I'm Alive! Really! (Um... At least, I think so?)
Okay, so I've not been around much. Definitely not on here, and not even on twitter that much, which is where I ALWAYS used to be. So. What've I been up to?
WORK.
Also, writing. But really, so much work. Thanksgiving and Christmas were hectic, of course, but then between Christmas and New Years, we found out that our dept asst manager was getting transferred to another store--where she was going to be made THEIR bakery manager, and would be starting there on the following Monday (less than a week from then). Awesome, right (well, except the fact that she'd be seriously missed)? But then, immediately after (like, seconds later), we find out that THAT store's bakery manager is being transferred to our store, to be OUR bakery manager. Which means my manager? Demoted to bakery assistant manager/production (kitchen) manager.
Oh god. The awkward. I can't even begin to tell you. It was AWFUL. Like, so awful I couldn't eat during my shifts, and I just felt seriously on edge, and at least one other person in the dept felt the same way. Our boss is a good guy, pretty mellow, but he took it HARD, and it came out in rudeness. I mean, it's okay now, but it was so bad he made the girl who was being transferred/promoted CRY (she found out she was being promoted/transferred about an hour before he was told. It wasn't like "would you like this opportunity?" so much as "here's what we're doing!").
So, yeah, chaos and flux at work, including having my regular days and shifts changed all around, plus being incredible short-staffed on top of it (most days, we're struggling to keep our heads above water, and I haven't gotten out of work on time in months, seriously).
But yeah. That's work stuff. But like I said, I've also been writing.
BOY, HAVE I.
In the last few weeks, I've written my first-ever fic for the Suits fandom (I'll post it here after reveals, but right now, it's still in the "anon fest fic" stage). I've been writing my Inception Big Bang fic, which'll be up on the 6th--yep, this coming Monday. My longest fic for that fandom, before this one, was under 5k. This one...er... Yeah. Closer to 40-50k. I've been working on my fix for HD Remix, which is a definite challenge for me, because... well, I can't tell you, because it's supposed to be anon! I also wrote a fic for hpchallengefest, which is definitely one of the most challenging things I've yet written for the HP fandom (definitely in the top 5, along with this Remix thing). I don't expect that many of my friends will read it, because it's not smut. It's not even slash. It's gen--AND it's Ginny-centric gen, at that (Ginny grieves for Fred). Best compliment recently was along the lines of "wow, you've made me NOT hate Ginny!", so I'm going to consider that a huge accomplishment, given how much of my flist feels about her. If you're curious, I'll be posting that here immediately after this post.
Let's see, what else? Oh, right. When I'm not working my ass off or writing my ass off (really, I'm surprised I even HAVE an ass, at this point!), I've been busy with modding duties. In case you didn't know, I'm currently co-modding TWO exchange fests--one for Suits, with maja_li, and one for Harry Potter, with luvscharlie:
suits_exchange will be wrapping up soon (our last fics will post next week), and there's been some truly amazing stuff for our first round, even though the fandom's still new and tiny. If you haven't yet, and are a fan of the show, give it a look. Most of the submissions this round are Harvey/Mike slash (as that does seem to be the most prevalent pairing in the fandom), though we've had some HarveyxMike bro-mance, some team!fic (er... firm!fic?), some gen, and some side pairings. I'm a mod there, so it's kind of unfair for me to rec my absolute favorites, but trust me--there's a lot of EXCELLENT (and in some cases, ADORABLE) stuff there, from angst to fluff to hurt/comfort, to kid!fic, to humor.
Also, as more of my flist is probably aware, hpvalensmut started posting yesterday (well, REALLY late last night, sorry. Both mods had chaotic days). Since it's a slash and femmeslash fest devoted to R and NC-17 submissions, you can be pretty sure there's a lot of yummy hotness on order for the month of February. We're posting Monday through Friday, with the weekends off to let everyone catch up on reading and commenting. There are so many pairings and kinks featured, there's sure to be something for just about everyone! One of the privileges of being a mod is getting to read through things early... unfortunately, that also means we only have each other to flail about awesome things with. But now that posting's begun, hopefully, some of you guys will come and flail, too.
In the meantime, I'm about to post my little 'Ginny and the twins' gen fic here and on AO3 (it's already on the challengefest comm), and then write like MAD on another fic. I managed over 8k yesterday, after work, and today I have about 7 hours to dedicate to writing (um, and chores, ick), so with any luck (and ass-kickings via twitter pings or something, if anyone wants to), I can get that finished, or close to, before bed. We're supposed to get 10-18 inches of snow between this afternoon and tomorrow night, and I have to be AT work at 6am tomorrow, so... I'll probably have to get up early to dig out the car at 430am or something, so no late night for me, I'm afraid.
Also, since I'm so damned behind on LJ and everything that's NOT a fest I'm modding or a fic I'm writing (er, scratch that. I'm behind in some of those fics, too), feel free to catch me up in the comments! I've really been missing you guys! Some of you, I can catch a bit on twitter, but not everyone uses it (and sometimes, i open my app on my phone and find I've missed 2943 tweets, and my app just won't LOAD that many! Oh, and if you're on twitter and we're not friends there, my user name's the same as it is here, so feel free to follow).
