We'll Just Ignore That Week

Yup, I'm trying again.

Wow... I just... I completely missed last week! Sorry, folks! Is that the first time this year? I think it was the first time this year... It's just... that week really got away from me. It's been... hectic....

Two weeks ago, I still had HUNDREDS of pages to read in "Bitterblue" by Kristin Cashore before it has to go back to the library today. I had to work on the research portion of my "Meet Lia" mini-series for my on-going "Meet My OCs" project. I had to figure out my finances so I could pay for my portion of the car repairs. I had to organize my house, go to Zumba, prep for my trip down to visit my mother, and write a new and completed work of fiction for the month.

I... don't think I organized my time well.

First and foremost, I was able to get my finances all sorted out so I had enough to pay my portion of the collision repair bill. So check out how pretty my car is again!

It feels fantastic to drive my own car again after almost exactly a month! I did have a bit of a hiccup right out of the gate though, since my car has power steering to the point where I can use the heel of one hand to turn the steering wheel, whereas the Miata we had been borrowing did NOT have power steering. I had to muscle that thing around curves all the time, especially at slower speeds. When Hubby's friend told us "it could take a turn at 30mph no problem" I didn't realize he meant "it kinda NEEDS to go that fast in order for you to move the wheel at all."

Anyway, when I got my car back I forgot to take into consideration that I didn't need to do arm exercises before making a turn, and so I nearly over-turned and ran into a ditch pulling out of the collision center's parking lot! I did it a second time closer to my homee when I nearly steered right into the curb. Thankfully, I got the rhythm of my car after those two hiccups, and I was able to correct fast enough to stay in my lane of the road both times.

THAT would have been fun: leave collision center; wreck car all over again 2min out.

Anyway, that was Friday, 6/21. Wednesday, 6/19 - the day after my last blog post - I couldn't do anything writing or reading wise at work as I ran around changing sales tags all day; then Zumba and after-Zumba walk. Then I showered, ate, and spent SOME time with Hubby, so not much writing to be had even after work. Thursday was work again, and then Omnibladestrike's weekly visit. I can't recall at this time what I did at work, but if I had downtime, I was probably playing catch-up on my reading.

Friday, along with "pick up my car finally!" was also catch-up day for reading, for cleaning, for laundry, and for writing. I knew I wasn't going to really have time to do much outside of socializing while visiting Mom this past weekend, so I needed as much writing done as possible before I headed down on the 28th. That meant less than a week to work on "Meet Lia," my monthly fiction writing, and my blog since the 21st was also my last day off before my trip.

It was a LOT to do... and I do NOT know how to manage my time. I was able to get about half-done with everything before I panicked about how little time I had left and switched to a different project. Leaving them all incomplete instead of having at least ONE completed task and leave one or two not started...

Not a real confidence booster before heading into July's Camp NaNoWriMo. A trend that followed me into the new month as I only managed about 100 words last night.

What's worse is that, much like in May, I had no clue what to even write for my monthly completed piece of fiction. I had been so focused on the "Meet Willow" and "Meet Lia" posts that I wasn't thinking of any new content. I debated for the briefest of moments to write something with them, but I just couldn't think of what.

Then I spent Monday evening/Tuesday morning chatting with ChibiSunnie. We talked about a whole slew of things, but one of the topics that stuck with me was a bit about Fruits Basket. Specifically, she was telling me about the latest manga for the series called Fruits Basket Another. It's basically Boruto or X-Future. Namely, it continues the story by following the children of the original cast of characters. It's extremely short compared to the original manga series - only about 12 chapters/3 volumes long - and just concluded after 4yrs.

Anyway, the point is, much like the original Fruits Basket, apparently the parents don't make much of an appearance as the story focuses more on the high schoolers. Kind of sad, really, since it would be great to see 30-something, 40-something, and 50-something versions of the original cast. The real reason we were talking about this series though, aside from it simply being more Fruits Basket, is that the children of the three main characters of the show are also the main characters of this new manga series. Between the main cast briefly appearing here and there in the series centering around their children, and the flash-forward/epilogue of the original Fruits Basket, you get a glimpse into Tohru's love life and how happy a life she maintains for the rest of her days.

For those who want to get into the series, or have just started it, I don't want to give away who Tohru ends up with, but Chibi and I talked about a distinct and slightly odd way he shows her affection, and I hoped it continued into their adulthood. I threw out a bunch of headcanon scenes of when, how, and why he'd show her affection that way, and Chibi ate it up. Which, of course, encouraged me to keep thinking about them.

THIS WAS IT! This was the story I was going to tell for June! Now, the title alone for the story is probably a Tohru Endgame spoiler, so if you DO want to go into Fruits Basket spoiler-free, please skip on ahead a bit...
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Everyone who wanted to avoid spoilers has passed by? You guys either know the endgame or don't care? Alright, so I was specifically wondering about that little head bonk Kyo does to Tohru.

I came up with scenarios of him still doing that to refocus her throughout their life together, and I just HAD to write them out; they were too cute not to!

Thus "Love Taps" came into being, and was published on Wednesday, June 26th.

"Love Taps"

On FanFiction      On ArchiveOfOurOwn     On DeviantArt     On Tumblr

SUMMARY: Kyo’s little head bonks carry more meaning and more love than anyone could ever truly know. Anyone besides maybe Tohru, who reflects on an entire lifetime of receiving the loving raps on the noggin.

