No cutesy Latin title 7 + a few fanfic and reminder of new blog links

Last installment here.

OT, collateral attractions, and things I think about

• With apologies to Charles Dickens, we need a new Christmas Story (from a fellow Armitage fan).
• The secret world of London’s sock club.
• Moosewood Cookbook turns 40. For me, as probably for many like me, these cookbooks were the initial introduction to vegetarian cooking. A Moosewood Cookbook taught me to put fresh mint into a yogurt carrot soup, something I still do.
• The original version of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s memoirs with scholarly notes is now available (the basis for the Little House books, it was thought too brutal for publication).
• Trauma lives us. This is part of a series written in response to the problem of whether university courses should have “trigger warnings” to protect students from content that may trouble them, but it has a lot of relevance to fandom, as well.
• On being an academic fan, including an interpretation of one of the scenes from film that will stick with me forever: Captain Kirk’s Mr. Spock’s death in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.
• Wendell Berry on the shoddy work of despair.
• In the wake of Benedict Cumberbatch’s obnoxious remarks about Sherlock’s skills as a lover, an informal survey on whether fangirls want to bang Sherlock.
• “The Sixth Stage of Grief is Retro-Computing,” on the things we do when we experience grief. Also about computer nostalgia, something dad and I experienced a lot of this summer.
• On the politics of being friends with a BNF.
• Einstein’s advice to Marie Curie on dealing with her critics.
• Are you a chaos or an order muppet?
• China bans puns.
• On praying anyway.
• Fandom isn’t friendship (references allegations against Bill Cosby).

Fanfic links

Over the years I’ve learned that my tastes in fanfic are apparently much broader than the average reader’s, so please make sure you read all the warnings before starting a story. But it’s been one of my greater pleasures this fall, often at lunch, to see when the new installment of one of the stories I follow has posted.

• “The Bunny Saga” by alkjira. Fluffy Bagginshield. What happens when Erebor is overrun by bunnies.
• “Suitcases and Tealeaves” by Berunien. Plotty Bagginshield with some smut. Bilbo has a teahouse and some dwarves come to town and bring their baggage with them. WIP.
• “Disparity” by Julia Daniels. North & South time travel. I haven’t finished this one yet.
• “Iron and Oak short stories” by CarlyQ. These are sweet one shots related to her longer story, Iron and Oak, about Thorin Oakenshield and an OFC.
• “Cherished Treasure,” by rubydoe. Bagginshield. Thorin Oakenshield’s long-lost daughter pops up in Erebor.
• “A Remover of Obstacles,” by MistakenMagic. Bagginshield. Thorin and Bilbo meet in a hospital for injured veterans. I may have recommended this before.
• “Smaug the Terrible … Hamster,” by alkjira. Title should be self-explanatory.
• “To Everything there is a Season,” by badskippy. Fluffy Bagginshield with plenty of my favorite hurt / comfort stuff going on.
• “Now that the chips are down,” by SailorFish. Bagginshield. Lots of references to violence. Slavefic AU.
• “How is this even my life?” by MsSpyder. RPF, Richard Armitage + OFC.
• “No Ordinary Love,” by badskippy. Bagginshield. Soppy as heck.
• “The Hardship of Courtships in the Bagginshield Ship,” again by alkjira. This is a send-up of generic conventions in explicit Bagginshield fanfic. DO NOT read this unless you don’t mind gross jokes about slash fanfic.
• Last but not least: Don’t miss Armitage Authors Network’s list of favorite Thorin fanfic.

And, a reminder

Although I assume you have seen these links here already, or elsewhere, please check out and follow the crop of Richard Armitage blogs (and blogs that have Armitage as a regular topic) that appeared during the summer. Gen 5? I’m losing track.

The things that keep a blogger writing? Lots of comments, interactions, likes, and page views.

In no particular order, keep your eyes on:

• Armitageitus
• Preoccupied with Richard Armitage
• One Last Time? Never
• GeneRAtion Armitage
• The Book of Esther

~ by Servetus on January 4, 2015.