Hello all! This week we have coverage of Heated Rivalry (from me!) and a new fantasy series launched by the right wing media platform The Daily Wire (yikes), along with some excellent Vampire Lestat fanart, a multifandom rec list of friendship-themed fic, and much more! — Gav

new stuff

“The Success of Heated Rivalry Should Not Be a Surprise” by Gav at Fansplaining
“The real question here isn’t why Heated Rivalry is a hit—it’s why this kind of romance series is so rare in the first place.” Gav is back at Fansplaining, writing about Heated Rivalry and the reasons TV creators in Hollywood still refuse to embrace romance.

“Daily Wire’s ‘The Pendragon Cycle’ Sparks Fantasy Fan Debate: “Do Not Pay These Losers”” by James Hibberd at The Hollywood Reporter
Conservative media outlet The Daily Wire has just launched a big-budget fantasy series, adapting a series of bestselling novels inspired by Arthurian legend. In theory this could be a way to attract new subscribers to the platform’s more explicitly political content, but so far it doesn’t appear to be working.

“Welcome to Mothership.” by Maddy Myers at Mothership
This week saw the launch of Mothership, an independent, worker-owned gaming site “for her, them, and yes, him too.” They’ve already published a bunch of pieces—if you’re a games person, check it out!

Today's aesthetic: fic that spends several thousand words establishing Kink World, the world structured entirely around the author's excruciatingly specific kink, does one sex scene in like chapter two, then spends the next thirty chapters interrogating the sociopolitical implications of Kink World.

— David J Prokopetz (@prokopetz.bsky.social) January 9, 2026 at 10:31 AM

older stuff

“Fan edits are the internet’s love language” by Elena Cavender at Mashable
“Fan edits are not only the backbone of fandom but also internet culture as we know it—and they often don’t get the praise they deserve.”

tumblr & beyond

The Vampire Lestat fanart by alixirdevida

incredible fan edit remixing Heated Rivalry as a dark thriller.

“Widely accepted?”

there really is lotr merch for every occasion

“cutting a glory hole in the fourth wall”

“I think I’m falling behind in pop culture can we stop writing books and making movies until I catch up.”

indescribable events occurring in the Oasis band fandom.

the Hugos!

Tomorrow (Saturday, January 31st) is the deadline for 2026 Hugo Award nominations, so we wanted to put in one final plug for our respective fandomy editorial projects:

• Overinvested, which is eligible for best fancast
• Fansplaining, which is eligible for best semipro zine
• Aaaaand, of course, The Rec Center, which is eligible for best fanzine

The Rec Center was a Hugo finalist in 2020—which was a great honor!!—and we’d love to make that shortlist again someday. (We’re often on the longlist, which we really appreciate, but it would only take a few more nominations to get us over the line!)

Hang on, you might ask—why are you telling newsletter readers about this? Do the people reading this really have control over the nomination process? In fact, they easily could! Anyone can sign up to be a member of the World Science Fiction Society (it’s $50 for the year), and all members nominate and then vote on the Hugo finalists. If you’re into SFF (or a Rec Center superfan just itching to nominate us), consider becoming a member! Here’s a great piece by Molly Templeton explaining the basics.

If you are a Hugo voter but don’t know where to start (after you’ve nominated the projects listed above, of course), be sure to check out Renay’s extremely useful Hugo spreadsheet. We also highly recommend Renay’s newsletter, “Intergalactic Mixtape,” which is a fantastic resource for learning about new and interesting work in the SFF world.

fanfiction

This week we’ve got a mix of friendship fic, both gen and shippy, as labeled by our guest reccers. (There are no “friends with benefits” stories in our bank currently, though—please send in more, a top-tier trope imo!!) Thanks so much to everyone who shared a rec. — Elizabeth

“Peril on Eisus-Snikred V!” by Muusu. 1.8K words, rated Gen.
Fandom: Calvin and Hobbes; Ship: Gen
Recced by: forthegothicheroine
Backstory: Calvin is a bright but rowdy child who, along with his toy tiger Hobbes, has adventures in imaginary worlds.
Rec: This feels like it could be right out of the comics, in all the best ways! Content warnings: N/A

