I got my yuletide and prettylightsfic assignments, yay! Which is to say: OMG YULETIDE ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥. You guys, I am SO EXCITED about my holiday ficathons, I can't even. (And I've even started writing my prettylightsfic fic, I AM SO ON TOP OF THINGS.)

In case you're looking for them, my prettylightsfic letter is here, and my yuletide letter is here. And, okay, I realise that they are insanely long, so I'm sorry for that! But basically, they are just ridiculously rambly ways of saying that I will love anything written for me, so.

I am so psyched about my assignments, I'm suddenly overcome with a rush of wanting to finish up the stuff I'm writing that's still due so I can feel less guilty about jumping straight into my ficathons. Because, AWESOME, SERIOUSLY.

Dear prettylightsfic author:

First off, I am so, so excited about this ficathon. And that you're writing something for me. Whatever it is, I'm sure it will be super awesome, and I'm really excited to read it. And if you already know what you're going to write - that's awesome! Go for it. If you're excited about it, there's roughly a 100% chance I'll be excited about it, too. But if you wanted a few more ideas, or to know about stuff I like and dislike or whatever, I can do that, too.

( Stuff I love, and other things )

If you wanted to know more about how I feel about these fandoms in general, you can browse my tags: The Office, Merlin, Wizards Of Waverly Place, Princess Protection Program, Disney. Or feel free to ignore everything I've said, ever, and just write what you want.

Dear yuletide author:

Yay, you're writing me a fic! This is a thing I love, and I'm already excited to read it. If you already have an awesome idea you're totally excited to write, feel free to go ahead and do just that - I love every one of these fandoms, so I'm sure to enjoy anything you could possibly write, especially if you love it, too. But in case you're still looking for that perfect idea, these are just a few of the things I love in fic, and in the fandoms I requested, which may give you some idea of what would make me particularly happy.

( I want a hippopotamus for Christmas )

If you'd like to read more about stuff I've said about any of these fandoms, you can browse my tags: Wizards Of Waverly Place, Miss Match, Greek, She's The Man. Or just ignore everything, and go with what you feel like writing ;)

And in case you're wondering, I'm signed up over there as Zhailei.

Awesome Ficathons, Redux:

prettylightsfic is still open for sign ups until November 6th. If you can't sign up with the requirements currently in place, comment at the exemption post and you might still get to play.

apocabigbang is in need of more artists/vidders/mixers; if you're willing to create art, graphics, a vid, or a fanmix for someone else's fic, please considering signing up. Rules are here, and sign ups are open until November 9th.

yuletide sign ups just went live, and are open until November 12th. There are literally thousands of small fandoms to choose from, and it's definitely a fannish highlight of my year.


Not only did I plot my Wizards Of Waverly Place apocabigbang fic, but I actually started writing it:

Alex the Vampire Slayer


Take that, writing! In less exciting news, apparently my Halloween fic has become exactly like a chore in my mind; like, it's something that isn't particularly difficult, and can even be fun, but I dread doing it, anyway. But at least it's specific to that fic, and not writing in general, given that it's ficathon season and I just signed up for two big bangs.

Now I'm off to narrow down the list of fandoms I want to write for yuletide, post my dear author letters, and maybe even sleep, if I can manage it.

Ugh, how am I so behind on everything? I swear, two weeks ago I was writing like crazy and had no real commitments, then I slow down just a tiny bit, and suddenly I have this whole mess of stuff that needs to be finished. I blame this Halloween fic, WHY AREN'T YOU FINISHED ALREADY?

Help me procrastinate relax! Meme ganked from pearl_o:

Give me one of my own stories, and a timestamp sometime in the future after the end of the story, or sometime in the past before the story started, and I'll write you at least a hundred words of what happened then, whether it's five minutes before the story started or ten years in the future.

I'll also accept requests for stuff that happened off screen during the course of a story :)


Also, sign ups for prettylightsfic are now open, which I'm totally excited about. Minimum word count is only 750 words, so if you're into RPF, you should go check it out; two of your requests need to be from a list of nominated fandoms, but the other two can be from anything you like, as long as it's a scripted television show or movie (and crossover requests are allowed). If you'd like to participate, but can't meet the fandom requirements, you can comment at the exemption post, and you may still be able to sign up if there are people to match you with.

