HSU IT Department

One of my prompts has been claimed for sshg_promptfest -- squee!

Yes, I know that ALL the contributions will be brilliant (because hello, sshg), but I'm tickled pink that one of my prompts sparked an idea for someone :)

And there are still lots more, especially for artists -- Go ye and claim!

Prompt review post is up for SSHG -- and there are two hundred, count 'em, TWO HUNDRED prompts! Truly an embarrassment of riches, everything from angst to humor to backstory to AU to the Krampus. Go take a look:

...by forwarding me photos like this:

The Big Reveal for sshg_promptfest went up a little while back, so I can now admit to being the author of "Poetic License," written to a very fun and clever prompt by drinkingcocoa.

Title: Poetic License (on LJ) (on AO3)
Warning(s): Pretentious swottiness.
Summary: Snape never claimed to be a poet. According to Hermione, that's just as well.
Original prompt: 1st-year genfic. Professor Snape receives a thank-you owl for the delightful logic puzzle. To show her gratitude, Hermione has rewritten his clue to make it a much better piece of verse, with earnest analyses of the flaws in his version and suggestions to help him improve as a poet.
Author's note: I'm sorry that this isn't longer, but even Hermione can only go on so long when she's got only sixteen lines to work with. I had no idea what trochaic heptameter was until she made me look it up; if there are any actual lit crit or poetry majors in the audience, I beg forgiveness for her entirely inadequate (and probably inaccurate) ripping-to-shreds of Sev's work.

My gifts (yes, plural!) have posted on sshg_exchange, and I tell you now: RUN DO NOT WALK to read All Shadows Pass Away. I am blown away by the gorgeousness of the prose, the vivid lushness of the descriptions, the liveliness and depth of the dialog...There are cats and libraries and walled gardens, Tuscany and Wales and Hogsmeade, there are theological/philosophical debates and picnics, there are echoes of myth and legend, and most of all there is so much love in all its forms: friendship, healing, loyalty, desire, passion, faith.

As if that weren't gift enough, the same Mystery Author also created a lushly beautiful piece of art based on my story A Price Beyond Rubies which looks like a page from an illuminated manuscript and which forms a perfect linking device between that story and hers.

Even if Santa leaves me nothing but coal this year, I will consider myself supremely well-gifted indeed :)

...that there's a giant comprehensive master list for all six years of the sshg_exchange? It has 900+ fics listed and is sortable AND filterable by all sorts of characteristics: year, author, rating, etc. Wish I'd found it at the beginning of my four-day weekend instead of the end >:|

I'm plugging along on sshg_exchange and luciusbigbang, not to mention my writing group's twice-yearly Short Story In A Week which always, always, ALWAYS seems to fall during the busiest months of the year for me, in some sort of cosmic slap-down of my attempts to participate fully in it. So far we're three days into the first week and I've written king zippy nada, as a a friend of mine used to say.

But it's not my fault, really! I keep getting distracted -- not least by the aforementioned list, but also by the wonderful SS/HG AU fic Droxy's Folly, which went up on AO3 over the weekend. (If you haven't read this yet, drop everything and GO.) And of course by silly videos of cats, we all know how that goes.

Curse you, interwebz!!!!

Seems appropriate that I share one item of distraction, given (a) the current fests-in-progress, (2) the BBC's recent tut-tutting over 50 Shades of Grey (thanks, laurielover1912) and Newsweek's assertion that what's really wrong with FSoG is the lamentable quality of the prose. So, for your edification and jollification, I offer this light-hearted defense of smut, from Tom Lehrer:

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...then here are a few things you might be wondering about, so pull up a chair here in the Common Room (pay no attention to that head in the fireplace) and let's chat.

For your reference:
Fic prompts
Art prompts (with wants/anti-wants)

First, I'm pretty easy to please as far as taking the prompt and running with it; it's meant to plant a seed that you water and tend and shape as you see fit; whether it grows into a radish or a rose -- or a redwood for that matter -- makes no never mind to me. The Muse is a shy creature and I know better than to try to corral her too tightly. Second, I'm pretty easy to please in terms of rating: I don't require smut by any means, but if the Muse takes you that way and it suits the plot, go ahead and have them get nekkid and get busy. Third, I'm pretty easy to please in terms of genre: I don't care if you go with madcap humor or angsty darkness so long as the tale hangs together and makes sense. That's really the main thing I enjoy: a good solid story, and my tastes are pretty catholic (with a small 'c').

