Book Blog

I read a beautiful book this weekend. It was so rich I felt like I had dug my hands into damp fertile earth and felt it run through my fingers in its richness. And there was one passage I thought you all would especially appreciate

“Those of you who are more than casually familiar with books- those of you who spend your free afternoons in dusty bookshops, who offer furtive, kindly strokes along the spines of familiar titles- understand that page riffling is an essential element in the process of introducing oneself to a new book. It isn’t about reading the words; it’s about reading the smell, which wafts from the pages in a cloud of dust and wood pulp. It might smell expensive and well bound, or it might smell of tissue-thin paper and blurred two-color prints. Books can smell of cheap thrills or painstaking scholarship, of literary weight or unsolved mysteries.”

And I know for me that is so true. It was such a beautiful sensory description. The smell of books is the first thing I notice about them, and gives a hint as to what is inside. It it well worn or not? Have many others gone on this journey before me? Is it worth my time? So I am letting you know-

We did it guys! Thank you so much to everyone who has participated in the Shadowmonkeys Big Bang 2022 - the fandom has been flooded with tons of amazing new content, and it's all thanks to you!

Please check out the collection on AO3 for all the new fanfiction, and the #milex fanart tag on this blog for all the wonderful art, which has been so diverse and brilliant.

A sample of the work of our amazing artists!

We also want to give sincere thanks to all the prompters who gave us their ideas at the very start of the Big Bang. Without you guys, these stories would not exist, so thank you for your inspiration!

And lastly, we would also like to send our special thanks to Trickztr, who lit the fuse on this thing before passing the torch on to the Big Bang team. We are so happy to have been able to realise her vision ❤

Guidance for late submissions

If you didn't manage to submit your work by the 11th December deadline, don't worry! The AO3 collection will remain open to allow you to add your fics, and this blog will continue to share all late submissions of stories and art; please just remember to tag us @shadowmonkeysbigbang when you post your work on tumblr.

All that remains for us now is to wish you all a Merry Christmas! We hope that the holidays will give you ample time for reading all of our amazing new fics 🥰

For the future, I think that if the fandom wanted to run another Big Bang, a team of four is definitely the way to go. We may be a small fandom, but the commitment to organising and running an event like this is a big one and it needs passionate volunteers.

So! Forty-five days until the first check-in and the first building blocks for the fanartists. How's that heart o' yours feeling?

Do you guys have any doubts, wanna ask for some help, or just wanna tease us with your awesome upcoming story(ies)? Well, that's what the askbox is for! Don't be shy. Drop by at any moment, and let's make use of this amazing community that makes up the AM/TLSP fandom.

You're not alone here. We're all in this together ([war flashbacks of hsm]). Even if I can't personally help you, I'm sure someone else in the community can.

Red kite - GR5, June 2021