Author Archives: Sam

Painting Layers of Love (Chapter Three)

Posted on by

rowofstars:

still-searching47:

Synopsis: Belle French lives alone and she likes it that way. She’s lived alone ever since the terrible car accident which killed her mother and claimed her eyesight. Belle spends her days painting, in complete solitude, until one day she wakes up and hears movement outside. Somebody has moved into the cottage next door. She had grown comfortable in her solitary existence until Mr Gold crashes into her life. Now her future is uncertain, like a blank canvas, waiting for her to apply the paint and decide what kind of story she is creating.

Note: I managed to update in two weeks this time! Thanks to everyone that sent prompts in on Tuesday, I really appreciate it 🙂 In this chapter @bookwormchocaholic prompted “Maybe Belle tries to leave and go somewhere and gets disoriented.”

Warning: I probably should have put this on the other chapters as well. Deals with depression and anxiety.

On Tumblr: Chapter One, Chapter Two

AO3 Link

Belle slept
badly. Unusually she managed to get to sleep relatively quickly, which didn’t
happen often. Most nights, the moment she laid her head on the pillow, her mind
started racing. During the day she had distractions, she could lose herself in
painting if nothing else. However, at night, when she was trying to sleep, her
mind became a battleground.

Last night,
just a couple of hours after she went to sleep, Belle woke up. She had a drink
of water and tried to settle but she was wide awake. When she had gone to bed,
she had been happy, but in the dark of the night, that happiness turned to
fear. After all, Nick had left quickly after she had touched his face.

The fleeting
hope she’d felt disappeared, and Belle started wondering if he’d left because
he’d been uncomfortable, and had just been too polite to say anything.
Intellectually she knew it was paranoia, but she couldn’t stop her mind from
imagining scenarios. She pictured seeing him, and him yelling at her, or even
worse just being cold and dismissive. Then Belle pictured never seeing him
again, as he just decided not even to bother saying goodbye.

Keep reading

That moment when you thought you had subscribed to a wonderful story on AO3 but then you see an update you missed and you hadn’t and LOOK AT MY LIFE CHOICES. Okay that’s fixed now.

I love this and everyone should be reading it! Will we be seeing some more of Nick’s POV with regards to Belle and maybe his own issues? (Of which I am sure there are many if Neal had to order him on vacation.)

Wow thank you so much!

I did only update this morning so you didn’t really miss it and you didn’t have to comment here and on AO3 but thank you so much! 🙂 Yes that will definitely be covered. Not all in one go obviously but we’ll start to delve more into Gold’s feelings, understanding of the situation and his own history etc. in the next chapter.

I’m so glad you liked it!! Thank you 🙂

worryinglyinnocent:

I was so happy when I saw this update! Poor Belle, I just want to wrap her up in a hug. 

I love the way that this is developing, it’s really beautiful, and I can picture the little cottages and the lavender fields so vividly!

Heh so can I … but then I stole the description from the inspiration aesthetic that prompted this fic. At least I think I did, I wasn’t actually looking at when I wrote that part *checks* … erm nope actually that doesn’t match the picture, clearly I formed a new picture in my head.

Awww I love that you were happy for the update! I don’t think Belle would appreciate a hug right now but Gold’s working on it, he’ll hug her for you later 🙂 Thank you so much for commenting!

Posted on by

Monthly Rumbelling has just laid down a huge challenge. When I read the prompts my mind was blank (this happened last month), I went to the gym and by the time I was finished I had ideas for not one prompt but both of them! That’s not so bad, I hear you say, where’s the challenge?

Well ….
1) I’ve never written a smut fic before. I want to try and write it because it’ll add another skill to the toolkit, and it will challenge me as a writer. I’ve talked with another rumbelle writer who has been super encouraging about it, but I’m still a little scared.
2) The idea I got for the smut prompt, I want to include it in the War Within verse, set after the end of the fic. That’s not a problem because the fic has to be finished by the premiere. However, in order for it to make sense I need to write not just one, but two of the planned oneshots I was intending to add to the verse first. I had figured I would get to them eventually but it didn’t have to be this month … but now it kinda has to be this month.

