stuff and nonsense – nero wolfe, and ficlets: Merlin, White Collar, Hikago
hello!
Read Moreenormous epic wip dump part 1
cleaning out google docs.
(tonight chapter 17 of That Fic topped 20,000 words! and although about 10,000 of those words will probably need to be rewritten at some point, it still makes me really happy, because, hey, that’s 20,000 words that proves that in between all the yes-i-am/no-i’m-not madness, i’ve actually been working on it. you know. on and off. since. 2004. god ok look minor accomplishments, i can has them.)
GIANTWIP DUMP! This is just a sampling of things I’ve been working on during the last 12 months. Most of these will probably never be finished. pick a fandom, any fandom.
Read MoreYour H/D fic rec of the day:
R
READ THIS FIC IT IS FANTASTIC. SERIOUSLY WONDERFUL. 93,000 words of well-constructed post-war H/D partnership!fic with a solid plot, tons of UST, and slow-building friendship-turned-love that does not disappoint in the least. It has a whole cast of great characters, a mystery that I totally didn’t solve before the big whodunnit, Draco and Harry snarking and tentatively, totally falling in love, strong overarching themes of intimacy, recovery, and rehabilitation, a convincing, plausible, lovely universe, A WHOLE CHAPTER DEVOTED TO HARRY AND DRACO GETTING LOCKED IN A CLOSET <3, and finally tons of scorching & tender Harry/Draco romance.
I loved it to absolute bits. BITS, people. (And healer!fics are normally dealbreakers for me, but NONE OF THAT MATTERS, NO DEALS WERE BROKEN, IT'S A GREAT FIC AND YOU SHOULD ALL READ IT.)
Read Reparations:
a) at FF.Net <-- my recommendation
b) at the Hexfiles
c) on Sara’s LJ.
There is also a GINORMOUS SEQUEL!!!!! which I have not yet read but which I am starting to read this very day: FOUNDATIONS, also at LJ but much easier read at FF.net or Hexfiles. The author is relatively new to H/D fandom, so hopefully she will stick around and write much more for us.
P.S. If you want serious, important mind-bending fic recs today, loftily has two of them here: one for Saving Connor and the tremendous, epic 8-full-length Harry Potter fanfic novel series known as the Sacrifices Arc. I have not yet read this fic series but I can say with great certainty that it has apparently changed my friend’s life, which is a rec by itself, I suppose. The other rec is for derryere‘s Box of Magic fic – the Merlin Big Bang challenge that just went up today. And I have not read this yet either but I am reccing it in advance, because she is one of the most brilliant writers I’ve ever read in any fandom. I can’t wait to read it. <3
Read Morewhatever, who am i kidding, i’m *always* into fandom
I meant what I said, I have never ever in my life seen a full episode of American Idol. (but I’m totally rooting for Adam Lambert to win this year, first year I have ACTIVELY CARED ABOUT THIS SHOW THAT I’VE NEVER SEEN, hello, and not even astolat could accomplish what Adam Lambert did, thank you very much, good night).
That said, it’s Britain’s Got Talent that’s rapidly turning Simon Cowell into my new favorite Glorious Bastard.
LOOK AT THIS.
1. 12-year-old comes out, sings the wrong song, Simon stops him and says “uh no, try something else,” and when he starts over with Michael Jackson and lets out this wail of a sound, Simon goes:
because, YES, HELLO, OF COURSE HE’S ALWAYS RIGHT, he is SIMON FUCKING COWELL. ahaha. God look at that smirk ;fksd;l
1. Sally Bowles eta: or Susan Boyle, whatever, you all know who I mean, shut up, I TOLD YOU THIS ISN’T MY SCENE. Okay, so, my only real comment on Sally Susan Boyle herself is that a) her voice is in amazing shape and b) she would get a fair nod or two at a music school and she’d probably have a fairly difficult time getting through a regular musical theatre audition process, just like everyone else. Namely: she’s amazing, but so is everyone when you’re at a certain level, and I’m not sure she’s that much more amazing than everyone else at that level. Or maybe that’s just me being overly judgmental like always. Did I mention I bond with Simon because I understand his pain? We both just want to find that spark inside everyone that’s pure personality and drive and love, that spark that’s pure talent, okay, and so what kills me about the Sally Susan Boyle vid is not Sally Susan Boyle herself, but Simon’s reaction right here:
LOOK HOW GIDDY HE IS. (*edits post to use ‘s .gif skills*) seriously he’s like a child at christmas. THAT is just. god. I should be an agent or something, because I relate so hard to that, that is exactly how I feel whenever I’m watching someone break through their shell and get it right. And I just love this moment so much. It’s ruined the mystique of Simon forever, it has, look, he’s clearly just a big giant softie.
No wonder Ryan Seacrest is in love with him.
____
Speaking of mystique ruined forever, I have been idly watching Fall Out Boy videos on youtube. they are unexpectedly hilarious.
HILARIOUS.
____
Merlin has a chibi face. ^_^
HEE i drew fanart.
Read More#Agentfail! (it’s hashtag tuesday!)
- HELL YES VERMONT. 2 states in a week, this just makes me so so so so happy and proud and hopeful. I feel like printing out a blank map of the U.S. and coloring it in a state at a time. 
