The Fury and the Mire

end of the road

2009-11-20T16:25:00.000-08:00

Some of you might already be aware of this, but today I took Diamonds & Dust and The Ghost Stone off of FictionPress. Obviously this decision was not lightly made, since it took me about four months to make it. But today I took the final screen shots of publishing and review dates, story IDs, and various other little things (to help me prove my ownership and identity, should the need ever arise), took a deep breath, and deleted both stories.

For the most part, I feel very good about this. This gives both stories a fighting chance for real, New York house publishing in the future, which is the ultimate goal. It'll stop me from worrying about the safety of the stories, and help me feel like I've done all I can to prevent them from being taken. So far I've still found no records of either being plagiarized, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it stays that way.

But I know that people have saved my stories for their own personal benefit, to read at their own leisure and so forth. I'm flattered you loved the story enough to want to keep it. I can only hope that those of you who have done this will respect my intellectual property--don't post it. Don't share it. Don't tell anyone else you even have it. I'd prefer it if you actually deleted it, but since I'll never know, I guess that's up to you.

My biggest sorrow in this is that I've had to disappoint so many people who have been nothing but supportive of me and my work. The Ghost Stone, especially, stayed on FP as long as it did because of that. So to you guys I want to say thank you for all the reviews, the PMs, the nominations and votes at SKoW and elsewhere, and the love and attention that you've shown the story while it was up. Corny as it sounds, I will never forget that--you've given me more confidence in my ability than I thought I would ever get out of the internet, and that's pretty much priceless. I'm doing this for you guys, more than anybody else--so that one day you'll have your very own copy of GS to read and thumb through wherever and whenever you want.

I will definitely keep you posted as I finish, rewrite, and send out both stories. Hopefully this story will get its own happy ending, but either way, thanks for making the journey an awesome one.

(The Harris Family probably isn't going anywhere--the only reason I'd take that stuff down is if I, on a whim, send it to a journal for fun and they tell me to oust it. Which probably won't happen, since they aren't very serious in the first place.)

OX, Meg

extras are fun

2009-07-01T15:32:00.000-07:00

I've decided to post some random "excerpts" from The Ghost Stone. I've been doing perspective switches for fun (no profit) lately, thanks to that massive two-month writer's block. Some interesting things have come out of it. Andrew is fun to write, too. So this particular piece comes out of the second chapter, when Vesper and Andrew first set eyes on each other at the tram station behind Carroway. The original is from Vesper’s point of view; this one is Andrew’s first impression. Let me know what's good, son.

The Ghost Stone
excerpt from Chapter Two

He and Mark were on the tram when he felt it. The little itch at the back of his neck that told him to look up, to be aware. It happened more often than he cared to admit, and though he never quite ignored the feeling, Andrew was uncomfortable with the idea that some residue of his father’s power had been passed down to him through his genes. After all, Ethan’s ability to see hadn’t done him a whole lot of good.

Andrew’s wasn’t so developed as that. If what he had could be called anything, it was a finely developed sense of foreboding. He was intuitive, his mother liked to say. There were no dreams, no visions; no quick snatches of images assaulted him unawares. He just got that little itch, and it told him something was going on, something important, and to pay attention.

Mark was still talking, so Andrew nodded vaguely to prove his attention but glanced past his shoulder towards Carroway station. The tram was still a good twenty yards away, but he could see a lone student waiting. Female. Tall. Unfamiliar.

“Andrew.”

Busted. His eyes flickered to the blond and his mouth curved up a little, acknowledging his distraction. “Sorry.”

Mark rolled his eyes, and then turned a little to see what was so fascinating behind him. When he realized it was a girl, one who grew more and more attractive as the tram drew closer to the station, he arched a teasing eyebrow at him and remarked approvingly, “I see.”

The itch was steadily increasing, and instead of smirking at the light banter, Andrew frowned instead and returned his attention to the girl. She was definitely new, whoever she was – he didn’t recognize her, and she had a green, fresh look about her, one all freshmen had when they first started, and one that they quickly lost by the time the first semester closed out. And she was attractive, riding the line between girl-next-door hot and the kind of hot that made the eyes wander and want to linger in places they shouldn’t. If it weren’t for the totally casual way she was dressed and the laidback, almost absent way she was regarding the horizon, she could have been out-of-your-league hot.

The tram began to slow, and the noisy brakes broke her concentration. He saw her glance towards the tram and take the two of them in, her gaze appraising. Andrew might have admired her mouth, and the bedroom quality of her eyes, but his hormones were refused any leeway when he realized hers was a two-colored gaze.

“Mark,” he murmured quietly, and the blond shifted.

“You feel something?” Mark asked, just as quietly.

“Yeah.” Andrew didn’t have to explain. The two of them had been friends most of their lives, and even if there was a little more distance as of late, they still knew each other better than anybody else. Some things didn’t change.

The tram came to a rolling stop, and they both climbed off. Andrew couldn’t take his eyes off of her, and it had nothing at all to do with that first, immediate physical attraction now. He sunk in slowly, probing gently with his magic to feel her out, see what the Awakening had brought out in her. The result surprised him, and he stiffened to hide the shiver that shook his spine all the way down.

Earth magic. He tried to focus on that, and not the way his mouth went dry but his skin went hot in response the reading. Earth magic on top of the Ghost Eye. Jesus, what the hell does that mean?

She’d climbed on the tram, and after a second or two glanced back at them. Andrew hadn’t quite realized he’d stopped walking entirely and was just staring at her; hadn’t expected to react that strongly at all, truth be told, and was a little disconcerted by it. Mark stood with him, at least, and their obvious attention registered with the girl because after another second or so she acknowledged them with a little sideways peace sign, one eyebrow quirked a little higher than the other. It was almost a challenge, the way she looked at them, and it was enough to make him shiver all over again.

Mark chuckled lightly next to him, and turned his attention back to Andrew as the tram pulled away, taking the girl with it. “Interesting combination, wouldn’t you say?” He asked, and nodded towards the Carroway building.

Andrew took the hint and resumed walking, but his mind remained with her. “Yeah.” He almost added, I don’t like it, but refrained; he knew how Mark felt about his suspicions and today had been a good day. They’d argued so much about it in the past, and the gulf between them was wide enough as it was. The only way to salvage the years of friendship was not to talk about it at all, and for Mark, he could do that.

He would tell Dan about it later, maybe. See what the other man thought. Dan’s quiet, observant demeanor and curious politeness had ingratiated him to most of the student body right away, but what Andrew appreciated most about his friend was the sharp, clever mind behind the amiable exterior. And even if Dan didn’t wholly believe him, he didn’t write him off as angry or vengeful, which was more than Andrew could say for quite a lot of the people he had once considered friends.

“She’s cute,” Mark ventured after a second, having sensed that Andrew wouldn’t comment further on the other line of thought. They both knew why, and to his credit, Mark steered away from it as diligently as he had. “And tall.”

“I noticed,” Andrew replied, wryly.

Diamonds and Dust update

2009-05-22T15:18:00.000-07:00

I took Diamonds and Dust down from FictionPress today. It is a decision that, while the most recent surge of plagiarism on the site has certainly influenced it, has been a long time in coming. I know I'm repeating myself when I say that D&D is my most prized story and it is the one that I am seriously pursuing in terms of professional revision and publication. To leave it on FictionPress is to invite people to take, copy, and distribute it elsewhere. Despite FP's strict rules to the contrary in their Terms of Service, recent events have clearly demonstrated the total lack of respect that certain people can have for creative ownership and authority. Frankly it's not something I want to mess with, and because I am so focused on finishing D&D and positioning it so that it may one day be of a publishable quality, I just cut to the chase. I have left the first chapter up so that, if need be, I have proof of a posting date prior to anyone else's, and can refer back to that if - god forbid - some legality issue might arise in the future.

The act of plagiarism didn't happen to me, but despite that I'm still very upset by what's happened. It's something I'm going to be looking into in the next week, in terms of FP users' legal rights, copyright infringement/plagiarism issues, and so forth; hopefully you'll be able to see the fruits of that effort in the next issue of Tough and Dirty. Until then, check out the thread on the SKoW forum and definitely add your two cents to the conversation. As users of FP, it's something that really concerns us all.

With all of that said, I do want to take a moment to apologize to all of those who regularly read and reviewed Diamonds and Dust, and who, even after a four month lack, still tuned in faithfully to the last couple chapters and have supported the story generally. You will never know how much that support means to me, and you have my eternal thanks. If you have any questions, concerns, or suggestions, please let me hear them. I am going to send out PMs in the next couple of days to all those who have put the story on favorites/alerts, but for those who are genuinely interested in the fate of Virginia and company, let me know. I won't promise that I'll send out the story on the sly or anything like that, but I certainly will keep you updated on its progress in terms of completion, revision, and publication, and will undoubtedly continue to ask for advice.

