mific

So another of my poems. 
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As ever I'm a day late if not a dollar short - hey, I'm in a different timezone. We're fast down here in New Zealand! So I'm pretending it's still International Poetry Day where I am.

I've been musing about this for a while, unsure what to do. I fell headlong into fandom 8 years ago, but before that I had a poetry writing jag, the second major one since my teens. Being in love with fandom put paid to that of course. I was doing a lot of trips to Aussie at the time, and I used to scribble the poems on the back of airline sick bags (the Air NZ ones were a nice plain white). I collated my "midlife" poems into a decidedly slim volume and gave it to friends and family back then, but I haven't done much else, except sometimes writing fannish poems or incorporating poems in fanfic. But I think I'll post the ones I like best here, occasionally, and I might set up a new AO3 account for them - I'd rather keep my original stuff and fannish stuff separate over there. Anyone know if it's still seen as okay to post original works to AO3? I vaguely recall a rumour that maybe the policy on that might toughen up. I don't expect anyone will read them, but it's an archive. I'd just like to archive them. 

So, here goes. Many of them are a bit gloomy, but here's a lighter one. Sadly, still oh so true, although these days more from failure to get rid of stuff than ongoing accumulation. 

Last week was pretty grueling, with a massive exam I had to write, involving an all-nighter. I'm way too old for all-nighters, well, except that my sleep pattern's so muntered I often do stay up most of the night. It's the all-dayers after the all-nighters that do me in. Having emerged somewhat scathed from a few days of sleep deprivation, leaving me with a 2-day headache and annoying tinnitus, I'm now trying to muster the creative juices this weekend and attack my SGA-Reversebang story (a largely gen Ronon and Radek friendship fic). Managed a detailed outline today anyway, so that's something. Other projects on the go are my Ante Up Losers fic (suburban crack), and my story for the Captain America Reverse Big Bang - a fantasy AU, and my first ever fic in that fandom, so wish me luck. :)

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Work's been a bit hellish this week, so I got the art calendar posted to AO3 in time for Romancing McShep, and forgot to do a final post here. Click for full size pic.

AO3 post is here

It was an interesting project, but not one I'll repeat. I'm too impatient and I work on an artwork obsessively until it's done, so rationing out the task to a small bit each day just frustrates me. But, fun to have tried it.

Here's the penultimate posting of the art calendar - one more update to go on the 28th.



Possum was delighted to see me and seems none the worse. I'm somewhat the worse however for my Melbourne trip, having managed to pull a calf muscle.  Melbourne airport was like an inner circle of hell with the endless queuing and shuffle-standing - my lower back disliked it intensely. And joy of joys, a few days after braving the general populace, I've got a streaming head cold. Bleh. 

I was going to say, flist! (or dwircle!) - why did no one tell me that DW now has image hosting? Then I discovered that a) you can't post the images anywhere except to DW or a very similar journal where you've set up crossposting, like LJ, and b) there's no way to sort your images into folders or via tabs. So it's effectively useless for organising and posting fanart. Denise says they're developing a folder or tagging system as phase 2, but that DW doesn't have the bandwidth to allow free-for-all posting to the internet, e.g. to AO3, although they'll see once they've analysed the usage of the new hosting service. I suspect best not to hold your breath. So, still posting new stuff to Mediafire, and thinking about moving my old stuff across there from LJ. 

I had some other thoughts, but, streaming head cold. Will save them for next time. 

Aaand another update on the art calendar. I'm spreading them out a bit as I'm off to Melbourne for a few days from tomorrow. Three days of meetings, joy. Have to get a dawn flight and what with how late I always get to bed, there's no point trying to sleep at all, really. Maybe on the plane.



I posted a not very SFW naked cuddling piece of art as another thing for Romancing McShep, A Room With A View. The summary's not massively romantic I guess, but there's a lot of tenderness in their poses, and given a choice between sappiness and humor, trust me to go with humor.

I was looking for trinityofone's SGA fics on the Wayback Machine as I'm sure I used to have that link bookmarked but couldn't locate it. But the only snapshot on Wayback that functions at all has hardly any working links when you click through. Does anyone out there have a better URL for all the rest of Trin's fics that aren't on AO3? Neither of the fic-finding comms on LJ really work for asking about all of an author's work. It's not really a genre. 

Well, this is a series of ready-made reasons to post, at least! Plus, lots of fun even if it is difficult to restrain myself and only do a little each day.
Here's the past 3 days of art squares completed, so up to day 9. I think you can see where it's going now *grin*. It'll be a Romancing McShep entry for me as they're taking those from 14th through to 28th February.



