Cirrus and Sundogs

Dear Yuletide Writer

2013-10-14T22:41:47Z

And away we go!

( Dear Yuletide Writer: )

(Edited for a typo in an author's name.)

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Looking for opinions

2012-02-04T14:07:05Z

Okay, here's a question. Should I post my original slash fiction, at least the works that are either not under contract or where all rights have reverted back to me, onto AO3?

Sure, such posting is technically permissible now, but I also know that there was a big argument about the issue that I tried to ignore -- I've been around the fringes of enough offline political events the last few years that fandom politics make me a little nuts -- so I'm not up to speed about how good an idea mine would practically be. I've been given to understand this original fiction discussion grew to the size of a small kerfuffle, but even that doesn't tell me how welcome some hundreds of thousands of words of slightly-used, non-fannish shenanigans would now be.

Thanks ahead of time if you take the trouble to answer. There's no need for any particular response, but I could use someone else's thoughts about the matter to help clarify my own ideas.

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Fic: Shacked and a fast holiday report

2012-01-09T15:46:15Z

I'm having something of a tussle with the turning of this year -- medium sickness and other life ambushes -- but I wanted to pause in my tussles long enough to report I wrote a tiny fic.

Way back in the Fandom day, there were the infamous Canadian shack and Extraneous Elves challenges. Although I was off in my own fandom corner at the time, I eventually wrote an elf story. But somehow I missed visiting the shacks. That is, I missed the shacks until now, thanks to Canadian Shacks 2011.

Title: Shacked
Fandom: Nero Wolfe
Summary: Wolfe has an annoying habit of being good at things he shouldn't be, especially when he can show Archie up.

Shacked.

Oh, and I didn't report on Yuletide, did I? I got two fantastic stories: Vanity and Vexation by Nestra in Nero Wolfe and Big City Days by hollimichele in Top Ten (Comic). They're both well worth your time; I have fabulous luck when it comes to yuletide gifts.

As to my own writing, I had fun with crafting Tin Soldiers, in Eric Flint's Mother of Demons, and then coming up with Ambush as a Yuletide Madness treat in the Nero Wolfe fandom. ("Ambush" must have been the easiest authorship to spot ever.)

And now, back to the srs business of tussling. Although at least the Wolfe fic I've been poking at for years -- the one that's an update to Archie and Wolfe's time of Astolat's AU world from "Duende"? -- has come unstuck a little. Cross your fingers for me.

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Yuletide letter...

2011-11-17T20:18:28Z

...coming soon. What with one thing and another, I'm not quite up to it today. But in the next day or two, I promise.

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Five things plus one, or life in the slow lane.

2011-10-06T14:26:34Z

1) I haven't managed to write any fiction for several weeks and it's making me cranky. Damn it, I want a new and extended Singin' in the Rain fic even if it has to be written by me. Or new Nero Wolfe. Or something. Hurry, Yuletide!

2) I'm fairly sure 1) has to do with what seems like an unending tussle with oral surgery and car repairs these past few months. Why this combination should be inhibiting I don't know, but seemingly it is.

3) Not being able to write is turning me into one of the biggest D&D maniacs in my region. This isn't a bad thing in and of itself, but getting to all the games is expensive since our elderly car is slowly dying (see 2) above).

4) Would it be hypocritical to join one of the ongoing demonstrations when the money for the hotel room we'd require could (also) be going to our local heating oil fund? On the one hand, the need for donations is dire this year. On the other, the need is arising from problems that, in part, will eventually have to be solved politically. *ponders*

5) My cat would like me to add "Meow. Meow, meow," which -- since she's just been fed -- seems to translate as, "Tell the clicky pad I'm a pretty, pretty princess pumkin-head to whom you should pay more attention." Consider yourself told, clicky pad.

6) If I'm not writing by next week I'm going to have to try drabbles on command or something of that nature. And now I'm on record.

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Possibly the stupidest way I've so far found to trigger writing...