My mission should I choose to accept it is to write all the things. This message will now self-destruct in ….

image

10 Favorite characters

Posted on by

@bookwormchocaholic thanks for the tag.

10 favorite characters across everything? That has got to be one of the hardest questions ever. I mean they are all so different, how to choose? I’ve restricted it to TV shows because if I started getting into movies and books as well, the difficult becomes impossible.

Anyway, I’m putting it under the cut because gifs seemed like fun.

1) Nicholas Rush (Stargate Universe)

image

2) Samantha Carter (Stargate: SG1)

image

3) Rumplestiltskin/Mr Gold (Once Upon a Time)

image

4) Regina Mills (Once Upon a Time)

image

5) Ash Morgan (Hustle)

image

6) Michelangelo “Spike” Scarlatti (Flashpoint)

image

7) Ziva David (NCIS)

image

8) Catherine Willows (CSI: Vegas)

image

9) Ronon Dex (Stargate: Atlantis)

image

10) Julian Sark (Alias)

image

Honorable Mentions: Ellie Bishop (NCIS), Kensi Blye (NCIS: LA), Jules Callaghan (Flashpoint), Jacob Carter (Stargate: SG1), Bra’tac (Stargate: SG1), Irina Derevko (Alias), Jack Bristow (Alias) and lots of others probably because I have brain fail.

We should do a top 10 ships one, that would be easier. I might struggle to even name 10. I don’t ship a lot, but what I do ship I ship hard.

September Status Update

Posted on by

A summary post of what happened last month fic-wise, and my plans for the forthcoming month, because I can’t hit a target, if I can’t see it.

Previous Status: July, August

Works posted in August:
– The War Within (Alternate season six, WIP)
– Chapter Eight
– Chapter Nine
– Chapter Ten
– Chapter Eleven
– Chapter Twelve
– Painting Layers of Love (AU romance, WIP)
– Chapter Two

– Between Two Fires (A Monthly Rumbelling fic)

– In Your Arms (OUaT Positivity fic)

Coming up definitely in September:
– The War Within (completed before the 25th premiere)
– Painting Layers of Love (hopefully completed but if not definitely a couple of chapters)

– The first chapter of Nightwalkers (based on this discussion thread)

What I hope September might bring:
– The Rush/Carter oneshot because I have pushed it to the next month twice now and I really need to get this written and posted.
– A fic based on the A Monthly Rumbelling Event if I am inspired by any of the prompts.
– The cleaned up, expanded and completed fic from the Rushbelle Swim Date prompt.

I know I’ve been promising Nightwalkers for ages. However, it is definitely happening next month because it’s going to be my next main WIP. It’ll take The War Within’s Tuesday slot which means that the first chapter of Nightwalkers has to be posted no later than the 27th, as The War Within has to be finished by the 25th. Ha – finally, won’t be guiltily pushing it to the next month this time 🙂

Which means that I just need to start feeling guilty about Ripple Effect. Yeah I’m not going to get to that until October /hides. I have so many fics I want to work on, I was actually frightened I was going to forget some and had to write a list. Is that too many fics? Possibly *whistles innocently* and moving on … I have a couple of War Within oneshots I want to add to the verse but that is unlikely to happen before the 25th.

That’s it for this months status report. Until next time!

August Retrospective

Posted on by

I know I didn’t blog really last month, to be honest I didn’t really have anything to blog about. That will change when Once Upon a Time premieres on September 25th.

Although I nearly wrote a blogpost about Warcraft the other day. Legion has just launched and I was surprised at how completely I didn’t care. I thought I would feel a tug of nostalgia but I didn’t, which I guess means I’m completely over the game. If anything actually, I felt bad that I didn’t care. The game was a big part of my life for a few years, it’s still weird to just not care. I feel like I should but well it’s not the game I loved anymore.

