nicholas_lucien

Snowflake Challenge #9 Your Favorite Trope(s)

Sun, 25 Jan 2026 04:04:33 GMT

Ninth challenge is to talk about my favorite tropes. snowflake_challenge
So I guess I'll talk about my favorite tropes or themes to write (since I will read almost any type of story).

Right now, songfics are a favorite to write. Not a fan of just posting lyrics or having the characters sing them (not a fan of musicals)/play on the radio, apparently (after looking this up) I like "lyrics as narrative," with the plot of the story following the lyrics. Its just fun to get it to fit.

I also like constrained writing, where you put specific rules or limits on the story. I've done two of these - one was following several characters across one night doing thier life and interacting and talking with each other with a Rashomon effect but the limitation was no spoken dialogue, and the other story was how one character thought of another and the story was an acrostic one with the letter of each paragraph spelling out the character's name. Also still trying to do the 100 word drabble, but haven't gotten there yet.

Enemies to lovers trope come up a lot in my main fandom since, cannon-wise, the two characters are enemies when we first see them.

I also really like patching up canon gaps, inconsistencies, plot holes, that sort of thing, whatever that is called. I don't fix it with like a dream sequence or ammesia, or hand-waving like that, but logical and canon-compliant fixes. Those can be harder to do but that's what makes it more fun.

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Snowflake Challenge #8 Talk about your creative process

Sun, 25 Jan 2026 02:20:40 GMT

Eighth challenge is to talk about my creative process. snowflake_challenge
Well, my writing usually begins with a single thing - could be a single prompt, a line from a quote, a single question, an item, a single half-remembered idea from a dream, etc. I'll write it down on a piece of paper. I prefer unines paper for this, so that I can draw on it, make other notes on it, draw lines connecting ideas, etc. I'll let the story rumminate, fleshing out more ideas or half-conversations characters will have, the various scenes.

Once I have the genral idea and how the story will flow and end, I delve into the details. If it will be at a particular location I look up that location. My main fandom crosses centuries, so not only do you need info about the place you also need to know what it looked like in the time period. This is the reserch part and I love research. The internet has made this part so much easier and I don't have to go anywhere except to where my computer or phone is. I can spend weeks or months on the reserach part (if I have that kind of time). Once, for a story where two characters were going to a concert hall, I spent 2 weeks looking up just if the floor the characters would be walking on was hardwood or carpeted. The site had been renovated after my story took place so I had to seach for images patrons had taken of the place and scour if any of those showed the floor. I mean, who takes pics of the floor of places? It was long. I also looked up exactly what was removated and what was replaced. Just so I could meantion in one sentence. In case you were wondering, it was carpeted. I've also purchased items that the characters would be touching and using just so I can have that tactile information. I currently have the complete dashboads of a 1961 and 1962 Cadillac next to my desk becuase my character drives a Cadillac. I can get quite obsessed sometimes, but this is how I relax!

After I have enough details and what I want the characters to do, then they take over. I've often heard, when asked whay characters did a particular thing, authors will say its what they wanted to do. And its true. Mentally, I act the story out, see how the chartacters act, hear thier lines and if that's how they would sound. Sometimes scenes change, what the charaters are doing changes becuase the original way didn't work. One time I wanted my character to be a beatnick in the 60's, but it just wasn't working. Around the same location there was notorius rare book thefts going on, so I chaged my character to be partly in that world, and it made the story better.

Whatever started the story will be in there. If it was an item, it will be there somewhere; if a quote, then its concept will be acted out; if a song, then the song will dictate the flow and action of all the scenes.

I also love to edit. probably 25% of my time is spent reserarching and writing, then the reminind time editing and reconfirming details. I love to edit! One of my favorite quotes is "write without fear, edit without mercy." I've written professionally and had to be my own editor/proof-reader so I can be quite brutal. But I think the story is better afterwards. I tend to not volunteer too much to help beta- or alpha-read, precisely for that reason as others don't seem to like the results too much.

The very last part to be created will be the title (unless its a songfic, in which case the title is the title of the song, so I know that from the start). Picking the title is the hardest part for me and litterally can spend hours just staring at the entry for AO3 trying to pick a title. But I'll eventually put something there and then the story is done.

Well, that's my process. I've typed this out as fast as I can becuase the snowstorm has just arrived.

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Snowflake Challenge #6 Top 10

Thu, 15 Jan 2026 02:07:10 GMT

Sixth challenge is Top 10. snowflake_challenge
I'm going to post my top 10 most played songs on iTunes.

1. Jamie N Commons' Glory. Makes sense - its a great song and the song I used in my first posted songfic, so I listened to it alot.

2. David Kushner's Daylight. Also a great song and the song I used in my last songfic for the FKFicFest. Had wanted songfics as a prompt but it never got picked, so I decided to do one anyway.

3. Mountain's Mississippi Queen. It's great!

4. Imagine Dragon's Radioactive. First song of their's I had ever heard and immedaitely bought all thier albums. I eventally want to do songfics for all thier songs, so I listen to them often.

5. Ghostland Observatory's Sad Sad City. Great piece.

6. Frankie Lane's Forest Flower. I liked the piece and got interested becase I was getting interested at the time in resonator guitars and had one. I would play maybe 1 piece on it, but I like the sound. I listen to this continuoisly at work for a week once (that's over 8 hours straight each day) so that's why its always in my top 10.

7. Cee Lo Green's Kung Fu Fighting. I like the song but not that much, but I think it played a day before I realized my ipod was not turned off so it made it to the top played list.

8. Imagine Dragon's Demons. Again, love the band and want to write songfics on these.

9. Disturbed's The Vengeful One. Again - songfic.

10. Disturbed's The Sound of Silence. This is the song that first introduced me to the band and I've been trying to get a songfic to form out of this for a while.

So that's my top 10. I figured other songs would have made it, but apparently I haven't listened to them enough!

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2024 and 2025 - year review - writing fanfic

Mon, 05 Jan 2026 05:04:05 GMT

Well, been rather busy that I didn't write a review for 2024 or 2025 yet, so going to do both now! Work has been busy, and then a move I helped coordinate (that means did most of) and then holiday so it's been a wild ride lately. But at least this year I am not sick over the holiday so that's a nice change.

For Forever Knight, I was able to pick up a couple more fanzines. Bid on a few more items but didn't win the auctions.

I picked up a new fandom to follow - The Magicians. Intersting show, and I was late coming to it (not too long ago I finally got Netflix and this came as a recommendation to watch. And then Netflix dropped it). I'll be honest - I hadn't heard of the show before nor read the books its based on (I haven't owned a TV since 2010 and only in the last few years have gotten into streaming services and started to catch up on shows and movies. I usually don't say this - but the show is so much better than the books. Even then, the main character is just not interesting (though I have since learned you either love him or hate him, there is no middle ground), but some of the suporting characters are more interesting and their arcs develop quite a bit so that's nice. And, different from my early experience with Forever Knight in trying to aquire props or autographs, etc, even years later you can still get props and costumes from this show. So I've been a bit busy doing that. My plan is to never retire so I can pay off this bill!

Anyway, on to the fanfics!

Gifts? Yeah, no.

Prompted stories!

