Tremendulent!

I think I can manage Five Things.

1. I finished my Black Sails fic for WIP Big Bang! It's frickin' over 100,000 words! At least 30,000 of those words were written in the last two months. *collapses* I'm owning this, I'm so proud of myself for finishing this story. I wanted to finish it and I did. WOO!

2. Following on from the above (holy crap, I finished it!), I'm glad I did it because I proved a few things to myself. Namely, that yes, I can actually write a novel-length story. And that I can discipline my writing. I have an actual method that does work. I can do this again. I want to do this again. (I...might have an idea I want to do this with...we'll see...it involves plants and Florida swamps and metaphysics...)

3. The move back to the states is progressing steadily. My flight back to my lovely trashfire state of Florida is on 15 October. I'm so conflicted about this move. I have no idea what it's going to be like when I get there and I don't even want to speculate about it. I'm just going to let it happen and try to be as chill as I can.

4. Wrapped up in the above is some serious baggage around the last 20 years and I'm trying not to kick past!seren too much. She would have done things differently if she could have. But, I feel very unprepared and like I've fallen behind where I'm 'supposed' to be. Which is, frankly, bullshit. I know it's bullshit. Still, the feeling remains and I'm working on it.

5. I'm having to move out of my current flat in a week because the uni semester starts soon, so a Master's student is moving in. However, my landlady's parents (bear with me) own this big house that's been converted into student flats, apart from the third floor which is a one-bedroom flat they usually stay in. They're heading out, so, I'm moving in!

I'm actually really excited! It's this big Victorian house that is on one of my favourite streets in town. It has a lovely view of the tennis courts as well as the sea (if you stand on your tiptoes). I've always wanted to see inside of the houses on this street and now I get to live in one! And it's all inclusive! No utilities bills or council tax for a month!

Happy Wednesday! ♥

Well, Tumblr is a dumpster fire of the usual fannish proportions, isn't it? I mean, I think we all saw this coming the second Yahoo bought it (And quite frankly, even earlier than that), but it still sucks. A lot. The one thing Tumblr had going for it was if I only had about 5 minutes worth of energy, I could scroll through my dash and still manage to interact in some way with a few different people with some Likes and Reblogs as well as get a small dose of fannish/political/pretty/small animal posts.

In any case, I'm going to attempt to revive my DW a little and see what happens.

And if anyone wanted an update on my going-ons...( Seren's life these days )

I hope everyone is well! Happy Tuesday! Fingers crossed the next time I post it won't be a year from now.

Well, I've waffled about whether or not to stop cross-posting and I've decided to stop. So, this will be my last post on LiveJournal. I'm not deleting my journal, but I won't be renewing or signing their new TOS.

I feel really rather sad about this. LJ is where I met so many amazing people who are now friends and I learned how to write and create and well, yeah.

BUT! I'm fairly active on Tumblr and I'm trying to get back into Dreamwidth, so come find me!

Tumblr: seren-pen.tumblr.com

Dreamwidth: seren_ccd.dreamwidth.org

Friend me wherever!  I wish everyone all the best and I'll see you in the ether somewhere!  

I love October - all the birthdays! It's my husband's b-day today and mine was last week. He made me Chicken Fesenjan (chicken with a walnut-pomegranate sauce) and chocolate pecan pie. OMNOMNOM. So, today I'm making him puerco pibil (the slow-roasted pork dish from Once Upon a Time in Mexico) and a blueberry-peach pie. I'm using my slow-cooker and the pork has been cooking away for the last 2 hours. The house smells incredible.

And goodness, it's been a wee while since I updated. Work has been nuts. We're so busy. I'm working 9 hour days and I spend the morning doing tons of admin and data-input work, then after lunch I'm in the lab until it's time to go home. We have so many samples, it's ridiculous. Hopefully, this will settle down, um, in November? Maybe? I'm so tired.

It needs to settle down because I'm actually doing NaNoWriMo this year. Wooo! I'm FINISHING my Nora and The Ghost story. I've been thinking about how to go about doing it and I'm doing the hard thing and starting from the beginning. It's the only way.

I've been working on it piecemeal for a few years now, I know what I want to have happen, but it's not very cohesive. So, I'm starting from the very beginning and going straight through it.

I'm also handwriting it. My thoughts flow better with a pen in my hand. And I can edit it by typing it up later. This way, I can just get the damn thing DONE.

