Meme: 10 stories I'd most like for people to read

I haven't got around to doing that "10 Most Popular Stories on AO3" meme (not that I haven't checked, of course, because I am obsessed with numbers, but still). penknife has invented a new meme where you post the stories that haven't necessarily got hits, but that you adore to pieces anyway and wish people would read. (And if you cannot limit yourself to 10, you can go higher. I will do my best to stick to 10.)

1. Great Friends (~6K, SGA, "gen", Teyla)

I say "gen" because the story was supposed to be Teyla/Lorne, but then they decided to make it all profound and talk about Athosian culture, and then Halling showed up with all these suggestions about Athosian kinship traditions and I was pretty much screwed. Basically, though, this is the story of how Teyla decided to have a child, and how she has really, really great friends.

2. Adversus Luna Ne Loquiter (~20K, Harry Potter, Remus/Tonks)

Another story that didn't do what I thought it would, I wrote "Adversus" to explain not only why Lupin leaves Tonks, but also why he goes back. Instead I wrote how they met and got over each other's issues (mostly with Sirius), an then chickened out before the actual angst started. I also made up a lot of stuff about werewolves, but I think it's okay.

3. Until You Are Dead (~8K, Criminal Minds)

I could write SO MUCH FIC for this show! Well, I could have. But all the stories would be the same: team solves crime in a way that makes me feel better about it, so I held myself to one.

4. Transcendence (~6K, Angel)

I wrote the first three parts of this series in 2003 and this instalment in 2007. You can actually see the exact point at which I stopped writing for four years. I'm still a bit surprised I finished it. You can probably blame eolivet. Anyway, I like this story because I am still very much in love with the idea of Hannah, even if the actual writing in the first three parts makes me cringe.

[for the record, I feel similarly about my SG-1 story "Harceisis", which is not on this list because...I feel *really* cringey about the writing!]

5. Dreams of Convenience (~10K, SGA, gen)

I wanted to write a huge team!fic story where they have to deal with The City Itself and it maybe tries to kill them (or just teaches them a lesson?). I put Radek and Kate together because I needed Kate to be able to talk to SOMEONE, and Radek is smart enough to not freak out on her. I kind of love the title.

6. Beetle's Nothing (~15K, SGA-1, "gen", Daniel/Janet)

I wanted to bring back Janet. I wanted to write Gates and archaeology. I actually gave myself lines (though, really, you'd have to know what I look like). But I still really adore this story.

[Funny Story: #4-6 were all stared in 2003-2005 and completed during the same weekend in 2007. 15+K in two days. It's still one of my favourite weekends of all time.]

7. An Agony In Eight Fits (1.5K, Sanctuary, Gen)

I wasn't going to put any Sanctuary stories on this list because they're still...percolating, but this story nearly KILLED me, and I am desperately, desperately proud that I managed to make (nearly) the whole thing rhyme without bashing my head into the wall (too many times).

8. Paper, Scissors, Yak (~2K, SG-1, Daniel)

Arguably my most popular SG-1 story ever (I say "arguably", because somehow "Let Them Eat Cake" is still popular), I have no idea why this story pushes so many buttons. I literally wrote it in ten minutes during a lecture on the degradation of leather artefacts in peat bogs.

9. Thorn In The Side Of Man (~1.5K, SG-1, Ba'al)

Oh, I loved Ba'al. Back when he was all posturing and ridiculous. And so I loved him in Continuum. And then I wrote this in my head on the way home from work when I was in Korea (by the end, I was nearly running up the mountain, because I had to get to a pencil before my head exploded). It has a couples lines of which I am particularly fond (and have already lifted to use in original fic), but mostly, I love the myth-parts of SG-1, and this was my attempt to write it.

10. Ninety-Nine Days (3K, SG-1, gen)

Not my best work, really, but Window Of Opportunity is just SO MUCH FUN, and I wanted to write a story about what the heck happened to everyone else while Jack and Teal'c were looping. It still makes me giggle.

11. Alfred the Great (~2K, Batman/Narnia)

I was going to stick to 10, but I'm including this one because it's a BATMAN/NARNIA crossover, and...I think it works?

Seriously, though, if you're only going to read one of my stories? Read "Great Friends".

More Politics

Okay, I really AM trying to limit these, but

OMG, RAFFI WANTS YOU TO VOTE AND HE WROTE A SONG ABOUT IT:

*hearts Canadians*

I am not feeling teary, nostalgic and patriotic all at the same time...oh wait. Yes, yes I am.

Poem Post

It's still poetry month, right? I always lose track of these things.

Anyway, inlovewithnight post this and I'm posting it here too because...well, because it's beautiful.

To my friend who is a woman and a poet, like me

You called me a poet
and took me in your arms, laughing
with the terror of it. So close—
And I, shut down, dreaming of a stranger
shedding his sealskin while the moon rose
over an empty beach—I did not see you,
though I looked into the black pits
of your eyes, and held you
breasts against breasts, your image
mine, and I, the same as you.

You called me a poet.
You—the poet—
So now I will believe you
I will take your gift and make words of it;
Perhaps I am falling
into another love, that expects nothing.
You kissed me—you—
but no man ever said I was a poet.

I wish you a lover, gentle as the waves on the beach
that is perhaps less empty when we are not there.
I wish you the invisible dance
on the shores of consciousness,
slipping back to the sea at daylight.
I wish you poetry
and lust, kisses deep and salt as the sea,
words that pierce like morning,
love poured down, running over the sand into water.
And because you say I am a poet,
I wish myself the same.

[Margaret Elphinstone]

Mostly the last verse, I think. *hearts her f-list*