Congrats to everyone who placed in the sshg_awards and thanks to Shug, who's earned a good fandom rest. Thank you also to everyone who sent me a virtual snowflake cookie--duniazade, sshg316, gioiamia, kribu, ciphre, ginny_weasley31. Thank you for thinking of me!

So--NaNoWriMo. Didn't do good things for me. I think everyone should try it at least once, just like everyone should try an Exchange at least once. Some muses thrive on that sort of challenge and deadline. Mine, not so much I think. So, what am I doing? Setting myself another...

I can't promise anything--it depends on whether a prompt sparks something. My muse is not the most reliable beastie and tends to turn her button nose up at carrots. And I still want to finish Book of Shadows (still working on it, and even if not much wordage got done, at least I broke the ice a bit). I owe renitaleandra a sequel to "Madmen and Englishwomen" and lifeasanamazon a disgustingly overdue birthday ficlet. But...

My beta djinn_fic reminded me writing is a muscle, and if BOS isn't coming, I should work on other stuff or I'll get rusty. So, give me a Christmas/Winter Holiday/Winter Season prompt in Harry Potter or Trek (anything but Enterprise) for a ficlet or drabble. Any ship or character (except no Lucius pairing)--and I'll try. Up to 12 people. Let me know your dealbreakers. Not writing any non con or dub con.

The nominees for the sshg_awards have been posted here with links. Voting begins on the 5th and runs an entire month, so there's time to catch up on stories here you missed, and voting is a lot less involved than nominating (you don't have to worry about what's eligible among other things, and only one vote per category so you don't have to write out multiple choices. Hell, you don't even have to link, find author LJ or email. Just use the form below and type up the title of your vote (taken from the com profile):

<b>Shrinking Solution: Best Drabble</b> VOTE: <b>Hiccupping Solution: Best Drabble Series</b> VOTE: <b>Invigoration Draught: Best Short</b> VOTE: <b>Strengthening Solution: Best Mid-Length</b> VOTE: <b>Calming Draught: Best Novel Length</b> VOTE: <b>Everlasting Elixirs: Saga/Epic</b> VOTE: <b>Amortentia: Best Romance</b> VOTE: <b>Felix Felicis: Best Smut/PWP</b> VOTE: <b>Agitation Elixir: Best Angst</b> VOTE: <b>Scintillating Solution: Best Drama</b> VOTE: <b>Hair-Raising Potion: Best Action Adventure</b> VOTE: <b>Polyjuice Potion: Best A/U</b> VOTE: <b>Euphoria Elixir: Best Humour</b> VOTE: <b>Instant Darkness Powder: Best Dark Fic</b> VOTE: <b>Draught of Peace: Best Fluff</b> VOTE: <b>Still Simmering: Best WIP</b> VOTE: <b>Finite Incantatem: Best Newly Completed</b> VOTE: <b>Top Brewer: Best Author</b> VOTE: <b>Potions Apprentice: Best New Author</b> VOTE: <b>Mrs Scower's Magical Mess Remover: Favorite DH-Compliant Fic</b> VOTE:

Congratulations to all the nominees. Just to make it this far is an honor. If I haven't congratulated you individually, consider it done now! Lots I nominated on that list. SQUEE!!!

Also, annietalbot wrote an Open Letter regarding awards I muchly agree with here. She puts it more nicely and diplomatically than I will.

( A Modest Proposal: The Kanye West AwardsCollapse )

( Why I hate Wonderful ChildCollapse )

Oh, and mundungus42's filk below is FTW!

And a house-elf dropped these at my doorstep. And then ran off to iron her hands.

For those who are interested, I have a new SSHG story, “Ghostly Visitations”, up on clare009’s KIA Repository. I should warn people that 1) it’s a drabble series - not written as an integrated short story, so if you hate the form, you might want to skip it. 2) I don’t generally get my drabbles betaed. I might want to do so with this monster sometime, but right now it’s in its raw state—proofed by me—but without the careful eye and input of my betas.

Ghostly Visitations - Repository

It’s in a more compact form on the Repository—but I know some people have problems accessing the site, so if you prefer, it can also be read on grangersnape100

Ghostly Visitations - GS100

Oh—so what does this have to do with NaNoWrMo?


( Writing Rambling belowCollapse )

Day Thirty: 1,235 words

Well, the meter doesn't reflect it, because I had computer woes today and couldn't imput today's and the last two days total, but actually my total for NaNo is 21,714.

( Reflections on NaNoCollapse )

( Last of Dame Sans MerciCollapse )

I now return you to your regularly scheduled LJ. No more daily LJing for me. I'm going to take a break for a couple of days, then start working on Book of Shadows. With a little luck, you'll see me pop up next to say it's in beta, even if not updated.

Now go and check out the stories of the sshg_exchange. I will.

