On friending: all my personal posts are flocked. If you're just here for the fic (which appears sporadically, I warn you ;)) then please feel free to add me to your friends list to keep up with that. If you'd like me to add you back, please comment to this post and introduce yourself; it's not a scary induction/screening process, I just like to know who I'm giving access to. :)

This is a rare explicitly political post from me and, British flisters, I can only beg you to read it.

This morning, Lord Peter Mandelson took over from Harriet Harman as Acting Prime Minister. This means that the person currently governing our country is unelected, entirely without mandate.

It is bad enough that Gordon Brown can compromise the democratic integrity of this country by appointing him First Secretary of State, a position that is Deputy Prime Minister in all but name, but to leave the man in charge in his absence is wholly unpardonable, and seems to showcase the contempt this government has for anything but their own will.

It doesn't really matter what your politics are: socialist, liberal or conservative; if you are a citizen of this country who values their right to vote, then this is a flagrant infringement on the democratic process.

We're not talking about ideals here -- well, perhaps some will think we are, but there are some that should not be compromised -- and I'm certainly not in the habit of using shock tactics or drama to convey my concerns about the state of politics in this country, so I'm not going to tell you that in the next week, Mandleson could stage a political coup, but this is a man with a personal agenda, and it is not unreasonable, at all, to suppose that he will use this opportunity to spread his wings and make little movements towards whatever his ultimate goal is -- the premiership, one must assume.

But there we are moving into the arena of distrust in the man himself, which is subjective. It honestly wouldn't matter if it was my father in his position, or myself, for that matter. The very pertinent point is that right now, an unelected man is in charge of the country, and that ought to be enough to worry us all.

I am going to be looking, over the weekend, for a petition against this, or start one myself, if anyone wants to be linked to it, and I really hope some do, then please let me know.

Thank you for reading, if you have got this far, and apologies for being political this late on a Friday. ;)

So yesterday, I was chugging across the M27, on my way to my parents' house, when I couldn't help but notice that no one on the motorway was speeding. This made me wonder what all these other people knew that I didn't: Police car about? Speed Cameras on every lamppost? Regular patrol zone? And then I somehow stumbled onto the idea that perhaps, en masse, people were trying to conserve petrol, with the aim of saving money, and pondered on the idea of an unforeseen bonus for the environment in people needing to look after the pennies. Then, just for fun, because the M27 really is a rather uninteresting road, I tried to come up with a headline for the imaginary research I'd do, and started with, "Carbon Footprints Reduce As Unexpected Side-effect of the..."

And then I stopped, because, to my horror, I found myself almost saying 'economic downturn' and even worse, I can't say that the words 'credit crunch' weren't lingering threateningly at the back of my mind. Happily, the proper word, 'recession' was but a second behind, and my headline was complete, but my near-miss gave me something to think about for the Southampton to Junction 1 leg of the motorway, which exceeds the other half for dullness.

"Economic Downturn" is invalid in every sense. First of all, isn't 'downturn' a bit of a temporary noun? Is not a downturn only a downturn at the moment it happens? After that event, the trajectory can only be down, forward, or up, another turn only being present in the latter. If you're already going down, you can't turn down again, it's just varying degrees of downness, but there's no turning involved.

It sounds silly, I'm sure, to be getting my knickers in a twist about this, but why has there been such a pointed effort to avoid calling the status of our economy by its proper term? It's a recession. Call a spade a spade. I'm fully aware, of course, that these terms emerged from media hype, but it has been perpetuated at every level.

Every politician who refused to acknowledge that we were heading into a recession, by avoiding the proper term, now looks like a fool for their inability to recognise the signs (whether they did or not) and if they were unable to do that, why should I trust that their predications of when we're going to get out of it are worth their salt, or not just being blindly and foolishly optimistic?

But this isn't really about honesty. It's about being realistic. Politicians and journalists are not the only ones guilty of this. How can we expect to make relevant and successful responses to troublesome situations if we refuse to accept the reality of them? And this doesn't just stand for this situation, there is evidence of it everywhere you look. People avoid inconvenient truths because, in the short term, it makes their lives easier. And that is never going to do anything but make a bad situation worse.

