I just realized two things.

1) Spite is excellent motivation for writing.

2) I figured out why I ship Aral/Cordelia so much. There seems to be this trend lately in fiction and movies of marriages that don't work. That irritates me. I feel that there can be fully as much drama in a marriage that does work as in marriages that don't, and having lived through the implosion of a marriage in the past three years, I don't want to read about/see it. I want to see couples who fight and bicker and still love each other. It is possible, Hollywood-types.

I feel like more fiction depicting such couples might cut down on the number of divorces, if only by demonstrating that it is okay to fight with someone you love. Lois McMaster Bujold gets it dead to rights with Aral and Cordelia. They hurt each other all the time, but they forgive each other and move on. More positive depictions in fiction might help replace the Harlequin romance stereotype.

To explain 1: I got so sick of seeing all these stories in my Fiction Workshop II class about marriages that imploded or otherwise didn't work, so I wrote a story about one that did. Pretty much just because.

Our room is full of flowers today. There's Sami's autumn assortment, and my irises (they're my favorite flower; always used to bloom around my birthday at home, so I've come to associate them with good times). There's also the glass ones on my little glass donkey that my mother sent me quite randomly, and the flowers on my fuzzy unicorn poster. Baby Krishna has no flowers this month, alas, but there are flowers on the prayer flags and flowers on the covers of half my books.

I really enjoy flowers. When I was growing up, we always had some in the house, usually on the kitchen counter. Sometimes they were flowers that my mother had grown in our garden, and sometimes they were something we picked up at the grocery store. I knew it was around my birthday when we had irises in the vase. My mother's birthday meant roses or carnations, and my father's meant bluebells. My brother usually liked snapdragons. Any time I had a play, there were tulips in the vase.

You could tell the seasons of the year by the flowers in our vases, too. Winter meant sunflowers, usually, or whatever was on sale in the store. Spring was the baby daffodils that sprang up in the woods behind our house. Summer was assortments, but there were always hyacinths and lilacs in there from the bushes on the front lawn. Autumn had honeysuckle and the tiny bluebells that never bloomed until late in the year. We would have crocuses in March and rhododendrons in April. It was such a lovely way to grow up.

I'm glad I have my irises. They make me smile.

I'm back, and I'm killing time before classes start. So have some memes.

Request any fic of mine and I will provide you with a commentary/annotations, like a DVD extra.

Interview one of my characters. Canon or original characters apply, and my characters will answer your questions as honestly as is appropriate for them.

( Six fun facts about me )

( And snippets of all my works in progress, including the original ones. )

1) I have new headphones! The old ones fell apart in my ear. It was most distressing. Fortunately, they were still under warranty and the nice guy at the Apple store took my word for it, so I have new ones for free! *cuddles new headphones* I also had a fun conversation with him.

Me: Hi. My headphones fell apart. It is most distressing.
Guy: Whoa. They really did. Well, let me take a look and see why they fell apart.
Me: I did nothing unusual to them. I was only listening to music and they fell apart.
Guy: Would you raise your right hand and repeat that?
Me: Sure, but I haven't got a Bible, just Oscar Wilde.
Guy: Close enough!

2) Speaking of Oscar Wilde, I am reading some of his plays. I just got through Salome (very strange, not at all like Wilde's usual tongue-in-cheek humor. Has some lovely language, though, and it must be pretty visually stunning) and The Importance of Being Earnest (one of my favorite plays ever and always worth a reread), and am currently in the middle of Lady Windermere's Fan. I'm also reading Mary Called Magdelane, another of Margaret George's bricks; Predators, Prey and Other Kinfolk, a memoir of growing up in a polygamist family; and The Serpent's Shadow. If I continue reading books at this rate, my books-read list for July will move into three pages. New record.

3) Got more work done on Glass. I think this seperating it out into different POV files and writing it that way is extremely helpful. I may have to give up my flashbacks from Gabi's POV idea, but we'll see how the rest of them turn out. I may rewrite them from Lionel's POV to leave them in. I've decided that, because Gabi is at the center of everything, I should maybe leave her a bit of a mystery. After all, her nonresponsiveness or her simple absence is a huge part of all the plots. So, I shall discuss with my co-author and we shall see.

