( Vids )
( Fanfiction )
After pleasing period of rest + physical activity (6 x walkies on the Common, 4 sessions in the gym, 1 Pilates class, 1 Core Conditioning Class) + delicious treatments (I want my home dry-float apparatus!), back home. There were a few crumpled rose-leaves, but the overall experience was so pleasant I could treat these with relative equanimity (where is ![[info - personal]](http://s.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
oursin and what have I done with the hedgehog?) - indeed, the wonky tap in the ladies' loo next to the gym is becoming an old familiar friend, rather like the wonkinesses in one's own home that one has learnt to deal with.
Discovered, from the taxi driver picking me up, that there was a replacement bus service between Haslemere and Guildford - something which had not been entirely manifest on the National Rail site when I checked - so I decided to take the taxi to Guildford rather than hoick self and luggage on and off taxi, bus and train. The drive went past the Devil's Punchbowl, which I hadn't realised was there - the setting of Monica Edwards' 'Punchbowl Farm' series? (I preferred the Romney Marsh ones.)
***
Review of Lived in London: Blue Plaques and the Stories Behind Them edited by Emily Cole by Kathryn Hughes. Qu: surely the name of Flinders Petrie is still relatively well-remembered? Or do I think that because I work more or less round the corner from the UCL Museum of Egyptology that bears his name?
Some novels never quite recover from the brilliance of their opening chapters. WORD.
No, not really:
Geoffrey Moorhouse, who died this week, was a great travel writer, but had also been one of the last gentleman reporters. He was adventurous in many ways: he had one of the first vasectomies, which went wrong, and he gave a hilarious description of phoning London from a bar in rural Ireland to describe the symptoms to his surgeon, while drinkers gave pennies to small boys to fetch their fathers so they could hear it too.
Well, no, Simon Hoggart, actually: vasectomies had been being performed since around the mid-C19th, originally in the belief that they alleviated the evils of self-abuse and spermatorrhoea, from 1899 for purposes of sterilisation, and during the interwar period in the belief that they were a means of rejuvenation (HAI! W B Yeats). I.e. it is a rather simple operation that you'd think surgeons would have managed to get right by the time it became a relatively popular, or at least discussed, method of birth control in the late 1960s. I will concede that 'methods of birth control' (and 'weird operations performed for bizarre reasons'?) just possibly might be one of my Mastermind special subjects.
This entry was originally posted at http://oursin.dreamwidth.org/1138864.htm
Welcome to the latest Saturday Edition of Love Letters to Mho! The Love Doctor is in!
Dear Mister Mho Fho,
I am a simple girl who lives on an island surrounded by mist. I can’t help but watch the selkies that come out of the ocean as they partake in sexual congress with one another. One night I made a big mistake and watched their mating near the shoreline when one of the selkie men grabbed me and took me to his underwater kingdom where he loved me for hours on his massive sea sponge.
Because I couldn’t hold my breath for that long underwater, my selkie lover, who tastes like sweet nectar, let me go. As soon as I came back on shore, my bitch of an Aunt wanted to punish me because I gave my cherry to my new seal man. She left me with deranged Shaman who wanted to ravish me!
I ran away and was saved by the enchanted trees in the enchanted forest. One tree in particular has been so lonely in his thousands of years of life and one thing led to another and I found out how skilled a tree can be with their roots and branches, where they can bring a woman to pleasure.
Who should I be with? My sweet selkie lover or my large, stoic tree who can also give me shade from the harsh sun.
Yours in need,
M.
Dear M,
You are in quite a pickle my dear!
So, you must you choosing between the leafy man of your dreams and either become a Dendrophiliac:
Why choose? Either one you pick, you’re being screwed in ways no human woman should ever experience.Good luck and make sure to buy a tweezer for all those splinters you will be plucking out of your hoo-haa as well as a good fresh water douche for all that seaweed and sweet nectar flowing out of each one of your holes.
Sincerely,
Mho Fho
Need a hint who's asking for advice?
This fall season has been a roller coaster of weather all over. The season has had some really warm days then it plunges into slightly cold, colder, and coldest. Also there has been the rain. Dressing appropriately for the weather has been a challenge. On day it is warm people start to loosen up and walk around with less layers to cover them up. But by the time it hits later in the day you need those layers as it gets colder. The Colder days get even more clothing added but by the end of the day you are stripping off layers feeling too warm. LOL.
