icarusancalion

Requiem for icarus.slashcity.net

Sat, 26 Aug 2023 05:34:54 GMT

*lone trumpet plays Taps*

The old icarus.slashcity.net is no more. Everything except my meta is on AO3 and I've been waiting for its demise for some time. (I haven't had access to the site for a while.)

I'm considering putting my meta on AO3, maybe. But in the meantime I have it saved.

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Info on Tumblr purge

Wed, 05 Dec 2018 14:56:29 GMT

I found this in comments on copperbadge's post. Here you for all you might need to stay connected to your Tumblr friends: https://conuly.dreamwidth.org/2785963.html

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Tumblr's doing Strikethrough -- and everyone's back! HI!

Wed, 05 Dec 2018 14:52:37 GMT

I'm sorry about Tumblr's defection from its open and free policies. I hope all the artists find image hosting space, and fandom regroups.

It is good to see everyone posting on Dreamwidth. Denise has always done a great job meeting the needs of fandom, and I like to see her efforts supported. You're safe here. Welcome home.

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Revisiting fandom: seven years later

Fri, 03 Apr 2015 09:49:57 GMT

In the downtime when I was ~~hiding~~ taking time off after a difficult quarter, I started revisiting Stargate: Atlantis stories I'd missed on Amalthia's SGA master list.

Re-read Freedom's Just Another Word For Nothing Left To Lose.

It's shorter than I remember. Still achingly satisfying.

Reached fiercelydreamed's Who's Left And Who's Leaving which I remember starting. I don't remember finishing it.

And then I saw the date: 2007. Seven years (!!!!!?) ago.

My active fandom days are vivid, alive like voices in my head. It's only been a moment, a whisper of time. A year or two.

Not ... seven.

I've come home to my playground to find it empty. To realize that I left. To sit on the squeaky swing at sunset and dream of my apartment in Seattle, the vibrant hum of the fan community in my old laptop that was too warm for the book it was sitting on, offering the sunlight of the Olympic mountains in the distance. WG complaining, "You're on that thing all day..." while I rolled my characters like dice, seeing what turned up.

Is it too late to still write? I wonder. I've written for the SGA Santa every year. Are my friends still here, despite being neglected?

I can't go back. The swing rusted years ago. But I can go forward. Do I have time?

ETA: Just read the new SGA fic, Decade, by canis_lupus. Wow. It's an entire reboot of the fandom.

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SGA Santa fic -- done!

Thu, 19 Dec 2013 18:39:27 GMT

Ooooh, I was late for SGA Santa this year. But I'm done, I'm done, *sings* I'mdoneI'mdoneI'mdone!

My beta really liked it.

I started my reading for grad school early. I've a Young Adult book club for one of my classes, and who could resist?

So far, while I'm enjoying it, I'm not impressed with Divergent. Like the world-building and I'm okay with the occasional plot hole, but this author lost track of the facts of her story. The heroine guesses crucial information early on, and then ... is surprised when she learns that same crucial information? The Hunger Games was much better.

Still, Divergent encourages me to write. If a story with such major flaws could be popular, hey....

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True Colors: already slashing young Spader/Cusack.

Fri, 11 Oct 2013 04:44:52 GMT

Am watching True Colors with a young John Cusack and James Spader. As college roommates who don't hit it off at first.

I'm so slashing these two already.

It's too late to nominate a fandom for Yuletide, isn't it.

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A moment of awesome: Ani fanfic writer.

Sun, 18 Aug 2013 21:47:36 GMT

So I was up at retreat talking to a VIP senior ani* about Tibetan language.

She mentions playing video games.

I mention Harry Potter, which mom noticed on her Facebook page she liked.

I mention fic.

Oh? She asks if I read it.

I say heck, read it? I write it.

Turns out she writes Harry Potter fic. Gen. Evil!Harry. And another ani I know is her beta.

She staggered away in shock that we had this in common. (I emailed her First Signs of Magic: Hermione Granger. On the SugarQuill. Because I know who not to send to a non-con dark Ron/Draco slashfic like Beg Me For It.)

This moment of awesome is brought to you by the pervasiveness of Fandom.

* Ani = Tibetan Buddhist nun. Technically, the word means "auntie."

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I'm on a one-woman feedback crusade.

