In the unlikely event that anyone here doesn't yet know... hlh_shortcuts, the annual Highlander fanfic exchange, is on! New mod, same fest. Minimum 500 words. All iterations of Highlander. Hand-matched from DW sign-ups. Posted on the AO3 (though I'm confident they'd allow DW posts for those who don't use the AO3). Anonymous releases over a week or so, followed by an author guessing game and reveals. Get the details and sign up.

Schedule:

• Sign-ups: End October 22
• Assignments sent: no later than November 2
• Stories due: December 15
• First story released: December 22

Come play with us...?

The 15 new stories in this year's hlh_shortcuts will surely all be someone's favorites! For example, I must admit that, after a few paragraphs, I backed out and chose not to read Killa's no doubt outstanding "Pleased to Meet You" because it's a crossover with Lucifer, with which I'm personally not super comfortable. We all like different things!

Here are a few stories that appealed to me, myself:

"The Jaded Journalist" by Hafital
(G, gen, ~10K words) (Randi, Duncan, Tessa, Amanda, the De Valincourts, Methos)
I already recommended this while it was anonymous. Read my recommendation. This is the "What happened to Randi?" that I've been waiting for. It starts with a missing scene from "Band of Brothers" and then runs forward, always intertwining with canon yet never changing it, with the focus always on Randi and her career. Well-written, canon-rich, unique, perfectly voiced. Fantastic!

"A Credit To Her Teacher" by Malinaldarose
(G, gen, ~5K words) (Amanda, Michelle, Duncan, Joe)
I love "What happened with Michelle?" takes, and this one is the first I recall wholly from Amanda's perspective. It explores how taking on Michelle as a student connects to Amanda's memories of Rebecca and Kenny and ensures that Amanda succeeds -- that her canonical return with no on-screen mention of Michelle just means that Michelle is doing fine and Duncan knows all about it. Rebecca would be proud.

"To Be Useful" by Adabsolutely
(G, gen, ~3K words) (Methos, Duncan, Joe, Amanda, Amy)
The main appeal in this dialogue-heavy approach is the charming conversations in familiar voices. There's also a charming throughline of helping a very confused, homeless, new immortal, and other side-quests of helping various people in various ways. Lovely theming.

"Wintersong" by Black_Dwarf
(G, gen, ~2K words) (Amanda, Methos)
If Amanda is a favorite, maybe check this out. It's an on-point Amanda voice blending flippancy and insight. Methos takes time to miss who he was when he was with Alexa and Amanda pulls him back to the present.

"The Crane and the Pine" by Mackiedockie
(unrated, gen, 13K words) (Duncan, Methos, Amanda, Joe, Mai-Ling, Connor, others)
A pleasantly sprawling modern western fully of that comfortably familiar genre, with some action, some history, and a lot of connecting. It's a crossover with Longmire, but, not knowing that series, I still had no problem reading it as pure HL.

"Add something to your fandom’s canon."

Only "add," not change, fix, override, or redirect, hmmm? Three ideas:

( HL )
( BSG78 )
( D&DC )

The gift-story written for my request slate in this year's hlh_shortcuts revealed last night. It's amazing. I recommend it to all lovers of early HL canon, anyone who has ever wanted more Randi in particular, and those who dote on the network of friendships Duncan gathers around himself.

"The Jaded Journalist" by [Hafital (name added after reveals)] (~10K words, G, gen)

The story is something I believe to be wholly new in the fandom even after three decades: a chronicle of Randi McFarland's career from "Band of Brothers" to the present. It's insightful and canon-compliant. She was there all along, every step of the way, but out of distance, out of the frame, this story posits. She was living her own rich life, not waiting for canon to keep up with her, yet though we didn't see her, our favorite characters did, from time to time. I don't want to spoil any more of it -- you can see the other characters with lines in the tags, including Amanda, the de Valicourts, and Methos, as well as Tessa and Duncan -- but it's thoroughly imagined and carefully built and touches on friendships, grief, remembering, second chances, striving for the right, and all kinds of things I like.

I'm on the way to adopting this premise as head-canon.

Interestingly, I see only 6 items in the HLH_Shortcuts '22 AO3 queue right now. We had 15 sign-ups. So I imagine there's likely a mix out there of extensions and pinch-hits. There could also be drafts, as those show only to the author and the mod. Given our excellent, experienced player base, in our mod's place, I'd be super comfortable with requested extensions, but of course no one ever plans to get sick or have an emergency and need pinch-hitting.

I wish everyone good luck with their stories! And I wish our kind mod the very best luck wrangling any pinch-hits or confusion.

Reveals are scheduled to start this Thursday, December 22.

P.S. For the author guessing game: This post reveals nothing about where my story is or is not in the queue or whether I might update or backdate its posting date at any moment.

Dear hlh_shortcuts author,

Thank you for sharing your HL love and creativity this year! This post is essentially an extra-large version of the official fest sign-up form, with additions and digressions.

( Read more... )

In case you find that you'd like yet more chattering about what I love in HL, you might try last year's HLH_Shortcuts letter, which was more of an essay, or my "fanfic likes & dislikes" tag, which includes all my previous "Dear Author" letters for all fic events of all kinds, all of which include HL if it was eligible, and many of which include specific HL scenario requests.

Again, thank you very much! Whatever you love best in HL, celebrate that, and I'm sure to enjoy it! ♥

rhi has announced the AO3 collection for the hl_chronicles 30^th-anniversary-celebration prompt challenge fest. The challenge runs through May 2023, the length of a traditional North American TV season.

What would you like to read in HL? Please consider sharing a prompt or three. Think of the "prompts" as "very short requests." You can specify characters, settings, relationships, themes, situations, whatever. Currently, 7 folks have left prompts. More diverse angles on and questions about HL would be delightful! Help everyone play by feeding everyone prompts...?

(To share a prompt is not a commitment to fill a prompt.)

I fell behind on my halfamoon '22 recommendations challenge. Here's the last.

For the seventh and final theme, "Generations," I recommend this bright, encouraging, inspiring encounter with Michelle Webster (from "Rite of Passage"). It chatters backstory as Michelle bucks herself up to face her present. She reflects a little on her parents and how she believes she failed them -- a topic perhaps still too sore -- and a great deal on her various immortal teachers, whom she has not failed. She receives a kind of generational legacy from each, but the story makes a special connection from Rebecca, to Amanda, to Michelle.

"Even Better" by Melina
~1K words
T

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!

Sign-ups for this year's hlh_shortcuts HL fanfic exchange close today, Thursday, October 7. I'm confident the cut-off is 11:59pm Eastern Time, but the mod actually wrote "midnight," which always leaves a sliver of doubt.

The exchange has 16 sign-ups so far. Join us?