Writing From the Inside

I’m terribly bad at checking my flist, I think I have it set up wrong, because each and every time I go in there, I’m overwhelemed. So one of my goals this week was to set the filters right, so they made sense. Only that didn’t work out right because I got distracted actually looking at my flist people. Which was lucky in a HUGE way, as it just happens that blacklid is at the top of the list.

As you may or may not know, blacklid won the bid to buy John’s truck, and this week went up to Vancouver (where they are currently filming 3.13 “Ghostfacers.”) She met up with the transpo people (those are the guys who take care of the Impala, the Camero, the Bug, and the Mini Van) and give our boys cool cars to drive!! From her description on her LJ, the car guys were VERY nice and wonderful and cool, and they sound like they are fans themselves, which makes it even better. Plus they went out of their way to help her get everything arranged so she could drive it home. (Check out her LJ for more details!)

Read the rest of this entry »

You can read my review of the Supernatural episode “Devil’s Trap” at pinkraygun.com. Thank you!

An excerpt:

Because they are smart, they find the apartment building called Sunrise, and devise a plan. (Check out Dean’s cute freckles as they hide behind the tree!) I love the fact that they know that if they pull the fire alarm that the city will respond in exactly seven minutes. Whether or not this is true for your borough, the fact is that I imagine that The Dad taught them the response times for all emergency crews, from firemen, to paramedics, police, swat teams, everyone. They are well trained. While you and I are aware that on Fridays, chicken is on sale at the local market, these boys know how long they have before the firemen arrive. Anywhere.

180 Degrees

Carrying Little Brother

Sam under pressure

Beautiful freckles

Watchful eyes

You can read my review of the Supernatural episode “Salvation” at pinkraygun.com. Thank you!

An excerpt:

Sam on his own is a lot like a lost child, with his schoolbag and his tan jacket that keeps slipping off his shoulders in the rain. Then he has a vision, which looks like a very bad migraine, but alas, there is no one there to comfort him. But instead of falling prey to his own misery, Sam pays attention to the vision, and figures out that the woman and her baby who are in danger live near the railroad tracks. Out comes his map, and off he goes. I like to imagine that he RAN the whole way, following the line of the tracks, stopping to check his bearings every so often, to pull his jacket up yet again, and then kept on going, regardless of how bad he feels. Sam’s like that, you see. He might whine about the food, or bitch at Dean for no particular reason, but on his own, like he is here, he matures about 10 years, and looks for help from no one. (I notice how badly Sam needs a haircut here. I hope he never gets one.)

The Colt and those Notes

Convincing Sammy

Trained to flirt

Charming the panties off a nun

Lonely man

Stopping the car

At Escapade this year, K’Kathy and I ran a panel called John: Bad Dad. But then we (K’Kathy) changed it a bit to be less provocative, because really, I don’t know any fan who thinks that John was totally horrible. So at the end, this was the description about the panel, and points for discussion, in case we ran out of things to say, which, needless to say, didn’t happen:
***

Panel: SPN: John: Good Hero, Bad Dad?

Description: Leave your weapons behind but I think it would be interesting to discuss what kind of father John Winchester actually was. He has so many good qualities and so many bad ones….people get so riled about this subject, it might be nice to hear some debate on it. Read the rest of this entry »

You can read my review of the Supernatural episode “Shadow” at pinkraygun.com. Thank you!

An excerpt:

Outside, it gets good, and I mean good. Dean is incensed at Sam, asking, “Dude, were you bitching about me to some girl?” For Dean, it’s not what Sam said about the luggage, it’s the fact that he said anything at all. This particular complaint feels incredibly girly to me, because usually it’s one of your girlfriends who will say, “Oh, I can’t believe you told her that about me!” when in fact what she really wants to know is what ELSE you said about her. This is how girls often exchange information, through a third party. It maintains lines of communication, and also includes everyone. Which is how girls talk. So to hear Dean working this line, it’s almost like he asking, “What ELSE did you say about me?” Because what he really wants to know is, “Did you tell her I was your favorite brother?”

A Man Loading His Gun

Aiming For the Bad Guy

Brothers In Arms

Bruised

That Smile

Yet Another Message For The Dad

Last Outpost of All That Is by eight_horizon.

Slash.

This is the comment I made to the author, straight up:

I don’t like end of the world fic either because it makes me sad too. Amalthia, though, I trust her like crazy, and she assured me that this was fantastic. And it was, so very very much so. I read the whole dang thing in one sitting, because it was that good. Amalthia had warned me so I was ready. As I ever could be, considering.

First, your writing is so good, you capture the characters, Sam is Sam and Dean is Dean. Which, sometimes is much harder than it might at first seem.

Second, they don’t rush into sex. Sex becomes a part of who they are together, but it’s not the only thing that defines them, and you do that beautifully here.

Third, I think you got it right. I could tell you’d thought it through, and didn’t rush through thinking about gas stations and frozen pork chops and running water. Even though it boggles my mind to read about, you did a fantastic job, I believed it ALL. You never rushed any of it, it felt careful and real and honest.

And lastly, I was very brave. I read the whole thing and jumped at shadows when the boys jumped, and was glad when they pulled out their guns, or shouted to each other. I about died when Sam fell off the roof. And then I got to this part:

“Sam took up drawing. He’d sketched throughout his life for fun, but with more time dedicated to it, he turned out to be pretty good. The landscape around the house, the beaches of the reservoir, the way the light hit the stairs from the front windows; he captured them easily. Dean thought it was cool until he woke in time one morning to catch Sam sketching him.”

and

“Dean started writing his own music on the guitar. Sam knew it right away, and not only because he didn’t recognize the songs. He felt them in his bones as if he was listening to Dean’s voice murmur in the dark about things he’d usually never dare say.”

