Fic: "Birth of a Sex God" (Doctor Who, Rory/Amy)

Title: "Birth of a Sex God"
Author: apple_pathways
Characters/Pairing: Rory/Amy
Rating: PG-13 (references to sex)
Word Count: 1,900

Summary: "He read once that love is not an emotion or a state of being, but a process: a continuous, never-ending negotiation of feelings and circumstance. One could learn to love just as one could learn to ride a bike: with lots of bumps and bruises along the way."

Notes: Written as an entry for Challenge 04 at she_is_to_me. Voting is this weekend, so do read the other entries and vote if you're so inclined, and help keep this little challenge alive!

( This is the kiss he’d like to remember as his first. )

Book Meme Day 17

Day 17 - Favorite story or collection of stories (short stories, novellas, novelettes, etc.)

This question is so ridiculously easy to answer. I don't even have to think about it: Smoke and Mirrors, by Neil Gaiman.

First of all, I love the short story as an art form. It's heartbreaking that they're considered to be lesser than novels, because I think a well-crafted short story is just as, if not more, difficult to write than a novel. In a novel you have pages and pages to describe characters, establish themes, and build toward a climax. A short story is narrative distilled down into its purest form: there's no room for extraneous details or gratuitous description.

Neil Gaiman is a master of the art form. I have to avoid his prose when I'm trying to write, because the desire to imitate his style is just too strong, and my inability to approach his genius too depressing.

Every detail he adds in meaningful, every word. He doesn't bury you in figurative language or obscure his narrative with clunky dialogue. He points you in the direction he wants you to take and then buggers off, leaving you to figure out what the final destination is. I find myself thinking about a lot of his stories long after I finish them.

And the mood he sets! Whether funny, or creepy, or heart-warming, you find yourself engulfed in a sea of stirring emotions with every sentence.

OK, enough gushing; here are some of my favorite stories from the collection:

Chivalry, about an old woman who buys the Holy Grail in a charity shop, and the knight who makes it his quest to negotiate it away from her. (She drives a hard bargain, it must be said.)

The Price, about a stray cat that fights a nightly battle to protect his adopted family from the devil.

The White Road, a poem retelling the classic fairy tale Mister Fox, with a twist ending.