Plotbunnies' Paradise

Looking back at 2011, I think overall it was a pretty good year.

Mike finally got to join me over here in November, and it's been a great ride. All of my jobs have continued to be challenging and fulfilling, and I know what I want to achieve in 2012 in all three of them. My credit got repaired, and I got a new car. secondlina and I went to our first con, and I got to spend my birthday with her and earthstar_moon, whose wedding I'm ridiculously excited about. I got to play in New York City, Montreal, Baltimore, Liverpool and London. I got to see "Much Ado About Nothing" with David Tennant and Catherine Tate, and it was brilliant

There's been challenging parts. The immigration process was really rough, and part of why my work has been so excellent is that we had to cover some really trying situations from tornadoes to floods to bin Laden to Jerry Sandusky. There was a lot that made my heart hurt. On the personal front, I lost a friend who was a constant in my life for six years. It hurt a lot and still does if I think about it too hard. I tried dabbling in the BONES fandom, but it didn't quite fit.

I’d also been dabbling in the Doctor/River fandom this year, and the final episode of series 6 sealed my love for this ship. Or, as I mentioned, I went from “Oh, they’re cute” to “Oh, I like this ship, I think I’ll write fic for it” to “EPIC OTP, I AM GOING DOWN WITH THIS SHIP.” That’s when I began using Tumblr more and discovered a world of amazing people that are a constant joy to be around. Chief among them were gidget_zb and penguinspy42 and speckleberry. It’s because of them and the amazing fandom I found that I was able to move past what happened fairly fast and not be bitter about it.

But, I am having so much fun creatively, and I've written more this year than I've written in a long time. Mike and I capped off the year by celebrating his birthday. I ran home from work at midnight, snogged him, then ran back to work. Today, we went to Hooters, then stopped by Comix Connection. And guess what I found?

RIVER SONG AND THE PANDORICA SET!

No, seriously, this set was originally produced for SDCC and was suppose to be limited to that. But I know Forbidden Planet got ahold of some, but they weren't allowing them to be exported out of the UK. The guy at Comix Connection said there were several sets in the box of Doctor Who stuff I got, and they've flown off the shelves. I think I got the last one. I didn't think I'd never even get the chance to own this! I am so thrilled! I snatched up a Doctor figure to go with it. They're now sitting proudly on my shelf. Here's a picture of them:



I did a couple of photosets posing them as well: photoset 1 and photoset 2.

Mike saw a Batgirl statue he adored, and since it was his birthday and I had just grabbed the Doctor and River for me, I told him to get the Batgirl. He's really happy with it. But, we really need a curio cabinet now for all the figurines, busts and statues we're collecting. And there's more in our future because the store also has that Eleventh Doctor bust I've been wanting. Getting these, along with the Lina figurine I've wanted forever, has made 2011 a good year for collecting!

Our shelf. This isn't everything as there's not enough room for it all. My Kenshin figurines are at work.



I don't really have resolutions so much, but I do have goals and things I want to work on. It's stuff I've been addressing in December to begin with, but I'm ready to tackle 2012 with optimism! I hope everyone has a happy and safe new year!

Title: Even if we're just dancing in the dark (1/2)
Fandom/Characters: Doctor Who, Eleven/River
Rating: T
Word Count: 2,887
Spoilers: If you haven't seen "The Doctor, the Widow, and the Wardrobe," then this won't make any sense. This story is assuming that "First Night/Last Night" took place after this year's Christmas special.

Summary: He had friends who loved him, and he had a family. He was willing to admit that. But, embracing all the gifts he'd been given meant that he had to clean up the messes he made, and that had to start with her.

( You can't start a fire, worrying about your little world falling apart. )

Happy Christmas Eve, everyone! Mike and I are going to do gifts tonight. Because of keeping abreast of the bank accounts, I pretty much know what's under the tree for me. Mike will actually have one gift he doesn't know about because he's forgotten I ordered it. Yeah, we rather suck at Christmas surprises. I don't care. I'm still all giddy.

I went ahead and did the 2011 fandom meme. It's been going around everywhere, but I yanked it from moonphased this time.

Cut for spoilers, mostly for series 6 of Doctor Who and seasons 6 and 7 of Bones.

( 2011 fandom meme )

I think we're almost ready for Christmas. I have one present left to wrap and two cards to send out. A few gifts won't be done until after Christmas, but I have pictures ready to go for the recipients. I'm going to bake a coffee cake for the co-workers for us to munch on Christmas Eve. Bring it on, holidays!

Tuesday marked Mike's first month in the U.S. There's been no casualties yet beyond brain cells. I got a Christmas bonus from the Patriot-News, a week's worth of pay! We decided to be adults and go buy a new vacuum cleaner to replace the faithful, but dying Eureka I bought for around $100 four years ago when I lived in Tucson. We got a Dyson, which is amazing. I was skeptical at spending so much money on a new vacuum, but when it got up the ground-up kitty litter outside the bathroom door, I was sold. The carpets look amazing, and we're having far too much fun cleaning the place. The novelty will eventually wear off, I'm sure.

