I went to my Saturday morning writing workshop today, and our theme this week was the London Underground. This is what I wrote.

( why am I posting this here, you ask? I do not know! )

Hello, I've spent this holiday season really pushing my limits - I've broken my own record for speed-eating a Co-Op pack of mini sausage rolls all by myself, and I'm well on the way to transforming into a very beautiful slug.

God knows what happened this past year - I've forgotten most of it. I know I went to Wales at one point. I joined a local Saturday morning writing group, who are a bit like the Breakfast Club if they were in a fairground hall of mirrors. And I started enjoying Doctor Who again, which was nice. This year I've already done something I've never done before - I made hollandaise sauce, thanks to birdgerhl 's recipe on Twitter. Twitter and the internet in general continues to give me life, while slightly ruining it at the same time. Ah well.

Other things I've managed to do while being crushed by the iron grip of social media: posted a Yuletide New Year's Resolution fic, which was meant as a Treat, but although technically finished on Christmas Eve, needed some time to rest and mature in the dark. Anyway, it's a gen fic in the very popular @TLFTravelAlerts fandom, about commuters and climate change and tea:

Metroland

Also, to continue a theme somewhat, I've rounded off my year of monthly 'stuff I wrote on the train' blog posts: Sidings. So that's that done. I might think of something else to do with it this year, or I might not.

Merry January, all of you.

Actually, this was meant to be a ghost story for several Christmases ago, but better late then never, eh?

Title: Till the Boys Come Home
Fandom: Downton Abbey/20th Century RPF
Characters/relationships: Ivor Novello/Thomas Barrow
Rating: Mature
Wordcount: 7600
Summary: Ivor Novello spends New Year's Eve at Downton Abbey, and encounters some things that go bump in the night...

Read at AO3

Wondering if anyone would be willing to read a fic for me? It's 7600 words -ish, and it's Downton Abbey but it's sort of about Ivor Novello and ghosts and sex and class and war and stuff. Also it's written in first person in the form of a letter. I can hear you all champing at the bit as I type.

As usual, it's mostly to check for mistakes and root out obvious crapness and so on. Any offers of help gratefully received, but no need to feel obliged. Ta!

(Hello, I wrote a small thing. Warning: may not make much sense if you haven't seen the episode.)

Title: Silent Retreat
Characters/relationships: Robert Lewis & James Hathaway
Rating: G
Wordcount: 1700
Summary: Problems with words. And Lewis and Hathaway in a beer garden again.
Notes: Set immediately after the Season 9 two-part episode Magnum Opus. Spoilers for that episode and Season 9 generally.
Additional tags: friendship, bisexuality, episode tag, beer, pubs, drinking, sexuality, relationships, family

Read at AO3

Hello. I've updated my weird blog, for those who were interested in being kept informed.

I had other things to say, but I am just. Too. Tired.

Well done everyone who posted every day, or nearly every day, or some of the days. Thanks for providing stuff for me to read this month, it's been very nice.

I had a wordpress blog that wasn't getting used for much, so I started to use it to write about the things I think about on the train:

Sidings

Just been reading on Tumblr how many people are apparently very upset at the presence of full stops in text messages.

It's probably time I went to bed, isn't it?

Sometimes a lot of things seem to be happening in the brain and the world and it's hard to separate out the bits. You know?

Anyway. I just came across this article by Robert Mcfarlane, from earlier this year. It's about the eeriness of the English landscape, and so far it's mentioned MR James, Susan Cooper, Helen Macdonald, Derek Jarman, Alan Garner, and the general weirdness of the Suffolk coast. (I say so far because I'm still reading it, I was compelled to stop in the middle to post this).

Basically, if you ever wondered what was mostly going on inside my head, see above.