singedsun

Snowflake Days #12 & #14

Fri, 31 Jan 2025 07:24:40 GMT

Day Twelve

Create a Rec Countdown.

5 Books I loved in 2024

Lights On by Navessa Allen (Dark Romance)
We Used to Live Here by Marcus Kliewer (Weird House Horror)
Magnolia Parks by Jessa Hastings (Modern Romance)
Sing Backwards and Weep by Mark Lanegan (A memoir, PNW punk scene)
The Space Between Worlds by Michaiah Johnson (Multiverse Sci-Fi)

4 Bands/Musicians I am currently obsessed with

Boys Go To Jupiter (pop/disco) - Start with "Virginia"
Sofia Isella (angry woman pop) - Start with "The Doll People"
Maddie Zahm (pop) - Start with "If It's Not God"
Matt Berry (of WWDITS fame - 60s pop by way of Orville Peck) - Start with "Silver Rings"

3 TV Shows I'm currently watching

Elementary 2012 (rewatch) on Hulu
Hysteria (an 80s Satanic Panic themed story with Bruce Campbell & Nolan North) on Peacock
Nobody Asked (Mythbusters but with comedians) on Dropout

2 Games I'm playing

Dragon Age: Veilguard (DRAGONS RPG)
State of Decay 2: Juggernaut edition (Zombie post-apocalyptic solo base builder)

1 Fic I recently loved

Home is Not a Place by bioloyg (a Sam/Evan fic from Dimension 20's Misfits and Magic)

Day Fourteen

In your own space, create your own fandom challenge.

In the comments, or in your own space, I'd love for people to share fics they love that have less than 10 comments or kudos (or something relatively low for the fandom/characters). I love to boost fics with a small reach and others should get the chance to experience them!

Window Shopping by gwendolyngrace (a Marvelous Mrs. Maisel - Lenny/Midge in SPACE)
An Understanding of Empty Hearts by tossawary (Dracula - scooby gang at tea)
Oh, The Grand Old Sargent of York by dwemma (Darren's actor change magically explained)

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Snowflake Days #9 & #10

Thu, 23 Jan 2025 07:24:12 GMT

Day Nine

In your own space, create a fanwork.

I have a fanmix for Marcus/Tomas from The Exorcist here (on YT - songs, not videos).

It's a lot of ballad-y alt rock for the most part.

Day Ten

In your own space, talk about one of your fandom firsts. This could be your first fandom, your first fandom friend, the first fanwork you created, the first fanwork you interacted with... The options are endless!

First fanwork - as I mentioned in Day 1, my first fanfic was for Firefly. It just felt like something I needed to write and I showed it to my boyfriend at the time and that was it. Sat in a notebook until I started writing other things.

I'm not sure it was my first fandom necessarily. If I had known about fandom as a teenager and had access to the internet, I probably would've been DEEP into Saved by the Bell fandom. It was hands-down my favorite show for most of my elementary and high school years.

My first fan community maybe oddly wasn't for any sort of media work, it was for a person - an artist. Somehow when I originally got on the internet, I found the artist Linda Bergkvist. She is a Swedish digital artist and at the time I was very very new to digital art and she was extremely talented at it. She went by 'enayla' online and had a forum of her own called Ebony Keep. (You can also still find some of her work here at DeviantArt.) I frequented and then eventually modded that forum for several years (pre-livejournal years) but it's where I met my very first online friends. Some of whom I still know and see in person from time to time.

Ebony Keep was an online home to me and when Linda was quite literally bullied offline for good the forum did eventually shut down. I will always always be mad at a part of the internet for that and these days, the sort of work she did is the type of work that wins awards. Truly ahead of her time. (If you like Linda's art style, you can look up Lauren K Cannon 'navate' who picked up her style and then took off with it.)

I don't know how many other people from Ebony Keep still write or do art, but occasionally I see one of them around online and it's a lovely bit of nostalgia. [Socar Myles, Laura Siadak, Levi Simpson, Darla Ecklund, Naomi Nowak, Julie Lichty]

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Snowflake Days #7 & #8

Wed, 22 Jan 2025 07:26:32 GMT

Day Seven

In your own space, create a list of at least three things you'd love to receive, something you've wanted but were afraid to ask for - a wishlist of sorts.

I feel like every year I fall in love with a fandom (or a fandom idea) that literally no one else is interested in that I also can't seem to wrap my head around how exactly I want to do it either. So I don't know if it's that people struggle like I am about how to make that first thing for it, or if it's just that I'm just a sucker for really niche things.

I've talked about it before... actually I think I talked about it in a previous snowflake challenge (I did - it's here), one of the television shows I really love is the Dracula television show from 2013 with Katie McGrath and Jonathan Rhys Meyers. Very very very rarely and usually only for Yuletide, do I get any Lucy/Mina anything for that show.

Last year though, I really wanted something for the band, Sleep Token - like a bunch of people are writing smutty fanfics about their ofc and how hot the singer is for her and sure, great for you. What I want though is like worldbuilding for that band. They already have some but there's a whole cosmic potential with their lore and I'd love to see what people come up with for it. Like give me D&D campaign level worldbuilding for this band. (Also a D&D Campaign based on their lore would fucking rock.)

This past Yuletide it was for the Butcher & Blackbird novel (or the whole Ruinous Love series) by Brynne Weaver. Sorry, I love Hannibal and you thought two serial killers who fall in love wasn't going to make me want fanfic? I get it, they're straight and it's less exciting so I haven't really seen anything for it. HOWEVER I want more of them so much.

Day Eight

In your own space, write a promo, manifesto or primer for a beloved character, relationship or fandom.

Let's talk about Sleep Token in fact. Their genre is a little rock/metal amorphous. Technically I think they count as Prog Rock/Metal, but there's so much of it that could straight up be pop if it wasn't for a mid song breakdown, or a lyric of screamed lyrics. However, if you like rock and or metal music here's a few comps - Bad Omens, Dayseeker, Starset, Architects, Leprous, Nothing More, We Came As Romans. And I don't think they're a far comp from more mainstream rock bands like Breaking Benjamin, Linkin Park, Sevendust, Deftones.

My favorite Sleep Token song is Alkaline (link to the YT video).

LORE: Sleep Token is a masked, anonymous band. You COULD look up who the singer is and find his name (and maybe the names of other band members) but that would make you a bad fan. They're specifically going out of their way to stay anonymous.

The lead singer is called Vessel. This is his name because he is the Vessel for the god they worship, Sleep. The rest of the band is known as II "Two" (drums), III "Three" (bass) and IV "Ivy" (guitar). They all wear masks. In the last year they've also added a few backup singers (also masked) who go collectively by Espera.

The songs (as far as the fans know) are telling a story about Vessel and Sleep's relationship. When asked about Sleep, Vessel has said, "We are here to serve Sleep and project His message. He is everywhere, at all times." Vessel encountered Sleep in a dream, with promise of glory and magnificence if Vessel followed Him. (That said, a lot of people and I think the songs too, often make it feel like Sleep is a woman - but perhaps they're just a genderless cosmic entity.)

Vessel writes most of the songs (sometimes with help from Two). The lyrics are often complex and personally I feel like there's a lot of water and technology imagery. There's also themes of death and possession (or feasting) and it's hard to tell if Vessel is afraid of Sleep taking him over, or if Vessel feels as though Sleep is helping him through things and welcomes this kind of ownership/possession.

I don't particularly agree with all of it, but on Reddit a few years ago someone went through and put some thoughts into their whole discography to try and fit it into the Sleep/Vessel lore. It's a fun read.

I think all the songs are bangers personally, but if you listen to Alkaline, like it and want more, I suggest the Take Me Back to Eden album. It's varied and interesting and the most recent of their albums. "The Summoning" is usually a hit for just about everyone (link to YT video).

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Snowflake Days #5 & #6

Tue, 21 Jan 2025 07:36:50 GMT

Day Five

Talk about what has improved in your life thanks to fandom.

