So, the last fanish thing I wrote was a long Steter fic from Teen Wolf. I binged a bunch of fanfic, and there were a few things that annoyed me.
1. Perfect Stiles. Look, I love Stiles as much as the next person, and I am perfectly willing to power him up (literally); however, Stiles trips crossing a living room. If you make him all suave, he's not Stiles.

2. Sweet Peter. I happen to think Peter had a really good motive for killing all those people season one. He killed killers. We all rooted for Dexter when he did that, so I have no trouble treating Peter like an anti-hero instead of a villain. However, he has a dangerous edge, and even when he's calling Stiles "sweetheart," he's still going to be plotting the literal or metaphorical deaths of his enemies.

3. Quick Sex. I can see either Peter or Stiles indulging in casual sex. What I can't see them doing is jumping into bed quickly with each other or anyone they know. If it's a relationship, they're going to invest time and loyalty, and I don't see that coming with quick, easy sex. They need to build up to it.

And of course the thing that motivates most of my fanish writing is a good plot hole in the original. In Buffy, I never understood why Xander made a wish to Sweet. He knew better. He wouldn't be that stupid. So either he was drunk/stoned or he was covering for someone else, which is why I wrote Butterfly Kisses. Most of my fanish work comes from my annoyance at either canon or a fanon trope with logical flaws I can't forgive. That's when I have to rewrite them in my head (and often on the computer). Teen Wolf is rife with illogic.

a. Why can Scott become a True Alpha when that's apparently rare?
b. If Corienne didn't want to lose her power to a female child, why not get a legal abortion? Why not kill the infant?
c. How did Talia end up with Malia if Corienne knew that the baby was a threat to her?
d. Why did flashbacks sometimes show Peter and Derek having a great relationship and sometimes show dysfunction out the hoo-ha?
e. Why would Peter work with Kate to de-age Derek?
f. What the hell is up with Deaton. Seriously? What?

So I wrote a very long fiction that is posted over at AO3. It was one of those stories that I posted several chapters a week because it ate my soul. I tried to fix the logic holes that annoyed me while giving Peter and Stiles a healthy relationship. BTW, healthy required 100,000-120,000 before the sex, so don't expect the boys to be getting it on.

Anyway, here's the first chapter and a link to the whole series.

Stiles opened the door to have a bare-chested Peter practically fall on him. “Whoa! Personal space,” he yelped as he shoved Peter away. Peter tumbled to the ground, grunting as he landed on his elbows. That’s when Stiles noticed his back. Long, angry welts stood out against his pale skin. “Oh shit. What happened?”

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Read the rest at AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2139276

Is there anyone who is still reading over here? Sometimes I see my LJ and I miss the times when this was a big part of my life, but then I don't see much going on in the old communities.

So, January has seen the end of one WIP. Earth Fathers Are Weird is now officially done.  I am editing now, and bless you to all the readers who are jumping on the edits.  I love that I have readers who love me enough to tell me I have toilet paper hanging off my shoe. EFAW goes off to the editor next week, and I am playing with ideas for a new book.

I asked for some feedback on ideas, and the winner was the idea of doing a friends to enemies to lovers. So I started brainstorming. Mahlon went to the academy with Van, and they were classmates and allies. Both were working-class men determined to turn a natural talent with math and piloting into successful careers.  They started together as junior officers. As the war between Command and the rebelling colonies heated up, they both earned their own ships.

But Mahlon stopped believing Command had any moral high ground one January day, and he walked away from his command, his ship, and his friendship with Van.  Now Van is in command of the ship tracking down rebel ships as Command finally takes back control of all human-occupied space.  However, everyone’s plans are upended when a Cy ship decides to destroy both human ships, forcing the surviving humans to take refuge on the very ship that had attacked them.

I have such a strong image.  Mahlon is quiet. He lives behind masks and sarcasm and few people ever see past that. His father worked as a servant in a wealthy home, so Mahlon learned to be quiet and play at being respectful, but he has a vicious inner voice.  And sometimes he turns that voice on himself. Van is serious, less likely to make a joke than Mahlon, and quick to assume the worst of most people. He has an ethical standard that he expects others to meet and he resents it when they don’t. However, he could always see the best of Mahlon when they were in school together.

