As you may (not) have noticed, I've not exactly kept up this blog. I'm mostly using LJ to follow a few communities these days. However, I just started a Tumblr, which will largely be for writing. If you're there, please comment with your blog name, and I'll add you. Thank you!

First update since my cluster F-bomb. Felt like maybe I should move my LJ on. (My feelings about our new orange overlord are unchanged, btw.)

This has been an odd Christmas, and not just because we've been short on Mandarin oranges. Things weren't feeling quite right. And then I figured out it's the first Christmas that's been just Mom and me at home. Dad died in '14. That Christmas, we had my sister Meg's family here. Then, last year, Mom and I went to Alaska to be with my other sister's family. This year . . . just us at home. My brother and his family are in town, of course, and we had a wonderful Christmas dinner with them, but it felt strange all the same. Part of it is that my mom's been sick, too. She got knocked flat by the flu, and it kind of left her short on holiday spirit.

So, yeah, it's been a melancholy Christmas for me. I hope next year's is better.

In better news, I've got a potential job tutoring online. It's not much, but it's something. I'm going to fill the rest of my time with volunteering. Plump up the resume, make some contacts . . .

And maybe get out of town when I can. I need another adventure. And maybe to avoid the country for the next, oh, four years.

What the FUCK, America, what the FUCK?! He was endorsed by the fucking KKK, he's lied and lied and lied through the whole campaign, how is it even possible that he's in a position for the fucking Presidency? I know Hillary's unpopular, but I had no idea people would prefer a fucking lunatic to her. Yeah, I'd have preferred another choice, but at least she's sane! Fuck this, fuck him, fuck the GOP for not making it clear this isn't what they're about, fuck the government, fuck all of it!

. . . I feel better. And I'm praying Hillary throws a Hail Mary. No, I don't like her particularly, but in this case? She's the superior choice by miles.

P.S. Sorry about the f-bombs, but I needed them, just this once.

Ever have a moment when you realize you accidentally did something totally brilliant while writing? I just did. Woohoo! This story may end up working after all!

I really am. I hate all the politics, all the trash information that gets passed around, the freaking memes, I really hate it. But it's the best way to keep up with far-flung family. I wish I had a stronger "ignore" response.

In other news, I just read the second in Rick Riordan's Magnus Chase series (the Norse one). It's definitely, to me, more engaging than the first. ( Cut for vague spoilersCollapse )

. . . is what I'd say the general description of this election season is. Are all of you non-Americans just watching this in horrified fascination, or what?

Anyway, the only thing making it worthwhile is Owen Ellickson's Twitter. It stars the lunatic currently posing as the figurehead of one of our two major parties, an increasingly-despondent Paul Ryan, a badly-abused Chris Christie, a homicidal Ann Coulter, Lovecraftian horror Roger Ailes, Tr*mp's rotating campaign staff (currently headlined by a chain-smoking, not-even-bothering-to-hide-her-contempt-for-him Kellyanne Conway), various other political figures, and a bunch of evil clowns. Guest appearances by a foul-mouthed Hillary Clinton and her mook squad. If you haven't discovered it yet, do. It's become my one little island of happy in all this. I hope it gets made into a musical someday.

Reposted from AO3:

Title: The Spindle of Necessity
Fandoms: The Heroes of Olympus and The Dresden Files
Pairings: Nico di Angelo/Will Solace, background canon DF and HoA 'ships
Characters: Harry Dresden, Nico di Angelo, Will Solace, Lou Ellen, Khione, the Boreads, Piper McLean, Michael and Charity Carpenter, Molly Carpenter, other Carpenter kids, Maggie Dresden, Mab, Thomas Raith, Jenny Greenteeth
Rating: Teen
Summary: Harry Dresden thinks he's seen it all. Then three demigods show up in Chicago, bringing trouble with them.

The Spindle of Necessity

halo insomnia mcangel is a daughter of hades who is in love with two different guys, but when a new girl named gabby de voltron threatens to steal BOTH OF THEM what will she do???????

join halo and her friends as they struggle w/ love, frienships, betrayal, sex (xD) and a lot of other stuff!!!!

(R&R plz!! dont hate this is my first fic :3)

Folks, this has the potential to be the "My Immortal" of Riordan fandom.

In other news, I've decided Khione will be my villain. She caused a lot of trouble because of her ambitions in The Heroes of Olympus (she wants to overthrow her father, Boreas) and would totally steal the MacGuffin to rewrite reality, she's got colorful sidekicks Harry will enjoy insulting, and being a snow goddess, she brings in the whole Winter Court thing. So! Fun!

I've got a Dresden Files/Heroes of Olympus fic going, and I'm having a slight bit of difficulty. I've got my characters (Harry, Nico, Will, Lou Ellen of the Hecate cabin, with multiple bit players from either canon), I've got my MacGuffin (the Scepter of Necessity from the Myth of Er), I've got my basic plot (it's been stolen from the Underworld and might be somewhere in Chicago), I've even got the opening sequence written . . . but I don't know who took the thing, or why. I'm missing an antagonist.

Hmm.

This:

Boi this is gay tbh. It's also fucking shit whoops I'm sorry

is not a fic summary. It's an admission you shouldn't be writing anything, up to and including today's date.

Grr.

I am finding some really good stories, mind you. There are some really good writers, including one who's managed, somehow, to suck me into Ye Olde High School AU. I'll have to do a fic recs post one of these times. Meanwhile, I'm continuing to write my story, which has mutated severely.

Title: Becoming Us (Part 3 of ?)
Fandom: Percy Jackson and the Olympians and Related Fandoms
Characters/Relationships: Nico di Angelo/Will Solace, Jason Grace/Piper McLean, Percy Jackson/Annabeth Chase, other canon pairings and loads and loads of characters
Rating: General
Summary: Starting with the three days in the infirmary, Nico di Angelo learns how to heal as he and Will Solace negotiate their relationship, discovering how two people so unlike each other can become "Us."