I never want to miss participating in the FKFicFest, but I'm usually swamped lately, so for 2024 and 2025 I was able to write a very short story. For 2024 I wrote Listen to that Engine Purr to the prompt of 'unexpected visitor'. Partly a reference to the Caddy and partially to Sydney, I gave my idea of how Nat got her cat. Its set early in thier relationship before Nick took his job as a Detective and he and Nat are still getting to know each other.  For 2025 I wrote Daylight. I'm definately getting into songfics and this particular song had been bouncing around for a little bit and I wanted to get it out. Writing to the prompt 'I'm going to tell you something you don't want to hear' was a perfect pairing. Its set over multiple centuries, showing how Nick is changing and also not changing as much as he thinks. Definately something he doesn't want to hear.

For The Magicians, there was thier Magicians Fanworks Extravaganza, which had prompts over a few weeks or months and pretty open for however you wanted to take the story. Both stories fit under the 'returning after an absence' prompt. As with my Forever Knight stoies, I love figuring out or closing up plotholes or inconsistencies in canon. Both stories do this. The Last Goodbye gives the two characters, Quentin and Eliot, a chance to say a goodbye they didn't get on screen. Eliot had been possed and then freeded, and immedately Quentin had to leave to dispose of the evil entities they had removed and he died in the process. Eliot would then wake up but his love was gone. Eliot might not remember this moment, but at least Quentin would have gotten his last meeting before the end. To Quentin Coldwater, Before He Went to the Seam also dealt with the characters of Eliot and Quentin, this time Eliot did not get his closure but wrote a letter he could not send. Quentin was dead, and a magic stamp on the letter would deliver the message to the past, but then it might alter the future and that could not be permitted. But Eliot sent the letter in the end. Where did it turn up? That's what so many have tried to explain. For me, I thougt the letter, assuming its a letter explaining his love for Quentin he could never say out loud, would go to an alternative timeline where these two had built a life of love and a family. It was never explained how that relationship, which they had danced around for a while, finally was kicked off, but I thought it might be becuase Quentin recieved this letter. And since it was an alternative timeline and not the main one, it would not affect any future event. So a nice bit of closure there to the plothole.

Other stories!
A bunch in the last 2 years, but still no closer to that drabble! I'll get it one of these years!

For Forever Knight, I added to my calander day series I have and wrote a story about the solar eclipse. Twice it has happened near where I live but not over, so I get partial ones. Chasing the Moon's Shadow is set obviously after Last Knight, and in this timeline Natalie did not survive. Nick is still dealing with that loss and haunted by it. Janette was quite concerned Nick might stay out for the eclipse and then not come back in, so went to go find him and keep him safe. The title comes from a concept of chasing after the eclipses and trying to stay in the shadow for as long as possible with special airplane flights you can get (such people are called umbraphiles, or eclipse chasers). 'Chasing Darkness' was also the name of a project where two pilots flew in formation during a solar eclipse trying to stay in the eclipse for as long as possibe.

Another Forever Knight story was one that I acutally wrote a while ago and was just not ever really happy with it. Parts were harvested out and incorporated into other posted stories, but I had always wanted to get back to this one. The Dragon's Wrath was about how to get Nick's rage really kicked up so LaCroix could see what his new offspring could really do and how strong he was. Later, LaCroix would use a similar situation to get Nick to do it again. And Nick, of course, doesn't suspect LaCroix's extreamely manipulative hand in any of it.

For The Magicians, two of the stories show the beginning of Eliot and his start in formally learning magic at the University. Timelines guided and manipulated by a woman who can control time and reset it, she tries many combinations to get the perfect setup so the characters can help Quentin defeat this powerful magician called The Beast. Its mentioned in canon that, in order to help Quentin, for the second timeloop she made sure to keep Eliot alive, but she never said how she had done that. I feel she did this by getting Eliot enrolled in this school to help him and then he would also meet Quentin at the school. So One Grave and Congratulations and Welcome show the beginning of this education. There will be more, showing what this first year was like for Eliot, and the place he will be in for when he finally meets Quentin in the second year of school in the story Entrance Exam Day.

Eliot is a complicated and intersting character, and he goes through so much when we first meet him. The Beast is so concerned about Quentin and wants to get rid of him as soon as possible that one plan is to posess a person, get Eliot romatically involved with him so he can be at the school and close to Quentin so as to have a chance to kill him. He is caught, but Eliot wants to know if the origial person (the host) ever had feelings for him or was it The Beast manipulating the whole time. Eliot kinda gets his answer, then the person escapes, kills one person and tries to kill another. Eliot stops him by killing him, though The Beast exits the body so doesn't die. So now Eliot has to deal with what he had done, how he had been so manipulated, and how he had killed an innocent possessed person. He kills by using magic and this is not the first time he as killed someone via magic (when his ability manifested as a kid the first thing he did was kill his bully from school so Eliot's relationship with magic is complicated). Its a lot, and Eliot falls back on not healthy coping mechanisms while the people around him don't notice how bad it's getting. Sometimes I just need to vent like this and The Downward Spiral of Eliot is how that went.

For the upcoming year:
Still write more! I really need to write more - my notebooks are getting too full of ideas. Will definately participate in the FKFicFest and there is already a new Magicians Fanworks Extravaganza starting. At some point I will continue my series exploring Nick through his life, and he's still mortal at the moment. Next story is slated to explore what it was like in the Crusades, being captured, and what he did after being released. The following story would then be when he met Janette and LaCroix - so we're getting closer!

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Snowflake Challenge #2 Pets

Sun, 04 Jan 2026 22:21:05 GMT

Second challenge is pets. snowflake_challenge
Both my fandoms, Forever Knight and The Magicians had a pet in a few episodes that one or more character(s) loved. In Forever Knight I am particulary fond of a cat that survived and in The Magicians its a dog that didn't.

In my life I do have dogs, but over the years the family sees most of the dogs as theirs and usually just one as mine. Currently, that would be my Austalian Shepherd. He's my little 3 year baby and I got him after my last Australian Shepherd passed. He's a red merle, so his base coat is a rich dark brown that is mottled from having a mutation in a particular gene. Actually, he has a very rare coat pattern as he actually inhereited 2 mutant copies of this allele which isn't so good and could have resulted in potential blindness or deafness. It was just literal luck that he managed to be one of the ones who happened to not get that problem. The result is a dog with many more shades of color than what is typically seen. As his fur grows out you can't see all the shades as clearly, but its still there. And of course, he has the two different eye colors. It all comes together to make him look very cute and he totally uses that to his advange when he gets into trouble.

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Snowflake Challenge #1 Introduction

Sun, 04 Jan 2026 22:03:04 GMT

So I'm going to try following this snowflake challenge this year. snowflake_challenge
First challenge is the icebreaker: Introduce yourself

I'm Nicholas Lucien here and on AO3, as my pen name. I picked it years ago, and it tied into an artist name I went by even longer ago. It startred as a silly science joke: nickel-48. I was a radiation safety officer and this particular isotope is know as being doubly-magic, and very stable (given how long one would expect such an isotope of nickel to last, anyway). From there it was a short leap - Nickel - Nick L - Nicholas Lucien. So it all fit, in a way. There were other reasons, but given the years since I took it on, those other reasons just don't matter as much anymore.

I used to write excusively for just one fandom - my first fandom I ever read or wrote for - Forever Knight. And I stil have tons of stories left to write (my pile of paper filled with notes is best measured by a ruler rather than a page count). I used to also only read excusively one fandom - Forever Knight. I was there when it all began, and the websites and zines you could get, but that's mostly gone now. I was saddend to find that out, but then found the community on AO3, so that's nice its not all gone. I learned a lot about myself through this fandom, and its helped me when nothing else did.

