Writing Update
Aug. 28th, 2012 09:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
keiramarcosThe thing is that I have a bunch of WIPs. Because I write in serial format-- I can juggle a few without feeling all that guilty about keeping readers waiting (sorry) but I do try to live a guilt-free life. Guilt takes up so much energy and often makes you feel miserable both mentally and phsyically. The problem is that I truly am spoiled for choice so I tried to inspire myself by reading my own work. Most of you can get a good idea of what's on my plate based on excerpts from Evil Author Day. I'm very close to finishing That Old Black Magic (HP - Harry/Draco). I also have a project with LadyHolder (Dangerous and Beautiful Things which is a Sherlock/Sentinel fusion) and a Star Trek/Sentinel project of my own that is fascinating to play with.
There are a few others: Beckon the Dark (next novel in the Lantean Legacy series), Valor and Honor (next novella in Ring of Fire), and of course my Halo/Sga project that I will start actively pursueing after I wrap up the SGA arc of TTB. As for my major series stuff (spoilers ahead):
Tangled Destinies (current word count: 144,526)
I read Forsaken -- that was a turning point fic for me in that series because it's leading up to the final episode in the first arc of the series. Part ten in that series which will be called "Covet" is the final installment of the first arc and it will center around Sam Kirk (his dissertion of his brother, his reported death on Tarsus, Winona's duplicity, etc etc). I thought it was important to address both Spock's brother and Jim's brother at the end of Arc 1 because in many ways both Spock and Jim were indelibly marked by the conduct of their brothers and their emotional/physical dissertation of them.
In Forsaken, we find that Sybok was vicious to Spock when they were children and as a result Spock is extremely distrustful of his half-brother to the point where he deliberately destroyed the familial bonds they shared. This lead Sybock down a very different road (from his canon one in the original series movies) where he tried to embrace the most difficult and far reaching mental discipline on Vulcan. His success or failure isn't particularily relevent to Spock at this point beyond the fact that he'll do anything to keep Sybock away from the family he's created with his parents and Jim on Earth. After I finish up Covet -- I'll start the second arc. We will skip ahead a few years-- Jim and Spock will have finished undergrad and will be preparing for their wedding ceremony on Betazed. Why will I jump ahead? Because frankly-- I'm ready to write porn for this series and I sincerely wish I hadn't made them meet when they were just sixteen. So jumping ahead until their 19 (almost 20) has so much apppeal that it isn't funny. Arc 2 will take place mostly at Star Fleet academy where we will meet more canon characters (Uhura, Chekov, Sulu, etc etc). I'm really looking forward to that.
Ties That Bind (current word count: 330,817)
When I first started writing this story it was a single novel. A novel that turned into 100,000+ words before I ever posted a single word of it on my site. In fact, it wasn't until I'd reread what I wrote for about the tenth time that it crossed my mind that my readers might like it. Truth is that there were plenty in the beginning who DIDN'T appreciate it and I'm sure there are still plenty of people who visit my site who wouldn't touch the series with someone else's severed hand. BDSM is, in its own way, more divisive than slash (or incest) is in fandom. I wrote the series for myself because frankly I was deeply enamored with Xanthe's series (I still am) and like many other writers who've read her work I was inspired to play with the themes. We exchanged a few emails regarding permissions before I posted the first novella in the Ties That Bind series and she did warn me that the work might not be received well by the fandom at large. I thought I was prepared for it. I wasn't. I mean, I really wasn't. I've received more negative feedback and blowback about Ties That Bind than all my other work combined.
A lot of people don't GET it. In fact, there are people who read it and proclaim to enjoy who don't get it. I know this because of their comments and private emails. I've had more than one person so grossly misunderstand my work that I was truly horrified by their interpretation of the material. Though, the less said about that the better, I guess. I can't make anyone get what my words mean to me and I know that everyone gets something different out of it. The series is 3 novellas from being finished. The final three installments in the SGA arc will be called: Time After Time, Broken Road, and The North Star. I have them all plotted out and while I can't promise you won't be shocked, appalled, and furious at certain points throughout the last three stories I will guarentee you a Happy Ending. I don't believe in anything else.
