Thrihyrne

So now my novella has been out for a couple of weeks. I know I have a lot of fandom friends who'd showed interest and support, but at this juncture, I know of precisely one person who has read the finished version and let me know that she read it. That's my stepmom. I don't know if people are reading it and just don't want to tell me their thoughts, or they're interested but it's not on their list yet, or if people are supportive but not interested in reading it. According to my ticker on Dreamspinner, I'm up to 17 sales. Whether those are the ones directly via Dreamspinner or a total of all outlets, I'm honestly not sure. I should find out. Still— I guess I'm not used to so little feedback, or not in a long time. It's made me less motivated to finish up the sequel, even though I believe it's much stronger. Anyway, the confusion and feelings of disappointment will pass, I'm sure. It is what it is. I'm grateful that I've gone through this process from beginning to end and I've learned a lot.

( short summary of last week )

( the talisman )

( other stuff )

I'll leave this rambling post with a quote from a book I finished yesterday: "True nobility isn't about being better than anyone else; it's about being better than you used to be."
~Wayne Dyer

Total author self-indulgence. Don't read if not into such. ;)

1) You've written in many different fandoms. What is it about each fandom that interested you enough to write fanfic? Is there an overall theme or themes that you like to explore that go across the fandoms? Is there a fandom that tempts you but you haven't investigated yet?

I started out in Tolkien after a fellow fan introduced me to it. She was on the academic side, and I came to it from there. I was actually writing a paper on fanfiction writers when I began writing fanfic. I was obsessed by how many 'voiceless' characters there were in Tolkien's world, and it was the Rohirrim who caught my imagination. How I jumped from there to HP fandom involves slash. I wanted to challenge myself, and wrote HP fanfic when I'd only read two of the books, I think. By then I was no longer a naive fanfiction writer; I'd presented a paper and had discovered what it was like to be somewhat well-known in one fandom and then go to another where I might as well have been Eve's housecat= nobody knew me. I was convinced I'd never write in another fandom, and then I was introduced to Wraeththu, and I threw up my hands. I couldn't not write there. Then Slave Breakers, a first in that it was another author's original fic. Across the board, I like to get into the heads of lesser-known/lesser-written-about characters. The themes I think I tend to explore, at their crux, is the fallibility of the characters. That's what resonates to me. I'd love to write in Wicked Gentlemen. The only problem is that writing anything of substance would almost be another novella within the cannon, and I know I'd not like to do that. But AUGH. Her creativity is amazing.

2) What do all your red-headed characters have in common. If anything? LOL.

They're redheads. I've been obsessed intrigued by redheads since my earliest years. Personality has nothing to do with it. It's that they've had something I wanted, at the pith of my being. Hence why I've colored my hair since I was sixteen.

But they're all fallible. It's a trend, lol.

3) How did you come upon the Wraeththu community? (Where we first met) And what was it about the Ashmael/Vaysh combination that inspired you to write their story?

When I moved to the house I lived in in Verona, Callum sent me the initial trilogy as a housewarming gift. I read, I freaked out= 'must write fanfic'. Found small LJ community. Found small other community, now routed into Forever Wraeththu. WROTE.

Ashmael/Vaysh seemed like a huge gapfiller that not that many authors had covered. I approached it with a Tolkienesque attitude, making sure that there weren't some Big Names™ who'd already written about these two and was surprised (coming from both Tolkien and HP) that there weren't dozens of takes on their background. So I placed their initial community at my alma mater in a post-apocalyptic world, and ran with it. I didn't feel as comfortable in Ash's skin as Vaysh's, but at the time, it was just a huge sandbox in which to play.

4) You are writing a new original story. What drew you to the particular setting (a monastery) and the characters you are developing? Do you know what's going to happen or are you feeling your way as you write?

The concept of the OC in a monastery just came to me. The initial idea I had looks almost nothing like what I'm writing now, however. I don't know what's going to happen. In fact, I did have an idea of exactly what was going to happen, which formulated the three tenants of their religion, and now they've gone and developed their own personalities, and my idea has gone totally out the window. Now I honestly have no idea how it will end. I know what's going to happen in the next scene. Beyond that, however, I have to wait for them to tell me. It's a bit creepy, in a way, since they're all elements of my own [sub]conscious, and they keep doing things I didn't expect.

Thanks for asking. ♥

No, the topics aren't really related (though I do knit when I watch PR on my computer).
( Read more... )

Yay for knitting!

The thought about Project Runway is that I was watching the show that's the third from the last, I believe. They let two people compete for the 3rd spot, and Tim Gunn went to visit all of the finalists, meet their family and/or significant others, see their collections in progress, that stuff. SPOILERS if you've not seen episode 13 So the one who won the 3rd spot to go to Bryant Park (Mila Hermanovski) is someone whose personality I didn't like at first, but seeing her in her environment, introducing Tim to her boyfriend and parents and that she's 40 with a chance to move beyond costume design to her life's dream of being a clothing designer— it was really moving. It took me until last night to be struck by why that was. I'm 40. We're the same age! That seems impossible in many ways, but my passport and birth certificate indicate otherwise. She just seems so much more savvy, more self-aware than I could hope to be. But perhaps with these lifestyle moderations and the new meds will free me to do that. It's a thought! So now to watch episode 14 and knit some more on the cardigan. :)

From one of my fellow part-time, temporary Opera fund raising buddies:

Metaphysics makes a bad breakfast.

Happy New Year, all who haven't experienced it yet. I'll be spending some time with friends this evening, but to be candid, I really want to curl up and read or write; just not feeling particularly social. I did dress festively today to go to the Oregon Workforce office and then the Opera. It seemed to have worked; I got two decent donations during my 3 1/2 hours of calling, which was a pleasant feeling. I just want to cocoon now, though, but I feel obligated to be out for a little while, plus I need to use a friend's printer so I can mail in the third of three applications I was screened for this morning. Ah, my exciting life. I don't want to mull over this past year, I think I've done enough navel-gazing through the many myriad changes and would rather just Be Here Now as it were, or look forward. I've looked back so often in my life and bemoaned the fact that I don't seem to learn anything, but I suspect I'm being a bit harsh.

:drinks coffee:

I just took a really hot walk to the closest post office to post my resume, references and cover letter for an Alumni & Development Assistant position at Reed College. They're literally just down the road, down 39th. My first job out of college was as an A&D assistant, so I'm hopeful. I took back roads this time and went around a Jesuit Novitiate center, which tugs at part of my spirit in ways that might seem odd if you don't know my past.

( Thev and monasteries )

It's really freaking hot. The yards of the houses I passed during my walk are all burned to a crisp. This is surely atypical weather, but goodness knows. I've experienced a few ebbs and flows of weather cycles in the few weeks I've been here, so this, too, will pass I'm sure.

The sundry... I got a library card today! Yay. So now I have The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay as a book on tape (it was given to me a few years ago by a former Nashville Opera coworker who said that it reminded her of my writing [she'd read some of my Tolkien fanfic] but I've never gotten into it and gave it to the used bookstore gent in Harrisonburg when I moved), a documentary on kids aging out of foster care, and "The L-Word" third season on DVD. No, I've not seen seasons one or two, either. :P I have no idea what I'll think of it; I'd have preferred to find Queer As Folk, but identifying as essentially pansexual, I thought it would be interesting to give it a try as I lounge here and sweat in front of my computer. There's no A/C in the house, which actually suits me fine. I actively dislike air conditioning and never use it in my car. I've been writing up a storm of drabbles— HP, Wraeththu and Swordspoint— and will probably sink my teeth into a new Wraeththu fic... or I may watch my DVDs. ;)