Monday Updates #2

It’s Monday!

...that should probably never be said with excitement, huh? Well, even so, it is Monday, which means if you’re reading this, you’ve survived the weekend, or you’ve got really good wi-fi in whatever part of heaven or hell you ended up in. I guess if you’ve got eternity, that might be a good time to read my blog.

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

ebook Friday: Sarah vs. the Switch

Today’s ebook of choice comes from somebody near and dear to the blog: that’s right, we’ve got another Wepdiggy ebook! I’ve converted his wonderful Sarah vs. the Switch over for your reading pleasure. You can grab it from this link here on the downloads page!

As always, if you liked it, please, please, please drop by and leave him a review to let him know. Fanfiction authors write for themselves and they write for reviews, you know.

Thanks, and enjoy!
Frea

Frea Interprets Vonnegut - Rule #8

Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To heck with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.

Hey, look, I’m back and finishing this series! FINALLY! Part: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7

We’re taught the value of the all-encompassing twist and the shocking blindside (in TV, that’s literal. Think of how many shows have relied on literal blindsides—there are two in the first season of Chuck alone. Hi, Nemesis and Intersect!). We’re taught that we must be cleverer than our audiences, that we must stun and dazzle and amaze at all costs. Keeping the suspense up to the last possible second is the most important thing about writing ever, according to today’s standards.

Vonnegut, here, is saying differently.

Talkin' About My Book and Nanowrimo

So for those of you who don’t follow on Tumblr/Twitter/all of the other insane places I hang out, Harper Collins is doing this thing where they’re accepting unagented manuscripts for two weeks for science fiction, urban fantasy, fantasy, and other genre type stories. You can read more about it here, but the gist of it is that they’re looking to expand their online catalogue by printing some exclusive ebook titles.

I have a few completed books under my belt that aren’t fanfiction, but only one that I felt would meet the criteria.  My idea was to not sleep for the past three weeks (when my friend brought this to my attention) and revamp my book with my 2012 writing style, a better villain, and a more ambiguous central relationship. Unfortunately, real life has a way of laughing hysterically at me and, having gotten only three chapters redone, I decided to hand in my 2008 version instead. I think I’m being pragmatic rather than pessimistic when I say there’s really not a chance in hell they’ll want to publish this book, but it was nice to finally sit down and write a query letter and a synopsis for it (though I’m sure I drove my friends nuts last night).

If they decide not to publish it, here’s the deal: I’m going to publish it myself. I’ve got some experience making ebooks, thanks to you lovely people, and the best beta reader on the planet. I don’t want to jinx myself with a definite release date, but I am hard at work on the revisions for it.

Here’s some details:

• It’s a full-length novel, clocking in at about 80,000 words.
• It’s in first person. Pretty much everything I’ve written that everybody has seen from me has been in third person, so here’s the hilarious part: I’m most comfortable writing in first person. 
• It’s sci-fi/fantasy.
• The main character is a smart-ass.
• There’s romance, there’s action, there are people falling off of buildings, and other people that can fly.
• The name is really long.
• It’s the first in a trilogy.
• Max already ships two characters that aren’t a canon ship and has promised to write the first fanfic.
• You’ll see where I got Gwen’s name in Fates.

Hopefully in the coming weeks, I’ll be able to point you to this great new author you’ll have never heard of who’s somehow releasing snippets of a book that fit exactly everything I just listed, which’ll be weird because her name isn’t Frea O’Scanlin but it’ll be crazy how much she sounds like me, you know? ;)

In other news, it’s October, which means the panic for November begins now. Is anybody doing Nanowrimo? Is anybody interested in doing Nanowrimo, but is terrified about what it is, what it entails, and needs a pep talk? If you’re in St. Louis, I’ll be bopping along to all of the events because the ML is a friend of mine, and I’ve done Nanowrimo so many times, I can offer tips, advice, and support.

Anyway, that’s the news for today!

Frea

Fringe Benefits Incorporated, Episode 5.01

We're baaaaaaaaaaaaack. That's right, I've joined up with mxpw, Lou, and Jan (and guest stars), and we're recording our thoughts on Fringe once more. Here, have a listen.

What'd you think? Agree? Disagree? Please stop posting podcasts, Frea?

