greerwatson (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
greerwatson) wrote2011-08-24 05:05 am
greerwatson) wrote2011-08-24 05:05 am
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So...second post. Hmmm....
Ah!
Last month saw both Mary Renault and Forever Knight fic posted to my website.
The two MR ficlets, posted under the heading "Summer Challenge 2011", were previously posted to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
maryrenaultfics, one by me and one by my sister. They are not, of course, stories written for the actual Summer Challenge, which hadn't yet been set. That was actually the point....
Both ficlets are set in the ITOWverse. The first, "Summertime" was written by Flo, and related directly to...ahem...the absence of our beloved mods, who were off on a (well deserved) holiday. In the ITOWverse, apparently, where they no doubt thoroughly enjoyed themselves chatting with all of MR's characters. "Prompts Unprompted" (which was mine) was simply a sequel to Flo's, though it did include a topical reference to the problems LJ was having at the time.
In making webpages for the two stories, I wanted something summery in colour, while avoiding the green tones that I'd used in my summer series last year. Of course, I continued to use the same graphic design as before: one of my many variants of GRSites.com's brown128.jpg (the most productive background graphic I've ever played with), with a central panel surrounded by an elaborate frame of nested tables, including variants of 321Clipart.com's bg64.jpg (producing rippled, satiny textures in various shades) and 99694.jpg (assorted wavy watery textures), among others.
Yes, I know. Very boring.
Well, the point is that I started by doing a pretty pale blue for Flo's story, to suggest the summer sky. However, when I did a cover page for the (admittedly rather short) series, I used a golden variant for the background (as you can see here); and, in combination with the usual sky blue gradient that I use on the index pages, it was all very colourful, and out of keeping with the mauvy-blue I'd already used on "Summertime". So I redid that in turquoise blue shades ("Summertime"), and did my own story in a soft yellow (Prompts Unprompted")—thus picking up the two dominant tones of the index page, and, I hope, tying the whole thing together.
I have to admit that I don't think it's the most successful design I've done. (I was far more pleased with last autumn's series. Mind you, that was in brown tones.) Although the individual pages are not bad, taken separately, the colour disparities are really too great; and the three pages don't really come together as a set.
Flo rather liked the mauvy blue version, though; so I've saved it for a suitable ITOWverse story in the future. Assuming, of course, that she continues to write them.
Last year, I wrote a holiday fic for Simcoe Day. This year, I got mildly inspired for Canada Day. Only mildly, which is why the result is a mere ficlet, "Flying Sparks". I dashed it off, and posted it to FKFIC-L at the last minute, so that it would get in people's inboxes On The Day—which is obviously important for a holiday story.
The webpage ("Flying Sparks") has a sparkly red-and-gold background that, I hope, suggests fireworks. To accentuate this, I also used an animated background as a very narrow border. It's more obvious on the title panel, but also appears in the frame around the story: it's the innermost table in the frame, which puts the sparkles right next to the white of the story panel, which tones them down a lot.
The other story posted is "The New Guy", which was written forfkficfest. After the reveal, I posted that to FKFIC-L, as well. (I do believe in supporting the mailing lists. They need it nowadays, I'm afraid.)
Since "The New Guy" describes Nick's first day at the 27th Precinct, i.e. backstory for Season One, I decided to go with a plain textured blue background, representing a police officer's uniform. (And yes, obviously I know Nick's plainclothes.) This was trimmed in brass (321Clipart's bg64.jpg, used unaltered).
I wanted to use a police-themed divider bar to separate the different sections of the story. However, try as I might, I simply couldn't find one that I thought suitable. Nor could I find any police-themed graphics that I could use to make a bar. (There's a lot of cartoony stuff around; but I wanted something fairly realistic/classy.)
Finally, I cropped out the badge from Nick's ID, which was seen in close-up in one scene in "Dance by the Light of the Moon". (Nick shows it to the stripper, Anne Foley, when he interviews her at Jilly's.) It had a nasty magenta highlight on one side—from the lighting, I guess—so I blew the thing up with Microsoft Picture Manager, did a bit of work on it in Paint to patch it over, and then reduced it to an assortment of small sizes. In the end, it got used all over the webpage. In fact, I've just used it again on the page I've been making for "Gold Regrets".
Which has not yet been posted, since I'm not sure whetherfkcommentfic has the same restrictions as fkficfest, i.e. that one should only post the story to one's own site after the game is over.
"Gold Regrets" has, however, been posted to the comm. It doesn't quite fit the prompt; but it is, at least, about a very successful Tracy in an AU future fic. Which is most of what was asked for.
