flist, and I think I do, you will all enjoy the fuck out of this fic. I mean, it's 18,000 words of Kris-Brad BODYSWAP fic. As in, Brad and Kris switch bodies, and Adam finally figures his shit out because OMG KRIIIIIS. I mean, how can anyone deny their love of Kris, especially (despite?) when Kris is in Brad's body. The only thing that could possibly be better would be bodyswap alien mpreg wingfic in which Kris gives birth to a unicorn or something, but you know, if we got *everything* we wanted, there'd be nothing left to live for! So go read it. You won't be sorry.

And now, I think I am going to take a bath and catch up on Legend of the Seeker and Merlin and Dollhouse and finally finish winterlive's queenbitchfest fic, because omg I'm only like halfway through. THAT's how busy I've been, you guys. Too busy to finish a 50k-word post-apocalyptic American Idol fic. And that is sadtimes.

Oh also, I sent a bunch of you Christmas cards! And thanks to moonmelody and madam_d for the LJ gifts. Does anyone know if I can combine the gifts so I don't have to pay anything to upgrade back to paid account status? I don't like giving money to LJ, plus since I have 2, it seems like I should be able to use them both and get a free upgrade... but I've tried a couple ways and can't figure out how to use them both at the same time. Ideas? Anyone? Bueller??

Later, I will post a mix to make up for my lack of being around lately. It's a mix for a fic, and I will write a drabble for the person who guesses which fic the mix belongs to. <3

I hate doing recs on Saturdays because everyone is off having fun and living lives and not bored at work or school so I think people never see them, but since I'm actually super freaking busy at work now, this is the only time I have to do them, and OMG I need to make recs or I feel like the awesomeness from this fandom will explode my brain.

+LA's Gonna Eat You Alive: The Diary of Matt Giraud by fakeplasticsnow (adam/matt, anoop/megan) // OMFG you guys. Even if this wasn't written FOR ME OMG, I would still be completely obsessed and in love with it. Ever since JC's Diary, I have had a major thing for the Bridget Jones trope. Dear fakeplasticsnow knew this, and rewarded me for fucking around with one of her fics for a few weeks with this piece of total awesomeness. It's hilarious and adorable and someone, despite the total unreality of it all, she STILL manages to nail the characterizations so perfectly. Especially Anoop. ESPECIALLY MATTYG, AND WHY DON'T MORE PEOPLE WRITE HIM OMG??? You see? This fic has me capslocking like OotP Harry. It has me talking in internet acronyms like I've swapped brains with my mother. I LOVE IT SO MUCH.

I hate Kris Allen.

I mean, he spells his name with a K. What the hell kind of retarded twinkie trend is that? Maybe I should call myself Zmatt Giraud and tell people the Z is silent, it's French. I could even put an apostrophe, so it's edgy. Z'matt Giraud. Or Giraude with an E for added stylishness.

So today, Hi-Def Records' latest hitmaker Kris Allen walked into the office with his stupid angelic face and perfect sculpted body and unbuttoned-to-AWKWARD plaid shirt (plaid, what the fuck, who wears plaid in the real world), and every time he smiled, a choir of angels sang. Fucker.

( I got it, you want it, something something WHATEVER IT TAKES! )


And that's all for recs for now. I plan to spend most of this weekend catching up on fic (so many fics in my "to be read" file on delicious, EEEP, but also YAY!!) and I owe some people some betas.

Also, does anyone know when we're supposed to hear about our auction stuff? I'm pretty sure I know what the people who won me want, but I need specifics! It was so lovely to see how much 'The Rescue Blues' means to people. I want to write something really amazing for those people, something even better than the original. I hope I can do it. Eeeeep.

And now, I need to go shopping. Please remember: if you read a fic, LEAVE THEM FEEDBACK!!! All of these fics are so amazing, and the authors deserve to know it. Also so they will become addicted to the love and attention and write more. *beams*

With all the fuckery that went down last night, I figured maybe some recs are in order to staunch my feelings of annoyance over the whole thing.