4) Deposited my paycheck. YAY MONEY.

5) I kind of want to cosplay as Sarah Jane Smith. I may even just put a costume together and be her for Halloween. 'Cause, well, she's awesome, and I think her waistcoat-and-shirt look would be really flattering to my figure. Plus, I want those boots. Well, who doesn't?

6) I have been falling behind on my RPing lately and I do not know why. It's like I sit down to do it and my brain goes "HA no. Fuck off down the model village." Then I am confused as to why my brain is quoting Hot Fuzz out of context when all I want to do is knock off a decent post so my RPing partners don't hate me. V. sad. Please be understanding.

7) I am dying for lack of fluff. I've been writing Kyrie and Glass and Glass's prequel lately, all the angsty bits with people dancing around things they don't want to say, and I just want to read something silly and sweet and fluffy, goddamnit. It probably doesn't help that all the active relationships in my RPs are a) in the awkward morning-after stage, b) in the awkward holy-shit-did-I-really-just-say-that stage, c) both a and b, d) in the awkward goddamnit-do-I-have-to-tattoo-it-on-my-forehead stage, or e) in the awkward I-really-like-you-but-this-can't-work-for-outside-reasons-so-I'll-just-keep-my-mouth-shut stage. I want to read or write something where people are in love, full stop. Can someone prompt me, please? Any fandom I'm familiar with except Avatar, or original.

8) Speaking of prompts! Is anyone interested in an X-files/Doctor Who oneshot? I've had one percolating, and I have a beta on the line, but I don't know if anyone would be interested in reading something with Six and Samantha. Other possibilities include finally finishing my gorram Christmas fics (July is a new record), finishing up my Mulder/Scully fanmix (I think I need to see the movie again first), trying my hand at that one NaNo novel again, finishing and then rewriting Confidence (or maybe I could just skip to the rewrite?), or just watching Doctor Who until my brain liquifies. That last option is looking better all the time.

To pass the time for you while I reread His Majesty's Dragon and sequels and finish Victory of Eagles.

Post the first lines from your last twenty-five fics and see if there's a pattern (or something like that).

( Here we go, in reverse order. )

Hmm. General patterns seem to be me playing with language more and more. I start out messing around with Space Between the Seconds and by the Dalek Invasion of Discworld I've nearly gone overboard. Thank you, darling beta! A few of these, namely all the Dresden Files fic and The Dalek Invasion of Discworld are me consciously trying to mimic the author in question. Interestingly, I've only started out with dialogue in three fics; I was under the impression that I did it a lot more. I also seem to start out right in the middle of the story and explain things later. Very Doctorlike of me, I think. So! What do you think?

This is inspired by the Big Read meme going around that prompts people to select 'classic' books from a list that they have read. With that in mind, I'd like you to list the ten books that have had the most influence on YOU, personally. It doesn't matter whether or not they're classics, adult books or YA. This meme is not asking you to be a literary critic. These are the books that have made an impression on you, that stay in your mind, that have had an impact on your life. The books that taught you how to write, that molded your ideas about life and love. The books that you *always* have a copy of on your bookshelf, and invariably read until the binding is falling apart.

1) The Fire Rose, Mercedes Lackey
Lackey has a way with language that always strikes me, even when she's writing about certain Mary Sues I could name (Vanyel, anyone?). She's splendid with description, and even when her plots fall flat, which this one doesn't, the language carries the day. I also love Beauty and the Beast, and this reinterpretation of the legend has the benefit of being impeccably-researched historical fiction as well.

2) Persuasion, Jane Austen
Guh. Just guh. One of the best love stories ever, and a wonderful, wonderful book. Jane Austen makes some of the most memorable characters I have ever read. A pitch-perfect romance.

3) Proven Guilty, Jim Butcher
Plot! Jim Butcher teaches me about Plot! Proven Guilty has the added benefit of just being fun.

4) American Gods, Neil Gaiman
Likewise plot. Neil Gaiman weaves everything together skillfully and near-seamlessly. I will admit to having problems buying the climax, but I'm just too in love with his concept and execution that I simply can't care.

