tarotgal

ALL OF THE SQUEEEEE!

Guess who FINALLY self-published a collection of Strokes stories?! I'm probably the only one who'll ever read it, but I'm still really proud of myself. Can't wait to get it in the mail and look the proof over before it's available for sale.

It's a collection of seven stories about Sinclair that I've been working on for a decade now. I sure took my sweet time with them. LOL But I've been working for the past few weeks doing nothing but rewriting and editing and putting together crappy cover art. I freaked out over the back cover tonight as everything I wrote sounded perverted. I've literally spent the ENTIRE DAY in this chair doing nothing but working on it. The formatting took bloody forever. It's been 11 hours of sitting down and my butt hurts. But I'm so happy! My little Sinclair in his own book! Can't wait to hug it and squeeze it and love it and then find all the typos I should have caught. LOL

But it's DONE!

SO MUCH SQUEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is my third time doing this. Here's Year 2008 & Year 2009 if you want to compare.

There's a key in the expredsheet link below saying where each fic was posted, if there's a fic there you want to read and haven't yet.

Fanfic Year in Review: 2010

Total pieces I wrote this year: 80. Pathetic but steady! I was at 81 last year and 98 the year before.
Expredsheet list of all: http://tgsrealm.beastlet.com/yearinreview/FinishedFics10.htm

Fandoms (including crossovers):
Buffy the Vampire Slayer- 4
Firefly- 1
Harry Potter- 61
Horatio Hornblower- 2
Lord of the Rings- 2
NCIS- 5
Original- 1
Psych- 2
Queer as Folk- 1
Star Wars- 1
Torchwood- 1
Once again, Harry Potter with the overwhelming win. LMOM at Pervy_Werewolf got the numbers up bigtime. This is probably the least diverse that this list has ever been or will ever be. Definitely not enough orig fics here; not a single Strokes fic finished!

Challenges, fests, etc. I participated in:
January- Porn Battles on Insane Journal & Dreamwidth
January-March- Daisy Chain of Awesome (wrote 10 stories)
May- Pervy_werewolf's Lusty Month of May (my 6th time trying & 6th time winning. I went back to the 1 fic a day format and for 2011 I won't be writing fics at all!)
July-December- HC_Bingo (Diagonal Win)
October- Harry Potter Halloween gift fic exchange (wrote 1 drabble)
November- NaNoRebel (wrote more than 50,000 words of assorted things)
October-December- 12 Ficlets in 12 Days (wrote 8 of 12 fics during 2010)
Not as many fests and things as usual. Other things occupied my time this year.

Reasons for pieces:
62- Written for fests, challenges, prompts, etc.
11- Written for someone else (request or gift)
7- Written for self, just because
1- Written as penalty for missing a weekly hatching bunny
I still need to focus more on finishing fics just for me. I write a TON of stories like that, it's just that without deadlines, I have little motivation to actually finish them. I think that's my biggest problem that I should work more on.

Ratings:
A wide range, once again, even some het in there thanks to the Daisy Chain of Awesome and one Crossover in there thanks to a Porn Battle.

Monthly Breakdown
~January~ (16)
HP: At the Ministry
Psych: Bonus 3
BTVS: Addiction
HP: Draco/Harry, crying in the bathroom
HP: Percy/Oliver, polishing cloths
LotR: Haldir/Aragorn, you smilied when I took hold
HP: Not a Spare
NCIS: Gibbs/DiNozzo, "a head-slap really shouldn't turn him on"
HP: The Truth
HP: Forgetful
HP/QAF: The Customer is Always Right
HP: My Only Clean Tie
HP: Finding the Cure
HP: I Saw You Coming
HP: The Way to Men's Hearts
Firefly: Hitch

~February~ (11)
HP: Brigidmn's Request 2007
HP: Eyes
HP: The Stuff of Fairy Tales
HP: Not-so-strange Bedfellows
HP: Discovery
BTVS: Brotherly Love
HP: Too Many Cooks Part 17
HP: Lovely Lily
Orig: A Piece of Peace
HP: An Ideal Husband
HP: The Seer

