Severus' Alternate Universe

Long time no update.

First of all, Happy Birthday (belatedly or too early) to all the April birthday flistees. Your 'interest' icons will be posted at the end of the month.

I do feel rather optimistic today. I don't go on my scale often, but did this morning, and things are looking good. I've lost approx. 15 kg since January without feeling guilty, without any 'special diet', but with rather strict counting of calories. Not even exercise. So, this, and the sunshine, is great for the mood. There'll be indulging in the sweet and fatty stuff over easter, but I won't feel guilty and just pick up after the holidays. So, even if you all decide to break the internet now, I don't really care. ;)

The grass is growing. Will have to mow soon.
I've been pruning old apple trees this winter, rather heavily, and am pleased like toast to see that they get lots of flower buds. In earlier years I've been listening too much to 'experienced' gardeners (Don't cut here, that's fruiting wood... you're killing the tree, woe is me), but not this year, and it turned out very well. Mind, I've had several years of watching the trees grow after minor pruning efforts of mine. I'm finally getting a good feeling for it, I think.

Boring stuff from me, as usual. That's why I stop and wish a Happy Easter to those of you who celebrate.

to all my flistees who had their birthday in March.
Since I always miss the dates, I'll post icons for you
Here are some icons for your interests outside of HP fandom, if you want them.



( Read more... )

...although life is still rather stressful.

But: I've been playing with naked Snape last night. Envious? You should be.
You can see the results over here: Snapedom February Challenge Banner The art is by Expel-Hun.

Our cat who currently resides with MIL is sick. He has crystals in his bladder, we're not sure yet if he'll need surgery or not. No rest for the wicked, I suppose. Poor Mikka is with the vet right now.

we're having a bit of an emergency where I work, and I need to save the data of a file server until Friday. Everyone knows that the server is only there for data exchange and not backed-up regularly and yet no one ever cleans out there or make their own backups. When something is lost, the drama is not nice. So, to prevent the worst, colleague and I are doing it. It's not as if we hadn't other stuff to do but never mind.
To make things worse, f###/&?$$!! Windows allows making endless nesting of folders with long, long file names but: it doesn't copy them. Not even with xcopy. Whinge. I don't have time to rename that stuff. So I have to zip these folders to get them copied. But never mind.

If I snap at you for some reason, though, you know why. It's not personal and I lack the finess in the English language to broadcast being stressed without looking too grumpy. Or maybe it's just because I'm a grumpy old cow, period. Anyway, I don't mean it personal.

Ciaran Hinds as Aberforth Dumbledore? Blink... blinkblink... I sense a lot of Aberforth shipping in the future. Hmmmm...


ETA: forgot to ad, I'm still on something like a diet, and that means: no chocolate. GROWL!

Last week I asked the question if anyone was organizing a big bang for Severus' 50th birthday. There have been offers to help, but no one seems to have planned organizing one.
And since I want to have a big bang, I'll do it. Unless *you* want to do it, then I'll hand it over. ;)

I've created a community on livejournal: severusbigbang

and an asylum on insanejournal: severusbigbang - but please don't join unless you want to help. There isn't much there yet anyway, I've just invited people who offered to help and want to start the brainstorming.

You can watch though, and public announcements for sign-ups and such will come during the next few weeks, telling you what will happen.

We do need a lot of helpers, if you'd like to help, leave a comment on the community or asylum, please. For helpers, it would be good to have an account on both platforms, since we want to crosspost on livejournal and insanejournal.

Feel free to ask question here, on snapedom, or on one of the communities.

for:



The Hermione Big Bang Challenge, because it's only once that a girl gets to be thirty. Or twice. or maybe three times... or forever? Err...

Anyway, this is in celebration of her 30th birthday, and who could resist? There will be, of course, all kinds of ships, but I've seen some SSHG shippers there already. The challenge want writers (for 20,000 words minimum fics), artists, beta readers and cheerleaders. You can sign up until March 27, there's a deadline for July 3rd, if you see that you don't get where you want to, you then can still drop out gracefully. Tempties?

And now the question that follows logically: is anyone organizing a Snape big bang somewhere out there? He'll be turning 50 (!) next January. Doesn't this call for an extra big bang? And if someone thinks about it, if snapedom can help promote it in any way, let me know.

redvelvetcanopy found this and I repost the link with her permission, since I think this is something that is an issue with many of us.

