All Things AO3

This week Christina schools us in all things AO3 (Archive Of Our Own). AO3 is a fan created non-profit for fanfic and anyone to put their writing out into the world. While you can find just about any topic on their site, Christina shares her favorite topics to search, teaches us uninitiated how to search, and reveals some of her favorite fanfic recs. 

Transcript

Intro and Quotes

Christina 0:03

Welcome to Romance Recs, where book besties explore the world of romance novels and encourage you to expand your TBR. Join us as we dive into the hottest releases and hidden gems of the genre. You can find us on Instagram and TikTok at Romance Recs Pod. Hi, I'm Christina, and I'm currently reading Phantasma by Kayleigh Smith!

Jordan 0:26

Ooh,

Christina 0:28

I know, exciting!

Jordan 0:30

And hello, I'm Jordan, and I am currently reading Snowed In by Nevessa Allen. And I'm also reading, yeah, I know, brr, chilly, it's getting cold in here. I am also reading Sleigh Bells and Slaughter by Alina Jacobs.

Christina 0:49

Wow!

Jordan 0:50

Yeah, I'm not lis yeah, I am not listening to anything new right now. I'm actually just re listening to Zodiac Academy the entire series. I'm on like book four, I think. Yeah, I'm on The Reckoning. Just because I've been doing house projects, and I just needed it

Christina 1:08

And right now, we need that extra love in our life.

Jordan 1:12

Yeah, we need the extra comfort. So buckle up for some bookish banter, because It's just the two of us unfortunately, we are missing our other book bestie, Dev. She's just got a lot going on in life right now, and she is

Christina 1:26

for her.

Jordan 1:28

I mean, Christina had to take a break. She had a lot of family stuff going on. Big moves. And It's Dev's turn to have a lot going on.

Christina 1:36

Life.

Jordan 1:37

It is so today after we do our quotes here in a moment, we, this is all about Christina's first love. Okay. This is all about AO3. Christina is going to lead the chat on this one. I'm here as just her spirit guide make sure we don't rant. And I will have some questions for her because I know next to nothing. I mean, I'm a very entry level AO3

Christina 2:03

We all start somewhere. I started at 14, diving deep.

Jordan 2:07

Hey, we will get there. We will get there. And I'm so excited to hear about it. Let's do our quotes before we forget, because otherwise I will, you want to start us off since this is all about you? Yeah.

Christina 2:16

Okay, so I just read this re this book recently called Quicksilver, you may have heard of it, by Callie Hart. I gave it farce. Well, I cannot talk. I gave it five stars.

Jordan 2:28

She's so excited about this book,

Christina 2:30

I really am. I like will go on a whole rave about this book. I really love this book. Anywho, this is my favorite quote of the book. Okay, next series. This is from the male character to the female main character. Nobody will ever fuck you the way I'm about to fuck you, Sarah's Fane. I'm about to introduce you to all seven gods. When you meet them, don't forget to tell them I'm the one you worship on your knees. Oooo! I know, I was like, oh, thank you.

Jordan 2:55

can't see it, but she is blushing. Miss inappropriate herself. She is the most inappropriate. She can say the nastiest things with a straight face, but that quote is making her blush. Her whole face is

Christina 3:09

know!

Jordan 3:09

red.

Christina 3:10

It's because this main fan character, he can back up what he says.

Jordan 3:15

Oh,

Christina 3:16

Oh, we love it, I know. I know. All right, Jordan, what's your yours?

Jordan 3:20

Perfect. All right, so mine is from The Kings of Kearney by Nevessa Allen. I've actually been going through Nevessa Allen's backlog ever since I read Lights Out. And I loved this one too. It's an

Christina 3:32

I've been wanting to read that one.

Jordan 3:33

It's an MC romance. It's so good. I didn't think I'd be into MC, but so here we are. You know, I'm starting to worry about where you fall on the psychopath scale. In answer, he tipped his glasses down and shot me the most deranged expression I had ever seen. Turns you on, doesn't it? Despite myself, I laughed. I was going straight to hell when I died. Because it actually did.

