In Other News: About Me, Writing And Sexuality

I already have a new story idea. It might come down to nothing, but I want to write something resembling my own experiences this autumn, in a very specific aspect. The past months, I've spent a lot of time learning about sexual minorities and the LGBT+ community, as well as my own place in it. It has been an interesting ride, and timing-wise collided with me getting used to the idea that a friend of mine is trans. I'm so OK with them being trans but it took some time to learn to use their new name and start to think of them as a guy. (I'm going with 'they' because I'm not sure which pronoun would be appropriate or how they wish to be called. Finnish only has one, gender-neutral pronoun. So much easier that way.)

The whole concept of the LGBT+ community has been somewhat blurred to me for years. Who can claim to be a part of it? How do I know if I'm actually bi if I haven't ever dated anyone; do I just think I'm bi, and is that enough? And am I, in fact, bi at all? How do I fit in, am I accepted?

These are all questions I've been asking myself for some time now. This autumn three places on the internet have helped me to understand the community as well as myself a lot better. They are as follows:

• Gay YA is a blog and a website about LGBTQIA people in young adult literature. I came across them during bisexual awareness week and since then, they have also participated in asexual awareness week and trans awareness week. I've learned so much and read so many important and intelligent posts.
• Quilt Magazine is a site for LGBT+ representation. They also have very good articles regarding the community.
• Morgan York's blog post has probably been the single most effective thing. More on that next.

In her long but thoroughly interesting post Morgan York talks about gender identity, sexual identity and how everyone should be welcomed to the LGBT+ community without questioning their right to be there. She also explains some of the terminology that had previously been unclear to me and she had a huge impact on how I see myself as a part of the community.

For years, I had identified as bisexual. As I said, I haven't dated anyone ever, but I've been interested in and attracted to more than one gender. Still, I wasn't sure if I truly fell into the LGBT+ spectrum and I often thought of myself more as an ally. Why was that? I didn't think I was bi enough, or something. First thing I learned from Morgan York's post, that changed my way of thinking: I am definitely enough. No one can tell me otherwise.

I always thought I was bisexual because that was the term I was familiar with. But as the Gay YA and Morgan York invaded my life, I learned a new term: pansexual. It means a person who can be attracted to men, women, and other people of other genders or with no gender at all. First I rejected this; I had claimed the label bisexual and I was familiar with it. The more I thought about it, though, the more I felt that pan is actually what I am. I'm interested in people. Cute people, intelligent people, all sorts of people and I don't care where they fall on the gender spectrum.

Slowly but steadily I have claimed my newly-found label and started to like it. I feel comfortable in my own skin and head and a little giddy because I have met the nicest and cutest person (who probably is waay ot of my reach for multiple reasons, but who cares.) All the awareness weeks have certainly made me very aware and taught me a lot of new terminology and other super interesting things. My trans friend gets to start their process in the spring and I'm so happy for them.

All this has come down to one thing: I want to write about it. About taking the first steps into the community, about finding out things about yourself, about falling for someone and about wrapping your head around the fact that your friend is still the same person but how awesome they are because they had the guts to come out to you and a bunch of other friends.

I want to do it well, too. I want to avoid any problematic narratives and ways of thinking. This is what scares me a bit: I've read a ton of material on why this and that is problematic, and while I feel smarter now, I'm also afraid of doing just the wrong thing anyway. I want to do it and I want to do it right. There's little point in writing queer representation if I just make myself part of another problem.

But yeah. This is a story idea I'm rolling around in my head right now. If I get it written at some point, I'll probably post it here. I really wish that will happen. Also, if there's something inaccurate in this post or the story, please let me know. I'm still fairly new to all of this and might get something accidentally wrong.

No, I Didn't Mean to Leave You Hanging

I'm so sorry for my lack of updates since reaching 25,000 words. It's just been such a carousel around here.

