ceitfianna: (Jane thoughts consume me)
I keep meaning to write an entry on where I'm at but this past month and the start of November has been a lot. In good news, working the election was a really tiring and hopeful experience. Now though I'm just so tired and worried. It seemed like for a time things were looking up and the thought of maybe seeing my parents around Christmas might be possible but I don't see that happening. And my sister-in-law had a surgery this weekend which went well but her parents came to visit which worries me. That whole side of the family has been doing more travel so it makes me fret. I know they can take care of themselves but I just miss everyone so much.

Then I'm waiting for the paycheck from election work and also there are jobs that I can apply for and do but I keep getting in my own way. I'm really bad at overthinking and so tomorrow I think its a matter of writing out some cover letters and filling out one long job application. With how things are now, the thought of libraries hiring is weird but I miss getting out and helping people. Also I never heard back from the place I interviewed with in I think September or August, the one that went really well. I even sent out an email and never got a response, so I know that's been hard on my confidence. I'll feel better for applying for things as I'm a good librarian.

In October I watched a bunch of ghost media which I enjoyed to various degrees. The Haunting of Bly Manor was melancholy and gothic but I keep getting stuck at some choices made at the end that weren't satisfying. If you're thinking about watching it, know that its incredibly different from Haunting of Hill House in terms of tone, beautifully made but creepy more than scary. Because of watching it, I'm reading a collection of Henry James' ghost stories which I like more than I expected to. I hated The Portrait of a Lady when I tried to read it in I think high school. It turns out that he works better in a shorter format.

A completely different type of ghost story that I watched was Julie and the Phantoms which I loved. The music and story and feel of it was wonderful and made me smile and I even wrote some fic for it. If you want something happy and distracting with some 90s nostalgia, highly recommended. Kenny Ortega's behind it so all the musical numbers are full of life.

One of the best books I read recently was Phoenix Extravagant by Yoon Ha Lee, which is a book about artists and resistance and occupation. It pulled me in so much that I read it in a few days. That was a really pleasant surprise since I had trouble finishing the same author's Hexarcharate Stories, the writing was wonderful but the world was far too brutal.

At the moment, I'm making my way through The Angel of the Crows by Katherine Addison which is a fascinating Holmes' redo while a mix of slow and fast going. The writing has that real Doyle feel with a mix of angels and hellhounds, beautifully crafted but I think I might be hitting some not my trope feelings. I think I might pause it since I have The Return of the Thief and the new Penric and Desdemona novella to read.

My writing has been going slow but did move a little faster after the election, there's progress on my major stuff; start to my Yuletide, and my two little/big bangs for rebelcaptain.

At least the weather's feeling more like November, while the warm weather was nice, it was also strange. I'd rather be chilly and have reasons to wear my sweaters.
ceitfianna: (Jane thoughts consume me)
I meant to write up this past week earlier since a good deal happened in it but then I stayed up too late watching The Haunting of Hill House and haven't been focused enough for words. And I binged that because it pulled me in and some of the grief felt familiar. Powerful and well done show, I'd recommend stretching it out since its in intense.

I think I'm on a slightly more even keel now but life is feeling in an odd place. The holidays are coming up, which I love but now there's also the association of my sister being sick around them. And I'm between jobs, which adds to that feeling of being unsettled. This past week and the one before, my last one at the public library felt more like a month than two weeks.

To begin with, last Monday, I learned about volunteering work that I think I'll be able to help with including working with a fellow librarian who works for the same library staffing agency. That was a really nice surprise and need to get back in touch with her. Then I had probably one of the worst work schedules at the nice library, closings and then openings, 5 to 9, Monday and Wednesday and 9 to 1 on Tuesday and Thursday. By the time I hit Friday I wasn't up to doing much and I think I might have been sick too. The last day of work was nice, one of the older librarians bought me one of the Dunkin Halloween themed donuts and the director of the library made it clear that they'd be happy to have me work with them again and it might happen.

Oh and Thursday after work, the HVAC maintenance person stopped by for what was meant to be a regular check up but instead found out it was broken. They came by again early Tuesday morning to fix one leak and say there's another, so as the weather's getting colder, I don't currently have heat. I'm also still dealing with a prescription thing that's taking far too long but I think its on the right track now.

Wednesday night was an alum meet up for my New Zealand university which I helped to arrange a little with an older couple at a pub in downtown Boston. I left the night feeling good about how it went but also feeling a lot like Lady Sybil Ramkin, since I was more in the hostess role. The spot we ended up in was pretty tight for how large a crowd we had but everyone had a good time and wanted to do more. It was nice to meet other Americans who spent time in New Zealand as well as New Zealanders living the US. The crowd was a true range of ages and experiences, but I spent most of the night handing out drink tickets and name tags.

So while I met people, the connections didn't feel as strong and I didn't find any fandom folks. I know they're out there but its always tricky knowing the right questions to get beyond so what do you do. There's a cool bookstore that does events that I keep meaning to try and get to. And then the night ended with a truly disheartening conversation with two NZ men about politics with them being 'realistic' and it left me tired. I think the worst of it was I felt talked down to, like how precious of you to be hopeful, it was disappointing since I'd had good interactions with them throughout the night. And I think that compounded that feeling of being slightly invisible.

In hopeful holiday news, I signed up for Yuletide and the Rebelcaptain secret santa and I'm planning on using November to try and get more writing done. Get some works in progress out into the world. The first chapter of my college AU is up and I think that's one that won't take much to finish and post, two more chapters, one smutty interlude. Ice Dancing AU as always is going to take more work, but I know I can get it done and also I have some shorter works to finish up.
ceitfianna: (riding into the sun)
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.
ceitfianna: (a writer's life)
Life has been busy for me, but good other than some bad dreams. One was strange but almost nice. I dreamed about being with a group of people who were traveling with Alan Cumming, first to a party at his wonderful and complicated apartment and then to I think Jamaica. That part wasn't as nice as suddenly we were meant to be swimming with the sharks. I woke myself up then and then last night I had a dream about being at a school and a general bad day.

I've seen this meme going around and love the idea of it. After this I'm going to go and ask other people about their fics. I'm also in the midst of finally watching Leverage's final season. I love this show.

Comment with the title of one of my fics and a number (or more than one of either) and I'll witter egomanically about:

1) how I came up with the idea
2) something I deleted
3) my favorite bit
4) something I struggled to write
5) what the writing process was like
6) how I thought people would respond
7) how people actually responded
8) something I wish I’d done differently
9) something I think I did right

My works are over here and I'm also open to questions about fics connected to RP or even OOMs.

Alternately, or in addition: tell me about a book you read recently, and I'll tell you about a book I read!

I love this bit too as I love knowing what everyone's reading.

Profile

ceitfianna: (Default)
ceitfianna

June 2025

S M T W T F S
1234567
891011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
2930     

Syndicate

RSS Atom

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Jul. 8th, 2025 03:41 pm
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios