Progress report

[icepixie]

On the whole, I found Be My Thrill (The Weepies' new record) disappointing. The melodies and arrangements of some of the tracks are nice, but their previous releases seemed to have a lot more substance in the lyrics. These are extremely shallow in comparison. I'm usually pretty good at ignoring bad lyrics, though, so I think this will grow on me at least a bit. I mean, hell, my favorite track is probably "Be My Honeypie," and that one's just as twee as the title suggests. (Actually, part of the reason I like it is that I consistently mishear a line of the chorus as "If you don't love me, I won't tell," which suggests a much more interesting scenario than the real lyric: "If you don't love me, I will die.") Musically, they seem to have injected a bit of 1950s/1960s pop into the usual modern indie folk/pop mix. Usually it works well, and I love the bouncy swinginess of songs like "Honeypie," "When You Go Away," and "Hummingbird," though I do miss the more melancholy earlier sound. ("When You Go Away" is basically "Gotta Have You" rewritten to be more cheerful, and while the earlier version is not exactly sublime, there's just no contest.)

In other news, I am still making beaucoup progress on my Delenn/Susan AU. I hit 5,000 words today, after only four days of writing, which not only shatters any previous records, it pounds the pieces into dust. This is particularly astonishing given that I did something to my lower back on Friday (similar, but not as bad, as whatever I did to it two Christmases ago) and thus have had to limit my time in front of the computer.

However, I am approaching the end of season three/beginning of season four, and what I'll need to change in canon is beginning to grow insistent. I have no intention of rewriting everything that goes on with Sheridan (it would KILL ME), so I'm basically trying to suggest that events sort of...work themselves out so that the Army of Light wins the war, and that what needed to be changed got changed, while I lazily concentrate on the shippy bits. Although now is my chance to get rid of Lorien, and I think I might just have to take it. I'm not sure yet if that means Sheridan dies at Z'ha'dum or if he just doesn't go and they find out the background of the Shadow/Vorlon enmity some other way. rivendellrose, your earlier floating of the possibility that Susan gets approached by Shadow agents after she learns of Delenn's role in the Earth/Minbar War is starting to look awfully tempting, although OMG THE ANGST. But it would kind of screw with my current timeline. Hmmm. Maybe not. But still...

Comments

[icepixie]

It's a shame you didn't enjoy your album :-(

Thanks. At least it's not a complete disappointment.

Your fic sounds intriguing. I'd say go AU and make the fic as shippy as you want: it's *your* fanfic. That means you can handwave whatever you want to.

Ordinarily I'd agree with you; however, for this to work, I need readers to bring some canon background to it. For example, there's a scene, not to mention an important line in another scene, that hinges on people remembering Delenn gets kicked off the Grey Council in mid-S2, but I never explicitly reference that kicking off. So as much as I would like to, I can't just completely disregard canon without indicating as such and then making some kind of logical leap to the next part of canon I am keeping.

But rivendellrose's suggestion is currently working beautifully, and it allows me to get rid of Lorien at the same time, so I'm very happy! :D