( Cut for Fic )

 

Fic brought to you by having seen XMFC for the third time running and listening to That Fucking Take That Song one infinite repeat (cheers for that, you-know-who-you-are)

... Either I'm a far better writer than I knew, or these people have been horrendously failed by Higher Education History.

You know, I'm feeling a lot more positive about this Holocaust Studies shtik.

 

( Chapter Two )

 

Yes, I finally started writing it.

( Present Perfect: Chapter One )

 

That film's only been out three days and already Past Tense is being pelted with faves on ff.net.

I guess I'm finally going to write Present Perfect. It'll keep me rolling until I finish editing AIoM.

Last little present before I head off tomorrow.

Money spent: I don't want to know. Easily in the thousands.

Time spent: This year, most all of last year and half of the year before. Two years and growing.

Books read: I have no idea. Climbing to three digits, if not there already.

Films seen: Easily a dozen, probably more.

Stories written: Far fewer than I could have. I was trying to challenge myself. However, if it all went tits-up, I knew I could always rely on this.

Trips taken: Two in a year, three if you count this one. Insane considering I'm doing this on a student's budget.

Themed visits:
Imperial War Museum (countless)
Jewish museum (1)
Madjanek (1)
Auschwitz (2)
Plazow (1)
Therizenstadt (1)
Mauthausen (1)
Dachau (1)
Buchenwald (1)
Sachenhausen (1)

Other: Learning German in order to read more books.

Enough. Enough. This is devouring my life, and there is no end to it. When the Past Tense bunnies bit, I never imagined it could lead to this. I wanted to be a writer. Now I want to be a historian. I remember the first Holocaust book I picked up. I can even name it, because I've since bought it. 'Auschwitz and After', by Charlotte Deboe. I picked it up the year before last while working as a data collector. I'd reached my quota and hid in the library of the small town we were raking over.

Two years. That September I went to the Imperial War Museum for the first time, bought the little notebook that has since become my lucky charm and wrote about the Holocaust for the first time. Past Tense notes. The next year I saw the camps for the first time. No idea what'll happen this year.

Happy birthday.