get me off this crazy thing

So, I'm a dork and waited to sign up for yuletide and then got my dates mixed up and thought I had until tonight to sign up, but I won't be home before 9pm pacific time and we do not have firefox at work so I can't do it from my office. Can someone offer to sign up for me? I'll email you all my specifics.

Sorry folks, I'm not usually so last minute... oh, who am I kidding. LOL. meep. halp me.

Look at me, posting. whoowhee.

Rock'em, Sock'em

~ Go ahead, call me dumb. I restarted my Starsky & Hutch viewing for two reasons: 1) I decided I wanted to pay attention now that most of my brain was free again, and 2) there were actually tons of episodes I missed entirely because I failed to notice the little arrow menu option that revealed more episodes per DVD. d'oh?

~ Never mind the crazy levels of love and inappropriate touching that go on between Starsky & Hutch, I'm FASCINATED by the clothing and style and the language and the cars in this show (at least in season 1; I'm kind of scared of season 4, tbh lol). I love all the characters, even the (very long) line of random, beautiful, usually-end-up-dead women (aw, 70s, you wacky decade) but especially Huggy Bear and Dobey. Also, watching S&H is like taking a tour of Los Angeles's telephone booths. I'm just saying. Speaking of LA, I love the LA (Bay City?) in this show. It's like an alternative universe.

~ ( Sarah Jane Adventures )

~ In other news, I'm exhausted but okay. Trying to maintain balance between work, friends, family, writing, horses, and me!time, and mostly succeeding? Kind of? Okay not really, but I do all right. Today, my arm hurts for some reason. I must have strained it a little on Sunday. I rode western on Saturday and english on Sunday. Western is less exhausting but not necessarily easier. Sunday I rode Freon, who has the honor of being the first horse I ever fell off of -- big ol' puppy dog. He can be a handful, but a pleasure to ride. We did pretty good together.

~ YULETIDE

~ I started my dw_femslash story, and I have an idea for my hlh_shortcut story. Whee?

~ I love how fandom exploded with White Collar love. You are all so predictable, but I love you anyway. ;) I haven't watched it yet myself but that's mostly because I don't do live TV anymore. I fail spectacularly at it (and I mean the appointment television aspect of it, but I also prefer mature shows with at least a season already). I'll catch up on the flipside.

Yay, yuletide!

~ ( I did my nominations! (yuletide blather within) )

~ ( Finally got around to watching Sarah Jane Adventures, series 2 )

~ Haven't started on my hlh_shortcut story or my dw_femslash story. *big eyes*

Unfortunately, the video quality isn't better. But it is still impressive. Although, I'm not sure why a mounted police officer would need to remove their saddle mid-canter, still I like it. :D :D Honestly, I've watched this video a dozan times so far.

( Metropolitan Mounted Police at Olympia )

~~~

In other news, it was beta appreciation day yesterday! And I sort of missed it. Crazy day, wasn't really at my desk for very long. Anyway, there is no way I can comprehensively give proper thanks to all the betas I've had since I started in fandom, and do it justice, but THANK YOU. I'd write a fic for you all, but then I would have to ask someone to beta. lol.

~~~

I haven't decided what to nominate for Yuletide yet. THIS IS HARD.

Many of my usual choices have been nominated already, so I can take a chance on them. hm. And of course I didn't take notes throughout the year on things I would like.

What I have so far:

Leverage (yay its eligible)
Ashes to Ashes
Lost in Austen
Oz Books
Northanger Abbey
Wiseguy
Starsky & Hutch
Ocean's 11
Roman Holiday
Nate & Hayes
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
24 (!!!!!)

(I'm curious about the Eddie Izzard - Stand up Routines nomination. Maybe I don't think out-of-the-box enough, but huh? I mean, is it that you write fanfic having some of his characters interact?? I like Darth Vader/Marie Antoinette...)

~~~

Dear hlh_shortcut writer,

:D I'm pretty easy to please and an easy sell. Although I am primarily a Duncan/Methos girl (or Duncan & Methos), I'm totally open to other pairings and certainly happy with Gen, if that pairing is not your thing. I only ask that, if you're going to write Duncan MacLeod, that you please do not make him an asshole. And also, no one dies. :D Thank you, thank you! Have fun!

~~~

Dear dw_femslash writer,

OMG go crazy. Write whatever you like, I guarantee I'll like it. I pretty much love all of the female characters on DW and so am happy to receive anything. I wrote some stuff in my request, but you know, that's just there in case you really want direction. Have fun!! whee!

I still have not gotten very far into the archive yet. woe.


