Jedi's Archives

Today I opened the To Ignite the Stars Word document for the first time in like ... eons. According to the handy-dandy little popup that appears when I wave my mouse over the icon, it was last modified June 21, 2008. EEP. That would have been a couple days after my surgery, so I'm not entirely sure what I was doing trying to work on it. I'll have to check the latest chapter and be sure it actually makes sense given the amount of pain medication I was on at that point. XD Anyway, I thought those of you on the f-list who are TIS readers would be happy to hear that my muse is at least contemplating work on it again, and that all other things being equal, I'll probably try and do some Star Wars-related writing tonight. It's amazing what a rewatch of the prequels can do for the old inspiration.

The main point of this post, however, is to express my excitement over the recent announcement that J.K. Rowling's charity will be publishing "The Tales of Beedle the Bard" in December. Now, if you're at all a part of the Harry Potter fandom, even on the fringes, you've probably heard this news unless you've been living on Jupiter or something, but I wanted to throw in a YAY anyway. From the release on the Leaky Cauldron's site:

"According to a post on JKRowling.com, the book will have commentary by Dumbledore (it was 'discovered in his papers after his death,' including historical notes, personal reminisces, and insights into the most mysterious branch of magic, wand lore). The tales were 'translated from the original runes by Hermione Granger' and have illustrations by J.K. Rowling.

"JKR: 'There was understandable disappointment among Harry Potter fans when only one copy of The Tales of Beedle the Bard was offered to the public last December. I am therefore delighted to announce that, thanks to the generous support of Bloomsbury, Scholastic and Amazon (who bought the handwritten copy at auction) – and with the blessing of the wonderful people who own the other six original books - The Tales of Beedle the Bard will now be widely available to all Harry Potter fans. Royalties will be donated to the Children’s High Level Group, to benefit institutionalised children in desperate need of a voice. The new edition will include the Tales themselves, translated from the original runes by Hermione Granger, and with illustrations by me, but also notes by Professor Albus Dumbledore, which appear by generous permission of the Hogwarts Headmasters' archive.'"

Because I'm a dork, I've already preordered my $100 collector's copy from Amazon.ca. (I knew there was a reason I decided to work so much overtime last month! XD) The book will be released on December 4, which seems an awfully long way away from where I'm sitting! It will at least make a nice semi-birthday gift for me though, not to mention something to look forward to while I'm buried chest-deep in exams.

I'm really curious about the tales themselves, and have been ever since JKR announced that she had written them and would be auctioning a copy off. Amazon.com had a special section dedicated to the book after they won it, and if I recall correctly there was a special group of people selected to read it and post reviews to the website. I read reviews of a couple of the stories but then forgot to go back and check for the rest. I suspect they've probably taken it down anyway now that the book is going to be published for a general audience.

Anyway, should be fun!

In other SW news I was at the bookstore yesterday after work, loading up on Clone Wars merchandise. To my surprise and annoyance, not a lot of it seems to be available in my area as of yet (and it's not like I live in Siberia or something - Ottawa, the freakin' capital of Canada, thank you very much!). I did pick up the Visual Guide and the Junior Novelization, but was unfortunately unable to get the adult novel. Maybe it's better that way, so I won't be tempted to peek and get spoiled. ;) The Junior novel is safe under my bed, not to be opened until after I see the movie. And although I did take a brief look at the Visual Guide - and was very pleased with what I saw, with respect to a certain character - I'm going to save a more detailed reading for later.

August is going to be quite the exciting month fandom-wise! Let's hope my oversqueeful self can survive it. XD

How in the hell is it possible to get so attached to little 100x100 pictures? I did another overhaul of my userpics on this journal tonight, and while there were some that I definitely wanted to delete, actually freeing up enough space for the icons I wanted to upload was like pulling teeth. Which is pretty ridiculous if you think about it. Nothing bad will happen if I delete a Kara icon or a Padmé icon or an Anakin/Padmé icon. Countries will not go to war. Innocent kittens will not be slaughtered. A gigantic wormhole will not open in the middle of New York City and swallow five hundred people alive. And yet, from the way brain reacted to the deletion, you'd think that all of the above and more were not only possible, but absolutely inevitable. Yeesh.

Anyway, not so much the point of this post. I just needed to vent a bit at my own stupidity. Heh.

There was another post on fanficrants today about people who use dyslexia, Asperger's Syndrome or [insert disorder du jour here] as an excuse for poorly-written fanfiction. I didn't comment, simply because the issue has been covered approximately five hundred and seventy-six times before and anything I could have said would have been ... well, pretty repetitive. However, I feel strongly enough about the issue to write my own rant on it, or mini-rant at the very least. 'Cause the chronic pain - medically diagnosed, fyi - is in the hands tonight and it's hard to type. Eeeeyowch.

