The Versaphile Birthday Project Report

Versaphile's birthday was Friday, as many of her regular readers are already aware. 24! One of the best ages ever - still young and juicy, but the brain has been turned on by then.

Anyway. Being currently sans large chunks of capital that could be used for a £100 gift certificate to Amazon.co.uk or something like that I said, "How about a fic for your birthday?"

Thus, The Versaphile Birthday Project was born. It's been fun.

About ten story ideas got batted around in my head and on paper (after reading 4 Doctor Who novels, viewing 4 multi-part DW series, DW:The Movie, the later Hornblower episodes (Mutiny/Retribution*), three french hens, two turtledoves and...you know the rest) between the end of August and the magic due date of September 12.

Being someone who likes fallback plans, the 'what if she hates this one' voice in the back of my head led to not only multiple fics in two different fandoms, but also a homemade cake. (Just in case she hated all of them. :-) )

In the end, three Doctor Who fics and Two Hornblower (Bush-oriented) fics wound up comprising the project (view here). There were some surprises in which story ideas actually made it to completion and which ones didn't, and individual surprises in the course of writing each story -- which is as it should be -- and far more actual ideas made it into finished form than I ever expected in the end.

It's been a fun and interesting experiment.

So. What's next?

Finishing a Captain Blood fic for Elke, and maybe doing another h/c one for her. Finishing a Potterfic to be named later, which was almost done before the VBP started.

Deciding if I want to write a media tie-in novel this winter (whether part of NaNoWriMo or not), and if so, is it the Star Wars YA adventure I've had plotted and 3 chapters in for the past N years, or the Doctor Who adventure (8/Sam) we planned out yesterday?

Time will tell.

[*] Having already seen the others beforehand.

friday five revisited

All because cortese took the test over at http://www.kabalerians.com, twice, with different genders, and got different results.

Me as female:

The first name...leads you to assume considerable responsibility and to prefer to work independently, without direction or interference from others because you have very definite ideas of your own. Your mind is quick to comprehend and you can be depended upon to do any job well. Because you tend to be somewhat of a perfectionist, you might insist on doing too many things yourself instead of delegating jobs to others who might do less satisfactory work. This name does make you quite direct and straight-to-the-point. Your verbal expression does not reflect your inner thoughts and feelings, and you often wonder why people react to what you say. The influence of this name does not promote the friendship that you desire or the relaxation and naturalness you should enjoy with people. It is a name that makes you far too practical and serious-minded, and makes it difficult for you to act with spontaneity.



Me as male:

Your first name...creates a serious, thoughtful nature, shrewd, efficient, and business-minded. You are one to make your own decisions, and not be influenced by others. You desire independence and freedom from the authority and interference of others. You are not overly ambitious, preferring instead just to seek stable, settled conditions which are adequate to meet your responsibilities. In your personal relations with others, you are inclined to be rather serious, and not to see the humour others see, or to respond spontaneously. Your positive manner and outlook can make others feel that you are imposing your will on them and even interfering in their affairs.


Both of these sound rather male, don't they? I do have an unusual appellation. Although, note two !male things:

In the female version: "does not promote the friendship that you desire or the relaxation and naturalness you should enjoy with people" -- the harshest interpretation of this statement would be 'as a woman, you should not only desire to be but actually be more relaxed (subordinate?) and natural (nurturing?) than you are'.

In the male version: "You are not overly ambitious, preferring instead just to seek stable, settled conditions which are adequate to meet your responsibilities" Again, the harshest interpretation for a guy would be this is tatamount to an insult, isn't it? (It's accurate...to a point. I don't need to lead if there's already a good leader. If not, I'll fill that vacuum and do a damned good job. That's a very INTJ characteristic, as is the perceived stiffness, the discrepancy between verbal expression and actual inner thought, and the practical/serious mien shit.)

Speaking of serious mien:
Data: Is 'Junior' to be the alien's official designation?
(Various embarrassed looks/smirks.)