So I ended up with a fairly early posting date - June the 10th - which pushes up my need for a beta! Is anyone out there willing to give this story a chance, whether it's only for spelling grammar issues, only for plotty-type things, or both? I'd seriously be open to any kind of help. At the moment, I could probably send the first half of the story which I've combed over and filled in the blanks.

Offering cookies, future beta!services in turn, and eternal gratitude.

And in case you don't know the specifics, it's a Sam/Dean case fic set in a vague Season 12, and technically a sequel to Don't Let it Ride You (though the boys haven't been involved for 15 years or so).

♥

Thanks to some last minute crazy writing sessions with Team Procrastination, I managed to finish a draft for spn_j2_bigbang this year! Only, the story might not be what you would expect from me...

ANAGRAM
[Jensen Ackles/Jared Padalecki/Tahmoh Penikett]

Jared and Jensen met in college, two English majors who became inseparable. Their friendship led them to accept teaching positions at the same private high school. Nothing could come between them until Jared – ignoring his own awakening feelings – decides to set Jensen up on a blind date with his handsome friend Tahmoh, a former Olympic swimmer turned coach. Through falling in love, pulling away, and more than their share of sexual tension, the three men are forced to figure out a way they can coexist together before individual relationships crumble for good. Like an anagram puzzle, there might just be more than one way to fix this unexpected love triangle.

So yes, it IS a story that ends up in a poly relationship, which is something I've only done once before! It started out as a cute PWP featuring Jensen & Tahmoh only that I was writing for dugindeep (LOL who else?), but it was pretty obvious that Jared wasn't going to be ignored. I'm such a J2 shipper that Jared was heavily featured already as Jensen's platonic soulmate, and it didn't take a lot of convincing to add him into the relationship mix as well.

So if you saw the summary during claims and thought, 'I don't know if there's enough J2 for me to read this...' FEAR NOT. There is plenty ♥ I made sure J2 is just as much of a focus as J/T and J2T. Plus Tahmoh is ridiculously hot so HOW CAN YOU ARGUE WITH THAT?

Anyway, I really hope y'all give this story a chance when it's posted on JUNE 10 omg omg omg omg because I really do like the way it (and they) all came together!

My entire 2015 Big Bang summed up in a single GIF, courtesy of dugindeep...



#IBlameAmyForEverything

Big Bang summary!

I have no idea what the final summary is going to be, since this was just a teaser so that cackling_madly would fall in love with it ;) And we're gonna do it up RIGHT since this will most likely be my final J2 fic - I'm so excited!

FANCY THAT [ONE DAY OUT WEST]

In Jensen’s experience, the majority of men willing to share his bed prefer the full illusion—luxurious wig, curve-creating corsets and flared satin skirts. They want to see his stained lips, darkened lashes, and flushed cheeks. These riders, ropers, and carousers aren't looking to get frisky with another man. Not that Jensen minds putting on a show for his many admirers, but he’s grown weary of partners who only desire what’s on the surface. But there was something in Jared’s eyes that spoke to Jensen's deepest desires. He hasn't taken his eyes off Jensen since he walked into the saloon in full costume, lace choker around his throat suddenly living up to it's name. However, Jensen knows that the only thing more dangerous than a gunslinger's aim would be falling in love with one. Though they both make their home on the road, Jensen's job is to celebrate life. Jared's job is to end it.

TL;DR - JENSEN IN A CORSET. FOR AN ENTIRE STORY. EXCEPT WHEN HE'S NAKED.

Not my usual fare, but YOU GET THE IDEA.

Does anyone remember that gunslinger!Jared story I teased y'all with, oh, about a YEAR ago?

I may have just turned it into a 20,000 word PWP that I submitted for spn_j2_bigbang...

Also, HELLO.

Over a month since I've been around LJ. Crazy! Ugh, what's happened to me?

TEEN WOLF. THAT'S WHAT.

I'm already writing my first Sterek fic and, lucky me, what was supposed to be a PWP had turned into 8K of ~feels. INSANITY, I SAY. I swore - I SWORE - that I would never get into this show. I didn't see anything in it for me, and then I caught one episode in real time and that was IT. I was done.

I was marathoning the original Law & Order, so I decided to have a little fun ;) And by the time I posted these on Tumblr, I had backstories for everyone. JESUS. So, I'm going to tease y'all as much as I teased myself with these...





Source.

I'll give you Jared and Jensen's...

