innie_darling

And, lastly, I wrote a remix of a kate_lear story, as I do every year, and this year I got to work with her amazing story The Love Song of Dr. John H. Watson. I don't think this fic ever got to the image with which I started writing, which was that the designs Sherlock traces on John's skin [But Sherlock isn’t flinching – he’s letting John move, fingertips tracing delicate, abstract patterns over John’s waist and hips.] were the equivalent of the maps John memorized for Sherlock - Sherlock would be tracing John's steps from kitchen to living room to bedroom in their flat. I couldn't get that idea into a drabble, which was the format of each piece of this fic, but I'm still fond the fic. My thanks (again!) to thesmallhobbit for betaing and Britpicking!

( Together in This PlaceCollapse )

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Remember to leave feedback for both authors!

And I introduced a new challenge into Sherlock Remix this year, based on the wonderful girl_wonder's spn_retold challenge. Participants were invited to write a story based on a single prompt: there's an intruder in 221B. Three stories were written, and mine was one of them. My thanks to thesmallhobbit for betaing and Britpicking!

( AdmissionsCollapse )

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Remember to leave feedback for the author!

And this was my second pinch-hit, for yalublyutebya's delightful story Friends with Benefits. I had a very clear image in my head of Sherlock's mind palace, particularly a clerestory (a row of windows high above eye-level, meant for letting in light and/or air). My thanks to nox_candida for the beta and missyvortexdv for the Britpick!

(  ClerestoryCollapse )

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This was the first pinch-hit I picked up: a remix of chibifukurou's Of Brothers (and Side-kicks). I really enjoyed getting to think about what John would look like to someone on the edges of his life rather than fully implicated in it. My thanks to thesmallhobbit and kate_lear for betaing and Britpicking.

( Immediate AssignmentCollapse )

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Hi, everybody!

I ran Sherlock Remix again this year and wrote five stories for the three challenges. The first was this one, a remix of nox_candida's adorable story All of My Maps Have Been Overthrown. The original story features a John who has been transformed into a woman by Moriarty, and then focuses on how that doesn't change Sherlock's feelings for John. I wanted to tackle what John would make of his own transformation, and to my delight found that the John in my head decided to have some fun with it. My thanks to yalublyutebya and kate_lear for betaing and Britpicking!

( Redrawing the Maps (the Handle This Remix)Collapse )

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( Amphibians (2 of 2)Collapse )

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As always, I'd love to know what you think!

This same entry also appears on Dreamwidth, at http://innie-darling.dreamwidth.org/425224.html.

Hi, everybody!

This story was born when I had alizarin_nyc and thirdbird over one fine evening many moons ago and we succumbed to the pleasures of the Sally Hawkins/Rupert Penry-Jones Persuasion. We started discussing how to cast the story with Sherlock characters, and I held out for John being Wentworth for the armed-forces ties, though Sherlock's drama-queen tendencies made him a pretty good fit for the role as well. Long story short, I finally wrote it, and my hearty thanks to thesmallhobbit for the thoughtful Britpicking and to ariadnes_string for her remarkably acute beta work. I tried to catch the rhythms of Austen's omniscient narrative voice; you'll have to tell me if it worked.

I'm dedicating this story to the lovely oxoniensis, who's a fan of Austen adaptations and Sherlock and has also been having a rough time of it in real life; honey, I hope this makes you smile even a little!

One note: this story does not take place at exactly the same time that Persuasion does, for a number of reasons. First, Sherlock is a naturalist, and I wanted to be able to use actual scientific discoveries in the story without suggesting that Sherlock predicted Darwin, etc. Second, the story of the female sailor is true, right down to the date, and I wanted to include that. Which brings me to the next related point: this world is not nineteenth-century England as it really existed. Women can serve in the navy, and same-sex marriage is legal, though many of the characters who live in the country and not in London are not aware of that.

And a gif, to give you some images of what I had in mind for the kiss:


On to the story!
( Amphibians (1 of 2)Collapse )

on to part 2/2

This same entry also appears on Dreamwidth, at http://innie-darling.dreamwidth.org/425029.html.

Hi, everybody!

I'd been sneezing all last week but felt fine otherwise, and then on Friday, the rest of this repulsive head cold hit with a vengeance. So I'm working from home today, just me and my mucus, hoping not to infect anyone else. But I've got stuff to share with all of you, through the germ-free internet!

First off, I've been on a real roll with writing lately, which is fantastic, as there are so many fallow periods for me. I know you haven't seen a lot of what I've been writing, as much of it has not yet been posted under my name, but I wrote five fics for this round of Sherlock Remix (which will be postable to this journal sometime this week), the last story in my Elastic Heart series (which will be posted once it's back from the betas, hopefully this month), a second story in my Harry Watson/always-a-girl Mycroft Holmes femslash series (posted), and a gift fic for the lovely oxoniensis (which will be up within a few hours).

So, to take advantage of this hot streak, I thought I'd sign up for a cool challenge (brought to my attention by this post by killabeez: the Into a Bar Challenge, which asks you to pick one fandom character and then up to four other fandoms and the mods will have your chosen character and one character from one of the other fandoms you picked walk into a bar together. You write 500+ words about what happens next. I'm so pleased with my sign-up:
Who walks into the bar?: Emerson Cod
What fandom are they from?: Pushing Daisies
What other fandoms can you write?: The Office (UK), Middleman (TV), New Girl, The Good Wife
And surely it's a good sign that I could think of so many more combinations?

A question: if you saw this scene - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7GyHBGPOgs - featuring James McAvoy and Jessica Brooks, what would you think the relationship between them was? Would it be (a) reunited lovers who were anxious to get to the babymaking, (b) close platonic friends, or (c) twins reunited after one is led to believe the other is dead? If you guessed (a), you'd be in the same place I am, which is astounded by the chemistry and that no director told them to tone it down.

And now for the funniest movie-audience story in my repertoire. I went to Be Film: the Underground Film Festival a few weeks ago with alizarin_nyc because Martin Freeman's newly released short film The Voorman Problem was playing. (It also turned out to be opening night for the festival's 10th anniversary, so it was festive all around.) The film itself was fantastic, with Tom Hollander and Martin Freeman basically going head-to-head as a prison inmate who claims to be a god (and has the other inmates believing it too, to the extent that they chant his name) and the psychologist who's brought in to examine him, respectively. Both actors did phenomenal work in their roles, and while I know nothing about the technical aspects of filmmaking, even I could see that the film was beautifully made, with the people looking all creamy and lush against very stark industrial backgrounds. Martin Freeman employed his fantastic "I'm fantasizing about killing you" smile and also, not incidentally, was wearing one of my two favorite men's outfits (one is jeans and a t-shirt while barefoot; the other is glasses, dress pants, dress shirt, waistcoat, and tie, with no jacket) and looked so lovely [see icon] as he explored the intricacies of the case. Very nicely done. Anyway, that's not the funny story. Here it is: there was a 3-D portion to the film festival, and one of the films, 5M80, featured very realistically animated giraffes doing Olympic-caliber dives into a deep blue pool. It was unexpected and charming and hilarious. Early on in the film, when the filmmakers were trying to get the audience to accept that this was 3-D, there's a shot where one of the giraffes looks into the camera and gives it a loving swipe with its tongue (so it looks like you, the audience member, is being licked). The guy who was one row ahead of me and a few seats over said at that moment, "Damn, give me your number, giraffe," which is genuinely the only hilarious thing I ever remember hearing a fellow filmgoer say. I hope that made you laugh like it did me.