~March~ (2)
HP: Call Me
SW: Half and Half

~April~ (0)

~May~ (31)
HP: Collared

~June~ (0)

~July~ (2)
NCIS: Sleepwalker
BTVS: Torture

~August~ (0)

~September~ (3)
HP: Herbology Marks
NCIS: Tony Tangos with the Vicious Weed
HH: Shop Talk

~October~ (1)
HP: Luck

~November~ (4)
HP: This'll Be Great
HP: Unavoidable
NCIS: Rule 18
HP: Lupin Loved Black

~December~ (9)
HP: Day 1
NCIS: Day 2
Psych: Day 3
LotR: Galu
HP: Day 4
HH: Day 5
TW: Day 6
BtVS: Day 7
HP: Things to Not Mention in the Toast

For the first time in a long time, I went multiple months without finishing fics. I'm not happy about that, but such is life. And it definitely tapered off in the middle of the year and then it was like one last little sprint to finish and post a bunch. LOL

My Favorite: Collared. It was a big undertaking and something I'd been wanting to attempt for a while. It was challenging (so much noncon and abuse and a whole new AU verse with its own set of rules/regulations) and fun (a character who can't speak/can't use magic, men searching for something and finding something) and it was the first time I ever got actual "hate mail" in response to the fates of some of the characters/pairings! I actually have a follow-up to it in the works (not a series, just a one-shot). But, yeah, I'm really proud of it the fic and happy with the result.

Most Proud of: A Piece of Peace. It's the first novel I've finished since, well, maybe 7th or 8th grade (and it's not like I can compare the writing between then and now). I never even managed to finish any of the novels with Robert that I started. Okay, so I finished it in February instead of November, but it was still thrilling to finish!

My Best: Uuuuum, I can never answer this. Some are clever, some are crap, some are pr0n, some are fluff... it's really tough to judge what's "best."

Most Under-Appreciated: I'm actually rather pleased with Unavoidable. I'd never written anything like it before and it was a tough HC_Bingo prompt that I think I did a pretty good job with.

Most Fun: Sleepwalker was a heck of a lot of fun to write. That thing came at me strong and fast and it was so great to play in Xanthe's BDSM-verse for the first time. It actually needs some serious editing at the end, but while I was writing it, I had a blast. Day 1 was a heck of a lot of fun as well; possibly the fastest giftfic I've ever tackled.

Sexiest: Durrr... um... no clue. Sexy is pretty tough to define. I guess I really fancy 'My Only Clean Tie' if a naughty schoolboy romp counts as sexy.

Single Sexiest Moment: Forgetful has a nice moment I like, with Snape kissing Neville's ivy tattoo. And Day 6 has some steamy moments; I love the idea of Alonso kissing Jack after every single sneeze (and I think he could pull it off, too) *EG*

Holy crap, that's wrong, even for you: Things to Not Mention in the Toast, maybe. I hate that I adore every second of Marcus Flint torture in it. LOL

Fic that shifted my own perceptions of the characters: Lots of the Daisy Chain fics would work here. Not a Spare, for example, explores Ced (though that's in an AU, so I don't know how much is shifting and how much is reimagining). Probably Collared. It was fascinating writing Snape from this angle and writing a Remus who's not able to communicate or, well, function as anything but a sex slave.

Hardest to do: Collared was the hardest to pull off, definitely, because I only had a month and had to post a new chapter every single day. But the hardest to physically write was probably Brotherly Love. I wrote a ton of different versions and had people betaread it years back and still I fought with it to get done in something that resembled "good." I am please with how it turned out, but it was a bitch of a piece when I was writing it. It literally took years and years.

Biggest disappointment: I'm totally going to cheat and say that all of the fics I started and didn't finish (and are therefore not on the list) get this label.

Biggest surprise: This'll Be Great was such a short little piece but I think it came out really well. I learned my lesson about trying to write 100 word pieces during NaNoWriMo (the two do NOT mix) but I thought it turned out nicely just the same. And it's funny what little bits of sex talks with friends/roommates in college come back to haunt me in fics years later. LOL

A story I want remembered: Pretty much any of them! Definitely Collared, though, if I had to name one.