It was at this point that I bawled my eyes out, no longer brave. No longer to say, yeah, sure, apocalypitic fic, everything’s okay. Because Christ on a crutch, you….you, hell, I can’t even explain it. I can’t take stuff like this, just can’t. Thank GOD the story was over mostly at that point (except it wasn’t, because thank goodness you didn’t kill them off, they’ll outlive us all, and that’s something good, right?) because my insides felt like they’d been twisted around peices of metal and then that metal got twisted around something else, and just. Just.

You slay me. I don’t think I will EVER and I mean ever read apocalyptic fic again, not even if Amalthia rec’s it to me. Okay, maybe if it’s got Evil!Sam or something, then it’s just a fantasy, cause Sam would never really turn evil and hurt his beloved Dean.

Right? RIGHT?

Hell, I don’t know what to belive anymore. This story was SO good, my head is spinning. Are we done now? Can I crawl into bed and pull the covers up way high and try to think about pink ponies and fat sassy kittens and…something easy. Life Lite. Anything! (Yeah. Job well done. You got to me.)

Shelter Beneath the Mundane by drvsilla.

Slash.

I’ve decided that I quite like amnesia fic, which is what I thought this was. But it turned out to be Dean in hell fic, that is a story where Dean goes to hell and Sam gets him out. There’s not a lot of hot sex here, but there is intelligent storycrafting, whereby Dean suffers through the fires of hell by imagining he’s still got a purpose. And that is, running a little breakfast place for all those people he was unable to save, and who are also in hell. I quite liked the concept, because it was original and it FITS with how Dean sees himself. He’s one of those who does what must be done. He’s very duty bound, and his way of controlling the pain of hellfire is by doing his duty. Lovely.

Excerpt:

Dean began the day’s routine, same as yesterday, same as tomorrow would follow. Coffee first, left to percolate and fill the huge silver urns that lined the back counter; one of them gurgled and he thumped it with the heel of his hand, nodded in satisfaction when it groaned and steadied on. Grill warmed and eggs set next to it for omelets or sunnysides, bacon laid down to pop while it cooked, bread and muffins and rolls in case someone wanted it as a sandwich. Everything else was where it should be – plenty of fruit in the basket next to the register, cinnamon rolls still fresh enough to serve, mints in small tins just because.

The Dangers of Second Guessing by mona1347.

Slash.

There’s no plot, but sometimes you don’t need one, when it gets this hot. The ep Mystery Spot has spawned a huge amount of desperate Sam stories, which only makes sense, seeing as how the whole experience, which really never happened, changed Sam totally. I mean, it had to, right? So, all the stories following this ep have this sense of panic in them, where Sam can’t stand to let Dean out of his sight. Like ever. There have been one or two that were super good, and had a plot, this one didn’t. But that’s okay, because it was hot and yeah, it made sense, if you could see inside Dean’s head, about how freaky it is to have Sam watching him every minute of every day. Plus, Dean’s not totally jiggy with the whole kissing thing, he’s resistant, but you know, with Sam, what Sam wants, resistance is futile.

Plus there’s lines like this one, showing me just how frantic Dean is to stop and go at the same time:

“Yeah, yeah, let me have you.”

“Shut up,” Dean growls in reply, hand grabbing at Sam’s hair and yanking his head back maybe too hard, forcing their eyes to meet. “Shut up, you stupid shit. You know. You know you always had…”

“I do,” Sam pants, nodding and wild-eyed. “I know.”

***

Something about Dean calling Sam a stupid shit in the middle of all this hotness felt real to me. He’s pissed off and wanting it and bossing Sam around all at the same time. It’s a nice little PWP here. I enjoyed myself.

You can read my review of the Supernatural episode “Home” at pinkraygun.com. Thank you!

An excerpt:

The boys check out all the palm readers and psychics in town. Dean stands by the car, and Sam opens the phone book and starts reading. You ever hear someone say, oh that actor is so good, they could read from a phone book and make it sound interesting? I have, and here I get to see that in action. All Padalecki does is read two names from a phone book, but it’s mesmerizing and funny at the same time. I’m thinking it’s that rich voice of his, and the quirky tone he uses as he reads. Names like El Divino and The Mysterious Mr. Fordinski. It’s only a thirty-second scene, but it’s delightful, due, I think to Padalecki’s awareness of what he’s doing, and how it will add texture not only to his character (that’s Sam), but to the plot in general. Finally he gets to Missouri Mosley, and Dean stops him to focus on what The Dad said about going to Missouri to find the truth. (She’s a person not a state, see.)

Leaving a message for The Dad

Sam sexily reads the phone book

Gas station dither

Guenther’s Last Mistake

So the other day I got this terrific email from a woman who reads my reviews on pinkraygun.com, and who sometimes posts comments to them about what she liked or didn’t like, whether she agreed or not, what made her laugh. I always appreciate posts like that because not only is it nice to get feedback, it’s nice to get feedback from people who think about things.

In this email, she says: “I know you’ve seen the anti-Motivational poster generaters, and in noodling around tonight, I made one that was inspired by you, and wanted to share.”

Then, enclosed in the email was the following poster:

Dithering Poster

She really captured the whole flavor of those motivational posters you see everywhere, that some dopey boss dreamed up because he thought it would acutally HELP with being a paid slave. And THEN she turned the concept on its ear, so that it actually IS fun and inspiring. So I would like to say a terrific SHOUT out to Cindi, who made me laugh and smile for days. I don’t think I’ve inspired someone like this in a while, so I really appreciate her efforts, not just for the terrifically clever poster, but for the fact that I’ve got a cohort in crime who thinks that boys who dither are incredibly sexy. I plan on getting a nice glossy print made of this and hanging it RIGHT by my computer, to always remind me what’s important in this world: Da Boys!