So what is Slash, exactly?

So I was going to write this up myself, and include a lot of links and history, but the truth is, it has been written before, and by more clear and concise writers than I feel I am able to be. So instead, I'm going to do a mini-master post on places where you can learn more.

I apologize to everyone out there who has been confused by the title of my blog. I meant to do this far sooner, but I kept dithering on the post I'd written up because I knew it wasn't perfect. Then I ran across an article about Slash that was perfect, and realized what I needed to do, so here we are.

But for a simple definition, we will start with the Urban Dictionary version:

slash

1. Genre of fanfiction involving pairing two male or female characters together; characters are commonly shown with a slash in between.

For a pretty basic overview, Wikipedia's article on Slash Fiction gives a good amount of detail not only of how it is defined and used in the fanfiction world, but also a lot of the history of slash in fanfiction, and some of the sub-genres you might find.

A more indepth look at Slash can be found at FanLore, which covers a much more fan-specific view of the genre, as well as a deeper look at its history in fandom and some of the controversies surrounding it. There is also an article about the History of Slash Fandom at fanlore as well, if you want more information on how all this came about.

And then, for a beautiful comprehensive version of why people enjoy reading and writing slash and where it comes from, I highly recommend The Brat Queen's "What Is Slash?"

This list is of course, by no means comprehensive, but all of the above articles have links to other articles about slash and its effect on fandom. I highly recommend you check it all out.

Happy reading!

A note to the authors:

I just wanted to post a note to those writing the stories I'm reviewing here. I've enjoyed all your stories so much, I wanted to share your stories with others. When I can, I try to leave a comment somewhere so you can see my review for yourself. You're certainly under no obligation to reblog it or even to comment, but you're certainly welcome to if you like to or feel the need.

I want to be sure that I've linked things correctly, spelled things correctly, attributed the story to the right person, and linked to the right site. If you have any corrections you'd like me to make to my review, do let me know. I only want to direct people to your stories so that you will get more views and purchases of your lovely work.


Thank you so much for writing the stories I've enjoyed so much. I look forward to reading more of your work in the future.

Elfflame

My favorite Reading Sites

So having written up a couple of review posts now (I have one scheduled for Wednesday, and I'll try to do another for next Saturday, so that we've got a regular schedule), I realized I should explain where I go to get all these things.

My top two, are of course Amazon and Goodreads. But I also have used Fiction Press and Archive of Our Own (aka AO3) to download free fic for my kindle over the last few years. So here's a rundown of each of the sites I have or will have listed with possible links, and what you might find or run into there. If you ever find you can't get into a site for any reason, let me know. I'd rather provide multiple links, then have people go without a story they might enjoy.

The big four:

• Amazon.com - Obviously the biggest of the group, though I will very rarely link to it here unless I'm talking about a specific book that's currently on sale that people might enjoy. You can find many free or cheap books here, but I will make a much more detailed post about that in the future.
• Goodreads - This will probably be the site I link to most. I keep track of all my reading and books here, and if you want to buy or find a story, this is the first site I would recommend going to, as they provide links not only to Amazon, but many other booksellers, as well as links to the online page if the story is posted free. If you don't have an account at this site, I highly recommend it. It's just a great community.
• Archive of Our Own - Aka AO3. This is a fan-based fanfiction website, though there is some original fic here, usually fairy tales or RPF (real person fic). The benefit of this site is that they have the built-in capability to download the entire story in several formats: Mobi (Kindle format), EPub, PDF, and HTML. No need to transfer it anywhere to get it working on your device. Simply download it to your device and you're ready to go.
• Fiction Press - The non-fanfic sister site to Fan Fiction.net. This has been running a few years less than FF.net, but that's still a longer time than almost any other fiction site on the web, and the wealth of stories is immense. To download from this, you'll need a special program called the Fan Fiction Downloader (which I will go into in more detail in another post).

