New Year and Yuletide fic

[schneefink]

Happy New Year!

Together with several friends I spent New Year's Eve at an AirBnB a few hours from Vienna, having raclette and playing board games and making tiny animal good luck charms for each other and others out of colorful modelling clay. I also brought one of those ~wire-looking head massagers, which was a big hit. It was raining lightly at midnight but we went to the lake for a toast and to watch the fireworks anyway, and then we continued playing games until 3am.

We'd booked an extra night, which was great because it meant we could have a very relaxed brunch the next day and then two people left but the rest of us had a nice stroll around the small town and more games and then raclette again because we had so many leftovers and then I wanted a reading break so D and F tried out a card game for two people and we also just sat around and chatted and cuddled, a very nice evening.

It was a wonderful way to start 2024. Today the travel home went well and now I will meet up with LB for a spontaneous dinner+movie night at his place so that is even more good things.


I wrote Yuletide fic:
Dreaming of a Rainbow (A Day of Fallen Night – Samantha Shannon)
1.2k, Kuposa pa Nikeya/Noziken pa Dumai, 5 things
Summary: Five times Nikeya dreamed of Dumai.
Canon knowledge required: Yes

Notes: I enjoyed getting more into Nikeya's head. My recipient asked for that and to see how Nikeya fell in love with Dumai and tbh I could have included more of the latter but by that point I was already attached to the five moments I'd chosen and I think it turned out fine.

Comments

[dolorosa_12]

Happy new year! That sounds like a lovely way to celebrate the arrival of 2024.

[schneefink]

Cheers! *clinks glasses*
It was :)

[vriddy]

It sounds like such a lovely way to welcome the new year :D Happy for you, and happy new year!

[schneefink]

It was, and I hope to do the same thing next year :)

[trobadora]

That sounds like a lovely way to ring in the new year!

[schneefink]

It was! Next year we might not have raclette but other than that hope to do the same again :)

[scintilla10]

Aww, how lovely to welcome the new year with friends! That sounds wonderful. Happy new year!

[schneefink]

Always best with good friends :) Starting the year as I hope to continue.

[nonesensed]

What an excellent start to 2024! And huzzah for Yuletide fic writing 🥳 (which reminds me I should get around to reading A Day of Fallen Night soon 😁).

[schneefink]

I recommend rereading Priory of the Orange Tree before you do: the prequel takes place centuries earlier but I think several things would have been more satisfying if I had remembered how they played out in the first book.

[nonesensed]

Thanks for the heads up! I've made the mistake of not rereading a long book many a time before I've picked up prequels/sequels, so I know how frustrated I tend to get if I don't recall everything from the previous book. Will heed your advice! 😊

[schneefink]

Yeah. I was also very glad I followed advice to reread "Network Effect" before "System Collapse," for example. I thought it would be less relevant in this case because it takes place centuries earlier but that turned out not to be the case.

[nonesensed]

I haven't read "System Collapse" yet because of feeling I need to reread at least "Network Effect" if not more of the Murderbot books before I do - glad to hear I was right to assume that and haven't been rereading unnecessarily!

I too assumed I could read the prequel without rereading the first book 😅 Oh well~

[schneefink]

Rereading the rest of Murderbot couldn't hurt, but I don't think it's necessary. I definitely want to reread the one where Murderbot and ART first meet at one point :)

[nonesensed]

Gret to know, thank you 💖 And yeah, Murderbot and ART's meeting is A+, definitely need to read again one day!

[lannamichaels]

Happy (belated) new year! I'm curious at those head massagers, do you know what they're called?

[schneefink]

I bought mine at a museum gift shop years ago and it's just called "head massager," it looks almost exactly like this. I like it very much, the only downside is that it doesn't work for me when I use it myself, it has to be someone else. Our short New Year's stay turned out to be the perfect opportunity :)

[lannamichaels]

Thanks! That does look nice :D