A Retro-Diary of Chuck vs. the Cliffhanger

So I've been teasing a retro-diary of one of the Chuck episodes on Twitter for the past few weeks. I like the idea of a retro-diary, because it's kind of a cheat. It's a way to talk about the episode as if you're viewing it for the first time, with the added benefit of knowing how it ends and having had the opportunity to collate your thoughts about it. You get the best of both worlds! Bill Simmons, one of my favorite sports writers, does this often for basketball games of personal importance, describing the vicious ups and downs that are associated with fandom. It translates nicely over to TV.

If you're not sure what a retro-diary is (Hi, Frea!) it'll be pretty easy to catch on once I start, but for clarification's sake, I'll explain. I watch the episode, and I write about it. I mark the time stamp (in this case, all timestamps will come from Hulu's stream of the show) to give you an idea of where I was in the episode at the time. It's very similar to my live tweeting, but I'm not restricted by 140 characters at a time, and-- as previously mentioned-- I have the added benefity of knowing what happens the whole time.

So, without further adieu, hit the break to join the fun!

mxpw vs. Frea - Chuck vs. Agent X

Chuck vs. Agent X
Season 4, Episode 22, original air-date May 2, 2011

Chuck and Sarah put aside spy work to have a weekend of debauchery, but Devon's plans for Chuck's big night don't go quite as expected. Meanwhile, Ellie's investigation into her father's computer leads to a life-changing discovery.

So...this is not the week of Agent X. In fact, it was over two weeks ago, and this review is over two weeks late. Wait a second! What the frak is up with that?

Only one thing we can say: badgers.

Take that however you will, and enjoy our review!  We even managed to talk about the episode...some.

Frea's schedule has been hellish lately; we appreciate your patience!

Giddy Up! Roundup Time, Ya'll!

I came across this blog, Big Glass Cases, written by an agent that works out of one of the big firms in New York, and I tooled around on the site for awhile, as I thought Ms. LaPolla had some great advice about writing and the industry (among them the need to take a red pen to the end of the seventh Harry Potter book; my preferred tool would be a chainsaw).

A post I really recommend reading is Band-Aids, as she talks a little about the querying process and a little about the writing process.  Some writers, editors, and agents are very stark about everything: you need to rewrite, you need to be better at everything, you need to do this and that and this and and this.  After awhile of reading those, you begin to feel like the scum of the writing world and HOW DARE YOU take a pen to a piece of paper for anything but your grocery list?  But Sarah LaPolla just has some friendly, helpful tips that don't threaten to overwhelm and instead are just what they need to be: good, useful tips.

Twitches and Errors

There was a bit of an error with Blogger this morning and I don't know if we'll ever get the replies on the "Post" thread back, or the poll that I put up, but...

The show's back for Season 5!  Awesome, right?

And in case we don't get the poll back, there were something like 200 votes, and half of those were for a Fates Sarah POV, so expect that to land whenever I write it.

:)

Happy Friday, everybody! 

Frea

Poll

So on Twitter, I made a really fun bet.  The upfront announcements are on Sunday, and I made the bet that Chuck won't return (and in the case that it does, same timeslot, same night).  So...

What should I have to do if I lose? There's a poll on the sidebar, up until Sunday, be sure to place your votes!

Frea

Silence

Given that I've got Everclear blasting, silence is clearly not the thing going on in my office today, but it seemed like a fun header, given that I've been very, very quiet on the blog lately. Lots of reasons for that, some of them good, some not so great, of course.  But I've got to cover a few things, I guess.

mxpw vs. Frea - Given that we haven't even done our review of Agent X, I can't help but imagine that our review of whatever the next episode is...well, chances are it's going to be a bit late.  I have two finals on Thursday, two final projects due tomorrow night, so...good news is that unlike my first go-round in college, I've actually started on those projects.  Also, I don't think you're missing much by not hearing what I have to say about Agent X.  Considering that if I lived my life by the rules of Bambi, the post would be all mxpw talking?  Yeah, really not missing much.

R&J - I wrote a page of it the other night.  If I get bored with any of my projects today, I'll maybe write more.

Fates - Had a breakthrough, it just came at a really bad time (aka I couldn't follow up on the lead, though I did stitch some scenes together and give myself a launchpoint for when I can return to it).

Coming Up on the Blog - mxpw and I are launching a big rewatch festival this summer.  We're going to hit up the first season of Fringe and the second season of Chuck.  And if you want to rewatch along with us and enjoy all of our crazy antics, the new blog design will have some great links for that.

Annnnnnnd finally:

Some people made some ebooks!  Yeah, that's right, I've got some treats for you today. I took my friend Monsieur Aardvark under my wing as my ebook apprentice, and he fantastically rose to the challenge by making ebooks of the great Nervert's Chuck vs. the Pacific Northwest and Revenge of the Bartowski.

