Weather, Mistakes, Armed police, Smoking, Teenage Dirtbag, H/D fic.
The weather here is the UK is AWFUL! We've been storming today and it's been particularly nasty. Apparently, we had our summer in April. I must have missed that when I blinked. Anyway, the thunder was loud and the dog hid. The cats couldn't have cared less.
Oh, that reminds me, a small tip for those who write a British/English/etc character such as Spike/Harry/Draco/Giles. In the states, there is an expression: "I could care less". Here in the UK, we say "I couldn't care less", but it means the same thing. It's a small error, but I see it often now that I read so much HP. Also, we don't say 'pants'; that's underwear to us. Try 'Trousers' or be more specific and say 'jeans' or 'track-suit bottoms' or 'chinos'.
I may start a list of commonly made 'Brit' errors as I come across them. Really, over the past three years, I've had oodles of help from all the Americans of my flist and I'd like to give some of that help back. You don't realise, I think, when you write in a native fandom how easy it is to get these little things wrong. Then when you step out and write characters in a different country everything is different. The language, the customs, the money, the shops, the cars, the food, the products, the education system, the politics... The list is endless. It's hard and it can take the spontaneity out of the writing which is very fucking frustrating. If anyone of you ever needs help of the Brit persuasion, do come and ask me.
Ooops, I sidetracked. On with the show.
Redhill town center is now being patrolled by armed police. Armed! That is weirdo freaky and very unnerving. I've been joking that one too many paperbacks must have gone missing from WH Smiths, but seriously, what a fucking state for this county to be in. Guns! We don't do guns! Damn terrorists.
The new smoking laws came in this week. No smoking inside public places and enclosed spaces blah blah. It's fair enough and a actually a good thing. Still, I felt like a criminal when I lit up at the bus stop. I swear a few people were giving me the evil eye.
Just finished my judging at The Fang Fetish Awards - Best of the Best round. Yay! I hope you've all gone and voted in the Readers Choice categories? If not, you've got until 10th July to come and vote for me.
There will not be a second season of Teenage Dirtbag in the immediate future.
~cough~ See how I slipped that last one in? Basically, there's still so much story to tell, but I'm not ready to tell it. It's so much work and I'm not at the point where I churn out chapter after chapter like I used to. It takes too much time and I've written Spander non-stop for three years now and I need to break to write other stuff. I want to write H/D and McShep, but fics which are of a more manageable size, planned fics where each chapter is looked at over and over and passed twice through my beta and looked over again and then once more for luck. Teenage Dirtbag is just too big to do that properly and write all these other things. I'm also really enjoying reading at the moment. While I had Teenage Dirtbag and Grief Counseling on the go, I found it very difficult to read anything. I only have so many hours in the day. I must also now consider my Open University work which must take priority.
So, does everyone hate me now? :o(
The good news is, probably only for a few of you, since I made the final decision to put Teenage Dirtbag on hiatus, I have had an afflatus. That is, ideas have popped into my head and my muse has stood to a firm and rigid attention. I've started a story plan and a time line for a medium length Harry/Draco, Adult, Post-Hog, Post-war, kid!fic.
To anyone that is concerned, this is not the end of my Spander career; it's simply time to try new things, experiment a little, and have fun learning to write in other fandoms. A British fandom! Whooooo! The sudden ease of it all! Yay!