sheldrake

I haven't been much in the mood for fanfic for a while, but Yuletide's different. This is merely a skimming from the surface, but I thought I'd get in there before the reveal. Sorry if my descriptions make no sense, it's been a long day.

Invicta - Greek Mythology - Aphrodite and human beauty. Those gods, you know -- they're not like us.
1918 - Sherlock Holmes - Crossover... may have made the old lip wobble a bit. Gaah, oh how I love them all!
A Land So Wild and Savage - Laura Ingalls Wilder - Charles and his wanderlust. This is deceptively simple -- it takes the material from the books, turns it a fraction to the left and gives it back to us subtly changed.
Little Settlement on the Moon - Laura Ingalls Wilder - This one's fun too -- steampunk!
Hunting High and Low - Take On Me (music video) - Wow! So clever -- you only get stuff like this at Yuletide.
to hell with anything unrefined - archy and mehitabel - Wonderful, and illustrated.
Running Commentary - The IT Crowd - Sweet. :)
Out of the Dark - Dr Seuss, One Fish, Two Fish... - How to make Dr Suess really scary...
I Am Not Clark, My Name Is Pete - Dr Seuss, One Fish, Two Fish... - ... and how to make him really sad. :(
In Which Worlds Collide and Eeyore Investigates a Terrible Crime - Winnie the Pooh - Crossed with Discworld. Illustrated. And I don't even really know Discworld.
And Baby Makes Two - Arrested Development - This is short and funny, and captures the tone of the show really well.

In other news I am cold, and they made us all sit at work till 6 even thought there was nothing to do. Grumble. And I'm working on New Year's Day. Grumble. Grumblegrumble. But I booked next week off, so it's not that bad really, s'pose.

After much angst I decided not to sign up for Yuletide this year because I don't have time. I mean, I haven't even had time to look through the fandoms properly -- that hardly bodes well for the fic, does it?

So, that being the case... I'm doing NaNoWriMo instead.

Head, meet desk. I hope you're very happy together.

Happy New Year everyone. Welcome, 2007. May you be good.

Well, the fisherman turned up at 11.30, on schedule, but sadly he left almost immediately, as I had no custard to give him. So I've no spooky stories to tell you. Let that be a lesson to me in the future.

Yuletide authors have been revealed! Thank you so much my two Shaun of the Dead writers: Empy for Night of the Apple Schnapps, and Aimeek for Victory from Defeat. Both my stories made me laugh, and I really needed it at the time, so that was a nice thing. :)

I wrote In a Dark Wood for Deepa D. and I'm very, very pleased she seemed to like it. :)

I feel I must post a small disclaimer though, at this point. I have never actually read anything by Robin McKinley. Um, and I fully realise most people who said that meant it as a compliment, but I did see one recs post in which the poster seemed a bit worried about the whole thing, so. Just thought I'd say that. *shuffles off*

You'd think it was some kind of international holiday or something.

Oh all right, Merry Crimpleen everyone. That's if you celebrate Crimpleen, and I know I do. Mmm, synthetic fabrics are so delicious.

Well, I'd better go and peel some potatoes, I suppose. May the gods of Crimpleen not come down and smite you, today at least.

This post brought to you by AN ATTEMPT TO STAVE OFF ENSUING MADNESS OMG!

ps. I got TWO whole and glittering Shaun of the Dead fics for Yuletide, so HA! Take that, ensuing madness!

Yes.

Ok, the story's done, now I'm just sort of hovering over the 'submit' button. I've only read it 238 times, what if I missed something omg? It's scary, man!

ps. do you like this SCARY icon? It's the Mari Llwyd, as seen in The Dark is Rising.

ETA: not quite sure how I accidentally disabled comments there, but never mind.

NaNoWriMo -- I have written the grand total of 20 words. GO ME!!!

I have still not answered all the comments I meant to answer -- sorry, everyone. *smacks self in head*

I've got to go back to work tomorrow. I want more holiday! :(

I signed up for Yuletide. Um.

