natsinator

Posting Update
I posted two chapters this week

Every Hateful Instrument - Chapter Nine - Came All This Way for Hunger
Every Hateful Instrument - Chapter Ten - God Keep the Bounty Hunter Who Shows Mercy to His Prey

And that ch10 brings us finally to the end of the first 1/3 of EHI. Finally, 50k words into my romance novel, the two main characters meet each other for the first time lmao. I joke, though I don't actually think that's a terrible thing. The chapters before this serve a valuable purpose and do need to be there. EHI isn't like, "just" a romance novel, it's also a political sf drama and a complicated family narrative and you know, the usual. Sometimes things take time, and it's important to establish that Aymon and Hail have lives apart from each other, and their own suite of problems and motivations and shit going on.

Also, my yuletide fic which went live has been pretty well received I think! I'm very happy about that.

General Writing Update
Aside from EHI, all I've been working on is my LOGH secret santa fic, which [fingers crossed] should be posted today or tomorrow. I know I'm running really late on this and I feel pretty bad about it lol. I worry that I've run out of interesting things to say about Reinhard in standalone fics. I probably haven't, but this might just be because I don't find reinhard/kircheis that personally compelling lol.

Since last Monday, I wrote 8563 words. Oof.

Art Update
I made some christmas gifts for my family. They're not particularly thrilling, and they're also not really what I originally set out to make. But it's kinda whatever at this point. I just needed to do something. I still need to make another one of these for Lydia since I owe her a christmas gift. We'll see if I can get that done in a timely manner.

Reading/Watching/Etc
This has been an unusually heavy media consumption week, mostly b/c i've wanted some escapism. Also, yuletide fics went up, and so I've been poking my way through those.

Movies I watched

Romeo + Juliet (1996) - I think this really holds up, despite a few pieces of 90s jank. They really do not make movies this like chaotic and sumptuous to look at anymore lol. It kinda reminds me visually of The Young Pope. here's my letterboxd review
Sicario (2015) - I wanted to see what the canon was that inspired the longest yuletide fic of 2021. It's a competently made thriller that I have some foibles with. letterboxd review

Fics of note

No Winter Lasts Forever by tomfoolereyprime. this is a 300k word nu!trek oc/oc het romance about accidental pregnancy. that is a long list of things that i do not like. but i read the whole thing, so lol. it was one of those things where someone posted a rec in a discord server at exactly the moment when i would be willing to read basically anything to distract myself, so this got to be the thing that ate like 15 hrs of my time. i don't want to be disparaging towards it b/c it was good! it's essentially a really fun original trek novel. it's just like so hilariously out of my normal wheelhouse
Human Perspective by anon (yuletide anonymity). this is my yuletide gift, it's a young wizards gen sisterfic. it's very sweet.
That Which Was Left Behind by anon (yuletide anonymity). a Young Pope post canon fic about two weird old celibate people in love lmao. i think it does a great job capturing the tone of the show
coverage by anon (yuletide anonymity). jealous of the author for getting to write logh fic for yuletide :p this is really great
Go Falling One by One by anon (yuletide anonymity). this is one of those yuletide fics that's for a "canon" that basically just lets the author write a fucked up little original short story. we love um, hiveminds and cannibalism and live sacrifice in this house
Alone, But Not Alone by anon (yuletide anonymity). this is a Queen's Gambit beth/benny fake dating fic. it's good and as i said in the comments, very stylishly written. sometimes watching an autistic and self destructive woman who doesn't understand feelings still get to be successful and hot and loved is fun lol

clearly this week has been "i guess i'm willing to deal with het romance if it's actually like. good." haha. but i'd like to get back to firmer and gayer ground lol

Life Update

I'm glad to be on vacation, even though I remain pretty busy trying to get all my shit done
christmas eve was a mad scramble to do last minute shopping/gift assembly
I watched the JWST launch (yay)
Christmas was. Fine. I wish my mother would figure out that I do not want "women objects". like i have not worn a dress voluntarily since second grade, please stop giving them to me. i need to return this vera bradley bag that i am never going to use also. i guess i'll do that sometime this week. (she was like "it's professional! you can bring it to work!" it's not and i can't/won't.). there were some other stupid things that happened but like it's so very not worth dwelling on. I don't like seeing my family and I hate christmas.I'm glad I made it through with a minimum of frustration
i owe one of my sibs like $50
my neighbor pestered me for money again (augh)
I signed up for a "how to ice skate (for adults who have never done it before)" class that runs in jan/feb. hopefully it will be fun. i've always wanted to learn how to skate and i also want excuses to get out of my house. hopefully i won't feel too cringe about it. we'll see.
idk, although this week has been busy i have not actually done much of note
i have like 3 mildly popular posts circulating on tumblr right now and it makes me want to shriek
made an ao3 "skin" (it's like one line of CSS) to block the refuse gift button on ao3 so you don't click it by accident

What's on the docket?

enjoy my week off, for one thing
respond to ao3 comments
remake my pinned post on tumblr to just be a writing masterpost
i need to go to the bank to talk to someone about getting a new debit card since mine is expiring. i think i fixed *most* of my autopays that were going to that (I need to change my YMCA membership + i think my website domain still), but at least the life essentials of electric bill + internet bill i managed to switch (my student loans pull directly from my bank account, my heating bill isn't on autopay, patreon goes through paypal... idk what else is lurking out there that I need to fix but i'll do another check). this is such an annoying little problem to have.
finish my logh secret santa fic. and quickly. lmao.
continue to read through speaking in tongues / talking without speaking / servants of the pharaoh so that i can start writing the next section of WIAW
write the first chapter of Serpent's Mouth, Serpent's Teeth
NYE: host my discord watchthrough of The Irony of Fate (it's a tradition!)
make my end of year writing wrapup post + 2022 goals
make Lydia a belated christmas gift + mail it
i'm trying to hook up with internet strangers via lex but that falls through like 95% of the time so I'm not going to put this as an actual action item lol
idk i should probably try to think of other fun things to do in this time but i'm very [flops on the ground]
kinda want to go to savers just to look at Objects
make plans with sarah to see if she can come visit and hang out in january
finish reading The Twelve Chairs

idk it's been a time lol.