yuletide reveals

My main fic was This Town We're Painting - a St Trinian's future-fic that is a sneaky crossover with Sherlock, featuring Kelly/Annabelle and most of their classmates, all grown up and wreaking a more sedate kind of havoc. Writing it was SO MUCH FUN, especially Chelsea's parts.

I also wrote two extremely last-minute treats:

my secrets are doors - a Queen's Thief story. To be honest, this is probably a mere tenth of the Gen/Attolia story that exists IN MY HEART, but you know, time limitations. And I do find this universe very stressful to write in because of how beautifully and carefully Whalen Turner chooses her words, but I was fairly pleased with how this came out.

five days that were difficult and one that wasn't - a bunch of little How To Train Your Dragon vignettes which I wrote at the speed of light in the HOUR before the main collection closed. It's pretty rough, but I really wanted to try my hand at writing Hiccup at least once :)

books read 2010

I did a lot more reading last year than in any previous year. It was my primary leisure activity! Which is probably reflected in my smaller fic output (I'll do a fic roundup post later), but I don't regret it, because I read some fantastic stuff. A lot of the books on the list were part of my Booker Prize reading project. Though I only read ONE Shakespeare play in its entirety, which is just shameful.

Because I read so many this year, I'm doing two favourite lists: seven I was most impressed with, and seven I most enjoyed reading. It was going to be five and five but I simply couldn't cut the lists down any further.

( 132 books )

my fic -- 2010

Oh, this is going to be a pitifully small list. On the plus side, that means I can gush self-indulgently about basically all of them!

Favourite fic overall:
UM. TIE. I CAN'T CHOOSE.
Despite wrestling with hatred for it for MONTHS, I am extremely proud of what I managed to accomplish with The Manor House. It's a 26,000-word emotional journey and in the end it really did end up saying the things I wanted it to say. I also loved getting to collaborate with inknose, one of my favourite artists <3. I poured a lot of time, stress, and personal baggage into that fic, and though it will never be very popular because it's not everyone's cup of tea (OT3 & fuck-off long), I will always love it. It also proves that I am inching towards the ability to write novels! Slowly!
The other fic I am hugely fond of is a wish to assimilate the world, the sequel to my old Ouran High School Host Club cohabitation fic. Again, it turned out exactly how I wanted it to, and it was a successful experiment in extrapolating a series of complex relationships. (And also in writing something faaaaairly filthy. For me.)

Other assorted favourites:
Boundary Conditions, my White Collar OT3 fic examining Peter's dominance issues, only narrowly missed out on being my favourite for the year. ARTWORK BY lizardspots. KINK. YAY. (Also the sequel, five orders Peter gave Neal in public.)
I really loved being part of Inception fandom in all its enormity and joy, and I'm proud of both Autoimmunity and five ties Arthur can't wear any more for what they are: preliminary examinations of character that informed Manor House to a large extent, for all that they're separate stories.
I didn't do a lot of writing for movies this year, because I barely saw any, but I had a great time writing Jam Yesterday, my personal take on Anne Hathaway's brilliant and fucked-up portrayal of the White Queen in Burton's Alice in Wonderland. And of course my St Trinian's Yuletide fic, This Town We're Painting, falls under the movie category, though it was also an excuse for me to write about Mycroft Holmes, something I was dying to do :D
And just so that they're part of the round-up: my two Yuletide treats, the Queen's Thief ficlet my secrets are doors, and the How To Train Your Dragon ficlet five days that were difficult and one that wasn't.

Most underappreciated:
Probably good news for beautiful people, the only eyaiverse story I managed to write this year (WOE). True, it's light on eyai characters and heavy on ridiculous romcom hijinks, but I love it anyway ;_;
Also suffering this year was pick your apple (take a bite), my pre-DH Draco Malfoy fic, which was probably unavoidable; it's a sequel to a fic that was recced in a few places and so got tons of comments, but I know there aren't many big HP fans on my flist, and it's certainly not what people read my ficblog for.

Most fun:
That award definitely goes to Biconvex, the random psychic-powers White Collar AU. Writing for White Collar in general is great fun, but doing the worldbuilding for this was awesome, and I remain very proud of it and the sequel, three times the link proved embarrassing, and one time they didn't care.
Runner-up has to go to OH&S. What with this and Benevolent Sibling, the fandomly universe seems to be telling me I should just write crack forever and ever.

apparently I suck at sales

Three hours on Oxford Street and the only decent cardigan to be found was at Benetton and therefore £22 even on sale (bah). I fell in love with a pair of completely impractical boots in Urban Outfitters (£30), and the world's most gorgeous coat in Topshop (£215, which is just a RIDICULOUS AMOUNT OF MONEY, but it WAS the prettiest coat I've ever seen).

Sooooo yeah. I bought a peppermint mocha and sulked my way home, cursing my own sense of fiscal responsibility.