paulamcg

At the Rare Pair Shorts Winter Exchange I received this fabulously beautiful picture:
Winter Love Land (Ginny/Luna, G) by

digthewriter.

I was assigned

articcat621's pairings and prompts and ventured to draw
Sweet, Warm Love (Hermione/Charlie, T).

And at

hoggywartyxmas I, in turn, received this sweet, delightful story – a precious gift for Professor Lupin, too:
Warming Up By The Fire (Remus/Sirius, T) by

articcat621

After more than a full month's break, I just have to make an entry – so as to share a gorgeous gift ficlet I've received!

Good Morning Starshine by

torino10154 (Luna, G, Gen, 200 words)

Go and read it on DW, or on AO3, where you can also see my more extensive squee.

In September I continued to enjoy reading and discussing brilliant, unusual stories (mainly) by

eldritcher (and receiving kind, inspiring feedback on my old stories). I posted no fic at all, only some pencil drawings , after I'd taken a page from mywitch's James's sketchbook :) and tried to learn to draw portraits.

Today I've submitted a pinch hit for Wolfstar Games. That fic was written in August, but as the deadline is only on the 24th of October, I didn't even ask for beta until a week ago. Because I usually want to keep my fest fics short, I often wish fests had tighter schedules.

However, I've been worried about both

snapecase and

hoggywartyxmas, partly because they are famous for excellently-written stories. To my surprise and relief, I've already managed to complete a fic for the former event, and even to polish it so carefully that I could soon send it for beta, but I still haven't got any proper ideas on the basis of my Hoggywarty assignment.

hp_halloween welcomes exact double drabbles based on the requests also from anyone who hasn't signed up. I don't know if I'll come up with more than the single gift I've offered to write. Today I've sent my 200 words to be checked by

justtoarguewithyou.

I've just heard that self prompts, too, are accepted at Sirius Black Fest. If I don't focus fully on worrying about Hoggywarty, it's still possible that I'll compose a more or less sirius piece and sign up at the end of this month, perhaps only a day before the deadline. There are a couple of other fests I can consider.... Oh, tomorrow's the last day for claiming a prompt at RS Fireside Tales. At

hprarepairfest the claiming is open until the 5th of December.

I'll be looking forward to seeing what you, my DW friends, among others, write about Halloween (or autumn or spooky things), Snape, Hoggywarty characters, and rare pairs. I'm not going to see many of you at any Wolfstar fest, am I?

In July I spent more time on reading and discussing fic than on writing new stories. While I saw a wonderful variety of fanworks and other posts when modding at the Sunshine Challenge, almost all my own Sunshine posts were self-recs of old fics, and in between those entries I posted only one small Molly/Amelia fic. After sharing also two watercolours, I realised that I'd need a lot of practice before attempting portraits (of humans).

Following some advice for beginners, I painted first a still life and then a portrait of a critter.

Now I've posted the latter watercolour on AO3, here: Young Wormtail.

Besides, I've remembered that a fic I completed in early July is no longer anonymous and can be shared here.

Title: Doing Better
Author: paulamcg
Pairing: Sirius/Remus, Sirius & James, minor Sirius/James
Summary: Out on an Order mission with James in December 1979, Sirius can't help worrying more and more that his Moony needs him back as soon as possible.
Word Count: 5800
Rating: R
Notes: Written for the 2021 RS Fixit Fest. Thank you for the beta, justtoarguewithyou! Any remaining and new mistakes - as well as all the shortcomings in Fixing anything and in the happiness of the ending - are totally my fault.

Read here on AO3
or right here:
( come out and act )

If you wouldn't mind a prompt for creating something with at least one Weasley as a main character, come and check out the on-going comment fest on Livejournal and on Dreamwidth (and all the different prompts on each journal).

I've first made an attempt at fanart: The Twins in a Storm.

And now I've tried second-person narration in just a gentle little story:

Title: Close to You
Author: paulamcg
Pairing: Molly Weasley/Amelia Bones, Molly Weasley/Arthur Weasley
Summary: It's the first of September 1989. Molly can finally see Fred and George, too, off at King's Cross, and she's got a ticket to a concert.
Word Count: 950
Rating: G
Notes: Written for the prompt first time at

weasleyjumpers, this can be read separately, of course. However, this also follows my Amelia-pov fics Festive Mood and New Joys.

Read here on AO3

or right here:
( recognise them as yours )

For the fourth prompt, finally, I've made something new to be posted on AO3. I was inspired by the bonus prompt, Typhon and particularly by a painting of Zeus aiming his thunderbolt at a winged and snake-footed Typhon.

My bright watercolour version of the duelling scene is HP & Greek Mythology crossover: Harry Aiming at a Monster. :) (That link is to AO3.)

Femmefest is still posting anonymous works (two of them written by me) on AO3, DW and LJ. At

hphet's Mini Fest self-posting continues, also on LJ, here.

