There's so much, where to begin? Well, it depends. Most of this is Narnia, though there are a few other things, too. To decide if you are interested in "Not My Children's Narnia" (I'm an adult writing mostly adult characters for mostly adult readers) try Under Cover, or the first three chapters of The Stone Gryphon, Part 1 (Oxfordshire 1942), and/or the first four chapters of By Royal Decree. If you don't like those, you probably won't like the rest of it.

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Terrible things have occurred in the world.

The last of Herd Mentality went up, certainly the darkest  thing I've ever done.

I should be writing other things, like a comment for regulations.gov  But...

Prompt me!  Something fun!   Laughter!  Happy!  Sexy!  Smutty!  Silly!  adaese already asked for Otters being knighted.  Anyone else?

I finally posted the conclusion to Herd Mentality here, chapter 3, Rule of Law.

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I am delighted to announce that luzula  has podficced Maenad of the Maquis.  She has a beautiful voice, speaks the French wonderfully, and added the jazz music that is in the story.  I am thrilled with this.  The first part of the story, when Peter walks up to the cottage and  hears Blueberry Hill is just so much fun.    You can find the post leading to the streaming link here.  She has submitted it as part of the amplificathon community.

Do go tell her how awesome she is!!  (Maenad is rated R or M so there is that to consider before you go clicking on any links).



This entry was originally posted at http://rthstewart.dreamwidth.org/92017.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

I finally got my act together and posted the final chapter of Stuff, on AO3 as rthstewart here and as Gheorghe2 on fanfiction.net here.

I dithered a long time about posting the final chapter -- the scene with Luke and Mara in her Coruscant Palace room and its aftermath, as well as what I did with some of Leia bothers me now. I've added a warning to the final chapter for dubious consent. It's not physical (Mara could kick Luke's ass from one end of the Palace to another and they both know it), but Luke is really manipulative and psychically abusive and invasive. I still think it makes sense for the characters as written, but it's not a comfortable read and 18 years later, I'd do it differently now.

But after a lot of reflection, I've kept it as it was. Stuff is and was a flawed work of a much younger person but to change it now is beyond my ability, interest, or commitment. PG always got irritated when I tried to change it because in her view those flaws were part of what made Stuff what it was. I don't need to rewrite this past. My commas are still terrible. Stuff brought me closer to a group of people I never would have met otherwise. I learned how fic serves as a glorious framework for interaction and community building.

Something that has been really delightful is to get the occasional comment from the older reader who remembers it. One person went to my newer work when she realized that the author Stuff and the author of Narnia Stone Gryphon series are the same person. I've heard from a few people who remember how it was passed around secretely by file transfer and that they still have it on a disk (from 8 inch to 5.25 to 3.5 to thumb) or printed and how difficult it was to find. I destroyed those disks years ago myself and now I wish I'd kept a few of them.

So, I did what I set out to do which was to make sure that it's posted in a few places and will be there as a marker for a certain place and certain time.

As Luke would say, Stuff is wretched melodramatic space trash. And as Mara would say, we're all entitled to a little trash in our lives.

I wrote the following forstarbrowfor the 3 sentence ficathon:

Star Wars, Luke/Mara, banter

[That uncomfortable scene in the final chapter? This is how I'd rewrite it today.]


This entry was originally posted at http://rthstewart.dreamwidth.org/91826.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

I posted the first part of a two chapter fic, Herd Mentality, last night. I will wait until it's complete before posting the whole thing on AO3. I mention in the notes that chapter 2 will take a darker  much darker turn.

Though the beginning is relatively benign and sweet, the story is not.  I think it will probably be darker than anything I've done before, including Carrying out my design to shatter the enemies .

Herd Mentality isn't a story about Horse Herd dynamics and Hwin and Rose finding their way.  What it is about is given away in the summary, a story about duty and tradition, rights and law, courage, and judgment.  For years, I've ducked the issue of where exactly I drew the line on the right of a community to pursue its own beliefs versus the right of a civil authority to protect the individuals in that community from those beliefs.  I raised the issue in the very first chapters of Part 1 of TSG and let readers come to their own conclusions.  I'm going to try to draw a line here.  A huge thanks to starbrow who let me posit the, "Can I really go there?  Should I really go there?" and gave me some valuable insights and research links into the critique I am mounting.

It's not for everybody and the next chapter will have some warnings. 

This entry was originally posted at http://rthstewart.dreamwidth.org/91465.html.

Chapter 17, Kiss Me Like A Soldier Headed For War is up.

A huge, huge thanks to those who read and reviewed the last chapter. One again, I owe lots and lots to starbrow and pencildragon11 for their gentle encouragement.

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And now we meet John Pevensie. There were about a zillion different ways this encounter could go, with John going from sloppy, drunken, maudlin mess, to suave sophisticate playboy, to absolute monster. I’ve previously said that he was one of the villains of the piece and I’ve obviously backed off from that. He’s a jerk, not excused, but understandable, and so very much a product of his time.

And yes, you are right, George isn’t being especially insightful into his own duplicity, is he?

Character blather below
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So, thanks!

3 sentence fills, all the rest, including Star Wars!

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This entry was originally posted at http://rthstewart.dreamwidth.org/91011.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

I didn't think I'd done that much for 3SF but once I added it up, there were a few. I definitely moved beyond my usual comfort zone, too.

Narnia Fic, including some rthverse

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This entry was originally posted at http://rthstewart.dreamwidth.org/90628.html.

starbrow is awesome.  it is also her birthday and she ships Edmund and my mostly off-screen Lord Abnur, an Archen dipolmat in Galma.  I've not done much with Abnur, but I have written in backstory posts that he's Edmund's first lover.

From Chapter 20 of Harold and Morgan, Covered with Thorns, I wrote:

Before the frost set in, he'd found reasons to go to places they had not been together. He'd spent a ten-day with Lord Abnur on Galma, done a lot of shopping and even more sullen drinking. Abnur had very wisely given up women over a decade ago and had the blessed benefit of somehow knowing everything, without Edmund saying anything. Abnur had not once asked him to moan about his feelings, had amiably agreed that yes, women are inscrutable, and then there had been the very helpful here, let me pour you another drink. Abnur had even managed the polite no, not this time, and the Edmund, my friend, it's time you went to bed, alone.

Later, nursing a hangover and resentment for her that had dulled to an ache, Edmund realised that Abnur had empathized with how felt terribly wronged he had felt, yet never criticised her.

Abnur was an extraordinary diplomat.

Which then led to a prompt for the 3 sentence ficathon:  Narnia, rthverse; Edmund/Lord Abnur; first time
And so we fills by rthstewart and starbrow
Extraordinarily Diplomatic
Chronicles of Narnia:  Edmund/MOC
T rating
330 words, more or less


starbrow wrote:I  wrote

And for Starbrow's birthday I now offer the following:




This entry was originally posted at http://rthstewart.dreamwidth.org/90489.html. .