handful_ofdust

Finished the damn column (Hill House vs. Hell House, Sunday Sunday Sunday), which frees me up to do...all sorts of other shit. And I got my breast reduction consultation recommendation, too--they should be calling me with an appointment sometime in the next three weeks. So I'm ahead of the game, sort of.

Speaking of recs, meanwhile--here's a bunch of Tom Hagen/Sonny Corleone slash for the original Godfather movie, by hollycomb (http://www.livejournal.com/tools/memories.bml?user=hollycomb&keyword=The+Godfather&filter=all). This hits a whole lot of my rock-bottom kinks, including dangerous people making themselves vulnerable, desperate devotion rewarded, and teh buttsex. Happy Monday!

A fine use of Voltaire's "When You're Evil", here:



And yes, believe it or not, I'm eventually going to do a "real" post. But I'm still sick, still tired, and this cheers me up.

“Breaking Point”, by polskipiwo—Joker/Gordon—here (http://community.livejournal.com/knivesandlint/127958.html?#cutid1).

“Rapaciously”, by salmon_pink—Bruce/Joker—here (http://salmon-pink.livejournal.com/59260.html).

“Chaos Theory”, aliana_ikassa—Batman/Joker, sequel to “Hercules is Fallen”—here (http://aliana-iskassa.livejournal.com/36865.html). Plus: "Masochism", also ostensibly Joker/Batman, though from Joker's POV and with Batman, uh...absent, here (http://aliana-iskassa.livejournal.com/36283.html#cutid1).

N.B.: Why, no—apparently, there is no slash fic involving Nolan’s Joker which isn’t (at least a little) non-con. Why do you ask?;)

Well, I knew if I looked long enough, I'd find more than haphazard porn.

fated-addiction's i am the king of what should've been (http://fated-addiction.livejournal.com/462164.html): Perfect voice, past--appropriately--in multiple-choice.;) It seems to presume the person he's talking to overall is Harvey, which fits...got to admit, I love the idea of them hanging out together, for lack of any better company. Harvey drinking as much as the hole in his cheek will allow, while the Joker listens to Johnny Cash's "Cocaine Blues" on infinite repeat.

Harvey: "Don't they ever play anything else in this dump?"

Joker: "Not when I'm here."

And later, the perfect companion-piece: to this dead city, a love song (http://fated-addiction.livejournal.com/464146.html#cutid1). Plus: Catwoman and the Joker, just this side of gen! "Stormy Night", here (http://community.livejournal.com/knivesandlint/94351.html#cutid1)--a bit shaky on the formatting, but I love that they seem to have gone for Catwoman from Batman: Year One, specifically. "Seh-LI-na! I mean, you got this costume...I mean, it's pretty queer..."

Lordy! More There Will Be Blood...first from bitterfig, Daniel/Eli, here (http://bitterfic.livejournal.com/105991.html)...

...then from la_reveranda, Daniel/H.B. Ailman, H.W.'s real father, here (http://la-reverenda.livejournal.com/4835.html)...

...and finally, a fine bit of Ben/Charlie by pistolandlariat--"Trust", here (http://community.livejournal.com/threetentrain/47288.html#cutid1). This contains perhaps the most wonderful pseudo-period euphemism for orgasm I've ever seen, and explains why the Ben/Charlie fanmix I'm compiling may have to be called Building Toward Absolute Ruin.;)

It's been a fairly "normal" Break Week thus far...I haven't gotten scads done, aside from finally browbeat Steve into helping me vaccum and tidy, and I've slept a truly ridiculous amount of the time (haven't worked out yet, either). But this may finally be starting to change, because today I started a brand-new short story--working title: "Sown from Salt"--just in time for the second 2008 round of novel_in_90. My word-count thus far is roughly 1,000, mainly notes, but I'm not too unhappy about that...after all, I can't help but recall that this is pretty much exactly how "When I'm Armoring My Belly" began, so if I bring this one to term with similar speed and ease, I'll be extremely happy with myself; it's pretty much all there from start to finish, skeleton intact, so my part will be mainly fleshing it out. And God knows, I like that.;)

And yes, for those who might be wondering, the ghost of Ben Foster hangs fairly heavily over this one, too. Maybe I should be paying that guy a percentage of whatever I eventually manage to sell this for, or maybe he should be paying me rent for taking up so much damn space in my head. One way or the other, it's a seriously fun little Mike Mignola/High Plains Drifter pastiche-train chugging smoothly along through the desert at top speed, and I feel very glad to be on board.

In similar news, meanwhile, I've finally managed to locate the sort of well-characterized Warren-centric post-X3 fic I was looking for: Only one and unfinished, but good nonetheless, not to mention quite hot in parts--"From the Ashes", by l_vera; mostly gen, with some Warren/Scott (?!). Find it here (http://www.livejournal.com/tools/memories.bml?user=l_vera01&keyword=xmen&filter=all), if you're interested.