I met many good friends through fandom over the last twenty or so years. I've honed my writing ability both with and without collaborators. I've visited cool conventions with friends. I've met amazing writers I adore through fandom or fandom friends. I've also been able to introduce real life friends to things I love, fandom things we might not have enjoyed otherwise. Mostly I think as I've mentioned before, just having a community of any shared experience, is life changing on its own. It's a little like always have someone to sit with at lunch. It makes a difference.

Day Six

Share your favourite piece of original canon.

I've already talked about how much I love Dragon Age. It is probably the fandom I've ever best connected with. But that's a big series with a lot of bits and there's not one specific thing that stands out to me. I just like it. However, I just recently got a Dracula tattoo, so maybe let me talk about the part of that finally drove me to get a tattoo.

So, I've read the book a few times but last year a series of passages stuck out to me and so suddenly, like it took over my body in that moment and I had to sketch it out because I was so taken with it. It comes from a conversation in the book between Van Helsing and Dr. Seward. If you know the story, it takes place after Lucy's funeral. The group is returning via train and Arthur (Lucy's betrothed) makes a comment about the transfusions they were giving her and equates it with marriage. (Which given that all the men gave her blood would make her a polygamist.) Van Helsing is seized with 'hysterics' and barely contains himself until he and Dr. Seward make it to their train car. And of course, as you might in a sad moment and someone starts laughing, Jack looks at him like he's nuts. He asks Van Helsing what the fuck is going on with him, this is a sad thing and you're laughing? This is Van Helsing's reply:

“Keep it always with you that laughter who knock at your door and say, 'May I come in?' is not the true laughter. No! he is a king, and he come when and how he like. He ask no person; he choose no time of suitability. He say, 'I am here.' ... Oh, friend John, it is a strange world, a sad world, a world full of miseries, and woes, and troubles; and yet when King Laugh come he make them all dance to the tune he play. Bleeding hearts, and dry bones of the churchyard, and tears that burn as they fall - all dance together to the music that he make with that smileless mouth of him. And believe me, friend John, that he is good to come, and kind. Ah, we men and women are like ropes drawn tight with strain that pull us different ways. Then tears come; and, like the rain on the ropes, they brace us up, until perhaps the strain become too great, and we break. But King Laugh he come like the sunshine, and he ease off the strain again; and we bear to go on with our labour, what it may be.”

While this whole passage is fantastic, as Van Helsing is essentially reminding Jack that hey, sometimes life is weird and daunting and you feel weird about it. If laughter comes, let it come. To me though, the idea of King Laugh, laughter as and anthropomorphized being, who's arrived to make you feel laughter so strongly you can't ignore it. Like it's a tiny escape from life to be burdened with such laughter, that really stuck out to me.

I, as an auDHDer, who often has time feeling vulnerable and just feeling my feelings, need the reminder. Sometimes you have to feel the feeling that's coming to you whether it's joy or sadness. AND I'd prefer the laughter.

Similarly there's a joke from Pete Holmes about being an easy or a hard laugh who says:

"I'm an easy laugh. I don't know why people always make fun of people who are easy laughs. ... Worse than that people are proud of being hard laughs. ... What are you Nosferatu? Let some sunlight on your goddamn soul."

So I got a tattoo last week that says, "KING LAUGH" and I'm very happy with it.

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Snowflake Day #3 & #4

Mon, 20 Jan 2025 06:54:19 GMT

Day Three

In your own space, talk about a fannish opinion you hold that has changed over time.

I'm not sure about this one exactly, I think that when I was younger and newer to fandom^(TM) I felt a lot like I was an outsider. Like all the cool kids new the special codes and language and if you didn't know it, you shouldn't bother. And like fandom is very gatekeepery still. There's always going to be a corner of misfits who feel like they're bigger and better and know more and are above reproach in some way. But it's also not like that at all. It's welcoming, it's open, it's exuberantly accepting of excited new fans. They want fresh writers, podfics, remixes, and artists but I think they're a little harder to find and it can be really hard to put yourself out there for the first time (or the second, or the third). But sometimes, you have to just do the thing for you. It's why I started to write fanfiction and now, I'm back to the same feeling. Get the urge to write a thing, write and maybe post the thing. That's it.

When I finally found a big fandom that I loved, I got very caught up in the "I can't write that" mindset, because I didn't want to infringe on certain aspects of fandom. Oh, so-and-so is the Anora person, so I can't write this Anora fic because they did something based on ... whatever.

But, that's just two cakes. I love the surprise of two cakes. Six enemies to lovers fics about my favorite ship? YES PLEASE and I'll take a seventh. Have I seen a gifset of this same scene from five different gif makers? YEAH and I'll happily do it again! *bangs pots and pans* GIMME MORE

Day Four

Since this is the start of a new year, this challenge will be to set your own goals! Of course we can all make large or ambitious goals, remember that small and/or short goals are also good!

I have a few, mostly because the past year and a half or two years has been really hard on me creative/writing-wise. My word for this year is GROUND. To me that's getting back to my roots, feeling present, being me as much as I can be.

I signed up for getyourwordsout at 75k. I struggled last year and only got about halfway. This year I know I can do it.
I've been wanting to come back here for awhile - now I've done it
I plan to do an unofficial version of NaNo this year. Not having the community there last year (I won't be going back no matter the changes they make) made it hard to keep with it, but I feel like I can figure it out and do something.
I want to do book reviews somewhere. Maybe TT if it sticks around. Maybe YT shorts. (I'll do them here too.)
Oh and I've set a goal of 50 books this year. I met it (just barely) last year, and I want to do it again this year. Having a regular book club means at least 12 books are accounted for.
I have at least 1 fanfic I need to post a long chapter for, I've been editing forever and putting off finishing it. I need to do that. I don't want to set the goal to finish the whole fic this year, but if I can post this one, I want to at least get a good ways into another chapter on it.
I think I'd also like to make sure to write something in an exchange or challenge that's not just Yuletide as well.
ETA: We bought a Little Free Library kit for Christmas and I want to get it up and stocked in the yard by the end of January. I'm very excited, it just needs to be painted and put up. I've already made a website for it!

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Snowflake Day #1 & #2

Sun, 19 Jan 2025 07:33:37 GMT

I am planning to make my return here to DW. My social media landscape has been/is shrinking. I'm on tumblr daily but rarely post myself, I spent almost every day on TikTok but never posted anything myself, and I'm planning to delete both FB & IG in the coming days after the Zuck of it all. (I am on BlueSky and will try to post on there, but I've rarely been comfortable posting anything about me regularly anywhere but here and LJ back in ye olden days.

snowflake_challenge is as good a time as any to reintroduce myself.

So, Day One:

Update your fandom information.

Done. A little clean up to my profile and links.

You can find me at thesunsaid where I post (mostly) Dragon Age & Critical Role fic, in addition to whatever yearly flavor of Yuletide fandom I've chosen for the year. In recent years I've also done a few long fics for The Exorcist, which I've enjoyed writing.

I'm singedsun on tumblr as always. And while I use it regularly, I don't post any personal stuff there, including fic.

My guidelines for transformative works is both in the header of my main singedsun page and on my tumblr about page. You'll also get a little flavor for my friending policies and what I'm about in both of those places as well.

And while I originally wrote it for tumblr I have an Unfollow FAQ there that's relevant for here too.

Also if you're the sort of person that likes a good fandom/character mood board, I do a lot of that actually over on Pinterest thestorminme.

Lastly, at the top of my DW page, I have links to all those places recently updated to replace old ones (my twitter was nixed two years ago) with new ones (the aforementioned BlueSky).

Day Two

In your own space, talk about your fannish origin story.

