a fool's musings
Fool, said my muse to me,
look in thy heart and write...
Warning: Adult Content
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11.05.02 - 11:31 p.m.
'they could market this ep as a cure for insomnia'
Smallville and Buffy thoughts up in the LJ.
Just... Buffy was like the most boring thing EVER.
And cringingly embarrassing for Dawn.
::shudder::
And they could market this ep as a cure for insomnia and make a fortune.
Those writers should be flogged.
Connection keeps dropping and I'm very sleepy, so no deep thoughts tonight.
I did dream last night that I mistakenly left work and went home to my old apartment. It was very odd. I walked by the house and realized where I was and started running, and then my landlord's daughter came running out after me - she wanted to show me the changes they'd made since I left, but I didn't want to go in.
I was afraid they'd make me stay.
In writing news, I'm feeling that "No! No changes!" thing about the Wesleyfic. Not objective enough to look at it yet. Good thing the gusys are all tied up with other things right now.
Still nothing on NyahNyahNo.
Sigh.
~victoria
[current mood: sleepy]
[current music: silence]
[random quote: the space between the bullets and the firefight is where I'll be hiding waiting for you]
~*~
11.05.02 - 4:46 p.m.
Recs here! Get your redhot recs here!
I actually updated the Unfit Recs Journal. Go me.
And go you, to read and love and send feedback.
Go on. You can abandon the latest brouhaha for the moment. It'll still be here when you get back. And if it's not, a new one will have replaced it.
~victoria
[current mood: productive]
[current music: Kashmir - Zep]
[random quote: ]
~*~
11.05.02 - 1:05 p.m.
TWoP flap
***
So it's election day, and for the first time in the 14 years I've been eligible to vote, I am not voting.
I know. Gasp! Horror! Shame!
I blame the NYS bureaucracy.
Because I moved between counties, the DMV wouldn't reregister me when I changed my address on my license. The deadline for registering was October 11. And I had to have been living at my present address for 30 days.
Sigh.
I hate bureaucracy.
~victoria
link
[current mood: hungry]
[current music: Brain Damage/Eclipse - Pink Floyd]
[random quote: Never to talk about ourselves is a very noble piece of hypocrisy. Friedrich Nietzsche]
~*~
11.05.02 - 1:24 a.m.
Wesley fic
So Wesley. He wouldn't leave me alone, though I don't think I've got his voice down. I just couldn't help but wonder what he was thinking throughout Supersymmetry (that is the ep name, right? I think A Fearful Symmetry would have been better, but what do I know? Maybe ME felt they'd used their quota of pretentious poetry titles with Slouching Toward Bethlehem), when he was reading the magazine, when he ditched Lilah, when Fred was being all googly over Gunn....
This is the result. Unbeta'd. Just finished, actually.
***
Useful
The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
When he picks up his mail, he sees the magazine and it still has the power to cut him.
Modern Physics.
If asked, he'd say that it doesn't do to ignore science; it has occasionally produced a solution where magic failed. But there's no one who will ask, and no one he can tell.
And it's true, he's occasionally picked up a copy of Science or Nature in the course of his research, but this subscription came only after she entered his life. A common interest, a common language, one that the others didn't or couldn't share with her.
Now it mocks him. She didn't want him. Doesn't want him. Oh, she'll use him -- they'll all use him, and since he's had a lifetime of it, he lets them. Hell, he wants them to use him. He'll deny it, as he denies so much else, both to himself and to them, but in using him, they prove his worth, his usefulness. He tells himself that it just gives him leverage -- he has what they want, and that gives him the power, the upper hand, which he's never had before, with any of them.
But it's not about that. It's never about power with him; it's always about weakness. His weakness.
He can pretend that he doesn't care. He's almost convinced himself, and really, he's his own worst critic, so once he overcomes his own skepticism, everyone else's should be easy.
Until he sees her name in the magazine's table of contents.
Winifred Burkle.
God, even her name makes him hurt, like the first touch of warmth on icy fingers.
He's reading the article for the fifth time, turning the words over in his head, tasting them on his lips; it's as close as he'll ever get to tasting her, when Lilah shows up.
