The Exchange Reveal!
First, I'd like to thank the mods - because they're incredible, but also because they (very graciously) allowed me an extension. Though I initially berated myself for signing up with so many life changes on the horizon, the Exchange ultimately proved to be an enormous blessing. In the frantic days of packing and moving and wedding-ing, it was a relief to be able to say "I need to go to a coffeeshop and write."
The story that came out of that frantic period was Run to the Water, written for a_war_goddess, who offered a brilliant mythology-ridden prompt to play with. The story was terrific fun to write, and an army of women kept me sane in the process. Many thanks to machshefa, who alpha read and ensured psychological soundness, and to camillo1978, subvers, and ariadne1, who were gracious about having chunks of prose show up in their inbox with "Does this work?" in the subject line. My betas - deemichelle, dickgloucester, and sshg316 - did fantastic work, and Dicky and Dee took on the added task of Brit-picking. And Shug was there encouraging me the entire way, usually by letting me crash at her place for writing dates and baking sacher torte. *grins
And unbeknownst to me, even as she was beta'ing my story, Dicky was writing my gift, the brilliant If This Be Error, based on Shakespeare's Sonnet 116 (which, incidentally, was read at my wedding). The story was breathtaking and lyrical and poignant and subtle and all sorts of things that are just Love. If you have not read it, I implore you: go now! And if you read it before, then you're due for a reread, because it's one of the most beautiful pieces of fiction - not fanfiction, just fiction, period - I've read in a very, very long time.
Days like today are a great reminder of what an incredible community this is here on LJ. I'm the better for having you all - and your wonderful stories! - in my life.
The story that came out of that frantic period was Run to the Water, written for a_war_goddess, who offered a brilliant mythology-ridden prompt to play with. The story was terrific fun to write, and an army of women kept me sane in the process. Many thanks to machshefa, who alpha read and ensured psychological soundness, and to camillo1978, subvers, and ariadne1, who were gracious about having chunks of prose show up in their inbox with "Does this work?" in the subject line. My betas - deemichelle, dickgloucester, and sshg316 - did fantastic work, and Dicky and Dee took on the added task of Brit-picking. And Shug was there encouraging me the entire way, usually by letting me crash at her place for writing dates and baking sacher torte. *grins
And unbeknownst to me, even as she was beta'ing my story, Dicky was writing my gift, the brilliant If This Be Error, based on Shakespeare's Sonnet 116 (which, incidentally, was read at my wedding). The story was breathtaking and lyrical and poignant and subtle and all sorts of things that are just Love. If you have not read it, I implore you: go now! And if you read it before, then you're due for a reread, because it's one of the most beautiful pieces of fiction - not fanfiction, just fiction, period - I've read in a very, very long time.
Days like today are a great reminder of what an incredible community this is here on LJ. I'm the better for having you all - and your wonderful stories! - in my life.