Dear Yuletide Writer.....

Firstly, thank you ever so much in advance. I am ever so excited to read any story you write, so please, feel free to let your imagination roam! However, if you would like some more specifics, read on....

( Read more... )

I've signed up for Yuletide. Yay!

If you don't try, you'll never know. Go for it.

Have an inspiring picture:



That's the view from the hill I climbed on Saturday. It was worth the sore legs.

(I have shamelessly stolen the inspiration for this post from inboots )

I was clearing out my laptop, and I found this; I must have been venting, a little, I think.

Title: There's no trick to it
Fandom: Tortall - Tamora Pierce
Rating: PG
Characters: Alanna, gen.

( There's no trick to it )

This will be brief, because the internet just ate the long and detailed reviews I spent the last half hour writing. Anyway, books I have been reading lately (mild spoilers under the cuts).

I read my first Alex Rider book; Snakehead by Anthony Horowitz.

( Teenage spies... )

I've been looking forward to The Demon's Lexicon, by Sarah Rees Brennan, for ages.

( demons... )
Here is some amazing art, showing the four main character of The Demon's Lexicon, a commission by draykonis - I love her work. They look like they do in my head.

Shardik and Maia are by Richard Adams, fantasies set in the Beklan Empire. Prizes from second hand bookshop hunting.

( giant bears and concubines. Oh my! )

I'm on holiday in (count 'em) seven and a half days. I am ridiculously excited. So, if any one has good holiday reads to recommend, please do. I just started American Psycho but I do not think this is quite appropriate.

Where our protagonists begin to figure out what the others are thinking.

( Chapter Nine )

I was never good at chaptered fic. But I'm nearly there - it will be finished. Eventually.

This fic ties me in knots. It has taught me the very, very important concept that knowing what will happen, to whom it will happen, and how, are good to know BEFORE YOU ARE HALFWAY THROUGH THE STORY. Still, I have it worked out now, and I really quite like it. I hope you do too.

( Three's a crowd, chapter eight )

This is more than a little bit inspiring - Sarah Outen is rowing across the Indian Ocean, attempting to become the first woman, the youngest and the fastest person to do so.

In a world of people who are famous for doing not very much, this restores your faith in people, and what they can do.

(Excuse all the Blackadder references)

I was browsing in two large bookshops today, and both of them had a section (a labelled, discrete section, mark you) for Paranormal Romance. Am I so behind the times I have never noticed this sub-genre before? Or is it genuinely new? (And it's all brooding vampires being in love with you forever, yes?)

Also, it gave me the best idea EVER for a book which will make me millions. Muhahahaha. (Zombies. Like vampires, they live forever but are easier to feed and have a more punishing beauty/preservation regime. There can be tie-in beauty products - free embalming lotion with every copy.)




Hmmmm.

I think I need to go to sleep.

ETA: Look - the internet explains paranormal romance. Not just me.

I do know it's April, and as such four months (cough) late, but I finally finished and uploaded my Yuletide New Year Resolutions story! It is the only "Time Bandits" story on Yuletide, and, in fact the only one I have ever seen. "Time Bandits" being a film about a gang of dwarves (and a 12 year old boy) travelling through myth and history, trying to steal anything that isn't nailed down on the way. Obscure, much? (Shameless self promotion, here.)

But it does allow me to say how great I think Terry Gilliam is. He did the wonderfully surreal animations in Monty Python, and has gone on to make some amazing films, including "Brazil", "12 Monkeys", "The Brothers Grimm", and, of course, "Time Bandits." If you watch one, go for "12 Monkeys", which is one of the best time travel films ever. It has a post-apocalyptic world, Bruce Willis being violent and bewildered, a quite insane Brad Pitt, some bittersweet romance and the most mind bending twist to the ending.  All the films are gloriously detailed, funny and perceptive with a hidden sting.

I was waiting for the new episode of "Shadow Unit", but if my time zone calculations are right, it will be ridiculous o'clock in the UK before it appears. So maybe I'll just read it tomorrow. Or maybe I'll finish the last of the last challenge I'm meant to be writing, and have some coffee.

(PS - Icon! I have been looking for a happy icon for so long, and now I've got one! *Polishes shiny Kaylee icon*)

ETA: Look what I got for just writing a fic for the first monthly challenge at herchampion 



I'm doing the next one, too. Me, shamelessly addicted to the shiny? Never.

Title: "A Dark and Stormy Night"
Rating: PG
Characters: Arthur, Morgana, Uther
Genre: Gen, friendship
Spoilers: Nothing specific - set pre-Episode 1
Summary: Arthur and Morgana overhear a discussion of Morgana's future.
A/N: This is young!Arthur and young!Morgana fic, written for the "Queen Morgana" challenge at herchampion 

 

 

( A Dark and Stormy Night )

Who would have thought there were ten interesting things about me?

