Letterblade

So Blogathon is coming up.

I'd signed up and everything. Got two donors through the Blogathon site. Which is back up this year, because the 'Thon's official, which would make it easier to advertise, get donors, etcetera.

But I hadn't done any advertising. I was waffling on what to do for my usual 'Thon writing project, made harder by the fact that my writerbrain is utterly dormant. And, well.

I've been nebulously sick for six months plus. Constantly congested and fatigued, physically and mentally, with other problems rotating through. (Most recent? Wracking cough.) I've seen my doctor twice about it, and she just gives me antibiotics and tells me to go away and lose weight. Sure, maybe I'm too fat, but I suspect the problem lies elsewhere.

I can barely make it through a normal day on eight or ten hours of sleep. I'm not going to make it through Blogathon.

Yeah, I feel scummy. And I'm very, very sorry. And I feel even worse because there are folks doing Blogathon, including good friends of mine, who have worse health trouble. But I'm just...wiped out.

Blogathon next year. Once I find a better doctor. I hope.

Don't elect me governor of Alaska, y'all.

...I got this thingie, you got 14k of genderflipped madness, and Planned Parenthood got $460. (Thank you to last-minute donor!)

Surviving this week at work is proving more difficult than surviving Blogathon. Between the wacky, wacky hours forced by driving (to ease my ankle) and trying not to sit in two hours of rush hour traffic (to ease my ankle, my fuel efficiency, and my sanity) and the usual end-of-month accounting clusterfuck, and being sales person again because our usual was out, and becoming a partially-fledged IT minion with all attendant running about...the only reason today wasn't another 11-hour day was because I put my foot down that I was absolutely, positively leaving before 3. Except for the phone meeting later that day, which I attended in bed wrapped up in blankets. Mmm, blankets.

What I hate the most about this? I've frequently been getting home in the evening with literally not enough time to eat dinner before I go to bed. And my breakfast is highly variable. Which means I haven't started my Happy Pills yet, as my previous experiences with that breed of Happy Pills have taught me that having a regular meal schedule helps immensely with the nausea.

And, day by day, I'm becoming more painfully aware of how deeply depressed I am at the moment, and how much it's messing with my life.

Want Happy Pills.

I think I'll be able to start commuting by train again soon, which will put me back on a regular schedule, which will help a lot. Plus no getting up at 5:30 AM. No, I'll be able to leisurely sleep in until 6:30. *headdesk*

Now I'm just kind of rambling in the update window while I nom. Once have nommed (yay nomming!), will curl up in bed and rewatch Batman Begins. Because I wants Batman, and do not feel like hauling ass to the theater, and want to see the first again before seeing Dark Knight again, yaknow?

Tentative proposal of Dark Knight outing party this weekend. Since, FOR ONCE I HAVE NOTHING ELSE TO DO. Except, y'know, writing stuff, because Andrea Stark needs to pwn Ty Stone six ways to Sunday, by popular request.

Mmm. Writing stuff. Want to. And want to work on website. But my brain's pretty much fried.

I think I lose a large chunk of brain cells each Blogathon. But there's a part of me already looking forward to next year. When I'll, y'know, sign up more than a week in advance. And try to have something that will be finished within the scope of the day, one Big Damn Fic like in '07. (Because I liked what I did this year, but, yaknow? Closure is nice. Even if it's punch-in-the-gut character death closure that makes little fangirls cry. Especially if it's that.) And I have two year's worth of data going for me that, yes, I can do this, and, yes, I can write about 9-10k words of pretty darn good fic while doing it. Twice I've done this.

It's good feeling like I can count on myself, y'know? Even if it's only in the miscellaneous little ways like that.

I also realized, in conversation with jennifer, why I was leaning away from the idea of just doing prompts all Blogathon: whiplash. Fandom whiplash, mood whiplash. Much easier to just do one thing all the way through.

Though I did like having five characters to write about (well, okay, more like through, as usual the bug-folks got the short end of the stick, and I feel guilty about that) rather than two. That gave some nice variety.

I now to Batman.

Now that I've spent twenty-two hours in bed and put in an appearance at work...

About Pledging and Donating

International: This came up with one of my donors, and it belatedly occurred to me that I didn't leave this very open for you lovely folks in non-US countries, did I? (God, I hate being caught out in Americacentrism.) Planned Parenthood US is a member of a blanket organization, IPPF, and I would also gladly accept a pledge and donation to any of their other member organizations. There's a nifty regional map here.