One-shot

WORD COUNT: 2952
RATING: General Audiences

Yeah! I posted the full story on Tumblr too! The story follows Kyo and Tohru - Kyohru - until they are 73, so it does also include spoilers for Fruits Basket Another; whatever I could grab from the wikis, spoiling myself be damned! So keep that in mind if you want to give my one-shot a read but haven't had a chance to read the newest manga and/or the "Three Musketeers Arc" companion stories. Now, TMA centers around Shigure, Hatori, and Ayame, but, from what I gathered via the wiki, there are some flash forwards in this arc that also spoils bits of Fruits Basket Another. So... fair warning... because I included as much as possible in "Love Taps" to make it canon compatible.
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OKAY! SPOILERS OVER NOW! YOU CAN START READING AGAIN IF YOU SKIPPED THE LAST PART!

The key thing to really take away from this fiction piece, whether or not you read it, is how much Chibi helped inspire me. We always pop out so many plot bunnies when we talk, and it was fun and refreshing to actually take one of those bunnies to maturity. She also greatly encouraged me by commenting about how perfect the headcanons were and how much she wished the manga creator Natsuki Takaya would actually draw them out to make them canon.

Well, Chibi, they'll be canon to us!

As I was publishing them, I thought it was fitting to have this story be dedicated to her. I haven't gifted Chibi a story in years, and she was beyond due for another one.

It was also nice to switch up fandoms for a few minutes. I flew through this story after work on Tuesday, June 25th. More on this later. For the quick recap, I gave Hubby a heads up, and squirreled myself away on the front porch to soak in my daily sunshine while I wrote. I then finished it up in the house, because my laptop was dying, and sent the first draft to Chibi late that night. I warned her that my eyes were glazing over towards the end, so please ignore the roughness of it. She seemed to enjoy seeing the headcanons written out.

The next day she saw that the edited version was published as a dedication to her, which was apparently a bit of a surprise. She completely gushed on my Facebook promotion for it, gushed on her reblog of my posting to Tumblr, and gushed in her review on AO3. She's just adorable! I mean, look at these!

ON FACEBOOK:
Aaaahhhhhh you're so sweet to dedicate this story to me and I LOVE IT SO MUCH IT'S SO ADORABLE AND SWEET EEEEEEEEEE THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!! :D <3 :D <3 :D <3 :D <3 :D I left a proper review up on A03, but eeeeeee thank you this made me so happy to read and I love that you got inspired from our convo!! ^_^ <3 Aaahhhhhh my heart is all full of the fluff from this! :D <3
~~~ Followed by 3 different love-themed FB stickers ~~~

ON TUMBLR:
I already squeed on facebook and A03 but EEEEEEEEEE I LOVE THIS STORY SO MUCH IT’S SO SWEET AND FLUFFY AND MAKES ME SO HAPPY!!!! :D :D :D :D Thank you so much for dedicating it to me! ^_^ *sends you all the hugs* :D
~~~ Followed by 7 different Fruits Basket anime hug screen caps ~~~

AND THE AO3 REVIEW ITSELF:
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE THIS WAS SO SWEET AND FLUFFY AND ADORABLE AND I LOVE IT SO SO SO SO SOOOOOOO MUCH!!!!! :D <3 :D <3 :D <3 :D <3 :D <3 :D Aaahhhhhh and you dedicated it to me, that's so incredibly nice of you, THANK YOU!!! ^_^ <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 This is exactly how I imagined those scenes when we were talking about all of this last week and I'm so happy that convo inspired plot bunnies that you loved enough to bring to life in this story!! :D Your writing is lovely as always and I can absolutely picture this whole story as a canon future for them!! :D Aahhhh and it was so fluffy and sweet it made me tear up a bit at how cute and happy and wonderful their life is together! ^_^ <3 Thank you for writing this story, it absolutely brightened my whole week!!! ^_^ <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

So... I guess I did good?


Chibi wasn't the only person to give me some love for this story though. Now, I derped up and didn't jot down the 24hr stats like I normally would, but here's where I am as of this writing:

FFN: 94 views, 5 faves, and 2 reviews
AO3: 167 hits, 14 kudos, 1 bookmark, and Chibi's comment
DA: 10 views and 1 fave

Total Results: 271 views, 20 faves, 1 bookmark, and 3 reviews

Tumblr Notes: 12 notes; 9 likes and 3 reblogs

FFN reviews:
  1. *squee* I get to follow you to a new fandom! HOORAY! I really hope [spoiler; content removed] keep going, too!
  2. This was so sweet, showing all the different meanings behind [spoiler; content removed] over the span of various special moments throughout their life, it was just perfect. Admittedly, I didn't remember [spoiler; content removed] in the manga (though truth be told it's been a long time since I've read it), so when he first did it in the new anime series my heart all but exploded in joy. I'm still such a fangirl for this series and for [spoiler; content removed] in particular haha. Anyway, lovely writing, absolutely adorable and heartwarming. Great work!

One of the reblogs off Tumblr was a Fruits Basket fanblog by fruits-basket2019, and their tags included "#this was so cuteeee" So.. yay!

fanfictionrecommendations-com found me again and once more liked one of my stories. It will be interesting to see if any of them ever show up on their site.... Perhaps I should check in on that to see if any of my fandoms were showcased in the past few months.

Anyway, I know the above stats are fairly small compared to the week-long stats I get on my ML stories, especially when one considers how popular Fruits Basket is right now. However, I AM talking post-endgame for Furuba, and I do warn that it contains spoilers for FBA, so perhaps a lot of fans are steering away to avoid spoilers? Perhaps there are those who aren't fans of the canon endgame pairing that are also avoiding the story? Or perhaps Furuba fanfiction isn't as popular as ML fanfics? Also, new Furuba episodes come out on Fridays, so maybe no one is looking for fanfiction on Wednesdays or Thursdays?

