Fic: Written for Holmestice, Winter 2022 (x2)

As threatened, this should start the catching-up process as to what I've been up to between posting droughts.

I've been blessed by fellow fans over the years with a generous handful of excellent podfics presenting stories of mine in audio form. I've also been thinking for a long time about trying my own hand at podfic, but till relatively recently my hardware setup hasn't been ideal for attempting it. But in this past round of Holmestice, I was matched with rachelindeed , who'd written a truly excellent Mycroft-centered story for me in a much earlier round...and I decided the time had come to test the waters. So for that assignment, I fired up Audacity, produced a podfic of that story, and grinned quite a bit during the guessing phase as people speculated on who might have recorded the work. The comments were uniformly both enthusiastic and kind, and it's not at all unlikely I'll continue to produce occasional podfic as the muse arises.

Art in the Blood • Podfic 
Source Work: Art in the Blood by

rachelindeed  
Length: ~32 minutes 
Fandom: Murder By Decree (1979) 
Rating: General Audiences
Category: Gen
Warnings: Spoilers (reveals canon ending)
Characters:  Mycroft Holmes, John Watson, Sherlock Holmes
Additional tags: POV Mycroft Holmes, Podfic, Podfic Length: 30-45 Minutes, Career Change, Character Study

 

After the events of Murder by Decree, Mycroft Holmes leaves the British government and tries to decide what to do with the rest of his life.

 

I also produced a treat for starfishstar - we had both recently expressed interest in "kitten!Holmes", inspired by about five seconds of animation at the end of the screen credits for the Remington Steele TV series showing a tabby cat with a deerstalker and a calabash pipe. With a bit of time on my hands after turning in the podfic, I considered how to approach the material, and unexpectedly came up with the perfect tag line for the feline version of the Holmes-and-Watson meeting scene. This was the result: 

A Foregone Introduction 
Fandom: kitten!Holmes, Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms 
Rating: General Audiences
Category: Gen
Warnings: none
Words: ~700
Characters: Dr. Stamford, Murray, Sherlock (kitten!Holmes), Watson (kitten!Holmes)
Additional tags: cats, canon TV

 

A fateful meeting takes place at the Bartholomew Street Animal Shelter. 

This too was enthusiastically received, although there was (of course) no question during the guessing phase as to who'd written it.                                                                     

Gift: Building Blocks (Holmestice, Winter 2022)

The talent pool for Holmestice writers is wonderfully deep, and both the group and the mods (a new team this past round, but one with quite a lot of prior experience; the transition was utterly seamless) have consistently done wonders in dealing with my complicated and eclectic signup posts. My latest gift work was no exception - a thoughtful, perceptive character piece focusing on Joan Watson from Elementary as she deals with single motherhood...and certain related challenges. It's a densely nuanced story, and looking at it again now makes me appreciate it all the more. (Note to self for future rounds: consider requesting fanart so we can get a look at Clyde in all his finger-painted glory.)

Building Blocks
Fandom: Elementary
Author: Merfilly
Rating: General Audiences
Category: gen
Warnings: none
Words: ~1400
Relationship: Joan Watson & Mary Morstan
Characters: Joan Watson, Mary Morstan
Additional Tags: canon-adjacent, gender identity, slice of life, friendship

Joan, raising her son, decides to seek a behavioral assessment, to be certain she is doing all she can for him.