scapegrace74-blog

[scapegrace74-blog]

I read a story today that I didn’t particularly like. Generally I’d be fussed about the time wasted, but I was composing some constructive criticism to the author in my head (which I would never share directly, because I’m not a dick), and suddenly the time wasn’t wasted at all.

Here’s what I would tell them:

The who, what, when, where and how of writing is the skeleton. It has to be there, but the reader doesn’t need to be conscious of it. But every good story is good because it gives you a credible why. And it doesn’t just tell you outright “this is why this character did suchandsuch”. It makes you hunt for it by leaving subtle clues. So when you arrive at the last sentence you understand the reason behind the story, and you think you understand it because you figured it out yourself. You could write a story about a sentient strawberry on Mars, and as long as those two conditions were met, I would enjoy it.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have some plot reworking to do…

[scapegrace74-blog]

Greetings from Canada, where winter was too beautiful for words.

January to April, 2025

[scapegrace74-blog]

Power is something you can lose. Wealth can be stolen. Dominance can only be won by taking it away from someone else. There’s a reason people who crave and worship those things are forever weak, forever on the defensive. They are chasing something inherently impermanent, like trying to climb up a rockslide.

Decency. Kindness. Humility. Compassion. You never hear someone say “‘my goodness was stolen from me” or “I lost decency today”. No-one can take them away from you. You have to willingly give them up.

Everyday, but especially these days, don’t you dare give away something that is yours to keep forever.

[scapegrace74-blog]

From the article:

[T]here are now signs that China’s thirst for crude is reaching a peak sooner than expected, a development that has sent shockwaves through the oil market. This week, China said its oil imports had fallen nearly 2 per cent, or 240,000 barrels a day, to just over 11mn b/d in 2024 compared with the year before, the first decline in two decades barring the disruption during the Covid pandemic[...]. [T]he decline stems from longer-term trends too. There was a boom in trucks switching from diesel to liquefied natural gas, and, most importantly, the rising number of electric vehicles helped to depress sales of petrol and diesel. Sales of both road fuels peaked in 2023, according to China National Petroleum Corp, and will now fall by 25-40 per cent over the next decade. In December, Sinopec, China’s biggest refiner, brought forward its forecast for crude oil consumption to reach a peak to 2027, compared with the range it previously gave of between 2026 and 2030. The implications of China hitting peak oil are enormous. If Chinese demand is reaching a plateau that would fulfil projections by the IEA of global oil demand peaking before 2030. The forecast sustains hope for the world to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050."

[scapegrace74-blog]

Thanks as always for your support, @metaborderlines. Some excellent recommendations in there!

THX, fanfic writers [repeating myself, end of year]

Inspired by the post from @saygoodnightlove about fan fic recommendations, I want to know as @juli-81 asked, “Whatfics made you fall in love with Outlander in a new way this year?” My first answer was “Power Jam” by @isthisclever and I’ll stick with it, because of the way this writer uses detail to make things new, especially the love story that never gets old, Jamie meets Claire, this time at a roller rink in Edinburgh. The other nine, in no particular order, sprinkled I see with many WIPs: 

#2, “Wee Herbs” by @jesuisprest. OK, I have a problem with feisty Jenny, always barging in to “protect” Jamie. In “Wee Herbs,” Jenny is none too pleased to find that her brother has married the proprietor of a weed shop [it’s medical marijuana,Jenny] in California, and that California Claire has a child (Fergus, age 6, blooming nicely in West Coast soil). Claire fights fire with fire, beats Jenny at the primal battle of “family first.” WIP. 

 #3 “Lovers in a Dangerous Time” by @sassenachthroughtime. Is there a more romantic scene in fan fic than the one in this story when Claire, unwilling trophy wife to Fronk in oppressively staid South Carolina society, helps new next-door neighbor Jamie with clean-up after his housewarming party and he whispers, Scottish burr on fire, “Dance wi’me?” WIP.

            #4 “Game Changer” by @the2ofusnow. Jamie’s the rookie of the year with the NY Mets; Claire is the team doctor, written with emotional intelligence. WIP. 

            #5 “Atonement” by @smashing-teacups, for its quiet scenes in the hospital when horribly-injured Jamie and compassionate-nurse Claire get to know one another. The writer gets the most out of dialogue, small moments like the one when Claire washes Jamie’s hair.

            #6 “Market Price” by @desperationandgin. Both Jamie and Claire are witty and strong, despite (of course) having weathered some life-challenges, and they’re funny and sweet, unable to keep their hands off one another. 