Now on a day like a couple days, ago a rainy misty day I like. It wasn’t raining so hard yet that you had to rush for cover or walk like they were in a race. You could be a little slow and enjoy the rain a little.
As I strolled to get to my day job that morning I listened to the rain. There is a tempo when it its various objects. The car, street, lamppost or sidewalk. A sort of a melody that is interesting. It made my mind start to plan a scene for a book that takes place in the rain. It is everyday things that garner the best ideas. As I got inside my day job and got ready for the day I thought of this the rainy day melody and the things it has inspired me to do before. Take a long nap while it rained, bundle up and watch movies, organize my cupboards and any other number of things. Each time it rains it is a different melody that inspires me to do something according to what I hear in those drops of rain. The variety of stages of rain made me chuckle.
When I left my day job later that day it was still raining when I got home so the melody inspired me even more. Then it lulled me to sleep. Try and get out and enjoy the weather wherever you can. Listen for the melody around you and let it inspire you. Let me know what happened and type of weather you had. Have a great day.
McKenna Jeffries
http://www.mckennajeffries.com
…. sensual, edgy, unexpected
Blog: http://www.mckennajeffries.com/blog
Chat Group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/McKennaJef
Free Reads Site: http:/ /www.satinnotes.com/
Conquering Jazz - What’s a woman to do when she unwittingly makes a tantalizing proposition to her best friend?
Be brazen, bold and set some ground rules.Her offer. One night of carnal bliss. No emotionallowed.
His counter offer. A continued affair to fulfill all their sexual cravings.
His hidden agenda. Conquer to make sure their affair never ends.
Buy here at Liquid Silver Book.
Was talking to a friend at work last week about Alfred Hitchcock movies. He'd just the night before seen Lifeboat and commented on how un-Hollywood and grim an ending it had. Then we talked about our favorites and there were a lot. He even liked aspects of Frenzy, which I never went for. You may not be a fan of Hitchcock, but I could and have watched a number of his films again and again, pretty much anytime I can find them on the tube uncut. I was formally introduced to Hitchcock's movies when I was in graduate school at SUNY Binghamton. Being the student in the graduate program with the lowest GRE's of anyone ever admitted to the program, the English department wouldn't bequeath me a teaching assistantship (who could blame them?), something I needed to survive while going to school. John Gardner went to bat for me and got me gig as a TA in the cinema department -- marking papers and leading small group discussions about the films we watched. What a lucky happenstance. I ended up working for Maureen Turim, a film scholar and author of many articles and books. Most of the semester was spent in the dark, watching great films from every age and country. I started to see movies in a different way, started to understand somewhat the "language" of film. Turim, at the time, was big on Goddard, so we watched a lot of his influences, Hitchcock being one. It was with Hitchcock's films where I first noticed the structures and devices of film craft. I think the reason these things are so evident, especially for someone like me -- a television nurtured, semi-interested bystander -- in Hitchcock is because there is something not yet fully removed from stage drama about the movement of his characters and the lighting and the tricks. Whatever it was, I became more fascinated by the way things worked in his films than in the particulars of the dramas unfolding. I really got into this stuff for a while. I was all about the logistics of how the affect of Martin Balsam falling down the stairs backwards in Psycho was manufactured, or the long shots in Rope, or the dialogue in Strangers on a Train. Then one day, we saw Shadow of a Doubt, and as much as I wanted to give it my psuedo-scholarly once over analysis, I found I couldn't concentrate on anything but the story. Joseph Cotten, in, for my money, his greatest performance, is so wicked and darkly humorous. There are scenes that just make you cringe. The script was written by Thorton Wilder. Hitchcock reveals Norman Rockwell's America to be as petty and sinister as it actually is. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it. Supposedly it was Hitchcock's favorite. Do you have a favorite Hitchcock film? Or do you despise his films, as I know some do? Drop a line if so. 
Last night, it was a Professor of South American and Gay Literature and The Age of Iron at the Classic Repertory Company.
