Fiddle-Dee-Dee, Said Scarlett

I had the most terrifying dream of my life last night. It was vivid, clear and coherent (for the most part). I'm honestly still shaking from it, and I stayed in bed with the covers over my head for more than an hour after waking up. I'm still afraid to have my legs hanging down off the couch, for fear something will grab me. Even in the sunny, warm, cheerful morning.

On the plus side, there's a story in that dream. I frantically Tweeted the important details in a jumble of disjointed bits, but there's a story in there. A damn good one, I think. I just need to hammer it out. And if it terrified me, I think there can be no doubt that it's properly frightening.

I was warned that Kava promotes extremely vivid and strange dreams, but so far the only thing I'd noticed was that my dreams were much more directly related to daily events. Such as: I read about the Bodyline half off sale, then dream Bodyline opens a store in the local mall and has a half off sale. I see that Mac commercial with Patrick Warburton and then dream (twice now) that he is my knight of some sort and opens Secret of Mana style treasure chests for me so I don't need to deal with the booby traps.

I don't know where last night's dream came from, other than the twisted depths of my own dark psyche. And the worst part was I'd come awake, scared, and then go back to sleep only to have the dream pick right back up from where it had left off. This continued for three rounds until I forced myself to just not fall asleep again.

It's kind of nice to know I'm still capable of scaring myself shitless.

I'm working on a story. I'm about halfway done (1454/3000) and I'm realizing....

I don't know if this is scary. It's not at all scary to me, but I think I'm an inaccurate judge. A) I'm writing it, B) I'm just so desensitized that I can't if I've hit that middle ground where it's creepy and frightening but not over the top. And I'd like someone to give it a quick once-over so far, but generally when I share a WIP I can't continue with it.

Human sacrifice, pulsing pink walls of flesh and demonic insanity are all pretty scary, right?

I mean, I'm happy with the writing and how it's shaping up, but...bah. attilatehbun, when the rough is finished, can you give it a look over for me?

Holy crap, temperatures of 55 degrees! It's been in the 90s lately. It's cold and it won't stop raining, so needless to say I'm in pain.

Watched Hair last night. I'd seen it, nijawial hadn't, so we rented and watched. That movie never fails to effect me. It's just a well done film where everything comes together right. I'm actually sort of glad we ended up with that instead of Jesus Christ Super Star. I've been craving psych rock musicals and operas lately.

Tonight, I believe we're going to go see Star Trek! I'm terribly excited. I've heard nothing but good things from everyone, and what little snitches I've heard have me wriggling in my seat to go see this movie.

I've decided that my recent lack of fic writing has just been fandom boredom. Not that I'm leaving any of my current fandoms, it's just that currently I've written everything for them that I want to write. Season 4 of VB isn't out yet, and other than my epic, I've exhausted all the little plots I wanted to play around with. I still haven't finished Homecoming, so I'm stuck between-canons for Silent Hill. HBC...well, I've wandered into bizarre crossovers and AUs that shouldn't be shared with the general public. Let's just leave it at that.

I go for weeks without being able to write much of anything, and then once I turn to new fandoms I'm banging them out like usual. And the sheer fact that I wrote Across the Universe fic says something of just how starved for new fandom experiences I am. I don't even actually like the movie, I just like the music and the characters.

My parents brought me corn on the cob and artichoke today. That makes me happy. :D

1) Yay, the Venture Bros kink meme is gaining speed! It'd be awesome if more people were fulfilling requests, but it's still early.

2) My sickness is upon me. I've spent most of the day in bed. I got a little cleaning done, then it hit while I was in the bath. That was...unpleasantly surprising, to say the least.

3) I...think we have new neighbors? I'm too tired and out of it to write up the whole event, but people moved out yesterday and today there has been...a great deal of confusing activity and many strange people. I'll give the whole run down when I'm feeling better.

4) I need to go to the library soon to get some more reference material. I never thought I'd have to be going out for self help books.

5) I hate being sick.

You know, on one hand, research can be fun. It's a nice break from actually writing, but you're still working on the project.

The problem enters when you find yourself a) having to research the most mundane or obscure things or b) when you realize you don't have the right resources to actually do your research.

