bironic

Doing

I spent May working 24/7 on the vid; did little but watch TV in June; then spent three-quarters of July working 24/7 on an article for my job. Now it's back to chillin' out, by which I mean doing the minimum at work while visiting friends and family, consuming media, daydreaming and going for the occasional swim. Things will achieve balance again at some point.

Oh, and my birthday happened last week. 'Twas a pleasant one. Some friends made me dinner ♥, and some other friends and I went for fancy Italian over the weekend. marginaliana made a beautiful Star Trek and blood moon-themed card and thingswithwings wrote an Odo/Quark flashfic. Other surprise gifts included a quart of farm-fresh blueberries, a book on Hollywood Gothic and a Ravenclaw button. Happy double chai to me. The Hebrew kind, not the tea.

Going

I popped down to NYC for 24 hours to catch my beloved friend A., her husband V. and their five-year-old while they swept through three states on a business trip from Munich. The timing was terrible, but it was a joy to see them; I hadn't seen A. in three years. That kid was born a few months before we all left DC. Time flies.

My mom came to MA for a class mid-month, so I hung out with her for a few days. That was nice, although it would've been nicer if I hadn't had to work. We played mini golf, went to an art museum, walked around a lake and watched bits of the Harry Potter marathon on TV. Food highlights: lamb burger with goat cheese, sunflower seed risotto, cocktail made with local blueberries.

Next weekend is vividcon, the last before it metamorphoses into fanworkscon in 2019. It already sounds like people's emotions will be running high. I'm aiming to remain calm, set simple goals—i.e. "meet sol_se"—and not have too-high expectations for hanging out with people who will all be trying to do and feel A Lot. My perspective: It is just another Vividcon, this is not the last opportunity to see vidders, not everything has to be 'a moment.' It helps that I'm not showing any new vids amidst the glut of premieres. So far the worst I have to deal with is performance anxiety over co-modding a panel. (If you have requests for multifandom vidding topics, drop a line here!)

Watching

The movie adaptation of a play I'd wanted to see but missed, Marjorie Prime, which, like Robot and Frank, and like Westworld only less irritating, uses AI as a lens to explore age-related memory loss, how memories help construct a person, how they can be manipulated, and what happens to memories themselves and echoes of people as time passes and stories get conveyed second- and third-hand. The movie dipped in the… third quarter? But the beginning and end were wonderful.

Other than that, a string of movies and shows featuring Zahn McClarnon.

I watched six seasons of Longmire in about a month, whoops. It's a present-day sheriffing show set in rural Wyoming. Came for Zahn as the police chief of the neighboring Cheyenne reservation; stayed for him and Lou Diamond Phillips, Katee Sackhoff and some heartfelt seeking of justice. Post pending when writing about it feels less intimidating.

Writing

Fic!! Although I've been playing with Mary Sues on my hard drive here and there, it's been two years since I posted a story to the AO3 (Here rest, interred without a stone) and three years since an actor or source inspired a cluster of fics (the Inkheart trio, plus two WsIP I swear I'll finish one day). In the last month, I've started no fewer than three stories, thanks to Zahn McClarnon characters.

So far:

- 1,400 words of an indulgent Mathias/OFC dubcon aphrodisiacs story for Longmire

- 670 words of the vampire threesome flashbacks no one else has written despite the clear subtext in this one episode of Midnight, Texas

- 2,000 words of noncon inspired by a scene in the premiere of The Red Road that I watched on Sunday. I should have known noncon would overcome the writer’s block.

- Well, and 6 lines of Mathias/Cady (Longmire), but I'm not sure there's enough to hang a story on

It's both motivating and refreshingly low-pressure to observe how few AO3 fics there are for some of these characters. ( Quick examples: )

I need all the momentum I can get, being so rusty at this point and easily defeated by self-recrimination and any narrative problems that arise. disgruntled_owl and other local fic-writing friends have been great help on both fronts, offering solutions and encouragement.

Vidding

I've recovered enough from "The Greatest" to plan vids again. I'd like to make one for Longmire; given that I've been humming a particular song candidate for about six weeks, chances are it'll be set to that.

Also on the docket is the second FandomTrumpsHate vid, for deelaundry. We've narrowed it down to two options: either the opening credits to a TV show she has been imagining for a while or a remix of her "all you can kink" Tango & Cash vid.

Reading

Can wait for another post.

Title applies to:

1) The conclusion of His Dark Materials. I might have tossed The Amber Spyglass across the floor in distaste if par_avion hadn't warned me at Vividcon about a thing that was going to happen. Then again, by the end of the series we'd grown so distanced from the main characters that the plot direction might not have affected me deeply anyway. As it was, it... ended, and that was that.

2) Kidney stone situation. I've been pain-free for a week now, but didn't see a stone come out, so either it got ground to sand and I missed it, or it's lying in wait. Doc says to finish the remaining 2 1/2 weeks of Flomax and then maybe safe to believe I'm in the clear. TMI. Meanwhile, back to normal activities.

