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It's been so long since I've posted anything on here. I don't even know how long. I don't know if anything will come of it or not, bit I have this INSANE plot bunny running around in my head that has characters from Supernatural, Buffy, Angel, and Dr. Who. But Supernatural is from dimension 1, most of the Buffy characters are from dimension 2, the rest are from dimension 3, the one Angel character (not Angel) is from dimension 3, and the Doctor who character, possibly two, I haven't decided yet, is/are from dimension 4. There is also a 5th dimension. Supernatural is dimension 1 because it is the only one that will run true to it's TV show universe up to the point of this story. Buffy's storyline and the character from Angel's storyline will have diverged. The Doctor Who character or two will probably fit right back into their storylines due to time travel.

Time runs at different speeds in each dimension, but it also gets messed up a little with what happens in the story, so it takes place late in season 5 of Buffy, but doesn't match what season of Angel it would be then. It takes place post season 5 of Supernatural, even though that was years after Buffy ended. The Doctor Who character/s was/were well after Buffy ended and might have been congruent with Supernatural, I'd have to check. Not that it matters, time and dimensions have run amok.

So far I've written a little over 1000 words. I wrote it on the 12th, my 53rd birthday. Maybe I gave myself a present, getting back into the writing game. I need to pull my thoughts together more and try to iron out an outline. I haven't written anything at all in maybe two years, I think, so anything that gets that going again is a good thing, even if it ends up going nowhere. Even if I do write it, I'd have no idea where to post it. I don't know if there will be enough Dr. Who content to put it up on Teaspoon. I have stayed far away from the Supernatural online fandom for the most part. It might be great at conventions, but online it got a little crazy. I'd read a bit here and there, but I didn't participate in conversations because they often devolved into fights between factions.

I was active in the BtVS fandom back in the day under a different name. I didn't write in it, but that was bulletin board stuff and there were a lot of word limits due to space constraints. LJ, while it existed, was not then what it became later, and I wasn't on it until well after I started posting DW fic on Teaspoon. When I was in the Buffy fandom, Google was a brand new sparkling baby, having to compete hard with Ask Jeeves. Most people still didn't know what it was when Willow said her famous line about "googling her" in Conversations with Dead People. Now people don't know what Ask Jeeves was.

I only ever wrote one Buffy fic and that was a fix it fic for myself, because I hated the whole way things ended with Spike and Buffy's last scene in season six so I rewrote it so it didn't happen, but Spike was still driven to leave and get his soul back. I was so angry that those writers would do that to them. I was content to read others' stories. Nothing really got me fired up to write until the end of season 2 of Doctor Who. That broke me and I wrote fix it after fix it. But I digress.

Anywho, I'm going to give it a whirl and see how it goes. It may go nowhere at all. I'll see if I can get a few chapters banged out in the next few weeks before I'll even think of actually posting anything. Don't want to just post an introductory chapter and never post anything on it again. And yes, I know I have about 3 or 5 other stories that I need to finish, but there are not "finish me" plot bunnies nipping at my heels. There is this.

I've only ever written one crossover fic and it was a one shot with Claude Raines from Heroes and Rose Tyler from Doctor Who. This is not a one shot. I don't think it will be an epic, but it will definitely be a decent multi-chapter if I can get it off the ground. I'll write if for me if for no one else. I love these fandoms and I love writing. If anything can get me back in the habit so I can get back to work on novel writing, I'll be more than happy to pound it out.

Working Title is Dimensions Torn Open.

Sorry, I don't even remember how to do a cut so you all aren't hit with a wall of text. Is there anyone still around who can remind me?

All Personal Entries in this Journal Will Now be Locked.

Fic Shall Remain Open

This Master Fic List is Under Construction. I will be adding links in on a daily basis, so bear with me while I get this up to speed. It is 99% completed at this point. It is mostly Doctor Who and broken down by Doctor, but my meager Fringe and Castle drabbles are at the end.

( Nine, Ten, Ten2 and Eleven )

Snagged this from earlgreytea68

1. Are you an Essential Worker? No.

2. How many drinks have you had since the quarantine started? None. I don't like alcohol.

3. If you have kids... Are they driving you nuts? Yes, but they always do that.

4. What new hobby have you taken up during this? No new ones, but we are expanding the garden by a lot. We're worried about the food supply chain and we have the space.

