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A 100 Word Drabble: What does the Mouse See -- This was a gift to me for Yuletide. Beauty and the Beast TV Show (late 1980s). A lot said in 100 words.

This is going to be updated as I fill more squares on the card.

I haven't been around LJ much lately because I was having trouble getting to it on my home computer. It's doing fine right now, so I don't know what was up or where the fault lay.

I also haven't been around because I saw Kingsman: The Secret Service. Multiple times. I loved the movie on so very many levels, but especially all the shout outs from Michael Caine once again wearing Harry Palmer's glasses to entering through a tailor shop a la Man from UNCLE to referencing individual Bond films and Get Smart.

And I sort of got sucked into the fandom. How sucked in? I've written a fanfic series in under two months (begun on 2/23) which has more words than The Great Gatsby. *shakes head* The last time I wrote something that length -- actually, 20,000 words shorter than I've hit to date -- it took me six months of sweat.

And because I'm writing mental backstories for characters, I've been trying to determine what kinds of music they listen to. One of them is a jazz aficionado, and I've been trying to include some of the jazz he would have heard on British radio in the 1970s which led me to Dudley Moore.

In the early 1980s, I started listening to his music from the 1960s and 70s including pieces he'd written (Sooz Blooz is one of my favorites). My folks told me about seeing him in Play it Again, Sam in the West End when we were living in London and going to hear his trio at a club.

He went to Oxford on an organ scholarship and earned his spending money by playing with Johnny Dankworth's group backing Cleo Laine. I can't imagine being proficient enough at 18 to play with one of the premier jazz men Britain's produced and one of the greatest jazz singers of all time. I do remember hitting a shop in Dupont Circle which carried foreign magazines and vinyl records (before there was anything besides vinyl). As I was buying my Manchester Guardian Weekly and a copy of Marie Claire (which was exclusively a French publication at that juncture), I saw a new album being promoted called Smilin' Through and bought it on the spot. Dudley Moore and Cleo Laine recording together for the first time. It's a lovely album with some real high spots.

At the same time, Jonathan Miller had a series on PBS called The Body in Question. I'd developed a completely separate crush on Dr. Miller when I caught a Canadian series on Cities. People who'd been born and reared in a great city, talked about the changes they'd seen, the social context of their background and how it was reflected in the city, and showed off the gems that most people, especially tourists, don't hear about. The four episodes I managed to see were Dr. Miller on London, Germaine Greer on Sydney, Hildegard Knef on Berlin (still a divided city when it was filmed, and she'd been a teen there during WWII), and R.D. Laing on Glasgow. It got me reading Greer and Laing. Miller's episode introduced me to Sir John Soane's Museum, one of my favorite places in London.

Anyway, in the episode of The Body in Question dealing with the nervous system, Miller used Dudley Moore playing classical music to explain how we are able to memorize things physically. I found it today on YouTube, so I wanted to share.


Also, Dudley Moore playing with his trio on Australian Television in the early 1970s.


PS if anyone ever finds a link to the Cities series (or a way to buy it), please share. I've long wanted to see the other episodes.

Yuletide 2013

Dear Yuletide Writer:

Once again, I was a very good girl and posted lots of smut on the internet. I know sign-ups haven't officially opened yet, but I wanted to get started.

The fandoms below are fandoms of the heart.

Peale Family RPF: Please see Rembrandt Peele’s portrait of Rubens Peele with geranium -- (rating through Mature, please see the hard line squick mentioned below)

I look at this painting and see brothers who love each other (not in the Petrelli or Winchester sense. That's a hard squick for me with this pairing.). Rubens is about 17 in the painting; the painter, Rembrandt is older by about 6 years. The geranium may be the first one grown from seed in the nascent United States. Honestly, I don't care if the story is from the geranium's point of view or if it's Rubens thoughts as he sits -- he was described as the family model since he didn't learn to paint until he was in his 40s -- or Rembrandt's point of view. He was already a famous portraitist. He'd painted George Washington when he was only 16 and Washington was late in his presidency, so this isn't an advertisement of his abilities. If you throw in their father or their other siblings, that would be fine, too. I just want a story focused on a painting I love and the fraternal relationship it portrays.

Now You See Me – (any rating including Explicit with the caveats below)
I’m a huge fan of the dynamics for The Four Horsemen and wish we’d seen more in the movie. How did the Four Horsemen go from 4 separate “acts” to the kind of big act we see them doing in Las Vegas, New Orleans, and 5 Pointz? Planning details, rehearsals, deciphering the schematics, learning to work together, personality clashes (or surprises where they don’t clash), learning each others techniques(?), etc. An outside-looking-in story from the support team behind the scenes at the shows would be good. What was the significance of the tarot cards they were given (Lovers, Death, Hermit, and Priestess)? Or how did they spend their time in Paris planting the idea in Etienne for Vegas? I don’t particularly like the character of Dylan Rhodes, but I’m fine with a prequel to the movie that shows the characters from his POV – why he thinks these four are worthy for the Eye or why they could become The Four Horsemen. Thaddeus, Arthur or Alma's POV might be interesting, especially if they've heard of or seen them before the first show. I love porn, but Gen is fine. Daniel/Henley endgame is good. No Merritt/Henley, but I have no objection to Jack/Henley as a diversion. I could even see some casual slash with Daniel/Jack or a Daniel/Henley/Jack threesome. If you want to use the extended version of the movie or incorporate some of the deleted scenes -- including the alternate ending in the desert -- I'm fine with that. I'm also all right with future fic, but missing year stories are what I'm jonesing for.

