Borrowed from thisbluespirit

Rules: give us the links to your fics with the most hits, second most kudos, third most comments, fourth most bookmarks, fifth most words, and fic with the fewest words.


Most hits and second most kudos: The Might of his Strength with 12751 hits and 354 kudos. (The Mummy-fic, Imhotep/Evy Carnahan O'Connell, Evy Carnahan O'Connell/Rick O'Connell, Imhotep/Evy Carnahan O'Connell/Ardeth Bay)


Third most comment; The Number of Vices with 45 comments. (The Queen’s Gambit-fic, Beth Harmon/Vasily Borgov)


Fourth most bookmarks: Ghosts has 73 bookmarks. (The Mummy-fic, Imhotep/Evy Carnahan O'Connell, Evy Carnahan O'Connell/Rick O'Connell, Evy Carnahan O'Connell/Ardeth Bay)


Fifth most words: Man’s Greatest Joy has 14348 words. (Peter Pan, Captain Hook/Wendy Darling)


The fewest words: Warnings For Curious Children with 98 of them. (A Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Gen)


And here is the state of my fic-writing in general. I’m currently working on two WIP’s. Passions of Some Difference (The Queen’s Gambit, Beth Harmon/Vasily Borgov) and Sable Coats and Razorblades (All About Eve, Karen Rickards/Addison DeWitt). Both are completely mapped out and have large chunks already written. I hope to finish them soon-ish.


The Might of His Strength is still a WIP, but I’m struggling to finish it. My original ending didn’t work out and I haven’t been able to knit it together in a way that feels right. Most annoying, but hopefully I’ll get there eventually.


And while rewatching Grimm I have got a fic-idea I don’t think anyone would read, but is very persistent, so I might write it down anyway. It’s Rosalie Calvert/Sean Renard which is A. Not a pairing anyone writes, and B. I would need to get rid of Monroe, which no one would want to read.


I have several other ideas for fics that are all mapped out, but need to be written.

Death In Paradise: Camille Bordey/Richard Poole
Dracula/The Historian: A sequel to Clara and Sophie.
The Borgias: Cesare Borgia/Lucrezia Borgia/Micheletto Corella
The Mummy: A sequel to Ghosts. Evy Carnahan O'Connell/Rick O'Connell. Evy Carnahan O'Connell/Ardeth Bay
The Queen’s Gambit: A prequel to Paris Redux, Beth Harmon/Vasily Borgov


So if I can only keep my writing mojo going, I will have plenty to write about.

A somewhat belated January-edition. This isn’t everything I watched, but not everything stays in my mind enough to warrant talking about.

I’m currently re-watching Grimm and find I like it better this time, even if I enjoyed it back then too. It’s not perfect, and it seems to me that the showrunner didn’t have a clear picture of some of the character arcs. Like poor Juliet’s. And Nick and Adelin’s relationship by the end always felt very weird to me. But I like all the characters. Monroe is the best side-kick ever, and I adore Rosalee so much! And with my love for morally grey characters, Sean renard is pretty much perfect. Of course it helps that I find Sasha Roiz very easy on the eyes.

I also love the premise of fairy tales creatures being real, and living along us, and I love the world building, though I feel the viewers were a bit short-changed. Perhaps because we didn’t get a full season. I’m a bit miffed that the key-plot with parts of a map slowly being revealed wasn’t used up, but suddenly they could guess whee the treasure was? And I still want to know what was so special with the Royals. It’s pretty clear they are different from ordinary humans, but how? Are they a kind of Wesen too? And are Grimms really a sub-species of Wesen as well. I wanna know!

Apparently a Grimm movie is planned, with some of the same characters, and if it is well received, there may be a new show. I imagine they may take up the ball a few years later, with all the children grown. I hope it will happen. I’d enjoy the Grimm fandom.

Also re-watching White Collar which is fun as I don’t remember a single episode when it comes to the plots. I remember the character’s well enough, as I always liked them, so it’s partly like watching a new show, even if I know all the people in it. My only beef is that I know too much about art to realize that Neil simply can’t make those perfect copies in his loft with such short time frames.

I’m currently watching the second season of The Night Agent. I liked the first season, but found the current season very slow in the beginning. A lot of chasing and shooting, but not much else. It feels they should have aimed for an 8 episode season, not a 10. But it’s growing on me, and I really like Noor. She’s a wonderful character, and I hope she makes it through.

