I love good guys

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.

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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?