This year was actually a pretty good year-in-fic for me - I wrote just under 8000 words (which is a lot more than I wrote in 2011, heh) and 5 stories in total.

In October, I wrote one story for the Kaleidoscope 2012 Exchange:

Title: The Teahouse
Fandom: Throne of the Crescent Moon - Saladin Ahmed (and if you like fantasy, you should definitely read this book, too!)
Glimpses of Adoulla's life, after everything is over. This is post-book fic, and does contain a few spoilers as a result. This was written for Rhi, who asked for Adoulla opening a teashop.

In December, I wrote three stories for yuletide and one story for the hh_sugarquill Secret Santa exchange:

Yuletide

Main assignment:
Title: Aftermath
Fandom: Outlander - Diana Gabaldon
Jamie and John on the road, after Jamie 'kidnaps' him at the end of An Echo in the Bone. They talk. This was written for Marien.

Pinch hit:
Title: With You By My Side
Fandom: Journey (PS3 game)
A traveller makes his first journey, and finds someone to share it with. This was written for Moonsheen, who asked for a story about a young and inexperienced traveller meeting an older traveller.

Treat:
Title: Rebirth
Fandom: Journey (PS3 game)
Two red cloaks travel together to the mountain. When one is reborn without her friend, will she ever find him again? This was written for Tanrien, who asked for a story about two players meeting and going the way together, and about what happens at the mountain before the players return to the beginning.

Sugarquill Secret Santa

Title: Children of the Revolution
Fandom: Harry Potter/Moulin Rouge fusion
James Potter is a boy pretending to be a man. Teddy Lupin is just trying to hide. What happens when their paths cross at the Moulin Rouge? This was written for etacanis, who asked for AU angsty fic and gave a Moulin Rouge song as a prompt.

Title: Bernard A. Black
Author: mk_tortie
Rating: R
Summary: What if Bernard's middle name wasn't actually Ludwig? And yes, this is a Black Books/HP crossover...

( Bernard has been trying to pass off this morning as a particularly hallucinogenic hangover for almost three hours... )

Just realised I forgot to ever post about these!  I received a couple of gifts here on LJ at the beginning of January that I think need to be shown off:

First of all, from the lovely chalada, not one, but TWO fantastic Luna drawings, to be found here: http://chalada.livejournal.com/178973.html?thread=1411613#t1411613

Secondly, I took part in the hp_nextgen_fest (nqdonne made me!) and received a fantastic fic, which has Teddy/Victoire AND Albus Severus/Scorpius!  It's a really sweet read, with Teddy as a nervous new teacher and appearances from all the Potter kids :)  Find it here: Forwards, We Turn
Reveals are on Saturday so I will make a grand post about which fic I wrote then!  (I am actually very proud of it, hehe)

Yuletide assignments are in! And I'm so happy with what I got :D I could have written the first assignment (there was a bit of a mess up) but I much prefer the real one, so hurray!!

Here's my letter to whoever is writing to me:

( Yuletide )

:( Even now the reveals are up, my hp_springsmut recipient (starrika) hasn't commented. Although having looked at her journal she hasn't posted in a month.. maybe she's lost her net connection.

Still, I feel a bit sad. Even though I got some nice comments, and tbh the story wasn't that great!

If anyone else would like a read, it's here:

Title: Of Rituals and Runes
Pairing: Cedric/Hermione
Rating: R
Summary: Cedric isn't as dead as everyone thinks, and there's only one person who can help him...
Link!! http://community.livejournal.com/hp_springsmut/74401.html

On a more positive note, I've decided to do more exercise to try and tone up my stomach for going on holiday in June. So woo. Although tonight's attempts at situps have left me with a wrenched shoulder.. ow!

Oh, and also, I'm going to be making an album with a German popstar who is funding the whole thing. Hurrah!

ETA: the link for the fic... yes, I am an idiot!

I've been reading so much good fic recently that I'd forgotten some of my pet hates in fandom. But aargh, it just takes one fic to remind me of all of them! There's obviously the nickname one... I hate hate hate all that 'Remy' 'Siri' 'Mione' stuff. They have perfectly good names in canon, why not use them? Apart from the fact that Remus and Sirius already HAVE nicknames in canon. I'm just glad I've never come across 'Alby'...

The one that set me off this evening was in a fic (I'm not going to name and shame because the rest of the fic is OKish) where Harry is ill and ends up being looked after by some of the teachers at Hogwarts. It's fairly typical with the whole 'Snape suddenly caring about Harry' scenario. But what I abhor is when, even after Harry has recovered, he is still carried everywhere like a baby whenever there's the slightest hint of trouble, and acts like a 9 year old (or younger) the whole time. In canon, Harry is a fairly mature and self-aware boy even when arriving at Hogwarts aged 11. I find it unlikely that at age 14 he would consent to being carried around, especially by Snape! And just because he's been ill doesn't mean he has to have a personality transplant. Grr.

I also have a real problem with Dumbledore being characterised as a manipulative bastard. I can see where that could be extrapolated from canon, but not to the extreme that some people seem to enjoy - I think that, however powerful, Dumbledore is still only human, and therefore has made some bad decisions, but he's not cold-bloodedly manipulative. Too be honest, he's always been one of my favourite characters, and actually, I find myself fairly unexcited about book 7, simply because I'm not so bothered about the rest of the characters. Well, of course I am, but it'll just feel like something's missing... I'm going to read it as soon as it comes out, though, obviously! Although I have to say, copperbadge's (Sam Vimes) 'Cartographer's Craft' pretty much ticked all the boxes for what I would love to see in the final book... so I hope I'm not disappointed!

Anyway, going back to the pet hates... The other thing I completely don't understand is how people (particularly on Fiction Alley's boards, it has to be said) can rant and rave about how great a particular fic is, when the characterisation is completely off, and the spelling and grammar is awful. Now, I can deal with a little bit of OOC-ness, if it's for a reason, or it's gradual, or it works in the context of the story - I love fanon Draco for example, despite the fact that he tends to be a lot suaver (is that a word?) and wittier than canon Draco. I can even forgive a reasonable number of spelling and grammar mistakes. But when something is GAFF-worthy, but gets recced as the best thing someone has ever read, you have to wonder if a) they actually haven't read it, or b) (more likely) they wrote it themselves. Either way, it really puts me off trusting recs from somewhere where something that bad has been recced. I'm really looking forward to the new GAFF boards, because if you rec something bad there, you'll get the piss taken out of you FOREVER. So the recs tend to be worth reading.

And finally, what is the point of songfic? I've never understood the reasoning behind that. I mean, fair enough if you quote the song at the beginning as your inspiration or use the lines as chapter titles or whatever, and then write something worthwhile, but those fics where it has a line of song, then a line of fic, then a line of song, etc... just, why?

Anyway. I think that's quite enough ranting. I'd be interested to know what bugs other people, though. It's useful when writing, for one thing! So what pet hates does anyone else have?

Apparently there is a Due South marathon on ITV3 today... and I am at home with no freeview. Oh, woe! I LOVE this show, and it hasn't been on TV over here for years! I actually wrote to the BBC when I was about 12 to try and get them to show the rest of it, because they used to show it on BBC2 on Sunday afternoons and then they stopped. I got a personal reply, too, saying they were showing it in September... except they didn't. And now I'm missing it, and I can't even remember enough of it to read the fanfic - and most of the fanfic is slash, which is fine, except that 12 year old me obviously didn't recognise any slashy undertones in it, so I find most Due South slash horribly OOC for the characters I remember. Gah. If anyone can rec any non-slash Due South fic to me, I would be eternally grateful...