dunmurderin

Ok, I signed up for

casestory and I get that casefic is pretty much the fannish term for 'mystery story' but...are there any other nuances that I should be aware of? Like, at

casestory, the first rule is:

Stories should be focused on a case/crime investigation/crime. Medical cases or other themes are also allowed as long as there is a case somehow involved.

And what I'm wondering is, what does 'other theme' mean/how could it be construed?

What I'm hoping is that the mystery in casefic doesn't have to be a murder, 'cause I love me some crime shows but murders are getting old, y'all.

From Mental Floss's Twitter feed:

John Tyler, who became President in 1841, has two living grandchildren. Not great-great-great-grandchildren. Their dad was Tyler's son

More Details: Lyon Gardiner Tyler, one of Tyler's 15 kids, was born in 1853. He fathered Lyon Jr. (1924) and Harrison Ruffin (1928).

From me and my calculator:

Lyon Jr. is 88; his dad was 71 when he was born.
Harrison Ruffin is 84; Dad was 75 when he was born.

What's even freakier? The grandchildren of a guy who was President in 1841 are YOUNGER than my grandmother who was born in 1914. She was 10 and 14 when they were born.

Wild.

Nicked From:

hellkitty by way of

ultharkitty:

Post the first sentence (or three) from every WIP you're currently working on, even if it's very short. Then invite people to ask questions about your WIPs. With any luck, you'll get talking about writing, and the motivation to take that WIP one step closer to completion will appear as if by magic!

( Excerpts Under Cut )

Edited to switch tables (used to be Table B) and change the date of the original post (originally posted 2/26/2011)

TABLE A - GENERAL
001	Beginnings	002	Middles	003	Ends	004	Insides	005	Outsides
006	Hours	007	Days	008	Weeks	009	Months	010	Years
011	Red	012	Orange	013	Yellow	014	Green	015	Blue
016	Purple	017	Brown	018	Black	019	White	020	Colourless
021	Friends	022	Enemies	023	Lovers	024	Family	025	Strangers
026	Teammates	027	Parents	028	Children	029	Birth	030	Death
031	Sunrise	032	Sunset	033	Too Much	034	Not Enough	035	Sixth Sense
036	Smell	037	Sound	038	Touch	039	Taste	040	Sight
041	Shapes	042	Triangle	043	Square	044	Circle	045	Moon
046	Star	047	Heart	048	Diamond	049	Club	050	Spade
051	Water	052	Fire	053	Earth	054	Air	055	Spirit
056	Breakfast	057	Lunch	058	Dinner	059	Food	060	Drink
061	Winter	062	Spring	063	Summer	064	Fall	065	Passing
066	Rain	067	Snow	068	Lightning	069	Thunder	070	Storm
071	Broken	072	Fixed	073	Light	074	Dark	075	Shade
076	Who?	077	What?	078	Where?	079	When?	080	Why?
081	How?	082	If	083	And	084	He	085	She
086	Choices	087	Life	088	School	089	Work	090	Home
091	Birthday	092	Christmas	093	Thanksgiving	094	Independence	095	New Year
096	Writer‘s Choice	097	Writer‘s Choice	098	Writer‘s Choice	099	Writer‘s Choice	100	Writer‘s Choice

dharma_slut is having some serious financial problems. Not only does she have to move before the end of the month, she's also been hit with a 2,500 dollar power bill. The good news is, if she can pay half of that, she'll be able to keep the lights on for a bit longer.
As a result, she's trying to raise some money and has several different sorts of awesome items for sale. You can find her stores at the following links:

Probable Possible Personalised Ephemera and Calling Cards. Some very pretty designs.

Dragon Mother Wand Works Handmade wooden wands. Very pretty mixes of wood and metal.

Dendrophilia is her store for her handmade wooden linghams. Since these are adult toys, the site is probably not entirely work-safe, but it's definately worth a look.

If you can buy something, please do and boost the signal. If you can't buy anything, please boost the signal. Like Red Green says, we're all in this together.

