Of This and Other Worlds

I may be the last person in the world to watch Hornblower, and it's rather different than I'd anticipated. I thought it was an actual TV series with umpty episodes that would take me forever to catch up on -- didn't realize that it was just a few movies. But we're enjoying them very much -- the acting and production values are excellent, and ( some casting talk, not really spoilery ) But the really smitten one is my six-year-old son, who keeps begging for a chance to watch the movies again, and runs around the house with a plastic sword yelling "I'm Horatio!" I'd give it four stars out of five.

My husband and I also just finished the Gormenghast miniseries, and although it all fell apart at the end (much as the books do, alas -- once Titus comes to the fore, the story really loses interest and coherence), it got a lot more right than I'd expected. ( More thoughts, only vaguely spoilery ) Since I'm feeling generous, I'll give it three and a half stars.

On the other hand, I really enjoyed the BBC's just-finished adaptation of Jane Eyre. ( Here's why... ) In short, it's good stuff. Four and a half stars.

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In other news, I heard back from one agent today, politely declining (on the basis of the query only, no writing sample). I wasn't too disappointed, though, because another agent's already asked to see the full manuscript. Since Knife is ahead of schedule at the moment -- I've just finished Chapter Fifteen, with either four or five chapters to go depending on whether I drop the Epilogue -- I'm feeling pretty positive about my writing at present.

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lizbee, you might want to check out Margaret Atwood's last entry in the Wired Magazine Very Short Stories. Squid is the new black, I tell you.

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Finally, after the on-list events of the last twenty-four hours I feel that it is my duty to inform you all that the Mary Russell fandom is a DELICATE HOTHOUSE FLOWER.

From MARS.

It has occurred to me that a few of my flist may be a bit shellshocked by all the Doctor Who raving all of a sudden, and are wondering whether I've completely lost my mind and will ever talk about anything else. To which the answer is:

No. BWAH HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!

Erm, actually that's not quite true. Just expect the DW stuff to be dominant for quite some time to come, because I have loved this show since I was a kid, it was one of the first fandoms I ever wrote fic for (and probably the one in which I've written the most fic, word-count wise -- don't even get me started on the illustrations!), and as you know I'm loving the new series all to pieces.

However, for those of you who couldn't care less about the Who prattle, and are wondering if I will ever get back to the Good Stuff, a brief explanation of where I'm at with regard to my other fandoms:

HP: Waiting for Book VI, like everybody else. Don't feel like speculating any more, even about Snape, until I have the straight goods from JKR Herself.

Alias: Keeping vague tabs on plot goings-on by reading other people's LJs, as am not actually watching the show at present. Understandably somewhat discouraged in my Sweiss leanings at the moment, so not so inclined to write a sequel/second chapter to A Man of His Word the way I'd once thought I might. You never know, though, things could change. Especially if You-Know-Who shows up later in the season as promised (no, not Voldemort).

Lost: Love the show. Have great fun speculating about it. Have developed elaborate theory about the island that I keep meaning to expound upon some day, but haven't got around to it yet. Absolutely no desire to write fic, however. I find the show itself too satisfying, and I'm too interested in the answers that the writers and JJ have to offer, to maintain that feeling of "ooh, I simply must fill in this gap!" that usually inspires plot bunnies.

Sherlock Holmes: Read Locked Rooms and loved it. Looking forward to reading other people's reviews. Still running the RUSS-L list, mostly by approving new members and glancing at the day's digests to make sure nobody is killing each other. Of course, nobody ever is, so it's a pretty low-stress job being ListMom. When was the last time you heard of a mailing list that has run busily for ten years and has hundreds of members, with not one single flamewar in the entire course of its history? This is why I love my Bees. *blows kisses to the Bees* Oh, and I haven't forgot about Case of the Winning Woman, it just requires more research than I have time to do at the moment. (Plus, where does one even start to find out about the terms of Victorian life insurance policies?)

Star Trek: Never again. No, really. I can't see it happening. I just don't care any more.

X-Files: On the other hand, never say never. I still get nostalgic for Mulder and Scully from time to time...

Oops, and almost forgot, which shows where my brain is at:

Kalan Porter: Felt that the Time Had Come to move on. Resigned my quasi-moderatorial status at KP4GU, and my real moderatorial status over at the Red Hot Topic KP board. Occasionally poke my nose in to one board or another to see if there's any really big news, but otherwise, that's about it. Wish him well, though.

Well, wouldn't you know it, our DSL is down for at least 48 hours thanks to a line problem, and that means I have very limited access to the net, since I'm reduced to using dial-up on our downstairs tenant's computer (it's a good thing he's a friend, and generous about letting us use his stuff!).

Also, I'll be gone for two days to BoucherCon to hang out with some of the Bees and have dinner with Laurie King, so even if it does get fixed within the next 48 hours as hoped, I won't be here to enjoy it.

All of which means that you won't be seeing much of me here or anywhere else online until Saturday night. On the other hand, that means I have no more excuse to procrastinate on editing my novel. It's an ill wind, etc.

I have not forgotten the Ask-The-Characters meme I posted a couple of days ago, but it might be another day or two before I can get to it. Yesterday I spent all day working on the Snape Essay, and today I used what little spare time I had to make a store for the Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes mailing list I run, so that the Bees could buy the t-shirts they'd been clamoring for.

Since I know a few of you on my flist are Russell fans, you might want to check it out:

The RUSS-L CafePress Store

All these items are being offered at the base price, by the way -- I'm not making any money off them.

And in honor of the shop opening, a new icon...