Book Meme among other things..

1. On a rainy, somewhat warm day, I'm baking gluten-free artisanial flat-bread, with rosemary, garlic/parsely and parmessene sprinkled on top. I added the eggs, apple cider vinegar, water and olive oil -- to a pre-prepared gluten free flour mix. Mainly because gluten-free flours confuse me.

Have a conflict problem...small group ministry has invited me to a barbecue on Thursday night. And I have got to do laundry and the best night is Thursday. I may try to do it tomorrow. Do it tonight, but baking bread. Laundry is a bit of an ordeal...requires lugging laundry down to the basement, and hoping for an available machine. We have four washers and three dryers for 77 units. You have to plan it right to get around the other people.

Also be patient.

Trying to get self off the sweets and to the savory.

2. Finished latest romance novel that I was reading. So this is the Wed reading meme on Sunday, not that anyone is reading my memes...but in case you are stumbling upon it. Not sure why I'm compelled to read romances at the moment. If I were to hazard a guess -- I'd state it would be one or more of the following reasons, although I think it's hard to quantify why anyone likes or is interested in something at any given time.

* gender politics -- specifically how women writers view gender politics
* comfort -- happy ending
* resolving problems without violence, vengeance, etc -- instead with forgiveness and love
* class issues - for some reason these novels delve into it more deeply than other genres, I've no clue why that is.
* doesn't require that much concentration

Anyhow probably doesn't matter. We like what we like. Want what we want. As long as it isn't harming anyone, who bloody cares? No animals, pets, or humans were harmed during these readings or writings.

The latest two are by Christie Caldwell, a bestselling novelist and traditionally published. I point this out, because I've never seen so many typographical errors in a book...and glaringly obvious ones not subtle stuff like occasionally skipping over a "the" or leaving an "e" off. Obvious. Such as "she" instead of "he", "her" instead of "his", "pressured" instead of "pressure", and improper comma and punctuation placement. It may be a Kindle transference issue. But I doubt it. So, in case you are one of those people thinking only self-published or non-traditionally published books have these issues? Really not. Actually this one had more typos than many non-traditionally published books I've read. (This is obviously an issue for me -- because, besides myself, I have four family members that are self-published writers with varying degrees of success. So yeah, when someone disparages self-published works, I have to remind myself not to take it personally, and let it go. People are insensitive about these sorts of things. Getting traditionally published often has zip to do with talent and everything to do with who you happen to know, similar to most if not all professions in that regard. The only reason Harper Lee got published traditionally was she had contacts in the industry through her friends. And they changed her book to fit their needs. She hated the publishing industry afterwards.)

Caldwell's books are actually fairly good, except for a few plotting quibbles, and well the aforementioned typographical errors. Which are less prevalent in her latest work.

My Lady of Deception -- this story takes place during the Napleonic Wars (I think) shortly after the French Revolution. It's about a British Spy Organization called "The Brethren" that is attempting to keep England safe by whatever means necessary. In this case, determining if the heroine, Georgina, is loyal to Britain or to her father, a notorious terrorist, Irish Republican Cause. Her father, code-named The Fox, has captured a couple of spies and is torturing them for information. For those who despise torture scenes? No worries. We don't see them. Except in flashback or overheard screams. The focus is on the romance between Georgina and one of the captives, Adam Markman, a spy for the Brethren. Georgina without her father's knowledge, obviously, has been sending messages to the Brethren informing them of her father's traitorous activities with Emmet and his attempts to aid the involvement in France. She's also been trying to help the captives. She attempted to rescue one, but believes he died. And is in the midst of trying to rescue Adam, who she's fallen for.

The book is in three sections -- the captivity/rescue, their marriage/falling out, catching her father/forgiveness.
( Read more... )

The Spy Who Seduced Her - The Brethren Book #1

( Read more... )

3. Bread was really good by the way. They are playing Lady Gaga above me, so I put music on. Not that I have anything against Lady Gaga, but I really don't feel like listening to muffled music at the moment.

This is Us -- was really good this week. Hit all the right marks, with no sappy over-voice or platitudes. Also, they did a good job of examining alcohol addiction without laying on the melodrama, something television doesn't always do effectively.

(no subject)

1. Trevor Noah Responds to the Fox Media View that he Can't comment on Gun Control Because He's a Foreigner

After that aired, Fox News contributor Larry O’Connor wrote a piece on Mediaite, which he then discussed on Fox, expressing outrage at the idea that Noah and other “foreign-born” hosts like James Corden would dare speak about a specifically American issue like the 2nd Amendment. (Full disclosure: Mediaite and The Mary Sue both operate under the same parent company of Abrams Media.)

