What I am writing: a 5 book gay regency romantasy series. Regency romance! With fantasy and elves and Sidhe courts alongside the Regency ballrooms and manners. These will be original books which will start releasing this year, and for obvious reasons I can't post them here while writing them.

BUT! Right now I'm finding slavishly writing from point A to point B is making my brain whine and random prompts for scenes that will almost certainly not end up in the books are fun and keep me rolling. Anyone want to read ridiculous boys falling in love? PROMPT ME! Pretty please? I'm collecting prompts to do in my spare time, short little things I can jot off at work during breaks. The usual noun/adjective/verb in assorted combos, leaning towards things that would make sense in a regency era fic, would be very appreciated. ^_^ Throw as many prompts my way as you feel like, I'll use them to keep the momentum going.

( First prompt was 'Silk and Scandal' )

Which my workplace rewarded by kicking me to the curb yesterday in their first round of downsizing layoffs. YAY. =__=

Though, as I and everyone I said goodbye to who was still there agreed, it's not so much kicking me to the curb as giving me the freedom to swim for my life while the Titanic has not just been hit by the iceburg but has rammed it full speed ahead and is sinking like the mass of inert metal it is. The overall sentiment was "bye, good luck, we'll probably be right behind you".

( The Tragic Backstory )

So... yeah. I'm going to take this as the blessing of forcing me to get my act in gear instead of intertia making me ride it out until the bitter end when they're undoubtedly going to sell the whole building and lock the doors - possibly without warning.

The bad news is that now I have the unenviable task of job hunting in that dead zone between Thanksgiving and Christmas, but at least they told me at the end of Monday, which gives me two business days before the holiday to try to get a few things done.

I spent tonight (sleep schedule is still 3rd shift aligned) copy editing 10 chapters of the book that friends and family will be getting for christmas, and now I'm doing laundry, dishes, and have applied online for unemployment. (I have no clue what I'm doing there and may break down and call them in a bit just to have someone walk me through what I'm supposed to do. I've never filed before, but I'd really like to have it - a little grace period would be a godsend instead of having to take the first thing that comes along outside of my field and inevitably doesn't pay enough.)

Anyone know any printing/pre-press/design places hiring in the Martinsburg, Hagerstown, Frederick, Winchester area? I really really don't want to have to commute to Bethesda or DC - honestly, I'm not sure my car could handle it.

I have tried multiple times to breathe life into (read: recharge) my old ipod, but have had to give it up for lost. Which makes me sad, because I LOVED those little no screen barely bigger than a silver dollar clip on ipods for portable music.

I know, I know, it's very old school... if I were up with the new tech I'd be listening with wireless earbuds from my phone. But my workplace has notoriously HORRIBLE wifi/reception, and my phone is a fairly cheap android that doesn't hold a great charge. So I use wireless earbuds connected to my work computer which work... as long as I'm within about 18 feet of my computer. >_> Get to the end of the hallway? Beep, earbuds disconnect. Go to get coffee? Crackle static, earbuds cut off.

So really, I'd like a damned pocket mp3 player with an old school headphone jack that I could use when I have to go run the digital press or work in the bindery or anywhere else that's far away from my computer. After the failed attempts to resuscitate my old ipod I gave in and grabbed a cheap ass mp3 player from Temu, one that works on a mini SD card so in theory the music could be swapped out by just changing the card.

To my surprise, while it is indeed cheap plastic, it came already charged and when I popped the card in it turned out it came pre-loaded with 122 random Chinese pop/rock songs. O_o That's... kind of awesome for me, really, as most of the time I listen to other languages to avoid earworms. So I've saved those off in a backup folder and then loaded my own music onto the card - could only fit half the amount on as my mp3s are ripped at a better quality, but still. Nice.

So now it's got my favorite songs from Epic and most of the Isle of Dorn soundtrack from WoW, it's clipped to my sweatshirt, and the cord of my earbuds is tucked down the front of my shirt to keep it out of the way. And look! I can get up to go walk across the building to drop job jackets off at digital and I don't have to do it without music! And it's a lot less bulky than trying to tote my phone around. The sound quality is still pretty shitty (persistent sort of wind sound in the background, despite better quality mp3s and headphones) but mostly it's only audible between songs and I won't complain for a $10 mp3 player.