| 2008-05-05 07:31 |
| What is wrong with IJ? |
| Public |
It won't let me post. It gives me error messages when I reply to comments. What gives?
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| 2008-05-05 07:28 |
| This is not a smile on my face |
| Public |
Okay, I'm trying to respond to all the very nice comments on my snarry_games story and every single frigging time I make a comment it boots me to this database unvailable message. I have to go back into the system, and, yes, my comment appears, but this is not on!. I can't just leap frog answering comment to comment. Am I the only one experiencing this glitch and annoyance? Certainly does not encourage me to move over here with this sort of fundamental software glitch.
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| 2008-04-07 16:19 |
| HD World Cup: Critiques |
| Public |
Prefacing this by saying that I'm in a horrible mood and loaded for bear. But that does not mean that I don't stand behind this statement. It just means that on any other day I might have just decided it isn't worth it. But being pissy beyond belief, I think this needs to be said.
You know how I feel about this topic in general. I've said enough about this when the brouhaha over critical reviews boiled over and burned the tips of all of our fingers.
But I'm going to add a postscript to those writers out there. Naturally, this doesn't apply to the trolls who are just gearing up to smash someone's ego to bits. This is for the writers who have received comments about their fic that could be construed as constructive. Frankly, if you only want to receive the warm fuzzies, then I really do not think you belong in a competition. Your fic is ALREADY being voted on. People are all ready making a value judgment on your writing. That's not up for negotiation. (Of course, gift exchanges are an entirely different writerly animal.) But a competition automatically sets up the dynamic that your fic is being regarded in relationship to three others. Say, your fic gets five votes out of ten. Right there, right there someone is making a judgment on your fic. Don't you want to know why you didn't get eight or ten? Are you really satisfied with hugging your five little laurels to yourself? Don't you want to take that story and improve it? And if you really don't understand why you got only five laurels, you've got people telling you why you didn't. Free concrit.
Sure it hurts to know that one of the fics got more points than yours. READ THE COMMENTS. Maybe there's a damn good reason. Maybe this person kept their focus. Maybe this person had a great idea.
Short of the awful assholes that we know are part and parcel of LJ, there are some really thoughtful, intelligent people here and I think you should use them. If you get ten different opinions on why your story didn't work as successfully as it might have (five laurels as opposed to ten), then that's more difficult. But if you got seven people saying that the ending didn't work, then maybe the ending didn't work. Is that a tragedy? No, it just means that you go back and see what you did and think about it and come up with an ending that works for the story. That's it. These are only stories. We aren't in competition for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Learn from people. Or not. That is your choice.
Readers? This one's for you. There is a person on the other end of your comments. Be thoughtful and considerate, don't be a troll. If you think that your opinion is perhaps not something for the rest of LJ's eyes, then put in your comments that you'd like to discuss this after the fest is over and leave your email address.
I think that if people really only want warm fuzzy comments, then I think that commenting should be disabled and only the votes tabulated. I tend to be very polite in general whenever I am commenting on a piece of fanfiction, but I do not think that the writer's ego is the only factor in this equation. You don't have an audience if you don't have readers.
Think about what you're asking. You're asking the reader to park their brain at the door. Although this SEEMS like a fair exchange of ideas, it's not REALLY. I only want the really nice and laudatory comments. Even though I'm writing for a prompt and an ideal (fanon, canon EWE, or Epilogue--there are RULES here and hurdles to jump over), even though it's a type of game (i.e., my performance is to be judged), please do not judge me at all. Don't judge me if I have addressed my prompt appropriately. Don't judge me if I have written a story that conforms to canon or to fanon or whatever.
See what you're asking? You're changing the rules because you don't like the game. That's not fair. It's not fair to the other writers.
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| 2008-04-01 15:11 |
| FIC: Your Move Series (complete) (James/Jack, NC-17, 5/5) |
| Public |
Title: Your Move Series (5/5)
Author: ![[info]](http://www.insanejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) pir8fancier
Pairing: James Norrington/Jack Sparrow
Word Count: 51,000 (more or less)
Rating: NC-17. If you find male/male sexuality disgusting, you are in the wrong place.