I'm an hour and a half from the end of Nanowrimo and my word count is 31,065 and since there's no way in hell I'm going to write 18,935 words in 90 minutes, I'm calling it early.

On the whole, I'm not disappointed that I didn't win. Considering that my mom died on day 2, I'm pretty damn proud of myself for not giving up entirely and for planning on continuing. I'm actually having a lot of fun with my idea and it's been interesting to see how it's changed over the last 30 days. I've even decided to take another stab at the idea I started in Nano 2007.

So, y'know, go me! And go everybody else who at least gave a stab at the Nano thang. We rock.

My mom, who is technically my grandmother but who raised me and who is therefore fully in the slot marked 'Mom' in my heart and soul, passed away last night. She was 96 years old. She's survived by me, her two surviving children (my aunt and uncle) and their spouses, seven grandchildren (eight if you include me in the grandchild generation) and fifteen great-grandchildren ranging in age from baby through young teenager.

And the best way I can describe how I feel is to tell a story on her:

About ten years ago, she went to the doctor with my aunt Becky (my uncle's wife) because she was having pains in her back. The nurse asked her how she was feeling and how bad the pain was and my mom said 'Oh, it's not too bad. It's like a knife stabbing me."

Now, what she *meant* was that it hurts but it's not so bad right now but when it's bad, it's like a knife. That, is pretty much how I feel right now. It's not so bad but when it is, it's a knife.

Counting down to Nano and had the chance to watch Attack the Block on On Demand. If you get the chance to see this movie, you gotta watch it. It's just... Ok, here's what I posted on Facebook:

Watching "Attack the Block" -- aliens invade a housing project in London and street kids are the only ones who can fight them off. Thought it would be more of a comedy, but while it's got a lot of funny bits, it's a really damn good, serious, alien invasion horror film. The effects are simple but highly effective; the kids come across as real kids, the plot moves fast and snappy and the aliens are actually pretty alien. If you liked Shaun of the Dead or Hot Fuzz, you'll probably like this one.

( Spoilerly rambling )

I signed up today! I'm dunmurderin over there (big shock, I know) for anybody who wants to link up.

I have been working on the Defcon 'verse -- unfortunately, most of the working has not been much in the way of the 'interesting for others to read' variety. But hopefully, this will change in December, if not before.

Ganked from Becka and Dark Puck @ LJ:

In honor of All Hallow's Eve, I'm inviting trick-or-treaters to my 'door.' Comment "trick-or-treat" to this post and...well, you know the drill. Treats can be anything that strikes my fancy (pics of fave actors or pairings, one sentence fics, graphics, a few words why I'm glad to have you on my flist, etc. etc.). The more "houses" to visit the more fun it'll be, so go ahead, open your journal and help spread the fun!

Post a comment, and I will reply with a reason why I think you're great. In return, you might like to post this same meme on your blog and comment for other people.

Anybody heard from hellkitty since the hurricane?

Hesperian.org -- Hesperian is a non-profit publisher of books and newsletters for community-based health care. Our first book, Where There Is No Doctor, is considered to be one of the most accessible and widely used community health books in the world.

The site has all of their books available for free download in .pdf form. Those looking for post-apocalyptic/emergency medical info should hie themselves hence and get to downloadin'!

Culture Checklist from Lee Killough's Checking on Culture: a Checklist for Culture Building

See ETA on Filter post

I bought this book a while back (like over a decade ago) and I'm using it to help flesh out aspects of the Defcon 'Verse. I'll be adding notes I have to this list and if you see something I haven't touched on or that you would like more info on, please comment and lemme know your choices. Kind of like the 28 [Blip] meme from a few years ago.

