91,195

It seems my plans to use this blog to write about my life haven't quite come to fruition. I did, in September, write a non-fiction article about my childhood and adolescence. It was written in response to a submission call from a magazine, but I realized after I wrote it that the magazine only accepted submissions from US residents. I thought about posting it here but I may still spiffy it up and submit it elsewhere.

In the meantime I am still working away on my original novel. It's taken me far longer than I could possibly have imagined. I started writing it just about two years ago (though the exact date has been lost since I had to replace my hard drive last March). I have less than 9000 words to go, and it may in fact be even less than that - perhaps about 6k-8k to wrap it up. It is hard to write with only my own conscience (and the encouragement of a couple of good friends) to keep me going. So different from the fanfic days when I used to turn out four or five thousand words every week or two! Instant gratification, you are an evil mistress.

So the number which serves as title to this post is my current word-count, and after this story is finished I have outlines in my head for at least three more novels. :) The next one will require hella research because of the time period and the setting, but I'm looking forward to that challenge.

Hope everyone is well, for those with whom I used to keep in touch here. I'm still on Twitter, @starfish422 and there's my author site as well: www.anniekaye.com

::waves::
xoxo Katie Starfish

Survey on Involvement in Fan Culture

Hi! :)

One of my best girlfriends is a high school librarian in Massachusetts. She sent me a link she received from a librarian listserv to a survey that’s currently being conducted with a request to share it with my friends who are involved in fan culture - reading or writing fic, creating or watching fan vids/gifs/screencaps, creating or listening to fan playlists, attending fan culture conventions…many, many different facets of fandom culture.

It is geared at three different groups: adults 18 and over, youths from age 13-18, and librarians (and those who fit into more than one category are encouraged to take it twice, as there are different questions depending on which category you select - for instance, my librarian friend took it as a librarian, then went back and retook it as an adult age 18+).

I have taken it and can confirm that it isn’t one of the articles that is aiming to capitalize on the “mommy porn” brouhaha. Would you please take a few minutes to complete the survey, and share it with your friends in any and all fandoms?

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=QwGeOLTLty%2b%2fRcxzJAU1Bt93EHKd0oiDYXGDVuEcc7s%3d

Switching gears

Gosh, it's been just ages since I've posted on this blog. It really did serve a purpose for me for several years, when I was active in the fanfic world. Now that I'm no longer posting new chapters, and with tumblr being so easy to use, the need to have a fanfiction-focused blog doesn't exist any longer.

Having shifted the focus of my writing onto original fiction, I have a new, fledgling site. I am really pleased to finally announce (after sitting on this news for about six months!) that I have a novella being published this spring by Dreamspinner Press. More information on the book itself when I have a release date, but for now, I've been through two rounds of edits, have written the promotional blurb, and am anxiously awaiting a mock-up of my cover artwork. My Dreamspinner author page is live, here, and my own website is here . I hope my fanfiction readers will appreciate my pseudonym. ;)

So, returning to the issue at hand, of what to do with this blog: one thing I know is that I really do not want to just abandon it. I put hundreds of hours into it (all those lovely Jacey Thursdays!) and if I simply move on, it will eventually fall into disrepair.

I've recently had some "stuff" come up - baggage, emotional things, psychological things I've been working through. None of is new - much of it is really quite old, in fact, and it's almost all things that I've worked through in the past to a certain point and then stopped, and now am again at the point where I need to put in the emotional work to forge through it, process it, let it go...that's the hope, anyway.

Writing = therapy for me, especially with this type of "stuff" (there must be a better word), the type that starts to sift through my consciousness when I lie down at night and keeps me lying there, eyes wide open, for ninety minutes or more before I can fall asleep. Getting things down on paper has always enabled me to remove it from my mind: "If it exists there, I don't need to keep it here anymore." So I've decided that, to meet that need, I'm going to start blogging it here. Maybe once a week, maybe several times a week, but whenever I need to remove an entry from the hard drive in my mind.

In that case, please see this post as a bookend, separating two phases in my evolutionary process. I'll probably "renovate" the tags section shortly, so that anyone who comes here looking for fanfic stuff can still find it relatively easily. If you're not interested in following my future, fumbling, certain to be very stream-of-consciousness posts from the darker corners of my psyche, I certainly do understand that; and I thank you for the time you've spent here over the past three years. However, you're most welcome to remain, and comment, and share your own insights, should you feel inspired to do so. :)

Cheers, and thank you. <3

Deep Dish in PDF

I'm pleased to announce that, after months of procrastinating followed by hours of editing and revision, Deep Dish is now available for download in PDF format. It contains the prologue originally known as the "Jack Charles smuttake" from Over the Top, the story and epilogue, outtake and some illustrations.

To view and/or download, please visit this link. :) Enjoy!

The "Was That 'My Kid'?" post

Do you know how seldom I actually cry at something on the internet? Television, more often; and when I was listening to my HP audiobook yesterday I got teary (it was the end of Half-Blood Prince and, well, you know).