Oh, one random note because it amuses me no end. I tried posting two fics on Fiction Alley (will never do that again) and both times neither story ever came up among Recently Added--ensuring, I was certain, I'd never see a review from that archive. Gambit was posted there in July, Release in September. No hits, no reviews for months. Release now has its first review on FA. A rather nice one. Just got the notification email about the "thread." Not that I see any way of replying. Oh, I see. You have to "add" a review to respond to it. Ugh.

People post there why?

Day Twenty-nine: 582 words

Almost over...

( More Dame Sans MerciCollapse )

And, Gak'd from ginny_weasley31 The Shippy Meme

First, write down the names of 12 characters. Then read and answer the questions. You can't look at the questions (or click on the cut) until you write down the 12 characters you're going to use.

[I wrote them down in order of my favorite characters--which, as you'll see, was a horrifying mistake]

1. Severus Snape
2. Hermione Granger
3. Draco Malfoy
4. Albus Dumbledore
5. Harry Potter
6. Minerva McGonagall
7. Percy Weasley
8. Luna Lovegood
9. Blaise Zabini
10. Neville Longbottom
11. Ginny Weasley
12. Ron Weasley

( Click if you dare!Collapse )

Day Twenty-eight: 332 words

Two more days... Just two more. And then we have all those exchange fics descend upon us!

Oh, and NaNo will be over. Anyone out there still NaNoing? Or who finished with their 50,000 like tempest_dreams?

( More Dame Sans MerciCollapse )

Day Twenty-seven: 425 words

Three more days to go. Just three. One can bear anything for three more days right? Well, perhaps not having one's eyes gouged out or dramatic blood loss or being drowned in a vat of acid, but surely I can limp toward the finish with a few hundred more words...

So, I finally updated my current total on the site which is reflected above: 19,474. In terms of the goal for the month, which is 50 thousand words that's a pathetic total... BUT

My average chapter for my WIP in the last updates has been about 7 thousand words. Had I been working on Book of Shadows, not Dame, (and BOS should be easier--I know where I'm going) I should have been able to update twice this month and be close to a third chapter finished.

An update every two weeks. That would be a rather respectable pace. And it didn't take much most days to get there. Not at all.

( More Dame Sans MerciCollapse )

That count actually doesn't represent my actual wordage--I've been forgetting to update on the NaNo page--will have to do that.

Meanwhile, not only am I heaving a sigh at relief at soon having this over--but I realize that when NaNo ends, the sshg_exchange begins. How cool is that? New reading material just when I'll have the time for it again? Well, theoretically...

Day Twenty-six: 395 words

( More Dame Sans MerciCollapse )

Day Twenty-five: 563 words

And so NaNo goes on--won't you be glad when it's over and I stop posting about it?


( More Dame Sans MerciCollapse )

And on my usual non-sequitor, I think this time I'll just choose to say how sad I find it that you can't have a good discussion anymore. I think people just feel too threatened by argument—in fact just by disagreement. So they either shut a discussion down if they feel uncomfortable or pelt the person bringing the subject up or keeping it going as pontificating or difficult or... a know-it-all... Or just accuse the other person who is trying to debate what they are saying of twisting their words.

Of course, often the reason we avoid argument and debate is because in this fandom we do get bruised, so we get leery when a whiff of passion about a subject emerges. But at least in the beginning of my time in Harry Potter, it did seem that in chat and forums and lists there was lively debate about the characters, stories—and on those venues where you wouldn't be shut down for being off-topic, subjects as diverse as writing craft to religion to politics. Maybe that was just natural in the wake of the shock of HBP and people don't feel that need anymore.

So, my link for the day—an old classic essay by a Trek fanficer, Macedon on The Mannerly Art of Disagreement

Day Twenty-three: 427 words

I'm at the point I'm counting the day backwards 'til NaNo ends. It might be good for me ... like exercise ... of course, it was a long time before I was fond of that.


( More Dame Sans MerciCollapse )

And on a completely different note, does anyone know what's going on with Fanfiction.Net? This is the text of an email I got from a friend:

So, have you tried to get into FF.net lately? It won't let me log in today or yesterday, and the day before that it would let me upload doc but not create a story. And there's no way to contact them now, and when you go to the "contact us" page, it looks funny. Like you're being hijacked. They want you to log in, but it looks funny, like it's a phish page or wahtever—a fake page that looks like the real thing all to get your login info. I'm mondo annoyed. Any rumbles on your network?

Remember how my computer crashed not long ago oh, f-list? Virus. I'm guessing this could be a bad sign. That maybe FFN is where I picked it up.

Not only that—but I've noticed I haven't been receiving email notifications for my favs being updated—possibly for weeks. I have Dyce on my favorite authors' list. Her SS/HG, Accountable, should be sending a notice to my inbox everytime it updates. She's been updating twice a week and is up to chapter 4. Nothing. And that's not the only fic I've heard thru tom tom drum has updated w/o a notice being sent to appropriate inboxes. So what gives?