The video, which you can watch above, was a web-only segment, appearing to happen during a commercial break. In it, Noah says that he doesn’t “take that for granted,” and that this isn’t the first time he’s heard this sort of thing.

He goes on to say, “It’s interesting because I remember when I first got to The Daily Show, in the first weeks that I was here, there was a shooting. People were like ‘Oh, I don’t think he cares enough.'” He said he would respond by saying he’s an honest person, and will respond honestly, not with manufactured outrage or emotion. “And when you live in a place for a while, when you call it home, you feel things that happen, because it’s happening to us.” He points out that “there are certain things that connect you beyond just where you’re from.”

But the conversation around immigration and what is deemed appropriate behavior from immigrants is a total catch-22. The same people that criticize immigrants for not committing to life as an American are the same people who condemn immigrants fro “getting too involved,” expressing opinions or “taking” jobs.

In his original article, O’Connor goes into some in-depth apartheidsplaining, ending his history lesson on guns in South Africa by saying, “But those issues are for South Africans to discuss, debate and solve. I wouldn’t presume to tell them what they should do based on my experience as an America.” Except many Americans and others from around the world did protest the South African apartheid. And as Noah points out, South Africans weren’t complaining about that. They weren’t questioning why Americans had a stake in the well-being of those in other countries.

“If anything,” he says, “I would argue most of the problems we face in the world come from the fact that people don’t deal with issues that they ‘don’t have to deal with.'”

I agree with Trevor Noah. ( excuse me while I rant on this topic at length )

2. I'm procrastinating on my writing. Meant to write this weekend, to date all I accomplished was putting together a table and chair. Ate the wrong things. And am weirdly wired as a result.

I think the week discombobulated me somehow.

3. Looked into CBS All Access.

The good news? It's better than it was last year. Has more offerings, including movies and old television series, along with all its current ones.

And there's a free one week trial for the limited commercial option.

Bad news?

Two options.

* Limited Commercials - $5.95 a month. (Free Trial). Apparently limited commercials is similar to On Demand's definition of limited commercials. Four on repeat. Also not HD, apparently.)

* No Commercials and HD - $9.95 a month (same as Netflix but not as much content...sorry, Netflix just has more.)

Other problem? They want your name, email address, birthdate, and I think phone number or address.
Also want permission to distribute this information to their affiliates and marketing partners, so they can contact you for various offers. Eh, no. I didn't have to give Netflix, HBO NOW or Amazon that level of info, why should I give it to you? Nor did they ask permission to sell/share my information with marketing companies. You need to change your game CBS, if you want to be competitive with the big boys. Your tv shows are good, but they aren't the level of Netflix, Amazon and HBO.

Evil marketing people came up with this one.

So that stopped me from doing the trial.

Damn. I wanted to see Discovery. But I've worked hard to keep the stupid marketing calls at bay.

Fanfic

1. The Margins of Print - Fan Fiction as Book History by Catherine Coker -- which I got from elisi but I'm almost positive was mentioned by yourlibrarian.

Abstract—Contemporary fan fiction is overwhelmingly digital in both publication and dissemination; it has never been easier to access this subculture of writers and writing. However, fan fiction in print has likewise never been so accessible, as a slew of recent popular novels proudly proclaim their fannish origins and make claims such as "More Than 2 Million Reads Online—FIRST TIME IN PRINT!" Further, traditional fannish mores insist that fan work should never be done for profit, and yet numerous print works adapted from fan fiction have become best sellers. I would like to problematize how we consider form and content in both creation and reception, how the popular value of work waxes and wanes in relation to its fan fiction status. In other words, how can we read fan fiction as part of a continuum of historical publication practices by women, and problematize our hierarchies of value between print and digital?

Fanfiction and self-publishing have both been stigmatized. But with the digital age, more and more people are ignoring this and sort of looking at the people pooh-poohing it and saying bugger off, as I run off with my millions.

The internet has in some respects freed people to write and create without worrying about the gate-keepers, who for the most part no longer exist. This upsets a lot of people, mainly people who make money from traditional publishing, television, music and film venues and feel that it is encroaching on their revenue stream. It is and it isn't. It is only to the extent that the public chooses to read fanfiction or non-traditionally distributed cultural works over say traditional ones. Which, hello, means the traditionally distributed works aren't meeting the public's needs or expectations.

