Writing
I’ve been working really hard on the new novel for the past couple of weeks. It’s hard to get the writing time and energy at the moment, with work being so busy, but I’ve managed to do quite a bit of writing, especially in the last week, and it’s now nearly 40,000 words long. I think you’ll really like this one – it’s got a great big murder/mystery at the centre, and it’s set in London, in the future. There’s also a big, complicated gay love story at its heart. I’m enjoying unravelling all the things in my head – it’s challenging to write a murder/mystery and eke out all the little details, as well as covering the sci-fi aspects, AND throwing in the romance, but I love that about it. It’s a darker, angstier book than Ricochet – as with my fanfic, I want to write in a range of different genres and this is a very different work to Ricochet.
I can throw out some snippets and hope to start doing some teasers soon. For now, I can reveal that there’s a slave boy called Alex in it. And he looks very like Sebastian Stan ;-). Gratuitous SS pic below! I can totally see him in this role being all mixed up, and spoiled, and naughty, and in need of some firm loving! LOL!
After meeting with 
flyingnorth yesterday, we decided that Mark Strong would work very well opposite him. But I can also see Daniel Craig in the role, too, in the very likely event it got made into a movie – snorfle!
Nuke it out, boys!
Website
Me and Jacci have been working on a revamp of xanthe.org, although it’s slowed down a lot in the past 6 weeks. Hopefully, we can get back into it soon and unveil it, as it’s much easier to navigate, and we’ve put in some good gizmos to make it easier to read the stories in different e formats, and access the podfics.
TV
Dr Who –
Defiance – lots of publicity about this and it’s airing this week in the UK. I thought I’d watch it – is it any good?
Supernatural – am on S6 now and loving it! I have no particular urge to slash anyone or be involved in the fandom but I do appreciate good, imaginative storytelling, which this does so well.
BGT – first episode of the new series last night and it just ROCKED. Loved it. David Walliams makes the show, with his hilarious, one-sided crush on Simon. Some of the acts, like the shadow dancers, were genuinely new and interesting too – although I’ve noticed in the past that a lot of acts can do a good first audition but don’t have any follow up material, so we’ll see. When I was in Windsor yesterday, I mooched around in Smiths and saw that among Walliams’s children’s books is one called “The Boy in the Dress”. I haven’t read it, but I love how he’s trying to challenge stereotypes, and make it okay for boys to enjoy exploring their feminine sides. I was also very impressed by the adaptation of his “Mr Stink” book which aired over Xmas and was a real treat.
Cats
Harley got out last week – I got a text from my elderly neighbour that he was in their garden, so came racing home from work. I asked her if she’d be able to grab him and put him in my house in the meantime, but when I got there, she said he kept hissing at them and they couldn’t get close to him. So, I walk into their garden and call his name and he comes running up, straight into my arms, has a big cuddle and a purr, and then reaches out to my neighbour and wants HER to fuss him, despite the fact he was hissing at her 15 minutes earlier! After the recent experience at the vet, I’ve decided he’s Dr Jekyll and Mr Harley – if he’s in his own house, he’s fine. If he’s ANYWHERE else then I have to be there or he’s a hissy growly thing. If I’m there, he’s a heap of mushy ‘pet me now!’. Daft banana boy! I haven’t figured out where he’s getting out yet, so today I’m on ‘Harley-patrol’, keeping an eye out to see if he tries it again. It’s actually sunny and moderately warm here today, for the first time in what feels like forever.
He and Jemima are back to their old love-ins after their temporary hiatus over his recent illness. Proof below!
I think that’s all! I hope you’re all doing well!
Hey there, saw Defiance. Liked it so far, and mostly for the majority of strong women roles. The political machinations reminds me of Game of Thrones, and they have their own breed of Cylon. Expensively produced, although they’d have to go a LONG way to convince me that lush green mountains suddenly sprang up all around the Gateway Arch in St Louis, Missouri. Yeah, and the Mojave Desert is filled with lush tropical palms!
Glad you’ve gotten into Supernatural. S6 is prolly my least favourite season, tho – I mean, how can you top the Apocalypse? I love that the show makes fun of its own self and fandoms, like the whole explanation of “slash” back in S4. But no, I cannot slash the brothers. Evah. I can, however, slash Dean and Castiel.
I love Mark Strong. But he’s so unrecognizable from role to role, and he does American pretty flawlessly, so he’s in a variety of film types, from Green Lantern (which even he couldn’t improve, I’m afraid) to Zero Dark Thirty to The Eagle (in the Scottish HIghlands, doing an American accent!) (The Eagle was incredibly slashy, was it not?), to Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. I’m so hoping he’ll make it to Comic Con someday. I mean, he’s going to be the new Green Lantern bad guy, right, with the yellow ring?
Watching Arrow, and while my geek friends all love it, I’m more reserved, although I do seem to be watching it every week – it is the lead-in to Supernatural, and that’s my excuse. Stephen Arnell is getting better but I still cringe at the lines he delivers sometimes. The other thing that annoys me is how every single female on the show has perfect lipstick and gloss. EVERYone. I find that annoying. They have great guest stars, tho, although I have a hard time buying that John Barrowman has a son that old. Seems to be a TV trend, Joanna Cassidy’s played the mother of both Dana Delaney (Body of Proof) and David Boreanaz (Bones) and she just doesn’t seem old enough to play their mothers! Stockard Channing playing the mother of Julianna Margulies in The Good Wife is a bit of a stretch, but I think Stockard pulls it off a bit better.
Hugs and Toodles.
D’oh! Missed this! Sorry – I think the forum’s notify thing isn’t working properly!
I gave up on Arrow because it seemed so one dimensional. Maybe I’ll pick it up again if people rave about it in later seasons! I have 3 eps of Defiance that I haven’t watched – I found the first few minutes so annoying that I turned it off but maybe I was in a bad mood and need to give it another try! LOL!
Mark Strong is in a new show, TV series on AMC called Low Winter Sun. He’s the star, and it’s about a Detroit detective in a city where the cops and the criminals are not easily separated. (A bunch of Fuscos). It sounds like a police procedural with a dash of paranoia and revenge, but I’d watch it just for Mark Strong doing yet another American…
I love Mark Strong. I bet he’s great in that new show – I’ll have to see if I can catch it!