in 2012, health issues were a problem, both mine and my mother's. I'm unemployed and have been for several months after my boss died unexpectedly and the business closed - I'd been there since 1999. My mother-in-law died as well.
I had hoped to accomplish some personal goals and do some things around my home that have needed doing for a long time while unemployed, and I have, but I'm not anywhere near where I had hoped I would be. Still, I'm working on it.
Our latest rescue kitty, Alice, died this past Saturday. She was very, very loved and quite spoiled. That was something I had wanted to give her, a sense of belonging and of being loved, and I know I accomplished it. It was a privilege to be able to bring her happiness and comfort for awhile. Her tiny little paws jabbing at me in the middle of the night when she wanted something was endearing (most of the time), and the sound of her lovely little trilling was incredibly adorable.
On the writing front:
A lot of things had stalled out for me, what with the health issues, but I'm back to writing some things. Fannish-wise, I participated in the
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spn_illuminated writing challenge with a story called
"The Other End (What's Left of You That I Don't Have)" which turned out to be one of my darker pieces. It's an AU wherein Ruby doesn't betray Sam and the Apocalypse is averted.
I wrote three things recently, all in microscopic or even nonexistent fandoms, two of them from prompts or ideas from
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tipitiwitchet (we share a lot of common pairings/interests). 1.
"Burning From the Inside" is a crossover between J2's 2009 movies,
Friday the 13th and
My Bloody Valentine, and brought me the most uncomplicated joy and ease of writing than anything else has in a long time. But even that almost stalled out - I couldn't think of how best to make some of this movie canon gel, and I sorta sat down, said fuck it, and wrote it out. Clay and Tom knew what to do, evidently, when I didn't.
2.
A Perfect Form (illuminated) was more of a struggle, but a good struggle, if that makes sense, figuring out a workable narrator's voice. It's a story based on a Frankenstein miniseries from the 70s. The bond between Frankenstein and his monster was poignant onscreen, and I never really forgot it. It finally came out on DVD, and I've rewatched it several times since then and also made a few caps to illustrate the story.
3. The third story was a Planet of the Apes (tv series) fan fiction,
Circular Progression, which I had planned on doing years ago but never got around to doing - and
gryphon2k has been putting out a lot of stories in the very small fandom, so I thought I'd write one for her as a
yuletide treat. It involves Wanda from The Interrogation. It was the fastest one I've done in a long time, being around 5,000 words done/edited in 2-3 days. It felt good!
On the original writing front, this year I've written a novella called
What I Need, about a damaged young man falling for a male prostitute,
Pretty Woman style, only dirtier. I was prompted with Jamie Campbell Bower in mind for the prostitute - prompter, you know who you are (again)!
I've written a very short story that I may never be able to sell, I have no idea - it's hard to describe, so I won't even try beyond calling it an urban blight/paranormal-ish thing - called "Beulah's House of Prayer." And I'm trying to sell another right now, straight-up horror, called "Diamond Grey." Spiders, ugh. I dreamed about it, what can I say?
Finally, I put out a trio of fairy tales for sale. It has het sex and horror. But I honestly can't remember if I actually wrote any of those three stories last year or not. I'm thinking not. I edited them quite a bit, and it all gets kind of confusing!
Not a good record, but hell, I did write and I'm glad for that. Hoping for better this year.
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