#we’d go to the library (!!) and pick out a solid stack of books to be read aloud

[confetticlues]

i have my fourth knee surgery wednesday morning and it’s so comforting to imagine steve and blue being there for me in the recovery period afterwards 🩷

[rose-vanderan]

Percy and the small Hunter

Rating: G (General)

Characters: Percy Weasley and Harry Potter

Word Count: 2,653

Summary: Harry calls Percy into 12 Grimmauld Place, Harry's now dubbed "Sanctuary", because he needed his assistance regarding some news about a specific little girl nicknamed "Hunter."

Notes: This is a one-shot based on the world building fanfiction I published titled "You'll Be Safe" in which Harry Potter revamps 12 Grimmauld Place in an orphanage and safe place for werewolves to get help and access to safehouses and Wolfsbane potion.

This is posted on AO3 under the same name (”Percy and the small Hunter” by Curious_Feline)

A small audible pop was heard from behind a wooden fence line, concealing the red haired man from any muggles on this particular London residential street. Percy strode out from behind it, traveling down the sidewalk heading towards the now familiar, no longer concealed, “sanctuary” as Harry had dubbed it. He walked up the worn steps, opening the front door, ignoring the obnoxious doorbell that no one bothered removing. The interior of Grimmauld place was bustling with life. He could hear a few pairs of children, giggling and laughing, as he glanced around observing the two pairs of potential parents checking in with one of the assistants. He politely greeted them as he passed, heading upstairs keeping note of the small boy peering over the banister with a mischievous smile.

Percy nearly toppled himself backwards as he reached over and grabbed the small boy before he fell over the bannister as the child had tried to drop what looked like a bright orange and purple water balloon on one of the teenagers that occupied Grimmauld Place as she passed underneath. Percy took a moment to keep his grasp on his nerves, looking up at the ceiling and taking a deep breath, still holding the boy. He gently placed the boy back on the ground and then gave a quick lesson on safety, that the boy surprisingly seemed to listen to. Percy chalk that up as him simply being scared out of his wits, as he almost dropped and got a concussion. The boy had stretched out his arms and Percy crouched to accept the hug the boy wanted. He paused there for a few brief moments, waiting on the small boy to be the one to let go first. Percy knew that some of the children needed the extra affection and had no issue waiting the extra moments, as he knew that it meant more than people realize for them.

Percy watched as the boy let go, watching him turn around after one of the other kids called after him, and rushed off to join them. Percy placed his hands on his knees and raised himself back up to his full height before turning to head towards his destination. He reached a closed wooden door and raised his hand to briefly knock on it in a solid pattern of four. He listened closely for the signal from Harry inside before he entered, closing the door behind him. The room before him stood brightly lit by the window off on the far wall, adorned with multiple bookshelves, and a centered oak desk behind which was the man in question. Harry looked to be glancing over various documents, his dark unruly hair now growing longer pulled into a ponytail. Harry pushed his glasses up on the bridge of his nose, the gravity causing them to slip down before he glanced up at Percy.

“You know you don’t have to knock, Percy. I knew you were coming over, you could’ve just walked in.” Harry said, leaning back in his chair, arms resting on the arms.

“I was just making sure you weren’t in the middle of something. Also I know about Ron bursting in here all the time.” Percy replied.

“Ah, yeah” Harry chuckled “He just slams the door open, announcing himself half the time if he remembers. Usually he just starts talking about whatever and getting a few sentences in before realizing I’m looking at him like he’s lost his head.”

Percy gave a small smile at the image before raising his hand in a dismissive wave. “Sorry, I guess it is just a habit. Well at least I didn’t scare you. Yet anyhow.”

“Yet.” Harry retorted, “Let me just finish this before I continue. They keep hounding me about how important and how dire it is for him to finish it in a timely manner.” Harry grinned, his voice indicating dripping sarcasm as he leaned forward, grabbing a hold of different papers on his desk to glance over. He made a noise indicating he had found what he was looking for after only a brief few moments before he made a quick signature, setting it on the growing stack of papers on the right side of his desk. Harry pushed back his chair and stood before he proceeded to start stretching, indicating how long he stayed hunched over his desk.

“You remember Logan?” Harry asks, glancing his gaze towards Percy, stretching his arm across his chest.

“One of the younger werewolves that got taken in?” Percy asked, more out of clarification that curiosity. He remembered how Logan was one of the first werewolf children that got taken into Grimmauld Place, something that caused an uproar in the wizarding community. Article after article got written regarding how “dangerous” that Potter boy was going to be around a child if he thinks a werewolf child should be allowed near others. The articles quickly stopped after the amount of people immediately jumping to his defense, especially Remus Lupin one of the awarded heroes following the end of the Second War. Harry stayed livid about the articles for a few months following that incident.

“Yes well you know the kid he always sticks around? The older kid with the scruffy blonde hair? Even though it’s clear that both of them seem to get on each other's bloody nerves?” Harry asked, with a hint of laughter in his voice.

Percy nodded, remember the child everyone had nicknamed Hunter, because they always seemed to sneak around Grimmauld Place being light as a feather on their feet. Another reason they adopted the nickname was because they enjoyed being perched on top of various furniture pieces around the house, taking to try to pop out to scare some of the adults as they passed. It worked a few times on Harry.

“She has relayed some information to me about some changes I will be making to her paperwork.” Harry said, taking in how quickly the information had crossed and processed through his mind.

“Oh, I’m happy for her.” Percy smiled but added, “Why did you feel the need to tell me privately? Surely you could’ve told me with the rest of the staff?”

Harry gave an awkward laugh before rubbing the back of his neck, not meeting Percy’s eye contact. Percy raised his eyebrow.

“Oh...uh…” Harry tried to say but eventually cleared his throat. “I don’t know how to say this without sounding....”

Percy understood. He startled Harry because he actually laughed. It was short but still caught him off guard.

“Harry, you’re fine. You want me to talk to her because I’d understand what she’d be going through to a degree and you just want her to be comfortable.” Percy helpfully filled in.

Harry let out a relieved sigh and tried to replace his awkward posture.

“I’m sorry, I just didn’t want to….” Harry trailed off again but caught himself before the awkward silence ate him alive. “Well, she’s in the library if you could go and make her feel more comfortable.”

“Of course.” Percy said, and with that took his leave.

He walked out the room taking himself up another flight of stairs, landing on the third floor. He made his way down the hallway to the cracked oak near the end of the hall. He glanced inside and saw Hunter perched on the back of the couch, reading some thick hardback book. She glanced up upon hearing the door slowly creak open, and she slid her bookmark onto the page before plopping the book down onto the cushion of the couch. Logan was engrossing himself what looked like homework his rotated tutor had probably supplied him. Logan tapped the pencil on the coffee table he sat in front of, as he had placed himself on the floor, and didn’t appear to have bothered to acknowledge Percy.

“I didn’t think we’d have you for another week or so,” Hunter said, which caused Logan to look up but only briefly to notice Percy entered the room.

“Harry asked me to stop by,” Percy began before he moved himself closer to her. "It’s come to my attention that we should reintroduce ourselves.” Percy extended his hand out towards her, gesturing for a handshake, “Percival Ignatius Weasley and you are, my dear?”

Hunter’s smile grew wider with the passing second before she extended her hand to shake his, the excitement showing in her enthusiasm. “Paige!” She exclaimed happily, and she threw her grin towards Logan who looked up towards them.

“Oh great, now she’s going to go around introducing herself to everyone in her. I’m going to end up sick of the name before she’s even had it for a month.” Logan replied, a hint of sarcasm in his voice, before dogging the book Paige reached down and chucked towards him.

“Hey it’s alright.” Percy said going over and picked up the book from the floor, watching as Paige crossed her arms across her chest sticking her tongue out towards Logan who returned the same. Percy shook his head and smiled to himself. Paige stopped herself abruptly as she turned towards Percy, her head cocked to one side.

“Wait.” She said, almost a little too loudly, “Is this why Harry asked you to come here?”

Percy placed the book back onto the couch where she originally placed the book, although more carefully. He looked up at her from his slightly slouched position, before nodded and straightened himself.

“Are you like me?” She asked curiosity peaking, starting to lean forward clinging onto the back of the couch.

“Not exactly.” He said with a small chuckle.

Logan let out a laugh that actually startled Percy, almost in the same way that Percy startled Harry earlier. The pair of them both looked down at Logan at the same time, Percy with a confused expression while Paige looked annoyed. Logan had let out a harsh breathe before he settled into quieter giggles. He glanced up at both of them and grinned at Percy.

“What?” Logan asked, his eyebrow raised, his voice full of mischief “It makes a lot of sense now.” When Percy continued to look confused and Logan saw Paige roll her eyes, crossing her arms, he continued. “There’s no way your parents named you Percival Ignatius. It makes sense now knowing that you picked the name yourself”

“Ignore him!” Paige said defensively, watching as Percy shook his head. She didn’t notice that Percy was trying to repress his shaking laughter.

“I didn’t say it was a bad name!” Logan defended, tossing a crumpled up ball of paper at her that she easily dodge.

“Kids, kids, it’s alright.” Percy said, putting up both hands in a mock show to separate the two. “He’s not the first person to comment on my naming choice. My brothers got that honor. Besides my father actually wanted to use the name Percival but never got the opportunity.”

“Don’t you have like six siblings?” Logan asked, oblivious to the weight of the question.

“Five, now.” Percy corrected, and it stung a little at how common he said it was that it was starting to feel like habit to automatically correct others. He quickly caught himself before the silence became deafening so he changed the subject back. “Besides they had a long list of potential names and decided on others instead. I’m happy to have chosen a name my father liked and wanted.”

Logan took that answer and nodded, before returning to his papers lying on the table in front of him. Paige had climbed off the back edge of the sofa she had perched herself on, climbing down onto the couch cushion. She stood standing on the couch as she looked up at Percy.

“I happen to like the name, Percy.” She declared with a grin, placing her hands on her hips leaning around Percy to shoot a dirty look at Logan. Percy smiled down at her, his arms now crossed a motion he didn’t even realize he had done.

“Thank you, Paige.” He gave a nod to indicate politely for her to get off the couch, which she obeyed, before he sat down. She took the seat beside him, after he had made the gesture for her to join him. “I’m going to bring a close friend over tomorrow. She has more information for your specific situation than but we’ll both help you, along with Harry, however you need it.”

Percy didn’t see how quickly she moved, as she moved in a flash, but the next thing he knew she was hugging him. Her face buried into his traveling robes, he didn’t realize he was still wearing, as she started shaking softly as she cried. He gently rubbed her back, making soft calming noises, trying to reassure her that she’s safe and okay. She pulled back and rubbed her eyes, looking up at him, sniffling quietly.

“Thank you” She said softly, almost like a whisper that Percy struggled to hear. Percy smiled down at her and hugged her, wrapping his arms around her, giving a small kiss to the top of her head. He pulled back and rubbed the sides of her arms, watching as she beamed up at him. Realization dawned over her face and she shot up off the couch. Percy and Logan both looked startled at her abrupt movement, she rushed over to the door to the library before turning her head backward towards them both. “I’ll be back, I need to go thank Harry too!”

Percy smiled, watching her rush off out the door to go downstairs. Paige got out the door before she made a noise of surprise. The two left in the room, quickly realized Harry had been outside the door, listening as it sounded as though he almost toppled over as she rushed to hug him. Logan who had cleared his throat before glancing over at Percy, causing him to look over at the boy. He looked to be hesitant to say something and after a few moments he finally did.

“Thank you,” Logan said quietly, “...for helping Paige. She’s been scared to tell anyone.” Logan shifted uncomfortably, showing that he was unsure of how to approach this, not meeting Percy’s eyes. “I only want her to be happy and you’ve definitely helped her a lot.” Logan glanced back up at Percy, getting the courage to make eye contact, his face starting to flush.

Percy smiled, reaching over and placing a hand on his shoulder. “She’s lucky to have someone like you. You’ve helped her a lot too.” Percy told him.

Logan suppressed a smile that was threatening to spread across his face before he cleared his throat again and returned his attention back down to his papers. “You uh...You should probably go help Harry because she might not let go of him anytime soon.” Logan told him, picking up his pencil and started to tap it absentmindedly on the table.

Percy reached his hand over a gave him a small pat on his upper back, the small smile still showing on his face, probably part of the reason Logan refused to look back up, pink spreading over his cheeks as he gets flustered easily from affectionate conversations. Percy leaned back and raised himself from his seat and headed towards the door. Percy turned his head back towards Logan, trying to ignore the noises of children clambering up the stairs to jump on top of Harry, by the sounds of it.

“Let me know if you need anything, okay?” He called back towards Logan. Logan didn’t glance up, just choosing to raise his thumb in the air as a sign of acknowledgement, but Percy saw the smile that crept its way onto Logan’s face. Percy didn’t expect Grimmauld Place to mean as much as it did to him, but he’ll always be here to help out in any way he can.

[cerradofolc]

This is the story where word 'cyberpunk' appears first time ever.

  Copyright © 1980 Bruce Bethke. All rights reserved.  

