back to life

Are any of you watching Outlander? New favorite show! I spend my time yelling at the teevee when it's on though. "I HAVE SUCH NECK ENVY" when I see Claire; "JUST SMUSH FACES ALREADY" whenever Claire and Jamie eyefuck each other; and "JE SUIS SO VERY PREST!" every time I see Jamie's face (and knees. and thighs).

The only problem with this show is the theme song. It's great, don't get me wrong! But it is the stickiest earworm EVER. I have been walking around singing, "Sing me a song of a lass that is gone..." for the past three weeks. :(

It will never end.

For the meme, rthstewart asked for E or G or H:


E. Share one of your strengths.

Oh hard one! I am... not sure what my writing strengths are! I think sometimes I do a good job at capturing the feel of canon, even what I'm writing is pretty far from canon. One story I thought this went well in is Beth Finds the Palace Beautiful which is a cracky premise (Little Women in spaaaaaace!) but I really wanted to make it feel like the original canon, even though I had changed so much up.


G. Share a snippet from one of your favorite pieces of prose you've written and explain why you're proud of it.

Okay, this is from Sing Down the Stars, and I'm putting it behind a cut, because it spoils the ending of the story.

( So this story is a Narnia fanfic, about Rilian after the events of The Silver Chair, and how returning to Narnia goes for him... )

I really liked this because I am never pleased with my endings, and this is one I liked. :D I like how it tied the threads of the story together - Rilian feeling like he no longer belonged, Rilian's memories of his mother and how they stargazed together, his mother being a strong presence in his story, despite being long dead - and how it worked to resolve the immediate issues, but didn't give Rilian an immediate "happy ever after."

H. Share a snippet from one of your favorite dialogue scenes you've written and explain why you're proud of it.

From New York Is a State of Mind, but Cicely Is a Way of Life:

( Joel returns to Cicely for a visit, and Marilyn is waiting for him... )

I like this because the Marilyn and Joel interaction was so much fun to write! I wish I had several more scenes with them, because I thought they were hilarious (obviously I crack myself up, lol).

Give me a letter & I'll answer! (You can find my stories here or in my fic tag.)

A. Describe your comfort zone—a typical you-fic.
B. Is there a trope you've yet to try your hand at, but really want to?
C. Is there a trope you wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole?
D. How many fic ideas are you nurturing right now? Care to share one of them?
E. Share one of your strengths.
F. Share one of your weaknesses.
G. Share a snippet from one of your favorite pieces of prose you've written and explain why you're proud of it.
H. Share a snippet from one of your favorite dialogue scenes you've written and explain why you're proud of it.
I. Which fic has been the hardest to write?
J. Which fic has been the easiest to write?
K. Is writing your passion or just a fun hobby?
L. Is there an episode section of canon above all others that inspires you just a little bit more?
M. What's the best writing advice you've ever come across?
N. What's the worst writing advice you've ever come across?
O. If you could choose one of your fics to be filmed, which would you choose?
P. If you only could write one pairing for the rest of your life, which pairing would it be?
Q. Do you write your story from start to finish, or do you write the scenes out of order?
R. Do you use any tools, like worksheets or outlines?
S. Stephen King once said that his muse is a man who lives in the basement. Do you have a muse?
T. Describe your perfect writing conditions.
U. How many times do you usually revise your fic/chapter before posting?
V. Choose a passage from one of your earlier fics and edit it into your current writing style. (Person sending the ask is free to make suggestions).
W. If you were to revise one of your older fics from start to finish, which would it be and why?
X. Have you ever deleted one of your published fics?
Y. What do you look for in a beta?
Z. Do you beta yourself? If so, what kind of beta are you?
AA. How do you feel about collaborations?
AB. Share three of your favorite fic writers and why you like them so much.
AC. If you could write the sequel (or prequel) to any fic out there not written by yourself, which would you choose?
AD. Do you accept prompts?
AE. Do you take liberties with canon or are you very strict about your fic being canon compliant?
AF. How do you feel about smut?
AG. How do you feel about crack?
AH. What are your thoughts on non-con and dub-con?
AI. Would you ever kill off a canon character?
AJ. Which is your favorite site to post fic?
AK. Talk about your current wips.
AL. Talk about a review that made your day.
AM. Do you ever get rude reviews and how do you deal with them?
AN. Write an alternative ending to a fic you've written (specify by title, link or general description).