Goals from last year: Finish my 2009 NaNoWiMo attempt. Check! Finish the fics I've promised people. Managed a couple, still failing on the others. Write more just for fun. My "for fun" number is up slightly, but not nearly where I'd hoped it would be when I set this goal. Stay on top of bunny generating so I don't have to write as many penalty fics! HUGE HUGE HUGE MASSIVE FAIL! I totally dropped the ball with that project. And just keep up with all the challenges, battles, and Daisy Chain weeks. I did manage to get everything done and posted on time in 2010. I'm happy with that. I never missed a single Daisy Chain! I really want to write more Strokes-fic. Faily fail fail. I DID write more Strokes fic. I worked on maybe 8 or 9 different fics throughout the year. But I didn't really finish any of them (at least, not to my satisfaction). And there's still so much I want to do. I feel like I made little progress. Though I did work out Auntie Al's backstory, and that's been bugging me for YEARS.

Goals for next year: Dedicate more time to Strokes. Finish all giftfics. Definitely spend more time on fics for my own enjoyment. I'd love to finally get Sin's book together, as I promised him I would. And I'd LOVE to have a good working draft of a YA novel. But that's less a goal and more of a far off dream.

So this was my 6th LMoM. 6 times making the attempt and 6 times completing it. Have I ever won the vote? No. I'm the Susan Luci of pervy_werewolf. LMAO But I really couldn't care less about the voting. I kinda even forget it exists until it's over and the mod mentions it :-) This year I also made a bunch (25) user icons for participants, runners-up and winners. I'm actually pretty happy with most of the icons; they're not as crappy as my usual ones. I just wish I'd thought of the "I kept it up all month" catch phrase BEFORE I made them. But I'm pretty happy with the "I went all the way in the Lusty Month of May" slogan. Thank you, thank you *takes a bow*

This time around, I wrote another series. I find having a crutch helps significantly when writing for the month, because it is DIFFICULT to write a story and get it finished & posted EVERY single day for 31 days in a row. It's a much harder challenge for me than NaNoWriMo, because with that you can skip days and catch up later. If you miss a day in LMoM, you fail (at least, if you're doing Tier 1; thank goodness for the new Tier 2).

This year I was inspired by three things:
1. Someone posting a link to Wikipedia's wife-selling article (featured on April Fool's Day this year)
2. The collaring fics I've been reading lately in (mostly) the NCIS verse
3. The fics I am fascinated by in which characters are unable to speak/communicate verbally

I learned some fascinating things this time around...

*SPOILERS*
So the premise of my story was Rentboy!Remus unable to make ends meet and is forced to enlist in the Ministry's program for werewolves. They keep werewolves and sell them to owners (who typically buy them for sex and then trade them in for new ones). As I'm a puppy shipper at heart, the story assumes a past Remus/Sirius relationship but it takes place after the first war so he thinks Sirius is a traitor who killed the rest of their pack. The collars the owners put on their werewolves inhibit magic and speech (and keeps the werewolf from harming its owner). So there was lots to play with and, well, LOTS of hurting on Remus' part. But, midway through, Snape comes to the rescue. Snape is buying werewolves in order to work on a cure for something he fears. They end up developing feelings for each other and, in the end, Snape takes off Remus' collar and they live happily ever after. Until the epilogue when Remus is actually back with Sirius again (albeit 13 years later, so it's left up to the reader's imagination for the most past, regarding how that happened).

Despite the point of pervy_werewolf, the story wasn't supposed to be about the ships, but about Remus finding his strength and individuality and humor again after all this has happened to him. It's about learning how to trust again. It's about learning how to enjoy sex again. It's about Remus ending his self-punishment and guilt and becoming his own person. Remus goes through a very internal journey. And, in fact, so does Snape. The POV changes halfway through when Snape steps in and he (having been a death eater, having been almost killed by a werewolf, having told Voldy the prophecy that led to Lily's death) goes through a similar journey. I'm actually quite proud of what I accomplished this month. it's not perfect by any means but I put a LOT of layers and elements in there above the general plot and I'm really proud of what I did with the characters.

