( I have achieved the Grad Student Holy Grail. )

*falls over with happy*

OKAY RIGHT BUT IMPORTANT THINGS:

1) For the first time I'm actually going to GO somewhere for my Spring Break! To an exotic, foreign land! (Canada.) WOOOO!!!
2) DID Y'ALL KNOW MATT BOMER DID AN ELVIS THEMED PHOTOSHOOT FOR GQ ITALIA? HE SINGS AND IS GORGEOUS.
3) Ivorysilk makes my angsty heart happy. Lovely post-Checkmate fic that I got to beta, it's wonderful, you should read it.
4) fandom_helps.


This is an auction to benefit Planned Parenthood. You can go and offer handmade items, fics, vids, pics, misc (pretty much anything), and on the 14th other folks will bid on them. All of the money goes to Planned Parenthood. It's a great way to get some wonderful personalized gifts for yourself/others, and it's a way to help raise money for a cause you support even if you're someone (like me!) who can't afford to give very much on their own. You can find my thread, where I'm offering a fic with a 2k word minimum, here. 

The auction's on DW, but you can offer/bid with an openid (there's a tutorial on the comm if you don't know how to do that). Posting offers ends on the 13th, bidding starts on the 14th, and ends on the 21st. 

I know there are a shit-ton of talented people on my flist, and on y'alls flists--so think about what you can offer, what you can afford, or even if you can help to signal boost this so that the information gets to more people. ♥

*

Update on how Being Not Depressed is not the same as Being Depressed:

Some of my study/coping/life habits that have served me well in the past are clashing with Not Being Depressed. So--you know how if you feel cruddy the majority of the time, that whenever you DON'T feel cruddy, you desperately try to get as much done as you possibly can? If you only have thirty minutes in the day where the idea of sending emails to people doesn't make your stomach clench, then you need to jump on those thirty minutes and use them as best you can. Unfortunately, now that I actually have a consistently higher amount of energy, it's hard to get over the instinct to get ALL OF THE THINGS DONE ASAP.

So I have energy (WHICH IS SO COOL), but I don't know how to...how to have energy and not feel like I have to take immediate advantage of it. Because after working for a couple of hours, I should probably let myself take a break without my inner Jewish mother going OMG YOU LAZY SLACKER YOU SHOULD BE WORKING. I think this is exacerbated by the fact that I'm working on a lot of long-term projects that I can't actually Git Done right away.

It's not a big deal, and I'm poking around it to figure it out, it's just something I'm thinking thinky thoughts about.

THE MOST IMPORTANT THING: Where are the fics where Matt Bomer/Neal climbs Joe Manganiello/Ben like a tree? I got hot and bothered just watching them BE NEAR EACH OTHER. My size differential kink just went bonkers. So. PORN?

1) The Grimm Kink Meme has mooooooooooooooved! (...to Dreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeamwidth!). I will be camping out in a cafe all day pondering double penetration porn. And maybe also another White Collar kid!fic. But not at the same time!



2) At some point in the next day or two I'm going to go through my LJ flist and stop following all the people who I'm friends with on DW. If you have a DW account but haven't started posting there yet, please let me know so that I don't cut you and then miss you terribly.

3) CHECK OUT THIS AWESOME FIC! rabidchild67 wrote this awesome Grimm fic, What is Lost Can Never Be Saved, for the "Disappearing" square of her H/C Bingo card, and it is excellent. It's inspired by a Being Human episode about a werewolf fighting ring, but it's so much more than that. It's about Eddie disappearing from Nick's life, about the human side of Eddie being torn away from him when he's at his lowest point, and mostly it's about them putting each other back together at the end (okay, I may have cried a little, BUT MY ALLERGIES ARE REALLY BAD RIGHT NOW YOU GUYS). You should go read it. (RC--if you put this up on your DW, let me know, and I will add that link. :D)

3a) rabidchild67 also wrote a Grimm fic called "LJ Loses an Ear," which is: perfect. You don't have to know Grimm to appreciate it. An excerpt:


4) Um, so, if anyone was like "Hey, that hoosierbitch is barely a bitch at all most of the time!" and also you were thinking "Hey, look at this extra money I have!" and wanted to be like "I shall buy her some DW paid time!" then that would be rly cool.

