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This post took an age, OMFG. It's been in-progress behind a private lock for the last couple of weeks. It's the first time in years I've written enough fic in one year to really merit doing one of these.
Total number of fics: 15 posted. Counting finished unposted... 19, I think. I've still got three to finish editing that were written early in the year. And I just wrote another. And I also have two substantial WIPs.
Total wordcount: It's something around or just short of 200,000 words for the posted stuff. Holy shit. Another 85,000 for the unposted, three of them are long ones. Another 110,000 or so for the WIPs so far, since one of them is a novel. Which means I've averaged more than 1000 words every day this year. I don't even believe that. It's been a good year for fic.
Total number of fandoms: 2
01. Looking back, did you write more fic than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you'd predicted?
I have written so much more fic than I would have predicted.
02. What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted in January?
Duke/Nathan, Duke/Nathan, Duke/Nathan... I got into Haven with a freakish fixation on Nathan Wuornos and gleeful about all three het ships with Audrey, Jordan and Jess. Then fannish preferences evolved and I've written more Duke/Nathan than anything else.
03. What's your own favorite story of the year? Not the most popular, but the one that makes you happiest?
I like Body Parts. I wish that all the people who read and liked Unbreakable would read Body Parts. It's my evil mutant baby.
04. Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them?
Gonna confess to not being entirely sure what the question wants. But I had a new, somewhat evil beta for a couple of stories who is a professional editor and made me look at certain issues with my prose style differently. I think I've changed a few things I do from that, which is something that probably hasn't happened so dramatically since I left formal education.
05. Do you have any fanfic or profic goals for the New Year?
Finish the stories I've started. Write the ideas still floating around in my head. Original novel(s). Yeah. Ongoing
06. From my past year of writing, what was...
My Best Story: I'm not used to this, but Unbreakable and Sea Change had just a huge response by my standards.
Story Most Underappreciated By The Universe: The fic written for a somewhat obnoxious movie no-one has seen that about 14 people have read. I thought it was decent and amusing. Still obnoxious, though. I guess I wish more people read Dwight Hendrickson and the Tigers From Mars, because the Trouble for the Dwight + Nathan plotline is freakin' awesome. *snicker*
Most Fun: God knows. Unbreakable & sequel, Sea Change, Body Parts... Silencer was a blast, thinking of ways for Duke and Nathan to keep up a constant stream of arguing with only memo notes and body language.
Most Disappointing: Down. I don't know what it is with that fic. It doesn't quite gel for other people or for me.
Biggest Surprise: I'm surprised that Sea Change was so popular when it has a PG13 rating. I'm surprised that I wrote 19 fics this year, most of them over 10k.
Most Sexy: Unbreakable for definites, right?I mean, three quarters of that fic is sex scenes. Okay, so it's only a third. Freudian slip. Something like 7000 words.
Hardest To Write: Comfortably Numb kicked my butt all over the place. Not only a challenge fic with a deadline (which I missed) but a threesome, which means instead of one relationship and pair of characters to contend with I had three different pairs and then the mesh of the whole all together, and that really hurt my brain. It also ran about 10,000 words longer than it had ever been supposed to.
Most Unintentionally Telling: I'm pretty sure Body Parts has my kinks all over it. Whether you can say it's unintentional, I'm not so sure. I want to write what I want to write, yo.
Most of the fics that feature heavily discussion of Nathan and/or Jordan and sex and touch you could probably make a case for.
Maybe I have a nudity thing? I'm noticing a lot of action scenes happening sans clothing. Then again, it's debatable whether it's kink or indifference, if that's the word. After hanging out with naturists in RL the other summer, I generally don't feel like going to unrealistic lengths to let characters get dressed before monsters or crooks burst into their bedroom, or whatever other scenarios seem to be keeping them constantly naked in my fics.