I'd like to take this AU into different fictional worlds eventually -- Sherlock and Criminal Minds to be specific. I don't know if I will but it all strikes my fancy. Who would I pair in those worlds -- well Sherlock should be obvious (Sherlock/John). Criminal Minds, I'm actually a Morgan/Reid shipper but if I wrote TTB for that show-- it would be Hotchner/Reid. Not to be rude about it, but suggestions for other fandoms to explore for this would not be appreciated.
Sentinels of Atlantis (current word count: 206,927)
This series was rather unintentional. I started writing it on a whim because I was inspired by Ladyholder's series The Unlikely and Unwilling. I wrote The Gathering and I posted it. The response was really positive so I thought, okay, I can work with that. Then I wrote twenty episodes over a period of six months. I hesitate to talk about this even now because I was so devastated! My harddrive had a failure and I hadn't backed up in more than a year. I lost almost all of the episodes I'd written for SOA and THREE professional projects in the moment that harddrive failed. Recovery was impossible. I spent several hundred dollars trying to recover data because of my professional work. Deadend. I was done. It was horrific. What was worse? I couldn't rewrite what I'd written for SOA. I tried to make myself do it and I was so disillusioned and bored that I had to back up and start over. I replotted the entire first season from what I had posted on my site forward.
What did this do? Well, John gained a brother he wouldn't have had otherwise (Matt) and Andrew Sheppard appeared. Some readers don't like Andy -- I had one (lol) tell me she thought the kid was creepy. Well, he IS creepy. He's meant to be. In many ways, Andy is a mirror of John. An online Sentinel at a very young age who is powerful beyond measure -- he hears things he shouldn't, is deeply connected with the psionic plane in ways that many simply don't understand and has been under the unknowing guidance of an ascended Sentinel/Guide pair since he came online. Things will get creepier on the Andy front. Just wait until you meet his Guide!
Episode 20 (The Search) will be the final episode in Season One of the series. It will be long -- easily longer than the first episode (The Gathering) of the season. We'll tie up some loose ends both on Atlantis and on Earth as we prepare for some major changes (mostly on Earth) as they gear up to face the threat of the Wraith and the Ori.
The first five episodes of Season Two are titled: The Pride, The Sacrifice, The Return, The Lifeline, and The Seige -- I'll be honest I get extremely excited just thinking about these episodes! It's going to be so action packed and fun and scary and some of you may end up sending me slightly threatening emails. Don't worry I'll make you a perfect subject line on my contact form!
Aside: I have no idea when any of that will be posted. Just FYI.
---
There are a few others: Beckon the Dark (next novel in the Lantean Legacy series), Valor and Honor (next novella in Ring of Fire), and of course my Halo/Sga project that I will start actively pursueing after I wrap up the SGA arc of TTB. As for my major series stuff (spoilers ahead):
Tangled Destinies (current word count: 144,526)
I read Forsaken -- that was a turning point fic for me in that series because it's leading up to the final episode in the first arc of the series. Part ten in that series which will be called "Covet" is the final installment of the first arc and it will center around Sam Kirk (his dissertion of his brother, his reported death on Tarsus, Winona's duplicity, etc etc). I thought it was important to address both Spock's brother and Jim's brother at the end of Arc 1 because in many ways both Spock and Jim were indelibly marked by the conduct of their brothers and their emotional/physical dissertation of them.
