I even had to go home early from work today due to excessive hacking. For some reason, no one wanted me coughing up my innards all over the store. Something about health hazards and no one wanting to share this wonderful experience with me.
Except my boss. AB was also home sick today. She and I both missed something cool, which further proves she and I share the same luck-fairy. One of these days, we're gonna find the little blighter and fire 'em. Litearlly. Just wait. I always have matches. And lighters. I'm a smoker, after all. I'm good at making things burn.
*coughs* Right, then.
So. A meme.
Yep. I got suckered by one. Aggiebell90 got me. My fatal flaw - curiosity!
This was posted on her LJ:
Association Meme: Comment to this post and I will give you 5subjects/things I associate you with. Then post this in your LJ and elaborate on the subjects given.I couldn't resist! I had to ask her what five subjects she associated with me. After I posted the comment, I realized I would have to reply to the meme and write this post. So *shame*. I am participating in a meme. I can hear homicidalsh33p laughing now.
So, without further adieu - five subjects
- *That* - Yes. The word 'that.' The most overused word in the English language, in my opinion. I am on a crusade to liberate the poor word from the chains of over-use and mis-use! When used wrong 'that' can aid in the creation of such things as passive voice and construction, excessive verbage, and imprecise language. 'That' is needed less than half the time it's used, and even the times it's 'needed' the sentence an often be re-written in a more active voice without using 'that.'
If Aggiebell90 thinks of me in conjunction with 'that,' it means one thing: I have beta-read for her! I even asked her about it! She said: Every time I catch myself writing 'that', I ask myself, "What would Jayiin say about this?" and either check to make sure it belongs there, or I totally reword the sentence so I don't have to think about it.
See? My great crusade proceeds apace! - Percy Jackson and the Olympians - by Rick Riordanis one of the best YA fantasy series out there. I rank it up there with anything by Tamora Pierce. In short, the titular hero, Percy Jackson is the bastard son of Posideon, the Greek God of the Seas. It's a fantastic series, well worth reading by anyone who likes fantasy, YA books, or just good stories. I discovered the books through a young friend at my church, and in turn helped Aggiebell90 discover them. I even sent her a spare copy of the 4th book in the series. I had bought my own, but was given a copy at Christmas.
- WizardTales - WizardTales is, in my opinion, one of the best growing fanfic archives on the web. I've got more history there than any place except maybe FFn. Its one of the few archives I've stuck with for more than a few months. WizardTales was closed for a time, but has recently re-opened. Originally just a Harry Potter fic archive, WizardTales now accepts stories from Harry Potter, Twilight, Lord of the Rings and The Inheritance Cycle.
WizardTales offers something a lot of archives don't: moderated fanfiction without enforced restrictions on 'ship, canon-compliance or any other niggling pains in the ass most places impose. Now, don't get me wrong - there are reasons, and good reasons, for archives that are 'ship-specific or who insist on canon compliance. I respect those archives for providing a safe place for fans to go and read what they want to read, just like a respect places like Dark Lord Potter for providing a place for people who want anti-canon and darkfic exclusively. WizardTales is a place for people who fall in the middle. People like me, who are writing stories that have one or two 'ships that make them ineligible for canon-compliance sites or 'ship-specific sites, but which still hold to trying to remain in character and in line with the vision of the original author. My own story, Harry Potter and the Unforgiven is being re-posted there. Each chapter is being beta-read by MuggleMomma.
With the re-opening of WizardTales, I've found myself with an actual position there - I'm the Associate Director of Public Relations. What that means, exactly, we're still working out, but it does mean I'm on the Executive Board. I'm excited about this - excited enough that I've invited a few friends to post their work there, including Aggiebell90. I beta-read her amazing story Impressions and - she posted it! She's visited our forums and chatroom.
Her story made a huge impression on the people who read it! My buddy Carpelocke got to mod her story, but I got to approve her request to join the forums! She's already been added to our 'featured stories' - and is sure to stay there awhile! Though, I now owe her Neville-centric HPU outtake, because she came to the chat. - Austin - As in the city, Austin TX.
Fun city. Where I live (sort of). 90 square miles surrounded by reality. Weirdest place in Texas. Gay Mecca of the south. Live music capitol of the world and capitol of Texas. That embarrassing rhinestone on the Bible Belt. Home of Leslie. A place where even bums can (and do) run for public office. Home of Eeyore's Birthday Party and other random excuses to publicly smoke pot and otherwise become stupidly shitfaced for not other reason than excessive dumb and the need to express it in a way that offends people with manners, rednecks and most people who bathe. We're a liberal college tourist town that also happens to be one of the most conservative places in the whole country. We're indie, hip, full of new ideas, live music, art and artists, hippies, corrupt politics, dirty politicians and more tall tales than you can shake a weed whacker at. We have rednecks, hillbillies, professors, more colleges than any sane town should have, and enough 'friendly' rivalries to make other places violently riot. We can do mardi gras as messily as New Orleans, upstage Washington with political antics, and produce more than our fair share of Presidents hated by the civilized world. Oh, did I mention we have politics?
We also have local color to spare. We can give any two entire nations their own brand-spankin' new cultures and still have culture and color left over. We have coffeeshops, bars, historical monuments, municipal modern art projects and enough bleeding hearts to fix the world blood supply deficit - except most of our bleeding hearts only bleed when they're getting a handout from someone else. After all, why work when you can be a hippy, bum, or starving artist and have everyone take care of you?
