rsadelle

I loved Santa Olivia so much that I promptly put in an interlibrary loan request for the sequel, Saints Astray. Again, I don't have a lot to say about it. If you liked Santa Olivia, you'll probably also like Saints Astray. If you didn't read Santa Olivia, Saints Astray might stand alone, but you'll miss the backstory. ( Review/mild spoilersCollapse )

You may have noticed that my writing goals post was a little late this month. That's because I spent most of this week readjusting to working life. Yes, that is right, I am once again employed! I'm excited about both having a job and having this particular job. It is also full-time at 36 hours a week, which means I can write in the morning before I go to work four days a week.

Report on April:

• Do a consistency edit/read-through of book two. - No.


• Work on book three. - Check!


• Make some progress on Danny goes to college and post-Switzerland Tyler Seguin. - Check!


• Write miscellaneous snippets as inspired. - Check!


• Say positive things on Twitter. - Mostly.

Goals for May:

• Do a consistency edit/read-through of book two.


• Work on book three.


• Make some progress on Danny goes to college and post-Switzerland Tyler Seguin.


• Write miscellaneous snippets as inspired.


• Say positive things on Twitter.

Andrew Conte's Breakaway: The Inside Story of the Pittsburgh Penguins' Rebirth arrived in my house as part of a hockey-themed gift from lakeeffectgirl. I read the first two chapters, and then it lingered by the couch waiting for me to get back to it. One afternoon, I decided I was going to read at least one more chapter. A couple of hours later, I'd finished the whole thing. (It helps that chapter three is about Sidney Crosby, and you know I'm fond of him.)

Parts of the book cover players - Sid, Geno, Marian Hossa - and Conte gives time to Ray Shero changing the culture of the team to one that does its best to provide comforts to both players and their families, but the central story is about how the Penguins got Consol Energy Center. The path to a new arena is mostly politics and financing, and yet Conte makes it absolutely riveting. I knew that the Penguins stayed in Pittsburgh and got a new arena, although I didn't know all the details, and I was still in suspense for the last couple of chapters wondering what would happen.

Of course, the questionable thing about my reading this book is that I was reading it the day before the last Pens-Flyers game and I was worried that I might be overcome with Pens feelings and unable to properly cheer for the Flyers. But then, at the very end of the book, the Flyers appeared. The book ends with the first game played at Consol, which was a game against the Flyers:

Moments later, Lemieux and Bettman walked across a red carpet toward center ice. Burkle was supposed to be with them, but his plane had been delayed. They dropped the puck for a ceremonial faceoff between Crosby and Mike Richards, captain of the Philadelphia Flyers, the first opponents to play in the arena.

...

As the game started, Crosby won the first faceoff, passing the puck to defenseman Brooks Orpik. Fans had little to cheer about after that, with the home team missing opportunities and the Flyers' Danny Briere scoring the Consol Energy Center's first goal at 2:51 in the second period. The Flyers went on to win 3 to 2.

On a not about the content note, I really like the physical aspects of the book. It has a dust jacket with pretty color photos, but the under the dust jacket is a book with the binding, paper, smell, and questionable book design of an academic work.

If you're interested in the Penguins, hockey history, Pennsylvania politics, or accounts of political deal making, I highly recommend the book.

Rhea recorded podfic of Our Family or Whatever. I'm delighted she liked it enough to record it, and you should check it out if podfic is your thing!

Summary: Jordan can tell the kid Horc is trying to hold onto is Hallsy even though he's twisting and screaming, "No! Not want you! Want Ebby!"

Notes: Thanks to lakeeffectgirl for encouraging this.

Story on AO3


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First lines from the last twenty-one stories posted to AO3. (The original meme says last twenty-one stories written, which this is not since this covers some of the much older things I finally got around to posting in December.)


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Report on March:

• Do a consistency edit/read-through of book two. - No.


• Work on book three. - Check!


• Make some progress on Danny goes to college and post-Switzerland Tyler Seguin. - Check!


• Edit/post Tyler Brown planned baby acquisition. - Check!


• Write miscellaneous snippets as inspired. - Check!


