Miscellany: The Written Word

[rsadelle]

Jerry Spinelli. Surely I'm not the only person around who ever read Jerry Spinelli's School Daze series (Report to the Principal's Office, Who Ran My Underwear Up the Flagpole?, Do the Funky Pickle, and Picklemania). However, I may be the only one for whom Salem Jane Brownmiller serves as the prototype for Hermione.

Already half the kids had taken a step backward, edging for the bus. No one spoke until Salem Brownmiller raised her hand. "Yes, I have a question." Forty-seven students groaned. Salem looked up from her notebook, in which she had been writing the entire time.
--Jerry Spinelli, Picklemania

Tuck Everlasting. My mother and I saw Tuck Everlasting yesterday. The movie has all the style you should expect from a Disney-produced version of a period novel, but it has no emotional impact. I'm now waiting for next weekend and 8 Mile.

Religion/Philosophy. "I'm trying to explain it in order so it'll make sense. Look, hoodoo isn't sticking pins into an apple. Hoodoo is all the energy and attention you bring to what you do. Everything you do. The work of your hands, done with all your attention, becomes a container full of energy that you can transfer to somebody else. Baking bread is hoodoo work. So's putting in a garden. Or fixing an amplifier, or teaching someone else to. If you do it right, with your whole head, and an awareness of where it came from, and where it's going when it leaves you. The process it's part of. And you have to be concentrating on moving energy, not money."

"Then this is a hobby business?"

"There's a difference," she said with exaggerated patience, "between getting money for what you do, and doing it for money. If you don't do it for love, or because you think it needs doing, get out and let somebody else do it. If nobody else does it, maybe that means it shouldn't be done."
--Emma Bull, Bone Dance

Writing. I'm still writing. Although I seem to be working on only one thing at the moment, I still have ideas for others. And so, the fourth version of the list.

Finished and actively in progress.

• postward.txt. Harry Potter, Draco, gen. The epic that has taken over my life. The original idea grew out of half a line in Diana Williams' otherwise disappointing "A Better Offer" ("there were many orphaned and shattered young Slytherins needing his attention"), but it's grown way beyond that. Gen, a bit of het, a bit of slash, lots of theories about magic, Hermione, cats, an original character, a baby, and even some religion.
  
  

  "Oh," Astra said in wonder when the stones of Stonehenge came into view. Draco was inclined to agree with her, and he squeezed her hand.
  
  There was only one tour guide, with an amplifying spell, for all of them. Draco tried to listen while Astra slowly pulled him to the outside of the group. The first time she tried to move away from them altogether, he pulled her back. The second time, she succeeded in pulling him away enough that they were at the back of the group.
  
  "Astra," he said sternly when she did it the third time, but she was not to be deterred. She was surprisingly strong, and she dragged him inexorably toward the center of the inner circle of stones. "Astra," he said again, but she kept walking.
  
  "Power," she said, as they stopped in front of the altar stone. She reached out and touched the stone. "Old power."
  
  Draco could feel *something* that itched along his skin. There were muted voices behind him, and he assumed the others had noticed their absence. He tried to pull Astra away from the stone, but she wouldn't budge.
  
  Astra's voice cracked through the air. "Stop!" She jerked away from the stone and leaned heavily against Draco. "I want to leave," she said, her eyes clear and her voice shaking.
  
  Draco staggered under the returning rush of sound. "Yes," he said, and cringed at the volume of his own voice.

• "A Real Man." CSI, Greg/Sara. A post-episode sex scene that's done but needs rewriting.
  
  

  "Sara." Greg looked surprised, and then pleased. "What are you doing here? I mean, would you like to come in?" He stepped back and held the door open.
  
  "Thanks." She stepped in and rubbed her hands together as she took in his living room. X-Files posters on the wall, open pizza box on the coffee table, a Star Trek episode paused on the TV.
  
  "Um." She looked around the room and turned back to him. "I still smell like death." She shrugged. "I tried lemons like Grissom said, but it didn't work well enough."

• hphd3.txt. Harry Potter, Harry/Draco. An extremely long thing that I'd thought I'd given up on. I gave it another look the other day, and decided that it may actually be good. It still needs another scene or two, and a few of the existing ones may need fleshing out, but it has a more or less complete battle scene and an ending.
  
  

  "You ought to be a bit more careful who you invite in, Potter," came the smooth voice of Draco Malfoy. "You never know when a wizard of the unsuitable sort might walk through your door."
  
  "The spell on the door wouldn't have let you through if you intended harm." Harry set down his quill. "What do you want, Malfoy?"
  
  Draco sat uninvited in one of the chairs before Harry's desk. "Is it that far beyond the realm of the believable that I'd come just to visit an old classmate?"
  
