Whispers

Gacked from tielan

How It Works:

Post to your blog with a list of ten things you want to receive for the holidays. They can be anything, from a personalized DW/LJ icon or drabble to a purebred puppy - as long as all the items on the list are things that you genuinely want.

If there's anything on your list that needs to come to you through the mail, make your shipping address available, but please be safe about it and don't post that part publicly - just specify how people should go about getting it. PM or email me at [email protected].

Next:

Look around your circle/dashboard/friends list for others who have posted the meme. (The more who do, the better this works, so encourage them!) If you see a wish you can grant, GO FOR IT. You might find a little thing you can do for free that will make someone happy, or you might just discover that a stranger is longing for the exact boxed set of DVDs that you no longer want.

Don't spend money unless you want to, and don't commit to more than you can handle without stressing yourself. There are no rules to this project, no guarantees, and no strings attached. If someone surprises you with a gift certificate to the restaurant you never thought you'd get to go to, don't feel guilty or obliged to return the favor. The point is to spread around a lot of opportunities to grant wishes - use them as you see fit, and remember that your list gives those opportunities to others!

Tips:

Dream big, but stay practical. If you really want the Mercedes, put the Mercedes on the list, but don't forget that you also really want some feedback on the story you wrote - so put that on the list too. It's fun to imagine something huge happening through this meme, but we'll recognizes the unlikelihood of it and make sure our friends still have a chance to do something thoughtful that's within their means.

Put limits on yourself for what, but not who: if you've decided that you can spend a few hours drawing a picture, but none of your friends are asking for one, keep looking for wishlists - you might even make a new friend or two! Ask people to link their lists for you, and don't be afraid to post your own in a few places.

Let's make some wishes come true this year!

My Wishlist 2016

Pipe Dream

1. This glorious teamaker: http://www.brevilleusa.com/the-tea-maker-onetouch.html. And yes, it really is $250 no matter where you buy it. :headdesk:

2. This wonderful book on historical linguistics that costs an arm and a leg: https://www.amazon.com/Historical-Linguistics-Introduction-MIT-Press/dp/026251849X I've started peeking at it in Google books, and yes, I want it, I want it, I want it.

3. Typography software: There's TypeTool, Font Creator, and Fontographer that are all supposed to be good. I'm not picky.

More Feasible

4. Art of my fic, not necessarily covers but actual illustrations. I drool over other people's and always wished I wrote well enough to inspire someone.

5. More tea-related goodness, on the go infusion! Just check out these bottles: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B014V38FNA/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A2AEASGI6D7OME. I like tea, okay?

Actually Reasonable

6. A Yuletide treat in one of my super tiny fandoms: http://scribble-myname.livejournal.com/365466.html. I love drabbles. It doesn't have to be big.

7. Postcards or letters would be so, so awesome! PM or email me at [email protected] for the address.

8. Original fiction! I love, love, love all my flists's writings and I love, love, love getting to read their original stuff if they happen to have any. I really, really do.

9. Poetry recs. Syllabic poetry. Classic poetry. Something nice and new that isn't especially erotic or inaccessible. I like free verse when it's not too abstract. Adore metaphor. A book of stuff by Billy Collins would be wonderful, but there's just so much poetry I love. I just want to try more.


Feel free to link your own wishlists! Some stuff might be late (I overbooked my end of year, as always), but I would love to shower gifts on as many of you as I can. :D

So swan_tower declared it #AppreciateAnAuthor Day and I'm sure she meant original published fiction, but I'm tired and sick and trying to work up some energy for work and am going to stick with the authors I feel like appreciating at this moment.

Besides the gazillion of you that are my friends and fellow ficcers and I could never ever finish a post that listed them all. So I'm just going to hit the two on the top of my head today for whatever reason they sprang to mind.

in_the_blue is my friend. I love her and she lets me read her work even though I'm not line editing anymore just reading and feedbacking like a reader would, and her work is so awesome. I've read several books that haven't seen the light of day yet, but if you can get your hands on any of her stuff, it is awesome. I shall direct you to her website where Dragonthology is linked on the sidebar. She's got a story in that collection that's like classic pulp noirish mystery with dragons. I love it. (Also, don't quote me on the genre: tired, sick, and unwilling to go do a sanity check on citations.)

What I love about her work is the characters and the verisimilitude. I feel like I'm dropped into the world of competitive space ninjas (not kidding, with mysterious mentor character and secret family relationships, it's totally awesome). Or the wet, artistic of a surfer who knows who he is and is perfectly okay with that (even if everyone wants him to be less go with the flow reactive and more proactive take life by the reins and love water a little less—and minus the water, this resonates okay? I'm reactive and go with the flow and that works for me and proactive tends to always bite me in the bum for all everyone wants me to be that way). Or the backside/underworld of music where we sit with the roadies and there's geek references and awesome girl character at the center of it all and we get to pretend to be as cool and collected as she is and I watch Nashville, trust me this is right up my alley. Or how about the one that started it all, a guy who's losing his significant other and suddenly remembering a completely different loss and kind of sort of gets his sister back (she's pretty much my favorite character in the series and if I could ask for fanfic, I'd be Caroline/Denny shipping all the way; I haven't forgotten the other, but she hasn't grown on me the same way yet).

And I can't point you to for sale books yet, but yep. This is why I love her work and you should read her dragon story and follow her and offer to beta when she asks so you can read her work and I LOVE her.


The other one that sprang to mind was alphaflyer, which for two obvious reasons for me: Second Mouse and Locust Wind. (sp? missing prepositions?) Granted, she writes a ton of amazing stuff besides her Bond/MCU crossovers but these are so deep and realistic and integrated into the two worlds and they work so well, plus epic length, awesome snarky lines and banter, competence (I adore competence), and glorious characterization and character moments and awesome PRE-Natasha joins SHIELD and awesome Clint moment at the end of the second and yes, just yes, I cannot rec her work enough. Ever.

