Thoughts on the Journey

After a long summer, I'm working again at a new library with one of the fastest turnarounds I've ever had from interview to hired. They let the staffing agency know they wanted to hire me before I even was home from the interview. Also I discovered that the temp agency has a really good reputation which is nice. My hours are mainly afternoon and evening with one morning so it works well for my sleep schedule and the people are so nice. So far the library isn't terribly busy so I might end up being able to do some writing. At this point, I'll probably be there for about a month but I'm being paid a good rate. So all of this has taken a huge weight off of my mind. I didn't realize how stressed I was until it wasn't there. And since I'm working for the same agency as I did last year, all the payment and timesheets are the same.

I'm trying to get more active in terms of volunteering and really getting myself out into the world, which has been working out well. Last weekend, I volunteered at a wonderful concert by the river and discovered a cute little park that's not too far from where I live. Today I wandered around a little street festival in my own neighborhood and found some cute earrings along with a nice Egyptian street food place. Since the weather's deciding to be oddly warm, I'm going to enjoy it.

I've also fallen completely into the new Dark Crystal show on Netflix, which is so good. And there are books and comics which I'm exploring. I don't know if its a fandom I can write yet but I might. Yesterday I finished reading the latest Toby Daye book which was also great. I love how in that series, it all comes down to family and it never really gets simpler.

The news from DC is making me slightly hopeful and I've been enjoying a Leverage rewatch. I just love that show so much.

Today since the weather was nice, I went out exploring. I had gotten a discount for a coffee shop that turned out to not actually be what I was hoping for. It was in a store, didn't have anything for lunch and hand uncomfortable seats. Instead I ended up having lunch in a local sandwich/hoagie kind of place which was just right. I was reminded how its actually not that hard to get in between the various neighborhoods in my area. I live in a part of Boston with hills and twisty streets so sometimes things are closer than expected and other times farther.

Day 8

In your own space, share a favorite piece of original canon (a TV episode, a song, a favorite interview, a book, a scene from a movie, etc) and explain why you love it so much.

So my first instinct on this was to go Rogue One as its been inspiring me and fueling me for over a year. Then I thought harder and want to talk about the Rogue One novelization, because it was what gave me inspiration. This novelization is amazing as it gets inside everyone's heads but especially Cassian's with all his pain. It also showed me places to expand and poke at canon.

Day 9

In your own space, post a rec for at least three fanworks that you have created.

This challenge is always a little tricky but I've gotten better at recognizing that I'm a good writer and feeling comfortable promoting it. For this year, I'm going to focus on works that are firsts for me.

The Death Star Job, my first chaptered fic, my longest fic ever and also the most complex AU that I've ever written. This is a Leverage and Rogue One fusion built on the idea that Eliot and Cassian served together and are friends since to me they feel like the same kind of character. Its not finished yet but I have the next two chapters planned out and most of the next chapter drafted. Sometimes I've gotten in my head with this fic as it hasn't had a lot of kudos but there's at least one loyal reader and subscribers which means other people are interested. Also once I figured out that what mattered wasn't the plot but the relationships around the plot, it worked better. Leverage is good at using plot and tropes to give relationships depth and time while Rogue One had powerful interactions and not enough time. That helped me go, okay, I can do the plot in key scenes and really lean into conversations and moments.

It's you and me, a series of four fics set in an Everyone lives Rogue One AU. This actually started with the second fic and then the other ones kind of dropped into my head going, nope, story's not over yet.

Its really hard to pick a third one as I've been doing a lot of stretching in terms of writing this year with backstories, AUs, funny fics and other things. So I think I'll end with one that I really like.

Echoes is a fic about what kind of impression Cassian left behind. The heart of it is that I love history and wonder a lot what kind of marks Cassian left in his world. And I have this headcanon of Poe, who loves Rebellion history and is fascinated by this spy who was at the heart of Rogue One, but few records remain of.