She's got a gift, a bribe, and he can tell that she's as shaken up as he is by the turn their -- affair -- has taken. His body yearns toward her, even as his mind recoils. She's evil, dirty, a reminder of all that's gone wrong in his life in the past year. He tells himself he's still fighting the good fight, that he hasn't abandoned the mission, but he doesn't quite believe.
But today he's going to see her. Purity and goodness, shining forth like the dawn, and while he'll never get to touch her again, not unless she falls even further than he has, he can still watch. It's what he's been trained to do.
She's just as beautiful, smart, and out of his reach as she ever was.
When the portal opens, he knows he can save her, must save her -- but of course Gunn and Angel are there, and again he feels useless.
Until she arrives at his door.
Just the scent of her perfume, the warmth she radiates as she stands nearby, is enough to set his heart racing, the coldness he's felt since her visit to the hospital begins to thaw.
She comes to him for vengeance, when Angel and Gunn won't help.
This is good. This is power, leverage, usefulness. This is everything he wants from her. Because he will aid her vengeance, knowing it's wrong, and that will tie her to him in ways that all the sex she's having with Gunn never will.
That's another thing he's discovered in his months of exile. Darkness binds the way light never can. Because in the light, it's about what's right, what's good, and always someone else who needs it more than you do. In the dark, there's only you and your sins and the sins of others. And the taste is sweet, so sweet, like the words on his tongue as he agrees to help her. She stands behind him, her body radiating heat and he wonders how she would react if he turned and kissed her. He's learned a lot in his months with Lilah, and he thinks in this mood, she would go with it, with him, widening the gulf between her and them even further. Bringing her to his side.
Because in the end, that's what this is about. He can lie to himself about it, the way he'll lie to Lilah and Angel later, but now, right this very minute, his mind is racing with ways to turn this to his own advantage, to tie Fred to him in ways that cannot be undone.
He makes a half-hearted attempt to dissuade her from the course of vengeance, but they both know it's nothing more than him going through the motions so he can assuage his overactive conscience later.
Not that it will work, because he will hate himself for dragging her down, and her for letting him, if she goes through with this.
But the thought of her companionship, her desire, is honey on his tongue, masking the taste of bile in his throat.
He waits outside until he sees Gunn arrive; he wishes he'd gone in there with her. Gunn will only make her do the right thing. He recalls her words about loving Gunn's goodness and knows that he has never had that, he was born lacking, wanting, useless.
He drives away, on some level glad that Gunn is there to stop her, to hold her up and keep her from falling into the darkness with him.
Lilah is in his apartment when he gets home. She's reading the magazine; she looks casual, but he knows her body well enough by now to know that she's tense. He feels a stab of satisfaction; she's jealous. That gives him the upper hand again.
The smile crossing his face is one of knowledge, power, triumph. He pulls the magazine from her fingers and tosses it onto the coffee table. She mustn't know how much it bothers him to see her handling it; he would lose any ground he's gained.
He swallows her protests with a savage kiss, his hands already tearing at the buttons on her silk blouse. The taste of her obliterates the hint of Fred's sweetness that lingers in the air, in his mouth, and in his heart.
end
***
Comments are always welcome.
And now, to bed.
~victoria
link
[current mood: creative]
[current music: Killing an Arab - the Cure]
[random quote: I'm alive. I'm dead. I am the stranger. Killing an Arab.]
~*~
11.04.02 - 5:56 p.m.
kink, revelation & netiquette
torch wrote:
Right now I'm trying to chase down a fleeting thought about writing to one's kinks. I've heard "it's a bit too obvious that she likes [whatever]" a few times, enough times to make me think that there are people who think it's embarrassing if they can tell what someone else's kinks are, and probably if someone else can tell what their kinks are, and it kinda makes me wonder if they don't write a lot of what they like because they don't want to be too revelatory, or it doesn't fit their idea of a Serious Story, or, blah, whatever... and what do they end up writing about?
And this made me think, because this is a topic I've touched on a number of times. So here, instead of the Wesleyfic I'd hoped to have finished and ready to put here for review and suggestions, are my thoughts:
It's not that I don't think it (whatever "it" may be) isn't 'fitting' for a serious story, but more a question of, "Is it fitting for these characters?" Because while I can envision certain characters with certain kinks, there are other set ups I'm just not going to buy (Clark and Lana and BDSM? I think not. Especially not if they're still relatively young and learning about sex together. And ew! I just squicked myself with the CLana thoughts. Or Clark and Pete and BDSM or water sports or blood play etc. Again - a question of experience and culture - I don't think either the adult Rosses or the Kents would be in the way of sharing that kind of stuff with their kids, even if they're into it themselves.)
