The Omnivorous Geek

Fandom: Supernatural
Title: Coming Down on a Sunny Day Book 3 (Prologue and Chapter 1)
Author: Maychorian
Characters: Winchester Ensemble
Category: Gen, AU, Family
Rating: T/PG13
Warning: (skip) Language. Allusions to child abuse
Spoilers: S4, previous stories in 'verse.
Summary: John Winchester has four sons, but to an outside observer, he appears to have only three. Their mission is to stop the Apocalypse before it starts.
Word Count: ~6100 (this part)
 Author’s Note: Coming Down on a Sunny Day master list, and YouTube Playlist, from whence came the titles.

( Castiel was trapped. He was surrounded by twisted white and gold, a typhoon of sensation wrapping him in coils of burning gold. )

Fandom: Supernatural
Title: Coming Down Second Interlude: I'll Pass as Your Comrade
Author: Maychorian
Characters: Jimmy, Cas, Sammy, Dean, John
Category: Family, Gen
Rating: K+/PG
Spoilers: S4, previous stories in 'verse.
Summary: "What do you want to do with your life?" It had never occurred to Jimmy that he had a choice.
Word Count: ~3000
Author's Note: It's true, I've started writing more Coming Down on a Sunny Day. The rough draft of Book 3 is completed and just needs some editing. It's almost 25k words, which is three quarters as long as the original Coming Down Big Bang was. So yeah, I've been busy, and I have a long way to go. I don't intend to start posting Book 3 until I've finished Book 4, because, like the first two books, they're really just one story.

But this piece here, which I'm calling the second interlude (because I had the first interlude between books one and two), is a stand-alone, so I decided to go ahead and publish it. I hope you like it and will take it as a harbinger for things to come.

The title is from "Cruel War" by Peter, Paul & Mary. Give it a listen—it really is shockingly appropriate.

( The front door of the trailer crashed open, and the whirlwind of limbs and school papers that embodied Sammy Winchester rushed inside, roaring from one end of the box-shaped dwelling to the other. )

Coming Down on a Sunny Day: Book 3 is at 23k+ words. I think it's almost done. I have ideas for interludes to go between books 2 and 3 and 3 and 4. I have a vague plan for book 4.

Everything is going swimmingly.

This part is even longer than the first one.

( Anterior Lamellar Keratoplasty )

I am twelve thousand words into Coming Down on a Sunny Day: Book 3, and I'm loving it so far.

Snippet:

“We were friends, weren’t we?” Dean asked. “In the future that isn’t gonna happen.”

“In a way.” Cas turned his head to stare at Dean, and his eyes were blue and bleak and distant. He was as relaxed as he ever got, tousled head leaning back on the frayed fabric bands of the chair. “I don’t know that you would have called us by that word. But I would have.”

“Was I a jerk to you? I bet I was a jerk.”

Cas shrugged. “You were yourself. You were Dean Winchester, the righteous man, a hunter of mad beasts, a brother and a son. I was an angel, an outside force, an intruder. A monster. I did more harm than good to you and your brother, especially in the first year we knew each other. I thought I was doing right. But you thought differently, and you told me so. Frequently. At the top of your lungs.”

Dean smiled. It almost felt nostalgic, a warm feeling that spread through his body not only from his beer. Nostalgia for a time he had never known, himself, but the tone of Cas’s voice, deep and rich and smooth, made it feel close enough to touch. He’d never seen Cas so loose, so comfortable. It was pretty cool.

I've been writing a lot lately. Mostly original, because I want to re-form my life into the life I want--one where I can live off my writing. But I miss fanfiction, I miss Dean and Sam and Cas. Funny thing about writing is that once you get going, you don't run out--you just find more inside you.

So while I'm editing some original stuff, taking a break from writing that particular project, I'm trying to keep up the writing streak. So here's what's coming out.

It's not ready. At all. I'm thinking I'd actually like to treat it like a Big Bang, finish it, maybe find someone to do a little artwork, make a soundtrack--but yeah. I've missed fanfiction. So here's what just poured out of me, unedited, and maybe it looks like fun.

( Coming Down again )

One of the big writing projects I've been working on lately is now finished.

Any Is Severely (A Story of Healing from Childhood Abuse)


This is a relatively short book, but it took me more than twenty years to write it. If you've read The Lights of Home and my notes on it, you already know what I'm talking about. Fiction has been powerful tool of healing for me, and I spend a chapter talking about that in the book.

If you or someone you know has been abused, you can also download the book for free from my new website, http://laurabfischer.com. There are no barriers to get to the download and it will not tracked in any way. I don't care if people download the book without paying for it. This particular writing project is not about money.