I have a really really long origin story posted here from a few years ago. TL;DR though, I didn't dip my toes into fanfic until about 2004 when I had an epiphany about a Firefly story I wanted to write. I wrote it for myself, but didn't know about how people shared stuff online too much, so it lived with me until a few years down the road when I got VERY into the Dragon Age books and video games and met a community I loved and had stories just bursting out of me. Though I'd been involved with a lot of online communities even creating and hosting some myself in the past, I never was sort of head-over-heels in the same way I was (and still sometimes am) for Dragon Age. It consumed a fair number of years of my life, basically until I returned to DW in late 2018 when I was very sad and thought (obviously not for the last time) I'd lost my digital community.

Here I am again to throw myself at your digital shores and hope to find myself among friends (old and new).

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20k for FFFX

Mon, 14 Mar 2022 06:46:24 GMT

I happened on a whim to pick up a fic request for The Exorcist TV show (which I love but had never written for). It was supposed to be about 10k words and I figured with the short time I had I could still probably make that work. I had about two-ish weeks to write it (and then an extra week or two for edits and beta) and yet I managed to completely overestimate the amount of story I had and the words I could write it in. So this story ended up being the fastest twenty thousand words I've EVER written and even with that short time frame I felt like it was also the easiest story I've ever written. Like Nanowrimo words have nothing on this thing.

I also haven't written anything quite so ambitious in a really long time so be able to do this in a short time frame felt really great.
Anyway I'm pretty proud of it.

There's Nothing Here But Light (20652 words) by thesunsaid
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The Exorcist (TV)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Marcus Keane/Tomas Ortega
Characters: Marcus Keane, Tomas Ortega
Additional Tags: the slowest of slow burns, big tent revivals, Bible verses, Exorcisms, casefic, Post-Canon
Summary: It's nine months after Seattle. Tomas and Marcus are on the road again, without Mouse, and definitely not discussing what transpired in Seattle. Marcus watches for any crack in Tomas' armor while they help a local priest check in on old friends who may need help. A big tent revival and an aging evangelist forces them to confront the past.

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Fandom Fusions

Fri, 07 Jan 2022 06:36:19 GMT

In talking to a friend of mine the other night, we stumbled on a slip of tongue fusion that I'm sure, someone somewhere must've written already, but like if they haven't and people still have momentum for this fandom... please take this idea and make it a thing. We were talking about Fleabag, as this friend had rewatched the show while they were sick as a comfort watch and we got off on quite the tangent about how great Andrew Scott is as The Priest. However at one point in that chat they accidentally called him Moriarty instead of The Priest (they're a huge Sherlock fan) and OMG the possibilities. EITHER with Moriarty pretending to be a Priest to hide from Sherlock (wonderful thought) OR with the Fleabag format but with Sherlock as Fleabag. I mean the potential. And this is coming from someone who isn't really a Sherlock fan (not the Bendehoop Cucucumber version anyway, give me RDJ & Jude Law please). BUT STILL 🤯 Andrew Scott's flirty sneaky Moriarty is the best choice.

Honestly, I have A LOT of mental exercise fun in throwing random concepts together like this even if it's never something I would write (or maybe even read if someone did write it). Some of my very very very earliest fanfiction was retellings of things like Alice in Wonderland and Little Red Riding Hood and things like that where it's SO EASY to exchange characters into a situation and find a reason for them to exist in this other universe and just figure out how their personality would fit.

In that same vein, it's one of the reasons I like things like the intoabar challenge, because it's all about taking characters from disparate fandoms and smashing them together under a very simple conceit, which is that they are both in a bar. I've done it twice and I think I want to try and do it again this year when it comes around, because I love it so much.

I'm not super interested in a lot of your typical AU formats - your coffee shops, your (high/univerity/magic) schools, whatever. They're not for me, but I can see why people like them. That said, one of the things I do like kind of mashing up (and this will come as no surprise to people who know me here) is that I love to take the premise of a song - something with a strong story preferred, and mashing it up with characters I find easy to write. I think that's also part of why I like fanmixes so much. To bring this full circle in fact, when I wrote a Fleabag story a few years ago for Yuletide, I kept the Priest's speech on love (that he gives in the finale) and sort of wove it through his whole thought process in this future moment when he see's Fleabag again some time in the future. I didn't call them out as speech bits... but it was import to me in the premise of the story that I felt like I was pulling those speech themes into the fic. An interesting adventure in writing for sure.

Less on the topic but I find kind of related is something that used to come up (for me anyway) during old fandom Alphabet challenges where I tried to figure out how on earth two very disconnected characters in a big character rich fandom (like Dragon Age) for example might get together and how they'd get along. It was part of the reason I created the whole ALL CHARACTERS ALL THE TIME pairing/prompt generator for Dragon Age. Like how can I just click a button and have a randomized pairing that I have to fit together somehow. Again, a fun brain exercise.

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Jukebox Fest Reveals

Sun, 07 Jun 2020 07:15:51 GMT

Now that reveals are done for Jukebox, I thought I'd share what I wrong and what I was gifted. If you're unaware of what @jukebox_fest is, it's a fandom exchange for original works (art/fic/podfic) based on songs or music videos. This was my first time participating, so while I knew immediately the songs I wanted to request fic for, it took me so long to figure out what I could write for!

I knew I had to request Amber Run's "I Found", for either the song or the music video -- which feel like very different experiences. Ultimately I requested the music video itself, because there's a weird story being presented about a kidnapped woman and I was eager to see if someone would pick up that story and write to what's happening in that video. I was no disappointed!

lamiacalls nailed the video's story line, giving an internal monologue to one of the two men in the video. I really liked this take, his nervousness, his uncertainty and the choice he makes in regards to the woman. If you want to watch the video first, you can find it on YouTube here. (CW: kidnapping) If you'd rather hear my favorite version of the song, it's a choral version done here with London Contemporary Voices.

Further Than I Thought (1789 words) by LamiaCalls
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: I Found - Amber Run (Music Video)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Original Female Character/Original Male Character
Characters: Original Female Character(s), Original Male Character(s)
Additional Tags: Kidnapping, Falling In Love, Angst, Pining
Summary: Travis made it sound so simple. They get the girl, they leave a note. Hide out for a few days, get the cash. Done deal, no fuss.

So it wasn't on my original list to offer but this song, Deerhunter's "He Would've Laughed" really spoke to me. And I was so interested in the simple request for it, which suggested this very Old West kind of vibe. That idea latched into my brain and wouldn't get out. I'm pretty proud of this piece since it's been awhile since I've written anything original. You can listen to the song here.

Patiently, Patiently (1981 words) by singedsun
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: He Would Have Laughed - Deerhunter (Song)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Original Male Character/Original Male Character
Characters: Original Male Character(s)
Additional Tags: Hurt/Comfort, Gold Rush Era, Western
Summary: Neighboring land claims in the gold rush; the accident and the cattle dog that pushes them together.

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Jukebox Fest Nominations

Thu, 26 Mar 2020 05:42:37 GMT

Nominations opened today for jukebox_fest

I missed out last year due to weird timing so I'm looking forward to this year. You all know I love music so very much so it took me a bit of time to figure out which songs I wanted to nominate. Then I had to somehow whittle that list down to seven songs only. That was a difficult task and I reached WAAAAAAY back to young me to find songs that I love very deeply. At least of them I've written to already, but I really want someone else's take too.

Anyway, if people would be interested in seeing what I'm nominating, I'll drop the songs with YT links below: ( jukebox nominations )
Also if anyone else plans to participate and has extra nomination places, I would totally be grateful for the chance to throw some other songs at you to nominate.

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Femslash February

Wed, 29 Jan 2020 05:22:36 GMT

halfamoon will be running Feb 1st - 14th and I'll be helping out there. The goal of the half a moon challenge is the write female-centric characters for the first half of the month. While I'll be there, working through the Lunar prompts, my heart also permanently lives in February for all it's femslashy possibilities.

Here's a few other ways work women and femslash into your writing this month:

fiachairecht is hosting the second annual round of Bring Her Bleeding Heart to Me - a dark femslash commentfic meme for all of February. I'll be doing my best to drop or pick up a few things from there.

elasticella is hosting a the Femslash February Frenzy: a multifandom extravaganza to encourage more people to write femslash fic for the month.

femslashficlets has also posted their newest table for this year, which is a tarot challenge you can find here.

