X-Files Book Club

Whenever I need cheering up, there are certain authors and fics I always revisit. Kel is one of those writers and this is one of those fics.

"Angular Momentum" is a gen-ish casefile/x-file which fits into canon, has the Mulder/Scully partnership at its center, and is written by an author who likes both characters! It’s mostly vintage Kel: snappy dialogue, intricate plotting, with a side order of political/social satire. The Lone Gunmen all play pivotal roles in this story, too. Oh! I nearly left out the best part: in a memorable and luminous sequence, Mulder and Scully journey to the "lower world," where they meet their spirit guides. This would have made a great episode, with its perfect mixture of humor, murder, and mysticism.

True confession. I love this story so much I commissioned fanart for it and gave it to the writer. Obviously, I love the writer, too. And the artist, Ravenari, is amazing. Click on the link after you’ve read the fic.

Collared Peccary and Gopher Snake by Ravenari

"Angular Momentum" by Kel
FEEDBACK: ckelll@hotmail.com
RATING: PG
SPOILERS: The Blessing Way, One Breath, Teso Dos Bichos, The Calusari
KEYWORDS: Casefile, MS Friendship.
SETTING: Season 3
SUMMARY: “I have been on the bridge that spans two worlds, the link between all souls by which we cross into our own true nature.”
– Fox Mulder, “The Blessing Way”

I've been reading a lot of fanfiction this past weekend, trying to figure out what to post. I kept ruling things out: too schmoopy, too earnest, too long, much too long, an excess of Mulder-torture, an excess of Mulder-worship, an excess of thinly veiled misogny Scully-hatred. Too many adverbs.

ALL OF THE ABOVE.

I worry that I've become the Goldilocks of fanfic readers. Well, enough about me.

"Rainbow Sign" is a crisply written post-ep for the season five episode "One Son." It's an insightful if bleak portrait of Mulder and Scully doing what they do best: working in tandem, following the evidence, and facing the grim truths of the conspiracy together.

Read Rainbow Sign at Dreamwidth. Also available at Gossamer, but not sadly, at AO3. Why X-Files Authors of Olde? Why don't you archive your X-Files fic there while you're archiving everything else? Nothing lives forever, not even Gossamer.

Please leave feedback for the author. You have no idea how cheering it is to wake up to find a comment or kudos on an old story in your inbox. The nomination post is always open for your suggestions.

Finally. She posts.

Hey now. I've been busy. With what? Yuletide, xf_santa, reccing for The X-Files at crack_van (and updating the fandom overview). And now, I have a new community with tree to celebrate Dana Scully's 50th birthday: scully_fest. Go check it out.

So. I've been looking everywhere for this story. As it turned out, the author wrote under a different name back in the day, changed it at Gossamer, then changed it again--as one does--on LiveJournal. Fortunately, she archived it at AO3, where I ran into it accidentally looking for something else entirely.

Ahem. I am supposed to be telling you why you should read this. Well, it's a funny, character-driven fic set between "Triangle" and "Dreamland". Mulder and Scully deal with the fallout from his bedside confession of love. He's caught between two realities and two women: the woman from his fantasy world in 1939 and his partner, Dana Scully. Her character voices are perfect--wherever Mulder's imagination takes him.

Read Sixty Degrees of Separation. You can easily leave feedback for the author at AO3.

If you're interested, this Chronicle X Author's interview can also be found at Fialka's Candybox.

Yes, the mod is bypassing the queue again. "Manitou" by the same author was recced by mogster495. While it may be excellent, my mood is such that I can't read a gruesome case file fic. My favorite fic by Dryad is "Quiet, He'll Hear You," but I can't handle it right now either.

I read "Local Boy" a number of years ago, but I'd forgotten how much I liked it. The setting is Martha's Vineyard, where Scully and Mulder have traveled so that he might take care of some family business. "Local Boy" is part one of a series, "Country of the Crepescule," but I think it works as a standalone. If you do go ahead and read the entire series, please let us know what you thought of it, too. Dryad said she pictured this as taking place during season three, which makes sense in context, but I thought it had more of a season six vibe myself.

The link is to AO3 but all of Dryad's fic can be read at Gossamer as well.

Read "Country of the Crepescule: Local Boy"

Please send the author feedback, even if you only hit the kudo button. Then come back and let us know what you think. Don't forget to leave your suggestions in the nomination post.

