tarigwaemir

Durant Avenue on the Feast of St. Giles

Spent Labor Day weekend relaxing. Steve and I went on a picnic in the park--Vietnamese baguette with chèvre, avocado, and pears stewed in balsamic vinegar and caramel--and took a nap on the grass. We had dinner with jaebi_lit, who took us to a very nice Indonesian restaurant. We ordered a roti dessert with condensed milk, peanuts and cheese; it was rich and delicious. Cat also lent me Victory of Eagles so I can finally catch up on the Temeraire series. Hurrah!

Speaking of reading, some quotes from books I've been reading:

( The Genius in the Design )

( Atonement )

( Travels With a Tangerine )

Jumping on the bandwagon to do the twenty-five first lines meme:

( Twenty-five first lines )

The sample is skewed towards my shortest fiction, which admittedly is a little different from the way I write longer fics. Much to my surprise, I usually include an action in my starting line. I also often start with dialogue, but not nearly as often as I thought I did.

A lot of people in fandom think that I write "poetically" but I think you can tell from these first lines that I'm not actually poetic. My writing is heavily visual, but the sentence structure is quite prosaic for the most part, and I don't really use any unique turns of phrase. Metaphors are simple and utilitarian. I also seem to depend on phrase length to set the atmosphere.

Yours &c.

Stanley Hall on the Feast of St. John Gualbert

1. ( Real life update )

2. Issue 3 of India and the Conundrum is up, featuring cover art for Via Misadventure drawn by the lovely milchstrasse. Note to self: finish writing chapter 6! And actually write chapter 7 too, while I'm at it. I have an idea for fifthmus but need to work out the premise some more in my head; I think the only way to really write an interesting story would be to push it in a possibly unpleasant direction, but: (1) am I willing and (2) how far should I go? Oh, maybe I should just give up and write a dialogue for one of the other prompts; it would be easier to write but a lot less interesting. (I would not tolerate this sort of defeatist thinking in any other endeavor, but somehow I allow myself to get lazy about fiction-writing. Yet another reason why I was not meant to be a fiction writer.)

3. ( Lucia di Lammmermoor )

4. Alphabet blogging: sub_divided asked about kendo. ( Kendo )

twelve asked about (song) lyrics. ( Lyrics )

schwimmerin asked about memories. ( Memories )

5. magicnoire posted a TV Tropes meme quite a while ago:

If you want to play, comment here, and I will assign you three random(-ish) tropes from the TV Tropes Wiki. Pick one, and either:

A) Write a story based on that trope -- any fandom or pairing you want, no minimum length, just have fun with it.

B) Write meta about that trope (in general or in a particular fandom).

Post your story or meta to your own journal, or wherever else you want. Comment here with a link to what you've written.

Step right up and get your tropes here!

( Beleaguered Childhood Friend, Disposable Woman, Innocence Virgin on Stupidity )

6. ( Notes for myself )

All right, that's enough for today.

Yours &c.

Haste Street on the Feast of Ste. Julia Billiart

Those of you who don't follow gadget blogs like Engadget and Gizmodo as compulsively as I do probably are not aware of the new market for cheap low-end ultraportables created in the aftermath of the Asus Eee PC debut. Originally intended to be an easy-to-use (hence the triple "E" in its name) laptop for children, it quickly became the must-have toy for gadget addicts. I'm too lazy to dig up all the relevant links to describe the trajectory of the Eee PC's somewhat unexpected popularity, so I'll leave it to you to read through the blogs if you're really interested.

( Affordable ultraportables )

On Paper Cuts, A Brief Interview on Brief Interviews: David Foster Wallace fans might be interested to know that one of the actors from The Office (American version) has bought film rights to Brief Interviews with Hideous Men (Amazon) and has apparently already begun casting. (Trying to imagine Wallace's writing translated to a film medium is just mind-boggling.) Edit: IMDb entry indicates that it's coming out this year.

Via Reading Copy, an article in the Guardian, My uncle is not a slum landlord: Fiction is not autobiography. You know, after always hearing that creative writing adage to "write what you know", it's awfully reassuring to hear that you're not the only one making it all up as you go along. (Usual train of thought in my head while writing, "Hand-waving! I have no idea but let's pretend I do! Looking things up on Wikipedia counts as research! I don't know how this character would feel in this situation but let's pretend it's analogous to how I feel about a completely different situation that is not in the least related!")

From last week on the BBC, Daily caffeine 'protects brain': By which they mean, rabbits were less likely to suffer the consequences of a fat-rich diet if they were also administered caffeine. Still, any excuse to justify my increasing coffee intake. >_>

Via Lifehacker, How to bind papers without staples or clips: Useful when you run out of staples in the lab stapler.

Also, some book-related links up on bibliophages here.

Yours &c.

