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2020 yuletide letter

2020-10-24T23:49:38Z

Dear Christmas Bale,

This is AR, aka Who Shot AR (akerwis) on the AO3.

I'm going to be honest, I'm writing this letter at a time when I'm completely fucking exhausted--this has been a hell of a year. ♥ So the non-copy/pasted parts of this letter probably aren't my best work, but please bear with me! Use what helps you, toss the rest. I'm looking forward to your story and have faith that it'll be wonderful.

Some general thoughts:

Yes, please: All tenses and POVs, afterlife stories, arguments and apologies, bittersweet stories, character deaths, children, clothing descriptions, complicated relationships, confessions of love, diary fiction, domesticity, epistolary fiction, fairy tales, fairy tale retellings, family stories, femslash, flowers, fluff, food descriptions, friendship, gen, ghosts, grief, hand-holding, happily ever afters, haunted houses, het, holiday stories, Hollywood amnesia, hopeful endings, huddling for warmth, magic in the real world, mentorship, one-sided crushes, parenthood, pastiche, period settings, poetry, popular music, pregnancy, realistic fiction, recovery from failure, religious themes, sad but appropriate to the rest of the story endings, sensory details, snowstorms, sweet stories, this Venn diagram, traditions, tragedies, unusual formats, what comes after happily-ever-after, wingfic, zithers. :)

No, thank you: Adultery/cheating, alien abductions or grey alien types, asexual headcanon, autism headcanon, butt stuff of any kind (anal sex, rimming, poop, whatever), cats suffering even mild inconvenience (I can handle other animals being in danger / dying / getting dinner two minutes late, but I'm sensitive about cats), issue fic, unrequested poly shipping, religious bashing, storylines ripped from current political headlines, trans headcanon, unrelenting cynicism

( uncharted: the lost legacy: sam drake, chloe frazer, nadine ross )

( prairie lotus: sam baxter, hanna edmunds )

( x-men: legacy: ruth aldine, david haller )

( all-new wolverine: laura kinney, julian keller )

That's everything I've got for you today! Thanks for reading, and I hope that the end of your 2020 only gets better as it goes by.

Yours,
who shot AR (akerwis)

comments

unconventional fanworks

2020-05-13T12:33:54Z

Hi!

I'm who shot AR (akerwis), and this is my Unconventional Fanworks letter. Thank you for taking a look at it! ♥

generally
Yes, please: All tenses and POVs, afterlife stories, arguments and apologies, bittersweet stories, character deaths, children, clothing descriptions, complicated relationships, confessions of love, diary fiction, domesticity, epistolary fiction, fairy tales, fairy tale retellings, family stories, femslash, flowers, fluff, food descriptions, friendship, gen, ghosts, grief, hand-holding, happily ever afters, haunted houses, het, holiday stories, Hollywood amnesia, hopeful endings, huddling for warmth, kids & kidfic, magic in the real world, mentorship, one-sided crushes, parenthood, pastiche, period settings, poetry, popular music, pregnancy, realistic fiction, recovery from failure, religious themes, sad but appropriate to the rest of the story endings, sensory details, snowstorms, sweet stories, this Venn diagram, traditions, tragedies, unusual formats, what comes after happily-ever-after, wingfic, zithers. :)

No, thank you: Adultery/cheating, alien abductions or grey alien types, asexual headcanon, autism headcanon, cats suffering even mild inconvenience (I can handle other animals being in danger / dying / getting dinner two minutes late, but I'm sensitive about cats), issue fic, osmosis (haven't consumed the actual canon, just snippets/fandom/other people's takes or opinions) fic, unrequested poly, religious bashing, storylines ripped from current political headlines, trans headcanon, unrelenting cynicism

art-wise
Yes, please: I want to see what you love to make, in the way you love to make it--I'm not overly fussed about style or medium. I'm equally interested in action shots and characters just chilling out or even just nice portraits of them. My thought is that if you want to take an image from the ideas below, whether it's something dramatic or characters hanging out, that'd be perfect. Or, if you came here with an idea? That's what I want most. ♥
No, thank you: Art that goes hardxcore in depicting genitals--I'm cool with sex depicted in art, but I'd rather it was rated R material rather than rated X; heavy nose/shoulder/elbow/etc blushes--actual blushing is fine, just please not that heavy pink/red highlight that was really popular a few years ago

smut-wise
Yes, please: adrenaline from a crisis, afterglow, banter, bathing/grooming, begging, biting, blindfolds, clothed sex, cuddling getting out of control, desk sex, desperation, dirty talk in inappropriate situations, drunk sex, experience differences, face-sitting, failsex, games, hair pulling, handjobs, hurt/comfort, improvised restraints, knives, light femdom, lightheartedness, losing one's virginity, makeup sex, mild possessiveness, oral sex, orgasm control, outdoors, playfulness, pregnancy, risk of discovery, rough sex, semi-public locations, scratching, sexy quotations, speech restrictions, stripping for one's partner, talking too much, teasing, temperature play, up against a wall, using magic/mutant/whatever powers during sex, vanilla sex, wearing one's partner's clothes, wedding nights

No, thank you: bodily functions/fluids as kink (conventional amounts of come just kinda existing is okay), butt stuff, humiliation, detailed noncon scenes (references to noncon occurring/having occurred is fine), permanent bodily damage

( black sails )

( marvel comics - ruth aldine )

( marvel comics - laura kinney )

( dc comics )

( fanwork categories )

comments

fandom5k

2020-04-01T22:15:41Z

Hi!

I'm who shot AR (akerwis), and this is my Fandom 5k letter. Thank you for taking a look at it! ♥ I know 5k can feel like a lot, so I've included some broad likes as well as some more specific prompt ideas you're welcome to use for inspiration. If the plot bunnies don't do it for you, though, skip 'em! I've asked for fandoms, characters, and ships that I love to bits, and anything you come up with will delight me.

generally
Yes, please: All tenses and POVs, afterlife stories, arguments and apologies, bittersweet stories, character deaths, children, clothing descriptions, complicated relationships, confessions of love, diary fiction, domesticity, epistolary fiction, fairy tales, fairy tale retellings, family stories, femslash, flowers, fluff, food descriptions, friendship, gen, ghosts, grief, hand-holding, happily ever afters, haunted houses, het, holiday stories, Hollywood amnesia, hopeful endings, huddling for warmth, kids & kidfic, magic in the real world, mentorship, one-sided crushes, parenthood, pastiche, period settings, poetry, popular music, pregnancy, realistic fiction, recovery from failure, religious themes, sad but appropriate to the rest of the story endings, sensory details, snowstorms, sweet stories, this Venn diagram, traditions, tragedies, unusual formats, what comes after happily-ever-after, wingfic, zithers. :)