  First published in   AMAZING Science Fiction Stories, Volume 57,   Number 4, November 1983  

  * * *  

The snoozer went off at seven and I was out of my sleepsack, powered up, and on-line in nanos. That's as far as I got. Soon I booted and got -

CRACKERS/BUDDYBOO/8ER

on the tube I shut down fast. Damn! Rayno had been on line before me, like always, and that message meant somebody else had gotten into our Net - and that meant trouble by the busload! I couldn't do anything mor on term, so I zipped into my jumper, combed my hair, and went downstairs.

Mom and Dad were at breakfast when I slid into the kitchen. "Good Morning, Mikey!" said Mom with a smile. "You were up so late last night I thought I wouldn't see you before you caught your bus."

"Had a tough program to crack," I said.

"Well," she said, "now you can sit down and have a decent breakfast." She turned around to pull some Sara Lees out of the microwave and plunk them down on the table.

"If you'd do your schoolwork when you're supposed to you wouldn't have to stay up all night," growled Dad from behind his caffix and faxsheet. I sloshed some juice in a glass and poured it down, stuffed a Sara Lee into my mouth, and stood to go.

"What?" asked Mom. "That's all the breakfast you're going to have?"

"Haven't got time," I said. "I gotta get to school early to see if the program checks." Dad growled something more and Mom spoke to quiet him, but I didn't hear much 'cause I was out the door.

I caught the transys for school, just in case they were watching. Two blocks down the line I got off and transferred going back the other way, and a coupla transfers later I wound up whipping into Buddy's All-Night Burgers. Rayno was in our booth, glaring into his caffix. It was 7:55 and I'd beat Georgie and Lisa there.

"What's on line?" I asked as I dropped into my seat, across from Rayno. He just looked up at me through his eyebrows and I knew better than to ask again.

At eight Lisa came in. Lisa is Rayno's girl, or at least she hopes she is. I can see why: Rayno's seventeen - two years older than the rest of us - he wears flash plastic and his hair in The Wedge (Dad blew a chip when I said I wanted my hair cut like that) and he's so cool he won't even touch her, even when she's begging for it. She plunked down in her seat next to Rayno and he didn't blink.

Georgie still wasn't there at 8:05. Rayno checked his watch again, then finally looked up from his caffix. "The compiler's been cracked," he said. Lisa and I both swore. We'd worked up our own little code to keep our Net private. I mean, our Olders would just blow boards if they ever found out what we were really up to. And now somebody'd broken our code.

"Georgie's old man?" I asked.

"Looks that way." I swore again. Georgie and I started the Net by linking our smartterms with some stuff we stored in his old man's home business system. Now my Dad woudln't know an opsys if he crashed on one, but Georgie's old man - he's a greentooth. A tech-type. He'd found one of ours once before and tried to take it apart to see what it did. We'd just skinned out that time.

"Any idea how far in he got?" Lisa asked. Rayno looked through her, at the front door. Georgie'd just come in.

"We're gonna find out," Rayno said.

Georgie was coming in smiling, but when he saw that look in Rayno's eyes he sat down next to me like the seat was booby-trapped.

"Good Morning Georgie," said Rayno, smiling like a shark.

"I didn't glitch!" Georgie whined. "I didn't tell him a thing!"

"Then how the Hell did he do it?"

"You know how he is, he's weird! He likes puzzles!" Georgie looked to me for backup. "That's how come I was late. He was trying to weasel me, but I didn't tell him a thing! I think he only got it partway open. He didn't ask about the Net!"

Rayno actually sat back, pointed at us all, and smiled. "You kids just don't know how lucky you are. I was in the Net last night and flagged somebody who didn't know the secures was poking Georgie's compiler. I made some changes. By the time your old man figures them out, well..."

I sighed relief. See what I mean about being cool? Rayno had us outlooped all the time!

Rayno slammed his fist down on the table. "But Dammit Georgie, you gotta keep a closer watch on him!"

Then Rayno smiled and bought us all drinks and pie all the way around. Lisa had a cherry Coke, and Georgie and I had caffix just like Rayno. God, that stuff tastes awful! The cups were cleared away, and Rayno unzipped his jumper and reached inside.

"Now kids," he said quietly, "it's time for some serious fun." He whipped out his microterm. "School's off!"

I still drop a bit when I see that microterm - Geez, it's a beauty! It's a Zeilemann Nova 300, but we've spent so much time reworking it, it's practically custom from the motherboard up. Hi-baud, rammed, rammed, ported, with the wafer display folds down to about the size of a vid casette; I'd give an ear to have one like it. We'd used Georgie's old man's chipburner to tuck some special tricks in ROM and there wasn't a system in CityNet it couldn't talk to.

Rayno ordered up a smartcab and we piled out of Buddy's. No more riding the transys for us, we were going in style! We charged the smartcab off to some law company and cruised all over Eastside.

Riding the boulevards got stale after awhile, so we rerouted to the library. We do a lot of our fun at the library, 'cause nobody ever bothers us there. Nobody ever goes there. We sent the smartcab, still on the law company account, off to Westside. Getting past the guards and the librarians was just a matter of flashing some ID and then we zipped off into the stacks.

Now, you've got to ID away your life to get on the libsys terms - which isn't worth half a scare when your ID is all fudged like ours is - and they watch real careful. But they move their terms around a lot, so they've got ports on line all over the building. We found an unused port, and me and Georgie kept watch while Rayno plugged in his microterm and got on line.

"Get me into the Net," he said, handing me the term. We don't have a stored opsys yet for Netting, so Rayno gives me the fast and tricky jobs.

Through the dataphones I got us out of the libsys and into CityNet. Now, Olders will never understand. They still think a computer has got to be a brain in a single box. I can get the same results with opsys stored in a hundred places, once I tie them together. Nearly every computer has got a dataphone port, CityNet is a great linking system, and Rayno's microterm has the smarts to do the job clean and fast so nobody flags on us. I pulled the compiler out of Georgie's old man's computer and got into our Net. Then I handed the term back to Rayno.

"Well, let's do some fun. Any requests?" Georgie wanted something to get even with his old man, and I had a new routine cooking, but Lisa's eyes lit up 'cause Rayno handed the term to her, first.

"I wanna burn Lewis," she said.

"Oh fritz!" Georgie complained. "You did that last week!"

"Well, he gave me another F on a theme."

"I never get F's. If yu'd read books once in a -"

"Georgie," Rayno said softly, "Lisa's on line." That settled that. Lisa's eyes were absolutely glowing.

Lisa got back into CityNet and charged a couple hundred overdue books to Lewis's libsys account. Then she ordered a complete fax sheet of Encyclopedia Britannica printed out at his office. I got next turn.

Georgie and Lisa kept watch while I accessed. Rayno was looking over my shoulder. "Something new this week?"

"Airline reservations. I was with my Dad two weeks ago when he set up a business trip, and I flagged on maybe getting some fun. I scanned the ticket clerk real careful and picked up the access code."

"Okay, show me what you can do."

Accessing was so easy that I just wiped a couple of reservations first, to see if there were any bells and whistles.

None. No checks, no lockwords, no confirm codes. I erased a couple dozen people without crashing down or locking up. "Geez," I said, "There's no deep secures at all!"

"I been telling you. Olders are even dumber than they look. Georgie? Lisa? C'mon over here and see what we're running!" Georgie was real curious and asked a lot of questions, but Lisa just looked bored and snapped her gum and tried to stand closer to Rayno. Then Rayno said, "Time to get off Sesame Street. Purge a flight."

I did. It was simple as a save. I punched a few keys, entered, and an entire plane disappeared from all the reservation files. Boy, they'd be surprised when they showed up at the airport. I started purging down the line, but Rayno interrupted.

"Maybe there's no bells and whistles, but wipe out a whole block of flights and it'll stand out. Watch this." He took the term from me and cooked up a routine in RAM to do a global and wipe out every flight that departed at an :07 for the next year. "Now that's how you do these things without waving a flag."

"That's sharp," Georgie chipped in, to me. "Mike, you're a genius! Where do you get these ideas?" Rayno got a real funny look in his eyes.

"My turn," Rayno said, exiting the airline system.

"What's next in the stack?" Lisa asked him.

"Yeah, I mean, after garbaging the airlines . . ." Georgie didn't realize he was supposed to shut up.

"Georgie! Mike!" Rayno hissed. "Keep watch!" Soft, he added, "It's time for The Big One."

"You sure?" I asked. "Rayno, I don't think we're ready."

"We're ready."

Georgie got whiney. "We're gonna get in big trouble-"

"Wimp," spat Rayno. Georgie shut up.

We'd been working on The Big One for over two months, but I still didn't feel real solid about it. It almost made a clean if/then/else; if The Big One worked/then we'd be rich/else . . . it was the else I didn't have down.

Georgie and me scanned while Rayno got down to business. He got back into CityNet, called the cracker opsys out of OurNet, and poked it into Merchant's Bank & Trust. I'd gotten into them the hard way, but never messed with their accounts; just did it to see if I could do it. My data'd been sitting in their system for about three weeks now and nobody'd noticed. Rayno thought it would be really funny to use one bank computer to crack the secures on other bank computers.

While he was peeking and poking I heard walking nearby and took a closer look. It was just some old waster looking for a quiet place to sleep. Rayno was finished linking by the time I got back. "Okay kids," he said, "this is it." He looked around to make sure we were all watching him, then held up the term and stabbed the RETURN key. That was it. I stared hard at the display, waiting to see what else was gonna be. Rayno figured it'd take about ninety seconds.

The Big One, y'see, was Rayno's idea. He'd heard about some kids in Sherman Oaks who almost got away with a five million dollar electronic fund transfer; they hadn't hit a hangup moving the five mil around until they tried to dump it into a personal savings account with a $40 balance. That's when all the flags went up.

Rayno's cool; Rayno's smart. We weren't going to be greedy, we were just going to EFT fifty K. And it wasn't going to look real strang, 'cause it got strained through some legitimate accounts before we used it to open twenty dummies.

If it worked.

The display blanked, flickered, and showed:

TRANSACTION COMPLETED. HAVE A NICE DAY.

I started to shout, but remembered I was in a library. Georgie looked less terrified. Lisa looked like she was going to attack Rayno. Rayno just cracked his little half smile, and started exiting. "Funtime's over, kids."

"I didn't get a turn," Georgie mumbled.

Rayno was out of all the nets and powering down. He turned, slow, and looked at Georgie through those eyebrows of his. "You are still on The List."

Georgie swallowed it 'cause there was nothing else he could do. Rayno folded up the microterm and tucked it back inside his jumper.

We got a smartcab outside the library and went off to someplace Lisa picked for lunch. Georgie got this idea about garbaging up the smartcab's brain so that the next customer would have a real state fair ride, but Rayno wouldn't let him do it. Rayno didn't talk to him during lunch, either.

After lunch I talked them into heading up to Martin's Micros. That's one of my favorite places to hang out. Martin's the only Older I know who can really work a computer without blowing out his headchips, and he never talks down to me, and he never tells me to keep my hands off anything. In fact, Martin's been real happy to see all of us, ever since Rayno bought that $3000 vidgraphics art animation package for Lisas birthday.

Martin was sitting at his term when we came in. "Oh, hi Mike! Rayno! Lisa! Georgie!" We all nodded. "Nice to see you again. What can I do for you today?"

"Just looking," Rayno said.

"Well, that's free." Martin turned back to his term and punched a few more IN keys. "Damn!" he said to the term.

"What's the problem?" Lisa asked.

"The problem is me," Martin said. "I got this software package I'm supposed to be writing, but it keeps bombing out and I don't know what's wrong."

Rayno asked, "What's it supposed to do?"

"Oh, it's a real estate system. Y'know, the whoe future-values-in-current-dollars bit. Depreciation, inflation, amortization, tax credits -"

"Put that in our tang," said. "What numbers crunch?"

Martin started to explain, and Rayno said to me, "This looks like your kind of work." Martin hauled his three hundred pounds of fat out of the chair, and looked relieved as I dropped down in front of the term. I scanned the parameters, looked over Martin's program, and processed a bit. Martin'd only made a few mistakes. Anybody could have. I dumped Martin's program and started loading the right one in off the top of my head.

"Will you look at that?" Martin said.

I didn't answer 'cause I was thinking in assembly. In ten minutes I had it in, compiled, and running test sets. It worked perfect, of course.

"I just can't believe you kids," Martin said. "You can program easier than I can talk."

"Nothing to it" I said.

"Maybe not for you. I knew a kid grew up speaking Arabic, used to say the same thing." He shook his head, tugged his beard, looked me in the face, and smiled. "Anyhow, thanks loads, Mike. I don't know how to . . ." He snapped his fingers. "Say, I just got something in the other day, I bet you'd be really interested in." He took me over to the display case, pulled it out, and set it on the counter. "The latest word in microterms. The Zeilemann Starfire 600."

I dropped a bit! Then I ballsed up enough to touch it. I flipped up the wafer display, ran my fingers over the touch pads, and I just wanted it so bad! "It's smart," Martin said. "Rammed, rammed, and ported."

Rayno was looking at the specs with that cold look in his eye. "My 300 is still faster," he said.

"It should be," Martin said. "You customized it half to death. But the 600 is nearly as fast, and it's stock, and it lists for $1400. I figure you must have spent nearly 3K upgrading yours."

