wrote_and_writ

Oh Friends, hello!

Things have been a little bit calmer this week, thank goodness. I got a COVID booster (Moderna) because it's not that I don't trust the Sinovac or Sputnik (well, I don't really trust the Sputnik tbh), but it makes travel easier to have one of the approved Big Three vaccines. I'd escaped the worst side effects of all the other shots (Sputnik, J & J, Sinovac), only having a sore arm and a bit of fatigue, but Moderna has kicked me in the side! I have a very sore arm still, 48ish hours after, and in the middle of the night last night, the lymph nodes in the armpit started to hurt. After a few minutes of oh shit, I have cancer! panic, I googled the side effects of the Moderna vax, and yup, this is a common side effect. Ibuprofen helps, so I'll just keep hoping it passes quickly.

I've managed to write this week! I posted a little SangCheng story earlier this week, and I've been working on another story that likely won't see the light of day for a few months, so I don't want to share anything from it yet lest I jinx it.

But here's a bit from the SangCheng. I hope you all have a good week!

Huaisang hasn’t suffered a qi deviation in months. He hasn’t even felt a flicker of instability since their arrival at the monastery. But, he reflects as he lies limp and exhausted on the bed, that doesn’t mean he’s fully recovered.

Yesterday I drove with my friend to Lymington, to take her gran out for a Sunday roast lunch at a pub. It was a perfect Sunday distraction. I haven't gotten to spend time with my grandpa for ages, and he's been ill for a long time so I've missed the grandpa who could just chat about things. It was nice to borrow a bit from Aimee's gran. We had a delicious, comforting lunch and then went to her gran's apartment in an assisted living place for a cup of tea, and oh my gosh, it was such a Grandmother's Place. There were little ceramic figurines, family photos, weird and random Gran Knick-Knacks. It did my heart good to spend time with them. I'm still adjusting to life and the time zone change, so that plus a tummy full of ham and roast potatoes made me super sleepy, and I didn't post. I did end up posting the last two chapters of the fic on Saturday because I'm traveling on Wednesday.

Today I had to run a few errands -- getting a local SIM card for the phone, getting cash out of my Belarusian account as long as it's available out of the country. Some of the sanctions passed have only affected Russia so far, some have affected both Belarus and Russia. We all figure BLR will eventually be subject to the same banking restrictions, so in order to make sure our funds aren't stuck in a BLR bank account, my boss recommended we withdraw as much as we can to have cash on hand. So many of these sanctions and business boycotts affect the average citizens in devastating ways (see PayPal and the many independent artists in Russia who rely on commissions to survive) while not affecting Putin a single bit. I guess it's better than bombs, but still. It's just another layer in the shit sandwich of current politics.

That said, there isn't much I can do. I'm donating where I can and trying to focus on what I can control, like catching up on grading, seeing friends, reading books, etc. I'm going to get my hair cut here in England. It's been driving me bananas, so even though it's more expensive than I usually like, it will be worth it to feel comfortable.

I also need to boost my wardrobe since panic-packing at 4 AM the morning you leave a country isn't the best for organizing techniques. Unfortunately, there aren't a lot of plus-size options for in-person shopping, so I'll need to order online. I did buy some good snacks though. The Tesco's had Ranch Doritos! And Reece's Peanut Butter Cups! And ginger ale!

Okay, time to grade a bit more before heading back for a nice nap. Here is a snippet from the penultimate chapter of my spy!AU fic. Have a wonderful day!

Lan Zhan is sitting at a low table in the living room. Steam curls from a teapot, and two cups wait beside a plate of almond cookies. He looks up at Wei Ying and gestures to the empty space across the table from himself.

To an outsider, Lan Zhan’s blank expression might read as cold or uncaring, but Wei Ying sees the faint flame of hope in his gaze, still burning after all -- after everything. The bottom drops out of Wei Ying’s stomach, and he swallows around the grief and guilt and shame that wraps itself around every thought of Lan Zhan. Never mind that they had agreed -- that they had made the decisions together all those years ago. He shouldn’t have--

“Wei Ying. The tea grows cold.”

I won't say anything about the Interesting Times right now aside from I have been listening to so much BTS. I haven't listened to the earliest stuff much because it's not really to my taste. You can tell they are finding their feet as artists, and there are flashes of the interesting band they will become here and there. I have NOT been writing this week. I've picked at a few old WIPs, but I have a hankering to write a full story but no idea and little energy. But I'm starting a creative writing unit with my students this week, so maybe I'll write along with them during class.

I am glad that I finished my spy!AU so I can at least share something besides screaming. I've settled on a Sunday-Wednesday posting schedule, so chapter three is going up today. Here's how it begins.

Have a good week, lovelies!

The back door opens onto a twisting alley, with piles of crates and trash cans and a hundred other convenient places for an assassin to hide.

“Fuck,” Wei Ying curses, leaning against the wall. He scans the alley left and right, trying to calculate just how much damage he can take and still get out of this alive.

Huaisang looks up at Wei Ying from his phone and rolls his eyes.

“What kind of idiot do you take me for, Wei-xiong?”

Before Wei Ying can respond, Huaisang’s phone pings. Huaisang grimaces and tucks his phone into his jacket pocket.

“Come here.” He holds out his hand.

“What? Where are we-- ouch!” Wei Ying yelps as something hits his head. He looks up in time to see a figure retreating from the edge of the roof.

