Exploding Poohsticks

To borrow Gramarye1971's articulation, I'm among those feeling like "December 2008 crept up behind them and coshed them on the back of the head," but much of it's my own darn fault, and the stuff that isn't can't be helped, so I will restock on dried squid tomorrow and brew buckets of tea all month, and all will eventually be well.

Plus, it seems churlish to wax anxious or fretful about anything when there's so much well with me already:

The new issue of flashquake is up, and it includes two of my poems: "The Sharpshooter Assembles A Relish Tray" and "A Stack of Cards."

I just got back from a week in the United Kingdom, where I got to meet up with aunty_marion at the Islington Slug and Lettuce, poked around Bletchley Park (which is in Buckinghamshire, and yes, there may eventually be TDiR fic from this), and meandered around Glasgow and Belfast with my sweetie. (And as with every trip, there were more people we would have liked to see than time to see them in, but we hope to be back (and for a longer holiday) in a couple of years...)

"Cthulhu" -- the BPAL scent, that is -- came to the rescue on our train ride from London to Glasgow, since I hadn't adequately anticipated the reek vs. sleep factor (i.e., sharing a very enclosed cabin after a long day sans showers).

Lots of anecdotal notes to self on differences between US and UK customs (what is(n't) comped in hotel rooms, etc.) and general climate (Belfast: lots of short skirts and high heeled boots in spite of the cold) and other things, which may show up here later either in fic or general natterings. I'll save it for January or later, though, since it's not like any of you lack things to read right now, and many of you are in the same boat as I am re: Stuff That Must Be Written Before Solstice. (All together now: EEK!) (And, deep breath: EEE!) (Who knows when they'll get written, but the plots, they are like the innards of intricately carved chesspieces...)

In Glasgow, there's a major road called Sauchiehall Street (pronounced "suckyhall"). It translates to "Way of the Willows."

In Glasgow's Museum of Transport, there's a Ford Anglia on display. There's a white owl perched inside...

After the Beautiful Young Man heard about Marion's plan to copyedit Book 7, he said, "You know how some dude edited Star Wars and got rid of Jar-Jar? Someone needs to phantom-edit HP and ditch Dobby."

Cedar, every time I saw the Odeon Leicester Square sign, I thought of you.

One of Belfast's most fashionable clothing stores (in the new, uber-fashionable Victoria Square complex) is called Remus Uomo. I've been telling you all for years that the shabby clothes were a front...

Cannot get "Together in Electric Dreams" out of my head. This is primarily from a late-night drink at the Stiff Kitten, where the DJ was playing what both the BYM and I think of as "80s comfort music" - which was all the more entertaining because two local, not-too-drunk lads periodically kept trying out breakdancing moves, with no one else in the bar paying them any mind. (We also stopped by the Morning Star, another pub where several tables of older people kept bursting into song. Some of it wasn't bad, but the multiple attempts at "New York, New York" were rather dire, and in spite of ordering a drink that came with its own plastic oar, I was not near tipsy enough to encourage them directly.)

There's more, but I need to tidy up and grab a quick bite before a meeting. Later, loves! *blows kisses and wafts warm studying/shopping/surviving/sketching/snoozing vibes at all y'all*

From cbldf.org, via a friend: "The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund has signed on as a special consultant to the defense of Chistopher Handley, an Iowa collector who faces up to 20 years in prison for possession of manga."

This is perhaps a good time to note that the BPAL scents inspired by the works of Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett have raised over $38,000 for the CBLDF (as of earlier this summer, and not specific to this case. As Gaiman has observed, "there are always worms nibbling away at the First Amendment").

(Disclosure: I didn't buy it direct, but I do own an imp of "Madame Tracy" and it's very nice indeed.)

Via Gaiman's blog: New Yorker vs. xkcd cartoon-off. Note use of "pulled a Palin" in one of the captions -- I wonder how long that phrase will stay comprehendable in general usage?

*thinks back to Mondale vs. Hart*
*slings cardigan over hourglass, wrenches concentration back to chores*

Night Thoughts (Lupercalia ltd. ed., decant, inspired by Goethe) - 3/29
Lab description: Lilac, blue musk, dianthus, cedar, neroli, ozone, and luminous Eastern herbs.
Ribbons's reaction: It's ok. Not a standout.
Spouse's reaction: "Has potential."

The Presence of Love (Lupercalia ltd. ed., decant, inspired by Coleridge) - 3/30
Lab description: White musk, rose-swirled amber, pink grapefruit, and jasmine.
Ribbons's reaction: Pleasant. Baby-powdery with a hint of fruit. Reminds me a bit of Prague

Longing (Lupercalia ltd. ed., empty bottle included as a freebie with the decants I'd ordered) - 3/30
Lab description: Rose geranium, frankincense, Ceylon cinnamon, golden musk, bay rum, and bois du rose.
Ribbons's reaction: Pleasant.

A side note: I think it was Lore who pointed me to LuckyStar37, who is an excellent decanter - fair prices and superb labels (hers include the notes in the scent).

