#Spacewoman Spiff

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☔ :)

#today i was out walking with my best friend #Spacewoman Spiff #walking around our shared hometown. looking at shops and things #and it rained #we were walking around and it was humid and oppressively hot and no wind #it felt awful #and then it got darker. a large dark cloud was coming in very fast above us. #but still no wind. #it was still hot. #then it started sprinkling and it was a bit better #but still no wind. very weird #and then we were going to go in for coffee but the coffee shop had literally just closed THAT MINUTE #so we went back to the car and I kid you not #IMMEDIATELY #it started POURING. #visibility was terrible we could barely see the road. #spacewoman spiff drove up on the curb at one point (oops) #then we got to her house and it was just coming down in BUCKETS #so we went one... two... three... RUN #and we ran into the house but we were SOAKED #spiff's mom gave us these fluffy white towels to dry off with #it. was. fantastic #and then it cleared up very fast and got windy and beautiful #AND spacewoman spiff has three incredibly stupid cats and one incredibly stupid dog :) #weekend trip is going well so far!

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I love Spacewoman Spiff so so so SO MUCH I want to drink her entire personality like a sparkly orange lemonade.

#PLATONIC LOVVVVVE #Spacewoman Spiff #I love her SO. MUCH. #if she ever gets on tumblr I will eat her entire blog

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Top five Diana Wynne Jones books?

LOVE IT.

Howl's Moving Castle (The funniest most domestic lovely sarcastic romp. I can't explain it. It just feels like a breath of fresh air. all the characters are so HUMAN and so endearing. You can tell in this book that Diana Wynne Jones loves people, in all their frustrating passionate cantankerous beauty.)

Chrestomanci books 1 and 2 (Darlings both of them. But if I had to separate them, I'd rank Lives of Christopher Chant first (the plot twist is delicious and I will never forget the moment with the fish sandwich. Also Tacroy my beloved. Sacrificial love...) and Charmed Life second (Cat-my-dear. He's very endearing.)

Archer's Goon (Nostalgic. I think it was my first Diana Wynne Jones book? Anyway, I love it a lot. Hathaway!! The theme of siblings taking care of each other even when they don't necessarily understand or like each other! And the plot twist is ~chefs kiss~. My family has read it aloud three times already.)

A Tale of Time City (Fabulous. The invented future is a lot of fun. Forty-two century butter-pies!!! But I usually reread it solely for Elio. Androids for the win!)

Dark Lord of Derkholm (The sort of book that, according to my irl friend Spacewoman Spiff, is best enjoyed and only written by a person who is deep, deep into the fantasy genre. And I am that person. It's not the deepest or most thematically rich of DWJ's works but it's fun.)

#LOVE IT LOVE IT LOVE IT #diana wynne jones #book recommendations #ask games

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Today on campus the snow was PERFECT for snowman building, so I made a snow-cat on a little corner of campus. I hope it makes a lot of people happy before it melts!

Imagine you’re a friend of mine and we’re walking around an Iowa town in winter. I get a Mischievous Look. I slow down. You stop, waiting for the punchline. I say, the snow is good for snowman building. We both get a manic look in our eyes. Neither of us is wearing snowpants. One of us lends the other their coat or extra gloves. We build snowmen together and get soaking wet in service of Public Amusement. Then we shiver into a car and go home.

#if you are my friend #you simply MUST have the experience of building snowmen with me #it's essential #the cult snowmen worshipping the huge snowman... the cult sacrifice snowman... #good times with Spacewoman Spiff #tagging this #Spacewoman Spiff

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Time for a list of blessings!

My worth is all in Jesus and He is infinitely worthy

God looks at me and sees Jesus’s righteousness

The Spirit is working in me and will keep working no matter what

Oh no I’m making myself cry

Kitties have accepted me as A Friend and come greet me when I arrive home

I made stuffed mice for friends and mailed them and they should be arriving tomorrow and Saturday!!!

People have left the most AWESOME comments on my fanfic recently!!

