femmequixotic

I reposted the last of the holiday fest fics today, and also three teenyfics-by-request. "After the Fall" is the full-length fic. I was rather pleased that I managed to write at least one ficlet with Severus in it today - happy birthday, Severus!

• After the Fall [Draco/Harry, adult]: After fourteen years teaching at Hogwarts, the arrival of a new staff member jolts Draco out of his routine. Here at IJ.


• Both of You [Bill/Charlie/Tonks, general]: Tonks prefers Quidditch players... or so Bill thinks, but Charlie isn't sure. Here at IJ.


• Improbable on the Face of It [Bill/Severus, general]: Bill finds it astonishing that he is here. Here at IJ.


• Walking in the Rain [Harry/Hermione, general]: Sometimes magic doesn't make things easier. Here at IJ.

Other than that, I had an eye exam this morning (prescription has changed, new glasses are ordered), which meant that I couldn't do much afterward for several hours while waiting for my eyes to un-dilate. Talked to my sister for over an hour during that time, though, which is always a good thing. Took Juno for a walk - not a super-long one, but about 2.5 miles, which given her penchant for stopping and sniffing and piddling took nearly an hour. Set up new phone/answering machine, acquired earlier this week because the previous phone was getting almost impossible to turn on, not a good thing in a phone. Read some of a novel, dinked online. Um... that's pretty much it. I'm going to go make rice, but the rest of dinner is leftovers.

Master Work, by Mahaliem #
Harry/Draco (also some Harry/Ginny, Harry/Pansy, Hermione/Ron), R, ~35K words. Summary: Harry's eighth-year at Hogwarts is going about as well as all the others. Someone is out to get him, Aurors keep questioning him about the final battle and, worst of all, Draco is determined to repay his life debt to Harry. Warning(s): Minor character death. Set pre-epilogue, implications of EWE.

A message to the author: Mahaliem, I love you. Let's elope?

A message to the readers: ahem. I believe everybody who's interested in H/D have read it already, right? But I'm not much into HP right now, as you well know, so forgive me the lateness of this rec. If by some miracle you haven't read this fic, what on earth are you waiting for? This fic contains everything I love Mahaliem's writing for. It's lovely and plotty, funny and ridiculous, self-ironic and gently poking fun at fanon clichés. It has recurring gags, as usual. By the fifth or sixth time Snape and the love of his life were mentioned, I laughed out loud. All in all, it's not a fic, it's a Cheering Charm. Will be rereading every year, that's a given.

A message to the author: but what if I grovel and beg? Will you elope with me then?

The Brief and Abridged History of Ko Yongha, by chaineddove (or here) #
Various m/m pairings, PG-13, ~9K words. Description: Ko Yongha, 2002-2010.

I love it when I read a story about a character that I have no interest in and it makes me care about him. That's what happened here. The author made me see Ko Yongha in a new light, understand him, and even feel for him. It's not that long a story but somehow it felt longer to me. Maybe because it spans many years, maybe because we can see a lot of things and people. It's very intense too. Hikaru, Akira, Ogata, Yashiro and their various relationships play a big part in the story. Ko Yongha lives to provoke and have fun, in his spoiled and twisted ways, so where he goes and where passions are already running high because of Go, clashes of personalities are bound to happen (there are quite a few amusing episodes too). Ko Yongha grows though. I wouldn't enjoy the story if he didn't. Have a look at how it goes and what events and people shape the Ko Yongha of several years later.


Touya's Pride, by Ravenna C. Tan (also on IJ) #
Hikaru/Akira eventually, Akira/others, sort of, NC-17, novella. Summary: Touya Akira loses a match and suffers a crisis of faith. Could wily old Kuwabara-sensei have the answer? Or is the answer to be found in Touya's eternal rival, Shindou Hikaru? Warnings: This is not a fluffy Aki/Hika fic. There is what could be termed cross-gen/chan, and also psychological manipulation as part of the plot. The sexuality is graphic, but not gratuitous. Touya is 16. Spoilers for the series, also.

