worryingly jolly batman

( spoilers for this week's Merlin )

I am doing really super well with , I'm really proud. A couple of days ago I wrote a little snip, about 800 words, of Nikita fic; it's one-sided Jaden/Alex and I wondered if anyone out there would beta it? I'm really trying to improve my willingness to be beta'd, so someone in the mood to take a short piece and rip it apart would be nice. Canon familiarity would be cool but I don't mind if you don't.

Anecdote: So Nikita is a pretty small fandom and there aren't many comms. I tried to post a friendly beta-request let's-get-to-know-each-other-and-share-Nikita-writing-tips post in the fic comm, and I got rejected, which! I mean, OK! I get that some fic comms only want posts with actual fic in it. But when you're in a teeny tiny fandom, to my mind the best thing to do is to encourage people who like fic to talk to each other, make friends, beta. When there are only five pieces of fic in your community, so it's clearly not high volume or spammy, and crucially none of those fic posts thank a beta, wouldn't you think it would be in your fandom's INTEREST to at least set up a beta matching/meet & greet post?! Argh. So anyway then I posted to the like main/noticeboard community because it was the only other option and got absolutely no nibbles, which, argh, frustrating! I might try again next month if I've written any more and pitch it in an even more friendly way, but sheesh.

The other stuff I've been learning from being a MiFu: Apparently the best way to get me to write is to convince me I have an obligation to write something. I won't be able to write that thing ... but I'll find it perfectly easy to write something else. So on Tuesday when I wanted to work on one of my YW WiPs I ended up writing Nikita fic, and yesterday when I wanted to write White Collar fic from china_shop's prompt for me I ended up writing YW; not one of my WiPs, admittedly, but the Nita/Joanne college!fic I've kind of always wanted to write. (Turns out the trick was writing from Joanne's POV, not Nita's.) This is a tricky proposition because we really don't have a lot of characterisation of Joanne other than that she's a bully, and I'm kind of hoping she's gotten over that by college; so it's basically writing a Nita/OFC story. So probably no-one will read it, but that's OK! I'm enjoying writing it. I managed 450 words yesterday which is actually really good for me, and then 1300 today, which is EPIC for me. (I used to struggle to make the 1000-word Yuletide minimum.) Who knows how long it will be? I'm hoping not too long so I keep my momentum.

Also today: I baked bread, learned a couple folk tunes, and applied for an overdraft. Very Lady Artist. By the way, I really appreciate everyone's words of support the other day; they came at just the right time.

Everyone! The Young Wizards (And Associated Fandoms) Kink and Cliche Meme at ! Go! Request! Fill! You know you want to fix the dearth of pr0n!

So china_shop is running Fandom Appreciation Week - this is where, every day of the week, you do a small thing that celebrates fandom, connects writers and readers, etc. I really love this because I rarely write anything and feel I don't give much back to fandom, so it's a chance for me to participate. Consequently, I'll be playing this week as much as I can!

The challenge for Day 1 was to rec three fanworks created for a challenge. Fortunately, this is easy for me, since most of the terrific fic in the Fandom of my Heart is written for challenges. However, I decided to make it a little bit more spicy by excluding this year's Yuletide. I did so because everyone reads Yuletide and those stories, brilliant as so many of them are, should be fresh in your mind. (If they're not... go and make it so.) After some mucking around, I came up with these three, which pleased me because it's almost like a set (theme: devastating.)

Balance, by coffeebased (DW? LJ?), Yuletide 2008.
This is a really brilliant what-if that sneaks a happy ending out of a devastating premise. It's N/K-ish gen that begins just after W@W and I think it's clever and really well-written, with some wonderful ideas that are, unfortunately, mostly concentrated in the first half of the story. The back half gives the requisite happy ending although it is less thoughtful, but I personally like a happy ending on my Yuletide fic.

The Stars Will Still Remain, by semiramis, Myriadwords challenge 2005
So this is a story about Nita losing her wizardry, and I absolutely love it. Yeah, I know! I think it has a brilliant atmosphere and the writing is beautifully visual. I also love the creeping sense of oppression.

No White Flag Here, by senri, Yuletide 2007
So, this was actually written for ME by one of my favourite people ever, and it's about Joanne and Nita, so it is pretty much... my Kryptonite. Nevertheless. This is a really terrific little piece about Joanne, watching Nita, watching her mother die. Highly recommended.


And now that you're devastated - um, sorry. Here, have three of my all-time favourite Tom/Carl fics to make up for it: An Unwilling Heart; Not Enough; and Three Ways Tom and Carl Never Met.

Soliciting opinions from y'all before I take this over to myriadwords. I think it's basically too late to run a YW fic challenge for the summer this year, and last year I was pretty disappointed by the rate of drop-outs and incompletes - er, including myself, so I'm not trying to be all judgy. But... I really want to get the comm. more active again, since we've had some people join lately, and someone recently asked me if I was going to run it again this year, so I wanna have something in the works. So: this is what I was thinking.

I think a good way to reduce dropouts would be to run the challenge as gift fic. Previously I shied away from that because I felt like it potentially put unreasonable pressure on participants and, if people dropped out, there would be a lot of disappointment. Also, I think gift fic challenges are a lot more high-maintenance. However:
- drop-out rates are really high. I think guilt would make them lower.
- I also think that the do-what-you-like model doesn't put quite enough pressure on people, to the extent that people slack off. A lot. I may be projecting here.
- god, dinner smells really good. OK, that's not actually a factor.
- that's pretty much all I've got.

