First up, what started it all, the gorgeous lyrics to an equally beautiful song.

"Dance With You" by Live

Sitting on the beach
The island king of love
Deep in Fijian seas
Deep in some blissful dream
Where the goddess finally sleeps
In the lap of her lover
Subdued in all her rage
And I’m aglow with the taste of the demons driven out
And happily replaced with the presence of real love
The only one who saves

I wanna dance with you
I see a world where people live and die with grace
The karmic ocean dried up and leave no trace
I wanna dance with you
I see a sky full of the stars that change our minds
And lead us back to a world we would not face

The stillness in your eyes
Convinces me that I
I don’t know a thing
And I been around the world and I’ve tasted all the wines
A half a billion times came sickened to your shores
You show me what this life is for

I wanna dance with you
I see a world where people live and die with grace
The karmic ocean dried up and leave no trace
I wanna dance with you
I see a sky full of the stars that change our minds
And lead us back to a world we would not face

In this altered state
Full of so much pain and rage
You know we got to find a way to let it go

Sitting on the beach
The island king of love
Deep in Fijian seas
Deep in the heart of it all where the goddess finally sleeps
After eons of war and lifetimes
She's smiling and free, nothing left
But a cracking voice and a song, oh lord

I wanna dance with you
I see a world where people live and die with grace
The karmic ocean dried up and leave no trace
I wanna dance with you
I see a sky full of the stars that change our minds
And lead us back to a world we would not face
We would not face
We would not face
We would not face
We would not face
We would not face

You'll note in the above that I actually misquoted one of the lyrics when I used it for a title. Until I looked up the lyrics online, I really did think he was singing "a cracking voice and a song of love," and I loved the lyricism of the phrase so much that I decided to just go with it.

First, if you don't know already, I live in San Diego. This is important because I strongly suspect none of these stories would have been written if I live elsewhere, and in fact I think I didn't work on them on my vacation because I wasn't in the right locale. The dreamy, breezy, warm and mellow vibe I tried to work into each ficlet is exactly what summer feels like in Point Loma (when we're not having a heatwave, that is), and when I was in Ohio and Utah, I could only think yearningly of that vibe, rather than feeling and channelling it. I don't have this trouble with every story, but I did with these.

It was a relief to get home and find the words flowing, after losing them completely while on vacation.

Anyway, to begin with, there was the song. I'm quite the fan of Live, and quite the fan of "Dance With You," what with the ocean references and the yearning male voice and the marine-sounding music, which is not something I can explain but which both Sting's "Why Should I Cry For You?" and Christopher Cross' "Sailing" also capture. I had finished up my Remix and my unexpected YnM story and assumed I was done for a while. So I pulled up my "Mental Wind Down After Much Activity" playlist, as you do, and settled into a state of resting on my laurels for a while. You have to remember, my average output has been about four stories a year, up to this point. I'd already passed that number, with the year less than half over, so I decided to kick back and enjoy.

Little did I know my muses were planning a mass raid on my creative impulses.

Well, I'm listening to "Dance With You," and singing along with the lyrics, and I think to myself, "Hmm, you know, this song has some great lyrics that would make really good story titles. In fact, were I writing a story based on this song, I would probably have a hard time picking which lyric to use as a title. In fact, were I writing based on this song, I would probably have to write a series of stories just so I could use all my favorite lyrics as titles. Of course, were I to write said theoretical series, it'd probably have to be more like a bunch of separate stories in different fandoms, all connected by the theme of the song, because really, the mood of the song doesn't feel like it would quite work for all the necessary stages for a single series in a single fandom. It feels like a lovely, poignant daydream, a single moment to be held and savored. A single moment with a lover on an island, even. After a bad patch of some kind, a warm moment of quiet triumph." Then I laughed to myself. "That would fit so many of my fandoms, the bad patch followed by a warm moment of quiet tri--oh, damn."

And there they were, five story ideas, in my head and waiting for me to start. I waited a few days to see if they'd go away, but they only grew more solid. Those that came without islands (QaF was always Ibiza, and the Remus/Sirius was always somewhere in the Caribbean, but the others were more iffy) started gravitating toward a particular part of the world. Ron got an earring, and Hermione started sporting a fabulous tan. Ben found a job at some fancy resort. Sirius announced that he was going into the story drunk, and Remus went through a period of debating whether or not he wanted to learn the steel drums. I pitched the whole mess to Eliza over chat, which I should have remembered from past experience never kills an idea.

"Do it!" she cried.

"I was thinking Greece for Harry, Ron, and Hermione," I said, giving in to the inevitable. "And which island do you think Remus and Sirius would like best in the Caribbean?"