No, thank you: Adultery/cheating, alien abductions or grey alien types, asexual headcanon, autism headcanon, cats suffering even mild inconvenience (I can handle other animals being in danger / dying / getting dinner two minutes late, but I'm sensitive about cats), issue fic, osmosis (haven't consumed the actual canon, just snippets/fandom/other people's takes or opinions) fic, unrequested poly, religious bashing, storylines ripped from current political headlines, trans headcanon, unrelenting cynicism

smut-wise
Yes, please: adrenaline from a crisis, afterglow, banter, bathing/grooming, begging, biting, blindfolds, clothed sex, cuddling getting out of control, desk sex, desperation, dirty talk in inappropriate situations, drunk sex, experience differences, face-sitting, failsex, games, hair pulling, handjobs, hurt/comfort, improvised restraints, knives, light femdom, lightheartedness, losing one's virginity, makeup sex, mild possessiveness, oral sex, orgasm control, outdoors, playfulness, pregnancy, risk of discovery, rough sex, semi-public locations, scratching, sexy quotations, speech restrictions, stripping for one's partner, talking too much, teasing, temperature play, up against a wall, using magic/mutant/whatever powers during sex, vanilla sex, wearing one's partner's clothes, wedding nights

No, thank you: bodily functions/fluids as kink (conventional amounts of come just kinda existing is okay), butt stuff, humiliation, detailed noncon scenes (references to noncon occurring/having occurred is fine), permanent bodily damage

( dc comics )

( marvel comics )

( black sails )

( the expanse - james s.a. corey )

comments

ar @ 2019-12-26T18:17:00

2019-12-27T00:17:28Z

Hello!

This is Who Shot AR (akerwis), and these are my Chocolate Box requests! Thank you for writing for me, and best wishes for a great start to the year. ♥

For quick browsing:
Marvel (comics)
• Ruth Aldine/David Haller
• Julian Keller/Laura Kinney
• Evan Sabahnur/Time-Displaced Jean Grey
• Evan Sabahnur & Laura Kinney

Black Sails
• Anne Bonny/Jack Rackham
• Miranda Barlow/Captain Flint | James McGraw
• Anne Bonny & Captain Flint | James McGraw

The Walking Dead
• Daryl Dixon/Beth Greene

generally
Yes, please: All tenses and POVs, afterlife stories, arguments and apologies, bittersweet stories, character deaths, children, clothing descriptions, complicated relationships, confessions of love, diary fiction, domesticity, epistolary fiction, fairy tales, fairy tale retellings, family stories, femslash, flowers, fluff, food descriptions, friendship, gen, ghosts, grief, hand-holding, happily ever afters, haunted houses, het, holiday stories, Hollywood amnesia, hopeful endings, huddling for warmth, kids & kidfic, magic in the real world, mentorship, one-sided crushes, parenthood, pastiche, period settings, poetry, popular music, pregnancy, realistic fiction, recovery from failure, religious themes, sad but appropriate to the rest of the story endings, sensory details, snowstorms, sweet stories, this Venn diagram, traditions, tragedies, unusual formats, what comes after happily-ever-after, wingfic, zithers. :)

No, thank you: Adultery/cheating, alien abductions or grey alien types, asexual headcanon, autism headcanon, cats suffering even mild inconvenience (I can handle other animals being in danger / dying / getting dinner two minutes late, but I'm sensitive about cats), issue fic, unrequested poly, religious bashing, storylines ripped from current political headlines, trans headcanon, unrelenting cynicism

smut-wise
Yes, please: adrenaline from a crisis, afterglow, banter, bathing/grooming, begging, biting, blindfolds, clothed sex, cuddling getting out of control, desk sex, desperation, dirty talk in inappropriate situations, drunk sex, experience differences, face-sitting, failsex, games, hair pulling, handjobs, hurt/comfort, improvised restraints, knives, light femdom, lightheartedness, losing one's virginity, makeup sex, mild possessiveness, oral sex, orgasm control, outdoors, playfulness, pregnancy, risk of discovery, rough sex, semi-public locations, scratching, sexy quotations, speech restrictions, stripping for one's partner, talking too much, teasing, temperature play, up against a wall, using magic/mutant/whatever powers during sex, vanilla sex, wearing one's partner's clothes, wedding nights

No, thank you: bodily functions/fluids, butt stuff, humiliation, noncon scenes (references to it are fine), permanent bodily damage

( marvel (comics) )

( black sails )

( the walking dead )

comments

ar @ 2019-10-19T20:57:00

2019-10-20T03:26:41Z

Dear Christmas Bale,

This is AR, aka Who Shot AR (akerwis) on the AO3.

After taking a break from Yuletide for a year, I'm excited to be back! I hope you're ready for lots of fun, too. ♥ This letter's long and detaily, but if they don't help you, jettison my blathering and write the thing that moves you. I'm just happy to be here and looking forward to seeing what wonderful things you come up with! Please follow your heart where it takes you.

So, the general stuff:

Yes, please: All tenses and POVs, afterlife stories, arguments and apologies, bittersweet stories, character deaths, children, clothing descriptions, complicated relationships, confessions of love, diary fiction, domesticity, epistolary fiction, fairy tales, fairy tale retellings, family stories, femslash, flowers, fluff, food descriptions, friendship, gen, ghosts, grief, hand-holding, happily ever afters, haunted houses, het, holiday stories, Hollywood amnesia, hopeful endings, huddling for warmth, magic in the real world, mentorship, one-sided crushes, parenthood, pastiche, period settings, poetry, popular music, pregnancy, realistic fiction, recovery from failure, religious themes, sad but appropriate to the rest of the story endings, sensory details, snowstorms, sweet stories, this Venn diagram, traditions, tragedies, unusual formats, what comes after happily-ever-after, wingfic, zithers. :)

No, thank you: Adultery/cheating, alien abductions or grey alien types, asexual headcanon, autism headcanon, cats suffering even mild inconvenience (I can handle other animals being in danger / dying / getting dinner two minutes late, but I'm sensitive about cats), issue fic, poly shipping, religious bashing, storylines ripped from current political headlines, trans headcanon, unrelenting cynicism

You're welcome to look at my general Yuletide tag if you want to, but I can't guarantee it'll be anything other than nonsense, haha. Generally speaking, most of my social media / fandom engagement happens on Plurk (I'm less exchange!fandom, more dwrp, these days), so I'm not very stalkable anymore. :( Sorry about that, friend!

