I took most of this week off from writing, after missing only a few days here and there since September. As noted last Sunday, I have been feeling a bit wrung out, creatively, and this past week held several important but unhappy anniversaries. Plus, the beginning of the week was still HELLA cold here, with low temps hitting -12F/-24C (although with wind and humidity, there were days when the temp felt like -22F/-30C). However, it has warmed up a bit, and we had sun for the last few days, so I feel like my energy is a bit better balanced.

I went through the little notebook I started keeping in January of last year. It has fic ideas, some bits of drafts and things, work notes. I found the beginning of a story I started well over a year ago, probably in the fall of 2019. I like the idea of it very much, even now, but I still don’t have a handle on an emotional through-line or on stakes. I could write a somewhat generic hurt/comfort fic from this. It would be fine. It would be one of those things that people read because they are looking to scratch a particular itch, and I LOVE that fics like that exist. But for whatever reason, I want something more from this story, and I just haven’t figured out how to make it work. But here’s the first paragraph.

It had been, Shen Wei thought, a mistake to refuse Zhao Yunlan’s offer of a ride to the hotel in which the Bioengineering and Translational Medicine Conference was being held. Shiuwan was only two hours north of Dragon City. It was home to a very good research university, and when the head of the biology department and conference organizer, Dr. Qiu, approached Shen Wei three months back to give a key note address as well as present a paper he’d co-authored with Li Qian, he happily accepted. Things had been quiet at home since they finally settled the nasty business with the Regent. Shen Wei had been foolish to believe things would stay quiet, however, and he had spent the better part of last week — and the bulk of his dark energy reserves — quelling the beginnings of a rebellion.

Oh hello there! What a week, eh? It’s been the last week of our winter break, and I am simultaneously so ready and so NOT ready to go back to work. I missed the kids and having people I could talk to, in a very structured setting. I don’t really have friends here, but at least at work I can get a little human interaction and then retreat to my cozy apartment to recharge.

While the world has been ... you know ... I’ve not done much. I have managed to write every day so far, thanks to this prompt generator. It’s pretty shippy, but some of the prompts I’ve seen can be platonic. For today’s snippet, I took a prompt (Character A dries and brushes Character B’s hair after a shower) and decided to write about my Guardian rare pair, Da Qing and Li Qian. I started one of those 5+1 Things stories, but each chapter can be read as a standalone story, which is good because I don’t really have a plan for it. I just got sick of putting things in a series. I’ve got several on-going series with no real plan. I don’t know which is best — series or chapters — so we’ll see how this goes. Bonus for a single story with chapters — I don’t have to keep coming up with titles!

I hope you might enjoy the escapism in this sweet fluff. Heaven knows we can all use it.

Da Qing expected there to be some significant differences between living with Zhao Yunlan and Li Qian, but he didn’t realize what a Complete and Total Disaster Human Lao Zhao was until he realized, a few weeks into living with Li Qian, that he hadn’t felt the urge to put on a hazmat suit when he opened the refrigerator once, or that it was actually normal to own more than two sets of bedding. He also regretted all the time he wasted not wearing comfy flannel pajamas (though he still preferred his own sleek fur) or buying fresh and fashionable sneakers.

Okay, okay, I know I am not the only one experiencing a SAD winter, but it occurred to me today how tough it has been without my normal coping mechanism of going to a cozy cafe and at least being around other humans. That has probably been the one thing in my life that’s made it easier to spend the bulk of my time alone. Whether it’s traveling alone or just living as a single person, cafes (usually Starbucks, let’s be honest) have been the one haven I’ve had wherever I’ve gone. It helps me remember that I’m not just a ghost, drifting unseen through the world. I also trained myself to be able to work in cafes. The white noise of the place, the constant movement around me, they engage the part of my brain that goes whiiiiiiiiiiirrrrrrrrr just enough to let me get on with the things I want to do, be it read, write, or do my lesson planning/grading.