On the 'too revelatory' tip - yes and no. My personal theory as to why so many women write m/m slash, and so many self-identified bi and lesbian women do it, is that writing m/f or f/f is too close to home. Especially f/f, if it becomes about identity and gender and first times and that sort of thing.
Even me, het writer, vanilla straight woman, I shy away from writing sex from the female POV too often. It sometimes feels very personal and very revealing. And while on the one hand, writing is *supposed* to be revelatory, on the other, people don't need to know that I like X or Y in bed.
There's a tension there, and while I think good writers (and I count myself in that category [/ego]) overcome most of the hesitation to *do* that, I think that newer writers tend to fall to extremes, either "I love X kink, so Clark and Lex must love X kink!" regardless of characterization, or "Omigod! I don't want them to know I like *that*! Therefore, Anya and Xander are having straight up vanilla sex." again, regardless of characterization (because you know it, I know it, the American people know it - Anya probably has a well-worn copy of the kama sutra and various fetish magazines, and ... well, Xander probably got quite an education. *g*).
Does that make sense?
Meanwhile, Katta is talking about netiquette. She thinks the 'net is too large to have any such universal code of behavior. I tend to disagree. While specifics may differ from forum to forum, I think there are some basic rules of netiquette that get passed on to everyone, everywhere, millions of people following the rules, and those who don't being spanked for it.
More on that later. It's time to go home now.
~victoria
link
[current mood: thoughtful and tired]
[current music: Gloria - Them]
[random quote: To thine own self be true]
~*~
11.04.02 - 11:24 a.m.
10 Things You Can't Escape in My Stories
Someone needs to make a "Which British '80s band are you?" quiz, with Depeche, New Order (Joy Division), The Smiths, The Cure and the Psych Furs as the answers.
Or "Which Minneapolis Band Are You?" with Prince and the Revolution, the Mats, Husker Du and Soul Asylum as the answers.
I'm just saying.
Having lots of Wesley thoughts today. Wesley re: Lilah and Fred and the state of his own soul.
Definitely trending toward pretentious Wesley PCR territory.
Speaking of which, Angel and Alias thoughts are up in the LJ.
Duh. I'm a moron. The link should work now
And a survey:
gacked from millefiori on my friendsfriends list.
10 Things you can't escape when reading my fic...
Recurring themes in my fic:
1. Love - especially love that's been there all along and the characters just couldn't see it, love that grows quietly and sneaks up on the character, misplaced or mistaken or unrequited love, love gone wrong, love that makes you stay even when you know you should leave - you name it, I've written it.
2. Trust - especially betrayals of trust and having to rebuild trust, because without trust there is no love (see #1). How learning to trust can open your whole life up to good things.
3. Communication - this is a big one for me. Miscommunication or people not talking to each other clearly causes so many problems and I've made hay in my stories out of the uncommunicative nature of certain characters.
4. Forgiveness - Always, always, love encompasses trust and forgiveness and the willingness to give second chances.
5. Hookers and junkies - Heh. I have a fascination with the seamier side of life, with writing about characters in desperation and doing things to either survive or escape the circumstances of that desperation. Also indicative of my desire to write noir.
6. Accepting the hand you’re dealt and moving on - learning to live with the past (or without it in Logan's case) and knowing that while it may have made the character the person s/he is today, it dosn't have to dictate what s/he can become tomorrow.
7. Bathrooms - many, *many* of my revelatory scenes take place in bathrooms, or characters spend time in the shower ruminating, crying, jerking off and having sex. I find that the bathroom recurs over and over, and that it's a great place for those types of revelations, because the characters are literally as well as metaphorically naked. Especially in Rogue's case, where being naked makes everyone so much more vulnerable.
8. Sex - yeah, I write a lot of sex, or intimations of sex. Sex as healing, comfort, as a wedge, a means of communication or miscommunication - it's an amazing tool in a writer's tool kit, because it can be understood and misunderstood in so many ways, and can show a lot about a character - how s/he behaves in bed with one person as opposed to another, how s/he reacts to learning about someone else having sex, etc. etc. And sometimes, just sex for the fun of it.