  Harry's eyes narrowed. "Yes," he said shortly.
  
  Draco chuckled softly. "You're right." He leaned forward, suddenly all business. "I've come to propose an alliance."

• "After the Funeral." Harry Potter, Ron/Hermione, Bill/m, etc. What happens after the funeral. Still something I enjoy working on occasionally, although I doubt it'll be anyone else's cup of tea.
  
  

  She awoke alone in their bed with the blanket neatly tucked around her. Arthur's touch, even in the midst of their shared grief.
  
  It was nearing dinner time. She wasn't sure she could eat, but someone had to keep the remaining children fed.
  
  She crawled out of bed and pulled on everyday robes. She flicked her wand at the bed to remake it. The kitchen was nearly empty, only a fire and Hermione. Molly carefully didn't look at the clock with the one hand stuck at midnight. She stopped behind Hermione. She hugged the unmoving girl close and kissed the top of her head. The girl would have been her daughter-in-law.

• vojapan.txt. Lotrips, Viggo/Orlando. Done but for the beta and title. And the last few lines are still not quite right.
  
  

  It's dark when he stumbles into his flat. Too tired to even carry all his bags into the bedroom. Before he can turn on the light, there are hands around his wrists slamming his hands back into the door. The adrenaline rush is already surging through him when he recognizes the callused hands, the scent.
  
  Maybe sending the pictures had been a bit much.

Things I would like to be finished but am not actually working on.

• bugnigel.txt. Crossing Jordan, Bug/Nigel. Bug and Nigel are my favorite characters on the show, and their relationship would be improved if they would just kiss already. Takes place after the bomb/hostage episode. Nigel takes Bug home, nothing happens until after they wake up the next morning.
  
  

  "I should've warned you that I'm a snuggler."
  
  "I don't mind," Bug admitted, and he could feel more of Nigel's warmth pressing against his side.
  
  After a moment, Nigel turned to look at him. "Has anyone ever suggested that the reason you're not married is that you're a bit sexually ambiguous yourself?"
  
  Bug closed his eyes again. "Yes."

• hphrpreg.txt. Harry Potter, Ron/Hermione, Draco/Hermione. Hermione gets pregnant with Draco's child.
  
  

  The commotion was beginning to draw the attention of the rest of the class, and Draco sauntered over.
  
  "What do you want, Malfoy?" Ron spat.
  
  Draco ignored him and kept his focus on Hermione. "I wanted to feel my son kick." He reached out and put his hand on Hermione's stomach. "He is strong," he said approvingly.
  
  Hermione pushed his arm away. "Don't touch me."
  
  Draco smirked. "That's not what you said before." He stepped into Hermione's personal space and ran his hands down her arms. "You used to like it when I touched you."
  
  Hermione jerked out of his grasp. "Don't touch me," she snarled.

• billstevej.txt. Geekslash, Bill Gates/Steve Jobs. I occasionally add to this, but I don't really know where it's going, so I don't know what to do with it.
  
  

  Steve rewarded him with a deep kiss. "Good boy." He stroked Bill's cheek. "No more panicking now." He procured cuffs from the bedside table. He snapped them around Bill's wrists and attached them to the hooks in the wall. "Just a reminder," he soothed. He bent and trailed his tongue up the inside of Bill's wrist. "I need to work." He sucked another mark into Bill's neck. "Be a good boy now." He licked Bill's Adam's apple. "I'll bring you something later."

• hphd5.txt. Harry Potter, Harry/Draco. In which Prince William proposes an alliance and Draco yells at Harry. Another thing whose progress is blocked by my lack of knowledge of what's going to happen.
  
  

  "I didn't know anyone thought you were Merlin," Draco said.
  
  Harry laughed sharply. "Neither did I." He shivered in the increasing warmth. "Not until today. He said--" Harry's breath hitched.
  
  "He said," Draco prompted.
  
  Harry sighed. "Too much," he said, seeming to realize he himself had said enough. He drew up his knees and put his head down on them. "I wish he hadn't said any of it. I wish none of this had ever happened."

• hpdprinceh.txt. Harry Potter, Draco/Prince Harry. In which Draco takes up with Prince Harry and tells him he could be king with Draco's help.
  
  

  "That kind of thing can get you killed."
  
  "I'm very careful, Your Highness."
  
  Harry snorted. "Your Highness," he mocked. "Doesn't mean much when it won't even get you shagged."
  
  The stranger rested his palm against Harry's cheek. "And you such a good-looking boy, too."

• csi4.txt. CSI, Greg, Sara, genish. The CSI team works a case and finds that the victim's wife is Greg's ex-wife.
  