Detective Jensen Ackles did everything the hard way. At fourteen, he chose the streets over foster care. Out there, at least, having sex meant getting paid. The nightmares were the same either way. Being taunted at the police academy for being gay meant nothing to him; he graduated first in his class with three solid offers and zero friends. It took meeting the right captain for Jensen to finally make detective, one who was able to convince the brass that an openly gay detective would do wonders for their image. But it also meant living under a microscope... One mistake and the powers would bust him down to patrol faster than a suspect could spin a lie.

Senior ADA Jared Padalecki was just hired by the Dallas District Attorney to boost conviction rates. He left a long-time boyfriend in California, but he can't seem to keep his eyes off the gruff, green-eyed detective investigating Jared's first murder case.

...due to the fact that my Big Bang goes up in TWO DAYS. o_O Appropriate icon is appropriate.

I've been working, writing, and editing like a madwoman, but I'm at the point where any little distraction is a welcome one. Such as Twitter, or posting to my LJ :P Still, I'm positive that I'm going to wrap everything up soon and post Friday morning. To everyone who's had to put up with me, my apologies - I am certainly not getting enough sleep!

SO YES, I AM EXCITED TO FINALLY POST MY VETERAN!JARED STORY \o/ and soon you'll be able to see the awesome art lylithj2 has created. She is streets ahead of me, seriously! She'll talk about making something and then BAM! It's done!

God, I am going to hit happy hour SO HARD on Friday night.

I know it's been (holy crap!) three months since I posted on here (and I am TOTALLY sorry for that!), and just about that long since I've been able to catch up with any of y'all, but it's been a crazy 2013. I moved, first of all, into a wonderful new apartment right on the river, at the beginning of February. It was unexpected as a friend of mine was moving in with her boyfriend and had only used two months out of her 13-month lease. I got a great deal plus some extra money from her every month as I was doing her a favor (breaking her lease came with a $2700 penalty). Living here is amazing though - Shortcake loves the view.

ANYWAY, the bigger purpose to this post is to flail about and report that I DID turn in a Big Bang story. A month ago I would have told you that I had no intention whatsoever of participating again, but the story I ended up using is one that's still near-and-dear to me and I couldn't resist after I opened up the old files and started working on it again. Most of you probably remember me lamenting my wounded veteran!Jared/businessman!Jensen story at some point over the last few years, but I finally decided I needed to finish the damn thing :) I really do love it, and the story took me to a couple of unexpected places while I was working on it. Changes I never could have imagined when I started writing it three years ago. In fact, I started it SO LONG AGO, that the Voice hadn't aired yet (Blake was the name of an original character, but I've since altered him to be a little more like Mr. Shelton), and Cindy Sampson was still relevant to the show (Cindy's one of the more prominent characters in the story). Biggest of all, it was started before Don't Ask, Don't Tell was repealed, and I made sure to add a scene for all the military guys like Jared celebrating the announcement. Hard to believe it's evolved that much!

But now that the BB has been submitted, I can wrap up my edits on my Richardson Vampire Prequel that ended up getting way too long :P Hopefully I can post that within the week and get back to my regular routine around these internet parts.

Miss y'all! :)

New J2 fic coming in a few days.

Try not to die of shock.

What are y'all working on right now? Be it fic (more than one on your plate?), art, or anything else... TELL ME. Give me snippets if you must :)

I'm in dire need of motivation for my spn_cinema fic! Not inspiration, since I have that in spades, but the will to write a heck of a lot faster than I have been. Any tips for speed!writing to get the plot out?

It's going to be such an EPIC week, I can't even tell you :D

First, I haven't really mentioned it on LJ yet, but I signed up for spn_cinema for the movie "No Reservations." It was on television the night of sign-ups, and I started watching and thought it was the most adorable movie! And then, amazingly, secretlytodream offered to collaborate with me for the same film. I'm so excited about this fic, y'all! Chefs, dogs, angst, fluff - not to mention AMAZING food.

Plus, there's spn_j2_bigbang to worry about! I signed up for that (better safe than sorry), thinking I could finally finish writing my veteran!Jared/businessman!Jensen story that I adore so much. Hopefully I'll have the entire month of April to work on it if I can finish up the cinema draft by then.

BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY, I'm going to Chicago to visit dugindeep this week! She's been awesome enough to come and visit me twice, so it was time for me to head up North :) Considering it's been 80 degrees here pretty consistently, I'm actually looking forward to cooler weather! Anyway, it's going to be epic, as our visits usually go, and I'm sure there will be plenty of ogling (maybe over Jensen, maybe Timothy O., who knows?) and misadventures...

\o/

I can never think of a good subject lines for these 'sorry it's been so long' posts. I realize that it's been a month since I updated, and AGES since there was any fic to be had, but FEAR NOT! I am around, and I am writing :) I promise!