Now, I do read other fandoms. For example, I will sometimes read Supernatural. Never seen the show, and I have a feeling it wouldn't be as exciting or slash-heavy as the fanfics are, so I guess I'll just stick with the fanfics.

Not too long ago I stumbled into The Magicians and grew to love it, so its a shared obsession with Forever Knight right now.

Not sure what one is suposed to gain by screaming into the void, but perhaps something to look forward to, just reading other's posts in this challenge.

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Fred Mollin Selling Pilot Scripts

Sun, 02 Jun 2024 17:09:51 GMT

Saw this in my Facebook feed today. Fred Mollin is selling the two scripts of the pilot. He will sign if requested.

www.facebook.com/groups/290895387672806/

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2023 - year review - writing fanfic

Mon, 25 Dec 2023 17:59:41 GMT

Seems hardly any time has passed from my last yearly update! Oh yeah, just a few minutes! Still sick, but pluggin away. 2023 is a much faster review.

Still collecting Forever Knight fanzines, picking up a few more from gh coyote. As for my dogs, my little Australian Shepherd has grown (and big, he's definately not going to be average size for the breed), and I ended up getting from the dog shelter a female Great Pyrenees about the same age as him, so they play a lot together. And dig up the yard.

In the news of Forever Knight, this year saw Catherine Disher put up on eBay a number of Forever Knight items she had, and confirmed it was her selling them, so I know a few people were able to get those items. Sadly, we also found out that one of the Caddies (the one purchased by Scott Hedrick) had been in an accident in 2001 and was sold for scrap in 2010. Still a bit confusing, but I think this is the 1962 Cadillac, but the owner insists its the 1961 Caddy, but also says the one sold by Brock Jolliffe is his, which I'm just not going to argue with him on this one. The images of the car don't make it super clear and the parts that would make it clear were lost or deformed in the accident (or not included in the pic). But from what I can see I still think its the 1962 one. Not unknown in the field to not know the year, many owners unfortunately don't actually know the year of the car, 1961 and 1962 being so similar. So at least as of now, the original 1961 Caddy is still out there.

On to the fanfics: just 1 this year. :(

Prompted story!
2023 FKFicFest had a few prompts this year, but I picked "this experiment went horribly wrong." I had been reading up on radiation and how the whole world had gone crazy about the life-giving attributes of radium. Even when people were dying of radiation poisioning. There is a lot going on there, many assumptions, many ideas that something pretty can't be bad for you, but eventually this was regulated better and these products got taken off the shelves. What ended up saving many from the harmful effects of these radium-laced products was there was no radioactive material in them, as that is expensive and cuts into profit. But there were enough products that really did have the radiactive isotope in there and that caused problems. And with all of this going on, I figured Nick would have heard about it and wanted to try it out since he tries out everything that could be a cure.

The story Experiment 1260 is mostly flashback and set at different times, following how radium as a treatment was being used in the world and being in actual locations during those times. I used a real person as a support character, Luther SH Gable, who claimed many events and inventions as his own, lied about what he had done, and never himself got sick from radation poisioning. Though more than willing to have you believe him an expert and willing to sell you his gadgets, he did firmly believe in the healing and life-gving attributes to radiation, and as a true believer, he made a great character for the story. I had so many pages of notes for this story, so harldy anything had to be made-up, unfortuatnely, most of what was going on or said was real. The effects of the radium boom are still being dealt with today (supposidly in parts of Paris you still cannot grow anything in the dirt as it is radiactive and they are quietly replacing and cleaning up those areas).

Nick, of course, tries the radiation as a cure and it goes horribly wrong, as he eventually succumbs to radiation posioning becuase they use so much (no details in the story becuase once you see some of those pics of what happened to the people, you don't want to describe that).

Fun tidbit on the story, the title, experiment 1260, the number was not selected randomly. 1260 belongs to a series of numbers called vampire numbers, 1260 being the first of the series (after that would be 1395, 1435, 1530, etc). Vampire numbers is a composite number with an even number of digits (1260 is made of 4 numbers) where you can seperate the numbers evenly (1 and 2 in a group, 6 and 0 in a group), and you can arrange the group into a number (like 21 and 60) and multiply the groups together (21 x 60) to get the original numer again (21 x 60 = 1260). The numbers 21 and 60 are called the fangs of the number and longer numbers (which give many other ways to group them) can have many fangs. It was just a cool thing to add and the reason it was selected as the experiment number.

For the upcomming year:
FKFicFest, of course. And still thinking of working on my various series and getting those stories out. We'll see, but I don't want to fall behind in writing again like what happened this year.

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2022 - year review - writing fanfic

Mon, 25 Dec 2023 16:53:09 GMT

Well, as like my life has been lately, I am just so far behind on everything. A year later and I am just getting around to writing this summary for last year's work. But I sick and home right now (pneumonia), so I have the time to get a few things done off my list.

So (late but at least done), here was what I had gotten done in 2022! Not much. Work keeps me busy (this is my first vacation in 4 years [yeah, and sick at that, perfect timing on that one]) and later in the year I lost my older dog and got a puppy. He keeps me busy!

For Forever Knight, I still collect fanzines when I come across them, nothing too intersting, just random ones this year. Still no updates to any of my on-going series, though every year I say I'm going to get it done. Totally going to get it done next year!

On to fanfics:

Gifts? None this year

Prompted story!
I will always make time to participate in the FkFicFest and this year the prompt I wrote to was "Hidden Witness." I had considered a story about a case with a witness, Nick as a secret witness (a person granted anonymity in a trial), and photography where sometimes the images hold witness to how life was for marginalized people and this might be the only record of thier existence before it is gone. Photogrpahy and images got me thinking of when the vampire community would have started to get worried about photographs. LaCroix, Nick, and Janette obviously had at least one picture of them all together, and early photographs needed such long exposure times it couldn't really capture fast movement. And what of photogrpahy itself? Was there any vampire hobbists in photography? And what would such a vampire take pictures of anyway? Humans sure liked photogpahy, and then later, film, recording so much. Such as the taped recordings Nick does for his cases. And while being a beat cop any recorded tapes and such would not have ben kept for small crimes, but once in homicide such statements would have been retained incase the case needed to be looked into again or re-tried. Which means all those recording would have been kept from all those years, leaving proof of Nick's existence and, to those who knew what to look for, proof of him not being entirely human. And that's how I got to a story of Nick's papertrail. I selected a timeframe where old film was being digitized and they really did have companies come and do such work, who might notice an officer in multiple precincts that didn't age. Originally I was going to try to write a story all from Nick's POV where he was brought in by the Enforcers to stand trial for his violations of the Code and him having to defend himself, but it just didn't flow well. I picked Detroit and this timeframe because they had just gotten the bodycams and there was a lot of info about this new equipment and new regulations (even how to check one out for your shift) and those documents are avalible online so it was easy to get that and incorporate that info into the story. Overall, I wish I had more time to write the story, as I didn't get in all the details I had wanted to like why the Enforcers didn't just take Nick's blood to find the answers they wanted (they were afraid Nick is mad and if they take from him they will catch it too) and more history with LaCroix and Calixtus (when they were young vampires they had both been offered to become Enforcers but LaCroix had rejected it so they parted ways). But I got more time to work with the Enforcers, which is always fun. So check out Paper Trail.