07. Choice Lines:
The knot parted almost in harmony with that sentiment and he pulled his wrists apart and spun around, grasping Nathan tightly, arms around his shoulders and back. Belatedly, he kicked himself. "...Shit. Sorry, man. I'm hugging you. Don't freak."
"Don't hug me," Nathan said, and made blind efforts to disentangle himself. "Get this blindfold off so we can get out of here."
The truth was that he felt warm and steady amid Duke's desperate panic, more so than he had any right to be, and Duke seriously didn't want to let go. "I can hear your heart beating," Nathan offered, like he didn't know what to make of the fact. "Sounds like you've run a marathon. Are you shaking?"
How he could guess that, Duke couldn't imagine, but it did seem to be true. "...No." He pulled back warily. "All right, let me get that for you." -- Body Parts
Duke made himself go tap on the bathroom door. Audrey's eyes followed him warily, but he was aware of the moment the contact broke away and she decided to trust him. "Nathan? Can I come in?"
"No," the voice on the other side said, hastily and harsh. Harsh with urgency, though, perhaps, because a moment later he amended it to, "But you can open the door."
Duke did that. "Jesus. Did you sacrifice a goat in here?" Mouth beat brain to a reaction on the spatters of blood all over the floor and the porcelain.
"No, I-- You know what happened." Nathan had his jeans on, but nothing else -- absolutely nothing else, by the look of his lines -- and was trying to clean up, best Duke could determine. He looked better than yesterday, with the previous sets of red marks fading and just a plaster over his left pectoral and the expression on his face to speak of his recent trauma. He cast an unhappy look at Duke. "Look. That..." He stopped.
How he possibly thought he would need to explain was just another of those weird Nathan mysteries to Duke. He waved it down briskly. "One thing."
Nathan stared at him for the flat declaration, then suspiciously chewed out the word, "What?"
Duke gestured him nearer and leaned in as close as he dared. He slid his eyes towards Audrey. "She can't do this again."
Nathan snorted, incredulity rolling off him. Not quite the reaction Duke had expected. Nathan soberly shook his head. "Nor can I."
Duke absorbed that. So. So... "So this is it."
"Today, or--" He pulled a sour face. "You'll look after her, if you have to leave me with the rest."
"You know it, buddy." Duke damn near reached out and grasped Nathan's shoulder. At the last moment he stopped himself, curling his hand instead into a fist, holding it an inch or so clear of Nathan's. Nathan copied him, and they bumped fists without quite touching.
"She's not going to take it well."
Duke wasn't going to take it well either, but far be it for he to volunteer that information. Nathan's voice had sunk so low it was almost inaudible. Duke tried to pick things up, casting for hope, casting for... a brighter outcome than the one Nathan had predicted. "So how are you doing?" he asked louder.
"Never been so glad to be numb in my life." -- Comfortably Numb
She made a deliberate noise, and Duke stirred, pushed up on his hands and knees with a deer-in-headlights expression and said, "It wasn't me. I mean, I couldn't help it."
"'Sex pollen'," Nathan said disgustedly, his eyes opening to slits, but he didn't otherwise move. Duke was scrambling for his footing and his pants. He tried to straighten up and half fell over Nathan. Standing on Nathan, who didn't object, he tried again to get up, and Audrey jumped the last few steps and grabbed his arm in time to steady him before he really fell.
"Wow," she said. "Okay, I'm... You'll have to give me a minute here. I'm trying to absorb the idea that apparently you both made out with each other before either of you made out with me." -- Comfortably Numb (Surprising how much there is in this fic I like after the struggle to finish it. Less so the passages that make me want to slam my head against the wall that it got posted in that state.)
Jordan stands up. She crosses to the nightstand by the bed, where a bottle of Jack Daniels sits, open, half-emptied already, his own sad, meagre Christmas present to self. There's no tumbler anywhere in sight to drink from.
She catches sight of snow, begun to fall thick and fast past the window, a thick curtain of white. The police probably won't get here tonight, but she won't get out, either. Inside the cabin, Nathan's blood spreads slowly across the floor. The world is red and white and cold. But those things are festive, right? Just about perfect for the season.
