Femmefest Recs #1

I spent a pleasant rainy afternoon yesterday reading fine femmefest fics and looking at excellent multi-racial art. I enjoyed them all. Here are a couple of stories that particularly appeal to me, though all are worth reading:

Title: Book Club for Two
Author: Anonymous for now chocochipbiscuit
Pairing: Cho Chang/Padma Patil
Author's Summary: Cho and Padma, through the years and books they’ve shared.

As you know, I'm a sucker for book!fic, and what could be more romantic than lovers meeting and bonding in a library? A gentle, thoughful fic full of well-turned lines. And a Cho who has a crush on Minerva. What's not to love?


Title: Extravagantly Beautiful
Author: Anonymous for now donnarafiki
Pairing: Pansy Parkinson/Millicent Bulstrode

In canon, unfortunately, Millicent is presented as a cardboard thuggish cliche, yet I've always thought she has wonderful butch potential. Luckily, there's fanfic to fix the limitations of canon. and Millicent here is given believable dimension. Plus, this story offers one of the best Pansy voices I've read.

Femmefest Recs #2

I'm enjoying so many new and different pairings in this year's femmefest. In the past, the works often seemed to focus only on various combinations of Pansy/Hermione/Ginny/Luna, which is fine, but not really my cuppa. But this year, we've had a very nice range of characters -- old and young, popular and rare.

Comments are down on LJ and virtually non-existent on DW, but AO3 entries seem to be receiving fairly reasonable numbers. (Not all of the fest is on AO3, unfortunately. Some stupid people [looks away shiftily] forgot how to post anonymously to AO3 and so didn't do it, but luckily, other contributors are less techno-challenged. So a lot of good things are up there.)

There are also a lot of new participants this year, which is heartening. (And sadly, a large number of "gifts for the community" suggest that the drop-out rate for the fest must have been pretty high. But maybe there's another explanation.)

Anyway, if you get a chance to dip your toe in the femmeslash pool, do it; lots of fun stuff.

Here are a couple of longer fics I really enjoyed:

Title: State of the Arctic
Pairing Fleur Delacour/Tonks
Other Characters: Minerva McGonagall, Pomona Sprout, Hermione Granger, Cho Chang
Author: Anonymous for now gingertodgers
Word Count: 6348
Author's Summary: Fleur and Tonks are part of an all-witch research team, sent to negotiate with the Antarctic snow crabs.

The author describes this fic as a "caper," and it's a delicious one. The premise -- magical research on the relationship between menstruation and snow crabs -- verges on the cracky, but it's wonderfully realized and deftly presented so that it never becomes tedious. The whole fic strikes just the right note of magical wackiness, with laugh-out-loud lines and fun characterizations. The cameos by "Minnie et Pommie" delighted me. Also, a new journalist, the aptly-named Allegory Scribo, has taken up Rita Skeeter's mantle brilliantly.


Title: Heart Full of Stars (Sharp and Glorious)
Pairing Hermione Granger/Millicent Bulstrode
Author: Anonymous for now neontinkerbell
Word Count: 9910

I've long wanted to read a smart story about this pairing, and this one definitely delivers. It has loads of the things I love: wizarding politics, a densely-textured presentation of the wizarding world, bright women, strong characterizations, and even a fun twist of word usage (see if you can spot it). A grand read.