Title: Taking Offers
Author: Vegablack62
Characters: Alice, Frank
Rating: G
Word Count: 372
Summary: Alice gets some help.
Author's Notes: This is another Sugar Quill drabble that I am re-posting on my journal. This follows Offers

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Title: Offers
Author: Vegablack62
Characters: Alice, Frank
Rating: G
Word Count: 312
Summary: Frank makes Alice an offer.
Author's Notes: Originally posted on the Sugar Quill drabble thread, this piece was also posted on this site as part of a lump of drabbles. I've decided to repost it. I appologize to anyone who has seen it twice.

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Title: Doing Revisions
Author: Vegablack62
Characters: Alice, Frank, Benjy
Word Count: 304
Rating: G
Summary: School's almost over, but Alice doesn't know what she wants.
Author's Note: I wrote this for the Drabble community on Sugar Quill and posted it here as part of a lump of drabbles. I didn't think that was a good way to post this, so I've decided to re-post it alone. My apologies to any who have already read this.

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Yesterday was world AIDS day. Something people don't like to think about at most times and certainly not during the holidays. Most people, myself included believe it is no longer a crisis and take it for granted as a problem from the past now being handled correctly. After listening to the discussion about the disease I am not so sure.

A doctor from the University of Washington an expert on Public Health and Communicable Disease described the epidemic in Seattle as stable which means the number of new cases every year is the same, this is not true in all parts of the country. In some parts they are growing.

Every year women make up a higher proportion of those with the disease.

That said 30 percent of the gay men in Seattle will be HIV positive by the time they are forty. I found that statistic unbelievable, but I don't think I'm remembering it wrong and the doctor who gave it should know what he is talking about.

It's interesting because I think many people believe the disease is in decline and while the numbers of new cases dropped greatly in the early Ninety's that has stopped largely because of complacency. A friend of mine who is gay asked his friend who worked in a clinic with AIDS patience if most of his clients now were IV drug users, because my friend assumed the disease was in decline in gay men who were now knowledgeable about avoiding the disease. His friend told him that was not true, he still had plenty of new young gay men who were patients.

I know a person who works at a clinic specifically for AIDS patients. They can not wear identifying labels about where they work when they leave the building which is designed not to be recognized as a clinic at all. They can not say where they work to anyone which is why I am careful about talking about it on this post. I myself found out about it accidentally. So the stigma is still real.

Almost everyone in Seattle who knows they have the disease is being treated for it. That is not true in the rest of the US and certainly not true in the rest of the world.


This disease is still a serious issue both in the US and Africa. It needs to be treated that way.

Posting at hp_holidaygen has made a strong start. The first story, Amor Vitae, featuring Flitwick at Christmas, is brilliant and can be found at community.livejournal.com/hp_holidaygen/34543.html. It's a wonderful read.

Are there sophisticated Trolls who post stupid things on sites just to confuse people or is everyone on the internet 13? I was looking at fanficrants and a poster complained about American picking. She claims to have read a fanfic in which a CSI character was shocked to see trains and train tracks in Las Vegas, because apparently they'd never seen a train and thought Americans didn't have trains. There followed shocked remarks and pointless arguments about whether it was possible to go your whole life without seeing trains.

One poster wrote that they would be surprised to see trains in a city because when they lived in New York and Boston they never saw one and weren't aware trains were there. Really? They lived in New York City and they never heard of Grand Central Station, Penn Station (both connect the subway system to trains running all over the east coast) and the New York City Subway?

I can't believe that person ever lived in New York City. She/he has to be either making the story up or is twelve years old.

