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shadowkat1. Hee. Flist is filled with "Welcome to DW, Tumblr refugees" and "How to handle the Tumblr purge". (I'm experiencing a sense of deja vue. The last time this happened was when LJ went wonky. Then it happened again when FB went wonky. I'm waiting for Twitter to go wonky.)
As far as paid accounts go? I don't have one. I left LJ partly because I became aware that I could only access my journal if I agreed to their contractual terms (ie. they get to do whatever they want with my content, eh no) or get a paid account (eh, no, although I'm glad other people are -- because, otherwise this site would not exist or be able to be maintained. They have to get the money from somewhere -- I'd rather it be paid subscribers than advertisers.) And I checked -- and apparently the only thing I'm really missing out on is the polls. Considering I sucked at polls and spent most of my time arguing with people about how to do a poll correctly and why didn't I put in that option instead, no big loss. Do miss them though. It was a quick way of testing the waters. Also a good way to see who is reading your journal.
I will warn the Tumblr refugees of a few things - 1) Images are frigging hard to post on DW. I don't have the knack for it. You have to have your images stored on a separate URL site, and copy that url here... and it doesn't always work the way you want it too. Also you can't export images from another site to this one. My LJ images and polls did not transfer over. 2) You need a paid account for polls.
If you're just friending me? Read my Bio on my profile page. I started on LJ in 2003, and started a DW journal since its inception, then transferred my LJ to DW in full in 2014, then again in 2015, and finally in 2017. LJ was deleted in 2017. I post almost daily. On whatever I please or comes to mind, the sky's the limit, hence the title Spontaneous Musings. I did try Tumblr and do have a Tumblr page -- but it never quite worked for me. (I like to write more than post visuals online. It may have to do with my background in copyright law. I used to have to get rights to online content to put into a series of online library reference database -- and images are really frigging hard to get rights to.)
Fandoms? Haven't really been in one in a while. Although I've been posting frequently on The Good Place, Doctor Who, and occasionally other series. Also, I have been a fan of the X-men since I was 18. (This is going on...hmmm...over thirty-some years now?)
2. Reading Meme
Eh, I'm thinking I may be finally done with romance novels. The one I'm reading now entitled "Hello Stranger! (The Ravenales)" by Lisa Keyplas -- spends way too much time on sex scenes and in depth details on medical procedures. It's annoying. There's an interesting set-up here, which the writer doesn't appear to be that interested in. We have a government agent who has uncovered a plot to blow up innocent people. He's the bastard son of a British Earl, who was adopted by an Irish prison guard and grew up around a prison. He's fascinated by locks and creating locks, and has all these patents on locks. (The author also spends a lot of time explaining the different varieties of locks.) He falls in love with the only female doctor in London, who works for a clinic catering to working class people. He met her when he was hired to trail after her and ensure her safety. They fall into lust then into love. The government agent after he steals a bunch of papers, and attempts (unsuccessfully) to blow the whistle on his boss, gets shot and falls into the Thames. He's rescued, she saves him. And now they are at his distant cousin's estate -- who he wouldn't have anything to do with -- because he hates the Ravenals (or anyone associated with his biological father). He's indebted to the father who raised him, even though that guy got drunk a lot and beat his mother for sleeping with his biological dad to make ends meet. The distant cousin saves his life.
Do we get the relationship between him and the cousin? OR much on the plot? Just a summary. We get it but smidgens. No, 98% of the time is spent on boring and somewhat cringe-inducing sex scenes. I'd forgotten how bad Keyplas is at writing sex scenes. They are lying on a picnic blanket in full daylight. "He revealed her breasts, studied the pink tips and brushed them to peaks, then sucked them." It goes on. And on. And on. And on. And on. I started to skim. Erotic, it's not.
There's two or three pages of plot, maybe half a page of dialogue to ten to twenty pages of sex scenes. Also lots and lots of pages on locks and medical procedure. I'm guessing the writer did some research? I mean the medical procedures are interesting...but I wanted more.
That said, the heroine is strong. She can take care of herself. No wilting violet. And the hero is well likable. He's a self-made man -- made his money off of designing locks. Can't fault that. There aren't any balls. Just a crowded soiree -- where they steal the papers. The villians are moustache twirling sociopaths. And I think it's the late 1800s, feels like the late 1800s. No one is at war, and the only Rebellion is with the Irish. Also Lister is mentioned. And it's before motor vehicles or the industrial revolution really came into prominence. Although factories are mentioned, so maybe early 1900s, just post Victorian Age?