Right, now I've got that off my chest I can get back to writing my metamorfic_moon fic.

Disclaimer: this is not intended to start a debate about the recession. Yes, I'm looking at you, patriot_jackie. ;)

Title: The Morning
Author: godricgal
Rating: PG-13, for nudity and what not.
Word Count: 721 words
Summary: Lord dy Cazaril and his new wife, the lady Betriz, are journeying from the city of Cardegoss to Valenda. They are accompanied by an old friend who has not yet come to appreciate the change in their circumstance, but after an unwelcome interruption, Lord Cazaril decides that serious action is called for.
Author's Notes: I had a bet with mrstater and I lost. The agreed terms were that I'd write any fic she wanted, any fandom, any prompt, and she requested Caz and Betriz, with the prompt 'morning'. So here is my very first posted fan fic that doesn't contain the word 'Remus'. It's unbetaed and swiftly written, so please excuse any roughness around the edges. Concrit welcome. :)

( The Morning )

I'm sure either mrstater or I have recced this author before, but a long time ago. She's back with her first fic in about eighteen months and it certainly cheered up my Tuesday morning, so I thought I'd rec it in the hope that she might get a few extra reviews out of it and be inspired to stick around in fandom for a while.

The author is Amy Elizabeth and her new fic is called Getting to the Mustard

Title: Past Presents and Present Moments
Author: godricgal
Rating: R, but only just.
Word Count: 1,724 words.
Summary: It's Boxing Day and Remus and Tonks are spending the evening with Tonks' grandpa, who has a question for Remus.
Author's Notes: Written as a rather belated birthday present for shimotsuki. I had intended to post this later in the week, but I thought it might be nice to post it tonight, to coincide with other birthdays. ;) This fic (Duckingverse) partners Christmas Quackers. Pre-reading isn't vital, but they're so close in the timeline that you might like to know what had gone before. Many thanks to mrstater for the beta.

( Past Presents and Present Moments )

Title: Christmas Quackers
Author: godricgal
Rating: PG (Just to be on the safe side.)
Word Count 3,375 words.
Summary: As Remus and Tonks' first Christmas approaches, they manage, around their Order duties, to make time to enjoy a little Christmas shopping together and pay a visit to Tonks' beloved Grandpa.
Author's Notes: This begins in mid December of OotP. It's set in Ducking verse, but I don't think you'll miss too much for not having read the other fics. It's probably enough to know that Remus and Tonks have a certain fondness for ducks. Many thanks to mrstater for a quacking beta job and for being one step ahead of me with the duck puns. ;) I should add that this is what should have been my Meta Advent fic, for which I had two prompts, only one of which I can remember: Christmas crackers, and so I assume I have not used the other one. Though it's possible that I did...;)

( Christmas Quackers )

Happy Birthday, my lovely. I hope you have a wonderful day and this fic fits the birthday bill. Love you lots. xx

Title: Step By Step
Author: godricgal
Rating: R
Word Count 5,315 words
Summary: She sounds like a petulant school girl and winces slightly because that's not how she wants to come across to the older man she wants to think well of her in terms of being a lot more than just the good friends they aren't quite yet but could be.
Warnings: There's a smidgeon of smut.
Author's Notes: Dedicated to mrstater for the occasion of her birthday. With thanks to patriot_jackie for reading an early draft of this, and with bucket loads of thanks to bratanimus for doing a fantastic beta job on this and putting up with my tendency to flirt with the last minute. :)

( Step By Step )

Title: In the Name of Forgiveness
Author: godricgal
Summary: Harry's thoughts on naming his second son.
Word Count: 215 words
Rating: G
Author's Notes: This is the fourth drabble from the meme, written for sasher_copy, who asked for Snape with the prompt 'lust'. Sasher, this probably isn't what you had in mind, but I had the idea and ran with it, so just be thankful you didn't get the earlier version with twisted Death Eater!sex. ;)

(  In the Name of Forgiveness )

Other meme drabbles to date:

In the Face of Marriage, a fic featuring Bill and Remus written for gilpin25.

