I'm Getting Published

Hey, all,

As I’m writing this, in about seven hours, there will be a press release or a blog entry or something on the internet by a publishing company I can’t officially name until after the fact. The press release will be official. It’ll probably have letterhead and an important name signed at the bottom, and for most of the world, it’s probably just another press release with more authors they won’t read.

But for me, it’s going to contain something I’ve been dreaming about since I was thirteen years old. Later today, somebody is going to announce to the world that my dreams have come true. That all of those stars I’ve looked at in the sky and have wished on, all those coins in the fountains I felt silly tossing in but did it anyway, all of those blown-out birthday candles, that wish is coming true.

I can’t quite catalogue how I feel because I feel a lot of things. I’m nervous. I’m exuberant. I’m three seconds from dancing on the ceiling, or I would be if I didn’t have neighbors I didn’t want to piss off. I’m frightened, I’m excited, I’m happy, I’m worried, I’m exhausted, I’m stressed, I’m jubilant, I’m thrilled to have everybody along on this journey with me. The people that I’ve vented to, the ones that have congratulated me, the ones that have said from day one that they wanted to buy something with my name on it.

Because now they can, and people have already pre-ordered my book without knowing anything about it beyond a title, and that sort of faith in me is humbling and it’s awe-inspiring.

I’m supposed to be editing right now. Well, no, that’s not quite right. I’m supposed to be sleeping right now because today is a Thursday, and even on the announcement of your dreams day, you still need to do things like put in your eight hours at the office. So I should be sleeping, and barring that, editing, because I’m behind on my edits and that’s nobody fault but my own. But I’m not editing because I’m writing this.

And I don’t know exactly what I have to say except that if you’re reading this, and you have a dream, or something you really want, I hope you’re going for it. I hope you’re in the position to be able to do that, and I hope even more that it comes true for you. As for me, that moment’s here, it’s time to take that step, and I’m scared and I’m over the moon, and I’m so, so immensely and immeasurably grateful for those people that are taking that step with me, and to anybody who’s encouraged me in any part of this dream, whether it’s reviewing a story I wrote, tweeting at me, asking me questions about my writing, sending me positive messages, cheering for me. For all of that, I am sincerely grateful and I wish nothing but truly wonderful things for everybody involved.

Here’s to taking the next step.

Love,
Frea

PS - I won’t be on this blog very much, and haven’t been at all, lately. But you can find me other places. I’m on hiatus on Tumblr right now, but I’m active on my Twitter. I have a new website that’s not quite up and running yet, and a Facebook page here, and I’ll be hunkered down for the rest of the month with my head in my book. So I’ll be around.

Another One Bites the Dust

Hey all!

Happy April, 11 days in. Have you seen Captain America 2 yet? I’ve seen it twice and will probably go as many times I can before it’s out of theaters because Natasha. And Sam. And I guess Steve, too. But mostly Natasha and Maria, let’s be real here.

I’m pleased to announce that I’ve knocked another work off the ye olde in progress works list (found here). That’s right, That Which is Greater: Winter Break is complete, leaving us with two stories left to be told in that universe. I’ve updated the FAQ accordingly. You can also download the ebook right here in all of the usual formats.

And here’s a list of current works in progress and where I stand on all of them:

• That Which is Greater Winter Break: Finished as of yesterday
• Badass Altitude III: on hold until I get more of an idea about what kind of villain is holding their missing team member and how often I want Natasha to cockblock Oliver and Felicity
• Curtain Call: still on hiatus. I will tell you when I'm working on it again.
• Mrs. Cupid 03: I have about 800 words written. Will update when I'm actively working on this chapter. I don't really have a plot for this one, so it's slow-going.
• That Which is Greater Carina Story: I cut off a major piece of this plot, so I went from about 20% done to 60% done. Will update when I'm working on it.
• Guide Us Home: Slowly working on hating Matthew less so I can finish this, but prognosis does not look good.
• Publishing an actual novel or two: your guess is as good as mine.

So yeah, there you have it. More news when I get it, enjoy the ebook, and I’ll see you soon!

Frea

Greater Winter Break Update

Hey all!

Just wanted to let you know that I’m updating That Which is Greater: Winter Break tomorrow. Please bear in mind that Winter Break is a transitional story. It’s setting up for my final Greater story, which I haven’t named yet. So I’ll hint at things in this story that may not come to fruition until the next, bigger story.

