loaded_march

So I may or might not have written something hoping that there would be a Horror fest for Merlin this year, so imagine my disappointment when there wasn't one to be found (that I know of anyway).  The idea followed me around Ireland, but I didn't get to write it until I got home, so imagine how frustrated I was, not having anything to write on while I was away!

Anway, a day early on the Halloween posting, but only because I'm not sure I'll have the time to post anything tomorrow.  I'm sure nobody's gonna complain though, right?


Title: Next to Die (AO3)
Word Count: 20,000K-ish
Rating: Explicit
Summary:

The graduation celebration at the Pendragon family cottage in the backcountry was supposed to be a decadent weekend of sex, drugs, and alcohol, letting off steam in one last blow before the summer ended and they had to head back to adulthood and the rest of their lives.

But then everyone started to die.

It's come to my attention, mostly through sheer dumb luck, that I haven't posted an update of any kind in a while.  Why didn't anyone tell me?

My absence from LJ can be traced back to a number of reasons, not excluding, sorry, too lazy and yeah, in a minute.  Mostly, though, I've been in a low-simmering HULK SMASH anger setting that is in no way conductive to posting anything other than work-related rants, but no one wants to hear those.

Since this is an update on things written, such an update it will be, hereto:

1) My RVBB submission is completed, right down to a rigorous beta, and I can't wait for everyone to see the gorgeous artwork that I managed to snag.  I don't have a posting date yet -- they haven't been announced.

2) On the tail-end of getting my RVBB through the edits, I received another round of edits to go through -- the ones for LM15.  More on that later.  I took a break, though, because I hate editing with the fiery heat of a thousand burning suns, and I wanted to avoid the whole rage!delete that would happen if I didn't take a mental health day (or several).

3) In-between waiting for my beta from RVBB to come in and in pockets of time in-between, I wrote and finished LM-Epilogue.  Finished, however, is a very loose definition, because I know I left some parts marked with WRITE THIS LATER.  But once those are done, I will be sending it to the same person who betaed LM15.

4) You won't be getting any more information on the Epilogue other than it's mostly finished and destined for the beta, but I will tell you that I plan on posting it shortly after LM15 so there won't be a lot of waiting in-between (not like what happened after LM14 and before LM15.  Yikes).

5) My next writing project after this is for merlin_horror.  I have, I think, 5,000 words for it, but it's not working, so those are probably bound for the Trash, and I'll be rewriting from scratch.


Anyway, the nitty-gritty for LM15 is this:

I didn't go through Draft Zero before sending it to the kind soul who volunteered to rake it with a fine-tooth comb, and although I'm impressed with the number of things that have been caught so far (I have only gone through two chapters), I'll be going through it again before I post.  Based on how long it took me to go through two chapters of my beta's comments, I can guesstimate that I'll be finished those edits by the end of the week.

But don't get your hopes up.  I still have to go through it again.  It's 10 chapters at roughly 20,000 words each.  I don't know how long that's going to take me.  I am shooting for mid-to-late August, but don't quote me on that.

The claiming post for the merlin_horror prompts is up!  There are some great prompts available for the taking and writing!

/shamelessly encourages everyone to pick all the prompts just so that I don't pick them all myself

Title: All the Dead Are Here
Author: loaded_march/Footloose on AO3
Prompt Number: 38
Rating: NC-17
Word Count: 47,000
Characters/Pairings: Merlin/Arthur
Warnings: Horror themes, death themes, major character death (temporary), blood, gore, gross stuff, decomposition, mutilation, violence, chaos, failure to obey the How To Survive A Horror Movie Rules, and, worst of all, Gwaine making a bad zombie joke
Summary:
There's not much outside Arthur's purview -- eventually, all creatures fall to the Reaper's scythe. It's never personal. It's just his job.

That was true until Arthur ran into the only death he's ever regretted reaping -- Merlin, who is inexplicably alive and well.