This is unlike any other AkiHika story I've read. For one, it's several times kinkier than the kinkiest HikaGo fics I've seen. I believe that it might have something to do with Ravenna's applying the arsenal of things by now habitual in HP fandom (what's with its pornish_pixies and daily_deviant and multiple kink-oriented communities) from where she comes to HikaGo. IMO, HikaGo (and AkiHika in particular) can only profit from it.

I'm not sure I believed in Hikaru in this fic. He's more balanced and mature than how I see him. IMO he's weirder in canon. But I liked the rest enough to disregard this disagreement in the author's and my view of him. So, Touya loses his momentum. Help unexpectedly arrives in the form of the creepy and manipulative Kuwabara Honinbou, who obviously has some strange agenda of his own. The help at first looks more like torture. But Touya perseveres. Hot, intense, interesting. I was looking forward to the updates every day (it was posted as a WIP but is finished now). Now if only Ravenna promises to love Ogata better next time she writes a HikaGo fic, I'll be quite happy :)


The Good Friend, by corbeaun []
Waya, Isumi/Le Ping, PG-13, ~6K words. Summary: Not everything can be fixed, but this time Waya Yoshitaka tries to be the good friend.

Bittersweet. Le Ping arrives in Tokyo -- without cash but with a goal, and Isumi places him at Waya's. Which turns things into a complicated triangle. The story is built on the subtle nuances of the three characters' relationship and things in Waya's past that influence his present. I liked that Waya stopped running from himself at last (possibly), which in turn affected Isumi. Pleasant story, quiet, and although not the most cheerful one, the overall effect is nice, I think.


A Game for Three, by Harukami []
Hikaru/Akira, one other pairing surprise, R, ficlet. A/N: AU, because, well, yes, rather different events before end of the series would have to take place for this. But. XD CRAAAAAACK.

I just burst out laughing when I reached the end :) The rules of writing a tiny!fic say that the ending is most often what makes it. IMO it works wonderfully here.

This year's Bad Sex in Fiction Awards took place on the 25th November, at the In & Out Club, St James's Square.

Unusually, two prizes were awarded. The 16th annual Bad Sex in Fiction Award went to Rachel Johnson, for a passage from her book Shire Hell, while a Lifetime Achievement Award went to John Updike, whose The Widows of Eastwick garnered him a fourth consecutive nomination. Dominic West, star of The Wire, presented the award to Rachel Johnson in front of 400 guests.

The Bad Sex Awards were inaugurated in 1993 in order to draw attention to, and hopefully discourage, poorly written, redundant or crude passages of a sexual nature in fiction. The intention is not to humiliate. Below are the shortlisted passages from this year's award.

(note by Karadin - alas, Shire Hell isn't even about hobbits)

http://www.literaryreview.co.uk/badsex_11_08.html

Ladies and Gentlemen, and the rest of you:

I present to you the culmination of a little project that started three years ago in a Graduate Teaching Office somewhere in the vast midwest.

The Alum's Guide To Getting Through University was an extended essay I created to upload all my thoughts on my waning career as a graduate student and provide advice to a couple of people who were soon to be shipping off for their freshman year. In the past few years I've been proud that people have returned to comment on its usefulness; I like to be useful. I submitted it to a few educational-guidebook companies but got no bites (not surprising) so I decided to self-publish it.

The end result is a slick, updated new guide entitled "Other People Can Smell You," which I am offering on Lulu.com not only as a hardcopy pocket-sized handbook but also as a free download. I would recommend not purchasing the hardcopy just yet; the first printing is on its way to me now because I have some concerns about the margins in their preview and also the back cover, which in the digital version looks like crap and I'm not sure why. Please feel free to download; it doesn't cost either of us anything. You can access the free downloadable version here, at my storefront, or take a look through it and purchase the hardcopy (which is actually a softcopy considering it's a pocket paperback) at the sales page. In the interests of full disclosure, with media mail postage the book will run you $11 even. Of that, I make fifty five cents. :D Swanky cover, no?

