Can't Sleep, Links Will Eat Me
I post not only to inflict my nifty new House Wulfenbach icon on you lot, but to close out a bunch of tabs! Lucky youall.
First, because if I put it last, you will never sleep again: the creepiest tower ever. Some of the comments are really entertaining.
Steampunk Wallpaper is a daily . . . uhh . . . Steampunk wallpaper site that's just getting going, but it's already got some fabulous stuff up for grabs. These are currently dueling it out for control of my desktop:
Graphic artists, consider contributing! I would love to see this site do well. The maintainer's blog is Geekery Abounds. Mouse is a woman of many talents and in addition to wallpapers and geekery, offers such gems as an Instructable on how to make dung beetle truffles.
Eat them up, yum!
And here. Something to read while you eat.
Jesse Hajicek's The God Eaters is available for free in its entirety online, though I recommend you buy a copy if you like it. The fact that it's an amateur novel (with a prologue, even) shouldn't put you off.
I was drawn in very quickly, and I often find myself hoping that Hajicek writes something else set in that world. Hajicek's late 1800s Wild West analog fantasy world is grim and believable, the "magic" angle is handled interestingly and well, and the characterization is superb. A good chunk of it is set in a prison, which doesn't exactly make it the most cuddly and pleasant book in the world, but it's done well and Hajicek keeps things interesting throughout the incarceration by still providing the characters with things to do and problems to solve. Adept.
About the only complaint I have is that I thought that some of the names were Elaborate Fantasy Novel Pronounish, which jarred with the Wild West vibe. As you can see, that's a really minor quibble.
Imprisioned for 'inflammatory writings' by the totalitarian Theocracy, shy intellectual Ashleigh Trine figures his story's over. But when he meets Kieran Trevarde, a hard-hearted gunslinger with a dark magic lurking in his blood, Ash finds that necessity makes strange heroes... and love can change the world.
The above summary at Lulu.com is okay (all right, "love can change the world" is a little much, but it is partly a romance), but I really enjoyed Hajicek's warning:
This novel, like just about everything else I do, is full of sex, violence, and foul language. If you don't want to see sex, violence, and foul language, don't read it. Traditionally, I should also include an additional warning about the fact that it contains GAY HOMOS OMG!!! But you know what? If you can't handle gay characters, I don't actually care whether you get your prejudices stepped on.
Right on.
So, there you have it. Don't read it if you aren't interested in gay romance. Your loss, really, since it's a really good romance . . . for once, a "bad boy" character who isn't just a good guy with some moral scrapes and dings and a scenically rugged past. Kieran is genuinely dangerous and, yeah, scary. Probably crazy, too, though it could be argued that his problem is that he is too sane. And Ash is a complete dork -- utterly disarming and, at the beginning, very vulnerable. It's very hard to pull that off without making the character insufferable or annoying. Ash changes a lot during the narrative, which is gratifying to watch.
Thanks, phyrbyrd, for linking me to it.
Moving on, TV Tropes is a website devoted to cataloging the many conventions and devices used by writers in constructing an engaging narrative. It started with TV, but also includes other media as well. It states on the front page that not all tropes are a bad thing, and they are not, but the individual sections are so filled with snark and bad examples that the whole site more or less serves as an example of how not to do it. Wonderful, amusing reading, and potentially useful. Helpful in categorizing exactly which tropes annoy you, and why.
And, finally, cadhla does it again with Wolf-children Howling Honey.
All the wolf-children are howling honey
That falls down like light from the moon;
All the coyote girls think that it's funny,
And hope you'll come dance with them soon.
All the fox-maidens with bows in their hair
Would like to invite you to play,
And no one will question, and no one will care,
If you should decide that you'll stay.
All the wolf-children are sinners and saviors
And poets and sweet sacred fools;
All the coyote girls base their behaviors
On what breaks the most beautiful rules.
All the fox-maidens with stories to share
Would like to invite you to hear,
And no one will question, and no one will care,
If you should remain for a year.
I link this specifically for apocalypticbob who, I believe, has the pendant that prompted this song.
