This discussion of Star Trek: Into Darkness has an intriguing treatment of prequels v. reboots along with a bunch of great lines, many spoilery, along with a reaction from Henry Jenkins that is interesting in its own right. My only hitch—and I have done this too many times myself, so it’s mostly a note for myself—was tripping over “‘the Captain’s Chair’ has been occupied by an American (Kirk); a European (Picard); an African-American (Sisko);”—because doesn’t it have to be “a white American (Kirk),” at a minimum?

Women by the Wayside: on the invisibility of women on the road (and the violence against them).

This person has gone so far past pedantry that s/he’s come out the other side into awesomeness: Why two spaces after a period isn’t wrong (or, the lies typographers tell about history).
( Mary Roach, immigrants as superheroes, David Sedaris, Washington crosses the Delaware, NYC trash collectors, the errors of seeking security, McKinley's deathCollapse )

comments on DW | reply there. I have invites or you can use OpenID.

Let's say, hypothetically, that I've written an Avengers fic that's a complete AU (although one based on 616 and the MCU, characterization-wise, at least). One where the various characters know each other because they're on a team in a MMORPG that's along the lines of WoW or something similar.

Now, the characters' real names are just going to be their, you know, real names. Steve Rogers. Tony Stark. Carol Danvers. They'll also have names in-game, though, ones that will fit with the fantastical setting but still be reminiscent enough of their superhero identities to make it obvious who they are.

The problem is that I'm still trying to think of in-game character names. :-/

Right now, I have their names listed as [Steve] and [Tony] and the like, so that I can easily replace those names with whatever I decide on. I just... haven't figured out yet what I've decided on. And, you know, I could use some help, if anyone has suggestions.

The characters who make appearances in said fic (or, at least, are mentioned) are as follows: Bruce Banner, Bucky Barnes, Carol Danvers, Clint Barton, James Rhodes, Janet van Dyne, Jessica Drew, Natasha Romanova, Pepper Potts, Steve Rogers, Thor, and Tony Stark.

With some of them, their superhero names (or lack thereof, in the case of, say, Thor) would probably fit well enough that they wouldn't need to be changed. With others... not so much.

So... any suggestions?

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My blue Merlin betta fish has at last departed to join my red Arthur betta fish in the big Fishtank of Avalon.

*puts tiny fish in boat and sets it on fire*

Crossposts: http://versaphile.dreamwidth.org/1953916.html.

♥

You know how sometimes you all of a sudden remember the existence of an author from your childhood, and you go, "really? Was the heroine's love interest actually a pig that that turned into a dragon? Did the fairies seriously turn out to be aliens that made them do it? Did the villainness have sex with an evil broom? Did that really happen?"

So when I went home this weekend I did my best to see if I could locate my old copies of Mary Brown's novels. The only one I have so far found is Strange Deliverance, which I remembered as "the fairies are aliens who make them do it," but I FULLY BELIEVE THE OTHERS EXISTED AND I WILL LOCATE THEM. (Though if anyone else has read any of Mary Brown's books, corroborative evidence is also welcomed.)

Anyway, my memory is not quite accurate about Strange Deliverance; the climax turns out to involve fairies vs. aliens who make the local kids do it, or at least turn up with some experimented-upon fetuses in HIGHLY SUSPICIOUS CIRCUMSTANCES after entrancing the local prom queen and her hapless boyfriend into going up to the fairy circle (where the aliens are currently hanging out) and playing "Sleeping Beauty" every couple of months.

Oh, also, everything takes place in a post-apocalyptic town with a eugenicidal dictator. Aforementioned dictator helpfully reveals his fascist eugenicidal ambitions in the prologue.

Then we have a timeskip; midway through the book, our protagonists are SHOCKED when someone points out that in a town where no disabled infants survive a day past their birth, the only gay couple disappeared in mysterious circumstances a few days after making their sexuality public, and the only people of color who were in the town's original population never married or had children despite marriage and children being compulsory for everyone else, this MIGHT be part of the all-powerful town dictator's sinister design!

