Dee Moyza

*Sigh.*

I did not make the deadline for the fairy tale bang. ToT I realized I was well off-pace earlier this week and let the mods know with time to spare, so I'm not penalized or anything, but I can't say I'm not disappointed. On the other hand, I do believe it would have been quite a task finding an artist familiar with my fandom and willing to work in it, so it's probably for the best, overall. I'm keeping what I've written so far and plan to finish and post the story sometime in the future, so there's really nothing lost.

I've been noodling at an original-fic itch in my brain lately. Nothing too ambitious; I'll be scavenging elements from "Special Order" to build upon. It's a little more complex than just filing off the serial numbers because I tried very hard to keep the characters and locales recognizable to the source material, but there's some fun ideas in there that can be repurposed.

Of course, though, I immediately managed to drive right off the story path and deep into the weeds. For "Special Order," I researched the basics of bakery operations and catering, but if I'm gonna give this new story any semblance of existing in the real world, I feel like I'll have to get finer details yet. The menu's not the problem (that's the fun part!); neither is the general business model. Nope, tonight I caught myself agonizing over the ins and outs of my baker's staffing situation -- whether she can afford to hire full-timers with benefits, how many part-timers she'll need, and who can work what shifts without putting them over their hour limit per week while still keeping the bakery running smoothly. Help, I'm having Manager Stress without any of the pay or respectability! XD

It should be noted that while this is definitely a puzzle to work on, I am also having the time of my life doing it. I've discovered that I am definitely an Ideas Person, who often struggles to sit down and become an actual Writer -- the bleached corpses of unfinished stories and their corresponding graphics litter my hard drive, waiting for the day I resurrect them from their digital graves, if I ever get around to doing so.

I'm beginning to suspect that I'm making very little sense, so I'll wrap this up. TL;DR: words are wording, ideas are idea-ing, but they're not all serving the same ends at the moment. No matter; I'll get them all organized someday. ;)

My bang fic is not playing nice with me right now, so I suppose I must confess...

One of the main reasons I signed up for this was to get art for The Blue Castle characters. (^^;) Selfish, yeah! But TBC is such a small fandom, and there's so little fanart for it, that I thought it would be nice to see someone else's take on the characters, even in an AU setting.

At this point, though, I think I'd be better off saving up money for a commission. But how to accurately describe Barney Snaith? Aside from shaggy hair and prominent ears, he's kind of hard to describe... and that description could befit a sheepdog! XD

Anyway, I'll keep poking at my fic. I really do want to see this event through, but I've hit the "waning energy" stage and haven't even reached the halfway point yet.

What can I say? The Beauty became a Beast!

Just as I love Valentine's Day and the day after for the sales on fancy chocolates, I love Super Bowl weekend for the sales on snacks. The game itself? Meh.

I can't remember the last time I was actually invested in a Super Bowl. It was probably when the Cardinals were there (how long ago was that already?!). The idiots just had to make a first down and they could've run out the clock, but noooo. Nope, I'm not bitter (says the person who still holds a grudge against John Paxson of the Chicago Bulls for his last-second three-pointer in Game 6 of the 1993 NBA Finals). No, not bitter at all. ;)

Anyway, enjoy the game if that's your thing. Otherwise, enjoy the internet's supply of Superb Owls on this Sunday.

I will be enjoying lots of chips. :D

Well, I've hopped onto the Bluesky bandwagon (now maybe I can convince my brain to stop pronouncing it "bloo-ski"). It's the same username as here, but there's nothing on it, yet.

There's a fair handful of reasons I chose to do this, but as the subject line says, I just really like that little blue butterfly icon.

The drought is over. I have Written. Despite my uncertainty regarding exchanges, I picked up a pinch hit for trickortreatex, mostly to assuage my own guilt over defaulting on my assignment. Also, the prompts were juicy. Anyway, I ended up writing two stories but only publishing one, because the first one simply refused to play nicely. I was trying to be Deep and Serious with that one, but ended up scrapping it in favor of something more lighthearted.

I also received a fic that put a fun and unexpected spin on the prompt, which I enjoyed.

Anyway, oof. It's been a long, long time, but I finally have words to report! :)

Total words written this week: 5,108
Total words written this year: 8,119
Total days written this week: 2
Total days written this year: 5

(I think I'll go back to the Word Count goal for next year's GYWO.)

Continuing my foray into romance fiction, and slowly telling myself that it's okay to enjoy it for what it is. But something keeps gnawing at my brain:

Where are all the regular guys?

The love interests in these stories are all super hot or super ripped or super rich. I mean, I get that this is a genre dedicated to women's fantasies, but not every woman's fantasy is the same. Personally speaking, muscles and money are not exactly what I find most attractive about men, fictional or otherwise. There's a lot to be said about personality and actions, especially those small actions that slowly build into a relationship. For an example, Barney Snaith of The Blue Castle could charm the pants off me any day, and the book explicitly states that he is nothing to look at. His attractiveness lies in his personality, and the way he treats those he cares about. (I consider he fact that he's secretly a multimillionaire irrelevant to his appeal, since I -- and Valancy -- fell in love with him as the shabby recluse with a heart of solid gold.)