First things first: I did win NaNoWriMo! My final wordcount was 55,563 and my book isn't finished yet. Sadly, I haven't had time write the final scenes, but I have them played out in my head so it shouldn't be too much of an effort to put them on paper. I'm also itching to start revising already...! I love revising. I get to write new things and get rid of the bad things and polish and make everything good. Yay:)

But as I said, I haven't yet had time to even finish. Nor have I had time to write here. There is one simple reason for that: my high school graduation.

Yes. This important and happy, if tearful, event took place last Friday. I have my white cap and my diploma and a house full of roses, and it's great. It's sad, too, though. I loved my school. I still have hard time believing I was accepted in, and now I'm out already. Where did these three and a half years go?

I could go on about my melancholy and my entirely lovable friends and my party Saturday, but I guess I'm not doing that, because it really has nothing do with writing or this blog or anything. This short glimpse was just to offer an explanation as to why I haven't been online much. Arranging a party for 80 odd people takes some time and effort.

(I wanted to share a photo with you but I can't because my laptop doesn't care for communicating with other laptops in this household. I think my laptop's breaking down slowly, anyway. Time to start looking for a new one!)

Halfway Point!

Yes, today I reached the halfway point of NaNoWriMo, that is, 25,000 words. A lot, huh? I'm impressed myself.

However, I was hit on the head with a horrible thought just now: what if I don't finish? I don't doubt my pace  - the NaNo Stats tell me that at this rate I'll finish on November 20 and that's fine by me. I doubt my story.

I'm quite long into A Girl of Dark and Dust already, and I'm seriously starting to doubt whether I'll have enough story to match the words. There is still a lot to happen... but is my book too short to be a book? I was so certain that this time it was actually a book-lenght book. What if it isn't?

Of course, I've planned three more books. If it looks like I don't have enough story to match the word count, I can just continue into Book Two. It just kind of feels like cheating. I had a plan.

I know this is nothing to freak out about. Plans change. I can make The Dust Saga into a trilogy, if need be. I just... I'm confused right now.

We'll see how it turns out, I guess. There is still a lot in the end to happen, so maybe I'm freaking out over nothing. And I can always add stuff to the middle, if I can just come up with something that would support the plot and work. (That is not a given, but hey, let's try anyway. If needed.)

Now I'm going to sleep before I get too worked up over this. Oh, one more thing: I'm applying for this tomorrow or the day after. It's Stiefvater, folks! Stiefvater!

It's Been So Many Days Already

What to do when should sleep? Blog!

My NaNoWriMo has started off really well. I am currently at about 17,800 words and it's only Day 6. (Well, technically, to me at least, it's already Day 7 but I'm not doing any nighttime writing today.) I've forced myself to write even when I didn't feel like it, because I know I'll thank myself later. There will be days when it's great if I can put in any words at all, and that is why I want to stay ahead.

My biggest helper has absolutely been @NaNoWordSprints on Twitter. They do 5-30 minute sprints, give prompts and whatnot. They also remind me to back up my work, and that's good, because I keep forgetting to do that. Different sprint leaders have different styles and I've already learned to recognize a few of them. It's fun:)

I also like where my novel is going. I had an outline when I started but it only had the key points of the plot. That kind of an outline I need, to know where I'm headed, but I can't have a chapter by chapter -sort of outline. That's when I start sticking to it too loyally and forgetting anything else I could do, try or find out about.

The outline has held so far, except for one major point: Kalie and Vena were not really supposed to get to know each other until Book Two. And they have. They took their lives to their own hands and decided to become friends. I sort of fixed that today, though, because they fought. I didn't really want to do that, but it fixed so many plotholes that I had to. And my friends nicely encouraged me. Thank you guys for that - it became a very good fight and I'm actually quite happy with the scene.

My favourite scene so far is from a running class where Kalie and Vena are partnered up. They have a physical fight (part of the assignment they were given) and it ends with Vena kicking Kalie in the face and the latter still chasing the former to the finish line. It was fun to write :D

Now I'm signing off to bed. Long day tomorrow, but fun. Hopefully I'll get at least a few hunderd words in, even though I won't have very much time.

