Delightfully Useless

reading log

Fri, 29 Jul 2011 04:53:58 GMT

...terribly long, but hey - I don't stop reading just because LJ goes down. ;-)

( X-Men/Avengers: Gamma Quest (trilogy) by Greg Cox )

( Janus Gate trilogy by L.A. Graf )

( Jonathon Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke )

( Storm Front by Jim Butcher (Dresden Files #1) )

( The Wounded Sky by Diane Duane )

I've got more newly-read books to post about, but not tonight... ;-)

comments

A quick meme

Sun, 10 Jul 2011 02:15:41 GMT

From pitry: Go look at your journal. Find the last fandom-related thing you posted. The characters in that post are now your team-mates in the Zombie Apocalypse. How much trouble are you in?

Mine are the Monkees. My initial thought was "I'm dead", but on consideration... if I'm on the show, the zombie apocalypse probably consists of running around bopping zombies on the head to a hit tune and ends with making friends with them and having a marshmallow roast or something. Very like the Gilligan's Island zombie apocalypse, really. ;-)

(Is it bad that I am now trying to pick which Monkees song should be made into a zombie apocalypse fanvid? *g* Or, as I can't vid, a songfic. o_O Some part of me wants to go back to my roots and write silly zombie apocalypse fic for many of my fandoms now.)

***********************************

On another, completely irrelevant note: the 1974 taped-from-stage version of King Lear with James Earl Jones is quite good so far. I'm only an hour through it (yay Netflix streaming), but it's making a heck of a lot more sense than reading the written play - which is usually Not The Case with me.

Also the B-plot has a very young René Auberjonois in it. Is there a "predictable" mood choice? ;P

comments

For the attention of writerly types

Thu, 30 Jun 2011 01:40:34 GMT

Incidentally, LiveJournal's PicoWriMo is kicking off a "mini" July round in two days.

Pico, if you didn't know, is a "write stuff in a month" comm. It usually runs in November. It is unlike NaNo in that you set your own goal - 500 words, 50 words, "a sentence a day", "SOMETHING"... whatever. Write more than you would have otherwise: You Win. XD

The reason I love it particularly is ( under the cut )

I'm hoping to work mainly on polishing and rewriting my MaNo novel, as well as finishing off the other stuff I have in progress (such as the SG-1!Friendathon story that received a sudden and unexpected Piece Of Research the other day in the form of my first motorcycle ride... *happyface*)

(Personal goal: stop meandering. I got in the habit during MaNo, and should now get out again.)

comments

In which I flail incoherently

Wed, 29 Jun 2011 22:33:31 GMT

So... forty-five years ago or thereabouts, a slightly insane group of TV execs playing on the success of the Beatles put together a band consisting of a British ex-jockey, a former child actor, a hippie guitarist who'd been washing dishes in a coffee-house, and the guy whose mother invented Liquid Paper.

Last night the Monkees' latest reunion tour came to South Bend, Indiana, and by a ridiculous string of lucky happenstances, my mom and I landed centre-orchestra seats for a grand total of less than $27 each. XD

It was awesome. I chose not to bring my camera (I have this thing where if I'm taking pictures I'm not really paying attention to what's happening at the moment, and I wanted to enjoy the show), so there are no pictures, but there is much FLAILSQUEE under the cut.

( Right here )

comments

Two unrelated things

Fri, 24 Jun 2011 22:19:16 GMT

1: ONOES! Peter Falk and "Gentleman" Gene Colan both just died. O_O 2011, this is getting ridiculous. :-(

2: I'm taking my mum to see the Monkees LIVE IN CONCERT next week. She was one of the original horde of Davy Jones fangirls in the '60s, and I'm a big fan myself, so. (We're bringing earplugs, because I for one am going to turn into SUCH A SQUEEING FANGIRL! *g*)

(Note to 2011: These two things had DANG WELL BETTER remain unrelated in any and all possible ways. Y/Y?)

comments

Beta?