Those of you who are concerned about my other stories, don't worry. I don't think I'll be taking anything else down from my profile. There are a few works that I considered posting that will now never be posted, but that's only because these are future stories that I will also pursue publication with and I don't want to hurt my chances at getting them out to an even wider audience.

Hopefully most of you understand where I'm coming from and will continue to support my writing. Again, it's not a decision I came to easily, that I made spur of the moment, but rather one that has been slowly building for some time. For those of you who would like to throw tantrums and feel victimized by my decision, I rescind my apology and would further like to add: grow up.

Nuthin' but love,
Megs

gradumacation baby

2009-05-11T16:55:00.000-07:00

OMG I'M DONE.

No seriously. I am done. With school. For a good while. Done. Done? Doooone.

Pardon me, I'm going to start wigging out now.

*elevator music*

*muffled screaming*

Okay.

Today I turned in my last paper, and now I am officially free to write fiction until my fingers bleed. I probably won't go quite that far, you understand, but the very availability of the option is so enticing. I still have work, of course (unless you people want to start paying my bills--which I am totally up for, let me just put it out there), but now when I come home from said job I can has cheeseburgers, too!

I mean, fuck. Wait.

Forget it. I can't think properly. I'M DONE, OMGZ.

"progress" my ass.

2009-04-19T19:49:00.000-07:00

So I've been having some computer-related problems lately. Nothing serious, but it's enough to piss me off. I have an old mac powerbook g4, and it's getting to the point where I can no longer use certain browsers or updates because my computer is too old. Mozilla is totally out - won't even work any more, and that's what I'd been using, and so it's where all my bookmarks are. Safari I can use, but it's an old version, and to make matters worse, isn't even supported by half the websites I visit. There are no longer security updates (or any other kind, for that matter) available for my mac. I don't even have wifi.

I need a new computer, like whoa. But since I can't afford one.... le sigh.

Also, FP is totally acting up. I can't sign into my account for some reason, and when I tried the "forgot password?" option, I never got the email. So I don't know what's up with that.

All in all, not a happy camper.

AAAHHHH, and stuff like that

2009-03-20T23:15:00.000-07:00

So my all-important exam is on Monday and Tuesday. And then.... and then, ladies and gentlemen, I can start writing semi-regularly again. I won't have to study for the biggest, scariest test of my life and can instead focus on the goodness that is my fiction.

I also started another story. >_>;;

Not a big one.... probably only six chapters, actually.

Don't look at me like that.

Whatever, you'll like it. Or else.

dude.

2009-02-01T11:43:00.000-08:00

Anybody seen this shit yet? Apparently The Ghost Stone has been officially nominated at SKoW for Most Creative Plot (uncomplete). I know I asked people to give Vesper and Co. some love but I didn't actually expect a nomination. So this is kind of flattering. I love you guys. It's a fun story to write, no doubt, but you guys make it feel even more worthwhile. So thanks for that. ;]

Meanwhile, the first couple weeks of school have been, as predicted, crazy busy and have generally leeched on all my time, energy, and good intentions. Things are starting to die down a little bit but I still have some scary exams to take this semester, so do not expect as many updates. This will be my last semester in school however, and that is good news for my writing career. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

Also. Super bowl today. Go Bruce!

time is money

2009-01-19T19:41:00.000-08:00

I started writing the next story for The Harris Family Tree already (just a couple pages, nothing serious), mostly because I was still in gear from The Man-nequin and I found the perfect challenge for Erin. So she's up next. But after that, I don't know what I'll do because I don't really like any of the other SKoW challenges and I simply refuse to submit Justin and Mark to such stupid scenarios as the "period piece" and notable others. The Harris men are too cool for school, you dig? So help me find something else - doesn't have to be SKoW, as long as I have all the requirements written down. If you guys know a place where I can get some new ones, gimme gimme.

With all that said, don't expect another update on the Family Tree anytime soon - school starts this week, and so does my job from hell. College bookstores are pretty chill most of the year, but dear god, that first couple weeks can kill a man. To give you an idea of how my soul will be a withered and pale thing by the end of the week, here's my hours tomorrow--and this is just tuesday: 7:45 AM - 9 PM. I remind myself of the money, and that is the only thing that keeps me going.

In other news, I came up with a fun idea for a story the other day. It would probably be a (relatively) short deal - no more than 7-10 chapters, I would think - and I would get to write about a very competitive, sexy, and generally unhealthy relationship between a man and a woman who enjoy the chase almost as much as the win and do not suffer losses. Naturally this is going to be a bitter love/hate thing and may border on being dark and vaguely sadomasochistic; to the say the least, neither one is going down without a fight. It would, of course, be rated mature.

Not that I need more things to write about, though. ;p

P. S. There's a new poll about this here blog on my fictionpress profile. Go check it out!

OHMYGODIT'SCOLD

2009-01-16T14:02:00.000-08:00

Yeah, coldest winter of my life right here. For those that don't know - and I'm assuming that's most of you - I'm a pseudo-Southern Girl and the coldest Christmas I can remember clocked in somewhere around, oh, 70 degrees. So trust me when I say that this 4 degree weather we're having has been something of a learning experience; I'm learning what it's like to really and truly loose all feeling in my extremities, and am, for the first time, fully appreciating the joys of the 'heat' option on my air conditioning.

In other news, I've made a website! It's still pretty basic, and since I lack mad skillz, will more than likely remain that way. However, it is nice to be able to use that rather than my FP profile when it comes to all the fun add-ons like pictures and soundtracks that I typically turn to for stories. I don't like overly long and cluttered profiles, and this will help me clean that up even more. It's KINDAFISHY, but then again, so is everything else about me.

The new semester is starting up soon. Next week, actually. And while I've had a few days of respite from work, that will soon change as well, and my ass will be firmly kicked by the end of January. I'm going to try and finish: A) the next chapter of Diamonds and Dust, and B) the next addition of The Harris Family Tree before that happens. Keep your fingers crossed, people!

CALL FOR PICTURES! I'm trying to find some for the Harris family, so if you've got any good looking collections of redheads, strawberry blonds, and the like, or know where I can find some, please let me know.

Meanwhile, I've been living off of coffee, muffins, and tostitos for a few days now, and can safely say that I've never been this eager to go back to work before. If you knew where I worked/how much of a petulant child my boss was, you would understand how seriously wrong that sentence is. But I leave it to your imagination.

oh baby, oh baby

2009-01-08T21:55:00.001-08:00

I HAVE FOUND THE MOST PERFECT SONG FOR THE GHOST STONE EVER.

And I can't stop giggling like an idiot. Seriously. So I'm making a new playlist at playlist.com and I'm going to attach it to a chapter/on my profile page, probably under the pictures link. Because OMG you have to hear this shit. It'll be the last song on the playlist, probably... because it's just that perfect. :D

In other news, I've been working on a lot of different stuff... brainstorming a lot for Diamonds and Dust and The Ghost Stone, and writing in The Ghost Stone and The Harris Family Tree.

Yes, I said it. I started the next installment of the tree. Almost finished it, actually. So look for that shortly.

Those of you looking for that D&D update, feel free to club me. Go on -- I'm hardier than a baby seal. I can take it.

death by paper[s]

2008-12-15T17:09:00.001-08:00

These things are seriously killer. I wonder if I'm going to sleep at all in the next couple of days... hmm.

Naturally, despite my unholy schedule, I've managed to put another couple pages down in the next chapter of The Ghost Stone. I am a terrible, terrible student, but a really great procrastinator. You ever notice that, though? It's only when I need to be doing something else that I start feeling really, incredibly inspired to write in my stories - like suddenly all the music that I'm listening to is starting to speak to me, and it's telling me all these little details about characters and plot aspects I didn't know before, and I'm all, "Really? Wow. I should probably write that down."

Okay, back to Tennessee Williams.

gobble gobble

2008-12-01T20:15:00.000-08:00

Happy belated Thanksgiving, yonder readers!

Okay, so it's officially the home stretch - the last couple weeks of school. That part of the semester where I really get no creative writing done at all. I know some people were looking for an update to The Ghost Stone, at least, before/for thanksgiving, and believe me when I say I tried. But I had two papers due before break, and now I've got three final papers to wrap up, and as much as it sucks, school is still my priority in life right now. As long as I'm in grad school, it will always come first, no matter how much I hate it sometimes/love to complain about it.

But the good news is that there's only a couple pages or so to go on the next GS chapter, so hopefully I can sneak in there this week and finish it off. But I make no promises.

I'm getting excited about Diamonds and Dust again. This, my friends, is good. Very good. Did a lot of thinking and plotting over break. I'm aiming to finish the first draft over Christmas break. Then, if everything goes according to plan, I will have an independent study in the spring focused on civil war fiction, which is basically research for D&D (isn't grad school awesome?), and then I'll be gradumacated and I can get started on a second draft. Will possibly send in for publishing. If everything goes according to plan.