And the fact that the heroine is a Doctor, and the hero a government assassin and locksmith is sort of new.
Just wish there was more focus on character, dialogue, and plot and less on sex scenes. The writer is better at the dialogue and character than she is at the sex scenes. Oh well, it is a romance novel -- I may be expecting more from it than it can possibly deliver.
Still, I can't help but think...how everyone keeps telling me how necessary editors are and that traditionally published books have them? Yet, book after book that I've read this year -- seemed to lack that very thing, a good editor. I don't think people edit books any longer -- unless the writer goes out and hires a line-editor themselves. Because I'm not seeing it from the publishing companies. Self-published books -- yes (people who are hiring editors), traditionally published books (writers depending on the publishing company or their agent to edit) - no. Take Harper Lee's Go Tell the Watchman -- that was a book published by a trade publishing company. She didn't self-publish it. They just chose not to edit it. And I have my doubts they are editing much else at the moment.
Editors are good people. They just no longer reside in publishing companies apparently. (OR genre publishing companies.)
I've decided to read "Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeymei - this is dystopian YA fantasy novel by a Nigerian-American Writer. I sampled it on Amazon and liked the writing style, so we shall see. Normally me and YA novels are unmixy things. But this one takes place in Africa and there's a heavy focus on West African Mythology and Folklore, which appeals to me. Most of the dystopian YA's I've read are white American novels that take place in the US or White Western/Northern European that take place in Europe. OR White Australian novels that take place in Australia. This looks like a change of pace.
Also, I'm currently writing two books with African-American female protagonists. One of which features a white male protagonist who is bisexual and a sex therapist. I'm basically playing with how people label or falsely identify themselves by race, gender, sexual orientation, and occupation. I'm not sure it's working, but I feel the need to write it -- just to see where it goes, whether or not it ever gets published. I'm not really telling anyone about it. The only people who know I'm writing this thing are well, you guys, and my mother (who doesn't know what to make of it, and gets real quiet every time I bring it up. But I figure, quid pro quo, if I have to listen to the inner-workings of my father's plumbing system, she can listen to me talk about my crazy book.) The other one is sci-fi, about a freedom fighter is dystopian world negotiating a peace treaty with the alien invaders, turns out that the aliens may not have been the true villians here -- I like moral ambiguity.
In between, I'll probably read a bunch of comic books. I like comic books. They are quick reading and have cool pictures. (I'm a visual person. I like comic books, but have yet to make it through an audio book that has not been read by James Marsters. I bought Wolf Hall -- but I can't make it through Wolf Hall. My mind wanders when people read to me now. I do not know why. I need to be physically engaged with the material in order to truly absorb it.)
3. Ever since they killed off the X-men leader Cyclops aka Scott Summers in 2016 or 2015, can't remember which, I've been checking to see when he's coming back.
Because I'm not interested in the comics unless Cyclops is in it. And I was pissed at how they killed him off -- they had built this rich and tortured character, and then killed him off -- off-screen, not only that, but did all this character assignation in between. (Although, unlike a lot of X-men fans, I didn't think Cyke was in the wrong during Avengers vs. X-men, I thought Captain America, Wolverine and Iron Man were -- and it was their combined actions along with Professor X's hubris that lead to his death, and the rest of it. The writer's wrote that in a very disturbing manner. The Avengers were pseudo fascist for a while there...also Scarlett Witch and Quicksilver are treated like heroes throughout this -- after causing the genocide of their own race, but never mind.)Add to the above, they did it all to promote and build a television series and comic franchise around The Inhumans, which were to step in for the X-men. Colossal mistake. Number one -- no one cares about the Inhumans. We barely see them in the comics prior to Marvel Agents of Shield. Number two -- MAoS -- doesn't have the fanbase that the X-men do. (It doesn't even come close. It's mainly television viewers and rather small group at that.) And three -- neither has the rich back-history or metaphors that X-men have, not to mention characterization. But alas, Marvel didn't own the rights to X-men movie franchise, 20th Century Fox did. Now that Marvel's parent company, Disney, has bought 20th Century Fox -- it owns those rights again, and as a result, the X-men are back. (That's why I was happy about Disney buying Fox, I wanted to see the X-men.) Also the Inhumans series failed spectacularly. (It wasn't THAT bad. I watched it. A heck of lot more entertaining than MAoS, which refuses to take any "real" risks and falls completely flat as a result, dramatically speaking. Inhumans took risks. They may have misfired, but at least they took them.)
