Monday Gazette

Hello, lovelies!

I’m a little more recovered than I was last week. I love jetlag. Some important announcements! We’re up to chapter 9 of My Girl Sarah, and that chapter’s a pretty important one, as it kicks off the second half of the story and things are only going to get twistier from here on out. You can read that on my ff-net account. Please keep in mind that though we’re posting it under my name, mxpw is my co-writer on this, and not just in name either. He did half the writing and half the plotting but only one third of the whining. Trying to guess who wrote which chapter is a useless task because our co-writing doesn’t usually work like that, though you have been amusing the two of us greatly with your guesses, so thank you for that!).

Other announcements: I’ve gone through and updated my FAQ page, which you can read here. It has more answers about That Which is Greater stories in progress, and even more importantly, a new page I’ve added to my blog: My Transformative Works Policy.

Yes, I have one of those now (for the record: it’s a statement saying it’s okay to make stuff based on stuff I make). This was not something I ever thought I needed, as I’ve stated before that I would love to see sequels/prequels/meta of my work, as long as it’s credited. But I got approached by somebody wanted to podfic one of my stories, and I realized that I probably needed one of those. You know, officially. So I’ve posted that here, on my LJ, and on my Dreamwidth that I don’t really use. I hope you find it amusing, at the very least.

There are some more tiny fics. Good old Steampunk.Chuckster (who will not be writing the rest of Curtain Call—that was a joke) was having a bad day the other day so for every anonymous message she received, I wrote a new snippet of Chuckfic. And then I opened up my inbox for prompts for the night. So here’s a list:

• Incoming (Greater)
• Medaling in Pop Culture (Set, Spike, Dive!)
• Trailer of Tetris (Curtain Call)
• Y: The Last Graphic Novel (Fates)
• Sarah adopts a dog (Orphan Black)
• John Casey is asked to be a Godfather (Chuck)
• How to Piss Off Frea O’Scanlin (Chuck, canon compliant)
• The Rocketeerman (Avengers/The Rocketeer)
• Girls’ Night (Avengers/Chuck)
• The Magic of Tumblr (Avengers)
• The Horrible Hawkeye Essay (Hawkguy)

They haven’t been added to my archive yet, but they will be soon. In addition, I’ve gone through and added summaries to all of the fics on my archive. You just need to hover your mouse over the title.

Hope everybody else’s weekend was productive or relaxing, whatever you needed it to be!

Stay sexy,
Frea

Kindle Worlds and My Take On It

You may not have heard, but Amazon released something that's shaking up the world of fanfiction a little this morning. It's called Kindle Worlds and it means you can download fanfiction in certain genres straight to your Kindle...by paying for them. The low-down is that WB has given up some of the creative licenses to things like Gossip Girl and Pretty Little Liars, which means that writers can professionally publish fic based on those shows. It will be content controlled, it looks like, but there haven't been any guidelines released yet (no pornography is one of the guidelines, but this is also the publisher of 50 Shades of Grey, so take that with whatever boulder of salt you find necessary).

And on the surface, it looks great, right? Getting to pay your favorite writers for fic that they write! The chance that other fandoms may follow in suit! WB has rights to Chuck and Fringe, after all, so some fandoms close to our hearts might be involved very soon!

Except...well, John Scalzi puts it way better than I can about why this might not be such a good idea for writers. Plus, when I wrote Fates, W11, W&T, SSD!, and my other fandomly works, I didn't write those for pay but for love of the characters/show/writing itself. Providing these for free wasn't taking any money from anybody else (except for lucky47, who used to buy internet on a cruise ship to read Fates), which is the way I ethically justify playing with characters that are not my own.

So, in the future I might change my mind, but currently, I won't be doing this with any new Chuckfic or other genre, should the opportunity arise. But I appreciate everybody that has pointed me to it! It warms me all the way down to my soul that you're looking out for me like that.

Sincerely,
Frea

PS - It's been a crazy couple of weeks, so there hasn't been much fic from me, but I did manage to write a really short piece about Steve Rogers acclimating to the future over on my Tumblr. You should check that out. And get ready for a long fic from me soon!

