This is a meta both on the third season of Sherlock and the fic I have in progress, Truth May Vary. It contains spoilers through the current chapter (chapter 14) but none past that; it also contains spoilers for series 3 of Sherlock.

( The figure of Mary Morstan can pose a problem. )

2600 words tonight. The first chapter of Truth May Vary. \0/

Now, the rough draft deadline for queer_bigbang is August 1. Can I write ten thousand words between now and then? Absolutely. Can I write the entirety of this story? Ha ha ha the odds are not in my favor, not if I want to accomplish anything else, like, you know, my job. Plus, the posting deadline is in the first month of the school year. Yeah, let's not write a novel-length for for the first month of my new job, that's a bad idea.

I'm wondering if maybe I should dig around and see if I've got another 10K story that's about queer stuff in me that I could knock out. I mean, I know 10K sounds like a lot, but Ravish Me is 10K, you know?

Like, could I stretch the Sherlock/John story that totally steals its plot from the Fountains of Wayne song The Girl I Can't Forget to 10K? (key tag: ffs sherlock that is not what grindr is for)

Again, too lazy to do a proper repost, so have the link to the AO3 version:

Doubt Looms Over The Mind (2124 words) by amalnahurriyeh
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Sherlock (TV)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Sherlock Holmes & John Watson
Characters: Sherlock Holmes, John Watson
Additional Tags: Suicidal Thoughts, Doctor Who References, Sherlock Is A Bit Not Good, Murder, Paranoia
Series: Part 6 of Truth May Vary (Post-Reichenbach series)
Summary:

He does not see things. But sometimes he remembers.

Getting close to the part where I actually have to start writing the long version...

Title: The Birds All Left
Author: Amal Nahurriyeh (amalnahurriyeh/amalnahurriyeh)
Summary: Molly says good-bye a little later than everyone else.
Pairing: Sherlock Holmes & Molly Hooper friendship fic
Rating: PG
Warnings: just some sad.
Angst-level: sad but not crushingly
Timeline: Takes place somewhere between five and six years after the events of The Reichenbach Fall, in the Truth May Vary universe.
Disclaimer: Intellectual property is a capitalist fiction designed to oppress the working fic-writer. That said, I don't own them either.

You can also read it on the AO3.

A/N: Written for louisebrealey's birthday. I am kind of ashamed of this fact, but, well. No shame in fandom, and I think we can all agree Loo's a badass. Unbeta'd, because leighnahurriyeh fell asleep on the couch before I could hand her the computer. Let me know if you see typos, etc.

Returning to type: the title is from Your Bones, by Of Monsters and Men. I included a link in the text to give a visual reference for one of the objects mentioned in the fic.

( She kneels down and pulls the weeds, letting the soil fall back to the ground from around their roots. )

leighnahurriyeh and I just spent a good five minutes making arm gesture diagrams of the 221B layout in order to determine if it is possible for John and Sherlock to sit on the couch together to watch television.

(Conclusion: no. But if I decide John is using his laptop to watch torrented episodes of Doctor Who that he missed because he was deployed, then yes.)

Having a live-in co-fan is super helpful.

(ps: SEE WHAT I DID THERE IN THE USER TAG.)

(pps: don't get excited, it's more Truth May Vary angst.)

I think I checked tumblr about every half an hour today, just to see people flapping their arms and making noises. Metaphorical noises.

(If you weren't aware of this, the cause was this twitter post. Don't go to the #grapes tag on tumblr if you don't want to be very confused.)

This feels suspiciously like the winter of 2007/2008. You know, when a certain (terriwonderful)* movie was being filmed. I liked that winter. I knocked up my wife that winter. I passed my first comprehensive exam that winter.

I became Amal that winter, actually. Though she took six months to park herself on teh intarwebs.

Anyway, it's a good feeling. Though I am, in fandom terms, something approaching middle-aged (if not an old lady). Probably my position right now is best expressed through this cartoon by my favorite fanartist, shockingblankets.

IN CONCLUSION, I have not had the emotional energy to play much at f_march_madness, but if you haven't already voted I would like to STRONGLY suggest you vote for the amazing and wonderful Molly Hooper, who suffered the key indignity of having her fucking name misspelled in the poll. Molly is great. You should vote for her. I'm sure whoever she's up against is nice, but Molly Hooper wears underwear with little skulls in bows and pink kitten sweaters and cuts up dead people for a living. She's like Dana Scully with no seriousness at all. She's loyal and smart and strong and she deserves all of our votes, because she's the best. The end.

