silver

yuletide reveals and general writing 2013

2014-01-01T23:04:29Z

I wrote two fics this year and received two. I defaulted and didn't think I'd get any, so I couldn't believe my luck. You should read my gift fics, if you're in the Old Kingdom fandom! I have two adventure/exploration fics for Lirael and the Disreputable Dog, as they go exploring in the great Clayr library: After Hours by the_antichris and Discoveries to Share by Sheeana.

I wrote A Sea Change (2,868 words) for Phantom (rosabelle) which is fork-in-the-road AU for Jehanne/Moirin, and which I think is pretty unsurprising (I felt extremely not-anon during the entire exchange). I JUST THINK THAT JEHANNE SHOULDN'T HAVE ( SPOILER ). They are so gorgeous together. Yeah. Not over it. Never over it.

I think Jehanne is really quite perceptive when it comes to people. I wonder if this is why Daniel loved her so much. I want to write something pre-Kiss about Jehanne and Daniel and Raphael, actually.

I also wrote Traveller's Lodging (620 words) for kaesa (kaesa) for Madness. I got to this point and then went "oh no but how do I keep going". I have to think of some way of reorganizing things so I can keep going!

Conclusion: more research is in order. Also as I was writing this I was researching early medieval Europe which is a very different thing and it was all...14th century! Focus on England! Oh noes!

I would like to say right now that I HATE TITLES. I shall start a Society for the Abrogation of Titles. Or Titles Anonymous, for writers suffering from the terribleness of trying to pick a title. For A Sea Change all I could think of was a pun (and I'm so sorry--but hey I used title case! It was even more pretentious before!) and as for kaesa's, I literally ran out of time and had to slap the most terribad title on. Yeah, about that...

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( 2013 writing, including one statistic! I couldn't resist. )

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TWO GIFTS in the Old Kingdom fandom!

2013-12-25T19:02:26Z

Hello flist I hope you've been having a good day I HAVE TWO YULETIDE GIFTS

I went to bed thinking, "Tomorrow I get to open my gift!" and this morning SUDDENLY THERE WERE TWO

AND

AND

both of them were awesome adventure fics. Which is what I ask for all the time (I would like to hereby apologize to any of my writers who saw my requests and were like "...WHY NO PAIRING") and omg here are two of them!

Here is the first:

After Hours (1590 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Old Kingdom - Garth Nix
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Author Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Characters: Lirael (Old Kingdom), The Disreputable Dog
Summary:
Lirael does some late-night research. The Disreputable Dog helps.

and the equally awesome second:

Discoveries to Share (1515 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Old Kingdom - Garth Nix
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Lirael (Old Kingdom), The Disreputable Dog
Additional Tags: Friendship
Summary:
One evening shortly after her seventeenth birthday, Lirael and the Dog go on a minor adventure together in the Library.

Both casefic with Lirael and the Disreputable Dog exploring the crazy, intricate, half-disused, massive Clayr library. Go check them out! :D

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decompressing

2013-12-14T04:47:06Z

Poetry: On poetry thegorgon posted Why a Man Cannot Have Wings by Afian bin Sa'at. It was in response to the many Icarus poems that have been circulating in the community for the last few days: http://poetry.dreamwidth.org/348721.html

( Full text under cut )

If you follow the link I commented and said I liked the poem, but I read it (another three or four times) and now I completely disagree.

This makes me sound like a silly optimist, but how is "but then people will use it to hurt you" a good justification against flying? Do you remember when it was 1999 and people were making predictions and, well, I do, I still have a book put together by students K-12 over what they thought would happen in 2020 and so many of them drew and wrote flying cars, new worlds, new technology. I mean, maybe we should stop making implants because then people will tear them out. Or we should stop making medicines because someone might steal them. Or we should stop making beautiful clothes because people will steal them. And put together sumptuary laws to prop up existing social divisions. Etc.

I don't believe that answering a question, making dreams reality, ever erodes dreams. (I see this argument in science/religion debates, to be honest.) We fly in planes, but people still dream of flying--not only wings but they fly in gliders, in hang-gliders, in parachutes, in all sorts of really scary things. We've been to the moon but people dream of going to space. When has discovering a new species, a new place, a new archaeological site, ever stopped others from dreaming of others? Dreams aren't a finite resource. Making a dream a reality doesn't mean you never dream again--you step onto that new block and reach for higher dreams.

There's an argument here to do with destructive technology and responsibility but flying? Come on.

I did like his comment about everything being a metaphor for the Fall of Man.

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Fic: So I investigated the Georgina Kincaid fics on FFN and sadly there was nothing that I really wanted (I didn't read the last book because I knew what was going to happen with Seth and I'm really meh on him. The most interesting part about him was his sister and his nieces. They were really cute.) I need to remember to request this for yuletide.

