Pretty Peeps: Years 2

Pretty Peeps!
I'm sure I don't need to do picspirations at this point but I wanted to make the ages and time periods they grew up in clear. These are the ages when the story starts in 1998.

Luce Grace (29; Born 1969) and Alex Haley (25; Born 1973)

I think in the comments of Nigh Out someone called Luce a Baby Boomer but they are both Gen X'ers! It's hard to find a specific Luce-spiration but I  love Richard Madden's little grey streak. I know Lucely haven't interacted "on page" much but you all know where this is going...

Jean Dory, 40 (1958)  Minnow Dory, 31 (1967) Kenneth Maxwell, 46 (1952) Sara Grace, 45 (1953)

I see a lot of Minnow in Tessa Thompson, particularly her performance in Thor Ragnorak. Something about her "I don't care but I do care" attitude.  IDK, she and Jean can be half-siblings ? I see some Jean in Jonathan Van Ness--more looks wise than personality. Also my old picspiraton for Jean, Jared Leto, is...starting a cult ?

I think Frances McDormand gets my Sara expression perfectly. Transporting her life to the1960s America is interesting in ways I don't do much with.

The closest Maxwell inspy I've had is the elusive clean shaven Joe Mangienello. Did I intentionally change Maxwell's age so he would have the Vietnam War as backstory ? Yes. After seeing Tiger King I can see Maxwell as kind of Jeff  Lowe-y. He's also a little Joe Exotic-y too because he's in a relationship with someone barely out of high school.

Zacharias Washington, 19 (Born: 1977) and Charlotte Dory 20 (Born:1978)

These are my Xillenials. I realize Rias hasn't been mentioned but he was mentioned in SWM so we know he exists in this world. This Rias inspy is a Kpop member who is not Japanese but reminds me of Rias.

Dear Lile

CP!Shawna: Wow, it's really embarrassing how Lile is going through your old comments and reading your old whining

SHV: Yeah, but I like the gesture. Maybe I'll post a comment of hers I can relate to. Like this one:

I think this is from GWOSM finale ? I have nothing else planned after Years at the moment and I'm trying to be okay with that but...it's hard. I don't even remember what having unwritten story ideas feels like anymore ?

The Most SFW Research on the Adult Entertainment Industry
AEX is based on the  Adult Video News (AVN) Expo.

My research was mostly adult actor AMAs on Reddit and a 1998 essay by David Foster Wallace  where he embedded at  the AVN Expo. IDK how true his essay is, it sort of reeks of misogyny (which I'm sure is plentiful in the industry) but between those two items and Wikipedia I kind of put something together. A LOT OF WHAT I'M WRITING IS 100% MADE UP THOUGH.

The adult industry is VERY different now than in the 90s-00s and I'll get into it a little bit as the serial moves forward. I will say it is very hard to find anything from the gay adult entertainment perspective. 1998 is the first year they awarded gay performers and I would have loved Wallace to get into that in the essay.

Also, all the men in adult entertainment are called performers and women are called starlets. I think that seeped into my writing but I tried to take it out. 

Years 2
Alex Haley has been in a 7 year relationship with  Kenneth Maxwell, a producer for Harmony Entertainment. They are attending the  Adult Entertainment Expo in Vegas together. On the expo floor Haley runs into Jean Dory, the older brother of his former roommate who tells him about his new company called Virtue. We're still in 1998...
Years 2
Playlist
- 1- Shiny Things by Fann
-2- Close To Me by Diplo
-3- Move by Jack Howden
-4 - Back To You by The Mayrie
-5- Slide by James Bay
-6- We Don't Have To Take Out Clothes Off by Elle Eyre (This was runner up for serial title)

Moving On: Years

Bonus points if you can tell which 2020 book I straight up stole this cover design from !

 

WAHHH!

I am licking my wounds because I'm still  sour over a big chunk of edits I deleted for Chapter 2...  Update: OMG, this section was me being really whiney ahout losing edits but I had apparently put the chapter in a word counter website and when I went back to the site it was still there  so it's been recovered! 

But First
Lol, I am so basic. I realized I left a very similar comment and gif  on the original School House Shuffle post  and on School House Shuffle TDOLL. I think I just want to inspire all the Lile things:

12/2017

4/2020

Years

I have no idea how we got here already but here we are. I began 2020 writing Nova, HH-Verse novellas and Years all at the same time so it's hard to believe I've come to the end of all that. I don't currently have anything else in the hopper but hopefully by the time I finish this I will.

I'd say forget what you think you know about Vice/Compulsion. There will be some familiar names but with some different backstories and a few ages have been changed. IDK what else to say so let's get into it.

I originally had this part and Chapter 2 together but then I separated them. So, you'll see some music from Chapter 2 on the  Spotify playlist. Just ignore it, it's likely going to change anyway.

Years

Playlist 
I may have oversold how much of the music will be time period appropriate. Most of it won't be.