( Okay, this DID get slightly longer than I thought it would be. Heh. )

I'll give the last word to my icon: what is written without effort is in general read without pleasure. Doesn't mean fanfic can't be fun to write - after all, why the frak else would we all be here?? - but it does mean that if you are going to be taken semi-seriously, you have to care enough to put in the effort.

Here lies Liz. She shipped both Obi-Wan/Padmé AND Anakin/Padmé. Yes, it IS possible!

... Okay, I jest. XD And this is more a complaint from when I used to be heavily involved in SW fandom and thus took more flak from militant A/P shippers. But that's the first thing that popped into my mind when I read this question, so yeah. Yay harmless fun.

Real post coming soon, I promise. Also, I will probably be posting fic today. Whee!

I weep for Star Wars fandom when I do Jedi News and the only two fics to report are Anakin/Dormé. As the icon says, HEADDESK.

Then again, myself and my muse are hardly helping.

*kicks muse and goes back to working on her latest Kara/Sam fic*

Saw this on the f-list of my personal journal and was going to fill it out there, but then decided it's really more fandom-related, so brought it over here. I've probably done it before, but meh.

( What I ship and don't ship )

Title: Threaten to Reconcile
Author: senatorsfan_ink
Fandom and Pairing: Battlestar Galactica, Sam/Kara
Word Count: 3,717
Rating: NC-17 (married people doing married things)
Spoilers: Through S4's "Revelations"
Summary: “Well? You think a couple of screw-ups like us can make it together?”
Author's Notes: Okay, I think it's time to finally push this bird out of the nest. It was supposed to be posted maybe a week after "Revelations" aired, but various real life circumstances conspired to ensure that would not be the case. Basically, my aim with this fic was first to write a straightforward Kara and Sam getting back together and frakking each other's brains out PWP, but it somehow devolved into exploring how Kara might have reacted, off-screen, to the news that her husband is a Cylon. With some of that P (as in Porn) thrown in for good measure. Think of it as a sort of "missing scene" starting when Sam meets up with her in the memorial hall. I'm not entirely pleased with this fic, and I don't think it represents my best work, but at some point you have to stop fiddling around and rearranging words and switching paragraphs around. Applied to my fanfic50 claim because I'm lazy like that.

Read it here @ jedionpaper

Yes, I is still alive! XD Figured I'd reassure several people who've added me lately that this journal is not, in fact, dead. It's just been on a sort of ... unscheduled hiatus, heh. A combination of writer's block, real life circumstances and just general apathy have conspired to bring my fic production down to almost zero, and since the BSG finale I haven't really had other reasons to post here. I've been updating my "real life" journal quite a bit, but the unfortunate consequence of having lots of real life stuff to talk about is that fandom gets pushed to the side.

Deviating just momentarily into the real life side of things, overall this has been a pretty crappy summer for me. Earlier in June I had to have some surgery, which although minor, certainly sapped a lot of my energy and left me feeling very un-creative. As if that weren't enough, one of my cats became very sick, and I eventually had to make the difficult decision to have him put to sleep. At times like that, fandom can be a refuge, and I continued to run my stillness communities and do the fandom newsletters. But I couldn't write, and I didn't read much fic, either.

Things are better now, so don't worry. I've started reading fic again, I've started writing again, and I'm thinking about various bits of meta floating around in my head that I'd like to post here. There's also the fic from the drabble request meme, which I promise I will get done, and there's my poor fic claims and my even poorer writing schedule, which got pretty much shot to hell over the past month. I'll have to rework it, but all in good time.

I have a finished Kara/Sam fic that I'm planning to post right after this, and several other ideas floating around in my head. There's TIS, too, and there's my list of fic bookmarks that I need to plow through and review. I'll also get to those!

Meanwhile, I saw this little survey/questionnaire on the blog of a person I always read, but don't actually have friended. Being too chicken to de-lurk and fill it out in the comments section of her journal (yeah, I know, I know), I decided to bring it over here. So, the Beta Reader Survey, with wisteria_'s copyright:

( Under here )

Speaking of beta-ing ... off to beta and post some fic now. :)

For the first time since I got into Battlestar Galactica, around Christmastime, I am speechless.

As in, this episode left me UTTERLY ... FUCKING ... SPEECHLESS.

I didn't liveblog. I intended to but just never got started.

And now I am honest-to-goodness speechless.

HOLY. SHIT.

I will now ask the question that I think must be on the minds of every BSG fan tonight.

Now what?