In Forsaken, we find that Sybok was vicious to Spock when they were children and as a result Spock is extremely distrustful of his half-brother to the point where he deliberately destroyed the familial bonds they shared. This lead Sybock down a very different road (from his canon one in the original series movies) where he tried to embrace the most difficult and far reaching mental discipline on Vulcan. His success or failure isn't particularily relevent to Spock at this point beyond the fact that he'll do anything to keep Sybock away from the family he's created with his parents and Jim on Earth. After I finish up Covet -- I'll start the second arc. We will skip ahead a few years-- Jim and Spock will have finished undergrad and will be preparing for their wedding ceremony on Betazed. Why will I jump ahead? Because frankly-- I'm ready to write porn for this series and I sincerely wish I hadn't made them meet when they were just sixteen. So jumping ahead until their 19 (almost 20) has so much apppeal that it isn't funny. Arc 2 will take place mostly at Star Fleet academy where we will meet more canon characters (Uhura, Chekov, Sulu, etc etc). I'm really looking forward to that.
Ties That Bind (current word count: 330,817)
When I first started writing this story it was a single novel. A novel that turned into 100,000+ words before I ever posted a single word of it on my site. In fact, it wasn't until I'd reread what I wrote for about the tenth time that it crossed my mind that my readers might like it. Truth is that there were plenty in the beginning who DIDN'T appreciate it and I'm sure there are still plenty of people who visit my site who wouldn't touch the series with someone else's severed hand. BDSM is, in its own way, more divisive than slash (or incest) is in fandom. I wrote the series for myself because frankly I was deeply enamored with Xanthe's series (I still am) and like many other writers who've read her work I was inspired to play with the themes. We exchanged a few emails regarding permissions before I posted the first novella in the Ties That Bind series and she did warn me that the work might not be received well by the fandom at large. I thought I was prepared for it. I wasn't. I mean, I really wasn't. I've received more negative feedback and blowback about Ties That Bind than all my other work combined.
A lot of people don't GET it. In fact, there are people who read it and proclaim to enjoy who don't get it. I know this because of their comments and private emails. I've had more than one person so grossly misunderstand my work that I was truly horrified by their interpretation of the material. Though, the less said about that the better, I guess. I can't make anyone get what my words mean to me and I know that everyone gets something different out of it. The series is 3 novellas from being finished. The final three installments in the SGA arc will be called: Time After Time, Broken Road, and The North Star. I have them all plotted out and while I can't promise you won't be shocked, appalled, and furious at certain points throughout the last three stories I will guarentee you a Happy Ending. I don't believe in anything else.
I'd like to take this AU into different fictional worlds eventually -- Sherlock and Criminal Minds to be specific. I don't know if I will but it all strikes my fancy. Who would I pair in those worlds -- well Sherlock should be obvious (Sherlock/John). Criminal Minds, I'm actually a Morgan/Reid shipper but if I wrote TTB for that show-- it would be Hotchner/Reid. Not to be rude about it, but suggestions for other fandoms to explore for this would not be appreciated.
Sentinels of Atlantis (current word count: 206,927)
This series was rather unintentional. I started writing it on a whim because I was inspired by Ladyholder's series The Unlikely and Unwilling. I wrote The Gathering and I posted it. The response was really positive so I thought, okay, I can work with that. Then I wrote twenty episodes over a period of six months. I hesitate to talk about this even now because I was so devastated! My harddrive had a failure and I hadn't backed up in more than a year. I lost almost all of the episodes I'd written for SOA and THREE professional projects in the moment that harddrive failed. Recovery was impossible. I spent several hundred dollars trying to recover data because of my professional work. Deadend. I was done. It was horrific. What was worse? I couldn't rewrite what I'd written for SOA. I tried to make myself do it and I was so disillusioned and bored that I had to back up and start over. I replotted the entire first season from what I had posted on my site forward.
What did this do? Well, John gained a brother he wouldn't have had otherwise (Matt) and Andrew Sheppard appeared. Some readers don't like Andy -- I had one (lol) tell me she thought the kid was creepy. Well, he IS creepy. He's meant to be. In many ways, Andy is a mirror of John. An online Sentinel at a very young age who is powerful beyond measure -- he hears things he shouldn't, is deeply connected with the psionic plane in ways that many simply don't understand and has been under the unknowing guidance of an ascended Sentinel/Guide pair since he came online. Things will get creepier on the Andy front. Just wait until you meet his Guide!