"Can I try it out?" I asked. Martin plugged me into his system, and I booted and got on line. It worked great! Quiet, accurate; so maybe it wasn't as fast as Rayno's - I couldn't tell the difference. "Rayno, this thing is the max!" I looked at Martin. "Can we work out some kind of...?" Martin looked back to his terminal, where the real estate program was still running tests without a glitch.

"I been thinking about that, Mike. You're a minor, so I can't legally employ you." He tugged on his beard and rolled his tongue around his mouth. "But I'm hitting that real estate client for some pretty heavy bread on consulting fees, and it doesn't seem real fair to me that you... Tell you what. Maybe I can't hire you, but I sure can buy software you write. You be my consultant on, oh . . . seven more projects like this, and we'll call it a deal? Sound okay to you?"

Before I could shout yes, Rayno pushed in between me and Martin. "I'll buy it. List." He pulled out a charge card from his jumper pocket. Martin's jaw dropped. "Well, what're you waiting for? My plastic's good."

"List? But I owe Mike one," Martin protested.

"List. You don't owe us nothing."

Martin swallowed. "Okay Rayno." He took the card and ran a credcheck on it. "It's clean," Martin said, surprised. He punched up the sale and started laughing. "I don't know where you kids get this kind of money!"

"We rob banks," Rayno said. Martin laughed, and Rayno laughed, and we all laughed. Rayno picked up the term and walked out of the store. As soon as we got outside he handed it to me.

"Thanks Rayno, but . . . but I coulda made the deal myself."

"Happy Birthday, Mike."

"Rayno, my birthday is in August."

"Let's get one thing straight. You work for me."

It was near school endtime, so we routed back to Buddy's. On the way, in the smartcab, Georgie took my Starfire, gently opened the case, and scanned the boards. "We could double the baud speed real easy."

"Leave it stock," Rayno said.

We split up at Buddy's, and I took the transys home. I was lucky, 'cause Mom and Dad weren't  home and I could zip right upstairs and hide the Starfire in my closet. I wish I had cool parents like Rayno does. They never ask him any dumb questions.

Mom came home at her usual time, and asked how school was. I didn't have to say much, 'cause just then the stove said dinner was ready and she started setting the table. Dad came in five minutes later and we started eating.

We got the phone call halfway through dinner. I was the one who jumped up and answered it. It was Georgie's old man, and he wanted to talk to my Dad. I gave him the phone and tried to overhear, but he took it in the next room and talked real quiet. I got unhungry. I never liked tofu, anyway.

Dad didn't stay quiet for long. "He what?! Well thank you for telling me! I'm going to get to the bottom of this right now!" He hung up.

"Who was that, David?" Mom asked.

"That was Mr. Hansen. Georgie's father. Mike and Georgie were hanging around with that punk Rayno again!" He snapped around to look at me. I'd almost made it out the kitchen door. "Michael! Were you in school today?"

I tried to talk cool. I think the tofu had my throat all clogged up. "Yeah...yeah, I was."

"Then how come Mr. Hansen saw you coming out of the downtown library?"

I was stuck. "I - I was down there doing some special research."

"For what class? C'mon Michael, what were you studying?"

It was too many inputs. I was locking up.

"David," Mom said, "Aren't you being a bit hasty? I'm  sure there's a good explanation."

"Martha, Mr. Hansen found something in his computer that Georgie and Michael put there. He thinks they've been messing with banks."

"Our Mikey? It must be some kind of bad joke."

"You don't know how serious this is! Michael Arthur Harris! What have you been doing sitting up all night with that terminal? What was that system in Hansen's computer? Answer me! What have you been doing?!" My eyes felt hot. "None of your business! Keep your nose out of things you'll never understand, you obsolete old relic!"

"That does it! I don't know what's wrong with you damn kids, but I know that thing isn't helping!" He stormed up to my room. I tried to get ahead of him all the way up the steps and just got my hands stepped on. Mom came fluttering up behind as he yanked all the plugs on my terminal.

"Now David," Mom said. "Don't you think you're being a bit harsh? He needs that for his homework, don't you, Mikey?"

"You can't  make excuses for him this time, Martha! I mean it! This goes in the basement, and tomorrow I'm calling the cable company and getting his line ripped out! If he has anything to do on computer he can damn well use the terminal in the den, where I can watch him!" He stomped out, carrying my smartterm. I slammed the door and locked it. "Go ahead and sulk! It won't do you any good!"

I threw some pillows around 'til I didn't feel like breaking anything anymore, then I hauled the Starfire out of the closet. I'd watched over Dad's shoulders enough to know his account numbers and access codes, so I got on line and got down to business. I was finished in half an hour.

I tied into Dad's terminal. He was using it, like I figured he would be, scanning school records. Fine. He wouldn't find out anything; we'd figured out how to fix school records months ago. I crashed in and gave him a new message on his vid display.

"Dad," it said, "there's going to be some changes around here."

It took a few seconds to sink in. I got up and made sure the door was locked real solid. I still got half a scare when he came pounding up the stairs, though. I didn't know he could be so loud.

"MICHAEL!!" He slammed into the door. "Open this! Now!"

"No."

"If you don't open this door before I count to ten, I'm going to bust it down! One!"

"Before you do that-"

"Two!"

"Better call your bank!"

"Three!"

"B320-5127-OlR." That was his checking account access code. He silenced a couple seconds.

"Young man, I don't know what you think you're trying to pull-"

"I'm not trying anything. I did it already."

Mom came up the stairs and said, "What's going on, David?" "Shut up, Martha!" He was talking real quiet, now. "What did you do, Michael?"

"Outlooped you. Disappeared you. Buried you."

"You mean, you got into the bank computer and erased my checking account?"

"Savings and mortgage on the condo, too."

"Oh my God . . ."

Mom said, "He's just angry, David. Give him time to cool off. Mikey, you wouldn't really do that, would you?"

"Then I accessed DynaRand," I said.

"Wiped your job. Your pension. I got to your plastic, too."

"He couldn't have, David. Could he?"

"Michael!" He hit the door. "I'm going to wring your scrawny neck!"

"Wait!" I shouted back. "I copied all your files before I purged! There's a way to recover!"

He let up hammering on the door, and struggled to talk calm. "Give me the copies right now and I'll just forget that this happened."

"I can't. I mean, I did backups in other computers. And I secured the files and hid them where only I know how to access."

There was quiet. No, in a nano I realised it wasn't quiet, it was Mom and Dad talking real soft. I eared up to the door but all I caught was Mom saying "why not?" and Dad saying "but what if he is telling the truth?"

"Okay Michael, Dad said at last. "What do you want?"

I locked up. It was an embarasser; what did I want? I hadn't thought that far ahead. Me, caught without a program! I dropped half a laugh, then tried to think. I mean, there was nothing they could get me I couldn't get myself, or with Rayno's help. Rayno! I wanted to get in touch with him, is what I wanted. I'd pulled this whole thing off without Rayno!

I decided then it'd probably be better if my Olders dind't know about the Starfire, so I told Dad first thing I wanted was my smartterm back. It took a long time for him to clump down to the basement and get it. He stopped at his term in the den, first, to scan if I'd really purged him. He was real subdued when he brought my smartterm back up.

I kept processing, but by the time he got back I still hadn't come up with anything more than I wanted them to leave me alone and stop telling me what to do. I got the smartterm into my room without being pulped, locked the door, got on line, and gave Dad his job back. Then I tried to flag Rayno and Georgie, but couldn't, so I left messages for when they booted. I stayed up half the night playing a war, just to make sure Dad didn't try anything.

I booted and scanned first thing the next morning, but Rayno and Georgie still hadn't come on. So I went down and had an utter silent breakfast and sent Mom and Dad off to work. I offed school and spent the whole day finishing the war and working on some tricks and treats programs. We had another utter silent meal when Mom and Dad came home, and after supper I flagged Rayno had been in the Net and left a remark on when to find him.

I finally got him on line around eight, and he said Georgie was getting trashed and probably heading for permanent downtime.

Then I told Rayno all about how I outlooped my old man, but he didn't seem real buzzed about it. He said he had something cooking and couldn't meet me at Buddy's that night to talk about it, either. So we got off line, and I started another war and then went to sleep.

The snoozer said 5:25 when I woke up, and I coudln't logic how come I was awake 'til I started making sense out of my ears. Dad was taking apart the hinges on my door!

"Dad! You cut that out or I'll purge you clean! There won't be backups this time!"

"Try it," he growled.

I jumped out of my sleepsack, powered up, booted and - no boot. I tried again. I could get on line in my smartterm, but I couldn't port out. "I cut your cable down in the basement," he said.

I grabbed the Starfire out of my closet and zipped it inside my jumper, but before I could do the window, the door and Dad both fell in. Mom came in right behind, popped open my dresser, and started stuffing socks and underwear in a suitcase.

"Now you're fritzed!" I told Dad. "I'll never give you back your files!" He grabbed my arm.

"Michael, there's something I think you should see." He dragged me down to his den and pulled some bundles of old paper trash out of his desk. "These are receipts. This is what obsolete old relics like me use because we don't trust computer bookkeeping. I checked with work and the bank; everything that goes on in the computer has to be verified with paper. You can't change anything for more than 24 hours."

"Twenty-four hours?" I laughed. "Then you're still fritzed! I can still wipe you out any day, from any term in CityNet?"

"I know."

Mom came into the den, carrying the suitcase and kleenexing her eyes. "Mikey, you've got to understand that we love you, and this is for your own good." They dragged me down to the airport and stuffed me in a private lear with a bunch of old gestapos.

#

I've had a few weeks now to get used to the Von Schlager Military Academy. They tell me I'm a bright kid and with good behavior, there's really no reason at all why I shouldn't graduate in five years. I am getting tired, though, of all the older cadets telling me how soft I've got it now that they've installed indoor plumbing.

Of course, I'm free to walk out any time I want. It's only three hundred miles to Fort McKenzie, where the road ends.

Sometimes at night, after lights out, I'll pull out my Starfire and run my fingers over the touchpads. That's all I can do, since they turn off power in the barracks at night. I'll lie there in the dark, thinking about Lisa, and Georgie, and Buddy's All-Night Burgers, and all the fun we used to pull off. But mostly I'll think about Rayno, and what great plans he cooks up.

I can't wait to see how he gets me out of this one. 

     Copyright © 1980 Bruce Bethke. All rights reserved.     

Brought to you by            The Cyberpunk Project

  Page last modified on Monday, October 2, 2000.

[junkratsloverat]

“Hey, is it okay if we stay like this for a bit? It’s been a stressful week.”

anon, buddy, I’m so sorry this took so long! I could only write on it in bursts, and it just,,, kept getting longer owo;; but here we go!

length: 4442 characters ; 817 words

warnings: nothing I can think of? stitches are mentioned a few times, and the monster’s mentioned once, but nothing beyond that :3

prompt from here!

I peeked over my book to get a better look around the lab. Hiding in my tiny library while Jamison worked on… whatever his latest technical marvel was supposed to be had turned in to a daily routine. But given the choice between this and wearing multiple layers to try and cover my stitches and probably melting from the heat, I’d pick not having to stay hidden and enjoying the chill of the lab every time. Getting to watch the good doctor work… that was just a bonus.

Like I hadn’t been watching him pour over an omnic’s torso for the last hour, making sure every bolt was in its proper place. Or noticing how his brow furrowed and his tongue peeked out of the corner of his mouth when he really focused — and how adorable it was.

Nope. I’d been reading the entire time.

Jamison leaned back in his chair and stretched, catching my eye as he raised his arms over his head. “How’s the book?” he asked, smirking at me.

“It’s, uh — it’s good!” I nodded, feeling the heat rush to my face. “Really good.”

“Yeah? What’s your favorite bit so far?” 

“Oh, y’know… when the hero goes and does… the thing. Yeah. The Thing. Saves everybody. It’s dope.” I coughed, quickly closing the book and adding it to one of the stacks around me. “real dope… S-so, uh… how’s… how’s he doin’?”

Jamison sighed, switching out his work-stained glove for a fresh one.

“...don’t wanna talk about it?”

“I feel like I’m making progress, but…” He paused, glancing over his shoulder at the covered corpse on his extra work table — or tables, which we’d hurriedly pushed together. The monster had started small — at least, closer to Jamison’s height with a typical build — but had almost doubled in size with the extra pieces that had been thrown together, both man and machine. 

Jamison’s shoulders tensed, his nails digging into his palm through his glove. “It’s just… been a hard week. On top of lord dipshit refusing to see the use behind my inventions… nothing’s working. Not like it should.”

I stood, making sure my stitches were still solid before walking over to him. I was slightly hesitant to touch him, but he seemed to relax a bit as I wrapped my arms around his shoulders. “I’m sorry, doc. If there’s anything I could help with, I’d do it in a heartbeat.”

His sigh was softer this time, as he laced his cool, metallic fingers through mine. “I know, luv,” he replied softly, bringing my hand to his mouth and gently kissing near the stitching around my wrist. “I appreciate it, but…huh...” His voice trailed off, quickly replaced with a stray pen scratching against a notepad he kept nearby. 

I hesitated, nuzzling my face against the back of his shoulder. I didn’t want to distract him while he focused, but he had been down here all day; knowing Jamison, he’d stay until sunrise, too — without even noticing.

“Maybe if you talked to-”

The pen scribbling halted. “No.”

“...that was quick.”

