With less than 24 hours left, I've updated the neediest fandoms spreadsheet one last time.

37 New fandoms since yesterday, and 48 no longer considered needy. The neediest are highlighted in yellow and the new additions are green.

For clarification: The neediest are the ones with requests and zero offers.


( A list of what's been added/deleted since yesterday )

DO NOT POST YOUR LETTER HERE. Post it over there.

If the comment is toward the end or top of the page, it might get bumped to another one as people reply. I'll be trying to correct this, but if you see it let me know in a comment to this post.

Any other errors, also let me know in a comment to this post.

(If I miss someone, which I hope not to, but it might happen, let me know who's above and below their post.)

Now: the spreadsheet.

This lists signup name (or what I was given for the name), and fandoms. It does not contain a link to the letter, or to the comment.

I am not done. If you want, you can see the hypnotic process of watching me/kristin update it. (At least I'm told it's hypnotic.)

ETA: attempt_unique (kristin) did pages 7 through 11, because she's just that awesome. And now I am at the point where I lurk and wait for people to post their letters.

EATA: If you are interested in what the best way to format your letter for minimal work for me indexing is, make sure you put your sign-up name in the title, and put each fandom on a separate line with no extra characters (bullets, asterisks, character listing (though that can go on a separate line from the name of the fandom if you wish)). Obviously this only applies to new comments, there's no value to me if you edit the posts I've already indexed.

-Snow

To Do for Grad School
1. Order Transcripts for Maryland, SUNY, and Rutgers
2. Study for GRE's (on going)
3. Take GREs
4. Fill out the actual applications
5. Write statement of purpose
6. Work on writing sample
7. Re-do resume to show research experience more obviously
8. Give professors the letter of recommendation stuff
9. Pay the application fees
10. Fill out financial aid stuff
11. Email professors

...getting somewhere? Only sort of.

Signups are now open again and any broken emails & duplicate names we know of have been fixed.

Only a little more than 24 hours left! (Signups close 9pm eastern Thursday.)

IF YOU HAVEN'T GOTTEN A SIGNUP CONFIRMATION EMAIL PLEASE:
- CHECK YOUR SPAM FOLDERS
- IF IT'S STILL NOT THERE THEN EMAIL US YOUR CORRECT EMAIL ADDRESS


* IF YOU DIDN'T GET THE SIGNUP CONFIRMATION EMAIL YOU WON'T GET YOUR ASSIGNMENT EMAIL EITHER! *

Working on a few more fixes! Will post when it's open again.

Dear Yuletide Writer/Stalker:

I am twenty-three-years-old, and just recently got married to someone who I love whom I have committed to loving forever. I'm still searching for my forever job, my calling, what I can happily contribute to the universe until I return to dust. (But the adventure you get is the adventure you're ready for, right?) My fandoms all have sizable canons, but I hope that they're popular in yuletide terms and it'll be okay.

I am fascinated by the idea of growing up. What does it mean to take on adult responsibilities? What does it mean to be in control of your destiny? Growing up happens on so many different levels -- emotional, personally, relationshiply, politically, spiritually. Sometimes we get lucky and have mentors and teachers to help us on the way. I think this theme is particularly interesting in How I Met Your Mother and in Young Wizards. Ted and the gang are doing their best to live the lives they want to -- but the outside variables often get in the way. Ted in particular is trying too hard to find himself. He needs to just start living. Nita and Kit, on the other hand, have always held themselves hugely responsible, and I think their growing up is inevitable. They will be powerful, grounded adults. Assuming they get married, what would their lives look like? What would their families?

I love political intrigue. I'm a huge fan of people doing what they mean and saying something else, and the confusion and trickery involved in that. I think this particular angle is more interesting in Circle of Magic and Dollhouse. Sandy is bound to be Duchess some day, but not everyone might like that -- the Duke's current heir, for one, but also the common people who may not like being governed by someone with magic. As we saw in The Will of the Empress, there are assassinations and illegitimate children, and people marrying to form alliances. Dollhouse is like political and business intrigue topped with yummy feminist topping. A lot of people criticize the show because they only a pimp and whores, but if you take the idea of the show as an allegory of the rape culture, it's fascinating. Will we ever not need "dolls" -- people to stand in for concepts? Anyway, the deconstruction at the end of season 1, in episode unaired in the US, was PERFECT.

