Distracted By Something Shiny

Just a reminder from Ripley - the best early Christmas gift I ever got - that if you’re looking for that last minute perfect gift for someone, Terrific Tails: Stories From A Pet Guardian is still available on Amazon. A pet lover? A book lover? A supporter of charity? (yep, proceeds still go the local Humane Society). Terrific Tails makes a great gift *and* has a chapter about how Ripley came to us just before Christmas, like the perfect little gift *he* is. Come on, buy one last gift for someone who deserves it - do it for cats like Ripley!



Terrific Tails

Hey, guys! Long time, no see. I have so much to tell you - some good, some bad. But I'm not going to tell you any of it right now. LOL. Because right now I want to do a little promoting, of my self-publishing book page and of my friend's, LJ Hamlin, newest book. This book of hers was important to me because the lead character becomes disabled throughout the book and dates a disabled character as well. Good disability rep can be hard to find, especially in the romance genre. Plus, the character is a bad boy ballet dancer, which is such a weak spot for me, omg. And hey, some of you may even recgonize LJ Hamlin's writing from her fanfic days! Anyways, here's the interview & I'll try to get back soon with some RL updates.

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I recently had the pleasure of reading LJ Hamlin's newest book - about to be released on September 19th - Rise Again. Rise Again is a M/M romance novella starring the bad boy of ballet, Arkady. When Arkady suffers an accident, he fears everything good about his life may come to an end. Until a few unexpected people come along and offer him a chance for a fresh start. Or, as the author may say, a chance to rise again Of course, the biggest question in all of this is, was his accident really an 'accident'?

Besides having the pleasure of getting a sneak peek at this book, I also enjoyed sitting down with the author and asking her a few questions. You can read my interview below. Full disclosure: LJ & I have known each other for several years now, both through writing and through the disability community.

( Full interview below the cut. )


Rise Again is a romance, a mystery and a healing process. It's available from Less Than Three Press and on Amazon on September 19th.

LJ Hamlin's Amazon page can be found here.
LJ Hamlin's author blog can be found here.

This interview was conducted and written by one of Westword Books aspiring new authors. Her book will be released soon. Check out Westword Books on Facebook for more updates. This interview is (c)Westword Books. https://www.facebook.com/westword.books/

Important Notice 1: For those of you who plan on watching TNT's new series, "The Librarians", starring Noah Wyle, Rebecca Romijn and Christian Kane, they are replaying the original movies (also starring Noah Wyle) this weekend. Sunday, the 7th, starting at noon, all three movies will air in order. I don't think it will be necessary to have seen the movies to watch the TV series, but if you are interested, the first movie at least is loads of fun. I've only seen the first one, but this time around I am recording and watching all three. Anyways, I know some of you were interested in catching the movies first and even if you don't plan on watching the new series, you should give the original movies a try. Noah Wyle looks like he had a ton of fun making them!

Important Notice 2: It's rhymephile's birthday!! The big 40! (Am I not suppose to announce that to people? Oops, too late!) Rhyme and I met through LJ, where I commented on a fic she wrote, in such obsessive crazy squeeful delight, that she friended me and I friended her back and we have been clutching each other and screaming about fannish things ever since. I awesomely got the chance to meet her in person last year (yep, still excited that we ate in what used to be an old Chicago fire-house) and she's basically the coolest fucking person. But here's a funny thing, like seriously, there was a brief period when we were talking online that I thought, "Does my sister have a sockpuppet journal, where she writes HS AUs, because I think I just accidentally friended my sister's sockpuppet journal." She is obviously not my sister, but still...I was actually really suspicious for a minute there! Anyways, Rhyme, babe, for your birthday, I am still working on that art project I started for you last year. (Still as in, I fished out the already finished bits and set them on my dresser. But I'll get there!) In the meantime, I thought maybe tomorrow, the forces of my life willing, that I might dig out an old X-Files fic (Krycek-centric , of course) and post it up for you, in your honor. Whaddya think?

Important Notice 3: FYI, if you are writing a Firefly fic and then try to send your brother an email immediately after, be aware that it is really hard to get out of Firefly-speak once you've started and your brother may end up side-eyeing your entire email.

That is all.

So I kept meaning to put this up, but I am lazy and lame, so I hadn’t yet, but you guys, check it out, baylorsr podficced “Baggins’ Books” for me!! Yes, I did actually write the story for her birthday. Yes, she technically podficced her own present - but that’s how she rolls, yo. Actually, she likes to podfic all of her very favorite, favorite fics just for herself - (and sometimes a copy for The BFF) - to listen to in the car. She commutes to work and has daytrips for conferences and trainings, so she likes to listen to her fav fanfics during those car rides. The fact that she liked Baggins’ Books so much that the very next weekend she sat down and podficced it, is actually hugely flattering to me. I am psyched. She also podficced Apocalypse! Alien Asteroids for me too, back when. I am adding the link to the story post as well and maybe possibly posting the link to the Hobbit fic comm I belong to. What do you guys think - should I put the link up at the comm as well?

