Thoughts on the Journey

I'm working from home today and its actually just what I needed. A little more sleep and now I'm trying to organize for my successor all the various things that I do. Its a daunting list and for me, this is going better on my own computer. I think because knowing they hired someone and now there really is an end feels like a lot combined with the weird end of last week. I just needed a break from the shifting workspace.

And I'll be moving my offices for my last month of work into where the person I replaced actually worked. This all is strange and with the weather deciding to go back to being rainy instead of sunny, draining too. Though there is some really good, one of my coworkers who I really like said I did a great job this year yesterday, that felt wonderful. And a student worker signed up to work Reunion Saturday so I probably won't have to work on my birthday.

I feel like my words and writing are starting to come back, which is a great feeling. Filling prompts and thinking about doing some traveling during the summer. Looking ahead I'm also going to get back into major job searching with now feeling comfortable doing academic jobs. I know the fact checking is there since my boss there reached out to me with a job last month.

My window garden is going wonderfully well, which is making me feel hopeful and slightly sad. I can't share pictures of it with my sister, but I feel like she knows. I'm also sharing lots of pictures with the rest of my family.

I've been meaning to do an update but work and the weather plus allergies have been draining me of a lot of energy. In good news, thanks to the Rogue One fandom on Tumblr, I'm now in a chat with other rebelcaptain writers and its wonderful to have people to connect with on writing. And also its a nice reminder that oh yes, I can meet new people and it works. Its lovely to have people who send prompts and go I like your work, also for times of let's all write together.

Job stuff has been a mix of good and tiring where it seems like lately all my substituting jobs have left me feeling worn out and slightly doubting. There are good moments mixed in but its the end of the year and I'm usually in on odd days like half days or this week when some of the teachers are away. So kids are more likely to push and some of them, I feel like I have the same conversation every time I sub and they never listen. I know that the teachers do appreciate what I do and I'm probably doing better than I think.

Also last month one of my fact checking checks was late which was annoying but they fixed it as quickly as they could. I'm now in the midst of a big fact checking job that required negotiating more time. Its a length of book that I've done before but I really feel like when I started out, I had longer for these books. And its been a while since I did one this long, so I'm readjusting. I think it will be okay, the start is always hard until I really get going. Now I'm at that point of finding the best resources and feeling like the deadline is too close. Once I get into my day-to-day schedule for it instead of the past few days where I taught two days, had an interview with a staffing agency alongside starting out, it should go better.

One thing I really wanted to write up was how I've been getting into watching The Expanse and The Terror which has sent me to reading books. I read the first book that The Expanse is based on and then watched the first season which I missed. I liked the way the Roci crew worked better in the book as in the show, a choice was made that adds an element of harshness and cruelty to the world that doesn't fully make sense. A major part of the first book is a whole Noir story that has a mystery that connects a lot of threads but I didn't like the PoV character. He was such a stock character who gets unhealthily obsessed with the character who actually is in the prologue and one of the best pieces of writing. In the show, there's an entire episode that tells her story from her point of view but that also kind of showed up how weak the other side of the story actually was. I know that its useful for setting some things up but there was an entire point of view character that was ignored. I'd say that the first season and first book aren't the strongest of the series, I started watching in the second season and didn't feel lost. Though an odd benefit of that was it had me craving good playing with Noir tropes so I'm rereading the Vimes' books.

For The Terror, I've been reading nonfiction books, one that's very much a brief survey of the searches and then an in depth relating of an investigation of remains from the ships. That's called Frozen in Time and kind of interesting about what does it take to search out there. The other which I'm really liking is called Ice Ghosts and goes much more in depth in terms of how the searches were sent out and also deeply into the First Nations in the area, who have a personal history. At some point, I might go read the book as I do like Simmons' books but at times he can go on too long.

My last couple of days have been busy as I substituted for middle school drama on Friday then spent yesterday at Arisia then back to fact-checking today. Sadly my energy level hasn't been great as shark week hit and on Friday, my cold decided to go, nope, not gone yet.

Arisia was amazing and reminded me of how much cool stuff there is in the Boston area that I want to try and get involved in along with fascinating people that I know. I went into the con with a lot of holiday money and happily spent it on jewelry, books, a cool antique satchel that made me think of Cassian and delicious chocolates. There was a huge amount of gorgeous cosplay but I ended up not taking a lot of pictures as I was having some shy moments. Though I found it all really inspiring, next year, I want to try and get more involved and spend a longer time there.

Day 11

Share a book/song/movie/tv show/fanwork/etc that changed your life.

