Some things

[thisbluespirit]

Because I do want to start trying to make posts that are talking again. (My last week's ones don't count; that was incoherent babbling. ;-D)

1. A much-delayed link/announcement but liadtbunny has started up oldbrit_tvicons - because it's so hard to find a sensible central place to post old British TV icons. However, the problem with that, is there's also no central place to advertise a comm to post old British TV icons. So, do go & join if that's of interest, and if not, if you can pass the word along, that'd be wonderful.

2. At last I can talk about this! seriesfive sent me her WIP by installments, one of the things that has been cheering me up this year, but obviously you can't rec a WIP. But now it's in progress on AO3, so I can. It's a fic in which Silver and Steel get stuck in the His Dark Materials universe and very strange things are happening, including to them. There are many things I could say about it, because it's excellent, but mainly... Silver is stuck as a lemur and it is awesome. (I didn't know I needed lemur-fic in my life, but apparently I did.) That is a terrible rec (sorry, seriesfive!) - it also has a mystery and much amusing and subtle character stuff between the two, which is what people should read it for, but Silver is a lemur. That is all. *cough*

Of Angels and Elementals (30011 words) by SeriesFive
Chapters: 14/29
Fandom: Sapphire and Steel, His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Relationships: Silver/Steel, Silver & Steel
Characters: Silver (Sapphire and Steel), Steel (Sapphire and Steel), Lord Asriel, Master of Jordan College
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Daemons, Alternate Universe - Fusion, Idfic, Community: Fic Rush, Trope Bingo Round 2, Gen or Pre-Slash, Daemons, Angels, Elements
Summary:

Steel and Silver have been assigned. Their destination: Oxford. Upon their arrival they soon discover that they’ve stumbled into a trap — a trap specifically designed to capture an elemental. The question is what is more perilous? Steel realising that he is slowly turning human, Silver discovering that he’s somehow ended up as Steel’s dæmon or the fact that a dark shadow is transforming innocent school-boys into statues?

This is obviously pre-HDM. In Lord Asriel’s world elements are called elementals. The story can be read as Gen or Pre-Slash, just choose according to your preferences.

3. Also, I have discovered the secret of fanfic writing success! Well, obviously apart from writing in popular fandoms, popular slash pairings, and/or being very good. But if, like me, you're not any of those things, what you do is this: write a hasty crossover ficlet in which Miss Marple is in someone else's fandom, being awesome. Then sit back and wait for the kudos to inexplicably roll in.

More seriously, something very nice happened during Non-Existent-and-Horrible-July, which was that someone asked to translate my ficlet So We Meet At Last (in which Miss Marple meets Dracula and it doesn't end well for the Count) into Russian. This was very exciting - I don't think anyone's ever asked me if they can do anything to any of my fics, and certainly not to translate one. I can't give you the link, because it was for a specific challenge on a Russian site, but the translator gave me a guest login, so I had the fun of seeing my fic in Russian (and putting all the comments into Google translate) and, as there was a link back to my original fic, I suddenly got about 20 extra kudos on it. Which means that my top two fics are now both Miss Marple crossover ficlets. Hence my joke. But wasn't that lovely?

Comments

[seriesfive]

Thank you for saying so many good things about my story! :) If you didn't know beforehand that you needed lemurfic, think how startled I was about my rapidly developing katta obsession! :D

[seriesfive]

...I forgot: No. 3 really made me smile. You left out the porn - and why doesn't that surprise me ;) In the end success (as in a high hit count and lots of kudos - which, of course, isn't the same) seems at least to some extent slightly coincidentally. I mean even mediocre fics can get a lot of attention an praise if they mix the right 'ingredients' (see above) while there are real gems out there that are well-written, intelligent, even thought provoking occasionally, but they are read by far too few. Btw. I think you're very good. You're just too independant and write basically what you like...

[thisbluespirit]

Heh, well the pr0n was implied in the slash part, but, yes: and the pr0n, which I also don't write, except once 19th C London pr0n (i.e. going on for two paragraphs about London) and telepathic weirdness.

And, aw, thanks - and, you're right. I've recced on Calufrax often enough and sometimes it's so frustrating when you've got a marvellous fic and it's a 60s Doctor story or something and nobody'll even look at it. You want to go round hitting everyone with rolled-up newspapers until they go and read it and leave gushing reviews. So, yes. And I do think I'm up to good, but maybe not very good - I have some really amazing writers on my flist to measure myself by.