Warnings: This is an AU of sorts. It jumps off from events established in the first movie.
Betas: Theresa Green, webcrowmancer, lizzie_omalley, veronica_rich, and gryphons_lair
Disclaimer: Disney owns.
Author's Notes: I owe a debt of gratitude to commodoresexual and firesignwriter. Their *far* superior characterizations of James Norrington were instrumental in forming my own vision of him. Without their wonderful stories, I fear he wouldn't have seen the light of day in this story.
It shocks me to realize that I wrote the last bit of this fic (Match) something like four years ago. I held off writing the last and final chapters, hoping to leap off of the canon established by the release of the second movie. Well, shoot, that was a stupid idea. If you've been around these waters for any length of time, you know how unhappy I was with the second movie. I disagreed with many things, but most of all I disagreed with what they did to the character of James Norrington. It was, to my mind, nothing short of a character assassination. James Norrington would sooner become a drunken sot than Jack Sparrow would become a Carmelite nun. Funnily enough, I didn't mind so much when he was killed off in the third movie because they had, at the end, restored his dignity. This is a cornerstone of James' character and to see it trampled on and ignored during the course of the second movie pretty much enraged me. I was so disgruntled by the last two movies that I lost heart in finishing this. While Jack Sparrow amuses me and Will Turner makes my heart go pitty-pat, it is the character of James Norrington who reduces me a teary-eyed mess. He is the fellow who never gets the girl, no matter how noble he is. He is the character who puts duty first. He is the character that tries to hide his rather soft heart behind a wig and a uniform. And he is the character that I love the most in "Curse of the Black Pearl." Am glad this finally done. The POTC fandom was my first real fandom. A more welcoming and lively bunch was never met. Tipping my tri-corner to you all.
Note that some of these links are to skyehawke. It's easier to read some of the lengthier chapters in one go, as opposed to leap-frogging from LJ link to LJ link.
Game
Set
Match
ReMatch
EndGame
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| 2008-03-30 13:30 |
| Someone's birthday today! |
| Public |
It's themostepotente birthday today. Hugs, sweetie. Birthday confetti flying everywhere!
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| 2008-03-30 12:19 |
| CRAP DAY ANTIDOTE |
| Public |
Here's a link to bitter_crimson's hysterical, HYSTERICAL I TELL YOU, story where John and Rodney are Girl Scout cookies. Trust me on this one. I knew I was in for a hell of a ride when she has Thin Mints be the cookie sluts. Hands down so true. Here. Read. Laugh. Rec.
http://bitter-crimson.livejournal.com/577790.html
BUT, I had another idea. This is my entry into my latest idea: the Crap Day Antidote (CDA).
FLIST! Post your CDA. The fic or meta that made you laugh, that made you say, "EAT FRIGGING ROCKS CRAP!" I don't care what fandom, I don't care what pairing, I don't care what author. I don't care if it's funny or hurt/comfort or pretty much, um, I don't care. But what I want is for you to post the fic that you turn to when you come home from a shitty day to a dirty house/apartment room, your laundry basket is looking like it might explode and you know you don't have clean underwear because the underwear you've got on is on day two, and you don't have either laundry detergent OR quarters. And you're even out of Top Ramen and you're hungry enough to eat the linoleum and did I mention there's no food in the house. And your boyfried/girlfriend/husband/partner is being an asshole. And there's no hope. None. Except there's your laptop or your desktop and there's that fic--or meta. The fic/meta that can't fix the unfixable, but makes it bearble.
What's your CDA?
POST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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| 2008-03-28 09:24 |
| Flist management |
| Public |
Ahoy! If there is anyone on my flist here that I haven't friended back, please holler. I'm trying to establish myself here because I see the day will come when, crap, LJ pulls something that necessitates pulling up stakes. So, yeah, if I haven't friended you back, please leave a comment and I'll do so. Hugs, people.
