Oracne's Brain Radio

1. drinkingcocoa and I had a writing date today, at which much was accomplished including plans for a summer getaway. I did a mixture of editing and writing-adjacent stuff, with a short lunch break.

2. After receiving comments on a draft (action prequel story) earlier this week, I was finally able to start addressing the comments this weekend. I remain terrible at visual storytelling, but improvements have resulted anyway. After banging away at one particular issue I finally dropped it and picked it up again this morning, and after banging at it some more I think the scene is improved. I will now leave it to lie fallow before I read over it again.

3. I've had my Refuge omnibus file with glossary and bonus short story done for a while, but I kept thinking I needed to do more before posting. Today I realized I was overthinking and have started the process of publishing with Draft2Digital. I'll do Amazon and Kobo, too, but I needed a break after that.

4. I decided I do want to do a print edition of the omnibus as well but I think that would go easier with a guide to the process. So it's not imminent by any means.

5. I've also emailed the blurb for the action story to start the process of getting a cover made.

1. Our concert on Wednesday went great! The church, whose heater was broken, was a little warmer that day, but not so much warmer that it was truly comfortable. My friend Tom said he said it made the church feel more like the Baroque period; I passed this on to our conductor, who added it into his remarks as something about our commitment to Historic Performance Practice not being complete unless you could see your breath. Which we couldn't, because we were all masked! I wore long johns under my velvet pants, two pairs of socks, and three layers on top (cotton t-shirt, tech fabric black ski turtleneck, and black cashmere drapey cardigan. I ended up also wearing my black beanie with a tassel, black wool scarf, and red leather gloves lined in cashmere. A friend joked that my gloves were my accent piece. That was enough to keep me comfortable, along with the exertion of singing. The gloves made my bit with the handbell in the Komschlies piece more comfortable, too! Aside from the cold, it went great.

2. Instead of editing novella three over my long weekend, I read someone else's novel draft and wrote up my comments. I didn't manage to do any new writing.

3. I also watched a lot of figure skating on my days off; I still need to have a look at most of the team competition, and some of the exhibitions, and I would like to watch some of the other events before my Peacock month expires. I've already watched Yuzuru Hanyu's exhibition program twice.

4. We don't have choir rehearsal again until April 4. What shall I do with myself on Monday nights? Aside from put the garbage out. And possibly dig in the closet for my copy of Bach's Easter Oratorio...or maybe just print out a new copy, as going through the boxes of musical scores in my closet is a huge task I did not work on during pandemic lockdown.

5. Three days off work in a row means excavating from under a heap now I've returned. Sigh.

Thunder and Ice by Quarra and TrishArgh discourses on the freedom to be found in writing erotica. On the surface, it's a fluffy story about Steve Rogers being encouraged to try journaling as a form of therapy. What ends up giving him joy is writing down his wildest sexual fantasies about Bucky Barnes, with whom he is in a relationship; discovering that slash fanfiction, and erotic novels, are things that exist; and proceeding from there. Eventually, of course Bucky discovers this writing and there are many, uhhh, happy endings.

So, you can read this story as fanfiction, but you can also read it as meta-commentary on why people write down sexual fantasies, what they get out of it, why they might want to share these fantasies, what people get out of reading fantasies, and how a fantasy shared can be a joy forever. And you can also read it as a fantasy about someone who goes from not being a fiction writer at all to someone who steadily improves at writing, and then enjoys financial success from their writing while continuing to enjoy the writing process.

Note there are content warnings for rape/non-consensuality on this story; all incidences relate to unrealistic fantasy scenarios (space pirates and the like).

Via anneapocalypse - choose 3 to answer.

F. Share a snippet from one of your favorite dialogue scenes you’ve written and explain why you’re proud of it. I am proud of this because it is so absurd and surreal. This was an AU of a very dark episode of Blake's 7, titled "Orbit." I wrote the story ludicrously fast.

The alien burst into the entranceway, tapping and slapping its moist green feet for all it was worth. It was tiny, but held the tapping black stick before itself, like a weapon. Its bulging eyes rolled over its obscenely wide mouth, which opened.