Despite the challenging comments I was given during a creative writing workshop, the class has led to me actually writing the Toad Story instead of just daydreaming it, and I’m actually really excited about it now... I think... maybe I can finish it...! Send it off for Publication, perhaps...!

Spring weather! Flowers are out!

I talked to Spacewoman Spiff on my way home yesterday! She’s off to college soon! I’m so happy for her!!!

Time Lady sent me a letter with rooibos tea out of the blue and I’m just 🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺

Weighted blanket present for easter... so warm

Please feel free to reblog, everyone, I want to Know!

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How I’m seeing God in my life lately:

A professor / mentor of mine reminded me how lucky I am to live in one of the most gorgeous locations in Iowa, surrounded by woods and hills and streams

Also said professor / mentor encouraged me re: finding church community

A very sweet kitty named Oreo :3

I get to do a beautiful commute and a long walk on a beautiful campus first thing in the morning every single day. Alone time with God!

I get to talk to Spacewoman Spiff today!!!

I’m starting a habit of reading the Bible first thing in the morning and it’s honestly a rough time getting that habit built, and acknowledging that out loud is encouraging because it really is a challenge. And saying it out loud lets me ask God for help.

I’ve found a church in the town near me that I want to try out

I’m seeing my relationship with my aunt & uncle & cousins flourish

Chamomile vanilla tea

Feel free to respond with your own things :)

#Danielle speaks

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@hollers-and-holmes tagged me in this post to share all my WIP titles (all meaning even the ones that are vague or nonsensical) and tag some folks who are writers. I’m starting a new post because the last one was a bit long. I only have a very few WIPs, so the original rules of tagging as many people as there are WIPs shouldn’t be too hard... right?

Fanfiction:

The Strange Redemption of Thaddeus Thawne

The Ultimate DC Movie Series (co-authored by Spacewoman Spiff)

Original fiction:

Caravaggio

Toad’s Story (The Fabulous Toad)

Collection of my poetry which I actually find acceptable

I’d love questions about any of these! Tagging five people: @isfjmel-phleg, @swinging-stars-from-satellites, @lurking-latinist, @thebirdandhersong, and @subjectsix. I’m intrigued to hear the titles!

Also, I have a more ideas, but none of them are even on the back burner as far as actually writing them. I’m not counting them as WIPs, but I’ll list some of the titles for the sake of amusing y’all.

The Bag Of Rats (children’s book series)

The Angel Gabriel Coffee Table Book

A Clone Called February

Android Radical Political Leader Is Actually A Baby: More At Six

Naphtali’s Caravan: the ridiculous self-indulgent one. There are MANY versions of this one. Favorites include:

Multiverse-Traveling Caravan Merchants

Snow Leopard Shapeshifter

Post-apocalyptic survival with magical tattoos

and of course my current favorite

The world is an infinite series of RPG-style dungeons with no “surface”

#Danielle speaks #tag games

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I don’t know why tumblr isn’t letting me tag Elle @thatfriendlyanon but she tagged me to share some books I want to read this year! Thank you Elle! :D

Okay, so, I don’t have a goal for how many books to read or anything like that, but these are some of the ones I’m most excited about on my reading list!

Truth for Life, a devotional series by Alistair Begg. I like his preaching from the radio, and I’ve liked the mini-meditations in this book so far!

Oliver Twist, by Charles Dickens, as soon as possible! I think I’m entering a Victorian street-people phase. I read this one as a child but I barely understood any of it and now I’m just itching to get into it.

The Goblin Emperor, a possible reread of a favorite! Political intrigue steampunk fantasy with a radically kind protagonist.

How Harry Cast His Spell, by John Granger. This one was one of many wonderful books I found in my Aunt Nancy’s house last time I vacationed there. It’s about Harry Potter and Christianity and alchemy and it’s SO interesting! I want to finish it sometime and reflect on it and my own writing process / beliefs about the meaning of writing.