When I’ll be writing that, I don’t know. Also, still in limbo with regards to publishing things, so will let you know when there’s forward movement on that front as well.

I’ve posted two excerpts from the chapter on my Tumblr, but people may not realize what they were, so I’m including them here:

“What’s the matter, huh?” he asked, eyeing the woods once more. Where were Sarah and Casey? What was going on? “Does anything hurt?”

Violet hiccupped and let out a wail, sobbing out a name that he finally figured out was “Patrick!” Then she curled in, making herself as small as possible.

And here:

“Open? Sarah?” Chuck nearly started laughing, except it was kind of true. Sure, he didn’t know what she was thinking half the time and it drove him crazy, especially on those nights where they shared his bed with CIA and NSA surveillance. But with Vi, there had never been any real need to guess where she stood. She’d always been kind of an open book. And he knew better than to tell her that. “Yeah, I guess so. Vi took to her right away, and you know how she is.”

“Tenacious,” Sophie said. Sadness flickered across her face for an instant. “To the point of bull-headed. I’m sorry. She gets that from me.”

“Hey, I have my moments.” Sarah had called him names when he refused to budge on missions after all. “So what’s happening with the ‘somebody,’ then? Is he going to know about Vi eventually?”

“Eventually,” Sophie said. “If he, you know, sticks around.”

“That might change things for you,” Chuck said.

These were posted as part of “Sunday Six,” an initiative to keep myself honest. I post at least six sentences from a WIP every Sunday. I’ve done it for three weeks now. My first post was from Arrow, but these last two have been from Winter Break 08, which is titled Skirmish. You should see it on ff-net and AO3 tomorrow. If I get Chapter 9 finished today, I’ll likely post that on Thursday.

Thanks for the patience!

Stay sexy!
Frea

Workin' at the Car Wash

Hey all!

Sorry for the fact that for a few days, the Downloads page has been nothing but a rickroll. It couldn't be helped. I was using a service to host all of the ebooks that kind of, as my friend Aardie put it, went into a death-spiral. I've gone and put all of the ebooks on Dropbox now, and that site seems pretty steady. They're all shared, with the exception of a few books that I need to update and will do so in the upcoming week.

Speaking of ebooks, there's a new listing on the page. I posted Pink Drinks and Pick-Up Lines yesterday (AO3, ff-net, Tumblr) and it's kind of long enough to merit its own ebook on my site, so you can get that here. As soon as Steampunk.Chuckster finishes the next spurt of her awesome Con Game series, I'll update that download for everybody as well.

Updates: Still stuck on Greater Winter Break. Am trying to have a chapter ready for Thursday. Keep an eye on my Twitter. I'll post more there.

Publishing Stuff: Nothing new to tell! Will update when I can.

Recent Fic:

Mrs. Cupid - The one where Felicity saves Oliver's life, which is good because her actions might keep them together til death do them part. (Arrow)
Manacled - Because tandem fighting transcends fandom. (Arrow)
Felicity and the Cute Coffee Guy - The Arrow coffee shop AU you needed.
Helpless or Something Close - Felicity's father may be the one thing able to tear her apart. (Arrow)
Tequila Makes Her…You Get the Picture - Drunk Felicity is allergic to clothes. This might be the closest to panicking we ever see Oliver Queen come. (Arrow)
Hold My Hand Because Here We Go - The Winter Olympics AU we all figured I was going to write. (Arrow)
All Our Dreams Are Turned To Plastic Limbs and Disembodied Heads - Oliver discovers Felicity has a very disturbing collection. Hilarity ensues. (Arrow)
Felicity and the Robo-Rabbits - Remember these? (Arrow/Fates)
Birds of Paradise - Felicity gets seasick. This is a problem because this is a pirates AU. (Arrow)
Uncanny - They have the same glasses and heh, she looks like Felicity plus, like, a decade. That's kind of neat. She's Future Felicity, but in the FBI. Future FBI Felicity, even cooler. ...until Felicity gets a look the woman's namebadge and a cold dart of fear hits her: Dunham was the last name of the father that abandoned her. (Arrow/Fringe)

And that's all I have, guys. Stay sexy!