The guys had started to really come clear. And then I looked at the poll again, and friends to enemies to lovers has the least number of votes.

*Sigh*

Well, once my brain decides on a path, the muse does not change gears easily, so this will be the next story.  But before I get into that, I am going to finish Aberrant Magic 7: Durance.  I’ve already contracted for a new cover and I really want to tell the rest  of the story.  This first arc in the Magic universe is setting up major changes in the world.  Right now, their universe looks very much like ours with a few more bells and whistles.  I see the first eight books as an introduction into a world that is on the cusp of radical change.  So I’m looking forward to getting back into that universe.

So, that’s what I’ve been up to. Oh!  I almost forgot.  A French publisher has asked to translated one of my Dreamspinner books.  Sometime in the next year or two, Tap-Dancing the Minefields will be released by MxM Bookmark. I’m excited about that.  I know translated versions don’t do well financially for the original author, but I’m going to be in another language.  That’s totally awesome.  When it comes out, I will get copies, but I don’t know yet if that will be electronic or paperback.  It would be so cool to hold a book with my words in French, but we’ll see.

Okay, so that’s really it.  I hope everyone kept themselves and their families (including furbabies) warm during this hellish weather.  Peace out.

So, how did 2018 go?

Work-wise, I am very much in a rut, and that’s fine. We all remember six or seven years ago when my teaching career was smoldering and on the edge of going up in smoke, so I will take boring any day of the week.

Writing-wise, this has been a year of learning. In late November of 2017, Loose Id accepted Texas Charm. Well, we all know how that ended. Loose Id did a great job of closing down, but emotionally it really knocked me on my ass. And then, the editor I had worked with all along said, “Let me know if you’d like me to slot you in for Texas Charm.” I got through a death in the family and the blow from having my publisher close, and when I contacted the same editor about starting edits, she then didn’t have room for me and wouldn’t even give me her new email. I was crushed (and I’m still bitter). I hate sharing my work with editors, and I think it took me a lot longer to get back on the writing horse because I was nervous about working with someone new.

But as often happens, what looked like an obstacle ended up being a stepstool that raised me to a new level.

I figured out how to use Draft2Digital, and I have most of my backlist up. It’s turning out a low but steady income. I’m actually getting a more stable income from Patreon. Not only does it take the pressure off to publish, but I’ve survived a car accident that totaled my old but mechanically solid car and a leaking roof (with an illegal three layers of shingles). My savings is not where it was (or anywhere near), but I’m not drowning in credit card interest payments because I have that steady stream. More importantly, it encourages me to write, write, write. So, what are the stats?

2 Books published (Claimings 4, and Aberrant Magic 6)
1 Book complete but not yet published (Saddled, submitted over at MLR)
6 Current WIPs

• Hercules in Submission (dark, dark rewriting of mythology. I only update this when I want to fictionally torture someone.)


• Earth Fathers are Weird (tentacles and aliens and mpreg oh my)


• Aberrant Magic 7 (We’re getting back to Kavon and Darren and evil ifrit)


• Kensho and other short tales and tails from the Claimings universe (Claimings short stories that only occasionally feature Liam and Ondry)


• The Witness Wore a Puppy Tail: A huge reworking of my puppy!play fanfic The Witness


• Royal Indiscretion (on hiatus, but a royal black sheep meets a wealthy American)

472,230 Words
Yep, you read that right. I have written almost a half million words. Loosing Loose Id and getting pushed into Patreon has been a great blessing. I may have kicked and screamed about losing my publisher, but the universe knew I would be alright. It also probably knew life was going to financially kick my ass and that I needed the extra boost. I am forever grateful to the universe, or Garth Brooks loves to sing, “Sometimes I thank God for unanswered prayers.”

Another month gone and now NaNoWriMo is staring me in the eye. So, it’s been a big month. Claimings 4 came out, and so far, it is selling almost as well as the first Claimings book. Fingers crossed that those sales hold. A lot of people are asking about more books. I will do more stories… I am already working on a series of stories with Liam’s brother and other side characters. I would like to do some short stories from Liam and Ondry raising their own eggling. However, I don’t think there is another full book focused on Liam/Ondry. That’s not to say that they won’t show up in other books, but they’re happy being an old married couple.