5. How many grocery runs have you done? Two since February 7th.

6. What are you spending your stimulus check on? We aren't spending it. It went straight into the Emergency Fund. DH is working from home for now, but we don't know for how long. We are putting everything we can in savings.

7. Do you have any special occasions that you will miss during this quarantine? Already did. We had to reschedule our 25th Wedding Anniversary trip in mid-March. We have rescheduled for mid-May, but may have to reschedule again. Depends on when this thing lifts. Or if it lifts.

8. Are you keeping your housework done? The basics, yes.

9. What movie have you watched during this quarantine? Contagion, Pandemic, and Outbreak, along with a few apocalypse movies and zombie movies. End of the world, much?

10. What are you streaming with? Netflix and Hulu. Watching a lot of YouTube, too. Main thing we are watching is on Hulu, a show called The Last Ship about a Navy ship during a...viral outbreak. It's good.

11. 9 months from now is there any chance of you having a baby? No.

12. What's your go-to quarantine meal? I'm cooking as usual. I've added a few things in like beans with ham hocks or having more rice. We had a lot of meat in the freezer and most veggies never were out of our markets for long, so it didn't change much.

13. Is this whole situation making you paranoid? In the beginning, but I think I had Covid in February, so not as much now. I do wear a mask out, though. I worry more about where our rights are going to go with some of these draconian measures, but at the same time, I'm staying home unless I have to go out. I also worry about the people who are running out of money to buy food. I am worried there might be food riots if this gets bad enough. Our food bank is running out of food and not getting enough donations.

14. Has your internet gone out on you during This time? No more than usual. Upload speeds are laggy, though. But streaming has been fine.

15 What month do you predict this all ends? I don't have a clue. I was hoping by May, but that doesn't seem likely, what with their fears of a new outbreak in the fall.

16. First thing you’re gonna do when you get off quarantine? Get my hair cut, but not for a week. I want all the other people to clear out of the salons before I go in.

17. Where do you wish you were right now? I just want to be in the little cottage by the sea that we were going to go to for our anniversary. I miss going to the bay and to the lake and to the creek and to the local waterfall. Being near water is something my soul craves.

18. What free-from-quarantine activity are you missing the most? Fishing, crabbing, prawning. I want to go out on DH's boss's boat.

19. Have you run out of toilet paper and hand sanitizer? No. I sent DH out for two cases of Charmin the day the first person died in Washington state. I've read all the apocalypse books. I know what goes first. I also ordered 2 big bottles of hand sanitizer that day from Amazon since we have to get the dye free, unscented kind due to allergies. We wash our hands as much as possible and save the hand sanitizer for when we are out, like after getting cash from the bank, or going in a store or the pharmacy or the doctor's office (the few that let you come in at all). We keep one bottle in the van and one in the truck. We've not used it much.

20. Do you have enough food to last a month? Yes. The chest freezer is 3/4 full and the canning shelves still have a lot of jars on them.

Happy Birthday, Dev.

Breakthtaking

The oxygen was nearly gone. All the usual methods of escape were denied them. The Doctor watched as the color slowly left Rose’s face, her shallow breaths becoming almost nonexistent. Her eyes met his as she dropped the respirator.

“Love you,” she managed as they closed.

In desperation he activated his respiratory bypass and pressed his lips to hers. “Take my breath, Rose.”

She inhaled and the life rushed back into her lungs. He’d keep her alive as long as he could.
They came ten minutes later, expecting corpses. Their mistake was opening the door. He took their breath away.

My word count sits at 3923, so I am behind schedule, but plan to write more tonight. Word sprints seem to work for me, where I set a timer for an hour and just go, go, go. My novel sits at 48,193 as of right now. It is good to get back in the swing of things and not be procrastinating on this anymore.

There is something about paths, Rose Tyler thinks, which she hates. It’s the deception of them. It’s the invitation that leads you forward to explore and to find new and wondrous things. It’s the expectation that if so many people have been down this path before, it must lead to something fantastic. Rose doesn’t like those paths. They always lie. She adjusts the Dimension Cannon and tries again.

