oddsbobs' Journal

Long time no post, eh? I'm going to have sooo much to catch up on in my f-list!

I'm back from my aunt's. She recently had a stroke, and I'm happy to say she's doing really well. We even played Scrabble at one point. I just got enough time to get on my computer real quick before bed, so there are a few thoughts I want to jot down.

1. This

made me very angry. Well, it's not the exact article I don't think, but the only one I could find after the fact. Shortly before I left, I went onto Yahoo! homepage, and right there was an article on celebrities being effected by the California fires. Not that I don't feel for them as well, but seriously people. There are so many families being displaced and so much damage occuring... not to mention the fear and anxiety. And people are still gaga over celebs? Puhlease. My heart goes out to anyone currently in that area. I pray that things get better soon.

2. The Scrabble words for today: 'Jo' and 'om'. A jo is a sweetheart, and om is a mantra. Learn them, love them. I got 31 points off those words using two tiles and a triple word score in a tight spot that people would normally ignore. There's a whole list of Two Letter Words

that Scrabble accepts.

3. I was contemplating mouthwash earlier. Seriously. I had rinsed and spit it out in the sink, and noticed how it's all fizy and whatnot in the drain. It looked like it was eating away at the porcelain (exaggeration).   I had to pause an think to myself, "I voluntarily put that in my mouth?" I mean, it looks like it could eat away at your teeth, and it certainly feels like it's eating at your tongue. Perhaps acid pops are made of mouthwash?

4. I'm going away this weekend. Again. It's weird. I get all these new friends on livejournal (yet another reason I've been neglecting IJ... there was a friending meme of epic proportions) and things I want to post/read... and my Real Life friends suddenly get all sociable.

5. My 'aimless wanderings' while I was gone weren't so aimless after all. I got a new job.(!)   Yep. It's part time and temporary, but it'll get me money without making me want to kill someone/thing.   It should keep me until I get a better full time job doing something I actually like... For instance the two(!) companies I just put my resume in to. Wish me luck!

6. To celebrate my new job-ness, I did something I swore I wouldn't do. I told myself I wouldn't buy/rent any more movies or books until I got a job. Even though it's only temporary, I figured this still counts. So I bought Hood by Stephen R. Lawhead. I am in love with Robin Hood, in any shape or form. I hope it's worth it. I think I get drawn to such books because they always have the titles written in the really cool medieval/ancient script (or an imitation of it). Would that be Love at First Font, then?   (hahaha I crack myself up *is loser*)   Does anyone have any recommendations for good Robin Hood literature?

7. This weekend there will be a costume party. I was just made aware of this fact. I have no costume. Does anyone have any good/cheap/easy ideas? I only have tomorrow to get it together.

I was really tempted to buy Band of Brothers, but it is far too expensive. I think I'll put it on my Christmas list. ;-)

If an lj user posts her rambling thoughts, and no one stops by to read them, do those thoughts actually exist?

I've made a promise to myself to start commenting on other people's fics. I know how much I love getting comments. It's ridiculous how much I love them, actually. If I don't get many reviews, I feel sad. (When I posted The Naked Truth at the yahoo group, no one reviewed it. Not even the b-day girl it was written for. I'm starting to think no one got the e-mail or something, because that's just weird)

Anyway. So I've come to realize that I'm a HUGE hypocrite. I get all excited about reviews for my own work, but practically NEVER take the time to tell other people I like their work. Why do I do that? It's so mean. There's even been fics I absolutely love and I still don't write a simple 'That was lovely' comment. So I'm going to start commenting. On all the fics I read. Seriously. I mean it. I just commented on two in the last hour. I'M A CHANGED WOMAN, darn it.

It's kinda horrible that I'm deciding to do this now (and write a post about it) when I have a dh_exchange fic due TOMORROW. I am a loser.

On non-HP fandom related issues:
-'Life' on NBC, Wed. at 9. Good show. I get the feeling it's veeery loosely based on The Count of Monte Cristo or something. And as much as I love Damian Lewis, I can't help but to think of him as Richard Winters from Band of Brothers... which is probably a disservice to him. Ah well.
-I feel fat. (I mean, I know I'm overweight, but I'm starting to actually feel fat) I need to start exercising again. On the plus side, after two months of not exercising, I'm still about the same weight. Just not as toned or something.
-I'm loving this weather.