I'd have to call The Age of Iron a Frankenplay, or perhaps a simple stew: Take two parts Heywood and one part Shakespeare, dice fine, mix judiciously, mount handsomely, and serve up hot, on sand. In this case it was Troilus and Cressida and Iron Age (no, didn't know it either, although I probably read it in 1980 when I was working on my dissertation because I read everything in 1980). Troilus and Cressida is about lechery and war--and young love and disappointment and what nobility means. It's full of difficult and complicated poetry and complex emotions and spleen and interesting characters. The Iron Age (on available evidence) is about war and lechery--and noble sentiments and characters drawn from Morality Plays. It's full of rhyming couplets and some nicely-turned phrases (including "is the the face that launched a thousand ships," (which he definitely stole from Marlowe, since the play was written in 1632, but there's no shame in that--stealing from the best was the order of the day. Shakespeare did it constantly.)) and a lot of sententiae (potted moral statements), and a really good dying speech for Ajax. Put them together, you get a play about the whole course of the Trojan War, from the seduction of Helen to the fall of Ilium's cloud-kissing towers and the death of the whole cast except the doughty (and wily) Ulysses.
Yes, I enjoyed it. Lots. The production was very cool--a huge sand-pit, surrounded by audience and plexiglass sides with lights in them and red and white draperies on a framework above. The Trojans and Greeks were dressed alike in black doublets and slops and long boots. The women were all in sand colors, to blend in with the background and point up just how peripheral they really were to a war that was mostly about property and honor and the good, old-fashioned fun of a big, bloody fight. The acting was excellent (with the possible exception of Graham Winton as Agamemnon, who we saw in Man for All Seasons last year, and thought was weak there, too). Everybody could speak the verse and project--two quarrels I frequently have with Americans playing Shakespeare. Steven Skybell as Ulysses, Elliot Villar as Hector, and Steven Rattazzi as Thersites were particularly wonderful, managing to bring real human depth to the wiliness, nobility, and cynicism that dominate their characters.
Gotta say, though. I missed Pandarus. I liked the seduction of Helen and the expanded fight at the feast Priam threw for the Greeks, but the scenes at the end, though they completed the narrative, seemed anticlimactic after the harrowing death of Troilus. I just didn't care what happened to Achilles or Ajax or even Andromache--nobody had made me care enough for them, personally, to shed a tear at their deaths. And maybe that's the real difference between Heywood and Shakespeare. Heywood tried to make us care about them all, and succeeded mostly in deadening our response to the horror of war. Shakespeare made us care about two of them, and succeeded in making their tragedy stand for the general tragedy of war.
Now I have to go get dressed for brunch with more out-of-town friends, and a matinee of a play called Or. Which I'll tell you about tomorrow.
Are you ready for Short Story Saturday’s to commence in one week? I have quite a few anthologies I can’t wait to dive into for this, but I keep finding more. Have you seen these yet?
The Trouble With Heroes edited by Denise Little. Contributing authors include Kristine Grayson, Adrian Nikolas Phoenix, Mike Moscoe, Jean Rabe, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Terry Hayman, Annie Reed, David H. Hendrickson, Phaedra M. Weldon, Pauline J. Alma, Robert T. Jeschonek, Laura Resnick, John Alvin Pitts, Dayle A. Dermatis, Dory Crowe, J. Stephen York, Peter Orullian, Janna Silverstein, Ken Scholes, Steven Mohan Jr., Allan Rousselle and Kristin Kathryn Rusch.
These 22 all-new tales pay tribute to the true heroes-the people who enable and put up with heroes. From what it’s like to be Hercules’ wife )complete with an appearance by Hercules in drag) to the trials of H.P. Lovecraft’s housekeeper, from the perils of being King Kong’s girlfriend to the downside of dating a shapeshifter, this anthology turns heroism on its head, revealing the behind-the-scenes drama, as opposed to glorious rescues. From the Pied Piper’s power trip to David acting like a giant you-know-what after slaying Goliath, these stories show heroes in all their ignominy and shine a light on the unsung faithful standing in their shadows.
The Dragon Book is edited by Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois. Contributing authors include Cecelia Holland, Naomi Novik, Jonathan Stroud, Kage Baker, Jane Yolen and Adam Stemple, Liz Williams, Peter S.Beagle, Diana Gabaldon and Samuel Sykes, Garth Nix, Sean Williams, Tad Williams, Harry Turtledove, Diana Wynne Jones, Gregory Maguire, Bruce Coville, Tanith Lee, Tamora Pierce, Mary Rosenblum and Andy Duncan.