* I type the first half of the word "terriwonderful." Leigh is leaning over my shoulder. "Terrible," she says. "No," I say, "look." She reads what I wrote. "Terrible," she says. "SHUT UP I LIKED IT," I say. "You're one of very few people," she says.

Title: Going Where We've Never Been
Author: Amal Nahurriyeh (amalnahurriyeh/amalnahurriyeh)
Fandom: Sherlock (BBC)
Genre: Gen
Characters: Mrs. Hudson, John Watson
Rating: T
Warnings: (skip) This story contains a terminally ill character discussing her end of life plans with a loved one. There is not going to be any heroic rescue; she is actually going to die. Prepare your feels.

Angst Level: high; check out the spoiler-barred warnings above if you are sensitive to stuff, or possibly have some tissues handy.
Timeline: About 3 years post-TRF. Sherlock is still "dead."

Summary: Amelia Hudson prepares.

Also available at the AO3.

Author's Notes:

Well, what I thought was a one-shot (Cheerful Songs for the Broken-Hearted) has spawned a series. Oops. You might want to go check out the series page on the Archive for the general timeline. However, this can be read as a standalone.

Title from Your Bones by Of Monsters and Men. Thanks to leigh_nahurriyeh for encouragement and cityesm for beta/britpick.


( Amelia's hospital room had quite a good view, she thought. )

Because I am an attention whore, I just posted a link to my fic on tumblr in the #bbc sherlock tag.

Pray for my soul.

Being as it is Yuletide reveal time, here's my story:


Five Times Maia Duvall Was Actually Glad To Have Been On The Away Mission (2743 words) by amalnahurriyeh
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Redshirts - John Scalzi
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Maia Duvall/Anatoly Kerensky
Characters: Maia Duvall, Andrew Dahl, Hester, Anatoly Kerensky, OFC
Summary:

Because sometimes it's funny, and sometimes it's beautiful, and sometimes it's not.

It does technically contain spoilers for the book, but if you aren't planning on reading the book it can be read as a stand-alone. I like all of the Redshirts fic on the archive, actually.

And thanks again to BowlerHatGirl for my delicious present.


***

Today was spent, in part, watching the Mummers Parade, because I'm a Philadelphian and I was in Philadelphia, and that's what you do. In any case, while watching it, I was struck by a crackfic bunny, which I posted on Tumblr: essentially, that Mycroft Holmes's distaste for "legwork" comes from that terrible period of time when he was assigned to infiltrate a wench brigade because members of it were involved in idk terrorism or something. But he is a young and quite junior analyst, and has to go where he is told, even if it involves having to drink frankly unpalatable beer and hang out with individuals who believe that English still has a viable plural second person pronoun. ("Youse" is not something he can bring himself to utter, no matter if it strains his membership in the community.) At some point into this tortuous experience Sherlock (then in university, because timelines) shows up to make fun of him, just in time to see the parade, which ends with Mycroft having to beat up the international criminals while wearing his braids and all. When he gets back to England, Sherlock buys him a nice new umbrella for a belated Christmas gift. Mycroft resents this mightily, but takes to bringing it with him everywhere.

YOU'RE WELCOME.

*this plotbunny brought to you by Leigh's Mycroft feels (which rub off after a while)

It's Yuletide, everybody! Hooray! I think which story I wrote is painfully obvious if you stumble over it, but I don't know if any of you know the canon, so, maybe you won't discover it.

In any case, I received a fabulous story:

Padded Rooms and Stiletto Heels (1006 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Revenge (TV)
Rating: General Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Victoria Grayson, Emily Thorne
Summary:

It’s a trade she’s more than willing to make.

It's a brilliant bit of backstory for Victoria, and does exactly what I want a Victoria story to do: deal in an upfront and direct way with the immorality of many of her actions, while keeping her human. At her most interesting moments, Victoria recognizes how wrong she is, but consciously chooses to continue on the same path, because she prefers this route to others. This is a story where she stands in the face of her own wrongdoing, looks it in the eye, and then keeps going.

I haven't finished reading in some of the "larger" fandoms (SCANDAL FIIIIIIIIC), but here are my recs so far:


( first batch of recs )