'21 HLH_Shortcuts author reveals & recs

[brightknightie]

hlh_shortcuts has officially announced its '21 author reveals (read the post). As I type this, the stories on the AO3 still show as anonymous. But I've gone and added endnotes (they've been waiting on the guessing game), and...

I wrote "Legend Has It" (G, gen, ~3K words) (Richie, Darius, Methos, Joe, Duncan) for Black_Dwarf. For a long time, I tried to write a Methos tale, but got nowhere. In the end, a story found me that has Darius arm Richie with knowledge at "Band of Brothers," such that Richie can aim in "The Messenger" and hit in "Archangel." (Many thanks to those who spoke with me when I struggled, especially Celli and Sholio!)

Find all 18 works in this year's AO3 collection. A few that most particularly struck my own personal fancy:

• "Puissance" (unrated, gen, ~14K words) (Rebecca, Methos, John, Luther, OCs) by hafital. In the present, this rich, canon-adjacent, fix-it takes down "Legacy" and returns with a better choice available to Rebecca. Yet most of the story is in the past, building -- adventure by adventure -- an origin for Rebecca and a long friendship with Methos.


• "Little Blessings" (T, multi, ~4K words) (Methos, Duncan, OCs) by pennywashburne. These widely-staggered but consecutive and cumulative vignettes each have moods and implications of their own. The uniting conceit comes as clever and charming -- that Methos is rather the darling of long-forgotten old gods and spirits, as no one else ever calls on them anymore.


• "Reflections on the Future" (G, gen, ~1K words) (Duncan, Tessa) by dkwilliams. This was written for my prompt request. It's well-timed introspection, nestled at the very start of the series, looking out across a future yet unknown.

For those with other kinds of fancies -- all of you!?! :-D -- there's a funny time-travel escapades piece, an immortals-in-space adventure caper, a crossover with Dune and one with Sherlock and one with The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, an in-the-time-of-COVID episodic tale, several Watcher stories, a de Valincourts wedding, and more!

Comments

[argentum_ls]

“Legend Has It” is one of my favs of the year, and I’ve now spoken to several other people who all agree that you need to write Darius more. Well done!

[brightknightie]

Thank you very much! (And thanks to the people you've spoken with, also!)

This may be the first time I've ever written Darius directly -- not merely about him -- though he's been a favorite since I first encountered him.

[argentum_ls]

In retrospect, I realize my phrasing sounds a little creepy.

To clarify: there were a couple of us who hang out on the Cranky Fandom Olds Discord server who were discussing the various stories and trying to figure out who wrote what. One of them happens to be your recip, who absolutely loved the story you wrote for her and gushed at me quite a bit about it. We were all in agreement that the story is brilliant and your Darius is excellent.

[brightknightie]

Not creepy! Thank you for the follow-up, and thank you for the added info of kind reactions to the story.

I'm truly delighted and relieved that the story suits the recipient! I was really worried that the request seemed to want more Methos than I was able to field this time around.

[malinaldarose]

I enjoyed reading this year's stories. I already knew which one was yours, of course, and quite liked it.

[brightknightie]

Thank you for reading, for liking, and for chatting with me as I tried to find something to write!

I'm pretty happy with where the story ended up, but, golly, the attempt to find something I thought better matched the recipient's request...