Timing: So my memory failed. (What else is new?) Blogathon is traditionally open to pledges not for a whole week after the event, but for two days after the event. So technically pledges should close at 9 EST on Tuesday, July 29th. However, I'd originally stated that pledges would remain open until August 3rd, and they will; I'm not going to go back on that! If you're planning to pledge though, it would be nice if you could let me know your amount by Tuesday so I can send a nice big total to the folks at Day of Blogs, though I will not start collection actions until the end of the week. ;)

How: Comment here with an amount. Donate here (at least for Americans; see above otherwise). Forward receipt or screenshot or other proof of donation to arkady [dot] lizard [at] gmail [dot] com. Please note that I am not directly affiliated with Planned Parenthood in any way, and I will not know if you sponsor me, or for how much, unless you tell me directly!

And, Y'know: I don't generally ask for pimpage, but if you feel like telling anybody that you know this crazy chick who stayed up for twenty-four hours writing ten thousand words of Apparently Not Bad Avengers Genderflip AU for charity? It would be awesome. Shameless self-promotion for the greater good!

Current Donations

$410, plus one unknown amount, from australian_joe, delerone, endymion_stcyr, eustaciavye, jadasc, lady_angelina, marmota, miraba, nevacaruso, pseydtonne, quigonejinne, and ysabel. THANK YOU ALL!!

Future Fic

So far none of my >$30 donors seem to have exercised their fic request options, except ysabel, who (with australian_joe seconding) would like to see Andrea PWNing Ty Stone the hell back. Which is, indeed, something I'd plotted for. Will be posting that publicly by August 3rd.

Beyond that, I will continue to work on Stars in private, and get it betaed by the excellent heavenscalyx, who hopefully isn't shaking her head too much at the 4-AM incoherence, and eventually post it in its entirety or in chapters, as yet undetermined. Here's hoping it doesn't die the death of most of my WIPs! Because that would utterly suck, after all the support from you guys. And because I'm pretty darn sure this fic kicks major ass. XD

Drove safely back to Salem afterwards. Have now been awake for 28 hours. THUD.

Blogathon stats:

Sponsorship: $285! Thank you all!

Words of fic posted: c. 14,000.

New words of fic written: c. 10,000.

*****

The Blogathon Fic Harvest

*****

Stars

Full Scenes

1973: Stella Rogers visits her childhood home after defrosting
1935: Donna Blake's birth
1973: Andrea Stark needs to plug into a wall soon
1963: Andrea Stark makes good rocket launchers at twelve
1953: Little Henrietta Pym says hello to an ant
1970: Andrea Stark meets Ian Van Dyne, and they, er, get on
1969: Donna Blake finds Mjölnir
1941: Stella Rogers wishes to kick some ass
1942: Stella Rogers meets Dr. Josef Reinstein
1942: Stella Rogers finds out about this whole Project Rebirth thing
1942: Stella Rogers gets her butch on, gains ten physical levels, and watches a good man die
1951: Andrea Stark's birth
1968: Andrea Stark gets very nastily pwned by Ty Stone
1971: Andrea Stark wakes up in a bad place with a hole in her chest
1971: Andrea Stark makes her escape in the armor and kicks much ass

Cookies

1920s: Baby Stella Rogers has a boxer dad
1942: Stella Rogers meets Bucky Barnes
1942: Stella Rogers returns from her first ass-kicking
1942: Nick Fury gets meta on gender equality

*****

Not Stars

I wrote Jack/Ianto because every else was doing it

*****

IT'S OVER. THANK FUCK.

*****

This post is part of the Fanfiction Frenzy for Planned Parenthood, which is wired_lizard's outing for Day of Blogs, and has raised $285 so far. Like what you see? Please consider donating!

Okay, no, I've managed one more scene.

I admit that I had hoped for more, but, well. Still a decent show, all told. Wrap-up post to come at nine.

( Fic! )

This post is part of the Fanfiction Frenzy for Planned Parenthood, which is wired_lizard's outing for Day of Blogs, and has raised $285 so far. Like what you see? Please consider donating!

This is a filler post while I recover from nearly choking on an apple.

FAIL.

This post is part of the Fanfiction Frenzy for Planned Parenthood, which is wired_lizard's outing for Day of Blogs, and has raised $285 so far. Like what you see? Please consider donating!

slipjig says: Well, the thing is, once the word "nosefucking" is mentioned, it can only go uphill from here.

(And yet, given that, it's been like constant nosefucking jokes for the rest of the half-hour.)

