Little Black Dress Exchange

The Empty Grave by Jonathan Stroud. The last of the Lockwood & Co series. I found it enjoyable, and the series ended with a satisfying conclusion. The reality of Marissa Fitts was more horrifying than I thought. But I also feel the ending opened for a sequel, with various things Lucy indicated that she had done since the grand finale, and also because we never found out Skull’s identity and why he was such a powerful ghost. But as this book was published in 2017, it doesn’t seem very likely it will come.

Det ockulta sekelskiftet (The Occult Turn of the Century) by Per Faxneld. How occultism influenced a number of Swedish artists in the late 19/early 20th century. Super interesting, and not something I knew anything about. Which is surprising as I’ve studied art history and consider myself pretty well-read on. But I think the idea that esoterism was influential to some of our more well-known artists has been seen as something embarrassing.

Of course I couldn’t abstain from not starting any new books, so I also read Stone and Sky by Ben Aaronovitch, the latest Rivers of London novel. I found it enjoyable, but not remarkable. Though I always like the inclusion of Abigail and the talking foxes.

Never Flinch by Stephen King. A return to Holly Gibney and her PI agency Finders Keepers. This time we have not one murderous person, but two. One that wants to kill a popular feminist, another who kills as revenge for a man who has been murdered in prison before it’s revealed he was wrongfully imprisoned. I like Holly as a character, but I kept putting this book down and then forgetting about it, so it’s safe to say it didn’t grab me.

And that’s it, so far for July.

Fanfic game from kitarella_imagines

If you’ve written fics for more than one year on AO3, go to your statistics page. Click on the different years at the top to see the categories of statistics for each year.

1. Which year did you write the most words? Do you know why? e.g. you had more time; you were caught up in an exciting new fandom or pairing; you got a rush of ideas etc.

The year with the highest word count is 2015 with 137 352 words. But that is because when I signed up to AO3 in the very late 2014, I uploaded most of the fics I had written from 2003 onwards. Even if I had a writing spurt in 2015, I'm quite sure it wouldn’t be the year with the highest word count if I just checked the new fics. So the year where I can be absolutely sure is my most productive one, would be 2021 with 94497 words. I had watched The Queen’s Gambit over Christmas, and fell for Beth Harmon/Vasily Borgov. At the time there was a very active Discord for that pairing, which was very inspirational, and I wrote 6 fics for that fandom, one of them being the longest and most ambitious things I have ever written. I also started fanfics for The Mummy and All About Eve.

2. Which year did you write the least words? Why was this? e.g. lack of time, too busy, no inspiration etc.

2023 with zero words. The war in Ukraine completely killed my inspiration. So from March 2022 to March 2024 I didn’t write anything at all. I’m writing again now, but I have only worked on fics I started in 2022, I still haven’t got any ideas for new fics. The year with the least wordcount when I have actually written anything is 2024 with 2948 words.

3. Which years did you get most hits, kudos, bookmarks and fic subscriptions? Do you know why? (e.g. popular fandoms, lots of words written.) Are there years where you have the same amount of bookmarks and subscriptions?

Again 2015 racks them up, but it’s 2021 that I can be sure of. It has the most of everything. I think it’s because, completely by accident, I managed to fall for a fandom that was hot right then, The Queen’s Gambit, and I have found that The Mummy fanfic seems to have a perpetual fandom, as those fics always are among my most popular. And to my surprise my all About Eve fanfic has got a lot more attention than I ever thought, considering the pairing is so unusual I’m the only one who has written it on AO3.

4. Which years did you get least hits, kudos, bookmarks and fic subscriptions? Do you know why? (e.g. niche fandoms, not many fics written.) Do you have any other conclusions?

Apart from the nothing year of 2023, it's 2024, when I only updated with a chapter on a WIP. If I take a year when I participated actively, then it’s 2019, when I wrote 6 fanfics in as many fandoms. But 4 of those were one-shots, and only 2 in fandoms that are on the bigger side. Most of my fandoms are small, and usually I enjoy pairings that aren't the popular ones.

No energy at all for doing the creativity prompts right now.

Challenge #4

Fun House

Journaling: What is making you smile these days? Create a top 10 list of anything you want to talk about.

1. Getting a message from Stepdaughter with pictures of my granddaughter.

2. Face-timing with my nephew and niece.

3. My cat.

4. Taking a walk by the lake where I live.

5. Going to the summer house.

6. Finishing a sewing project.

7. Trying a new recipe and really liking it, so it gets added to the dinner rotation.

8. Thinking about it, cooking in general makes me smile.

9. Finishing cleaning the house. I loathe the actual cleaning, but love the finished result.

10. Listening to music I love.

Challenge #5

Journaling prompt: Be a carnival barker for your favorite movie, book, or show (or any other of your choice - game, comic, anything else)! Write a post that showcases the best your chosen title has to offer and entices passersby to check it out.

I will do a little rerun here, and point you to this post, where I talk about two of my all time favorites, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë and Gaudy Night by Dorothy L. Sayers.

Challenge #6

Journaling prompt: What games do you play, if any? Are you a solo-gamer or do you view games as a social activity?

I don’t play computer games, apart from solitaire. I’ve tried, and promptly get mind-numbingly bored. I do enjoy board games on occasion, though.