In other, other news, I love our new place. It's quiet, it's by the sea, and it has just enough space that it's fairly easy to stay on top of things. I'm really content. :D

How is everyone? Have a lovely Sunday! ♥

Hi! Hello! How’s it going? (/end Vaughn from Community greeting – I miss that show!)

I have been meaning to type up a post for two weeks now and just haven’t been able to drum up enough energy to do it. So…hi!

I have things! ( Read more... )

I hope everyone’s doing well! Happy Friday! ♥

Have I mentioned how much I hate moving? Because I hate moving. Even though we’re moving back to a city I liked and to a part of the country I LOVED (Scotland, you’re wonderful! An extremely close second to Wales.), I hate moving. I’ve really loved my job down here. The people I work with are just stellar. It can be so rare to work with a group of people who are just plain KIND. They’re funny and love to laugh and are so supportive. Not just personally, but if someone is struggling with their workload, at least three people will all at once say ‘What can I do to help?’ And they don’t do it to ‘get ahead’ or show anyone up, they do it because they honestly care about each other and I’m going to miss them SO MUCH.

It’s been very busy and I have this Het Big Bang to finish and dear God. Why didn’t someone stop me when I said, ‘Oh! I’m going to write a Hobbit!AU ghost story! That won’t be complicated AT ALL. I won’t go OVER 25,000 words. I won’t be currently at 31,000 words with NO END IN SIGHT and about to embark on a TWO WEEK holiday with my mother and her church group before MOVING TO SCOTLAND WHILST LOOKING FOR EMPLOYMENT. NO PROBLEM. I GOT THIS, Y’ALL.’

*facepalm* followed by *HEADDESK* Repeat, as necessary, ‘cause I’m not entirely sure that I got this, y’all.

Argh.

I did, however, have a fun moment the other day on the train into work. I was writing the first big kiss between my characters and listening to my iPod. It started off with the lovely score from North and South, the one where John and Margaret meet on the train platform. Then my iPod nicely segued into ‘Sex on Fire’ by Kings of Leon.

It kinda influenced the scene a bit, is what I’m saying. *snickers*

In other news, I’m loving the new Freeview channel over here. The Horror Channel! It plays really crappy horror films, PLUS Classic Doctor Who! We’ve been watching all the Tom Baker episodes for the last couple of weeks and it’s been AWESOME. The new Who season, starting with the Christopher Eccleston ones, really nicked a number of ideas from those eps, didn’t they? There’s also CBS Action Channel which is playing both the original Star Trek episodes AND The Next Generation. It’s brilliant!

Happy Friday! ♥

*Yep. Breaking out the Soapdish. It's been that kind of a week.

Hullo!

Well. 2014 was hellacious. In fact, the less said about November and most of December the better. There were some health issues and it got pretty dodgy for awhile there. But I believe we're on the other side of things and I think things are in a much, much better place. I even went to the states for about 2 weeks to see my family and that was a blast. My mom got a puppy! Do you want to meet little Brynley the Shetland Sheepdog? He's just here, behind the cut: ( look at that faaace ) He's such a cutie-patootie. He's very smart and catches on very fast. *SQUISHES*

So, I have some 2015 Intentions (borrowed from Jenny Crusie's blog - as per usual- because 'resolutions' can come with a side order of guilt/shame if they aren't stuck to and I'm not in the mood for guilt/shame and I like having things that I'd like to accomplish, but I'm not going to beat myself up if I don't get around to them or don't quite finish them.

1. I'm doing Get Your Words Out again this year. I just fell short of the 150,000 goal last year by about 3,000 words, the majority of that was Walking Dead fic (a show that is now dead to me due to the fact that every time I write about a lady on that show - they die. I will never write a Carol fic, because she and Michonne are currently the best people on that show). ANYWAY! Words! I will attempt to write them! It's very slow-going at the moment but I will do my best.

2. Exercise. Le husband and I are going to try to go for a stroll every evening and my office-buddy and I belong to the gym that is right next door to our office, so we're going to try to go at least 3 times a week.

3. Take a holiday with le husband. We haven't had a holiday alone together in YEARS. I don't care if it's a long weekend in Brighton, we're taking periodic mini-breaks.

4. Continue to learn as much as I can at my job. It's looking like we'll be in the south of England until December 2015, so I'm going to take advantage of every single training opportunity I can. My supervisor wants to train me in project management and I am ALL FOR IT. I love it, I love my office, I love the work. I want to do as much of is as I can.