Christina 4:00

girl's aim.

Jordan 4:01

This man this man, I am officially in my blonde MMC era, and

Christina 4:09

oh, surprising.

Jordan 4:11

all because of this character.

Christina 4:13

Nice.

Jordan 4:15

I mean, and just can't you just picture a giant, muscly, tatted, Blonde enforcer of a motorcycle gang constantly just pull his aviators down and look at you over them, saying Oh,

Christina 4:30

Now I am imagining it.

Jordan 4:32

Oh, I know. Yeah. Alright, so we both had our own deranged, if men said it in real life, we'd both be concerned quotes, but in fiction, it's great.

Christina 4:45

Yeah, it's hot in fiction, not in real life.

Jordan 4:48

Yeah, amen. But that's what we love. So

Christina 4:52

We love men written by women.

What is AO3?

Jordan 4:54

Yes, we do. We love it. We'd love to see it. Love to hear it. But it's the task at hand, a O three Of our own.

Christina 5:02

yes, ma'am.

Jordan 5:03

Yes. Just for the uninitiated, will you just tell us what it is to start?

Christina 5:10

Sure, so it is fanfiction. So it is anything you can dream of whether it's something that's already established like your favorite Marvel character or whether it's something completely new that someone's making up their own story which like a very famous author Sarah J Maas started with her stories this. So it's just where anybody can write a story, a poem, a song, and publish it on this web page for everyone else to enjoy.

Jordan 5:40

Yeah, so just to do a little research, I did go on AO3 today and I was like, let's look at all the fandoms. Because you can search by fandom, so that was interesting. I mean, there's stuff written about video games, theater, bands,

Christina 6:01

Rollercoaster Tycoon has a few. I'm not joking. I listed some of the fandoms here. I

Jordan 6:09

Okay, yeah let's hear it yeah.

Christina 6:11

Minecraft, Venom, World War Z, Mothman the Star Wars Lego movie, the Batman Lego movie, and the Lego

Jordan 6:20

Ew.

Christina 6:21

Bridge to Terabithia.

Jordan 6:23

so these are like usually dirty, but not always. They're just like fanfic. They

Christina 6:27

could be anything, yeah.

Jordan 6:29

in my mind

Christina 6:29

British Bake Off,

Jordan 6:32

Okay, I actually would be into that. I feel like I want a dirty like what happens when the cameras go down?

Christina 6:40

exactly, when you just gotta, you know, use up some of those ingredients. Power Rangers, Strawberry Shortcake. The Backyardigans,

Jordan 6:50

No! Do you think there's Teletubbies?

Christina 6:55

probably. Ted Lasso, who I would be all over.

Jordan 6:59

Oh!

Christina 6:59

And for you, Jordan, I looked him up specifically. Plenty of Zodiac Academy fanfics. Lots.

Jordan 7:06

no!

Christina 7:07

Yes, there's something for everyone, including you. I looked him up. There's some there's Lance's POV. For some of them I was looking

Jordan 7:14

Oh, they write alternate people To be fair, I mean, at this point, Peckham and Valenti have put out so much bonus content that they've almost done every alternate POV. So I feel like it's going to be getting difficult at this point.

Christina 7:31

But there's always new stories to have fun. I don't know. There's just so much. That's what I love about Ao3. Like it doesn't matter what you're into even if it's characters that like originally weren't together and you want to experience that fun. So

Jordan 7:44

yeah. I guess, what do you look for? Like, when you're searching for a story, is it you're going for a specific fandom trope? Are you ever just, you know, Scrolling along what do you look for in a fanfic?

Christina 8:00

me personally, I love looking by like a character that I'm into or specifically the trope I really love on Ao3 that I think you cannot top like no matter what authors I've read, Omegaverse. I feel like Omegaverse has written the absolute best on AO3. I've read Omegaverse books, and they just don't come anywhere close to what you read online. But I love looking by character I love literally anything with Legolas. He was

Jordan 8:27

Yeah, give it to us. Dola. I love this. Yeah.

Christina 8:30

Will Turner from Pirates of the Caribbean.

