Episode 49 of PotterFicWeekly has been released!

This episode begins our five episode series on Living with Danger, by Anne Walsh.

Lone wolf. Dream-seer. Bright child. Scarred child. Singer. Prisoner. Dancer child. Dragon child. Eight semi-ordinary people. One extraordinary family, and how they became one.

Having completed the story and started on the sequel, this is the first time I ran across that summary. I truly wish this I read it prior to starting Chapters 1-10 for tonight's episode. I believe it captures the quality and essence of the story far better than the one I read.

Her landlady married a dog and had his baby. Her little sister is far too smart. She helped to steal two little boys, one with a famous scar, and her husband is a werewolf. Her name is Danger. This is her story. o-)

Living with Danger has passed the threshold from story to universe, becoming a cult-classic within the fandom while pushing the limits of community and imagination. You can expect our analysis (often even on-topic!!) of the fifty-chapter first installment (often with Anne in the room with us!), the interview, and something special to cap off the series over the next several weeks.

Just a warning - Episode 49 is an extreme edition of our podcast, meaning that everything including the soundcheck is in here.

For those of you who are new to our podcast for the Dangerverse series who haven't listened to our podcast before, you can get a feel for the show by listening to this recap episode.

This week on Peoncast:

Horace Slughorn and the Cauldron of Secrets, by The Plaid Slytherin

Come see why PS is both a brilliant writer and someone who should never, ever give you directions.

Enjoy!

I want them both to win!  Best Wimbledon final ever?  Discuss.

I've written and re-written this entry several times. In some cases, I've written pages worth of things to say about my disappearance from livejournal and fandom only to delete them without thought. At the risk of sounding presumptuous, it just simply wasn't enough.

There really isn't anything to explain my reasons for leaving . I suppose I just needed to get away for a while. As that may be the case, I know I have missed being part of your lives and sharing your trials and triumphs. I've regretted that I've missed some important moments in my friends' lives and every other moment that occurred since I left. I can only hope to become reacquainted with each one of you as I slowly edge my way back into my small nook of fandom.

So please drop a line to let me know how you're doing. It would mean a lot to me.

It just so happens that i am currently revising December 1996 in my Molly-centric stories. Ron, Harry and Ginny are using the Floo connection in McGonagall's office to get home. Here's the relevant bit-

( Read more )

Ugh.  I have just wasted an hour of my life watching something called 'Personal Services Required' and I am (not for the first time) shocked at just how AWFUL some people can be.  Both the potential employers and employees on this programme strike me as people I wouldn't want to spend 30 seconds in the same room as.

Happy Canada Day!

Happy Birthday to hfleming8 who brings joy to all who know her or read her truly poetic writing. May she have a grand year full of love and learning.

tdu000 has issued a challenge.

While stmargarets' response has much to commend it (Charlie Weasley IN CHAPS!!!!!), I fear she may have shot herself in the foot. "Melting chocolate eyes that beg to be licked" aren't really Charlie's style and are certainly enough to put me off my breakfast (even at 11.30pm). Not to mention the obvious problem with brown: "Like chocolate’s good – it’s better than like shi-". Yes, quite.

( So here's my response. )

8th Emotion - Rage/Anger. I tried to do them evenly - some depict rage, others anger. I think they're close enough emotions that it's an even call.

15 icons, one alternate.

1. How has LJ changed your life?

I feel as though I know some of the people on my flist much better than I do my neighbors. Many of you have been very supportive as I have tried doing new things.

2. What do you do before bedtime?

I am reasonably compulsive about reading the online NY Times before I brush my teeth and take the half Vicoden that I need to dull the pain so I can sleep. I always brush my teeth and kiss dear Oatmeal before I turn on National Public Radio and settle in.

3. What will your dream wedding be like?

Oh my! I was married at a Nuptial Mass with a reception in the parish hall with about a hundred family members and friends when I was 24. My second and third weddings were in the City Hall in San Francisco with just one couple and my children, followed two weeks later by a huge wedding and reception at Stanford Memorial Church with five hundred people (a hundred of whom were under eight years old) when I had just turned 45. The final one was when I was 67 and was in the back garden of my house on a deck dear Oatmeal built as my wedding present. We had about fifty family and friends there and about fifty cyber friends gathered all around the world in a chat room where the wedding was streamed. I do not plan on another, but 'never say never' since I'd have bet against marrying again a dozen years ago.

4. What is the city of your dreams and why?

I lived within five miles of the Hoover Tower (on the Stanford campus or in Palo Alto or Sharon Heights) for more than forty years so Palo Alto still seems like home.

5. Are you an introvert or extrovert?

Extrovert

6. Do you trust easily?

Not always but look familiar so people tend to trust me...

7. Is there anything that has made you unhappy these days?

California is burning and it is so sad to think about people losing their homes and firefighters being injured. I am also inconvenienced by having to stay inside and not breathe smoke. I miss my usual daily hour of water exercise. And hate to see a taupe sky.

8. Is being tagged fun?

This one has been fun. I look forward to reading answers from other people.

9. What’s the last song that got stuck in your head?

Maybe it is because I listen to the soundtrack of August Rush when I am writing; but the John Legend version of Someday seems to be playing a lot whether I want it or not. I always have something going in my head.

10. What is your best quality?

Dependability. I have this same 'saving people thing' that Harry has. In my case it is usually called 'mothering'.

11. Would you have 100% safe sex with a stranger for $10,000,000?

Wait! Who is paying whom? Nope either way.

12. What's better to give or to receive?

It depends. I like both.