(And no, I don't want to talk about it. I expressed my opinions at the time and until someone can give me a logical explanation that holds up under scrutiny, I'm not going to bother saying anything else. I want to get revenge by reccing and discussing some of the amazing fic that's been written in the past few weeks, because apparently these activities are ~dangerous and you know me: I'm a rebel.)

All my previous recs can be found via my LJ recs tag (with summaries and thoughts and such) or via my delicious recs tag if you just want to know pairing and a link.

+Kiss A Girl by setissma (kris/adam) // YOU GUYS!! SOMEONE FINALLY WROTE GENDERSWAP OMG!! And it's actually really really good. Because it's not the typical genderswap plot; it's not about the genderswap being the catalyst for the still-a-dude character's realization that OMG, he does love the suddenly-Susaned character and the girl parts help him realize that it's not the parts that matter, it's the person inside the parts, blah blah. I do love those stories, but this is not that story. This is better, because it uses the genderswap to address a different issue entirely (Kris's penchant for teasing Adam with his "pretend" gay). Plus, it's funny and well-written and the Kris in this is utterly perfect.

"I'm okay," Kris says, and it's the truth; he has a house in LA and three guitars and friends who don't question how much he loves music and he has Adam. It hasn't been easy, but Kris has lived through harder things, and for the first time, he feels like he's not trying to split himself into pieces, one person on weekends and holidays and during two am phone calls and another the rest of the time. Adam's never asked him to be anything but what he is.

( werewolves and wizards and het, OMR! )

And that's it, kids! Discuss, rec me things back, and if you read, leave some love for these authors, who are all made of awesome and sunshine AND THEN THEY SAVED A DYING CHILD THE END.

recs: porn and anoop and zombies, oh my!

More American Idol recs! Because everyone is awesome and keeps writing fantastic fic and you all need to read them because YES. And please please remember to leave these writers feedback and encourage them to write more. The Britney directive works, y'all.

( Gimme gimme more, gimme more. It's ADAM, bitch! )

*

And that is all for now, kids. Write more. Entertain me. And don't forget that stori_telling is due on August 1!!!

recs: american idol is awesome, your argument is invalid

So, many of you know that I've been watching American Idol for several years now. I watched the first season kind of randomly... I was in college at the time so it was more like I caught some episodes and I watched Kelly win. I saw enough to wonder where the Guy Who Isn't Seacrest was when I started watching it again during grad school, which was (I think) S4. Whichever one was the Bo Bice year. I resisted, but my roommates at the time (lecksee and stellaface were determined to pull me out from under my pop-culture rock. And then I met Jacob while visiting dazifudo in Austin that April, and that sort of forced me to watch it, so I could understand his recaps.

Anyway, blah blah, I've been watching for a while. And I've never really gotten that into it. I enjoy it. But I fast forward through the people I don't like and sometimes I leave the room during the judges' comments because they annoy me one way or another. I would say until this season, I was more of a casual watcher. I admit, I did consider going to Idols Live during the Ace/Daughtry/Bo/Constantine season because, I mean... ACE. But then I didn't, because even I am not that lame. Until, apparently, now.

Fucking Lambert. He ruined my cool. I'm even starting to like his version of 'No Boundaries.' Yeah, I'm doomed. With that in mind, have some recs, and share my fate.

Note: most of these are probably already on other recs lists. But I like to actually say something about why I liked a fic and what it's about when I rec something. And I think I can honestly say that most of you who read my fic or my journal regularly will really love these fics, even knowing next to nothing about American Idol.

( american idol 8 fic I think is good that you should read now so I have people to talk to about this. )

Last week I asked you all to choose the Best Fic Ever. After a week of polling and many comments from people extolling the virtues of their Chosen, here are the results!

(If you have taken too long to answer the poll, don't worry, I am not closing it. Answer the poll and comment at that post with a reason why you chose what you did, and I will add it to the list!)

Another note: Some of these fics have no explanation for why they were chosen, because their choose-ees didn't give me one and I hadn't read the fic to give an opinion. I would love to have comments about each fic listed, though, so if you want to say why a fic is awesome (even if it wasn't your choice), leave me a comment and I will edit the post accordingly.

