Thoughts on the Journey

I recently had possibly good news, I have a job interview on Thursday for a job that would only be for a month. Its through a job agency but could be a nice opening and a way to make some money before the school year gets going again. And there’s the constant thrum of anxiety about my sister that’s always there.

But I’m having all sorts of doubts hitting me ranging from job worry to not being a good enough writer to everything. I also keep having complicated dreams about grown up TaleSpin characters which I really should try and write. That’s one of those shows of my childhood and as Disney has been putting out Disney Afternoon toys, its reminded me how much I love that world.

Things are good, I know that. This is just my summer doldrums combining with reading lots of people writing really good stuff and fretting. I think some of the writing worry is because I think I’m ready to start sharing actual major parts of the various AUs I’ve been working on. And there are some really great AU writers in the fandom so I get to overthinking how good am I. I know I’ll feel better when I can say, here’s the first chapter or here’s the first part.

I signed up for the Narnia Fic Exchange as well, I love it, its the 10th year and I love doing exchanges. And when the rebelcaptain exchanges start going later, I’m going to actually sign up as writing for exchanges is something I love doing.

Today I baked delicious pecan sandies or shortbread with ground up roasted pecans in it, they turned out beautifully. Tomorrow I'm going to make some more whole wheat bread for my family before getting ready for a trip north. Plans are starting to come along for a move which is stressful but in the end will be good for me.

I love doing the Snowflake Challenge as it pushes me to be creative and remind myself of what I've accomplished.

Day 1

In your own space, post a rec for at least three fanworks that you have created. It can be your favorite fanworks that you've created, or fanworks you feel no one ever saw, or fanworks you say would define you as a creator.

To start with, I'm going to post my Yuletide from this year where I wrote about the Luidaeg from the October Daye books interacting with my Great Aunt in the bookstore she owned.

Two Conversations (1157 words) by FiKate
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: October Daye Series - Seanan McGuire
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: October "Toby" Daye/Tybalt
Characters: October "Toby" Daye, The Luidaeg (October Daye), Original Female Character(s), Tybalt (October Daye)
Additional Tags: Conversations, Misses Clause Challenge, Established Relationship
Summary:

Two conversations, one where the Luidaeg has the chance to be the nosy mother figure for Toby and another where a mortal woman sees more than the Luidaeg expected.

I loved your prompt and it ended up being focused more on the Luidaeg as she finds some time to herself after enjoying being the older woman figure in Toby's life. I hope you enjoy it as it was a real treat to write from the Luidaeg's point of view and this fic can be read as any point after Toby and Tybalt are officially a couple.

Thank you to Jennie and Don for betaing.

The second one, I wrote for the Narnia exchange and its about Queen Helen and King Frank and their lives in London and as they figure out Narnia.

This wild new paradise (1292 words) by FiKate
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Chronicles of Narnia - C. S. Lewis
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: King Frank (Narnia)/Queen Helen (Narnia)
Characters: King Frank, Queen Helen (Narnia), Bacchus, Ceres (Greek and Roman Mythology)
Additional Tags: Worldbuilding, Mythical Beings & Creatures, Established Relationship, Domestic
Summary:

The inspiration for this fic was your wonderful letter with a request for wanting to know more about Frank and Helen, how they set up Narnia and how they interact with all the strange parts of Narnia.

For me the form that took was thinking about their domestic life, beginning in London with what Helen wished she had and then in Narnia near the end of their first year as Narnia is becoming itself around them. As I happen to love Ceres myself, she makes an appearance to help Narnia flourish.

The title comes from In Kerry, by J. M. Synge.

Thank you to Jennie for betaing.

For a last fic, this year for the first time, I wrote a Newsies fic which is mixture of missing moment and what if. I'm so happy about how it turned out.

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.

Last night I stayed up far too late rereading a few of my favorite fanfics. I love being a part of the fanfic community and I'm constantly amazed by what people write and create and that other people appreciate my writing. I'm going to highlight a few of my favorite fics, ones that I keep coming back to.

Psmith Giantslayer, which is a fic that combines Narnia and P.G. Wodehouse's Mike and Psmith books. Thanks to this fic, I discovered the Psmith books which this author nails in terms of tone and I always adore Narnia stories that look at what happens after and how Narnia echoed later in the Pevensies' life.

Care and Feeding, an October Daye fic that I adore because it shows Quentin and Raj being dorks and friends together.

An Ace Up the Sleeve, a Wylan/Jesper fic that is hot and the writer captures the tangled mess of relationships that makes Six of Crows so good.

Going Dark, a Slings and Arrows fic that perfectly gets the mess of theater life and feels like a couple of episodes of the show.

Tomorrow (there'll be more of us) which is a Force Awakens fic about the impact that Finn has on stormtroopers. The amount of world building in this fic is mind blowing.

Fake it 'til you make it, one of my favorite Check Please fics starring Lardo, Shitty and the fake relationship trope done to a tee.

Like Butter on Toast, a Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries fic where Dot figures out and goes after what she wants.