All in all, I'm pretty happy. Though I'm sure in a few days, once the "Final Papers Are Due" Panic sets in, that will change. Oh, will that change.

you know what I'm saying?

2008-10-26T10:22:00.000-07:00

screw you, September!

2008-10-05T21:16:00.000-07:00

Worst month ever. I would go into detail, but I'm supposed to be writing a paper now. A quickie post is definitely procrastinating, but it's like procrastination-lite. If I actually went into the whole long story of why the month of September consistently ate away at my soul, then I would feel really guilty and irresponsible instead of just vaguely distracted.

Needless to say, I have done little to no writing in anything. Which is really upsetting to me, so I won't even try to imagine what my adoring fans must feel like. Hopefully life will settle down in October, and I can get myself on some sort of writing schedule. Updates probably still won't come as frequently as they did in the summer (the D&D fans are laughing at me right now), but that's still better than nuthin', right?

R. I. P. Paul Newman. You rocked.

see-saw much?

2008-08-01T15:33:00.001-07:00

I've changed my mind again. I won't be revising Diamonds & Dust until I've finished the first draft. Since I started writing it again, I've been going back over it and I just realized the revision process is going to be so much bigger than I originally thought - that I wouldn't be able to just go back and do a couple chapters at the beginning and so forth - and I don't want to get caught up in that and never finish the story. So that's the good news.

The bad news? The dinner party has been taking forever to write. I've probably been working on it for two weeks, and there were days there when I was lucky if I could get a full page out. And it's really only the first part (which is, of course, about ten pages) - the second half will go so much smoother, I know it. But I got so frustrated, actually, that I had to put D&D down and turn to something else. I think I'm getting close to that middle point though, so things should flow a little better soon and I can finally update the story again, after a month and a half of nothing. That'll feel really good.

I want to know - is D&D publishable? Do you guys read it and think, "I could be sitting in a Barnes and Noble café with a paperback copy of this bad boy"? Obviously, it will still undergo revision, and could definitely use a little polish even after all that's said and done, but is the potential there? I could use some honesty on this one.

playlists are great things

2008-07-22T12:06:00.001-07:00

I always write to music. In fact, I pretty much do everything to music - the iPod is always playing. But depending on what I'm writing, the music can vary. Most of my stories have a kind of working playlist by the time I'm at least a few chapters in, but some of them I try a little harder at than others. Here's what I've got for Diamonds & Dust so far. Right now it's a mixture of songs that have general inspiration for the story or for a character, that fit the overall tone or feeling of the story, or that really nail a specific aspect of the plot or a person on the head. I've linked to the lyrics on a few songs that fall under that latter category, especially.

"Diamonds and Rust" by Joan Baez: The specific version I'm thinking of is the later one, I think, where the last line of the song is changed to "if you're offering me diamonds and rust / well, I'll take the diamonds" instead of "if you're offering me diamonds and rust / I've already paid." This song and the Bob Dylan one that follows were the two songs that really started everything. When I hear this one, I think of everybody, but it's Teddy and Marlene that come to mind the most.

"Lily, Rosemary, and the Jack of Hearts" by Bob Dylan: Between this song and the one above, I think it's easy to see where the title came from. The Diamonds as an organization took their name from the Baez song, but the idea for the group - and for a character like Teddy - came from the Jack of Hearts. I thought it would be fun to write a story about someone who just dropped in and out like that without warning; somebody who influences everything he touches and everything he doesn't touch. Teddy is very much like that to me, which I think has come across a little bit in the story so far.

"Blowin' in the Wind" by Bob Dylan: This is really one of the central questions to the story, and it's one Sara actually brought up in Ch. 11 Part 1.

"Pictures of Success" by Rilo Kiley: I vaguely think of Virginia.

"The Only Living Boy in New York" by Simon & Garfunkel: This is on here more for ambiance than anything, but I think it also kind of hints at what it might be like to be a Diamond.

"Today's the Day" by Aimee Mann: Another song that gets at one of the major themes. If this were RENT, we would be singing instead "no day but today" but this is the West and we really aren't that cuddly.

"Let It Ride" by Ryan Adams: Ryan Adams (along with Bob Dylan) is on my iTunes playlist a lot, even if I don't list him multiple times here, because his sound is perfect for the soundtrack. This song specifically though is Will's all the way - it's uncanny, actually, how well it fits him. Actually, a lot of Ryan Adams's songs work really well for Will (see "Wish You here," "Love is Hell," and "Trains" for examples), but this one is the best.

"I Will Keep the Bad Things from You" by the Damnwells: More ambiance. Mostly.

"All Along the Watchtower" by Bob Dylan: Come on. You had to see this one coming.

"Don't Think Twice, It's All Right" by Bob Dylan or Joan Baez: If you listen to the Bob Dylan version, it's Teddy. If you listen to the Joan Baez version, it's Marlene. ;D

"Both Sides Now" by Joni Mitchell: This is another song that is pretty much for everyone, and generally fits the story overall.

"Shelter from the Storm" by Bob Dylan: Teddy. So Teddy it's not even funny.

"Harmonica" from Cowboy Bebop: I have no idea what the actual name of this song is, but it's from the "Sympathy for the Devil" episode where the kid plays a mean harmonica. Whatever he's playing, it's totally D&D material.

"The Child Is Gone" by Fiona Apple: This is a little bit Marlene, with a touch of Virginia.

"Buckets of Rain" by Bob Dylan: Yeah, he's all over the soundtrack. But this is another one of those perfect songs... for various reasons.

"Always on my Mind" by Willie Nelson: Poor, stupid Teddy.

"Thicker Than Water" by Tod Hannigan: Ambiance! (I'm getting lazy.)

"Hard Headed Woman" by Cat Stevens: It's what everybody really needs.

"Extraordinary Machine" by Fiona Apple: This is a pretty good song for Virginia, though it's almost bizarrely happy compared to the rest of the soundtrack. But in that sense it's still pretty good because it mirrors Gin - she's kind of the outsider, after all.

"Miles from Nowhere" by Cat Stevens: General theme/story ambiance.

"Philosopher's Stone" by Van Morrison: A good song for James, but for the Diamonds in general.

"Indoor Fireworks" by Elvis Costello: This one's for Teddy and Marlene. It always makes me a little sad, but it's pretty perfect.

"Waiting for the Miracle" by Leonard Cohen: Mostly ambiance, but it has some weight to it, like most of the other songs. Random side note about this one - it always reminds me of Henry James's The Beast in the Jungle. Yeah, you can tell I'm an English major.

There are more songs, of course, but I think these are probably the ones that capture D&D the best. Naturally, the list is subject to change as things continue. Story's not done yet, after all. At any rate, I think my love of Bob Dylan at this point has become painfully obvious. ;p

coffee and tattoos

2008-07-12T19:59:00.001-07:00

It was one of the first days of spring, warm and beautiful, and Jordan had decided to celebrate by wearing a dress. Her roommate, long considered the fashionista of the two, only shook her head as she watched her buckle the cloth belt in the front. "You look like a 50's housewife in that thing," Delilah told her, popping another grape into her mouth. Then, gesturing to the ratty old converse shoes Jordan was wearing with it, amended, "Well, a 50's housewife gone wrong."

Jordan splayed the A-line skirt out with her hands, posing and batting her eyelashes. "I do what I can."

"Right," Delilah agreed, and then went back into her room. "I can't decide between the green shirt and the yellow one. Which do you think he'd like better?"

Jordan rolled her eyes but went to see what she'd picked out. Both were set near the jean skirt Delilah had her heart set on, mainly because, as she'd so delicately put it, "It makes my ass look amazing, and if the boy knows what's good for him he'll be looking at it all day." Stealing a grape, she put a hand on her hip and then shrugged. "They're both festive. But the yellow one looks better with the skirt, I think. Don't you always wear the green one with jeans anyway?"

Delilah pet her friend's shoulder. "Good point."

Both girls finished dressing for the day - for Jordan that just meant a coat of mascara and a spritz of perfume, but for Delilah it meant another half an hour of hair and make-up duty, and the trying on of at least four different pairs of shoes - and then walked to class together as far as they could before parting ways, promising, however, to meet up afterwards for coffee at the campus Starbucks.

"You've gotten me addicted!" Delilah yelled at her, shaking her fist for emphasis as she started up the stairs to her building.

Jordan just waved jovially at her in return. "I love you too, darling!"

