Years 22 Burn Baby Burn

 

SHV with Rogue Hangover: Ummm...hey we wrote and titled this post like two weeks ago and moved it to this week.... right ?

CPShawna: Yeah....

 

Burn

Haley's godson Sky is going to make a couple more cameos and I kind of forgot what how to write him  so I ended up...re-reading  Burn over break ? Burn was this really random thing I wrote but...it's maybe one of my top 5 Vice things ?

I'm not saying it's good, because it really bounces around in genre and tone, but it captures so much of what interests me. It had the SFF element, some mild cyberpunk leftovers from Vice and takes some big melodramatic turns which are always fun to write.

Sky is a lonely kid who always wanted a family and when he discovers he has one he expects to find the loving, functional, whole family he sees on TV and instead finds the exact opposite.  At one point Lansing Prescott is just wandering around drunk and treats Sky like the 3-year-old he lost as he grits his teeth through a  sham marriage with Maxwell so Maxwell can be president because even though he's seen Maxwell's dark side he's still in love with the idea of him.

I think that's why I subconsciously gave Lansing a mini-HEA in this. I'm not sure I  know how to flex my cyberpunk muscle anymore but their is a certain "cold cruel world" aspect that doesn't exist  when I jumped it in modern times. I just want everyone to be okay...but I miss the darkness 😈. 

UPDATE: Uh, so Lile talked about this serial in her Rogue wrap up and I do not remember anyone having sex in front of anyone...it's from a 16yo POV so it wasn't on page but maybe I inferred it ? Now that I think about it...I didn't read the last chapter...it's not my fave, I like the melodrama parts.

Years 21

I really had fun breaking away from prose with that last chapter. The chapter originally opened with Haley at Nova's school and as they fought in the coffee shop they do a reveal of what had happened in the previous year but it felt very info dump-y. 

Years 22 

Recap

Sara Grace turns herself in and spends 11 months in federal prison. She is now free to live her life and decides she wants to spend half the year in New York with  her daughter Twyla and half the year in Las Vegas with Luce and Rias.

Nova is kicked out of school for possession of marijuana and has to go to school online. Despite Nova's mounting behavior problems Haley still wants a baby and after they learn Luce's sperm are nonviable Twyla agrees to be the surrogate and egg donor. In my head that chapter was fall 2017 and this chapter is going to cover about six months later in summer 2018...

Years 22

Playlist 

-1- Rain on Me by Lady Gaga

-2- Sorry Not Sorry by Demi Lovato (I picked this song weeks ago, I swear)

-3- Silence by Marshmello (This one too)

-4- Beige by Yolk Lore

Follow The >>> Years 21

 Hi !

The trailer for this movie about two married men in their late 50s and one of them has an illness gave me some serious Years-ish vibes and is also a great example of what I mean when I say everyone is hot.

I will likely never see this movie (I'm honestly not sure my heart could take it 😥) but I love that this is what 59 looks like now! Colin Firth has some Luce-like features a little.

What I Did Over My Break

I never really had  plan for my break and I didn't get as much done as I wanted. I'm working on the pen-penultimate section right now and it is creeping along sentence by sentence.

No new plot bunnies showed up but I'm okay with that.

Also, one of the future chapters (assuming I don't do some big overhaul) is going to be close to 10K!

Recap

In 1998 Luce Grace helps Alex Haley escape from an abusive relationship with porn producer Kenneth Maxwell and in 2002 they begin dating. Over the next 14 years Haley becomes a nurse, has a son, Luce suffers a stroke and crashes his car leaving him  with traumatic brain injury and paralyzed on one side. The accident puts a strain on their relationship  but find their way back to each other through their shared connection and BDSM. Luce  relaunches their bankrupted company Fallwater on a smaller scale to build fetish websites and supplements his income with a part time job teaching math at a community college.

In 2016 they get married and Luce adopts Nova--who has ADHD and (along with his best friend Holland) has become something of a troublemaker. At 11 the two steal expensive makeup and in the middle of Luce and Haley's  honeymoon they discover 12-year-old Nova has skipped school to spend time with Lindsey Gregory, the girlfriend of a boy who made fun of Nova in a group chat.

