Dear, dear Cim. Your card is late because I'd not put your birthday in my Birthday Calendar, but now that's been remedied. I almost don't know what to say; you've been such a rock for me, you've spoken sense, support, love and guidance. I'd posted that picture (flocked) from the Two Towers party, which was when I met you in real life for the first time. I am so glad that we've continued to stay in touch and become better real life friends as time has gone on, especially in the most recent couple of years.

May you be celebrated this day and always. I'm so incredibly glad you are in this world.

XOXOXOXOX

It's been a while, but one jumped out at me today, and I just assumed two more would follow, and they did. The one that really caught my eye was:
Those darn accordions! [picture of an accordion]
Pro-Accordion & I vote!

This one I suspect many people on my flist own, in green print on a yellow background:
reading is sexy

And then, to round out my morning drive to the Opera:
I ♥ PIRATES

Happy Friday to you all! Much to my great pleasure, I had a rather decent sale this morning, and unexpected at that. Which means I have another full week to ensure I make commission, and hopefully then some. On the personal front, it's been rather a week of self-awareness and change, and I feel like I'm on the cusp of some pretty profound understandings. Like the fact that I want to learn how to safely live alone, since that's what I'm drawn to. And that life's short: maybe I really should apply for this program for Audience and Fan Studies at the Cardiff School of Journalism, Media & Cultural Studies. I mean, why not?? No, I don't know what I'd do with such a degree, but I suspect I could do some teaching, some editing, keep involved in various fan communities and write some more papers. At any rate, rather a turbulent week, but I'm looking forward to some down time this weekend and maybe spending some time with snottygrrl and/or one of my work colleagues. Two in particular are now confidantes and think I'm wonderful and said some things to me I needed to be reminded of. Such as: If I just listen to some of the truest parts of myself, and act accordingly, I'm going to be fine.

So, enough navel gazing from here. I'll do some editing and writing, too. Happy weekend! ♥

Oh my dear friend. And that I know the genesis of fungus_files as a username is something that warms my heart. I've known you since we were sixteen, or I was sixteen, anyway. That year in Australia was one of the most formative I've had in my life, and I'm so glad that despite distance, our changing lives and pursuits, and other factors that could have caused us not to remain friends, we are still friends and confidantes. Happy birthday!! It's quite an eventful year for you with the new bub, and I do hope that I'll be able to come down in October, depending on how my path here continues on, but I remain hopeful.

((((massive hugs))))

I know, I just wrote something, and most of you on my immediate flist don't read Slave Breakers. Still, for my own archive, I'm putting it here as well as over at slavebreakers. Andrei came to me and said I had to write this.

Title: Map of the Human Heart
Rating: Adultish, but totally non-explicit
Pairing: Lee/Andrei, Mona
Summary: We know what happens at Holden's the day he and Lord Taganov lose the court case and their slaves are voluntarily freed. It's a much more subdued event at Andrei's. This is my take on how things happened at Andrei's that day.

( Map of the Human Heart )

I just uploaded "A Place Like Tomorrow" over at The Quidditch Pitch. In looking at the stories with the highest hits on them, I was stunned to discover that it's my nonfiction paper on Harry Potter crossovers which, by far, has been looked at the most, with (unless somehow the count is off, but this is what it says!) a read count of 5404. I'm really, really surprised by that.

So then I got curious. Now some stories I've had there for years, others are new, but I was interested in the others in the top five of read counts. They are:
2) Fling Wide the Whirlwind (Ron/Harry)- 2208
3) Crown of Rope (Ron/Draco)- 1345
4) Dabbling in Harry's Desires (Harry/Ron/Justin Finch-Fletchley)(??!)- 683
5) Eternal Summer Gilds Them Yet (Ron/Harry)- 654

I think this does show that the archive's readership has become less slash-oriented over time. It's also an archive that is age monitored, so my adult stories aren't available to just anybody, while the crossover paper is, as well as Eternal Summer Gilds Them Yet. But those statistics were intriguing. So of course I went over to skyehawke just to see what the top five hits are over there- and a hit doesn't mean the person actually read the whole thing, but hey. Curiosity and all that.

