Sign-ups are open for the Rare Women Fic Exchange (rarewomen), a challenge for underrepresented female characters; here's the list of nominated fandoms and characters from which participants can choose. See also the rules and timeline if you're interested in the exchange. Sign-ups close on February 8th.

I'm still internally debating which large fandom I want to request--The Social Network? X-Men: First Class? Hikaru no Go?--but I'm excited about signing up as soon as I've gotten that worked out. (My small fandoms I'm already set on: Suits and Nobuta wo Produce.)

Title: Five Times Mark Shared a Bed in College
Author: Jain
Pairing: Mark/Erica, Mark/Chris, Mark/Eduardo
Rating: NC-17
Word count: 3226
Author's notes: Written for flyingthesky for 3_ships.
Permanent link: "Five Times Mark Shared a Bed in College" on AO3

( Five Times Mark Shared a Bed in College )

So, my computer failure turned out not to be the motherboard--which is what the computer geeks in my life had been speculating based on my description of the failure--but instead my hard drive. This had the potential to be very, very bad, since I am lazy about backing up my files, but! My brother was able to recover all of my data!!! It took some doing, including sticking my dying hard drive in the freezer for a bit and retrieving the data with a computer running Linux when it became evident that the computer running Windows just could. not. do it., but in the end he prevailed.

This also means that I didn't have to replace my entire computer, but just the hard drive, which is much easier on my pocketbook (even if I am the tiniest bit sad that I can't justify buying a laptop anymore). The replacement of my hard drive went something like this:

Me: So, how much will a new hard drive cost me? And how quickly can it get here, like, two days? I don't want to wait too much longer to have a functioning computer.
Brother: (turns to rummage in one of his drawers for a bit) Well, I can give you this two terabyte one for $100.

So I now have a gorgeous, huge new hard drive, and my computer is running smoothly again, and I'm trying out Linux and really enjoying it, and basically my brother's the best thing ever. \o/

And now I'm going to go back up my data. :-)

I was hoping this season of Sherlock would rekindle my interest in the fandom, but so far the only fic I want to see is the AU in which ( spoilers for A Scandal in Belgravia )

Current stats on my New Year's resolutions:

Books read: 6/52
Stories written: 1/12
Weeks in which I blogged at least once: 4/52
Weeks in which I exercised at least once: 4/52

This year I'm dogsitting in an apartment with no internet access and my computer died two days before Christmas, and somehow I've created a list of Yuletide recs anyway. (Compare this to years in which I've had 24/7 internet access and never managed to rec a single story.) I'm putting this amazing feat down to the magic of the Kindle--I go home every day or two to download new fic off the AO3 and then read it at my leisure later--and to my own spirit of perversity.

I'm planning to do a second set of recs just for The Eagle (plus any additional awesome stories I might read between now and then), but for now here are a dozen recs in:

( Babel-17, Billy Elliot, The Breakfast Club, The Left Hand of Darkness, Lucky Starr series, My Drunk Kitchen, Nobuta wo Produce, Rizzoli & Isles, Suits )

I finally uploaded seven of my older stories to the AO3 (including the first fanfic I ever completed, back in Spring 2002; I have no idea how that one managed to slip through the cracks, but somehow it never managed to migrate over to the AO3). The popslash stories have been available on my website for years, but the others were written for various fic exchanges and never crossposted elsewhere until today. In reverse chronological order:

Halfway Respectable
Havemercy, Adamo/Balfour, 1046 words
After the dissolution of the Dragon Corps, the airmen follow different paths.

Correspondence
Havemercy, Thom/Balfour, 5183 words
Thom had never had occasion to think overlong on Volstov's mail service as a student.

Efflorescence
Star Trek XI, Uhura/Sulu, 2591 words
Uhura finds what she's looking for.

Different
Nobuta wo Produce, Shuuji/Akira, 100 words
Shuuji makes a new friend.

Obedience
'N Sync, Backstreet Boys, AJ/Justin, 194 words
Justin's a good boy.

Competition
'N Sync, Chris/Lance, 184 words
"What do you mean, 'Nick Carter's hotter'?"

Better than Fine
'N Sync, Chris/Lance, 495 words
Chris isn't sick anymore. Really.

And I'm pretty sure that's all the loose fic I had lying around. Now to update my website rest on my laurels, have a celebratory cup of wine, and procrastinate on updating my website for another year or two.

Thank you so much for participating in this exchange and for offering one or more of my requested fandoms! Two important things I wanted to tell you:

* Optional details are optional. I've offered several possible hooks for a story in each of my requests because that's how I like to write for exchanges, but if your creativity is sparked in other ways, or if you just don't like any of my suggestions, then feel free to ignore them and write a different story for those characters.

* Yuletide tends to be a high-pressure exchange for a lot of people, and while I'm not trying to invalidate your feelings if you're one of them, I do want to encourage you to not worry too much. I haven't found a single story for Babel-17, Purple Hibiscus, or Things Fall Apart, and while Havemercy is a more popular small fandom, Kouje/Mamoru isn't a popular pairing, so there's pretty much nothing you could write that I wouldn't coo over for the very fact of its existence.

As I said, I tend to prefer more info rather than less when writing for exchanges. If you feel the same, then please check out my general fic kinks and squicks post and/or continue reading:

( Babel-17, Havemercy, Purple Hibiscus, Things Fall Apart )

* I've turned off anonymous commenting on my LJ, after several weeks of near-daily spam that finally reached a peak of five comments in two hours. I only receive legitimate anonymous comments once in a blue moon, so I hope this won't be too much of an inconvenience for y'all. My DW is still set to allow anonymous commenting (for as long as the spammers avoid my DW, anyway), so anyone who reads me on LJ can click through to the DW mirror if you want or need to comment anonymously to one of my posts.

* 3_ships is doing something new and exciting this year: in addition to the regular exchange, a threesomes (and moresomes) prompt meme is being run on AO3. Anyone can submit up to three threesome prompts, whether or not you're participating in the exchange (and whether or not you're planning to fill a prompt that someone else left). And, if you are inspired by one of the prompts left by someone else, you can fill the prompt even if you haven't signed up for the exchange. ETA: Also, unlike the I Saw Three Ships exchange which is fic-only, the prompt meme accepts a variety of fanworks, including art, icons, vids, etc. </ETA>

I'm hoping to write an extra story or two for the Cookie Jar meme, but so far none of the prompts is speaking to me, so I'd really love it if more people stuffed the meme with their threesome prompts.

* If you're participating in Yuletide (or considering doing so) but don't follow the yuletide comm, you might want to know about this Yuletide character- and fandom-coordination post, where folk are designating nominators for fandoms and/or characters so that multiple people don't end up nominating the same thing, as well as offering any open slots for character nominations up for grabs.

By the way, I'm nominating the Havemercy series by Jaida Jones and Danielle Bennett (Balfour, Kouje, Mamoru), Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Jaja), and Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe (Ekwefi, Ezinma, Ikemefuna, Nwoye). Let me know if you want me to add another character to either the Havemercy or Purple Hibiscus character list!

Title: Solid Comfort
Author: Jain
Pairing: Mycroft/Sherlock
Rating: NC-17
Word count: 3334
Warnings: fat-phobic language
Summary: Sherlock deals very badly with his desires. Mycroft understands him anyway.
Author's notes: Written for brighteyed_jill for holmestice.
Permanent link: "Solid Comfort" on AO3

( Solid Comfort )