silbrith

[silbrith]

For Dragon Lovers

National Appreciate a Dragon Day on January 16 is for the dragon lovers of the world. Count me as one of them! I've written about dragons in three of my fanfic series—Six-Crossed Knot, Tales from the Library, and Arkham Files—and even managed to sneak them into Caffrey Conversation. My preference is for lovable dragons with plenty of personality. I have no interest in reading about such magnificent creatures being killed. You won't be surprised that The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman and All Souls Trilogy by Deborah Harkness rank high in my story recommendations. True, the dragon in All Souls Trilogy is actually a firedrake, but that's close enough.

Other recs:

Tales from Verania (5-book series) by T.J. Klune

Guards! Guards! (Discworld) by Terry Pratchett

Champion of the Scarlet Wolf (2-book series) by Ginn Hale

Dragon's Egg Blue by @penna-nomen. In my post about werewolves, I'd already recommended this gem of a Discworld fanfic. It's a must-read for dragon lovers too!

Smaug in The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien gets an honorable mention since he has personality in spades. I do wish he'd turned over a new leaf. Couldn't Gandalf have gotten to him before he became such a destroyer?

Who are your favorite dragons?

A special shout-out to @penna-nomen on her birthday! May all the dragons in your life be as adorable as Bonnie!

[silbrith]

Werewolves for the Wolf Moon

With the approach of January's Wolf Moon, I feel a howl coming on for my favorite werewolf stories.

I resisted the genre for a long time. I like wolves but I'm not a fan of gore and I've seen too many depictions of ferocious werewolves to think that I'd like reading about them. How wrong I was! The werewolf stories below place the emphasis on family, personal growth, and character development.

The San Andreas Shifters series by G.L. Carriger. Bonus points for including otter, bear, and other types of shifters. Spicy tales filled with love, humor, and positive vibes!

The Green Creek series by T.J. Klune. The characters are so wonderful, I willingly suffered through the nerve-wracking bits with them. Mixed in with the angst are plenty of scenes to make you smile and laugh.

Angua von Überwald, a werewolf in Discworld. She gets high marks for remaking my notions about werewolves. My favorite fanfic featuring her is @penna-nomen's Dragon's Egg Blue.

Late, an original story in @penna-nomen's collection Wattpad Contest Plot Bunnies provides an imaginative refreshing twist to the genre. This is a story begging to be turned into a series, hint, hint!

Tagging anyone who'd like to howl their favorites!

[silbrith]

Reblog if you've made at least one friend because of a fandom.

[silbrith]

Sci-Fi Reads

January 2 is Science Fiction Day. Cheers to all the authors who have expanded our horizons!

My recent favorites are two series: Tinkered Starsong (Divinity 36, Demigod 12, Dome 6) by Gail Carriger features spectacular use of music and color, captivating aliens and creatures, and an ending that sets my spirit soaring. The Resolution Universe (Winter's Orbit, Ocean's Echo) by Everina Maxwell combines a thrilling mystery with dazzling plot twists. Both series include an understated M/M romance - so much pining!

Tagging anyone who wants to share their faves.

[silbrith]

A sparkly heist to dazzle and bewitch you! We've joked about the complications Neal loves to add, but this set is one for the record books. Thank you, @penna-nomen!

Merry Christmas White Collar fans!

I'm thrilled to announce that the White Collar fanfic I've been working on since March is finally complete, with all 7 chapters of Overcomplications posted!

The title accurately describes the writing process. I'm very grateful to beta reader @silbrith for helping me tame the story. This is a twisty tale featuring a heist planned over Thanksgiving. There are some nods to Christmas, as the mansion is being decorated at the end of the story. Much of the story is told from the POV of the women of White Collar, specifically Sara, Diana, and Lauren. I was inspired by Ocean's 8, wanting to feature the women, to pass the Bechdel test, and to pull of a heist.

Did I have any idea how complicated heist stories are? No. No, I did not. Fortunately Mary Robinette Kowal offered a class on structuring heist stories earlier this year.

I posted several of the first stories in the Caffrey Conversation series over the holidays in 2013, writing them to get through a difficult time in my own life. Since then I've tried to post something around Christmas each year, for people who need a distraction -- whether it's from grief or from overwhelm during the holidays or something else. Hopefully this story provides some respite, whenever you happen to be reading it.

[silbrith]

So many festive stories by @penna-nomen to make your holidays bright!

Festive fics - twelve days of Christmas

Spread some holiday cheer and self rec your festive fics. Can be Winter, Holiday, or Christmas fics.

Thanks for the tag @a-noble-dragon! You tagged me right after I'd started wondering if 11 years of writing fanfic has led to a dozen holiday fics. And if I include stories my dear co-writer @silbrith has contributed to our joint series, there really are 12 stories.

So my plan is to post a link to one story per day! All of these are in the White Collar fandom.

