Updates, updates

[pyjamapants]

Chapter 7 of TWoG has been added to the queue, well ahead of schedule. Betas are on hiatus off and on through the end of the year, so this will mark the last upload until late December. I'm quite proud of the chapter... parts of it were a complete bitch to write, but I *think* I did the characters (and their UST) justice.

I'm drawing close to the end of my little tale, and I hope once I've wrapped it up that I can solicit some constructive criticism here on my LJ. Reviews of the fic. would seem to indicate that I'm the most hilarious, clever author ever, and I'm nearly certain that's not the case. Nearly certain. I'm looking forward to ending the story so that I can look back over it with a more objective eye and improve my writing.

Penning and publishing the story has been such a roller-coaster: Getting over some serious anxiety about writing emails, much less a chaptered story; basking in the glow of the story's initial reception (finding it recommended by several individuals and the digest was an enormous boost to my confidence as a writer); relearning seemingly all punctuation and grammar rules; trying not to get sucked into the trap of clinging to reviews for affirmation; finding that some reviewers just seem to have their feedback permanently set to squee, regardless of author or story; being desperately afraid that I'd made Severus adorable and that Hermione was a complete Mary Sue; and, having more fun than I dreamed possible while making some excellent new friends.

Comments

[lady-karelia.livejournal.com]

Betas on hiatus is no excuse to wait over a month until the next chapter goes out, srsly. ;) If you're in need of a temporary beta to cover, let me know.

I do find it ironic that authors who write rather well ask for constructive criticism, and authors who write the cheesiest, non-readable, waste-of-time purple prose think they're god's gift to the fandom. Amazing. I do love your fic, as you know. And I like your writing. I'll see, though, if I can come up with something that I don't like about it. LOL. Just so your head doesn't outgrow the size of doors. :)

[pyjamapants.livejournal.com]

Oh, the author needs a bit of a break, too. I've been poking around here and there with the chapter of book club presentation, trying not to get a little freaked out by it. I'm continually astounded with how much people seem to enjoy hearing about the blasted book club. :) I mean, I know it's the central element of the plot and all... I suppose I'm just shocked no one's been yelling for lemons yet.

I'm waaay too self-conscious to have my head outgrow the doors. Been going through an insecure phase, and I'm about ready to disown myself.

I think chapter 7 will make up for the lapse in posting. Oooh, and there's music in it for ya, too.

Part of me is also itching to write The Witches of Gilford: Yule Edition, in which we see what gifts are exchanged amongst Molly, Minerva, Severus, and Hermione post-book club. Pity I'm not already done, eh?

[lady-karelia.livejournal.com]

The author needs a break? *iz incredulous* What do you mean? You think once you're an author you have free will??? *snicker*

Oh, hon, I'm sooooo well acquainted with the insecure phase... Don't give in to it. Your writing is sound. Of course it has room for improvement; everyone's writing does! But it's sound, and that's a whole lot more than I can say for a lot of writers.

Music? *ears perk* I really like you, you know? LOL

Oh, please, do write the Yule Edition of TWoG!!! Could I lure you to do so by offering two minutes of music, written for you?

[pyjamapants.livejournal.com]

Yes, music. Makes you want to plow through the bazillion stories in front of me in the queue, doesn't it? *bats eyes prettily*

Two minutes of music? I'm intrigued.....

[lady-karelia.livejournal.com]

It does, yes. But I have to be fair because the other admins will notice *deep sigh*

Intrigued? Oh. Okay. I compose. If you go to my profile page and wait a sufficient amount of time, a lastfm picture will show up, and if you click on any titles, you can listen to them.

[pyjamapants.livejournal.com]

Oh, I didn't mean plow through the queue and shove me to the front. I mean, um, admin the bazillion stories that are in front of me so that you get to mine, in turn with lightening speed. *waves guiltily* But I see two have been served since my last LJ comment post. (Sorry, am HORRIBLE at queue-watching... whinge horribly to my husband once I've posted)

Ooooooh, I likes the music, especially Snape's Overture. I'll see what I can dream up for TWoG: Yule Edition. :)

[kittylefish.livejournal.com]

while the london trip will probably put me out of commission for at least a week, possibly two, until then i will try to push through anything you send me as quickly as possible.

and - i see absolutely NO REASON why TWOG needs to be completely written in order for you to do the Yule Edition. just defy the limits of the space/time continuum and write a nice christmas treat for your faithful readers.

pretty please?

as for your writing, when you first asked me to beta for you, i didn't know you from adam, but i had wanted to try betaing, and you asked, so i said yes. and then you sent me your first chapter, and it was so funny and i really liked your ideas for the characters. honestly, i feel lucky to be working with you on this story and helping you polish it into the lovely little gem it is.

and i get to read the chapters before everyone else, which is kinda cool. ;)

[pyjamapants.livejournal.com]

I appreciate your offer to beta as quickly as possible. It's just a hectic time of the year for everyone. I'm not sure I'll be able to write much of anything until next week. I've spent two hours today writing up pet instructions, and I'm only about 1/3 done.

