They say that the first fic you write in the New Year will be an omen for the rest of your writing that year.

..if that's the case, the new year will be interesting. And full of id.

I don't even know. I really don't know. I can't believe I'm posting crossover fic between two fandoms where I don't know the relevant canon for either. And yet I am.

Title: Inconvenient Spirits
Summary: The Bookman and Gentleman Johnny meet in person at last. And Raymond Vecchio has the start of a very bad day.
Notes: I have not read any Dresden Files! And I have only watched S1 of dueSouth! ... I've read a lot of fic though! And honestly! Why is there not more Dresden/dS crossover fic? Why? If other people don't write some I shall be forced to keep doing it myself. ~2000 words, in-character language of varying offensiveness, not much else. Also, you have to completely ignore relative timelines to make this work; just pretend some fair folk got their hands on it?
( You need to get that paranoia looked at, Marcone. Supernatural influences? Seriously? )

I just had a dream that there exists an episode of Star Trek: The Animated Series in which certain department heads on the U.S.S. Enterprise (headed by Captain Kirk) had taken to buying antique hardcovers of classic novels and leaving them lying around the Engineering break rooms in an attempt to wean Scotty off his technical manuals by giving him books that are beautiful hardware in their own right, with the result that Scotty and Cupcake and several other Engineering redshirts have started an enthusiastic book club that is reading the Valdemar novels.

And this animated episode I was watching even included a fairly long segment of what was actually happening in the novel they were discussing, in which Vanyel was drawn to quite closely resemble Spock in a glittery lavender version of Vulcan robes, and spent most of his time crying. In the rain. (As basically all I know about Valdemar is that Vanyel is gay and tragic, there are soulbonded horses, and the covers of my copies are pink and purple and sparkle, I'm kind of impressed with my brain for coming up with that. And traumatized.)

I'm not sure if I want to write that story more or less than I now want the Hot Fuzz story where Danny lends Nick the Valdemar books.

****

Anyway, I've been kind of vaguely following the FictionAlley vs. Pepsi controversy, and while it would probably be smarter of me not to, I feel compelled to add my $.02 American. (Look, me reading up on the intersection of neoliberal capitalism and self-enforced gift economies totally counts as research for my NaNo, okay? And sadly, that's actually true, and I only just now realized that part of what the economics in my novel is commenting on is fandom.)

( This whole meta section here is just so I don't feel like I made a post just to talk about Scotty and Vanyel, because my subconscious thinks you guys expect more than that of me. If Scotty and Vanyel is a sufficient post for you, please do skip this section. )

Back from con.txt! I survived! Okay, I came home on Sunday, fell in to bed at about 6 PM, and slept though until Monday morning, but still, I survived!

...and now there are two years to wait until the next one. ):

I went to sixteen panels (and modded or co-modded six of them); still managed to go out to an excellent lunch with starlady and an excellent dinner with zana16, erinptah, and nakedbee; taught my self to fold dirty origami at the dance, then some stitch'n'bitchery downstairs with synecdochic, sarah, and some of the other usual suspects; then there was the vid show, the Dr. Who viewing party, and the late-night trivia quiz; cosplayed, dropped off and took some stuff at the swap table, sold something at the art auction; got a lead on Dr. Who slash 'zines from a dealer, stayed for Dead Duck, and even did a little bit of freeform socializing.

I think I used up all my extroversion points for about two months. There's a reason I've spent all my free time the past two days basically lying on my bed watching UK Parliament.

Also, my laptop didn't *technically* completely die! I had to stop using the heavy-duty replacement power cord (which now emits sparks and smoke, and never quite fit the socket) and go back to using the original power cord (which atm transfers current only through creative placement of electrical tape and bulldog clips) but at least the cooling fan motor didn't actually burn out like I thought it had! I mean, unless I'm wrong about that and the whole thing's going to melt into my lap as soon as I post this - I'm not sure how I'd tell, given ambient temperature around here.

( A few more details under the cut, through Friday )

Anyway. That's Friday. I think I'll stop here - there's a werewolf book I pulled off the swap table that's calling to me. And precious sleep, of course.

Well, so far the Lenten fast is going well. I kept the laptop closed during all three classes today. I also drew a Sierpinski gasket with a fractal dimension of seven, and calculated Pascal's Triangle to the eleventh level in base 36, and read two more chapters of "A History of Playing Cards."

