UTTAD, it's cool. There are plenty of people out there who write and read fic just for what you're looking for: they want MORE than we get on the show. Not different, just MORE.

There's nothing wrong with that.

I totally understand that. That's why I started *reading* fic -- it was over the summer between S4 and S5 of Buffy, and I was jonesing for more Buffyverse. And the first fic I read was Gen stuff or canon pairings.

The non-canonical pairings work for me because (1) I see the possibility on the shows, (2) the writing is very good, and (3) maybe I'm hoping the shows will go a certain way.

Having said that, I've written 4 Buffyverse stories, and only 1 is canon.

Actually I don't write shippy fic.

I've pretty much written anti shippy fic. Okay, I had one happy Clark/Lex story.

But in the ME universe I've written 1 pairing, and that was Xander/Spike, it was a missing scene for "Him" and Xander didn't have sex with Spike because he couldn't get past Spike being Spike and a vampire.

In ME I've written single character-character studies.

However, in Smallville, I've written "tear them apart" stories centered arond Clark and Lex.

Well certainly Gimli is the right height for Legolas. :-)

Elena: Well there's plenty to write about, without upsetting the canon of the show. It's just easier if you write your fics between seasons. :-)

Oh, PLEASE, PMM. I will make you a songvid to "That's the way (uh huh uh huh) I like it (uh huh uh huh)" which is the scene with the necklace looped over and over again.

Gimli ain't got nothing on Aragorn.

If you make me think about Gimli naked then you'll have to write me something really twisted and dark to make up for it!

Okay, now I'm curious, having gotten my LoTR OTP out of the way, for you plotty writers/readers, what is it you like to read outside of fanfiction? What turns your lit crank?

Because I know damned well that I slide into the big, thick, all about human interaction, not really about what goes on around except as a catalyst for the aforementioned interaction. (See: Anna K, and my Vronsky's Teeth obsession, or the utter thrall that The Winter Rose holds me in, where while I like the STORY in LoTR, the writing bores me to tears, because there's too much external, not enough internal.)

Oh, PLEASE, PMM. I will make you a songvid to "That's the way (uh huh uh huh) I like it (uh huh uh huh)" which is the scene with the necklace looped over and over again.

I never said Legolas was faithful. An elf has needs.

PMM: I'm a fan of magical realism. Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Jim Dodge. Also Stone Mountain I'd recommend to anyone.

Pretty much anything by Christopher Brookmyer if you like a laugh.

Best to keep in mind that Terry Pratchett is God. Don't want to mess with the big man.

Let's see the last fiction stuff I read was the latest Jonathan Kellerman, Tipping the Velvet, I'm currently reading Fingersmith and this book Gilgamesh by an Australian author, I'm still trying to get through my stack of unreads that I've bought.

One author I really love is Isabel Allende even though I haven't finished Daughter of Fortune. Love Anne Tyler.

Oh, I finished up American Gods, and reread bits of Smoke and Mirrors.

There are markers in: Lovecraft, An Artist of the Floating World, Crime and Punishment (never read before), Moby Dick (never read all before), and Great Expectations.

Ack! Terry Pratchett! I keep forgetting to figure out the sequence of Discworld so I can start getting them from the library.

I keep telling myself No More FICTION from the library until I get fiinished with the backlog but I'm weak...