Ramblings from the 'goblinn

x posted to summer_of_giles and gen_storyteller

Here's my second summer_of_giles posting day offering, a continuation of the first half of "A Father's Love." Find it here. Feel free to leave comments here or on fanfic.net-- anonymous reviews are enabled on my account. The rest of this section, which rounds out okay, will be up Friday the 25th, with more to follow after.

Thanks to ruuger for this great Giles icon, too. And for all who have read, commented and offered support and encouragement.

I finished a song today. Some of you may remember my friend K, who passed away in December. I've never been able to get that collection of stories together, as I couldn't get other people to contribute. I passed on what I had to the family, and it will do, I suppose. But I tend to write music about significant events like that, and I finally got the music for this in the shape I wanted it. No words, just piano, but I'm really pleased with it, and I hope wherever K is, she likes it. I'm wondering if I can do a voice post of the recording I made of it, if it would come through decently. I'll have to look into how to do voice posts.

Now I just am hoping I don't have to start another piece anytime soon. My fearless leader for the night mass, M, is off this month, which is lucky, as the lung biopsy she had last week did indeed find more melanoma, and they ended up taking a good bit of the bottom lobe. They think they got it all, but still. This is the 3rd time she's dodged this bullet. The first was a patch of skin on the back of her ankle she accidentally noticed while shaving. A bit over a year later, they found it in her lymph nodes and took out all of the lymph nodes in her left leg. And now, a little over 2 years later, this shadow on her lung. I realize she's extraordinarily lucky to keep catching it, and each time so far she's bounced back after the course of treatments. But stage 4 melanoma is pretty tenacious. Those who offer prayers or good wishes to the universe at large, remember M.

And I am wrestling with my Summer of Giles tale in earnest now. Needs to lose the Giles POV stuff entirely, and stick to Willow, and Ethan when he makes an appearance. I'm thinking, though, that there's about 2000 words of a scene I'm now going to lose between Buffy and Giles that might make a good backup for Summer of Giles if I can't get the novel completed and edited in the next couple of weeks now that I'm doing a major revamp of the material. Besides, a novel is really too much to ask people to read for something like this. I may start posting the novel proper earlier on ff.net and just provide a link when saying this is a deleted scene to this longer thing. Haven't decided yet.

As I was reluctantly waking up this morning, I got the flash of a question about the Buffyverse. Remember that stupid throw away line in Chosen, where Giles says he has to "dig up" his sources "quite literally; some of them are dead." What do we know about talking to the dead in the Jossverse? ( Read more. )

And thanks to katekat1010 for the lovely selection of Giles icons; for some reason I had none. If anyone has other Giles icon sources, please let me know-- hers were the first I stumbled across. I'd like a Giles hugging Willow one, I think. You can go to my user pics to see what I have so far-- all the Giles ones are hers. Except kitten giles-- anyone know who made that? I need to credit it appropriately.

Thanks to everyone who offered kind words and support for my friend. He is doing much better and was released from the hospital yesterday. Would have posted last night, but seriously, WTF was up with LJ?

But that's not what this post is about. Many of you long time friends may have noticed a certain waning in my enthusiasm for all things Buffy. I read a bit, I comment, but I don't seek it out with my former zeal. I feel a little bad about my new fascination for a certain Potions Master, but there it is. Last year I signed up for Summer of Giles, only to have Potterdammerung hit about the time I needed to be seriously working on something-- anything. I posted a short fragment, gave the other story start to a good home, and that was it.

So, what should I do this year? Sounds like a job for... a Poll.

[Poll #1172603]