yuki_onna = one of my favorite writers and one of my favorite people, for a reason.

I would like to announce that the November issue of Apex will be an entirely Arab/Muslim issue. It will be beautiful. It will showcase writers of Arab descent and Muslim writers. (I am aware that many folk not of Arab descent are Muslim, that's why I'm structuring it this way, so that writers from either culture or both can be part of the issue.) It will show how Islam is as much a part of the human experience as any other faith or story system that writers of the fantastic draw from. It will be a small thing, in the grand scheme. It will not save the world. But it will exist, and perhaps in its own way can stand beside the recent ugliness in the SFF world as something bright and good.

I am looking for material, but most especially poetry, from Muslim authors and authors of Arab descent. Let's make it easy: if you think you might "count," then you do. Southeast Asian Muslims, yes. American Muslims, yes. Anybody with a connection to the cultures of Islam, yes. The subject of your works can be anything you like, but I am only looking for authors with connections to Islam and/or the Arabic world. Please do not send reprints, we have that covered.

APEX MAGAZINE

Sometimes I can't resist memes. Ganked from a_white_rain.

If you had me alone, locked up in your house for twenty-four hours and I had to do whatever you wanted me to*, what would you have me do?

All comments will be permanently screened because it's a secret. Then repost this in your LJ. You might be surprised with the responses you get. Feel free to answer anonymously if you'd prefer.

*As long as you weren't causing me any permanent damage. I think this is an important point.

P.S. Oooh, and I just found a pretty excellent blog post from Bitch Magazine on disability!fail in speculative fiction:

These aren't condemnations of the characters (my love for many of them is strong), but observations of a common trope: "Let's have a disabled character, but with a magic device that means we don't actually have to deal with disability! Ooh, and let's be edgy and give them magic powers!"

Which is oddly enough giving me anti-disability!fail story ideas. *_* MAYBE THERE SHOULD BE A FICATHON. MAYBE THERE ALREADY IS(??)!

Best meme ever.

The "You Should Write..." Meme!
my thread here

(If you're not aware, my fanfiction journal is at planetbarcelona. Cheers! ♥)

( Dear Yuletide Author, you are my favorite author of the holiday season. )

Just have fun. Write your heart out. And thank you so much.

Love,
Nina :)
your grateful, geeky fanfic recipient

I'M ON THE FRONT PAGE OF DIGG AAAAAH AAAAAAH AAAAAAH I'M ONLY LIKE THIRD DOWN OH MY GOD AAAAAH AAAAAAAAAAH AAAAAAH AAAAAAH AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH AAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!

Dude, I totally win at like everything in life. And it feels great.

There were many, many joyous things about tonight, and the camerapeople agreed with me on some of them (did you see how they kept flicking back to Jennifer Garner? "Let's see what HER reaction is even though she hasn't been nominated for anything! She's just so FUCKING BEAUTIFUL and a SWEETHEART and a BADASS and JENNIFER FUCKING GARNER WE CAN'T HELP OURSELVES"), but mostly, here is what the main ones are:

- Ellen and Diablo are out partying right now. And when Diablo cried, I was crying too. I love her. Her movie meant so much to me; I'm so glad to see her so happy and so honored. THANK YOU, DIABLO. YOU WIN. "Diablo Cody has gone from being an exotic dancer to an Academy Award-nominatedWINNING screenwriter! I hope you're enjoying the pay cut." Ellen said to fucking Regis on the fucking red carpet show that "it is sincere and honest and genuine and it also has a sense of optimism mixed with truth." Go Ellen Page. She was so the most beautiful person there tonight. I'M EVEN COUNTING JENNIFER. Ellen had better hair.