The Last Green Valley, by Mark T. Sullivan. A historical fiction book that takes place during WWII, I think. I read another WWII book by the same author, Under A Scarlet Sky (both were recommended by Aunt Nancy), and it was a page-turner, so I’m excited for The Last Green Valley.

Quotidian Mysteries, by Kathleen Norris (suggested by @kayliebooks​!) It’s about domestic work and spirituality, as far as I understand. None of the local libraries have it, though. :( I’m going to ask one of them to order it as soon as I remember to.

The Scholomance series, as recommended by... a lot of the knitting circle. Songbird, I think?, but they sound fun! Found family fantasy my absolute beloved!

The Body Keeps the Score, by Bessel van der Kolk. Psychology of trauma approached from a body’s-connection-with-mind perspective. Should be interesting. I love learning about psychology and writing a fanfiction about a traumatized child has reignited my interest in trauma psychology.

the Broken Earth trilogy, highly recommended by Spacewoman Spiff. Sounds interesting, but maybe dark for my taste; she tends to like darker literature than I do.

Chrestomanci, by Diana Wynne Jones, books one and two, out loud with my little sister! She’s finally old enough to appreciate them and I’m SO excited for the plot twists. Found family fantasy again :)

Superman comics or radio shows — I just want to experience some really good Superman stuff!! I want silly little joys and uncomplicated goodness and Midwestern Nice this year!

Tagging no one because I would rather not, today. But I’d be delighted to see anyone do this, so if you want to do this, consider yourself tagged!

#book recommendations #sorta #I really am so excited for Oliver Twist #might dabble in some Dickens this year

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💕✨create the illusion of hanging out with your mutuals tag game✨💕

I was tagged by @perhaps-mr-collins-has-a-cousin a while ago. Thank you! Good to ‘hang out’ with you, dear!

are you a morning person? Not since I started college. I treasure my sleep & work late. But I do love being up in the morning... the morning sky... hmmm. I treasure my alone time, though, and all my cousins are out and about in the morning, so I stay in my room like a hermit.

ideal breakfast? Homemade muffins and bacon and peas (I make the muffins and you make bacon to go with them.)

favorite warm drink, and how do you take it? In winter, hot chocolate made with milk as a base... it’s decadence itself. In summer, chamomile tea with lots of honey.

sit in the sunshine or the shade? I’m with @perhaps-mr-collins-has-a-cousin on this; it depends on the temperature. Also my mood. To be honest, my seating choice is more dependent on people. I want to hang out by myself or with one (1) friend, so I pick a nice spot far away from everyone.

favorite baked good? Same as mr-collins-et-cetera: all of them!!! Except cake. I’m sorry. It’s just TOO fluffy. I like my cookies SOFT and my brownies THICK. I want to feel the chewing. Also, this is a funny little quirk, I absolutely adore the waxy kind of texture that happens on bagels and muffin-tops. I will look at you with stars in my eyes if you split a muffin with me and give me the top.

a song or album that makes you feel at peace? It's Only A Paper Moon, by James Darren, is the first one that comes to mind. So calm... so happy.

take a walk with your friends or read a book next to a friend on the sofa? Both, please?

what tasks do you gravitate to when making a meal with others? Doing as instructed. I like buttering muffin tins. Oh, and I make a mean pie crust!

a chore that if someone completed it for you you’d love them forever? Dishes... I don’t like them at all... if you cleaned the stuff and let me just dry them off with a towel and stick them in the dishwasher and we could talk, I’d award you 500 brownie points immediately.

favorite board/card game to play with friends? Dixit! You get all these cards, each with unique pictures, and you take turns giving a clue for a card in your hand and then everyone else hands in a card and you have to guess which was the REAL card. It’s a bit like Apples to Apples but with surreal / adorable paintings and you get to make in-jokes and nerdy references. Dixit or Mafia, where some of you are trying to sabotage the rest. Mafia is very fast-paced and funny.

what kind of snacks/candy do you want at a movie theater? I’ve only been to a theatre with a friend once, with Spacewoman Spiff, and she bought us buttery popcorn and we took turns grabbing handfuls. It was really good.

bar with live music or bar with a pool table? Let’s go to a sedate coffee shop instead, please; I am easily overwhelmed.

