I don't know if amilyn is on holiday or what, but I've seen no reminder so far that tomorrow is the final day to post prompts for the Dead Dog Party on fkcommentfic. If any of the people who played in fkficfest were planning to add their unfilled prompts, they need to do it pronto. Or anyone else, for that matter: I don't think one is required to have written in fkficfest this year in order to participate. One just needs to join the comm.

I'm a bit surprised, actually, that no one else seems to have commented on waltd's stories. He posted several prompts a few weeks ago, as well as some ficlets. gnosticdiva has also posted a prompt.

Has no one else dropped by to take a look? Perhaps when amilyn posted so many gifts at the beginning of August, she accidentally drowned us in drabbles! I'm sure that was never her intention. Scroll down to the bottom of the page, and you'll find the newer posts.

Anyway, this week I wrote a ficlet relating to a prompt of waltd's. A second ficlet was prompted by gnosticdiva's suggestion; but it turned out to want to be set in the FK War version of Toronto. This in no way matches the title she gave the prompt; so I posted it to the FKFIC-L mailing list, instead. I then, of course, had the pleasure of designing webpages for both of them.( Read more... )

I've just added two more ficlets to my website, both based on Mary Renault's The Charioteer. The first, "Wings of Bim" is actually a drabble that my sister wrote for Brigit's Flame. However, I tweaked it a bit; and she liked the result so much that she said she considered it to be co-authored (which is rather generous, really). The other, "Faded Valentine", was written for the Valentine's Day Challenge on maryrenaultfics.

"Wings of Bim" may be nominally the thoughts of a character from The Charioteer; but, in truth, it could be any airman from the Battle of Britain. At any rate, I decided that I wanted a sky background. Nothing I had in my files suited. (On the whole, sky graphics don't tile well: the repeat is too obvious.) So I decided instead to use a gradient. On it, I positioned two little fighter planes, a Spitfire and a Messerschmidt, derived from photos that I got from Wikimedia Commons.

For "Faded Valentine" I initially thought I'd go with a traditional (if not trite!) red or pink hearts'n'flowers theme. However, most of the hearts I had were far too modern. Instead, therefore, I used a rather pretty white rose background that is clearly bridal—but, as the story is about Laurie's mother's memories of her romance with Michael Odell, whom she married, this isn't inappropriate.

For the fancy border, I decided to modify a gradient that I got ages ago from Syruss.com. Given the breadth of modern browsers, it's too narrow to be used as the background for a webpage; but it is still suitable for the sort of border that I put around stories, provided I specify the width of the table. Two variants are actually used, one slightly pinker than the other.

I also modified a clipart rose, which I used to decorate the title of the story. The rose was originally a rather strong (though lightish) pink; but I created a series of variants in softer shades of pink, peach, apricot, cream, and white, and then used the one that seemed most suitable to the colour scheme.

Well, it has been a while since I last posted, hasn't it? In the interim, I've written several stories for Yuletide, enjoyed a family Christmas (my sister having come over from England to join us for the holiday), and played in the latest Forever Knight War on FKFIC-L.

Yes, indeed. I have been busy. I'm not sure that counts as an excuse; but it is an explanation.

First off, let me say that Yuletide was as satisfying this year as last. I received a delightful story by Tolakasa, "Rondeau", in which Captain Cohen reluctantly attends the office Christmas party. Reluctantly, because her husband is there—and he has a wicked sense of humour. We never met him in canon (and only know that his initial is "D" because it's on the Missing poster in "Black Buddha" under Next of Kin). Tolakasa has invented him from scratch; and he's quite delightful. Strongly recommended!

My own assignment was to write a story for Juliandarling based on Mary Renault's The Charioteer. This proved to be such a very plump plot bunny that I started to wonder if I'd get it finished by the deadline. Indeed, since my beta (my sister, fawatson) declared that, if I was going to introduce packages then readers would definitely want to see them opened, I wound up adding another 2K between the upload deadline and the reveal, for a total of 12K. (Agggh!!!) As the title, "Exit Stage Left, a Wounded Warrior: The Lost Chapters of The Charioteer" suggests, the story represents itself as the next two chapters of the novel, bringing Laurie's story up to Christmas 1940.

I managed to squeeze out enough time, between duties on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, to write a few treats, as well as ficlets for fkcommentfic and maryrenaultfics. All but the last have now been HTMLed and added to my website. (The latest of my appleficlets is only No. 4, with two more parts to go; so I'm waiting until I finish the entire series.)