Anyhow...finally, after two years of sporadically checking and multiple teases, they are bringing Cyke. (They first had to resurrect Jean Grey, Professor X, and the original Wolverine. I don't know why they had to resurrect the original Wolverine, we had two versions of Wolverine wandering around. A female clone or daughter and Old Man Logan.) I think they may have sent the teen versions of Cyke, Iceman, Beast, Angel and Jean Grey back to the past finally, and hopefully with a memory wipe.
Marvel Teases Wolverine and Cyclops are the Last X-men in Uncanny X-men 12 -- so apparently we may have to wait a few issues for Cyke to reunite with the rest of the X-men who are in an alternate universe at this point?
I like the comments I've read about this from various sources..."The best X-man (Cyke) and the Worst (Wolverine) team up" -- that surprised me. Why? Well from 2013-2017, everyone loved Wolvie and hated Cyke. Cyke was the most hated character. Now it's flipped. I think that's because the writers over-exposed poor Wolvie and people felt Cyke got dumped on (he died off-screen from M-Pox, Emma Frost framed him for the War with the Inhumans and the Terrigen Mists...when in reality he was dead, and she was doing all this in his name, and he got blamed pretty much for everything -- which annoyed me. It's the defense lawyer in me, I don't like it when innocent people get blamed for other people's decisions.) And the other comment? Cyke and Wolvie pairings are really cool.
They truly are. Best bro-romances?
* Cyclops and Wolverine
* Spike and Angel, also Spike and Xander (basically Spike and any guy in either series, because Marsters had chemistry with a phone book.)
* Angel and Wesley.
* Spock and Kirk
* Apollo and Starbuck (BS v. 1, which is why I shipped Starbuck and Apollo in BSG.)
* Captain Jack and Doctor Who
* Doctor Who and The Master
* Sherlock and Watson
* Loki and Thor
* Iron Man and pretty much any guy in the series, because Robert Downy Jr has chemistry with a phone book.
* Crichton and Scorpius
* Crichton and D'Argo
* Han and Luke
* Arthur and Merlin (in the television series Merlin)
* Dean and Sam (Supernatural -- which really was the only reason I watched it. That and Dean and Castiel, because Jensen Ackles apparently has chemistry with every guy).
There may be more...I'm drawing a blank.
So yes, the X-men comics have sucked me back in. We'll see how long it lasts this round. I took a very long break in 2002. Stopped until Astonishing came out in 2004, then stopped again for a really long time, until 2015 or thereabouts. Then went on another long break. Each break had something to do with how the writers ret-conned the series, or a change in direction. I wanted one thing, they did another. Also I'm picky about the art.
But I do love comics. And I have a weakness for super-powers, magic, or supernatural/fantasy.
4. For anyone who is having problems with anxiety and/or depression? You might want to check out Headspace Mindfulness Mediation -- it is the only thing that has worked for me. I don't do it for very long. Maybe 3-10 minutes daily. Sometimes 20 minutes. And I've used the Drift To Sleep one for 60 minutes to get to sleep.
It works. It helps you figure out how to get out of your own head. To recognize that your thoughts are just that, thoughts, and nothing more. They can't hurt you. You can let them go. You can control them. And once you figure that out...it's ...well, I was able to dislodge a panic attack today by breathing and meditation. That's it.
It does take time though. Doesn't happen over night. So, don't expect it to work right off the bat. It's taken me over a year and a half to get to this point. But it does work. And it only takes ten minutes each day.
Also it is free for the first several sessions.
Another suggestion? Turn off the news. I did. I've scaled back. I just read the NY Times Daily Update online, and watch NY1 in the morning. That's it. Really saved my mental health.
Just a recommendation. Feel free to ignore. ;-)
As far as paid accounts go? I don't have one. I left LJ partly because I became aware that I could only access my journal if I agreed to their contractual terms (ie. they get to do whatever they want with my content, eh no) or get a paid account (eh, no, although I'm glad other people are -- because, otherwise this site would not exist or be able to be maintained. They have to get the money from somewhere -- I'd rather it be paid subscribers than advertisers.) And I checked -- and apparently the only thing I'm really missing out on is the polls. Considering I sucked at polls and spent most of my time arguing with people about how to do a poll correctly and why didn't I put in that option instead, no big loss. Do miss them though. It was a quick way of testing the waters. Also a good way to see who is reading your journal.
