Various ramblings by the small hobbit

So far this month, although there are a few days left, I've written 6,500 words, so it's a good job I had some in hand from the last two months giving me an annual total of 32K.

There is therefore not a lot to record!

As anticipated last month I did have an additional work for A Family Saga which is a Spooks (MI5) series reflecting on Lucas North's family situation. An Unexpected Situation And there will be another in the series at some point.

allbingo  held a National Crafting Month bingo, for which I wrote Pulling the Strands Together a retirement era ACD Sherlock Holmes story.

I've also written, and is being posted each day, my entry for no_true_pair  four character challenge The Meeting on the Island another Spooks work, this time including werewolf!Lucas.

January has got off to a good start, with 14,800 words, which surprises me.

For More Joy Day I wrote The Absolute Limit a Sherlock Holmes ficlet for sixbeforelunch  and also for Snowflake for brumeier A Werewolf in Scotland

For whatif_au Fake Relationship Challenge Miss Marple's Nephew

And for allbingo Public Domain Challenge Combatting the Enemy which is a Spooks (MI5) 1920s AU.

Those two turned out longer than my usual challenge works.

I've also been writing one or two three sentence fills for threesentenceficathon every day, and I've prepared the first few drabbles for next months small_fandoms drabblethon.

My total words for December was just over 10K, bringing my final total for the year to 121K, which means I reached my goal, but with only 2 days to spare!

One celebration is that for the end of 2025 I have 1,500 works posted to AO3, which is rather clever - totally unplanned.

Once more there isn't much to link to.  Yuletide is still anonymous of course.  So here are my two main works:

Firstly, my yearly offering of Marylebone Monthly Illustrated Christmas Anthology 

And secondly Twelve More Days of Christmas has the first six in the series.  The other six are all written and will be posted daily until January 6th.

Better than last month, although still not great, I've written just under 9K words, bringing my annual total to just over 103K so, as long as I write a reasonable amount for each of the next two months, I'll be okay.

My spook_me entry was The Disturbed Graveyard a spooky Spooks (MI5) tale.

I wrote two entries for allbingo Fall Fest, A Capital Fog which is an ACD Sherlock Holmes story and Hallowe'en at Holmes Hall which is BBC Sherlock/Hamlet and fulfilled whatif_au Spooky plus One challenge.





I have also written for trickortreatex which is not yet revealed.

I have my Yuletide assignment, and hopefully that will be written next month.

I've written 11K words this month, bringing me up to 88K for the year, so ahead of schedule.

The main thing I've been writing is my entries for no_true_pair which starts posting tomorrow.  I've drafted 20 of the 28 days.

My contribution to Watson's Birthday Prompt Fest, organised by kingstoken was An Unexpected Catch

And for whatif_au Heaven & Hell challenge, I wrote Guardian Angels which is set in Sherlock Holmes (ACD) fandom.

Just under 14.5K for the month, bringing my annual total to 77K and allowing me a bit of breathing space.

I completed my whatif_au Bingo card, with Miss Marple to the Rescue written last month, but now edited and posted (High/Low fantasy - Miss Marple/Sleeping Beauty - Bourne), The Baker Street Incomparables (Superheroes - Sherlock Holmes (ACD)) and Summer at Bag End (Decade Specific (1920s) - The Hobbit).  The last was also written for melagan 's Dust off your Plot Bunny challenge.

no_true_pair had a 4 fandom No True Fandom challenge, which gave me the chance to write some interesting crossovers When World's Collide

And then were two challenges this month on allbingo   My favourite Winterfest in July: A Slightly Different Christmas where, using the Holidays list I again wrote for my Spooks Love in all Seasons 'verse.  And the new Western challenge, which gave the Ferret from Sherlock Holmes (ACD) the opportunity to shine (or not!!) When Plan A Fails Try Plan B (or Plan C...)

Word count for the month is about 8.6K, bringing my total for 5 months to 50K, so I'm on target for this year's goal.

whatif_au bingo continues to provide inspiration: Sports square -  First Match of the Season (Hamlet/Julius Caesar); Regency - The Unexpected Invitation (The Hobbit); Crack - Madness, and Very Little Method (Hamlet - paperclip AU).  The last was also written for ushobwri New Frontiers challenge.

