Under the wide, wide sky

I wanted to post about writing - looking back over last year, and ahead - and I wanted to post about erised, so here is one squished-up post about them both.

( First, erised )

( And onto my writing )

And let me just finish by wishing you all a belated Happy New Year, and lots of <3 for all being so wonderful.

I thought I'd better claim my Smoochfest fic. I had so much fun writing this, and it felt good to be writing again after quite a long break. I actually wrote this as a pinch hit (it makes no difference to how long I take though) so I wasn't expecting to write for Smoochfest, but I'm so glad that I did! I'm writing so much less at the moment, but when I'm actually in the middle of a fic it feels like I've never stopped. Anyway, I have a soft spot for Harry working with his hands and had always wanted to retell a fairy tale. And I became quite obsessed with pottery while writing!

( This photo, in particular, inspired me )

Title: Another Sun That’s Brighter Still
Summary: Draco’s parents are trying to force him to marry – just because of some stupid family curse – but Draco isn’t willing to settle for second best. After rejecting one suitor too many, he’s handfasted to a stinky and ragged minstrel and sent off without a Knut to his name.
Rating: NC-17
Disclaimer: All Harry Potter characters herein are the property of J.K. Rowling and Bloomsbury/Scholastic. No copyright infringement is intended.
Word Count: ~26,500
Author's Notes: I’ve always had a fascination for stories like King Thrushbeard (The Taming of the Shrew is another that springs to mind) despite a sense of unease around some of the themes. Writing this story was a great chance to work out what I like about the trope, and to write a story that I can be happy with. I wanted, I realised, to focus on a humility without humiliation. I hope I’ve managed it. The two songs quoted in the fic are the Neapolitan song ’O Sole Mio (from which I’ve also taken the title), and Do The Hippogriff, from the Goblet of Fire film.

Thank you to my prereader indyonblue, and to my beta evilgiraffe. And thank you to the wonderful mods to this fest, who are always so helpful and, ahem, generous.

Another Sun That's Brighter Still (on AO3)

ETA: I've been on painkillers and antiobiotics all week, and my poor head is all over the place, otherwise I would not have forgotten to link to dustmouth's amazing little sketches for my fic (and others - they are all wonderful)! I am so lucky and honoured that she chose to illustrate my fic. <3

What a great year for hd_smoochfest! I am hideously behind with reading, but everything I've read so far has been wonderful, absolutely wonderful. I now want a Stanley brooch, with willow pattern and booties and harness. Anyway, I plan on loading up my kindle and working through everything I've missed, even if it takes all summer (with comments to follow - sorry if I haven't read/commented on yours yet, dear f-list).

This year I was lucky enough to pre-read/beta/Brit-pick some real stunners: A Perfect Bond by indyonblue, But, In Dreams by kedavranox, Kiss the Joy (Until the Sun Rise) by icmezzo, Black Island by oakstone730, and Hungry by birdsofshore. They are all wonderful, ranging from fluff to angst, via soulful poetry (ICM's is destined to become a fandom classic, I think), Eighth-year, tropical islands, a wedding, and some very hot sex, er, I mean a Seer's visions and troubled life.

As for my own fic, I wrote The Comfort of Tea. I just wanted to have fun, and so I did. I wrote bad jokes, and pissing, and tea-drinking. Oodles of fluff, and no smut (sorry!). Thank you to all who left comments - I still working my way through them, as my life is being ridiculously busy and getting in the way, but I will reply to every single one. If you haven't read it yet, do make sure you have a nice cup of tea to hand before you start. :)

( The Comfort of Tea )

Author: omi_ohmy
Prompt Number: 13
Gift for: treacle_tartlet
Title: This Delicious Solitude
Pairing(s): Harry/Draco, past Harry/Ginny
Summary: Draco is sent to investigate Harry’s extraordinary carrots for the Prophet after whispers of cheating rock the world of competitive vegetable cultivation. But how’s he meant to get anywhere when Harry won’t even let him past the garden gate?
Rating: R
Disclaimer: All Harry Potter characters herein are the property of J.K. Rowling and Bloomsbury/Scholastic. No copyright infringement is intended.
Warning(s): Bad jokes.
Epilogue compliant? Almost - vague reference made to it.
Word Count: ~16,900
Author's notes: Written for the 2012 hd_smoochfest. I would just like to apologise in advance: I know nothing about gardening, growing vegetables, living in a village, cider or Devon. But at least I do already know how to make jam - not that anyone makes jam in this. I did try to follow the prompt, including the request for not too much schmoop: I'm not entirely sure how successful I was on that last point. :D Thanks to my lovely betas birdsofshore and evilgiraff for their time and effort, as always. Finally, the title is from The Garden by Andrew Marvell, and the lines 'But society is all but rude / To this delicious solitude.'