And with that, I leave you so much the richer, and am going to take some melatonin and try to get some sleep.
I am not going to think about that fucking tower.
First, because if I put it last, you will never sleep again: the creepiest tower ever. Some of the comments are really entertaining.
Steampunk Wallpaper is a daily . . . uhh . . . Steampunk wallpaper site that's just getting going, but it's already got some fabulous stuff up for grabs. These are currently dueling it out for control of my desktop:
Graphic artists, consider contributing! I would love to see this site do well. The maintainer's blog is Geekery Abounds. Mouse is a woman of many talents and in addition to wallpapers and geekery, offers such gems as an Instructable on how to make dung beetle truffles.
Eat them up, yum!
And here. Something to read while you eat.
Jesse Hajicek's The God Eaters is available for free in its entirety online, though I recommend you buy a copy if you like it. The fact that it's an amateur novel (with a prologue, even) shouldn't put you off.
I was drawn in very quickly, and I often find myself hoping that Hajicek writes something else set in that world. Hajicek's late 1800s Wild West analog fantasy world is grim and believable, the "magic" angle is handled interestingly and well, and the characterization is superb. A good chunk of it is set in a prison, which doesn't exactly make it the most cuddly and pleasant book in the world, but it's done well and Hajicek keeps things interesting throughout the incarceration by still providing the characters with things to do and problems to solve. Adept.
About the only complaint I have is that I thought that some of the names were Elaborate Fantasy Novel Pronounish, which jarred with the Wild West vibe. As you can see, that's a really minor quibble.
Imprisioned for 'inflammatory writings' by the totalitarian Theocracy, shy intellectual Ashleigh Trine figures his story's over. But when he meets Kieran Trevarde, a hard-hearted gunslinger with a dark magic lurking in his blood, Ash finds that necessity makes strange heroes... and love can change the world.
The above summary at Lulu.com is okay (all right, "love can change the world" is a little much, but it is partly a romance), but I really enjoyed Hajicek's warning:
This novel, like just about everything else I do, is full of sex, violence, and foul language. If you don't want to see sex, violence, and foul language, don't read it. Traditionally, I should also include an additional warning about the fact that it contains GAY HOMOS OMG!!! But you know what? If you can't handle gay characters, I don't actually care whether you get your prejudices stepped on.
Right on.
So, there you have it. Don't read it if you aren't interested in gay romance. Your loss, really, since it's a really good romance . . . for once, a "bad boy" character who isn't just a good guy with some moral scrapes and dings and a scenically rugged past. Kieran is genuinely dangerous and, yeah, scary. Probably crazy, too, though it could be argued that his problem is that he is too sane. And Ash is a complete dork -- utterly disarming and, at the beginning, very vulnerable. It's very hard to pull that off without making the character insufferable or annoying. Ash changes a lot during the narrative, which is gratifying to watch.
Thanks, phyrbyrd, for linking me to it.
Moving on, TV Tropes is a website devoted to cataloging the many conventions and devices used by writers in constructing an engaging narrative. It started with TV, but also includes other media as well. It states on the front page that not all tropes are a bad thing, and they are not, but the individual sections are so filled with snark and bad examples that the whole site more or less serves as an example of how not to do it. Wonderful, amusing reading, and potentially useful. Helpful in categorizing exactly which tropes annoy you, and why.
And, finally, cadhla does it again with Wolf-children Howling Honey.
All the wolf-children are howling honey
That falls down like light from the moon;
All the coyote girls think that it's funny,
And hope you'll come dance with them soon.
All the fox-maidens with bows in their hair
Would like to invite you to play,
And no one will question, and no one will care,
If you should decide that you'll stay.
All the wolf-children are sinners and saviors
And poets and sweet sacred fools;
All the coyote girls base their behaviors
On what breaks the most beautiful rules.
All the fox-maidens with stories to share
Would like to invite you to hear,
And no one will question, and no one will care,
If you should remain for a year.
I link this specifically for apocalypticbob who, I believe, has the pendant that prompted this song.
And with that, I leave you so much the richer, and am going to take some melatonin and try to get some sleep.
I am not going to think about that fucking tower.