#I might rewrite it or write a 2nd chapter but 0 promises

[ray935sworld]

Telling his grid dad - Pedroscar

„Mark" A familiar voice behind him peeked up. The former F1 driver turned around and smiled at his young protege.

Oscar returned the smile, but more hesitant, less enthusiastic and more unsure than ever. „Hey Oscar, everything okay?" he asked. His voice was soft smothering. He opened it could calm the young lad a little bit since he seemed as nervous to talk to him as in their early stages of working together.

„Is Mclaren giving you trouble?" he asked, slightly concerned. The whole internet and racing world had apparently doomed Oscar as the number 2 driver. Mark knew all to well what tool that could take on a driver

„No. No. It's not that. I... It's not nice, don't get me wrong but I'll handle it. It's just... I need you to... Ehm... Well..." „You need me to-? Come on, kid, spit it out and I'll help you. I promise" „I'm seeing someone. I'm in a relationship"

„Oh!" Now that was not on his list of expected things. But Oscar had always been a rather quite kind. He wasn't surprised he hadn't heard about that in certain gossip circles. Which were his husband. Fernando Alonso, who somehow always had the newest gossip which was surprisingly often 100% correct.

„Well, that's great. And he - she - " The confusion of having a bisexual kid. „He" Oscar helped him. „It's a boy - man. It's a man" „And he is treating you right? He's taking care of you? Keeping you safe and doesn't drag you in more risk than you do yourself?"

Oscar paused. He thought back. He texted him every morning and night. He send him pictures of himself, where he was and what he was doing throughout the day, just so Oscar could part of his life despite being hundreds or thousands of km apart. He told him he loved him at every chance and kissed him until Oscar couldn't breath from giggling. He had bought him roses and his favorite chocolate. He had made him his favorite Spanish dishes, to show him his culture.

Aaaand.... They went motorcross. And he had dragged him there with him. And he was close to giving him a heart attack with his own races. Yes, he now understood why his mother had been so keen on keeping him on 4 wheels instead of 2. So maybe his boyfriend wasn't excatly lowering his risks.

„It's... I... Remember when you told me I should take you as an example-"

„Oscar... Oh no" Mark said and the younger Australian looked back at him. „Yeah?" he asked, fearing that Mark had somehow manged to read his mind. „No. No, Oscar. When I said be like me I didn't mean date number 1 driver of your team. You know that that was-" „What? No!" „No? So you and Lando are not-" „No! God no!"

„Okay. Good! But then... What were you talking about?" „Eh... Dating Spanish motorracers" „You're... So you are dating a rider?" „Kinda. He's not-" „Please tell me it's not Carlos!" „It's not Carlos" „Good boy. So not Carlos, then... There's no other Spaniard in the grid."

„I know. It's Pedro" he explained calmly. „Acosta. The MotoGP rookie."

He knew that was unnecessary to add. Mark watched motogp. Fernando forced him to for years now. Mark was well aware how Pedro Acosta was. That's why he was staring his him now for a good second.

„Boy, you're in for a heart attack with those kind of races" he said laughing and Oscar smiled. „Yeah... I know" he agreed.

„So, when can I meet him?" „Actually, he's here this weekend and I thought it might be a good chance for you to meet." „Oh, so that's why you're suddenly telling me. Always on the last minute, mate" he laughed and Oscar smiled, happy that everything went well.

[tc-doherty]

WIP Round-up

We are in the 2nd half of 2023 so I figured I would do something like this because I haven’t actually compiled information for a while.

Status updates, priorities, and which projects I’m dropping.

Backwards Tales:

 I’ve written Beauty and the Beast and I’m satisfied with that, I’ve written two pages of Cinderella and I’m relatively satisfied so far. I’m just going to see where time takes me with this one. I don’t currently have any specific fairy tales picked out for other ones but that won’t be an issue.

Celestials:

The Ghost is finished, but it will be getting some tweaks and a couple brand-new illustrations before it’s republished under Fabler :3

The Fairy, I’m about halfway through this draft, I think, but it has a whole new ending so it will still need another draft or two at least.

The Scholar, I’m more or less settled onto the idea of this but I haven’t written it yet.

The Knight, still in baby planning stages.

Coyote Song:

This is so stupid but I do love it and I still intend to rewrite it. I have to at least see if it has any value.

The Deadlands:

I do like the story but I’m slightly worried that it might get me sued unless I make some major changes so…status, unknown. I don’t know if I like it enough to put major structural repairs at a high priority at the moment.

The Desert of Claw and Fang:

I’m dropping this one.

Dragon’s Daughter:

Dragon’s Daughter is done except for the illustrations.

Dragon’s Choice, the first half is basically done, the whole second half is new so it’s sparse and needs plumping up.

The Gryphon of Sirray:

I’m still intending to write this one.

The Hildspel of Athelhyrst:

The publishability of this is 0% but I do intend to continue writing it whenever I have a free moment, which is not right now.

Hoofbeats:

This one has promise and I do intend to write a new draft of it once I get some other projects out of the way. I would say this is medium priority.

The Huntress of Anihwen:

I may be dropping this one.

Into the Witch’s Wood:

I’m almost certainly dropping this. I don’t know what it is about the story but I can never keep my interest up about it no matter how I change it, even though I like some of the cast members. Maybe I will just steal them and do something else with them.

Laero:

While this story may or may not actually ever work out, I fully intend to at least try to write a new draft since I’m much older and wiser now.

Magic Black as Knight:

I think I’ve written about a quarter of the plot. I do intend to finish it and see if it works out but it’s lower priority right now.

Miracles:

I just need to write the last couple of chapters, maybe 10 chapters or so. And then it will need a little bit more editing and filling out but it’s also basically ready for alpha-reading as soon as I write those last couple chapters.

Northbound:

I love these characters but I need to spend some serious time working out the politics before I go back to it so that I can make sure everything is intriguing enough but still makes sense. I would consider it medium priority at the moment.

The Race of the Midday Moon:

I 100% intend to write this one.

The Rose and the Egret:

I think I’ve written the first two fairy tales from this? I am going to finish it.

Second Chances:

This is in a weird place because it’s basically done except for minor tweaks and a little bit more fluffing (ready for beta-reading at least) but the idea of publishing it is strange to me due to Reasons(TM) so I don’t know what to do with it.

The Swan Husband:

This idea is still funny to me and I want to try it.

Temitope:

This is essentially still a novella and I’m having a little bit of time making it long enough but it’s still pretty far along in the process and I’m going to keep working on it.

The Thief Queen:

I will probably be dropping this one.

Untitled 1:

This may end up being one of the things that I just write for myself because it’s already extremely self-indulgent, we’ll see. I may also take the characters and do something completely different with them.

Untitled 2:

I pretty much have the whole plot line worked out in my head from what I’ve done so far, I just need to expand on some things and learn more about scriptwriting so I can do it properly. I love the story and this will be happening.

Untitled 3:

Absolutely, 100%, I’m writing this. Even if it turns out bad, I’m going to write it. I would like to write it soon actually, it’s relatively high priority for me.

Untitled 4:

I still intend to try this but because it’s a totally different genre and I don’t know if I’m suited for it it’s still fairly low priority at the moment.

Untitled 5:

This is still only a short story at the moment, I do have ideas for what I want to do with it but I would like to finish Temitope first given that they are set in the same universe. Not that they’re connected in any way, it just seems like I should finish the first one first and the second one second.

Untitled 7:

I’m dropping this.