“I know what you’re thinking. And we’re not doing that again.” His voice was firm, but not harsh, and he gave my hand a soft squeeze. “Not after what she did to you.”

“To be fair, she was cashing in that favor-”

Jamison shook his head. “A ‘favor’ is me asking you to hand me one of my tools. Or you wanting help findin’ one of your books, or having me take care of Charlie. Sending you out there by yourself after that summoner?! That was a death sentence!”

He turned in his chair and pulled me close, his arms finding their way around my torso. “I almost lost you again — because of a promise we made that was meant to keep you safe.”

“I know,” I mumbled, gently running my hand through his hair. That typically helped calm him down, but even with the almost purr and nudge against my hand, Jamison still looked tired. “I just… I hate seeing you so worn down.”

The lab was quiet for a minute — nothing but the whirring of machinery and our breathing.

Until Jamison squeezed me and made a soft “brrrrr” noise, making us both laugh.

“The heck was that?”

“Recharging.” He giggled, smiling up at me. “D’ya mind if we stay like this for a bit?”

I shook my head, sitting on the edge of his desk. “’course not. After the stressful week you’ve had, I think you’ve earned it.”

“Yessss~” His giggles continued as he tilted his head upward and peppered my face with a few kisses. “I owe you one.”

“You can pay me back with food, then.”

Jamison groaned, resting his head against my shoulder. “Lunch later. Cuddles now.”

“Lunch? What time do you think it is??”

“...food first, time later. Cuddles now.”

“Fair enough.”

[mollymauk-teafleak]

Widomauk Week 2019

Day 3- Tarot

Coincidentally, also a modern au! Because thats just kind of what I like to write

(Discussion of sex)

The day had been one of those achingly rare ones, the ones that were empty of any work, any responsibilities, any duties. A day where Caleb had been entirely at his own mercy with no classes or papers due in anytime soon. Just a long, yawning day for him to fill with whatever he liked.

Not long ago, the idea of a day like that would have set his nerves jangling and shrieking like alarm bells. He’d once hated having nothing to do, nothing to keep his hands busy and his mind from straying to places he didn’t want it to go. A year ago, upon finding himself in a position like this, he would have either scavenged some classwork or studying to do, desperately clawing for an assigned purpose, or sunk into a depression that he might not have got himself out of for a week.

But things were different now, so different that Caleb had to wonder sometimes if he’d woken up as someone entirely new one day and just not realised it. Someone who smiled and slept more than three hours a night, someone who talked with others and only spent a few days with a roiling stomach ache brought on by anxiety. And even then, when he did feel like that, he would simply go and tell one of his friends and they would sit with him and help him remember that it would only ever be temporary.

And then one of his friends had become something more, something he’d truly never thought he’d ever have.

On his one, rare day off, Mollymauk had woken him well past sunrise with gentle kisses pressed to the nape of his neck and arms wrapping around his middle. Sleepy, gentle sex had followed without neither of them having to say a word, only giggling and trading a good morning back and forth once the two of them were panting, rumpled and sweating slightly. A late breakfast, kisses that tasted of chocolate and coffee on the threadbare second hand couch, a shared shower that went about the way you’d expect, a movie down at the theatre that neither of them particularly wanted to see but still managed to laugh all the way through by whispering comments to each other, all this went by with no effort at all. Not a single second did Caleb spend as prey to his own thoughts, worrying about things he should be doing or why there wasn’t anything he should be doing. The day was warm and bright for the verge of winter, Mollymauk’s hand was in his own and there was no reason to be afraid.

Now the long, warm day had turned into a chilly dusk that felt like it had no end, just a cool purple haze the two of them had sunken into like flies in amber. The thick curtains in Molly’s room kept out the worst of the cold that came along with the settling night while not losing the thick, orange light of the sunset. It made the whole room, with its deep purples and dark blues and gold highlighting, come to life with some strange ethereal warmth like they were in the sunset itself.

Caleb lay sprawled on Molly’s bed with one of his pillows propping up his chin. Every so often he’d bury his nose in it and inhale as deep as he possibly could, smelling his boyfriend’s cologne and the mango shampoo he’d been favouring lately and the lavender oil he rubbed onto his horns before bed. Just as Mollymauk was half a hundred colours, he was half a hundred scents as well and Caleb was determined to memorise them all.

Molly was sat on the floor, his battered old keyboard across his knees, scratching idly at the marker pen scrawling he’d done and redone over and over so he’d know which key was which note. His journal was open and some notes were scratched into it but they were the first few hesitant steps into unknown ground, nothing that was really at a good, solid run yet. He was picking some little riffs out here and there but most of it was a lot of frowning and scrawling in his books. Caleb knew Molly’s process by now, it would be a lot of this, a lot of huffing and fussing and smoking joints and melodrama until he worked the song out of his system. But Caleb always got the sense that Molly rather liked this part, he liked playing the tortured artist. And in the end the song would be wonderful, his usual mix of bittersweet and esoteric and otherworldly. . Molly just didn’t seem to remember that part right now.

“You need to take a break,” Caleb observed from the pillow.

“Why?” Molly craned his neck back to look at him upside down, “Because everything I’ve ever written sucks ass and my dreams of being a musician are completely futile?”

Caleb tried to hide the fact that the corners of his mouth were twitching upwards, “No. Don’t put your writer’s block’s words in my mouth.”

“It’s true,” Molly grumbled, turning back to the keyboard and walking his fingers across it to make a frustrated, discordant tune.

Caleb shuffled forward enough that he could kiss the top of Molly’s head. His hair had been getting very long lately, growing out of the undercut he used to keep it in. He’d spoken wistfully the other night of having hair right down to his waist.

“You’re trying to force it and it’s getting you all knotted up,” he observed sagely, “It’s like when I learn a new spell, happens every time. You get so frustrated when it doesn’t work after a hundred times but once you let go of that and turn away from it, it takes hold.”

Molly grunted, leaning back into his embrace, “Quit being so wise or you’re gonna make me admit you’re right.”

Caleb laughed at that, reaching down to bat the keyboard off his knees, “Come up here with me. A watched pot never boils and all that.”

“Sounds like a good way to burn my apartment down,” Molly hummed but he clambered up on his bed all the same.

For a little while all they did was enjoy their closeness, Molly’s hands on Caleb’s waist, Caleb’s face resting in the crook of Molly’s neck. He could remember a time when he’d flinch away from any kind of touch like this, like if anyone’s fingertips so much as brushed him, they’d see he wasn’t really there and the illusion would be broken. But since they’d found each other, he’d become a glutton for it, for feeling someone else’s hair tickling his nose, hearing a soft, gentle breath in his ear.

Until Molly broke apart, eyes shining in that way they did when he’d seized on a potentially wonderful, potentially destructive idea.

“Let’s play a card game to pass the time!”

Caleb tilted his head, “I kind of thought we were working our way towards a different activity…”

“Oh, we’ll fuck, don’t worry,” Molly laid a soothing hand on his boyfriend’s arm, “But this will make it even more fun!”

Caleb leaned back, curiosity sparked. Molly’s homebrewed card games were usually amazing and usually involved the revealing of scandalous secrets.

And after Molly had eagerly withdrawn his favourite tarot deck from his desk drawer and explained the rules, in a tone that made it sound like he was definitely making this up on the spot, Caleb saw that this one would be no different.

A question on the deck. Players withdrew two cards. Lower value card meant you had to answer the question. And from the way his red eyes narrowed and his tail lashed, Caleb knew the nature of those questions.

“Sounds fun,” he grinned, lying back on the pillows, letting the oversized shirt he was wearing ride up just a little. Two could play at that game.

“Nice easy one to start off with,” Molly declared, setting the cards, neatly shuffled, between them on Caleb’s discarded book like an island in the inky sea of his bedsheets, “Who was your first?”

Caleb snorted, “You already know that.”

“Hence why it’s easy,” Molly retorted, stretching out with an effortless laziness. He was wearing one of Caleb’s shirts as well, with boxer shorts that barely qualified as such given how small they were, showing off majority of his long tattooed legs.

“Okay, okay…”

Caleb drew the second card, Molly drew the sixth. He grinned wickedly as he showed off The Lovers.

“Appropriate,” Caleb smirked, “Alright. As you well know, my first was my roommate from boarding school when I was seventeen. Percy.”

“Come on, you can’t be that stingy with the details!”

Caleb huffed out a laugh, “There aren’t really that many! Pretty standard missionary under his blanket in bed, terrified the whole time that we’d get caught. It was the time after in the library that’s really good…”

“Wait, what?” Molly sat bolt upright, eyes shining, “Spill it!”

Caleb merely shrugged with exaggerated innocence, sliding his card back into the deck, “Not part of the question, is it?”

“Asshole!” Molly declared, surging forward into the next round with renewed eagerness, “Next question, where’s the wildest place you’ve ever had sex?”

“Don’t I ever get to pick the question?”

“I have decided no, on the grounds that you are an asshole.”

Caleb chortled when Molly drew the sixth and he drew the eighteenth.

The tiefling shrugged carelessly, “It’s fine. Weirdest place I’ve ever had sex…probably in the bathroom of the pizza place on Sixth street.”

Caleb had to splutter a little at that, “No way, really? And you go back there?”

“I never said I got caught,” Molly points out, wagging his finger, “And when the hot half elf you’re seeing takes you out dancing with a vibrating plug in you, you’ll have sex anywhere, believe me.”

“We are never going back there…”

“Why? It’s got the best pizza.”

They traded back and forth like this for a while, until their throats were raspy from laughing and their jaws sore from grinning. Caleb quickly realised his stories were never going to be as exciting or varied as Mollymauk’s but he did get to tell him the story of the time he sucked Percy’s dick in the book stacks of their school’s library. That had made Molly fidget and purr excitedly, pressing his thighs together as his ears picked up.

The two of them were teetering on the edge of scattering the cards to the floor and making a new story to tell later but Caleb was desperate to get at least one question in. Finally, Molly relented, admitting that the library study was good enough to earn him the right.

Caleb’s hand hovered over the deck, fingers twitching as he thought. What was the one thing he wanted to know more than anything?

Eventually what came out of his mouth was, “What does sex feel like? With the person you’re with now, I mean.”

Mollymauk blinked, his smile softening. He took a card gladly.

On the count of three, they turned them over and then burst out in bewildered laughter. They both held card number six. Though Caleb’s had a clearly different design from the other cards in the deck, they both held some image of two people entwined in each other, two sets of Lovers.

“This is what you get for having an addiction to buying tarot cards, I guess,” Molly shrugged helplessly.

“And for never keeping your stuff neat,” Caleb added, tucking some hair behind his ear, “You go first, though. Because it was my question.”

Molly nodded, thinking for a while, choosing his words carefully. He’d been fidgeting all the way through the game but now he was still, not even his tail twitching in its usual restless way. He looked out of the window as he thought, out into the nearly night.

The stars were coming out, one by one, finding their way through the sunset.

“Having sex with you feels like…it feels like I’ve finally found something I didn’t even know I was looking for. Something that was missing with everyone before. There’s just this piece of it finally in place, its whole, it’s complete…and that’s how I know you’re the man I want to spend the rest of my life with.”

Caleb took a deep breath. He had to get through his answer quickly before he either burst into tears or pinned Mollymauk to the bed or both.

“Being with you makes me realise I deserve to be happy. Because you look at me and you touch me and you kiss me and…and even the parts of me that are small and sad and broken can’t deny how much you love me. And if that’s true then I must deserve it. I must deserve you.”

Molly’s hand had slid into his own after just a few words, holding tight like an anchor. Then it was his lips, as soon as the words left him. The pillows rushed up to meet them as Molly’s tail wrapped around his leg and his mouth found its way past the shirt he wore to the flushed, prickling skin underneath.

The cards fell to the floor, as unnoticed and unremarked as night finally taking hold outside. They forgot the game and left the points not noted, leaving their paper lovers to their own carefully inked embraces.  

It had been a very, very good day.

[whiskynottea]

An interruption in the 1st law of thermodynamics.

Previously Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Chapter 25 Chapter 26 Chapter 27 Chapter 28 Chapter 29

AO3

As always, thanks to my OOT sister @theministerskat, for beta-ing this story ❤️

Chapter 30. The Cricket on the Hearth

source

New addition to my “Top 10 Best Things In The World” list: Falling asleep in Jamie’s arms.

Reason: Because sleeping with the arms of the person you love wrapped around you feels like nothing else. It’s a hug that lasts for hours; it keeps you warm, safe, and secure.

I couldn’t get enough of it.

And waking up to Jamie’s voice was the best alarm clock I could ever imagine.

Hearing his whisper – though I had no idea what he’d said – mingling with the colors of my dream, trailing shapes like a soft breeze, put a huge smile on my face.

This is perfect.

I was expecting to open my eyes and find him looking at me, whispering beautiful things, the sunlight softly kissing his auburn locks, and little hearts emanating from his head. Or something similar. Heart eyes at the very least.

You know, like it is in movies.

Instead, Jamie’s arms and the feel of his chest under my cheek were the only things going according to the plan. No sweet whispers. No kisses. Not even a hoarse ‘good morning’ or the sun entering the room. Everything was dark and I just wanted to go back to sleep.

“Sassenach! Wake up!”

