HSU IT Department

talesofsnape, rivertempest, toblass and madeleone have given me pandas!!! How lovely to get all those big fluffy bears -- thank you, m'dears :)

lady_of_clunn has an interesting meme on her post today, full of questions about one's house. One can learn a lot about someone from their house -- much more than from "Coke or Pepsi?" and "Croutons or bacon bits?" (Surprisingly, however, there are no questions about books or bookshelves; whenever I go into someone's house the first thing I do is prowl their bookshelves.)

I was amused to discover how many of my answers would be either "the cat" or "the dog." For example:

8. What is on top of your refrigerator? => the cat
9. What colour is your sofa? => same as the cats
32. Is there anything under your bed? => the cats (it used to be the dog as well, but now she's far too massive)
37. Is there anything on your kitchen floor right now? => the dog
43. Do you keep any kind of protective weapons in your home? => just the dog
44. What does your home smell like right now? => the dog
45. Favourite candle scent? => Not Dog?
55. What style do you decorate in? => Early Dog and Late Cat

I'm reading a very interesting book at the moment called Lord of the World. It's post-apocalypse -- well, it starts pre- and right now we're in medias res, so I guess it's full-on apocalyptic, not just post-. At any rate, it's quite fascinating. The author was an Anglican (is that the right word for C of E?) priest who later converted to Catholicism, and the book is an exploration of a near-future world in which Humanism has spread throughout the world and religion is regarded as a mildly embarrassing joke. The two main characters are Julian Felsenburgh, a myteriously charismatic American who becomes President of Europe, and Father Percy Franklin, a Catholic priest who recognizes the profound attraction of the secular world's temptations, achievements and beliefs but whose faith remains strong. Although I'm quite certain that the author is on the side of religion, he does a wonderful job painting the positive aspects and deep appeal of both sides.

But one of the most lovely things about it is its beauty of language. The book was written in 1907 and has all the lush, elaborate detail that one used to find in novels in general, but which is all too sadly lacking these days. For example, here is his description of the Pope, when Father Franklin first meets him:

It was a very upright old man that [Father Franklin] saw in the chair before him, of medium height and girth, with hands clasping the bosses of his chair-arms, and an appearance of great and deliberate dignity. But it was at the face chiefly that he looked, dropping his gaze three or four times, as the Pope's blue eyes turned on him. They were extraordinary eyes, reminding him of what historians said of Pius X.; the lids drew straight lines across them, giving him the look of a hawk, but the rest of the face contradicted them. There was no sharpness in that. It was neither thin nor fat, but beautifully modelled in an oval outline: the lips were clean-cut, with a look of passion in their curves; the nose came down in an aquiline sweep, ending in chiselled nostrils; the chin was firm and cloven, and the poise of the whole head was strangely youthful. It was a face of great generosity and sweetness, set at an angle between defiance and humility, but ecclesiastical from ear to ear and brow to chin; the forehead was slightly compressed at the temples, and beneath the white cap lay white hair. It had been the subject of laughter at the music-halls nine years before, when the composite face of well-known priests had been thrown on a screen, side by side with the new Pope's, for the two were almost indistinguishable.

Isn't that gorgeous? Nobody writes like that these days, or at least very few.

In an odd coincidence, one of my current freelance jobs is a book on Masonry, which includes a section on the Catholic Church's historically extremely negative attitude towards it. That same attitude is all over this book. The priests regularly talk about how Masonry has been the force behind the rise of Humanism, and at big gatherings they play the "Masonic Hymn" instead of some antiquated thing like a national anthem. Intriguing.

It's a cracking good story so far, too. None of your Left Behind sensationalist crap, but a slowly creeping horror. I have no idea how it will end but I've very much enjoying the ride. It's available for free on Project Gutenberg, if anyone is interested.

Cast your mind back, to the dim and misty days of October 2001, just before The Sorceror's Stone was released in theatres, before the entire civilized world knew who Albus Dumbledore was, when the only pictures we had of Professor McGonagall and Severus Snape were those in our own heads (but still, alas, long after the first Harry Potter fanfic surfaced in the Pit of Voles). Into this anxious time of uncertainty and anticipation (will the kid who plays Harry be able to act? will he look like I imagined?) stepped Vanity Fair, with a photo feature called "Something About Harry" and the world's very first look at The Boy Who Lived (not to mention the Professor Who Made His Life Hell and Spawned a Thousand Fangirls, Me Included).

