averymorstan

[averymorstan]

08/25/2024 Pinned Note Update

Hello! For anyone looking for fic updates or novel updates, here you go.

I enjoyed being in a play so much I accidentally fell into another one right after the last one closed. I'm currently playing Detective Maggie Pelletier in Red Herring at the Gaithersburg Arts Barn. I know! A femme part! But Maggie is an actor's dream as far as characters go- she's complicated and in love but also holding back for her own reasons. It's a fun espionage/murder mystery/love story set in the fifties. We're also doing this Trompe L'oeil style cotume/set thing so we look like comic book characters... which also means I am not only a lead but also doing costumes. I have been too busy to even return texts at this point because when I'm not at rehearsal, I'm sewing my fingers off.

I will hopefully be posting costume sneak peaks and DIYs to my YouTube shorts so you can see what we end up with.

Anyway, for readers of my fanfic (Man! I Feel Like a Human), I have CHANGED MY USERNAME to be more gender-friendly. Seeing a very gendered name every time I log into AO3 was HARD so I’ve changed it to madrabbitwrites. I will say the last few story chapters I posted didn't seem to get much love so ... I'm not particularly in a rush to finish right now? But M!IFLAH is written and will eventually update when I have more time.

(TW: Illness) So my mom has a benign tumor in her pituitary gland that is causing the whole house to be in stress. Especially since she has other health complications that make me really nervous about her having surgery to remove it. It's been... too much, honestly. Now, more than ever, I also need to plan an escape from this living situation, so if you like my work please consider donating to my Ko-Fi. I'm putting all of my cash towards moving out as soon as I possibly can. As rent in my area is my entire paycheck, I don't know how soon that will be, but I'm doing my best.

My next book, A Deadly Persuasion, will hopefully be out in October or November as well. It’s a redneck bowling alley vampiric and sapphic retelling of Jane Austen’s Persuasion because I don’t have enough elements in that description. It’s turning out to be my favorite work yet, though. Even more than the Santa fucking a vampire book.

Sorry! Like Columbo, one more thing!

I’m working on the sequel to The Aquatic Equation, for real this time, and I think that means deleting The Frightful Fluid Conundrum. I might save the title for a future fic in this series, but if you like this so far, you might want to save it and make room for The Pelagic Solution.

[averymorstan]

I've been sharing these on insta and Facebook, figured I'd plop them down over here, too.

[averymorstan]

“We saw an opportunity to create something without geographic constraints, making it timely and accessible nationwide, especially in places with severe reading material restrictions”

[averymorstan]

Today on the channel I'm talking about the three dozen waistcoats/vests (my friends can't figure out what we should call them) that I've made.

I'm in the middle of writing my May book, A Deadly Persuasion, which is Jane Austen's Persuasion only with vampires in a bowling alley in the middle of no where, so wish me luck.

[averymorstan]

[averymorstan]

That feeling when you accidentally post the video link to the wrong blog first. Whoops.

Today on the channel I'm talking about the three dozen waistcoats/vests (my friends can't figure out what we should call them) that I've made.

I'm in the middle of writing my May book, A Deadly Persuasion, which is Jane Austen's Persuasion only with vampires in a bowling alley in the middle of no where, so wish me luck.

[averymorstan]

When your local elder queer doesn't understand 'Dark Academia' and just throws a bunch of stuff together.

[averymorstan]

When your local elder queer doesn't understand 'Dark Academia' and just throws a bunch of stuff together.

[averymorstan]

How do we feel about a sapphic Persuasion retelling set in a small town bowling alley with added vampires for spice? Because I'm feeling very good.

[averymorstan]

So my spring book is a Jane Austen retelling set in the Quaint City After Dark universe. Bowling alleys, vampires, what could possibly go wrong. Except the part where I have a character that is named Frankie in that universe and it never occurred to me that a Frankie and a Freddie could possibly be confusing? So I've now had to rename one of the mains. But it's okay, I love Freddie's new name.