Vila did scream then, a very small helpless scream.

The alien was making noise. “Hello my baby, hello my honey, hello my ragtime gal....”

After a long time Avon said, “It’s wearing a shiny hat.”

“It’s singing in Standard,” Vila noted.

“It takes the shiny hat on and off.”

“It does,” Vila agreed numbly, watching the little green thing sing and dance, for dancing was what it seemed to be doing.

“Well,” Avon said. “There was an alien in the cube.”

I: Do you have a guilty pleasure in fic (reading or writing)?

I do not at all feel guilty about enjoying Found Family stories and Very Domestic AUs.

P: Are you what George R. R. Martin would call an “architect” or a “gardener”? (How much do you plan in advance, versus letting the story unfold as you go?)

I have used both methods. Very short stories, like the one from the dialogue sample above, have come to me all of a piece. Sometimes I knew basically where a story was going, and figured it out from there. Sometimes I just meandered, following the Feels.

A: How did you come up with the title to [insert fic]?
B: Any of your stories inspired by personal experience?
C: What member do you identify with most from [insert fic]?
D: Is there a song or a playlist to associate with [insert fic]?
E: If you wrote a sequel to [insert fic], what would it be about?
F: Share a snippet from one of your favorite dialogue scenes you’ve written and explain why you’re proud of it.
G: Do you write your story from start to finish, or do you write the scenes out of order?
H: How would you describe your style?
I: Do you have a guilty pleasure in fic (reading or writing)?
J: Write or describe an alternative ending to [insert fic].
K: What’s the angstiest idea you’ve ever come up with?
L: How many times do you usually revise your fic/chapter before posting?
M: Got any premises on the back burner that you’d care to share?
N: Is there a fic you wish someone else would write (or finish) for you?
O: How do you begin a story–with the plot, or the characters?
P: Are you what George R. R. Martin would call an “architect” or a “gardener”? (How much do you plan in advance, versus letting the story unfold as you go?)
Q: How do you feel about collaborations?
R: Are there any writers (fanfic or otherwise) you consider an influence?
S: Any fandom tropes you can’t resist?
T: Any fandom tropes you can’t stand?
U: Share three of your favorite fic writers and why you like them so much.
V: If you could write the sequel (or prequel) to any fic out there not written by yourself, which would you choose?
W: Do you like more general prompts, or more specific ones?
X: A character you enjoy making suffer.
Y: A character you want to protect.
Z: Major character death–do you ever write/read it? Is there a character whose death you can’t tolerate?

Meme provided by journalmemes.

1. I got to see two free concerts this week, thanks to a friend who had extra tickets for 1807 and Friends (Monday) and LyricFest (Thursday). The LyricFest mini-concert was celebrating the birthday of Irving Berlin, and included my absolute favorite Berlin song, “You’d Be Surprised,” hilariously performed.

2. I am going to two excellent concerts next week.

3. I had dinner with a music reviewer friend last night, and he gave me advice about writing reviews.

...I walked four miles on Sunday, my best for a weekend. That's if the pedometer is calibrated right. But I think it's pretty close.

Just normal walking around for me on a weekend day, if I have places to go instead of sitting down writing, is usually between 2 and 3 miles, so I am very proud of myself. I did it by taking a deliberate walk, while I listened to BWV 4 in preparation for Tuesday's rehearsal. I went along the Schuylkill Banks path from South Street to Walnut Street, trying not to wince as bikes sped past, then continued walking to 38th Street; that was far enough that I felt it, in my feet, especially. Later on, I walked to visit the Adorable Tots, and we had a shorter walk later in the evening, and a trip to Trader Joe's with Geeklet glued to my side. It all totaled up to 4 miles exactly. What's currently recommended for health is 5 miles per day. I almost managed it once!

I wrote after the walking, 500 words. I think being tired might help for some kinds of writing, but not for the thing I was working on yesterday.

Friday's workout was a half-hour on the elliptical and three different weight machines for leg exercises. Saturday, I took as a rest day: I did walk to meet friends for brunch, but spent the afternoon and evening sprawled on a couch, watching MCU movies and vids and eating a cupcake with too much frosting and pepperoni/pineapple/broccoli pizza.