            #7 “Saorsa” by @scapegrace-74. Jamie escapes Black Jack by touching the stones, lands in the midst of WW II at Lallybroch whose chatelaine is a pregnant widow, Claire, the legatee of the Randall estate. The way the two come together, inevitably, is told with grace and verve—a description that fits “anything by” @scapegrace-74, especially the stories in the “Metric Universe.” Thanks also to @scapegrace-74 for pointing to a perfect novella, “The Stars Will Sing for Us” by @fallofrain. No drama, just strong characterization when Dr. Claire moves to Broch Morda and falls in love with, guess, the sweetest, hottest guy in town; he’s good with horses too. No bland inevitability: the writer allows the reader to discover the characters as they discover one another. 

            #8 “Loving Jamie” by @JillianK, an 18thcentury story in which Jamie has lost inheritance when he’s rendered mute from an axe blow (Dougal?) The MacKenzie brothers arrange a marriage to Claire. The story has a fairytale quality leavened with humor, e.g ch 7 when Jamie wonders if his new wife loves him and Clarence nudges him not to get maudlin. “Christ. Now he was taking life lessons from a mule.”

            #9 “Something to Believe In” by @caitrinwrites.  Claire is a chef in Santa Fe and when a Scottish distiller turns up to purvey his wares at her resto, he very much resembles her daughter Brianna, age 5. WIP. This story of introducing Jamie to his lost child shows signs of rising to meet the top of the class in the genre, “Downhill” by @wickedgoodbooks (who can forget five-year-old Willie on “The Puffin Trip” with his reunited parents, Claire and Jamie?) and “Flood My Mornings” by @bonnie_wee_swordsman (Jamie’s observations about the mores of America in the 1950, all the tut-tutting about working mothers, and his comment about how the Pope can just get out of women’s way when it comes to reproductive choice). And “Written in the Stones” by @lenny9987, one of the best father-and-child reunion stories in which Jamie arrives at Craig na dun and reclaims Claire and ten-year-old Brianna, in part when she teaches him to bake chocolate chip cookies at Mrs. Graham’s house during a thunderstorm. 

More than a top ten, I can’t omit “One Summer” by @missclairebelle, the glorious variant on Jamie and Claire as a bantering couple who would give Hepburn and Tracy a run for their money in their heyday. And “Jimjeran” by @betweensceneswriter, which manages to convey new love in the most heated yet nuanced fashion. Jamie and Claire are Peace Corps volunteers on a Pacific island, which shows among other things that this story is truly universal. And then there’s “In My Daughter’s Eyes” by @preciouslittleingenue, Jamie as a riding therapist to autistic Faith, four-year-old child of Claire and Fronk, who rejected his “imperfect” child. And You’ll Be in Mo Chridhe by @CrossingInStyle. Claire goes to Africa with Uncle Lamb and meets Tarzan, who is, guess … Another good one by this prolific writer, “First Time Here?” Jamie is a bartender in Inverness who asks the question of Claire on her sequential bad dates. Nice past-present cross-stich. And “Back to You” by @balfeheughlywed. Claire is Leery’s roommate at Edinburgh U…but the writing is good. Jenny is the Worst. And “Queen’s Gambit”by @AbbeDebeaupre. Lord John is private eye, Jamie trains polo ponies… And the “Basia Mille” series by @JRC10…

 This list is threatening to exceed top 20, so many good stories. Thank you, writers!

[scapegrace74-blog]

Back from an amazing 10 day trip to stunningly beautiful Scotland.

October 18 - 28, 2024

[scapegrace74-blog]

I had another of those amusing bilingual moments this week when my MIL used the French word sous-entendu, meaning something inferred or implied, but not explicitly stated. It’s an amalgam of the word sous, meaning under, and entendu, the past participle of the verb to hear, but also having the meaning of having understood something, not just heard it.

So in French, an unspoken inference or implication is literally under-understood, which I’d like to petition be added to the English language as well.

[scapegrace74-blog]

If you’re feeling stressed out, watching this on loop will likely help.

Bonus: listening to the below at the same time.

[scapegrace74-blog]

Every fall, I try to make a point of spending one or two nights in Mont Tremblant National Park. I donate a few pints of blood to the mosquito gods, a few litres of sweat to the hiking gods, and I leave feeling lighter for completely different reasons. This year was no exception.

September 2 - 3, 2024

[scapegrace74-blog]

this is for an argument w my friend

[scapegrace74-blog]

Only a couple more of these First Day of School photos to go, then I suppose I’m make a montage and cry like a baby. 🥹

August 27, 2024

Do Not Reblog Please.

[scapegrace74-blog]

Belated photo round up of our summer trip back to my homeland.

Vancouver Island, British Columbia

July 10 to 20, 2024

[scapegrace74-blog]

daMoment

Olimpic Games 2024

Gab Medina

[scapegrace74-blog]

Had a small visitor by the pool.

[scapegrace74-blog]

My morning commute lately.