Haste Street, on the Feast of St. John of the Cross

Just sent in my fifthmus fic. Er, aishuu & mmmdraco, I didn't realize until this morning that your email specified midnight EST...a thousand apologies for being late. >_< My submission is awfully pretentious and probably made quite implausible by my lack of real research, but I had fun writing it. (Now let's just hope my recipient enjoys reading it...)

What's left on the table: finishing the sixth chapter of That Subway Story for India the Conundrum, the rest of "Real" for aiwritingfic, and the imaginarybeasts story, for which I have about a dozen ideas, none of which are congealing into a plot. >_>

Yours &c.

Post-script: And I keep forgetting to mention, but owari wrote Shion no Ou fic for me: Strategy. Go read it if you haven't yet because it is charming and funny. ^_^

Haste Street, on the Feast of St. Firminus

tokyofish said I should probably post to reassure everyone that I haven't fallen off the face of the earth. Mostly I've been swallowed up by labwork, which is kind of all-consuming in a way that would make me happy if I weren't also obligated to also think about eating and sleeping. >_> This week was a little overwhelming because I was trying to recuperate from the retreats at Tahoe while also making up for all the time spent away from lab. I'm starting to feel rather possessive about my project: I know that I'll have to put it aside once this rotation ends, but I really want to see it through to the end.

In other news, the blind_go reveal is up, as most of you know. I wrote Real, also known as "that cyberpunk!AU" in my head. ( More rambling )

Thanks to everyone who read and commented on my fic! Yes, there is more to the story, and I'll write it as soon as I, uh, figure it out. >_> Which reminds me, aiwritingfic, you can request that I finish a work-in-progress of your choice. Let me know what you want.

As for fics I liked, of course corbeaun's A Season for Black Chrysanthemums blew me away (yakuza!AU always wins points with me), and I also loved the idea behind issen4's Mistaken, despite not realizing at all that it was her fic until the reveal was posted. Plus the vampire!AUs, the Star Wars fusion, the kaitou!AU, the Death Note crossovers, all the permutations of the band!AU, oh and how can I forget ladyseishou's "dark urban fairy tale" that won the theme challenge hands down. ^_^ All I can say is, never underestimate the inventiveness of this fandom (not to mention its capacity for crack).

Yours &c.

Post-script: An appropriate meme from issen4 and aishuu: What do you think are the "trademarks" of the fiction that I write? What type of themes or characterization notes or quirks keep on manifesting in my writing? Essentially, what do you think is a stereotypically Me-way of writing fic?

Haste Street on the Feast of St. Thomas of Villanova

As most of you know, blind_go round 4 fics are up. I haven't read through all of them yet, but from what I've glimpsed of them while posting, there were a lot of really creative ideas in the mix. ^_^ I did notice though that a lot of the fics stopped abruptly or were incomplete--my own is one of them, as I'll freely admit--which makes me think that people really felt the deadline pressure this time. It makes me wonder if we ought to give more time for people to write, although if you think about it, the first and second rounds both only gave a month's time as well. Personally, I usually write down a few sentences then procrastinate until the very last week to finish off the fic (Reveille was mostly written in a night, even though it came out to 8000 words), so I've always thought that it was more a matter of inspiration rather than time. Maybe there's a problem with timing as well: August to September is the start of the school year, which is a busy time for most people. Then again...is there ever a good time for holding a challenge?

I'm really not happy with the fic I submitted because it's pretty much only the opening chapter of the story I wanted to tell, but I didn't have time to finish fleshing it out. >_> I kept wondering if I should have just refrained from submitting it, especially because I felt I hadn't really worked out all the details, but I also didn't want to default on my own challenge...Anyway, much to my relief, at least some people seem to like it, which makes me feel a little better about submitting it.

aishuu apparently has a bounty out for me, so technically I don't even need to bother offering drabbles to those who correctly guess my fic. But I will offer this much: be the first person to guess the fic I wrote correctly, and you may request for me to finish one of my works-in-progress.

( My works-in-progress list )

Thank you to everyone who wished me happy birthday yesterday! <3 I was pleasantly surprised to get phone calls from angelyrique, tryogeru and ldmoonflower, not to mention e-cards from both my college roommates. I didn't really expect anyone I knew in Berkeley to take note of my birthday, but I did offhandedly mention it a week before to the lab tech, and not only did she remember the date, she actually organized a little party with cake and ice cream sandwiches. It was completely unexpected and so very nice; I think that small gesture alone made me feel that I'm not a tiny abandoned little plankton floating about unnoticed in a huge sea (forgive the florid metaphor) but that I was, bit by bit, putting down roots here at last (forgive the change in florid metaphor).

Actually, meeting up with LJ friends has made me feel much more at home as well. ( Real life update )

I have a couple of funny stories from lab and classes that I've been meaning to share, but I should probably go sleep now. ::yawns::

Yours &c.

