My favorite fic exchanges are coming up, and I need to figure out what I'm going to nominate. One thing I'm thinking about is Bones for Trick or Treat, because some good old Halloween murder mystery stuff would be great, but I also really want Bones/Booth/Hannah, so maybe I should actually do the relationship based on in February? I don't know. I rarely write fic except during the fall. Anyway, I'm rewatching the series right now, and by god, I love those three so damn much.

Oh my god, you guys, I got three stories for Trick or Treat this year! Three gorgeous, wonderful stories with absolutely perfect details for the fandoms.

Trick 'r Treat (2008)

A Turn (424 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Trick 'r Treat (2008)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Laurie/Maria
Additional Tags: Werewolves, Horror, Mild Gore
Summary:

Tonight, Laurie could just devour everything.

This is a gorgeous story that has Laurie so much more confident in her own skin after what we see in the movie, with a fantastic scene of werewolves at play in the woods after the hunt, and a delicious ending.

Baby-Sitters Club by Ann M. Martin

Between Meals (849 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Baby-Sitters Club - Ann M. Martin
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Claudia Kishi
Additional Tags: Werewolves, Implied Cannibalism
Summary:

This meeting of the Baby-Sitters Club will now come to order.

Werewolves, again, and in such a great way! Claudia's had herself a little adventure, and the details of the coming werewolf transformation are just great. I love all the girls bantering, and the hint of darkness at the end, and pragmatic, judgmental Kristy, and just everything was so much fun, including the great Claudia outfit. (Which is, of course, fitting for the source material.)

Chad Lonford Is Coming (984 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Baby-Sitters Club - Ann M. Martin
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Claudia Kishi, Dawn Schafer, Stacey McGill
Additional Tags: Humor, Celebrity Crush, Celebrities, Female Friendship, Teenagers
Summary:

Stacey, Claudia and Dawn try to celebrate Stacey's birthday by getting her an autograph from her crush - but when fate steps in Stacey's left crush, and Claudia must modify her gift to right the wrong.

This story is hilarious, full of excellent friendships and great character voices, and outfit descriptions that made me grin and grin. I literally laughed out loud at the ending, and absolutely loved all the interactions between Claudia, Dawn, and Stacey, as well as all the little nods to the source material.

I am so, so lucky to have received these great stories. What a fantastic way to end Halloween!

I have not blogged about writing for Trick or Treat the way I do Yuletide, even though I thought I would. Part of it was a couple big unexpected family events, plus some traveling, had me away from the internet more than expected, but also, I have been struggling. I love my assigned fandom, and I really want to do a good job for this person, but this was my first experience with no letter and no real idea of what they do and do not like about the fandom. I did not expect to struggle this much in light of no letter. I had a billion ideas when I offered these fandoms in my sign-up! What happened, brain? Please do not do this with Yuletide. Please.

I have managed two stories so far, my assignment and a treat, and am working on a second treat. Of those three stories, there are two fandoms, one new and one old (i.e., one I've never written in before, and one I have). I like both the completed stories, and I like the third story that is in progress. I just -- I probably should not have done Trick or Treat. This is my favorite time of year, and Halloween is my favorite holiday, and this fic exchange sounded pretty much Made For Me, but I am in such a bad place mentally right now in general, and this time of year is filled with all the sadness of dead family members, and I should probably have taken that into account more than I did. (It's been three years since Mom died! But one of the unexpected events was another death in the family, and a burial in the same cemetery, and therefore I saw her grave for the first time since we buried her. That was so much harder than I ever expected.)

But still! Trick or Treat. I am excited to read all sorts of tricks and treats, and I hope there are Halloween-themed stories, and I really like what I've written and what I am writing now. Yay.

Dear Femslash12 Author,

First, I want to stress that I am excited to read whatever story you write. I love girl slash and women being awesome and these fandoms, and I can't wait to read your story.

