Flutterings

From 2001, over at fanfiction.net, there's a short (1203 words) fic by Gunbunny that features Bran/Will and Methos that still makes me laugh, both because I'm amused by the Methos-Will dynamic ("You've been reading too much science fiction again") and because Bran really doesn't want to hear about who was shagging whom back in his parents' day: Strangeness

From 2007, Snupin Santa fest: Neodandiesrule's translation of my "Hounding of the Baskervilles" into French (23,000+ words en français, 18,500+ in English). Sources/influences included Arthur Conan Doyle, A. A. Milne, Dorothy L. Sayers, Monty Python, Jane Austen, P. G. Wodehouse, Terry Pratchett, John Fletcher, the prompter, mutual friends . . . La Traque des Baskerville

The challenge: http://upperrubberboot.tumblr.com/post/123904555213

The photo:



From a review by Frances Gray (1990), quoted in Bert Coules's 221 BBC:

Clive Merrison and Michael Williams are on the way to creating one of the most touching duos in this new tradition [of non-clueless Watsons, which Gray goes so far as to call "one goodish thing that has happened since the advent of Thatcher"]. Williams' Watson makes it clear from the outset that Homes' detective talent is not so much a reason for hero-worship as the thing that makes a difficult relationship tolerable. Merrison vocally exploits the paradox of Holmes: he is at his coldest when engaged in small talk, but when the brian is engaged he takes on a sensual purr, can show warmth and even tease Watson with a slight sexual edge.

Just spotted these cards over at Etsy and thought of some of youse...

http://www.etsy.com/listing/90230259/mycroft-holmes-and-di-lestrade-handmade

(Happened to visit the shop because an acquaintance tweeted about the artist's new baby squid illo.)

Mwah!
Ribbons

For those of you reading on LJ: rest-of-life updates at http://zirconium.dreamwidth.org. Short version: book goes on sale within the next two weeks; reading at the Nashville Public Library three weeks from today; meetings and must-dos crowding the moat, as usual.

Note to self:

Do your best. Give others the benefit of the doubt.
Other people's hangups = their loss, not yours.
Good things happen when you encourage others.


(Some of the perennial kerfuffles have got me down. Hence reminding myself what has served me well over the years.)

And on that note, some recent and upcoming pleasures:

I totally have to restructure Day 6 of "The Second One Is Love." This is not a bad thing: it will lead to a better read, my beta rules, and at least I've realized this after sweating a mere 527 drops of blood through my forehead, as opposed to 5,982.

Lucie/Vera vs. Tathiana/JJ in doubles. (Translation for non-tennis nerds: high-strung drama queens on deck. I just now realized there's no video coverage until tomorrow, alas, but that means I'll get to whatever I should be doing instead, so win.)

Hit for Haiti - California edition. More beer and popcorn...

Dr. Fujiwara's Several Surprises, a "Women's Battle College, Isle of Skye" flash fic by Kat Beyer

Nineveh-uk's Moving On, in which Sylvia and Eiluned help Harriet sort out her possessions before her marriage.

The Other Way of the World by candle-beck, via a rec by schemingreader. I am generally not much for Holmes/Watson slash (nothing against it, just not my thing) but this is beautifully wrought, and by that I mean not only is Watson so much the match for Holmes (in multiple senses of that word), there are exchanges such as this:

Holmes laughed, a crooked humourless thing that smuggled a chill up Watson's spine. "Some hours ago you laid claim to my soul, and now a bump on the head is enough to deter you? O faithless man," and Holmes darted in to steal a kiss off him, a surprise attack.

Heat stained Watson's face, his mouth feeling swollen, and he stared at his hands fisted in Holmes's shirt so he would not have to look at the man himself.

"Any other epithet I will take from you, but there is no justice in that one," Watson said quietly.

I have good coffee and rum-ginger brownies at hand, which should be fortification enough for raga-rehearsing and spreadsheet-wrangling.

I am being a wuss about the things I ought to be doing... which translated into tackling the long-ass book meme busaikko tagged me with a couple eons ago. Standard disclaimer: I am mercurial and moody and absent-minded. My favorites change by the hour. And this questionnaire's questions are weighted so weirdly it's impossible to take it all that seriously, but you probably already knew that.