Hello! Would you like to see some pictures of my cat Sophie?

( Who wouldn't? (don't tell me) )

Hey let's do a meme, wouldn't that be fun! As seen on tumblr!

Leave a comment with one of these and I'll post, without editing*:

FIRST — the first two sentences of my current project
LAST — the most recently written two sentences of my current project
NEXT — the next line. meaning i will finish the sentence I’m on and write a new one, which you’ll get.
[insert prompt here] — you post a prompt, and i’ll write three sentences based on that prompt, set in the same time/setting as my current project
THE END — i’ll make up an ending, or post the ending if i’ve written it
BEFORE THE BEGINNING — three sentences (or more) about something that happened before the plot of my current project
POV — something that’s already happened, retold from another character’s perspective

*okay, I might have to edit some names out of an exchange fic, but that's about it.

Hit me up!

Here, I like this meme, and perhaps you do too?

Pick a paragraph or any passage less than 500 words from any fanfic I've written and comment to this post with that selection. I will then give you a DVD commentary on that snippet of what I was thinking when I made or wrote it, why I wrote it, what's going on in the character's heads, why I chose certain words, what this moment means in the context of the fic, and anything else you'd expect to find on a DVD commentary track.

You can find my fic here, or you can look at my fic tag.

"The adjective ‘snacky’ has just been added, with the comparative snackier and superlative snackiest."

The OED is my new favorite dictionary. Thanks to travelingheidi for the heads up!

1) I have no idea what's going on with Livejournal, but it's become next to impossible for me to use at work. Strangely, this is not any of work's doing. There seems to be some problem with Firefox and LJ not playing nice with each other. I can't comment on entries, nor can I read long comment threads (can't expand). I've followed LJ's suggestions, but none of them work. Basically, I'll have to use another browser just to read LJ. SIGH. LJ, I want to keep using you, but you make it so hard. ETA: If you comment on this entry on LJ, I can't reply, it won't let me. :(

2) If you follow me on the Facebook, you will have seen this already, but if not, here's Snacky health news: I am having an MRI today to determine a diagnosis for my back and leg pain. The x-rays already showed arthritis (severe facet arthopathy was the term used), so the MRI is to figure out why I have terrible nerve pain and numbness in my legs (spinal stenosis is a suspect).

So I have to lie flat and unmoving on my back for 35 minutes for the MRI. Aaaaaand due to the pain, that's one thing I have a lot of trouble doing. I've been practicing for a week, can only make it to 12 minutes without moving. So my wonderful doctor has given my a combo of sedatives and pain pills to take, in the hope that I will be able to make it the entire 30 minutes.

Basically I will be doped out of my mind. :D Which is probably good, since I've been having massive anxiety about this whole thing.

3) So I think my new boss is a bit of a flake. First there was the whole review thing where she tried to give me a review for a year when she only supervised me for 6 weeks. Yesterday, she sent out the new edition of our email newsletter, and asked me to link to it on the website, FB, and Twitter. She asked me the same thing last month, and I said I couldn't link to an email, unless she had a link to give me, since I can't just link to inboxes. But she didn't have a link, since she builds it as an email in Constant Contact. So I suggested that I would make a news post on our website and FB and Twitter about it, and link to our sign-up form, so people could sign up to receive the email. And she said, "Oh, that's a great idea!" So that was what we did last month.

I reminded her we had this conversation last month, and she was like, "Oooooh. Right. Well, can you recreate it on the website?" I told her I could, but it wouldn't look exactly like the email, since she's using Constant Contact's templates, but I could recreate it the best I could. "Won't that be too much work?" she asked, and I said, not really, if that's what she wanted me to do. But then I reminded her that the reason she wanted an email newsletter was so that people would sign up and give us their contact info, which she wants for funding/donor campaigns, and if we put the newsletter on the website, aren't we defeating that purpose? "Good point!" said she. "Keep doing what you're doing!"

I'm wondering if we'll have this conversation again next month.