Ren the Ghost

Sign-ups are now open for October's Review-a-Thon over on booknook!

a random list of nice things:

• I have a new nail-polish! I don't think I've ever had nails this pink before, and it is fabulous, I love it, would die for this color :D
• We went to the beach and I took two (2) dips in the water. It was very, very brown for some reason, but it was cool. I don't think I've been to a beach in years.
• I got into the university course I applied for this fall! It's at 50% speed, so I'll take two semesters what others could do in one, but I'm very excited. This is mostly a test to see if I can study at all at this level and it's fine if I fail or have to quit; I'm really not sure if I can :( But I do wanna try! :D
  • That said, the course books are so expensive :((( It's gonna be like 400 bucks just for the first semester.
• I think I didn't read a page (but fanfiction) for the first two weeks of July, but lately I've been managing to read some. I read Guards! Guards by Terry Pratchett on the flight out, and had a delightful time! :D
• I got two (2!!!) gifts for fandom5k, an OW fic (Male Iron Age Warrior/Male Stranded Space Traveller) and a DCU fic (Jason Todd/Slade Wilson) and I'm so thrilled. I haven't read them yet, but my excitement levels are Up™
• I had a good time sorting out my Multifandom Exchanges Sorted by Minimum Number of Mandatory Distinct Fandom Requests list :D
• Guess who has an invite code to cfaarchive.org free for a good home? That's right; this guy! :D "The CFAA is a fan-created, fan-run, noncommercial archive for fanworks based around comicbooks or comic-adjacent animation." It runs on AO3's code, so there shouldn't be too steep a learning curve (but the tagging rules are very much not the same as AO3's, so check those out before you post.) The invite code is first come, first served, so let me know if you want it :D Steff (the owner) is looking for both readers and writers to join, so there's no pressure that you have to create something and post stuff just because you got in :DDD
  • Likewise, I think I do have an invite code to Ad Astra, Steff's Star Trek fanfiction archive that also runs on AO3's code.
  • CFAA has opened the registration queue now, and are sending out 1 invitation a day, if you'd rather go that way :D

Executive decision made; this week is 'Let's take a break' week. Meaning no writing at all. I mean, it's Friday (eve) and I've written like 100 words this week; the writing is on the wall, so let's read it and move on.

This week has been a lot.

The travel, the meeting with relatives, the outings—and it's only going to be more. We're going to the beach and then somebody (read: me) mentioned mini-golf so maybe we're gonna do that too, and then it's gonna be more travel back... My social battery is out. I think all my writing battery went there instead. And now that's out, too.

I'm designating this an Official Break Week™, because there is a really different feel to trying to write and failing vs not being allowed to write at all. The second one is a lot more fun! So I'm doing that instead. And now I'm going to relax, and read some books, and maybe comment on some fics I've not had the spoons for so far.

Like, I've already written 28k words this month. I'll write more next week; the game will (hopefully) be on again, I'm just hitting pause right now. And I'm thinking I should probably start doing that regularly, on schedule; every couple of months there'll be an Official Break Week™, planned for and known in advance so it doesn't hit me without warning. Because I really like having a known number of words I'm gonna write every week; the routine and certainty works really well for my brain, and I don't wanna give that up.

Anyway. So yeah. That what's it looks like right now. We'll see how next week goes, and if I need to reevaluate something.

(Also, thing that occurred to me. I overshot my weekly goal last week by a lot more than usual. Normally I don't go more than like 100 words over the limit, but last week I wrote 14.4k (very nearly 14.5k) words, and like... hmmm... I wonder... if that was too big a swing.)

more exchanges i've found since i made my big (very obviously while not procrastinating anything at all, obviously) list of exchanges:

storkswap (Mar - May), the_mane_event (Feb - Apr), the_librarians_exchange (Feb - Apr), kinkluckydip, saturdaymorningex (Apr - Jul), kitchensinkbingo (May - Jun), summerlovingex (Apr - Sep), book_club_exchange, bitesizedfandomsex, let_me_introduce_you, epidemfic (Jun - Aug), classicfilmex (Jul - Sep)

these are added in the between the two tables, but i thought i would make a proper note of it here too :D

...turns out there are a lot of exchanges out there in the big, wide world.