I don't mind death fic, and I love canonical pairings of both the het and slash varieties. I don't like nonconsent, violent language towards women, and my absolute pet peeve is taking strong female canon characters and making them weak. I absolutely love well-crafted crossovers -- ones that do not have to stretch too hard to make happen, ones that have strong justifications.

My requests:
Diane Duane -- Young Wizards: Juanita Callhan/Christopher Rodriguez/Tom/Carl
I would love a fic focusing on Nita and Kit grown up from where they are in the series, but with appearances and support from the entire cast of characters. Focusing on Tom and Carl (also with appearances and support from the entire cast of characters) would also be spiffy.

Tamora Pierce -- Circle of Magic: Sandrilene fa Toren/Trisana Chandler/Duke Verdis
Sandry is my absolute favorite character, since she is so highly opinionated and judicial. Something with a political backdrop (or politics in the foreground!) would be awesome. No romance between the main four characters, or the characters and their teachers, please.

How I Met Your Mother -- All
The best part about this show is the main characters being equally as important, even if Ted is supposed to be the lead. Exploration about how marriage changes friendship dynamics would be interesting, especially from the point of view of a married character. How do you balance?

Dollhouse -- Claire Saunders aka Whiskey/Topher Brink/Adelle DeWitt/Victor
Morals. Topher and Adelle particularly, but Dr. Saunders and Victor as foils. Consent, masculinity, femininity, and people's bodies standing in for concepts.

A guideline I always use in writing is "Write what you'd like to read." So, considering that's always what guides my writing, here's what I write (to give you an idea of what I like to read):

http://astraevirgo.livejournal.com/tag/written+word (Mostly Original)
http://community.livejournal.com/writexchange/ (All Original)
http://community.livejournal.com/myriadwords/tag/author:+astraevirgo (Young Wizards writings)
http://www.fanfiction.net/u/7943/Virgo (It's ff.n, so, yeah. Also contains my YW writings).

Thank you in advance, Yuletide bringer.

Kate

If you want to leave either the text of your letter or a link to a letter that you've posted elsewhere, please comment to this post with your signup name in the comment subject line. This is in no way mandatory, but such letters can be valuable to whoever receives your assignment, not to mention those who might be prowling about looking for early inspiration for Yuletide Madness.

ETA: For people who might consider writing extra treats, or people browsing just to see who else likes their small fandom, it's helpful if you include your requested fandoms in your comment.

I've unscreened anonymous comments solely for this post, but all comments must be "signed" either with your signup name in the subject or in the comment itself (the latter only if it's not your letter comment).

Past years' examples can be found here, here, and here, if you want to see how others have done it!

This is going up earlier than usual so that those who aren't posting their letters elsewhere can post here and still put the link in their signups. I'll also be placing a link to this post in the sidebar here and at yuletide_admin, for easy finding.

Good afternoon! The Week 1 Poll has closed, and here are the results!

Congrats go out to kayden_eidyak, for winning Week 1! Well done!

Our formula for this week has four writers being eliminated. Both drippedonpaper and desert_rose are dropping out of contention this week, so we only lose two more writers. ayumidah and niliwen, sorry to see you go, but please consider writing this month Just for Fun!

The following writers have made the cut and will continue on as contestants in Week 2:

adifferentdrum
alienemerald
apocalypse_me
aurumsisters
azuire
belgatherial
bleibhier
bluegodjanus
blythe025
calamityroo
cedarwolfsinger
cherith
chanphenglew
darthneko
der_verstand
deusssexmachina
jayphoenix
katden
keppiehed
lacrimaeveneris
ladyerlynne
little_grey_owl
lolafalola
missflyer
on_a_windy_day
openedlocket
pauljoy
proud_snapist
quill_quirks
reed_pen
rephen
selkie_queen
shashigai
slavezombie
so_wordy
someoneingrey
sopeerocks
starriheavens
the_malediction
tsubasa_quill
transitiongodin
vyvyan_wilde
wellowned
why_shmoopy
youraugustine
zsilverdragon

We'll look forward to see your entries for "Key", due by 2 p.m. EST on Saturday, 11/14.