Lastly, I am still seeing all the theater ever, so I'll have a very big post coming next month, most likely. I think the only show I still need to get tickets for is Matilda - everything else is booked.

How are you all doing?

This same entry also appears on Dreamwidth, at http://innie-darling.dreamwidth.org/424773.html.

So I'm not even going to talk about Sherlock Remix right now. I'm going to talk about television instead, and then catch up on emails.

( Homeland, Bosom Buddies, The Good Wife, Community, Hannibal, Louie (SPOILERS FOR ALL)Collapse )

Damn, 1971 was a great year for talented male actors to be born. In chronological order, we've got Jeremy Renner, Damian Lewis, Alan Tudyk, Nathan Fillion, Ewan McGregor, Paul Bettany, Richard Armitage, Martin Freeman, Josh Charles, and Joel McHale. (That is also an exceedingly white list. Hmmm.) Anyway, nothing more to say on that other than that is a serious assemblage of talent.

This entry was originally posted at http://innie-darling.dreamwidth.org/415940.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

Hi, everybody!

I've seen a couple of movies in the past few days, and I thought I'd share my thoughts. ( Trance and 42 (SPOILERS FOR BOTH)Collapse )

And I thought I'd indulge myself in doing that "first lines" meme that's currently making the rounds. These are the first lines of the 21 stories I've most recently posted, not written; if it was just stories I'd written, there'd be a few from the current round of Sherlock Remix, plus the big Sherlock story I drafted recently that's with my betas as we speak, and the fusion story that I will finish drafting this weekend (this I vow!). Let me know if you see any patterns or faults in the kinds of lines I use to kick off my stories, please.
( first lines: 21 stories, 14 fandomsCollapse )

So, what's going on with all of you?

Hi, everybody!

So I've been on an absolute tear with respect to writing, which is nice because those fallow periods can be SO long. Anyway, most of the stuff I'm writing isn't being posted just yet because it's either (a) for Sherlock Remix or (b) very long and in need of betaing. But this little ficlet can be!

About eighteen months ago, I wrote a ficlet from a Fall Fandom Free-for-All prompt for always-a-girl Mycroft. In that story, I gave her a crush on Harry Watson, which I fully intended to be requited. So here at last is the next piece of these two as teenagers, part two of what I'm calling my "String of Pearls" series. Thanks to the fabulous kate_lear, who betaed this despite having several more legitimate claims on her time.

( Chips and SweetsCollapse )

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As always, I'd love to hear what you think.

Hi, everybody!

I just plunked down some cash for the Veronica Mars movie, which, according to the video, will be used for nudity and car chases, since it's surplus to the original amount they wanted to raise. (How hilarious is it that RH as Dick Casablancas is eating Krusty-O's? Though if he were truly in character, I suppose he'd be eating what Moe eats, Penicillin O's.) I was a little leery about signing up for Kickstarter, but since it gets your payment info from Amazon, that was much less stressful than I'd anticipated.

Also, Happy Pi Day! I don't eat pie myself, because I dislike the texture of cooked fruit, but damn if I haven't been craving virtual pie - in the form of all 22 sweet, sweet episodes of Pushing Daisies - for a solid week now. More than any other, PD is the show that I would resurrect if I had the power (Arrested Development and Veronica Mars both went three seasons and are coming back anyway; Firefly was on the air even less than PD, but F's strength was its characters. While I'd never argue that the setting of F was unimportant, it was the characters that made the space-Western stories wonderful, and I think it was pretty clear what kinds of stories the show was interested in telling. Whereas PD had fantastic characters in all sorts of odd stories, and I could never predict what would happen next. It is, to me, the ultimate ensemble show, because I was invested in all six of the major characters and never felt that the show was "off" if it wasn't focusing on character A.) (And that's not even mentioning The Middleman, Sports Night, or The Unusuals.) I think I might watch some PD between tonight's eps of Community (which is, unfortunately, starting to feel like a chore because each character seems to have been reduced to a single trait, which is just hammered home) and Elementary (back from mini-hiatus). Bring on the monkeys and the bulimic daisies and the whole looney-tunes world of Papen County!

Let's see, what else? Oh, yes! My very favorite seasonal candy is back - those Cadbury Mini Eggs that are solid chocolate with a candy shell. They are DELICIOUS. I wish I had some right now.

I had a fantastic weekend last weekend, which will have to make up for this upcoming weekend, during which I will be doing my taxes. Ugh. Being a grown-up is no fun sometimes. But no one wants to hear about that! Let me tell you about last weekend instead! My mom arrived bright and early on Saturday morning (this is her MO) and we trekked off to the Orchid Show at the New York Botanical Garden, to which I'd never been, as the Brooklyn BG is far closer to my apartment. We got in free due to her corporate connections, but I actually would have paid, given how glorious the show was. If I miraculously finish my taxes and have not snatched myself bald, I will try to go through my pictures and upload a few. Then we headed back to Brooklyn to have dinner with my friends E and S. And then we came home and watched Penelope. She left early on Sunday morning and I sat down and gave myself a little lecture, which apparently worked, because I finished a draft of my EIGHTY THOUSAND WORD STORY that I've been whining about for ages. It finishes off my long Sherlock series, and I've been wanting to get it all down for several months. It's with the trusty betas now, and will no doubt need to be revised heavily, but it feels so good to have the first step done! So now, all that's on my plate is my TOP-SECRET fic for Sherlock Remix (begun), my Persuasion-by-way-of-Sherlock fic (begun), my female!Mycroft/Harry Watson story (halfway done), my BBC-canon-compliant post-Reichenbach story (a third done), and that Cabin Pressure story featuring Arthur falling in love (dreamt about). But I can do it! Maybe! Someday!

Anyway, how are you all doing?

Happiest of happy birthdays to the super-talented dotfic! You asked for Elementary fic, and since we've shared a passion for gen fic since we first became friends, I thought I'd try my hand at gen for a whole new Holmes and Watson for you. Hope you have a great day, and that you enjoy this! (My thanks to musesfool for the speedy and reassuring beta.)

(Set right after "Details" (1x16), in which Watson accepts the partnership.)

( This Old HouseCollapse )

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As always, I'd love to hear what you think.

Hi, everybody!

There's nothing particularly urgent going on here, but I've been wanting to say thanks for the love I got over at the Valentine's Day Game.

I've been reading some good stuff recently. I finished The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo by Tom Reiss the other day, which I would absolutely recommend. And I had dinner tonight with the lovely alizarin_nyc, and we got to talk about Sarah Monette's Doctrine of Labyrinths series, which I love to pieces (though the last book gets a lot less of my love), mostly because MILDMAY is amazing.

Hmmm, what else? I finally caught up with The Lizzie Bennet Diaries and have fallen totally under their spell. The three sisters are perfectly cast, as were Charlotte, Bing, and Wickham (also, I find Bing hella hot). I'm less sold on Ricky Collins, in part because David Bamber was crazy good in that role in the P&P everyone remembers, and is in fact my favorite part of that whole shebang, even trumping Darcy and Lizzie, as good as Firth and Ehle were. I'm also a little on the fence about the guy playing Darcy in LBD, but he's had a couple of REALLY great moments (particularly his face when Lizzie rests her hand on his shoulder to get by him to close the door). Man, this series is really making me want to write my Persuasion-by-way-of-Sherlock fic, in which Sherlock is Anne and John (in his greatcoat!) is Wentworth, though much less of a drama-queen dick. Just for the joy of adapting, you know?

