the queen has arrived

October/November Happenings!

queenvandal — Wed, 21 Oct 2015 11:21:58 GMT

It has been SO long since I’ve made a post here! Tbh, I’m on LJ all the time, but I haven’t had much to post about recently, so this little blog has been left forgotten for much too long. I figured it was time to fix that now that I have a few things coming up!

First, and most relevantly, I am participating in two fests in the next few months! They are the hp_nextgen_fest and the interhouse_fest, both of which I am absurdly excited about! I love the little stories that I have lined up, though I will admit that I’m not done with either of them yet. Hopefully that will be rectified shortly!

Posting for both of these fests begins on Nov 2, so be sure to check out all of the loveliness at the communities below when the time comes!

come join hp_nextgen_fest!

Art by 8c, Banner by capitu

interhouse_fest presents Interhouse Fest 2015
(Sign ups are actually closed, despite what the banner says... I couldn't find
a more recent one! :p)

In other news, I am also gearing up to participate in NaNoWriMo this year! I have never done NaNo before, so I am very, very excited to be participating. I’m hoping to finish the first draft of a manuscript I’ve been plotting for almost 2 years (and germinating for around 6 or 7!), so wish me luck! I’m not sure whether I’ll post any NaNo updates during the month of November, or if I’ll just be spending every minute of the day in a writing frenzy, but we’ll see! :p

That’s about all from me for now… I am hoping to update this space a bit more frequently, but I do think it may have to wait until after November. See you on the other side! :D

HP Mental Health Fest Reveals!

queenvandal — Fri, 05 Jun 2015 15:12:38 GMT

This is a little late, but the hp_mhealthfest reveals went up a few days ago! I participated as an author and wrote a Harry/Draco story called "You Just Have to Try". It was my first story of this length (and first complete story, ever! woohoo) so naturally I'm a little dissatisfied with the end result, but I'm glad that I managed to finish it! Now to improve my skills.... :p

Here's an awesome participation banner from the fest (made by daleah)!

Thanks so much to everyone who commented (although I will be replying to the comments individually soon) and everyone who wrote wonderful stories (and did amazing art!) and of course, to praevarus for hosting the fest. Also, thank you to this_bloody_cat for a really great prompt. And an especially HUGE thank you to frnklymrshnkly for being the most wonderful beta and writing buddy. I almost certainly would not have finished this without you, so thank you!!!

I'm looking forward to improving my skills and writing much better stories in the future! :D

Rarepair Shorts Prompt Table (Draco/Luna)

queenvandal — Thu, 21 May 2015 21:06:19 GMT

I was finally approved for my Draco/Luna pairing on rarepair_shorts! I'm really excited about this, because Draco/Luna has always been one of my favorite pairings... Kind of strange, I know, but I love the idea of snarky, cynical Draco coming to love Luna. The fact that they are so clearly opposites is basically the reason that I love them! Though, to be fair, I kind of love pairing Luna with just about everyone. I feel like everyone tends to be the opposite of Luna, ha, that's what makes her so fun! In any case, here is my table for the rarepair_shorts fest!

HP Rare-Pair Challenge
Author: queenvandal
Pairing: Draco/Luna
Progress: 0/13

1. in the other sense of the word

2. holier than thou

3. caustic chemical

4. Oz

5. a little bit of night music

6. mad world

7. round of applause

8. rocking chair

9. knight in shining whatever

10. T is for Troll

11. mimic and rote

12. for now

13. of the spectacular sort

I know I have quite a few challenges/fests on my plate right now, but I am definitely dedicated to working my way through them. I really want to do Luna and Draco justice!! :)

May Fanfiction Update

queenvandal — Tue, 12 May 2015 17:54:06 GMT

It's been a little while, so I wanted to post an update on the fanfiction front!

I know I said I was going to post a few Luna drabbles a while back, but I'm being a bit of a perfectionist with those and I've changed my mind a little bit about the (self-imposed) rules for that challenge. I'll make a bigger post about it in the next month or two when I can begin to work on it in earnest. Mostly I've been hard at word on my first two stories pretty much ever (!!), having completed one and still working on/perfecting the second one. The first one was already posted to the fest, but I'm very pleased with the results. It's still anonymous, so I won't say too much about it.

I should be done with my second story in the next week or so, and after that I plan to finish off some rarepair shorts for the numbers game on rarepair_shorts. I feel bad about not having completed any yet, as the fest is done on the 20th, but I've been crazy busy lately... I am still (foolishly?) hoping to knock out 2 or 3 before the fest is done on the 20th. I may even try to write all of the ideas eventually, as they're some pretty wacky and fun pairings, and I'd love to take a stab at them.