A Bad Day of Nano

Ugh. Again so very tired.

J. S. Bach is my saviour angel.

Today was not a good writing day. I didn't explicitly hit writer's block but I just didn't feel like writing at all. But as it's only the second day I didn't allow myself to not write - I want to update my word count as often as I can. The second day is not a good day to start lagging behind.

Not that I'm really lagging, thanks to those 5000 words yesterday. Only if I start riding on that and thinking "I don't need to write", then I won't, and bad results. I'm determined to hit at least a couple of hunderd words every day, and when I'm not ahead anymore, then at least the daily average of 1667 words. I'm determined to get this done.

Today I managed to squeeze out 1898 words, so I'm still pretty well ahead. They left me as tired as the 5K yesterday so I think it's time to call it a night now. My total word count at the moment is 7121.

Shooting for 10K tomorrow!

First day of Nano

Oh my God. I'm so tired.

I started writing 25 hours ago, as the clock hit midnight and it was officially November. I got over 1800 words right there and then - more than the daily average needed for completing. So I got off to a good start, but, needless to say, was very reluctant to leave bed this morning.

I wrote a little before my quartet practice (I sing soprano in a quartet of me an my three friends) and ended up around 2500 words. That's a great count for today, I thought. then I had my practice and dinner at granparents'.

When we got home, I was first very busy with getting to know Kindle and getting my first-ever e-books to read! Long story short, I won a giveaway and got an e-book from it. So I needed to learn how to read e-books. I'm actually pretty hyped! Not only I got Auburn: Outcasts and Underdogs (the giveaway book) but also Amazon gifted me three books right away, which are Pride and Prejudice (I love), The Treasure Island (I want to read) and some fable-thing. Then they gave me $3 to encourage me to buy e-books and so I used it toward a detective story, Play Dead. I've got quite a many e-books now!

Anyway, back to NaNo. I started writing again, and before I knew it, I was over 3000 words. I thought: 4000 might be nice. Then I was at 4500 or so and thought: I'll make it to 5000. That's 10% of the total target count and if I can make that on the first day, it'll be super good.

I started to get tired when I was still 300 words or so from 5000. Luckily, I got some words of encouragement from a friend and was able to push it over the 5K line before midnight, though it was a question of 10 minutes or something. Anyway, I did it!

I've also been revising Liberté's creative writing texts, so a lot of literary interaction today. I'm tired and my neck hurts. Will have to do yoga and stretching tomorrow. But I'm so happy!!!

NaNoWriMo 2015 has started out great!!!!

Nano Preparations, vol 2

Only this day and tomorrow to go before my first-ever NaNoWriMo. I'm excited. I'm also a little terrified.

On Wednesday, me and Liberté held a brainstorming session which turned out pretty good for both of us. I have a conflict (sort of) and her characters have names and backstories. Progress! I also have seven pages of notes in my Dust Saga notebook and half of a prophecy.

(Yes, there will be a prophecy, because what is a fantasy story without a prophecy? Of course it has to be in form of rhymed poetry, which causes a little struggle for me, since neither rhymes nor poetry are my friends. But what wouldn't I do for my story.)

There are moments, like right now, when I can't wait to start. Then there are moments when I think "What have I got myself into? I'm never going to make it!" But mostly I can't wait to start. I'm so excited about my story that I want it written down.

This is the first time in forever that I actually and truly believe I can finish a novel. It would be a first. So let's hope I'm right.

NaNo Preparations

It's almost November, which means that NaNoWriMo is almost here. I have a ton of things to clear out before I can start writing, and first of them was my characters' names. I know you guys have already heard of Nia and Nesa but they changed names just now. I went through Indian naming tradition in Behind the Name (an awesome site about names, their meanings and history from all over the world) and this is what I emerged with.

