bluflamingo

seekergeek wrote a post about why she doesn't like Sheppard/Mitchell stories. Which I should have known better than to go read, because they're my pairing and I knew it would bother me, but sadly, I'm too curious for my own good so I went and read it, and some of the comments.

Good news? She's not bashing the pairing.

Bad news: She just thinks all of us who write it do a shit job of writing John.

"The thing that all the stories (at least the ones I've tried, at any rate) have had in common is that John always seems to be utterly helpless and without any agency to act on his own behalf. Is it some weird perception on my part, or do any of you see Cam sucking all the life out of John in stories with this pairing too?"

And, I mean, I disagree wildly, obviously. But I'm kind of hurt as well. Because if she's read Cam/John fic, she's probably read some of mine, and she's probably read some of the stuff I love, by people I like and whose fic I like, and it's not really presented as her opinion, it's really more presented as fact (yes, ok, "is is some weird perception on my part" but the implied answer is "no")

Well, except for fic by busaikko, who, don't get me wrong, is an awesome author who does a great job of writing this pairing and many others, but she's also fairly new to it, so again implication that all of the older John/Cam writers suck at it.

It remind me of the first round of the flyboys ficathon, when all the established Mcshep writers came and played in the John/Cam pool and were raved about. Would have thought the established John/Cam people didn't exist though.

Maybe it's just that I'm bitter because I feel like I'm being implicitly criticised and I don't like it (she doesn't have to like the pairing, but that doesn't mean none of the people writing it can write. I don't like Ronon/Rodney, but I'm sure some of the people writing it do a great job). Maybe I'm just annoyed because there's the usual "what about Rodney?" - um, he's not necessarily John's most important relationship, actually. The people John talks to are Teyla and Ronon, he plays with Rodney, and I'm not saying Rodney's not important to him, but no-one's arguing that you can't write about John without including Ronon and Teyla.

And yes, my own stupid fault for reading something I probably could have told you would bother me, so in a way I've no right to complain, but I wasn't actually expecting to be told we all suck as writers in a post about why she doesn't like the pairing.

ETA: Wow, okay, her comment while closing comments is, "Listen up, stans: my criticizing fic that you love does not constitute a personal attack on you" - um, no, but actually saying that we all write John badly in fic that you don't like does constitute a personal attack, and since she doesn't name names, it's implicitly on everyone who writes the pairing. Which I would guess is what people are bothered by.

( So, this is my card this year... )
That said, if any of the squares ping an idea or a prompt you'd like to see me write, feel free to leave them in comments and see if I can be swayed (I probably can. I'm very swayable)

Title: Passing Thoughts
Fandom: Star Trek reboot
Pairing: McCoy/Kirk/Spock (background McCoy/Kirk, Spock/Uhura, Uhura/Gaila)
Rating: NC-17
Word count: 1538
Summary: McCoy likes to watch; acquiring telepathy just makes that *better*. kink_bingo prize for janice_lester
Contains: consensual voyeurism and mind-reading during sex, negotiated open relationships

( Passing Thoughts )

Waiting To Believe: SGA/SG1 John/Cam, prompt: I can't be the strong one all the time

Childhood Memories: Hawaii Five-0 Kono, prompt: she's never had a friend who didn't know before Danny

Title: Chemisstry
Fandom: Hawaii Five-0
Pairing: Kono/Jenna
Rating: PG-13
Word count: 1687
Summary: Undercover in a dyke bar; written for such_heights's Female Character Trope Fest

( Chemisstry )

For someone who's on holiday and has another 8 days of it yet, I'm feeling very accomplished:
*Done laundry
*Finished the mobile for my friend's baby (who *still* isn't here, come on Baby, stop tormenting your poor mother who is melting from the heat and being very, very pregnant)
*Hung up all my pictures, hanging things, witches, bells etc- *now* this looks like my flat
*Written a short Kono/Jenna fic for such_heights' Female Character Trope Fest (it's not even open for posting until tomorrow!)
*Got within sight of the end of my help_japan fic for tielan

As well as going to the circus and the zoo, from which I have about a zillion pictures of African penguins. They're so cute!

Tomorrow, I'm off to the Botanical Gardens, unless it rains, and decorating a glass bowl for my mum for her birthday. Tonight, I was going to go for a walk on the river, but my period decided *now* is a good time to start, so I'm curling up on the sofa and trying to finish my help Japan fic (since it's due in something like six days).

I have *got* to start keeping better notes. Because now I need to refer to Cam's brother, and I know I've called him something in a past fic, but for the life of me I can't think what it was, and I can't remember which fic it was either.

I know I could use something else, and I probably will if it doesn't come back to me soon, but it's driving me up the wall.

Would anyone be able to read through my SGA Reverse Bang fic? It's about 11,000 words, John/Cam, post-season 5, Dysfunction-verse, heavy on the John/Keller friendship.

If possible, I'd really like it back by the end of this week.

This would be the story that I wrote to get out of my head, and that I'm not totally sure I want to adopt as part of my John fanon, or of WHN canon, but that's where it fits at the moment.

Title: History
Fandom: SGA/SG1, What Happens Next 'verse
Pairing: John/Cam established relationship
Rating: R
Word count: 2993
Summary: There's a part of John's past that no-one knows, but that he needs Cam to know about.

Warnings: Contains extended discussion and one fairly graphic scene of gang rape of a seventeen year old, including object insertion; also contains passing mention of past suicide attempts.

( History )

I just submitted my PhD application, and it seems likely that tomorrow I'll hear about the fate of one of my jobs. I also have two job applications in where the closing date just passed so I'm waiting to hear if I have interviews ofr either of them.

Excuse me while I just go explode in a ball of nervous tension.

Which, as it happens, is not really the right mood for trying to write my angsty, sad SGA reverse bang fic. It's the perfect mood for writing the "reserves doesn't mean out" H5-0 fic I have in my head, but that's not what I'm meant to be writing.

Also: while leaving prompts for queer_fest, I just realised I've never written a female characetr centric fic for that challenge (closest I got was one section of a three section fic, which doesn't count). Gonna change that this year, and also for my sgagenficathon fic (though I'm not sure what I'm going to do with that one. Maybe Cadman/Lorne friendship, maybe something with Vega and Keller.)

None of which is relevant to what I should be doing, which is John-centric angsty fic.