But that fic is third or fourth in the queue, as I need to finish the very big fic I've been working on (the end is in sight!) and also whatever I end up writing for sherlock_remix and maybe that Cabin Pressure story I've been kicking around for months (which alizarin_nyc promised to beta for me, which means she needs to listen to the source material). Oh! Also, alizarin_nyc told me about an idea she and a friend had for a really great fannish project, which I'm noting here only so I can remind her about it when the time comes.

Hmmm, what else? I've got a new story - a birthday fic - posting tomorrow (if I can stay up for another hour and a half, tonight). What's shaking with all of you?

Hi, everybody!

It's been one thing after another here - I hope you're all doing well. We got a lot of snow yesterday, which would have been fine (my boss told us to work from home) except that my mother was due to fly back from Dubai yesterday and was incommunicado for so long that I started to panic. She landed and got to her house over seven hours later than anticipated, but she's there now, safe and sound.

I can't remember if I mentioned this earlier, but I'll be doing a little bit of traveling this year. I've got a trip to Chicago and a trip to Amsterdam in the cards. The former is with a non-fandom friend and the latter is by myself, though I'll be staying with a friend from high school. Anybody have any suggestions for things that mustn't be missed? (I might also schlep out to California to help my brother pack up his place, if he does finally move back, which would be a great opportunity to see a few of you.)

Theater post coming soon - two shows next week, both Shakespeare!

Exciting experience: I walked into my apartment the other day after work to find that my living room had a very strong odor of something burnt. I couldn't tell what it was, and I frantically checked every appliance and outlet but found nothing. I knocked on the door of the downstairs tenant (unfriendly) and emailed the rest of the building, and a couple of others also reported smelling something burnt. It turns out it was a guy in the next building, whom one of my neighbors had seen coming outside with a charred and smoking bag of microwave popcorn to dump it in the trash. Here's my question: how do you mess up microwave popcorn that badly?

Go play in this year's Valentine's Day Game, organized by the wonderful svmadelyn! It's very simple: just pick up to 14 people on your flist and send svmadelyn an email with that list and a little love-note for each of them. She then posts all of the notes anonymously on the big day. I can attest from personal experience that it brightens the day tremendously to see mash notes from your flist. So, go, play!

Two quick advertisements: one for sherlock_remix (the livejournal comm), which is now taking sign-ups for this year's challenge. And the other for my friend's very cool new business: Double Dutch Press. I'm not in the
Athens area, but I'd love to take one of the classes.

I'm still plugging away at my long fic, but the end is in sight, and I've got most of the ideas I want to tackle in brief little notes to myself. I've also been getting excited about the other stories on my list, particularly the Austen Sherlock story, the Cabin Pressure story that's a sequel to my Martin/OMC story in which Arthur finds his true love, and whatever I'll be writing for Sherlock Remix.

How are you all doing?

Hi, everybody!

So here is a deeply unpleasant little story that should only be read after this introduction. When I got my picfor1000 assignment, I immediately thought of James Bond - there was just something about the image that brought the character to my mind. Now, to be clear, I've seen maybe three Bond films in my life, none of which I remember all that clearly, and have never read any of the books. So the story is more about my impression of what James Bond, the character (particularly as played by Daniel Craig), must be like at this point in his life and career than it is about proper canon. The Bond I've drawn here is a miserable mess: misogynistic, despairing, exhausted, and restless. The story accordingly features strong and demeaning language, violence (sexualized and not), and thoughts that at least verge on the suicidal. Please skip this story if any of those things will upset you. I'm rating it NC-17, though the only sex in the story occurs in memories and dreams. Unbetaed, as I didn't really want to inflict this on a friend. (Title from Sade's "Smooth Operator," which I heard for the first time in years a few days ago.)

( Diamond LifeCollapse )

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As always, I'd love to hear what you think.

Hi, everybody!

Okay, here's my second contribution to the ongoing Porn Battle, written in twenty minutes. Once again, I'm trying a new fandom - the primary attraction of the Porn Battles, to me; this time, it's Cold Comfort Farm, one of the very few movies that I think is the equal of the book it's based on. Anyway, here it is.

( First SipCollapse )

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As always, I'd love to hear what you think.

Hi, everybody!

Here's my first ficlet for oxoniensis's fourteenth (!) Porn Battle, which is also an early birthday present for the lovely mod herself. It's Viola and Sherlock Holmes, using the prompt word "quiet" and the prompt pairing "any character played by Jonny Lee Miller/any character played by Imogen Stubbs."

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Hi, everybody!

I've been meaning to post about all the shows I saw in the last few months and realized there are some other things I wanted to discuss as well. Spoilers for all aired episodes of television and for the films discussed. No spoilers for the plays.

( TV: NY-Lon, New GirlCollapse )

( Movies: Les Mis, The Hobbit, LincolnCollapse )

( Live Shows: Marriage of Figaro, Scandalous, Figaro, A Summer Day, Cyrano de Bergerac, The Golden Age, If There Is I Haven't Found It Yet, Vanya & Sonia & Masha & SpikeCollapse )

So, what's up with all of you?

Hi, everybody!

Note to self: the reason an entry fails to crosspost is because it never posted in the first place. Get your shit together.

I have to mention the absolutely phenomenal story written for me this Yuletide:

Next Steps (2423 words) by rapacityinblue
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Sally Lockhart - Philip Pullman
Rating: General Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Daniel Goldberg/Sally Lockhart, Jim Taylor/Adelaide Bevan
Characters: Sally Lockhart, Daniel Goldberg, Adelaide Bevan, Jim Taylor, Rebecca Winter, Harriet
Summary:

Some time after the end of The Tin Princess, Becky meets up with the rest to say goodbye.

I love this series of books, this one in particular, and what rapacityinblue did was to give me the story I wanted - in which there aren't any easy answers, but characters aren't kept apart simply for the sake of creating tension; there are things they all need to work through, and they do it quietly, in a grown-up way that still feels hopeful and smart and just right. If you loved this book, you will love this fic.

Hi, everybody!

It's pretty much a given that I will fall madly in love with any character Martin Freeman plays, for two awfully compelling reasons: (1) he's staggeringly talented and (2) he tends to play the character at the emotional center of the story - not the top dog but not really second banana either; just someone who can be ordinary or extraordinary, depending on what the situation needs. I LOVE HIM.

Anyway, when I saw the request that lyricalnights had made for The Pirates!, I thought to myself that I wanted to take a crack at that. The relationship between the Pirate Captain and the Pirate with a Scarf is just too adorable to resist, and I thought I'd like to see how that got started. Once again, I found betas through the magic of the exchange - innerbrat and duckwhatduck were invaluable here. So here's the story of how the greatest friendship on the high seas was born!

( The Pirates! in an Adventure with BubblesCollapse )

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As always, I'd love to hear what you think.

Hi, everybody!

This was the first of the treats I decided to write - once I read the phrase "Kids in the Hall fic" I couldn't believe it had never occurred to me before. The show created such rich, bizarre characters that they were just ripe for the ficcing. kouredios had requested Simon and Hecubus, who were of course favorites of mine, so I wrote this. Yuletide magic introduced me to the wonderful inevitablewebreathe, who kindly betaed this excursion into evil. (You'll probably need to have seen the "Hecubus Is Fired" sketch for this to make any sense, or you can take a gander at the transcript, which should take you a grand total of about thirty seconds to read.)

