End of Year Review - Fanworks and Fic Lists

[swiftsnowmane]

~

Herein is a list of all the various fanworks I've started, completed, and/or posted this year, including fics, edits, and a few commissions/collaborations. I've been feeling so incredibly down about all that I've failed to complete this year, so I'm trying to focus on what I did I manage to do (rather than the perhaps unrealistic amount of things I'd hoped to finish). :P

Most of these are viewable on the Bethyl and Fire & Sky sections of my tumblr, but since they are mixed together with works from last year, I thought I'd gather together everything from 2015 into one big list.

Also included toward the end are a couple of fic rec lists as well as my top five favourite fics that I read in 2015. Just off the top of my head, the ones that have stuck with me the most vividly. :)




Bethyl fics:

- The burning spaces between - Daryl’s PoV of scenes of Between the Fire and the Sky. Still very much a WIP, this is probably the fic I've been the most frustrated with thus far. I embarked upon it almost immediately after the 'thing' (as I call it) in a foggy, grief-striken haze, and it's probably therefore not the most well-constructed thing I've ever written. That said, I poured some real emotion into it, and there are some passages that I love very much. I still plan to complete this one, as I do think it's worth giving glimpses into Daryl's thoughts during the rest of that story, but it's taken a bit of a backseat to the others for now.

- All That Remains - continuation of BtFatS. Funeral home AU, aka a divergence from ‘Alone’. Probably my personal favourite of everything I've written for my dear Bethyl thus far. This one is still unfinished in my mind, though the first three chapters can easily stand alone as an 'ending' to BtFatS. I do plan to continue this one, but I have struggled for a long time with deciding how to transition to the next 'section' of the story. I hope I will regain inspiration for this one soon, as I so adore writing from Beth's PoV in this 'verse.

- From Earth I Rose - Daryl with the Claimers. Just a short one shot I wrote during a brief but intense hypomanic period this summer in which I had an all-too fleeting burst of inspiration.

- Transcendence - Beth during ‘Slabtown’. My reaction to that episode. I think a lot of people struggled with Beth's characterization and with understanding her frame of mind in the hospital. I offer this as my interpretation and my reconcilliation of the Beth we (and Daryl) fell in love with in s4 andn the Beth we only briefly glimpsed in s5. Of all my fics, this is one means a great deal to me and while I never expected it to be as highly read as the others, I have to admit the lack of views/reviews has been somewhat disheartening at times.

- A Slice of Life - My Pushing Daisies AU. Written very early this year, in the space of one day. Never had that happen before. I suppose everyone deals with grief in different ways. Also, the idea of Daryl Dixon as the Piemaker both amuses and torments me. Once I'd thought of it, it just...had to be done.

- To Be Alone - Normily RPF and ode to Bethyl. My most recent (published) fic, and another that basically wrote itself.


All in all, the above list is barely a dent in the huge amount of unfinished works I have in my drafts. The problem has been a lack of confidence -- not in my writing per se, but in terms of the stories ideas themselves. Every time I get to working on an idea, I get about halfway through writing it and then just....wimp out. It's like I suddenly start thinking it's ridiculous or stupid or that no one will want to read it and then I just give up. Which is not good. At all. (I'm failing you, Neil Gaiman!!! *cries*)

I guess, given this unfortunate mindset, it's a miracle I've managed to write or post anything at all this year. Here's to hoping I can overcome this way of thinking and get a few more fics (and possibly even some original works) finished.


Bethyl edits:

Most of these are based on fic quotes (mine or others) or on song lyrics. (As you can probably tell, Mark Lanegan features rather heavily here):

• Between the Fire and the Sky


• The Last Ones Standing


• Halos in your hair


• Carry Home


• The Storm Will Pass


• Bethyl + doorways


• Inmates x Still x Alone


• Harvest Home


• And we’ll be good


• Untitled Lullaby


• We’ll lay in the lawn


• First drink (no damn Peach Schnapps)


• Where a glass of whiskey shone


• Nowhere Man and the Whiskey Girl


• If tears were liquor


• Don’t you feel anything?


• I sing…I still sing


• The Gravedigger’s Song


• Sorrow for its spoiling


• What changed your mind?