Nia became Kalie. The title of the first novel, A Girl of Dark and Dust, refers to her  - she isn't all light and fun things. There's a lot of darkness in her, and so she was renamed after the Hindu goddess of destruction, Kali.

Nesa became Vena. Vena means "yearning" in Sanskrit and that is what she's made of. She wants to do the right thing, do what she has been told to, make everything all right. It's the most important thing in her life.

I'm very happy with Kalie and Vena. They sound right and have a meaning. They're not too alike, as the original names were. Unfortunately that's only one thing off my list of things that need figuring out...

My absolutely biggest problem at the moment is that I don't have a main conflict. I know what happens with and to and between the characters and I've said their world needs saving. From what? I do not know. How is it saved? Not sure the sword ritual is going to do it. Maybe. Maybe not. The sword ritual is performed according to an ancient prophecy (something I came up with today) and is pretty religious. So it's not a said thing that the religious ritual will do any good... to whatever it is that needs good done to it.

Maybe it could be environmental? It could also envolve gods (often come with religion but I'm not sure I want gods as characters). We'll see how it turns out. I still have several days before I have to start writing.

Writing Mood

I have been writing so much these past two days! Like, words've just flown out of me! It's crazy! And great! I had already forgotten how it feels to write like that, incessantly. (This has been very incessant. I haven't even checked Twitter, which is crazy incessant for me.)

Only they are not my characters. It's not my story.

And I know, NaNoWriMo is coming and I should use all the time I have left before November to plan. But this one just took over me.

It's a story of a dear and old friend, Chrystal. She's been writing it for almost as long as we have known each other (which would be around 6½ years now). Versions have come and gone. This one though, I think, is the final. It works. It's deep and interesting. And it wouldn't be here without all the earlier drafts and one story fusion.

(Two lessons to be learned here, especially if you're a young writer:
1. It takes time and work to come around a final draft.
2. It's OK to melt two separate stories together if the fusion works. It can even make them both better. At least that's what happened here.)

Anyway, I've been reading this since the very first chapter of the very first draft and I've loved each one equally more than the last one. So I'm very invested. I'm also invested for other reasons but I have to leave something for your guessing... the point is, everything I've written these past couple of days has been of this story of my friend's. I do not write the main character's narrative, but one of a minor character's, who is of a special interest to me. And I've loved every moment.

The problem, of course, is that I've completely disregarded my own stories. NaNo is fast on its way - and isn't it healthier anyway to write your own characters than someone else's? Not referring to fanfiction, it's a different business. And this isn't fanfiction what I've been writing. Mostly, at least.

I'll try my best to tear myself away (to a healthy distance) from Chrystal's story. We'll see how it turns out.

NaNoWriMo 2015

How is it that I always end up writing here when I'm already long overdue to bed? Again, it's past midnight. But it only just now occured to me to tell you that I signed up for NaNoWriMo today!

NaNoWriMo is short for National Novel Writing Month. It takes place in November and every writer's goal is to create a 50,000 word novel in that time. So, it's 30 days and 50K words. A novel.

Of course you have to throw editing right out the window and just write. I love the idea. I've always loved the idea. I usually edit as I go, but it's just another form of procrastination for me - as long as I edit what I've already written, I don't need to write anything new.

You can find me and make me your buddy in the official NaNoWriMo site by my username EllieMary. This is my first time attending NaNo though I've thought about it and read other peoples' NaNo stories for, I think, four or five years now.

Which brings me to the subject relevant here, as this is a writing blog. I most certainly will not be publishing my NaNo text here. It's going to be so horrible, full of typos and bad sentences and terrible passages, that there's no way I'd show it to you. However, I will probably blog about my word count, feelings and other NaNo related stuff. (Another great form of procrastination.)

I know already what I'm going to write. I will start The Dust Saga Book One, A Girl of Dark and Dust. It's a good way to get myself going. Otherwise I'd probably just sit around writing random scenes for the next God-knows-how-many-years because I'm too afraid to really start writing a book.