So...quick question to the Flist! Would it be plausible for a cheap motel to have a 24 hour place where you could get alcohol and cigarettes? Or would Our Intrepid Hero have to actually leave the motel grounds in search of a 24 hour packie or something? I know I've never been at a cheap motel where they had much of anything but...I'm just hoping I haven't written myself into a corner and that if I do have OIH getting his booze and smokes at the motel, it wouldn't be terribly jarring.

I don't know if I'm going to finish Dreamcatcher, after all. I'm at page 300 now and I'm pretty sure this one goes in my 'Bad Book' category. There's nothing new, save for...well...ridiculously stupid things. Other than that, it's rehashed plots from early works and has aspects more fitting in a South Park episode than a Stephen King novel. I think this may have been a work of fiction where the editor (or anyone down the line) needed to say 'Uh...Mr. King? Don't you think this plot is a little...ridiculous?'.

We're going to rent the movie, since I want to see who survives, but I don't actually want to slog through the whole damn novel.

Ended up having a good night last night, watching Charlie and the Chocolate factory and devouring delicious British candy. Why oh why do you people have so much better chocolate than we do? ;)

Holy hell.

I've been writing for almost four hours straight - with a cigarette break in there somewhere - and while I've plugged in a good word count so far, I'm starting to see normal words as nonsense and make the most ridiculous spelling errors. Plus, I seriously considered partially stale, left-over jilted bride wedding cake for breakfast*. That means break time! Which will most likely consist of eating lunch, reading, and catching up on internet things.

I finished up No Humans Involved. Entertaining book, and I am definitely not adverse to reading more Kelley Armstrong. It reminds me a little bit of the Dresden books, just in the 'snarky magical person solves paranormal mysteries while trying to keep the norms out of it and leading a normal life'. And it's very...situational, in the same sense that the Dresden books are. So think Butcher meets Laurel K. Hamilton, and I think we've got a good basis of comparison.

I did start Shadowland by Straub yesterday, but I have to admit, 60 pages in and it has yet to grab me. I've enjoyed his collaborations with King, but on his own... there's a tendency towards Lovecraft, and not in the good way. The setting is the 1960s, but Straub has a habit of stuffing Victorian wording into both the dialogue and prose. I'm putting it aside for the moment to read my two library books instead, and will return to it later.

I'm starting my library reads with Bag of Bones.

I'm about 25 pages in, and already I'm hooked. It reminds me of Lisey's Story, but considering we're dealing with a novelist who's just getting over the death of his wife and the horrors that follow, it's unsurprising that parallels would be drawn between the two. But this time it's the novelist who stumbles upon secrets left behind and is over and over again stricken by the loss of his spouse. It does seem, at least so far, to be another Love Story: Stephen King Style. And I do adore when he writes love stories, because his characters are so real. It's always such a gritty, honest portrayal of human relationships, and that's what makes it so painfully beautiful.

Plus, there have already been nods to three other King books. William Denborough, Thad Beaumont and Joe Wyzer have all been mentioned so far. When King references himself/his other works, I always get a little happy inside.

I'm feeling good about my own project, and that's all I'm going to say about it. I'm too superstitious to give even the most vague hints as to what it's about. And with how I've been struggling and picking at only to drop most of my original works, I'm not taking a single risk with this one.

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*I do not know if the wedding cake that was given to nijawial's mother at her office did indeed come from a jilted bride or not, but generally one does not bring an entire untouched wedding cake to an office for co-workers to divvy up if there was an actual wedding. It's a delicious, gargantuan sugar and lemon meringue deal, though, with very lovely bridal piping on it. And that fancy frosting. Mmmm.....

First off: taradilien! Thank you so much for the goodies! The package arrived safe and sound! Those candies are delicious!

Second off: Will be getting to comments today! Yesterday sort of went to hell in a handbasket, but was rescued by summoneddestiny and enigmablade dropping by for a surprise visit.

( I Guess I Ought To Talk About This... )

What the hell has happened to me, writing-wise?

Two years ago, I was successfully juggling about five fic fests plus claims and random gift fic. Now, I can barely decide if I can manage to write for one holiday exchange, haven't written anything on my NaNo project for two days, and can't manage a single random fic for the life of me.

