Right. I apologise in advance. But, really, I can't help myself. I'm going to gush. I know I am.
Thank you!
Thank you! Thank you!Ahem.
Seriously, thanks to everyone who has posted feedback. I honestly didn't expect so many lovely comments. I'm delighted by them. But I'm not sure I deserve them... I was in two minds whether to post the story here at all, because I know that I've been woefully in active both as a reader and a commenter for most (all?) of this year.
I'm also impressed by how many people whose names I don't recognise have posted here. Knowing that there are new people around and seeing the evidence of it are two very different things.
Olympe, Jenni, DSDragon, Yvonne, Lisa, Classicalla, Alcyone, MR, Woody, Jackie, Ann, Capes, Nan, SmirkyRaven and Laurie... Thanks for posting! Thank you, thank you, thank you... etc.
Well, I did warn you all that I'd gush, didn't I?
Okay, now to answer a couple of questions:
Did anybody else ever wonder how Clark got from the point of the explosion to the isolation chamber without contaminating everybody and everything along the way?
Actually, yes, I'd wondered about that. In fact, I thought about it while I was writing the vignette. However, I opted for taking the easy way out, and ignoring the issue!
Woody, kudos for trying to explain this!
What is it about the holidays that brings out your fanfic? Wasn't it this time last year that you graced us with the angel story?
Yes, your are right about Some Kind Of Angel. And the previous year, my muse struck me over the head with a mallet about this time of year. And the year before that, and...
In fact, I rather associate this kind of year with writing. During the nineties, there were a few years on the trot when I would go to my parents for Christmas. That was when I was working for an employer that liked to close down between Christmas and New Year, so I'd get about ten days or two weeks continuous holiday over Christmas and New Year. I'd spend hours happily sitting in front of the computer, working on stories. That, for me, for several years, was just as much a part of Christmas as turkey and tinsel.
(Don't get your hopes up this year. I'm working between Christmas and New Year!)
I wonder whether it is something to do with the lack of daylight... You know, a kind of instinctive response. Birds know to migrate. Grass stops growing. Chris starts writing...
Then again, I've
also noticed my muse gets triggered by specific places. I lived in a shared house at one time that had a particularly inspirational shower. In all other respects, the shower was very unremarkable, but I had some of my best ideas there! Sadly, since I moved on from there, I've never quite found its like.
The latest house I've just moved from certainly didn't do much for me, inspiration-wise. And it's too soon to tell what the new house is going to do -- but my hopes are up.
Chris