I've almost narrowed down the fandoms I want to write/request; right now, I think I'm going to ask for The Office (B.J./Mindy! ♥), Wizards Of Waverly Place, Princess Protection Program, and ... maybe Glee, IDK. Anyway, you should all go there and request some sort of Disney RPF, like maybe David/Selena, or Demi/Selena, or something else that's awesome - High School Musical is even one of the official fandoms. Or, you know. You could request some other kind of RPF, if that's not your thing. But do consider signing up!


Now, I'm going to try to watch Subtle Sexuality from my corner of the world. (THIS IS SOMETHING I NEED IN MY LIFE, OMG.) ETA: No luck! I have tried, like, everything. And you guys, this is something that has Ryan and Kelly, together, in the same room, maybe even interacting! Clearly, I need to watch it. So if anybody could possibly hook me up, I'd probably love you forever.

(Seriously, I don't get why they need to make their webisodes U.S. only. I mean, aired episodes, sure, but web-only content? What the fuck is the point of that?)

A month ago, I wasn't sure if Justin/Alex fandom was big enough to sustain an entire kink meme (but screw it, it was an awesome idea).

Since omgjustinalex went live, people have left 97 prompts, and written 36 fics. And it's still going on. (This may not seem like a lot, compared to other fandoms, but we're teeny tiny, so I think it's totally impressive.)

SO, BASICALLY WE'RE AWESOME. ILU GUYS SO MUCH ♥

I've written seven fics for it so far, and, yeah, more are probably on their way.


UNFILLED PROMPTS | FILLED PROMPTS | MAIN ENTRY

omgjustinalex

Also, it looks like both Wizards Of Waverly Place and Disney RPF are qualifying fandoms for yuletide! Which is awesome; you guys already know I'm totally requesting WOWP fic for that, right?

And speaking of yuletide, I'm thinking my other requests will probably be Miss Match (again; I swear I'm going to keep requesting this fandom until somebody ever writes fic for it, you know you want to), Greek (also again), and maybe Centre Stage? Ooh, or She's The Man, yay! Disney RPF is tempting, but I'm thinking about requesting that, even as a wild card fandom, for prettylightsfic, so we'll see.

Happy birthday, areasontofight! I hope you had an awesome day. If you'd like a request ficlet of some sort, you know the drill.

I think I'm going to go with Alex the Vampire Slayer for my Wizards Of Waverly Place apocabigbang, mostly because that's what I have a solid idea for right now. Which is exciting, bcause I think it's going to be really fun.

Speaking of fun stuff: Awesome Ficathons You Should Totally Be Participating In.

1) apocabigbang is open for sign ups until November 3rd, so if you've ever wanted to write a 10,000 word + fic about the end of the world, in any fandom (and, really, who hasn't?), or if you like making art, graphics, or fanmixes, you should go sign up.

The rules post is here, writer sign ups are here, artist sign ups are here.

2) The Fall Fandom Free-For-All is still open until November 18th. Post a wish list of up to ten things you always wished someone would make for you, and see what you can give other people in return!

The main post is here, and my wish list is here. If you post a wish list, link me to it!

3) prettylightsfic is polling on potential fandoms until October 26th, and sign ups run from October 27th until November 6th. It's a multifandom RPF (actor fic) exchange that's always a lot of fun, so if you're thinking about participating, go vote in the poll here. (And put in a good word for Disney RPF as a write-in fandom!)

Now, back to seeing whether I can finish To Wish Impossible Things before the end of the month. It's possible, right?

OKAY, SO, LET'S TALK AWESOME FIC-RELATED STUFF.

apocabigbang is a multifandom big bang challenge for fic about, obviously, the end of the world. Which is so cool, for many reasons, but let's list some:

1) Apocalypses! ♥ I love apocafic, like, a ridiculous amount, IDEK why. I love happy action/adventure fic where people try to stop the apocalypse, and angsty fic where they can't, and totally cracky fic where, whatever, it's the end of the world, I say we party. THE POSSIBILITIES ARE ENDLESS AND ALL GOOD.

2) Big bangs! ♥ These are something I also love, though I have not actually tried very hard to participate in one before. But, um, I blame bad fandom timing? Which can be a problem with fandom-specific events especially for people with too many fandoms and lamentably short attention spans, but this is open to any fandom, so!

3) The minimum word count is only 10,000 words. Which is so totally doable. And you get art for free! (Or, alternatively, make art/graphics/vid/fanmix for someone and they will love you forever.)

4) IT'S JUST AWESOME, OKAY.

