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 Chapter 3 of The Sensual World is now on Ash. I'm benefiting from a lovely new beta, who stepped in when other commitments meant my betas were no longer able to help out. She has done a super job getting me up and running. The fic is very well received, and after major reworking, I'm fairly pleased with it meself. It's not necessarily a good thing being a fan of one's own work, but you gotta like what you do.

Lay Me Low is fraught at the moment. It's a very important chapter, and I just can't concentrate on it. It's a pivotal part of the story, and damn if I just can't pull it together, I rewrote the previous chapter ten times and it was very well received, so I know I'm still making sense.

Didn't get to record yesterday, because there was a huge car crash in the area around the studio, and all the power lines were down. It was a mess. We are set to do it tomorrow, which doesn't please me at all. It means that instead of singing on a rested voice, I'm going to be tired from working all day and it will show in my voice. Oh well, I'm pretty sure of the song, so it'll be well.

Send sweet thoughts to my Muse, who is desperately trying to get my head around this chapter.
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The Hubs and I are getting ready to head back to ATL to take his kids back. It's been a great couple of weeks together. I feel wretched and out of sorts, because I know we'll have to say goodbye. We have laughed, eaten great food, engaged in great arguments (Daughter will argue with a sign post and has the debate logic of a string bean, and son is always right even when he isn't), and they've been great fun. They've been generous and sweet, buying us goodies and spoiling us (daughter bought me a great little trashy novel, from a publisher that I wish to persue for my original fic). Saying goodbye is going to be hard because we'll cry and will most of the way home, and I'm not looking forward to that.

It also means we have to make our big decisions now regarding the shop. We've put it off until they left, and now we have to make our decisions. Things were going pretty good, but now we have to make the big one - do we stay, or do we go? So many people are rooting for us to stay - I want it, but I'm not sure we can. I'm certainly not in the best frame of mind to make such important decisions today, so we'll put it off until we can get a week of work under our belts.

Writing Chapter 16 of LML. It is by far the hardest chapter I've written yet. I have literally stripped, it, sanded it down, repainted it, stripped it again, resanded and varnished it until it bears no resemblance at all to the original chapter. I am finally happy with it, but I've lost my betas, and my alpha is so snowed under with her other committments, I think I'm going to have to do this one myself. Poor mods at Ash! Last week, I only had one mistake on Chapter 15! Heaven knows what awaits me now!

I wrote a naughty little ficlet for Sempraseverus' birthday, called The Sensual World, and after I gave it to her I asked her to tell me if she thought it was worth posting, and she said she did, so I've posted the first two chapters for it. It is a tale of Dom/sub, with sub!Severus. It is not the typical Dom!Hermione fighting to subjugate the Potions master; it's more of a story of Hermione trying to learn to be a Dom in order to better assist Severus in healing. I don't bog down in the psychological aspects of a D/s lifestyle. I'm afraid I'd put my readers to sleep, but it's full of lemons and is just a piece of fun PWP - definitely NOT to be taken seriously!!

When we return, the Hubs has promised to get us started on the well-anticipated writing nook. I think we will need to occupy ourselves so we just don't sit around moping all evening. The house will be so quiet without them. The cats will miss them. So will I.
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Chapter 15 for Lay Me Low has been posted on Ashwinder, and I only had one cavity!!! Thanks to [livejournal.com profile] talesofsnape and [livejournal.com profile] lilyevans_snape for their alpha and beta magic. I'd really like your input on it, as you folks are my best audience.

Chapter 16 is a bugger. I thought it was going in one direction but ended up heading in another. *sigh* Dahlra, I hope you know what you are doing.
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Ashwinder posted Chapter 14 of Lay Me Low last night.  I feel pretty good about this chapter, which brings me to one of my writing quirks about Severus.

My Warped Philosophy On Talking Dirty and Fics That Feature It )

Anywhoo, I hope you enjoy, and I appreciate your feedback on this. I'm knee deep in a dark little fic which I unfortunately don't have the time to devote to writing as much this week, with the kids being here, but the Muse is keeping it warm for me until I can spend some quality time wiht the laptop. Happy days, y'all.
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Ashwinder posted the latest chapter of Lay Me Low (Chapter 12) and I'm ever increasingly grateful to my alpha and betas for getting me to the point where I only had five cavities on this (compared to the 40 I had on TPP for As Morning Falls Chapter 4 - lack of beta, anyone?).

