#liadt

[sassenachthroughtime]

Lovers in a Dangerous Time Chapter Twenty One

This is shorter than my typical chapter, but something about the flow just wasn't working when I tried to add anything more, so I give you what I have. Please be gentle as I'm a little rusty and this wasn't beta'd - I'm nothing if not impulsive, y'all! And again, I just have to say that the support you all have given me as a human being and as a writer is just mind-blowing. Thank you, and I love you. Now let's dive back in!

Moodboard credit goes to the lovely Susan ( @veryfaintveryhuman​ )

  If Jenny seemed a touch surprised to find Claire would be joining them for the day—and shot her brother a look that said she had questions and she’d get answers—she warmed substantially by the time the blankets were laid out over the sand, held down by coolers and bodies as the four adults made a joint effort to subdue their excited brood long enough to slather them in sun cream. The little ones were squirmy, be it from anticipation or a general distaste for lotions, and Jamie was pleased to see his sister and the woman he loved laughing companionably as Caitlin slipped out of her mother’s grasp over and over before Jenny finally managed to get her covered from head to toe.

    “Alright now, we’ve got to wait fifteen minutes before we can go in the water,” Claire announced brightly, dropping her phone back on the blanket after setting a timer.

    Jamie had to hold back a laugh at the way her brows scrunched together when the children huffed and groaned, small feet stomping with annoyance in the sand. Nurturing might have come easy to his Sassenach, but the daily ins and outs of life with children was a learning curve for anyone.

    “Ye canna just tell them tae wait,” he murmured, sidling up just as close as the comically large, structured brim of her sunhat would allow, “ye’ve gotta give ‘em another activity.”

    He nodded over at Ian as he overturned a bag of sand toys.

    “They dinna understand delayed gratification yet.”

    “They’re missing out.”

Keep reading...

[lethendralis-paints]

A bonus artwork for @pikapeppa who insists on spoiling me rotten! Based on a scene from her novel-length masterpiece Lovers In A Dangerous Time (i.e. Fenquisition, that you can read here:

 https://archiveofourown.org/works/17806493/chapters/42011807)

The bonds of friendship between Varric, Hawke and the entire gang are a balm for my soul. And Pika brings it to life so beautifully, my heart can barely handle it!

[sassenachthroughtime]

A Wee Update

EDIT: I should have included this from the go, so that’s my mistake, but trigger warning for substance use and relapse. If I missed any others, please do let me know. 

     Hello hello hello, beautiful people! As many of you noticed, I was absent from our little corner of the internet for a pretty long stretch there, and now that I’m back I thought I’d post an update on myself and my stories all in one place. So, this is that! 

     First and foremost, I want to apologize for disappearing without a word. I’ve been pretty open about my struggle with addiction, and a big part of the disease for me is a tendency to isolate and, up until pretty recently, a lack of understanding (and, on some level, willful ignorance) regarding my place and meaning in the lives of other people. Turns out it’s a lot easier to fuck around if you genuinely believe that you don’t matter to others in any meaningful way. Also turns out that that belief was a big ole lie. 

     So many of you reached out across platforms to check in on me with words of encouragement and concern, praise and appreciation for my work as a writer and questions about if and when my stories would continue, especially in regards to LIADT. I want you to know that coming back to that outpouring of love and care was deeply touching and incredibly powerful. Thank you all from the tippy bottom of my toes to the tippy top of my head for the love, support and grace you have given me. 

     It’s slow going as I start to flex those writer muscles again, but I am getting back to it (and I’m very, very happy about that). LIADT is my priority at the moment, and my intention is to have at the very least a preview of the next chapter up on here by the end of the month. That being said, I don’t plan to abandon any of my current WIPs (so long as Mizz Fickle Muse herself decides to cooperate), so keep an eye out for those in the future as well. (And the new idea that’s been simmering in the back of my mind for a few months now). I’ll thank you all in advance for your continued patience as I work. 

     And now, the personal side of things. Addiction is a hell of a disease, y’all!  Unfortunately I made a very sad, very unglamorous return to active addition over the winter, and I had a pretty rough go of it on all sides. I was bankrupt mentally, emotionally and spiritually. After a particularly disturbing episode near the end of March, I reached out to the sponsor that I had been ghosting and decided to try again. 

     Hear me when I say that so long as you are breathing, it is never too late to try again, and you can never start over too many times, in whatever you are trying to conquer. 

     Now, this is not to say that relapse is a good or necessary part of recovery from addiction. Plain and simple, my use could very well kill me. That could have been it. But, at this moment in time, it is incredibly common. It is not something to be embarrassed or ashamed about. I am not ashamed, or embarrassed. I am grateful that I’m still here, that no irreparable damage was done, and that I got to try again. 

     So this is me now! Happy, healthy, whole, and healing. Bandanas and sparkling water and vintage dresses and sunshine. I feel both younger and older than I ever have. I sang for an audience for the first time in years and it felt even better than it sounded. I am mercilessly earnest and open and joyful. I show up for the people I love, and the people I love now includes myself. I feel like an open wound sometimes, but that feels so much better than being the damaged tissue beneath the scab. 

     It does get better. It gets even better than you can possibly imagine for yourself, if you’re willing to let it. If you or anyone that you love is struggling with substance use and/or mental health, let me be a resource. I can’t keep it if I don’t pass it on. 

Love, love, and more love,

Gillian

[sassenachthroughtime]

Lovers in a Dangerous Time Chapter Twenty One Preview

Hi hi hi hi hiiiiiiii I am so excited to share this! It’s a short one, and I’m two days late, but I come bearing a preview of the oh-so-long-awaited beach day anyway. It hasn’t been beta’d, so any mistakes are my own. We’re back in business, babies! 

     When Ian leaned over his sleeping daughter’s body, pressed his lips to Jenny’s temple, and caressed the top of Michael’s head where he lay in the wrap, Jamie felt an uncomfortable pang of jealousy. He’d never liked feeling that way, and liked it even less when it was directed at two people so beloved to him, but it was there, twisting and simmering in his wame. It was so easy for them, had always been that way. Married upon Ian’s college graduation, bairn after bairn without a hiccup, they shared the kind of simple, completely fulfilling life in Scotland, together, that Jamie had always foreseen for himself.

     He had more or less come to terms with the fact that he wouldn’t have that; had uprooted himself and his daughters for the sake of a life without ghosts, where he didn’t have to take the long route home to avoid the site of the accident, content to live only for his daughters. He could have gotten by on that, but then, out of nowhere, there was Claire. More than he had ever dared to hope for, for himself or even for his children. 

     There was Claire, and he couldn’t have her yet. 

     He couldn’t casually brush his lips against her skin during a family day on the beach, or rest his hand atop hers on the blanket. He couldn’t even look too long, lest it draw suspicion. Maybe he’d never see her with a bairn of their own cradled in her arms, as Ian had seen Jenny time and time again. That particular revelation had been more than a little gutting, but she’d laid bare to him her pain about the matter, and he wasn’t going to pile his on top of it. He didn’t love her any less, didn’t want her any less, because of it; but there was a certain sting to the knowledge that he’d never get to meet a little person who was half of her, and half of him.  

     “Jamie lad, where’d ye go?” Ian asked, taking a wide stance as he stood over his brother in law and blocked out the early afternoon sun.

     “Och, just—thinkin’,” Jamie answered, and ran a hand through his hair.

[amortaldothapproach]

Yep, what's left of the first 2 seasons of Callan the monochrome years are available on network DVD (region 2) and most of the missing scripts are online. But I guess you've found that out already.

Well, that’s no fun.