maggie touches grease with her hands

I am a little behind on admin stuff for Remix 7 (having foolishly scheduled it for a time when I'm busy writing final papers), but rest assured I will have assignments sent out by tonight!

So consider today one extra day to sign up, either for Tier A (to have your fic remixed and be assigned somebody to remix) and/or Tier B, where you can remix to your heart's content and post the result to remix7 whenever your little heart desires! You do NOT NEED to have signed up for Tier A in order to sign up for Tier B, and there's no deadline for either signups or posting in Tier B. I just want people to sign up so I know you're doing it!

we invented the remix 7: anything can happen

Well, y'all -- it's been a long and weird process this year, but we've reached the final stage of Remix: authors are up.

Thank you a zillion times over for my four marvellous, wonderful, fabulously talented pinch-hitters:

kira_j, who deserves Justin-in-a-sari for being so awesome;
etsu_88, possibly the sweetest girl in the entire world and her SECOND year doing this;
phaballa, who is LIKE A STORY MACHINE I SWEAR Y'ALL; and
i_naiad, who managed to get me a last-minute cover despite medical emergencies with her poor cat. Seriously, what a group of most excellent people! I am so glad I was able to come to you for help, folks -- you made it all much less stressful. *mwah*!

I have about four stories to feedback before I post recs, but I am determined to do it before I leave for vacation on Thursday!! This wouldn't have taken me so long if you guys didn't write such great fics, so it's your fault, really. *g*

Thank you to everybody for participating!

Well, y'all -- it's a day after the projected date for putting up Remix stories and there's still one author I haven't heard from since the weekend, so I am gonna go to work and when I come home this evening Remix is going up come hell or highwater. (If you have some time today and are interested in pinch-hitting, please do pop me an e-mail for details; I'll be writing one as well. Thank you, ladies!)

Should the last author get her story in to me before that, the remixes will go up asap (since I'll be at work, I can't guarantee a specific time); if she sends it to me and people are busy writing pinch-hits, I'll put up what we've got and then add the pinch-hit stories after.

So as of now, look for Remix to go up around 7pm PST for the latest!!

So my inner Lisa was all, "you should make a post about Jezebel Magazine and Bush giving himself absolute control over the entire federal government!" and my inner Bart went, "or you could actually say something semi-interesting and talk about Remix some more!" and my inner Marge went, "mixing half a glass of pepsi with cold coffee tastes just like coca-cola blak but with less sugar!" and my inner Homer went, "help me, space coyote!!" and this is how it shakes out:

It turns out that in the FAQ, I listed the reveal date for Remix as May 25!! I had just assumed that I'd set it for a week after the stories were first posted, so I tagged on the author names without even checking the FAQ to make sure I got the date right! Well, the rest of my week will be swamped anyhow, so perhaps my subconscious knew it was for the best.

I have been seeing a lot of people posting about their Remix experiences, which is new to me -- I don't think participants did that in the last remixes, not that I can remember -- but I like it. I always enjoy reading about people's writing processes & thoughts. So here are mine. Thanks, inner Bart!!

The first remix I did was awkward and ungainly, and I think the original author didn't like it very much and looking back at it, I can sure see why -- just about everybody except Joey comes off like a real douchebag in it, heh. I mean, that's what I was going for, but all the same. At any rate, it drove home to me right off the bat the unusual nature of Remix, and what it's like when the person whose story you remixed doesn't like what you did. Didn't put me off, though. *g*

Second time I pulled one of my good friends to remix, which was completely different than my first experience; while I ended up with a servicable story, I can't say I did anything new or different and exciting with it. Is that because I'm familiar with kel and her writing style, and felt hesitant to muddle it up too much? Maybe, although I don't recall ever actually thinking that.

Third time I was scrambling for something interesting to do, and seriously I had half a page of an entirely different story written before scrapping it all and banging out the classroom-reader version maybe the day before it was due, or something. And that was weird too, because that year people made very cautious recs for the story with the caveat that it 'might possibly be mean' and I was honestly kind of surprised, because it's really a very silly and broad parody and, well -- I dunno. It is what it is.

Last year I completely blanked on what the hell I should write, and while I ended up with something fine it's more along the lines of how I remixed kelly's fic -- competent, but not extraordinary. Which, hmm ... now that I'm looking at it, I can see that I'm not adventurous with fic that I'm more familiar with. Like, I'm not too familiar with Terri's fic, so I felt more like I was coming to it fresh rather than approaching something I knew and had preconceived notions about. Interesting! I never realized that pattern existed before.

Now, to go buy some ecologically friendly household cleaning products. Y'all, the local drugstore has them on sale for like $1.99! That's the kind of environmental two-for that I really enjoy. Especially since I forgot to do the REAL two-four.

Whoo-hoo! Finished reading the *nsync-ish Remix fics, and here is a little list of the ones I particularly enjoyed.

the turbulent mating cycle of the north american snarkbeast: the intergalactic mix .. man, if all trickyfish was written like a snappy 30's romantic comedy the way this is, I would SO be there. Even more impressively, it's set in space! Now *that's* talent!

tirante: the tightrope mix .. this is just delicious in its hot tension, soaked with hunger and longing and lust. It feels almost *elemental*.

list: the talkin' talkin' happy talk mix .. this is Britney and Nick, and the complexity and facets of the two of them is staggering and bewildering and utterly fascinating.

just another drunken bet: the straight since the cinco de mayo mix .. you sort of know what's coming, and you sort of don't, and it's just this perfect character snapshot in two-four time.

pulling the wool over love's eyes: the what's going on mix .. how can a breakup/heartbreak story feel so comfortable and cosy? I have no idea, but this one really does and I really enjoy it.

a hogwarts christmas: the background vocals pre-mix .. I absolutely fell in love with Britney in this, and the clever details and atmosphere of life in Hogwarts is just mouth-wateringly vivid.

just gay enough: a tale of self discovery: the being-straight-doesn't-pay-unless-you're-justin-timberlake-or-joey-at-band-camp mix .. cute without being cutesy, and the slightest bit trashy in the most delectable way, like handfuls of sour-sweet candy. Yum!

jc chasez and the magical amulet of doom: the if you try sometime, you just might find you get what you need mix .. plonks you right down in the middle of Weird Goings-On and diverts right to the meltingly urgent and unbearably hot sex. Boo-yah!

way of the world: the birds and unexpected bridges mix .. so, so quiet; you almost never notice the way it slices right into you with all the perfectly-turned phrases and glitters under your skin.

let us hold your banner high: the whole new world mix .. this one remixed my fic, and I am just ... *floored*. It's got this absolute ruthless economy of words, and each burst of dialogue or sharp sentence carries that much more weight of meaning for it. There's not a bit of it that doesn't make me shiver in delight and horror, which is exactly how it should be.

red right hand: the wicked little things mix .. speaking of a skillful mix of funny/scary hysteria, this fic manages to do both in alternating spurts of freaky blood and nightmares and entertaining, fun dialogue -- culminating in both AT THE SAME TIME. hee!

OMG, I LOVE not being in school and having time for fandom again!! You people will soon wish you were rid of me once more.

It is with great delight that I would like to present:



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