Her class was one of two literature courses she had for that semester, and the professor who taught the course was one of her favorites. This was the third class she had with Dr. Barb Jennings since she'd started undergraduate, which meant that not only was she entirely comfortable with talking in class and bouncing ideas off of Dr. Barb, she usually ended up staying behind a few minutes after every other class or so to catch up with her. The weather had her especially cheerful and talkative today, though it helped that they were currently discussing Beloved, which was one of her favorite recent reads. Dr. Barb clearly wasn't surprised when Jordan approached her after class to talk about a potential paper topic.

Fifteen minutes later, armed with some possible sources and still slightly in critical literature mode, Jordan left the English building and headed towards the Starbucks. She didn't make it ten feet from the building before she felt her cell phone vibrate in her bag. Knowing it was probably her roommate, Jordan fished it out. "Yo!"

"You stayed after, didn't you?" Delilah asked, sounding amused.

"Yep," Jordan replied. She waved back at a girl who called her name from the other side of the street, a friend from an old class, and then added, "I'll be there in five. You already there?"

"Yes. I've been here for ten minutes, staring at somebody's frappucino because I am a good friend and I'm waiting for you to get here before I order. I am thirsty, Jordan."

Jordan grinned. She could definitely imagine her petite little Arabic friend sulking at their usual table, drooling over some frosty drink she spied across the room. To complete the scene she added some guys spying and drooling over Delilah, which is what usually happened when she decided to leave their apartment, and then remembered that her roommate had had class with the boy. "Hey, so how'd the outfit work out?"

"Well, he definitely stared for an indeterminate amount of time, so I guess it worked out," Delilah observed. "He invited us out to a party this weekend."

"Us? He remembers I exist?"

"Jordan, you were wearing that bright pink shirt of yours with the headless bird. Of course he remembers you."

Jordan laughed. "I love that shirt." It was just one of many odd designs that belonged to one of her favorite bands, who were nothing if not quirky.

"Anyway," she continued, and Jordan imagined her friend was rolling her eyes, "It's on Friday night over at Oakland Heights, which is where your friend Rob lives, right?"

"Yeah." Rob was another friend she'd met from one of her early literature courses. They'd sat next to each other on the first day and struck up a conversation about music right away - Jordan had been wearing one of her quirky band shirts and he'd actually recognized it, and their friendship had snowballed from there. They'd actually gone on a couple of dates early on but had decided they were better off as friends. "I'll have to give him a call and see if he's heard anything. At any rate, I can escape over to his place if you decide you want a little privacy with the new boytoy."

"I may just take you up on that." Delilah paused, and then in her best stalker voice, declared, "I can seeeee you."

Jordan was still a block away from the Starbucks - a small block, mind you - but it was a straight shot from where she was and the dress she was wearing was a bright cherry red, so she couldn't say much. "Creep."

"Bitch."

"Floozy."

"Stepford-wife on acid."

Jordan couldn't rightly see in the building, due to the darkened glass, but could guess what direction her friend was in and flicked her off from across the street. "That was very unlady-like," Delilah informed her then, as Jordan glanced both ways for traffic before crossing.

"I'm hanging up now," Jordan returned, and promptly did so. A few seconds later she was pulling the door open and entering the caffeine haven that was Starbucks. Since it was a campus 'bucks, there was a large number of tables in the place, and there were always students studying or meeting friends between classes. Delilah was at their usual table in the corner by the window, mock-glaring at her. As expected, there were a handful of guys near by, though only two of them seemed to be busy checking out her friend. They looked sporty, and were her usual run-of-the-mill, so Jordan was not surprised to see her friend sitting straight up with her legs crossed.

She was a little surprised to see that one of the guys was actually rather busy checking her out; he was sitting alone, with his black messenger bag on the table in front of him, his chin propped in his hand. He was thin and lean-looking, definitely her type, and she could spy a half-sleeve tattoo peeking out from under his fitted t-shirt that instantly piqued her curiosity even more. Their eyes met for a brief couple of seconds, and Jordan had just enough time to think, Oh sweet Jesus, he's hot, before Delilah demanded her attention.

"Finally!" Her roommate stood and straightened her skirt, and then collected her debit card from her wallet. "Sit already. You want your usual?"

They took turns buying, mostly because tables disappeared in here faster than a sorority girl's virginity, and also because they agreed it was more exciting when somebody else bought your coffee. Jordan set her tote on the table and plopped down in the chair opposite the one Delilah had vacated. "You want me to call Rob now or wait?"

"Please wait," Delilah replied. "You know you can't have a five minute conversation with that boy and I'm afraid I'm going to require all of your attention today."

"Jesus, you're clingy," Jordan teased, and then promptly began searching through her friend's bag for her hand sanitizer as she went to buy the coffee. She was aware that the hot boy with the tattoo was still looking in her direction, but whether he was looking at her or just looking out the window she couldn't be sure without looking at him.

"Hey, I'm getting a muffin, you want one?" Delilah called out at her then. The line wasn't that far away but it required her raising her voice from its usual volume, and inevitably attracted some attention. Her eyes were sparkling with mischief, and Jordan only had to glance over at the table where the sporty boys were to know she wanted that attention.

"No, I'll just eat yours," Jordan replied, leaning her arm over the back of her chair as she stretched her legs out and hooked her ankles together.

Delilah looked scandalized. "Jordan, you are not eating my muffin."

Jesus, she thought, smirking at her roommate despite herself. "Buy me my goddamn coffee already." Now that they had established the sexual innuendo part of their conversation, Jordan wondered how long it would take those two guys to wander over to their table and introduce themselves. She was betting they would wait at least ten minutes after Delilah returned with their drinks, and then they would stroll over in their washed jeans and polos and strike up a conversation. Delilah would smile at them and flirt just enough to make sure they remembered her, and would end the whole thing before either one could ask for her phone number, promising instead to see them around. Jordan, meanwhile, would play the wit and the quirky best friend, and if Dee decided she like one more than the other, she would engage the other by asking him questions about whatever sport he inevitably played.

After three years, she was very good at being the wing-man. Woman. Whatever.

She took out her little moleskine notebook and wrote down the titles of the books Dr. Barb had referred her to before she forgot them, and made a couple notes beside them so she would remember why it was she wanted to look them up in the first place.

Delilah dropped off the slice of chocolate cake she'd bought before returning to the other end of the coffee bar to wait for their drinks. She purposefully didn't bring over the forks because she didn't want Jordan to start eating without her; she also knew, however, that such things as a lack of silverwear never stopped Jordan. She swiped some of the frosting off the top with her finger before going back to her book list.

"Don't even bother looking for that one, I already checked it out," a voice said behind her, and she glanced up to see Rob's grinning face.

"Bastard!" She replied cheerfully. "Been talking to Barb, have you?"

"Every night, baby," Rob returned, winking at her. He leaned down and kissed her cheek and then asked, "How'd your brother's wedding go? That was last weekend, wasn't it?"

"Yeah. It was fantastic. Had way too much champagne, but so did the rest of my family, so it really worked out for the best," she said. "I think he and his lady-friend are back-packing in Germany right now."

Delilah came back then, and upon sighting Rob groaned. "No, go away, Rob! You're stealing my private time with Jordan!"

He held his hands up defensively, still grinning. "You know I would never do that, Dee. Drink your coffee, you'll feel better. In the meantime, I'll be over here, talking to my good friend Aaron and pretending that I'm not thinking about what color underwear you're both wearing." His good friend Aaron turned out to be the hot boy with the tattoo, which didn't really surprise Jordan at all - Rob had a few tattoos of his own, and dressed similarly to the other boy.

Since the opening was right, she glanced back over at Aaron and wondered briefly, as she let her eyes linger, why she hadn't seen him before. Granted, she and Rob didn't hang out all the time, but they both frequented similar circles. College, she thought, and dismissed it, turning eagerly to her chai.

"You touched the cake!" Delilah accused then, and Jordan blinked at her from over the rim of her mug.

"Maybe."

Fifteen minutes later the two guys in polos came over. It took a significant amount of will power to keep the laughter from bubbling over, and even then she had to cough one off and pretend she'd swallowed the chai wrong. Delilah knew exactly what was up, but pretended concern anyway and then told her to "Eat more cake."

About ten minutes into that, Rob glanced over his shoulder and waved her over. Jordan thankfully took the escape offered, and blew Delilah a little kiss as she switched tables. Settling down in a chair in between the two boys, positioned so she could keep an eye on her friend, she muttered, "Thank you for saving me. All I could think about was how much I wanted to fix his damn collar." She was referring to the one in the pink polo who'd 'popped' his; it was one of those fashion trends she just couldn't understand. But hell, to each their own, right?

"I know, pumpkin, I know." He stole her chai and took a sip. "By the way, Jordan, Aaron; Aaron, Jordan. Sorry for my shitty introduction earlier."

Jordan shook his hand, smiling. "Pleasure," she said, and tried not to take too much said pleasure from the way his hand dwarfed hers. He returned the smile, though it was really more of a slight up-turn on the one side, and sexy as hell.