After I rec'ed a fic x_posed_again wrote for me at a HP meetup meeting, I came to the shocking realization that a LOT of the hurt/comfort I like is heavy on the hurt. As long as really good comfort is so much as implied, I am at peace with the story and filled with warm fuzzies. It didn't occur to me that other people need loads and loads of comfort to balance out the hurt. I think the problem is that I like the hurt as well. Nummy angsty, suffering boys make me happy! And snuggling characters? Also make me happy! So the whole thing is nummy to me. But other people like more of a balance, and I knew I was going to some really dark places with my story that included dub-con and non-con. So I decided on a half hurt and half comfort formula. And though the second part of the fic was also filled with angst and hurt, Remus WAS recovering under Snape's care. When I look back at it, yeah, it was still like 95% hurt. But there's a heck of a lot of snuggling as well. And even Remus is able to do some of the comforting, which he can do even if he can't talk.

But what was MOST interesting about this adventure was the response I got from people. I loved getting feedback on every chapter by readers every day. I write for myself, not for anyone else, but posting it and getting feedback teaches me a lot. And this month taught me about handling readers. As I mentioned above, I thought about them when I thought about the general structure of the hurt/comfort story, but there were other instances. One of Remus' owners does some very not good things to him, and ends up breaking Remus, making him retreat completely into his sub space and stay there as a mindless, obedient body. My readers were with me in NOT liking him one bit, and they demanded some retaliation. I hadn't even considered that when mapping out my story. I got so much feedback about people wanting to do bad things to the bad character that I realized I needed Remus to get to the point where he WANTED to retaliate as well. And I wanted Snape to want to retaliate too, to prove to Remus how he feels about the man. So that was something I added thanks to readers and am GLAD I did.

The biggest moment of reader interaction, however, came at the end. My story made the brains of the Snupin shippers explode. Seriously. People wrote and said I tore out their hearts. People wanted to magically castrate Sirius Black. People said they loved the story until the epilogue and then it became TERRIBLE (so... I guess I'm more like JKR than I intended to be? LOL). A few people were happy with the change. And most weren't happy but respected my choice and were glad Remus ended up happy. But, seriously, the EXPLOSION I got for feedback was amazing. I knew I was going to lose a few of the die-hard Snupin fans, but I never intended to tear out people's still beating hearts! It's really amazing. Seriously. Just take a look at the comments (scroll down to the comment section): http://asylums.insanejournal.com/pervy_werewolf/361825.html

It makes me wonder what I'd do if I were a real published author getting feedback from readers in RL. I'm not sure I could stand up to this sort of hatred of my decisions face-to-face. But this gives me good practice. I write for myself. And I post many things where people can read it. So this was amazing practice in dealing with readers as a whole and on a case-by-case basis. And I'm especially happy to have had that practice, even if I do feel bad for making people's heads explode. In the end, it's my story and my choice and I do think I accomplished what I wanted to do.

Every year, artist lizardspots always does a fanart year in review that's so much fun to read. I thought that it would be fun to do the same thing with fanfic. So this past year I kept track of all the pieces I wrote (though I forgot about a few of them until yesterday so I'm not confident I got them all). And I'm not sure how this is going to turn out, but it should be an adventure!

I would LOVE to hear your comments here as well! And if you can't find any (there's a key in the expredsheet link below saying where each was posted) then let me know.

Without further rambling... here it is... my...

Fanfic Year in Review: 2008

Total pieces I wrote this year: 98 (wish I could have broken 100- so close!)
Expredsheet list of all: http://tgsrealm.beastlet.com/yearinreview/FinishedFics08.htm