College and Family, a thoughtful and beautiful Lilo and Stitch fic about Lilo and Nani as sisters.

Did Not Do the Research, a Princess Tutu fic that shows why fact checkers, a job I do, are so important.

Everyone was recently revealed for the Narnia Exchange which is one of my favorite exchanges. I'm working slowly on my ineedmyfics where I have the ideas and a start but need to get more of everything.

The fic I wrote was one I loved writing as it gave me a chance to explore Archenland and I have another fic started that connects with what I wrote.

Deep Roots (1731 words) by FiKate
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Chronicles of Narnia - C. S. Lewis
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: King Lune (Narnia)/Original Female Character
Characters: King Lune (Narnia), Original Female Character(s), Edmund Pevensie, Susan Pevensie, Peter Pevensie, Lucy Pevensie
Additional Tags: Archenland, Age of Winter (Narnia), Worldbuilding, Backstory, Kings & Queens, Politics
Summary:

The wonderful prompt that inspired this story was: I would like a story about Archenland during the Long Winter, or during the first years after Narnia's sudden reemergence from its magical bonds..

This is King Lune's story of what he knew and didn't know of Narnia and how as king, he and the people of Archenland lived with the closed pass. Any mistakes about the timeline are my own and Irene is my own as she needed a name. Thank you to nasimwrites for betaing.

Thank you wonderful writer for whatever story you end up writing for me.

Most of what I love to read is about character and world, getting deeper into people and places that are only passed by briefly. So far every fic I've received through this exchange has been a joy. I have a few different requests but the main idea holds through all of them, more into how the characters think and how they grow and change.

My first request is for Aravis/Cor with optional Corin, Pevensies, the King, Bree or any assorted characters. I'd love to see more of how their relationship progressed as they grew up. How living in Archenland and traveling to Narnia changed them and in time brought them together. The romance doesn't have to be the main focus but I find their relationship compelling and want to see more of it.

My second request is more about King Frank and Queen Helen. Who were they before they came to Narnia? What do they remember and use as rulers and what fades away? Any take on either their life before Narnia or during or some combination would be wonderful.

My next request is for seeing more of the Pevensie siblings in terms of a variety of interactions, at school, in Narnia, in the midst of war, after. I find how they work as siblings fascinating and would like to see more of maybe what's behind some of their feelings for each other. The details on this are hugely optional but as some one who works in education, I'd be curious to see how their school lives shifted their relationships.

Last a request that comes from the fact that I'm a classicist and I love Tumnus but have always been curious about what Bacchus is doing in Narnia. There's a strange relationship between characters that seem of pagan origin like the Fauns, Centaurs, river gods, naiad, dryads and others alongside Aslan. I would love to approach that through Tumnus but with options of bringing in others. He talks of playing and dancing with Bacchus which I find fascinating as its impossible for me to conceive of Tumnus and anything involving sexual as I associate with many aspects of Bacchus. I know that's not all of him and I'm curious how all of these ideas fit together in the fields and forests of Narnia. Anything about life in the forest and how the natural magic intersects with Aslan. What does it mean to be a mythological creature versus a talking animal? As you can see, I have lots of ideas, take whatever works for you.

In terms of dislikes, my main one is no incest. I'm comfortable with violence or sex if it fits the story but what makes me happy is character studies. Plotty stories are amazing if they work for your idea. Thank you for whatever you write for me. If you're unsure what I like, my Ao3 name is FiKate and you can read there the kinds of stories I write and enjoy reading.

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.

Title: The Next Christmas
Fandom: Chronicles of Narnia
Rating: G
Summary: For dodger_sister who asked me to write something Christmasy set in Narnia. Sorry for the delay, writing has been slow for me.

When Christmas time comes to Narnia, Tumnus does his best to have it all work.

He sighed and stared at the rows of cookies as Helena, the badger who ran the kitchens glared at him, "These are the best I've made, stop looking like that. They're not going to toss you out because of Christmas. You're as bad as my youngest who's always goin' on and on about how something will go wrong."

"But what if they're not the right sorts. I asked her and she only remembered shapes and some flavors, it must be the best Christmas," Tumnus tutted as he looked over the cookies and to the pies cooling on another shelf and tugged at one of his horns.

"And it will, Tumnus, it will. Youv'e asked, you've read, there's nothing that you couldn't have done that you didn't do so now you will get out of my kitchen. I've been patient, I have, because I know you and your worries but its done. Out with you," Then she lifted her apron and spoon and chased him out as if he was a tiny faun trying to steal a treat.

It was all well and good for her to say don't worry, she wasn't the one who Lucy looked to with that hopeful glance of what would a Narnian Christmas be like. The orchard was quiet and his wool scarf was in his study, but he could manage some cold now. Winter would pass and Christmas was a time of fires and hope now, not fear and hidden celebrations.

When the snow began to fall, Lucy found him twisting the tassels of his scarf and she took his hand, "Mr. Tumnus, what's wrong?"

He watched the snow settle on the old trees in Cair Paravel's orchard and said, "Nothing, truly, I just want you to do have the best Christmas."