We've been able to open up the rest of the apartment to the cats, and it's done a lot to calm them down as well. Mike's built up enough allergy drugs in his system, and that combined with the outstanding job the Dyson does means he's not suffering from the cats any longer.

We're going to have a small, but good Christmas thanks to some crazy Black Friday deals I got through Amazon. I've been busy working on the first part of chapter 8 of Namesake. As much as I dearly love writing Eleven/River lately, I realized I was using it as a crutch to avoid the harder parts of other writing I needed to get done. So, I've reorganized my to-do lists and have made sure to get freelance/Namesake done, even if it's just a bit, before doing other stories. I spent a good bit of Wednesday night writing some short Namesake character pieces and sharing them with Isa. All of them are pretty spoilery and involve a character that hasn't been introduced yet, but maybe later.

I joked that Jack would not be pleased with the upcoming Jack the Giant Killer movie.

Jack: What the hell is this?
Wendy: Commercialization. All part of being a Namesake these days.
Jack: Couldn't they cast a better Jack? You know, buffer? Sexier? Me? His hair totally isn't long enough! (That line was from Isa.) And the color's all wrong! I'm going to go complain on the Internet!
Alice (Isa): You do that.
Jack: And the Internet will agree with me! I'm Jack Wright, and I do not approve of this film. Hey, Al, can I endorse things?
Alice: NO.
Wendy: At least you don't have people going around telling you, 'There's no way Wendy can be black.'"

And, yes, the last actually happened. Someone posted a Fandom Secret last year saying that Wendy can't be black. It made me roll my eyes and laugh. Sorry, person.

It looks like once again that LiveJournal is messing with things to the point that people are throwing up their hands and leaving. Dreamwidth has open account signups until the end of the year if people are looking for an alternate place. I have no intention of leaving LJ, but I've had a Dreamwidth account for the past couple of years under DQBunny, same as here. I figured out how to get my LJ layout onto Dreamwidth as well, which has made it infinitely more useable.

The one major difference between my LJ and my Dreamwidth is that the Dreamwidth account is both my writing journal and personal journal. If you just follow me for the writing, subscribe to the journal. If you want to read my personal entries, request access. That way I can please everyone. I wish I could do that on LiveJournal. I realized I have got to work on bringing over the rest of my writing community entries to Dreamwidth. There's a mismash of writing over there, so that's on a future to-do list. But, I did get all the tags organized tonight of what is over there, and I'll gradually copy over the rest.

And, don't worry, I haven't forgotten the rest of the advent fics! *gets to work*

Title: A Special Treat
Written for: earthstar_moon
Fandom/Characters: Slayers, Amelia/Zelgadiss - "strawberries"
Rating: K
Word Count: 235
Spoilers: Takes place during Slayers NEXT.

( Zelgadiss noticed quite a bit about Amelia. )

Title: Home is just another word for you
Written for: lonewytch
Fandom/Characters: Doctor Who, Eleven/River - "home"
Rating: T
Word Count: 1,286
Spoilers: Takes place spanning early to mid series 6.

( Home is just another word for you )

Other days in the advent calendar
Dec. 1: A Moth Drawn to Flame - Doctor Who, Tenth Doctor and River Song (for irony_rocks)
Dec. 2: Profits - Ranma 1/2, Kuno/Nabiki (for rose)
Dec. 3: Bite, Break, Suck and Crunch - Doctor Who, Eleven/River (for gidget_zb)
Dec. 4: Not for Burning - Slayers, Lina/Gourry (for pharoah999)
Dec. 5: Running - Doctor Who, Eleven/River (for shadowturquoise)
Dec. 6: The First Move - Doctor Who, Amy/Rory (for ladymercury_10)

Title: The First Move
Written for: ladymercury_10
Fandom/Characters: Doctor Who, Amy/Rory and Mels - "early"
Rating: K
Word Count: 192
Spoilers: If you know who Mels is, you're good.

( The First Move )

Other days in the advent calendar
Dec. 1: A Moth Drawn to Flame - Doctor Who, Tenth Doctor and River Song (for irony_rocks)
Dec. 2: Profits - Ranma 1/2, Kuno/Nabiki (for rose)
Dec. 3: Bite, Break, Suck and Crunch - Doctor Who, Eleven/River (for gidget_zb)
Dec. 4: Not for Burning - Slayers, Lina/Gourry (for pharoah999)
Dec. 5: Running - Doctor Who, Eleven/River (for shadowturquoise)

Title: Running
Written for: shadowturquoise
Fandom/Characters: Doctor Who, Eleven/River and Amy - "reconsider"
Rating: K
Word Count: 343
Spoilers: Takes place in the time right before the Doctor returns Amy home in "Flesh and Stone."

( Running )

Other days in the advent calendar
Dec. 1: A Moth Drawn to Flame - Doctor Who, Tenth Doctor and River Song (for irony_rocks)
Dec. 2: Profits - Ranma 1/2, Kuno/Nabiki (for rose)
Dec. 3: Bite, Break, Suck and Crunch - Doctor Who, Eleven/River (for gidget_zb)
Dec. 4: Not for Burning - Slayers, Lina/Gourry (for pharoah999)