If I write another book in this universe it’s going to be Maya: a non-romantic love affair between a girl, a boy, a semi-parasitic alien and an insane AI. That’s set in the same universe, but Maya is a ship-rat who grew up trying to avoid soldiers from both sides of Liam’s war. Living in the middle of the war zone has given her a much different point of view, and running into a semi-parasitic alien changes everything. This would be an asexual romance… if that makes any sense. But that’s something for me to poke at later.

Right now I’m finishing up Saddled (pony play, dueling dominants, and major drama, oh my). I’m working on the closing chapters and then I’ll send it over to MLR Press. I’m also full speed ahead on Earth Fathers are Weird. Max has just figured out that he’s knocked up, and he’s less than pleased. I’m excited about the big twist that’s coming. If you think Ondry is alien, he can’t hold a candle to Rick (no, that’s not his real name). Maybe the universe thinks Earth fathers are weird, but Max is pretty sure these tentacle monsters are nuts.

I am also rereading the first three Aberrant Magic books as I start to plan my return. All the pieces are in place. The various powers (both guide magic and Earth magic) are in place and our guys are ready to deal with the first of the returning ifrit. A big one is coming through first, and it’s going to be one hell of a fight. And this battle could change the nature of reality. I’m thinking of doing this for NaNoWriMo (assuming I can keep myself away from Rough Trade long enough to write my own). I’ve gotten a bit lazy about meandering around in different universes, and I’m not finishing anything quickly. I would like to really change that with Aberrant Magic 7: Durance.

So right now I’m all about the alien life forms (both the interdimensional and intergalactic sorts). And I found a short story over at Tor that you should totally read. It’s a full novel shoved into a single suitcase of a short story, and I want to unpack every idea. If this author turned this into a book, I would gobble it up because these are alien aliens. And the humans are depressingly realistic.

The Kite Maker: https://www.tor.com/2018/08/29/the-kite-maker-brenda-peynado/

What are you still doing here? Go. Read.

I just got the notice that Taming the Muse has been gone for a year, and the name is about to go back out on the free market. I turned that over years ago, but I have such fond memories of the community that it hurts to see it disappear forever. At a time when my muse was threatening to go dry, having a weekly challenge forced me to get my ass in gear. It led my muse in new directions... and sometimes that shaped my stories in ways I hadn’t seen coming. I look at stories like Toys and Butterfly Kisses, and I see the influence of that community of writers and readers. It feels like a small spark has died. Sadly, I didn’t even realize Taming the Muse had closed. I hadn’t been part of the community for so long that it escaped my notice. Only now when LiveJournal emailed me the notice did I realize that I’d missed the death of an old friend.

A few weeks back I had a car accident. I got hit hard enough to total my car, and it turned out my headache was more than a simple headache and whiplash. I got a concussion. I didn’t even know you could concuss yourself just by wacking your brain against the inside of your skull. Luckily, it was minor, but it completely got in the way of my writing. I had hoped to get Claimings 4 done for early September. Instead we are at the end of the month and I just now sent the second set of edits to Sue.

But it’s coming.

I also haven’t finished Saddled or The Witness Wore a Puppy Tail, which I had intended to finish this month so I could clear the path For Maya: A Platonic Love Story With a Girl, a Boy, an Insane AI and a Semi-Parasitic Alien and Earth Fathers are Weird. I’m trying to not get stressed about the blown schedule. It’s not like it would help.

On the good side, the concussion means insurance gave me six thousand for pain and suffering. A lawyer told me I wouldn’t get much more because it was such a minor concussion and I didn’t miss work. Bringing my writing and the slowdown into the equation could have splashed my side job into real life, and considering I work in a small town, that would not be good. So I took it. I then had to spend it on a new (to me) car downpayment.

Still not worth it.

But I am feeling better. I am starting to work out again, and I’m writing. I hope that October will be the month where I truly get back to full speed.