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| 2008-03-20 12:23 |
| Why I Stay at LJ |
| Public |
On the morning of the LJ boycott, I've been thinking non-stop for the last few days about what LJ means to me, my experience there, etc. And that naturally has me thinking about, well, the fic. I tend not to make lists of my favorite fics, etc., because you will forget someone and you will inevitably hurt someone you didn't mean to hurt, so I just randomly rec as I read and that has worked for me so far.
I am a voracious reader. I always have been. Before LJ time, I went through a minimum of 3 books a week. Now, I read most of my fiction here. Publishing is in the doldrums right now. I have a pretty good sense of what is good writing and what is not, and let me tell you, I click here, and I can find material that is forty times better than the majority of what is currently being marketed.
What is the point, pir8fancier? I'd like to list six seven eight nine those fics that moved me profoundly. That made me stop and genuflect in homage: that's writing. That opened my eyes on a number of levels, just not as a writer, but upsided me on the head personally. There's this. And have you thought of this? Or made me just laugh at the wit. Or made me howl with jealousy at how perfectly beautiful the language was. Or made me grumble because the concept is so unique that I *never* would have thought of it. In short, the six seven eight nine those fics that mattered so profoundly to me that this is why I stay at LJ even though I'm on the verge of stroking out over what I consider unethical business practices, and why IJ isn't home yet.
Warning, all of these stories have explicit descriptions of male/male sex. If that's not your cup of tea, move on. The stories:
ETA: I keep adding fic. I suppose that's the whole point of this post.
Authors: shaenie and traveller
Fandom: RPS LoTRIPS
Title: _unsound
This story is a WIP and will most likely not be finished. The writers have moved on to other and better things, but it's unique in two ways. First of all, a seamless interplay of plot and character, only achieved in the most sophisticated of writing. Second, it's tagteam written and the style doesn't waver. I know who wrote whom, but it doesn't crack or betray that. The voice is the same throughout, but not. If that makes sense. So read it, even if you're not into WIPS or RPS. It's that good.
Author: firesignwriter
Fandom: POTC
Title: Moonverse
My first real fandom was pirates. KJ has moved on to life without LJ, and I salute her. She's one talented mfker of a writer and I'd like to see her parlay that into something more lucrative. This is a wonderful, thoughtful piece that explores the dynamic between Jack Sparrow and James Norrington like no other writer I know. Break out your handkerchief, the ending is a killer.
Author: cesperanza
Fandom: due South
Title: Eight Sessions
This writer is famous in fandom for her stellar writing. In fact, it was difficult to choose a specific story (check out Scrabble in due South fandom and, of course, her recent Written by the Victors in SGA). For me, this story rounded up into a neat package what I love about due South. Two lonely, broken people finally reaching out to each other. The amount of love the characters have for each other in this story moves me to tears every time I read it.
Author: traveller
Fandom: RPS LoTRIPS
Title: King of New Orleans
No surprise that this author is listed twice. I was one of the people clapping my hands raw when this came out. It is *perfectly* executed, combined with a truly unique and brilliant concept. This isn't a single thing this author has written that hasn't had wowed me, but in this piece, all of her genius sits majestically in one place. I don't care if you don't like RPS. Read this.
Author: rinsbane
Fandom: SGA
Title: Unto Jerusalem
I'm just dipping my toes into the SGA waters and now I'm thinking, hell, it's been written, what's left for you to say? This is magnificent.
Author: rispacooper
Fandom: Original
Title: Ideas of Sin
Originally I'm sure that rispa thought I was some sort of depraved stalker. Um, she still might think that. This is original fiction that is the smartest read ever. You don't plow through this. It is nuanced and subtle, and the writing so intelligent that I nagged her incessantly to finish it and couldn't have cared less if she thought I was some looney-tune. It is now done and was worth every single nail-biting minute. It is beautifully written and has French pirates! What's not to love?