Hellspark! by Janet Kagan -- (Any rating EXCEPT explicit) I want a post-book story about Tocohl as a Byworld Judge. If Om im has already joined her as a judge's aide, all the better. If it involves Buntec, Edge-of-Dark, Tinling Alfvaen, or even "Old Rattlebrain," that's all to the good. I loved the festival of Saint Veshke -- and it's implied that there's always a need for Byworld Judges there -- but I could also see another story set on Flashfever dealing with the sprookjes and their off-world trading.

Beauty and the Beast (1987 TV Series) -- (any rating through Explicit. Hard squicks include humiliations, scat, blood play, watersports, non-consensual sex as more than a passing mention (e.g. mentioning an assault in a character's past).)

Elliott Burch. I'd love something about his relationship with Vincent after Catherine's death, but I'd also love anything that deals with how Catherine changed him. It's a profound change, and it's shown over the three seasons. I love this character. An interaction between Burch and the World Below would be especially pleasing.

I would also be happy with a season 1/season 2 type story centered around the World Below and Vincent's relationship with Catherine. I love Pascal, Mouse, Samantha, and Father and love reading about Paracelsus. In the World Above, I love Joe Maxwell and Catherine's father in addition to Elliott. I'm happy with just about anything in this fandom.

Mr. Calder and Mr. Behrens -- Michael Gilbert (Teen or Mature -- no sex)

I want another of their adventures, with or without Rasselas. My favorite of all the stories is "The Decline and Fall of Mr. Behrens" with it's line "Few people fight dirtier than an aroused establishment" and his fighting very dirty indeed when he's angry. I love Rasselas. I like Mr. Fortescue. The Dilly Club would be a nice inclusion. There's something so comforting about their brand of British ruthlessness.


Thank you for writing for me and participating in Yuletide. There's so much squee!

I have Mondays December 24 and 31 off, which was just vouchsafed me today!

Also, I have fulfilled my assignment for yuletide and completed all six seven eight of my pinch-hits. I think it will be a good year.

I knew I might get a nomination or two because I was contacted about whether I wanted to participate, but I didn't know the nominations were up or the voting had started.

So.

Even though I only started writing in this fandom this year, I'm not up for best new author. I am up for best overall author. Which is both deeply cool and a little frightening. This is only my third time being nominated for any of my work (the others were in Stargate fandom), so an overall nomination is a big deal for me.

My two individual fics are both porn, more or less.
Taking the Lead is Slash, FRAO, but it's nominated for best case fic, which is really gratifying. I put a great deal of thought into the case.

The other just made it in under the deadline as I posted it a few minutes before midnight on New Year's Eve. It's called New Year (what can I say? I suck at titles.) and is a Het, FRAO story. Reid/Emily character based, for those who are interested.

Voting is open here at cmfanficawards.

This is so cool.

Fanfiction is part of my life. I have fandom friends, most of whom I met through reading and or betaing their fic and many of whom I follow on LJ.

I love learning more about these authors, and I feel privileged to call many of them friends.

But I hate reading fanfiction on LJ. It never occurred to me that LJ would be the biggest source for fanfiction.

I came to fanfic relatively late in the game. 'Zines were never my primary source for them. I own a couple in obscure fandoms that haven't been covered by Foresmutters or other projects to bring them to the net. I started with the UCSL list (Unconventional Relationshippers in the Buffy fandom). Lists are fine. But they are intensive for writers and can be so for readers.

I am no longer on several lists or maintain my presence merely for posting rights thanks to internal wars among participants. There is one person whose mere presence on a list has caused me to go dark on-list from that point forward because she has fouled the nest of every single list she's touched. And yet, most of my fellow readers and writers think she's a wonderful human being who only defends her most beloved authors.

When the Smallville fandom was cranking up, somewhere around the second episode a slashdom.com community was set up with automatic story upload. I thought I'd found heaven. I can go to that site (or Alphagate for Stargate) and find authors whose stories have touched me. I can search by pairing. I can ask for a random story and maybe find someone new to read.

These halcyon days didn't last long. LJ was coming up on the radar, and people started posting their own stuff in their own journals. Tags have made searching for stories easier, of course, but the simple mechanisms in place at story sites just aren't possible at either individual blogs or even most communities. It is virtually impossible to search LJ for new stories. I am an observer or participant in many communities that I never post in merely to be able to occasionally read stories that interest me.

I love the little niceties of fanfiction fandom. oxoniensis runs two comment length porn battles per year. I often find myself participating in fandoms that had never occurred to me. yuletide was introduced to me a couple of years ago, and I will be a participant this year. I did last year's Heroes big bang, and am kicking myself for missing this year's Criminal Minds one.

But, in general, I think LJ fragments the fandoms. It's great for finding your tribe if you're into something terribly obscure or way off the beaten path.

It can be stultifying too. If you're only interacting with your tribe, the ones who only write your favorite pairing your favorite way, the stories themselves can become cliche. Fanon slowly edges out canon, or authors complain of having been jossed out of their favorite AU. It will happen anyway, but I think open posting websites are far better overall for good writing than LJ is.

If anyone is interested in reading my stuff, riverfox has been kind enough to give me space at her website which holds almost every fanfiction story I've ever written. (There are several stories I wrote for a challenge list that I lost when my hard drive fried. Since the list and the website died, I no longer have those stories anywhere.) Many of them are slash, even more of them are porn. I really don't expect most of my friends list to be interested in it.

The website can be found here for anyone who is interested. The ratings are right. If you don't want explicit, don't read FRAO or NC-17. If slash bothers you, back away slowly from the male/male pairings.