Fics appear in the order in which their Choosers posted to the poll. If you didn't leave me a link, your fic won't be on the list. Any corrections, please leave me a comment.

And finally, the fandom range is pretty limited, which is an unfortunate side effect of me knowing lots of popslashers and HP people, and not many others. So no offense intended to other fandoms; I fully realize the results of this are skewed.

( This will be my reading list for the next year! )

Yesterday I met a new person, wutendeskind, and you all know how I love new people, and how I like to make them read all my favorite fic even if they're resistant to my fandom/pairing/whatever. Well, wutendeskind has admitted to reading lots of JuC, but has only just started to expand her horizons with other pairings. So I decided to make her a recs list of Non-JuC. For the record, all my recs can be found:

+at my delicious page
+via my recs tag
+at Popsoundboard's recs tag
+Recs by Characters from turps33, who solicited recs from everyone ever.

And now for some recs. I tried to rec classic must-reads in all the non-JuC pairings. Now, she's not much of a Joey slasher, so I only have a very few Joey pairing fics. And she's read lots of Sandy, so I refrained from my usual "read all of these!" comments.

As always, feel free to add to this list via comments and I will edit the post accordingly. If you rec a fic I am not familiar with, please give the pairing and say why you like it!

( It's like drinking cum from a cock! )

And when I get home from work I will add my crossover pairings and my Advanced Placement pairings, and everyone else's suggestions.

I've made it through all of the NSYNC fic so here is my recs list! Well, when I said "made it through"... here's where I admit that if the dialogue was too stilted or I didn't like the characterizations, I pretty much stopped reading. I decided to be picky this year, and not force myself through fics that weren't my thing. So this is a very picky recs list catering pretty much only to my tastes, which are apparently really different from y'alls, judging by the recs lists I've seen. So! Here's a highly biased recs list:

+When You're Up to Your Ass in Alligators (chris/jc) // Man, this fic. Is so fucking amazing and I don't think I've really seen it rec'd anywhere and I don't know why because it's definitely in my top two of everything I've read so far. I'm pretty sure I know who wrote it, too (and no, I didn't just check the admin site. I'm not a cheater!). Anyway, it's one of those distopian AUs where the world is scary and weird but the guys are the same. This writer has AUs down to an art, and really manages to do something that very few people can do with AUs, which is keep the characters and their relationships to each other the same as in a non-AU, and yet perfectly fit them into a world which is incredibly different from the real world. She also builds an entire universe in the space of a short-ish fic (for a distopian future-verse, it's short, anyway), and does so seamlessly, without over-explaining or doing fact dumps or anything as clumsy as that. This is a well-written, scary fic, but it's also funny and sweet at times. She creates a clear picture of this world in such a short space of time. I could read so much more of this universe, and yet I'm satisfied with just this piece as well.

( More recs. Yummy. )

*

And that's all for now. I have only just started on the crossovers, so more later.

So I was talking with randomling yesterday and she was telling me all about the porn she is planning on writing, and it was decided that I should make a list of awesome popslash porn. So! Here it is. I will not go into detail about why each fic is awesome. It's just a list. But I will choose a quote that demonstrates said awesomeness. To view the list without my commentary, here's my pornish delicious tag.

( In no particular order, here, have some porn recs. )

And there are a few more on my list but I am out of time at work. TIME FOR HOME. So, enjoy your porn!

catviret asked for recs of long popslash fics. She likes Justin, so I tried to focus on him, which really is not hard to do. He's quite the attention-whore. *beams* She's read barely anything, so if you see something obvious missing from this list, comment with a link and a little bit about why you like that fic, and I will add it.

+The Hackery AU by Georgina (Justin/Nick) // Because it's long, it has an adorable Justin/Nick story, and is generally enjoyable all around. They're hackers! YAY!

+The Seahorse Story by Betty Plotnick (Justin/Trace) // Justin lays eggs! But it's really good. This fic could only happen in popslash, and it's one of my favorites. You can tell because I rec it every other week.

