What's Good?  The poetically constrained "Lest We Forget" (just 273 words) by endaewen is October's recommendation-of-the-month.  At a Remembrance Day (Veterans' Day, Armistice Day) observation, Nick's memories pull him through time.

      A poppy. Red and black. This one pinned on Natalie's shoulder. In his mind, the one became many. Fields of the flower, growing where death had lain heavy. After both wars, he had seen them silvered by the moonlight, like drops of blood.

What's New?  In September, fkfic-l saw one story, "Reconstruction" by Walt D. (1 post, 42 KB).  However, in October so far, we've seen three stories by three authors on list.

What's good?  I've wanted to spotlight Scottie's "Flowers in the Night" (1993) in the recommendations project for years, and this month I get to!  This short story vividly displays first-season Nick and Janette, when Lacroix is dead and possibilities cluster so thick and unimagined that they hardly know where to begin.

"The club was almost deserted, I was bored, and I thought perhaps two old friends could enjoy a talk and a bottle of wine."  He didn't respond.  She raised the glasses... "It's wine, Nicholah.  Just wine.  Nothing else -- nothing that could contaminate you."

-----
What's new?  In February, fkfic-l saw nine stories by three authors.  In the order posting completed:

• "Heartfelt" by Walt D. (1 post)
  
• "Rock-y Horrors" by Walt D. (1 post)
  
• "The Life and Times of a Macedonian Vampire" by dj_clawson (14 posts)
  
• "Illusions of Mortality" by abby82 (1 post) (adult)
  
• "Pshrink" by Walt D. (3 posts)
  
• "The Life of a Macedonian Vampire and His Son Alexander" by dj_clawson (16 posts)
  
• "Hurt" by Walt D. (2 posts)
  
• "Chess" by Walt D. (1 post) (adult)
  
• "Complaint" by Walt D. (1 post)
  

Busy month! :-)

The oldschoolfic Holiday Ficathon released on the evening of 01/04.  There is one FK story!  "A Time for Families" by malinaldarose, a first-season Christmas with Natalie, Nick, Janette, lots of angst, and a happy ending (written for a prompt by amilyn).

I didn't receive an FK prompt this round, so I did my very best to fulfill an HL prompt: "So This is Home," first-season Christmas, starring Richie, Angie, Duncan and Tessa.  My ficathon match, dragonsinger, similarly picked the HL prompt out of the three submitted, and kindly gifted me with "One Good Christmas," starring Richie and Tessa.  (Yes, I love HL, and Duncan, Tessa and Darius are my favorite characters. Anyone here who couldn't have guessed that? ~g~)

As you know, oldschoolfic is a community for out-of-production series fanfiction.  Fandoms written this round were: BatB, BtVS, FK, Firefly, HL, Joan of Arcadia, K:tE, Nancy Drew, ST:TOS, VM, and West Wing.  Next time, more FK, right?  :-)

What's good?  This year's final recommendation-of-the-month is kirbyfest's sentimental N&N interlude, "The Heart of the Holidays" (1996).  It grants Natalie and Nick a Christmas Eve of quiet joy and gentle comfort in one another.

"Richard and I used to play outside for hours.  He loved the snow.  I don't think I've played in it since we were little kids."  She looked up at Nick and saw the concern in his face.  "I'm fine, really.  I can talk about him now.  That's what holidays are for -- remembering the people we love, and the good times."

(I apologize for the unprecedented lateness of the recommendations project this month.  If you noticed my previous mention of asking an author, that was someone I couldn't reach.  I would be pleased to feature either story any month!)

What's new?  In November, fkfic-l greeted a gracious plenty of new stories:

• "Fearful Symmetry" (4 posts) by me
  
• "Corpus Aristotelicum" (7 posts) by dj_clawson
  
• "Remembrance" (1 post) by Walt D.
  
• "Act of Remembrance" (1 post) by Angela G.
  
• "Nor'ever Night" (1 post) by Walt D.
  
• "Memoirs" (1 post) by Walt D.
  

And there have been three tales by three authors in December so far!

On Friday night, I emailed an author to ask permission for December's fanfiction recommendation.  New boxes keep opening on the calendar, as much as I want to pause it.  I think Abby (tv_elf) would not be pleased if I missed a month for the first time due to something she considered as predictable as her death.  (I didn't consider it predictable, but then I am too easily surprised, and she knows that.)

So the recommendations project will be late this month, but it's not on hiatus.  And I'm considering revising the rule that requires authorial permission for each recommendation: perhaps an exception for deceased fans.  Like Abby, just now.  Lynne Ackerman in April.  Mary Lou Manzie and Christy Stillman in 2006.  Fran Glass -- 2002?  And others...  But it might be a poor idea; after all, there are people who genuinely don't want their stories recommended, which is why the rule exists.  I'll think about it.

