This community is quiet, but not unloved, I hope.

[jest]

I thought to liven things up a little, we could share details about our WIPs in the comments. You don't actually have to have a wip to participate – you are welcome to talk about ideas that would make a great story even if you have no intentions of ever actually writing them.

I'll kick things off...

Comments

[jest]

I have two WIPs in the works. I'm afraid the audience for both of them is going to be pretty limited even within the confines of our already small fandom.

A Man for All Occasions is Rentboy!Archie. Everybody who doesn't dig that sort of thing should stop reading right there. *g*

This story comes from the fact that the Archie of the early Nero Wolfe books is different from the later books. Basically, Archie sounds really young to me for the first few books, and then he ages a few years, and then he and Wolfe stop aging completely and the voice in the series is more or less established. It's a rentboy fic because I find that scenario oddly plausible. It's obvious throughout the series that wages are a factor in their relationship, but never the main factor. Also, it's lots of fun to write it that way. I have no shame.

Too Many Assistants is a femmeslash piece about Dol Bonner and Sally Colt. Archie and Wolfe are present, but I am deliberately leaving the story that is happening to them mostly off the page. This is the wip I always turn to when I am pissed off over the fact that female characters so seldom get their own stories. It set in Nero Wolfe universe, but I suspect it has been heavily influenced by my interest in Man from UNCLE fandom (love the show, but what it has to say about women's lives in the 1960s horrifies me).

Basically, the world needs more 1960s lesbian detectives and I have made it my mission to deliver.

[giglet]

Both stories sound awesome! I look forward to reading them both, one of these days!

[dorinda]

I would certainly love reading them both! I've enjoyed Rentboy!Archie in the past--I really like the way that Archie's native cheek and chutzpah works for him in that kind of situation. As well as the very careful eye he keeps on where his money is coming from, not to mention his tendency to spend it luxuriously on finery and to know how to show himself off to best effect.

(And, I have no idea why I never made it over here instead of just being on the mailing list. But that is remedied now. Anyway, hi!)

[giglet]

I've enjoyed Rentboy!Archie in the past

URL? (Assuming it's on the Web someplace)

[dorinda]

Temporary Help, by Parhelion. It's a first-meeting story in which Wolfe is out looking for something, and finds Archie.

I like the mixture of their mutual unsentimentality with hope buried underneath, and the sense of something deeper, that faint ghost of an initial click between them. And Archie has that chutzpah I mentioned, bolder about the possibility of the transaction than Wolfe is. I also like the sense that something's the matter with Wolfe, how desperate he is to get some sleep. Because we don't hear of him having insomnia in canon, and it's easy to believe that that's because now Archie is there.

[jest]

Tell me about it! I'm not even all that into Rentboy! as a trope, but for Archie it just seems way too plausible.

I remember you from the list! It's good to see you on Dreamwidth!

[jest]

Thanks! I write the sort of stories that I want to read, but it's nice to know that there is a small audience who might actually enjoy reading them too. :)

The Sting/Nero Wolfe crossover

[giglet]

Someday I will finish writing the story where Wolfe is trying to provide enough evidence for the arrest and conviction of a murderous mobster (for a well-heeled relative of the victim). Even with Archie, Saul, Orrie, and Fred on the job, Wolfe is stymied because he can't find any leverage and the mobster isn't exposing himself.

They need someone to provoke him, but given the man's reach and brutality, and the length of the play, Wolfe is unwilling to hire the usual actors that he's employed in other circumstances.

Saul says he knows some guys who are good enough to do the job although Wolfe shouldn't trust them farther than he can throw them, and he contacts Henry Gondorff and Johnny Hooker.

The rest of the caper is a combination of the conmen
working with, and around, and occasionally at cross purposes to Wolfe's crew. They'd like the money from Wolfe, but don't want the direction from Wolfe, and they'd very much like to walk away with a lot of the mobster's money, without being arrested themselves...

If Archie succeeded in fetching Gondorff to see Wolfe, I very much doubt that Wolfe would stand up. He could admit that Gondorff was talented within his sphere, without respecting that sphere in the least.

Re: The Sting/Nero Wolfe crossover

[dorinda]

How much do I love this? Let me count the ways! (retrieves calculator for the processing of Very High Numbers...)

I really enjoy the thought of Saul having the connection with Henry and Johnny. It makes sense to me, somehow. Saul always has seemed to have private and yet evocative corners of his life (thinking, for instance, of all the things in his apartment in A Family Affair, if that's the book I mean), to go along with his enormous innate discretion.

I think Wolfe would definitely respect Henry's skills. I even think he wouldn't altogether disapprove of them--since he himself is willing to use misdirection, lies (directly or by omission or implication), deceit and trickery, etc., even against officers of the law if he deems it necessary (not just for the solution of the case, but also for his self-esteem and his income. And sometimes also just to needle people who he feels need some needling. *g*).

[parhelion]

Hmm. I have the no-really-I-mean-to-get-back-to-it Ash and Iron, in which Wolfe is not so much lazy as very busy in an occult sort of way, and Archie finds being a shaman for Wolfe just as irritating (and interesting) as being a P.I. for Wolfe.

And then there's "Private Knife," set in Astolot's "Duende" universe. Wolfe is a gifted Detecter and Archie stabs people with zest and inborn skill, but they both object to the personal entanglements demanded by their Talents.

By and large, I've managed to keep my WIPs cropped back. However, I'm starting to think I've been too successful and it's choking my creativity, such as it is. I very much want to do cliche bingo this summer and write some gloriously self-indulgent stories.

[parhelion]

I also want to note I adore every WIP idea mentioned by others in this post. Wistful!

[dorinda]

Those both sound delightful! I had almost forgotten about the Duende universe. I would very much enjoy seeing them caught up in those roles and the way they interlock.

I very much want to do cliche bingo this summer and write some gloriously self-indulgent stories.

*\o/* Cheering you on! I've just been talking with a like-minded friend lately about how we too often throttle our own creativity in similar fashion. She is encouraging me to remember that it is okay (more than okay! Imperative!) just to enjoy falling into the Id Vortex.

[giglet]

Oh yes please! I've been waiting to recommend the completed Ash and Iron for years now!

And "Private Knife" sounds fabulous as well!

[jest]

I've always hoped that you would pick up with Ash and Iron. It's got such a strong beginning, it's a shame to leave in unfinished.

[rhi]

I keep thinking I need to write the fic where Archie Goodwin is a Highlander-style immortal and ends up studying with Connor MacLeod, and the snark levels only keep going up through the roof. Meanwhile, Wolfe keeps insisting the Game must be balderdash and Fritz's entire reaction is to ask Connor what good recipes he can get his hands on, say an authentic one for Roman fish sauce?

[dorinda]

Aw, Fritz. *g* I hadn't thought about that aspect of meeting an Immortal--there'd be some real culinary treasures there, if Fritz could get at them!

[giglet]

Oh that would be fun! Maybe a spot of Amanda, just to stir things up?

It would explain why Archie doesn't age -- but what about Wolfe?

[rhi]

::giggling:: What, Wolfe once solved a case by making Amanda give everything back? And honestly, none of them age. Maybe Wolfe thinks the Game is foolishness because he has a group of immortals who've been working together for years?