Wed, 03 Jul 2013 04:55:43 GMT

I was talking to pir8fancier about the dearth of comments, real feedback where we talk to eachother.

Then, if you could see the cartoon in my mind, it would look like this:

*
|
Icarus' brain

I thought, well, why don't I?

So off to read more fic. And REPLY.

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Oh, a PM. From, er, three weeks ago.

Tue, 28 May 2013 03:51:26 GMT

Oh, a PM. From, er, three weeks ago.

Hello all. Maybe I should make a sticky post for this info:

Every now and then someone attempts to contact me via PM on Livejournal, and less often on DW. (Say, hmm, about every five or six months. Usually it's about a broken link to some of my fanfic on my site.)

PMs are not a good way to reach me. Check my profile and email me because there's no telling when I'll notice the PM.

Sometimes it's weeks... even months before I notice a PM.

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So, talking to mom about writing, temple attitudes...

Sun, 26 May 2013 12:41:00 GMT

So I was talking to mom about writing, and temple attitudes about it.

Mom: "Sounds like you're too invested in other people's approval."
Me: "Ow. Can't I just complain?"

...hate it when she's kick-in-the-shins right.

*hops away, sore*

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Amazon and fandom: a trip in a different direction.

Sat, 25 May 2013 03:47:53 GMT

In Kindle Worlds flourish hits every point where Amazon's new effort is different from Fanlib.

Except one.

Amazon agrees to compensate fanfic writers. Not Fanlib's vague "hey, we're connected to publishing companies that might, somehow, benefit you as a writer. We think. Use your imagination how!"

With Kindle Worlds there's actual cash money going to the fic writers.

Problems with it? Oh, heck yeah, I'm sure. I haven't researched it much yet (read: at all). But I'm willing to bet plenty of broke fic writers will be sniffing around this offer.

I'm tempted. Four years of working part time with no benefits? A temple where we're going to be doing practice outside with the cicadas? Yeah. Cautious. But interested. And I don't even write those fandoms.

I never expected anything like this, not in my wildest "the truth is we're out here" posts.

Personally, I credit The Organization of Transformative Works for the fast and recent shift in attitudes about fan writers, treating us as writers, wow.

Remember, it was only 2003 when Raincoast Books sent Cease & Desist orders to The Restricted Section for its NC-17 Harry Potter fic. In 2004, Yahoo Groups TOS'd one fanfic Yahoo Group after another, driving fans to Livejournal. In 2007 came Fanlib, which hoped to profit (from ads? it was never clear how) and exploit fanfic writers but viewed them as teenyboppers complete with their "Hey, Kids!" Disney layout. OTW got off the ground almost immediately afterward, and the archive went into beta testing in 2008.

By 2011, 50 Shades Of Gray was able to openly acknowledge its fanfic roots. That's a big change, very, very quickly. It's not all OTW. We have the aca-fen and new generation that's grown up on the internet coming of age. But I believe that the newly positive attitudes toward fanfic have a lot to do with the OTW.

I need to renew my membership.

ETA: Scalzi weighs in on the downsides for writers. His perspective is not the fanwriters, but the lowering of standards for prowriters. Right off the bat (I may change my mind), it seems to me that the prowriters need to stop sneering at the fanfic writers and include them in their union (how? I don't know how...) or risk watering down the protections that writers get in general. I'm pro-union and these are hard-won protections. We need to not have a lower class of writer called "fanfic writer" ripe for exploitation.

Here the work-for-hire authors who were contracted to participate ahead of the release weigh in. They consider it standard ghost writing and are pretty positive about their experience.

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Star Trek: TOS and uncooperative characters.

Fri, 24 May 2013 22:58:15 GMT

I've taken time off to write fic. I find that Jim and Kirk will not get down to business. No, no, they want to talk about Vulcan, and the Vulcan perspective on humans:

"Checkmate," Spock said, placing his final piece.

"How is that Vulcans play a human game?" Jim asked.

"There are those on Vulcan who feel the existence and popularity of chess on Earth demonstrates that there's hope," Spock explained.

"Hope for?—ahh," understanding dawned on the captain's face before he even finished the question.

"Yes. Hope that, one day, humans may embrace pure logic."

