Story: "Seeing Things" (Part 6 of 6)

This story fills a square on my card for the hc_bingo fest. This fest encourages the creation of boundary-pushing material that explores what happens when things go horribly wrong and people actually care about each other. I'm hoping to attract some new readers for my writing.

The following story belongs to Schrodinger's Heroes, featuring an apocryphal television show supported by an imaginary fandom. It's science fiction about quantum physics and saving the world from alternate dimensions. It features a very mixed cast in terms of ethnicity and sexual orientation. This project developed with input from multiple people, and it's open for everyone to play in. You can read more about the background, the characters, and a bunch of assorted content on the menu page.

Begin with Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5. This is a crossover with BBC Sherlock. You can read how these characters found each other in "THE Woman," and the beginning of the morning after in "Texas Sunrise." Additional inspiration came from a thread with siliconshaman, jeshyr, and thnidu.


Fandoms: BBC Sherlock / Original: Schrodinger's Heroes
H/C: Panic attacks
Medium: Fiction
Summary/Preview: Sherlock, who does not deal well with bizarre surprises, has moved into a place where those are ubiquitous. Also he is hungover. Won't this be fun?
Content Notes: Spoilers for BBC Sherlock Season 2. Home cooking. Friendship. Tentacles. Happy ending.

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Art by Moonvoice

 The Giraffe That Sings Rainbows Into Being

Poem: "Shyderwebs"

This poem came out of the November 2012 Crowdfunding Creative Jam.  It was inspired by a prompt from wyld_dandelyon.  It also fills the "alien abduction" square on my Hurt/Comfort Bingo Card.  It's posted free as fanfic for the World Walkers collection by kajones_writing (canonical status indeterminate at this time).  If you like this poem, there's a tip jar for kajones_writing on her World Walkers page, and I have one on my LJ profile.

EDIT 11/19/12:  You can now read the related story "The Shyder's Gift" by kajones_writing.

WARNING:  This poem is about giant phantasmic creatures based on trapdoor spiders.  If you are uncomfortable with arachnids or abduction, definitely skip this one.

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Outside at Fieldhaven

Today I went out to feed the birds, and a flock of sparrows flew into the forest garden over my head.  I said, "Guys, I haven't even filled  the feeder yet."  They freaked out and flew away.  I got the hopper feeder and the fly-through feeder filled, and they came back.

Then I carried in the ceramic pots and the garden goddess.  Those come indoors so they don't freeze over winter, assuming we have a winter this year.

Yesterday I went for a walk and saw a red-tailed hawk in one of our trees.  It flew away with a loud "KEE-eeaar!"  I love the sound they make.  I love seeing apex predators in my yard.

Other recent sightings include a squirrel, several bluejays, a pair of cardinals, and a downy woodpecker.

I also discovered that, sometime recently, the purple asters in the wildflower garden finally got around to blooming and I mostly missed the show.  There are just a few dried flowerheads left.  I planted those several years ago for autumn nectar and they've done diddly all this time.  The one year I gave up on the garden due to drought, they bloomed.  Great.  I have Trickster flowers.  :P

Out of this year's spring planting, I don't think much survived.  The redbud in the forest garden did, and the linden might have, but the dogwood and the spicebush I'll have to replant.  I'm ruling out all "it died" data for new plantings this year, because of the extreme weather.  But anything established that died is not getting replaced with the same species, such as the rowan if it doesn't miraculously recover next spring.

In fall planting, I put out a large bag of yellow daffodils and a small bag of pink ones.  I like the funny-colored daffodils.

Cover Trends and the Female Body

Here's a ruthless condemnation of young adult book covers.

One problem: Covers with slim, attractive girls or women sell.  Covers with more diverse body types do not sell.  This really pisses me off, because it actively punishes publishers who buck the trend to present diversity.  I lobbied for more diverse covers at PanGaia  and SageWoman, and we tried a few, but really we just couldn't afford it.  The numeric difference was prohibitive.