The Turtle Jourtle

Fandoms in this post: The Man from U.N.C.L.E.

I've created a little script that randomly selects and opens one file from a folder. I'm finding this helpful for choosing which fic from my collection to read next. These days, without such tools, deciding what to do can sometimes become an obstacle to my actually doing anything.

I'm continuing to write up fics that, as far as I know, are only accessible on AO3. If you want to read any of them, you can either wait until the links work again or you can ask me for a copy via PM.

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Fandoms in this post: The Man from U.N.C.L.E. movie

I'm feeling better, and my concentration has improved, so I've been able to read some more fics.

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Fandoms in this post: The Sentinel, The Professionals

It's been a long time, with one thing and another. Quite a bit of my fic reading in October was dedicated to the Pros Big Bang, and there's been various life stuff, too. I'm not very well mentally at the moment, but I managed to read these three fics over the last few days, so I figured I'd write them up.
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Fandoms in this post: The Professionals

Apologies to the MFU fans in the crowd; this is another Pros post. Hopefully I'll have some MFU fics to share soon. I'm not inclined to direct my grazing at the moment, though. Things have been rocky, and I read an article today that warned against making your hobbies into chores.

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Fandoms in this post: The Professionals

Well, the thing I had been apprehensive about happened: I found a fic in my collection that I no longer like. Indeed, I found two. Both are Sherlock Holmes stories that I collected many years ago when I was fairly new to fan fiction. One of them I did finish rereading, but I have nothing interesting and very little positive to say about it, so I've decided not to write it up (and not to seek out another work by the same author). The other one I stuck with for over 25,000 words but finally gave up on. There was a lot of story still to go, and I was not having fun.

Before turning to the Holmes fics, I had been trying to read a Pros fic from one of my zines. It wasn't floating my boat, either, so after these further misses, I was starting to get discouraged. I needed something to renew my enthusiasm.

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Fandoms in this post: The Man from U.N.C.L.E.

It's me again! I didn't read all three of these fics since my last Old and New Project post, but I finished the final one last night, meaning that I can now write up the set.

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Fandoms in this post: The Man from U.N.C.L.E.

It's me, back already. This time I read the collected fic and the new fic by the same author neatly together, meaning I can write them up without delay.

The fic I had collected was:

Divided Halves by Azdak (The Man from U.N.C.L.E.; 15,053 words; gen)
Azdak has written several of my favorite MFU fics. This is their time-travel fic, and it's so good. Hooray! Rather than just being an entertaining sci-fi story, it takes a serious look at the passage of time and the experiences that come with it. The story is full of emotion but is never overwrought, the tone and atmosphere perfect throughout. The dialog is also very good, especially between Illya and Napoleon. There are a couple of points about the time travel that aren't spelled out, but the reader can easily think of plausible explanations, which is more than can be said for a lot of stories of this type, even good ones.

The new fic I read was:

Family Affairs by Azdak (The Man from U.N.C.L.E.; 727 words; gen)
This is a little, humorous fic set after Napoleon has died (though for some reason it's marked "No Archive Warnings Apply"). I liked it okay. It was perfectly well executed, but I guess I wasn't that enthused by the concept.
Comments with spoilers:
I just don't enjoy the idea that Napoleon would have been careless enough to father more than 250 children, even if it's used for comic effect. And apparently he neither acknowledged nor took responsibility for any of them. It's not very white hat.

Also reads: 0

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Fandoms in this post: The Professionals, The Man from U.N.C.L.E, The A-Team.

Well. I haven't started my Astreiant reread yet, but it was still a long time between my last post and this one. It's been one thing after another lately, and I've been reading less fanfic than usual. I've read more than I'm writing up here, as I've been grazing as well as working on this project. Nevertheless, I feel the lack.

I neglected to take notes on what I read this time. (Did I mention it's been one thing after another?) Consequently, I don't remember all the fics very clearly, and my write-ups may be a little vague. I hope you will enjoy them anyway.

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Fandoms in this post: The Professionals

This post is different from others I've made recently. I'd been trying to include both Pros and MFU fics in every Old and New Project write-up, thinking that it would be more fun for readers. That approach is just not working for me, though. It leads to too much time between posts. Today's post includes only Pros fics (and only two of them). MFU fans can expect some MFU fics by Taliesin next time, though.

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On the floor next to my desk, I have a large plastic canister decorated with a print of gingerbread houses and cookies. It was designed to hold festive food, but it lost its lid before I acquired it, and I use it as a wastebasket.



Today I was thinking about painting it to look less, well, tacky. That led me to really look at it. I don't know if I'd never looked at it closely before or if it had simply been a long time, but my first thought today was a new one: "Look, gay gingerbread men!"



Yes, my wastebasket is adorned with gay gingerbread men. Slash fiction will rot your brain, folks.

(There are plenty of other possibilities, of course. Butch-for-butch gingerbread lesbians. Gingerbread men with their gingerbread-gender nonconforming gingerbread girlfriends. Pairs of masc gingerbread enbies. Whatever. But to me, they were gay gingerbread men.)