popkin16

I read this post on tumblr about this website called 4thewords.com. You basically play a game where the "battle" is writing - you fight a monster, say, that requires you to write 300 words in 45 minutes. If you manage that, you defeat the monster, who will drop items you can use for crafting, or money you can use to buy armor upgrades or whatever. There are quests - right now I'm working on winning my avatar a rainbow pride shirt. To do that, I have to defeat a 5 of a certain type of monster by July 15th.

Anyway, you get a 30 day free trial to see if you like it, and then you can pay $4 a month. So far I've written 3 days in a row, about 2k. After writing nothing for MONTHS, I'm super proud of myself. And you get prizes for maintaining your writing streak :D Of course, because of the timed challenges, I'm producing more quantity over quality. I talked with selenic76  and melagan  this morning and have realized just how much work my werewolf AU is going to be. My first draft is going to be utter shit, to be honest. I'm not used to writing longer, slow burn stuff, so there are going to be pacing issues, plot issues, etc. But I'm excited. It'll be quite the learning opportunity, and I do think my werewolf idea is a good one.

If you decide to join, my referral code is GEOJT30185.

My birthday is coming up - July 23rd. I turn 29. I'm already at the point where I have to do math to figure out how old I am, lolll. But at least I got my birthday off!

I've been struggling to figure out what to read lately, though not for lack of choice. I've been toying with the idea of rereading A Clear and Different Light, which I've only read once. Before that, I read The Pegasus Device, which is a McShep noir detective AU written in first person, and before that sgamadison's wonderful A Civil Contract.

I'm thinking of hosting another SGA Author Appreciation Week on tumblr, where you pick an author and recommend your top 5 fics by them. It was a decent success the last time I ran it, and I'd love to do something relatively easy, but also...IDK, bringing the community together, or something. A shared activity. I just have to pick a week, decide how soon in advance I want to announce it, etc.

"Nothing happens to post about in the SGA fandom," I said, and sgamadison  rightly responded that not posting is just making the fandom even quieter. There's more activity on tumblr, but I miss actual discussions. Though I'm giving serious consideration to setting up an automatic crossposter between mcshep-everyday and dreamwidth/livejournal to try and boost the fandom over here.

Anyway, in an effort to bring fandom back to journaling sites:

I've been reading Pegasus Purgatorio lately. I have only read it once, way back when I first joined the fandom, so it's practically brand new to me. It's interesting how the author twisted canon - like making Kanaan the leader of Michael's mutants. I do love the idea of Atlantis evacuating Pegasus planets to empty Milky Way ones, though. I have no idea how John and Rodney are going to make it back to Earth, though lol.

Lately, I've been giving a lot of thought to rereading fics I've only been through once, a long time ago - fics like The Whaleverse and A Face That Nobody Knows. I've also given some thought to reading the Ex Patria series, but I already know that John and Rodney being in an open relationship is going to bother me, so why torture myself? BUT THE PLOT LOOKS SO COOL. But their relationship...but the PLOT... Anyway, If you're cool with that kind of thing, you should check that series out - I've heard nothing but good things! If it helps, I think I was told that John & Rodney are only ever explicitly with each other. I think.

I've been making brief forays in to the Harry Potter fandom too, but I am EPIC picky about my HP fic. All of it basically has to be EWE (epilogue? what epilogue?). I don't care if it's Hogwart's Eight Year fic, or something that takes place more in the future, but I'm not interested in reading fic set back during book 5, say. If you're looking for an amazing author, check out saras_girl. She single-handedly got me back into HP after more than a decade away from the fandom.

I also read Cinderwings, an Dean/Castiel Supernatural sort-of Cinderella AU, but it's so much more than that.

Not too long ago, I finished reading Strong Poison, a Peter Wimsey novel. I was surprised by how fast I became smitten with Peter <3 I already have the next book (I'm focusing on the ones that have Harriet Vane in them) but I have to be in the mood for books.

What is everyone reading these days?

I think this is my first time actually posting on DW and not just importing all my journal entries. Hopefully crossposting works! My DW needs so much work - I need to change out my icons and work on my layout (the text is so tiny, whyyy).

My New Year's Resolution is two-fold, the first of which - <i>be more positive</i> - is new. It's going to be a difficult one, since my family is always running into financial woes. The second is the same as last year: write more than the previous year. I signed up for mini_wrimo in November and it really helped keep me writing. I'm thinking of making a sticky-post to keep track of my daily word count - I'll comment each day with how much I wrote. It won't always be more than 0, but hopefully I won't go days without writing.

One positive of 2016 is my success at writing more. In 2015 I wrote 6,721 words total for the year. In 2016 I wrote 45,397. I'm really proud of myself for that, even if I know some people who could write that in one story alone, lol. Hopefully I'll fill my goal of writing even more than 45k! I have tons of ideas, it's just the hard part: actually writing them.

My 2016 Fics

Wrecked
+ Experienced, 1907 words.
Danny's a bit lost while Owen is charting the island.


Stargate
+ Making A Choice, 6679 words. Written for Tarlan and part of the romancingmcshep .
John knows something has to change to make Weres more accepted on Atlantis. He has a feeling there are more than just a few who share his secret.

+ Division 52, 18644 words. Written as part of the Conspiracy Challenge and a Men in Black crossover.
John never expected aliens.

+ Refresh My Memory, 1906 words. Co-written with darkmoore.
John, Rodney and the day after a drunken night of sex...

+ Gifts Worth Giving, 1138 words. Written for selenic76.
Wooing, Rodney McKay style.

+ Riding A Desk, 2170 words. Pure porn.
This was Rodney's favorite kind of meeting.

+ Take Me To The Wild, 6214 words. Written for fandom_stocking and hasn't been revealed yet. I'll make a post when it's finally open for reading.

Right out the gate of 2017, I have at least 2 fics to be written and Romancing McShep to start thinking about. Hopefully it's a sign of how the year will go :)

I don't have much to report for the week, other than my excitement for Squee Weekend. We're sooo close - I am ready to be among my people.

My Conspiracy Challenge fic is inching along. I'm hoping that one of these nights I'll settle down and get a bunch of it done - I need to finish it up soon so I can get someone to look it over for me. It's definitely going to need some work lol.

I got my hair cut! It was shorter than I had envisioned, but I did tell the hairdresser to cut a lot off. I think I like it, and I was told today at work that it was cute by quite a few people. It'll be much easier to care for and not such an annoyance. Plus, it'll grow back *shrug*

( Cut for pic )

I finished up that beta I was doing. The author updated with a new chapter, and I'm probably biased, but I loved the fic and think everyone should read it. I know some people don't like to read WIPs but I beta'd this, so I can confidently say that it's like, 98% done. It has a resolution and everything, there were just some scenes the author wanted to fill out/edit.

Titles are hard, whether they be for fics or for journal posts.

( Complaints, musings, happiness )

Taken from rustler's post here

Now through October 16, the OTW is holding a membership drive to raise the funds needed for us to keep owning our own damned servers, plus supporting the Fanlore wiki, Open Doors archive and zine preservation efforts, legal advocacy services, the Transformative Works and Cultures journal and future projects down the line. OTW membership costs just $10 (USD) and also gives you a vote in the upcoming OTW Board of Directors election. If you've got more than that, there are some cool premium goodies available too.

What's extra cool is that right now there are not just one, but TWO matching grants available (one general grant, and a grant specifically honoring Sandy Herrold) which means that whatever you're able to contribute will be doubled! Details here. If you've been meaning to join or renew, this is a great time to do it.

AO3 [archive of our own] is part of Transformative Works, as well.