13. What were your parents going to name you if you'd been born the opposite gender?

William after my father. As it was I was named after his Mum who was named after her grandmother, probably like an eternal mirror reflection. I was born a month early on the Feast of St Catherine of Alexandra instead of Christmas so it all worked out

14. What kind of person do you think the person who tagged you is?

stmargarets is all kinds of awesome. Sensitive, smart, and funny. She even provided this answer.

15. What’s your favorite item of clothing?

Oh my God, I am discovered. I must have fifteen tee shirts that range from blue green to greenish blue and about ten pair of shorts that are oatmeal to khaki. I guess it is my chosen uniform with a pair of Clarks of England sensible warm beige sandals or light beige Clogs. My daughter dresses just like I do and we embarrass the granddaughter when we tell her she didn't get the dress code memo.

16. What websites do you visit daily?

Excite, the Yahoo one where the Family Blog is, Free Rice, Leaky Cauldron, Phoenix Song, and LJ.

17. What color are Charlie Weasley’s eyes?

Brown, of course.

18. Name a book character you’ve crushed on.

I guess it has been too long since I've crushed on a book character. There have been too many real life ones.

19. What do you like for breakfast?

A cup of instant coffee with a splash of half and half in it, whole wheat waffles with fresh raspberries, and a big glass of mixed water and cranberry raspberry drink to wash all the pills down.

20. How many questions did you change? Come on ‘fess up.

I am such a goodie two-shoes. I took St Mags and followed in her footprints.


I even tagged eight, but no one has to answer or keep the same questions.

alkari amamama bookish327
crumplehornki gabrielladusult
sheffers81 pennylane4 and
sibtrelawneyI even tagged eight, but no one has to answer or keep the same questions.

The rules of the meme...
A) People who have been tagged must write their answers on their blogs & replace any question that they dislike with a new question formulated by themselves.

B) Tag 8 people to do this quiz & those who are tagged cannot refuse. These people must state who they were tagged by & cannot tag the person whom they were tagged by. Continue this game by sending it to other people.

I'm changing this rule. Those who are tagged are completely free to refuse if they like.

( My questions and answers: )

Does anyone happen to know why, since I downloaded Firefox 3, I am unable to view any Google maps?  I can search for things as normal but the screen just comes up grey with the red arrow helpfully pointing out the right spot in the middle of all the greyness.  It'll even find me directions between two grey points and mark the route.  Might there be some setting that needs changing to allow the images?

ETA: On closer inspection, what happens is that after loading for a while, I get the message that Google has no images at that level and I should try zooming out.  This is clearly nonsense, but also probably not a Firefox problem.

At roswrites, the first chapter of a new Charlie story is up, for anyone who may be interested.

I've just remembered why I'm never going to be more than a hobby writer. Earlier today I bought a book I'd been meaning to read for a while, 'On Chesil Beach' by Ian McEwan. I loved 'Atonement' and I thought 'Saturday' was one of the most compelling and thought-provoking stories I'd ever read. I'd heard good things about 'On Chesil Beach' and it was on the table as I walked in to Waterstones.

From the blurb on the back:

It is July 1962. Edward and Florence, young innocents married that morning, arrive at a hotel on the Dorset coast. At dinner in their rooms, they struggle to suppress their private fears of the wedding night to come.

It's a relatively short book, running to 166 pages eked out with large margins and several blank sheets in my copy. The main action all takes place within a few hours, though there are fairly lengthy inserts of backstory and a few pages at the end dealing with the future consequences of the night. Here McEwan shows what he does best: investing a single incident with extraordinary depth of meaning. Every word, spoken or unspoken, every gesture, every look is susceptible to multiple understandings and misunderstandings. At times the misunderstanding is excruciating, yet McEwan still succeeds in making the characters deeply plausible and sympathetic. Having read this book, I am profoundly grateful not to have married aged 22. I would have been Florence, wracked with fear and fettered with ignorance: As she understood it, there were no words to name what had happened, there existed no shared language in which two sane adults could describe such events to each other. Edward, though he knows more words, is no better at finding a shared language that might help them through the moment. It's all desperately, and so unnecessarily, sad.

But here's the thing. I'm never going to write anything that has the quality of McEwan. I just don't have that insight into people or the events that reveal them. rhetoretician does, and so does stmargarets. It's okay that I'm not going to write the next great novel. But I'm also not going to give my time and energy to writing anything less.

So I'll write as long as it's fun, for myself and anyone who cares to read it. That's the extent of my literary ambition.

Well, the "subject" sort of says it all, but this isn't even something that's happening w/our server company -- it's an "upstream provider" for them, even, so... hang on and hopefully everything'll be fixed soon.

Those of you who are PS betas, etc., too... this obviously also means the mail's going to be "stuck" somewhere for a while, so it may be wonky for a good while even after the site comes back up.

Argh.

I love technology, I do I do.... (<-- convincing self... ;-))

ETA:  Well, we're back on line for now.  I just hope it *stays* fixed, whatever the problem was!!!  It's entirely possible that we may have "flickers" for a while, so just be patient with it, if that happens!

We still have fires all around us and so much smoke in the air that we are being discouraged from going outside. We are in no danger but there may be thundershowers in the foothills to the south of us. Having lightning strikes without rain was what caused most of the fires in the Sierra. I will be glad when I can go back outside to do my water exercises but at least I am getting more chapters finished on Ginny's Fifth Year.

Dear Oatmeal is moving everything out of his cave so he can get all the bookcases attached to the walls. Therefore, the living room is full of his stuff (as well as the guest room).

hfleming8, I hope you're cheering your boy - he certainly needs it!

Go Andy!!!!!!!

(hfleming8, you have my permission to shout this, too).

Two great images sent to me this week:

First, a frozen wave in an unusually cold Antarctic winter,



and second, Al Snyder's depiction of what the sleaze of the Bush administration has brought us to.