Title: The Cat and the Fiddle
Summary: Hoshi Sato, meet Sunfall of Ennien. Well, *a* Sunfall of Ennien.
Notes: This is a belated birthday present for stexgirl2000, as well as a tribute to the late Janet Kagan, and her book Uhura's Song.

* * * * *

(  It's a planet of *what*? Hoshi asked, looking up from her soup. The mess was extremely crowded and noisy and surely she'd misheard what Travis said.Collapse )

Yes, I know it may be a sign of the coming apocalypse, but I've finally finished this story. I'm betting I'm not the only person currently avoiding election coverage, so I thought I'd post and see if anyone noticed ;)

You can find the entire story on my website here, but I'll provide a short excerpt to give you an idea if you want to read the whole thing.

( The X-Men have just arrived aboard the Enterprise...Collapse )

It's in my notes, but I'd like to pause now and thank stexgirl2000, akire_yta, and illmantrim for their willingness to read the nearly-complete version of this story. I didn't take all of your advice, sadly, but I'm grateful for all of it. Your encouragement (as well as squeeing from medie and unanon) is what kept me writing.

::hugs everyone who ever asked me to finish writing this story:: I hope you enjoy it!

Before I say anything else (and there is much to say)...::blink:: I won Best Tu/S Humor in the LD Awards for "A Man and His Socks"! I won? I won! ::does happy dance:: It's not my best story, but I learned soooo much while writing it that I'm very proud.

I'm also pleased to see that Kiss Me Once, Kiss Me Twice, written by the fabulous Judy and Chrysa won R/S Humor. This is good, because it is truly the Funniest. Thing. Ever. And go stexgirl2000 for what I think was three story wins as well as Best R/S author? Yay Stex! ::hugs her virtually and will hug her in RL tomorrow:: Oh my, I don't know if she's even seen the results yet ::grin::

The National Book Festival was absolutely awesome. My only regret was that I couldn't see all the cool people :) Oh well! I'm so pleased that mscongeniality got Connie Willis and Neil Gaiman to sign a program for me. Whee!

I'll try and write more tomorrow, but I will say that we learned that a) Neil Gaiman is amused that people know the names of his cats, and b) Connie Willis is one of the funniest human beings alive. I loved the bits that Neil read from the ongoing book and I can't wait for him to finish. I was very interested in Patricia Wrede and Lois Bujold's comments on the writing process as well. They all seemed like people it'd be fun to have dinner with, you know?

Much geekiness was followed by a lovely and geeky dinner at America with some of the crew, as well as new people. New people is a good thing for those of us prone to, let us say, hermitish behavior.

Meanwhile, I will be seeing Stex tomorrow and I've learned that Patricia Wrede and Caroline Stevermer are writing another Kate and Cecy book and Connie Willis plans to write about Roswell and my life is good. ::happy sigh:: Well, except for the bit where my husband has already managed to get gloomy again after vacation and I must go now and try and cheer him up. Wish me luck.

I can't believe I'm actually saying this, but I think the fic is close enough to complete that I can start my regular begging for someone to beta. When finished (hopefully in the next few days) it should be approximately 20,000 words and 50-some pages, so this is no minor undertaking. However, since I'll be on vacation and computerless from Oct 2-9, you'll have plenty of time to look it over without me hanging over your shoulder :D

I'm not sure how much detail I've given about the story here, but it's a gen adventure/drama which includes four X-Men characters, but really focuses on Scott. (Yes, I know that's a deep shock to anyone who's read my X-fic ::grin::) On the Enterprise side, the focus is Jon and Trip. (Okay, that's a bit more of a shock, since Hoshi barely appears in the story.)

While I'll obviously welcome any spelling/grammar/punctuation stuff, what the story really needs is for someone to tell me where the holes are. I think there are still some bits that need to be fleshed out, places that need more detail to show how much time has passed, characters who should make longer appearances, etc. I've also done a lot of scene rearranging, so I'm sure there are some things that got confused in the process :)

::blink:: After something like a year, could this be almost the end? I'm in shock.

I'd really like it if two people could beta--one expert in X-Men but not Enterprise, and one expert in Enterprise but not X-Men. But I'll take anyone who's willing to read it.

Okay, off to do the dinner dishes and then come back and try and finish the Scott & Malcolm conversation. Maybe even write the scene where the ship is attacked. Time to start filling in all those little gaps that I've been hoping would disappear by themselves!

"Trip...an insect is stealing our picnic," Hoshi said.

Basking in the alien sunshine that warmed his bones, Trip waved a hand at her and didn't open his eyes. "Well, I don't begrudge an ant some of Chef's excellent brisket, do you?"

"Normally, I wouldn't. But we might want to do something."

Trip yawned, breathing in the floral-scented air as he opened his eyes. "Hoshi, what are you talking ab--"

The "ant" was royal blue, with too many hairy legs for Trip to count. It was also five feet tall and carrying the entire picnic basket in its mouth.

"Aaaaahhhh!"

* * * * *

A response to taryneve's picnic challenge. ::snicker:: Well, she said ants...

"Damn it, Hoshi, can't T'Pol leave my reports alone?" Trip paced the length of his quarters, forcing her to duck his flailing arms and perch in the chair.

"Relax, Trip, it's part of her job," she said. "Besides, nobody expects you to be a good writer."

"Thanks for the support," he growled.

"I just meant--"

"I know what you meant." Trip leaned against the wall and crossed his arms, pouting.

She sighed. "What did she change that's annoying you?"

Trip flushed a brilliant red. "The first paragraph now says that the problem was 'excessive coupling in the warp coils.'"

* * * * *

::whistles innocently::

I'm really liking this drabble format :) Oh, and even though this isn't his fandom, I blame this particular drabble entirely on wyzeguy.

( Travis' DecisionCollapse )