Before & After & Inbetween

Back to work this week (a.k.a. to a buried desk and an inbox in danger of collapsing into a black hole - I spare you the mathematical formula for that).

Didn't manage to answer any of the challenges & am not sure that will improve before mid of February or later.

BUT: managed some scribbling on the train for Business as Usual, so there's hope for some writing on the four free hours on Sunday. I consider that a major success for leisure. Keep your fingers crossed.

snowflake_challenge #7: Promote/Rec/Sing the Praises of Yourself!

This one is tough, because it goes against the grain for me and I consider most of the points I'd put in to be already covered in challenge #1 (who'd post an introduction to themselves without covering their strong points?) and challenge #2. So instead of repeating the things I already said there, I'd like to add to them:

• I finish my stories / plots, even if it takes years, even if the fandom evaporated while I was writing.
  
• I like to read my own stories, so I polish and tweak them until nothing that (may) irk me is left.
  
• I love to write complex in-character plots that I back up with as much research as necessary.

And since the rec of a writer won't be complete without a slather of works, here are AO3 links for at least one from each fandom I write/wrote in:

1. CLAMP's Tokyo Babylon / X/1999:
   Under Construction
   Summary: Survivors who had learned not to mind that each called somebody else's name in orgasm.
   A story without my usual cast of characters and one of the few that aren't part of the Decagram series, and
   By Unusual Means
   Summary: a story starring Sakurazuka Seishiro and the flu.
   Also not part of Decagram. ;)
   
   
2. Lindsay Buroker's The Emperor's Edge:
   The Dark Side of Fame, The Light Side of Infamity
   Summary: An upcoming novel release, monthly cramps, and a fallen childhood hero tumbling the group into turmoil.
   Bodice Ripper publishing in the Empire. ;)
   
   
3. Adentures of the Galaxy Rangers:
   Cat-Suit
   Summary: Goose's scouting mission to Tortuna goes decidedly wrong. His method of escape has some serious side-effects, though..., and
   Raumjäger
   Summary: "All this began two days before yesterday, or thirty-two thousand years ago, or 1933, or... I don't know when. I'm not sure I'm the one who can tell you. I'm no soldier, no historian or archeologist, and I have serious issues with this. I wish I..."
   Probably the riskiest plot I ever wrote for GR - at least for a German author.

So far, my fannish goals usually achieved the opposite of what I intended, as in "finish fic in fandom A" resulted in me exclusively writing in fandom B.

I tried to circumvent that effect by setting an "inverted goal" - unfortunately, with the result of getting things done in a third fandom.

This year, I'm playing it safe: no goal.

To quote two of my favorite characters:
"You cannot fight Destiny," he said softly. "It's not possible."
"No. But I can cheat."

Back to writing. ;)

snowflake_challence no. 2: Talk about my fannish history

( the earliest, pre-internet years )

I got my first computer (Commodore C64 with a floppy and a color monitor) near the end of the 1980s, and actually programmed a monitor interface for writing textfiles that looked like a mix of the screens in the Comet (Captain Future) and StarTrek TOS.

( internet access and the Galaxy Rangers )

I happened about CLAMP'S Tokyo Babylon in 2002? 2003? And more or less started writing immediately, posting first to the sadly gone Clampesque forum and on LiveJournal. The Decagram cycle combines Tokyo Babylon, X/1999, several other of CLAMP's works with geometry, taoism, and my love for quirky plants (no, I don't have a carnivorous cherry tree, but you better don't trust my coffee arabica!).

( LiveJournal and manga/anime fandom )

Decagram is probably the most sophisticated work I've written (and am writing) so far, and even now that my fandom contact is more of less limited to DW, AO3 comments and a Discord server (invite only; not my server) still the world I enjoy playing with most, though I took a couple years break after finishing my PhD, during which I edited my biggest unfinished Galaxy Rangers fic (I hate leaving major plot archs unfinished!). By then most of my fandoms had moved away from LJ, DW, and therelike, with a lot of people gathering on Tumblr, a site that made my skin crawl, so I didn't follow. These days, fandom appears on Twitter, but that's also a site designed towards volatile quarrels rather than long texts and discussions.

( other fandoms )

Right now, I'm back at writing the Decagram and am enjoying every minute of it. Writing Sakurazuka Seishiro is a very relaxing activity. :)