I figure the best thing to do is just try to get caught up. So I'm going to comment here on all these stories.

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People subscribed to FKFIC-L will probably have read "To Be Thankful" last month, for I posted it for Thanksgiving (and here in Canada, of course, that's the second Monday in October.) However, although I immediately put its webpage on my site, I haven't yet mentioned it here or discussed the graphics.

Which are pretty straightforward, really. I looked through my collection for a nice autumnal background (a sugar bush, from the look of it), and then gave the central panel a border in warm brown tones, finishing the whole thing off with maple leaves.

The story was actually inspired by one of the prompts in this year's fkcommentfic, asking what Stonetree would do when he retired. I wrote half a bad ficlet and scrapped it; but it did make me wonder a little about his relations with his family.

Do you realize that I posted the first faction icons back in February? It's hard to believe, isn't it? In all, there are over a hundred designs, some of which are available with alternative faction names. Although there are not that many posts (for I have usually discussed three or four icons at a time), it does mean that they've got spread out well over my blog.

So, for the benefit of anyone who is simply looking for the icons themselves, I've decided to add a page to my website so that the whole collection can be found in one place. (If anyone is still on dial-up, it will therefore take a while to download; and you will just have to be patient.)

I've divided the icons into related groups to make them easier to find. All the ones for Nick's factions are together, for instance—well, except for the couple factions, which have their own section.

Most of the icons are also links. If you click on them, you'll get the larger-size version (usually 350px, but occasionally smaller). The exceptions are the icons for the Lurkers and the Mikies, which could only be made in the 100px size.

I hope that having the icons all together like this will be handy!

Although, when fkcommentfic opened, I quickly posted a couple of drabbles, I always intended to go back and linger a little over some of the other prompts. However time passed, and more time passed, and then the deadline loomed....

On 27 September, I finally posted a ficlet, "To Dine in", based on one of amilyn's prompts, “Janette deals with amorous advances from a stranger”. It was duly posted to FKFIC-L, and provided with a webpage. However, my trip to Stratford interrupted things pretty thoroughly: not only did it take up a whole day, but left me feeling very tired and stiff from the bus trip; and the kinks did not work out with a good night's sleep. And Saturday brought its own schedule, entailing rather too much walking, leaving every old cramp re-knotted.

However, the next day was the final day of fkcommentfic; so I simply had to go back to the prompts. I wound up spending hours writing, and finished no fewer than four ficlets: "The Church of the Holy Blood", "Truth and Consequences", "Rat's Tail", and "Trilemma". One or two other prompts looked mildly tempting; but not enough for me to be able to churn turn out a story in the time available.

All have now been posted to my website. ( Each of the webpages has its own design. )

Last week, I provided the members of maryrenaultfics with a prompt; so I have, of course, been working on my own story. However, the "apple"-fic has not yet been finished, because I had a Forever Knight story that I was also working on. (What with spending a fair amount of time with my mother because of the holiday, I think it's fair to say that I've had a busy weekend!)

"Let's Go to the Ex" was sent to FKFIC-L on September 3rd, and just posted to my website. It had to be finished first, you see, because it had a "due date". It references the Canadian National Exhibition, which runs for the last two weeks of the summer, ending on Labour Day. So the story simply had to be posted on or by the holiday. (Now, though, I can get back to working on my "apple" story with a clear conscience.)

For the webpage for "Let's Go to the Ex", I wanted to give the impression of the carnival side of the Ex. At the same time, since the climax of the story is after dark, I wanted that as well. So, for the background, I worked on one of the many starbackings that I have collected. First, I tinted it to a rusty off-black: the CNE is, after all, held in a city; and city skies are never that pitch black you get in graphics. I also did a version with a yellowish tint, from which I trimmed out the stars to paste over the now-pink ones on the first version. Then, having tried out the result, I decided to blank out a fair number of the stars themselves. Let's face it, lights downtown wash out most of the sky in any big city.

To represent the carnival aspect of the setting, I selected graphics in red and gold for the borders to the story panel. However, I also went through the animated tiles that I'd collected from Light Speed Web Graphics, years ago when I started to make webpages. As far as I can tell, they don't exist any more; but that doesn't mean I can't use their animations. Too many, of course, would induce a migraine! Judiciously applied, though, they simulate the flashing lights that decorate the attractions on the midway.