Jordan 8:32

Oh my god, I remember that from our first episode.

Christina 8:34

Sure enough, way back when I was 14, I wrote some Will Turner fanfic. Mmm.

Jordan 8:39

You know what? I don't think that's on our Get to Know Us episode. I think that was on our episode zero that never aired.

Christina 8:45

That's a real bummer because you made me read it and then made fun of me.

Jordan 8:49

Oh my god. No, it was great. What was,

Christina 8:53

looking for it. No, don't go looking for it.

Jordan 8:56

Christina, when she

Christina 8:57

was a Pirates of the Caribbean. Yeah,

Jordan 8:59

wrote and posted, it was Harry Potter and, Pirates of the Caribbean fanfic.

Christina 9:04

Don't look that up.

Jordan 9:05

He went, yeah, Will Turner went to Hogwarts or something like that.

Christina 9:12

yeah, the whole The whole ship got sucked into a storm and then popped up in the lake at Hogwarts.

Jordan 9:17

You know, it was pretty good for looking back at your high school self. It was pretty good.

Christina 9:24

Yeah, and I also wrote a Will Turner and I can't remember the name of the song. Hold on. Mr. Brightside. Sorry, I just popped up in my head. Will Turner, Mr. Brightside story. Yeah at the end of Pirates of the Caribbean 2, I think it is, when Will Turner sees Elizabeth, kiss Jack Sparrow, it makes him commit suicide.

Jordan 9:44

Oh my God, that's right. You did tell us about that. Oh my God. Oh my God.

Christina 9:50

The ramblings of a 14 year old. Anywho, AO3 is sometimes written by 14 year olds, often

Jordan 9:56

Have you written since high school and

Christina 9:59

No, I have not been brave enough.

Jordan 10:02

Will you? You don't have to is that something you'd be interested in? I need this in my life. I need to, or maybe I don't need to see the inner workings of your brain. I don't know, but I think it'd be great. Okay.

Christina 10:15

yeah.

Christina's Recs

Jordan 10:16

Okay. Why don't you give us, can we get your recs? Some of your favorites? Let's get into some of your favorites before we get too nitty gritty on the

Christina 10:25

As I've told you guys before, and I think I've said 9 out of 10 of my, every of my favorites are Ralo, because I'm a huge Star Wars fan. So my first one is a Ralo story, but it's actually really fun. funny. It's called Age of Kings by Disoriented Scribbler. It's a time traveling retelling of Star Wars with Rey and Kylo. They get sent back in time to the prequels. it's Ray's being trained by Obi Wan, and Kylo's meeting his grandma and grandpa, Anakin and Padme. It's so funny hilarity ensues. It's 34 chapters, but it's I literally went on this long rant once on three years ago when I first read this to my husband on our anniversary. For the full anniversary, that's all I was like, no, Russ, you gotta hear it, not like reading in verbatim these chapters.

Jordan 11:14

It's listen, we've been married like 12 years It's time to really test you and see how much you really love me. Stop and listen to me for the next two hours

Christina 11:24

exactly, that's what it was, and it was perfect. I love this story. It gives us a happily ever after, so it's great. You know, it just, it gives us a happily ever after, not only for Rey and Kylo, but like you go back in time and you fix the problems of the Jedi, you go back and fix the problems that Anakin and Padme had,

Jordan 11:41

So it makes everything else irrelevant

Christina 11:44

yes, but it's, I don't know, it's

Jordan 11:47

So then are they born? Like how does that work? Time travel is so weird

Christina 11:53

yeah, I know, but Padme was already pregnant with the twins at the time, so she was already pregnant with Leia, but Leia still met Han somehow. I don't know, don't ask me!

Jordan 12:02

I just have so many follow ups.

Christina 12:06

I just read the stories, okay? I don't think too much into it. Oh,

Jordan 12:15

No, I'm not really. I don't really want to ruin them.

Christina 12:18

Okay, so there's that one. Here's another one. It's called Frozen Eclipse by SithElle. This one is a Darkling and Alina story from Shadow and Bone. If you thought that Darkwing and Alina should have ended up together like I always did.