+21st Century Love Story by jewelianna (lambs) // Oh man. I know I have recc'd this before but it's one of my absolute favorite lambs fics. Not an AU, but not so much resembling real life, either. They go shopping! They buy sheets! I love this story.

( Recs! YAY. We loves them. )

*

So if you know of any epic-length fics that are Lambs, Timbertrick, Timbertone, Choey, Trickyfish or Bassez that I am forgetting about, let me know! YAY READING. I think reading is the most important thing a popslasher can do to become a better writer and also to understand and immerse yourself in a fandom's particular culture. Hurrah!

I finally have JuC Swap recs for everyone! There were so many good fics this swap, it was kind of incredible. Because of that, this list might get a bit lengthy.

+Hi De Woe by turps33 // A very excellent, entertaining, and rich AU in which the SDBs all work at some kind of circus... camp... thing. I can't really describe it because it's like a carnival, maybe? That doesn't travel or have any purpose? I don't think we have them in the US, but that hardly matters because Terri really creates her own little world so I don't care if I understand what exactly this place is. Her JC manages to be amusingly JCish without being overly kitteny, and I love Justin going all "must defend JC's honor!" on Chris.

+(I'm Not) Home for Christmas by catviret // An absolutely adorable, sweet fic in which Justin and JC are trapped overnight at a bus station in Chicago at Christmas and OMG I LOVE THIS FIC. It makes me very very happy, and also has a LOT of hot sex in it. If, you know, that's something you might be looking for. I can't wait for the sequel. I love her JC and Justin, and even the brief glimpses of Chris we get. And I love how she manages to jam an entire courtship into a few hours but makes it seems completely reasonable and like something that could and has happened to anyone.

+You Give Sweet by kira_j // Someone said a while back they wished they could write like kira; I think everyone wishes they could, because her writing is so, just. Incredible. I don't even know how to describe it. I look forward to reading her fics because I know the language will be beautiful, and each word will have meaning and thought behind it. The way she describes things is just incredible. I told her in feedback that reading her fic feels like watching a David Lynch film to me. And I happen to love Lynch; I love watching a film and really thinking about how everything comes together. I went to a screening of INLAND EMPIRE with Lynch last year, and he said his process is sort of like, pieces of a puzzle come to him and he's never sure how they'll sort themselves out at the end, but when he gets there, it makes sense. That's exactly how this piece feels to me.

( So many more recs, because clearly you guys are all awesome! )

So starting in August, I will again be driving the crack_van for August. YAY! A few days ago, wendy made a post asking for people's favorite fics of all time. Now I am asking you! I can't rec anything that's already been rec'd (which leaves out a lot of "classics"), but I would like to know anyway--what are your absolute favorite popslash fics? Maybe give me an oldie and a more recent one (from the last 2 years or so).

And because I am not about one-sided anything, here's mine:

Oldie: Many-Roomed Houses of Wood by Sandy. Of course. I made trumpeterofdoom read this last week and she cursed me for days because it's all sad and they're so broken. But! It's redeeming at the end! And happy! I like Justinbot. Maybe, like Lance, I like Justinbot more than Original Justin. HMMM.

Newie: Deja Voodoo by kira_j. This was a really hard decision because there've been so many awesome fics lately with all the month challenges and remix and MTYG, which was just awesome this year. I still really love Diurnal by boomingvoice and um, pretty much everthing llamabitchyo has written, but most especially JC the Lunchlady and JC the Tailor. But the thing about Deja Voodoo is that it's got such odd-yet-perfect pairings (Chris/Lynn? Justin/Britney? Longingly Timbertrick! JoeC!) that most people would probably avoid, but just make SENSE in this story. And the writing is just gorgeous. There are parts that blow my mind, to be honest. It's a beautiful fic and it came out of a challenge I created simply to make people write more Lynn Harless fic, so that makes it even more amazing, I think.

Now, what are yours? Click here to tell me!

I'm sure you all know by now, but REMIX IS UP YAY!!!