Whether portrayed as fire-breathing reptilian beasts at war with humanity or as noble creatures capable of speech and mystically bonded to the warriors who ride them, dragons have been found in nearly every culture’s mythology. In modern times, they can be found far from their medieval settings in locales as mundane as suburbia or as barren as post-apocalyptic landscapes-and in The Dragon Book, today’s greatest fantasists reignite the fire with legendary tales that will consume readers’ imaginations.
When my son, who is 7, found out I was writing a book about vampires (the Vampire Chef series, the first book of which I’m turning in to the editors in early June), he immediately started telling me how the story should go, and telling me, and telling me. And waking up in the morning and telling me more. Until I finally agreed that we could write our own version of The Vampire Chef. Not content with this, he wanted to know when our own version would go up on this website I made with all the stories on it. And wanting to know when. And wanting to know when, until finally I had to promise faithfully that I would put our version of Vampire Chef up on the Book View Cafe site.
So today’s blog post is me keeping that promise. Here, ladies and gentleman, for a little light reading after Thanksgiving, is the first public outing of a new work by A. J. Smith, heavily typed and lightly edited by Mom. With apologies to the nice folks at Zingerman’s Roadhouse who really did not deserve to be set upon by vampires and monsters.
CHAPTER ONE of OUR VERSION
Our story begins at Zingerman’s Roadhouse on a Friday night. A little boy wanted cake for his nightly birthday party. The cooks were mixing the cake when they saw a group of vampires! The cooks were very afraid, but, then, one of the vampires became friendly.
But the vampires couldn’t be stopped, because they were turning into a new monster! A bllldlzomphiquo monster! So the cooks and the friendly vampire ordered some monster killing utensiles from the monster killing store that had just opened.
It took a long, long time to get the utensiles made and delivered because the monster killing store was in Las Vegas. But they had them delivered by a car-airplane (because one part ran on gas and one part flew). They also ordered a monster-protection cabinet to protect all their utensiles in case the monsters wanted their utensiles and wanted to turn them into human killers.
Then the cooks and the friendly vampire used the monster protection utensiles to try to kill the bllldlzomphiquo monster, but he was invincible! He had an invincible sheild around him. So they ordered some sheild-popping utensiles from the shield-popping store in Sacramento, California. This time they upgraded to truck-airplane so the utensiles got there much faster.
They tried the sheild-popper utensiles and they popped the sheild, but the sheild kept coming back! So, they decided to order a bag full of cats and dogs from the cat and dog store, which was right near Zingerman’s Roadhouse. The cats and dogs popped the sheild for good!
Then the cooks and the friendly vampire killed the monster with the monster killing utensiles. A
After awhile, they built themselves a little house, because they worked night and day and needed a place to live, and they were now part-time construction workers too. And sometimes they had to make another little house.
I really like talking about blogging, so I thought it might be interesting to try an occasional blogging advice/support/pimp/whine thread.
What’s happening with your romance blog? Want to share any news? Upcoming events? Contests?
Got a new blog? Give us the link and tell us what it’s all about.
Facing any vexing issues with your blog? Something technical? Annoying commenters? Funny spam? Fresh out of ideas? Blogging taking over your life?
If you’re a blog reader, let us know what blogs you have been enjoying lately. What you would like to see more of? Less of?
Contest: Enter to win a gift certificate of $15 to the online bookstore of your choice if you leave a comment by 7:00am EST Monday (that would be 12:00 GMT, I think).
I’ll cheat by starting with my own comment:
Images: my web host just informed me that I had used up all my disk space because I had so many hi res pictures. So I went and basically nuked all the images from all my 2008 posts, which made me very sad (I shed a few tears over the loss of the the orgasming lions from the Come for Me, Baby post). What was my alternative? Any advice?
Also, many of those images (I assume) were copyrighted, and I did not pay for permission. Here’s my rationalization: (1) no one who reads this blog could possibly think they are mine, and (2) I am not profiting from them in any way, (3) I would take them down if I got a takedown notice, (4) my readership is so small, what harm can it do. The problem with this argument is that it would likely justify stealing a lot of things.
How do you handle the question of images?