Also, the line "somebody give this lady a sandwich" should not come up during an oral sex scene.

ewin: This is bad. I keep writing really bad poetry and then I can't stop laughing at it.

shadesong describes LKH's plotting method: Rocks fall, everyone fucks.

"Dangerous talk. Dangerous times. Dangerous tentacles."

This post is part of the Fanfiction Frenzy for Planned Parenthood, which is wired_lizard's outing for Day of Blogs, and has raised $285 so far. Like what you see? Please consider donating!

Cake is warm, says mllelaurel. Am still working on trying to get more fic in gear. In the meantime, Tony Stark is the captain of teh carpet ship. And people are singing bad goth songs.

Apparently the last bit of fic killed my writerbrain. Attempting to restart within the next two hours. Most folks have reached fire bad tree pretty stage.

shadesong is describing how to feed the cats, and she says, "And then you put the cat fud on the plate. Splorch."

And now we are into the LKH tentacle porn. Splorch.

feste_sylvain: But the thing about dolphins is that they have a penis like a kickstand...

This post is part of the Fanfiction Frenzy for Planned Parenthood, which is wired_lizard's outing for Day of Blogs, and has raised $285 so far. Like what you see? Please consider donating!

No, this is going to be another half-hour of silliness, because it's been decided that we need to entertain ourselves by reading Laurell K. Hamilton out loud.

"Raised up" seems to be her favorite porn stage direction.

I did ask why the heck they didn't just go straight to Weeping Cock. I mean, dude.

The phrase "I can't believe it's not porn!" was just uttered.

Now we're discussing whether any of us has ever been aroused while possessing a wound deep enough to need stitches. And sex is the only thing that will keep our attention right now, apparently. And faintly we hear, from afar, "Oh, John Ringo, no!"



This post is part of the Fanfiction Frenzy for Planned Parenthood, which is wired_lizard's outing for Day of Blogs, and has raised $285 so far. Like what you see? Please consider donating!

Post 43! Technitium! Yaaaaaay!

( Fic! )

This post is part of the Fanfiction Frenzy for Planned Parenthood, which is wired_lizard's outing for Day of Blogs, and has raised $235 so far. Like what you see? Please consider donating!

Yup, this is yet another spam post while I write. Andrea is waking up in a cell in Vietnam with a hole in her chest, and I am almost more zonked than her. I have been provided with a large bottle of cola. W00T.

shadesong has fire. This worries me.

This post is part of the Fanfiction Frenzy for Planned Parenthood, which is wired_lizard's outing for Day of Blogs, and has raised $235 so far. Like what you see? Please consider donating!

I stared at my screen and girded my loins and said "okay, it's Iron Man time."

shadesong promptly started singing "Peanut butter and Iron Man time!"

shadesong says: Adam, I think this is the time in the evening when you show us all your penis.

slipjig: It's not an entree here, people!

Yes, I am apparently attempting to write again now. But in the meantime, until I have the scene together, you know what's coming!

LEMME HEAR IT!

SPAAAAAAAAM!

...I knocked over the Joker with mah boobs.

This post is part of the Fanfiction Frenzy for Planned Parenthood, which is wired_lizard's outing for Day of Blogs, and has raised $235 so far. Like what you see? Please consider donating!

So I am still recovering from the STARKPAIN, and in the meantime, I got into a conversation with various members of Project Venture about the band that we're apparently forming, which is called Medusa Crotch, and which I seem to be the lead vocalist for. We have decided we need t-shirts.

*stares at fic*

So what do I want to write next this lovely morning? Vietnam or Dachau?

*headkeyboard*

This post is part of the Fanfiction Frenzy for Planned Parenthood, which is wired_lizard's outing for Day of Blogs, and has raised $235 so far. Like what you see? Please consider donating!

OKAY. This is me taking a breather for a bit after that last bit of SOLID STARKPAIN.

*breathes*

*flails*

*recovers and breathes*

That sort of thing is more intense at 3 AM during Blogathon. Writing it, I mean. It's like adigiojafojaosjdfpo kposfiiioeopppfp. That.

So there is, like, this little 3-inch Joker figure on the table next to my computer. And earlier somebody dropped a bag of Skittles, which I had been craving, on the table next to me, and I'd gone to open it, and it had proven stubborn. (One of the big one-pound ones.) I didn't have the strength to open it. And I pick him up and I say something along the lines of, "Hello, Mr. Joker, would you please open my Skittles for me?" And make Joker-attacked-Skittles-bag motions. This led several people to declare that Tory had gone bye-bye for the evening.

Before dalious left, he took a little one-inch monkey and positioned it neatly at the Joker's crotch.