1. Someone wrote an extra story for me in the [Poll #1757588]AND FINALLY: THE AUCTION! It closes...today? Sometime? GET YOUR LAST BIDS IN! Here's the c/p'd info about my thread/the whole shebang: there is a charity auction! I'm offering a fic! I forgot to put minimum word count on there, so: I've only written one charity fic that fit under 2k before (and that was one thousand cranes, which I think was an okay exception). Most end up over 5k. You can check out my writing for: chatities tag to see the kind of work I do for this sort of set-up. 

Here's all of the deets from my thread:


If anyone else wants to volunteer some talents or bid on some awesome stuff: here's the fic post, crafts/postcards, art. Here's the intro post with info about places to donate, and here's the FAQ. If anyone else is offering, please feel free to link and promote your threads in the comments here! 

I hardly ever rec fic, but I'm gonna post a link to this one, because I read pretty much the entire thing with tears streaming down my face and am left with a broken heart and an overwhelming need to go reread The Iliad. Which is kind of an amazing thing, I think, for a fic to leave you with.

Everyone knows that daria234 is brilliant, yes? She is stunningly talented, so very friendly, and capable of approaching ideas in the most creative ways imaginable. Her prompts are legendary, and her fics are always so damn insightful it's scary. 

And this fic just broke my heart. It's called "Learning Curve," it's Chuck/Bryce, and here's the paragraph she used to describe it: 


Now, I took ancient Greek in college and studied the classics for years, and I wish I had a fraction of the insight into them that Daria has brought to this fic. That is how good she is. 

You should read it.

(In other news, elrhiarhodan is running another round of her fabulous prompt fest! You should absolutely go play if you have some time. It's a wonderful way to meet new folks and get some good writing done!)

OMIGOSH, Y'ALL! 

Five things: 

1. This cafe is ridiculous. I think it's the local equivalent of a feed store. There's one large table full of ladies with big perms, and another full of balding guys. The ladies are all waving their arms around and the guys are all leaning back in their chairs with their arms crossed. I AM IN LOVE WITH THIS TOWN. Also earlier, there was an adorable child with a balloon. It popped. TRAGEDY. 

2. OHMIGOSH. WANT TO SEE SOMETHING HOT AND BEAUTIFUL? OKAY: GO HERE. The lovely onihime_sama pointed me towards it - it's fanart for my piercing series! The picture is insanely beautiful, dynamic, intense - I LOVE the positioning, I love what the artist doesn't show, but my absolute FAVORITE bit is Peter's thumb hooked in the chain. OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMG. I guess, at some point, the series (or one of the stories in it?) got translated into Chinese, and then Sashimi drew fanart for it! Big thanks to onihime_sama for alerting me to its existence! I'll be updating my LJ with a "do whatever you want with my fics, just please let me know!" policy so that hopefully I won't miss any more things like this. I like to be able to link from the story to the fanart, and also, it's kind of mindblowing that people like my writing enough to do this kind of stuff for it! It makes me feel all warm and flaily inside.

3. In that same "HOMG PPL R AWESOME" vein: nodense podficced "love is not a battlefield (i am no hercules)" - the fic of mine that I am most proud of (followed closely by "be all my sins remembered"). It's the fic that I think best exemplifies me as a writer and as an academic (witness my Greek geek out!). I've written a lot of "post non-con" fics, but in this one, I feel like I finally got it right. nodense has got an awesome reading voice, gets the chopped-up formatting of the story across PERFECTLY, and is just all around fabulous. I teared up listening to just the first part of it. You can download it here, and I will try and update this page with a link to somewhere you can thank her for her work once I get that info. :D

4. I'MMA GONNA MISS WHITE COLLAR TONIGHT! So no post-ep flail party at my place. I will be looking for downloads like a hawk (er, a hawk without a torrenting program. More like a sparrow, mebbe. Or a sloth).