Regardless of the reasoning, the actual ratio of kudos/likes/reviews to views seems to be smaller than with ML, which means when someone reads this story they have a higher percentage of reacting to it - by way of likes/kudos/bookmarks/follows/reviews/etc - than my ML readers. I also remember having roughly 20 views on FFN within the first 24hrs, and around 80 hits on AO3. I think I also had something like 5 likes and the 3 reblogs on Tumblr within those first 24hrs. The fave on DA was within the first couple of hours after publishing. That's exciting, right?

Heck, that first review I shared a few paragraphs up? The one about following me into a new fandom? That's from faithful reader ChubbyUnicornMama. They've been following me since I published "Woven Heartstrings" for Taurus Pixie. My heart swelled a touch to see that they did indeed read something non-Miraculous related. Apparently they have that much faith in my writing that they would read it, even if it's outside of their current fandom. Now, they DO know the story behind Fruits Basket, so they didn't go in cold or anything, but still, it was sweet that they had that faith. I then got a bit of a chuckle when I realized the review went up barely 30minutes after I published the story! Unicorn must have instantly gone to read after getting the alert!

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I feel so loved right now! I can't even express it properly. So, thank you, ChubbyUnicornMama for the love, and thank you, ChibiSunnie, for all the gushing. EEEEEE.

For everyone else who read, liked, left kudos, reblogged, faved, and/or bookmarked my story? Thank you as well for taking time with my little experimental journey into the Fruits Basket world for a minute.

Anyway, getting back on track! I told you about TWO weeks ago, but what about LAST week? Why did I miss my update? How did my Furuba story affect that?

Well, as I mentioned towards the top, Friday, 6/21, was the only day off I had that week so I could take this past weekend to visit my mom and sister. That meant I didn't have the 4+ hours first thing Tuesday morning that I normally take to write up these posts and edit them. I was at work, and I just couldn't work on my post like I wanted.

I MEANT to work on my blog post Monday night so it was all queued up for Tuesday at noon, but I was tired from running around trying to get things sorted the previous day. I also had my last Zumba class before the instructor went on a week-long vacation, which meant I really couldn't afford to skip it. I'm glad I didn't for more than exercise/health reasons. It was a nice stress reliever, even if the stress piled back on after taking a nearly 2hr break from everything, but more importantly, my niece joined me and my sister-in-law. School got out early as the school year came to a close, and so my niece spent most of the day with her mom. My sister-in-law didn't have enough time to do a sort of hand-off to her husband before Zumba, so Niece came with! She sat in the corner and watched us, but it was still fun to have her there and then walk with them after class was done.

Point is, between work - where I was actually kept fairly hoppin' - Zumba, post-Zumba walk, showering, dinner, picking Hubby up from work, and spending time with him... I ran out of time to write up my blog post so it was set to go last Tuesday. I mean, late in the day I had the chance to work on my blog post, but instead I watched the latest Fruits Basket - since I ran out of time to do so over the weekend - and then chatted with ChibiSunnie about it. When it was after 1am, I realized that I NEEDED to go to bed. No blog pre-write time.

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I then figured I could use my downtime at work to write up the post so I could just publish it late when I got home. Noooope. Yet again I was actually kept fairly occupied at work, and I still needed to make sure I didn't fall behind on my reading, so my downtime was spent working on that. On top of that, the discussions Chibi and I had the night before kept poking at me. I knew that I wanted to write them up for my monthly fiction project.

The day spun out of control fairly quickly for me as my head swam between the reading to get "Bitterblue" done before it was due back at the library, working on my "Meet Lia" posts for my Sunday deadline, writing up my Furuba fanfic before heading down to my mom's on the 28th, and playing catch-up to write my blog post... I also had a writing date set up with Omni, which largely means either talking about both of our projects - something I didn't need on my end - or focusing solely on his story to help him out. Whether or not we focused on Omni, it meant I wasn't writing anything myself. I also needed to fold laundry and start packing for our trip, and cleaning the house... I couldn't mentally map out how to find the time for everything!

Frazzled, I asked Omni for a raincheck, and we agreed to spend an hour or two of our Thursday meet-up instead to chat about his story. Having some time freed up, I then messaged Hubby to tell him he shouldn't expect to see me much that day as I HAD to get writing done. Once I got home, I quickly changed out of my work clothes, then squirreled myself away on the front porch.

I should have instantly started on my blog post. However, I knew I wanted to have SOMETHING to talk about in my post, completely forgetting that I originally wanted to use an uneventful writing week to finally talk about my thoughts on "Graceling."  So, I prioritized writing my fiction over getting my blog post done before Tuesday's end. That way I could share my story with you fine folks in that week's blog post.

As I mentioned above, writing the story kept nearly all night to do, mostly because of the research I had to do to figure out Tohru's adult life. Eyes glazing over, I shared the story with Chibi, then passed out knowing I didn't even have the post written up to publish first thing Wednesday morning.

Wednesday was spent editing the story, more reading, and trying to mentally block out my co-worker's incessant whining about how bored she was since we barely had any customers. I managed to get the story published between 2pm and 3pm, and I then focused on "Meet Lia" instead of my blog post... because I can't prioritize properly....

Honestly? I can't recall what I did Wednesday evening instead of working on my blog post. Especially since I didn't have Zumba. I think I tried to get a head start on my reading? Did I get suckered into my husband's new JRPG? I can't recall, and I was too frantic to remember to do my time audits.

Something I'm correcting this week. I already have yesterday filled in, and I'm up to the minute on today's audit thus far. I also remembered to mark the monthly calendar with what writing I was working on. I'm striving to do better with this custom-made planner I printed.

