Title: Like Water on the Moon
Characters: Alice Carrow (later Longbottom)/Amelia Bones
Word count: 600
Notes: End-of-the-week fluff for paulamcg, who wanted Alice, Amelia, flowery curtains, and hand-holding.

( In her mind's eye, Moody's leg is right again, and he walks up the path with a bunch of flowers under his arm and a spring in his step. )

Last call for rs_small_gifts! Sign-ups end and prompt-claiming begins tomorrow at 12:00 noon ET--come join us for a low-key and fun short-fic fest!

A happy, happy birthday to melandry, one of my oldest LJ friends and the writer whose Aziraphale/Crowley first convinced me I needed to read Good Omens. May today be a wonderful day, M, and may the upcoming year be your best yet! If you'd like a birthday drabble, leave a prompt in comments.

In other news, I'm at a conference with limited internet and less unscheduled time. But: California again! I love it here. *sunny Californian wave* Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend, and I'll see you early next week.

Title: Induction
Characters: Regulus
Word count: 100
Notes: Birthday drabble for melusinahp, prompt: Regulus, Severus, Death Eaters

( Induction: 1. a ceremony during which a person joins an organization, such as the military; 2. (logic) the process of deriving general principles from specific instances )

Run, don't walk, directly over to femgenficathon, where a_t_rain has posted the most gentle, witty, and insightful account of Hermione's coming of age/independent project on The Tales of Beedle the Bard under Minerva McGonagall's supervision: The Supervisor's Tale (Hermione, McGonagall, G, 4500 words). This is a story about the moment we stop producing good student work and start doing scholarship, with all the mess and joy and heartache that entails, and I suspect many of you on the flist will resonate with Hermione's growth and McGonagall's struggle to supervise it. Enjoy!

Thanks to kellychambliss for the heads-up on this one.

*thunk* Exhausting day, but I did manage to do one thing I've been dreading for a while, so I've rewarded myself by taking the time to do something else I've meant to do for ages. Although in this case, I couldn't be happier to do it. Apologies in advance for this second-person kick I've been on lately.

Title: Do You Remember Alan Mackenzie?
Characters: Remus, Sirius
Word count: 300
Notes: Birthday drabble (times three) for mindabbles, prompt: friendship

( Do you remember Alan Mackenzie? )

Title: All the Time in the World
Characters: Remus/Sirius
Word count: 100
Notes: Birthday drabble for la_onza, prompt: getting older

( Sirius is not happy about being thirty-six again. )

A happy, happy birthday and all of my best wishes for the upcoming year to: midnitemaraud_r, sophinisba, and melusinahp (today)...archon_mentha and copperbadge (tomorrow)...and rian219 (Monday). Hope you're celebrating yourselves properly this weekend!

And belated birthday wishes to lesyeuxverts00 (September 2), maggiehoneybite (September 13), and pre_raphaelite1 (September 14)! Hope all three of you had a good day.

Title: Ex Libris
Characters: Eileen Prince, Severus Snape
Rating: PG
Word count: 1200
Summary: The summer he is sixteen, Eileen Prince says good-bye to her son.
Notes: For bethbethbeth, whose birthday (and birthday extravaganza over at polarbabe09) I missed almost a month ago. Happy belated birthday, Beth!

( Curious how you were united against the world when his father was still here, how he's slipping away from you now that you're alone. )

Saw a clever ad on the marriage equality issue, thought I'd share.

( Sinead's Hand under the cut. Video 2 min., work-safe )

Meanwhile, drowning in RL work these days, but the sun's out and the better half's baked some scones. Hope your September's off to a good start!

ETA: Also, the architectural historian in me has to ask: does anyone know what building we're looking at from 1:07 to 1:10?

A very happy birthday to two very special flisters:

* la_onza, whose sharp eye and understated sense of humor make for fabulous posts, often--a flister after my own heart--with visual materials. I haven't seen you online in ages, but I am thinking about you today, if you're out there!

* mindabbles, mod extraordinare, who, along with sambethe, held my hand through Small Gifts last year (I'm still grateful for that) and whose good humor and sense of balance about everything from fandom to politics I try to emulate. Happy birthday, sweetie! May this year bring you all the friendship, love, and happiness you deserve.

Min, I actually started birthday recs on your birthday two years ago because I was delighted with a ficlet you'd written and hoping to get to know you better. Would you like to start me off on a new birthday tradition by requesting a drabble? La Onza, would you?

THIS WEEK: Two days and counting until the hbpchallenge ends! You've seen the movie, you have something to say about it--don't we all?--so why not write a ficlet? We've got more than 80 prompts, book- and movie-related, if you're looking for a little inspiration, or you can come up with something of your own. Gen, romance, meta, porn, AU, crack all welcome (as are drawbles and icons). You've got until midnight your time, Wednesday the 29th. Good luck and have fun!

NEXT WEEK: woldy is hosting a recs comm for green media (books, movies, tv shows, blogs, websites, etc) that will run through the first week of August. Join green_recs to watch along, and wander over here to sign up if you have something you want to rec yourself!

Folks, there are already forty-odd clever prompts over at hbpchallenge waiting for a creative soul to elaborate on them. Among them: What do you think about Narcissa's new hairdo? What would have happened if Harry (or possibly Hermione) had recognized Snape's handwriting in the book? Or: Did Riddle ever make Slughorn's wall of fame? In the mood to write a sex scene with Harry on Felix Felicis? Crack, AU, meta, porn, gen, etc. all welcome.

Drop by, peruse the prompts, add a few of your own, and starting thinking about what you'd like to write to draw. No, leaving a prompt doesn't commit you to anything--but, be warned, you may be inspired to submit.

Deadline: midnight your time, Wednesday, July 29.
Reveals: Saturday, August 1.
Maximum word count: 1000.
Can you meet the challenge?
You've got 10 days left!