Still hammering at "Little Red Ants on a Hill" Part Three, too, here and there (where time permits). I must admit that I've been a bit taken aback by the lack of response to Part Two, after everybody seemed so damn hot for me to get to it, not so very long ago...but then again, I suppose they might be waiting for me to finish up before attacking the whole thing in one big chunk. 'Cause some people DO that, and all.;)) I also checked out the prompts for Insanejournal's latest Porn Battle, and was happy to find both 3:10 to Yuma (hi, baggyeyes!) and Godchild represented; there's a large part of me which wants to snatch up the "Cassian/Jizabel Disraeli: Lord Cassandra's body" one, because I know full well exactly how hot and disturbing I could make it, if I tried--just what DID Dr Disraeli do with Cassandra's brain, anyhow? Put it in a jar next to his mother and sisters' internal organs, probably hooked up to some weird ether-run machine which allows it to see whatever's happening in the lab at any given time? So there they'd be, the Bad Doctor giving Cassian an uncomfortably intimate physical to make sure everything works all right, and there the brain would be...ooh, ick! Yep, there's a lot wrong with me, isn't there?

Oh, well: Back to the desert, rain of blood, plague of cowboy revenants. Etc.

Still hammering away on the synopsis for Last Things, but I’m running into some strategic problems—obviously, I’d really love this query package to be as attractive and wonderful as possible, but I also know time’s a-tickin’. So since I already know I’m going to have to rewrite large chunks of Chapter Three, “New Maps of Hell”, I’ve reluctantly decided to make this a first TWO chapters sort of query package, with the proviso of mentioning that I am in rewrite mode, and could probably get the next chapter to them ASAP if they like the first two. Problem: This means I haven’t introduced my protagonist yet. Similar problem: The synopsis, as it’s going, is first very detailed, then far less so (though I do at least know how things end now, which is a serious step up from where I was before). In making these decisions, I’m trading somewhat on the fact that the person I’m sending this to is a friend of mine, but it doesn’t make me happy.

OTOH, I’m also definitely still fighting the sick/in the throes of the first few days of my period, and this (naturally) is when a not-so-young woman’s brain turns to thoughts of fresh porn. Though not completely so, since at least two of the pieces I’m toying with are a bit more gen—“Little Red Ants on a Hill” Parts 2/3, for example, which I’m finally starting to see through the useful lens of Charlie realizing that pulling the long con is a bit like doing a far more Method (not that he’d think of it this way) version of one of his “distract the Law” improv turns. This helps a lot, so…who knows, maybe that’ll come sliding down the chute sometime soon, or sooner than expected.

Then there’s the weird little snippet that’s organized around my sudden understanding that Ben’s gang couldn’t possibly have actually ridden all night to get to Contention—they’d not only “practically” kill their horses doing that, they might even kill themselves. Which means they must have stopped somewhere to eat and sleep in the interim, thus opening the way for somebody—maybe a few somebodies—to try (and fail) to talk some sense into Charlie. For some reason, I keep seeing at least one of these somebodies being Jackson, the guy whose jaw Charlie almost broke when he told him going back for Ben wasn’t worth it. Which begs the question: Why even try? It’d’ve been a lot easier—and smarter—to just punch Charlie unconscious, sling him on his horse and ride away in the opposite direction, if you really wanted to dissuade him; why antagonize him by telling him things he won’t want to hear right to his face? Perhaps Jackson’s wanted to separate himself—and Charlie?—from Ben for a while now, and this is his chance; on closer examination of the bar scene in Bisbee, we get two separate reaction shots of Jackson during Ben’s Bible quotation “eulogy” on Tommy Darden which look like he’s barely restraining himself from muttering something about Ben’s hypocrisy under his breath. Again, why? Is Jackson (like Apache Joe and Campos, if only in my fanon) one of the “original” gang-members, somebody who’s been watching Charlie’s hopeless crush bloom poisonously since Charlie was just a skinny kid, or is he just somebody who came in recently and sees Charlie as this super-competent dude who inexplicably sublimates himself to Ben Wade’s every desire? Inquiring minds—especially those who can’t help but note that fastidious little Charlie and bearish, brooding Jackson might make for an odd, yet not completely improbable, couple—want to know.;)

(You can blame this train of thought, to some degree, on baggyeyes, whose “Resurrection” series seems to be drawing to its close; Jackson plays a part. I’m saving my comments ‘til then, but very much enjoying the ride.)