Frea

Temporary Site Maintenance

Hey all,

I've been using SugarSync to host all of the ebook files I've created, but unfortunately, they switched away from free accounts and I'm not willing to pay for an account that I don't really use all that much. While I work on an alternative, I'm going to deactivate my downloads page. I hope it have it back within a week.

Also, I'm having some technical difficulties with That Which is Greater: Winter Break. I'll let you know when Chapter 8 will be out.

Stay sexy!
Frea

BIG NEWS

Hello, all!

How’s it going? February treating everybody well? So far in St. Louis, we’ve been snowed in so many times this year that I’m side-eyeing 2014 pretty hard. Other people have it worse, of course, so I can’t complain too much.

Just wanted to update you on a few things. If you only check this blog and don’t follow me on Tumblr or Twitter, you may have missed this, but…I’m going to be published. A [MUMBLE MUMBLE] publishing agency has offered me a two-book deal based on a manuscript I submitted 15 months ago.

Here’s what I can tell you:

• I kind of have an agent. She seems awesome, despite my doing everything I possibly can to scare her away.
• Agent and Editor have the same first name, which is hilarious to me.
• I am freaking out on so many levels. There were actual tears. There is always the constant threat of tears. I have been dreaming of this since 1996. I feel like I am allowed to break down in disbelieving tears every ten minutes, okay?

Here’s what I can’t tell you:

• Who’s publishing the book.
• What the book’s about.
• When the book is coming out.
• My official author name, though I totally will. Even if it’s just me going, ‘HEY SO AND SO SEEMS PRETTY COOL AND WRITES A LOT LIKE ME NUDGE NUDGE NUDGE.’
• The book’s title.

Yeah, I’m not going to write as Frea O’Scanlin. Frea’s open-source. She’s fanfic and silliness and goofing around on Tumblr. My other identity will have to be somewhat-socially acceptable, so I’ll probably talk about my dogs or something a lot. Or official authorly things. Things official, published authors talk about, like literature and all of that stuff.

Let’s be real: it’s going to break down into two hundred pictures of my dog sneering at the snow. And otters and wombats.

In other news, I’m working on completing the Greater universe. We’re four chapters into That Which is Greater: Winter Break. Some of you will recognize the latest chapter, as it’s the giant snowball fight I posted a couple of years back, edited for clarity. When that story’s done, I’ll release the ebook, happily.

What’s new with everybody else?

Stay sexy!
Frea

New Ebook

Hey, awesome readers!

Just a quick note to let you know I posted a new Avengers AU story: Second Skin, including a nice banner on the side of the blog (it was created by the wonderful SlytherinGurrl). And because it's longer than 10k, I made it into an ebook that you can download here.

In a couple of days, you should see a bunch of little fic from me. I'll link it all here or on my Tumblr. Greater update: still working on Chapter 5 of That Which is Greater: Winter Break, but hoping to have a break on that soon. Unfortunately, I know a lot of people with birthdays this month, so Greater's taking a backseat. Sort of.

;)

Stay sexy!
Frea

Happy 2014!

Greetings, Earthlings Readers of this Blog!

I think I've given up on regularly updating over here (and I've been kind of spotty on my LJ). Most of my organization and time seems to be devoted to Tumblr. If you ever want to get a bird's eye view of what I'm doing over there, my archive page there is a pretty great way to see what kind of inanity I've been getting into lately.

But in the meantime, I've also been kind of busy, writing-wise. As I mentioned a couple of days ago, I've devoted some serious time and effort into working on That Which is Greater again. I feel a little more comfortable to tell you it's for the Winter Break story, one of the three I promised to finish. I'm working on the fifth chapter (Max has the first four chapters to beta) and at this time, I'm uncertain as to how many chapters there will be. At least six, it looks like. Also, administratively, I've renamed the Winter Break story on AO3 to Snowball Fight for reasons I'm sure you can figure out. When I've completed the story, I'll let you know a posting date.

Because I made a promise

I promised everybody I would let them know when I'm working on a new That Which is Greater story. It's not a new story, technically, but I am writing steadily in that universe right now. When I know a posting date, I'll let you know.

Keep an eye on this blog, by the way, for some ebooks and some links to things I've written in the past few weeks. There are a lot of things. I went a little crazy cleaning out my Tumblr prompt box in anticipation of a new year.

