lixia84 - You were so, so right about Painting Mona Lisa by Jeanne Kalogridis. OMG I think that's the biggest Mary-Sue I've ever read in professional mainstream fiction o_O ( Read more... )

I was just scrolling through LJ and the Yuletide stories of the day popped up and I was amused by the fact that I'd managed to post my last two fics back to back, when all of a sudden I saw that some kind, wonderful person (misura) had written me not one but TWO Yanagisawa/Hoshina stories for NYR. I was literally about to finish my coffee and make dinner ( Read more... )

Anna (easonfan), Clara and Winnie have arrived and are on their way to Earl's Court, and thence will battle jetlag and London fog and general English craziness to go to the British Museum etc ( Read more... )

Reading something last night set in Babylon, 323 BC.

- one of the (male, Persian) characters wears a sari. It's described as having a waistband. It's made of silk.
- the Macedonians wear togas.
- the Persian character sings in Latin.

Excuse me while I go out and shoot the author.

(and yes, this was published - it's not one of the slushpile...)

I've spent the past hour making chicken curry for tomorrow. When I tasted the sauce, I thought, 'Wow, this really lacks something, that garam masala we got in New Zealand must be rubbish' and so I added some more along with more cinnamon, stirred it around and let it cook another five minutes ( Read more... )

You know, I'm pretty certain that Koreans don't have skin the colour of 'iced mocha'. And I don't think their genitalia would be ginger-coloured, either. But an interesting taste combination, I'm sure.

The new owner of the bar next door came round last night to introduce herself. "I'm not being snobby," she said, "but I want to turn it around. It's got such a bad reputation as the drugs place and I don't want that ( Read more... )