By Slanted Light

I took a break from reading challenges (actually I'm going to call them games from now on - I don't need to be challenged in reading. I read for fun and I already read alot, whenever I can and want to. *g*), but I think maybe this year I'm up for playing again. Let's see, anyway! I might even try to combine this one with a Mount To-Be-Read type game, just for myself, because the tops of my bookcases are completely lined with books waiting to be read. Even the new ones. *vbg*


It's Lj Book Bingo if anyone else fancies playing along... *g*

Thank you fiorenza_a who suggested the theme of water for the first week of my 365 project (which is where I post at least one picture a day, for 365 days... *g*) Trouble is - it rained today, and I was going to go out, but actually... So not a very exciting first photo, but it is a photo! It's a start! In other news:

Reading - The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver (for book group next Thursday.) I wasn't sure at first, but 100 pages in I'm happy to keep going and find out what happens. *g* It's set in the Congo, which makes me think maybe I should find one of those travel-the-world reading challenges, this year!

Fanfic
Meg Lewtan's Bird in a Gilded Cage beside my bed, but I've remembered what happens in general, and sort of stalled. Read the first story in O. Yardley's Septet zine last night (technically very early this morning!) - nice enough - and I may read the next one tonight, which is a sequel to Two Lovers. Except that I wasn't keen on Two Lovers, it sounded more like O. Yardley than our lads, imnsho, so I might skip it to the next story in the zine... We'll see. *g*

Writing
Erk - a bit of helpful research this morning, does that count?

Telly
Missed the beginning of Dickensian cos I was making fudge, but the rest was still good. Sherlock was a bit more good - anyone else watch?! If I'd thought about expecting something, that wouldn't have been it... *g*

How're you doing, this first day of 2016 (well, second I expect, by the time I hit post and you read this...)?

It's been a weird day. Fab morning and eclipse, and I thought I'd take a drive through the gorgeous spring day to the supermarket to clear my headache, and that was nice, but after that it all went downhill, cos my headache got worse not better, and I'm going to have to finish work tomorrow now, which is just what I didn't want, and... and you know what? My headache's mostly gone now... *headdesk* And I napped earlier (which also didn't get rid of my headache) so I'm quite awake... which means reading in bed. *g* And it's after midnight on the 21st March, so that also means it's time for the Once Upon A Time IX reading challenge... *g*
I had a go at this last year and rather enjoyed it, so I thought I might join in the 2015 reading challenge too. It's hosted over at Stainless Steel Droppings: Saturday, March 21st marks the official start date of the ninth annual Once Upon a Time Challenge. This is a reading and viewing and gaming event that encompasses four broad categories: Fairy Tale, Folklore, Fantasy and Mythology, including the seemingly countless sub-genres and blending of genres that fall within this spectrum. The challenge continues through June 21st .

I'm going to have a go (as last year) at:In this quest you will be reading 4 books total: one fantasy, one folklore, one fairy tale, and one mythology.

There's a short story quest, and a screen quest too, which I might also join in - we'll see how organised I can be - I tend to struggle a bit with short stories, but I'm feeling quite optimistic about them right now, so... I thought I was all forward-planning too, because I have books on my shelf that I thought would fit the challenge nicely - except that I haven't matched up the categories yet, so I rather think I'm going to be off hunting bookshops and library shelves at some point after all. Yeay. *g* And it feels like ages since I watched a decent fantasy film, so I shall look out for one of those, too.

I should be working - I will be working, any time now. When I've had my shower. This is the trouble with working until one in the morning and getting up late with tired eyes... But - one of the reasons I was working until one in the morning was that last night was book group, and we talked about The Song of Achilles. When I say talked about, we go around and each say what we thought of the book, and then it's over to the table for a pub dinner, all interspersed with much other chat. So on the one hand - waah, I'd like to talk more about the books, and eep I'm no good at that kind of small talk when I don't know people, but on the other hand everyone's nice, and it's friendly, so all good. But last night...

...there was a worlds-almost-collide moment when we were talking about the book, which involves the love affair between Achilles and Patroclus, and one of the members said that she thought it was just amazingly clever that the woman author could write so well about what it would be like for two men to be in love, imagining the feelings and textures and so on - and I bet you can guess what I was thinking about! *g* Oh, I wanted to give her piles upon piles of fic to read - how can she not know that women are not only perfectly capable of that kind of imagining, but are brilliant at it and love doing it?! But that's the thing - you forget that we're (slashers and fandomers) not the common majority, that people don't just ordinarily even know that it's out there, never mind accept, never mind love it... I had a surreptitious look around the table to see where everyone else's eyes were, and I reckon there might be a couple of people who were thinking similar thoughts - but who knows, and I'm not sure I'll be able to broach the idea, or at least not for a good long while when I've got to know them better!

The other worlds-collide-ish moment was when I was reading over coffee this morning. I'm on The Independence of Mary Bennet, which is a Pride and Prejudice sequel by Colleen McCullough that I picked up in the library because I'd been looking for Victorian stories, and remembered liking her books years and years ago. I'm nearly halfway through (don't tell me what happens! *g*) and eep! - d'you know what I realised it reminded me off? Fanfic by Jane! Not that it's at all slash or anything, but I really do feel that McCullough is using her story to teach me what life was like in Victorian England at the time, and when I got to a bit in brackets that read a guinea was worth slightly more than a pound, having twenty-one shillings to it rather than twenty I just had to *headdesk* You can't say that in a fiction book set at the time! What person alive right now, who has been using it all their 38-year-old life, is thinking of how much money they've got and pauses to explain to themselves how the system of currency works?! Such an authorial insertion! That's a very extreme example, but she's been doing things like that all through, and I'm not convinced about the characters at all - they've almost all changed briefly at some point to suddenly become insufferably wise when previously they've just been ordinary, and the heroine is growing in beauty and goodness all the time... She's writing fanfic - and she's writing bad fanfic, and being paid for it, because she's got a name! *grumps* Okay, I'm more amused than grumpy really, but there's a bit of me that *grumps* about how it's okay for some people to write fanfic because it's not being called fanfic because people who write fanfic are odd, and they're "proper authors"...

Anyway - that's my Friday so far, and the sun's shining and I also woke up to some absolutely lovely feedback from someone about my Two stories which just made me smiiiiiiile when I've been thinking for the last week or so that I can't write a thing that's readable, and I'm starting to feel a bit more awake now, so... How're you doing, this fine February morning? *g*