Title: Lessons in Grief
Previous Chapters: Can be read here.
Characters: Obi-Wan, Padmé, mentions of others
Word Count: 4,832
Rating: PG
Summary: “I don’t know how … I don’t know how to do what you want me to do. I’m sorry.”
Author's Notes: Continuing to churn these out at a record clip, for which you can thank my muse. I don't know what's gotten into her lately but she has been almost scarily cooperative. Long may this last! I have to admit that I love the way this chapter flows, and it's been very interesting to explore some of the issues contained herein. These next few chapters will be introspective, with not a whole lot of action, but to tell the truth I'm kind of grateful for that after ROTS.

Read Chapter 27 here @ jedionpaper

Title: You
Characters/Pairings: Anakin/Obi-Wan, mentions of Padmé and Qui-Gon
Word Count: 2,742
Rating: NC-17
Summary: It was our word.
Author's Notes: This should have been posted last week, but for various reasons that were largely beyond my control, it unfortunately wasn't. Anyway, better late than never, I suppose! This is a birthday gift for my very good friend Deborah, aka gizzi1213, whom I feel so privileged to have been able to get to know and chat with over the last six months or so. We've had our occasional shipping differences (*cough*Obidalarules*cough*) and we are both extremely opinionated (*cough*KaraThraceistheonetrueStarbuck*cough*) but it's all in good fun and I'm very glad to count her among my friends. The fic was partially inspired by the relationship between two characters in Lori Lansens' The Girls, and also by a particular scene in Revenge of the Sith. Deborah, this one's for you. *hugs*

( It was our word )

Title: The Nature of Love
Characters: Caprica!Six, Tigh, mentions of Kara and Sam
Word Count: 808
Rating: PG
Summary: The woman’s love for her husband was strong. Strong enough, Caprica deduced, that the woman would resort to using her body to win his freedom.
Author's Notes: Drabble written for jedi_em, as part of the drabble request meme. :) (By the way, I still have a few spots left open, so if you'd like to make a request, feel free!) This turned out a bit differently than my original idea, and unfortunately Kara doesn't have a direct role, but I hope this appeals nonetheless! It was a lot of fun getting inside Six's head, which is a place I don't often get to go.

( She reflected that there was still so much they did not know about love. )

I promised gizzi1213 I'd repost this if she wrote lealynnkenobi and I an Obidala drabble, so this is me keeping up my end of the bargain. ;) Besides, I don't often do short stuff like this, so here's an opportunity for me to challenge myself as a writer.

I will write a drabble for the first TEN commenters to request one. In return, they have to post this in their journal.

Drabbles will be at least 100 words in length, although if I'm writing them they'll probably be at least slightly more, 'cause I fail at short. Heh.

Fandoms: Star Wars and Battlestar Galactica are really the only ones I feel comfortable writing in at the moment. Also, be aware that if you request Obi-Wan/Padmé, the drabble may be set in the To Ignite the Stars universe, because I find now I'm having trouble thinking of Obi-Wan/Padmé as existing OUTSIDE that universe. XD

Anyway, request away, f-list!

Title: No Emotion
Previous Chapters: Can be read here.
Characters: Obi-Wan, Padmé, Bail Organa, Yoda
Word Count: 4,647
Rating: PG - the angst continueth
Summary: “You’re going to have the babies, darling. The medical droids have induced labour.”
Author's Notes: A chapter a week, I think I could get used to this! I had several other writing projects on the go this week, so this actually didn't get done as fast as I thought it would. I'm pleased with it overall, though, especially with the fact that I'm getting to explore some of the emotional issues that Obi-Wan and Padmé (if she had lived) might have experienced in the wake of the Mustafar battle. I watched an excellent movie last night about the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder on soldiers returning from the war in Iraq, so I expect that will probably inform a lot of future TIS chapters.

Read it here @ jedionpaper

I can't believe there's only two more episodes to go until the hiatus! Eek!! But yes, I am liveblogging again. Spoilers under the cut, etc.

( Over here! )

Title: Hellfire
Previous Chapters: Can be read here.
Characters: Obi-Wan, Padmé, Anakin
Word Count: 5,172
Rating: PG-13 - angst, angst and more angst
Summary: It was the worst moment of his life.
Author's Notes: After I'd put the finishing touches on this chapter, I literally had to leave my apartment, go outside and sit under a tree, just trying to clear my mind of the emotional impact on the characters and the emotional impact on me the writer, having to get all of this down. Yes, it's fanfiction, and so perhaps it's silly of me to get so intensely involved. But I can't help it; that's how I write. These characters are as real to me as any other actual person, so it's damned hard to put them in these types of situations. At least the worst is (sort of) over.

Read Chapter 25 here @ jedionpaper

Liveblogging again, woot! It's about bloody time, too. Two weeks is just waaaaaay too long to wait between new BSG episodes (which makes me wonder how in hell I'll survive the midseason hiatus, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it), particularly given the kind of cliffhanger the last episode ended on and the fact that those living in the U.K. got to see this episode first. May I say again: NO FAIR!!! And the whole "skipping a week because it's Memorial Day" really doesn't hold water with me for two reasons. First because, UM, HELLO, I LIVE IN CANADA, and second, I would so seriously get up at THREE FUCKING A.M. to watch BSG if I had to. Just sayin'.

