yonmei

11:55 pm: Christmas flashfics
( Sachertorte, for the ravens )

( a bauble for ruthi )

( curtains for whatho )

( ruffled dragovian )

( Afrai Arabesque )

( rainherder's rum )

( unintentionally ruthi )

Tags: cake, christmas day stories, dragon eggs need clicky, flashfic, write write write

04:28 pm: Writing request
So there's Facebook, and Myspace, and Bebo...

...if there were to be a brand-new kind of social networking tool, what would it be called?

Tags: write write write

11:03 am: All alone at work...
( makes coffee )

Tags: coffee, evil american politics, evil awful mondays, imagine better, work, write write write

03:57 pm: Three gifts of words
One reason why I love words so much is that words can, unlike any other form of art or making, be made and kept by the maker, given to others and still remain the maker's, shared with still others by the recipient and still remain the same gift, enhanced by being given.

First, I found (via Feministe's great Sunday tradition of shameless self-promotion), this poem: "Don’t write a poem about rape" by Julie Buffaloe-Yoder, first published by Calyx: A Journal of Art and Literature by Women in summer 1992. I don't want to quote from the poem: I want you, if you can bear it, to go there and read it all. (And thank you, hysperia, for linking to it.)

Here's part of the background of how it came to be written:

During my second year as an undergrad, someone very close to me was raped. It was a horrific experience, complete with guns, knives, and torture, like a scene from a Law & Order SVU episode. She was, needless to say, quite emotionally scarred.

A few years later, I wrote a poem about it and submitted it to a literary journal. I received an unbelievable response from the editor. He took the time to type a six page, single spaced letter in which he ranted about how he would never, ever publish a poem about rape, because he was so tired of hearing women cry and moan about the subject. In his opinion, women who get raped usually “have it coming,” because of the provocative way they dress or act around men. In his words, he was “sick of wenchy women poets who are always bashing men.”

Then there's two excerpts from a recent speech by an author I thought I was familiar with:

"So why do I talk about the benefits of failure? Simply because failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me. Had I really succeeded at anything else, I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one arena I believed I truly belonged. I was set free, because my greatest fear had already been realised, and I was still alive, and I still had a daughter whom I adored, and I had an old typewriter and a big idea. And so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life."

I read that, and, knowing who the author was, was dumbstruck: because yes. Suddenly, I want to read her next book.

I stopped and thought about it, and did some other stuff, and then went on to read the rest, thinking that she could not possibly have anything to say that would resonate with me more than what she had already said, but, further down, after she spoke about her work with Amnesty International:

"If you choose to use your status and influence to raise your voice on behalf of those who have no voice; if you choose to identify not only with the powerful, but with the powerless; if you retain the ability to imagine yourself into the lives of those who do not have your advantages, then it will not only be your proud families who celebrate your existence, but thousands and millions of people whose reality you have helped transform for the better. We do not need magic to change the world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: we have the power to imagine better."

That would be J. K. Rowling, speaking at the Commencement Address to Harvard, June 2008.

Because, yes.

Tags: Pötterdämmerung, books are what i read, imagine better, poetry, powerful speech vs. powerless silence, write write write

10:39 am: This is Scotland
I am sitting outdoors in a gloriously green garden, in warm sunlight. My feet are bare and if I'd thought to pack them I would be wearing shorts.

(My back feels lots better: I kept telling people "sore but normal" yesterday, when it was still worrying me, but it really is today.)

I should be writing a complex and and sarcastic story involving House and a flock of other characters, not all of them ducklings or Wilson, but somehow I can't focus on that.

Hey ho for mayhem, angst, torture, suicide, and despair! I think I can focus on that.

Tags: fannishness, green in the city, imaginary friend meetup, write write write

08:52 am: 80sficapalooza - Star Wars: "Winning without words"
Well, this is pretty much all dragovianknight's fault. Really it is. Having proposed eight or nine prompts for 80s fandoms, I really had to claim something - but it had to be something for the beginning of the month because I'm going to be fiendishly busy by the end of it. ...and also, I'm not writing MacGyver fanfic for anyone who can't spell MacGyver. So that left me with just one possible prompt, and... er, yes.

I'll post it on my journal once it's no longer the 3rd of May. (Mine is the first story up for the day...)

Tags: fannishness, slash slash slashity slash, star wars, write write write

11:08 pm: Happy birthday, afrai!
Do you have any birthday fic-wishes to fulfil?

Tags: friendship, write write write

09:22 am: Seven Reasons Why Fanfic Is Like Gay Marriage
I like this:

1) A lot of people believe it is immoral and illegal--despite some forms of it being legal in some places, and having a history that goes back thousands of years.

2) A lot of the reactions are based not on rational or legal arguments, but personal squick--specifically, anti-sex squick, where the objector believes that any form of sexuality they don't like should be forbidden to everyone.

3) There's a long mainstream history of ignoring or denigrating both alternative-to-mainstream sexualities, and alternative-to-mainstream creativities: and strong connections between both.