( Brimstone BabyCollapse )

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As always, I'd love to hear what you think.

Hi, everybody!

I wrote this Soapdish story for this year's Yuletide, in which I fortunately got matched up with the fantastic for silk_knickers, who said that whatever story I'd been dreaming up for this demented movie would be fine. I've been thinking for years that what the world needed was a story of Blair Brennan having an even more inappropriate thing for King Lear than Jeffrey Anderson evidently does for Hamlet. The only problem was that I couldn't get the story to be as screamingly funny as I'd always imagined it would be; instead, it came out sort of gently melancholy, maybe a bit sweetly mocking. Anyway, for silk_knickers was kind enough to say nice things about it, so here it is. (musesfool did a wonderful beta on this.)

( Peppy, Cheap, and CordeliaCollapse )

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These last few days have been all crazy-making, though things certainly got started off right. Monday night, I had a very vivid dream that I was in an intense makeout session with Captain Mal. I usually don't have sex dreams, but such is the power of Malcolm Reynolds that I remember waking up with a big ol' grin on my face and feeling very satisfied. Then, because I'm me, I couldn't decide if that was a sign that things were going to go well that day (Tuesday) or if it was a pre-emptive consolation prize for the election going to the Party of Rape and Hatred.

For all the rhetoric about how the right-wingers were just fooling themselves and spouting crazy numbers, I still was feeling very jittery about our numbers, not to mention all of the voter intimidation and suppression that was already underway. But I wanted to do my part, so I went to the polling place (one block away, so convenient) at around 8:30 (I'd heard that the lines were going to be very long before that, as people were trying to vote and go off to work or drop kids off at school/daycare). The space was far too small, and redistricting hadn't helped. I stood in one line to get into the gym, then once in the gym, there were several lines for differing districts, and of course mine was the longest, looping two and a half times the length of the gym. But I'd brought a book (an old favorite, Gaudy Night) and I settled in to wait. Three hours later, I was still in that line and texting the admin at work to let her know I was going to be far later than I'd hoped. I got my paper ballot, went off to a privacy booth that was missing a pen, and finally got my ballot filled out. Wow, the ballot is about as counter-intuitively organized as a tax return - I honestly don't know how people who are not native English speakers could have any confidence that they were casting the votes they wanted. Then I had to stand in another line because there were four scanners for the polling station and THREE WERE BROKEN. I will say that the volunteers were fantastic - though they hadn't been trained as well as they could have been, which seemed to be due to Hurricane Sandy, they were trying their hardest and stayed calm and friendly. The gym we were in was unheated, but was very stuffy due to the number of bodies in there, so once I was free I went and bought a case of bottled water and hauled it back there for the volunteers.

Then I got to work and obsessively refreshed Daily Kos. And then I went to my BFF's place where we flipped channels and ate cheese puffs and fretted (and cheered for the kickass new Senators across the nation). I managed to stay up late enough to see that Romney was going to concede, but not to see the speech itself.

And today I went into work, wreathed in smiles, and watched the speeches Romney and Obama gave, and felt so happy that we picked the right man, that the systematic oppression of the majority of the country wasn't going to happen in the next four years, and all was well, and then . . .

first snow of the season, and there are already a few inches on the ground here in Brooklyn. Yikes.

The good news, though, is that kate_lear is flying in this Saturday, so speak up if you'd like to hang out Saturday late afternoon!

By the way, I'm over at Dreamwidth now, and cross-posting everything, so feel free to add me on DW and drop me from LJ, or just sit tight or whatever you like.

Hi, everybody!

This cross-posting thing is kind of addictive. And it helps that I'm still working from home and have access to my journals.

I've now spent an hour going through the Yuletide spreadsheet of letters (sorted by fandom) and picked out requests that I might be able to write as treats. I've also done two loads of laundry, and guess which has made me feel more productive?

COMMUNITY: I stumbled on this link just when I was thinking about Community, which will be back on February 7! I think they missed an opportunity to remind everyone how hilarious Troy's crying jag after meeting LeVar Burton was, and an even bigger one to highlight the Beetlejuice joke that took three seasons to complete, but the "Daybreak" vid was an eye-opener for me (plus, look how happy Troy is as he's locking the blanket door to his bedroom)!

NASHVILLE: I'm not really watching this show - as I said to some friends (see if you can spot the motif in this post!), it's a great show to fold laundry to. I don't pay much attention, because they haven't given me characters that I'm so drawn to I can't stand to miss a single word or gesture or expression. Though Gunnar, of all people, with his baby rockabilly Springsteen looks and sweet voice, is totally doing it for me. I had no idea that was even a thing for me.

Theater news: I was scheduled to see Cyrano on Tuesday night and haven't been able to get through to reschedule. Hopefully I can soon! On the Friday before the storm, I took my friend E to see The Mystery of Edwin Drood, a very fun audience-chooses-the-killer-and-detective-and-happy-lovers musical that's meta from the word go. (And it really is choose-your-own-adventure - E checked.) It had Chita Rivera, who looks at least thirty years younger than she actually is, a narrator/guide who was as charming as Stew in Passing Strange, and music worth listening to (composed by Rupert Holmes, of pina colada fame) - though I wish the lyrics had been more comprehensible. The cast as a whole is exuberant, and as E said, they're ready to open right now (which they do, officially, in a few weeks - we saw it in previews). This would be a great family show to see over the holidays, if anyone's looking for something to fit that bill. 7/10

So that's what's shaking with me. How about you?

I thought this might be the most effective way of making sure a number of people saw this (and also test whether I can cross-post from DW to LJ [because LJ is sucking ass with the new flist and preparedness is the name of the game!]): here is a map of subway service that will commence tomorrow morning at 6.

Sandy has hit, and my corner of Brooklyn is still standing. The wind was howling like a banshee and the windows were rattling and the tree outside my building was swaying alarmingly, but (aside from a few hours yesterday afternoon), the rain wasn't particularly heavy. No flooding in my building and the street looks pretty good. The power kept flickering last evening/night but never went out for good.

My dad (outside of DC) had the same experiences. My mom's on a business trip, but her house in north Jersey got hit - windows broken, doors blown open, power out; her neighbor's got a generator and got her sump pump going in order to prevent her basement from flooding.

Everyone I've talked to, from Boston to DC, seems to be okay. I hope you all are too!

Still no subway service, so I'm working from home for as long as it takes. According to the MTA's Twitter, some buses will start running again - free of charge - at 5 pm today. The pictures they've posted make it look like the subways won't get going for at least a week, but who knows what they'll manage.

Heads up, to all who have discovered (amen! hallelujah!) the love of Jeremy Renner (the one getting busy in my icon) that is sweeping the nation: the awesome dotfic wrote a story featuring my favorite of his characters, Detective Jason Walsh, being a partner and friend and all-around good man over here. (Full disclosure: she wrote this for my birthday because she knew it would make me smile!) Go, revel in Schraeger and Walsh being awesome!

ps - yes, the subject line is Benedick, who makes me ridiculously happy

Hi, everybody!

I've been promising pictures of my place, now that it's been painted and bookshelves have been built and my art has been framed. So here they are! (The pictures from when I first moved into this apartment are here.) [I meant to put this post up yesterday, but could get neither Scrapbook nor Photobucket to cooperate.]