And some genius remixed my JOSHLYNN/Lynncest, FOR THE FUCKING WIN! Go read it: now that's what i call a motherfucking oedipal complex (the "so tell me about your mother" mix). Fuck yeah. It's brilliant!!

AND, it is somehow not the only JOSHLYNN. I'm telling you, my OTP is totally taking over. SCORE. See, people love the JOSHLYNN, even if they maybe don't want to admit it publicly. JOSHLYNN rules, other pairings drool!

I'm a little excited.

What else? OH! Guess my remix! If you guess correctly, you can have a ficlet (or fic, depending on how inspiring you are) of your choice, whatever pairing or fandom or people you want. If I don't know them, I will write them anyway, they will just suck.

REMIX!!!

I did some recs over here. There were some pretty amazing Dragon fics this year. I'm afraid that some of the more subtle fics got, um. Drowned out by the utterly INSANE ones. Apparently, when we're allowed to write about dolphins, crazy shit happens.

llamabitchyo and I were discussing the awesomeness of Lance and how JC needs to learn from Lance's awesomeness by possibly hugging puppies, and I decided to make a rec list of my favorite Lances.

+A Slow Beating Between Them by wearemany (bassez) // This is the first popslash AU I ever read, and it's pretty much amazing. Lance is an A&R guy. He discovers JC, a weird musician who lives in his parents' garage and works at a Boston Market. And they are in love and JC has flock o' seagulls hair and I love this fic to pieces.
Quote: He's got over a thousand songs he's written since he was sixteen on seven hard drives and a sweet new mic for vocals that he bought with birthday money. With his headphones on, he can almost pretend the rhythmic thudding of sneakers in the dryer is part of the beat he's writing. He's got his tunes, and his internet, and cash to spare for old vinyl. He's got everything he needs.

( Lanceface, Lanceface, rolly polly Lanceface! )

Okay, we need to discuss the awesomeness that is llamabitchyo's new fic, The Tailor and the Beautiful Men of Somewhat Normal Stature. Actually, no, I think I will just quote the first two paragraphs and let you learn of the awesomeness yourselves:

There was once a young tailor, who worked very hard and had a... truly unique sense of fashion, but still could not earn enough to live upon while dressing himself in style. He tried to make a name for himself on Project Runway, but that fell through for him. For even though Tim Gunn liked to buy him drinks and Michael Kors always had a glint in his eyes whenever he glanced the poor tailor's way, he was too inarticulate to defend his unusual fashion vision and it was "auf Wiedersehen" by the end of the fourth episode.

All he had in the world was gone, save for a single Laura Ashley sheet that he thought he could perhaps turn into one last shirt. So he laid the sheet out on his cutting table and sketched patterns until it was too dark to continue, for electricity was expensive and only his sewing machine and coffee maker were ever plugged in anymore. Then he set his pattern aside, all ready to begin cutting and sewing the next day. He would rise early in the morning, finish his final shirt, and then bid farewell to fashion and walk down the street to Starbucks to fill out an application.

Go. Read. NOW!!!

In other news, I heard this really interesting story on NPR yesterday. They're doing a series on transgender children (go NPR!!) and last night they talked about a contraversial new drug therapy used to block puberty in transgender kids until they're old enough to decide whether they want to go ahead with hormone therapy. You can listen to the story of Violet (nee Armando) right here, and seriously, I nearly cried listening. I was sitting in the parking lot of the HEB listening to the end of the story, and it was just really moving. Here's a bit of the blurb from NPR:

"Once we officially knew that [Armand] was transgender it was like, 'What do you need? You tell us.' We weren't going to try to control anymore; we'd been doing that for years. So it was like, 'What do you need? What do you want?' " Danielle says.

Armand was clear. He wanted to be called Violet, not Armand. He wanted to be known as their daughter, not their son. He wanted his parents to call him a "she." Robert and Danielle agreed. The first official day of Violet's new life was Aug. 19, 2007. It was the first day of a family vacation. Armand — now Violet — was 10. And Robert says her emotional transformation that day was nothing short of astonishing.

