Some things of note (or not)

[lirazel]

- There was this old British lady on NPR today with the most delicious plummy accent talking about a new biography she's written of Lord Byron. Now, I'm a Keats kind of girl myself, but there is nothing more fun than listening to old British ladies say "licentiousness" and talking about Byron's relationship with Augusta. As I am generally unimpressed by debauchery, I remain convinced that his daughter was way cooler than he could ever hope to be. You go, Ada Lovelace. Inventing computer programming. One of the main characters in the pseudo-Victorian YA fantasy novel I'm working on is named after you! I'm sure you're sitting up there in heaven, all flattered and stuff.

- The beach's vendetta against my legs has not ceased. Now I am peeling profusely and also the places where I got stung by the jellyfish all flared up again. I woke up Saturday morning scratching at my legs thinking, "When did I get mosquito bites? I haven't been outside? Actually, these feel more like chiggers." And then it was the stupid jellyfish sting. Not fun. I haven't taken Benadryl in a while, and I forgot how wonky it can make me feel.

- xlivvielockex reminded me of how passionately I love Jackie/Hyde, and so I spent pretty much all weekend reading That 70s Show fanfic. I was shocked by how much good stuff there is. Like, really good. It made me want to write some of my own, because it's been a long time since I've written T7S. I still don't understand how I can possibly love some silly couple from some silly sitcom as much as I do those two crazy kids. I WILL NEVER FORGIVE THE WRITERS. Let's take this opportunity to admire my moodtheme. LOVE IT.

- In insanely flattering news, misskittydu34 has translated my story Prism into French! Isn't that the sweetest thing? You can find it here and here, in case you're interested.

- FALL SEASON OF TV. My favoritest time of the year! But I'm kind of shocked that I only have three shows on my absolutely-must-watch list: The Vampire Diaries, Community, and Being Erica. What am I missing? Has anybody heard of any exciting sounding new shows? TV. MY LOVE.

- I am currently downloading the Emmys because I didn't watch them on TV last night like a normal person. Also, they always make me mad because the stuff I want to win never wins. Let's not even talk about how many different categories Community should have been nominated for. I'm just going to continue to bask in the knowledge that Connie Britton FINALLY got a nomination. I love that woman.

- I hope your Monday was decent, and I also hope to catch up on replies soon. I've been doing a lot better about it lately!

- Now, back to working on my manifesto.

Comments

[ahigheroctave.livejournal.com]

JACKIE/HYDE LOVE! What have you been reading? One of my fave rewrites is Season 8 Redo (http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2960445/1/bSeason_b_b8_b_bRedo_b) (Lol, better than the title), but there's also some amazing smut out there. Oh, and this, I love this (http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3516583/1/Into_the_bWoods_b).

[penny-lane-42.livejournal.com]

I've been reading loads of stuff over on ff.net, actually! Good stuff! It's all under my favorites over here. I love S8 Redo, and my LIFE WOULD BE MADE if she ever finished it. Hyde and Jackie and ADORABLE BABIES! OMG.

And I don't think I've read that one! I can't wait to check it out!

[ahigheroctave.livejournal.com]

Oh my god, I'm reading your stories list now. I didn't know you wrote Literati fic. I LOVE THEM. And Ron/Hermione? Hello, shipping twin. :)

[penny-lane-42.livejournal.com]

Ha! I just wrote the one Lit fic, but it's one of my favorites. And Ron/Hermione forever, seriously. Yay shipping twins! :D

I know my favorites list is soooooo long and might be hard to wade through, but it looks like we share enough ships that it might be worth it to you! The current Jackie/Hyde fic I'm obsessed with is called "Taboo," and it's the story of the summer when Kelso and Donna re gone where they got together. I'm about 2/3 of the way through and I DO NOT WANT to finish it! I want it to go on forever! There's also one whose name I'm forgetting that is drabbles/ficlets filling in all the missing scenes between them over the course of the show that is LOVELY.