At this point, I think TWoG: Yule Edition is a go. I had an idea this morning for how it might play out. But, of course, I'll still accept bribes. ;)

Your comments about my writing have entirely made me blush. It has been a joy working with you as well. I was thinking about what I could do next time to ease some of the anxiety, and make my writing at least marginally better. I think some initial writing about the story's particular interpretation of the characters would help, so that I can reference them while I'm writing. There are some many different interpretations out there for both Severus and Hermione, and I think it will help to have a clearer description of the story's interpretation up front. Also, my husband was watching the director's commentary for Dark City a couple days ago, and the director's discussion of the use of colours might have helped me make sense of setting a bit more. I don't think I had an organized way of thinking about setting before or even imagining it. I tend NOT to be very visual when I read, and I'm sure that comes across in my writing.... I should stop rambling though. I need to get back to the pet instructions and errands.

[natasnape.livejournal.com]

I fully second that. Writing is almost like growing up all over again. You learn to walk, you learn to talk and you learn to live. I enjoyed the experience tremendously. Especially today, when I learned I will get published (not certain yet, but unable to see the possibility of it not getting through).

If you ask for criticism, I will do my very best to make it constructive and open for you.

[dressagegrrrl.livejournal.com]

**Goes into seizures of ecstasy** Oh, GOD. That is the best game ever. I pity people who don't know about Catan. Do you play Settlers or the expansion - Cities and Knights?

[natasnape.livejournal.com]

Not much any more *smiles* but the icon remains. Too simple, too much chance. We moved on to Power Grid, Puerto Rico, Oasis and such.

[dressagegrrrl.livejournal.com]

I haven't heard of Power Grid or Oasis, but we also play Puerto Rico. <3

Do you have any recommendations?

[dressagegrrrl.livejournal.com]

Oh, and I'm curious - are you of the opinion that Settlers is too simple? Or do you mean Cities & Knights? I really enjoy the scrabble for resources and hexes when you are playing the five to six player expansion of the Cities & Knights expansion. We were thining about picking up some of the other versions - like Starfarers - but they didn't get terribly good reviews.

[pyjamapants.livejournal.com]

PJPants jumping in here....

We have Seafarer's and can barely muster the will to play it, much less vanilla Catan, after our friends bought Cities and Knights. It's so much more interesting. And the addition of the Paper-City-Upgrade ability of earning resources on every role makes the game particularly challenging.

We haven't played Puerto Rice, Power Grid, or Oasis. I'll have to check those out. We do play Carcassonne and have most of the expansions for it.

I have played the online version of Starship Catan at www.playcatan.com. It's interesting enough that I play, more or less, every day.

[dressagegrrrl.livejournal.com]

AGREED about regular Settlers. It's HORRIBLY dull once you've started playing the expansions.

ZOMG. I had no idea there was a website like that. I will have to check out Starship Catan. <3

We love Carcassonne. We consider that our "mobile" game. Whenever we are going to go to a bar or to meet up with a couple of like-minded friends at a casual restaurant, we always trot it out.

You sound like-minded. You're not anywhere near Delaware, are you? *Smirk*

[pyjamapants.livejournal.com]

Sadly, I'm not near Delaware.

I gots to play 3 games of Cities and Knights for my birthday!

[natasnape.livejournal.com]

PJPants, I hope you don't mind us bursting into this game discussion at your LJ.

I wholeheartedly recommend Power Grid starting from 3 players, Puerto Rico from 4 and Oasis at 5. Each game is quite different from each other and in my opinion, all are gems.

[pyjamapants.livejournal.com]

Oh, I certainly don't mind at all! I encourage it.

I do highly recommend the Cities and Knights expansion. It adds several layers of complexity to the game. Seafarer's really doesn't add much complexity at ALL to the game, but C&K does.

I'll definitely check out Power Grid and Puerto Rico. 5 can be a little harder for us to pull together.

[natasnape.livejournal.com]

Basic Settlers or Seafarers; I haven't played Cities & Knights and certainly never in six players. We muster three players often and four occasionally. As soon as we have five, I try to convince everybody towards Oasis (you must help other people to win - auctions) or Puerto Rico (advanced game with many winning strategies and minimum chance). Power Grid is a new favourite (winning player is penalised, so you must quietly lurk behind and build your base and then strike quickly or suffer through penalties) together with St. Petersburg (Catan-like in building your empire and partitioning resources, but more straightforward and less opportunistic). Java used to be our battlefield (3D wrapped in beautiful design, but slow), when Carcassonne ended blasted a few times. We played it instead of marriage therapy, so our games have the tendency to become cut-throat. Other games I enjoyed include Euphrates & Tigris, Zooloretto, Abalone, Bang!, and games I dislike are Alhambra, Caesar & Kleopatra, Transamerica, Niagara, Ice Age and the least favourite of them all - Monopoly.

[dressagegrrrl.livejournal.com]

Hello! I hope you don't mind that once I saw your review I popped on over and friended you. It's always so nice when someone leaves a lovely comment and you realize that you are reading (and thoroughly enjoying) their WIP.

In regards to receiving constructive criticism via review - it's rare, isn't it? I only had a few people who left me honest critiques on my writing, and I valued it sooooo much more than the readers who left canned reviews like, "Love it. Keep smiling."

[pyjamapants.livejournal.com]

Not a problem that you friended me after I left my review... considering I signed it with both my Ashwinder and TPP usernames so you would know who I was, recalling that you'd marked my story a favorite. :)