Other Writing – Page 50 – Everything Is Better With Dragons

Why would you boast about that? Or, admitting you have never read a book is not clever

I was at the day job yesterday, casually writing a short story on my break, when I was accosted by one of my co-workers wanting to know why I only worked weekends now and what was I writing. Apart from the great impertinence, although I suspect it was her way of making conversation, I couldn’t really see why I shouldn’t tell her the truth: I’m working part time to fund my reviewing habit, since nobody’s paying me in anything but books at the minute. She then asked about my writing, which is fair enough, but then she shocked me by admitting that she’d never read a book.

I asked why?

Continue reading “Why would you boast about that? Or, admitting you have never read a book is not clever”

Bob Jovi and Bond themes

This was the next band that came on, there name is, er, I don’t know, they haven’t said. But the keyboardist is one of the RMQA’s at my day job.

It took them some time to warm up and they had some technical problems with the drums, but once they hit their stride they were enjoyable to listen to. Even if they are bit ‘pop’ for me.

It’s started raining.

Rose

[I freezing, and soaked, but it’s stopped raining!]

I-fest; or Immingham attempts to rock

And it doesn’t do to badly either.

So far The League of Mental Men have entertained us with covers from a variety of bands, including Papa Roach, Guns n Roses, My Chemical Romance, The Foo Fighters and The Darkness. They’re apparently really popular in the local pubs and I can see why; the singer is fairly good. He manages to hit the notes 95% of the time (he’s not no Dave Grohl but he’ll do for Immingham) and the musicians are competent.

They were enjoyed by the whole crowd, even my sister who’s leery about this sort of music.

Back soon with a review of the next band. Provided my phone plays nice and I don’t lose the network again.

Rose

It’s Saturday afternoon, I have unlimited internet access right now

Therefore there will be science spam.

I apologise to my followers who are here for the music and books, but sometimes the scientist in me likes to come out to play. Thus the preceding posts. I’m a geek with all my black little heart (if you get the film reference, bonus points).

Bye bye

Rose

Woop! Jane Austen’s going on the new £10 note (in 2017)!

According to the BBC, the Bank of England announced that Jane Austen’s illustrious features would grace the new £10 note. In addition there will also be an illustration of various places associated with Miss Austen and a quote from her most famous novel ‘Pride and Prejudice’.

I’m very tempted to keep the first one I get. I also hear that Shakespeare will be on one of the new notes as well.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-23424289

I forgot to add

On top of this pile of books I will also be reading and reviewing four more e-books for
http://www.everythingbooksandauthors.com.

I like to be busy it seems, especially since I also need to finish a college course before the end of the month as well. I question my sanity at times.

And then I remember, yes I am cracking up, that’s what the medication is for, and stop worrying about it.

Bye, again,

Rose

Now my working week is over

I have a pile of books from the library, and as I’m not doing any overtime this coming week I should be able to make some progress through them.

I’ve almost finished Corey Taylor’s new book and then I’ll be working my way through the following:

This is the second book in the ‘Wave Trilogy’; I read and reviewed the first book a couple of months ago and have been waiting patiently for it. In fact I’d forgotten I’d ordered it from the library until they rang me to say it had arrived. I’ve had a lot on, I forget things.

Next up (I’ve already started reading it) we see a fine example of my inner geek escaping.

It’s really interesting; there’s so much I’ve forgotten but as I read things are coming back to me.

This is a collection of short stories called Darker Minds. I’ve read one at random so far; it haunts me. I’m going to try to read more.

New Neil Gaimen book. I may have to buy myself a copy.

And finally (this one actually belongs to me so no time limit in getting it read, it may be a while):

I loved ‘The Long Earth’ when I read it last year and so when I had the opportunity to get both of the books I did (birthday presents!). I might reread ‘The Long Earth’, now I think about it. I like the characters and the concept. Wouldn’t it be great to be able to cross to a world that was completely different, it would certainly give a new meaning to ‘getting away from it all’.

Although I’d probably go and not come back. So long as I had a power supply, internet access, notebooks, pens and a delivery of new books every week or so I’d probably be happy.

Time to settle down with a book, hope everyone has had a good weekend,

Bye for now,

Rose

Currently reading in the Sun

After reading and reviewing the first Thursday Next novel I found the most recent, last year’s ‘The Woman Who Died A Lot’, in the library this morning.

Set nineteen years after ‘The Eyre Affair’, the now 54 year old Thursday is semi-retired and living in the country with her husband Landon, son Friday and mad scientist daughter Tuesday.

It’s quite enjoyable so far.

Fanfic: a whole world in a PDF document

What a lovely day, I’m sweltering; I hope all my lovely readers are well and enjoying the weekend?

Ladies and gentlemen, I have a question for you all.

Who reads fan fiction (or fanfic, or just plain fic)?

Hands up if you have or do.

Next question,

Hands up if you’ve ever written fanfic?