Rob brought her attention to a paper on the table. "Okay, second opinion, since I don't like Aaron's," he glared at the man in question before glancing at Jordan, "Which one of these do you like better? Tom's been drawing the design over and over for me and these are the two I like best."

Jordan pulled the paper towards her and eyed them for a few seconds. Both designs vaguely resembled the tree of life, but one was a little more loopy and symmetrical and the other had a very art deco edge to it. Tom, she knew, was his tattoo artist - she'd actually requested him for hers, just because of Rob's praise for the guy. Hers were nothing like the colorful designs on the paper, but she'd really only wanted to meet the guy and give him a good tip. His drawings were great, and if they turned out anything like the ones Rob already had, would look fantastic on the skin. Jordan especially like the color on the art deco one, so she pointed towards it and declared, "That one."

Aaron grinned smugly, but Rob ignored him as he asked, "Why?"

"The other one is more traditional, and you, Rob, are not traditional. Plus, the color on this is fantastic and it would look better with your other tattoos." She took her chai back from him.

"She's nicer than you are," Rob said to Aaron then.

Aaron shrugged, and said to Jordan by way of explanation, "I called the other one girly."

She smiled, and then inquired, "Have you asked Tom?"

"Yeah, but you know Tom - he doesn't like to influence people's decisions like that, so he always hedges when I bring it up." Rob was practically pouting. The one thing she'd really liked about Rob in that brief month that they dated was that he had really fantastic lips - great for kissing. She found herself wondering how good of a kisser Aaron was and took a sip of her chai to distract herself. Down, girl.

"Do you have tattoos?" Aaron asked her then.

She nodded. "Two. A heart on my leg and this one on my wrist," she answered, turning said wrist over so he could see the writing on the inside. It was the date 5-20-88 in simple black print. Her older brother - the one just recently married - had one just like it. When he repeated the numbers and glanced inquiringly at her, she answered easily, "It was my brother's birthday. He died a couple years ago."

Aaron studied her for a second and then offered, "Sorry to hear."

"It's fine," she shrugged. "He was born sick, and wasn't supposed to live past five. Anyway, I've been working on another design for a while but it isn't what I want yet, so number three is probably going to be a while still."

"Take it to Tom," Rob said, putting the sheet with his own designs away. "Even if you want to draw it yourself, he might be able to suggest something to get you going in the right direction."

"I probably should," Jordan agreed. She noticed that Delilah was starting to look a little strained, and couldn't help but grin. "Okay, I think I have to go save my roommate now. I'm calling you later about a party," she warned Rob as she stood, letting him have one last sip of her chai.

"In my pants," he returned happily.

Jordan just sighed, took back her chai, and tossed Aaron one last smile before heading back to her table. Delilah quickly pulled her back into that conversation, slowly favoring her over the guys, and they eventually got the hint and went back to where they were before. She and Dee left soon after, but not before saying another quick goodbye to Rob and Aaron.

As they left, Delilah cut her to the chase with a smirk. "Let me guess. You like?"

"So cute," Jordan agreed. With any luck, she'd start seeing Aaron around more often.

freedom, sweet freedom!!

2008-07-09T15:34:00.000-07:00

OI - my summer course is done, baby! Paper finished, submitted, and totally kicking ass (you all should know I'm a genius. Honestly, sometimes I'm even surprised with how awesome I am)... so much that I'll probably be looking into getting it published. We'll see what happens with that, but right now let's just say I'm in a great mood and ready to get back to my fiction. ;]

Some Kind of Wonderful Awards is going on and I have two challenge responses up on the nominations page (which makes me 2 for 2, might I add) - The Eleventh Annual Hide Or Die Summer Challenge and After The Rain Has Fallen. Considering the former has about forty more reviews than the latter, I'm thinking I know what people will be leaning towards.

I've decided to update everybody on all my stories, in terms of where I'm at mentally with them because I'm cool like that (but really, I'm just so freaking happy to be done and screwing around on the internet freely, doing whatever I damn well please), so here's a big ol' update for you all:

The Harris Family Tree:
The good news: I'm about half way through the sequel to Hide or Die. The bad news: road block. I'm still trying to decide where I want it to go exactly. Or more like, how I want it to get there. I'm basically doing the same thing I did with Hide or Die - I wrote a whole bunch, and then suddenly got about half way and ran out of steam, sat on it for a couple of months, and then came back with a vengeance. So this'll finish itself eventually, but until then I'm not going to force it too much.

According to the poll I have up on my Fictionpress profile, the majority of you (41%) want to hear about Greg next. Which doesn't surprise me at all. So I will probably write about him next. I have some ideas, but there's no telling where these could go. Mark is going to get his own story, definitely - that was something I'd already been decided on from the get-go; I'm also pretty sure there's another Harris cousin that will make an appearance (no, she won't be related to Charlie; yes, I said 'she'), and Erin might get more spotlight through that. But I'm still brainstorming all of this, so let me know what you think.

I am still going with the idea that every one of these stories is going to be a challenge response, though, so if there's a specific one somebody wants to see done or thinks it'll go really well with one of the characters, let me know - I'm always open to suggestions.

The Prince of the Hours:
This is the sequel to After The Rain Has Fallen, which I think I've mentioned briefly a couple of times (there was that one scrapped beginning, too). It's going to be about ten chapters or so, and each chapter is going to be set in a specific city and will probably be about the same length as After The Rain, give or take a few hundred words. I'm going to alternate POVs every chapter, as well, so Xenia can get her two cents in this time around. However, I won't be posting any of this until it's done... I've got plenty of things to update as it is, so while I have started writing in this, it isn't a priority right now - no need to divide my focus even more.

The Ghost Stone:
For some reason chapters have been flying out of this one lately. Partly because my muse kicked in here, and partly because I'm also at a place in the story where I know exactly what's going on and how it all goes down. The main plot, as many of you noted, has also come to the surface and so we'll be seeing a lot more of that, as well as lot more insight into the city and the history of the school through the ghosts Vesper sees. I'm not as serious about this as I am with Diamonds and Dust so while after this writing streak runs out, there might be a brief period where I do some more brainstorming and readjust, but I won't ever be going back halfway through the story to revise.

While it might disappoint some of you, Vesper and Guy are never going to hook up. Ever. That was never my plan, although I can't say that I'm surprised a couple of you were really angling for that. Guy is pretty much fantastic anyway you look at it, and I want to see him get some lovin' just as much as the rest of you. But romantically speaking, it won't be from Vesper. She's rather busy dealing with a certain other delicious man right now.

Diamonds and Dust:
Oh, my baby. My poor little baby. I've left you all alone. *sniff*

....ahem. Right. So. I'm free again to give this the focus it deserves, so hopefully I will get the last part of Chapter Eleven out soon, and then revision can begin. I had some pretty crazy ideas in mind for this, but I'm going to try and tone them down and keep it to a bare minimum for now - if it gets too far away from the original it'll be too much work and I'll end up having to take it all down, and I do not want to do that. I'm just not ready to sit down and rewrite it completely. So this time around, most of the changes will be towards the beginning. I will probably repost the chapters it affects, and if/when I do, I will let you know which ones those are.

Other ideas:
Yes, there are more. Yes, I'm insane. But I can't help it. I do have some self control, however, so I will exert it here. I'm not going to start another story until at least one of the above is done. One-shots don't count - these, actually, are a huge help because it let's me take a break and focus on something little and fun while my brain hacks away at the others in the background. So here's a brief breakdown of what else is currently stirring in the pot.

1. "You Can't Go Back" is not the title of it, but it's the general feeling, so: they say that you can't go back, but what if it wasn't your choice to make? This story would be a kind of fantasy-adventure and would be strictly from the male protagonist's point of view. There will be some romance, of course, but with this one I really want to get back into my fantasy roots and delve a little more into action and fighting.
Prior left his old life - and everything in it - behind him for good. He wanted a fresh start, a new life as a simple man working on a farm, earning his living like any other normal man might. But he's never been normal, and some thing simply refuse to stay in the past. When the Sword Masters start dying, it's clear that something has to be done. And as much as he doesn't want to get back into it, Prior knows that he can't just stay idly by and watch the rest of his old friends die. So go back he will. He just hopes it doesn't lead him to his death.

2. I have an idea for a one-shot between a nameless couple who have a rather odd relationship. This one would take place in the modern age, I think, and both characters will probably lead fairly shady lives. The entire story is more or less a confrontation between the two. I haven't decided much more than that, though this wouldn't be a challenge response. I'm still playing around with it.