Title: Returned Into Sand
Author: vegablack62
Character(s)/Pairing(s): Neville, Hannah, their children, Harry Potter, Alice, Augusta, Enid, Agnes
Rating: PG
Warnings (if any): death, grief, two uses of the word f**k in a quote
Wordcount: 8,800
Summary: Neville comes to terms with his father’s death.
Author's Notes: Thanks to my daughter Rugi who did an excellent beta job at the extreme last minute. Written for Lyras for ownficfest. The title comes from Mr. Tambourine Man by Bob Dylan. Quotes in order of appearance from: Octopus’s Garden by Ringo Starr, This Be The Verse by Larkin, Psalm 49, Job 16:11 and Psalm 55. The bible quotes are from a modern translation. Consider that artistic license.

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Is there a kind, charitable person on my flist with PHP/MySQL skills (or knows someone with them) who can help Zsenya repair the SQ fan fiction archive? ...

I would also be very sad if the many wonderful stories on there vanish from the web for want of a little time and assistance from someone with the right skills. Unfortunately, that's not me.

If you can't help personally, but have former SQ members on your flists, maybe you could help spread the word by re-posting this on your own journal?

ETA: the archive is up again, which thrills me, but I'm sure they could still use some help.

The reveals have been posted by   ownficfest   and I came up short on most of my guesses.  I was so absolutely convinced of them that even when others chose otherwise (and correctly) I was convinced I was correct. 

You can find the link to the list of stories and their authors here: community.livejournal.com/ownficfest/25123.html#cutid1
Writers from my f-list contributed some of my favorite work.  

miss_morland  wrote The Prisoner's Remorse and amazing psychlogical chess game between Remus and an imprisoned Grindelwald.  I found the story affecting enough that I had a difficult time commenting on it.  It was very good.

lyras  wrote TheThe Detectives at Number Twelve, a charming story of post-war house-elves.  The story features a post-war Winky that seemed both realistic and redeeming, and a wonderful OC house-elf who is inspired by Philip Marlowe.  A very different and welcome take on house-elves that is a pleasurable read and inspired me to think about identity and self.  

chimbomba  wrote The Magical Amount  a moment from the early years of Rita Skeeters career when she had to feature Gilderoy Lockhart.  The depiction of Skeeter is perfect and almost sympathetic.  I found her a joy to read.

and  iulia_linnea  wrote A Brief Exercise in Self-occlumency a sympathetic portrait of Snape as he makes a shocking and unwelcome discovery.  The incident leading up to this discovery struck me as entirely plausible.

Mr. Potter Lives for a Day, and A Selection of Souls are two stories with a creative and unusual vision.  This fest was created for authors to produce the stories they wanted to see written, not a fest designer or gift requestor.  Most of the stories were special pieces dear to the heart of the author.  The story written by the fests creator and only mod kennahijja  As Human as to Breathe was so good it justified the existence of the entire fest.  If you read nothing else written for ownficfest read this.  Do not read the comments until you have finished the story.

My own contribution, Returned into Sand, will be published here in a few days after I've gone over it one more time.  I was working on the story while my husband was ill, and I lost a lot of time that should have been devoted to it.  It was very quickly beta'd by my daughter. After I posted it I could see I missed some errors which is always upsetting.

I've been thinking about it because I made some decisions while writing it that I have been reconsidering.  The story felt so unwieldy that I cut out a third of the story, leaving some sections out and rewriting others as events refered to by characters in dialog.  Now I'm wondering if the cuts were the correct choice.  Some I know were; they were taking the story in directions away from its main point and theme.  I think short stories need to be tight.  Those sections will probably be rewritten as ficlets and published later. Others I'm not so sure about and wonder if they would have been better as narrative.  (If you are curious these includes the begining section where Alice says she wants to eat a Kneazle, the section where the girls talk about why people choose not to be a ghost with the ghosts and the section where Neville discusses the funeral with gran and Enid.)

I'm mulling over this because I want to decide which way of approaching things makes a better story.  I feel including the parts as narrative would have made the story richer but less tight and focused.

Any way I'm going to leave the story as it is, only corrected one more time.  I think I want to tighten the first few paragraphs they seemed weak.

