natsinator

I keep not doing these because i'm like "augh i didn't accomplish anything this week it's not worth blogging about" but then I let a million billion things pass by without remarking upon them at all because i couldn't get my life together enough to write a blog post.

Anyway...

Posting Update
In reverse chronological order...

Serpent's Mouth, Serpent's Teeth - Chapter 9 - Respect for the Sklavenmoral

I started this one before I abandoned SMST to work on ItSoH stuff, so half of it was written months ago and half of it was written in a couple days. It's fine. A perfectly serviceable chapter that advances the plot sufficiently.

New Creatures With New Hearts - Chapters 13-22

Um, well, I finished the ItSoH act 1 rewrite. I think it's fineeeee. It's certainly a major improvement on what I had before. It could probably still stand to have 20k words chopped from it, but i'm uninterested in doing that kind of editing at this moment. It also works way better as "act 1 of a very long story" than it does as a standalone novel, but it will have to stand on its own until i finish the rest of itsoh. but there's a lot of things in there that I do like, and i'm very glad to have finished it. although it doesn't really deserve it, it gets the award for longest i've ever taken to write a novel-- 2.5 years. but that's because i only worked on it sporadically. it's about 4 months of actual effort all told. anyway it's fun. if anybody hasn't read it yet you should. i probably have more coherent and longer thoughts about the way this story is constructed but i don't think here is the time or place to write them. somebody pester me to do some kind of postmortem on it at some point.

Repairing the Ravages Made by Generosity Added to Love (Or: As In a Mirror, Dimly)

Had to get a logh fic out of my system i think. It could maybe stand an edit and I think as i was writing I mayyyy have lost track of my original vision but you know. it is out there and it functions.

The Difference Between Grasping and Holding

A DA exchange fic. I think in the end this one is successful but it also took a lot out of me to write lol. I would have liked to do something longer and more complex but it eluded me as I was writing it. But I got it done and out the door and that is what matters. And I think it's a fine fic that readers of Tom/Sybil will enjoy. So.

The Intestine of the Basilisk

An original short story written for an exchange :] I really like this one. Idk why it's so fun to write horror-adj SF since i'm not a horror reader at all. But it's just sorta an easy well to draw from. I do think I pulled my punches on this one a little bit-- I could have gotten gory or leaned harder into the inhuman nature of the protag, but eh for a first pass I think it works really well and has the interesting ideas that I wanted to pick at fully developed. Give this one a read if you haven't.

I've Seen the Future (I Will Never Be Repatriated)

A gift/request LOGH fic. This one was really fun to write tbh. IDK how many people care about Muckenburger and Schneider but I enjoyed writing about them a lot. I do so love a reflection on the way the world has changed and the feeling of no longer having a place in it.

Blood, Water, and Alcohol - E9

The Body Without Organs

Another really fun exchange fic, which I actually wrote ages ages ago but never included in one of these updates. Anyway I'm always plumbing that #embodiment well.

General Writing Status
So. My main focus for the foreseeable future is to blast through writing SMST. I think I am actually in a very good place writing wise these days, so I hope I can keep it up until at least the end of that book, and hopefully forever, but let's not talk about forever.

After SMST I'm still undecided. My two real choices are either finish EHI or start a new book. On one hand, I really want to finish EHI, and I want to close out as many WIPs as I can before starting any new ones. But on the other hand, I have caught a little bit of a bug about wanting to get trad pub'd, and it would be best to do that with a fresh manuscript. I have an idea that I think is workable, and it would be fun to actually give it a shot before i get really bogged down in the end of WIAW, which i think is going to sap my brain power completely. But we'll see. I have to get to the end of SMST before I can really think about this.

I don't have any exchange fic obligations rn. I'm always tempted to sign up for them but I really really shouldn't lol. I love writing short fics but it's really not where my priorities should be.

Anyway, like I said, I've been doing a lot better than I have writing wise. I don't know if I can chalk it up to the new toy i bought (fancy calendar) or if i just happened to randomly become a little manic, but whatever it is, I will take it. Yeah.

Also, not sure where else it should go, but there are TWO chinese translations of WIAW happening. I have absolutely loved following along with both. It really makes me so overwhelmed. Check out ChiefAccelerator on AO3 and WTR on Lofter

Media Update
I feel like there's so much that should go here. I'm still working my way very slowly through War and Peace (my library book is so overdue ;0; i should just get a digital copy) and the Iliad.

I finished watching HBO's The Gilded Age. It was pretty fun, and not just b/c all of it is filmed in places I lived in/go frequently. In some ways it's better than Downton Abbey and in some ways it's less good. I enjoy it but I don't have time in my schedule to do a long fic about it atm.

I watched two of the worst movies I've ever seen in rapid succession: Elvis (2022) and Grizzly Rage (2007). Kavka wants me to write a crossover fic. I should write my letterboxd writeups... I'll get to it.

I'm probably missing a ton of shit here but that's what I get for holding off on writing these things for ages.

Life Update
Oh jeeze oh boy oh man.

got my car fixed. it took like 2 weeks of not having a car.
sorted out my financials slightly more. got a credit card for the first time like a big grown up adult b/c when i didn't have one they wouldn't let me rent a car
still ice skating. still bad at it.
had a couple hookups of varying quality.
god i feel like there have been so many things and now i'm blanking on them. i really do need to write these stupid things weekly lol.
anyway this week i went to visit my friends verilyrosen lolitajohnadams 00ff00_Will and parakavka . i had a great time. I also met Donald and Kyle and one of their other friends whose name I have sadly forgotten ;0;
i went window shopping at various consignment stores but did not purchase anything
I ate so so so much bar food
I played trivia and knew the answers to like 2 questions lmao. i was kinda dead weight on the team but you know.
I went to the following museums: carlos museum, atlanta aquarium, world of coke, high museum, mace brown natural history museum, patriot's point naval museum (and walked around their battleship and aircraft carrier; the sub was out of commission sadly lol)
watched A Midsummer Night's Dream at the dinner theater (it was great-- I had never seen or read that play before so I really enjoyed it)
Saw the mountain goats on the duo tour, which I really liked though I don't think anyone else did 😔. I should probably stop bringing people who don't care to tmg shows...
um idk a bunch of other fun stuff happened. i caught a turtle and a lizard and a small toad. i got out of the car and picked berries while waiting for the train to go by
I forced Kat to watch The Young Pope
it was a very fun vacation. i'm exhausted tho and glad to be home. i am looking forward to being able to control what/when/how much i eat again because i do have to say not having control of those things is a fast trip to bad brain hours.
anyway i wrote most of this post while sitting in the charleston airport and then had to get on the plane and have forgotten whatever else i was going to say. i'm so tired lol.

What's On the Docket

I need to get back into the swing of my normal life. do laundry... clean my apartment... grocery shoppe... etc. jobbe. you know.
schedule hookups with people now that i'm back home lmfao
keep plugging away at SMST
return my very overdue library book
get back to swimming now that the ymca is done being renovated and is open again
idk probably so much stuff lol
kavka wants me to write an elvis/grizzly rage crossover fic but we'll see if that actually happens