The Gallifrey Film Society Presents....

( Recent Grumble Subjects )

Added 'Perfume: The Story of a Murderer' by Patrick Suskind to the books read list. Am thinking of signing up for 50bookchallenge. I might not be able to do a photo a day (ala pic365) but I can at least try 50 books in a year;)

Oookay - time to talk smut, birthday dinners and threesomes with the muse:D

- Hope everyone enjoyed their yuletide celebrations. Mine went okay - they were quiet and I was gifted with an large amount of DVDs, book tokens and cash for the 'NZ or Bust' fund. Oh and new jammies. All in all, it was good. The rest of the family were happy with the presents I gave them... even though SU#2 and the FBU have decided to go to Vegas instead of New York (I got them a New York travel guide as part of their present - headdesk!). The Mother Unit was incredibly chuffed with the new phone, when we finally got the damn thing to work... Such is Christmas at Casa Del Monster;)

- Also of the good - The Runaway Bride aka the Doctor Who Christmas special. David Tennant has the most amazing puppy dog eyes! Also without giving too much away, Season 3 is looking rather fine from over here.

- Of the not so good... My ncis_tinsel story is driving me to the drink, or rather to the sweetie/candy jar. I will be so pleased to see the back of this, all 12,000+ words of it. I think I've re-written the ending about seven times now. The last re-write was because I left Tony acting like a girl! (does a Gibbs headslap on self) which Will Not Do.
I think I have it corrected now. Five days and counting before hand in.

- Back to the good - Ian Fleming is a damn good writer, sexual politics aside of course. Guess who's reading Casino Royale at present.

- Sign #5321 that I've been watching way too much NCIS.
Went to see Deja Vu starring Denzel Washington today. Part of said storyline involves a New Orleans ferry, filled with Navy types being blown up by a terrorist bomb.

Guess which daft mare was sitting there watching the feds swarm the scene looking for the distinctive black jackets and white print of NCIS and getting rather miffed when she couldn't see them?!
That would be me then. Oh, there was FBI and there was ATF (Denzel's character was an ATF agent) but no NCIS... Could Mr Bruckheimer still be smarting after the 'dyslexic' comment ya think?!

What was worse was the fact that the voices in my head were doing a damn good impression of the NCIS crew kibbitzing over said film... *puts head in hands*. There is no hope. Honest!

( The State of the Beckymonster )

So... there I was on Monday, at work, trying to tidy my desk. I may organize information for a living, but my desk? 'Atomic' and 'Bombsite' are usually good adjectives to describe my work area. Mme Director had decreed that this was To Be So. Cue an awful lot of peeved staff. Including me.
This is to give you an idea of my state of mind when I read the following...

My story 'Broken Stones' as recced on stargateficrec

You have no frelling idea how happymaking this was.
At first it was like 'Broken Stones? I have a story called that....' reads some more 'HOLEEE FRAK MONKEYS!!!! I'VE BEEN RECC'ED!!!!'

( Now, a little meta as to why this was so happymaking )

ZOMG!!!! Mark and Karen won Strictly Come Dancing! After last week's Argentine Tango, this is not a surprise - but I do have to say that Matt Dawson was just as fantastic. Trying to decide a winner, for myself, was almost as hard as trying to decide who's my favourite Doctor out of #9 and #10!

Both wonderful and both amazing to watch. Not to mention about £4 million odd raised for charity in the process!

Right - the pit is calling. I will check in tomorrow (hopefully) just to wish everyone seasons greetings and all... you understand;)

Is Done.

Or at very least - the first draft is done.

The gory details:

10,123 / 10,123 (100.0%)

I simply got to the point last night when the muse clearly said 'Fin' in my head. It's not a rainbows and puppies ending but given the characters... it's a happy ending for them.

There maybe an epilogue. For now - it will breathe for 24 hours before being (american) spell checked and shipped out to beta (Bless you perwinkle27)

Next NCIS story I start - will be written in longhand - it at least has a chance of being short! For now, I am going to enjoy that 'finished fic euphoria' feeling.

And then hit the professional exams paperwork... no rest and all of that!

- Beauty and the Beast (1992) is still a wonderful, wonderful film. Yes, there was a tear as the Beast let Belle go. It might not be in the (personal) top ten films ever, but in the life changers... it's got to be top three.

- It's better to be hung for a sheep as well as a lamb. Being involved with fanfic is alread contravening one of the rules of my professional organisation. And I've been doing that for nearly the ten years I've been practicing so...
Do a deal - if you won't tell, neither will I!