I suddenly got bitten by a plot bunny and belted out 700 words of my Ante Up Losers fic, which was upcheering. Of course, in the to do list it's not at the top so that's another well-constructed schedule down the gurgler. Only a few thousand more words to go, sigh. It's supposed to be humor, so we'll see how that goes. 

Off to Melbourne for work meetings next week which I'm not looking forward to. I'm hoping Possum will be okay with my cat feeder coming in each day with fresh food, but that's another reason I don't want to go. The agenda is: no sleep, drive to airport before dawn, catch red-eye after endless walking through airports built for an alien race of giants, tedious queuing and walking at Melbourne end despite only having hand-luggage, 3 days of moderately dull meetings but nice to see a few acquaintances, a chance to catch up with latest movies in the hotel though which is good, late flight home on day 3 which gets in after midnight and then trundle on home to fuss over Possum. 

I need to walk more. Seriously, self, just fucking do it.

 All caught up - just one part a day from tomorrow. I decided the night sky needed more stars so that meant a small adjustment, and I'm just crossing my fingers that I can get their faces to work out okay. 
Here's what it's looking like now.



Also, I realized that this can be my contribution to Romancing McShep once it's done, as that festival runs from 14th-28th Feb, so that makes February a bit more doable challenge-wise. Phew. 

I'm jumping on this bandwagon as well - it's fun! I'm playing catch up so it'll be 4 days of 2 squares filled in per day, then 1 a day.
darthneko's invented a kind of advent calendar for doing art - small parts of an overall work that you complete each day across a month until it's done. Here's the post about it - there are 2 templates that can be used in a link in the comments.
sholio's doing one as well - over here, and here. goss is doing one too, and doubtless others are giving it a go.

I like how different they all are. Me being me, mine's in colour and done digitally, not with traditional media. It'll also end up G-rated slashy (I hope!). This one'll be SGA - if I do more I'll do a different fandom each time.
A bit scary to see if I can link up the shading and get the overall drawing to look vaguely okay, especially when I get to the hard part - the people! And no, I haven't already drawn it all out - seat of the pants, I'm afraid.

Click on the thumbnail to see where I'm at.


In other news, I finished my Apocalypse Kree apocafic, yay! (concludes my series 'The Rapture').

Now only Romancing McShep, Pic-for-1000, SGA-Reversebang, the Ante-Up Losers exchange and the Captain America ReverseBigBang to go before June. How did that happen? *hides*

I should be finishing my apocafic, and I will, right after this (honest). Also, this is probably the worst time to be writing about apocalypses - coffee shop AU, anyone?

Anyway, I was thinking about the different types of apocafic I've read.

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Rec me some more if you have favorites. Okay, enough slicing and dicing of apocafic. Back to writing.

( This post brought to you in the spirit of "so you think this is bad?" )

Well, I finished my mini art blowout for the Captain America Reverse Big Bang (they allowed submission of up to 3 pieces, and I did 3) and I should be writing apocafic furiously, but haven't been getting quite enough sleep lately so I don't think it's a happening thing tonight. I hear about people writing as a therapy for stress but I can't do that - I have to be in a reasonably good space to write, and not too tired. No more power outages but my internet connectivity's still crap.

The news from the USA is grim of course, so that's not helping. Can't help but wonder if there's some sort of Shock and Awe (well, Shock and Horror, anyway) tactic of Trump & co. attacking on multiple fronts bam bam bam with some notion of exhausting the democratic opposition. However, attributing any kind of organised strategy to The Pufferfish seems unwise.

Possum is doing okay, eating just enough although less overall than before, but he's active and cheerful. Here he is deigning to look at me mid-grooming. 

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Oh, and I was able to gain points for my pub quiz team by knowing the colour of Spock's blood. I told them how I knew as well, giving rise to some hilarity - because runpunkrun reblogs all this fanart on tumblr and you know it's not just Spock's cheeks the fanartists show flushing a delicate green . . . *G*

a belated More Joy Day thing - belated for reasons as in the poem below, that I wrote yesterday.

Drifting Cheerfully in the Black

***

I'm doing art for the Captain America reversebang (on tumblr here) - not jumping ships, I just like reversebangs!

We were chatting on slack about ship-names, and @portraitoftheoddity pointed out that they fall into three main categories - smushes, poetic ship-names, and puns. My older fandoms haven't played around with ship names as much - most are smushes, like McShep and Shex, although Sticks n Snark is a more poetic one (Teyla/Rodney), and Sparky just . . . happened and is uncategorizable. :)

MCU has a lot of variants. For Steve Rogers/Sam Wilson there's 'samsteve', 'stevesam', 'freebirds', and 'capfalc', maybe more. Steve Rogers/Bucky Barnes has the main one, 'stucky', but also 'starbucks' and 'barnes and noble' and maybe 'wintershield'.
The one where they're antiglobalization protesters (8190 words) by sapote (AU)
Fandom: Stargate Atlantis
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Rodney McKay/John Sheppard
Characters: Rodney McKay, John Sheppard, Teyla Emmagan, Ronon Dex
Summary: The Wraith are a metaphor for globalization. I go from there.

