Or specifically a recap of good things from 2018:

Author Events: Holly Black, Chris Riddell, and Marcus Zusak - not many this year, but all excellent.

Shows/Theatre: The Band, Hamilton (!!!), Happy Days, The Play That Goes Wrong, Queens of the Coal Age, Cirque du Soleil: Ovo, Othello, King Lear (with Ian McKellen!), and Matilda.

Concerts/Gigs: Amanda Palmer, Postmodern Jukebox, and Hozier (ridiculously good live).

Trips: Budapest (!!!) with alphaflyer and franztastisch in January, which was freezing and fantastic, and the Netherlands with the family to visit family friends. Conventions were YALC at LFCC and Thought Bubble in Leeds, which are my two favourite cons and I’m hoping/planning to do both again in 2019. I had a few day trips, including to a Terracotta Warriors exhibition and Bletchley Park. I also went on a weekend writing course, where I met some good people, and on a reunion day for a previous writing course, where I got to re-meet some good people. (How productive and useful I find writing courses, groups, group exercises, and so on varies - the weekend one was actually really good - but I love going to them regardless. I find spending time writing with other people, and chatting about writing and books with other people, to be a really good self care type break.)

Films seen at the cinema: Greatest Showman (is it a good film, I have no idea but I enjoy the hell out of it), Black Panther (SO GOOD), The Shape of Water, Coco, Tomb Raider, Infinity War (ARGH), a Deaf Shorts cinema event that was really interesting, Ant Man and the Wasp, Into The Spiderverse (which I didn’t have any expectations about; it was good fun and I love what they did with the art), and Mary Poppins Returns (on December 31st, squeezing that in there *grins*).

Some Comics Enjoyed in 2018: Runaways, The Wicked and The Divine, West Coast Avengers, Giant Days, Skyward...

Books in 2018: Goodreads tells me I managed to read 108 books. A lot of it was poetry - 22 books - which is unusual for me, but I was doing some exploring and I discovered while there’s a lot out there people say is good that just isn’t my cup of tea, there’s also a bunch that I really do like and it was fun finding out. (Some favourites: You Took The Last Bus Home by Brian Bilston, Don’t Call Us Dead by Danez Smith, Running Upon The Wires by Kate Tempest, and Poems To Live Your Life By chosen and illustrated by Chris Riddell). I read a bunch of fiction about musicians or featuring the music industry (of which my favourites were: Greatest Hits by Laura Barnett, Five Flavours Of Dumb by Antony John, and I Was Born For This by Alice Oseman), because I was in that mood (and there may be a fanfic idea percolating). Others I loved this year: record of a spaceborn few by Becky Chambers, Bygone Badass Broads by Mckenzi Lee, and Giant Days by Non Pratt.

Fics Posted in 2018:

A Funny Thing Happened On The Way Back From The Hospital which is Hawkeye and Deadpool. This one owes a lot to the fun Hawkeye vs Deadpool comics run.

In Deed is Bucky having a bad day, and Clint, Natasha, Lucky, and Liho making it better, for meatball42.

i carry your heart and Welcome To The Neighbourhood were for prompts left by franztastisch and gsparkle in the be_compromised Valentine’s mini-promptathon, both Clint/Natasha.

State Your Emergency was my post-post credit Clint Barton scene for Infinity War (because Infinity War, argh).

The Strike Team Delta Method of Brainwashing Recovery is Clint, Natasha, and Bucky for a franztastisch prompt. (I didn’t have time to write anything for the be_compromised summer promptathon, but then I had a hellish travel day where I was stuck on trains for over 8 hours. I’ve managed to squeeze in a fair bit of writing on transport with the help of google docs.)

Not super productive, but I did manage to post more finished words than in 2017 and I’ll aim to top that again in 2019!

( And to finish, a couple of photos... )

What good things did everyone else get up to in 2018? Any recs of books/films/comics you discovered?

> It has been a week. Which I'm not going to rehash because I want at least a few hours last thing on Sunday where this week is done before I have to face another one *face palm*.

> I have finished and submitted a fic for geckoholic and franztastisch's friends fest! I struggled with this one, but I really wanted to give it a go. Also, summaries remain the hardest thing to write.