I'm working on the sequel to 'It Begins in the Blood', and instead of writing a short sequel, I've combined my plotty ideas (and plenty of porn, don't you worry) into one longer story that's most of the way finished, and totally outlined.

And I DID sign up for Big Bang this year in order to finish a long J2 story that I've been working on for a few years at this point, but it's one that I love and I really, REALLY want it to see the light of day.

As soon as I've got the vamp!sequel under control, I want to create a time!stamp request post so I can get back into the hang of writing shorter pieces, as well as get reacquainted with some of my other stories! So if there's anything you want to read, start thinking about it :)

And in the middle of all this writing, I'll be flying north to visit dugindeep in a few weeks, and I'm SO EXCITED! Lots to look forward to!

I'm sorry I've been such a sucky fandom participant these last few months, but I totally vow to change all that very soon! I miss y'all like crazy.

Lots going on lately, sorry for the lack of updates! I signed up to do art for the samdean_otp mini bang, and I was lucky enough to get an awesome Smith/Wesson fic that's set at the end of Season 6. Art is a nice change of pace for writing, and I can't wait to post it in September.

I'm still writing, but at a snail's pace. I'm up to 16,000 words on my veteran!Jared story, and I swear I'll finish it eventually. Also signed up for spn_cinema and claimed the iconic TOP GUN, also a personal favorite of mine. Other little projects may pop up here and there, you never know!

Also, I've recently been going back to create PDF versions of some of my older, longer fics, that were posted before the PDF craze that's been sweeping fandom ♥ I haven't put these up on AO3 yet, so this is the only place to grab them at the moment. Eventually, I hope to have all my longer stories available in PDF form if they weren't before, and at some point they may all be archived at AO3.


PDF: Measurable Means [J2]
[NC-17 / Romance, Relationship / 8,100 words]
Written for help_haiti.
It was one night, one drunken hook up, and now Jared can't get this guy out of his head. But he never expected the guy, Jensen, to show up at his construction site and want more, or for him to be a doctor. Originally posted here.

And! As a bonus, exmanhater recorded a pod!fic version of Measurable Means for amplificathon, and that can be downloaded over here! A BIG THANK YOU goes out to exmanhater :)

PDF: I'll Keep Tossing Rocks at Your Window [J2]
[NC-17 / Alternate Universe / Fluff & Romance / 17,000+ words]
Jared Padalecki ruined Jensen's life. The life he counted on having, anyway. Ever since he finished law school, Jensen had a plan. Pass the Bar, start a practice with Jeff, and never, ever get married. Originally posted here.

PDF: It's Gonna Take a Lot [To Drag Me Away From You] [J2]
[R / First-time, International, College-fic / 20,000 words]
Africa had only existed in Jared Padalecki's dreams. A simple story of love in a complicated time. Jared is a college student traveling to Zimbabwe with his professor. There he meets Jensen, a member of his host-family. Written for the j2au Summer Fiction Challenge. My song was very obviously Africa by Toto. Originally posted here.

PDF: Dial It In [J2]
[NC-17 / Romance, UST / 10,500 words]
Dial it in: to make small adjustments until you have the perfect shot. Tonight, on TOP SHOT, revenge is the name of the game. Old challenges come back to haunt our final five marksmen as they compete in a new kind of obstacle course. With everyone's sights set on the 100,000 dollar prize, friendships and alliances in the house will be tested, and a pair of rivals will meet in our elimination challenge to see which one will continue on their quest to be our TOP SHOT. Originally posted here.

PDF: Don't Let It Ride You [Dean/Sam]
[NC-17 / Underage (Sam is 15) / Established Wincest / 11,000 words]
Dean and Sam hole up in a South Carolina motel while their Dad lays countless spirits to rest in the haunted grounds of Charleston. It's as close to an ideal summer as they'll get. Dad has plenty of work, and Dean has Sam. That is, until locals start dying and the Winchester brothers realize that something other than a spirit, possibly more sinister, is at work in the Lowcountry. Originally posted here.


Obviously, these are here for y'all to snag :) What should I PDF next?

I was TOTALLY first in the sign-up post for this! MUAHAHAHA. I wasn't going to do it even though it sounded fun, but then my Big Bang posting date ended up being wicked early (JUNE 8TH, Y'ALL) so I changed my mind!



There were a bunch of banners to choose from but this one most closely resembles what I want my story to be about. Lots of porn and pretty!amnesiac!Dean -- something I've been wanting to write for at least a year and have already started. A Season 2 AU with different versions of Bela and Crowley, cross-dressing, and a Sam who can't resist this new version of his brother. :D Sound good?