• squidge.org (squidgeworld.org) is doing a fundraiser again, to cover costs for the next year. They are currently at 62% of their goal.
• Duck Prints Press' Pride Bundle sale to raise money for Rainbow Railroad ends on Jul 8! They also have a Kickstarter up for Many Hands: An Anthology of Polyamorous Erotica.
• 4thewords (gamified writing brower game) is changing their pricing structure starting Aug 1. Here's the announcement and here's the FAQ about the changes. Not sure if anyone here's using it, but just in case. (I've done a 4TW promo post before, if you're curious. It's not accurate to the new subscription changes.)

Thank you to axolotls for pointing out the 4thewords links requires login. Here's the graphic they're using for the subscription changes:

( Read more... )

For bitesizedfandomsex I wrote to hurl oneself up a mountain for Tarlan, a 阴阳师 | Yīn Yáng Shī | The Yin-yang Master (Movies - Guo Jingming) Boya/Qingming fic.

And I received domestic sourcing by ropememory, a Devil Wears Prada (2006) Andrea/Emily fic.

And for hurtcomfortex I wrote like ashes float away for psychomachia, a CBS Mystery Radio Theater (The Deadly Hour - Eric) George/Martin fic.

I received The Fiend and The Flame by SweetSorcery, an Attic (A.M. Burrage) Derek/Stanley fic.

So at some point, mostly because the idea was funny, I submitted the prompt Biggles Bachelor(ette) AU on smallfandomfest (and I stand by that it's funny) and so let me babble for a moment because I'm never writing this but maybe I can get it out of my head.

So I wouldn't want it to be a modern AU, but consider; some random (queer, just for the hell of it) dude in the Biggles'verse inherits, as a surprise, a shit-ton of money, and also wins a shit-ton of money at the lottery at the same time. Double score! What to do with the money? Get a whole Bachelor(ette) production going, of course. Maybe over the radio, maybe over early TV, whatever fits.

For one reason or another (maybe somebody thinks it's a scheme of some sort, or Enemy Action) Biggles (or somebody else!) must infiltrate this whole production. Maybe it is elaborate Enemy Action, a most daring scheme, and Erich is for some reason the Bachelor. So of course Biggles has gotta go in as a contestant. You know. For the mission.

Obviously.

Cue shenanigans. Maybe crossdressing shenanigans. Maybe Biggles isn't even trying to look like a woman, but nobody's got the guts to ask him what he's doing there and so it just keeps escalating. Maybe there's some gay chicken in there. Some identity shenanigans; maybe Biggles thinks he is fooling Erich and is having a crisis of conscience (but Erich totally knows.)

And... I don't really know the rest, LOL. I imagine some cracky fun times, perhaps some crack treated seriously; maybe there's a date and Biggles and Erich keep trying to get the other to reveal something and it just keeps getting more ridiculous. And some angst, perhaps? Maybe Biggles goes quietly mad watching all these women tossing themselves at Erich and gets like. Jealous, LOL. Maybe some hurt/comfort, too, because that's fun.

Anyway, yeah, there it is. Now let's see if tossing this out like this will free up some brain-space \o/

I feel like I've been in a statue fugue for weeks; if my spreadsheet wasn't telling me I've been writing, I'm not sure I'd believe it. But I did. Somehow, I wrote 53k words in May. This is an official record—I've never written more than this in a single month.

How.

Anyway, I was a bit off from my estimation of 48k words. That's just because I was math-ing '4x12=48' and leaving it there, LOL.

Needless to say, I hit my goal of writing 12k words every week in May! I have also now caught up with where getyourwordsout thinks I should be in order to meet my 500k words yearly goal which is just. Madness. Utter, utter madness.

This journey continues onward, with a goal of writing 13k words every week in June.

Absolutely baffling.