(no subject)

German and Russian both, since there wasn't enough German to really warrant posting last night. Still hate the genitive plural, but I'm starting to get the hang of it. Although of course now that I'm learning a new case I feel like I'm forgetting all the old ones. Maybe when I get this down I'll try to balance it.

( Languages )

It's weird. I keep having moments of swinging confidence when I'm studying languages. It's like the caterpillar, I can remember and learn and speak and write and read them only if I'm not thinking about it. If I stop to think longer than to look something up I'm not sure of, if I stop to try to coordinate noun case endings (which to me are starting to be harder than verbs in both new languages) or verb tenses or persons or numbers or whatever, I go "... wait. I actually know all this? In my head? NO I DON'T! AUGH!" and then I fall over. And then it takes me an hour or two to get back up again.

And yet, I can understand three, nearly four languages that I've not studied formally in years. Many years, at this point. With a little bit of practice (which I'm actually thinking about scheduling into my routine) I could rapidly get fluent again in at least two of them. And I'm working on German and Russian. So that's ... enough languages that I have to stop and think about it and count them. Five. Six, if I can pull off re-learning Japanese, which, kanji. Annoying. So this isn't about a lack of ability. I can keep it all straight in my head. I just need to remember to do so. Refresh my memory. Figure out how to do that, how to jam that into my schedule with everything else.

Writing, at least, is coming along. Almost back on schedule. I keep having this urge to write something either White Collar or Carnivale, which I blame entirely on Tim DeKay. Trying to finish current projects though before I start any new ones; I have more than enough on my plate right now with Yuletide to finish, Big Bangs, and another thing that's due on Sunday.

Also, this. Just, this.

(no subject)

All right. Horns of a dilemma time. Since I missed the sign-up deadline for the ginnybigbang... well, the first question is, if I write this Ginny-Blaise story ... should I write the story anyway is the first question. The second is, this leaves me with a fair amount of time for other stuff. Namely, my original novels. I have three at the moment.

Black Stone Rising (Which I need to write a better synopsis for.) Astrid Kessler is a counselor nestled quite happily in the Appalachias; she also happens to be a dragon. When a series of murders connected only in the draconic community comes to the attention of local police, Astrid must race to solve the crimes before her friends in the police get caught in the crossfire.

Double Negative Penelope "Pen" Bryton, skip tracer and private investigator, hot on the trail of a murderer who killed her bounty. This murder will bring back memories of her past she would just as soon stay buried, and draw into question exactly who murdered her father, and why.

The Long Road He was born with nothing, not a home nor a parent nor even a name of his own. In three quarters of a millennium he made one friend, a werewolf left packless by brutal massacre. He clawed his way through wars and plagues and lawmen on three different continents, living for nearly a thousand years before he learned what he was. Now he has a choice to make: to stay as a nigh-immortal man with his companion of so many centuries or to take his place as the half-Sluagh prince of the Wild Hunt and the Unseelie Court.

Now, I could do any of several things here. The first thing that I want to do, that I'm looking into and already have half planned out, is to publish Long Road through Create Space. It's a one-off, it's almost complete except for filling in pieces and giving it a good polishing, and I might even be able to market it. If nothing else, it stands well enough on its own.

I've already shopped Double Negative around to enough agents that I don't know if I'd run into the same ones again. Chances are they wouldn't even remember me, but I'm not sure I want to take that chance. Next up would be small press publishers, but I'm debating whether I have the strength and/or energy to survive another slew of rejection letters. Or shopping it around to agents. Or, hell, publishing THAT on CreateSpace too and seeing if I can market my own damn detective series. I have no idea if that would even work. Plus it would involve a whole other marketing plan and god, that would be exhausting. On the other hand, it may also be the best way to do it.

I'd also like to give it another going over. The last time I looked at it for any editing purposes was a couple of years ago, and I like to think I've learned some stuff since then.

BSR was the one I meant to shop around in January. Before Long Road turned into something I was actually proud of almost right on the first draft, before that idea started percolating. I haven't edited it yet (or rather, typed in the edits) but I have finished it. I have two people's edits on that, if the rest of you remember what it was/what was going on/have edits you keep meaning to send me and never have, god knows I have a couple of those lying around. I could continue along that path, just finish the edits and try and shop it around in January to various and sundry agents. I don't know how well it would work in today's market, not being vampires and all.

I just... bleh. I have my apocabigbangs to do, and my yuletide fics are first-draft done and just need to be polished, and I want to do a second and maybe a third Yuletide fic, but othe than that it's just prompts when the secular New Year comes around, and I really want to get back to submitting crap. Short stories, maybe, but novels too. But I'm not sure which of my various options to choose. Ideas? Commentary? Smart remarks? Encouragement? Telling me I'm a loser and should give up on this? Although I warn you, that last may result in scathing vitriol flung in your direction. You have been warned.

And now I've got Maroon 5's Secret stuck in my head. Dammit. Not helping.

[elementals] Water Witch One

Title: Water Witch One
Word Count: 1,458
Rating: NC-17
Summary: A water witch and a fire witch in the shower.

A/N: I was in a mood to write porn, so I wrote porn. Being me and apparently incapable of writing plotless porn, I invented a world to go with it. Possibly the first in a series, if people want more or if I get in the mood to write porn again.

--

One was crying again. Water cascaded from the shower-head, creating a gentle heated pressure on the top of her head and pouring over her body. It dripped from the ends of her hair over her shoulders, down over her breasts. She wanted to turn it off but she couldn't. The tears poured hot from her eyes and over her cheeks and the only way she could tell the difference was because it was hot behind her eyes as well as over her skin.

Water swirled around her heels, her cheeks where her buttocks rested two inches from the drain. It felt strange. Too much air and too much water over all the wrong parts of her skin.

The door creaked open, bringing a blast of cold air that billowed first the middle, then the lower edge of the shower curtain out from the tile. Footsteps padded in, flesh slapping against wet tile. Then another puff of ice down her shins and forearms as he pushed back the curtain, closing the door with his other hand.

"What is it?"

"I can't turn it off."

Сarbon had rough hands, scarred and calloused from years of the fire. They felt smoother with the coating of water between his skin and hers as he ran his hands over her shoulders, down her arms. "You can. You know how." His voice chided her even as it soothed her, soft and even toned, neutral toned.

"Don't."

"You can," he whispered into her hair, over her ear. The tip of his nose moved her wet hair, changed the way the water ran down the side of her head. Water got into her ear a little, and she shook her head until it dribbled down, warm, against her cheek.

One was a water witch. Water should have been second nature to her, but today she was finding it difficult to control. Difficult to feel.

"This is what you are."

( Read more... )