And two days ago, I received an email from the fabulous ninjaVanish with ebooks for Chuck and Sarah vs. Themselves attached, to host on Castle Inanity!  All of those are up for grabs, as usual, on the ebooks page at the top there.

My schedule will hopefully clear up on May 23rd or so.  Fingers crossed that I go through a crazy Frea spurt of creativity and unleash the new blog design/five chapters of Fates/some R&J/more Violet/etc. when that happens.  Until then, see you when we do our review!

Frea

Double Agent Update

So lately, there have been several people on ye olde twitterverse that have lamented the death of DA. This is understandable, I suppose, since the last time it was updated was during some point in the Jurassic period. But it is not dead. Perhaps it's on life-support? I don't know. You can come up with your own analogy, I'm too tired to come up with one for you.

Anyway, the point of all this is to post a brief snippet about what you can expect when (not if!) DA comes back. Now, I am no Frea, so don't expect brilliance or a wealth of story material in one 500 word snippet (not that you are even getting that much), but here is a section of Chapter 27 for all of you to read*.

Oh, and yes, I said Chapter 27.

R & J #7: Third Date

Whew, made it through this scene.  Watch for typos, there are many and they are likely epic, given that I literally booked it through this entire sequence.  If this were a Fates chapter, I'd do a lot of polishing, some rewriting, a lot of cutting, but...

That's the glory of this story: I can just toss it on the blog and forget about it!

:)

Frea

P.S. - This picks up right after the scene where Sarah's in the hotel room.

RAJ #6 - The Search Begins

Short scene (that isn't actually done) but I'm throwing it out there akin to the way you throw a piece of raw meat at the wolves and then run like hell.

(For the record, I don't know if that works)

Frea

PS - This picks up right after the last snippet left off. Chuck just scaled a drainpipe, now what's Sarah doing?

Double Fiction Wednesday (RAJ #5: Duplicitous)

Got bitten by the writing.  Hopefully, I'll finish this scene when I wake up, but yeah, this next section takes place the morning after Chuck and Sarah meet as Nick and Ava.  And don't worry, I'll go in at some point and write the rest of their evening together, as that'll be a doozy.  However, just not feeling "cute" enough to get to those kind of adorable levels yet.

:)

Enjoy!  Sleep time for Frea!

Frea

RAJ # 4 - Young and Stupid

This scene follows the one I posted yesterday, and to warn you, there is a little bit of language in it.  I just don't see this character as having a PG-rated vocabulary.

- Frea

Break Writing #4

Did some more writing today at work, and it's a short scene, but a telling one, I think, from Romeo and Juliet But Without Teenagers or Death...Well, Okay, Some Death.  I think it'll probably be more confusing than telling, actually.  So...my apologies.  In advance.

Break Writing #2

So the following bit is from neither Fates nor Greater. In fact, the following is a short scene from a story I haven't even published on fanfiction.net, though I did share a bit of the first chapter on the blog, and have kicked around ideas for it for awhile in my head. You can read the first chapter (and synopsis) here, of course.

And you can read the scene after the break.

mxpw vs. Frea - Chuck vs the Wedding Planner

Chuck vs. the Wedding Planner

Season 4, Episode 21, Air-Date April 11, 2011

Chuck and Sarah call in her con-artist father, Jack Burton, to help recover the wedding funds they lost. Morgan talks Casey into meeting with Alex's mother.


The initial plan for this episode review was for me to pretend to be Frea and for her to pretend to be me. Seemed appropriate, you know? Us pulling a con in honor of an episode about cons. Unfortunately, after thinking about it for a few seconds and trying to figure out if she could be analytical and stay on topic and if I could be randomly crazy, we both realized that conning is a lot of hard work and we're too lazy for that. So instead we decided to just be us. Fun, right?

Fortunately, we got a hell of an episode to make up for our laziness. Wedding Planner marked the return of a much beloved character: Jack Burton. But was his return to the Chuckverse as awesome as his first visit?

The short answer: Yes.

Want to see the long answer? Then you'll have to read to find out.

The Art of Dialogue

I've talked a few times about dialogue on the blog, as I consider it a completely essential part of fiction writing.  Okay, maybe that's unfair.  If you get one thing horribly, horribly wrong, it all falls apart, no matter what that thing is.  But before I can scare you completely, I'll justify this: I notice when your dialogue is bad.  Why?

Because dialogue is cadence, but on steroids.

Want to see what I mean?  Click the link.

Goodies!!!

Nope, sorry, not the next chapter of What Fates Impose already.  Sorry, but don't click out of the window, good things lay ahead, I promise!  A couple of new gifts on the downloads page, for one thing!

