I've had a number of emails, etc., lately, wondering what's going on and why I haven't been around. The short answer is that I have, quite simply, been overwhelmed with so many RL issues that I simply haven't had the time or energy to post anything. I've occasionally read a few posts and I've got a few flagged in Read It Later (a Firefox extension that's absolutely irreplaceable), but that's been about the limit of what I've been doing online. I've done a bit of writing, off-and-on, but there's nothing that's had sufficient progress to be ready for posting.

The details of what's been going on are far too many to get into - just thinking about listing them makes me tired - but I will list a few, just to give everyone some idea why I've been (and will probably continue to be) so quiet.

October and November were busier than I'd anticipated but that was about it. December was when things started to get out of hand. I'd planned to do podcasts of a few of my fics for Christmas but unfortunately I ended up with a cough and cold that just wouldn't go away, from about mid-December through till New Year's. I then managed to get thrown by a horse (not one of my own) and spent several weeks drugged up with prescription anti-inflammatories/muscle relaxants/pain killers. The only thing that I actually broke was my helmet but I banged up my back and ribs pretty thoroughly; lots of soft tissue damage and most likely bruising or maybe even cracking of bone, particularly my lower ribs). There's still a fair bit of tenderness in some spots but thanks to chiropractic and massage therapy treatments, I'm healing up pretty well. Also in that late December-present time period, I became an aunt for the first time (my niece is adorable but she's been high-maintenance pretty much since my sister-in-law went into labour), our barn roof deteriorated to the point where heavy rain outside means a steady drizzle inside (right through the hay loft and down into the stalls below), my dad's heart problems worsened which, in addition to the stress and worry, meant that I had to take over caring for the horses, our refrigerator died on the Sunday afternoon of a holiday weekend, a cousin had major knee surgery, another cousin's kid had a bad tobogganing accident and ended up needing surgery for a badly broken leg, work got insanely busy and stayed that way (winter is usually a fairly slow season), and our area got more snow dumped on it than we've experienced in decades.

Yeah, so far, 2009 sucks - and definitely not in a good way.

So... I'd really like to be able to say that things are settling down and that I'll be around more but... I don't think that would be the truth. I'm going to have to come up with the cash/credit to either re-roof the barn (a huge, 70-plus-year-old gambrel-roofed monster that would cost $16,000-20,000 just to re-roof - and it needs new clapping (siding) too, plus electrical and plumbing work) or to build a new, much smaller, more modern barn (probably around $20,000-$25,000, if I'm lucky). The cousin's kid will have to have more surgery later this year. With some medication adjustments, my dad is doing better but he's still not going to be able to do nearly the same things that he was doing before, even after he gets his defib. implanted, which means a lot of changes around here.  I'm pretty much permanently tired and overwhelmed and I can't see that changing until after I get the barn issue dealt with and my dad gets his surgery safely over with. 

In summary: yes, I'm still alive and still interested in fandom (as much as I can summon up the energy to be interested in anything). No, I haven't given up on any of my writing but I haven't got anything ready to post, either, sorry. No, I'm probably not going to be around much for the foreseeable future. Yes, I do intend to come back just as soon as possible.

And, yes, 2009 does indeed suck. Big time. :P 



P.S. My apologies in advance for the fact that I probably won't be able to find the time and/or energy to respond to comments. Sorry, folks.

Current Mood: drained

Rather than trying to keep two sets of "for sale" postings updated, I'm just going to link across to the posts on my LJ. Zines are $15 each or 3 for $35, with the exception of the Extra Touchy Frisky zines (which are $5 each) and the three volumes of Dene's "The Gift" series (which are $20 each).

Titles beginning with A through F:
http://calic0cat.livejournal.com/196928.html

Titles beginning with H through R:
http://calic0cat.livejournal.com/197286.html

Titles beginning with S through U:
http://calic0cat.livejournal.com/197624.html

Titles beginning with W through Z:
http://calic0cat.livejournal.com/197726.html

Current Mood: busy

Since I have no clue what I paid for most of these, I'm going to put a flat price of $10 each, or 3 for $25, on them for now. Other deals can be arranged if you want to buy a larger number of djs. If the price is too high or too low, hopefully someone with a better idea of the values will give me a heads-up. *sweatdrops* Shipping will be the actual postage charges. Doujinshi scans are from my actual zines; where available, detailed DJ info is copied from Mind Education: Kagenami Q's Gundam Wing Doujinshi Reference Digs. Please note that, while I have not posted any explicit pages from any doujinshi, many of these do contain explicit yaoi sex; please do not attempt to buy them if you are not above the age of majority in your country. If you wish to have the presence or absence of explicit images in a specific dj confirmed, please ask and I will check. Thanks!