Related posts:
- Blogversary Contest (with Stat Reveal for the curious or bored) Well, folks, it’s been a year of blogging! To celebrate...
- An Open Letter to My Ex Subscribers Not long ago, I discovered Feedburner (thanks Ana!). To my...
- Winner of the Blogversary contest — Christine I had 34 entrants to the contest and the Winner...
The good news is that I topped 50K a few days back. In fact, right now my word count is hovering at about 60K.
Of course, my goal was 90K, so while I've "won" NaNoWriMo, I'm falling significantly short of where I want/need to be.
The bad news is that I've been feeling burned out. I added less than a page on Thursday, and I didn't write at all yesterday. Prior to this, I'd managed to write every day of the month, including while attending Philcon.
I'm feeling a bit more optimistic about this weekend. I've done some catch up with my Paper Golem responsibilities, and I'll have the house all to myself this evening (
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
valverdi is going into town to see Angels in America, with her friend in the lead role). And too, by posting about this here on my LJ (which is read not only by you, but by my editor/publisher too) I'm giving myself an extra push.So, unless I'm a total slacker, I'd like to see another 10K before I run out of November. I'll still be short of my goal, I'll feel a whole lot better.
- Mood:
cynical
- 07:18 Spare Cat managed to turn on iTunes on my computer this morning before I got up. She must really like my choice in music. #
- 09:25 Wow, you can really tell it's the day-after on Twitter, unless, that is, my feed is screwed up. #
- 11:02 It's probably not good to count popcorn as a vegetable, right? #
- 20:31 Modern Marvels' subject o' randomosity today: "Coin-operated." #
- 06:56 Thought I was cold when I woke up, turns out furnace is out -- probably wind in the night blew out pilot light. 1st relighting of season.... #
Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter
A casting call was made on this list so some of you I hope made it on there or the ones who made the call can clear this up.
Was any of it shot at the "The Edison" in LA or not?
I hear yes and I hear no and looking about online my self has come up with nothing.
I was told that it was not shot at "The Edison" and was filmed at some random club in LA that they dressed up. I also have been told most of it was shot on a sound stage.
So what is it filmed at The Edison or not, yes or no?
and for you this bores the hell out of.
This is funny , cute and a has costumes.
- Mood:
amused
sanj posting for Kass, who is offline for fairly obvious reasons. :)I am beyond thrilled to announce the arrival into the world of Zaphod*, born at 12:44 AM. From dad's report, mom and baby are both doing great.
ETA: I spoke with mom and she's just fine! \o/
[*Actual name redacted. It's not Zaphod, though. In case you were worried.]
[read
- Mood:excited
Five Times Sam Winchester regretted choosing Stanford.
Five times Sam Carter ran into John Crichton.
Five things Zoe never told Mal.
Five things Zoe doesn't think Mal knows, that he does.
Five women who would have kicked John Crichton's ass.
Four times Sarah Connor didn't prevent Judgment Day, and one time she did.
Five numbers on a Harvelle's speed dial.
Five crossovers Wendy Watson was never in.
Five nighthorses the cast of Sarah Connor Chronicles would ride.
Five things Jack O'Neill fought to get included in the standard gear for off-world teams, and why.
Four things Cameron Mitchell wanted to tell Sam Carter but didn't, and one thing he did.
Crossposted from DW, where there are
I suspect this motivates the choice to promote Dickerson’s new book, House of Cards: Love, Faith, and Other Social Expressions (Riverhead Books, 2009), with a series of videos called Greeting Card Emergency. Dickerson’s audience provides him with a decidedly un-Hallmark-like greeting card scenario, such as breaking a friend’s toilet or letting your snake eat someone else’s hamster. Dickerson then documents the process of creating a suitable card.
This promotion seems to be working. I’ve seen Greeting Card Emergencies reposted on a number of well-trafficked blogs and the videos inspired me to purchase Dickerson’s book.
House of Cards is a memoir of Dickerson’s experience with the Hallmark card company, documenting the period of time between when Dickerson first hears about nearby Hallmark interviews through the time when he decides to leave Hallmark for the presumably greener, warmer, and more licentious pastures of a Ph.D. program in Florida. Along the way, the book also documents Dickerson’s journey from fundamentalism to atheism.
