I was wiped out last night after martial arts class and then sauna & cold plunge, and could barely move my arms or keep my eyes open. So I just went to bed.

And that was the right call, because I woke up a bit before 5 AM (!) refreshed and ready to rock'n'roll to finish this story!

I just cranked out 5,820 words to finish Falling for His Rival in style!

Falling for His Rival
Author: ArtemisDart
Fandom: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Ship: Poe Dameron/Armitage Hux
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Wordcount: 21,217

Summary: Blurb taken from Falling for Her Rival, by Jackie Braun

For chef Poe Dameron, it's time to turn up the heat. Three years ago he hit rock bottom. Now he's ready for a comeback, starting with winning a TV competition to secure a spot running New York's trendiest kitchen! He just didn't count on his attraction to rival Armitage Hux burning a hole in his plans…

Hux has worked his apron off for this opportunity, and total focus on the competition was the plan — which is difficult when all he can think about is wanting his opponent out of the kitchen and in his bed! But there can only be one winner, and sometimes, to win, a guy has to play dirty!

I'm pleased overall with how this turned out, although there could have been a lot more "spice." But I was keeping it Mature!

After writing about all these delicious recipes for days on end, now I'm really hungry, haha!

It's funny how things come in waves sometimes. I was so happy with Non Sum Dignus, which I published in mid-March, and it found some readers at the time, but new attention had died down and I thought it had pretty much run its course when it came to finding kudos and other types of interaction.

And then in just a couple of days, two new readers left comments on it for me! I even got into a back-and-forth discussion with one of them -- delightful! (I went and looked them up in my database and found out that they left a kudos on this story way back on April 10 -- meaning they kudosed it then, and *then they came back* to comment now! That's somehow even more meaningful than getting a kudos and comment at once!)

It makes me wonder if the two of them know each other, and one recommended the story to the other... or whether two people independently discovered it and saw fit to leave comments on it so close together.

One nice thing about having over 100 stories published is that at any moment, someone could interact with any one of those, and some small percentage of people like to leave comments -- so I could get comments any time, and often I do. I usually get a few comments a week, and they always brighten my day. :)

I'm quite sleepy at the moment but need to be writing this fic. I think I'm going to close my eyes for 20 minutes and take a power nap so I can try to soldier through and get more of Chapter 3 of Unconventional Courtship out. I only have 26 hours or so until it's "due" -- technically I could stay up past midnight on Thursday and write into the wee hours of the dawn in order to publish it on Friday the 6th, its due date, but I'm rubbish at pretty much anything after midnight.

So. No pressure except the calendar! :eek:

The other day, I found out (via the fandomcalendar page) about a challenge coming up for June. It's called unconventionalcourtship, it's apparently entering its 12th year, and it has been making me laugh and laugh for days! Just check out the hundreds of prompts, taken from the back summaries of those trashy Mills & Boon romance novels. They are so cheesy!

The challenge is to take one of the descriptions, swap out the characters for your preferred duo, and then write at least 1,000 words about it. There's a collection on AO3 with past works, too!

I'm beyond tickled by this ridiculous challenge, and I've signed up for June 6! I already have a pretty good idea of which one I'm going to pick, but clearly I need to read all the blurbs before I can make a final selection. :)