9. Kitchens- if they're not in the bathroom, they're in the kitchen. I think this is a function of my family life, where at every party, everyone ends up in the kitchen. It's the hub of the house, where things happen. You can always give the characters something to do in the kitchen.
10. Happy or hopeful endings - not always, "And they lived happily ever after," but usually, "And things weren't going to suck so much anymore." I can't take downbeat endings. I mean, yeah, okay sometimes the story requires one, but usually, I like to make with the happy or the hopeful - that things can and will get better.
Huh.
That was interesting. And not easy to come up with, except for the communication, hooker and bathroom ones.
~victoria
link
[current mood: thoughtful, cold]
[current music: Big Mouth Strikes Again - the Smiths]
[random quote: Sweetness, sweetness I was only joking when I said I'd like to smash every tooth in your head]
~*~
11.03.02 - 12:38 p.m.
chlexark
This isn't the story I'd planned on writing, and it's certainly not my stupid novel, but uh, yeah, porn.
***
Goodbyes
Chloe grinned at Clark as she reached into the glass on the night table and picked up an ice cube. She slowly ran it down the center-line of Lex's chest. Lex squirmed, but the scarves tying him to the bed posts held.
She leaned forward, her tongue darting out to lick the moisture from his smooth skin, enjoying the taste of fine old brandy mixed with the sweat and from his body.
Clark moved closer, trying to watch both of them at once. The dim light of the dying fire cast the rest of the room into shadow. Lex and Chloe were a beacon of white and golden skin against the dark sheets. Lex hissed as Chloe circled first one nipple and then the other with the rapidly melting ice cube.
Clark moved onto the bed, nudging Chloe over. She frowned at him, but he ignored her, bending his head to lick at Lex's damp nipples. She had to smile at his possessiveness, and his inability to keep from touching Lex. She knew that this would probably be their last night together like this.
Once Clark went to Metropolis, there would be no need for her, the beard to hide his relationship with Lex. The fact that the three of them would sometimes come together like this, in heat and need and hard, urgent touches would be forgotten, another secret oddity amongst Smallville's unquestionable strangeness.
Her heart welled with love for both of them. She knew they loved her, too, but that their feelings for each other were far deeper and less easily explained in words.
But they were her boys, now, and she wanted to please them.
She trailed a finger down Clark's cheek. He turned his head to smile at her as she scooted down the bed.
Clark's cock was warm and hard in her hand, already slick from her mouth and his come. Lex moaned again, and Clark covered his mouth, slipping his tongue inside. Chloe knew their tastes were mingled there, and she felt another flush of warmth between her legs.
She licked the head of Lex's cock, enjoying the slick, saltiness of it, and the way Lex's body arched into her. Clark's hand skated over her body and then tangled in her hair. She looked up to see him dropping kisses along Lex's jaw.
"Chloe." Lex's voice was hoarse and demanding.
She didn't answer with words; with the hand not busy stroking Clark, she squeezed Lex's balls, rolling them between her fingers as she took him deeper into her mouth, savoring the way his body writhed beneath her.
Clark reached down and grabbed Chloe's hand as he pressed another kiss to Lex's mouth. He then slid down the bed, rubbing himself against Lex in the process. Lex's eyes were closed, his body tense and arched as he reacted to the sensations his lovers produced.
Clark slipped behind Chloe, and she trembled with excitement as he rubbed his cock against her ass.
Clark ran a finger down the cleft in her ass before slipping between the wet folds of her sex to stroke her clit.
She moaned deep in her throat, the vibration causing Lex to jerk again at the bonds holding him. "I wish you'd let me touch you," he ground out.
She just laughed around his cock, making his hips buck.
"Later," Clark promised. "We've got all night."
Chloe sighed in pleasure as Clark slowly slid into her, pushing her hips back against him, trying to get him to move faster.
She grabbed Lex's hips hard when Clark pulled all the way out and then slammed back into her, riding her roughly.
She hummed with pleasure, bringing Lex to climax. He spurted into her mouth and she swallowed hard, so proud to have mastered her gag reflex after all these months together.
"Chloe," Lex moaned again.
She raised her head, licking his come off her lips. She nuzzled at his belly, dropping kisses along his hip bones.
