Solid Ground

[valiasedai]

This was originally written for secret swooper, with love and encouragement from sagacious_rage anddecantate . This is fluffier than my usual stuff, and I never quite got around to smuttings, but I hope you enjoy all the same :D

Words: 6300ish
Characters: Dagna, Cullen, Greagoir
Rating: T-ish
Summary: As the only surviving Templar from the uprising, Cullen has become something of an anathema among the other Templars, and Dagna finds the Circle Tower more lonely than she expected. Together, they find companionship and more.

Over at FF.net

( Kinloch Hold was fascinating. )

Fanfiction - Nolo, Nolle, Nolui: Chapter 25

[nithu]

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Writing book recommendations

[aithne]

(Mods: let me know if this isn't cool to post here and I will happily move it.)

This came up in comments the other day, and I though I'd post about it here, since there seemed to be some interest. And then my friend Cat posted a list of her own that has a bunch of overlap with mine. (I need to pick up some of the books on her list.)

I’ve read a lot of writing books over the last however many years, and I’ve become fond of a few of them.   I tend to like books that really focus in on a particular problem or technique, and I’ve built up a small library of them.

My current favorites are:

Beginnings, Middles, and Ends by Nancy Kress
Nancy Kress is completely awesome, as is this book. As the title says, it takes you through the three parts of a story or book and discusses the functions of each and problems you might encounter with them. It’s full of exercises and examples that illustrate the various points, and it’s written in a pointed but humorous tone. Recommended for everyone who writes fiction, whether short stories or novels. (The whole “Elements of Fiction Writing” series is very highly regarded, but I’ve only read this one. I’m planning on picking up a few more next year.)

The 10% Solution by Ken Rand
Ever get the comment that you need to tighten your prose, but aren’t sure how? This book will help. It’s a short, speedy read with a bunch of strategies for cleaning up your prose and making your sentences more powerful. Wonderful if you know you need to revise but aren’t sure where to start.

Writing The Other by Nisi Shawl and Cynthia Ward
If I could drop a book into the hands of every writer, this would be it. This is a series of essays on how to write from the viewpoints of characters who are unlike yourself--different races, different ages, different sexual orientations--and do it both sensitively and well. There are a lot of basic exercises in here (it was originally written as a companion to a workshop, the abbreviated version of which I’ve taken) and it is really worth reading through the book and doing the exercises. It’s a small book, but packs a punch.

The Joy of Writing Sex: A Guide for Fiction Writers by Elizabeth Benedict
The best guide to writing sex scenes I’ve found. Ms. Benedict discusses not only the mechanics of writing sex scenes (really, where *is* the line between a story with a sex scene and an erotic story?) but also how to have sex scenes carry their weight in terms of character development and plot. I was impressed by the inclusiveness of the book, and I refer to it on a reasonably regular basis.

The Chicago Manual of Style (or another style guide; Cat recommends Strunk and White, but I'm not big on that one.)
Every writer needs three books: a dictionary, a thesaurus, and a style guide. And while the Internet can stand in for the first two, I haven’t yet found a good electronic substitute for the third. The Chicago Manual was recommended to me as the style guide that tends to be most suitable for fiction writers, and I’ve generally found that to be the case. Not the easiest book in the world to read, but invaluable in its own way.

(older versions and used copies are a lot less expensive--the 14th edition is still entirely usable and you can pick it up for a song.)

So, tell me. What books about writing have you found useful, and why?

New Old Roads chapter, and side story!

[aithne]

My life got eaten by darkspawn. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

First, Chapter Five of Old Roads: Pitiless Games finally gets off of its butt and decides it's time to get dangerous, is NSFW, and goes by Certain Dark Things. (note that the fic as a whole has at last gone up to M.)

Title: Old Roads: Pitiless Games
Rating: M (for the sexytimez, and for occasional graphic violence)
PC: Amell
Word Count: ~42k, ~9.5k this chapter
Spoilers: At this point, it's not so much spoilers as it might not make any sense if you haven't played through Origins/Awakening...
Summary: Amaranthine is destroyed, and Warden Amell travels to Vigil’s Keep to take command. But one either must play the game of politics or be used as a pawn, and like it or not, every last one of Kathil’s demons are about to come home to roost... Amell/Zevran/Cullen, post-Awakening, multiple viewpoints, Part 5 of Old Roads.


Oghren was wielding a battleaxe, chasing around a terrified-looking Eddelbrek, and ranting. The human bann was bleeding from several deep cuts on his arms and one on his thigh, but that didn't seem to slow him down very much. He seemed to realize that keeping the timber posts between himself and Oghren was the only thing that slowed the dwarf down.

Oghren was very good at chopping living things into very small pieces, a fact that did not seem to escape Eddelbrek in the slightest. The dwarf, did, however, like to travel in straight lines. Dodging around things did not appear to occur to him often.

Or perhaps he truly was that drunk.

"Won't be the first time you've thrown me under the sodding cart."



And, secondly, I have an Old Roads side story about Celia Mac Tir. It is somewhat crack. (At the very least, it posits a theory for why Loghain was losing it at the time of Origins and implies why Eamon was so very set on removing Anora from power.)

The first two stories in this series are What Goeth Before and High and Solitary and Most Stern. (Both focused on Anora)

The third is called The Languages of the Needle.

Title: The Languages of the Needle
Rating: T
Word Count: 5475
Summary: Celia Mac Tir vanished when Anora was nine. But some secrets have ways of surfacing…and some decisions have far-reaching consequences. Old Roads side story.
Warnings: …yeah, this is kind of crack. Quite AU.

Three weeks ago, her husband had returned to Gwaren, and in Gwaren he had stayed.

It was as if he suspected. As if someone had talked. And then, this morning—the note that had been hidden in her embroidery basket, in a hand all too familiar, and not her husband's—

It made her ill to think of it. Everything was coming crashing in on her head, and it was time to go.


First, allow me to say this: that the only secret that can be successfully kept is the one that is never shared. I shared mine.

Fic: A Murder of Crows 4/? R/M - Violence

[1smut_princess]

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Invite Codes

[nithu]

I have a couple of invite codes.  Are people still after these?