Sat, 11 Jun 2011 19:27:23 GMT

Er. Anyone interested in beta-reading 1585 words of Sam/Bra'tac friendship fic (SG-1, obvs) on a prompt of "gender roles"? There is staff weapon fighting, knitting, and motorcycling involved. I'm mainly concerned about pacing, clarity of the action scenes, and characterization. (Canon continuity isn't a huge issue, as it's, um... missing-scene fic for a nonexistent episode. Er, yeah. o_O It's somewhere in S4/S5...)

The way I usually do this is to put the fic up as an entry in a filtered locked post, so only the beta and I can see it, and have the beta comment. If a potential beta would rather I e-mailed the Word doc, I can do that too - just let me know which.

On a related note, I do not seem able to write SG-1 fic that has not got knitting in it, except for that one Siler drabble. This fact amuses me. *g*

comments

A random meme

Thu, 09 Jun 2011 19:45:15 GMT

The book I am reading: Lord of the Rings. Finally started that re-read. (Er, to be honest, I'm typing the whole b****y thing out by hand... otherwise I'd be skimming the whole first book and bogging down in the Council of Elrond as usual. It is scary how much of it I'm not having to actually look at my paper copy to type.)

The book I am writing: I think you guys are bored enough of this one. ;P (Skyler, I will answer your comment, I'm just slow at formulating my thoughts clearly.)

The book I love most: Lord of the Rings. Duh. ;-) I've got a few front-runners for second, but... yeah.

The last book I received as a gift: Er. Couldn't say. People giving me books is a sadly rare event. XD

The last book I gave as a gift: Really couldn't say. People asking me for books is an even rarer event.

The nearest book on my table: I'm at the library. Ironically, there are no books in my line of sight. *insert rant about modern libraries, or at least libraries in this town, here*

comments

SG-1 Friendship Genficathon prompt claiming!

Fri, 03 Jun 2011 16:15:46 GMT

I know I don't have a whole lot of 'Gate writers on my flist/dwircle (good grief that's a weird word), but I'm mentioning this anyway:

LJ's sg1friendathon i.e. the Stargate SG-1 Friendship Genficathon (whew *g*) now has 172 prompts up for claiming in their prompt post right here.

Prompts are first-come-first-served, and they're going fairly fast (I snaffled "Sam/Bra'tac friendship, gender roles", which ought to be interesting at least); stories are due August 1, word minimum is 1000. C'mon in, the water's fine! ;-)

...yes, I signed up for a ficathon with a thousand-word minimum. Me, who didn't even hit my 300-word goal for Clocket's help_haiti piece. O_O I guess winning MaNo has pickled my brain a bit. ;-)

*needs to do a Bra'tac watchathon* *although it's really Sam who's kicking my tail atm*

(Yes, I am working on everything else I need to be working on too! *pets flist* lol)

comments

PARTY TIME!!!!!

Tue, 31 May 2011 03:36:14 GMT

I WROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOTE. I wrote and I wrote and I wrote! And now there are 50,025 words of story about Mort and James and their nieces and nephews. And I am exhausted. *g*

( but not too exhausted to ramble under the cut )

Also: PARTAY!!!!! I am just a little bit too frazzled to fetch Tuxodo (sorry, tuxedo!Odo) over here from my LJ scrapbook, and I am going to bed now, but PARTY TIEM. Drinks for everyone! Or whatever.

*falls over whump* ;-)

comments

Mr Pond: an unfinished meta

Fri, 27 May 2011 14:28:41 GMT

Okay, so this is something I've kind of been thinking about for a while... and let me say upfront that I haven't the faintest notion where I'm going with this. I'm just poking something that looks like it wants to be poked. *big red button* ;-)

It's about Mofftiem on Doctor Who: specifically, about Rory/Amy and gender politics. Waaaay back when I watched "The Eleventh Hour", ( spoilers herein, for all of SFnarg )

Incidentally, I've got no objection to being spoiled for SFnarg+1 in the comments if it makes for a better discussion. Have at it! ;-)

comments

Happy International Geek Pride Day!