Anyway, just a quick status post. I said at the end of my July retrospective what I was hoping to achieve in August – so did I complete my goal?

Yeah and then some. I finished the first draft of book two, which was the main goal. It’s run scarily short but I can fix that in revision – which I start today. All told last month I wrote 75k, my previous highest total for a month was 65k which I got in July. So I broke my record two months running.

My goal for September is to get as much revision done on book two as possible. Ideally I want it completed and sent to the editor by mid-october at the latest. Obviously, once the analysis/prep/planning part of the revision is over, there will be rewriting for the second draft. I also have other writing (fanfic) that I’m keeping busy with. So my word count goal for September is the same as last month – 50k.

I hope I exceed my goal again (that’s always fun) but if I don’t then it doesn’t matter. The main point is the revision and that will require as many words as it requires, no more or less. It’s less about words, more about getting it right at this stage. Hopefully all will go well, I love being productive and getting stuff done. Here’s to a good month!

In Your Arms (OUaT Positivity)

Posted on by

grace52373:

still-searching47:

Synopsis: Retired soldier
and single father Gold works at a coffee shop library. Plagued by nightmares of
the war he’s quiet, only interacting with customers when necessary. His
favorite customer is Belle, who comes in a couple of times a week. Her smile is
as bright as the sun. One day she comes in upset and for a moment he is brave
enough to ask her what is wrong.

Note: I’m a bit confused about the posting day for this exchange. I read initially it was September 1st, then there was an updated post that said August 31st, and now I just don’t know. So if I’m early then I apologize but I guess that’s better than being late.

There were no prompts given for this gift exchange. However, I asked @britishkitten27 what they would like
and they said “Rumple is my favorite character on the show, and Mr. Gold,
spinner!Rumple and soldier!Rumple are my favorite iterations of the character.
I like a bit of hurt/comfort, personally, especially if we’re talking Rumbelle.
Anything with Rumple being as woobie as possible and I do love Ruby, Archie and
Doctor Whale.”

I took it from there
and came up with this fic. For anyone that follows me, this is the blanket fort fic I’ve mentioned a few times 🙂 I love this fic a crazy stupid amount, so I hope you guys enjoy it!

Warning: Deals with loss of a parent.

AO3 Link

“All hopes of eternity and all gain from the past
he would have given to have her there, to be wrapped warm with him in one
blanket, and sleep, only sleep. It seemed the sleep with the woman in his arms
was the only necessity.”
– Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D.H. Lawrence

Jamie Gold
scurried around, in between the tables of the coffee shop at the library where
he worked. Originally it had just been a library, that had survived on
donations and grants from the city. However, all libraries had to double as social
centers these days or they couldn’t survive, hence the addition of the coffee
shop.

This library
was small, family owned and had become quite the focal point of the community.
It’s family-first policy was the only reason he got the job. David Nolan, the
manager, had looked past his cane and given him a chance. Gold had sworn at the
time to not cause him to regret it. He’d now been working there two years, the
longest he had kept a job since his discharge from the army.

Keep reading

That was beautiful! I loved Neal asking why he can’t have a sleepover with Emma! The quote was beautiful and I loved the ending!

Thanks! Yeah, well Neal is six, so child logic. Maybe in a few months/year or so if Belle and Gold move in together, then Neal can have a sleepover at his house, there would be no argument against it then. I actually found the quotes by doing the exact same thing Gold did. I’m glad you enjoyed it 🙂

beastlycheese:

Beautiful and heart warming. How sweet and how brave to read that quote in public! The Block gave me the eebie jeebies, hope they escape soon.

I think if Gold had thought about it, then he wouldn’t have done it in public but it was a “I have to do it now because otherwise I never will” type leap of faith. Besides, up until the kiss, nobody was really paying them any attention. They were just talking to one another, he was reading – it’s a library.