In general, I really love stories about women being awesome. I also like werewolves, stories about families being loving and protective and a little snarly with each other because they trust each other to always be there, and smart flirtations. I like stories of all ratings, I'm a fan of consensual kink, and I love stories about oral sex and pegging and women who really love sex. I love poly stories, threesomes and foursomes and moresomes, as long as it is consensual and not cheating. I adore intricate plots and mysteries to solve and friends teaming up to save the world. I like straightforward prose, lyrical pieces, and experimental work. I love adoption stories when adoption is treated as something totally normal and not a BIG DRAMATIC SECRET to up the tension. I love siblings as friends and families who are super tight and friends as family and created families. I love the ocean, full moons, surfing, autumn, Halloween, horror movies, and long roadtrips.

I love motorcycles and mechanics and beaches and surfing and Hawaii and Washington state and woods and camping and full moons. My favorite time of year is October 1 through February 1 because it encompasses all sorts of things I love, from the month long festival that is Halloween movie marathons and Halloween episodes of tv shows to spending time with loved ones and openly talking about what makes us thankful at Thanksgiving (though Thanksgiving itself, highly problematic) to the December holidays with all their lights to birthdays to New Year's Eve. Good times, even though I hate winter and the cold and snow.

I love bisexual characters (particularly women) treated with respect, happy and healthy polyamory, characters of color treated with respect, people having adventures, and apocalypses.

I adore crossovers, the more twisty and complicated the better.

I dislike embarrassment/humiliation, rape, non-con, misogyny, racism, ableism, sizeism, character-bashing, and women feeling guilty about enjoying sex. I am particularly frustrated right now by depictions of mental illness and crazy = bad and dangerous. I dislike misogyny and Man Angst, especially White Man Angst.

As for my specific requests:

Marvel Avengers Movieverse: Darcy/Jane, Darcy/Sif, Darcy/Pepper, Darcy/Jane/Sif, Darcy/everyone, all the ladies/all the ladies

Avengers poly family is one of my favorite things right now, and Darcy's snark and good humor, Jane's science brain, Pepper's competence, and Sif's perserverence in the face of a society that doesn't view women as warriors make me so, so happy.

Disney: Nani/anyone

Nani Pelekai is amazing. Lilo & Stitch is my favorite Disney movie, and Nani my favorite character, as she struggles to take care of her sister and hold her family together and then, oh yeah, aliens.

Buffy: Veruca/Faith, Veruca/Nina, Veruca/Willow

Werewolf. Women who are werewolves are often presented as a sexual threat, and Veruca is no different. I love stories that take her and show us more.

Never Cry Werewolf: Loren/anyone

Never Cry Werewolf is the fandom I keep requesting because someday someone else will love it like I do and want to write it. Basically, a new neighbor moves in, deaths start in the neighborhood, and Loren proves what a badass she is by trying to save the world. I want to see more of her being awesome.

Ugly Betty: Betty/Amanda, Betty/Alexis

I haven't finished the last season of Ugly Betty, but am particularly fond of the time when Betty and Amanda lived together, and particularly right after Amanda got the second job and comes home to find Betty has cooked her dinner. Their dynamics, their friendship, the way Betty was both taking care of her and teaching her to take care of herself -- I love them and want to see more of them.

I also think there was quite a bit of potential to Betty and Alexis, though they didn't spend nearly enough time interacting. I would love to see more of them together, too.

Roswell: Maria/Isabel, Maria/Isabel/Liz

I only started watching Roswell a couple years ago, about a decade too late, but good grief, Roswell poly fandom was basically canon by the end. Maria and Isabel are my favorites, but I love all of them bunches and bunches. In all the fandoms, but in this one in particular, I would hate to see the guys bashed or written off, because they are so integral to this family that was created, alien and human, and I love it.

(I've just realized that a Lilo & Stitch/Roswell crossover could be amazing.)

Thank you, author, for writing me a story. You are awesome!

I think this will be of interest to many of you. rarewomen is currently accepting nominations for its upcoming fic exchange. Nominations run January 7 through January 21. You can nominate up to five fandoms. One has to be a large fandom, and the other four can be a mix of large or small. In large fandoms, you can only nominate rare women.

Nominations open here.

