Happy birthday this 17th August to ...

[snorkackcatcher]

msmoocow!

And since I remember she tagged me for this meme months ago but I never got around to answering, by way of apology hereby:

Writer's Meme: Sometimes it's ok to pimp yourself out. Post a list of your top five favorite fics you've written, regardless of fandom or the reason you love them. This isn't about the BEST things you've written, but what you LOVE most. Then tag five other people to do the same.


Tricky to pick five, but here goes. (Links are to the Livejournal versions.)

Nymphadora Tonks and the Liquor of Jacmel: Oh come on, you knew I was going to say this one, didn't you? :) A labour of love (and occasionally loathing during the tricky bits) that was originally intended to be about the length of PS/SS, and yet ended up as about 10% longer than OotP! But when I came to revise it, the plot held together surprisingly well, given that I was pretty much making it up as I went along throughout. And it mostly survived DH -- there are a few characterisations and Auror techniques that don't quite mesh, but nothing that couldn't be written round. It was an achievement to finish, modesty aside, it's good, and I'm pleased with it.

The Open Sea and the Sky: This one was me having a go at a couple of things I'd wanted to try -- a more 'literary' approach to descriptive, scene-setting prose, and an interlaced past/present story. It became longer than expected, and acquired some unexpected sub-themes, but on the whole I rather liked the way it turned out

The Right Time: Another experiment -- this time in writing a NC-17 story with actual onstage shagging, something I'd avoided like the plague before on the grounds that shippy writing wasn't my forte. The sex scene itself was passable, but the 9,000 words or so that it took me to get there gave me considerably more confidence about tackling the shippy stuff!

Dangerous Driving: A story about Ernie Prang as an informer? This was one of those bizarre ideas you get from idly re-reading a passage in one of the books (in this case Harry's trip on the Knight Bus in PoA) and being curious about some minor detail (in this case, how come Ernie had been in contact with Dementors enough for them to scare him so much?). While trying to explore what should have been a simple idea, it grew and grew as I realised various scenes/characters needed to be there, and turned into a political story of 11K+ words! I like it because I think it looks behind the scenes of the Potterverse in a way which is unusual but nevertheless fits.

Indistinguishable: I guess it makes me a bad person that my first reaction to George's injury and Fred's death in DH was "damn, this josses Indistinguishable". Another story that worked backwards from a single quote, but the idea of the twins in business in the Muggle world and a clueless reporter interviewing them was just fun, and seemed to work nicely when written out!

As usual, consider yourself tagged if you like the idea, etc.

Lyrics: The last one was The Major-General's Song aka I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major-General from Gilbert & Sullivan's 1879 comic operetta The Pirates of Penzance. Trivia: the first ever performance was in the Bijou Theatre in Paignton, which I remember was still there up until recent years -- behind Woolworths, next to the railway line just before you come into the station. Gone now though. Anyway, jesspallas, junediamanti, nineveh_uk, tree_and_leaf, and kerrymdb all recognised it, and inter alia informed me who Heliogabalus was (a Roman emperor and "a psycho with tremendous style").

(As a related aside, it would be fun to see the story suggested by someone on (I think) the dh_predictions comm. Due to an odd quirk of wizarding law, Petunia finally gets her Hogwarts letter on her eleventh birthday -- 29th February 2004. :D)

This time, something rather more up to date -- the mention of local railway lines reminded me:

On the night train, from the city to the south
I saw spirits crawl across the river mouth
In skewed ascension, with no destination
Like this lone bachelor in me
This constant yearning, for great love and learning
For the wind to carry me free (2000s)

Comments

[virginia-bell.livejournal.com]

Ah-ha, I know this one! Patrick Wolf, "Teignmouth."

[snorkackcatcher]

It is indeed! (It wasn't you who posted it, was it? I know I only downloaded it from somewhere because I was intrigued by the local town in the title, and liked it.)

[virginia-bell.livejournal.com]

(I know that I uploaded the entire album at one point, but I don't believe I've ever posted just that song. But it's an amazing song, isn't it? :D)

[snorkackcatcher]

Yes. I'll have to get the album at some point. (Album downloads are not practical on my flaky dialup connection.)

[a-t-rain.livejournal.com]

(As a related aside, it would be fun to see the story suggested by someone on (I think) the dh_predictions comm. Due to an odd quirk of wizarding law, Petunia finally gets her Hogwarts letter on her eleventh birthday -- 29th February 2003. :D)

Considering that there was no 29th February 2003, that would have to be a very odd quirk indeed :)

[snorkackcatcher]

Ah yes, but this is the wizarding calendar, remeber, the same one in which 1st September is always a Monday ...

Oh all right, that was stupid of me. :) I don't think 2000 was a leap year either, so it would have to be ... oh sold it, 2004 wouldn't work with Lily's known birthdate, 1996 wouldn't work with HBP, 2008 would have Petunia four years younger than Lily, maybe I'd better just forget the whole idea. :(

[a-t-rain.livejournal.com]

There wasn't any skip in 2000, actually; years divisible by 100 are leap years if and only if they're also divisible by 400. Thus, 1700, 1800, and 1900 were not leap years, but 2000 was (and 2400 will be). Welcome to Useless Knowledge 'R' Us.

But I like the "this is the wizarding calendar so anything goes" explanation.

[snorkackcatcher]

Oh damn, you're right. I was forgetting and thinking that the skip was the other way round (you'd think I'd remember which way it goes after programming it about half a dozen times). Oh well, I don't suppose most people would notice. :)

Still needs a 'punchline' though, because I refuse to treat this as anything other than crackfic ...

[snorkackcatcher]

And then of course I realised that the above was utter nonsense, a 1956 birthdate would allow for an 11th birthday in 2004 because of the skip in 2000 ... er, remind me again why I'm bothering to consider canon- and calendar-compatibility for something that would obviously be a complete crackfic anyway? :)

[magnetic-pole.livejournal.com]

Due to an odd quirk of wizarding law, Petunia finally gets her Hogwarts letter on her eleventh birthday -- 29th February 2003.

I think you should run with this one, S. It begs to be written.

Also, I really liked your Jocasta Sykes (?) fic, though I don't think I left a comment. It had a charming combination of styles, one expansive and writerly, the other much more matter-of-fact. It worked well for the topic and character.

I'll have to take a look at some of the others. M.

[snorkackcatcher]

Thanks -- glad you liked it.

The Petunia one might work. Only trouble is, it needs a punchline as well ...

[msmoocow.livejournal.com]

Thank you! This was an awesome gift to recieve, because (and I'll never get tired of saying this) you are one of the few authors I would read anything by. I look forward to reading those!

[snorkackcatcher]

*blushes* You're welcome!