I'm a huge fan of crack_van too and have been a reccer there a few times.

I know a lot of people filter CV so they only see the recs in their fandoms but I don't as, like you, I like to see what's going on in other fandoms and have followed the link a few times to stories I don't normally read in.

I've found some fabulous stuff outside of my fandoms through crack van - Due South wingfic for example, and a wonderful cracky little tale about an alien at Torchwood that spoke LOLCAT, long before I'd watched an episode of the show. I'd have missed those if I filtered.

Trying to Communicate! I love that fic! I didn't know it had been on the crackvan, but it qualifies in every possible sense, being both a great example of the fandom and... well, crack :)

I'm almost positive that's where I found it. And it doesn't matter how many times I read it, it always makes me giggle.

Hello! Hope it's okay to fly in and litter the place with comments! I love the crackvan too. I am subscribed but filter it so that I get notification of Pros entries as they arrive; but when I have time and interest, I go and select other fandoms or read all the previous week's. Just in case something grabs me.

There are some reccers who really do a good job explaining the context of the stories or vids and they get me all interested just for the historical context, sometimes! (flamingoslim's S&H recs are a great example - I know nothing whatsoever about S&H, but she gives so much background in them that I have a much clearer idea of it all after reading them.)

No fines for littering here so please go right ahead! *g*

Some reccers are better than others but I'm just so grateful that someone elects to take the keys to the van that I will not criticize, ever. Flamingo is brilliant; she follows up her rec with a slightly more indepth rundown on the S&H lj comm as well. And she's no slouch with the pen, either; she's been an active author in S&H for years and is best known for this epic, Total Eclipse of the Heart.

Thanks for stopping by!

Oh goodie. *drops seeds instead of litter*

Yeah, agreed on the variability: and yeah, I see it definitely as a comm for celebrating good stuff rather than criticising other people's choice of good stuff. Although I am occasionally tempted to criticise other people picking it before I can :) - I am up for the crackvan in November (for Pros, natch) and hoping that the September and October people don't select a couple I am really hoping to rave about - I want to do them!

Thanks for the note about the S&H comm; as soon as I have time I shall go over and have a look for these more indepth rundowns.

Total Eclipse of the Heart is the first S&H fic I remember reading, and only quite recently. I'm sure I must have given a couple of short fics a go at some stage, just because several of my friends list write in S&H and I like to see what else friends write.

But Total Eclipse was mentioned as a 'are there more like this?' example over on kinkfinders on DW - http://kink-finders.dreamwidth.org/69303.html - and I liked the sound of the 'this' the questioner was asking for and whizzed off to read it. And I loved it. (I also loved the Sentinel stories that someone recs in that discussion.) When I saw flamingo's rec for Murder on San Carmelitas, mentioning that that had inspired Total Eclipse, I had to go and read Murder On.. immediately as well :)

I'm that glad to know you're driving the crack van in November - I'd hate to see Pros drop off the regular rotation again.

Total Eclipse is epic. I have to admit I haven't yet read Murder, although I did score a second-hand copy of the zine recently. It's on my waiting-to-be-read pile atm. I didn't know it was the inspiration for TEOTH though; I might have to move it closer to the top of the pile in that case.

Funny you should mention The Sentinel in the same sentence - I had never even seen an episode of The Sentinel when I first found the fanfic, courtesy of a S&H story that suggested Starsky was Blair's father. That got me interested in reading more about Blair and Jim. At that time it wasn't available on DVD; it was about a year later that the first season was released and I was surprised to find that the fanfic was SO much better than the episodes.

Heh. Yeah, I met The Sentinel via crossovers with Pros. I am totally with you on the question of source/fanworks there. Ouch.