Furthermore, while I applaud the diversity of women that we're beginning to see in these types of books, especially in regards to curvy and plus-size heroines, it seems incredibly hypocritical to keep insisting that the love interest be unrealistically gorgeous. If we, as women, are still holding men to ridiculous standards, in what world would those same men even look at a woman who doesn't meet those same standards? Even if it falls along the lines of "every girl deserves a hunk," how is that still not a disgusting double-standard?

Give me short guys and chubby guys and those with unique facial features. Give me poor guys and working guys and those that have finally become financially secure, but not exactly rich. Give me guys with some kind of texture, for lack of a better word, those who offer something beyond their looks, something that feels real and valuable. Give me someone I could fall in love with, so I can actually root for the heroine to do the same.

Just give me a story of two regular people finding love. Maybe that's too boring to a lot of people, but in the sea of Greek gods and billionaires, it sure would be a breath of fresh air.

Anyway, the search goes on!

After months of nothing, this morning, a development:

I had an idea.

I know, right? Crazy! Silliness aside, it has been a good, long while since I've had any flicker of creativity, and for a while today, I just sat there and turned the idea over in my head, expecting it to dissolve like cotton candy in the rain. But it stayed solid enough that I figured I'd type it out.

Reading it back, it's...not good. But! It has potential.

So, what is it? A Transistor fic idea for a slightly-futuristic Mundane-with-a-hint-of-Soulmates AU. XD

...Yeah.

For some reason, none of my original posts make it onto their respective tag pages in Tumblr anymore. :/ I've heard that that's sometimes the case for posts with links, but my recent Sybil post doesn't have any text at all, and still didn't show up. So, ???, I guess?

Also speaking of Transistor, I thought this post was pretty cute, and well done. Just the thought of Blue actually "rapping" this out was enough to make me chuckle.

Yes, Transistor has eaten my brain again. Six more days, six more days... *ominous*

7. Your favorite ao3 tag.

I don't have one. I read fics based on fandom, characters, and summary.

8. How slow is a slow burn?

For me, probably not as slow as other people would like. I do enjoy the gradual development of a relationship, but if that development keeps getting hung up on ridiculous inconveniences or miscommunications, or if the relationship stagnates, I lose interest quickly. So, I would classify 50k as a slow burn if the relationship progresses steadily throughout the story. Up to 100k is okay for me as a reader, though I doubt I would ever be able to write that much; anything longer that drags the relationship along is far too slow for me. What can I say? I'm impatient. ;D


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Full list of questions here.

All right, let's get back to this!

4. Do you have any OCs? Do you have a story for them?

My only recurring OCs are Argider and Retta (and her family) from "Curious as a Cat" and my stalled-out "Esthar Chronicles" series. These characters are native Estharians in the FF8 world, and are shaped by the violent history and former isolation of their country. They are both warm and outgoing and incredibly curious, eager to meet people who grew up outside of Esthar and learn their stories. They both work in a public library in an older part of Esthar City that also houses archives and a laboratory for the study and development of Blue Magic skills.

Argider was born under Adel's reign, so he didn't know any other kind of life in Esthar. He excelled in his studies and was conscripted into the Estharian army when he came of age, where he discovered that he was a blue mage. After concluding his service, he continued to study the intricacies of Blue Magic, and still works closely with the Estharian government and the army to test for new skills and develop methods by which to teach them to other blue mages.

Retta, on the other hand, was a young schoolgirl when Adel took power, and so remembers not only the freedoms she had before, but also the terror wreaked upon any Estharians who refused to conform to Adel's wishes. Of particular distaste to Adel were the artists and other creatives of Esthar, and she worked hard to erase their history and silence their dissent. Passionate about history and mythology, and not terribly adept at mathematics and the hard sciences, Retta struggled to find her place in this new Esthar. She eventually became a professor at a local university, and, later on, was hand-picked by Argider to help him run the library. She was responsible for starting up the archives kept there by donating items her family had successfully hidden from Adel and the soldiers, and convincing others to do same.

Retta is married with two young sons, and often takes a maternal interest in younger characters, including Argider, Quistis, and Selphie.

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As for original fiction, I have written quite a few characters, but most of them are not recurring. (Except for my idea of Evalena Haven, the gunslinger, whose name I'm going to have to change because I took it for my own burlesque stage name. XD)

A few that stand out to me:

- Captain Ravosa of Drown My Soul in Sensory Pleasure, a cocky, headstrong pirate who believes she is immune to the charms of the sirens that have taken so many others. When her crew mutinies and abandons her on a deserted island, she will find she is not nearly as impervious as she believed.

- Esma Abaroa Prifti of Home is Where You Hold Me, a self-sufficient widow who maintains her family's lighthouse and rescues a sailor (also named Argider; no relation to the one above, I just like the name) from a shipwreck and nurses him back to health. As the two of them grow closer, she deals with her past and must decide whether to remain there alone or move into the future with someone new.

- Aurelia Morales (still in the idea stage) - the eponymous "Epistolary Killer" of this drabble, able to bend ink to her will, and as such, suffocate people with words. She is part of the one-day-I'll-write-it Evelena Haven "universe", where her skills will make her both antagonist and ally at varying points of the story. Damn, I should get around to actually writing that, huh?

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Full list of questions here.