( Read more... )

Current Mood: tired

I'm listing these two doujinshis separately as I'm pricing them a bit differently, due to their size and the fact that I'm pretty sure I paid considerably more for them originally. I'm asking $15 each, or I'll let the pair go for $25.  If the price is too high or too low, hopefully someone with a better idea of the values will give me a heads-up. *sweatdrops* Shipping will be the actual postage charges. Doujinshi scans are from my actual zines.

Please note that, while I have not posted any explicit pages from any doujinshi, both of these are yaoi in nature and Mark Heart 2 does contain explicit yaoi sex; please do not attempt to buy it if you are not above the age of majority in your country. Thanks!


( Read more... )

Current Mood: busy

Since I have no clue what I paid for most of these, I'm going to put a flat price of $10 each, or 3 for $25, on them for now. Other deals can be arranged if you want to buy a larger number of djs. If the price is too high or too low, hopefully someone with a better idea of the values will give me a heads-up. *sweatdrops* Shipping will be the actual postage charges. Doujinshi scans are from my actual zines; where available, detailed DJ info is copied from Mind Education: Kagenami Q's Gundam Wing Doujinshi Reference Digs. Please note that, while I have not posted any explicit pages from any doujinshi, many of these do contain explicit yaoi sex; please do not attempt to buy them if you are not above the age of majority in your country. If you wish to have the presence or absence of explicit images in a specific dj confirmed, please ask and I will check. Thanks!


( Read more... )

</strong>

Current Mood: busy

Just a really quick heads-up for everyone out there who likes to grab stills from recorded video.

Today's free programs from Giveaway of the Day include Topaz Moment, a program for grabbing high resolution stills from less-than-high-quality video. I have yet to try it myself (that will have to wait till this afternoon) but the reviews on the site so far are very positive and it has quite a high "thumbs up" rating. Since it's only available for a single day, I thought I'd better go ahead and post while folks would still have a chance to go get it.

Current Mood: rushed

Since I have no clue what I paid for most of these, I'm going to put a flat price of $10 each, or 3 for $25, on them for now. Other deals can be arranged if you want to buy a larger number of djs. If the price is too high or too low, hopefully someone with a better idea of the values will give me a heads-up. *sweatdrops* Shipping will be the actual postage charges. Doujinshi scans are from my actual zines; where available, detailed DJ info is copied from Mind Education: Kagenami Q's Gundam Wing Doujinshi Reference Digs. Please note that, while I have not posted any explicit pages from any doujinshi, many of these do contain explicit yaoi sex; please do not attempt to buy them if you are not above the age of majority in your country. If you wish to have the presence or absence of explicit images in a specific dj confirmed, please ask and I will check. Thanks!


( Read more... )

</strong>

Current Mood: busy

Since I have no clue what I paid for most of these, I'm going to put a flat price of $10 each, or 3 for $25, on them for now. Other deals can be arranged if you want to buy a larger number of djs. If the price is too high or too low, hopefully someone with a better idea of the values will give me a heads-up. *sweatdrops* Shipping will be the actual postage charges. Doujinshi scans are from my actual zines; where available, detailed DJ info is copied from Mind Education: Kagenami Q's Gundam Wing Doujinshi Reference Digs. Please note that, while I have not posted any explicit pages from any doujinshi, most of these do contain explicit yaoi sex; please do not attempt to buy them if you are not above the age of majority in your country. If you wish to have the presence or absence of explicit images in a specific dj confirmed, please ask and I will check. Thanks!

I've put the Degital PaPa doujinshis in a post of their own as there's quite a few of them. If someone wants all 6 volumes of "Requiem for Innocent Angels", I'll let that whole set go for $40.

( Read more... )

</p>

Current Mood: busy

Due to the number of cover scans & page samples, I'm splitting the doujinshis that are for sale into several separate posts.