It has been especially hard not to have that here in Minsk. Like, really bad, y’all. Add to that weeks of no sun, and it’s going to be a freaking miracle if I make it through this year. *cues up The Mountain Goats*

Blessedly, the sun came out today. I nearly missed it because I didn’t roll out of bed until nearly 1 PM. Then I was going to give myself time to let the coffee kick in and go for a walk around 3, but I noticed the clouds were rolling back in, so I went for a little ramble to a nearby park and back. I like this park because it’s thick with trees, so it’s not a good place for protesters to gather, so it feels like the safest place to go out on Sundays. Although today there was a loose dog that freaked me out a bit, but luckily it didn’t chase me. I did learn that there is a police station nearby because I saw the cars rolling out, lights and sirens blaring, but they were headed away from the direction I was walking. So I got some much needed sunlight and relatively fresh air. Tomorrow I’m going to look again for the Asian market (I couldn’t find it on Saturday, but it was also pretty crowded in the area, so I didn’t look to hard). I’m hoping to have a nice little New Year’s feast for myself. I got frozen dumplings. There is a brand of frozen/packaged Korean food called Bibigo that I found here (I’ve had it in other places as well and know it’s good stuff), so I bought dumplings. I’m hoping to find some good ingredients at the Asian market to make banchan for the rest of the meal. My Chinese and Korean students both recommended the store, which seems like a good sign for me. And since tomorrow is a work day for most people, it shouldn’t be too crowded.

I didn’t get a lot of writing done this week, at least, not that I was particularly thrilled with, but I’ve done a LOT this year already, so I’m just going to be kind to myself and proud that I managed to make words that are reasonably good when I was under such a heavy cloud. This week’s snippet is from a vignette I put up earlier this week. The prompt was “clothes/role switching” and it was for the SangCheng month. I wrote something for my Vague Modern Cultivators AU. Really, though, it was an excuse for me to imagine Jiang Cheng in a crop top.

Jiang Cheng pinches the bridge of his nose and exhales sharply. He opens his mouth to speak, but the whole thing is so fucking … weird … and he needs another minute. Nie Huaisang is, of course, wholly unbothered by it. He sits on the fallen, moss-covered log as though he were comfortably lounging on their sofa at home, one leg crossed over the other, the picture of ease. Jiang Cheng, on the other hand, paces, dead leaves crunching underfoot.

Happy Sunday! I’m having a (hopefully) quiet Sunday in as usual. We have one more week of classes before winter break, and I am d-r-a-g-g-i-n-g. I have a few units to finish with the kiddos, grades to enter, and all that jazz, but it feels manageable. Mostly.

I’ve read a few couple good books recently. I’m nearly finished with Wicked Fox by Kat Cho. My elevator pitch for this book is that it is Percy Jackson meets K-Pop, although there really isn’t K-Pop in it. It’s set in modern day Seoul, and the main characters are Miyoung, a gumiho, and Jihoon, a boy Miyoung meets while she’s fighting a demon. The other book I finished recently is The Epic Crush of Genie Lo by FC Yee (elevator pitch - Percy Jackson meets Journey to the West). It’s set in modern day Bay Area, California, and Genie Lo, the protagonist, finds out she is a reincarnation of the Monkey King’s spiritual weapon. Both stories are action-packed, filled with interesting details from Korean and Chinese myth, and have kick-ass heroines. Both have sequels/companion novels that are also out now.

Writing continues to move along. I signed up for Get Your Words Out for 2021. I am sticking with the writing habit pledge and the 240 day journeyman level. I’ve surpassed that goal this year, but nowhere near the next tier, which is 350 days. There are more tiers available in the word count pledges, but I found that this year, even when the brain weasels were exceptionally bitey, I could still make notes or work on a story outline and it counted as my work for the day.

Speaking of my work for the day, I’m working through the SangCheng 2020 Month prompts over on Twitter. I haven’t done all of them. I didn’t vibe with the fake dating prompt and a couple others, but mostly I’m still writing things I like. And my snippet for today is the beginning of a WIP in my modern witchcraft AU, and peeps, it is gonna HURT.