I am still reeling from Sempra's stunning artwork for Chapter 10 and Chapter 11. She has done illustrations for Chapters 2 and 3 as well, and I'm just blown away by her, as always. I often say that our Muses are drinking buddies.

I posted a poem to LJ_Scribe yesterday, but just as I sent it off, I realised it was not an automatic posting, and was subject to the moderator's discretion whether or not it would be posted. It hasn't been, so I guess I didn't make the cut, but the dumb thing is that I wrote it on the posting - I have no other copy of it.

I know, dumb as a very dumb thing. I've written to the mod and asked if she would send it back to me, but if she doesn't, serves me right. I can be such a dope at times. At times, I'm amazed my birth certificate has finished printing.
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Meme snatched from [livejournal.com profile] subvers and [livejournal.com profile] savine_snape: Post the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous, and the first paragraph of each. Title is in Bold Blue:

The Family
-She stood in the middle of a large room, her long auburn hair damp with sweat and passion, falling in a tangle down her back. She was bound to a large X-shaped cross, and her arms and legs were shackled to each leg of the cross. She was breathing hard, but whether it was from fear or desire was uncertain. She was naked.

Staring At The Sun
-
The snow was starting to fall in earnest, and Hermione felt a childish satisfaction that it was sticking. It would be a big one, a snow that might cause power outages and interrupted Floo and train services. Hell, she might even get a day off from work, if the Ministry decided that the weather was bad enough. Crookshanks jumped up rather clumsily onto her desktop, and gave the window one of his patented double takes at the white clumps of ice falling from the sky. Hermione grinned and scratched his scabby head. Crooks still was amazed by the snow; he just didn’t want anyone to know it.

Lay Me Low -
He sat ,watching the girl sleep. He did that often now. It wasn't necessary, he told himself, and he wasn't needed, but he couldn't stop himself.  The fire smoldering in the fireplace was welcome down in the dungeons, even in summer, but the moisture in the castle walls of Hogwarts made the room as close and stuffy as a sauna. He smirked at the growing kinks in her already-untameable tresses, caused by the humid air. He was tempted to move her hair from her slightly shiny face, but he was afraid it would cause her to stir. She looked so peaceful, in spite of the wild mess fluffing around her face, he was loath to disturb her slumber.
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Chapters 10 and 11 of Lay Me Low were uploaded today. I also got the strangest review. The reader said she hated my story and everything about it, but couldn't stop reading it. WTF?

I was treated to an explanation of how she had a 16 year old granddaughter and the thought of men lusting after her granddaughter made her skin crawl and that everything about the storyline made her sick to her stomach, but that she had to keep reading it.

Ummm, am I supposed to thank her for hating my story but being unable to stop reading? Being the Southerner I am and innoculated with the litany of yes, ma'am, no ma'am, three bags full, I think I did actually thank her, but tried to explain that the character was not actually 16 and was 18 yada yada yada, but in reality I was thinking, WTF? I think this is the first time I've ever used that abbreviation, and the reader just made me use it twice. I didn't want to be rude, but it's just fanfic and I'm walking on eggshells as it is in this bloody story, and being essentially told your story is car-crash viewing isn't exactly a balm for the ego. Pfft. WTF? There, I've said it again.
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Ashwinder has just posted Chapter 9 of Lay Me Low, and my first review made me laugh. 'Erm, what about the cliff hanger at the end of Chapter 8?' I have a feeling I'm going to pay for that little McGuffin, of putting in a cliffie at the end of Chapter 8 and not resolving it until Chapter 10. I just couldn't help myself!

Big props to [livejournal.com profile] talesofsnape and [livejournal.com profile] dharkcharlotte for Alpha and Beta duties. I have another beta coming on board as well, so yay, I only had 4 cavities on this chapter! Big difference from the one they finally rejected because there were so many they lost count!
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Chapter 8 of Lay Me Low posted today, and boy, am I relieved! I was so afraid I was going to be rejected because HG/SS kiss - and she's seventeen. In my little AU world, she's about two months into being 18, so please don't hit me. I actually like this chapter a lot, but I've put in a cliff hanger that I don't actually pick back up and resolve until Chapter 10. I don't know if I'm a little evil writer, or if I'm just crap at the whole cliff - hanger concept. Probably a little bit of both!