The colors of the paint don't seem to be coming through properly - there are only four colors: pale yellow in the hallway, kitchen, library, and living room; greenish-greyish-blue in both bathrooms; royal blue in the guest bedroom; soft, creamy orange in the master bedroom. Also, if you want to know more about any of the art or objects pictured, feel free to ask.

Working from the back to the front:
( pics!Collapse )

So that's my place! All I need now is a piece of art to hang over my bed and I'll be done!

Thank you so much to everyone who reached out to wish me a happy birthday! I had a nice, quiet day - writing a story for tenaciousmetoo (birthday twin extraordinaire) and fighting with lj (trying to post pictures of my apartment as I had promised so very long ago). And now I'm going to make the most of my last day off from work and get some more writing done (John Watson, you own me completely) and maybe watch The Fall again to luxuriate in the most gorgeous film ever made.

Have a great day, everybody!

Happy birthday to my dearest darlingest tenaciousmetoo! I actually started two other stories for the occasion, but when I got your card, I realized what I really ought to do was write something in honor of the city we both call home. Anyway, I hope your day was wonderful, and we'll celebrate once you're home.

(This story picks up where The Night Is Still Young left off. So it's more Dan/Dana, rated R, set immediately after season 1.)

( You and Me and the City Makes ThreeCollapse )

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
As always, I'd love to hear what you think.

Hi, everybody!

I've got the week off, which was supposed to be my time for being super-productive fannishly, but so far has translated into a lot of cleaning and cooking (I'm having a little dinner party for some colleagues tomorrow evening). While the place is looking spiffed up, I'll take the pictures I promised, as I've now hung all the art I got back from the framers. There's still one large area over my bed that needs something to fill it, but I haven't decided yet what that might be. I've got some of my paternal grandmother's saris, which would certainly be very striking, but I'm not sure that I want to cut them up.

I've also been doing some re-enjoying - of books, TV, and movies. I reread The True Meaning of Smekday, which was just as enjoyable this time around - I really love Tip and J.Lo and rediscovered that poomp is just a funny-ass word. I rewatched all of Firefly (including the movie) and was struck anew by how goddamn lovely Nathan Fillion is as Mal. I mean, that show was cast just beautifully - there's no one I would have replaced, despite not feeling much one way or the other for Sean Maher - but Nathan just inhabits Mal so deeply and intuitively that it's really astonishing. Every inflection, every reflex, every flash of emotion on his face feels completely real. What a phenomenal character. Firefly is easily my favorite thing Joss Whedon has done. And last night, as I was filing paperwork away, I rewatched Cold Comfort Farm, which is one of the few movies that equals the book on which it's based. Man alive, that is one hilarious movie, and every person in it just commits to the lunacy. Because I think of everything in Sherlock (or, really, Martin Freeman) terms now, I couldn't help casting John Watson as Flora Poste, confronted with the daunting task of civilizing the Holmeses; this doesn't work when you really think about it, as "highly sexed young men on farms" are not always called Sherlock and Mycroft, but it's pretty damn amusing. And speaking of old favorites, has everyone seen these pictures of Josh Charles being gorgeous(thank you, musesfool!)? Oh, also! I just saw that To Kill a Mockingbird is being rereleased in theaters for its 50th anniversary - one night only, November 15. Who's in?

There's been new stuff to experience too! I saw Argo and enjoyed it tremendously. The previews were numerous and I wanted to see about half of the movies they were pitching - particularly Lincoln and Les Mis and maybe Zero Dark Thirty. (The Hobbit is a given, despite the lack of preview - Martin Freeman, Richard Armitage, and Lee Pace? HELL YES!)

And some ( theaterCollapse )

Also, I'm writing! Nothing yet for my upcoming birthday, but I've got two long Sherlock stories on the go now and want to get the first one wrapped up this month if possible. That would free me up to write not only my Yuletide assignment but also some treats, if the prompts are good.

So, what are you all up to? Anything fun?

Hi there Author/Pinch-hitter/Treat-writer/All-around cool person!

I should say first off - thanks! I think you're nifty to write something in a tiny fandom we share! I'm going to copy and paste bits of my standard Yuletide letter and include some fandom-specific details as well. If you're confused about anything, you can always leave an anonymous comment here and I'll do my best to answer.

I'm fairly catholic in my tastes; I read and write all of the following: gen, het, slash, humor, horror, angst, character-driven pieces, plotty pieces, AUs, canon-compliant fics, and more. I swoon for humor. I adore quietly sorrowful stories. And I quite enjoy romance (and prefer it to smut, though I don't have a problem with smut that's in character). I'm not terribly fond of crossovers - the ones I do like are ones that stay fairly true to both canons, and the characters are thrown together more for plot reasons than just for PWP reasons (also not a fan of PWPs). I don't really enjoy unremittingly dark fic, and I don't want anything with a terribly unhappy ending, infidelity, dub-con, non-con, humiliation, power-play, polyamory, or heavy kink, please. I'm also not really a fan of holiday-themed stories, particularly since I don't celebrate any holiday occurring on the same timeline as Yuletide.

My master fic list is available both on lj and on AO3 (and lj will have more info on why the stories were written), if you'd like to see the kind of things I write. I've got an "on writing" tag that might also be useful. Now on to the details, since I think I'm more likely to get a story that hits all of my buttons if I tell you what my buttons are.

( The Tin Princess (Sally Lockhart series) by Philip Pullman / Walking and Talking / Round About Five / Case Histories (TV)Collapse )

Thank you so much! I know I will adore whatever you send my way!

All the best,
kunju

Hi, everybody!

In one month, I will have the lovely kate_lear here in New York for one week! She lands around 1 on Saturday, November 10 and wants to meet everyone who's around, so we'll most likely be staking out a table or two at The Way Station (that Brooklyn bar with the TARDIS bathroom) starting at about 4, when the place opens. Kate's not sure how long she'll last before jetlag kicks in, so if you'd like to hang out, come early.

Can you comment here if you want to hang out, just so I have an idea of how much room we'll need? Comments are screened, so if you want to put in any personal info or ask any questions, feel free.

Kate is one of the shining lights of Sherlock fandom, but all are welcome!

Hi, everybody!

Oh, I got so much done yesterday! So much to talk about from these past few weeks.

( apartment stuff and writingCollapse )

( TV: Ben and Kate, Vegas, Last Resort, ElementaryCollapse )

( Michael Chabon's Telegraph Avenue & YuletideCollapse )

( theater: Pulp Shakespeare, Standby (SPOILERS FOR BOTH)Collapse )

So that's me. What's up with all of you lovely people?

Hi, everybody!

So I finished my obsessive rewatching of The Good Wife's first three seasons and also tried out a couple of new shows. Briefly - I was bored silly by Revolution, in part because I found it hard to care about shiny-haired, midriff-baring Girl Protagonist and her little brother, whose entire personality seems to be that he's asthmatic. I would, however, totally watch a show about their parents. (Also, "Nate" is "Rick" from one of my favorite Veronica Mars episodes, but I kept thinking he looked like a brunet Cary Agos.) Go On is doing a little better in my estimation, though I very much understand why reviewers said that it was basically a remix of Community. Why would you do that, show? We already have a perfectly cromulent Community that I miss very much and want to see back at full blast. I particularly like the angry lady, who deserves better than being known as Poor-Man's-Allison-Janney, and yet that's what I think every time I look at her. And John Cho! Being beautiful as usual. Matt Perry is fine - he's much more suited to comedies than dramas, I think, and he seems glad to be back in the rhythm of a sitcom. I wasn't disappointed or blown away by his Good Wife turn, but I kept thinking how fish-out-of-water he seemed on the show.

