quipxotic

Since I've been stuck at home for the better part of five, going on six months, I've been trying to grow vegetables from seed for the first time in my life. For the most part it's been completely unsuccessful - I can get the plants to grow, but they aren't producing anything. It's been a little frustrating, but I always knew it was going to be an experiment and at least it has helped me occupy my mind and time.

That said, I just ate a salad comprised almost completely of greens and herbs from my own little container garden and it was damn good. It'll probably take me a week or two to recoup enough for a second salad, but still...might as well celebrate even small wins.

Flowers I've been more successful with and I've almost achieved that cottage garden look I've coveted while watching Gardener's World, but I know it won't last long. Gardening teaches a lot of things, including the joy of taking risks and how quickly things can change. I'll get my garden looking exactly how I like it, only for the plants to fade a few weeks later as they move through their own life cycles. I could get mad about it, but why bother? There's always something new to try and the view is lovely while it lasts.

I was watching a reaction video for "Chernobyl" when the hosts said they didn't know anything about the actual event. OMG, I said, where the hell were you? It was a major international event!

They were five at the time. FIVE!

They're adults! With kids! Good lord, way to make me feel old.

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Chapters 1 and 2 of "Hill House Five" are online. I'm trying to squelch my "everyone hates this and hates me and I'm a terrible writer" panic by reminding myself:

-I've only been setting up the people and location so far and I've got one more chapter of that before I can get to the good stuff.

-I'm writing about a Classic Who Doctor and not even a popular one at that. The readership was always going to be small.

-"The Haunting of Hill House" TV series fandom is TINY. Currently there's only 148 works in AO3, so again, a small potential readership.


I'm not too worried, this kind of panic is always the first stage of me writing anything that's not a drabble. The next stage is "fuck it, I'm writing this for me," which is always liberating.

Yesterday I did some outlining for the next few chapters so I have more of a clue where things are going. I also wrote 733 words, which isn't a lot but is better than nothing.

Let's see, what have I been up to lately...

I've got a couple of audiobooks that I'm listening to at the moment. I've started working my way through the Lord Peter Wimsey books by Dorothy L Sayers and I like them, for the most part. I'm also listening to Audible's version of Dracula, which is narrated by a full cast including Alan Cumming as Dr. Seward and Tim Curry as Van Helsing.

As far as fan fiction goes, I've posted drabbles for the Fifth Doctor audio "The Kamelion Empire," the Seventh Doctor/Bernice Summerfield story "The Hesitation Deviation," and the Seventh Doctor TV serial "The Greatest Show in the Galaxy," which I watched for the first time this weekend. Of those three, "The Kamelion Empire" was the standout by far. It focused on the relationships between the Fifth Doctor, Kamelion, Tegan, and Turlough, which means lots of juicy conflict and hard-won friendship. The story's writer, Jonathan Morris, also gave a fairly good in-story explanation for why Kamelion disappears from the TV series for so long, which is a nice, geeky extra. "The Hesitation Deviation" is good also, but I'd listened to it for the first time months ago and am just now getting around to writing for it. As for "The Greatest Show on Earth"...well, I'd say it was a disappointment but I wasn't really expecting much based on the gif sets floating around. It's not a story I'll be in a hurry to watch again.

Today I finished listening to the audiodrama version of Love and War. I've tried to listen to it before but found it too depressing. This time it was fine - not a favorite, but okay. I'm starting to think the Virgin New Adventure books aren't really for me; the only one I've really liked has been Theatre of War. Anyway, I'll probably write drabbles for Love and War later this week.

"Hill House Eight" is not dead but it's...stuck. I keep trying to get it unstuck, but I'm starting to think I have some basic structural issues that need to be addressed/changed. I don't know...I guess we'll see.

The good news is that think I've come up with a plan for the "Hill House Eight" story. The bad news is that to come up with it I had to break my own rules and watch "The Haunting of Hill House" series at night despite knowing that (thanks to my overactive imagination) I'd never get to sleep.

Which is how I ended up watching "Lights Before Christmas" at 1AM in an attempt to reset my brain.

I made pot roast and roasted vegetables tonight. It was delicious and all I could think of was: I could cook like this every night if I didn't have to work. (Honestly, I wouldn't - I don't love cooking enough for that, but I could like it better if I had more free time in the evenings.) Anyone looking for a platonic kept woman? I'm a terrible cook and I'm grumpy in the mornings, but I come with an almost endless amount of tea and mix tapes, and a certain degree of Doctor Who knowledge.

I've started the drabbles for the last story in Ravenous 2, "Seizure" by Guy Adams. I've got maybe five to write, so they'll probably be done by the end of the night. This audio was my favorite when I first listened to this second set, which shouldn't have been a surprise since I love a haunted house story and this is a really good one. It's also an audio drama that stands up to repeated listening, if you're looking for one of those.

Anyway, yet another story from the backlog completed.

I also have my quote for the Poetry Fic Challenge and I absolutely love it. It's so right in my wheelhouse that either the mod knows my tastes or it's a very (VERY) lucky match. I even have an idea of what I want to write, although I have significant doubts about whether I'll be able to pull it off. I'll start plotting that tomorrow and see how it goes.

Happy Holidays to those of you who celebrate something during this season. And if you're like me and every trip to your hometown includes at least five minutes sitting in your car fantasizing about abandoning all your belongings in your parent's house and escaping back to your own home - t-minus 26 hours and counting.