1) Fling Wide the Whirlwind (Ron/Harry)- 2364
2) Never Break the Chain (Ron/Harry)- 2199
3) Like Wine Through Water (Ron/Draco)- 1962
4) A Private Oratory (Harry/Draco; yes, you read that right; it's the only H/D I have)- 1845
5) Magic Immunity (Ron/Draco)- 1647

And the fewest hits in my HP selections (not including what I posted today)- well, they're the newer ones. Of things that have been around, it's All Is Hallowed, my very first HP story. LOLOLOL. Songfic. Perhaps if I took that out of the description...

According to sitemeter, which I have at my website, pretty consistently the top three entry pages for people coming to my website are my adult HP page, the general HP page, and the front page. Not a lot of people searching for Wraeththu (sigh), though some use my Tolkien rec page as a jump-off point, and somebody recently was at my Swordspoint drabbles page, which is nice.

Continued from here

( A Place Like Tomorrow, part six and the last )

Continued from here

( A Place Like Tomorrow, part five )

Continue to part six, the end!!

Continued from here

( A Place Like Tomorrow, part four )

Continue to part five

Continued from here

( A Place Like Tomorrow, part three )

Continue to part four

Continued from here

( A Place Like Tomorrow, part two )

Continue to part three

There were lots of great fics written for rd_challenge. And to my exceeding shock (especially since it was long), well, I seem to have won the angst category.



Unbelievable.
Guess I'll post it now, here. It's longish, so it'll probably be a few posts.

Title: A Place Like Tomorrow
Rating: NC-17
Assigned Genre: Angst
Prompt: "I know what it's like to want to die. How it hurts to smile.
How you try to fit in but you can't.
How you hurt yourself on the outside to try to kill the thing on the inside."
- Girl Interrupted
Word Count: 20,740
Pairings (other than R/D): N/A
Summary: Sanity is a very thin tightrope; Ron only discovers this once he's taken several steps.
Author Notes: My immense gratitude to callumjames and wolfiekins for their betas and insights. Bill's condition in this is AU in that he does change into a wolf at the full moon.

( A Place Like Tomorrow, part one )
Continue on to part two

Last week or so I'd posted about needing to get some chewing gum off of a pair of jeans. I'm pleased to say that between Goo Gone and a knife to scrape it off, I then gave the jeans a sort of bath, to get the stuff off, and have now washed them. I'm pleased to say, the gum is gone.

Success!! And soon I'll have clean sheets as well. :)

I picked up this bunny from the slavebreakers bunny hutch; it's been haunting me for a while. It's a continuation of the scene from the first night Lee and Andrei are together (that particular chapter is here), when Mac/Andrei leave the door wide open for the first time Lee tops Andrei, shortly after the first time they have sex. The ending of Mac's story begins this one, in italics. Mine takes over from there. Enjoy!

Title: All We Know of Heaven (thanks to the title of Rémy Rougeau's lovely, quiet novel for this title)
Fandom: Slave Breakers
Rating: Adult/PWP
Pairing: Andrei/Lee
Beta: Thank you, jaiden_s!
Summary: Andrei has purchased a bit of paradise.
And thanks to maculategiraffe for letting me write in her world.

( Read more... )

Thanks for all who have helped me out with my HP fic. I'm still mulling over one of the primary comments, but you all are going to make the wee thing well-polished indeed! I'm typing in a Slave Breakers fic tonight; I know several of you on my flist read maculategiraffe's stories in that world (and she has new universes! just not slashy), but my last beta hadn't read the series and he was a fabulous help. I'm not even sure how many words it is; not that long, I don't think, but it's very much PWP. And romantic/non-angsty. I only write that stuff in the Slave Breakers world, I think. Well, the occasional HP. Maybe Wraeththu. Okay, but you know I usually write angst. This is PWP, some first-time (not first-time sex, but first-time things together) with an owner/slave dynamic, though their mutual affection and respect belies that fact.

