Everyone I Ever Was and Everyone I Ever Will Be

“Comment to this post with “I love libraries!” and I will give you seven topics I want you to talk about. They might make sense or they might be totally random. Then post that list to your own blog with your commentary.”

Zombres gave me:

Greek mythology!
Steampunk!
Werewolves!
OT3s!
Jeffrey Dean Morgan!
Gay rights!
Formative Film Experiences!



Greek mythology:

One of my first loves. The first book I can really remember reading is D’Aulaires’ Book of Greek Myths— the illustrations were just gorgeous and the stories had me hooked. Then I kindof got to rediscover everything all over again as I got older and realized, “Wow, there are a lot of rapist douchebags in these stories”. I will also grumble about Hades not being a bad guy in the stories to anyone within earshot when something like Clash of the Titans or Hercules or … well, 3/4 of Greek Mythology movies come on.

Steampunk:

One of my latest loves. ;) I really started getting into it at an anime convention Ashley took me to last year; they had several steampunk booths in the vending area and I was immediately addicted. I’ve combined my first and latest loves and am working on a steampunk novel about the Greek Gods and Goddessess. One of my main concerns with it is that I’ll accidentally do the literary equivalent of the “stick a gear on it and call it steampunk” thing that seems to be a constant grumble in the craft circles. So research research research.

Werewolves:

I do not care if they’re one of the major standbys/cliches/tropes/what have you of the horror genre, I adore them. In the same way I adore haunted houses and vampires (okay, aside from the Twilight version)— they’re timeless, and so much can be done with the idea. Possibilities everywhere! The ones who can control when they change and the ones who can’t; the ones who keep some shred of their humanity after they turn and those who don’t; full-out wolf or some combination of the human and the animal; gimme them all.

OT3s:

My bread and butter, and I’m constantly finding new ones. Just today I read one of goddamnhella’s fics, which was Tony/Loki/Pepper, and HNGH. I just love the character interaction potential, and OT3 stories tend to have more than their fair share of snark, and I’m big on my snark. That type of romance is starting to show up more and more in my novels, too, which doesn’t surprise me one bit. Though I cannot seem to figure out whether the endgame in the Greek Steampunk novel might be Aphrodite/Dionysus/Ariadne, or Aphrodite/Dionysus/Hephaestus, and I have the sinking feeling that “hey, why not three?” is going to quickly turn into “hey, why not four?” My brain is clearly not going to be satisfied until I write a novel called “First There was Drama but then Everyone had an Orgy”.

((OT3s I love can also be platonic: see zombres’s Weird USA, with Charlie, Olivia, and Ben. There are some characters who are great on their own, fantastic playing off of one other person, but get the three of them together and everyone just SHINES.))

Jeffrey Dean Morgan:

So I have a feeling it would be cheating if I just keysmashed for this entire entry. ;) I first saw him on Supernatural (wish I could still see him there on occasion, AHEM WRITERS) and then in P.S. I Love You. By this time I was in fangirly enough mode that I went ahead and looked up some pictures online, and also found some interviews. He rescued and bottle-fed a two-day old puppy. He saw a guy beating his girlfriend and ACTUALLY INTERFERED instead of doing the whole ‘eh, it’s not my business’ thing that’s so horrifically widespread. He seems to be a genuinely good guy, and see above: keysmash-levels of attractiveness. I’ll basically watch anything he’s in (except Grey’s Anatomy. That I just cannot do. Sorry!)

Gay rights:

Should not be any different than ‘straight rights’. That seems absolutely obvious to me now, but it didn’t always. I grew up (and still live) in the middle of the Bible Belt, and “Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve” is still considered witty commentary in way too many places here. The “I don’t really care one way or another because nothing they do hurts me, but— ew. I just don’t get it” is really one of the better attitudes I’ve found. ((don’t even get me started on ‘love the sinner, hate the sin’ bullshit)) It wasn’t anything that really crossed my mind for a long time, and then during stage setup for one of our plays, a friend of mine put on the soundtrack to RENT. And it was literally like nothing I’d ever heard, told from the pov of people whom I’d always heard spoken about in sneering tones, if they were spoken about at all. I remember thinking, “okay, if I’m wrong about that, what else am I wrong about?” And thus a conservative became a liberal. :)

Formative Film Experiences:

Stand By Me— LOVE ETERNAL. The first Stephen King movie I ever saw. It came out when I was five (yes, I am an Old Lady of Thirty) and I think I saw it about three/four years later. Can still quote it in full, and it remains the movie with the absolute best film-dialogue-to-ending-song transition ever for me.

FernGully— my love of faeries, OT3s, animation, and extraordinarily bright colors can all probably be traced back to this film. First soundtrack I ever bought.

Labyrinth— Given the aforementioned Greek Mythology love, anything about a labyrinth was immediately interesting for me. This was the movie I’d most always put on first any time I was home sick from school (other one was Muppet Christmas Carol). Also, when I first saw it I identified with Sarah so. much. Watched it again recently, thought that she was being such a brat at the beginning. Heh.