So . . . I may have a tendency to collect kitsch, and a fondness for steampunk. Put those together and we get (taadaa!) the steampunk toilet roll holder! It came in black so of course a coat of gold paint was required for a brass-like finish, and for maximum ludicrousness. It works brilliantly (not the gauges, but the appropriately suggestive rod with the knob on the end holds the rolls very well).



This is a welcome addition to the bathroom, as the old toilet roll holder's been broken for a while. I'd been reluctant to replace it as it was a wall-mounted radio cum roll-holder, in fetching white plastic onto which I'd glued numerous stick-on jewels. A hard act to follow indeed, but the steampunk one's a worthy successor. If the gauges worked I'd be over the moon but you can't have everything.

I'm bad at finishing series, or rather, I'm too ready to promise that something's the start of a series, and then not deliver on the sequels. They're not WIPs as the stories are complete in themselves, but they feel like the start of a 'verse or a bigger story. Then I get distracted by challenges, and work, and the new shiny, and . . . yeah. Before you know it a few years have passed and how in hell did that happen?

So for Apocalypse Kree this year (deadline's the end of January), I'm determined to finish my John/Ronon Rapture series that started with After the Harvest. When I first started it I was planning to have the series become John/Ronon/Rodney after Rodney joined them, but that'd take vastly more words and plot, so I think I'll have it just as John/Ronon and keep Rodney as their buddy. I do have the final part outlined, but I'm at that stage where you look at the outline and it feels like a hell of a lot of work to get the characters from (in this case) Vegas to Colorado. 

Especially when you get whammied by another, shinier plot bunny! Well, it's only shinier because it's newer, but OMG, I'm having such fun with the outline. It'll be for Romancing McShep so it has to wait until I get the apocafic done, but I really really want to play with it now (pouts). I have some medical background and I've wanted to do a medical AU for a while, to use some of that stuff, but it's always felt a bit OOC for Sheppard, although I've read some great short AUs with him and Rodney as ER-type doctors. Then there's Rodney's attitude to "voodoo" medicine. But I suddenly thought of the perfect solution - a Doc Martin AU!!  (Do USA-folks know the UK TV series Doc Martin?) So Rodney's the irascible genius ex-surgeon with no bedside manner at all who develops a blood phobia and is forced to relocate as a family doctor to a small coastal town, where he meets John (probably a local police officer I think, but definitely not the neurotic one from Doc Martin who fretted about his tiny penis!). And all the usual suspects transposed into (non-sci-fi) AU roles. I think I'd set in in in coastal Maine, as a vague correlation to Cornwall - a made-up town very like Boothbay Harbor.  Rodney's going to be ideal as the Aspergery Doc Mac, antagonizing everyone and diagnosing the hell out of them with House-like accuracy. BUT NO. I MUST BE STRONG AND SET IT ASIDE FOR NOW.  Damn. 

I'm up to ep 7, so spoiler warning, if you aren't there yet. Also, warning for discussion of violence, rape and body-horror - seriously; this show could be really triggering, especially if you were vulnerable to dissociation.

Since the dread news about LJ, I've been fretting more about where to host all my fanart. They're on LJ scrapbook now, which is an okay interface and pretty easy to use, but who knows what they'll do to it next? 

Ordinary photo-sharing sites are no good as the file size is too low, they aim at making your art readily trawled by all (not always what I want) and I also worry that if I opt into a cute new site it'll go belly-up after I've gone through the hassle of moving everything. 

What I want in an art storage site:
( Read more...Collapse )So that's where I'm at with this. I haven't actually moved many pics across so if anyone out there knows anything better, or sees flaws in this cunning plan, please set me straight!
(Test sample: Here's a sample of an M-rated dS post to AO3 using mediafire links. Let me know if you can't see the pic for any reason!)

Hi there - so in the sign-up I asked for:

Jolene/Pooch (Art, Fic, Podfic, Remix, vid - any rating)
I've asked for something featuring Jolene/Pooch. Would love them being badass, especially Jolene being badass, and/or maybe something set in the future about them and their kid or kids. What I wouldn't want is infidelity. No break-up please, or not a permanent one. No permanently sad or tragic ending for them and their family either, please. If you're up for an AU it'd be great to incorporate Roque as a black-sheep family member of some sort or an ex of Jolene's. You can go dark with Roque and/or kill him off if you like - I can handle it with Roque! But feel free to rehabilitate him as well. :)

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Hope you have fun with the exchange, and looking forward to seeing what you come up with - thanks!