> In not unrelated news, I found this tumblr thing that explains the difference between Mature and Explicit ratings using licking an envelope. Which I found amusing and really helpful. This is going to be my go-to definition I think.

> The Masterlist for Promptathon 2017 is up on be_compromised and I'm working my way through the ones I missed.

> If you would like to read a book about girls being friends and feminists featuring punk rock music and all different kinds of girls coming together to fight back against sexism at a small town high school, Moxie by Jennifer Mathieu is the feel good book for you. I read it recently and said HELL YEAH a lot. It's 99p on Kindle in the UK and $1.28 in the US :)

> Caught up with the be_compromised summer promptathon today. There's a great bunch of fics once again this year!

> bluemeridian has posted a rec list of happy-making things HERE that I'm working my way through tonight. I LOVE the Hawkeyes (Fraction) and Martian vids! Now onwards to the wordy things.

> Which has reminded me to check out this year's Vividcon. I found a handy database here. I'm in a vid mood it seems, so if you have recs you'd like to share then be my guest :)

> I have managed to finish a fic and am close to finishing a handful more. This would be great, except I have an awkward habit at the moment of working on a bunch at once, adding words to one until I stall and then moving onto the next and cycling back 'round again. So the fic I've finished? Is part five of the demon AU series but parts three and four aren't quite complete lol. Another that's close to being done is a how Clint and Jess met that's set prior to a much longer Clint/Nat fic in which Clint and Jess have been broken up for a while. Um. Oops?

> I'm hoping to finally see Spiderman: Homecoming tomorrow, yay!

> Finished watching The Bridge this week, which had me on the edge of my seat. My hat is off to the actor who plays Saga; fascinating to watch a non-neuro typical female lead character, who has a job as a competent police officer and navigates relationships, and it's just so well done. I also caved and bought American Gods even though I take forever to watch things and it will probably decrease in price by the time I get chance, because American Gods!

> I make up for my slow watching of tv and films with speedy reading though. Which reminds me that I need to update goodreads again...

> Any fic/vid/graphic/other recs that are happy or amusing? I think it's a good time for them.

I'm still taking questions for the get to know your author meme if there's anything you want to ask me. I plan to write up a post with the answers at the weekend. In the meantime I am mulling them over!

And since the summer Prompathon at be_compromised is still taking prompts until the end of Sunday (nudge nudge, hint hint) I thought I'd ask you all about prompting, and things like promptathon vs leaving prompts in exchanges.

When I leave prompts in open things like promptathon, where there's no expectation of prompts being filled and there's no exchange, I don't see...fills as a gift. I like getting rid of ideas that I don't have the time to play with myself, generating new ideas, seeing what ideas everyone else comes up with, and if I manage to enable someone into getting creative that makes me all kind of happy. Then there's exchanges, where I like to give an idea of my likes and dislikes, and then sit back and forget that I'm going to get a gift until it arrives and then I'm super excited, look at what someone made for me. But as a writer I also know that it can be awkward writing for someone else in an exchange, so more recently I also think it's nice to leave some prompts as well as an but I'll love whatever you come up with. Sometimes I'll also use exchanges to hopefully try and get a particular type of story that I might fancy at the time.

How do people feel about prompts, and is that different as a reader to as a writer? Are there particular kinds of prompts that you particularly like leaving? Do you ever feel that your prompts need to fit in with the kind of prompts people are already leaving in an event, or that you can buck the trend and prompt whatever you like? Do you leave different kinds of prompts in open events than in exchanges? And basically any thinky thoughts around prompts and prompting :)

And of course if this inspires anyone to drop a few more prompts over at promptathon, well then excellent *grins*.

(Because it's fun chatting with internet friends, I'm trying to be better about posting on LJ, and there are so many writing/creating conversations we could be having!)

Meme time! Not done one for a while. Stolen from endeni: pick from the following questions to ask me about my writing

( MEME QUESTIONS )

I haven't posted much fic lately, but I'm trying to get things finished and I'm wondering: do people still post fic directly onto LJ these days or onto AO3 only and link to AO3 (or do something else entirely)?