Bedtime, and AU fic which features Remus, Tonks and Teddy, and was written for drumher.

Sugar and Spice, or Puppy Dog Tails, an R rated piece with Remus, Tonks and mentions of Teddy. (AU) Written for mrstater.

chococoffeekiss, you're not last for any other reason than I was waiting for a good idea to strike, which I think has now happened, so hopefully yours will appear shortly! :)

Title: Sugar and Spice, or Puppy Dog Tails
Author: godricgal
Summary: Tonks has a proposition to put to Remus; Remus has one of his own.
Rating:R, for sexual content.
Word count: 784 words
Author's Notes Written for mrstater, who requested Remus, Tonks and Teddy with the prompt 'rabbit'. There is not so much Teddy, probably even less of mention of rabbits, but this is what I came up with. I'm not sure if this is complete as it is, or if it really ought to be about twice as long, but I resolved with this drabble meme to write and post, so that is what I'm doing! I hope it's enjoyable for what it is. :) Feedback would be appreciated.

( Sugar and Spice, or Puppy Dog Tails )

Other meme drabbles to date:

In the Face of Marriage, a fic featuring Bill and Remus written for gilpin25

Bedtime, which features Remus, Tonks and Teddy, and was written for drumher

From the drabble meme, here is drabble Two, In the Face of Marriage for gilpin25, who requested Remus, Bill and/or Fleur, with the prompt 'face'. It's 776 words and teeters on the edge of G/PG.

( In the Face of Marriage )

Drabble one, Bedtime, can be found here. It's 750 odd words long and rated PG, features Remus, Teddy and Tonks, and is pure fluff.

From the drabble meme, here is my first, for drumher, who requested Teddy and Remus with the prompt 'bedtime'.

Imaginatively titled, Bedtime, and rated PG, you'll find it, not quite at drabble length, beneath the cut.

( Bedtime )

Title: No Time for Ducking, Chapter Five
Author: godricgal
Summary: It's early days in Remus' and Tonks' budding relationship. Just how serious is it? With their respective responsibilities to the Order, will they find the time for their relationship to move forward?
Rating and warnings: R for mildly explicit sexual content
Author's Notes: Many, many thanks to mrstater for listening to me ramble on about this fifth and final chapter and for a super beta job. :) Please take note of the new rating.

Chapter One|Chapter Two|Chapter Three|Chapter Four

( No Time for Ducking, Chapter Five )

Nineteen months after I started it, I have just finished writing No Time for Ducking to the point I'd originally intended to reach.

While the fic's not terribly long, it's has, obviously, taken me a long time to reach this point. Apart from the outside factors of the rollercoaster of a nineteen months that RL has been, having to divert my attentions to various challenges and generally just being a 'when the mood takes me' kind of writer, one thing that has held me back is that I feel that Ducking is very much my version of events - it's how I picture things happening - if not in the specifics then in that quick and all-consuming love affair: my explanation for how things go so very wrong in HBP, and DH helped me out there with the early marriage, so I've agonised about the relationship progression and the mindset of Remus and Tonks along the way, to quite a large extent.

At several points I've considered making this a full OotP, HBP, DH length fic. At others I've just wanted it finished because I hate to keep people waiting for my schedule, and it's been so nice - so very nice - that people have asked about it and maintained interest over all that time. Over the last week, I've gravitated back to wanting to continue the storyline of this 'verse, and I'm pretty much married to the idea of doing that.

What I can't decide is whether to do that in Ducking or whether to think of this as a series and to pick up their story in a new fic. This 'verse already has three separate fics: Of Mischief and Responsibly, No Time for Ducking and Asinus Protego, so I could very well use fic events to flesh out the in between. I just can't make up my mind, though, and I've never been able to through out all the time I've been thinking about this.

