Uffish Thought

AO3 meme yoinked from celli:

1. Most Hits: Learning Curve, MCU, gen + Steve/Natasha
An Avengers h/c fic adding on to a very popular h/c fic by Arsenic, so no surprise there! And I seem to get a lot of re-reads, going by the comments, which I'm sure helps. God knows I read The Goat's Back a million times while writing this....

2. Second Most Kudos: Out of the Frying Pan, Into the Fryer, MCU, gen (but pre-Clint/Coulson in my heart)
A meet-cute for Clint and Coulson that I posted right before The Avengers release, so no wonder. Also it's got a good summary!

3. Third Most Comments: Learning Curve again!

4. Fourth Most Bookmarks: Heartsease, Person of Interest, Reese/Finch
Ahhh, my self-indulgent Regency AU that grew a plot on me. I'm still so grateful to inmyriadbits for patiently letting me read it aloud to her when I was worried about getting the Regency verbal patterns right.

5. Fifth Most Words: Chase the sky into the ocean, Books of the Raksura, Jade/Moon
This one took a WIP Big Bang to finish, hence the word count when I'm historically prone to under-writing things, but I'm very fond of this AU. (So much action! It was fun but took forever, I don't know how Martha does it)

6. Fic With Second Fewest Words (That's Not a Drabble): Guidance, Alias/Austin Powers, gen
I'm still fond of this weird little crossover in which Dr. Evil counsels the evil dentist from the Alias pilot.

Other randomness that only works if you have X number of stories and drabbles with which to filter:

7. Seventh Most Common Relationship*: Lin Shu | Mei Changsu | Su Zhe/Mu Nihuang, Nirvana in Fire, 2 works
MCS's character tag is forever a gift, that insane identity-onion man. Also I'm ostensibly a MCS/Jingyan shipper but Nihuang cannot be denied!

*Go to your works --> sort and filter --> include (or exclude) --> relationships

8. Eighth Drabble Posted: alas, I have only written one formal drabble.

9. Ninth Most Common Character*: Thor, MCU, 4 works
Unexpected! I haven't written him as the main or POV character in anything, but he's always part of the team.

*Go to your works --> sort and filter --> include (or exclude) --> characters

10. Tenth Mature and/or Explicit Fic: The Things Underneath Our Hearts, MCU, gen
I just barely have ten fics if I include both explicit and mature, and this was the first mature one! (Probably because of the torture, I don't think Clint and Steve platonically cuddling merits a ratings upgrade.)

11. Eleventh Most Recent Completed Fic When You Exclude Your Ten Most Frequent Fandoms*: branching out, Books of the Raksura, gen
A sweet little post-canon Yuletide story where Chime wakes up to some gender stuff in the colony.

*Go to your works --> sort and filter --> exclude --> fandoms

12. Twelfth Most Recent Story in Your Sixth Most Common Tag*: alas I only have 6 stories on that tag, which is First Meetings.

*Go to your works --> sort and filter --> include --> tags

13. Favorite Title That Isn't from a Poem or Song or Shakespeare or The West Wing: Find Me, Follow Me, Banlieue 13, Leito/Damien
The third and long-delayed smutty conclusion to my B13 trilogy! The whole series is titled with phone tech terms - Crosstalk, Phone Tag, Interference - and Find me/follow me was a delightfully poetic gift of a term when I went scouring through the Wikipedia category, and perfect for the story, in which Leito follows Damien out of a meeting and they finally connect.

A meme, for I am sick and bored with everything.

1. Three ships: first three that came to mind are Tim/Kon, Dean/Cas, and Bruce/Diana. Feeling nostalgic!

2. First ship: Max/Logan from Dark Angel. My teenage ass had ALL the feelings.

3. Last song: Out loud? The Christmas carols I got stuck in my head from Love Actually and sang all the way home from the party Saturday night to keep myself awake, before waking up sick. :(

4. Last film: the collected Max Fleischer Superman shorts, which I had out from the library and watched while folding laundry. Brilliant animation, really before its time, and I enjoyed the documentary extra where Paul Dini and Bruce Timm talked about its influence on B:TAS. However, for all the fun mad scientist episodes and gorgeous pre-noir visuals, there were some appallingly racist episodes that I had to watch on fast forward: mostly Japanese and German caricatures starting after Pearl Harbor, but also some native Africans, and just for funsies, a Native American villain who was ALSO a mad scientist. *facepalm* Lois was unsurprisingly The Damsel on repeat, totally insane reckless (that's pretty canon at least), but she did have a few fun badass moments - my favorite being when she knocks out a train robber and then grabs his machine gun to fire at a chasing car. *chef kiss*

5. Currently reading: nothing new, just old fanfic re-reads. My brain is mush. Though I did finish the newest Murderbot a few days before getting sick! So great.