And, more specifically-to-me:

5) Justin/Alex! Oh, you knew this was coming. I have been toying with the idea of writing some kind of Wizards Of Waverly Place apocafic ... um, basically since I got into the fandom, and now I actually have an excuse to write that. And I can so write 10,000 words of WOWP fic, it's not even funny.

Haha, also, I was maybe thinking about signing up to write two fics? BECAUSE I AM CRAZY, OBVIOUSLY. And because rough drafts are due in, like, four months, and if I'm being honest (and the way things are going right now), I can write 10,000 words in way less time than that. So, because I am totally predictable and single-minded at this point, IMPORTANT QUESTION TIME:

David/Selena apocafic, y/n? I mean, I am slightly less confident about my ability to write 10,000 words of Disney RPF, but, I don't know, it could potentially be a lot of fun. And ... IDK. I am definitely doing the Justin/Alex thing, at least. I think I might try to come up with a plot? And then, if I can do that, I can probably write it.

remixthedrabble sign ups are live. You should all go sign up, because it's multifandom and a lot of fun, and you can sign up just to remix someone else's fic, or to have someone else remix yours, if you don't want to do both. (I'm just saying. You can totally do both.) Plus, it's a drabble/short fic challenge, which means it doesn't take a huge amount of time, and did I mention it's a lot of fun?

In other news, I just finished ( WOWP fic talk )

But before I post that, I really have to finish and post the 6000 words and climbing, originally-supposed-to-be-a-comment-fic, which is at least almost complete. Whew.

I signed up for thelittlebang. I'm really excited - I've had this story idea and notes sitting around on a list of Things I Should Write for ages, so this should be an awesome motivation for me to, y'know, actually write it. Plus, this will be the first Big Bang (or, well, Little Bang, obviously) I've participated in, and 15,000 words sounds like a manageable way to try to ease into that.

Writers need two betas, and people writing in small fandoms need to bring at least one of their own. I've already asked talumin if he'd be willing to do it (which went something like -

amathela: Would you be willing to beta a femslash -
talumin: Yes!)

But if anyone on my friends list would be interested in beta-ing a 15,000 word She's The Man (Olivia/Viola) rom-com, that'd be awesome.

And the writing period doesn't start until March, which is good, because it gives me time to plot and outline and stuff, plus to finish up a few of the fics I'm currently working on before that.


Also, since it's February, I figured now would be a good time to check in with my Fannish New Year's Resolutions.

( Progress, updates, etc. )

I signed up for purimgifts again this year, and I just got my assignment, which is awesome. After finishing a bunch of long fics all in a row, I think a low pressure fic gift basket is exactly what I need.

(And yes, for those waiting, I am working on the birthday fics I promised. I've just been a little distracted, oops.)

In case you're my purimgifts author, hello! I've written up a little bit about the fandoms I asked for and my favourite (Jewish and/or female) characters; in any of these fandoms, I'd love anything, of course, but this is just in case you're looking for a bit of extra direction :)

In general, I love fun stories; I'm not so much with the angst, but go for it if it's your thing. I love het and femslash as well as gen, and I really love female characters. Humour, crack, fluff, AU, banter, UST - I'll love pretty much anything, so just write whatever's fun for you!

( More about my requests )

Signed up for merlin_santa, because I am weak, or possibly crazy. I was only planning on signing up for yuletide and prettylightsfic this year, but, shiny new fandom! So, I couldn't help myself. My post is here, in case anyone wants to read it.

Also, if any Merlin fans on my flist were considering signing up, that would be really awesome. More Arthur/Morgana! This can only be a good thing. Also, it would make me feel less crazy for signing up only to write about (Arthur and) Morgana. If you don't feel like writing fic, you can also sign up to give/receive art, graphics, fanmixes, vids, or pretty much anything else you can think of. Come on, it'll be awesome; you know you want to ...

Dear yuletide writer:

Thank you so much for writing fic for me! I'm really excited about all my requests, so whatever you end up writing, I'm sure I'll love. There's quite a bit of detail in my requests, but in case you'd like to know more, there's a letter (and some virtual milk and cookies) behind the cut.

( This holiday season, I'd like world peace. And a pony. )

1) Finished watching all current episodes of Merlin, and OMG how do I ship Arthur/Morgana this hard? They're going to break my HEART, you guys. ASDFGHJK LALALALA I CAN'T HEAR YOU, ARTHURIAN LEGEND. With the ! And the !! And !!!!!!!! ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

2) merlin_santa

3) prettylightsfic

4) yuletide! Assignments are out, and I am so excited I can barely wait for the archive to open. Also, I love my assignment - I only matched on one fandom, but in most of my fandoms I kept my offers down to my OTP, which is exactly what my recipient asked for. So, yay! I really want to get started right away, even though I know I have other things I should be finishing first ...