So here is my question to you: how do you feel as a reader about following a fic serial? Does it make the overall story arc harder to follow, or do you like the idea of separate storylines within an ongoing plot of relationship development? As a writer, have you ever faced the same dilemma? Those of you who are writing or have written a series - why did you choose to write that way and do you ever regret that decision? Those of you who are writing long epics - do you ever wish you'd chosen to break it up a little?

Thanks in advance if you have any input to this - I'm in such a quandary!

Hope you all have a good weekend and happy May Day weekend to those on my side of the pond.

Happy Birthday, jncar! I hope you're having a wonderful day and have been receiving top birthday treatment from the family. Best wishes for the coming year and your original writing plans. :)

Some of you know that before I became a poor, lowly student, I had a rather nice job with a software company that was attempting to deal with some of the problems surrounding personal privacy and data ownership on the 'net.

There are things I see in fandom, if not on a daily basis, frequently enough to concern me -- just matters of basic privacy that are important to me and I think should be important to everyone, though I understand that they may not be. However, it's not always as simple as that...

The internet allows us to conduct ourselves in many ways, with many personas. Some people are not worried if these personas cross paths, having more than one is a matter of administration rather than an attempt to compartmentalise online, and indeed, offline activities.

Clearly, everyone reading this is at least reasonably familiar with the way the internet works, what can and can't be done, but what I want to do in this post is lay a few examples at your door, not to scare you, but maybe to make you think a little more on the ramifications your 'net dealings have on yourself and those you deal with.

( Read more... )

gilpin25 thought I ought post a teaser to my SWS fic or the next chapter of No Time For Ducking. Because I've probably bored you all silly droning on about the SWS, I thought I should prove that it does actually exist and post a bit of that, but I can't post very much of it, so it's a very short excerpt from the beginning. To make up for that, there's a bit of Ducking, too, which hints at what's going to happen in the last chapter of the story. (which may or may not be the one I'm currently working on!)

Anyway, I hope you find yourselves teased. ;)

( Teaser For No Time for Ducking )

---

( SWS Spoiler )

This is to wish a (slightly belated) very Happy Birthday to joely_jo. I hope you had a lovely day. :)

A couple of weeks ago I posted about a problem I was having with Word 2007, where I couldn't use the mouse to move the cursor or select text within the document, even thought the menus themselves worked.

After several hours of trawling various forums, it seemed likely that it was being caused by a Word add-in, most likely an Adobe one, most likely Flash. Unfortunately, I discovered that another symptom of this problem was an inability to navigate past the default tab in the Word Options menu, which of course, is where you can disable the add-ins!

I found lots of people who knew what the problem was, but very few who'd actually managed to fix it/had posted when they'd fixed it. Finally, after reinstalling Office four times between trying various things, including a registry cleaner that had worked for someone else, I happened upon a post by an individual known only as 'c-squared-co' to whom I owe a good deal of gratitude. His solution was to delete the Word Data registry key, which is safe to do because Word rebuilds it every time it start up, and if it's deleted, it rebuilds it with factory settings thus circumventing the issue.

There's no saying that it won't happen again, but at least I'll know the fix next time. I'm posting about it because it's apparently not limited to Word 2007 or even 2003, and there's no sign that Microsoft have an inclination to fix the problem because it's a result of third party software. It was one of the most baffling computer problems I've come across, so I thought if there's any chance I can stop others spending hours and hours of their time in an unpleasantly baffled state, I want to do that!

So here is the forum on which I found the solution.

patriotjackie, I saw mentions of your problem, too, while I was reading about this, and the same solution may work for you.

ETA: I should add that I bought the licence key yesterday, so this is unrelated to the problem from my last post!

Happy Birthday, bratanimus! I hope you had a great day, and that it was completely relaxing.

For your pressie, I've posted the opening scene from my new fic. I'm afraid there's no Sirius, though he is mentioned. ;) I hope you enjoy. :)

( To Rainbow's End )