updatey
Using my snow icon hopefully; it's cold and clear here, and the snow is cheerfully melting away. I'm planning to go skiing on Friday (every year we buy weekday passes for a nearby resort; during the winter, we ski Fridays and make up the work on Saturdays) so my fingers are crossed that the 70% chance of snow for Thursday night pans out.
I've posted a poll to LJ (only), intended for those who read my journal at that site. However, if you're reading on DW but prefer LJ, please fill it out. (If you're reading at DW and prefer it, no need to respond.)
Speaking of polls, carmarthen and I are planning to gear up for this year's
sutcliff_swap/sutcliff_swap. Expect polls in those communities Real Soon Now for discussing timing preferences; based on last year's wrap-up (and, er, my vacation plans :-) we are planning to move the Swap earlier, but are otherwise fairly flexible.
Speaking of challenges, I'll be running an Eagle Fandom Appreciation Challenge (along the lines of
china_shop's original pan-fandom FAC) over at ninth_eagle beginning next Monday. If you're an Eagle/Eagle of the Ninth fan and want to play, come on over!
Speaking of other challenges, I FINISHED MY FESTIVID ON TIME YAY! Now I get to tap my foot impatiently waiting for golive, which I pronounce like olive with a g in front, because it amuses me. Also, makes me think of olives, yum.
I also just got back beta comments on the next chapter of Eagle Nine and will be posting it soon. Er, as it turns out the next chapter is NOT the last chapter. One more to go, which is about 2/3 written.
I wish these slippers were available in grown-up-people sizes!
Have some original fiction recs:
A Matter of Oaths (link to the author's website where you can download the book in a variety of formats for free). Brought to my attention by
sineala. Space opera with obscure politics, strong smart women, men in a relationship with each other. Basically, Dendari-mercenaries era Vorkosigan-ish, only less heteronormative and less twisty. I enjoyed it, although some of the plot points struck me as a little unlikely, and the whole 'two immortal emperors' thing wasn't adequately explained. I would have liked more worldbuilding (I did appreciate the slow and subtle explanation-by-events, but I wanted more in the endgame), but I was also helplessly attracted by the canon m/m romance and by the kick-ass female commander.
Outlands, original historical-fantasy m/m action/adventure, a novel-length first arc 'Out' (which I read and enjoyed, after converting it to epub format for ease of reading, which you can download here: http://www.mediafire.com/?ze47p6izl6jpdhl), and some stand-alone shorts plus what I thought was an abandoned WIP but turns out to be a much shorter second arc (none of which I've read yet, but plan to). I think this was brought to my attention by
cyphomandra (la la la) and it's an older work (2009-2010), but I hadn't heard of it before. It's a classic fish-out-of-water story: a (closeted gay) Japanese accountant accidentally twists space and time and ends up in a set of alternate dimensions, more or less, that was settled in classical times by Romans, Assyrians, Babylonians, and other peoples who still maintain eponymous territories and a classical culture. Also, there are occasional monsters. But mostly it's a road-trip adventure, in which our accountant travels across this strange historical-fantasy land with an Assyrian warrior, and it turns out brains are as useful as muscle, though in different ways. Some plot holes, some continuity problems, and a whole lot of comma splices, but overall an enjoyable read.
Also posted on Dreamwidth where there are
comments.
I've posted a poll to LJ (only), intended for those who read my journal at that site. However, if you're reading on DW but prefer LJ, please fill it out. (If you're reading at DW and prefer it, no need to respond.)
Speaking of polls, carmarthen and I are planning to gear up for this year's
sutcliff_swap/sutcliff_swap. Expect polls in those communities Real Soon Now for discussing timing preferences; based on last year's wrap-up (and, er, my vacation plans :-) we are planning to move the Swap earlier, but are otherwise fairly flexible.
Speaking of challenges, I'll be running an Eagle Fandom Appreciation Challenge (along the lines of
china_shop's original pan-fandom FAC) over at ninth_eagle beginning next Monday. If you're an Eagle/Eagle of the Ninth fan and want to play, come on over!
Speaking of other challenges, I FINISHED MY FESTIVID ON TIME YAY! Now I get to tap my foot impatiently waiting for golive, which I pronounce like olive with a g in front, because it amuses me. Also, makes me think of olives, yum.
I also just got back beta comments on the next chapter of Eagle Nine and will be posting it soon. Er, as it turns out the next chapter is NOT the last chapter. One more to go, which is about 2/3 written.
I wish these slippers were available in grown-up-people sizes!
Have some original fiction recs:
A Matter of Oaths (link to the author's website where you can download the book in a variety of formats for free). Brought to my attention by
sineala. Space opera with obscure politics, strong smart women, men in a relationship with each other. Basically, Dendari-mercenaries era Vorkosigan-ish, only less heteronormative and less twisty. I enjoyed it, although some of the plot points struck me as a little unlikely, and the whole 'two immortal emperors' thing wasn't adequately explained. I would have liked more worldbuilding (I did appreciate the slow and subtle explanation-by-events, but I wanted more in the endgame), but I was also helplessly attracted by the canon m/m romance and by the kick-ass female commander.
Outlands, original historical-fantasy m/m action/adventure, a novel-length first arc 'Out' (which I read and enjoyed, after converting it to epub format for ease of reading, which you can download here: http://www.mediafire.com/?ze47p6izl6jpdhl), and some stand-alone shorts plus what I thought was an abandoned WIP but turns out to be a much shorter second arc (none of which I've read yet, but plan to). I think this was brought to my attention by
cyphomandra (la la la) and it's an older work (2009-2010), but I hadn't heard of it before. It's a classic fish-out-of-water story: a (closeted gay) Japanese accountant accidentally twists space and time and ends up in a set of alternate dimensions, more or less, that was settled in classical times by Romans, Assyrians, Babylonians, and other peoples who still maintain eponymous territories and a classical culture. Also, there are occasional monsters. But mostly it's a road-trip adventure, in which our accountant travels across this strange historical-fantasy land with an Assyrian warrior, and it turns out brains are as useful as muscle, though in different ways. Some plot holes, some continuity problems, and a whole lot of comma splices, but overall an enjoyable read.
Also posted on Dreamwidth where there are
comments.