Title: Field Research
Author: Vegablack62
Characters: Nevile, various OC's
Word Count: 300+
Rating: G
Summary:  Neville overhears an interesting critique of his actions while doing research abroad.
Author's notes:  This is another drabble salvaged from Sugar Quill.  Part of a series focusing on Neville's life as a plant explorer. You can find the first installment here: http://vegablack62.livejournal.com/83271.html#cutid1

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I've been spammy McSpamerson the last few days.  It's not because I'm pulling my hair out over my canon-fest fic. Oh no.

First everyone should check out the stories at ownficfestbefore the reveals tomorrow.  There are some incredible gen stories posted there. Many written by members of my flist and some by accomplished writers I respect who just don't happen to have friended me. 
Check out the gift fic pages.  They are listed in the comments section.  shiikihas written an excellent  Cecillia meets Merope story that is listed as a comment in the gifts for lareinenoire section.  (The nature of the fest meant that pitch-hitters weren't possible. Many writers went giftless.)  kennahijjaby the way did a wonderful job as mod in a very difficult fest..

Now I can encourage others to guess my story without having to be a jerk about it. They have a page for readers to guess the author that can be found here:  community.livejournal.com/ownficfest/22412.html#cutid1  


(I may wait to publish my story here at LJ because I think it needs more betaing.  There are weaknesses that my poor beta had no time to address because I was so past the deadline.  I wrote it during my husband's illness and it spent a lot of time languishing. I have a lot of out takes that I think I will publish as ficlets in the future.  I had to edit out more than half the story because I had scenes that meandered in directions away from the point.  They were making it too unwieldy in the time I had to write.  I liked them though.)

Read!  The work is exceptional, especially As Human as to Breathe. In addition to my own story you can find work by  lyras  chimbomba</div>  kellychambliss  jtavkennahijja </div>and lareinenoire
ETA: I edited this because incredible seems to be the only adjective I can use this morning.

Title: If You Don't Watch Out
Author: Vegablack62
Characters: Ragnok, Griphook, Kingsley, Harry Potter, Bill Weasley
Rating: G
Word Count: 296
Summary: The goblins have come for their sword.
Author's Note: Yet another Sugar Quill drabble. This is the second part of Griphook's return. Part one can be found here: vegablack62.livejournal.com/84710.html#cutid1

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Title: The Goblins Will Get You
Author: Vegablack62
Characters: Kingsley, Bill Weasley, Ragnok, Griphook
Word Count: 342
Rating: G
Summary: The Goblins have come for their sword.
Authors Notes: Another Sugar Quill drabble I've rescued and re-edited. Part one of Griphook's return. You can find the second part here: http://vegablack62.livejournal.com/84768.html#cutid1

( They came for the sword )

They are releasing the names and pictures of the victims of yesterday's shooting. They are the age of my kids or younger.  Both my sons have a lot of friends who are serving or have served in Iraq.  My close friend's son a boy I've known since he was nine  is waiting to be deployed.  This could have been any of them. 

The fact that the alleged shooter was a psychiatrist, a doctor, who could have been called upon to care for his victims made the killings worse in my eyes.  He could have shot his own patients.  He was familiar with the location and how to create the most carnage.  This is a abomination of the role he should have had.

The woman who shot him was a police officer who had formerly served in the military.  Her husband is a serviceman.  She was hit in the hands and thighs. 

I' often behind the times. Some of you may have already heard of this statement by Pat Boone:

"In time, it seems to happen to all older houses, no matter how well tended they may be.

All manner of parasites, vermin, roaches, rats, worms and termites find their way into the building. Long before they're detected, they infiltrate the walls, the floors, the roofs – and then chew their way into the structure, the supporting beams and the very foundation of the house itself. Silently, surreptitiously, whole communities of invaders make places for themselves, hidden but thriving, totally unknown by the homeowner.... (He goes on in this vein getting more and more disgusting.)

What can be done, when you learn that your house has already been invaded?

Well, the tried and true remedy is tenting.

