spacemutineer | Entries tagged with personal

Thanks to everyone for the kind words and thoughts. It means everything to know I have such kind friends who care about me.

Kitty is doing well. We're letting her be free from her plastic cone tonight, so she is happily washing and scratching her ears. Feels better to see her like that. :)

Trigger warning for sad pet stuff.

I'm sitting here frustrated with myself because I really need to get cracking on writing a bunch of things right now, particularly my story for

acd_holmesfest and

sherlock60 stuff, but I am having the hardest time concentrating. Feeling depressed, I guess.

We just found out one of our two cats has cancer last week. She had surgery, but it is very likely it will come back. It usually does. The vet referred me to a pet oncologist, which I thought was ludicrous. I love my cat, but I am not going to pay thousands of dollars to torture her in a way I can't explain to her to buy a few extra sickly months. She's happy now (or will be once the Elizabethan collar comes off) and we'll keep her as happy we can as long as we can. And then when we can't anymore, we will try to make another rescue cat happy as we can as long as we can. It's all we can do for our pets. We'll always outlive them.

It's easy to say that logically, but it's hard not to be upset about it emotionally. She's my silly stupid fatty girl, and whenever she leaves, I will miss her terribly. I dread the concept of having to decide when is her time.

But for all my feelings on what's happening, the cat herself is oblivious. She's livid about that plastic collar, and she gets annoyed by all the extra close snugglings she gets. She never did like things close to her face, plastic or human. But during breaks from her collar, she's as excitable and sprightly as ever. May it last.

I am having an internal debate about whether to post the first chapter of the new work in progress I have.

It's what I was working on for National Novel Writing Month, although I changed directions somewhat since then. The first chapter is done (and most of the second chapter as well, along with many disconnected later parts). I love it.

The issue is this -- I don't write linearly. I write in fits and starts and in bits and pieces. Eventually those pieces sort of coalesce and I have a story. This work in progress is the longest thing I've ever written, the longest thing I've ever tried to write. I don't know how long it will take, but knowing me, it's likely to be a long time.

I have one work in progress already out, a promised prompt fill that I am already extremely overdue for. I wouldn't have posted it unfinished if it hadn't been a prompt. Normally, I don't go for posting works in progress. And now I'm considering having two out at the same time.

So, if you've read this ramble this far, drop a comment and tell me what I should do. I'm just not sure. I'm excited about my new story and want to show off my shiny toy, but should I wait until the whole thing comes together first?

So I've been at this fic writing for a while now, and I am gradually accumulating quite a pile of bits and pieces of stories. Some of it is fairly useless until I flesh it out a bit, just ideas and snippets of dialogue. But some of my bits and pieces are whole scenes that I like and want to do something with.

The problem is, I'm not always ready to work them into a complete form. So I'm going to try something new, since I write slowly and haven't posted much of anything in a while. I'm going to start posting some of these random unconnected scenes and seeing what happens. Maybe they'll jostle something loose and I can keep going with them. Or perhaps not. But it seems pointless to me to just leave them sitting on Google Docs collecting digital dust.

I'm a little reluctant to call them fics, since they're often just first parts of stories, introductions to a plot ideas I had in my head at some point. They're not complete by any means, but there's no rule that says I have to finish something up completely, right? There aren't rules here; I can experiment. Plenty of writers I love on here post disconnected scenes and intro cliffhangers all the time -- why can't I? So, I that's what I'm going to try. We'll see how it goes. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I'll post the first one today or tomorrow. I sent it out for a beta read, but my poor dear beta is on a well-earned and deserved break, so it may be going up a bit rough. Oh, well. Perfectionist me needs to shut up a little anyway.

I've been craving pretty desperately to dive into a new short story, but so far have come up dry for good ideas. What I do have rolling around in my head is either too complex to make into something relatively short (sub 2000 words, I would hope) or just simply not kicking me into gear at the moment.

I've been trolling

shkinkmeme for days for ideas, but that's been bone dry as well. Is there anywhere else to look for quality prompts? I have found little. I've been reading, hoping that would spark something for me, but so far nothing.

