while they did live happily ever after

if I get through tomorrow I will be HALFWAY THERE maybe I will make a better post then.

I want to talk about something fandom-y! I am like three chapters away from finishing The Farthest Shore and the chapter I ended on today ended with Series Main Character mentioning wanting to see Book Two Main Character and I squealed like a little girl in the (empty) teacher's lounge because I love them that much. SO MUCH. (People on the plane with me while I was reading Book Two: I am still really sorry about that.)

Glee doesn't come back until next week! To keep watching to see if Puckleberry makes a comeback y/n.

My DA big bang fic is stalled at 1600 words, about 600 of which are going to have to change because as Jak pointed out clearly this moment comes after Darin offers Gorim to Masha and he gets really pissed off, so I have to come up with another way for her to convince him to let her meet Masha in the first place without her ordering him to do it. Maybe if it is early enough in their relationship she just bullies him into it? As they get to know each other better he becomes more resolute (and, I think, she understands his convictions better).

My main problem really seems to be that I have two story lines and I need to plot them out separate and then figure out where they link up, because we have flashbacks and then we have the present, and I can't decide if the present will be in present tense or not. Also the flashback really has two storylines of its own, but I think the whole fic is from Gorim's POV (what, me writing about the stalwart bodyguard type? Never...), which will present challenges of its own. Basically we have the ascension of a queen against the backdrop of the developments of a badass friendship and a deeply suppressed romance; what pieces of the backdrop do we need, and when?

WELL that was helpful.

My choir is doing more Handel! I love Handel.

I watched Ever After last week. Danielle and the prince kiss very sweetly. Also, that movie reminds me of my 2008 NaNo, and not just because of the Cinderella stuff--France (specifically, I think, the Loire region) permeates both of them, and watching the movie/rereading the manuscript (oh God it needs so much help) (well not really plot-wise, but individual sentences need so much attention) (never mind that I still haven't written part two because--and okay, maybe here the plot does need help--the whole thing is about Nell's development from where she starts to where it ends? [This sounds like a duh statement.] But I'm not sure how to carry that thread from the first part [a fairy-tale retelling, less obviously about Nell] to the second part [which is about marriage and therefore not really your normal YA fare at all] [maybe I should just change the whole novel from being YA] [but she's so young in the beginning!] [well, so was David Copperfield] [you begin to see my problems, I think] [OH I should reread Spindle's End and see how Robin McKinley does it] [I will reread Earthsea when I want to write Ariadne] [MC, what's that fellowship with the whole year-in-Rome thing?] [I forget what I was originally talking about])...oh, I see. Watching the movie/reading the manuscript makes me miss France like WHOA.

but then I am missing lots of things.

moving on.

Oh look! I have made it to shower time, and even worked a few things out along the way. Success!

♥

I have been savoring the latest book on my list, so my previous plan of waiting until I was done with it to start my other reads, well, is looking like an increasingly dumb plan. So! Books I Read Last Month!

( Doris Lessing, a mediocre mystery, and then some YA fun )



( THIS IS THE BOOK I LIKED THE MOST )



That wraps up the book reviews! I am currently savoring The Graveyard Book--I've hit the Interlude, and I just, just, Neil Gaiman, I love you. This book is so brilliantly crafted and put together and so unlike anything I would ever expect to win the Newberry--and yes, I know, The Giver won and other really awesome and somewhat different books have won, but this one--I just. Wow.

I could here talk about how blessed I am to be a reader, to be someone who reads, because through reading I've been introduced to so many ideas and concepts and phrases and sayings and grammatical rules and punctuation rules and a love of language, and how I see my students who aren't readers and who don't have these things and how I pity them and want to help them gain the same things I have because they are such wonderful, wonderful things, and oh look, I just did talk about it, a little bit, so.

I leave you with a bonus song recommendation: the middle section is a bit weak, but overall the lyrics are fantastic and the music builds as it should and yes, I am a complete Killers fangirl, deal. You can watch it with the lyrics, or watch the music video itself:

( dustland fairy tale beginning, just another white-trash county kiss, in '61, long brown hair, foolish eyes )

I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

1) I read Artemis Fowl: The Atlantis Complex, and I don't have nearly as much to say about it as I did about The Time Paradox. This is not to say I didn't enjoy it; I laughed at least once a page, because Colfer was playing fast and loose with hilarious dialogue and hilarious side characters and even point of view--often he would describe something with a particularly nice turn of phrase, and in the next line have the current POV character think something along the lines of if I'm saying things like that, I must be suffering from oxygen deprivation. The writing and the plot were much, much tighter than TP, like you could really feel his growth as a writer and the editor's steady hand working upon the novel.

