(I just opened all these files at once and realised how many of them start with 'So and so was doing whatever'. OH SELF.)

( The Fear CollectorsCollapse )

( The Luddite ClauseCollapse )

( The Rainbow ConnectionCollapse )

( Locharn: The Way HomeCollapse )

( Melbourne Magic: The Whole BananaCollapse )

( Melbourne Magic: The Flutterby EffectCollapse )

( Audrey: The Demon's DaughterCollapse )

( Audrey: The Angel's MistressCollapse )

( The Pythagorean ParadigmCollapse )

( Feldaine: The Littlest HalflingCollapse )

( Feldaine: The Golden PlayersCollapse )

This entry was originally posted at http://laurenmitchell.dreamwidth.org/2093.html. Please comment here or there!

I gave her a suspicious look. ‘You’re not just acting like this to try and get me to admit something incriminating, are you?’

‘Why? Have you got something incriminating to admit? Because I have to make sure this pen works first if you do.’

-- Jamie O'Connor and Constable Chandler, The Pythagorean Paradigm

I wrote a short story a little while back that's about a lighthouse keeper and a mermaid. Obviously it was inspired by 'The Little Mermaid' (the original story, not the movie), but it was from the keeper's point of view, not the mermaid. It was taking forever to finish and in the end I just slammed together what bits I had, wrote a couple of bridging scenes, and then gave it to a couple of people who'd expressed interest in seeing it.

The first one said it gave her a, and I quote, 'wide-on'. I didn't get any concrit beyond that because we were both laughing too hard, but inside I was all, 'yay!' because I actually do like to know that my sex scenes work.

The second one gave me more feedback than that, but ended with the line, 'Basically I just want to curl up inside it and live there.' Which I think is the prettiest piece of feedback ever.

So now I need to decide what to do with it. It's about 3,400 words, so I suppose it could be published somewhere, with some more polishing, but I need to figure out where, not being terribly knowledgeable (yet) about such things. If anyone else wants a look at it I could email it to you, because really, concrit is a good thing, because I know damn well I've been having my ego stroked for years of being in fandom and I need people to tell me when things are wrong.

I'm posting this on my original fiction journal instead of on my general journal because I am trying to remind myself that I can write, damn it, and the only reason I'm stuck at the moment is depression, and because playing with LJ layouts is basically one of the most fun things ever. (No, I don't have a life.)

The Novel Land

Lauren E. Mitchell, with apologies to T.S. Eliot

“A deadline is, simply put, optimism in its most kick-ass form.
It's a potent force that, when wielded with respect, will level any obstacle in its path.
This is especially true when it comes to creative pursuits.”ⁱ

I. THE OPENING OF THE FORUMS

NOVEMBER is the cruellest month, breeding
Accusations of cheating, mixing
Trolling and double-posting, stirring
Writers to new heights.
Heather kept us sane, staying
Up all the long nights moderating
So the forums stayed flame-war free.
The new site surprised us, with shiny region headers
With Google Calendar; we dropped everything
And went on to add events, to see if it worked
And bounced happily when at last it did.
Non siamo pazzi, siamo MLs.ⁱⁱ
And when the forums are filling, growing with returning Wrimos,
Our people, we'll take them out to Starbucks
And barbecues. We'll say, Wrimos
Wrimos, here we go. And off we'll go
In the chatrooms, there you feel savvy
We write, much of the night, and go insane in the mornings.

( What are the words...Collapse )

‘The safest place to be right now is with other people, just in case the mundanes decide that they don’t like having so many freaks in their midst and start taking umbrage. Or start taking pitchforks and flaming torches, which I think is probably more painful than umbrage.’

-- Sunny, The Flutterby Effect

Hi everyone! I thought I would do a kind of intro post that lists all my original fiction projects and the stages they're at and so on, to give you an idea of what sort of stuff I write. I currently have twelve works (novels or novellas; I'm not very good at short stories) in progress and one that would like to be written but that will have to wait until this November, plus a couple of other ideas kicking around at the back of my head.

A note on the titles: they're all working titles and they're all of a similar format because I have picked up this weird superstition that I will reach 50K during NaNo if I use this format for the titles. It's been working for seven years so far.

( Cut because the list is long.Collapse )

I welcome any comments or questions anyone has about this stuff, because the more people ask, the more it'll help me turn these into real books.