Eden

The crossover Big Bang is now at 5k words, about five scenes (and the start of another). I've started working the two canons into each other -- spent a good bit of time yesterday researching the Enochian and Welsh I needed, and then ended up deciding that I wasn't really going to use either, just describe it being used (as in "he swore in Welsh" -- or whatever). Although, if anyone has links to really good sources for Enochian and Welsh, let me have them! Mostly, I need the words for "sorrow", "sword" and "sun", in Enochian: I found them, I think, but they were in situ with other words which may have modified them, and Anglo-Saxon has made me terrified of the effects of things like case...

For a while, I pondered abusing my knowledge of Anglo-Saxon, but I couldn't really fit it in. Anglo-Saxon can't be the Old Speech, though I suppose it could come from it. Enochian would be a better fit for the Old Speech, in this 'verse, but I decided that angels and Old Ones are not that closely linked.

So far, fitting the two canons together is a little bit of a headache, but not too much. When I come to proofreading it, I might want to kill myself slightly.

Will and Bran are continuing to act up and steal the show, somewhat. I'm not arguing with that, I think it's good: it'll make for a stronger fic, since originally I wasn't planning to use them that much. Now they're getting whole scenes to themselves -- or, well, at least one.

The other thing I did was finally make a full plan. I think I know what I'm doing a bit better now. And I think I'm actually going to get to 15k quite easily, even without adding any more scenes than the fifteen I have in mind. I might be hoping for too much, knowing myself.

The first check-in for the AU Big Bang approaches. It's not compulsory, but people are flailing about it a bit, which makes me feel guilty for the fact I haven't done much work on it. I don't expect the crossover Big Bang to take me too much longer, and then I can focus on the AU Big Bang for a while, so my strategy still works, but... Maybe tomorrow I'll actually start writing the AU Big Bang and see if I can work on both at once.

Last year I took part in two Big Bangs (kink_bigbang and firefly_bigbang! ♥) and enjoyed it mightily. I've also joined au_bigbang now, so here's hoping I've learnt from my frantic panics of last year...

Note: a Big Bang challenge involves both authors and artists. First authors write long fics, for example 20k long, and then artists create art, fanmixes, fanvids, etc, to accompany them.

Anyway, so a couple of questions occurred:

1a) Are there Big Bangs for Dean/Castiel or the women of Supernatural?
1b) If yes, where/when?
2a) Would anyone apart from me like there to be?
2b) If I start running one and realise I have taken on a gargantuan task I can't complete alone, does anyone want to help?
2c) If you want one, what kind of word count target would you like? What kind of timeframe?

P.S. I'm aware that there's one for the whole fandom, spn_j2_bigbang, right? And that starts up soon. I'd run one or both of these later in the year, I think, or over a longer time period, and it'd focus specifically on Dean/Castiel or the women of SPN, to encourage more fic along those lines.

Edit: At this point I've more or less convinced myself I want to run a "women of SPN" Big Bang omgritenao. I'm just not sure anyone would want to participate but me... Less convinced about a Dean/Castiel one: there's plenty of love for D/C in SPN fandom already.

The situation of the Welsh has come up several times on my journal. Without saying anything about previous arguments, etc, here is an article that I think you should read. Especially if you're English. Especially if you think the Welsh are not discriminated against.

Mocking the Welsh is the Last Permitted Bigotry.

"One class of person, though, one race, one nationality, is evidently exempt from this taboo. In England it is open-season still for Welsh-baiting. The Welsh joke flour- ishes. The Welsh language is still an object of derision. Scoundrels still ‘welsh’ upon their creditors, and to this day Lord Kinnock is calumnied as the old Welsh windbag. Who has not heard the English tourist complaining that the moment he and his family walked into a Welsh pub, ‘they all started jabbering in Welsh’?"

"The antipathy against Wales, though, is something different, because it is tinged always with contempt, and soured by incompletion. Isn’t Wales part of Britain — part of England, really? What’s this nonsense about the revival of a language — don’t they all speak English anyway, and why can’t they spell Owen Glendower like Shakespeare did? What would they be without us? What do they contribute? And listen, this will make you laugh — did you hear the one about the Welshman and the crocodile...?""