Thursday Digest

I realize that I’m actively involved in a lot of social media platforms and I use them all for different things. My Livejournal, for example, is usually all Avengers things, my Tumblr is such a random mess of different fandoms that I’m surprised anybody follows me at all, and my Twitter seems to be random observations that form together with absolutely no coherency at all.

So, here’s a brief round-up of the highlights from the last couple of weeks.

What I’m Up To:

My sister is getting married in two weeks, so preparations are ramping up for that. That includes things like deep-cleaning my apartment in case relatives want to visit, helping sister with wedding-related things, and doing a lot of photography. Writing-wise, I’m in the middle of Counterfeit and Counterpart, a deep look at the relationship between Maria Hill and Natasha Romanoff. I’ve got three scenes left to write and 2k to hit the 15k minimum for the Big Bang in which I’m participating with the project.

I also have two separate bets going with mxpw and Nervert about That Which is Greater (the original story) vs. Revenge of the Bartowski and Chuck versus the Double Agent. I have not forgotten about those bets. A goat’s honor is at stake.

Speaking Up About Written In the Stars

Congratulate me, I’m some kind of fandom boogey-monster. About eighteen months ago, a story was posted with a similar storyline to mine (different climate, though), which was fine until they outright took whole paragraphs from my story, To Resist Both Wind and Tide). I asked for either attribution or removal of those paragraphs. Instead, the author pulled the entire story down without an explanation to her fans. She told me that she didn't think it was such a big deal because it's just fanfiction.

Later, she returned: the story had been updated, the paragraphs removed, but…the plot was just too familiar for me. After messaging the author privately, I said something publicly along the lines of “I hope the plot is changing soon because I’m uncomfortable with this. You said that you were planning to change the direction of your plot, so I hope that’s soon.” Given that this person had already outright plagiarized my work, I feel like this was understandable. In reply, the person told me again, “It’s just fanfiction!” and yanked the story down, again without an explanation.

I didn’t ask the story to be removed. I didn’t report the story. I asked readers not to get involved because I didn’t want a war. People on the message boards blasted me, others boycotted my stories, so on and so forth. I got a couple of angry messages, one from somebody named missupertigz who went on to start writing in the fandom with messages along the lines of “if my writing sparked an idea, then go ahead and write it because to the people who think chuck belongs to only a small group of people – your wrong (sic).”

Well, turns out that story is still going on behind closed doors. You can PM MsRomanceWriter’s ff-net name and get access to it, if you like. Have at it. I chose not to speak up in my own defense when the story was pulled and I wonder if that was the wrong decision. Maybe it was, but I didn’t want to sling mud at MRW. Mostly, I want people to know that I didn’t have anything to do with the story being pulled. I know it’s my word against hers, but it was the author’s choice to pull it both times. I didn’t make any threats or demands.

And that’s all I really have to say about it.

Frea

The Art of Finishing Up

Fezzywhig asked me something on Tumblr today, and I thought it might make a good writing entry on the blog, so I’m putting it over here, too. As with every piece of writing advice I give, please keep in mind that this may not necessarily apply to every writer. We’re all different, and those differences should be celebrated.

Fezzywhig asked: Apologies if this was asked before. As a prolific writer, have you ever been tempted to go back to a finished work and tweak or change it? Also a sideways question. Has anyone addressed you by one of your nom de plumes’s in person? If so how do you overcome the fanboy awkwardness?

Hey! I think somebody has asked me this before, but not in a public setting. And I definitely don’t mind getting asked a question multiple times, as long as that question isn’t, “IS THERE GOING TO BE A SEQUEL?” (while not commenting on the fic itself) or “WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO UPDATE SO AND SO?” when I’ve already said that that story is on hiatus. Also, a lot of it has to do with the tone of the question being asked. :)

To answer your first question: I’m tempted, a lot, to go back and change my work. Every time I reread it, I see something I could tweak or even rewrite. Just watch me reread That Which is Greater sometime. It will enlighten you as to how hard somebody can grit their teeth. There are entire chapters of that I would cut or rewrite in a heartbeat.