Wed, 25 May 2011 13:48:40 GMT

Happy Geek Day, all! Do you know where your towel is?

I have with me: a small towel (for Towel Day); a sprig of lilac (for Alzheimer's Awareness Day *sadface*); Converse (for ~~saving the universe~~ actually my silly feet require them); a half-size Captain America shield (for general "I look stupid but AWESOME" geek points). I didn't think to bring my light saber (for the anniversary of the Star Wars premiere 33 years ago) - I should have done that. Next year, maybe! :D

comments

...I just wrote what.

Mon, 23 May 2011 18:55:36 GMT

Okay. So the ever-awesome InfiniteViking (I would link your journal, honest, but I haven't gotten used to the way crossposting b0rks up all my LJ code) has this meme that is the Drabbles IN SPAAAAACE!!! meme.

1: Get a title from a random title generator. (I used this one, but Google has a wide selection.)
2: Add "IN SPAAAACE!!!" to the end.
3: Write a drabble!

So. Well. Um. This is in my X-UNIT crossover 'verse wherein the Brig founded the X-Men. And... I cannot explain it at all. O_O

Title: Vortex of Musings IN SPAAAACE!!!
Summary: Uh. Pointless humor teamfluff piece?
Notes: 153 words. Kitty Pryde, Liz Shaw, the Brig, Wolverine, and cameos by Nightcrawler and Colossus. (I absolutely could not squeeze Storm in, but she is part of the team in this 'verse.)

( Lasciate ogni speranza, voi ch'entrate, because this is DUMB )

comments

A slightly-less-random-than-usual meme

Mon, 23 May 2011 15:18:30 GMT

Okay, so I was poking InfiniteViking's back archives (as I do - some of my longtime friends know that I tend to marathon interesting people's journal archives when I'm bored, and scatter comments along my way), and I found a "List 100 awesome female characters" meme.

This leads me to realize that I don't even know if I could come up with 25 or 50 awesome female characters, let alone 100. I pay far too little attention to the ladies - heck, the TARDIS is the only female character in my icons right now! O_O Except for her, my favorite characters from my various fandoms fit quite well under the heading of "my guys".

So. For an experiment: rockin' awesome female characters in no particular order. Good, evil, human, alien, inorganic... let's see how many I can come up with!

( Hopefully this will be long )

Well! That was educational! It seems that many things I like actually have quite a high concentration of awesome ladies - I just don't primarily focus on them. Granted, most of them are in pretty minor roles. o_O

(Feel free to suggest female characters I missed in the comments! Admittedly, there are some I left out on purpose, but there are also many many many that I just haven't seen yet or plain forgot about. *g*)

comments

A quick PSA

Sun, 22 May 2011 23:07:20 GMT

Incidentally, if anyone has a good bit of spare money to donate to disaster relief and would like to snipe me for the fic-writing attentions of the excellent settiai on LiveJournal's HelpTheSouth fandom auction... her offering thread is right here and the bidding stands at $60 US. Minimum fic length is 3000 words, fandoms are many and various.

The only caveat is that I am stalking her thread regularly, have a fair amount of charity-earmarked money to spare, and will do my best to snipe you back. ;-) However, it's for a good cause! Bidding closes on Wednesday, May 25.

comments

So I saw "Thor" today...

Sat, 21 May 2011 00:00:59 GMT

So I finally saw "Thor" this afternoon. (Random team-building thing at work, figured I might as well go as not...)

Short version: I had a fantastic time and am grinning all over the place now.

Long version, with MASSIVE SPOILERS, ( under the cut )

There is probably more, but I've already spent far too long on this and I have a word count to make. *emus off*

comments

I tried to do a meme, but...

Thu, 19 May 2011 20:19:42 GMT

I tried to do one of those character-list memes on InfiniteViking's journal and totally overran the comment limit.

