3 things: peppers, detergent, and writing woes

Stuff I have done recently:

1. I finally got around to repotting my three pepper plants. I got them as part of the Wine & Herb Festival Susan and I went to and have been procrastinating about getting them into actual proper pots ever since. But they are now happily ensconced in large pots with Miracle Grow potting soil and sitting out on my back porch/deck thingy to grow as they will.

2. On a vaguely related note, I sprinkled Tide detergent powder all over the deck in an attempt to kill the moss infestation in the boards. This is my family's method of killing moss on the roof of our cabin on Star Island, so I thought I'd try it here. I may have to do it again in a month or so to be sure; the moss seems to have gone brown and crunchy, but the boards are still kind of slimy under my shoes. (Then again, that may just be the detergent...)

3. I have done some document housekeeping so I won't have to kill myself pulling together my end-of-year writing analysis post in December. This also means I can say that thus far, I have posted 37,500 words of fiction this year. Which is pretty pathetic, actually. My average for January to May was 7,100 words a month; that rate would produce just over 85,000 words total by the end of December, which is very sad compared to what I've managed the last few years.

I mean, I've been slogging through a weird, attenuated version of my blue funks off and on since November, which probably explains a lot of my drop in productivity, but I am still annoyed at myself. Dammit, Liz, it is time to WRITE STUFF!

...

But not tonight. *sigh*

[Fic] "And the Big Bad Wolf" -- Homestuck

Ladystuck Dark reveal day, hurrah!

I wrote And the Big Bad Wolf: Jane has nothing to fear in the forest. The girl in the white fur dress is not so sure. Contains implied mind control and mild gore. (2,400 words)

[This story has also been crossposted to ff.net.]

It's basically a fairy-tale mashup, because there is no way on earth to look at the end of Act 6 Act 5 and not see Little Red Riding Hood references. Then I threw in a bit of generic "evil witch" because the Condesce may be a grandmother figure, but she's not anybody's idea of innocent. Also all the other characters are various beta session carapaces, partly so it was easier to keep Jane isolated (since she has no canon connections to them), but partly just because I could and it struck me as amusing in a terrible way.

This story is perhaps one of the least original things I've ever written. It is what happens when you execute the following equation: my long-standing interest in fairy-tales + the fatalism and color scheme (white-black-red-green) from Knives + forest descriptions from Star Island -- most specifically Inland, Walking South for the birches, Raspberry Red for the berry patch, and Lake Windigo for the maples around the unnamed lake in the fic. (Side note: here are some other island poems, if you are curious).

It's a bit rushed toward the end, because I have chronic deadline failure. It is also slightly less disturbing than I meant it to be -- I was originally planning to work in the implication that the Condesce has been eating parts of the dead bodies and also feeding them to Jane, but that fell by the wayside for lack of time. Ah well, such is life.

Narnia Fic Exchange 2013 signups are open!

If you have any interest in Chronicles of Narnia fandom, you should sign up. This is a really good exchange -- the quality of the stories is high and the prompts tend to be really inspiring.

Here is the rules post.

Here is the signup post.

Signups run until June 19th. Stories must be 1000 words minimum and are due by August 19th. Posting begins on August 26th, anonymously, one fic a day.

Come play with us! :-D