Now here’s where some authors are about to disagree with me because, even though I’m tempted to go back and rewrite things (like the first chapter of Fates, for example), I don’t, and I won’t. My philosophy is that once something is published, it gets minor cosmetic changes and nothing else (like, fixing a grammatical error, or using Angry Birds in 2002 on accident). I don’t believe in going back and rewriting my old fics because to me, those stories have been told. They’re done. Hopefully, I told them the best way I could, but it’s time to move on and to use the things I learned writing those fics to write newer and hopefully better tales.

2012: A Year in Review

I promised greater transparency, so here it is: I’m working on That Which is Greater. I’m not very far, but I have ideas. I’ll keep you posted as to when chapters are finished/will go up. I don’t know if I’m going to finish Greater: Winter Break. I don’t know if I’m going to write anything else in the Greaterverse. I’m not open to suggestions for more stories, either (I wasn’t for Fates or W11, if you’ll remember, and I don’t intend to start). If you want to know about Curtain Call, ask mxpw. If you want another unfinished story finished, please be patient and let me cross one hurdle at a time. Thank you.

Now on to the meat of the post: I didn’t make resolutions for 2013. Resolutions, I feel, should be between you and your conscience, so I was disgusted to have mine from 2011 thrown in my face by a total stranger. I’d love to see some great things happen this year to people I love and people I know, I’d love to watch some awesome movies, read some wonderful stories, and make fantastic memories. But that’s as far as I’ll go with resolutions.

Now, a look at the year 2012 in writing and other stuff, as best my memory goes:

Stuff and Updates and Other Stuff!

So the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results (or possibly that’s just science/experimentation, but what do I know?) and here we are, about 8 days into November, and I’m stressed and headache-y, and thinking, “I get this way every November. Why do I do this to myself?” And then October rolls around again and I’m like, “Hey, I finished Fates and that was 400k long. A little thing like November is NO BIG DEAL.”

Lather, rinse, repeat.

Currently, I’m on track (as of yesterday). I’ve completed two chapters and am halfway through the third. It only just occurred to me last night I’ve signed up for an entire month of writing climaxes and endings, two things that require a lot of thought, second-guessing, and mental fortitude. Evidently, I like challenges to remind myself every once in a while that sleep is a luxury, not a right.

You’ve likely seen some of the fruits of my labor by now, too. Max and I posted the fourth chapter of The Bank Job. The first two chapters were co-written; the last two were written by me (yes, even the hand-job line) because I lost a bet. You can read it here on ff-net and here on AO3 and I’ll try to get the ebook posted for everybody’s downloading pleasure soon.

I’m finishing up The Abbey, so my Downton fans can rejoice in that much, at least. The seventh chapter is done. I’m letting it percolate while I finish the eighth because they’re so deeply intertwined, so people will be able to rejoice to see quick successive updates on that. My next project was supposed to be That Which is Greater, but I’m struggling so much with The Abbey that I’m going to give myself a break and work on something Avengers-related because that’s where my passion is at the moment. I signed up for a fandom winter exchange, which will be released upon the world in a little over a month, so you’ll get to see something very different from me in December.

Speaking of things that are very different, have you guys heard of this new writer Alexandria Dunn? She hasn’t done much with her website yet, so I don’t want to link you to it, but she’s (begrudgingly) signed up for Facebook and she has a Twitter, and if you like my writing, you might like her. It’s weird that she and I have the same real name and we look exactly alike and our writing style is, like, completely identical, plus she also feels the same way about all of my favorite shows and…okay, have I dropped enough hints yet? Not much there yet, but it’s a start.

:)

Frea

 PS – if you want more consistent updates about what I’m doing, it’s much easier to check my livejournal.