Jordan 12:32

never read Shadow and Bone, so I don't know these characters and I have no opinion.

Christina 12:37

well, bummer. Well, the Darkwing is the bad guy, and Alina is this girl who gets sun powers, and he has dark powers, and I mean, come

Jordan 12:43

Oh, yeah. Naturally.

Christina 12:44

ends up with her childhood best friend.

Jordan 12:46

Boring.

Christina 12:47

I know. Ugh. He's got this tragic backstory, and he's evil, and she tries to turn him, and whatever. Not a point. But anywho, so this is if she they were able to get together, and this is her first ever sex, and it's with him, and

Jordan 13:01

The first ever set of I can't even

Christina 13:09

wow, Jordan, I sweet.

Jordan 13:13

This is her first ever sex.

Christina 13:16

Should've said it separately. Well,

Jordan 13:21

Okay.

Christina 13:22

sexual experience. How about that?

Jordan 13:24

No, it's her first sex.

Christina 13:26

It's her first sex. Yes. And it's with a shadow wielder. And it's just great. But it's like actually a sweet little, like she's timid and young, and you know, he's 200 years old, and I don't know, it's sweet. I

Jordan 13:37

sounds creepy. You lost me.

Christina 13:42

Okay, if you don't read a face story of an 18 year old girl and a 500 year old guy, what are you doing?

Jordan 13:46

I was just thinking that.

Christina 13:51

Jordan, I give up on you.

Jordan 13:54

I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

Christina 13:56

Okay.

Jordan 13:57

tell me about how sweet this is. I

Christina 14:00

It is sweet. You know, they're together, and they're in she's going to get, well, you don't understand, but she's going to get her collar put on. Not the way you're thinking, Jordan!

Jordan 14:09

didn't say anything this time.

Christina 14:11

Okay. Anywho,

Jordan 14:12

thinking it, I did not.

Christina 14:14

she gets this power collar, so he's going with her to get the power collar, and she's really timid, and they're in the carriage, and he gives her first orgasm, and then later on after, Yeah, well, have you ever read, freaking, Bridgerton? Yeah,

Jordan 14:29

the finger banging.

Christina 14:31

Jordan! Okay, and then later that night they have sex. Okay, that's it. End of story. This next one will intrigue you at least, okay?

Jordan 14:40

No, I'm intrigued. I'm sure it's wonderful. Wait, how long is that one?

Christina 14:43

That one's short, it's only two chapters. That one's a short little quick one,

Jordan 14:47

okay, it's a

Christina 14:48

This one is six chapters, but it's alternating POVs from three people. It's for the ACOTAR girlies. It's the deleted chapter, thank you, that Sarah's publisher made her take out.

Jordan 15:02

Is did she have it written?

Christina 15:04

I don't know, I was told the publisher made it, I don't know. Well, either way, it's the not written chapter, unfortunately, but here it is written. It's called The Song of Sands by Chaotic Wallflower.

Jordan 15:15

Is it well written?

Christina 15:17

Yes, it is so good.

Jordan 15:20

Okay, wait, say it again. I'm sorry.

Christina 15:21

The Song of the Sands by the Chaotic Wallflowers. So it takes place in the Summer Court. They're going there for Summer Solstice for a visit. And that's why it's called The Song of the Sands. But, yes, so Nest is in her room with Cassian. And then,

Jordan 15:36

to Run? I'm thinking too much about it.

Christina 15:38

hopefully there's no more blood rubies. I don't know. Anywho, they're there. And Azrael comes in to just give a debrief of what's going on in the day, you know? He's doing his little shadow singer stuff. And he, and then Nest is making eyes at him. That's how it starts. Oh my god. I don't want to give too much away. You can already imagine it, but we're talking wing play. And we're talking Azrael's torturing. I mean, yes, I know.

Jordan 16:06

You know, I think I would actually read this. Just I would be curious. I think the fact that Sarah Janet Mass It's said that this was going to be a thing or at least she considered it at the very least she was considering it and planning it at one point to make this threesome happen. I think that right there is all the proof you need that Az is not going to end up with Elaine Don't see her. Having one of them have sex with two sisters.