• The Last One in the World


• All the World is Green(e)


• Maybe this is how it ends


• That beast-turned-man


• Beth dreams of Daryl


• Transcendence (she lifted her eyes to the sky)


• Transcendence (she saw as a bird sees)


• From Earth I Rose (he hunted wild game)


• Now I can’t believe that it will be so long


• We die and see (beauty reign)


• Deep below the earth (I might have found you)


• The place where they were burning


• A man temporarily blinded by the sun


• Wild and dew-drenched Eden


• Devil at the Crossroads


• Everything Will Burn


• Wild and perilous woods


• That beautiful, terrible moment


• The feral glint therein


• Claimed (forever as his own)


• Beth cute and badass next to Daryl and his arms


• Start Your Own Fire (quote)


• Angels of the Apocalypse (poem)


• Tribute to ‘The Best of It’ (by Schwoozie)


• ’Will You Miss Me When I Burn’ (by Zagzagael) (a gift for bleodswean )

Bethyl AU/Normily edits:

• Jukebox (Pushing Daisies AU)


• Only One Choice (Pushing Daisies AU)


• I Followed Fires (Bethyl reunion concept)


• Tiny Dancer (Normily/Bethyl roadtrip AU)


• A Little Bit In Love (Normily’s chemistry)


• Man in the Long Black Coat (Normily as Death and the Maiden)


• It’s only summer when… (Normily as Hades and Persephone)


• All the true beauty… (excerpt from Normily RPF ’To Be Alone’)

Bethyl (and related) commissions:

This year was the first time in all my years of fandom that I managed to commission fan art. (I would have commissioned even more if not for severe lack of spare funds. :P )

~

~

• They didn’t look back by bubug (above) - This artwork, for me, is a long-time dream come true. The artist known as 'bubug' (Magdalena) has long been one of my favourite fan artists and illustrators out there. I first encountered her work via her stunning and intricate SanSan (Sansa Stark x Sandor Clegane) pieces. For several years now I have hoped to commission something from her. Originally, I had intended to commission a SanSan piece, but then Bethyl quite literally stole my soul and I knew what I had to do. And so, this past year, I was honoured to recieve this beautiful piece from her, intended as a cover illustration for Between the Fire and the Sky.

• They didn’t look back [DETAILS] by bubug - The Snake, the Ladybug, and the Little Turtle Lovenote. 'nuff said. ;)

• What We Became Along the Way by aspaceformybethyl  - a piece I commissioned this summer as a surprise gift for weshallflyaway (onborrowedwings ), and intended as an illustration to accompany her gorgeous s2 divergence AU Bethyl fic.

• A Year of Normily by aspaceformybethyl -  Commissioned this summer on a fangirlish whim, I think I almost died of happiness when I saw what this wonderful artist had done based on my request.

• Out of Here (fanvid) by alillywhite - This fanvid was something I had playing inside my head for ages, but lacking the video editing skills, I finally asked around for someone to help me out. alillywhite on tumblr was kind enough to listen to my extremely detailed request and construct this beautiful Bethyl fanvid around an AU (as in, divergent) concept that I have been slowly working on but not yet completed. I am a highly visual person and I needed a more hopeful fanvid to watch to help inspire me to keep writing. This is intended as a companion piece to the fic Transcendence (Beth's PoV during 'Slabtown').

Honourable mention(s):

• All That Remains-inspired pieces [1] and [2] by unfbadger (nsfw!) - These sketches were not commissioned by me, but I have to include them as they are just...omg. amazing. I still can't believe someone created such gorgeous fan art based on my Bethyl smutfic....ahhhhh.

While I obviously spent  a lot of (too much?) time this year working on various projects of my own, I did manage to do a bit of reading and catching up on some excellent fics as well, both for Bethyl as well as for other fandoms and pairings. Here I must take the opportunity to share my own personal lists and recommendations:

Fic Rec lists:

- Write Down Wishes: A Bethyl Fic List - My Bethyl fic list. Updated as regularly as possible as I slowly but surely catch up on reading various fics. :)

- SwiftSnowmane's Ao3 rec list - Contains Bethyl as well as SanSan (Sansa Stark x Sandor Clegane), Jayne x River and Mal x Inara from Firefly, Max/Furiosa from Mad Max: Fury Road, The Last Unicorn fics, various and sundry literary and period drama pairings, and many, many more.

Top Five Favourite Fics:

(Note: these are fics *read*, but not necessarily written this year.)

In no particular order...

- The Things Men Do by palimpsestus - My personal favourite Mad Max: Fury Road fic. It's difficult to choose just one mm:fr fic as there are soooo many good ones, but this one in particular made a huge impression. Contains skillfully-handled Max/Furiosa and deeply compelling post-canon character development for The Wives. I wasn't sure it could be done so convincingly, but this fic roved me otherwise. It's simply a brilliant and fitting continuation of the story.