We've had O'henry, pun-offs, Bobby Flay flipping over Flip-Happy Crepes, new agers, vikings, SCA, geeks, and even scientologists hanging out in the same place at once - and no one killing each other.
Truth is, folks - I make a damn poor Austinite. I don't visit the local places to eat or drink. I hit fancy (read: cheap) chains, scarf fast-food at places like Whataburger instead of Dans'. You won't catch me dead at anything having to with the torture called live music (crowds? Me? FUCK no. Not now, not ever. I'd rather have a root canal without novocain than deal with a crowd.) I absolutely loathe most coffee houses. They aren't built for guys my size. I don't drink coffee. I break the second-hand kitschy furniture, or get stuck in cushy couches, and end up spending way too much money on cheap tea or bad fancy soda - when I would have been much happier with an ice cold coke. There's never a power strip outside where a guy can smoke a pipe in peace - so my poor laptop (and thus my writing) get no attention at coffeehouses. Most of which play music I hate, have food I can't eat (MSG and tomato in almost everything. Or, it's all diet with all kinds of artificial sweeteners I can't have) and people who see a fat guy dressed in all black and grace me with well-practiced sneers.
To my shame, there are a few Austin places I couldn't live without. Dragon's Lair, for example. Or, Pipe World. Or all the book stores. So many beautiful book stores. I also seem to know the city pretty well. I'm not a human map like my father, but I can get anywhere I need to be with relative minimum of fuss, as long as I have decent directions. I've eaten at or visited most of the local restaurants (enough to know what they do to my digestion) and have delved the divine dairy goodness of Amy's Ice Cream.
So while my city is a cesspool of many of the things I hate in the world and can barely tolerate most days, I don't think I could live anywhere else. Because I certainly do my part to keep Austin weird. - HPU - Odd, that this one comes up last. I think when people start identifying me with the stories I've written lasts and other things first, they're actually becoming my friends. Scary, that. Before too long, Aggiebell90 will be calling me at midnight needing a favor or having me drive out someplace in the middle of nowhere when she's got a flat just like the rest of you. *grins* But at least she reads my writing. Unlike most people I know.
Speaking of my writing, that's what this part of the blurb is supposed to be, yes? Harry Potter and the Unforgiven. My insane fanfic. I've been writing fic of one kind or another since I was a little kid and was addicted to Star Trek fanzines. I've written papers on fanfic. I've given talks on fanfic.
But Harry Potter and the Unforgiven is my fanfic albatross. Or opus. Or whatever you want to call it. I started it four years ago during one of the darkest and most painful periods of my life as a short fic that would take place over the course of the summer after Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.
I read that book and got so mad at Dumbledore and the Order. They had Stupid Mentor Syndrome worse than anything I'd seen! None of the adults in the HP-verse, except Molly Weasley and (somewhat) Sirius, have a leg to stand on. Did you notice McGonagall never apologized to Harry, Ron and Hermione for not believing them in Philosopher's Stone? Where was Remus Lupin most of Harry's life? Where were all the people who suddenly love and adore him and care about him most of his life? Where was Albus Dumbledore?
If McGonagall hadn't liked the Dursleys, why hadn't she gone to check on him a time or three while he was growing up?
Out of sight, out of mind, it seems.
The whole idea of it made me mad, so I decided to answer some questions I had from Chamber of Secrets about the magical bond between Harry and Ginny (I was a H/Hr shipper at the time) and play with a plot bunny I had bouncing around my head.
So I did. And the first draft of HPU was born. From that brief interlude into fanfiction, a character sprang forth - Gracie McCallister. And from her, Harry's journey began. I started to ask myself other questions. What if Dumbledore had a real reason for what he did? What if most of the adults in the HPverse were really as pig-ignorant of the real situation as they seemed? How did magic really work? What about Voldemort and Dumbledore's duel? They used magic we hadn't seen before - and they fought in a very stylized, almost formal way. What if there was a reason behind that, too?
The story began to take shape. The plots began to take shape. What if Voldemort really were as evil as Rowling thought? What if Voldemort had a plan to deal with Harry? What if the Ministry were as corrupt as it was inept?
With each what if, HPU got an added dimension. Except, I wasn't feeling H/G. Not until I read Harry Potter & the Power of Emotion by Melindaleo. Then I was a H/G convert. I read more H/G fic, just letting my brain steep in it.
And HPU really began to take shape. However, I stopped writing it for a year or so, when my life was complete and utter...well, it was bad.
When I took the story up again, I completely re-wrote it, and I've been refining that re-write ever since. I always ended up stuck at the same point in the story, though - right around the middle of the second story arc.
Though, it appears I have broken that particular block, as I have recently finished ch35! It's been a four-year odyssey, but I seem to finally be cresting the hill I've been trudging up for awhile. I think, if I can get some momentum on the story, I'll finally get it done! Maybe the end of next year! (There's a lot left to write).
Okay, so that meme is meme'd out. I shall not succumb to another! (Except maybe the one Aggiebell90 tagged me on yesterday. Because I have to keep being nice to hear until I can write the Neville fic I owe her.)
Also, random moment:
- A met a girl with the name Kitiara. Yes, named for the Dragonlance character.
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