Three dollars and some change

I have had a very interesting few days, writing-wise. I had been noodling on an idea for a while when, maybe three days ago, I started wondering if I might be able to do use the premise of the Hour of the Wolf (my Teen Wolf/MCU timetravel long-lost family story feat. Allison Argent) on something related to Anita Blake.

Note: It took me a whole day to remember had already done that in 2005 with Switchback, a story I didn't import over to AO3 as it's incomplete. (You can find it here; cw: rape)

Sometimes people say they only tell one story… and I just re-read Switchback and realized that I didn't create something new with Hour of the Wolf; I'd taken my one story and applied it to Teen Wolf.

Anyway.

A few days ago, when the idea occurred to me to apply the HotW premise to Anita Blake, I went all in, I was writing, I was plotting, and I had over 6,000 words together by the time I managed to think my way through to the end of the story…. And then I stopped. I realized that I absolutely do not want to write this story as it's set because there's no chance of a hopeful ending. The story starts with irreparable loss, and there's no way to fix that.

So I stopped.

In the interests of transparency (and because I like throwing dark-haired girls and their preternatural sidekicks back in time), I've posted what I have written below the cut:

( Read more... )

I'm watching the implosion of Twitter and can't help but think back to the decimation of LiveJournal, and the fragmentation of fandom social spaces in general.

I don't have any really eloquent thoughts on this one, but maybe it can best be summed up as, it feels like it's getting harder and harder to find, create and sustain community in fandom spaces. I put find first in that list as that feels like the biggest barrier right now - finding where people have scattered off to, and also being able to find new communities when new fandoms pop up.

Isn't that just the paradox, though - the internet is more vast than ever and it's really quite lonely.

 I'm going through a tea phase - mostly black tea during the day, and peppermint with honey after 6pm. I'm lucky to live in a city with a number of great tea shops. My favourite tea right now is La La Lemon from David's Tea, and I have a rotating selection from the Granville Island Tea Company (currently drinking their Christmas 2018 blend). 

I'm also drinking far too much coffee but I have to be at work by 7:30 and I'm making trade-offs.

What's your favourite tea?

Writing this year has felt like a bit of a slog, what with the day job, but the numbers aren't that bad. I think my tendency to write super-long chapters is what draws it all out. Anyway, here's what I published in 2018:

Hands of Clay

• Chapter 32: Sunset and the Mockingbird
• Chapter 33: Autumn Leaves
• Chapter 34: Mood Indigo
• Clint Rogers' Very First Hanukkah (chapter 2 finished in 2018)
• Outtake: The Proposal
• Outtake: Playground Stories
• Outtake: The Second One With 29 Collected Tumblr Short-Fics

Yuri on Ice!

• Silver and Glass (Valentine’s Day ficlette)
• And each man stands with his face in the light (6/7) (aka As the Sword Turns; swordmaster AU)

Chronicles of Narnia/Avengers

• Turn, Archer, and Heed the Wild Hunt

Word Count Roundup

• Hands of Clay: 48,286
• Hands of Clay Outtakes (incl. Clint Rogers' Very First Hanukkah): 46,700
• Silver and Glass: 2,688
• And each man stands with his face in the light: 36,914
• Turn, Archer, and Heed the Wild Hunt: 23,854

For the Ask Me Anything December meme

Dec. 18: the one that got away (fic or fandom)

Hel's Bones escaped me with the relentless movement of the MCU canon (and the hole I dug myself into, more on that here).

Fandoms? I have fallen out of a few over the years as I drift from canon interest – Supernatural is a big one, as is Doctor Who. It's more that canon went in directions that didn't interest me so I went onto other ones.

As long-time readers of my blog would know, I set my Anita Blake obsession on fire back in the day but again, a difference of opinion on where the characters were going.

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Dec. 19: How do you come up with names and story titles?

In most cases I get partway through the writing and start thinking, what should I call this? What are the themes I want to highlight?

