"I don't care if it's three Bosnians, an Armenian, and a bus full of party clowns!"
1. At this time tomorrow my flight will be beginning its descent into Ronald Regan National Airport! I am SO EXCITED! omphale23 and (whom I haven't seen since MJ) are going to meet me at the terminal, and then we're going to head into downtown Washington and do touristy things. After that I'm going to hop a train to the con_txt hotel in Silver Springs to tackle j_s_cavalcante, where we will commit much in the way of squee and catching up. (Because, seriously, long epic emails exchanged at oh-dark-thirty cannot possibly suffice. I haven't seen JS since MARCH! We will have much to say!) And then I'll meet qe2 for dinner, where I will ask her many questions about law school and being a fandom veteran and how, exactly, she manages to be so effortlessly awesome. At some point I need to do the tackle!hug thing with ignazwisdom, too. It's going to be a very full and fun-filled day.
I do have to catch the 5:30am bus up to Toronto (I'm flying out of Pearson to avoid the whole Montreal transfer situation - I'm pretty sure the international flight terminal in Montreal was specifically referenced in Dante's Inferno) so it'll mean a long day. But, I say again: fangirls. con_txt. No crazy flight transfer. WIN!
2. I just got my hair cut, and it is SHORT. Boyishly short. My boyfriend may have ruffled my hair and said, "Hiya, Sport!" when he saw the new cut. But that's okay. I am making the best of it with hairbands and cute girly barrettes, and reminding myself that it will at least keep my head cool.
3. Speaking of which, anyone have any idea what the weather is like in Maryland? omphale23 said the heat defeated mickeymvt pretty quickly on their subway-less death march around the downtown area. O, when we meet up to do touristy things, please to remember that you are dealing with a Canadian. Heat is not exactly my natural element. I wear toques and such, and not in an ironic way. (Dammit, I'm going to have to do Fahrenheit-to-Celsius conversions on this trip, aren't I? I have NO IDEA what 50 feels like. Math is hard).
4. My students win everything ever. Their fist assignment for the online course is due on Friday, and about 15 of them have already handed their work in. This means less marking for me while I'm at the con! \o/ (Um, guys, if I have to sneak away and huddle over my laptop, I promise I'm not being anti-social. I am being responsible and mature and grading papers as I attend panels on writing gay porn).
5. Finally, the inevitable fannish content. Guys, zabira has just written the most amazing Victoria/Fraser story. She's been working on Come With Me for over a year . Z generated many thousands of words of meta and material for a draft that she eventually scrapped in favour of a much more streamlined and dramatic (and romantic) version that absolutely blew me away when I read it in beta. We worked on the story a bit last Christmas when we met in (heh) Victoria, BC, put the project began well before then. Throughout the whole process (much more than a year, all told, although I don't quite remember the first time Z mentioned her "Victoria" fic) Z has been a model of authorial responsibility and enthusiasm. It was such a pleasure to stand on the sidelines and watch this story take shape through her careful reworking of theme, plot and character; Z just kept writing, and rewriting, and chiseling away the bits that weren't working until the full piece emerged.
Honestly, I would have given up on this fic a dozen times if I'd been writing it myself: turning Victoria into a sympathetic character is an enormously difficult task, since she's so villified in both canon and fanon. But I think Z did an excellent job in creating a sensitive, romantic and deeply affective portrait of The Woman Wot Done Fraser Wrong. The Fraser/Victoria relationship is so delicate and finely-wrought and compelling in this story, and for the first time I really understand why they were so desperate for one another, and why Fraser allowed himself to be so thoroughly compromised in his love for her. The story feels like it's the work of veteran writer; I certainly wouldn't have been capable of those beautiful turns of phrase, or the feather-light characterization touches that seem to come so naturally to Z. zabira is a true (and truely surprising) talent, and I'm still stunned that she's only written a small handful of other stories. It feels like she's an old pro, and this story will, I think, cement her status as a terrific dS writer.
I hope you check it out even if Victoria/Fraser (or, hell, het) isn't your cup of tea. It's an amazing piece of work, and, like secretlybronte's recent Remembrance, I think the story has a lot value as a work of fiction beyond the narrow parameters of fanfic. Please go read, and shoot some of that delicious feedback goodness zabira's way. She worked hard on this one, folks, and the result is stunning.
I do have to catch the 5:30am bus up to Toronto (I'm flying out of Pearson to avoid the whole Montreal transfer situation - I'm pretty sure the international flight terminal in Montreal was specifically referenced in Dante's Inferno) so it'll mean a long day. But, I say again: fangirls. con_txt. No crazy flight transfer. WIN!
2. I just got my hair cut, and it is SHORT. Boyishly short. My boyfriend may have ruffled my hair and said, "Hiya, Sport!" when he saw the new cut. But that's okay. I am making the best of it with hairbands and cute girly barrettes, and reminding myself that it will at least keep my head cool.
3. Speaking of which, anyone have any idea what the weather is like in Maryland? omphale23 said the heat defeated mickeymvt pretty quickly on their subway-less death march around the downtown area. O, when we meet up to do touristy things, please to remember that you are dealing with a Canadian. Heat is not exactly my natural element. I wear toques and such, and not in an ironic way. (Dammit, I'm going to have to do Fahrenheit-to-Celsius conversions on this trip, aren't I? I have NO IDEA what 50 feels like. Math is hard).
4. My students win everything ever. Their fist assignment for the online course is due on Friday, and about 15 of them have already handed their work in. This means less marking for me while I'm at the con! \o/ (Um, guys, if I have to sneak away and huddle over my laptop, I promise I'm not being anti-social. I am being responsible and mature and grading papers as I attend panels on writing gay porn).
5. Finally, the inevitable fannish content. Guys, zabira has just written the most amazing Victoria/Fraser story. She's been working on Come With Me for over a year . Z generated many thousands of words of meta and material for a draft that she eventually scrapped in favour of a much more streamlined and dramatic (and romantic) version that absolutely blew me away when I read it in beta. We worked on the story a bit last Christmas when we met in (heh) Victoria, BC, put the project began well before then. Throughout the whole process (much more than a year, all told, although I don't quite remember the first time Z mentioned her "Victoria" fic) Z has been a model of authorial responsibility and enthusiasm. It was such a pleasure to stand on the sidelines and watch this story take shape through her careful reworking of theme, plot and character; Z just kept writing, and rewriting, and chiseling away the bits that weren't working until the full piece emerged.
Honestly, I would have given up on this fic a dozen times if I'd been writing it myself: turning Victoria into a sympathetic character is an enormously difficult task, since she's so villified in both canon and fanon. But I think Z did an excellent job in creating a sensitive, romantic and deeply affective portrait of The Woman Wot Done Fraser Wrong. The Fraser/Victoria relationship is so delicate and finely-wrought and compelling in this story, and for the first time I really understand why they were so desperate for one another, and why Fraser allowed himself to be so thoroughly compromised in his love for her. The story feels like it's the work of veteran writer; I certainly wouldn't have been capable of those beautiful turns of phrase, or the feather-light characterization touches that seem to come so naturally to Z. zabira is a true (and truely surprising) talent, and I'm still stunned that she's only written a small handful of other stories. It feels like she's an old pro, and this story will, I think, cement her status as a terrific dS writer.
I hope you check it out even if Victoria/Fraser (or, hell, het) isn't your cup of tea. It's an amazing piece of work, and, like secretlybronte's recent Remembrance, I think the story has a lot value as a work of fiction beyond the narrow parameters of fanfic. Please go read, and shoot some of that delicious feedback goodness zabira's way. She worked hard on this one, folks, and the result is stunning.