By Slanted Light

I am eternally behind, it seems, and tradition says that since I've started the new year like that, it's going to carry on. We'll see... *g* It's been ages since I posted - it seems like the less officially busy I get, the harder I find it to post too, weirdly enough. My last post was 26th November, just before examining was over and I settled back into proofreading, then I had two weeks off, with only a day and a bit left - and how many posts have I made? Well, a few if you count discoveredinalj and Yuletide, but none here...

So how are you? Hope you had a good December and Christmas and New Year, even if they were quieter than usual. I finally had time to sort this place out a bit more - I've alphabetised music, dvds and books; I can find things again! And put photo-type things into chronological order. Cos I'm like that. *g* It feels better, though there's still all sorts to do, including the UK Paper Circuit Library. I'm hesitating a bit because despite deciding, and people agreeing, that it's best to just throw out the stories that are online, since they're old and hard to read and often slightly smelly, I hate throwing away paper fic! I will though, I'll gird all the bits that need girding, and do it.

( In the meantime - 2020...  )

Fandomwise, I have to say that emotional rollercoasters aren't brilliant for writing - but then that might just be a continuation of me over the last few years. That said, I seem to have written ten fics - all but one Pros. And Pros FandomCards was fun and brightened up Christmas no end, and I still have to catch up on commenting on the Discovered in a Box of Baubles posts, and replying too, but I will...

The other one was my Yuletide fic, which also turned out to be on the crazy side - I requested and offered my usual small fandoms (Astreiant, Charm of Magpies, and Mathey/Lynes) (and I received an Astreiant fic! Wheee!), but I was thinking about re-reading an old favourite series at the time, and so I threw them into the mix - and that was only the assignment I was given, wasn't it! So I ended up writing Altogether Your World, which is for The Dark is Rising fandom, and set many years later when the characters have all grown up. Among other things I remember telling someone years ago that I couldn't even think of that as a slash fandom, because they were kids books, and I really couldn't... but then you glance at the odd story to see how much it makes you go eww, and when it's well-written enough... So I was able to offer it, in the end. And the story seems to have gone down pretty well, so phew - I wish I'd had time to make it a bit longer though, I think it needed more... Still - done!

Have some pics from the end of the year...




I'm thinking maybe I should try posting a pic each day again to try and cheer up January a bit... I've one more day before I'm back to work, and then I feel like I'm going to need something! Decorations down on Tuesday, too, so yeah, I need to think about a different kind of decoration, right?! *g*

Hmmn - another of lj's features that I've never actually used - the share button! So let's give it a whirl, because I'm quite excited about this... *g*

Originally posted by mescott at Patreon!

( And some rambling from me... *g* )

I'm curious - what does anyone else think of this sort of thing? (Quite apart from - yeay, Astreaint! *vbg*)

Erk, yes I should still be working... *sighs*

...and by the time I got to the end of them and thought Oh-I'm-sleepy-but-I-must-post, my next question was but what about...? But here I am at last, so let's see what we've got!

Thursday was Bath day again, the third one, but for some reason it just wasn't happening for me, which was annoying - the writing group, I mean. I was there, but there wasn't much writing going on in my head. I blame myself for checking my email just before I went in, and there being a work email I didn't have time to deal with - I was all distracted... On the bright side, once I'd pottered around for some chores, I decided to go home and work, because I had a place to work at home and it was nice. *g*

Friday was... erm, can't remember. Work of course, and I got it all done, and... nope, it's a blank. Oh, dinner with K and J (landlords)! Very nice and chatty and friendly and all.

Saturday was more shopping than I'd meant to do, and going to try and track down Apparitions in my storage, only to realise that it was in a bag way at the back, underneath the bicycle and the shelves and the suitcase, and the... So maybe I'll have to stick to re-watching LC's Jack the Ripper instead. Although - that did make me think...

Sunday I decided would be an at-home day, a no-spending-money-day (okay, I may have ordered A Death at the Dioysus Club from Wordery online bookshop, but that doesn't really count... *g*) and hopefully a deciding-what-to-write-for-NaNoWriMo day. See, I think that part of the reason NaNo works for me is that for an entire month I'm absolutely allowed to be completely immersed in the world that I'm writing - everything else, work included, has to fit around that. So I'm not sure about my initial idea of finishing things up after all cos I'd be chopping and changing between worlds. But... then I remembered a story that I forgot to include in my list the other day, maybe because I've barely started it (except for the overall plot, which I do have) - my Victorian story!Remember that? I got tangled up in wanting to do lots and lots of research for it, when what I really need to do is write it. So maybe I should do that for NaNoWriMo, right? Plus - (thanks solosundance for posting it, cos I hadn't actually checked it out yet) how well does this year's banner fit a Victorian story?! So... I think maybe...yes. Probably. Cos if I finish Two Go Adventuring Again first, then I'll be not-fresh to start the third Pros story, and although I could have a go at a steampunk-ish original fic I've got bubbling in the back of my brain... well, Kenyon and Cross are rather like Bodie and Doyle in my head, and I figure that might be a good enough cushion to keep me comfortable with trying a historical story... The only thing like that I've done for years was also based on LC's Godley from Jack the Ripper, Towards Home, and I'm not sure that the time it was set comes through at all, really... eep! So I'm still a bit worried it might not work, but if I start getting my Victorian on this week, then by the time we get to the first of November I'll be all ready to go - right? Well, that's the plan... *g*