( x-men: legacy: ruth aldine, david haller )

( iron giant: annie hughes, dean mccoppin )

( all-new wolverine: laura kinney, julian keller )

comments

yuletidings of affection and joy

2017-09-22T02:51:46Z

Dear Christmas Bale,

This is AR, aka Who Shot AR (akerwis) on the AO3.

IDK about you, but man, Yuletide sneaked up on me this year. But I'm excited to be here, and I'm excited for both of us to have a great season! I've provided deets below for you, both on my general interests and my fandom-specific ones, but I want you to know that the number-one thing I want most is for you to have a fun time writing a story. This letter exists as some quietly excited ideas for you, but your own excitement and creativity are what make Yuletide wonderful, and I trust you to use this nonsense here as much or as little as you'd like. Please follow your heart where it takes you.

So, the general stuff:

Yes, please: All tenses and POVs, afterlife stories, arguments and apologies, bittersweet stories, character deaths, children, clothing descriptions, complicated relationships, confessions of love, diary fiction, domesticity, epistolary fiction, fairy tales, fairy tale retellings, family stories, femslash, flowers, fluff, food descriptions, friendship, gen, ghosts, grief, hand-holding, happily ever afters, haunted houses, het, holiday stories, Hollywood amnesia, hopeful endings, huddling for warmth, magic in the real world, mentorship, one-sided crushes, parenthood, pastiche, period settings, poetry, popular music, pregnancy, realistic fiction, recovery from failure, religious themes, sad but appropriate to the rest of the story endings, sensory details, snowstorms, sweet stories, this Venn diagram, traditions, tragedies, unusual formats, wingfic, zithers. :)

No, thank you: Alien abductions or grey alien types, asexual headcanon, autism headcanon, cats suffering even mild inconvenience (I can handle all other animals being in danger / dying / getting dinner two minutes late, but I'm really sensitive about cats), issue fic, poly shipping, religious bashing, storylines ripped from current US political headlines, trans headcanon, unrelenting cynicism

Here are my old letters, if those might help you. Please forgive any copy-pasting I've done from year to year--I'm afraid I get lazy at times!

-Yuletide 2016
-Yuletide 2015
-Yuletide 2014
-Yuletide 2013
-Yuletide 2012
-Yuletide 2011
-Yuletide 2010
-Yuletide 2009

And this is my general Yuletide tag, which might be of interest to you but might also just be kind of nonsense-y.

Nota bene: While there might be some variance in the length of my tl;dr under each request, please be assured that I want all these requests with equal fervor. Some of my requests are less wide-open than others, or involve significantly less canon, so they take fewer words to explain. ♥ If, in any of these situations, you feel like I haven't given you enough to work with, please reach out to me so I can type some more excited nonsense to you!

❄

( the ramsay scallop; elenor of ramsay, thomas of thornham )

( doctrine of labyrinths; methony feucoronne )

( kavclay: rosa saks, thomas kavalier )

( uncanny x-force: evan sabahnur, fantomex )

( all new x-men: evan sabahnur )

That's everything I've got for this year. I hope this was a manageable read for you, and again, please don't stress the details. I have faith that you'll come up with something marvelous. Please feel free to reach out through the mods if you have any questions for me--or, if you need an answer on the double, please feel free to comment anon here on my letter. I'm not bothered either way.

Thank you for your kindness and generosity, and I hope the end of your year is a pleasant one. You have all my best wishes as we jump into this fest together.

Yours,
Who Shot AR (akerwis)

comments

chocolate box letter

2017-01-08T04:50:59Z

Dear creator-friend,

Let's just call ourselves friends, I think, if you'll forgive the forwardness--this is an exchange about relationships, and you and I have some kind of relationship, too! I'm Who Shot AR (akerwis) on AO3. Thank you for writing or creating art for me, and I hope this is a fun exchange for you. This is a low-key letter because I'm signing up at the last moment and humbly request your forgiveness that it's a little ramshackle. A quick run-down of my preferences, stolen wholesale from this year's Yuletide letter:

Yes, please: All tenses and POVs, arguments and apologies, bittersweet stories, character deaths, children, clothing descriptions, complicated relationships, confessions of love, diary fiction, domesticity, epistolary fiction, fairy tales, fairy tale retellings, family stories, femslash, flowers, fluff, food descriptions, friendship, gen, ghosts, hand-holding, happily ever afters, haunted houses, het, holiday stories, Hollywood amnesia, hopeful endings, huddling for warmth, magic in the real world, mentorship, one-sided crushes, parenthood, pastiche, period settings, poetry, popular music, pregnancy, realistic fiction, recovery from failure, religious themes, sad but appropriate to the rest of the story endings, sensory details, snowstorms, sweet stories, this Venn diagram, traditions, tragedies, unusual formats, wingfic, zithers. :)

No, thank you: Alien abductions, asexual headcanons, autistic headcanons, cats suffering even the mildest of inconvenience or upset (other animals won't bother me, but I can get teary over things as stupid as "Splat the Cat is worried that nobody will like him in kindergarten," it's really pathetic), cynicism, gore, grey aliens, issuefic, OT3s, religious bashing.

And a few requests:

Northanger Abbey - Jane Austen
Catherine Morland/Henry Tilney
♥ What happens next?
♥ Are there domestic experiments?
♥ Ghosts in the attic?
♥ Are they considered quite proper material for a clergyman and his wife?
♥ If it's adorable, I will be happy 5ever

Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Breha Organa & Leia Organa (Prequels)
♥ These three requests all basically have the same lowkey request
♥ And that's "I love stories about parents and children"
♥ "Tell me about Leia and her parents, on good days or bad"
♥ Whether it's the mother she knew better than any of us ever have
Bail Organa & Leia Organa (Prequels)
♥ The father she idolized, who lied to her and never had a chance to ask for forgiveness in person
Padmé Amidala & Leia Organa & Luke Skywalker (Prequels)
♥ Or the mother she barely remembers and her brother knows nothing at all about
♥ If you want to try and fix things, you can, in which case I suppose they know a little more
♥ Or they can navigate all these dead parents as best they can, which is just as good

The Walking Dead
Tara Chambler/Denise Cloyd (Walking Dead)
♥ Any kind of look into their lives together is a good look to me
♥ Daily life in Alexandria totally fascinates me
♥ But so does life on the road
♥ They can be together-together, like right next to
♥ Fix-it fic is fine, but still-broken fic is also fine
♥ This show has a long history of hallucinations and dreams and shit and I am just fine with getting post-death fic if that's where your heart lies

Labyrinth
Jareth/Sarah Williams
♥ Future fic would delight me
♥ What happens if Sarah forgets about him?
♥ What happens if he forgets about Sarah?
♥ Is there an ending where they can be on equal footing or is that asking the moon when one of them is king of the goblins?
♥ Bittersweet and not really healthy is fine, super twisted or fucked-up is a little much for me

The Mummy
Evy Carnahan O'Connell/Rick O'Connell
♥ Domestic adventures
♥ Not-so-domestic archaeology/treasure-hunting/EXTREMELY SERIOUS LIBRARY adventures
♥ How do they get along with people who don't do things like sending ancient mummies back to the underworld?
♥ Do they have a nice honeymoon?
♥ I love Alex and their relationship with him, so he is always welcome

NB: I will basically be so delighted with fanwork about any of these characters, to be honest. If you're pinged for something completely off the wall and it's where your heart's dragging you, go for it. The magic of receiving work in exchanges is that the creator can surprise you with something wonderful--and you might never even have considered it. So do what you're excited about. I'm looking forward to being excited about it, too!