Other possible sites:

• Livejournal/Dreamwidth - Aka LJ and DW. These are journalling sites, though they are less used now than they once were. Occasionally, posts will be locked, so these stand a higher chance of being inaccessable, but if I do link there, I will try to post an alternate link just in case.
• Adult Fan Fiction - One of the few remaining responses to FF.net's purge of adult material. I probably won't link here much, but occasionally this is the only link there is. You will have to pass an age restriction page, but you should be able to get through, regardless.
• Tumblr - I haven't actually found any that I will need to link to here. Yet. But I won't rule it out, either, as it has become the new alternative to LJ/DW above.
• Author Personal Websites - Some authors do still host their own sites, and when there is no other link, I will post a link to that, though unless it's a story that is free online, I'm more inclined to post a link to the Goodreads page. I may link to the Author's website when it comes to their profile, though.

There are probably others I've missed, and I will likely add to this list when I think of them.

What about you? Where do you find your slash stories most?

My Tagging System

I'm a tagging fiend. I have been ever since I was able to do so over at Livejournal. I loved having lists that were easily searchable, and intend to do the same here. Especially since most of you out there will be looking for something specific, and this way, you will be able to find it easier.

Tag types you will find on this blog:

* Author Name (Author: Last Name, First Name)

* Genre (Genre: [genre])

* Kinks (Kink: [kink])

* Location of story (Location: Country, city {if possible; I'll get as specific as I can.})

* Rating {my own, using the general movie rating system} (Rating: [rating])

* Post type (Book review) (Fanfic) (Reading list) etc

If you see something that you'd like to be able to access better through the tags, let me know. I will try to be comprehensive within each type of tag, but if you see something not included, feel free to drop a note. The only thing I won't tag for is warnings. I may include them in the reviews themselves if I feel they are warranted for the story I'm reviewing, but I will not tag for them. My reviews are safe for most readers, I believe, and therefore skimming through them should be enough for most.

On the Focus of A Slash Reader's Diary

This blog will focus on several genres and sub groups, but all with a male/male focus, generally with a more adult slant to the story.

Some of the Genres you will find here:

* Fantasy; including fantasy steampunk, fantasy supernatural, urban fantasy, epic fantasy, mythic fantasy, and fairy tale.

* Science Fiction; including hard and soft, space, space opera, high tech, time travel, futuristic, dystopia, post-apocalyptic, and end of the world.

* Supernatural; including vampire, werewolf, fae/fairy, demon, angel, shifter, ghosts, witches and all sorts of urban fantasy including supernatural creatures.

* Historical; including Victorian, Edwardian, Regency, Medieval, Pirate, Arabian, Ancient worlds (Egypt, Greece, and Rome), and pretty much any other historical period, but for me, generally the older the better.

* BDSM of all types, regardless of other genres, particularly those focusing on D/s relationships.

* Other random genres, subjects, and fetishes as they crop up.

What you won't find here:

* Modern-day romances with none of the above elements.

* Cowboys.

* War stories.

* Rape purely for rape's sake.

* Stories that do not have a male/male pairing at the center of the story.

* Stories that end badly, particularly for the male/male pairing (I have a happy ending fetish).

I plan to link a lot to terms on TV Tropes, also other blogs I find of interest, and books on both Goodreads and Amazon, as well as some Fanfic sites. You will come to know TV Tropes quite well if you read this blog much. If I fail to define something, please feel free to ask. Also, do feel free to start discussions on things if you disagree, so long as you are willing to defend yourself without starting a flame war.

I will not be reviewing any stories formally until they have been completed, as sometimes the last chapter of a story entirely destroys a story, not to mention some never get finished at all. I don't want to do that to my followers. That said, I will do update posts about the stories I have been reading, and may provide links to them if they have been updated.

I take recs, but don't expect me to drop everything I have on my waiting list to read it. I have a reading list nearly 400 books strong on Goodreads, and it is always growing, so depending on how I feel about the genre or premise of a story, it may take me quite a while to get to it.

Where to find me online:

My Fanfic

My Goodreads

My Twitter

A Slash Reader's Diary

I used to read all the time. For a long time, it felt odd to me to be without at least one book in my bag at all times. Then I went back to school, and between schoolwork and the readings for classes, I stopped reading things on my own. After I graduated, I found it was hard to pick up the habit again. I tried to start reading again a few times in the following years, but without much success. I would pick up a book, read the first few pages, then set it aside and forget about it. It wasn't until I picked up the Harry Potter series (I know, young adult books, what does that have to do with the subject of this blog?), and soon after, I was reading Harry Potter fanfic to fill in the parts of the story that I felt were missing.