The first time it happens she is so close. It is three days before she loses him and one day after they’ve made private vows to each other. Nothing like “in sickness and in health,” but as binding as any formal ceremony ever could be. She’s in time to see them kissing just past the roses and it hurts, because it’s been so long and she aches to have that with him again. Wrong path, wrong time. Try again.

The second time it happens she’s not sure at first it is even him. He’s short, his hair is curly, and he’s just stepped out of the TARDIS when he’s shot. She stands in shock, knowing he’s had other lives and realizing that this one is ending, again, in front of her. Her heart tells her to run forward, to try to help, to interfere, but her head is cool, calm, calculating. If he doesn’t die here and now, he might not turn into her doctor at the appointed time. Don’t change history, Rose. She hates herself for turning around and walking away, down a path that leads her back into darkness.

She emerges the third time at the place she grew up. It’s New Year’s Eve and the bells are ringing. She sees him lurking in the darkness, sees herself, too young, she’s too young, she hasn’t even met him yet! What is he playing at? She hears the murmur of voices, realizes they’re speaking. She remembers that night, the drunken stranger in the shadows telling her what a great year she’s about to have. And she did, with a man who wore a different face, but was still the being before her, emitting artron energy. He’s about to die and the last face he wanted to see was hers. She’s too late. She turns away. She won’t watch him die again. She adjusts the device.

The fourth time, Torchwood technology has advanced. She’s found a way to scan through time, found a creature who can change someone’s path, arranges for it to find Donna Noble, who is now the most important woman to her future, to Earth’s future, to the Doctor’s future. Turn Left, Turn Right, toss the coin, cheat fate, control the path, control Donna’s outcome, control her own. She almost gets it right. She will next time, if the madness doesn’t take her first.

The fifth attempt is the right one. He’s here. Right time, right place, right in front of her. Her mind cascades into fragments, so many paths branching before her, and before she can even choose the right one, she’s running, he’s running, and they are in each other’s arms and her mind is crystal, back in a solid state. They save the world, of course they do, and she thinks maybe now everything will be all right. They are together, as it should be, and nothing else matters, nothing will ever part them again. This path is illusion.

She doesn’t get to walk the final path with him. He abandons her and yet doesn’t. He tears from her her choice of him, of time, of space, of adventure. Settles her down and rips all the branches away. One path left, one she never wanted to walk, one she’s left to walk with someone who is half stranger and half her heart. There is another version of the cannon. She could go back, rip her way across time and space one more time, walk that path with him, give him a piece of her mind. The other him knows what she is thinking.

“Could you really?” he asks, his r ringing with a soft burr.

She makes up her mind, shakes her head no, and the madness clears. She’s tired. She won’t walk that path. She never could.

“You’ve still got me,” he says echoing words she said to another him a lifetime ago. There is no uncertainty in his voice, but his eyes betray him.

She takes his hand and smiles at him, keeping the tears in her eyes at bay. “Not a bad life,” she says. “Not a bad life at all.”

Current Mood: melancholy

So I've watched the pilot episode of Roswell, New Mexico and so far I have to say that it is as good as the original Roswell. They've updated it, of course. The kids are adults and ten years past high school instead of being in high school and the CW being what it is, they've changed things by making Maria black instead of Italian (well, she might still be Italian, too) and Michael and Alex gay.

While I think it was a good choice to make Alex gay, I'm bummed about Michael being gay (or maybe he'll be bi) because Michael and Maria's relationship on the original show was the best thing in the world. It was so well written and so real and more the heart of the show for me than Max and Liz. I mean, don't get me wrong, I loved Max and Liz, too, but they were always so much drama and Michael and Maria were pretty much the constant you could hold on to and really what I was looking forward to revisiting most.

On the other hand, Michael's and Alex's chemistry is so far off the charts that it will be nearly impossible not to root for them. So my poor shipper heart is torn. Plus Michael was just the best character on the show, period. Alex wasn't gay in the original series, either, he was in love with Isobel. But Isobel is married here, so that's not an option anyway.

I'm not sure if I like Isobel, but then Katherine Heigl left some big shoes to fill. And I do have to remember that the character of Isobel was not written as immediately likable in the original series, either, and was, and is here as well, kind of hypocritical. As in Max couldn't have love with a human, but it was fine when she did it.

