So, I've started posting on lj again and it's occurred to me that there may be people who moved here. Anyone around that isn't on lj anymore?

Have you ever shipped baked goods in the mail? How exactly does this work?

I'm thinking of offering up homemade brownies for the charity auction, but I've never sent or received food in the mail, so a part of me is thinking "won't they go stale?". Or is there a specified shipping time I should pick that would prevent this. How do you ensure your baked goods don't go bad???

For those in Canada - can you only ship in Canada? Or could I ship to the US too?

My flist is awesome and wise <333

I seem to be in a weird headspace today of productive (Finished project! Invoicing! Cleaning! Email!) and kind of hating the world every time I look at a news site.

So, have some links instead of a rant or whining.

1. Nathan Bransford has some thoughts and links on self-publishing and e-fiction millionaires here.
I read a lot, both published "real" books and fanfiction, and I've frequently been frustrated when a book I've bought or borrowed from the library is in need of an editor and is of poorer quality than free fanfic. Yes, there's a lot of bad fanfiction out there, but there's also some really good stuff, and if some of these people are self-publishing original work, I'm interested in reading it. The example listed of Amanda Hocking who has sold a million copies of her 9 books is fascinating, and I'm definitely going to check out her work.

2. A really good post on why words can affect us and why it's not just about being politically correct when you don't use words such as "retarded" or "gay" in a derogatory manner. As writers, we are encouraged to be careful with our words and choose them deliberately. A person who is affected with mental retardation is not broken or disposable or any number of adjectives you can find in urban dictionary. They're a person and someone's loved one.

3. a) This book has a completely cracky premise and is a must-have in pretty much every fandom I've ever been in. The basic premise is that the main character's husband dies and then he becomes a dog. It's been added to my eventually read list.

b) This got me thinking - how many other fandom tropes can be turned into serious, original fiction? I kind of want to create an anthology of short stories with this theme (if only I was in the publishing industry). Maybe if there's interest, we could use AO3 for this? *Goes off to ponder*

4. This is a really long, but incredibly worthwhile article to read. It describes and teaches in great detail how to improve your writing by avoiding an exposition dump through dialogue. If you only click on one of my links (and you're a writer/aspiring writer), this is the one!
From the post: if a statement doesn’t serve any purpose other than revealing a fact to the reader, as opposed to the character to whom it is said, then it’s Hollywood narration. And it should go — to free up page space for more intriguing material and good writing.

5. And now for some candy:

a) Dirt·y -adjective (dirtier, dirtiest) (Sherlock/John) by aslipperysloth
One of those rare fics where the dirty talk was actually hot and dirty (YMMV).

b) For reading this far, here's Alex O'Loughlin (Steve McGarrett in Hawaii Five-0) in a really hot hot hot photoshoot for GQ.

Woah, I slept for 14 hours last nigh - I think I may have been a wee bit tired >.<

Have some H5O recs:

Don't turn me home again by gyzym (Steve/Danny)
Summary: After a rough day of island living, Danny wakes up in New Jersey and learns the hard way to be careful what he wishes for.
I love stories that take the time to not only project "what if" but also take the time to develop it. Without spoiling too much, Danny wakes up and finds out that he and Rachel never divorced, and we follow both how he changed in the canon time line as well as the alternate one. (And yes, of course Steve shows up because they are meant to be ^_^) Great read!

Ho'oponopono by ember_firedrake (Steve/Danny)
Groundhog Day AU. Danny finds himself trapped in the same day over and over again.
I love these kinds of stories and this one is a satisfying contribution to the trope and the fandom. Overall fun read!

Also, the wonderful wook77 is hosting a Hawaii 5-O friending meme here ^_^

1. Much ♥ to everyone on my flist! I love that you're all a part of my life!

2. I've been branching out into Sherlock and Hawaii 5-0 fandoms, and I love that I'm seeing some familiar names from HP fandom.

3. Salon's been running "The Good Sex" Awards. I haven't had the chance to read any of the excerpts yet (7 books were profiled), but I like that it focuses on the positive, rather than bashing.
EDIT: I also found the descriptions of their criteria (ie what makes a good vs bad sex scene) really interesting to read.

4. Lately, I've found I have no tolerance for people bashing creative endeavours. Everyone has a right to their opinion, and everyone has different tastes/likes, but I don't really understand why people who never try to write/compose/paint/create seem to take pleasure in tearing down those who do. I think I need to find news sites and places that encourage artists. (Also, no I don't think that every piece of art is wonderful and perfect, but there is a difference between constructive criticism and bullying.)

5. It's 5° out today and it's making me want to run around in a t-shirt and shorts. I'm so ready for winter to be over!

EDIT:
6. I just finished reading The City and The City by China Mieville and I can't recommend it enough! The style is "new weird" which basically means books that have fantasy/sci-fi elements, but are otherwise set in our world. He's also such a strong writer - he sets such a vivid scene in only a few sentences that might take another writer pages. The book itself is a mystery/detective story with fantasy and conspiracy theory elements. It's also a fascinating example of what it's like to live in a place that is geographically next to an almost identical culture, where foreigners don't see the differences, but where the differences are critical to collective self-identity. (For example, Croatia vs Serbia) Overall it was just such a pleasure to read!

