Linkblogging

[brigdh]

Whooooo, okay! I've finally managed to read my way through the latest issue of Bang Bang Shousetsu- very long, this time- and so I have recommendations.

bb_shousetsu is, as I think most of you know, a zine of original stories that comes out every few months. It's inspired by the cheesy yaoi manga one-shot genre, but tends to be very well-written (probably because several of the authors are excellent people who we all know and love!). Each issue has a theme; this one's was Asiaphilia. If you like the idea, you can sign up to write a story or produce some art for May's issue, which will be themed around May-December.

My favorites of this issue:
Lost at Sea (and Found Again)- a Chinese graduate student comes to MIT and eventually makes friends. This story was just cute; you can't not like the characters.
The Overseers of Harmful People- a spoiled aristocrat and a Socialist agitator in pre-Revolutionary Russia, or what to read if you thought Crime and Punishment needed more pretty boys in love. The writing is gorgeous, and the characters are very nicely portrayed. I'd love to read more about them.
The Taste of Red- two young men in the Communist Army. This one is sadder than most bb_shousetsu entries, but read it anyway! There are some typos, but the descriptions are so insanely lovely that I didn't mind.
Yellow Fever- he's a heroin-addict, amputee, mentally traumatized, Vietnam veteran! He's a calm, well-paid, Chinese lawyer! Together, they... um, have sex. It's very sweet and incredibly well-written, and I like these guys a lot.
Turfan- I, um, sort of have a thing for stories involving deserts and nomads and bandits. I can't help it! Also, hey: established relationship. This story made me happy.
Enlightenment- An Englishman and a Chinese guy, working for a muckraking newspaper in Dickens-era London. Will Oscar Wilde's trial and imprisonment halt their true love? Yeah, whatever, we all know it has a happy ending. But I loved this story; the characters were so well-portrayed, and the setting felt very detailed and realistic. This is another one I'd love to see a sequel to.
White Paper, Black Ink- one of the few ones this time to have fantastical elements to the story. I liked the relationship between the characters a lot, but the thing that really got to me would be a spoiler so, uh, just go read it.
Love and Books- there is sex in a library! Come on, how can you resist that?

Read the entire issue and see the cover art here.

Comments

[ladysisyphus.livejournal.com]

And thank you kindly for the recommendation!

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Thank you for writing it! Which I'm sure took way more effort than making this post.

[ladysisyphus.livejournal.com]

Well, you went to the effort of not only reading all of them, but finding something nice to say about them all, which is an effort worthy of note, and which probably makes you a better person than I am.

I've been rather pleased with the reception, and would in fact like possibly to send this off to somewhere ridiculous that would give me money for it! Because, I dunno, I like money?

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

I, um, have issues. I hate to see someone write a story and get nothing back! So I periodically go through phases where I adopt a community and comment on every single story posted; I did it with fuda_100 for years.

Also: much cooler to tell people that you've published a story than to say, "So, this free webzine posted my stuff on their livejournal ^^b ". Though money is also pretty awesome. I think you should try! Though you might have to ask bb_shousetsu to pull it down first, just in case potential buyers tried googling a phrase.

[kohakutenshi.livejournal.com]

You realize that White Paper, Black Ink was done by kessie, right? ♥

:3

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I know several of the authors. But I figured that I should at least try to pretend that it's all anonymous.

[kohakutenshi.livejournal.com]

LOL. Too bad I ain't gots the naddles to submit to something like that. :3 After all, my book is going under a pen name! XD

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Well, you know that you don't have to reveal yourself, right? If you want, no one but the editor will ever know you contributed.

[drmoonpants.livejournal.com]

♥

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Also, hee, I totally did not recognize yours.

[drmoonpants.livejournal.com]

Hee hee! I, I guess that means I'm a good style mimic or something? ...yeah, I'll take anything as a compliment when I've been drinking. XD

also please note: Our Lady of the Immaculate Heart (http://s2b2.livejournal.com/21350.html) was a similar adaptation of fanon nonsense re: the other pairing, I didn't want to have to give that one away but lolololol

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Well, I really really liked the story, so you should take it as a compliment!

