Pros Slash Proliferation Challenge - Day 5

[kiwisue]

I love Kitty Fisher. Absolutely adore her work. I've even dipped into a more recent series of hers (with tiger_trapped) set in the Constantine universe, club_dominion. Warning about the latter, though - if you thought she was hard-core in Pros, you'd probably be overwhelmed by what she gets up to in the very dark hurt/hurt demonic world of Constantine/Balthasar smut.

OK, there are exceptions - I'm not so fond of 'The Pillory', and 'The Devil's Apprentice' loses me about 1/3 of the way in (well after the glass Venetian *g*).

Very small quibbles, barely worth mentioning. In all her work she draws wonderful word pictures with phrases you can feel biting on your tongue as you read - they beg to be spoken out loud:

The Chameleon's Dish
Eight years.

It was as if the time had passed without leaving any impression, almost as if someone else had lived the years for him with his own psyche, soul, self, whatever, in cold storage, waiting. But waiting for what?

That touch.

He shivered again. Perhaps it wasn't too late, after all.

Feasting with Panthers
Bodie walked into the bedroom to gather a few token bits and pieces together, prepared to leave the field to Doyle for another day.

And tomorrow?

Well, Scarlett, tomorrow is another day.

Smiling faintly to himself he locked up and was whistling as he ran down the stairs, his thoughts already busy plotting Doyle's seduction.

In God's Country
The road to Damascus, as far as William Bodie was concerned, was in the car park at Finchley Central station. Hardly the most exotic location for your world view to be unceremoniously turned upside down, but after thirty years of fairly cynical existence, it hardly came as a surprise. St Paul might get sun, sand, and Nubian dancing girls to ease his way onto the path of the righteous, but W.A.P. Bodie got rain, tarmac, and the acerbic tongue of Ray Doyle.
(this may just be the best opening paragraph _ever_)

A Lever to Move the World
"Just don't! Don't think. Don't pretend." Bodie crossed his arms. "Pub or a fuck, which is it to be?"

Monopoly
City night. Muffled sounds of traffic from the Old Kent Road, shouts in the distance, TV blaring some car chase at full volume. Past midnight. He could almost hear Big Ben ticking, almost see its moonlit shadow spilling over the relentlessly moving river. Tock, tick. Time: weighted and balanced by pennies left over from another century. Leavings of a dead queen. Tick, tock. Parliament, city, gangs, pickpockets, Cowley and a dozen clubs up west. None of them sleeping. Time still notching past. Tick.

Tock.

Comments

[rose-gialle.livejournal.com]

Just a quick note to say I'm really enjoying these posts. It's good to hear your take on the stories being recommended - and great to have such a ready source of reading material!

(this may just be the best opening paragraph _ever_)

Indeed.

*clicks*

[msmoat.livejournal.com]

Yay! Kitty Fisher. Absolutely. And I agree completely about that opening paragraph from "In God's Country". I don't tend to remember lines all that well, but that first sentence is one of the few. (I once spent a good amount of time searching through my zines and paper circuit stories looking for the story that started with that line. *g*)

[caffyolay.livejournal.com]

Time still notching past. Tick.

Tock.

Either the author reads Terry Pratchett or Terry Pratchett reads her. ;-)))

[callistosh65.livejournal.com]

You may well be right about the opening paragraph of In God's Country. Makes a helluva'n impression. I must admit, before this proliferation challenge, I'd only read The Chameleon's Dish. I've now read Monopoly and In God's Country and loved them both. And if the opening line of A Lever to Move the World is anything to go by, I'm going to love that too:))

[(Anonymous)]

I completely agree with you. I'm a big ol' Kitty Fisher fan (I can even get past the Venetian in Devil's Apprentice. *g*).

That opening paragraph in In God's Country is classic. I think you may be correct in thinking it's the best opening paragraph of Pros fic ever.

I know I raved about Chameleon's Dish when it was my turn. But what she does so brilliantly in that story is set up the dichotomy in Bodie's personality with that very first scene.

You have this:

Blue eyes met green and for a second, the eight years didn't exist, and they looked at each other without pain and loneliness separating them. But it was only for a second.

Followed almost immediately afterwards by:

Leaning against the bar, Bodie smiled as he paid for the drinks, the flicker of response had been more than he'd hoped for. So Doyle still felt something, but what? Love? Lust? Pain? Certainly guilt. Not that the precise identification mattered - all or any of it would serve his purpose.

So you have a wonderful push/pull tension that continues through the entire story to its climax. Bodie does terrible things in that story, but I'm able to forgive him and so is Doyle. That's the mark of a really good writer.

[ancastar.livejournal.com]

I completely agree with you. I'm a big ol' Kitty Fisher fan (I can even get past the Venetian in Devil's Apprentice. *g*).

That opening paragraph in In God's Country is classic. I think you may be correct in thinking it's the best opening paragraph of Pros fic ever.

I know I raved about Chameleon's Dish when it was my turn. But what she does so brilliantly in that story is set up the dichotomy in Bodie's personality with that very first scene.

You have this:

Blue eyes met green and for a second, the eight years didn't exist, and they looked at each other without pain and loneliness separating them. But it was only for a second.

Followed almost immediately afterwards by:

Leaning against the bar, Bodie smiled as he paid for the drinks, the flicker of response had been more than he'd hoped for. So Doyle still felt something, but what? Love? Lust? Pain? Certainly guilt. Not that the precise identification mattered - all or any of it would serve his purpose.

So you have a wonderful push/pull tension that continues through the entire story to its climax. Bodie does terrible things in that story, but I'm able to forgive him and so is Doyle. That's the mark of a really good writer.

[kiwisue.livejournal.com]

You're echoing *g*

I've changed that comment about Devil's Apprentice - that part was just fine, thank you - I meant it didn't sustain my interest as well after Doyle was kidnapped. I thought Lucy was a fairly cardboard cut-out villainess as well.

So you have a wonderful push/pull tension that continues through the entire story to its climax.

Oh, interesting, thank you (and it was your post that got me thinking about Kitty again, you know). I want to go back and re-read The Chameleon's Dish now, but I have no time! I have to pack and travel, and....

[ancastar.livejournal.com]

I can seem what you mean about Lucy. She was a little over the top (that whole section was, though). She actually didn't bother me nearly as much as the two escaped slaves who felt oddly Mary Sueish to me. They weren't given enough characteristics to truly flesh them out and they just sort of miraculously appeared and happened to have the skills necessary to save Ray. In fact, maybe they were more deus ex machina than Mary Sue.

Sounds more dignified anyway. ;-)

[ancastar.livejournal.com]

Oy! Yes, the damned echo effect. This is what happens when I check Live Journal when I first come in to work in the morning. I'm not automatically logged in on my work machine like I am at home. So I start blithely responding, not realizing I'm the mysterious Anonymous Poster.

Annoying.

[gilda-elise.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes, love Kitty Fisher's work...except for The Pillory, of course. And The Chameleon's Dish is up there in my top twenty.

[paris7am.livejournal.com]

Beautiful choices, kws. I am fascinated by her writing - even by her choice of titles.