Absolutely dead day at the shop - very nasty wasty weather predicted, which for the South meant cold air. People stayed in. The entire shopping district was dead. Thankfully, my chef made her famous Chicken/Corn Chowder (yes, I'm going to admit it's great), and it all sold out. She's also making this fabo chocolate/peanut butter cake that makes me happy to be alive, so hopefully tomorrow won't be so bad. If all else fails, we can still QC the cake.

I've had an offer for both an alpha and beta reader, so I'm thrilled beyond belief. Thanks to TalesofSnape and Dhark Charlotte for their kind offers, which I'm going to take up so fast it'll make your head spin. I feel better already.

The Hub's kids are coming in two weeks' time to visit, and my house looks like a cyclone hit it. Then I say to myself: write - clean - write - clean - write - clean. Guess which wins? Yep, I'm a lazy cow. A lazy cow that just loves to write.
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A Rather Dreary Rant About My Insecurities )

Sorry to blather again. On the other hand, I finished my coolio cork board and I'm so sad I had to upload a pic to show it off.

Pic-Spam of My Homemade Corkboard )

You know how I am. Tomorrow I'll be bright and happy again, convinced that this chapter is the latest thing since sliced bread. I would love to know someone else thought so, too.
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Good day at work. My Saturday girl was out (ski trip in Colorado - she works like a dog for me on Saturdays so I'm glad she's having some fun), and the Hubs and I worked like the proverbial canines today. The weather in the South is balmy - 60-something degrees today and everyone was out in it.

It's one of those evenings when the Hubs and I stagger into Little Caesars and yowl for a Hot-n-ready and some crazy sauce, drag ourselves in the house, feed the cats and eat pizza in our pajamas. It was lovely, but I'm craving chocolate, and the only chocolate in the house is - you guessed it - Smuckers Hot Fudge topping. I'm sitting here eating it with a spoon. Can I be anymore white trash?

Ashwinder uploaded LML Chapters 5 and 6 at the same time, and it's confused the daylights out of some readers. They keep reading chapter 6 and thinking something strange has happened. I myself think something strange has happened, because I'm getting more feedback on this fic than my first three fics all put together. I've never seen anything like it.

I've just uploaded Chapter 7, which raced out of me - the Muse was driving and I practically have no memory of typing parts of it - it went by so quickly. It is a favourite chapter of mine.

It occurs to me that I tend to use this journal entry to blah blah blah about my fiction, but it is such a big part of what I do. I feel absurdly guilty about not working on The Family right now, which is my original fiction, but I'm just having so much fun with my fanfic. Mimi would tell me not to make myself feel bad - that I' writing what my Muse wants. I know she is right. But is he also making me feel guilty about neglecting my other, original stuff? Or am I just a babbling airhead? I think the chocolate is overloading my brain.
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I was just brewing my coffee this morning - oh, who am I kidding - I was just popping a pod into the beloved Keurig, silently apologising to Irishredlass for being the coffee Philistine that I am, when 'bam!' the Muse gave me the entire rest of Lay Me Low. it all rushed into my head like it had been fuel-injected.

I knew the direction I wanted the story to take, but there was something in the back of my mind, a little niggling feeling that I was missing something - so there I am, yawning, scratching my stomach, waffling between the Timothy Horton's Winter Carnival or the Dark Roast Hazelnut, and there it was. Beautifully wrapped up and tied with a little, neat bow of green and silver. The one plot point that would sum up the entire story, give everyone's motivations justification and notch up the drama to boiling point.

It also didn't hurt that yesterday, Sempra, my visual Muse, drew one of the most devastatingly beautiful works of art I've ever seen based on the fic. AND is sending me the signed original. That made me sleep like a baby last night, and now the way ahead is smooth and clear. I have the best friends.

So, you see, Irishredlass, pod coffee has its benefits. It makes my Muse very excited, apparently. I will think of you fondly every time I reach for the Caribou medium roast. And I hope you have a safe trip and that you and Droxy make some really, really cool stuff this week.

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