- I'm at the PANNIIIIICCC!!!! stage of my ncis_tinsel story. I *know* what to say, but am currently at a crossroads in the fic. I can go one way, but it means that I'm going to have a tough time introducing my OMC but if I go the other way... then I feel like I'm going to turn one of the canon characters into a whiny b*tch. Which Will Not Do.

- I have NCIS bunnies hopping all over the place. One is best described as 'OT3 elevator pr0n' which needs to be written in the 'present tense'. Help.
Another I'm placing the responsiblity for at the feet of nakeisha. She waved pictures from the latest episode around - helpfully pointing out the (so damn canon!) 'intimacy' that occurs because of the fact that one of the actors is a good four/five inches taller than the other... Did I mention that they're both very handsome guys?
'Smoked' doesn't cover it. Toast does!

Things to do - people to annoy - y'all know how it is;)

Am still about - just been roaring around doing other things in the last couple of days. Haven't written a damn word since Thursday. Something for which I think the muse is thankful for;) I will make my deadlines and I will continue on my other stories too. Hell, the bunnies are multiplying as we speak...

So what else have I been doing?

- Christmas shopping has been committed (makes a face). I have the non-fiscal stuff for everyone sorted out apart from the Father Unit. Will speak to the Mother Unit about that.

- Went to Brighton for the day. Great for shopping, the sea and seeing some really *weird* sights. Such as a body modification shop with a line of dildos in the window!

- Went to see Casino Royale. A full review will follow but... is now a good time to admit that I have a weakness for blond secret agents? Illya Kuryakin, Alec Trevelyan and now the Daniel Craig version of Bond. Dear lord, I think he was trying to go for Hugh Jackman's record for the amount of time spent onscreen with no shirt on.

- Working on putting together my Librarything list done. Bit like the DVD list (see right) but this one is for books... and therefore is going to take a hell of a lot longer. One reason is that I can go into a DVD store and not be tempted (mainly because I think "oh I can get this from x online store, cheaper"), which means that my dvd collection is about a third of the size of my DVD collection. Books are a lot harder; it's nearly impossible for me to go into a bookshop and not (at very least mentally) walk out with at least one book. And because it's a bit too much like work!;)
So if you want to be nosey - click on the linkie, stage right!

Other than that - did some tidying up both in RL and on LJ. Including some thinkie thoughts regarding my 'usual' bugbear. I think I have a solution but that's between me and me;)

I should really leave this post until tomorrow... but as tomorrow is both SU#4's b'day and a day off for me (London and Casino Royale here I come!) I'll do the post-mortem now.

mini_nanowrimo pledge - 100 words per day for 30 days. Which would be 3000 words over the month.

Even though I haven't officially handed in today's numbers (MS Word says 615 so far!) I have clocked up 9000+ over the month. To misquote the mighty, mighty Babylon 5

"That's a lot of writing"

"That's a bloody awful lot of writing!"

So... am quite pleased with self. Admittedly, I haven't achieved one of the things I was hoping to do - which was complete my ncis_tinsel story - but to give me my due... it's edging towards the halfway stage. I'm hoping to get this baby in under 7500. It's something to aim for;) That and the hope that my recpient will like what I've done.

ETA - I boobed - the official count is 9,000, not 10,000. Do I care? Not really - I'm still three times over my pledge for the month!

May you all have a lovely day of food, good company and relaxation.

Please spare a thought for those of us in the rest of the world - for whom it's another 12 hour shift! day.

( A random and incomplete list of things that Beckymonster is thankful for )

Meme first... To those who know me, this will come as no biggie.



Writing update for mini_nanwrimo (the end is in sight! Huzzah!!)

Pledge - 100 words
Written - 325 words

This is for the ncis_tinsel story. Which I shouldn't really be talking about but I am;)

The Gibbs/Ducky story is in a holding pattern at present, mainly because this has a deadline and that doesn't.
That's not to say that Ducky isn't bending my ear in his own distinct fashion... The last thing we discussed was the recs on the Man From U.N.C.L.E. section of crack_van. Some excellent food for thought there...

So 'The Palahniuk Variation'

1,672 / 5,000 (33.4%)

Which, give or take about 300 words or so, strikes me as being about right. I'd say I'm about a third of the way through... Let's see if I can get draft #1 done by next Friday...:D

*Headdesk*

I won't bore you all but take it from me - it's best forgotten. Too much crap to deal with - professionally, personally and just overall. Should have spent the day in bed

So if you'll forget the last 24 hours, I will too.

8,175 / 25,000 (32.7%)

For 'The Long and Winding Road' - time to ask for help, I'm thinkin'.Or at least crack on with the ncis_tinsel tale - the bunny is there - just got to find the words and string 'em together in a way that makes some form of sense.

Which given today's (complete and total) lack of success, it's not something I'm very optimistic about!