Other Stories!
Not much, but I wrote an additional 3 stories. Getting closer to the drabble - 188 words!

Found in the Ashes was based on a quote I heard in the movie The Magnificent Seven (2016) (great movie) "What you lost in the fire, you find in the ashes." And with the episode Ashes to Ashes, I wanted to do a follow up of what Nick and LaCroix's relationship would have been like. The event would have brought them closer, reminding them they almost lost eachother. And of couse, an UF story as well.

My attempt at a drabble and getting closer, Gambling comes in at 188 words and is also a UF story and a part of the calendar day series, being set on Valentine's Day. A fun little story based in Las Vegas, a little gambling, and little strip poker, and we can image how the night will end!

Final story was Soul of a Star, prompted from Les Miserables, "... water trickled through his shoes, and the stars through his soul." Set years after leaving Toronto, Nick is back and he never escaped the consequences of that fateful night with Natalie. But in that event he meets someone new and (typical) gets really involved very quickly. But its good for him, helping him to deal with the guilt he still has over his decision with Nat. For the character, Seren means "star."

For the upcoming year:
Definately still keep participating in the FkFicFest. Still didn't get to the holiday story I want to write and I'll say I'll do it for next year, but I know that's not going to happen.

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Nick's Season 2 Caddy - SAD

Sun, 01 Oct 2023 21:37:51 GMT

Just found out about a sad update to the 1962 Caddy used as the pristine close-up car. Purchased in 1996 and residing in North Carolina, USA, it was in an accident in 2001 and was totaled.

( Only if you want to see a pic )

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Forever Knight Item - Catherine Disher's Forever Knight Jacket

Wed, 26 Jul 2023 23:22:51 GMT

Catherine Disher is doing some more cleaning and turned up her embroidered Forever Knight crew jacket (she says she and Ger bought these jackets for the crew). And you get a signed season 2 cast photo with the listing.

Bidding starts at $375 CAD and will go for 5 days.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/394770551901

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AO3 is down

Mon, 10 Jul 2023 23:52:08 GMT

AO3 is down today due to a DDoS attack. In case anyone was trying to get on.

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Update - Forever Knight Item - Catherine Disher's Forever Knight Jacket

Wed, 08 Mar 2023 00:53:30 GMT

So there has been an update to the Forever Knight cast jacket currently bidding on eBay. Catherine has included a picture of her holding up the jacket. She has also added to the listing a signed season 2 cast photo and a note from her saying it was her jacket and that she was the one who is selling it.

www.ebay.com/itm/394490278353

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Forever Knight Item - Catherine Disher's Forever Knight Jacket?

Sat, 04 Mar 2023 01:26:48 GMT

So ... saw this listing pop up on eBay. Seller says she's Catherine Disher and Ger designed and had this jacket made for her and a few other cast members. Bidding will go 8 days and starts at $500 CAD. Thoughts?

www.ebay.com/itm/394490278353

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Update on Life - Saddness

Sun, 08 Jan 2023 12:29:49 GMT

I'm hoping 2023 will be a better year than the last. With work last year, I was basically too busy to write or think on any story.

( Sad Part )

So hopefully this year will good.

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Forever Knight on Amazon

Fri, 09 Sep 2022 00:41:04 GMT

Just saw that Forever Knight Season 1 and 2 are streaming free on Amazon Prime.

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Nigel Bennett in Richard III

Sun, 20 Feb 2022 23:46:58 GMT

Tonight I was flipping through Stratford Festival's 2022 Guide and noticed that Nigel Bennett would be playing Lord Rivers in their Richard III production that runs from 10 May to 30 October 2022. Lucy Peacock will also be in this, playing Queen Elizabeth.

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2021 - Year Review - Writing Fanfic

Thu, 30 Dec 2021 01:29:24 GMT

2021 was another year of the pandemic, and stressful. Work has been keeping me busy day and night, everyday, so not so much time to write anything. But every once in a while I have a few hours to put something together so got a few stories posted.

Nothing new for Forever Knight this year, but still collecting various fanzines I come across. This year I was able to find the Forever Knight Concordance (see here and here) and Ophelia's With Flowers (I had only ever read the first story so was excited to get the rest).

No time to update anything new to the Live on the Air series, which I had hoped to get around to this year, but work ....

On to fanfic:

First up: Gifts! None this year

Second up: Prompted Story!
I participated in the FKFicFest this year and from the available prompts I chose a combination of "a moment of truth" and "it's not what you are, its what you do with it." This story ties the flashbacks and the current case closely together - closer than I've done a case-fic before, so it was a little challenge to write. I wrote the flashback and the modern story at the same time, making sure an event that happened would happen in both, so there was a lot of jumping between sections! Moments links two flashback times to the present (1993) time: 1890 right after Nick decides to not drink any human blood and the consequences from what happens, which occurs in 1912 right before Nick's time on the Titanic. Nick really gets involved in the current murder case, seeing himself in what is going on, and attempts to retreat from humanity like he's done in the past. Fortunately (or not), this time the result is different. This story also involves Nat trying to make a new concoction for Nick to drink and the flashback also has that occurring. Lately I have been thinking of all the "new" science Nick must have come across over the centuries in his quest to become mortal or find an alternative to human blood. In the 1910s, there was a lot of work with discovering there was some sort of molecule in food that could prevent or reverse some diseases. We would know these to be vitamins, but they were originally called vital amines, and since one of the flashbacks was around this timeframe I loved incorporating that into Nick's treatments. Fun aside on this story: I named the original character, Ann, first, then went to a random name generator to select the character name to be used in the flashback. The name Bryanne was the first name created and it matched perfectly to Ann so I used that!

Brightnightie has also been posting prompts for the Fanfic Workout Buddies series, so I was inspired by the prompt "must be terribly important" to write Missed Appointment. Set in 1995 at Nick's loft, LaCroix comes over, reminding Nick of appointments he often skips - an agreement that Nick would spend time with him. Nick tries to wiggle out, but LaCroix insists (in his own threatening way) and Nick relents. The story ends there, so anyone is free to imagine what they do for a whole week together!

Third up: Other Stories!
I wrote an additional 7 stories this year. Still no drabble, though I did get one story down to 607 words - so progress!

There were a set of three stories that were alternative endings to Last Knight. I wrote the three versions off the same starting line. I have other ideas for stories that take place at the end of Last Knight, but these three always seemed to cluster together so I just wrote them together and named them the same. Two of them are cure stories, with Nick achieving mortality with Nat's help. In The Final Choice - version 1, LaCroix does as Nick asks, and Nick stands at the door with the Guide. LaCroix tries one last time to convince Nick to come back, but Nick decides not to, and as a mortal, steps through the door. In The Final Choice - version 2, LaCroix refuses Nick's last request and breaks the wooden staff. LaCroix instead continues with what Nat and Nick had been doing, and Nick becomes mortal. However, as a very dark story, LaCroix doesn't permit Nick to stay mortal for long, and he brings Nick back. I'm rather proud of this story, as I explain how and why Nick could become mortal with Nat's help, using the same method that Janette was able to use with Robert. In The Final Choice - version 3, LaCroix brings down the wooden staff but not into Nick. Nick shows he still cares for LaCroix and stays.

