Fic Rec - The Seventh Sunday of the Year

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Title: The Seventh Sunday of the Year
Author: Suspect name is not for display on internet - search for "seventh" in ProsLib in the "index to numbered folders", or look in Disc 41
Available: Proslib CD
Link to story: Not online
Zine: Not in a zine

I pulled this story from my big-pile-of-fic-to-read, and was so happy that I did! It's beautifully written, sounds just like the lads, and is just that bit "deeper" than purely mission-based, or relationship-based fic.

It starts out with the lads off to Doyle's mum's for the weekend, and there are some lovely glimpses of them on the way. But the author also shows us the darker side of who they are as well, the possible causes and consequences of this, and how they cope with it. I love the contrast between the grime and grit of one world, and the yellow-lit, church-on-Sunday atmosphere of the other, and how we see both Bodie and Doyle through both.

I'd love to know if this author has written any more Pros, perhaps under another name? Anyone know anything about this author?

Also - I'm home sick! Which, on the bright side, means I get to read fic and play with palelyloitering and so on. *g* But if anyone happened to fancy posting their own story rec, perhaps fic that we don't often hear about, I'd be ever so appreciative... *g*

Comments

[callistosh65.livejournal.com]

Thank you for reccing this - I was just looking for something to read, so I checked it out and throughly enjoyed it. Like you, I liked the darker touch she managed, with both their characters, against the background of a trip to Doyle's mum and to mass on Sunday. I don't think I've ever read a fic where they've stopped and had a conversation about religion before - and it worked, too. Bodie's hesitancy and fascination with it all were well observed, as were Doyle's doubts and frustrations.

Like you, I'd love to know if this author wrote any others.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

It's great, isn't it? I was a bit dubious when they started the religious conversation, but it really did read very naturally, in fact. I like that there's still fic to be found out there! *g*

[hagsrus.livejournal.com]

According to a private source she also wrote River of Dreaming -- possibly gen.

Sorry I have no more information. Would be delighted to hear anything further.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Ooh - any idea where I'd find River of Dreaming? Doesn't seem to be on ProsLib, or in any of the zines... I can imagine Seventh Sunday being called gen actually, but you'd have to be pretty oblivious not to see the slashy possibilities, I reckon... *g*

Shall keep my ears open!

[sc-fossil.livejournal.com]

I thought the story was pretty good. Interesting the religious aspect. But I can't read a gen story without feeling like I've been cheated. I kept waiting, and reading, and waiting, but nothing... It's my own thing, I know, but still, I gotta have my lads together. Now I must go and read something exceedingly smutty to make me smile.

Thanks, J! (waiting for you to read my email)

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Oh interesting - I didn't read this as gen at all, I read it as slash all the way through, just not explicitly stated. Why else would Bodie drop his girlfriend to go away with Doyle for the weekend? (Not really for her cooking!) And what's that all about, between Doyle and his mum, over Bodie? Totally slash, they're so together - whether they know it yet or not, and I rather think they both do, whether or not they've admitted it yet... And of course they're not going to have sex in Doyle's mum's house - but how comfortable with someone do you have to be to hug up to their legs?! Or maybe they're not quite there yet, maybe it's really pre-slash, but I love that frisson of feelings too... *g* That's exactly why it made me happy!

Sorry - cold making me dopy and dozy - have sent email now.

[sc-fossil.livejournal.com]

I read it as a very close friendship, but nothing in it told me that they were thinking of moving into a sexual relationship at all. I wasn't talking about sex at Pat's house!

I think they were closer than brothers, which is what the idea of family that ran through the story told me. It was all about family, not lovers. Being set in a family dynamic was what the story was about, so I read it as Bodie and Doyle being their own "family".

[kiwisue.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the rec! I was really taken with the concept - Doyle's background, layering on Catholic guilt, the acknowledgment of their need for the adrenaline rush, family, partnership, what it all means...

I'm not sure if the author would agree, but I put it in the slash category, I suppose because I've seen some good arguments that slash doesn't need sex to be slash. The love's there, that's certain. And, wonderfully, it's not an entirely circumscribed, selfish, "just us two" love. That's what you think it is, from the way they talk about it, the way they behave. But Doyle's mother and Bodie - great encounter, great description of her trying to come to grips with the special relationship Bodie and Doyle have, need, want. Beyond family. How the fuck do CI5 agents deal with "sometimes I kill people for a living"? Damned good exploration of those issues.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Yes, I really liked the whole idea of it too.. just - different things for them to be thinking about, and dealing with... I'm never sure if I go the way of one of them being Catholic (despite the Irish surnames...) but it worked pretty well here. And I do like the various glimpses into how people see their family backgrounds too! Oh, and "sometimes I kill people for a living" - my god, fabulous thing to deal with, and done so well too, without just the traditional - well, we make jokes about it etc approach...

Totally agree about the slash too - it's not just sex, it's something else, something more, and I totally see it in this story!

seventh sunday

[(Anonymous)]

Oh, I loved this story back in the eighties. Will have to locate it on the CD for a print-out and re-read. I can still visualise some of the scenes very clearly.

For me good gen i.e. relationship can often be a more satisfying read that a nuts-and-bolts slash story.
Nowadays gen seems to mean what I would have always called het. i.e. a story where a female character and B or D are the protagonists, rather than B and D. Just never seen the point. But then I'm a sucker for B and D inter-acting, whether slash or gen.

I'm so out-of-touch, can anyone recommend some good gen?

Oh, and the author wrote another story? Oooh. Never heard that before. Do we know where it might be?

Re: seventh sunday

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

So interesting to hear what people use as definitions... I've not really been in fandom long (comparatively!), but I tend to think that anything where the love interest is a female is "het" (whether or not there's actual sex described), anything where the love interest is not the focus is "gen", and in the proper, decent world, where the love interest is B/D then it's slash! But I'd hate to pick up what I thought was a gen story (which I can read as slash-y if it's written in a certain way) and find out that it was het, with no chance of my seeing subtext at all!

Good gen... I love LRH Balzer's stories - they're in a zine called After The Battle, but there are links to the author's website from here (http://www.palelyloitering.com/zines/afterthebattle.html).

Karen Miller's Seven Nights in Bangkok is on the ProsLib CD...

I've liked and recced a couple of gen stories by Laura (http://community.livejournal.com/ci5hq/19001.html) here at ci5hq. And I didn't even realise that one of them had been recced before at ci5hq by Madmogs (http://community.livejournal.com/ci5hq/8834.html)! And more praise for stories by this author here (http://community.livejournal.com/ci5hq/4130.html)!

Will that do for now? Actually, it'd be great to have some new recs, I know you can't post to ci5hq as Anonymous, but if you'd like me to post the question for you I'd be happy to, see what people say?!

No idea about the River of Dreaming story - I'll keep my eyes open for it though!

[hgdoghouse.livejournal.com]

Bloody livejournal. Could have sworn I was logged in. The Anonymous post is me, though I don't know how to change it from anonymous.

Must hunt up the Karen Miller, as that's another I remember enjoying a lot.
Thanks for the rec.

[linarion.livejournal.com]

Quick look on fanlore shows some poetry written in Star Wars universe http://fanlore.org/wiki/The_Tatooine_Tribune_(Star_Wars_fiction_zine)