I misunderstood the point of this ride

My ex asked me this weekend whether I'd finished my Yuletide story. No indeed, but it's moving along. (Though I will say - knowing that there's a relatively concrete neuropsychological reason why I struggle so much with time management does not magically solve the problem!)

This fall has been a lot. The hibernation urge is strong as we move into winter. That said, I haven't been entirely unproductive! femslashex reveals went up yesterday:


( Vulcan kisses and Fairy Tale AUs )

It was a fun exercise in drawing for fandoms I've been meaning to for ages, and never gotten around to. I should really do more TOS art (how were these my first??); the retro sci-fi costuming is so much fun! Also I've been loving all the canon Harley/Ivy comics I keep catching glimpses of on tumblr ... every once in awhile I feel so genuinely grateful for the way some segments of culture really have changed (or started to) from the norms of even a decade ago.

My own gift was this lovely little Sailor Moon S interlude, A Little More Time, by SugarFey - a depiction of Haruka and Michiru (with a little Setsuna) in between the two major arcs of that season. I've been having a lot of resurgent Sailor Moon feelings this year, and I was so delighted to get this gift. It's just the right mix of sweetness, hotness and angst!

It's very strange how thoroughly out of the habit of reading fanfic I am lately, even though I've participated in so many exchanges this year. I'm always excited to read my gifts, when I get fic, and writing now and then is a delightful and tantalizing challenge, but ... IDK. I do think Yuletide will be different (even though I never manage to read more than a fraction of the archive), because it's very much its own thing. So much variety! Such novelty! And reading the archive is just a favorite holiday tradition, of course.

The malaise is probably a combination of the fact that I don't have a "main" fandom, that the ones I'm most interested in lately are fairly rare, and that I mostly want to listen to audiobooks while I draw (or ride my bike, or do almost anything else). I should find myself some podfic. I'm sure there must be some for The Locked Tomb, at least?

I'm especially excited for multifandomdoodle. I would love to have more all-art exchanges; I crave ALL THE FANART even more than I used to. I go looking for some after almost every book I read lately (the genre ones, in any case). If I didn't hate running things like this, I would totally start a book fandoms fanart exchange.

I seem, for the most part, to have run out of Garak/Bashir fic (cue much wailing and gnashing of teeth) … and I feel compelled to make a recs list. As you do (although I haven’t in many years).

I may be procrastinating on both(!) my own fic. Shhh.

( Mid-series canon-compliant )

( Post-Canon (Cardassia) )

( Alternate Universe )

I tried to be pretty selective about this, so there’s definitely plenty of other work out there worth reading … it’s quite intimidating, really. But at the same time, not enough.

Happy New Year (I hope)! It's the season for holiday fanwork reveals. I wasn't as prolific as I was hoping this season, since life kind of got in the way, but I did write my one yuletide fic and contribute two pieces of fanart to the startreksecretsanta.

Or Something (Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, Kim Pine/Envy Adams)
Set after the events of the film; Kim Pine is just stopping by her unassuming, mostly-deserted local watering hole to grab a drink and avoid her grad school applications, when to her surprise, she runs into the former frontwoman of The Clash At Demonhead scribbling away in a notebook in a corner booth. Well, bothering random rockstars is as good a procrastination method as any, right?

Writing this pairing was a fun challenge, especially since I primarily stuck to movie canon, in which Kim and Envy don't particularly interact ... and their characterization is somewhat streamlined. I did wind up pulling a little bit of background from the comics, playing off Envy's history as an anime fan, with the result that I couldn't resist including ( bonus fanart. )

dancing with the devil (Star Trek: DS9, Elim Garak/Benjamin Sisko)
For this, I wound up playing off the first part of the quote referenced by the episode 'In The Pale Moonlight,' one of my very favorites from all of DS9.

you can let your monster out (with me) (Star Trek: TNG, Deanna Troi/K'Ehleyr)
Ahaha, so this came out like some kind of bodice-ripping romance novel cover. However, after rewatching the TNG episode 'The Emissary,' I think I might need to revisit this pairing, because damn! I did always love K'Ehleyr; it's a shame she only gets two appearances.

Drawing Star Trek prompt art is proving to be a fantastic motivator for getting job applications and little bits of activism done, but sadly, I didn’t get nearly enough female-character-centric or f/f requests. So Im putting out another call, for those specifically. Have any for me? :D?

I’m still mostly doing DS9, especially Major Kira and Jadzia Dax, but also Lwaxana Troi, Grilka, Ishka, Tora Ziyal, Lenara Kahn, Leeta, Keiko O'Brien, Kasidy Yates, Natima, Ezri Dax (who I don’t know much about yet), etc etc.