In Angels Walk Among Us, its mostly flashback to the train ride Nick and LaCroix were on in Jane Doe. During this time Nick is off killing humans, yet he advices LaCroix to kill young Hitler. Aside from how good that would have been, I did always find it odd he made such a recommendation. This flashback addresses how that came about. Also, Nick would save a woman, who's descendant would be important to Nick. This story required a bit of research, to know Hitler's whereabouts during his time after being a soldier. It was supposed to be set around 1918, but this did not match with where we knew he was, nor the ideas he was having at the time. I also looked up train routes and settled on 1919, late September.

Blood Drive was a quick little story about the police blood drive. We had seen Don donating in the first episodes and probably donates each year. I imagine he probably tries to get Nick to donate and this story is his attempt. However, he finds LaCroix, who explains why Nick can't donate. And now Nick owes LaCroix for the favor.

We often see Natalie helping Nick, but there are times when this is reversed. I wrote Sick Day to be pre-season 1 where Natalie was sick and Nick came over to try and help. Its a cute little story and shows what the beginning of their relationship was like, and the first movie they watched together. I had a great deal of vexation and fun tracking down the actual address of Nat's apartment in season 1. I had read in a few places generally where it was, but nope, the building was not there. Fortunately we have google maps and streetview so I literally walked the area until I found the place.

Adding to my song-fic series was Indestructible (Master of War), based on Indestructible by Disturbed. It is a LaCroix story, starting from his youth until a little after he becomes a vampire. I had hinted in the past that I did not think Lucius came from the upperclass, but a lower one, working his way up based on his skills and drive to survive. Real events and people are peppered though the story, from Caesars to Generals, to real battles, real murder plots, and cities. I ended up putting Lucius into the Legio XIV Gemina stationed in Brittania because it was described as Nero's favorite legion (thus positioning Lucius closer to eventually meeting Nero) and it was in Brittania and for another story I need LaCroix to be in that area amongst the Celtic peoples at some point in his mortal life. I also spent a lot of time with the Roman naming patterns, and Lucius' name is very accurate, even how the spelling would change. Important for me was the name "LaCroix" was just a translation of the name he already had as a mortal, and that he was a twin (one of the consequences of that was used in my story A Twist of Fate). Not mentioned, but I put Lucius' birth to be 32 AD. I'll apologize that "master of war" phrase comes up a lot, but that's in the song lyrics, so I have to use it a lot in the story (most of the lyrics in the songs I pick do end up written into the story).

For the upcoming year:
Definitely still continue to participate in FkFicFest. I'll say I'll make more entries into the Live on the Air series, but I'll be honest: it probably won't happen. I had wanted to complete the next two stories of my Light and Dark series, which are when Nick was in the Crusades and what happened afterward, and then when he meets Janette and LaCroix. I have the first sentence done! But that's all I had time for this year so that is a priority for next year. I've also been thinking of another post-Last Knight story that will be a shock and a second one I am writing now that takes place a few years after Last Knight. Didn't get my Nick/LaCroix story done, so that will hopefully be completed for next year. I was going to do a holiday story for this year, but there just wasn't time so it's been pushed to next year.

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Taxes

Sun, 16 May 2021 22:22:48 GMT

So once again I procrastinated doing taxes this year. I think this is just going to become my normal. Even though tax deadline was delayed again this year, I still waited until the last moment to pull all the forms together (I run a business [in addition to everything else I do] so I have to get all the receipts in one location) and actually fill it in. TurboTax really does make this easy for me each year!

This year was especially under a crunch as I am super busy at lab (we have Covid restrictions in place limiting the number of people in the space and how long we can stay there) but we also had some people leave and a hiring freeze, so I'm doing lots of work! Which means not so much free time for fun activities or taxes.

I ended up doing my taxes on Saturday (yesterday) and it was a full day! The morning and afternoon were spent finishing writing and posting my story for FkFanFic2021 (submitted my story with 1 minute to spare), then spent the remaining afternoon and evening doing taxes. It was a very busy day!

I know next year I will not be on top of everything, so not evening going to try and set that as a goal for myself. Maybe I'll get it done early. Hahahahahaha!!!!

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The Forever Knight Concordance

Sun, 07 Mar 2021 05:05:36 GMT

Oh, like an long unboxing video, but written out! Images can be found here.

So for many reasons I initially typed out, then chickened out and deleted, I collect Forever Knight fanzines. I would say I don't care anything particular about the stories, if its Forever Knight I'll get it (though Vachon stories I really struggle with becuase he is the one character I do not like). Some of these stories are already posted online to read, but there is something about holding a physical copy that is just as important as the story. In the course of looking for a story called "Pepper" I came across a fanzine website. Fanzines are just listed by title, no pics or descriptions, and I saw something called the Concordance. It wasn't the one I was looking for, but it was Forever Knight and didn't sound like Vachon so that was enough to get it. When it arrived I was quite surprised that it wasn't physically put together like my other fanzines, and it was not a story, but a summary of the first season. A work that is not supposed to be fanfic, it has a few details that are different than the canon we have now, which would include all three seasons. I had wondered if these differences were ideas that had been purposed but changed by season 2, or was this work actually part fanfic? If you have any info I would love to learn more about this!

The Forever Knight Concordance was written by Pam Jensen with artwork by Jayne Largent, copyrighted in 1993 and published by Fenris House. The Concordance itself came in a 3 ring black binder; the pages have no marking to indicate if they had been bound up any other way, so I will assume this is the original method it was done in. For a front cover, there is an image printed on blue paper slipped into the front of the binder. Image is of a large skull with an open mouth and someone standing inside, with shadows of various individuals, winged beasts, and bats along the bottom. It is stamped with a purple bat and had some initials. I did not attempt to take out the paper, as over the years the ink has fused with the plastic and its kinda stuck in there.

Opening the binder up, there are some pieces of paper in the binder pocket. There is a white piece of paper from the Editor of Fenris House, explaining the problems they are having with illegal copies of fan publications being made and sold, so for this one, each Concordance is initialed, stamped, and numbered all in purple to indicate authenticity. The number of mine is 28 (or 78, all depends on how people draw out their 2s and 7s; I personally slash my 7s). Next is a pink paper listing various Forever Knight fanclubs and places where you could get T-shirts and such, and their addresses. A yellow paper discusses the Forever Knight Companion by Anne Moore and Sue Schneider, which will include interviews and photos. Another pink sheet of paper is for membership into the Forever Knight Fan Club of Canada. A blue paper in black ink discusses an adult fanzine being made available - Knight Time. The final paper is blue with blue ink and is for the Nigel Bennett Fan Club, complete with a pic of Nigel.

Back to the Concordance, there is a blue title page, then the table of contents page. The Concordance is about 159 pages long (numbering stops after 122 so we have to go with my counting skills after that), with most of the pages taken up with summaries of each of the first season's episodes. There is also a map section, a Cop Log, and some more material not listed in the table of contents. The date indicated on this page in purple ink is 1994, so would have been the year this one was originally sold.

On the next page Pam explains that this concordance is a guide, a tool for fans to find info quickly and each episode is summarized into 4 parts (taken from the four perspectives from Kurosawa's Rashomon) - the main plot (the case), the subplot (Nick's life), historical flashbacks, and food jokes. Through these 4 points of view, it tells the whole story of the episode. However, this is not true, as there is a 5th perspective - a theme of the episode is summarized. I assume this theme is from Pam, or maybe it was the theme from each writer of the episode. Some themes include: "No one person can assume the responsibility for everyone's behavior. You can only control your own behavior" (Dead Air), "Always pay attention to the lessons taught you and never betray a trust" (I Will Repay), and "A person had to choose to be haunted by past deed, and to chase ghosts" (Fatal Mistake).

