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For the last two months it's seems it's been nonstop activity, frigid temperatures (today was -19 C with wind chill and it felt balmy) and exhaustion, and I've not had much time for writing. I'd resigned myself to not writing a picfor1000 story this year because my prompt pic had failed to shake any inspiration loose and I've just frankly been too bloody tired to consider it.

But today Bodie gave me a nudge and I suddenly have three quarters of the word count done.

Mind you, I'm not sure how I'm going to wrap up what I've started in the remaining 250 words, but small steps.

So one thing that happened at MediaWest this year was a little conversation I had with m. butterfly, one of my best friends, fannish and otherwise. She'd been trying to pimp everyone we talked to into the Spartacus fandom, and was bemoaning the fact that while I'd managed to suck her into a few of my fandoms (Pros and TT chief among them), she'd never successfully managed to get me into any of hers.

As a joke, I said "Well, I could write you a Take That/Spartacus crossover."

Except apparently my muse didn't realize I was joking and immediately started pointing out how awesome Howard would be as a gladiator, and how great a Roman Jason would be, and wouldn't Markie make a cute little slave boy.

Then yesterday I wrote the first scene.

I now have 650 words of TT/Spartacus slash, and need to find time to watch all of Spartacus, and do extra research on Spartacus' rebellion and the era of Roman life in general so I can write the rest of what will no doubt turn out to be another fucking epic.

And if anyone has any brilliant ideas about how I can turn Howard into a Roman gladiator name, I'd appreciate it. (I don't think Howardus is going to cut it. *g*)

::headdesk::

Had a great practice today. The kids had fun and they were rocking the passing. The game itself was fun, but a bit less successful: final score: 4 - 8, and not for us, alas. The 4 points were all from the same kid. He's quiet and intense and really loves playing the game. Which is good, because he was in the final lineup for the evening and his three teammates completely lost interest in the game and were chasing each other around the wrong end of the field, leaving him to take on the opposing four players by himself. Which he totally did.

Ros is doing okay, but I swear she overthinks the dribbling more and more every week. My mission this week is to just get her kicking a ball around the park so she isn't carefully considering where she's going to put her foot every time she gets hold of the ball. (Her form is impeccable, but she's four times slower than all the other kids. Which I know, because I had them run the field with their balls as a warm up and she did one length in the time the other kids did four. ::sigh::)

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In other news, my mom was visiting this weekend, which was lovely, and I took her to see the local production of War Horse on Sunday. The show was every bit as good as the NT version in London, minus a couple of dodgy accents. (Canadians should not be allowed to do Welsh accents. I'm just sayin'.) But man, that audience had hearts of stone. When I saw it in London, the entire auditorium was openly weeping at the end, but the Toronto audience...wasn't. There were a few discreetly dabbed eyes, and a very enthusiastic standing ovation, but you could tell the story didn't have the same resonance for this audience that it did for an English one. Interesting... (For the record, I was a total mess from the opening scenes of the show, benefit of knowing what was coming.)

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Also, I've broken 14,000 words on the Pros Big Bang story, well over the rough draft limit. Yay! I was beginning to think that I might get a complete draft done in the next week or two, but then I sat down and mapped out the rest of the story and realized that there's 15 to 18 scenes to go. At 1,000 words a scene, that means I'm going to hit around 30,000 words again, and that's not getting done in the next week. But still, it's well on the way.

Well, I've edited and re-edited (thanks ancastar!), crafted a cover letter, tweaked the cover letter (thanks storm_grant!), and finally hit send. And now my first submission to a professional publication (well, okay, semi-pro) has been sent off into the ether.

Worst case scenario: I'll have my first professional rejection letter. *g*

...but I've actually finished the first draft of the Pros novel I've been working on for, oh, far too long. (It's been at least seven years, on and off, and probably longer.)

But it's done! 75,000 plus words and it's done!

Nothing left now but the editing. (With luck, that will take substantially less than seven years to complete.)

And then, of course, I have to figure out what to do with the bastard...

Why, oh why can't characters do what you want/need them to. Earlier this week, Doyle and Murphy figured something out long before I'd planned they would. (Too smart for their own good, those lads) And just now the main antagonist has completely changed his plans on me. F*cker.

And so, to procrastinate from further writing of the Really Long Pros Epic, a quotes meme, courtesy of gblvr

Go here and look through random quotes until you find 5 that you think reflect who you are or what you believe. Repost in your journal and see if anyone else wants to play. (You may need to refresh a few times to find enough.)

( My quotes, got all in one go... )

Okay, back to the RLPE.