( Culture Checklist )

General Post-Apocalyptic rambling about some ideas I want to explore in my fiction:

The ugly side of life continues. Abortion and contraception are likely to be highly illegal. We MUST have those babies. There will be more than enough parents who have lost their own (or have received too high a radiation dose to chance the FLK problem) to look after any that are unwanted. Women are enslaved by their reproductive systems again. Don't like that but there is nothing we can do about it. The social pressure on women to have children will be immense in both material and moral senses. Women who can have children get the best of everything, the cleanest and best food, the most comfortable housing, the most careful protection. Women who can have children but refuse to do so will be social outcasts (and in this sort of society to be an outcast is virtually a death sentence). We're likely to see a situation where women of childbearing age are "protected" by severe restrictions ("don't go outside the house, the radiation may harm your babies" gets abbreviated to "don't go outside") . This is a grim and disturbing picture; we take an old woman out of her house and throw her in the snow to provide shelter for a pregnant mother and her children - then lock her in. Newborn babies obviously damaged by radiation are likely to be killed on the spot. That may or may not be justifiable but I think its inevitable.

Source: Nuclear Warfare 103

In the course of ~~goofing off under the pretext of~~ researching nuclear war (my chosen method of ending the world as we know it), I found this article through TV Tropes. It's the last of a series of articles about Nuclear War that cover everything from how possessing nuclear weapons affects a company's policies through to the aftermath of a nuclear war (go here for Nuclear Warfare 101 and Nuclear Warfare 102). The above quote is about the need to repopulate a country (specifically the U.S.) after a nuclear war.

Now, it's not like this essay is the first place I've seen this idea -- it's a pretty common post-apocalyptic trope -- but for some reason reading this article got me thinking. Probably because the dismissiveness of "Don't like that but there is nothing we can do about it" just emphasized that this was yet another post-apocalyptic scenario being envisioned by a man (the name of the author listed on the article is Stuart Slade) without considering the impact or even the input of the women who might survive.

Before I start going through this point by point, I want to start off by saying that I don't think the author was trying to ignore women or to put forth some kind of male fantasy playground where women exist simply as sex toys and brood mares. I think this was just a case of wanting to give a quick and dirty overview of a topic and not thinking about the unfortunate implications of what was being said. Also, please be warned that I'm going to touch on a few trigger-y topics throughout this essay.

( Point by Point Ramblings, possible Trigger Warnings for rape, abuse, abortions and injury/death of children )

I've mentioned in the past that I'm working on a post-apocalyptic world/story setting. Lately, I've been doing a lot of noodling off-line and I'd like to start posting stuff and getting feedback. So far, it's mostly ideas about the world and/or characters, not so much actual story stuff.

So, I'm considering setting up a filter to post stuff and let folks who are interested read along and/or offer suggestions/feedback etc. If you're interested, either post or PM me. For convenience, I'll be posting on DW and LJ under the same filter name (not sure how filters work with DW's crosspost function) so you can apply to one or both if you'd like.

ETA: Having thought about it, I'm going to make these entries open for the time being 'cause I'm afraid of missing out on some very useful feedback otherwise. Defcon entries will be marked with the Cold War Reenactment Society icon and under a cut 'cause some of them will be long.

If I made Cinderella, the audience would immediately be looking for a body in the coach.
— Alfred Hitchcock

When I write a story, what do readers immediately look for?

On Manboobz.com, I found a link to Regender.com, a site that will take a website and change the genders of the pronouns therein. So, of course, I had to run a few fics through it.

Regendered: Compulsion -- Red Alert and Inferno.

Regendered: Even a Broken Clock -- Sabretooth, AoA setting

Regendered: Con Job -- Swindle vs. Bobby Bolivia, Bayverse (sorta).

Regendered: Making Do GI ~~Joe~~ JOYCE (seriously, it changed 'Joe' to 'Joyce' -- I love it!), featuring Low-Light and Firewall.

Regendered: As Ye Sow Star Wars: Republic Commandos, featuring Kal Skirata, Rex and Ahsoka.

ETA: Ok, last one: Regendered: Luke 6:42 GI Joe, Marvel Comics verse, 'cause I had to do a gender-swapped Snake-Eyes.

Happy Towel Day!