“Love Stories for Tedious People” by Kristophine. 42K words, rated Mature.
Fandom: Captain America; Ship: Steve/Bucky
Recced by: sonatine
Backstory: A view of the daily minutiae of an emergency room (NOT stressful) and a slow burn of friendship and then romance between two people that knew OF each other in the past and are now getting to KNOW each other in the present.
Rec: The details are enveloping and you can get lost in the neighborhood.
Content warnings: Depression, mild mention of suicidal ideation

“Safe In His Arms” by Eliyes. 2.2K words, rated Gen.
Fandoms: DCU (Comics), The New Teen Titans (1980s Comics); Ship: Gen, Victor Stone & Garfield Logan
Recced by: Rosemarycat5 Backstory: Vic and Gar are heroes on the Teen Titans as Cyborg (half man half robot) and Changeling (shapeshifter into any animal) respectively. Vic is pulling a boring monitor duty shift; Gar is having trouble sleeping.
Rec: The friendship here is absolutely top tier and feels very in-line with canon.
Content warnings: N/A

“Little Pieces” by sassybell. 9.2K words, rated Mature.
Fandom: Star Trek Kelvin Timeline; Ship: James T. Kirk/Leonard “Bones” McCoy
Recced by: blancanieve
Backstory: Jim and Bones find their own ways of marking the forty-fifth day of the year, in other words, Valentine’s Day.
Rec: This is a warm lovely fic about the slow evolution of love between Jm and Bones.They start out loving each other platonically, then as friends who occasionally hook up, and even through occasional other lovers. They never waver in their loyalty to each other. True realization of their love comes almost too late.
Content warnings: N/A

“Mouse Dog Bird” by Helsabot, rabbit_in_the_moon. 148K words, rated Explicit.
Fandoms: Radiohead, R.E.M., Music RPF; Ship: The authors didn’t label it so it doesn’t get spoiled, but the main pairings are Thom Yorke/Michael Stipe and eventually Thom Yorke/Jonny Greenwood
Recced by: Em
Backstory: Radiohead are a British alternative rock band formed by five high school friends in 1985: Thom Yorke (vocals), Jonny Greenwood (guitar, etc.), Colin Greenwood (bass), Ed O’Brien (guitar), and Phil Selway (drums). To promote their sophomore album “The Bends,” Radiohead went on an international tour opening for the American band R.E.M., who were promoting their album “Monster,” in 1995.
Rec: This story is an immense accomplishment, imo. It is meticulously researched with a great narrative structure and so many incredible little details. An interesting interpretation of the very real and well-documented hero worship of Michael Stipe by Thom Yorke, it’s also a thoughtful portrait of a band caught between one-hit wonder allegations and their potential for actual worldwide success.
Content warnings: Band-typical drinking & drug use (including a bad trip), homophobia (internalized & not)

“In the Desert Sun (working title)” by Lightbulbs. 1.5K words, rated Gen.
Fandom: Fandom for Robots - Vina Jie-Min Prasad; Ships: Ellison/Cyro, bjornruffian & Computron (Fandom for Robots)
Recced by: Madanimalscientist
Backstory: On the internet, nobody knows you’re a robot: “Fandom for Robots” is a short story by Vina Jie-Min Prasad where a sentient robot encounters online fandom—and the friendships it brings.
Rec: An amazing use of custom CSS skins and how creative you can get with AO3 formatting, this fic tells the story of the two main characters collaborating on a fic together using a Google Docs skin for the fic itself, complete with comments and editing marks. It’s an amazing example of transformative works and where fiction and metafiction combine to hit you in the feels in the best way.
Content warnings: N/A

schmoop, whump, squick—the old fandom world was filled with such beautiful, autological words. let's bring them back, i want to see them prosper.

— brawls (@brawlite.badvibes.party) January 28, 2026 at 7:09 PM

FINAL THOUGHT

As of three days ago, my call for Femslash February recs a few weeks back had yielded a grand total of…three stories. (Yes, current events are particularly bleak right now, but I will note that we received plenty of other kinds of recs in that time!)

But never fear: when I mentioned this on social media on Wednesday, we were subsequently flooded with responses, and we now have dozens more F/F fics. However…WE WANT MORE. :-D Please keep sending in your favorites via our one-off submission form, labeling them F/F or “Femslash February” in the themes/tropes field so I can spot them. Ideally, we’ll have plenty for February, then lots more F/F throughout the year! — Elizabeth