Further to sebastienne's post here, and proving that this series was in fact *made for us*, may I present some actual lines spoken by Prince John (or Ford Prefect) to the Sheriff of Nottingham (or Kerr Avon), while playing chess (why yes, I am choosing to view that as a euphemism. As I'm pretty sure the programme-makers intended me to do.), with a little photographic evidence of Nottingham's reaction.

( A pleasure to see you again, My Lord. (Image entirely safe for work.) )

I seriously want to know what direction the actors were given for this scene.

( Because Nottingham clearly has an oral fixation, and John keeps stroking the stem of his wineglass. (Image entirely safe for work.) )

In conclusion: fic. Fic fic fic. Please. Someone.

I'm sure many of those who read this journal will already have noted parrot_knight's excellent recent entries on the 70s children's sci-fi show The Tomorrow People, to be found here and here. As usual, they offer an intelligent mixture of in-universe and real-world comment, plotting the various changes of format and tone throughout the series, and teasing out various important and thought-provoking themes. Well worth the read.

My blog, on the other hand, is not the place for depth of analysis. This is the place for picspam, fangirlisms, and people getting attacked by shellsuits. WARNING: SPOILERS within, for all seasons of 'Tomorrow People' and the Big Finish audio dramas.

( A Perhaps-Not-So-Brief Introduction To 'The Tomorrow People', Part I.1: Characters: John. )

Just on the offchance that there are people on my (teeny tiny) f-list who a) haven't seen this, b) have any interest in writing fanfic, and c) are at all familiar with the extended Whoniverse (...okay, so, pearbean, I'm primarily looking at you) - toobroadtoodeep is putting together an extended Whoniverse prompts-based ficathon, and it looks like awesome fun. I'm going to do my damnedest to snaffle the post-Sympathy for the Devil Warner!Doctor + Brigadier fic, because, wow. Crotchety middle-aged-men shenanigans FTW. As soon as I've thought up a few prompts I'll certainly be submitting them.

Woohoo! Picked up copy of Biggles in the Terai in Oxfam Books! Yeah, it's late, therefore pants, but it promises me 'death from the air from snakes' so I'm waiting for the EVIL FLYING DEATH SNAKES like the snakes with wings in Herodotus which fight with the ibises on the borders of Egypt. (Hdt. II.75, check it out, it's awesome.) Man, Biggles vs. flying death snakes would rock.

(...all right, so it actually promises me 'death from the air, from snakes...' and a number of other forms of death. I can still hope.)

There are a fair number of the Red Fox Biggles editions in Oxfam on St Giles at present - nothing very unusual (a couple of copies of 'The Rescue Flight', 'Goes to War', I think 'Fails to Return'), but just thought I'd let any potentially interested parties on my f-list know ^_^

Have spent much of the day typing up my RLF-handwritten-illegible reading lists for Thucydides essays. Fear.

Okay, so, recently? I have been fangirling too many things. I can always tell when this happens because my brain seems to be full of lemonade (not the nice still cloudy lemonade, the frothy cheap lemonade that tastes ever so faintly of soap) and fizzes inconveniently when I'm supposed to be working. As a more or less direct result of this I haven't been doing as much work on my DPhil write-up as I should have been. So, in a vague attempt to exorcise some of the fannish glee, here are some of the things that have been distracting me over the last couple of weeks.

( 1. Tomorrow People, the original series. )

( 2. Doctor Who novels. )

( 3. Blakes 7. )

I was in Cambridge over the weekend for a concert. Concert went pretty well - it was the Monteverdi 1610 Vespers, which I hadn't sung before, and which are wonderful, in a faintly mad sort of way. I'd only been to Cambridge once before, and that was for a Classics open day the year before I came up to Oxford, which passed in a bit of a blur, so this was a good chance to get to know the town a little better. I do see what everyone means about it seeming rather like a university with a few shops attached; but those few shops somehow manage to be much *better* than Oxford shops, which seems unfair. They had a John Lewis', a decent number of little winding streets lined with small shops (whereas Oxford shopping seems to be basically a crossroads stuffed with people and housing the generic high-street shops), and definitely had Oxford beaten in the book-shop department, at least in terms of my somewhat odd tastes. There was a lovely second hand book shop with the first floor entirely devoted to (mainly first edition) children's books - hundreds of WE Johns books, including several of his sci-fi titles, which I'd never seen on the shelf before, masses of Worrals, and even a fair amount of Gimlet. They were priced fairly steeply (which is to say, they were priced typically - the average price of a first edition Biggles is too easy to check online to pick up many bargains), but the range and the quality were *gorgeous*. I treated myself to a Gimlet, because I have no will power. Heffers was also a pleasant surprise - it seems to have a somewhat more esoteric range than Blackwell's, particularly in terms of Crime fiction. They had a lot of American import titles and independent imprints, which meant I was able to pick up a couple of books which I'd only seen online before. I also had a pleasant chat about early twentieth century pulp fiction with a nice man who was also reading the back of the Fantomas novel which I pounced on. There are only a limited number of bookshops where that sort of thing happens.