A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Partly it has great practical value. You can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapors; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a miniraft down the slow heavy River Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (such a mind-bogglingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can't see it, it can't see you); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.

More importantly, a towel has immense psychological value. For some reason, if a strag (strag: non-hitch hiker) discovers that a hitch hiker has his towel with him, he will automatically assume that he is also in possession of a toothbrush, face flannel, soap, tin of biscuits, flask, compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, wet weather gear, space suit etc., etc. Furthermore, the strag will then happily lend the hitch hiker any of these or a dozen other items that the hitch hiker might accidentally have "lost". What the strag will think is that any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where his towel is, is clearly a man to be reckoned with.

Hence a phrase that has passed into hitchhiking slang, as in "Hey, you sass that hoopy Ford Prefect? There's a frood who really knows where his towel is." (Sass: know, be aware of, meet, have sex with; hoopy: really together guy; frood: really amazingly together guy.)[3] ”
— Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

(Quote C&Ped from Wikipedia article on Towel Day)

As I mentioned in an earlier post, back in December 2009, I stumbled across some reprints of the first few books in the Endworld series. This rekindled my interest in post-apocalyptic stories, particularly the cheesy men's adventure stories (like Endworld) written back in the 1980s. And I got it in my head that I wanted to write my own homage/parody/riff on such books, putting my own particular spin on the tropes they used and feature characters who weren't straight, white, cisgendered American men with 1980s-style middle-class, conservative values (even guys who were born into a world 100+ years after 1980s-style, middle-class, conservative values got nuked into dust).

So, I went on the hunt for examples of the genre, figuring that I should have a nice sampling of what was out there to better be able to parody/riff on things. Since, y'know, nothing is more annoying than a parody written by someone who only thinks they know what they're talking about. I set my mind to collecting 10 series, preferably all the first books of each, to get a good sampling. I've ended up with...more than 10 series. Some are surprisingly good but most are...problematic, to say the least.

To be honest, a lot of this was cat-vaccuming since it was a lot easier to read novels and take notes and think thinky thoughts than it was to actually write something. I'm hoping to change this by posting during Three Weeks For Dreamwidth. What I'll be posting will be some background materials – what amounts to a story bible for my world. Because I'm finding that I need to have the history/setting of the world down before my brain is going to let me move ahead and start playing with my characters. I'm planning on posting some snippets of story ideas that are fiction rather than meta – or at least of posting some background stuff that's fictionalized meta.

Here's the least amount you need to know in order to follow along: the Defcon verse is a post-apocalyptic alternate history set in 2083, one hundred years after a series of mishaps and misunderstandings started a nuclear war that devestated the planet. The main setting is the United States of America, which is now a balkanized country still struggling toward recovery. Some areas are better off than others – specifically, Las Vegas is now the new headquarters for what is the recognized continuation of the pre-war US government and is the staging area for attempts at assisting the rest of the country in recovery. Some areas are more receptive to this assistance than others, especially since a lot of the help is coming from the newest incarnation of the UN – which is dominated by nations from the Southern Hemisphere as well as some former Third World nations in the Northern Hemisphere that managed to bounce back faster than the former superpowers. And there are transgenic artificially engineered humans because any good 1980s-style post-apocalyptic adventure novel needs mutants and super-science.

Some of this may be subject to change as I start getting my thoughts written down and posted, but for now, this is where my head's at. Please feel free to post questions, comments, critiques or suggestions.

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dunmurderin

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Question about Casefic

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First meme of 2012

originalfic100 prompts

Signal Boost: Dharma_slut trying to raise funds

Thoughts on Nanowrimo 2011

RIP Jane Pulver November 24, 1914-November 2, 2011

Attack the Block

Nanowrimo 2011

Happy Halloween!

I r meme sheep

Using DW as email...

Awesome research site

Culture Checklist Master List

Women in a Post-Apocalypse

Defcon Filter

Ganked from beckyh2112

Cool New (at least to me) Toy: Regender.com

I know where mine is!

3W4DW: Defcon 'Verse Introduction