Note: Not claiming this article is objective. But it's a good viewpoint onto how the Welsh are treated. I've talked about that enough that I can't be bothered to repeat it. Suffice it to say that I grew up in England constantly being bullied for being Welsh, which was acceptable because "it was just a joke" and "it's only Wales".

I always found it odd that while I was happy to read fanfiction on my computer screen (when I read rather more fanfic than I do at the moment) I generally didn't want to read novels on the screen. I guess part of it is that fanfic is only available on screen -- unless you print it out, I suppose, but that adds a level of inconvenience -- and is usually much shorter. Still, if someone can sit reading different fics all evening, you'd think they could sit and read a single work in the same amount of time.

I read Mary Doria Russell's The Sparrow and Children of God on the screen, but it took me a while, so I thought I just wasn't comfortable sitting to read for that long -- I don't generally read long fanfic these days, let alone novels. But then in the last couple of days I've read three novels in ebook format, even in preference to the paper-and-ink copies I have. I suppose it helps that I can curl up with my laptop in a comfy place, here, which I couldn't when I was reading Mary Doria Russell's work.

I'm sure I would read ebooks even more happily if I had an ebook reader, so I can carry the books around with me. I was most irritated today when, going to the hairdresser's, I couldn't take Persuasion with me.

How do other people feel about ebooks? Do you think there's really a market for them? I've seen a lot more interest in ebooks with readers like the Kindle around, and I guess if they were cheaper they might be of more interest -- I'd certainly get one in a heartbeat if they were, say, £100.

Mind you, one of the things that irrationally irritates me about ebooks is pagination. I use Mobipocket reader, and what was page 550 a minute ago might suddenly be page 340 or 657 if I go back to reread a section. I suppose that's what comes of having the convenience of being able to adjust font size, margins, etc.

Three useful links, if you're interested in ebooks:
-A guide to free ebook sites.
-An ebook "lending library".
-Free out of copyright ebooks for the Mobipocket reader.

There are lots of others, of course... Feel free to share your awesome ebook resources, if you have any! Thanks to the downloading I've done today, though, my to-be-read "pile" has got rather larger...

I have several rants about the treatment of the Welsh in books, and the treatment of Welsh/Celtic culture in general, including a really good one about the cultural appropriation of Arthur (yes, Arthur was ours first). Right now, though, I'm far too busy seething.

Today I started reading a book that actually shocked me by being very pro-Welsh in plot and characterisation despite being based on a supposedly quintessentially English story. The fact that I'm shocked at this is worrying enough, but let's leave that aside.

The thing that really bugged me was reading some reviews and they were all bitching about the Welsh names and places being included.

Wales is an awkward language. We do all kinds of fun things like make letters have different sounds. 'W' is sometimes 'oo', 'dd' is 'th', 'f' (or is it 'ff'?) is 'v', etc. It's confusing. I know. It took me ages to wrap my tongue around Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch. In fact, I'm not all that sure I could say it right now if I tried. I get it! Welsh isn't easy!

Apparently that means that, to make it easy for non-Welsh readers, the names/places should be Anglicised.

In case you don't realise what's wrong with that, turn your mind to the English domination of the rest of the UK and have a good think about one of the ways they did that.

Hint: suppression of their languages.

But who cares? It's just the Welsh. It's not like we were oppressed for ages or anything.

O. Wait.

At least nobody was bitching that it's "wrong" to set Robin Hood in Wales. Not that I've seen anyway. If it's out there, I don't want to know.

wilderthan: More book organisations, today. Think of this in terms of troop organisations in an army. I am such a dork.
first_seventhe: You do have quite the army of books. One of these mornings you're going to wake up and they will have invaded your bed.
wilderthan: And I will cuddle with them.

So, despite reorganising my books when I posted the first set of pictures here, something was bugging me. Really, really bugging me.

(Warning: Below the LJ cuts you will find a lot of images, and a section of purple prose to laugh at.)

( Diagrams to illustrate this, in Paint )

( Books books books! )

( New and improved list! )

If you actually clicked the cuts, now you truly know how much of a dork I am.