And in one episode there is a tidbit of info - LaCroix's mandolin was specially-created for the show and the sound is a cello being played very high, combined with a female's voice and reverb added. Randomly (like 4 or so times) there are small images in empty portions of the page like bats, a cat, or LaCroix here:

After the last episode summary there are a few photocopied black and white maps, like a map of Toronto Island, the subway, and a map of Europe with an outline around the Roman Germanic Empire in 1200. The Cop Log section is a list of the physical locations visited during the episodes. Next section is a credit list, which lists the actors, creators, producers, director of photography, writers, directors, stunts, etc.

A blue, then a white page both have the title of "Nick Knight's Lifeline", a picture of a hand with lines indicated, and intricate scrollwork surrounding. Next page gives Nick's resume and dates, showing various occupations like Crusader, Spice merchant, Tax collector, Doctor, Captain of a warship, and Detective. Then a pedigree showing LaCroix's vampire children like Janette, Nick, Daniel, but also showing the vampires Janette made (the Baroness), and Nick (Elizabeth and Richard).

Following this are a more detailed timeline of Nick. Some are the known places and times shown in season 1. Others I have no idea about where they came from. The Concordance states all events shown are either demonstrated in the episode or talked about. So I am not sure if the Concordance at this point isn't totally a guide anymore but a good portion of fanfiction, or was this all supposed to be canon as of season 1 but plan changed for the later seasons so these entries are no longer valid. Some canon times would be Joan of Arc, Paris when Nick is brought across, and Chicago when Nick was a Professor. Others can be stretched from canon, such as in 1966 when Nick says there are catacombs under the Bergen Church, the Concordance has Nick in Berlin in 1690 as a student at the University, watching the catacombs being built. Some have their location incorrect like Nick being in Florence, Italy learning painting; that would be Hieronymus Bosch who painted in Brabant and never left the area, so Nick had to be in Brabant for the painting. Other entries are, I don't know where the info came from for that, such as Nick being from Parhenay, France, or working with Houdini to get rid of spiritual mediums in 1923. The Concordance does later say Nick has a poster of Houdini in the loft. (If anyone knowns which episode that was in please let me know. I searched through a few today and didn't see it.)

Following this is the last section with a blue and a white piece of paper with a dragon on it with the title "History Notes". This section, in alphabetical order, gives a short summary on historical figures (like Hitler, Genghis Khan), events (like McCarthyism, the Plague), and other things (like nightclubs, the Wheel of Law, candles, cross).

So an interesting guide / fanfic? created after season 1 about the episodes of season 1.

Images in this post, and more, can be found here.

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Question about Canon Timeline

Wed, 03 Mar 2021 03:06:11 GMT

So I happened to come upon The Forever Knight Concordance, published in 1994. It gives a very nice summary of each season 1 episode, divided down into the main plot, subplot, flashback, etc. Towards the end it gives a pedigree of LaCroix's vampire family and notes about historical events and places in the show. But there is also a section where it gives a timeline of Nick's life, saying it was created from things mentioned in the episodes or inferred through conversations. Some seem a bit ... confusing so I'm not sure where this was inferred or was a story built from one mention but then who built the story? Were some of these ideas that the writers had or stories that were going to be done but was later changed or dropped when they got back to doing season 2 and 3?

For example, we know Nick can speak Mandarin, so according to this timeline, in 1275 Nick accompanied Marco Polo and met with Kublai Khan, becoming the Khan's tax collector and thus learning the language during that time. Or somehow Nick is in New York in 1923 helping Harry Houdini trying to stop spiritual mediums. In 1390s Nick is a ship Captain during the 100 years war. Nick was born in Parhenay, France.

So does anyone know anything about this timeline of events?

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2020 - YEAR REVIEW - WRITING FANFIC

Sun, 27 Dec 2020 03:22:45 GMT

2020 has been ... challenging I guess is a word to describe it. Also frustrating, sorrowful, stressful, and so many other choice words. One way I deal with stress is to write, so it would explain the 13 stories I did this year (not that writing is completely stress-free - I have been known to spend weeks looking up one tiny tidbit of info that is just something in the background of the story, but I love it). I'm not posting anything more this year, so I figured I would be ahead of the game and write this year in review summary (which would actually be the second one I wrote this year since I was so far behind on 2019).

Nothing really new this year on Forever Knight items - the re-release of the entire series on DVD was last year and can still be bought on Amazon or eBay. Still randomly collecting fanzines (a compulsion I acquired after so many FK fanfic sites when down over the years I just feel the need to save FK stories so they don't get lost).

Didn't add any new entry into the Live on the Air series. Its just ... covid and work (there is so much to do and limited staff to do it) and stuff.

First up: Gifts! None this year. On to the next section ....

Second up: Prompted Story!
I wrote one prompted story this year. The FKFicFest had a few prompts to choose from for this year and after much thinking and procrastination I chose the prompt "Cold Case." Nick leaves a lot of loose ends hanging around and I chose to pick a few and see what consequences arose from them being left open. The Case of the Missing Book Thief links two of Nick's lives together and both are open cases. The trigger for my out-of-town detective to come up to Toronto is the inquiry Schanke made about the old NY driver's license he found in the Caddy in the episode "Close Call." This will lead first to the open case of Nicholas Forrester, then his next chronological persona: Nicholas Thomas. Of course, LaCroix is involved in both these lives and eventually Nick tells the story of what happened during those years. The cold case is solved and the other detective returns to NY.

A fun little aside: I love naming original characters for my stories. Whether I come up with the name myself or use a random-name generator, the names turn out to be Welsh. Unless my character needs to come from a particular area, Welsh words are what I use and this can be found in many of my stories. For this one, Allan (the first name of the NY detective) is Welsh. Its actually not a person's name (it looks close to Alan but its not) but its just a word - it means "out," like going outside.

Third up: Other Stories!
I wrote 12 other stories this year. Did not get anywhere close to the drabble I am aiming for. Maybe next year I'll get it.

First, this year is a leap year and I couldn't help writing something about that. Leap Day is a story that follows Janette on the night of 29 Feb in 1992. She reminisces of past leap days with Nick and decides to go visit him that night. But another woman is keeping Nick company that night! Leap Day became the first of this year's entries into my Calendar Day Series.

My next story was a story to explain how LaCroix might have survived being staked by Nick in "Dark Knight," and would have been a reason for surviving his staking during the flashback in "Night in Question" (or at least why the staking didn't immediately kill him). Medical in nature, I love this story because it is something that can really happen to people. Plus I love that this matches up with the staking scenes in the episodes - the stakes do go into his left chest and come in contact with the area where the left side of the heart resides, yet LaCroix lives, necessitating a really good reason for his survival (can't explain it as the attacker missed). I never believed the only reason he survived was because he was old and powerful! A Twist of Fate is a story involving only LaCroix and Natalie.

The Ballroom Blitz is one of three stories I wrote this year that are based on song lyrics, so part of the Songfic series. This was the first song I had thought about writing a story to, but became the second story I actually wrote out. Ballroom Blitz is an ... interesting song and paints a crazy image of what is going on and the people involved. But a character with red eyes cinched it for me that this would be a great vampire story. This story is mostly told by a witness to the events that happened at the Raven, and Nick comes in at the end to help the man with his memories of it. Almost all the characters are named after the band members mentioned in the original song, but my character Marc, of course, is the Welsh version of Mark.