I'll try to read all the fics and post comments, at least at the latter fest, which is small. And now I'm posting here my het fic, which I've already mentioned:

Title: Human Company
Author: paulamcg
Prompt: He teaches her how to dance.
Pairing: Sirius Black/Arabella Figg
Rating: G
Summary: In spring 1996, Mr Tibbles accompanies his mistress Arabella Doreen Figg on an Order duty in 12 Grimmauld Place and witnesses a romantic scene.
Word Count: 1490
Warning(s)/Contains: Non-human outsider's POV, unrequited het, references to a slash pairing.
Author's Note: Thank you for the prompt,

maraudersaffair! As one of the suggested pairings was Sirius/Anyone, I couldn't resist choosing... no, not the most improbable character, but the most probable one to make a het pairing work for the Sirius I'd written before. I hope this is acceptable for a het fest. Thank you for the excellent beta work, Raquel! Thank you so much for running this fest,

themightyflynn!
Disclaimer: Harry Potter characters are the property of J.K. Rowling and Bloomsbury/Scholastic. No profit is being made, and no copyright infringement is intended.

Read on AO3, or in the community on DW or on LJ,
or right here:
( dog people )

There's also a watercolour illustration here on AO3 to prove that I've taken this het project siriusly enough.

This is my 100th work on AO3. Yes! Yay! I've got one hundred works on AO3, after posting three today. The other two are Human Company (Sirius/Arabella) for

hphet's Minifest, and To Go Waltzing, a little watercolour illustration for that fic. I'm not posting those two on my journals yet, because the fic appears in the community both on DW and LJ today.

This one's my fourth piece of fic for Sapphic Spring. And now I'm not saying only, after I've noticed here that about one third of the HP fics in the event so far are by me. That's why I also want to urge you my fellow HP (and other) writers to come and fill prompts with your femslash work, and to leave more prompts. At least I have liked the wordcount requirements, and enjoyed editing out unnecessary words while polishing fic without beta for a change, as I've preferred aiming at exactly 100 or 250 words. There are a lot of Any: Any/Any – prompts, and I've decided to always leave one such prompt, one HP: Any/Any - prompt, and one with a specific (and rare) HP pairing. Here's another rarepair fic, and this time the pairing wasn't my idea, but first gripped me in the prompt Harry Potter: Angelina/Cho – midnight flying.

Title: Like Her?
Author: paulamcg
Pairing: Cho/Angelina
Summary: The night in May 1996 right after Ravenclaw has been beaten by Gryffindor in Quidditch, both Cho and Angelina have reasons to stay awake and feel like flying.
Word Count: 250
Rating: G

Read on AO3
or right here: ( whoop )

The Marauders Fest will finish posting tomorrow. My contribution is

Title: Love Dares Us to Dance
Artist:

paulamcg
Pairings and characters: Remus/Sirius, James/Lily, Peter
Rating: G
Medium: coloured pencils
Summary: Three snapshots from the (first) Marauder wedding.
Notes: My prompt at the Marauders Fest was Dancing at the wedding.

See it here at AO3

hp_crossgenfest has posted the master list with reveals, and now it's time for me to take the blame for two humble pictures:

A Portrait with Someone New (Luna Lovegood/Remus Lupin) and

One Bright Day (Amelia Bones/Nymphadora Tonks)

These are my very first pieces of fanart (which I managed not to blurt out in my artist's comments on AO3), apart from one quick sketch, which I made and posted on a whim for the Sunshine Challenge – and which made me think of this possibility when I realised I wouldn't finish (or start) a cross-gen fic in time.

These two age-difference pairings have meant a lot to me – the latter since March, the former since 2009. I was eager to share something new about at least one of them at the fest. Still absorbed in writing two other fics too slowly, I asked to change my Remus/Luna claim into an art claim. When there was a request for more femslash, I got ever more reckless and, after finishing the pencil sketch just in time, claimed another self-prompt.

I've never before tried to make fanart, and I haven't wanted my readers to see in pictures how I imagine the characters to look like. Well, this is hardly exactly like I imagine them, and I trust that these portraits won't stop anyone from seeing the characters in any way they like. In these works the titles are the parts I'm most satisfied with.

Both pictures fit in my ficverse. One Bright Day could be an illustration for Sharing Breaths, and A Portrait with Someone New could be a (so far) missing scene from my stories of Remus's life. (Before drawing the picture, I'd written Challenges Like These about the beginning of Remus and Luna's romantic friendship in 1993, and A Work of an Advanced Artist, set about five years after its end, in 2015, and a week ago I wrote Bearing Fruit, set in 2002.

I've barely posted comments at the fest, because I was afraid I'd spoil the anonymity if I showed myself around but failed to comment on the fanart which should have interested me because of the pairings. Silly of me! I must have been self-conscious, having submitted fanart instead of fic.

What counts is that I've managed to contribute some fanwork to the fabulous fest, and I can contribute some comments now after the reveals. And trying something new and the kind reception have made my summer. Our mod

gracerene is incredible, and the participants are an amazing crowd.

Prompt 1: Red
Red is a strong color that is associated with a variety of things including: courage, power, glory, love, passion, inner strength, romance, sensuality, defiance, tenacity, violence, life, pleasure, fire, and revolution.

This challenge has made me do something outside my comfort zone. I've never before posted a picture on DW. (EDIT Or on AO3, where I've managed to get this a day later./EDIT)

And I've never shared (or made) a piece of fanart. This is just a sketch based on a scene I've been composing when rewriting an old fic about Remus Lupin in Paris in 1984. My Remus is an artist, and just yesterday I wrote about him painting with red, wearing this red jumper borrowed from a lover.

A scruffy young Remus in a borrowed red jumper, starting to paint with red watercolour