I nominated the following (though they haven't yet been approved, so any of them might not be accepted):

Glee, Lauren Zizes, Mercedes Jones, Tina Cohen-Chang, Shannon Beiste
Fast and the Furious series, Letty Ortiz, Mia Toretto, Elena Neves, Gisele Harabo
Blue Crush, Anne Marie Chadwick, Penny Chadwick, Eden, Lena
Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Veruca, Nikki Wood, Sunday, Kendra, Glory
Never Cry Werewolf, Loren, Angie

(Yes, I am once again determined to get someone to write Never Cry Werewolf fic for me. If it's someone on my flist, so much the better.)

Stop! Self-awareness time!

I was reading this fantastic post in which toft talks about Mercedes Lackey's books and I realized why I have so little patience for -- well, I'll put it in toft's words:

7) I love that all of the books that I've read so far punch my talented-outcast-child-is-rescued-from-family-and-excels-at-school narrative kink right in the kidneys and throw it down the stairs. In a good way.

Now I read this post after watching the first three Harry Potter movies with Mom (one last night, two today) and even though I've seen them before and read the books and wrote fanfic, damn it, it struck me really hard how much of an idiot Harry is a lot of the time and how things just fall in his lap. Sometimes literally.

And don't get me wrong, I love the first four Harry Potter books a lot. (The movies not as much and the last three not nearly as much, but the first four, particularly three and four, SO MUCH LOVE.) And I also love the Mercedes Lackey books I've read, which isn't very many, I'll admit, but I read the Arrows trilogy and then BY THE SWORD which has KEROWYN I'LL KICK YOUR GODDAMN ASS AND YOU'LL LIKE IT who is my hero, so obviously I'm a fan of that one, too.

But frequently these talented-outcast-child-rescued-from-family-and-excels-at-[fill in the blank] narratives really bug me. While reading toft's post I finally figured out why, even though it is really obvious if you know me at all: Basically every awesome thing I have ever done is because I am trying to live up to the awesomeness of my family. No, really, they've set the bar high and it just keeps getting pushed higher. Even though I don't directly follow in anyone's footsteps, what I do is done so I can be as awesome as my family. So of course I don't grok that narrative the way some others might.

Not very awesome that it took me that long to figure it out, but whatever.

(By the way, as we're watching Harry Potter, Mom turns to me and says she doesn't understand why people threw such a fit over Harry Potter being satanic or whatever, nothing they did magically seemed all that bad and I said I thought it was just the idea of ~magic in the first place that was so horrible. She scoffed and said that was ridiculous, kids should grow up with magical stories and reading stories about magic doesn't make them bad Christians. Oh, Mom, you are the best conservative, Christian mother ever! [Though obviously conservative doesn't apply to Christian in that sentence.] Oh, speaking of conservatives, I am not adjusting well to being back in a small town in a red state. Today some guy came around talking about politicians because we're running up on the November election and ads and calls and door to door is going wild. Anyway, dude told me politician is a Democrat and liberal in [these ways], but still conservative, too, in [these ways] and is pro life. I don't think he expected me to say, well, those liberal things are really good, but the pro life thing is generally a deal breaker for me. Too liberal for the liberals here, what?)

~*~

Sons of Anarchy comes back this week! I think I will liveblog it, because OMG FINALLY. J and I were talking the other night and he said the adverts make it look like it's going to be very soap opera-y and the season finale was very much a soap opera. I laughed and said even if it is, if I kept watching after [that thing with Gemma last season], I'll give them a season of being a soap opera before I quit them.

The Vampire Diaries comes back, too, but I rarely talk about that here. Maybe that will change this season. Because [THINGS! THINGS WHICH ARE SPOILERS!]

~*~

I am tired, but I am waiting on a thing and I pulled up my werewolfbigbang, which I keep thinking I won't finish, but the first draft isn't due until later this month, so maybe I will finish. I'm writing a sequel to "wolf woman wild," but I keep wanting to write some ridiculous crossover (er, even more ridiculous than "wolf woman wild" which has BtVS, Angel, Fast and the Furious series, and Ginger Snaps) about a wolf pack that contains characters from BtVS, Fast and the Furious series, Sons of Anarchy, Harry Potter, etc. I do not need to set aside the sequel and write 10k of a ridiculous crossover. I don't.