Also feeling some TOS ladies right now (Uhura, Chapel, Janice Rand, the Romulan commander, T'Pring) … and maybe Ro Laren?

I’m also asking over on tumblr, if you wanted to be so kind as to reblog. And if you missed it, I’m listing all my fills from the previous round of prompts in this post.

Much love, guys. <3 And support, especially for those of you dealing with potentially fraught holiday gatherings this week.

So I've had a really intense couple of weeks (mostly good, but exhausting), and like a lot of people, this election season has me wanting to hide under the bed. Or on Pluto. I'm between temp assignments, which means I probably have tomorrow off, at least. I want to do something fun and indulgent.

I want to draw DS9 fanart for you. Give me prompts, please? :D?

( Some details about what I'm interested in doing! )

I also put a call out on tumblr and would be thrilled if you'd reblog it. <3

Gaaaaah. It's ninety-plus degrees out, humid and sunny, and the air conditioning in this old building (the school, where I'm working 'til I find more gainful employment) is kaput. I feel like I've been put on a slow broil, here.

Here are some current fandom-related articles I've been reading lately, since I'm too fried to try and provide much in the way of my own content right now!

The Truth Of Wolves, Or: The Alpha Problem - written with urban fantasy fiction (mostly novels, I think) in mind, but interesting to reflect on with regard to Teen Wolf and TW fic. I was talking about the whole intensely stratified Alpha/Omega 'verse thing with a fannish friend a few weeks ago ... something I haven't exactly been surprised to see proliferating in TW fandom? But I was surprised to hear that she's been seeing it in other places (like hockey RPF, apparently?), and even being used separately from anything related to (were)wolves. IDK. It reminds me of how fascinating I found the concept of Recognition in ElfQuest (if anyone besides were_duck and myself have read that) as a kid, only to grow up and be kind of disturbed by the whole 'biological imperative" thing.

The Mary Sue's Star Trek: Into Darkness review - WARNING: not squeeful. A rather good, articulate analysis of the same problems I was having with the film.

Elementary, My Dear Joan Watson: An Egalitarian Sherlock? - a bit of a love-fest for Elementary and Joan Watson, cosigned 100%. I was trying to convince a non-fannish classmate of the show's amazingness some time back, and he was very dubious, citing less-than-gripping mysteries. Which I would only sometimes argue, but as s.e. smith writes, "On Elementary, the real case study is in human beings, not in criminology." Fantastic (platonic!) relationship dynamics FOR THE WIN.

Watsons, Hudsons, and Invisible Labour - a fantastic post by thingswithwings that does a beautiful job of articulating my thoughts on various Watson portrayals (and the reason why I always, always prefer the active, smart Watsons, and find Joan to be the most rewarding of all) ... and makes some really excellent point about the way Hudsons are and aren't (generally the latter) valued in Holmes adaptations. (I agree: I really hope we see MUCH more of Elementary's fantastic Ms. Hudson next season!) All outlining a point about decentralizing and reversing the worshipful, exceptionalist white dude genius centric narrative that I often find so troubling (even though I love Holmes, and so much of Holmes--canon and adaptation--is all about that).

Oh god, okay. Almost time to go. Tonight I am taking the excuse to go hole up in a movie theater and watch the story of another troubled white dude genius ... and his robotic armor. :p Finally.

So yeah, that happened. (The lurker in the alleyway is Derek. And no, there was no contextual reason whatsoever for me to be wearing a towel.)

Hi internet! I have missed you. Miraculously, I am basically done with all my immediate deadlines more than a week before the end of the semester (although, you know, there's still my thesis). So I can breathe a little, sort of, and daydream about the actual fanart I'll draw on my break.

There have been a few exciting developments around lately! Every once in awhile someone on my feed retweets stupidly adorable photos of the Teen Wolf cast on the season three set! (As you can see above, my brain remains eaten!) Also, what is this about a Stiles kiss, internet? Surely there is more context than just the slightly hypnotizing gif I found myself staring at earlier?

Also I really enjoy this resource post brownbetty put together with werewolf lore and various ephemera. Ugh I want to make things.

On another side of things, I'm having feelings about the Star Trek: Into Darkness trailer, of course. ( Has anyone not seen it yet? Ah well, here, spoilers. )

Anyway, I'm sitting here drinking tea and singing along to old Christmas Vespers recordings while one of my classmates attempts to put her website together and frequently raises her voice to the internet in general. It's been a fantastic semester and generally just a really good time in my life. <3 to you all!

This hasn't been my best week. It's frustrating, because I've really been feeling ready to dive in and do things and make more things again, but after a "weekend" that was mostly taken up with family and funeral, and coming back to work to find myself deluged with a large number of time-sensitive tasks with which I was unfamiliar (my boss still being out on bereavement leave) ... I kind of had to cave into being exhausted all the time and spending all my energy on my job.