I did realise that since some of you are only friends through fandom, and aren't on my personal journal's flist, you won't know what I look like. I don't know if you're curious at all, but this is me. I am probably younger than you expect.

(Please comment! I did all this work, now pay attention to me. *grin*)

"I'm not saying you should bother reading these, especially now that Koontz is openly being Christian and Stephen King thinks he is a writer, but I have a fondness for some of these books."

This, in a goodreads review, made me wonder what exactly people think the term "writer" means. I see plenty of people saying authors they don't like aren't "real writers". Stephen King isn't a real writer because he just writes horror. King isn't a real writer because he just writes stuff that'll be popular. J. K. Rowling isn't a real writer because I don't like her stuff. Stephanie Meyer isn't a real writer because she's a talentless hack.

For me, a writer is someone who writes. Simple as that. You're a writer if you do a little column in your local paper, you're a writer if you publish a bestseller every two months, you're a writer if you write one critically acclaimed book and then vanish into the ether. You're a writer if you only publish your fiction on your livejournal, or even if it never goes beyond your computer screen.

You can argue yourself blue in the face, but you'll never convince me that Stephen King isn't a writer. I happen to think he's not the talentless hack snobs like to dub him, but I've said all that in my reviews. And much as I hate her books, I have to admit, J. K. Rowling is still a writer.

But that's apparently not the only interpretation of the word "writer"? So what's yours?

Let's talk about fickinks! By which I mean, plots or situations in fics that never fail to interest you. Actually, there are some examples of mine in the actual text of some fandoms, which makes me happy. But I still call them fickinks. I've got some fandom specific ones and three or four main general ones (and then, under the cut, the actual sex-related kinks!).

Absolute loyalty

The best example of this is Juubei, from GetBackers. He believes he was born to protect Kazuki. He'd give up anything and everything for the sake of Kazuki. There's also Simon, from Firefly, who canonically gives up everything he has for his sister's sake -- using up all his (considerable!) fortune, leaving the job he loves, turning the rest of his family against him, losing everything he has, and going to get her out of the Academy.

(Partner) betrayal

I love, for some reason, reading about (or mostly roleplaying) betrayal. Mostly partner betrayal, although Juubei's canonical betrayal of Kazuki slays me too. There's just something really interesting about someone turning on the person that they're supposed to be devoted to.

And let's face it, I really like reading about the whole desperation of "we shouldn't be together, I'm married".

I suppose "we shouldn't be together, but to hell with that for this one time" is a sort of subset of this. Although it may be caused by other factors than partner betrayal.

Blindness

I really don't know why, but a sighted character becoming blind is something that really interests me. Again, canonically, Juubei ends up blinded as a result of his betrayal of and loyalty to Kazuki, which is possibly why he's one of my favourite characters ever.

Psychicness

This isn't really a main fickink, but I do love it when someone gets the power to know more than they should know. River, canonically, is awesome for this. I've also played psychic!Simon (several times), mindreading between "soulmates", and psychic!Barney. It's fun to try and imagine what it, realistically, would be like.

The idea of someone in the real world being psychic creeps me out like you wouldn't believe, though.

Mindfuck

The fact that I nearly always write Seifer as having been controlled and/or severely manipulated by Ultimecia sort of speaks for itself.

Firefly-specific

Simon with guns. When Simon goes against the Hippocratic Oath, there's got to be something really interesting going on in his head. The three times he takes up weapons in the course of the series (the pilot, War Stories and in the movie) really, really interest me. Of course, he doesn't really go through with shooting anyone (unless he gets some Reavers in Serenity, but I don't actually think so). So I love fic where he does.

This would possibly apply to any character who for some reason shouldn't have a gun, whether they're pacifist or a medic.

The Dark Is Rising

Barney being prescient. The last time I reread, I went through and noted all kinds of places where he seems to sense more than the others do. And of course, in Greenwitch he actually scrys. I like exploring the idea that when he grows up, he can control the scrying or he becomes stronger in it or whatever.

( Smut fickinks! (No real details, just a list) )

So now you all know how to push my buttons.

I say all this because I'm interested. Who else has fickinks? What are they? As much/as little explanation as you like. Does anyone else have a weird liking for putting guns in a doctor's hands?

