Jealous of Roses Year In Review 2013

[shipwreck_light]

Actual Essay Part

You know, I wrote an enormous essay for a meme answer /and/ I'm caught between arcs at the moment. So! You fancy a crack at an essay that's about sublimating Weiss Kreuz and involves macros as visual aids?

http://shipwreck-light.dreamwidth.org/241799.html

Have at it.

LSS- I'm not even the first person to do this and I have a terrible sense of humor.

~*~

Part With Numbers

Total Wordcount: 270,000/ish/ ~ That's more how much I wrote period and some of it isn't here. I had a couple of times I ran off into the ethers to play god with rats. I WILL DO BETTER NEXT YEAR.
Fics posted: 74 this year / Total 150
Average Words Per Fic: 4,150ish HEY IT WENT DOWN
> I'm having to do these off the spreadsheet now instead of confirming them by hand, so if the numbers don't make sense verses last year.

Active AUs: 3 (Pirates, /A Place I'll Return To Someday/ with bookblather, /Music For Mermaids/ with isana)
Universes Crossed Over: corlioni/Polyfaceted, ironplumblossom/The Tenth Sage, in_the_heart, Shine Like It Does, starikov_chronicles, commonplace is pending and that's only what ran in rainbowfic since there are some memefill ficlets running around too.
Characters Named: 100+. I really should have kept up a personae as I wrote.

Colors Finished: Bubblegum Pink, Celestial Blue, Earth, Lawn Green, Sulfur, Summertime Blues,
* As Saturations: Padparadscha, Peacock, Pumpkin
Colors In Progress: Angel Cake, Ember, Harvest Gold, Iceberg, Lotus
Styles and Materials Employed: Portrait, Mural, Feathers, Canvas, Seed Beads, Finger Paint, Eraser, Oils, Novelty Beads, Graffiti, Photography, Pointillism, Stained Glass, Miniature, Miniature Collection, Collage, Mosaic.

People Who Died Onscreen: Austin, Reggie, Lonnie, the guy Roa shot for "The Sticky Moon", the reporter in Peacock, the person Nene sniped, the wight Roa stabbed, the officer Siebenkas shot (Anne-Marie), and the secretary who got shot in Evi's story, Parsifal, Nehama, Okika/Autumn, Virgil's owner, the doctor in Alexandra's secret, the fellow in "...and live until the end of the world in her mansions", the gentleman in "But, the day touches her through all its jagged edges", Camus

Character Who Got Laid The Most In Canon: Zephyr
* Character Who Got Laid The Most Period: Zephyr
* In both cases, Roa is catching up. Jack, do you care to weigh in on this?
Character Who Surprised Me The Most: Vier
Character The Audience Seems To Like Best Right Now: Roa and Siebenkas seem to be tied, but I'm hearing some positivity for Vier that I like.
Characters The Audience Wants To See More Of: VOTE IN THE COMMENTS
Nouns named after famous beaders: 5ish

~*~

Chef's Choice Assortment

"If The Stars Are Eternal Than So Are You And I" ~ Short
bookblather said she loves anyone I write a backstory for, so I tested her :X.
http://rainbowfic.dreamwidth.org/587335.html

"It's Still Not Ours" [NSFW] ~ Short
Two girls on the last day of summer.
http://rainbowfic.dreamwidth.org/602224.html

"Every Kid's Gotta Havea Blankie" ~ Short
Sounds like Pip is part of every kid. A story about her and her father before they came to the manor.
http://rainbowfic.dreamwidth.org/525618.html

"Wipe Off The Lipstick" ~ Short
Sophie works hard too! She will not be daunted by the whole "is a macaw" thing.
http://rainbowfic.dreamwidth.org/638266.html

"Like Prana" ~ Medium
An answer to the paint-by-numbers prompt "what being an evoker is like", as told from the points-of-view of an evoker and someone trying to learn about evokers.
http://rainbowfic.dreamwidth.org/666686.html

"She Dances To Herself" [NSFW] ~ Long
Roa's special mission from Duclos/the female characters on what it is to be human.
http://rainbowfic.dreamwidth.org/541238.html

"La nuit, tous les âmes sont gris." ~ Short
Siebenkas on death and pumpkins.
http://rainbowfic.dreamwidth.org/823275.html

"Zwischenspiel" [NSFW] ~ Long
Vier longs for what he doesn't have.
http://rainbowfic.dreamwidth.org/820875.html



Wine (Non-fic/Other People Involved).