- HIROMU ARAKAWA IS DOING THE JAPANESE COVER FOR DEMON’S LEXICON. OH MY GOD. oh my god. oh my god! The level of thrilled I am at right now does not come with coherence. Or words. Just. DDDD
- Merlin BB fic stands at like 29,000 words and I am terrified that we will not have time to write the whole ginormous plot before July, especially because my laptop is totally dead and I’m having to write everything out by hand and then come to work at dawn to transcribe it, like I’m in some kind of vintage pressroom movie, deliriously cranking away on a typewriter and shouting “Don’t worry, boss, I got a scoop and it’s a honey!” This is not helpful for my sanity, especially because if we keep writing at the same rate then at deadline the fic will be… 99,000 words, and Madelyn will say, you’re joking, right? And then we will be stuck with a giant, possibly unfinished fic, which may not even contain adult material, and we’ll have to code it ourselves and beg artists to give us art for it, and not even Amalin’s amazing Hilary Duff fst will take us to the mountaintop, and then i will die alone and pigeons will peck at my face, and my mother will say to me, why, why, Aja, why did you give your life for this, when you could have been writing nice innocent heterosexual romance novels and getting paid for them? and i will not reply because i will be dead, and the only answer will be the faint echo of “So Yesterday” wafting over my rotting corpse.
- Has anybody been following the #queryfail / #agentfail wars on twitter/the blogosphere? Here’s a with a link to the post that culled hundreds of responses about rude agents. Some of these writer complaints seem extremely petty and obtuse to me. (Don’t you hate words and phrases for which there are no adjective/adverb form? Like “missing-the-point” should have an adjective form. YOU ARE POINT-MISSING. ugh, not the same.)
Actual complaints: That agent seems too disorganized. Agents should reply with more than one sentence. Agents shouldn’t twitter about writers. Agents shouldn’t multi-task when they’re on the phone with clients. Agents should keep their personal business off their professional blogs.
Seriously??
When I see writers complaining that they only got one line of agent feedback, or that an agent doesn’t seem worthy of their manuscripts, it makes me think they’re fostering an unhealthy sense of dignity. I’d like it if my agent was a little crazed, a little laidback, a little spastic and frenetic and snarky and imperfect, and basically a little like me. I love that I can get to know agents through their lives, their snarky twitters, their blogs, their passion for their clients. I’m most likely only going to query agents I already feel I have a lot in common with. I’m not going to query agents who love books I hate.
I will definitely query agents who love to laugh at the submissions process and the act of writing itself, because if the day ever comes when I cannot mock myself then I will almost certainly need my agent to do it for me.
One thing did make me D: – the agent who told their client “I hated your last book.” Your agent should be your biggest fan, and no matter how successful a writer gets, if they write a book you hate, then to keep representing it is like remaining trapped in a loveless marriage. Divorce! Let them find an agent who loves them! I’m sure there are plenty of agents with horrible taste out there to represent awful books. ♥ And that will mean that, hey, there is still enough love to go around, and everyone is happy. #agentwin for all!
- today is a good day. that’s all!
Read MoreThings! (or, Aja refuses to do laundry and is LJing instead like a loser)
- My favorite Shakespeare play used to be Twelfth Night, but I think over the years it has gradually shifted towards Macbeth. Not that I don’t love Twelfth Night, but Macbeth is so batshit insane and surreal, it’s like a gothic romance and a horror movie and an opium dream and a tale told by an idiot all in one. And it’s so quotable! and fun, in its enormous body count, three witches, who-is-the-third-murderer, why-is-that-ghost-sitting-in-my-chair and why-am-i-seeing-invisible-weapons, unsex-me-here-because-i’m-about-ten-times-more-badass-than-my-pathetic-husband kind of way.
(Oh, and i almost forgot the best part – that it’s CURSED. it’s a batshit insane play that’s CURSED. BEST EVER.)
- My favorite Shakespeare anything is Prince Hal’s speech from I Henry IV, Act I, Scene ii: I know you all…
Prince Hal’s whole character arc has always had a huge impact on me – on the kinds of characters I fall in love with, and on the kinds of stories I tell about them. I’ve been thinking about Prince Hal a lot lately, because if Harry Potter is so clearly patterned after Henry V, then the BBC’s Arthur is so clearly patterned after his younger, more reckless, but still wonderfully strong/wise/sexy self.
And honestly I think every character I write has had shades of Prince Hal: not quite royal, not yet – but still undeniably something more than common.
- I swear, Merlin fandom, if I let myself, I would make a delicious tag that just says “oh, merlin fandom, no” and then i would use it on everything. Like the 8 million genderswaps/possessive!arthur/drunken!revels/accidental!bedsharing/let’s-drag-merlin-into-a-magic-stripping-glade-thing-and-torture-him-to-find-out-he’s-a-wizard-because-yeah-that-shit’s-in-character-don’t-get-me-started/ seriously-what-is-up-with-all-the-freaking-SAM/DEAN-appearances-in-6th-century-England-why-just-why/ wait-why-are-we-acting-like-magic=>GAY-is-some-kind-of-deeply-original-parallel-now-isn’t-that-an-intentional-allegory-promoted-by-the-show-itself-because-if-not-then-please-allow-me-to-have-my-due-for-standing-up-and-shouting-OH HAI GUYS MERLIN HAS TO “COME OUT” ABOUT HIS MAGIC, GET IT?-*headdesk*/seriously-did-i-just-read-three-fics-in-a-row-about-Arthur-shagging-scullery-maids/what-is-is-this-GAIUS/MERLIN-oh-my-god-oh-merlin-fandom-NO.
*coughs* *returns to writing Merlin Big Bang fic and being a nice person, really*
- question! if you had to name a slash dragon, what would you name it? (and no, you do not get points for Draco. )
Read MoreAppreciation. (Arthur/Merlin, shut up you know you want it)
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, !
Read More