On the other hand,
- aforementioned problems with effort put in by me and my happy band of volunteers - oh, wait, no, it's just me.
- need pinch-hitters. ahahaha.
- it *is* a bigger committment, so lower sign-up levels.
- I still need a runtime. Ideally I would really like to run this as a Christmas challenge, but, um, Yuletide is already the biggest regular source of YW fic, so... no. Due end of September? That would probably work if I started signups, like, tomorrow.
- need to figure out what kind of request submission would be useful, how to match people up, etc. By random? What about people who request slash from gen writers? all those questions.

So, people, I really need some opinions. I don't want to just let this go because I love my teeny tiny fandom. But I really don't know if any of this is feasible.

I would really value advice and opinions from all of you, especially people who have run challenges, people who have participated in challenges, and people in the YW fandom. plz send help!

Some requests!

Has anyone got either Steve Perry's "Running Alone" (the song from that scene in High Wizardry? Yeah, um, I'm thinking of finally making that Nita/Kit fanmix, and I figure I kinda should put it in there, although, seriously, reading the lyrics? Not a happy song.) or the Malcolm in the Middle theme, it's by They Might Be Giants but I'm not sure what it's called, possibly "You're Not The Boss of Me."

Also, any tips for beating security? I have a copy of the original, full version of "Hey, Schoolgirl" by Tom & Jerry that I can't play in itunes and it has some crazy copy protection which means I can't convert it and it's majorly pissing me off.

Um, thanks in advance, anyone. :D

I've always wanted to make a fanmix, but they seemed so... overdone in most fandoms. So I have the distinguished pleasure of making what I think is the first fanmix ever in the fandom of my heart: "I'll Burn You Down," a Dairine Callahan fanmix. Warning for emo girlpop.

The first time I read High Wizardry, the book in which she's introduced, I really didn't like Dairine that much. But I came to realise the error of my ways - and in apology, present a fanmix for the much-loved Dairine Callahan.

( covers, tracklisting and uploads right this way )
As ever, let me know if a link you want runs out. x-posted to fanmix.

dear livejournal, apparently I am back with you earlier than I thought, because one of the boxes under the tree this morning contained... a brand new wireless card, one I can actually use with my family's network. I predict this will be my second-most used gift, the first-most being the very shiny blue 4Gb ipod nano that was wrapped in about twenty layers of bubble wrap and sitting in... a shoebox. Yes, I was quite surprised too, but it can be explained like this: my youngest sister really, really wanted one and is young enough not to be ashamed to ask, and my parents like to reduce shopping stress as much as posible and are very much of the buy-everyone-the-same-thing with variations in, for e.g., colour of socks, title of book, artist of CD, and so on. So we all lucked out. Thank you, Freya, may you remain shameless and materialistic many years hence. Her name is Dairine, to go with my laptop called Nita and her trusty sidekick Kit, my external hard drive. Which is pretty much a matched set! Go, me.
( other highlights included... )


But none of that is the point of this post, which is: YULETIDE. Haven't really read through it properly yet except for the fandom that I hit up first every year religiously, and kids, did we ever luck out this year. I'm linking them all and you can consider them blanket recs, because they are all guaranteed to give fuzzies. I'm amused to see that Tom and Carl feature heavily in every single story, even the ones that aren't actually about them; it's so nice when fandom shares your biases, isn't it?

A to Z
Ridiculously cute Herewiss/Freelorn - that's right, kids, Tale of the Five canon married slash (although to really cover the whole scope of this particular marriage you basically need an orgy, and this is not it. It is so damn adorable, though.) It's just a wee stocking stuffer but it's pitch and pacing perfect, in my opinion.

At First Sight
Very mild Tom/Carl and associates. Sweet like sugar cane.

Sticks and Stones
Really fun little gen piece about Nita and Kit's wizarding practise, set at some indeterminate time post-Dilemma - actually, I guess this one is technically AU, but whatever, that's not really the spirit of it - point is, it's just a wee speculation about what Nita and Kit might do, wizard-wise, when they're not saving the planet in spectacular galaxy-travelling showdowns with the Lone Power.

Adjunct Talents
Tom and Carl's first meeting - there's actually a huge amount of T&C backstory this year, it is THRILLING. I really like this one a lot; like the other stocking filler for this recipient (A to Z), it's small but perfectly formed. And may I just say, thank you to whoever defaulted or was late with this, because we got three stories for the price of one and it's awesome.

This Story Isn't About Nita
A Kit POV during that difficult time in between Dilemma and Alone. Spoilerific, obvs; the way it was structured really reminded me how fond I am of Nita, how I relate to her, because even though she's barely in the fic the whole story is really focused around her in the same way the series is.

An Unwilling Heart
RUN, do NOT walk, to read this. It is HUGE for a yuletide fic - 87k - it's Carl backstory leading into Tom/Carl, but even if that's not your cup of tea I highly recommend this anyway, because it's also hardcore plotty. It's filled with details from the Concordance, it has a hysterical Peach, it explores everyone's favourite canon mystery. You won't be sorry.

First things first: character list!

1. Juanita Callahan
2. Cassandra Cain (Batgirl II (?))
3. Dairine Callahan
4. Carmela Rodriguez
5. Trisana Chandler
6. Emily Volnik
7. Christopher Rodriguez
8. Timothy Drake (Robin III)
9. Gertrude Yorkes (Arsenic)
10. Hermione Granger
11. Sker’ret
12. “Miss” Susan Sto Helit
13. Briar Moss
14. Chase Stein (Talkback)
15. Stephanie Brown (Robin IV)

Um. SPOILERS for Infinite Crisis and OYL issues of Robin and Teen Titans, as well as Wizards at War.

( your questions answered! )

I also just read the whole Batgirl run, and... wow. *clutches heart* As a consequence, all I'm really thinking right now is CASS CASS BATGIRL CASS! *sob*