#january you were dreary but the fics made it bearable

[whinlatter]

january recs: reading, listening, writing

jumped on the bandwagon to do my own shameless round-up of january highlights, including a lil WIP sneak peek.......

Reading:

Already Gone by @takearisk-ao3 (AO3) (Harry/Ginny, multi-chapter WIP, post-DH)

the talk of the town amnesia fic, has me absolutely gripped. also the last chapter was 🥵 and by that i mean it was low key hot uhh excellent

and tomorrow came again by bettysgarden12 (A03) (Gen, next gen, twoshot) '

'an examination of the children of heroes'. beautiful, rich writing, and a charming insight into the next gen’s journey through hogwarts. it’s sharp and bright and so hopeful. made my whole day. also the phrase 'a hurricane in a skinsuit' has lodged forever in my brain

up and down and barely made it over by cosmicwritings (AO3) (Bill, oneshot)

given i am a sucker for a brilliant character study and for bill weasley, i couldn't not love this. rich in insight and warmth for our unproblematic coastal king bill weasley

perimeter walks by @evesaintyves (A03) (Remus/Tonks, WIP)

a remadora vignette series that just aches, it's so good. there's this really bodily, physical quality to the writing that just stays with you in your bones ages after reading. cannot wait for more

drafts by @turanga4 (A03) and the sum of all parts by @incalculablepower (A03) (Dean, drabbles)

all the pieces @harrypocter winter sun fest have all been really excellent, but i particularly enjoyed these two short dean character studies, especially if read together. both carefully and tenderly explore dean's relationship with his art and his reflections on his life and his war, and really pack such a punch for east london's golden boy

to be always kind and true by clarewithnoi (AO3) (James/Lily, oneshot)

a really tender jily love confession fic, lovely in so many ways but particularly this line: 'She still isn’t looking at him when a noise erupts from his throat.  It’s somewhere in the family of scoffs, but it’s not mean.  It’s strangled and a little hoarse, and it leaves him as though through an attic window, where he can’t control its escape.'

Listening:

ceilings by lizzy mcalpine (like every other sad girl on tiktok)

emily i'm sorry by boy genius (ditto)

tropic morning news by the national (like every other… sad dad with an electric vehicle? idk)

sunset by caroline polachek (these days i wear my body like an uninvited guest - good! fckn! opener!)

i bet on losing dogs by mitski (because there's a y in the day)

Writing...

putting out orchards after so long, and actually having people take something from it was the best part of this month. if you read it and reached out i cannot thank you enough, truly brought the sunshine to the dreariest of januaries. if you haven't read it and like jocks in love then have i got the fic for you:

right now... i’m writing a few new things. the project i’ve been working on most is a new one called beasts. its alternative title is: the hanging out with hagrid award. it's multi-chapter, pre + post-war, and it's about our girl gin. it’s foresty and a bit feral and its vibes are kind of like this and also this:

‘How do you become an Animagus?’ Sunken eyes dart briefly to hers, alight with something. Stupidly, she gets her hopes up. But then he looks away, scratches Buckbeak’s wingfeathers where they’re starting to matt. ‘I suspect,’ he says, ‘that your mother’s opinion of me wouldn’t be much improved if I told her fourteen year old daughter how to risk her life to become an illegal Animagus.’ She’s actually thirteen, at this point, but decides pointing that out won’t help her case. ‘Since when were you scared of what my mother thought of you?’ She’d quite like a grin from him for that, doesn’t get one. He’s in one of those moods. Not for the first time that summer, she feels herself slip into a sulk. She inspects him, through her scowl, how his skin is pulled taut over sharp cheekbones, a face ghosted by grandeur. She thinks she might have been able to make Sirius Black laugh, once, if she’d been born twenty years earlier. Resents that she's missed the boat.

and also a bit like this -

'We teach our children that ours is a world sorted into beasts and beings. Don't you know a beast when you see it? Even the smallest child in our world knows that beasts are savage creatures. They know nothing of humanity, of conscience, of kindness. They live only by their own lawlessness. Beings, we say, are not like beasts. We beings have laws, government, a sense of common good. Beings know right from wrong. Beings know what we owe to each other. I used to think this war had made beasts of beings. But now I wonder if the beings might well have been beasts all along. Are wars just the savagery of beasts by another name? What if beastliness is a requirement of being? What if being is trying to overcome our own beastliness? And what if we can't? I wonder what to make of this. I wonder what I will teach my children.'