Hope everybody's having a wonderful end of the year! Stay sexy!
Frea

Happy Thanksgiving

Hello, Lovelies,

It’s the night before Thanksgiving here in the States (the rest of the planet probably regards this as one of the most annoying days of the year, probably along with the fourth of July, but oh well), and even though I think Thanksgiving is an incredibly problematic holiday for many reasons, I also love the principle behind it. It’s about togetherness and gratitude, and sometimes those things can feel like they’re in short supply. Especially from me. I haven’t been as communicative this year—my LJ and this blog in particular sometimes look like an abandoned wasteland—as I have been in the past, and part of that has been my health-related problems (it turns out I am sensitive to MSG and prone to migraines because of it, so I’m in the middle of a lifestyle adjustment) and part of it has just been general surliness. For all of those of you who stuck around through the days of Grumpy Frea, I have nothing but gratitude.

But I’m grateful for a lot of other things, too, so I thought I’d take a moment to list things.

I’m grateful for every review I receive (well, maybe not the angry ones, if I’m being honest). I’m grateful that somebody took time out of his/her day to leave me a small token that they had read my story, even if it was just “great job! Thanks!”

I'm grateful to the beta readers, to the cheerleaders, to anybody who encourages fanfiction writers and fanartists rather than tearing them down.

I’m grateful for every person who’s ever reached out to me, even if it’s just a simple, “How are you?”

I’m grateful for quistie64, who is such a joy to have in my life. I’m grateful that she finished her massive fic because it means I no longer bear the cross of have the longest story. But I’m grateful to her for all of her advice, her unrelenting humor and her fantastic worldview. I have never walked away from a conversation with her on any platform with less than a smile on my face. She is such an inspiration to me, you guys have no idea.

I’m grateful for Michael and Lindsay, who collectively have to be the nicest, kindest people on the planet. I’m a little glad the greater part of the Midwest separates these two because if they lived closer together, the entire earth might be sucked into a wormhole of niceness.

I’m grateful to my friend Ayefah. I’m sure she’s probably scratching her head in curiosity about why that is, BUT I HAVE MY REASONS (and am going to be super-mean and not share them here). (okay, fine, it’s because she made me realize the joy of all capitals, plus she always brings me spam whenever I get online and she’s a great person to talk to all the time. And she’s just neat. So there)

I’m grateful for Cat, who appears to me to live life with such unabashed and colorful joy. Another person who always makes me smile, and I envy her ability to live out loud like that. Also, I really should watch Friends sometime.

I’m grateful for the wonderful Wepdiggy, who I finally got the chance to meet this year and an entire room of Avengers fangirls didn’t scare him off, which was amazing. I’m grateful that he challenges my worldviews and brings his sense of humor into my life.

I’m grateful for Chris Bosman, and his excellent taste in music, his masterful use of hyperbole, and how crazy my Twitter timeline can sometimes get with him around. He keeps it fascinating.

I’m grateful for Supriya and Jessica and Jordan, who I met because of Downton Abbey and thankfully we outlasted the show together. These women are remarkable and sometimes flooding their DMs on Twitter with messages about Oliver Queen’s abs is the highlight of my week.

I’m grateful for Kris for bringing a lot of snark and Yvonne love to my life, and Kate for bringing a lot of snark and some truly amazing fanfiction. I’m not even saying that because she referenced Fates in her latest chapter (which you should go read)!

I’m grateful for the Joels: British Science Joel and Science Joel. From them, I’m guaranteed to learn something (or make BSJ facepalm by not remembering the actors for Artoo and Threepio), and I always relish that opportunity.

I’m grateful for SharpAsAMarble for the cheesiest of puns. I mean that literally.

I’m grateful for Grace for her talent and encouragement and the fact that she’s always there for a good fannish squeeing session.

I’m grateful for Don for always sending me such great questions on Tumblr and really, for reblogging every single piece of fanfiction I write. It always makes me smile.

I’m grateful for Crumby for being a troll.

…oh, I should probably say more about Crumby, huh. Oh, fine. She’s a troll, and I love it. And yes, getting to meet her in Prague this year is one of the highlights of my life. I don’t think it gets cooler than walking around Prague with a woman in a Ron Swanson T-shirt. I’m grateful I got the chance to meet Crumby and that she’s still willing to talk to me after that. And soon I shall watch Friday Night Lights, I promise!

