Essential Oils

A friend of mine sent me two essential oils.  :D  The Cocoa one smells a lot like chocolate liqueur.  The Coffee one really  smells like coffee!  \o/  Many thanks.

Snowflake Challenge Day 8: Self-Recommendations

Day 8

In your own space, post self-recs for at least three fanworks that you created. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.


As always, my list begins with my largest and most popular series, Love Is For Children.  This is Avengers fanfic about what would happen if our heroes actually got the mental support and comfort they so desperately need.  It centers on nonsexual ageplay as a healing experience.  If you're sick of the canon turning into wall-to-wall domestic abuse, and you like hurt/comfort, read this.  Just be aware that there is a LOT of it now, and my work has been described as "flypaper for eyeballs."

Frankenstein's Family is fanfic of Frankenstein, the Modern Prometheus.  It's genderfuck with Victor as transgender.  He and Igor have a queerplatonic relationship and have constructed a son, Adam.  This is gothic fluff.



Over in Schrodinger's Heroes, the crossover page has a handful of one-shots and two of my series:
Herolock crosses over with Sherlock, bringing Sherlock and John into the Teflon Tesseract.  This is science fiction, a little mystery, and mostly sociological dynamics amongst the characters.
Schrodinger's Hulk crosses over with the Incredible Hulk (primarily Marvelverse).  It posits that Hulk is Bruce's animus, and therefore Bruce must actually be feminine.  So it's heavy-duty genderfic about what would happen if Bruce got tucked into a safe place with gender-aware friends to take care of them.  If you want to wrap Bruce in a blanket, this is your fic.  If you like Thunderbolt-bashing, at least read the first story for its conclusion.

I also have a couple of Star Trek entries, one Supernatural, one Batman, and miscellaneous others on AO3.

Want more?  The Poetry Fishbowl will be running today with a theme of "That's not a mistake!"  Drop by my blog and give me prompts, enjoy the crosstalk, or watch for free poetry to appear.

Poetry Fishbowl Open!

The Poetry Fishbowl is now CLOSED.  Thank you for your time and attention.  Please keep an eye on this page as I am still writing.

Starting now, the Poetry Fishbowl is open!  Today's theme is "That's not a mistake!"  I will be checking this page periodically throughout the day. When people make suggestions, I'll pick some and weave them together into a poem ... and then another ... and so on. I'm hoping to get a lot of ideas and a lot of poems.

Among my more relevant series:
An Army of One, Frankenstein's Family, Hart's Farm, The Moon Door, One God's Story of Mid-Life Crisis, The Steamsmith, and Tripping into the Future.
Polychrome Heroics focuses so much on choices that most threads and many individual characters relate to this theme. Some good examples include Antimatter and Stalwart Stan, Berettaflies, Calliope, Officer Pink, and Shiv.

Currently eligible bingo card(s) for donors wishing to sponsor a square:
Untranslatable Words

Click to read the linkback poem "Crossroads on the Hero's Journey" (10 verses, standalone).


What Is a Poetry Fishbowl?

Writing is usually considered a solitary pursuit. One exception to this is a fascinating exercise called a "fishbowl." This has various forms, but all of them basically involve some kind of writing in public, usually with interaction between author and audience. A famous example is Harlan Ellison's series of "stories under glass" in which he sits in a bookstore window and writes a new story based on an idea that someone gives him. Writing classes sometimes include a version where students watch each other write, often with students calling out suggestions which are chalked up on the blackboard for those writing to use as inspiration.

In this online version of a Poetry Fishbowl, I begin by setting a theme; today's theme is "That's not a mistake!"  I invite people to suggest characters, settings, and other things relating to that theme. Then I use those prompts as inspiration for writing poems.


Cyberfunded Creativity

I'm practicing cyberfunded creativity. If you enjoy what I'm doing and want to see more of it, please feed the Bard. The following options are currently available:

1) Sponsor the Fishbowl -- Here is a PayPal button for donations. There is no specific requirement, but $1 is the minimum recommended size for PayPal transactions since they take a cut from every one. You can also donate via check or money order sent by postal mail. If you make a donation and tell me about it, I promise to use one of your prompts. Anonymous donations are perfectly welcome, just won't get that perk. General donations will be tallied, and at the end of the fishbowl I’ll post a list of eligible poems based on the total funding; then the audience can vote on which they want to see posted.

2) Swim, Fishie, Swim! -- A feature in conjunction with fishbowl sponsorship is this progress meter showing the amount donated.  There are multiple perks, the top one being a half-price poetry sale on one series when donations reach $300.



3) Buy It Now! -- Gakked from various e-auction sites, this feature allows you to sponsor a specific poem. If you don't want to wait for some editor to buy and publish my poem so you can read it, well, now you don't have to. Sponsoring a poem means that I will immediately post it on my blog for everyone to see, with the name of the sponsor (or another dedicate) if you wish; plus you get a nonexclusive publication right, so you can post it on your own blog or elsewhere as long as you keep the credits intact. You'll need to tell me the title of the poem you want to sponsor. I'm basing the prices on length, and they're comparable to what I typically make selling poetry to magazines (semi-pro rates according to Duotrope's Digest).