Well! A lot has happened and also nothing has happened, which is just the most ... eh. I can't decide what it is. Since last Sunday, we came under voluntary evacuation orders here in BLR. All staff but one have decided to stay. For myself, I decided that if other countries aren't asking their families to leave, and if people are keeping their children here, then we're probably safe enough. No one, not even in the news and "news" that I can find, thinks that Minsk will see any sort of fighting, should fighting occur. I've been packing up my apartment, as I think I said, both to make it easier to ship my belongings should I need to go and because I officially gave my notice to leave at the end of the year and not come back, so I may as well use the time to clean up. I don't have as much stuff as I feared, and it's as good an excuse as any to spring clean.

Of course next week, everything could change.

Frustratingly and worryingly, I do not have a job yet for next school year. I really really wish I had that sorted.

I finished writing my spy AU fic, Lock and Key, and started publishing chapters today. I don't think I'll drag it out with one chapter per week, but I might post on Sundays and Wednesdays. Or I'll give in and publish the whole thing. Here's a bit from chapter one. As always, I hope you keep yourselves well and are as happy and healthy as possible.

Jin Guangyao leads Wei Ying out, down a short hallway (ten paces), up three flights of stairs (ten steps each flight), a left turn down another hall (thirty paces), outside to a waiting car (a black SUV), idling in the half-light of early morning. Jin Guangyao helps him into the passenger seat and closes the door gently.

“You know where to take him.” Jin Guangyao addresses the driver in Japanese.

“Hai,” is the curt reply.

Shit shit shit shit shit!

“Goodbye, Master Wei,” Jin Guangyao says to Wei Ying. “No doubt we will cross paths again.” He taps the roof of the car. “Go,” he tells the driver and in seconds, they merge with the early morning traffic of Lanling.

ANOTHER thing I don’t like about impending apocalypse/ongoing pandemic — my students ask me, a nominal adult, what I think will happen and if we’ll ever fix things. Like fuck if I know! Nothing in my life or education prepared me for this! Most of my kiddos are in diplomatic families, so they probably hear more than I do. I’ve got Twitter and the work group chat.

For real, though, I have to be honest and tell them I don’t know. I try to be reassuring without making shit up. I do think we are all physically safe where we are right now, aside from the usual dangers of living. Like the family of one of our former students was in a horrible car accident at Christmas — the father was killed, mother was seriously injured, little kid hurt and then got covid. One of my coworkers/friends lost her sister this week. Individual tragedies are always possible. Which is why the “leaders” in this fucking world just need to measure their damn dicks and get that out of the way so we can get on with the ordinary business of living!

ANYWAY. I had cheesecake for breakfast and it’s properly sunny out today. It’s still too cold to be out for any great length of time, but I think I’ll walk over to the noodle place for lunch. It’s the place with the “Korean” BBQ. It’s really East Asian fusion, but it’s tasty. And here is a snippet of the CQL-Espionage AU I’m working on. I hope to start publishing it in the next week or so. I’m almost finished with the ending, and I’ve learned the hard way not to start publishing WIPs without a firm plan for the ending in mind. Here’s a little bit with my son Jiang Cheng. He’s not the MC for this fic, but of course he’s there!

When Jiang Cheng joins Wei Ying a minute later, his expression is stormy, but no worse than usual, but he doesn’t shrug off Wei Ying’s hand on his shoulder.

“A-Cheng, if you want to stay, I can—“

“Don’t be an idiot,” Jiang Cheng cuts him off. “We’ve wasted enough time.”

They don’t speak again until they’re safely buckled into the nondescript gray sedan Jiang Cheng favors for this sort of job, with Lanling long faded from their rearview mirror. It’s only because he knows what to look for that Wei Ying sees the tension in Jiang Cheng’s shoulders and the anxiety in his eyes as he tracks their progress south.

“You haven’t asked me where I need to go,” Wei Ying says conversationally. He paws through the plastic bag, which turned out to hold a few lukewarm steamed buns and a couple packets of various meats on skewers, and hands a bun to Jiang Cheng.

Just a little bit of whining to start: our work group chat is all Olympics, COVID, and Russia, with a soupçon of the one guy on staff who can’t figure out how to google things, bless his heart.

There’s no other news. Things are just … continuing. I really, really wish I knew where I would be working next year. Come on, jobs! I’m awesome! I am so cool, and I am such a good teacher!

I’m a bit blocked with writing, so I went through a bunch of my old original stories and WIPs. Most of them aren’t great, at least not enough to really put effort into making publishable. But they aren’t bad, either. They have good bones, as the poem says. So I’m taking some of them and turning them into AU’s for fics. At the very least, they might brighten one or two people’s day, which is more than they would do languishing in my docs. So for today’s snippet, I am sharing a bit of a modern spy/maybe magic? AU with MDZS, of course. It’s been over two years and I don’t seem to be losing interest in the fandom, or more correctly, the lovely fun corner I’ve made for myself, with the lovely people who visit it. I’m almost done with the story and hope to publish it within the next couple weeks.

Jin Guangshan loves to hear himself sing. Which is really unfortunate for him, Wei Ying thinks as he affixes the silencer to the end of the short pistol he carries. He’s meant to be keeping a low profile after everything that went down with the Wens, yet here he is, singing his fat guts out in the shower in the shitty little apartment near the train station in which he’s stashed one of his many mistresses, like he’s a hot, twinky pop idol.

