(no subject)

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So, most plants are now in pots, and hopefully the rest of the plants can go into pots today. Hopefully they'll also stop looking droopy with the addition of some sun and water; Sunday was a bit crazy and I didn't get to put them quite where I wanted to in the apartment. But now they're on the patio, where there is glass and climate control and plenty of water.

I should actually get off my butt and do my Yuletide signups. In fact, let's have that be the first thing I do this morning. I already have half an idea what I want to sign up for, if exactly half an idea of what I want to request, so might as well get that done. And then there will be a placeholder for my dear yuletide writer letter and I can work on that next. And, um. Things? Stuff. Where the hell did my brain go.

And yet somehow, doing all right on routines. I need to figure out what I need to do today, I need to figure out what the hell I nominated, too. I can't even remember. Well, no, I remember two of the nominations, and those are in there now, so, that's that. Grimm isn't eligible! Sadface. Then again the bulk of Grimm seems to be along the lines of Nick/Renard, Nick/Monroe, Nick/Renard/Monroe, Nick/Juliette/Renard, Nick/Juliette/Monroe, and apart from the fact that I find Nick fairly boring and mildly irritating, I am not a fan of slash of any of the characters in the show. So I doubt I'd like any of the requests I'd see enough to write it. Oh, hey, where's that spreadsheet we made. I was going to do from that. There. That was... surprisingly easy, actually.

Now I just need to organize all the other shit I have to do with my day, and that's going to be the hard part. Oi, my brain is a million different places at once right now. Yuletide first. And getting mail out. And then figuring out what else I can do with my day other than write all the fanfic. Line edits after mail, I think, in that case. Because otherwise I'll go tearassing off after all the fanfic ideas and nothing will ever get done. I need an icon of my brain is going in twenty different directions at once.

(no subject)

Dear Yuletide Writer,

This is a placeholder letter! If you've come here and I didn't update it I am deeply sorry. The main rule is gen is better, explicit is less preferred, slash is much much less preferred (at least the non-canon or less probable), and I'm a big fan of character study and worldbuilding.

Prefer not:
I'd prefer no drastic AUs; AUs where characters live instead of die (or die instead of live) and then the consequences of that are explored are interesting to me, High School or In Space or Cavemen vs Astronaut AUs, not so much. I'd also prefer no unspecified/non-canon slash, for the simple reason that I somehow never end up a big fan of the big slash pairings or even the small ones. I like the canon pairings, for the most part, if I have a preference for any pairing at all. And then some of these fandoms don't lend themselves well to romance/erotica at all.

Prefer:
Worldbuilding! Character exploration! I love to explore the world and the characters of any canon more thoroughly; I love what-ifs. Mood, I love the moods of most of my fandoms and certainly every one I requested. As far as requests or preferences go, I'm actually pretty easy. Something thoughtful and exploratory, elaborate, another flight of fancy in a world I love.

Shrug:
Length (apart from requirements of course) is a handwave, however long the story wants to be. Grimdark or fluffy is equally 'eh whatever.'


Specifics!
Christmas Eve and Other Stories - Trans Siberian Orchestra
I'll be honest; if you were picked because of this fandom or picked it to write about I'll be shocked. Trans-Siberian Orchestra is one of my big holiday favorites, I go see every concert of theirs I can (seriously, I've seen their Christmas show ten years running) and I'm looking forward to this year because they have a new show up. But this album in particular was my first, my first concert of theirs, and it still makes me cry happy happy tears. The story, the music, all of it. If you're not familiar but you'd like to explore writing something for it, Spotify has the album on their radio thing, and it's pretty easy to get ahold of. The story is on the TSO website; in brief, it's a story within a story within a story of a Christmas eve in a bar. A man listens to another man tell a story about a child who came into the bar on Christmas and told a story (you see how recursive this gets?) about a girl standing outside in the snow who wished on the neon sign of the bar, lacking stars in New York City, that she could be home for Christmas. The crusty old bartender (tm) comes out and gives her the cash from the register, packs her in a cab to the airport, and lo, a happy Christmas family reunion. It's both much better and much more schmaltzy than I just made it sound. Seriously, I don't much like schmaltz, but this album! The most famous track off of it is Sarajevo 12/24, (or as my friends and I call it, Hells Bells/Music to Conduct Mage Battles By), an orchestral rock rendition of Carol of the Bells.

(And if you're familiar with the works of TSO, by all means, feel free to pull from other albums!)