When I'd finally finished updating my AO3 account I would still post directly to LJ but add a link to AO3, and link to both on my LJ masterlist. For posting fic I like that AO3 has the function to see hits and kudos, and I like the look of it, all clean lines and clarity. I think maybe you miss out on some comments though, because kudos are easier to give, and on comment conversations, which seem to flow better on LJ? But I wonder if i'm wasting my time if I post directly to LJ, because I think there's a trend towards reading more on AO3?

As a reader I've noticed I tend to opt for an AO3 link over any other kind. If one isn't available I'm happy to read anywhere else - stores are love - but other people's journal styles, for example white writing on a black background or a tiny font, put me off now I'm used to the AO3 layout. It's also much easier to bookmark things, find other things written by writers you've liked or works that they've liked, and to search.

I still really like rec lists though. If I see a rec list on LJ - or recs elsewhere, to be fair - by someone who's I trust to rec things I'll like, or if a rec list just looks interesting, I'll go through those fics regardless of whether they link to AO3 or anywhere else. But similarly I'll go through someone's bookmarks on AO3 if I like their taste.

So, posting habits and reading habits these days. What're people's thinky thoughts?

I currently have 106 works archived at AO3. Pick a number from 1 (the most recent) to 106 (the first thing I posted there), and I'll tell you three things I currently like or three random tidbits about it. Or something.

I make no promises as to being able to count correctly or the quality of anything written earlier than in the last two or three years ;)

I've seen this meme going around: When you see this, share 3 random lines from 3 WIPs.

And I laughed, because WIPs? Oh yeah, I have those. I have those coming out of my ears *grins*. So here's three snippets for your perusal.


ONE

He’s shorter than Cap, and she thinks he’d be shorter still but he has big black boots on, with metal toecaps and buckles. Kate really likes those boots. If you kicked someone with those boots on it’d really hurt and if anyone stood on you it wouldn’t hurt at all. And they look cool.


TWO

Natasha watches him blinking into awareness and taking stock of the room before asking, “How are you feeling?” She says it in a way that makes it sound like she doesn’t care about the answer. Not because she doesn’t care, although she probably doesn’t, but because she already knows the answer and is asking to be polite, as if someone has told her that that’s what she’s supposed to do in this kind of situation.


THREE

“Wait, wait, wait, no,” says Tony. “Steve. No. Think about this. Think about the bobblehead dolls! This is the bobblehead dolls all over again, Steve. Helping people is a bad thing. We’ve established this. Steve!”

“He did get shot,” Bruce offers up.

> I put aside the many, many *whimpers* unfinished fics that I've been working on to start my remix fic today. First draft is now completed, at 1460 words. HA! It's only a first draft, but I actually finished something! I also jotted down some notes for an Avengers fusion with the Lazarus comics, because, y'know, I needed more unfinished fic ideas *shakes head at self*.

> I read The Maze Runner by Jame Dashner, because we caught a trailier of the film at our last cinema trip and it looked good. Alas, I was sadly disappointed. The plot is mediocre and I thought there would be more of a twist with the maze puzzle. I wasn't made to care about the characters. And there's only one girl. Who's in a coma for most of the book. And there's no plot point reason for this. The fact that a girl shows up is apparently a big, end of days, everything will now change sign. Um, no, that is not what the introduction of a female character should be just because she's female without any plot reason at all. If any girls at all are part of these war games, then why is there only one? And what's with the solving everything surprise telepathy? Okay, I own the remaining two books in the trilogy as I got them as a set in The Works, so I'll see if they get better. On a day when I feel like wasting my time with them.

> Comics this week: Lazarus 8 (if you're a fan of dystopian stories and detailed worldbuilding and you're not reading this comic then you're seriously missing out), What If? Age of Ultron 4 (vaguely interesting thoughts on a superhero as a concept instead of an individual), Original Sin 0 (I haven't read Nova yet and I've never read much about the Watcher and I still found this raised a few feels), Guardians of the Galaxy 14 (YAY Captain Marvel to the rescue! Yay Groot! Uh, okay, future story), and Elektra 1 (the art in this is a thing of beauty, gorgeous colours and really dynamic. Just, I don't think this story is for me. This is the opposite problem to my not liking the art of She-Hulk *head desk*. I may try the next issue, for the gorgeous, gorgeous art).