Ya girl’s got covid. While there isn’t a way to know for sure, based on what I’ve read about symptoms, I’m pretty sure I have the omicron variant, and so far, thanks to vaccines, the physical effects have been pretty mild. In fact, I was sure that I just had a cold. But we had a wave of covid rush through the school community, so I decided to get tested as a “better safe than sorry” precaution. And wow, I was really surprised that it turned out to be positive. I had just gotten my first booster shot on Friday (Sinopharm, which is the only WHO-approved option here in BLR, is two shots for some reason), and I had my period, so for a few days, I wasn’t sure what was side effects from the shot, what was just my body, and what was illness. I had congestion, fatigue, headache, and a moderate cough. No fever or flu-like symptoms. I will admit, there is part of me that wishes I’d just ridden it out. I got my results on Wednesday, and I feel pretty fine, like, actually alright. I’m a little congested right now, and tired, but it’s nothing I’m not used to pushing through as a teacher. I could have gone back to work Monday and been fine. But I would feel terrible if I spread it to anyone, especially my students. And since it’s official, I have to officially isolate at home for 10 days. I am extremely fortunate that I have friends and colleagues who can bring me groceries. My friend Rachel lives in the same apartment building, so she came and got my trash (I spaced it when I went to get tested) and is buying food for me. She’s also checking in on me daily. I am getting cabin fever. I could probably leave. I don’t think anyone is actually officially making me stay. (I’m so glad this didn’t happen to me in China, because people get arrested for breaking quarantine and my whole building would have been quarantined.) But it’s also stupid cold out, so I’m really not tempted too much to leave. I can officially leave on Saturday, so I will definitely do a happy dance, then get coffee and groceries and go back home — my normal routine.

I’ve been trying to see the positives — aside from those mentioned above, I’m getting a little taste of what it might be like to quarantine if I get a job in Taiwan, Korea, or Japan, which, afaik, have 14-day quarantines in place for people coming into the country. My brain fog is lifting, so I’m going to make headway applying for new jobs. I don’t know if I will be able to focus on writing, but I’m sure I’ll get back to that eventually.

My story for the Secret Project will be unveiled on Thursday! I can’t wait for people to read it and to see the art that my partner created for the story. Here is one last snippet of the story. I hope you all have a good week!

Huaisang was easy to follow. Once he helped Wangji to his feet, he smoothly passed him off to Wei Ying and offered his arm to Jiang Cheng. At some point, they separated into two groups. Wen Ning led Wangji and Wei Ying away with the promise of fabulous prizes at one of the many games that flanked the area dominated by rides. Huaisang, on the other hand, led Jiang Cheng deeper into the center of the carnival, past row after row of pine-green and gray canvas tents to a simple gray structure of heavy, stained canvas. A flickering electric lantern hung by the flap that served as a door. With his free hand, Huaisang pushed the flap aside and ushered Jiang Cheng inside.

We're back online for the coming week. I truly am grateful that my school takes covid precautions seriously while the rest of this damn country does not. It's just exhausting that we still have to deal with all of this. I know I'm preaching to the choir about it, so I won't belabor the point, but uggggghhhh.

One benefit is that I should be able to come to my classroom to work, which means I can use my computer and work on planning for the next unit. We don't treat online learning like a normal class. We have about half an hour of talking/lecture/teaching and then the kiddos work on something, at least at the secondary level. I would have quit by now if I was an elementary teacher. I'm also at the point in the current units where students should be independently working on writing projects, so I have long bits of time to plan. If I have to stay in my apartment, I'll clean my apartment, which is also good.

I also got a booster shot. It's the Sinopharm one since that is accepted by the WHO. Alas, for some reason, it is a TWO shot booster. I feel a bit yucky, but nothing too serious. I've been really lucky with shot reactions.

Secret Writing Project drops on January 31, I think, so here is another snippet from that.

Jiang Cheng nodded his thanks and sipped the tea. It was a smoky blend, and a tingling warmth worked through Jiang Cheng, down to his toes, followed by the cool sensation of swimming in a lake on a sweltering summer day. An involuntary sigh escaped his lips, and he turned toward Huaisang, his movements languid. He could hear the song again, the melody fizzing under his skin. He looked at Huaisang, at his glittering hazel eyes and plush lips.

I’m back from holiday. I’m extremely grateful that I a) got to leave Minsk and be with my friend for the holiday, b) soaked up the sun in gorgeous, 60 degree weather for nearly two weeks!, c) got to go to Starbucks, and d) neither caught nor spread COVID. I don’t think I’m going to travel during Easter or Spring breaks. Those are only a week each and given ~everything~ it doesn’t seem safe. While I am technically boostered from my initial vaccination, that was back in July. Plus, wow, the world is falling apart over here. ( cut for World Dumpster Fire )
Anyway, I still don’t know where I’ll be working next year, but I’m really trying not to stress about that. I have savings and space at my mom’s house. I can’t bring myself to teach in the US unless I’m desperate. I saw a tweet that said something along the lines of the US education system being not about educating children but serving as childcare so their parents can go to work. My friend in Oregon is out sick, along with half the staff at her middle school.

ANYWAY, anyway. I decided that a safe and fun activity for me this year is to buy LEGOs. I wanted to make a miniature house, but those are hard to pack. The first thing I bought was a LEGO tiger that has a PINK BUTTHOLE! It is the weirdest thing I have seen, and tbh, I love it. It’s so bizarre! They used a pink flower piece for it. Bright pink. I was not expecting it. And yeah, I can take it off, but honestly, I love it. I almost bought a knock-off Harry Potter set called Justice Magicians, but even bootleg is tainted by JKR, so instead I bought a Chinese set that is sort of related to myth? IDK, I got a set that has a Xuanwu scooter. I remembered the name Xuanwu from The Untamed. I believe that was the monster Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji fought in the cave. Anyway, it seems like there are more sets in this series, with Beast scooters and Demon scooters. I’ll try and get pictures later. I couldn’t find a link to order them online. But I figure this is a fun, safe hobby that can easily be packed up.

