How many days until December...?

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

There's something about Pros at Christmas - this is the third post where I say does anyone wanna...? and hope that the answer's yes! *g*

In 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011 and in 2010 we've had December/winter/Christmas/etc. themed recs, via a calendar of posting days for the December countdown to Christmas - a Pros fic recommendation is made, around a Christmas/December theme, every day in December, counting down to Christmas. Anyone can join in, and remind people of the fic that keeps them cheerful through the dark months (or the blazing hot months *waves to Southern hemisphere and elsewhere that doesn't shiver*) and it's really nice to have a Pros story pop up in our list every day.

Recs can be long or short, and the stories can be long or short, it doesn't matter - if you've got a favourite snowy-Christmas drabble, then it can be recced in the calendar, on a day that you choose. All we need is a link to the story (or to where it can be found), and a heading for your post, and we're away. That said, reccers can post anything they like to accompany the story recommendation - pictures, music, thoughts about the story, an invitation to discussion, the drink they'd best recommend to accompany the read... *g*

The idea is based on the Hatstander's Pros Advent Calendar of many years ago, posted by then-Nell Howell, and much missed. The only rule for the fics that are recced is that they must be Christmas/December seasonal in some way!

Do have a look back to previous years here via the Christmas tag if you'd like to.

[Poll #2058172]

Oh! And last year we had our own special banner made by dollidaydream, which was fab, and brightened up my flist beautifully. If anyone would like to make a banner for this year, that would be wonderful... *g*

So, let's see... *g*

Comments

[fiorenza-a.livejournal.com]

As I believe I have mentioned before - I don't post my own stuff this time of year, but I'm happy to have a hunt and find something Christmassy I didn't post in my celebration the other Christmas (which, unfortunately, lets out two of my fav vids).

But there must be other Christmassy stuff out there - and I think I'd quite like an excuse to go looking for it :0)

So, in honour of the spirit of the post, I shall debut my finely crafted 2016 Christmas icon on this comment.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

That's okay, the Ci5hq posts aren't about posting your own stuff at all - they're about wallowing in our favourite Pros stories written by other people, and sharing our love of them with the CI5hq community. There's loads of Pros Christmas stories - if nothing else, O. Yardley wrote one every year for very many years, and dozens of other Pros writers have written them too. There's Christmas stories on the Circuit Archive, the Hatstand (original), the Automated Hatstand, lots of Pros stories at discoveredinalj under the various Christmas challenge tags (try via the banners on the user info page). Stories and stories and stories in ProsLib. And that's before we even think about the relatively recent AO3!

Good to know you'd like to play - I'll post a calendar in a few days (assuming the rest of Pros fandom doesn't come in and say No thank you!, and you can choose day/s... Very nice Christmas icon!

[fiorenza-a.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't mind a couple of days - then I could post a fic and something else.

Already had a bit of hunt, but get easily distracted so ended up reading A Momentary Aberration (http://www.thecircuitarchive.com/tca/archive/5/amomentary.html) by LH - which in turn led to scribbling the outline of a fic inspired by...

Now I have another Pros WIP...

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

then I could post a fic and something else
No, you couldn't I'm afraid - this challenge is purely for reccing seasonal Pros stories, so "something else" wouldn't be eligible! And I'm hoping you mean "I could post a story recommendation" rather than "I could post a fic", too! But within those bounds, you're very welcome to choose a couple of days.

It's very easy to be distracted by reading Pros fic, isn't it...! *vbg*

[fiorenza-a.livejournal.com]

Ooops - By 'fic' I did mean 'rec' - sorry :0)

And I must have got a bit muddled reading the post - but I'm happy to stick to fic recs - bet there's a few on the crack_van too...

Off to investimegate...

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Okay, now I'm just getting confused, cos I'm not sure why you need to find fic recs elsewhere (like at the Crack Van).

The idea is just to read seasonal Pros Christmas stories (or think back to ones that you have read), and then to recommend one that you enjoyed to other people, via a post to the CI5hq comm, on the day that you have signed up for.

But maybe you haven't really read man Pros Christmas stories, and that's what you're looking for, in which case you might find Christmas stories that are recced at Crack Van to give you ideas/help you find stories that you'll enjoy, but as far as I remember they just tag Pros stories, not specific sub-categories. You can find Christmas story lists at Palelyloitering.com, the original Hatstand, Discoveredinalj, and here at CI5hq under the tags list. Alicambs recs () has a section for Pros Christmas-focused stories too. Pros stories on AO3 might also be tagged as Christmas (though it'll depend on how authors choose to tag their stories). Hope that helps!

