A Distraction at the Bus Stop

I realise Dutch musical theatre is really not going to be everyone’s kopje thee, but there’s a song that’s been raising my spirits lately. It’s called “Waarom mensen zingen”—”Why People Sing”— and comes from Alex Klaasen’s revue show Showponies. With the help of Daniel Cornelissen and the rest of the cast, Alex first explains why people keep bursting into song in musicals instead of just speaking, and then expresses the joy of singing and dancing in general.

I've tried this out on my resident non-Dutch speaker (AKA my sister) and she found it funny and enjoyable. (I have just tried applying the auto-generated-Dutch-auto-translated-to-English subtitles but believe me, they are not going to be any help.) So I shall just leave the song here in case it can entertain anyone else…

Watch on YouTube

I’m thinking I might have a go at a list of Yuletide recs, once I’ve read a bit more. But for the moment, here is just a personal rec for my excellent gift, The Wedding Party (G; F/M; 1,157 words).

And well, a rec for the fandom itself. The fandom is another very funny SNL sketch that originally YouTube suggested to me: Cha Cha Slide.

It’s a fairly recent one—from an episode this year that John Mulaney guest hosted. The sketch is written by Sam Jay and Bryan Tucker, and the central premise is that a white man, Daniel (John Mulaney) is attending the wedding of the cousin of his black girlfriend, Lisa (Ego Nwodim). Right at the beginning Daniel talks about how nervous he feels being there. And it’s a tense moment—I immediately assumed he felt that way because he was white and everyone else there was black. I was already experiencing the secondhand embarrassment of how he was going to speak and act. But then it gradually became apparent what the joke was. This very, very white man, without cringingly trying to be anything he wasn’t and always just being himself, had a deep and respectful understanding of black culture and had already unselfconsciously integrated himself into this black community.

I just fell in love with this universe and with Lisa and Daniel’s supportive relationship. There’s so much love and respect in this world and everyone seems to be having a brilliant time. (I’ve seen lots of comments about the amazing backing dancers—I’m a little bit in love with the dancer in the dark green dress on the far right.) And I’m white and British and had to look up pretty much every reference, but at the same time I thought I recognised aspects of my own childhood, or perhaps an idealised version of my childhood.

One of the things Daniel is nervous about is meeting Lisa’s mother, which doesn’t actually happen in the sketch. So that was one of the prompts I offered to my future writer. And what they’ve come up with is just perfect. I didn’t have a clear idea of what I was hoping for… but I got exactly what I was hoping for. As an extension of the sketch’s central joke of Daniel knowing everything about black culture, I suggested Lisa’s mother might know everything about what it was like to be a white “software engineer from Indianapolis,” as Daniel refers to himself. And my assigned writer took this idea and gave it a psychological depth I hadn’t realised was there. I love this version of Lisa’s mother that they’ve created, and I love how they’ve developed Lisa and Daniel's characters and their relationship. This fic makes me very happy, and I'm glad to see other people seem to be enjoying it too.

I’ve always been fascinated by languages, and over the years I’ve had a go at so many of them. However, I’d never truly learned another language. And at the beginning of the year I really needed something to engage my brain, and both smallhobbit and sanguinity had mentioned using Duolingo. The idea of learning a language again gave me a burst of enthusiasm so I thought I would give it a go. I’d known about Duolingo for a long time but I had never visited their website. I was surprised by how many languages they had available now, though in the end I decided to go with a familiar language—Dutch.

( Lees verder... )

A while ago I did a bit of moonlighting in the original fic world over at DA and took part in The Gauntlet, which consisted of nine challenges of increasing difficulty to be completed, in order, during September 2017:

( The nine challenges )


No-one will be surprised to hear that this kind of thing really appealed to me, and I eventually came third in the contest. But I think only two of the pieces I produced truly worked as stories, rather than just as solutions to puzzles. They were Memento Mori for the first challenge and How the Joke Got Its Punchline for the second. I tidied up Memento Mori and sold it to JayHenge as usual, and in November, How the Joke Got Its Punchline got a Daily Deviation on DA. This is a daily feature that is technically promoted to the whole site (but you do have to choose to go and look at the page of DDs). It tends to mean that you meet a few new people, and someone who saw my story asked if they could do a reading on their YouTube channel The Saturday Storytellers.