I also was looking into how long it takes to be a captain in the Navy and it's like, 20 or more years ... but I'm wondering if that's a problem. Like, I do like to write for the late 30's early 40's audience, so is it okay if the heroine has waited 20 years for her love instead of like, 7?

[averymorstan]

Where I say I got a 'Fuckton' of queer books and in fact it was like five, but hey. If you want to know some good queer romcoms, I got some.

[averymorstan]

I can't remember if I post these here sometimes or not. I feel like I should. April will start off with some book reviews of some queer books I've been reading. (Click for channel)

I'm sad I didn't get more 'done' this week. I had a migraine Saturday that rendered me incapacitated, so no writing and no sewing got finished. I've had some tea today, though, and toast, and I've started reading We Could Be So Good by Cat Sebastian, which I've really loved so far. So at least I'm ending the weekend on a high note.

[averymorstan]

I'm not a sewing blog, I'm supposed to be a writing blog... but my writing brain has fucked off to who knows where. Seriously, my ability to plot has not been great for the last little while (Probably because of COVID). Anyway, here's today's video, if you're into watching me draft stuff. Clothes, I mean.

Sewing, writing and acting are all related in my brain, though. When I'm not sewing, I'm writing romance novels about sewing. When I'm not writing or sewing I'm acting and attempting to take costumes I like and recreate them at home. It's a whole thing. You gotta surf the creative waves.

[averymorstan]

I... set myself up for failure today. And I'm sad but I'm also feeling weirdly like okay about it.

I traced a blazer and attempted to recreate it, which I've done with a lot of things. It's hard because I think a lot of people who watch my channel or listen to my questions think I'm new- I've been sewing for about thirty three years, about twenty something specifically sewing clothes and making my own patterns.

It just went wrong from the start. I thought I was picking fabric that was going to look so FASHION (but I won't tell you and spoil the poll), and it ended up looking heinous. I actually balled the thing up and threw it in the corner of my sewing room and eventually will unpick it.

And then I had a pity party. I was like, this fucking sucks, I had other things I could have actually made progress on today, videos that needed to be finished --- 'Needed', as if the twenty views I average will notice if I don't post --- fanfics I owe people, actual books I need to write or that whole 'author career' thing I was talking about will basically be nothing. And I just didn't. I concentrated on one thing that didn't matter and ended up looking horrible. I feel like I wasted time.

And that is the horrible thing about living in a capitalist hellscape- I didn't waste anything. I learned how to put together a blazer. Even if I didn't 'produce content' from it or if I used time that I 'should have been working' to do it, I attempted, and I learned. And that's probably why even though I'm having my usual Sunday night panic attack -- because I basically only get one weekend day if I'm lucky to do my creative things because of my work schedule-- I feel okay. Even though I didn't end up with something to wear.

[averymorstan]

I am copying my favorite 80s blazer into a pattern.

[averymorstan]

I have been having some pretty bad brain days since getting Covid a week ago. So when I say at the end of all my videos to make sure you're taking care of you, that includes making sure you call your providers if stuff looks wonkier than usual. Sending love to all my fellow singles out there. Your gift from me is this completely cursed DIY Valentine's video.

[averymorstan]

I really took having wifi for granted when I lived in a city.

I live out in a rural place with my parents now and our wifi is so slow. And Verizon says nothing is wrong, it's just how it is. Like, 24 hours to download a Sims stuff kit kind of slow.

I try to use data to upload my YouTube videos because it's faster than the wifi - on wifi it can take 4 hours to upload, on data it takes 60-88 minutes for a thirteen minute video.

I really want to keep making videos but I'm just so worried lately about it being worth it. I wanted to pivot away from DIY tutorials and into talking about writing/my books, but those don't perform well. And then even when I can manage to get a video edited and complete, it takes forever to upload.

I don't know. Just gentle complaining about taking the wifi I had in Philly for granted. It's so laborious for me to stream something or download something or... I just get laughed at sometimes for still owning DVDs but you know, there's no lag when I watch DVDs. I wish I could get Good Omens and OFMD on DVD. (I haven't looked that hard I just assumed they aren't available.)