6. Currently watching: Batman: The Animated Series. Predictable!

7. Currently consuming: Thai delivery. Mmm, tom kha, defeater of clogged sinuses AND delicious.

8. Currently craving: not being sick anymore

via forestsofpine

Give me a page number (1-201) and I'll give you a fic rec from that page in my bookmarks.

Since I don't actually bookmark on AO3, I'm gonna do this with Pinboard with the display set to 20 works/page to mimic AO3. My bookmarks go back to 2006, so use lower numbers if you want a chance at more recent fandoms!

Since I meant to claim #10 Rec A Fanwork with my usual monthly recs post but forgot, I've decided to smoosh it together with #15 Create Your Own Challenge to make...

Choose Your Own Rec(set)!

Leave a comment with a fandom, trope, or mood and I will rec you at least one fanwork that I think suits you. Feel free to get creative with the mood prompts (maybe not this specific but have fun with it), and you'll get better results from fandoms I know, obviously!

Day 1: In your own space, talk about your Happy Place — the thing(s) that gives you joy, calms you or keeps you sane.

Physically, my living room is incredibly cozy and soothing. I have a couch -- it's technically a "chair and a half" -- that was promptly dubbed The Nap Couch after on multiple occasions inmyriadbits and I fell asleep on it. I have another massive comfy armchair from my aunt and uncle, and I spend most of my time at home on one of them.

Mentally, stories are always my Happy Place: fic, books, TV and film, comics, all sorts of stuff.

Emotionally, I have a chat with leupagus, inmyriadbits, and a cluster of other fangirls that is funny and lovely and full of awesome, supportive ladies.

I'm gonna leave it at that for today -- I just finished reorganizing all of my closets in a fit of New Year's cleaning, which went surprisingly easily (probably because I moved in just over a year ago) but still was a few hours of shuffling things around. Time for leftover cake and fic!

Ahem. Continuing the positivity meme:

1) I get a free facial earlier today! I've never had one before; it was nice.

2) Can You Slash Green Eggs and Ham? made me LOL.

3) Today I did my weekly shiatsu session/studying, vacuumed, cleaned the bathroom, organized my closet, did dishes, made meatloaf, and did laundry. My feet kinda hurt, but my virtue level is sky high.

I feel like all I ever post around here is memes, sorry ya'll. But no one ever does memes with me on Tumblr, even though they interact in other ways. It is downright odd.

A. Describe your comfort zone—a typical you-fic.
B. Is there a trope you've yet to try your hand at, but really want to?
C. Is there a trope you wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole?
D. How many fic ideas are you nurturing right now? Care to share one of them?
E. Share one of your strengths.
F. Share one of your weaknesses.
G. Share a snippet from one of your favorite pieces of prose you've written and explain why you're proud of it.
H. Share a snippet from one of your favorite dialogue scenes you've written and explain why you're proud of it.
I. Which fic has been the hardest to write?
J. Which fic has been the easiest to write?
K. Is writing your passion or just a fun hobby?
L. Is there an episode or section of canon above all others that inspires you just a little bit more?
M. What's the best writing advice you've ever come across?
N. What's the worst writing advice you've ever come across?
O. If you could choose one of your fics to be filmed, which would you choose?
P. If you only could write one pairing for the rest of your life, which pairing would it be?
Q. Do you write your story from start to finish, or do you write the scenes out of order?
R. Do you use any tools, like worksheets or outlines?
S. Stephen King once said that his muse is a man who lives in the basement. Do you have a muse?
T. Describe your perfect writing conditions.
U. How many times do you usually revise your fic/chapter before posting?
V. Choose a passage from one of your earlier fics and edit it into your current writing style. (Person asking the question is free to make suggestions).
W. If you were to revise one of your older fics from start to finish, which would it be and why?
X. Have you ever deleted one of your published fics?
Y. What do you look for in a beta?
Z. Do you beta yourself? If so, what kind of beta are you?
AA. How do you feel about collaborations?
AB. Share three of your favorite fic writers and why you like them so much.
AC. If you could write the sequel (or prequel) to any fic out there not written by yourself, which would you choose?
AD. Do you accept prompts?
AE. Do you take liberties with canon or are you very strict about your fic being canon compliant?
AF. How do you feel about smut?
AG. How do you feel about crack?
AH. What are your thoughts on non-con and dub-con?
AI. Would you ever kill off a canon character?
AJ. Which is your favorite site to post fic?
AK. Talk about your current wips.
AL. Talk about a review that made your day.
AM. Do you ever get rude reviews and how do you deal with them?
AN. Write an alternative ending to a fic you've written (specify by title, link or general description)

Meme from ignipes: List ten books that have stayed with you in some way. Don’t take but a few minutes, and don’t think too hard — they don’t have to be the "right" or "great" works, just the ones that have touched you.