5) His Majesty's Dragon, Naomi Novik
WOW. Amazing language, great plot, a climax that never fails to make me tear up, wonderful characters, just wow. Seamlessly weaves dragons into British history. This is precisely how the Napoleonic wars would have gone had Napoleon in fact had dragons to deploy.

6) Magic and Malice, Patricia C. Wrede
See above. Wow. Also has a wonderful love story that His Majesty's Dragon doesn't. Both take place in the Regency; a coincidence? I THINK NOT. So does Persuasion. I'm terribly fond of the Regency, so having so many of my favorite novels take place there is a bonus.

7) Crown Duel, Sherwood Smith
Some of the best damned worldbuilding since Tolkein. Tolkein and I don't really get along for various wordy-related reasons, but Crown Duel is so wonderfully written and just right with the world.

8) Matilda, Roald Dahl
Roald Dahl is a master storyteller, and Matilda is my favorite story of his. A bright little girl and the people who believe her, the people who don't, and her revenge on the idiots of the world. Clearly Roald Dahl was at some point a bright little kid, because this book resonates with me so much. Hands up, who else tried to move chalk with their eyes after seeing this?

9) A Little Princess, Frances Hodgson Burnett
I don't know. I love Sara, I love Becky, I love the coincidences, I love Miss Minchen and Amelia Minchen, I love the whole book. It's just so well done and such a childhood memory. Maybe that's it. Either way, the binding on mine is kind of dead.

10) The Killer Angels, Michael Shaara
Oh, Michael Shaara. A heartbreaking story of Gettysburg. The language is exactly right for the time. The men he's writing about are so right for their time and yes. Amazing story.

I HAS A BETA READER FOR ORIGINAL SHITE.

Katie, welcome to the illustrious company that includes Priscellie, she of the Awesome, eponymous_rose, she of the Equally Awesome and Separated From Pris At Birth (trufax), and awanderingbard, who is--you guessed it--of the Awesome, though not separated from Pris and Rose at birth.

You lot, make Katie comfortable. We love her and hope that she will stay a while.

BETA READER. FR SRS. EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

1) I met Heather Chesterton at a concert recently, or at least someone who looks exactly like her, down to the frizzy blonde hair. Heather's voice is quite a bit higher than hers, and Heather is from Surrey rather than Canada somewhere, but other than that... I mean sheesh, she even played the piano!

2) Apparently Heather is dating an Irishman named Matthew. Beats me.

3) May have found an icon that works for Jen at long goddamn last.

4) Really want to take Lionel and Gabi's story from FG, file the serial numbers off, and turn it into an original novel. Too bad only Gabi and Saul are actually my characters. *sulk*

5) Frickin' writer's block.

6) In conclusion, I hate fandom.

Ten Times Trouble got recc'd on Calufrax!
*flails*

When you see this, post a little weensy excerpt from as many random works-in-progress as you can find lying around. Who knows? Maybe inspiration will burst forth and do something, um, inspiration-y.

Here's...um...a lot of stories. A lot a lot. Guess the fandom. Also, let me know if any of these intrigue. Some of them are perilously close to being abandoned.
( I really need to get some of these finished. )

Oh my God, this is the angstiest sestina ever. NEIL GAIMAN MADE ME DO IT.

( A sestina with the words dark, ragged, never, screaming, fire, kiss... )

I'm particularly fond of the fifth stanza, but hey.

Also, submitted More Things In Heaven to the Most Awesome Market Ever... wish me luck! *crosses fingers*

rrrr.
I've hit a brick wall in Kyrie. I know where I want to go after this, but I've got a scene to write between "now" and "then," and I have no idea what I want to put in it. Small talk, presumably, but it has to be story-significant small talk, stuff that hints Maggie has secrets and stuff she's not willing to talk about. Presumably Malcolm does too, though he's a much more open person than she is.
Hmm. Maybe if I look at the scene as character development. I can show some of Maggie's recklessness and some of her evasiveness, and give Malcolm a chance to show off that godawful sense of humor of his (what, you thought Harry got it from nowhere?).
Still. Rrrgh.
Also, which is the more annoying faux-endearment? Crumpet or dumpling?