I have the general overview of where Book One is set and what happens. I have also decided to make both Nia and Nesa narrators from the get go. I might inform you guys more about these plans later - now I really need to go to sleep.

(I'm so excited!!!!!)

New and Scary

Hi everyone! It was my last day of high school today. It feels so strange. Finishing high school means graduation, and applying to college, and moving out, and all these new and scary things. When I have to deal with new and scary things, I write about them. So today I wrote about starting college. It's a story I actually would like to continue and maybe I do once I am in college and know what to write about.

Genre: drama?, original, contemporary
Rating: A
Warnings: -
Summary: The first day in university.
A/N: The main character is based on me and the application process, apartment-related stuff and college stuff are based on the Finnish system (or what I know about it so far).
- Finnish universities don't have their own campus areas but the buildings are located around the city.
- There are no dormitories or anything like that. You get an actual apartment in a regular building and take the regular city bus to school.
- We apply in the spring, get the results in the start of July and start college around August or Septemeber

I know next to nothing about college life or studies so I avoided any spesific descriptions. (The only one, about the welcoming thing in the auditorium, is a product of my imagination and I don't know if that happens really.)

I know it looks like a clichéd love story, but don't be fooled. Even I don't know yet what it is going to be (if anything) and I'm really not one for clichés so I suspect it will be something else.

***

On the last day of high school my friend told me: ”Soon you’ll be a hot college girl!” I laughed at her – college was still almost a year away, I hadn’t even applied yet. And though I had an intention to become a college girl, I didn’t very much care for being a hot one. In my friend’s opinion all college girls were hot. I wasn’t so sure.

I graduated in the autumn. In the spring I applied and in the summer I got the results: accepted to major in English. They had accepted only around 50 applicants to English.

I had to move to a new city. After the results I had two months before starting. I ended up moving alone, though I didn’t really want that, but even less I wanted to share the kitchen with five strange girls. My parents helped me move all my stuff from my room to my new one-room apartment. I moved in three days before college started.

And now here I am, on my first day. In the morning I text my friend: “Greetings from a hot college girl.” It’s her turn to laugh at me. I’m too scared to laugh.

I spent a great deal of time last night deciding what to wear, so that I wouldn’t have to panic in the morning. A good move. I’m not in any state to think, so I just grab the clothes waiting for me and put my hair up on a ponytail.

I’m pretty sure I look cute. At least I chose the clothes with that goal in mind. And cute equals confident, so when I step out of the street door of my apartment building, I don’t feel quite as sick as I otherwise would.

I have travelled the distance from my apartment to the university main building every day since my arrival. Also a good move. I get to the university in no time and with no memory of the bus ride. Finally, finally, I find myself among people who look exactly as lost and scared as I am.

“You shouldn’t forget to breathe”, I hear someone say behind me. I spin around and see a friendly-faced boy smiling at me. I stare.

“Breathe”, he advises again, cocking an eyebrow. I inhale deeply at the command. It feels like something is released at my chest and after that my breathing becomes much easier. I hadn’t even noticed I wasn’t breathing properly.

“That’s better”, he says, his smile not wavering a moment. I still stare.

“I’m Nick”, he offers. “If you’re already good enough to speak, what’s your name?”

“Ellie”, I breath. There doesn’t seem to be a single comprehensible word in my mind to say besides my name.

“Nice to meet you”, Nick smiles. “We live in the same building.”

“We do?”

“Yeah. Good to know a name for at least one neighbour, don’t you think?”

“Um… yeah.”

His expression changes a bit and it looks like he’s laughing inwardly. “You are so out of it, aren’t you? Did you sleep at all last night?”

I frown trying to remember. “I’m not sure. Maybe not. Probably a little. But I’m not out of it… I’m just nervous.”

“In the very least”, he says in a friendly tone. “It’s OK. It’s my first day too. We can get through it together and make sure both get home in the end of it.”

“That would be great.”