3. Aoen (names may be subject to change) lives with her father and her little sister in a small, rural town, miles and miles away from the large capital city of the kingdom and the social politics of the court. While her father works as a blacksmith, she keeps house, looks after her sister, and does few odd jobs in town when she can to help with the finances. Like her father, she has no interest in politics and isn't concerned with much that doesn't have to do with her family, her garden, and their day-to-day existence. They don't exactly live easy, comfortable lifestyles, but Aoen loves her home and her family and is satisfied with her lot.
And then one day her father brings home an injured, unconscious soldier. And not just any soldier - his uniform, tattered and covered in blood and dirt as it is, marks him as one of the kingdom's elite. Aoen knows a little healing magic, and combined with the knowledge of herbs and medicines she inherited from her late mother, is able to stabilize the young man. He sleeps a lot, and heals slowly under she and her father's watchful eyes. He won't talk about how he came to them but devours any news about the kingdom that his hosts usually pass over. It's clear he remembers the event; what isn't clear is why he won't write the guard and inform them of his whereabouts, or why he's so interested in her father and what he does. Aoen can't help but think the healing guard is more trouble than he's worth, and can't help but look forward to the day when he leaves them for the capital, never to return again.
She didn't expect to go with him.

I think it's obvious at this point I'm a fan of mysterious pasts. lol

So, that's what's going on in my itty bitty head right now. Comments? Questions? Cookies? Send them over!

kill me now.

2008-07-07T21:31:00.000-07:00

I fucking hate papers, man. How am I going to be a professor after this? Maybe I need to go into publishing after all.

Post-ATRHF scrap, and updates

2008-06-23T17:56:00.000-07:00

Post-After The Rain... Scrap

It was almost twelve-thirty and Xenia still hadn’t shown up. Takis sighed, leaning his head back against the smooth white stone of the column he stood against. He was hungry and sore, and patience at this point was only a word to scoff at. A couple months ago, he might have started to worry. A couple of months ago he was wary of letting her use the bathroom unaccompanied, let alone embarking out into a city on her own. But now, a couple months later, he was just pissed off.

It amazed him how much of a pain in the ass the Princess could be. Takis knew about half the time she was doing it on purpose just to irritate him. These were also the times when the choice between ripping her head off and ripping her clothes off was all too easy – their make-up sex, like all their other sex, was unbelievable. But there were other times when the Princess in Xenia came out and it was all he could do to keep from throttling her. Takis was half inclined to write the King of Cyprine a very strongly worded letter about his children’s upbringing.

Of course, that would completely defeat all of their attempts to continue evading the special guard units King Stylianos IV sent out to search for his missing daughter. And that was really no good, either.

The necklace, once they’d picked off all the jewels, divided up the gold filigree that made up the base, and melted it down into little coins, had turned out to offer them a pretty sum indeed. Half of it Takis distributed to his people in the city, to do with as they please, and half of it he kept. Xenia’s money had held them over for about two months, but another two months after that they were still living off her bride price with plenty more where that came from. The coins and occasional precious gems they pawned didn’t look anything remotely like the necklace they’d originally made up. If the King’s guards were looking for traces, he certainly wouldn’t find them that way.

Chara slinked up from behind him and rubbed against his legs. Takis scowled, glancing down at the big cat, ignoring the happy purr she gave him in greeting. In the five months they’d been away from Cyprine, the leopard cub had nearly doubled in size. Her coat was a gorgeous golden orange, spotted over liberally in inky black.

“I’m going to kill her,” he told the cat seriously. “And then I’m going to eat you.”

“Don’t be such a bully,” Xenia admonished gently, coming up behind him. She wore a plain linen robe in the style of the current city they were in, one-shouldered and with a countering slit in the skirt. No jewelry decorated her neck, her arms, or her ears, and her sandals were simple leather. Her hair was short, left to curl naturally around her face, with no product or perfume of any kind. There was nothing decorative about her at all, and even so, Takis felt his mouth dry up a little as he looked at her.

“Where have you been?” He asked, crossing his arms sulkily to make up for the way he still reacted to her presence.

She crouched down, allowing Chara to nuzzle her chin affectionately before glancing up at him. “What part of the word ‘surprise’ don’t you understand?”

He frowned down at her to hide the little shiver of pleasure that went up his spine whenever he thought about her going out of her way to do something for him. It didn’t happen often. “The part where you’re half an hour late.”

Xenia smiled indulgently at him, easily seeing through his moody responses. “Cranky, isn’t he?” She asked Chara, scratching the leopard behind the ears.

The leopard yawned widely in response, exposing her pointy canines, and flicked her tail leisurely, as if to say, “Well, he is just a man.”

Takis tossed his hair out of his eyes – unlike Xenia’s, his had just been getting longer – and straightened. “I’m hungry. You didn’t eat, did you?”

Xenia shook her head and gave the leopard one last scratch before rising. “No, I thought you might get testy.” At his responding glare, she smiled and shrugged. “I was right. Where do you want to eat?”

He was tempted to spank her, even though he knew she had the upper hand on this one. “Let’s just grab something off the street and go back to the room,” he suggested, pulling on Chara’s tail playfully. “I need a nap.”

“All right,” she agreed.

Before they departed from the little alcove, he snuck his arm around her waist and pulled her closer, moving his mouth over hers. She didn’t like it when he kissed her in public – not because she didn’t like being kissed by him, but because she thought it brought unwanted attention to them. Even while she’d turned out to be a natural at his kind of underground lifestyle, he knew the fear of being caught still lurked in the back of her mind.

If he was honest, the fear was his as much as it was hers.

He kissed her forehead after, and held her close for a little longer. “So when do I get my gift?”

“You know, ‘surprise’ doesn’t necessarily denote a gift of some kind.”

Takis sighed exaggeratedly and moved away from her. “What on earth have I done to deserve this? You have been put on this planet to torture me.”

“You could only be so lucky.” Xenia whistled at Chara as she followed after him. The leopard had taken to licking herself during their moment of intimacy, but at her mistress’s beckoning had sprung up and trotted after them.

It had been a long morning. The only nourishment he’d had was a bit of bread and some fruit much earlier, as the sun was rising. As it was now, it felt like his stomach was about to turn in on itself. The trip he’d made, though, was a necessary one. They’d been in Carthos for about a week now, but every morning he got up with the sun and checked the city’s two harbors for the royal flag of Cyprine. From there he would move into the markets for the gossip, make a stop at the council house for official notices, and finish at the citadel in the center of the city where he eyed the new and old mercenaries that lined up for work. When all of that was done, he went back to the room he and Xenia had rented out and they would usually go to lunch. Sometimes Xenia came with him, sometimes she slept in and mended clothes, restocked their provisions, or exchanged coins for the appropriate currency.

That morning she’d broken the pattern and ventured out on her own, promising him that she’d return around noon with a surprise.

-----------------------------

That's where it ends. I started writing this without really knowing where a sequel would go at all, and now that I've actually sat down and planned out most of what I want to happen, this bit of fiction is completely obsolete. But it'll probably be some time before you see anything having to do with Takis and Xenia (I'm actually about 90% certain at this point that 1, it will be about ten chapters total, and 2, I will write the whole of it before posting any of it) so this is for your reading enjoyment in the meantime.

I've been feeling very creative lately, and since I'm a terrible student I've been brainstorming for new and old story ideas and writing in a couple others rather than spending more time doing research for my summer course. Sadly, Diamonds and Dust is not one of them - to write in that I cannot be in the middle of something else (i.e. summer course). But the good news is that there's only two weeks left of that, so hopefully you'll be seeing part 2 of chapter eleven sometime in the next month or so.

I want to write a post about how much I love a good fantasy story, and how much I miss writing it, so expect something like that at a later date. In fact, I might just do a little mini-series on specific genres... you know, with all this free time I have. ;]

concerning Diamonds and Dust

2008-06-12T18:23:00.000-07:00

The thing about Diamonds and Dust is that right now I am very split between trying to sit down and write the rest of it out - just to have a first draft done - and going back to the beginning and revising. I'm sure many of you are thinking, "FINISH, DAMN YOU!" Bits of me are saying the same. But the problem with this is that I've gotten to the point in D&D where it's obvious that the story is really starting to take on a life of its own - it's going in a completely different direction than what it started out in. Many of the ideas I have for revisions reflect this, especially where the characters and their relationships with each other are concerned (coughGinWillHunterZachcough). There are also a lot of places in the middle that could really be fixed in terms of pacing and POV, and there a lot of additional scenes that I would add that would strengthen the characters, give more insight into people and backgrounds, and generally make the story much more cohesive than it is right now. And Virginia cries too damn much - it's driving me absolutely crazy. The story I have in my head right now no longer reflects what's been posted on FP, and I don't like that. I don't like the idea that subsequent chapters I post might reference something I've decided to edit and would therefore be lost on my readers or just confuse them out of their minds.