One bright spot continues to be writing. I hope to keep up my progress even though work is starting up again on Monday. I did not do any grading or lesson planning over break. I really just needed a BREAK! But I have my Secret Project for the snippet. I believe the reveals will be January 30. I feel pretty good about this story even though it’s different from my usual fics.

“Well,” the youth said, fluttering their fan coyly, “it’s not every day we find a pack of Gusu boys so far from the academy, is it, A-Ning?”

“And what makes you think we’re scholars?” Wei Ying asked with an easy grin. “Frankly, I’m insulted. We could be louche merchant’s sons, or goose tamers, or calligraphers.”

The youth’s fan closed with a brisk snap, and they pointed at Wangji. “That one’s still got his cloud pin on his jacket.”

“Nie-xiong,” the pale boy interjected, his voice soft and scratchy as a breeze through winter-bare branches.

The youth, the beautiful boy, winked at Jiang Cheng before turning an affected pout on the others.

Happy New Year!

Real talk, I don’t actually like New Years all that much. It’s in the dead of winter (for me in the northern hemisphere) and halfway through the school year, which is the main way I mark time given my years as a student and now a teacher. I don’t like parties or staying up late. However, I do like lists. I have a few small goals this year because one way or the other, I will be moving, and that’s always stressful. I really, really, really hope that I’m moving to a place with a new job that I want, a place I want to live. But if I have to go back home for a bit, I will. It’s not the worst thing that could happen.

So goals! I’m participating in GYWO again this year, but due to the impending craziness of the summer, I dropped down to a 180 day habit goal. I’ve met my 240 day goal the last two years, and I don’t want to lose that momentum, but I do want to give myself some grace.

I have several cross stitch and crochet WIPs that I am going to finish this year. At the very least, I’ll finish the cross stitch. The crochet projects are blankets, which I can’t really cart around, so I’ll at least try and make some headway on those when I’m home this summer. I also need to make some sort of effort to start a proper exercise regimen. I’m getting older and have noticed a few creaking bits that I should really pay attention to before they become a problem. Plus, I have a family history of Type II Diabetes, and I would like to avoid that.

I spent the last week and a half writing for the Twelve Days of MingCheng challenge, but I also finished a draft of my Secret Project. I will give you a little sliver of that story this week.

“Hey! Watch it, asshole!”

Jiang Cheng’s eyes snapped open and he saw a teen with a sharp glare and knife-edged smile beside him. Jiang Cheng looked away and found he had wandered further into the warren of tents.

“Sorry,” he muttered, backing away from the boy.

“Big shot Gusu boy,” the teen growled, “clomping around like you own the place. Think you’re so much better than — hey!”

This last exclamation was directed at a grubby girl not much younger than them. She had slugged the boy in the arm and was now waving a bag of sweets in his face.

When I was a kid, there were commercials for Honda cars that used the tagline “Happy Honda Days,” and now that phrase is stuck in my head and will be in there until I die. But if you celebrate Christmas, I hope yours was good. I just stayed in the hotel all day yesterday. I thought I would be more sad to be away from my family, but I made the right choice to come visit my friend, so I wasn’t feeling too isolated. I did some laundry and just lounged. I was going to take a walk because the weather was so nice, but I ended up just being really sleepy.

Okay, I will admit that I’m pretty down about things in general. I wish I was home, I wish I had a job lined up for next year, I wish dictators would topple and the pandemic was over, but none of those things are really in my control, so I’m trying to just not think about it. I also feel like a cat who has been yowling at the door to be let out, is let out, and immediately wants something else. So yeah. It’s fine.

I joined a 12 Days of MingCheng prompt thing on Twitter, so I’ve been writing the most indulgent fluff, and while it might not make my mood better, it’s not making things worse. I haven’t worked on my Secret Story since I got here, and I do need to finish that draft up. Maybe I’ll get it done tomorrow. For the last Sunday Snippet of the year, here’s another teaser from that project.

Jiang Cheng studied the scene, a thought scratching the back of his mind. It looked, he thought, like something from a movie. Like someone had read a book as a child and half-remembered the story and tried to recreate it as an adult with whatever they had on hand. For no reason Jiang Cheng could name, the whole thing made him uneasy.

It’s not quite a blue-black cold here, but it’s definitely dreary. I’ve applied for a few more jobs, but it looks like even if I get an interview for a school in Japan, it’ll be anyone’s guess whether or not I’d get a visa. I’ve been following along the news about various restrictions, some applied more harshly to foreigners even if they are vaccinated compared to locals who, in one instance, broke quarantine to meet with a friend who then went to a soccer match, and both of those friends ended up with covid, but there’s still no change in policy for locals. And look, I understand that a country has a right to determine its own policies, but it’s really shitty to apply different standards based on nationality, especially with regards to a health issue like covid. And yes, the US is one million percent guilty of this same thing and has been super shitty to foreigners who want to come for work or study or to reunite with families. Health measures should be applied equally to citizens and non-citizens alike, and frankly, the US needs to do a much better job. ANYWAY. The point is that I found another school opening that might be even better. It’s in Vilnius, which has the benefit of being in the EU but being more affordable than, say, Luxembourg or Monaco (which I have considered applying to in the past week). It’s also an IB school but seems like it might be willing to take a chance on someone with my years of experience, graduate degree, and AP experience, which would be fantastic! IB schools are notoriously picky and want experienced IB teachers, but, you know, how would one get experience? Plus, Vilnius seems like a really cool city. In the Before Times, lots of the staff here would go to Vilnius on the overnight train. They like the city itself, which has an arty neighborhood that has declared itself an independent republic with its own constitution. Love me some eccentric artists! Oh, also, if I do get a job in Vilnius, it’s possible I could use one of my “free pass” land border crossings to take some stuff there before flying home and maybe save myself some money in airfare and such. I could take my winter clothes, some household goods, and books and then bring home presents and things to swap out. IDK, kids, I am trying to temper my expectations, but I still have hope and it’s dangerous to hope.

