First, so many thanks to cedara for The Painting (White Collar) and DreamOfStars for The Queen's Gambit Accepted (Chess, Svetlana-centric).

As for me, I wrote "Pink & Glitter", a story based on Lev Grossman's The Magicians, which came out last August. I knew it wouldn't find many readers because it's not just an obscure fandom, the novel itself is barely five months old. But I am generally happy with how the story turned out - it's about Julia, and the summary is thus:

To learn magic outside the Brakebills system, Julia had to do terrible things.

You can read it here - if you've read The Magicians, I'm really curious to hear what you think.

Also, last night I posted a gift-vid for gypsy_sunday in spn_j2_xmas - It's a Dean-centric vid with a heavy undercurrent of Sam/Dean subtext, set to Snow Patrol's Headlights on Dark Roads (thanks to momebie for the song suggestion!). Full postings of everything to pear_vodka coming soonish.

http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/2010/1/1/pottercast-212-goodbye-2009

  Happy New Year!  It is time once again for the PotterCasters to take a look back at the year that has passed in the life of PotterCast.  Our 212th episode of PotterCast, our Harry Potter podcast, features Melissa, John, and Frak as they highlight some of your favorite PotterCast moments from 2009.  From six week long PotterCast summer tour, to the many fandom and news events of the past year,...

http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/2010/1/1/january-2010-craft-along-now-open

Today brings both a new year and a new Craft-Along, this time with an invitation to join the Crafty Witches and Wizards in crafting your own Weasley Family Clock. The January Craft-Along page has a list of the basic supplies and a link to a tutorial to help you get started on this month's project. A thread in the Leaky Lounge has been set up to tackle any questions you may have. Once you've fin...

http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/2010/1/1/january-featured-crafter-of-the-month-overcast

Our Crafty Witches and Wizard have chosen crafter Overcast as January's Featured Crafter of the Month. Overcast has used her skill with crochet hooks and knitting needles to produce crafts such as Babbity Rabbity and Her Cackling Stump, a lightning bolt scarf and even a Leaky Cauldron hand towel. One of the Crafty Witches asked Overcast some questions about her work and you can watch Overcast's...

yuletide reveals are up!

This year, I wrote The Wisdom to Know the Difference for Demoerin. It's based on the 2009 film of Coraline (and on the book too, a bit) and is about Coraline and Wybie a couple of years later.

Also, now I can properly thank Llei for writing my lovely Worst Witch story. Thank you so much, Llei! <3

* I rang the new year in fairly quietly last night, with Mom and Grandma and The Boy for company. This is partly because none of us are exactly party animals and prefer a quiet celebration, and partly because The Boy has an awful cold, poor baby. But there was champagne and tasty food and people I care about, so it's all good.

* There seems to be some disagreement on the internet as to whether 2010 actually starts a new decade. Personally, I don't really care. Since 2000, I have: gotten a divorce, quit my Wall St. job, moved from New York to San Diego to go to grad school and study oceanography, made a ton of new friends, met The Boy, traveled to Antarctica, lost two cats, got two new cats, and basically changed my whole life around OMG. One year more or less hardly makes a difference.

* The Yuletide reveals are up, which means I can now own up to writing The Rules, or: Men are From Mars, Zombies are From Pluto, a Zombieland Columbus/Tallahassee story for Wovenindelibly. I also wrote one Yuletide madness ficlet, Chuck vs. the Choirboy, for Gwyneth. I had a blast writing both of these, and the recipients seemed to like them, which makes me happy.

* The rest of my sad little writing output for the year was:

• Frolic and Play. Marvel Adventures Avengers Gen with a bit of Hank/Jan and Steve/Tony UST on the side. My first Avengers fic, and possibly the fluffiest thing I wrote all year. Ice-skating superheroes FTW.
  
  
• It's the Thought That Counts. SPN Gen. My picfor1000 story, posted on Dean Winchester's birthday. Dean and Sam find a surprise in their motel room.
  
