urbandruid

I think it's time to rotate the icons. I need a few more fandom options.

Monday. My least favorite day of the week, without peer.

I'm back to the eye doctor this afternoon. I don't even want to think about it. I was enjoying my eye doc-free life, you know? I hate it, the waiting and the wondering- what are they going to tell me is wrong this time? I feel fine, the eye hasn't really been bugging me at all, but... Yeah. Nervous, I suppose.

Am re-reading the original Star Wars Zahn trilogy, aka the Thrawn trilogy, aka the- what the hell was the other term for it? The Heir to the Empire trilogy? I'm realizing recently that my favorite EU characters are mostly Zahn creations; Mara Jade, Garm Bel Iblis, Talon Karrde, Captain Pellaeon, Grand Admiral Thrawn. Oh, and Jaina Solo, though she doesn't get great lines in this one at all. Neither does Jacen, but I've always had a little less fondness for Jacen. (Actually, the twins get no lines, as they're newborns, but anyway...)

When I was in junior high, I had a battered hardcover copy of "The Last Command", book 3 in the trilogy, which I carried in my backpack for luck. Those were the days- when I had room for a hardcover in my backpack. Now I can hardly squeeze in a paperback. Incidentally, that hardcover is a lot more battered now, as a result of 8th grade, but I survived it, so maybe there's something to be said for lucky books. Or not. :)

In the back of my mind I'm plotting my stuff for NaNoWriMo. But up front I'm just obsessing over fic. Part of it's because I'm on a bit of a roll with my main Star Wars undertaking, have just come up with a really strange plot twist for "Five things that never happened to Alfred Bester", and I've been bitten by at least three different Alias bunnies. I'd kind of like to strangle the bunnies. Lately my stories understand that I have homework and medical appointements. Bunnies...do not.

Although perhaps my fics aren't that forgiving either. Right now, when I should be chasing down a pair of socks and collecting my textbooks, I'm adding lines to the damned SW fic.

Okay. My little cast of Imperials has to shut up now. They really do. I mean, I'd just love to explain to my Algebra teacher (not to mention my mother) that I'm late to class because my original character and Grand Admiral Thrawn refused to shut up. I wouldn't believe me, either.

Right. School, eye doc... Wish me luck, gang. I'm off.

I'm feeling miserable and tired. Mostly tired. I didn't get a lot of sleep last night, and what I did get wasn't solid. Weird dreams.

And I have a dentist appointment today, one I forgot about completely until they called to remind me about it yesterday. Way too late to cancel, which sucks, as I really don't want to go. I have a serious loathing for my dentist, which probably has something to do with the fact that when I went in for my last filling, the last ten minutes or so of it were done without Novocain. Even though I was weeping in pain, even though I told him it hurt- We're talking full on horror movie evil dentist from hell stuff.

I can tell you this, though- if I need any work done, it's sure as hell not getting done by him. I'll pull out my own teeth first, thanks.

I don't need this right now. I don't want anything to do with it. 'Cause, you know, I really need more medical stress right now. Seriously.

Have been amusing myself this week by writing fic for obscure sci-fi books, specifically, minor characters from Stephen R. Donaldson's The Gap Cycle. I think this thing of mine might be the first Gap fic in existence, or at least the first that might see daylight.

It's a bit odd even for me, writing something like this- knowing most people have probably never heard of the source material, and that the fic, if I ever put it up anywhere, will probably be read even less than my other fics- which is, you know, saying something. The obscure fic to beat all obscure fics.

So I'm toying with cryptic summaries to amuse myself, since nobody's going to read the thing anyway. "The Gap is full of crazy people. This is about the sane ones."

A week, one day till my surgery. 26 days until I start back to school.

Bored much? Me? Never.

So, is it bad when Tori Amos isn't angsty enough for what you're writing, and you have to dust off the Evanescence again?

Anyway. Went out today, as my library books were due and Mom's glasses were in. And wouldn't you know but the car died again? We wandered across the street from her eye doctor's, got some lunch. Came back, car still wouldn't start. Called the tow truck again. I decided, what the hell, let's just reach over and turn the key, try one more time.

It started.

Fucking car. Evil, it is. It's going to Toyota next weekend, too. Have had it with this.

Library does not have one single copy of The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe checked in. *shakes head* I'm trying desperately to find stuff to read in between my re-reading of the last half of Prisoner of Azkaban and Goblet of Fire, so that I don't end up spending half the week with nothing to read till OoP.

I went to the video rental place, figuring I'd pick up a movie or two, maybe a game. Right. They're out of everything that looked remotely interesting. Tell me it doesn't figure.

In other news, my grandmother's finally decided what we're all doing for fathers' day. (Yes, that is a bit odd. Don't ask- none of us can figure it out either.) Anyway, it's brunch, which means great-grandpa, who doesn't know anybody from- well, anybody. Always fun, that.

So I've been snapping at Mom all weekend, which is horrible of me. I hate fathers' day, though- always gets to me, no matter how much I try to tell myself that it doesn't matter.

I still maintain that those who don't have fathers ought to be exempt from having to celebrate this nonsense.

10:30 is brunch at Grandma's. Ugh. That's way too early on a Sunday to be dealing with my family, but what can you do? Going is less trouble than not going. But I swear, if I have to endure the "you know you could call me" lecture one more time... Yeah, and you could talk to me yourself, instead of telling Mom you said I'm invited to do stuff with you, too... so back at ya, Grandma.

Dear Auntie Em,

Hate you. Hate Kansas. Keeping the dog.