So this month I have been watching (or listening to) more television than ever. I caught up on Supernatural (which I enjoyed the hell out of. They are back in the groove and I loved the Scoobie Doo episode. I’m shocked to say that, but I did. I needed shows I could listen to more than watch, so I went back to Babylon 5 (by the same guy as Sens8), and I have rediscovered my love for the first four seasons (minus the Garibaldi, season 4 crap).

I had forgotten how truly great the show was, and I have fallen in love (again) with Delenn. We need more women like her.

She’s strong and religious without being relegated to only showing spiritual strength. She can be a hardass and pick up a staff to fight off attackers. When a species went into voluntary quarantine, she chose to go into the contaminated section with them to offer comfort, and she openly sobbed when these religious fanatics allowed themselves to die foolishly rather than admit that a disease (that was a rather unsubtle allegory for AIDS) might kill the moral as well as the sinful and that prayer wouldn’t stop it.

She speaks softly and advises others to seek peace, but when the evil Earth Alliance threatens her people, she has one of my favorite exchanges of the series:

• Delenn: [Delenn's fleet arrives after Earth Alliance attacks B5] This is Ambassador Delenn of the Minbari. Babylon 5 is under our protection. Withdraw or be destroyed!


• Earth Force Officer: Negative! We have authority here. Do not force us to engage your ship.


• Delenn: Why not? Only one human captain has ever survived battle with a Minbari Fleet. He is behind me. You are in front of me. If you value your lives, be somewhere else!

When she delivered that line, she was *terrifying.* She cried over her city being in flames during the Mimbari civil war, yet she didn’t allow that to stop her from ending that same war. She is soft and caring and strong and scary and flawed. She is so wonderfully flawed. She is so insightful about the enemy and those who are weak or evil or scared. But when she trusts someone, she is so incredibly naive. The only assassination attempt that came close to succeeding was orchestrated by people supposedly on her own side because she put such unconditional trust in them, and it wasn’t warranted.

I am tired of strong female being synonymous with emotionless female or emotionally damaged female or ninja. I love Zoe in Firefly because there was the same ability to kick ass one second, and have real emotions the next.

That’s the reason I had so much trouble with Ziva in NCIS. She played at being the sex kitten, but she rarely if ever had actual emotional development. And when she did, the writers used every opportunity to show her as emotionally damaged. Ivanava from Babylon 5 also fits into that category of emotional stunted women, and I find myself not as impressed by her. Ironically, I think I fell into the same bad habit with Paige Silver in Bitter Blood.

But Delenn is in there with Diane Prince and Zoe. She is so very noble and amazing and still real. I had forgotten how good Delenn was, but I remember now. I am so crushing on her.



I am also impressed by the diversity in the show. When they give lists of captains, there are men and women—European names and Asian names and African names. The extras are from every ethnicity. The show does not do as well at having minorities in leading roles, but I have to wonder how much of that was the production company.

I was also less than impressed that the only regular cast who was black got the drug addiction plotline, but at least it was in-character (I’m giving you the side-eye Stargate Atlantis). Franklin was the head doctor on a station in the middle of a war, so it makes sense he got addicted to stimulants as he tried to save everyone—and it fit into his character arc of being a perfectionist with a difficult relationship with a demanding military father.

Overall, I spent many a pleasant hour listening to a very enjoyable story, and if you haven’t seen it, I do recommend it. Just cut them some slack on the whole season five thing because they had been told they were going to be cancelled after season four, so they tied a few things up quickly, leaving the last season a little less well-plotted.

Still, I am looking forward to feeling better, watching/listening to less television and spending more time in my universes. I miss spending more time with my characters.

Claimings 4 has officially entered production. I have the first set of edits back from Sue (looking good) and I was looking forward to working on it, only I had the audacity to put my car in the path of an idiot who uses his accelerator without checking out his front windshield first. Long story short—I got t-boned. I’m aching, but I don’t have anything more serious that whiplash, pulled muscled and a totaled car. Shoot me. Shoot me now. Dealing with insurance people is worse than the whiplash.