Dude! Man! Yes, that is totally them and I NEVER REALIZED IT. Wow. How did you do that? It is so them and yet I never recognized them. I am surprised and pleased.

[weirdquark]

Aw, man, I have three or four hundred pages of a May/December okay, I'm being thwacked by the person who would be 'May' and have to point out that while there is a fifteen year age difference, thirty-four is not old enough to be December relationship which I co-wrote with a friend a few years ago. And between the co-writing, the three hundred pages, the non-one-shotness of the story, and wanting to go back to it for possible publication, submitting anything isn't going to happen.

And my half of the relationship is my favorite character of all of those living in my head too. He also spent most of the afternoon entertaining children in a hospital while in Nebraska visiting his boyfriend's father who just had a heart attack (something we thought of doing but hadn't gotten around to and might not fit in to the timeline of the plot) and he can GO AWAY ANY TIME NOW because I'm not writing that story anytime soon, and yes, it is a terrible idea to sing My Unfortunate Erection (25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee) while your boyfriend's mother is around with no explanation, stop laughing, no, stop that now. Why can't I keep characters whose stories I can write now in my head? Actors. God.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Hee. Well, you know, I see no reason why you shouldn't write a short one-off about them that takes place outside of the main plot! A fanfiction of your own book, if you will. Fifteen years is totally enough of a difference, the mods aren't that strict about forcing people to adhere to the theme. As long as it's understandable to people who don't know about the book, it counts as within the rules, and though I don't know that much about publishing, I can't imagine such a thing would hurt your chances.

I, personally, am incredibly tempted to write something for imaginarybeasts's 'love story' issue, because I have characters and a world, I just have no plot. It's not like I don't have enough other things to write in the next few weeks, though.

[weirdquark]

Ha. I wrote AUs in my head for that all the time. And we even actually wrote an almost complete (god help us) high school AU where they're the same age, just to see what would happen.

Yes, I know it's enough of a difference, but my character was objecting on the grounds that 'December' means old, and... anyway. ::g::

The real problem with writing something myself is that as well as I know both of them, the character my friend writes doesn't live in my head, and his not living in my head is one of the reasons I like the relationship so much -- since my friend was writing him we actually had to negotiate how the relationship worked the way two people who are in a relationship do, and that made it feel more realistic.

And I can't fanfic my Tam Lin story, because I don't know what all is going to be in the final version, dammit.

imaginarybeasts looks shiny. Write something! (I would try to start finish my lesbian Jewish vampire thing for it, but then I realized there isn't a love story in that one. There isn't even any sex. Just a very little bit of groping. Doh.)

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Oh, I see. Talk your friend into writing it with you! I am all about encouraging people to produce stories for me to read. Particularly because May-December isn't a trope I'd write myself, but I still want to see other people do it well.

Tam Lin fanfiction would be awesome.

I would! If I had a plot! I keep thinking, okay, I could write about this... but then it occurs to me that, other than the two main characters being in a relationship, you could not call it a love story. And then I go too far in the opposite direction and steal ideas from romance novels and think, So, say the one decided to buy a special present... and then I crack myself up in howling laughter, because, wow, these girls are really not the type to do Hallmark romance. Currently I'm playing around on the Nanowrimo forums in the hope of finding something inspiring.

[weirdquark]

She's insanely busy, and says she wants to learn how to plot better before we attempt to make the long rambling mess that is the three hundred pages into something coherent. I don't know how she would feel about a one shot though.

I suppose I could write something that happens afterwards, but then I'd have to briefly explain why this one guy is recovering from second and third degree burns, or set it way afterwards, which would have no point because it would have nothing to do with being about Tam Lin.

Hee. Why not just do a quiet sort of love story? A day in their lives sort of thing? We don't all have to write epic I'll-walk-through-fire-for-you stories after all. Our May-December pair had a romantic date on the beach to watch the sunset once, which was terribly sappy. Luckily they both noticed and mocked the sap and kept saying that they wouldn't want to bring violins because the ocean breezes aren't good for the instruments. But oh my god, they are adorably besotted.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Ask her! *shamelessly tries to talk you into writing it*

You could perhaps write something about how Tam Lin adjusts back to life in the human world? You could easily enough drop 'he's been living with the fairies' into his backstory without needing too much explanation.