I've never been great at tidiness, and as time passes it just seems too hard to keep battling entropy - or rather, I'm picking my battles. I also have TOO MUCH STUFF. So there are things everydamnwhere (I wrote a poem about that a few years ago before the fandom bus totalled me. Will post it here when I locate it).

Not surprising then, that among all the things, stuff gets overlooked. Yesterday I happened on a partly-filled-in Audubon notebook of my Mum's (I still have her ashes, and Dad's, in little wooden boxes sitting next to each other in a cupboard, and good intentions to scatter them both at Arthur's Pass in the South Island as requested. I just never get around to making the trip). So, I discovered that towards the end of her life, Mum recorded some of her favourite poems or quotes in this notebook with a flamingo on the cover. And I'm going to post one occasionally - the ones I like best.

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Hi everyone - one spin-off of the LJ servers moving to Russia and tumblr being a time-suck is a consolidation of friends here at DW. Nice to see the busyness. There's no way I can manage a PEDTM right now, but I'd like to try posting more, and more randomly rather than just catch-ups.

So I happened on a Captive Prince songvid using all fanart, then found another, so it's a Captive Prince vids post. I really like the cumulative effect with the fanart ones, esp. Coming Down. Total fail at embedding, as can't seem to locate the thing on youtube to get the embed code. Anyone know?

Coming Down by MockingJamie
Hurts So Good by kyungsoohorat
Carry Your Throne by rhea314
heart's a mess by Essie Spiros (features TW Derek as Damen!)
Damen & Laurent by paquim (exceptionally pretty Laurent here)

Whoa - so many comments I need to reply to, and end of the year round-ups and such, and my wireless is a mess. Something's wrong with my telecom connection which is making it very slow and intermittent, so I don't have no internet, just REALLY GODDAMN ANNOYING internet. Half the time it doesn't connect - I have to hit reload 3-4 times on average. Posting's bloody difficult - definitely need to save the html first, until it finally goes through. Posting to AO3 is a nightmare.

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(Warning for sick cat angsting)

I just had to default on my Yuletide assignment, so I feel crap about that, even though, this early, there are no real penalties.

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In better news, my SGA Santa fic is almost done, and and I do have an outline for my due South one, if I can get over the damn anxiety and get cracking.

Someone at work wrote 'thank you kindly' in an email back to me today COMPLETELY UNIRONICALLY.
I love it when that happens. No they weren't Canadian. Heh.

I'm reading a fic with a good plot and engaging characterisations, but OMG, I have to have a moan - here, as it's not cool to criticise fanfic writers on their posts.

1. Where does this use of 'swears' as a noun come from? I guess it's meant to be cute or some shit but it sounds like a three year old and I hate it.
2. Also, this persistent misapprehension that concussed or otherwise head injured people need to be kept awake constantly. No! It's not like if they go to sleep they'll never wake up (because why? Sleep is dangerous to us? Only alertness is preventing us dying at any moment, especially after a bang on the head?) Nope nope nope. After a serious enough head injury (generally one involving a definite loss of consciousness) the person gets woken at intervals to check they're not getting delirious or confused or developing unequal pupils on reaction to light, which are signs of a build-up of pressure on the brain from a blood clot, like from an extradural haematoma. Hence Jack O'Neill's abiding hatred of Janet's pencil torch. Rest and sleep are actually essential for post-head injury recovery.
3. Plus, Ronon and Teyla don't talk the same. Ronon uses elisions. We don't know why, he just does - maybe Sateda was hipper than Athos. 

Um, OK, here endeth the lesson. *Returns to messy fic, grumbling about people who don't run longfic past a beta*

On a more positive note, I love http://www.etymonline.com so much. I really like the history of words, and can browse it happily just for fun. It's also massively useful when writing historical AUs, to make sure you're not using words too modern for the period. And it's mostly one guy's creation, not a wiki. Good on you, Douglas Harper. 

Yuuuletide! I'm really happy with my assignment here. It's a fandom I love and a great opportunity for worldbuilding in a new little corner of the 'verse. So yay for that one. :)
( Challenges, fests and RL ...Collapse )And that's me for now.

OK, here we go - another year, another Yuletide!

First - the main point of all this is to have fun, and get some fic out there in smaller fandoms, so whatever you do, that's great and you should have a ball. Don't take any of my ideas or prompts too seriously - do what appeals to you. I'm pretty unsquickable and open to all sorts of stuff. I'll be delighted with whatever you come up with, because you wrote it for me and to play in fandom.

