neotoma

I broke 20K on my original writing project today. I'm still not sure where it's going, and I probably need to read up on the history of the post office as a concept and a political concern, but I'm having fun with it.

Also, a Musemee Notier V2 is an excellent stylus if you're writing on a smartphone.

So, I'm making progress on my PR mini-bang with fabrisse's help. I'm going with the StoryCorps idea, which might be weirdly American given that the characters are from many countries, but I think I can make it work.

If anyone with more knowledge then me wants to pick over the character bits for the characters who are Australian, Japanese, or German, that'd be a great help. Right now I'm kindof stuck on Raleigh Beckett, since he's really not the kind of character I usually write, even though he's totally wonderful in the movie -- seriously, he subverts so many action-hero tropes and I love him for it. I think I might have to change who he being interviewed by to his sister who is from the novelization (which I bounced off hard because omg, dudebro POV!).

I've gone and signed up for the Pacific Rim MiniBang on tumblr, now that I think I've finally found the right viewpoint character (Tendo, for those of you who are interested). Expect occasional posts about world-building and complaints about how the writing is going.

The rough draft is due May 1st and the story only needs to be 5K, so I think it's completely doable.

I've decided that there needs to be a scene in my DCnU/Original DC Comics story where Piper sneaks a large group of people into a building by playing With Catlike Tread

Also, talking with ellen_fremedon, we decide that there should be a support group for parents of meta and superhero kids in the DC Universe called P-SUPE (pronounced 'pea soup').

Summary: Squaring up is hard to do - moreso outside of the species. Gabriel wants to get married, properly married, with two wives and a husband all properly aligned. And all he needs to do is get Sam and Jess to let him, a sub-adult blue, into their relationship, and then find a suitable red-moiety female angel who'll agree to the arrangement. Simple, right?
Wordcount: 25,140
Notes: Thanks to hannah for lots of patience and excellent beta'ing, and to kdheart for a gorgeous cover image.

( Read here )or at AO3

7464 words total yesterday morning

8885 words total last night

11395 words total tonight

I might just get this finished by the deadline!

On Sunday I went down to the National Book Festival with greenygal, holli and ellen_fremedon to hear Lois McMaster Bujold speak -- well, greenygal and I got there early to hear Craig Thompson's talk which was scheduled before Bujold, and the other joined us.

Bujold's talk was a reprise of the one she gave this year at the ALA -- "what would the world be like without science fiction as a genre?" -- which was interesting and posited that since Mary Shelley's Frankenstien is really the first SF story, there would be a lot of changes. Frankly, I'm not sure you can get through the Industrial Revolution without developing something like science fiction -- possibly it's an idea for another science fiction story -- but it was an interesting speech. She then read a short excerpt from Captain Vorpatril's Alliance, and took some questions from the audience; sadly, it seems like she has nothing in the works right at the moment, though she does want to write a fourth and fifth Chalion book.

Everyone else got their books signed -- I still haven't found my in the unpacking. We also chatted with some nice people in the signing line -- blushingflower and her SO (or friend, I wasn't sure). It's hilarious how type-y fangirls are -- we talked books, SGA, knitting, and historical costuming, among other things.

For myself, I haven't gotten any real revisions done on my sabriel_mini, which is bad because posting starts soon. I don't suppose anyone wants to read the draft and give me a push? It's about 20K.

I think much of my problem is work. I'm alternately busy, bored, and frustrated with the new position, and it makes an impact once I get home too. Often, I'll be tired and go to bed by 9 -- and then wake up at 4:30 restless and not be able to sleep again.

I do have ideas for other stories rattling around as well -- the spaceship AU, some kind of Kali/Gabriel story, and a story that I was collaborating on a while ago that I'm having more ideas for, but I need to see if the other author has GAFIATed, been swamped by Real Life, or what, and whether she'd be okay with me finishing it on my own. I really shouldn't commit to anything else until I get some revisions done, but I kind of want to sign up for team_free_love's Secret Lovers Exchange -- I didn't do it last year, and I missed the fun I had the year before.

I kind of want to do Yuletide this year -- I actually have fandoms I want to nominate: The Almighty Johnsons, Bite me! by Dylan Meconis, and Mirabile by Janet Kagan -- though I think I only want to write for Mirabile or maybe Bite Me! Yuletide is such a crazy commitment (not enough time for me to be comfortable), and the last time I did it my recipient really really wanted a story about giant lizards eating people, since that was the only common thread in all the requested fandoms I got. And I have no idea what I'd request this time round, either...

I have not been able to get the hob story to move an inch yet again -- this is the second time I tried to write it for the sabriel_mini and the second time it didn't budge.

So I'm picking up 'The Man Comes Around' again since it's already at 22K words, even though it was utterly jossed by the end of season 5 -- I started writing it after 5.10 during the mid-season hiatus. Which means that I had anticipated the car-based puns for the Horsemen, but not which ones (I had Death drive a Pinto, etc), and didn't have Anna or Gabriel get killed. Also there is an alligator-style egg mound in the back of Bobby's scrapyard that an entire garrison of angels is getting broody over.

alchemyalice gave me a critique of the partial draft way back when, but I could sure use volunteer alpha readers. I know that I need to work on the Dean&Sam stuff, and rewrite a lot of the early part of the story -- I started it as a Dean/Cas fic and it mutated into a Sam/Gabriel one. Anyone want to volunteer?

Well, I moved in -- I have hardwood floors -- and am in the process of acquiring things like a wardrobe, taller bookscases, and a useful tv stand. The new place may be slightly bigger than the old and it is definitely better laid out.

I've finally gotten to the point where I actually kind-of-sort-of have a plot for my sabriel_mini fic. I'm going with the starship story, which is going to be all sad because Sam's asexual boyfriend is leaving him to go become a starship. Uhm, yeah, another AU. Also somewhat on the genfic side of things, or possibly bob-fic... Anyone want to be on the writing filter?

I'm also hoping to get a new desktop soon. My laptop isn't bad, but the screen is smaller than I'm used to and I'd like to get one of those 2T hard drives for media storage.

And for you locals, the AFI is having a Spy Cinema film festival for the next few months -- who wants to see The Ipcress File, which looks like it might be fantastic and doesn't seem available on DVD. It's showing Friday at 7 and Sunday at 5:30.

There's also a Jean Harlow Retrospective going on -- lots of pre-Hayes Code films!