Best wishes and happy writing or drawing, as the case may be!

Yours,
ar

comments

letter time.

2016-09-17T14:59:30Z

Dear Christmas Bale,

AR here, aka Who Shot AR (akerwis) on the AO3.

As with last year, I'm feeling pretty low-key about Yuletide. I think this is just the new normal, but the thing is, that's good for you. Yuletide is an old sweater that's comfortable and comforting these days, and that fact means that just about anything will suit me. I'm here to facilitate you in writing something that makes the end of your year a little more interesting, and I'm looking forward to telling you what a wonderful job you did. Please feel free to follow your heart and do something that's fun for you to create and satisfying for you to look back on. Life's too short for anything else.

You might be reading this and going "oh, fuck, but what the hell does she want?" In which case, please feel free to peruse the following quick lists and pick and choose what you need from them:

Yes, please: All tenses and POVs, arguments and apologies, bittersweet stories, character deaths, children, clothing descriptions, complicated relationships, confessions of love, diary fiction, domesticity, epistolary fiction, fairy tales, fairy tale retellings, family stories, femslash, flowers, fluff, food descriptions, friendship, gen, ghosts, hand-holding, happily ever afters, haunted houses, het, holiday stories, Hollywood amnesia, hopeful endings, huddling for warmth, magic in the real world, mentorship, one-sided crushes, parenthood, pastiche, period settings, poetry, popular music, pregnancy, realistic fiction, recovery from failure, religious themes, sad but appropriate to the rest of the story endings, sensory details, snowstorms, sweet stories, this Venn diagram, traditions, tragedies, unusual formats, wingfic, zithers. :)

No, thank you: Alien abductions, asexual headcanons, autistic headcanons, cats suffering even the mildest of inconvenience or upset (other animals won't bother me, but I can get teary over things as stupid as "Splat the Cat is worried that nobody will like him in kindergarten," it's really pathetic), cynicism, gore, grey aliens, issuefic, OT3s, religious bashing.

Please also feel free to take a look at my past letters for my preferences, which haven't really changed in any meaningful sense. I'm pretty set in my ways, and my letters are inevitably ridiculously long as it is, so I figure I'll include the links if you want them, and you can ignore them if you don't.

-Yuletide 2015
-Yuletide 2014
-Yuletide 2013
-Yuletide 2012
-Yuletide 2011
-Yuletide 2010
-Yuletide 2009

And this is my general Yuletide tag, which might be of interest to you but might also just be kind of nonsense-y.

Yuletide opt-ins - Needless to say, these are all optional, which is why I haven't bothered including the details here in this letter. If you're interested, you'll find plenty more tl;dr at the links.
-Interactive Fiction
-Yuleporn
-Crossovers

---

( goodfellas: judy hill, ruth hill )

( sunshine: jill hayden )

( nobody's family is going to change: emma sheridan )

( the ramsay scallop: elenor of ramsay, thomas of thornham )

And that's everything. If you need anything else, please let me know (anon commenting is on, IP tracking is off, and of course you can reach out through the mods); otherwise, I hope the end of your year is filled with kindness and hope.

With love,
ar

comments

yuletide letter

2015-10-26T15:21:18Z

Dear Christmas Bale,

I'm afraid I don't have the same energy I usually do for Yuletide this year, so I want to apologize for the fact that this letter is sort of a Frankenstein's monster of prior requests. You'll be able to see this if you happen to go through my past Yuletide letters, so I figure I'll get that out there first.

Next, I want to tell you that, despite the fact that extenuating circumstances have made me less high-energy (high-maintenance, depending on your point of view ^_-), I am certain you'll write something absolutely marvelous. The thing that could please me most, this year, would be to read a story you've enjoyed writing, whatever it might be. Please feel free to follow your heart and do something that's fun for you to create and satisfying for you to look back on. I know what it feels like to do drudge-work, and I don't want you to feel you have to force yourself through anything you're not feeling. Life's too short for that nonsense, friend.

You might be reading this and going "oh, fuck, but what the hell does she want?" In which case, please feel free to peruse my past letters for my preferences, which haven't really changed in any meaningful sense. I'm pretty set in my ways, and my letters are inevitably ridiculously long as it is, so I figure I'll include the links if you want them, and you can ignore them if you don't. ♥

❄ Yuletide 2014
❄ Yuletide 2013
❄ Yuletide 2012
❄ Yuletide 2011
❄ Yuletide 2010
❄ Yuletide 2009

Gosh, I've been doing this for a while now. It's so strange to look back at old letters sometimes. Here's also my general Yuletide tag, which might be of interest to you but might also just be kind of nonsense-y.

Yuletide opt-ins - Needless to say, these are all optional, which is why I haven't bothered including the details here in this letter. If you're interested, you'll find plenty more tl;dr at the links. ♥
‣ Interactive Fiction
‣ Crueltide
‣ Yuleporn

❄

( request 1: beauty and the beast; beauty, prince adam )

( request 2: doctrine of labyrinths; methony feucoronne )

( request 3: dragon age (comics); maevaris tilani, thorold tethras )

( request 4: from eden; man, woman, boy )

( request 5: the mummy returns; evy carnahan )

( request 6: star wars: rebels; hera syndulla, kanan jarrus )

I think that about covers it. If you have any questions, please feel free to have the mods contact me (or comment here anon if you're impatient--I don't care about the middleman if you don't).

Thank you for writing for me. I appreciate your kindness and wish you a good writing experience and better life experience as we approach the close of the year.

All my best,
ar

comments

good morning, 2015!

