Tech rec: WikidPad - free wiki software

Someone on the Nanowrimo forums mentioned WikidPad a few months back and I have now tried it out and decided it's awesome.  WikiPad is a program for taking notes, organizing and cross-linking between them in a file tree format.  It saves all your information on a single database file on your harddrive.  Unlike a lot of other free wiki software, WikidPad stays on your computer and doesn't connect to the internet at all.  This lets you keep control over your data and allows you to work on it anywhere, regardless of connectivity - that's a big plus from my point of view.  It is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux, is 100% free and its open source!  WikidPad is great for writers who do a lot of world-building but it would also be great for students taking notes, genealogists organizing their research, and all sorts of other applications.  Another Pro- it autosaves frequently.  1 important con - 1 file means it only takes one bad error to destroy the whole file tree so be sure to manually back up your file periodically.

A Piece of History / by sixthlight (G)

Title: A Piece of History
Author: sixthlight aka sixthlight
Fandom: Rivers of London
Genre: Character piece
Pairing: Nightingale/Mellenby
Length: Short (2,613 words)

Author's Summary:
“But why were you looking at a display on London’s gay scene in the 1920s?” Lesley demanded as we walked up the library steps.

Written for an anon prompt on Tumblr (thanks, anon, whoever you are):
"re: nightingale/the roaring twenties, imagine peter for, whatever reason, coming across vintage photos of london’s pre-war queer scene and noticing this one sharp-dressed young man who looks suspiciously familiar and trying to come up with a way to inconspicuously ask nightingale about it"

Review:
Lovely little one-shot about Nightingale before Ettersberg and about LGBT history. Excellent characterizations. Set pre-Broken Homes (no spoilers for BH or FS).


A Piece of History (on AO3), (on tumblr)

Aliens and Army Doctors / Anonymous (PG)

Title: Aliens and Army Doctors
Author: Anonymous
Fandom: Sherlock BBC
Genre: SciFi, AU
Pairing: John/Sherlock
Length: Very Long

Author's Summary:
John/alien!Sherlock: The Holmeses are a part of a visiting or conquering alien race. Mycroft, as their leader or a high-ranking official, comes to ground first to investigate the planet and speak with its people. He brings Sherlock, who manages to wander away from him and bumps right into John Watson — or breaks into his flat.

Review:
I saw it rec'd on tvtropes and thought that alien!Sherlock was something I had to see (and kind of expecting a train wreck (or a vaguely Whovian AU) tbh). I was totally reeled in, amazed at how good this fic is. On the down side: The characterizations are a bit different - Sherlock and Mycroft are more approachable in emotional terms which is non-canon but nice while John develops a weird codependence that I didn't really like but could deal with in service of drawing Mycroft further into the story. Also a con: the LJ thread formating - yuck. On the other hand, the good parts are amazingly good: Mycroft's part in the backstory is really cool and his role in the John&Sherlock relationship is interesting. The worldbuilding for the alien biology and culture is great too.

Aliens and Army Doctors (on LJ)

There's a new short story in Rivers of London canon!

Thanks to London Reads doing the first book in the series, there's been an explosion of interest in and publicity for the Rivers of London series.  One of the events that's part of that was a performance in the Mail Rail tunnels under London.  Doc Brown (a pro-artist who's own fanwork has already been rec'd here) read a short story by the author of Rivers, Ben Aaronovitch.  It's called "King of the Rats".  The video of the performance is on Youtube here.  I had a really hard time following the recording and hard to give up (combination of not-great audio quality and my hearing problem) but luckily, fans maple-clef and stardust-rain transcribed it here.  Knowledge of the RoL universe is required but just the first two books will do you.

Tik Tok / by binz & shiplizard (PG-13)

Title: Tik Tok
Author: binz and shiplizard
Fandom: Rivers of London, Forever
Genre: Crossover, Friendship, Time Travel
Length: Medium (9,519 words)
rec'd on fancake

Author's Summary:
Well, tonight he either saved Henry from being spied on by UNIT or he got a British visitor drunk and gave him a really fun club crawl to cheer him up. Either way, victory. Good job, team.

Review:
Excellent crossover, great geeky Peter&Lucas friendship fic, touching Henry&Lucas character fic --- all around a really good fic. This brings together two tiny fandoms - you only need to know one or the other to love this fic... knowing both makes it twice as good.

Tik Tok (on AO3)

Untitled / by singlecrow (PG-13)

Title: Unititled
Author: singlecrow
Fandom: Rivers of London
Genre: Female Friendship, post-canon (Broken Homes)
Length: Very Short

Author's Summary:
prompt: how about something with Beverley and Lesley interacting? Either before or after Broken Homes

Review:
Fantastic coda for Broken Homes - brings just a bit of release (not a resolution, though, but that is what makes it work) for Lesley following the ending of Broken Homes. It's also a great window on a relationship we're informed exists but really don't get to see in canon.

(on tumblr)