  
• In a Different Light. Classic Avengers/Iron Man movieverse mashup. Steve/Tony. My entry for the capiron_bigbang and far and away the longest thing I wrote all year.
  
  
• Those Who Favor Fire. SPN Gen. My entry for spn_summergen and probably my one and only ever foray into apocafic.
  

Looks like I've gone solidly bifannish this year, with my writing divided up between SPN and Avengers/Iron Man stuff.

There were also various little ficlets, drabbles and comment fics, but I'm too lazy to code them all in. Overall, I'm not too thrilled with my writing this year. In a Different Light and my Yuletide story are the only ones I really feel satisfied with. Everything else feels... I don't know, messy or sketchy or something. I think the problem is that I haven't had the time to write more than one novella-length fic, and I've let myself get out of practice at plotting and properly structuring shorter pieces. I'll try to pay more attention to that in 2010.

but does anyone have a dreamwidth code?
I'm not moving (like it matters) but me and a mate have a new years resolution were we keep a blog and update it every day and keeping it here would just be impractical as then i'd have to explain to her I'm a freak.

I will properly post later with new years things but for now, hullo!

This question just gave me 100 fic ideas.

Also, reading comments on the internet is scary. Which has nothing to do with this post, just saying.

~ * ~ Happy New Year! ~ * ~

And Happy 24th Birthday to me and Colin Morgan.

:D \o/

Thank you so much to son_of_darkness, dora_the_nymph (+ her boy), unsymbolic, dr_ghost and lokifan - I went with them to see Potted Potter yesterday, and they shared the cost of my ticket as a birthday treat. ♥

Thank you also to sra_danvers, the_lady_revan, lzgsk, titti, dawniky, dacro, bewarethesmirk, alisanne and scatteredlogic for the birthday messages.

kjsahlkyasklh God I haven't had internet for the past few days, hate it when that happens. *huggles flist*

( I’m Outlaw Pete, I’m Outlaw Pete, can you hear me? )

This Year: #/50
Of Which: # Italian, # English, # French; # Fiction, # Non-Fiction; # Owned, # Borrowed, # Library

...seems to have a natural affinity with great humour writing. And that is not to be wondered at, since if you described it to the classic man from Mars, he would be apt to think you were either having him on or stark staring bonkers. But whatever may be said of the sanity of its inventors and practitioners, one thing is certain: it has given rise to much deliriously funny writing. Wodehouse's golfing short stories are perhaps the greatest literary achievement on any sport (with the possible exception of JH Carr's How the Steeple Sinderby FC won the FA Cup, but a neck ahead of Dick Francis' wonderful horse-racing thrillers), and they are matched by an avalanche of golfing cartoons and vignettes, including the many hilarious comic strips of the late and very much lamented Johnny Hart (B.C.).

It was inevitable that when someone saw fit to deliver a really stinging indictment of the game, he would do so in hilarious prose. And it has happened, of all places, in that most po-faced and unwitty of conservative outlets, American Thinker. But if you want to open your year with a good chuckle - and that is whether you love golf or not - you should go and read it. The more since, in typical fashion, being in receipt of an absolute, light-hearted gem of an article, the politically-obsessive readership of American Thinker have not left so much as one comment so far. http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/01/the_last_great_tiger_hunt.html

What's with all the sucky music for New Years??!!?!

Where are all the rockstars?!

Most of the music seems kinda slow-ish...not party music. Blegh.

WHERE ARE THE ROCKSTARS?

Omg, don't tell me they are all old and retired now?! Robin Thicke cannot be our future! NEED MORE ROCKSTARS! (good ones..someone bring back the 70s/80s)

By the way, HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

I hope 2010 is better than 2009 for those of us who want/need it to be.

*HUGS*

( Twitter tweet! )
Organized by LoudTwitter

And to begin the new year, a listen to the last year via DJ Earworm ( behind the cut )

Happy New Year. :) Especially to those of you who are also having quiet evenings in tonight!