2011-07-04T00:06:23Z

A squirrel somehow managed to fall into the stovepipe that runs from the very top of our capped chimney down to our wood stove. On the one hand, I managed to unbolt the chimney pipe and pull the stove away from it -- something I'd never thought I could do -- which does make me feel competent. On the other hand, the little beggar wouldn't come out of the pipe. The squirrel was easy to spot because he or she would hide just above the pipe opening with bushy tail drooping down into the open; obviously, this was neither the Fred Astaire of squirrels nor the Marie Curie. We think we lured away our unhappy visitor by opening up the house and going out for an hour, but the squirrel might just be hiding until it's time to be chased around the house by our cat in the middle of the night. It's not a midnight treat I'm anticipating.

However, I finally have an appropriate use for that annoying phrase "the absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence." Also, the whole affair really makes me want to write slash. I don't even know why. And I refuse to ever try and replicate this afternoon to obtain the same effect.

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New York, New York!

2011-06-25T03:16:01Z

Hooray!

I was delighted to watch this evening as same-sex marriage passed in New York, and to contemplate the many, many others who can now join us in being gifted with the immeasurable joy we've had out of our own marriage up here in Vermont.

That said, it's time to indulge in our radical response of celebratory tea and cookies (Weight Watchers be darned), persuading the cat not to claw the sofa in reaction to the household excitement, and playing a hidden-object adventure game together. And every time I think of the couple who've been together for sixty years and can get hitched, I have to smile. Somehow, I trust the institution of marriage will survive -- nay, even flourish -- in the face of such challenges. *g*

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The All-Too-Interesting Year Part II: Timing is Everything

2011-05-02T22:03:39Z

So Bin Laden is dead, which I learned with a certain grave satisfaction. The man worked hard to deserve his fate, and I hope this country can seize our chance to back away from certain bad decisions he helped to spur.

On a much more personal note, my wife and I are flying to London. Tomorrow. Out of Boston Logan.

*Head-Desk*

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Fic: Nameless (Nero Wolfe)

2011-03-10T04:13:37Z

A couple of the suggested plot bunnies had one of those leg-thumping fights and this was the result.

Title: Nameless
Fandom: Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe
Length: Roughly 2k words
Warning: Persistent overuse of "eldritch".
Notes: Head-on collision with H.P. Lovecraft. Neither very serious nor very explicit, I'm afraid.
( Nameless )

I still seem to have some momentum left, so I'm hoping more of the plot bunnies will trigger writing. Wish me luck!

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Fic: Unbowed (Kink Bingo), Nero Wolfe, and also a question.

2011-03-07T01:57:05Z

Here's the last of the four story Nero Wolfe sequence I wrote for kink bingo, done at last. If you want to read the prequels, they're up both here and at AO3.

Title: Unbowed
Fandom: Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe
Rating: Mature
Kink Prompt: masters doms slave & subs
Warning: Please check the prompt.
Notes: A sequel to Bruised, Bloody and Marred, Dom/sub dynamics, more plot than what plot, and Archie getting around.

( Unbowed )

All that's left now is the Singin' in the Rain story for the world's most belated bingo.

So. This is my self-allocated month for fan fiction. A question for anyone interested: is there a fanfic cliche that you've ever thought (or are thinking now) that someone should have tried with Nero Wolfe? I'm not promising anything, of course, but I'm looking for plot bunnies and thought someone might have one eating radishes in the back garden if I asked.

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I couldn't resist that World Book Day Meme.

2011-03-04T19:42:17Z

The book I am reading: As usual, I have several in various stages of completion. Right now, Anbinder's Five Points is on top of the heap, but I've reached a long section about post Civil War Tammany politics, so I may be about to switch out.

The book I am writing: I wrapped up and saw Faster Than the Speed of Light published a few months back, and "The Retrieval" will be out in a month or two, so I'm between original works. I have a vague idea for a f/f set in Greenwich during the twenties or thirties that I might turn my hand to next since my publisher offered to take it whenever. Then I have a novella contract due in July which will be about ???. After that, I really should work on finishing another novel this year. I'm tempted to try a fantasy although, even for my work, they don't sell worth beans.

