mijan, posts by tag: fandom - LiveJournal

My favorite convention of the year, Arisia, is right around the corner. Next weekend, I'll be in Boston. Once again, to my delight, I've been invited to read a selection from my fanfiction.

Last year, my slot was the last person in the last time slot on the last day of the convention. That meant that people were busy checking out of the hotel, rushing to catch flights, or too tired to bother going to panels. The room was almost empty. I still got a great response from the people who were there, but still... sparse crowd.

This year, I have a prime spot at 8:30 PM on Friday night. And... welll... Take a look:

Reading: DeCandido, Feinman, and Mijan Hale Fri 8:30 PM
Authors: Keith R. A. DeCandido, Alexander Feinman, and Mijan will read selections from their works.

Notice that first name in the list? DeCandido is a published Star Trek author. I'm sharing my reading slot with one of the published Trek authors. What does this mean?

1. There will be a LOT of Star Trek book fans in the audience.
2. Someone who knows the Star Trek publication game will be in the room.

I need to be on my A-game. Based on the fact that there are three authors and 75 minutes, that means I should have 25 minutes in which to read.

Can anyone help me pick a suitable selection from my main-line Academy series? (Not the adult-rated spinoff stories.) I want something that can stand alone, sucks people in fairly quickly, doesn't spoil the entire fic, and leaves people wanting more. Last year, with my extremely small crowd, I read the shuttle crash sequence from the first chapter of "Crossfire." I'm considering reading it again because so few people were there, and it went REALLY well with the audience.

What do you think? Any suggestions are welcome.

Hey everyone, I know I haven't posted in a while, so I wanted to let folks know what's going on.

First of all, I've begun working as an EMT. Yes! I left the chocolate job (really, I'm NOT cut out to be a sales person), and although my current position isn't ideal, at least I'm working as an EMT. It's an EMT/Security Officer position at a casino.

The Pros: Could get the job very quickly. Acceptable pay for an EMT-B. Cool coworkers. Crazy people-watching. Never have to pack a lunch if I'm in a rush. Full-time. Set schedule. Swing shift. Always two days off in a row, same two days each week.
The Cons: It's a casino, and I dislike gambling. Cigarette smoke. (The ventilation system is good, but still... smoking. Ick. My asthma has been acting up because of it.) My days off are Monday and Tuesday, which means I only get one day every three weeks off with my Trophy Wife. And... it's not an ambulance.

I'm still looking for ambulance positions, so... it's something in the meantime.

What else am I doing?

Well... WRITING. Yes, as rumor has it, there is indeed a post-STID fic in the works from me. It's technically a continuation of my Academy Series, only now taking STID canon into account. And, of course, because it's ME, that also means I'm going to take the lemons JJ gave us and do my best to make sangria with them. Rectifying canon with intelligence? Challenge accepted. I've got the first three chapters done, which leads me to a...

QUESTION: Should I post one chapter at a time, as I complete them, or post the fic all at once? There are, of course, pros and cons for each option, and I've considered them with no conclusion.

Anyway, that's about it for now. I'm getting together with a friend for a late lunch, and then I'll be going to ride rollercoasters tonight. :D

♥

Guys, take a look at this:

http://saathi1013.tumblr.com/post/…

I'm not sure what I think. What are your thoughts on the matter?

I've finished my Academy Series. "The Needs of the Few" has been posted in-full both on my Livejournal and on my AO3 account.

The total word count for TNotF is 174,062.

The total word count for the whole Academy Series is 398,551.

And now... I'm having a damned beer.

G'nite!

Dear Sherlock Fangirls,

This:
 

Welcome to our fandom.

With Love and Cookies,
The Trekkies

Serious call for HELP. I shouldn't be flailing over this so much but...

There is a gorgeous piece of fanart that I've had as a desktop image for a long time. I had it bookmarked on my computer (in case I lost it), saved to my picture files (in case I lost it), and bookmarked it on Delicious.

Well, my Delicious account no longer exists. For some reason, it isn't in the server-based folder I'd put it in. And when they gave me a new computer at work yesterday, they didn't transfer my bookmarks like they said they would. And my gorgeous desktop is GONE.

The image is a three-panel piece, rendered in black and white. I think it was done with charcoal and photoshop, or maybe just an amazing photoshop job that has a charcoal-like look. In the center, it's got Jim Kirk, standing with a wide stance and looking up at the stars above him. To the left is Bones, standing so he's looking at Jim, and to the right is Spock. The background looks like this hyper-stylized view of space. It's GORGEOUS. One of my all-time favorite pieces of fan art. I can't remember who drew it! And I can't find it!

PLEASE HELP???