:)

Frea

Rec: Once and Future

Recommendation: Once and Future
Author: malteaser
Rating: Teen and up
Fandom: Captain America/Doctor Who/The Avengers
Summary: Who doesn’t love a happy ending?
Pairing: Rory/Amy, Steve/Peggy

Why You Should Read It: So I’m not a Doctor Who fan. I just speak the language well enough to get along with other nerds. My friend Ayefah calls this fandom osmosis, and it fits. I like to know what happens without having to actually watch the episodes (I stopped watching after Amy’s baby turned into plastic goo or whatever), which means I know what happened in Saturday’s episode. This fic was recommended on an LJ I follow, and I knew enough DW stuff to follow along, which is marvelous because the fic is wonderful. Peggy Carter and Time Lords. You cannot go wrong with Peggy Carter and Time Lords. Plus, Natasha makes an appearance and we all know about my weakness for the Black Widow, and Peggy Carter.

Monday Stuff

First off, same address, new blog. If you missed it, I’ve made some changes around here and here’s why.

Secondly, and more importantly, College Years is back. That’s right, Wepdiggy is going through his archive and finishing out everything he’s left incomplete, which is a treat for me especially because I’ve always adored CY. He’s already recently completed his awesome fic where Sarah and Anna pull a Freaky Friday, so if you didn’t catch that, be sure to go read Sarah vs. the Switch right now. It’ll make your day.

And speaking of Chuck fanfiction, we’ve lured my pal Michael over to the dark side. WITH CARINA. Carina vs. the Bartowskis can be read here.

Seth MacFarlane is going to host the Oscars. Make of that what you will. Nervert and I are holding out for the Muppets.

Dexter premiered for its seventh season, now with extra awesomeness in the form that is Yvonne Strahovski. What’d everybody think of the premiere? I’m genuinely curious, and I’m also told that the lack of a wind machine on her entrances puzzled people.

If you like Avengers fic/Darcy Lewis, she blinded me with political science will have you laughing for about six hours. Warning: it’s a long read, so do not undertake lightly. That said, the author really writes an excellent Tony and an even better Darcy.

And this has been your Monday update. Fingers crossed that I'll remember to do exactly the same thing next Monday.

- Frea

The Dust Has Mostly Cleared

Here we go. I have made most of the major cosmetic changes (you’ll probably see some minor changes happening over the next few days if you keep a sharp eye on the blog) so we have a new theme that is very, um, bluey-green. But whatever. I like bluey-green.

One of the biggest changes is that I've cut down on the number of pages on the blog. That's right, I've shoveled Curtain Call, RaJ, and the Guide to Fates into the same page (with handy navigational links because holy mother of pearl, that's a LOT of text).  I'll work on making sure that's a full archive in the coming days.

Another major change is that I've sorted everything into labels, much easier to read.  Handy navigational tips:

• The Chuckfic tag is any posted story on the blog, be it story preview, ficlet, chapter, or outtake.  If it's tagged with Chuckfic, there's actual fanfiction inside the post, as opposed to the fanfiction tag, which is the umbrella tag for anything to do with fanfiction.
• I have a minions tag, which is where you'll find posts written by anybody not named mxpw or Frea.
• I have a Columns tag, which is where you'll find all of the old columns like Chris's Why We Write, the short-lived MST3K column, my Roundup posts, and all of my Vonnegut posts
• The writing tag is writing advice, pure and simple.
• Fates has its own tag, but if you're looking for something on other Fatesverse stories, you'll have to go to the Fatesverse tag.

The pages at the top have been bumped up to actual tabs. FAQ and Home are fairly self-explanatory, but you also have Downloads, where you can find all of the ebooks I've made public. Feast and enjoy!

- Frea

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

Something I'm Working On

Title: Chaos, Control, and the Color Red
Rating: PG-13 for Violence, Language, Possible Sexual Situations
Fandom: The Avengers (Movie Verse), Chuck
Pairings: Carina & Natasha, Natasha/Clint
Summary: It's a partnership that shouldn't work and yet somehow does. Mostly. Sometimes. Okay, not usually, but it's so much fun that Carina Miller doesn't give a damn.
Complete: In progress.
Length:  2,060 words

Happy Birthday, mxpw!!!!

So it’s mxpw’s birthday once again.  Usually this means that I post some rambling fic where Sarah gets hurt or hit in the face in some way or other.  But this year...I switched things up.

That’s right. This year: I had a tumblr. And on that tumblr, I did a meme.  The challenge: Pick a pair.  Pick an AU. And I get three sentences to write a fic.

It was a lot of fun.  I know not everybody’ nuts about Tumblr, so I thought I’d archive all 30 (yes, there are 30) snippets over here on the blog to let mxpw know how much we all love and appreciate him.  You’re the BEST, Max!