GOOD MORNING WOULD YOU LIKE SOME LINKS

First off: kaimu_art, in the spirit of tw_season_zero, has drawn an awesome "reaction sketch" to The Making Of Toshiko. :D I love her comments about not wanting Ianto to cheat on Lisa.

For those of you not following the Mario di Nes thread, I bring you the Ladies of the Court, the nobless d'goomba: Princess Toadstool VII by garoben and her maid-in-waiting, the Lady Peach (what a tarte) by bluejeanius.

In news of Fire of the Crystal Elven Magesword of Dragonstar: The Pegasus Chronicles, Book Three: The Moonwand Cycle, darthhellokitty linked me to a SomethingAwful post about a terrible fantasy novel called Dragons of Autumn Twilight. I swear to you, on my brother's lack of taste, I found this book in his bookshelf and traded it on Swaptree for a copy of Titan AE. HAND TO GOD.

There is also now a Fire of the Crystal Elven Magesword tag. See top of post! :D

Aaaand finally, cageyklio linked me to a Grow Your Own Doctor kit being discussed on Etsy. I would now like to reenact for you the conversation which followed:

Klio: Of course, my brain then went to a completely unnecessary and gratuitous "Grow Your Own Jack Harkness" kit. Warning, proximity to Ianto Jones may cause spontaneous growth.
Sam: The "Grow your own Jack Harkness" kit comes in a discreet paper bag with a very interestingly-shaped watering pot.
Klio: Oh, so that's what the Neti pot is for.

I am totally going to mock up a graphic design for a Grow Your Own Captain kit, print it on brown paper, fold it up like a seed packet, and tie it to the penis pot.

Bailout news:

Porn industry requests $5 billion dollar bailout.

You gotta love Larry Flynt.

For the rest, its just goddammed funny.
Thanks mirien for the link~!

Thanks for the dvds, aome! SO was thrilled.

hd_holidays posted the masterlist yesterday -- so thank you to accioscar again for my gift, "No Happy Ending." And I can admit to writing "After the Fall" for lavillanueva, which I will repost tomorrow.

I have finished both syllabi and gotten them copied, ready for Monday. Have also gotten a few needed handouts prepped, though not yet printed. Still need to write up lesson plans for Monday, especially for the grad seminar (we may not go the full 2:45, but I don't want to cut it too short), and start working on things like updating lectures.

Went through my work email and dealt with all of it but two messages. One of those is regarding the second article that I was hoping to get written last semester; sounds like I can have another month or two but I need to get back to the editor tomorrow, as soon as I figure out a genuine date-by-which-I-can-finish. Also an email from someone asking if I'd like to contribute to an encyclopedia; I've worked with her before, so I will probably say yes (it's also to be fairly short).

Have arranged to have our subject librarian give a brief presentation in the upper-div class in a couple of weeks, which is both good in and of itself since they write a research paper, and also because it means I don't need to write a new lecture for that day. Sent off a recommendation for a student to one last grad program. Thank goodness for copy-and-paste.

Went to the uni bookstore and they do have at least some copies of all the books for both classes. Yay. Whether it'll be enough, who knows. Also agreed to override a student into the upper-div class on Monday if no one has dropped by then (I have only once in my teaching career not had at least 1 or 2 students drop at some point in the semester, so allowing one extra person in is generally pretty safe...).

So now I need to organize the desk a little, figure out what I need to haul home with me to work on over the weekend, and then do so. Oh, and check my student email too, as I'm still waiting to hear about that waitlist. *sighs*

garoben is not as good at not doing things as I am. But does them much better!