Of all the secrets Nie Huaisang keeps from Jiang Cheng, this is probably the one that is the hardest to understand. He stands outside the nondescript brick building, hands jammed into the pockets of his jacket and steels himself, as he does every time he comes here. Three years on, and it hasn’t gotten any easier. He allows himself ten deep breaths before trudging up the stairs and tugging on the brass handle of the green wooden door.

Heyyyyyyy! Y’all! I met my NaNo goal this year. Exceeded it, actually. Initially, I set a goal of 20,000 words with the intention of participating in JC Love Month. In the first week, I wrote nearly 13,000 words, so I decided to try for the full 50k in November. I decided to just count the words I published on AO3, and that total is 51,223!

Today, I posted the second chapter of Tonight, Tonight, a moderately spicy section of the Xicheng story Love is Making its Way Back Home, the first story I wrote this month. This new story is from Jiang Cheng’s POV, and the snippet I’m sharing is from the second chapter.

I met my GYWO goal in October, so now the writing I do for the rest of the year is icing. I took a few days off in November as we went to distance learning for two weeks — it’s weirdly tiring to teach this way, even though I had a lot less active lessons. But now we’re back, hopefully for the rest of the year with no further interruptions. Three more weeks until winter break! I’m going to attempt to write most of the SangCheng Month prompts for December. And, the troll has finally left me alone! Probably! I didn’t get any nasty comments on my SangCheng fics this month, so yay!

And now, the snippet.

Jiang Cheng takes one of Xichen’s hands and holds it to his chest, allowing him to trace along the scars. Strangely, it gets easier to talk with Xichen’s warm hands on him. He’s gentle, but he doesn’t shy away, from the scars or the story. Jiang Cheng, however, flinches when Xichen notices the transplant scar.

Listen, I don’t want to jinx things, but even if something happens tomorrow, this has been the most productive autumn I’ve had in a long time. Sure, I’d rather be living somewhere close to my friends, somewhere with a Starbucks where I can write, but honestly, getting into a writing routine has been so good for me in general. And if I may brag a little, my current NaNo word count is 28,019 words. Initially, I set a goal of 20,000 but I decided to throw in for the whole 50k. As I mentioned, I’m not writing one long story but rather using the Jiang Cheng Love Month 2020 prompts as my framework. I divided it out into four, week-long stories, with a 2-day bonus story at the end of the month.

This week, I’m writing my fave OT3, MingXiCheng, in a modern cultivators AU. I am diving deep into as much fluffiness as I can. I just really want nice, comforting stories, like a warm bowl of soup with fresh bread. Since I still feel the urge to apologize for writing fluff, I’m still working out internalized nonsense about the value of such stories, but that is a thought for another day.

For today, here’s a lil snippet from the current story, Take My Hand and Set Me Free, from an upcoming chapter.

“I never slept with Lan Xichen!”

“Yelling is forbidden—“

“Shut up, Lan Wangji!”

Wei Ying grabs Wangji’s wrist and kicks Jiang Cheng’s shin under the table. “Xichen-ge is honorable, and he appears to have learned from Nie Mingjue’s obvious failure in communication. He’s not gonna try anything without talking to you first.”

“If you stop avoiding him,” Wangji adds, though his expression suggests he would very much like Jiang Cheng to keep ignoring his brother.

Oh hello! It is I, returning with another snippet and writing update. I met my GYWO goal this month, thanks in large part to the 50 kisses challenge and Untamed Fall Fest 2020. While my success was varied in these endeavors, I did write nearly every day in October, bringing my yearly total to 247 days of writing. I’m excited to keep going.

For this year’s NaNoWriMo, I set a personal goal of writing 20,000 words. In November, I’m also participating in a Jiang Cheng Love Fest, and I decided to write a longer story each week, rotating through my various ships for Jiang Cheng. For the first week, I’m writing Jiang Cheng/Lan Xichen in a modern AU fluff inspired by the manga Our Dining Table by Ori Mita — and OMG this book is the sweetest fluff I’ve ever read, so I highly recommend it.