Btw, many animals are existing tags on AO3, including Giraffes. Why not Lemurs? :-)

You're just too independant and write basically what you like...

Hee. *accepts compliment* And, yes, well, somebody's got to write fic for all the really obscure David Collings characters or where would we all be? :lol:

[seriesfive]

And I do think I'm up to good, but maybe not very good - I have some really amazing writers on my flist to measure myself by.

That's what keeps us striving!

I know exactly how it feels. There's a great quote I have written on a post-it and stuck to my pc screen: the story is always better than your ability to write it. I've forgotten who said it, but it is from some writer (obviously) :D

[thisbluespirit]

Yes, Some Writer! They said lots of good things. ;-D

(Oh, and, btw, I just caught this right at the end of your latest chapter, where possibly either you or yr beta temporarily fell asleep:

Where they poisoning him? The thought caused a trickle of ice running down his spine. He had trouble breathing. Where was Silver, his mind was screaming as everything felt more and more sluggish by the second. He felt so terribly exhausted. He couldn’t help it; he couldn’t stay awake. He was only dimply aware when he fell.

Should be "Were they poisoning him? The thought... of ice to run down his..." and-and-and dimly aware at the end. "Dimply aware" is another matter entirely and I don't even know what that would look like. (It is an awesome typo, though. But if you don't want readers getting the giggles at the most dramatically inconvenient point, you might want to edit it back to dimly. I suppose at least it wasn't pimply aware... :lol:)

[seriesfive]

Oh Goddess! Thank you for being so observant! Dimply aware really IS great *so many dimples...* It is the wrong association here though. :D

[thisbluespirit]

It's definitely a typo to be treasured - the placing in the paragraph is perfect, too. You build your way up to the cliffhanger so well and then level it with a dimple. :-)

I just happened to be looking at it was right at the end there...

[john_amend_all]

You obviously have more luck with Russians who want to translate your fic than I do; mine asked for permission, I granted it, and then... nothing :-)

[thisbluespirit]

Well, I expect yr fic is out there being admired anyway! I just obviously got a v thoughtful translator. :-)

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

How wonderful! And exciting for you.

And I shall go read the S&S/HDM x-over...

[thisbluespirit]

Thank you! It was a very nice surprise. :-)

How's freedom treating you? I hope you're managing to have some proper rest at last. ♥

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

I bet!

Well, I've escaped to Gloucestershire, and my Mum, for a week, so hopefully the rest will start from today. Right now I'm trying to recover from nearly 4 hours on buses and trains! (Oh for a TARDIS!)

[thisbluespirit]

Well, I hope so, too - have a lovely time! ♥

And I am sorry, but you gave your TARDIS to me and it cheers me up at night; you can't have it back just yet. ;-)

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

Thanks.
So I did - darn.

[oonaseckar.livejournal.com]

write a hasty crossover ficlet in which Miss Marple is in someone else's fandom, being awesome. Then sit back and wait for the kudos to inexplicably roll in.

But it's not inexplicable, it's an awesome device: secret, sneaky fandom characters, yet MM has the jump on 'em and knows all their secrets. I have one planned for every fandom I've ever bothered: the only trick would be actually writing them.

[thisbluespirit]

:lol: I love that you have one for every fandom! And, look, see, you should write one or two of them. There is a demand! ;-)

[liadt]

Thanks for the plug;)

And congratulations on going bilingual!

[thisbluespirit]

I'm finally feeling a bit better, and hoping it'll last this time, so I'm catching up with things. :-)

Well, it wasn't me that went bilingual, just my fic. I'm sadly still limited to English, a word or two of Welsh and dogy A-Level French.

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

Hurrah for getting translated, which extra kudos!

[thisbluespirit]

Thanks! It was a very nice surprise. :-)

[clocketpatch]

2. I really, really need to watch Sapphire and Steel at some point. It's one of those things I've been meaning to do for ages, and then... not doing. That and Spooks... though I've just seen that Spooks is on netflicks (assuming that M15 is the same show with a title change). Hmm... things that ought to be done this winter...

3. Heh, well, I think you're very good, for what that's worth. I'm just reading the fic now and enjoying it muchly. I got a similar request for translation earlier in the summer, but I didn't get any link or guest log-on back so I mostly forgot about it, and really have no idea if the fic got translated or not. I think it's really cool that this Russian translation fest exists though, and that we both got contacted on it (on fics in completely different fandoms!)