She was so close to coming herself, with Clark's cock inside her and his finger circling her clit. She rubbed her breasts against Lex's cock, the friction against her nipples contributing to the overwhelming wave of pleasure that swelled and broke through her. Her body convulsed, shuddering, as Clark pumped into her. He leaned forward and fastened his lips to her neck, grunting as he came.
They collapsed into a sweaty, sticky heap on the bed.
After a few silent moments to regain her breath, Chloe slinked up to the head of the bed where she kissed Lex deeply. Clark joined her, and their three tongues slid against each other, first in Lex's mouth, then in hers.
Clark untied Lex as they kissed, and he wrapped his lovers in his arms.
"You'll pay for tying me up," he murmured, sated.
"Bring it on, Luthor," Chloe said, dropping her head on his chest sleepily.
"We can take it," Clark agreed, curling up on Lex's other side. "We'll even give you a few minutes to recover."
Lex laughed softly, and they were all content.
***
I figured out that I could work the logistics easier if I were writing Chloe's POV instead of Clark's.
There may be more, or not. I'm not sure.
~victoria
link
[current mood: horny]
[current music: NYC Marathon on tv]
[random quote: Look, but don't touch. Touch, but don't taste! Taste, don't swallow.]
~*~
11.02.02 - 9:58 p.m.
The One Where I Lecture
I've linked to some good entries on fannish stuff in the LJ - everyone should go read.
So I've been thinking more about this stuff - feeling marginalized, how one becomes a BNF, why the term has such negative connotations, and it all comes down to this:
"God help you if you are an ugly girl, of course, too pretty is also your doom 'cause everyone harbors a secret hatred for the prettiest girl in the room. God help you if you are a phoenix and you dare to rise up from the ash. A thousand eyes will smolder with jealousy while you were just flying past." ~ 32 Flavors Ani DiFranco
Sarah T. points out, quite rightly, that participating heavily in media fandom already marginalizes us. Peggy goes on to say that, amongst the big fringe element that is fandom, many people expect that they'll be accepted like long-lost kin, no questions asked.
But the fact of the matter is, humans are tribal animals, pack animals. We're social and hierarchical. Therefore, whenever a group gets together, be it in person or online, to work or to play or to sing Kumbaya or write gay underage alien porn, there are going to be people who stand out as leaders, people who are followers, people who straggle and people who are at the fringes, bitching and moaning about the leadership and its lacks, perceived and realistic.
This is human nature, and it's not going to change, no matter how much we all want to just get along.
The thing is, though, that *anyone* can become well-known and a leader. And you don't have to have an original idea in your head if you're good at other things - infrastructure, or critique, graphics, list-modding, sending feedback and encouraging writers... All of these things are necessary for fandom to be as enjoyable an experience as it is.
And if you're not enjoying it, get the hell out.
Seriously.
Because if your leisure activities are giving you stress, it's not worth it. Write, vid, make graphics, but don't engage with other fans until you can be sure you're not going to give yourself an ulcer.
Because it's the fans that make fandom suck when it sucks.
On the BNF tip, Jenny-O is right. Most of the people who are BNFs have worked their asses off, not to get that title (which is apparently a pejorative anyway) but because that's the kind of personalities they have - the gain enjoyment out of sharing with other people or organizing other people, or hell, they're just that good as writers.
And here's the secret - most everyone in fandom wants, in some way or another, to be a BNF, to have the name recognition that a Te or a Kate Bolin has. Because it's recognition, and who doesn't crave that? I know I do.
I'm also experienced enough to know that certain people get it and certain people never do. Just like being cool. You can't try too hard for it. You either have 'it' or you don't, regardless of whether or not you want it.
It'd be nice if all the people who don't get along could just ignore each other and stay in their own little contiguous but not quite overlapping circles, and these kerfuffles could be avoided. It'd be nice if people, when arguing debating could eschew the ad hominem and realize that other people have valid opinions and that this doesn't make them wrong or evil. (Except for people who like the Islanders. You're wrong *and* evil.) It'd be nice if people who are in the minority in a fandom would stop acting like martyrs, and if the majority would cop to the occasions that they use their numbers to drown out those minority voices.
But it ain't ever gonna happen, you know?