Yeah, that's what I've been poking around at. Seeing if I can't think of something that would be interesting for them to do for a few scenes, but wouldn't entail all the massive, unending amounts of world-building and backstory that I don't really want to write out for a short story. Hee! They do sound cute.

[weirdquark]

I may. But she is insanely busy, and writing other things, so I doubt anything will come of it. And also, all the talk about picking a fake Japanese pen name makes me think it's not the right market for our white middle-class American flamingly gay theater people.

Possibly? But the fay spend a lot of time in the mortal realms, so in a lot of ways he's more well adjusted than his lover was. What he really needs to adjust to is how to have a relationship that doesn't have fucked up power dynamics, but that's what the novel is for. And I haven't finished hashing out all the details of how the fairy world works anyway, so I can't say how it's different.

If the world building and backstories are mostly complete in your head, can't you just drop references to them without explaning everything?

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Alright. Really, for all the Japanese-trappings, most of the stories have nothing to do with Japan. You're as likely to find cyberpunk England or modern American highschool in any given story as Tokyo.

Oh, I see. Hmmm, that does seem like it'll be hard to write a one-off of. I'd say set something before the novel, but then the guys wouldn't have met yet.

Oh, of course! I just want it to make sense to other people, so it's a problem of finding a balance between what to drop a mention to, and what is stuff I like, but isn't necessary to be included in this story.

[weirdquark]

On the other hand if I want to write something set before the novel, the Puck does claim to be Shakespeare's Fair Young Man (with the Fairie Queen as the Dark Lady.) Which would be easy to do as a one-off. I have no idea what would happen besides smut with bonus hot fucked-up threesome action but I could also submit that to the May/December thing.

That makes sense. Novels have a lot more space for elegant information dropping than short stories. Why didn't I read more short stories as a kid?

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Oh, do it, do it! I'd love to that; Shakespeare would be so awesome. Also, it's bb_shousetsu: while plot other than smut is nice, it is certainly not required.

Dude, seriously. I feel all deficient at trying to plot out short stories.

[weirdquark]

If I can figure out how to write it, I shall certainly try to make the deadline. And hee. That's true enough.

I remember having a writing assignment in my seventh grade English class that wanted us to write a short story. I ended up handing in the first chapter of a novel I never bothered to finish. (Or even to write any more of it.) Plotting short stories? What?

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Hooray! And I think you can do it; you've got a couple months.

Hee, yeah. I always did either that, or turned in these flowery poetic pieces in which nothing actually happened.

I think I've got something for this story now (although again, there's not a great deal of action or plot, though enough, I think, to at least hold together), but I have just realized that one of my main characters doesn't actually have a name. In my head I've been calling her Moon, but that doesn't work for anything other than a nickname. Now I have to go spend several hours on babyname websites.

[weirdquark]

If I can just get obsessive about them like I am with my flamingly gay actor...nothing spurs creation like obsession. ::g::

Yeah, characters need names when you write stories with them. Unless you write them first person from the nameless characters' viewpoint and no one calls them by name. Not that I've thought of doing that when my characters don't have names or anything.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Hee, yes, obsession is very helpful. I'm sad because I had a whole playlist for my characters set up, but it was only on my ipod and not the actual computer. I still have all the music, and so could reconstruct it, but I've been sulking since it was stolen and haven't bothered to redo any of my playlists.

And since currently I'm trying to convince myself that making an icon is not actually a good use of my time, I suppose I could count as having an obsession. Though I still haven't written a word of the story.

[weirdquark]

Aw, man. I can understand the sulking; reconstructing playlists must be a pain. I haven't bothered much with making playlists -- I have a few set up. Sometimes I'll hear a song and think to move it into one of them.