Ah!
Last month saw both Mary Renault and Forever Knight fic posted to my website.
Mary Renault
The two MR ficlets, posted under the heading "Summer Challenge 2011", were previously posted to
maryrenaultfics, one by me and one by my sister. They are not, of course, stories written for the actual Summer Challenge, which hadn't yet been set. That was actually the point....Both ficlets are set in the ITOWverse. The first, "Summertime" was written by Flo, and related directly to...ahem...the absence of our beloved mods, who were off on a (well deserved) holiday. In the ITOWverse, apparently, where they no doubt thoroughly enjoyed themselves chatting with all of MR's characters. "Prompts Unprompted" (which was mine) was simply a sequel to Flo's, though it did include a topical reference to the problems LJ was having at the time.
In making webpages for the two stories, I wanted something summery in colour, while avoiding the green tones that I'd used in my summer series last year. Of course, I continued to use the same graphic design as before: one of my many variants of GRSites.com's brown128.jpg (the most productive background graphic I've ever played with), with a central panel surrounded by an elaborate frame of nested tables, including variants of 321Clipart.com's bg64.jpg (producing rippled, satiny textures in various shades) and 99694.jpg (assorted wavy watery textures), among others.
Yes, I know. Very boring.
Well, the point is that I started by doing a pretty pale blue for Flo's story, to suggest the summer sky. However, when I did a cover page for the (admittedly rather short) series, I used a golden variant for the background (as you can see here); and, in combination with the usual sky blue gradient that I use on the index pages, it was all very colourful, and out of keeping with the mauvy-blue I'd already used on "Summertime". So I redid that in turquoise blue shades ("Summertime"), and did my own story in a soft yellow (Prompts Unprompted")—thus picking up the two dominant tones of the index page, and, I hope, tying the whole thing together.
I have to admit that I don't think it's the most successful design I've done. (I was far more pleased with last autumn's series. Mind you, that was in brown tones.) Although the individual pages are not bad, taken separately, the colour disparities are really too great; and the three pages don't really come together as a set.
Flo rather liked the mauvy blue version, though; so I've saved it for a suitable ITOWverse story in the future. Assuming, of course, that she continues to write them.
Forever Knight
Last year, I wrote a holiday fic for Simcoe Day. This year, I got mildly inspired for Canada Day. Only mildly, which is why the result is a mere ficlet, "Flying Sparks". I dashed it off, and posted it to FKFIC-L at the last minute, so that it would get in people's inboxes On The Day—which is obviously important for a holiday story.
The webpage ("Flying Sparks") has a sparkly red-and-gold background that, I hope, suggests fireworks. To accentuate this, I also used an animated background as a very narrow border. It's more obvious on the title panel, but also appears in the frame around the story: it's the innermost table in the frame, which puts the sparkles right next to the white of the story panel, which tones them down a lot.
The other story posted is "The New Guy", which was written for
fkficfest. After the reveal, I posted that to FKFIC-L, as well. (I do believe in supporting the mailing lists. They need it nowadays, I'm afraid.)Since "The New Guy" describes Nick's first day at the 27th Precinct, i.e. backstory for Season One, I decided to go with a plain textured blue background, representing a police officer's uniform. (And yes, obviously I know Nick's plainclothes.) This was trimmed in brass (321Clipart's bg64.jpg, used unaltered).
I wanted to use a police-themed divider bar to separate the different sections of the story. However, try as I might, I simply couldn't find one that I thought suitable. Nor could I find any police-themed graphics that I could use to make a bar. (There's a lot of cartoony stuff around; but I wanted something fairly realistic/classy.)
Finally, I cropped out the badge from Nick's ID, which was seen in close-up in one scene in "Dance by the Light of the Moon". (Nick shows it to the stripper, Anne Foley, when he interviews her at Jilly's.) It had a nasty magenta highlight on one side—from the lighting, I guess—so I blew the thing up with Microsoft Picture Manager, did a bit of work on it in Paint to patch it over, and then reduced it to an assortment of small sizes. In the end, it got used all over the webpage. In fact, I've just used it again on the page I've been making for "Gold Regrets".
Which has not yet been posted, since I'm not sure whether
fkcommentfic has the same restrictions as fkficfest, i.e. that one should only post the story to one's own site after the game is over."Gold Regrets" has, however, been posted to the comm. It doesn't quite fit the prompt; but it is, at least, about a very successful Tracy in an AU future fic. Which is most of what was asked for.