“It’s a deal”, he grins. He’s smiling all the time. I’m probably mindlessly staring all the time.

We fall into silence for a moment. “Why did you talk to me?” I ask curiously. Thanks to him, the sharpest edge of my nervousness has vanished and I can now actually think of something to say.

“I came out of the building right behind you and I watched you all the bus ride. You looked so tense, like you were moving on autopilot. It wasn’t hard to guess we had the same destination so I just made sure you got here OK. And then you just tensed up more. I was afraid you’d faint so I had to say something.”

I laugh weakly. “Well… thanks.”

“You’re welcome. Hey, I think they’re calling us in.”

We are indeed called in to a huge auditorium – all the new students of the university. There is the headmistress and she gives a speech that’s probably very good – at least it’s short – but I can’t pay attention. We’re sitting quite high and I’m busy inspecting the other students and wondering which of them will be majoring in English with me.

“Arts majors are so easy to spot”, Nick whispers to me at one point. He points out a few but it’s not like I need that. I was in a performing arts high school and know very well what an arts student looks like. I smile at him knowingly.

“What’s your major?” he asks, still whispering. “No, no, let me guess.” He takes up a moment to look at me from head to toe. I try to remember what I’m wearing. Oh yes, turquoise stockings, a black and white pleated skirt and a purple, loose t-shirt tucked into the skirt. My bag is brand new, leathery and I love it even more than the green one I had in high school. I had decorated its shoulder strap with dozens of pins and badges expressing my interests and beliefs. This new one doesn’t have any, because I don’t dare touch the beautiful leather surface.

“You major in architecture”, Nick says decisively after a moment. I gape at him.

“What drove you to that conclusion?!”

“You seem like the architect type! You have straight lines and matching colours and all that! So, what, you don’t?”

“No, I don’t.” I try to suppress my laugh. “English.”

“English? But you don’t look like an English student!”

“Shocking, not everyone fits the stereotype. And what’s an English major supposed to look like anyway?”

“They are the jeans and a t-shirt squad”, Nick answers immediately. As if he knows. He's as new here as I am.

“Well, most days I fit that description exceptionally well. What’s your major, then?”

“Take a guess”, he says and motions toward himself.

He is wearing blue jeans and sneakers. He has almost black, kind of wavy hair that is shorter on the sides. I’m almost sure he has glasses but is wearing contacts – he just has the look of an eyeglass person. And his t-shirt is white with some kind of colourful print I can’t make out in the dim light.

I lift my eyes to his. He’s grinning widely. “English too?” I suggest cautiously. He breaks to a full-on smile.

“Yes! I never thought I’d be so lucky that the first person I talk to majors in the same subject as me!”

I smile too.

***

My apartment is one floor up from the ground. When we come home with Nick, I stop abruptly in front of my door. He stops on the first stair.

“I live here”, I say rather unnecessarily.

“OK”, he says brightly. “I live two floors up. It’s a good workout if you run the stairs all the way.”

“Sure”, I say a bit awkwardly. “Um, thanks for today. We’ll probably see each other around.”

“Maybe we could take the bus together tomorrow too?” he asks.

“Yeah, sure.”

“I’ll come and ring your doorbell in the morning!”

“OK”, I say a bit confused by the quick turn of the conversation. “I like to be in time. So if you’re not here so that we can make it to the 8.35 bus, I’m leaving.”

“I’ll be there”, he smiles. “Bye then!”

“Bye.”

He turns and runs up. On the landing he looks at me, still smiling, and waves his hand.

Rambling in the Middle of the Night

I have a Malec headcanon idea I should write a fic about. It features karaoke and deep conversation about a subject I imagine neither Alec nor Magnus has very much desired to discuss. I'll try to get to it in the following weeks - now that school is (almost) over I finally have time! I got positive feedback on my last fic so I hope you'll like this one too^^

It's 0:18 am so I should go to sleep. I have to go to sleep before I get too excited about this and start writing straight away. Good night, everybody!