5. Back's still being a bitch. Going to go back home and spend the day in bed being decadent instead of hanging in this awesome cafe. :-(

To sum up: HERE IS A PICTURE OF THE BIRDS THAT ARE NESTING ON MY PORCH!

HELLO, INTERNET! I MISSED YOU TERRIBLY.

AT&T is my new favorite. There was an unexpected opening in a repair guy's schedule, so they came today instead of Friday! 

*hugs the wireless*

I'm going to keep catching up on all the posts that I've missed - hopefully, I won't miss anything important (if you think I may have missed a post of yours, just gimme a shout out in comments! :D). ONE POST I HAVE ALREADY READ: elrhiarhodan's SHOE PORN. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The two most exciting things I have done recently:

1. Bought an iPhone 4! My mom's buying my iPhone 3G, I'm using my sister's upgrade and my tax refund - it's almost not an incredibly stupid financial decision (...almost). It'll get here in 7-10 business days - fingers crossed it'll get here before the 1st when I move out!

2. Set my leg hair on fire!

I am kind of tempted to leave that one without an explanation...

So we had a belated 4th of July celebration with some friends back in Indiana. Awesome quiche, cute kids, the dogs got along with everyone - and we set off really old fireworks that I stole from my old job (we got paid 5.15 an hour. Minimum wage makes me sneaky). And in the midst of the revelry, one of the triple-burst mortars blew up in the tube five feet away from where I was standing, and I was pelted with flaming debris!

It was like the end of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. Except with more shrieking. I bellowed in a very impressive fashion. The goth teenagers who were helping explode things, however, did an epic flaily run-away-dance that I really wish had been caught on tape.

And I caught on fire! I've now got a bare patch on my right calf where my awesome super-womanly leg hair used to be.

I think maybe the universe is telling me to shave....

OMG. REMIX IS THE MOST FUN EVER.

I got TWO remixes written for me instead of one! I don't know how or why (happy accident, or good karma?) - but they are both AMAZING. And they are both based on the same fic, so I'm going to Talk About Remixing! :D

Apparently something about Five Things Jones and Cruz Learned About Neal Caffrey screams REMIX ME! Both remixers approached it in very different ways - and I think it really illustrates some of the different ways people define remixing for themselves. IDK, I think I figured out some of it as I went along, from writing and reading other (smarter) folks' metas on the subject. SO I'M GOING TO RAMBLE ABOUT IT WHILE I FLAIL ABOUT HOW AMAZING BOTH OF THESE STORIES ARE.

The first fic is Social Security (Spun with Sugar Remix), and what the remixer did is take one of the parts that I told from Lauren's pov and tell it through Neal's. We get to see some moments with Peter and Jones that were mentioned but not shown, and (because Neal is exactly the kind of character you can do this with) they told a very different story. They added a fascinating separation between what Neal was doing, and what he was thinking - he's got his own angle that he's playing, a hidden meaning and purpose behind every action. This Neal is smart, manipulative, witty, and very calculating.

So this remix took the original fic, took the major plot points, and took the: 'if I wrote these plot events, what story would I be telling?' approach. And it's really, really brilliant. YOU SHOULD GO READ IT.

The second fic is 50 Things (Bits and Pieces Remix), and this remixer took a very different approach - they've created all these new, amazing lists of moments that fill out the original piece. The original fic was entirely from Jones' and Cruz's pov, and this fic includes the perspectives of Elizabeth, Neal, and Peter, as well as more from Jones and Cruz. They delve into all these wonderful little moments, giving depth to details I barely noticed when I was writing, and fleshed out the existing story in a brilliant way.

It's fifty different things - and they're all incredibly well written. I laughed, I teared up, I got sad-puppy-eyes, and thinky-eyebrow-creases while reading it. Seriously. Guys. YOU SHOULD GO READ IT.

Remixers - thank you so much, I could not be more thrilled with what you're written. I can't wait for the reveal, when I can flail at you in person!

