My dirty little secret: reading well written slash

Joined FF July 2014, after hubby & I bingewatched BBC's SHERLOCK series over a week or so. Friends had recommended the series; a while back I had recorded/DVRd it, but lost it when the DVR died. Found it on Netflix, and I was pleasantly FLOORED by the excellent acting and character development! I'd already thought Mr. Cumberbatch was quite alluring (from the Star Trek movie), yet didn't know much about Mr. Freeman (he did the Hobbit?LotR, yes?). Their portrayal of the characters hooked me from the very start of the series, and I was drawn in and pleased to have such a range of reactions to the shows, from Laughter to Cursing to Crying, sometimes all during one episode! My hubby enjoyed the series, but my reactions/enjoyment went much, eh, deeper, shall I say? I believe my heart stopped a few times in certain episodes, from a glance, or comment, of a character, to The Woman's direct confidence at her abilities to control Sherlock (oh, panting ensued from that one!). In reference to my dirty little secret above, I immediately envisioned J/S to be a couple-well-deserving of slashy goodness! Thank you, FFnet, you have slated a thirst, and I'm certain there is more to be discovered.

All that being said, a little more background: I'm 45, MWF for 20yrs, no kids, we want to adopt another basset hound (ours passed 3 yrs ago), live in the midwest, currently unemployed (which gives me too much time to sink deep into reading and zoning out, haha), worked a few very-meaningful jobs over the years after graduating from college with a BSEd/English and determining that I was NOT going to be an English teacher, and in the early 2000s I discovered this wonderful thing called FAN FICTION and its subcultures/categories of Slash. Oh How The Internet Opened My Mind! I've been a Duran Duran fan since the early 80s and that was my first foray into any type of fan fiction. I fell hard into love with slash, my fave pairing being John Taylor/Nick Rhodes; Mr. Taylor and Mr. Cumberbatch hit my weak spots: tall, dark, British. They are both delicious. Be Still My Beating Heart! (I also discovered the slashy goodness of U2 & Potterverse, Yum!) I met dozens of folks online, made some close friends, and for fun, offered to proofread/beta read for some ladies as I got to know them and enjoy their fics, wanting to help make their fics better. Mostly I prefer to simply proof & edit, and leave the story/plot to the author, but if I found ragged timelines or major plot holes, I'd send my questions and advice, to be used or not. Proofreading has always come naturally to me as I'm a very slow reader; I'm NOT perfect though, I often make mistakes myself with my dyslexic typing, and through the trends of IMing and Texting I've slacked over the years. I'm not into the electronic revolution as deeply as others, maybe it's my age? I still prefer a physical BOOK to a tablet or e-reader (don't even own those) and I'd rather listen to music through speakers instead of little buds that fall out of my ears too much (and hurt them, despite the little squishy types now sold). Maybe I'm old, or maybe it was my enjoyment of "English" all through school, but poor or missing punctuation really drives me nuts with frustration! And "spell check" doesn't work on its own, since it will skip over misused homonyms (know, now, no). I'd better stop and get off my soapbox, I realize I'm sounding like a SNOB, and truly, I am not, I'm a really nice person. :-) It's been a good 10 yrs or so, since I last spent oodles of time scouring the web for fics, and now that Sherlock's piqued my interest again, I might just go revisit some of those Duran fic sites and reminisce.

I'm delighted to see that FFnet still exists and offers a huge variety of subjects & topics. I wish there was a way to further delineate the categories so I could easily find the Slash & Pairings I enjoy (maybe there IS and I've not figured how to to work it yet?). I've read a few GEMS in the recent days, many Good fics, and sadly I struggled through a few Terrible ones (honestly a few I simply stopped reading and moved on to other stories). Whoops, sounding like a snob again, but not trying to be mean. :-( To smooth things a little, I'll say that I WISH I had the imagination & guts to write something, to Put It Out There, but I'm just much better behind the scenes. :-)

Thanks for allowing me a place to enjoy my dirty little secret. ;-) 7.15.14