Right now, it seems books have to be intriguing -- if not brilliant -- right from the outset to actually get me to pay attention to them. I knocked three books off my "read before you get more books" list today: not because I finished them, but because I read the first chapter of each and knew I wouldn't want to finish them. At the moment, my standards are skewed from usual (when I would give everything a good long chance) because I'm trying to read all these books before I buy new ones.

Thirty-two remain on my list. A load more might get knocked out after the first chapter: we'll see. I think this exercise in getting books knocked off my list might make me more selective about buying books. I bought two of Tad Williams' series on a whim, reading just the first couple of pages of the first book in each quartet. That gamble paid off: I love all those books. Same goes for Sarah Zettel.

On the other hand, Robert Newcomb's books turned out to be unbearable. So much telling, so little dialogue -- one line of dialogue, spoken to calm a horse, along with pages and pages of exposition covering years of history. Booooring.

For another example: Fiona McIntosh disappointed me. I bought two of her trilogies after a recommendation. I found the first book of one of her trilogies derivative in the extreme -- I was told she was like Robin Hobb. Well, she wasn't just like Robin Hobb. Some parts of it were lifted directly from Hobb. For example, a man is sentenced to death. He goes into someone else's mind and survives, only to be put back into his own body after he's supposed to have died. Hmmm. Sound familiar to any Hobb fans?

I wince to think how much money I've spent on books I didn't end up reading more than the first chapter of. Lesson for the future for me: read the first chapter sat on the bookshop floor, regardless of the looks you get.

Lesson to authors: that advice you hear about cutting the first chapter out? Consider it long and hard.

For my own future reference as much as anything else... Hooks are good. Begin in medias res. Introduce a mystery that the book will solve. Give me a character I instantly love or loathe so I have some kind of emotion about it all. The first chapter is not the place for minor characters. Feel free to introduce things in a way that will be turned on its head later on -- for example, I love the way, in A Sorcerer's Treason, Sarah Zettel introduces the characters of two main females completely skewed, and then proceeds to make you and the main character discover the reversal. But don't spend a chapter's loving description on a guy who'll be dead by chapter two.

(Of course, there are exceptions to that and valid reasons for doing it. But as a rule...)

I was just thinking -- I really don't read much fic any more. If I have a craving, I go and hunt stuff down, and if someone recs something really interesting, I might read it, but posts that come up on my flist from getbackers or over_look or even fated_children, I just don't read. And, I confess, I haven't read anything written by irishais in ages. >>;;

I think part of that's my tendency not to read anything unfinished. I very, very rarely start buying a trilogy or series until it's finished. The only time I've done otherwise is when I bought the first three books of Sarah Zettel's Arthurian romance series. And I haven't read those yet. Oh, and Garth Nix: I have up to Grim Thursday already despite the series not being finished.

Another part of it is, I guess, that a lot of the stuff I come across just doesn't interest me that much or tends to disappoint me even if it does. Still, I don't like it, 'cause here's me getting a reasonable amount of comments -- usually, one or two per fic post! -- and I don't give anything back to my various fandoms in that way. Most of the fics I come across and like are ones I've hunted down after the fact and I feel shy leaving comments.

I think I'm going to go round and leave comments to any fics I've got bookmarked in my del.icio.us, for a start, and then I think I'll try and set myself some kind of goal of commenting on at least one fic a day. 8D

So! If you have anything you'd really like me to read that you think I skipped, drop me a link (or a couple of links -- not too many >>). Please, though, not anything still in progress. In fact -- it'd be better if it wasn't a chaptered fic. Chaptered fics intimidate me. Long one-shots are a-okay, but nothing with more than, say, two parts.

Preferred reading fandoms: Final Fantasy III, IV, VIII, X, X-2, XII (RW). Kingdom Hearts (I/CoM/II). Robin Hood BBC. The Dark Is Rising. The Fionavar Tapestry. Good Omens. Doctor Who (but not Torchwood, yet). Phoenix Wright. Firefly. Heroes (season one). GetBackers. Gundam Wing (which I never watched, but acquired a huge knowledge of by osmosis).