Christina 16:36

Yeah,

Jordan 16:37

that does not feel like her style. Does it happen in other series? Yeah, and it's not a big deal. Would I see her ever, this author specifically doing that?

Christina 16:48

and Azriel doing that. Yeah, because it's like out of his character. He's

Jordan 16:52

Well, as is a freak. She said, as is the freakiest. She has said that. It's on record. He is the nastiest and I'm so excited.

Christina 17:02

see that. Jordan's let me see the freak. I love it because it's three POVs. So you get Nesta's POV, you get Cassian's POV of how he's experiencing this, and then you get Azriel's POV. I mean, it's I know, I love it. It's only six chapters. So it goes through each of their POVs twice. And then it ends there. So it's like a short kind of fluffy story. They're not very long, but they're really well written. I really liked this one. And it kind of puts a nod into Sarah's books, too, because you even have Azriel saying Is this what you were imagining when you were watching us train? Because that is what she was imagining! The nod is there. I just love it, and it's really well written, and I feel like the details are really good. You know, it's not Some ridiculous smut scene. It actually seems like super realistic of not that I know, but what two guys would be doing here at the one time.

Jordan 17:46

That was one of the questions I was going to ask is. I feel like if I were reading a fanfic about books already written, books specifically for me, it takes me out if the style is different. If I can definitely tell that even if it's well written, if it's a totally different feeling, I feel like that would take me out. Do you ever experience that when you start reading? You're like, oh, this just doesn't feel like it fits. Just focused on just extra content that you don't even it doesn't cross your

Christina 18:14

I think it could be both ways. I really like to focus on the character. So if it's something super out of character that might make me pause when I'm like, but a lot of times it's like retellings or it'll be like an AU, which means alternate universe. So it could be Make sense with that character in that universe, in that place kind of thing. But I feel like this one really was well written. It's not exactly Sarah's style. I mean, Sarah's got a unique kind of way of writing. But it's super well written and it does feel like it flowed really well. I really liked it. I was like kicking my little feet reading it. I'm like,

Jordan 18:44

oh, good. Okay. I'm excited to check it out. Because today I did try to find one to read just to kind of get in the groove. And it was a From Blood and Ash one.

Christina 18:54

Oh, okay.

Jordan 18:55

And I just couldn't fully commit to it, and I think maybe it's because It's such a distinct story that I like read. I mean, is it the greatest work of literature ever? No, but it's, I don't know. It's enjoyable to me. I know it's a love or hate series. It was like a threesome. But to me, it was just like too, it just didn't seem true enough to the characters. Maybe that's what it was. And the way they talked felt different. But need to give try other ones, I think. Or maybe say Look for ones that you you're talking about, where it's kind of like an alternate universe type thing.

Christina 19:33

I know it is hard, especially like I suggested to you, you know, Zodiac Academy, but you love Zodiac Academy. So I think if you read something that you didn't like, you would absolutely despise it and hate it.

Jordan 19:43

I, you know. Because I've read so much of that author's work, too, that anything in another voice almost

Christina 19:50

And I can understand that's, I get it. I just love certain characters reading other things about them, it's so fun. I love Legolas, and I love imagining Legolas with another elf, or another character we know. But there's this short story I read, and it's Legolas and Gimli falling in love. And I'm like, aww, right? And that was different, but I loved it

Jordan 20:09

love that.

Christina 20:11

Cause they were like the ultimate enemies to lovers.

Jordan 20:14

Yes! No, I love it!

Christina 20:16

I know. So that's fun too completely random things like you wouldn't expect. Like I said, I love a good Will Turner story, but then I read like a Captain Jack Sparrow and Will Turner, thought I wouldn't love it, but loved it. Really loved it. So I think there's ones like that too, where you're just like, it's not something in the story and it was never ever even hinted at in the story. But if you want to imagine things your own way, because sometimes a lot of older books, like 80s, 90s and movies and stuff, weren't really diverse. And this is a way to bring diversity in. So I love that.