The book I love most: Lois McMaster Bujold's Shards of Honor and Barrayar. ( I decided I get to have both since she started writing them as a single work.) Sure, there are better books, even by her. But this is the pair that I keep coming back to when I'm thinking about how to write to be read. Also, they punche my id buttons hard. And it's a crackerjack tale born from fan fiction!

The last book I received as a gift: Grafton, et al's The Classical Tradition. This is a glorious doorstop collection of articles about the influences of Greece and Rome on various aspects of modern European culture. It was a gift from sphinxfictorian to assuage my informal history addiction. How could I not love any encyclopedia that includes thoughtful, scholarly articles on Asterix and the Society of Dilettanti?

The last book I gave as a gift: Susan Vreeland's Clara and Mr. Tiffany. sphinxfictorian is on a Victorian women's historical novel kick, and I was happy to spot this one for her. She liked it all the better because it covered a late Victorian art movement that's one of her pet topics. Also she thought the heroine had agency.

The nearest book on my desk: Rex Stout's Triple Zeck. Hey, I'm writing fanfiction today. Gotta have my sources to hand.

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Stuff! Should Happen!

2011-02-23T22:15:47Z

When I was in college, lo those many moons ago, there was a fellow student notorious for getting bored. And when he would get bored, he would announce, 'Stuff should happen!" in a manner I would later recognize while watching Sherlock.

Soon enough, we stopped asking him what kind of stuff he meant. Good stuff, bad stuff, odd stuff, disastrous stuff, or stuff that didn't seem to mean anything but had consequences far down the road seemed to suffice. Romance, drugs, a stolen tank, something mysterious and likely illegal on that weird computer network that we didn't yet call the internet, home-brewed mead, lightning distribution experiments, and bootleg mineral samples: he had problems keeping roommates. Life around him was just too unnerving.

It's only February, and if I had to name him using numbers, I'd call him 2011.

O_O

Maybe I should just write some fan fiction.

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New Year and Yuletide

2011-01-01T07:59:56Z

Happy New Year, and may we all enjoy a happy 2011!

For those who keep track, I wrote two stories this Yuletide: Circuit Court (Wen Spencer's A Brother's Price, 15587 words ) for hazel , and The Feather in His Cap (Saki's short stories, 1586 words) for daegaer .

( Minor writing details... )

In exchange, I got a wonderful Nero Wolfe story -- Vagaries of Love by aerye . I even got a nifty treat in the same fandom, Hungry by rabidsamfan . These gifts were the shining stars of my holidays aside from Citrine, the feline bundle of tabby fur who joined us from the humane society the day after Christmas and who now assists my blogging by insisting she serve as a purring wrist-rest for my computer keyboard. Since you will never, ever have as high quality a Yuletide wrist-rest as I now do, might I suggest you console yourself with some excellent Nero Wolfe fanfic instead?

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Oh, thanks be...

2010-12-17T09:15:20Z

At last, after x thousand words, my Yuletide. Story. Is finally. Done.

Verbosity: dear recipient, it's what's for Yuletide.

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Dear Yuletide Writer

2010-11-20T17:05:54Z

Welcome, and thank you so much for sharing a tiny fandom dear to my heart. You've already made me happy, so I hope writing a story for me will end by making you happy, too.

I know those first moments after reading a gift exchange request are often full of flailing. Perhaps these notes will help a little?

( The nitty-gritty. )

Thanks again and enjoy!

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Fic: Marred (Kink Bingo), Nero Wolfe

2010-09-27T04:37:08Z

Sure enough, these four stories are all turning out to fall along a sequence within the same canon AU. I'm a bit bemused, if not too surprised, to discover I can't even write PWPs for kink bingo.

But I am having enough fun that I just signed up for origfic_bingo , too. That should be interesting.

Title: Marred
Fandom: Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe
Rating: Mature
Kink Prompt: Writing on the body.
Warning: Please check the prompt and notes.
Notes: Something of a sequel to Bruised and Bloody. Hints of knife-play. Some spoilers for In the Best Families.