Sales are on a first come, first serve basis. Since I have no clue what I paid for most of these, I'm going to put a flat price of $10 each, or 3 for $25, on them for now. Other deals can be arranged if you want to buy a larger number of djs. If the price is too high or too low, hopefully someone with a better idea of the values will give me a heads-up. *sweatdrops* Shipping will be the actual postage charges. Doujinshi scans are from my actual copies; where available, detailed DJ info (the bullet-point lists) has been copied from Mind Education: Kagenami Q's Gundam Wing Doujinshi Reference Digs. Please note that, while I have not posted any explicit pages from any doujinshi, many of these do contain explicit yaoi sex; please do not attempt to buy them if you are not above the age of majority in your country. If you wish to have the presence or absence of explicit images in a specific dj confirmed, please ask and I will check. Thanks!

( Read more... )

</p></strong>

Current Mood: busy

My collection of "stuff" has gotten seriously out of hand. In the interests of freeing up some storage space - and incidentally helping to pay for my next laptop replacement, as my current one just isn't handling the demands I'm putting on it lately - I've started sorting through my Rubbermaid bins full of doujinshi and zines. I'll be posting the first batch of The Sentinel fanzines under a separate post sometime tomorrow, probably.

There will be more GW djs posted in a week or so, when I get around to sorting through the next bin full.

For now, here's the first batch of Gundam Wing doujinshi that I'm offering for sale on a first come, first serve basis. Since I have no clue what I paid for most of these, I'm going to put a flat price of $10 each, or 3 for $25, on them for now. Other deals can be arranged if you want to buy a larger number of djs. If the price is too high or too low, hopefully someone with a better idea of the values will give me a heads-up. *sweatdrops* Shipping will be the actual postage charges. Doujinshi scans are from my actual zines; where available, detailed DJ info is copied from Mind Education: Kagenami Q's Gundam Wing Doujinshi Reference Digs. Please note that, while I have not posted any explicit pages from any doujinshi, most of these do contain explicit yaoi sex; please do not attempt to buy them if you are not above the age of majority in your country. If you wish to have the presence or absence of explicit images in a specific dj confirmed, please ask and I will check. Thanks!

( Read more... )

Updated sold items & added zines by Aijou Bank, Atsumi Anikees, Arashi No Prelude-Sha, Azzuri, and Kotobukitei (Tohru Azumi).

Current Mood: busy

I've been meaning to post this and keep forgetting. Doh!

Tor (the sci-fi & fantasy publishing company) is running a promotion right now where you sign up for their email list and get the chance to download a total of twelve free ebooks (one per week). US Residents get entered in their "Watch the Skies" sweepstakes as well. So far, they've had Brandon Sanderson's "Mistborn", John Scalzi's "Old Man's War", and Robert Charles Wilson's "Spin". This week's download is "The Outstretched Shadow" by Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory. "Mistborn" was only available as a PDF but the others have been available as PDF, HTML, or Mobipocket. If you need to convert to an alternative format for something like the Palm or Sony Reader, HTML is probably your best bet. You can sign up for the email list and free ebooks at http://www.tor.com/ - happy reading!

Current Mood: busy

I originally typed this up as a comment for someone's flist-locked post. Having done so, it seemed like rather a waste not to share the info more widely, especially since I've been half intending to do so ever since I got my beloved new Cybook ebook reader just before Christmas.

For the sake of everyone who wants a better/easier way to grab stories (especially from sites like adultfanfiction.com and fanfiction.net) to read offline, here's three good (free) options (the best, IMHO, is the last one):

First, there's an online fic download helper site which supports 19 sites available at http://www.ficsavers.com/. Haven't used it myself, but I've heard it works pretty well and can make it much easier to get stories as nice clean HTML that can be easily converted to any other desired format. From the site: "FicSavers.Com allows you to easily save stories from many fan fiction archives to plain .html files with customizable font & background colors and font faces."

The first freeware program - which I used for quite a while before finding something even better - is DeFFNetizer. Just give it the story id and it will download & save all of the stories chapters in individual HTML files. It works for Fanfiction.Net and TTHFanFic.Com (Twisting The Hellmouth), plus has either limited current functionality or planned future functionality for FicWad.Com, LOTRFanFiction.Com, PortKey.Org, HarryPotterFanFiction.Com, and PhoenixSong.net. DeFFNetizer is available for Windows and Mac, plus Python source code is available if anyone's particularly adventurous.

