The words of my life

For those who celebrate it in whatever way...
HAPPY EASTER!!!

Happy birthday, kortirion! Hope it has been/is a good day.

Hey, *I* got a storm day! It rained so much last night (and over the preceding weeks) that half of Sydney flooded and after my sister and I had been an hour and ten minutes in the car without reaching the next-but-one suburb (4kms!!!!) we gave up fro the first time ever and rang our works and said we couldn't make it. It's very exciting having an unexpected day off. Did take nearly another hour to make it home though! I should add thta the floods are now where near us - it's just so many roads are closed our route basically crashed under all the extra cars.

I'm doing this - well, in my own way. Than, just_ann_now.

I've got lots of stationery (I used to write letters all the time - I beat the internet to fandom) and lots of random postcards and I've got a mailbox right across the road from me, whihc I'm still getting a thrill out of using. My writing is, however, ghastly. To quote a uni lecturer: 'I have seen worse writing - but they were holding the pen between their teeth.'

Comments are screened if you would like a letter/postcard and I don't already have your addy.

In your own space, create a fanwork.
Okay, two. Neither stunning. I sort of know what I'm trying to say in the LOTR one, but it isn't quite there. Both are double drabbles.

Ocean's 11

Half to himself, half to Rusty – the way these conversations always go - Danny mused, “One more should do it.”

A pause.

“No, you’re right – at least two.”

Danny blinked, closed his eyes for a second.

“Aaron and Irish John?”

Danny found an answer in the silence.

“Irish and Jeb Carter. I’ll get Virgil to get them.”

Danny leaned forward and flicked a tiny bit of dust off Rusty’s silken shirt of blue and green.

“This the best Basher could do?”

Danny smiled tiredly, a smile without deliberate charm, a smile that only Rusty knew.

“I suppose it was.”

He leaned back in his chair, rubbed his eyes.

“So there’s the …. And Linus in Florida. And the other… thing…. Are we ready?”

He looked at Rusty. For years and years it had been like this – until sometimes it seemed that there had been no other life. They talked in half-sentences, in thoughts they scarcely needed to say. Danny read Rusty in ‘tells’ so small, so intimate no one else knew they were there. But… a dead man has no tells. Danny smoothed where the tattoo lay night-dark against ghostly skin and answered his own question.

“We’ll get them, Rus.”



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LOTR

When my mother died Boromir told me that she had gone to live in the sea she loved so well. He told me tales of her swimming free in the splashing waves, dancing stately measures in underwater palaces, and riding dolphins in the smooth wine-dark seas. He told me that the waves called our names.

Father showed me her stone monument and explained simply that her body lay here and that she was gone. Indeed from the comfort of his arms I had seen the empty shell that had remained.

My nurse said my mother had gone to the Halls of the Dead, but could answer none of my questions. I pictured skeletons and dark judges and woke crying in the night.

I have never known what I believe – perhaps only that I lost all that remained of her when I lost my brother.

Today, though, when I hold my first daughter I see my mother again. She is old enough now to look at me and in the line of her face and in the slate-grey colour of her eyes I find my mother. This, this is our immortality - to live on in our children and children’s children.

Day 8

In your own space, talk about a talent (or talents) you have. Everyone's got something they're good at. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.


There are days when I find it almost impossible to believe that I have any worth, but even on those days I could probably say these three things:

*I can write (actually anyone who has seen my handwriting would probably disagree). Somedays I might even qualify it and say that I write well or better than average, but deep in my heart I always know that I can write. If I look at what other people can do I'll start putting down what I can do, but still... I can write.

*I'm a fast reader. No credit to me 'cause I was just born this way or something but I am freakishly fast. It's not always a joy - there's a lot of waiting involved and it did used to tick off adults when I was a kid. I still occasionally get people being threatened by it, but much, much less. It's been a long time since a librarian refused to let me borroqw the books I wanted. ;-) Downside is the guilt that I don't do more with it. Funny thing is that I discovered in teachers' college that apparently when the rest of you look at print it stays in focus - for like, I don't know..ages? I was so stunned that I had to go and ask my lecturer was that for real. Anyway, it turns out that if I had struggled to learn to read I would probably have REALLY struggled to read.

*I'm fairly intelligent. I don't have this as quite as much a core belief as I used to, but oddly enough for someone who doubts every positive thing about themselves I've always had this belief. I don't have very solid proof even - no labels in my school days, no extension work, no G&T classes, no (academic) prizes. They just didn't exist. I'm not academic and I never learned to work, plus I've got some share of the family learning disability so my uni marks are not stellar. Of course, spending my days with teachers (for yeard and years the lowest uni mark) does give one a false sense of brightness ;-)

Day 7

In your own space, create a list of at least three fannish things you'd love to receive, something you've wanted but were afraid to ask for - a fannish wish-list of sorts. Drop a link to your wish-list in this post. Maybe someone will grant a wish. Maybe you will grant a wish. If any wishes are granted, we'd love it if you link them to this post.

Go ahead and post your wishes over at your journal. Be specific.

Ever wanted a header for your journal centered around your fandom or favourite pairing? What about art for one of your stories? How about a fanmix that reminds you of the way Character A and Character B in your favourite movie keep making *heart eyes* at each other? Would you love icons? Podfics? Fanvids? Wallpapers? Paper dolls? Cupcakes?