Cut for a bit of covid talk and period talk in case people want to skip. ( Read more... )

Okay, I have got to clean my apartment today, but I really do not want to. I need to write as well, and even though it’s a Secret Project, I decided I will give some teaser lines each week until it’s published. Here is the (current) opening line: The year Jiang Cheng turned sixteen, two things happened: his mother died and a carnival came to Caiyi Town.

Alright, happy Sunday y’all!

Two more weeks til Winter Break! All fingers and toes crossed that I can actually take the trip I have planned, because I need to get the hell out of here for a bit! There aren’t many times when I regret being single, but living here has made me wish for a partner more than I have in years. And I don’t really want to find one here because I’m desperate to leave and don’t have a clue how to even meet people (in a way that wouldn’t make my own anxiety and insecurities spike — I am aware that apps exist, but I’d rather gnaw off my own foot). So, I’m holding on.

I did have a good evening yesterday with some work friends — actual friends who I met at work. There’s a restaurant that does Korean BBQ and hotpot, so we tried it out last night. It’s a Belarusian take on the cuisine, which meant that the kimchi was spicy enough for me to be sweating a bit, and there were a few types of different dishes in the banchan, but the sauces for the meat were mostly Western, which sweet chili sauce and soy sauce thrown in for good measure. The restaurant advertised itself as catering to Belarusian tastes, so I didn’t have super high expectations, and in the end, I still had plenty of tasty food and a fun time with friends. I told them I want to go back for my birthday for sure. I’ll be turning 42, so we had talked about having a Hitchhiker’s Guide themed party, but now I want to have a dinner with friends. I’ll get some tea towels and embroider 42 and the little thumb symbol as party favors.

Winter seems to finally be here for the duration. We got our first proper snowfall last week, so I anticipate snow on the ground until about April. I’m glad I bought a good winter coat last year. I was wearing a wool peacoat for much of last winter, and while it did keep me warm, I had a hard time regulating my temperature in it, so I got a nice Columbia one at the end of season sale.

I finished November strong with regards to writing, managing something like 35K words. I haven’t written much in the five days of December. I don’t really have any pressing ideas. I have been reading Shelley Parker-Chan’s novel She Who Became the Sun. It’s a historical epic set in 14th century China, which is not my normal cup of tea. It’s got some brutal stuff —war, famine, murder. If you click on the link in the book title, the author’s website includes links to content warnings. I bought it because I’ve been making a conscious effort to support BIPOC authors in the last few years, and I am interested in stories set in Asia more than I have been in the past. Despite my general avoidance of big war and empire epics, this book as totally sucked me in! While the story is harsh, much of the writing isn’t too graphic, and I’m totally invested in how the story plays out. Too late, I noticed that this book is part of a duology, and I don’t see an estimated date for book two 😫. I suppose I shall bear this weight with my usual grace and dignity.

In an “Old Person Yells At Clouds” moment, the new iPad update has messed up my icons, and I am vexed.

I do have a little snippet. I published a new chapter in the fic that I privately call Jin Ling Is So Loved I started it for his birthday and will be adding little chapters (that can be standalone stories) about the Lemon Prince and all who love him. This week I published a chapter about Jin Ling and Jiang Yanli.

Jin Ling lifts his head up to find his mother standing in the doorway.

“Yeah, Mama?” Jin Ling sits up and leans on his elbows. “Did you need something?”

Maybe she’ll send him on an errand to town! He’s nearly sixteen and has been practicing driving in Lanling. Technically, he won’t be able to get his license until he’s eighteen, but still. No one questions Jiang family members, not in Yunmeng anyway.

“Do you have plans for this afternoon?” Yanli asks.

“Is jiujiu gonna be here today?”

Yanli smiles, and Jin Ling feels a little guilty that his favoritism is so obvious, but she doesn’t seem upset.

“He and A-Sang will be down tomorrow.”

“Then nope. I’m free.”

“Excellent.” Yanli’s smile widens. “Your baba is in charge of your siblings for the day. I wondered if you’d like to go out with me.”

Alright, there is no need to hash out everything that has happened since Everything Is Happening, So Much, All The Time, Everywhere. The main thing for me this week is that, with the help of some friends and talking to my mom, I decided that if I am not offered a transfer to a school in a location better suited to my needs, and if I don’t find a job in another international school, then I’m going to go home at the end of this school year to regroup. If I have to deal with COVID bullshit, then I want to at least have my family around me while I do. I’m almost 100% certain I’ll be able to find a teaching job at home since teachers are quitting in droves, something I can put up with for a year, and if not, I have savings, I can live with my mom, and I’ll make it work. I’m extremely fortunate that my mom is willing to let me live with her and that we get along really really well, so it won’t be an emotional hardship to do so.

Everything else is just screaming into the void along with everyone else in the world, so let’s not dwell on it.

I finished writing two long, multi-chapter fics this week! I just posted the last two chapters of Red Hills, my modern cultivator AU. I posted the last chapters of the modern SangCheng resort AU fic on Friday. Those fics, plus a few shorter fics, bring me to nearly 30k words written/posted since October 31. Not bad at all.

For today’s snippet, here is the beginning of the last chapter of Red Hills. I hope you all have nice things happen this week, and that your eternal shrieking gets a break.