Day 1: Caffrey Conversation -- the first story in the Caffrey Conversation series, this story is set mostly in early December, and one of my favorite bits is loopy, feverish Neal singing "The Little Drummer Boy" and getting confused in the chorus, unable to find his way back to the final verse

[silbrith]

Books I'm looking forward to reading

Assuming tags from @penna-nomen and @lillytalons --

These are works I'm excited about that I know are coming out in 2025: Damned, the final work in Genevieve Cogman's fantasy trilogy, The Bones Beneath My Skin by TJ Klune, and Viscounts and Villainy by Allie Therin.

As for recommended classics, anyone who hasn't read Dangerous Liaisons by Pierre Laclos is in for a treat. The original is in French but there are many excellent editions in English. The Woman in White and The Moonstone, both by Wilkie Collins, are my favorite 19th century mysteries.

[silbrith]

Solstice Reads

I'm not familiar with many solstice reads, but one of them is the marvelous fantasy by Ginn Hale, Lord of the White Hell. The two-volume novel is the first part of The Cadeleonians, a high fantasy series that satisfies my cravings for imaginative worldbuilding, complex plot, characters that I fall in love with, and romance. Lord of the White Hell also wins my award for favorite use of the solstice. The scene of Kiram sneaking around the dorm late at night to leave gifts for his fellow hellions is one of those storytelling magical moments that I reflect back on each year with the return of the winter solstice.

Kiram and Javier celebrate the holiday again in a bonus short story available on Ginn's website called "A Very White Hell Solstice." The story takes place several months after Lord of the White Hell and comes with a caution for major spoilers.

Happy Solstice to all who celebrate! Tagging anyone who would like to share their faves!

[silbrith]

Lady with a Hellhound

You could call Crossed Lines a fix-it series. It places the Supernatural characters from roughly the start of their second canon season into the world of Caffrey Conversation. Thanks to @penna-nomen's series, Neal and Mozzie are on their way to much brighter futures. In Crossed Lines, Dean, Sam, Bobby, and yes, Crowley too, all have a chance as well.

One character has been pleading entry for quite a while, and that's Crowley's hellhound Juliet. She appeared in a couple of canon episodes but was very disappointed with her role. Juliet pointed out I'd already laid the groundwork for her arrival. Crowley's already displayed his affinity for dogs. Doesn't he need one of his own?

Juliet gets her chance in Lady with a Hellhound.

Happy Holidays, all!

[silbrith]

Favorite Holiday Reads

10 Things That Never Happened by Alexis Hall. Sam -- please don't call him Samwise -- is the perfect cinnamon roll for a cold December night. Can he melt the heart of grumpy Jonathan? Will Sam's cat Gollum steal the best scenes? Will the quirky relatives' idea of Christmas cause a Titanic-sized disaster? Knowing the answers makes rereading even more satisfying!

Tagging anyone who would like to share their faves.

[silbrith]

Romance soars to new heights in Neal and Sara's anniversary celebration! 🥂💞

Overcomplications chapter 2 posted

At long last, we have the chapter that includes Neal playing with a lightsaber and Neal and Sara celebrating their first wedding anniversary. Definitely a fun one to write!

[silbrith]

This is such a delightful story! It will definitely put you in the holiday spirit!

New Caffrey Conversation story!

Chapter 1 of Overcomplications is posted to AO3!

This is a Thanksgiving story set in 2007, in a pre-series AU where Neal was recruited to work for Peter instead of being arrested in 2003. At this point they have both left the FBI to work for a private PI firm, along with Diana, Jones, and even Sara! Neal and Sara are celebrating their first wedding anniversary and planning to host their first big holiday event.

Inspired by Ocean's 8, the focus is on Sara and Diana, who need to plan a heist as part of a case. Neal stays at home to prep for Thanksgiving dinner. Riiiiight. As if he could resist getting involved in a heist!

I'll post new chapters weekly. Enjoy!

This story took me ridiculously long to write! Now I'm finally going to take a break and read fics I've been marking "for later" on AO3.

[silbrith]

I'll play along!

Current WIP title: Apophis Rising

The original title was Serpent's Shadow and it's still clamoring to be used.

In @novella-november's format, it would be The Clash of the Serpent and the Scorpion

Okay now I am curious. 👀

How does everyone come up with titles for their work?

Do you have a go-to style, or is it more "vibes based" depending on the work?

this question is prompted by me wondering where the new publishing trend of what seems like a lot of unrelated book series having titles along the lines of

"The [blank] of [blank] and [blank]"

with me wondering where it came from, and if it is based off of one book series that everyone else is trying to copy, if its something publishers are pushing, or a mix of both.

so, as a fun little interactive post:

What's your current WIP document title,

Are you planning on changing the title after editing

what would the title be if you formatted it in "The [blank] of [blank] and [blank]" style?

[silbrith]

I finally get my happy ending to Camelot thanks to @penna-nomen's marvelous suggestion! 😂😂

Went to a production of Camelot on Saturday and I wanted so much for a show to end with a throuple. Arthur, Guinevere, and Lancelot could have been so happy together 💔

Loved the music 🎶 My parents had the soundtrack and I learned all of the songs as a child, but this was the first time I saw the play performed. The theatre posted this song by Lancelot -- he's an impressive singer!