I've been considering signing up for Yuletide. But I've never done it before, and it looks a bit intimidating. And from reading the fics I have that have come from Yuletides passed...yeeek. Amazing writers. But then I remember that I'm still wibbling over the Silent Hill fic exchange (if sign ups are even still open, orz) and trying to finish NaNo.

It's not a lack of desire or drive, it's a lack of ideas and ability. And maybe time, too. I need to be honest with myself, I am a lot busier than I used to be. But even when I do set aside time to sit down and write, very little seems to come.

I'm going to try some more today. Since I'm stuck in Zelda and not up to going anywhere today. I'm starting to feel like Johnny Depp in Secret Window. In the sense that I've been hanging around in a bathrobe with crazy hair, chainsmoking, living off junk food and completely without any inspiration. Not the going crazy/being stalked part. ;)

Oh, and my spare headphones broke last night. Now I am without music. :(

On the plus side, my stomach is feeling better and while I am currently stiff and stuffy and slightly headache-y, I'm feeling better than I have been.

I am completely devoid of inspiration.

I try and I try and I try and write, but nothing comes. I hate this. I don't know how to jumpstart my brain.

Sometimes, I hate running fan fiction communities. Because I want to comment to certain entries that if you want people to read your fic, it's a good idea to write full, proper sentences and use correct spelling and grammar. And no netspeak.

Maybe I'm just a snob, but I abhor netspeak. Textspeak. Whatever you want to call the mangling and butchering of perfectly simple words because apparently it's too much effort to write 'you' or 'whatever' or whatever other words get chopped down to mere shadows of language.

I especially abhor it in summaries and fiction. You aren't on a text message system. You don't have a tiny character limit. You can write actual words, I promise!

But I never say anything because we don't have any rules that demand it. Though the profile page does strongly recommend spellchecking and getting a beta.

I'd like to ask for some Halloween-y prompts, but I can't make any promises I'll manage to write anything.

If you don't mind the lack of surety of receiving some sort of ficlet in return, I'd love some prompts. Fandom, Character/Pairing and prompt. Maybe something will stoke the dormant fires of my creativity, who knows?

My piroshki dough is rising - I added a little more brown sugar than the recipe calls for, because it really makes the dough. I'm getting hungry already, thinking about them.

There is a wall of blackness headed towards my isolated ranch, and I'll confess, it's making me nervous. I can't even see the Bradshaws, which means those dark storm clouds could well be a dark sheet of rain. The temperature has been fluxing between 89 and 70 degrees over the course of the last few hours.

I'm almost worried my Century Plant is going to end up breaking due to the weather. And it's so terribly close to blooming, too. I have my fingers crossed that it holds out just long enough to bloom. There's something very humbling about realizing you'll be one of only three people to ever see this plant bloom. (I of course intend to take pictures, but that's a bit different.)

Speaking of! talia_speaks finished the editing from our last shoot, and I'm happy with them photographs! We went in a different direction than usual, but it was fun to play around with something new. And it was such a great day, anyway. As always, her photography skills are incredible, and she manages to find angles and lighting arrangement that make me look like something other than a corpse. (Though I saw clear evidence of my slacking in the photographs. Ah well, I knew it was inevitable with my health and the weather over the summer.)

I'm torn now between playing more Origins (more points for having area names that are sure to invoke a shiver) or cleaning up my workroom. I essentially just dumped my stuff on whatever area was clear, and now it's rather a mess. Though I'm amused at the random juxtaposition of items. A Furuba hat, a wine bottle, a dozen or so springs, some fake flowers, boxes of cigarettes, an old copy of The Divine Comedy, a tin of cashews and a scattering of wig heads that resemble the victims of a sociosadist with a blinding fetish...

I'm actually inspired to write. (And something other than deviant AUs or the epic monster SH2/SH4 crossover I've undertaken.) It's been some time since a bunny bit me hard. Perhaps we'll see where it goes....

I am still hankering for fan art of Valyn as The Godfather. I curse you Vista, for taking my Sims from me! Because with Sims, I could not only emulate that, but I could have a great deal more RP icons for my IJ journals.

I saw the box art for Homecoming today. It made me weak in the knees with want.

I'm going to buy an XboX 360, aren't I?