A fun story, and a Nick and LaCroix reconciliation story, is The Mad Queens Game. Told mostly by flashbacks, it goes over one possible way Nick and LaCroix come back together when they find a rift between them. The title itself refers to the type of chess they play - the version we are most familiar with that has a Queen piece with very powerful moves. When this version, beginning in 1475, was introduced it was called the chess of the enraged lady, or the mad queens chess. Fun for this story, I had to learn real chess moves and plays, so the pieces all do move correctly across the board.

Next I returned to the Songfic series and the Cure series with In the Grand Way. A John Denver song, this follows Nick's thoughts during the first morning of being mortal. I glossed over exactly how Natalie had achieved this (but it was not easy and quite painful for Nick) since the main point of the story was what happened afterward. One day I will write the story of how Nick could become mortal, its just not this one. I always liked this song becuase it always plays on my last day of work on the drive home. Totally random that it would happen to always play, it would mean to me the end of something troubling (a lot of the jobs I worked were not good) and the wonderful light, hopeful feeling of a new chapter of life. Its also got a little bit of Nick/Natalie going on.

I'm more of a UF person myself, so fortunately my next story was Nick/LaCroix. A Single Game of Chess was not meant to be a sequel to The Mad Queens Game, but elements are there, along with the same chess set so if you wanted to know why they were playing with such an odd set, read The Mad Queens Game. In this story, LaCroix gets Nick to agree to a single game that lasts beyond sunrise and then old feelings emerge during the day.

Release would be the final story for the Songfic series this year, and uses the song from Imagine Dragons. Its a wonderfully dark song and pairs well with the guilt Nick feels. In this story, Nick had been spending a few days thinking about his existence, spiraling downward in the process. However, Natalie comes and helps stop the cycle and begin to bring him back up.

This year would finally begin the story series I have spent (a few years now) thinking and plotting out. The Dark and Light series follows Nick through his life as he swings into the dark, the light, or hovers in-between. The stories cover major events in his life that shape him, many using the flashbacks in the episodes and building up the missing parts. Tuesday's Child is Nick's birth (literally the beginning of Nick's story) and I bring in Nick's siblings and Nick's role in the family (even though he is a baby, he is already being used politically). The end of the story attempts to predict if Nick will be one with the darkness or the light, and is based on the conversation that occurred at the birth of Nikola Tesla. There were many cities to choose from in Brabant to have Nick born at, but (as a nod to a city used in Forever Knight) I chose 's-Hertogenbosch. Next is a story of Nick from a young child to an adult, showing the life he had been selected for and was being trained for. And Then There Was One goes over what he thought he would be, but events would shift his life and he would be re-trained as a knight. This was my attempt to explain how young, innocent, and naïve Nick was when we see him in the flashback in "Queen of Harps." If he had trained his whole life to be a knight, he should have been more like DeLabarre. His statements and actions seem more like a person who hadn't been out in the world for very long, and had in fact been sheltered for most of his life, enamored with fanciful stories or fairytales. This story would also begin to set the foundation of certain actions Nick would take later in life, including a major reason he would chose to become a vampire. The next story, Silenced Song, follows Nick on his way to Wales, meeting Gwynedd, and the decision to send him to fight in the Crusades after her death. It uses a lot of the flashbacks in "Queen of Harps," but fills in missing pieces and the thoughts going through Nick's head during all of this. A subtle trend in the background of these stories is Nick being alone and not really fitting into the group. This will continue in future stories as well. As for having Nick go through Swansea, it was simply becuase that is where Ger was born. Nick's horses in two of the stories were named after Adelaide of Orthen, who married into the line whose descendants would become the Brabant family line. She was the one to bring the Orthen Estate (part of it would become 's-Hertogenbosch) into the Brabant family. The title "Silenced Song" was supposed to be a reference to a Phil Collins song. My whole life I thought "silenced song" was in the lyrics and loved how it sounded. Turns out that is not what he was saying but I liked it for the title anyway so I kept it.

The Effects of Blood is all flashback to what happened after LaCroix bit the Barber. Even thought Nick was planning on leaving London, I doubt he actually did. Not wanting the leave Janette alone to deal with the healing and protection of their maker, I think Nick stayed to help. This story picks up a little bit afterwards, when LaCroix is almost healed, or healed enough to be up and aware of his surroundings. In the episode we see the effect of the Barber's blood on LaCroix, and in the story we see the effect of Nick's blood on LaCroix. I wrote this story just becuase I wanted an ending to that flashback.

Finally, a story in the Calendar Day series, The Great Chronocrators, a story about various great conjunctions LaCroix would have been around to see. The final one in the story would be the one we had this year on 21 Dec. The planets come together, Nick and LaCroix come together, its a nice little story. The title refers to the planets, Jupiter and Saturn, as entities that function over large periods of time, but could also refer to Nick and LaCroix, who also function on large time scales.

For the upcoming year:
Definitely participate in FkFicFest if there is one in 2021 (I hope so). Add more into the Live on Air Series since I did nothing with it this year. I will continue with the Dark and Light series. The next two stories will take longer to write and are more intricate since they will deal with Nick during and slightly after the Crusades and then Nick meeting Janette and LaCroix and his time up until they meet his mother and Fleur. Maybe get that drabble in! Hahahahahaha! More songfics because I do enjoy writing those and I still want to get the one about LaCroix done. I've got a few stories that have been bouncing around for a few years so maybe I'll clean them up and post them. There is a story where LaCroix will help Nick. And always at least one Nick/LaCroix, but I'm not sure yet what the plot will be so open to suggestions on that!

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GWD and All the Sonnets of Shakespeare

Tue, 20 Oct 2020 01:19:18 GMT

Stratford Festival is bringing back the watch parties on Thursdays, which will include works written by Shakespeare and other content. Of note, beginning 17 Dec and going until 30 June will be the "All the Sonnets of Shakespeare." Wells and Edmondson from the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust will have a discussion about the sonnets, and some passages will be read. The readings will be done by Ijeoma Emesowum and Ger!

Info can be found on Stratford Festival's page and you have to hunt for this particular topic here.

And a great pic I pulled from facebook page.

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Taxes

Sun, 12 Jul 2020 03:15:30 GMT

So its another year and, since I am a creature of habit, I once again procrastinated getting my taxes filed. Its really bad this year since, because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the due date for taxes were delayed by 3 months. And I still managed to wait until the last minute! Seems I don't owe too much this year, and I am trusting TurboTax on that, since it seems a bit low but what do I know?

Crunching the numbers went faster this year (though I saved a lot online and then the internet was out today so I couldn't get to all my stuff until later in the evening).

I think for next year I'll be on top of everything and get it done quickly. Hahahaha, yeah, right! I'll procrastinate like I always do.

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2019 - YEAR REVIEW - WRITING FANFIC

Mon, 01 Jun 2020 01:26:18 GMT

Well, 2020 has been quite a year so far, and I'm behind on everything, including this yearly review of 2019! But I have some time now, so only about 6 months late, this is what happened in 2019:

Yeah! Forever Knight got re-released (same quality as the last DVD set) in a new DVD box set, so you can get all 3 seasons for a nice little price (cheaper than what I paid for it - now $28). Still available on Amazon here.