*hugs*

Or the ongoing saga of a story I'm determined to get published.

It's been two weeks since my critique group gave me a ton of feedback on an original short story and every day I plan on revising it so that I can send it out (I've already got an anthology that it fits to send it to first, along with some potential mags). Of course, since I'm writing on lj, I haven't done more than remap the arc and waffle.

tripperfunster gave me the idea to talk to some of the ppl in my group on what to do now, and that was helpful in terms of deciding how to make sure it feels like a short story vs the first chapter of a novel. The rest though has been along the lines of "don't listen to person x, y or z" and "ultimately you decide what to do". The don't listen to person x/y/z I already figured out on my own. It's the second piece of advice that's kind of making me want to tear my hair out.

There are multiple directions I could go in with this story, from changing or removing certain characters, strengthening one element vs another, etc, and being the on-the-fence kind of person, I'm having a really hard time making the kind of decisions I need to make. I think I need to talk it out with someone, but I have no idea how to go about doing that.

Any suggestions for what you do/how you do this?

I'm not the biggest fan of winter, but today the snowflakes are massive and falling very slowly, like in a Hollywood-style feel-good movie.

As my emo post yesterday indicated, I went through a critique with my local group last night. I brought in a short story that I was hoping they could help me fix up so that I could start submitting it to anthologies and magazines.

Here are the highlights:

1. Overall it didn't go as badly as I thought it would. I'm not sure if it's because the comments were more positive or if I'm just better at hearing the positive comments.

It also helped that the other woman who's story was being critiqued is one of our best and most published authors. She's also in her 60s (or 70s) and she was just as nervous as I was. We joked about how we should just slip out or how we both considered not coming. At the end of the night we hugged for surviving it. (It also helped that her submission was a rough draft of an experiment so it was a lot less polished than usual.)

2. There was a surprisingly large group last night - there were even a few members that I haven't seen in about a year, as well as some new folks that I've only met once or twice before (including the usual crowd). I heard comments from 20 people.

Mostly, I'm overwhelmed with the amount of feedback. The night is structured so that each individual gets 3 minutes to say what they want to say (or maybe it's 2, I can never remember, but that's why we have a timekeeper). And I took copious notes. Then there's a free-for-all discussion, which was interesting but less useful, and then they each give me a marked up manuscript.

3. Almost everyone thought it was the start of a longer piece. This one is problematic, because while I'm not done telling stories from this universe, I don't want to commit to a novel for it. I already have another novel I want to work on in 2011, and to be honest, I'm tired of writing the first chapter of different novels. I want something I can finish and submit. Someone else suggested writing a suite of short stories, and I think that might be the way to go in the future.

In the meantime, I need to cut down on the set-up - it's too slow and epic given the length of the piece.

4. I need more detail. The detail I have is vivid, but I need even more of it. When Jeff read it (he reads everything I write) he thought it was the most descriptive story I'd ever written. But, everyone's feedback was that if I want to write high fantasy, it can't be minimalistic, because otherwise readers are going to fill in their own images. E.g., if you allude to an old wizard they're going to think Gandalf or Dumbledore, even if they look different.

5. I need to clarify in my own head who's story I'm telling - the short immediate piece or the long quest.

6. Some of the feedback I received was less helpful - what does it mean to vary tone? How do you actually go about doing that?

7. Best feedback of the night (which a few members after apologized to me for) was a rambling dialogue in which I think he wanted me to reach for better and not write fantasy because I don't need magic to be creative. (And by best I mean, he kept trying to explain what he was saying, and I kept trying to figure out what the hell he was talking about. He's our most famous member of the group and generally the best editor too, so everyone was a bit wtf are you on?) To be honest, it mostly made me lol.

NON-TLDR VERSION OF ABOVE
A few of us went to the pub last night after the critique and I got some good guidance on what to do now. I had planned on emailing a few ppl from the group to see if we could meet and figure out an editing process, but I think I might actually be ok to try it out on my own first.

I really appreciate everyone's comments from yesterday. It helped me from retreating into my own head and encouraged me to seek advice from the others in person, rather than collapse in a sobbing heap while locking away all the notes never to be looked at again.

<333

So we hosted Xmas dinner for the inlaws this year (if you follow me on twitter you were spammed with all the details. I'm planning on putting up a big post with pics and recipes soonish here on lj). We don't usually decorate the house, but since we had guests we put up some lights and trees, etc. Jeff's been itching to get them down, since it's now January, but I haven't been able to do it yet since in my family we would always leave it up until Epiphany (Or 3 Wise Men Day as I used to call it when I was a kid). Which I just realized is today, so I suppose it's coming down by Saturday.

So, how long do you leave your trees and lights up until?