She picks up the bottle and toasts Nathan's corpse. -- 5 Times Jordan McKee Killed Nathan Wuornos
"Are you man enough?" Oh, God, a drunk Audrey Parker. This was so... evil. That little wriggle she'd just done on her seat... "Twenty four hours. Starting tonight. Are you not man enough? Seriously! Duke!" She slapped the counter top, making her coffee jump.
He jerked his chin at the bank notes. "Not for that."
"All right. Up the stakes. Dinner, which I will not miss this time on pain of death. If you lose, however, which you will, you are at my mercy." She stared at him. "You're not chicken?" Scowled. "I'm not offering up my virtue, if that's why you're holding out."
Duke choked again and made every effort to turn away and go back to helping Janine serve actual paying customers. "I'm not having this conversation."
Audrey made a clucking noise.
Duke faltered, incredulously, and turned back. "What are you? Twelve? Drink your coffee."
"I smell desperation... and hey, really great coffee. Where'd you say you got this?"
"I didn't, and you, Officer, don't want to know."
She slammed the counter with her palm. "...Your illegal but delicious coffee will not get you forgotten and forgiven. Duke! Small, feathered animals! Have more guts!" -- Silencer
Nathan wakes to light streaming through the skylight directly onto Duke's bed; but that's not the first thing he sees when he opens his eyes. The first thing he sees are Duke's eyes staring back at him. Unprotected, for a moment, where he's clearly not expecting Nathan to wake and see him looking. A hand that's been tracing his skin guiltily retreats. Duke swallows and says, slightly hoarse with the morning hour, "Hey." The sun is in his hair. His voice is softer, more naked, than Nathan has ever heard it before.
Pushing up onto one elbow, Nathan looks around, confused and disoriented. He's really been here all night? Normally he doesn't sleep, or at least wakes up and leaves, certainly doesn't hang around to be underfoot in the morning. "Sorry," he grunts muzzily. "I guess I slept--"
Duke presses Nathan's lips closed. "I'm not complaining." Duke replaces his fingertips with his mouth, briefly, then pulls back with an apologetic grimace for morning breath. He reaches for his glass of water on the nightstand and drinks from it, taking his time to swallow. His skin seems to glow in the all the sunbeams, and the remaining water sparkles, sloshing in the glass, as he stretches his arm to set it back down.
Nathan, dazzled, rolls onto his back and lifts his hands to scrape his hair out of his face. -- Unbreakable (I could excerpt a lot of this fic. That was a good week or two for prose.)
"Can we concentrate on the thing?" Nathan shouts back. The weight of the rain hitting the waterproof makes it an effort to walk, like he's suddenly carrying half again his body weight. He's not specifically trying to mess with Duke, because at least that was honest, or he thinks it was and is going to continue to assume it is, because there's always going to be that area of doubt, with Duke: though this might throw new light on some of those previous doubts. But it's really not the time to get so complicated. He doesn't know how long his body can keep going. There is, too, the question of why Duke would even bother to put the moves on him, when he knows he's not easy and fun and those are the two things dominating all of Duke's chosen relationships, so far as he can see. And he can't. He can't. He thought Duke knew that, from the insults. Though it strikes him, now the subject comes up, that it might be easier to do something in the role of catcher than pitcher, but the wave of annoyance that arrives with that thought isn't helpful to anyone. -- Sea Change
"Speak. I saw the state of Duke's boat. I tidied Duke's boat. You said you were going to be with Duke last night." A sort of helpless confusion infringes on her forceful forthrightness. "To me, it looked more like he'd had a woman there, but he didn't, did he? There was... no baseball."
It's non-judgemental -- if anything, kind and carefully neutral. All the same, everything about her lets him know he can rule out evasion as an option.