2015-01-01T15:55:07Z

I started this at 2:50 AM last night, and now it's getting close to ten this morning. (I slept about six hours in between, I swear.) Having nowhere to go has made me something of a night owl lately. It feels hedonistic--or nearly so--since for a while there, I was so used to being up by 8 or 9am. And there I was, at nearly 3am, typing things out.

Happy new year, first of all. I feel bad that I've used this journal so rarely lately, but I'm not ready to come back to writing in it yet. But more fun than chatting about my truancy is Yuletide!

Last year was shamefully bad for me--writing-wise, not reading-wise by any means--and this year, I improved upon things. (It helped that, uh, my leg was broken. I mean, I was still hoping to write more than this, but I feel like that's every year, lol. Being stuck in one place--I wasn't able to go home for Christmas--made it easy to sit down and write after my school stuff was finally done.)

what i gave

❄ In the Rain - V for Vendetta, Valerie/Ruth, for venturous: Valerie still tells stories to herself, even if she isn't writing them down.

And accompanying fanmix, which is obviously pretty sad but also hopefully, uh, hopeful. (Funnily enough, I didn't actually write to this; I love curating music and making compilations, but writing actually requires a sort of drone in the background, if anything. So I actually had the track "Valerie" from the film on loop for hours.)

Writing this fic was fun and strange all at once. V for Vendetta was my main fandom back when it came out, and it was something I adored to an embarrassing extent. Rewatching it was like stepping back into the past, and I always find it a little embarrassing to remember who I was at any given time in the past, especially back when I was 18 and 19 years old, lol.

But my past self aside, I really enjoyed the challenge of writing in Valerie's voice, and of trying to hint at more of her life outside of what we see in her letters. (And I could tl;dr for hours about the little differences between her movie letter and her GN letter, but what's mostly important is that I definitely drew from both in writing this.) I love Valerie so much--the older I get, the more important she becomes to me--and checking in with her and Ruth was wonderful, even if it was a bit painful, too.

❄ The Close of Years Now Past: The Mummy, Evy & Jonathan, for mtgat: Four Decembers in the Carnahan(-O'Connell) household.

This fic is the culmination of various things I've been wanting to write for years now, and mtgat's letter just inspired the hell out of me. It's almost embarrassingly personal in various ways, mostly in that it was me writing pages and pages of my headcanon in narrative form. Some of it, however, is technically canon, depending on how laxly you define canon in the franchise. The idea of Evy falling through the ice and ending up afraid of it happening again, for instance, comes from the animated series (hilariously bad and also distressingly consumable--would recommend).

It also ran the hell away from me; I'd figured it'd be 1500 words or something before I started, and by the time I was finished, I knew it could easily have gone on several thousand more words. I regret how busy the end of my semester was, because I would have liked to expand it a little more (and also do more editing, lol). I'd happily curl up inside the Mummy franchise and stay there if given the choice, and it was really nice to be able to immerse myself in Evy and Jonathan's relationship. Still so glad mtgat requested Evy and Jonathan as children, because their letter really was the thing that finally kicked my ass into writing something about them.

❄ Sweven - Doctrine of Labyrinths, Felix/Gideon, for hecateis: Gideon rarely dreams of Thrax now.

I regret not having more time to work on this one, but sometimes that happens, and you sort of have to accept it and resolve to write about Simon Barrister next time, the way you meant to from the start. ^_- Unfortunately, Kate's request for fic about Gideon's dreams was pretty much irresistible--and Kate herself is someone I'm quite fond of, so I knew I wanted to write her something. (It was her first Yuletide! First Yuletides should be nice.)

what i received

Holy shit, I loved both of these fics so much, you guys. They're both Evy-focused for the Mummy franchise, and the authors did such different things with the jumble of ideas I put down in my Yuletide letter. (Next year, a less "wow, I guess I just threw those words there" letter, lol. I reread it and felt bad about how slapdash it was.) Their stories touch on so many little moments I've wanted to see for ages, from Evy's relationship to her mother to more scenes with her and Rick to the implications that she was a spy in WWII.

And the best part is that they come up with completely different, equally satisfying approaches to my stupid wonderful mummy movies. :D Seriously, these fics were such a treat to receive, especially in a year when I was unable to be with my family in person. I'm grateful to receive anything, of course, but I'm especially grateful that I was matched to such thoughtful, creative, and above all generous writers. They really brightened what was looking like a lonely Christmas. ♥

❄ Lady of the Two Lands by niki: She is a mother, a daughter, a wife, and a lover; a scholar, a librarian, a spy, a princess, and a queen.

❄ إن سرقت، اسرق جمل، وإن عشقت، اعشق قمر by lexie: The first thing that Evy does, upon coming out of the desert, is sleep for what feels like a week. The second thing she does is get married.

also

I don't like doing Yuletide recs posts (they just aren't for me), but I'd feel like my work here was incomplete if I didn't also say:

❄ If you're in the mood to read a fic about Gideon Thraxios, you should probably skip the one I wrote in favour of Inquiries into the Heart of the World by mikkey_bones, which basically reads like Sarah Monette changed her mind and decided to write from Gideon's POV after all. I love this story so much--it has a wonderful structure, everyone is fantastically well-characterized, and the narrative is amazing. It's basically canon for me now.

❄ On the other hand, if you want to read something Kavclay* that reads like fucking canon, you need to hit up Look Out! (Pink Elephants on Parade) by smokefall, aka "Dumbo Date Night with Sammy and Tracy." Ughghghghghghgh, it was amazing. I really enjoyed all three of the Kavclay fics from this year, but posting every fic I liked is basically a recs post, lol--so I'm just sticking with this one and the fic about Gids up there. ♥

With both these fics, even though they weren't for me, it felt like I'd gotten extra Christmas presents. They're just stellar--proof that a fic in a small fandom is a gift to everyone who runs across it.

*Did I remember to tell you, Dreamwidth, that I read The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay this summer and then decided to call it Kavclay forever? Because that's a thing that happened. Kavclay's just so much fucking quicker to say, man. So much quicker.

NOW. I have comments to reply to and stuff, but for now, I think I'm going to take some time to enjoy the morning. You have my best wishes, dw, for a good 2015. ♥

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more updates / v for vendetta request???

2014-11-22T19:50:47Z

Since I'm still shit about using this anymore, but I don't want people to be completely in the dark.

1. My car was impounded for a while. To make a long story short, it was my fault and I deserved it, but it was still extremely expensive to live without it and then to get it back out. It sucked.

2. While I was living without said car, I broke my ankle in several places. I had surgery on it a week and a day ago (it happened on the tenth, the first big snowthing up here, and apparently I was the first break of the day, sigh). It still hurts, but at least I know everything's back in the right place. (Well, I hope it is, anyway. Lol.) Because of it, I won't be able to go to Thanksgiving with my family, and I don't know whether I'll be able to go to Christmas. We'll just have to see.