> Recs: I haven't been able to get this MCU vid, Hey Ho, by thuviaptarth out of my head. How to describe...it takes the legacy of heroes and war and provides a new perspective, with spot on musical to image timing, great choices of moments to showcase, and is really thought provoking.

On the fic front hurrah for card games by recessional (PG, no Winter Soldier spoilers) is Maria, Steve, Clint, and Natasha playing poker, which goes about as hilariously as you'd expect. Next New Message by fabrega (Teen and Up, definitely Winter Solider spoilers) is one of the most amusing where-was-Clint stories to happen post Cap 2. And in Breakfast for Dinner by thingswithings Teen and Up, nothing to do with Winter Soldier) Carol Danvers (aka Captain Marvel) joins the MCU Avengers in a ridiculous, amusing, wonderful story (which makes me wish once again for more ladies in everything) - today's title from this!

> And in case you didn't already know, Joss Whedon released his latest film, In Your Eyes, worldwide on vimeo. You can see the tralier and rent it HERE. I also managed to watch the first three minutes somewhere on vimeo following a trailer link, but I can't find that one again, bah. If the internet likes me I'm going to try and watch this tonight :)

I've not managed to write enough to meet the rough draft deadline for marvel_bang so I've had to drop out, meh. On the plus side? To meet that deadline you have to have 80% of a fic completed that will be at least 10,000 words long. I have the words, I'm just, be still my heart, still writing. If this keeps up, and then I actually finish, I will be very happy with this, even if it means no shiny big bang art or fanmixes for me. I just need to keep this going!

+ I'm taking icon prompts at the be_compromised promptathon 2013 HERE so if there are any master assassin, or Renner or Johansson, icons that you'd like from me there's a good place to let me know :D

+ be_compromised promptathon is a go for prompts, folks! And you can prompt for this month's banner challenge as well! I must prompt. Because prompts!

+ I signed up at the last minute as an artist for heroinebigbang for two stories. I just started reading them tonight and I can already tell these are going to be fun to play with!

+ This is how marvel_bang is working for me as an author at the moment: I'm writing bits of lots of fics and the first one to look like it'll hit 10,000 words by the deadline will be for marvel_bang.

+ There needs to be more writing. Which, remember how I said a while back that I need to sit down and organise my free time and prioritise what I what to spend my online time doing? Yeah, that. I need to do that. Because writing! And icons! And reading! And recs! And lots of things! Is there anything that people particularly remember me saying I was doing that they'd like to see happen sooner than later? (Or is asking you lot to help me prioritise cheating? *grins*)

+ Post a picture of the Avengers little sweet boxes I found on Saturday and bought two of purely because I need little candy boxes with Clint and Natasha on in my life.

So this is all over my f-list and it was fun to do, like going backwards in a fic time machine - 'oh, so that's why I started writing Avengers fic' and 'there was my fling with Sherlock' *grins*. The last twenty-one first lines I wrote in fanfic. I'd love to be asked about them, or have people point out any trend that they can spot.

( twenty-one first lines )

The reveals are now live for Secret Santa 2012 over at be_compromised!!! Be sure to dive into the wonderful on the Masterlist.

On the one hand I am a tiny bit disappointed, because I didn't get chance to read anywhere close to all of them before the reveals went up. There's something great about reviewing anon. creative works, that part where people know that's what you thought, not what you think of them, y'know? I hope people still think I’m being honest, because I still intend to go through them ALL :D

I’m hugely excited to be able to say that always_a_queen wrote my gift Comfort and Joy (fic, PG, implied sexytimes and mild language). Summary: 'Tis The Season: Clint and Natasha (and the whole team) and the holiday season. Or: The Avengers celebrate Christmas and everyone gives Natasha unwarranted advise about her love life. I say again, I LOVE THIS TO PIECES! I love Natasha’s voice, I love all of the details, I love how Clint and Natasha are shown to be so complimentary, just right for each other, and I love the theme of comfort and joy, of Christmas being togetherness whether happy and perfect or not <3

It's also exciting to get to chat to people about the gift that I made: The Nature Of Dust for sugar_fey (R for sex, see post for warnings) Summary: Fic with accompanying collage of graphics/manipulations and icons for the prompt 1930s dustbowl AU. Clint and Natasha are members of a travelling circus. Dark/supernatural elements a la Carnivale optional but very welcome. When I read that sugar_fey had left that prompt I really hoped that her giftee would fill it. Then I was her giftee, which was all kinds of well now I had to put my writing where my wish was! I LOVED getting to play with the prompt, however much I struggled with it at times, so much so that I got carried away and made graphics as well and I ended up writing the longest fic I have managed to actually complete in years, wow.