Enjoy the rest of your day!

You can now also subscribe to all of the Box Brown print comics.  Subscriber copies will be signed and mailed BEFORE issues go up for sale (for future issues, natch).  Subscribers will also receive reduced shipping.

Originally posted at Pages in Sequence

Good morning, busybodies.

http://www.otherpeoplesbusiness.net/comic/issue-2/page-14

( Click here to read the commentary. )

( Cut for multiple large images )

( Transcript for Visually Impaired )

Note on Process:
This comic was drawn freehand with India ink, a paintbrush, and a metal nib dip pen on heavyweight drawing paper.

I have only drawn with a nib pen twice before. A metal nib is stiff, stubborn. It creates a variable line width, which can add to the organic feel of a drawing, but it also blots, spatters, deposits clumps and blotches. It can't be erased. The rules I set for myself were these:
--No reference images.
--No pencil guides.
--Leave everything as it is. If the ink spatters, it stays. Clumps stay. All mistakes stay on the paper.

The nature of this kind of art is both permanent and ephemeral. In a single moment, a perfect line can be marred with a splatter, a smudge, a miscalculation or a twitch of the hand. Each incongruity is a tiny tragedy but also a remembrance of the humanity behind the line.


This post is for therealljidol topic 4, Devastating Beauty.

Previous Weeks:
topic 0, Introduction.
topic 1, Empty Gestures.
topic 2, Uphill, Both Ways, Barefoot.
topic 3, SMILE!

Please feel free to read and comment whether or not you are in the competition.



( More Notes )

G'morning, mes amis!

The Week One Poll will run until 12pm today!

Contestants and just for fun writers, the Week Two Topic awaits you!

I can't believe it's already day 11 of NaNo! All the best to everyone participating! If you are, check out today's chatter on NaNo and Real Life!

Watch out, NOMinations will be coming soon!

To our awesome editing team, the Editing Post is up!
Thanks for all your help, guys!


Last weekend I received some very sad news from a good long-time friend and former roommate. Grant has just undergone chemo therapy and radiation treatment for stomach cancer, and the doctors thought they had removed it all, and that the cancer hadn't spread. During our first phone call in a long time, he told me that the cancer had come back, and had spread. We shared our feelings about this, then Grant started talking about all he had planned in the months he was told he would likely have left.

He told me about his plans to take a long train journey, possibly all the way from the east coast of Australia to the west coast. This journey would take around three days as it crosses the desert.

He also said that he wants to climb the Sydney Harbor Bridge, which is no easy climb, and requires the climber to be in reasonable shape to do it. I know Grant will be planning to do this one soon, as despite everything, he has been keeping fit, so I know will have a good chance of doing the entire climb.

When Grant and I ended our call, I began to think about what I want to do with my life, and the goals I have set for myself over the last couple years. The big one for me has been to get my life back on track after separating from my husband 20 months ago. This goal is still a work-in-progress, but at this point I think I'm doing pretty well.

There is one other goal I am working towards in addition to that. I really want to experience living and working in another country, either Canada or the U.S. For a while I thought I was going nowhere with this goal, and that it was just a dream, that I probably wouldn't be able to make happn. On my way home today I realized that I have taken that first step. I've been employed for the last 12 months, which is giving me work experience that will help make finding a job overseas easier.

I'm also going to talk to my boss about my plans, and find out whether there are any options to work overseas. This is only a small step, but it will hopefully lead to bigger ones in the not too distant future.

The adventurer in me would like to get out and see more of the world. France has been on my list of places to visit, plus the UK hopefully in the next couple years. Now that I've taken the plunge and traveled to the U.S, I'm feeling more confident about travelling further afield, so the chances of actually making it to Europe are greater. I also want to visit my friends in the U.S again, which is something I'm planning for next summer.

These are going to be expensive goals to attain, but if I put everything I have into advancing myself in my current job, I know I can achieve them.

And finally, I want and need to work toward being a happier person, who focuses on being positive, and gets out there and enjoys life!

This is another work-in-progress for me, but I know I'm getting there.

What goals have you set for yourself? How far along the road to achieving them are you?