'Tis the Season to be Late?

[gilpin25]

We got the first of the Round Robin letters in a Christmas card this morning, and I'm waiting for my mild-mannered husband to turn into someone highly dangerous, who must be approached with caution. And only if you're bringing in the dinner.

These are the letters you get from people you don't see from one year to another, but who send you a printed sheet of their accomplishments activities during the year. Usually with an incredibly flattering and air-brushed photo that the Royal Family would envy. Snarkiness aside, most of these are interesting, but there's a few that set your teeth on edge. These particular people are friends of my parents, I haven't seen them since our Wedding so we're talking years here, but they still think we'd like to know that daughter Tabitha will be reading Politics at Cambridge, son Gerald is spending three years in Hong Kong earning fabulous sums of money thanks to a promotion, and now that all the kids have flown the wealthy nest, the parents have invested in a sixty foot ocean liner to give them an interesting new hobby.

Okay, I'm exaggerating, but only just in some cases. I'm bracing myself for the one from our friends in New Zealand, who emigrated a couple of years ago, and seem to own more of the country now than Peter Jackson. It takes quite a lot to get my husband annoyed (just me, normally), but these letters drive him nuts. Last year he wanted me to compose one to send back which claimed that he'd climbed Everest on an afternoon off, and I'd won six Booker prizes in a row... ;

Which sort of brings me onto my Advent Fic. I'm just about on schedule for finishing 24.12.06, have written about 3500 words, have no idea what the genre is as I've included at least four and, in a shocking new move for me, I've given Harry a line to say. But I'm thinking of chopping it. And I've looked at some of those excellent angsty and short ones already posted and think perhaps I should be chopping a lot more. Anyone else writing long fics or is it the season to be brief so you can wisely wrap presents?

Comments

[bratty-jedi.livejournal.com]

You can totally tell the melodramatic ones from the more restrained and the like by the family letters. It's kind of fun trying to decide why people choose to include some stories and not mention others at all. Sometimes sibling rivalry among 60-80 year olds comes through which is hilarious.

I always react very emotionally to things but then get over it very quickly and bounce back to my more usual cheerful eternal optimist. So life sucked when everything was going wrong for a few days. Now I've had a couple days with little bits of good news and I'm practically bouncing off the walls. I'm a bit silly.

Typing that, I just realized that makes me sound more like Tonks than I've ever considered. I identify more with Remus. Hmmmm....

[gilpin25.livejournal.com]

I'm currently writing Sirius bouncing off walls! Sounds as if you get over things a lot quicker than he does though, which is a good way to be. I suppose I'm quite laid-back (when I'm not getting Round Robin letters) - takes a lot to get me really down or really up. But once I'm there... ;)