Ravenbell's Insane Journal

Hey all. I'm trying to post regularly and avoid the whole are-you-dead thing from happening again.

The "Warmth of the Darkness" sequel kinda turned into a monster (Currently 2K words and will probably double before I'm done.), so it'll be a while before it's ready for public consumption.

Er, let's see what else is going on... bunch of random links here...

FFNet just took away hyphens, so all the line breaks in my stories are gone again (which means 80+ docs need editing now). Frankly, the site's line breaks are ugly and suck and I don't want to use them, so I need to come up with something else that'll get past the filters. Or move everything to another site, which is probably the easier option at this point. Blah.

On the whole LJ policy change and censoring thing that's been going down, I don't have a position. On the one hand, their site and their rules. One the other hand, they handled things really, *really* badly. But not as badly as FFNet, which is obviously run by punctuation-hating fascist meanies. :P

One news item I haven't seen much LJ/IJ/JF reaction to has been GONZO's announcement that they'll be releasing official subbed versions of upcoming shows simultaneously with the Japanese broadcasts via Crunchyroll and Youtube. According to the various anime boards I frequent, this is either the end of fansubs, the end of the North American anime market, or just your average fandom wankpocalypse in the making.

And finally, I have to admit a certain amount of bewildered amusement at the news that oldschool "Ai no Kusabi" BNF Kira Takenouchi has found God and will stop writing kinky fanfiction. I mean, good for Kira for finding spiritual enlightenment and redefining her own personal brand of happy, but she essentially screwed over a bunch of people in the process, and some of her poor fans are really taking this very hard.

Oh, and happy Easter/Feast of Eostre to those who celebrate 'em.

Rumors of my abduction by gnomes and/or space monkeys have been greatly exaggerated.

The last two months of real life have been absolutely *crazy.* Said crazy will go on for at least another week or two, but I'll be back to normal soon. Oh, yes I will.

I've missed you all, and I've missed writing, and I will be SO glad when this insanity is finally over.

Sigh.

And now back to work. Never a dull moment in the space monkey homeworld.

Happy New Year, folks!

( Everything I wrote this year. )

---

( And the writing meme... )

Ohy my god, oh my god, oh my god.

I LOVE my yuletide fic. It is literally the most crazy awesome thing I've read all year and the writer, whoever s/he is, deserves to be showered in squees and internet cookies. Because s/he crossed over two of the prompts I requested, "Pan's Labyrinth" and "The Sandman," resulting in Dream's Labyrinth, which is about the further adventures of Ofelia's younger brother. I won't spoil anything, but cameos! In character dialogue! Eeeee!

And Merry Christmas/Chanukkah/Kwanzaa/Ramadan/Solstice/Yule/Saturnalia/Yalda/Festivus/Bank Holiday!

imaginarybeasts is a bimonthly web zine/book based in LJ for original genre stories. The December issue, Book 06, features fairy tales.

And I'm in it! I originally wrote "Guido" for the bb_shousetsu yaoi webzine, but decided not to submit because the story is adult, but porn-free. Then I found imaginarybeasts, which requires no porn, and the story fit the theme, so off it went and here it is.

I need to thank ladysisyphus and winged_sandals for the betas, and the awesome redplasticglass for the amazing, amazing illustration. Seriously, click the link, scroll down, and take a look even if you don't read the fic.

I am so happy to be associated with imaginarybeasts because it regularly features some really great work, and the quality level has been consistently high. Click here for back issues, and happy reading.

Hello all. I hope everyone stateside had a great Thanksgiving. My fridge is full of hummus and pie so I'm going to sit here and write a nice update and not think about eating things I shouldn't.

Story for yuletide is done and submitted. Woot!

Story for imaginarybeasts webzine is done and submitted. This is the one that was supposed to be for bb_shousetsu.

And I've been playing around with Del.icio.us over the last couple of days and filled up my account with AMV recs, which you can find here.

Another catchall post for various odds and ends.

First, good luck to everyone participating in NaNoWriMo. Like in previous years, I don't have the time to participate, and so I'll stand by on the sidelines and root for everyone who is. Onward to victory!

Second, I've gone ahead and taken down my stories from AdultFanFiction.Net for the time being. They should all still be available via LiveJournal, and I promise I'll get that master fic index up sometime soon. Or just E-mail me if you can't find something.

I've posted a story for this round of springkink: "Bedroom Politics," which is a little light "Labyrinth" het about the benefits of being Goblin Queen.

And, now that I've finished all my AU/fusion prompts for yaoi_challenge, resulting in a combined total of 35,000 words of fic, I've written up some TMI author notes on the process. You can find them under the cut.

( Read more... )

Finally done!