In the meantime while I search for something that really strikes me, I'm trying to fiddle with some partially written bits I came up with previously. Maybe one of them will catch for me. The first is actually (somewhat ludicrously) a western of all things. There have been a couple of prompts for westerns on the meme and since I love to try new genres, I've been tooling around with it. I like it to a degree, but currently it is long on atmosphere and short on plot. The other fragment I'm playing with is about Holmes as a scientist, which is an idea I am extremely attracted to. I think I have a good understanding of where I want to go with this one and I do like it quite a bit, but it's just not flowing for me at the moment. I'll try some stream-of-consciousness brainstorming today; see if I can't jostle myself out of this writer's block.

I'm currently tinkering with a new story idea. It has some meat to it, which I like, but would require a large amount of work. I don't know if I'll use it or not. Thought of putting it on the kmeme, but it's much too involved an idea for that. Although it is rather slashy.

Anyway, the idea is this: Some gentlemen show up at 221b from the British government. They tell Holmes his brother is missing and they need him to come take his place for something important, which they will not describe. When pressed, they say that Mycroft has run off with his mistress.

Now, Holmes knows right away something isn't right. Mycroft is gay. So either the government men are lying or Mycroft has gone off with a strange woman for unknown reasons, willingly or not. Either way, it is a potentially very dangerous situation for Mycroft. And for Holmes too, because if the government men are lying, what do they want Holmes for? Are they really government men? Is there even really a woman at all?

Suddenly, he has to be very careful who he can trust. He has to talk his way away from the government men and figure this out. Even Watson is a serious problem, because while he is trustworthy, homosexuality is still illegal and Holmes has a number of reasons he'd rather not broach the subject. Not the least of which is the fact that Holmes is gay as well and has been hopelessly in love with Watson for years now.

As of right now, that's what I have. I don't even know what route I would choose through the story. It has a lot of interesting possibilities, though. What I especially like about it is that is has a real mystery at its heart. The slash is brought about incidentally from that mystery. That always appeals to me. Anyway, the idea is free. If anyone wants to tinker with it, please do. I'll keep playing with it too. We'll see where it goes.

(On a side note, I'm also being called by a meme prompt for a bad ending verion of the Devil's Foot experiment... the imagery there is already percolating in my head. Have to consider that one too if I can, maybe tonight. Too much IRL stuff coming up. This whole month is a mess.)

Nothing new to post yet, although I have a number of things cooking:

1. A short story that could be described as a crossover of sorts, although it is more fair to say I am merely borrowing a cup of plot from elsewhere. It seems like two great tastes that will taste great together, although it is slightly in the supernatural realm and I hadn't meant to go there with Holmes. But it's a neat idea brewing and we'll see where it goes.

2. An amnesia story, which, while as a plot line is hopelessly contrived and cliché, is still a fun toy to play with. Holmes and Watson are such excellent action figures to put in different, fun scenarios.

3. I have some good ideas for my novel and have been outlining as much as I can. This is my first attempt at anything of this length, and I want to lay a good groundwork for it. It's also my first real experience plotting a full mystery story and it has been extremely fun to try to leave myself breadcrumbs of clues along the way for Holmes to find.

4. My first foray into the realm of the

shkinkmeme. Wanted to post an idea, then realized it made more sense if I just did it myself. I have never written anything like this before. I have a good, sexy idea but it has been hard to get those ideas and images into text. At this point, I have one excellent (if I do say so myself) line for the end and one and a half paragraphs at the beginning. Progress is slow.

Being new to LJ, I suppose I require a bit of an introductory post. I'm currently working on a Sherlock Holmes story I think will end up as a novel, and I find myself often sidetracked with other, smaller projects. I've been away from writing for a while, but it's coming back to me and it's been exciting and fun.

Right now I'm working exclusively in Sherlock Holmes. Gen for the most part, although I may dabble in the other end of the pool at some point. I tend toward angst (can be severe), particularly in shorter pieces. I'd love for you to take a look and let me know what you think.