ANYWAY, back to The Good Wife ( spoilers for the show, mostly season 3, and DVD extrasCollapse )

In short, you can come back to me now, show. I'm ready.

You know, my birthday is in exactly one month, and I'd be pretty pleased if someone wrote good Will fic. Or Suits fic featuring Harvey and Jessica being beautiful badasses together. (I'm very fond of Donna, but Harvey sets the tone for all of his relationships, including his with Donna - the only exception is his relationship with Jessica, so of course that's where my interest lies.) I finally caught up with Suits and still find Mike to be a yawn, though Rachel (their names are ROSS and RACHEL - we get it, show!) has grown on me. And Louis is amazing. But really, who could ask for more than Harvey and Jessica? Or Dan/Dana Sports Night fic. Or Unusuals fic. Whatever, I'm easy.

How are you all doing?

Hi, everybody!

What's shaking with all of you? Things have been busy here, between work and family and friends and actually starting to write that fic that I've been planning out for over a year, the last in my Elastic Heart (Sherlock BBC) series. I've got about 3600 words right now, and will write some more after I finish this post. (I also signed up for holmes_big_bang and hope to post not this story but a more BBC-canon story for that challenge.) Here's some of the stuff I've been up to/wanting to post about:

( Food & WeightCollapse )

( TV - Veronica Mars, Rome, The Good Wife, Community, ElementaryCollapse )

( Movies: Sherlock Holmes 2, The Hunger Games, Young Adult, The Five-Year Engagement, the Bourne trilogy, North CountryCollapse )

( Books: The Constant Gardener, The Road, Broken Harbor, Case HistoriesCollapse )

( Theater: Dogfight, National Pastime, Bullet for Adolf, Last Smoker in America, All's Well That Ends WellCollapse )

Watching the women's final of the US Open reminded me I was going to say something about my boy Rafael Nadal - about my disappointment in not seeing him carry Spain's flag in the Opening Ceremonies of the London Olympics and not seeing him at this US Open - but I'll keep it to this: get well soon, Rafa. The sport needs you.

And can you believe it's time to start thinking about Yuletide again? Here's my list of fandoms to nominate (in no particular order), which I still need to whittle down to three:
Awake
The Unusuals (Schraeger and Walsh definitely; either Banks and Delahoy to round out the set or Beaumont and the chief)
Walking and Talking
Rome (Vorenus)
Case Histories
Sports Night (Dan, Dana, Isaac)
Suits (Harvey but not Mike)
The Tin Princess - Philip Pullman
To the Ends of the Earth
The Good Wife
The Fall
Tropic Thunder
Touching Evil (US)
Possession (2009)
What's on your list?

And lastly - it was Martin Freeman's birthday yesterday, and it's almost autumn - my favorite season, not least because of my birthday. Two reasons to celebrate!

Hi, everybody!

So, where did we leave off last time? I think I was just about to run off to Europe for a week, so let's start there.
( EuropeCollapse )

I was going to talk more, about TV and movies and books and theater, but that will have to wait, as this post is already bursting. How are you all doing?

Hi, everybody!

Just a couple of quick notes on my life.

First - all of the work on my apartment is done! Every room in my apartment has been painted except for the laundry closet and the pantry. But every other wall, windowframe, door, ceiling, and radiator has been painted, and it all looks wonderful. The living room, library, and hallway are a pale yellow (Lemon Drops). Both bathrooms and the breakfast bar are a very pretty color that looked greyish-blue on the swatch and now looks greenish-blue on the walls (Hazy Blue). The guest bedroom and a couple of accent walls are a gorgeous, rich deep blue (Americana). And finally, my bedroom is a soft, creamy orange (Tangerine Melt overlaid with Peachy Keen). AND! The library has floor-to-ceiling built-in bookshelves now, in a very appealing plain varnished oak. The only problem is that now I don't want to pin up my posters again - I want to frame everything. So I'm going to try to find some frames (some of the art is of a size that American frames don't routinely come in) and put everything up. Once I clean everything and get most of my art back on the walls, I'll take some pics to share.

Second - I'm off to Europe in two weeks! I'll be flying into England on Saturday, August 4, and immediately heading to Cambridge to stay with my cousin. Then off to London for a few days with the lovely kate_lear, and then I scooch off to Brussels, where my mother is attending a week-long meeting (I will have one entire day on my own to explore), and then she and I are going to Cologne for two days. So, does anybody have any suggestions for Brussels and/or Cologne? We're both vegetarians, so bratwurst recs will be less useful than spaetzle recs. Also - any book recs for my plane journeys?

Third - I have now watched the first three seasons of The West Wing. Several years ago, I watched season 1 and decided it wasn't my thing. But my brother loves it, and he'd bought 1-3 and then bought the entire series in a boxed set, so I got the original DVDs. I don't think I'm planning to watch any more, but I did want to hear from you guys, if you watched it. I have to say that the only characters I really love are CJ and Toby; Josh and Sam have their moments, especially Josh, but overall I'm not drawn to them. I really, really disliked Leo. But, oh, CJ and Toby, you are phenomenal. I'm even considering writing CJ/Simon Donovan because I found them totally charming (did not like Danny, I must say). Is there any CJ/SD fic out there? While I think CJ for the most part escapes the curse of female characters as written by Aaron Sorkin, I was pretty turned off by the way Sorkin handled most of the women on the show. To me, it seems like he's decided that he needs to be an entirely different writer to write women, with the result that he forgets that women are people just like the men he writes so well. Ugh. Anyway, thoughts?

Fourth - I've made plans to visit my dad (who lives near DC) for Labor Day weekend - that should be relaxing.

Fifth - I saw a few plays recently.
Bronte was a one-woman show about Charlotte Bronte reflecting on her life after her siblings have died but before she got engaged. Maxine Linehan was wonderful. (8/10)
Closer Than Ever was a fun musical that felt very much like a late 80s/early 90s piece (as it is), and had a couple of standout numbers. The cast did a good job, and the bass player was a standout. (7.5/10)
Proof, which I'd read several years ago, was kind of a disaster. The lead - Kristin Parker, playing Catherine (and who looked like a freckled, redheaded Summer Glau) - was excellent, but Alan Langdon as Robert was just terrible. He looked like he couldn't remember his lines or his blocking, so there was a lot more stumbling and stuttering than there should have been. You could see KP - not Catherine - trying to adjust to what he was doing. The other actors were fine, but not particularly notable. (5/10)

Sixth - AAARRRGGGGHHHHH, computer woes! All I want to do is write my story! This ancient laptop I'm posting from is great in a pinch and very frustrating for daily use.

Anyway, how are all of you?

Hi, everybody!

Happy birthday to my awesome friend musesfool! I thought I'd write her a little something in honor of the occasion. It's a Captain America story, which, if you know Vic, should come as no surprise, and it's PG-13 with Steve/Peggy and Steve/Bucky. If you saw the movie, you're good - no spoilers for The Avengers - and it's all filmverse. (Thanks to dotfic and tenaciousmetoo, who both did quick and sharp betas on this piece for me.)

( ReverbCollapse )

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
As always, I'd love to hear what you think.

