How ’bout them Volturi?!

Posted by Susan in Fic Recs | 7 comments

by SusanAshlea
The word of Twilight fan fic is vast, huge, and daunting to the new partaker.  When I discovered fan fic, there was something like 30,000 members on Twilighted.net.  That was a little over a year ago.  Right now, there are over 100k members.  Even MVF has managed to garner almost 800 members in the 3 months since the Dungeon has launched.  It’s nowhere near the huge member base of Twilighted, but considering how many fan fic archives are available online, I’m very pleased with that number.  So, with this huge fan fiction community, it’s easy to find a niche and stay there.

I’m Team Volturi.  I’m new to this club, and it seems to be a very very small club.  At least in my part of the fan fiction world it is.  I’m always whining about not being able to find quality Volturi stories, and wondering why people won’t give Finding Forever a chance.  I know, I know, I should probably quit whining.  I post my Felix fix on three sites: MVF, Twilighted, and ff.net.  I have some amazing readers at each site and I write for them.  Well, I write for me too, of course, but they are what keep me going.  I know I have readers who don’t review, and I am grateful to them too for simply clicking on the story and giving it a chance.  As of right now, I get approximately 15 reviews on each chapter, which is absolutely nothing to complain about.  But I compare it to my other fic, Supernova, which has almost 1000 reviews on Twilighted, and is the same length Finding Forever will be when it’s finished, and I wonder, “why?”

I like to go back over my reviews and read them occasionally.  It’s a good way to restore motivation for writing when it wanes or RL gets in the way.  After reading some of the reviews from the beginning chapters, I learned why: because it’s not about the Cullens.  I had several reviews in which the reader said they don’t normally read non Edward/Bella stories and just as many reviews asked where the Cullens were at.  I will give all of those readers their due and thank them for continuing to read the story even though it was outside of their comfort zone.  Almost all of them read and review each chapter, which is gratifying to say the least.

I’ll say that when I first started writing Finding Forever, I was firmly entrenched in Team Edward/Bella.  I read every Cullen-centric fic I could get my hands on.  I also loved Jacob/Renesmee stories and dallied in some Jasper/Bella stories.  Jasper was my favorite Cullen, and AH owned me.  Then somewhere along the way, I lost my heart to Felix and The Volturi and the rest is history.  Now, I wonder why more readers don’t give it a shot?  And I’m not talking about just reading mystory, though I certainly wouldn’t complain if I got some new readers and reviewers.  I mean on the writing end of things as well.  Finding a good Volturi fic is like finding a decent man in Southern Illinois; sure, they are out there, but extremely difficult to find.  And they are seriously outnumbered.  Granted, the Twilight Saga has only been complete for 18 months, so it is naturally going to take time for the ideas to trickle around to the writers.  I’ve been working on Finding Forever for 8 months though, 8 months!, and I am just now starting to see some more Volturi-centric canon(ish) fics.

Altered Lions & Sacrificial Lambs, one of MVF’s affiliates, is currently hosting Volturi month during February, and for that, I am truly grateful.  They issued a fan fiction challenge called “I Get Off in Volterra” and let me tell you how much I enjoyed reading those entries!  They also have a nifty list of featured Volturi fics that I am dying to make my way through.  For those of you who just can’t get into the Volturi, they also have nifty lists of featured fics for almost every character and character group.  But in the few stories I can find that feature the Volturi, the writers do a wonderful job of developing the characters and making them likeable…or at least interesting enough for a great read.  In any case, I urge you to give Team Volturi a try.  After all, there is always something sexy about the bad boys.

If anyone reads a blog that has featured Volturi fics, please let me know in the comments because I want to check them out.  Likewise if you read or write a particular Volturi-centric fic, tell me tell me tell me!  And just in case there are some of you who are like me and can’t get enough of the red-eyed-rulers, I have some stories you might enjoy reading.  Of course, it goes without saying that I want you all to read Finding Forever, but aside from that one, here are some Volturi recommendations.  I’m going to turn this fandom Team Volturi if it’s the last thing I do! Mwahahaha!!

The Hunt & The Seduction, by KariAnn – this is pure guilty pleasure pr0n. No plot, just some screwin’, but man oh man is it good.  I love the way Kari writes Felix, and he is featured heavily in her Jacob/Nessie story, In Pursuit of Normalcy.  If you like unashamed man-whore Felix…yeah, you’ll like her stuff.  And her Jacob is pretty great too.

Tre, by Megsly– This was actually a Christmas present to me.  I introduced Megsly to Muse and she offered to write me a o/s in return – anything I wanted.  So, I told her I wanted to be the creamy filling in a Demetri & Felix vampire sandwich, and boy did she deliver.  It’s also her first lemon.  After you read it, you’ll wonder why she doesn’t write them more often.

Wild Flower, by SuperDani152003 – Rosalie has always been known for her beauty on the outside, but her older sister, Lily, is known for her beauty on the inside.  This is her story, and she ends up with an unlikely relationship with Jane while Felix falls madly in love with her.

Apples & Cinnamon, by evieeden– This was one of my favorite of the IGO in Volterra challenge entries.  It’s a Demetri/Heidi pairing, which I find so appropriate, despite my own ideals of Demetri.  It’s a very sweet lemon and I enjoyed every minute of it.

His Angel, byEllaB– The winner of ALASL’s IGO in Volterra Challenge. It’s a Demetri/OC pairing and it’s equal parts sexy, dangerous, heartbreaking, sweet, and tender.  It’s hard to believe it only has 18 reviews.  We need to fix that.

Didyme’s Ashes, by Shahzadi– This is a WOW “missing moment” from the Volturi’s history.  We all know that Aro killed his own sister so Marcus would remain with the Volturi, but we never knew how…until now.  Dark, sad, and very well written; I can’t get over the fact that this is the author’s first TwiFic. Let’s encourage her to write more (and more Volturi goodness)!

This is only a small part of the list I found at ALASL, and each of the authors should be read, so check out the list here.  If you know of  a Volturi story that I didn’t mention, please leave a comment so I can put it on my must read list!