Fandoms (including crossovers):
1- 10th Kingdom
4- Angel: the series & Buffy the Vampire Slayer
2- Breakfast Club, The
1- Camelot
2- Charmed
2- Chronicles of Narnia
1- Dinotopia
31- Doctor Who
1- Eureka
1- FAKE
4- Firefly
49- Harry Potter
1- Heroes
1- Highlander
3- Horatio Hornblower
12- Lord of the Rings
2- LOST
1- Marvel Universe
2- NCIS
1- Numb3rs
5- Original Characters (Faeries)
1- Original Characters (Strokes)
1- Pirates of the Caribbean
1- Primeval
1- Princess Bride
3- Queer as Folk US
1- Queer as Folk UK
1- Star Trek: Deep Space 9
6- Star Wars
1- Stargate SG-1
6- Torchwood
1- Velvet Goldmine
1- Weis Kreuz
1- Wolf's Rain
2- X-Men
1- Young Indiana Jones
So it looks like Harry Potter definitely wins out for 2008 followed by Doctor Who, which is mostly because I count LMOM pieces individually since each is its own little story; I still have never written a standalone Doctor Who fic. If I count LMOM as 1, you still get HP in the lead with 19, LotR with 12, and then Original Characters, Star Wars, and Torchwood all coming in at 6. Quite a range of fandoms, though, thanks to 31 days of crossovers.

Challenges, fests, etc. I participated in:
April- Sneezefic Annual Challenge 2007-2008 (wrote 6 stories)
May- Pervy_werewolf's Lusty Month of May (my 4th time trying and 4th time making it the whole time writing crossovers, which was a huge challenge for me!)
June & September- my first and second attempts playing in the Porn Battle (wrote 19 pieces)
July- 30 Days of Neville (wrote 1 piece, accompanied by icons)
September through December- Flashslash (wrote 5 flash pieces for various prompts)
November- NaNoWriMo (didn't finish novel but did pass 50,000 words)
My only challenge regret is letting my Remus/Sirius FuhQFest fic slip. It's still unfinished but the fest is sort of on hold so if I had to let something slip, that was it. I intend to finish it, though.

Reasons for pieces:
63- Written for fests, challenges, etc.
19- Written for someone else (request or gift)
12- Written for self or as exercises
4- Written as penalties for missing a weekly hatching bunny
I really wish I had more time to write fics just because, because I have several hundred unfinished pieces that need attention! As soon as I finish the outstanding promised fics, I look forward to it. One day... I can hope! But apart from those, I do in fact play in a lot of challenges, which is the majority of pieces I write. I like them, though, because they get me thinking about something different and they get me to FINISH pieces, which is my biggest problem.

Ratings:
I didn't keep track of ratings to break it down by those, and don't think I will because I'm not very good at rating my pieces and I'm not consistent (sometimes PG-13 should be R, sometimes R should be NC-17, etc.)

Monthly Breakdown:
*deep breath* Okay, here goes...
~January~ (5)
HP: Gift for brigidmn 2007
HP: The Thoughts of Remus Lupin, During a Snowstorm while Sick with a Cold
SW: The Thoughts of Padawan Obi-Wan Kenobi, During a Snowstorm while Sick with a Cold
A/B: Gift for Katleaf 2007
PB: Gift for Faesone 2007

~February~ (2)
QAF: Gift for oneplusoneequals876 2007
TW: Gift for BVB 2007

~March~ (3)
LotR: Prologue
LotR: Mislead
HP: Favors

~April~ (7)
Firefly: Big Damn Head Cold
HP: Lots Can Happen in Five Minutes
HP: The Last Train Ride
HP: The Night Before Christmas
Marvel: A Taste for Blood
SW: Count on It
LotR: Torment

~May~ (32)
HP/DW/various other: Where, When, Why, Who, & Howl
HP: Mistakes

~June~ (18)
LotR: Deceipt
HP: Inside-out, Outside-in
Firefly: Jayne/Simon, untouched
BC: Brian/John, daytime
TW: Ianto/Jack, ties
XMen: Wolverine/Gambit, card tricks
CON: Caspian/Edmund, keeping quiet on the boat
HP: Severus Snape/Remus Lupin, “I love the sound of you walking away”
HP: Remus/Sirius, motorbike
QAF: Brian/Justin, "it's too cold for this"
SW: Qui-Gon/Obi-Wan, nobody likes a sore loser
Buffy: Xander/Spike, guilty
HP: Percy Weasley/Oliver Wood, opposites attract
NCIS: Gibbs/DiNozzo, peppermint
Numb3rs: Don/Colby, adrenalin
HP: Escape
HH: Hornblower/Bush, "It has been an honour to serve with you."
LOST: Sawyer/Sayid, voices