These two stories are only drabbles; but even drabbles deserve a webpage. Of course, neither story will be new to anyone, since they have already been posted to fkcommentfic, as well as to FKFIC-L. Now, though, they are up on my website: "On the Doorstep" is here, and "Fangs in Paradise" is here.

"On the Doorstep" was written as a thank-you to brightknightie; but it qualified for fkcommentfic as it also fulfilled her request for something about either Reese or Screed, neither of whom featured prominently in any of the longer fkficfest stories. No especial feature of "On the Doorstep" inspired me with a design for its webpage—though, given the subject matter, it obviously needed to be done in subdued tones. I selected a simple textured background whose colours are echoed in the border around the central panel.

"Fangs in Paradise", on the other hand, sees Nick hiding in a conservatory; and I immediately decided that I wanted the webpage to reflect this. I hunted through my collection of background tiles, but found that the only floral and foliar designs that I had were all emphatically outdoor and daytime. However, I continued to search, and was delighted to find a graphic which gives the impression that one is seeing through frosted glass into something green-toned. There is a remarkable three-dimensionality to this background graphic: the panel for the story actually seems to be lying on the glass.

The bluish green tones of the background gave me the colour scheme. I found an icy marble for the main graphic in the border; and, to echo the night scene, I used a black panel for the story itself.

The joke, of course, is that in the end the only picture of an actual plant I used on the page is a silhouette of bamboo up near the title.

Of the stories that I've written lately, there is one that will be new to anyone who isn't on the FKFIC-L mailing list: "Unattainable". Sadly, as it doesn't fit any of the prompts posted to fkcommentfic, I couldn't include it in that collection. Still, ideas come as they will, don't they?

Once "Phases of the Moon" was safely uploaded to AO3, I happily returned to making more faction icons—in between reading fkficfest stories on AO3, that is. Among the icons I had already made were pretty well all those for character-based factions, including quite a number invented for the occasion. So my focus was on completing the rest of the icons for couple factions.

( Mind you, from a logical perspective, there are quite a few couple factions that are missing. ) However, although I recently tried to interest people in a little "couple factioneering", no enthusiasm could be whipped up. Janette/Miklos? Miklos/Urs? Schanke/Myra? No takers. Nor did anyone want to suggest a name for the trio of Nick/LaCroix/Vachon. (I have seen a few names factioneered for that trio in old FORKNI-L digests; but none of them particularly appeals to me. Nor to others, clearly).

I kept returning to Janette/Schanke, though. To me, there was an obvious name—and an obvious scenario. The bunny seemed easy to catch, but then slipped out of my grasp for a while. Eventually, though, I did get the story revised to my satisfaction, and posted it to FKFIC-L on the 16th of August. ( Of course, I also put it up on my website.... )

It's been a while since I've made a post discussing the graphic design of the webpage for a story—but then it's been a while since I uploaded any stories! Now, though, I've put up four in quick succession. "Phases of the Moon", which I did for fkficfest, is by far the longest, coming in at about 6K words (not to mention a ridiculously long section of notes of one sort or another). For that reason, I'm going to discuss it on its own. The three "small fry" will get a separate post.

Once fkficfest was over, I immediately posted "Phases of the Moon" to FKFIC-L and my website. In the intervening period, I'd had plenty of time to work on the design. You can see the page for it here. It's a big story, in my opinion, and so I wanted to give it a special webpage design.
( Naturally, I wanted a design to suit the story.... )

My conscience is relieved of one small burden: I've just posted a story to maryrenaultfics and my website, thus satisfying the Sunday Tea prompt "sap rising" which was given two weeks ago. (I'm afraid I've been so busy making icons for Forever Knight fandom that I've grossly neglected maryrenaultfics lately.)

Ah, well. Now all I have to do is fulfil my rarewomen ficathon prompt by the end of the month. (Whether I'll get inspired to add any treats is a whole other matter.)