I’m grateful to Dennis for being one of the nicest people on the planet. Even when we don’t see eye to eye, I’m amazed at the depths of kindness and the willingness to understand things that may not be familiar to him. Plus, I just admire his dedication to writing. Rock on, Dennis!

I’m grateful to Peter O for being such a positive light in my life, and for sharing his fantastic tunes with me. Dude has a song for everything, and I dig that.

I’m grateful to Karen for…I have no idea, I just adore her. She’s so fantastic and quirky and she’s got kickass Sarah Walker hair and the ability to love something in all capital letters. If I’m chatting with her online, I’m usually on the floor laughing. Granted, sometimes that’s because I’m messing with her and trying to get her to finish Curtain Call for me.

I’m grateful to Lucky. We only met in person in the airport in Chicago on our trip (which was fun to explain to random strangers), but it was like I’d known her for decades. I’ve never met anybody more accident prone but cheerful about it, and I find that utterly inspiring. Getting to spend two weeks gallivanting across Europe together was a fantastic experience I wouldn’t trade for anything. If you ever need sarcasm and positivity in the same sentence, Lucky’s your gal.

And finally, I’m grateful to Max. I don’t feel like giving a reason because that’s being too nice and I try not to do that because then he starts thinking he can get fresh with me and—oh, fiiiiine, if I must. Guys, Max is one of the greatest people I know. He’s one of my best friends. Meeting him a couple of years ago has helped me out in so many, incalculable ways. He was there for all of Fates and he’s been there for every big story since, always cheerleading me on and willing to read the crappiest of prose that I send his way (and trust me, I have sent some real stinkers his way; my taste for puns means you are NEVER SAFE). I’m so grateful every day that he considers me a friend and I get to share that honor.

But you want to know what I’m most grateful for, out of everything?

Mashed Potatoes. AW YISS. I’m gonna go home now and get me some.

Happy Thanksgiving,

Frea O’Scanlin

PS – there are a bunch of ebook downloads for you if you’re traveling this weekend and need something to read. All of ersk4’s Chuck stories are now up, and I’ve compiled my Badass Altitude Universe, and my Hyperfocal Distance Avengers Journalism AU onto the page, as well. Happy reading!

Admin Note

A head's up: if you would like a copy of Romeo & Juliet But Without Teenagers or Death...Well, Okay, Some Death, please download that before October 27. I will be removing all entries of that story from my archives and from my download site.

Trick or Treat

Doing this a little bit earlier this year...

In honor of All Hallow’s Eve, I’m inviting trick-or-treaters to my ‘door.’ Comment “trick-or-treat” to this post and…well, you know the drill. Treats can be anything that strikes my fancy (pics of fave actors or pairings, one sentence fics, graphics, a few words why I’m glad to have you on my flist, etc. etc.). The more “houses” to visit the more fun it’ll be, so go ahead, open your journal and help spread the fun!

I've enabled anonymous commenting. If you could let me know who you are, I can tailor your treat—or your trick!—just for you (aka sign your comments if you can! Or just tell me what you like if you don't feel comfortable leaving your name).

All the Mondays

Greetings, Amusing People!

Sorry it’s been radio silent on the blog. I had a really strange week last week where other things ate my life and I’m still trying to recover from everything.

Announcements:

Chapter Sixteen of My Girl Sarah has dropped. It’s named The Final Showdown and it’s the chapter where stuff blows up and things happen and there’s the noir-appropriate final showdown in an alley and Carina does my absolute favorite thing in the story. You can read that here.

I submitted a story to Avengersfest. I’ll link to that on November 17th, when the authors are revealed. I can’t say what it’s about yet.

Most importantly, the ebook for quistie64’s awesome (COMPLETE) Sound of Music II story has been put up online on her blog for you to download. I’ve added it to my archives, too, for completeness’s sake, but you should go over to her blog and tell her how awesome she is.

I have recently decided, given what’s been happening on Downton Abbey in this current season, that I want to cut all of my ties to that fandom. As such, I will be finishing Guide Us Home in three chapters and running far and fast away from that fandom because I don’t like Matthew Crawley anymore, and I hate Fellowes worse. I will be fair and considerate to all characters, but I will not devote hundreds of hours to a show I no longer like.

Might be something big going on this week, depending on how today goes. I’ll keep you in the loop, if I get a little less vague.