4) Both inspire a common reaction of, "well, I suppose some people Do That Stuff, but do they need to be public about it? Why can't they just keep it to themselves and not inflict their weirdness/perversion on the rest of us?"

5) A serious, public interest in either can result in lost job opportunities and community ostracisation. It is common enough for people to argue in both instances "you're not actually being prosecuted - what more do you want?"

6) Some people reply to either with "well, you can want that, of course... but you should be able to control your impulse to act on those wants."

7) Most of the people getting outraged are not personally affected by either. In very basic terms, they are trying to control the behaviour of other people that has absolutely no effect on them. If you don't believe in gay marriage, don't marry someone of the same gender. And if you don't believe in fanfic, neither write it nor read it. A hefty helping of MYODB is now being served at the control-freak buffet. Please help yourself.

(Credit to elfwreck and aislingthebard, responding to a specific ranty-mcranty-pants post about the ingratitude of fanfic writers that they are not constantly being sued.)

Tags: i love fanfic, i write fanfic, join us on the outside, let's all be outcasts together, outcasts should stick together, write write write

09:20 am: I ATEN'T DED
I have been reading my friends-list. I even keep thinking comments. I just keep not writing them down.

Today is my last day at work till 7th January.

Tomorrow I could go to the German market in the Winterfair and have breakfast there. Perhaps do some Christmas shopping, whee. (Cautiously. I do not get my December money till 21st Dec, and that has to last me till 24th January. Still.)

In accordance with a long-standing tradition, comment here if you would like a flashfiction story written for you as an online Christmas present. Give me a fandom, a word, and, optionally, a theme. First ten commenters only.

Tags: christmas day stories, flashfic, write write write, yuletide

11:25 pm: 10 flash fiction stories
As requested, following a longstanding tradition:

( Spacefall, Blake's 7 )

( Foreverdirt, West Wing/Star Trek/Drop the Dead Donkey )

( Nerdcakes, Star Trek )

( Shoshanna, Highlander/Next Gen )

( Derryderrydown, Professionals )

( Whatho, M*A*S*H )

( Angelofthenorth, Harry Potter )

( Melata_fic, Discworld )

( Thette, Buffy the Vampire Slayer )

( Coyotegoth, Harry Potter )

( Bugshaw, hamster )

Tags: bible, blake's 7, christmas day stories, discworld, flashfic, harry potter, m*a*s*h, professionals, star trek, west wing, write write write, yuletide

07:11 pm: I am tired.
I didn't get enough sleep last night, but I have finished one section in my current long story that I was struggling to complete.

(The couple were never going to resolve all issues by the end of the chapter, but I wanted to make it clear that there was a strong possibility that they would resolve all issues - or at least all major ones, or at least find a way of dealing with them that worked - by the end of the chapter.)

I will be working full time as of, probably, next week. :-D Till December. And it's looking good - I mean as a job, or rather as a project.

I need to sleep more, and eat less when I'm sad, and drink less coffee, and exercise more*. (I had lunch yesterday with marrog, and I swear to you, that vegeburger still feels like it's sitting there. It was a good lunch, though, and as usual went on till about six. Not eating all the time. Indeed, we walked for part of it. And looked at henna tattoos. And afterwards I went for a very very long Edinburgh walk, out to Comely Bank and back down along to Ferry Road, which was pleasant until I thought it might actually start to rain, so I caught a 21 home. Besides, Ferry Road is boring.)

*Of course, I keep telling myself that. Sometimes it works, though.

Tags: imaginary friend meetup, walks, write write write

10:24 am: St Aelred wrote
Anyone know of an online text of Speculum Caritatis (The mirror of charity) or De spirituali Amicitia (On the Spiritual Friendship)? A translation with both English and Latin would be ideal. (What little Latin I ever learned is very, very rusty.)

Tags: m*a*s*h, write write write

11:24 pm: 10 flash fiction stories
As requested. A very different range from last year.

( Sinsense, Harry Potter )

( PhoenixW, Harry Potter )

( Daegaer, Good Omens )

( CoyoteGoth, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen )

( Kickair8p, Due South )

( RedStarRobot, Blake's 7 )

( DarkLily, Sherlock Holmes )

( AngeloftheNorth, Merchant of Venice )

( HFNuala, Earthsea )

Tags: bible, blake's 7, christmas day stories, due south, films, flashfic, harry potter, leguin, shakespeare, write write write, yuletide

09:55 am: Yuletide treasures, pt 3
( twenty-one tales from yuletide treasures )

Tags: fanfic, west wing, write write write

11:00 pm: Late, sorry - 10 flash fiction stories
Ten flash fiction stories, as requested.

( Green Amber, Spike/Aragorn )

( Valarltd, Princess Bride )

( Sneerpout, Union/Alliance )

( Ambitious Wench, Discworld )

( Destina, Stargate )

( Plaid Adder, Sherlock Holmes )

( Scarlatti, M*A*S*H )

( Disc Sophist, Good Omens )

( morgan32, Highlander )

( Lnr, The Sandman )

( Crazysoph, Babylon 5 )

( Update - notes )

Tags: christmas day stories, flashfic, write write write, yuletide