I think more than anything D&D really reflects how transitory the writing process can be. In this instance, a lot of this is because when I started writing this, I didn't actually have any idea what was going to happen - I just had Virginia, a girl freshly out of boarding school, and the vague knowledge that she was about to get way in over her head. I knew that she was going to have to deal with a whole lot of shit, and that the things she was going to experience would test and change her as a person. This much, at least, has remained the same, but how I want to show that now has changed. The beginning, I feel, no longer best reflects Gin's current situation, and it by no means sets the tone for the story that I want it to set.

So... I think it's fairly obvious at this point that I've pretty much already made my decision. I'm going to start actually revising Diamonds and Dust. I haven't decided how that process will work exactly - if I will post revised chapters as I go or not. I do know that the chapters are already long enough as it is, and that any additions I make will completely change how the story is presented in its chaptered format. Right now I'm leaning towards finishing Chapter Eleven - simply because I know exactly what I want to happen and it would be a good place to pause at, and I also feel like I might be stoned to death if I don't - and then returning to the beginning from there. I don't want to scare you guys away with words like hiatus and on hold, but it's a very real possibility... at least until I'm done playing catch-up.

I imagine that after this first editing process is complete, the second version of Diamonds and Dust will look very different from the original D&D you knew and loved. Hopefully you will love this one even more, and will believe - like I do right now - that the revisions will do the characters and the story far more justice than it does right now. But I guess only time will tell. Till then, though, please let me know what you think.

"i've changed my mind" updates

2008-05-31T11:14:00.000-07:00

I decided to put up Ch. 11 Part I of Diamonds and Dust after all. Part I alone is about 14 pages, and I know that Part II is probably going to go over that, once I get around to actually finishing it. I might have to split that up into II and III but we'll see what happens. Basically, though, because my summer course has officially started, I don't know how much time I'll have to sit down and write and I didn't want to leave D&D without an update for another month and a half. I'm hoping that, like usual, I'll have a couple nights here where I'll be totally inspired and will slack off on my reading a little so that I can make some progress.

Wow, how academic does that sound? ;p

After The Rain Has Fallen is complete, but I'm waiting for my sister to finish beta-ing it for me. So that, at least, might be uploaded in the next week or so.

Charlie is stalling. Actually, I'm thinking about making the entire Harris family series into a collection of challenge responses - each story would be from a specific character's point of view and would respond to a specific challenge at SKoW. Sounds fun to me, anyway.

one-shots and progress updates

2008-05-25T17:01:00.000-07:00

Recently I've been working on a new challenge response for SKoW challenge #23 - So Many Songs, But I'm Feeling So Lonely! The title will be After The Rain Has Fallen (sound familiar, Sting fans?) and involves a thief, the necklace he's after, and the princess who wears it. It's actually about 80% done right now, and let's just say that its M rating is highly appropriate at this point. I just have to wrap it up and then go through it again and edit the things that need editing. My goal is to have it done, actually, in the next couple of days... as in, before my summer course starts. I think this class is going to be pretty intense so I'm not too sure how much time I'll have to spare for writing. At least, in the beginning I should have some extra time, but I know once June hits (and once, of course, round six of SKoW starts up) I won't have a whole lot of free time at all.

I've discovered that I like writing one-shots. It's a nice change of pace from my usual chapter-to-chapter approach, and it's also given me a chance to step back from Diamonds and Dust and The Ghost Stone and sort some things out there. I had really wanted to make another update to D&D before this class started but I don't think that's going to happen after all, especially since this one-shot idea got me so excited. Part One of Chapter Eleven is ready to go, but I have yet to really start Part Two and until that's done the former won't be uploaded.

I really have no idea what's going on with The Ghost Stone. I'm a few chapters ahead of what's on FP right now, but I'm kind of experiencing writer's block with that one. I know what I want to happen, but it's not connecting right now and I'm not going to force it. Kind of the same thing with Part Two - I'm pretty much waiting for inspiration to strike.

In the mean time, I put a new poll up on my FP profile - go vote!

boo, real life

2008-05-10T20:34:00.000-07:00

Recently there has been a gigantic lapse in writing. Mostly this is due to final semester stuff that has to be done - three papers (each of them anywhere from 12-20 pages) and one final exam that I complained about often (who gives final exams in a graduate literature program? I mean, really!). I still have one paper left, but I'm half way done and so not worried about it. One would think, then, that I might be able to get back on the ball with all my FP stuff. Sadly, this is not so. I think it might be because I'm still in that "finals" mentality but I haven't been able to write much of anything when it comes to fiction.

What is odd, however, is that the research I do for my papers has only given me more story ideas. "Megs, what's up with that?" You ask. Well, my dear, I haven't the slightest. But just in case any of you are interested in adaptations of Shakespeare from the Restoration era in British theatre, you'll be glad to know that I've been inspired while reading about some of the first actresses of the stage. Naturally, anything I write from this will have some definite feminist leanings (as, arguably, most of my stuff does). So far it looks to be a kind of historical fiction attempt and will thus require more research into specific actresses and/or theatre companies, but for now that's where my mind's at.

I also just watched a western the other day called The Searchers, but unfortunately it did not put me back in a Diamonds and Dust groove. I think the key is more Bob Dylan, actually, so I'll work on that. I'm just stuck in a difficult place right now with D&D - my mind alternates between finishing the story and what revisions I'm already planning to make (some of them major), so it makes it difficult to buckle down and beat it out. Eventually, though, I will.

Charlie is still working on his sequel for me, hashing out the details and such. I may revise TEAHODSC before posting it, just so the two fit a little more seamlessly, but this won't be for a while yet, I don't think.

Leave me comments! I'm lonely.

things happen in threes?

2008-04-25T18:09:00.000-07:00

I have good news and bad news. The good news: I've been working on a sequel to The Eleventh Annual Hide or Die Summer Challenge. The bad news: I don't like how it started, so I'm scratching it. In fact, I'm still pretty uncertain about the story as a whole right now. I think that's mostly because I started out with a plan, and then started writing from Charlie's POV and realized that what I had in the first place just wasn't going to work. It wasn't Charlie to me. At the very least, it wasn't the story he wanted to tell. So I've started over. But I thought I'd post the scrapped bit here, just for fun. So that's like good news #2.

Good news #3 is that I've decided to do a series of stories concerning the extended Harris family, tentatively titled The Harris Family Tree. I've already got some ideas as to who's story I'll do next, and while I know that some of the characters from TEAHODSC are more popular than others, I should warn you ahead of time that I don't know if all the Harris children will have one. Mostly because I don't want to force a story on them - if they want to tell one, they'll let me know (bash me over the head with it, more like), but until that happens I'm just gonna write whoever's talkin'.

I would, however, love to hear your ideas, so if you really want to see a specific character's story or think it would be hysterical if [insert shinnanigans here] happened to one of the Harris kindred, kindly let me know. Who knows, it might inspire me. ;]

Now, without further ado, enjoy the scrap:
---------------------
Scrapped Hide or Die Sequel Start
[Rated-T for Charlie's dirty mind]

Hello. My name is Charlie Harris, I’m twenty-two, and I’ve had a crush on Adelaide Clark since the tenth grade.

It sounds more serious than it really is. I didn’t go to school with Addles – not until college, at least. But she and my cousins were friends for the longest time, so I’ve known her practically all my life. In the beginning I only saw her during the summer, and sometimes during holidays, whenever my parents took us to see the Harris cousins. She wasn’t much of anything to me then. I went to my own school, grew up in my own neighborhood, and did my own thing. I had the same crappy experience in Middle School that everybody else has. And then high school rolled around, and things changed a little. More specifically, girls changed. You girls blame puberty for this crap; I blame you. You didn’t have to wear that damn skirt to school. You didn’t have to wear the red shirt that practically molded itself to your breasts. No, that was all you.

About the same time, I stop trying to avoid being caught under the mistletoe at my Aunt and Uncle’s Christmas Extravaganza (we capitalize all important events in the Harris family), and started hunting for the perfect moment to catch Addles under it. I’m not sure why I picked Addles, beyond the fact that she was practically one of the only people at the party I wasn’t related to. That, and she looks ridiculously good in green.

She looks good in anything and nothing, actually, but don’t tell her I said that.

It figures that once I started actually trying to get her under the mistletoe, we never meet under one again. After two years of plotting I realized it probably wasn’t ever going to happen, and did the obvious guy thing and decided that little ol’ Addles is the hottest thing since sliced bread. I couldn’t have her, so obviously to make up for that I’d crush on her even more, leer when she wasn’t looking, and think about her when I masturbated. I’m positive that she never even so much as looked my way twice in those days. I was a Harris cousin, and lord knows there’s about a jillion of us running around.