Both the Half-Blood Prince movie and the hbpchallenge are open!

Head over here to leave a prompt at the challenge. (And no, you don't have to commit to writing/drawing/etc. at this point--everyone's welcome to leave a prompt.)

Introductory post over here if you'd like to find out more about the comm.

Headed out to the movie tonight! Can't wait to see your reaction posts...

Announcing...drumroll...

hbpchallenge

... a community for the harried and commitment-phobic Half-Blood Prince fan.

Here's the challenge: create something (anything!) about HBP, movie or book, by July 29. The catch? It's got to be short, and you've got to do it (relatively) quickly. Maximum word count for fic and meta: 1000 words. Drawbles and icons and other fanworks also welcome! You've got two weeks from the movie release date!

Rising to the challenge:

STEP 1. Watch the movie. Or reread the book. (Or don't. Whatever works for you.)

STEP 2. July 15 to July 25: drop by the comm and leave a prompt (or several). Unanswered questions about the characters? UST smoldering onscreen that you want to hear more about? There an icon you'd like to see? Suggest it!

2a. Does this commit you to anything? Nope. But it's fun to see what folks want to see, and it'll help us all get started.

STEP 3. Create something based on HBP by midnight, July 29. Submit anonymously. Feel proud of self.

STEP 4. Read and enjoy. Guess the authors/artists/brilliant imaginations behind the fic/meta/art/etc. Continue to feel proud of self. Reveals August 1.

All contributions are welcome: gen, all shades of ship-fic (femslash, slash, het), meta (serious and not-so-serious), crack, AU, you name it.

FAQ:

I'm excited! What do I do right now?. Join the comm and promote it, please! (Seriously, folks, you all know more people than I do.)

I might not be able to finish. Is that okay? Absolutely. Join the comm and see what happens. All kinds of ideas can come to you in two weeks!

Do I have to use a prompt? Nope. They're just for brainstorming. Then again, if you see something you like, nab it.

I don't think I'll have time to create anything. Ah, but you can leave prompts and read along! Everyone is welcome!

Folks, I know there are a million things going on in fandom right about now--remix, various big bangs and fests, Azkatraz, some tv show called "Touch Wood," I think?...but I'm going to test the waters anyway:

Anyone interested in a low-key Half Blood Prince fest? I'm thinking of something along the lines of last year's 800_words--a very quick fest for very short (500 or 1000 words, say) fics about the book or the movie. Perhaps we'd leave prompts from the 15th to the 25th, to give folks a chance to see the movie, then post fics by August 1st? No exchanges, no commitments, no obligation to use the prompts, no penalties if it turns out the movie annoys you or you're not in the mood--just a chance to see what others thought about the book or movie. Let me know what you think. Suggestions welcome for making it fast, fun, and easy!

Poll #1426625 hbp fest?
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 29

Interested in a quick HBP fest? Check all that apply:

Hm...there's not something like this already going on, is there?

Happy belated birthday to the graceful writer and intrepid traveler rosiphelee (July 5)! Best wishes for a wonderful, relaxing, well-deserved summer and for the upcoming year, with all the excitement it brings!

From queerlygen at DW:

For many of us who are queer, we're queer all the time. We're queer when we're grocery-shopping. We're trans when we're at the library. We're bisexual when we go on camping trips. We're questioning when we kick ass at kickball tournaments. We're intersex when we face off against our thesis defense committees. We're lesbians when we show up at our straight friends' houses after they've been brutally dumped by some jackass. And we're gay at (and quite possibly for) the dentist.

Drawing a line in the sand between "slash" and "gen" erases the fact that many of us live our daily lives aware of our identities and experiences as queer or genderqueer people. It's not something we only think about when we're falling in love, getting our hearts broken, or getting off.

Within the next couple of weeks, this community will be hosting a festival of gen fanworks featuring sexual and gender minority characters of all tasty flavors -- queer, trans, gay, lesbian, intersex, bisexual, genderqueer, questioning, flamingly ambiguous.

As someone who adores queer gen, I'm excited to see what happens here. Take a look at the comm's initial ideas about the comm/fest and mod's intro.

The 2009 master list is up at lgbtq_recs! Stop by and see if any of the titles listed there interest you. Hard to believe that when we started this comm last year I was worried everyone would want to rec the same things. Between this year and last we're going on a hundred recs in every conceivable media (not just books and movies but opera, spoken word, graphic novels, and music videos) dealing with the experiences of lesbians, gay men, bisexual women and men, and transfolk of varied ages and backgrounds. *loves fandom even a bit more than usual*

Also, imochan has compiled an invaluable user's guide to all the recs and fic and art that appeared in the (1200+) comments to the giant Remus/Sirius post of love last week. There's quite of bit of new stuff there, ficlets and art, much by folks we haven't heard from in a while, and some by flisters, including penknife, lls_mutant, min dabbles, rosemaryandrue, crooked, glass icarus, and more. (I'm linking largely for my own benefit, because I haven't gotten a chance to read much yet. If I missed yours, please let me know!) Enjoy!

A very happy belated birthday to onehundredmoons (June 26)! Do you know how you sometimes read someone's fic or comments and just know that there's this warm, funny, wickedly perceptive real-life person behind them? L is one of those people whose personality shines through that way. Happy birthday, sweetie! Miss you!

I'm the last to the party, I'm sure, but just in case anyone else has come in late, the giant Remus/Sirius post of love is this way, chez imochan. Drop by and enjoy the R/S love! I wrote a tiny ficlet for it, which I'm going to repost below.

Title: This Is What Grace Looks Like
Characters: Sirius Black, Remus Lupin
Rating: PG
Word count: 800
Summary An unexpected visitor changes everything.

( This is what grace looks like )