It's not much of a surprise, since most of y'all already know the gist and the title, but for spn_j2_bigbang this year...

THE IDLE JOB
pairing. Jensen/Jared.
rating. NC17.
genre. AU like WHOA. Modern Dystopian AU.

Texas Ranger Jensen Ackles always walks into a new town the same way – with two eyes open and one hand on his gun. He’s worked dozens of jobs across the Union of Seceded States, in small towns and big cities, scrubbing places clean of the bad elements before moving on to the next job with his ornery mutt, Mo, riding shotgun. Jensen’s personally assigned to Idle, Colorado by the Captain of the Ranger’s Office of Special Projects to protect the interests of a rising political star, and he quickly finds that Idle’s not as quaint as it seems on paper. Idle is rotting from the inside-out and Jensen’s got to make sense of the situation before the bodies start turning up. Throw in a missing Sheriff, two deputies Jensen isn’t sure he can trust, and Jared, the local doctor who’s running from his own problems and spinning Jensen every which way, and this job’s bound to be a wild ride.

And I was TOTALLY lucky to get paired with amindaya for art and I've always admired her style, so we're gonna have a blast!

All the summaries I'm seeing from y'all are exciting so far!

My BFF Amber and I walked into work this morning and we both immediately said, "I didn't sleep last night!"

Cue the yawning.

One Red Bull each later (she got the big one, but I think she needed it a little more!), and I'm ready to get back to writing my Big Bang. I'm already over 14,000 words, so the word count's definitely not going to be a problem, but I have a huge mental block when it comes to writing first drafts. I'm compulsive, I need to write my stories in order with full scenes! No bare outlines or short scenes for fillers... I think that's going to be my problem. Considering this upcoming weekend might be a wash because of Amber's three-day birthday celebration, I might not get a heck of a lot done.

But I am enjoying my Big Bang so far -- it's got some fun banter, some UST, and an actual PLOT. You can think of it as a story similar to my CSI verse, if Jared was a Doctor and Jensen cared way less about forensics, and if CSI was set in an entirely new country created when Texas, and several other states, seceded from the US. FUN, RIGHT?!

In fact, have a snippet!

Cassidy pauses as a long shadow darkens their table. Jensen’s eyes travel up and up to see the Doc grinning down at them.

“Hey, Cass.”

She smiles, more personality in it than she’s given Jensen this morning. “Is Bill in the office this morning?”

“It’s his last day in before he heads down to Houston for a month.” Jared acknowledges Jensen with the barest of nods, turning around to find an open table.

The Doc’s hair is damp at the ends from a recent shower, his t-shirt crisp and loose around his waist. The v-neck cut dips low enough for Jensen to see a dusting of hair darkening Jared’s skin.

“Why don’t you join us?” Cassidy asks. Jensen cocks his head, stares her down, but she challenges with a simple shrug. “I’m sure the Ranger here doesn’t mind, I’ve already crashed his lonely breakfast.”

The Doc grabs a chair, elbows spreading the width of the tabletop. Stabbing at a biscuit, Jensen doesn’t contribute to the conversation between the deputy and the doctor, eating becomes his singular focus.

Jared clears his throat a few minutes later, twirling the glass of cranberry juice set in front of him. The waitress had been kind enough to serve him something besides charred coffee, but she continued to ignore Jensen’s glare.

“Can I ask if there’s been any progress on finding the Sheriff?”

Cassidy shoots Jensen a look. “We don’t exactly have the resources for a manhunt, Jared.” Her voice is stretched, careful. “I’m looking into some things, but it’s been four days.”

“Meaning, you don’t think he’s coming back.”

“Meaning,” Jensen cuts in with a snarl, “I don’t think your Sheriff wants to be found.”

It's funny, as well, that I'm calling this "inspired by" Justified, but the more I watch the show, the more I realize that it parallels pretty nicely. My Big Bang coach dugindeep and I have been marathoning the show, and every time a plot point comes up that I've used without knowing it's in the show, we laugh :)

How are y'all doing this Tuesday afternoon?

I had a Big Bang filter in the past but hardly used it, and I don't plan on recreating it, so if me talking about BB is something you're not interested in (it doesn't happen all that often), feel free to scroooooooooll.