  

  Sara took out a second piece of paper and put it next to the first. "We ran a DNA test on Greg's blood. He's not Jason's father either."
  
  Maggie bristled. "That's impossible. If it wasn't John, it had to be Greg."
  
  "I'm afraid not," Catherine said. She leaned across the table. "Who else were you sleeping with, Maggie?"
  
  "No one," Maggie protested. "Maybe there was a mix-up at the hospital when he was born. That kind of thing happens."
  
  Sara added a third piece of paper to the growing stack. "We checked that too."
  
  "Jason is your son," Catherine informed her. "Come on, Maggie. It's just us girls." She shot a glance at Brass. "He's just here for show. You can tell us who else you were sleeping with."
  
  Maggie refused to play. "I wasn't sleeping with anyone else."

• dkmarry.txt. From Eroica With Love, Klaus/Dorian. I really want to do some more work on this, but I'm having some problems getting from one plot point to the next. Basic story is that Klaus gets married, the wife dies in childbirth, and Dorian comes to raise his child.
  
  

  "Well. You came back," Klaus' father said to him when he came down to dinner.
  
  "Yes."
  
  "Klaus is going to be staying at home for a while," Dorian informed him. "It'll be good for Henry to have both of us around, especially since you're going back to Switzerland this week." He immediately turned to coax Henry to eat his carrots.
  
  Klaus turned his smirk into a blank look when his father turned to look suspiciously at him. He wasn't quite ready to admit it to himself, but it was nice to have someone on his side when it came to his father.

• voslave.txt. Lotrips, Viggo/Orlando. The slave AU. I'm still in love with this story, but I know too much about what's going to happen to really be interested in writing anymore.
  
  

  "You're to have sword lessons," Viggo informed Orlando at dinner that evening.
  
  "My lord?"
  
  "You need to learn to defend yourself. Sean will teach you." Viggo dipped a corner of bread into his soup. "You can discuss your training schedule with him." He waited until Orlando seemed to have digested this information before adding, "You will obey him. You will not fight his judgement."
  
  Orlando bowed his head. "No, my lord."
  
  "There will be other changes," Viggo told him. He waited for one of the slaves to take their bowls while another brought out a platter of meat. "There are rooms beyond the walls of my chamber. They are yours. You are to have a dressing room and a sitting room. A tailor will be coming to take your measurements tomorrow." Viggo reached across the table to brush his fingers along the line of Orlando's cheekbone. "You have free reign of the castle."

• jedi.txt. Star Wars universe, f/f. Previously intended as a Mary Sue. No real progress since the last list, but I didn't want to leave it out.

Novels and such.

I may be philosophically opposed to NaNoWriMo, but that doesn't mean that I'm not a part of the insanely high percentage of people who think they could be novelists.

• Cleopatra in Space. Jasik works as Cleopatra's bodyguard even though she insists she can take care of herself.
  
  

  She was scornful. "There are always guards around."
  
  He nodded. "Yes, but I will not play nursemaid or spy, and I will only tell you what to do if there comes a time when is needed to protect your safety and mine."
  
  She narrowed her eyes at him. "Bodyguards are not supposed to have a care for their own lives."
  
  Jasik bowed slightly. "Make no mistake, Lady. I will lay down my life for yours if necessary, but so much the better if we both live."

• avatar.txt. My baby. A stock traveling magic user meets up with traveling warrior fantasy novel, only with lesbians.
  
  

  She threw her head back, up to the sky. "Goddess, your will be done." She stumbled into the snow and saw a woman lean over her. "The warrior," she murmured. "I didn't think it would be you."
  
  Everything went black.

• An untitled, just-thought of lesbian novel. Small town, two families, one rich and one poor, who are always crossing paths. It could be done as a fairly cheesy lesbian novel focusing only on the latest generation, or it could be an actually good novel with flashbacks to the previous generations and the current generation finally getting things right. Or it could be done as a movie.
  
  

  "The Foster boys and the Crane girls. There's one pair in every generation. You mark my words, no good'll come of it."

• The sniper conspiracy. The whole Maryland sniper thing would make a great novel. As our hero(es) investigate(s) the seemingly random attacks, she/he/they find(s) that the attacks aren't random at all, and it's all a conspiracy designed to aid in a cover-up.
  
  
• A thrillerish story in which the murderer sends letters to Hints From Heloise.

Comments

Bug and Nige

[(Anonymous)]

the begginning of that story seems well written enough... in the middle of exploring your work and it seems that i that fic ever does come around, that I would rather enjoy it. A really good CJ fic has been hard to find for me...B/J fic? even harder! We've got some gems... but us readers tend to be greedy :). I would LOVE to see that fic flushed out and ready for your readin public...just thought to let you know.

Sori