Fanwriting: Writing Holiday, Day 1

So life happened for the past month and I got out of the habit of writing [hangs head in shame]. But now I have a week's worth of vacation days to use or lose before the turn of the fiscal year, so I'm taking a writer's holiday. In addition to the novel, which I fully intend to keep working on, I have stories burgeoning in five other fandoms, at least two of which are far enough along that they might see complete drafts in Real Words by the end of the month. Whee! So, back to the word counts:

Friday's Word Count:

933 (complete first draft of "Sketch: House of Eternity" for the House of Anubis fandom, which is sadly neglected by adult authors. British boarding school hijinks, anyone?)

Sample Text:

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Terribly overwritten, I know, but it's only a first draft; I'll kill the darlings later. Today I'm going to have at my Leviathan-verse short, I think ...

Review: Puella Magi Madoka Magica (Urobochi/Shinbo)

Madoka is a cheerful middle-school student, despite the ominous dreams about the end of the world. Then she discovers that the suicides and disappearances that plague her hometown are actually caused by witches, which is bad. And that the witches are opposed by heroic magical girls, who gain their powers from a cute animal mentor in exchange for a wish, which is ... worse?

There's no way to summarize this fascinating, Faustian deconstruction of the magical girl genre without spoiling its best features. Let's just say that if Stephen King had written Cardcaptor Sakura and Madhouse had outsourced the production design to Tim Burton, you might have gotten something like Puella Magi Madoka Magica. The fact that Kajiura Yuki is responsible for the soundtrack doesn't hurt, either. Recommended.

Fanfiction: True Callings: Prologue (Dark Oracle)

Title: True Callings
Fandom: Dark Oracle
Character(s): Everyone, eventually
Pairing(s): Canon 'ships (including unresolved Cally/Omen and equally unresolved Cally/Emmett)
Rating: PG
Word Count: 2091 (this chapter)
Warnings: Set post-series.
A/N: Welcome to the interim results of my massive effort of discipline: a novel-length first episode of the third season of Dark Oracle that never was. I have it completely plotted out in ten chapters, a prologue, an epilogue and a coda, and I will always be one completed draft chapter ahead of anything I post. Nevertheless, I can't promise that my energy won't flag before I manage to finish this monster. You have been warned. Concrit welcomed with a set of lockpicks.

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      When the key turned in the lock of his cell door, the young man seated on the floor against the opposite wall merely tilted his head back to observe what followed. He was tired, for one thing, his body still aching from the beating, magical and physical, he'd taken upon capture. For another, he was damned if he'd give his jailers any sign they could construe as respect or fear. His ribs might be bruised, but his pride was intact.

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