Of course, Jim can't resist prodding at that, does Spock think it likely?--and really, guys, there's a plot that's supposed to happen. I realize it's not much of one, but interesting as you are, you're interrupting.

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I'm the window washer outside your fandom.

Fri, 24 May 2013 22:27:46 GMT

I'm a window washer outside your fandom.

( Why I haven't been writing. )

( Well, I've written these. But let me tell you why they don't count. )

Other than Dragonlord, my fics have been "surface stories."

There are stories that you pull out of your gut, that are saying something even if you're not sure what, and then there are stories where you're just diddling on the surface. Moving the furniture around.

( If that were okay with me, that would be one thing. )

So I'm the window washer outside your fandoms, looking in, while I'm working, working, working.

( Part of it is the company I keep. And the fact that the sky is falling. )

I find that without writing and creative work ... I starve. I left this temple, which I always loved, fifteen years ago because I starved here.

So I took today off. Cancelled chauffeuring Ani Samla. Rescheduled practice to Saturday night. And I'm taking time to write.

* i.e. became a closed canon.

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Fandom vs RL: I'm not whining but OMG

Fri, 22 Mar 2013 08:23:12 GMT

I'm not whining. I'm too happy to whine.

I like my job, I like the kitties, I like my home (well, the extra housemates are irritating but no big deal). I like fantasizing about Tiny Houses.

I like being close to mom and my brother and talking to my dad more often. I like being in contact with my extended family again (even when there are tragedies).

I like my projects at the temple, the Tibetan stuff, saving for retreats and summer study, the school stuff in the works, my practice and finishing up the 1.2 million accumulations of ngundro, painting the temple prayer room, helping in my teacher's household, feeding the feral cat colony and supplying the food bank, and my weekly prayer shift.

I also like spending time with my friend Simon, my online friends, hanging out with Geoff after work, supporting and joking with my temple friends, and working on the Stitch N'Bitch that's still in the planning stages.

I'm also enjoying my various still unfinished decorating projects at home (chair refinishing, the pot rack, the Overly Ambitious Rug), my efforts to replace all that I lost to WG in my move to Maryland, my ongoing makeover (new haircut! Plus actual makeup! Skin care! Lost my glasses!), my little garden, caring for the birds, and working on my car.

But you see it, can't you? Re-read that list.

Oh my God I'm busy!

When I come home late at night, the relaxation I do is mindless TV, reading, or Castleville.

Today, a lovely woman asked if I could please, pretty please write the sequel to Primer to the Dark Arts. It's so rare for people to review now, I rolled in it like catnip.

Care for a drabble instead? Haiku?

Limerick?

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Oi, long week and ... cabinets!

Fri, 25 Jan 2013 09:24:52 GMT

Two six-day work weeks and I'm behind on everything.

It's bad enough that I've lost my glasses and have had to wear my contacts the last couple days. The remote disappears. So tonight I face Mt. Laundry; tomorrow, spelunking in the Empty Refrigerator Caverns. Though first I must cross the Science Project Swamp.

The decorating continues on apace in the form of ... cabinets. A real kitchen is developing in the corner. I picked Ikea cabinets with the Lidi colonial doors (they veddy nice). My buddy David from the temple came over the weekend before last to install them in exchange for dinner out. (I think he wants to date me and he's a great guy, but the age gap is just too wide. I thought he was 54 but he's actually, ulp, 63. He unnecessarily took his shirt off while putting in the cabinets and, yes, David, you look good. But no.)

Junior kitty's already managed to get stuck on top of the cabinets. Up was fun. Dowwwnnnn-mew?

We also put in a cat door to my room so I can close the door without locking kitties in. I had this vision of kitties happily leaping through the door.

Yeeeeah, such a fantasy.

They didn't like banging their heads against a plastic piece to open it, nor were they pleased about it snapping shut on their tails.

Junior stared at it in trepidation, one paw pensively raised. Rothy, after being stuffed through for the demo, ran away, fluffy belly low to the ground.

I finally propped the door open with rubber bands. It looks stupid but since it's an interior door....

Now we have the happy leaping kitty steeplechase.

I've been workingworkingworkingworking (note the six-day weeks).

I miss our fandom Stitch N' Bitches up in Baltimore. Would anyone be interested in having one just outside of Germantown? Bueller-?