Bank Job 4 Sneak Peek

Title: Bank Job 4 - Assault and Battery
Rating: PG-13 for Violence, Language
Fandom: Chuck
Pairings: Carina & Sarah, Charah
Summary: Carina and Sarah are still robbing that bank. It’s probably going a little too well.
Complete: The chapter is at about 50% as of time of posting
Length: 506 words

Pardon Our Dust

I got bored with the layout.  We'll be seeing some changes going on over the next little while (the one I've chosen is temporary).  Right now, I've thrown up a Fauxlivia header because it's Friday and that means Fringe.  My plan is to update this blog in tandem with my Dreamwidth blog and my LJ blog (thank bob for clients that cross-post), which means this is definitely moving away from being a primarily Chuck fanblog.  Truth be told, I'm a little amazed that didn't happen sooner, as the proprietor of said blog isn't entirely a Chuck fan anymore.  But this is CI.  We don't let details get in our way!

Upcoming Changes I'm hoping to make:

• A set of regular graphics to denote what type of post each will be (aka, each post will be framed with icons similar to LJ and DW)
• A better, more comprehensive tagging system
• A unified theme throughout my blogs
• More cowbell
• A directory of junk I'm up to, which includes the free short story I will be releasing to celebrate Halloween next month, under my official pen name
• More posts on writing, as that has really fallen to the wayside. Maybe I'll even finish that Vonnegut series.
• An unprecedented show of unholy narcissism, aka more personal "What is Frea doing?" posts, including cross-linking to other stuff I'm doing on the web (*coughNiceGirlsTumblrMyOtherPenNamecough*
• Fan Recs/Vid Fridays/Suggestions

Warning: This post contains spoilers

...if you haven't read Fates 65 yet.  If you haven't, don't go beyond the "more" link.  If you have...

Come on in!

Also, before you click, once I post the final chapter of What Fates Impose, I'll post an open forum here on the blog and answer as many questions people have about Fates and the writing process involved. I may even share embarrassing stories about mxpw.

A Few Things You May Not Know About Fates

1. Fates was originally a one-shot
2. Fates was concepted in a Fazoli’s, proof that there are indeed narcotics in the breadsticks
3. The first scene written is actually from the second chapter, in which Chuck and Sarah play Go Fish. The first chapter was written to bridge a logic gap, and, oh yeah, explain the whole bunker thing.
4. Jill had an additional storyline after the Lincoln Reveal where Chuck is forced to figure out if he got over her during his time at Project Lincoln or not. This has been cut because Sarah Walker is a badass mofo.
5. Part V’s original title was actually a titan name (possibly Kronos), and a Greek god (Hephaestus) wasn’t supposed to be used until Part VIII. Since roughly 150k were cut off of Fates’s story, plans changed.
6. Fates Sarah was viewed as cold and remote until I wrote To Resist Both Wind and Tide.
7. To Resist Both Wind and Tide was written on a bet about the word-count for Chapter 18 (mxpw bet me I couldn’t finish it in less than 5k. I finished precisely on 5k to the word, making both of us losers. mxpw has yet to pay his part of the bet)
8. I wrote To Resist Both Wind and Tide because it turns out being severely limited in perspective to a man who has self-image/slight depression issues doesn’t really invite the clear-eyed inspection required to see past the world’s most formidable poker mask. And yes, I was tired of people complaining about Sarah being remote. Of course, had I known that this would only lead to a deluge of MOAR SARAH, I may have changed my mind.
9. Just kidding. I adore To Resist Both Wind and Tide.
10. Of my stories: Fortune Favors Fools, Wasted on Us, Training, Lies, and the CIA, and To Sleep, Perchance to Scream were written as gifts, Not in the Stars, He'll Someday Call Her Bunny, and To Resist Both Wind and Tide were lost bets, and What Fates Impose seems to be the result of a waking nightmare.
11. Oscar Wilde is the most quoted chapter quote person. Seriously. The dude has a quote for EVERYTHING.
12. My favorite thing to do under my guise as Moonlight Pilot was to post a chapter of Walker’s Eleven on the same day I updated Fates. In unrelated news, I’ve recently been diagnosed with a severe case of masochism.
13. Walker’s Eleven and Fates both feature absurdist stories about livestock, FBI agents named Virginia Grey, and cute cartoon frog thumb drives.
14. I spelled the German word for rabbit wrong.
15. Speaking of the rabbit thing, that evolved naturally, I swear. I have nothing against our lucky-pawed brethren.
16. Since I’ve started writing Fates, I’ve done Google searches on semiautomatic weaponry, Molotov cocktails, how far can you fall into the water without dying and how, do bullets penetrate water, Speed, all varieties of RPGs, World of Warcraft, every Star Trek under the sun, the Santa Monica Pier, how long a Cessna can stay in the air without refueling, ferries in Greece, and the history of the CIA. To date, nobody has knocked on my door asking about my Internet search history, but I have to figure it’s only a matter of time.
17. My original beta reader swore up and down readers would murder me for Chapter 6, which only mentioned Sarah Walker twice. I laughed, and then realized she was right when Sarah didn’t feature for three chapters in a row.
18. Bryce wasn’t supposed to be in Part V. Then I figured there were a bunch of things I needed to wrap up.
19. I really, really don't have any thing against rabbits.  I promise.