I will warn the Tumblr refugees of a few things - 1) Images are frigging hard to post on DW. I don't have the knack for it. You have to have your images stored on a separate URL site, and copy that url here... and it doesn't always work the way you want it too. Also you can't export images from another site to this one. My LJ images and polls did not transfer over. 2) You need a paid account for polls.
If you're just friending me? Read my Bio on my profile page. I started on LJ in 2003, and started a DW journal since its inception, then transferred my LJ to DW in full in 2014, then again in 2015, and finally in 2017. LJ was deleted in 2017. I post almost daily. On whatever I please or comes to mind, the sky's the limit, hence the title Spontaneous Musings. I did try Tumblr and do have a Tumblr page -- but it never quite worked for me. (I like to write more than post visuals online. It may have to do with my background in copyright law. I used to have to get rights to online content to put into a series of online library reference database -- and images are really frigging hard to get rights to.)
Fandoms? Haven't really been in one in a while. Although I've been posting frequently on The Good Place, Doctor Who, and occasionally other series. Also, I have been a fan of the X-men since I was 18. (This is going on...hmmm...over thirty-some years now?)
2. Reading Meme
Eh, I'm thinking I may be finally done with romance novels. The one I'm reading now entitled "Hello Stranger! (The Ravenales)" by Lisa Keyplas -- spends way too much time on sex scenes and in depth details on medical procedures. It's annoying. There's an interesting set-up here, which the writer doesn't appear to be that interested in. We have a government agent who has uncovered a plot to blow up innocent people. He's the bastard son of a British Earl, who was adopted by an Irish prison guard and grew up around a prison. He's fascinated by locks and creating locks, and has all these patents on locks. (The author also spends a lot of time explaining the different varieties of locks.) He falls in love with the only female doctor in London, who works for a clinic catering to working class people. He met her when he was hired to trail after her and ensure her safety. They fall into lust then into love. The government agent after he steals a bunch of papers, and attempts (unsuccessfully) to blow the whistle on his boss, gets shot and falls into the Thames. He's rescued, she saves him. And now they are at his distant cousin's estate -- who he wouldn't have anything to do with -- because he hates the Ravenals (or anyone associated with his biological father). He's indebted to the father who raised him, even though that guy got drunk a lot and beat his mother for sleeping with his biological dad to make ends meet. The distant cousin saves his life.
Do we get the relationship between him and the cousin? OR much on the plot? Just a summary. We get it but smidgens. No, 98% of the time is spent on boring and somewhat cringe-inducing sex scenes. I'd forgotten how bad Keyplas is at writing sex scenes. They are lying on a picnic blanket in full daylight. "He revealed her breasts, studied the pink tips and brushed them to peaks, then sucked them." It goes on. And on. And on. And on. And on. I started to skim. Erotic, it's not.
There's two or three pages of plot, maybe half a page of dialogue to ten to twenty pages of sex scenes. Also lots and lots of pages on locks and medical procedure. I'm guessing the writer did some research? I mean the medical procedures are interesting...but I wanted more.
That said, the heroine is strong. She can take care of herself. No wilting violet. And the hero is well likable. He's a self-made man -- made his money off of designing locks. Can't fault that. There aren't any balls. Just a crowded soiree -- where they steal the papers. The villians are moustache twirling sociopaths. And I think it's the late 1800s, feels like the late 1800s. No one is at war, and the only Rebellion is with the Irish. Also Lister is mentioned. And it's before motor vehicles or the industrial revolution really came into prominence. Although factories are mentioned, so maybe early 1900s, just post Victorian Age?
And the fact that the heroine is a Doctor, and the hero a government assassin and locksmith is sort of new.
Just wish there was more focus on character, dialogue, and plot and less on sex scenes. The writer is better at the dialogue and character than she is at the sex scenes. Oh well, it is a romance novel -- I may be expecting more from it than it can possibly deliver.
Still, I can't help but think...how everyone keeps telling me how necessary editors are and that traditionally published books have them? Yet, book after book that I've read this year -- seemed to lack that very thing, a good editor. I don't think people edit books any longer -- unless the writer goes out and hires a line-editor themselves. Because I'm not seeing it from the publishing companies. Self-published books -- yes (people who are hiring editors), traditionally published books (writers depending on the publishing company or their agent to edit) - no. Take Harper Lee's Go Tell the Watchman -- that was a book published by a trade publishing company. She didn't self-publish it. They just chose not to edit it. And I have my doubts they are editing much else at the moment.