- Gentlemen of Fortune by yunitsa - Edward Sexby x Angelica Fanshawe from The Devil's Whore (2008) (English Civil Wars period drama, and one of my all-time faves). An AU taking off from the second episode featuring Angelica and Sexby as highwaymen. Takes basically everything awesome about the series and gives us a decidedly less tragic but equally fitting, plausible, and highly-satisfying outcome. Outstanding writing that captures the mood and overall style of the series. What more can one ask for in a fic? :)

- Imprint the Stars to Remember the Sky by Zagzagael - Hades and Persephone, modern AU. As always, I am blown away by Zagzagael's ability to convey so much in so few and so carefully-chosen words. This fic (and this particular 'verse') captured my heart and mind so thoroughly I have not been able to stop thinking of it since. :)

- Don't Look Back by emmiemac - 1947, post-war, film noir SanSan. Set in 1940s Los Angeles, Sandor is a former marine who served in the Pacific theater and is now a police officer/detective. Sansa, now in disguise as 'Alayne', is the 'good girl' turned femme fatale from his past that he can't help but 'investigate'. Incredible period piece, heart-wrenchingly beautiful characterization of both Sandor and Sansa, and insanely hot smut. I can't rec it highly enough.

And last but definitely not least....

- The Orchard by LemonStar

~

Gorgeous fan art by mollykflood (x)

~

"1945. The war is over and soldiers are flooding home, ready to pick up the lives they have had on hold for the past few years. Daryl Dixon has no life to return to and no plans of what he is going to do with himself. When he meets Hershel Greene, and the man offers him a job on his farm, Daryl has no reason to turn him down."

Another post-war fic, this time an absolutely gorgeous Bethyl AU. (Sensing a theme here? Yeah, I guess I'm kind of into that time period right now.) And this fic...omg. It quite literally slayed me right in 'the feels'. I haven't cried while reading a fic in a long time, but this one, let's just say I was tearing up just from the first couple of chapters...in a good way. Because, the pathos. My god, the pathos. Daryl is absolutely perfect as the returned soldier (having served in Europe) searching for his place in the post-war world. Both Beth and Daryl are somehow both re-molded to fit the time period, and yet wholly recognizable and in-character. The setting of the farm in this story is particularly well-rendered. Not to mention that the author manages to interweave callbacks, references, and themes of the canon-verse so seamlessly into this AU verse that it's not annoying or in-your-face obvious.

*I would be remiss not to mention one of the (seeming??) inspirations of this story: the gritty and visually-stunning WWII drama Fury (2014). It made me so happy to notice the connection, because, other than Mad Max: Fury Road (which is hands-down my choice for film of the year), that film was amongst the more memorable I saw this year. It was actually uncanny: as I was watching Fury (long before I read this fic), I could not help but think to myself that Daryl Dixon would have made an excellent member of the tank crew. And then, lo and behold, as I was reading this fic a few months later I kept thinking that the version of Daryl Dixon featured therein would have easily fit in with that self-same tank crew! Ahhh, my feels.

Yeah, it's safe to say that The Orchard is one of the best Bethyl AUs I've read as well as one of my top favourite Bethyl stories that I encountered this year.

Thus ends my 2015 fandom review. I'm sure there is so much more that I forgot to mention, but I think this post is long enough already. ;)

Happy New Year, everyone. :)

~

Gorgeous edit by the lovely persephoneswish

~

Currently listening. Because I could listen to this version forever and ever....

Comments

[bleodswean.livejournal.com]

Oh this post!! I had no idea you made that gorgeous photo collage!!! I LOVE THAT!!! Thank you, thank you, thank you! I'm really moved by your encouragement.

I won't talk about Bethyl because I can't. But I will say that your continued support of that 'ship via all of these words is a gift to the fandom. You outdid yourself last year with so much creativity and I do hope you find some solace in that!

I didn't know you were a Lanegan fan!!

I'm going to begin clicking through on all your rec links! So much to read!

You really don't know how much you've inspired me with your continued comments. I truly appreciate it and I thank you sincerely. I wish I could have given as much back to you, but the fandom broke me this past year. Terrible. And I simply stepped away from AO3 and fic. I'm not sure I will ever return to it. But writing the Hades/Persephone AU has been a fount of creative thinking for me and I'm thrilled you resonate with it. I'm working on a long Hades/Persephone piece of writing for 2016.

I hope you're going to be doing more writing this year, too!

Here's to 2016!!!

[swiftsnowmane]

Oh, you are most welcome, my friend!!

And a longer Hades and Persephone story???? Ahhhh, I simply cannot wait to see what you have in store. :)

Hope this year shapes up to a good one for you, as well. <3