Also for the New Frontiers challenge, I wrote A Thrill of Hope which is also for rewrite-a-fic, a challenge in which author's rewrite older fics of theirs.  In my case, I took two Spooks (MI5) ficlets, told from Lucas' POV and rewrote them from an OC's (Pamela) viewpoint.

For intoabar I had Miss Marple meets Carabosse from Matthew Bourne's Sleeping Beauty: An Encounter in a Tea Shop

And allbingo held a Colour Fest: The Curate's Education  Part of my ACD Holmes Sussex retirement series.

Picked up a bit this month, achieving just over 10k words, bringing my total for four months to 41.5k, so slightly over one-third of my goal for the year (120k).

I've started writing for whatif_au bingo card with The View from the Hill BBC Sherlock (dystopia) and Easter at Holmes Hall BBC Sherlock/Hamlet (podcast).

The other major enterprise was filling stonepicnicking_okapi requests for spring_renewal : Sussex in April ACD Sherlock Holmes, retirement era; Poirot at the Spring Fete Hercule Poirot; Easter at Brinkley Court Jeeves & Wooster; and Whit Monday in St Mary Mead Miss Marple.

Everyone seems to be doing this, so I thought I'd join in. Copied from brumeier  who got the code from china_shop 

1. Most Hits:
The Salutation which is a Lewis/BBC Robin Hood crossover and the position makes no sense 

2. Second Most Kudos:
Gandalf's Small Mistake  which is a Hobbit fic and shows the effect of a popular pairing/trope in a popular fandom.  6 of my top 8 kudoes fics are Hobbit.  It also proves that being changed into bunnies is popular

3. Third Most Comments:
A Production Diary ACD Sherlock Holmes, written for watsons_woes July writing prompts and therefore with one entry per day for 31 days.  It ties with The Casebook of Dr J H Watson which was similarly written

4. Fourth Most Bookmarks:
Broken Dreams BBC Sherlock Sherlock/Greg and one of my own favourites

5. Fifth Most Words:
Midsomer Mars Life on Mars/Midsomer Murders crossover.  Written for a Life on Mars BigBang which had 12,500 word minimum - I managed 12,501 by introducing a purple gonk.  This was one of my first AO3 entries

6. Fic With Second Fewest Words (That's Not a Drabble):
I've also ignored poetry.  That's Not Our Consulting Detective Sherlock Holmes (ACD) the latest in the popular line of toddler books

7. Seventh Most Common Relationship:
James Hathaway/Robert Lewis (Lewis TV)

8. Eighth Drabble Posted:
Keep on Running Spooks (MI5) Lucas North my first entry for fan_flashworks 

9. Ninth Most Common Character:
Ros Myers from Spooks (MI5)

10. Tenth Mature and/or Explicit Fic:
Irrelevant, I haven't written that many!

11. Eleventh Most Recent Completed Fic:
At the Cocktail Party Spooks (MI5) featuring werewolf!Lucas

12. Twelfth Most Recent Story in Your Sixth Most Common Tag:
The Photographs in the Attic Sally Donovan (BBC Sherlock)/Sherlock Holmes (ACD) characters as ghost

13. Favorite Title That Isn't from a Poem or Song or Shakespeare or The West Wing:
War Casts A Long Shadow Spooks(MI5) 1920s AU

To date I've written 9K words and may add a few before the end of the month, so I'm on target for my goal of 120K for the year.

I've written a number of fills for threesentenceficathon which, given how many words can be crammed into one sentence have probably contributed about 2K to the total.

I finished whatif_au Wintry Mix Welcome to Christmas at Holmes Hall

And I also posted my eventcentral Western Titles entry, which is Hercule Poirot: Never Trust An Honest Man

Lastly, for allbingo Public Domain Day Fest, using books, I wrote War Casts A Long Shadow which is set in my 1920s Spooks(MI5) AU where both Adam and Lucas have suffered in the Great War.