Huaisang rolls down the window of the small Jeep as they approach the gates of the monastery. The bright April sun casts its warmth over the spring green fields of rice. Huaisang closes his eyes and breathes freely for the first time in over a year. He turns back to Jiang Cheng and takes his hand.

“We’re nearly there, sirs,” the young woman who picked them up from the airport says.

“Thank you, Song Yi,” Jiang Cheng says.

Soon, the paved road gives way to gravel, and then it disappears entirely as Song Yi follows a rickety fence as hills, taken over with bamboo, rise on either side. She finally stops beside a moss-covered stone pillar.

Happy Sunday, Friends! I am feeling (you guessed it) a little grumpy about the week ahead. We have two Professional Development Days this week, and while I love learning and want to be better at my job, the way things are structured now means we waste so much time. We are required to have 24 hours of PD a year (3 days spread throughout the year). Based on this current model and the way they schedule things, we actually get maybe 18 hours of useful stuff? I have really appreciated when we get time for important school-wide tasks. For example, this year we are going through re-accreditation, so we have to meet to work on tasks related to that, and we get chunks of time during PD for that. AWESOME! But that leaves 6 hours wasted (unless we’re allowed work time in our classrooms). This week, we have to spend two hours in mandatory, team-building funtivities. We get to choose between yoga, Zumba, kickboxing, volleyball, basketball, or taking a walk in the park. While this is nice in theory, we weren’t given a choice to opt out and catch up on grading or planning or one of the hundred other duties we are expected to shoehorn in around teaching (I do not work on weekends or after school unless it is an emergency, like quickly prepping to go online). Also, admin was very clear that we had to be TOGETHER for these activities, but we also have to be safe and socially distant. And we literally just had to close down the high school for distance learning due to a positive covid case. But yes, this is all for WELLNESS.

Then I griped about it on Facebook to a coworker who is friends with the boss (I am not — I believe in boundaries), and he saw it and got all upset and was like “We gave you the chance to give input and you gave NONE.” And I wanted to be like, “Dude, I spent 40 minutes writing up ideas for our PLC groups. Surely one of those could have fit for PD. Also. COVID.” But instead, I deleted all my coworkers from FB and learned my lesson to just whine on Twitter, where I *think* only two people I follow/who follow me I’ve met IRL. Soon to be three after Christmas break if all goes well!

ANYWAY. Writing continues. I finished my Lotus Blossom wrap (which I call as a SangCheng item because it’s fan lace pattern and the color way is, y’know, lotus blossom. ( Read more... )

On the subject of writing, today is Jin Ling’s birthday, and I’ll admit to being slightly self-conscious about knowing this because of some stupid tumblr post I saw about people celebrating fictional character’s birthdays being a little pathetic, but then I remember the second part of the post, which is basically F that noise, so for today’s snippet, here is a little bit of birthday love for the Lemon Boy.

The walk to the practice field takes longer than usual because Jin Ling has to stop every few meters to examine Nature. He demands Zixuan’s phone to take pictures of a fallen cluster of red berries and a cluster of mushrooms that has sprouted on a rotting log. He makes Zixuan take photos of red-breasted bull finches and the spooky hooded crows who make their home in Lanling. They lose ten minutes watching the slow progress of a colony of ants carrying the pieces of a wasp across their path and another when Jin Ling insists on helping a snail he declares to be named “Chrysanthemum” up the side of a broken tree branch. Zixuan sneaks a few photos of his son and his vibrant golden windbreaker in sharp relief of the gray-green autumn woods to send to Yanli later. And though Zixuan is grateful that Jin Ling’s teachers are inspiring curiosity and wonder in his precious son, he does have plans, so he allows himself a little sigh of relief when they finally reach the field.

Life goes on. In my own little bubble, things are relatively stable (knock on wood, cross fingers and toes, etc.). (Alas, I jinxed myself when I typed this out Saturday morning — I learned Saturday evening that one of my students has covid, which means we are back online for a few days. Relatively minor, all things considered, but ARGH.) ANYWAY, Belarus in general is such a white-hot dumpster fire. I can’t tell what’s made the world news, but there’s a horrific human rights crisis regarding migrants from the Middle East — I hesitate to say anything specific because press freedom is basically nonexistent here, and people continue to be jailed for their social media posts, so I trust you can google if you want to know.

I do wonder if this is how people in places like Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico feel, knowing that the US is behaving in similar ways. I follow several diplomatic twitter accounts, just to keep informed about what’s going on here, and it makes me so helplessly furious to see the rhetoric directed at the local regime while at home, similar actions play out unabated (plus literal book burnings and further attacks on women and a mass shooting in my hometown), but also, I do understand that the staff working in this part of the world are only human and should do what they can to stop atrocities here and since they are human, they cannot fix every human rights violation everywhere. Although the saber-rattling, “in the US, we respect human rights!” is just so — eternal shriek.

So.

I give myself space in fic to remember how to be a human and to find a little joy. Here’s a snippet from Tell Me to Dream, another generic modern sangcheng AU in which the Jiangs run Lotus Pier Resorts and Nie Huaisang is a guest. Huaisang and Mingjue are looking for a place to relax as Mingjue recovers from cancer treatment (he will be okay, I promise!). They book the honeymoon suite since it’s really a private cottage on the resort grounds and they just want some peace and quite. However, Huaisang accidentally booked the whole deluxe package, with couples’ activities and everything. The first two chapters are up, with a few more to follow. In this chapter, Jiang Cheng convinces him to try out some of the activities and Huaisang agrees if Jiang Cheng will go with him. I hope you like it, and I hope you all have a lovely week. 😘

Yoga is a smashing success.