I'm currently waffling between two ideas for my Big Bang. Because I have so much going on and not all the time in the world to write, I thought it would be a good idea to jump back into the veteran!Jared/businessman!Jared story that I already have 10K on (most of which was written last year). It needs to be dusted off and requires some serious brainstorming to move the story forward, but having 10K already would be huge, you know? The vague plot of that one goes something like this (so far): Jensen's got a good life--a steady job with a PR firm and enough of a social life to keep him satisfied. Jared is the new security guard--and an Iraqi combat veteran--in their building and after first wondering if Jared talks to anyone at all, the two start up a friendship that quickly turns to mutual flirting. Both have reasons to take the next step, as well as quite a few reasons not to. Attraction wins out, but those reasons haven't disappeared completely and the story goes on to explore the effect those issues have on their relationship.

But then, pulling out an older story isn't AS exciting as starting something new, and I had this idea a while ago to write another kind of J2 AU involving Las Vegas, a road-trip, and a coma. Yes, you read that right. COMA!FIC. It's absurd, and it's based on the plot of one episode of the old show Las Vegas (which was one of my favorites), but I thought it could make an interesting story if the plot was expanded to cover a lot more time. Anyway, I put that idea to the side, concentrating on the veteran!Jared story, but in the last couple days I can't stop thinking about it, even going so far as to write out the first few paragraphs and outline a good portion of the story, which encompasses ten years! Sheesh.

Anyway, no idea which I'm going to stick with, if either. May 1 doesn't seem all that far away, and I know I'll be away from the computer for at least two weeks between now and then... I guess we'll have to see!

Bullet-points of my life recently coming soon :-)

I'll have new fic to post coming early this week! It has totally taken over my brain but I'm keeping the storyline a secret for various absurd reasons :-) I will tell you that it's an AU, Jared/Jensen, and it's kind of stupidly adorable in my own head. I'm excited! 10,000 words, as it stands now, and hopefully not too much longer than that.

What are y'all up to?

Honestly, I wasn't sure I'd written all that much this year, since I lot of my time was taken up with two or three major stories, but ( the list isn't too shabby. )

My word count grand total, throwing in a little extra for comment fics, ends up around 160,000 words, which I think beats my total from last year, but I can't be sure! Still, impressive in my point of view because I had so many major things going on and, in total, I was away from fandom/writing for three months during the year.

I don't know what all the questions on the year-in-review writing meme were, but I am most proud of Bells Pond because it was the longest and most creative story I'd ever written, my most epic Wincest, plus I think it turned out exactly the way I envisioned it, and Get No Harder. Get No Harder was very different for me, and my writing process was something I'd never experimented with before.

I can't name a most popular story since y'all were so wonderful with comments and feedback on every single thing!

The story that makes me the happiest is also one of the shortest...Come Stay. It's very personal, and every time I read it I'm taken straight back to the Lowcountry where my heart still resides ♥

I also created a personal journal at aluminumwings so I could blather on about my real life and not subject you to all the drama :) I tweeted a lot more than I thought I would, but had a great time getting to know people over there as well! And I became a mod over at spnroundtable, which has been a blast so far.

Goals for 2011?

Start archiving my stories at AO3. I've had the account but things have been so crazy lately that I haven't started yet. Everything will still be posted, first and foremost, here at kelleigh, but I like AO3's aim and ability to download stories in various formats.

WRITE MORE. I dropped the ball on a lot of smaller stories this year, and the majority of my word count total came from only three stories. Hopefully I'll be able to write more when the urge strikes me, since last year from July on, my life was in disarray/transition and I let a lot of little ideas go.

Write in the CSI 'Verse and finally write the J2 version of Top Gun (a potential Big Bang idea). I also want to write a J2 short story set in Neverland (which I have as my j2_everafter prompt, but that deadline is coming WAY too quickly and I don't think that's gonna happen...early January is a horrible time for rough drafts). There's an interesting AU from S2 Sam/Dean that's been in my head for a while, and I'd love to give that a shot.

Write a few sequels and timestamps, too! I've usually shied away from these, since every time I attempt a sequel, they end up LONGER than the original stories, and that's frustrating. But I have a few ideas for shorter pieces in some of my favorite universes, so that's a big goal for me. As always, I strive to be more like dugindeep that way :)

Non-writing related, I want to READ more, COMMENT more, and love the show more. I've always felt like I stood apart watching the show, because I don't write reactions, I don't talk about the show with anyone, and I don't read reactions either. Keeps me a little more optimistic about the show in general since I don't let anything dictate how I watch it, but there's no harm in loving it MORE. Plus, I haven't written Wincest since season six started -- I've sort of lost the ship -- and I want to get back to that love.

Anything you'd like to tell me about my writing in the New Year? *wink* HAPPY TWO-THOUSAND ELEVEN, EVERYONE! ♥