Category Archives: Journal

The Plans

So I break radio silence without much to show for it yet, but care not because accountability being what it is, I work better with a little. That said, the plans:

  1. Write trovia a birthday fic (which I'm still wracking my brains over because I want to write something she'll like and I've clearly not gifted her in a while because I'm still wracking my brains over it)
  2. Wrap my head around this thing I'm trying to do with Lisea and Malina (it's a big thing) and turn out something awesome by end of October because...
  3. I'm doing NanoWrimo. I've tried this four years now (not in a row) and I want to finally win.
  4. Then after that, Yuletide. Still waffling on my last two noms. If they let us nominate 4 fandoms, it'd be a wee easier, but alas! It's three.

Love y'all. See you soon.

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So That Was Anti-Climactic... Sort Of

This entry is part 98 of 103 in the series Daily Scribble Reports

On Wednesday, I ended up scribbling one ficlet besides articles. That was it.

After that, I had a wonderful birthday, blessed by friends and family, got my car payment in just in time, for which I'm very, very grateful, and then had a slow, good weekend. I hope you all had a lovely few days as well.

Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Fanfiction — 441 words completed

  1. MCU: Everything Else Between, 441 words

July 2014 Totals

  • Original Fiction: 4 short stories, 11 ficlets — 9435 words
  • Original Poetry: 2 poems — 354 words | 52 lines
  • Fanfiction: 43 ficlets — 8521 words
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Raises Head From Under Water

I’ve been fighting not getting sick lately, so there’s cause for the radio silence. Yes, I’ve posted fanficcy things. Brain’s not all the way there, but I’ve got to be actually gone in order to not be able to do a decent bit of fic. Original fic? Yeah, right. Reading? Can’t concentrate well unless I’m hanging on a heavy knowledge of canon’s scaffolding. Proofreading? Considering asking for an extension and this is a paid job. Poetry even? Yeah, no dice. Crossposting even aforementioned fanfic properly? Hah.

En brief, that’s where I’ve been.

The inspiration’s cranked, just not the execution. I’ve been nibbling at several major projects to see which one will actually let me bite. Haven’t made it far, though I’m in love with the ideas for sure. I’d like to wrap up Son o’ de Guild too. That would get a lot of pressure off for all the abandoned fics, just too scared I’ll throw myself out of the decent Clint/Natasha vibe I’ve got going before I wrap up some other much shorter pieces that I’d like to.

I wonder if I’m a story commitment phobe. Probably not. I just lack that delightful ability to stay focused on a story after I’ve mentally figured it out. Go figure.

Have a snippet:

One moment, Alaine was wrapped in the blinding white light of a gleaming apartment light, begging the child beneath her hand not to die. She was pouring life into an empty hole, feeling it slip through her fingers and out of the body that needed it so badly. The next moment, the entire room was swathed in black darkness except for Devon’s meagre flashlight shining over her hands.

It startled the little boy and startled Alaine, cutting their connection.

“D—!” she swore. Don’t die, don’t die, don’t die. Trust me! “Who turned out the lights?” Alaine demanded aloud, but she didn’t have much spare room for the question or the faint murmuring of Devon’s answer against the blur of sliding into the slippery mind of her charge—playing catch in the tiny sparsely grassed backyard, picking up his father’s gun… She lost herself in the child, holding with a touch that had no fingers or hands, only the pounding, blending of a healer merging her body’s resources with his.

She felt something shoving heavily against her.

Breathe. She breathed, in and out, into the child. Fingers gripped painfully into her shoulder, yanking against the connection. Don’t die on me. Breathe!

Abruptly, Alaine fell away, connection broken as Devon’s voice came clear in her ears, shouting at a volume that made hearing his words impossible. She barely glanced at him, then scrambled away and threw up on the floor beside her. She gagged and retched for what felt like long minutes, and even after she stopped, her entire body trembled. Someone had opened a couple of lantern lights. The yellow glow made her eyes ache, and medical sirens wailed too close to not hurt her ears in her weakened state.

Devon pushed her up gently and put a bottle to her lips.

She wanted water. It wasn’t water. It was the horrible nutrient-rich formula they gave to healers after they nearly passed out. She sucked in a few mouthfuls, ignoring the way it dribbled down her chin.

Devon’s mouth was a grim line again. The emergency medic had tried in vain to keep her from overdoing it ever since she’d been assigned to work with him last year.

She rolled her head slightly to one side, and it nearly sent her heaving again, but she breathed steady, shallow breaths and forced her vision to focus on the little boy she had tried to save. He was breathing—barely, but he was breathing.

 

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Where Have I Been?

In a brief list:

  1. Moving (not done)
  2. Trope Bingo Round Three (done)
  3. Finish my remix fic for a Clint/Natasha exchange (done)
  4. Percolating
  5. Actively collecting prompts
  6. Actively planning books/gifts
  7. Scribbling the occasional poem
  8. Singing to myself
  9. Dealing with finances and sciatic nerve issues (not done)
  10. Trying to stay awake long enough to get some decent reading in (I have not forgotten you, in_the_blue! or you, thecatisacritic!) (seriously not done)

What I'm really trying to work on as opposed to getting done in the corners of life:

  1. Proofreading for a client
  2. Move in
  3. Find my taxes paperwork so I can my refund
  4. Deal with finances and sciatic nerve issues
  5. Finish reading in_the_blue's story
  6. Write a giftfic (short story) for thecatisacritic
  7. Put together an anthology of either poetry or the 365-day challenge

That's where I'm at. How are you?