Hi, everybody!

I see a lot of theater - my new job gives me a schedule flexible enough for me to go see shows a few times a week if I wish, and I take full advantage of the discounts I get. So, below the cuts are my reviews (with ratings, as I'm following in the footsteps of the awesome oxoniensis). I give brief overviews of the shows, but all spoilers are whited out so there should be no inadvertent spoiling happening.

( MemphisCollapse ) 3 out of 10.

( Venus in FurCollapse ) 10 out of 10.

( Don't Dress for DinnerCollapse ) 3 out of 10.

( GhostCollapse ) 5 out of 10.

( Magic/BirdCollapse ) 3 out of 10.

( Other Desert CitiesCollapse ) 7 out of 10.

( Rated P for ParenthoodCollapse ) 5 out of 10.

( The Total BentCollapse ) 4 out of 10.

( Anything GoesCollapse ) 8.5 out of 10.

( A Raisin in the Sun + Clybourne ParkCollapse ) ARitS: 7 out of 10 / CP: 8 out of 10.

( Hurt VillageCollapse ) 8.5 out of 10.

( Porgy and BessCollapse ) 8.5 out of 10.

( SeminarCollapse ) 6 out of 10.

( War HorseCollapse ) 3 out of 10.

( OnceCollapse ) 9 out of 10.

( One Man, Two GuvnorsCollapse ) 7 out of 10.

( The LyonsCollapse ) 6.5 out of 10.

( An Early History of FireCollapse ) 0 out of 10.

( A Streetcar Named DesireCollapse ) 8.5 out of 10.

( Wonderful TownCollapse ) 6 out of 10.

( The Best ManCollapse ) 9 out of 10.

( CockCollapse ) 8 out of 10.

( Leap of FaithCollapse ) 8 out of 10.

( Silence!Collapse ) 7.5 out of 10.

( upcomingCollapse )

So, what's up with you guys?

Hi, everybody!

It's been such a kick getting to see all of these cool fics by people whose writing I like that I thought I'd give this "top ten hits" meme a whirl. So, according to AO3, here are mine (LJ links with summaries will have much more info on explaining the stories, titles, and challenges):

1 - Guns 'n' Neuroses: AHAHAHA. Yes, this piece of crack is a Supernatural/Frasier fusion in which Frasier and Niles discover that there are bad guys they never dreamed of. So they take off in Martin's old Impala to address these wrongs with science! It was a total blast to write, and I think it helped that it wasn't my proper Yuletide assignment, but a fun treat that no one would know about if I didn't finish it on time. And yes, that is Lilith Sternin standing in as Castiel, which someone should really write as a full story one of these days. Gen. (Niles and Frasier, hunters of the supernatural.)

2 - No Bed Is Narrow: This one was a delight to write. It was my first story for sherlock_remix, the challenge I've run for the past two years, and as the mod, I got to pick an amazing story to work with each time. This one was a gorgeous John/Sherlock fic that I'd betaed that also had an amazing crew of OCs to work with. One of the OCs, Evander, became a particular favorite of mine, and I knew I wanted to write him and give him a boyfriend who'd be good with him. John/Sherlock, OMC/OMC. (Evander's take on Sherlock bringing John home to meet the family at Christmas.)

3 - Sheep's Clothing: Aw, my very first Sherlock fic! I'd had kind of a chip on my shoulder about modernizing Sherlock Holmes canon, both because I genuinely loved the stories from the time I first read them (when I was quite young - ACD and P. G. Wodehouse were the only English-language books on the shelves when I went to visit relatives in India over the summers, leaving aside terrible spy thrillers) and also because I was not a fan of the Ritchie movie, which I probably could have enjoyed if they hadn't insisted that these characters were Holmes and Watson and Adler. Nope. But then the BBC series blew me away with how much detail it paid to the original canon and how completely masterfully Martin Freeman owned the role of Dr. John Watson, one of the characters of my heart. It took me a little longer to get on board with Sherlock himself, though that was more the writing than Benedict Cumberbatch, I think. Anyway, it makes sense that my first foray into Sherlock would be John-centric. Gen. (Sherlock contemplates John's striped sweater.)

4 - Tear Up Your List: This might be the fic I'm proudest of on this list. It's my take on a (drastically shortened) hiatus - when Sherlock makes everyone believe he's dead - and I was really pleased with the way it turned out. The original impetus of the story was, okay, every SH writer does a take on hiatus, so what could be different about mine? I started considering what BBC canon would allow the characters to do that ACD canon couldn't, and I realized that Sherlock would no longer need Mycroft to keep him in funds and abreast of what's going on back in England - that opened up a whole different way to consider canon, to have Sherlock and Mycroft be estranged, so that no one has the whole story: Mycroft doesn't know Sherlock is alive, Sherlock doesn't know what it means that John and Mycroft are growing closer, and John has no idea what to make of any of it and is simply acting on instinct. I'm working on the sequel now, which should end my Elastic Heart series. Gen with a few John/OFC scenes and a scene where Sherlock bathes John. (As Moriarty keeps baiting him with seemingly random acts of violence, Sherlock struggles to keep up and keep John safe, but then there's one puzzle that shakes Sherlock's support system entirely. The story is ostensibly a modern-day spin on hiatus fic - John thinks Sherlock is dead, Sherlock is trying to destroy Moriarty's criminal network. But it's really about Sherlock working through what John and Mycroft mean to him.)

5 - Fashion Forward: I'm not surprised that this one's on the list, given that it starts with Sherlock on the runway. This was my second fic in the fandom, and meant to be a companion piece to "Sheep's Clothing." While "SC" was Sherlock PoV and therefore a lot more elliptical about the intense relationship kindling between John and Sherlock, in this one I got to be much more explicit about it, given that it was John's PoV, and he's not a complete idiot about relationships. Also, I'd been wanting to use that Batman line for a really long time, and I'm glad I got to do it here. Gen. (Sherlock Holmes, supermodel.)

6 - The Gambler: An appearance by a White Collar fic! This took me by surprise, since I have an issue with that show, in that its canon and my brain tend to be unmixy things - I literally cannot remember canon even while I'm watching an episode. No idea why. So the fics I've written in this fandom (all birthday treats, I believe) tend to be set in a hazy "oh, you know, at some point" kind of place and just be about the characters. This one is billed as Elizabeth/Peter/Neal but stops before any porn happens. (prompts: time, bet)

7 - Bricoleur: This was my first long fic for Sherlock, and also the first time I used an updated version of a canon story as the spine for my fic. Having Harry, John's sister, be the latest victim of Charles Augustus Milverton, was a really rewarding idea, and I was totally happy with the way I got the relationships between John and Sherlock, John and Harry, and John and Clara from my head to the fic. Gen with some Harry/Clara scenes. (A loose retelling of "The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton" in which Harry, newly separated and struggling to get sober, is the one who's being blackmailed for a drunken hit-and-run. John needs Sherlock to solve the case, but not if he's going to prove Harry's guilty. Set a few months after "The Great Game," while the boys are still recovering. ("Bricoleur" means "one who uses all that he has to do what he has to do.")) [I knew I forgot something! This one was fabulously remixed!]