It's an essay from writer Tim Waggoner about how to find time for writing in a busy life.

I find it good advice. Now, writing in the morning is something I could never do. But I've made the last two hours before bedtime my time, and my SO, though grudgingly, respects it. I tried to keep it a secret, a guilty pleasure, to not be mocked but found that after some initial 'but you don't even get paid for it' now he accepts that this is my time for myself, for writing. We don't have a tv and don't miss it, and that helps, too. Mind you, he still thinks it's a waste of time... ;)

I got my exchange gift.

Go and read No more than reason", but don't drink while you read.
It is so rich in detail, and did I mention funny?
*That* is a version of canon I would have liked to see. Bizarre, funny, characters acting like themselves...
Needless to say that I love it.

Squee!

My SSHG exchange story 'Arachne' (Summer 2007) is featured on the Wiktt Archives this month! Look what I got! :D



Thank you, Archive Goddesses!

One more day for the SNARC challenge on snapedom - some great and very funny entries, go look!
One more day for the 'Sexy Snape' challenge, too, although you can always post to any challenge later.

I wrote two drabbles for the Lingerie challenge on grangersnape100 a while back and had planned to continue this with an adaptation of an old story. That old story got never posted, because I find it sucks. There are good elements in there, too, and I thought I could adapt it. But I'm such an idiot: of course I couldn't do it. Every drabble I wrote, and there were quite a few, showed what I should have known anyway: the story still sucked. Sigh. So I've decided to write a new story to continue the first two, and I just posted the first chapter, ten drabbles. There goes a photomanip with it, too. If I can keep it up, I'll have one manip with each chapter, I'm having an obscene amount of fun making these manips.

The drabble is here.

And the manip in all its glory is here, too (I'm usually downsizing it a bit for grangersnape100). Severus dreams ( under the cut )

Don't we all love that new banner with Snape right in the middle? I do, and since I was photoshopping yesterday anyway, I made me a new shiny. Points to icon. I know, everyone is having one these days, but this is my own version, so there. And it is a great pose, I think.

While I was wading through movie screen caps for the January snapedom banner (I'm always so behind), I came across the scenes right at the end of PS. The part when Dumbledore is giving all these points to Gryffindor and you see little Draco's disappointment written all over his face. I always liked the actor playing Draco (Tom Felton), but this brought it home to me again why I like him so much. I think he is really good. From what we now know (and I doubt he knew it at the time) you can really see 'resentment created' on his face when he completely loses the little trust or faith in Dumbledore that might have been there. Great scene, I like. Snape's glances at Dumbledore are also speaking volumes, in hindsight.

The sshg_exchange is still going strong and I love every minute of it. I don't usually play favourites, there is such a huge amount of talent and different takes on the characters, and art is in the eye of the beholder and all that... but I want to point out a story that, so far, is my favourite, because it is so unique, IMO. There are many that are well crafted and original, funny, thoughtful, dramatic... but this one, to me, has that significant little bit more, the bit that makes it very special. Maybe it's because I've always loved fairy tales and still do. The story is 'The Frog Prince' and has so many lovely fairy tale elements... and art to go with it, too.

Happy Valentine's day for all you romantic folk.

I'm on the quiz. Squee. I'm on the quiz. Squ... er, I think I said that.

( gorgeous banner under the cut )

And the suckage yesterday, on Friday, 13th

( whinging )
Sigh. I hope you had/have a lovely day.

Happy Valentine's Day by ~Sylvanawood on deviantART

Hehe.

My last chapter of part two of my WIP of doom is up.

Here: on OWL

and here: on ff.net

To all the Australians on the list: I hope you're all safe and sound, I so admire your spirit.

A while ago, the story 'Macaroons' has been rec'ed everywhere and rightfully so. I have only now had the time to read it, and damn, that is good stuff. I read all of her other short stories on Ashwinder, too, and they are all fun. Go and read!

This is SSHG as I love it and what makes me love the ship so much:

Witty banter without becoming cutting and hurtful.
A clever setup and genuine attraction following through in a logical flow.
Sweet and romantic moments without being cloying.
Funny without being mocking or silly.

Clearly the author loves both characters. I'm looking forward to reading more of hers.

And the self-pimp is under the cut.

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Squee #1

Voting for the OWL awards has started.

And what do you know? One of my stories has been nominated: Squee!!!!eleventyoneone!!