In Kiesha'ra--ok, it's enormous! It's got 200 fic! I don't remember there being so many! But then I realized that I started in 2009 and if you go back, yeah, it's been four years, people have added more. The main types of fic people have written are:

Mary-Sue/self-insert fic. I am inexplicably fond of these. I mean, I didn't click on any of them advertising stuff like Olivia's long-lost wyvern-falcon-wolf sister fics, but it makes me happy to know they're there. A flourishing fandom should have Mary Sue fic, and drabbles, and pointless gen meanders, and ultra-tropey yet satisfying fic. They're not what you want if you want "the continued adventures of", but that's what fans do.
Retelling fics! Ahh, I remember these. I read one that narrated Hawksong from Zane's POV and I knew it was WIP (last updated: 2011) so I mean, I knew in advance, but I was still sad. Especially since, in the words of the author, she was just getting to the good part! I don't think this fandom really has the momentum to write the really big sort of fic--and I mean the fic that fills a lot of backstory, goes far into the future and past, leaves canon retellings behind and not size--but I enjoyed it way more than I should have.
I also found a bizarro fic in there about oranges, which I think you should all totally click on. It has 5 reviews, and 4 out of 5 are all (to varying degrees of politeness) asking what on earth it's doing in the category. No, it's got nothing to do with Kiesha'ra. https://www.fanfiction.net/s/4977012/1/The-Little-Orange-That-Could

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I don't understand (Kindle Worlds & business)

2013-06-08T01:59:02Z

So a couple of weeks ago Amazon announced that they are allowing the sale of fan-written fiction (fanfic, fanfiction, fic, ficcies¹, etc) for select fandoms through their site. Here is the announcement: http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?docId=1001197421

A lot of people have talked about this. I found out on f_fa, thought that someone was pulling my leg, but nope, it's true. Here is Scalzi's thoughts on it, which come from the perspective of someone who has been published and knows a little about contracts for writing, more than fic writers probably do: http://whatever.scalzi.com/2013/05/22/amazons-kindle-worlds-instant-thoughts/

Right, so I'm not even going to touch the fan side of it, except to boggle: I can't believe it's happening! Just like I was surprised at the mainstream-ing of Fifty Shades of Grey, I can't believe that fic is getting out there like that. Holy cow!

No, my main thought is: who's buying²?

( Like I said, I don't get where it's coming from )

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¹ *giggle*

² In case you ever wanted to know, yes I do spend a lot of time learning/thinking/talking about economics.

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5000 words to go in nano wheeze

2011-11-30T06:40:31Z

( brief writer agony: augh, historical fiction! )

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I'm not sure where the argument comes in; it's definitely not put together enough to count as one.

2011-01-30T05:52:44Z

1. If you wish to make an argument and also would to preface with a disclaimer that you are not talking about x, or that you understand y,

2. then your subsequent argument should not make me doubt that you understand y. In fact, if you find that you disclaim z and then override this again and again in your argument, it's not very persuasive.

2a e.g.: I KNOW that x is OK, but x is wrong wrong wrong. What are readers reading into rapefic? It can be rape fantasy, not evidence that everyone believes rape=love is true.) Question of the day: why are there always so many rants started "I know about rape fantasy, YKINMK etc." but then quickly devolve into "Rape fantasy is icky and gross and harmful!"

At least make your argument make sense, please. I can't even argue with you because you've muddled it all up first. I have no idea what you're trying to say, and I haven't the patience to try to go through. Either disclaim m, or don't.

-

If it's okay with all the historians on the planet, I'd like to move the dates of the Seven Years' War up about fifteen years. I need some way to kill off an OC (convincingly) so that the dragon Praecursoris can meet Choiseul properly. Anyone else have suggestions...?

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Insert title here

2010-10-09T05:14:03Z

I'm suffering from an Attack of Guilt that comes of completing things late. :( Especially when nice people are concerned. (Fic only half-finished *cough* six days past deadline *hack**wheeze*) Also, completely and thoroughly sick of writing about myself. I hate it when the application questions ask "tell me about your greatest achievements!" *mutters* I don't like talking about myself. I always feel horribly arrogant and I don't know whether or not to inject humour (I mean, what if they take it the wrong way?! Then what will I do?! Eee?!) Anyway. That is my life at the moment.

On the 'uh oh' side of things: I have no idea what I'm going to do for Nano. Some people, I wager, have a plot synopsis written out. I'd like to get a cover, but I'm afraid I have neither the gumption nor the idea for my novel. (I am not an organized writer. Proof: see excessive use of parentheses).

Last note: I would like to humbly request from any deity that is listening or reading this for some kind of control valve for mucus production. The hacking cough my cold has gifted me with is not pleasant and I am depleting the building of Kleenex. Thank you very much.

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