Anyway, the point is I STILL didn't have the blog done Wednesday evening. So that was my goal while at work on Thursday. I didn't get very far. I was busy early in the morning, and then I did more reading and caught up on my mobile games over lunch... and a touch beyond. I didn't get started on my blog post until around 1pm, so close to 24hrs after my Furuba story published. I worked on the stats, dropping them into a blog draft as I went. However, figuring out how to format Chibi's squees so I could keep those emoticons in a blockquote... it was more exhausting and took up more time than I gave it credit when I went in to the task.

Before I knew it, the work day passed me by, I didn't have all the stats properly logged, especially when they were still updating, and I hadn't written much of anything for the blog outside of the stats and reviews. When I got home, Omni was already here, and Hubby was showing off his new JRPG video game. As agreed, Hubby continued playing his game while Omni and I chatted about his story for about an hour or two. Then Hubby made us all soft-shell tacos, and we switched gears.

I STILL needed to finish folding laundry and pack for the trip, so I begged Omni to bring his copy of the "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic" movie. He had wanted us to watch it with him for nearly a year now, and I couldn't watch our normal subtitled anime. I needed to focus on something other than the TV, and having a show with English audio meant I could still follow the plot without gluing my eyes to the TV the whole time.

We watched the movie. I folded laundry and packed. We chatted a bit more. I had Omni watch the next Fruits Basket episode in my re-watch because I didn't need to see the TV to know what was going on anymore. I think Omni and I are now up to episode 5? I feel like the Culture Festival is the next episode for us to watch this week, so... whichever episode that is.

Anyway, with the socializing, folding, and packing, I had no time to go back to finish my blog. "Okay," I told myself "Wake up super early Friday morning to work on it then!" Nope. I mean, I still woke up early for me - about 6:30am - but I spent that time showering, shaving, finishing the packing, getting breakfast ready, and whatever else I needed to get sorted before the trip. I ran out of time to work on the blog post or the "Meet Lia" posts before Hubby and I had to leave. But, hey, we actually left for my mom's on time. That's kind of a first. My sister even joked that it might snow!

Instead, we just got caught in highway construction traffic, and got lost when I tried to self-detour... so we got to my mom's an hour later than intended. You win some you lose some?

Throughout the weekend, I DID have some downtime at my mom's here and there, but I was so drained at that time I didn't have the energy to write anything. I barely had the energy to even unpack my laptop. I think I used it for a grand total of about 20min the whole weekend. At that point I figured it was too late to worry about the "Meet Lia" posts, and it wasn't worth trying to get last week's blog post up. I waved the white flag and submitted to missing my first week of the year.

I'll have to write up a post focused solely on my thoughts about "Graceling" and "Bitterblue", and then double-post one of these weeks to make it up.

When I got back home Sunday evening I meant to take the time to work on publishing the "Meet Lia" posts, and I even hid in the bedroom to do just that. Except I passed out a few minutes in....

Hacker Boy Facebook sticker
by Birdman, Inc.

So, with only the overview/background post figured out, I FINALLY published the first "Meet Lia" post last night. I already got a like from both Skarabrae-stone and ChibiSunnie, as well as Chibi confessing that Lia is her favorite of my OCs. Honestly? Since Lia is basically just me with most of my friends - whereas Willow is me with Hubby, Trish is Angry Lyco, Jolene is AU Lyco, and Amara is just Emo Girl - I get why she might take a shine to her.


But this post is beyond epic as I tried to catch up on TWO crazy weeks!

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I STILL need to read 126 pages before writing group at 6pm tonight so I can return "Bitterblue" and I need to work on my Camp NaNo project - which I ran out of time to fully talk about, but I AM working on "One and the Same" again; hopefully third time's the charm. I have to work on more "Meet Lia" posts, and the blog post to make up for missing last week. I'm off to a great start with this epic post publishing two hours late.... Seems I'm not getting a break until August.

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Busy, busy, busy

Sorry about the delay, folks. I didn't have the time I normally do to work on my blog post this past week. I was too busy with family this weekend. Because my sister's birthday was Monday!

My sister is so magical and majestic...
Image is the cover art for a notebook by Black River Art

Anyway, Saturday Hubby and I drove down to visit her and my mom. I was also supposed to post the fifth chapter of "Prescription for Love" on Saturday, but things didn't really go as planned.... I didn't wake up early enough to post it in the morning as I originally wanted, which would have been a nice surprise for everyone, since I've been updating at about 11pm each time. When I missed my first-thing-in-the-morning posting, I figured I'd post after reaching my mom's house. However, she was throwing my sister a surprise party for her 30th, so when I got there I was recruited to help set up the party. It was a fun event, especially since I was able to surprise everyone with this!

My plates weren't put on the car yet.
It's actually a midnight blue, but it looks black here.

Presenting my new car! For the first time in my life I actually own a car that was built in the 2000's! It's a 2015 actually, so relatively new! Aaaaand it's from a dealer instead a private seller! I'm loving this thing. It's gorgeous. It's new. It's fun to drive. And Hubby and I are getting the biggest kick out of the XM radio stations.

I actually picked this baby out two weeks ago, on the 26th, and put a down payment on it. Then I officially signed the papers to buy it on the 28th. It was SOOOOOOO hard to not post about it until after I surprised my mom and sister with it.

Anyway, I surprised my mom with the car, since she thought I was borrowing from a friend, and then I was the distraction for my sister when she got home - so everyone could hide and she wouldn't notice oddities about the house - by showing off the car to her. Then the actual surprise party happened. My high school bestie was over to celebrate since she's basically another sister, and she stayed until 1am or so hanging out and chatting.