[ahigheroctave.livejournal.com]

Filling the Gaps? Lol, I'm reading that one right now. It is amazing. I've actually read things by the author before, she has a lovely R/Hr oneshot called The Sidekick's Code, that I basically want to marry.

[penny-lane-42.livejournal.com]

I think that's it! I love it a lot! I'm definitely going to check out the R/Hr one of hers.

[marketchippie.livejournal.com]

George Gordon Byron is probably my favorite person in history, top five at least. Got to love all three of the romantic trinity: Keats is clearly the best poet, Shelley's the best thinker, and Byron's the BEST. Person; liver of life; king of Greece that could have been; blood-be-damned seducer of ladies, gentlemen, and possibly bears; what you will. Plus: Don Juan. FAVORITE.

(With bonus Claire Clairmont, who I find fascinating and want someone to write historical novels about. Let me flail at you.)

Ada Lovelace is incontrovertibly a prime BAMF, though. My iPod is named after her. Your nomenclature's more fun. YA novel WIP? Tell me more?

[penny-lane-42.livejournal.com]

I totally agree about Keats being the best poet. I find Byron really fascinating from a distance and I love his sense of humor, but I just know that if I knew him I wouldn't be able to stand him. However, he's one of those people where I'm just so very glad he existed because it's cool to know that a human being really can be that much LARGER THAN LIFE.

OMG someone must write about Claire Clairmont! Poor woman! I'd forgotten about Allegra until I was listening to the thing today. Gah.

I love that your iPod is named for Ada. That makes me grin.

I've just started working on a YA novel. I want to ~be a writer~, for a living and stuff, but I got so horribly burned out in college doing so much literary theory and criticism (I was an English major) that it's taken me a full year to get to the point where I can write anything that I don't feel is horrible, so I'm just now beginning. So, very rough sketch: it's about these five kids (siblings and cousins) who live in this big crazy house and aren't human and are trying to break free of their evil family and learn how to control their ~powers. Plus, there's, like, a plot and stuff, but it's mostly a MacGuffin that lets me explore the world and characters. I've never been all that good at actual plots, but I'm trying.

It's better than it sounds. I hope.

[marketchippie.livejournal.com]

Claire Clairmont is pretty much amazing. You know the theoretical tea party you organize in your head for your favorite people of all time and history? Mine is basically her and Victoria Woodhull talking about how it feels to be too progressive for their time with spates of less-than-covert giggling about men.

PLOTS. Plots are overrated. Plots were my bugbear forever, and I'm not sure I've ever written plot-based fanfic, so it's still last on my list. Worldbuilding + characters can carry you through. And I like mutants with complicated emotional arcs and dynamics within evil families and pseudo-Victoriana, so it sounds like a party. Also, I have this massive soft spot for YA—reviewed ARCs for seven years at a local bookstore; there's so much badness, but when you get good things, they're such gems and go so neglected. People writing smart things for teenage audiences gives me fuzzy feelings.

[penny-lane-42.livejournal.com]

I'm inviting myself to your tea party, just so you know. :D

They are overrated! I'm all about the worldbuilding and characters.

And I like mutants with complicated emotional arcs and dynamics within evil families and pseudo-Victoriana That...pretty much sums it up! Though they're Sidhe, not mutants, but it amounts to the same thing. There's a whole backstory that's going to be hugely fun to work out the details of. If this thing ever gets off the ground (I'm notorious for things that don't get off the ground), I'm sure I'll be keeping my flist updated on my progress.

I love YA. I feel like the books I read between the ages of about 9 and 14 are the ones that shaped me the most, and when it was people like Madeleine L'Engle and Robin McKinley and Elizabeth George Speare and L.M. Montgomery, how could it not influence me? There's a lot of good stuff coming out, especially in fantasy, if you can get away from the Twilight-knockoffs. I really am excited about hopefully contributing to that market one day.

[marketchippie.livejournal.com]

Of COURSE. Hypatia, Lucrezia Borgia, and Sei Shonagon are hanging out there, too. Tea, cakes, and disproportionate amounts of feminism for all involved.