The casting is very well done. While I don't recognize the girls playing Liz or Maria, the guy playing Max is the guy who played Jackson on The Originals. Kyle is played by Michael Trevino, who was Tyler on The Vampire Diaries and The Originals. The guy playing Alex is Hannah's boyfriend Caleb from Pretty Little Liars. So a whole lot of gorgeous to look at.

Other changes are that Liz had an older sister (deceased) instead of being an only child, her father is an undocumented immigrant, her mother seems to not be around, they've made Liz Latina, which she wasn't in the series, but was in the book, so her last name is Ortecho instead of Parker, as in the book. I don't know why they changed it back then. Of course that was the WB and it was very white bread back then. And her dead sister is responsible for the death of two other girls (except I don't think she is, I think Isobel mind altered something with that situation), so the town hates Liz's family and is why she hasn't been back in ten years. Otherwise, it is pretty close, other than them being older.

It is set during their high school reunion. Liz isn't there for that, she's back home because her job lost it's funding. As in the original, Max saves Liz's life when she is shot in the diner, the glowy handprint (which is rainbow instead of silver and very cool) shows up later, and as in high school, grown up Liz takes a DNA sample from Max (she's a scientist) and discovers he's not exactly fully human. They do the reveal of the alien pods much earlier, I think, only this time there are only three, which makes me think they likely won't be introducing Tess into the mix. And if you think Katherine Heigl is impossible to replace, try replacing Emilie de Ravin. I'm not sure I want Tess in the mix anyway. She was always a spoiler character, brought in to wreck Max and Liz. But I did love the way baby Emilie played her.

Oh, another change is that Kyle is a doctor, which I don't think he really had the grades for in the original series. Oh, and Kyle's dad is not the sheriff, he's dead, and his mom is the sheriff. And Max is a deputy.

I do think they did a very good job in paying tribute to the original (unlike, oh, so unlike the Charmed reboot, which is total crap) without copying it completely. Although some of the new Liz's inflections were dead on to Shiri Appleby's. Maria seems completely unlike the original. She is a little kooky in her dress and is a psychic, but she is very unlike the original and I think that I am going to miss that too much. Majhandra was just such an amazing actress. Another set of big shoes to fill. So far I'm not terribly impressed, but she's barely had any screen time so that might change. I just worry she'll be a background character when she was such a force to be reckoned with in the original. The actress seems adorable, but again, not much else to go on. I hope she can sing and they don't abandon that part of Maria.

All in all, I am very pleased so far with this reboot. They did it BSG style and that is what it deserved.

I haven't been able to write much this last week, with having to schlep to Seattle and back and it absolutely wrecking my body. Long car trips and rheumatoid arthritis do not mix and the inflammation it caused is only now going down. Then this week is being spent preparing for my daughter's surgery, which happens on Tuesday. We are going down on Wednesday night to stay at the hotel that is next to the hospital. We haven't been assigned our surgery time yet, just the day, and won't know what it is until the day before. If it turns out she has to be there at 6:00 a.m., we'll be down there and just have to crawl out of bed and get her there. We don't even have to go outside since the hotel is connected to the hospital. Since it is supposed to snow on Thursday at least we won't have to travel on a time limit with snow coming down.

Tomorrow I should have some time to write, though and hopefully will get the next chapter of Three Hour Tour finished.

Ch. 12 of Three Hour Tour is up on Teaspoon.

https://www.whofic.com/viewstory.php?sid=38595&chapter=12

Well, I've almost finished chapter twelve of Three Hour Tour. I have about 600 words to go. The plot is moving along quite nicely. I hope to get it finished in the afternoon and beta'd in the evening.

I did spend some time working on plotting the novel, too, but not as much as I'd hoped. Devian's storyline is being stubborn. That's usually a sign that I don't like something, but I'm having a hard time figuring out what.

I've started planning my spring and summer garden. I don't think I will grow as many types of things this year as usual. And I'm going to grow a lot more onions. I almost didn't get a bag of candy sweets this year, it was the last one they had, so I am going to grow 3 units (about 50 to 60 plants per unit). They keep for a long time. I've had them keep 6 months before sprouting. It could be longer, but I've always used them up by then. It's the only sweet onion I've ever had that kind of luck with. Most sprout much faster. That's a year supply. And when they start to sprout, I can chop and freeze them.