But Claimings is slowly moving forward. To celebrate that fact, you can for a limited time get Rownt inspired goodies. Have you ever wanted a custom t-shirt, mug or tote bag to celebrate your love of all things Rownt? You’re in luck. Until next Wednesday Sept 5th (US time), you can order Rownt merchandise at Teespring (https://teespring.com/rownt-wisdom#pid=2&cid=2122&sid=front). After Wednesday, the goodies go bye bye. See the pretty graphic…




Aberrant Magic 6 just broke even (and the crowd goes wild). This means I can promise you an Aberrant Magic 7. The Assistant Director’s plan to bring in new people and create two teams is going to leave grumpy Kavon even grumpier, but with the honeymoon over, Darren is going to have to decide how he wants to live the rest of his life and how much he’s going to let Kavon get away with. Meanwhile, the first of the returning evil ifrit is sniffing around the spirit plane.


September should be a month of endings—reaching the end of Saddled and The Witness Wore a Puppy Tail. With the boards clear, I want to start Earth Fathers are Weird, Maya: a non-romantic love story between a girl, a boy, an insane AI and a semi-parasitic species, and Aberrant Magic 6. That middle one is set in the Claimings verse, but Maya has always lived in the colonies. So she sees the war a little differently, not that Liam ever paid attention to or understood the politics of the war he fought in.



And finally, who would like a little snippet. I mentioned that the first of the evil ifrit has returned. Let’s see if anyone knows mythology well enough to recognize this bad boy.



Target Practice

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Oh man, a month has flown by. It’s the end of the month again, and I’m going to tell Claimings fans to look for an announcement near the end. First, Aberrant Magic 6: Texas Charm is on the sidelines and ready to go. Book six is edited, the cover is done, I’m lining up reviewers, and we are a go for August 20th.

Detective Zach Johnson never resented his lack of magic, although he hated that as a mundane he had no power to stop a corrupt Talent council from stealing the resources of the magical community. However, the return of the ancient ifrit guides led a blood-thirsty hummingbird to choose him as a partner. Now he can be a true equal to his shaman lover, Art Lammas, and the two of them can take on the council and the entire community if need be.

Art Lammas loves Zach’s enthusiasm and sense of justice, but the Talent community is much more complex than he assumes. Not only does El Paso struggle under the corrupt leadership of the council, but it stands at a place where three different traditions clash: the Vatican-trained shamans from Mexico, the Egyptian-trained shamans of mainstream America, and the Native Peoples traditions, which are far more complex than Art can possibly describe. Art would far rather focus on solving their cases. More than that, Art fears that Talent might be the one force in the universe that could drive a wedge between them. Art would happily burn all the magic out of the world before allowing that to happen, but he may not have that choice.

This one is heavier on the magic, and it reveals some important information about book five. This is also the last piece I needed to put in place before I was ready for the first of the big bad ifrit to come through. Anzu waits in the wings, but our boys can’t win with having some new pieces on the board. Angel, Darren, and Zach are new pieces, and a few people who haven’t appeared for a while are ready to come back on the main stage.

So, all I need now are readers.

If book six breaks even in that golden thirty days on Amazon, I will definitely write Aberrant Magic 7: Defalcation. If book six doesn’t, I may need to cut the series loose. After 30 days, the Amazon algorithm will make it impossible to get the book in front of anyone searching for a certain type of book. People will then need to know the exact title and be looking for it specifically. So, what does break even mean in real terms? Well, let’s assume I don’t mind starving and get literally nothing for the HOURS of work. Then I need $150 for the cover and $740 for the editing. So the book has thirty days to make $890 or I lose money. If it does well and earns $2000 that first month, then I will definitely write the next book and call myself fortunate to make to make roughly $1.25-$2.00 per hour for my work on the title. Honestly, that’s worth it for me. I love telling stories. But I do hate editing, so I need some money for my time to compensate me for the misery of catching grammar and continuity errors.

What’s next up? CLAIMINGS! A Patron on Patreon offered to help defray these costs. They are helping with the editing costs and another Patreon angel is doing a cover. So that means I don’t have the same financial obligations. It does still mean I am spending hours in my least favorite part of writing—editing. But Patreon angels are also jumping in with that, helping me find grammar errors, so I just need to go through and correlate suggestions from different people into one master document before I send it off to the editor.

