I'm taking a break from doing my taxes (which I've put off for waaaaaay too long) to write this promised story meta.

It also helps that Marcs!bro wrecked my concentration to call and tell me how much he dug How to Train Your Dragon. While I appreciated the thought and the call, it was less-than-no help. Me hate going through paperwork. Me hate math. It doesn't take much to distract me.

Where was I? Oh, yeah.

First off, I want to thank everyone who's commented so far, and is planning to comment, and will comment. I promise to respond after I finish the taxes (sometime after tomorrow night).

Secondly, let's talk about how to pull teeth out of grizzly bear while it's trying to eat you, otherwise known as, "the hell I went through writing The Monsters Are Due in Washington Square."

The finished product is actually a mash-up of three electronic scraps that had been floating around my computer's hard drive for more than a year.

That's right. Never, ever throw away those stillborn fic bits, and bits you've cut from existing fics. They have a habit of becoming exactly the thing you need, and always when you least expect it.

If you're at all interested in how I put this story together, and lessons learned from writing it, click on the cut.

( Cut for self-important crap about the process of writing this damn story... )

So, that's everything I got.

I honestly don't know how I feel about this story or the end result.

It was frustrating to the point of distraction to write, and a whole lot of work for a mere 75 pages. I swear to God, not even Whisper was this much work, and that was my first novel-length Buffy fic, which I wrote while Season 7 was airing.

Hell, it was almost as hard to write as Cookoo in the Nest, and that story was a first-class bitch to pull off.

Right now, I kind of have a love-hate relationship with The Monsters Are Due in Washington Square. I may learn to love it and have a kinder perspective on it with the passage of time, but right my warm and fuzzy feelings are pretty much centered on the fact that I'm relieved it's over.

After writing this? Remix is gonna be a piece of cake.