Fearless on my breath...

I had a startlingly productive weekend despite a high degree of socializing, which is almost unheard of for me. Saturday the new troupe performed our choreographies for Alyne who seemed to be quite impressed. She actually had the most to say about the piece aelfsciene and I put together and brought up the point that it was both classic Egyptian cabaret and that it could reasonably be danced either with or without veil. I have to admit we were both stunned by the latter comment and it got my mind working on how it could be tweaked to do that. I have a few ideas, but honestly I love it as a single veil piece where the veil is never discarded, only used in wonderful and unexpected ways.

Alyne also recommended that we switch the order of the pieces as the one we were putting last would be a great way to get the audience's attention. We all had to admit she was right. It was so helpful to get another set of eyes on the routines.

I did realize something Saturday, though, and that's that while I miss dancing a little, the passion seems to be gone. I don't think I'm going to end up performing again in the future but that doesn't bother me the way I used to think it would. In fact it seems pretty natural, and it's got me thinking about using the time and energy I had previously put into dancing for other things. Writing's at the top of that list at the moment, but I'd really like to get back to drawing as well. And I've always wanted to learn Tai Chi so maybe I'll go do that path for a bit and see if I like it.

Anyway, after practice we attended the BaaAARRRbeque at tamago and jimweasel's place, but I was tired and headachy and really just wanted to be somewhere quiet, cool and dark. So I went home, curled up and got an enormous chunk of writing all neatly tied together and off to moonlightnrain for her feedback. Twenty-four pages to be exact. I mean I used to write entire stories that were shorter than that, and that's just one small part of a single chapter in this one. Scary. I also crossed the 50,000 word barrier and I believe I've entered the realm of at least novella, but possibly full-length novel.

Sunday I was up reasonably early to meet cyranocyrano for breakfast at Baji's. Aelf joined us and we had a great time catching up and just chatting. I then headed back, cleaned up the apartment, did a bit of editing on the story and then experimented with my recipe for elo_sf's cookbook project. I have to say it was a stunning success and left me with lunches for the rest of the week. I typed up the unbelievably simple recipe and sent it off to him. Then he called up and stopped by and we went walking together and then over to Burrito Real. It was so nice to have an excuse to just talk to him again, but I did have an ulterior motive as well. On the way back I picked his brain regarding the sex scene in my story, trying to write it from a guy's perspective had been absolutely terrifying me. I didn't want it to come off screaming, "A WOMAN WROTE THIS!", and I knew I was out of my depth. No matter how much slash you've consumed in a lifetime (and lord knows I've read a lot) there's still nothing like getting first hand experience. He was so unbelievably helpful, answering all of my questions, helping me delve into what would be going through the character's mind at any given time. It was all I could've hoped for and more.

If this story turns out well it's really going to be down to an awful lot of people. moonlightnrain, who's been there right from the start, always willing to read and give me feedback, she's helping me tame the beast into submission and I've yet to find an instance where her instincts have been off. elo_sf who has become something of my own personal slash Wikipedia. aelfsciene, rex_luscus, silkblade, and tersa who let me bounce ideas off of them and, to a certain extent, rationalize my own theories.