-1-  Anamoly by Lights & Motion

-2-  Hand in My Pocket by Alanis Morisette

-3-  Glass House by Morgan Saint

-4-  We Move Lightly by Dustin O'Hallaran

-5-  Dance Monkey by Tones and I

The Night Out Continues (Night Out 2)

I've never really found a good picspiraton for the older versions of Haley (48) and Luce (52) but these are close-ish. Actor Jay Harrington has had kind of bearded salt and pepper glow up recently...I may have to start watching SWAT. John Cameron Mitchell (who is 51 in this photo!)  has the youthful vibe.


I will say, John Cameron Mitchell is a bit too wholesome looking for Haley but his height in this photos is sort of how I imagine him....now granted Elle Fanning is 5'9 but still.

Harrison High
In my last comment section Lile commented that Arrow was in a room by himself at the "foster home" and that it was sad but I was trying to make it sad. I wanted show he was a little older than the other kids  and got a certain amount of privacy. I may re-visit the HH-Verse at some point in flash fictions. I'm stewing on some of the ideas posited in the comment section. I'm envisioning  Three's Company Style shenanigan and I have to get all the moving parts figured out...three years ?

Years A Lucely Story
Unless I have a last minute stroke of inspiration the Lucely story will probably keep it's codename, Years, as it's real name. It has really turned into an unwieldy beast. It reads like some overly earnest fanfiction by a fan who needs to get a life. My original idea was for it to show a slice of life from different years but the idea...got away from me.

It’s a little lit-fic with some romcom silliness...and some melodrama. I know I must sound insane talking about it and I'll probably post a bit of it sooner than later just to get some feedback. The observations in the comment are always super enlightening.

Oddly enough.....Years has a lot of parallels to Netflix's The Tiger King ????? I promise I started writing it in January. I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THAT SAYS ABOUT ME!

Night Out !
Recap
It's homecoming in spring time ! The kids are off to the dance followed by a sleepover at the Fierro/Clara/Emile house and the Clarks are surprised by Haley (with help from Aubrey)  with dinner in NYC and spending the night in a luxury apartment...

Night Out 2
Playlist

- 1- Catch Me (I'm Falling) by Pretty Poison (This song...oddly inspired this story and  was the working title )
- 2- Sucker by Jonas Brothers
- 3 - Clair De Lune by Claude Debussy
- 4 - 2002 by Anne Marie
- 5 - Wasabi by Little Mix
- 6 -  Love on Top by Beyonce
- 7 - Come On Get Higher by Boyce Avenue (I love that they are still making covers!)

Everybody Smize: By Your Side (II)

 I was wasting time

Georgie Henley (Rose) is the only one who I think is an actual teenager in this collage. The cloest Arrow inspy I could find is model Miles Mcmillan--who looks nothing like this IRL.

Oh, also fun fact: My Mason inspy, Kodi Smit-McPhee,  joins my Rhett inspies (Nicholas Hoult and James Marsden) as an X-men. He plays Nightcrawler in New Mutants. Do all the X-men movies exist in the same universe ?

Also, I can really see Jennifer Lawrence as a young Juliana.


Clara and Emile

Dear Lile,

I loved your 600 word comment, your honesty is everything and I swear it hasn't impacted anything I'm about to post because they've all been pre-written.

I love how you said I got Emile and Clara right and I think the reason I did it so well  because they didn't have any lines !

Rose and Arrow
I don't consider my versions of Rose and Arrow part of Lile's canon. I kind of took the scaffolding and went with it.

Rose's  characterization is mostly based on this paragraph from Greetings from Le Visent when Clara is explaining to Tempest!Fierro he has a daughter:

She likes to draw and read. Her favorite colors are emerald, lilac and rose. She hates technology. She’s very smart though. Always get good grades. She’s has this sweet little voice and sometimes people can’t tell if she’s being polite or condescending which is kind of funny. She doesn’t really like sugar so she sweetness her tea with oranges and cinnamon sticks. Whatever you do don’t call her Rosie. She hates it.

By Your Side 2

Recap
Mason & Co lock themselves in the library during a school shooting and when they get out Nova is arrested as suspect in the shooting. Now Mason needs to find Arrow and Rose again so they can prove Nova was with them the whole time....

By Your Side 2
Playlist
-1- Like Everybody Else by Lennon Stella
-2- Ascolta by Ludovico Einaudi
-3-  There's Probably No Time by Chris Zabriskie
-4- When I Go by Ingrid Michaelson
-5- Don't You by Simple Plan

By Your Side

Who has been spying on me ???? This is literally me writing my 90's Lucely AU

Revising pic.twitter.com/PMhqsONquc

— Meredith Ireland (@MeredithIreland) January 23, 2020

 

Let's Talk Failure 
When I wrote the fanfics I've had to re-read some older serials for details and since my website was in shambles at the time, I usually went through the blog posts. Some of my old posts are super cringe-y but going through them reminded me:

I've failed SO MUCH.