*presents to you Mario Di Nes, First Lord of the Water Closet*

RANDOM WEBCOMIC PTERRY REFERENCE FTW.

I have FOUND the ninth post-it note!

This would sound more dramatic and interesting-fantasy-worlds if it weren't a post-it, but if it weren't a post-it then it would lose all of its charm. It was stuck to the back of the DVD player that's built into the side of my TV, and it is about Jack convincing the Doctor to watch porn. Thing of beauty!

I have also OVERSLEPT, which is sad considering I fell asleep at nine-fifteen last night, but obviously I needed the rest. Thankfully I'm conditioned to wake up around seven, even on days when I don't need to, so I managed to get out the door by seven-fifteen and still make it in on time. I'm sure the new playlist helped -- there's a bunch of Old Blind Dogs on there, and there's nothing to get you moving in the morning like The Battle O' Harlaw. Of fifty thousand hielan' men but fifty three gae'd hame, and out of all the lawlan' men, fifty marched with Graham.

With a diddy ay oh and a fal and a doe, indeed.

Having some issues with the iPhone and the new laptop, though; for some reason iTunes doesn't want to recognise video files anymore, so I can't put videos on my phone. And the new computer in general is internet-squirrelly; it will connect just fine, but then an hour or two later it'll drop the connection so hard that I have to restart to get it back. I think it's got to be some problem with the wireless software, the router works fine when I test it with the iPhone.

Also: this morning was looking at a Japanese import shop and took advantage of their "Translate to English" button. Fortunately for my own amusement, they use Google translator, which in the past has tried to tell me that "paste the forehead to the walls of the pan" is how the Danish make bacon. This time the best gem was "The Theory of Service" which is going to have to be a fanfic sooner or later.

Although I doubt LJ is going to simply blink out like a dead lamp, (or any of the sites I live at) just in case, you can find me here:

venivincere.livejournal.com
venivincere.insanejournal.com
www.journalfen.net/users/venivincere/
www.venivincere.com
venivincere at hotmail dot com
(in a pinch only) venivincere at gmail dot com
Also, I'm venivincere at Archive of Our Own
On Twitter, I'm venivincere (notice a pattern, here?)
I'm almost never on IM anymore, so I'll leave it blank.

I use Semagic and crosspost everywhere with almost every post, so wherever you find me things should be seamless. Someone the other day mentioned a clearinghouse for fannish people, but I can't remember the name or URL. If any of you know it, could you please leave a message in comments?

Thanks! See you around teh internetz.

It has gone beyond Cold As Balls out there. It's cold enough to freeze your Winnebago, guys.

(Gratuitous Muppets reference is gratuitous!)

We just watched epic amounts of Wheel with Bland and Blanda. Bland's actually not too bad at Wheel, apparently he used to watch it with his grandmother a lot.

And then I had to walk home and lost feeling in my fingers through my leather gloves. Thank christ for parkas and long underwear.

I got a very cheery note from the Super that he's fixing my bedroom window on Friday. I guess that means tomorrow night I have to peel off all the tape I was using as a draft-stopper. Properly sealed windows, for great yay!

Winds passing
through the shaded grove
weigh down
my robe with
the scent of blossoms

Hana no ka ni
koromo wa fukaku
narinkeri
ko no shita kage no
kaze no ma ni ma ni

Ki no Tsurayuki

What is Hetalia and why is fandomsecrets covered in it?

Ahem.

I am done with the phone interviews, thank god. On the other hand, I mapped out the Meatloaf Bakery and it's actually off Fullerton, not Belmont, quite a ways from the El stop. So I am not going to be paying them a visit anytime soon, most likely, and thus R is going to be disappointed when I do not show up with meatloaf for our Wheelfest tonight. But I will pick up some Byron's, 'cause I know what sandwich he always gets there. I can't actually get in touch with him, since his phone service has mysteriously vanished.