"Well," Nathan hazards in an oh-so-deliberately muffled voice, which he muffles further with his coffee cup as soon as the words escape, "there may have been some pitching and catching involved." -- Sea Change II
Total number of fics: 15 posted. Counting finished unposted... 19, I think. I've still got three to finish editing that were written early in the year. And I just wrote another. And I also have two substantial WIPs.
Total wordcount: It's something around or just short of 200,000 words for the posted stuff. Holy shit. Another 85,000 for the unposted, three of them are long ones. Another 110,000 or so for the WIPs so far, since one of them is a novel. Which means I've averaged more than 1000 words every day this year. I don't even believe that. It's been a good year for fic.
Total number of fandoms: 2
01. Looking back, did you write more fic than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you'd predicted?
I have written so much more fic than I would have predicted.
02. What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted in January?
Duke/Nathan, Duke/Nathan, Duke/Nathan... I got into Haven with a freakish fixation on Nathan Wuornos and gleeful about all three het ships with Audrey, Jordan and Jess. Then fannish preferences evolved and I've written more Duke/Nathan than anything else.
03. What's your own favorite story of the year? Not the most popular, but the one that makes you happiest?
I like Body Parts. I wish that all the people who read and liked Unbreakable would read Body Parts. It's my evil mutant baby.
04. Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them?
Gonna confess to not being entirely sure what the question wants. But I had a new, somewhat evil beta for a couple of stories who is a professional editor and made me look at certain issues with my prose style differently. I think I've changed a few things I do from that, which is something that probably hasn't happened so dramatically since I left formal education.
05. Do you have any fanfic or profic goals for the New Year?
Finish the stories I've started. Write the ideas still floating around in my head. Original novel(s). Yeah. Ongoing
06. From my past year of writing, what was...
My Best Story: I'm not used to this, but Unbreakable and Sea Change had just a huge response by my standards.
Story Most Underappreciated By The Universe: The fic written for a somewhat obnoxious movie no-one has seen that about 14 people have read. I thought it was decent and amusing. Still obnoxious, though. I guess I wish more people read Dwight Hendrickson and the Tigers From Mars, because the Trouble for the Dwight + Nathan plotline is freakin' awesome. *snicker*
Most Fun: God knows. Unbreakable & sequel, Sea Change, Body Parts... Silencer was a blast, thinking of ways for Duke and Nathan to keep up a constant stream of arguing with only memo notes and body language.
Most Disappointing: Down. I don't know what it is with that fic. It doesn't quite gel for other people or for me.
Biggest Surprise: I'm surprised that Sea Change was so popular when it has a PG13 rating. I'm surprised that I wrote 19 fics this year, most of them over 10k.
Most Sexy: Unbreakable for definites, right?
Hardest To Write: Comfortably Numb kicked my butt all over the place. Not only a challenge fic with a deadline (which I missed) but a threesome, which means instead of one relationship and pair of characters to contend with I had three different pairs and then the mesh of the whole all together, and that really hurt my brain. It also ran about 10,000 words longer than it had ever been supposed to.
Most Unintentionally Telling: I'm pretty sure Body Parts has my kinks all over it. Whether you can say it's unintentional, I'm not so sure. I want to write what I want to write, yo.
Most of the fics that feature heavily discussion of Nathan and/or Jordan and sex and touch you could probably make a case for.
Maybe I have a nudity thing? I'm noticing a lot of action scenes happening sans clothing. Then again, it's debatable whether it's kink or indifference, if that's the word. After hanging out with naturists in RL the other summer, I generally don't feel like going to unrealistic lengths to let characters get dressed before monsters or crooks burst into their bedroom, or whatever other scenarios seem to be keeping them constantly naked in my fics.
07. Choice Lines:
The knot parted almost in harmony with that sentiment and he pulled his wrists apart and spun around, grasping Nathan tightly, arms around his shoulders and back. Belatedly, he kicked himself. "...Shit. Sorry, man. I'm hugging you. Don't freak."