Jordan 20:48

okay. Yeah. I love it too. That's a great way to look at it. I like it. And I think it's just also, something with that big of a catalog, I feel like you're gonna have to wade through stuff before you kind of find really what you enjoy.

Christina 21:02

Yeah, definitely.

Jordan 21:04

Then you've had almost 20 years of going through so I was just on the site and it said it's been up for 15 years.

Christina 21:12

So I read fanfic. net first, which was the first page. Yeah, fanfic.

Jordan 21:18

OG bitch, okay.

Christina 21:20

Yes, so I was fanfic. net and then switched to AO3. So fanfic. net is yeah, it's kind of like MySpace, you know, nowadays. It's it's a bit old.

Jordan 21:28

Hey, I was on Zanga even before Myspace. I was

Christina 21:32

Yeah, I was World of Warcraft, you know, way back then. The olden

Jordan 21:36

it was the wild west back then on social media. Let me tell you, let me tell you,

Christina 21:40

The

Jordan 21:40

Zanga was like the original memes, but they called it, we call them stickers and they were just like said sassy things. And you could post, it was basically like a fancy blog post that everyone had and you could friend blogs and follow them. But cyber bullying wasn't considered a thing back then. It was, looking back, absolutely horrible. It was just a different world.

Christina 22:02

Yeah. I had Beebo, I don't know if you remember Beebo. I had Beebo, which was like that too. Was before MySpace. Yeah.

Jordan 22:08

I don't remember

Christina 22:09

Do you remember like html, HTML

Jordan 22:12

Oh yeah I could code the shit out of all of those. Yeah. Yeah. Or the chain, follow

Christina 22:18

were dripping on our pages.

Jordan 22:19

Yeah, oh man, mine was so cool. And the pictures, you know how many pictures I would take? Duck face, and Way different stuff. My digital camera. Oh, so good. I think the last one I had, I remember distinctly it's my share was short and it was so cute. And I was like blowing a bubble like a really big pink

Christina 22:38

Was your quote blow me?

Jordan 22:41

It should have been but it was so big it covered the bottom half of my face and I have really big eyes It's like my big eyes like looking out on top of the public

Christina 22:51

So those day and age that's when I wrote fanfiction It's that brain.

Jordan 22:55

a bitch online and you were now if I saw anyone acting like my middle school self I would be appalled and I would call them out. You know people grow people

Christina 23:04

middle school

Jordan 23:07

It's rough out

Christina 23:08

The trends change the kids do not

Jordan 23:11

Yeah, that's it. That's the content you signed up for today.

Christina 23:17

Welcome to Teacher Talk.

Jordan 23:18

Oh my god, wWE Smackdown. Elementary school style.

Christina 23:25

Anywho here we go. I'm going to list some of my honorable mentions, kay?

Jordan 23:29

Okay, honorable mentions. Okay,

Christina 23:33

Jack and Will Turner. It's called, here's the title, Captain Jack Sparrow's List of Reasons Why One Will Turner Should Not Leave a Perfectly Decent Life Behind and Turn Pirate, by, I want to say this right, Dangling Dingle. So that's a male retelling. Sorry, that was just the title cracked me out. I know, but I loved it. Anything, if you watch Umbrella Academy, anything with Ben Hargreaves, if you know, you know, he has the tentacle powers. Anything with Legolas, anything with Raylo, especially Omega Verse, anything with Geralt of Rivia, and Rowan Whitethorne. And Aelin happily ever after stories. I love those. You're like, this is opening

Jordan 24:08

even think about that.

Christina 24:10

Oh, yeah Especially when you're imagining Geralt and not the new Geralt, you know

Jordan 24:15

Ugh. God, no one's imagining that.

Christina 24:17

we're imagining the Geralt and we're like He's like mine And we're like, yes

Jordan 24:24

I would even, I imagine the video game Geralt before I imagine the new live action. And

Searches

Christina 24:32

Yeah. But yes, those are some of my favorites. I'll read other things too, but like I said, if I want a good Omegaverse, I am going on to AO3, and you are going to find the dirtiest, Sexiest, best, ever omega you're gonna find is on AO3.

