Writing, music meme, and a couple fic recs - Oh my!

[only_more_love]

If you're just wondering what fic I've posted lately, you'll find an update for What Would Happen If We Kissed? here.  Last week I posted a couple ficlets, but I was feeling lazy, so I didn't pimp them in any of the comms.  If you want to read them, just click here and scroll down a bit.

A few days ago I posted a request for opinions on Into the Fire.  As expected, reading your thoughtful comments and my pondering the issues myself helped me reach a conclusion:  I don't want to write 300-word oneshots for that challenge right now.  Not because I think they can't be done well or because I think what I already wrote sucks; I just don't feel like it.  Looking back, that's where my unease sprung from.  When rereading many of the ficlets I've written recently, I've been tempted to write longer stories that stem from them.  And I'm going to do that.  But rather than continue to cannibalize my own writing, it's time for a change.  What better time for that then spring?

It's not as though I stopped writing longer stories in the past few months, but there's no question that my writing was dominated by shorter forms after December.  A lot of that had to do with family issues that made it tough for me to squeeze in a ton more.  Some of it had to do with what I felt like writing.  Some of it had to do with my wanting to focus really tightly on language -- which intentionally writing short forces you to do.  I wanted to see if I could write drabbles and ficlets.  I've now proven to my own satisfaction that yes, I can. 

Now it's time to keep pushing with the longer stories.  I'm not abandoning ficlets, but I won't be posting them as frequently as I have of late.  I'm itching to write long; word restrictions feel less like a challenge and more like a prison at the moment.  When I say long, I don' t mean James Joyce's Ulysses long.  *g*   But longer than 200 - 300 words.  There's still so much I want to write...

It's doubtful the volume of my writing will go down, but the frequency of story updates most certainly will.  I'm here, and I'm not going anywhere.  But I don't write quickly enough to have chapters for longer stories up every day.  This will also give me a chance to read a bit more of other peoples' Bones fic -- and catch up on some orphaned comments and emails.

One last thing:  until I write "on hiatus" next to any of the stories listed in my fic index, nothing is abandoned.

Thanks for your support.

Music Meme

Tagged by makd

List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether they have words, or even if they're not any good, but they must be songs you're really enjoying now, shaping your spring. Post these instructions in your LJ along with your 7 songs. Then tag 7 other people to see what they're listening to.

1.  The Dykeenies - Stitches
2.  Augustana - Stars and Boulevards
3.  Susie Suh - Recognition
4.  Jack Johnson - What You Thought You Needed
5.  Peter Gabriel - Red Rain
6.  Brandon Heath - I'm Not Who I Was
7.  Ben Folds' cover of Such Great Heights

If anyone would like me to upload any of the above tracks, let me know.

Not tagging anyone for this meme, but if you feel up to it, I would love to know what you're spinning these days.  :)

Someone over at 206_bones recently posted a request for recs for quality Bones fic that also had happy endings.  Now, quality is really subjective, and my tastes and yours may not mesh.  That said, I responded to that post, and I figure I may as well mention it here, too, in case anyone cruising through is searching for good words.  FYI, this is hardly an exhaustive list.  They're just a few folks who have written stories I've enjoyed.  Because I'm lazy, I'm just going to copy & paste from my 206_bones comment:

You've gotten some great recs so far; I won't repeat them. Some of the people who responded to your post are extremely modest and have neglected to mention that they themselves write gorgeous Bones fic. *grins*

So, people that haven't already been mentioned:

tempertemper77
Some of her stories are posted in her LiveJournal, but ALL of them can be found at fanfiction.net/~tempertemper

doc_3 
Her stories can be found at fanfiction.net/~doc3.

Limone.
Her stories are at fanfiction.net/~limone.

rollsofrice 
All her fic is up at http://www.fanfiction.net/u/1060443/cayoesqueleto
Some of it's in her LJ. It isn't all happy, but it is definitely worth a read.

All of the above people mostly write Booth/Brennan.

Of Apple Skins and Sacre Coeur by minorgraces  When it comes to Bones, this author mostly writes slash. But this particular story is a Booth/Hodgins friendship fic -- and it is fantastic. This woman wields words with the precision and grace of a world-class surgeon with a scalpel.

If you decide to read stories by any of the above folks and have the time to leave a comment, please do so. They are all strong writers, and I know they love to hear from readers.

Fanfiction.net is often referred to as The Pit of Voles. There are many valid reasons for that. If you frequent the site, you will sometimes want to gouge your eyes out with a rusty spoon because of the horrific writing you'll stumble upon. However, there is also some truly excellent and engaging writing over there. Sometimes it's hard to find, but I promise it's there.

Forgive me if you're a Bones author and you don't see your name on this list; I know I'm forgetting people, and I certainly don't mean to imply there aren't any other quality Bones fanfic writers out there.

Hugs and thanks to those who mentioned my stories. I'm touched and honored.