( Description below )

Long time no see, LJ. I'm not much in fandom at the moment, except for occasionally reading fanfic and even more occasionally checking my flist.

I've been writing a lot lately, but it's been original. I'm trying to become someone who makes money off her writing. :) And then, maybe, when I can quit my factory job and write full-time, I will have the time and energy for fanfic again. Maybe. Who knows. I'm also going back to school this summer, so my schedule will be even more nutso crazy-face.

But here's five hundred words I wrote this morning on my work laptop while waiting for IT to come and set up my network connection so I could work. (I'm on my break right now.) It's kinda tone-poemish.

( The Dandelion Clock )

Over the past few months I've been trying to take better care of myself, such as having a plan for what to eat instead of just getting breakfast and lunch wherever. (Supper is a little easier to deal with, without work getting in the way.) I figured out how to have a good pack lunch everyday--basically cheese sticks, Greek yogurt, sugar-free pudding, and some kind of protein, either lunch meat or a tuna fish snack--so now breakfast is left.

I just can't face a plate of eggs and sausage in the morning, like my dad has every day. I want some carbs to get me going, but not too many, because then my blood sugar goes haywire and I feel sick. So no donuts, breakfast cereal, pancakes, etc. Breakfast burritos from the gas station work all right, but that gets expensive and inconvenient, and they have stuff I don't want.

So this past month I started experimenting with muffins. I've taken elements from several different recipes to make this one, and it works pretty good. My plan now is to make a batch or two of these on the weekend and eat them during the week. Last weekend I didn't make any, and breakfast got chaotic again, so it's gonna take some discipline. I might make another batch today and take pictures for another post. Mainly I want to get this down on the blog so I don't forget it, since it took several different tries to get the recipe just how I like it.

This makes a very dense, hearty muffin. If you look at the ingredients you can see that there's more fiber than flour, which is good for me, but doesn't make for a very fluffy, cake-like muffin. It's not very sweet, either, but to my tooth it's just right. They're quite tasty fresh, plain or with butter, and they do last the week for my breakfasts, but toward the end of the week they don't taste as good. They also mold after a couple weeks, because all the ingredients are natural.

For my next batch, I might try adding bacon.

Edit: Piccies!

Peanut Butter Bran Muffins
Makes 11 muffins

Soak for 1 hour:
1 1/4 c. buttermilk
1 1/4 c. bran

Whisk together:
1/2 c. melted butter
1/2 c. natural peanut butter
1/4 c. honey or agave syrup
1 large egg, room temperature

Mix thoroughly in separate bowl:
1 c. white whole wheat flour
1/4 c. almond or coconut flour
1/4 c. bran
1/2 c. Sucanat
1/2 Tbsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt, optional

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Prepare muffin tins with one spray of cooking oil in the bottom of each cup. Whisk bran mixture into wet ingredients. Add dry ingredients and stir just until everything is moistened. This makes a very lumpy, thick dough that looks like dark brown oatmeal. Fill 11 muffin cups almost full, and add a little water to empty cup to even out baking. Bake for 18-20 minutes. (18 is perfect in my parents' convection oven.)

Notes on ingredients:
If you don't have or want to buy buttermilk, you can make it by adding a few teaspoons of lemon juice or vinegar to a measure of regular milk and letting it set for a few minutes until it curdles. That's usually what I do, or you can also buy buttermilk powder and keep it in the cupboard.

Sucanat is like brown sugar, but granular because it's made directly from evaporated cane juice instead of from adding molasses back into white sugar. I get it at my local bulk foods store. That's also where I get the bran and the natural peanut butter. The peanut butter is ground fresh in the store, so it's very soft and creamy, without the layer of oil you'd find in national brands like Smucker because it hasn't had time to separate yet. If you can get your peanut butter that way, I recommend it.

I used agave syrup because one of the original recipes I experimented with called for it, but when this bottle is gone I'm going back to honey. It's really not any better for you than honey, just digested in the liver instead of the intestines, and it has kind of a medicinal aftertaste. And again, I can get local honey from the same bulk store.

Melted butter is my oil of choice in baking. It adds a touch more sweetness, and it's better for you than highly processed oils. But you can certainly use canola or regular vegetable oil if you want. When I use the salted kind of butter, I don't add the salt in the dry ingredients.

I get King Arthur brand white whole wheat flour at a big box store like Wal-Mart or Meijer. If you don't want to use almond or coconut flour, which I add for EVEN MOAR fiber, you can just use 1 1/4 c. of regular flour instead. White whole wheat is a little lighter than regular whole wheat, with the same nutrition value.

Experimenting with recipes is fun! Early experiments didn't turn out perfectly, but they weren't failures, because as the Mythbusters say, every experiment is data. And I still ate all the muffins.

May the Fourth be with you!