• Say positive things on Twitter. - Mostly.

Goals for April:

• Do a consistency edit/read-through of book two.


• Work on book three.


• Make some progress on Danny goes to college and post-Switzerland Tyler Seguin.


• Write miscellaneous snippets as inspired.


• Say positive things on Twitter.

So sometimes I write melodramatic snippets that (a) are ridiculous/unbelievable, (b) get jossed, and/or (c) I will never turn into fic. A collection of those seems like a good post for April Fool's Day, so here are five of them. You could read the first one as a pairing kind of story, but they're mostly gen. Also, the second, fourth, and fifth ones mention Claude's real-life girlfriend, so be forewarned if that's not your kind of thing.


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( Claude heartbrokenCollapse )

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( Tyler Seguin, secret childCollapse )

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( Danny, Claude, vulnerabilityCollapse )

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( Danny, Claude, concussion and adviceCollapse )

I read Santa Olivia without knowing anything about it based on a strong recommendation from allegram, and I'm very glad I listened to her. I don't have much to say about it. It has a semi-dystopian feel with a female superhero of sorts, it has destined for each other type romances (fangirls and others who like werewolf mating stories will probably like it), and it has a supportive community around the main character.

There are two things I didn't like about the book, enough to make them worth mentioning. First of all, the lesbian sex is much less explicit than the heterosexual sex. I was actually surprised by the explicitness of the heterosexual sex given that I'm pretty sure I've seen the book on YA shelves at Barnes & Noble, and then disappointed that the lesbian sex scenes didn't receive equal treatment. Secondly, Carey uses "could of," "would of," and "should of." Unless she and her editor are completely incompetent - which is not a theory supported by the rest of the book - that's a deliberate style choice, and I found it annoying.

Part 1 - Part 2 - Story on AO3


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Part 1 - Story on AO3


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Summary: Tyler doesn't become a father by accident. It's something he wants and something he plans. He doesn't plan for Segs to love his daughter as much as he does, he doesn't plan to end up in Boston, and he really doesn't plan to hook up with Segs.

Notes: Many months ago, Tyler Brown made a couple of baby-related tweets, and when I mentioned wanting a story where he decides to have a baby, lakeeffectgirl encouraged me to tell her more about it. This story eventually grew out of that original Twitter conversation.

Thanks to puckling and everyone else who participated in the cheerleading aspect of the Anti Lockout Squee Fest, and to my post-lockout check-in email thread for helping me keep on track and finish this story. Thank you to zvi who suggested Shakespeare as a source for a title. Thank you to ninja_orange who was very encouraging as I wrote this. And thank you, of course, to lakeeffectgirl, who encouraged me, found places it could be better, and helped me talk through the sticky parts.

Story on AO3


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duckgirlie recorded podfic of The Best Thing That's Ever Been Mine. (T.J Oshie/Jonathan Toews, "They never stopped loving each other, not really.") You can find the headers/cover/download links here on AO3. I'm delighted she liked it enough to record it, and you should check it out if podfic is your thing!

Summary: It's just as good as Jeff always thought it would be. Jordan's gotten bigger since Jeff last spent time with him, and someone taught him how to kiss way better than anyone else Jeff has ever kissed.

Notes: Written for ninja_orange based on the tags on this post. This is the sketchiest of AUs, with the AU mostly being an excuse for an easy set-up for the porn.

Story on AO3


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Plot bunnies! I am never going to write any of these things, but if you write one, you should tell me about it so I can go read it.

Note: Some of these involve real-life non-celebrity partners, and I was too lazy to separate those out into their own section, so just consider yourself forewarned.

( Briouxs and Briere and/or Giroux related (plus bonus Sidney Crosby)Collapse )

( Tylers and/or Tyler relatedCollapse )

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I'm currently fascinated both by Danny as Claude's mentor/supporter and by the possible dynamics of Claude being the captain with Kimmo, Hartsy, and Danny as his As. I would read alllllll the fic about either of those things, even if it were all gen. I would also read all the nonfiction about either of them. So let's talk about Danny, Claude, and the C for a minute. (Or, you know, several hundred words. Whichever.)