(And, um. Both the people that I remixed for seem to really like their fics. Which makes me very happy, because I was so nervous. But apparently, they're not full of suck. So. :D)

So I'm back from trip (and the seemingly endless internetless days!). I saw some great apartments - if BFF decides to come with me, we can get a great reduced rent apartment (in a complex with a POOL!) right on the bus-line. If not, the on-campus grad housing isn't that bad, and I'd be able to afford a single. Mostly, it was GREAT to see all the folks I'm going to be working with next year, and figure out what slots my directing projects are going to be in!

I got HUGS. All the people I met during my interview days were happy to see me, and excited I accepted the offer! I was worried I'd have, like, buyer's remorse. But I don't. Not even a little bit. :D So to those of you who told me it was the right decision: thank you, thank you, thank you.

To my Sweet Charity winners: I AM WORKING ON YOUR FICS/WILL EMAIL YOU ABOUT YOUR PROMPTS! Thank you SO MUCH for bidding, and donating to such a wonderful charity!

AWESOME FIC THAT HAS BEEN WRITTEN:

PEOPLE. IF YOU HAVE A HEARTBEAT AND/OR A SEX DRIVE: GO READ themkshrine's "Cherry Bloom." It's Neal/Peter & Diana/El, and it is SO HOT and HEATWARMING and AMAZING. SERIOUSLY. She knocked it WAY THE FUCK OUT OF THE BALLPARK. I'm still in awe (strap-ons and COUNTER!SEX. YES. OKAY. ALL THE TIME).

gyzym has written two fics I have been pining over for weeks: girl!Neal and library!sex. SERIOUSLY. GIRL!NEAL (nipples. And sex toys and it deals intelligently with sex/gender issues) and LIBRARY!SEX. SEX. IN A LIBRARY. IDEK. I have made out in a library before, and despite the fact that no clothing was removed, it is perhaps the highlight of my sexual life. She had me backed up against the shelves holding Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides in the Ancient Greek. The only book not on the shelf was the one I was translating. GOD, I AM SO EXCITED FOR GRAD SCHOOL.

And finally: lovefanfiction has claimed all her kink meme fills - and, folks? She? IS AMAZING. She's written a TON of kink, so just go to her LJ and roll around in that when you need to make happytimes in your pants. My personal fave: Sore for Your Touch. Begging!Neal and forced orgasms. UUUUUUUNF.

I have probably missed a few (rec'ing and commenting): IT IS NOT BECAUSE I DON'T LOVE YOU OODLES AND BUNCHES! BECAUSE I DO! I have just been uber-busy.

And a question:

I'm going to be directing two plays this next year, and I'm not sure what I'm going to do. I'm looking for full-length plays with small casts (no more than five or six people). I like plays about power, plays with strong women, dark comedies, or anything Greek. I'm also looking for recs for any female playwrights y'all think are awesome. I was making a list of plays-to-read this summer, and realized the proportion of male/female is SERIOUSLY out of whack. So. Any thoughts on plays you've seen/read/heard of that I should check out...? Thanks in advance!

Hello, my friends! (Oh, god. Now I feel like John McCain. o.O)

A few days ago, speccygeekgrrl did an awesome awesome awesome thing. She did a podfic of my fic "Nightmares," and it's REALLY GREAT (download it: here). I didn't think I'd be able to listen to it without wincing and face!palming over my mistakes, but she reads it SO WELL! It's one of my favorite fics that I've written, and she made it even better. So go check that out! She's also done fics by asimaiyat and gyzym , they're all WONDERFUL, and can be found: here.

Then gyzym wrote sick!Neal fic that makes my world a better place. It's called "Out in the Cold," It's undiluted H/C, it has her trademark wit and smooth style, the amazing relationship between Neal/Peter/El (smart, in character, believable), and  THERE ARE NOT ENOUGH WORDS TO DESCRIBE HOW MUCH I LOVE IT. THERE REALLY ARE NOT.

( Cut for me musing about my life! )

( Post a sentence (or paragraph) or two from as many of your WIPs as you want, with no explanation attached. )
Ash - I swear, I AM WORKING ON YOUR CHILE FIC!