There are three major reasons to recommend this book:
1) David Ellis Dickerson may be more charming in person, but he’s charming on paper, too. The memoir’s light, easy writing style makes for a fast and fun read.
2) The memoir provides an intriguing (if not wholly satisfying) case study about how a fundamentalist upbringing affects a twenty-something who has lost his faith. At the beginning of the memoir, twenty-seven-year-old Dickerson has already converted to Catholicism, become liberal, and started supporting feminism and gay rights. However, he still feels that he and his fiancée must avoid sex until marriage, a conviction that shifts during the course of the book until, after the pair break up, twenty-eight-year-old Dickerson is left trying to lose his virginity approximately a decade after most of his peers.
3)It’s a great deal of fun to read about Dickerson’s work process and word play. The memoir is peppered with his silly poetry, including a love poem about free popcorn:
The popcorn that thou givest unto me
Bringeth emotions I can scarcely utter.
For thou art like this popcorn that I see:
Lively and fresh, though thou contain’st less butter.
And in the carbonated beverage, too,
Which, like the popcorn, thou bestow’st for free,
Though it consist of Brown Dye Number Two,
In it, I see thy hair, and think on thee.
My Pepsi tab would founder many banks.
I can’t repay you; please accept my thanks.
(p 18)
In chapter nine (How to Write a Card), Dickerson details the process of taking a Hallmark card category, brainstorming ideas for it, and proposing a suitable card (which editors subsequently reject or accept). He explains common card types, including cards that come with attachments like paper clips and golf tees, and cards that include pop-ups. This witty, informational sequence gives what the reader has been craving throughout the book.
The memoir suffers some flaws. The first three chapters read like an unnecessarily long build-up: It’s unclear why the book begins before Dickerson even interviews with Hallmark instead of with his Kansas City interview or his first day as a new-hire. The book is called House of Cards; we’re here to read about Hallmark.
Even at Hallmark, the text lacks focus. It gives too little information about work process and too much about petty work woes. It’s not that the latter can’t be interesting grist for a memoir, but here they’re often rendered in long narrative sequences that could be summed up faster. Work events begin to feel repetitive. Worse, they take up space that might have been devoted to Dickerson’s evolving spirituality. After all, there’s more to the journey away from fundamentalism than sex.
From a feminist perspective, the text is mixed. There’s a lovely rant on page 135 defending female humorists, but in the same chapter Dickerson theorizes that women leave Hallmark’s humor department because they can’t handle the boss’s relative masculinity. It’s possible that Dickerson has evidence for this theory which didn’t make it into the text; however, given the available information, Dickerson comes across as condescending. Perhaps women leave because being the only female in that work environment is intolerable. Perhaps they leave because the boss acts sexist in ways that aren’t apparent when there are only male coworkers. Perhaps Dickerson should just ask the women involved?
Other scenes are similarly fraught. For instance, Dickerson’s fiancée is depicted as sex-averse, but this is never satisfactorily explored. From the details in the text, the fiancée appears to be suffering from some sort of sexual trauma*, but the narrative ignores that in order to focus on how angry Dickerson feels when she refuses to fulfill his romantic fantasies, such as a shared bath by candlelight. Perhaps Dickerson decided not to explore his fiancée’s perspective in more depth because he didn’t want to violate her privacy. This is a respectable reason, but the text still feels incomplete.
Of the many scenes discussing Dickerson’s sexuality, the most compelling is a flashback to his early twenties when he was still convinced masturbation was sinful. He discovered that voyeurism gave him an excuse to see women’s bodies “by accident” and thus without guilt. For this feminist reader, at least, the scene was extremely powerful because one identifies with Dickerson’s need to navigate his sexuality within his repressive culture. At the same time, one recognizes that this is an example of how otherwise reasonable, pro-feminist men contribute to the rape culture.
Despite its flaws, House of Cards is an entertaining, engaging read full of whimsical word play. Dickerson’s memoir may not meet every possible literary expectation – what does? – but it’s fun to listen to the man talk, even on paper.
--
*I might have read her as asexual except for a scene in which she reacted defensively to Dickerson’s attempts to touch her shoulders while she washed dishes. This read to me as a post-traumatic reaction; others’ interpretations may differ. In any case, the absence of any attempt on the part of the text to understand her sex-averse behavior – whatever its cause – was a noticeable lack.
