any readers of het fanfiction out there?

[cimorene]

Does anyone here actively read het? Not like as in, I read Morgan/Garcia whenever I can find it, or well, I've spent months looking for some decent Labyrinth fic (although both are true of me), but like, even an occasional foray into a healthy or plentiful currently active het fandom like in Harry Potter or SGA (and I don't mean like the occasional Rodney/Teyla fest populated mostly by members of slash fandom - both because I still won't break OTP and because I'm looking for het produced by primarily het shippers/writers)? Where would I start looking for recs - any ideas beyond the basic shipper communities and archives?

I've tried looking for some good het before, mainly out of curiosity and a kind of dissatisfaction, because in one way a romance is a romance, but in another way - like because gender roles are still really different in our society - it really isn't, unless the slash romance is annoyingly mischaracterised.

In consequence of such thoughts I've dipped my toe into Harry Potter several times - a couple weeks' reading, maybe four or ten novels' worth when you put it all together - under the theory that it was probably the most plentiful there, but I've never had a really good handle on where to start, or where to go after I exhausted one source (such as one goodish author). Alas, in my experience f/f seems to really flourish only in fandoms where it's canon (Xena, B5). Even in HP where there's lots of it, from what I've found it's mostly quite short and insubstantial.

Comments

[brownbetty]

Wait, wait, wait. Morgan/Garcia? Do you have recs?

I read het in some fandoms, but it tends to be pretty pairing specific. I'm attracted to het that subverts gender roles, at least a little: like Aeryn/John has always got me right there, and Buffy/Spike, although I find them both annoying people, works for me.

[cimness.livejournal.com]

I have a tag for it at my del.icio.us, but I wouldn't say I have any recs to speak of - it's mostly bad as well as really short and mostly produced by the same couple of prolific writers. Ooh, Aeryn/John.

[cupidsbow.livejournal.com]

I've been disappointed by John/Aeryn fic as a rule -- the show did it so well. The songvids are awesome though.

[silviakundera.livejournal.com]

I actively ship and extensively read a het pairings, but I totally don't have a good answer to this question. For I suck. There was tons of het in BtVS, and I've have read dozens of Buffy/Spike and Buffy/Angel novels. (Yes, I shipped B/S since Season 2 originally aired. I'm one of those people.) I've read lots of medicore (and a bit of terrible) Buffy/Xander and Buffy/Giles as well. I also read tons of Roswell het. And oh man, how I lived for Pacey/Joey (which no one fucking writes anymore. bitches!). But decent het I've usually found the same way I've found decent slash. Find some decent authors and they will lead you to other decent authors. Google for recommendation sites, and start surfing from there.

Sorry I'm not much help. If there's a better way in current fandom than wiling away fruitless, agonizing hours amid google, rec sites, and lj communities I have yet to find it myself. I foolishly do miss 'back in the day' sometimes, when there were only a few major archives for each pairing and all the sites in a fandom kind of linked together like a daisy chain.

[cimness.livejournal.com]

I just kind of want... I never have trouble finding what I want when I'm interested in a new slash pairing. I want the fic to be networked up in delicious recs or the same network of recs sites that serve slash needs. I can archive-wade, but it's not my favourite place to start looking for a pairing.

I definitely agree about het's quality from what I've seen in my fruitless searches. Not that slash doesn't stick to romance novel clichés a lot of the time, but het does that far more readily... it sort of seems stuck about 10-15 years behind slash in climbing out of that.

[silviakundera.livejournal.com]

oh, and there are some decent/readable Max/Alec Dark Angel novellas too. I read some of that pairing for awhile...

In general, I have to admit that I find 65% of the good het is still worse than the good slash. I like me some het fic, and I ship het pairings often, but when characterization gets under my skin... it upsets me more than slash does. All too often even good writers make the woman an overly hormonal wackjob. (I think it's wish-fulfillment or something - the appeal of being a crazed mood-swinging bitch and your boyfriend still adores you.)

[snacky]

I come out of XF fandom, and besides all the other good fandom stuff I got (brutal flamewars, fandom crazies, excellent archives, great meta), there was some really good het. I can rec some if you'd like.

[leyenn.livejournal.com]

I don't know about Cim, but I'm always up for some gratuitous XF recs.

[cupidsbow.livejournal.com]

Do you read Buffy? I've recced a heap of Buffy/Spike, and a few Angel/Buffy, which you can find in rec_room (here (http://www.livejournal.com/tools/memories.bml?user=rec_room&keyword=Buffy+the+Vampire+Slayer&filter=all)), and in my memories under the crack_van (http://www.livejournal.com/tools/memories.bml?user=cupidsbow&keyword=crack_van&filter=all) section (where I archive all my van recs). Mostly the same fics are covered in both places, but I sometimes rec stuff on the van that's not entirely to my personal taste, but that I think belongs in a more general rec set.

I've also recced Kara/Lee het for Battlestar Galactica 2003, and again, at both rec_room (http://www.livejournal.com/tools/memories.bml?user=rec_room&keyword=Battlestar+Galactica&filter=all) and crack_van, with all the same provisos.

I've been trying for some time to find good Trip/T'pol from ST:E, but mostly the het in that fandom is terrible. However, that's almost made up for by the really wonderful novella A Logical Proposal (http://community.livejournal.com/rec_room/88034.html), which is kidfic and melodrama and awesome.

If you're looking for femmeslash, you can try the newsletter: femslash_today. I've found some good stuff on it, but as will any newsletter, the quality is highly variable, and most of it isn't at reccing standard.

I have more one-off recs for het and f/f in various small fandoms. You can poke around at rec_room for them, as stories are listed by fandom and then pairing in both memories and del.icio.us.

Finally, I've written some het and some femmslash, and some f/f friendship romance in various small fandoms. I can link you if you're interested, or you can scroll through my story listing (http://cupidsbow.livejournal.com/68397.html).

I've been hoping to fall in love with another decent het fandom. I'm in the mood. I haven't come across one yet though. Maybe SCC will have something good, once I've seen more canon.

Happy reading.