After that, I'm really looking forward to working on a few challenges, like my Luna challenge for fanfic100 (unofficially), as well as some other neat ones I've found. We will see how that goes! (I'm not even going to start thinking about the 2 or 3 fests I've signed up for beyond that, or the bazillion other ideas I'm hiping to write in the next few months).

Now that I've finished my first significant (to me, at least) story, I somehow feel like I can write everything ever, LOL!

Lastly, I was honoured to get 3rd place at the dmhgchallenge for April! I am really loving this drabble community, and I'm so thankful that anyone votes for me! There's always a lot of great entries. Here's my banner!

That's about it for now. Random side note: I am currently in the throes of watching GOT for the first time (late to the party, I know... but I'm one of the lucky few that can binge 5 seasons in a row for the first time, so there :p) so I hunted for some GOT userpics for this post, haha. Luckily, I won't have to worry about writing any fic for this fandom as apparently GRRM is against fanfiction. I will gladly take that excuse, haha!

HP Mental Health Fest

queenvandal — Tue, 05 May 2015 20:46:55 GMT

Banner by flyingharmony

Rules & Info | Claiming Post | Banners

Just a heads up that the HP Mental Health Fest is currently posting! I finally submitted my story for it (the one I've been working on for what seems like ever) and so I'm pretty excited to see it and all of the other stories. Head on over to hp_mhealthfest and read some awesome fic!

Fic Recs!

queenvandal — Tue, 21 Apr 2015 07:06:17 GMT

So, I've mostly been trying to finish a certain story as of late, meaning I haven't gotten much other writing done. However, I wanted to post something, and I realized that I have a few fic recs from some AMAZING fics I've read over the past month or so. Without further ado, here they are!

Draco/Harry

Tea and No Sympathy by who_la_hoop (NC-17; 70,045 words; complete)
AMAZING Harry/Draco story about a Draco that is reliving the same day over and over due to a malfunctioning time-turner. I don’t even know what to say about this other than READ IT RIGHT NOW!!

A Private Reason for This by femmequixotic (NC-17; 92,189 words; complete)
I'm not even exaggerating—this is one of the best fics I have ever read! It’s a really cool murder mystery with a neat, realistic take on the Auror force. Really gritty and realistic, but some of the best writing and characterization ever. Go read it!!

Reading Malfoy by femmequixotic (R; 15,027 words; complete)
Can you tell I am loving this author? Here’s another really amazing story by femmequixotic, with a really neat and slightly heartbreaking Draco that has been living as a Muggle for 13 years (and writes a memoir). This is a pretty quick read, so there’s no excuse not to read it!

Fifty-Two Weeks by sonata_de_morte (R; 14,163 words; complete)
This is such a sweet (but heartbreaking) story of a post-war Draco on house arrest for a year, with only Harry (a ministry official) to visit him. Really, really great.

Draco/Hermione

Disasterology by provocative_envy (R; 19,011+ words; ongoing)
I’m really loving this fic so far! It’s a really cool take on a veela!Hermione, and I am in love with the writing and characterization. It’s ongoing, and currently at 8 chapters.

And that's it for now! I also have one or two Luna drabbles that I should be posting in the next couple of days. I have one written for the fanfic100 chart, but I'm not totally happy with it, so I might tinker with it a bit. I know I can't be such a perfectionist if I'm hoping to pump out 100, haha, but it's my first one! So I'm allowing myself to be a bit picky. :)

Fanfic 100: Luna Lovegood

queenvandal — Sat, 11 Apr 2015 03:38:01 GMT

Hey again! So I decided to make a post again, this time about me signing up to fanfic100 with the character of Luna Lovegood. It seems that the owner of the community isn't active anymore, so this won't really be in an official capacity (and I won't be posting to the actual community) but I wanted to take on the challenge anyway.

So here is the table below, I'll come back to this post and add a link to each fic when I complete it (and I'll link to the table in each fic's post). Maybe in a while, after I've amassed a few fics, I'll put a link to this post in the side or something.

I chose Luna because I just really love her character, and of my four favs (Harry, Luna, Draco, and Hermione) she is the least written about, I think. I'm not picky on who she (or any of them, really) is paired with, so I'm excited to have some fun with a bunch of different pairings. The minimum wordcount is 100 words, so they'll probably vary from drabble to one-shot length (probably capping out at around 10,000 words, at the most).