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And that's it from me! Thanks so much for writing me something.</div></div>

Recycling parts of last year's letter, because a few things I always want. :)

First and most importantly - thanks so much for creating something for me, and I really will be thrilled with whatever you make, so the main thing is for you to do what you like and have fun.

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As I said in the sign up, I'd be happy with any medium - fic, art, podfic or vid.
Thanks again!

I re-read American Gods recently, and this came to me, and pawed and mewed and batted at me until I gave in and wrote it down. Cats, what can you do?

Love Me, Love My People (549 words) by mific
Words: 549
Fandom: American Gods - Neil Gaiman, Cat Pictures Please - Naomi Kritzer (that's the new one)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Bast/Google
Characters: Bast, Google (Anthropomorphic)
Additional Tags: Goddesses, Worship, Cats, Internet, Anthropomorphic, Crossover
Summary: Be glad that I'm happy with belly rubs, used cardboard boxes and a few tins of salmon. And keep those you-know-whats coming.

So as usual I fail at regular journaling; no surprises there! The usual combination of stuff - work was hellishly busy for a while (ha, I keep writing busty, which, no), with some big deadlines, thankfully past now so a brief breathing spell in which to finish off my due South_c6d Big Bang project, and start doing two complementary artworks I've claimed.

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General Stuff
I am OK! Possum is OK! I hope you're all doing OK too, and are less busy than me. I'm getting a new front door put in, as the old one's semi-rotted. 1950s weatherboard house in the bush, what can you do? I've started to do long-put-off chores like sorting out household fix-its, but am still behind the eight-ball in terms of my own exercise regime, sigh. Still trying, anyway, and still eating low-carb so that's good for me. 

Well I finished my Jack/Daniel story for riverfox , called Happy Birthday to Us - cheerful porn, as advertised. I got a great story from svana_vrika - Out And Away From Under, about revelations on an alien world, hurt/comfort, romance and first times.

And I'm finally writing my John/Ronon fic for the Satedan Grabass thing-a-thon. Should be done in a couple of days. Problem with a small fandom, which SGA kind of is these days in terms of activity if not readers, is finding a beta. I didn't bother with the fic above because cheerful porn, and also it was short. This one won't be long, but it's likely to be 5000-6000, and I can wing it, but betas always improve things and catch bits that don't work and occasional non-US Englishisms.

So, anyone up for beta-reading a John/Ronon story? Romance and NC-17 rated towards the end, no AO3 warnings apply. Posting is the 24th I'm afraid. Very much appreciated if anyone's able to help!
ETA: beta contact made, yay!

In other news, I've discovered The Gilmore Girls and am wallowing in cheesy denial of reality. Also an excellent fic rec: I'm Not Ifrit of the Dark, by signe (oxoniensis), a GG and Supernatural crossover on a Buffy fusion base! In which Rory is a slayer and weird things are going on at Chilton. Great stuff.</user></user></user>

It's not long after the shortest day, here, and this being Auckland it's cold, but not too bad. No frosts where I am, near the sea, but cold nights, so I'm glad of an oil-filled heater I got for the bedroom. Possum the cat's fond of it too. Bright, weak, sunlight today, clear and still. Lovely. 
I've been in a writing hiatus, not sure why. Work's been very busy so that's part of it. Maybe the creative juices are at a lower ebb in winter, as well. I've been using work tasks to procrastinate about writing deadlines, which is . . . kind of useful, for work, anyway. 

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Oh, and the grandiose Rodney/John Tarot fic? Decided I couldn't start it until I'd done a basic outline for each chapter/card. So that led to teaching myself to use Scrivener, and hours of fun. Almost done with the outlines, but a few more to go. I think, though, I'll leave the serial chapter writing stage until the edge of spring appears, to help me along. 

Sooo, I've been a lot better lately about sticking to regular writing schedules, and it's gone to my head, resulting in a frankly bonkers and grandiose plan. When I first discovered fanfic writing, I launched into a serial fic, posting a chapter weekly. It's the only novel-length thing I've ever written. But I've had this idea for ages, outlined and all, for a novel-sized fic, but have dithered about whether to write it as fanfic or try for an origfic book. Thinking about it recently, I've decided the structure won't work well for a book, precisely as it's too structured, with too many external constraints. But I think it's perfect for a serial fanfic. If I can manage this, I'll try for a book next. (Whut? It is not a cop-out. It's . . . training, like in Rocky.). :)
Anyhow, I'm gonna write the first 3 chaps, then off we go. Oh, and there's art for each chapter, too. Told you it was grandiose.
It'll be John and Rodney, because I don't care if they're terribly passe, I'm still very fond of them, and if I'm taking on a 1 year project it'll be with characters I really like. Besides, Stargate-verse: you can do any damn thing.
The premise is a fantasy/sci-fi jaunt through the major arcana of the Tarot. 22 cards - 22 chapters. Each one a story of its own, but with connecting arcs like in a tv series, and an overall arc for the whole thing.