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My Website is Back!

So let's just say the move caused an ill-timed rearrangement of funds and I didn't even notice my website wasn't paid until I got internet back. But after I paid it, my site is back and it didn't take so long that the data was gone. Yay.

I consider April's numbers lost. They can't be correctly assessed at this point without more work than it's worth.

I'm still tired and involved in the last bit of the moving process and getting the home computer set up, etc. and still have the trope bingo, so don't expect much out of this brain fried individual just yet, but at least I live?

I have written some poetry and fanfic this month and I'll try to track the month at least. Next up on the reading docket is stuff from friends.

How is everybody?

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Miscellany

  1. We're in the new house, but are still in the process of moving in and cleaning out the old house.
  2. I've lost track of my word counts for the month. I want to find them again too because it would be nice to have just one year where I track the whole thing.
  3. I have apparently completely converted to AO3 from FFN, though crossposting is patchy at best in either direction. This was finally motivated by the ads. I hate that I can't get rid of them anymore on FFN.
  4. I have published two books this year in four months. I'm supposed to be at four, but if I go ahead and move my grandfather's birthday present to my other pen name and publish it, I'll technically be at three. This should be done.
  5. I have too much to read, too much to write, and I've got a Couples Big Bang, a remix, and a Trope Bingo on my plate. I'm crazy, but I can't seem to help myself. Am I addicted?
  6. I've been lurking because of the move, but I love you all.
  7. I have converted on two TV shows, but I'll say right now, thecatisacritic, don't bother with either of them. I found them because of Jeremy Renner and Julia Stiles, but got hooked because of the stories: Blue and The Unusuals. Blue will be back. The Unusuals won't. :weepeth with much weeping:
  8. I adore poetry. Now if I could just write fic again, we'd be good.
  9. The start of my trope bingo story #1 is packed in one of many of my boxes scattered somewhere in the garage. Oh, joy. Now I've got to find it.

How are you all?

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Am Reading: February 2014

This entry is part 5 of 6 in the series Am Reading

Started off February with a bang primarily because bad news meant I read more as a coping mechanism. After War of Honor, I slowed down because I got sick, because I distrusted the next book in the series, and because my attempts at reading my collaborator's fiction screwed with my writing, and I gave up. Then I did a little rereading to lift my rotten mood, but rereads don't count, remember?

  1. Doppelganger duology by Marie Brennan - compelling, couldn't put it down
  2. Flag in Exile by David Weber - layered and amazingly good
  3. Honor Among Enemies by David Weber - very good, enjoyed thoroughly
  4. In Enemy Hands by David Weber - reduced me to a quivery, cringing mess—in a good way. I was in no way up to reading the next book immediately and took a reprieve
  5. Mindtouch by M.C.A. Hogarth - even more amazing than expected and ended on a cliffhanger! love, love, love—except the cliffhanger
  6. Mindline by M.C.A. Hogarth - heartpounding, awww-inducing awesome. Love
  7. Echoes of Honor by David Weber - wow, loved
  8. Ashes of Victory by David Weber - oh, my heart
  9. War of Honor by David Weber - There are too many characters I want to strangle right now, not least of all High Ridge and Giancola. I hate how it ended and had to go read the summary of the next book to be sure it would fix it. It will. I must sit through watching my favorite characters fight each other. Gut-wrenching.

Breaking this down by genre:

  • 2 books heroic action-adventure fantasy
  • 6 books military science fiction
  • 2 books general science fiction*

*meaning I haven't the foggiest which subgenres the Mindhealers duology belongs to, but it was awesome and clearly SF.

By series:

  • 2 entire series
  • 1 continuing through a series
  • 0 stand-alone novels
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The Storm After the Fizzle

This entry is part 67 of 103 in the series Daily Scribble Reports

I just reread A Ring of Endless Light, foregoing dozens of books I've been wanting to read for months, proving once and for all that mood figures in more than I'd like when it comes to my reading choices.

Also confirmed why I'm having a hard time reading my collaborator's other works right now. It screws with my ability to write the collaboration. Guess which I'm giving priority? That's right. Writing.

Discovered the new home on the web of one o' my internet besties and adored so many posts I wanted to reblog almost the entire first 12 pages of the tumblr. Go figure. She's one of many awesome people I know. Speaking of which, lithiumlaughter, I just reread A Ring of Endless Light, so we talked about talking about Zachary Grey. :hint, hint:

On publishing, I got my updated covers into review for both trade and mass market on Createspace. If they check out as covers, I order a proof for the mass and okay the trade so I can order copies for my betas/readers. Can I just say I'm HUGELY excited about this?

Tied up a bunch of social/personal loose ends. I know I'm supposed to write first, do other things later, but I've been needing to get some of this stuff done for months. I regret nothing.

So I was supposed to go and write today after all this and just ran out of umph and had a pain in my throat. I declared it a health afternoon and gave up.

Word Counts:

  • Fiction: 0 words
  • Poetry: 0 lines | 0 words
  • Blog: 254 words

Continue reading

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Realistic Fiction

When reviewers complain that a story element is "unrealistic," their real complaint is usually something else. When they say a handsome billionaire falling for a mousy secretary is "unrealistic," they're really saying that the characters were underdeveloped and their romance was flat and contrived. When they say the pat deus ex machina at the end was "unrealistic," they're really saying that it felt cheap. (In general, when people complain about the ending, the problem isn't the ending. The problem is the middle leading up to it.)

— "Ideal vs. Reality," T. K. Marnell

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