Wore Cthulhu to church this morning. Still very green. Still love it. :-)

(1) Lack of immediate feedback doesn't mean your fic sucked. It may mean you wrote a pairing or rating that doesn't happen to appeal to the hordes. It may mean your scenario or universe isn't one that lends itself to a single sit-down skim-through and quick review. It may mean your usual peeps are going out of their minds with OMG HANUKKAH STARTS TOMORROW or other seasonal madness (when not procrastinating on coping with said madness by peeking very randomly at fics) and are holding off on several shiploads of reading until later this winter (especially the long'uns). It almost definitely means there are a couple of lurkers (or more!) who haven't quite worked up the nerve to tell you how much they enjoyed your story, because they're afeared of sounding stupid or shallow (note to the lurkers: be brave! Feedback is a wonderful thing! It encourages more fic!), or they're flummoxed by the interface, or because the !@#@# server went down just as they finally worked up the nerve to click the magic make-the-author-happy button (or won't accept their security code, or some other nonsense. The SnuSa site is working like a dream, but this has happened to me on at other archives from time to time). Or they're just indolent.

ETA: Or they got distracted by a dog throwing up on the carpet just as they were about to tell you how brilliant you are. Etc., dammit. Dinnae fash yersels over comment counts and other manifestations of popularity or lack thereof, because therein lies madness, including the odd syndrome of folks not realizing that manifestations of neediness and fragility = reader repellent. (Perhaps I simply have the heart of a black mountain troll (to steal Lee's phrase), but Author Notes along the lines of "Be kind to me" tend to trigger exactly the opposite impulse in me -- i.e., it wakes up an insane urge to kick puppies.)

(I know I've held forth on this subject before, but there are a lot of new writers/readers in this year's fests, so it seemed worth saying this again.)

(2) I will bet a tall skim cappucino (no sugar or syrups for me, thanks) that Not Quite What the Doctor Ordered (RL/SS, AU, rated R, 33000 words) is by either McKay or someone whose style very closely resembles hers. I am stating this publicly even though I was dead wrong on most of my guesses in last year's fest, because the suggestion that McKay might have written it will lure some of you into reading it now instead of saving it for later. *eg* The characterizations remind me of some of her other Snapes and Reguluses -- and speaking of Regulus, he's a delight in this. And so's the secondary pairing and the casting and the very detailed plotting. (I like AUs - when they're done well, the cleverness warms my toes and the characeterisations often make me think harder about canon. Good stuff.)

(3) A new handful of imps arrived in the mail over the weekend. The BYM liked Ivanushka and Long Night Moon best, and wasn't so crazy about Aunt Caroline's Joy Mojo (a frimp) or Sagittarius. He likes scents to be on the subtle side.

Lab descriptions:
LONG NIGHT MOON
The nights are at their longest, the sky is at its darkest. The air is still with reflective silence.

A bouquet of night-blooming flowers, petals dusted with frost. Cereus, moonflower accord, night phlox, honeysuckle, silver thyme, white mint, and blue musk.


SAGITTARIUS
Mutable Fire: the essence of striving.
Sage, clove, dandelion, balm of gilead, fig, and chamomile.


IVANUSHKA
Soft, velvety fur and warm musk, brushed by forest woods and dusted by dry leaves.

My initial impressions: I wasn't wowed by any of them, but none of them were "OMG no" either.
Ivanuskha (decant) I have to sniff hard to smell at all (not unlike Ozymandias). Kind of powdery.
Long Night Moon (decant) - sweet but not cloying. Has a bit of a bite to it - maybe a winter version of Gemini?
Sagittarius (decant) - kind of sunny and mild. I think it's the chamomile. (Doesn't quite fit the name, associations with arrows notwithstanding.)
Sol (decant from a different circle, received earlier) - heavier, more aggressive scent.
Cleopatra's Veil (sample from a different manufacturer) - interesting and pleasant. Reminds me of Chanel No. 5, but I'm not sure if they've actually anything in common. It just tickled that tendril of my sense-memory.
Aunt Caroline's Joy Mojo (lab imp) - very flamboyant. Very orange, which I personally like. (Probably wouldn't smell all that good on me, but I'll keep it for the "staying awake until stupid hours trying to catch up" nights.)

And on that note, I'm off to make cranberry-orange relish, run a gadzillion errands, and then return to hardcore comma mining. *g* *hugs all y'all*

Harry Potter:

Ten signs you might be reading one of my fics. Or someone else's. Heh. Some fascinating discussion threads resulting from these at individual writers' journals, and I laughed out loud at Rosy's list, which included commentary by her Snape and Lupin.

Chocolate and Asphodel! Still very much with the squeeing here, although it is currently stashed in my own "To Print and Peruse At Leisure" folder. Which, given that Snupin Santa goes live in less than 48 hours...

Speaking of SnuSa, mine is done and it is turned in! *reclaims brain from the maraudering plotbunny*

HP/The Dark Is Rising:

There's an intelligent and positive article on fan fiction in the November issue of the Southwest Airlines in-flight magazine. One of the fics it recommends is Harry Potter and the Legacy of the Light (also dba "The Crossover Monstrosity"), which longtime readers may recall as the fic that I often blame credit for pulling me headlong into active online fandom. :-)

Lord Peter Wimsey:

Nineveh is trying to incite someone to commit Wimseyfic in which a certain pair of characters visit the Orb. I want to read this too. Go forth and be bunnied.

