The Rec Center #154
Hi folks! Welcome to our first week of holiday fanfic recs, accompanied by plenty of other delicious non-holiday-related content including a post about My Favorite Murder fandom, some cute She-Ra fanart, and an X-Files mini-comic. — Gav
new stuff
“Priyanka Chopra, Nick Jonas, and the Two Internets” by Mallika Rao at The Atlantic
A nuanced piece on transnational cultural conversations—and how different spheres of the internet fail to talk to each other.
“Inside the nesting doll fandom of My Favorite Murder” by Priscilla Frank at Huffington Post
“A podcast about true crime birthed one of the most obsessive fandoms on the internet. And then parts of that fandom left the podcast behind.”
“When people see your blindness as superhuman, they stop seeing you as human” by M. Leona Godin at Catapult
On blindness as a superpower in pop culture—and how that clashes with the real experiences of blind people.
older stuff
“The Bodies of the Girls Who Made Me: Fanfic and the Modern World” by Seanan McGuire at Tor
“Fanfic taught me pacing. Taught me dialog. Taught me scene, and structure, and what to do when a deadline attacks. Fanfic taught me to take critique, to be edited, to collaborate, to write to spec. FANFIC MADE ME.”
tumblr & beyond
She-Ra fanart by pricklyapalca
A v.g. X-Files mini-comic
People do NOT appreciate the genius of AO3’s search engine.
actual difference between versions of the joker
This week’s fandom hero is: This lady who bumped into Lin Manuel Miranda during a Billy on the Street segment, and turned out to have drawn Garfield fanart for a book he did.
fanfiction
Winter holiday fic! A revival of a 2k16 version we did—part 1 and part 2—with a similar overrepresentation of Harry Potter, congrats JKR you really made a Christmasy impression on all of us. We’ll have part 2 next week, and we’ve still got a few slots, especially for stories that *aren’t* about Christmas, ~to mix it up~. Thank you so much to our guest reccers. — Elizabeth
“Draco, Merrily on High” by Blythely. 9K words, rated Teen
Fandom: Harry Potter; Ship: Harry/Draco
Recced by: Circe
Backstory: Written originally before Half-Blood Prince, so AU from that point. Post-war Draco is an impoverished choir master who accidentally brings the children door-knocking to Grimmauld Place, where Harry, Remus, and Tonks are nicely sozzled on merriment and inappropriate Gryffindor feelings.
Rec: As the summary says: “Christmas carols! Malfoy! Small children!” Potter, holding aloft a huge plate of mince pies, beamed drunkenly at the crowd on the lawn. “Bloody fantastic. Do you guys know We Three Kings?”
Content warnings: Holiday schmaltz
“Pining for You” by The Librarina (tears_of_nienna). 28K words, rated Teen.
Fandom: Les Misérables; Ship: Enjolras/Grantaire
Recced by: myrmidryad
Backstory: After he gets laid off, Grantaire moves back home to help out on his father’s Christmas tree farm. But when a shady businessman starts trying to move in on their property, an improbably handsome lawyer from the city might be their only hope to save the farm.
Rec: It‘s just such a feel-good fic, there’s pretty much no relationship angst or drama, Grantaire is a character who’s usually given a tragic family backstory so it’s refreshing for him to have a lovely father in this, and it’s on a /Christmas tree farm!/
Content warnings: N/A
“Take the Ice” by bellamarie117. 467K words, rated Mature.
Fandom: Twilight; Ship: Bella/Edward
Recced by: Apoloskye
Backstory: Competitive figure skater Bella Swan meets NHL hockey player Edward Cullen. It’s about their romance but also about the struggles they face to both reach their Olympic dreams.
Rec: It feels like a holiday fic with all the winter sports and it’s just romantic as well as inspiring.
Content warnings: N/A
“Magnificent Mile” by Aria. 4.5K words, rated Mature.
Fandom: due South; Ship: Fraser/RayK
Recced by: baudown
Backstory: Post CotW (i.e., post-series) story, in which RayK (Chicago detective) has moved to the Northern territories of Canada to live with Fraser (of the RCMP).
Rec: Ray wonders whether he can really make it through the long, dark Northern winter. Fraser senses his uncertainty. And then, it’s Christmas.
Content warnings: N/A
“Rock of Ages” by Rivkat. 1.2K words, rated Gen.
Fandom: Supernatural; Ship: Gen
Recced by: Heidi8
Backstory: What if Sam and Dean were Jewish? (Featuring very few revisions in SPN canon thru S5).
Rec: Before we learned about the New York Campbells, Rivkat took an enchanting look at what the Winchesters would be like if their backstory was a bit different.
Content warnings: N/A
“Of Frosting and Sprinkles” by KissThis. 6.3K words, rated Teen.
Fandom: Harry Potter; Ship: Harry Potter/Cedric Diggory
Recced by: teapetals
Backstory: “A chance encounter in the kitchens the night of the Yule Ball.”
Rec: An oldie but a goodie, this story was my first ever introduction into fanfiction and its sweetness has stuck in my head ever since. A simple, fluffy piece of light set amongst the turmoil of Harry’s fourth year. As the author writes, “pretty fluffy with a mild dose of teen angst.”
Content warnings: N/A
“Xmas in Connecticut” by Yahtzee. 19.5K words, rated Teen.
Fandom: X-Men: First Class; Ships: Erik/Charles, Hank/Raven
Recced by: epaulettes
Backstory: An X-Men AU based on the movie Christmas In Connecticut, but you don’t need to know either canons well to enjoy this fic. Siblings Charles and Raven are the respective cooking and writing powers behind 1944’s most popular homemaking column. When their editor decides that “Rebecca Lawrence” should host a war hero for Christmas, they have to scramble to make their fictional persona into a temporary reality.
Rec: Yahtzee combines strong character work for our X-Men faves with classic black-and-white comedy fare. Charles and Raven’s plans are quickly complicated by flighty cows, sleigh-snatching, and the inconvenience of falling in love in the middle of a holiday farce, and I promise you will grin along with every fresh, delightful disaster. (And don’t worry, Erik is still Jewish!)
Content warnings: N/A
Postscript from Gav: Sperenza has started posting her annual Captain America advent calendar fic, so if you’re not already subscribed to that, get on it. It’s an ongoing series of sequels to her fic “Four Minute Window,” which I obviously recommend reading first.
FINAL THOUGHT
The Tumblr Day of Reckoning is nigh, and none of us know what’s going to happen! But if you want to download your blog and/or archive anything in advance, we had a bunch of links last week, from scripts to information about Fanlore, the OTW’s wiki. godspeed dot tumblr dot com. — Elizabeth
Have a favorite one-off rec? Please send it our way! We’ll use it in a future list. Other fanworks—comics, vids, zines, etc—are strongly encouraged as well. And if you have any interest in doing an entire rec list, explainer, or ship manifesto, please get in touch! elizabethandgav at gmail dot com.
If you liked this, please share it with your friends! https://thereccenter.substack.com/. And find us on social media: Gav (twitter/tumblr) & Elizabeth (twitter/tumblr)