All the RomCom of Qi Xi

Went to the local community college and took my placement exams. Surprise surprise, I got perfect scores. (Can I use this as beta certification that I edited four essays properly?) In fact, due to my high scores, I tested into the honors program there which, yanno, is a waste as I'm only taking one class there.

Am signed up for my intro to international relations class and will be starting it in a couple of weeks. So, it was a productive day, even if I didn't get any writing done at all.

Speaking of writing - I was tagged for that Five Favourite Fics I've written meme. So, here goes -

WRITER'S MEME: Sometimes it's ok to pimp yourself out. Post a list of the top five favorite fics you've written, regardless of fandom or the reason you love them. This isn't about the BEST things you've written, but what you LOVE most. Then tag five other people to do the same. (I don't do well at tagging so no one is tagged)

Moments - (Harry/Draco) It's got a disparate timeline, darkness, an interesting ending and explores various themes. I adore this story though it wasn't well received. I wrote it when I was extremely happy, which makes it a bit boggling that it came out the way it did. I don't think it's the best thing I've ever written but I do love it.

Deprecor - (Harry/Draco) When I started writing this story, it was a complete and total PWP. I never meant it to have any sort of theme or moral or anything at all other than BDSM. I love exploring the lifestyle. Hell, I used to live that lifestyle for awhile. To see it evolve into something unexpected and well-received made me extremely happy. Some authors hate that but I love when stories do that.

Moments in Memory - (Neville/Ginny) I wrote this for hp_springsmut and omg, so much research and pushing of the self on this one. I wrote this for coffee_n_cocoa and I angsted over it like you wouldn't believe. Hello, writing Neville for the most fantastic Neville writer ever? Yeah, stressful. I have such a brilliant support network of friends that listen to my wibbling, slap me upside the head and then make me go with the ideas. So, not only am I proud of this story and think that it holds up even now, it reminds me of my friends and the way they listened to my ideas and my flailing and reassured me/kicked my ass/helped me.

This next one - I'm going to cheat on by doing two separate stories as one. Last August, I had two Deamus prompts. I angsted over both. The first was what became Root So Deep and the second became Wish Long and Long. My justification of these two being combined into one is that the writing experience, timeline and the posting date meld into one. I remember when I saw the list of who had made it into smutmas and I looked at that list and prayed for kaalee. When I got her, I bit my hand to keep from crying and I knew, absolutely knew, the story I wanted to tell. It was completely crystal clear in my head. The same is true of Wish Long and Long. Both stories were there and completely begging to be told. I stayed up long through the night writing both of these stories. I'm truly proud of them for a variety of reasons. The first is that they turned out fantastic and that's not just ego speaking. The second is that they turned out exactly as I envisioned from the beginning. The third is that I wrote them for people I love. The fourth is that network of support I just talked about. My friends organised group chats JUST to cheer me on and reassure me. People that don't read HP or Deamus or slash or even fanfiction, read over them and helped me. I'm getting maudlin but these stories proved to me that fandom is a community.

Finally - This list wouldn't be complete without One Last Fare. This was my first piece of fanfiction in Harry Potter. It doesn't quite hold up to the new writing style and skill level but I'm still inordinately pround of this and I adore it. I was so scared when I linked it to the first community here on LJ. OMG, soooo scared that people would hate it and tell me so. Then people responded to it and were so gracious. I love that this story launched me into this crazy community known as fandom.

So there you have it. My five favourite fics that I've written. They're not all the best in the world but I do love them muchly. I'll admit that I haven't lost that small flutter when I hit post and I wait, anxiously, to see what people are going to think of my latest creation. I don't think that ever goes away, no matter where you are in the food chain of fandom or writing.

wendy asked everyone to post a "Five Things We're Thankful For" sort of post to make the day flow better and so, of course, I obey. Go forth and do this yourself to get the karma flowing in a positive way.

1.) My job. As much as I might bitch about it at times, it really is the best place I've ever worked (and hey, I have one so there's a bonus as well). I'm going to be sad to see my boss move on as he's an alright sort of guy for the most part (if a bit anal retentive and overbearing and idiotic at times). Besides, I've never had a boss I can discuss the boy-touching love with.