With Turn, Archer, and Heed the Wild Hunt, I wanted to highlight the archery bit that Susan and Clint were using to show the similarities and fit, as well as to riff off the Wild Hunt concept. I ended up throwing words together but I think it works.

With Hands of Clay, it's a riff off the idiom, feet of clay, which means a weakness or flaw in an admired person. The main line in the story is that both Steve and Bucky work their way past their initial illusions of each other, see the other as a whole person, realize they love the whole man, and move to a real relationship. Only with hands instead of feet because part of Bucky's beliefs were around, who could love a man with only one hand (as well as his other flaws)? I thought myself witty when I made that up 4 years ago, but then writers always think that, don't they?

Sometimes, the title is the point-blank theme of the story. Inevitable – well, the final confrontation and Harry's attempt at noble sacrifice was pretty much inevitable, as was Anita's refusal to sacrifice those she loves. Widow Maker was another, where you thought it was going to be about “who made the Black Widow” and then I pull up in the last chapter to have Natasha realize that throughout it all, she's made herself into the person she is.

When I'm desperate, I start looking up poetry online and seeing what I can grab for a title based on thematics (see, And each man stands with his face in the light; and Rosemary, for Remembrance).

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Dec. 20: What repeated themes do you see running through your work?

People losing use of their hands seems to be a big one. Found family or lost family members is another. People being smart and pragmatic while still making boneheaded decisions is another. But mostly found family.

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Dec. 21: What's your policy on remixes, podfic, and other transformative work?

If you want to remix/podfic/fanart anything I've written? I will come to your house with cookies and clean your garage. I would love anything – I love to see where people take things based on my writing :D

(Seriously. I'll make you cookies).

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Dec. 22: Where do you turn when your research is coming up with nothing of value to the story?

If I'm reading this right, it's where I'm looking for information but online gives me nothing. Most cases this isn't the case, as what I'm looking for are popular subjects (mainly medical and heath, mental and physical, along with childhood development and other stuff for kids). On the rare occasions where my plot research is more niche, I have the very good fortune to work for a research-intensive university, with a very large library and access to an immense journal selection. In all my time of writing, I've gone hunting for information in the library stacks about 4 or 5 times? Mostly I can find what I need in the online catalog.

And when I can't find anything, even with those resources and over 20 years of research know-how behind me? Either I take a different direction where I can find more info, or I whole scale make things up. It's fiction, after all.

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Dec. 23: any media you enjoy but didn't get into the fandoms?

Mostly comedies, I have a hard time connecting on the fandom side (I enjoy the gifsets and the memes but I don't partake if you know what I mean).

I've also really gotten into shows that have zero fandom presence so that drifts. Best example was a show called Unforgettable (started in 2011, with Poppy Montgomery) with a detective who hyperthymesia and can remember everything she's ever experienced; I liked it, the supporting characters were interesting, but there was no fandom for it and I wasn't robust enough at the time to start up on my own.

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Dec. 24: What's the best piece of writing advice you've ever gotten?

All first drafts suck. So write the first draft, let it suck, and then go back and make it better.

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Dec. 26: Out of all the characters you've ever written, which one is your favorite? Which one has surprised you the most?

I love Natasha Romanoff in all her incarnations. Be she a five-year-old adopted by Bucky Barnes in modern-day New York, or as a 75-year-old near-indestructible spy. She's fascinating to bring to life.

Surprised me the most, I'd say, more recently, Viktor Nikiforov. He's surprised me in the directions I can take him, and to see where he ends up going in my AUs while based on the canon character.

For the Ask Me Anything December meme - Day #8a

How much of the story do you know before you start writing it? Do you use outlines? (src)

My writing style can best be described as “organic”. Before I start writing, I usually have a pretty good understanding of what I’d like to explore in the story, what the character’s journey will be, and what the end will look like. I have a very broad outline in my head, but does any of that ever get written down? No. Mostly because I find that the big details stay with me, and the smaller ones shift and move as I’m writing anyway, so I aim to be more fluid with my story direction.