Abby beta-read a quarter of all my Forever Knight stories.  I counted this morning (beta credits wind up every endnote, if you're curious).  She made so many of them better, but I particularly remember how she examined my one FK/HL crossover on a New Year's Eve, and phoned me her advice, so I could post it on the holiday on which it was set.

When we got together for her birthday a month ago, she said she was writing a new FK story for my birthday this year.  It was to have been a surprise, so I don't know what it would have been about.  I do know it would have been different from anything ordinary, a precious new angle proving the FK universe is far from tapped out, something creative and quirky I could never imagine alone.  Because that's what it's like with Abby.

The quotation of the month on my site was going to be Tracy's line about family and holidays from "Strings" this time, but instead it is an enduring favorite: "I loved it. I mean, I know it was all about death, but I thought it was very life-affirming at the same time." -- Natalie, "Last Act."  Sums up FK.  Abby might prefer a Schanke-ism, but she'll know what I'm getting at.

What's good?  How about a little Christmas in July?  The recommendations project features Susan's "Traditions" this month, a funny, snug, secular holiday yarn -- set in December of second-season -- that sidles up to some serious questions of Nick's alienation and excesses through the unlikely medium of cookies baked for the 96th Precinct's annual charity project.  (Yep, this is the one with the gingerbread vampires.)

What's new?  In June, no stories were posted to fkfic-l at all.  Those of you with FK tales you've shared on LJ but not on list, please remember that fkfic-l is still here to come home to!  Our respected List Gardener has the subscription instructions.

I mentioned that the retrospective was over, so yes, indeed, this is a new one!  The idea crept up as I was getting ready for church on Good Friday; I wrote it that night.  This is the second-to-shortest FK piece I have ever posted, so perhaps much_madness will consider it another reply to her nudge for "ficlets."

	•	Title:	"Pro Terra Sancta"
	•	Length:	~1,200 words
	•	Date:	Posted to FKFic-L March 23, 2008
	•	Rating:	G
	•	Summary:	On Good Friday, Schanke inadvertently reminds Nick of the Crusades, and Natalie notices.
	•	Setting:	1993 Toronto, Stonetree's Precinct
	•	Characters:	Nick, Natalie, Schanke
	•	Quotation:	"I pointed out that we indispensable public servants don't all get the four-day weekend that schoolgirls and saleswomen do, but did they listen to me?"

Again prompted by the season, I'm going to tweak this rolling retrospective out of chronology to bring up my one New Year's fanfiction, "An Appointment Unkept," which is also my one true crossover to date.  In this case, the cross is with Highlander.  The story is less about those lost than those who miss them.

	•	Title:	"An Appointment Unkept"
	•	Length:	~2,982 words
	•	Date:	Posted to FKFic-L December 31, 2005
	•	Rating:	PG
	•	Summary:	Nick and Darius have a longstanding appointment, but neither of them make it.
	•	Setting:	Paris, New Year's Eve 1999
	•	Characters:	Original HL Immortal, Janette
	•	Quotation:	"She met his eyes, her own again a rich blue.  The depth of the sorrow there shocked him.  Carefully controlled, it nevertheless went down, and down, and down, perhaps without end."

Very unusually, possibly bending all laws of time, space and reality, I posted to forkni-l twice on Sunday, both times in reply to a post from a digest only ten days old.  Omitting the quoted remarks that belong to someone else, here's my text for those of you who have wandered off into the wilderness of not being on list ;-) but may yet be interested.  (In this particular case, havocthecat and tv_elf, this means you; see post one below.)

( Upcoming New FK Fanfic -- Chat )
( Forever Net Before Christmas Zine -- Recommendations )

So far, I've rolled this fanfiction retrospective in reverse chronological order.  But today, in a seasonal mood, I'm going to leapfrog ten years in order to reach my one Christmas fanfiction, "Send My Love."  I actually wrote it on Independence Day, a little Christmas in July.  (It's the first of three "Where are they now?" pieces I've posted in the past two years -- and by my standards, that's a bit of a kick!)

	•	Title:	"Send My Love"
	•	Length:	~2,505 words
	•	Date:	Posted to FKFic-L September 19, 2006
	•	Rating:	PG
	•	Summary:	Mailing Christmas gifts, Natalie bumps into a very old acquaintance.
	•	Setting:	December 2006 (alternate future, diverged just before "Last Knight")
	•	Characters:	Natalie, Janette
	•	Quotation:	"Well, she had no intention of leaving her place in line, not for vampire, murderer or apocalyptic space debris.  She had presents to send."