one wound-up punch of intuition

First of many yuletide recs! In fairly random order. I mostly post quotes instead of commentary, because I have SO MANY RECS that if I did full commentary for each, I would never finish this ever.

Also these rec quotes contain no italics or special formatting even if the original quotes did, because I'm pulling them off my delicious account.

SCOOBY DOO, WHERE ARE YOU? (all for meeee!)
Haunting Things (Real and Fake)
(If you have seen Scooby Doo on Zombie Island, you will immediately understand how amazing it is when I say that this fic is based on it. And if you haven't, it doesn't matter; you don't have to have seen it! All you need to know is that Zombie Island showed that the gang had gone their separate ways, tired of unmasking fake monsters, and that Daphne goes on to have a talk show while Velma owns a mystery bookstore. The fic is poignant and sweet and sad, primarily following Velma through her unrequited love for Daphne.)

“I’m sorry,” she says and sits down on the end of Velma’s sleeping bag. “I know you’re sad.”

“Why?” Velma asks. She wishes she had the words for what she’s feeling. Why are you leaving me? isn’t quite right, nor is Why don’t you love me? but both are as true as they are incorrect for what she wants to say.

The Mystery of Life
(How the gang is getting along post-series; absolutely delightful and lit up my Christmas morning. The revelation that Shaggy is a stoner is one of the most apt things EVER and thrills me to no freaking end.)

"You found our yearbook! Oh wow." Daphne took the book from Fred and started flipping through the pages. "Look at my signature to you! 'Dear Freddie, as long as the ocean waves... stay groovy! Hugs and Kisses'... how many x's and o's did I possibly need? 'Daffy.' Daffy!" She hooted. "Let's see what you put, Shag."

Unrequited
(This was a Yuletide treat for me, totally unexpected, and it is fabulous! The summary sets it up perfectly: Fred loves Velma, Velma loves Daphne, Daphne loves Shaggy, and Shaggy loves visiting all-you-can-eat buffets with his friend Scooby. It's a series of vignettes following relationships between the gang, and the insights that we gain are wonderful. Velma is awesome at Jeopardy and sudoku, and is totally kinky! Daphne realizes that she's known as the dumb pretty one and hates it!)

He used to sneak up behind her and pinch her waist and she'd give a little startled jump and let out a high pitched "Jinkies!" He'd give her a moment to compose herself and push her glasses back up her nose because they'd slipped, and then he'd throw both his arms around her. He could never guess what she was gonna be enthusiastic about ahead of time, but there was always something, like the time she came home, cheeks flushed, and said: "Hey, you know what? We've never tried tying each other up! Get some rope, let's go, let's go!"

( Recs for: Hot Fuzz, The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency [books & TV], Anastasia, Band of Brothers, Black Books, Breakfast at Tiffany's, Cable & Deadpool, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Lloyd Alexander's Chronicles of Prydain, District 9, Glee, The Hardy Boys [books], Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle, Hellboy/BPRD [comics], Kristin Cashore's Graceling, How I Met Your Mother, Amelie, I Am Maru, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Lackadaisy, Archie comics, Alias [comic], Neil Gaiman's A Study in Emerald, Burn Notice, Hercules )

MORE RECS LATER

As the Yuletide reveal has now gone up, I can say:

A) That I completely sucked at guessing who wrote things (I was so sure, in one or two cases, and so wrong), and

B) That I wrote two stories. One was Manny's Birthday, a last second Black Books Treat for count_nickula that was criminally fun to write, and the other was The Affair of the Dutch Steamship Friesland for elance, a massive Sherlock Holmes story that I owe everything to my betareaders for. It was incredibly exciting to write; I've been a Sherlock Holmes fangirl since age seven or eight, and it was thrilling and terrifying at once to write something in the fandom, and especially to try to get the tone and Watson's voice right.

(Holy crap, the feedback has been so amazing on both; if anyone who's reading this commented -- thank you, thank you, thank you.)

Plus, right up til I came home, jet-lagged and half-dead, on the seventeenth, my location lent itself to the story. While writing it, I walked the Strand, I read about old-time east London in the Senate House library (which didn't wind up in the story, but still pleased me, as I was living in southeast London), I brushed up on my Holmes while riding the tube, and I went to the Sherlock Holmes Museum on Baker Street. Somewhere on the internet, there are pictures of me sitting in "Holmes and Watson's study," wearing a Watson-esque bowler hat and cracking up like a fiend.

Here's to Yuletide '07 -- a fantastic experience, and I'm for sure doing it again next year. Here is where I run away to figure out who wrote all of my favorite stories, and to thank my authors more personally!