So we could all sit here wishing until the cows come home (and give us some chocolate milk) or we could just do what we do best, whatever that is - write fic, make graphics, post meta essays, poke fun at the people taking themselves too seriously, squee over the pretty people and get back to real, serious, world-shaking dilemmas, like whether or not it's okay to wear black shoes with navy blue.
On the couch front, it could still be up to four weeks before it's delivered, so *whew*.
~victoria
link
[current mood: preachy]
[current music: A Sort of Homecoming - U2]
[random quote: \"I'm an extraordinary bitching pain in the ass.\" Beau Felton, HLotS]
~*~
11.02.02 - 4:44 p.m.
One if by land, two if by seas... the couch is coming! The couch is coming!
I just got an email last night saying it's been shipped.
Um, hello? No room for the couch until the bookshelves are in, and the bookshelves aren't coming until the 16th.
Sigh.
Must call PB and find out what this means and when I can expect delivery. I mean, it sure hasn't been 8-10 weeks since I ordered the stuff. I was counting on that lag, that inefficience, to get the books all shelved and out of boxes, but now...
Gah.
On the upside, I did go to Target and get Alyssa's Christmas outfit - it's all sparkly and velvet, so I think she'll like it. *And* I finished shopping for Nicki's Christmas present, and my brothers, bought two new lipsticks and a pair of fuzzy slippers for here at the parents', 'cause when my feet get cold, I get really cranky.
And speaking of which, I love it when people respond with insults that any 12year old would laugh at. My head is apparently pointy. Gee, that really hurt. ::rolls eyes:: With the discourse at that level, I'm glad I opted out.
I have apologized to Kathe, because it's her LJ and I shouldn't be nasty in someone else's playground. That's just rude. But otherwise, my opinion of Miss Windy has only sunk lower, which I didn't think was possible.
Whatever.
I really am going to nap now.
Maybe more later. I still have a little writing survey I've been meaning to fill out.
~victoria
link
[current mood: sleepy]
[current music: Notre Dame - BC]
[random quote: ]
~*~
11.01.02 - 9:57 p.m.
Musings on Firefly
Random Firefly thoughts (vague, no spoilers):
Kaylee is adorable, but she has execrable taste in clothes.
So happy to see the old guy tell off the bitches, and Kaylee in her element was too cute. Mal's a jerk for being mean to her. Stupid men.
Inara is still boring, perfect and annoying. She's like Lana 500 years from now.
Atherton was an Adam Carrington wannabe, and you know what I mean.
That was Larry! Larry from LA Law.
Edited to add: Benny from LA Law, not Larry. The actor's name is Larry. Sheesh. My mind is going. *g*
Jayne cracks my shit up.
Zoe is hot as balls. Mrrorrw. I need me a Zoe icon. Wash is a cutie too.
Can they ditch the boring doctor guy and his nutty sister? Boring....
Mal is a hottie. And was that a space pants reference?
Sword fights are always fun.
"You think you're better than everyone else." "No, I only think I'm better than people I'm better than." Heh. That's my motto.
Cows! Cows in Space!
I bet Miss Piggy is suing.
In NaNuNaNu news, 450 words. God that's only a *quarter* of what I need to do each day to reach 50,000.
I suck.
But Firefly wasn't bad. I still can't take it seriously, but the dialogue is getting better, even with the hackneyed westernisms and the random Chinese.
~victoria
link
[current mood: slow]
[current music: Hemorrhage in My Hand - Fuel]
[random quote: Two men enter, one man leaves.]
~*~
11.01.02 - 1:02 p.m.
Reading & 'Riting
Couple memes on books and writing:
Twinkledru's meme, gacked from MaidenJedi:
We've all got characters we write about more than others. So do you find yourself using the same words or phrases to describe them over and over? Let's go for 5 characters, 3-5 words/phrases per character.
Rogue: her neck - I'm obsessed with her neck for some reason, especially "the slim, white column of her neck" and many variations of that phrase; her skin (duh) - poison skin, lethal skin, toxic skin, skin that can kill with the slightest touch etc.; waiting - Rogue is always waiting for something or hoping or looking. But I try not to make her too passive. I want her active as she's waiting. Outspoken when she feels she's being stepped on or taken advantage of.
