I have committed more podfic. The City and Star Island Line by maelipstick: "Faramir tells a ghost story shortly after the war of the ring. Beware modern English and anachronisms as well as unexpected additions to the fauna of Middle earth. It's told in fun."

Probably my favourite story about Faramir and Eowyn, certainly the funniest story about the pyre that I've read. Very tender, very sweet, very witty. Download from here; read here.

First of all, there are an amazing 135 prompts for the 2008 Bujold Fest! Take a look here. I'm sure you'll find something to tempt you. Story posting begins August 10th, and with a minimum word count of 500 words, you definitely have time. (Think: 500 words - that's a Five Things That Never Happened drabble series.) Thank you to sahiya for organizing and for collating that huge list of prompts.

Also, take a look at the beautiful new Blake's 7 fanfic archive Hip Deep in Heroes (great name). I had a play with it this morning and it's dead easy to use: go, post! (I gather that if you're familiar with the Doctor Who archive A Teaspoon and an Open Mind you'll find this similar to use.) Thank you to vandonovan and everyone else who has helped create this.

Pocket Books announced their upcoming Star Trek schedule at Shore Leave last weekend, and if you scroll right down that page to September 2009, you'll see my name attached to a forthcoming DS9 novel called The Never Ending Sacrifice: "Continuation of the post-TV DS9 saga with emphasis on the Cardassians."

The Never Ending Sacrifice is the title of a book that Garak called "the finest Cardassian novel ever written". I'd better not disappoint.

In the meantime, you can read me coming across as grumpy in an interview with SFX about franchise fiction and shared universes.

I was going to spend some of yesterday writing achingly witty things back to people's comments about 'Journey's End', but I spent most of the day throwing up so I'm just going to make a low moaning noise and go back to consuming naught but daytime television. Where's Wimbledon when you need it? I'm going to have to start on Vanity Fair!

Wow, you really got into my Big Read Poll! Anyone would think you all liked books or something. I read The Color Purple while you were making up your minds, and I thought it was terrific. Thank you everyone who recommended that one. Does the film do the book justice?

I'm surprised nobody wanted to inflict the last six-sevenths of Ulysses on me. I'm fairly sure I'll get round to that in my own time, though, as I like what I've read of Joyce. Well done for not voting for Kerouac!

Currently Catch-22 and Vanity Fair are slogging it out for my hand, nine votes each. Celebrity Death-Match! uitlander struck what I thought was the winning blow for Vanity Fair ("So good not even studying it for A-level could ruin it!"), but then The Last Bassist shamelessly deployed nostalgia in support of Catch-22. What's a girl to do? Perhaps I should just read both.

Special shout-out to gareth_rees for what I thought was a particularly eloquent case for Moby-Dick ("It's all sperm and flensing!"). It does sound the most magnificent head-fuck.

Apparatus: LJ, friends.
Method: Poll.
Results: Undecided.
Conclusion: You all read a lot, and rock.

Our Doctor Who From The Very Beginning project madness continues apace. We're now at the end of season 2.

( Season 2 - our thorts )

( Ranking )

mraltariel: Shall we listen to 'Galaxy 4' then? It is our right and duty.
altariel: Hmm, we're a bit short of visual material from here on, aren't we? Never mind, they'll invent colour telly soon enough.

In a variation on the Big Read meme that's been going round, I thought I would do a poll. I've listed all the books which I have not read/completed, but which I have around the house. Your task is to indicate which one I should try to read/complete. Please tell me why in comments!

Obviously if you pick The Complete Works of Shakespeare I'll have to hunt you down.

Poll #1215792 Which book should I read?
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

Which book should I read?

We went to see Prince Caspian last night ( Spoilers )

Criminy!

OH GOD the pie was delicious.

So in our back garden we have this amazing cherry tree (now much bigger than shown), and over the past couple of weeks it has been cooking up the most amazing crop (it's been hot then wet then hot again). Over the past week, the local blackbirds and starlings and assorted others have been feasting. Today I looked out and thought, "Right, time for my share," and out I went with a chair and this fine and sturdy piece of Lock'n'Lock.