That being said, it was almost too short; it felt, like A Conspiracy of Kings, as if we were being handed an incident full of important information that would unfold in the denouement, packaged within an entertaining adventure, letting us spend time with all of our favorite characters but really just setting the pieces for some grander showdown in the future. (Hint: All the even-numbered books in the series have involved Opal Koboi, and the next, allegedly final, book is going to be number 8, if you can imagine it.) I loved seeing Holly and JULIET yay Juliet and Butler and Mulch and Foaly (out of his element!) and Artemis again, and they were all wonderful, and at the end of the book I wanted--more. There were so many little things that still needed exploring--not that the book doesn't tie together, but rather that things are changing and we're stopped before everything really starts rushing to a head.

I do take issue with the fact that Artemis is allegedly celebrating his fifteenth birthday at the beginning of the story, because he was fifteen back in The Lost Colony. Of course, my dad pointed out to me that the target audience of this series is probably still 12-14-year-old boys, despite the fact that the series is ten years old and those of us who were twelve when we started reading are now twenty-two and still shipping Holly/Artemis like burning. And the series has grown up, too, though perhaps not as noticeably as say Harry Potter; the central themes in The Time Paradox were certainly older, perhaps in some ways too old for a fourteen-year-old to grasp; it's one thing to read about a character reflecting on personal change and growth and the choices you make to get there, and quite another to really have a grasp on how that's happened in your life. And the humor has gotten a bit more complex too (see: I-see-what-you-did-with-that-POV), even if Mulch is still around for the fart jokes.

Anyway, it was a fantastic little yarn, but mostly I am just impatient for the next one.

( SPOILERS )



2) I rewatched Music and Lyrics the other night, the cute little rom-com with Drew Barrymore and Hugh Grant that Malone and I started watching at home one night, got about thirty seconds into the music video, and stopped and waited until Mom was around to watch it with us. The whole theme of creation and music isn't as deep as the theme of creation and writing is in Stranger Than Fiction--this is a rom -com, after all--but what impressed me this time around was Hugh Grant's acting job. He is very...adult, in this film--he knows where he is in his life and he's comfortable with who he is and what he's doing, and I especially liked that he is a musician, and he shows it--in quiet little ways, like the way he sits down at the piano in his apartment or in the store, like it's something he's infinitely familiar with. And even though he's "just" a pop music star, he writes his own stuff--he knows how music works, knows how to put it together, and it's all just...there. I just...really liked his character, and thought he did an understatedly phenomenal job of playing it.



3) I started rewatching Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon last night but stopped right before the final battle because I was pretty sure I wouldn't make it through without sobbing and because I needed to go to bed (woe, the adult schedule).

( musing on the movie )



4) I have started reading The Demon's Lexicon because the library had it (and the sequel), but I am apparently Not In the Mood. Partially because I am reading a book called The Wall of Fame and it contains some truly atrocious metaphors that ought to be taken behind the publishing house and shot repeatedly, and partially because I have trouble getting into "tough" characters like Nick, and mostly because reading about Nick and Alan makes me think about Felix and Mildmay and, well, Felix and Mildmay are a really, REALLY hard fictional brotherly relationship to beat. Like, nigh-impossible. Especially after Corambis and their exchange of brotherly affection. (FELIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIX MILDMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY I JUST WANT YOU BOTH TO BE HAPPY FOREVER AND I FEEL LIKE IT IS OBTAINABLE AND THIS JUST OVERWHELMS ME WITH RELIEF, I LOVE YOU BOTH SO HARD.)

(yes, Jade just said she loved Felix. It--sometimes these things happen.)

( gems from aforementioned Atrocious Metaphor Book )




5) To end on a positive note: I made myself dinner and ate it and now am full of food! My fish is still alive! (His name is Ron, for those interested. My first dog was named Fred, and then one of my sisters got a gerbil and named it George, and our first betta fish was named Percy, and I think another gerbil was named Charlie, so...he is red and beautiful and I will post pictures.) My apartment is an utter mess! Ingrid Michaelson writes beautiful songs! Quark drew the picture that was in my head because she is awesome! crisium_rising writes THE MOST AMAZING Dragon Age fanfic ever! The libraries here have BOTH Virtu and Mirador (I literally gasped when I turned the corner and saw them both in their hardbacked glory on their shelf) AND they have lots of sartorias's novels (I brought home A Posse of Princesses and am.very excited about reading it! My books fit on the bookshelf! My apartment door locks! There are trees and mountains around!