These are from Imogen at team_fen -

(  Your five things are: ponies, spies, feminism, science fiction and modesty. )

Again, if anyone would like five things, just comment and I will do my best to provide.

Supposedly, Spring is nearly here; the clocks go forward this weekend, the grass is growing, daffodils are blooming. In celebration, and also because I am bored and was tidying out my camera, have a happy Spring picture:



Baby lambs!

In other, less cute news, I must go and write all the challenges I am not getting round to. There is "Queen Morgana" at herchampion , (which is half done) and the library challenge at the_swoop (which is an awesome challenge, and as such I have a million ideas but no actual product).

Title: Family Values
Fandom: Tamora Pierce
Rating: PG
A/N: rain_sleet_snow wrote a little ficlet, the beginning of which mention Lerant of Eldorne's brother, a cynical and brilliant scholar. This is an expansion of that character, because I remain gently obsessed with all things Eldorne.

 

( “Lerant!” Gideon exclaimed, exasperated. “Those are the draft copies of my thesis on the philosophical basis of empirical theism in the Western Lands!” )

 

 

I am broken, I think.

I can't finish a book. Keep starting, keep leaving them and wandering off to stare at walls. Three on the go at the moment (A Clockwork Orange, The Attack of the Unsinkable Rubber Ducks, Penguin History of the USA) and all are languishing under the bed. No attention span. I keep making lists, on the theory that I can organise myself better, but it's not working.

I have no idea.

Bleurgh.
 

This fic is eating my brain - and I'm fairly sure I should have decided from which perspective I was writing before chapter six.

Still, the banter's good; I can do banter. The banter linking sequences - not so much. You have been warned.

( Three's a crowd, chapter 7 )

Comment to this post (and let me know you want to play) and I will give you 5 subjects/things I associate you with. Then post this in your LJ and elaborate on the subjects given.

These are fromosprey_archer 

Lerant
My favourite Tamora Pierce character; he's a minor character in the books, but there is some great Lerant fic about - Lerant is sarcastic, insecure, and an enormous chip on his shoulder about his family history, but he's a good friend who just wants to make his own way in the world. I like my heroes human and flawed, and Lerant fits the bill perfectly.

Oceans
I live by the sea; I love coatlines, as opposed to the open sea - I'm not a sailor. But I love the contrast of the shoreline, the nature all about, the drama of the waves. You can see why surfing has such a hippy reputation; it's just you, and the waves, and you have to tune into the sea, or it just doesn't work. 

This is my favourite beach: Sandwood Bay. It's a four mile walk in from the nearest road, but absolutely worth the effort.


Books
Where to start? I always have a book on the go. I flit about and read all sorts, but what I really like is a story well told, that you want to keep reading. I have a weakness for really good world building; I like to know about paperwork trails, little bits of history, geography. I like urban fantasy, where this slots into the real world, and sci-fi with good science.

Tragically unfinished fics
I think Three's a Crowd is the one you mean. I have no trouble with ideas, plenty of ideas, but then I dive headlong into the first few chapters and realise I have no idea how I'm going to get to the end. Or I get bored, or completely distracted by other possibilities and side stories. Plus I am lazy.

Sunshine
What's the big yellow ball in the sky? My outdoors-y things are limited by bad weather and darkness; when the sun shines it means I can go out and enjoy myself, get things done. I'm sure there are many biochemical, brain chemical reasons why I feel good when the sun shines, too. Nothing like waking up and seeing the sunbeams shine through the crack in the curtains. (I'm writing this meme so promptly because it's raining.)

This is my response, to team_fen 's prompt about "sapphire eyes". It's a little tenuous, but I hope you like it.

...go out in the noonday sun. But Scottish girls get in the North Sea, in February, for fun. And the surfing was loads of fun, despite the fact it was bit flat. I was practising my turtle rolls (lying on your board, then rolling yourself and your board through 360 degrees, so as to be underwater when the waves break on your head) and this is a skill I have found myself automatically good at, probably because it much resembles the floundering that comes so naturally. There is apparently also a link between incipient hypothermia and hysterical laughter.

So that was Saturday, and then I had a really nice night out with some friends I hadn't seen in a while.

Naturally, all that socialising meant I have had to nurture the introvert and have a quiet Sunday, filled in part by watching "Being Human" which is a new BBC3 drama/comedy about a ghost, a vampire and a werewolf sharing a house in Bristol. Episode 4 is just up, and it was amazing; the scene and characters have been established, and this is it now, properly dark and intense like I hoped it would be, much more the like the pilot promised. The are light moments, and some great one liners (usually from George, the werewolf), and I can't wait to see the next episode. This is high praise, as I don't normally do television in any organised fashion. (Apart from "Masterchef", but we won't talk about that.)

I haven't written a thing in ages. I think the plot bunnies have taken a break and gone in search of some winter sun, which all in all is probably quite sensible of them.

So three inches of snow and the UK grinds to a halt.

Almost.

Made me laugh.