My stories:

Dry lips over chapped
Cynthia Voigt - Tillerman Cycle
written for JunoMagic

I was introduced to Cynthia Voigt's books through the second in this cycle, Dicey's Song when I was 12 or 13 years old. They are immensely influential. Rereading them for Yuletide, I came to understand just how influential they were. These novels are so amazingly honest, so real and brutal with its simple emotions and truths. I realized how much my writing wants to be like hers. I think they're kind of perfect as they are, so writing a story for it was a bit tricky -- what more could be said. But it helped to write in her style, and to get into the mindset of the novels. It was a delightful story to write, although I worried it was a bit dull. *g*

For the splendor of it all
Dracula the Series
written for astolat

Written entirely on Christmas Eve. I had successfully avoided getting a Pinch Hit this year, but it didn't feel right only doing one story, and then I looked at both elynross's and astolat's requests to see what I could fulfill for them. I had actually intended to change my offered fandoms to include Dracula the Series, but got distracted and never got around to it. astolat and I had such a blast two yuletides ago when I had WACKY FUN TIEMS But it was a little lonely writing Lucard and Co. this time since I couldn't ask astolat to watch and help me. I had to endure the wacky by myself! lol. sigh. And the funny thing is, I don't even like vampires, normally. Anywhoo, this was fun to write. Lucard being all cape twirly and seductive. Honestly, hottest, prettiest, most ridiculous Dracula EVER.

This is likely to be the only rec I will make before the reveal. I'm working my way through the archive, but slowly (I'm just to J!), and lack the patience right now to do more than flail slightly in the direction of this story.

As the Starling Said (long version): Jane Austen -- Mansfield Park, Mary Crawford/Maria Betram (Rushworth). This story is set after Maria's fall from grace. I try all the time to defend or illuminate Mary and Maria to people, and never get very far. Most readers of Mansfield Park are determined to hate them. And perhaps rightly so; neither girl is particularly sympathetic, and both end up with the fates they more or less deserve (although, even that, I cannot agree. Life was cruel and unforgiving for women who do not fit into what that society wanted them to be. I, for one, do not condemn them.)

Anyhoo. I loved this. It does not apologize for Mary or Maria's actions or behavior, nor does it smooth over their faults. They are entirely in character, and I loved them a little bit more for it.

There is a gen version of the story here that is considerably shorter, although having read the long version I cannot imagine it any other way. It's quite firmly canon in my head now.

Bah. I had an eye exam today. I've never had an eye exam. They shine lights into your eyes and make you cry and then make you push a button a lot.

And? My eyes are fine. Of course. I knew that. Although for a year (OVER A YEAR, TO BE HONEST) my left eye has been twitching. It's only recently stopped actually. Yes, folks, I've been that sleep deprived (thank you, grad school, ta!) (only sleep makes it go away. lots of sleep. seriously, I'm only now catching up -- ten months of regular [mostly, okay] sleep since finishing, and only NOW I'm caught up. sheesh) But! Nothing wrong with me. haha.

~~~

I wrote two (2) stories for Yuletide this year. If any of you good people can guess either story, I suppose I'll write something for you in a fandom I can write in.

Clues: Both stories are in fandoms that have not been recced at all (at least, to the best of my knowledge); they are truly obscure! One is genre, one isn't. One is literary, and one isn't. Both have been discussed in this livejournal, but very very rarely, especially for the literary one.


~~~


If you could force me to write something, what would it be? No promises, of course. But what do you want?

*eyes you all* You're all gonna ask for Merlin fic, aren't you? No, I haven't watched it. It looks like the WB invaded medieval England.

Woah.

Taking a little bit of a break from cleaning and cooking (ALL of my family that resides in the US is coming over to MY place. EEEE) to jump up and down with glee over my TWO (2!!) stories I received in this years yuletide

Both are from Jane Austen's Emma, which is great because there's not that much fiction for Emma.

The Wedding Day -- Sweet and lovely look into Emma's pov on her wedding day, having some jitters. :D

Poignant Sting -- I love this so much and I'm not even all the way through reading it yet! It's long and perfectly pitched, in character and voice, and omg I loves it. yay!

\o/

eta: omg there's new Doctor Who as well. I HAD FORGOTTEN. eeeee.

YULETIDE IS UPLOADED OMG. And with hours to spare. God. I'm having a flashback to last year.... hah. Also, elynross, I AM NOT ASKING YOU TO DO ANY EDITS. This may be a Yuletide first. lol.

I wasn't quick enough to cap my number. I think I was maybe 846? 845? In the last few minutes it's already gone up to 875. o.O

And with that, I now have to get ready for horseback riding. It's going to be cold today! burrrrr.

ETA: sekret to taraljc, I'll be around later if you still need me, like 3 or 4 my time.