Travel back in time with me and see them...

Annie Leibovitz (she of the infamous John Lennon/Yoko Ono Rolling Stone photo), did the pictures and she set up some fantastic poses -- she made sure to work in glimpses of Hogwarts as backdrops, an extra bonus. I can't decide if the shot of the Gryffindor Quidditch Team lounging about the Common Room is my favorite, or the intriguing shot of Quirrel, Hooch and what looks like a pterodactyl skeleton (in the library, yet!).

I now REALLY want a copy of this issue of Vanity Fair.

I just found out about this really unusual post-apoc book and wondered if anyone else has heard about it. (NB: No, I have no connection with the book or the author, so this isn't a veiled sales pitch!) It's called Ora et Labora et Zombies.

Dr. Thomas Schutten's wife, Ava, is out of town when the zombie apocalypse strikes, so the doctor and his young son flee to a nearby Benedictine abbey -- his and his wife's agreed-on meeting place in case of catastrophe. (Bonus points for planning ahead, Dr. Tom!). While waiting for Ava, hoping against hope that she'll make it, Tom writes her letters. The book consists of these letters.

So you're thinking, "Meh, it's an epistolary novel, big deal," right? But here's the kicker: you actually get the letters in the mail, as in via the US Postal Service. You get one letter a week; each one is 4-6 pages and there will be 72 of them overall. The author/publisher says this about it:

Ora et Labora et Zombies is comprised of seventy-two handwritten Letters of between 4-6 pages, reproduced on specially watermarked stationery with a hand-printed serigraph cover sheet. Each Letter will be published individually, as a weekly serial, and distributed to readers through the mail. This idiosyncratic method of publication aims to celebrate and prolong the disappearing experience of receiving letters in the mailbox, and also to create in the reader a sense of anticipation, of waiting as the dramatis personae must wait to discover what is happening.

Is this not a really original and fascinating combination of book art/art book/letterpress skill/zombie apocalypse/serial novel?? And these are a few of my favorite things, so I'm utterly intrigued. I've subscribed to the first two bundles and cannot wait to get the first ones!!

September is my writing group's twice-yearly Short Story In A Week, aka SSIAW. In years past, though my goals have been lofty I've never managed more than two stories out of a potential four (or, if you're a glutton for punishment, eight). I vowed that this time...yes, this time would be different. I even attempted to plan for it by not scheduling any freelance work, intending to devote all my free time to the creation of fabulous original tales of surpassing craftiness and wonder.

Alas, the best laid p's of m & m etc. etc. etc.

I was seduced by its list of readings into a fall semester course in Early Modern Fantasy (this week I learned what an ekphrasis is) so have pages of readings. A freelance job that was scheduled for August lagged two weeks, so is in-house now. I will be out of town for a week at the end of the month. And to really put the Dementor's Kiss on things, I signed up for not one but TWO fests; a quick glance had told me that deadlines were in October, i.e. safely after SSIAW, but my mad calendrical skillz failed to translate this into "Yo, bitch, 'due October 1' means writing like crazy in September..."

Curse you, brain with too many interests!!!

However, all of that notwithstanding, I HAVE TRIUMPHED: I have written and subbed a story for the first week of SSIAW. Yes! I rock!!!! It's based on the The Marriage of Sir Gawain, aka Gawain and the Loathly Lady, particularly this bit:

Then shee said, choose thee, gentle Gawaine
truth as I doe say,
wether thou wilt haue me in this liknesse
in the night or else in the day

It took until 3:30am last night/this morning, it's as rough as a dirt road in Texas and the pacing is abysmal, but it's got good bone structure and when I have time to polish it up I think it will really shine. I even managed to work in a nicely apt Greek mythological reference via a character name; we'll see if anyone picks up on it.

I am pleased. Also tired. But mostly pleased. Only three more weeks/stories to go! ::collapses in a heap::

...that there's a giant comprehensive master list for all six years of the sshg_exchange? It has 900+ fics listed and is sortable AND filterable by all sorts of characteristics: year, author, rating, etc. Wish I'd found it at the beginning of my four-day weekend instead of the end >:|

I'm plugging along on sshg_exchange and luciusbigbang, not to mention my writing group's twice-yearly Short Story In A Week which always, always, ALWAYS seems to fall during the busiest months of the year for me, in some sort of cosmic slap-down of my attempts to participate fully in it. So far we're three days into the first week and I've written king zippy nada, as a a friend of mine used to say.