I'm going to choose two musicals because one of the best parts of yesterday was going to dinner and talking Sondheim with cool people. There was a point where PBS was showing Into the Woods and Sunday in the Park with George on television and I was caught. In Sunday in the Park, there are a few songs about making art from Putting it Together to Finishing the Hat and they still feel to me so true about how creativity works.

Into the Woods has become one of my favorite soundtracks, I connect listening to the music to starting at Milliways as someone shared it with me. No More and No One is Alone are songs that they always get me. Its oddly hard to describe why, because this music clicks and I think that's how it is. There's that moment of oh yes, you've said it and I always feel better when I hear it again. I just put on the last song of the first act of Sunday in the Park when the painting comes together and my breathing has matched it.

Day 12

In your own space, create a fanwork.

I wrote a Jyn/Cassian fic that I've had in mind since the first cold snap, when it seemed that everyone was writing them snuggling for warmth. I saw a post on Tumblr about men wanting to be little spoons and it gave me the push I needed to write this as Cassian wants to be held by Jyn.

Cold as Home (421 words) by FiKate
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Cassian Andor/Jyn Erso
Characters: Jyn Erso, Cassian Andor, K-2SO (Star Wars)
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Established Relationship, Sharing a Bed, Hoth, Domestic Fluff
Summary:

After returning late from a mission, Jyn searches out Cassian for warmth and he shares some truth. My version of Jyn and Cassian together on a cold night.

Day 13:

In your own space, set some goals for the coming year.

These goals are very much inspired by this weekend. No deadlines as I get enough of those with fact checking.
-Invite friends over to my place
-Finish and post more fics
-Investigate and attend meetups and fannish groups
-Figure out how to follow up with friends of friends that I had good conversations with at other events
-See about auditioning or volunteering, something with a theater group
-Spend more time with my relative in the area
-Apply for more jobs, get a reference from where I'm teaching

My snow day has mainly been spent working on fact-checking, drinking tea and trying not to get sick. I'm so glad that I traveled yesterday and was able to hermit today. Tomorrow I should be finished with my work and then can enjoy the snow day with reading and writing. I'm so happy for another chance to do the Snowflake Challenge.

Day 1

In your own space, talk about why you're participating in Snowflake and, if you’ve participated in the past, how the challenge has affected you. What drew you to it? What did you take away from it? What do you hope to accomplish this year?

I was first drawn to Snowflake Challenge because I kept seeing it on my flist/circle and liked the idea. Now its become part of how I start my year, connecting with new people and interacting with fandom in ways I don't normally.

Day 2

In your own space, share a favorite memory about fandom: the first time you got into fandom, the last time a fanwork touched your heart, crazy times with fellow fans (whether on-line or off-line), a lovely comment you’ve received or have left for someone.

I have so many great memories so I think I'll share ones of meeting people. One is how I connected with dodger_sister. We kept talking in a mutual friends' comment section and it came up that we were in the same state and she was selling a shredder. I drove out and we had this wonderful conversation that sadly didn't last long enough. It was pouring rain outside, but it was the start of many talks.

Another was when I came back from New Zealand and had a six hour layover in LA and a Milliways' friend met me at the airport, fed me and took care of me. We talked in the car and just clicked.

Since moving to Boston, I keep having more of these. Though I think a favorite was with Bing, who didn't realize who I was since Becca thought we'd met already.

Day 3

In your own space, post recs for at least three fanworks that you did not create.

I always love this challenge and going to look at what I've been enjoying reading. Its hard to pick just three.

Thin Ice by guineapiggie, a lovely rebelcaptain fic in Cassian's head that feels like him and ends with snuggles.

no sweeter sorrow by forochel, a gorgeous Yuletide fic about Sameth, right after canon. He's one of my favorite characters and this fic captures what I love about him and wanted more of from canon; realizing his life has changed, how much he cares and how complex his family is.

Of Cost by quantumvelvet, a powerful October Daye fic about Quentin, the Luidaeg and what it means to take care of Toby.

Day 4

In your own space, create a fannish wishlist. No limits on size or type of fanwork; just tell us what you’d like to see.

This one of is always tricky for me. Some of these are fics I'm trying to write myself and ideas from around fandom. Star Wars is my current big one.

-Someone to actually write the fic where adolescent Cassian reprograms K-2s0 and their journey together. Actually just more fic about the two of them learning to trust and take care of each other. More of why Cassian who has such a complicated history with trust finds an anchor in this droid.