Originally, when the rest of the party died off around 10pm, I planned on hiding away to post a late update, as per usual, except I got caught up in catching up with the bestie. In the end, I didn't get a moment to update the story until Mom and Sis were at church the next morning. But at least it's available to read now!

"Prescription for Love: Chapter 5"

On FanFiction            On ArchiveOfOurOwn            On DeviantArt

On Sunday I also did laundry, and did some running around while I was visiting my hometown. Eventually, I went to the bestie's to celebrate my godson's fifth birthday!

Artwork is the cover of a greeting card

I ended up spending more time visiting the godson than expected, and by the time I got back to my mom's it was time for dinner, and my sister had a game night set up for us. So, no time to work on the blog post that night.

Monday, I slept in a touch, and then there was minor chaos trying to get all four of us ready before heading out at 11:30 for an early lunch reservation at a local hibachi grill. We had a fun time. It was the third time I've done hibachi, but a first for Mom and Hubby. Mom was probably more entertaining to watch than the chef. She's so jumpy and gets wonderfully amazed by so many things. Love her!

Hacker Girl Facebook sticker
by Birdman, Inc.

Right after we were done with the long lunch we headed across the street to the movie theater to watch "How to Train Your Dragon 3: The Hidden World." Again, my mom is fantastic to watch such movies with.

With the movie done, we headed back to my mom's, along with my sister's boyfriend and best friend, and the six of us played games for the rest of the day. We got in some Mario Kart, Uno - of which we had some of the longest rounds I've ever played in my life - and the new Mario Kart themed Monopoly Gamer. Around 10pm or so, everyone started to crash, so my sister's boyfriend and best friend each headed home before Sis also called it a night.

I was going to use the rest of the evening to work on the blog post, or edit the sixth chapter of PfL I wanted to post on Tuesday. Instead, my mom needed an assist on computer things. So I helped walk her through organizing old thumb drives and new photos off her memory card. Once it passed midnight, it got too late to stay up longer, so I crashed.

Tuesday morning I started working on this blog, but then Mom greeted me, we talked, Hubby woke up, we had breakfast, and then it was just about time to start packing up to head home.

We managed to get home with barely an hour to spare before my writing group meeting, and we used that hour to unpack and quickly pick up things like milk from the grocery store.

At the meeting, I read chapters 2 and 3 of "Prescription for Love" since these were actually fairly short. As per usual, most of the group sort of nodded their heads and commented about how much fun it was to hear. The only other member remotely close to my age, Skarabrae-stone, really got into my story, asking for follow-ups and the like.

Before I had read my story, Skarabrae read a bit of fanfic of her own. She has a Captain America AU series on AO3 called "And the Fall to Doom a Long Way Away" that is, as she put it, "a barely passing glance at canon." In her AU Steve "Captain America" Rogers and Peggy Carter were born in the 80s, along with other Avengers such as Natasha "Black Widow" Romanoff, instead of their canonical birth years. James "Bucky" Barnes is also now "Becky Barnes" and has a potential relationship with Steve. As far as I can tell, she's still the Winter Soldier.

Anyway, the piece Ska read Tuesday night was from a WIP she hasn't posted yet for that series. I really enjoyed it. I was a bit confused, but I enjoyed it. Once I realized it was an AU that mostly resembled canon in name alone, I enjoyed the story all the more, the confusion all cleared up. I also asked for follow-up information, mostly about the changes she made for her AU, and chatted about how much I liked the changes she made. Then the two of us bantered back and forth a bit about fanfiction writing in general: keeping to canon versus changing it up for an AU - which means "Alternate Universe" by the way, for any who might not know - how the word 'incredulous' seems to consistently pop up in fanfiction, the debate between writing a fanfic AU that barely relates to canon versus just writing it as an original story, and other such 'trade trials'. During those ten minutes or so, the rest of the poor group probably felt like they were watching a friendly tennis match as we lobbed comments back and forth to each other.

Eventually, we passed the floor over to Jack Nanuq, who read a sample of his sequel to "Parabellum." We discussed that for a little bit, and joked about his "taking a break" after publishing "Parabellum" since he's "only" about three chapters into the sequel.

By the way, quick side tangent as I remind everyone that "Parabellum" is now available as both an e-book and a paperback. Seriously, folks. This story is really intriguing, and it's so much fun to learn Nana's backstory while Carson deals with hitmen and military refugees.

One more time, here's the link: "Parabellum: When you live in peace, prepare for war"

Now back to the Tuesday night writing group meeting. After I read my bits from PfL, Ska and I kind of went back and forth again, as I mentioned above. I also had some insight chipped in from two more members of the group, but I've been reading Miraculous Ladybug stuff for so long they at least have a semi-basic feel for the fandom by now. Whereas, only one other member knew who Captain America really was, and it was largely due to the Marvel movies. My point being, it was nice to hear someone else's fanfiction writing, and for someone to be a bit more engaged in mine; knowing the wonderful pains of writing fanfiction herself.

After the meeting broke, I went straight home, where Wolfhearted was still visiting with Hubby. Originally, his plan was to have some "guy time" with Hubby while I was at my meeting, and then watch ML with me once I got home. However, almost as soon as I greeted him, he said goodbye to me. He claimed he was super busy, and sadly couldn't stick around any later, but then Hubby started up the latest episode of the SYFY channel series Deadly Class. Wolfhearted caught some of the opening, loved the concept of a secret academy to train assassins, and was hooked. He sank back onto our loveseat, and stuck around for an extra hour to watch the episode with us.

So much for "no time to watch Ladybug"... oh well... I guess I'm waiting until tomorrow for us to watch the latest episode together....