( Marred )

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Fic: Bloody (Kink Bingo) Nero Wolfe

2010-09-13T23:18:11Z

Hmm. Some of these short kink bingo stories are coming together into a tiny series, which is not what I expected. I think I'll polish them off and then post the Singin' in The Rain story for a zesty dessert.

I can still feel something longer floating just out of reach. Frustrating yet intriguing!

Title: Bloody
Fandom: Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe
Rating: Mature
Kink Prompt: Bodily Secretions (blood)
Warning: Please note the prompt.
Notes: Mild of its kind. Something of a sequel to Bruised.

( Bloody )

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A little explanation and a litte Fic: Bruised, too.

2010-08-18T01:14:40Z

Half a year gone since my last post? Huh. That deserves a pause to apologize and explain.

In part, the gap was because there's not much that's more boring than someone whining about the problems of success. I had to lose weight for medical reasons. After having surgery last year, I lost weight. Lots of weight. Three figures worth of weight, all the way down to nearing the value demanded by the BMI, those big lugs. Ta-dah: a socially approved victory.

Of course, now the body I see in my mirror is not like anything I've ever seen before, not even as an adolescent. And it turns out that dumping such a big fraction of body weight leads to hormones dancing the tarantella. Until very recently, my moods and events over the past months had little correlation. I won the lottery, wah! I dropped a big, heavy lump of coal on my foot, whoopee! All this ramped up my introversion, and I concentrated my remaining social energy on off-line life. Although I tried keeping up with fandom, mostly I lurked. Many, many apologies to anyone who communicated only to be met with silence.

Anyhow, all that written and done, I see to be perking up at last. In fact, here's a little story courtesy of kink bingo. Perhaps it will lead to greater -- or at least longer -- things?

Title: Bruised
Fandom: Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe
Rating: Mature
Kink Prompt: Bites/Bruises
Warnings: Just the prompt

( Bruised )

I have a few more short kink bingo stories in the works. One is for Singin' in the Rain, which pleases me. I hope there's a longer story in me, too, but I'll see...

(Come to think about it, I'm overqualified now to write about Wolfe during In the Best Families. I've always meant to write again about the two of them trying, and failing, to be Chandleresque.)

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This is the rare case where I prefer ignorance

2009-12-26T22:32:34Z

If you are like me, and really don't want to know how many people comment as opposed to how many people drop by to see your work, and if you have an account over at AO3, don't forget that you can turn off the visible hits counter on your dashboard.

Since fan fiction isn't paid work, I prefer to live in a world where my stories happily float out in space all on their own, la la la, perhaps visited by others and perhaps not but pretty in either case. Then any comment I receive is a joyful event that never suffers by statistical comparison, and no comments is a null phenomenon. Strange, maybe, but it's an attitude that keeps me productive, so I'm delighted to find I can carry that preference across to my newest home for my stories.

In other news, thank you to everyone who volunteered to help beta my Yuletide work. I think I got back to you all about how great you were, but, if I missed someone, feel free to e-mail me so I can tell you specifically and in detail how wonderful you were. Because you were.

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Okay, now what?

2009-12-07T03:38:01Z

I'm done with the rough draft of my Yuletide story, which is good.

To the bad, I now have to find a beta, and the story is long. It's not ridiculously, hugely, appallingly long, but it is pretty darn long. I feel a little guilty about sneaking up to people at random and whispering, "Psst! Can you beta this story in a fandom when I can't tell you what it is, but it certainly goes on for a while?"

For some reason, the part of Yuletide I find most unnerving is trying to deal with my work in progress without being able to give away a single detail about what I'm doing. Something in me keeps wanting to give hints, as if I think deep down that this is a game of twenty questions, which unnerves me. I think the urge is a side effect of the suspense which begins for me around now of wondering if my recipient will actually like the thing. Still, I remain unnerved.

*pokes warily at story*

*goes back and removes two hints from this post about what the story is*

*sighs*

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Not sure if I'd call it inspiring work, exactly...