My Yuletide letter will be coming soon, and I can't wait to start reading everyone else's :)

1) I'm ridiculously behind on my TV viewing, but brief reactions from the past week or so:

( 90210 )

( Friday Night Lights )

( Greek )

( Grey's Anatomy )

( Heroes )

( The Office )

( Private Practice )

( Smallville )

2) Caught up on watching The Office, and, ♥. I do love Jim and Pam, but I've fallen completely head over heels for Ryan/Kelly. I just - I really don't know. But they are currently one of my very favourite ships, and I love them to death. ( Season five spoilers + speculation )

3) remixthedrabble is currently open for sign ups! Sign up to be a remixee (to have your fics remixed) here, or to be a remixer (to remix someone else's fics) here, or both. I'm really looking forward to it, especially because, even though I have a million things to do at the moment, it's only a drabble or ficlet. Plus, remixes!

4) Trying to get as much as I can done before November (I'll be in New Zealand for a week to visit my mum, and then in Byron Bay for my dad's wedding), and work out what I can do now vs what I can take with me to do while I'm over there. Also, I'm finally writing stuff again, even if so far it's mainly ficlets/drabbles - I have my Sweet Charity fic to work on, plus a bunch of belated gift fics and a couple of late ficathon entries, but right now, I'm kind of zen about it; I know I'll finish what I have to, but I'm not giving myself a hard time about working on other things instead. Because, really, fandom is supposed to be fun, and if I start stressing I'm more likely to burn myself out than anything else. So, happy place.

5) I wrote fic!

Humuhumunukunukuapua'a (High School Musical RPF - Vanessa Hudgens/Ashley Tisdale - PG-13 - 193 words) Ashley's half sitting on her lap when her hand kind of slips and they laugh and then, there's kissing.

Culturally Explicit (The Office RPF - B.J. Novak/Mindy Kaling - PG-13 - 322 words) It's not like he hasn't met her parents before. Spoilers up to episode 3:6 - Diwali.

Jellicious (The Office - Ryan/Kelly - PG - 200 words) Usually, Ryan's pretty good at tuning Kelly out.

Quabity Assuance (The Office - Creed, Kelly - PG - 140 words) "You're in charge of quality assurance."

So! International Day of Femslash is on July 19th, which is less than a week away - are you excited? You can find the post about it on passion_perfect here, and the main website is here. getyourtoaster and hot_toaster (BSG) both have ficathons due that day, and femslash08 (Multifandom) fics are due in the next couple of days. cross_my_heart (Crossovers) has a post here with prompts you can claim, and femslash100 (Multifandom) is accepting prompts here.

I've already got a few pairings in mind that I'd like to write something for, but I'm officially taking prompts. Any femslash pairing, in any fandom I'm familiar with, and I promise to write at least a drabble. You can leave a prompt, or just a pairing, and feel free to leave more than one. And if you feel like participating, check out some of the links above, or just write/draw/vid/icon/rec something on the day.

(IDF banner by charmax)

Eee! I got my femslash08 assignment, and it's awesome - I love my assigned fandoms/pairings so much, and can't wait to get started. As for my request ...

Dear femslash08 writer:

Thank you so much! Whoever you are, I'm very glad you're going to be writing a fic for me - that's awesome, and whatever you come up with, I'm sure to love to death.

In case you're looking for a bit more information on the kinds of things I generally like, here it is:

( Stuff Zhailei likes )

And, obviously, the most important thing is that you love whatever you write, and that you have fun writing it; I'm absolutely looking forward to whatever you come up with.

remixthedrabble authors have been revealed! I've reposted the fics I wrote to amidalashari: I Need You Around (A Movie Script Ending Remix) (One Tree Hill, Brooke/Peyton) for sinandmisery, and Dominating The Lesser Races (This Is Not The Way Home Remix) (Farscape, John) for lady_smith.

I ended up getting three remixes: Witness (The History Of Violence Remix) (Harry Potter, Neville) by sophinisba, Game Over (The Innocence Lost Remix) (Harry Potter, Harry/Hermione) by benebu, and Bad Day (The Slightly More Incestuous Remix) (Heroes, Peter/Niki/Claire) by sinandmisery.

