Birthday greetings

A happy, happy belated birthday to two treasured flisters, elsane and westernredcedar!

( Springtime cupcakes! )

Weekly update

I meant to say something appreciative about the flist a few weeks ago when I noticed I'd passed the seven-year mark on LJ and in fandom. Belatedly: I'm not especially active as a writer right now and no longer read fic as compulsively, but, flist, I continue to read your posts and comments every day, with joy. I know I scroll through quickly and often leave quick or flippant responses, but it means so much that you share your lives with me in this way. Thank you.

I passed another milestone this month, when I made plans to meet up with one of you here, in the city where I live, and two of you on vacation later this year, and the better half turned out to be just as excited as I was. She's struggled with sharing me for years--fandom is one of the few things I do without her--but there was no need to negotiate this time.

A few fandom items:

* So excited about hp_beholder! I love this fest. My own contribution is in that messy, not-quite-there-stage, but I'm enjoying it enormously.

* Have you seen that deeply_horrible is running a sloppy seconds fest, during which folks are invited to snap up the unclaimed Snapey prompts from this year's dysfuncentine? It's a great idea for a quick, fun fest. And dysfunctional relationships + bastard!Snape = good fic. As cranky__crocus's fabulous icon points out, bad behavior makes for good stories.

* I accidentally read some Sherlock fic this afternoon (long story, but I'd originally gone to check to see if westernredcedar had updated her story) and wanted to pass along the link: Nothing to Make a Song About by emmagrant01, Sherlock/John, 37,000 words. When Sherlock returned from his faked death, John could not forgive him for the deception and broke off their friendship. Ten years later, John returns to London in search of yet another new beginning. Sherlock, not surprisingly, is waiting. You know that Sherlock canon and I don't always mix well, but never mind that: this was a compelling and grown-up romance with some interesting and unresolved issues at its heart, all of which were handled gracefully.

ETA: I forgot to link to melusinahp's fabulous mini-fest idea: One Prompt, Many Writers. Enjoy playing in exactly the same sandbox, for once. Submit works of 500 words or less to her by Friday for anonymous posting on Saturday!

And finally: I'm avoiding the news for a few days, since the Supreme Court and mainstream media continue to ask such fundamentally insulting questions as whether same-sex parenting harms children or whether the "time is right" for judicial action.