But making icons is fun! This is technically my Tam Lin icon, but I use it for other things too.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Oh, I adore making playlists. It's an excellent way to procrastinate! But seriously, I find it to be a very helpful way of thinking about things; as I go through and choose which particular songs I do and do not want, it lets me think about which aspects of the story I like the most, and what are new things about a character or scene that I might not have noticed before. For instance, if I end up with fifty songs about one thing and only two about another, I realize that maybe the first thing should be more of a focus, since it's clearly what I'm interested in. And also, once it's done, a playlist can be very inspirational.

It is! And I really do like that icon of yours. I just need to find, you know, an appropriate image and text. Which will take forever, or cause me to attempt something with my very meager drawing skills.

[weirdquark]

Huh. Okay, that makes sense. I usually go by more what the music feels like than what the lyrics are, which means if I put two songs in a playlist, it made sense at the time. This might not hold true when I use it later. But since I don't pay much attention to lyrics when I'm writing, I'm not sure if making a more lyrics based list would help.

[quixotic-sense.livejournal.com]

I've basically promised petronia that she can ask me to write anything for the May issue. I'm not quite sure whether I'll come to regret this. XD

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Dude, awesome! I'm looking forward to a story by you, then.

[childofatlantis.livejournal.com]

Dude, how did I miss the existence of this?? *RUNS*

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

*laughs* It's been going on for about a year and a half, so I'm surprised you haven't heard of it. You'll have to tell me which stories you liked the best!

[kessie.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I reveal myself when replying to feedback because the thought of leaving anon feedback just seemed... weird to me. Though, yeah, I loathe my fake manga-ka-esque name. Hahaha.

My imaginarybeasts entry is totally kicking my ass. <.< It started off being creepy and now I don't know how to get that back, argh!

Also, do you think a ghost would fulfil the December part of a May-December relationship, despite another spanner being thrown in the works, so to speak? The age-gap would be pretty decent, I have to say.

...must stop with the creepiness.

[weirdquark]

Also, do you think a ghost would fulfil the December part of a May-December relationship, despite another spanner being thrown in the works, so to speak? The age-gap would be pretty decent, I have to say.

...oddly enough, I was wondering the same thing. But they're both women, so it doesn't actually matter for mine.

[kessie.livejournal.com]

Haha. They're both guys in my case, though I'm tossing in genderfuck and age assumptions and all sorts for the fun of it. XD

[weirdquark]

Yay, genderfuck!

I suppose I could make mine into guys, except I specifically made them women because I have too many gay men living in my head.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

It seems like most of the authors have revealed themselves this time, so I wouldn't worry about it. Hee! How did you come up with your name?

*laughs* Creepy can be hard to do. It's sort of nice that there's not a happy-ending restriction, though. I've been thinking about writing one for this imaginarybeasts, as I was telling weirdquark. I'm excited to see yours!

Dude, awesome! I think a ghost would totally count. You should write that!

[solo.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the tip! I'll be checking this out. :-)

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

I hope you like them! You'll have to tell which ones you liked the best.

[solo.livejournal.com]

Well, the three I checked out since the description appealed to me most were:

Overseers of Harmful People; Yellow Fever; and Enlightenment.

I liked all three of them, but I preferred 'Yellow Fever' and 'Enlightenment' to 'Overseers' - not entirely sure why. The plots just seemed to flow better and held my interest more. The dialogues in 'Yellow Fever' were priceless, and I also liked the grittiness of that one. The overall style of 'Enlightenment' was a joy, and again, some very nice dialogues about ravishing which were just so incredibly cute!

I'm going to check out 'White Paper, Black Ink' next.

Thank you again for reccing these - even had I known about the site in advance, the BL label would have put me off, because I wouldn't have expected such substantial, plotty stories there. I've come to accept over the last couple of years that BL/yaoi works for me even less than PWP, so I often just don't give it a chance anymore.

After reading the three above, I tried some of the earlier stories on that site, and they were much more along the lines of what I would have expected... more's the pity. But now that I know some author names to look out for, there is hope! :-)

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Yes, quite a lot of the stories really do fall into the stereotypical BL plotlines, which aren't my favorites either. But there's more than enough good stories in with the others to make me fond of the whole project. I'm glad that you're enjoying some of them.