Author: byblythe
Fandom: Harry Potter
Title: Corridors of Power
This is so smart. SO SMART. Clever. Great writing. She's written many wonderful pieces, but this is my personal favorite.
Author: resonant8
Fandom: Breakfast Club
Title: Higher Education
Truth, I hated the movie The Breakfast Club. Just a simple movie pandering to its teenage audience saying, Hey, we're all misfits. Like that's a unique perspective. But this fic. Sigh. When people ask me about voice. This is where I tell them to go. The voice in this is perfect. Perfect.
Author: helenish
Fandom: Harry Potter
Title: Soft Spot for Lost Causes
This was a difficult choice because I also love her Third Time's a Charm, but then anything with Remus in it immediately has a built in ah factor about it for me (which probably has a lot to do with David Thwelis, but I'm not alone in this). So I'm choosing this story because I think Ron Weasley is a hard sell, and this story made me love Ron Weasley.
Author: Calligraphy
Fandom: Harry Potter
Title: So Lonely Without Me
My favorite Snarry. The writer who made me sit up and notice Severus Snape, and what a marvelous character he was. He is a fanfiction writer's dream character.
The above are why I am at LJ and why I stay at LJ even though they piss the hell out of me.
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| 2008-03-19 18:12 |
| Back to regular programming... |
| Public |
One can fume and froth over asshattery for only so long before you start sounding like a crank. Plus I've had a headache for three days now, and I think it's stress. And I will NOT stroke out because LJ is being stupid. So on with our regular programming.( Read more... )
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| 2007-12-20 21:28 |
| Podcast PS |
| Public |
Having listened to the podcast yet again, and her comment about homosexuality in the wizarding world, people have said that it CAN be read both ways, and I agree with that. I say in defense of JKR (yes, in defense) that I think if the interviewers were not so, well, obsequious about interviewing her (jeez, the squee is unbelievable), she might actually come across better and less obtuse.
All we needed was someone with a half critical brain. If someone had said to her, "Well, I'm not quite getting your point. Are you saying that homosexuality in the wizarding world is just like the Muggle world in that there are those that could give a toss and those who are homophobic bastards. OR are you saying that there is NO homophobia in the wizarding world. Your answer was unclear. Can you clarify that for our listeners. And while you're on the subject, you specifically mention Lucius Malfoy. Are you saying that if Draco came home and announced that he was homosexual that Lucius would be ambivalent about this announcement, given his manifest obsession with bloodlines and the possible demise of his family name if his son decides not to have children based on his sexual orientation. Please clarify." then I think she would have at least had half a fighting chance to make murky statements a little less murky. Emma interviewed me for a podcast and due to some judicious editing on her part (and some nice worded questions), I came across as fairly with it. AFTER the editing. Before the editing, I sounded like blooming idiot. So I'm sympathetic to this and a competent interviewer would have given her the opportunity to clean up the ambiguity.
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| 2007-12-18 22:58 |
| Why LOTR Is Literature and HP Is Not |
| Public |
I've been thinking about this for a few days now, and I wasn't going to post it. Just let it rattle around in my brain. However, the recent podcast has made me rethink this entire idea and I'm just going to put this out there. This diatribe was, in part, inspired by fictualities discussion about the necessity of have a big boom to have a successful series, and also sistermagpie's recent discussion about heroes.
Both of these posts made me start drawing up comparisons between the Lord of the Rings series and the Harry Potter series. In doing so, I came to one conclusion. Someone knew what they were doing and someone else didn't.
Both series center around the concept of the reluctant hero. In LOTR, we have, actually two heroes: Frodo and Aragorn. Each of them on a separate quest, their success based on the other's success. In HP, Harry is both Frodo AND Aragorn. He doesn't stumble onto his quest until rather late in the series (the Horcruxes and the Deathly Hallows), however, his resemblance to Aragorn is quite profound. Engaged in a fight to the death, destiny hounding them for the entire series, reluctant hero business, mentor in form of old man with long beard.