I just finished Missing You and Fool Me Once, which are both adaptations from Harley Coben novels. I haven’t read him, so I’ve no idea how faithful the shows are to the books. But stars Richard Armitage who I low-key fancy, so that was nice. I liked Missing You best. True, the plot was basically two utterly improbable things accidentally overlapping, but the acting was solid throughout, and I really liked Rosalind Eleazar as Detective Inspector Kat Donovan. She was a great character, and I also liked the depiction of friendship in the show. I liked Fool Me Once less. Another improbable plot, but with a lot less likeable main character. Though Joanna Lumely is always fun. And Richard Armitage was nice to look at in both shows.

I’m desperately trying to remember which book this is, and I thought I would ask you if you recognize it. It annoys me no end that I can't come up with the title! I’m sorry for being fuzzy on the details. It's been more than 10 years since I read it. It’s definitely a crime novel.

The male protagonist comes into contact with a young woman and her small son. I’m pretty sure it’s through his work. The father of the child is no longer around, it’s possible that he is dead. The woman is murdered and the child disappears. The protagonist finds out that the paternal grandfather is famous. Either he used to be a movie star, or he is a cult leader. (Or he might have been both). He and his family live on some sort of compound that the protagonist sneaks into. He finds the little boy, who sleeps in a vintage bed shaped like a car, likely the bed his father once used. He is not, however, treated well. The protagonist hears a woman (the child’s grandmother?) berate him for crying. The protagonist is captured, but before he is killed the police arrive. In the aftermath they find at least one murder victim buried in the grounds.

I was sure this book was actually one of the Alex Delawere books by Jonathan Kellerman. But I have re-read them now, and this book never came up. Granted, there are so many of them, so it may be a Kellerman book that I have somehow missed. I’d be so grateful if anyone knows which book this is!

New books

A Coronet For Cathie by Gwendoline Courtney. One of my childhood’s favourite books is a book by Courney called Stepmother (or Those Verney Girls orElizabeth and he Garret Theatre), a children’s books from the late 40. It’s still one of my go to comfort reads. What I didn’t know until I was an adult was that Courney wrote several books, most of which have been out of print for decades. A Coronet For Cathie is fairly recently republished by Girls Gone By Publishers. In this book teenaged orphan Cathie finds out that her grandfather is a duke about five minutes before he dies and she inherits the title. The first part is about Cathie finding her feet as a duchess as well as recovering from a serious illness. The rest, and longest, part of the book is about her going to school incognito, as she doesn’t want people to be friends with her because of her title.

This is one of the books I know I would have loved to bits if I had read it in my early teens. As an adult I found it enjoyable, but no more than that. I don’t think it’s as good as Stepmother, but I know I’m biased there. Cathie is likeable, as is her supporting cast, though I wouldn’t be the least surprised if Sarah Crewe was the main inspiration for her. I will still try to hunt out Courney’s other books.

The Green Man’s War by Juliet E. McKenna. Part 7 of an ongoing series. My husband described this series as “Rivers of London, but in the countryside”, and that is quite apt.

Infamous Lady by Kimberley L. Craft. A biography over Elizabeth Bathory. I found it well-written and extensively researched, and had some interesting thoughts on how a human being devolves into a torturer and murderer of young girls. However, as the author included a lot of translated witness statements, it also describes in detail how these children were tortured and murdered. I really don’t like to read that, so I skipped large parts of the book, but read some before I realized what was going on. I know, perhaps I should have expected it considering the subject, but I’ve never come across anything this graphic before

Rereads

The Goblin Emperor, The Witness For the Dead and The Grief of Stones by Katherine Addison. As the third book in The Cemeteries of Amalo is coming soon, I thought a re-read was due. I really enjoy these books, and it was a joy to re-read. I would love another book about Maia though. If you haven’t read these, but enjoy fantasy (with a strong steampunk flair) and crime novels, then I think you would like those.

A Skinful of Shadows by France Hardinge. I love Hardinge’s YA novels which are always inventive and interesting. This one is my favourite, set in Civil War England, where a young girl, the illegitimate daughter of a nobleman, finds out that what she has inherited from her father is the ability to take up dead people’s spirits in her mind.