I've also been online shopping for sheet-music for my sister's wedding (now less than a month a way, OMG @_@), and for a new external DVD-burner, since the drive on my laptop, while still playing DVDs perfectly happily, no longer even *pretends* to burn them. So there have really been *far* too many things with which to distract myself lately. And now term has crept up on me again. Argh.

*goes back to making notes on medieval pilgrimage, with a feeling of vague catharsis*

What the -



Run!

RUN!

( BICARBONATE! BICARBONATE! )

I don't suppose anyone out there knows whether Lord Peter Wimsey went to prep school, do they? There might be something in the Paul Delagardie biographical essay somewhere, only I don't have a copy of it handy.

Not that I'm writing Raffles + Lord Peter Wimsey crossover fic at all. Ohhhhh no.

ETA: Oh, and also - and I know the answer to this one is in the Delagardie essay, only I've forgotten the detail - are the 'all nerve and nose' traits from the Delagardie side of the family, or from the more reflective branch of the Wimseys? *is useless and has bad memory*

Because I don't have enough to do at the moment (*prods thesis in suspicious manner*), and because I want to write some more Raffles fic at some point, I thought I'd throw this one open to the floor. Don't know if I'm going to get any responses, but still. Worth a go.

Essentially, I want to write some Raffles fic, but I'm not sure what. And I find that I always work better when I have a prompt of some kind to work around. So - can anyone think up any fic prompts for Raffles fics that I could play with? Is there a Raffles fic you've always wanted written? Is there a certain fic cliche you're particularly partial to that you'd like to see played out in late-Victorian London? Have you been longing for Raffles-and-Bunny-at-public-school stories? Do you want to see if I can find a way to work around the ending? Do you want Raffles vs. Arsene Lupin? (...well, I've only read four books of Lupin stories, I can't guarantee I know how to write him yet. But I might be willing to try.) Then drop me a prompt in the comments, no matter how vague, and I'll try to write something around it.

Go on, give me a challenge ^_^

Because I'm not procrastinating in the *least*.

(Format ganked from harriet_vane, who adapted it from http://www.smartbitchestrashybooks.com/. It's a big ol' tag game of ganking.)

Best author(s) you discovered this year

Trouble is with this sort of thing is that I can never remember what I've read this year. Not that I've read an enormous amount, but - did I read my first Georgette Heyer in 2007 or 2006? It's hard to be sure. - No, wait! I remember I was on the train on my way to Eton to sing for their St George's Day service, so it must have been 23rd April! Well done, memory! So I suppose it's probably Georgette Heyer, who may be trash, but is delightfully light, witty and well-written trash, with the seal of approval from A.S. Byatt and my mother. So I have no shame at all about this one.

Ooh, and I think I probably discovered Antal Szerb this year too. Though again, that *could* have been 2006. At any rate, I picked up 'The Pendragon Legend' from the 'Literature in Translation' table in Waterstones, because it was a pretty edition and had an awesome plot summery. And now I am so badly in love with Antal Szerb that I almost bought one of his books in German when I was over there in December, because it hadn't been translated into English yet. Even though my German's not really good enough to slog through it with any degree of enjoyment. And even though he's Hungarian, so the German version's no more the original than the English version is. And even though his works are being translated into English at a rate of about one every six months. I was still seriously conflicted.

Best new book you read this year: top 3

I'll interpret this as 'new to me', as I don't read a *huge* amount of brand new fiction.

Journey by Moonlight + The Pendragon Legend, Antal Szerb. It's not really cheating to pick two, they're half the same book anyway :D I love Szerb's heroes, the nutty introverted intellectual freaks.

The Longest Journey, E.M. Forster. *weeps buckets* oh God. This one just tore me up inside. I love you, Forster.