To everyone who helped me with research questions about 1930s America and curses, this was why and thank you for all your help and interesting chats! And oodles of thanks to my beta readers, the amazing and amazingly helpful rthstewart and lar_laughs, who put up with me sending lots of things back to them time and time again, who read speedily, who caught mistakes, who gave me lots of thinky thoughts, and made everything more <3

I also got to play with a fantastic graphics team for Secret Santa: daxcat79, frea_o, hermyfan, oresteia, and purely_distel. There are links to the icons, gift banners, organiser gift graphics, and participation graphis on the Masterlist as well. Do add taking a look at all the shiny to your Secret Santa 2012 tour, which was brought to you by our Awesome Organisers Of Awesome anuna_81 and cybermathwitch :D

The second thing I’ve reviewed is my f-list, communities, and feeds, and my fandoms. I’ve stopped following people that haven’t posted in a long time without any reason that I know of or can think of, and communities that are inactive or I no longer spend much time on. I know some of you post sporadically, have busy lives offline, or spend more time on communities than your own journals. (And some of you I just don’t want to stop stalking in case you show up again! I live in hope.) If I’ve stopped following anyone who is actually still around, let me know and I’ll follow you again!

If you’re following me, and if you want to know if it’s a good idea to keep following me *grins*, here’s an idea of what fandoms I see myself being involved in this year and what I hope to get up to in them:

( Where I stand in fandoms at the moment, and what I hope to do in them )

And I think that’s everything! But you might also want to know: a surprise!fandom may appear; I’m always open to book chatter and icon requests; I sometimes drop icons in comments to people, but I fail at gifs; I often have long comment conversations; I have more ideas than I write and love to enable other people who have ideas; there may also be posts about random things that catch my attention, like crazy weather (but I tend to f-lock those).

> For people worrying about the upcoming LJ changes there’s some further information that you might want to look at here. To summarise, apparently we’ll be able to turn off the infinite scroll on the f-list page and we’ll be able to “customise background images”, which suggest we’ll be able to limit the amount of white space or develop a work around for it. Also, paid accounts aren’t being removed: “the concept of buying something that's called a "paid account" is what will be removed -- extra features will be done as add-ons and add-on packages. Existing paid or permanent accounts at that time will be treated as premium/elite accounts that will have access to even more features than exist right now.”

> I thought about doing NaNoWriMo this year, but I realized that actually I don’t want to write a novel right now. I’d actually be more pleased with myself if I managed to finish some of the fanfics that I’m working on and, of course, I need to do my Secret Santa fic for be_compromised. So I’m going to have a fic finishing month instead. I aim to finish: the Secret Santa fic, the Clint/Natasha His Dark Materials crossover fic from a promptathon prompt, and the Sherlock/Secret Garden thing at least. Onwards!

> Joss Whedon, US politics, and the zombie apocalypse (with thanks to franztastischfor the link), because Joss is boss.

> The BBC have released a missing scene Doctor Who P.S. about what happened to Brian and the Ponds after The Angels Take Manhattan. So, serious spoilers, people. And grab a tissue.)

> If you haven't heard the news, Agent Coulson is back in the SHIELD TV show (link to one of many articles). Does that mean that the show is set pre-Avengers? Or are the conspiracy theorists in with a chance of being right? Let the speculation commence! (And if the Agents in this show would like to speculate about Clint and Natasha on their coffee break whilst Coulson smiles enigmatically I WOULD BE OKAY WITH THAT.)

> Creative Support Group - The Beta Edition happening over at be_compromised. A chance to discuss anything and everything about beta reading, as a beta, a writer, or both.

> The War Was in Color by Settiai on YouTube remains the best STEVE FEEEEEELS vid ever. Footage from both Captain America, The Avengers, and The Avengers extra footage/deleted scenes. The editing is superb, the use of black and white fantastic, the matching of the lyrics to the clips amazing, and the story telling wonderful. FEEEEEELS.

