teratornis

So for about the last year, argentum_ls and I have been working on a collaborative series featuring Highlander character Matthew McCormick. We got to chatting one day a while back about the supposed spin-off series that character might have featured in, and what that might have looked like. I ended up writing a scene that got stuck in my head, and. . .

Well, now we're like a dozen stories deep and that first scene I wrote is buried somewhere in story six or some craziness like that. That sixth story was originally going to be the first one, I think, but we didn't even know we were going to do a series at that point, much less such an extensive one. We're both very much the sort of people who start writing something just to see what happens and roll with it from there, chasing the inspiration. The inspiration just. . . went a lot further than initially anticipated.

So I wrote that story, and then I wrote another story, and then we just sort of kept going, until it became apparent those two stories - and some of the stories Argentum had started hammering out as well - weren't destined to be the first in the series.

At that point I started Close to Home.( Read more... )

My Horizon Zero Dawn/Highlander crossover story has been updating weekly for a couple of months now, and I'm over the halfway mark with it at this point (24k words, 10/19 chapters).

I am absolutely blown away by the reception this story has received so far. I fully expected to get like five people reading this on and off, but there have been so many people reading, from both fandoms, who seem so enthusiastic about it. It's been a real joy to share each chapter and to see what people think. I continue to be pretty excited about this crossover, from both a character development and worldbuilding point of view, and I'm really excited to keep posting the rest of it.

Don't know if I'll write more for this universe at this point, but I'd like to and I certainly have a history of plot bunnies. I'll have to see.

The Wake of the Flood on AO3



. . . And my E key fell off my laptop keyboard. Typing is certainly a little more complicated than normal right now.

I recently participated in the insert_title_here challenge, in which participants sent in up to five title suggestions and then received back three random titles. It's very low-key, any fandom, any rating, etc.

I wrote for two of the three titles I received. I had some vague ideas to start off with, and after pondering where to take those ideas for a few days, I ended up doing something completely different for both of the titles I ended up using.

Nevertheless, I had a whole lot of fun. Titles are challenging, and while this isn't the first time I've started with a title and worked backward, so to speak, it was an interesting challenge to see what I got out of it. I'm pretty happy with both of my pieces. One in particular helped to fill in some backstory on an ongoing project of mine.

( Read more... )

I thought this was a great idea for a challenge, and it was a fun way to get inspired. This was its first year, and apparently had 127 signups, which seems like a crazy amount of people for a first-year event. Still, that bodes well for another one like it in the future, I hope. I definitely had a good time. notyourwinter, the mod/event runner, has sent around a list of all the submitted titles that I'm definitely going to keep on hand for more inspiration.

Just a collection of stories I've finished up lately:

Death and Wonders
Rating: General Audiences
Fandom: Guild Wars 2
Characters: Female Charr Player Character, Trahearne
Tags: The Battle of Claw Island, Necromancy, Chronic Pain, Disabled Character
Words: 2,417
Some introspection and interactions following the battle of Claw Island. This was a scene I'd had in mind for a while, and I'm. . . okay with how it came out, but not thrilled. This story was a struggle to write. Maybe someday I'll revisit this scene, but at the moment I'd rather focus on other things. I am at least pleased with the ending.

A Chance at Freedom
Rating: General Audiences
Fandom: Dungeons & Dragons, Original Work
Relationships: Original Drow Character & Original Draegloth Character
Characters: Original Drow Character, Original Draegloth Character
Tags: Drow, Drow Culture, Religion, Parent-Child Relationship, Crisis of Faith, Misgendering, kind of, complicated culture-specific scenarios are involved, Eye of The Needle
Words: 1,702
The D&D game I've been running for six or seven years is going on a bit of a hiatus at the moment, but that probably will not stop the worldbuilding I've been doing around drow culture in the game's setting. It's an original setting, so I've had the chance to do some really intensive worldbuilding for a lot of it, and I'm having a lot of fun with the drow especially. I've really enjoyed being able to build and write the characters in this story.

Voices of the Past
Rating: General Audiences
Fandom: Original Work
Characters: Original Characters, Original Non-Binary Character
Tags: Science Fiction, Aliens, First Contact, Language, Communication
Words: 2,167
The second story in my first contact series for my original sci-fi setting, Singing to the Stars. This story fought me pretty hard for a while, and this is version three of it, but I'm really happy with how it turned out in the end. This whole series was built entirely around the concept of how this particular first contact experience might go, so none of the characters in it existed until I started writing, which is not normally how I do things. They've all taken on a life of their own, though, and I'm enjoying having a chance to flesh out this setting a little more.

As always seems to be the case with me, I have at least four or five active WIPs going on right now. The stories keep a'comin'.