The third option, Fanfiction Downloader, is my favourite. It's available for Windows only; I'm not sure whether the developer would be willing/able to compile a version for Mac or not. The current release (3.8) supports the following sites:

- fanfiction.net
- fanfiktion.de
- checkmated.com
- portkey.org
- adultfanfiction.net
- Animexx.de (test)
- Fictionalley.org (schnoogle, astronomy....)
- Fictionpress.com

Fanfiction Downloader will save as individual chapters or as a single file. The developer originally wrote it for his own convenience in transferring fanfiction to his Palm for offline reading. It now supports saving in your choice of RTF, HTML, and PDF format.

Now that I have my Cybook, I generally convert the HTML files to Mobipocket format, but when I just had my eBookwise 1150, I used to convert HTML to its native IMP format.

Anyone who wants to read on a mobile device should go check out the forums at MobileRead. If you have any doubts over how to best get your stories on your device in a convenient format, or even over which device is best for your purposes, it's the perfect place to ask. There's advice and links to software to help get reading content onto pretty much any device that you can imagine.

Current Mood: accomplished

I swear, HP bunnies must be able to apparate because they keep ending up in other fandoms' bunny pens and crossbreeding. :P Finished this late last night and held on to it till I gave it a once-over at lunch today.

Let's see if anyone figures this crossover out before the last line gives it away.

( HP drabble/ficlet - gen, AU, xover, FRC (Fan Rated Suitable for Children) )

Current Mood: amused

...I finally have a tiny bit of something to post. *checks journal* Good grief, I can't believe it's been well over a year since the last part of this went up. Yikes. *eyes posting dates of other WIPs and winces again* Still working on other stories as well. Frustratingly enough, the muses were cooperating this weekend but my mom kept interrupting me to rescue her from computer problems. *head->desk* Argh!

Anyway, here's the next (somewhat short, sorry!) part of that untitled HP/BtVS crossover WIP. Let's not discuss how many times I've re-written this in order to get things to fall in place for the following parts, shall we?

( Read more... )

Previous bits here: 1, 2, and 3.

Current Mood: aggravated

I'd truly hoped to have several things ready to post by now. I had vacation booked last week and had planned to spend most of it writing and dealing with other fandom-related things such as updating the guest stories on my site. Unfortunately, those plans were rather abruptly changed.

My favourite uncle was, unexpectedly and shockingly, diagnosed with terminal cancer late last week, was given the choice of hospice or home, and chose home. He spent a single day at home, held on until the relatives made it there, and passed away within hours of the last arrival.

Understandably enough, my fandom-oriented vacation plans were rather abruptly abandoned. I'm not making any predictions or promises regarding when I'll be getting things back on track again, as my thought processes at the moment are extremely scattered.

Just posting so that people will know that I am still around, just possibly taking a bit of a break from fandom in general while I try to get back on a more even keel. Even without challenging the power of "worse", it seems like every time that I start to think I'm getting things under control in Real Life, something comes along to swamp me again. Right now, it feels like the score is Real Life: 5000 - Calic0cat: 0.

Disabling comments here as I'd only end up feeling guilty for not having the time, energy, or interest to respond to them. I'm feeling a rather urgent need to focus on Real Life - and family in particular - for the next little while.

Current Mood: depressed

For all the fans out there - be they fans of a show or a book or whatever the case may be - I'd like to recommend that you go read Salvos Against Big Brother, an ongoing series of articles by author Eric Flint. Published in the Jim Baen's Universe online sci-fi magazine over the past year or so, they're a thought-provoking look at just how free distribution of music/books/etc. actually benefits authors/singers/etc., contrary to the hogwash touted by the RIA (among others, including certain authors, studios, and publishing companies). The whole concept of "fair use" comes up repeatedly, along with the idea that copyright has become far too restrictive. Flint doesn't just offer rhetoric, either - he offers hard facts to back up his statements (such as the fact that, directly contrary to normal book sales, several of his own novels sold (and have continued to sell) more copies after he made them available in the Baen Free Library than they did before).