5. Pay off my credit card. I think I can do this by April. *fingers crossed*

6. Post more on LiveJournal. *NODS*

I'm actually also going on a holiday with my mom towards the end of the summer. She's coming over here with her church to tour cathedrals. The itinerary looks amazing! Private tours of Canterbury, Rochester, and Coventry cathedral AND Westminster Abbey AND we get to go to Oxford and Stonehenge!!! Very cool. The Episcopals are pretty chill, too. They like their pubs.

What about y'all? Any intentions or plans or fun stuff for the year? Heck, any fun plans for the weekend? Happy Friday! ♥

I promise! But I am unbelievably busy. Today is my last day in Scotland (boo!) and at my job (boo!) before I head south tomorrow (ahh!).

I'm...okay? I'm getting my full deposit back on my flat which is awesome. And there will be cake this afternoon at work, so that's also awesome.

I'm writing! Dear God, I'm writing From Dusk till Dawn fic because I can't help myself. If anyone is interested in reading some 'oh, look at that age gap!fic, it's over here:

Two WIPs:

got to be love or death (5865 words) by seren_ccd
Chapters: 2/?
Fandom: From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Author Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Kate Fuller/Seth Gecko
Characters: Kate Fuller, Seth Gecko
Summary:

Sometimes when she gets home from work and he’s lying on the bed watching old westerns wearing nothing but boxers because it’s ‘too hot for propriety today, Katie, sorry,’ and she retaliates by taking a shower and then wears nothing but a tanktop and a pair of his boxers that she stole a few weeks back and he looks at her with amusement and appreciation and something else…Kate’s fairly sure she’s out of her depth. Kate, Seth, and what happens next.

I won’t take the easy road (9363 words) by seren_ccd
Chapters: 2/?
Fandom: From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Kate Fuller, Seth Gecko, Richie Gecko, Ranger Freddie Gonzalez
Summary:

The last week has been a crash course in Kate remembering Life with the Gecko Brothers and she’s not sure if she’s ready to bail on the whole thing and take her chances alone against the culebras or if she should just lace their food with sedatives because Jesus, they have comments about everything.

One one-shot:

who's going to hold you down when you shake (613 words) by seren_ccd
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Author Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Kate Fuller/Seth Gecko
Characters: Kate Fuller, Seth Gecko
Summary:

During the night, Kate’s eyes are narrowed and her hands are sure as they kill the things that would kill her. It’s during the daylight when the sun has finally risen and the bright rays shine through the thin gaps in the cheap motel curtains that her movements slow and gentle. 'make love to me like you know I am better than the worst thing I ever did' - prompt by river-soul.

Yes, I have a problem.

But I will soon be in the south of England and who knows what's going to happen then!

I just saw an article on Salon calling LiveJournal obsolete, so I'm going to post! Darn it!

Things!

1. The grand move south progresses. I'm...okay with the whole thing? I guess? It's happening, so... I've begun the great job search again, so that's stress-inducing as per usual.

2. I have not seen Captain America 2, but that didn't stop me from having a rather interesting dream the other night involving Sebastian Stan and a hallway and some kissage. Not a bad dream, I have to say. I blame everyone on Tumblr.

3. I'm actually making progress on an original story. We'll see! I might post a collage this weekend for the heck of it. What's kind of fun is all the baking I'm going to need to do. For RESEARCH.

4. Work has been really, really busy this week! But I'm using the stairs which is good for me. Then I eat a Chunky Peanut Butter Kitkat which is not good for me. :P

5. I don't think I have a 5. I hope everyone is having a good week!

Happy Thursday! ♥

Full-screen mode

I loves it, precious. *ahem* But seriously, I love it. It's very good for writing with. It's very much like a typewriter in that the line you're typing stays in the middle of the page and you don't have to keep scrolling back up. Also, you can adjust the shading of the background. I tried it at work and so I only shaded things a little as I had to keep an eye on the time and my inbox. It's very smooth and the words just spilled out.

Organization

I threw all of my Familiar Feeling docs into Scrivener yesterday and organized them. The functionality of working with small sections really works for me. I was able to move things around, label things as beginning, middle or end of chapters, etc. It gave me a good idea of where I am with the story and helped me plot things out as well.

I also uploaded all the images I have of characters, but I haven't organized those yet.

In short, I'm getting Scrivener. I'm going to wait until next payday and buy it. It's precisely what I was looking for and it's what I need. I highly recommend trying the free trial. It's for 30 days (individual days! not 30 days from the start of use) and I'm really happy with it.