Just stuff. Apologies for length, swearing and gratuitous capitals.
[LJ only: cottonwoolfairy CHECK OUT THE ICON. I spotted it being used on a community somewhere. :D]
Today I am (still) editing three My Secret Unicorn books that've been translated back into English out of the German manuscript written from the storylines we sent them in English about two years ago. Odd, occasionally exhasperating, sort of fun in a weird headdesky kind of way.
Ooh! The Mayo/Kermode* film review program has been EXTENDED TO TWO HOURS OMFG YAY. (My suggestion would've been to take it off BBC 5 Live and move it to a proper timeslot on a proper station where they wouldn't be interrupted by nonsensical updates on the cricket every ten minutes, but this is possibly even better.)
A couple of Bookseller articles, randomly:
DOOM (of our own making): http://www.thebookseller.com/news/109608-trade-gave-away-almost-4bn-in-the-noughties.html
WOE (for indies who can't deal with the internet): http://www.thebookseller.com/news/109607-national-book-tokens-readies-2m-cards-for-launch.html
??? ('The bendyback is lighter than a hardback but more interesting than a paperback.'): http://www.thebookseller.com/news/109606-bloomsbury-launches-bendyback.html.rss
MOOMINS. COOKBOOK. http://www.thebookseller.com/news/109682-moominmania-for-selfmadehero.html
The Beast Quest/Mr Gum World Book Day Book is at number 41 in the Bookseller's 'Hot 100 of 2009' list! But as Stephanie Fucking Meyer has been lodged in the top five places of the children's bestseller list ALL FUCKING YEAR** but doesn't feature until number 44, I'm not sure what their criteria is. Random factoid: the top 100 are apparently a pretty equal male/female split, but the Adam Blade team gets a specific mention as 'we know they're a team and we're conuting them as male', which is actually not true - there are five active BQ writers at the moment, and they're three women and two men (I'm pretty sure Andy Stanton, who writes Mr Gum is a real person and a man but that still makes the book as the whole a wash, statistics-wise). So that's kind of interesting.
There's also a massive advert for a nonfiction (I think***) vampire book on the cover of this week's Bookseller, which reminds me, this completely different nonfiction vampire crib-sheet type book is actually really well-written, properly informed and entertaining. Lizzie (I think) picked up a proof copy from somewhere and I've read most of it now, and would recommend it to anyone with £5 to spend on a fun vampire loo book.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bite-Vampire-Handbook-Miscellany/dp/1846272114/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1263558676&sr=8-1
We watched Being Human series 2 episode 1 yesterday.
And, er. What. I mean... is it just me and my personal intense hatred of stories that only work if the characters fail to communicate basic information to each other, or did George have not one but two complete personality transplants, one just before the beginning of the episode and one in the last five minutes? I mean, it had some great stuff in it too and I love Annie with a big happy love. I was just... deeply unimpressed by the AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANGST. I think I just didn't understand a word either George or Nina said to each other for most of the episode. It was like they'd each swallowed a copy of How Not To Talk To Your Partner, only George's was How Not To Talk To Your Partner: Cuntface Edition. And I hope they don't think that just because George stopped being a cuntface in the last five minutes means I'm going to forget how much of a COMPLETE CUNTFACE he was for the rest of the episode.
I mean, like I said, Annie is love. Some of Nina's bits were lovely. Also the bad guy was quite fun and Mitchell is pretty. So I will probably watch the rest of the series and I may really enjoy it from here on. But... hmm.
Spotted on Racialicious, thought some of my flist might find this interesting: an American Indian**** Rhodes scholar talking about his time at Oxford, including the mental health issues and treatment he got there, from an American/Indian perspective. It is a particularly grim view of the whole thing, but interesting.
And on a happier note, have a Ponyo trailer. It's the new Studio Ghibli, supposed to be incredibly cute.
This page has the info about The Metropolitan Police Service's Investigation of Fakes and Forgeries at the V&A. We should totally, totally go to this. It looks awesome.
And finally, my incredible girlfriend is swimming the Great North Swim in aid of Mind because she is incredible. WOOOO.
* and yes, OH YES, I intend the slash. You know how 'bickering like an old married couple' is actually totally code for 'actually being like an old married couple in all the ways'? Mayo/Kermode, dudes, it is the future. http://www.youtube.com/user/kermodeandmayo#p/u/81/JhMoGklbiPM
** this week there are SEVEN Twilight books on the list. SEVEN. And this is recalculated every week, and the top-selling five children's books this week were all Twilight. Wtf is going on here? Are there crazy fans stockpiling copies or something? There are two editions of Twilight, two of New Moon, and one RPattz annual. When Eclipse and Breaking Dawn have movie tie-in editions, will that mean she has EIGHT of the top twenty places locked in for the next year? Because seriously, wtf.
*** dear marketing ppls: I suppose I may be wrong as it is an ad for booksellers and not normal human beings, but my instinct is, if I cannot tell if it's a non-fiction book or not from the advert, it's not a very good advert.