The recording is now ready and can be found here!

The person who runs The Saturday Storytellers is Rowan Oakley (saturdaystorytellers on DA) but the narrator on this occasion is HorseygirlE.

I love the use of music and sound effects, and the narrator gives it their all with their use of individual character voices. I’m really rather taken with the whole thing—it put such a big smile on my face today.

Last month I took part in Flash Fiction Month over on DeviantArt, writing and posting a story of 55 to 1,000 words for each day of July.

Here are links to the last batch of stories, if anyone's interested in taking a look:


Nectar The aggression of butterflies.

Details, Details... A wedding planner puts together a wedding for a mixed undead-living couple.

The Descent It's a long way down...

Painting a Picture The difficulties of being a paintbrush.

Descriptions Putting together a photofit.

Walking a Tightrope A CYOA story. Tightropes, death, local politics and social awkwardness.

Interrobang ! and ? visit their relationship counsellor.

Adding Meaning to Your Life The word SHEEP decides to have a makeover.

Winning is for Losers While playing Snakes and Ladders, Blue has a revelation.

Death at the Party Death finds it difficult to make friends.

Super Market A look at the strange, strange world of Retail. A 369'er: 3 self-contained stories of 69 words each.

Soulmates Do Exist Jonathan splits up with someone he wasn't aware he was in a relationship with.

Magic Dance The Muse of dance has lost her rhythm.

X, Y and Z The letter Y is not happy with its position in life.

All in the Tea Leaves The loose leaf tea attempts to take over the teabags' territory.


Or you can find all my stories grouped together here.


Author's Picks: Nectar and Death at the Party!

I'm currently taking part in Flash Fiction Month over on DeviantArt, writing and posting a story of 55 to 1,000 words each day of July.

Here are links to the first batch if anyone's interested in taking a look:


The Hero's Return Albert Braithwaite ponders on how much reward one man truly deserves.

In Bad Shape A rhombus arrives with interesting news for a line drawn between two points.

Restarting a Conversation A nice lady from the Articulation Association attempts to repair a conversation that has broken down.

The Elements of Attraction A grandmother attempts to play matchmaker after she's gone.

Show Your Working Out Discrimination against fractions in Mathematics.

Flying High A lady journalist plays fast and loose with the facts when reporting on the Wright brothers' first powered flight.

Bound Forms An adjective and a prefix are having marital problems.

Get Your Evil In Order Barry the Evil is being evil again. But sometimes he's his own worst enemy.


Author's pick: Restarting a Conversation!


And just adding it to this post because I was v. proud - my ACD microfic 'On The Shelf' was recently recced by ancientreader on 221b_recs here.

My publisher (^___^) JayHenge Publishing has just announced that their latest anthology of short stories is now available. It's called 'Unearthly Sleuths' and I have a story in there, 'Noir Comedy', under the name Charlotte Frankel. You can see the UK paperback here and the UK Kindle edition here, and the US paperback version here and the US Kindle edition here.

As with the previous anthology I was involved in, I'm so pleased by how well-designed the collection is. I'm rather tickled by the fact that any 'a's in the authors' names are replaced by a little magnifying glass, and each story gets its own image as well. Mine is of a woman in a mask - as my story is a crossover between Commedia dell'arte and Detective Noir. (Someone else's prompt from Flash Fiction Month on DA, but I like to think I did it justice...) And it's a great cover as well. Haven't actually read the collection yet - but there are several authors in there I know and admire. I'm very happy to have been involved, and in fact I'm already planning on submitting stuff for another anthology.


Talking of little magnifying glasses... I'm in my *cough*late-40s*cough* but my near sight is still in pretty good shape for most situations. However, I am noticing the onward march of time - I have to hold my wristwatch a little further away, I can't comfortably thread a needle any more, I need plenty of light to read the small print on the back of a packet. And most pertinently, at work customers sometimes thrust items at me, point to tiny, tiny print on the label and ask, "What does that say?" And I either can't read it at all, or can't read it with confidence.

