elrhiarhodan

Hi there, friends!

Haven't really posted anything personal in the last few weeks. I've been bitten by the writing bug (as you've undoubtedly seen) and every time I sit down to do one of these updates, I get distracted. Since this has gotten to be rather long and teal deerish, everything of note is under its own separate cut.


Work has been a bear for a while, but things have settled down (no more 10-11 hour days for a while). Which is good, since I really need to get out of the cold. The heating unit that covers my side of the building is deader than roadkill, and we’re still waiting for the landlord to replace it. So in the mean time, I have my tiny space heater, many sweaters, shawls and way too much coffee. Monday was a six-cup day, which is why I didn’t really sleep much (about 3 hours, give or take – and mostly take). It warmed up enough outside that I was able to doff the sweaters and keep the shawl (a pink cashmere affair that looks more like a blanket). But it’s going to get worse as it gets colder. Damn you, landlord, damn you.



I few weeks back, I mentioned that I was going to make and send out holiday cards. Unfortunately, I didn't get around to it. Not that I lacked the time (I did, actually), but I couldn't get into the picspamming mood. My apologies...but I will try to put something together for everyone for an ecard.

The first eight ficlets for my Fic-Can-Ukah fest are almost done! Thank you to everyone who signed up. It's nice to get back into the groove of not-epics.

I still owe people their prizes from the last two Promptfests - the calendars and the books. I haven't forgotten. Will be working on them over the Christmas break. Promise.

Which reminds me, I need to do a final tally and officially close Sentence Fest II. My deep thanks to everyone who played and had fun. This was definitely a case of weird timing...I opened the fest in the middle of writing an epic, figured I'd take a break from said epic and write sentences. Instead, I wrote another epic.

Sigh.

Will do the count and closeout tomorrow.



My annual trip to Arizona is booked. We're leaving on Monday, January 30, flying into Phoenix and instead of spending the night at a hotel in Sky Harbor, we're catching a U.S. Scareways shuttle to Tucson, renting a car, driving to the hotel on the same night. This means an early (or early-ish) start on Tuesday at the gem shows.

We're still sorting out the car rental thingie - we're not flying back to Phoenix, we're driving and that means an insane surcharge for the rental car. But we're working on that. I still have to make arrangements for meeting up with people who hate me and take them out to dinner (so they don't hate me). Yeah, that sounds weird, even for me...but it's a long and complicated story.



Still have to make plans for Chicago and the Midwinter White Collar Meetup. Anyone who wants to join in the fun, please let me know. We're going to be in Chicago over Martin Luther King Day weekend. The more is the merrier. We basically spend the weekend writing, eating, and getting drunk on Neal Caffrey's Prison Sangria. And podficcing and madlibbing. And other fun stuff. There was fondue last year.



In other White Collar News, I am slowly building my hegemony over the White Collar fandom. I'm now the moderator for the wc_rps comm (wha? There's an RPS comm?). It's a gated community, in that membership is subject to approval and all posts are naturally f-locked. Basically - I took it over because the site design was killing my eyes. A tiny pale gray font on a white background is not good for Elr's ageing eyes.

And I'm now a co-maintainer for killerkellercom, created by jrosemary. It hasn't officially launched yet, but it's going to be more than just a repository for fic and fanworks about our favorite White Collar villain.

I need to do some work on peter_elizabeth, refresh the template, promote awareness of the community devoted to the awesomeness that is Peter and Elizabeth Burke.

whitecollar100 is THE place for White Collar drabbles, with totally awesome weekly prompts.

What else, what else?



Getting ready to do my annual retrospective. Anyone want to take a guess at my wordcount?

I am finally getting back to writing my Polyamory Big Bang. Had time enough to sneak in about 1500 works today. It's a LONG one, now officially the second longest story I've written. And no, I'm not going to post it like I did with We Shall Come Home, just one chapter a week. I'll probably do a chapter a day, unless the posting rules require that it's posted all in a single shot. I've never done a big bang before.

As I said above, the Fic-Can-Ukah ficlets are popping out like kittens. I do hope everyone enjoys their stories.

I may cave in and do the "Tell Me About Stories I Haven't Written meme."

There is another chapter of Vampire World in the works. Good odds that I'll get it out before the end of the year.

Some days, writing seems very hard. Some day, it's hard to type fast enough to get the words down. Some days, the words don't come at all. Good thing I have other hobbies.



A few months back (was it October?), the Five Acts Meme made the rounds, and my dearest hoosierbitch took up my prompt for Rentboy fic - and specifically Rentboy!Peter. She wrote two chapters and left me hanging. But she's finished it now, and it's INCREDIBLE.

Go here and read it. Read it now.

Today is photoash's birthday. She is my oldest LJ friend - and someone I consider a friend regardless of how we interact. She's a wonderful person and please join me in wishing her all the best on this day!

I hate Christmas music. I hate it with a passion most people reserve for overcooked brussels sprouts and pens that explode over your brand new silk blouse. I've written a fic to purge myself of that hatred. I'll be posting it soon.

And in conclusion: GEORGE.