Sidhe, gotcha, even more fun. Well—I've read good fae books and bad fae books, but the good ones are STUNNING and it's such a giant gorgeous mythology to play with. Backstory is the best, too. (To wit, in the Buffy realm, I flail ALL OVER THE PLACE about the fanged four. It's an inevitability.) History + mythos + complicated dynamics all in one place = the best thing ever.

I know! I feel like I mostly read books about charming hipsters, but by gosh, there's no one else writing those books! Fantasy's all over the place, though, and some of it's fantastic. Like I'm a Richelle Mead stan: she writes vampire lit with embarrassing covers (YA needs new cover-makers in general), but she's a Russophile and a mythology/religion freak, her worldbuilding is solid, her vampire political system is full of complicated corrupt monarchy, and her heroine is a full-fledged badass. Things to love.

[penny-lane-42.livejournal.com]

OH FUN! In general my tea party would be mostly awesome lady writers--Eudora Welty and Virgina Woolf and Octavia Butler and Sor Juana Inez de la Cruz--but Faulkner also has to be there, and he's such a drunk! No doubt he'd be rowdy. And John Donne would be preaching or writing bawdy poetry or something--possibly both at the same time.

I actually need to look into more fae mythology because I honestly haven't read a ton of it. But I'm having fun developing my own little mythology.

To wit, in the Buffy realm, I flail ALL OVER THE PLACE about the fanged four.

OH SO MUCH LOVE. I totally agree.

Like I'm a Richelle Mead stan: she writes vampire lit with embarrassing covers (YA needs new cover-makers in general), but she's a Russophile and a mythology/religion freak, her worldbuilding is solid, her vampire political system is full of complicated corrupt monarchy, and her heroine is a full-fledged badass.

Okay, that has immediately gone onto my to-read list. That sounds glorious.

[next_to_normal]

What am I missing? Has anybody heard of any exciting sounding new shows?

Chuck! I also liked Parenthood and Life Unexpected from last year, both of which are coming back.

I'm still watching The Office, How I Met Your Mother, and Fringe, but if you're not into them by now, you probably never will be, lol.

New shows, the only one I'm interested in is No Ordinary Family, starring Julie Benz, about a family that accidentally gets superpowers. Oh, and I guess I'll check out JM's new show, but I don't know when that's starting.

[penny-lane-42.livejournal.com]

Ah! I am still watching HIMYM! I'd forgotten. I hope the new season is good. INTRODUCE THE MOTHER ALREADY.

I was really underwhelmed by the previews for No Ordinary Family, which is a shame because I love the premise and Julie. But I'll end up giving it a chance, no doubt.

[next_to_normal]

Oh, I haven't seen any previews. :( Ah well, I'll end up giving it a chance, too, because I can't resist Julie.

[supergoddesss.livejournal.com]

WATCH LIFE UNEXPECTED! Its a CW show but it has the vibe of old school WB. It's not Gilmore Girls, but its still pretty damn great in that off the beaten path, show with warmth, quirky characters way. There are only ten back episodes because it ran last January and I think you'd like it :)

[penny-lane-42.livejournal.com]

I have NEVER EVEN HEARD OF THIS. I'm appalled! How did that happen? I will check it out.

[supergoddesss.livejournal.com]

DO IT! RIGHT NOW!

It's about a geeky girly in high school who has sex with the quarterback in the back of a car at homecoming and ends up pregnant. She gives the baby up for adoption and then fifteen later she reappears in their lives. Its basically what would have happened if Lorelei gave Rory up for adoption and I love it. And you should watch it because I'm terrified it will get canceled.

[xlivvielockex.livejournal.com]

OMFG! I am raiding your favorites list for more Jackie/Hyde! I need more of them in my life. I usually so watch the reruns on FX, ABC Fam, and one of the local stations but after they break up for good, honest to god, I have to stop watching. It makes me RAEG!

But back to nicer things, thank you for adding all those to your favorites. :)

[penny-lane-42.livejournal.com]

OH I KNOW. I seriously cannot handle what the writers did to them. S8 is dead to me. DEAD.