Editors are good people. They just no longer reside in publishing companies apparently. (OR genre publishing companies.)
I've decided to read "Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeymei - this is dystopian YA fantasy novel by a Nigerian-American Writer. I sampled it on Amazon and liked the writing style, so we shall see. Normally me and YA novels are unmixy things. But this one takes place in Africa and there's a heavy focus on West African Mythology and Folklore, which appeals to me. Most of the dystopian YA's I've read are white American novels that take place in the US or White Western/Northern European that take place in Europe. OR White Australian novels that take place in Australia. This looks like a change of pace.
Also, I'm currently writing two books with African-American female protagonists. One of which features a white male protagonist who is bisexual and a sex therapist. I'm basically playing with how people label or falsely identify themselves by race, gender, sexual orientation, and occupation. I'm not sure it's working, but I feel the need to write it -- just to see where it goes, whether or not it ever gets published. I'm not really telling anyone about it. The only people who know I'm writing this thing are well, you guys, and my mother (who doesn't know what to make of it, and gets real quiet every time I bring it up. But I figure, quid pro quo, if I have to listen to the inner-workings of my father's plumbing system, she can listen to me talk about my crazy book.) The other one is sci-fi, about a freedom fighter is dystopian world negotiating a peace treaty with the alien invaders, turns out that the aliens may not have been the true villians here -- I like moral ambiguity.
In between, I'll probably read a bunch of comic books. I like comic books. They are quick reading and have cool pictures. (I'm a visual person. I like comic books, but have yet to make it through an audio book that has not been read by James Marsters. I bought Wolf Hall -- but I can't make it through Wolf Hall. My mind wanders when people read to me now. I do not know why. I need to be physically engaged with the material in order to truly absorb it.)
3. Ever since they killed off the X-men leader Cyclops aka Scott Summers in 2016 or 2015, can't remember which, I've been checking to see when he's coming back.
Because I'm not interested in the comics unless Cyclops is in it. And I was pissed at how they killed him off -- they had built this rich and tortured character, and then killed him off -- off-screen, not only that, but did all this character assignation in between. (Although, unlike a lot of X-men fans, I didn't think Cyke was in the wrong during Avengers vs. X-men, I thought Captain America, Wolverine and Iron Man were -- and it was their combined actions along with Professor X's hubris that lead to his death, and the rest of it. The writer's wrote that in a very disturbing manner. The Avengers were pseudo fascist for a while there...also Scarlett Witch and Quicksilver are treated like heroes throughout this -- after causing the genocide of their own race, but never mind.)Add to the above, they did it all to promote and build a television series and comic franchise around The Inhumans, which were to step in for the X-men. Colossal mistake. Number one -- no one cares about the Inhumans. We barely see them in the comics prior to Marvel Agents of Shield. Number two -- MAoS -- doesn't have the fanbase that the X-men do. (It doesn't even come close. It's mainly television viewers and rather small group at that.) And three -- neither has the rich back-history or metaphors that X-men have, not to mention characterization. But alas, Marvel didn't own the rights to X-men movie franchise, 20th Century Fox did. Now that Marvel's parent company, Disney, has bought 20th Century Fox -- it owns those rights again, and as a result, the X-men are back. (That's why I was happy about Disney buying Fox, I wanted to see the X-men.) Also the Inhumans series failed spectacularly. (It wasn't THAT bad. I watched it. A heck of lot more entertaining than MAoS, which refuses to take any "real" risks and falls completely flat as a result, dramatically speaking. Inhumans took risks. They may have misfired, but at least they took them.)
Anyhow...finally, after two years of sporadically checking and multiple teases, they are bringing Cyke. (They first had to resurrect Jean Grey, Professor X, and the original Wolverine. I don't know why they had to resurrect the original Wolverine, we had two versions of Wolverine wandering around. A female clone or daughter and Old Man Logan.) I think they may have sent the teen versions of Cyke, Iceman, Beast, Angel and Jean Grey back to the past finally, and hopefully with a memory wipe.
Marvel Teases Wolverine and Cyclops are the Last X-men in Uncanny X-men 12 -- so apparently we may have to wait a few issues for Cyke to reunite with the rest of the X-men who are in an alternate universe at this point?