But it's not my fault, really! I keep getting distracted -- not least by the aforementioned list, but also by the wonderful SS/HG AU fic Droxy's Folly, which went up on AO3 over the weekend. (If you haven't read this yet, drop everything and GO.) And of course by silly videos of cats, we all know how that goes.

Curse you, interwebz!!!!

Seems appropriate that I share one item of distraction, given (a) the current fests-in-progress, (2) the BBC's recent tut-tutting over 50 Shades of Grey (thanks, laurielover1912) and Newsweek's assertion that what's really wrong with FSoG is the lamentable quality of the prose. So, for your edification and jollification, I offer this light-hearted defense of smut, from Tom Lehrer:

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A recent post on io9.com alerted me to the fact that Hilobrow has posted a series of 25 short essays by 25 different authors on the many faces of Star Trek's James T. Kirk. It's called, fittingly enough, Kirk Your Enthusiasm :) Some are meditative, some funny, some thought-provoking, some just plain Kirk-boosterism, but they're all well-crafted and all written from a place of respect and genuine affection for the series.

Each essay focuses on a single memorable Kirk-centric scene. Most of the writers chose a scene from the original series but there are also a few from the movies. They include Kirk's first self-destruct bluff (Let That Be Your Last Battlefield); Kirk recites the U.S. Constitution (The Omega Glory) which includes some perceptive comments on Shatner's acting style; "the canonical TOS episode of great slashiness" (Amok Time); Kirk's letting Edith Keeler die (Return to Tomorrow) which draws parallels between Kirk and John F. Kennedy; and lots more. The final essay is particularly interesting: it examines the scene in ST the Reboot where Kirk taunts Spock into losing control so that Kirk can take command of the Enterprise, and argues that Spock is the real hero of the scene since by stepping down he recognizes that being captain requires calmness and rationality, neither of which the rebooted Kirk exhibits.

The essays are a great chance to wallow in an excess of Trekkiness (yay!!) in the company of a bunch of writers who love it too. The index to the essays is here. Go. Read. Wallow :)

Lucius has deerhounds, or maybe wolfhounds; we all know that, right?



And he's French -- he's got that certain je ne sai quoi, right? So I need a good name for a big French dog or two. And yes, I know, neither deerhounds nor wolfhounds are French, they're Scottish or Irish or something, but don't pester me with details. I looked at this list but it's giving me issues. The names that je comprends are dumb (Floffy? Floppi? Lucius would DIE of mortification) and I refuse to use a person's name (pas de Belle, pas de Sebastian) and I don't want to use a name je ne comprends pas (Fripouille? Guimauve? WTF?).

So somebody who knows French, or is French, or has French friends, help me out here: if you were French (or proud of your French heritage) and had a big deerhound (or wolfhound) or two, what would you call them?

Finally getting around to posting re: the fic I wrote for lm_hgficxchange back in April (!!). laurielover1912 gave me a fabulous prompt and I had great fun with it though if I'd had time I'd have made a little more explicit. But that's planning for you, innit?

Title: That Is Not Dead Which Can Eternal Lie (read on LJ) (read on AO3)
Recipient: laurielover1912
Rating: PG (although there's plenty of implication, so let your imagination go crazy; mine certainly did)
Warnings: A dollop of angst, a soupcon of UST, a generous handful of snarky banter, and a mystery involving goats and Ultimate Darkness -- oh wait, those aren't warnings, those are enticements, aren't they?
Summary: Five years after the end of the war, Malfoy Manor is suffering from a peculiar infestation and Unspeakable Granger is assigned to the case. Much has changed at the Manor, but thousands of years of Malfoy heritage cannot be lightly disregarded.

Two weeks ago I ranted briefly about how no woman has moderated a presidential debate in 20 years, and how three young women from New Jersey were trying to change that with their petition on Change.org. Amazingly, it has worked!! ABC News reports that CNN's Candy Crowley will moderate the debate on October 16th. w00t!!!!