Logan: he growls. He stalks. He catches scents. He knows a lot of things. I use the phrase "he knows" so frequently I should strike it from my lexicon. But he knows things and still fights against the knowledge.
Scott: Scott is always snarky. Always. Even when going through the worst day of his life. He's cocky. He's helpful - he's always willing to give advice. He's in control, or he appears to be in control at all times. He's also a big yenta.
Jean: Calm. Compassionate. Smart. A good listener. And not shy about giving the men in her life a piece of her mind when they deserve it.
Chloe: Chloe is always thinking. Her mind is always going, and usually, her mouth is too. She's caffeinated or quick.
Huh. That was hard, since I tend to write about the same characters over and over.
and
The Alternate Friday Five, gacked from herself_nyc:
1. A book you wish you'd written.
Only one?
Damn. Absalom, Absalom. Because there is nothing that is not in this book. Manifest destiny. Love. Hate. War. Incest. Miscegenation. Troths that don't plight. Narrative theory. History. Family.
I started a screenplay adaptation that I never finished, because, heh, what are the odds of me ever getting the rights and casting Willem Dafoe as Thomas Sutpen?
2. An author you respect, and why.
Stephen King.
Because so many people don't, and dammit, the man works hard. He's no Shakespeare, or even Hemingway, but he writes great characters and fun plots and he does it frequently and did it when he had nothing and well, read On Writing. I have tremendous respect for him, his writing ability and his earnings.
3. A book you love even though you think it's kind of trashy.
Heh.
How much time you got?
The Belgariad and the Malloreon. (Okay, I cheated. That's 10 books. *g*)
I just love it. I don't know why. Eddings is a poor-to-mediocre writer, the story is well, it's been done and better, and the inherent racism/classism of the social structure of the world he set up grates more and more with each passing year, but I still love them and will pick up random volumes to read various sections on occasion, as well as rereading the whole shebang at least once a year.
4. A book that's had a real impact on your life. Describe.
As a writer:
Oh god. Lord of the Rings made me want to write, to create my own worlds and people them with my own characters speaking their own language that only I could create and decode.
It made me, as I got older, realize the value of a true ending, not just a fake happy one, and that a good ending didn't have to be "and they lived happily ever after" but one in which the characters always stay true to themselves.
Also, mood - the mood of the book(s) is mournful, wistful - sorrowing even, and that melancholia has influenced a lot of my best writing.
As a person?
Hmm... Catcher in the Rye as trite as that sounds. Because I'm all about trying not to be a phony, and about identifying the phoniness in others and calling them on it. A Separate Peace made me realize that things aren't always fair or clear and that even best friends can have resentment and motivations that may be darker than you'd ever expect.
5. The book that you most often find yourself recommending to people.
Aside from Absalom, Absalom, which always gets me funny looks?
Here are five:
Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets by David Simon - The Book on which The Best Damn Show on Television (1993-99) is based. Anyone who loves police procedurals, good storytelling, non-fiction, detective novels and/or a depiction of urban life in the 20th century ought to read this.
Possession: A Romance by AS Byatt - just great exploration of the relationship between readers and texts, writers and texts, past and present and between people.
LA Confidential by James Ellroy - even more than American Tabloid, which I may like better (not sure). Just because the movie was fabulous and the book was fabulous in a whole different way. Seemingly scattershot stuff over years all of a sudden pulls together into a cohesive, mind-blowing story of corruption.
Dreamhouse by Allison Habens - Alice, retold for modern times. Love this book. Love it.
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith - Prose so real and sharp you could cut yourself on it. Characters so vividly drawn you feel like you've known them forever and don't want the story to end. Emotions evoked so strongly that you're living the story with Cassandra and Rose.
Working on watchfic, plus another meme. Plus! Two new L/R fics today - woohoo! One by Ransom, who is quickly going to become my new favorite writer if she posts regularly (pet her, please) and Jamie! Jamie's back! Squee!
Also, my impressions of The Ring are up in the LJ.
~victoria
link
[current mood: busy]
[current music: The new Pretenders song]
[random quote: There are monsters there are angels There's a peacefulness and a rage inside us all There is sugar there is salt There is i]
~*~
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The painting is "Boreas" by John William Waterhouse. Again, not a muse, but I like her. She suits the color scheme.
The quote is from Sir Philip Sidney.
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