I am *fascinated* by the dribble that book is letting out about the midieval cartier's trade. Apparently the making of playing cards was a major industry in some Rennaissance cities, enough that there were cartier's guilds and lots of disputes about imports and exports - which makes sense, because playing cards must have been one of the first cheaply mass-produced luxury items - in many countries, the making of playing cards was the first economically important use of printing techonology. And apparently women were very important workers in the trade, from the beginning. I desperately want an excuse to learn more about this, and possibly write a story on it.


In other news, I want to talk about Boston Legal some more. I know very few (if any) of the people on my flist who like slashy TV are watching Boston Legal. I just want to know *why* they aren't.

This is the fandom that my sister pimped me into by telling me "Captain Kirk and Daniel Jackson are sleeping together. *Canonically*." (Which was true.) If you're watching House or Smallville or SGA and saying "My god, are they really that gay?" - no, they aren't. Denny Crane and Alan Shore are. There's the sleeping together, and the slow dancing, and the suggestive cigar smoking, and the *constant* heavy flirting, and the pre-wedding jitters, and the frequent promises that they'll be there for each other no matter what, and no girlfriend will interfere, and the longing gazes - and that's just in the half-dozen episodes I've actually seen. I'll bet a sawbuck that it's even gayer than The Sentinel.

So, anyway, here's the BL gay marriage story that I fear I am never going to see, unless the fandom grows exponentially (as it really should):

( This is the story I told myself to go to sleep by last night. )

It would be titled "It's Legal in Boston!". Or something like that. *g* The thing is? This could be an episode of the show! Seriously! It's all one-hundred-percent in character, and fits with the tone of an average episode, and they've done storylines nearly this controversial before. The only reason I can think of that they *wouldn't* do it is if they think that resolving the sexual tension between the romantic leads would be a bad thing, which after my XF experiences I can sympathize with. On the other hand, apparently there are rampant rumors that Denny Crane is going to get a boyfriend later this season, which breaks my brain. If that's true it had better be Alan. Or lead into Alan/Denny. Would this be the first m/m slash 'ship to go canon? (Not counting Spike/Angel, which was too coy to count as true canon in my book. q:)

Our internet connection at home has been down pretty much all week, so I've been getting some reading and writing (and even a little bit of art and homework) done. Getting stuff done on the train, too, yay.I'd talk about what I've been writing about, but the new icon pretty much sums it up for me, so you probably don't want to know. (Scary-prolific though, for me: over 3,000 words in thirty-six hours, just on one story!).

In flist catch-up news, dduane is going to write her next wizard-cats novel as an online serial. Basically, under the ff.net model. (Okay, she's actually basing it on the way Lawrence Watt-Evans did it, but still.) I've been saying for ten years that the internet is *made* for serials, with online comics, blogs, and fanfic WIPs to prove my point, and the idea that professional serial novels may be coming back through the internet is filling me with *glee*. (So is the prospect of another cat-wizards novel, of course.)

I wonder why it's considered perfectly acceptable for these pro-SF writers to say 'this much money in the tip jar or I won't write the next chapter!', and not for fic-writers (and to some extent webcomics authors) to say 'I'm not posting the next installment unless I get this much feedback!'. After all, it's basically the way that *all* professional serials work, back to the days when Rennaissance philosophers would try to get people to subscribe to their Great Works In Progress, and have to go back to shilling for the nobility if subscriptions dwindled off. Is it because demanding feedback comes uncomfortably close to the fic-taboo of asking for payment? Is it just a general conception that we should be writing for *love*, darn it? Is it because, somehow, only *real* writers and artists are allowed to to that? Is it that we the readers have such a sense of entitlement that we're offended at the mere idea that we owe something to the writers? Or is it just because the people who demand feedback are usually highly annoying people in a variety of other ways?

I've never really objected to writers asking for feedback, or even saying they won't finish a story without it. Me, my relationship with feedback is such that one effusively complimentary review can cause me to hide from all publicity for weeks, but it makes sense that writers would want to write the stuff that people are actually reading, and in many cases, feedback levels are the only way to tell. Leaving aside the fact that feedback makes authors happy, it ought to be good for the readers, too. A writer's time is limited, and if it's a choice between finishing the epic that nobody cares about or starting something else, and maybe better ... why should she be expected to finish just so that she doesn't look like a feedback whore? Why do we even want her to finish?

You know what happens if I go too long without writing anything?

This sort of thing happens.

The worst part? That bit of crack is probably one of the longest fics I've ever finished.

Maybe I can claim it's a late birthday present for stellar_dust. Yes! Cross over the unloved stepchildren of her two favorite fandoms. Can't go wrong there.