One thing about Eliza, she may not ever talk me out of writing things, but she's always willing to help me do the necessary research. So, she helped me narrow R/H/Hr down to the Ionian Islands, and then helped me find Curaçao, which is entirely too lovely a name not to be used. With her encouragement, I started writing a Ben/Lucas set after an epic I have not yet written. For possibly obvious reasons, this did not work. I was very sad, because the title I was going to use for that one, "Live and Die With Grace," was one of my favorites. Still, I forged ahead. I got the B/J written up, which was always the clearest, and planned to write the remaining four on vacation.

As you already know, that didn't happen. I did get my Remus Remix drabble written up and turned in, though, so it wasn't a complete wash. And then I got home, and the stories started crowding in again, with Ben and Lucas thoughtfully relocating themselves to Hawaii and dealing with the aftermath of "And Everything Nice." I wrote them up, and then realized I was going to have to find betas for all of them.

Now, I have a group of people who regularly beta for me, and do so happily. Eliza is one, Emerald is another, and I can always rely on Boni when what I'm writing is HP or YnM. However, a few of those I relied on regularly were on vacations of their own, and with this many stories, I didn't want to impose on any beta (except Eliza, but since it was all partly her fault, I don't feel guilty about that). Lucky for me, LJ is a great place to ask for betas in multiple fandoms, and it wasn't long before I had at least three for each story. I sent the stories out, and prepared to relax and wait for the betas to come in.

I should have known better.

At the same time I was requesting betas, there was a fun little meme going around, which involved icon identification. One of the questions was "Which icon did you not realize I even had?" Vera, one of my lovely betas, participated in the meme on my LJ, and the icon she chose was the Obi-Wan/Qui-Gon one I had made, and used maybe once. She said there were a number she didn't know I had, but that was one she wished she'd seen more often.

I'm quite proud of that icon, and wish I've had more occasion to use it. I came into Prequel fandom when it was all kind of dying down, though, and while I have plans for several Q/O stories, other things keep calling my attention. Well, I stared at the icon after Vera's comment, and thought about the plans I have for a series called "Missions," which is really just an excuse to send my favorite Jedi to various planets and dress them up in native costume. One of the costumes involved would be similar to a lava lava, as I was planning to put them on a tropical archipelago where not only would the natives be offended if they didn't dress properly, but Jedi robes would prove stifling. I thought to myself, "Self, that particular costume would fit so nicely into this series, and considering that whole 'There is no death, there is the Force' schtick, I could use my 'Live and Die With Grace' title, and--oh, hey."

I wrote up the piece in about fifteen minutes. Usually, I hang onto the first rough draft, and look at it again a day or two later. Then I polish it up a bit before sending it out to the betas. However, since the rest of the series was already in beta, I sent this one out to Eliza and Vera as soon as it was written. I felt badly that it was so rough, but I was anxious to see if they thought it salvageable.

Lucky for me, they did, and so the series became six.

Once I got the stories back, I had to figure out how to arrange them for posting. My plan was to post them one at a time, so my readers could read the ones in fandoms that interested them, and not have to scroll through the ones that didn't (well, and because I'm a feedback whore, and I figured I'd get more feedback if I posted one a day). Eliza, because she is brilliant, suggested that I start with the Ben/Lucas, who are just beginning a relationship, and end with the Tsuzuki/Hisoka, experiencing the ultimate happy ending. She thought it might be a good idea to keep the HP stories back-to-back, but said I should go with what felt right.

I did consider switching around "The Island King of Love" and "What This Life is For", since IK deals with an established relationship and WTLF is another one that's just beginning. However, IK seems more like "Came Sickened to Your Shores" in atmosphere to me, and I did like the idea of the two HP stories remaining back-to-back. Starting the "ending" section of the series with Remus/Sirius made sense to me, moving from the resurrection of Sirius through the death of Obi-Wan to the release from service of Tsuzuki. I'd also come to realize that, while I dearly love all the stories and I'm fiercely proud of them, "A Cracking Voice and a Song of Love" really is the emotional heart of the series. It's what every one of my pairings (and I include threesomes in the term) is striving for, or has achieved and is fighting to hold onto. It's a connection to each other that outlasts any separation. It's a refusal to believe we are meant to be alone. Which is...incredibly sappy of me, but then, it's an open secret that my black heart is really just a charred marshmallow.

There are still a number of lyrics in the song that I think would have made great titles, but I just didn't have the time or the energy to pursue the story ideas that rose from them. So I'm issuing a challenge. If reading the lyrics inspired you, write it. If the idea of islandfic is appealing, write it. If you think your pairing of choice would look good placed lovingly on a beach, write it. And send me a link.