A Part of a Scene

Still remember what is The Dust Saga? If not, go check my previous post. I am now here to announce that I have written a second scene of this story, and it takes place in Gates of Iron and Dust. I also intend to share a part of it with you!

Genre: original, fantasy
Rating: A
Warnings: -
Summary: A part of a scene where Nia and Nesa fight over something important Nia failed to do.
A/N: I want to heavily stress that this is still mere drafting, me getting to know my characters and coming up with storylines. So it is very likely this is far from what happens in the actual story when it someday exists. But please enjoy nonetheless. I am not going to explain this situation... you make your own conclusions and ask if you feel like it:) I just want to avoid major spoilers, so, not saying more at this point. Oh, they are both girls, if that happens to affect your way of thinking. (It would mine, so.)

”Keep it? So you would just keep a thing like this from me?”

     “Nesa, I kept it because I had to. Because I knew this was what you’d say!”

     “Well you were right! Except that now I’m double hurt, because you didn’t respect what we agreed to and because you didn’t tell me about it!”

     “Would you? Would you have told me?!”

     “No! Because there’d have been nothing to tell! I would have done what we promised each other to do, but apparently something that ‘just came up’ was more important than saving this whole freaking world!”

     “It’s not ‘just something’”, I say more quietly. ”It was a decision I couldn’t make.”

     “Well that’s too bad!” She’s still screaming, but then her tone changes abruptly. “Give me the Sword.”

     “What? Why?”

     “Because some has to do it. If you can’t, then fine, I will.”

     “No”, I say before I can think about it. “You can’t go in there.”

     “I’m sick of this! I’m sick of you telling me what I can or can’t do! I’m just as capable as you! Now just give me the fucking Sword.”

     I stare in her eyes, fierce, fiery and so beautiful. Full of hatred. And my heart breaks. I’ve gone through the gates and I didn’t do what we agreed to do, at any cost. Even at the cost of our own lives.

Drafting

I've recently started planning a new fantasy story, a four-part series called The Dust Saga. I don't know very much yet, but I do know the names of the books. They are as follows:

1. A Girl of Dark and Dust
2. The Sword of Light and Dust
3. Gates of Iron and Dust
4. A Boy of Marsh and Dust

Okay so the articles are not set on stone yet. A, the, or without altogether; English isn't my first language and I'm going to have to think about what sounds right and doesn't victimize grammar.

Anyway, the story follows a girl named Nia, who is travelling through this fantasy land with a changing companion. She might be alone in the first book, I'm not sure yet, but in the second and third she's travelling with another girl. Her name is Nesa. In the fourth book she meets the Marsh Boy, named Bash, and travels with him through the marsh.

This is all vague planning and things might change but this is what it looks like now. I've written one excerpt from the fourth book with Nia and Bash and it's very bad, but it's a start. I don't know very much anything at all about the overall plot or even the plots of individual books, and the only thing I know about the world The Dust Saga is set in is that it is completely separate from our world - so, high fantasy coming your way.

I'll probably update my progress here on an unregular basis, and possibly also publish some actual text when I have something that isn't total rubbish. I'm sorry that there's none this time, but as stated previously, I only have one scene and I wouldn't show it to anybody.

I hope you're at least half as excited as I am!

Malec Week Fanfiction - What's on TV?

It's the last day of Malec Week, a week celebrating my possibly all-time favourite ship in literature: Magnus Bane and Alec Lightwood. I have read probably dozens of fanfics written by other people and thus felt the urge to write one of my own.

Genre: fanfiction, romance
Rating: 7
Warnings: -
Summary: Project Runway. Again.
Disclaimer: The world and characters all belong to Cassandra Clare, I own nothing but the "plot" of this.
A/N: Fanfiction isn't my big thing and this was written for fun and to commemorate Malec Week somehow. It was inspired by a Malec Week tag came question, 'Who's in charge of the remote?' It's very much a drabble, since it's not very long and there's only one time I've worked on it that wasn't well past midnight, so I'm not entirely sure how it will sound to a person fully awake. Anyway, I do hope you have as much fun with it as I did! Set some-not-very-much-time after CoHF.