 Just as it seems like Luce and Haley have their future figured out they find out Sara turned herself in for running away from police custody in Arizona in 1990 and was able to plead out for a 5 month stint in federal prison...Luce is not happy...

Years 21 (Follow the >>>)

Playlist

-1- Bloodstain by Wrabel

-2- Long Way Down by Tom Odell

-3- Overhwhelmed by  

-4- Your Song by Rita Ora

Years 20

I'm not even going to pretend chapter 20 isn't the wedding chapter.

Chapter 19 

One of the earliest things I needed to figure out when I was thinking about Years is *when* Luce and Haley would get married.

In the Vice!Verse they secretly get married almost as soon as they get together because Haley kidnaps Sky to a satellite ship and wants Luce to be his next of kin if something happens to him. I couldn't really come up with an equivalent for this serial---especially since  same sex marriage wasn't legal in Nevada until 2014. 

I kind of liked the idea of them being older when they got married and for Nova to be a little bit more of an active participant.

Somebody asked about picspirations and honestly, IDK but just image all the adults are hot

I Drive Myself Crazy

I've been listening to my old playlists (I've given up on finding new music) and I saw an inspy playlist in my library called LSAM and drove myself crazy for an hour trying to figure out what it was for. I tried looking at the dates I added songs and coorlated them to blog posts but that didn't get me anywhere.

Then I searched my docs and saw LSAM was the document name for Pulse but I still didn't know what LSAM stood for. It bugged me and then on a whim I searched my blog and I guess I originally called Pulse Let's Solve A Murder...there is no point to this story, it just took up a lot of my brain space.

Chapter 20

CPShawna: Okay, SHV, how much from Lile did we still for this one ?

 

Recap
In 2015 Luce and Nova take Haley to Ceasers Palace where Luce pops the question. Haley says yes and is walking on air but six months later then he finds out Nova shoplifted a very expensive makeup palette. Let's skip ahead to 2016...

Years 20

Playlist

An Extra 90s Playlist For Some Reason ?
-1- Truly, Madly, Deeply by Savage Garden

-2- Hold on by Wilson Phillips

-3- Born to Make You Happy by Britney Spears 

-4-  Blonde Sun  by Angus Maude

When Life Gives You... Years 18/19

Years 17
In Chapter 17Haley turns 40 and Luce surprises him by taking him to a party Maverick is hosting.  I wanted to close the loop on the rough patch of their relationship after his suicide attempt and also show how BDSM is a strong piece of their dynamic. In my original incarnation of this chapter I wanted to show some of Haley's insecurities about his physical appearance (which are mostly PTSD from his relationship with Maxwell) and have him get upset at the party when it really wasn't about Luce. But I think when I finally  wrote the chapter Luce was more in the wrong than I intended.

WIP
I'm kind of in another tough spot with Years at the moment. Writing this serial (and all the AUs) has been surprisingly easy and kind of cathartic. I think I'm on track for a record number of posts this year and I'm hoping not to lose the momentum.  I'm just trying to get the pacing right and keep hitting walls...so that's what I'm dealing with. I want to take a note from Lile and just skip those hard sections but something in my brain won't let me.

I haven't really looked at writing other things, it's occurred to me that I might TDOLL either Sunshine, Nova or one of the AUs.

Chapters 18 + 19

Recap
Haley turns 40 and Luce takes him to a BDSM party that gets them out of their rut and reignites the flames...

* Double Chapter Post *
Chapter 18
Playlist
-1- Whitby by Stephan Moccio
-2- Can I Call you Tonight

Chapter 19

-1- Locked out of Heaven by Bruno Mars
-2- Till The World Ends by Britney Spears
-3- I Like Me Better by Lauv

XXX Shawna XXX Years 17

It's getting hot in here...

 

XXX
A lot of Maverick's  life was inspired by this video from The Cut. I'm not sure how much of this interview is staged but I lifted the idea of porn star roomates directly from here.