Deeplight by France Hardinge. Fantasy set in a cluster of islands which was once ruled by a number of terrifying and unpredictable sea gods. But the gods are dead now, and people have slowly started to learn to live without them. Teenage friends Hark and Jelt find a strange object in the sea, an object that can heal- and more. Is it possible for the gods to return? Despite finding Hark’s troubled friendship with Jelt painful to read, I will enjoy this book a lot. Also, one of the main characters, the girl Selphin, is deaf, which I don’t think I have encountered in a SFF novel before.

A Civil Campaign, Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance, Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen by Lois McMaster Bujold. Bujold is one of my favourite authors, and I’ve been doing a selective re-read. I’m not a huge SF fan, but Bujold has the knack of writing interesting plots and compelling characters, even down to minor supportive ones. I can’t recommend her books enough!

As I said, I'm finally writing again. And I recently posted this.

Title: Sable Coats and Razorblades
Fandom: All About Eve
Rating: Explicit
Chapters: 5/?
Characters: Addison DeWitt, Karen Richards, Eve Harrington
Pairings: Addison DeWitt/ Karen Richards, Addison DeWitt/Eve Harrington
Warnings: Blackmail, Non-consensual kissing, Dubious consent, Coercion, Dominance/submission, Forced marriage, Marriage of Convenience
Summary: To try to fight Addison DeWitt is doomed to failure, but what if one folds?

The fic on AO3

It*s one of those fics that are just plain fun to write. I never expected it to get any attention being in an obscure fandom with a pairing that only exists in this fic. And true, not many has read it, but those who have seem to really like it. Which is nice.

Favorite fic you wrote this year.
Passions of Some Difference.

Least favorite fic you wrote this year.
Paris Redux. This is actually a bit unfair because this makes it sound like I don’ like it. But I like it a lot. It’s just that it’s pretty much a PWP, so compared with the other fics, this has the least substance.

Favorite line/scene you wrote this year.
No idea. I’m very pleased with a great many of them, so I can’t choose.

Total number of words you wrote this year.
111328. Which are more words written than any year previously!

Most popular fic this year.
How do you decide that? By hits, kudos, comments, or bookmarks? Well, I disregard hits, because it says little of what people actually think. Then it must be The Number of Vices which got the most kudos and bookmarks. The Might of His Strength got the most comments.

Least popular fic this year.
Sable Coats and Razorblades, which is hardly surprising, as it’s an All About Eve-fic, which is a tiny fandom with only 17 fics on AO3, and in addition Addison DeWitt/Karen Richards, which is a ship I’m the only one writing.

Longest completed fic you wrote this year.
The Number of Viceswith 23876 words.

Shortest completed fic you wrote this year.
Paris Redux with 1634 words.

Longest wip of the year.
Passions of Some Difference with 48807 words. Even unfinished, this is the longest fic I have ever written.

Shortest wip of the year.
Sable Coats and Razorblades with 6496 words

Fandom you enjoyed writing for the most this year.
The Queen’s Gambit, which definitely got me out of my fanfic writing slump with 5 completed and 1 WIP fics. Compared that with the 2 other fics I have been writing on this year, which are both WIP started before 2021.

Favorite character to write about this year.
I must confess that is a character of my own making. The villain of Passions of Some Difference evolved from a generic bad guy to a character with a complete backstory, with interests and personal relationships. He has been so much fun to write, and judging my reader's response to him, he really works as a character. As it’s always a bit scary to introduce original characters in fanfiction, I am very pleased.

Favorite writing song/artist/album of this year.
I don’t listen to music while I write, but I listened repeatedly to Jacques Brel’s La chanson des vieux amants while I wrote The Black King.



A fic you didn’t expect to write.
Passions of Some Difference. It started with a request on The Queen’s Gambit Kink Meme, “KGB agent makes Borgov noncon Beth”. It gave me a little evil plot bunny that I didn’t expect to write, but after discussing it with a friend it has evolved into one of my most complex fics- probably also the best fic I have ever written.

Something you learned this year.
That I’m not as bad at creating plots as I previously thought

Fic(s) you completed this year.
Five. two multi-chapters, and three one-shots.

