In Which I Accomplished Several Things Today

[matrixrefugee]

Namely, finishing the first of the story_lottery stories, which I just need to type up; I did this during a few lulls this morning at work, and I was hard put trying to dodge the questions of the cashier who wondered what I was writing. Hard to describe a fanfic involving a Japanese energy vampire escaping from a sub-dimension he's been stuck in for three days, only to find that four years have passed in his world of origin...

Also finished reading "The Historian" -- Whoa! In some ways, it reminded me of (God help me) "The Da Vinci Code" only minus the swipes at religion (and with much better writing...). If anything, Elizabeth Kostova knows how to feature people of faith (inadvertently, in this case, since the monks, etc. weren't really aware of what was going on, through human error) on the wrong side of the fence without becoming annoyingly offensive or looking like they're demonizing the Church/organized religion/people of the cloth. No stereotyped assassin monks involved (especially improbable amelanistic albino ones who shouldn't be able to see well enough to shoot someone point blank from a distance.). And boy, does she know how to write slow-burn suspense. I don't think I've seen anyone write with this much depth and yet this much intensity and put this much story into it, without it getting top-heavy or causing your interest to wane. Also... sorry, Bram, but your Dracula is just a little bit loud and obvious next to Kostova's. He's good in his own right, but I like the subtlety of Kostova's.

Off to get some Advil, since my head is aching a bit after a long day. May be posting another centi_50 fic tomorrow, we'll see. I do hope to get the first of the story_lottery fics typed and posted over the weekend, since I have only a smidge over a month left to get those done, and I got six fics with a minimum of a 1000 words for each. Next challenge I do is going to be drabbles. Those don't take so long to physically write and/or type.

Comments

[northernwalker]

I heart your icon.

And I am going to have to read The Historian!

[matrixrefugee.livejournal.com]

Hee-hee-hee! Yeah, it's one of my personal favorites, which I made myself (even downloaded a trialware program to animate it), and obviously, I made it about the time that the dreadful movie version came out (after reading the book to see what the yelling was about and joining the chorus of yelling after the damn thing annoyed me so much that I threw the book across the room several times while reading it).

What shocks me is that there is fanfic based on it that is better-written than the book itself.

[tomboy-typist.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad that you liked The Historian! I'll admit, it's slow to start, but it's so gripping, isn't it? I really adored it.

(And I agree with what you said about her treatment of religion - and I also quite liked her representation of Turkish Muslims. >.> In fact, I will admit, my uber-favorite is by far Turgut Bora. He is marvelous.)

[silvereyedphage.livejournal.com]

((Logged on the other account, though I'm sure the gent who 'owns' it would have a few things to say about this book: I'm tempted to read it again already! (And I just might, since I'm still considering bringing Helen to the Mansion -- which should get interesting, given a certain personage's unholy interest in Paul). The healthy presentation of monks making some dire mistakes was refreshing, to say the least: I'm certainly not one of those Hayes Code mentality people who doesn't want to see people of the cloth ever presented in anything but a glowingly positive light, but seeing it done properly for a change was a welcome relief! I'm bored stiff with and disgusted by the Sinister Minister image or the Church of Corruption stereotype (as well as the "Muslims are terrorists" stereotype): it's one-sided and makes for bad writing at best and just plain discriminatory at worst.

Gotta love Bora: he's a Middle Eastern Van Helsing and every bit as much of a Badass Bookworm. He also reminded me somewhat of a very nice gentleman from Bahrain whom my mother was penfriending with years ago, and who came to visit us when he and his young family were travelling cross-country on their way to Los Angeles where they were settling with some relatives (If I remember correctly).

[tomboy-typist.livejournal.com]

It would be hilarious to have Muraki's thoughts on Bram Stoker, at the very least. XD Bora's marvelous *squishes him* he would also be a very welcome face if he were to meet up with Paul again. >.> Not to mention that I would be so AMUSED by his diction - I always am.

(If your considerations move into more serious territory, let me know - I'll have to let you know what happened with Paul and the previous Helen Rossi. It's... useful information at the least.)

[matrixrefugee.livejournal.com]

No doubt he'd think Bram Stoker is immensely funny, if only because Stoker has no idea that sanguinarians are just the tip of the vampire iceberg. I myself had to chuckle at one bit in "The Historian" which mentioned something about a vampire not being very effective without a head, since it put me in mind of the nukekubi of Japan, but that's a long story and I'll save for another time (possibly even Paul and Muraki's conversation).

I'm reading the Black Jewels Trilogy at the moment and I probably won't get back to re-reading 'The Historian' till I finish it, but I'll admit, my interest in bring Helen Rossi back to the Mansion is tickling my brain. She might be the next one I intro, after I bring in Parsifal (and considering that Arthuriana was among my earliest serious fandoms, there's a part of me which is itching to bring him in, though that's not likely to happen till after Easter and work gets back to normal), we'll see.

[tomboy-typist.livejournal.com]

Paul and Muraki's conversation promises to be, er, promising. ^^ I look forward to it. (Which reminds me, did I drop any threads? >.>)

I'd be also curious to have your opinion on BJT when you're done with it - I haven't read it yet, but having RP'd across 30948308098 Blood puppets for years now, I have an interest in the fandom (I just need tiiiiiiiiiime, it's on my list.) And it's a series which I've seen very heavily criticized before, so I'd be very intrigued to have your point of view on it.)

And sounds good! (I can't say how glad I am that you're into these different fandoms - and I'm soooooooo glad for a chance to play my less active puppets with you. &hearts &hearts &hearts )

[matrixrefugee.livejournal.com]

(( Let's see: I think Pascal's thread is winding down, and I think the only open threads you and I have on Muraki would be the crackplot with Robin and the conversation with Johnny Rockfort -- which I'm getting a kick out of, since Muraki seems to be having fun baiting him a bit (our silvery gent might be guilty of Kick the Dog and even Rape the Dog, but it's rather fun to watch him in his Poke the Poodle moments). We've also got Tsuzuki's sweet little flirtations with Scheherezade and Pandora. I'm holding off on the Paul/Muraki conversation till after Easter and I get a few other plots moving along, and I get those notes on The Psychic Vampire Codex typed and sent off to you.

((First impression of BJT has been mixed, but mostly favorable. There's editing problems, the world-building could have a little more explanation behind it, and some of the characters could be construed as Mary Sues/Gary Stus, but as I've been reading it, I've been thinking, "Hey, this would make a really great anime."

[silvereyedphage.livejournal.com]

((P.S. Whoops, Muraki's also got a thread or two with Genie, featuring the crackplot teenaged version of himself and the intro'ed version (the one I've started jokingly referring to as 'the bandage fetish version').