“Wake up?” I repeated, still half asleep,  my eyes feeling heavy.

“Aye. Grab a brush and put a little makeup.” Jamie chuckled, amused by himself. I didn’t even have the energy to roll my eyes, so I ignored both him and his joke and just snuggled closer into his chest, trying to remember the dream interrupted by his whisper. Jamie, however, was determined to keep me up and with a large hand on my back, he started lightly shaking me.

“What?”

“Ye have to leave, mo chridhe!”

“Why?”

“Christ! Will ye please wake up and start thinking? Ye’re in my room!”

I am in Jamie’s room.

“Yes, of course I’m in your room. I came here last night,” I murmured and wrapped an arm over his stomach. “Now let me sleep. Five more minutes.”

Five more minutes, that will lead to five more, and five more. I know how to do this.

“Claire…” This time his whisper came with a kiss on the forehead.

Jamie using my name was never a good omen.

I finally opened my eyes and kissed him on his collar bone before putting my chin right next to it.

“Are you okay?”

Jamie took a deep breath with closed eyes, and let the air leave his body, coming out in three words.

“More than okay.” He smiled, then continued, “I woke up wi’ ye in my arms, mo chridhe. Tis perfect. Even better than I thought it would be.”

“I know,” I murmured against his skin, holding him tighter.

“And I don’t want you to go, babe, I really don’t, but you have to.” He brushed a few stray curls from my face, giving me a sad smile. “They canna find us here.”

I knew he was right, and with a kiss on his chest I put a hand on the mattress to prop myself up. I was naked, but I didn’t feel the urge to hide my body as I’d seen the women do in the movies. I wasn’t embarrassed. We wanted to share our bodies, our lust, our love, to let the other know us whole. In our strongest and our weakest moments. And we had done just that. We trusted ourselves to the other, to see us safe. And pleased – more than pleased. Plus, walking around like a Greek goddess wrapped up in the sheets didn’t seem practical at all.

I was starting to scan the room in search for my clothes, when Jamie trapped my hand in his, pulling me back to him.

“Eeee!”

“One last kiss,” came his answer, breathy, with the hint of a smile. The smile grew and crashed against mine, our tongues finding each other in a matter of seconds. I almost straddled him, but realized that the longer I stayed, the more probable it was that we’d wake the whole house. With a last bite on his bottom lip, I left the bed, trying to remember where my panties were. Jamie laid there still, naked, first with a pout on his face and then with a glint in his eyes that I knew all too well.

“Will you come and help me?” I asked with a raised eyebrow, “I can’t find my bra, because apparently, you couldn’t just leave it on the bed.”

“I dinna think I had a mind for things like that at that moment.” He mumbled, getting up in search of the black lace undergarment.

“Can we turn the lights on?”

“Hell no! Are ye crazy, Sassenach?” He looked at me in the dark with, I guessed, incredulous eyes. “I’ll use my phone.”

It took us an insanely long time to find my dress and underwear. In the meantime, Jamie found his boxers tangled in the sheets on the bed and threw them back on. My panties were somewhere under the bed, so I opted for going commando back to my room. I was next to the door when Jamie stopped me again, asking for ‘one last kiss’.

“I thought the previous one was the last!” I said with a cocky smile.

“Aye, this one is the last-last.” He smiled in response and kissed me again, the pull between us too strong to ignore.

“I’ll see you in a few hours, you know,” I whispered, cupping his face when our lips parted.

Jamie nodded, and ran a hand through his locks.

“Dream of me?” He asked, somehow shy, all of the sudden.

“Will do.” I kissed him once more – the last-last-last time, I supposed – and left his room.

Walking a ridiculously small distance in a hallway at 5:30 in the morning seems like a an easy thing to do and not be caught.   

Unless you’re at Lallybroch.

The light coming from Brian Fraser’s closed door was enough to knock the breath out of me. With my panties well hidden in my fist, I swallowed hard and started walking to my room with my head down.

Please stay in your room for a few more seconds. Please, please please.

The moment I reached my door, I heard a door open from behind. I entered my room without looking back, praying that whoever it was, he hadn’t seen me.

Sassenach: Did you just open your door?

Scot: No. Shit.

Sassenach: AAAAAAAAAAAAAA My thoughts exactly.

Scot: lol Don’t worry, aye?

Sassenach: The lights in your dad’s room were on.

Scot: It’s done now. Most likely he dinna see ye. Sleep, Sassenach. We’ll find out in the morning.

Or better yet, we wouldn’t.

It took almost an hour to get rid of the adrenaline high and drift back to sleep.

--

The next morning, I walked down the stairs wishing that my uncle and Brian Fraser would be in the office again. To my relief, the only people in the living room were Jamie and Ian, watching videos on YouTube. With a quick kiss to Jamie I headed to the kitchen, wanting to drink a whole tank of water. Jenny was there, with a half-full glass in hand.

“Haggis,” she said, raising her glass as if in a toast.

“I know! I’m so thirsty!” I opened the cabinet above the sink, searching for the biggest glass.

“This is my millionth glass of water, actually,” Jenny chuckled. “I came down twice during the night because I woke up thirsty.”

I almost choked. Unable to speak, I just nodded.

“Twas quite active, in the house last night.” She continued, and I pondered whether I should look at her or keep drinking water forever. “After we went to bed, I mean.”

There was a smile in her voice that I couldn’t ignore.

“It was you?” Jenny’s raised eyebrows gave me the answer I needed, and her laugh soon confirmed it.

Just Jenny. Thank god.

“So?” Jenny looked at me, waiting for more details.

“So?” I asked, faking ignorance.

“Did ye do it?”

Typical Jenny Fraser. Right to the point.

“No,” I replied quickly, feeling my cheeks burn crimson.

Water. More water.

“Aye, twas not verra noisy, last night. Although I think I heard some strange noises…”

“Jenny!” I looked at her with wide eyes, and she laughed at my expression.

“I didna hear anything, I’m teasing ye. This house has solid walls,” she added with a wink.

“Have you and Ian?” I asked, feeling more relaxed now that I knew she was okay talking about it.

“No. Not yet, anyway.” She made a gesture with her hand, as if this was a decision she didn’t fully agree with. “I think it’ll be great,” she added with a sigh.

“I guess so…”

“I mean, the first time, wi’ the lad ye love. It’s the right thing, aye?”

“Yes,” I agreed with a smile. “It’s right. Aren’t you at all afraid?”

“Sometimes when I overthink everything, yes, I am. But then, we know what to do - more or less. We’ve done our homework,” she smiled with mischief, winking at me.

“Maybe you’ll do it first, and then tell me about it.” I raised an eyebrow and she blushed a little.

“Ah, we’ll see. Ian really wants to wait. For what, I dinna ken.” Jenny shrugged, filling her glass with water again. “Anyway, we’ve done other… stuff.”

“Yes, we’ve done other stuff too.”

Jenny rolled her eyes but smiled. “Don’t ye tell! The wee dolt I have as a brother canna take his hands off ye.”

Laughing, and with our glasses full, we walked back to the living room, where I noticed Jamie wasn’t the only ‘wee dolt’. Ian was looking at Jenny as if she held the world in her hands.

We all huddled together on the big couch, laptop on the table, and watched funny videos until Lamb and Brian came to find us extremely happy and hungry.

--

Time had a different pace at Lallybroch. It didn’t fly by, it didn’t rush. I was in search of a distraction in the afternoon when Brian Fraser proposed I go to his office and pick a book from the library. It was that or rereading, for the hundredth time, one of the Harry Potter books I’d seen in Jamie’s room. Since it was the beginning of a new year, I thought it would be better to try something new.

I’m sorry, Harry.

Brian Fraser had an impressive library, with shelves full of history books – a few of them stacked on a table, most probably by Lamb – and many about economics, management, and finance that I passed by without giving them a second glance.

This is what Jamie will read in uni.

And then, there they were. Fiction. Millions of worlds waiting to be discovered. Brian Fraser had a large collection of the classics and I found myself standing indecisive in front of the book shelves.

“A lot of these were my mom’s.” Jamie was leaning against the door frame, arms crossed in front of his chest, watching me.

“How long have you been standing there?”

“Long enough to hear you huff and not spare a second glance at the books about economics.”

“That’s for you to read.” My raised eyebrow didn’t have the effect I was expecting on him. His eyes clouded, and his gaze left my eyes to run along the burgundy carpet.

“What?” I walked to him, placing a hand on his chest and bending my head so he could see me. He laughed at my childish move and pulled me closer to him, inhaling deeply. “Tell me?”

“Nothing.”

“Hey…”

“Tis nothing, really. I just don’t see myself enjoying reading these books more than you would, Sassenach.” Jamie sighed, and placed a kiss on my forehead.

“But the distillery…”

“Aye, I ken. I have to, if I want to continue the business.”

“And do you want to?”

Jamie shrugged, and I knew that he wasn’t ready to talk about this. Having no other means to help, I pulled him closer to me, hoping that the mere presence of my body next to his would hold some power to make him feel better.

“So what did you choose to read?” he asked after a while, obviously changing subject. His gaze was on the book I’d left on Brian’s desk.

“Charles Dickens, the Christmas stories,” I said with a shrug, feeling totally predictable.

“Oh, I like The Cricket on the Hearth,” Jamie moved to pick up the book and smiled at me over his shoulder, reaching for my hand. “Even more than A Christmas Carol, actually.”

“I have to read it, then.” Standing next to him, I took the book from his hand and  was about to open it to find the story, when something on Brian’s desk caught my attention. “Jamie, what’s that?” He followed my gaze, and when he saw the object in question, he snorted. It was a body lotion, in a beautiful vase that resembled the Fraser whisky bottle.

“This is ‘Ellen’s body lotion,’” he said while I squinted, trying to read the label. “See, my ma had her own series of body lotions.”

“She did?” I asked surprised and Jamie reached for the vase to give it to me.

“Aye, she had five different ones. Like the Fraser whiskies. Like the Frasers.” I took the vase from his hand, placing a kiss on his bicep.

“Almond,” I said, inhaling deeply. “It’s so good!”

“Twas hers. Ma was almond. She always smelled like it and Da made a whisky wi’ almond notes for her. And then came the body lotion.”

“And he keeps it here to remember her?”

“I dinna think tis to remember her. He had one of these vases here from the first night after ma died. I think he keeps it here to feel her around.”

I left the lotion on the desk, feeling like an intruder, not entitled to knowing Ellen’s scent.

“I couldna understand him in the beginning. Twas pointless, she was gone and she would never come back. A stupid body lotion wouldna bring her back.” I placed a hand on his cheek bringing his eyes to me, trying to take a bit of his heartbreak away. “I understand him now, ye ken,” Jamie continued with his voice broken, the almond scent that enveloped us not enough to mend his wounds. “He missed her. And I know now, because I have ye.”

“I know, baby, I know.” With fingers intertwined in his locks, I brought his mouth to mine, tasting his tears and his pain.

“I dinna want to lose ye, ever.” He said, more tears running down his cheeks. “I’ve lost enough people already, I dinna want to lose more. I dinna want to try to remember.”

“Shhh…” I soothed, cupping his face with both hands, trying not to think of scars that salves and creams could never erase. “I’m here. You’re here. We are all alive and well, aye?”

My Scottish made him laugh, and he turned his head to kiss the soft skin on the inside of my wrist. “I just miss her.”

“I know.”

“And I wish she could’ve been here to know ye.”

“I wish that too, love.”

I buried myself in his arms, feeling them tighten around me, and I silently promised to Ellen Fraser that I would take care of him. Her red-headed lad.

My red-headed lad.

Chapter 31

[dorothydelgadillo]

How To Make New Year’s Resolutions You’ll Actually Keep

I think we can all agree that new year’s resolutions are kind of played out. It makes sense that the start of a new year is a good chance to reassess what we’ve been doing with our lives and decide what we’d like to change moving forward—even those of us who are resolution skeptics still have a goal or two we’d like to achieve in the new year—but at the same time, it’s almost a given that these resolutions are doomed to fail. For most of us, our own track records of deferred annual goals makes this a self-fulfilling prophecy.

But does it really have to be that way? If you’ve been looking to make a career change or to grow the career you already have, why shouldn’t the start of a new year be a chance to move in the right direction? After giving it some thought, I started to wonder if it isn’t goals and resolutions that are the problem, but the way we approach them—and after checking in with some psychology and motivational professionals, it turns out that’s exactly the case.

Be SMART About Your Resolutions

Dr. Crystal I. Lee, licensed psychologist and owner of LA Concierge Psychologist, says that most failed resolutions have two things in common—they’re vague and unmeasurable. In order to avoid this one-two punch of ill-defined, nebulous goals, Lee suggests adopting a “SMART” model for any resolutions you decide to invest in. SMART stands for specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound.

In terms of specificity, Lee says, this is the difference between resolving to “get healthy” versus resolving to “eat more servings of vegetables every day.”

Measurability means fine-tuning that specificity in a way that can be quantified—”I want to eat three more servings of vegetables every day.”

Achievability comes into play by making sure your goals aren’t so unrealistic or unmanageable that they’re built to fail before you even get started. For example, resolving to take an introductory Spanish class to learn some second language basics (if you aren’t already a Spanish speaker) is achievable. Going from a total Spanish-speaking novice, to the goal of writing your first Spanish language novel in one year, not so much.