In reading fanfic, I soon found myself reading more and more pieces with slash in them. For those unfamiliar with the idiom, Slash is a term generally used in fan fiction (though coming to refer to all fiction or media) where two characters of the same sex show attraction toward each other. I will be going into more detail about the term in another blog post, but for more information see Slash at TV Tropes. I'd heard of the term before Harry Potter, but stayed well away from it. At the time, Slash pairings seemed silly and wrong to me. Why would you ever pair those two characters together in a story, especially if they weren't gay? But as I read more and more Harry Potter fanfic, I soon found myself drawn in, and became engrossed in this new-to-me type of romance.

Slash gave me something that was missing from the Romances I had read before. The characters were of equal (or mostly equal) stature and therefore were able to meet each other on a completely different level than your average romance novel. It involved introspection in a way average romances could only dream of because traditional romances show men and woman coming at passion from completely different perspectives. In Slash, though, the characters are the same sex, so the focus could be shifted to something far more subtle. It gave the stories depth in a way most romance never could, because the characters had to be examined on a level that traditional romances just never bothered, both by the characters themselves as well as the reader.

The more slash I read, the more I wanted to read. It also made me want to try my hand at writing it myself. I admit to having written quite a bit of male/male fiction myself, including a few original pieces that I hope to someday publish. Unfortunately, despite reading more than I had in some time, I was still not reading "real" books, which I felt would be even harder now that my focus for stories had shifted.

Then I got a divorce, and had to return to work. I'd gotten a Kindle passed down to me from an aunt who couldn't figure out how to use it, and began to download stories from the web, both from Archive of Our Own as well as Amazon (seriously, Amazon has an amazingly broad selection of free books, if you just know where to look), but I ended up focusing on the fanfic over the books even then. Mostly it was that I felt safe in the fanfic, knowing that it would involve at least some of the themes I was interested in, while the books probably would not.

It wasn't until I began to make friends at work that I really began to read again. Between talking about books and getting recs for things to read, books began to filter into my collection again, a book here, a fic there. One of my friends began to give me tips to help me find cheaper reads on Amazon, now that I had actual money to spend again. I made a special wishlist on Amazon and began to check it regularly to see if any of them were currently on sale. Suddenly, my Kindle became full of books I couldn't wait to read. The second half of last year, I managed to read 32 books, according to my Goodreads account. And this year, I'm shooting for 60. Next year, who knows?

This blog is dedicated to those stories I read that have a Male/Male focus. From Fanfiction (though only the best ones) to free online or downloads, to Amazon downloads and even paper books. Anything where the main characters are men attracted to men. Particularly those that are genres I prefer: Fantasy, Science Fiction, Supernatural, and Historical, as well as any books with a BDSM focus. The reason behind having such a specific focus is that when I first started looking for those male/male books I might like to try, it was difficult to find anything that wasn't set in modern day. For every one I found that fit my list above, there were at least ten others. I'm sure the stories set in modern day are just fine, but they're not what I am interested in reading, and I figured I wasn't the only one, so I wanted to create a blog that would make finding those stories easier for others who enjoy them as well.

At the moment, my plan is to post reviews of books I've read for others looking for similar books to read. I'll also be posting my current reading list, links to deals, and other posts related to fiction of this sort. Suggestions are always welcome, and comments as well. I will only be posting reviews of completed stories, so please do not ask me to review your unfinished online story, because I won't do it. I may give periodic updates of those stories I am currently reading online, though, so you're always welcome to link me to them. If I do end up doing a review in return for a free book or other compensation, I will make certain to let everyone know in my review, but I also intend not to let it affect my review of the story itself. I am very particular in my tastes, and being given compensation for reading a book will not change that in the least.

So welcome to my Slash Reader's Diary. Look around. I hope you find many great things to read here. And I look forward to hearing from you all!