I've been wanting to rec this fic for years; however, I must warn you: this is not the usual, cheery, feel-good holiday story, nor is it the sort of story we've come to expect from Kel. There are not many fic writers who can create believable, compelling original characters the way Kel can. Her narrator, now an adult with children of her own, recalls a traumatic day she spent at the Mulders, specifically the Thanksgiving immediately following Samantha's abduction.

( Read an excerpt )

The link is to Fugues Fiction Archive but this can also be read at Gossamer.

Read "Hollow Day"

Don't forget to send feedback to the author, I know she'd appreciate it. The nomination post is always open for your suggestions. I'm especially interested in holiday stories right now.

Happy Thanksgiving Day to those who'll be celebrating next week.

My apologies for the long delay between posts. I will say only that there were reasons.

I remember being very taken with this story when I first read it several years ago. It's an X-File story; in fact, "Fish for Fallen Light" would have made a good episode. Mulder has received reports of mysterious sightings off the coastline of California and wants to go mermaid-hunting. Scully is less than enthusiastic. There are some good original characters, some suspense and of course, there is a mystery for Mulder and Scully to solve. Rating is PG.

Read Fish for Fallen Light

This story is not archived at Gossamer so if you like it, you might want to save it in case her website goes down.

This story was nominated by write_out but it's one of my favorites now, too. Confession time: the first time I read it, I thought Mulder was being a little whiny. But I love him better now, so it's all good. Tesla's writing is smooth as silk and no one writes a better Mulder voice. Enjoy!

NEW: "Get Up, Mulder"
Author: Tesla
Rating: PG-13 for language
Keyword: MSR, spooning, post-movie

Summary: Mulder recalls the trip back

Spoilers: To "Fight the Future"

Mod note: It says "MSR" but I think it's noromo friendly.

Now I really need to give tesla321 her own tag. Seriously, is there anything of hers we haven't read? See, we do use the suggestions from our nomination post, so go suggest some more, please.

Read "Get Up, Mulder".

Fourteen stories in 28 days. Are you ready?

Our first selection is the perfect way to start our mini-fic marathon. "Our Mulders" was nominated by littlegreen42. Written way back in 1997, it is the first in a group of short-short stories Punk came to name the "Ours" series. "And in changing them, we made them ours." I see it as a love-letter to Fox Mulder and to fan-fiction writers for The X-Files.

"Our Mulders"

Posted two years later, "Our Scullys" is a little darker, a little more painful to read, at least for me, and surprisingly prescient, given the ending of the series.

"Our Scullys"

The links are to Archive of Our Own, where you can read the rest of the series, and everything else Punk has written, too.

Although participation has been down the past few weeks, we keep adding members. And watchers, and lurkers, too.

Welcome!

"Dance" is a unique story. It is not exactly a casefile, although there is a case, of a sort. It's not exactly a romance, either, but it is about Mulder and Scully, and about their partnership, their friendship. Their unspoken mutual attraction. The setting, bohemian South Street in Philadelphia, plays a big role. The denizens of South Street, the alternative street scene, the gay bars, the clubs, all play their parts to perfection. This story is a vivid snapshot of a particular time and place.

It's near the beginning of season two. The X-Files are shut down. Scully is back doing autopsies and teaching, Mulder is stuck in his cubicle, listening to reel after reel of audio surveillance tape. Out of the blue, Mulder gets a call from an old friend, who wants him to come to South Street to investigate a murder, off the books.

Rattling the car keys again he looked away, then looked back. “Hey, do you want to come? Sleep on the floor? See a few bars? Live the bohemian life?”

“You’re going to Philly to check out the bars?”

“No, a demon. Wooooooo. Spooky, huh? Want to come?”

Of course, at 5:00 on Friday, he takes off to chase his demon. When Scully's weekend plans fall through, she decides a trip to Philadelphia doesn't sound half bad, even if she does have to sleep on the floor. Scully still thinks of herself as Dana. She still thinks she can have a life.

The writing is terrific: concise, even spare yet evocative. I liked this story enough that I spent the better part of a day reformatting it so I could post it to Fugues Fiction Archive. If you love to read text files, of course, you can read it at Dith's Page at Gossamer.

Why have we not heard of "Dance"? I'm just guessing, but perhaps genfic, with subtle ust, was much more common, and dare I say it, more appreciated back in 1995. Yes, you read that right. This story was posted to Gossamer in March, 1995.

Just for a little extra treat, here's an itty-bitty post-IWTB vignette by Voleuse, "The Ignorance of Loving". It's short but sweet, so leave some feedback.

Dith, if by some chance you're reading, thanks for the memories. Early second season Mulder and Scully. Yum.

Read "Dance", then let us know what you think. The nomination post is always open.