a couple real life things, plus more writing babble

Got a call from the tailor (well, his assistant, technically) at 4pm saying my coat was ready. So I will pick it up Friday afternoon when I go into town to mail packages.

Talked to PM on the phone this evening. I mentioned that Ardis's funeral would be in January, exact dates currently unknown. PM said of course I could have time off to go. So that is a tiny bit of weight off my mind.

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In other news, I have fixed part A of Problem 2 in my Yuletide story, and am about halfway through fixing Problem 1 and part B of Problem 2. The story has grown a bit longer in the process, which does not surprise me. I do chop extraneous stuff out when revising, but I tend more toward the 'oops, I forgot to put in the chain of thought that explains character X's choice here, and also character Y should probably say something in reaction to what just happened' school of writing, which means my second drafts are usually first draft + 10% rather than the other way around. Basically, what I do when I revise is switch from 'but it makes perfect sense in my head!' which is useful for getting some words -- any words! -- on the page, to 'oh right, readers cannot read my mind,' and elaborate accordingly.

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Also, I think I have figured out where the whole seriously, Liz, WTF??? plot development came from. It is only partly organic to the story; mostly it is related to something in real life that has been on the periphery of my consciousness for a couple months. It would not have appeared in this story if it were not at least partly organic to the situation, but without this bleed-over from my real life, I don't think the possibility would ever have occurred to me as a potential explanation for a particular thing I needed to happen.

...And wow, is that vague and convoluted. I will explain after New Year's, I promise.

AO3 usernames

I got my invitation to the Archive Of Our Own (AO3) as part of this year's Yuletide, since the Yuletide archive is moving to the AO3.

I had to* sign up as 'edenfalling' instead of 'Elizabeth Culmer,' because the AO3 does not allow spaces in usernames. I realize this is a very petty thing to be annoyed about, but still.

I have been Elizabeth Culmer for all my fannish internet life -- going on eight years now.

Elizabeth Culmer was my pen name for years before that, too, back to when I was ten and decided that since Vicky and I were the last descendants of two family branches, I would continue my paternal family name by having kids or something, and continue my maternal family name by becoming a famous writer. (Clearly neither of those plans survived adolescence. Also, I have a Culmer cousin now, so I figure I am off the hook for at least one family.)

Elizabeth and Culmer, as you may have inferred from the previous paragraph, are actually my two middle names -- they are half of my legal identity.

I resent the hell out of a self-proclaimed fannish-friendly archive that will not let me create an account under my own name.

Yes, yes, there is the pseudonym function, which I immediately used to create an 'Elizabeth Culmer' pseud and mark it as my default author name, but still. I expect this kind of runaround from other sites. A site that advertises itself as run by fans for fans and so on and so forth, should at the very least let us sign up under whatever names we want.

(Do not tell me any coding reasons that spaces are troublesome. Goddamn fanfiction.net allows spaces in usernames. Surely the AO3 is not about to say that the Pit of Voles has better code than they do!)

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I suspect I am getting more annoyed over trivialities right now than I normally would. Probably it is a displacement mechanism of some sort.

That does not change the fact that this 'no spaces in the username' stuff is bullshit.



*I say "had to" not in the sense that anyone held a gun to my head and said that I couldn't sign up as, say, 'ElizabethCulmer' with no space, or 'Elizabeth_Culmer' with an underscore, but I made the mistake of doing one of those over at Twisting the Hellmouth a few years ago, and the other at some other site, and I never, ever, remember the variations. It is easier to just use 'edenfalling,' which I am at least used to typing a lot!

stuff I did and did not do today; also, a brief digression on wrapping paper

Stuff I did today:

1. Wrapped, boxed, and mailed gifts to Aunt Jan, Aunt Cara, and snaegl

2. Deposited paycheck

3. Picked up winter coat from the tailor -- yay! *snuggles into lovely warm coat*

4. Bought second half of two-part gift for Vicky

5. Wrote holiday cards and clothespinned to mailbox for pickup tomorrow morning

6. Wrapped gifts for hand-delivery to Mom, Dad, Vicky, and Susan

7. Finished initial round of edits on Yuletide story

8. Wrote complaint to AO3 about lack of spaces in usernames

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Stuff I did NOT do today:

1. Laundry

2. Grocery shopping

3. Work on other fanfiction or original fiction

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I find holiday cards something of a nuisance to put together, but I confess I do like choosing appropriate ones for various people out of the free cards various charities usually send me during the fall.

I am also very fond of wrapping gifts. This is partly because I like being productive with my hands, and I really like making tidy edges and so on, but I think mostly it is because I adore wrapping paper. I am better about managing that obsession these days -- I have more or less vowed not to buy any new paper until I have used up the ten or so rolls of paper I already have in my closet -- but just as charities will send holiday cards in an attempt to guilt people into contributing, other charities will send little wrapping paper samples.

This year, I am attempting to get rid of all those collected samples. So far, I have killed four or five sheets. \o/

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Update on Ardis:

The service will probably be after the 18th. All first class mail will be forwarded to Ardis's lawyer, so financial things will be taken care of. Dad and Aunt Jan will have to get the house and estate evaluated for doing her taxes in the spring, but will not put the house on sale until spring at least. We are not sure what will be done with her car.