( As for my nice new story.... )

Although it hasn't yet been sent to FKFIC-L, "The Sun of Cairo" is now up on my website. To make its webpage (which is here), I went with a sky blue gradient coupled with a frame dominated by a sand-textured graphic. (The connection with Egypt should be obvious.) The fact that the sword I used as decoration is actually a claymore off a website of Scottish graphics—well, I'm no weapons expert to care a lot about accuracy, and it works visually.
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At this point, three of the four stories I wrote for the Dead Dog Party on fkcommentfic have been posted to FKFIC-L and put up on my website: "Gold Regrets", "A Cup of Coffee", and "The Flavour in his Mouth". Only "The Sun of Cairo" remains to go to FKFIC-L, though it is on the website. (I might have posted that this weekend, but instead wrote a ficlet in memory of last year's war.)
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When I HTMLed "Gold Regrets" (now on my website), I headed its webpage with a photo of Tracy. However, it is a heavily tweaked Tracy, one that is appropriate (I hope) for a story about her retirement. Police officers may usually retire a bit younger than the rest of us; but they're still in their sixties. Fortunately, blondes often keep some of their colouring for longer than brunettes do; and I'm sure Tracy would strive to maintain her fit figure. Still, I could hardly use any of screen captures directly.

So I picked out a suitable head'n'shoulders shot and went to work. The result is undoubtedly rough. However, it does serve its purpose (and the roughness is perhaps a bit less apparent, in as much as it's the only screen capture on the page). The original screen capture itself comes from the Knight Watchman site.

If you look at the following pictures, you can see what I did. The first one is the cropped screen capture, which comes from "Avenging Angel". The others are the two tweaked versions I did. Obviously, I blacked out the background. However, I also used Microsoft Picture Manager to tweak the colour. Tracy's skin has lost the bloom of youth and her hair is a bit silvered, as though it's well on the way to grey. (Blondes fade.) I then did a nasty bit of pixel by pixel work around the eyes and mouth using Microsoft Paint, roughening the colour and deepening lines—probably not as much as it really needed, but I wanted it to look natural.




My first tweak also slightly altered the colour of her dress and added more pearls. At that point, I was looking at "Gold Regrets" in terms of a farewell party. However, as I re-read the story, I realized that, if Tracy was getting a gold watch from the Chief of Police, this had to be an official party. So she'd be in uniform.

That entailed some time googling up pictures of Toronto police officers in uniform. I got the hat from one picture, and its badge from another! As for her uniform.... Well, I could cut'n'copy textures to cover the jacket, but the neckline was a real nuisance. Eventually I took one, used half of it to do one side of the tie and collar, reversed that for the other side of the tie, and shifted the collar up to the left, filling in the blanks. In other words, more nasty pixel-by-pixel stuff.

The result looks pretty crude, especially beside the original. I can only hope it works in context.

I've just posted another ficlet to the "Dead Dog Party" on fkcommentfic. (Isn't it fortunate that the deadline was extended?)

I don't know whether "A Cup of Coffee" is quite what havocthecat hoped for by the prompt. "Amanda Cohen is sharp, perceptive, and utterly loyal to the people that work for her. What is it that she's noticed - about Natalie, Schanke, and Nick - that she's never let on?". However, this is the idea that occurred to me—what can I say? You catch the bunny that pops out.

I should warn you that I've scarcely ever been in Starbucks, so I can only hope I haven't mortally mangled their many and varied offerings. I did do a bit of googling; but, after that, I could only contrive as best I might. If what I've written sound like nonsense...well, I can only say that Schanke buys coffee at "Buckstars"; and who knows what they serve? Right?

"A Cup of Coffee" turned out to be just that little bit longer than LJ allows, and had to be split in two. You can find it here.

In due course it will go up on my site, but this round on fkcommentfic still has a few days to run. Meanwhile, I have the pleasure of picking graphics!


Updated: 4 a.m.  I've now finished doing the webpage. It has a simple dark brown textured background that sets off the central panel, which is heavily outlined by a complex frame involving (among several others) a coffee bean graphic. The connection to the central motif of the story is incredibly obvious.   :)

I also used Microsoft Paint to draw a "Buckstars" coffee cup on the model of a Starbucks one. Resized down, it doesn't look too bad: a slightly larger version is at the top, and a little one is used to mark pauses in the story. It seems to work.

It's not at all curious that the three people who decided to take up the Summer Challenge on maryrenaultfics this year all accepted the challenge-within-a-challenge of applying the prompt for fic based on Renault's historical fiction ("spangled loincloth") to The Charioteer (which, being a modern novel, should have had the prompt "summer clothes") and contriving some way to associate it with Ralph Lanyon. Anyone less likely to be seen in a spangled loincloth at any time would be hard to imagine—which was, of course, the point of the challenge.

Why isn't it curious? Well, the three people were toujours_nigel, my sister, and myself—and how could any of us resist showing how clever we are?
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So...second post. Hmmm....

Ah!

Last month saw both Mary Renault and Forever Knight fic posted to my website.
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