Relevance speaks to forming goals that will directly affect a situation you’re hoping to improve. If your ultimate desire is for more holistic career fulfillment, picking a goal to simply “make more money” probably won’t be relevant enough to yield the results you’d like to see.

And finally, time-bound goals are ones that have benchmarks established for keeping tabs on progress. If you don’t give yourself a clear time-frame—say, I want to learn enough HTML to code my first basic website at the end of six months—your resolutions run the risk of stretching out forever and never getting completed (or even started!).

Take It One Day at a Time

Dr. Dave Whiteside, PhD in Organizational Behavior and Director of Research at Plasticity Labs, says the whole “new year” part of resolutions itself can be a fast track to failure. “New Year’s Resolutions are often framed as an annual goal, which is fine,” says Whiteside, “but these big annual resolutions have to be paired with behaviors and goals at a daily level.”

Whiteside says that by breaking things down to simple, goal-oriented tasks you can attack each day, you’ll have an on-going way of making progress toward long-term resolutions—something Whiteside says is important, since one pitfall of annual goals is their lack of reminders to act.

“Because an annual goal is so far away, it’s easy to slack at the end of January, only to fall out of positive habits early on,” says Whiteside. By establishing manageable daily goals, you’ll build-in reminders that keep you on track toward your larger resolutions and help create productive habits along the way.

Jonathan Smith, PsyD at Andersonville Psychology, says that another way to keep resolutions from becoming unwieldy, year-long ordeals is to focus on the process of your goals as opposed to the outcome. Smith describes outcome goals as things like, “I want to lose 10 pounds,” where a process goal would be, “I want to go to the gym three times a week and reduce my daily calorie intake.”

Again, the benefit of breaking goals down like this is the opportunity for reinforcement over time. “If you meet the goal of going to the gym three times in a week, you can identify an accomplishment that will help motivate you to keep going,” Smith says. “If the goal is entirely outcome-based, then there’s no opportunity for reinforcement until the goal is met.” This, says Smith, makes the outcome start to feel unattainable, which in turn makes it that much harder to keep working toward.

Make it Easy on Yourself!

In addition to being vague and unmeasurable, Taylor Jacobson, former Executive Coach and Founder and CEO at Focusmate, says that failed resolutions are often framed as a battle of will. Do you have the inner-strength to suppress habits, cravings, behavior patterns, etc. and prove you’re the ideal version of yourself that you want to be? According to Jacobson, this willpower paradigm is part of what makes resolutions so difficult to achieve. “We think there’s some glory in willpower,” Jacobson says, “when the truth is we have better tools at our disposal.”

For Jacobson, one of those tools is accountability—opening up resolutions to our friends or colleagues takes us out of our own head and allows us to accept the external help and support we need to be successful. “Human beings are profoundly social creatures,” Jacobson says. “As a result, accountability is the closest thing to a silver bullet for accomplishing resolutions.” Jacobson suggests sharing your goals with others by setting up regular times to meet at a cafe, library, coworking space, or even online and discussing your progress, successes, and struggles.

Licensed mental health professional Kryss Shane (BS, MS, MSW, LSW, LMSW) echoes this idea that resolutions shouldn’t be inherently adversarial or self-punitive. “Consider your life and what is realistic for you,” Shane says. “If you’ve spent your whole life hating mornings, it may not be realistic to resolve to get up an hour earlier and read each day. Instead, consider making your goal focused on finding one hour each Saturday to read or to spend the hour before bed each night reading. When you have a goal that fits into your personality and into your life, that’s measurable, and that you’re excited about, you are much more likely to keep the resolution and meet your goal!”

Five Steps You Can Take Right Now

With these tips toward making successful resolutions in mind, here’s a list of five concrete career-oriented goals you can set for yourself and start working toward right now. All five are SMART and basic enough to be achievable—which means you’ll be motivated and ready to move on to even more goals following your accomplishment. Ready to start achieving?

Learn One New Skill

Learning new skills can be overwhelming—and it’s usually not even the learning itself that’s intimidating, it’s figuring out where to start. Rather than feeling pressured to learn “all the things” or worrying about where exactly you’ll stand skill-wise this time next year, ease yourself into it by picking one specific thing.

Do you want to learn a second spoken language? A first coding language? A new software suite? Pick just one thing and dive right in. Give yourself a realistic proficiency goal (“I’d like to learn basic, conversational Spanish”) and a reasonable time frame (“by the end of a conversational Spanish course I’ve been meaning to sign up for”). When you’re done, you’ll realize that not zeroing-in on one specific skill played a big part in holding you back, and now you can move on to the next one.

Handle One Career “Housekeeping” Item

Career housekeeping tasks—physical resumes, LinkedIn profiles, personal websites, online portfolios, etc.—are all pretty simple things to take care of, but—in the midst of your daily workload—they can quickly be cut from the daily to-do’s. Yeah, you know you’re not really going to be able to land a new job without a solid resume, but you just can’t find the hour or two to get it done. And when you add on top of that the other housekeeping tasks you need to get around to, it feels easier to shrug the whole thing off and not do any of them.

Rather than let the weight of all those combined tasks keep you from doing any of them, pick one, then carve out  and schedule some dedicated time to get it in order. This is an easy but crucial step on the path to productivity and achievement, so get going!

Make One Career Connection 

A consistent piece of career advice I hear when interviewing business professionals is to network—there’s no better way to break into a new career or move forward with your existing one, than through personal connections and the mentorship, advice, and support that comes with them. But this doesn’t mean you have to take on the pressure of joining every relevant organization in your county and travelling to meetups up and down the state. Keep it SMART, and resolve to establish or strengthen one professional connection within a specific timeframe.

If you have an existing connection, now’s the time to finally take them up on that offer of help—set a concrete goal to have lunch by the end of this month. If you’re looking to establish a new connection, give yourself a timeframe of a month or two to seek out local or online networking opportunities, and find potential career mentors.

Read One Career-Related Book

When I first started at Skillcrush, our CEO assigned me two marketing books to read to get me started, and I can’t think of a format that would have worked better to give me the lay of the land. Since then I’ve always meant to read more, but as the titles have stacked up, I’ve convinced myself I just don’t have the time.

Of course—instead of wringing my hands over what I’m not reading—I could jump in and just read one book! So let’s do it—pick one of those career related books you’ve wanted to get to, and start. Give yourself a week, two weeks, a month, or even a few months, so long as you finish that book and remind yourself that it’s always possible to carve out 30, 20, or even 5 minutes at a time to work toward learning more.

Establish One New Productive Habit or Routine

Whenever I hit a nonproductive slump it’s almost always a result of going against the professional advice listed above. I want to be productive, but I’m not defining my terms, I’m not being realistic about what I can achieve, and I’m certainly not being easy on myself. The best way I’ve found to get back on track—and one that syncs with what the pros had to say—is to start cultivating one new productive habit, and letting others grow from there.

This might only add an extra 20 minutes of productive work time to your day, but those few minutes are huge when you feel like you’re falling behind, and it gives you a place to build from. So go ahead and toss the nebulous “I’m going to be more productive” new year’s resolution out with the champagne bottles, and replace it with “I’m going to make x productive habit a part of my day, every day, for the next month.”

Wake up 15 minutes earlier to get a jump on your day, start taking regular five minute breaks every hour to recharge and refocus, add a ten or 20 minute walk to your day to clear your head, spend a half hour a week cleaning your office or dedicate a half hour a day to catching up on correspondence—whatever fits best with your career needs, as long as you’re doing something productive and making it a habitually ingrained part of your daily routine.

Change takes time, but every journey starts with a single step. And remember, the improvements you want to see implemented in your life are totally achievable—it’s really just a matter of planning. Stay SMART and set your new year’s goals with confidence in 2018!

  from Web Developers World https://skillcrush.com/2018/01/04/how-to-make-new-years-resolutions-youll-actually-keep/

[fashiontrendin-blog]

FashionBeans’ Top Stories Of 2017

http://fashion-trendin.com/fashionbeans-top-stories-of-2017/

FashionBeans’ Top Stories Of 2017

5 Ideas That Will Change The Way You Wear Clothes

Dress shirts made from spacesuit material. Synthetic spider silk. Genuine leather grown in test tubes. These things might sound like they’re from tomorrow’s world, but they’re happening today. The next generation of wearable technology and smart textiles is about to revolutionise the way clothes are made and worn. Here are five of the biggest projects underway right now.

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What Smart-Casual Means & How To Dress For It

Trying to find the true meaning of the phrase “smart-casual” can quickly turn into a nightmare. The Oxford English Dictionary defines it as “neat, conventional, yet relatively informal in style, especially as worn to conform to a particular dress code”. But these days it’s quite common for smart-casual to be the dress code. Here’s your ultimate guide to what it really means, so you’re never over- or under-dressed ever again.

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The Right Colours To Wear For Your Skin Tone

Colour can be a cruel mistress. Most of us know that we could stand to win some serious style points by giving colours outside our comfort zone a go, but finding hues that work with your complexion is often easier said than done. Thankfully, FashionBeans has compiled a blow-by-blow guide to seeking out the shades that work for you.

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8 Pieces Of Menswear That Will Last A Lifetime

Fast fashion has its advantages (mainly when next-day delivery gets you out of a sartorial pickle the week before payday). But it’s quality that lasts. From a Barbour waxed jacket to Dr. Martens boots, these are the pieces of menswear that will last a lifetime thanks to the brands’ warranty or repair service.

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5 Modern Shoes All Men Should Own

After the black Oxfords, brown brogues and white low-tops, where do you turn? To build a solid shoe rotation (and up your style game in the process), consider adding these five modern footwear essentials to your collection.

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What To Wear With Every Shade Of Denim

Denim: so easy to put on, so easy to get wrong. Unlike corduroy and velvet, which appear difficult (and indeed are), denim on the surface seems simple enough but can be perilous to a man’s sartorial reputation. With that in mind, here’s how to wear the five most common washes to make sure you stay on right side of history.

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How Much To Pay For Every Piece Of Menswear

More money doesn’t always mean more style, and it can be far too easy to pay over the odds for everyday staples like T-shirts and knitwear. To help, here’s a garment-by-garment guide that reveals when price stops reflecting quality, and a couple of brands doing each at the right price.

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10 Future Men’s Wardrobe Classics

The Oxford shirt, the trench coat, the desert boot – just a few examples of how great designs can transcend decades, even centuries. But what about today’s items? Which contemporary garments have the potential to remain wardrobe staples 50 years or more from now? We’d put our money on these 10.

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12 Menswear Pieces That Only Get Better With Age

In a world of disposable fashion and fleeting fads, it’s comforting to know that some staples are in it for the long haul. From the buttery wrinkle of fine calf leather to the body-hugging warp of raw denim, say hello to your newest old friends.

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20 Subtle Style Upgrades You Can Make Right Now

All stylish men understand that the smallest details can have the biggest impact. To save you the effort (and potential awkwardness) of scrutinising the whims of well-dressed men, we’ve put together 20 subtle upgrades that will instantly improve your sartorial standing.

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12 Style Epiphanies Every Man Goes Through

Every day the brain absorbs gems of new information, sometimes without you even noticing. Some of these will be microscopic realisations (don’t stare at the sun, don’t touch dog poo, don’t tattoo your neck), some may unlock the answers to bigger philosophical questions, and some will just be simple lessons about how to dress correctly. Like these.

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The 20 Greatest Trainers Of All Time

Some trainers blaze a trail and burn-out. Some never go away. From feats in feet-protective engineering to cultural icons, these are the cream of the crepes or, more simply put, the 20 greatest trainers of all time from the biggest names in the game.

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How To Pick The Right Suit For Your Body Shape

They say that in life, you have to play the hand you’re dealt, which is true. However, you can also stack the deck in your favour with some tactical tailoring. Because not all suits are good for everybody, or indeed every body; whether you’re short, tall, skinny, large or athletic, here’s how to pick the right suit for your body shape.

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The 50 Best Men’s Fashion & Style Instagram Accounts

Instagram is good for a lot of shameful things. But one useful thing you can use it for is improving the way you dress, square by stylish square. To save you sticking your thumb where it’s not wanted or needed, FashionBeans has curated the 50 best accounts. Each one worthy of a double tap.

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14 Men’s Grooming Habits That Women Hate

From a female’s perspective, male grooming tends to come in wild extremes: we either get it really right or really, really wrong. To avoid getting up your other half’s nose (in every sense), these are the grooming habits that irk women the most and how to fix them, pronto.

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8 Of The Best Luxury Fragrances For Men

We all know that a hefty price tag doesn’t automatically equate to a superior product. Nonetheless, there are still plenty of reasons to splash out on a luxury fragrance. From Hermès to Creed, here are eight of the best high-end scents for men.

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How To Pick The Right Beard For Your Face Shape

Much the same way not every hairstyle will suit you, beards are not a one-size-fits-all facial addition. So here, with the help of London’s best barbershops, brush up on your knowledge and trim any chance of picking an unflattering style.

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Why And How You Should Embrace Male Baldness

What do Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, Jason Statham and Vin Diesel have in common? They’re bald, immensely successful and regularly top ‘sexiest men’ lists – proving you don’t need hair up top to get there. Here, we make a case for why you should embrace baldness, and how to do it in style.