You're welcome! Obviously some are better than others, but there's some really quite good ones that let me escape into my little fantasy world where they're still together.

[snickfic]

It is so nice to have you back and posting things again.

I finally got to Ainsley! You and Eowyn are right, she rocks. Although, when I first saw her and heard her speak she reminded me of, would you believe, Warren Meers's April. Something to do with the way she enunciates things, I think.

The scene with the dead flowers, and Sam stalking off in a chivalrous rage and firing people! That was the WW scene I've had to watch twice.

[penny-lane-42.livejournal.com]

That is so very nice to hear! :D

AINSLEY. I am so very excited that you love her! I'm going to have to watch the April episode because I haven't in forever to see if I can see the similarities!


The scene with the dead flowers, and Sam stalking off in a chivalrous rage and firing people! That was the WW scene I've had to watch twice.

I adore that scene! There are definitely several Ainsley scenes that are watch-twice ones. YAY!

[angearia.livejournal.com]

YES. She is wonderful! And I totally rewatched that very scene to just bask in Sam's awesome rage.

[snickfic]

And suddenly, just like that, she's a Person instead of merely a Republican. It was fabulous to see.

[angearia.livejournal.com]

All your stuff should be translated to French, though I have trouble believing the words could be more beautiful. This is probably one of those rare cases where the beauty of English is lost in the translation, rather than improved by the poetry of French.

[flake-sake.livejournal.com]

Word on Ada Lovelace, though I can't help imaginening that father daughter conflict. "Oh, comon, Dad, it's all vampires, graveyards and sex with you. Math! That's what's really cool!"

It gives me hopes that all the Twilight peoples kids are going to brilliant smart and feminist in rebellion.

[angearia.livejournal.com]

OMG HAI I ALSO JUST DOWNLOADED THE EMMYS TO WATCH. COMMUNITY WAS DISSED HARDCORE.

Yeah, my must-see list is TVD, Community and Dexter. Have you watched that show? It's crazy good, but also super dark!

[blackfrancine.livejournal.com]

Oh. I love you.

Does that seem out the blue? Sorry. But I'm a Keats girl too! I have a friend who just went to Rome, and I was telling her what I remembered about the sights there (I went 4 or 5 years ago)--and I was like, the Spanish Steps are lame, BUT! The house where John Keats died is right next to them--so it's worth it. She thought I was insane. (For the record, I also advised her to find the building where Dante first saw Beatrice in Florence. There's a plaque! Commemorating their first glance! I love that. Anyway.)

Also, I can recite Ode to a Nightengale any time you'd like me to.

But Ozimandias rocks. That poem wins a little of my love for Shelley. But wait. We're talking about Byron, aren't we? Huh. I don't know much Byron.

Also: That 70's Show. I went through a whole roller-coaster with that show. I loved it, then I was bored, then I loved it, then I hated it and wanted it to explode in a thousand pieces. Can you guess what brought the last step in that series about? Yep. The destruction of Jackie and Hyde. They were the only thing that made sense about that show. Or maybe not the only thing--but they made the kind of sense that lifts the rest of the show up. It made everything click into place. But no. We can't have that, can we, TV? Boo.

[herself_nyc]

I think your “old British lady” on NPR is Edna O'Brien, who is in fact one of Ireland's greatest living writers. Though she's lived most of her adult life in London, because the Irish don't appreciate her.

[penny-lane-42.livejournal.com]

I missed the beginning and the end, so I never caught her name! Thank you! I want to check out the book. I thought her accent sounded Irish-tinged, so that confirms that.

[mollivanders.livejournal.com]

Jackie/Hyde! I loved them as a couple - did they get torn apart? I'm tired of all the good ships being torn apart to taunt viewers and keep them watching in the hope they'll get back together.

As for TV show recs, I can vouch for Fringe if you like mythology. I think you would love Psych as a dramedy, and Friday Night Lights is excellent but on it's last season (out of five). I hope you find more good tv soon :)