Not that Jiang Cheng was worried, per se. But, you know, it’s his life, and he doesn’t get nice things like yoga with beautiful young men like Nie Huaisang. Beautiful young men who are also incredibly graceful and just … so… bendy.

And gentle, and kind, and smart, and beautiful.

And when Song Zichen, with his mild aversion to touch, took advantage of Huaisang’s yoga experience to get Huaisang to adjust Jiang Cheng’s hips while he practiced downward dog as Zichen gave him pointers?

Awesome.

Oh hello! I hope you are well! My week has been relatively drama-free, at least outside of work, where we finished up Julius Caesar and Hamlet. A month or so ago, my mom sent me a box of things — some clothes, earrings, and books — that I accidentally left behind. I knew I was going to have to pay customs — even though they are my own personal items! — but I was prepared. However, apparently when they checked my box, there was a fuss about the books, and now I have to get approval by the someone on the Ministry of Culture? I’m still not sure. Our secretary, Vika, told me she had never seen the forms I got before, and our staff fixer, Anna, is trying to sort it out. Hopefully I can get the things next week. But this is just one of the many things that I didn’t expect living under a dictatorship would bring. The books, by the way, are Spirits Abroad by Zen Cho and The Good Immigrant, the American edition, a book of essays by immigrants to the US. I know it deals with racism within the US, probably the impact of imperialism, so I’m prepared for it to not paint the US in a good light, so I’m not sure why that would flag anything unless books in general are flagged, so…

It also made me choose Fahrenheit 451 for our classroom novel. I was vacillating between that and Animal Farm, neither of which I have actually read, but I have one student who is something of a shit-stirrer. He’s also Chinese and has a habit of painting all countries in the worst light (which, generally, this is fair) but also said the novel is just propaganda and that Russia is left wing, and to be honest, I have neither the patience or the energy to go forward with class debate on it. I am also not educated enough on the broader context to be able to ensure that all student voices are heard while still trying to keep discussion productive and civil AND trying to be fair about the book. I’m much more comfortable talking about the US side of the Cold War and its effects on US citizens, and I am more confident that my students can help make connections in a generally civil manner when we talk about censorship instead of whole political systems.

This is the opposite problem I would have in the US, where students and the curriculum are so divorced from history in context of the whole world. And it’s going to be a good challenge for me as a teacher, because I do want students to engage passionately with work, and I do not simply want to force my own beliefs on them, but at the same time, I have learning goals to accomplish. And these books were some of the few that I had enough for a class set for. I can’t just pop on over to a book store and get new copies of things, nor am I willing to pay out of pocket. And, as we see, if I tried to have them shipped, they might not even get to me.

Anyway! I’m using The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman for my senior British Lit class because tbh, we need something fun. Those kids take so many AP classes, and that novel has such excellent mood and figurative language that I think it will be fun to look at. And bless my less-ambitious American Lit class. I let them choose between The Scarlet Letter and The Crucible for our next unit, and they chose the play.

As you can see, the units with longer works of fiction are still somewhat fraught for me, and they are still hampered by what I can physically access. Fingers crossed that I don’t screw it up too badly this year.

As for writing, I started a longer work, which I shared a snippet of last week (modern cultivators), and then immediately got the idea for another longer work (modern fluff) as part of the Jiang Cheng Birthday Love Fest. I meant to take a break after meeting my GYWO goal and finish making my advent calendar (which has so. many. sequins), but eh. Writing is good too.

Nie Huaisang stands in front of the bathroom mirror and tugs at the neckline of his t-shirt, slowly revealing the end of shiny pink tendril of scar tissue that creeps across his chest like a vine. Huaisang is not a particularly vain man, he’s just -- okay, he is. He’s vain. He spent a long time developing his particular brand of cultivation to avoid things like physical injury. Scars are just not sexy, and Huaisang is very sexy!

Oh hello! ‘Tis I, with a Sunday Snippet and Update!

First of all, I met my GYWO goal for the year this week! I’ve written something on 240 days of the year. I’m really happy to have met this goal with a couple months to spare. I know it is a year-long goal and I have til December to meet it, but when I saw that I could finish it in October, I decided to push through. My actual count is 242 days, so I just squeaked by. I’ll keep writing, but probably not at the same pace. I published the first chapter of a new story (more on that below) today, and I plan to publish a new chapter each Sunday. I’m not doing NaNo this year, but this will be a nice way to keep the creative writing flow going. Last year there was a Jiang Cheng Love Month in November, and I wrote four separate long stories about my favorite fictional son. I didn’t see anything this year, but that’s okay. I need to focus on work a bit.

I have decided not to sign up for GYWO out next year. Or, I might do the very light goal. I have three stitch-a-long projects in progress — one is from 2018 — so my main 2022 goal will be to finish those projects. I might start another temperature tracker stitching project for 2022, but it will be a small one, like a bookmark.

Now to the snippet and new story. I dipped into my Modern Cultivators AU for inspiration, but since I never actually planned that series, I found there were too many inconsistencies to handle, so I took one story and rewrote it for the prologue of the story I started today, Red Hills. You might have read the original story. I tweaked it to make this chapter, and I plan to publish the rest of the chapters each Sunday (6 chapters in total, probably). Below is a snippet from today’s chapter. I hope you like it, and I hope you are all having a delightful Sunday.