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The Right Grooming Products For Your Complexion

Although skin is fundamentally the same whatever its colour, there are a few differences that determine how best to look after it. Our guide to complexions breaks down the right grooming products for your skin, whatever its colour.

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Grooming Treatments Every Man Should Get

Forget outdated stereotypes of what it means to be a man. Blokes now make up one in five salon customers and, as a result, testosterone-fuelled treatments are popping up all over the UK. From the tan that’ll give (the illusion of) gains to the sports massage to fix a niggling knot, here is the ultimate edit of grooming services every guy should get.

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A Complete Guide To Men’s Cosmetic Surgery

Ever looked in the mirror and desperately wanted ears that didn’t stick out so much? Or spotted a bald patch you wished wasn’t there? While we’re not ones to endorse whining or, worse, beating yourself up over appearance, we do applaud a proactive approach. So here’s the why, how, and how much of nips and tucks – from your nose to your nutsack.

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Men, Isn’t It Time We All Accepted We’re Inadequate?

In the last couple of years, it’s been reported that suicide is now the biggest killer of men under 50 in the UK. Anxiety, depression and eating disorders have also skyrocketed over 600 per cent in younger men over the last decade. FashionBeans explores how we could all benefit from breaking free from outdated definitions of masculinity.

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An Etiquette Guide For The Modern Gentleman

Chatting about etiquette seems a quaintly old-fashioned concept, like courtship, landline telephones and Myspace. But there’s an argument that it’s more important than ever. So here are 70 etiquette rules that will make you a better man – covering how to behave in the gym, at work, on a date and beyond.

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15 Ways To Become A More Interesting Man

The world never stops turning, and as men we should never stop improving. Which leads seamlessly to this very simple guide containing 15 easy ways to becoming a more interesting bloke. Follow it to the letter, and you will be intriguing the pants off people (figuratively and probably literally) in no time.

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31 Things No Modern Man Should Ever Do

Being a modern man means many things. It means being kind, open-minded and able to look at another person without immediately thinking “me want sex” like the Neanderthals that went before us. It also means not committing any of these 31 cardinal sins, from sulking to sending a dick pic.

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10 Everyday Habits Of Ripped Men

A short-lived resolution list and gym membership gathering dust is not the answer to your body ambitions. Instead, try adding these daily habits of ripped men into your regimen to see your waistline shrink and muscles grow.

Click To Read

50 Hobbies For Men That Are Worth Taking Up

In a world that’s always on, always charged and where to-do lists are never-ending, we could all do with a distraction or two. So we have compiled no less than 50 hobbies for men, each designed to tackle an unwanted symptom of the rat race.

Click To Read

47 Fashion And Style Books Every Man Should Read

Fans of menswear in its printed form, rejoice. FashionBeans has painstakingly ploughed through a local library’s worth of hardbacks and paperbacks in the selfless pursuit of creating the ultimate reading list of fashion, style, grooming and lifestyle books. Consider this reading material to make you smarter, more attractive and just generally better at life.

Click To Read

7 Mistakes You’re Probably Making With Your Watch

Contrary to the old expression, you can’t judge a man solely by his shoes. A watch is just as telling. To save your wrist from any wrongdoing, we enlisted the experts to reveal the most common mistakes men make with their timepieces, from not getting them serviced to overlooking second-hand models.

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What Makes A Watch Good Value For Money?

A watch has two kinds of value. First, there’s the pounds and pence you spend, and then there’s emotional value. Whichever you favour, you’ll want to get the best horological bang for your buck by looking for these key features at every price point.

Click To Read

[rathertoofondofbooks]

  This week has been an okay week, it was nice not to have any medical appointments or treatment and to be able to just potter about at home.

I’ve not managed to read quite as much as usual as I spent time catching up on Broadchurch (I’m sad this has ended as I loved it) and Big Little Lies (I read the book when it first came out but I can only remember half of how it ends so I’m intrigued to see how it all turns out. No spoilers please as it doesn’t air in the UK until tomorrow night. I think the casting for this show has been perfect and has made it such a brilliant series. I’ll miss it when it ends). I don’t watch a lot of TV but when I find a programme I like I tend to get hooked until it’s finished.

As I’m writing this post it’s Friday afternoon… I’m finishing and scheduling this post early this week (I normally write and schedule in advance and then amend the night before it posts if I’ve started or finished any other books) as I’m hoping to go record shopping on Saturday morning with my husband. It’s Record Store Day and there are some fab-sounding records on the list that we’d love to get.  I’ll update my instagram with our purchases and will write about how it went in next Sunday’s wrap-up post. I’m so hoping I manage to go – I haven’t left the house, other than for a handful of medical appointments, in literally months as I’ve been too unwell so it would be brilliant to get out.

  This week I’ve finished reading three books:

No Turning Back by Tracy Buchanan

I’ve had this on my TBR since it was published and this week it caught my eye in my audio library and I decided to pick it up. I listened to it over a couple of days and enjoyed it.

What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami

This was a really interesting listen that I very much enjoyed. It may seem odd to read a book about marathon running when I can’t walk more than a handful of tiny steps but there was so much in this book that really struck a chord with me. It’s interesting to read about his writing process too. I’d recommend this.

This Love by Dani Atkins

I read this book in two sittings and fell completely in love with the story. This is one of those books that stays in your mind after you finish reading and I think it’ll be a rare book that I re-read in the future. I reviewed this on my blog this week so you can read my thoughts here if you’d like to.

  This week I’ve blogged six times:

Sunday: Weekly Wrap-Up post

Monday: The Affair by Amanda Brooke

Tuesday: Interview with Jennifer Gilmour, author of Isolation Junction

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Wednesday: WWW Wednesday post

Thursday: Review of This Love by Dani Atkins

Saturday: Stacking the Shelves post

  This is what I’m currently reading:

Dead Woman Walking by Sharon Bolton

I pre-ordered this book when I first heard about it and then forgot when release day was so it was a fab surprise this week when it arrived on my Kindle. I’m already reading this and am hooked, it’s such a great premise for a novel.

Luuurve is a Many Trousered Thing by Louise Rennison

I love this series of books, it never fails to make me smile (even though I’m way older than the target audience) as it’s such fun writing. I was feeling really down yesterday after my fall so picked this up and it’s a perfect read for just now.

The Comfort of Others by Kay Langdale

This book is gorgeous, I can’t quite put into words how much I’m loving this book. I’m deliberately reading it slowly to savour it. I’m on the blog tour for this on Monday and have a lovely interview with Kay that I can’t wait to share.

  Titanic Lives by Richard Davenport-Hines

I’m still listening to the audio book of this and am finding it really interesting. Some of the things I knew and others I didn’t, the book is a really nice mix of stories about people involved in the building, or who were due to sail on the Titanic.

He Said/She Said by Erin Kelly

I’ve not picked this up much this week as I’ve been listening to more audio books. I’m really keen to know where this story is going though and really hope to pick this back up very soon.

How to Survive a Plague by David France

This is another book that’s suffered from me leaning more towards audio books this week but I was finding this absolutely fascinating and I really want to get back to it this week.

  Update on my TBR:

TBR at the start of January 2017: 1885 (see my State of the TBR post)

TBR in last week’s Wrap-Up: 1929

Additions:

Books bought/received for review/gifts: 12

Subtractions:

Books read this week: 3

Books I’m currently reading: 6

TBR Books culled this week: 0

Total:

TBR now stands at: 1941

  I’m linking this post up to Kimberly at Caffeinated Book Reviewer’s Sunday Blog Share.  It’s a chance to share news~ A post to recap the past week on your blog and showcase books and things we have received. Share news about what is coming up on our blog for the week ahead.

  How has your week been? What have you been reading? Please share in the comments below. If you write a wrap-up on your blog please feel free to share the link. 🙂

Weekly Wrap-Up (23 April) This week has been an okay week, it was nice not to have any medical appointments or treatment and to be able to just potter about at home.

[marie85marketing]

Your 2017 Content Excellence Challenge: The January Prompts

In case you missed our “warmup” last month, this is the official kickoff for our 2017 Content Excellence Challenge.

January resolutions are fine, but we’re more interested in helping you make consistent, ongoing improvement.

Every month, we’ll give you a pair of prompts that we can all work on together as a community.

The first prompt each month will be creative — prompts intended to improve your craft.

The second will be productive — prompts intended to improve your productivity.

We’d love to have you join us for every pair of prompts, but of course you’re always welcome to jump on and off the bus as you need to. All progress is good progress!

January’s creative prompt: Headlines

This month, we’re going to work on headlines.

Copyblogger has been known for advice about headlines from the beginning, and headlines continue to be a “Basic” that pays major dividends.

As we work together to create stronger and more powerful content this year, it just makes sense to give each piece the attention it deserves by pairing it with a solid headline.

Well-crafted headlines will get you more shares and traffic. They make it easier for more people to click through to your work. They can make a massive difference in the impact your content makes.

Your task:

Brainstorm 20 or 30 headlines for a significant piece of content you’re intending to create in the next few weeks. Try to incorporate as many ideas as you can from the resources below.

Resources:

Pick up our Magnetic Headlines ebook (it’s free and part of a whole library of content marketing ebooks for you)

My favorite “cheat” for headlines — the Cosmo Headline Technique

Brian Clark on why you should always write your headline first

Each day for the rest of this month, come up with two or three more headline ideas. They can be for any piece of content you might want to create — a blog post, an infographic, a podcast episode, whatever. If you gather them in a notebook or an app, you’ll be able to turn back to this list any time you’re stuck for ideas.

January’s productive prompt: Decide tomorrow’s creative priority today

This is one I’ve been playing with, and it’s a quick habit that works amazingly well. This is particularly powerful for creative work, but it’s also a nice “hack” for any challenging task.

Your task:

Decide tomorrow’s creative priority today. Every day, take a few minutes to decide on your next day’s most important creative task, and get it into your calendar. When possible, schedule it “first thing” on that calendar.

Here’s the twist on this dusty old productivity tip:

Make this decision relatively early in the day. Before lunch is a good time.

We’ve all heard a million times that we should plan out our following day. But in the evenings, we’re exhausted, our willpower is deleted, and we just want to wind down. If you plan tomorrow’s priority before lunch today, you’ll be able to put your full creative energy into the decision.

Decision-making uses a lot of willpower and mental energy. So do it while you’re still fresh.

The task should be something you can work on for one or two “pomodoros” — 25-minute chunks. If you have more time to devote to your task, that’s terrific. But even a single pomodoro a day can yield astonishing results, if the time is focused and you’re working on the right thing. That’s why you make the decision the day before, rather than on the fly.

Some possible tasks you could decide to work on tomorrow:

Writing a blog post

Planning an infographic

Doing in-depth research for a larger piece of content

Working on a book

Planning themes for a content calendar

Brainstorming a big stack of headlines for the January challenge

If it needs focus and creativity, it counts.

Resources:

Some nice refinements on this idea on the Complice blog: “Frogs in tomato reduction”

If you’re not familiar with the term pomodoro, here’s a primer: The Pomodoro Technique

The TL;DR version

Here’s the pocket version of the prompts:

Creative: Work on your headlines. Brainstorm a big stack (at least 20–30) for an upcoming project, then add 2–3 headline ideas to your list every day.

Productive: Decide on tomorrow’s highest-priority creative task today, before lunch. Do this every day.

Let us know what you’re doing with it!

If you’re joining us for this month’s challenge prompts, let us know how it’s going in the comments below. We love to hear about what you’re working on.

The post Your 2017 Content Excellence Challenge: The January Prompts appeared first on Copyblogger.

[hypertagmaster]

Your 2017 Content Excellence Challenge: The January Prompts

In case you missed our “warmup” last month, this is the official kickoff for our 2017 Content Excellence Challenge.

January resolutions are fine, but we’re more interested in helping you make consistent, ongoing improvement.

Every month, we’ll give you a pair of prompts that we can all work on together as a community.

The first prompt each month will be creative — prompts intended to improve your craft.

The second will be productive — prompts intended to improve your productivity.

We’d love to have you join us for every pair of prompts, but of course you’re always welcome to jump on and off the bus as you need to. All progress is good progress!

January’s creative prompt: Headlines

This month, we’re going to work on headlines.

Copyblogger has been known for advice about headlines from the beginning, and headlines continue to be a “Basic” that pays major dividends.

As we work together to create stronger and more powerful content this year, it just makes sense to give each piece the attention it deserves by pairing it with a solid headline.

Well-crafted headlines will get you more shares and traffic. They make it easier for more people to click through to your work. They can make a massive difference in the impact your content makes.

Your task:

Brainstorm 20 or 30 headlines for a significant piece of content you’re intending to create in the next few weeks. Try to incorporate as many ideas as you can from the resources below.

Resources:

Pick up our Magnetic Headlines ebook (it’s free and part of a whole library of content marketing ebooks for you)

My favorite “cheat” for headlines — the Cosmo Headline Technique

Brian Clark on why you should always write your headline first

Each day for the rest of this month, come up with two or three more headline ideas. They can be for any piece of content you might want to create — a blog post, an infographic, a podcast episode, whatever. If you gather them in a notebook or an app, you’ll be able to turn back to this list any time you’re stuck for ideas.