Anyone got anything interesting to say/add? Any deeply probing questions about yours truly? Seriously. This journal is all HP centric and it's making my dork show. I need to fix this (though I'll probably be just as dorktastic).

On that note, I'll leave you with ~~Dick Winters~~ Damian Lewis again:

...he looks kinda like a Weasley. Crap! Darn HP for infecting my brain! *wanders off to do something NON-HP related*

Since my last archived fic here was of the Remus/Sirius variety, I decided to archive a Neville gen piece next.

Summary: Written for the first Mid-Month Challenge at love_lingers (on lj). Neville reflects on his parents.

“I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, "Move from here to there" and it will move.” Matthew 17:20

After weeks of saying I’d do it, I’m finally archiving my fics here (not counting the fic I posted last night, since it was new)! I don’t know why I’m starting with this one. I don’t really want to post my very first fic, since I think it’s rather bad, but I should be posting chronologically. Oh well. They’ll all get here eventually. Though I shouldn’t have to point this out, all my stories were written before DH, and are therefore AU.

Oh, and a quick note. So apparently the Department of Magical Law Enforcement is more like a department of lawyers. (JKR said in an interview Hermione ends up working here.) I’ve always thought it was like the regular police, and Aurors were the cream of the crop. Detectives or somesuch. After all, there’s many different levels of law enforcement. I think I’m going to keep it my way, if that’s ok with you.

Summary: After the war, the Ministry has a few questions to ask. Unfortunately for Inquisitor McNealy, the person to be interviewed has a few accounts to settle.

Notes: I’m not happy with the beginning, and I think some parts are clunky, but I couldn’t let this fic languish on my hard-drive forever. It’s also quickly becoming a favorite of mine. Perhaps it has to do with Remus’s attitude?

Well what do you know? A fic! I know, I still owe

pre_raphaelite1 a b-day drabble, and I have a story to beta, and I have dh_exchange fic to finish, and I need to stop thinking about my to do list...
Anyway.
Quick random fic post! (Not really, I just want to get reviews because I'm a review junkie)

Title: The Naked Truth (and other suitably scandalous things)

Notes: This fic was originally written to celebrate the birthday of a member on the remusxsirius yahoo group. It is a rather sloppy piece with no beta and a rather loose train of thought. Written pretty late at night, so you know... I'll probably have to look over/edit it later. It’s rather like a list. It was meant to be humorous, but I think I added some bittersweetness (as always). Feedback is welcome!

Hello, wonderful people! I hope you are all doing well...

I'm a bit chipper right now. Had a fantastic weekend :-) I need to catch up on my friends list, but if you think there's anything important I missed, please feel free to point it out.

To the point of the post:

I need some OPINIONS.

So I wrote this Remus/Sirius fic called "Hope is the thing with feathers" (with the title slowly but inevitably changing to simply "Hope"). A few months ago, I gave the go ahead for someone to translate it into Chinese and post it to her site. The readers there have been lovely, and I've even gotten some fanart out of it.

Aclytie has just contacted me that they are now interested in creating a 'fanzine' of sorts... where they print out my story into a little booklet for distribution among their tiny circle. They, of course, won't do it without my permission. I believe it'll include other works as well... not too sure about that. Since I'm (relatively) new to fandom and not all up on such things, I was wondering if anyone had an opinion about this.

Should I say yes go ahead, or politely decline? I'm thinking I should make sure of some things first. That they're not making money off this, that it's only for a very select distribution... Copywrite issues frankly scare the crap out of me. I get butterflies in my stomach just from thinking about my pitiful little fanfics posted on the web, so of course my 'I don't want to get in trouble in any way AT ALL' senses are tingling when I think about my fanfic in tangible print.

Then there's the other issue of my 'fan-self' vs. my 'real-self'. I'm sure I'm not alone in this, but I have separated my real life from fandom as much as possible. Separate journals, separate e-mails... even the name I give you all is not my given name. I'll talk about my real life in a very general sense, or without specifics. Enough info that you get to know me and we can relate on non-fandom terms. You know?