[Please to discuss over at her journal instead of mine; I am being deliberately vague because there are folks on my f-list who have not yet read Sayers or Bujold but plan to, and they don't want to be spoiled.]

Star Wars:

Darth Tater. (It's apparently been around for several seasons, but this is the first time it's shown up on my radar.)

BPAL:

I've made a few additions to the log. Today I'm wearing "Sol" (decant, discontinued) - not sure what I think of it yet. It is brighter and sharper than a lot of the stuff I'm accustomed to wearing, but it's not unpleasant. May need to sniff it next to "Prague" and see how it compares... (The lab description is "Authority - Creativity - Courage - Leadership - Abundance - Good Health & Healing - Illumination - Truth - Honesty - Wise Counsel - Prophecy - Pride - Revelation - Equilibrium - Mediation - Nobility - Generosity" -- IOW, probably inspiring to those inspired by such things, but not terribly helpful to my overly concrete-minded noggin.)

PSA: If you're writing HP fic, do not use the word "graduate" wrt Hogwarts. To quote flamewarrior's page, "We don't graduate from school, only from university - and a graduate is someone who has completed a degree course. We simply leave school."

[This is one of those things I was clueless about myself until something came up in LJ's hp_britglish comm, and now it throws me out of a story when I see it. I happened to peek at two fics this weekend that had intriguing plots but multiple references to "when we graduated"... *sigh*]

BPAL: Tried "Despair" just now (decant of a discontinued scent). First impression is that it's actually rather sweet. Description from Kelly Neumeier: Roman chamomile, rosewood, cypress, Rose Otto, lavender, sandalwood and ylang ylang. It's on the light side -- not unpleasant, but not a standout for me.

Tears of the Phoenix: received acceptances today for two poems and three drabbles. Wheeyay! (Note: they're still taking submissions until 1 December.)

SnuSa: The good news is that I figured out what-all was wrong with the story before inflicting it upon my beta, for a change. The bad news is that I'd already eked out over 6,000 words -- some of them real darlings, too! -- and more than half of them aren't going to end up in the new version. The good news is that I'm 1,095 words into the rewrite and it's so much better than the original draft it makes me want to dance. The bad news is that it's shedding yet more light on yet more plot-cracks, and they're probably also going to require structural renovations rather merely a bit of solder and sandpaper, and DAMMIT, WHY DOESN'T MY BRAIN LOCK ONTO THESE THINGS WHEN IT'S SUPPOSED TO instead of truffling around? Cripes.

Anyway, I've had to request an extension. It's frustrating in that I'd anticipated being done by now, but being granted the time to finish it properly is a Very Good Thing. Also, aggravating as this plotbunny has been, I'm simultaneously entranced by its shenanigans: I thought I understood where it was headed next, and I thought I had a solid grip on the title, the opening line, supporting characters, setting, and a whole host of other details, and that I was stalled only on finding the precise words for the scene I'd reached. It's maddening having to chase the beast all over creation, and it will hurt if, after all this, I end up flat on my face, but right now I keep tumbling around bits of story in my head and trying to suss out how they might fit together, and they keep surprising me, and that makes me giddy.

[I'll be updating/annotating this post periodically. Last edited 10/3/09.]

What I've learned so far: I like florals, especially roses; light citrus; a hint of incense or salt. The partner likes lavender. Water-related notes seem to work really well with my body chemistry.

Also: I seem to do well with monsters (Cthulhu, Caliban...) and signs of the zodiac

Current favorites: Amsterdam, Asphodel, and Men Ringing Bell With Penises

What I avoid: sugary or foody scents; fruit other than citrus; patchouli. Have not had good luck with any of the Moons.

A useful chart. The collector's tastes and mine don't overlap at all, but I've found her descriptions helpful.

ScentScribbles catalogs the (probable) notes in each fragrance.


Wishlist

Apothecary - Tea leaf with three mosses, green grass, a medley of herbal notes, and a drop of ginger and fig.

Arcana

Arkham

Bilquis - ( description )

Cheshire Cat - Grapefruit, red currant, dark musk, Roman chamomile, delphinium, and lavender.

Cordelia - lilac, lemon, green tea, wisteria, osmanthus, white cedar, and Chinese musk.

Delphi

Eternal

Fleurs du Mal

Haloes - Oak, tonka, vanilla, white sandalwood, lily of the valley, white ginger, amber, and apricot.

Lady Macbeth - sweet Bordeaux wine, blood red currant, thyme and wild berries

Lady of Shalott

Lysander - lilac musk, tonka, wood violet, and urbane lime rind, with a Venus-kissed tangle of myrtle, blackberry leaf, and benzoin

Midnight

Moon of the Terrible (LE) - ( description )

Pais de la Canela (GC) - ( description )

Phantom Wooer

Psyche

R'leyeh

Scorpio

Snow Maiden

Tintagel

Versailles

Wings of Azrael