EDITED TO ADD: FOUND! thistlerose is my hero. The gorgeous artwork is by jou, and it's here:
http://joanna-estep.deviantart.com…

HELLO EVERYBODY.

You may have noticed that I haven't been online much. Here's the scoop:

For the past few weeks, I've been up to my eyeballs in real life insanity. I was working a convention which ate my life, and then I've had nonstop *stuff* happening. It's been insane. I simply didn't have TIME to sit down online and chat. I haven't really had time to make LJ posts. I haven't even had time to really read my flist (which makes me feel like a horrible friend - I'm sorry). If I was online, I was trying catch up (and failing), or hoping desperately to work on my fic.

Speaking of working on my fic... NO, I haven't had time to WRITE. Poking at my fic and editing in tiny increments is NOT WRITING. Writing is when people leave me the fuck alone, don't interrupt me with PM's and phone calls, don't ask me to get up and do ____, and don't chat with me online or in RL, thereby allowing me to get in the ZONE and fucking WRITE for at least an hour, preferably three. Make sense? I can't write if I'm interrupted every five minutes.

Last night, after almost three weeks of not really having time to myself to sit down and write, I realized I had about two hours to do precisely that. GLORIOUS! Me, the keyboard, my fic files, and blessed, sweet silence. What a concept, eh? So I sat down. I decided to check my messages quickly beforehand. This WOULD have only taken a few minutes, but somehow, people decided it was a good time to PM me. All I wanted to do was to say SHUT UP AND LEAVE ME ALONE, but I have this need to be polite. I mean, these folks don't realize that when I say, "Uh, I'm busy," I mean it. I'm not online playing games, dicking around randomly on the internet, or refreshing my f-list again. By the time I got people to understand that I wasn't online to chat and was able to turn off Facebook and g-mail chat without being completely rude, people came over to my house. Yes, I'd asked them to stop by and drop something off, and I am deeply grateful they did, but... interruption. And then, as I sat down again, my MOTHER called... to tell me that omg I NEED to look at this fucking picture of Facebook omg now!

*blinks* Seriously? You called me to tell me to look at a picture on Facebook because you saw me log off and I hadn't commented on this omg amazing picture???

After all was said and done, and I almost broke down crying because people just wouldn't leave me the fuck alone, I finally had an hour to write.

Yes, seriously, I almost broke down crying. Do you people understand? Writing is my outlet. I have been trying to escape, ALONE, to have writing time for several weeks. I NEED time to write. Uninterrupted. So I can totally focus on the story and entrench my mind in the plot and action. Otherwise, the story will suck and I'll NEVER FINISH WRITING IT. I tried to do some of my writing when I was distracted a few weeks ago, and I faffed the plot and now I need to reconstruct a major plot segment. I don't mind, but I need to be left ALONE to write it.

There's a reason I don't churn out a fluff fic every week. Sure, I COULD, and they'd be mediocre and unmemorable. My drug of choice is writing thick, plotty, intense novels with character development, mystery, action, and tightly woven threads woven together to (hopefully) form something coherent and ultimately flawless. I post them when they're done, because until they are, I can't trust that the final thread will work with the first one. This is why I'm not posting this a a WIP. This is why it takes forever between stories I post. But... dammit, it shouldn't take THIS LONG.

So I'm going Away From Keyboard. I'm not avoiding anyone in particular. I'm just avoiding interruptions. No chatting. With ANYONE. (Exception: Brief, pointed questions.) I will not answer frivolous e-mails. My answers to important e-mails will be brief and functional. Generally, both my g-mail chat and Facebook chat functions will be turned OFF when I'm using those sites. When I am on my computer, I will be WRITING, not chit-chatting.

Also, note to all (and yes, there are a few of you who do this): When it's late, and I say I need to go to bed, I don't mean "in a half hour." That doesn't mean, "please keep telling me one last thing" or "please elaborate on your topic for another indeterminate amount of time." It means, "I am going to bed NOW." For those who don't know, I have a fairly nasty auto-immune condition called lupus (and possibly another related condition that's exacerbating it - we're not sure). With the right meds, it's well-controlled and I feel fine, but my doctor is currently screwing with my meds. I am fucking TIRED in ways that most of you people can't possibly comprehend. I am NOT looking for pity or sympathy or sad-panda eyes. I'm just trying to explain why, when I say, "I'm going to bed," it means NOW. I HATE sounding rude by cutting off a conversation abruptly, but I've had several people (no, not just one, so I don't want anyone feeling individually guilty) continue talking to me when I've tried to hint (repeatedly) that I'm tired and need to go to bed because it's late. I'm getting to the point where I'm going to need to be rude, and I hate being rude and abrupt. When I say, "I need to go to bed now," I need people to respond with, "Okay, goodnight!" If you have more things you need to tell me, feel free to continue in an e-mail, but I need to get some sleep.