I infamously rebooted Veritas as Vice but I'd totally forgotten Blessed Hearts was a reboot of De Tullieres and UL3 is a reboot of On Higher Ground. It's weird to do the "oops...let's try this again..." thing so publicly but it's also interesting because I can look back and see where  I got stuck

I don't have a point, just something I noticed. I do think a big reason I was rebooting things is because  I didn't let stuff "marinate" enough and now all I do is let ideas marinate in my mind palace until I'm itching to write.

Oh, and I have to give it up to commenters for your patience!

By Your Side
It is still so bizarre to be sharing this fic! It still feels like my little secret delusion that should not be
seeing the light of day. . .

By Your Side started like a dare I had with myself. I got the gist of the idea and kept saying, "that would be crazy, right ?" "that would be dumb, right ?" and then "Is that even okay to do ?"

This story will be in two parts.

Recap 
Because UL3 is centered around Hurricane Katrina this story definitely takes place in 2020 but I could have never predicted coronavirus. So, clearly this is an AU where that doesn't exist. Although maybe in a few years when this passes I could write what my characters would do in a quarantine...
 

In late spring, 16-year-old Mason Clark and his family move to Connecticut for his Dad's job at the Coast Guard Academy. Over the summer he meets 16-year-old Nova Haley-Grace and now they are going to school together....

By Your Side I
Playlist
- 1 - Perfect Day by Hoku 
 -2 - Something Like This by Gordi
-3- Nuvole Biacnche by Ludivici Einaudi
-4- Hold On by Alabama Shakes
-5- The Story Never Ends by Lauv

So For Real This Time: So We Meet

UPDATE:
I wrote this post well, well, well before the world got turned upside down. A piece of me feels weird posting it now. But who knows if there will ever be a good time again ? I don't know if I believe in escapist media being a balm for bad times but I also know me not posting it won't make things better? IDK the answers, I just wanted to acknowledge it.  

And if you do need escapist fiction ? I sort of see this as a fluff bomb. My other fics are a little more serious so I may hold off on those.
 

It's fanfic time! I am excited to invite you all into this weird thing I spent the second half of my 2019 on. No more pranks!

Night Out Prank
That was just a little fun on my part. I was scrolling through old Lile posts for reasons and I got tripped up by her prank all over again ! It made me want to do one...I don't remember much of the process after that.

I intentionally didn't share the actual story after that because I was afraid you all would still be mad at "fictional" fictional Rhett. And it's funny because you could really write him secretly cheating into any story he's  in but I swear he would never.

I also love that you guys wanted to find the good in that story even when don't like what I was doing. But I'm digging into uncharted territory now so hit me with your honest thoughts.

Give Me Three Years, Yall
It's so funny that Lile was joking (maybe?) about her 2023 plans in the Sincerely, Emile comment section because I feel that (for me anyway) if you give me three years I can do anything. I posted One Last Thing in 2017(!) and WinterWonderland asked me about doing a Grown!Juliana POV. Well, I did it with EPOH...it just took three years!



It also took me three years to go from Compulsion to Sweet Prince if you can believe it! That means I'll likely figure out FZA sometime in 2021 ?

So We Meet
For some reason I have two versions of this cover. I made these before I'd even finished the story. The one on the right is the final.

I just realized on the website I took off the tagline so these versions have a little bit of a spoiler about which two serials are about to cross over...but the reveal happens pretty quickly anyway.

Our narrator in this "fanfic" is Mason Clark. This takes place a few months after the events of EPOH. Mason  and his family just moved to Connecticut and he is going to me some familiar people in a whole new way....

So We Meet
Playlist 
- 1- Lately by Noah Cyrus
- 2 - Classic by MKTO
- 3- Golden by Harry Styles
- 4- Passenger by Noah
-5 -Way Back in by Ages and Ages

I'm a Fanfic Writer: Let's Toe Dip into Night Out!

I'm scared. . . so scared. Today I am posting a fanfic. I'm not as finished with my fics as I want to be but I feel like I need to get the ball rolling to get through this writer's block. Someone please hold my hand  . . .

Night Out!
I've decided to start these fanfic posting with Night Out, which might just be the story of my heart. I've been sitting with this idea for a long time and I didn't think I could do it but then the EPOH comment section  bought it together. 

This is going to be a little bit different, a little bit sexier (and a little bit taboo 😳). It's from Rhett's perspective, which I feel like I haven't done much with. I'm going to start by sharing the prologue and then chapter 1.

Background
This takes place after EPOH, about a year after the Clark family moves to Hartford, Connecticut for Rhett's new position at the Coast Guard Academy. The Academy is in New London but they live in Hartford because there actually isn't much in New London.

Night Out Prologue
Playlist
-1- Secret Love Song by Jason Derulo

Chapter 1 Playlist
-1-Lego House - Ed Sheerhan
-2- Skyscraper -  Sam Bailey
-3- Let Her Go - Gavin Mikhail