#i'm about 23 pages in so far and about a quarter of the way through the chapter

[f-imaginings]

Can we get a sneaky peak at the next chapter? :3

tumblr's post limit has been yelling at me like it's so great, so it will probably only be a small snippet but I will do my best to get you the sneakiest of peeks!

“See that?” Stan pointed out, clapping his hand to his knee, cheerful fondness drenching his tone. “No matter what happens, they’ll always have each other. Just goes to show, you’re never lonely when you have a twin.” “Even so, the fact that he’s so reliant on her is concerning.” Ford remarked dismissively as if he hadn’t heard Stanley’s saccharine turn of phrase, missing the way his brother wrinkled his nose, appalled by his conclusion. “He’ll need to socialise independently at some point. Perhaps some time apart would be good for Dipper’s development? Help him feel more confident forging friendships on his own.” “You want to split ‘em up?” Stanley scowled at his brother, his eyes narrowed confrontationally. “What, ruining one set of twins wasn’t good enough for you?” Picking up on Stan’s hostile tone, Ford turned to face his brother, putting his hand on his chest indignantly. “This isn’t about us Stanley. This is about what’s best for Dipper.” “And how would you know what’s best for Dipper? Considering you’ve only known the kid for a couple of weeks, huh?” Stanley’s jaw jutted out stubbornly, his scowl deepening the wrinkles around his mouth. “What genius level insight makes you qualified to make those decisions for him?” “Well, you did say he reminded you of me.” Ford pointed out snidely, rising to his brother’s bait. “You don’t think I would have had an easier time making friends at university if I hadn’t been so reliant on you growing up?” “Is that what you think?” Stanley’s brow furrowed, more confused than offended. “I thought you were living it up at university. From what I heard from mom you were having the time of your life there.” “I didn’t know she’d be passing along reports.” Ford replied, looking slightly perturbed. “It wasn’t like that.” Stanley clarified. “We’d chat over the phone, a couple of yappers, the both of us. You know how mom was. It wasn’t like she was spying on you.” “Were you asking after me then?” Stanford looked at his brother curiously. “Don’t get a big head.” Stanley huffed and took a sip of his soda, looking away from Ford evasively. “Just making conversation. What else were we supposed to talk about? Dad?” “Ugh. Fair point.” Ford wrinkled his nose, shuddering dramatically, the tension dissipated in an instant. Changing the subject somewhat playfully, Ford tilted his head. “What else did you talk to mom about? Would you have told her about your whole ‘pug smuggling’ racket? How long has that scheme been going on for?” “Listen, it’s a perfectly legitimate business.” Stan gestured with his hands, his inner businessman taking the fore. “I source the pugs from little old ladies who wouldn’t be able to take care of that many dogs in the first place. Val sells ‘em across the border for a tidy profit, and I get my cut. Everyone’s happy.” “And this ‘Val’, how is it you know her exactly?” Ford probed, lacing his fingers together, resting his chin on his hands, watching his brother fluster slightly. “We’re old business partners.” Stanley replied, his taciturn answer more telling than a more forthcoming answer would be. “Oh, so you dated.” Ford remarked airily, enjoying the way his brother’s shoulders bunched up defensively. “How do you -? I mean, sure, I guess we mighta had a thing back in the day.” Stanley scratched the back of his neck, looking away evasively. “This was 30 years ago, mind you.” “Where did you meet her?” Ford questioned. Stanley paused, squinting at his brother’s interest dubiously, before he cast a look towards the living room, checking on the kids. Standing up, Stanley cracked his back, before pacing over to the fridge, grabbing a step stool and reaching for the taxidermied wolfs head. Sliding his hand in the wolf’s mouth, Stanley withdrew a small metal flask, and paced back over to the table, surreptitiously pouring a generous shot of vodka into the open pull tab of his cola. “Want some? I’m not having a conversation about my love life’s greatest hits sober.”

Raising his eyebrows, Ford slid his cola can across the table, amused as his brother furtively poured vodka into his drink before hiding the flask under his fez, looking over his shoulder again to check the kids didn’t see him drinking. “I was wondering why the wolf’s head was on the fridge.” Ford remarked, bringing the spiked cola to his lips. “I thought you quit drinking for the summer. Is there a flask stashed in the six-packalope too?” “Gotta have an emergency stash.” Stanley reasoned, leaning back in his chair comfortably. “What if the end of the world hits tomorrow? You wanna try getting through that without alcohol.”