( Read more... )

In today's New York Times Book Review, Jeremy McCarter reviewing two new books about Arthur Conan Doyle:

Born to an Irish family in Scotland in 1859, Conan Doyle derived what Lycett calls his "fantasist" streak from his mother, who had a genius for telling stories, and from a childhood devouring Poe’s mysteries, Verne’s sci-fi adventures and Sir Walter Scott’s historical romances — all genres he later explored. His reverence for fact and logic was rooted in his medical training at Edinburgh, where the most colorful bunch of professors this side of Hogwarts exposed him to their powers of deduction, zeal for forensics and enthusiasm for cocaine.

---

( Goudge and Rowling - spoilers for A LITTLE WHITE HORSE )

Another thing I've recently realized is that, because my work has included paying attention to contemporary kidlit, I tend to forget that many other adults my age - particularly those who aren't parents - don't realize how sophisticated and wide-ranging its genres have become. So, for instance, someone who hasn't encountered Debi Gliori or Herbie Brennan or Jane Langton or Cynthia Kadohata or E. L. Konigsburg or Lemony Snicket or Nancy Willard might well hail Rowling as the first children's writer they've encountered whose characters are darker and more complex/ambiguous than the ones they remember from grade school. I'm not saying that JKR's characters aren't awesome, but what's niggling at me is more a sense that other writers aren't getting enough credit from the general public because they;re too rarely heard about unless the word "scrotum" shows up in the first chapter. [ETA: ...inspiring The Newbery Jewels, among other things.]

Speaking of which, Roger Sutton introduced "a first-class list of out-n-proud GLBTQ-and-sometimes-Y fiction" with the words "Who needs old closet case Dumbledore..." (go read the post - he mentions Susan Cooper and other authors as well, and there are additional recs in the comments). ...Roger's earlier comments on the brouhaha pretty much mirror my own reaction towards anything Rowling says these days - it's entertaining, but until she puts it into a book, it ain't canon as far as I'm concerned. Or, to quote another comment of his,

I don't think authors need stay home and shut up (well, I guess I could give some examples of some who should but I'm saving them for my memoirs) but I would like them to recognize that, when it comes to commentary on their own work, they don't get to make claims that aren't borne out by the text. [...]No points, either, for something "my editor made me take out." Which is why the heroine of the book not known as Tomorrow is Another Day is not known as Pansy O'Hara.

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I hadn't seen the Maclean's review of The Seeker before now. I am charmed, especially since it's the first direct attribution I've seen of Cooper's reaction to the movie. It also mentions that when Cooper offered her papers to the director of the Toronto Public Library's Osborne Collection, during a ride to the airport, the director "gave me the greatest compliment I ever had as a writer. She ran into the curb."

Also, I haven't read these yet, but the Horn Book has reposted some essays Cooper wrote for them (on Tolkien and others), apparently for a limited time. If you scroll down, there are additional articles by Lloyd Alexander, Laurence Yep, and others.

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This entry has gotten out of control. I'm going to resort to quotes-only Yuletide recs so I can go on to what I meant to be be doing after the NYTBR distracted me. *g*
( three more that stood out for me )

Title: The Hounding of the Baskervilles
For: almost_clara, for snupin_santa 2006. She requested "a ripping yarn, please, suitable for reading by the fire, with the rain lashing the windows and a plate of hot, buttered teacakes to hand. . .think Hound of the Baskervilles, the Great Grimpen Mire." She also indicated that "vigorous/sparkly/outspoken/awkward Tonks/Black/McGonagall/house elves/squid" would not be unwelcome.
Borrowings and allusions: J. K. Rowling, Arthur Conan Doyle, A. A. Milne, Dorothy L. Sayers, Monty Python, Jane Austen, P. G. Wodehouse, Terry Pratchett, John Fletcher, busaikko, and almost_clara herself. The resemblance to almost_clara's list of interests is not coincidental (you have no idea how near I was to committing Luna/Yoda).
Summary: Sinister games are afoot in Devon. Can Snape, Lupin, and Tonks detect who's playing before it's too late?
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Non-graphic hints/mentions of suicide, incest, adultery, and cross-generational intimate relations
Total wordcount: 18,500+
The bestest betas: aunty_marion and busaikko


( Chapter 1 )