Perfect Day by Sebastian

[shooting2kill.livejournal.com]

http://www.thecircuitarchive.com/tca/archive/16/perfectday.html
http://hatstand.slashcity.net/sebastian/perfect.html
http://www.zeropanic.net/fanfic/sebastian/pros/perfect-day.htm


A favourite story from one of my favourite writers. Perfect Day manages to achieve just the right emotional balance between being not too dark or angsty and not at all light or fluffy - ‘romantic but not mushy’ as someone once described it - so it should suit all tastes. And every time I reread the story two scenes in particular stay in my mind for days afterwards: Doyle’s painfully poignant and wistful recollections of a wonderful summer day he and Bodie had once spent together; and the ‘bleeding nose’ scene (you’ll know it when you see it). A lovely read which I thoroughly recommend.

Comments

[jgraeme2007.livejournal.com]

Believable, meaningful conflict. Fluid, vivid writing -- enhanced by a distinct authorial voice. Terrific dialog. Superb characterization -- plot, pacing. This one has it all. Great choice.

And yes, the nosebleed scene. One of the best I've read.

[intheyear2004.livejournal.com]

SQUEEEE!!! Sebastian has a website! I always wanted to know more about her. I imagined her as a little whitehaired lady (sorry, no offense intended), because she's one of the 'classic' Pros writers and because her fics have been written about 15-20 years ago, I believe, and even then she must have been a mature grown-up person, not in her teens or tweens, I think. Of course she may be even younger than I am (I'm in my fifties), but I can't help it, she's like Homer or Vergil - or perhaps Tolkien...? - anyway one of those people you absolutely cannot meet, because when you finally read their classical works they've been dead for a couple of years/centuries. I'm probably babbling... :isashamed:

[heliophile-oxon.livejournal.com]

Perfect Day and Wonderful Tonight are my favourite Sebastians, I think - her writing is always extremely skillful, but in these two in particular - for me at least - she gets the balance just right between B&D, and between genuine, credible anguish and joy; love without sentimentality. There is one patch in WT that throws me a bit (but this isn't about WT, duh) but in both stories the joy is so well-earned as to feel very real indeed. The "remnants of the day" - the happiness folded in on it and crammed into a drawer - beautiful, clever, vivid image; I'm glad this one sticks with me!

[callistosh65.livejournal.com]

Sebastian's one of those writers you gorge yourself on in the early days of fandom. Her name comes up, you go look, you fall in and you read EVERYTHING. Then you go off and read a whole lot more by a lot of other writers and maybe you find yourself disagreeing with the way she writes Doyle sometimes.. So you don't read her stories as much as you used to. And then one day you go reread Perfect Day and it all comes back in one blinding sugar-rush and you remember why she earned all that love and repsect in the first place.

Some litany to set the locks on Bodie's heart. Hey, it's what the story is; a litany to set the locks on a fan's heart.