In non-remixy news, I'm running a comment ficathon at onetreehillfic, so if you'd like to help me out, go over here and leave some prompts. Prompting is open until May 6th, and posting will be live from May 7th to May 31st.

Oh, and you can still guess which remix I wrote for remixredux08; there's a fic in it for anyone who guesses right, in a fandom of your choice (and maybe if you guess wrong, too).

apocalyptothon is having another ficathon round :D If you're interested, or even if you just like reading the stories that result, please go votes for fandoms - these are votes, not nominations, so even if a fandom has already been mentioned, go vote for it again! (I'd really, really love for West Wing to be eligible, but there are no limits to what fandoms you can suggest.)

I was about three days late to sign up for the last round, so I'm really looking forward to this one, and to reading the fics that come out of it.

I am so very pleased with my remixredux08 assignment, which gave me not one but two of my top three fandoms. I'm still going through my remixee's stories, but I've narrowed it down to a handful of potential fics. Now if I can just finish my BtVS pinch hit (which is so close to being done), I can get started on Remix and everything else on my to-do list.

To my remixer:

Have fun! I didn't specify a safe story, so feel free to remix anything you want. Go wild, honestly - take risks, do whatever you like with it, and don't feel like you have to be faithful to the original. I'm easy on the pairing thing; if you want to remove one or focus on another (whether it's explicitly in the original or not), that's fine.

All my fics are linked here and posted at amidalashari, tagged by fandom, pairing, and character. There are a hundred-odd stories in fourteen fifteen fandoms plus crossovers, so at least there's lots of variety.

Normal Again has been previously remixed, but not as part of an organised ficathon. And Girls Not In Bars (Girls In Bars Remix) is a remix, sort of, but it's a remix of one of my own fics, so technically I guess it should still be eligible. I have a couple of WIPs (From Dusk 'Til Dawn and As You Like It); What Goes Down is complete, so it's fair game, though I'm not sure that anyone really wants to remix a series.

Whatever you choose to remix, I really can't wait to read it!

Okay, so. My Teyla fic is finished, and half typed, but it's 5am, and I need to go to bed, like, now. So it'll be posted on the right date US time, but not my time, which I feel bad about, but at least it's done. And I'm seriously considering signing up for the ronon_love Thing-a-Thon, plus I claimed a choc_fic prompt I got bunnied for like crazy, so even though the ficathon season is over, there's still plenty for me to do.

What? Oh, yeah, bed. Going now.

If you're reading this, you've probably been assigned my request in one of the fic exchanges I'm currently participating in - sga_santa, elite_ggxchange, and prettylightsfic. If so, hi, and thank you; I'm sure I'll adore whatever you end up writing for me, but if you're looking for a little more guidance, or something to get you started, here are some additional notes about my requests (completely optional, naturally).

( SGA Santa )

( Gilmore Girls Elite )

( Pretty Lights )

Whee! I'm participating in the Characters Of Colour Ficathon at choc_fic. My prompts are Mahandra McGinty (Wonderfalls - yay for new fandoms!) and Gunn/Gwen, Angel ... and I just realised that I've written Buffy fic, but not Angel fic, so yay for two new fandoms :D The fics are due on the 2nd and 17th of September, respectively, which makes them pretty much the perfect distance apart to do both.

Also, a feedback meme:

Leave a comment to this post with a link to up to three stories you've written that you'd like me to read and leave feedback for. I will read anything you link me - even fics with pairings I usually wouldn't read, or in fandoms I'm unfamiliar with; but the more familiar I am with something, the better my feedback will probably be. Unless stated otherwise, we're talking warm and fuzzy feedback of the "this is what I loved" variety - if you really want con-crit, you have to say so.

I'm familiar with Buffy, Angel, Firefly, Roswell, Heroes, Gilmore Girls, The O.C., Veronica Mars, Harry Potter, Doctor Who, Dead Like Me, Wonderfalls, Arrested Development, Bedford Diaries, and probably a bunch more, including books and movies. If you're not sure whether I'm familiar with a particular fandom, you can leave a backup link(s), or ask me to read the fic anyway.

I've got kind of disorganised since the move, so for my easy reference, I've decided to make a list of all the current fic challenges and ficathons I am/want to be involved in. And you can consider this a pimp post, if you're that way inclined.

( So many fics, so little time )

Wow. That took me, like, forever; I had no idea there were so many. Better get started, I suppose.