Like last year, I'm at home; this year I have my adoptive cat for company, who stared wide-eyed when the fireworks began but doesn't seem unduly alarmed.

I had a lovely week in the country - as we wended our way north on twisty slushy roads my Mum reflected that the conditions showed she'd never want to live somewhere that remote. All I could think of is I would...

( Cut for 'where the heck is my life at' angst )

http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/2009/12/31/leakys-2009-year-in-review-part-three

Closing out Leaky's 2009 Year in Review is the third part of our look back at the year in Harry Potter news.  Parts One and Two are online below.  Enjoy!~*~*~September  The long rumored Scottish Book project by J. K. Rowling was back in the news this month, thanks to an interview from Ian Rankin who spoke about what he believes on which Ms Rowing is currently working.  An attorney for J.K. Rowl...

http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/2009/12/31/leakys-2009-year-in-review-part-two

Here now is Part Two of Leaky's 2009 Year in Review of Harry Potter news!  Part One is posted below.  Enjoy!~*~*~May  After years of planning, the time had come for LeakyCon 2009, our very first Harry Potter fan conference.  In the lead up to the event, two LeakyCon songs and our official schedule were published.  For four days, witches and wizards from all over the world gathered in Boston, MA...

January: Happy New Year! am far tipsier than typing indicates.
I think I need a food icon that's more than just cupcakes, or Jensen With Popcorn, because while I don't have gourmet meals all that often, when I do I want to write about them.

February: Out, out, damned gallbladder! But not today.

March: Have I really been more or less off LJ for a week? I'm basically better, post-surgery, and busy with RL work (yay, new clients!) and with a massive project editing a video for my parents' 40th Anniversary, which is this weekend. (Wow, March 5! That was late for a first post of the month!)

April: Show! I would probably quote everything everyone else has said. Except I should go to sleep, so this is mostly a placeholder so I can come back and OMGOMG about the meta and the laundry and the fandom shout-outs and the slash and OMG was this the first time the concept has been mentioned in a network (well, a small network) tv show?

May:
There is something very nifty and karmic about picking the Star Wars-inspired [info]spn_j2_bigbang prompt on 5/4 since, of course, there's two nifty things about today's date:
1. Add the month and day to get the year; and
2. MAY THE FOURTH BE WITH YOU!

June: In the last two weeks I have learned [skip Azkatraz prologue] 1. When taking kids to a kids-camp thing on a cruise ship put their names on their shoes - they might get taken by another kid who's about the same size late on the first night but you'll have an easier time claiming they're yours the next day at the pool.

July: I haven't made an actual post since about five minutes before they confirmed that Michael Jackson had died! Which means I haven't joked about Sarah Palin - and I'd recently been wondering if I shouldn't get rid of my "We Have a Problem With Her" icon and now the answer is absolutely no, never.

August: Text stolen from kerryblaze: There really is never any easy way to say this. Sometime during the night, simons_flower passed away. tqpannie has more information here.

September: I get in[to Atlanta] on Thursday, either at 11:30 or 2:30, depending on which flight I am on. Anyone getting in at either of those times, please make sure I have your cell in case we can share a cab to the hotel.

October: SHOW! First, a question re last week's episode. I've asked before but it was behind a cut so maybe it was missed? But I am very, very desperate for an icon (ideally animated) from SPN 5.03 of Dean saying, 'Dayenu!' I know Passover is still about six months away, but I believe in planning ahead.

November: Anyone else doing NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month)? I realized a few weeks back that I've been tweeting more than actually posting, and I want to try and rectify that.

December: How is it December already? Seriously, how?

Now the Year End meme:
( How is it 2010 already? Seriously, how? )
39. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.
It's not from a song - but it's from a song intro.

We have chosen a selection of songs that speaks to the nation as a whole during these troubling times filled with economic uncertainty and unbridled social woe, because if there's two things America needs right now that is sunshine and optimism and..... Also angels!

Stay safe, everyone, into 2010 and beyond.