The Quiet Gentleman, Georgette Heyer. I love how Heyer plays with both her major genres here - romance and detective story. Even though it means that someone at the end has to actually be *guilty of a crime* (or in this case an attempted crime), and as ever with the cast of a Georgette Heyer romance, you pretty much love everyone, and don't want *anyone* to have done it. This isn't one of her better known novels, but I loved it.

Book you wish you’d skipped over and spent that $9 on a pair of Payless shoes instead.

*considers* Probably The Cloudspotter's Guide. Not that it was bad, just a bit dry - more of a reference work than something to read for pleasure. I was expecting more whimsy and less barometric pressure.

What book coming out in 2008 are you most looking forward to?

*grins* Actually, it's out already. NEW BORIS AKUNIN FTW. *huggles beautiful new hardback* I love you, Erast Petrovich. I hope your new assistant doesn't die messily in the too imminent future.

Reading goals for next year

Urm, try to whittle the enormous shelf full of books-I've-bought-but-haven't-had-time-to-read-yet down to more reasonable proportions. Generally, buy fewer books, much as it pains me to say so. I am too much of a sucker for 3 for 2 offers.

More positively - read the whole Perry Mason series, as they take about two hours apiece. Read the whole original Tarzan series, which likewise take about two hours. Improve my knowledge of early 20th century pulp literature in general - Fantomas, Arsene Lupin, Craig Kennedy, Sexton Blake, I want them all. My detective is a detective-novel fan (oh, the meta...*headdesk*), and I need to know what he's read.

Possibly I should also include on my goal's list 'get some work done and stop reading so much trash'. Ho hum.

A quick meme, because a combination of Military-Precision Family Christmas and Yuletide Madness has sapped all my brain-power. I hope at least one person replies to this, or I shall be Well Embarrassed.

Name a character from one of my fandoms and I'll give you (a) three facts about them from my personal canon/fanon, (b) a reason he/she is not perfect, (c) a reason he/she is awesomecakes, (d) five things that never happened to that character or (e) five people that character never fell in love with and why. You pick the character. I pick the letter.

*sighs* When you've got a dozen browser windows open, and there are half a dozen research books scattered around your desk, and your copy of the original text is dog-eared and full of post-it notes, you know it's time to *stop treating the damn fic like an extended essay and just start writing the damn thing.*

*kicks self in the brain*

*stares at blank screen*

Argh.

Hum. So, I'm not entirely certain where this came from, especially since this last fortnight I've been eating, sleeping and breathing Biggles canon (*kicks brain*), but it sure was insistent about it. It's been ages since I've done a reasonable length one-shot fic practically at a sitting, and it probably means this is rubbish ^_^ It's certainly in need of some hefty beta-ing, polishing, editing, and so forth, so constructive comments appreciated. I'd have done more when I was typing it up, only I wanted to get it up this evening, and I'm knackered ^_^;;

So basically, I was mulling over an old meme on potatofiend's journal, wherein someone requested Raffles and Bunny's first kiss. And this was what that mulling turned into. Huh. I think I had entirely too much fun with the school-story setting, but I did at least manage to resist the urge to introduce any 'Hefty ziggety door knobs' moments.

I'm wondering whether, once I've neatened this up, I should be brave enough to post it on rarelitslash. I mean, it definitely falls within the purviews of 'rare', 'lit' and 'slash', which has to be a start...

Title: First Sight (for want of anything better. It's mainly Robert Graves' fault.)
Fandom: E.W. Hornung's Raffles series
Pairing: Raffles/Bunny
Rating: Ummm, pretty mild, some fairly innocent boy-kissing (Raffles at 17, Bunny at 13), that's all.
Word-count: 4757

( ...the cheek blanches and then blushes. )

Okay, I know I've been trying to work on the early Biggles books lately, particularly for the sake of the precious Algy characterisation. And I know that this really isn't an early book. Nor does it feature a giant squid attack. But...I couldn't hold off on this one any longer. I just couldn't.

Biggles Buries A Hatchet (1958)
which I have in a 1969 paperback edition, with possibly the most terrifying cover illustration of ?Biggles you're ever likely to see.

( Plot )

( Notes )

( Lines to cherish )

( Conclusions )

(Cross-posted to biggles_slash, apologies to anyone who watches both.)

Because *you* demanded it!