"I shall. The smells are the best," She squeezed his hand and leaned her head against his shoulder before taking it off quickly, "Mr. Tumnus, you're getting cold. We're going inside and having hot chocolate and you can tell me what's being made in the kitchen."

They went inside together and though the goose was a trifle burnt, not due to any of Mrs. Badger's doing, the turner, a fox kit got distracted, it was a glorious meal. There were more cookies than anyone knew how to eat, the plum pudding and figgy pudding burned brightly and a young leopard found the coin.

The new kings and queens grew quiet deeper in the night as the yule log burned and Lucy twisted Tumnus's new red scarf around her fingers and said, "Thank you."

He heard the sadness in her voice and hugged her, humming a tune of his father's. In time she spoke again to say, "Its all rather wonderful, but I do hope Professor Kirke and Mother are having good Christmases."

"Of course they are in the land of Spare Oom," At his way of speaking of her home, she hiccuped a sob into a laugh and hugged him tightly.

Title: Snow in your footsteps
Characters: Tumnus, Mrs. Beaver, Lucy Pevensie, mentions of Tumnus' father, the White Witch and other creatures in the woods of Narnia
Fandom The Chronicles of Narnia
Rating PG for mentions of character death and the threat of death
Disclaimer No one belongs to me, I'm simply borrowing them to write.
Summary: Five Times Tumnus hoped for snow to hide in and one time he welcomed it. A gift fic for dodger_sister who requested a story: regarding Tumnus and snow. I tried to make this a five times fic and I hope it worked and that you like it.

( When the snow fell after Tumnus said he would watch the Lamppost for the Queen, he felt as if every step he left would mark him. )

This week has been strange and wonderful and long. Classes started on Tuesday, there was an assembly and I introduced myself to the school. Then I spent the rest of the week sitting in the library with my laptop set up and being visible and plotting. I have so many notes in Evernote about the library everything from my observations, to dos, wants, coursebook lists and I know that the people who hired me trust me to make good choices. That was the thing that kept echoing throughout the week as teachers checked in and asked me questions and administrators told me what was possible. I also talked to students, who seem to like me. A group of guys asked me if I did tabletop and I'm going to help them restart a gaming club. Books were taken out, I helped a lot with the copier and told many kids to not eat in the library, but they kept coming in. This is the overview version as I'm rather worn out today. Later I might do a more in-depth post since its a really fascinating school and feels like a great fit.

Other big thing that I want to mention is that in July and August, I wrote for two different fic exchanges and now I can share them with you. They'll end up on Ao3 in the near future, possibly tonight but that depends on how much energy I have.

The first one was for narniaexchange and I wrote a fic called Fragile Layers set during The Horse and his Boy and received a beautiful story about Tumnus called The Temperate Faun. This was the fic that inspired me to put a pre-canon Tumnus in the sandboxes as it just fit so well with how I think of him. Now posted on Ao3 here.

Then today the stories were posted for ineedmyfics and this is the second year I've participated. I love this little exchange. I wrote a Firefly story for silveraspen called No straight lines about River and received a wonderful Ron and Hermione fic called Marry Me. There are a lot of great fics posted. That fic can now be found on Ao3 right here.

I plan on sleeping in tomorrow, going and getting brunch somewhere and then possibly sitting and just reading The Once and Future King for a while. Oh and Charles is still an owl in Milliways and this EP and threads has been making me beam all day.

Also the school recommended realtor is going to put together lists of places for me that I can go look at. He's the partner of the performing arts director. Now I could find a place on my own, but there are so many little neighborhoods in this area and if someone else will look for me, I'll take it. This is part of the school showing me, we want to help you.

I realized last night why the tiredness I'm going through feels familiar, I honestly feel jet lagged. Its weird but makes sense after all the packing and then all the driving, my body isn't sure what its supposed to be doing. This also means I haven't been doing all the loose end errands I need to just yet, but I will. The other fun thing is my father has changed to Gmail and I'm now the closest computer person at some points. Its wonderful to see him figuring stuff out.

Also I can't watch the Olympics and it sucks. My parents recently gave up their cable and apparently in this area, without cable you can't even get normal TV stations. That means all my Olympic news comes from Twitter, Tumblr and whatever I can find, its weird, but nice. There are no annoying announcers but I really miss just watching the various sports happen. Just having the Olympics on is one of my favorite things. I might need to get myself to a sports bar or something at some point to see it. Is it possible to watch the BBC stuff in the US? Does anyone know how I could do that?

Oh and last night, I had a strange dream. I was working in a huge big box store that seemed to have a little bit of everything. My job before closing was to go around and do things with books and then I discovered a Renn Faire/LARP session in the far back. Then the dream combined confusing roleplaying with retail work, it was one of the stranger dreams I've had in a while.

Yesterday was Friday, I almost forgot that as its been a weird and long week. So I ended up writing some FicFriday stories. And tomorrow or the next day, the narniaexchange stories will finally be posted! I won't be able to share which one's mine until later but people other than my betas can read it.

( 140CharFic )