0-10 lines: $5
11-25 lines: $10
26-40 lines: $15
41-60 lines: $20
Poems over 60 lines, or with very intricate structure, fall into custom pricing.

4) Commission a scrapbook page. I can render a chosen poem in hardcopy format, on colorful paper, using archival materials for background and any embellishments. This will be suitable for framing or for adding to a scrapbook. Commission details are here.  See latest photos of sample scrapbooked poems: "Sample Scrapbooked Poems 1-24-11"

5) Spread the word. Echo or link to this post on your Dreamwidth, other blog, Twitter, Facebook, Digg, StumbleUpon, or any other social network.  Useful Twitter hashtags include #poetryfishbowl and #promptcall.  Encourage people to come here and participate in the fishbowl.  If you have room for it, including your own prompt will give your readers an idea of what the prompts should look like; ideally, update later to include the thumbnail of the poem I write, and a link to the poem if it gets published.  If there is at least one new prompter or donor, I will post an extra freebie poem.

Linkback perk: I have a spare series poem available, and each linkback will reveal a verse of the poem.  One person can do multiple links if they're on different services, like Dreamwidth or Twitter, rather than all on LiveJournal.  Comment with a link to where you posted.  "Crossroads on the Hero's Journey" has 10 verses and stands alone.     
 

Additional Notes

1) I customarily post replies to prompt posts telling people which of their prompts I'm using, with a brief description of the resulting poem(s). If you want to know what's available, watch for those "thumbnails."

2) You don't have to pay me to see a poem based on a prompt that you gave me. I try to send copies of poems to people, mostly using the LJ message function.  (Anonymous prompters will miss this perk unless you give me your eddress.)  These are for-your-eyes-only, though, not for sharing.

3) Sponsors of the Poetry Fishbowl in general, or of specific poems, will gain access to an extra post in appreciation of their generosity.  While you're on the Donors list, you can view all of the custom-locked posts in that category.  Click the "donors" tag to read the archive of those.  I've also posted a list of other donor perks there.  I customarily leave donor names on the list for two months, so you'll get to see the perk-post from this month and next.

4) After the Poetry Fishbowl concludes, I will post a list of unsold poems and their prices, to make it easier for folks to see what they might want to sponsor.

5) If donations total $100 by Friday evening then you get a free $15 poem; $150 gets you a free $20 poem; and $200 gets you a free epic, posted after the Poetry Fishbowl.  These will usually be series poems if I have them; otherwise I may offer non-series poems or series poems in a different size.  If donations reach $250, you get one step toward a bonus fishbowl; three of these activates the perk, and they don't have to be three months in a row.  Everyone will get to vote on which series, and give prompts during the extra fishbowl, although it may be a half-day rather than a whole day.  If donations reach $300, there will be a piece of bonus material.


Feed the Fish!
Now's your chance to participate in the creative process by posting ideas for me to write about. Today's theme is "That's not a mistake!"  I'll be soliciting ideas for parents, children, teens, friends, adventurers, gaming groups, clergy, counselors, best enemies, superheroes, supervillains, entertainers, runaways, rebels, gangs, consultants, soldiers, refugees, trauma survivors, the whole QUILTBAG, other people who make inconvenient choices or clean up after them, making decisions, sticking to choices that other people think are mistakes, discovering yourself, making friends, supporting each other through hard times, traveling, fighting, struggling to survive, counseling, coming of age, exploring the world, discovering problems, troubleshooting, finding creative solutions, changing your mind, recovering from setbacks, confronting deception, asking questions, trying new techniques, learning what you can (and can't) do, laboratories, artist studios, battlegrounds, group homes or thematic housing, neighborhoods, parks, community centers, churches or temples, counseling centers, courtrooms, government seats, other places where people make decisions and mistakes, free will, decision-making skills, self-confidence, the difference between mistakes and choices, the decisions and mistakes that define your life, the engineering problem-solving method, a friend in need is a friend indeed, activism, imprint vulnerability, personal growth, frustration, determination, unforseen circumstances, art is knowing which ones to keep, rites of passage, superpower manifestation, and poetic forms in particular. But anything is welcome, really. If you manage to recommend a form that I don't recognize, I will probably pounce on it and ask you for its rules. I do have The New Book of Forms by Lewis Turco which covers most common and many obscure forms.

I'll post at least one of the fishbowl poems here so you-all can enjoy it. (Remember, you get an extra freebie poem if someone new posts a prompt or makes a donation, and additional perks at $100-$300 in donations.  Linkbacks reveal verses of "Crossroads on the Hero's Journey."  The rest of the poems will go into my archive for future use.

Poem: "When Opportunity Meets with Planning"

This is the freebie for the January 8, 2018 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from dialecticdreamer. It also fills the "villain" square in my 5-1-19 Gimmicks / Roles / Characters card for the Pro Wrestling Bingo Fest. This poem belongs to the Polychrome Heroics series.

( Read more... )

Woodpeckers!

Birds are swarming my hopper feeder today.  :D  There are lots of sparrows and dark-eyed juncos, along with some mourning doves.  I saw a red-bellied woodpecker.  Then I saw a pair  of downy woodpeckers!  I don't think I've ever seen a pair before.  Both sexes are deckled black-and-white, and males have a red spot on the head.  \o/