Yeah The Block isn’t great but it’s the only place Gold can afford on his salary. If things between Belle and Gold work out, then they can move into somewhere else, because there would be two salaries for rent/bills etc. Like how Belle shares with Ruby at the moment and they have a nicer place. So an escape is certainly possible. Thanks for commenting! I’m glad you enjoyed it 🙂

woodelf68:

I’ve wanted a Jamie Gold for forever; I hope that Belle can make him like his name again. The bit about him biting his own hand to silence his screams was awful, and really conveyed the horribleness of the place he was in mentally. And Neal accusingly demanding why couldn’t he have a sleepover with Emma was adorable. Hopefully in a year’s time they’ll all be in a better place both physically and emotionally. 

Yeah I really want to write a follow-up to this, maybe showing what happens in a years time. It would probably be pure fluff unless I made it a longer piece in which case reality would intrude around the happy moment. I’m glad you liked it! Thanks for commenting 🙂

Posted on by

@rumbellefitnessclub is there anyway we could have like a status post, so we can check on each others progress? I don’t know how that would be possible but I thought it might be nice, sort of encouraging. I want to cheer all you guys on! 🙂

Anyway, I moved on to week 2 this morning!

I’m using the Get Running: Couch to 5k app and I know it’s only week 2, but baby steps. I feel kinda proud of myself. Mind you, the jump isn’t that big from week 1 to week 2. The jumps get bigger after this but I have made it to week 4 in the past. I’m on my way 🙂

In your opinion, what would be the plot of a rushbelle teacher/student arranged marriage AU ?

Posted on by

endangeredslug:

emospritelet:

I’ve been thinking about this for a while and I have nothing, sorry love 🙁

I was prompted this once and the best I could do was fake dating.

I don’t know how these stack up as possibilities. For canon-ish there’s a visa scam, or an inheritance thing, must be married to inherit. Then there’s canon-ish (not on Earth) of Rush surviving to go to Novus, everyone had to hook up to make kids if they wanted to have a sustainable population.

Or if Rush somehow wound up on an alien planet (not on Destiny) that had arranged marriages, a bit like how Daniel wound up married to Sha’re, now that’s not strictly teacher/student, but maybe he would be revered on this world and be given an apprentice, who he then had to marry.

Then go wild with the AU’s. Rush is a scientist in the past when arranged marriages were a thing, I mean math has been around forever, and he agrees to marry his student Belle for whatever reason you like, avoiding another arranged marriage/her reputation/to keep her in school (perhaps her father wanted to pull her out because it’s not proper for women to be smarter than the men they are supposed to marry).

I mean sure strictly speaking aside from maybe the alien planet stuff, nothing requires Rush specifically, but everything is better with Rush. Maybe the alien world pulls a Firefly (Our Mrs Reynolds) and Rush doesn’t even realize what happened at first. He thought he was agreeing to teach her, not marry her.

I can see Rush agreeing to a wife who was a student because she would be smart, maybe able to help him, or at least know enough to leave him alone to work. He thinks it’s just a beneficial arrangement then bam surprise, he falls in love with her.

Any of that spark anything?

Painting Layers!Belle: Do you prefer to be home because you’re a homebody, or is there a deeper, another underlying issue that keeps you close to home?

Posted on by

Belle: Oh I’m a homebody, always have been. Nothing beats curling up with a good book or sitting at my easel. Everything I need is at home, I have no reason to leave and so I don’t feel the urge to do so. Home is convenient and comfortable.

Author: Feeling a little defensive there Belle? You are quite correct there is nothing wrong with being a homebody. It only starts to become a problem if you want to leave and you can’t.

Belle: I don’t know what you are talking about. It’s my choice to stay at home. Leaving is just more trouble than it’s worth.

(A/N: It’s a bit of both. There are underlying issues which have exacerbated the situation. It’s wrapped up in the accident, her grief and her guilt over her mother, the depression and the anxiety. Belle might tell herself that it’s her choice, and she might even believe it but she’s letting her fear control her. There isn’t anything wrong with Belle staying at home if that is her choice, so long as she could go out if she wanted to do so. Right now, that isn’t the case.)

Thanks for the prompt as well by the way 🙂 I’m going to tie that in with another idea I had.