Sunday, April 5, 2009

GuestFicRec: The Lostie Will Not Let These Boys Be Lost



Gustariana



I do not think of myself as a particularly selfish person. I mean, I am a mom and after all any selfishness we usually have is stripped from us the moment we give birth. It is nature's way of telling us to suck it up and rear our children. So yeah, I am not too selfish. When it comes to the fanfic, what I love the most is the aspect of sharing, of finding that perfect fic and making sure that my friends are reading right along with me. We chat about it, discuss theories, and in some cases, make an organized campaign to get the author to join us on Twilighted so we can ask for updates properly.

Well, I guess it is time to confess that I have been very, very selfish. Last month I got an alert in my inbox from author hwimsey and I squealed like a little girl and ran to the nearest computer to read. I reviewed very enthusiastically and then I did the unimaginable....

I didn't tell a soul!!!

I knew it was wrong, but I wanted to bask in the afterglow of that first chapter. Savor it in silence. Eventually, I realized I was really being crazy and I sent out an email to a few friends recommending the fic. They all loved it, and that was the last push I needed. I would make sure to get this amazing fic all the love it deserves.

Which leads me to this article, better titled as, "Reasons I love The Lost Boys by hwimsey, but really hwimsey I am not a Stalker.. much."

Let me start by telling you how I found hwimsey. I was young to my Twilight fanfiction addiction, fresh and naive first-timer that still dove through the ff.net scroll to find fics. As you can imagine that was a total crapshoot. The majority of the time you would get some crazy fic that would break laws in 45 of the 50 states. But then there were the times that something amazing would show up. So amazing that you forgot all about the "Bella goes in a journey of self discovery that leads to the realization that she has no gag reflex and is double jointed" fics you had been reading and keeping entertained with. And mind you, those are probably fics that exists and I am sorry if anyone gets offended. That is not my intention, I am all about free speech, pick you poison and all that jazz. If I didn't read them I couldn't comment right?

So anyway, I found Clair de Lune and it was amazing, a post-Eclipse story about Tanya being a crazy bitch. It had great funny moments, a sweet and tender love connection, and an overall great plot. The execution was superb, and I was forever branded as a hwimsey fan.

A little over a year later, I got the alert that a new story was posted. And what a story it is. It is full of that romantic feeling that makes your chest feel full and makes you think happy thoughts. Fairy tale references, vintage clothing, and great music.

Oh, and it features a musician Edward, a British musician. With an accent.

Guh!

Need I say more?

We start off with Bella, living in San Francisco, but yearning for something she left behind while studying abroad. She is written as a strong yet fragile young woman who is trying to shake off the hold of a man she admired from afar. During a night on the town with her friends, Bella ends up finding the precise thing she was trying to forget about.

All through that first chapter I found myself laughing at Bella's wit. All while swooning at her descriptions of this mystery man that has her so enthralled and trying to come up with a clever theory of the role the old Victorian house plays in the story.

Edward is the soulful yet tortured singer of The Lost Boys. And he is looking for his Muse. A brown-haired muse who haunts his dreams and has been ingrained in his mind since the first time he saw her watching him perform.

Throw in the rest of the gang, the eclectic feel of San Francisco, and well placed references to real literature and you've got yourself the perfect fic.

If I strip the story down to the basics, what attracted me to it is was the overall aura of romance and whimsical fate that hwimsey is able to convey. I find myself Googling Parisian capes and names of places in San Francisco. The need to have a complete mental picture, a total sensory experience is too much and I just go with it.

Like I mentioned on my first ever review of the fic, when I found the story I felt like I had come full circle. I saw her first work when I was young to the fandom. Many, many fics after I found myself almost ready to move from the usual plots. I was feeling a bit "fic'ed out" and this story was posted and I felt rejuvenated. I was instantly in love with it, and I am now doing my damnedest to make sure others find it and fall in love with it, too.

So if you are looking for a great well written fic, that will have your heart pounding and will make you wish you really knew how to drink tea the right way. This is it.

See you on the other side!




Gustariana is an old hat in the Twilighted Fandom. If you aren't waiting for updates on her fic, Consecuencias, well, you should be. This sassy latina is made of all things beautiful and has quite possibly the best Princess Leia Halloween costume that has ever graced gchat picture sharing.

7 comments:

  1. G rec'd this to me about a month ago (at Chapter 3 I believe) and I fell madly in love. Not only as TLB immediately addicting, it brings back a lot of the feelings I had the first time I read Twilight. The imagery that H crafts, the emotional connections and longing are so palpable, so real that there are moments when you feel like you are the character, not the third party reading their story. This is a run, don't walk, to read - I can't rave about it enough!!

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  2. I am so totally in love with this story. 3 people rec'd it to me in the same week, and when I finally sat down to read, I could barely contain my glee at having found this amazing story. I am thoroughly caught up in this world, and the imagery it provokes. I travel to SF quite frequently for business, and she has captured the tiny world of The Haight, as well as painted a perfect picture in my head of the old Victorian House. This story has reawakened the romantic in me, after reading so much smut. Now, I enjoy my smut, but this story is wining and dining me softly and carefully, and making me feel like a lady. Hear Hear!!!

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  3. I am so glad you rec'd this story. I really hope more people will pick it up. Such great imagery and emotional pull. I adore it.

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  4. Somehow I lost my previous comment - but I read this story tonight based on the rec'd & loved it! She is so descriptive and the way she brought everyone together in ch 6 was brilliant...just brilliant.

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  5. I am glad you guys are liking the story. It is really one of my favorites and I can't stop raving about it!

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  6. Okay. Now I think I've gone to heaven. What did I do to deserve this support? Thank you so much, Gustariana -- you remain my muse for this story. And thank you all for rec'ing this story and being such incredibly lovely people. I wish there was some way I could make you all virtual margaritas and we'd sit out someplace warm (not here!) and laugh and gab -- and I could thank each of you with a toast. So here's one raised in a foggy night in SF to you, my dear. And with that, I'm off to the next chapter. Although I had a double hit of ILLA and HOFY tonight and I'm close to hyperventilation.

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  7. I just read the first 6 chapters of this fic and really enjoyed it. Thanks for the rec.

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