I like the comments I've read about this from various sources..."The best X-man (Cyke) and the Worst (Wolverine) team up" -- that surprised me. Why? Well from 2013-2017, everyone loved Wolvie and hated Cyke. Cyke was the most hated character. Now it's flipped. I think that's because the writers over-exposed poor Wolvie and people felt Cyke got dumped on (he died off-screen from M-Pox, Emma Frost framed him for the War with the Inhumans and the Terrigen Mists...when in reality he was dead, and she was doing all this in his name, and he got blamed pretty much for everything -- which annoyed me. It's the defense lawyer in me, I don't like it when innocent people get blamed for other people's decisions.) And the other comment? Cyke and Wolvie pairings are really cool.
They truly are. Best bro-romances?
* Cyclops and Wolverine
* Spike and Angel, also Spike and Xander (basically Spike and any guy in either series, because Marsters had chemistry with a phone book.)
* Angel and Wesley.
* Spock and Kirk
* Apollo and Starbuck (BS v. 1, which is why I shipped Starbuck and Apollo in BSG.)
* Captain Jack and Doctor Who
* Doctor Who and The Master
* Sherlock and Watson
* Loki and Thor
* Iron Man and pretty much any guy in the series, because Robert Downy Jr has chemistry with a phone book.
* Crichton and Scorpius
* Crichton and D'Argo
* Han and Luke
* Arthur and Merlin (in the television series Merlin)
* Dean and Sam (Supernatural -- which really was the only reason I watched it. That and Dean and Castiel, because Jensen Ackles apparently has chemistry with every guy).
There may be more...I'm drawing a blank.
So yes, the X-men comics have sucked me back in. We'll see how long it lasts this round. I took a very long break in 2002. Stopped until Astonishing came out in 2004, then stopped again for a really long time, until 2015 or thereabouts. Then went on another long break. Each break had something to do with how the writers ret-conned the series, or a change in direction. I wanted one thing, they did another. Also I'm picky about the art.
But I do love comics. And I have a weakness for super-powers, magic, or supernatural/fantasy.
4. For anyone who is having problems with anxiety and/or depression? You might want to check out Headspace Mindfulness Mediation -- it is the only thing that has worked for me. I don't do it for very long. Maybe 3-10 minutes daily. Sometimes 20 minutes. And I've used the Drift To Sleep one for 60 minutes to get to sleep.
It works. It helps you figure out how to get out of your own head. To recognize that your thoughts are just that, thoughts, and nothing more. They can't hurt you. You can let them go. You can control them. And once you figure that out...it's ...well, I was able to dislodge a panic attack today by breathing and meditation. That's it.
It does take time though. Doesn't happen over night. So, don't expect it to work right off the bat. It's taken me over a year and a half to get to this point. But it does work. And it only takes ten minutes each day.
Also it is free for the first several sessions.
Another suggestion? Turn off the news. I did. I've scaled back. I just read the NY Times Daily Update online, and watch NY1 in the morning. That's it. Really saved my mental health.
Just a recommendation. Feel free to ignore. ;-)
no subject
Date: 2018-12-07 09:44 am (UTC)There is slightly bending historical probability and there is totally ignoring it.
(The icon is James Miranda Barry, who served for decades as an Army surgeon, revealed on death as a woman, very shortly before the campaign for women's access to formal medical education and admission to the Medical Register in the UK got off the ground.
no subject
Date: 2018-12-07 01:59 pm (UTC)Oh, that makes what the writer is doing even worse -- because she blends all this in-depth historical detail on medical procedures and locks with the fantasy of a heroic female doctor in the Victorian period. If she's going to research historical medical procedures and locks, and put them into a novel, then could she at least fact-check the ability to be female doctor in the Victorian Age, and what that would entail? You'd think that would have been easier? I could have hand-waved it if we didn't have all the other historical detail. And have done so. But the meld of clearly researched historical details with completely false historical information is disconcerting. The writer has superimposed a modern sensibility on a historical novel, granted it is a romance, but she has too much historical details to get away with it.