Two Years!

Maximus here. Frea is still on her trip right now and doesn't know I'm doing this. What is this, you may ask? Well, this is the second year anniversary of Frea's neverending story: What Fates Impose. Can you believe it's really been two years since she started writing her wonderful story? I can hardly believe it myself, mainly because that means I've known Frea for almost two years and it just doesn't seem like that.

I'm just going to take a minute and say some quick thoughts about what this story has meant to me. I'm very grateful to have met Frea and Fates was what made that possible. As much as I enjoy the story and have a deep admiration for her talent, getting to know her personally is what I enjoy most about the whole Fates experience. I've learned a lot about being an editor since I started editing for her, as well as learned a lot about writing. She's a pretty good teacher, even if she might not realize it. Most importantly, I'm just glad to be able to call her friend. That's what I value most from the whole experience. And like I said, Fates made befriending Frea possible.

I don't regret it, even if she does let her status as the most(ly) benevolent overlord go to her head sometimes. :P

Behind the Scenes Stuff

Just an administrative note to let you know I've updated the What Fates Impose ebook so that it includes all 55 chapters in one place.  You can download that here.

Also, a good friend of mine gave me an invite over to Archive of Our Own, and I've been archiving Fates over the past couple of weeks. I really like the AO3 interface, as it means I can sort the Fatesverse in order as a series...which I've done here.  I have a few one-shots to put up still and then I'll start archiving That Which is Greater in order.

Exciting things coming on Twitter, thanks to a reader/awesome person that shall remain nameless at the moment.  You know who you are, and you're awesome!!!

I've spoken with ninjaVanish, who is deep in HTML coding, prepping Sunken Treasure and Frontier to be made into ebooks so that I can host those here.  I've made covers for both of those already, so I'm excited to be able to add those to the collection.  In addition, I spoke to atlee, one of my favorite authors in the section, and I'll be adding some of those fantastic ebooks to the collection, naturally.

So...exciting things coming up!  Yay!

Frea

Updates

So those of you who aren't on Twitter probably don't know about this yet, but yesterday, my step-grandpa passed away.  I wasn't terribly close to him.  Well, actually, that's not true. When I was little and still living in that area, I adored him, but it's been many years since.  Not sure what's going to be happening in the near future, but given that I'm house-sitting for another family in the area, my schedule probably won't be disrupted too much.  After that, however, I'm not sure.  I may be headed to my grandmother's house to help her out with some things until classes start next semester.

At any rate, it means taking the posting date off on the progress bar to the left since I no longer know when Chapter 44 will be dropping.  If it was finished, I'd have no problem just popping it up on ff.net today and forgetting about Fates for as long as I need to, but it's not finished yet, so...

Also, in other news, I signed up for college classes yesterday.  I'm taking a full load of classes in the spring and then a half-load in the summer and fall.  Before those start, however, I've enlisted in the Who Are You challenge and already have my holiday-themed story planned, as well as a Christmas gift for you guys, and the next three chapters of Fortune Favors Fools. 

December is going to be a busy month for me, I can already tell.

