paulamcg

Reveals – and glorious winners and amazing banners – are up at firewhiskeyfic.


Check out all the masterpieces, most of which are hugely inspired by Hagrid! Once again I resorted to an animal's perspective and to dealing with a favourite character's situation in the PoA year.

Title: Not Fish But
Author: paulamcg
Characters: Fang and a stray
Prompts used: All the prompts: Hagrid, Forbidden Forest, Stripped Bare, Cuddling by the Fire, Ice and Snow, and “Guests, like fish, begin to smell after three days.”
Summary: In February 1994, Fang decides to venture into the woods, if only to escape a fishy smell and to encounter another.
Rating: G or M
Word count: 950
Author's Notes (if any): This was written for Not-So-Dry January Edition of firewhiskeyfic. The original version can be read here in the DW community – together with the wonderful feedback from generously-commenting fellow participants.

The cleaned-up version is here on AO3
as well as right here:
( a rare joy )

Thanks to hoggywartyxmas and snapecase, I've succeeded in writing two more fics after the Halloween double drabbles. I can't say anything about those fics, as they will be posted in the Livejournal communities anonymously – one in December or January, the other in January or February. This means also that my current word count for 2022 on AO3 will probably remain the final one for this year: only 41,9K (and that includes some fics I wrote in late 2021). Unless I finally complete the fic which didn't become a treat for last spring's Femmefest (and in which Cho and Luna fly to Crete in May 2002), or get motivated to craft and share a drabble for neville100, which inspired me back in autumn 2020, or...

In any case, I'm glad I signed up for those two LJ events, and now I'm looking forward to the party at Hoggywarty first. And then the first one of two upcoming events at firewhiskeyfic, the Open Bar on New Year's Eve!

This year I decided not to sign up for hp_halloween. To be honest, doing all that offering and requesting now that the fest is on AO3 looks like so much work, and I know I won't be sad when there's no gift fic written for me. I've always enjoyed reading a lot of double drabbes, giving a chance to any character, any pairing, any writer.

You can find all the 47 new Halloweeny/spooky/autumny 200-word works in this AO3 collection.

Here's one of the two treats I wrote this time:

Title: Eyes Wide and Wise
Author: paulamcg
Pairing: Ginny/Luna, pre-femslash, or rather friendship
Summary: In October 1993 Ginny is haunted by the previous year's horrors. Luna can see it and knows what can be soothing.
Word Count: 200
Rating: G
Notes: This was written for DandelionConstellation at HP Halloween.

Read here on AO3,
or right here:
( in her nightmare )

Reveals are up at firewhiskeyfic.


Check out all the fabulously drunken masterpieces! I can't help feeling proud and not just glad to say that several of them feature my eternal OTC Remus – after back when when I first participated in these shenanigans in early 2020, I was the only one writing about him. Remus is certainly happier in some of those other fics than in mine. I have once again shared an odd little G-rated piece, which is probably gen, altough it's possible to interpret some Crookshanks/Sirius and Aberforth/Remus as well as Remus/Sirius in it.

Title: Some Alone Time
Author: paulamcg
Characters: Crookshanks, Sirius, Aberforth, Remus
Prompts used: Aberforth Dumbledore, Hog's Head, Marathon, Insomnia, Forced Proximity, One Too Many (Not used: Madam Rosmerta)
Summary: Crookshanks slinks into the night and feels he must stay in Hogsmeade so as to observe at least one of the publicans.
Rating: G
Word count: Around 500
Author's Notes (if any): An anomalous animal's pov

This was written for the It's 5 o'clock Somewhere edition of firewhiskeyfic. The original version can be read here in the DW community – together with the kind comments from fellow participants. (Firewhiskey really is the best chance for me to get feeback on my fic, and I'll enjoy writing my thank-you notes. And posting more comments finally.) This time there were barely any hilarious typos (in my humble contribution, I mean) to be fixed, and I haven't tried to fix the (perhaps not merely) drunken feature of my storytelling that it suddenly just – stops.

The final version is here on AO3
as well as right here:
( A tom like me )

Signups for July 2022 Swap on concrit_x are closing today. I made up my mind only a moment ago, having hesitated mainly because I haven't seen any participant mention my single fandom. It would be lovely if anyone of you – HP writer or anyone else who reads my posts – hurried to sign up!

Here's the info post.
Here's the sign-up post.

( This is where I've been and what I've been up to. )

This is the new, humble chaptered fic:

Is It True He's Mad? (here on AO3)

Summary: As if someone had lit a fire ... and the Dementors couldn't destroy it.

So far it's 15 chapters and only 750 words, rated G, and gen (Wolfstar only subtly).

Here's another chance to check out all the anonymous entries at a lovely little Harry Potter fest. HP Bun in the Oven has posted the pregnancy-themed fest entries on DW and on LJ.

EDITED on March 29. The anonymous master list is here on DW and here on LJ.

I'm glad I succeeded in writing something for the fest again – something very different from my first pregnancy fic, The Wonder of Bearing, in which I perhaps went too far, resorting to Snorkack magic so as to let a character experience childbirth, too. :D

The 200-word drabbles at HP Sweethearts 2022 were revealed yesterday. In this year's collection there are 104 romantic double drabbles. It looks like several participants wrote treats in addition to taking care of their assignment in the exchange. And some people posted a lot of treats. I hadn't signed up, but I wrote two treats, and followed the instructions to comment on a DW post, mentioning some favourite pairings. Here's the sweet surprise treat I got:

Bundiums to Blankets (Minerva/Poppy, G) by RoemaencePartnaerr

firewhiskeyfic is happening tonight! After recovering from that, I'll perhaps manage to write at least one treat for HP Sweethearts, which takes place on AO3. You can find the requests here, and the deadline is the 4th of February. In case 200 words feels like too much, there's also Three Sentence Ficathon. So much fun to help me not write too early about fifty-plus characters for Salt and Pepper Fest at hp_goldenage, where claiming is open until the deadline, mid-February.

(There's no risk I'll start anything for Remus Lupin Fest yet. But I have a draft for Fireside Tales.)

Oh, prompting continues at hp_bunintheoven until the 27th. So far almost all the prompts have been posted in the community on LJ, hp_bunintheoven, here.

The holiday fests are here. As Sirius seems to be able to enjoy the ride, I trust each of us will find a way to do it, too. :)




Today is the last day for prompting at Mini Fest. The signing up is open and all the prompts from previous years, too, are available, and the deadline is the 20th of December.

Claiming (here) at hprarepairfest closes today, and I should finally make up my mind and write more than a few sentences based on one of the prompts. The deadline is in five days, after all! There are a lot of prompts still available, and unless you are an awfully slow writer like me, it can be fun for you to grab one now.

You won't be surprised to hear that I find all those fests (like adventdrabbles) with daily prompts overwhelming. But perhaps I'll ask for prompts at Festive Fun Fest at rarepair_shorts. Check out the sticky post in the community and see what a low-pressure fest that one is!

I am... heading for a time of quiet (to quote Paul Simon in Quiet) and looking forward to the party at hoggywartyxmas (and to the posting at snapecase, but that's been rescheduled to start only on the 9th of January). Not thinking about fics for next year's fests yet (not even about a spooky Renus/Sirius thing that I should come up with for Fireside Tales by the end of January).

I'd like to remind you all of the fabulous Salt and Pepper Fest at hp_goldenage. The deadline is only the 15th of February. At Remus Lupin Fest the deadline is even later, but the signing up closes on the 13th of December, and I've hurried to claim a prompt because there's no self-prompt option.