-Fic of Rex and Organa, their thoughts on the Rebellion after living through the Clone Wars. Do they see familiar faces and experiences in the young people around them? How strange is it to deal with Separatists who are now allies?

-Cassian and the Star Wars Rebels' crew and Leia, all of it.

-Moodboard or something to capture Cassian the pilot, I'm actually thinking of asking for this from someone on Tumblr.

My days have been full with a fact-checking job pretty much every week since I think the end of September. I do have one that I got just before this week but I was able to get more time for it. Since I really need a break and I do good enough work that I don't have to fret about it until closer to the new year. Also substituting has kept me busy with all sorts of jobs from receptionist to pre-K to middle school. I love being this busy but its nice to stop.

Yesterday I submitted my Yuletide and its a nice feeling to realize how Rogue One completely freed something in my creativity. This is one of my longer Yuletides and it didn't require a lot of pushing, the words flowed. The Rogue One fandom continues to make me smile and prompt more words.

I've seen The Last Jedi, which was a fun ride. I have thoughts on it and have been reading good meta but I'm going to hold off on all of them until after the holidays. Basically great moments, Rose was the best but I wanted more.

I'm so happy to be living in Boston, this was one of the best choices I've made in a while. When it gets closer to the new year, I'll do some thinking about it. Soon I'll be heading south to spend time with my family.

This has been a good week. I finished my fact checking, had an absolutely wonderful day of substituting where I was able to do some teaching. I spent over an hour helping a student read which made me feel great. It was also in a place I've subbed before and they're always friendly and nice. Spring is starting to make itself known here, the wind can be a little chilly but the sun's out and flowers are blooming. The birds are being busy and everywhere.

Today I finished a fic that I've been working on and I'm happy with it. Its my first Newsies fic that's actually out in the world. I have lots of fics that never left my head but I wrote this one. This round of Porn Battle seems to be, old fandoms and first published fics for them.

Glimpses (409 words) by FiKate
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Newsies (1992)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: David Jacobs/Jack Kelly
Characters: David Jacobs, Jack Kelly
Additional Tags: Surprise Kissing, Prompt Fic, Missing Scene
Summary:

Written for Porn Battle Prompt Stack and the prompt: Newsies, Jack/David, union, night, city.

Before Once and For All, David and Jack have an honest and surprising conversation in an alley.

Life has been busy for me. It went down for a bit but I have a new fact checking job which makes me happy and ineedmyfics happened. This is small but one of my favorite exchanges.

In news that I blame Netflix for, I've kind of fallen into Friday Night Lights, I actually own the first season DVD which I bought at some point and only watched the first disc. I think I bought it because someone played Tim in Milliways and then found it on sale. Well, its all on Netflix and I love this show. Its amazing to believe that it was started in 2006 considering the issues they took on and I'm already writing fic. I'm now allowed to play Matt Saracen anywhere or Obi-Wan Kenobi, which is the other fandom I've fallen into. The Clone Wars is so good and I've gotten into some of the novels.

The fic I got was wonderful about Sam Wilson and his friendship with Natasha and a great Clint cameo. I adore the way Sam's POV is written and how much he sees.

trouble needs a home (1765 words) by paperclipbitch
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Natasha Romanov & Sam Wilson, Clint Barton & Natasha Romanov
Characters: Sam Wilson (Marvel), Natasha Romanov, Clint Barton
Additional Tags: Fic Exchange, Post-Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Friendship, mild descriptions of injuries, Gen Work, Coffee
Summary:

“This is Barton,” Natasha tells Sam.

“Hey,” Barton says from the floor.

Then what I wrote was a fic for Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol mainly inspired by banter and Jeremy Renner's face.

Operation Olympus (1679 words) by FiKate
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: William Brandt, Benji Dunn, Jane Carter (Mission: Impossible), Original Male Character(s)
Additional Tags: Team Dynamics, Heist, Seduction
Summary:

Before reconnecting with Ethan at the end of the movie, Brandt, Dunn and Carter spend some time in a hotel in Athens and end up creating their own mission. This time, Brandt seduces the rich guy. Contains banter, more god codenames, a well placed karate chop and a vault that doesn't behave.

Thank you to TL for betaing.

I've been being lazy today after two weeks of fact checking and interviews. Its so nice to be able to sit and just read without worrying about various deadline. I do have some fic exchanges coming up, but that's a different kind of pressure.