If I missed someone from something else here on DW, let me know and I'll add it. Can't wait to read what comes out of this next month and I'm very much excited to get writing. Speaking of which if people have Critical Role (either campaign), Dragon Age or Dracula prompts for me - I'm happy to take them!

ETA: I've been informed that rthstewart will host the 3 Sentence Ficathon in February at her journal. Detail from nycanthes: Not femslash specific, per se, but the prompts are great. Many are open ended: any canon, any pairing. Additionally, the 3 sentence focus (with a very loose definition of what constitutes a sentence; it's fine if you go over) gives folks a chance to write with a very low barrier to entry.

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Rec Variety Pack

Sat, 18 Jan 2020 06:54:06 GMT

I recently posted both my Yuletide wrap-up (gifts given/received with a bonus list of recs) and my Critmas Exchange wrap-up (fics given/received). I also want to link my list of recs from last year too.

However, I do come bearing new recs. Because I've noticed most people are reccing fics which is totally okay and the form most of us probably are into most often, I thought maybe I'd do recs for a piece of art, a fanmix/playlist and a video (and probably also a fic, just to be thorough).

I want to start first with a vid for Anne with an E, which I'll tuck behind a cut for spoiler reasons. If you haven't finished the last season of Anne with an E, I'd recommend waiting to watch this.

( i think we should run. Anne and Gilbert )

I don't think I've shared this fanmix before. It's a playlist for The Adventure Zone: Dust campaign and it's very good. You can listen to it on Spotify here or through the embedded playlist below behind the cut.

( TAZ Dust by emilycea13 )

Something I don't think I've talked much about her is that I collect Tarot decks. I have about twenty, and there's probably one close by me no matter what room of the house I'm in. In recent episodes of Critical Role, we got a really good description of one of the cards in the deck of a character that's no longer with the group. savalirwood made an excellent version of this card that I'm in love with. It reminds me of a deck I have, the True Black Tarot which is all black and gold.

🌙 moon and mirror
__________________________#criticalrolefanart #CriticalRoleArt #CriticalRoleSpoilers #CriticalRole #mollymauk
— ryn (@savalirwood) January 11, 2020

Fic bonus round is a rec from the Critmas Exchange of an AU where it's Vex, not her brother, who ends up with Keyleth. Which is completely my jam.

grown accustomed to her face (4319 words) by celaenos
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Critical Role (Web Series)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Keyleth/Vex'ahlia (Critical Role)
Characters: Vex'ahlia (Critical Role), Keyleth (Critical Role), Vax'ildan (Critical Role), Vox Machina
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Critmas Exchange, One Shot, Holiday Fic Exchange, nature gals being pals and also making out
Summary:

She laughs, one of her nervous, awkward ones that has Vex’s lips twitching upwards into a fond smile. She watches as Keyleth tucks some of her hair behind her ear and looks up at the sky, feet kicking back and forth aimlessly as she reaches up to pet Trinket, and Vex sucks in a sharp breath.

Oh.

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Goal-Setting

Wed, 08 Jan 2020 08:35:52 GMT

I don't really make New Years Resolutions, as I mentioned before. I do keep a bullet journal and will build the occasional tracker in it for a short-period of time tracking of a "thing" kind of use. I have loose ideas of things I want to accomplish in 2020 though. Although currently, I'd currently like a redo on the first seven days of the year, they've been really, really crappy.

So here's some loose plans I've got floating around right now for 2020:

WORK
It sucks right now. I love what I do and my new manager is great as is the rest of my team. But upper management does not understand our team, nor do they seem interested in learning about or supporting us. Year end reviews should come in February and I do not expect a raise or any sort of increase for me or anyone on my team (who all deserve them). I think my new manager (who's only been there five months now) has her hands tied on any leverage to get more for us. So if we don't start bleeding worthy, experienced employees in the first quarter, I expect by year end we will lose two or three people to other, better jobs.

I'm kind of waiting right now to see how year end shakes out for myself and my team before making any big decisions. However, I've already taken a call with a recruiter (who sought me out) and told him to call me in the second quarter to see how I was feeling about things. If I want to take a step-up at all (and I do), I know it's probably not going to happen where I am. So I want to have that at least in motion by mid-year.

WRITING
Overall I've pledged at getyourwordsout 150k words for this year, for a variety of projects.

I want to finish "Gravestones" which is my project title for my NaNo novel. I'm setting it into Scrivener and setting up edits for this first quarter with the idea to continue writing (maybe finish the first full draft) in April's Camp NaNo. By 4th Street in June, I want to have a chapter (or three) feeling good enough to take to the critique workshop there.

I also have an idea for two smaller romance novellas, so I want to pick one of those and flesh out the ideas and figure out which one (if not both) to finish this year.

Who knows which project I'll have going in the fall, but if it's not Gravestones, I'd like to have something else ready enough to start writing something new in November for another NaNoWriMo.

FANDOM
I'm planning to combine a bingo card with Femslash February.

I would like to finish a longstanding Dragon Age story I've been dragging out for too long.

I've started putting together some old Dragon Ave Aveline/Isabela fics and tentatively my idea is to take those six individual fics and string them together into a real plot - tentative word goal is 30k for that project. It's at about 11k now, so I think that's doable.

Definiely Yuletide again, and if Critmas runs, I'll do that again too. Based on where my other projects are, I'd love to pick up other new stuff as the muse strikes too. I was thinking about Chocolate Box this year, but I know I don't have it in me right now, so I'll have to watch and enjoy from afar.

I think that's about it.

I don't know if this makes a ton of sense at the moment. About halfway through this post I got the call from my dad letting me know that my grandfather passed away this evening about 10:30pm. He was struggling with lung and heart issues and after a recent bout against pneumonia didn't recover fully. I'm a little -- out of sorts and I came back to this post after dealing with a few phone calls and other messages.

I know that's a bummer to end on. But I think it's a reminder to me that I also need to make sure I'm setting goals this year that don't overwhelm me, that let me work at my own pace and let me stay happy and healthy both mentally and physically. It's one of the reasons I reset again and again throughout the year if something isn't working for me. Don't wait for the first of the year to make the change, just do it tomorrow.

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Community

Mon, 06 Jan 2020 06:13:02 GMT

In my post about my fandom history, I talked a little about how I've gotten out of the habit of over-involvement in a lot of old fandom behavior. I wish I could say that's just a reaction from leaving LJ/DW for a long time. But that's not true since in that time I joined several communities and forums that I spent an inordinate amount of time running, organizing or participating. After closing my last forum a year and a half ago, I've gotten very used to the idea of not running a place again -- no matter how often that impulse creeps in. I'm happy with the majority of that impulse sitting on my shoulders as the DM for my weekly D&D game.

That said, in the year since I've started posting on DW again after being away from this style of posting for so long, I've found great fun in both snowflake_challenge and sunshine_challenge posting.

And again as I mentioned in the fandom history post, one of the fandom constants for me has been yuletide each year. This year I also participated in both justmarriedexcange & into_a_bar which provided fun challenges for writing Critical Role characters in a new way. In addition there was also critmas_exchange which was good fun (and I'll post more about after reveals on the 8th). I sometimes wish there was more Dragon Age content on DW since most of the old communities seem dead, but I was happy to find and participate in the black_emporium exchange.

Since returning to DW in late 2018, I've found several new friends from the the_great_tumblr_purge and addme_fandom communities, in addition to these other challenges. Those two, in addition to things like fandomcalendar are good regular follows.

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New Music Friday is a goddamned lie

Sat, 28 Dec 2019 05:51:28 GMT

Sorry folks, there's no new music this week. Only an old, frustrated fandom fanmixer. I don't want to rehash everything I just spewed into a tumblr post, so let me link that here instead.