But this blog made me cry. You must read it. That's all I can say.

Harry Potter: A Late Bloomer's Point of View

I've recently started on the Harry Potter books for the first time. I resisted for a decade and a half only because I was told too many times that I "had" to read them - best way to get me to not watch a movie or read a book is to tell me I have to. Anyway, I was never terribly interested in it and didn't think I'd enjoy it.

At the beginning of the summer, my good friend Lisa was bemoaning the fact that, with all the things she and I have in common, she wished HP was one of them. She also promised me that a whole new world of derivative slash fic awaited me if I would just give it a shot.

It obviously meant a lot to her, so after some hemming and hawing, I told her that because she mentioned it so nicely, I would give it a shot. I promised nothing more than that I would read the first book.

With life being as busy as it is, and still trying to keep a regular writing schedule, I decided the audiobook would be a good compromise. I have a 25-minute drive to work; I could listen to it in the car and get through it that way.

As I made my way through the first book, I was quite pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it. The narrator, Stephen Fry, is at least 50% responsible for that - the way he reads, how he inhabits the characters and their accents. I couldn't imagine anyone else narrating it. I also like the characters a lot, the friendship Ron and Harry have with each other and with Hermione. Fred and George are a riot. I adore Hagrid and I love that he was the first person Harry met from the magical world - he was an awesome person to introduce Harry to that world. It's also been really nice learning the meaning of all these words I've heard for years and years - like Gryffindor, quidditch and Dumbledore.

So, having enjoyed it much more than I expected, I've gotten through Books 1 and 2, and right now I'm early in the going on Prisoner of Azkaban. It's all good.

But - and I realize I could be taking my life into my hands here - I'm having trouble with picturing Alan Rickman as Professor Snape. From the instant he was introduced in the first book, I've pictured Jason Isaacs as Snape. Maybe Stephen Fry has something to do with that, but I close my eyes and picture him talking, and there's no one else it can be. Alan Rickman is great...he's just not my Snape.

But now I find out that Jason Isaacs plays Lucius Malfoy! ::horror:: I'd have to go back and find it, but I was certain Lucius was blond and pale just like Draco.

And that's why I can never, ever watch the Harry Potter movies. They will simply have to exist on audiobook for me. :)

Planning ahead: NaNoWriMo

I entered the writing world in February, 2009, and for the last two years I've watched as my fellow amateur writers participated in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). In point of fact, it's an international event, but that's neither here nor there.

Any rate, NaNoWriMo participants sign up and pledge to write 50,000 words between November 1 and November 30th. I've never participated as I've had other obligations in that month and didn't want to set myself up for failure.

This year I've decided to plan ahead and join the challenge. I've already told my husband I'm going to sign up, and I shall plan my obligations accordingly - that is to say, I'm not going anywhere or doing anything that month. LOL

If you plan to participate as well, please add me as a writing buddy on the NaNo website. My profile is here. :)

A day in the life of immigration equality

Dear Chicago

We've never met. I've seen pictures, of course, and I've talked to people who know you intimately. Despite that we've never met, I think I've gotten to know you well enough to admit that I'm a little in love with you.

It's this feeling that makes me wish I could be with you today when you celebrate the brave and vibrant gay community who live and work in you. How I would love to be there, to show my support and be part of that atmosphere.

I can't be with you today; but in September, you and I have a date. I'll be with you soon...in the meantime, please give my love to the thousands who will be celebrating there today. Keep them safe and let them know they are loved and supported.

xoxo Katie Starfish

Just Marriage

"I know many people are concerned about the destruction of the sanctity of marriage, as well, and they view this as a threat. But let me as you something, ladies and gentlemen, what are we really protecting when you look at the divorce rate in our society?

Turn on the television. We have a wedding channel on cable TV devoted to the behavior of people on their way to the altar. They spend billions of dollars, behave in the most appalling way, all in an effort to be princess for a day. You don’t have cable television? Put on network TV. We’re giving away husbands on a game show. You can watch “The Batchelor,” where 30 desperate women will compete to marry a 40-year-old man who has never been able to maintain a decent relationship in his life. We have “The Bacholorette,” in reverse. And my favorite show, which thank God only ran one season because it was truly distasteful, was “The Littlest Groom,” where 30 desperate women competed to marry a dwarf.

That’s what we’ve done to marriage in America, where young women are socialized from the time they’re five years old to think of being nothing but a bride. They plan every day what they’ll wear, how they’ll look, the invitations, the whole bit. They don’t spend five minutes thinking about what it means to be a wife. People stand up there before God and man — even in Senator Diaz’s church — they swear to love, honor, and obey; they don’t mean a word of it.

So if there’s anything wrong, any threat to the sanctity of marriage in America, it comes from those of us who have the privilege and the right, and we have abused it for decades."

--NY Senator Diane Savino