Between the good and bad, that's where you'll find me, Reaching for Heaven

Popular GLBT slogan: "We're here, we're queer, we're not going anywhere."

Detractor who doesn't get it: "Yeah, and you're all going to die anyway."

Me: "Not unless we're talking about Captain Jack Harkness...."

Christmas present for myself: knuckled down and got the first season of Torchwood via Amazon's video on demand service. It was way cheaper than buying the DVD, though that means I won't have the extras. Maybe some day when I'm feeling a bit more rich and I can find a reasonable price for it, I might upgrade to the DVDs.

Why I love this series: "The X-Files" meets "CSI", to quote one assessment (even though I've never watched either). The plotlines and some of the bric-a-brac might be incredibly silly (a pterodactyl that roosts in their underground base of operations?? That's so crazy it's cool -- that and I just plain like pterodactyls. Always did.), but the show never takes itself too seriously for this to become a problem. And it's also adult enough without being so adult that it gets cringe-inducing (ie. "True Blood", which I love to bits, but sometimes have to be in the right frame of mind to watch given its content). And while this isn't the main reason, I love the fact that the head of the team is a non-depraved and non-whiny bisexual (pansexual??).

It's still a little humid (possibly as a result of Hurricane/Tropical Storm Earl blowing through), but that's likely from all the rain we had last night. But there's a nice breeze and there's something oddly autumnal about it. Maybe I'm just hoping it is, since this has been a very long, uncomfortable summer for me, since we've had so much warm weather. No offence intended toward those who like it warm: I'm renting the top of my folks' hundred year old, hard to air condition house, so it's been table fans and open windows at night for me, plus having to make sure the house has cooled off to the right temp before closing windows before the sun rises and warms things up again.

But enough about the warm weather: I've got a couple writing projects I'm poking at, one of which might end up being published for real.

The first is a Gormenghast related essay that came about as a result of a conversation with the inspiring tomboy_typist: I was describing a moment of Fridge Logic that came about as a result of watching "Life After People", while working on RP tags for 77th_earl. It dawned me that, given the kind of decay that Gormenghast has fallen into -- a lake on a roof big enough for a horse and its foal to swim in, a tree growing through a wall with a trunk big enough for the Twins to have a tea table and chairs on it -- that the structure might not be in the best of condition. Thus it dawned on me that there might just be some magic in Gormenghast, that the Rituals of the Law, for all their soul-sucking inanity and the way that Sourdust and Barquentine (or just Barquentine in the BBC mini-series) nitpick over them, might just be supplying the magic that's keeping the elements from conquering the Stones. I can't say more, as I'm saving it for the essay, but it's a very intriguing point to ponder...

The other might be my NaNoWriMo project for this year: I'm hoping to write a Catholic novel dealing with that touchiest of touchy topics, namely, homosexuality and what it's like to be a faithfull Catholic and to be a GLBT person. I'll be focusing on four main characters: a priest (more or less modeled after Father Mychal Judge, the gay priest and NYC FD chaplain who was among the first victims at the WTC Towers on 9/11) wrestling with his own identity and his vocation, a single woman in her thirties (Okay, yeah, Author Avatar, but hey, it worked for the late Shusaku Endo when he wrote "Scandal"), a fifteen year old boy trying to make sense of himself and a male escort who's sort of a Mary Magdalen-like figure. Still trying to come up with a plot, but it'll come when it's ready. I'm likely to get a lot of flack for this, and I'm not sure if I really want to try publishing it, but it's the kind of novel that Needs To Be Written and Published. I'm hoping Ignatius Press with open their doors to it, and given the number of really good Catholic novels they've published in recent years, I have hope for them.

Also got back to reading GRRM's "A Clash of Kings", the second of the Song of Ice and Fire novels. Somebody please tell me that Joffrey dies a hideous, horrible death? The kid is such a *BRAT*, you want to reach into the book and king or no king, spank him and send him to bed without any supper; he might be thirteen, but he acts like he's about *three*.

And on Thursday, I made my monthly trip to the Salem NH Barnes & Noble, where I picked up the new Supernatural tie-in novel "War of the Sons" and the latest issue of SPN magazine: I've heard that they're moving the show to a time slot on Friday nights this season. Plus I missed most of last season, thus I really cannot wait for the DVDs which are coming out on Tuesday the 7th. If I'm extra quiet this week coming, it means I'm likely watching the series marathon-style. Also picked up... "Winnie the Pooh" and "The House at Pooh Corner"; I'm tempted to bring Eeyore to a certain Mansion, and I'm due for a canon review, but my copies seem to have vanished.

Or, How, with the Help of a Green-Eyed Love Machine, a Messianic Figure and His Opposite, and Some Handsome Death Gods, and Those Who Like to Write about Them, Along with a Writer whose Name is Pronounced Somewhat Like "Gay Man", I Learned to Stop Being a Rules Lawyer and Start Appreciating Some Pairings and/or the Writers Therof

( Cut for length and content. You might want to get yourself a sandwich and something to drink. Here be a big-ol' post )