If someone prefers to read EL James Fifty Shades of Grey over the latest Danielle Steel or Nora Roberts novel, then perhaps there's a reason for it? (Mainly Danielle Steele and Nora Roberts don't have any new ideas and have become a bit tired in their conventions and style. Having read all three, I'd say they are on par with each other for the most part, with Roberts being the best...but she hasn't had a new idea in twenty years. 50 Shades didn't either, but it did incorporate text messaging and a contract, fanfic writing techniques, which was a new idea stylistically.)

Let's face it the publishing world needs to be shaken up a bit in this regard. It's sat comfortably on its laurels for far too long. Fanfic and self-published novels, such as many of Courtney Milan's recent works, deal with LGBTQ relationships, POC, and love interests that are off the beaten track and defy conventional models. They don't follow the Romance Writers Guidelines, they make up their own.

Same deal with Sci-fi.

Also, I remember a fan telling me that she'd been approached by trade publishers at fan conventions to publish her work. Because they felt she had a built-in readership. She was writing real person fanfic - or celebrity fic, where basically she picks an actor like say James Marsters or in this case a guy from a British Reality Show about casting someone for Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat...and puts him in various stories. It's really not that different from Everybody's All Human fanfic that I've read back in the day. And a heck of a lot easier to publish, because all you have to do is change the names and throw in a bit more description. Everything else can remain.
No worries about copyright infringement, because you aren't using anything from the original creator's world. And no worries about defamation, because you just changed the names.

Cassandra Clare did it with Harry Potter fanfic -- her Shadowhunter series is basically based on her Harry Potter fanfic. There's a lot of published fic out there in the YA and New Adult genre that came from Twilight and Harry Potter. Harry Potter and Twilight took fanfic mainstream. Most people didn't know about fanfic until Twilight and Harry Potter. Those of us who were writing and/or reading it prior to that -- know about the Star Wars, Star Trek, Supernatural, Farscape, Doctor Who, House, Buffy, Angel, etc fanfic. I admittedly didn't discover it until Buffy, when I went hunting for Buffy discussion boards, spoilers, etc.. and stumbled upon the fanfic first. This was in the early days of the internet, circa 2002, before we had LJ, before Twitter, before FB, before all the other social media platforms. We just had websites, listserves and voy forums.

Twilight fic tends to be X-rated New Adult. While Harry Potter tends to be Dystopian YA or Paranormal YA. For some reason Potter fans didn't do All Human fic and get it published, near as I can tell.

There are a few fanfic writers such as Cat Valente and CS Pascal who wrote original fics online and self-published them online, prior to a publisher grabbing them and turning them into best-sellers. Andy Weir is an example of a non-traditionally published writer -- who got a best-seller and a movie - The Martian. Go on Good Reads sometime, quite a few of us non-traditionally published writers are on that site. Also before you pooh-pooh it, keep in mind half your flist may fall in that category, just as half falls under the fanfic category.

It's really all about how you promote and market yourself. If you are good at it -- the sky's the limit. If you aren't...doesn't matter how good your writing is, it won't go far.


2. Fanfic pairings I'd like to read but can't seem to find that much of, so gave up.

* Daredevil and Jessica Jones (gen or platonic) - combine those worlds

* Doc Holliday from Wynonna Earp with anyone

* X-men Scott Summers (Cyclops - original version) with Jean Grey(romantic/het), or anyone (platonic/gen)

* John Crichton and Aeryn Sun fanfic

* Sense8 - Wolfgang and Talia, also Wolfgang and the Cop.

* River Song and pretty much anyone

* Starbuck and Apollo (BSG, either version)

Buffy fanfic was easier to find. I have a tendency to like characters and relationships others aren't into writing about.

Oh, regarding Buffy, one fic I wanted to read...but have yet to see is Spike becoming human and acting more like say Ripper or a human version of Spike, not William. Crack martial artist, into killing demons, and becoming a Watcher who hates vampires. I thought about writing it myself but gave up.

Another that I was reading, a WIP, but disappeared before it was completed was about a human Spike with no memory caught in the cul-de-sac hell that Gunn was stuck in, when Dawn runs into him -- thinking he was dead. We had just gotten to Buffy running into him as well...when the writer stopped. Anyone remember it or know what happened to it?
It was doing interesting things with memory loss.