Current number of icons in my batch for/because of the be_compromised epic promptathon stands at 76, phew. Anyone wanting to request icons from me over there here's a link. I'm taking requests until August 8th so the can go up before the promptathon ends on the 10th.

I've been saying for ages that I need to watch The Hurt Locker. Well, I saw a shot in a fanvid using a clip that has Renner and a car and I thought that would be perfect for the grease icon request! So I really am going to have to watch this and soon, heh.

I hope you're all keeping an eye on the Master List for all the awesome and there are still new prompts being added.

At some point I need to stop playing with the pretty pictures and do some fic...

I am on AO3! HERE. HUGE thanks to dictator_duck! I don’t get how the invites work, but I appreciate that there have been floods of people moving to AO3. Fair enough that they want to manage that and make sure the site still works properly in the face of it. Still, I was down on the waiting list to get an account in February. February. This is lot sooner than February, yay!

Of course now it’s organisation time *grins*. So my few Avengers fics are going over there, because it’s apparently the place to go for shawarma these days. I don’t know about everything else though. I’ll probably move my most recent stuff and the ones that I’m pleased with, but some of them…

I decided ages ago that once I posted a story I wasn’t going to change it. Sure, I look back and cringe sometimes, but when I get daunted by how amazing other people’s writing is or I get frustrated with my own I can look back and say, hey, yeah, but I’ve improved. The proof is there for me to see. But when deciding what stories to move across to a new place, then, I don’t know whether to just move the whole lot or just a selection that I think are okay.

What have other people been doing? Are there any stories of mine you would particularly like to see on AO3? Thoughts?

I wouldn’t change any of my stories, but I think if ever I were to rewrite one it would be the first Harry Potter fic I posted online: The List. I wrote a fair amount before that, but that was the first fic where I wanted to make a point and where I think I actually managed to. It’s my most reviewed story on ff.net and still gets new reviews every so often, so I guess some people agree *grins*. It could be better written though and I think it would deserve the update.

What do you lot think of your earlier stories? Any you would consider changing or rewriting?

I said on the promptathon: Weekend plans in order of priority: love everyone in this bar; promptathon squee and party; work on promptathon fills; watch the Hurt Locker; figure out how to watch my shiny but awkward region one The Unusuals dvd; eat; sleep; do some work. Priorities, I have them.

Well, I love everyone in that bar, period *grins* and I did a fair amount of squee-ing, because, seriously, the quality and the fun and wonderful going on over there <3

I managed to do an icon batch fill and a fic fill – I’m not telling, go check out the Master Post ;) being put together by the lovely workerbee73. I have thousands of words for other prompts as well and one is nearly finished, wow. I have a few questions that have cropped up that my Google Fu has been unable to solve though, so any help for:

1) Is Eric Selvig referred to as ‘Doctor’ or ‘Professor’? Because according to the marvel and marvel movie wikis he’s Dr. Eric Selvig, a Professor of Theoretical Astrophysics, which does not help. Is he a Professor? Or do Marvel just not want him to be equated with Xavier? *grins*

2) In the US, do you refer to pyjama bottoms or pants or trousers or boxers or swears or whatever that a woman would wear to sleep in as ‘pants’ or ‘bottoms’ or what? Because I know in American ‘pants’ means knickers and Natasha isn’t wearing knickers.

I did not watch The Hurt Locker.

In my defence, that may have been because I watched ALL of The Unusuals. I knew Jeremy Renner was going to be good in it, but I wasn’t prepared for the amount of love I would feel for the rest of the characters and the show itself. It’s hard to label, for those of you who haven’t seen it, but the tone is kind of like Castle, with a balance of hilarity, drama, and sweetness, but more team focused, like in CSI, albeit far more character driven. It’s quirky. I love it. Especially the dispatch messages and the background stories related to them. Huge thanks to everyone who gave me info and advice on figuring out how to get region one dvds playing on my region 2 laptop!

I did some eating, probably not as much sleeping as I should have, but I went to bed early on Sunday to make up for it, and work. Well, work. I did that today instead ;)