Just before the season started and Claude was named captain, Danny said of him in a radio interview (text article, source for a download link), "I think it's no secret everybody knows that it's now his team, and the management will decide if it's the right time to give him the 'C' or not after the past experiences with the last captains that we've had, but there's no doubt that, like I said, it's his team. He's our leader offensively on the ice, and off the ice he's not afraid to speak his mind as well."

Danny has actually been talking about Claude being their leader (at least on the ice) since April (note: he also looks blissed out and pleased in this interview):

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In an interview earlier this season, a reporter asked Claude about players he'd learned from in terms of wearing the C. Claude said, "Jags last year was a big player for me, and obviously Richie, Prongs, and Danny B. They've been great for me, and hopefully I can try to be captains like them." Let's note that the interviewer mentioned that Jagr had previously been a captain, and that Mike Richards and Chris Pronger were captains Claude played with, but that Claude came up with Danny on his own.

I have Google Alerts for Danny and Claude, and over the summer, I kept laughing at what I liked to refer to as "Danny Briere answers the phone and talks to the media." He commented on things like Jeff Carter and Mike Richards being in the playoffs and Peter Laviolette's contract extension. Now, obviously Danny's overrepresented because that's who I had an alert for, but it still seemed like a lot. I could never figure out if that was just because he's around in the summer and answered his phone, or if there was some kind of agreement that he would be the player spokesperson for the team. I also kept being irked that none of the "Who will be the captain?" speculation took Danny's amazing abilities with the media into account as an argument for him being the captain. Which brings me back to Claude saying "obviously . . . Danny B." Did Danny make that list because he's Claude's mentor and he's been an A for the Flyers for years, or did he make that list because he was the de facto captain sometime in that period between when Chris Pronger was injured and when Claude became the leader of their team?

The one thing that isn't in this post is something I haven't been able to find on the internet. The CSN Philly broadcast of the February 5 game against the Lightning had a pre-taped bit where they asked Danny about playing with Tye McGinn. His entire answer was framed in sentences that began with, "I told Claude." Given that Danny and Claude tend to talk about each other all the time anyway, it's entirely possible that this is just how he talks, but I wonder if he's also been consciously thinking about publicly supporting Claude as his captain.

So when I said I had one more AU plot bunny that had to wait until ninja_orange needed an incentive, this is the plot bunny I meant.


Paul is a salesman of some sort that means he travels around the US and Canada meeting clients and going to tradeshows. He's good at it, because people like him, and he likes doing it, both because he's good at it and because it means he gets to party all over the place.

He meets Claude at a tradeshow. Well, technically it's in the hotel bar the night before the tradeshow opens, but it all amounts to the same thing. They have a good time hanging out, and they hook up - and they're still on good terms in the morning, which doesn't always happen for Paul. They hook up every night the whole length of the tradeshow, and then they go their separate ways.

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Summary: Tyler's just off center, a little to one side, and there's a space between him and the arm of the chaise. Tyler's phone is sitting there, but that's easy enough to deal with; Fred puts both of their phones on the bookshelf and fits himself into the space.

Notes: First there was a picture of Fred and Marshall napping on a chaise longue. Then there was a picture of Segs doing the same thing. Then ninja_orange had a bad day and I wrote her a little something about that to cheer her up. This could be read as gen if you're so inclined.

Story on AO3


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Report on February:

• Finish editing book two. - No, but very close! I got to the end on line edits, and it really just needs a consistency edit/read-through now.


• Work on book three. - Check!


• Make some progress on all of my officially in progress fic (Danny goes to college, Tyler Brown planned baby acquisition, and post-Switzerland Tyler Seguin). Finish the five things story. - Check!


• Write miscellaneous snippets as inspired. - Check!


• Say positive things on Twitter. - Sometimes, but I complained a lot in February.

Goals for March:

• Do a consistency edit/read-through of book two.


• Work on book three.


• Make some progress on Danny goes to college and post-Switzerland Tyler Seguin.


• Edit/post Tyler Brown planned baby acquisition.


• Write miscellaneous snippets as inspired.


• Say positive things on Twitter.