Jordan 24:49

I assume that if you have an odd kink or preference, you can find it there. I assume that you will be able to find it.

Christina 25:02

you can do a search. Here are some of my favorite hashtags you can search by. These are my personal favorites. I went through my list and saw the ones I had the most of, okay? Daddy kink, Orgasm denial,

Jordan 25:17

we're

Christina 25:17

porn without plot, knotting, breeding kink, bratty sub, food is a love language, dead dove do not eat, and plot, what plot?

Jordan 25:28

Dead Dove Do Not Eat?

Christina 25:32

If you see that, that hashtag, what that means is some bad shit's gonna be happening in that story. It's like the dark trope and it means ex, yes,

Jordan 25:45

I know, it sounds so familiar.

Christina 25:46

because it's from the like thing where if you open up the bridge and you see it says dead dove inside do not eat and you look inside and it's actually a dead dove so like you should have

Jordan 25:53

Oh! It was on Sunny, it's always, not, it's always Sunny not Modern Family. Arrested Development. It was on Arrested Development. There was a whole scene with, okay, there was an actual dead dove, okay. Yep, that's where I

Christina 26:05

So that's where that phone comes from. So it's don't open this expecting something it's not. We're telling you specifically this is what it is. This is not good. Read the quotes. Read the little warnings you're in for in that story. So those are some of my favorites. But porn without a plot, or when they say plot, what plot, that just means it's just smut. It's just porn. I love those ones. So those are some of my favorites. You can search by those. What I love about AO3 is you can search by so many things. So you can just like type in Harry Potter, right? Or if, Draco Malfoy, right? And then you pull down, Yes, and then it gives you 11, 000, right? You don't want to look through 11, 000 works. So you can click down.

Jordan 26:42

Yes, that would be great for people who want more Harry Potter, but don't want to support Harry

Christina 26:47

certain authors Yes, so you could click like Draco Malfoy Then you could click down and you could click like only completed works if you don't want to wait around for authors to finish or maybe they never will because sometimes you find one that was started in 2021 and they haven't updated since 2022 and they probably aren't going to. We don't know what happened to them or if they got kicked out of their account or if they're no longer with us or no longer writing. We don't know. You can click completed works only. You can click by popularity. You could sort by kudos, which is like someone gives a kudo, which is like a, yay, you did it. You've written, this is a really good book or by comments. So you can sort by all sorts of different things and then you can sort by language. So it's super great if you're learning another language and you want to be reading a story in another language to challenge you. Or if you only want to read in English, cause sometimes I'll be like, Ooh, this looks exciting, but it's not in English and I can't understand it. So I always forget to exclude. Yeah, so I love doing that and you can search by so many different things and then if you type in Draco Malfoy and then it'll pop up all these things and you could do click the Hermione if you only want to see those stories or like whatever. Draco and you because sometimes people put an and you so it's like you the reader are imagining you're in that story. That's what the and you is. Those are great ones too. But you can click by couple, you can click by characters included, characters excluded. So if you definitely don't want Voldemort in a story, you wouldn't check his box, you know. So there's so many different ways to search. And that's just great because, yeah, if you just know what you want to read. Or if you don't know, then you can just go through 11, 000.

Jordan 28:12

I mean, it's more comprehensive than Goodreads when you're trying to find a book.

Christina 28:18

it's true. There's so many ways. It's really cool.

Jordan 28:21

Wow. Do you have any are there any authors on there that you recognize? Are you like, know you like, you've read multiple works by them? Or is

Christina 28:32

I'd have to go back and re look. Yeah, I just kind of go by title or by character. But there's, a lot of times what I really love about the authors though is so many of them are like, they're just like you and me. So they live for the validation like we all do. Unlike, you can really love Sarah J. Maas work and you can write her a letter and you're probably never gonna get a response. But these ones, you comment and they always comment back. They're so sweet and they're so great and they just love, you know, how much validation we give them. I mean, they don't comment on the trolls, but they'll comment on any of us and I'll get messages in my inbox thank you for liking my work, you know, and I'm like, oh, thank you for writing it. I love that. It's so great that we have this network of authors and they don't have to be published authors to be great authors and to have their work celebrated and I love that. And there's so much diversity and you hardly ever see like trolls and negative comments like you do on a lot of BookTalk or Bookstagram. You see a lot of people that are negative all the time and I don't see that very often at all. on AO3. It's just a positive place to read and no one's gonna kink shame you. No one's here to call you out. They know the things you like because they like them too. And we're all here for it. Mmhmm. Mmhmm. Mmhmm.

