2016 Prosfic Rec Advent Calendar - Day Thirteen - Jingle Balls, or Hard Times by M. Fae Glasgow

[fiorenza-a.livejournal.com]

Somebody once introduced me by announcing 'you should see what she does to Bodie and Doyle', in my defence I stuttered guiltily 'I write funny stuff too'.

With this in mind, although you can skip my rec and jump directly to the story at Jingle Balls, or Hard Times (circuit archive pdf), I'm rather hoping that you won't because I'd like to consider justacat's 2004 posting to the crack_van.

I first stumbled upon the crack_van in the late summer of 2013 when, all of a sudden, out of the blue, jkkitty PM'd me on FF.net to ask if she could rec one of my Man from U.N.C.L.E. stories. (I wasn't on Lj at the time and it's one of my milder idiosyncrasies that I don't, as a rule, re- or cross-post, so my fic is either archived on FF.net or on AO3, but not both.) Much intrigued, I googled 'crackvan' and discovered a wonderful multifandom box of delights.

Sadly, the com is no longer active, but it lives on as a treasuretrove archive for all to explore - and I heartily recommend that you do.

But back to my reason for wanting to link to justacat's rec, rather than directly to the story pdf. Well, M. Fae Glasgow (geddit?) has a reputation, partly for such punning turns of phrase, but also for bleakness. Twisted, bitter little tales. justacat's rec contains no spoilers and does a far better job of debunking that reputation than I ever could.

justacat's rec is here, the pdf link is at the end. Enjoy :0)

Comments

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

*pops CI5hq mod had on*

Okay you, that's just a sneaky way of minimising the direct link I asked you to put up to the actual Christmas story because you want people to read the rec instead! I'm sorry, but could you make your link to the story more clear please - something similar to the kind of links other people have been using, perhaps with the title of the story rather than just using "pdf" as the link?

As I mentioned in our previous discussion, the point of the calendar is to recommend Pros Christmas stories, so that people can go easily to those stories and have a relaxing Pros-y read. While some people will hopefully go and address your other interests here, and it's always good to stimulate discussion, it would be nice if the people who are simply enjoying the links to the stories can find this one more easily too.

Thank you!

[fiorenza-a.livejournal.com]

Hopefully this is explicit enough?

(I always warn if it's a pdf because that can be an issue for some people.)

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Perfect! Letting people know it's a pdf is fine, it was the clear title and link to the story that we needed!

[fiorenza-a.livejournal.com]

Relief!

[shooting2kill.livejournal.com]

There was a time when I read a lot of M Fae's work but then I stopped, hence I'm pretty sure I haven't read this one so thank you for yet another story which sounds not only a good read, but appropriately christmassy (I'm sure that's poor grammar but hey, it *is* Christmas!).

[fiorenza-a.livejournal.com]

Christmassy appropriateness is fine by me :0)

I wanted to go for something a bit more rollicking after my last rec - and I like to think Mead and Minori would have approved :0)

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

And without my CI5hq mod hat on - nice rec! I like M. Fae Glasgow's Pros alot, and this one is always fun! *g*

[fiorenza-a.livejournal.com]

As I said to S2K - I'm hoping Minori and Mead would have approved :0)