Well, I don't know. I don't really do fannish stuff much anymore. I could ask for fanfic and then not have time to read it. I'm sure that the wolr does need more Aragorn and Legolas friendship fic, but it's not like I've looked for a long time. Equally I've never been able to find readable and gen HP fic. Icons, I love icons, especially now I can't make them. Truthfully, just keep on being my friends, that's all I ask of fandom. BTW - I don't get headers. Who sees them?

From all over;
When you see this, post a snippet from your works-in-progress.


Very timely for me - while another holiday without any real writing has gone past I have been playing in my old writing folders.
( Read more... )

You know, it doesn’t matter how long all of us have been in Fandom, sooner or later there will be something that catches our eye.

And we would definitely check it out except that it’s a fandom/pairing/trope/kink/genre/type of fanwork we tend to stay away from. But we keep clicking back to the post and going “Well, I don’t know. Hmmm.” Or, maybe, we decide to start reading that fic or checking out that fanvid or listening to that podfic . . .

Not being fully aware of it, a kind of shift happens and we end up doing flappy hands about the very fanwork we wouldn’t usually dig.

It’s really amazing to see this kind of evolution from up close.

That’s what today’s challenge is about.

Day 6

In your own space, rec at least 3 fanworks you thought you wouldn't like (because they weren't your fandom or they pushed against your boundaries or you thought you just wouldn't be interested) and that you ended up loving.

One last note: It would be awesomesauce if y’all included a quick warning in your comments IF the fanworks contain triggery subjects.



I got nothing. Nothing specific that is - it's all too long ago. Generally it would be:
*Stories about Faramir and Boromir - for a Legolas fangirl that was a bit of a leap. I've still written far more than I've read, but I have read and loved some of them.

*An, I think, unfinished story cycle by, I think her name was Rachel. I betaed some of it for her and from go to whoa it wasn't me - even down to the plentiful use of sentence fragments but oh the words!

*And for a real blast from the past - The Totally Imaginary Cheeseboard (only an extract - I think the novella is only available in zine form). This is a Blake's 7 novella about a character winding up at a con. It's self-insertion so not very me but it is very very good. It's also, of course, just how one would want the actors to be.

In non-fannish things it would be Temeraire. I thought I would hate it. I'm not generally a keen fantasy reader and it sounded twee. ;-)

Now that we’ve got the scary challenges out of the way, let’s have some fun!

Do you bake cookies? Have the world’s most adorable kitty? Grow your own veggies? Knit, crochet, sew? Make amazing jambalaya? Sing in a local cover band? Today we’re asking you to share some of the non-fannish things you love.

Day 5

In your own space, share something non-fannish you are passionate about with your fannish friends. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

We are awesome in our passion for fandom but we are more than that. We are vibrant multi-faceted people. Yes, you too. Share a little bit of that, if you can, according to your comfort level.


Passionate is a strong word - and this from someone who used to have a slogan 'why be merely interested in something when you can be obsessed?' So may be not passionate but very keen on:
*Swimming. Doing when I could/can - watching it the rest of the time. The passion has burnt a bit low on this these days - probably because mostly I can't swim and if I can it isn't the pushing myslef I used to love - it's 'carefully, careful-l-y, don't fully reach with that arm, take it easy' - blah. Time was I swam most days - each time with one of the programs I had written (I used to read one heck of a lot of swimming books) and did at least one squad a week, pushing the living heck out of myself to keep up with all the younger, fitter, bigger swimmers. Don't get me wrong - I've always been overweight and I'll never be s star in any sport, but swimming is where I come closest. I have a natural stroke and the water and I are friends.
I still watch swimming - 2012 will be first Australian Open I haven't been to for probably about 13 years. I'd like to go but mortgage and all I just can't afford it. I used to really watch all the little swim meets that noone not a blood relative attends, but RL got too busy. Of course in 2009 I crossed the world to, among othe things, watch the World Champs in Rome. The swimmers I cared most about have grown up, retired but I have my favourites in the new crop. Being a swim fan is about the sheer beauty of the strokes - long distance freestyle, butterfly swum by a master - but it's also about the people. That's where my true fan interest lies in any fandom. It's overhearing the gossip, watching the body language, knowing what some of the swimmers are going through, putting the pieces together.

I still long to swim, still cherish my world's biggest collection of swim t-shirts, have the fondest memories of when I taught at a disadvantaged school and coached swimming two days a week, still know a boring amount about Australia's current crop of coaches and swimmers - and still enjoy swimming down big, boofy blokes who beleive that the fast lane belongs to them simply because they are big ad boofy and blokes - and be bothered to the fact that they haven't bothered to learn to swim properly. ;-)

I was going to talk about gardening, bird-wtaching and cooking but enough already. Oh, and acting. These days I only get to act when I demo in school drama lessons - it's years since I even did anything crazy like gothing-up for the day or doing my Christmas shopping in a Texan accent. I'd love to really act again one day but (1) I don't have the time and (2) given I'm not a hidden genius there are few drama groups with spare roles for yet another middle-aged, plain, overweight woman One would need to be a bloke - they're alwsys in short supply. ;-)