Anyway, here is the table! :)

001.	Beginnings.	002.	Middles.	003.	Ends.	004.	Insides.	005.	Outsides.
006.	Hours.	007.	Days.	008.	Weeks.	009.	Months.	010.	Years.
011.	Red.	012.	Orange.	013.	Yellow.	014.	Green.	015.	Blue.
016.	Purple.	017.	Brown.	018.	Black.	019.	White.	020.	Colourless.
021.	Friends.	022.	Enemies.	023.	Lovers.	024.	Family.	025.	Strangers.
026.	Teammates.	027.	Parents.	028.	Children.	029.	Birth.	030.	Death.
031.	Sunrise.	032.	Sunset.	033.	Too Much.	034.	Not Enough.	035.	Sixth Sense.
036.	Smell.	037.	Sound.	038.	Touch.	039.	Taste.	040.	Sight.
041.	Shapes.	042.	Triangle.	043.	Square.	044.	Circle.	045.	Moon.
046.	Star.	047.	Heart.	048.	Diamond.	049.	Club.	050.	Spade.
051.	Water.	052.	Fire.	053.	Earth.	054.	Air.	055.	Spirit.
056.	Breakfast.	057.	Lunch.	058.	Dinner.	059.	Food.	060.	Drink.
061.	Winter.	062.	Spring.	063.	Summer.	064.	Fall.	065.	Passing.
066.	Rain.	067.	Snow.	068.	Lightening.	069.	Thunder.	070.	Storm.
071.	Broken.	072.	Fixed.	073.	Light.	074.	Dark.	075.	Shade.
076.	Who?	077.	What?	078.	Where?	079.	When?	080.	Why?
081.	How?	082.	If.	083.	And.	084.	He.	085.	She.
086.	Choices.	087.	Life.	088.	School.	089.	Work.	090.	Home.
091.	Birthday.	092.	Christmas.	093.	Thanksgiving.	094.	Independence.	095.	New Year.
096.	Writer‘s Choice.	097.	Writer‘s Choice.	098.	Writer‘s Choice.	099.	Writer‘s Choice.	100.	Writer‘s Choice.

I don't really have an update schedule in mind, but I might try for a minimum of around one per week? It's weird to think that it might take 2 years to finish this... I know I can do it, but gah that is a long time! Okay, time to get to work. :p

First Edit (4/23/15): I've written 6 so far! I've bolded them, but I'm not going to post them yet because I feel kind of weird about it, and they're not that good, haha! I'm mostly using these prompts as warm-ups for when I work on my other story (a Drarry I am currently working on). I might fix them up and post them later, or possibly only post the better/longer ones (although that is totally cheating, I know :p). Not sure yet. We shall see! For now, I'm just bolding them to keep track of the ones I do, as I'm not doing them in order.

April Update

queenvandal — Thu, 09 Apr 2015 02:36:08 GMT

Hey all!

Even though nobody is probably reading this yet, I figured I would post an update of everything that's been going on lately fanfiction-wise. I'm hoping that keeping track here might keep me a bit more accountable!

So, I haven't written any full fics yet, however I have entered 2 drabbles into the dmhgchallenge monthly challenge, and I actually won first place for my first entry! That was really cool, as it's pretty much the first fic/drabble I've ever posted. :)

Here is the lovely banner I received!

I have signed up for 3 different fests, doing (this was not even planned/conscious, I swear) three DIFFERENT Draco pairings, haha. I'm doing Dramione, Drarry, and a third surprise one that I will eventually post here. I don't want to ruin it because it might give away the prompt if that makes sense...?

Additionally, I've been trying to beta a bit, as well. I do copy-editing as my real job, and this is kind of like a fun version of it. I'm currently beta-ing for a very lovely person's story, but I'd love to beta even more, so get in contact if you need a beta!

Other than that, I have 2 or 3 stories planned, but I'd like to get the fest ones out of the way first. They are due at the end of this month, around the end of May, and sometime in June, so I have a little time, but I need to try not to procrastinate. I'm already kind of scrambling to finish the first one by the end of this month.

Lastly, I have recently really gotten into the TV series called The 100! I absolutely LOVE it, and I even started on a story for it as well (I know, I know), although this one is just a short one, maybe a few thousand words. It's on hold for now while I focus on the other 3, but I'm slowly re-watching the series, and as the story functions as kind of an epilogue to the most current season, I imagine that I'll be inspired to finish it once I get to the end again.

So that's it for now! I will leave you with a lovely Bellamy Blake gif. If you don't watch The 100 already, DO IT NOW~! (And yes, I definitely ship Bellarke if you were wondering...)

Hi there!

queenvandal — Tue, 10 Mar 2015 09:54:30 GMT

Hey guys, I'm Vandal!

I joined LJ so that I could participate in fanfiction communities, but I figured I would make a post here so that it's not so empty...

A little about me, I'm 22, Canadian, female, and an aspiring novelist. I've been into fanfiction since I was about 10 years old, but have yet to post more than a few pages online of my own work--that's what I'm trying to change!

I am currently in the process of writing my first manuscript. I have realized that I need a bit more practice to refine my skill, hence the renewed interest in writing my own fics. I figure, why not practice and have fun at the same time?

Anyway, that's about it! I can be pretty shy online, so if you commented or messaged me (or left a review for one of my drabbles/fics I post) it would definitely make my day! :)

-Vandal