I don't like out-of-character: no affectionate, gooey, emotional Snape; no damsel-in-distress clothing-obsessed Hermione. This is not to say, of course, that Snape can't be (or fall) in love, or that Hermione can't get herself into trouble or enjoy dressing to the nines (for the proper occasion), if that's the way the Muse takes you, but within the parameters of who they are in canon. People do grow and change, and if the story is set years after the books then I'd expect them to have changed somewhat...but as Prof. Grubbly-Plank says, a leopard never changes all his (or her) spots, yes? (One small particular request: please no pregnancy/babies/children.)

I'm big on eyes and shoulders. I like witty banter. UST that finally gets resolved is particularly fine. I like magic to play a role in the story (these are witches and wizards, after all, not Muggles). I enjoy descriptions that employ more senses than just the visual. Bonus points for inclusion of any of the following: food porn (tasty meals, good wine), because I love to eat; a library or archive, even in passing, because I'm a total library slut; McGonagall, even if it's just a cameo, because I love her; brand new spells/magic of your own invention.

Art-wise, I'm partial to William Morris, Arthur Rackham, Maurice Sendak, Tim Burton, Edward Gorey and Salvador Dali. The only color I really can't stand is orange, so you're wide open there :)

Most important of all: I know the effort it takes to carve out time from one's other commitments to write or draw or create, and the mere fact that you're creating something for me is enormously generous. Never for a moment think that I don't appreciate it. If you have fun with it, I'm sure I will too :)

I've just come off three very intense weeks editing a 300+ page tome for a client -- excellent content but the wording/phrasing needed considerable massaging, plus there was a good bit of fact-checking he wanted done (well there would be with 600+ footnotes, wouldn't there?). So the last three weeks have been 9-5 "real job" and then 6-midnight freelance job. I've hardly spoken to Spouse other than to mumble "Pizza or chinese? Can you go get it?", I've had zero time to read (fic or otherwise), and have subsisted mostly on coffee and take-out. Blargh.

The deadline was yesterday and I delivered, so tonight I came home and had NOTHING TO DO. Do you hear me? NOTHING AT ALL, I was free to do what I wished to do. I got to cook! I got to read!! I got to have a glass or two of wine and play with the kittehs!!! I got to read all eleventy billion prompts at sshg_exchange!!!!!! Plus, as a bonus, I got to go a bit sentimental over tonight's episode of Big Bang Theory. "Oyyyy veeeeeyyyyy!" and *gasp* Sheldon took Amy's hand :D

Indeed, I am a happy camper.

Tomorrow I get back on track with LJ and posting my 100 Surprises. Teaser: The next two, or maybe three, will involve the reptilian hindbrain. I'm sure you just can't wait...

Reveals are up for mini_fest so I can post this now too, yay! The prompt came from lady_of_clunn and was so wonderful I had to seize it bodily, run off with it, and hide in the corner where I could savor it thoroughly.

Title: Till By Turning, Turning We Come 'Round Right (LJ) (AO3)
Rating: PG
Characters: Hermione/Snape, with cameos by Ron, Harry and Professor McGonagall
Prompt(s): Every year, Hermione uses her time turner to secretly leave a Christmas present at Spinners End for a young Severus, hoping she might be able to change his fate. Every year she returns to her own time and Severus is still dead - will this year's present be successful?
Warnings: Gratuitous abuse of physics, epilogue endangerment, and a short-lived last-minute red herring.
Summary: Hermione's greatest Christmas gift goes to an unsuspecting recipient.
Word Count: 7800
Disclaimer: Thank you, JKR, for giving us these characters. No copyright infringement was intended, no money was made, but a lovely time was had by all.
A/N: Enormous thanks to my kind and speedy betas nursedarry, ennyousai, and noeon; any purple prose remaining is no fault of theirs. And most humble thanks to lady_of_clunn for giving me a nugget of pure gold to work with. I hope that despite my minor alterations it still shines for you.

Another one done for the hp_uk_meetup, about the price we pay for getting our heart's desire. Enjoy :)

( A Price Beyond Rubies (HG/SS, PG) )