Not read nearly enough Pros fic at all...

[fiorenza-a.livejournal.com]

Must be me not explaining myself properly :0)

Far as I know the crack_van only had subcategories for Collisions - the crossover recs and Friday Night Drive-In - the fanvid recs (which is where I first found some of my absolute favs) - I don't remember any tags.

I just thought any call for recs was a good excuse to go hunting for Pros fic. I thought I would simply 'bookmark' (for want of a better word) any Christmas fic I found while I was at it.

It's ages since I've delved into the crack_van - and I now realise I don't have it in my Lj links - which is probably why I haven't read much S&H lately (don't worry, I won't be reccing that even if it is Christmassy - unless it turns out to be a Collision with Pros!)

I'm thinking of this as a meander rather than a mission - there's so much Pros I haven't read - I'm still discovering new stuff - like A Momentary Aberration.
.
I love Palelyloitering, but I don't have access to any offline zines - which is something I'm hoping to rectify at some point - but ta muchly for Alicambs - will defo check that out - in fact I think I might get a cup of coffee and do that right now, since I have a random day off :0)

(I'm reading Betwixt Man and Angell at present - but that's Trek - so not really relevant to this conversation.)

ETA - Palelyloitering led to Awakening (http://hatstandfic.net/viewstory.php?sid=371&chapter=1) by Sally Fell and Alicambs led to The Art of the AU (http://the-safehouse.livejournal.com/34063.html?style=mine#cutid1) by Brenda (Murphy was priceless :0))...which in turn led to more vocab looking up - to wit 'smarm' (https://fanlore.org/wiki/Smarm) and the pondering of a gauntlet:

"Don't think there's much gen AU - that lot tend to avoid it for some reason."

None of which is Christmassy - easily distracted - like I said!

RE: Not read nearly enough Pros fic at all...

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Okay - we're kind of talking about two different things - I was really focused on the challenge/celebration I'd just posted about, and it sounds like you were talking about your reading in general. (Very general, with S&H and ST in there!)

crack_van uses its tags for the different fandoms - they're in the left sidebar.

Palelyloitering isn't only about zines - it's "Zine, Author and Story Listings". So if you go and have a look at the Christmas storylist (http://www.palelyloitering.com/Story%20Lists/Christmas%20Storylist.htm), for example, the links will take you mostly to stories that are online (or a note that they're in ProsLib, for instance). Mind you, I really need to decide what to do with the website...!

Distractable is still fun, where Pros is concerned... one Pros leads to another... *g* Enjoy!

[freetraveller15.livejournal.com]

Silly question from a relative newbie? How do I know if the story I'd like to rec hasn't been recced in the previous years? Not sure I'd have the time to check previous years' recommendations...

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Hello relative newbie (but I never think of you as a newbie somehow! *g*) It doesn't matter if a story's been recced in previous years - in fact many of them have been, because people's favourites often stay favourite - it's just nice to have a story link (and maybe more) pop up in our flist each day. So any Pros Christmas/December-type story is just fine!

[freetraveller15.livejournal.com]

Ok thank you for clarifying :)
I have a few Christmas favourites I wouldn't mind recommending, though they're mostly from the past three years or so...
Do I need to choose in advance a day for posting a rec (or two?)

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Doesn't matter when the Christmas stories were written - if they're liked then they're liked! *g*

I'll put up a schedule in a little bit, for people to pick days. I wanted to see whether anyone else would be interested in seeing the recs again first - there's nothing more disheartening than posting an invitation/challenge and having no/very little response, so I wanted to avoid that if I could!

[freetraveller15.livejournal.com]

Ok great! I'll let you know soon which day(s) I'd like to choose and which stories :)

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Excellent! I posted the schedule last night actually, so feel free to go and grab! *g*

[golden-bastet.livejournal.com]

I'd like to contribute, but at this point I'm kind of getting over committed... :-(
But if I can find something quick I'll volunteer!

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

It be lovely to see you if you did have time to do it! You could always find a fic first, and then sign up once you had - save worrying about it within a shorter deadline of between-signing-up-and-posting?

[myfinalusername.livejournal.com]

not many days to December

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Hello - I suspect you're not really here because of the comm - you might want to check out the user info and see if it's really something you're interested in (we're quite specialised). If you do turn out to be interested, then feel free to wander around! Hopefully you're a real person, not a spambot...