In which singedsun is grumpy old about 8tracks porting playlists to Spotify

The tl;dr of which is that the option of porting playlists from 8tracks to Spotify isn't altogether a bad one. If you've not saved your playlists/fanmixes elsewhere over the years, having this option to move things to where a lot of people listen to music these days isn't a bad one. But when it comes to copying other people's playlists/fanmixes to your own account, I'm not a fan.

Most of you all by now know what a huge music fan I am. I come by my love for music honestly, from singing at the radio with my dad as a wee toddler and later teaching myself the piano, flute lessons, band and choir. Later when I fell out of love with traditional art, fanmixes gave me a way to contribute to fandoms I loved before I started writing things for myself. I participated in a lot of exchanges in the LJ days as a fanmixer and I still cherish some of the mixes I made for fandoms I wasn't even into at the time I made them. I liked doing the art, front and back covers with the tracklisting, the whole thing.

I stopped making fanmixes for awhile when I moved from LJ to tumblr and hopped out of fandom exchanges for awhile. But then as I got more into RPs, I got way back into it not just for myself but for people I was writing with or on the same site with and as gifts. A mix of those is on my 8tracks site (LJ & fandom). I've got a few others on playmoss, but I don't much like their set up, so I haven't done much there overall.

To be honest, I'm a little sad about losing a site like 8tracks, though I completely understand why a site like that isn't sustainable. I LOVE streaming sites like Google Play (my favorite) or Spotify. What I don't like is this specific option of completely porting someone ELSE's playlists means taking their art, their text and their playlist and putting it under your username, which you now have the ability to edit.

Fanmixes, playlists, mixtapes (whatever you call them) are in theory, a personal creative effort. Sometimes for yourself, often as a gift (to a person, or maybe to a specific fandom). It's at it's simplest, music curation. But it can be a lot more than that.

I'd hope people who like my stuff would try to do what I did just now, save .txt files of the playlists they like instead of porting them to Spotify (which might I add... isn't a perfect process, songs might not be available on that platform, or the transfer might fail, or ERRORS), or maybe clicked my profile to try and find where I am now and if there's a different place where they can follow my mixes. Which, yes, tumblr is the best place for that [here]. But who knows.

I'm happy to share my stuff wherever people are listening and I'm happy to follow other people to wherever they're sharing their mixes too. I guess I need to get over and build my own page for my own stuff and make it stand beside all the other places that might come and go.

I'm sorry this isn't a normal New Music Friday post... so let me leave you with at least one song.

Check out this AMAAZING metal cover for Roxette's "Listen to your Heart by Through Fire. I don't know anything about this band other than they made this cover, but you know I'm a sucker for a modern day metal cover of just about anything but most especially 80's music. LOVE IT.

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New and Finished

Mon, 07 Oct 2019 03:17:34 GMT

I'm assuming most of you that are into fandom type things or fic-writing of any sort are familiar with Yuletide, but the new vintage promo images are really great and I couldn't help myself. Plus, I know several of you are newly back to fandom in general or have been thinking about Yuletide this year, so consider this a good reason to go check out it out.

I have finished Gideon the Ninth and feel as though I may never again read something so perfectly written for me. I mean, when I read Wicked Saints earlier this year I felt like it'd reached into my little goth heart and found the high fantasy novel that I'd never hoped to ask for. I feel like Gideon the Ninth has done the same thing but for SFF. Gideon the Ninth would be at home in the Warhammer 40K universe in a world where none of the Warhammer lore mattered and if the characters weren't all grumpy old men. (That's only slightly unfair to the WH universe, but not much.)

I've also finished watching the last season of Hap & Leonard. I read that they're not making a fourth season which honestly, it's probably okay. I mean, it'd be nice to go out on a bit of a sweeter note than the third season did, but I can see why it's not getting more attention. It's a hard show to be writing in a climate like ours and while the show tried it's best to address some really sensitive subjects, there's no getting around how bad really not necessary a show like that is. There are plenty of ways to write really lovely male friendship stories without setting them in so depressing a setting. That said, I enjoyed it for what it was, most especially James Purefoy and Michael Kenneth Williams work as Hap & Leonard. They were great.

Accidentally, I started watching Speechless on Hulu yesterday afternoon and now I'm over halfway done with the first season. I don't keep up with many sitcoms - Brooklyn 99, Superstore The Good Place being the only two I where I actually watch new episodes almost as soon as they air. I got out of the practice when we stopped watching cable. But, after finishing last week's episode of Superstore Hulu's auto-play feature started playing the first episode of Speechless when I got up to get a drink. I'd seen some gifs/screenshots of it on Tumblr, touting it's inclusivity, but I hadn't ever seen any of it for myself. And none of the stuff I'd seen for it ever included the fact that Minnie Driver (whom I love) plays the mom. So, Minnie Driver got my attention then I realized John Ross Bowie is the dad (whom I also love) and then I just sort of fell in love with the whole thing. I think I read that the series is done now? which is really too bad. I'm sorry I'm so late to it.

Matt and I had to wait a couple of hours while our cat Finn was at the groomers this afternoon, so we spent an hour and a half at the bookstore. I picked up the new Felicia Day book, which was on the 20% table. I'm about 60 pages into it. It's a quick read because there's a lot of places for activities (which I'm not doing). It's all about unlocking your creativity and releasing anxiety about making new things, which isn't something I need specifically but I think it'll be good for Matt to look at after I go back to work on Tuesday. I told him I'd finish reading it and then hand it over for him to actually mark up as he does the activities. I started reading Wayward Son last night and got a few chapters in, but I'm going to put it off so I can finish this as quickly as possible.

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Recommendations

Tue, 23 Jul 2019 06:04:11 GMT

For Challenge #4 of sunshine_challenge

During the Snowflake Challenge, I did both some fan recs and some self recs so I'm going to link those again before I share other stuff. First, fanwork recs for Dragon Age/Little Red Riding Hood, Labyrinth and Critical Role. Next, some self recs for Henry V, Life is Strange and (again) Critical Role.

I do have some new stuff to share, this time with videos!

First up is the Retro Replay YouTube channel. Which maybe this is something that's riding a fine edge between new content and fan content, but I feel like not enough people know about it and I find it endlessly entertaining. Retro Replay is a show with very famous voice actors Nolan North & Troy Baker where they play retro video games (kind of). Mostly it's just them hanging out and telling weird stories. While I recommend their weekly show because it's always good for a laugh, the playthrough of Uncharted that they're doing separate from their regular weekly show, is amazing. Watching Nolan play the game he did the voice for, is great entertainment and Troy is SUCH a fanboy about the game. I love it.

Here's the Playlist for the Uncharted playthrough. But if you like it, I highly recommend checking out the rest of their content.

The Good Omens fandom resurgence with the television show has provided some really great fanvids. I want to share this one for "Hallelujah" because not only is a great song but I love the version of the song they used which is the Pentatonix version and one of my favorite covers.

And since it seems to be a theme with my rec posts, I'll go ahead and throw out something for Critical Role again too! I'm in love with the barbarian character, Yasha (I currently play a barbarian in the game I'm in so that might have something to do with it). And the artwork the fandom has come up for her character is just truly amazing. One of my current favorites is this piece by thealeksdemon (hopefully the twitter embed works but if it doesn't the link to their twitter post is here).

Let a girl rage, my dude #CriticalRole #criticalrolefanart @TheVulcanSalute pic.twitter.com/aFjiN6FpFg
— Aleksis (ง •̀ω•́)ง✧ | flash commissions CLOSED (@thealeksdemon) January 26, 2018

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Identities

Sat, 06 Jul 2019 07:41:14 GMT

For Challenge #2 sunshine_challenge

In my first post here, I mentioned that I'd shut down my old DW account which made in the LJ exodus days. For about 18 years everywhere I went online was under the username cherith (my now private LJ is still under that name and my IG account is still under cherithe (when cherith was taken). I'd chosen that name... long before I was going online. I'd grown up in a very strict fundamental Baptist upbringing and I used to read a lot of the Strong's Concordance which is basically a research tool for Bible students to find the original Hebrew, Greek or Aramaic used in the Bible. I found Cherith during research of Elijah the Prophet in 1 Kings. God tells Elijah to go to Cherith, which is like a ravine or a brook, during a long drought so Elijah would have access to water. In the lesson I was researching Cherith is described less as a location but as a passage of time where Elijah was cut off from the world, similar to the way God cut off other of his favorites in order to make them reliant on him. Regardless of my beliefs (I've never bought into Christianity even when I lived deep, deep in it for a long time) I liked the name, Cherith. I held onto it and when I needed a name online, it was the one I reached for.