January’s productive prompt: Decide tomorrow’s creative priority today

This is one I’ve been playing with, and it’s a quick habit that works amazingly well. This is particularly powerful for creative work, but it’s also a nice “hack” for any challenging task.

Your task:

Decide tomorrow’s creative priority today. Every day, take a few minutes to decide on your next day’s most important creative task, and get it into your calendar. When possible, schedule it “first thing” on that calendar.

Here’s the twist on this dusty old productivity tip:

Make this decision relatively early in the day. Before lunch is a good time.

We’ve all heard a million times that we should plan out our following day. But in the evenings, we’re exhausted, our willpower is deleted, and we just want to wind down. If you plan tomorrow’s priority before lunch today, you’ll be able to put your full creative energy into the decision.

Decision-making uses a lot of willpower and mental energy. So do it while you’re still fresh.

The task should be something you can work on for one or two “pomodoros” — 25-minute chunks. If you have more time to devote to your task, that’s terrific. But even a single pomodoro a day can yield astonishing results, if the time is focused and you’re working on the right thing. That’s why you make the decision the day before, rather than on the fly.

Some possible tasks you could decide to work on tomorrow:

Writing a blog post

Planning an infographic

Doing in-depth research for a larger piece of content

Working on a book

Planning themes for a content calendar

Brainstorming a big stack of headlines for the January challenge

If it needs focus and creativity, it counts.

Resources:

Some nice refinements on this idea on the Complice blog: “Frogs in tomato reduction”

If you’re not familiar with the term pomodoro, here’s a primer: The Pomodoro Technique

The TL;DR version

Here’s the pocket version of the prompts:

Creative: Work on your headlines. Brainstorm a big stack (at least 20–30) for an upcoming project, then add 2–3 headline ideas to your list every day.

Productive: Decide on tomorrow’s highest-priority creative task today, before lunch. Do this every day.

Let us know what you’re doing with it!

If you’re joining us for this month’s challenge prompts, let us know how it’s going in the comments below. We love to hear about what you’re working on.

The post Your 2017 Content Excellence Challenge: The January Prompts appeared first on Copyblogger.

via marketing http://ift.tt/2ja0G4x

[nathandgibsca]

Your 2017 Content Excellence Challenge: The January Prompts

In case you missed our “warmup” last month, this is the official kickoff for our 2017 Content Excellence Challenge.

January resolutions are fine, but we’re more interested in helping you make consistent, ongoing improvement.

Every month, we’ll give you a pair of prompts that we can all work on together as a community.

The first prompt each month will be creative — prompts intended to improve your craft.

The second will be productive — prompts intended to improve your productivity.

We’d love to have you join us for every pair of prompts, but of course you’re always welcome to jump on and off the bus as you need to. All progress is good progress!

January’s creative prompt: Headlines

This month, we’re going to work on headlines.

Copyblogger has been known for advice about headlines from the beginning, and headlines continue to be a “Basic” that pays major dividends.

As we work together to create stronger and more powerful content this year, it just makes sense to give each piece the attention it deserves by pairing it with a solid headline.

Well-crafted headlines will get you more shares and traffic. They make it easier for more people to click through to your work. They can make a massive difference in the impact your content makes.

Your task:

Brainstorm 20 or 30 headlines for a significant piece of content you’re intending to create in the next few weeks. Try to incorporate as many ideas as you can from the resources below.

Resources:

Pick up our Magnetic Headlines ebook (it’s free and part of a whole library of content marketing ebooks for you)

My favorite “cheat” for headlines — the Cosmo Headline Technique

Brian Clark on why you should always write your headline first

Each day for the rest of this month, come up with two or three more headline ideas. They can be for any piece of content you might want to create — a blog post, an infographic, a podcast episode, whatever. If you gather them in a notebook or an app, you’ll be able to turn back to this list any time you’re stuck for ideas.

January’s productive prompt: Decide tomorrow’s creative priority today

This is one I’ve been playing with, and it’s a quick habit that works amazingly well. This is particularly powerful for creative work, but it’s also a nice “hack” for any challenging task.

Your task:

Decide tomorrow’s creative priority today. Every day, take a few minutes to decide on your next day’s most important creative task, and get it into your calendar. When possible, schedule it “first thing” on that calendar.

Here’s the twist on this dusty old productivity tip:

Make this decision relatively early in the day. Before lunch is a good time.

We’ve all heard a million times that we should plan out our following day. But in the evenings, we’re exhausted, our willpower is deleted, and we just want to wind down. If you plan tomorrow’s priority before lunch today, you’ll be able to put your full creative energy into the decision.

Decision-making uses a lot of willpower and mental energy. So do it while you’re still fresh.

The task should be something you can work on for one or two “pomodoros” — 25-minute chunks. If you have more time to devote to your task, that’s terrific. But even a single pomodoro a day can yield astonishing results, if the time is focused and you’re working on the right thing. That’s why you make the decision the day before, rather than on the fly.

Some possible tasks you could decide to work on tomorrow:

Writing a blog post

Planning an infographic

Doing in-depth research for a larger piece of content

Working on a book

Planning themes for a content calendar

Brainstorming a big stack of headlines for the January challenge

If it needs focus and creativity, it counts.

Resources:

Some nice refinements on this idea on the Complice blog: “Frogs in tomato reduction”

If you’re not familiar with the term pomodoro, here’s a primer: The Pomodoro Technique

The TL;DR version

Here’s the pocket version of the prompts:

Creative: Work on your headlines. Brainstorm a big stack (at least 20–30) for an upcoming project, then add 2–3 headline ideas to your list every day.

Productive: Decide on tomorrow’s highest-priority creative task today, before lunch. Do this every day.

Let us know what you’re doing with it!

If you’re joining us for this month’s challenge prompts, let us know how it’s going in the comments below. We love to hear about what you’re working on.

The post Your 2017 Content Excellence Challenge: The January Prompts appeared first on Copyblogger.

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Your 2017 Content Excellence Challenge: The January Prompts

In case you missed our “warmup” last month, this is the official kickoff for our 2017 Content Excellence Challenge.

January resolutions are fine, but we’re more interested in helping you make consistent, ongoing improvement.

Every month, we’ll give you a pair of prompts that we can all work on together as a community.

The first prompt each month will be creative — prompts intended to improve your craft.

The second will be productive — prompts intended to improve your productivity.

We’d love to have you join us for every pair of prompts, but of course you’re always welcome to jump on and off the bus as you need to. All progress is good progress!

January’s creative prompt: Headlines

This month, we’re going to work on headlines.

Copyblogger has been known for advice about headlines from the beginning, and headlines continue to be a “Basic” that pays major dividends.

As we work together to create stronger and more powerful content this year, it just makes sense to give each piece the attention it deserves by pairing it with a solid headline.

Well-crafted headlines will get you more shares and traffic. They make it easier for more people to click through to your work. They can make a massive difference in the impact your content makes.

Your task:

Brainstorm 20 or 30 headlines for a significant piece of content you’re intending to create in the next few weeks. Try to incorporate as many ideas as you can from the resources below.

Resources:

Pick up our Magnetic Headlines ebook (it’s free and part of a whole library of content marketing ebooks for you)

My favorite “cheat” for headlines — the Cosmo Headline Technique

Brian Clark on why you should always write your headline first

Each day for the rest of this month, come up with two or three more headline ideas. They can be for any piece of content you might want to create — a blog post, an infographic, a podcast episode, whatever. If you gather them in a notebook or an app, you’ll be able to turn back to this list any time you’re stuck for ideas.

January’s productive prompt: Decide tomorrow’s creative priority today

This is one I’ve been playing with, and it’s a quick habit that works amazingly well. This is particularly powerful for creative work, but it’s also a nice “hack” for any challenging task.

Your task:

Decide tomorrow’s creative priority today. Every day, take a few minutes to decide on your next day’s most important creative task, and get it into your calendar. When possible, schedule it “first thing” on that calendar.

Here’s the twist on this dusty old productivity tip:

Make this decision relatively early in the day. Before lunch is a good time.

We’ve all heard a million times that we should plan out our following day. But in the evenings, we’re exhausted, our willpower is deleted, and we just want to wind down. If you plan tomorrow’s priority before lunch today, you’ll be able to put your full creative energy into the decision.

Decision-making uses a lot of willpower and mental energy. So do it while you’re still fresh.

The task should be something you can work on for one or two “pomodoros” — 25-minute chunks. If you have more time to devote to your task, that’s terrific. But even a single pomodoro a day can yield astonishing results, if the time is focused and you’re working on the right thing. That’s why you make the decision the day before, rather than on the fly.

Some possible tasks you could decide to work on tomorrow:

Writing a blog post

Planning an infographic

Doing in-depth research for a larger piece of content

Working on a book

Planning themes for a content calendar

Brainstorming a big stack of headlines for the January challenge

If it needs focus and creativity, it counts.

Resources:

Some nice refinements on this idea on the Complice blog: “Frogs in tomato reduction”

If you’re not familiar with the term pomodoro, here’s a primer: The Pomodoro Technique

The TL;DR version

Here’s the pocket version of the prompts:

Creative: Work on your headlines. Brainstorm a big stack (at least 20–30) for an upcoming project, then add 2–3 headline ideas to your list every day.

Productive: Decide on tomorrow’s highest-priority creative task today, before lunch. Do this every day.

Let us know what you’re doing with it!

If you’re joining us for this month’s challenge prompts, let us know how it’s going in the comments below. We love to hear about what you’re working on.

The post Your 2017 Content Excellence Challenge: The January Prompts appeared first on Copyblogger.

from Copyblogger http://www.copyblogger.com/challenge-2017-01/

[annegalliher]

Your 2017 Content Excellence Challenge: The January Prompts

In case you missed our “warmup” last month, this is the official kickoff for our 2017 Content Excellence Challenge.

January resolutions are fine, but we’re more interested in helping you make consistent, ongoing improvement.

Every month, we’ll give you a pair of prompts that we can all work on together as a community.

The first prompt each month will be creative — prompts intended to improve your craft.

The second will be productive — prompts intended to improve your productivity.

We’d love to have you join us for every pair of prompts, but of course you’re always welcome to jump on and off the bus as you need to. All progress is good progress!

January’s creative prompt: Headlines

This month, we’re going to work on headlines.

Copyblogger has been known for advice about headlines from the beginning, and headlines continue to be a “Basic” that pays major dividends.

As we work together to create stronger and more powerful content this year, it just makes sense to give each piece the attention it deserves by pairing it with a solid headline.

Well-crafted headlines will get you more shares and traffic. They make it easier for more people to click through to your work. They can make a massive difference in the impact your content makes.

Your task:

Brainstorm 20 or 30 headlines for a significant piece of content you’re intending to create in the next few weeks. Try to incorporate as many ideas as you can from the resources below.

Resources:

Pick up our Magnetic Headlines ebook (it’s free and part of a whole library of content marketing ebooks for you)

My favorite “cheat” for headlines — the Cosmo Headline Technique

Brian Clark on why you should always write your headline first

Each day for the rest of this month, come up with two or three more headline ideas. They can be for any piece of content you might want to create — a blog post, an infographic, a podcast episode, whatever. If you gather them in a notebook or an app, you’ll be able to turn back to this list any time you’re stuck for ideas.

January’s productive prompt: Decide tomorrow’s creative priority today

This is one I’ve been playing with, and it’s a quick habit that works amazingly well. This is particularly powerful for creative work, but it’s also a nice “hack” for any challenging task.

Your task:

Decide tomorrow’s creative priority today. Every day, take a few minutes to decide on your next day’s most important creative task, and get it into your calendar. When possible, schedule it “first thing” on that calendar.

Here’s the twist on this dusty old productivity tip:

Make this decision relatively early in the day. Before lunch is a good time.

We’ve all heard a million times that we should plan out our following day. But in the evenings, we’re exhausted, our willpower is deleted, and we just want to wind down. If you plan tomorrow’s priority before lunch today, you’ll be able to put your full creative energy into the decision.

Decision-making uses a lot of willpower and mental energy. So do it while you’re still fresh.

The task should be something you can work on for one or two “pomodoros” — 25-minute chunks. If you have more time to devote to your task, that’s terrific. But even a single pomodoro a day can yield astonishing results, if the time is focused and you’re working on the right thing. That’s why you make the decision the day before, rather than on the fly.

Some possible tasks you could decide to work on tomorrow:

Writing a blog post

Planning an infographic

Doing in-depth research for a larger piece of content

Working on a book

Planning themes for a content calendar

Brainstorming a big stack of headlines for the January challenge

If it needs focus and creativity, it counts.

Resources:

Some nice refinements on this idea on the Complice blog: “Frogs in tomato reduction”

If you’re not familiar with the term pomodoro, here’s a primer: The Pomodoro Technique

The TL;DR version

Here’s the pocket version of the prompts:

Creative: Work on your headlines. Brainstorm a big stack (at least 20–30) for an upcoming project, then add 2–3 headline ideas to your list every day.

Productive: Decide on tomorrow’s highest-priority creative task today, before lunch. Do this every day.

Let us know what you’re doing with it!

If you’re joining us for this month’s challenge prompts, let us know how it’s going in the comments below. We love to hear about what you’re working on.

The post Your 2017 Content Excellence Challenge: The January Prompts appeared first on Copyblogger.