Post-script: Oh yes, comments will be screened for guessing. Also, go check out silvermuse89's idea of fic rec menus. (She's just made a Kakashi/Iruka one for me here.) Isn't it neat? Maybe it should be a meme or even a comm: ficgourmet perhaps? ^_^

Blair Hall Apts., on the Feast of Ste. Martha

In celebration of this journal turning five years old yesterday, I'm opening drabble requests for two hours, ending at approximately 11:05 PM EST.

Name a fandom and a one-sentence prompt. (You can also specify pairing or characters although I won't make any promises to stick rigidly to them.)

Yours &c.

Lowell House, on the Feast of Ste. Monica

Happy birthday, daisy_chan! (Yay, I remembered!)

Counting down the minutes to the deadline. I'm glad my class at noon got moved to the Science Center computer lab. This way, I should be able to close the inbox almost exactly on schedule without having to be late.

A few belated notes:

1. India and the Conundrum, an online magazine for serial fiction run by team7, has been revived. Since I submitted the first chapter of a serial to its previous incarnation, Four Cats, I decided to buckle down and actually attempt to keep the story going this time around. You can read it here: Via Misadventure, or as I refer to it in my head, "that trapped-in-a-subway story". (milchstrasse is to do illustrations for future chapters as well. Yay! ^_^)

2. The remix_redux reveal was a while ago, and I discovered that the remix of my fic, Holding Hands (The Rock Paper Scissors Remix) was written by vissy. Go read it, if you haven't already; it's fantastic. I wrote Nice Day for a Race (Cyberian Hacker Remix), which was a cyberpunk version of Nice Day for a Race by jennabiding (a really neat Gundam Wing AU, taking the hikikomori idea from Welcome to the NHK!).

3. Next item on the agenda is to write the cyberpunk story for imaginarybeasts. No, I haven't started yet. -_- This time, I'm going to actually try to finish it ahead of deadline so I can actually mull over it before I submit.

4. Why is it that all the major events in my life are converging around May 5th?

Yours &c.

Sherman Fairchild, on the Feast of St. Eucherius

I finished posting! Hurrah! Here's a copy of the master list for your convenience.

( Master list )

I wrote most of these in a rush, so they still need editing, particularly the second half where I got kind of lazy and sloppy. (Concrit would be much appreciated!) Rereading what I wrote really brought home the point that aishuu emphasized in her meta essay on short fics: they have to be focused. The ones where I was just trying to write something that fit the theme are immediately recognizable for their, uh, total pointlessness. -_- There were also a few that probably should have been expanded into longer stories and developed more carefully, although I don't know if I'll ever get around to doing so. I think the most difficult fic to write was the one for Monster, because by that point, I was writing my third psychopath in the batch, and I found the whole experience really, really disturbing. I think the fic itself needs some more work, but I creeped myself out so much writing it that I didn't want to fiddle with it anymore. I also ended up writing for several new fandoms that I'm not altogether familiar with (that is, I've read the source material but not much fanfic), and I hope I didn't mangle them too badly.

Best part about writing for these themes: describing food. Worst part about writing for these themes: getting really hungry while having no way of actually eating the foods I described. ^_^

Yours &c.

Lowell House, on the Feast of Ste. Brigid

Oh my gosh. Why didn't I realize the existence of the Naxos Music Library sooner? Ahhh! I could have gone there to preview full opera recordings instead of painstakingly listening to the 20-second previews on Amazon! It has at least five different versions of every major classical work I've ever liked! And let's not even speak of its extensive world/folk music section! It even has Korean traditional music. I finally got to hear 청성자진한잎 (daegeum solo piece) again! *_*

Ugh, I can't believe it took me until spring semester of senior year to realize we had this resource available. -_- I suppose that's what happens when you postpone taking a music class to your last semester. (But I was trying to save the best for last!)

In other news, the first issue of imaginarybeasts is up, with the inaugural (and eponymous) theme of "Imaginary Beasts". (I haven't gotten around to reading all the stories yet, but the ones I have finished are quite fabulous. Go read right now!)

Infoblurb: imaginarybeasts is an online original fiction 'zine (much like bb_shousetsu) for genre writing. You should also sign up for the March issue, since the theme is "Love Story".

I didn't sign up to write for the first issue, so I promised myself to write for the second one. Of course, the only problem is, how does one write a love story? I always feel like a fraud whenever I write about a romantic relationship because I've never experienced one myself. (Usual train of thought when posting any sort of 'ship fic: "Agh, I hope the reader can't tell that I have absolutely no idea what I'm talking about!") Of course, I can always draw on fiction for inspiration, but...surely that's not the way it happens in real life? I see dozens of couples out on the street everyday, and I doubt they all met through the usual contrived situations that occur in shoujo manga and Korean dramas.

So, tell me: how did/do you fall in love? How did/does someone fall in love with you? How does the transition from being two separate individuals to having a relationship happen? (You can comment anonymously if you prefer.)

(Of course, I probably will end up writing an elaborately outrageous and cliché story à la K-drama, but I'm curious nonetheless.)

Yours &c.