Click the link for more details!

mxpw vs. Frea - Chuck vs. the Family Volkoff

Chuck vs. the Family Volkoff

Season 4, Episode 20, Air-Date April 11, 2011

When the CIA targets Vivian Volkoff for assassination, Chuck turns to an unusual ally to protect her: Vivian's father, Alexei. Ellie suspects her mother doesn't want her to find out about her father's past.

Oh, Vivian Volkoff. Such a cool name and a hilarious father. That means you've gotta be awesome. Right? Right???

Okay, maybe not. Be warned: this is another mxpw vs. Frea where Frea sees lots of shiny things and mxpw tries to keep order. How successful was he? You'll have to read to find out.

Perfect Angel

So in honor of it being Sunday, I thought I'd post a little snippet of what's written of Chapter 9 of That Which is Greater.  I wrote some of the chapter and passed it off to the magnificent Course Jester, and this is just a short snippet because the blog's been dead, and I'm hoping to distract everybody with the fact that Fates 49 is still only 20%*...

A distraction that works better if I don't point out that fact first.  Smart, Frea.

But either way, enjoy the scenelet!

- Frea

*At the time this blog post was written!!

The Vanishing Frea

So a bunch of random announcements to throw together on this blog post, which means it's going to be a mishmash of my different thought processes.  It's really amazing that Fates is a long as it is, considering that in my everyday life, I cannot follow a single train of thought from one station to the next.  But anyway, here we go!

Fates:

The next chapter will be dropping on Tuesday.  Yes, if you look at the progress bar, it says it's in beta right now, as of the time of writing this post, but I do have a lot of reasons for pushing it off.  Among them:

A) My beta and I both have other projects going on right now.  And before you get excited, those projects are unfortunately 95% school related.  It's coming up on the end of the semester, which means I have three major projects and exams due soon.

B) Work has been kicking my butt.

C) Once 48 is posted, I won't be posting another chapter until chapter 52 is almost done, so I'm hoping that between now and Tuesday, I can finish 49 and be halfway done with 50.  It's ambitious, I know, but cheerleading will get me to write so much faster than, "Why you gotta be like that, Frea?" Just, you know, a note.  And yes, I have a reason for holding those four chapters so that I can post them quickly together, and no, I'm not going to share it.

That Which is Greater:

I'm pleased to announce I've finally roped somebody into writing part of it taken on a co-writer!  Greater was never intended to be anything more than "doodle" writing, which is why it was on Tumblr and my other blog before it ever hit fanfiction.net, and I've been attempting to tempt some of my favorite writers to add to Violet Bartowski's awesomeness.  Good news!  I finally landed my big fish!  Look for the next chapter to be a collaboration between the great Course Jester, and me!

Ebooks:

Speaking of Course Jester, have you seen his newest short story?  No?  Well, get on over there to fanfiction.net and have yourself a good read.  And in honor of his updating, I went and updated not only the format of his ebooks, but I added the new short story as well.  And he has a catchphrase now!

You can download the updated version over here!

(Early reviews are in; the book cover doesn't lie!  It IS better than a sharp stick in your eye)

Other Stuff:

I've seen a lot of people mention that grammar is something that trips them up, especially after my last post on how to format your dialogue.  While I was surfing around the other day, keeping up with the book industry, I chanced upon this great website called Grammar Girl.  She covers a wide range of topics and she does it in a clear, fun, and concise manner.  Your brain gets a new wrinkle with every page visit!  Check it out.

And that's all she wrote (until she went and worked on Fates), folks!

Have yourself a wonderful day!
Frea

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, WEP!!!!!!

So, funny story:

I had it in my head that April Fool's Day was Wepdiggy's birthday, which I thought was appropriately apt and fitting.  But the thing is, I don't celebrate April Fool's Day, as I prefer people not to know when I'm pranking them, so I didn't do this design yesterday, as I didn't want people to think it was a prank.  However, the joke was on me, because it is actually today that is Wepdiggy's birthday.

Whoops.

What can I say about the fantastic Wepdiggy that his mug shot from his birthday party last night can't?  Not much, but I've now officially known him for around a year, and I'm glad to have met him!!  His friendship, his witty contributions, his awesome way of looking at life, his writing, and just the fact that he is everything you think he would be and more...all of that?  Makes him pretty great.  So here's to you, you fantastic fish.  I've decorated the blog just the way I feel it should be decorated on your big day (aka, I've 'cocked it all up for you!), and I'm sorry that I didn't have time to write you that epic Adorable Psycho story, The 405 Gets Plowed Again.

Happy Birthday, Wep, from all of us here at Castle Inanity!  You've never looked so good for 58!

:)

Frea