Baggins' Books podfic here!!!!!

Other than that, I am exhausted after therapy today. I am back with Guy Therapist, whom I love, but man I forgot how brutal he is. My shoulder made inhuman noises. Damn. So I'm going to bed a little early tonight. Gonna try to do some writing tomorrow. I just started an AU fic for a friend that hopefully won’t become a massive undertaking. I hate when I think a fic will be 4k and then three weeks later I am still working on it and it is suddenly 10k and counting! I like to type the words ‘The End’ every once in awhile, man.

Lastly, I have a new show rec for ya’ll - Finding Carter. It’s on MTV and is about a girl who was abducted at 3, raised by a loving mom (her kidnapper) and then at 16 is discovered to be the missing girl and returned to her real family. The shock and jolt of it is a bit much for her to take, obvs, but I really like, despite her resistance to her ‘new/old’ parents, how she kind of bonds with her siblings. Also, Alexis Denisof is her birth dad and that should be reason enough for you to watch it. It premiered last week, so if you search for it now, you can probably find the two hour pilot and DVR it real quick. New episode on Tuesday, I think. Check it out!

The Canadian Invasion is over! And I have some cute stories about the kids and some real life updates and all, but it is still my Weekend Of Rest, so I'm just going to save all of that for later. I did, however, want to get this post up because queenklu asked me for some Darcy/Bruce recs over a week ago but then The Canadians arrived and I just didn't have time to put a rec list together. So here are some Darcy/Bruce recs for you all!

( 6 recs Under Here! )

Enjoy those! Under the next cut you will find two Avengers-themed videos that I felt I HAD to share with you all. Because they amuse me! The first is some sort of ridiculous crack that makes me laugh hysterically and is adorable to boot! The second is an absolute must for any Agent Coulson fan!

( Under Here! )

Lastly, this tumblr thing that amused the fuck out of me. I went back through and read them all! I have linked you to the beginning of the tag, but it's only three pages long. RDjr Advises Chris Evans on His Life Choices!. - "But how do you know it was awesome, Robert?"..."Because it was me doing it, Chris. Because it was me."

Enjoy!

So a friend of mine, denig37, is doing a SPN/J2 ‘Gives Me Hope’ Comment Fic Meme Thingy. I’ve never actually done a comment fic meme before (ikr?) and I haven’t written J2 in like forever, but I figured why not go check it out. So I went to the site it was based off of - little snippet stories of hope at GivesMeHope - and then I sobbed hysterically for ten minutes straight. (seriously, don’t go there if you are on your Awesome Time Of Month right now, okay). And then I went back later and cried some more and then finally, I looked at which prompts people had selected for the comment meme.

And then I did a fill. And then I did another fill.

Want to bet on how many more I will have done by the end of the week? This is not ‘working on The BFF’s fic’ like I’m suppose to be doing! Damn these awesome stories of hope and love!



There are plenty of prompts waiting to be filled still, so go check it out! Bring tissues because the happy tears will be a’flowing!

It was 77 degrees outside today. And sunny and beautiful. I had the house all opened up and I could smell the leaves. The whole yard is full of them. Even though it was warmer than it usually is this time of year, it still felt like fall. It just smelled so good and it was kind of awesome.

Anyways, after spending the last month or so convincing everyone and their brother to watch American Horror Story, I have to give it up, at least for this season. ( It hit my one real trigger pretty hard. )

In fandom news, the het_reccers poll is in its final round. Scully/Mulder vs Natasha/Clint. I'll say it again - I love Natasha/Clint. By how can the OTP of my generation be bested by the new kids on the block?! It looks like they are going to be though because Natasha/Clint are kicking Scully/Mulder's ass right now. It's so messed up. It seems like when I first got into fandom, I kept meeting new people and discovering they started out in The X-Files. I always knew it was a big fandom that got a lot of people their start - (it was a few years too early for me to afford a computer) - but at any rate, I was surprised by the sheer number of X-Files fans in fandom. And yet, somehow, Scully/Mulder are being stomped. THIS WILL NOT STAND! Vote here!.

That is all.