Author:
handyhunterSummary: Three weeks after Alcatraz, Warren runs away from home again. He ends up at Xavier's school and learns a few things about himself with the help of some new friends.
Recipient:
smaragdbirdRequest Used: Colossus/Angel (if you squint? more gen with slashy undertones)
Rating/Spoilers: G, set after the third movie
Word Count: 3800
Notes: For the
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif){kind=small}
xmmficathon. Thanks very much to harmonyangel and second_batgirl for the hand-holding and beta! Title from Bruce Springsteen's 'Independence Day'.( So Say Good-Bye, It's Independence Day )
- Mood:
chipper
LE News: I’ll be updating the author listing and series listing this weekend. If you want to make sure your novel/series is listed, click the links to add it. Also, I update the New Releases page every month, so if you know of a date that should be up there, add it and it’ll show up at the next update.
One other thing before I get to the news…have you realized there’s been about 35 new covers posted this month? If you’re interested in seeing which ones came out or to see if you’ve missed any, I’ve been keeping track of them on the Facebook page.
Michele Hauf has a new cover for her upcoming novel, Her Vampire Husband, which will be released April 2010. This is the third novel in her Wicked Games series.
Did everyone see that Harlequin has changed the name on their vanity press? It will no longer be called Harlequin Horizons, but will now be called DellArte Press. Even with this name change, Publishers Weekly is still saying that none of the writer associations have reversed their original decisions from last week.
Suvudu has listed their Top 10 2010 Books I Am Already Thankful For and their list looks pretty good. If you’re a fantasy fan, you’ll want to check these out. And speaking of Suvudu, have you seen their free library yet? They offer some great novels and right now you can get LK Hamilton’s A Kiss of Shadows and four other novels for free – but only until Monday. On Dec. 1st, they’ll put up five new novels and these will be taken down.
Interviews:
- Kelly Gay, author of The Better Part of Darkness, by RR@H Novel Thoughts & Book Talk
- Lilith Saintcrow, author of Betrayals, by SciFiGuy
- Rachel Vincent, author of My Soul to Take, answers questions on her blog
- PC and Kristen Cast, author of the House of Night series, by the Author Hour
- LJ Smith, author of the Vampire Diaries, by the Author Hour
- Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl, author of Beautiful Creatures, by Dark Faerie Tales
- Kathryn Smith, author of Dark Side of Dawn, by SciFiGuy
CNN has an article, Vampire romance novels suck in readers, on the paranormal romance genre. It’s a pretty good article, but I think what drew me to it was the fact that someone finally said that the boom in the PNR genre wasn’t due to Stephenie Meyer.
I’m really not sure how the Gematriculator figured this out, but hey, I’ll take it.
If you’ve been waiting for all five parts of Kelly Meding’s story, The Hoarder, to appear on Suvudu, then your wait is over. Here are they are: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5. The debut of Kelly’s second story, Pride Before Fall, has taken place and you can now read the first three days – Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3.
Stumbling Over Chaos has a great collection of linkage going on. I’m still going through everything she has over there and I have giggled more than once.
Kelly Gay has announced the title to the second Charlie Madigan novel. It will be called The Darkest Edge of Dawn and will be released in August 2010. I’m having a sense of deja vu….have I said this already?
Joey W. Hill has posted the entire online serial she started earlier this year. If you’re a fan of her Vampire Queen series, then you’ll enjoy Tyler Tied Up.
Hachette Book Group has the first three chapters available from Nicole Peeler’s debut novel, Tempest Rising.
In a couple of weeks, I’ll be participating in a 12 Blogs of Christmas contest with 11 other sites. Each day, a different site is going to offer up a great prize and you can enter them all The blogs taking part are: Neverending Shelf; Literary Escapism; Library Lizard Lounge; Princess Bookie; Ellz Readz; The Page Flipper; Luxury Reading; Bites; Shooting Stars Mag; Book Rat; The Shady Glade; and vv32Reads. As I get more info on this event, I’ll pass it along, but just know that I have a couple of great prizes that I can offer up and I’m not sure what I’m going to do yet.
Contests:
Anya Bast is giving away a novel from her backlist to celebrate thanksgiving. Contest ends Nov. 29th.