2.) Diet Coke. Yesterday, I used what I thought was the Diet Coke at the fountain at Circle K and they'd hooked up Diet Pepsi to the dispenser instead. If I'd had some warning, I wouldn't have minded. Today, however, it was correct and that right there makes me happy and more awake. Also - my new Circle K has those "add-in" things so there's something even better than just Diet Coke. It's a Diet Rasberry Vanilla Diet Coke this morning and a Diet Cherry Vanilla Coke tomorrow!

3.) My flist. I wouldn't have nearly as much awesome in my life without them! Between bailing me out on the graphics things, sending me music or random mail, you guys are awesome. Then, add to it that there is all that wonderful fic to distract me from work and it doesn't get much better.

4.) My mum. I had a very surreal moment this morning and my mum had the nicest thing to say about it. She always adds a bit of clarity to any situation.

5.) My dayplanner. I've doublebooked dogsitting gigs in the past so I sucked it up and bought a dayplanner sort of thing and I haven't doublebooked since. SOOOO much less stress. I've come up with a shorthand system to track due dates for fic exchanges and such too so even LESS stress. Add to it that it doesn't gleefully announce Valentine's Day and I'm that much happier.

ETA: 6.) SANI-Seats. OMG, after my trip to the ladies room just now, I'm so very very thankful for sani-seats. Whoever invented these deserves to be sainted as it just stopped me from killing the little old lady that used the loo right before me.

( my weekend, slashcast and the surreal experience this morning )

legomymalfoy has kindly entrusted me with hd_falling and I'm very excited for it! My favourite scenario is the falling in love kind so I'm looking forward to helming that comm and encouraging more of my favourite sort *grins*.

I'm also now the Tuesday Editor at kotor_holo and so much excitement for that! I love KOTOR so much and am so encouraged to finally rewrite my gargantuan story that needs so much tweaking.

The universe is smiling upon me and I think it's because I got rid of soooooo much crap!

I had the perfect drive in where everyone was being courteous and letting people out into traffic and/or merge into the lane. No one was hopping from lane to lane or anything. I went through 5 construction zones and how many were pains in the ass? NONE!!! *does happy dance*

Thank you to whomever spoke to the universe and asked them for a good day and/or to stop wook from bitching on the flist.

*does happy dance some more*

Then!!! THEN!!! We have two new players at nothing_goldrpg - A Fleur and a Neville! SCORE!!!! *casually mentions* We still need a Ron and a Peter and a bunch of other characters so feel free to apply!

(I'm seriously bouncing in my chair at work cause it's just THAT good of a day)

A friend has declared today Music Share Monday and I cannot resist. Totally random sampling of my playlist.

Boston by Augustana (This is not the radio version... this is the much better acoustic version.)
Not Alone by Augustana (My favourite Augustana song evah)
Lover's Spit by Broken Social Scene
Stolen by Dashboard Confessional (Just so much love for this song)
Creepy by Damien Rice (omg such an amazing version of such an amazing song)

Finally - My favourite Christmas Carol. It's not Christmas at my house unless Darcy the Dragon by Roger Whittaker (.wma not .mp3) plays.

Now that I'm an adult, however... I have issues with this song -

( tl;dr thoughts on Darcy and conformity )

I'm afraid that fiona_fawkes is pulling ahead in our challenge and I shall be forced to write fluffy!snarry. Gah, just typing it out makes me tremble in fear.

My advice to all of you? Don't bet with Feei. She is evil.

A year ago today, I bought a paid account and officially and completely joined the HP Fandom. I actually posted my first story on 8-11-05 and it was One Last Fare - A H/D story set in a cab and inspired by the song - Taxi by Harry Chapin.

Before that, I read alot of H/D stories. I did (and still do) my best to comment on everything I read. I've made some amazingly brilliant friends along the way so far.

Just some statistics for you as I do this retrospective -

I've written 120 stories/drabbles that I claim (there are a few out there that I'm mildly embarrassed about and won't claim) - ranging in word count from 85 to 6401. A total word count right now is 125313.

Of those 120 stories - 68 are H/D. There are 5 different fandoms represented there, including an ongoing introspection into my life for 30_memoirs.

The story I'm most proud of is Moments - A darker story with an ambiguous ending.

I've always been open to concrit and I hope that you all feel comfortable enough with me that you'll always be willing to give it to me.

Anyway - just thought it was a good time to put this out here as I've renewed my paid account and my extra icons for another year. My fandoms and pairings might be constantly increasing and changing but I'm glad you're all here for the journey.