Wolfhearted ended up not leaving until around 9:30 Tuesday night. At that point, I thought Hubby and I had a show to watch at 10pm, and I didn't believe a half-hour before our show would be enough time to really get my writing done. I suggested instead that we spend that thirty minute block watching the latest episode of the DuckTales reboot, which had aired on Saturday. Might as well get one of our other shows out of the way, right?

Well, at 10pm, we ended up not having our normal show. I had forgotten that this past Tuesday night a sort of "adult content" version of "America's Funniest Home Videos" had a special on, and the show we normally watched would have its finale NEXT Tuesday.

Whoops. Guess I did have time to work on writing, huh?

Worse yet, instead of shrugging off the lost time and knuckling down to work on my story or blog post, I got suckered into a news promo teasing about an American football player trade. Hubby and I hopped over to ESPN, and I spent a good half-hour or so watching the news reports about the trade.

I might be a bit too invested in this sport sometimes....

Content that I learned all I was going to, and realizing how late it was in the day, I popped in my headphones, and FINALLY focused on editing and posting the latest chapter of PfL. Unfortunately, by the time I was done with edits and had formatted for posting, it was about 12:30am. It was Wednesday morning. Once again, I was a day late on my posting schedule.

I'm so glad my readers are patient.

Speaking of, if you wanted to check out the latest chapter and haven't yet, you can find chapter six at the normal three sites.

"Prescription for Love: Chapter 6"

On FanFiction            On ArchiveOfOurOwn            On DeviantArt

And also speaking of readers, have I ever mentioned how amazing mine are? I almost always get such lovely and excited reviews, and this silly little story is no exception. I even got Taurus Pixie a little riled up, in a playful sense, by not being 100% accurate in describing a British royal wedding.

I was trying to, Pixie! I did my research! It just didn't match up with the facts the show gave us, and all of the royals were already married off by the time the show aired!


Nah, I'm just teasing. I did legitimately try to be as close to 100% accurate as possible, but I knew Pixie's critiques were all in good fun. I enjoyed seeing them.


To be honest, it WAS difficult to figure out how to handle the wedding. In then end, I sort of went with "this is an alternate Earth where superheroes are real thanks to magical jewelry, so maybe it's a different set of British Royalty." I mean, it happens all the time for the United States. We always get some fictitious president instead of using the actual president at the time, unless said Real World president is important to the overall plot.

So, in the end, I picked Westminster Abbey since Prince William and Catherine were married there. I also took a few elements - such as a garden party reception - from Prince Harry and Meghan's wedding. Then I observed some of the more formal garb worn at such weddings as Prince Harry's, Prince William's, and both of Prince Charles', in order to get a feel for what Adrien, Gabriel, Kagami, and her mother should all wear. Finally, I researched the vows Prince William and Prince Harry each used for their weddings, added my own take via a generic "unique wedding vows" search, and threw in the Archbishop of Canterbury, since he seemed to officiate royal weddings.

In the end, I'm glad Pixie enjoyed my sort of unofficial AU of the Royal Wedding. Plus, it was fun seeing her get worked up about the details.

Again. I have amazing readers.

Hacker Girl Facebook sticker
by Birdman, Inc.

Along with Pixie, I've also had routine reviews by two people: ChubbyUnicornMama on FFN and siriuslyrandom8 on AO3. These two have commented on every chapter of PfL, and it always makes me smile to see their names in my mailbox.

This weekend though, I had a sort of out-of-body experience. I had to stare at a name over on AO3 for quite some time to fully register it. One of my reviewers for the third and sixth chapters of PfL was Yunyin!

A little context. See, once upon a time, before I caved and re-joined Tumblr, I would just Google Image fanart for ML. It was when the second season started posting online. I would watch an episode, want to look for ML content about said episode, and would just search via Google. More often than not, I'd find pictures on Pinterest. One of two main artists I found, who created content I consistently enjoyed, was Yunyin. The other was the amazing EdenDaphne.

Anyway, after roughly four months of following Pinterest finds back to the original Tumblr posts - along with a lot of poking from ChibiSunnie - I eventually caved and re-joined Tumblr. Along with Chibi and a couple other IRL friends, Eden and Yunyin were among the first people I followed.

I just love her artwork and the fancomics she creates. I've adored her content for at least a year, and I don't recall her ever finding my content previously.

I'm not sure if she just stumbled upon my story on AO3, if she was specifically looking for content about the episode Backwarder - mine is one of 13 stories on AO3 based on that episode - if someone suggested the story to her, or if she saw one of my Tumblr posts promoting it. Regardless of how she found it, she did, and seems to enjoy it.

Yunyin (about chpt 3): Aaaaaw. Luka's Marinette song! And Adrien likes it!
I also like him worrying about Ladybug being alone. It adds a nice touch!

Yunyin (about chpt 6): I think the scene with the stars was nice! I could just see Adrien spinning to take them all in.

I'm still trying to get over the fact that someone I've followed for so long is reading MY content!

Readers, I love you all! You are my life-blood! Between someone I've followed reading my stuff, consistent readers letting me know their thoughts, and Pixie engaging so much in my story....

This was supposed to be a stupid little story, and it's getting such love! You guys rock!

Natsuo Maki from Love Lab
Manga by Ruri Miyahara

Now to buckle down and finish editing the next chapter - which was originally going to be the last one, but I think I now have two more to follow - so it is ready for Friday. MAAAAAYBE I can get it posted before 11pm this time. I can at least have it posted on the day it's supposed to be.... right?