Fics you’ll continue next year.
Well, my three newest WIPs are all fics I have written on this year, and which I plan to continue and hopefully also finish next year.

Current number of wips.
Five. One I started this year, the rest is older.

Any new fics to start next year?
Oh yes. I have a TQG-fic I really want to write. And several ideas I like to develop in a number of fandoms.

Number of comments you haven’t read.
None. odd question, if you ask me.

Most memorable comment/review.
There’s this lovely person in the TQG-fandom who just gives the best comments. Every single one is incredible, very long, and detailed. I’m in awe!

Events you participated in this year.
None. I did write two treats for The Chocolate Box, but I didn’t sign up.

Fics you wanted to write but didn’t.
I have a couple of very old WIPs I had hoped to make progress on this year but didn’t. I also have the third part of my Dracula-trilogy still unwritten.

Title: Paris Redux
Fandom: The Queen’s Gambit
Rating: Explicit
Chapters: One-shot
Word Count: 1634
Characters: Beth Harmon, Vasily Borgov
Pairings Beth Harmon/Vasily Borgov
Warnings: Anal, Semi-Publix Sex
Additional Tags: Enthusiastic Consent, Masturbation, Established Relationship
Summary: Borgov beats Beth in another game in Paris. This time with a much more pleasurable aftermath.

The fic on AO3

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So I had this dream last night, and now I’m wondering if it was about something I have actually seen or read, as it was very specific. But my dreams are often very linear, and more like stories, than random things happening.

I dreamt it was the near future where Earth had been invaded by aliens. The aliens looked like humans, both like men and women, but they communicated and nourished themselves through telepathy. When a human being became an adult they were mind-linked to one of these aliens, which was called “patched”. It was not voluntary, but someone who was deemed too ignorant could be rejected and live without being patched. One alien could be patched with several humans, and the more humans they had, the more successful and rich, the alien was. Humans too preferred to be patched to a successful alien, even if they had no choice in that matter. An alien could, through the patching, make a human do whatever they wanted, but they could not remove or change personalities, or make a human-like what they really disliked, and vice versa.

For most humans, the patching was seen as something positive. They went on with their daily life, and though linked with an alien mind it didn’t impact them on a daily basis. If it did it would be helpful. For example, a man whose heater broke was temporarily patched through his alien with a person who was an expert on boilers, giving him the knowledge to fix his boiler instead of buying a new one. A woman who was adopted was patched by a number of people who could help her find her birth mother. When she had found her and was going to meet, her alien recognized the moment as very emotionally lade and instead of feeding on the emotions, she temporarily broke the patching to give the woman privacy.

But even if the aliens were largely beneficial to “their” humans, they also kept some of them physically close, for more direct nourishment. This could mean deciding what a human was to eat, so the alien could “taste” the food through their telepathic contact. Again most aliens tried to keep their humans happy, feeding on their well-being, but there were aliens who did the opposite; tortured and raped their humans and fed on their pain and unhappiness.

And then I dreamt about a young woman who was recently patched with an alien and chosen to be kept close. Her alien was a nice one, but she still had problems with having many of her choices removed from her. She was also close to a woman who was kept by an evil alien, and she was very upset that her nice alien did nothing to intervene.

And there I woke up, with no conclusion. So, is this a thing? Can I read or watch something that will explain how to get rid of these aliens, or is it all in my mind and I need to figure it out myself?

Writing is going just fine. This fic has changed a lot since I started to write it, but I think it works. In fact, three people have commented and said that they don’t normally enjoy fics with these tags, but that they actually think my fic is really good and they like it a lot. I’d say that’s pretty good reviewes. :)

Title: The Number of Vices
Fandom: The Queen’s Gambit
Rating: Explicit
Chapters: 9/?
Word Count: 1786
Characters: Beth Harmon, Vasily Borgov, Luchenko, Mr. Booth, Mrs. Borgova, Kate Cameron
Pairings Beth Harmon/Vasily Borgov
Warnings: Angst, Rough sex, Uneven power dynamics, M/f, BDSM, Choking, Oral sex, Older man/Younger woman, Delayed orgasm, Spanking, King negotiation, Cold war
Summary: Staying in Moscow after the Invitational, Beth is delighted to find Vasily Borgov is to show her the city. She has plans. So have Borgov.

The fic on AO3

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