[silbrith]

Nothing beats the fun of tossing around the plot bunnyball with Penna! 🐇🏐🐇

I just adore the Caffrey Conversation series you co-write and am always blown away by how you’re able to weave a plot together with many elements into a fun story for the characters to dive into and for us to read. I was wondering what your favorite part of the process was for working on these fics. And which one was your favorite story to write so far 😁.

Thanks so much! I'm blushing at the praise.

The weaving of plot elements that you mentioned is one of my favorite parts, and being able to brainstorm (we call it playing bunnyball) plots with a fellow writer has been a true highlight (waving at @silbrith) Almost as soon as she became my beta reader and let me know she didn't mind spoilers, I was running ideas by her for feedback and it was sooo marvelous to get a second opinion. When we graduated from email to video calls for our conversations, it was even better.

Favorite stories... oh my... so many are sentimental favorites for one reason or another. If I tie it back to those bunnyball sessions, I'd say Full Circle. We had multiple conversations about how to handle the White Collar "James plot" and whether James could be redeemed. I also loved revisiting elements from the original Caffrey Conversation story while giving Ellen a happier ending.

[silbrith]

This story had me squealing with delight! And yes, of course, I wish @penna-nomen would continue the adventures of Neal and Peter as reporters. 😂😂

WIP Wednesday

Thanks for tagging me @a-noble-dragon

After spending the long weekend on a virtual writing retreat with @silbrith, I drafted my AU Roulette story, which puts White Collar characters in a reporters AU. Here's a sneak preview:

"You could be a real journalist, you know," Peter said, not for the first time. As much as he disliked C4, he admired Neal's ability to gather information. His podcasts were the best feature of the publication, which otherwise veered dangerously toward conspiracy theories.

I hope to post the full story in a few days!

[silbrith]

Music Monday

Thanks for the tag @penna-nomen!

Rules: Choose a few fics you wrote that were inspired by a song - not just with song lyrics in title - and share the tune and the link to the fics. If anyone wants to guess which goes with which go for it in comments or tags!

Like Kate, I've always loved the classics. I include both popular and classic music in my stories. Whittling down the list to a few favorites is a daunting task, but here goes —

The Woman in Blue (Caffrey Conversation). Klaus Mansfeld, a friend/enemy is linked to Franz Schubert, contrasting with Neal's love for rock music. In later stories, the opposites theme is expanded to include Klaus's evil brother Rolf who is tied to Rachmaninoff.

In The Queen's Jewels (Caffrey Conversation), Neal is framed for a crime he didn't commit. Bound for Botany Bay (John Doyle) and The Chain (Fleetwood Mac) play in his head. They're later replaced by The Rising (Bruce Springsteen). The White Collar team celebrates his name being cleared with a CD of songs, including Footloose, Born to Run, Unchained Melodies, and Born Free.

Nocturne in Black and Gold (Caffrey Conversation): Neal's theme songs are Sounds of Silence (Simon & Garfunkel) and Nara (E.S. Posthumus). Neal associates heist planning with Rachmaninoff's Folia Variations. Peter uses Bridge over Troubled Water (Simon & Garfunkel) to pull Neal out of a dark place and then scores a double-play by having it featured in Cinereous Skies in the meta series Arkham Files. At the Zoo (Simon & Garfunkel) provides a lighthearted moment. Neal and Sara make a game out of Mockingbird (Carly Simon & James Taylor). Both songs are also included in Cinereous Skies.

Arkham Files (set in the 1970s): A Little Help from My Friends, Long Time Gone, and Woodstock with its line about stardust, are plot elements in The Locked Room.

Crossed Lines (Caffrey Conversation x Supernatural): In Whispers in the Night, Peter reveals that Dean Winchester isn’t the only one into classic rock. Songs include Hot Blooded (Foreigner), Bad to the Bone (George Thorogood & The Destroyers), and Sisters Are Doin' It for Themselves (Eurythmics). When Dean, Mozzie, and Peter are afflicted with a dork curse, they belt out Rawhide and Happy Trails at a diner.

Dark Rabbit (Crossed Lines): Angela Caffrey is mesmerized by a dulcimer-playing vampire. Inspiration: The Kiss, played on the dulcimer by Scott Williams.

Six-Crossed Knot (All Souls Trilogy fandom): a series about Jack Blackfriars—an Elizabethan musician and artist turned vampire. Inspiration for Jack: Cymbeline (Loreena McKennitt). Jack's theme song, Touch Me Lightly (Tobias Hume), was featured in Walking Shadows. Leonard Shoreditch's customized theme song It Was a Lover and His Lad is in Fretwork. Nothing Else Matters (Apocalyptica) inspired Tangled Knots.

Can I squeeze in one more series? Reflections (The Supremes) is the inspiration for Sedlow Chronicles (original sci-fi fantasy). That song and People Are Strange (The Doors) are featured in the second story Shadows of Crellos.