Last year, after some fallout with some friends I needed a fresh start. Something different, something where those people couldn't/wouldn't find me or seek me out. At the time, I'd created a Pinterest account under the name storminme related to a poem that I love by Andrea Gibson. I have a line from their poem "I Sing the Body Electric (but Only When My Power's Out) tattoed on my arm. Andrea wrote the poem about their fight with a chronic illness and as someone with Fibromyalgia and who has been through some pretty emotionally rough spots, it resonates a lot with me. Specifically this part:

I said to the sun
tell me about the Big Bang
The sun said, 'It hurts to become.'

My tattoo says, "it hurts to become", as a reminder that sometimes we go through some real awful shit and if we can make it through that, we can make it through anything. Our past mistakes and challenges make us who we are for good or bad. I find sometimes it helps when I'm going through a rough patch to look at my arm and remember what I've made it through so far.

There was a second part to coming up with singedsun too. Those people I was trying to avoid, they renamed something we were working on together "and so we burned". And I don't know the combination of me seeing Andrea perform this poem I love so much, in person, twice last year and this idea that these people were cognizant of what they were doing, purposefully burning bridges with me. The name singedsun felt appropriate. So most of the place I hang out regularly, DW and Tumblr and Twitter all became that name. Honestly, I love it and I plan to keep it awhile. I miss using Cherith, I'd hung on to it for SO VERY LONG and sometimes I think about changing it back. What it's done for me though, feeling free of old ties, and allowing me a space to kind of come back to fandom in a way I'd gotten away from has made me really happy.

As pronouns I use she/her though I tend to dress and keep my hair pretty androgynous. I'm bi, though I'm not out to my parents and don't ever plan to be unless I feel it's necessary. Because of my religious upbringing I didn't really realize what I was, or what those feelings were until I started dating in my 20s. And I wasn't even really able to admit that feeling to myself or my friends until after I had a serious boyfriend who loved me regardless. We've been married almost 14 years, adopted a daughter, have two grandsons and coming out to my conservative family feels like unnecessary drama. The people in my life who need to know, know.

As for my fannish identity, for what it is, I joined a lot of writing communities in my early days on LJ in the early aughts. Most of my writing was original fiction in those spaces, but through them, I found some really great fan communities/challenges and participated as an artist in a few big bangs because I love to put together a fanmix. I joined a gaming community and through it I met a friend who eventually created a gaming news and reviews website for women and I joined as a writer, and eventually became the Editor in Chief there. It's gone now, I left in about 2010 due to some real life changes (like adopting a teenager and losing my full time job). But about the same time I got really, really into the Dragon Age series and starting RPing in that universe on a few sites. It didn't take long for that to translate into fic writing. My AO3 account at the time was sparse - mostly based on fairytales from community prompts and like the one Buffy and one Firefly fic I'd written. Quickly, it filled up with Dragon Age fics. They're not all good or finished, but there's definitely a lot of them. I've done Yuletide about every year since 2009 and while DA isn't my main "fandom" anymore (I'm not sure I have a main one right now) it's definitely the one where my heart most lives.

You'll find here, aside from my rambling entries on life and fandom, a good deal of music and YT videos because that's where I spend a lot of time these days. Music and concerts are my vice, I don't drink or smoke so my expendable income, what it is, goes to concert tickets. Now that my daughter is married and has kids of her own and it's just me and my husband at home, I watch a lot of TV too. When Yuletide comes around, I'm likely to hang my hat on a variety of fannish offerings from recent television or movies in addition to whatever odd things strikes my fancy. Though, you can pry my request for Lucy/Mina from the 2013 Dracula TV show out of my cold, undead fingers.

Anyway that's me. A lot about me, too much maybe. Questions or chats always welcome.

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WIP Week: 6 & 7, Most Popular WIP & Any WIP

Mon, 01 Jul 2019 04:05:57 GMT

Day Six & Seven for wipweek

As mentioned in a previous post, I knew I wouldn't have too much to talk about here for the last two days, so I thought combining them would be a good choice. I'm also not going to put any excerpts in this post, mostly because of the nature of these two fics, I think it'd just be odd to show them out of context.

First, I don't at all usually consider my stats on AO3 fics. I've never been a popular author, though I've had the occasional luck with fics during Yuletide. So I am not sure how to define popularity other than with the stats provided, and yet I don't feel like they at all show what my writing is capable of. shrugs It is what it is.

By kudos, my most popular WIP was "Like I Feel" an alphabet collection of stories I was writing about Bann Teagan from Dragon Age. I started three of these alphabets about Teagan, each with a different theme. This specific one I'd deemed the "romance" edition because he was sort of sleeping his way around Kirkwall, but maybe also falling in love with one specific character. I didn't even make it halfway into the 26 chapters this should've had. HOWEVER, this specific fic has been on my mind a lot even before this challenge, and it's absolutely one I want to not just finish, but rewrite completely, I have a better idea of it now and how I want it to work. I think I could do it better justice now... seven years later. LOL

As for day seven's topic, just any old WIP. Let me submit this epistolery fic I once started for the very wonderful visual story game, Cinders. It's a Cinderella retelling, it's on Steam and it's beautiful to play and the story is awesome. Well worth the current sale price of $7. The story is called "Letters Home" and it was specifically a story to deal with the relationship between one of the step-sisters, Gloria, and Cinders after one of the potential story endings where Cinders heads out on her own. I only wrote three chapters of it, but I really adore it and I wish I'd known where I wanted to go with it to keep writing it.

Bonus Question 1:
What is your favorite comment you’re received on any of your fan works (WIP or Complete)?

This is a great question because I've recently received some of my favorite comments EVER. First, during Yuletide I got an amazing comment on my Ozark story "What I've Done to You", which is such a specific niche story because that fandom is basically non-existent. The comment(s) I got from the person that story was for were just excited and wonderful and perfect for a story written for such a small audience and it made my day.

Maybe using a Yuletide story is a cop-out. So let me point back to the story I used on Day Two. I JUST recently got a comment for this unfinished story that I wrote, "Woven of Dust and Starlight". It's unfinished and was last updated in 2012 but someone found it and left a sweet comment about how much they liked it and it absolutely made my day.

Bonus Question 2:
What WIP (not written by you) would you love to see updated?

"#friendlyneighborhoodspiderpeople by pepperfield a really amazing multi-media type fic inspired by Into the Spider-Verse.

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WIP Week: 5, Your Canonverse or AU WIP

Sat, 29 Jun 2019 07:51:36 GMT

Day Five of wipweek

So strangely, the few times I've attempted a crossover type story or a distinct AU, I've usually finished it. Below is an excerpt from one Modern AU I worked on for awhile. I've attempted some Modern AUs with Bethany Hawke as if Kirkwall was a new city she and her siblings were trying to navigate on their own. I didn't get far in this one. This bit of dialogue is between Bethany and an original character of mine, a fortune-teller I've written in a few different settings.

“So. I’m sort of new? In town?” she began, voice lilting as she searched for the right question. “And kind of on my own for a little while. I’ve been wondering about the future. I need to make a decision about something and I’m not sure.. what to do.”

“You’re looking for a nudge in the right direction?” Silar asked.

Bethany shrugged almost apologetic. “Yes.” She met Silar’s gaze, brow knit in worry. “Is that- do you do that?”

