twasadark

( (Dark Angel) )

( (Supernatural) )

 First, I'd like to go on record as saying that gembat is a TRULY AWESOME HUMAN BEING, because she finagled a way for me to get 3rd row seats for the Supernatural panel at Comic Con. bnieoainbiofhgiroet;nbieojhnnboi

Click on the YUMMY Jared photo to take a look at my photobucket pics. There aren't too many - 20 or so. 

PS - wow, that's huge. Um ... does anyone know how to re-size a photobucket pic? I'm clueless ...( Read more... )

One of my favorite things about podfic is the company I get doing boring, mundane tasks like the dishes or driving or painting the house. I've been working on this last task for the past couple of weekends and I've had as my companion the PBR (Professional Bull Riding) 'Verse (J2) by drvsilla , read by chemm80 . The verse is long and meaty - 12+ hours! - and such a delight to listen to! I have a THING for cowboys (even got my first kiss from one) and this really delivers when it comes to atmosphere, mindset, aw-shucks-ma'am blushes, and of course sexy times. chemm80  did a lovely job on the read - it's well-paced, with great inflection and she does an excellent job with the accents. 

 Thanks so much to yggdrasilian  and blackbyrdy  for the v-gifts! How kind of you!! *smishes you*

I've been researching for the continuation to my recently posted (and recently whined about) Big Bang story, and let me tell you, history is not for the weak of heart (or stomach). Witness this passage talking about the Arabs besieging Constantinople, ca. 700 ad:

( Cut for gross historical tidbits... )

And there are many more titillating tales of tongues being cut out, noses sliced off, powerful hulking eunuchs, and shaggy-bearded barbarian kings. More than enough to get the creative juices flowing!

In ten days I'll be making my fifth annual trek to Comic Con down in San Diego! I'm gearing up for some zombie walking and line standing and Jared and Jensen watching. Woooooooo hoooooooo!

Oh, Lord. This must be my year for signing up for Big Bangs. I flaked out on the Dark Angel one, although I will probably finish the story nonetheless. But this one is perfect as a continuation of my adventure story started in the spn_j2_bigbang . Woo hoo! The minimum word count is 10,000, and there's plenty of time left in the year to write:





journeystory journeystory journeystory

Supernatural

Oh, the angst. The sweet, sweet angst. With bonus h/c and an epic post-apocalyptic storyline? What could be better? A PODFIC of such a story - that could be better! With great delight, I am pleased to rec ....

Thursday's Child by strangeandcharm , read by alchemynerd - 12+ hours of hurty goodness! Yes, you read that right - 12+ hours! The story is Dean/Castiel, an AU in which Dean managed to kill Lucifer when he was in Sam's body. I've actually read the story twice before - so enjoyable!  alchemynerd 's voice is very pleasant. The recording is clear, as is the reader's diction, and her pacing is careful without being plodding. 

The Eagle

I actually hadn't heard of The Eagle before my dear ariadnes_string  posted a lovely little piece of slashy h/c - The Place You Are - some time ago (highly recommended!), but as soon as I saw that it was - 1. historical, 2. Roman, and 3. filled with fine looking men, I was ALL OVER IT. jaxie12  has done several excellent podfics in this fandom (here). And also, one of my favorite readers produced this enjoyable piece:

Suffer, Spasm, Strain by onelittlesleep , read by dodificus. dodificus has a lovely accent and unhurried pacing. She doesn't do near enough podfics, I'm afraid! This particular story is so compelling and unusual - and it clocks in at only around 15 minutes. 

I love my dad. I really do, despite the few (okay 58,000,905) issues I have had growing up. Now he's in his 70s and life is getting tough. I called him to wish him a happy Father's Day and this is what he said:

• I can't see
• I can't breathe
• I don't even get enjoyment out of TV anymore
• The world is going to hell
• I hate life and hope to die soon

Sigh. Someone kick my ass if I ever become that negative, okay?

Our daughter got my husband a beer holster for Father's Day. He's planning all the places he can use it (meetings of the homebrew club, parties, etc.).

Oh, family. You are a neverending source of trauma amusement.

Background - This story has been stewing around in my brain for many years now ... I'm not even sure how many myself. It's something I've worked out in bits and pieces over time and I'm so grateful to fandom for this challenge so that I could get it all down on paper, so to speak. While I'm certainly no expert, my education and work has been in history for some time now, and I've spent the last few years in particular researching the time period written about here for another project that I may yet get to in the future sometime. It's been good to use that knowledge in a story such as this. That said, please do comment here or PM me if you have an objection to some of the historical choices I've made here. I'm always up for learning something if you happen to have specialized knowledge that you'd like to share. One of the challenges in writing a historical story is to get the "feel" of the story down - to engage in truthful worldbuilding - so that the reader is immersed in that alternate existence. While I've tried to do that in this piece, I'm may have flubbed up.

The period of Late Antiquity has been an area of particular interest and passion for me. The crown prince of Late Antiquity (the Mediterranean from 300 - 700 ad) - indeed the founder of historical specialization in that time - is scholar Peter Brown. Should you have an interest in learning more about the period, a good - at times lyrical - introduction to that era is The World of Late Antiquity. I must confess a great affection for Peter Brown, whose sheer love of history, sweeping vision, and dauntless scholarship have so inspired my own passion for history. Should you have 38 minutes and an interest, you can hear him expound about Late Antiquity and the Silk Road in the below video:



Story Rating - I realize that my rating of this story as Gen may conflict with the vision some readers may have of the genre since it includes a het storyline and indeed some pretty explicit sex. I thought long and hard about the genre and I chose Gen because the overall thrust of the story is not on a romantic relationship but on the adventure. The romantic relationship is an important part of the story, but it does not sum up the story. I view this as a "romance" only in the traditional sense of the word, as an adventure of the heart and mind, one that includes love relationships but is not defined by them.

Character Names - My lovely beta corbyinoz  has been instrumental in helping me choose character names that were true to the time period while still being recognizable to the reader. Alas, while the name "Jared" is apparently a biblical name, it seemed more likely that his middle name, "Tristan", would be a common for the time period. The Norse origins of the name "Jensen" seemed to argue for its use in the story.


Should you wish to ask questions about the story before you invest the time in reading it, or if you have other comments or questions, feel free to ask them here.

 

( Part IX ... )