5 Fanfic Recommendations:
四十 by trascendenza :
Fandoms: Chinese mythology, Firefly (if you squint)
20,000 words; Gen (ish), no warnings.
Summary: As long as she could ensure that her family would never go wanting, she would be content.
This could be published as a novella anywhere; I'm delighted it got created as fanfic.
Goodnight Room by Skogkatt
Fandom: Goodnight Moon
2825 words, gen, no warnings
Summary: Bunnies ... in ... SPAAAAAAAACE!
What happens when adults reinterpret children's stories? You'll never hear the words "goodnight cow jumping over the moon" the same way again.
The Joy Plant by derryderrydown
Fandom: DC Comics
12670 words, slash (Roy Harper/Dick Grayson), mature content
No summary. Deals with the aftermath of Roy's heroin addiction, some details of which are posted at
scans_daily.
Intense and harsh. No happy-ever-after answers here, but there's comfort in surviving and a hero's drive to help pulls Roy through the harder parts.
You Ruined Everything (In the Nicest Way) by jmtorres
Fandom: White Collar
9500 words, gen, no warnings
Summary: A story of missed connections, in which Peter doesn't know what to say, Neal doesn't seem to want to hear it, and Elizabethan translation proves vital.
A twist on Peter and Neal's relationship I would never have considered.
Texts from Cephalopods by volta_arovet
Fandom:
Octopus Steals My Video Camera and Swims off with It While It's Recording (Youtube) [yes, that's a fandom. Everything's a fandom. Yuletide--the fic exchanged that sparked this--is awesome.]
1550 words, gen, no warnings
Summary: It is a well-established fact in marine biology that the octopus is the drunk texter of the cephalopod family.
If you're not sure what the point of fanfic is, start here. (This is quite a bit more visually focused than most fanfic.) This is an excellent example of the desire to *play* with already-existing media creations. And proof that *anything* can have its own story, quite independent from the original creator's intention.
All of these fics can be downloaded in epub, mobi, pdf, or html. (However, the last one won't be much use on a non-wifi reader; the pictures will be links rather than embedded.)