Can't believe it's August already!

Gonna have to go some if I want to try to hit any of the August submission dates. I don't think I'm going to make it - not unless I try to scrape something together which seems a tad self-defeating. Makes more sense to concentrate on finishing off my Taming submissions - 2 more weeks and I hit 4 years - and then look around at what various publishers are looking for.

In home news, the psychiatrist says LM has no psychological issues - they're all behavioural. Basically, she understands exactly what she shouldn't do - she just chooses to do it anyway. So back to the counsellor to see if we can get to the root of why she does the things she does. Sigh, I kinda knew it before the psychiatrist said it but still slightly deflating.

Went swimming this morning - told LM that I would try to teach her to swim a whole length of the pool without armbands. We had fun - although she doesn't seem to trust that she will float and panics a bit. I'm not sure we'll meet our goal but I know she had a good time which makes a nice change.  Of course, it was blissful whilst I was in there - weightless, able to move around easily. As soon as I made my way up the ladder, gravity hit me like a tonne of bricks and I am in agony.  The disabled showers at this centre are marvellous and I just sat there for a while, luxuriating in the hot water pounding against my back, but soon enough it was time to get out of there and driving home was torture. Have basically spent the rest of the day feeling like death warmed up, back stiff as a board and dreading doing it again. But we will - it's good exercise for me and her, and it's important that I stick to what I say I'll do.

So we have the new taming prompt : flail. If ever there was a prompt with Teen Wolf written all over it, this one is it. 

So maybe tonight I'll try to churn out the first story for the week and then there won't be such a rush.

Wicked Awards on Livejournal

I won some awards on Livejournal for some of my fanfic.  Here are my pretties!!

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35,000 Words in September

Yep, trying again!!  This time I've lowered my goal - life got in the way of doing 45,000 words - so am aiming for 35,000 words this time!!

01 - 08 Sept :
09 - 15 Sept :
16 - 22 Sept :
23 - 29 Sept :
30 Sept      :

I am writing to a couple of deadlines for Original fic and of course, it's time for <lj comm="fall-for-sx"> so plenty of stuff going on there! Let's do this!

The Spike/Xander story that ate my brain - Master!post for Ultraviolet

Title: → Ultraviolet
Rating:→ NC17
Pairing: → Spike/Xander 
Fandom:→ Buffy the Vampire Slayer 
Genre: → AU 
Beta (s):→ Unbeta'd 
Disclaimer:→ Not mine. 
Summary: → Spike is called to Oxnard to claim something his Grand-sire gave to him with nasty results for Xander. 
Graphics: → Banners by 
A/N: → This features Original!Spike – nasty bastard, un-chipped, unrepentant demon. This is definitely non-con and not even remotely romantic. You have been warned.

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PART ONE | PART TWO | PART THREE | PART FOUR

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156 weeks writing & new banner.....

Received my 156 weeks award at Taming the Muse and am really chuffed. I can't believe I have written at least 500 words every week for the last three years - I am blown away!!

And as part of my dragging my writing partner into this whole 'let's write something original and expose our delicate, sensitive psyches to even more people who can crush us with their rejection, I sent my lovely sis TLM the following banner in an attempt to tempt her into writing an original story with me!!

I started it as my original Christmas Anthology for Dreamspinner but found I wanted to write it with TLM so we held off. But I would really be interested in using it to write our taming prompts and see if we could actually do this thing together.  All I need now is her pseudonym.....oh, and to make her write something! Subtle I'm not!!

Still behind on my word count - not looking like I'm going to make 45,000 words in August but I have written a few drabbles over the last couple of days that I am pleased with.

Tomorrow is exam results day - I wonder if that's why I'm not sleeping.....

Another weekend over....

...and my word count for August so far comes to just under 19,000. Not bad but definitely not on schedule. Mind you, bearing in mind the weekend I had I'm proud I got any writing done at all.

And ta-da!! I have officially written at least 500 words every week for the last 156 weeks or three years!! Yeah, I'm proud!

Copyright Controversy

Enough to send a shiver of fear into the heart of any fanfic writer, someone within the BtVS fandom had a story tagged as copyright violation and was told to stop posting it. It's kinda horrid when you think about it - obviously the writer and her fans were upset. She must have put a LOT of time into writing the story and her readers had been able to get a taste of what she was doing/where she was going with it. So of course, they're disappointed.

There was a little bit of vague finger pointing as to who reported it and wishes for karma to bite whoever reported it on the ass, but things seem to have settled down again.Apparently the only person who can raise a claim under copyright would be the author or a representative, so it might just be a case of this story caught their eye. Who the heck knows? I can't imagine anyone I know within the fandom going through the effort of contacting the author, providing links, etc all within the time it took to post three chapters just to get the story stopped. I know my life is way too busy to be that interested in anyone else!!

But it does raise the question: when does fair use become copyright theft? A disclaimer was used and there was zero intent to make profit. But the original story/characters do belong to someone else. And that person has the right to say 'please don't use them'.

It's a bit of a 'you can't play in my sandbox cos I bought the sand' kinda thing, but it is understandable. I have been going around in circles thinking about this because one of the stories I am working on was inspired by a book I read nearly 20 years ago. I can't even say whether it's changed enough from the original to be an homage rather than an adaptation. If the author wanted to, and if someone reported me, she could request I take it down. And there's nothing I could do about it but stop writing it.

Spoilsport? Yes. Within their rights? Yes. Brain explosion going round in circles? Triple yes.

I guess ultimately as someone who wants to be published, I have to be on the side of the original writer. Because I think if I put my heart/soul into writing something and was relying on the money from it being published, then discovered someone else was using my characters, my world, my storyline (even vaguely), I would wonder if people would decide to read the free version rather than pay for mine. And I guess I would say please don't play in my sandbox.

As a fanfic writer, that makes me feel a bit hypocritical and that doesn't sit well. I can  tell this is going to go round and round in the washing machine of my mind for a while yet....