*nods* Very true. And of course there've been AUs that I loved more than any closer-to-canon fic. A lot of it depends on the author, how well they know the characters and the effort that they put into predicting how changes in the enviroment lead to changes in characterization. Window dressing can be fun, but it can rarely hold a reader's attention up for longer fics unless there are other compelling elements to the story.

And that's true even if you're writing a non-AU, I think. I love it when an author can evoke the canon universe and do it well, but you have to be able to do more than give good setting.

I was thinking, in particular, of an AU I'm writing- the ClubSoka epic, if you've heard me babbling about it. I'm getting fairly close to publishing it, or at least to sending it to a beta, which means of course that all my second thoughts and reservations are coming out. I keep going back and forth: it's a story that I want to tell, but I can't decide if it's a story worth telling, if it says anything. And while I ceetainly could write it just to amuse myself, I don't know if I want to put it so much time in effort if it would be better spent on other things. Plus, you know, I'm just shallow enough to not want to be known as 'that chick who writes the really weird AU and we humor her'.

I've heard you mention it, but no specifics. What's the premise?

Ironically enough, it was updated this morning.

I took a look, but the focus seems to be characters and pairings who don't interest me, so I passed. I'm re-reading an AU vampfic series that proves self-indulgence isn't always bad, especially when your readers share your kinks. *G*