The birds fled. I went round the tree for a while, picking and nomming, and I may have been humming 'Cherry Ripe'. And then I heard, up above me, high at the top of the tree, a murmuration of starlings. It became a clutter, then a gathering, then a concentration and then a fucking scary load of starlings, all yelling down the road and out far into the fens that SOME BITCH WAS NICKING ALL THE CHERRIES. All of sudden I was starring in a Hitchcock movie.

Well, the other week I faced off a huge green-eyed and hissing black cat - nay, panther - that is trying to claim our garden as its territory and has been worrying the polyamorous blackbirds in the hedge, so I thought, "Starlings, no sweat," and picked on fearlessly. It was touch and go for a bit as they rocked the tree around and screamed obscenities at me and then, WHOOSH - they all flew off. In a cloud.

Now, pie.

Can't stop. Here's the script of 'Blake'.

( Blake )

Couldn't resist doing some more, this time with the text of The Lord of the Rings. I took out some of the more repetitive words that weren't adding to the picture: 'said' and one or two prepositions.

( The Fellowship of the Ring )

( The Two Towers )

( The Return of the King )

Last word to the most dangerous woman in America.

( Anarchism: What It really Stands For )

I caved and installed Java and did some wordles. They're mostly of drabbles. What would be the word for that? A worble? A dordle? A wobble? Also a couple of other short pieces.

( The Window on the West )

( Ainulindale )

( Gold Leaf )

( Of Herbs and Stewed Rabbit )

( He Who Laughs )

( Moss and Stone )

( Five Things That Never Happened to Faramir and Eowyn )

( Hollow Men )

( The Lotus Flower )

This one is my favourite. It's the lyric section (IV) from Little Gidding. I was feeling very smug about it, then I mistyped the title and accidentally saved. Nemesis is what clobbers you if hubris is what you've got. But you all know what it really is, even if the Wordle Gallery thinks it's called 'kg'. I bet it would look great on a t-shirt.

Oi! No smearing impeccable Shami Chakrabarti.

The Bujold Fanfic and Fanart Fest 2008 is now underway! Thank you to sahiya for organizing!

The format is different this year. Between now and June 29th, prompts are being collected (on that post), from any of Bujold's universes: Vorkosiverse, Chalion, Sharing Knife (and, um, the other one that I haven't read). Posting a prompt or two doesn't commit you to writing a story or producing some art (although that would be lovely), and it does give people something to work with.

After the 29th, there will be a post listing all the prompts, broken up into categories. At that point you can claim a prompt (or more than one).

Posting will during the week of August 10th through the 17th: each day will have a category (a Chalion day, Vorkosiday, Sharing Knife, etc.) and the last day will be a Free-For-All in case you miss your day.

Full details here, so go and prompt!

Written for: majoritython
Fandom: Blake’s 7
Prompt: Fortune and Her Wheel

( Lady Fortune )

1. Reply to this post and I'll assign you a letter.
2. List (and upload, if you feel like it) 5 songs that start with that letter.
3. Post them to your journal with these instructions.

forodwaith gave me "N for Numenor". When I got to four songs by Fairport Convention, I decided to rein myself in, and then I thought I'd find songs that appeared in some way or form on You Tube.

Name of the Game
Abba
Because it's all about the Seventies flashbacks on this journal.

Nothing is Good Enough
Aimee Mann
Right, this song appears on the album Bachelor No. 2 with lyrics, but on the Magnolia soundtrack album it's an instrumental. And there are a couple of videos on YouTube of people singing along to the instrumental - which I do too - but then I found this one, and remembered that the other thing about this song is that it's in 3/4 time...

Night Vision
Suzanne Vega
Actually, once you've got over the delight of Suzanne's hair and make-up, this video is immensely dull, being as it is merely a still photo. BUT HOW GLAMOROUS! The only other version up there was some guy singing out of tune, so this is the one you're getting. Gorgeous song.

Never Be Mine
Kate Bush
God only knows what's going on in this video but it's the only one up there. Anyway, I played this song all the time when I was seventeen: the object of my unrequited love was smitten with my best friend. An old story, and one of the saddest. Don't worry, though, it all turns out OK. That's another story but, as the video says: "Thank you, Exorcist."

Now Be Thankful
Fairport Convention
From a festival in Maidstone in 1970. Richard Thompson looks about sixteen. Bless.