I need to do this alongside organising my life a bit more. I'm plateauing with the health kick, mainly due to laziness about adding in exercise, so I need to change that. And I'm such a pack-rat - these days not due to any 'that might come in handy' nonsense, just slackness about toting loads of junk up my steepish path to the car and the road.

That's the plan, then. Write at least 5000 words a fortnight, Make a card a fortnight as illustration, daily walkies, and out with the junk.
Wish me luck!

Woo hoo! - have finished both my SGA Reversebang stories and the second one is at beta. Whew!

Teyla/Kate opera AU

 

12250 / 12250 words. 100% done!

John/Rodney Regency romance/adventure AU

 

21300 / 21300 words. 100% done!

and so to bed . . .

Agh agh agh.

SGA Reversebang story 2 is finished, betaed and draft-posted (Teyla/Kate opera AU)

But SGA Reversebang story 1 (John/Rodney Regency romance/adventure AU) KEEPS ON RUNNING. It's like that Doobie Brothers song. I reckon it'll be 20,000 now, because there is STILL MOAR PLOT. Agh. But, 2600 words yesterday and almost 4000 today, so, WRITING.


In other annoying news, I was making a low carb coconut lime blancmange earlier with a stick mixer and knocked it all off the bench. Creamy stuff splashed for 6 meters I kid you not, and 2 meters up the far wall with a lateral spread of 1.5 metres. Made me think some of those stories about John getting spunk in his eyebrows after coming like crazy may not be such bullshit. Okay, unfortunate association there, but for those not going ew, here's the recipe:

500 ml full cream (whipping cream I think it's called in the USA) - whipped until stiff
250 ml coconut milk (I use Vitasoy unsweetened coconut milk, which is thinner than some brands and less calorie-heavy)
Juice of 3 limes and rind of one (if you can be bothered; I don't always do the rind)
Stevia sweetener to taste (I use a crystal type, 50 grams)
3 tsp gelatine dissolved in 100ml boiling water then cooled by addition of some of the coconut milk to it.
Mix all with blender until smooth. Chill in fridge until set. Serves 6-8, in 100-150gm servings. Nice with stewed berries.
Using my ingredients, its stats are per serve (assuming 6): calories: 170, carbs: 3gm, fat: 17gm, protein: 2gm.

Also, I'm enjoying Astolat's current run of Harry/Draco fics. They have nicely imaginative magical details.

Thirteen questions about writing

Punk tagged me for this on tumblr, so . . .

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Anyone on my flist want to be tagged? Consider yourself so, if you'd like to do the meme. :)



(ETA: as I'd missed a question)

Went to a class reunion yesterday - happened to be in my home city - which was interesting. Reminded me how much I like a few close friends in the class, and that I should see more of them, and how profoundly I don't care about all the rest. People were . . . oddly affectionate towards me. A lot of virtual strangers (my shonky memory) beamed at me or squeezed my shoulder as they went past. I suspect I was a 'character', back in the day. I was certainly the only one wearing bright red (yesterday, but probably back then as well), in a sea of boring blue-beige-grey and way too much plaid. On the very definitely plus side, the band was great (the Hipstamatics, a large Auckland cover band who do jazz, Motown and disco - they had a sound tech who wandered around the room doing wireless audio-mixing on his ipad - first time I've seen that!) so I had a good dance, which was notable because a) I danced for some time without any back pain (thank you keto-diet and abs exercises) and b) I earned a slice of lime-coconut cheesecake as dessert once I got home. Good times!

Blackglass (xdiorix) podficced my multi-crossover story "Five Times the Wraith Invaded Earth But Were Thwarted" - the podfic is here, yay! It was for the sound effects square of a podfic bingo and the Wraith voices in it are excellent.

The Ante-up Losers exchange went live. I got Whatever Happens from chibifukurou (a lovely post-movie fic with Jolene being her usual awesome self) and I wrote Holding On, Holding Out for tommygirl (The Losers/Stargate Atlantis/Stargate SG1). Beaming technology: such a great fix-it for character deaths.

In less good news, my internet connection is FF again (frequently fucked). Sooo sick of it. Also, I really can't afford another hour on hold with my provider's tech support line, because: *points down*

Updates on these, to keep me on track with THE SCHEDULE (3000 words today and tomorrow, eep, as it's a public hol and I missed yesterday).

