on my soapbox, yelling into megaphones
Last night I dreamt that I was at a family wedding, and Ethan Hawke was in attendance. My brother had apparently been friends with him at some point long in the past? But Ethan Hawke was having none of that. Also he wore a Hunter College hoodie and a leather jacket to a wedding. WTF?
Also at the wedding,
mara, so I got to meet her and her kids, which was nice. Maybe some day we will meet in reality. *g*
Then I woke up and it was 5:45 am and I couldn't get back to sleep, so I got up, did some editing, scrubbed the toilet, read some fic, and went back to bed around 8, and got another couple hours of sleep. (I went to bed around 1:30, so four hours wasn't really enough.)
*
I guess it's yuletide nominations time again. I'm always sort of vague on this portion of the program, but the only things I want to be really sure get nominated are Hanna, Blue Beetle (v3) and Middleman. The former two because those are two of my requests, and the latter because I always enjoy writing it. I feel like everything else I want is probably going to be taken care of by someone else. I'll have to look over my original list of requests. I am still waffling over whether to include the Snow/Talia one or to ask for something else.
*
So I read A Summer to Remember by Mary Balogh, as recommended by hesychasm, and I really liked it a lot. I liked the slow growth of Kit and Lauren's relationship, I liked how nobody in his family was actually a villain - they were just people who loved each other a lot and made some poor decisions trying to show it. I especially liked how Kit came to understand that Lauren needed to be able to choose him, to know that she could be alone if she wanted to, or if she had to, and that she wanted him more than that. And his reconciliation with his brother made me cry. I've found Balogh is really good at those kinds of scenes. So I would recommend this one, if you're looking for a quick Regency read.
I then started Soulless by Gail Carriger, which is a Regency with werewolves and vampires in, and I'm enjoying it, but someone please tell me the editing gets better. I'm only 3% in (no page numbers for this one, which is frustrating), and already she's used "may" when it should have been "might"1, which is a pet peeve of mine, and also she used "desultory" wrong2 (I think she meant "derogatory"). These are the kinds of things that make me grit my teeth in fic, but fic is free and nobody makes you have a beta (and nobody can assure that your beta(s) actually knows what she's doing), but this is a published book, for which I have paid money. I expect better. I'm not talking typos or the occasional punctuation glitch you get in published books. These two things were just flat-out wrong and should have been caught by an editor.
--
1 Scottish he may be by birth, but that only made him better equipped to deal with strong-willed females. (location 201 of 15973) - this is one occasion where might is right. In this case, it's a simple tense issue and it really grates my cheese that the wrong usage is suddenly so prevalent.
2 Professor Lyall had a well-developed sense of self-preservation and the distinct feeling that if he said anything desultory about the young lady's appearance, he might actually get his head bitten off. (location 326 of 15973)
desultory
1
: marked by lack of definite plan, regularity, or purpose [a dragged-out ordeal of…desultory shopping - Herman Wouk]
2
: not connected with the main subject
3
: disappointing in progress, performance, or quality [a desultory fifth place finish] [a desultory wine]
I guess you could make a case for the third definition, but I don't think it really works. Words mean things! you can't just change that willy-nilly, despite what humpty-dumpty would like you to think! (don't even get me started on how suddenly so many people use nonplussed to mean the opposite of what it actually means.)
Protip, writers: don't use words if you don't know what they mean. If you don't know what they mean, look them up.
*
This entry at DW: http://musesfool.dreamwidth.org/369624.html.
people have commented there.
Also at the wedding,
mara, so I got to meet her and her kids, which was nice. Maybe some day we will meet in reality. *g*
Then I woke up and it was 5:45 am and I couldn't get back to sleep, so I got up, did some editing, scrubbed the toilet, read some fic, and went back to bed around 8, and got another couple hours of sleep. (I went to bed around 1:30, so four hours wasn't really enough.)
*
I guess it's yuletide nominations time again. I'm always sort of vague on this portion of the program, but the only things I want to be really sure get nominated are Hanna, Blue Beetle (v3) and Middleman. The former two because those are two of my requests, and the latter because I always enjoy writing it. I feel like everything else I want is probably going to be taken care of by someone else. I'll have to look over my original list of requests. I am still waffling over whether to include the Snow/Talia one or to ask for something else.
*
So I read A Summer to Remember by Mary Balogh, as recommended by hesychasm, and I really liked it a lot. I liked the slow growth of Kit and Lauren's relationship, I liked how nobody in his family was actually a villain - they were just people who loved each other a lot and made some poor decisions trying to show it. I especially liked how Kit came to understand that Lauren needed to be able to choose him, to know that she could be alone if she wanted to, or if she had to, and that she wanted him more than that. And his reconciliation with his brother made me cry. I've found Balogh is really good at those kinds of scenes. So I would recommend this one, if you're looking for a quick Regency read.
I then started Soulless by Gail Carriger, which is a Regency with werewolves and vampires in, and I'm enjoying it, but someone please tell me the editing gets better. I'm only 3% in (no page numbers for this one, which is frustrating), and already she's used "may" when it should have been "might"1, which is a pet peeve of mine, and also she used "desultory" wrong2 (I think she meant "derogatory"). These are the kinds of things that make me grit my teeth in fic, but fic is free and nobody makes you have a beta (and nobody can assure that your beta(s) actually knows what she's doing), but this is a published book, for which I have paid money. I expect better. I'm not talking typos or the occasional punctuation glitch you get in published books. These two things were just flat-out wrong and should have been caught by an editor.
--
1 Scottish he may be by birth, but that only made him better equipped to deal with strong-willed females. (location 201 of 15973) - this is one occasion where might is right. In this case, it's a simple tense issue and it really grates my cheese that the wrong usage is suddenly so prevalent.
2 Professor Lyall had a well-developed sense of self-preservation and the distinct feeling that if he said anything desultory about the young lady's appearance, he might actually get his head bitten off. (location 326 of 15973)
desultory
1
: marked by lack of definite plan, regularity, or purpose [a dragged-out ordeal of…desultory shopping - Herman Wouk]
2
: not connected with the main subject
3
: disappointing in progress, performance, or quality [a desultory fifth place finish] [a desultory wine]
I guess you could make a case for the third definition, but I don't think it really works. Words mean things! you can't just change that willy-nilly, despite what humpty-dumpty would like you to think! (don't even get me started on how suddenly so many people use nonplussed to mean the opposite of what it actually means.)
Protip, writers: don't use words if you don't know what they mean. If you don't know what they mean, look them up.
*
This entry at DW: http://musesfool.dreamwidth.org/369624.html.
people have commented there.