Pen's Nest

By great good fortune, we managed to be on a tour of Sydney Opera House this morning just at the perfect moment to witness a mass of people in vivid and sparkly garments performing a joyful samba to 'Love is in the Air' on the terrace by the water. They were filming a promo for the stage musical of "Strictly Ballroom", coming soon to a theatre unfortunately on the wrong side of the world from me by the time it opens. Baz Luhrman and all. It put the biggest smile on my face, and Bun and I were very sad that we won't be in town to see the show.

Oh, yes. We're in Sydney. Right now, reclining on the bed to rest my red-hot feet, after the opera house, lunch on Circular Quay, and a long meandering walk through the Botanical Gardens and then all the way back along George Street. The weather is delightful—sunny but not oppressive—and I am most happy to be far from the UK.


Day 22: Fic written specially for you!
The Kirkpatrick Guide to Ageing Gracefully by ocelot summer, for MTYG 2011. Chris is turning forty, and he *still* has a crush on Lance.

Obviously I don't have a story of my own for this category, so instead I will give you yet more proof that I have been really lucky with MTYG stories, there is also Prove Them Wrong by Chalcopyrite, probably the only SeSa story I have ever received that wasn't Trickyfish—it might have been, but it seems Chris just wasn't co-operating and Nick was. An Nsync reunion is in progress but it has its attendant problems, of course.


23rd Pairing you never expected to enjoy, but this story makes it work

Sticking with Chalcopyrite for a while longer, Off-Piste features Kevin/Brian. Now, I don't have any American-style worries about cousin incest, 'cause I don't care, but it's not a pairing that would ever have occurred to me. However, the scene in which Kevin massages Brian's foot is unexpectedly filled with interesting sexual tension, and thereafter, I'm quite prepared to buy into it.

As I included my Brian/Justin story last time round, I don't think I have anything in this category either.

18th Great dialogue
Two Straight Guys in Wisconsin: The Amazing Adventures of Chris and His Cock If you've been a popslasher, you've read this. If you haven't, you should read it anyway.

Mine: I have no idea.


19th: Real World with Added Weirdness - canon-based, but with an inexplicable element, eg mpreg, superpowers, wings, magic is real etc Cigarettes and Sunrise by ocelot summer, with two worlds, not quite colliding, wonderfully atmospheric and strange.


Mine: La Leyenda, in which Howie runs a nightclub and has a tall, dark and handsome visitor.

I spent quite a lot of the night unable to sleep, in part because I was fretting about Bun, who was en route to Australia, with a worryingly short time scheduled between getting off the plane in Melbourne and getting onto a plane for Launceston. Particularly since the flight leaving London was delayed by the best part of an hour. Happily, she made it and is at Grandpa's house.

Feb Fic Day 15: Threesome I nominate Naked Christmas, by Ephemera and Nopseud, but at the moment MTYG seems to be undergoing some kind of crisis and won't load properly, so I shall have to come back and edit the link. Anyway. Lance is miserable, Chris is worried about him, and AJ is fabulous. I liked it enough to podfic the story a while ago.

Mine: as I've already counted the two most explicit threesomes against other prompts, how about Toga Party which is Justin/Lance/Kevin.


Feb Fic Day 16: Friendship Same Song, Next Verse by Chacopyrite, in which Joey is a very good friend to Lance. I mean, the story's not exactly about that, but it's true. I love Joey and Lance as friends.

Mine: Chris finally asked me last summer.

Day 12, yesterday, was for a fic that 'Breaks your heart', and to be honest, I couldn't think of one - most likely because stories that make me sad are not in general my favourite kind. I think the ones I recced last time for this category - Green Scales Fell Like Rain and Calling All Angels, and my own Broken, will have to do.

Does anyone have any recs for this category?


Day 13: Rare Pairing

I win the bonus points for a pairing that's only been done once, at least, I'm pretty sure I do: Justify What I've Become by Ephemera, which is Chris Kirkpatrick/Randy Blyth, and I'm pretty sure unique in that respect! Intensely atmospheric, vivid, rather sordid, beautifully written.

I've done quite a few unusual pairings, but recced several of them last time round. Hmm. Aha! Lala.

For today's rec it's back to nopseud and this year's MTYG challenge: Frozen Dreams in which JC and AJ run an ice cream parlour. JC (naturally) concocts a dazzling variety of flavours, some of them rather strange, AJ is secretly pining for his ex, Kevin comes along to tape a reality TV show about them and incidentally do some very interesting things with JC, and... so on.


Mine for this prompt: Feast

A story that is presented in an unusual way.

There is a shocking dearth of people in popslash who choose to present their stories in (say) blank verse, so here is one which is part diary. Awake My Soul by glitterdragon, written for last year's MTYG. Loving and very sweet.

And, because it is brilliant, Gamol-léac by Castiron must be mentioned. It is not popslash. It is Old Spice Guy.


Mine: The Song of Chris Kirkpatrick


And, in another gustatory first, I have this day cooked and eaten celeriac, and rather to my surprise found it good.

The Lance Is A Llama story, and its awesome Remix, are obvious candidates for this one, but I recced the remix last year, and there are plenty of other stories that feature someone's pets, or animals in a more general way. So here is Park Guy by wanderingwombat This was written for the popslash Bittybang challenge, it's an AU and features a Justin and Lance who encounter one another in the park, running/walking the dogs. A slow-building romance, and rather lovely. Disclaimer: I did the artwork for this one, which is probably why I remember it features the dogs.


My own candidate (as I used The First Step last year) is Cat, in which an invader intimidates Buster and brings Chris and AJ together.

A little GSF, plus quite a few encounters for Nick, here, which is Zoicite's "Want". In which Nick realises, rather belatedly, that he wants someone who's now unavailable. I like the scene where Nick masturbates in the shower best, I think!

I'll go for a very recent story for my own under this heading: take a second just to breathe, the follow-up to my MTYG 2013 story. Threesome, yay!

Today's type is Songfic, whether it's a story that uses a song as a title, a starting point, inspiration, whatever.

I really like My Boyfriend's Back by withdiamonds, in which Chris and Lance are on again, and everybody else is hoping that this time, they'll get it right. The guys are recording, rather sporadically, and neither Chris nor Lance is quite brave enough to tell the other how they're feeling. Until they are.


My own is Collaboration, written for JM, Queen of Letterboys, for MTYG 2008. Which was awkward, in that I could not ask JM about the lyrics for the song JC and AJ wrote together, and so had to deduce what I could from some rather iffy YouTube recordings, but which was also great, because I knew she would notice the song lurking in the story.

Last year, I indulged in a rec a day during February, and I'm happy to say that a few other people recced along. I don't remember where this originated, but it was fun. So I'm planning to have a go at the same thing this year. With, of course, a bit of variation in the content of the daily list, or I'd be nominating the same stories all over again.

Do feel free to share the list, and rec every day or on the ones that appeal to you. It's kinda fun to spend a bit of time thinking, well, what *is* the best story of this kind?

I think you might want a bit of time to prepare, so here's the list:

( You're reccing a story with: )

And if you want to substitute one of the categories with something else, why not?