So the long and short of it is that Claimings 4 will be coming out as an ebook. My goal would be to hit by September 30, but I’m running tight and may not be able to hit that goal. We’ll see. I need to get my ass in gear and get to doing my editing work so I can get it sent off to my editing. This week I’ve been way more into catching up on Supernatural and doing some hours for recertification. Funny enough, I can’t afford to lose my day job.

But I will say this—Patreon is making it possible for me to continue to tell stories, even if I’ll never be able to make a full-time living out of it.

So, this is my first of the month update. Royal Indiscretion (contemporary m/m) is being a pain. I have some good dialogue written for when two protagonists actually start talking to each other, but right now it’s hard to force them into the same space without making them out of character. I often introduce a new character when a plot gets stuck, but adding in the sober sponsor Nick didn’t really help. Someone may get hurt soon. That often forces people to talk.

The Witness (mystery/kink adaptation of my Sentinel fanfic) is on a short break because I have too many plots going at once, and I needed to choose Royal Indiscretion or The Witness Wears a Puppy Tail. Doing both was hurting my head. Too many voices up there at once, ya know.

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Does anyone want a free short?

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I haven’t been here forever, and I’m going to try hard to change that. Part one in today’s update is a general state of where I am writing wise. Part two is a bonus snippet from one of my universes.

Loose Id closed, and they were my primary publisher, which really threw me. I now have my backlist all up. Yea me! Considering how I feel about 1) change and 2) new computer systems, I’m pretty damn proud of myself. The sales have been sluggish, but steady. Aberrant Magic 6 is trucking along. I’ve gone from 74K words down to 66K, so it’s much tighter. I did too much “show” on the casework, so I’m trying to “tell” on those bits so the book focuses more on the relationship. I also switched POV on a couple of chapters so the readers could see into the motives of grumpy Art. He has a cat as a spirit guide for a reason. He likes his butt scratched, but if you do it too long or wrong, he’s pretty quick to make a quick escape. That’s his personality, but I’m focusing more on showing why he’s that way.

When I’m done with trimming and editing Aberrant Magic, I have two thoughts. One, I might go back to Royal Indiscretion, the story of an ex-addict youngest son of a duke and the closeted bisexual football player. I think the guys could have some nice enemies to lovers moments. I’m also thinking about Carina Press. They have a call out for continuing series that combine romance with suspense or adventure.

I always wanted to do a second “season” of Aberrant Magic. Kavon and Coretta would have two separate teams, although they would work closely together. Coretta would bring in a new FBI agent with shamanic powers. Joe has an octopus guide and he is as clever and secretive as that would imply. What he doesn’t tell anyone is that he’s Roma and his mother has ties to the Earth magics that Native shamans use. Kavon brings in a new magic user. Milton is a cross between Blair Sandburg and Rodney McKay. He’s brilliant, flat out. He’s actually invented a new form of magic by combining crystals and computers into an interface that allows so much more control than a normal crystal user, but he refuses to believe in magic as anything other than an alternate power source. He’s hyper and ADHD enough that Kavon considers murdering him, and he generally rubs people wrong with his verbal diarrhea and ability to spout trivia.

Our team would still be there in the background, but with Joe and Milton taking lead, maybe I could convince Carina to pick it up as a new series. I’m still thinking about that one.



So, that’s me. Now on with the story. This time it’s Ondry’s mother having a mom/son moment from long before the first Claimings book.



“Asdria’s Fears”

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Well I set up a Patreon. I don't know if this is something that is going to turn out to work wonderfully or not, but I'm trying it. I am NOT going to disappear from LJ. I will still post first chapters here, and I still consider LJ my home and this is where I look first for anyone who wants to be a beta reader. However, if you are a reading whore, particularly of the Claimings series or of original pony play, you guys are welcome to sign up over there, but it is a subscription service with a monthly fee. That also means there will be NO fanfic over there. Fanfic for money is an ethical line I won't cross.

https://www.patreon.com/lyngala

Mad spoilers for Wonder Woman ahead, so if that bothers you, skip this post.