Poor lad's feeling the pinch a little at the moment -- he's cancelling his cable tv soon, and thus we will no longer have pre-queued Wheel to watch. I'm getting a converter box for my DVR, however, so on the other hand I can set the DVR to record it each night, which is almost as good. A man's gotta have his Wheel fix, after all.

I've been working on the self-publishing project on-and-off and I'm just about ready to do final prep for Other People Can Smell You -- tonight I need to make the cover and then begin the process of figuring out how to upload everything properly. I suspect that I find the prepwork so entertaining because seeing to tiny details sooths me. I've tweaked the page numbering four or five times, and spent an hour or two mucking with the formatting of the front matter. It should look pretty splendid when it's done, though.

It's taught me a lot about the basics of using the new Word as well -- having to relearn the location of nearly everything, from scratch, is such a pain in the ass. I wouldn't mind the buttons if the menus were more intuitive, but some buttons show up in three different menus and some buttons are in menus that they shouldn't be in at all. Plus some menus only show up if you click other buttons, what the fuck. It's like a really boring video game.

(Speaking of which, I am totally pwning the Temple of Time in Zelda. Who loves the ball and chain? SAM LOVES THE BALL AND CHAIN.)

I'd let the mail accumulate for a few days, and now have a couple of holiday cards to acknowledge - from mrowe (I think it's a little too early for Easter - it was here before Twelfth Night!), and from new_kid16. Thanks guys!

So today I should: balance checkbooks, call to make eye exam appointment, call to make mechanic appointment, walk Juno, check work email, write syllabus for upper-div class (the grad syllabus is nearly finished, worked on that last night). I was going to go in to campus today but couldn't seem to wake up this morning, so will go tomorrow instead.

Have not managed to start any ficlets. Hopefully on the commute tomorrow.

penknife (a first-time smutty_claus participant this year, and a mod of fests herself) has a great discussion of fest signups here. Her discussion centers on what not to say in your signup. I pretty much agree with everything she says, but the one thing that I agree with MORE than anything else is this:

Don't bash pairings, characters, or genres -- or, really, anything -- in your request. I am always amazed by how many people do not seem to realize that if they request "X/Y, slash, no kittens" they may wind up matched with a writer who also writes X/Z het kittenfic. Getting a request that reads "X/Y slash of course, no nasty het, and none of those disgusting kittens" isn't a fun way for that writer to start the ficathon.

If you don't want to see something in your story, just say so: "Please no het," "Please no kink," "Please don't focus on character Z," "Please don't pair X and Y." If you feel very strongly about an unusual squick, you may want to intensify your request enough so that your writer knows you mean it -- "Please do not include kittens in my story in any way, they are a major squick for me" -- but your request is not the place to go on an anti-kitten crusade.

I'd add that if your moderator is a big fan of a particular character -- just for example, let's say Ginny Weasley -- it might not be wise to go ON and ON and ON about how much you hate Ginny and how awful and horrible she is. It might irritate your mod, and she might not be as gracious and accepting and generally wonderful as me.


Another useful and interesting post about signups is this one, posted as an instruction to participants in the sshg_exchange on how to request artwork. It looks very useful, and I plan to use it (along with the input that I solicited from some SC artists) to formulate some instructions on requesting artwork for smutty_claus.

Other than com stuff I am going to see what writing I can get done today.

I am getting to the print shop next week to make more Gackt Magnetic Paper Dolls, I have six sets to make. - -: which includes stands and boxes, which means having to build my callouses back up (I always get blisters)

Gomen on not getting more costumes done, but maybe for Valentines Day, ne?

I want to do Genesis/Angeal card and Zero/Proto (Gackt) card. I already have the Chibis for the G/A, and then a realistic smutty pic for the inside :D

I'm trying to do research for the Bishounen Oracle Card project, but I find myself reading at night, and then falling asleep. One day a laptop would be nice.

Still playing GHOST single.



So, um busy, in a way. Have a good one.

Love and Gackt.