2009-11-25T07:16:59Z

I burned a good chunk of my free time this weekend uploading stories over at Archive of Our Own. It's a very shiny set-up, but, oh, man, the mess some of my older stories are in. I expect to be chasing typos for a long time to come.

Still, all the hours hand-coding paid off. Of the non-Yuletide, non-original, non-collaborated, non WIP material, forty-one stories are up and only five are left to go.

It's weird how patterns jumped out when I reread years of work in a couple of days. For example, wow, did I have a grim reaper phase when I liked killing off main characters. I seem to have offed Wolfe three times, Archie twice, and both of them simultaneously once. I get what was going on in my psyche to trigger all that, but it's still disconcerting to see worked out on the monitor.

The whole thing is about as disconcerting as finding a box of old photographs of yourself you've never before seen. But at least I now have done my part to store up material for the handful of potential Archie/Wolfe fans who have yet to wander onto the web.

I wonder if I should post the Yuletide work, too? I mean, honestly, does the web really need another source of Jane Narf? *rolls eyes, grins*

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Dear Yuletide Writer...

2009-11-12T02:12:07Z

Dear Yuletide writer:

Another year, another chance to say how deeply I'm already inclined to enjoy anything written in my beloved small fandoms. So, right off the top, thank you for offering to write this story.

I try to give some notion of my favorite pairings in the notes to my requests. I view this letter more as a chance to boil down some of my likes and dislikes in hopes that will make your task easier.

Let me start by saying that I don't need you to suddenly write the kinds of stories I do in order for me to love your gift. One of my all-time-favorite, hold-to-my-heart yuletide stories was one I don't think I would be capable of writing, as different as it was from my own efforts. Given that, if you already have the Plot Bunny That Must Speak Its Name, please carry on. However, if you're still deciding what you want to do, perhaps these notes will help.

( The nitty-gritty... )

When all is said and done, though, you're already starting out way ahead of the field by working in any of my much-loved fandoms. I hope you'll be able to find something to write you can also enjoy. Please have fun!

Best wishes, as well as a great deal of gratitude,

Parhelion

ETA: As per general request to the Yuletide community, there's now a copy of my sign-up with comments

( here! )

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Into the darkest day, a little sun must shine

2009-11-04T21:10:23Z

Yuletide is up for signups, and what a nice piece of timing. I spent the morning with the cloud of political gloom (pat. pend.) floating over my head, and now I can spend the evening consoling myself with dreams of beautiful, odd stories in obscure fandoms dancing over my head. Now, that's an improvement.

Of course, this also means I should write a Dear Yuletide Gifter letter. But first I need to do the last edit on that story due in to My Little Publisher. At least Yuletide has put me back in the mood for writing...

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Any kind of work is occasionally a job.

2009-10-23T01:21:50Z

Every so often, there comes a moment while dealing with my small publisher -- and I have the background to know these folks are absolute darlings to me -- when I stumble across some crazy little detail of pro writing that brings me up short. And it's never a question of pay. No, these are the details that make me wonder why the hell I'm taking money to do this at all.

Almost inevitably, I then trip over some description of the shiny, shiny, uncomprehending aspirations of someone who want to go pro writer for a living and feel like banging my head against a desk until it all goes away.

That's when I need fandom the most. It's not that I'm some delicate creative type who must be cuddled and coddled for the sake of my genius -- I can sit around naming fan writers as good as or better than me for many minutes without strain -- but I do need fandom to remind me that folks will care from time to time about my writing decent stories that can entertain them, and one of those folks is me. Pay, no pay, whatever: the rest, including the crazy little details, is really just fuss and feathers.

Thank heavens Yuletide is on the horizon again. It's one of the periodic events that keeps me from going nuts and subjecting others to rants during which I wave a banner inscribed "The SANCTITY of ART!" ::shudders at the thought::

So, anyone else doing Yuletide this year?

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parhelion @ 2009-09-03T00:08:00

2009-09-03T04:11:00Z

Married now.

::Pleased smugness of downright Wolfean proportions::

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