What that ends up looking like in longer stories is that pieces are imagined in broad strokes. For example, the chapter of Hands of Clay I’m currently writing was always in my head as “[Character] goes to the hospital.” I knew how the beginning of the chapter should go, but that was all, and I am now 10,447 words deep and it’s all coming together in its own way.

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For the Ask Me Anything December meme - Day #8b

Optimally, how many times does your work go through the revising process? (src)

What revising process I tend to re-read and revise as I go. When it gets to the actual writing part, I’ve usually spent a lot of time on the planning part, so what gets written I know will fit into the broader story arc.

I think a lot of my approach to revising comes from my days working for a newspaper, where any story revisions were one and done and you were moving on to the next thing – that meant you had to write the story the right way the first time.

For the Ask Me Anything December meme - Day #6

The question today is: What piece of writing are you most proud of?

I'm proud of most of them for lots of reasons, but I think as a whole piece, I would say that Widow Maker stands out. I wrote it before we knew anything about what the canon was going to do with the Winter Soldier (series started in 2012, and Widow Maker came out in July 2013), and I was mostly working off an amalgam of Black Widow's comic background and stuff I wanted.

What I like about this piece is that the action just keeps coming at the reader, and there are lots of twists and turns, some for which I use common tropes and then others where I flip the script so there’s a bit of questioning on what Natasha will choose to do.

Also, in this series, I do a slow introduction to the Stargate Program so anyone who’s coming in from the MCU won’t get caught up on the crossover world, at least I hope.

Plus this was my first time writing Bucky (and this was before the Captain America: Winter Soldier reveal of Hydra) and I got to explore his character a bit, what someone who was in and out of cold storage but didn’t have their memories entirely erased would do.

Plus the prequel Baba Yaga’s Children was a fascinating experience to write – I had written children POV stories before, but this was my first big foray, and in trying to connect it to who Natasha Romanoff became, that was a really fun challenge.

For the Ask Me Anything December meme - Day #4

Today’s question comes from dinosaurswearingdior : are you a shaniac or a boogara or a mix or neither?

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I’m a Boogara in my love of mysteries and of true crime and of deep-dive research, of finding intricate new ideas to solve puzzles, and in the belief that sometimes, in some places, an energy remains after the people involved are gone.

I’m a Shaniac in that I don’t believe in actual ghosts or demons, but think it’s possible that maybe cryptids exist.

Also props to Shane for going whole-assed on the Hotdagga, that’s my kind of frenetic creative energy.

(Height-wise I’m a Shaniac but that’s a different conversation all together)

Here, have my classic episode of Buzzfeed Unsolved: The Strange Disapperance of D.B. Cooper:

For the Ask Me Anything December meme - Day #2

The question today comes from schneefink: What are your favorite kinds of AU and why?

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Crossovers, obviously, but we’ll come back to that.

In a move that will come as no surprise to anyone who has read my collected works, domestic AU and found family AUs top out my list. I also love messing with details in any universe just a little bit, so for Yuri on Ice, it would be a ballet AU where Yuuri stuck with dance instead of skating.

For the former, it has to do with building relationships (which is what fanfic is all about and I will fight a body on this) and exploring more about the characters themselves. Also found family is wonderful and the best part of crossovers is saying “well of course these characters are already connected it makes perfect sense the set-up is all there in canon so let’s just go with it shall we).

The little detail swap AUs have to do with minor tweaks to how a character’s life and path turned out, and looking at how they will still make these deep relationships with others even though some parts of their life turned out differently.

But going into the way-back machine, I cut my teeth writing crossover fanfic, and it has a lot to do with my love of remix culture – taking the really cool elements of two (or more) things and smooshing them together and making it work. Because when you can figure out how to make it work? (Like how to put together Anita Blake and Harry Potter and make it work?) that is an amazing feeling.