That said, despite the significant chill this morning, I woke up with a very strong feeling that spring was (if not in the air) very definitely on the horizon. My day was pretty brutal after that, but I still feel optimistic!

Also, I wanted to share this:


It's a three-minute scene from Star Trek (the reboot), re-filmed with female actors. It's maybe not perfect, but it makes me really happy anyway. Any little glimpse into a world where movies like that would have women in roles like that, not played any differently ... siiigh.

I am going to sleep a whole lot tonight. Also, I might rewatch this week's White Collar first, because that was just completely delightful. *____*

Thank fucking goodness it’s a three-day weekend. I may, at times, have wondered if I was blowing this time of year out of proportion a bit, but really, not so much. Once again, I’m grateful that the windows on my floor don’t open – defenestration of particularly uncooperative faculty members does get a bit tempting now and then. (Seven more months ... and only three more weeks of Admissions season. I'll just keep daydreaming about dyeing my hair outrageous colors the second I can do that again, and maybe other things too.)

It’s just as well that bandom has eaten my brain again, really; it’s a pretty great distraction. A few days ago, I randomly dreamed that Greta Salpeter asked me out on a date and we cuddled in the middle of a big, sunny field (there was some sort of festival setting up nearby). My subconscious isn’t usually so fluffy, but it was nice. Of course, it’s probably only a matter of time before all the Grant Morrison-related ephemera I’ve been consuming catches up to me. (I watched the Disinfo speech a few days ago. I don’t even know, nor am I sure I want to. I do want to finally get back to reading The Invisibles, though.)

Seriously, how did this even happen? Fandom in comics and comics in fandom … I’ve watched the Talking With Gods documentary twice in the last week, so I suppose fanart is only a matter of time, really. Particularly since I seem to have made illustrating jjtaylor my fannish occupation of late.

Speaking of which! It was her birthday yesterday, a fact which helped me decide which scene from “The Detective’s Secret” I’d play with next. (I have a longish list.) Hope you like it, bb; happy belated! ♥

( Not going into the pool. )

It occurred to me recently that I miss using this space for conversation, rather than just as a slightly talky gallery. I’ve seriously gotten out of the habit of commenting and communicating on DW/LJ, and I’m finding getting back into it something of a challenge. Definitely want to do better on that.

In a slightly more interactive vein (and to prove that I do in fact have other fandoms still): there’s an interest-gauging poll going on for trekreversebang right now! That’s the reverse Star Trek bigbang where ficcers sign up to write stories based on fanart; an awesome idea that I’d love to see spread around a bit more. You guys should check it out.

Before I go work on my actual minicomic for awhile, one more thing I have to share: the spectacle of Pete Wentz interviewing himself. I still love his stupid face.

Oh my god, it stopped raining! \o/ Seriously, you guys, I don't mind daylight savings most of the time (I'd much rather wake up in the dark, if it means getting an extra hour of sunshine after work), but having it happen in the midst of four days' steady downpour is just playing dirty. Can't wait to finally enjoy that sunlight this evening, while I run around my apartment trying to prepare for the beekeepers.

Tomorrow: holes knocked in my bedroom ceiling! Vacuuming up honeybees! Most exciting. Cross your fingers for me that it'll work? If they're in among the bricks instead of the crawlspace, we might be forced to exterminate after all. (Which, apart from the fact that killing bees is a shame, would entail potential habitability issues that I'm not sure how to deal with. :/)

Okay, so there's a lot of buzz (err), both positive and negative, about Dreamwidth again. You may notice the little automatic message at the bottom of this post; I've been crossposting for months now, but I've decided I'd like to make that a little more obvious. I have no plans to ever turn off LJ commenting! I prefer Dreamwidth on a whole number of levels, but I get that plenty of you don't, and I have no intention of trying to pressure anyone into switching. That said, I consider Dreamwidth my primary location now; I'm working on taking all crossposters off my LJ default filter and all that jazz, and if you don't mind commenting at DW (either with your own account or OpenID), that would be neat.

I have to get back to work, but: trekreversebang writer/artist match-ups have been announced, and you should go check out the totally tantalizing thumbnails of the art submissions (so far). :D I have to go email my writer! Can't wait to see how this all turns out.

Also, you might want to check out coc_m_madness (Characters of Color March Madness, multifandom character voting modeled on f_march_madness). It is painful. I just had to pick between Zoe Washburn and Gunn! And Charlie Young and Wallace Fennell!

Lastly! Gold Motel just announced East Coast tour dates on their myspace, including one for Allston. Yes, Greta, come to meeeee. *_*