Ford sheepishly avoided eye contact with his brother, well aware that the prospect of an oncoming apocalypse wasn’t entirely out of the question. Coughing slightly on his sip, Stanford cleared his throat. “I never took you for a prepper.” “Are you kidding? The amount of warnings you put in those journals, I was half expecting to kick doomsday off myself.” Stanley laughed callously. “Now I got all this brown meat I gotta eat. I’m almost disappointed nothing catastrophic happened.” “Well, you never know.” Ford rubbed the back of his neck, seeking a topic change so as to avoid admitting fault.

[oh-stars]

Writing Stats - Quarter 1, 2024

I've always wanted to track how much I write every day. It's my favorite thing about Nanowrimo and Camp Nano is the tracking and seeing my progress in numbers rather than pages. Last December, @sparkstar-trash and I decided to do a mini Nano between the two of us from December 11th to January 14th. It was kind of a success, kind of a fail on both ends, but it did spark (no pun intended) a love for this spreadsheet I had made.

All that to say, I've been keeping track of my writing stats this year and decided that I would do updates every three months (mostly for myself so it doesn't overwhelm me in the end) to see how things change.

Below the cut, you can see everything and how I kept track of things!

I'm participating/participated in quite a few events this year so far. This first quarter, I've been working on: Steddie Love Month, Stobin Month, Steddie Omegaverse Valentine's Day Exchange, Stranger Things Reverse Big Bang, and Stranger Things Big Bang.

I also decided to embark on a 90 Day Posting Challenge to help encourage me to write daily and to make shorter pieces. It's been really fun so far and helped me accept that not everything needs to be perfect to be fun and post. Posting started February 1st, so I'm on day 61 of the challenge today!

January

Word Count Total for Month: 43,726

Average Words Per Day: 1,286

Average Words Per Week: 8,745

Highest Word Count in One Day: 6,377

Total Fics Worked On: 22

Fics Completed: 17

Days Written: 23/31 or 74.19%

February

Word Count Total for Month: 43,819

Average Words Per Day: 1,288

Average Words Per Week: 8,763

Highest Word Count in One Day: 4,775

Total Fics Worked On: 29

Fics Completed: 24

Days Written: 29 or 100%

March

Word Count Total for Month: 39,405

Average Words Per Day: 1,158

Average Words Per Week: 7,881

Highest Word Count in One Day: 4,464

Total Fics Worked On: 35

Fics Completed: 32

Days Written: 31 or 100%

Quarter Total

Word Count Total for Quarter: 126,950

Average Words Per Day: 1,244

Average Words Per Week: 8,463

Total Fics Worked On: 78

Fics Completed: 74

Days Written: 83 or 91% from the last three months, 22% for year

Longest Writing Streak: 64

Total in Writing Streak: 95,484

Thoughts:

Keeping track of my stats really motivated me to keep writing every day, even when I didn't want to. The monthly prompts and 90 Day challenge have gotten me into a really good habit of writing every day, no matter what, with smaller goals like the prompts being great starters for the fics I'm working on.

March was really tough and I lost a lot of writing time, so I'm pretty impressed I got as much as I did. Things have changed drastically in my life since I started this, which is so weird after three years of consistency, so trying to find this new balance is, well, a challenge. If it wasn't for @lady-lostmind and the Stobin Month prompts, I don't think I would have stuck with writing through my bad days like I did. And for full transparency, there are a few days where I wrote under 10 words that day, but they're still 10 more than I had and I sat down and tried to write. The intention was there, so it counts.

Either way, I'm really proud of myself for getting to this point, I have so many fics I'm working on or have planned and I hope the next quarter is as fulfilling as this last one has been.

Thanks to all of you who have read, liked, reblogged, kudos, commented, bookmarked, and rec'd my work. From vocal to silent readers, you've all cheerleaded me into where I am now and I'm really thankful to be in this position.

Now off to more sprints to see if I can't beat these numbers for the next quarter.

[it-started-in-april]

04-08-23 10:38PM

I started my first buddy read on goodreads. We're reading The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab. I had it on my 'to read' lists and got a message asking if I was interested in reading it together. I've never had a chance to buddy read and we have some similarities so I thought why not.

Our deal is to do 150 pages a week. I don't know his reading speed, how much time he has to read, and how often he enjoys doing so. I honestly would have no problem powering through the book in two days max, but it's rude to assume and we probably wouldn't really be able to buddy read...This way we can really digest the book and if things come up we still have to participate.

I'm about to send my first message to him telling him I finished the 150 pages and some thoughts. Nothing much, but enough to put some feelers out and see what his response will be in order to determine how much he really wants to talk about it or likes it for that matter. I really like it so far, but I also want to keep reading so I have to message him something now before I get ahead of myself and spoil something by mixing up what happened pre 150 from post 150.