So y'all are the (un)lucky beneficiaries. ;-)

( Twelve people and the questions they answer )

comments

quick writing update

Thu, 12 May 2011 03:40:41 GMT

My MaNoWriMo novel is currently 16,531 words long.

I'm still 2825 words behind, but I'm a third of the way through! :D And having to push for more than my "comfort zone" of 1500 words every day is really doing me a lot of good, I think. I'm learning to WRITE ALL THE SCENES, whether I think they'll wind up in the finished book or not, because every one of them teaches me more about these characters and their story. Even if every single one wants rewriting. ;-)

I don't know if I'll hit 50,000 words before the end of the month, but even if I don't, I am massively happy with this novel and I think I'm going to keep working on it after May is over until it turns into a coherent story with continuity. (Then I'll have to find a "first reader" to tell me how dire it is... oh, joy. *g*)

comments

Signal boost!

Mon, 09 May 2011 20:23:15 GMT

Calling all Whovians, Wholigans, and other fans of Doctor Who! ;-) Calufrax, the Doctor Who rec-a-day(-ish) comm on LiveJournal (affiliated with the A Teaspoon and an Open Mind archive), is running out of reccers!

I mean it. They're so short on signed-up reccers that the mod's decided to take the comm to an every-other-week status, just to postpone the day when there is NOBODY LEFT. This is a horrible fate for a rec-a-day comm, so I am asking y'all to do two things. Please.

1: Even if you can't sign up to rec, for whatever reason - if you like reading Who fic, or if you have Doctor Who fans on your flist, please signal-boost this call for help all you can! You never know who (I amuse myself) will respond.

2: If you possibly can, sign up to rec for a week. It doesn't take much effort: ( but there are a few steps involved )

(That last item isn't required, but everyone does it anyway. *g*)

comments

"The Forsaken": a really long look at one episode of DS9

Mon, 09 May 2011 19:30:38 GMT

Okay, so over on ds9_rewatch we've been discussing "The Forsaken" aka The One Where Odo And Lwaxana Get Stuck In A Turbolift. I've been promising all and sundry a massive rant!post about that ep ever since I first saw it. This is that post.

Xposted verbatim from ds9_rewatch, with their discussion questions, because otherwise I'd spend all this evening rewriting this instead of working on my manowrimo wordcount!

( Longness, spoilers for this and future eps, and discussion of sexuality and rape/consent issues under the cut )

comments

Heads-up for writerly types

Fri, 06 May 2011 22:35:39 GMT

In about an hour and a half - at midnight GMT (aka 5pm Pacific Daylight Time or 8pm Eastern Daylight Time) - the seventeenth monthly round of Fic_Rush will begin!

Fic_rush is a 48-hour writing marathon. (Obviously, no one's there the whole time!) You can work on anything you want, WIP or not, fanfic or not. We all drop in and out as we please, chatter in the hourly posts on fic_rush_48 - about our writing, lack of writing, ninja penguins, or whatnot - cheer each other on, commiserate, and write lots of fic!

(Honest. Despite DDoS attacks ~~and the usual 'rush shenanigans~~, I finished and published five stories on April 9th and 10th thanks to Fic_rush. It is An Invaluable Resource.)

Some of my friends from ds9_rewatch may remember my mentioning a writing comm with motorcycle space pirates a while ago in chat? THIS IS THAT COMM, and it is truly epic. I encourage everyone reading this to at least drop in to fic_rush_48 and browse the back chatter posts a bit before you say no! :-)

comments

oddments

Sun, 01 May 2011 18:58:59 GMT

* Re: DS9_rewatch - I love that I have just asked someone, quite sincerely, "In what way is the emu demeaning? I'm curious." OH TREK. (FTR, it's demeaning because all Odo gets to do this week is ( spoiler cut ) But he's so darn cute doing it that I personally will save my ranting-at-writers for Next Week aka "The Forsaken".)

