greetings from the left coast

Following up on my last post, it's reveal time! For ineedmyfics I went old-school and wrote...

Boom Boom Boom (3217 words) by r_lee
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Battlestar Galactica (2003)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Galen Tyrol/Sharon "Boomer" Valerii
Characters: Sharon "Boomer" Valerii, Galen Tyrol, Kara Thrace, Karl Agathon
Additional Tags: Pre-Canon
Summary: One of these days, Boomer would stick the landing.

One of these days.

I also wrote a treat:

The Monster (1009 words) by r_lee
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Divergent Series - Veronica Roth
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Caleb Prior
Summary: "Anger is the enemy of non-violence and pride is a monster that swallows it up." - Mahatma Gandhi

A Caleb Prior character study.

That was fun. If you read, let me know. I've spent a lot of time recently feeling like I can't write fanfic well any more, but I think these came out okay.

If anyone feels like writing fanfic, we just opened up all the prompts for our fic exchange. You don't have to have signed up to participate, and there's no minimum length required. The collection goes live on September 21 at 9pm EDT.

Fandoms requested ( in sneakily alphabetical order )

All you need is an AO3 account. I can't imagine anyone reading this who doesn't have one yet, but if you don't and want one, hit me up for it.

They're live! Signups will be open until July 12 at 9PM Eastern. I hope some of you join in the fun.

I can't imagine anyone reading this will need an AO3 invite, but I have some if you'd like one, just let me know.

Cheers! We have some great fandoms on our list. I'm excited for this exchange!

Yup, lostinapapercup and I are running I Need My Fics again this year. The schedule's here. Hope some of you out there are in the mood for YAFE (Yet Another Fic Exchange).

If you feel like writing a fic, all the prompts for I Need My Fics are available now on AO3 right here. I have my eye on... oh, about 90% of them, but I always say that. The story reveal is on Monday at 9pm EDT, but we leave the prompts up forever. Or for whenever!

In other news, my mother-in-law is getting settled nicely into her new place. I realize I'm probably in the minority in the grand history of daughters-in-law when I say it's great having her five minutes down the street. Am I spending more time with her? Yes, but it's pretty delightful.

We're getting a new garden! This was supposed to happen back in May, but all good things take their time, I guess. The plants arrive today and will be put in tomorrow. When we first moved here the garden was filled with plants that require a heavy amount of water (roses, hydrangea, lawn, and so on). Since we're in a serious drought, we had to redo our sprinkler system to one that uses far less water and change the plants to those that are drought-tolerant. (Sometimes it's expensive being eco-sensitive, but it's so worthwhile.) We have a recirculating source of water for the birds now, and by next week will have a much more viable garden with no grass to mow and no water hogs requiring a lot of maintenance.

Writing... not so much. I had inspiration for a story and wrote the first paragraph, but I'm still letting the plot sort of settle in my mind. I wrote a little thing on characterization on Wordpress if anyone's interested. Also, both Happily Ever Afterlife and Dragonthology are free to borrow on Amazon if you've got a Kindle account and Amazon Prime. (If you don't, they're still both available for purchase.)

I'm thinking hard about NaNo. I might save this new novel idea for November, which isn't so very far away. I can do the necessary research first and maybe come up with an outline. I'll see; it's tempting.

Tonight's the last night to sign up for I Need My Fics (signups close tomorrow night at 9 EDT). Once we get all the assignments out, I promise I'll stop talking about it until stories are posted, then I'll pimp it all over again.

In unrelated news, I've been in California for almost a year! I was thinking about that today. Time sure does fly. In some ways I'm starting to feel like a local, but in most ways, I still feel like a transplanted Oregonian. At least I can get around on my own (without the GPS) mosts of the time. It's been a little bit of a crazy transition.

I've been busy with travel and family stuff, feeling pretty disconnected from everyone here. I hope you all are well and happy and filled with contentment.

I'm trying to be good and not over-pimp. I'm guessing no one needs to hear about this every day! But I'm excited about our exchange. We have over a hundred fantastic fandoms nominated already. If you want to join the fun, nominations are open until the 28th, then signups start.

In other news, I've been doing a bunch of digital art, which I haven't posted anywhere because I don't think it's good enough. I was given an iPad mini and bought myself a stylus and a pretty great program called Procreate, so I'm re-investigating all the art training I've put aside all these years in favor of writing and reading and massage and all those other good things.

Somewhere in there I managed to catch up on this season of Orange is the New Black, which I liked a lot. With Game of Thrones over for the time being and Orange watched, I've been trying to decide what else to watch. What are your favorite series? Why? Do you think I'd like them?

Today my kid and I went to see How to Train Your Dragon 2. The animation in it was pretty spectacular, I have to say. Better than I was expecting! I realized this was the first movie I've gone to see since moving -- I am... ashamed. We almost went for Maleficent so maybe we'll do that later in the week.

Happy summer, all. I hope you're well. (It makes me feel old to think that the song I'm listening to is 20 years old. What the hell, time.)