8 - Counter, Original, Spare, Strange: Aw, yay! I had no idea there were this many people even in Cabin Pressure fandom! Martin is the woobie, both because of the character and the actor, but I've never been a big fan of whump or hurt/comfort - I wanted Martin to be happy! So I wrote a het happily-ever-after and a gen happily-ever-after for him, and then this one, which was a slash HEA. I really enjoyed creating the OMC, David, and what took me by surprise was that I'd thought I was writing a "see how these two characters slowly fall in love" story, but David and Martin got their act together so quickly that it ended up being "look how Martin's self-confidence grows once he knows he's loved" story, which is even better. I still need to write the sequel to this, where Arthur finds his (completely dippy) soulmate. Martin/OMC. (Happy boyfriends!)

9 - Quick Like a Bunny: The second piece of crossover crack to make the list! I dreamt this one up while I was writing my take on modern-day Irene Adler and wrote it in about a day. I'd loved the first season of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, and thought that while having them make over Sherlock would just be putting a match to tinder, John would have the patience to get through it and even enter into the spirit of it. The problem was that John would never call them himself, so someone else had to do it. Enter Mrs. Hudson, trying to find a free fix for all the damage Sherlock has done to 221B. This fic also had Sherlock stating very clearly that he's asexual and John is straight - which is how I write them, remix fics aside - and I'm pleased that he makes a distinction between love and sex. Gen. (Mrs. Hudson calls in the Fab Five, for nefarious purposes. Who can blame her?)

10 - Coded To Match: Another sherlock_remix fic! I wrote four fics for this year's challenge, and of course it was the John/Sherlock one (and not the John/Lestrade one, the gen one, or the John/OMC one) that made the list! Sherlock fandom knows what it wants! Actually, I'm very fond of this story, as Sherlock is completely obtuse in a way that I can really buy him being, and John is there to be the steady heart that Sherlock needs and point out the ways they make sense together. It still makes me laugh, how much of a crankypants Sherlock is here. John/Sherlock. (Sherlock refuses to let his love be requited.)

That was fun! It is kind of misleading, since it's AO3 counts only, and I just got around to archiving my Supernatural work on that site - there are a few SPN fics that would probably have made this list if the timing had been right, I think, like Vocabulary, Lacuna, and Sunshine State/the Ben and Dean series. And maybe The Bones of Shelbyville, my Simpsons/Supernatural crackfic in which John brings the boys to Springfield to investigate mysterious goings-on in Shelbyville. I had so much fun writing that story.

In ( books and TV newsCollapse )

And I meant to link you guys to this days ago! The awesome unavoidedcrisis made a podfic of my little Community story Kicksplasher. It's romantic gen, Troy and Abed, and I was really pleasantly surprised by how much it resonated for me after the blankets-vs.-pillows episodes, because I wasn't particularly happy with the story as I wrote it (but I was on a Yuletide deadline). Anyway, go, take seven minutes and listen to the beautiful job she did!

I've got a massive theater post coming soon, too, but enough is enough for now.

How are you all doing?

And I guess I had to keep up my other sherlock_remix tradition, writing a remix for kate_lear. Her fabulous story "There's a First Time for Everything," which I had the pleasure of betaing, included some very hot college-aged John with a boyfriend, Rob. Come on, there was no way I was going to pass up a chance to write John getting his groove on. Once again, I owe so many thanks to oxoniensis, who was her usual awesome self.

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As always, I'd love to hear what you think.

I took a scene from igrockspock's awesome "The December War." The hint in the original story of Sherlock's French grandmother teaching him how to cook was too much for me to resist, so I yielded to temptation. Title from Julia Cho's The Language Archive. Thanks again to oxoniensis, who really caught the spirit of this piece and was tremendously helpful as usual.

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As always, I'd love to hear what you think.

I also wrote three bonus remixes this year, one of which was for coloredink's adorable "Love Means Never Having To Say You’re Sorry." This one was fun to write because I got to work with the whole fic, its theme, and it is always enjoyable to write Sherlock being a petulant dumbass who cannot come to grips with his own emotions. It really is a good thing he's so pretty. (My thanks to oxoniensis for a super-quick and effective beta and Britpick.)

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As always, I'd love to hear what you think.

Hi, everybody!

I ran sherlock_remix again this year and wanted to try something different once more - last year I wrote John/Sherlock and this time I wanted to write John/Lestrade. So I picked lady_ganesh's amazing fic "Under the Skin" to work with. It's a Sherlock-John bodyswap that ends with Sherlock as the least cherubic Cupid ever, getting John and Lestrade together. It is, frankly, irresistible.

My thanks to oxoniensis for her frank and thoughtful work betaing and Britpicking, and to kate_lear for her encouragement along the same lines. Title from "On Turning Ten" by Billy Collins.


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As always, I'd love to hear what you think.

Holy schlamoly, all of the fics are now posted over at sherlock_remix and I think I even tagged them all properly. I've left a comment on the seriously awesome remix written for me, and now I'm going to fall into bed and not worry about how much my throat hurts. The plan for tomorrow? Lemon-honey-ginger and Case Histories (come to me, Jason Isaacs!).

Oh, and also, if you're in NYC, you MUST go see Venus in Fur, which was simply amazing.

Oh, wait, one last thing - does anyone have recommendations for bars in Brooklyn that hold good pub-quizzes/bar-trivia matches?

Hi, everybody!

I'm being such a crankypants today, all because I told myself I would get my taxes done this weekend (yay long weekends!) and because I was unemployed, my 401K got transferred, and now my tax software assumes that I earned that retirement money as regular income and is saying that I owe about $50,000 in taxes this year. Grrrr. I have no desire to keep fighting with the program, but I also don't have a regular tax-preparer or accountant, so I'm a little stuck. Any ideas?

Though I have been pretty productive lately, so I shouldn't be too cranky. I finally put up all of my Supernatural stories at AO3 - well, all of the completed fics that actually have titles. And I finally organized most of my Sherlock fics into a series, which is good because I'm currently working on the last long story in the series (haven't decided yet if there will be short one-offs in the future). It's called Elastic Heart because the stories all have to do with John Watson and his capacity to keep cramming people into his heart long after you'd think all the room had run out. God, I love him.

And I wrote three short pieces recently - one each for What's Your Number? (Martin Freeman being adorable), Sports Night (Dan/Dana forever!), and White Collar (for a birthday, and I'm now qualified for remix_redux in three fandoms). So that felt good.

Plus things are going well with sherlock_remix, and there's the possibility of a bonus round. We'll see what happens.

I finally got around to watching a couple of the big movies that I'd missed. ( movies (no spoilers): Star Trek, X-Men: First Class, Captain AmericaCollapse )

I've seen three shows in the past few weeks, and have promised reviews on them. (sgt_psycho, the WH one is for you!) And I'm booked to see Porgy & Bess, Total Bent, and Venus in Fur soon. Plus I'll be booking One Man, Two Guvnors for sure, and maybe Bebe Neuwirth's A Midsummer Night's Dream, Other Desert Cities, and an encore of Anything Goes.

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So that's all for me - what are you guys up to?

Hi, everybody!

So it's the birthday of the awesome dotfic and a national holiday - COINCIDENCE? Sugar, I hope this story makes you smile! It's White Collar gen that takes place at no specific time because I can forget this show's canon even as I'm watching it. Anyway, the real point of the show is to demonstrate the awesomeness of Neal and Peter and El and Mozzie and Diana and Jones, isn't it? Especially Peter. And especially especially El.

Speedy and supersmart beta by ariadnes_string, to whom I owe many thanks.

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As always, I'd love to hear what you think.