"It was the happiest kid I'd ever seen. Just lit up. Just ... brilliant and funny and these things that we caught glimpses of that weren't always there," he says.

Since the transition there has not been any real outburst. Still, there have been challenges. Last September, Violet returned to school, this time as a girl. Though the school was supportive, Robert says he and Danielle were terrified.

"You know just that walk from the car to the front doors of the school was the longest walk of our lives," he says. "Violet broke my heart and I was proud of her all at the same time," Robert says.

He says when Violet got out of the car she immediately put a on long coat and put her hood up. She started walking behind her father and mother. "We said, 'No!' You are not going to do this. You're not going to walk behind anybody. We're going to walk together. And we held hands and we marched right up the sidewalk into those doors. Into an extreme unknown," he says.

And their worst fears — of ridicule, of violence — were not realized. At the end of the day, Violet skipped to the car and reported she had had a great day. Robert says that since the family event, and Violet's transition, there's been a new level of peace in his household, a liberating clarity. "There is no doubt at this point in our lives that we have a transgender child. ... And there is no doubt in our mind that we are going to do what we can to help her," he says.

There's more about the actual treatment--the puberty blocking, and what that means if the child later decides to go ahead with hormone treatment or not, later, on the NPR website. In light of the terrible tragedy of Lawrence King, Violet's story is just so wonderful to me and really gives me a lot of hope for not just future acceptance, but acceptance HERE and NOW. Kids like Violet aren't going to wait for the world to be ready for them. There's no waiting for the world to change (*cough*lamecakes John Mayer!); the only option for Violet was to MAKE the change happen.

Another very fabulous Awesome April fic: don't tell me i'll learn by the fabulously talented kira_j. It's a Backstreet fic, Nick/Brian, but I think even Nsync-only folks will really love this. She has a way of writing that's just, I don't know. MAGIC. Her word2urmomma fic was one of my favorites because her writing is just that good, and this is no exception. Her Nick is complicated and needy and random and such a BOY, and the relationship with Brian is believable and a little painful, too.

Everyone go read it now, please.

(EEEP, I need to get writing!)

You guys? I haven't looked at anything Harry Potter-related in a very long time, but someone on my flist recced this, and now I'm going to have to, because it is pretty damn amazing.

Go watch me right now, please. Click here!

Especially if you are wendy. As h/d tends to be, it's a bit over-the-top melodramatic, but it's also hot and gorgeous and sad and so perfectly representative of the pairing as anything I've ever seen or read. I say I don't do OTPs, but Harry/Draco is as close as I'll get and just. Yes. Go watch that now.

Everyone should go read Life Is What Happens by zelda_zee RIGHT FUCKING NOW. It's a story about how frustrating JC is and how Justin tries to work through it. And it's amazing. And there are all these little nuances about Justin's relationship with each of the other guys, and his relationship with himself. It's just really good and I CRIED at the end (for real, yo), so go read it please.

Everyone go read Make Up and Kiss by llamabitchyo right now.

RIGHT NOW. GO!! Seriously, it's the most adorable, funny, true thing ever. It has ANGRY EYEBROWS references!! And a perfect JC, perfect everyone, really, and I am just so in love with this fic right now! It's completely fabulous. And for those of you who care about this sort of thing, it's Bassez. Sort of. But it's more about NSYNC and friends forever and how JC doesn't have a favorite because he's JC and he wishes there were more things that catered to groups of five because five is the magic number and WHY DID THEY BREAK UP *sobs*

Anyway so yes. Go read this please. And leave her amazing feedback please, because she needs to always be writing my prompts, especially if this is what happens!

Speaking of which, I want to remind everyone that my birthday is less than a month away. My birthday is on May 5. That's right, Lance Bass is exactly a year and a day older than me. And what I want for my birthday is for all of you to write me fic, please. Popslash. Or, um, pophet, if you're willing to write that. If you want a prompt, I will be happy to supply you with a list of things I really want to read. But I think, you know, I'm pretty awesome and I deserve some fic for my birthday!

So be thinking about that, and what magical thing you're going to write me. And go read Make Up and Kiss. NOW.