Sooooo now that I'm back into the full swing of reading... this week I've read

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue is amazing so far!

The Starless Sea was pretty good, but I think I didn't retain enough in the beginning to appreciate the novel enough. I think I'll give it a proper reread in a couple month. I did read it during finals so that probably didn't help. I will say I think the last quarter is very entertaining and I hope there is a part 2.

Burning the Water Drowning in Flame Selected Poems 1955-1973 by Charles Bukowski. I love this man, he's grumpy and crass and I just get it. (Not all of it to be clear. I don't get the love of booze and hookers but the other stuff). I sought out this book for a while. Page 190, Some People is one of my favorites. Give me a month and I'll have Bukowski related tattoo to share here.

Stardust by Neil Gaiman. I mean I have so much love and respect for Mr. Gaiman... I bought this book a month ago when I had literally no money to be buy books, but I found a small pocket sized $10 copy at the bookstore I just couldn't leave without. I'm slowing making my through his work. (His review of the Invisible Life of Addie LaRue was one of the main reasons I added it to my "to read" list in this first place). I'm only half way through and it's truly a fun tale. I went into the novel with no expectations and I'm glad I did. This man seems to have no misses.

[whimsicaldragonette]

ARC DNF Review: The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy by Megan Bannen

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Add to Goodreads

Publication Date: August 23, 2022

Synopsis:

Hart is a marshal, tasked with patrolling the strange and magical wilds of Tanria. It’s an unforgiving job, and Hart’s got nothing but time to ponder his loneliness. Mercy never has a moment to herself. She’s been single-handedly keeping Birdsall & Son Undertakers afloat in defiance of sullen jerks like Hart, who seems to have a gift for showing up right when her patience is thinnest. After yet another exasperating run-in with Mercy, Hart finds himself penning a letter addressed simply to “A Friend”. Much to his surprise, an anonymous letter comes back in return, and a tentative friendship is born. If only Hart knew he’s been baring his soul to the person who infuriates him most – Mercy. As the dangers from Tanria grow closer, so do the unlikely correspondents. But can their blossoming romance survive the fated discovery that their pen pals are their worst nightmares – each other?

My Rating: ★★

My Review below the cut.

My Review:

This was... underwhelming. I requested it because I love fantasy, romance, grump/sunshine, epistolary romance, enemies-to-lovers, and You've Got Mail. So it really *should* have ticked ALL the boxes for me. Instead I found myself feeling lukewarm about the characters at best and the story just didn't hold my interest. Also the whole dealing with zombies and dead bodies (with associated fluids and scrabbling through intestines for appendixes) thing was ... gross. The first stumbling block for me was worldbuilding. A quarter of the way through the book I know very little about the world it takes place in. A few terms tossed in but never explained, a vague hand-wavey 'super complicated portals thing that no one understands except that one guy who invented them', references to old gods and new gods and demigods, and a brief 'lesson recitation' for background on the zombies themselves. (I forget the in-book term for them, which tells you a lot about how invested I am.) I don't understand *why* everyone thinks Hart is such a jerk. I don't understand the beef he and Mercy have with each other. I don't understand... basically anything. Also, the physical descriptions and fantasies Mercy and Hart (unknowingly) have about one another are far too graphic and lewd for my taste. And I'm still at the 'we can't stand each other' stage before they get physical. (disclaimer: I'm ace and very much don't like extended on-page sex. Yes, there technically hasn't been any yet but it's clear that there *will be* and based on the vibes I'm getting so far it will not be my cup of tea AT ALL.) The story is also ... very much a You've Got Mail retelling with zombies. I knew there were similarities and that it was perhaps inspired by the movie but parts of it are way too close to the original for it to feel fresh or new or anything but heavily inspired (only grosser because that's apparently what the original needed?). There *are* some things that the story does well. The day-to-day lives of Hart and Mercy and their relationships to their families / friends / coworkers are really well done. Hart's apprentice he's forced to take on is endearing and I like that he brings out the softer side of Hart. The animal couriers are amusing. Parts of it are really funny. But. That's not enough to make up for the parts I found dull, boring, confusing, or distasteful. I feel like this will miss the mark for many fantasy and romance readers. For romance readers, the world is too confusing. For fantasy readers, there aren't enough details about the world and it's too romance-heavy. The narration was all right. Nothing stood out, and a few of the voices used for the characters felt off to me. It certainly wasn't terrible, however, and if I'd liked the book more I would have found it to be perfectly fine. I'd definitely try a different book read by the same narrators. *Thanks to NetGalley, Orbit Books, and Hachette Audio for providing an e-arc and audio arc for review.