So without further ado, here’s the story of 30 times Frea created an AU on Max’s birthday.

NaSkeWriMo Entry #1

From the W11 Universe!

Set, Spike, Dive! Deleted Scene from Chapter 6

Catrogue wondered what the story behind Carina putting Devon in a headlock was. So...I wrote it. Enjoy!

Also, you can download the ebook version of the entire story here. Yay!

There's a New Story in Town

...and it's written by me.

Yes, that's right. I came back to Chuck. This idea hit me a week and a half ago and I've been working on it pretty furiously ever since (just ask any of the people I talk to on gchat). It meant doing a lot of research. Like, seriously, A LOT of research.  For a woman who can barely swim and ducks when she plays volleyball, writing a story where Sarah's the fandom equivalent of Misty May-Traenor and Chuck's diving off of the 10-m platform in no way qualifies under the rule "write what you know."

Erm, yeah, you read that right. Sarah does beach volleyball.  In the bikini and everything. If anybody's wondering if this story is my attempt to truly break mxpw, you're not far from the truth.

But so far, he's managing to hold it together while he betas one chapter after the next. Barely. It was touch and go for a little bit, but we only needed the defibrillator once, okay?  But I have not forgotten the ladies in the audience, either as Chuck is a diver. And you know what divers wear?

Yeah.  I hope you like the new story.  You can read it here on ff-net or here on AO3, and there's lots of adorables, Olympic antics, and Carina.  Like, lots of Carina. Way more Carina than Morgan.

Happy reading!

Frea

PS -- this is relevant.

Head's Up!

quistie64 has a blog!  You can read it here!  I've been scarce due to the fact that I went to Disneyland last week and took a true vacation with my family (yes, Space Mountain trumped my blog. Go figure), but I thought you should know that's where she is nowadays when she's not on Twitter.  You can catch updates from her story Chuck vs. the Sound of Music II there.

:)

Frea

New Ebook for Yous

Hi, all, Frea here, reporting to you from the ether, as apparently this blog has proved that I've died. (I haven't, I think. I'm just usually on Tumblr or Twitter and forget that I have things like blogs and whatnot.

But yeah, anyway, I wanted to let you know that there's a new ebook for downloadin' on the newly renamed Downloads page (don't ask why it's renamed, that's a long story). That's right, I've finally gotten around to creating the ebook for Chuck vs. the Rogue Spy, written by our resident Frenchie, the one, the only, the crumbless Crumby! Be sure to pop over and download that here and then maybe drop by her ff-net profile to leave her a review if you haven't.

Anyway, time for me to vanish once more!

-Frea

How Fates Might Have Gone

So I wrote Parts I-IV of Fates. Originally I planned to write Parts I-VIII of Fates, but…

Well, have you seen how long Parts I-IV actually are? It’s like 1.5 Robert Jordan novels. And I’ve had a lot of people try to take me to task for the “rushed” ending, or the fact that “Fates doesn’t have an end.” You may agree with them; you may not. I don’t really care much either way, honestly.

I stopped writing Fates because it was driving me insane. I picked a place that I thought was a decent ending for everything I had written so far, where the characters were together without any hindrances between them, where everybody was in a good place and ready to go out on the next adventure, which was to get the Intersect out of Chuck’s brain. Am I obligated to write everything I've ever thought about the story since I started it?

Personally, I don’t think so. Others disagree. Again, let them. Here’s what I had planned for Parts VI, VII, and VIII. These aren’t Fates-canon unless I actually sit down and write them, so disregard them or regard them as you see fit. 

The Non Downton Abbey Fan's Guide to The Abbey

So I've been writing in the Downton Abbey fandom for a few weeks now and I'm putting out a three chapter short in which all of the characters are spies, kind of in the same tone as Chuck. It's called The Abbey.  I know quite a few people get emails for stories and might be curious about this one, and I'm always willing to help out, so I've put together a guide to Downton Abbey and yet still want to read The Abbey, click the More button and prepare for some very, very pale, pretty people to flood your window. Let's do this thing! Oh, right, spoilers. Duh.

Rogue Spy – Chapter 12 Sneak Peek

Hey, guys!

It's been a little while since I've updated this story. Remember Chuck vs. the Rogue Spy? No? Well, to freshen up your memory, I'm previewing a brief excerpt from Chapter 12, before updating in a few days.

That's right, "The Buy More Campaign". I finally got to write the Morgan-centric chapter you all wanted! You're welcome.