"Don't hug me," Nathan said, and made blind efforts to disentangle himself. "Get this blindfold off so we can get out of here."
The truth was that he felt warm and steady amid Duke's desperate panic, more so than he had any right to be, and Duke seriously didn't want to let go. "I can hear your heart beating," Nathan offered, like he didn't know what to make of the fact. "Sounds like you've run a marathon. Are you shaking?"
How he could guess that, Duke couldn't imagine, but it did seem to be true. "...No." He pulled back warily. "All right, let me get that for you." -- Body Parts
Duke made himself go tap on the bathroom door. Audrey's eyes followed him warily, but he was aware of the moment the contact broke away and she decided to trust him. "Nathan? Can I come in?"
"No," the voice on the other side said, hastily and harsh. Harsh with urgency, though, perhaps, because a moment later he amended it to, "But you can open the door."
Duke did that. "Jesus. Did you sacrifice a goat in here?" Mouth beat brain to a reaction on the spatters of blood all over the floor and the porcelain.
"No, I-- You know what happened." Nathan had his jeans on, but nothing else -- absolutely nothing else, by the look of his lines -- and was trying to clean up, best Duke could determine. He looked better than yesterday, with the previous sets of red marks fading and just a plaster over his left pectoral and the expression on his face to speak of his recent trauma. He cast an unhappy look at Duke. "Look. That..." He stopped.
How he possibly thought he would need to explain was just another of those weird Nathan mysteries to Duke. He waved it down briskly. "One thing."
Nathan stared at him for the flat declaration, then suspiciously chewed out the word, "What?"
Duke gestured him nearer and leaned in as close as he dared. He slid his eyes towards Audrey. "She can't do this again."
Nathan snorted, incredulity rolling off him. Not quite the reaction Duke had expected. Nathan soberly shook his head. "Nor can I."
Duke absorbed that. So. So... "So this is it."
"Today, or--" He pulled a sour face. "You'll look after her, if you have to leave me with the rest."
"You know it, buddy." Duke damn near reached out and grasped Nathan's shoulder. At the last moment he stopped himself, curling his hand instead into a fist, holding it an inch or so clear of Nathan's. Nathan copied him, and they bumped fists without quite touching.
"She's not going to take it well."
Duke wasn't going to take it well either, but far be it for he to volunteer that information. Nathan's voice had sunk so low it was almost inaudible. Duke tried to pick things up, casting for hope, casting for... a brighter outcome than the one Nathan had predicted. "So how are you doing?" he asked louder.
"Never been so glad to be numb in my life." -- Comfortably Numb
She made a deliberate noise, and Duke stirred, pushed up on his hands and knees with a deer-in-headlights expression and said, "It wasn't me. I mean, I couldn't help it."
"'Sex pollen'," Nathan said disgustedly, his eyes opening to slits, but he didn't otherwise move. Duke was scrambling for his footing and his pants. He tried to straighten up and half fell over Nathan. Standing on Nathan, who didn't object, he tried again to get up, and Audrey jumped the last few steps and grabbed his arm in time to steady him before he really fell.
"Wow," she said. "Okay, I'm... You'll have to give me a minute here. I'm trying to absorb the idea that apparently you both made out with each other before either of you made out with me." -- Comfortably Numb (Surprising how much there is in this fic I like after the struggle to finish it. Less so the passages that make me want to slam my head against the wall that it got posted in that state.)
Jordan stands up. She crosses to the nightstand by the bed, where a bottle of Jack Daniels sits, open, half-emptied already, his own sad, meagre Christmas present to self. There's no tumbler anywhere in sight to drink from.
She catches sight of snow, begun to fall thick and fast past the window, a thick curtain of white. The police probably won't get here tonight, but she won't get out, either. Inside the cabin, Nathan's blood spreads slowly across the floor. The world is red and white and cold. But those things are festive, right? Just about perfect for the season.