Okay, I'm rambling now, aren't I? *g* Oh - and my other plan (apart from the whole moving-into-the-annexe-at-the-end-of-November) is that I will rise to a challenge set me by Kiashi - "taking lots of atmospheric photos of all things pertaining to an "English winter". All I have so far is: But that's cos I didn't go anywhere atmospheric, and it's been a bit flat and grey in between the occasional touch of damp rain. It will get better, I promise!

Oh - and they've decided to turn the heating on for a bit in the evening - yeay, it'll hopefully just take the edge off enough! Though we're back up to 16C again tomorrow (my plan is to do laundry, cos the one thing they don't have here are tumble driers!) Right - I shall go and snuggle up with Sergeant Godley, I think... *g* Come to think of it, the book I'm reading for the R.I.P. challenge right now is set in Victorian times - I shall get on with it! And a new Mathey and Lynes book winging it's way here too - more inspiration. Yeay! I can do this, right? Kenyon and Cross for NaNoWriMo!

New icon! *g* (Thank you moth2fic!)

Also - hurrah, cos I've been writing Pros again, which I've not felt like for ages. My theory is that using your brain is like exercise - it begets more using your brain/exercise... *g* So now that I'm feeling all useful and purposeful with my seasonal-second-job, I get to write Pros too! Hurrah! Of course it all ends at around 3pm today, when I have to go home and do seasonal-second-job for the whole weekend, but... in the meantime - There's over 14,000 words of hurrah! (Okay, some I'd written before, but they've been languishing, and now they're not.) Also, have huge-enormous idea for an older-lads novel-y thing which I really want to write, so that's on the cards now too... Oh, and WWII story... WWII story is still there, turning gently over and over in the background... Maybe with newly found want-to-write-now-ness I'll write all three! Hmmn... by the end of the year, what d'you reckon to that as a goal...? And it's kind of nice, cos even if no one else wants to read them, I still want to write them... *vbg*

Right - the lads, to celebrate!


( Started out a weird day, though.. )

( Apparently they've found the longevity gene... )

( Finally they're admitting women may have used weapons in the past... )

( Sea Angels and Sea Devils! )

And now there are just nine minutes before hometime, yeay!

Ohmigawd, I have just seen the following sentence in someone's lj...

I did my own Britpicking (with the help of Thingie who is also not British)

To be fair, they didn't do a bad job (way better than alot I've seen), but... what is this definition of Britpicking that you can do it yourself? Isn't that actually just trying your best and not bothering to get anyone else to check?

Or is it me, and I've always assumed that when someone says they're going to get a story Britchecked/picked that they mean by a Brit? Or at least someone who's, say, lived there, or seems to know what they're doing because they know how to change their spellcheck to UK English?

Also - did I wake up grumpy? *eyes coffee* *g*

I decided a little while ago to glance into the world of m/m romance, and having seen this recced in my flist, thought I'd start there...

( Frost Fair )

... gacked from everyone... *g* Ha - I'd forgotten about some of these, and I'm also happily surprised that there aren't more lurking on this harddrive...

Post a single sentence from each WIP you have (or as many as you want to pick). No context, no explanations. No more than one sentence!

( WIPs, I has 'em... lots of 'em... )

So... yesterday worked out quite well... From not feeling at all write-y, to actually writing not just for half an hour, but for another two and a half hours when I got home - yeay! And I did feel better afterwards, writing is fun. *g*

I didn't make it a public post yesterday, because I wasn't sure how it'd turn out (and there's tinkering I want to do, in fact) but I shall go away and unlock the results now - 'twas basically a pwp, prompted by schnuffi, and whether or not it's any good, it's writing again, so la! Turns out accountability works - at least for now... *g*

And being me I'm going to strike while the iron is hot, and see if I can do it all over again.

So - again! - the first person to give me a prompt, whether it's something new, or something I already owe somewhere (picfor1000, timestamp meme, various ideas I've said ooh, that'd be fun to write... etc) will set me off on what I'll write today...

Takers?

Having just seen this at phantomas's place, I realise that I'm in the mood to drabble... There's clearly no point in me doing the meme, cos all I could really offer up, fandom-wise, is Pros, so I'm just gonna offer up drabbles in general...

If anyone'd like a Pros drabble, comment below with some sort of prompt-y word or idea or whatever, and I'll see what I can come up with!

And if anyone'd like any other kind of (non-fandom) drabble, then we can always try that too. *g*

(Cos otherwise, I'm gonna be stuck having to think of things for myself - ack!)