SGA Reversebang story No. 1. (John/Rodney Regency romantic adventure)


SGA Reversebang story No. 2. (Teyla/Kate Opera AU)

Updates on these, just to encourage me and keep me on track.

SGA Reversebang story 1 (Regency era romantic adventure) because it's apparent it'll need more than 10,000 words. /o\


SGA Reversebang story No. 2. (Opera AU)

Hi everyone - still here, still beavering away, still not using this properly as a journal. Oh well.

Work's been nasty recently with two huge projects on deadlines, and I had to pull a couple of all-nighters to manage. Got there, whew, and am basking a little this weekend in the absence of horrid deadlines. Well, apart from all the usual self-imposed fannish ones!

Stuff posted in the past couple months

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Bye for now! Hope you're all OK. *sends you a cupcake er, delicious high-protein snack* :)

first, my apologies. I burned out a little after the xmas challenges and then have had massive internet hassles with mostly no connection for over 2 weeks. But mostly I've just been a bit down and not attending to stuff. Trying to rectify that now. But agh, I cannot make the pad format what follows - ok, sorted in html. Anyway, thank you so much for making something for me! TBH I can't figure out what the codes in my sign-up mean, but I'm pretty easy to please - happy with all tropes, kinks and pairings, and with any AU, fusion or crossover (although ideally crossed with a fandom I've ever created in - check my AO3). There's no-one I hate in Losersverse, so no no-go zones really, although I did say I'd prefer not to get partner betrayal, or heavy hurt with little comfort. As in my sign up, angst is fine but I'd prefer some hope by the end. I can handle deathfic if it's set in Comicsverse and canon deaths, but not so much in Movieverse.  I'm not full of ideas right now but I like the dynamics in threesomes and like a Roque who isn't wildly OOC but who's also not a complete dick like in canon. And I love Pooch and Jolene a lot, especially a strong Jolene fighting for her family.     But basically I'll be delighted with whatever you choose to make!

I should be writing, but it's hot here, and I'm not in the mood, so instead...
Here are a few random recs, and most of them will be well known to everyone. Still.

Gwyneth's amazing vid Way Down We Go (Captain America, Civil War). Not really my fandom, except when it is.

From that, the track "Way Down We Go" by Kaleo (an Icelandic band). This is Kaleo performing it inside a VOLCANO. OK, not an active one, sheesh. And wow, the lead singer's voice.

Again with the fandom-transcending good stuff, an amazing CA Steve/Bucky fic, now finished and not a WIP. Ain't No Grave (Can Keep My Body Down) by spitandvinegar. It's not essential but I  recommend reading The Needle and the Killing Done first - it  precedes Ain't No Grave and sets the scene with Bucky. 

I finished Ancillary Mercy, the 3rd in Anne Leckie's Imperial Radch Ancillary series. 
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And an anti-rec: Mad Max Fury Road. Lots of hype earlier and it took me a while to get a copy and watch it, so I'm way behind the curve here. For me, it was all externals and show - high-impact visuals and special effects but empty inside. No real characterisation, and how could there be with virtually no dialogue and most of that inane. A great deal more snark was needed (Mad Max II had it beaten hands down for that). Still, fans can fix most things, and I've decided there aren't enough Mad Max fusions out there in my fandoms, so we'll see...

On a brighter note, Amazing wooden xylophone that plays Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring. Seriously, it's the best. People, their ingenuity. 

Much of the above brought to you via tumblr, which is still very annoying but (annoyingly) contains some great stuff. 

Ha - so that went well. I posted once. Or no, with this one, twice.

Day 15: In your own space, talk about what you're taking away from this challenge. Did you learn something? Did you interact with new people? Or did you try out different fandoms or formats or relationships? What's changed between Day 1 and Day 15 of this challenge?

I should know better than to even try - this is unfortunately a really busy time of year for me, with a massive writing/formatting RL work task every year with a tight deadline around 12th January. So, faced with this task which at least I get to do comfortably at home, but which is tedious and tiring, what do I do? Have a procrastinatory multifandom blow-out in a fan challenge of course - specifically, fandom_stocking.

I had a fun and creative time with loads of fanart resulting, but everything else in my life got put on the back burner. Managing a daily posting/task challenge was unrealistic. As ever, I did the creative stuff (some of which would have met a few of the daily tasks), and failed on the social interactions. So the answers to Day 15 above are: Yes, No, No (or wait - I did, but in fandom_stocking), and what's changed is I learned not to try the snowflake_challenge again.

All the new artworks are on the AO3, an ongoing series being the Raccoonverse, which is fun (Rodney's accidentally transformed into a raccoon). I've also been doing the usual recs here and there - currently Ronon Dex genfic on stargateficrec and Star Wars on fanart_recs.