I've picked out what I think I will grow, but now I need to sketch it out on my graph paper garden notebook. I am getting anxious for spring. We haven't had a super cold winter. No snow and only a few nights with a hard frost. Mostly it has been wet or overcast. I am hoping that means spring will come early this year. But then I always hope that.

So this will come as a surprise to anyone who is still hanging around from the DW fandom, but I wrote a chapter on Three Hour Tour. It's up now on Teaspoon as I can't even remember how to do cuts anymore.

https://www.whofic.com/viewstory.php?sid=38595&chapter=11

I started working on the book again today. I had to skip ahead a couple of chapters from where I left off because the next chapter wasn't wanting to come out. I wrote 1008 words on that chapter and during the creative process there I figured out what I needed to figure out for the chapter that didn't want to come out. I am going to write some more on the one I am currently working on, though, before heading back to it. What was coming out was stuff I need to lead up to, and now I can. Well, tomorrow I can. But I am writing again and I did achieve flow state, so yay me!

Now that my brain is functioning again, I need to set some rules for my Youtube watching habit, which has been heading into major time wasting mode. That was fine when I was sick, but I am well enough to be productive and upright again, so no more of that. So, no Youtube until I've written 1000 words, then I can watch a half hour, then 1000 more words, and another half hour, then finish the chapter and then I don't care.

More and more backstory is coming into my head, too. I definitely will have to write the novel that precedes this one, even if it is set several decades prior to this one. There also might be one set between the two when Davina, Zyreece and Corwin were apprentices and into their adulthood, that also covers up to the birth of Davina's third child. I think ending with her birth would set up the novel I'm working on nicely, but...I have to flesh out all the ideas I am having for that one. I am dumping ideas into a file as they come to me, so they don't sidetrack me, but I also don't lose them.

Alright, back to the novel. It is good to be making progress again.

I am so tired of this flipping cold. I'm coughing again and it is keeping me up. The trip to Seattle really set me back. It is making it impossible to work on the book. I lack so much focus. I am, however, dreaming this series in my head like crazy. I don't generally remember my dreams, but this week I have and they are very vivid. My main OTP has been very active in my dream life. Which is great, because I am remembering it all, but I don't have the energy to write it out right now. I am jotting notes, but that is the extent of it. I really hope I remember it all.

If I still feel this crappy after Christmas, I will drag myself to the doctor and make sure this didn't do something dramatic, like turn into walking pneumonia. I probably need steroids and antibiotics. If I get the former, I should get a boat load of writing done, though.

We did find a doctor who is willing to do the surgery on my daughter at Virginia Mason, despite the risk factors. So the trip to Seattle was worth it. VM is much better than the UW doctor, who didn't care at all. The doctor gave her nerve pain blockers since opiods don't work. First relief she's had since she was 16. She's sleeping through the night again.

They will be calling later this week to schedule the surgery. I am just so glad someone is finally willing to do something.

It's nice to see so many people coming back to LJ and Dreamwidth. I have hopes that the Tumblr/Twitter debacle will bring a few more people trickling back in.

I finally woke up with unblocked ears today. I am not sure if I had two different things or one thing evolved into something else, but it was pretty vile. I think it started as bronchitis and then evolved into a head cold. All I know is today I can hear properly again. It was not the flu. No joint pain or muscle aches and no headache. All just respiratory. I slept a lot. Probably 14 to 16 hours a day for several days. I still don't feel normal, but I think by tomorrow I should be able to start cooking dinner again.

I am going to try to work on the book a little tonight and try to get some writing time in tomorrow. It depends how well I am able to focus. I haven't even looked at it in ten days. But I have been doing some thinking the last couple of days, mostly on how Callais is going to react to another character's ultimatum. I have three ways I can go with it and I've been dithering with which one to choose. I may have to write out each one and then decide which one I like better. I hate to waste time writing out scenes I won't use, but sometimes that is the best way to do things.

I did figure out something to do for a marriage ritual, like how Jewish people break a glass or how some black people jump the broom, or some cultures do a hand-fasting ceremony, or how Westeros has the man put his cloak around the woman to bring her under his protection.