- Jon Stewart is the most wonderful person in the world. He let Markéta Irglová speak. I was JUST complaining about that and then we got back from commercial and he was gesturing to her to speak. EVEN IF IT WASN'T HIS DECISION, WHATEVER, I still just am going to bask forever in the glory of Jon Stewart's existence. I really, really think he is perfect. <3 And I love that Jon Stewart and Steve Carell have like taken over Hollywood. It shows that even if you don't take any of the bullshit seriously you can still be the darling of the whole show. And Steve Carell's performance in Little Miss Sunshine was INCANDESCENT.

I could get mad about things or have long opinions on dresses, but I'll just do that in conversations: for now, for this journal, that's it, that's what I'm taking from tonight. Maybe that and Tilda Swinton's acceptance speech. And now it's time to eat toast.

(ELLEN AND DIABLO HELD HANDS AND MADE VICTORY FISTS TOGETHER. IT WAS WONDERFUL. I WISH I WERE THEIR FRIEND.)

(P.S.: There should be an Oscar for Hottest Woman and Sydney Tamiia Poitier should have won it. Ahem.)

( 13 minutes 13 seconds remaining! )

I totally rock the suspense vote. If there is a vote for suspense, I mean. I rock it.

Yeah.

Holy Mugwump, Batman: It's NINA'S LJ FANFICTION MASTERLIST.

Some of the things I've written will forever be lost to antiquity, like my fabulous collection of drunk Firefly drabbles or that random 2,000-word short story I did on Chicago for fuck's sake, but nobody wants to be bothered with memories anymore. So here it all is. (At least, after about 2004. I've been a fanfic-writing freak since '98.) Excerpts appear in italics below each link.

It occurs to me that I tend to kind of underestimate on these ratings. OH, WELL. IT'S GOOD FOR THEM. I was corrupted by fanfic as a child, and look how great I turned out to be!

Also, ff_fanfic seems to have done away with the only other Mal/Inara-ish thing I've ever done, which was that piece with all the mindfuckery that nobody read because I billed it as Mal/River/Inara and it wasn't really, it was just either Mal/River or Mal/Inara depending on how you looked at it, and I think it's pretty critical that I stop talking now. But I'd like to thank goldy_dollar for trying her valiantest to get me to write Mal/Inara, and I'd like to thank jazzfic, whatever_we_are, fireworkfiasco, and ana_sedai, for, well, BEING MY HOMEGIRLS. Really. Those were the golden days.

Doctor Who
I think planetbarcelona's doing a pretty good job keeping track of these particular shenanigans (what with the TAGS and all). Maybe I'll come back later and add them. :P They're mostly Nine/Rose and Ten/Rose, with a sprinkling of Four/Romana II to make things Old School. YEAH FOUR.

Firefly
Better than Flying (Mal/River, R, 358 words, for whatever_we_are in serenity_santa)
"Talk to me," she said, curling up in the shirt she'd just removed from him. "Tell me how it feels."

Broken Memories (Mal/River, PG-13, 1000 words, done for the picfor1000 ficathon)
For some reason her door was still open, and she looked out and wondered exactly how bad she would feel if she woke Simon up at this xiong meng de kuang ren hour, and whether that would be worse than the panic she felt now.

Corsair (Mal/Inara, PG-13, 1064 words)
It was the same dance, and no matter how old it got they clung to the steps like lifelines, because if one toe got out of place the music and the rhythm would spin out of control and there would be nothing left of normalcy.

Drifting (Mal/River, PG-13, 2380 words, for malriv_ficathon)
"Shhh," River said. "The stomach is the optimum hit point for serious warfare. Legs cannot be afforded. Arms are needed for weapons. In the stomach you will bleed and hurt but you will not die. Pain is a weakness. A small inconvenience. Death is intolerable."

Enough (Mal/River, R, 1351 words)
Mal doesn't want to cry in front of Zoe, but then he does want to, so he tries, but the tears are dry before they reach his face and he is so numb that he scrapes his face against the jagged edge of the rock to see what is wrong. When there's blood running into his eyes the dream goes black for a moment and River reaches out to grab something before it returns.