(also also: look at my pretty icon! It was one of my gifts from misbehavingmom at leo_palooza. Coffee beans and love, ftw!)
WORK.
Also, writing. But really, so much work. Thanksgiving and Christmas were hectic, of course, but then between Christmas and New Years, we found out that our dept asst manager was getting transferred to another store--where she was going to be made THEIR bakery manager, and would be starting there on the following Monday (less than a week from then). Awesome, right (well, except the fact that she'd be seriously missed)? But then, immediately after (like, seconds later), we find out that THAT store's bakery manager is being transferred to our store, to be OUR bakery manager. Which means my manager? Demoted to bakery assistant manager/production (kitchen) manager.
Oh god. The awkward. I can't even begin to tell you. It was AWFUL. Like, so awful I couldn't eat during my shifts, and I just felt seriously on edge, and at least one other person in the dept felt the same way. Our boss is a good guy, pretty mellow, but he took it HARD, and it came out in rudeness. I mean, it's okay now, but it was so bad he made the girl who was being transferred/promoted CRY (she found out she was being promoted/transferred about an hour before he was told. It wasn't like "would you like this opportunity?" so much as "here's what we're doing!").
So, yeah, chaos and flux at work, including having my regular days and shifts changed all around, plus being incredible short-staffed on top of it (most days, we're struggling to keep our heads above water, and I haven't gotten out of work on time in months, seriously).
But yeah. That's work stuff. But like I said, I've also been writing.
BOY, HAVE I.
In the last few weeks, I've written my first-ever fic for the Suits fandom (I'll post it here after reveals, but right now, it's still in the "anon fest fic" stage). I've been writing my Inception Big Bang fic, which'll be up on the 6th--yep, this coming Monday. My longest fic for that fandom, before this one, was under 5k. This one...er... Yeah. Closer to 40-50k. I've been working on my fix for HD Remix, which is a definite challenge for me, because... well, I can't tell you, because it's supposed to be anon! I also wrote a fic for hpchallengefest, which is definitely one of the most challenging things I've yet written for the HP fandom (definitely in the top 5, along with this Remix thing). I don't expect that many of my friends will read it, because it's not smut. It's not even slash. It's gen--AND it's Ginny-centric gen, at that (Ginny grieves for Fred). Best compliment recently was along the lines of "wow, you've made me NOT hate Ginny!", so I'm going to consider that a huge accomplishment, given how much of my flist feels about her. If you're curious, I'll be posting that here immediately after this post.
Let's see, what else? Oh, right. When I'm not working my ass off or writing my ass off (really, I'm surprised I even HAVE an ass, at this point!), I've been busy with modding duties. In case you didn't know, I'm currently co-modding TWO exchange fests--one for Suits, with maja_li, and one for Harry Potter, with luvscharlie:
suits_exchange will be wrapping up soon (our last fics will post next week), and there's been some truly amazing stuff for our first round, even though the fandom's still new and tiny. If you haven't yet, and are a fan of the show, give it a look. Most of the submissions this round are Harvey/Mike slash (as that does seem to be the most prevalent pairing in the fandom), though we've had some HarveyxMike bro-mance, some team!fic (er... firm!fic?), some gen, and some side pairings. I'm a mod there, so it's kind of unfair for me to rec my absolute favorites, but trust me--there's a lot of EXCELLENT (and in some cases, ADORABLE) stuff there, from angst to fluff to hurt/comfort, to kid!fic, to humor.
Also, as more of my flist is probably aware, hpvalensmut started posting yesterday (well, REALLY late last night, sorry. Both mods had chaotic days). Since it's a slash and femmeslash fest devoted to R and NC-17 submissions, you can be pretty sure there's a lot of yummy hotness on order for the month of February. We're posting Monday through Friday, with the weekends off to let everyone catch up on reading and commenting. There are so many pairings and kinks featured, there's sure to be something for just about everyone! One of the privileges of being a mod is getting to read through things early... unfortunately, that also means we only have each other to flail about awesome things with. But now that posting's begun, hopefully, some of you guys will come and flail, too.
In the meantime, I'm about to post my little 'Ginny and the twins' gen fic here and on AO3 (it's already on the challengefest comm), and then write like MAD on another fic. I managed over 8k yesterday, after work, and today I have about 7 hours to dedicate to writing (um, and chores, ick), so with any luck (and ass-kickings via twitter pings or something, if anyone wants to), I can get that finished, or close to, before bed. We're supposed to get 10-18 inches of snow between this afternoon and tomorrow night, and I have to be AT work at 6am tomorrow, so... I'll probably have to get up early to dig out the car at 430am or something, so no late night for me, I'm afraid.
Also, since I'm so damned behind on LJ and everything that's NOT a fest I'm modding or a fic I'm writing (er, scratch that. I'm behind in some of those fics, too), feel free to catch me up in the comments! I've really been missing you guys! Some of you, I can catch a bit on twitter, but not everyone uses it (and sometimes, i open my app on my phone and find I've missed 2943 tweets, and my app just won't LOAD that many! Oh, and if you're on twitter and we're not friends there, my user name's the same as it is here, so feel free to follow).
(also also: look at my pretty icon! It was one of my gifts from misbehavingmom at leo_palooza. Coffee beans and love, ftw!)