It's my little happy smut: The Vibrator, the Witch and the Painting in the humour category.

It makes me very glad that this particular story was chosen among my basket full of silliness from last year, because it was written for melusin79, who is my beta-reader extraordinaire, the beta-of-dreams, as camillo1978 has so aptly named her. And it was melusin79 who came up with the challenge to write something light-hearted and smutty as a counter to all the heavy, sad, gloom-and-doom that was around at that time. Yay!

melusin79 has been nominated for several categories, as have my fellow beta-fledgelings, and more than half of my flist. Congrats to you all.

Squee #2 (which exposes me as a dunderhead)

I've finally figured out how deviantart works, I think. There is all that friending, and watching, and faving, and contests, and comments and replies... and I had never quite figured out how to follow up on all these things, that's why I asked the other day if there is an email option for notifications. I've been reading about that mysterious message center in the faq I browsed (too impatient to read all of it), but never found it. Until now, when I was in a hurry and just clicked on the link 'messages' on top of the window. And what do you know? There comes the message center, neatly organized, showing me who of those on my watch list have updated, who has replied to my comments, who has commented to something on my page... there are contests and other announcements, too. That's what I wanted and was looking for, now I think I'll find my way around. I have already started to fav the art I like and categorize my favs, and will soon upload my own not-so-artsy stuff to have it in one place.

There is so much wonderful Snape and SSHG art there, and this makes commenting and replying so much easier. Yay!

The sshg_exchange continues to produce wonderful fic and art.
snapedom is going strong with the 'Is Severus sexy?' February challenge and the new SNARC February challenge Guilty Pleasures, hosted by protowilson.
There'll also be a Valentine's Day party on snapedom.

My goodness... I'm almost up-to-date with the SS/HG exchange fics. Not quite there yet with the reviews but a lot less behind than in the past. That's unheard of! I really like the pace of the postings this time, thank you, exchange team!

On to the meme that's popping up everywhere.




Apart from that, I'm trying to fight off a slight cold. Everyone around me is coughing and sneezing, It's not something I need right now...

Is Severus sexy? That is this months' challenge over on snapedom. There'll be a Valentine's day party soon, too. The mushier and sillier the better. It's always so nicely outrageous to the righteous.

I've just posted chapter 22 of AMIEW: The Attack by Fire.
It's on ffnet
and OWL.

It's in the queue on Ashwinder.

I really have to get going and updating my story journal and the new Wiktt. I lost track when I was so busy and now lag behind.

snapedom had some great art entries last week, for the SNARC January contest. We also allow art pimping of your own art there, now, doesn't have to be Friday for that. Check it out, you'll love it. Just click the tag fan art or art.

There are also very interesting discussions. Just take a look.

I've posted a birthday drabble for droxy over on grangersnape100. It's called The Doppelganger Effect

( a bit of babble about writing under the cut )

Happy belated birthday to all my flistees who were born in January.

I made some icons for you about one or some of your interests, but not Harry Potter. If you like them, take them. :)

For lunafish:	For lllazlllong:	For lincendiere:
For hope_24:	For firefly124:	For dracasadiablo:

We've arrived in the 21st century and got DSL at the place where we spend all our weekends. Which prevented me from getting anything done, writing-wise, since I'm the techie in the family and had to install the whole thing, which wasn't difficult, but took some time. And now the drama with MIL and her first cordless phone begins... but never mind.

A stupid question: is there a way on deviantart to get replies and comments per email? I love that site but never quite figured out how it works, community-wise. I'm not an artist, but I have so many plant photographs, some of them quite ok, if I do say so meself, and I was thinking to put them up there as stock images. Dunno if I want to put my ArtPad doodles and photomanips up there, too... I see that there are some up, though.

ETA: And my best wishes to all the Americans on the flist for their proud day!

Didn't write, got a cold, am not a happy camper, just so you know.

The SSHG exchange is producing great stories and art, so far. Happily reading all the good stuff.

Sev's birthday party over on snapedom produced some great stuff, fic and art, too. Hop over if you have time. I wanted to make a masterlist, but didn't. Maybe this weekend.

With a bit of luck, I'll be online on weekends now, too.

For those of you who read AMIEW: I have a chapter ready, but not sent to beta yet. I was too lazy over the holidays, but it will come soon.

May you have all the fun in fandom you didn't have in canon life. There is a party on Snapedom, come and join the fun. Everyone is welcome, ij member or not.