Like Kali, most of these are from childhood:

Dinotopia by James Gurney: I wanted to live in Dinotopia SO MUCH as a child, I wrote a poem about it in my diary. Literally. And to this day, I love the imagination and adventure and camaraderie of it, the way the island is not really a utopia but actually pretty complex and constantly negotiating old ways and new faces, how science is valued by the protagonists, and the stunning art.

Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren: Who doesn't want to be Pippi when they don't grow up? Funny, bold, adventurous, and most of all kind, as loyal to her friends as they are to her, even when it involves sailing to the middle of nowhere and fighting off pirates with coconut projectiles.

Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli: I'm still kind of heartstuck on how this book was partly epic and mythologizing, but also quietly realistic about poverty and racism and homelessness and loneliness.

Bridge to Terebithia by Katherine Paterson: Well, this one scarred me for life. I remember being SO MAD at my older sister for giving it to me, because it made me cry so much.

Gaudy Night by Dorothy Sayers: Still my favorite romance ever, even if it is ostensibly a detective novel. Also makes me want to learn and read and create, which is the highest compliment I can give anything, IMO.

Dealing With Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede: Formative feminist fairytale remix, plus funny as hell. We literally read our copies until they fell apart, and I still have the taped-up remnants.

Sheepfarmer's Daughter by Elizabeth Moon: So the end of this trilogy got bafflingly Christ-image-y, but the first two were solid gold in terms of women being flawed yet pragmatically kickass as a career, plus surviving trauma and related h/c.

The Truce at Bakura by Kathy Tyers: Really this is a stand-in for the whole Star Wars Expanded Universe, but it was my first exposure to the idea that the story doesn't have to stop at the end of the movie. Also, there were soul-stealing lizard aliens. Who doesn't like soul-stealing lizard aliens?

The Swiss Family Robinson by Johann David Wyss: Another book I literally read to pieces as a child, ridiculous ecology and all. Honorable mention to Island of the Blue Dolphins and Hatchet in the category of novels about surviving in the wilderness in isolation -- but I will want a treehouse to live in until the day I die, so SFR won.

The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley: Nngh, yes, flawed awesome ladies and their destined but hard-won badassery and their equally kickass and conflicted love interests who can't stop with the hearteyes. These are things I like. Also, magical swords and nearly-magical highly-trained horses. Yes.

Because the last week of January is totally the right time for this, right?. *sigh* I feel like this month has completely slipped away from me. And not in a good way.

( Statistics )

( the basic ones )

( heavy-duty navel-gazing (approach with caution. or not.) )

( Collected Links )

Looks like I failed out of doing a Ten in Ten proper, thanks to getting sick this weekend, but I'm hoping to get back on the horse today. We'll see.

Towards that goal, I've been rewatching Person of Interest S2 (my shiny shiny Blu-Ray discs -- I didn't think that Reese could get any prettier but apparently yes), and had forgotten just how many Die Hard references there were in 2x07 Critical. (I think Leon calling Finch 'bubbe' takes the prize, personally.) Dear POI Writers Room: please continue to be enormous film geeks. *pinches their cheeks*

*****

Tomorrow is chock full of fannish goodness:

1) Person of Interest S3 premiere. (I may die!)

2) Agents of SHIELD premiere. (Coulson did not die!)

3) marthawells's Star Wars tie-in starring Leia, Razor's Edge, comes out. (long live Princess Leia!)
The book is set after A New Hope, and promises to have lots of awesome ladies and Alderaanian space pirates. \o/!

*****

And a writing meme, for reasons:

Ask me a question about one of my fics or series. It can be absolutely anything in any project and I will tell you the honest-to-goodness answer (even on the progress/plans for next chapters of current series).

Don't hold back. Whatever you ask, I'll answer as truthfully and as completely as possible. You can also ask about my writing as a whole, if you like.