The similiarities between Gandalf and Dumbledore are too marked not to notice. As it the whole ring business. Except Frodo and Sam had the smarts to know that the ring was evil, and while Harry et al seemed to get that as well, they didn't have the bloody sense to take it off! We have other similarities. Sauron is Voldemort's evil twin, and I think it no accident that to make Tom Riddle completely evil (like Sauron), he has to lose his human form and become a man/snake, so that the evil is palatable. Tolkien went one step further and only made the physical manifestation of Sauron an eye. You can attribute all the evil you like to an eye. It is more problematic with Riddle because why is one orphan so good and one orphan so bad. We handle that one quite nicely by having Voldemort lose his physical self for several books, and when he comes back he is not a man really but a sort of changling, half man half snake concoction. I think this serves to absolve the reader from asking too many questions. Why is Sauron so evil? It works better with Sauron than it does with Riddle because we know Riddle as a boy.
So we have these three heroes going along, Aragorn killing orcs, Frodo marching, and Harry trying to survive Voldemort. The HP books do quite well until the final book. Why does it fall apart then? Because we have a hero that has no clothes. Check out what happens in the Return of the King (note the title--that is important). We have two critical scenes that mirror each other: Aragorn's decision to journey through the Paths of the Dead and Harry's decision to die. One is a symbolic death, one is nothing more than an excuse to bring out the handkerchiefs. Why? Because Aragorn's decision to enter the chasm through the paths of the dead is about shedding Aragorn and becoming Elessar. This is the very moment when the king returns. He will prove himself on the battlefield, but this is where Aragorn himself intellectually accepts that he is the king.
Harry's acceptance of his death does not transform him. He remains the same person he was before. There is no transformation, there are no epiphanies, and, in fact, it is entirely passive. Unlike Aragorn, who fights the dead, who unleashes his sword and challenges them to battle, we have no amazing transformation on Harry's part. In fact, I sort of wonder what was the point. Oh yes, those horcruxes. I was under the mistaken impression that Harry had to die because he was a Horcrux, but recent comments by Ms. Rowling say that he wasn't really a Horcrux, which further undermines Harry's reason for death. In essence, we have the same person who opened the book to close the book. The transformation between the Ranger who confronts the Hobbits at the inn and the King Elessar at the Gates of Mordor? No comparison seems like over kill to say.
That is the most obvious comparison, the lack of transformation. The only point about death is the giving up of something. Aragorn finally abandoned his tremendous fears or his own inadequacies. I have no idea what Harry gave up other than life. Which he didn't really, now did he?
The next bit are just a series of comparison:
The flawed men:
Denethor versus Lucius: Both of these men are the heir apparents who have perverted the system and let their arrogance rule them. Do we feel any sympathy in the way that Lucius was written? I didn't and I wanted to. Denethor however cruel and horrible he is to his son Faramir, we share in his grief for Boromir.
Theoden and Snape: They are characters who are flawed and fall, and then step up to the plate. Compare Theoden's end with Snape's. Again we are on the battlefield and Theoden is fighting a Nazgul. A FUCKING NAZGUL! Snape is bitten on the neck by a snake. I can't even write anything more about this other than to say one dies in glory on the battlefield, the other dies in squalor in the shrieking shack. Boromir also fits into this category. A character who fails and then gets back up again. The only person who truly falls from grace in the HP series is Snape, and we never see his "resurrection," his vindication.
Gandalf and Dumbledore: This is where Tolkien's genius is easy to see. He doesn't abuse Gandalf's role in this story as JKR does with Dumbledore. Although the entire LOTR series is a switching back and forth between Frodo's story arc and Aragorn's story arc (with Gandalf flitting between the two), JRK keeps her series in essentially one POV, which hamstrings her, then she introduces this overwhelming story arc in the last book that seriously threatens to derail all the tension. If she had had a concurrent story that was marching side by side with Harry's story arc, then the tension would have been tremendous. As it was, she had Harry's story competing with a story that occurred 50 years earlier, and no matter how compelling or interesting or even germaine this story is to the present Harry story arc, it's in the PAST. It's passive. It can't help but undermine the current story.