And so, in the spirit of keeping the ageing process as fun as possible, I have bought... my very own golden pince-nez! It's so cute. The frame is metal and a pale golden colour, with a little loop if I wish to attach a chain, and the lenses are oval. The whole thing is surprisingly small - about the width of a credit card. And I hadn't realised that pince-nez are worn so far down the nose - at the soft bit, rather than on the bridge. This makes it very easy to look over the pince-nez as well as through it, switching from near to far sight. Mine does pince the nez slightly more than I was hoping, but I can't expect a perfect fit from something off the shelf - and I don't need to wear them a lot.

I will go and have a proper eye test eventually though. It has only been 30 years or so... ^^"

I had a bit of a stressful evening yesterday regarding LJ - I logged in to find my journal had been suspended.

The page I was faced with explained what my journal could have been suspended for, and stated that I should have received an email giving the particular reason. I hadn't - and I was pretty sure I had done nothing wrong anyway. I immediately reported the suspension, and thankfully it got sorted out pretty quickly. When I checked this morning I was back, and I'd finally got the explanation from LJ that my journal had been (erroneously) flagged as a source of spam.

But though all this was stressful, I didn't panic. Because luckily, and just by chance, I'd recently read an LJ post written by someone who'd gone through something similar (though I think they may have not been given a reason at all as to why their journal had been suspended). Knowing this could happen to an innocent person, knowing what to expect, and knowing that things could be put right really helped.

I was very grateful for that accidental reassurance. And I thought I’d do a post too, in case it can help anyone that I know. I really, really hope that this sort of thing doesn’t happen to anyone on my flist, but forewarned is forearmed.

So - when I logged in yesterday evening, the first thing I saw top-left was a line through my username. Thanks to that other LJ post, I knew immediately this meant my journal had been suspended. But I was also faced with a page telling me that explicitly, and telling me I should have had an email giving a reason. I hadn’t - but again, the other post had prepared me for this.

The page also told me I could contact LJ about the suspension: there was a link which took me to the relevant page. I had to give my full real name, my username and select the subject I was contacting them about. It was something like ‘I would like to know the reason for my suspension’. (The original page gave the subject I should choose as something slightly different, but as far as I could see it wasn’t on the list - the one I did select was the closest.)

I also was able to add a comment if I wanted. I kept the ‘what-the-hell-ing’ to a minimum, and simply said something like: ‘I haven’t received an email giving the reason for my journal’s suspension. And I believe it to be a complete mistake.’

So that was the report done. I just had to wait for someone to look at it. The next thing was to let LJ friends know what had happened. I would guess everyone on my flist has this sorted out already, but I would recommend making sure you have another way of contacting at least one LJ chum, so they can then spread the word. I think Small Hobbit’s ‘are you okay?’ email and my ‘my journal’s been suspended!’ email were written pretty much simultaneously ^^

When logged into LJ, I really couldn’t do anything. I couldn’t read my own messages or look at my friends feed. But when I was logged out, and went to sherlock60, I could see that my posts and comments had disappeared. Again, thanks to that other LJ post, I was aware this was only temporary. It was stressful - the thought of never being allowed back to LJ and so no-one else being able to access the poetry pages with all their comments made me feel sick - but at least I knew the posts and comments hadn’t been deleted.

It is annoying that I don’t know why my journal was flagged - whether it was a blip, an accident, one of my comments or notes being automatically flagged as dodgy, or even someone maliciously reporting my journal. But at least I know if it happens again, it can be easily fixed.