First Law (Mal/River, unrated, 125 words)
She smiled, her eyes warm. "Exchanges of heat and work are energy transfers across a system boundary."

Five Drabbles (Mal/River, PG-13ish, 348 words, for whatever_we_are in serenity_santa)
Later, with her fingers on Serenity's controls and the captain she loves to her right, she realizes she is too afraid to read his thoughts.

Good Omens (Mal/River, PG-13, 3508 words, for the shinyhearts ficathon)
"Might not be too wise to be thinkin' on such things at this hour," Mal advised, getting up to come stand behind her. He'd wanted to anchor her, but giving her the hug he'd intended suddenly didn't seem like a very good idea.

Have to Be Here (Mal/River, PG-13, 1467 words, for whatever_we_are in serenity_santa)
A smile twitched at the corner of her mouth. Mal always wondered where she found light enough to give him those little grins, but he didn't wonder too hard. Would take the magic away.

Instructions (Mal/River, PG-13, 806 words)
She had imagined him hard, hot, fast; she had pictured awkwardness and a struggle to keep up with him, a fight not to be forgotten.

Learning to Fly (Mal/River, hard PG-13, 15155 words)
Mal was all at once more afraid than he'd ever been of anything or anyone, but he wanted to dance and laugh and he was pretty gorram sure he wouldn't even need booze to do it. He held her desperately, carefully, as if she might break; his every protective instict ballooned into one when he felt her against him and realized that this was the one serenity he needed to keep forever.
Part II | Part III | Part IV | Part V | Part VI | Part VII | Part VIII | Part IX | Part X | Part XI

Little Mouse (Mal/River, G to light PG, 791 words)
Mal'd be lying if he didn't say he felt a complete fool for just assuming that a girl so graceful and intuitive wasn't a trained killer.

Metal (Mal/River, PG-13 but should probably be R, 896 words)
River wished he could bring himself to touch her for longer than a minute -- wished Simon would stop throwing the captain daggers with his eyes, and wished the captain wouldn't look down when he did.

Serenity (Mal/River, PG-13, 349 words)
"You love how you stopped just a little bit of it," she told him, touching his lips like she'd never felt them before. "You did something, made a difference. Didn't have to lie back and wait a week for the surrender."

Unholy (Mal/River, PG but should probably be PG-13, 893 words)
Even when the rest of his village compatriots were making faces and kicking the backs of pews, Mal faced forward, held tight to his momma's hand. And if during the hymns, some saw a blush creep across his cheeks as he sang, well, he still sang, and Ma Reynolds told her women that little Malcolm made her prouder than his daddy ever would.

Untitled (Mal/River, unrated, 241 words)
Something in her tone made him look back, and realize she was crying.

The Lord of the Rings
At Edoras No Longer (Eowyn/Faramir, G, 99 words)
I used to run to the stables of Meduseld and tell the stallions stories as I groomed them, brushing to the tune of a ballad or whispering details of the latest exciting sword manouver I'd learned.

Below the Balcony (Eowyn/Faramir, PG, 1012 words)
Long moments passed until the soldier sighed in sleep, his anxious visage relaxing, and at this his caregivers allowed themselves a smile.

Still Would I Love You (Eowyn/Faramir, PG, 504 words)
I had loved him because I wished to be lifted above all the mean things of the earth. The mean was all I saw.

Crossovers
The Loveliest Dream (Firefly/Kill Bill, Mal/River, R because it is an extreme crackfic of doom, 2167 words)
Doesn't really tell you she's hurtin' 'fore she keens. That comment was a little artistic license on the part of the captain.

Somebody Else (Doctor Who/Firefly, Ten/Inara, R, 1743 words, for the sonic_tea ficathon of ULTIMATE AWESOME)
"I forgot how you bristle," he replied. "I just didn't peg you for an edge-of-the-universe, illegal-smuggling kind of woman. You had rooms last time. And very eager attendants with nibbles."