The Sam/Jack fan song is finally complete! I spent the last few days finalising the song and doing a few (read: a thousand) recordings, both for the vocal and the piano part. I ended up giving up on the piano recordings simply because my microphone is nowhere near sophisticated enough for it to turn out right; in fact, there would be thumps every bar when I pedalled. So I had to compromise the quality of the musicality for sound quality, and ended up with using the Kontakt player from Sibelius instead. As a result, the accompaniment kinda sounds lifeless because the piano part's computer-generated, but at least the notes are pretty much all there...

Anyway, I'll stop rambling because I'm getting so nervous about posting this (I've always preferred live performances because you get them over and done with, whereas recordings immortalise all your mistakes), and I'll just, er, post this. XD Many thanks to the awesome 666_blessings, who offered his support and criticism throughout the entire process. ♥ The song is littered with Stargate SG-1 references, and spans between Seasons 4 and the end of 8/beginning of 9.

Samantha Lin - Horizons (mp3, 3.4 MB) (Left click to stream & listen; right click to save.)

( Lyrics )

For those who are interested, here's a little bit of background information about the composition of the song. ( It all started about two months ago when I was first getting into the whole Stargate & Sam/Jack fandom. )

That's about it, really. Thank you so much for listening and reading, and please leave your comments, criticisms, and other thoughts--they would all be greatly appreciated! :D And if any of you would like the sheet music so you can play and sing this yourself (and then record a better version!), please feel free to contact me. Thanks again! :D

ETA: One of my awesome music engineer/composer friends gave me a few tips for mixing, so I've uploaded another version with much better sound quality. :)

Just wanted to direct your attention to icontour, my new icon journal where I'm going to make all my icon-related posts. I'm not going to post any icons in my personal journal here, so please friend the community for updates! And because I've always wanted to do this, here's a mini-spam/pimp/whatnot:

icontour icontour icontour icontour icontour

It still amazes me to think that I have finally completed a journey that has spanned the last five years (though progress had not always been consistent), culminating in the result of just over 140,000 words. After 666_blessings has finished looking through the final chapter and zapping all the typos, I will post it on this lovely website most of us here frequent, and change the status to complete. But of course, being the excrutiatingly sentimental person that I am, I cannot simply walk away without another word. I am compelled to share my thoughts because, after all, this story has been close to my heart for so long.

Five years ago, when I was in Year 11, I sat down in Mr Brauner's Extension 1 English class and listened to him talk about the animal imagery used in Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew. The dogs, the hunting, the taming, the falcons, the predators and the prey. He talked about how a noble man at that time was judged by his collection of predatory birds, of how he established his power by being able to tame falcons and hawks. As Mr Brauner spoke, my mind, always on Sailormoon, wandered to a place where I've never quite been before. I saw glimpses of scenes: a burning village, an bitter woman, a powerful, manipulative prince. Up until then, I had written a handful of short Sailormoon stories that were mostly playful and fun, and never lasted more than 10,000 words. But this was different, this idea needed more because there was so much more to say.

( Contains more about the little details of my life than you ever want to know. And a few spoilers. )

( A note about the ending. Again, spoilers ahoy! )

On a final note, I would like to extend my thanks to all the people who have made this possible. Wendy, my beloved little sister, whose task of being my first reader also includes being spoilt as I ramble on about details of the story before they are properly formed. Alan, my editor and partner in all things insane, who took on the arduous task of picking up hundreds of typos and whose only reward for his efforts is a bag of diabetes chocolate chip cookies. Jonathan, my first editor; Sid, provider of helpful insights and marvellous dinners; Mona, who has waited patiently as I worked on writing this story instead of her long-outstanding personalised porn. The genius of numerous writers who have influenced me and whose works to which I have alluded in the story: Shakespeare, Caedmon, Cleland, Richardson, Fielding, T. S. Eliot, Ian McEwan, Oscar Wilde, and Vienna Teng (who is a singer-songwriter, which makes her doubly awesome). And of course, to all the lovely readers and reviewers whose comments always leave me with a smile, or something new to think about. Thank you for taking this journey with me.