I find I didn't have to understand or know the Bond movies to adore and love and get a kick out of these. Let's just say her international law/diplomacy what have you background shows. Her fics are amazing. Go read.

---

As for rambling, just a brief update:

Apparently, being sick this time means needing a ton of sleep and I'm super behind on work and beta and I requested an extension on my exchange fic that's due on the twelfth and I have stories clamoring in my head, some due, some overdue, some just gifts without a deadline and I know how to get them written but no energy and no time until I get better and get this work project off my plate.

Ugh.

On a brighter note, ginger tea (I made it with peppermint and stevia) actually cuts inflammation in the throat. Yay. It stings at first then feels good, unlike oil of oregano, which is like the natural dragon-fire version of antibiotics. (For the skeptical, let's just say I grew up with my annual round of strep and killed it permanently by taking oil of oregano for three months straight. That stuff is wow, strong and also works for killing staph, but mix with a lot of olive oil because wow, strong. We call it the O.O. dance after you take a dose and it sets your throat on fire.)

:hugs and love to you all: :crawls back into her cave of bedding:

Or not. I think I'm supposed to VPN in now and go to work. :headdesk:

Apparently, yesterday was Thank a Critique Partner Day. Due to the huge load of computer-related (and other stuff I'm not talking about) things I had to do, I didn't stop and thank my critique partners, aka my betas.

First, I'm going to thank my beta. There's only one person I mean when I say it like that: in_the_blue. I met her on her drabble community before it closed because we both loved 100 word stories. I fell in love with her original stuff probably at the same time that I liked what fannish stuff overlapped. She also runs the wonderful ineedmyfics exchange, which was my first ever exchange and it was a great experience to teach me how those things worked.

She'll read almost anything, love me through even the stuff she goes, "back to the drawing board" on. She has a marvelous touch with language and grammar and story and character, and she usually manages to find every place I thought I wrote something and actually didn't. I love her. I love what she does to my fiction, how she pushes me to be the best I can be, and I adore that she lets me read her work even though I don't do line editing on long work the way I used to because her work is amazing. She's been professionally published, so I'm not the only one who thinks so either.

So thank you, in_the_blue, for all you do for me, for my fiction, and for my sanity. You're a very precious lifeline of writerly friendship that I treasure.

Second, I'm going to thank lithiumlaughter, who I have no one word for. She's the queen of poetry and literary analysis, she loves my home stomping grounds of X-Men related 'verses and got me hooked on MCU when I was trying pretty hard to hold out against it. She writes beautiful original fiction that I'm privileged to be allowed to read, and she has been my friend, my shoulder to cry on, my confab partner to discuss and meta with, and my fellow lover of all things Divergent series.

Honestly, I really don't know what I would do without you, m'dear. You don't just get my writings, you get me, and that has always meant so much. Thank you!

On a fannish note, thank you to all the members of the be_compromised community who not only welcomed my forays into MCU with open arms but have blessed me with beta help when I do not want to pester my beta. I have 32 items on my finished ficlist for January, a single month. It's logistics why most of my work does not have a first reader.

alphaflyer and inkvoices, you dig deep and for that I'm so grateful. I know if I want the nitpickiest, most in character, on point assessment of MCU, I've got it in you. Plus, I cannot tell you how much I learn from reading your fiction and posts. So much love. shenshen77, you have been a lifesaver and a sounding board so many times, I cannot thank you even close to enough. I can think of several fics that wouldn't exist if you hadn't saved me at the right moment from my own self doubts. And findthesea, you also saved me at a moment of truth, on short notice, for which I'm deeply grateful.

There have been others, but you all have been there and are still there and are part of my community. I cannot tell you how much I thank you.

To be specific, brother stuff. Good stuff. Between Loki and Thor. Don't mind angst (oughta be a given), but I'm hoping for some real connections here.

Anybody seen this fanfic?

Feeling unproductive, so here's a meme from lithiumlaughter:

Pick a fanfic I've written before and I will write you comment fic following it/taking place in that universe.

Fanfics:
http://scribble-myname.livejournal.com/77815.html
http://scribble-myname.livejournal.com/105824.html
http://fanfiction.net/~scribblemyname

I don't talk the same on my blog for Liana Mir. Even when I crosspost, I can see the whole difference in tone. I didn't crosspost my last one. Why?

I like how much more of me comes out over here. There's a persona there that I just can't seem to shake, even if the only difference I know of is my topics. Here I can just be me and admit that I haven't finished reading a beta thing 'cause the beta muse is being persnickety and uncooperative.

Just a weird thing I noticed that officially puts my f-list on LJ at the top of my favorite places to hang out list. Just thought I'd mention.

From mrstater:

I'm running a test to see who's reading my posts. So, if you read this, leave me a one-word comment about your day that starts with the third letter of your LJ USERNAME. Only one word please. Then repost so I can leave a word for you. Don't just post a word and not copy - that's not as much fun!

From lithiumlaughter, xenokattz, and likeadeuce:


1. Clear your schedule for five minutes (or longer if you have time, I'm not gonna turn down more fic).
3. Then look under the cut tag, where you will find ten prompts, all of which are song titles (selected at random from my iTunes).
4. Choose one of the prompts, and - using any appropriate fandom/character[s] (meaning ones you think I might enjoy) - write. I'll take original or fanfiction.
5. Reply with your teeny weeny story in the comments to this post.
6. Repost this in your journal and make your friends write for you!


( Read more... )

Lots of love and hugs and well wishes to everyone on my f-list. I've been thankful for each one of you and reading up even though I haven't been commenting. :hugs: