Before & After & Inbetween

EE fanfic: Soot-free [complete]

2012-05-13T16:50:17Z

Fandom: The Emperor's Edge novel series by Lindsay Buroker
Title: Soot-free
Beta: solo, the awesome!
Characters: Sicarius (~5-6 years old), (Hollowcrest, Pike), OCs
Genre: slice of life
Type: short story, one shot, complete
Size: 1282 words
Labels: none
Rating: G
( Even feared assassins are curious little boys in the beginning... )

Soot-free is also online at
The Archive of Our Own and
The Emperor's Edge fan forum.

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Still alive & now back

2012-05-04T17:49:32Z

In case anybody wondered about the appalling lack of progress updates on the editing of Family Matters (and other things here):

I got the chance to apply for research funds with a deadline of today. I was told in the first week of April.
Normally you have three months to come up with a project script, get the cooperation partners on board, write a sparkling "that will be the coolest research of world with amazing results almost guaranteed!" proposal, and get the required signatures across the board for it.
I got three weeks.
I succeeded in meeting the deadline.

And now I'm crawling back out of scientific writing mode in overdrive to blink into the world of story and fandom, trying to find my bearings. I'm going to spend this weekend mostly reading "Conspiracy", the fourth book of Lindsay Buroker's amazing steampunk series The Emperor's Edge (which was published while I was just starting on the proposal (and had me seriously whine for 30 minutes I didn't have, because there was no chance of reading it THERE AND THEN)). Afterwards, it's back to TBX and Family Matters and Subaru's adventures in Imonoyama-san's bathroom...
...stay tuned!

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Britain's 2012 Olympics - missile flats?

2012-04-30T06:32:45Z

I stumbled across this news article from the BBC: Flats may be Olympic missile site in London. However, the important part is actually in the picture of the leaflet distributed to affected residents:

How can we be sure this is safe? The Air Defense System will be manned by fully trained, professional soldiers.

For the record:
If I were a resident of those flats, it would NOT comfort me.
And as the citizen of continental Europe that I am: Does that imply NOT ALL of Britain's missile systems are manned by fully trained personnel!?

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FM-PMS (state of the edit)

2012-04-15T10:25:55Z

sign that Sunday's writing session ought to be interrupted by a snack: writing chokofuku two times in a row.

feeling that granny on the phone needs more bite: somewhat elevated

feeling an argument regarding memorial services in front of Kamui's coming up between Subaru and Seishiro: very high

remaining thing to decide: write the actual argument or having Subaru reflect on it while preparing for the service... tricky!

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LJ's X1999 deleted :(

2012-04-11T18:05:25Z

Livejournal's longlasting TBX fan community x1999 has just been deleted. The community was very quiet these last months, but I still feel like a vital part of TBX fan life just died.

x1999 was one of the first three communities I joined when getting into the fandom. I'm sad to see it gone.

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FM-PMS (state of the edit)

2012-04-11T17:47:51Z

the new chapter gained a whooping 851 words today (at least the first scene that is), covering so diverse topics as

the discomfort of desks the day after
tea vs. coffee vs. sweet coffee
the impoliteness of reading newspaper when sharing breakfast
the impoliteness of scribbling reports when sharing breakfast
the naivete of a certain sakurazukamori (not regarding what you may think)

The following questions arose

Are my Sumeragi innovative enough to have a on hold option with music (temple bells) on their phone?
and would they put Subaru on hold while the OL runs to get granny?

And finally Subaru coined the rather unfortunately memorable expression "shikifuck" (context withheld on purpose; virtual cookies for whoever guesses the correct context).

Right now, only a small part of Subaru calling granny (in which granny asks after his health) is missing. Once that's done, the first scene of chapter XX is completed!

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FM-PMS (state of the edit)

2012-04-09T17:36:09Z

Writing the all-new chapter XX:

"You're naive," Subaru told Seishiro.

Yes, one of those situations. ;)

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Game of Thrones - no spoilers

2012-04-08T09:45:30Z

A couple of posts about the tv series Game of Thrones have sprung up across my friends lists in the last couple of days, probably caused by the dvd release of season 1 in Germany and the airing of season 2 (?).
I've followed the posts closely and - so far - I've come to the conclusion that Game of Thrones is one of those fandoms, which I will avoid because I love the books and the tv show, and find its grisly depictions entirely befitting the source. (I only mourn that the direwolves didn't get as much attention as I'd wished for them).

( continuation of why )

Edit: Not all comments I got here are without spoilers, though. :/

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FM-PMS (state of the edit)

2012-03-25T18:01:02Z

State of the edit: chapter 19 complete, chapter XX planned, epilogue partially there.

Progress: as in chapter 19 is finally done! (Yes, that means no more hassles with Imonoyama's phone call, Subaru's mulling, Seishiro's spilling the beans, and the infamous "desk sex"!)

From now on it's writing the all new (and improved) chapter XX [Omi's house visit of hell and maybe a little Kamui drama will form an epilogue that actually *is* and epilogue and not a misnamed double-chapter with doubtful connection to the rest of the story].

Anyway, I'm all excited about the revamped "spilling the beans"-scene. The (unpublished) 1st version had Subaru as a wimp, the (published) 2nd version had him a lot more assertive but kind of missing his point, the (new) 3rd version is finally doing what I want (though whether or not it survives my ~~axe~~Word-wielding editor is another matter altogether).

With all this work, there's high-time for a

quote of the day (1): "That's not collaborating, that's collaring!"
quote of the day (2): "This is after the meeting."

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On Fan Fiction, Plagiarism, and Copyright - an informative blog post by Jane Little

2012-03-19T17:18:59Z

Jane Little on Fan Fiction, Plagiarism, and Copyright. The common disclaimer, cease-and-desist letters, the position of fair use and derivative works. I've found this to be a very readable post (for fans & non-lawyers) on the subject.

http://dearauthor.com/features/letters-of-opinion/fan-fiction-plagiarism-and-copyright

Unrelated side-note: still working on Family Matters, making progress slowly but surely. :-)

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FM-PMS (state of the edit)

2012-03-11T18:51:10Z

Finally made some progress with respect to some of the more stubborn questions arising from the changes required by correcting the mistakes in chapter 19. Without going into detail, I finally found a smooth flow for Subaru to tell Seishiro about the upcoming memorial service involving both Kamui. Luckily, it also doesn't require major changes in already existing (and content-rich) scenes such as Subaru sitting in the bedroom window and Desksex. Who'd have thought that granny Sumeragi actually proved to be a solution?

Anyway, there's enough new text to allow for a
quote of the day: "Do you want me to shop at Isetan or performing a memorial service in jeans and t-shirt?"

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Nerd Test results

2012-03-08T09:52:32Z

And I didn't even lie about my Windows system...

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FM-PMS (state of the edit)

2012-03-04T20:20:28Z

I've spent the last ten days working on two scenes:, namely Imonoyama's call to Subaru for asking him to do the memorial service for Kotori (because the current Kannushi of her home shrine, sharing body & soul with her murderer just won't do) and Subaru sitting in the bedroom window, contemplating recent developments (namely his feeding Sado to the Sakura, the Sakura accepting his claim of Seishiro's life, Seishiro having children, an upcoming memorial service with both (!) Kamui in attendance, and a certain warning about endangering the realm and facing Sakura tea -and worse- as retaliation).
Especially the 2nd scene results in a more assertive (and more amorous) Subaru to be expressed in the upcoming Seishiro spilling the beans about the Mori scene, which will actually provide for a smooth connection from the Sakura tea threat over spilling the beans to Desk sex (and beyond) without recreating a Subaru-the-worrywart-effect, while forming a smooth plot flow without leaving certain scenes as nothing but blatant ~~author~~fan service. *g*

I know this is slow work. Slowest work. Probably real snail mail-worthy (see here for what I mean with real snail mail ^_^), but I believe it is worth the effort. The result is a lot more like the story I had in mind when constructing not only Family Matters, but the Dekagram as a whole.

Unrelated side-note: I got librarian status at Goodreads! You can find me there at http://www.goodreads.com/akk666akk

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FM-PMS (state of the edit)

2012-02-23T18:43:55Z

current frontline: 198 (which is totally misleading because of all the development done by finetuning and rearranging previous text).

The epilogue (which may well become Chapter 21 instead) will be restructured as followed:

Kotori's obit defines the day & order of main events. Subaru will perform the (Buddhist) memorial service on Nokoru's request, because the kannushi of the shrine to which Kotori belonged in life unfortunately shares body (and spirit?) with her killer, thus rendering him an inappropriate choice.
Attending people: Kamui, TwinStarFuma, Karen, Sorata, Arashi.[I'm still undecided about Yuzuriha (and boyfriend), but Aoki will be out of town.]
The TSF on scene at the service requires Seishiro's presence (and Subaru doing one hell of persuasion beforehand to escape another session of "endangering realm" reminders involving Sakura tea and who-knows-what-else being stuffed down his throat).

Nokoru will arrange for a meeting with the Ijyuins either prior (or after) the service with Subaru in shikifuku and Seishiro conveniently kept busy by the Kamui (and probably Karen being curious after chatting with Arashi). Suoh will not be thrilled at the prospect of amassing such a number of spiritually powerful people in an energy soaked location such as the campus, Ijyuinics or not.

And Omi's house visit of hell will be moved towards the real epilogue, together with stuff about the refurbishing of the offices, decorated with trouble in the Mori Kyushu section ( > Okinawa ), etc. pp.

Phew. We'll see if I can pull that off!

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FM-PMS (state of the edit)

2012-02-19T10:02:56Z

current frontline: 197
Epilogue

Omi's house visit of hell is now completed (again) and my two main protagonists are on their way to the "Final Meeting" at Imonoyama's. The scenes now pay attention to the change in their overall professional situation, the immediate tasks at hand (remodeling the Mori office, refurbishing Romiro's office for Subaru, etc.), which basically means...

...from page 195 onwards, the story is rewritten from scratch (more or less). Which is also why I stopped giving a total page number above. It just doesn't make sense any more. The above listed changes amount to 978 new words altogether. I didn't count the number of words that had been in their place in the old version.

Quote of the new text:
"I am aware of the building regulations for Tokyo, sir, but earthquakes are the least of my concerns in this context!"

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FM-PMS (state of the edit)

2012-01-29T19:04:37Z

current frontline: 195/206
Epilogue

The now merged epilogue lost at least four pages due to Omi having completed the tasks given to Subaru and being forced to have the meeting at Seishiro's house from the very beginning. (No, he is not happy about that!) Thanks to this, the elaborate detour to the harbor is gone (maybe I make it a sidestory sometime in the not-so-foreseeable future).

What remains is basically the Akechi/Ijyuin/Subaru/Kamui/Seishiro/TwinStarFuma showdown, which will also seen quite some drastic changes placing more focus on
1) Kotori's obit (the new reason why K&TSF actually appear on campus)
2) Nokoru pulling all the strings to keep everything Akechi away from Seishiro
3) Kamui's issues with the TSF *and* his mental leftovers from last year
and last (likely not least)
4) Kamui's aftermath visit at the house needs a redo to accommodate the required changes before (and to tie it better with the planned sequel).

Right now, I'm tempted to have another "office scene" thrown in, but I'm doing my utmost to refrain from that. No detours! Bad author! No cookie!

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FM-PMS (state of the edit)

2012-01-28T18:55:01Z

current frontline: 195/210
Epilogue

So far it looks as if

the Epilogues A & B will be merged

Su insists on having the meeting at home to begin with, so no cafe (to make a point about the changed situation)!

Omi finished his jobs, so no joint venture at the shipyard (too big a detour from plot)!

...a lot more to be done with the scenes at the campus (for accommodating the changes made in chapter 19. I'll determine those when I get there.)

So much for not doing a full rewrite on this one... *sheesh*

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FM-PMS (state of the edit)

2012-01-27T21:45:53Z

current frontline: 194/209
Epilogue

Yes, the overhaul of the dreaded chapter 19 is finally finished. This chapter actually saw major rewritings, rearranging the timeline and details of events, including additional scenes closing and refurbishing some of the plot threads insufficiently addressed in the old version.

( Most notable changes are )

Overall, I do hope that the Epilogues don't require that much of work. However, given the issues with the Kamui & co. I fear that hope will be futile.

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FM-PMS (state of the edit)

2012-01-22T19:07:07Z

current frontline: 192/209
within chapter 19

Yes, after all this time there is finally some progress in DeskSex. Unfortunately, its far from done. I'm not satisfied with the results yet. Which is - at least partially - due to the fact that I liked the original version as a scene, even if not as part of the plot. This is not quite a full page and still needs excessive work. But we're getting closer. Definitely. Even though I spend way too much time setting up my GoodReads account. It's so much fun (and such a time hog)! At least, my most recent reviews are finally all up, though the amount of my books entered is still way below 10%. :)

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Book Recommendation: Soulless by Gail Carriger

2012-01-22T11:26:31Z

Gail Carriger's Soulless is what you get when you mix a steampunked version of Georgette Heyer's Victorian society novels with Buffy, the Vampire Slayer.

It's a delightful, tremendously entertaining read, I would recommend to everybody enjoying steampunk, paranormals, and Victorian romance. Actually, I'd recommend the book to anybody enjoying any one of those!

Instead of a summary, I believe it is acceptable to give just one small not-quite-direct quote to show what people going to read it are signing up for:

"Miss Tarabotti whacked the vampire right on top of his head with her parasol as he tried to extract himself from his newly intimate relations with the tea trolley."

[Links in the text above go to GoodReads]

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Goodreads account

2012-01-20T14:28:01Z

Noticing the amount of free time I spend on books (reading, reviewing, chatting...), I finally got myself a goodreads account to bundle and share my bookish activities in a more organized manner.