***his self-identification. Just, you know, noted.
Today I am (still) editing three My Secret Unicorn books that've been translated back into English out of the German manuscript written from the storylines we sent them in English about two years ago. Odd, occasionally exhasperating, sort of fun in a weird headdesky kind of way.
Ooh! The Mayo/Kermode* film review program has been EXTENDED TO TWO HOURS OMFG YAY. (My suggestion would've been to take it off BBC 5 Live and move it to a proper timeslot on a proper station where they wouldn't be interrupted by nonsensical updates on the cricket every ten minutes, but this is possibly even better.)
A couple of Bookseller articles, randomly:
DOOM (of our own making): http://www.thebookseller.com/news/109608-trade-gave-away-almost-4bn-in-the-noughties.html
WOE (for indies who can't deal with the internet): http://www.thebookseller.com/news/109607-national-book-tokens-readies-2m-cards-for-launch.html
??? ('The bendyback is lighter than a hardback but more interesting than a paperback.'): http://www.thebookseller.com/news/109606-bloomsbury-launches-bendyback.html.rss
MOOMINS. COOKBOOK. http://www.thebookseller.com/news/109682-moominmania-for-selfmadehero.html
The Beast Quest/Mr Gum World Book Day Book is at number 41 in the Bookseller's 'Hot 100 of 2009' list! But as Stephanie Fucking Meyer has been lodged in the top five places of the children's bestseller list ALL FUCKING YEAR** but doesn't feature until number 44, I'm not sure what their criteria is. Random factoid: the top 100 are apparently a pretty equal male/female split, but the Adam Blade team gets a specific mention as 'we know they're a team and we're conuting them as male', which is actually not true - there are five active BQ writers at the moment, and they're three women and two men (I'm pretty sure Andy Stanton, who writes Mr Gum is a real person and a man but that still makes the book as the whole a wash, statistics-wise). So that's kind of interesting.
There's also a massive advert for a nonfiction (I think***) vampire book on the cover of this week's Bookseller, which reminds me, this completely different nonfiction vampire crib-sheet type book is actually really well-written, properly informed and entertaining. Lizzie (I think) picked up a proof copy from somewhere and I've read most of it now, and would recommend it to anyone with £5 to spend on a fun vampire loo book.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bite-Vampire-Handbook-Miscellany/dp/1846272114/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1263558676&sr=8-1
We watched Being Human series 2 episode 1 yesterday.
And, er. What. I mean... is it just me and my personal intense hatred of stories that only work if the characters fail to communicate basic information to each other, or did George have not one but two complete personality transplants, one just before the beginning of the episode and one in the last five minutes? I mean, it had some great stuff in it too and I love Annie with a big happy love. I was just... deeply unimpressed by the AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANGST. I think I just didn't understand a word either George or Nina said to each other for most of the episode. It was like they'd each swallowed a copy of How Not To Talk To Your Partner, only George's was How Not To Talk To Your Partner: Cuntface Edition. And I hope they don't think that just because George stopped being a cuntface in the last five minutes means I'm going to forget how much of a COMPLETE CUNTFACE he was for the rest of the episode.
I mean, like I said, Annie is love. Some of Nina's bits were lovely. Also the bad guy was quite fun and Mitchell is pretty. So I will probably watch the rest of the series and I may really enjoy it from here on. But... hmm.
Spotted on Racialicious, thought some of my flist might find this interesting: an American Indian**** Rhodes scholar talking about his time at Oxford, including the mental health issues and treatment he got there, from an American/Indian perspective. It is a particularly grim view of the whole thing, but interesting.
And on a happier note, have a Ponyo trailer. It's the new Studio Ghibli, supposed to be incredibly cute.
This page has the info about The Metropolitan Police Service's Investigation of Fakes and Forgeries at the V&A. We should totally, totally go to this. It looks awesome.
And finally, my incredible girlfriend is swimming the Great North Swim in aid of Mind because she is incredible. WOOOO.
* and yes, OH YES, I intend the slash. You know how 'bickering like an old married couple' is actually totally code for 'actually being like an old married couple in all the ways'? Mayo/Kermode, dudes, it is the future. http://www.youtube.com/user/kermodeandmayo#p/u/81/JhMoGklbiPM
** this week there are SEVEN Twilight books on the list. SEVEN. And this is recalculated every week, and the top-selling five children's books this week were all Twilight. Wtf is going on here? Are there crazy fans stockpiling copies or something? There are two editions of Twilight, two of New Moon, and one RPattz annual. When Eclipse and Breaking Dawn have movie tie-in editions, will that mean she has EIGHT of the top twenty places locked in for the next year? Because seriously, wtf.
*** dear marketing ppls: I suppose I may be wrong as it is an ad for booksellers and not normal human beings, but my instinct is, if I cannot tell if it's a non-fiction book or not from the advert, it's not a very good advert.
***his self-identification. Just, you know, noted.