~July~ (3)
LotR: Messages
HP: Five Ways Neville's Life Changed Before He Turned 20 (And One Way It Didn't)
HP: Surprise Party

~August~ (4)
LotR: Assistance
HH: Gift for snowshie 2007
HP: Identical
TW: Rain, Rain Go Away

~September~ (7)
LotR: Mistakes
TW: The Teaboy Dances
Buffy: Spike/Xander, danger
Firefly: Jayne/Simon, vampires
HP: Remus/Sirius, school ties
TW: Ianto/Jack, hypothermia
LotR: Flashslash 76 Prompt 2

~October~ (8)
LotR: Certainty
OCs: Fountain Faerie
OCs: Apartment Faerie
OCs: Around Town
OCs: Homeward Bound
OCs: Subway Faerie
HP: Ron Penalty Drabble
Strokes: Many Happy Returns

~November~ (1)
BC: Tie-less

~December~ (8)
LotR: Bliss
NCIS: Request for silentdreamer789
SW: Gift for ~A 2007
LotR: Gift for Deb 2007
Primeval: A Different World
Charmed: Witch Solution
HP: Temperature-taking
SW: Obedience

My Favorite: How do I pick a favorite?! They're all my babies! heehee. Maybe Rain, Rain Go Away because it felt fresh and new to me- written in a short period of time, posted in pieces so I got feedback along the way, and a fandom I'm not that experienced in.

Most Proud of: I'm especially proud of Many Happy Returns because I have been working on that for so many years and finishing it gets me one step closer to posting some other finished Strokes stories.

My Best: Oh I don't know! I'm no good at evaluating these things! Maybe Snowshie's giftfic because it totally took hold of me and I wrote it in one day from start to finish and think it turned out beautifully. I loved the language and the way the characters fed off each other. And I thought I did an all right job with the subtle, unsaid stuff.

Most Under-Appreciated: That's easy. Definitely A Different World. It hasn't been posted anywhere yet so I definitely haven't had any feedback about it! heehee The ones I have posted that haven't had any/much feedback are many... so let's just say I'd love to have them all appreciated.

Most Fun: Definitely Identical. Such amazingly rich fetishy goodness to play with. I totally loved using Fred & George to fulfil my devious desires. But Fountain Faerie was also a blast to write and it got laughs when I read it aloud at my writers' rountable group; I even shared it with my mother who said she thought it was great. So that story makes me smile to think about :-) Although Assistance was pretty darn fun to write, too, and it came out of nowhere which makes it an especially fun experience for me.

Sexiest: Um... gosh. I don't know about this one. Can I say Idental again? *blush* My tastes are so... well, you know what my tastes are like. And compared to my usual, I didn't write a whole lot of my usual kind of heavy smut this year. Maybe Deb's giftfic for that visual of staring down at a sneezy elf during sex? Or maybe one of the LMOM chapters (possibly Remus/Justin/Brian or orgy with Remus/Curt/Brian or... oohhhhh Remus/Giles- that one was good). Seriously, I don't know. Nothing's really jumping out at me as the absolute sexiest.

Single Sexiest Moment: Probably ~A's giftfic with Qui-Gon totally losing it from Obi-Wan's sneezes? That makes me go weak. Or Remus watching himself having sex with Sirius in the past in LMOM part 18.

Holy crap, that's wrong, even for you: Oh *blush* possibly a tie between LMOM part 11 Remus/Cyrus (David Thewlis character/David Thewlis character with Remus humping Cyrus' stump & wooden leg) and the golden showers/watersports fics like Favors and Surprise Party

Fic that shifted my own perceptions of the characters: Pretty much every time I write anything Torchwood, I discover something new. The month-long crossover with Remus and the Doctor was rather illuminating as well.