Stumbling Over Chaos is giving away four signed copies of Soul of the Wildcat by Devyn Quinn. Contest ends Dec. 4th.
Fantasy Dreamers Ramblings is giving away two copies of Servant of a Dark God by John Brown. Contest ends Nov. 29th.
All Things Urban Fantasy has a freaking huge list of contests that are going on right now.
Fantasy Dreamer’s Ramblings has an impressive list of contests that are going on right now.
6am and I am not writing 1000 words before breakfast. Plus: iPhone means I can post from bed ( miss p permitting). Glory.
Posted via LiveJournal.app.
And it was fine. Not brilliant, not especially profound, not the best thing since sliced bread. But fine.
I liked it better than Ellen did. It was nicely constructed, with thematic notes sounded in the first act picked up and elaborated in the second act. The characters were appealing, all of them struggling, in their various ways, with the strictures and enforced silences of late 19th Century society. If anything, it tried a little too hard to hit all the high points: the infantilization of women, class/race issues (rolled up into one rather too-neat package in the person of a black wet-nurse), domestic neglect, romance and art (represented by a mildly Luddite Brit artist called Leo Irving, who had gone to school with John Ruskin. The result was a touch breathless and (dare I say it) maybe too neat for my tastes, especially given the emotional messiness of the subject.
The acting was grand. Laura Benanti as the up-to-date doctor's wife with the inadequate milk and the stultifyingly boring life was delightfully bouncy and talkative, like a friendly puppy who doesn't get enough exercise. Michael Cerveris (who made an oddly passive and very depressed demon barber in Sweeney Todd a couple of years ago) was stiffly correct and just a little pathetic as the doctor crusading for the better living for women through science.
And the costumes! The play is set in the 1890's, which meant bustles and overskirts and underskirts and bodices with two sets of sleeves and bobble fringe lavishly all over everything. The middle-class women looked like high-end window treatments, in shades of magenta and scarlet and electric blue. I particularly liked the fact that Mrs. Givings's dresses matched her parlor until the last scene, when she broke out in screaming purple and unbridled (relatively speaking) passion.
What I didn't like so much was the playwright's decision not to give the Givingses any servants. I couldn't help wondering, as Mrs. Givings complained of how bored she was doing nothing but making tea, who cooked her dinners, washed her baby's diapers, cleaned her house, washed and mended her husband's clothes and her own, polished the family shoes, baked the bread, etc. etc. etc. I even wondered who (before the advent of the wet-nurse, hired half-way through the first act) was looking after the baby when she was serving tea in the parlor. Perhaps it's just me, being a social history geek (which I most definitely am). But it did make me aware that I was watching a costume drama when what I wanted to be watching was a historical play.
It's clever, though, and funny, and very, very pretty to look at. And the last scene is truly lovely. And the scene with the young artist and the Chattanooga vibrator is absolutely worth the price of admission.
Profile
- oracne
- oracne - Victoria Janssen
- Victoria Janssen
Page Summary
- thuviaptarth : Recs: The women of Supernatural [+0]
- oursin : Home agin, home agin [+0]
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/syndicated.gif)
katiebabsbabble : Love Advice From Love Doctor Mho Fho *Attracted to Selkies and Trees* [+0] - romjunkiesblog : The Rainy Day Melody [+0]
- 14theditch : Shadow of a Doubt [+3]
- deliasherman : The Age of Iron [+1]
- litescapism : Getting Ready for Short Story Saturdays [+0]
- bookviewcafe : It’s Genetic [+0]
- racyromance : ‘Sup Saturday: Open Thread for Bloggers with Gift Cert Contest [+0]
- vjanssenblog : Gaudy Night - Peter Wimsey on tv [+0]
- klingonguy : Tired [+1]
- theodosia : One tweet if by sea, two tweets if by land.... [+0]
- steamfashion :: jaborwhalky : to solve this people speak up [+11]
- kassrachel : BABY!!! [+33]
- cofax7 : Prompted Five Things [+0]
- aqueduct_amble : Thanksgiving Weekend Book Review: House of Cards by David Ellis Dickerson [+0]
- handyhunter : fic: so say good-bye, it's independence day [+4]
- litescapism : 33% Evil [+0]
- fjm : Luxury [+0]
- deliasherman : In the Next Room-the vibrator play [+1]