Pretty Poison

 

For those who don't know, Quantum Bang is a super-sized version of Big Bang (fic productions, not the TV show). Stories are written in a variety of fandoms, and most are epic in length, with a number of art illustrations. Some will eventually appear on AO3, but some remain only on the QB site.

For the next two weeks, two (or sometimes three) stories will be posted each day. Here's a list of the titles, and what fandom is represented, that will be posted.

https://quantumbang.org/2025-posting-schedule/

Every year I tell myself to let people know, and every year I fritter away the time. This year, I'm finally taking a minute to actually make a post. And if you don't see anything that piques your interest, click on the Fiction Index to check out stories from the past six years.

Happy reading!

 

 
So, most of you know that I visit Cindy most afternoons. (She doesn't always feel well enough for a visit.) Somewhere in the past couple of years, we switched from watching Lucifer and me reading fanfic, to me reading novels.

Cindy prefers romantic suspense, or action-adventure-romance. Other genres are okay, if there's at least a little M/F love interest. Sometimes, of course, there's more than a little.

Now, picture this: Cindy's lying in bed. I'm reading aloud, with my voice a little louder than normal, because Cindy's hearing is decreased. Her husband Carl may be shopping, or at the shooting range, but is usually doing housework or woodwork. Occasionally he comes into the bedroom for something he needs, or to tell Cindy something.

So, he's barefoot, walking down a carpeted hall; we don't know he's coming until he appears in the doorway. And, far too often, he appears -- and has heard as he approaches the doorway -- just as I'm reading a slightly (or more than slightly) salacious line.

Yesterday, it was, "Locating a skull had been difficult, Amelia reflected, but finding a codpiece had been considerably more of a challenge." He literally appeared at the doorway just as I said, "codpiece."

*facepalm*

We all had a good laugh; Cindy and Carl aren't at all stuffy, and Carl likes to tease about things like that. (He said, "Yeah, it would be!") But still, I'd rather he walked in a couple of sentences earlier, when I was reading, "It showed another extremely handsome young man dressed in the ancient Italian style."

Good grief! Who knew reading aloud could be dangerous?

(The book is Second Sight by Amanda Quick, aka Jayne Ann Krentz. Set in the late 1890's, a woman photographer is making a series of art photographs of "Men of Shakespeare." The skull was for Hamlet, the codpiece for Romeo. That's not the point of the book, but the mystery centers around photography, so her work is discussed.)