The more effective historical romance novelists -- focus on the character relationships, and the manners of the time.
no subject
Date: 2018-12-07 02:30 pm (UTC)*She did set up a clinic for working class women and children in Marylebone, but she had women medical students working there to gain clinical experience, she was absolutely central in the campaign for women to enter the profession, not a solitary figure.
no subject
Date: 2018-12-07 04:20 pm (UTC)Okay, that makes more sense. She did the same thing with Garrett that she did with the locks and medical procedures, which is suggest, and provide just enough detail to demonstrate she knew what she was talking about and not throw the (non-expert) reader out of the story. Does explain why more time was spent on sex scenes that character development, etc. The writer was less worried about screwing up the sex scenes. ;-)
no subject
Date: 2018-12-07 09:33 pm (UTC)For meditation and sleep assistance, we use Calm, which works for us — and the husband and I can share the account. It’s still a work in progess (we’ve only been using it three months so far), but it’s helped me start realize when I hit those bad patches. Also, the husband snores, and if I start their sleep music up, then slide the phone under the pillow, the music seems to mask the noise to a degree where it doesn’t interfere with my sleep. Plus, it will shuffle from one sleep track to another all night, which is what I really need if I’m dealing with snoring.
No, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of editing going on at the major houses these days. I know traditionally published romance authors who actually hire development editors before they submit contracted books because they know they won’t get that work from their publisher. And, yeah, the big cry for self-published is “buy as miuch editing as you can afford.” Some folk don’t, but that’s on them.
So looking forward to Cyke and Wolvie back together. They can be such a great pairing in a book, and one that I don’t think has been utilized properly in some time. It was them who had my favorite bit from the first X-Men film, when Wolverine shows up as they’re running around the Statue of Liberty, trying to figure out what shape Mystique is in.
Cyclops: How to we know it’s you?
Wolverine (Pops a very specific claw): You’re a dick.
Cyclops: Yeah, it’s him.
And the teen versions go back next month — or at least, the mini-event that teases their return to the past ends next month.
no subject
Date: 2018-12-08 01:39 am (UTC)but it’s helped me start realize when I hit those bad patches.
That's it exactly. It helps me look at it -- think okay these are just thoughts and I can ignore them and look at this instead. Doesn't always work, but for the most part it's really helping -- far more than anything else has.
I know traditionally published romance authors who actually hire development editors before they submit contracted books because they know they won’t get that work from their publisher. And, yeah, the big cry for self-published is “buy as miuch editing as you can afford.”
This explains a lot. (I've read books that clearly have been edited and one's that haven't, and the one's that haven't are clearly by traditionally published writers who trust the publishing houses to edit their books.) I've been noticing that a lot of writers on Good Reads are asking fans to beta read their books in secret -- they'll send an advance copy to a trusted fan, and have the fan beta it. Which is interesting, although tricky. I tried doing that with one of the books I was writing -- and it didn't quite work, because the fan wasn't a professional editor. (There's a difference, I've noticed.)
My father hired a professional line-editor to proof all his self-published books. He hired her to read both drafts. And he was kind enough to pay for her to read my novel -- he gave me some really good advice - "don't ask amateurs or friends to edit it, go to a professional who you don't know personally or is impartial. Because you're friends will read things into it that aren't there and try to change it to fit their needs.". He was right. I learned that the hard way. Also, he taught me not to attempt to line-edit my own book without another pair of eyes.
When I self-published my last book -- 98% of the expense was the line-editor. And I wisely went with a line-editor instead of copy-editor. Next time, I may get additional line-editing, because word was crappy and refused to accept some of my changes -- and didn't tell me it didn't except them. So as a result, things I knew I'd fixed weren't in the final copy -- it wasn't too bad. Just a few things here and there. But it annoyed the crap out of me when people found them. But I did have two line-editors read it. And I don't regret that.
So looking forward to Cyke and Wolvie back together. They can be such a great pairing in a book, and one that I don’t think has been utilized properly in some time.
Exactly. They complement each other really well. I've read two or three books that paired them. One was Grant Morrison's New X-men, right before Jean's death.
The other was around the Utopia period, right before he put Wolvie in X-Force.
I've decided to read a few of the books to catch-up. Picked up X-men Blue 35, and Extermination 1-4, Uncanny 1, and a couple of others. I'd stopped with Extraordinary 1, and I've read Death of X (for free online -- found it). The internet and e-books have made reading and buying comics a whole lot easier.
(Although I do miss the comic book stores I once frequented in Brooklyn which has since disappeared -- due to e-books and the internet.)
And the teen versions go back next month — or at least, the mini-event that teases their return to the past ends next month.
Curious if the writers choose to let their adventures in the current timeline affect the outcome of that time line. They've ret-conned the X-men so many times now, I wouldn't be surprised if they did it in order to reboot/ret-con them again.