Which brings us to the next fatal flaw: her inability to let Dumbledore stay dead and let Harry die by himself. Even if there hadn't been any sort of conscious effort on Harry's part to change (ala Aragorn to Elessar), the very act of doing this by himself (and the dead man walking just doesn't cut it) would have been some sort of enormous right of passage. As it was, we cut back to previous scenes with Dumbledore and Harry remains a protege, Dumbledore the mentor. Harry is STILL not a man. I hate to put it in those crude terms, but at the very least this is what we are getting at. War is not for children. Harry's choice of death should have signaled his abandonment of his childhood (at the very least).
Perhaps the most stunning fatal flaw is that the transformation that by all rights should belong to Harry occurs to another character. Neville Longbottom. He changes more than ANY other character in the series (granted in a sea of moribund character arcs). Indeed, his last year at Hogwarts is the figurative sister to Aragorn's confronting the Paths of the Dead. He is truly transformed from the mouse to the man. And I supposed that's the point. There is nowhere for Harry to go. He starts out the series as unbelievably brave and stoic and good and right and, well, nigh perfect. Neville as the magical incompetent has the ability to transform and Harry is limited by his own perfection.
I have mentioned previously how disappointed I was throughout the whole series by the lack of characterizations of the Slytherins. Essentially, they act as orcs. They provide the menace and threat until the final confrontation between Harry and Voldemort. They could have been far more. They should have been far more. It is the depth of the characterization that makes LOTR such a brilliant book. Would that we had a Boromir in Slytherin. Sirius fills that role to some extent, while Grima Wormtongue has his obvious counterpart in Peter Pettigrew.
Ultimately, however, it is the failure of Harry to become something other than what he started out as in this series that is the true measure of how inherently limited this story is when stripped down to it basics. The eleven-year old Harry Potter isn't one whit different that the 17-year-old Harry Potter. To make it even worse, we have another hero in the wings in the form of Neville Longbottom.
I think this no more apparent in terms of the titles of the last books in these series. Return of the King and The Deathly Hallows. One refers to a key character and one refers to objects.
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| 2007-12-18 21:47 |
| Please stop talking! |
| Public |
Dear Ms. Rowling:
I am extremely confused. Harry really isn't a Horcrux? Then why did Harry have to die. I was under the mistaken impression that Harry needed to die so that Voldemort could be defeated. If Harry wasn't actually a Horcrux, then why did he die? If I may be so rude, what was the frigging point then other than to trot out twinkly old Dumbledore and one last look at Sirius and one last look at James and Lily and get out our hankerchiefs? Are you saying this was a manufactured scene?
Two, in the same interview we have the non-Horcrux Harry who is nearly sorted into Slytherin because it senses the Horcrux in him. Excuse me? Wouldn't the Sorting Hat have known that this wasn't his innate personality and said something to that effect. And given that James Potter wasn't exactly Mr. Sweetness and Light, don't you think that this adds an interesting dimension to the Horcruxed Non-Horcruxed Harry? Assuming that he IS a horcrux. Although you've said he isn't. Again, I'm confused.
Three, that's a rather interesting analysis you have there. We have purebloods who don't care about homosexuality one way or the other, and yet we have a book with no gay couples. Even though they are obsessed with maintaining bloodlines and are rabid on the subject of purebloods procreating with purebloods in the desperate bid to keep the wizarding world alive, they are not homophobic. Although you would assume that they would be because there is a slight chance that the union of a pureblood witch and a Muggle male will produce magical offspring; however, I can assure you that two males or females coupling (whether of wizarding or Muggle descent) have a snowball's chance in hell of producing any children. Of course, this is all moot, because we don't really know how they react because aren't any gays to react to.
Fourth, we have comparisons with how Muggles view homosexuality. Well in my little corner of the United States we have discrimination and people getting beaten up and marginalized and treated like third class citizens. So I'm not getting what you mean. Are you saying that in your little rarified neck of the woods there is no discrimination against gays or all your best friends are gay?