Well, no, you didn't. pearbean and childofatlantis could be construed as having demanded the one where Algy or possibly Ginger got menaced by a giant squid or the like while hiding up a tree. (Algy was up the tree, that is. Or possibly Ginger. We couldn't remember. But presumably not the squid.) But I couldn't lay hands on that one immediately. So, on the reasonable assumption that what people *really want* from a Biggles adventure is a giant squid attack, I offer:

Biggles Air Commodore (1937)
which I have in a fifth impression (1950) copy, without dust-jacket but in rather nice nick, with a selection of annotations in the margin and the back which look rather like a Don's got hold of it at some point and subjected it to some critical theory.

( Plot )

( Notes )

( Lines to cherish )

( Giant Squid Attacks )

( Conclusions )

Haven't posted one of these for a while, but have been newly enthused by the approach of Yuletide (I'm well aware that I'm unlikely to get Gimlet-fic, but still...). So, for your delectation, and my potential fic-writing convenience, let's attack...

Gimlet Goes Again (1944)
which I have in a beautiful first edition with dust jacket. *snuggles lovely book*

( Plot )

( Lines to cherish )

( Notes )

( Body count )

( Conclusions )

So, I don't normally use this blog for fic posting, but I had the sudden urge to put this one up where people can see it, because I really want to work up the impetus to write more of it sometime. I love the 'Five things that never happened to...' format, because I love AUs, and I've always meant to finish one off for Raffles. At the moment though, I've only got one of the 'Five Things...' finished. (Well, two. But I'm not as happy with the other one.) Maybe posting it will convince me to write some more.

Title: Five Things That Never Happened To A.J. Raffles, Part I
Fandom: E.W. Horung's 'Raffles' canon.
Pairing: Eh, my standard pairing for this fandom is Raffles/Bunny, but I guess we're dealing with canonical Bunny/The Nameless Fiancee here.
Rating: Non-existent.
Word-count: 3863

( A Thief In The Night, by H.M. )

Dear Yuletide Santa,

As my requests may rather have given you the impression, I'm something of a slash-hound ^_^ Which is not to say that I don't love a good gen fic (though I'm not a fan of het, generally), or that I particularly want an explicit sex scene anywhere. I'm just as happy to get pre-slash, post-slash, one-sided-and-unrequited-slash, and general homosociality of the Boy's Own Paper kind. I'm generally pretty easy to please.

I'm going to throw out a list of things that I'm generally pretty fond of in fics, and a list of things that I'm generally not so fond of, but please don't think of them as binding - if you've got a great idea that's totally different from my likes, do it! If you've got a great idea that encompasses one of my dislikes - convince me I'm wrong!

( Likes )

( Dislikes )

And a few fandom specific notes - again, no strings attached, there's no need at all to follow them ^_^

( Raffles )

( Gimlet )

( Erast Fandorin )

So - hope some of those proved useful! If not, feel free to ignore - I'm going to be happy with whatever present I get come Christmas Day ^_^

love,
me.

Posted as part of the Harlequin challenge at summersteam - please, don't read any further unless you're a slash fangirl and are prepared to leave your sense of historical accuracy at the door. No, really. Even I'm slightly ashamed.

Title: Eris and Eros - Chapter 7
Author: Calliope
Fandom / pairing: Gundam Wing extreme AU, Treize x Zechs (well, more or less. Apart from the extreme OOC-ness.)
Warnings: Sexual situations (though the NC-17 won't be until the unposted chapters), mention of mild torture, and...uh, classics geekery? Yeah, pretty sure that deserves a warning.

( Chapter 7 )

Posted as part of the Harlequin challenge at summersteam - please, don't read any further unless you're a slash fangirl and are prepared to leave your sense of historical accuracy at the door. No, really. Even I'm slightly ashamed.

Title: Eris and Eros - Chapter 6
Author: Calliope
Fandom / pairing: Gundam Wing extreme AU, Treize x Zechs (well, more or less. Apart from the extreme OOC-ness.)
Warnings: Sexual situations (though the NC-17 won't be until the unposted chapters), mention of mild torture, and...uh, classics geekery? Yeah, pretty sure that deserves a warning.

( Chapter 6 )

Posted as part of the Harlequin challenge at summersteam - please, don't read any further unless you're a slash fangirl and are prepared to leave your sense of historical accuracy at the door. No, really. Even I'm slightly ashamed.

Title: Eris and Eros - Chapter 5
Author: Calliope
Fandom / pairing: Gundam Wing extreme AU, Treize x Zechs (well, more or less. Apart from the extreme OOC-ness.)
Warnings: Sexual situations (though the NC-17 won't be until the unposted chapters), mention of mild torture, and...uh, classics geekery? Yeah, pretty sure that deserves a warning.

( Chapter 5 )