Progress on my '23 fanfic goals

[brightknightie]

Posted so far this year. I've managed to complete and post 2 "just because" fanfic stories so far this year. I'd hoped to complete a third this month and post about them together -- "3 things make a post?" -- but it doesn't look like I'll make it, so the unmatched pair can be this installment.

My deep and wide thanks to Skieswideopen and Sharpest_asp for beta-reading and sharing questions and recommendations for improvement, and to Malinaldarose for reading and commenting. ♥ Speaking only for my own, stories are so very much better after they've been mirrored back through a reader's/editor's eyes and encouragement to hopefully find and fix the wrong angles. And a great thing about "just because" stories, as opposed to fest stories, is the time available to make those fixes.

• Pokémon GO: "No Wish For Such Triumphs"
  (G, gen, 1.2K words). When Candela defeats Giovanni in a pokémon battle, he rewards her. But his gift is bait in a snare.
• Battlestar Galactica (1978): "Allow Me To Demonstrate"
  (G, gen, 2.5K words). On one of her first missions with Blue Squadron, Sheba feels she has something to prove.

Of course these are short, few, and trivial when compared to what many people -- including many of you all! -- regularly share. I'm not trying to suggest otherwise. I'm only saying, I wrote these; they're more than I've accomplished on this front in many years; and I felt okay about both of them having something different and worthy to offer anyone in their respective fandoms who chooses to read them.

WIP sentences. Various WIP memes always seem to be running around. Here's a mild crack at one of those memes: The currently drafted earliest and latest sentences of all my seriously-in-progress works-in-progress:

D&DC: "The Map in Adarbrent Manor"
- “I told you so,” Sheila sighed.
- She felt almost like she’d just gotten a hug.

BSG78: "All Machinery Now"
- “Boxey!” Adama exclaimed heartily as Troy approached.
- Still, he turned on the ancient tools and stared out at the stars.

HL/MCU xover: "Legacies"
- Joe Dawson stepped off the jet bridge into the Buffalo-Niagara airport.
- Returned, looking for their respective Highlanders, they’d found each other.

I'm also longing to plunge into Journey to the West fanfic, but I feel I must in good conscience finish reading the actual entire hundred-chapter Ming Dynasty novel in translation first, and... let's just say that as much as I truly enjoy it -- and have read and listened to abridgements and summaries and enjoyed them -- I cannot speed-run it any more than I can anything else late-medieval/early-modern (long-nineteenth-century, yes, sure! early modern, not a chance). But! In preparation, just in case, my list of possible JotW fanfic ideas currently runs 21 bullets from:
- Why was there a mansion behind the waterfall?
- What if a monster decided to just eat Tripitaka before Monkey took the monster down, instead of planning a banquet and inviting the monster's parents to come visit to dine on the holy monk?


In other fanfic news, we have a fkficfest '23 schedule now. Check it out. Nominations open on March 31. You don't have to intend to write to nominate. Come play?