Can we be more obtuse if we tried? I don't think so.
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| 2007-12-18 17:22 |
| Escapade |
| Public |
Am going to Escapade. Anyone need a roommate?
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| 2007-12-17 11:34 |
| Hohoho pir8fancier style |
| Public |
I adore Christmas. I know it's schlocky and tacky and commercial. However, when I was a wee child (there's a scary thought) my parents (who were divorced) used to pretend that we were actually a family. My dad would stay Christmas Eve (of course, now that I'm older I'm thinking that perhaps there was a little hohoho going on) and when we'd wake up, there would be Daddy, just like all the other kids in the neighborhood. This was in the 1960s and people didn't get divorced then. We felt it. Some of the mothers in the neighborhood weren't very nice to us (like this was OUR fault), they weren't nice to my mother, it was a bad time in her life. So anyway, Daddy would be there, and while we never got much during the year, they always went berserk at Christmas time, and my sister and I got lots of LOOT!
So, basically, while Christmas has ceased to be about loot to me, it still means being a family and friends and love and forgiveness.
I did not participate in any holiday fests (except one), but I was a writing fool last year and here are two stories that emerged from last year's Christmas writing fests that are Christmas-y in nature. Enjoy or not enjoy.
In the Harry Potter world we have This Boy's Life. This is rather long and Snarry (beware!), but I think it's possibly the best thing I've written (with a ton of help from regan_v). Considering this was written before the publication of DH, go me!
In the due South world we have It's a Wonderful Christmas Carol. A due South story that rips off shamelessly both A Christmas Carol AND a It's a Wonderful Life.
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| 2007-12-03 17:56 |
| Fic rec: HP |
| Public |
Enjoyed this merry_smutmas story very much. I love a Draco who doesn't give up his snark. A Draco who keeps his bite: Draco, the Magic Dragon
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| 2007-09-11 08:40 |
| Writing Meta |
| Public |
So. Finished superseekrit RL writing project that has been a FUCKING NOOSE around my neck for over three years. Go me!
The not-so-go me part. Promoting secret writing project. Which gets into the problematic and insane issue of the writing ego.
I've talked before about envying other writers and how destructive it is. And why you shouldn't do it. You just need to keep on plowing forward with your little voice and your little vision and keep trying to make your little cry into the wilderness the best little cry it can be.
But the envy is there. I use it to my advantage in that I pick apart writers I envy, analyze their writing, their pacing, etc. I don't emulate it, because you can't. You write like you and while you can parody someone else, in the end you can only write like you. But I do learn from other writers, so my envy has a positive aspect to it.
Which brings me to the issue of having to get out there and flog superseekrit writing project. Because unlike some other fanfiction writers who (deservedly) will go on book tours and whose mss was put up for auction (AUCTION! OMG AM I ENVIOUS!), I got down on my hands and knees and begged my publisher to take me back after a three-year hiatus, where in the publishing world that means, essentially, that you've died. And they took me back. I don't know why, but they did and my agent, who also thought I was a lost cause, took me back. Am I grateful? YOU BET YOUR ASS!
But no money for promo, no advertising dollars, just me hoofing it at writing cons and bookstores, etc. And this is THE reality. This is what 95% of us who have book contracts do. WE DO IT. WE PAY FOR IT. We pay for the airline tickets and the motel rooms and the kitchy, tacky freebies, trying to promote our books in the hopes that the buzz we generated the first time will help sell MORE copies of the second. I kind of blew it by dropping off the face of the earth, so it's like I'm back to square one again. Need to press that flesh and smile.
Am digressing, as is my wont. How does this relate to envy and ego?
I have to stand up in front of a room full of people (HOPEFULLY!) and say, "Hey, this is really worth $24.99! Buy it. Buy three. Buy ten!" I do believe that on one level. But on another level I don't. It's well written for what it is, but I can think of several other writers who write in the genre that I write in and their work is a thousand times better. So I find myself in this mental tug of war. Because it's an okay book. Better than a lot out there. But not better than the one I picked up last week. So, basically, I'm asking people to buy it and handing it to them with both a smile and a cringe.