Episode 20 (The Search) will be the final episode in Season One of the series. It will be long -- easily longer than the first episode (The Gathering) of the season. We'll tie up some loose ends both on Atlantis and on Earth as we prepare for some major changes (mostly on Earth) as they gear up to face the threat of the Wraith and the Ori.
The first five episodes of Season Two are titled: The Pride, The Sacrifice, The Return, The Lifeline, and The Seige -- I'll be honest I get extremely excited just thinking about these episodes! It's going to be so action packed and fun and scary and some of you may end up sending me slightly threatening emails. Don't worry I'll make you a perfect subject line on my contact form!
Aside: I have no idea when any of that will be posted. Just FYI.
---
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2012-08-29 02:12 am (UTC)Damn. I am *so* looking forward to getting all of the above in my hands. And I am still deeply honored that SOA was inspired by something I wrote. Wow.
~L
:: Looking forward to the reactions ::
no subject
Date: 2012-08-29 02:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-08-29 02:19 am (UTC)Seriously though, I am in AWE of your talent, because my writing comes out looking like a half-witted teenager, no matter how much help I have. Which is why I stick to photography, I'm much better at making gorgeous pictures than gorgeous words.
I think I'll reread some stuff next week. After I finish several assignments.
no subject
Date: 2012-08-29 02:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-08-29 02:25 am (UTC)Rosie.
no subject
Date: 2012-08-29 03:40 am (UTC)Hmmmmm?
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2012-08-29 02:27 am (UTC)It all sounds brilliant.
no subject
Date: 2012-08-29 02:28 am (UTC)Also, I love Andy! I'm really really excited to meet his Guide (I'm assuming the wolf he's been interacting with is his Guide's spirit animal). I can't imagine you writing something without Matt in it. I think I would have spent the entire story going WHERE'S MATT WHAT IS GOING ON DID HE DIE IN COMBAT AND NO ONE TALKS ABOUT IT :ALDFJSDL;NKa;slfjka *more flailing* (you get the idea).
I've toyed with the idea of writing a BDSM Reid/Morgan fic. A short one. I recently re-watched the episode revolving around Morgan's cousin and became very interested in his reactions to the situation and how him being involved in a consensual BDSM relationship would have affected the entire plot, not to mention his relationship with his cousin during the episode. The concept has fascinated me since the idea popped in my head, but I have so much else on my plate that I'm working on (yes, yes, I PROMISE that the Sentinel fic will come. I've written about 2K more on it but I don't want anymore of it to be seen until I get to a certain part. I've been avoiding the minion chat so I'm not tempted to show people, or feel guiltier about not getting it out when I promised).
I envy your ability to keep on track.
no subject
Date: 2012-08-29 03:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-08-29 02:28 am (UTC)And excited about the first episodes of Season 2 of SoA is awesome! We want your writing muse to be happy. :-D
Sam's disappearance, abandonment, wounded Kirk in TD just as much as the abuse did. Yes Sam was as much a victim as Jim, but he was also a teenager & could have easily called Chris. It always seemed to me that Jim has sublimated any anger about that behind his grief for not knowing what happened. And as much as Chris loves him & they have become family, it is something Chris could never fix. I think that the last novella addressing Sam, and Sybok, organically makes sense in how the story has evolved. Not that you need my approval. :-D
I'm surprised I'm so surprised you've received so much grief over TtB. I just won't ever understand. I may not 'get' they whys and whyfors of everything to do with the lifestyle but I still thoroughly enjoy the novels because of the characters & the relationships.
