giselle_lx

So for ninapolitan's birthday today, authors from all over the fandom, in all sorts of genres, wrote ficlets for her from a gigantic list of word prompts. As Nina is a HUGE lover of my main guy Carlisle, I thought it would be fun to throw a nice CPOV her way. However, a problem presented itself--Nina is known for her love of Hot Bitch Carlisle (and as the coiner of said term) and I, of course, write a very T-rated Daddylisle. But I love a big challenge. So I picked a word, DILF, which is emblematic of Nina's love for Carlisle, and decided to see what kind of a fic would exist if I threw that word in with the paternal, patient Carlisle we get in Ithaca. The result? "Acronymy," 1,200 words of sheer silliness. 

You can find it on FFnet (along with all 84 entries for Nina's birthday) at http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5437177/43/Happy_Birthday_Nina.

But because I was so happy with how it turned out, I want to make it part of my own collection, too. :) You'll find it below the cut. Enjoy!

 

So...I'm probably going to write another fic after Ithaca. I emphasize the "after." It will be a VERY pre-Twilight canon fic, and it will be all about...oh yeah, you know. Carlisle. Its working title right now is Stregoni Benefici: The Story of Carlisle Cullen, and it even has a banner, because, well, I like to waste time. I had a huge mental block on Ch. 14 of Ithaca in large part because the prologue of SB was in my head and wouldn't let go. I finally wrote it, and was unblocked on Ch. 14 within minutes. So as a huge THANK YOU to everyone who nominated and voted for Ithaca in the Bellies, and as a huge thanks to everyone who is reading in general, I give you a little sneak peek at the new work-in-progress: Stregoni Benefici.

( Let us start at the VERY beginning )

So, I'll admit to stalling. First, I hopped off my usual writing schedule, allowing myself to post Chapter 11 before Chapter 12 was penned. Then, after the outpouring of praise for Chapter 11--I'll admit to falling prey to what I can only describe as stage fright.

You see, usually when you write a climactic chapter like that, all that's left in the story is a denouement--a slow setting of the plot back to its original pace. You let the characters recover, you let the festering wounds heal a little (maybe leaving a few open so that the work doesn't end in unrealistic happiness) and you settle everything back down for a nice winter's nap.

Not so here.

Because Chapter 11 is only the beginning of the climactic action in this book, which by my calculation stretches over seven chapters, nearly half of the novel itself. My intention was to lay the groundwork for a slow crescendo—wring this for the tension it has, and then keep building and building and building.

Great, swell, pedal.

So I'm working on it. Right now, Chapter 12 has some incredible moments. But it's not *there* yet. I have every confidence that it will be. It will hit that point I need it to hit, where all the stops on this baby have been pulled...

Except one.

It's coming, guys.

So occasionally I get reviews that praise me for something they think is a wonderful detail I made up, or question something that they think was too far for the Cullens. Thus, I thought it might be prudent to post the paragraph from which almost every detail in Ithaca is sourced. It is on page 400 of the hardcover edition of New Moon: (italics indicate details that have appeared or will appear.)

"Carlisle was working nights in Ithaca and teaching part-time at Cornell. Esme was restoring a seventeenth-century house, a historical monument, in the forest north of the city. Emmett and Rosalie had gone to Europe for a few months on another honeymoon, but they were back now. Jasper was at Cornell, too, studying philosophy this time. And Alice had been doing some personal research, concerning the information I'd accidentally uncovered for her last spring. She'd successfully tracked down the asylum where she'd spent the last years of her human life. The life she had no memory of."

And while we're at it, I'll foreshadow some of the next stuff coming:

"The Cullens were reassembled now, with the one exception, spending Cornell's spring break in Denali with Tanya and her family."

Yes, I've expanded. For one, I decided to have them live in the house that Esme was restoring, even though that isn't evident from this paragraph. But these two pages, as well as Edward's comments on pages 513-515 about his hunt are the Ithaca canon bible. I won't violate a damn thing on those pages. My beta readers make sure of it.

So no one should have allowed me to have a free image manipulation program. This has caused many hours of my life to be flushed down the drain. But hey--look at my new pretty LJ header. This is about the extent of my abilities with GIMP, but it's a start. A little cross-platform branding for my fic never hurt.

However, there is also Ithaca art available from people who are far more talented than I.

Arilien did this amazing sketch of the pivotal scene from Chapter 3: "Paternity":

http://fc06.deviantart.com/fs44/f/2009/130/e/6/Ithaca_is_Gorges_by_bberry06.jpg

Miss Asian did this great image manip with a devastating photo of young Peter with a quote also from Chapter 3.

http://fc08.deviantart.com/fs42/f/2009/142/6/a/Paternal_Love_by_mqc12.jpg
This one is the Ithaca movie poster, if ever there were one.

Enjoy!

(Right, right. I know. I'm writing the next chapter. Right. Now.)

So this journal is for Twific. Perhaps I will think about posting Ithaca here, but in the meantime this is where it is: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4988866/1/Ithaca_is_Gorges

I am currently actively, purposefully, and happily procrastinating on writing three final papers that are all due on Saturday. After that, I will be able to turn my attention completely to writing. This may interfere with my ability to make money this summer--I'm not sure yet that I care.

I thought I would add a note, though, re: the discrepancy between twilighted and FFnet posting. I stumbled into Twific via twilighted, and had two short stories up there before I ever really discovered FFnet. I decided that, as a grammar maven, I had no need of FFnet, and so started building Ithaca on twilighted. Theeeen I decided to try and post a chapter over Easter weekend. My pretty, beautiful, spelling and grammar-nazi chapter took six days to get through the queue. So I decided it was time for FFnet, just in case. Being a review whore, however (aren't we all?), I didn't just want to put it all up at once. I thought I was building it in anticipation of posting Chapter 8, but then I realized that I had sort of gotten off track and Chapter 8 was ready to go. So Chapter 8 went up on twilighted. NOW Chapter 9 is nearing readiness, and before it's ready, Chapter 8 will go up on FFnet. Then the two sites will be in sync. Long story for a short moral: Chapter 9, unless something crazy happens, will begin the strain of simultaneous posting on twilighted and ffnet.