I would like to say the recent period of silence was indicative of my industriousness in producing mass quantities of scintillating prose. Really, I would. REALLY.

I've produced some mediocre prose, but that's about it. Meh. I bailed on the Cat's Curious Press idea I had, for now at least - the fairy tale I picked to humorize was pretty obscure, and while I'm all about writing an office revenge scenario retelling with the Internet as the fairy godmother, this venue wasn't the right one for it.

On a sort of good note, I had my suspicions about a problematic story confirmed by my lovely beta readers. I say good, because in the last year I've finally gotten the hang of really dissecting structural issues in my own work. I'm not quite yet so good about figuring out how to FIX the problem once I've sussed it out, but handwave. I'll cling to the victories I have.

I've also been doing this: shiny_omg. I've gotten back into beading with a vengeance, and while it's not been great for my budget, I think it's exactly what I needed to keep my brain and hands engaged and get me off the computer and away from the internets/fandom for a while. You know, since Spring is being a sulky teenager slinking in hours after curfew, and interfering with my plans for an early start on garden domination. Hard to do when the ground is still frozen, not that it's stopping the weeds.

I'm slowly working to add here posts from my old writing journal, that I started back in 2001, near the end of my first year of trying to write professionally. I just want to pinch my ridiculously earnest little cheeks.

It's both interesting and enlightening to look back and see how my writing landscape has changed, how the mountains have worn down, how old rivers have carved new chasms, how the landmarks of process and focus and goals have shifted, cropping up miles away or disappearing all together.

Today, it was 1. my sudden need to revamp my juliewinningham.com website. You know, the one that list my sole publication credit. From a non-paying market. In 2001.

And 2. http://www.hassleme.co.uk/. Sadly, I can only set it up to hassle myself, not others.

Mer and I will be back in the Write Club groove next week. My intention is to go back to using Write Club only for pro work. Which means I'd best get off my ass and get the damn challenge and ficathon backup off my plate.

I like to joke that I'm a full-time fan writer who writes for publication as a hobby. Which is a pretty accurate statement, actually. I cut my writing teeth on writing for publication when I had the starry-eyed dream of becoming a published writer seven years ago. A couple of years into that I figured out that approaching writing as a career, or even as a second job, was not for me. I not only started to hate the process, I started to hate the words.

Fanwriting gave me back my love of writing, and pretty much gives me everything I want out of the act of writing for an audience, but I admit the lure of seeing my name in print is still strong.

Steven Brust has posted a novel-length Firefly fanfic.

Looks like there's also the possible beginning of an interesting conversation in the comments there about making donations for fanfic.

I find this (Brust posting the fanfic, though the donations thing is a tangentially interesting fannish etiquette/ethics thing) especially interesting because while there are plenty of writers who acknowledge fanfic roots, it's not as common (at least in the circles I observe) to see active pro writers writing fanfic concurrent with salable work and labeling it as such. Naomi Novik is the most notable example these days (though I'm not sure she writes any under her professional identity), Elizabeth Bear, too, openly publishes the occasional fanfic on her journal.

I came back from ConFusion all raring to go with the writing and WHAM, got slapped with almost two weeks of con crud that's still lingering in my immuno-compromised respiratory system. Now I am feebly wheezing to go with the writing.

Anyway, last night I picked up my bedside notebook to jot down a few bits for a challenge fanfic due this week (you know, despite my Scarlettesque claim that "I will never do challenges or ficathons again!") and it was coated in dust and all crinkly and stained from the times I've spilled water all over it. That was a little embarrassing. And also not good for my sinuses.

But there are now notes, and that pleases me, because I have been lazy and relying on my brain to keep track of these post-shower before-bed revelations of my awesomeness, which is pretty much like going up to a chalkboard full of great ideas, erasing it, and then writing, "You are not awesome, you are an idiot" 500 times.

So. Shiny new notebook goes on the nightstand tonight. After I dust.

Trailer of new trek movie with construction shots of the Enterprise. (links to high res versions in the comments).

No plot spoilers (and it's rumored this trailer was done just for advertising, and the footage isn't in the movie at all).

As someone in the comments oh-so-accurately called it, it's the "Star Trek nerd porn money shot". I was so distracted by the shiny it took me three viewings to realize, "Hey, what idiot constructs all of a giant starship ON THE GROUND?"

And ha! Follow-up interview with Roberto Orci on the what idiot constructs a giant starship ON THE GROUND controversy with an appropriately Trek-nerd rationalization. Again, no real spoilers for the movie, just discussion of the idea behind the trailer and the thematic fit of the movie into the Trek-verse.

SF Signal surveyed the bright minds of current SF, asking today's authors to define science fiction.

All interesting, but I still think Mer and I boiled it down best:

"It's like, currently they have stuff, but in the future they have better stuff." -Mer
"And that is the core of what science fiction is all about." -Julie

Write Club wisdom at its finest.

I had an especially slow summer at work this year, but did I want to
write? Nooooooo. And now that I'm registered to finish classes and
work has gone nuts and I'm tearing out my hair, and I still have a crapload of stuff to organize and unpack at the house, my brain has
kicked into overdrive and that's all I want to do. It's like I have fic coming out of my ears.

Brain, you suck.

So. The Plan. Which will last maybe three weeks, but it's good to
have a goal (even if that goal is to ignore The Plan after about three
weeks...).

Mondays and Saturdays. Unpacking and house projects (Tonight I am
going to get those damn ugly bedroom curtains down if it kills me. And since it involves, me, tools and a stepladder, that's a distinct
possibility.

Wednesdays. Write Club. Back to working on original stuff for
publication.

Sundays. Grad project. Seriously. There is no damned reason I can't
finish this thing in three months. I have so much of the base theory
work already done, it's pathetic.

Fic writing and online dorking around will be fit in as needed (and
will likely overtake The Plan as soon as the DSL is installed).

*pets Plan* You'll be so nice while you last.