Hardest to do: Many Happy Returns. I kept getting blocked at every turn while writing it. I wanted it to be fantastic and it didn't turn out as perfectly as it was in my head. Plus I had to do a ton of research on church services so I feel like that could have been messed up and I wouldn't know. And all those military-related costumes? I totally ran out of ideas and kept second-guessing myself. I wrote the easy parts first and then tried to fill in the rest so even though I started the story years ago, most of the parts I wrote this year were one hard scene after another.

Biggest disappointment: Hmm. The Ianto/Jack, hypothermia drabble. With a prompt like that I really should have been able to come up with something much better. But I was pressed for time and blah blah excuses excuses.

Biggest surprise: Snowshie's giftfic came out of absolutely nowhere and surprised the heck out of me; Big Damn Head Cold came out of nowhere and took hold as well and was surprising considering I'd never written in the fandom before. I was also pretty surprised that the LMOM crossovers went as well as they did considering I'd never written one of the main characters before and I don't usually write crossovers at all. The twins in Lots Can Happen in Five Minutes surprised me, too, and I fell in love with them. The wonderful feedback I got from Tie-less rather surprised me as well.

A story I want remembered: There are a few that really touched my heart while writing them- like The Night Before Christmas and the Star Wars LMOM chapter and the Hornblower/Bush porn battle piece and even The Teaboy Dances. There are moments in all of those that I'd love for others to remember. But on a whole... man... I guess I want readers to remember any and all stories that speak to them for whatever reasons- sexy, fun, humorous, touching, etc. I feel like I can't pick.

Goals for next year: I want to do a much better job of finishing giftfics and requests; I feel guilty about not finishing so many in a timely fashion. And I want to have more time to play with "just because" stories. I also desperately want to finish Under House Arrest, which I completed a chapter of in December and then mapped out in my mind. And I want to come up with something great for my 5th LMOM project, which I think I'll be calling: Remus Lupin and the Prisoner of Ass Cabin *snort*

So I ended up feeling a lot better halfway through work today. I came home and took a quick shower, ate a very quick dinner, and then went to my monthly Writers' Roundtable group. There was a new chica there with a story not only set in England and mentioning going to Scotland *drool* but the character was gay and just discovering his sexuality. The writing was beautiful and the character rocked and I think the guy in the story has my answering machine. LOL

ANYWAY, it was a great meeting and I ended up sharing a writing exercise I did quickly yesterday and the day before and roughly edited during my lunch break at work today. But it's something I've been wanting to write for literally months now. I just posed it on my writing journal (mymightypen) if you want to read it. http://mymightypen.livejournal.com/10164.html
It got a lot of laughs and some good and useful feedback, so I'm very happy. Not that I wanted to do anything with this piece as it's just an exercise, but it brought up a lot of issues that were discussed so I thought it was a good thing to share. Enjoy!

Okay... *huge warm hugs* As no one yet has thought it a terrible idea (and, on the contrary, everyone's been wonderful about it!)... does anyone have a preference as to what fic(s) you might like me to do a commentary for? My only preference is not The Ondarian Virus because.... well... LONG! And atypical, at that.

So... anyone curious about anything in particular and want to make a suggestion for a fic I should look at? Because otherwise it's me picking a number from 1-400 or something random like that :-)





On a complete unrelated note... we've got a new cat in our house as of last night. It's a neighborhood cat that some people in our development have been feeding but neglected to take to the vet for some reason. So my mom took her in yesterday. She's 2-3 years old but really, really tiny and skinny. She's white with bright blue eyes which means, yeah, deaf. But otherwise she's all right and now she's had her shots and she's living in a room in our basement until we know what to do with her. I just went down for the second time to see if I could get her to come out from behind the desk and not only did she come out but she JUMPED into my lap, lay down, and began kneading. So I think she's all right. She's SUCH a cutie!

A while ago... a long while ago... I was asked a question on my LJ about spelling sneezes (for the life of my I can't find the original post to reference here). I promised a prompt but thorough response and never provided. And I've felt badly about that. So then I read this meme on a friend from one of my other LJs "Ask me one question - any one - about my art, then post this in your LJ so I can satisfy my curiosity about yours" As I've proved my art sucks, I thought I'd do the same regarding my stories. And hopefully this doesn't sound all Prima Donna- ick! LOL


SO: Ask me one question - any one - about my writing (sneezefics or non) then, if you like, post this in your LJ so I can satisfy my curiosity about yours.


