Recent reading

[luzula]

I just wrote 700 words of Yuletide fic, and it feels glorious to be writing again! ♥ It's been almost a year.

Version Control by Dexter Palmer (audiobook read by January LaVoy)
I really liked the audiobook reader, and honestly I would probably have put the book down if I'd been reading rather than listening. Not that it was a bad book, and I'm not sorry I finished it, but it's not among my favorite of the year either. So what's it about? It is about 1) a family (mother, father, child), 2) the evils of big data, 3) time travel. The angle on time travel is fairly interesting, but I felt the book was a bit too long and a bit slow.

The Eye of the Heron by Ursula K. Le Guin
For my fannish book club. This book, OTOH, is very short. Le Guin is one of my favorite authors and this was one of the few books of hers that I hadn't read. But we all agreed it was a bit slight, and balanced on the fence between novella and novel in a way that made us wonder whether it shouldn't have been either shorter or longer. I mean, this was written after both The Left Hand of Darkness and The Dispossessed, both of which have so much more compexity and depth than this book. Anyway, the book is about conflict resolution among human settlers on an alien world. It does have something I always appreciate in Le Guin, though, which is a sense of community.

Comments

[isis]

Yay writing! Maybe if things go well, you could sign up for Chocolate Box in February - that's a great little exchange with a low minimum wordcount.

[luzula]

You know, I was actually thinking I should sign up for some other exchange than Yuletide next year, since it seems an assignment and a deadline is good for me. I'll check out Chocolate Box, but there's also the Jukebox exchange, Night on Fic Mountain, Exchange on Fic Corner, and the Femslash exchange. Any of those would probably work for me. Although of course the advantage of Yuletide is that it's so big that I'm almost guaranteed to find fandoms I can reliably offer.

[isis]

Yeah, I was only suggesting Chocolate Box because it's soon after Yuletide and the minimum wordcount's only 300. (So is Trick or Treat, but that's nearly due and so won't be happening again until next October!) I did Night on Fic Mountain and Femslashex this year and enjoyed them both. One nice thing about many of the other exchanges is that original works are eligible, with assignment by trope or character type (e.g. Princess/Rival Princess) so if you're really stuck for additional fandoms you can ask for or offer that.

But it's lovely to get back into writing again after a long period of drought. I hope your story flows well and you enjoy writing it.

[desireearmfeldt]

Yay writing!

[rachelmanija]

I really enjoyed FemslashEx. Jukebox is great if you want to essentially write original fiction to a prompt/inspiration.

[luzula]

*reads up on Chocolate Box*

That does sound interesting! Thanks for the tip. : )

And yeah, I'm having good flow, or at least I wrote 700 words at one go and was really happy with them. This fandom is a good fit for my writing style, I think. How's your assignment going?

[luzula]

I've gone and subscribed to the DW comms for a bunch of these exchanges now, so I will at least be reminded when they are happening.

Actually I sort of wrote something for Jukebox once, or at least, I didn't participate in the exchange, but I was struck with inspiration by one of the songs.

[luzula]

I know, it feels so good! \o/

[calvinahobbes]

Yay for writing! I randomly read one of my old fics because it got kudos, and I had one of those, "This ain't half bad! Did I write this?" moments, which made me really want to write something again. I think I even have an idea, so I hope I can just rattle that off this week.

[isis]

I've only looked at my assignment briefly because I'm concentrating on Trick or Treat until the end of the month, but it's a fandom and character request I'm comfortable with. I've been writing a lot this year, though, a few more fests than I typically commit to.

[luzula]

Ha, yeah, I have reread old fics and had that feeling, too.

Yep. You sure can write....

[jesse_the_k]

http://archiveofourown.org/works/694242

Hot little Benton/Meg action made me long for a bunk somewhere zero-G.

Re: Yep. You sure can write....

[luzula]

Awww, thanks! : ) It's funny you choose that fic--I actually reread it pretty recently.

I remember I had a whole backstory I was going to write about Meg and Benton in the space equivalent of Depot, being rivals for the best-in-class position. Then they were shut up in a small space together for some case shenanigans and made out, but of course they were too proud to talk about it afterwards. And then a few years after they graduate, they're assigned to work together, and slowly develop respect and partnership. With tons of UST and finally-resolved-ST, of course. Alas, it was never written.

Re: Yep. You sure can write....

[jesse_the_k]

Space Depot -- quite an image. Thanks for the sketch, I'll be fiddling with it on the bus.