Go, read, and soak up the arguments. Methinks they apply to fanart and fanfic just as well as to the topics that Flint is addressing directly. If only more authors/singers/artists felt this way and banded together to force the publishing/recording/TV & movie companies to fall in line... *wistful sigh*

Current Mood: contemplative

Why, oh why, does HP seem to spawn so darn many AU xover drabbles/ficlets for me when every other fandom spawns long stories? And why won't the darn muse let me concentrate on my WIPs instead of providing me with these annoyingly persistent new plot bunnies? *sigh*

( HP drabble/ficlet - gen, AU, xover, FRC (Fan Rated Suitable for Children) )

Current Mood: frustrated

Urk. Sorry to everyone that I owe email or journal replies to; I'll try to catch up on at least the emails/posts that require a response sometime over the next week or so. If you really need an answer and I don't get back to you before the weekend, drop me another line and I'll make sure that I get a response out.

Just when I thought things were settling down a bit in RL, everything got very hectic all at once. A community group that I'm involved with suddenly needed a website built from the ground up in a matter of days, after the rather grandiose plans (why use popular open source software when you can re-invent the wheel by coding your own photo gallery/forum/etc. from the ground up!) of the volunteer in charge of it failed to materialize. I'd never used Drupal before but it was the best option for their requirements, so I spent a few days rather frantically familiarizing myself with the system and its plugins.

Then, three different major technology projects at work hit major glitches at the software/service supplier's end that left me scrambling to cobble together workarounds that would give us something remotely approaching the promised functionality.

There were four - no, correction, five - equine-related events (2 plowing matches, 2 horse shows, and 1 parade) in less than four weeks.

And, on top of all that, we have well water and the pump quit working; between trying to find parts and tracking down exactly what was actually wrong with the darn thing, it took a whole week to get it fixed. With hot weather and two horses in the barn, that meant a lot of buckets had to be hauled from the garden hose (all five hundred or so feet of it stretched across the field from my brother's place) to the barn, another hundred plus feet away. Then, of course, there was more water to be hauled an even longer distance to the house in order to flush the darn toilet. Plus laundry had to be done and showers taken next door at my brother's as well. :P Not fun.

And this week isn't getting off to a very good start, either - I had a dead UPS waiting to greet me at work this morning and the tape backup hardware also appears to be dying. A brand new server needs the operating system reinstalled because it came with the 64-bit version installed and the software that needs to go on it isn't compatible. Oh, and my immediate supervisor (who places the hardware orders and was supposed to be getting an experienced tech out to look at the backup hardware) is on vacation all week. And, just before I left the office for the day, I was informed that we need several laptops completely reconfigured for use at a convention - oh, and they need them ready tomorrow. (But, of course, no one actually knows exactly what needs to be reconfigured, so I have to try to contact someone and find that out first!) ARGH!

On top of that, my muse has been demanding my attention throughout the entire time period that I haven't been able to spare any time for writing! Very frustrating, especially considering how long I've been battling writer's block. I've squeezed in a few minutes here and there to poke at a couple of things but the only thing ready for posting is a little HP xover (yes, another one :P ) drabble/ficlet. I'll post it separately in a few minutes. I haven't quite decided what to do with these tiny HP drabbles as far as posting them anywhere other than on my journal. I may have to create a new category on my site just for the teeny-tinies, as I hate to clutter up the main categories with them, especially since I know a lot of people don't like to read the real short stuff.

I will try to get around to a site update this coming weekend, as we don't currently have any horse shows or anything scheduled for then. *crosses fingers*

Current Mood: frustrated

I really wanted to get this posted in time for Harry's birthday but didn't quite make it (at least not in my own timezone). However, it's still July 31st in some places, so I'm going to go ahead and post it - and hopefully won't find five-billion errors when I re-read it again after a good night's sleep. :P

Fits into the universe sometime after "Wish" and before "Family".

( BtVS/HP crossover, Birthday, Not Synonymous universe, AU, FRC )

Sorry for the continuing rather deafening silence, folks. For some reason, one "season" seems to be leading straight into the next without any real breaks this year; we went straight from haying season into horseshow season and free time seems to be staying in decidedly short supply.

However, on the upside of things, what little free time I do have is being spent writing. Yes, the muses have in fact been on speaking terms with me again lately. *crosses fingers and hopes she didn't just jinx herself* It may be a while yet before anything gets posted, however, as I've been concentrating on one of my very-overdue Moonridge Auction fics (GW, 1x2x1) and it won't be posted until it's completely finished. I won't even make any estimates on exactly when that will happen but things are moving along rather nicely at the moment, so keep your fingers crossed! I've written more in the past couple of weeks than in the entire year before that, so... *crosses fingers again* Wish me luck and hopefully I'll have some ficcage to post soonish!