I Need An Icon For When The Plot Bunnies Are Eating My Brain

I'm up to my ASS in work so what am I doing during a meeting I'm supposed to be minuting?

Jotting down fic ideas, of course.

I've come to the conclusion that my fic style (at least) is probably ass-backwards, but it works for me. I identify the aspects of a setting that I like, the ones I want to play with - such as the dynamic between B and C, or the worldview of character A - and then throw them all into a stewpot together and see if I can't craft a story using all or most of those bits. So, at the moment, my list features:

X, Y and Z's paranoia.
W's willingness to take on a fight.
X's infighting with political rivals.
Y's inability to resist the temptation to fuck with people's minds.
Z's mercenary sentiments - and how far he's willing to go for good money.

Lesser elements:
The setting seems incompatible with happy endings.
X is a greedy, selfish bastard.
Y is consumed with Holmesian ennui.
Z has a fragile ego and a mean streak.

This one's going to be real cheerful, I can tell already.

Muttering, Muttering.

What's the world coming to when a person has to pay for content instead of stealing it fair and square off the 'net? My loss is Magic Bullet's gain, I guess. I've just plunked down the dosh for the third Kaldor City audio -The Hidden Persuaders.

I think it's going to be a make-or-break story regarding my opinion of the series as a whole. I was ready to give up after the somewhat disappointing Death's Head - even with its improvement upon a second listening - but I'm a stubborn cuss and, by God, if I can wade through a dozen Xanth novels, most of Anne Rice's vampire series and god knows how many of MLackey's Valdemar books, I can give an audio series three stories before making a final decision. Even if it stinks, I doubt it'll be the worst bit of writing I've ever encountered - she says, remembering some of the tripe she read in high school...

I think I can just about hold off the fic-fairies that have been flitting about this one, but only just. With luck, all of the ideas I've got will be blown to flinders by THP and I can dedicate the braincells to something more worthwhile. Like, y'know, B7 fanfic.

I've just started listening to ...ish (Six and Peri) and, usual wincing at Nicola Bryant's accent aside, I've been drawn into it despite an initial coolness to the first few minutes. Locked door mysteries usually provoke a bit of eyeball-rolling at my end, but Six's wallowing in joie-de-vivre - well, joie-de-very-bookish-subjects, really - and some interesting characterization from the supporting guys and gals have managed to pull me in.

I must say, my hat's off to whoever devises the myriad vocal treatments one encounters in these audios. You'd think that there'd be only so many ways to convey a robot, an anthropomorphized gastropod, a vast alien entity, etc, etc, but the sound designers manage to keep it fresh and interesting. I particularly like Book's voice in this one. It's a regular voice with a metallicized undertone is the only way I can describe it, and I know that's far from correct - reminds me of The Kro'ka, a bit... Never mind how it's done, I really enjoy it. The (usually) excellent sound design is definitely something that keeps me coming back to Big Finish.

Meanwhile, I'm flipping through screengrabs of David Tennant in Blackpool and sighing dreamily. Thank circumstance for cute fellas with an oral fixation...