Endnote: Rothy's adorable with his little pink tongue sticking out.

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The Blaze of BUSY

Tue, 31 Jul 2012 08:15:20 GMT

Went on a Blaze!of!Busy a while back. Couldn't get laundry done, wasn't eating right (or at all), wasn't doing even a five-minute practice in the am.

Was writing (nonfic stuff), teaching Tibetan class once a week, tutoring SATs six days a week and then driving folks from DC to the temple (an hour and a half trip for me), and being the banhammer in an online Buddhist!wank (yes, we have them, and you know the time those can take).

It was worth it. The cat box was kept clean at least. But overall my life was such a wreck by the end of that period.

Then Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche visited.

Twenty years ago, he was the young guy in the black bomber jacket -- I thought he was just some kid (he was 24ish then) -- slouched in my livingroom. Turned he was The Lama (oopsie, glad I wasn't rude).

He's always had helpful advice.

This visit was no exception. He advised me, "Make your life work for you." Said it several times.

I put on the breaks.

I'd been saying yes to everything because I wanted to be helpful, but it was too much. My long-term goals were being smothered in short term demands. I was letting my desire to be helpful (and please people, yes) run my life. As a result I was neglecting my schooling, family, friends, practice, the things that matter to me.

So, hi. I'm back.

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AO3 question from a Twitter friend: can you re-adopt orphaned fics?

Tue, 08 May 2012 05:30:28 GMT

Hallooooo! AO3 experts!

I know you can orphan works. But can you orphan and then re-adopt them?

A Twitter fandom friend wants to post on AO3 anonymously, then have a reveal, like you would in a collection.

Is there a way to do this for a single story?

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I finally have time (being sick) and I'm not in a fandom

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 07:34:09 GMT

I finally have time to read fic (being sick and all). But I'm not in a fandom.

I'm kinda sorta hovering around the edges of X-Men First Class. I'll read the occasional Star Trek Reboot. I'm still hanging out in SGA though I feel like I've read everything (surely not true).

*presses nose against the window of fandom*

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Support the OTW.

Sun, 22 Apr 2012 02:10:12 GMT

I am very pleased to donate to and help the OTW.

They provide a valuable ongoing service to fandom, and I appreciate all that they're doing, from the archive to the academic works. I have a lot of respect for the sheer amount of effort it takes to keep such a massive project going.

I'll always critiques and opinions to offer, simply because I want it to be the best that it can, and I want it to be a great experience for all those involved.

Hats off to you guys.

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Five minutes to drabble

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 17:29:12 GMT

I feel like writing.

*starts the stopwatch*

The first person who gives me a one-word prompt and a pairing (from a pairing I've written before) within the next five minutes gets a drabble.

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Website update: Today's post brought to you by the letters 'F', 'G', and 'H'.

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 05:34:43 GMT

Certain letters of the alphabet I've neglected in my fic titles. Q, for example.

I'm now up to the letter 'H' in the reupload of Icarus.Slash.Fiction. Because 'F', 'G', and 'H' get little attention in my titles, I'm doing them all at once. (38 stories to go.)

First, the return of two SG-1 fics:

For The Petulant Gods
The title requires some explanation. "thepetulantgod" was a friend in SG-1 fandom who complained that fanfic only had terrific, marvelous sex. Well, I had written bad sex before (hmm, what's happened to that last link?), just not for the SG-1 fandom. This has now been remedied. I'm not sure who has worse sex. Jack/Daniel in SG-1, or Percy/Lucius in Harry Potter?

Hotel California
Apparently in an effort to make up for the truly bad sex in the last story, I had to write good sex for Adzio Zine. Jack. Daniel. A boat.

The sorting hat says that I belong in Ravenclaw!

Said Ravenclaw, "We'll teach those whose intelligence is surest."

Ravenclaw students tend to be clever, witty, intelligent, and knowledgeable.
Notable residents include Cho Chang and Padma Patil (objects of Harry and Ron's affections), and Luna Lovegood (daughter of The Quibbler magazine's editor).

Take the most scientific Harry Potter
Quiz ever created.

Get Sorted Now!

The return of more Harry Potter fics:

The link devastation of tearing down fics from my site affected the Harry Potter collection most of all.

Hagrid's Hut, Harry/Ron
A Primer to the Dark Arts fic with more experimentation with The Book Of Eros.