Also, EMUS. Seriously, rewatch chat is awesomeness of awesomeful. :D

* William Campbell just died. Trekkies on my flist probably know him as Captain Koloth (one of the first three Klingon captains from TOS, who also made guest appearances on DS9 and, I think, TNG; he appeared in "The Trouble with Tribbles") and Trelane (from "Squire of Gothos", a proto-Q character).

* Re: MaNoWriMo - my wordcount right now is 3453 words. In something like nineteen hours. (I started on Greenwich time, but it's fair because I will also finish on Greenwich time. If I finish.) The thing that scares me the most right now about this whole insane plan? I did the math for May being a 31-day month, and it knocks 54 words off every day's goal.

In other words, I have committed to write 54x30 words on the same story every day of this month. I AM TRULY INSANE. But optimistic! Sort of. ;-)

comments

Fic: Clothes Make the Man

Fri, 29 Apr 2011 04:04:08 GMT

So... um, a while ago (last August, good grief), LJ's DW_straybunnies comm ran a "fem!Doctor regenerates into a male" challenge. Me being me, I wrote a non-serious response based entirely on the fem!Doctor costume designs I'd been working on for a while (since I can't draw and have no time to sew), plus a few I had to dream up for the occasion.

I really, really wish I could draw. ;-)

Title: Clothes Make the Man
Summary: The Doctor has always been female. UNTIL NOW.
Notes: Gen, rated G. 511 words. Eleventh Doctor.

( What do male humans wear, anyway? )

comments

Remix Madness!

Fri, 29 Apr 2011 03:39:03 GMT

So apparently this year Remix_Redux have taken a page from Yuletide's book and are running a Remix Madness challenge. It's a weekend thing, through Monday evening, whence the "madness" part of it.

There are no qualification requirements, no nothing - if you want your stuff (possibly) remixed, you just comment to the linked post with your name, fic-list link, and any safe stories or former remixes. If you want to remix, you have to sign up to be remixed as well, and of course (I'm guessing) standard Remix rules about "don't break up pairings" and such still apply. But there's no minimum length for a remix! :D

I've signed up, of course. Anything on my AO3 except "Last Man Standing" and "Fine Print (The Connections Remix)" is fair game. But there aren't a lot of my friends signed up to be remixed... want to change that? *please* ;-)

comments

Signal boost!

Mon, 25 Apr 2011 22:48:48 GMT

So there is on Dreamwidth, as part of the "Three Weeks for Dreamwidth" event (a yearly thing wherein people post awesome stuff and keep it exclusive to Dwth for three weeks, intended to boost activity on the site), a Friendship Fic Comment!fic Fest.

Being, as I am, a gen girl whose favorite thing in the world is friendship fic, I am scattering prompts all over this fest and encouraging all my friends to do the same. And also fill them, lol. (You don't even need a Dwth account - you can comment with your LJ OpenID - although if you post a fill, you'll have to not xpost to your LJ for three weeks.) I shall also be trying to scatter fills if I can, so go over and put up some prompts in our shared fandoms so I have something to work with! ;-)

I've already put up an Odo-Quark prompt and am just working on a Jack-Teal'c one...

comments

Commentary meme!

Sun, 24 Apr 2011 05:57:58 GMT

I've been meaning to do this for a while, and this seems like a good time to do it - all the stories I was Going To Publish First are published, and my next project appears to be a 50,000-word original novel (yup, still crazy), so that won't be appearing for a while.

Pick any story I've written under 1000 words, or a passage from one of the longer ones, and I will give you a DVD commentary on it: inspirations, missing scenes, comical observations, what's happening outside the scene, how the characters were to work with, all that kind of stuff. Sadly I cannot mock the special effects like a real commentary, I don't think.

Almost all my fics are currently here at AO3. A few of the more embarrassing ones are only on FFnet or under my fic tag; they're all up for commentarying.

Oh, and if you've just joined my flist - don't be shy! I love chatting with new people. :D

comments