(Dude, Sons of Anarchy basically is a werewolf pack without being werewolves. And how awesome would it be to have Oz and Faith, Letty and Dom and Mia, Jax and Opie and Donna and Tara, Remus and Sirius, Clay and Gemma all in a wolf pack together? Hell, let's really make it ridiculous and throw in Sam and Dean and John and Mary Winchester and, GOD, Ellen and Jo Harvelle, because obviously after Race Wars, Jesse runs off and becomes Ash. Hell, Chad Lindberg himself brings together Fast and the Furious, Supernatural, and Sons of Anarchy. If I really wanted to go wild, I know I could work in Velma and Daphne.

Good grief, I'm actually considering this.)

~*~

THING is done, so I can go to bed! Except now I'm thinking about the damn ridiculous crossover.

ETA: It has taken me five billion edits to get the coding right, even though I swear I was using the same coding I'd been using since I started crossposting from DW. WHAT THE HELL?

I am so tempted to sign up for polybigbang. I have lots of deadlines this summer, both in and out of fic writing, so I probably shouldn't, but I'm tempted. I've never done a big bang, 10k is absolutely doable, and I love poly stories. Downside (in addition to the deadlines) is that I don't really know which story I'd write (or write first). I could do a sequel to "wolf woman wild" with more Oz/Letty/Faith. I could easily do more Fast and the Furious fic, either one where Letty dates both Mia and Dom or one in the Everyone's Fucking a Toretto World where, well, see previous. So, okay, basically I have three stories I'd like to do. (Or, oh god, more Jasper/Alice/Emmett/Rosalie.)

Odds are good I'm going to sign up for this, aren't they?

It's mostly bandom so far, with a percentage of other RPF as well. Are any of you doing it?

I bought my ticket for writercon.

I have a Dreamwidth account: escritoireazul. Please feel free to add me there if you have one too. I'll be crossposting once I figure out an easy way to do it; I'm not really sure what I think about it yet.

I signed up for apocalyptothon: Sign up here.

My requests:

( Apocalyptothon requests )

Man, I'm really working that inclusion of the Fast and the Furious franchise, aren't I? Hee.

I'm so tired and frustrated at Castle even though I haven't watched the episode yet (did you really have to go there? REALLY?) and I think I'm going to bed.

Friday Night Lights

Episodes keep disappearing off my dvr, so I decided to watch the ones I had and deal with catching up later, which is possibly a hugely confusing way to do it, but whatever. I teared up at the theme song, it made me so happy to have new episodes to watch.

This show. God, this show. I have no idea what's going on, but I love this show.

( New York, New York )

---

Supernatural

musesfool talked about how she would cast the show based off vito_excalibur's excellent fanart of Dean and Sam as characters of color. (Her Dean in particular is incredible; I'm not a huge fan of the original promo pic, but this fanart is amazing.) I would love to read a story about them.

---

Ace of Cakes

Just when I think I could not love this show more, I get two episodes in a row which fill my heart with glee.

( Cakes I have loved. )

Crap, now I really want cake. I don't have any cake. Watching food shows is a bad, bad plan.

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Fanfic

lgbtfeset has prompts to be claimed. There are some excellent prompts, and I might have to grab one for myself, though I have a ton of other things I am supposed to be doing.

secondstrings (a community for "sidekicks, best friends, and minions") is taking prompts until March 18.

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Beautiful People

delux_vivens called for a men of color pic spam. maschalismos responded with men of color in metal bands. sparkymonster responded with both men of color and women of color and the comments are full of more pictures.

(Jason Momoa apparently has a guitar that has the same design as his tattoo and honestly I find that the most fabulous thing. There's a picture of him in these little black glasses that made my knees weak. So hot.)

(At one point in the comments, sparkymonster describes S.W.A.T. as "I think the purpose of the movie is hot people with guns." which is SO SO TRUE! S.W.A.T. has Michelle Rodriguez, people!)

ETA: Thanks to maschalismos for catching that I had Jason Momoa listed as someone else.

short_takes is taking sign-ups for the Kristy round here. So if you write BSC girl slash, or have always wanted to write it, now is the time to sign-up.

I'm not a huge fan of Kristy, so I'm still debating on whether I will do it. I'm currently writing Stacey/Dawn, and it might be nice to try new characters - then again, it might be nice to write something else, instead.

---

I saw The Happening this evening.