Writing In Twilight

Spotted this on Smart Bitches Trashy Books' Friday funny vid. And it is hella funny and hella awesome.

As the SBTB girls said: they're just having so much fun with it. Oh, and the 'choreography' at the end made me LOL.

Frankly, I don't care if you don't like One Direction (hell, I didn't even know who they were until they came to Australia and there was Kerfufflage), YOU MUST WATCH THIS.

Hi-Bloody-Larious!

I got fic for my birthday!

Breaking The Stone by kristen999
John/Teyla and team fic and beautiful and brutal to boot!

I also got a Dutch cookbook from stef94 (who also was the first of us all to remember it was my birthday, because I sure didn't!) and a lovely little hand-knitted scarf from sjhw_tolerance.

Still slightly exhausted (the bags under my eyes are luggage-sized) but managing. I may need a nap this afternoon...

The cocktail party with RDA (sans cocktails, ironically) was neat; he was friendly and funny and the food was pretty good - delicious beef and salmon, the lasagne was better than most non-homemade I've tried, but I didn't try the chicken (looked too dry).

Anyway, con today! Sitting with Stef. Just about to head out for nommy things.

Fantasy Life by penknife - Sam/Jack relationship

It's not the missionary position, nor is it sugar and spice. But it's hot and...well...fascinating.

If you are or ever were a fan of Don S Davis or George Hammond, then run - run! - to read artaxastra's Hammond-fic Precognition.

Hammond-gen, pre-series, where George has gone through a large part of the last few years wondering if he dreamed the four travellers from an antique land who he set free back in 1969 at his own request. And then he sees a familiar face and everything changes.

I'm reading a Harlequin novel (free download because of their 60th Birthday) - Silhouette Nocturne (ie. urban fantasy romance): "Kiss Me Deadly."

Oh, LORD.

It's bad. BAD bad. Badfanfic bad!

( mock mock mockity mock )

Time to read something good (Tanya Huff; Smoke And Ashes) and go get some sleep!

How The Dark Lord Stole Christmas by alyxbradford

Hilarious. Especially the ending!

Alli? Kels? You'll love these (if you haven't already seen them around):

buttfacemakani's drawings for DH.

( plot spoilers beneath the cut )

SQUEE!

madjm wrote my john_teyla_fic story! And it completely, utterly, and totally rocks. It's got John-and-Teyla friendship with a dash of UST, seriousness and playfulness, John-the-dorky-yet-responsible-officer and Teyla-the-wise-yet-wicked-friend, and it's wonderful!

There are not enough exclamation marks to indicate how great I think this story is. However, due to an excess of fangirls on the internet, some West African countries will forever have to use their exclamation marks sparingly. So I'll be good.

But if you like canon and have an open mind towards Teyla, I'm pretty sure you'll like this one.

Family Tradition by madjm.

DUUUUUUUDES. Ficathon fic! Well-written ficathon fic! Written for me! And with all my 'kinks' in!

*runs round in circles squealing*

(As you can see, this doesn't happen half-often enough. And it's such a nice feeling to have people who see the characters the way I do!)

Now I just have to finish my own ficathon entry. *grimaces*

I haven't been reading much lately, either fanfic or novels.

In the end, I gave in and ordered Kushiel's Scion from Amazon. I got tired of skipping all the posts on kushiel_trilogy because I hadn't read the book. And right now, with work so pressing on the brain, I want to be awed and amazed by Carey. I'd like to think that my own work might someday awe and amaze readers, but that presupposes that I ever get it out there. (Cue pandora_576 to prod me.)

I also have another trilogy on order - out-of-print now: Barry Hughart's Master Li trilogy: The Bridge of Birds, The Story Of The Stone, and The Eight Skilled Gentlemen. I've read them all before, and they're brilliant. 'A Story Of China That Never Was' - fantasy, fantastic, magical, mystical, and extremely well-written with wonderful humour. Each story holds a strong element from Chinese fairytales, twisted and threaded into a whole new conceptualisation.

For anecdotal, I've purchased up on Robert Fulghum. The man looks at things in charming, entertaining ways, and usually leaves me with a billion shortfic plotbunnies. He only writes a few words to each chapter, but they say so much! Makes me wish I was half as good at picking my words.

And then there are the trashy romance novels I got into reading during my 2005 RTW trip. I blame havocthecat for having a collection of trashy novels to hand while I stayed at her place. Liz Carlisle, if you're into regency-with-a-bit-of-plot/mystery (her endings tend to be a bit of a letdown though - huge build up but not enough satisfaction). Susan Sizemore's Crave The Night series, if you're into modern-supernatural-with-great-worldbuilding-but-sucky-plot (the concepts are great, the execution not so much).

Presently, I'm reading one of Tom Clancy's Net Force series. Since I have a slightly-more-than-passing-acquaintance with technical stuff, it's not a biggie. Some interesting and inventive ideas, all taken with a military bent. That's the stepdad's fault - he borrowed it from the library (the man goes through books faster than I do, and that's pretty fast - I think he's a fair chunk of the way through my bookshelf already!) and I picked it up and went, "Hmm. Techno-military action book with explosions. Why not?"

Tomorrow, I start a train commute; about 30mins to and from work during the day. I imagine it'll be pretty busy, but hopefully I'll find a seat on the train and be able to do some writing while I'm commuting. I also get to 'sleep in' - 7:30 rise tomorrow! Heaven!

Granted, I haven't read them all, but the ones I liked the look of, or which I happened to read.

These are the first-read, first-recced:

Bridging The Gaps by sabaceanbabe
[Kara&Lee] A neat little missing-scene, post-Home II. Lee tries to find out what happened to Kara back on Caprica and tries to enlist Helo. All the relationships between the characters are clearly defined in their interactions and the nuances are excellent.

god's will be done by subterrain
[Baltar/Six] Set pre-miniseries, this writer could make me a fan of the pairing. Seriously. The language is rich and Six's possessiveness towards Baltar - and her brutality and sacred devotion to the Cylon concept of 'God' is aptly depicted. Frighteningly beautiful.

Hands Like Ice by minervafan
[Adama, Cottle, a dash of Adama/Roslin] This is post-Resistance, and my request for the ficathon. I liked the result. The depiction of Doc Cottle is perfect, Bill's musings apt, and the old Doc's voice is spot-on.

Stages of Being by widget285
[Kara/Zak, with hints of Kara/Helo, Kara/Lee and Kara/Anders] This story is really 100% about Kara. Nail on the head, beautiful language, conflict, sass, uncertainty... There are quiet scenes and there are fighting scenes and while it ends on a question mark, the characterisation is perfect and fluid.

Pilots, Booze, and Dance Music by raincitygirl
[Helo, Kara/Lee] It's from Helo's POV and the interactions are quite a different variant to what I see in my head. Nevertheless, the story is entertaining, the execution reasonable, and the idea that it's part of a longer story intriguing. Basically this story is good for a smile on the dial.

Electra Glide In Blue by katjanka
[Lee/Laura] This one is scary and exquisitely painful. It's almost a descent into madness for everyone concerned, the writing is stark and vicious, yet compelling.

Neither Confirm Nor Deny by gwemegil
[Adama/Roslin] I love the way this story balances out the delicacy of the relationship between the two leaders, both intimacy and distance, and the political nature of their relationship as well as the personal.