As for "One and the Same"? Clearly, it's not posting this month like I teased forever ago. However, I'm all signed up for Camp NaNo, and have OatS as my goal project again. I only got about 12,000 words in during NaNoWriMo, but I'm hoping to actually finish my project in April. We'll see how that goes.

Feel free to join me, or follow my progress.

But, for now, I really need to end this post so I can get to working on my fanfiction. It's no wonder I didn't have the time to finish this up yesterday... Darn lack of free time!

I'll catch everyone at my normal noon update on Tuesday!

Not The Best Start

One week in, and I've already failed at half of my resolutions. I've also only sold to my own mother - and one other "ready to buy" customer - since 2017 started. Not the best start, but I'm still in high spirits. The year is extremely young, and the first week of the year is always a bit of a chaos-ball for me as I transition from the old to the new, as well as getting back on track after falling off the horse in November and December.

In helping with that transition, I HAVE taken steps in the right direction for the new year; prep work I should have done the last few weeks of December, but the last two months of the year always get away from me. I need to figure out a better way of avoiding that from here on out....

Anyway, let's take another quick look at my resolutions.

Resolution #1: No More Than Three (3) Zero Days In Any Given Week
Well, this was one that I already failed at. I didn't really write anything leading into my post last Tuesday. I then didn't write anything really since my last blog post; hence me not having either of my review posts up yet. While I've been a complete failure at work, I HAVE been busy there; making writing hard to fit in. As for post-work, well, I've been doing the "Mom's coming" mad rush cleaning this past week. All-in-all, though, I HAVE attempted to continue outlining my review blogs while at work; small 10minutes at a time.

So, there is at least the outlining as "sorta" writing. I've also completed the main task to help keep myself accountable: I bought a pocket calendar for the sole purpose of marking when and what I write. That way I can see the chain of "I wrote today" marks, as well as a quick reference back as to what I wrote to help me figure out my writing patterns.

My pretty pocket calendar specifically for
tracking my writing.

The month-view I can use to see my "chain" of writing days.
I can also see if certain days suck for writing.

The Daily-View gives me more space to write what I was focusing on
for that day's writing, when in the day I was working on it, and how long I
was working on it. Helps me analyze better.

Resolution #2: Complete the "Reading Books Like a Boss" Reading Challenge
If I didn't have time to write between work, cleaning, and family visiting, I certainly didn't have time to read - aside from my own blog to help with my Year-in-Review post. I do have a book picked out though. Spink has decided to read one of the Harry Potter books, since she found one with a red cover. Since the challenge is just "red on the cover" and not full on "a red cover," I decided to take on the same challenge for this month.

Mom went a bit overboard with the NaNo stuff for Christmas. See, at the beginning of December I posted on Facebook that I had six pieces of NaNo merchandise that I'd like to buy, but I shared the items instead in case anyone was still looking for Christmas present ideas for me. Seems my mother - who already had tons bought for me, apparently - called "MINE" and bought it all up for me to show her support and excitement about my writing and winning NaNo this year.

Well, one of those items was the book "Ready. Set. Novel!" which happens to have big, red font for the title.

You can buy your own copy here.

True, it's not a novel, which is probably the main aim for these reading challenges, but I do have to read through the workbook. Plus, I think it's a good start for the year. It will help me with what I seem to be really lacking: focus. I'm hoping this workbook will help me better zero in on what is that key story that is calling for me to write it: Jolene's tale, Connor's and Natalie's, Amara's, X-Future, Glitches, something new I haven't thought of yet, who knows?

I'm aiming for 20 books total by the end of the year, so maybe I'll find a novel with red on the cover as well before 2018.

Resolution #3: Constructively participate on the Writers’ Huddle Forum At Least Once A Week
Okay, so I haven't done that bad on this one yet, per se. I did post my resolutions over on Writers' Huddle when I was done posting here. I haven't been back on yet, but at least I did re-establish myself for that first week. I have all this week to go back to the forum, and I did add it to my Habitica. I'll have to keep you posted as the year goes on. As for Atlanta, though? I still have been slacking on emailing her back. I really need to get on top of that!

Resolution #4: Beta Read And Return Notes Within A Fortnight
To be fair, I haven't had anything to beta-read, so I really couldn't screw this one up. However, DFL has been sounding more and more defeated and deflated at group lately. She states that multiple people have offered to read her story, and yet the only person who actually did called it boring; more-or-less. I'm guilty of being one of the many who never got back to her, and yet I can't seem to find the copy she sent me either. Once I'm more settled back into my groove for the new year I'll have to ask her to resend it to me.

Resolution #5: Have 52 Blog Posts Published Before The End Of 2017
As I already mentioned, I didn't have much time to do more than just continue outlining my review blogs, but I do have this one up on time. Two for two for 2017. Not a bad start. Especially since I'm currently at work right now due to a sick co-worker, which meant writing this last night so it was ready for my noon update. Glad my co-worker asked for her sick day last night so I had the time to know I needed to pre-prep. Regardless, I'm still on the ball with this thus far.

Resolution #6: Ronoxym's Writing Challenge
I attempted to work on this last week. I tried brainstorming ideas of quick stories I could maybe write up in those "stolen" 10minutes that I was using for my review-blog outlining. I even mentally had a monologue from Jolene towards Mahtab before Jolene's not-so-quiet exit from the party. I just didn't have the time to actually write it down. Also, Bear still wants me to actually roleplay it out, and I don't want to have my headcanon come to life via a flash, only for it to be AU to the actual canon of the interaction.

With any hope, working through "Ready. Set. Novel!" will help me with the challenge; giving me more of a focus on what to write a novel about, but also giving me sparks of inspiration to write flash fiction about. We'll see how it goes. It's only Tuesday, and the week already feels like it's raced away from me. I need to change my perspective to try to work in writing/reading time again.

