My cat was so confused about why we insisted it wasn't dinner time for her an hour ago. Lilly doesn't understand springing ahead. But to be fair, springing ahead sucks.

This weekend pretty much epitomizes "lazy" in that I've been wearing my pajamas since I changed into them friday night. I should probably shower. I've been kind of sick, though; I finally seem to have caught the cough Rachel's had for the last month, so I keep breaking into coughing fits. Meh.

I was goign to run laundry, but that hasn't happened yet. We'll see. It probably won't.

However, because I did want to do something productive (other than getting some writing done, finally) I did pay my bills and do my taxes today. Good news on that front! Where as last year I owed a kind of ridiculous amount of money -- I was freelancing for part of the year, and not having anything withheld, which kind of bites you in the ass at tax time -- this year, I am getting a refund! Hooray! Also, I made almost twice as much in 2007 as in 2006, but that's probably because instead of working retail, internships, and freelancing for significantly less than industry standard, I worked two salaried jobs. So I guess I should stop using the "growing up sucks" tag, since that's kind of the good part. I mean, having to have a job and go to work even when I really really really don't want to sucks, but on the other hand, income is good and tax refunds are good.

It will all go into savings, btw. Rachel and I are both saving up to move this summer. Because we're close and all... But a two bedroom apartment would be nice.

Incidentally, Newsies peeps, the most recent post on newspaper_row has a link to Trey Parker's photo gallery, which has a handful of Newsies picture I'd never seen before. The guys playing dice is now my desktop, replacing Lucas and Corbin for the first time since August. They're kind of awesome and totally worth checking out (especially if you, like me, always want more pictures of Blink).

Heyyy, this is yoinked from ryuutchi and I'm pleased every time it goes around. So.

Every person who wants to gets to request a drabble (real drabble: 100 words exactly) from me. In return, you have to post this in you journal and write a drabble for me.

Post all fandoms you're willing to write for. Your friends can pick a relationship, a story arc, a missing scene, or pretty much anything they want, unless the author has previously mentioned that they will not write it. They comment with what they want, and you write drabbles and post it in your LiveJournal.

Fandoms: Newsies, HSM (Chad/Ryan, obviously, but I'll try anything else that isn't Ryan/Sharpay, because ick), Sky High, VM (I still haven't seen much of s3, so nothing requiring spoilery knowledge), FNL, early-season West Wing, Terminator...other things you can think of that I'd know, I'm willing to try. (No Supernatural. I always say I'll try it, and invariably never come through on it. Oops.)

Fifty thousand done. I mean, not the story (the majority of it is, I'm halfway through the climax), and it's all pretty bad. But I did it!

I've been wondering this for awhile. Some writers I've observed seem to format everything as though it's for the internet; some never do until they actually post stuff online. So how do you paragraph? Feel free to add detail in comments if you've got stuff to say.

Poll #1088275 writing habits
Open to: All, results viewable to: All

When typing prose of whatever sort, how do you handle paragraph breaks?

I primarily write for...

Has writing for online publication changed your pargraphing habits?

So my headphones had been slowly dying for a long time, and finally gave up entirely on Friday. I stopped at the CompUSA across from my job to pick up a new pair, and while I was there, a Miley Cyrus song came on. I'm used to hearing Miley Cyrus and of course began to lip synch and dance, as I generally do. It wasn't until I picked up a set of headphones that I realized it was actually coming from overhead speakers and not just my own music.

Unrelated things: I updated Active Voice.

Also, who all on the flist is doing Nano this year? Usually there is a huge amount of chatter about it by this point, but it seems like fewer people are into it this year. I, on the other hand, am actually doing it for the first time in three years (my fourth time total), and am very psyched. Mostly because I just figured out my whole plot. It just unraveled in front of me! Awesome! So of course, daily wordcounts and occasional excerpts will be posted over at temira.

What I'd really like to be doing right now is lying around on my couch like some kind of giant slug. It feels like a weekend to me, very disjointed; it's funny how quickly I got used to working full time. And now I'm not and it's disorienting.

I began trolling job listing sites yesterday and updated my resume. Actually sending out cover letters begins today...BAH. I hate writing cover letters with a deep passion. They are EXCEPTIONALLY difficult.

So what I'd like to do is keep sending out applications, at least a few a day. Rachel is also home; hopefully we will be doing deep cleaning of the apartment, which kinds of needs it. I'd also like to get some writing done. I seem to somehow be writing a HP, Marauders-era fic (wtf? I have no interest in HP fandom!) that will never see the light of day, but I'd also like to update what I've already got going and get some serious work done on one of the many non-fic type projects. I don't know which one or anything yet, though.

Sigh.

Cheerfully yoinked from statelines.

here's your chance to ask me any questions about my writing/fic/originals/process/inspiration/etc., in any fandom i've written, up to including my "interesting grammar" and "style."

Woo!

Alas, my fajitas don't seem to have survived the reheating process and were rendered uneatable. Ah, well.

Last night was fun; there was a long waiting period to be seated, but Leah, Margot, Sam and I hit Margaritas, and had fabulous Mexican food (hence the fajitas) and, well, margaritas. I may have been a bit tipsy. Oops.

In other news, I finished the rough draft of a YA scifi novel, and now am left staring at it, wondering, Now what? It's a little disconcerting.

I have exactly one week of Brandeis class left. Also (sniff) one week of my internship left. And yet, massive amounts of work to do. Which... kinda blows.

Speaking of blowing, if Mussina doesn't strike someone out, I swear to god, I will hitch a ride to Baltimore and scold him.

I'm not enitrely sure what I'm trying to say in this post, but I guess it's more of a theoretical question: how do you feel about explaining your writing to other people?

I'm a fantasy and scifi writer, and when I'm not writing fantasy or scifi, I write fanfic. I've become much more able to say, "Yeah, I write fanfiction; it's just a hobby," and shrug when people point out the loser-dom of it all, because it is something I enjoy, and I got sick of being judged for that sometime in high school. But I still feel kind of odd explaining the scifi/fantasy stories to people who aren't among my close group of friends, like writing is perfectly respectable, but I'm not writing a "real" genre.

I think this comes out of a conversation I had with Jess over break. The upshot is, I want to wite the stories that I enjoy, with fun characters and a happy ending. I have no aspirations to be deep, or moving, or make people think; all I want to do is tell stories. So why can't I explain that to people?

I know that Jess [poisonivory] feels some of this. I think lynstraine does too (just a guess) from presenting fantasy elements of writing to her class. And most of my friends are scifi/fantasy people, so why is it still so awkward?

(Also, dude, scifi is playing Farscape reruns, at least two in a row. Thanks, Farscape.)