Again, thanks so much for the writing update. And for your writing.
no subject
Date: 2012-08-29 02:28 am (UTC)love what you've done with everything, looking forward to everything and even though people think andy is creepy, i just find him absolutely adorable, incredibly precocious, but just darling all the same. and cannot wait to see what's going to happen to everyone, and i just have to say, happy endings are never ever a bad thing...after all that are what stories for, to provide an escape...^^
no subject
Date: 2012-08-29 02:32 am (UTC)In SOA, I really really like Andy. I have especially enjoyed his scenes with Jack. I'm interested to see who will come along with the wolf guide. And I'm so happy Matt shoved his way into the story otherwise I would spend my time wondering where in the world Matt is. Besides if we didn't have Matt we wouldn't have the pretty image of he and chase harris. :-D
no subject
Date: 2012-08-29 02:34 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-08-29 02:34 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-08-29 02:36 am (UTC)Ties that Bind is my favorite of your fictions. (I mean I seriously love them all, but...yeah.) I just seriously exclaimed aloud in the subway at the thought of you doing it with Sherlock. OMG, please?
This post... um...thanks for it. Made my day.
no subject
Date: 2012-08-29 02:37 am (UTC)I adore Tangled Destinies. I'm currently rereading that series.
I look forward to any stories you may write in the TTB universe. You got me into Sherlock with your Evil Author Sherlock/Sentinel blurbs. When I read Criminal Minds, it's exclusively Hotch/Reid.
Reading Sentinels of Atlantis makes me want to Sentinel up every fandom I like. I'm sorry to hear about your hard drive. That really sucks!
Keep up the good work.
no subject
Date: 2012-08-29 02:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-08-29 02:42 am (UTC)(shuffles feet)
Date: 2012-08-29 02:43 am (UTC)I can't help but notice that while the post has "lantean legacy" and "ring of fire" tags, it doesn't actually contain any juicy little teasers about those series?(never mind; post reread.) Of course, given that it does mention extending TTB into two other fandoms, I'm having a hard time faking any level of entitlement.I must now reread TTB and hunt down all of my correspondence thereon and see if I'm one of the people who is enjoying it without getting it, because I am a paranoid bitch that way. ;)
no subject
Date: 2012-08-29 02:58 am (UTC)In conclusion: YAY!
no subject
Date: 2012-08-29 03:04 am (UTC)In conclusion: \o/
no subject
Date: 2012-08-29 03:06 am (UTC)I don't think I mentioned that I finally watched the reboot movie this winter (the only thing holding me back from reading...) and I've since seen it several times. I'm totally in love with young Kirk and young Spock. Frankly, I love what you've done with them, although I have to laugh at your chagrin over starting the series with them being sixteen. LOL But, sexy times for the win! Hee!
In my re-read of SoA, I realized that it's been almost an entire year since it was updated. I hadn't realized, but it did get me wondering about how you were and what was up and what might show up next to be posted. :) Obviously, I still don't know what that might be, but I'm not worried about it. Your site is a goldmine as it is, and it makes me happy that you, too, read and re-read your work. I'm totally not a freak! I'm not a freak! I'm a minion - it's a whole different thing. ;)
Thanks so much for the update, Keira. You know, I haven't re-read TTB in at least two months...hmmm...
*twirls you*
no subject
Date: 2012-08-29 03:08 am (UTC)I always love your work
Date: 2012-08-29 03:11 am (UTC)Back up, back up, back up. Multiple places. ;)
Re: I always love your work
Date: 2012-08-29 03:31 am (UTC)Re: I always love your work
From:Yay!
Date: 2012-08-29 03:18 am (UTC)Re: Yay!
Date: 2012-08-29 03:30 am (UTC)Re: Yay!
From:no subject
Date: 2012-08-29 03:18 am (UTC)I can hardly wait for more Ring of Fire and SOA. I enjoy both of the male children OC's. I never found Andy to be creepy per se. To me he seems to be one of those "Old Souls" who already has a terrible burden at such a young age. Un- nerving maybe.
Good luck and good writing to you and happily anticipating new installments.
TTB
Date: 2012-08-29 03:26 am (UTC)Re: TTB
Date: 2012-08-29 03:27 am (UTC)Re: TTB
From:Bloody Torchwood.
From:Re: TTB
From:Re: TTB
From:Re: TTB
From: