I have some entires planned around this fic (when I work out which Google Drive I've got them saved in, ahem) but for now, holy crap I have posted a thing:

Regret, or 14000 words of Rivers of London/Luther crossover casefic

archiveofourown.org/works/2840381

I have been working on this fic for about two years (including a huuuuuge rewrite) and am so fucking glad to be done with it. 

Also I've been putting off reading Foxglove Summer until I finished this so I can now go read that yay!

Still terrifying. Not quite as bad as 201, but possibly the effect was a bit ruined by my downstairs neighbour's loud music. 

( Spoilers )

I have somehow fallen into writing a Rivers of London series/Luther crossover (yes on top of all the other wips, yes the list is still stupidly long, yes I am an idiot I know).

I imagine the audience for this fic is fairly tiny given the sizes of both fandoms, but if anyone out there is a) familiar with both canons and b) wouldn't mind some fic discussion, do let me know in the comments :) 

(hopefully will be posting some general meta/rambling about the Rivers of London series when I've read the third book)

Hoping to post some other fics soon - at the weekend maybe? One fic is getting pretty damn close to being posted without a title, and there's another I need to fix but that can be posted pretty quickly after that. I might also be doing a fic amnesty thing at some point, as even I have to admit some of these things aren't going anywhere and I'm trying to concentrate on getting some long fics done.

Oh, and while I'm here, I've got a pair of fics bookending Spooks series 9 (first one takes place in between s8 and 9, second immediately after s9 finishes). They've had a beta and I've made some changes but they could do with another read through to make sure things make sense - anyone interested? TIA :D 

ETA: BOOKENDING. ENDING. NOT BOOKMARKING. FFS. (took me 3 days to notice, though)

Because things have happened and I am finally starting to feel better.

a) Getting work health insurance so worth it, as I have an appointment with a dermatologist next week. Current main suspect for all this trouble: sun.
b) At the weekend I decided to i. keep the sun off my neck and ii. stop using products containing SLS on it. This was basically desperation, but one or the other has worked so well that I may not have any symptoms to show the dermatologist. Good thing I took pictures.
c) The Hour continues to be excellent, and if all the episodes are on iPlayer I will attempt to have an lj ramble about it.
d) Yesterday when loading the dishwasher at my parents’ house I found a metal ring (with little metal skulls) in the sink. It’s not mine. It’s definitely not Lesley’s. Sometimes, I have to remind myself that I’m not superstitious (we’re pretty sure we know where it came from but it’s still weird).
e) I continue to have fic idea upon fic idea, but not to be able to actually finish anything.
f) I am going through all my cards to make sure I have decent photos so I can finally set up a thing to sell them.
g) I am going to set up a photo blog soon, damn it. I am.
h) I am going to the athletics Grand Prix at Crystal Palace tomorrow! This is the first sporting event I have ever chosen to attend.
i) I have read the new Luther book and it was fucking awesome.

The short version: if you are a Luther fan, read this book.

For one thing I think it counts as canon. For another, it’s absolutely fucking brilliant.

The non-spoilery version:

This book is everything you could want in a Luther prequel. Everything.

Any characters from the first series you thought weren’t fleshed out? Boom, here you go.

Wonder what happened pre-series to make Luther the way he is? You got it.

Thought the series wasn’t quite horrific enough? Yeah, that’s covered too. Reading this was the closest I’ve ever come to having to put a book down so I could go and throw up (I didn’t, but it was close). Fucking Neil Cross.

I’ve said before that I prefer Neil Cross’ TV writing to his books (this may be a minority opinion, idk), but this was just as good. At the end of the book, he acknowledges that usually it goes book series then TV series, but Luther did it the wrong way round, and I think that’s the best thing for it.

Basically, it made me wish I had books for other shows that were this good (I’m not counting actual book-adaptation series here, obviously). There were points reading it when I desperately wished that there were Spooks books like this.

There were many points reading it where I wished someone was reading it at the same time and pace as me so I could turn to them and just go OH MY GOD and WHAT THE HELL and THIS IS AMAZING (like it was an episode of the show, basically). I read most of it on the train, so I had to do all of that inside my own head. Had it been my own book I’d probably have been underlining bits with a highlighter pen. And occasionally writing YES, THIS, EXACTLY in the margins.

Talking about the characters without being spoilery is hard, but: they’re perfect. This shouldn’t be a surprise – they’re his characters – but somehow I didn’t expect them to be this good. If the characters are what got you into Luther, you will not be disappointed in this book.

The Calling should be counted as canon; it fits seamlessly into the series, and provides the kind of set up that most shows can only dream of. The detail and the texture and the feel of the whole thing is just right.

(as per the series, the horrible bits are horrendous, but as per the series, if you can get past them, it’s worth it)

Final thought: this was a review copy leant to me by tigertrapped, and I am going to buy myself a copy anyway (eventually – it is being released in hardback, *sigh*) so I can reread and lend it out to people: that’s how good it is.

ETA: Holy crap people, it's under £8 on Amazon!!!
http://www.amazon.co.uk/LUTHER-Calling-Neil-Cross/dp/0857203363/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1312465055&sr=1-3

The spoilery version, not really a review if I’m honest: http://hestia8.dreamwidth.org/10588.html?#cutid1

Hello!

Before I sounds a bit hyper/loopy, I am much better at the moment. The likely allergen seems to be moisturiser, and as long as I don't use it, things seem to be much better. And I have been able to catch up on sleep, so I can think again, which is lovely. Trying to finish some fic, but I'm having the usual working-on-20-things-at-once problem. Sigh. 

In other news, I have the internet at home! Woop woop. I have spent tonight faffing about, but soon I need to get on with setting up selling my cards (need to buy some card bags, actually) and setting up a photo blog, and then...yeah. More faffing, I guess.

Oh, and feedbacking stuff too, I need to get waaaaaaay better at leaving feedback.

Recently I have set up two tumblrs that you may be interested in, if you find the whole Texts From Last Night meme as amusing as I do:

textsfromthameshouse.tumblr.com (Spooks, with occasional Engrenages)

(intro post: textsfromthameshouse.tumblr.com/post/7117184759/icon-hello)

luthertexts.tumblr.com (Luther)

(intro: luthertexts.tumblr.com/post/7235692490/was-going-to-do-an-intro-post-but-tbh-its)

So that's fun right now :)

Ok, I'm off to read X-Men fic. Woo. 

Apologies for copious amounts of swearing at inanimate objects. I did miss a few minutes here and there so will catch up on iPlayer.

( Spoilers )