And then one glorious Christmas, all of that changed. Since I couldn’t accidentally stick my tongue down her throat via a coincidental rendezvous under the red and green, I resigned myself to pretending she didn’t make me hotter than hell and made myself be sarcastic and antagonizing while meanwhile memorizing exactly what she looked like so I could go home later and make the most of my vivid imagination. It figures that the one time I’m not trying to corner her at all is the one time we actually get caught under one together. Thank god for Greg and his evil ways, otherwise the blessed opportunity might have passed us by completely.

I remember locating Greg again sometime later as the party was dwindling and thanking him. I might have been a little drunk at that point, but I could still taste her tongue in my mouth – in mine! – and I needed to let the eldest cousin know how much I appreciated the moment.

He laughed at me.

But to be fair, I was probably far more vulgar than I’m letting on. Alcohol turns me into a complete lecher.

Adelaide knows this well.

Maybe before the kiss I would have started to ween myself off of her. I would have started to notice other girls the same I way I noticed her, and I would have looked forward to specific classes or some dumb after school activity the same way I looked forward to going over to see the cousins. Maybe before the kiss I could have filed her away as a “what if” kind of scenario, locked that drawer, and moved on.

But once I kissed her that was it – I knew this was something I would have to do far more often. I knew I wanted to do far more than kiss her, that was for damn sure.

that particular scenario

2008-04-07T19:54:00.000-07:00

I think everybody who reads or watches movies is pretty familiar with this scenario: boy (or girl... we're equal opportunity here) begins epic journey; boy meets girl; boy fights with girl; boy saves girl; girl joins the party; boy falls in love with girl; girl dies... or leaves... potentially because girl is not actually from the same world as boy and as such they can never really be together.

I know, I know. I've seen way too much anime, probably.

Anyway, two of my favorite examples of that particular scenario are FFX and Escaflowne. Youtube has some amazing music videos of both, so I thought I'd share the angsty, romantic deliciousness with the rest of the world.

Escaflowne
"I Surrender"

FFX
"Wherever You Will Go"

You might need a box of kleenex for these.

wishful thinking [rated-M]

2008-04-04T17:36:00.000-07:00

The breeze coming in from the open window was cool, especially so against her bare, damp skin. She could smell the faint scent of the sweet olives wafting in with it and that, combined with the lazy stroke of his fingers on her back, lulled her into a hazy, dream-like state. This was something she could get used to. The chase had lasted for weeks - it went on for so long, in fact, that she'd begun to doubt the outcome. Jordan had seriously thought there for a little bit that nothing would ever happen, that maybe he really wasn't all that interested after all and she'd only imagined those moments of intensity when his eyes drifted over to her - had some how conjured them up out of her own desperate want. But now here she was, languid and spent after three energetic and impassioned hours of hot, sweaty sex, feeling very much like a well-sated house cat licking her whiskers, and almost entirely convinced that she'd just been to heaven and back.

"It's almost four." His deep voice was low and throaty. It was the kind of voice that she felt just as much as she heard, made even sexier by the fact that it was the kind of voice one did not expect from a man his size. Aaron was slender, only a few inches taller than she was, and could probably fit into her jeans. But then he opened his mouth and that low, gorgeous baritone rolled out and made her skin goosebump. She remembered one of the first times she'd seen him - he'd had a presence to him, a kind of lazy and brooding confidence, but it was hearing his voice that had really made her look twice.

She traced a finger over the dark lines on his arm, admiring the design of the sleeve. The tattoo went from his shoulder to his elbow, inky swirls and shapes intermingling with vague references from music and other places. It was one of the other things she'd found incredibly attractive about him. "You kicking me out?" She asked, her own voice light and teasing.

The hand caressing her back continued without interruption but the one he'd had on her thigh began to show its own signs of movement, his thumb brushing lightly across her skin. It had been too warm to cover up afterwards; she'd been hot and sticky and the open window was a much needed refreshment. Now, her skin still felt a little damp but the breeze and his fingers were starting to send delicious little shivers up and down her spine. It felt more than good.

"I don't think so," Aaron replied, with a hint of amusement. She could detect in her the slow build up of warmth again as he asked, "You have anything to do tomorrow?"

Jordan made a sound of dissent, her fingers still tracing over his tattoo. "Nothing. No class on Wednesdays."

"Good." He paused. "You want coffee in the morning?"

She stretched a little and tilted her head up to kiss the side of his throat, just under his jaw. "Mmm, Starbucks?"

"Yes, snob."

She could feel the low words vibrate up out of his throat as he spoke, and pressed her lips against his Adam's apple gently, becoming a little more aroused. It didn't help that his hand on her thigh had begun caressing a little more determinedly. "Of course," she murmured, and moved her attention to his jaw line.

It was an attention that didn't last long. The hand on her back moved up her spine into her hair, threading his fingers through the already tangled strands, and pulled her head back as he shifted down to kiss her. His mouth moved expertly over hers as his body did the same, lifting her leg over his hip as he edged his way in between her legs. She arched up against him and both gave low, shuddering breaths at that southern contact before resuming the kiss with a little more force.

It still surprised her how fast the need built up - he could make her uncomfortably warm with one look. The rest went unsaid.

Aaron hooked her other leg around him and then shifted even closer, sliding one throbbing warmth into another. They were a snug fit, and his slow, leisurely movements produced for both of them the same exquisitely painful sensations they'd indulged in only an hour before. As their momentum picked up, he couldn't seem to keep his mouth off of her, moving over her neck and breasts with his tongue and his teeth as she raked her fingers through his short hair and dug her heels into his back to push him even closer. The easy summer pace they'd set gave way to one that was much harder, and a little frantic.

And then there was the peak, the head over heels plunge, and then a gradual dissipation that left behind a kind of hazy, mild fog of pleasure that still tingled every now and again. Aaron half sighed, half groaned into her neck, and swore under his breath exhaustedly. "I'm just going to stay here," he muttered, and rolled his hips against hers almost playfully. The slight shivers that followed were a pleasurable reminder that he was still buried inside her.

"Comfortable?" She asked, amused.

He grinned against her neck and then kissed a particularly tender spot, his tongue flicking against the already bruising skin. "Yes," was his eventual, matter-of-fact answer.

of hammered gold and gold enamelling

2008-03-28T17:09:00.000-07:00

Sailing to Byzantium
W. B. Yeats

THAT is no country for old men. The young
In one another's arms, birds in the trees
- Those dying generations - at their song,
The salmon-falls, the mackerel-crowded seas,
Fish, flesh, or fowl, commend all summer long
Whatever is begotten, born, and dies.
Caught in that sensual music all neglect
Monuments of unageing intellect.
An aged man is but a paltry thing,
A tattered coat upon a stick, unless
Soul clap its hands and sing, and louder sing
For every tatter in its mortal dress,
Nor is there singing school but studying
Monuments of its own magnificence;
And therefore I have sailed the seas and come
To the holy city of Byzantium.

O sages standing in God's holy fire
As in the gold mosaic of a wall,
Come from the holy fire, perne in a gyre,
And be the singing-masters of my soul.
Consume my heart away; sick with desire
And fastened to a dying animal
It knows not what it is; and gather me
Into the artifice of eternity.

Once out of nature I shall never take
My bodily form from any natural thing,
But such a form as Grecian goldsmiths make
Of hammered gold and gold enamelling
To keep a drowsy Emperor awake;
Or set upon a golden bough to sing
To lords and ladies of Byzantium
Of what is past, or passing, or to come.

Byzantium
W. B. Yeats

THE unpurged images of day recede;
The Emperor's drunken soldiery are abed;
Night resonance recedes, night walkers' song
After great cathedral gong;
A starlit or a moonlit dome disdains
All that man is,
All mere complexities,
The fury and the mire of human veins.
Before me floats an image, man or shade,
Shade more than man, more image than a shade;
For Hades' bobbin bound in mummy-cloth
May unwind the winding path;
A mouth that has no moisture and no breath
Breathless mouths may summon;
I hail the superhuman;
I call it death-in-life and life-in-death.

Miracle, bird or golden handiwork,
More miraclc than bird or handiwork,
Planted on the star-lit golden bough,
Can like the cocks of Hades crow,
Or, by the moon embittered, scorn aloud
In glory of changeless metal
Common bird or petal
And all complexities of mire or blood.

At midnight on the Emperor's pavement flit
Flames that no faggot feeds, nor steel has lit,
Nor storm disturbs, flames begotten of flame,
Where blood-begotten spirits come
And all complexities of fury leave,
Dying into a dance,
An agony of trance,
An agony of flame that cannot singe a sleeve.

Astraddle on the dolphin's mire and blood,
Spirit after Spirit! The smithies break the flood.
The golden smithies of the Emperor!
Marbles of the dancing floor
Break bitter furies of complexity,
Those images that yet
Fresh images beget,
That dolphin-torn, that gong-tormented sea.