A Distraction at the Bus Stop

Just a few odds and ends that are making me happy at the moment.

You may recall that I took part in Flash Fiction Month on DeviantArt in July—limping a bit in the second half and especially towards the end, but I did get through the whole thing. And I recently found out I’ve won the prize for the first week challenge stories, which was a nice surprise. All four winners get a mug with this splendid design on it—created by one of the regular participants in FFM, joe-wright.

acdholmesfest is back from its hiatus, though now on DW, and I’ve signed up. As well as all the old faces, I’m very pleased to see promising newcomer sanguinity has thrown her hat into the ring too. (:P) It’s a great fest and I’m looking forward to the fics and art that come out of it.

A very minor thing but a big deal for me: in July someone bookmarked my Dear Ladies/Pirates of Penzance crossover fic. Looking at the other fandoms they’ve bookmarked, I think it’s the ships (as in boats) aspect of my fic they’re mainly interested in. But it’s just so exciting to have someone that I don’t know at all take an interest in one of my Dear Ladies fics. They have a relatively small number of bookmarks so they’re not just bookmarking everything in sight, and they’ve marked the bookmark as a rec, so I’m assuming they have read my fic and enjoyed it, rather than just marked it for later. It’s such a minor thing that the fic has gained another reader but I’m thrilled about it.

At sanguinity's suggestion, I put together an index for the Round 5 discussion posts on sherlock60, and rachelindeed very kindly offered to promote it on her Tumblr. And to my great delight it worked—people have taken an interest! Her splendid post is now up to 151 notes—of which 53 are reblogs. It's very pleasing to see what has come out of smallhobbit's excellent new idea for discussion posts, all those months ago.

Though smallhobbit and I have stepped back a bit from modding now, sherlock60 is still very much alive of course. alafaye has taken over for Round 6, and posted an introduction on both LJ and DW yesterday asking for ideas and preferences for the new round.

I have to say stopping leading the rounds is a weight taken off my shoulders in both the positive and negative senses. It’s odd giving up a responsibility that I’ve had for such a significant amount of time, and I feel a bit untethered. But giving up having to do all that work, and losing that stress of having to hit a deadline every week and constantly having the comm in the back of my mind, has led to an immediate increase in ideas for other things. I feel more positive about writing in general and about holmes_minor in particular.

Round 5's final Sunday happened to coincide with my birthday. On Mrs. Hudson’s poetry page I got a poem from Mrs. P. and a limerick from gardnerhill. Over on AO3 I got a 221B from smallhobbit starring Mouselet and the gang, and featuring the Ferret’s singing. And the Ferret’s singing also featured prominently in my wonderful present from Okapi. A new chapter of From the Pen of Inky Quill entitled One Scene and Two Songs from “The Importance of Being Ferret”. If I could just quote the summary: Based on Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest and the songs “If you want a receipt for that popular mystery” and “So go to him/And say to him” from the Gilbert and Sullivan opera Patience and specifically this Hinge & Bracket interpretation of the last. How well my friends know me... And I also get a mention in the scene, in a way that made laugh out loud with glee.

In short, I feel very lucky to have such lovely fandom friends ^^