Idle Thoughts

I love books, theater, and music. Currently a bit obsessed with A Song of Ice and Fire (the books, as I've never seen the show). I live in the beautiful Bluegrass State surrounded by handsome men (husband and three sons) and I've only recently discovered to my everlasting joy that lots of other people get as attached to fictional characters as I do! :) Oh, and if you have a problem with Catelyn Stark, you probably won't like anything I write.

[dknc3]

Hi! I hope you don’t mind the message. I just wanted to say how much I’ve loved your Ned/Cat fics. Your writing has stayed with me for years, and it’s been such a foundational part of the way I see these characters.

I know you haven’t been active in a while, but I wanted to mention that there’s a new Ned/Cat author (crldnvrs) who’s been writing some really beautiful work lately, and it just reminded me of how much I’ve missed your voice in the fandom. It made me wonder, do you think you might return to writing at some point? No pressure at all, of course. Just wanted to say your work is still very loved and remembered.

Thank you for your kind words about my fics. When I first made my tumblr, I had a hashtag I liked to use—totbot—which means “too old to be on tumblr”. That’s even more accurate today, LOL, but here I am, responding to you. I have now been married for almost 32 years and my youngest child has been legally able to drink in the USA for 3 years, and my oldest child has made me a grandmother in the past month.

I am over 30 years into a career that demands a LOT of my time and attention, and I am now prepared to retire from that career. I have an elderly mother that needs a lot of help and family members who need a lot of my time for various reasons. With my retirement, I hope to find the time to care for family members who need me and return to writing. So for anyone still awaiting resolution of my works in progress, I hope to provide that soon.

[dknc3]

just reread a couple of your works and i went from crying to being irritated at ned to giggling ang kicking my feet all at one hour

That sounds like a pretty appropriate reaction to my fics. 🤣

[dknc3]

Darla! How are you?

Will you write anything for NedCat week this year?

I’m scarcely on tumblr anymore. Is there a Ned/Cat week?

[nasnyys]

little fish big fish swimming in the water

closeup !

[thechaosthatismybrain]

Poll Tuesday

How were you first introduced to fanfic? Not like the site you use but how did you find out if its existence?

On tumblr through fandom

I googled my ship and some how ended up on ao3

An irl friend told me

Heard about it on tv

I invented fanfic

On twitter

Other (please tell me)

Voting ended onMay 30, 2023

I feel like I’m exposing myself a little bit with this bc my introduction to fic is soo random I think, but whatever your answer please tell me the story! I wanna know haha

[dknc3]

I'm Not the same anon but I just wanted to say Honestly doesn't matter when I'm so invested in your fics that if I'm alive I'll be there to read them no matter how much time has passed. Hopefully you won't lose your love for Ned and Cat until then :)

In the mean time I just reread your stories over and over again because they are wonderful even after many times of rereading. Much love to you wishing you all the best.

This is a very sweet message which has taken me far too long to respond to because of my extremely rare presence on tumblr these days.

I will never lose my love for Ned and Cat. In some ways, real life events in the past couple years have actually made them even dearer to me oddly enough.

I do intend to finish all my unfinished tales. (And my annoying brain keeps dreaming up new ones randomly in spite of my best efforts to tell it to shut up!) I just honestly don’t know when my intentions will become actions.

Wishing you all the best, as well, sweet Nonnie!

[dknc3]

I just want to say I love your fics so much, especially the ‘Would That You Were Mine’ series and Vows. Hope that you finish them, but even if you don’t they were so great!

Thank you.

I do intend to finish them at some point. Life has been rather full of ups and downs since just before the pandemic began, and I fear both the good and not-so-good happenings have conspired to prevent my desired return to writing.

Thank you again for your kind words about my writing. The unfinished snippets of chapters of my long unfinished stories or installments in my various series still sit in my documents, and I think about them fairly often. I truly have no desire to abandon them.

I hope to find the time, energy, and presence of mind to do more than think about them, but each time I’ve made a commitment to write, something happens to cause me to go back on it, so I’ve given up on promising any timelines.

I do appreciate your wanting more of my writing, though.

[dknc3]

Hi are you planning on completing ‘Vows Kept and Broken’ on AO3?

Short answer, yes.

Longer answer, several years ago I somehow managed to find the time and energy to write a great deal in spite of having what I considered a pretty full life. Somehow, in recent years I have no time or energy at all. All the people who told me I’d have so much more time for myself once the kids were grown didn’t factor in my working a full time job in healthcare during a global pandemic and now during the post-pandemic labor crunch with far too much work for too few employees. Nor did they predict my mother’s sudden acute illness back in February which put her in the ICU for 54 days and has led to a very long, slow recovery with repeated hospitalizations and multiple home health therapists. Since my only brother lives 21 hours away from Mom by car and I live 20 minutes away, I’m at her house at least for a bit every day and all day some days. Whatever “free” time I have, I try hard to spend with my husband and sons (Mr, DKNC and I managed to steal 3 days to go see our oldest son and his wife who live 2 states away this month for the first time since June!) because nothing makes me happier than my family. And sometimes, late at night, when I’m much too exhausted to function, the characters from my unfinished fics started talking to each other in my brain and the plot lines are all there begging me to start typing. And unfortunately, because this generally happens at midnight or later, and all I’m capable of in that moment is sleep, I just mumble “Someday” and tell them to shut up and please come back when I’m fully conscious and not behind on at least a dozen things that need doing. Because I have to believe that day is going to arrive eventually.