We now host the S.N.A.P.E. ArtPad contest on snapedom, too. It's become too much work to maintain the mirror communities, and there were only a few people posting each month. And so we now coax them over to snapedom. The two other comms will stay open for reading but close for posting by the end of the month. Come, enter the January Contest: Snape's winter adventures. Everyone can enter, no artistic talent is required. We now allow non-ArtPad media, too. No photomanips, though.

The regular snapedom challenge for January is: Severus' hair. I thought I'll focus on the clichés this year. But I'm always open for suggestions and wishes for other topics. We have a 'collection thread' for these wishes. And of course everyone can start their own topics.

Don't be shy if you have questions. The only thing I'm strict about on snapedom is: no shipping-wars. We tolerate each other's ships, we all love Sev, after all. And no fanfic unless there is a party asking for short drabbles and such. You can rec every Friday

--

And: A Happy New Year to you all. I know I'm awfully late, but I wish you this anyway. I hope you had a good start. I know some of you didn't, but I hope things get better for you, soon.

Did I make any resolutions? Not many.

1. To lose weight - this is a must this year. I don't want to end up with Diabetes II because I'm too undisciplined to diet, and I do get long in the tooth.

2. To post a bit more spontaneous and not delete the posts I wanted to make all the time. I'm too private-shy for this fandom world. The PC expression would be introvert, I suppose. But it's painful, sometimes. So, if I blabber incoherently on your journal, I'm making an effort to socialize. Please bear with me.

3. I still won't get around to congratulate each birthday child on time, but I'll make interest icons for you and post them in clusters.

That's it for this week. It's cold here.

The holidays are over, the new year is just around the corner and there is no way that I'll keep up with the flist. A post here and there is all I'll manage.

Some disjointed chatter under the cut. ( Read more... )
And since everyone was doing it, and it fits so perfectly, here's the Xmas song meme:

to all of you, most of you, I guess, celebrate something.
I'll be away until Dec. 29th, back for two days and then off again until January 6th.

I hope you all have a great time. In that sense:

A Most Important Element in Water is updated to chapter 21: The Nine Situations.


On OWL
on ffnet

and in the queue on Ashwinder

I have to update on my story journal and on the Wiktt archives. There's a bit of a backlog there and I'm very busy at the moment.

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I have a question to the writers amongst you: how do you manage your summaries for multichaptered stories on the archives? Do you post one summary for all chapters, to prevent spoilers before people have read the later chapters or do you post summaries of the chapters to make it more exciting?

I've read both from readers, some are upset by 'spoiler summaries', others are bored by 'general summaries'.

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It's snowing. And wet and grey. Not nice at all. I miss the sun. Ah, just a few more days, then things lighten up again.

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I've finally finished reading 'The Silvering Divide' by somigliana and love it to pieces. It's such a beautiful and clever story. A real highlight.

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Snapedom has a Yule party. Hop over and post/fulfill wishes.

Last night I finished writing my SSHG exchange pinch-hit. Scratches head in confusion. How did that happen?
Mind you, there is still a lot of tweaking, editing, reshuffling and rewriting necessary before it can go to the beta, but the frame stands and I'm not unhappy with it. Scratches head again in wonder. I just let these two do what they wanted. Doesn't happen often this way. But it was quite the experience. Don't expect anything spectacular, but I hope it'll be entertaining.

There's an informal Yule party over on snapedom. And some very interesting discussion, too. Go take a look.

I usually get the Astronomy Picture of the Day in my flist. Today they had this picture: Venus in the moon.
Do you see the small insert? One day I want earrings made like that. The moon disk from blackened silver. The crescent from white gold and Venus as a small diamond, set in white gold. Should I start saving for it? Maybe I can wear them to my funeral. ;) (Nah, shouldn't be *that* expensive.) I suppose you can guess that I love this picture. But I love anything space-related anyway, the Hubble pictures regularly blow me away with their beauty.

I really am not the person who should blog. My life is boring anyway and I'm far too private to talk about things.

Maybe next year I'll make an effort to post once a week, with a summary of what interested me in fandom that week. There's always something going on on snapedom, I could pimp that. And maybe I pretty up my LJ a bit and cross post there again. I'm reading the flist there, so, maybe...
LJ seems to have calmed down a bit, hopefully it's not the quiet before the next strike-out storm.