She gave Bethany a toothy grin. “If you like.” Fortune-telling was only one of many of Silar’s talents, but it was the one immediately in question. With a nod she indicated the tools on the table. “I can use any, or all of these. Do you know anything about them?”

“The cards, I’ve heard that people use them- but that’s a Diamondback deck, not-”

She chuckled. “I use whatever I can lay my hands on. Diamondback is as much a gamble as any other part of life.” Tilting her head she added, “Seemed appropriate.”

Bonus Question: What is your most used AO3 tag?
Other than the times I've written and tagged something for Femslash February, Angst is my most used tagged. Although to be fair, back in the early days, I never tagged my fics very well so 6 shared tags among over 100 fics isn't much to speak for.

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WIP Week: 4, Your Favorite WIP

Fri, 28 Jun 2019 05:50:16 GMT

Day Four of wipweek

Isabela/Aveline is one of my favorite pairings of Dragon Age 2. I love their banter, I love Aveline has this dutiful warrior who through time still manages to figure out how to be with this ruthless but charming pirate. Honestly, I'm not sure why I didn't finish this I think maybe I was just working on it during a weird time and the glut of projects I was trying to juggle was too much. I wish I had written more for them and after re-reading this, I think it might be the thing I fix-up and try to remember how this was supposed to end.

This small excerpt is from the third chapter, a sexy part I'm pretty proud of.

Like children, they had fought to stay awake. Each kiss was a fervent goodbye and even after the room had grown dark and the candles faded, they continued warm and slow and surrounded by the sounds of their own sighs and soft moans. She heard her name over and over from Isabela’s lips in the rhythms of hands and hips, and nimble fingertips. It was easy to forget the time and the place, for all Aveline knew, she was on a boat set for Rivain.

Her swarthy captain knew the use of a grin curved like the moon. Her hands turned the wheel to set them on course, setting her out to sea with the rhythm of the waves. Isabela had learned the shape of her vessel by heart. She knew the swell of her thighs in the dark and how to ride the tide of her until there was little left but a soft breeze.

With her captain at the helm, Aveline trusted each stroke of nimble fingers, each crested wave that set fires in her heart. The stillness between the waves gave her time to navigate the stars behind her eyes. Years of practice had taught her how to skim the cold waves that caressed her skin. And when every inch of her was soaked and sea-salted Isabela’s whispers became the lighthouse in the distance, telling her it was safe to come home.

When sleep finally claimed them, Aveline dreamed of dark curls and a throaty laugh and though she never saw her face, she had no doubt about who was at her side. But in a habit borne of her time with the Isabela, she could not sleep through the night. It was always the same, no matter what time she’d gone to sleep. When she woke, the relief of finding Isabela still at her side was cut brief by her need to know what time they had left. It was early enough, without a peek of sunlight from the arrow slit in far wall where, if this were any sort of decent establishment, there should have been a window. Isabela had insisted on their together at The Hanged Man; for a pirate, she had a good deal more sentimentality than she liked to let on.

There's only four chapters to it, but if you want to read what's available it's called The Anatomy of a Tidal Wave.

Bonus Question: What is your favorite fanwork in any of your fandoms created by someone else?
There is an amazing Critical Role rock star AU that I LOVE so very much called songs from the ash by explosivesky. It's 50k+ of this modern day Perc'ahlia that's just wonderful if you're familiar with Critical Role.

But better, even if you know nothing about Critical Role or the characters from campaign one and just happen to like rock star or movie star AUs, then it's still very enjoyable.

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WIP Week: 3, Your Previously Unpublished WIP

Thu, 27 Jun 2019 06:00:03 GMT

Day Three for wipweek

Another Dragon Age story today. I really like sibling stories and I have tried a few times (unsuccessfully so) to write something about the early lives of the Hawke twins from Dragon Age 2. I'm sort of fascinated by everyone in their family but Hawke. Bethany is one of my favorite characters of the game, but their mother's odd behavior regarding whichever twin makes it with Hawke to Kirkwall is always interesting to me as well. I will probably try and continue more times to write twin stories and fail at it, but I do like trying at least. Here is a pretty short preview of what this one was trying to be:

Three.

Mother lays them down for a nap and they struggle against sleep, against silence. They have beds next to each other, with interchangeable and very often exchanged pillows and blankets in the same faded blue color they both love. She quiets first, like most days and its not long before they both find solace in blanketed caverns of comfort. It doesn't matter which of them gets to sleep first, or last. It doesn't matter if they find their rest in beds or on the floor, covered or uncovered, warm or cold. Eventually they're only a tangled mess of chubby limbs, dark hair and soft breaths.

Five.

On their birthday Carver gets a wooden sword from their father. Bethany gets a tiny, metal one on a silver chain, from their mother. It's the first time they've ever had different gifts and this pleases them in a way they don't have words for. Bethany clutches her small version of Carver's practice sword in her hands while he brandishes it at their sister, who already knows all the moves to make. She runs her fingers along the rough molded metal as though it's wood grain.

Five and one day.

Carver falls under the swing of Marian's sword, and Bethany calls out his name. It's only a scratch on his cheek but Bethany's knees are in the dirt at his side and her fingertips glow, magic drifting from them. The jagged line of broken skin on her brother's arm disappears. Then she's pulled roughly away, her fingers examined and Carver forgotten by all but her as she's rushed indoors.

Rereading this one reminds me that I once started a fic very similarly for the Vox Machina twins from Critical Role that I also did nothing with. Clearly, I have a thing for writing sibling relationships.

Bonus Question: What fanwork would you most like to receive as a gift?
I've been lucky a few times to get art for my fic, which I always love. However, I spend so much time making fanmixes for fics and pairings that I enjoy and it always pleases me to get a fanmix for something I've written. I feel like there's so much room for interpretation with music and since I love so many different types of music, it's really hard to pick music I'm not going to enjoy in some way or another. I also feel like music often picks up on a theme/thematic element of a story than might not come across in artwork.

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WIP Week: 2, An Underrated WIP

Wed, 26 Jun 2019 05:44:58 GMT

Day Two for wipweek

I don't know I would've thought of this story had I not just reread the whole thing two weeks ago when I got a new comment on it completely out of the blue. (The only comment I've ever received on it that wasn't from the person beta reading it for me.) It is on AO3, because I fully intended to finish it but through a variety of unfortunate events I never did. It's been enough years now I can appreciate it for how much I loved the way I was writing it and not feel weird about what was going on behind the scenes at the time.

This is a Dragon Age story about one of the mages (a Surana) that grew up in the tower, and specifically a story about the mage that isn't chosen to become a Warden. I really wanted to closely explore the different friendships that formed there, how each of them were strained and complicated and none of them romantic (not really). But as are many of the mage stories from the first game, it's also a lot about freedom and the many forms that it can take. Here's a short excerpt form the first chapter.

When they were eight, she and Jeanne helped each other up to the ledge just inside one of the large windows high up in the tower. They opened it, but sat just inside and watched the rain as the wind turned it sideways and drove it past the tower in thick sheets. She fell in love with the the rain then, with Jeanne's dark hand held in hers, and both of them laughing when the wind changed and drove the rain inside soaking their robes completely.

Teza found she loved nearly everything about the rain, the way it sounded against the tower’s walls, as though it might break each stone down into pieces so small there was nothing left to keep anyone within. The way the sky turned dark and grey and menacing was a reminder that there was a world somewhere beyond the tower walls where other people lived, and like her, they too could be drenched from head to toe if they stood outside too long. The rain could beat against her skin, the sensation not unlike the tingle of magic that sizzled underneath each time she readied a spell; it evened her out, trouble inside and out.

It wasn’t that they meant to make trouble, she and Jeanne, but invariably they found themselves in it: exploring parts of the tower forbidden to the children, searching the kitchen for snacks after mealtimes, in the library reading spells that were far more advanced what any pair of eight year old girls should be capable of. So yes, the rain knew her, and she it. The bright flashes of lightning through the sky were nothing different than the sparks that still came from her hands when she was too excited to remember control. And the booms of thunder were the hammer beats of her heart on the days she feared would be the day the templars took her and branded a sunburst on her forehead.