Dedicated to my dear friend Liberté. I had already written this fic when I found out the next day that she's a fan of Project Runway - it seemed to be fate. Here's to you, darling.


The door to the loft opened and Alec came in, wearing gear, tired but content - the day's hunt had been succesful. He heard voices from the living room and approached the couch where his boyfriend lay, staring intesively at the TV.

"Hi", said Alec and leaned in to kiss Magnus. He kissed him back half-heartedly, not removing his attention from the screen. Alec slumped on the couch and Chairman Meow jumped onto his lap.

"What are we watching?" he asked petting the cat.

"Project Runway", Magnus answered glancing at him briefly and flashing a charming smile. That, unfortunately, wasn't enough to distract Alec from the point in hand.

"Project Runway? Again?! It's like there's nothing else on that stupid machine, ever!" he complained. Magnus took his hand and squeezed it in a manner that Alec hoped to be apologetic. The show went on a couple of minutes in silence.

"Wait a minute...", Alec said then and pointed at the screen. "Is she going to be eliminated next with lots of tears and drama?"

Magnus shrugged and started to say: "I wouldn't know", but Alec cut him short.

"She is. She is! I have seen this episode. You have seen this episode! This is a rerun!"

Magnus avoided looking at Alec but a smile was playing in the corner of his mouth as Alec dashed for the remote, which was lying on the couch on the other side of Magnus. Alec changed channels; nothing happened. He tried again; still nothing. Tears and drama was about to begin when Alec turned his attention to Magnus and said, rather threateningly:

"Stop messing with the remote. I am not watching a rerun of Project Runway."

Magnus looked at him with fake surprise and said: "I'm not messing with the remote. You're just pushing the wrong buttons."

It took a while for one plus one to turn into two in Alec's head. Magnus watched, amused, how the truth dawned to his fashion-resenting boyfriend. "Is this a RECORDING?"

Now Magnus couldn't hide his smile anymore. "Why yes, darling, it is a recording."

"What - Why - How can you -!!!" Alec couldn't form a coherent sentence about why anyone would be bothered to watch Project Runway in the first place, let alone record it with the intentions of watching the same episode over and over. For Magnus, his confused frustration was adorable.

"Shh", he said, placing a finger on Alec's lips while hitting the pause button with another. "We're not watching the horrible show anymore, my love."

"But - but - why?!" Alec managed to exclaim, though sounding already more desperate than frustrated. Magnus' obvious amusement was somewhat embarrassing, as if he'd planned all this just to see Alec's (undoubtedly, in his opinion, 'endearing') reaction. Alec's blush deepend at the thought.

"Because", Magnus said, pressing a kiss on his neck, "while you're gone", another one, "I have to have something to do." He kissed Alec on the lips slowly, softly. Alec went with him, raising his hands to the warlock's black hair and then sliding them down to his cheeks, neck, shoulders, chest. However, once there, Alec gently but firmly pushed Magnus an inch or two farther.

"You are a warlock. I thought that meant you had a job of which to take care while I'm gone", he said, looking Magnus in the eye. The warlock grinned innocently.

"That's what we like everyone to think", he answered before pushing the unresisting Alec down on the couch and climbing on top of him, kissing him again, more fiercly and passionately this time. Alec's hands found their way under Magnus' shirt and Magnus proceeded to kiss all the other parts of Alec's beautiful face. With every touch of lips he got to his neck in response his smile widened. "Know", he breathed into Alec's ear, "that I'll take this over Project Runway anytime. That I will take you over anything, always."

Alec pulled Magnus' face to level with his own and smiled a little. Magnus' breath was caught in his throat with the brilliance of the blue eyes shining at him. "I do", Alec whispered.