I didn’t sign up on the main NaNo site but instead made a goal with my classroom Young Writer’s Project account. I have two students participating, and one of the kiddos is writing Harry Potter fanfic, and I am so stoked. I don’t think I’ll be able to read it since I think she’s writing it in Russian, but she was so concerned because she wanted to write something that wasn’t PG-13, and I was like, kiddo, you are writing this for yourself, not for an assignment, so you do whatever you want. I’m just eager to encourage future generations of awesome nerds.

If you are NaNo-ing, I wish you the best of luck. I hope this year is fruitful. And remember, some words are so much better than none words.

And now for my snippet, from my story “Love is Making its Way Back Home,” in which Lan Xichen meets young Jin Ling.
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My visa should get here tomorrow! Then I can buy my plane ticket! My stomach hurts so bad! My brain’s response to stress has gotten a lot better over the years as I’ve learned coping mechanisms, but my body continues to react as though I’m being chased by a wolf and also have eaten some questionable berries. It’s not ideal.

I don’t have any current snippets to share as I’ve been working my way through that 50 kisses prompts as a way to keep my writing streak going and as stress relief. The nasty troll who left comments on my SangCheng fics seems to have disappeared, but I’m still writing mostly SangCheng ficlets for the series. Some of them are very short, barely more than drabbles, but I’m really enjoying the exercise of distilling emotions into small scenes.

As for my actual current writing, I’m trying to figure out how to word an assignment for my American Lit class. The standards I’m addressing for this particular assignment are: examine cultural perspectives and the biases and motivations of early explorers or settlers through journals, narratives, and/or historical documents; AND analyze the purpose and cultural and historical value of journal writing. Looooool at explorers and settlers. I’m calling the colonizers and thieves in the lectures. Although we are also reading an excerpt from a slave narrative. If I had time, I would dig deep into this idea of bias, but I do not have the time or the brainpower to figure out HOW to do this for this class. So I’m going to try and make up for it later in the year with a unit on contemporary Native American literature (possibly) or a unit on women poets that includes Joy Harjo, a member of the Muscogee Nation and current US Poet Laureate.

Another week down. Huzzah. (It’s fine. I’m tired. Teaching is hard. Writing is SLOOOOOOOOW.)

I’m picking away at my Guardian Week fic (long past the due date, but I WILL finish it). Here’s a snippet from the next chapter. I’m having fun repurposing minor characters from the drama for minor characters here.

“You’re certain?” Zhao Yunlan asks again.

“As certain as we can be,” Zhu Hong replies, with much more patience than Zhao Yunlan deserves. “Lai Su fell out of favor with Ya Qing, so his access to information is limited to the few friends he has left. But he says he heard it from someone who heard it from Li Yan who saw the cloak.” Zhu Hong reaches across the table for Zhao Yunlan’s hand. “It’s the best we’ve got.”

“Do you trust Lai Su?”

Zhu Hong snorts. “No. Not a bit. But we pay him well, and I trust his self interest.”

Zhao Yunlan sighs. “I suppose that’s good enough.” He squeezes Zhu Hong’s hand. “Alright. Round up the troops. We’ll leave in half an hour.”

As you may have seen, life kicked me in the face this week, which threw off my Guardian Week schedule, but I’m a little bit back on track. We’ll see how long that lasts, especially if I have to get myself on the same schedule as my new school. Anyway, I’m feeling good about that story, and I’m trying to write it quickly so I can get back to my sangcheng fic. And, because brains are funny things, I started yet another WIP. This one will be a companion to the sangcheng fic and will focus on the Older Siblings Club. It’s literally a club. They have snacks. So here’s a sneak peek at that.

“To put it bluntly, my father can’t keep it in his pants, and I have...” he pauses, looking up at the ceiling, “two brothers. And a sister. At least.”

“Well shit,” Mingjue says after a stunned pause, “I move to make Jin Zixuan head of the club!”

“The offer is much appreciated,” he says, a smile softening his haughty features, “but I suspect I’ll be a bit distracted over the next few months as Father’s attorneys hash this out. But I will still bring snacks. Possibly pastries. I foresee a bit of stress baking in my future.”