(There is black character in the book. She is the Magical Herb-Woman who lives just outside the town and provides helpful, sage, unselfish mystical wisdom to all of the white kids who are our protagonists.

There are also disabled characters in the book. They are mentally disabled twins, innocent and completely indistinguishable souls who are so naively devoted to Prom Queen that they follow her around, carry her stuff, and trot nobly and self-sacrificingly with her into ill-advised fairy circle alien experimentation shenanigans. The narrative is very eager tell you about all the times they comically mess up their words.)

Anyway our actual protagonist doesn't really do much except go to mandatory sexy summer camp with her boyfriend and think half-worried and half-judgmental thoughts about Prom Queen. Eventually she gets a magical unicorn ring, but that's not really . . . important . . .? GIVEN THAT THE MAIN PLOT INVOLVES ALIENS AND POST-APOCALYPTIC DICTATORSHIP. ( Spoilers I guess.Collapse )

MARY BROWN, you guys.

This entry is cross-posted at Livejournal from http://skygiants.dreamwidth.org/331647.html. Please feel free to comment here or there! There are currently comments on Dreamwidth.

I feel like I should be writing a post about Iron Man 3, or Star Trek Into Darkness or Elementary's finale or maybe Haven the latest love of my fannish life. (Or Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries, which I have not finished yet but do love already. Maybe my Daddy's right and I love too many shows. Instead of more important things, which was perhaps not his intended subtext, but that's what I heard.)

Anyway, here's a meme instead.

Stolen from kayim

I currently have 147 works posted on AO3. Choose a random number - no peeking! - between 1 and 147 inclusive, and I will tell you three things I currently like about that story.

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Okay! Dissertation proposal accepted, comps scheduled for August, time to read some shit! As always: probably not interesting to anyone else, but read along with my notes as you like.

Alpert, Rebecca. Like Bread on the Seder Plate: Jewish Lesbians and the Transformation of Tradition, 1997.

( mmm breadyCollapse )

I hear that everything's up to date in Kansas City, so I'll be headed that way tomorrow to see for myself.

ConQuest beckons; KC's annual regional convention, one of the best. Should be a good time. Patrick Rothfuss is GOH, John Picacio will be there, along with Brad Denton, Caroline Spector, and all of my old KC friends and partners in crime. I'll be doing a reading, doing a panel, eating too much barbeque, drinking too much bheer.

And even before the con, we'll have the road trip. I will be hitting the road with my Aussie friends, and driving right through the heart of Tornado Alley, which should be an... ah... adventure. If you're in Oklahoma or Kansas and think you see me passing by, you may be right. The Big Well beckons... along with Dorothy's House, Pancake Boulevard, the Cosmodrome, and the Elevator of Terror (you can't make this stuff up).

Well, the title more or less says it all, but let me say it again.

We want to do an omnibus edition of Digger. You guys asked (repeatedly!) and we think it’s a great idea!

The downside (and the reason we haven’t done it already) is that hardcover omnibuseseses require a big chunk of cash up front—we’re talking a big print job here, on the order of the Bone omnibus edition, and that does not run cheap. (Plus, of course, while people keep asking, we’re talking a spendy beast here and we want to make sure there’s enough interest to justify doing it!) Plus, if we get a LOT of interest, we can do all kinds of neat extras, like color inserts and cover embossing and extra stories and giant wombat balloons in the Macy’s Day Parade!*

So, in a couple of weeks, we’ll be Kickstartering! And we will have all kinds of neat goodies for sponsors (postcards! pins! pickaxes!) and also all kinds of mildly absurd goodies for sponsors (I believe at one level, I name a tree in the yard after you and put a little plaque with your name on it…) so watch this space for more information! You’ll be the first to know!

 

(Also, hey, Digger got nominated for the Mythopoeic Award, which is neat, too!)

 

 

*One of these things is a bald-faced lie.

Originally published at Tea with the Squash God. You can comment here or there.