Love,
Dorothy

Very old bumper sticker. I want this on my car (if I ever get a car...or have a reason to own one).

I'm torn suddenly between wanting to finish the Narcissa Malfoy scene I'm working on, and wanting to write something entirely different. Not one of the originals- I haven't touched them all summer. Just something...different.

( Strange, for as many characters as HP has, but I'm running out of Death Eaters. )

Must hang curtains tomorrow.

I'm reading a thread on FictionAlley about fics and the new book; ie, what will become of the fics after the book is out? Trust the FAP gang to go jumping at shadows. It's not even an exploding dustbin, guys, get a grip. I mean, I guess the main worry is that OoP will 'invalidate' all these fics that are being written now, and all of the older ones...or that nobody will want to read them anymore with the new book out.

...Yeah.

It's a personal choice I suppose, but I can't help thinking that they are being ridiculous again. I know some of the events of my post-OoP work in progress aren't going to happen in canon. I knew that ages ago. That's why I'm writing the bloody thing. And the only reason I want to finish it before the book comes out is so that I can play with my own ideas of what the Order of the Phoenix is, what it does...

I am constantly amazed, and flat out frustrated, by the idea that bounces around HP fandom, that fics can be wrong. Nobody's fic is wrong, for Gods' sakes. I swear. Sometimes I want to beat people with a stick. Or a large picket sign that says "Shut up, it's meant to be like that."

Case in point. Emerald and Ebony. Emerald and Ebony is a year five fic. Why? Because I plotted it that way. And because 'Voldemort's back, now what?' is a hell of a plot device. I knew that it would be contradicted by later books in the series, because it's obvious that with three more books to go, J. K. Rowling couldn't off Voldemort just yet. I, however, had no such restrictions.

Maybe I'm weird to just not give a shit about following canon to the letter. Or maybe it's my fandom origins. My first online fandom was Star Wars. I watched the movies as a kid, the way that you do, pretended I was Princess Leia... read several of the books when I was in junior high, and got hooked again through them. I tried to write fic using all of the book 'canon', but quickly found I'd set myself an impossible task. SW profic canon contradicts itself constantly. (It's worse now, as they're trying to include all the old comic strips and comic books, and crap that was never meant to be part of an overall story...) So I gave up. I still read the books, used what I liked, ignored what I didn't. Sometimes I played in the parts of canon that worked for me, but when there were none of those acceptable bits, I didn't shy away from doing my own thing.

I am, in my own way, fearless. I killed Mara Jade, shipped Luke/Mara before it was as popular as it is now (and have rather run screaming away from it since then...) I have written slash, and NC-17 fic.

So. My post-OoP fic. It's post-seventh year, but I still want it to be what it is. Other fics will come from OoP, I'm sure. This one is something different.

I have realized I'm not going to finish the thing in- *glances at icon* twelve days. But I can finish the outline by then.

As for people thinking there's no room for fic with more canon coming along- *sigh* Doesn't anyone remember Goblet of Fire? A hundred thousand people in the HP fandom went, "Holy shit! Voldemort's back!" and hit the keyboards. Hit them hard. You guys think it's going to be different this time around? With 900 pages of new stuff? With the hints we've gotten about what some of that new stuff entails?

Get real.

In which my little Slytherin has a summer job, a prefect badge (thanks, art_ackerley!), and is torn on a couple of issues

( Tabitha Meme II )

I've got to get my act together, get my sites up. I write something I actually want to share with people, I want to be able to do it right away.

Sent this one to Fiction Alley, so eventually it will be up there. Also finally got it uploaded to fanfiction.net, and hate myself for going to the effort...

Anyway. The Secret Hours

Harry Potter. Snape/McGonagall. A Chamber of Secrets what-if. Probably first in a series. Because don't you ever wonder why, when things happen, no matter what strange hour it is, Snape is always followed immediatly by McGonagall, or vice versa?

I probably should have started with Sorcerer's Stone instead, but I was reading Chamber when this one hit me, so...

I've also got two multi-chapter fics that are going up with the Urbandruid pages; one is the post-GoF fic I'm trying desperatly to finish before Order of the Phoenix comes out; the other is a serious epic, starting with Voldemort's first rise and probably going clear through to his second. I'll probably do some fast-forwarding after Halloween of '81, skip forward to Harry Potter's first year at Hogwarts, maybe... haven't gotten that far yet on the outline.

Silly thing about that story, really- I started it as a vignette, just a short Minerva point of view. And then it just started growing, until I started sketching out the chapters- and I used to hate outlines- and realized just how large it was going to be when it grew up. I was trying to keep it within canon, but I already had to fudge it a little.

I was just going to sit on both of these fics until they were done, but it seemed silly to only have my single completed HP fic on the sites.

Yep. I'm going through a Potter phase.

And I could kill FF.N for having that lovely little 'select your main characters' thing and not bloody listing Minerva McGonagall.

They have Filch listed, though. Argh!

I do twenty things at once because I can. It's a game I play. I plot out three fanfics while writing a fourth; I mull over tonight's episode of Alias while devising Dragonlance LJ icons in my head. I scratch my head over the fact I can't get the proportions right in the icons I've made so far, including the Snape one I'm using now. Damn Photoshop. I realize that I should give my friend thenonsense's PSP a shot. And somewhere along the way I pass a milestone.

Of all the things I have written lately, this is the strangest...and the one of which I am most proud. Never thought I would write such a thing, or want to. My first Alias fic, but that's not the milestone.

No, the milestone would be that it's slash. Mild, implied slash rather than the explicit version, but still. Wow.