The story I was working on is due Thursday. I've revised my expectations - instead of aiming for the maximum word count, I plan to hit just over the minimum. What remains is the sex scene, and I figured out how that will work last night. I will finish this and submit it by the deadline!

I was really physically tired yesterday, and though I'm not really sore today except for my elbow, I feel heavy and sluggish. So I think I might once again have overworked myself. (I know, I know, but it's hard to tell until after you've done it.) So today's workout will likely be just cardio. I haven't done intervals in quite a while, and that can tire me out in fifteen minutes, so that's probably what I'll go with.

I edited a story draft on paper last night, and will enter the changes Saturday morning, before I head to South Philly for a brunch date. Sunday morning, I plan to work on my attempt at a 20K word paranormal romance.

It turns out I am capable of writing a book review after I've been to the gym. But only if I really need to do it then. Maybe I'm getting the hang of the very short reviews.

I actually got a squat rack at the gym last night! I did 115 pounds, which these days is enough to make me feel it some (my pre-injury baseline for mildly working myself was 150). I continued using the bare barbell for bench press and row. I get a little random pain from the bench press, involving movement/straightening. I can't entirely predict which movement it will be, alas. It is weird feeling the difference between my left arm and my right arm. The left arm is perfectly steady, the right trembles a little, though not as much as it did last week. I also did some lat pulldowns while standing, to test more of my range of motion. The elbow is not perfect by any means, but I'm getting used to it hurting all the time, and trying to figure out what's baseline pain and what is too much.

My distance on the elliptical was down even from Monday, but I am wondering if it's simply the calibration on the machine, since the speed it showed seemed way faster than I felt like I was going, and at that speed, the distance should have been greater. The only way to tell would be to use the same machine all the time, and that would be boring, so no. I got sweaty, which was the point, so I am satisfied.

I've been slowly working on the first round of edits on that historical novel. It needs an interesting headspace. I'm having to reaquaint myself with the characters and the manuscript's content, which isn't as hard as it sounds because I worked on it for so very long, and so repetitively. But it still requires finding that place again. It's a weird feeling.

I can't seem to do too much at a time; partly that's because my arm starts hurting, with all the scrolling up and down and such. Partly, it's because it takes a lot of, I guess you could call it RAM.

But I made more progress this weekend. It's also a weird feeling to write bits of new material for a novel that's lain fallow for so long.

1. With way too much effort, I reached 2500 words on the 9/15 deadline story, but the story is not done; I realized yesterday that the length I'd originally conceived was too short for the romance/erotica part to work. Max wordcount for the anthology is 4000, so I will see what I can do. I've gone this far, I want to finish and submit! I have one weekend remaining. If I get it in, that's story #12 for the year. It needs to be done anyway, because I have a PW book to read and review afterwards.

2. I ordered a pair of New Balance running shoes and three new sports bras. Saturday after writing, I rode the bus out to King of Prussia mall and went to about a million stores looking for compression shorts/pants suitable for fat people; shirts I can order sight unseen, but bottoms I need to try on. I finally found some at JC Penney, capri length, and bought 3 pairs on sale at $17.99 each (these), excellent when the best price I'd found online for similar items was $32 - $44.

3. The reason for all that spending: I am going to try running on the treadmill for a while (a few weeks?), and see how that goes. I have one of those run/walk plans printed out, so I have guidance. Now that I've bought new clothes, I have to do it! I am actually looking forward to trying something new. Can I do it? It's kind of exciting. ...I may be singing another tune tomorrow.

4. The compression bras and pants will still be useful even if the running doesn't work out, and the shoes will be fine for general gym use or knocking around. I didn't want to spend a lot of money on shoes I might not need, but New Balance has generally been good for me, and this pair was only $40. They should arrive later this week, or next week. For today's first attempt, I'm just going to wear my "barefoot" Nikes, which I usually use for the elliptical, and see how those work out.

5. My exercise plan thinks I'm going to run five days a week. Not sure if I will manage that. I will be happy with three days.