And thank you especially to Okapi, Mrs. P. and Small Hobbit for your concern and your support while things were fixed this time. It meant a great deal ^__^

So, just a round-up of writing--and reading--things ^^


I had a birthday this month, and I received two lovely fics:

Firstly, Happy Birthday by thesmallhobbit, in which Mouselet and the rest of the gang manage to batter my bouquet and eat part of my cake. (You know, I spent part of my birthday looking up articles about Victorian taxidermy… *gives gang a significant look*)

And secondly, the brilliant and witty The Greek Decanter by okapi1895, in which Sherlock (possibly born a coffeepot, formerly a teapot and now a vase) and John (definitely a teapot) go to visit Mycroft (definitely a coffeepot).

Okapi’s fic is set in my Tea Set AU series. Writing John and Sherlock as teapots was my first major go at a story in the Sherlock fandom--the fics were inspired by this photograph on Tumblr by hisietari. (Essentially I look at people and think: ‘I don’t know what the heck’s going on there.’ Then I look at objects and think: ‘Well, obviously I know what it’s like to be a teapot.’)

I’m just so touched that Okapi chose to write something so personal for me, and so impressed with what she did with the idea--the whole fic is packed with marvellous details.


In July I took part in Flash Fiction Month over on DA. I managed to complete all 31 stories as usual and with regard to the prizes, I was the runner-up for Week 4--which is not to be sniffed at I suppose. I felt this year was a weaker crop of stories overall, though there were many stories I was very happy with. And I’ve discovered I can still write while half-asleep ^^ I’ve also definitely sold one of the stories and I’m probably going to sell another, once I’ve finished a bit of rewriting. (It’s the same tiny publisher I’ve mentioned before.)


I’ve signed up again for heroinebigbang’s Round 4 Redux. If you remember, Round 4 sort of fizzled out and then sprang back into life but I decided to post my fic on my own because I wanted it out of the way. But I want to try and do an official fic for the challenge too. This one will just be a tiny bang--under 5,000 words.


And smallfandombang’s Round 6 is on the way--it’s starting 1st September! For this round, I’m going to try and produce a 50,000 word work. I’ve got 5 months until the rough drafts are due--I think I can do it. I’m thinking of doing a Dear Ladies/Pirates of Penzance crossover. I have no idea about the details, or any kind of plot, yet though.


Finally, I’d like to do a bit of advertising on behalf of a DA friend.

Damon L. Wakes has had a novella accepted by the crowdfunding publisher Unbound. Writers pitch their ideas (in Damon’s case the novella was already written), and then to quote Unbound: If it’s got the makings of a great book, we’ll launch it on our site. If readers like the idea they can pledge and support it for exclusive rewards.

The book is called Ten Little Astronauts and in the author’s own words, it’s ‘an Agatha Christie-inspired murder mystery novella set on board an interstellar spacecraft’.

If you follow the link, you can see Damon’s pitch video--filmed inside an actual submarine--the synopsis for the book, an excerpt, a little about the author, and the list of pledge amounts and what you will receive in exchange.

To quote the author again:

If you’ve ever organised a project through, supported a project on, or simply heard of Kickstarter, you’ll have some idea how the process works. The main difference with Unbound is that they’ll only take on projects they have some faith in: they already put forward the money to get me on board that submarine with a professional videographer!

If funded, Ten Little Astronauts will have professional editing, proofreading and cover design, with a trade paperback distributed by Penguin Random House no less.


Do please go and have a look. If the idea for the book grabs you and you can spare the cash (heaven knows I agonised over that aspect), consider making a pledge--the lowest amount is £10. You’ll be helping a book to come into being and helping an exceptionally talented young writer along on the next step of his career. I so admire Damon. He’s ambitious in the most positive sense of the word--working so hard to get his stuff out there, while always taking the time to be interested in other people’s writing too.

At the moment I'm taking part in Flash Fiction Month over on DA - writing a story of 55 to 1,000 words each day of July. Here's links to the next batch of stories, if anyone wants to take a look:



Smoke Gets In Your Eyes

The Big Break-Up

Let Sleeping Bags Lie

Shop

Setting The Stage

Dress-Down Wednesday

The Things That Come Out of Your Mouth


Or you can find all my stories grouped together here.


Author's Choice: Smoke Gets In Your Eyes! A tale of firefighter homunculi, hopeless love, humors and humour.