Experts come in, actually envelope the whole dwelling in a giant tent – and send a very powerful fumigant, lethal to the varmints and unwelcome creatures, into every nook and cranny of the house. Done thoroughly, every last destructive insect or rodent is sent to varmint hell – and in a day or two, the grand house is habitable again.

I believe – figuratively, but in a very real way – we need to tent the White House! "

Where does this guy get off talking like this?  What responsible person talks about people this way?  I would think this was the babbling of a has-been nut job but he's the spokesman for an orgainization, (the Sixty Plus Association)  that some friends of my parents asked them to join.  I feel like my parents have been touched by lunatic extremists. My parents mentioned it to me and then I saw it talked about on a blog. I looked it up and was shocked. People who talk about gassing other people are scary and dangerous even if it is a joke especially in a country where there have been so many Presidential assasination attemtps let alone actual killings.

For reasons only he can explain, the current occupant has purposely brought a whole flock of social and political voracious varmints with him into our House. He doesn't own it; he hasn't even rented it; we the people have simply given him the keys and invited him to live there for four years, making it convenient to serve us better, to carry out our expressed wishes for our country.

Giving him the keys and inviting him in is what is called an election which he won, because many Americans wanted him in the white house.  If Pat Boone or whoever can't accept that then they can't accept democracy.

The DVD Commentary Meme:
Pick a paragraph (or any passage less than 500 words) from any fanfic I've written, and comment to this post with that selection. I will then give you a DVD commentary on that snippet: what I was thinking when I wrote it, why I wrote it in the first place, what's going on in the character's heads, why I chose certain words, what this moment means in the context of the rest of the fic, lots of awful puns, and anything else that you'd expect to find on a DVD commentary track.


You can find all my stories by hitting one of my character tags.  My most polished stories are linked at the side of my journal.

I hate the warning Dubcon.  I don't mean I hate stories that explore rape issues; I mean I hate the existence of the category of Dubcon.  Yesterday I read an M rated story about Draco's Imperius of Rosmerta.  He realizing that he has total control over her and feeling less experienced than he wants to be, decides to take advantage of the moment by having sex with her.  The story was not a piece of pornagraphy nor was it full of squicks.  It was a serious attempt to think about Imperius and how it might tempt a teenage boy.  The sex is actually quite unsatisfying for him and the story ends with him feeling some horror at himself.  Rosmerta responded as he says like a corpse and he called himself a rapist. 

The author labeled it Dubcon.  Why????  No reader could believe that Rosmerta had  given any kind of consent or that she had enjoyed it.  The author makes that very clear.  She even has the character call himself a rapist.  The warning shocked me.  Surely the author didn't want us to think, "Oh no, Draco you're not really a rapist.  This wasn't rape; it was "rape"."

Even if the author had conceived the experience of Imperius in such a way that Rosmerta could have enjoyed or responded to the sex it still would have been rape because the character had no ability to refuse.   Surely it is obvious that Rosmerta's consent was non-existent.

I don't think the problem is mislabeling.  The label itself seems to exist in a mindset that says if someone hasn't expressly refused consent than they have sort of consented.  Its a backward and cruel idea. 

I don't often read stories labeled dubcon or noncon I will admit, so I'm probably unqualified to make a judgement but to me  the existence of this label just perpetuates the dangerous rape and "rape" divide and I don't understand why fandom women want to buy into that.

The House of Representatives is preparing to vote on healthcare reform on Friday.  If you want to make your opinion known call your representative now.  You can find him or her here advocacy.barackobama.com/healthcare/campaigns/13/call_scripts/36/call_sessions/new.

This site is provided by supporters of Barrack Obama and the health care bill.  Obviously those who oppose both can use the site to call their congressman and register their own opinion.  All are free to give an opinion whomever provides them with a link to their Congressman.
For the record, I've called Congressman Reichert in support of healthcare reform.  I wish the bill went farther than it does.

The election may be over but action can still be taken.