Life is good. :-)

or, alternate title, Still Not the Graduation Post

anyway I have read some books since coming home! None of them are the books I meant to read. Some of them I read years and years ago (heading into that scary "ten years ago" category that is starting to take over my life), some of them were new to me! One was even a translation of a French YA fantasy novel. They were all weirdly similar, as you will see by the cut tags.

I have discovered that I have trouble picking books off the shelves in the library unless I know the author or have heard good things about the author. This multiplies times a thousand bazillion when I leave the YA section and head for the adult fiction section. (Also, the adult fiction section seems to have more disguised-cover romance novels than previously expected.) I hit the jackpot yesterday--the little itty bitty library near my house had both How to Ditch Your Fairy and Liar, which I have been looking for FOREVER. Now, if only one of the branches would get in some of Maureen Johnson's books...

Anyway, Books I Have Read This Summer, Possible Spoilers Ahead, I Will Try to Warn You

( Zel: Girl gets locked in tower )


( The Book of a Thousand Days: Princess and maidservant get locked in tower, people die )


( Quest for a Maid: Girl has manservant, princess and girl-turned-attendant spend lots of time in boats, people die )


( The Princetta: Princess and maidservant runs away, spends lots of time in a boat, people die )


( The Shining Company: Boy has manservant, boy becomes shieldbearer, more people die than in both previous books combined )


I did take a detour, as part of my I Will Get My History From Biographies quest, and read
( Notorious: Sometimes it is hard to be impartial when talking about Ingrid Bergman who makes everybody gaga )


I also got about forty pages into
( The Ruins of Gorlan: Somewhere in my high school notebooks there is a generic apprentice YA fantasy that I really ought to bring back to life )


phew that took a long time.

on my to-read list are the aforementioned Justine Larbalestier books, Lavinia by Ursula K. LeGuin (overall I am wary of the books my mom checks out, novelizations famous women in history/literature, because they usually turn out to be giant sexfests, but I trust LeGuin--see, cannot pick a book up off a shelf anymore), and Lauren Bacall and Steve Martin's autobiographies (see: Biographies Quest). Oh and I picked up Allegiance because it was made of love and I felt like reading a SW book I knew ended well. Oh and I should read The Great Gatsby. And Jane Eyre. And maybe work on my own novel.

You know, life as usual.

I, uh, finished posting Falling Slowly, my other not-quite-as-long Neverwinter Nights 2 fanfic. It's from a side character's POV, and he knows about as much about what's going on as, say, someone who hadn't played the game and only glanced at the Wikipedia pages. And, um, I'm really hesitant to say I'M RIDICULOUSLY PROUD OF THIS FIC, but um, I am ridiculously proud of this fic. It is--I think--good. And dedicated to Quark, because she is awesome and deserves it. So, um, you can read it in its entirety now, if you like.

( on the writing process )

The title comes from this song, because I listened to the soundtrack incessantly while writing the fic:
( take this sinking boat and point it home )


and also because the main female character is from a town called West Harbor, so that's a nice little metaphorical connection there, which connects with this song, which also influenced me:
( the light in me will guide you home )

that's not the version of "Harbor" that I have on my computer--mine comes from the "Heard it on NPR" radio, and is just Vienna Teng and a piano, and I still vividly remember the first time I listened to it, in the car on the way home from ND with my dad. It was also the first time I heard Vienna Teng's voice, with its crystalline clarity--it's just so pure, and the road was dark and the sound wrapped around me like a blanket. This fic is kind of like all those late nights sitting on the couch just like I am now, my fingers on the keyboard and the music and the dog sleeping at my feet and a story that I wanted to tell.

so, here's to finding something new for this summer, and many summers to come.

so this popped up on my f-list three times in quick succession, and I like it, so I'm doing it.

List the first lines of your last twenty stories. See if you find any patterns. (And flist, I'd love your opinions on patterns you notice.)

 ( links to the fics )

 

( the sentences )

 

( analysis )

First of all, my stats, as they currently stand:

1/11/08, 02:00:  3K
1/11/08, 14:00:  5.5K
1/11/08, 22:47:  7.8K
2/11/08, 14:16:  9,769
2/11/08, 22:31: 12,551

Oh, sorry, what is that, over 10K in the first two days?  Why yes, yes I think that's me.

I just gave my novel the title Se Reveiller, which, uh, just means "to wake [oneself] up" in French, but it's one of the novel's themes (personal awakening, anyway), and it's in French so everything sounds better.  Mostly it's because my profile page looked very sad without any sort of title on it.