Anyway! On to the liveblog.

( Clicky the cut )

Title: The Sound of One Hand Clapping
Previous Chapters: Can be read here.
Fandom and Pairing: Battlestar Galactica, Lee/Kara with mentions of Lee/Dee, Sam/Kara and Zak/Kara
Status: Complete. One chapter will be posted per day.
Word Count: 1,073 this chapter
Rating: PG this chapter - references to intimacy, but nothing graphic
Spoilers: This fic contains spoilers through S3's "Maelstrom." Also note that this part will contain a spoiler for S3's "Crossroads, Part II."
Summary: Four weeks following, Helo shows her a supernova’s scan, and everything falls to pieces.
Author's Notes: And so we come to the end of this fic, yikes! It seems amazing to me, because I literally spent three very intense weeks writing it. (Good thing for me I was on vacation from work, although I'm not exactly sure how to explain to my boss what I did on said vacation. "Yeah, I wrote a 23,000-word fanfic, how about you?" Heh.) Anyway, it seems like you have all enjoyed it, a fact which I'm obviously very thrilled with and surprised at. Thank you all so very much for reading! As always, more extensive author's notes can be found here.

Read the Epilogue here @ jedionpaper

Title: Beginnings of Darkness
Previous Chapters: Can be read here.
Characters: Obi-Wan, Padmé, Anakin, Yoda, Bail Organa
Word Count: 5,231
Rating: PG - angst, but nothing really beyond what you'd see in canon
Summary: “You know very well that if the Force wills you to die as in Anakin’s visions, I will let you go. I will not set myself against the inevitable. But to sacrifice you so that a Sith Lord could add you to his list of cold-blooded murders is something I cannot abide. It is something I will not abide.”
Author's Notes: Okay, so I was going to have this posted last night, but my stupid internet decided that since there was a thunderstorm outside, it didn't feel like working. *kicks unreliable wireless connection* So here it is today. Heh. Anyway, remember when I said I was getting back into the SW groove? Well ... yeah! I honestly did not expect to be finished the next chapter so soon, but there you go. My muse has decided that her new hobby should be keeping me on my toes, hee. Or maybe she just wants to get through these particular chapters as quickly as possible - I know I do! Anyway, the Revenge of the Sith story arc continues. I will warn you that there is some heavy-duty angst in this chapter. I had quite a difficult time writing it for that reason. It's only Katie's help, and a steady supply of Palpatine clones to thwap, that has kept me going. Plus your awesome reviews, of course!

Read Chapter 24 here @ jedionpaper

Title: The Sound of One Hand Clapping
Previous Chapters: Can be read here.
Fandom and Pairing: Battlestar Galactica, Lee/Kara with mentions of Lee/Dee, Sam/Kara and Zak/Kara
Status: Complete. One chapter will be posted per day.
Word Count: 2,676 this chapter
Rating: NC-17 this chapter - smut, and I do mean SMUT
Spoilers: This fic contains spoilers through S3's "Maelstrom."
Summary: They have been her lifeline. For a month she would not have eaten, drunk, dressed, used the head, washed, existed without those hands.
Author's Notes: There is most definitely smut in this chapter, so if that's what you're looking for, you've come to the right place. ;) I would almost go so far as to call it PWP, or at least as close to PWP as this fic will come (because it does have an overall plot, heh). Not for the small fry or the easily offended. As always, more extensive author's notes can be found here.

Read Chapter 10 here @ jedionpaper

Title: The Sound of One Hand Clapping
Previous Chapters: Can be read here.
Fandom and Pairing: Battlestar Galactica, Lee/Kara with mentions of Lee/Dee, Sam/Kara and Zak/Kara
Status: Complete. One chapter will be posted per day.
Word Count: 1,557 this chapter
Rating: PG this chapter
Spoilers: This fic contains spoilers through S3's "Maelstrom."
Summary: She sits up slightly and opens her mouth, wanting to believe she’s doing the right thing and wishing it was over, all of it, this frakked-up existence without hands. Wishing things could just go back to the way they used to be. But then she and Lee probably would not be so close, would not be connected in such an intimate way by bonds of mutual trust.
Author's Notes: I can't believe there's only two more chapters left to go of this fic (one of which, Chapter 11, is really more of an epilogue)! You all have been just awesome with your reading and your feedback, and I promise I'll get to yesterday's comments as soon as possible. One more bout of willful!Kara to go, and then it's smooth(er) sailing. ;) As always, more extensive author's notes can be found here.

Read Chapter 9 here @ jedionpaper