Anyways, so the point is that I want to get published some day. I know there's an increasingly blurred line in fandom that makes it possible for some fanfic writers to cross into professional writing without there being much fuss (though I'm really not up-to-date on if this is true for writers of slash as well... gay themes are still something that seems to me to be a big NO in mainstream publishing... ::sigh::). Still, though I don't think I'd ever deny any participation in fandom, I'd rather not have that issue among the many other obstacles in getting my original work published. The drama-queen in me is making Aclytie's small request into something pontentially very bad.

One of these days my worry-wart side and my confident side will duke it out and settle everything once and for all. I hate being suddenly anxious even over the most trivial of things (this applies to several everyday things as well... including talking on the phone. I hate calling up for appointments and whatnot. 'Do I ask for this, or should I state it this way? OMG! ::panic::').

I really don't know if all this rambling is simply asking for reassurance, or just my attempts to think it though myself. Maybe I'm really just pondering the state of literature and publishing in a post-internet world.

Opinions on the matter? It would even be interesting to hear what other people think concerning fandom writers trying to publish original works. Should I say yes to this fanzine thing? Or clutch my fic to my chest and run to the hills screaming?

I have some fics to beta, and then I'm going to catch up on reading from the weekend. (plus lots and lots of writing) Maybe I'll start archiving my fics here tomorrow...

When I mentioned on the meme I posted a while back that I thought I drew well, but am getting really rusty,

stupid_drawings asked to see an example of my artistic skillz. I'm planning an attempt at the requested zombie, but until then, I thought now would be a good time to post a new piece that has yet to be revealed to the public. How exciting!

Concrit is adored and completely welcome... I'm always looking for ways to improve! Enjoy!

This is the long one... it's more like a ficlet. A Harry Potter/Good Omens cross-over. With footnotes!

(Will still be accepting prompts... comment on this post)

For orngsnapdragon (on livejournal):

Whee! Six out of seven drabbles here (the seventh is long enough for its own post). Five Harry Potter, one Good Omen.

So I've realized I really suck at trying to write drabbles. I cannot do short. I could never do an actual 100 word drabble. But it was fun! Thanks everyone for your prompts, and enjoy!

(Also, I'll still accept prompts, probably on a continual basis.)

For harleen:
Title: Count Yourself Lucky
Prompt: Fred, George, AU to DH, quality time at the shop
Rating: PG for swearing
Word Count: 315

( Seedling )

For closet_zebra (on livejournal):

Title: Food for Thought
Prompt: Sirius/Remus Duck food
Rating: PG
Word Count: 300

( Food for Thought )

For thewrittendream (on livejournal):

Title: Connect the Dots
Prompt: James/Lily, school days, wands
Rating: G
Word Count: 262

( Connect the Dots )

For calico_jynx:

Title: It's Cephalopodic
Prompt: Aziraphale/Crowley, Octopus
Rating: G
Word Count: 157

( It's Cephalopodic )

So I'm bored. Well, not really bored, more like having writer's block issues with the BAZILLION exchange fics I have to write YESTERDAY.

I know we're all still in that 'getting to know each other' phase, but to help me get past this, I'm offering myself up to you, o f-list.

Comment to this post with any character or pairing, plus a small prompt (could be one word, could be a concept, etc) and I WILL WRITE YOU A DRABBLE.

YES, ladies and gents, I'm giving away FREE drabbles! (well, kind of free. you get the point.)

When I say any character or pairing, I mean any character or pairing. Be bold! Even those I normally avoid (like Snape!) or nobody's ever heard of, bring them on!

In fact, I'll make this drabble-frenzy multifandom... oooo! ahhh! ....   Harry Potter, Good Omens, and hmm... Firefly/Serenity, Greek/Roman Mythology... yeah, I think that's all I know confidently enough to write fanfic about. (but don't hesitate to ask if I know another fandom)

So help me, please!

/pestering

This is my first entry on Insanejournal. That's kind of exciting, I guess.

And what better way to open a journal than with a 'getting to know you' meme?