I swear, I very rarely ever vote in these types of polls and I especially hate the ones where you can vote as many times as you want because it just stacks things unfairly in favor of the, er, uh, let's say 'really dedicated' fandoms. But vikingprincess pimped it out, so I headed over to het_reccers to check out their shipping poll, just to take a look. And now...I can't stop checking the stats! I have voted in every round since! But you guys, there is something bizarre happening in the universe, because Leia/Han are losing. I can't even with that.

( Here are the pairings for round four. )

Dammit, vikingprincess, look what you have done to me! I JUST CAN'T EVEN THAT LEIA/HAN & ZOE/WASH ARE LOSING! Thank goodness for dedicated X-Files fans or I would be having a triple meltdown right now. Vote here!

In TV news - American Horror Story starts back up tonight! The thing is, my Tivo wasn’t picking it up despite people insisting it was coming back this week. Turns out, they are calling it “American Horror Story: Asylum”, so if you have it programmed into your DVR from last year, it may not be recognizing this new season. Check your DVRs and shit, people! Also, Ian McShane will be in this season and I heard he will be an adversary to Jessica Lange and that…that just sounds like the best thing ever.

This fic-fest lasts all year. And the rules are pretty free and open. Chances are I'll do at least one fic that fits this list. (no, you people know how my writing goes by now - that's like a total pimp coming from me. I am the girl who fears challenges because I'm convinced the deadline blocks me, which I know is bullshit but I'm Tweak and I can't handle the pressure).

So, really, this is me pimping this shit because The List herein is awesome. Go forth and get laid!




50 reasons to have sex fic fest

DW | LJ

It is Anti-Bullying Month. I wanted to write something from "The Faculty" fandom for this - a) I dipped like one toe in that fandom years back, b) I have been having the urge to write in that fandom again recently, and c) Casey is a good character to use for an anti-bullying fic - his ability to know which battles to fight (say for instance ones against a giant alien queen that has taken over his high school) and his strength throughout it all amazed me. But writing anything has been a no-go this month with how crappy I have felt. (If I write anything, it will be a zombie ficlet for Halloween, but I’m not crossing my fingers on that).

So, instead I thought I would rec you two stories about bullying that I have read and loved in the past.

Can I Be Pretty Enough For You? by aythia:
Rating: NC-17 Pairing: Jared/Jensen Word Count: ~62.300 + timestamps
Summary: Jensen has been hurt, and he is not about to put his trust in anyone, ever again. Things might change around the school however, when a new student arrives. But will Jensen allow the change or will the nightmares from his past ruin his last year in high school?

Rec: She captures the emotions of this very well and hits on a few things I particularly liked - how the mob mentality can take over and one bully can become many, and also how sometimes the people who don’t join in but instead just stand by and do nothing actually can hurt just as much as the bullying. Also, I love her Chad in this - it was very early on in my CMM-love-phase and I just had little stupid hearts over him in this. And Jared’s parents are the bomb.

Personal Note: This is one of the first HS AUs I ever read and I had never read a bullying fic before. I was worried that it might trigger nightmares for me. I decided that since I didn’t know the author and would probably never talk to her again, that it would be okay if I shared some personal things with her that this story brought up. What followed was a long back-and-forth between the two of us about some of the things we endured in school, that has since made it a lot easier for me to talk about things I couldn’t before. We ended up friending each other and now I love her to smishy pieces.

In This Secluded Spot I Respond As I Wouldn't Dare Elsewhere by rhymephile:
Rating: R Pairing Dean/Cas Word Count: 34,040
Summary: It's 1995, and Castiel's high school years are destined to be difficult: home-schooled until eighth grade, he is awkward, shy, and socially inept. The weird kid with the funny name would rather isolate himself and draw in his sketchbook than deal with the constant bullying he faces every day. Things only get worse in his junior year when he excels in home economics class, leading the captain of the baseball team, Alastair, to start taunting him for being gay. Then new student Dean Winchester arrives at Flour Bluff High School, sharing many of Castiel's classes. Castiel has seen his type before -- handsome, athletic, arrogant, and sure to be the most popular kid in school. But Castiel eventually learns that he and Dean have more in common than he thought, and they form an unlikely friendship.

Rec: This is one of my favorite HS AUs ever and one of my favorite Dean/Cas fics. What the author captures in this so perfectly that it made me cry is the feeling that even when someone is being nice to you, that somehow it is a trick, that no one can be trusted. Watching Cas go through this slow break down of everything he has known before Dean is truly amazing. Her side characters have awesome dimension for the very little they appear in this, in particular the teachers and of course, Cas’ mom who I wish would adopt me.

Personal Note: This one was actually hard for me to read, it brought up a lot of emotions but I am glad I did. This story is the reason that I friended the author and as it turns out, she rules.

Go forth and read!