12in2010 update: out of balance, but there

This will regularly be a monthly thing but I didn't do one for Jan, so Jan and Feb will be combined.

So far I've completed 4 fics, which is good, but only one of them was a new idea, so I'm off by one for the other part of my challenge (one WIP a month). I'm not too concerned about that because I still have time and I have two projects that are going to require a good amount of new stories so even if I only finish half of them each year, I'll have more than fulfilled the requirements.

Two of the fics featured women, so that's a third of my goal done. Even if I surpass it, which I will, that doesn't mean I'm going to stop having stories feature women or poc.

Two of the fics haven't been posted anywhere yet because they are for challenges that I have to complete other things for, but they are done so they totally count.

Question: To those who have multiple accounts on LJ, DW, and A03, do you guys post to all of your journals or only LJ and one other?

Reading in 2010: American on Purpose, Geektastic, and Street Love

Last week I wrapped up three books to bring my total to 7/50; I'm still behind but I'm less behind than I was so I'm slightly satisfied.

5/50 was American on Purpose by Craig Ferguson. Gracious, witty, and humorous is how I'd describe Ferguson. He exposes parts of his past without being hurtful towards other and without making it all feel like too much. He doesn't draw away from his misdeeds and calling his past actions out as selfish or ill thought out, but he's also unapologetic about it. Yet he is kinds towards others; he changed the names of the people who were highlighted for less than great things in his autobiography. It's unfortunate that I can't stay up late enough to catch his show.

6/50 was Geektastic a collection of short stories by various YA Authors about different parts of geek culture. I really enjoyed the glimpses of lifestyles I'm less familiar with like LARPing, D&D, Cons, and the mention of fanfiction wasn't too shabby either ;) Each of the characters in the stories felt like real people (of course some stories were stronger than others) and there wasn't one I just wanted to rush through. I even went out and bought a David Levithan book after reading his story and now A Great and Terrible Beauty has moved up my TBR list.

7/50 Street Love by Walter Dean Myers. I mostly picked this book because it was short and focused on minorities in an urban setting, something I don't read much of; also Myers is an award winning novelist so I was interested in what he would do. This book is mostly written in free form poetry and it's kind of jarring, but that's more a personal thing. The main characters' sections both felt too similar and bordering on melodramatic and I preferred the side characters' parts more. It did end at a good place, though I do wonder what Damien and Junice's future would be.

For prosperity: Street Love

'...sometimes words/Danced instead of talked/They bowed and touched/And moved away/Making spaces in the air/Between them/It was hard to know what/[they] were talking about/Unless you could read the shape/of the air between/Them.'

--Walter Dean Myers