3. We took the car to the shop immediately after we got it out of hock, and it's still there pending auto insurance fuckery. I can't even begin to deal with it until Monday, though, so I'm trying to keep it out of my mind.

4. I still don't have a new job, and I obviously can't work now. I'm working on it, but the last week, I've either been high on painkillers or in pain. I haven't even finished a book since the accident, and considering I've read close to 400 this year, that's pretty bad. :/

So basically, things have been hard lately. I'm trying not to be down, though. Which is also hard, but you have to try, right? That's how things go, and you just gotta...well, you know. :D I'm thankful for everyone who's helped me through all this; I'm fortunate to have people who care about me, and I need to focus on that.

Also, hey, remaining V for Vendetta people on my flist: I'm working on something (crazy, I know), and I'd love it if someone would be willing to beta for me when I've got it drafted into something workable. I'll happily trade you some betaing in the future--or whatever else. ♥

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ar @ 2014-09-28T10:36:00

2014-09-28T15:54:44Z

Dear Christmas Bale,

Thank you for participating in Yuletide, and for taking a look at my letter. My past letters will tell you my various likes and dislikes, if you're superconcerned about them. I really am not. The more I do Yuletide, the less concerned I am about explaining to you ~the perfect story for me~. Write what you'll write, I'll write what I'll write, and you know what? We'll all be fine. Let's just be chill and have a good couple of months.

(Are these requests inconsistently formatted? Yep. Sorry. They're also full of spoilers, but I'm not really sorry about that.)

( brothers bloom, the mummy, kavclay )

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nerdrage

2014-07-07T20:31:43Z

"SF writers - and readers - were for some time resistant to Romance. C.L. Moore's novella "Shambleau" (1933) is a classic demonstration of what happens when a nice young space cowboy gets involved with the Wrong Girl." - Genreflecting (and yep, I am too lazy to look up which author atm)

It turns out that the fastest way to make me righteously indignant for the whole day is to write disingenuous things about C.L. Moore. Why would you use "Shambleau," motherfucking "Shambleau", as your example of scifi authors being ~resistant to romance~? "Shambleau" made romance in American scifi a fucking thing. The fact that it's not happily-ever-after romance doesn't mean Moore's work isn't among the first to bring heaping cupfuls of sensuality into the genre. If you're going to namedrop her at the beginning of a section on romantic/erotic SF (and lbr, I think you should), then you shouldn't present her as an anti-example of the subgenre. WTF.

u mad, ar? damn straight i mad. So excited at the fact that somebody remembered that my bb C.L. Moore matters, and then realizing they presented her as basically the opposite of what she actually was? ARGH.

Anyway, aside from that, hi dw how you been? It's too hot to think lately, and I don't have a/c, so that means I have basically been shambling like a zombie through my day. But for you, I'll find the energy to get annoyed at bookwriters failing to appreciate Moore and Kuttner the way I think they should.

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ar @ 2014-06-24T16:12:00

2014-06-24T21:19:35Z

I'm working on making a book trailer just for fun--they're a common assignment at school, so I felt like practicing--and it really is fun. And it's funny, because in doing this, I'm coming the closest I've ever come to understanding why people like making and watching fanvids.

I have nothing against fanvids, mind; I just don't actually get much of any enjoyment out of watching them or thinking about making them. I have a lot of respect for people that do, but they don't engage me personally.

But sometimes book trailers really do. I've seen some really lousy ones, but sometimes they're really good, and it's fun to see how people present the story. And it's kind of neat to (sort of) finally get a part of fandom I've never really understood.

(It's my second book trailer, or will be--I have to make it first. >>; I'm gathering materials for it right now. And I'm really excited, because I'm going to use voice-overs with book quotes and maybe video as well as still images and music/sound effects. It's a much more ambitious project than the first one I made, which was still images, text on the screen, and background music. We'll see how it goes, but right now, I'm pretty excited about the idea. I think that if it works, it'll be a pretty good introduction to the book in question.)

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billy shakespeare wrote a whole bunch of sonnets

2014-01-01T01:30:42Z

1. How many books did you read this year?

I recorded 101, I think? But that includes picture books and other short books! And I read more than that, because I know I didn't successfully record every picture book I read. I'm gonna try harder next year on that.

There are also quite a few that I didn't finish but didn't get recorded on here, either. (Some of the books I did record, I didn't finish, fair warning. But I felt I had read enough of them to have an opinion.) This year was difficult, since my computer died in the middle of the year, and it was hard to keep an even count.

( more questions )

( 'full' list, in kind of like chronological order )

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the end of the lev grossman journey

2013-11-14T22:18:27Z

I have officially given up on The Magicians with 20% left, because no matter what happens, I find it impossible to think it'll be worth the effort to read it.

Now I have to choose what I'll read next! So hard, so exciting. The current options are

• Silhouette of a Sparrow
• Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy
• Freakboy
• The Reason I Jump
• The Plastic Age
• Gated
• Navigating Early

I was planning on getting Freakboy out of the way, since I don't exactly have high hopes for it, but after The fucking Magicians, I feel maybe like I should go with something I think I might actually enjoy. Silhouette and Lizzie Bright are the two frontrunners there. I was really thinking about Navigating Early, because I loved Moon Over Manifest, but when I realized the two main characters were both boys, it made me less interested. I am the worst, it is me.

I should also read my school stuff, lol. But I think I'm gonna wait until after dinner to climb that mountain.

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fuck's sake

2013-11-11T05:01:20Z

Update on The Magicians:

Fuck all this pseudo-Bret Easton Ellis bullshit about ~parties~ and ~drugs~ and the ~emptiness of life~. Every single one of these characters is a douchebag, and I hate them all except maybe Richard.

I'm even past that part--they're in Fillory at this point, finally--but I'm still that mad about all of the second part.

Anyway, I'm basically finishing it because I'll be damned if I don't at this point, but I'm sure as fuck not enjoying it.

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not so good nights

2013-10-29T06:40:47Z

In a lot of pain tonight from work. Not entirely sure why I made the mistake of staying up til 1:30 am (I guess because 1) pain and 2) reading things for fun, more former than latter).

Worked six days in a row, which doesn't sound especially impressive but which has clearly done a number on my body, ouch. Hours and hours of shelving books and walking customers around a store has left me aching all over, especially lower back and hips and feet and ankles.

Tried an epsom salt bath, but my feet started itching about 20 minutes in. By the time I got out, it was like having hives on the soles of my feet--hives so painful and intense that my vision was swimming and I was trembling. I don't know if it was the epsom salt or just the bath, but it was terrible.