Miscellany:

Doing: Being (temporarily? permanently?) recovered means that I can still go to the Mission: New York Star Trek convention this weekend with iggy. Am getting especially excited about seeing all the DS9 cast members who will be there -- René Auberjonois, Armin Shimerman, Nana Visitor, Terry Farrell, Michael Dorn, Cirroc Lofton -- only two of whom I've met before (René a couple of times at Broadway theaters and Dorn once at a con). There will be panels with cast reunions and organizers of the first Trek convention and show/novel writers and queer fans and fans of color and scientists/engineers who were inspired by the series, a table read of ST IV: The Voyage Home, props and sets and a cosplay contest, etc. =/\=

I printed recent-ish head shots of the three DS9 cast members who won't be there, with the plan of bringing them to the group photo I signed up for. Now every time I pass my desk, Alexander Siddig is there smiling at me.

Reading: Currently between books. Plowed through the Captive Prince trilogy while ill and it was just the right story for that headspace. Tried Brandon Sanderson's The Way of Kings last night/today but got bored, and that ginormous, 1,000-page hardcover is not worth lugging around for a boring narrative. Was not surprised to discover a blurb from Patrick Rothfuss on the back. Fortunately, NK Jemison's The Fifth Season is winging its way over to the library.

Writing: A thing for work, but daydreaming about ficlets and Yuletide treats. His Dark Materials gave me another Dustfinger (Inkheart) idea, in addition to the three fics already posted and the two WsIP. It went like this at brunch on Sunday:

me: It's perfect: Dustfinger has a marten; Lyra has a marten. I just want the martens to sniff each other.
unfinishedidea: *cracks up*
me: What?
unfinishedidea: You do you.

I will do me, thank you. :) Here, have a Lyra/Iorek fic I found on the AO3: Native and Non-Native Fauna of the North by gishmi1ish. It's distractingly formatted and a bit rushed, but pushes some xeno buttons nonetheless.

Vidding: Thinking about Festivids nominations. I watched Queen Margot again last week and continue to yearn for a vid for it. If it still doesn't get matched this year, I may have to do it myself.

The Golem and the Jinni is over, leaving me filled with  :,(  :)  <3.

Their personalities and physical descriptions are different, but there were times when the Jinni reminded me of other characters I have loved. ( Marius, Dustfinger, Odo. Behind a cut for vague not-really-spoilers but just in case. )

My book crush on him remains undiminished. Will this lead to fic? I hope so. Because ( I want a lot of post-canon stories: )

The fact that somehow there are only three fics on the AO3 may help. Plus a long plane ride tomorrow followed by a few days of loosely structured vacation. But we'll see. Recent experience tempers expectations. It's a hard writing style to get right, and I'm not sure I'm up to meeting that level of characterization. Maybe jotting down those bunnies is as far as it goes. Or maybe I can channel my interest in the Jinni into finishing that Dustfinger poly story from last year.

AO3 | DW | LJ

Title: Break, Blow, Burn (And Make Me New)
Fandom: Inkheart trilogy
Pairing: Dustfinger/Farid
Rating: R-ish? PG-13?
Word Count: 1,500
Summary: It was Dustfinger. It had always been Dustfinger.
Content notes: Underage (although not considered so in the Inkworld); Farid seems to be about 15 or 16 in the books. Arguable infidelity. Equally arguable polyamory. Spoilers for Inkspell & Inkdeath.
A/N: Because what seemed like slashy subtext in the movie ended up being pretty much text in the books. This is a remix of a particular scene about halfway through Inkdeath. Suits the temperature play square on my Kink Bingo card, together with the Dustfinger/Resa fic. Title from John Donne.

( His head was a whirl, but his body said, Yes, this. And suddenly everything fell into place. )

In some ways it was a rough week. My friend A. came to visit for two days, and it took another two to recover. My mom was hospitalized for a day. (She's okay now.) Negative self-talk has been rearing its head again. Current events are, as too usual, terrible.

And yet. In the style of kass's gratitudes:

• Received a small end-of-year bonus
• Favorite editor gave my work a great compliment
• I'm going to finish I FINISHED writing this fic tonight, hallelujah
• Discovered a good shawarma place that delivers
• Almost finished reading Inkdeath, which, after two so-so predecessors, is full of wonderful little Dustfinger and Dustfinger/everyone-else moments
• Had a lovely evening full of conversation with stultiloquentia yesterday
• Tweeted with Linda Holmes (host of NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour) about the Jurassic World raptor-training meme - first time I've interacted with a Name over there
• Boston-area fan picnic tomorrow—not too late to join, by the way!—likely followed by Inside Out with thedeadparrot
• Found out three (I think) of my vids showed at Vidukon; and have many Vidukon vids to look forward to watching