She picks up the bottle and toasts Nathan's corpse. -- 5 Times Jordan McKee Killed Nathan Wuornos
"Are you man enough?" Oh, God, a drunk Audrey Parker. This was so... evil. That little wriggle she'd just done on her seat... "Twenty four hours. Starting tonight. Are you not man enough? Seriously! Duke!" She slapped the counter top, making her coffee jump.
He jerked his chin at the bank notes. "Not for that."
"All right. Up the stakes. Dinner, which I will not miss this time on pain of death. If you lose, however, which you will, you are at my mercy." She stared at him. "You're not chicken?" Scowled. "I'm not offering up my virtue, if that's why you're holding out."
Duke choked again and made every effort to turn away and go back to helping Janine serve actual paying customers. "I'm not having this conversation."
Audrey made a clucking noise.
Duke faltered, incredulously, and turned back. "What are you? Twelve? Drink your coffee."
"I smell desperation... and hey, really great coffee. Where'd you say you got this?"
"I didn't, and you, Officer, don't want to know."
She slammed the counter with her palm. "...Your illegal but delicious coffee will not get you forgotten and forgiven. Duke! Small, feathered animals! Have more guts!" -- Silencer
Nathan wakes to light streaming through the skylight directly onto Duke's bed; but that's not the first thing he sees when he opens his eyes. The first thing he sees are Duke's eyes staring back at him. Unprotected, for a moment, where he's clearly not expecting Nathan to wake and see him looking. A hand that's been tracing his skin guiltily retreats. Duke swallows and says, slightly hoarse with the morning hour, "Hey." The sun is in his hair. His voice is softer, more naked, than Nathan has ever heard it before.
Pushing up onto one elbow, Nathan looks around, confused and disoriented. He's really been here all night? Normally he doesn't sleep, or at least wakes up and leaves, certainly doesn't hang around to be underfoot in the morning. "Sorry," he grunts muzzily. "I guess I slept--"
Duke presses Nathan's lips closed. "I'm not complaining." Duke replaces his fingertips with his mouth, briefly, then pulls back with an apologetic grimace for morning breath. He reaches for his glass of water on the nightstand and drinks from it, taking his time to swallow. His skin seems to glow in the all the sunbeams, and the remaining water sparkles, sloshing in the glass, as he stretches his arm to set it back down.
Nathan, dazzled, rolls onto his back and lifts his hands to scrape his hair out of his face. -- Unbreakable (I could excerpt a lot of this fic. That was a good week or two for prose.)
"Can we concentrate on the thing?" Nathan shouts back. The weight of the rain hitting the waterproof makes it an effort to walk, like he's suddenly carrying half again his body weight. He's not specifically trying to mess with Duke, because at least that was honest, or he thinks it was and is going to continue to assume it is, because there's always going to be that area of doubt, with Duke: though this might throw new light on some of those previous doubts. But it's really not the time to get so complicated. He doesn't know how long his body can keep going. There is, too, the question of why Duke would even bother to put the moves on him, when he knows he's not easy and fun and those are the two things dominating all of Duke's chosen relationships, so far as he can see. And he can't. He can't. He thought Duke knew that, from the insults. Though it strikes him, now the subject comes up, that it might be easier to do something in the role of catcher than pitcher, but the wave of annoyance that arrives with that thought isn't helpful to anyone. -- Sea Change
"Speak. I saw the state of Duke's boat. I tidied Duke's boat. You said you were going to be with Duke last night." A sort of helpless confusion infringes on her forceful forthrightness. "To me, it looked more like he'd had a woman there, but he didn't, did he? There was... no baseball."
It's non-judgemental -- if anything, kind and carefully neutral. All the same, everything about her lets him know he can rule out evasion as an option.
"Well," Nathan hazards in an oh-so-deliberately muffled voice, which he muffles further with his coffee cup as soon as the words escape, "there may have been some pitching and catching involved." -- Sea Change II