My fics are also compiled at seekers_in_love; there's a little extra here.

( One Shots, Etc. )
( Slashed-Up Canon Series )
( Spark, Tremble & Sigh - AU, pre-DH series (in progress) )
( Drabbles and Ficlets )
( Music )
( Meta, Humor and Other Writing )

So on this mothers-of-twins mailing list I've joined, an anxious parent wants to know if there's a consultant she can hire... to find a preschool for her 15 mo. old toddlers! Preschool consulting - now there's a racket. What exactly would they do other than know the area schools and be able to describe them? Oh, I forgot,there's the grueling admissions process. Never too early to gather experience and material for that Harvard application.

ETA: Thanks to emmagrant01 for mentioning this documentary about the elite preschool phenomenon:



In other news, the clever and beauteous blamebrampton has urged us poor HP fans who won't be at Azkatraz to pimp the following new comm "like the wind" : now Brammers, how exactly does one pimp like the wind, and what doth the wind pimp? I know it cries Mary, but I wasn't aware it was in the business of procurement.

Anyway, come join azkatrazathome and have fun with us!

sansa1970 suggested I play, so here goes:

Wouldn't it be neat to look at a sample of our work from Way Back When and hold it up against something We Just Wrote? Have we grown as writers? Do we have a lasting style – the kind that's connected to us and not necessarily to our technical proficiency?

( Early 2006 )

( June 2009 )

Meme rules: Reply to this meme by yelling - or typing - "Words!" and I will give you five words that remind me of you. Then post them in your LJ and explain what they mean to you. Or explain in the comments. Or not at all. The choice is yours.

nuclearsugars gave me these five words:
( CALIFORNIA, VICTORIAN, ELOQUENCE, MOTHER, & BEAUTY )

***
( A dream )

***
( What's going on now )

1. I hate moving. It makes me so tired I can't think straight. Also there is something so sad about packing up and leaving... a sort of finality that you can't call this place "home" anymore. I really would love to be somewhere to put down roots for a while. *sigh* We'll be in our new place on Friday.

2. elisa_rolle wrote a really interesting post for shared_wisdom on the connection between slash fiction, gay romance, and "gay novels" (what I would call gay literature). Most of the fanfic writers I know of who've gone pro have written either fantasy (Sarah Rees Brennan, Jaida Jones) or romance (Erastes). I wonder why that is? Is genre writing easier to market than literature, especially gay-themed literature?

3. Merde, il pleut! (not yet, but it looks like it's about to start). Thanks to silentauror for alerting me to the existence of this excellent umbrella, available here (scroll down).

4. I have a bitter, metallic taste in my mouth, and most everything smells and tastes bad to me. Was briefly worried about dire illnesses until I read online that this is not an uncommon pregnancy symptom. It's really weird! I just ate a Thin Mint and it tasted like bitter cardboard.

Desktop wallpaper meme, nicked from everyone!

01. Post this meme along with your current wallpaper.
02. Explain in five sentences why you're using that wallpaper!
03. Don't change your wallpaper before doing this! The point is to see what you had on!




I'm using this wallpaper to remind me to work on my somewhat moribund book, miracle_flight -derailed first by travel and then by pregnancy. Most likely I'll squeeze out a chapter after we move next week. The image is a gorgeous painting by raitala of my character Professor Thomas Ardesco - and he looks just as I always imagined! Before I started writing, he was supposed to have a much bigger role in the story than he does now. Well, you never know what might happen when I actually finish.

Unrelated: pregnancy is eating my brain. Today I washed an apple in the office bathroom instead of the kitchen. *headdesk* I didn't realize until I was walking out and taking a bite.

I've been obsessed lately with reading about the latest Craigslist killer - the so-called Womb Raider in Oregon who advertised a baby clothes exchange, then ended up killing a pregnant woman and crudely cutting the nearly full-term fetus from her body (the baby did not survive). According to Wikipedia, there have actually been a number of these fetal abductions in the US, though they're quite rare - always committed by other women. Reading about all this is like a horrible accident you can't turn away from... you just want to know more. I am not personally afraid, but now I have decided not to buy anything from a stranger on Craigslist until my pregnancy has concluded, even though I could save a lot that way and I doubt most sellers have criminal intentions. Though I'm not as paranoid as this particular commenter:

So here is a proposed recommendation: if you are pregnant and past the point where your baby even MIGHT be viable outside your body, DO NOT TRUST TO BE ALONE WITH ANYONE except maybe very close family members. That other "pregnant" woman you met at the mall, in the supermarket, consignment shop, drug store, even church or anywhere else just MIGHT not be pregnant at all - except in her own mind and with YOUR BABY! And if another "pregnant" woman seems to be trying to form a special friendship with you - especially as your pregnancy reaches the "viable" stage - LOOK OUT!

Oh, come on now. So I can't talk to another pregnant woman in the bathroom at work for fear of abduction?

And I don't believe Craigslist is to blame: just the fact that anyone can list an ad doesn't mean it's a hotbed of murder and other crime. Below is my favorite comment on that subject:

The cause of all these evil evil things is Craigslist. Haven't you noticed all these horrible things keep happening because of this List?... If people are not allowed to talk about these things and then LIST them, they would not happen. It wasn't good enough to get rid of the sex ads we have to get rid of the entire LIST. There was that guy who posted a LIST in 1517 and soon all those German Bibles began appearing: the world has never been the same.

I believe the last line must be a reference to Martin Luther. Watch out for German Bibles! ;)

Title: Bedposts and Broomsticks
Author: anthimaeria
Pairing: Hermione/Ginny - no H/D here, sorry (but it's only because Ginny and Hermione weren't aware of it at the time!)
Rating: NC-17
Disclaimer: All characters are the copyrighted works of J.K Rowling. No profit was made by the writing of this story, nor was any malice intended in any way, shape or form to the author. Also, all characters are assumed to be of age for the reader's jurisdiction.
Summary: Hermione gives in to an odd obsession and reaps the benefits of same.
Word Count: ~1600
Notes: Pure smutty PWP - if you're looking for plot, there's none here whatsoever! Un-betaed, un-Britpicked: feel free to point out any obvious errors. Cross-posted to hp_femsmut.

( Bedposts and Broomsticks )

Last night I went with noeon and my unborn twins to see this film. Without spoiling anything, it didn't really deliver.

( Little Ashes - SPOILERS under the cut! )

* Meme stolen from noeon and venturous1:

The next five people to comment in this post [and who specifically ask for it] get to request a drawble of any pairing/character of their choosing that I am familiar with from me. In return, they have to post this in their journal, regardless of their ability level.

Slash, femmeslash, het - anything goes! I can't promise it will be good, though.

* Speaking of noeon, we're going to see Little Ashes tomorrow, basically to watch Robert Pattinson and Javier Beltran lust after each other. It's about Salvador Dali's university days with future famous pals Federico Garcia-Lorca and Luis Bunuel, and has received very mixed reviews. Judging from the trailer, the characters affect heinously fake Spanish accents, but it will have to be seen how much that affects our enjoyment of the film.

* And do pop over and check out this hot, sexy little H/D comment fic by melusina_hp, based on the extremely uncommon fetish of ballooning. Comment fic is always welcome in my LJ!

* Will update the pregnancy filter as soon as I steal the latest ultrasound pics back from the husband. The twins are fine, despite the fact that things are a bit cramped for them at the moment. I'm very glad I'm not the Octomom. Again, if you're not on the filter and wish to be - let me know.

Lastly, happy belated birthday to bryoneybrynn! I'm glad we're friends.