In my quest to sort of see what the trade show AEX is based on was like I looked at some adult film star social media and watched some vlogs. The industry is almost exclusively cam shows and Onlyfans content which has put pretty much everyone else out of business. Companies like Fallwater and Virtue can't really succeed.

I watched  pieces of some terrible documentaries about Cam Girls (these isn't a lot of articles or sources  about men who do this) and it is interesting to see the devotion of their fans who feel like they have a relationship with these women. The women are aggressive about getting their money so that's why I added a lot of ads in Maverick's podcast. Anyway, that about sums up my scandalous  XXX research.

Blogger
I did a little bit of a blog refresh, I'll probably change it as I try to remember how to do this. I haven't changed my blog in almost 6 years so I'm a little rusty.

Chapter 17
Recap 
Haley and Luce are living together and working on bringing the romance back to their relationship but something  is still not clicking. Meanwhile Grayson is diagnosed with ADHD and Haley is trying to figure that out too...

Chapter 17
Playlist
-1- Out of My League by Fitz and The Tantrums
-2- I Got You by Jessie J
-3- Feel My Needs by Weiss
-4- Almost by Hozier

Pretty Colors: Years

 

 

Dear Lile,

 It's just now occurring to me I have no idea what Lile meant when she said something about chapter 15 and 16 of Years being like AYC. Those chapters had a lot of domesticity and parent/child stuff...

My Madness

So, I learned something new about my Microsoft:

 

 

I think I've mentioned before I color code drafts. The color-coding thing has really come full circle in Years. Previously, I used color coding to outline UL and Compulsion but now I'm using it both to outline and write Years. I'm normally more of a pantser but I had to outline my last few serials to make sure the years were lining up. When I zoom out my draft  looks like this (this isn't the whole thing but you get the idea) :

I like using colors because then I can easily spot where one chapter ends and another begins. I also just like typing in pretty colors!

Years 16

Recap

After Luce's suicide attempt he moves in with his brother Rias and spends the next year and a half working to get better. He is able to end the conservatorship by going to therapy and even finding a part time job teaching math at a community college. He and Haley make amends and Luce moves back in but things between them still aren't exactly the way they used to be, especially in the bedroom...

Years 16
Playlist
-1- Electric Feel by MGMT
-2- Please Keep Loving Me by James TW
-3- Can't Take My Eyes Off You by Frankie Valli

-4- Love Me Like You Do by Ellie Goulding

Yola.com Would Never: Years 14 + 15

*stares in new Blogger*

 

Years Thirteen

 
Update: It's been a while, I guess I should add a recap ? In chapter 13 36-year-old Haley and 4-year-old Grayson have been living in Luce and Sara's condo for over a year.  When being Luce's caregiver becomes too much, Haley hires outside nurses but Luce's depression, overwhelming medical debt and mood swings get the better of him and he attempts suicide by having Grayson put medicine down his feeding tube when Haley is away on a overnight trip to film segments for a "buzzfeed for porn" website.

Luce is rushed to the hospital and Haley is questioned by CPS. Okay to the post:

In chapter 13  I wanted to explore the tensions among Haley, Luce and Sara occupying the same space. I've always seen Sara and Haley as having a good relationship and working together even if they aren't emotionally close.  Sara is kind of a distant person. I've sort of been flying close to the Lucely timeline in the Vice!Verse but now we've gotten to some years that aren't even alluded to in the Vice!Verse.

Years 14 + 15
I feel like these chapters are the very beginning of another tonal shift. A lighter one believe it or not.


Recap
Luce is two years into his recovery and struggling with depression. When Haley goes to California to shoot a freelance videos, Luce takes advantage of Grayson to commit suicide. Luce is under a conversvatorship by his brother but Haley is left responsible. This picks up six months later...

Chapter 14
Playlist
-1- Like Everybody Else by Lennon Stella
-2- Torn by Boyce 
-3-  Faith by Sleeping At Last
Chapter 15
-1- Concrete Jungle by Au/Ra
-2- Sideways by Citizen Cope 
-3- You Keep Lifting Me by  Amber Run