Anyway... AFK now. Love you all. LL&P.

As most of you know, I'm hard at work on the final novel in my Starfleet Academy series. This one has a fairly central secondary character who is a telepath. A friend of mine took a look at it, and we've been having a dialogue about telepathy.

There are countless different ideas about telepathy in speculative fiction (sci-fi, fantasy, etc.). What I want to know is how YOU perceive the concept of telepathy in real life. Is it real? Is it fiction? Is it something else that we haven't considered? This isn't about my thoughts - I want to know YOUR thoughts on the matter. This poll is extremely basic, which is why I also leave the fully open-ended option as the last choice, inviting you to leave an answer that isn't covered int he poll. Also, you may select more than one option (hence the ticky-box format) if you honestly have more than one answer.

All feedback is appreciated.

EDITED TO ADD:
Okay, you guys know I do all my polls as completely neutrally as possible. Now that we've got answers, I do need to step in on something.

While I did invite people to state their thoughts on the matter openly, I need people to refrain from using inflammatory language. Imagine, for a moment, that this poll was about asexual people, and a bunch of you decided that asexual people don't exist. And then you bluntly state how such people, if they existed, would be completely insane, unable to function in society, or would commit suicide, just because you couldn't wrap your head around the possibility of an asexual person existing. And very few asexual people "come out" and say they're asexual, for precisely the reason that they know they'll be mocked, insulted, and told that they don't actually exist. But that doesn't mean asexual people aren't reading the comments.

See what I'm saying?

I should have put in that stipulation earlier, but I was aiming for absolute neutrality. My bad. So... regardless of your answer on this poll, regardless of your thoughts on the existence of telepathic people, I need people to recognize how certain assertions are actually hate speech. This is an unacceptable tone for this post.

I won't delete the post, nor will I delete the comments, because that will solve nothing. But I do want people to consider HOW things were said, and how that kills dialogue before it can even begin.

I thank people for their honest answers. I request that people consider how they say things, and what they say, and how those words impact others who may be reading this.

Hey everyone,

I got the flood of hearts on my profile yesterday, and I wanted to say that they made my day a bit better. I needed it. Things have been both good and bad lately, but if nothing else, it's been exhausting and damned busy.

This past weekend was Naka-Kon, here in Kansas City, and I was one of the directors for the convention. So was my wife. It was insane, but it was also a blazing success. I think we do a good job. But it also took a lot out of us, and I got almost no sleep. My security ninjas were awesome this year. I think we had a great team. I won't be director next year, but I'll still work with them. I think I'd miss them too much otherwise. :)

Work has been stressful. My job is stable, with adequate income... but I'm no longer happy or comfortable here. There's a bitch in my office, and my boss and I just don't mesh. So I'm job hunting. STRESSSSSS. I have an interview offer, so I'm hoping to interview soon. WISH ME LUCK. I need a change, sooner rather than later.

On the health front, I've actually been doing really well for quite a while. The only problems have been these weird (and obnoxiously itchy) rashes on my eyelids and neck. The one on my neck itches and burns horribly. The eyelid one is itchy, ugly, and annoying. They come and go. So I showed my dermatologist one day when it was REALLY noticeable, and asked if there was some cream I could use. Which she prescribed. She also said she wanted to speak to my rheumatologist about it. I said sure, because I figured it couldn't hurt to have more information. Naturally... I get a call from my rheumatologist a couple of weeks after that. And they drop a bomb on me. They want me to quit the medication that's keeping the auto-immune train-wreck in check. For a month. Immediately. Now, when I'm getting ready for job interviews and an epic road trip. Why? Because they want to see what happens to my blood test results when I'm off the meds. And... get this... (I'm highly incredulous here)... they think it might be dermatomyositis. I'm getting really sick and tired of this game here. But mostly, I'm pissed off that now, when I'm FINALLY feeling good, they want to undermine everything, pull my safety net out from underneath me, possibly cause a return of all my symptoms, and I have NO SAY in the matter.

And finally... WRITING. With Naka-Kon over, I have time to write! I need to finish my last installment of the Academy series. I shall attempt to join in with Word Wars tonight over on the jim_and_bones community. I hope to see you guys there!

And... now I need to go to the gym. If quitting my medication causes me to flare-up... I want to enjoy exercising while my body is still good for the challenge.

The slashcast episode where emmagrant01 interviewed me is now posted in its entirety! And there's plenty of other features in the episode, too, including meta discussions and... oh, I almost forgot... I was at Arisia where kriken did "Slashers on the Street" interviews, so I'm in that clip, too. Hee!

Anyway, I am Le Excite! Take a listen, and learn more than you wanted to know about my writing. :)