In other things, I've drifted into doing a full SG1 watch-through, only ever having dipped in here and there in the past.

I've been reading truepenny's (Sarah Monette/Katherine Addison) short pieces reposted over at her LJ from the Wayback Machine - about writing, and from them, I visited the Turkey City Lexicon which I'm sure everyone knows but is very much worth a read, and amusing.

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I've been exploring some keto recipes and have found some good ones, although some sites tend towards artificial ingredients that counterfeit carb-filled ones, which seems like that weird pseudo-vegetarianism where meat-lookalikes are faked with vegetable products. On balance, I prefer more straightforward eating; not that deli products are additive-free of course, but liquid splenda, xanthan gum and carb-free fake syrup are outside my comfort zone.

It's getting hotter here but we've had a cool start to summer overall. Muggy now, and pleasant temps in the twenties. I'm enjoying it. Possum is fine and says hi.

Hi there
I'm going to do a few of these, just as I can fit them in amongst the current art-making frenzy I seem to be in for fandom_stocking.
Kind of embarrassing to start with the one that's about blowing your own trumpet, but...a bit late to pretend about that shit now!


Okay, I'm going to do a fic, an art and a podfic.

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Happy holidays to you all! I'm not taking leave until later, after the main Christmas and New Year's rush, but it'll be nice and quiet and almost like being on leave for the next 2 weeks . . . except of course for writing apocafic, like you do.

I belatedly signed on for fandom_stocking so am busily making a few treats. *g*

Whew - I'm actually there with the main raft of challenges!

My SGA Santa fic's posted - Just as Complicated as it Sounds - an OT4 romp for goddess47 . It ended up at almost 25,000 in the end. It's about the team forming a sedoretu à la Ursula le Guin's poly-marriage trope, and was a ton of fun to write.

I got a charming pre-slash John/Rodney fic from ionamcbee called Truth or Dare, in which J&R and friends play an adult-rated game.

My due South Secret Santa story's posted and they're all due for reveals very soon (exciting!), and I also posted my main Yuletide fic plus a Yuletide treat for one of the pinch-hitters, in the same fandom. Poetry FTW!  :D

I'll go have dinner on the 25th with my aunt, uncle and cousins - luckily the keto diet adapts excellently to Christmas dinner - roast fowl and then strawberries with lashings of whipped cream, tra la la!  (status report: 26 lbs lost in 3 months).

And here's a fun Christmas pic that's been doing the rounds. Way to piss off the neighbours!

Hi all - I am head down and scribbling furiously, whew! Have finished my due South santa fic and just done the SGA one as well (both way longer than I was intending, OMG) and am now lurching onward with my Yuletide one.
Yuletide's always a bit tricky for betas - small fandoms and all that - so I thought I'd ask if there's anyone reading this who could beta my 'Only Lovers Left Alive' fic (hopefully under 5000 words) - set in Elizabethan England and will involve sonnets (although that may be a disincentive for some, rather than an inducement!)
Anyway - I'm afraid it'll be very close to the deadline, like on the 19th (deadline being 20th) but that's NZ-time so I guess very slightly earlier in non-antipodean places. 
If you can help, PM me your email if you don't think I'd have it - and thanks heaps in advance. 

A very brief update with three better news things, yay!

Possum is fully recovered, putting back on the weight he lost and is fluffy once more. *hugs him*

I finished and posted my due South Seekrit Santa story (as yet unrevealed) and am pretty happy with it. Not a trope I'd done before and barely touched on in the fandom, which made it interesting and fun to work out. I like taking ludicrous tropes and trying to make them play out in the "real" world of canon. Well, to a degree - let's not get carried away with the pretend realism here and take all the fun out of it.

I panicked about Yuletide yesterday, wrote a false start of 300 words, hated it, then wrote 800 words that I like. And as part of that, the direction it went in showed me what I want to do with the story overall, and what the theme will be. Sheesh - flying by the seat of my pants as usual, but sometimes that's what works for me. Whew. 

(In slightly less shiny news my Sga Santa fic is progressing OK but insists on being looong. Am at 10,000 and it will most likely get to almost 20,000, yikes. Personal (and beta) deadline is the 15th, so am trying to do it alongside the Yuletide fic, or on alternate days, omg.)

Hope you're all surviving the seasonal rush. *waves*

Hi all
Possum's gradually recovering after who knows what caused an injury to his tongue with an actual bit missing for a while. Man, cats need their tongues! It's been an anxious time and he's lost some weight. Luckily, tongues also heal amazingly fast so he's eating more normally now, although as you can see from his coat, not quite up to grooming himself yet. I have replaced his tongue for that task, but am sadly inadequate. :)