AND: ( Long explanation about how I spell sneezes when I write )

So, yeah, ask away. Depending on the length of my answers, I'll post answers as replies or separate posts :-)

Just... bah....

Going to the dentist tomorrow. I fing hate the dentist. However, he's one I've never seen/been to before and is supposedly nice. I just... I hate the dentist. I know everyone says that, but I really do. LOL Give me a visit to the gynacologist ANY day over a dentist!!! That's FUN to me in comparison! Though, speaking of that, I should go there also. This would all be so much easier if I had health insurance...

And then onto the next un-amusing topic... we have rats in our backyard. I was the one to find them a few days ago. Let the dog out in the middle of the night. Heard scuttering. Saw something small and brownish dart into the bushes. My family all saw them yesterday- they're rats. At least two. I still haven't actually seen them so I'm in denial. But I love rats, I really do. In pet stores and all, at least. Not the disease-carrying, chew through our fence sort of kind. So now we're going to have to get rid of half our bird feeders and such. It's a bummer. 20 years living here and we've never had rats before. Almost every time we go out into the bakyard at night we heard them bolting out of the yard. Ew! Freaky! LOL So now we keep the outside light on all night and that helps a bit. But... yeah... rats! Ickness! LOL I prefer nice, clean, safe caged rodents any day.

You'd think with a house full of cats they wouldn't dare come into our yard! But as the cats can't go outside... I guess it's no so surprising.

Picked up my Remus & Snape potion story... the first part of which I posted here eons ago... anyone remember that? Well, I'm trying to finish it now. And I worked a little on an Oliver/Percy short fic (short being 10 pages or so). But I'm also really trying to finish a fic for the latest pervy_werewolf challenge. Though, as I was writing, another story as a challenge answer came to mind... scarf tassels and nipples and teasing and oohhh I love that list. Makes me feel a lot less pervy when I get these ideas and realize they're tame in comparison to some of those fics *snuggles the list*

Came to a horrible decision this week: I can only write H/C and porn. Not that I'm incapable of anything with a plot... it's just that none of my muses will allow me to try it. Any time I try, it ends up disgustingly angsty anyway, like the kind you write as a depressed teenager that you think are so deep and then you grow up and realize they're embarrassingly horrible. But every time I try my muses distract me with easy-to-write H/C or porn. Like they don't want brilliant plots to come out of me or something. LOL It's not so bad... it's enjoyable. It's just a sad state of affairs. *aims kick at muses*

*is scared* Did I mention I hate going to the dentist? *shudders and hides under the bed where my cat's been hiding these last few days*

Because as anyone in RL can tell you, I'm the most indecisive person you'll ever meet... I need some help with the fic for this weekly hatching. I've been DYING to write this fic since I read the bunny- but didn't start the fic until it was picked, to be fair. Now that I've started it, I need some help.

Patient Zero. I don't want it to be a Gryffindor or a Slytherin, because of later "plot" elements. And I don't *think* I want it to be a member of the faculty/staff. I guess it could... but I don't want all the blame to be placed on Hagrid or someone like that.

So the question is- who?

And first off, when? I'd like to set the fic during year 3 because of Remus (of course) as well as Percy and Oliver and the older students. But... well, sniffly little kids aren't so much fun for me. So I could always do an AU 6th/7th year where Remus comes in to tutor or something. But, yeah, AU's aren't really my thing either.

So I'm leaning towards 3rd year still. But as far as the first one to get sick... anyone have any suggestions? I'm tempted to make it Cedric... the poor Hufflepuffs are already kicked around. They can handle the blame, I think. I mean, I could always go Ravenclaw. And I would prefer to make it a recognized student to start out with, rather than an OC. So anyone have any thoughts/advice?

Of course, I could always just scratch all this and make it Marauder era... but I have so many Marauder fics open at the moment that I'd rather not.

But... still... when? Who? Anybody have any suggestions for me? Or must I torture poor Ced?