Posted a little original mood piece, I suppose you could call it, here, if anyone's interested in that. And the GD fic is up here. Although it's not technically GD as such, since it's Fink/Rev. *waves at bivouack*

I am going to be tired and old and go to bed. One of the other reasons I'm stressing is that I'm constantly tired, both because I'm not sleeping well, and because I am usually exhausted this time of year whilst my body learns to adjust to living with fucking daffodils and the like blooming. Well, usually "this time of year" is actually later in the year, but England does spring damned early and there are seriously daffodils everywhere. Pretty, definitely, but kinda deadly. Anyway, like most people, I cope less well when I'm tired, thus to be sleeping. Hopefully whoever is making dinner will be done (and thus quiet) soon, though I'm wondering how long the scent of cabbage will hang around. Fortunately, that doesn't bother me!

Couple things for the happiness meme today. First, went back to work and that went all right. I was definitely coughing more, but no uncontrollable fits, and I'm tired but not all-out exhausted. W00t. It was also very, very nice to be asked if I was sure I was well enough to be there as opposed to the 'omg how dare you take time off to be sick?' attitude at many workplaces. Reason number ten million and two to like this job. :-)

The second thing has me a little O_O - the Athenian birth of a brand new original character today. Full name, partial physical appearance (can't get a fix on facial features), some personality aspects, some family background, some 'personal issues,' some ideas about the best friend. I have no idea what to do with a quirky teenage girl begging for a YA novel living in my head. I don't know what kind of story she's linked to yet, though I do know it has something to do with her name, and names and labels are a critical theme, but... wtf? I even have a first line! That I LIKE!

What makes this even funnier to me is that I was doing mental run-throughs of upcoming Est stuff, you know, the kind that tends to be X-rated and all boys, and every time I'd hit the point where M!Rob would go, "I can't predict what the little fucker will say/do next," my mind would do this lateral flip and I'd be back with MNO, getting details like what kind of glasses she wears. My brain, she is an interesting place some days. :P

White walls, utilitarian but for the built-in bookcases lining either side of the smoky brick fireplace - unused, its opening grated - and the African blood gourd and painted face mask hung opposite, the rich brown leather burnished in a way that suggests long hours spent in the sun hugged to a sweating body.

One, perhaps, like the boy laughing and dancing in the centre of the room, hips swinging as freely as any woman's to the blare of Bob Marley. One by one the rest push yard sale furniture out of the way and join him until we are all dancing and singing, the reggae beat pulsing heavily in the room - one man in a gaggle of girls, so sweet and gorgeous, smile bright as morning sunshine; and, ultimately, untouchable by any of us despite the Latin dance and language lessons, the skating lessons, the uncontrollable laughter at inadvertent airplanes.

It didn't surprise me, though, to hear that he married soon after graduation, settling into a family life in Malaysia. Sometimes, the pretty ones, all they want is a home.

Never did end up napping so I'll probably be cutting out soon and going to bed ridiculously early. Didn't end up accomplishing much, either, lol. I did finish a piece of original flash fiction though, which I've put up here. It's in need of a better title but that one will do for now. Suggestions for a proper title - or about anything else; I'm always open to concrit - would be welcome.

This is a must-read, even if you're not into Harry Potter at all. It was done last year, so before DH came out, but it's a folk song based on the fact that Hermione's birthday is on Talk Like a Pirate Day. Fucking priceless, even just to read the lyrics! You can d/l the song for free, too. :D Oddly, it puts me in mind a bit of femmenerd's lovely fic, 'Choices' or 'Five Ways Hermione Granger Could Have Lost Her Virginity.'

And for the amusement factor, how about a steaming bowl of soup with an interestingly-labelled flavour? *cackles*

First up, cookies! For some reason, the Yahoo home page thought that seemed like a good subject for me. Which is not entirely correct, as while I do like cookies, I rarely make them - and my mom never made them unless somebody else wanted the bulk of them, like my cousins - because I'll end up eating maybe half a dozen and then I've hit my quota for weeks and the rest go stale, lol. But these three sounded yummy: Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies (grown up a little with tahini!), Chocolate Truffle Cookies, and Chocolate Bliss Cookies.

The 'link salad' concept is lifted from matociquala because I like the "all tossed together" quality of it. :D She has a short story in this month's Jim Baen's Universe, The Rest Of Your Life In A Day. It's a fantasy story and you can read about half of it at that link; to read the rest requires a paid subscription to the e-zine. I *had* to go look at it after her post linking it was entitled, "The penis tattooing story is live!" I laughed. Then read. And now I need a subscription because I have to read the goddamned story and want to read the previous one with the same protagonist too. :P

In all seriousness, though, reading Bear's and truepenny's (Sarah Monette) LJs has served very much to reinforce something to me: I am not cut out to write romance, after all. As a reader, I went from Sweet Valley High right to Harlequin, to horror, to sf/f, and it was really only after starting to write Roswell fanfiction and finally realising that my strengths as a writer are character relationships and, well, sex, that I returned my attention to romance. Intricate plotting isn't as much of a forte, though I'm half decent at worldbuilding. The thing is, after a few years of wading through books and becoming increasingly annoyed at how stifling most of it feels, I've come to the conclusion that it's really, really not my thing, and I'm not willing to corral my thoughts into the narrow parameters necessary to publish in the genre. I'm just not. I think what finally made it clear was that whole debacle with Laura Baumbach's book promo material being removed during a Romantic Times conference due to it referencing m/m content. Hell, I don't even read her stuff and that absolutely incensed me. Which leaves me kind of at loose ends so far as writing anything publishable goes. That doesn't bother me too much at the moment; I'm enjoying band fiction far too much to think of it as anything but a positive, wonderful thing, much like Roswell fanfiction was. And I do have sixteen prompts left to write for the 50kinkyways challenge! (Yeah, seriously, that's it. Go me.) I just wish that any of my original WIPs were speaking to me, or new ones were suggesting themselves. And that I could figure out how to cleanse the Roswell out of one of the WIPs, because it's such a kickass idea and it's all plotted out and nice and intricate and shit, but it's predicated on some of the basic mythology from the show and I haven't been able to get my head around how *else* to get the same results. Ah, well. Though...come to think of it, if I went magic instead of alien - or as well as, maybe - that might work. Hmmmmmmm. Something to think about!

This is a very cool tattoo (thanks to screwthedaisies for showing it to me!). It makes me antsy to get another one, though not one like that - like the design, don't want it on *me*. I have no idea when I'm going to have the money, though; the design I want is fairly large, though only bits of it have detail or colour so that should cut it down some, and I should be able to do it in stages if necessary. I should find out how far ahead of time to have a consultation so the artwork can be discussed and then done, and undoubtedly tweaked since I am really picky. I'd sort of like to ask J to do the artwork - she's the one who designed and tattooed my Eros quill and I love that so much - but I don't really see her much anymore, and so far as I know, she doesn't tattoo anymore, either, plus she doesn't have the equipment that'd be necessary for this one, with shading and stuff; she just had a small gun. I'd feel a bit weird asking her to do only the art, and I have no idea what kind of fee would be appropriate for art only, either. Anyone know?

I've had the window open so long I can't remember what else I was going to post about. *sporfle* Time to settle in with a cup of tea and open Word, I guess. It's a very exciting way to spend Saturday night. ;-)