But that's not all. There are monsters that exist outside of life and death, and they're spreading like vermin in the city of London. The balance is in jeopardy, and Merlin may be the only one who can help him restore order in the chaos.
Notes: This prompt? Aces. I couldn't turn it down. Thank you, prompter, for coming up with it! I hope it was in the ballpark of what you were hoping for. A big, giant THANK YOU to castmeaway, who did an amazing beta at the 11th hour.


Read the Fic on AO3.

A Public Service Announcement:
Always page number your fics before printing them.  ALWAYS.  Because you never know when you might drop them down a flight of stairs, have to climb down that flight of stairs, and track down every single piece of paper, please God before your coworkers start coming in and inadvertently find the page where Arthur is doing something very work inappropriate to Merlin.  You'll never live that down.

You're welcome.


Anyway, in random news:

1. So, yes, that happened, where that is tumblr, and yes, I did cave.  I have a tumblr.  It seems odd.  I actually created two: insanewordcount with a subtumblr for loadedmarch.  No, I don't know what I'm going to do with it yet.  No, I have no idea what I'm doing.  This is one of those circumstances where I've clicked on the "REGISTER" button and ran away screaming the way the anti-hero hits the "SELF-DESTRUCT" button and runs away screaming.  Please be gentle with me.

2. I opted to edit a hard copy of my merlin_horror fic in the hopes that I could deliver a clean(er) draft to the beta who volunteered to take a look at it.  I am actually surprised that, for once, I'm liking this fic.  Which means, most likely, no one else will.  Oops.  Also, have I mentioned that I don't write horror?  At all?  Ever?  I apologize in advance to my prompter.

3. Remember this post about laws of physics and needing a Stargate address to actually see that in action?  Apparently, I don't need to go anywhere.  I can see the defiance of those laws right in the comfort of my home planet.  Because, not only does the instruction manual provide the wrong correlation between conductivity and total suspended solid concentrations, the measuring instrument itself is oh so fucking wrong.  I know this because I tested it.  And I doublechecked my results using a more reliable instrument.  And I even did classic chemistry techniques, sans-instrument (unless you count a balance as an instrument -- I don't, I call it "equipment").  I showed four other people.  They all pulled what the fuck is that faces before whiplashing into stupendous amazement.  I have not heard back to my earlier request for the Stargate address, but believe me, once I get over how ridiculously pissed off I am that they are selling this piece of equipment and no one's caught them out sooner (but just imagine how many wrong results are being used to evaluate samples, Jesus Fucking Christ), they're going to be getting a long email from me.

It will not be a happy email.

First!  merlin_horror is open for both writers and artists to claim prompts!  Go, go, go check it out and claim a prompt.  The claiming is open until August 1, and both fic and art are due Oct 15.


Second! summerpornathon Challenge #6 voting is open!  Anyone can vote, the comments are screened.  The challenge this time was Crossovers/Fusions.


Third!  And this is relevant to my interests (link goes to New Scientist) for reasons some of you will already be aware of, and others might figure out, but still!  Relevance!  I've complained about the poor quality of the so-called automatic captioning that is done on YouTube (it really, really sucks monkey balls, I'm not kidding you.  You do not want to watch a video where they're supposedly discussing wave dynamics, but the captioning is giving you instructions on how to catch an octopus.  IDEK) many, many times.  What is less well known to people is that despite the prevalence of captioning or subtitling on television and on DVDs, broadcasted television shows that are also streamed on the web through the broadcasters' websites are not captioned or subtitled in any way.  I have trouble following the logic of not making content accessible when (1) the technology is there to implement it, (2) the issuing media company has made the effort of making content accessible in other formats, why not the web, too? and (3) it's the law in most countries -- in particular the USA, where most of the television shows being streamed online are coming from.


Metrics!  There's still hours left in the day, but I'm tired, so I'll quit while the going is good, and I'm stopping at a nice, round 3,000 words for LM Part 10.


And how was your day?