[dknc3]

I've been seeing in the news about the floods in Kentucky, I hope you and your family are safe. I'm sending you love and good thoughts

You are so sweet, my friend!! The flooding is truly terrible, and it has hit areas of the state where a lot of the people have very little to begin with. I live several hours away from there and have not been impacted directly by the flooding, but various organizations and churches here are sending water, non-perishable foods, hand sanitizer, sainting wipes, etc.

The death toll stands at 37 and is expected to rise. Over 350 people are living in temporary shelter and over 10,000 people remain without power.

For anyone interested in helping the flood victims, the Team Eastern Kentucky Flood Relief Fund has been established by our governor, Andy Beshear, and all funds go directly to relief for the people affected by this disaster.

Climate change is real, y’all—historic floods, mammoth wildfires, violent storms, record heat waves. My little corner of the world is just one place suffering the effects. And things will only get worse if nothing changes.

To those of you living here in America, speak up and make it clear to those in power that climate change IS a crisis worth dealing with, and then VOTE for people willing to make the hard choices to meet that crisis.

Y’all living elsewhere should do the same, but as we have the dubious distinction of being one of the world’s greatest carbon emitters, I’m shouting loudest at everybody right here in the USA.

To you, my sweet friend, I am very touched you reached out. I haven’t been on here in a million years, and yet you’re checking on my welfare. You are a gem. Truly a gem.

[dknc3]

Wishing all the Americans who share my love of Our November celebration of blessings, family, and—let’s be honest, gluttony—a very happy Thanksgiving tomorrow!

I have all my men under my roof at the same time for the first time in nearly a year, and I’m loving every minute of it! (Even if I did just leave them all downstairs enjoying each other’s company and a bottle of Macallan while I’m heading to sleep because I’m getting up early to cook all day!!

It’s been an eventful year for the DKNC family with a roller coaster of highs and lows and big life events for everyone, but we are all well and together now—looking forward to our feast tomorrow and Son #1’s wedding in just over 3 weeks!

I miss writing. Life has conspired to keep me focused on many other things for a very long time, and given my son and and soon-to-be daughter-in-law’s selection of a mid-December wedding, I’ve no hope of reviving my traditional Christmas fic from years past this year. But I have decided that after a year like this one, I need to get back to doing some of the things I love just for me. So I’m committing to update one of my long dormant works in process at least every two months in 2022. That’s still an abysmally slow writing schedule, but exponentially better than I’ve done in ages—and I’ve gotta start somewhere, right?

In the mean time, I once wrote a Thanksgiving fic and it is the season, so if any of you Ned/Cat folks (or general Stark family fun fans) are interested in an old story set on Turkey Day, here’s the link to “Turkey and Family History.”

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

[dknc3]

My 13 year old tortoiseshell cat Sugar has drunk her water like this she was a kitten, taking her time and savoring every sip.

Meanwhile, her sister Spice (also 13, they’re littermates) always laps hers from the bowl with speed and efficiency and is now staring at me and silently asking, “Can we just go outside already?”

[anxietyproblem]

[bundibird]

Full offence but countries like America, Australia, the UK, etc, should all be -- not only accepting as many refugees from Afghanistan as need be, but helping refugees get the fuck out of Afghanistan.

We're the ones who spent twenty years fucking up their country and murdering their civilians "for fun." And then we just collectively drop everything and say "the Taliban can have you."

Fuck that noise. It's disgusting. There are untold numbers of people fleeing the Taliban right now, across the whole country, with all of them -- but especially women and anyone who might be accused of helping the old government/foreign armies -- fearing for their lives.

The Western countries that have spent two decades fucking up Afghanistan have a duty of fucking care to the civilians left behind.

Breaking news as of 16 August 2021 is that the Afghan president and all other government officials have fled Kabul. The "last stronghold" that was predicted to "hold out against the Taliban for three months" has fallen within a week, and most civilians in that city and others that have been overrun are now fearing for their lives.

We have a basic moral obligation to help them in any way possible. That includes taking unreserved numbers of refugees that are refugees in large part due to the actions of the "heroic west."

[cithaerons]

A Google doc with resources for Afghanistan 

[cithaerons]

GoFundMe Emergency Funds for Afghan Artists

Afghan Child Education And Care Organization (AFCECO) (orphanage)

Visions for Children e.V. (assisting Afghanistan and other countries lacking educational infrastructure)  

[cithaerons]

Form for U.S.-based attorneys willing to help with Afghans with their SIV, P-2, and humanitarian parole cases (via Afghan Diaspora for Equality & Progress)

[dknc3]

How are you?

I’m okay, Nonnie. Thanks for asking. 😄

[rwhague]

True story

[kittensjonsa]

GRRM:

[dknc3]

I am pretty much over the snow. Over a foot deep in our back yard for over a week now. I have to confess I borrowed the Maker’s Mark picture from my uncle’s Facebook. After Covid quarantine and being snowed in for long hours at a time, all bourbon bottles in THIS old Kentucky home are pretty much empty!

My post and tags are meant to be humorous, but please remember the winter storms throughout the American south have left millions without power, heat, and water—and those folks need help!