Anyway, stay sexy!
Frea

New Stories By Me and Stuff

I have now posted something new every day this week! I don't think I've done that since Happiest Place on Earth. Anyway, here they are:

• September 30: My Girl Sarah chapter 11
• October 1: Hyperfocal Distance, a Clint/Natasha Jouranlism AU
• October 2: Sending in the Cavalry, that fic where Peggy Carter is Melinda May's mentor. Everybody run for your lives
• October 2: My Girl Sarah chapter 12
• October 3: What a Pear, a really silly "you had to be there to get it" sequel to Hyperfocal Distance
• October 4: Arts and Crafts and Homicide, where Natasha learns to knit and Clint worries he's going to get a sweater.

I think I'll go take a holiday in Chicago now.

Also, I've updated some of these stories on the All My Fic page of my journal, but at the moment, it's incomplete. As far as my Works in Progress list goes, I have 14 entries and four of them are scratched off. Granted, two of those entries are Hyperfocal Distance, which clocked in at 24k, and My Girl Sarah, which clocked in at 60k. So I just have to keep that in mind. Come Monday or Tuesday, I'll have an announcement, hopefully. Provided this weekend doesn't kill me.

Stay sexy!

Frea

PS - if any of my Chicago friends want to meet up with me, I'll be at Quartino's tomorrow night at 5:30 PM. To those I'm meeting there already, SEE YOU IN A FEW HOURS.

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

I'm Baaaaaack!

I’ve somehow managed to return from my trip with a head cold and jetlag, but I’m happy to be back, and I’m thrilled to report that although there were some setbacks on the trip, we all had a lovely time traveling together. Specifically, Lucky and I did not at any point want to kill each other (if Lucky is telling the truth, that is; she could be lying), which was a good thing because we were pretty much living in each other’s pockets for two weeks, having only officially met at the airport. Boy, was that a fun story to relate to the many Canadians, Americans, and South Africans we ventured across on this jaunt of ours.

There’s loads to tell, but if I start from the beginning, we’ll be here for ages, so here are some highlights:

• Prague – gorgeous
• Vienna – gorgeous
• Zagreb – Really fun!
• Dubrovnik – Second most gorgeous place I have ever been.
• Split – covered in graffiti but surprisingly fun.
• I am not in a Hungarian prison, though we came closer to that possibility than I would have liked. We were taking a train from Vienna to Zagreb, with a three-hour stop in Budapest to explore, and apparently if you buy your tickets online, you need to get them stamped at the station. And given that we used roughly four different types of currency on this trip, we liked to not travel with too much of it. Luckily, there was an angel named Gabriela in our train compartment, who lent us money to buy tickets on the train, but to that conductor who probably took advantage of the fact that we didn’t know the language: there’s a strong possibility you are a dick, sir.
• Yes, if you saw the pictures of Lucky’s leg, we were not exaggerating: she hurt her knee and her ankle (same leg) and we got really good at navigating pharmacies in other languages.
• Crumby is delightful and stylish and insanely fun to be around. Best part, I don’t think we came across as too weird, though she might disagree. She brought us delicious French candy and I definitely failed on my side of the bargain by giving her Red Vines in return, which all French people agree is a “weird candy.” She was also there on the day that we did the most walking on the trip, I think.
• I may be in love with opera now, though I really, really need to go look up the plot to Carmen, guys. They had little translation boxes, but seeing as they were giving us two lines for twenty minutes of song, I think we missed….80% of the play. Which is in French. And is about Spain. I…don’t even know. But doing the standing room only tickets was an amazing experience that I would repeat in a heartbeat…perhaps not on the same day that I walked all over the Hofburg palace, though.
• The Museum of Broken Relationships in Zagreb is even more delightful than promised, and I am so glad I worked that into a fanfic. Also, we were trying to navigate to it and a random woman on the street named Snow White (Snjeguljica in Croatian) walked with us until we found the museum. She was pretty awesome. I’m sad I never got a picture of her hat, which was amazing.
• Our view off of the terrace in Dubrovnik was of the Adriatic and some sailboats. You really couldn’t beat that with a stick.
• For some reason, I got upgraded to business class for our trip back. That was nice. Lucky, however, was stuck back in Coach, so you should all send her candy or something.