First up: Gifts! I received 1 gifted story this year!
Emergency Call is a double drabble story from Merfilly written from a short prompt. It's a sweet story with Nat and Schanke, where Don has a problem with a gift for Jenny and calls for Natalie to help him. We've all been there with trying to follow those assembly instructions!

Second up: Prompted Story! I wrote two prompted stories!
This year the FkFicFest had one prompt for all writers to use: Ten Years. We could use the prompt however we liked, even splitting up 'ten' and 'years' into its own ideas/prompts. I ended up writing How to Spend the Next Ten Years. It took me a long time to settle on a topic for this story. I searched for other stories, song lyrics, music bands, movies, until I found a movie called The Book of Ten Years. It was very scary looking, so I only watched the trailer while covered in my blanket. But basically, it was about a magic book that would grant any wish written in it, at the cost of ten years being taken from a life. Mix that up a bit, and I had an idea where there was a magic wish granted for ten years at the cost of a life. Magic book had already been done in Forever Knight, so I went looking for other magical items and learned about magic rings, real rings that existed that people thought were magical. One such ring was worn by Genghis Khan and had been missing for a while. LaCroix had been with Genghis Khan and that was it! So this story was about a stranger that came to town, found Nick and offered the wish-granting power of the ring, and all Nick had to do was decide if the cost of a life was worth finally gaining mortality. So the story is one of my Cure stories as well!

Once I got going, this was a fun little story to write. Obviously there is the references to ten years, directly using the prompt, but the number ten actually comes up a lot in the story. The chapters are organized by days (Monday - Sunday), the days we are following Nick. But the stranger, Will, had actually been in town before the story started. Adding up the days he was with Nick, and the days preceding that, Will was in Toronto for ten days. And (not to spoil anything) but the old vampire in the story was brought across in 995, and the story was actually set in 1995, making him 1,000 years old, or 100 decades (and you can break the 100 into groups of ten as well). Another ten can be found in the magical objects either directly mentioned or actually in Nick's loft: an amulet, the Black Buddha, a stone carved with a healing spell, the Maya cup from Altun Kinal, 2 books of magic, and 4 magical rings.

The other prompted story was a request by a reader for a vampire wedding story, specifically between Nick and Janette. A Vampire Wedding tells the story of a modern wedding with references back to Nick and Janette's wedding centuries before. It's also a reconciliation story, having taken place shortly after Partners of the Month. I had to do a lot of research into weddings, and dealt with a ton of wedding ads for months afterwards.

Third up: Other stories!
I wrote 6 other stories this year. Coming in at the beginning of the year was The Penalty, part of the Calendar Day Series. This day was the day an ad ran in the paper - the only day it ran. That ad prompted the whole story and the title for the story. It is a story mostly about LaCroix and Nick, with Nick not wanting to be a vampire and LaCroix trying to fix that. The story is set in Detroit in 1915.

I'm getting closer to that drabble I want to write. This year I wrote Just a Little Bite, which comes in at 620 words. A fun little story set before the series, Nick is trying to explain how he can't eat food and Nat is not buying it. She insists he needs to try mortal activities, part of the process of becoming mortal again. It's a tempting story, as in the Biblical tempting story!

Part of a new series started this year, The Caddy Series focuses on stories that predominately feature the Caddy, usually in how Nick acquired the car. This first story, Under Janette's Protection, involves Nick and Janette, though Janette isn't actually present until the very end. But its a cute little story and also explains how Nick ended up going to Greenwich Village.

To get in my UF story, I finally wrote an idea out that had been bouncing around for a while. The Immovable Object references the irresistible force paradox (what happens when an immovable object meets an unstoppable force?), and is actually the third story I have written that mentions this, along with possible solutions to the paradox (see Faded Memories and Hidden Desire). In this story, Nick is being stubborn and suffering because of it. LaCroix is very patient with him, and helps Nick in the end, once Nick realizes what he needs. And its a Nick/LaCroix ending, so that's nice. Despite what it may seem, in this story Nick is both the immovable object and the unstoppable force - it is his two sides - the vampire and its basic drive as the stubborn force, and Nick's conscious decisions to be stubborn and not yield as the immovable object. The story is thus what happens when both of these forces try to occupy the same space, the same individual. The paradox must be resolved!

Glory is the first story in my Songfic Series (though not the first song I wanted to write about, its just the one that got completed first). Named after the song Glory, it weaves a tale inspired by, and using words, from the song. It doesn't list the lyrics (as that is not allowed on AO3), and you don't need to know the song, but its fun to read the story and then go back and read the lyrics to see what matches up. The story takes place before Nick meets Nat, and this encounter Nick has would set into motion the event where Nick will meet her. Interesting tidbit for the story, there are two original characters, Waite and Tedric, and they refer to another character called Alvaro. These names all mean Guardian or Watcher in various languages.

Finally, the story I am pretty happy with how it turned out, is Annie, Are You Okay? We know Nick is old, and has come across many people - some long forgotten, others more famous and still known. I had wondered how Nick would deal with encountering a woman from his past, well, at least the image of one. And I had just been learning the history about CPR Annie . . . .

Fourth Up: Live on the Air expanded by a few entries. A project taking a few years of research and many, many images, but I put together a detailed summary of the Caddy (at least the parts Nick would touch, I'm not going into every single detail of the car). Broken up into two entries (along with images) the first goes into a brief history of Cadillac and then what features are found in the 1961 and 1962 Cadillacs (these cars are a transition from the 1959 huge fin, heavy chrome machine from earlier, to the more boxy, trimmed down Cadillac of the later 60s). Lots of details include the instrument cluster, the fin lights, the radio, etc. Finally, this review ends with, well, how these particular cars ended - safety features. That would change these cars faster than anything else. The second post (also with a lot of images) goes into exactly which car was Nick's car. There is confusion - in the series the car is called a 1962 multiple times, but many of the details you see of the car (especially the fins and back lights) are from a 1961, and the actual cars themselves are referenced to as being 1961 and 1962 cars from the actors and owners of the cars. So this post goes into exactly what is different between the two models, how to identify it, and then screenshots identifying the car model (its a 1961). I also identify the color of the car (its Jade). But like all things in Forever Knight, it is complicated. Season 2 would introduce a second car, and that car is a 1962 (but I still go by the first car used). And even that first car - 1961 model it may be, but it is made of parts from a 1962. Such confusion! But I detail it all out. A great reference if you want to know what it would be like to sit in Nick's car!

Also, I am still slowly going through each episode and I added one in 2019: For I Have Sinned. Its a nice one becuase this is the episode with the flashbacks to Joan of Arc, and each flashback is at a different time in her life, beginning before her meeting with the Dauphin to her end at being burned. It also gives some maybe hints/clues as to what happened to Nick in his mortal life, or ideas he got towards the end of his mortal life.

For this upcoming year:
Well, since this is half-way through 2020 I already know I will write some more stories and write for the 2020 FkFicFest. Still have too many ideas floating around, just have to pick one and write it. Don't have a lot of time, but I'll get them in. I've been meaning to start my long Series of Nick's life, so that will begin this year. Probably watch some more episodes, now that the summary of the Caddy is over (that took a lot of time). Maybe I'll get that drabble done this year, maybe. At least two more songfics - one I've started will be about a fight and the next one will be about LaCroix. And a Nick/LaCroix story, of course!

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