Anyway, now it's quite late, I'm impatient for the aspirin to kick in, and I guess I'm blathering at you, dreamwidth, because idk who else I'd tell. Even the cats are asleep. Lord, I wish I was, too, if only because I probably wouldn't feel my body then.

Reading Rose Under Fire, and bless Elizabeth Wein for trying, but the narrator doesn't sound the slightest bit American to me. She uses various terms and sentence constructions that just sound very British to me, even if she namedrops places in Pennsylvania and remembers not to say "torch." One thing that I think is a problem with both Code Name Verity and Rose Under Fire is that the narrative voices are pretty much indistinct. Julie sounds like Maddie sounds like Rose. They might talk about different things, but they all seem to write in basically the same way. And also, I'm so tired of her use of capslock emphasis. It's just so damned undignified, I am sorry.

Rose is a more readable book for me than Verity was, though I'm not entirely sure why. Because I know what to expect from concentration camp stories? Because I know what to expect from Wein? Because it's a little more straightforward a narrative conceit? IDK. Honestly, I kind of don't know why I'm reading it, considering my mixed feelings on Verity, but it was what felt right this afternoon when I had to pick a new book to start.

I've been reading a fair amount lately, but IDK if reporting all the details would be that interesting. Anyway, I think the aspirin's starting to work, so the purpose of this entry is basically complete. Cross your fingers that I can sleep the long dark sleep of a person who could use it, lol.

I wish tomorrow was a real day off, but I have class in the evening. And then it's back to the salt mines on Wednesday, though I have both Thursday and Saturday off. One of my coworkers needs someone to cover her on Saturday, and I considered offering, because I could use the money, and it'd be kind of me. But considering what a wreck I'm feeling like today, I think it'd be for the best if I kept Saturday for myself. Besides, I can use the day to work on homework, which I def. need to do. Lol.

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time it was

2013-10-20T23:57:05Z

Sometimes I wish people write sequels to stories I wrote, because I want to find out what happens next, and I genuinely have no idea what "next" is.

(Today's complaint brought to you by the fact that I keep daydreaming about stories where Jane Roland meets up with her dad a few more times, or at least receives/sends the occasional letter. But I don't really have much desire to write Temeraire fic--or any fic--anymore, and I kind of want someone else to tell me how everything ends up.)

In other news, I've gone to the Best Buy five times in the last week or so, and my phone still isn't fixed. I am so tired of everything.

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you can kill a man with a shoe.

2013-10-18T03:50:19Z

I really wanted to watch good Disney movies (or shitty Disney sequels), but Netflix didn't have any I was interested in*, so now I'm watching the 1987 Beauty and the Beast TV show. And it...is surprisingly enjoyable. I mean, I always figured it had some ~fandom~ appeal, considering what a fandom it had, but it seems like it's aged fairly well so far? I can see various stuff that screams 1980s--the idea of a whole society of people living in tunnels under NYC especially, the training scene that looks like fucking Flashdance--but it's...really engaging. IDK how to explain my reaction. I guess I'm comparing it to the time I tried watching Moonlighting and was just really bored. (I wish that wasn't the case, because the production values on Moonlighting are so great. Someday I'll try again, maybe.)

*On reflection, I could totally go for Pocahontas II. That movie must be bizarre. Maybe I'll do that one next time I'm on my own and wondering what to watch.

Also, the stupid underground setting reminds me of the Shadow Gallery, so obviously I'm all in. (All of the aboveground settings look like either Ghost or Flashdance to me. Sometimes I think I don't have enough reference points for this decade, lol.)

Spent the earlier half of the week going to a funeral five hours southeast. It was...good, I guess, insofar as funerals can be. She was my great aunt, but I never really knew her. Hearing all the nice stories about her made me regret that. But when you have 12 kids, 40 grandchildren, etc, I think you're too busy with all of them to see much of your siblings' chidren and grandchildren. Lol.

My mother knew everyone there, though, and we had nice food and hanging-out times. I went for her sake more than anything else--she said she missed me and wanted to hang out, so. I only regret that I didn't see my father; we got pizza from him, but my sister and her boyfriend picked it up.

I haven't seen my father in so long.

Really excited for yuletide assignments to go out--let's all cross our fingers that they happen tomorrow. :

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the worst problem

2013-10-10T01:41:30Z

It's that thing where you're driving home from Target in the dark, and a line for a story you didn't know you needed to write comes to you--and you're ecstatic all the way home and all the way to the laptop. Because finally, a story to write, something you know you can do something with, something that might not be any use to anyone else but could be of great use to you.

And then you open up Microsoft Word and all you can do is type out that line and marvel at how your ability to do anything has vanished.

I still think there's something there, but how do I get that something on the page when the words dry up the minute I'm eighteen inches away from a computer screen?

I wish there was a program where you could type everything into it and the whole time, you'd be looking at a picture of the night sky or something, and you couldn't actually see anything you typed unless you clicked the north star.

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that old yuletide magic

2013-10-07T00:37:10Z

Dear Christmas Bale,

Welcome to this year's yuletide! IDK if this is your first time participating or your millionth, but I hope you have a great time either way. I thought my letter last year was pretty workable, and not insanely tl;dr, so I'm gonna copy a lot of stuff over from it. Trying to keep this shit short and sweet and streamlined for you. ♥

Please-don't-includes: It's rather unlikely that this will come up, but I request you keep in mind that I have a phobia of grey aliens. I strongly request that you please don't include scary alien archetypes, alien abductions, &cet., in your story.

On historical attitudes towards minorities: You may feel free to include them, should they be necessary for plot or verisimilitude; their appearance won't ruin my Yuletide. We're all adults here, and I'd prefer to think that we're likewise all mature enough to tell the difference between inclusion and endorsement of potentially offensive material.

Themes and miscellanea I'm particularly interested in:
❄ family, parenting, and familial bonds
❄ the passing down of traditions and questioning thereof
❄ religion, religious celebrations and holidays, and religious imagery
❄ christmas and christmas fic
❄ magic showing up in the real world, fairy tale rules of existence
❄ het, femslash, and gen (in the case of the first two, either shippy or as supporting elements is fine)
❄ hope
❄ bittersweetness, sweetness, fluff (don't worry if it's tooth-rottingly sweet--I'll brush my teeth after, and my dentist will never know ♥)

Themes and miscellanea I'm not interested in:
❄ shallow issuefic, didacticism, using fic to baldly promote politics (whether or not I agree with them)
❄ bitterness, cynicism
❄ stories that revolve around slash pairings (it's fine as a supporting element of a story, but I'm not interested in receiving a shippy story featuring a slash pairing for Yuletide)
❄ pwp sex (when there's sex in a story--and I'd be fine with reading it in any of these fandoms--I want it to be there to illuminate the characters/situation, not because it's ~sexy~)

For the really tl;dr version of my likes and dislikes, here's a bigass table.