Anyway, there’s dozens more stories to tell, and I will no doubt tell some of them over time. I hope everybody enjoyed their postcards and I’m sorry if I missed anything amazing. Have I missed anything amazing? Let me know in the comments!

Stay sexy!
Frea

FINALLY! The Second Announcement I Promised!

Hey, all!

 I promised two announcements and I intend to keep that promise. Going live today is the first of five short stories – two standalones and one three-parter that I think you will all like (4 of the 5 are Chuck). It’ll be posting on my blog at 10:30 a.m. CST, and every story is tagged “while frea’s away,” which means you can view them all by going to this link.*

I hope you enjoy these little pieces of fun. I meant to add more, but I’ve been busy getting ready to leave the country. Even as you read this, I should be on a train to Chicago.

Anyway, I’ve set up an awesome Tumblr queue with stories and all of my fandoms, mxpw will handle posting My Girl Sarah while I’m away, and I’ve got all of the addresses for postcards. I hope you all have a wonderful couple weeks and I’ll see you when I return!

Stay sexy!
Frea

*Warning: will not work before 10:30 a.m. CST today!

ANNOUNCEMENT: MY GIRL SARAH HAS LANDED

Okay, after leaving you guys on a cliff for a couple of weeks, I can finally announce the thing I’ve been so excited about sharing for nearly a month now. Ready? Really, ready?

MXPW AND I HAVE CREATED FICTION.

It’s called My Girl Sarah, it takes place in 1949, it’s very, very AU, and best part: it’s complete. It’s a Chuck/Sarah story, though I warn you, we’re not going to throw them right together or anything. So if you’re looking for already!married Chuck and Sarah, you should probably go elsewhere. But if you’re looking for any of the following:

• Sassy Carina
• Even sassier Sarah
• Casey the 1940s hardened police detective
• Chuck who fought in WWII and has conviction
• Ellie destroying the glass ceiling
• Gangsters (though I don’t think we ever use the word in the story), mobsters, and pretty much every Chuck villain under the sun sporting fedoras and machine guns
• Bad puns, worse comebacks, and a masked vigilante…

THIS IS TOTALLY THE STORY FOR YOU.

Now, I know you have some questions, and I’ve anticipated a few of them, so I’m going to answer them here.

Fixing An Error

Hey all,

Just a quick post to say that I goofed last week. I said something big was supposed to happen today, when I got my dates wrong and really, it's happening on Monday.

So...you know. Monday. Big stuff. Big...things. Awesome stuff.

This has been an announcement. You may continue about your day.

Stay sexy!
Frea

In Which I Announce That There Will Be Announcements

Hey all,

I know last time I was like, “STAY TUNED FOR ANNOUNCEMENTS” and I promise you, both of those announcements are forthcoming (I don’t want to spoil the first and for the second, I don’t want to announce it until I am 100% sure it’s going to happen). In the meantime, I want you to know that I’ve done a little more administrative work and have updated my entire list of fic, which you can find here.

Previously, I think the list simply listed where you could find various fics, but now it includes word count, the year I started writing a fic (as you will see from Bank Job, it is not necessarily the same year I finished!), and a link to the ebook. I’ve also added to the “LJ” category by expanding that to “LJ/T” (Livejournal/Tumblr), which means that I’ve archived several of the tiny Tumblr prompts I’ve written over the years.

Now, I know I do a lot of three-sentence fics and I didn’t want to go through the process of providing all of those with names and links. Instead, I’ve archived them under their own tag on my blog. So if you go to the “3 Sentence Fics” tag on my Tumblr, you will see an archive of every single 3 sentence fic I have written.

Including the ones that are four sentences.

So there might be some new Frea writing you haven’t seen on my Fic page. Have you, for example, read this tiny continuation of Walker’s Eleven that involves panini? How about this one where Sarah leaves Carina in charge of two-year-old Hunter Bartowski…unsupervised?*

Also, I’m not saying anything definitively but MONDAY MONDAY GUYS MONDAY YOU’RE GOING TO WANT TO MAKE SURE TO CHECK MY FF-NET NAME OR SOMETHING there are announcements coming.

Until then, as ever, stay sexy!

- Frea

*This may or may not have happened to me with my nephew, who will be two in a little over two weeks and OH MY GOODNESS HE’S GETTING SO BIG.