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slayground

06:30 pm - New Moon chat Saturday, November 21st at readergirlz

rgz LIVE!

We will have not one, not two, but three live events at the readergirlz blog this month.

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Current Mood: thirsty

booksandtea

11:45 pm - From 2 to 3

In my mind's picture of numbers*, 30 marks a 90° turn and a change of direction from going upwards to going sideways. I like change.

Also, 2 is so very ugly that leaving it behind is a relief.




*Numbers are spatially oriented for me (in a truly crazy pattern). I only realized recently that this isn't true for everyone.

Current Mood: cheerful

01:10 pm - GURPS VK in at Uncle Hugo's

http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=164952151&blogId=519259949

deliasherman

04:16 pm - That's Second Life

One of the Interfictions 2 authors, Ray Vukcevich ("The Two of Me") has a friend who runs a bookstore on Second Life. He is very kindly setting up a virtual reading event there, with 5 other authors and an editor.

Perhaps it doesn't need saying that I have never been on Second Life before. I hardly have time to live my First Life, after all, and I'm not overwhelmingly comfortable conversing with people who both are and aren't really there. Still, I have more time than my massively over-committed co-editor, and I feel that it's my responsibility to support and introduce my authors and be The Official Representative of the IAF. Plus, I'm curious.

So I volunteered.

Fast-forward to my avataricious self (that would be Delia Yorfle, a name that seemed appealingly Dr. Seussish) standing on the helpfully-named Help Island with a lot of other debutantes, swinging my long brown pony tail, swishing my pink-sprigged butt, faling off platforms, walking into other avatars and immovable objects, jumping up and down aimlessly, blowing kisses at the air, and generally trying to figure out what was up with this. And a young avatar labeled Pierre something comes up to me. And greets me. In French.

The ensuing conversation (in French) went something like this (in translation).

Pierre: Good evening. How are things?

Ms. Yorfle: Good evening. Things are good.

Pierre: You're beautiful.

Ms. Yorfle: You're kidding.

Pierre: No. You must not say that. In this virtual world, you are beautiful.

Ms. Yorfle: You are kind. Well, goodbye. (I manage, at this point, to turn around and walk away.)

Pierre: (Following, at speed) Stay!

Ms. Yorfle: (Walks faster. Falls off cliff. Keeps walking)

Pierre: (Still following) There is a place nearby with a big bed.

Ms. Yorfle exits the program and I go and get a cup of tea.

Seriously.

Next time, I go look for a desert island to practice in.

sounis

emerald_happy

06:39 pm - Birthday Card

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR MEGAN
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOUUUUUU!

Roll up, roll up, reprobates, bears, squid and zucchini throwers. Come sign the card! (As usual card posted a day early to give everyone a chance to sign it. Much thanks to Checkers for use of her lego ensemble photos.)

( Open the card )

May your day be as happy as your books have made us!

Edited to add: Those of you who have not seen Checkers' lego version of The King of Attolia - it is here

Current Mood: busy

07:41 am - Pigeon & Pigeonette

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/nWvm/~3/NBV8ghmkcqw/pigeon-pigeonette.html

m_stiefvater

10:17 am - Five Things on a Friday: The Brownies & Cole Edition

1. I could post about something awesome before going off to NCTE, but instead, due to popular request, I am posting my Awesome Brownies That Taste Like Box Brownies recipe.

1/4 cup butter, melted
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 cup white sugar
1 tbs vanilla
2 eggs
1/2 cup cocoa powder (I like Hersheys' special dark)
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup chocolate chips
3/4 cup flour

Preheat oven to 350. Grease 8 x 8" baking dish. Combine everything but flour, cocoa, and salt, stir. Throw in everything else but the chips. Add the chips. Stir, baby! Bake 30 minutes or until a fork stuck in the middle just comes out clean (let set up for about 10 minutes before eating or they will be goopy).

2. I've posted the tentative dates for a lot a lot of the foreign editions of SHIVER, if you're curious.

3. I'm at about 20,000 words on my NaNo novel. Am I worried? Not yet . . . will be posting on this concept later.

4. Don't let your Jack Russell get into your brother's espresso. Just sayin'.

5. Musical obsession for the day/ month/ life: Anyway You Choose to Give It, by the Black Ghosts. It's on the playlist for Cole from LINGER . . . *gasp the spoilery, it kills me!*

marthawells

08:55 am

More from Jackie Kessler: The Day After: Harlequin Blinks Just because your book wasn’t good enough for Harlequin to pay you for it, that doesn’t mean it’s not good enough for you to pay us for it!