Beauty and the Beast— Favorite fairy tale! A heroine who’s a bookworm! SIGN ME UP. The animation and the music are so gorgeous.

My cousin and I also used to build enormous pillow forts on/around the couch and watch a triple feature of The Little Mermaid, Singin’ in the Rain, and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang just about every weekend.

http://www.invisiblechildren.com/

http://kony2012.com/


Hopefully the websites will work; they've been having spotty service because they've been accessed a TON today, and good for them. A lot of the stuff involved is triggery as hell, though, so make sure you're in a good headspace to handle that before you try to look.

Comment to this post, and I will list seven things I want you to talk about. They might make sense or they might be totally random.

Then post that list, with your commentary, to your journal. Other people can get lists from you, and the meme merrily perpetuates itself.


Angie gave me these:

01. What is your cast-iron, forever favourite fairy tale?

Beauty and the Beast. Pardon while I sound like a complete dork, but it is a timeless story. And it shows up everywhere. ((hello, Wicked-the-musical)) Also, it has a happy ending, which is basically required for something to hit my favorites list.

02. You could bring one fictional character to life. Who do you choose?

What have I ever done to you?!? AUGH INDECISIVENESS.

I will resist the immediate smartass answer of "anyone Tom Hiddleston's played".

Hmmmm.

Possibly Harry Dresden. There would be no more boring days ever (though various people's life spans could be threatened by ghosts/demons/random dinosaurs, so...)

Or Sherlock Holmes. But I'd have to be able to bring Watson too because it just wouldn't be fair to either of them otherwise.

Ooooh! The Firefly crew! (that counts as one; they are a matched set dammit)

03. You have a time machine: what's one period in history/major event that you would NEVER EVER WANT TO GO NEAR NO MATTER WHAT?

After reading 11/22/63, I'd have to say the Kennedy assassination. Closely followed by WWII. I'd have an allergy attack and Hitler would win or something.

04. If someone gave you the opportunity to look into the future, would you and why/why not?

No. I literally cannot pick up a book and read it or watch a movie if I've seen/read the last part, so I can only imagine what kind of mental fit I'd have from looking into the actual future.
Unless we're talking only far enough ahead to get some winning lottery numbers. Then, hell yes.

05. Name one show or book that you've always meant to pick up but haven't yet.

Only one?? Doctor Who. Sherlock. Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Percy Jackson and the Olympians. I NEED AN ALTERNATE SELF WHO CAN JUST DO FANDOM THINGS.

06. Which movie would you consider your guiltiest pleasure?

Sabertooth. SyFy Original, Josh Holloway, HORRIFIC AND SO DORKY. I'm pretty sure the cat changes color from scene to scene. And I love it.

07. In terms of personal accomplishments, what are you most proud of?

Well, I'm pretty proud that I don't seem to have given the kidlets huge psychological problems yet. ;)

Writing-wise, In the Darkness Find Me, because that's the first book I put out that was entirely mine, flaws and all. Once Faerietale's done my answer's going to switch to that, not because of the 'entirely mine' thing but because I've always wanted to have something to do with a reimagined-fairy-tales project and that one is SO AWESOME. :D

Serious-subject wise, I haven't self-harmed in over a year. I remember when making it three days seemed impossible. Take that, depression.

I really should be writing

but I have been sucked into the black hole of Tumblr

if I am never seen again somebody play Florence + the Machine at my funeral

How did a movie with THAT cast make me want to never ever EVER watch it again??

( Read more... )

At least Girl With the Dragon Tattoo didn't sell itself as something it's not and I knew to avoid the hell out of it.

Off to go watch something cheerful now.

Originally posted by electricdruid at The fiasco continues

I hate when this happens. . .

I finished up a short fic for Tumblr.

I finished reading 11/22/63 ((AMAZING BOOK)).

Which means I am in-between writing projects and in-between novels. And what invariably happens when both things hit at the same time is my brain looks at all my writing projects, looks at the enormous pile of books in my office, and promptly freezes up.

So I end up bouncing from website to website (or, lately, scrolling through Tumblr), and then I get depressed and annoyed at myself because I'm not getting anything done.

I need to become better at decision-making.

Rev. Mark Sandlin: Clobbering "Biblical" Gay Bashing

Oh sure, this time around we have “softened” our approach, saying things like “hate the sin, love the sinner,” but we fail to recognize that what we are calling a “sin” and the person we are calling a “sinner” are one and the same. A person whose sexual orientation is homosexual, or bi-sexual, or queer can no more separate themselves from their sexuality than a heterosexual person can. It's like saying “hate the toppings, love the pizza.” It's just not the pizza without the toppings. We just aren't loving the person if we don't love the whole person.

....

You see, the Bible not only promotes marriage between a man and a woman, but it insists that that marriage be within the same faith. Not only should a wife be subordinate (Ephesians 5:22), but she should also prove her virginity... lest she be stoned (Deuteronomy 22:20-21). Oh, and the whole thing would probably be much better if it were arranged (Genesis 24:37-38). And that's just the warm up act.