"Bugger Ye Rosebuds" with starikov_chronicles
http://rainbowfic.dreamwidth.org/786062.html
Which was somewhat inspired by http://rainbowlounge.dreamwidth.org/46681.html?thread=1629017#cmt1629017
Even though the latter has AU!Pyre!Nene

"The Ring" written by bookblather & with Shine Like It Does
http://rainbowfic.dreamwidth.org/436630.html

This RP Thread with isana
http://rainbowlounge.dreamwidth.org/46681.html?thread=1629273#cmt1629273


Do you have a better Jealous of Roses menu in mind? Feel free to share!

~*~

Future Plans

-The Nene in First Person and Roa In First Person Stories. I mean it this time!
--The Roa one is "Fishhook 'round Its Tongue" a/k/a The Followup To "She Dances To Herself"
-Finish Arc 3
-Some flashback tapestries I've been meaning to get to
-Pointless artsy crap!
-More stories with all-female speaking parts
-Actually finish some colors I swear

~*~

Some Memorable Comments From 2013
I appreciate and adore ALL COMMENTS; these are primarily those which don't require referencing the story to get and which I was able to recall the locations of after the fact.

IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER
Some line breaks and spoilers have been trimmed

My heart! *clutches at it* Ugh, I have no words, I'm just having feels all over the place because MY HEART. Ugh. Perfect. This is great and so full of feels, and did I mention MY HEART ~ bookblather

And I could not read this without getting hungry. You have induced a craving for lobster when I hate it so. ~ settecorvi

Why the fuck is everything you write so amazing? ~ < lj user="isana">

okay so it took me forever to reply to this story but there is a reason for that! It is that I had to read it six times before I could even come up with one word to describe it and here it is: "transcendental." Seriously. Just. Awesome. Fabulous. Transcendental. ~ bookblather

The level of connection, of intimacy, that you've created between them is wonderful, palpable even. And I think Seb is quickly becoming another of my favorites of your characters. :) For all he is, and does, there's this paternal, caring, comfortable side/part to him that's really kind of irresistible. ~ feline_scribe

Pip's voice kills me. The mix of insight granted by her othersense and her very childlike way of interpreting what she gleans, and more than that seeing it as normal and par for the course, is wonderful and heartbreaking by turns. Also heartbreaking, in the same vein: Zephyr insisting on a blankie, for reasons she understands, even if she doesn't need it in the way that he needs to give her one. ~ settecorvi

I love that sense of innocent desire, that little moment of connection that comes once and then never again. And adult!Nene, half-looking for it still even though she rationally knows she will never find it. ~ kay_brooke

This. Is. Amazing. You can tell because I took so long to read it. I went through all of this, multiple times, fast and slow and savoring every word and I still feel like there's layers and layers that I've missed. Roa in her element, Roa doing science and regretting science and breaking apart and building herself back up. Roa and Tian and Roa and Duclos and Roa and Doc Islington and Roa and Nene and Roa and Pip and all of these connections, webs like the wight, and I feel like I've missed so much but I would happily sit here for a month and read it until I understand it all. Even knowing I never will. AMAZING. And awesome, in the old sense. ~ bookblather

Oh, oh, oh. ... I left that there for days trying to think of something intelligent to add. Clearly that's not happening. ~ finch

AUGH OKAY NEW FAVORITE Seriously, I'm sticking this in my memories, and then I'm going to come back to it when I'm feeling sad. There's something so... cheerful about Hitomi, even when she's being lordly and terrifying, because she's... IDK, she's Hitomi and she's my favorite. And this is so perfect, like the feeling of finishing a coloring book just right. ~ bookblather

Every layer revealed just makes these characters more and more interesting. I love all the details and how everything felt real enough to touch. Great job, you! :) ~ feline_scribe

All of this, SWL. I have no words anymore, I can't, I'm done. This is a summer day in a story and you have officially conquered writing, the internet is over, everyone go home. ~ bookblather

This is a good story about violins and booze and drill-torture and you should feel good. :D ~ starphotographs

I think I eeeee'ed sufficiently about this when you showed it to me, but I would like to eeeee once more for good measure, because it's awesome. ~ finch

bweeeeeeeeeeee OMG okay. So I've been waiting for this and it EXCEEDED EXPECTATIONS IN EVERY POSSIBLE WAY. And I expected it to exceed expectations. So it exceeded expectations of exceeding expectations and IT'S AWESOME OKAY. ~ bookblather

This is too, too beautiful. It's poetic without being cliched and with just the perfect amount of sweetness. ~ feline_scribe

Can I just tell you I love all of it? I mean. How do you write these things that have no weak spots or slow bits or anything but are just completely perfect all the way through? It's like sorcery. Writing sorcery. ~ finch

I had no idea sex could be that beautifully written. I do know that now. Thank you for showing me. <3 ~ isana