ETA: A friend posted this link on Facebook, and it's great if you need to see something happy: A soldier's dog greets him when he returns from Afghanistan.

50books_poc

kyuuketsukirui

12:40 am - Hot, Sour, Salty, Sweet by Sherri L. Smith

Title: Hot, Sour, Salty, Sweet
Author: Sherri L. Smith
Number of Pages: 167 pages
My Rating: 3/5

When a pipe bursts during Ana Shen's middle school graduation, flooding the field and cutting the ceremony short, it doesn't seem like things could get any worse. Then comes the announcement that the gym is flooded, too, and the graduation dance is cancelled. The dance was going to be Ana's big chance to tell Jamie Tabata she likes him before they go their separate ways for high school, but when her best friend Chelsea ends up inviting Jamie and his family over to Ana's for a graduation dinner, it looks like there might be hope after all. Assuming Ana can keep her grandmothers' rivalry from ruining everything.

I'd seen several reviews for this on and wasn't really that interested, but after reading and loving Flygirl, I decided to give some of Smith's other books a try. This...is definitely no Flygirl. It's cute enough, and it's nice to see a biracial main character (or any character!) who isn't half white, but I wasn't wowed or anything.

I really think the book could have used a lot more editing. Most of it is fine, but it starts to fall apart at the ending, which seems really rushed, plus has a couple of chapters that don't really fit. At one point her grandfather starts telling a story and instead of just making it quick or summarising, we actually get a random flashback chapter in his POV about the event he's relating. We also get a few paragraphs in one of the grandmothers' POV towards the end, in a story that has otherwise been very tight third person with only one POV. It just seemed sloppy.

Also I was really excited about the story being set in LA at first, but it ended up being more frustrating than anything because the author gave all sorts of conflicting details. The kids have gone to school together since kindergarten, yet for some reason they all go to an elementary school in a totally different zone than where they live. (One person going to a far away public school might have some excuse, but not a whole class.) Then the high school mentioned is not the high school that middle school feeds into. Neither is it the high school she would actually be going to for where she's supposed to live. Which being less than a mile from the beach would be Santa Monica and she'd go to SaMoHi, not Uni (also everyone keeps saying University High and I'm sorry but I have never heard anyone call it that; it's Uni). Plus the author gives a freeway exit that they're supposed to live near, which is not less than a mile from the beach, either.

I really don't know what she was thinking. The jacket flap says she lives in LA, so it's not just that she didn't know what she was talking about. It's like she wanted to use real names of stuff, but didn't want to be specific, so she ended up taking bits from all over. If you don't want to be specific, then either be vague or make up names of school and stuff. But if you're going to be specific then you have to get your facts right!

Of course most of the people reading aren't going to know or care, but it really took a lot of fun out of it for me.

09:12 pm - watching... When the Gods Dance

http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=164952151&blogId=519196704

lizarfau

05:48 pm - NaNo etc

My NaNo is going really quite well. I've written 34,000 words, so 14,000 to go between now and the end of November. Writing urban fantasy is an interesting experience – this is unlike anything I've written before, and I feel it's been gruelling in parts because I don't know the genre well and don't know its conventions. In a way, perhaps that is an advantage, because I think "Where shall I go from here?" and work it out for myself without knowing what the normal conventions are. For a while, the book morphed into misery memoirs and then became quite thriller-like, so it's a bit of a genre-bender. But as I get farther through it, I realise that when I rewrite I probably will be able to do something decent with it. The length's good for a YA novel, and the plot's worked out well from the bare-bones idea I had, and I've come a long way in the past week, having fallen behind in week 2 and wondering if I should give up. So I'm happy with this.

We've had some hot weather lately, and I'd forgotten how exhausting it can be – and how distracting it is when the fire siren goes off on a total fire ban day and you hear fire trucks racing along the road. I think everyone in fire-prone areas feels more nervous this summer as a result of what happened last summer. We're now involved in a newly established fireguard community group though, and have attended some informative sessions as a result of that. It's been good meeting some new people and getting to know others better.

Ju Gosling from Bettany Press is here in Australia for three weeks and attending the NCC Victoria meeting tomorrow. We're also having a meeting about my books in a couple of weeks' time. While we could actually do with a bit of rain, it's nice for visitors from the northern hemisphere to enjoy some sunshine, so perhaps sunny days with overnight rain would be nice.

asakiyume

12:46 am - Review: Gott'im's Monster

Gott’im’s Monster by S. Dorman (Dormanheim, 2009)

sartorias

08:03 pm - SFWA: Andre Norton Award

Just a reminder to any SFWA members that any book printed in English during the past year is eligible. The book is eligible for a year after its appearance.