Haven
DWIGHT. Dwight Dwight Dwight. All the Dwight, all the time. I added Audrey, Duke, and Nathan because honestly I would not mind fic about any of the main three, but there is not enough Dwight fic on AO3, dammit! And, honestly, I know I said I prefer no non-canon slash, but Duke and Nathan are the one pair I've found lately where I side with the massive quantity of fan slashers. They need to kiss and make up. Yesterday. No explicit/pornography please, but anything outside of that is fine. Audrey/Duke, Audrey/Nathan, Audrey/Nathan/Duke, Duke/Nathan. (But no Dwight slash... >.>)

Johnny Dixon - John Bellairs
Johnny Dixon is another one I put in there not entirely expecting anyone to pick it up. Though that's what Yuletide is for, right? Johnny Dixon is comfort reading from my childhood, it spooked me out when I was little, but it was also fun and exciting adventures. I really wanted to have adventures like that. Alas, I didn't get any haunted clocks or houses or figurines or anything. But I still love the books. No specific requests here, something in the mood or something dealing with the characters, even something dealing with Johnny or Fergie or any of them grown up.

Caprica
SAM ADAMA. ALL THE ADAMAS. Adamas kick ass. And yes, I had to put the no slash thing up there out of reflex because my tastes are generally not fandom tastes but SAM AND LARRY. There is also not enough Sam and Larry fic on AO3. I am all about the Sam and Larry, Sam and Larry having hijinks, having domestic bliss, even having domestic arguments and making up afterwards. Yes, go on, laugh at the ridiculousness of me being all "no slash pls" and then picking two fandoms where I love the slash pairings. Or is it still slash if it's a canon marriage? I have no idea. Okay, Sam and Larry aside, I love the Adamas. All of them. I love Josef even as I want to smack the stupid out of him, I love Tamara's badassery even when I want to shake her and oh honey no, I love Sam. Sam Sam Sam. I love the spouses/partners and their taking care of their Adamas, Larry and Shannon and Evelyn. I think because so much of the Adamas family dynamic pings off of my own (much loved!) family dynamic, it makes the whole of them a really happy place for me.

(no subject)

( German )

Wharrgble. Well, I did at least manage to get everything out today that could go out. It's just that everything else has kind of exploded. Oh look, that order that gave me such a headache is back to haunt me. Goddammit, stop calling and emailing five different times before you actually place your order. It makes your poor shipper confused and then she gets headaches right above her right eye.

I am not watching the debates tonight. I am ignoring the debates as hard as possible. Right now politics and nastiness on both sides is also making my eye twitch, I know who I'm going to vote for, and it would take one hell of a good argument to convince me to vote otherwise. I do think the two-party system fucking sucks, I would like there to be other viable options, but no. So I know which one of the two options I've picked, and I wish I could put up spam filters in my life so that all the politicking and the bullshit just faded out until the election was over. I do need to check into my local elections, though, come to that. But all this political mail crap, most of it from the Republicans, makes me want to stake it out on my front lawn. FUCK OFF ALL OF YOU.

Maybe spending time with the plants will help some. Ugh, and I need to email the contractor back and figure out what day I'm meeting him to do a check-in. Not that I don't want to, I just keep forgetting. Tonight, hopefully. Plants and writing and editing and watching Copper and knitting and going to fucking bed on time. Not that I didn't last night but this headache is trying to kill me.

I love how a list of 'some people like this' 'some people like that' almost invariably, at least in the circles I run in these days, leads to "some people juggle geese."

Right. Sitting my dumb ass down and doing line edits. I was doing good at this for a while there and then I'm not sure what happened. Back to good habits. Line edits, works in progress, things like that. After I get in from planting and things I don't think we have anything else we're really doing, so there's that. And it occurs to me I should also probably get some grow-lights for the plants when it gets more towards winter. But not just yet. After we finish moving in. I think I should be able to finish up a couple of stories tonight, and make some headway on some other works in progress. I hope. And some blogwork. Actually now that I think about that, if I finish all that crap it'll be a miracle, but maybe I can advance some things towards a finish, and finish a bunch of those this week. Oi, head reeling.

But on the plus side, we've been getting a lot packed up (the boy took a couple days off work to pack and clean, dear boy that he is) and shuffled over to the house. And apparently this weekend he's taken a wild hair to pulling down some of the water damaged drywall in the garage that no one at the bank has pointed out yet, so it's not on the list of the contractor's stuff to do. And I am not going to put it on there myself. We're going to pull it down, put up new, and probably put up some sheet plastic or something up in the garage loft where the water's coming from until we can move in and then replace the rotted beam then. That's clearly where the water's coming from that's dripping down on everything else, but I'm not sure where it's getting to that beam, so maybe attacking the gutters to clean them will help. Or maybe it was just that beam. Anyway, replacing that should help a fair bit, and I remain a bit boggled that it's not actually coming down from the skylight, because the history of houses in my family out here says it's the skylight that will leak, if anything. It's always the goddamn skylights, and the house has two of them.

A boy out at the front of the store pointed at a pack of wool for spinning or felting that we dye in house, that has our dragon logo on it and said "Mommy, it's made of DRAGONS." Maybe that's what I'll say the next time I'm at the wheel spinning something funky and colorful. "It's dragon fur. From luck dragons."

Peace.