❄

( dragon age: maevaris tilani, thorold )

( gypsies, tramps, and thieves: narrator's daughter )

( jirel of joiry: jirel of joiry )

( flygirl: ida mae jones, lily lowenstein )

( the ramsay scallop: elenor, thomas )

( beauty and the beast: belle, beast/prince adam )

❄

Fandom sources:

❄ The Dragon Age comics are available for purchase, and .cbrs can be downloaded here. Instructions on opening .cbr files can be found here (personally, I use Comic Book Reader). (Note also that Mae only appears in Those Who Speak and Until We Sleep, but I've included the first volume for context!)
❄ "Gypsies, Tramps, and Thieves" can be heard here on youtube; the lyrics are here.
❄ The Jirel of Joiry stories are available for purchase used and can also be downloaded here.
❄ Flygirl is available for purchase and can also be downloaded here.
❄ The Ramsay Scallop is available for purchase used, and God, I wish I had an ebook version to give you.
❄ Beauty and the Beast is available for purchase, and you can also stream it here.

❄

Here are my previous letters for your viewing pleasure:

2012
2011
2010
2009

And here are some other places you can find me:
twohandedengine
akerwis

There we go! Good luck in your writing, thank you for doing that writing, and best wishes for a happy holiday season!

Yours sincerely,
ar

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livejournal rp accounts

2013-09-30T04:18:27Z

Livejournal

( so many accounts )

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mourning, a passing fancy that never passes entirely

2013-09-27T18:22:27Z

While driving in the car today, I saw a license plate indicating a WWII veteran owned the car, and I felt an overwhelming sense of jealousy and resentment. My paternal grandfather (who, as many of you know, died this last January) was in the Navy between WWII and Korea. Whoever owns that car is even older than he was and is still alive, and briefly, I hated them for it.

But then, my maternal grandfather only served in Korea (he drove tanks and hated the show M*A*S*H, which always makes me feel a little guilty for how much I love it), and he's been dead since I was nine. I know lives don't go chronologically, and things aren't fair. So I'm trying to be glad for the owner of that car instead. Lucky to be them and see a little more of the world and all the people in it.

When I think about it--but not too hard, like the nose equivalent of letting my gaze settle into the middle distance--I can remember the scent of my maternal grandfather's aftershave and the feeling of his stubbly cheek when I kissed it. We sat in his living room, eating ice cream out of plastic bowls and watching Full House. He loved musicals and Sousa and bicycling all around the city. My mother is now within a decade of how old he was when he died, and only now can I really comprehend how young he was when he passed away. I can't imagine my mother dying within the next ten years. I can't believe he seemed so old when I was in elementary school.

About three-quarters of the way through Conundrum now, and I can see why people would dislike its more dated aspects. Morris does discuss ideas about the nature of femininity and masculinity that seem quaint at best these days. It's hard for me to muster up the energy to judge opinions the author held 40 years ago, though, when I have no idea if she still holds them. When I'm finished, I'll see if I can find more recent comments from her. Until then, I withhold judgment on everything but the beauty of the texts. It's like laying in the surf, having waves roll over you one after another while you hold your breath--and when you come up for air, you wish you could have stayed right where you were.

(She is also still alive, according to wikipedia, and it's hard not to hate her a little for it, too.)

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ar @ 2013-09-24T12:11:00

2013-09-24T18:04:27Z

Here are things I can tell you about the upstairs neighbors:

1. They like having sex around noon.
2. Whatever they're having sex on, it squeaks.

I keep hoping that they're actually doing some kind of exercise thing, but there's sometimes moaning. Which is not really an exercise sound. It's annoying and repetitive, and now that Pel pointed it out, I can't tune it out.

( I should just give up and accept that I mostly want to talk about books anymore )

Speaking of school, let me tell you my current dilemma, internets. My major project for this class is to put together a plan for a bibliography. Not an actual bibliography, mind--I just have to do the preliminary searches and talk about how I'd find relevant sources, provide some example annotated bibligraphic entries, etc. This sounds wicked fun to me. The problem is picking a subject.

See, it can't be too broad--examples of previous papers were "chicken farming in the Twin Cities" and "researching Swiss Mennonite ancestors." But it also can't be a specific person, because then you won't be practicing your search skills like you should be. My problem is that I can't think of subjects I'm ~passionate~ about that are the appropriate level of broad. Things I'm interested in tend to be ridiculously specific; just because I'm fascinated by the works of C.L. Moore or V.C. Andrews doesn't mean I want to do a whole project on pulp scifi or incest in popular fiction. My fascination with movie themes from the 1970s is hard to make into a bibliography, in great part because I'm more interested in listening to "The Way We Were" than reading about it. And there just isn't enough out there to justify a look at gay Catholic children's/YA literature.

The subjects I'm interested in that are suitably broad are...not really things I'm currently hoping to spend two months researching. I could make a bibliography for American movie musicals or 20th-century series books for girls, but do I really want to? It would be easy; it would also not exactly be something I'm feeling ~passionate~ about (and being ~passionate~, sans special-snowflake tildes, was one of the recommendations in the assignment). I want to do something that feels more exciting than those do right now. But I don't know if I have current, passionate interests that fit the bill.

Right now, the thing I'm most passionate about outside of school and work shit is researching for the story I've been planning. And that's been a lot of deaf history. So I could, in theory, do a bibliography on deaf residential schools in the 19th century and kill two birds with one stone. Research for school becomes research for story. But part of me is worried that I don't really have enough personal knowledge to do a good enough job. It'd be exciting for the joy-of-discovery angle, but would I be making the project unnecessarily difficult for myself?

...I suspect I'm already making it unnecessarly difficult.

So, these are my main ideas right now:

• American movie musicals
• American pop standards (we just got a book on the history of Irving Berlin's "God Bless America" in at work, lol)
• Brill Building songwriters, 1950s and 60s
• Cats on the internet
• Schools for the deaf in the 1800s
• Series books for girls, 1900-1999
• Tin Pan Alley songwriters

Internets, if I could just get your thoughts, I'd appreciate it. Some of you know me pretty well, some of you don't know me much at all, but maybe it'd just help to have input at this point. I want to do well on this project.

eta: Additional problem: So many of my passions require filmographies or discographies rather than bibliographies. :/

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