Then the rain would come again to wash away her fears. It would be quiet at first, small drops beading on tan skin when she stuck her arms out open windows. She would press her face near the glass and inhale the breeze that brought her smells from other parts of Ferelden. If she closed her eyes and remembered her lessons and the brightly colored maps tacked to the walls of First Enchanter Irving’s office, she thought she could place each scent. Rich pine from the forests sent by peoples that looked like her, but that she’d never seen and likely never would. The tang of metal and coins exchanged in cities in every direction, places full of people that were free to come and go in the sunshine as they pleased. Earth and stone from the stout dwarves near the Frostbacks. She had never seen a mountain before, but like the rain, she knew the snow too, and supposed she might like it there very much.

If you want to read the five or six chapters are are available, it's called Woven of Dust and Starlight

Something funny I'm noticing about my old works (this one is from 2012) is that I hadn't yet trained myself out of the double space after a period when typing. I fixed this one and yesterday's too before posting because now I find those large gaps so strange to look at, but back then I never thought they were weird. I'd grown up typing with that double space and it looked like it belonged. I'd have to comb through all to find out when I finally made the change but I know it couldn't have taken me too much longer.

Bonus Question: What small fandom/rarepair would you love to see/create more fanworks for?
My Dragon Age rarepair list is GIANT. It's easier to say the pairs I love from those games are all rarepairs. I didn't really write any very popular pairings. That said, the rarest among them was Aveline/Fenris from DA 2 and Teagan/Anora from DA:0.

As far as small fandoms go, well other than Dragon Age and Critical Role, all my fandoms are already pretty small. Most of them are still Yuletide compliant and will be for some time yet to come. That's just part of the scope when most of your favorite fandoms are video games. Although I think I've mentioned before that I feel like the smallest fandom I love that no one else likes as much as I do is the Dracula TV show from 2013. vamp!Lucy had so much potential, it's a shame it only got the one season.

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WIP Week: 1, Oldest WIP

Tue, 25 Jun 2019 05:42:44 GMT

I meant to post this yesterday and then I was too exhausted. The whole weekend was kind of a wash.

Day One for wipweek

This conversation might be different if I had to go back and look at handwritten notes for original fic. I don't even know how to track down all of that anymore. Google Docs tells me I have unfinished original stuff back to like 2007 (which is probably the date on the first thing I saved there?) but a lot of those pieces are so small and really don't qualify as fics as much as they do loosely framed paragraphs about a story concept. The longer pieces I did start around 2010 got finished for various purposes and one of the short stories I had left unfinished I reworked just last year and it'll be out in an anthology later this year (yay!). All that to stay, I'm sticking with oldest fandom WIP.

I honestly thought my answer to this was going be Dragon Age related, just on volume alone. I've started and not finished a lot of DA stories. But I am happy to be proven wrong -- at least according to the dates in Google Docs. However, this is for another video game, The Path. Which I was, and continue to be, IN LOVE with. Little Red Riding Hood is one of my favorite fairy tales and I was writing fairy tale fanfic before I'd ever played this game. TBH, I even have beta reader comments in this Google Doc... so I was planning to finish it at some point, I just didn't.

If you're unfamiliar with The Path, it's a video game loosely based around Little Red Riding Hood where there is more than one girl in red, all of them sisters. Each of them leaves the Path for their own reasons and each of them finds their own 'wolf'. It's very atmospheric and sort of hides the horror of it so it's just like a long, aching dread until you finally come across the wolf. It definitely plays with the idea of innocence and growing up, which I find pretty powerfully done. I only wrote from the perspective of two of the sisters, though I had plans to write for all of them. Anyway, here's a little excerpt from the beginning:

There is only one path, and one wood. Mother says to stay on the path like there’s another option, like the woods are not already dark and foggy and strange enough to keep us away. Saying it’s so doesn’t make the path anymore appealing, or the woods anymore frightening.

We each nod and say ‘yes mother’ like it’s the first time she’s told us. When Robin sets out in the morning with a basket and her tiny red raincoat, she bobs her head and grins, showing the gap where her front tooth fell out. Mother trusts her, young as she is, as she trusts all of us. The path to Grandmother’s is wide and straight.

And there is only one path, and one wood.

When I was just a little older than Robin is now, our Father left. The apartment we live in has always been tiny compared to the places my friends live: each of us except for Mother and Robin taking turns sleeping on the couch or the floor. I thought after Father left, it would feel bigger but it didn’t, just darker and more empty. There’s isn’t even a hole where he was, or a space that we moved to fill and when I think of him, the rest just feels like shadow. If there is a reason for the shadows where a father should’ve been, Mother keeps it to herself.

Just down the path from the apartment is Grandmother’s cottage and even though she is old and often sick, she refuses to leave it. She and Mother don’t speak anymore, and neither of them has ever told us why, though we’ve all asked many times. Each day, Mother reminds us about the path and sends one of us down it to check on Grandmother in her place. Mother says the things we take to Grandmother - food and medicine, clean clothes when she needs them - are words enough for them both. And each day, Grandmother thanks us quietly and tells us to give Mother a kiss when we return. Unlike Mother, she never mentions the path, never tells us to stay on it, never asks how we arrive or how we’ll return.

Sometimes, when it’s my turn to take the basket, the dust from the path gets on my boots and I wonder what it’ll be like when Grandmother is gone. Will Mother be sick too, will I never go back to my studies and always be walking the path with my sisters even if no one is at the other end. I was the one that told Grandmother when Mother got sick too. I came home to help Mother to keep her illness from the girls. But, Grandmother knows. And still, neither will be the first to speak to the other.

It’s up to us to bear the weight of the path between them.

Bonus Question: What fandom would you love to revisit?
Once Dragon Age took over my fandom writing for the most part, I stopped writing fairy tale fic of any kind. LRRH and Alice in Wonderland stories being among my favorites. I feel like I should definitely go back and replay The Path, even if I never pick this specific story back up though.

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Fanmix Mixtape Meme

Mon, 01 Apr 2019 04:35:31 GMT

I've seen this meme going around, I haven't seen like an official name for it, but the theme is definitely something that's up my alley.

"If your fic were an album, what would the track list be?"

The popular, catchy one: Very Nearly a Lucy/Mina piece for the Dracula tv show a few years ago. Funny this is the most popular one since it's not only pretty poem-like but also a pretty non-existent fandom.
The obscure early one no one bought at the time: Of Wolves a Little Red Riding Hood AU for Dragon Age with the worlds smallest ship, Bann Teagan/Cauthrien, that I wrote with a friend.
The "experimental" one, written when you were possibly on some substance: A Church, To: Ambition & Affection my one and only Hamilton piece, a poem written for Hamilton/Angelica/Eliza.
The slushy one: Expletive Not Deleted a smutty f!Shepard/James Vega Mass Effect piece written for a friend. It's probably also the fic that uses the word "fuck" the most? I'm guessing, but it seems likely.
The brash, loud one, mid album: Our Usual Greeting a Saints Row III f!Boss/Kinzie bit of fluff.
The one born of your depressive introspection: A Little Like Forgiveness a Dragon Age Cullen/Leliana piece that's a lot about coming up out of a depression.
The bitter one about your ex/former manager/cat: Love is a Battlefield a Dragon Age Bann Teagan/Anora Mac Tir piece that's a post-Blight love story.
The one only you like, you insular weirdo: Devote to Me a small bonus yuletide Killing Eve piece I wrote that's very music based, if that's the sort of thing that's interesting to you.
The genre-hopping crossover hit: Tell Me I'm the Fool the one and only RPF thing I've written, Matt/Taliesin/Liam for Critical Role.
The one where you tried to be "modern": Dreaming Awake a Chloe/Max Life is Strange five-times fic.
The anthemic final track: Perfect a short Tahani/Eleanor for The Good Place.

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