Jordan 29:42

so much. And I, This is the positivity of it. And I feel like there's so many authors now that we've heard got their start just posting their stuff. It's something that they enjoyed and they did it in their spare time and just threw it out there for fun. And they got so much positive feedback that it then became something that they worked towards. And now they're attempting to make a living out of it. And so I love that you mentioned. That because you can really validate someone's Dream or just make their day and after they made yours It's so it's not like you're doing this out of the kindness of your heart. You're getting something out of it. They put time and effort into this too and it's so great and because this book community has gotten so big overall it's such a positive and amazing place and full of great people like the trolls are crazy right now i don't know if you're following any you follow anything on threads but i've been really big on threads lately and following everything but people are going direct to authors Pages in their comment section and telling them what they hated about their book

Christina 30:50

Ooh.

Jordan 30:51

them out and saying all this stuff And

Christina 30:54

it's not something

Jordan 30:54

not

Christina 30:55

say to someone's

Jordan 30:55

do that. That's not the place to do that. And why is that necessary? Why that's why I love our podcast because there's three of us all have different opinions about the same book, or we all have different preferences. And we all respect that even if I don't like it, someone else is going to enjoy it. And we're not here to talk shit because that's not what this community is about. And it's just about enjoying the things that you enjoy. And so I do love that about AO3. And I feel like you can just find something to get behind.

Christina 31:33

Yeah, definitely. I love that too. If, and if something, like you said, you start reading it and you're like this isn't for me, press backspace, go back a page and look through the next one. Like you can always find something different and you don't have to, you know, leave a comment like, I hate your story

Jordan 31:46

Yeah, why? That's not necessary. Just move on.

Christina 31:49

I know. But I also love because there's little like author notes often at the end of chapters. It's crazy because the person's sorry, I haven't updated in a while. You know, like I was called in for surgery and you're like, this person is a surgeon or something crazy insane. Or they would like, sorry, you know, like my mom passed away. I haven't been able to update. And you're like, Oh my gosh, these people are just living normal lives. And you're just like, Oh my gosh thank you for even coming on here and sharing with the world. You're your amazing stories I just love it. I just love the comments, reading through people's comments. I love reading, the author notes. I love reading, like I said, the the little tags. They they crack me up a lot of times. People will write the craziest, most unhinged tags, and they make me giggle, and it's that's why I'll read their story, because they're so unique. I just love the unique premises, new worlds you can visit, new ideas. It's my favorite.

Jordan 32:40

So fun. If you are a listener and you post on AO3, I want you to slide into our DMs, and I want you to tell us how to find it. Because we want to read it. I mean, maybe we don't, but we want to read it! We would never tell you, we don't give negative reviews, we don't say anything negative, but we will read it. We don't promote anything that we ourselves do. I want to read it. If you are a listener and you post on there, give it

Christina 33:07

Or if you posted when you were 14 and want us to read it someone.

Jordan 33:11

For, just for giggles, please.

Christina 33:13

Share it with the world. We were all 14 months.

Jordan 33:16

All right. Thank you so much for listening to us ramble about AO3 and Christina's favorite stories. If you're looking for more Romance Recs. Please be sure to follow us on Instagram and TikTok at romancerecspod. You can find our favorite book racks from our favorite episodes as well as behind the scenes content. Another way to support us is please make sure that you are subscribed wherever you get your podcast. Again, that's at romancerecspod. So make sure to give us a follow and we'll be back with another episode.

Christina 33:53

Bye!

Jordan 33:54

Bye.