The Two Lines fic -- is going to go on forever, but at least it's going on. I think.

Inspired by some of the requests on Yuletide, I went searching and found, you know, one of them bad 'n' wrong fandom places (well, it was for me anyway) and am still trying to scrub myself clean.

dandywalker and I went to see The Divine Comedy last night and it was purely magic and wonderful and fab. :) And it made me very happy. (Apart from the two most annoying people in the world, who stood in front of us). And the support were the great Duke Special, who make very effective use of the cheese grater and whisk, and should be checked out most immediately.

I spent three hours looking for boots that would zip up over my calves. It made me want to cry. In the end I caved and bought ankle boots.

20 words... Oh, I do suck. Still, at least I know what it's going to be about now. It's the story of a cat who lives in a cage and plays the blues on his saxophone and tells creepy stories to his visitors.

Please save me from signing up to Yuletide. Because IT IS AN INCREDIBLY BAD IDEA!

I haven't anywhere near finished my Two Lines fic, and I've also signed up for Nanowrimo. God, I can't even answer my comments in a timely manner! I can't even put my laundry away on time! WHAT AM I THINKING?

Dear friends list:

1. I have a slight stomach ache, probably due to eating two three-course meals yesterday. I have a driving lesson in about half an hour, and my Christmas shopping isn't quite as finished as I thought it was. I may have the beginnings of a cold, although this is so far inconclusive. I am also feeling kind of ... fat. And my bedroom needs cleaning. Bearing all this in mind, and the fact that I don't really feel like it, should I go out dancing tonight?

2. Do you think I should try salsa dancing in January? I'm not sure it's really me, but my mother once told me I should say yes to everything, and think about it later.

I think I should fast today. Perhaps consume nothing but hot water with lemon.

I was feeling a bit sad about not being involved in yuletide this year. But as deadline loomed and my friends list grew more hysterical, I realised: hey - I get to read all the stories and not have to tear any of my hair out!

The radio is on and I can't hear what I'm typing in my head, so if it doesn't make sense, that's why.

I would like to offer great and heartfelt thanks to boniblithe, who wrote Enough To Go By and zeldaophelia, who wrote Good Girl, for making my yuletide such a nice one. :)

My story was this Narnia fic: Growing Up. I feel I should probably apologise to my recipient, because I do have a feeling it wasn't quite what she was after (although of course she left a very kind and gracious comment). I started off writing quite a different story, but I wasn't feeling very good about it and in the end writing what I wanted to write was the only way this was going to get done at all. I do hope she got something out of it. Possibly I'm being paranoid, as usual. Anyway, I have to say that the whole experience ended up being a very positive one for me, despite a bit of a rocky start, and the hackers and that.

I've also been rooting around in the archive and found some excellent stuff, but I feel I've only just scraped the surface. I'll try and gather up a few recs - I knew I should have taken notes...

All the Earthsea fics are good, but this is my favourite: Seasons in the Archipelago. Ged and Tenar. I've actually only read the Earthsea books quite recently, and this is really lovely.

This is a lovely Good Omens fic: A Precise and Accurate History of Monday, Eleven Years Later.

Just Between Us. Ab Fab fic! And it's perfect.

Regrets and Reminiscences. Mansfield Park. This was the only one whose author I guessed correctly (in fact I think it was the only one I guessed at all). Because she's been Jane Austen before, and she's frighteningly good at it.

The Lives of the Really Really Ridiculously Good Looking. Heeee! Zoolander.

A Different Road. A rather lovely Little Women story.

I have read some other good stuff, but these are the ones that made most impression on me. There will be more, I've no doubt.

I've just noticed that I say 'lovely' far too much. Limited vocabulary, tut tut.

ETA ETA!!!

Damn, I knew I'd forget something. I meant to credit lazlet with her invaluable beta-ing skills. I was having real problems with it at one point and she basically pointed me in the right direction, so yay for Laz!