I’ve read several posts about what makes Wonder Woman great, and for the most part, I’ve agreed with all of them.

I loved seeing women engage men physically (and win) versus the old trope of having the token woman fight another woman while the men fought men. And what a fight scene. Holy shit. I can believe these are Amazons, capable of defeating the entire Greek nation to free slaves. Yep. I can totally see it, because those were some badass moves reinforced with some badass special effects. No wonder they were training for so long. Those were some killer moves.

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Mafia and Magics

Angel Zamora has always looked out for numero uno, even after getting sent to prison for robbing a convenience store at knife point. But now two crazy feds show up to tell him he has undeveloped magic. And they want him to inform on a group that has been recruiting and disposing of magic users. When Angel agrees, he expects to play the feds until he can make his own escape plans.

However, once he's inside the mafia and developing his Talent, he starts to realize that he's not as concerned about his own skin as he is young Matteo Burke. Matt is the cousin or nephew of one of the bosses--Angel has no idea. However, the hot temper, disdain for authority, and deeply in the closet attitudes are all so familiar that Angel aches for the young man. A relationship that starts with Angel seeking one more potential advantage quickly turns into Angel's worst nightmare--a deep sense of commitment to another human being. Escape routes are closing, and Angel fears he is going to end up one more body dumped in the river, and if Angel plays this wrong, Matt could follow.


Previous Post

Chapter Two

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I finished my edits on Tapdancing the Minefields. I really love that one. It's coming along to be one of my favorites. I did a little work on Dry my Dreaming (my NCIS/Aberrant Magic crossover) and then tried to settle into a new profic story. I just couldn't write.

I tried to go back to Texas Magic, but I think I need to back up on that one. I like the characters, but there's no character arc that fits. I think I need to go back and put a few more cracks in their relationship so I have somewhere to go relationship-wise with that couple.

So I stared at the file and then said screw it and started a new idea. It's still in that magic universe, but this is rougher, cruder, and I have a lot more room to try and redeem my bad boy main character. As always, feedback is welcome.


Mafia and Magics

Angel Zamora has always looked out for numero uno, even after getting sent to prison for robbing a convenience store at knife point. But now two crazy feds show up to tell him he has undeveloped magic. And they want him to inform on a group that has been recruiting and disposing of magic users. When Angel agrees, he expects to play the feds until he can make his own escape plans.

However, once he's inside the mafia and developing his Talent, he starts to realize that he's not as concerned about his own skin as he is young Matteo Burke. Matt is the cousin or nephew of one of the bosses--Angel has no idea. However, the hot temper, disdain for authority, and deeply in the closet attitudes are all so familiar that Angel aches for the young man. A relationship that starts with Angel seeking one more potential advantage quickly turns into Angel's worst nightmare--a deep sense of commitment to another human being. Escape routes are closing, and Angel fears he is going to end up one more body dumped in the river, and if Angel plays this wrong, Matt could follow.



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Dry My Dreaming

Dead my old fine hopes
And dry my dreaming but still...
Iris, blue each spring ― Bashō Matsuo

NCIS / Aberrant Magic
Tony angst
Eventually Tony/Gibbs
Before Bishop's breakup
The new team does not exist

Previous chapters HERE


Chapter 23


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It's funny, but a story I love becomes a steaming piece of crap I want to burn the second the editing process starts... and the longer the editing takes, the more I hate it.

But if I don't go through the pain now, I will get shredded by reviewers later. Why do I write??

So, I know I've been silent lately. I'm dealing with a few health problems and struggling to keep up with real life. I sometimes poke Facebook a little, but I'm low on energy. So I know I vanished on the AO3 fanfic, and I will get back there, but ya'll may need to be patient.

#mylivejournal #lj18 #happybirthday

Dry My Dreaming

Dead my old fine hopes
And dry my dreaming but still...
Iris, blue each spring ― Bashō Matsuo

NCIS / Aberrant Magic
Tony angst
Eventually Tony/Gibbs
Before Bishop's breakup
The new team does not exist



Chapters 15-18

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