Listen up!

[oselle]

baylorsr has just posted an awesome podfic of my Dean/Castiel story, "Feast of All Saints."

Podfic: Feast of All Saints

At the link, you'll also find links to her podfics of the two other stories in All Saints Endverse Trilogy, "Once" and "The Shame of It All" and also "Jonah of Dalhart," an earlier, non-Endverse story that plays a small part in "Feast," but "Feast of All Saints" can also stand on its own.

Enjoy!!

Comments

[nwhepcat.livejournal.com]

\o/

I'm looking forward to listening to the whole shebang. Loved "Lazarus" so very much.

[oselle.livejournal.com]

baylorsr's an excellent podficcer, especially in her choices of music. Have fun!

[catsbycat.livejournal.com]

Ooh! Wonderful! I am off immediately to do some serious downloading. More glorious fic to add to my ipod.

Thanks to you and baylorsr!

[laurie-ky.livejournal.com]

I'm addressing this comment to Baylor and you, and I'll copy it to her journal.

The reason I'm doing this is because I find it difficult to separate out the different contributions you both have made to the podfic version of Keep Me in all Thy Ways and The Feast of all Saints, which I've just listened to again today. Partly I did chores while listening but for the last part of Saints, I walked several miles, in the dark in my holler, swept away by Oselle's vivid words and Baylor's interpretation of them. I was especially moved by Cas and Anna's talk in the church, so much that I found myself crying as Cas chose once again to forsake his grace and heaven to love Dean. Balylor's music choices and special effects added that additional touch of emotion or excitement that enthralled me so much that I hardly even noticed that I was walking.

And I loved the quiet way Dean and Cas made love, and it was a long time coming. And Cas, waiting in the hallway, expecting that as always Dean will chose to have meaningless sex with someone he probably won't see again was such understated angst. And now Dean has realized that Cas is not going to leave him, and he suspects that he gave up heaven for him, and that Anna did offer to take him back to the angels, but he stayed, he stayed and he is safe to love.

I hope there will be more to the story, because I want to know what happens in Detroit. Will there be a third miracle, or will their story end in death.

Oselle is a writer who's not afraid to write an ending that might not end up with rainbows, but is true to the story and characters (yes, I read Avalanche this week, and wow.) So, I don't know what will happen. I can only cling to Castiel's words, "God doesn't make mistakes."

Laurie

[oselle.livejournal.com]

Thank you for your lovely feedback, and thank you also for being thoughtful enough to comment to Baylor as well. She's an excellent podficcer and I agree with you that her choices of music and sound effects are spot-on and always add a great deal to the story. Her podfic of my "Lazarus Came Forth" was the first podfic I ever listened to, and up until I heard it I had never understood the power of the recorded medium and how it can enhance the written word.

he stayed, he stayed and he is safe to love.

I love it when readers glean things from the story that I hadn't consciously thought of myself. Considering how much we know about Dean's fears of abandonment, it makes a lot of sense that Dean could not feel safe in loving Castiel until he knew that Castiel was not going to leave him too.

I don't see myself writing about Detroit because I think that would be more of an action-oriented story and I'm not really interested in writing that sort of thing right now. I'm just happy that they've come together and can have a little happiness for a little while before they have to face the inevitable trials to come.

And thank you for reading "Avalanche" too. I think that one was a real tough sell.

[laurie-ky.livejournal.com]

I hope someday that the time will be right to continue the story, but if not, well, we'll always have Knoxville and the back end of nowhere in Kentucky. I actually live in the back end of nowhere in Kentucky, so it was kind of sweet to read the story taking place partly there.

I had meant to make the comment about Avalanche on that post, but re-read the ending again and got too choked up yesterday. So I'm doing it here.

First off, I very much appreciate that you took the hard road and wrote the story the way that seemed right and inevitable to you, and didn't just tailor it to appeal to the fans as a happily ever after, just the two of them story.

That honesty, that looking hard at their lives and goals shines through and makes this not a fun story, although there are certainly amusing parts to it, but a great story, with love, and decisions, and poignancy and hurt and feelings of betrayal and forgiveness.

It was heartbreaking as they spiraled away from each other, but especially for Jared, wasn't the kind of thing that he really had perspective on at the time. He got in over his head and as your title implies, went into survival mode.

And life is like that, choices not taken, relationships not developing that might have been great, but building other ones instead.

I think at the end Jenson's main emotion was a bittersweet feeling -- he'd lost Jared but he did gain love with Daneel and his children, and he built a good life .

Jared -- regret. And maybe it was the better decision given what their goals in life were, but how does one weigh happiness and satisfaction in one area versus another? So, maybe his career would have suffered. You don't cuddle up with your career at night. But then again, if he and Jenson had gone public and really become a couple, maybe losing the opportunites for their careers would have eaten away at that happiness and they'd have tanked their relationship anyway.

Who knows?

But you wrote an excellent story, one that I'll remember and think about.

Laurie

[oselle.livejournal.com]

if he and Jenson had gone public and really become a couple, maybe losing the opportunites for their careers would have eaten away at that happiness and they'd have tanked their relationship anyway.

Yes, I think this is what would have happened. The negative impact on their careers and the public humiliation would have driven them apart. I don't believe that "love conquers all." If they weren't in the public eye they probably could have stayed together (which is why I think that AU J2 fics are so popular -- you don't have that sticky celebrity business to deal with). As it is, since this wasn't an AU, there's just no way in hell they could have stayed together without the risk of it going public. In real life, you've already got gossip-mongers like Ted Casablanca implying that they're sleeping together -- imagine if it came out that they really were? That would ruin their careers, period. It's one thing for someone like Ricky Martin or Neil Patrick Harris to come out. It's a whole different ballgame for two young actors who have more or less built their careers on being tough guys and who have the chance to be leading men in their own rights someday. And I've always been a big fan of the "they're only gay for each other" genre, because it has that star-crossed poignancy to it. This isn't a story about Jensen and Jared being gay. It's a story about them unexpectedly and almost unwillingly falling in love with each other. And to me, that's the whole appeal of J2.

Thank you so much for reading and for your great comments.