And the most important question of all,

Why?

Swear down I’m not judging, I’m just interested. Want to know why? Simple really, I was having a read through Twitter and someone from one of the bands I follow mentioned they were the subject of fanfic. I was torn between laughing, tweeting them to say serves them right for reading fic about themselves (but that might have seemed negative towards fanfic writers) and explaining the warnings and categories used in fan fiction writing.

Here we have a fine example of how my brain works.

This, and the fact that Ellie and I spent an evening at Download explaining to Mark-the-tent-lodger the concept of fic, and associated abbreviations (do you know your OTP from your BROTP, NC-17 from dub-con?), led me to wonder just how widespread the phenomena is?

I first came across the concept of fanfic about two years ago, before that I didn’t know it existed. Now I know that several of my friends not only read, but also write fanfic. There’s a whole community of writers out there who mainly or only write fan fiction. It’s a fascinating world.

I’m told it’s origins lie in the mists of time, when Star Trek first appeared. Since then this creature has spread into literature, music and films, as well as a huge variety of television shows. Some concern real people and some fictional characters; however all treat them as stock characters in a story. Some even cross over e.g. the other day I read a fic in which the characters of the BBC Sherlock met NBC’s Hannibal. They can be ‘canon’, that is, fit into the existing storyline, or AU, in which anyone can be anywhere, anywhen or anything, provided they stay essentially true to the character.

Fan fiction has it’s own dedicated websites and online forums and groups. Fanfiction.net was the first I ever looked at, when I was reading ‘True Blood/Southern Vampire Mysteries’ fics. There’s an excellent series called ‘Oh no! Vampire Bill!’ that’s basically 1001 different ways to kill the most irritating character in the TV programme/books. Kept me entertained for days. Then I was directed to certain groups on Live Journal which specialise in real-person fics. The problem with both fanfic.net and live journal is that there is very little editing, although some groups have formatting rules. Also, it isn’t that easy to search at times.

Recently a new website, archiveofourown.org has become the place to find all your fanfic. Specifically designed to provide an easily searchable standard format for new stories, and an archive for older work, it is now becoming quite popular. Fairly regularly one finds links to both the writers’ Live Journal or other website, and AO3 posting of a fic. The tagging system can be awkward at times, but if you have an idea of what you’re looking for it is possible to find fics accurately, as there is a comprehensive search system, and the fics can usually he downloaded in a variety of formats. As well as that, series and chapters are linked together so it’s fairly easy to check for updates.

I don’t know about anyone else but I read fanfic because it’s fun, and a good story is a good story. I’ve read some right stinkers, some that need a bit of work, and some that need professional publishing. Now. Fanfics based on literature and films/television allow fans to immerse themselves in the universe of the originals in a creative way.

I suppose the real difficultly, for me at least, comes when real people are being written about. Yes, it’s fun making up stories about people you admire or inspire you, but how far can it be taken? Personally I feel that if we acknowledge the fics aren’t real, and that the people in them are ‘stock characters’ then it’s acceptable. Fics allow fans to explore fantasies, put their heroes in unreal situations and see what happens. So long as it remains a story and nobody thinks it’s real every thing is fine.

And if you’re daft enough to look for fanfic about yourself, you have been warned; run away quickly for you are heading into dangerous waters.

Generally speaking writers will tag their fics with a variety of codes, which are confusing if you’ve never seen them, but once understand become a second language. They will also tag any possible triggers, since fics quite often deal with mental illness, abuse, self-harm, suicide etc.

Fanfic readers also talk in code. I can’t decide whether the purpose is to unite fans or hide our guilty pleasure. For instance, when asked who you’re OTP is, you are being asked which romantic couple you like the most. The phrase ‘I ship it’ means ‘I love that…’, and abbreviations for romantic pairings can be entertaining.

So, that’s fanfic, I’d be interested to hear other people’s opinions on the subject.

And yes, occasionally I write fic, but I’m not telling you what about or where to find them. That’s between me and my co-conspiritors.

Good evening,

Rose

Thoughts that occupied my mind last night, Or why are there no werewolf adaptations of ‘Pride & Prejudice’?

After I went to bed last night my mind became occupied with the above question. Don’t ask why, there’s no explaining the bizarre leaps my brain makes sometimes.

I’ve read vampire versions of P&P, zombie adaptations, seen modern film adaptations, and obviously read the original multiple times. I recently heard of modern settings for the story in a crime fiction context. I’ve yet to come across a werewolf version though. Maybe such a book does exist and I’ve missed it?

Any ideas anyone?

So, there I was puzzling over the fact that the recent trend for adapting classics for the ‘supernatural fiction’ section of the book shop had yet to throw up an example. I should have been sleeping. Instead I tried to work out how it would work. I think I might have come up with a workable idea. I’m going to have to see. I might even put a sample chapter on here, if I think it works.

Best be off now,

Bye,

Rose