"The Third Replicant"
By Ravenbell
Prompt: Yami no Matsuei/Blade Runner (futuristic noir) for yaoi_challenge
Pairing: Tsuzuki/Hisoka
Rated: PG-13 for light MM and violence
Summary: Tsuzuki is a private eye in Neo Tokyo, and his latest case involves a dangerous escaped experimental replicant and an untrustworthy new partner.
Word Count: 15,000+
Beta: And another ten million thank-yous to veleda_k

Click here for Part I
Click here for Part II

And to make it clear, this is an AU/fusion thingy, but you don't have to know anything about "Blade Runner" to read the story.

"The Death Scroll" (Parts IV and V)
By Ravenbell
Prompt: Death Note - Sword and Sorcery (Conan). This is an AU/fusion for yaoi_challenge.
Pairing: Mello/Near, L/Light
Rating: PG-13 for violence and mild MM.
Summary: A ragged trio of warriors go on a quest to retrieve the Death Scroll from the mountain stronghold of Kira, the New God.
Word Count: 13000+

( Click for fic )

"The Death Scroll" (Parts I through III)
By Ravenbell
Prompt: Death Note - Sword and Sorcery (Conan). This is an AU/fusion for yaoi_challenge.
Pairing: Mello/Near, L/Light
Rating: PG-13 for violence and mild MM.
Summary: A ragged trio of warriors go on a quest to retrieve the Death Scroll from the mountain stronghold of Kira, the New God.
Word Count: 13000+ (I may have gotten a little carried away.)

( Click for fic )

I think I've been fairly patient with AFF, considering its history of technological meltdowns, filtering glitches, navigation insanity, and readership shrinkage. It's still the only place where I feel comfortable archiving my most eyebrow-raising fic, and for a big complex site, it was doing pretty good these last few months. But now, ye olde behind-the-scenes drama has reared its head once again.

Yesterday, nearly the entire staff resigned en masse to protest the tactics of the incoming regime (with the requisite "end of the word" mentality and the wringing of hands all around). Said new regime sound like a bunch of real quash-all-dissent types, with itchy delete-key fingers. Long story short, I fear it may be time to move house again. Bah.

The last time I asked around about AFF alternatives, everyone told me to archive on LJ. But after the Strikethrough/Boldthrough mess, I think I need something more adult-friendly.

I'll keep you guys updated.

It's that time again. Yuletide cometh, and thus, my Dear Yuletide Santa letter followeth:

( Dear Yuletide Santa, )

I'm really don't mean to go whole months without posting anything. Really.

Lessee here... The yuletide fic exchange signups are open for another week. There's a large list of rare fandoms to choose from, and the most obscure one I've signed up to potentially write for is William Sleator's "House of Stairs," a sci-fi thriller I read in junior high and haven't thought about since...well, junior high. Funny thing is I can remember it better than stuff I read last week. Anyhoo, do sign up if you are so inclined and haven't done so already.

One of my yaoi_challenge fics is finally done, the One Piece/Ocean's Eleven fusion -

"Back to Bad Habits". The Strawhat Gang robs a casino, Zoro and Sanji snark at each other, and we learn Crocodile's real name.

Man, the fusions for yaoi_challenge are a lot harder to write than I thought they would be. At first, I thought I could just take the characters from the anime and plug them into the movie plots, but setting up the new universes takes a lot of time, and there's just no way to squish the plot of "Ocean's Eleven" or even "Conan the Barbarian" into less than ten thousand words apiece (And make 'em all slashy). I'm not sure if I have enough time or motivation left to pull this off. The "Yami no Matsuei"/"Blade Runner" one is already over 15K and still needs serious work.

I'm making more headway on the original story, "Guido," that I'm submitting for bb_shousetsu in October. I'm a little worried if it's really appropriate, since it's essentially a Faustian fable with some pretty disturbing imagery while the zine's subject matter is softcore shonen-ai. On the other had, this issue's theme is horror stories. We'll see what happens.

The new round of springkink is starting up for October, and the new prompts are up for those interested. I'll think I'll probably only take one or two prompts this time, if at all. The last round was really too much of a good thing.

Meh. Sorry for the whining. Writing is hard. :P

After some deliberation, I've decided to mirror my LJ on IJ. So, with no further ado:

Had to drop a quick post to rec Veleda K's Multiple Personality Disorder, which is a very funny take on Muraki's predicament at the end of my uber-angsty "Thirty Tortures" fic. Much love and glee.

I'm also about 10,000 words into the Yami no Matsuei/Blade Runner fusion for yaoi_challenge and feeling pretty good about it. I've got the momentum going, most of the plot ironed out, and have Konoe, Tatsumi, Watari, Oriya, Muraki, and Maria Wong worked into the cast so far.

Just dusting off the escape hatch...