Plenty of books have been mentioned around, but I hope that some of the books with less powerhouse PR will get their fair share of attention, like K.L. Richardsson's Heart's Price.

If you've read a YA book that you don't think is getting much attention and would like to give it a shout out, please link it here, and what you thought made it a standout!

I'm hoping that members will nominate their favorites in order to offer a rich selection of choices.

vierran45

04:59 am - Hana Yori Dango (1995)

Bwahahahah, I really really should have watched the 1995 Hanadan movie sooner, it was such a fun experience :).

All the people I recognize are so young in it! And Tanihara Shosuke with that greasy hair and shirtless vest looks nothing like that restrained and quiet doctor from Love Shuffle or the announcer from Ousama no Brunch XD... Heee!!!! Not to talk about Fujiki Naohito's Rui...

I guess that even though I haven't read the manga, I've seen enough other versions of this story to be able to follow most of it without any trouble, even though I didn't understand more than a few words of the dialogue.

( plot summary & screencaps )

slayground

06:33 pm - Teen Programs at Monterey Bay Aquarium

Monterey Bay Aquarium is one of my favorite places on Earth. On a recent visit to their website, I learned that they offer various programs for teens. I wish I had had such opportunities when I was a teenager. They sound so cool! Take this one, for example:

Young Women in Science (YWS)
This week-long, summer day-camp is designed to get young women excited about and involved in science, the ocean and conservation. Through a variety of hands-on field activities, we strive to increase their knowledge and to spark a personal connection with the natural world that will lead them to become future stewards of the ocean. Kids get the opportunity to explore ocean habitats by joining in activities such as surface scuba diving, boogie boarding and kayaking.

We aim to serve young women regardless of primary language or economic background. We offer three camps in the summer that are conducted in both English and Spanish. Young women entering grades 6, 7 or 8, who reside in Monterey, Santa Cruz, and San Benito counties, are eligible to apply.

I hope that teens reading this post who qualify and live in California will apply to these programs. Likewise, I hope that those of you who work with teens or have teenagers of your own will pass the links and information along to them and encourage them to apply. I simply cut-and-pasted the text from the Monterey Bay Aquarium's site in an effort to help them spread the word and get more applicants. Please feel free to repost this post if you'd like, but note that YWS is only one of the four different teen programs that they offer.

For more information on these programs, visit their website and email teenprograms@mbayaq.org

Current Mood: thirsty

vierran45

01:53 am - 1995 Hana Yori Dango

Like I suspected, I ended up watching the 1995 film version of Hanadan, since I just couldn't picture Tanihara Shosuke as Domyouji after Love Shuffle or anything else I've seen him in XD. I have great expectations this will be a hilarious experience!

Just look at this cap from the beginning: that's Makino and Domyouji there :D...

vierran45

01:13 am - Love Shuffle

I hate dangermousie! (Well, not really, but...)

I have just finished marathoning through Love Shuffle in two days thanks to her posts about it. Why the heck didn't I check it out before, I ask?!

( Major SPOILERS for the entire drama )

P.S. Since I checked up on the previous roles of the cast on Drama Wiki, I'm suddenly completely flabbergasted to realize that Tanihara Shosuke (the doctor) played Domyouji in the 1995 Hanadan O_o. I just can't picture that at all, which means, I really have to watch it asap. Fujiki Naohito as Rui is just an added bonus :D...

ETA: Fixed some typos.

sounis

inkasrain

05:30 pm - Sophos Has Found a Barber

Hold on to your hats, Sounis. Greenwillow Books has posted a new picture of the cover art for "Conspiracy of Kings", and... the Great Facial Hair Saga continues!

( Check it out under the cutage! )

fjm

09:50 pm - sheffield hallam university - hourly paid tutors for semester 2

|
Feona Attwood
to MECCSA

show details 19:18 (2 hours ago)

We are looking for hourly paid tutors to contribute to undergraduate modules
in the general areas of gender, sexuality, and culture, identity and the body
next semester. If you interested please contact Feona Attwood on
f.attwood at shu.ac.uk, sending a cv.



Feel free to copy or link,

dorianegray

09:34 pm

Today I am a heroine, for I averted a great disaster.

( In which I find an indoor waterfall )

I also, earlier in the day, wrestled into submission a very old Word macro, which tried to confuse me, but did not, ultimately, succeed, which was also very pleasing.