“I know, baby, I know.” Jiang Cheng closes his eyes and takes as deep a breath as he can manage without moving Huaisang unnecessarily. His energy is dangerously low but he can access a little. He directs it through hand pressing against Huaisang’s injury, and Huaisang gasps, but his breathing becomes easier as the cool flow of qi passes between them. It’s just enough to stem the worst of the bleeding and ease a bit of Huaisang’s pain. Jiang Cheng keeps his hand on Huaisang’s chest, which rises with more fluid regularity. They sit together, breathing, waiting. Jiang Cheng strains to hear anything that might herald their rescue, but he only hears their breathing. At least the extra corpses haven’t made their way to this floor. The one Huaisang killed seemed a bit more … lively? Intelligent? It was different from the corpses they are usually called to handle, and that worries Jiang Cheng, but it’s something to think about later, after he’s gotten Huaisang out of here.

Oh hello! Another Sunday is here! I’m still working on a long fic, and I’m only a few days away from meeting my GYWO goal for the year! I think I’ll post the prologue next Sunday and then update each Sunday in November. It’s a modern SangCheng cultivators AU. I’m stealing from my vague modern AU series but writing it as a stand-alone because there are too many timeline inconsistencies (because I didn’t plan the modern AU series to actually be a series) to deal with, and I don’t wanna.

I’m still not entirely confident that I can make a good plot. Is it not enough for the characters to simply vibe?

(Yes, of course it is. There’s a ton of fic, including most of my works, that is all about the Vibes, but I wanted to try something new.)

Anyway, today’s snippet is a bit of Huaisang vibes because I am do know my strengths.

“Darling angel lover boy?” Huaisang waves from his nest at the end of the sofa, grinning at Jiang Cheng’s eye roll. They’d put the sofa in Jiang Cheng’s study shortly after Huaisang was released from the hospital so Jiang Cheng could keep an eye on Huaisang and still keep up with sect business. “You promised that we’d watch the latest episode of Dance Captains tonight.” He puts a little whine into it, and Jiang Cheng rolls his eyes again, even as he smiles.

It’s Fall Break! I am so happy! Thanks to vaccines and, ahem, lax requirements from pretty much every country, travel is an option, but I’ve decided not to leave Belarus for this break. We only have a week, and we’ve had some close calls with students and family members contracting the virus, and I decided not to risk it. I do think, based on what I’ve read from the WHO, that it’s probably fine, if one is fully vaccinated and still wears masks and such, but local authorities are stepping up some regulations here. For example, a mask mandate was put into effect last October, but literally no one enforced it. Last week, due to spiking cases in the country, the authorities are starting to actually enforce mask rules, and the penalties have some real teeth. For now, they have police patrolling the metro and buses and public places and stopping people without masks or those who aren’t wearing them correctly that it’s actually enforced now, but there are some insanely steep penalties coming — I mean something like a few hundred dollar fines, which is terrifyingly expensive for the average person here. I hope it helps, and I appreciate that they are warning people first. It won’t make a difference for me as I’ve been wearing masks regardless, but it’s nice to see something happening.

I am going to go to Grodno, a city a few hours west of Minsk, with a coworker friend. I’ve not seen much of Belarus at all. Last year, I wasn’t vaccinated so I didn’t want to take the risk. This year, I’m fully vaccinated with both the Russian Sputnik and the Johnson and Johnson. The Russian vaccine is not recognized by the WHO, but at the time, it was the only thing available, so I got it because I figured it was better than nothing. There is a lot of hesitancy here against the Sputnik, and to be honest, I get it. Given the history of how Russian authorities have treated citizens as lab experiments, I fully empathize. Some American and European vaccines are supposed to be available soon, so I hope more local citizens will have access and get vaccinated. ANYWAY, I feel comfortable taking the train for a few days. My friend booked a private car on the train for both legs, which will help us keep some distance. I am looking to go to Turkey for Christmas break, though. Three weeks alone in the dark and cold and snow last year was almost too much for me, mentally. I don’t know if I could survive it again. Well, I could but it would be really bad.

The nicest thing about fall break is having some time to myself to go to cafes in the middle of the day. I wrote a whole story for undeadrobins kiss-a-thon yesterday, a generic modern AU, slice of life sangcheng because my boy Jiang Cheng deserves all good things.

(Yes, I saw the end of the donghua, and no spoilers, but I absolutely think they did him dirty, but I also read some interesting commentary about it that make me think somewhat more kindly about it, although I’m still going to reject the reality of donghua canon and substitute my own because I do feel that narratively, within the structure of the donghua, it came out of nowhere.)

Anyway, here is a little snippet from that fic. Have a good week!

Jiang Cheng always feels … weird … this time of year. He blames it on the weather if anyone asks — lack of sunlight, rainy mornings, wind — it would get to anyone. But if he’s honest, the run up to his birthday (and Wei Ying’s) is getting harder to manage. Doctor Xiao has given him some really good advice this year, but fifteen years of muddy disappointments weigh on a person. At least next year, he’ll be away at university.

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Entries tagged with sunday snippet

Summer Dispatch #4 (A Bit of Covid Talk) & Sunday Snippet

Belated Sunday Snippet + Interesting Times #7

Sunday Snippet

shrieks and shrugs

Mild to moderate shrieking with a side of espionage AU

Tiny Screams and Spies

What a year, eh?

Suuuuuuuuuuugh

Sunday Snippet & General Update

New Year, New Goals

Happy Honda Days

Those Winter Sundays

Snow Sunday

Coffee Talk (Instead of Screaming into the Void)

It’s That Sunday Update

Sunday Sunday Sunday

Sunday Snippet

Spooooooky Sunday Snippet :)

Sunday, Sunday, Another Week is Gone

Sunday Update — with a Snippet!