I just reread Brothers in Arms as part of my plan to play Ivan Vorpatril more and now I'm thinking about tossing a younger Ivan into the sandboxes. All the layers in Miles' narration about him, how its clear he trusts him, knows he's smart and lazy and I think at times sees more of Ivan than Ivan does, just like Ivan is good at reading Miles in ways that Miles isn't comfortable with are intriguing. This book has scenes of Elli and Ivan alongside Miles and their relationships are clearly mirrored, but how they got there isn't the same. I also find the issues of Miles and his identity fascinating and how in this one, he uses that to try and help Mark. I'm not sure if I want to reread Mirror Dance as while its good, some of the most brutal parts of the series are in there, at least violent. Perhaps if I have Memory on hand for after that would work since that's more about healing.

ETA: I've put an Ivan from after Brothers in Arms up in PFSB and Mixed Muses and I need to update his profile.

For the first time ever, someone podficced one of my fics: [podfic] we're having tea (5 words) by croissantkatie
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Old Kingdom - Garth Nix
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Ellimere (Old Kingdom), Prince Sameth
Additional Tags: Family, Podfic & Podficced Works, Podfic Length: 0-10 Minutes, Audio Format: MP3
Summary:

On a rainy day, Ellimere decides she and Sameth are having tea. Set post-canon in this moment, Ellimere and Sameth work towards rebuilding their relationship.

Its wonderful to know that someone else likes my words enough to do something with them.

This week I've also dived headlong into Sense 8, which hit me right in the feels. I finished watching it, watched the behind the scenes' show and then started a rewatch. I mean I did watch other things but it worked for me. Its far from perfect, I wish the stories had been a little more balanced but I loved how it was clear that each country was almost another genre and how everyone intersected. I wish I could remember who first pointed out that the feel of each country and Senseate plot fits where they're from, because its so true. The music was glorious and while the plot was weird with some points of huh, perhaps those will be answered in the second season. Rewatching, I'm able to see how some parts fit together which is nice. Overall, I just love that the heart of it is people connecting and reaching out to help and be there.

The question for today's snowflake_challenge fits in well with what I'm doing for dinner. For Christmas, I was given the Smitten Kitchen cookbook and the pizza dough recipe from it is currently rising in the oven to be my dinner.

Day 11

In your own space, post a rec for fannish and/or creative resources.

This is probably a perfect question for me since I'm a librarian and I love resources of all types and as I've been doing fact-checking as a part-time job, I've found even more.

A few that I've used and loved:

Walt Whitman archive, all of his poetry including scans of his manuscripts to see how the words changed.

Poetry Foundation, which has free poetry including poems being read aloud, poet's biographies and interviews.

Library of Congress, so many fantastic resources from images to documents.

Metrolyrics and other sites like it. I tend to find my fic titles from songs and sites like this are great for finding the right one.

Stanford's Dime Novel collection, this was part of the inspiration for my Yuletide this year, its also been a resource for RP.

I could happily list even more since I love finding the right resource to answer a question and then learning unexpected elements. This is why I adore reading nonfiction too, I'm always learning and the internet has great resources and a lot of my friends are researchers too. So we tend to be sharing questions and places that we've found answers.

Actually the last three major fics I wrote have a meta element that comes from my being a librarian and historian. I think a big part of the inspiration was that a large part of my fact-checking involved looking at who are the sources for which parts of history and who's missing.

The Outlaw Wade or A Young Lawyer's Journey, my Yuletide that looked at in world dime novels about Ben Wade from 3:10 to Yuma.

Finest Job, my narniaexchange fic where I thought about what elements of King Frank and Queen Helen's rank would survive to the Pevensies.

Got the Details Right, my Marvel Cinematic Universe fic for ineedmyfics where Sam Wilson and Natasha Romanoff watch in universe films about Captain America, which was inspired by another fic.

The past two days have been rainy and grey, which made it hard to do all the things I wanted to. But I'm working on getting myself back into a schedule for fact-checking as well as more job stuff though today I was reminded how the librarian job market is a hirer's one. In the mail, I received a sorry, but no thanks letter from a library I applied to I think in February.

I was wondering how those of you who've done the sort of freelance editing that fact-checking falls under put it on your resume since each assignment takes about a month. Also I think I need to redo my cover letter, I hate cover letters since I never know what's going to click and I'm worried what I have now hasn't been working. Job searching suck but it helps to know that the fact-checking place trusted me enough to send me another book.

In fun news, I stumbled across a commentfest that looks like a lot of fun and will be of interest to many of you.



Sparrow Hill Road is being a fantastic read and today, I went to read it at the closet to a diner I can find around here since I've been craving pancakes. I really miss The Broken Egg in Ann Arbor and The Pancake House on Woodward Ave, there aren't enough proper breakfast places around here.