Vier makes my heart hurt. From the whole gender thing to not having your instrument. Thank you for writing this. ~ serpentine

I love lords bantering. So much. It's like watching someone juggle knives while smiling at you with a serial-killer smile. ~ bookblather

By the end of this piece I was saying out loud "THIS IS AWESOME" ~ jkatkina

I love all the nuance here, the love and hate and the things we don't want to do but have to, and the things we do even though we shouldn't. It's just a fascinating interplay and it's handled so well here. ~ kay_brooke

Allow me to open with "squeeeeeee". I love the way he wanders over, from the idea that he likes it where he knows every inch, to the idea that he wants more, and how many seeds are planted here. ~ finch

It's like a bloodied ice pick presented to me on a bed of satin. ~ isana

I'll just be over here, shrieking like a broken teakettle, because you made the deliberation over, process, and aftermath of dissecting a pedophile into his component parts heartwarming and -breaking all at the same time. ~ settecorvi

I think I might need to make up some words to describe how I feel about this segment. It's just so lovlilicious... ~ bookblather

God, you come up with the best turns of phrase. This is adorable, top to bottom. ~ finch

This was really something to read. Sweet and sassy and moments that bubble up like a descriptive punch to the face of some sensation or another amongst Zephyr's certain monologue... very enjoyable! ~ dray

I hate you just a little bit. In a very loving way. ~ bookblather

Each so unique and flawed and interesting on their own; but, together, even more interesting. feline_scribe

I love how you make even the most mundane of things seem extraordinary. ~ isana

I know this is a really weird thing to say about a story that's essentially a guy getting murdered really messily, but it's a really awwww-ful piece. ~ bookblather

I love it. Hot, sexy, funny and cuddly all at once. It takes some serious talent to write that, and you did it. :) ~ feline_scribe

I like the way you played with rhythm in this. Sometimes it's easy going and builds smoothly, and sometimes it jolts. I also like the way the relationships between the characters come together, gaining complexity when viewed from each different perspective and motive. ~ whitemage

*lays story out* *covers story in flowers* *rolls around in it and purrrrrrrrrrs* This just makes me so haaaaaaappy. ~ bookblather

God, I am loving this more and more. I suppose I've told you that a lot, but it's true--the subtlety with the emotions, the gorgeous winter imagery (and that means a lot, because where I'm from snow is Nothing New and Definitely Not Beautiful)... ~ isana

Sophie is pretty much the best thing ever and I adore, adore, adore her. Forever. In whatever endeavor she chooses to make. I laughed pretty hard at this, in other words, and now I'm pretty sure the honorary stepbrothers think I'm more than nuts. ~ bookblather

You talk about being able to taste dust, but jeez, I am so tactilely involved with the beginning of this piece that it's left me deeply nostalgic for the city I grew up in. ~ jkatkina

This is my favorite AU. There's something simultaneously cozy and fey about the Shades and the way they interact with the world, and with each other. I want to pet your imagery like it's a cat. Possibly one with iridescent scales, admittedly, but a very sleek and lovely cat nonetheless. ~ settecorvi

ughhhhhhhh this is not fair what this story is doing to my heart. IT IS UNFAIR, SWL, I HOPE YOU ARE PLEASED WITH YOURSELF. ~ bookblather

In any case, it's definitely not the usual and it's kind of fun to be brought up short when I want to read something more smoothly, because it forces me to examine these modules of information in a way that I might otherwise gloss over. I think that, with time and more familiarity with your characters and your world, it will become less of a barrier and more of a flavour and a framework. ~ dray

Everything here:
http://rainbowfic.dreamwidth.org/732527.html

~*~



Questions and comments welcome. Feel free to make inquiries of any of the cast personally. Note that they may respond to multiple questions (3+) better if those questions are asked by another character.

Any and all cast members are available.

Shortlists tomorrow!

Comments

[bookblather]

Two things:

Characters I want to see more of: PIIIIIIIIIP FOREVERRRRRRRRR and also Sophie.

Jack weighing in: he is more than happy to have a threesome. He's just sayin'.

[shipwreck_light]

#1- Pip has some awesome coming up. For several definitions of awesome. That's why I'm gunning the end of Arc 3.

Plus- I am going to run that Sophie backstory. In time.

#2- You don't say?

*GRIN*

[bookblather]

HURRAY PIP I AM EXCITED

Jack is always willing to have a threesome, apparently.

[shipwreck_light]

I am too, damnit~!

I'm going to plunge through these blues like a shark fin through a beach full of surfers and I'm going to /do it/, damnit.

And yet another reason Jack is Awesome...