I’m going to insert my own two questions here: go-to compliment? Mine is “I love your shirt/jacket/earrings!”

and hang out on the couch, the bed, or the kitchen chairs? I love to hang out in my friend’s bedrooms and meet their stuffed animals and ask about their decorations.

are you tending the fire, looking at the stars, or singing campfire/folk songs? Tending the fire and looking at it like it’s a star. Keeps me toasty (I get cold easily) and lets me not engage with conversation until I want to.

a favorite Scripture verse or prayer? In quiet moments or when I’m particularly struck by the beauty of the sky, I sometimes recite Revelations 7:12: “Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.” Sometimes I do it multiple times and reflect on different parts of it. Also I love Ephesians 2:4-7, which I’m trying to memorize.

are you the person begging to go to just one more bar/sing one more song, the person staying up late talking about love and the universe, or the person who fell asleep hours before anyone else? I hang out in person with friends so rarely that I like to stay and talk about love & the universe as long as I can... but honestly, I probably will be in bed by 10:00 at the latest. :)

Tagging with no pressure (for just my two questions or for all of them, whichever you like): @kayliebooks @isfjmel-phleg @laurelin-of-valinor @lady-stormbraver @hollers-and-holmes and whoever else sees this!

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1, 2, and 7?

1: What inspired you to write the fic this way?

I talked a lot about my reasons for writing The Strange Redemption in this post!

This gets rather long, and it’s quite specific to The Strange Redemption, so I’m putting in a readmore here. :)

But as far as writing it in a certain way... well, maybe one of the most unusual things about this fic is its length combined with the extreme slow pace. It's definitely going to be 70+ installments, with that counter growing all the time (although slowing down at the moment, thank goodness.) "You Must Have Action and a PLOT, You Must Hook The Reader, You Must Tighten Your Stories Or They Won't Sell!" doesn't resonate perfectly with me; I do value clarity and thoughtful pacing, but I'd been recently wondering if a slow-paced story simply showing a life could also be of value.

I first combined that idea of an extremely slow story with the idea of fanfiction when I came across Reclaiming Innocence, a fanfiction by @cdelphiki. Language and content warning—it deals with child prostitution and the kid swears like a sailor—but it's very long and has no Big Plot and it's about healing from trauma, so in many ways it's very similar to The Strange Redemption.

Also, @cryptocism's idea of splitting canon-Thad into several distinct characters got me thinking "There's a fabulous opportunity for a fanfic here that I have the ideas and writing skills to create. I could do this!"

2: What scene did you first put down?

The first proto-Strange Redemption scene that I put into writing was actually an email series from Wally to Thad and back, back when I was writing a reboot show of Young Justice with an irl friend, Spacewoman Spiff!

I was reading Impulse to get a better handle on Bart Allen and loved the Mercury Falling arc so much I put it in the Young Justice show. Mercury Falling in our version was a subplot within a larger plot of the speed force itself being corrupted, thus Thad's powers going wrong and making him stuck in 0.25 speed. The premise of the emails was that, stuck at a slow speed, Thad had to write in order to communicate effectively (he’s a fast typer). Eventually, the Young Justice show rotted gently in its abandonment, and it formed the soil from which grew The Strange Redemption.

The first scene I wrote after the emails was the first chapter of the fanfiction, nearly word-for-word what got published. I wrote the first three chapters, in fact, exactly what I'd been daydreaming for weeks, in a mad fit of inspiration.

7: Where did the title come from?

The depths of my subconscious. It was the first name I thought of! Initially, I thought of this fanfiction as "the Thad Thawne redemption arc fic", so there you have the basis. The specific form of it was probably subconsciously inspired by "The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde", which is... VERY fitting for a story about a clone who replaced his original!

#Danielle speaks #fanfiction #About The Strange Redemption of Thaddeus Thawne