When you edit a manuscript, an entire book, it's difficult not to see the patterns. The words used over and over again. The schtick. I have a schtick. I need to LOSE this. Some of this is that I'm tired of looking at the goddamned thing. I wrote it over a period of three years and it sounds so STALE to me. It's fun stale, but stale nonetheless. But I have to go out there and say, "NO! IT'S NOT STALE. IT'S FUNNY AND WITTY AND HAHAHAHAHA! BUY TEN!"
And what this book has said to me is that I'm at a stage in my writing where I need to stop relying on my schtick. I need to step it up a notch. I don't know how you do that, but I need to. Otherwise I will be completely paralyzed by my inadequacies. Because I'm so happy this book is done, but I'm also really afraid because what if I can only write this sort of book? What if I can't get any better? And that isn't enough for me. My ego can't stand the thought that this is as good as it gets.
Some of this is post-book blues, but some of it is not. How do you take it up a notch, flisters? How to do you abandon the schtick? Get down to the bones.
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| 2007-09-06 07:48 |
| Fic: We Are the Champions (7/?) |
| Public |
| mypotterfic |
Title: We Are the Champions (7/?), Hand-fisted
Author: pir8fancier
Pairing: Harry/Draco
Rating: R. For fucking language in this chapter.
Warning: Spoilers for DH? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! This is crack. This has always been an AU and will, forevermore, BE an AU.
Summary: We continue the saga of our two lovely young men. To recap. Several hours earlier, they gave each other mind-numbing, spectacular hand jobs. Draco's notion that Potter hexed him into enjoying said hand job was dispelled by Blaise' wand work. In desperation, Draco devises M.A.P. Draco pronounces himself a genius. Harry pronounces him batshit insane. As you can see, nothing has changed.
Betas: My dear snottygrrl, acromantular, and gabe_speaks (who really deserves an extra round of applause because of the astounding beta). Thanks, kittens!
Author's Notes: This is a birthday present for karaz. It's only a year late!
Disclaimer: JKR, you blew it with Draco's one-sided characterization therefore this is no disclaimer because the Draco you wrote about isn't the Draco depicted here. Unfortunately, I wrote that very sentence three years ago, and nothing has changed in that regard. I find that sad.
Previous chapters are here at skyehawke.
Chapter 1, Underhanded
Chapter 2, Slight of Hand
Chapter 3, You Put Your Right Hand In...
Chapter 4, Hand It Over
Chapter 5, Underhanded
Chapter 6, Hell in a Handbasket
**********************************
Meet me in twenty minutes: the Astronomy Tower.
DM
Draco cast a Tempus. Good. Potter was late. Draco expected him to be late, and it wouldn’t have done at all for his expectations on this score to be dashed. Draco hated tardy people on principle. He never thought he’d be in the position of having to scrounge up additional Potter-hating ammunition, but since his body had decided to betray him, here he was, exacting every bit of satisfaction as the minutes ticked by. This only worked up to a point, because with each mounting minute, Draco began to realize that a late arse was still a fetching arse on the right person—or the wrong person, as the case may be. He frowned, which lasted only as long as the thought of Potter commando in pyjama bottoms or, even better, the thought of Potter without pyjamas entirely. Yay! shouted his cock by way of a hearty jerk.( Read more... )
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| 2007-08-16 22:12 |
| More HP Meta: POV |
| Public |
One of the interesting things to come out of the discussion about Draco Malfoy, toerag in training, is the issue of POV.( Read more... )
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| 2007-08-14 19:50 |
| Draco Malfoy: Self-serving Little Snot? |
| Public |
| meta: hp |
Well, you know that something cataclysmic is happening when cordelia_v brings up the potential for Draco Malfoy actually having a soul.( Read more... )
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