Let's see, what else have I noticed...my inner editor is being surprisingly quiet right now, partially because I have yet to actually reread anything I've written, and partially because...I don't know where she's gone, which scares me.  I'm actually kind of struggling with myself right now, because my first NaNo, my inner editor was in full gear, but that meant for the most part I could post what I had written without having to edit it too much, whereas right now, I have no idea what kind of condition my writing is in.

So would it be better to take a little more time, and have something I'm more satisfied with, straight-off-the-bat, or is it better to just go and worry about it all when I'm done?

I mean, since NaNo last year, I have finished Not Yet by Lightning AND edited it, and finished Falling Slowly and begun the long, somewhat arduous process of editing it as well.

I should explain here that I infinitely INFINITELY prefer the term "edit" to the term "rewrite," even if often what I'm doing involves rewriting sentences...or paragraphs...you know.  To me, "rewriting" comes with this image of sitting down with a blank piece of paper and starting over completely--I mean, not completely, but without all the things you've already written, because they weren't good enough so you have to rewrite them.  I find the image/idea of "rewriting" singularly exhausting.

Editing, on the other hand--whee!  Editing is going back to those sentences and saying "ugh, you're crap, GOODBYE" and "oh, you'd be so much better if I would just switch those around, look, that's lovely," as well as occasionally giving yourself the opportunity to say "you know, that was very well-done the first time around, bravo me" and "holy crap, what did I mean by this?  Why did I write this?  Why does it feel so important?  HOW DO I MAKE THIS BETTER HELP."*

*this is the step where Quark shows up and graciously lends her assistance

Anyway, the point is...what else have I written since last year?  A little bit of Zutara fanfic.  The Most Perfect Enchanted Fanfic Ever If I Do Say So Myself.  Quark's birthday present.  Three pieces to go into the Unrequited collection.  But somewhere in all this, I have apparently learned how to make myself write?  How to just sit down and start writing and pick up steam as I go?

I kind of miss those moments of inspiration, though, when I'd suddenly have an idea and a conversation and bam I would produce something kinda cool and there it would be, all complete and pretty, with minimal need for editing!

and somewhere between starting this post and and finishing it, I got totally sidetracked by things like LEGOFIC and GENERAL INSANITY, and so I have lost my train of thought.

I've already killed off two parents!  And I have at least two more to kill!

I'm really enjoying what I've written so far, and I think I'll probably go back and edit it and add more scenes--I appear to be exploring the theme of friendship, and it's turning out to be a really fun theme to explore.  Who knew?

The whole atmosphere of writing in France--I spent Saturday afternoon walking around the center of town, up and down cobblestone streets near houses that have been there for, oh, several hundred years, you know, walking by that castle that's been around since, say, 1300-something--is really invigorating.  As is the fact that I cannot get distracted by the internet.  Finally, it's turning into a blessing!

Anyway, good luck, everyone!

I need a new all-of-the-Gaang-icon.

But this...

This fic is my season three.

and now I am going to gush about it, because it makes me so happy.



I just left one of the gushiest reviews I think I've ever written for a fanfic.  EVER.  And it's not even romantic!  I mean, I made a frickin' numbered list.  This is bad.  I am so terribly, terribly afraid that the end is approaching, and then where shall I be?

But seriously, I am convinced that this author (ignore the fact that her pen name is xcgirl08) has an inside link to the Nick studios and is secretly novelizing the plot for season 3.

The real thing about this fic is that it has what movies and shows inherently cannot have: a real inside look into all of the characters' heads.  And she uses this ability masterfully, creating circles and flashbacks and foreshadowings and character development and...I mean, there's really...no.  This is it.  This is what Avatar is all about.

She switches effortlessly from incredibly visual (through sparing but precise use of language) fight scenes to giggly fluff scenes to emotional struggle scenes to flashbacks to witty banter to fights again.  The characters are all IC--they grow, of course, according to what happens throughout the fic, but it's completely in keeping with the basic characters themselves.  She also brings back minor characters and puts them to good use, giving resolution with them that's totally satisfying.  Her few side OCs are also fantastic.  I mean, she has a masterful knowledge of the show itself, and everyone and everything that's shown up in it, even if she doesn't know all the names.

It's not overtly shippy, but there are ships, but they're so subtly done it really doesn't detract from what's going on in the fic at all--very realistically done.  (And, just a fair warning, completely in keeping with my own shipping lines.  But even with that, people who don't support the ships are still reading anyway, because it's Just That Good) 

Yep.  This fic is why I didn't get any homework done on Thursday.

I think I'll just go lay down my pen now.

Did I mention it's going to be over 35 chapters long, and that the chapters get progressively longer, but no slower?

Why are you still sitting here, reading my livejournal?  Go READ IT NOW.