Here Again, Percy/Arthur
The fic switchblade dared me to write -- and I squicked myself in the process.

And two drabbles from the Beg Me For It series:
Guess Who, Draco/Ron
Living with Draco is like living with a small predator.

Fetish, Draco/Ron
Well, the title says it all.

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Second billing after Van Damme? Not bad, Joe.

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 07:37:43 GMT

Am looking forward to Joe Flanigan in Six Bullets. I hear there's this other guy, Jean-Claude Van Damme, in it. I dunno, he does kickboxing or somesuch. ;)

Not bad, Joe. May this be the start of many more. I've been missing my Flanigan fix.

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Friended and defriended

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 10:17:35 GMT

General housekeeping:

Added a number of people who friended me on LJ long ago, and removed some who unfriended me long ago. Didn't add empty lurker journals, journals inactive for six years or more, and don't know why so many Russian LJs have me friended. But I also found some people who've reviewed stories and -- why didn't I friend them before?

Had a moment of alarm when I saw wildernessguru still had me friended ... until I recalled I set that up for him, and he probably doesn't even have the password.

It felt a bit like visiting a ghost town, all those dead journals. Like I'm on DW, though sticking it out on LJ too, but I can see the dust devils in the wake of the fandom gold rush.

I can't tell if it's me, because I haven't had time to write (well, finish) fanfic lately, or if it's really that fandom is leaving LJ. Or maybe it's just the impression one gets when clearing out one old account after another ... last entry dated June 2006 ... August 2007 ... December 2005 ... only two entries ever made.

Strange, this LJ ghost town.

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It's time to put my website back up.

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 06:28:12 GMT

Okay, my website is slowly going back up.

Five more stories are up:

Binary Roles
Between The Lines
Beg Me For It
Betrayal
Bacchanalian Circuit

The reason I took it down was the harassment from this guy. The site's been down for two years.

Considering it ... in my years in fandom, I've stood up to the C&D orders from Raincoast Books in 2003, various fandom wanks, and two former Yahoo execs who started Fanlib in 2007. Why should I give in to this cyberstalker?

There is a difference. Raincoast, fandom, and the Fanlib folks were no doubt decent people who meant well; we simply disagreed and clashed. The harasser on the other hand is an ex-con and dangerous, particularly to women. He went to prison for his assault of his ex-wife, (pled down from rape). And he has a wide range of other charges against him, from (proved) cyberstalking to (demonstrated) fraud, to (suspected) plagiarism. (He's published scholarly articles in fields in which he has no degree or background.)

This is not a good guy.

Raincoast, Fanlib, and the others, we only disagreed over a particular issues. It wasn't personal. When the issue ended, the dispute ended. The harasser on the other hand has pursued a relentless three-year personal vendetta, not connected to any issue. He has no goal except to shut down Jetsunma and my temple.

Even when I had a year-long break while he was incarcerated pending cyberstalking charges, I didn't put my website back together. No time, and fandom wasn't the refuge it has once been.

But those broken links affect a lot of rec-lists, and I haven't been intimidated before. Let the website stand.

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Icarus Slash Fiction ... Four stories back up ... 60+ to go

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 18:47:16 GMT

I'm doing this alphabetically, so four stories are back up at Icarus Slash Fiction:

- An Elegant Man
- Animagick
- Another Outtake
- Ante Up

Urg. Looks like I'll have to fix the counters on all of them.

Now roughly 64 to go. Turns out I also took down a couple of main site pages too....

Once I get the old works up (and thereby fix all those broken links on rec sites) I'll need to create files for my newer works:

- Playing The Hopeful Move
- Toy Drums & Soldiers
- Squid & Christmas Trees
- Dragonlord
- Collisions
- Toasty Goodness And The Marshmallow Creature
- The Other Side Of Oblivious
- The Pandora Effect
- Star Drive
- The Care And Feeding Of Unicorns

There are also new translations into Chinese of Guy Talk and An Irresistible Photo.

ETA: The one thing I don't have is the fanart. It was all on the computer WG stole. Eventually I'll see if I can contact the artists. Will need to get permission to upload the art for Dragonlord as well.

ETA the II: Hand coded HTML. I had way too much time on on my hands at Uni.

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