( PART ONE )

PART TWO

Author/Artist LJ Name: omi_ohmy
Prompt Number: 18
Gift for: winterstorrm
Title: Rain
Pairing(s): Harry/Draco, um, and then a whole lot of het pairings – Luna/Rolf, Ron/Hermione, Ginny/OMC, past Harry/Ginny, inferred Draco/Pansy, Pansy/OMC,
Summary: Luna is getting married, and old friends meet up. It's too hot, and everything's changing for everyone except for Harry, who is still mooning after Draco.
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: All Harry Potter characters herein are the property of J.K. Rowling and Bloomsbury/Scholastic. No copyright infringement is intended.
Warning(s): Lots of references to het couples! Sorry, but it seemed kinda necessary at a wedding.
Epilogue compliant? Not really. I took elements from the epilogue and canon, to suit my needs, and disregarded others. *shrugs*
Word Count: ~5000
Author's Notes: Written for the 2012 hd_smoochfest. I saw this prompt was still unclaimed, and fell in love with it; the story wrote itself, basically. Thanks to my pre-reader birdsofshore and beta evilgiraff for their help.

( Rain )

Title: When a Tree Dreams (8/10)
Author:omi_ohmy
Summary: Directly after the war, Harry is left lost and full of questions about his life. Slowly over the summer, and with the help of friends, he works out what will make him happy - or even who. Angsty, eventual slash & romance, HPDM. Rated R for later chapters.
Disclaimer: Characters are the property of JK Rowling, et al. This fic was written for fun, not for profit.
Pairings/Characters: HP/DM, RW/HG
Rating: R
Word count (this chapter): ~42,300 (~5,300)
Warning(s): Mostly misery and friendships, not much HPDM until later chapters.
Betas: birdsofshore and evilgiraff

Chapter One

( Chapter Eight )

Title: When a Tree Dreams (6/9?)
Author:omi_ohmy
Summary: Directly after the war, Harry is left lost and full of questions about his life. Slowly over the summer, and with the help of friends, he works out what will make him happy - or even who. Angsty, eventual slash & romance, HPDM. Rated R for later chapters.
Disclaimer: Characters are the property of JK Rowling, et al. This fic was written for fun, not for profit.
Pairings/Characters: HP/DM, RW/HG
Rating: R for later chapters (this chapter PG)
Word count (this chapter): ~31,000 (~4,600)
Warning(s): Mostly misery and friendships, not much HPDM until later chapters.
Betas: birdsofshore and evilgiraff

Chapter One

( Chapter six )

Title: When a Tree Dreams (4/9?)
Author: omi_ohmy
Summary: Directly after the war, Harry is left lost and full of questions about his life. Slowly over the summer, and with the help of friends, he works out what will make him happy - or even who. Angsty, eventual slash & romance, HPDM. Rated R for later chapters.
Disclaimer: Characters are the property of JK Rowling, et al. This fic was written for fun, not for profit.
Pairings/Characters: HP/DM, RW/HG
Rating: R for later chapters (this chapter PG)
Word count (this chapter): ~22,000 (~5,500)
Warning(s): Mostly misery and friendships, not much HPDM until later chapters.
Betas: birdsofshore and evilgiraff

Chapter One

( Chapter Four )

Title: When a Tree Dreams (2/9?)
Author: omi_ohmy
Summary: Directly after the war, Harry is left lost and full of questions about his life. Slowly over the summer, and with the help of friends, he works out what will make him happy - or even who. Angsty, eventual slash & romance, HPDM. Rated R for later chapters.
Disclaimer: Characters are the property of JK Rowling, et al. This fic was written for fun, not for profit.
Pairings/Characters: HP/DM, RW/HG
Rating: R for later chapters (this chapter PG)
Word count (this chapter): ~9,300 (~5,300)
Warning(s): Mostly misery and friendships, not much HPDM until later chapters.
Betas: birdsofshore and evilgiraff

A/n: I started this a while back, and have written a fair bit now. Due to other commitments it has taken a bit longer than I'd planned to get it posted, but here it is: my first attempt at writing something longer. It's a gentle, slow-building fic, but heading to more slashy times by the end. It will be 9 or so chapters long, and updates every Friday (I hope!)
Chapter One

( Chapter Two )

Title: The Fancy Dress Party
Author: omi_ohmy
Summary:  Draco has been pining over Harry for years. Pansy has a plan to help get Harry to notice him, involving everyone dressing up. Post-Hogwarts, EWE. A silly bit of fun I wrote to entertain myself.
Pairings/Characters: Harry/Draco, Blaise/Ginny, Pansy/Theo, Ron/Hermione
Rating: PG-13
Word count: 6,391
Warning(s):  A bit cracky. And no smut: I seem to be taking a break from it, at the moment. O.o
Disclaimer: Characters are the property of JK Rowling, et al. This fic was written for fun, not for profit.

A/N: Thanks to evilgiraff for the speedy betaing, and to birdsofshore for prereading. Also thanks to those who gave their own fancy dress requests/suggestions - I tried to get them all in. This story was inspired by three things: a conversation about fancy dress parties I once had in a pub; looking at lots of lovely Merlin pictures this week; and a scene from a film I was watching when I realised I was in love with the friend who is now my husband (although I only saw the link halfway through writing this). :)

( The Fancy Dress Party )