If you are interested, you can find me at http://www.goodreads.com/akk666akk

But beware, for an account established to achieve a more organization, it's still highly disorganized on my end! :-)

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Short Story Review: Assassin's Curse by Lindsay Buroker (4/5 stars)

2012-01-19T20:57:27Z

Assassin's Curse is a tough, short-paced short story adventure of the center pair of Lindsay Buroker's captivating The Emperor's Edge novel series. Fans of the series, especially A+S shippers, would not want to miss it! At least, I for sure loved every minute of reading it. :-)

Then why only 4 of 5 stars?
It's because Assassin's Curse suffers from a typical "established series in between short story illness": the indecision of whether to include all the details necessary for freshly visiting readers or to accept that it is an inbetween story catering to established fans and leave out the established background where it doesn't connect to the actual plot.
The result of this indecision are "info dumps" esp. in the first part of the story that are not enough for new readers to appreciate the characters (and their treats & quirks), while tempting an established fan to jump a few lines. Interestingly, the later part of the story doesn't suffer from this. Background details here (the supposed lineage of the current emperor, for example) are used skillfully as plot device and are also expanded to greater depth. Lovely so, I may add.

So much about style, but what about content?
It's not even 12.000 words, read yourself!
No really, I don't want to summarize a short story. It would give too much away imho. However, since only two of the five main characters star in this, I think it might be nice to have the other three say their thoughts about the events:

"Following heavily armed thieves onto a cursed island is not prudent." ~ Books.

"There's something wrong with a man, when it takes a shot to the back to make him hug a beautiful woman." ~ Maldynado.

"Whatever." ~Akstyr.

~~~

You can find Assassin's Curse here on Smashwords for example.

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FM-PMS (state of the edit)

2012-01-15T18:40:44Z

current frontline: unchanged

mainly for two reasons:

1. I played with my new phone (lazy author, no cookie, I know...)
and

2. I need to figure out what to do with the desksex scene in chapter 19. Right now, it feels off, because - let's face it - Subaru had (has?) major qualms about Mariko's role and while he took the decision to fight for his contentment, he's not the guy to just toss all related issues into the garbage bin on the other side of the street.
Get me right, I like the scene, it's needed in terms of symmetry with the previous events at the Sumeragi Estate (before & after, so to speak), so I want to keep it, but it needs to be connected with the rest of the plot - and right now it's not.
And there's still the report Subaru never got around to send to the Sumeragi later the day. I have this vague hunch that the solution lies in or with both details:
Subaru has to fret, has to write the report, and yes, I want them to deflower that desk! (Did I just write 'deflower' in relation to a furniture?! I have to stop reading Ai no Kusabi fanfics...)
Now, I just have to figure out, how to write that.

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New Hardware Squee - Samsung Galaxy Note

2012-01-13T18:43:56Z

Normally, I use my tech devices until they cease to function or are so outdated that they fail to perform acceptably in the contemporary world (exception: computers, but then, they are always too old, too slow, too-- *g*), when I got my Samsung Wave smartphone in early Autumn 2010, I pretty much expected the standard procedure there.
The Wave did virtually everything of a whole bunch of devices I used to carry around - MP3 player, calendar, and so on... plus a lot of things handy when doing most of your creative work while commuting: HD video playback, scanlations & other images, etc. pp. And thus I didn't look at new smartphones coming out most of the time.
Last week, I got hit over the head with an information that made me instantly hurry to find confirmation (and hardware specs):

The Samsung Galaxy Note comes with a Wacom pen for drawing and writing (when screen keyboard is not sufficient), plus it has a screen size almost on the way towards a small tablet (5.3"), enough real estate for full websites and therefore ebooks! I couldn't stop myself and plundered my savings...
...the two things I always wished my Wave could do: writing & epubs? I had to try that!

Well, I did and here's the

( new hardware squee - Galaxy Note: )

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FM-PMS (state of the edit)

2012-01-08T18:41:26Z

current frontline: 191/209
within chapter 19

Another scene of chapter 19 ("Seishiro spilling the beans") has seen a full overhaul - and a reshuffling of content with the previous part of "contemplative Subaru". I'm getting to the point where I feel I need to apologize to my readers (and lazurit1, who translated it into Russian) for the original version of chapter 19. Aside from the meetings with the minister, the emperor, and the Mori (and yes, Mariko and the lover's spat afterwards), this chapter sees a complete overhaul.

Even now, there's stuff left to do: most notably the desk sex and the phone talk at the end needs to be refined to the new condition.

Hangs head. I'm afraid my "How embarrassing"-icon will fade from heavy use.

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