If anybody wants to sign up for the challenge, I know they're still taking entries.  C'mon, join the crazies like me, Crystal, mxpw, Justin, and many of our esteemed section.  You know you want to.  And just for the record, my WAY challenge entry won't be in the Fatesverse, as that would be a dead giveaway and I intend to make people work to recognize me.  But I give my fellow CIAs permission to write in the Fatesverse, should they choose.

And to those that are curious about the progress bar activity, some of them...aren't actual stories, sorry.  At least, I don't think I ever had plans to write a rock opera for mxpw, as much as he wishes that were the case.  It's just impossible to rhyme with "kumquat," you know.

A couple of great writing posts from mxpw and Justin coming out this week because I nagged them.  Don't forget to show them some love.

See you when I see you,

Frea

Hallowhedon Excerpt

So my original Hallowhedon story was going to be this long and thoughtful look at Ellie after she had spent time in the Dollhouse and had undergone a composite event.  It was going to be philosophical, with plenty of action, and Sarah and Ellie kicking butt side by side as our motley crew makes their way through post-apocalyptic L.A. in search of a safe haven.  I had planned to bring Ivy from Dollhouse in and make Ellie constantly have to deal with Jeffster and it was going to be romantic with Ellie and Awesome.

Turns out I'm not so good at the philosophical.  Or maybe it's the stream of conscience that was tripping me up here, but I never sat down to work on this story and now Halloween is two days away.

Time for a new idea, right?  Here's an excerpt.  I'll see if anybody can pick up on what I did:

Update!

27.3%!

Yup, that's all I have to say.

Oh, well, and this...

Last Day to Vote

Hey all!

Just a head's up: 31 August is the last day to vote in the poll over there, deciding what fic I write mxpw for his birthday!  We've got nearly 800 votes as I write this...who knows what will happen if we break 900...

;)

Frea

The Bank Job

To be perfectly honest with you, I don't even remember how I talked myself into writing this story. I remember the line in Chapter 13, when Carina and Chuck are talking while kidnapped, about Chuck being "Bunker Boy" and it stuck with me. I was like, "Wow, that sounds like a really interesting story. I should pester Frea about writing that." So I did, and in the process, I somehow became not only the author of this story, but her beta for Fates as well. Boy, what a mistake that was.


I guess I can't really help it. The allure of Carina was too strong for me to resist. Add to that the idea of Carina and Sarah robbing a bank? And Chuck helping them but nobody knowing about it but Sarah? Plus, more Sarah POV, Sarina flirting, and seeing how those two years played out for Sarah after Chuck screwed her all up? It was too good a potential story to pass up.

Holy Frijoles, Batman!

So a little bit about how I operate when writing the Never Ending Story What Fates Impose:  each chapter forms its own document, labeled "Bunker 01.doc" to "Bunker 33 and a Half.doc" (Word freaked out on that last one, so I had to save two versions of it, and rewrite the ending--GRRRR), but when each chapter is finished, I put it, minus the quote and the author's notes, into an overall master document simply called "Bunker.doc."

(Yes, I know Chuck is no longer in the bunker in the story, but Fates didn't get its title until about twenty minutes before I posted it on fanfiction.net for the first time.)

Today, I put the newly finished Chapter 33 into the master document, and I happened to look down at the bottom of the document:

Yes.  What Fates Impose is half a page away from being 500 pages long.  This is not including the fourteen pages of outtakes sitting in my "Bunker Spare.doc" file, or the sister story, To Resist Both Wind and Tide (which is 70 pages, for the record).

I feel like hitting 500 pages calls for a celebration. Any ideas?

- Frea

Truth, Lies, and the CIA 2

They're the scariest roommates on the planet. Don't believe me?

Truth, Lies, and the CIA Pt 2

This was ridiculous. She should’ve felt nervous. After all, she was quite probably entering some secret government undercover base—or maybe she was just going to some computer office. She had no idea, really. Chuck and Sarah had never made it clear where they worked, but she figured that Chuck’s new office, which had always seemed suspiciously and easily set up, was probably the headquarters for Operation Prometheus.

Operation Prometheus. Top secret, NSA-CIA black ops joint operation. Level six clearance, whatever the hell that meant.