The more pornish snippets are Ben and Charlie having interstitial fun before departing for Bisbee…Charlie having fun, at any rate, while Ben overthinks every damn part of the process, then has to allow as how he too is having fun (of a type)…vs. a brand new fandom, percolating slowly in the back of my mind: Max Carrigan/Jude Feeny, Across the Universe. For a really nice intro piece that I’m trying hard not to rip off, go here (http://lyra-wing.livejournal.com/144040.html) “he come groovin’ up slowly”, by lyra-wing. It’s a cute ‘ship, even if it does later lend itself to dreams of incestuous threesomes.

Perhaps there are those of you out there wondering how things are going with Cal, along with the rest of this far less important crap. Well, today was actually really good: Some money arrived from a respite services grant we applied for, which ought to keep us in therapy and daycare fees for a while. Better yet, Cal himself has been impish, pleasant and surprisingly vocal. He’s using a bunch of words and phrases regularly: “Hi”, “’Bye”, “Please”, “Come on!” (as a protest), “I don’t want!” and even “I want…” This last would be much more useful if we could get him to the stage where he told us what he DOES want, but we’re offering him choices, and sometimes that works. One way or the other, it’s been nice.

Now I’m tired and stuffing up again, so I think I’ll take some drugs and go to bed. Tomorrow, agincourtgirl comes over, and we continue getting ready for our tax appointment on Saturday. I’m also supposed to make sure a former student doesn’t lose his VISA, by confirming that he did indeed graduate my TV course. It being Good Friday probably won’t help, but…we’ll see, I guess.

‘Night, all.

Fascinating, calm and reasonable breakdown of where and how numbers-filing blurs into fanfiction and then past that into outright plagiarism, here (http://icarusancalion.livejournal.com/741394.html?format=light).

Also: Ha HA, God damn. Wonderful Charlie POV, yet another A/U branching off from the ending of 3:10 to Yuma, this one dealing head-on with the dicey issue of having to choose whether or not to live on without Ben: "Promised Land", by Bliss--Ben/Charlie, Charlie/William Evans (http://paragraph.livejournal.com/35405.html).

These people are insane, as am I, especially considering I haven't even seen the movie yet. But:

"Pyrrhic Victory" by dreamyoudeny, There Will Be Blood, Daniel/Eli (http://community.livejournal.com/holymilkshakes/98868.html#cutid1).
Plus two more short, untitled Daniel/Eli pieces by th_esaurus, here (http://community.livejournal.com/holymilkshakes/99389.html).

Seriously, guys...this stuff makes me look positively tame. Must be why I appreciate it so.;)

Cal's been really literally insane all day, just constantly babbling, running, yelling, flapping and stimming--he does this really loud noise now that sounds like he's clearing his throat, ALL THE TIME WITHOUT CEASING, and it drives me spare. And tomorrow is Hell-Day, and we only yesterday figured out that A) Cal's Movement and Music starts this Thursday but B) we were supposed to have confirmed/paid for it on Friday. So this means that I have to trust Steve to deliver a cheque my Dad just happened to send from Australia to the Geneva Centre by tomorrow evening, after coming off a day that starts at 5:30 AM; let's not even talk about how I personally have to get Cal to Daycare by 8:00 and then get to school by 9:00, then pick him up from Mom's half an hour after I'm done at school, because...I don't even know.

In All Things Writing, meanwhile, I got some potentially good news from one source and some disappointing news which I probably can't discuss in public from another. I also did a solid 1,500 words on "When I'm Armoring My Belly", the new story--it's coming out fast and sure, so I'm just going with it, hoping to close off by 4,000 words and then send it to the Chiaroscuro/Leisure Books Short Story contest, which (it's been brought to my attention) will be on again very soon. Hope they like it better than my last submission.;)

Anyways. It's not so late, but I need to pack for tomorrow, and my shoulder feels like it's trying to work its way out of my back. So I'll leave you with recs: Two light and (relatively) frothy variants on the same source-material, plus a particularly sanguinary Ball of Wrong in duplicate, listed thusly--

"Competitive Sport" by Eyebrow of Doom--Cruel Intentions, Blaine/Sebastian (http://www.yuletidetreasure.org/archive/19/competitivesport.html).
"Gold, Steel, Light and Diamonds" by Azhriaz--Dangerous Liaisons, Mertueil/de Tourvel (http://www.yuletidetreasure.org/archive/8/goldsteel.html).
"Vanishing Act" by dreamyoudeny--There Will be Blood, Daniel Plainview and Eli Sunday (http://community.livejournal.com/holymilkshakes/67854.html#cutid1).
"Two Wrongs, Twice Removed" by janegodzilla--There Will be Blood, Daniel/Eli (http://community.livejournal.com/holymilkshakes/70486.html#cutid1).

Enjoy. I'M FINISHED!