Teleen's Journal

So, um, hi!  *waves*

The good news is that about 5 months ago, I started working at a new place.  I may post more details under f-lock later, but suffice to say that the money, coworkers, and overall environment are now significantly better than they were.  In fact, it's exact the sort of place at which I envisioned working as I was finishing school.  Career-wise, while I wouldn't call myself completely settled, I do feel that I'm finally starting to reap the rewards of all the dues I've paid since March of 2011, which was when I finally bit the bullet and went back to school.

Here's the thing... At first, I was very busy after I started at the new place - learning the ropes, getting used to the hours, and generally learning the culture as one does when one is just starting a new job, which was my excuse for setting my writing aside for a time.

I also made a number of resolutions when I left my former place for this one, but one of the biggest was to keep my head down, avoid drama as much as possible, and not get too involved with my coworkers' lives.  This has served me well.

Very well, actually.  So well that my overall stress level has decreased considerably, which is awesome.

Except that apparently, I can't write when I'm happy.  So once again, the sequel to "The Perfect Storm" has stalled, which is, naturally, the bad news.  Well, that and the bridging chapter, the one that is absolutely essential in order for anything I've written that takes place after it make sense, is nearly 20,000 words of utter dogshit.  Thanks to beta reading, it's getting better, but for some reason, the words simply aren't there, the story doesn't flow, and I feel as though I'm leading the characters instead of the other way around, something that I've sworn from the beginning that I wouldn't do.

Long story short - I haven't forgotten, I haven't given up, but I'm really hoping that something terrible doesn't have to happen in order for my muse to return from where it seems to have retreated.

Thank you to everyone who's been so encouraging and patient - it means more to me than I can say.

Once again, lots of more important stuff going on, but I've found myself wanting to write in the last few weeks and just the other day had the epiphany that 80-100,000 words isn't going to be nearly enough.  The reason I've been having so much trouble is that I've been wanting to gloss things over than I've (FINALLY) realized just can't be glossed.

I have no clue what the final word count will be.  All I know is that what I have now is looking a lot more like a rough outline than the nearly-finished draft I thought I had.

As always, thanks to everyone for their patience and interest.  For what it's worth, I'm working very hard to make this worth the wait.

I've been writing again.  Not a lot, I've been reading more than writing, and the more I read, the more I realize that a lot of my sequel to "The Perfect Storm" is written - I just have to do bridgework.  Yes, I know I've said that before, but it's really true.


( Cut for length and very minor spoilers for the sequel to "The Perfect Storm." )

Wish me luck.

It's been just over two years since I began The Perfect Storm and just under a year since I promised to do a PDF of it.  It's taken me this long to proofread it, add notes here and there and generally tweak it (slightly) to the point where I felt comfortable putting it in a more permanent form.  Mostly, I took out unnecessary epithets and tried to catch as many typo gremlins as I could (those things breed like rabbits, sigh), but the essential story hasn't changed in any significant way.   If you requested the PDF via a comment, I sent a mass e-mail to everyone I could before Yahoo! crashed.  If you did not receive the e-mail (or if you would like a PDF and hadn't asked for one before), please let me know in the comments below.  Please include your e-mail address in the comment.  All comments to this post will be screened.

Thank you all for your interest and patience as I did the final work on my baby.

As for the sequel, it's essentially plotted and I have about 60,000 words written - I just have to find time with my school schedule to actually put it all into a coherent structure. 

Just an FYI to everyone who's requested a PDF of The Perfect Storm - I'm sorry, it's nowhere close to being done yet, :(.

As I explained in the End Notes, I'm going back through and re-reading it, taking out all of the unwanted epithets and making absolutely sure there are no typos before I PDF it.  If you've requested one, not to worry - I have all of your request messages saved and will send them to each of you when it's complete.

If you haven't requested one and would like one, please comment there, but keep in mind that if you've already sent me a request for it and you send me another, you'll wind up getting two copies because I'm sort of clueless like that, ;).

Thanks for your patience everyone.  I promise that the moment it's done, I'll send it out, :).

The Children of Time Awards have posted the winners! :)

"The Perfect Storm" was nominated in the Threesomes or More, Kink, & Hurt/Comfort categories. 

It tied for winner in the Threesomes or More with "That's What Time Travel's For, Right?" by "The Perfect Storm's" awesome beta frakkin_addict, so that couldn't have worked out better if we'd planned it, lol.  Congratulations, woman and thank you - TPS never would have gotten here without you! :)

It came in runner up to "Game On" by remuslives23  in the Kink category - congratulations to remuslives23! :)

In the Hurt/Comfort category, the winner was blucougar with her amazing story "Ashes and Dust" and the runner-up was the lovely angstosaur for "Bad Seed".  Congratulations to blucougar  and angstosaur, :).

Thank you to everyone who voted! :)

Believe it or not, I've almost run out of prompts, :).  So if you missed this, please head on over and give me one, :).

To date, I've posted 15 ficlets for this challenge specifically (16 since it started), have two more sitting on my Desktop that will be posted when I'm more awake, and have about six or eight still waiting in the wings.  If that sounds like a lot still to be done, keep in mind that I've written 18 total just since August 29.

Moral of the story: I like writing ficlets.  I like getting prompts for ficlets.  I'm not quite tired of this yet, so taking advantage of me while you have the chance is to the good.  Honestly, I'm seriously considering making the original post a permanent one on my journal so that anyone can participate, but we'll see, :).

Please keep in mind, if I've already written one for you, I'll let you give me another one, but your prompt automatically moves to the back of the line until I'm done with all of the others, :).  Still, if you don't mind waiting, feel free to give me another, :). 

If I've told you that your prompt is eating my brain and will take longer, feel free to give me an 'easier' one (generally one word is easy - more than one word is hard, heh).  I'll still attempt to do the original, but this will give you something now if you don't want to wait, :). 

And for those who are curious, a new chapter of The Perfect Storm WILL be posted this weekend.  It's complete and beta'd - I just need to find the time to do all of the cross-posting. 

The ficlets have also been helping me to get the creative juices flowing for me to finally write the end, :).  To all those who've been so great and patience with my lax posting of late, I can only say thank you, :).  And offer a ficlet for being so nice to me, :).

Thank you to whomever nominated "The Perfect Storm" for the Children of Time awards!  I've been nominated in the Threesomes or More, Kink, & Hurt/Comfort categories. 

It really means a lot to me that you took the time, :).

But it still sucks.  Grandmother is dying.  We're driving to TN momentarily to be with family.  

I had to leave work early tonight because I hurt my lower back somehow in the last twelve hours or so and it's gotten progressively worse all night.  As a result, I may not get this week's chapters of The Perfect Storm up at the usual time.  I'm really sorry, :(, but the chapters are written and beta'd - all they need is a final proof and uploading.  I'm going to bed full of muscle relaxers and painkillers right after I post this, so hopefully I'll be all right tomorrow.  I just wanted to put this up in case, y'know, I'm not, :).

I apologize for any inconvenience this causes.

Thank you for reading! :)

ETA:  Thanks for the warm thoughts, everyone!  I really appreciate them, :).  I'm still not up for sitting at the 'puter for longer than about 15 minutes, so this is just a quick update to say - it'll be a little while longer on TPS update, sorry, :(.  

Thanks again! :)

ETA 2 7/2/10 - I thought it was better, but it still really isn't, :(.  If I try to get on the computer for longer than a few minutes it REALLY hurts, :(...