This display is now sitting next to my laptop as I type.

Ladies 'n' Gents, Blogathon. Boobs and rubber chickens and hot Joker-on-monkey action.

And now I need some caffiene so as to deal with more Andrea. My typos are proliferating alarmingly. Could someone please recommend a good typo spray?

Though, y'know, where hot Joker action is concerned, I second somebody's call--dafnap? jamailith? One of you wonderfulcrazy Iron Man movie folks--for Joker/Batman. Because, yeah, after the Dark Knight, necessary. And I know crap about Batman.

This post is part of the Fanfiction Frenzy for Planned Parenthood, which is wired_lizard's outing for Day of Blogs, and has raised $235 so far. Like what you see? Please consider donating!

Again, this is pushing gen. Only with the added thing of, well, not consensual.

I mentioned Andrea's a mess, right?

( Fic! )

This post is part of the Fanfiction Frenzy for Planned Parenthood, which is wired_lizard's outing for Day of Blogs, and has raised $235 so far. Like what you see? Please consider donating!

( Fic! )

This post is part of the Fanfiction Frenzy for Planned Parenthood, which is wired_lizard's outing for Day of Blogs, and has raised $235 so far. Like what you see? Please consider donating!

All right, we're coming up on the wee hours, I'm buckling down to try to get into Andrea Stark's head, and, speaking of buckling, I moved to the other room to have a different seating configuration for a while, and landed square in the Captain-America-Is-A-Bottom Camp. (They're in the dining room. I was in the living room until recently.) They are busy discussing how one could pull his arms back and strap them to his own shield. Which, okay, nice mental image. But he's still a top. *blows raspberries*

IT'S NUTTER-BUTTER TIME!

This post is part of the Fanfiction Frenzy for Planned Parenthood, which is wired_lizard's outing for Day of Blogs, and has raised $235 so far. Like what you see? Please consider donating!

PHEWPH. Okay. That was one hell of a scene.

Base Colonel remains as yet unnamed.

I think it's about time to tackle Andrea now. Poor Andrea. Poor screwy, screwy Andrea.

( Fic! )

This post is part of the Fanfiction Frenzy for Planned Parenthood, which is wired_lizard's outing for Day of Blogs, and has raised $235 so far. Like what you see? Please consider donating!

Nope, going to be another half-hour until this particular monstrosity is ready to post. BUT. I have my first on-screen death! Two, in fact! One of them even named!

(slipjig and I were discussing this earlier.)

This post is part of the Fanfiction Frenzy for Planned Parenthood, which is wired_lizard's outing for Day of Blogs, and has raised $235 so far. Like what you see? Please consider donating!

Stella's busy getting shot full of chemicals and strapped to a table right now. Oh, superhero origin stories. DRAAAAAAAMA!

ALSO, TWO THIRDS OF THE WAY THROUGH. YAYAYAYAAYAYAYAYAYAYAAYAYAY.

This post is part of the Fanfiction Frenzy for Planned Parenthood, which is wired_lizard's outing for Day of Blogs, and has raised $235 so far. Like what you see? Please consider donating!

Apparently one of figmentj's friends just posted to say, "I like string."

I would like to post to say that I like sticks more than string. I mean, string is good and very useful, but STICKS. I have always liked sticks. I tend to pick up sticks I like when I'm walking and carry them around with me, and sometimes take them home.

This is filler while I'm writing. And eating lasagna. Lasagna good. My Garfield moment is now complete, and I shall return to Stella getting her butch on. Operation Rebirth: +10 Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, and Katchoos!

This post is part of the Fanfiction Frenzy for Planned Parenthood, which is wired_lizard's outing for Day of Blogs, and has raised $235 so far. Like what you see? Please consider donating!

More of Stella's origin. Okay, so I guess technically this is pushing the gen thing. But, dude, it's not like it goes anywhere further than this, and it's still the kind of entirely character-and-plot-focused-thing that gets filed in my brain as gen.

(Like, I had this moment when I was reviewing fic for my website, and I was paging through the the DMVs, which is also a thing I think of as gen, and there's, like, two people in bed together. And one of them gets up and she's naked. Not, like, graphically described, totally something you could do on network TV, but I was looking at that thinking, dude, some people might not think of this as gen.)

But it's not like gen definitions have ever been, y'know, clear.

Anyway.

MIDNIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT.

( Fic! )

This post is part of the Fanfiction Frenzy for Planned Parenthood, which is wired_lizard's outing for Day of Blogs, and has raised $235 so far. Like what you see? Please consider donating!