Any takers, just email me or leave a comment here. I'll type it in before I go to bed and spell check it and I'll check email before going in for a Saturday shift tomorrow, 10-2 pacific time. I can get it to you in the afternoon or even morning if I'm being a hero. ;) Oh, and if you are a Slave Breakers person, it's Lee/Andrei, a continuation of a scene Mac left deliciously open-ended.

Sorry to spam my LJ- I'm going to go do some more resting after this. Or have breakfast. I have a short (especially for me!) HP adult (but not terrifically explicit) fic I'd like a set of eyes on. It's under 3,000 words. Let me know and I'll email you. Thanks!

Since my flist knows all: especially you with children, do you know how to get chewing gum off of clothes? Does peanut butter work, or is that just for hair? Should I freeze them and just scrape off as much as a I can before washing them?

I'm hooked. I admit it; I became a fan of doing laundry in 7th grade solely because my mom said I could watch MTV if -- and only if -- I was folding laundry. Some of these literal remakes are genius and show just how awful some of the original videos were. This one, of Billy Idol's White Wedding, I have to embed. In fall of '83, I was the last one in my household to go to school. My sister and brother went off, and my mom went off to grad school. Once I had the house to myself, I would illicitly turn on MTV and then call my then-best friend, Kelly Killingsworth, with whom I shared a birthday, when this video came on.

Yes, it's Thev trivia. And the literal remakes are glorious camp. Any others born around 1970 or thereabouts... welcome to parodies of our early adolescence.

madam_minnie! You are such a powerful force; I don't know how you do as much as you do in any given day. I first met you via TQP but then got to know you better through your posts and over time. You've been through a tremendous amount in the time that I've known you and you've dealt with the turbulence of life with grace and integrity. And you write hot smut! And you're getting a degree! All while working and being a parent, spouse and friend... truly, you are inspiring and I'm privileged to call you a friend. I hope that you have a wonderful day and are celebrated near and far by those whose lives you've touched.

((((massive hugs))))

Back when I was between stories a couple of weeks ago, I asked for prompts and have written nearly all of them. persephone100 asked for an Alexander/Bagoas story, and this is what I came up with. It's not a reuniting after Alexander's on campaign, but it is a short intimate time between them. I'd also hoped for this to be included in the Five Years On Mary Renault Fics challenge, but posting isn't until the 12th, and I've already made Seph wait for this. But perhaps it can be included after the fact.

Title: Sogdian Nights
Fandom: The Persian Boy
Pairing: Alexander/Bagoas
Rating: R (not explicit)

( Read more... )

Yesterday was a banner day for bumper stickers! The first two were on the same car:
HDTV- as clear as lies can be
God Bless American Idol

Then the third: I'd Rather Be Contradancing. You just never know what you'll see... I'd like to get a People's Republic of Portland bumper sticker now that I'm actually a Portlander with Oregon license plates and driver's license and all of that.
Edit: on my way to work today I saw the third "something happens" bumper sticker; I'd thought I'd see three last Friday, but it took until today. So today I saw "Magic Happens." Yes, it does. :)

In other news: I love the new place!! So happy. I went to Ikea after work yesterday and managed to get out having spent just under $30. I even got festive napkins and a napkin holder to put them in on the small dining room table. I didn't get a trash can, which I'll need to remedy. I also didn't invest in a chest of drawers; the least expensive one they had was $40 which isn't bad, but I didn't want to spend the money right then. There's a fun vintage place on Hawthorne that I'd like to look around, and there's also several Goodwill shops in the area.

I'm writing a lot; mostly things that won't be posted for several months. But I should have the short Alexander/Bagoas story for persephone100 posted later today. And now, off to work!