I might have something to help out with that. My godfather and his wife mailed me my Christmas gift: a book about writing. It's about DAILY writing, actually. One of the first quotes is basically the ancient equivalent of the "No Zero Days" concept: "Nulla dies sine linea. Never a day without a line." - Roman poet Horace.

I haven't broken into the book quite yet, but it seems to have some lead-in advice as well as daily prompts for the week. Then more advice, and another week's worth of daily prompts. So on and so forth, for a whole year.

You can get your own copy here.

So, I haven't really done anything for three out of my six resolutions, and a fourth one I haven't really had a way to either succeed or fail at it. Meaning I've only stuck with two resolutions only one week in. Still, 33% isn't too bad if I can bounce back, right?

Especially since I now have two books in my arsenal to help me out: "A Writer's Book of Days" with daily prompts that I could potentially turn into those flash stories for Ron's challenge, as well as "Ready. Set. Novel!" for the focus I need to actually get started on ONE manuscript. To a lesser extent, also my new calendar to help me visualize how I'm doing better. I've also started up a bulleted list of what I talk about in each of my blog posts; so that it's already a rough outline for my review post at the end of this year.

All good starts to make up for tripping out of the gate, I think.

How have you been doing with your resolutions? Writing related, or otherwise.

ALL THE DISTRACTIONS!

This has been the week of distractions. So much intention to take a time-out and write, and it always ended up as missed opportunities instead. Which is even sadder since I only had to work today and the previous two days.

Last week's update marked the first of an almost week-long mini-vacation from work. After I was done with the blog post, I was going to work more on the story I told you folks about last week: the backstory of the town and tavern I created for my premiere D&D session. I honestly can't recall what actually happened, but I know it was centered around getting ready for my trip back to my mom's for the weekend. Everything that day took about three-times longer than it should have. The alarm for my writing hour went off, and I was in the middle of a project of some sort, so I ignored it. This was a theme all week: ignore the Writing Hour alarm because I was in the middle of something more pressing, or I wasn't anywhere that I could take an hour-long time-out.

Between all the last-minute errands I needed to do, as well as packing and a few house chores before leaving, I just didn't have a moment to really sit and breathe. Still, I stole away a few minutes in order to try to keep up with the X-Future roleplay so I didn't hold anyone up. Even went ahead and had Lia and Willow do something in order to move them forward as well. Ended up having them interact with each other. Got to say, it's a bit boring roleplaying with myself.

Friday was my sister's birthday. Trips me up that she's now the age I was when I got married. When did she get so old and mature????

Well, belated birthday now that it's almost a week later....

Anyway, I drove down to visit her for her birthday, which meant no writing to be had. I woke up early, but only to finish the last of the packing and car maintenance before the drive. Then the celebrations were had, which lasted fairly late into the night.

Saturday had a little bit of "recovery" time in the morning, some more bonding along with a lot more food - I gained about five pounds over the weekend - and then getting ready to head out yet again.

Not only was I down to visit my sister, but coincidentally, my godson was born on the tenth. Made life easier that both he and my sister are about twenty-minutes from each other, and share the same birthday weekend. Saturday was spent with him and PA-Bestie for a belated birthday hang-out. This lead into more food, Sis taking everybody out for frozen yogurt, a relatively-large dinner, and then a game-night that lead into the wee hours of the night.

Sunday found me waking up just about in time for church with the fam. Then a LARGE brunch. So large that I was actually spending a great deal of time waiting in the living room playing on my 3DS while Sis and Mom put it together; too many chefs and all kept me at bay. I probably should have taken the time to write, but I had no clue how long it was going to take. So I just stuck with my video game, figuring it would be easier to stop what I was doing the moment food was done.

Once brunch was done we had some more family bonding before I drove home. That's when I unpacked and just crashed; a bit burnt out.

Monday I really don't have an excuse. I had the day off; last one before returning on Tuesday. Hubby was at work early in the morning, and so I had the house to myself. Did I read? Did I write? Did I clean? Nope on all three. I DID end up exercising with Spink, and was late picking Hubby up from work because of the hang-out. Prior to Zumba, and after picking up Hubby was spent mostly working on a project for Cyhyr and Ronoxym's anniversary. It's definitely a labor of love, because dear lord I didn't realize it was going to be so time consuming and tedious to complete!

I should have accepted that they weren't going to get it for their anniversary and just taken an hour time-out to write or something. I just slacked off there.

Speaking of, Tuesday was CERTAINLY the Ides of March. It was such a Murphy Day; I was in a terrible mood by the time I made it home from work. We had just received our tax refund, and so Hubby decided to cheer me up with a mini shopping spree. This first resulted in us still being out during my normal writing hour, which I then forgot to reset the alarm for in order to remind me later that day. Then we bought a new board game, and a new 3DS game for us to play together. The evening was then spent playing said games instead of me writing. Whoops.

Yesterday I was working through my writing hour. I did spend most of the day thinking about what I'd write next, though. How I was going to fix the blaring plot hole I created during the last D&D session, how I was going to turn that into a mini-quest, should the players follow, and possible alternative plots depending on how the players follow through with the mini-quest. I also plotting out this blog post. See, technically I've been at work since 8am today, and so I had to write all of this last night.

When I should have been writing recreationally.

I guess it's alright, though. I need to take a step back after trying to marathon-write in February. Same deal as what happens after attempting NaNo. Give myself time to let my brain recollect itself. Bounce around writing directions in my head; figure out which I'd prefer to do.

In the meantime, I guess I'll focus on X-Future and prepping story for D&D.