More and more plot elements of the following book are coming together as well and also I've got so much history and back story I could do a prequel. Or make that book one. We'll see. Okay, enough procrastinating. Time to open Word and write at least 500 words just to get me back in the swing of it again.

It's been a crap week for writing. Well, the last seven days. I did write chapter sixteen and then got about 1000 words into chapter seventeen and decided that I didn't want that scene to happen so early in the story. So I put the scene in my cut scene folder and then stared at the new blank chapter seventeen for a long time and then closed it up and then promptly came down with bronchitis. Or what I think is bronchitis. It might just be the creeping crud, but it hurts in the bronchials, especially when I cough, which I am trying not to do, but it is almost impossible. Add to that that I am allergic to most cough medicine/cough drops and I am pretty miserable. I'd make up a batch of elderberry syrup if I felt better. I hope this leaves soon. I hate feeling like my temperature is 8000 degrees.

I have been doing a lot of plot thinking though, which is about all I have been good for the past three days, although I did manage to make dinner tonight (thank you Instant Pot). I've got more and more things figured out. I don't think I am going to finish this book as quickly as I had hoped, but I am making progress and I think I just have to give myself a break. I can make up for it when my brain isn't busy trying to leak out my ear. Which really, really needs to stop like yesterday.

I hope I wake up feeling better tomorrow.

I didn't get anything done on the writing front today and only a little yesterday. Yesterday my hands were still too sore from my massive writing session to do much. Today I spent about an hour coming up with a pen name. Honestly, a lot of the ones I wanted to use were taken and it was a real pain in the butt to find something that I liked and that flows easily from a pen. I also found the hosting site and the template I am going to use when I set up my author's website. At least my starter site. If I am actually successful at this thing I will then probably get a website designer, but who knows how long success could take?

I watched some videos on transitioning from being a fanfiction writer to being a book writer. I did find some of the stuff was stuff I was doing, but a lot of it I had already phased out of my writing. The rest I am working on not doing! I've been watching videos on plotting and on marketing. I'm not sure about the latter at this point, but the former I've got a good handle on. I've also been watching ones on motivation with writing and on how to write more often. There is some really good info on Youtube.

What I did do was figure out some major plot points while not actually writing which I will leave notes for here.

1. The gold is called The Flow.

2. The Flow will be important to Aster and Reeve (reflection) and also to Devian and Cassia (dreams).

3. Cassia will develop the same skill as Morlin.

4. The Flow is linked to the Well. Callais is unaware of this, but is affected by it.

5. The High Prophet manipulated a situation between three people in relation to the destined child. She is also responsible for the tangling of prophecy regarding the destined child.

So lots of daydreaming and lots of plotting. On paper it looks like I did nothing, but I actually did a lot. There is a ton of thinking involved in the writing process and it is important to take the time to do it. The trick is not to use that as an excuse not to write!

It is just after midnight and I got so much accomplished yesterday. I wrote two chapters and 882 words into a third. My total word count for the day was 5663 words. I have hit 40,000 words. 40,938 to be exact.

I have been watching this writer Chris Fox on youtube. He talks about achieving something called flow state, which I have definitely been in before. And was certainly in yesterday. It's when the words just pour out of me, like the story is writing itself.

He also does something he calls writing sprints. I tried that and it was particularly effective. I am glad to really be making some progress the last few days after all my time off.

My wrist hurts really badly, though, from all the typing. I will ice it. Hopefully I can write tomorrow. The only reason I stopped was because I am tired and need to go to bed. I could totally pound out another chapter, but I have to take care of myself or I won't be writing at all.

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amberfocus

February 2023

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Life Viewed Through an Amber Focus

Not Rose-Colored Glasses

Recent Entries

I Don't Even Know if I Remember How to Use This

Friends Only

Friends Only

Master Fic List

Master Fic List

Quarantine Meme

Drabble for develish1's Birthday

Doing NaNoWriMo (First Time Ever)

Five Paths Rose Tyler Walked and the One She Never Could

Roswell, New Mexico (Spoilers)

Crazy Week

Update on Three Hour Tour

1922 Words on the Fanfic

Fanfic Anyone?

Getting Back to It

Make it Go Away

The Worst Cold Ever and Back to Work on the Book

Progress is Slow

Plotting

So Many Words