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In a bid to finally tackle some of my constantly multiplying Guardian WIPs and languishing story ideas, I've joined Camp NaNoWriMo! The wordcount metric probably won't be particularly useful for me, given the amount of desperate plot shuffling and editing I expect to happen, but I hope the deadline will help push me into gear.

Are you also taking part in Camp NaNoWriMo? If so, let's be writing buddies. :-)

Also, this raises the question:



Also, in a surprise twist, I have great titles for two of these stories already, and several pretty nice ideas for the last one. I am still so delighted and surprised when this happens!

We won a Hugo, you guys! The AO3 was awarded the 2019 Hugo Award in the category Best Related Work - and to me that really does mean that we all won a Hugo. It's our archive, our community and our fanworks.

I am so thrilled that fanworks are gaining more and more mainstream attention and acceptance. And you've all had a hand in that development. Congratulations to you! :-)


In other news, I wrote something! Have an excerpt from my current WiP. (Errrrm. One of them.)

~~~

Da Qing materialized from the shadows around the HQ’s entrance as Yunlan swung off the motorcycle. He sauntered over with a deceptively casual air to brush lightly past his legs, tail waving in studied indifference. “Lin Jing just arrived. He’s upset. You’ll have to threaten him again, I think.”

Yunlan hmmed thoughtfully. “We’ll see.” Da Qing followed him as he pushed the bike through the SID’s doors, parking it in the lobby in blatant violation of bureau rules. The cat was still lingering when Yunlan had kicked down the bike stand and hung his helmet from the handle, so he picked him up and carried him through into the main office. Da Qing allowed it, even snuggling into him a bit when Yunlan held him close. It said a lot about how rough Yunlan must be looking, to be honest. Usually Da Qing didn’t like being carried. Yunlan was glad he was making an exception; the warm weight of his best and oldest friend was grounding, even if his cat’s affection couldn’t touch the cold, hollow loneliness he hadn’t been able to shake.

~~~

I've been waffling about posting this because I'm not terribly satisfied with it, but then I reminded myself that the Sunday Six are about celebrating having written something. And I did write something this week! That's definitely progress. :-)

Yay, for once I have Sunday Sixes to post! I wrote something today - not for one of the four WIPs I already have, of course, but for something entirely new. At least this story should be fairly short, and I already have a title idea. What could go wrong?? (insert maniacal giggle here)

Later this month, I'm going to self-publish three m/m novels under the pen name Alex Gabriel. Two of the novels may look familiar to you, though they've been thoroughly overhauled; they're "Learning How to Lose" and "First Contact". One is brand spanking new, and is called "Love for the Cold-Blooded, or: The Evil Minion's Guide to Accidentally Dating a Superhero".

I am ridiculously excited, and somewhat terrified.

My website's here, if you're interested. I'm planning to post there about topics loosely related to writing and reading. If that sounds like it might be your thing, please swing by! I'd love to see you there. (Also, if you do drop by, please tell me what you think. I'd very much appreciate a heads-up on anything you feel could be improved. This includes the book blurbs.*)

I'm also on Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr as Alex Gabriel; the links are all on the website. I haven't really had time to do much of anything there, though, including find anyone. Not to mention that I'm still learning the ropes when it comes to the care and feeding of Facebook... but if you're hanging out thereabouts too, I'd love to meet up. :-)


* Full disclosure: Blurbs are the invention of the devil. Or perhaps a demon who didn't so much fall as saunter vaguely downwards.

Parts of a plot idea have been stuck in my head for months, but they will not come together into something coherent. They will also not go away. Argh!

Second bout of tonsilitis in six weeks; like the last one, it is smart enough to pretend not to be bacterial so the doctor won't prescribe antibiotics. Undercover bacteria masquerading as a viral infection... the wonders of evolution. Last time, the critters' cover was blown in the end - the antibiotics did the job when I finally got them. So this time, the doctor wants to grow a culture and take a mug-shot to see who exactly we're dealing with. While I applaud this in theory, in practice I'm not getting antibiotics until the results are in. Which will not be before Monday.

This has the potential to turn very nasty. Also, want to bet that no bacteria will grow in the culture, everyone will continue to tell me it's viral, and I will not get any antibiotics? I'd try to grow my own, but I'm allergic to penicillin.

In other news, this is the Steamy M/M November Writing Project's wordcount after yesterday:

45007 / 60000 words. 75% done!

Sexual content: 0

This may well turn out to be the most chaste thing I have ever written. WTF?

Writing AU fanfic for your own unfinished original novel - odd or not?

I don't even know.

As some of you know, I've been up to reckless fannish acts again! This time I signed up for a fanfic challenge because it looked so wonderfully cool, because the deadlines seemed soothingly far off, and - lastly - because the minimum wordcount was 5k. "5k!" I thought to myself. "Hey, self, I know you have a lot of other projects on your plate - but come on, 5k? You'll be able to fit that in no problemo".

Cue hysterical laughter here. I mean - I do actually know better. It's not like all of my longest fanfics haven't started out as short stories...

So basically, for the last few months I've spent every free minute plotting, writing, and now editing. The finished story clocks in at just under 50k, and I now have only (hah!) 15 pages of the rough draft left to edit.

Of course, as of now the story is entirely un-betaed, and the posting date is the 20th - next Friday. *headdesk*.

So, yeah. Uhm. Does anyone have a bit of spare time and feel like beta-ing a story...?

It's an X-Men First Class AU, Charles/Erik, scifi-y and rated a very light R. Maybe even PG-13 (I know, it's a surprise to me, too!). No canon knowledge is required, although I do think it adds a bit to the story - but it should work as a "straight" (in a manner of speaking) scifi story for readers who have no X-Men knowledge, too. At least that was my intention!

Oh, and the story is based on this lovely art prompt - though I did diverge from the written part of the prompt somewhat (with the artist's permission).

Today, I organized my epic.

Which epic, you ask? Oh, the one that started out as a short fling on my part with a fandom… and that somehow exploded into the longest fanfic novel I have ever written. And that isn't finished yet. (How do I get myself into these things? It's a long story. Not quite as long as the epic, though. *g*)

When an author's delusion she is writing a short story collides with burgeoning inspiration, the resulting writing process can be chaotic. But today, I have girded my loins and heroically waded into the fictional jungle, there to ruthlessly index, streamline and organize. As it turns out, the chaos wasn't nearly as bad as I feared – and now I totally have that epic's number. ;-)

( The Epic's Number(s) )

Phew.

The Hypothetical AU Meme: Take any one of the fandoms you know I write in (or think I should), and give me a type of AU (space opera AU, pirate AU, superhero AU, Ancient Rome, etc). I will then explain what story from your chosen fandom I would write for your chosen type of AU.