[thisbluespirit]

Aw. S&S is very very weird and old and I would be very interested to know what you make of it, if you do. (It's like watching 6 old Classic Who serials in total - not too much of a chore, then. It does take a bit of adjusting to it, so be patient with it unless you take a special hate to it for some reason. The adjusting should really pay off.)

And, yes, MI5 is Spooks - I should think it'll be the same, although you might want to double check the length, because the UK episodes were 1hr and then they cut 15 mins for the US versions, but I think Netflix should be the original ones. Spooks is now 11 years old, which is hard to believe. I watched it from the beginning to the end and so I still think of it as hard-hitting and up to date, but the start has terribly old-fashioned technology now! Hopefully, the ethical dilemmas of living as a rl spy won't look silly, though. It's not an easy show, though. I never know whether to rec people Spooks or not. But i love it (and my lovely Ruth, who turns up in S2, especially). :-)

If you do, I shall be happy to listen to yr reactions and babble at you if you like them, if that's not too much of a threat!

And, thanks. And that is cool. I didn't think it was specifically translated fic, but maybe I'm wrong - anyway, I was taken up by the British Crime team in their fannish battle and whoever it was seems to have done a v good job and let me see everything, which I very much appreciated. I don't know if they won, though!

[clocketpatch]

Well... I've watched Classic Who and The Prisoner and enjoyed both, and both are very odd old-style British shows so... ? Which reminds me, I've got to watch Red Dwarf and Blake's 7 at some point too. So much media and so little time. *sigh*

Technology from 2002 is terribly old fashioned now? Really? Because my phone is totally from 2002... I live in such a technology bubble. A friend was explaining Instagram to me last night and I was just... "I don't get it." I am terribly curious about Ruth, however, and all of those icons you use with such aplomb. I'm waiting until winter when I'll have more free time, but then I feel like I'm going to be binge-watching on this...

I don't know if it was translated fic specifically, or if it was just whatever existing fic fit into the categories but they had to be in Russian for judging regardless of the original language. I've got a feeling it may have been exclusive to British fandoms, but then, I really have no clue. I just got the one email and nothing after. I should probably pm that person back and find out what happened with that, because I am just a wee bit curious now.

[thisbluespirit]

I've watched Classic Who and The Prisoner and enjoyed both, and both are very odd old-style British shows so... ?

Yes, probably you'll be fine, then! But S&S does have its own particular style - it really isn't quite like anything else I've ever seen. (Liadt had scanned in its entry from the Guinness book of British Tv shows and it said something like: "There are many ways of capturing your audience's attention. Total lack of explanation is not usually one of them..." Which is perfect.)

And don't feel bad, I am British, and I've spent the past two and a half years having to watch old TV on DVD to get by and I've still never seen The Avengers or The Prisoner, or more than one ep of Dangerman. I don't know how long it'd have taken me to get round to S&S if I hadn't started out on this David Collings binge back in 2011. Though people were intriguing me about it, and the fic was very interesting... :-)

Still, if you have a British TV binge that contains any mix of S&S, B7, Red Dwarf and/or Spooks, that would be a lot of fun. I actually got into B7 via Spooks, because the Classic Who fans on the Spooks forum started talking about it and told me if I liked Classic Who and Spooks, I'd love B7 - and they were right. B7 is a tacky, sticky-backed plastic thing of snark, tragedy, outrageous fashion and true awesome. It shouldn't work at all, but it does, and it is amazing.

(Also Red Dwarf - you might want to try something like Camille before you watch it properly. I found I never could get into it the first time round, but S3-6 worked better for me, because of Kryten. I've found a few other people who are the same about it - I think it depends how much you need a relatively sympathetic character in the mix.)

So, yes, watch all the things! :loL:

Technology from 2002 is terribly old fashioned now? Really?

Well, I never update my phone much (I have my sister's old one, goodness knows what year that is), but yes. You don't realise till you watch something like that and spies using the latest hi-tech put in CDs to steal information, instead of a memory stick or something! I think I got my now-aging PC in 2005 and I remember then I was completely shocked to find it didn't have a floppy drive - I simply hadn't thought anyone would make a computer without one and had to buy an external floppy drive to get all my files on it. And now... I mean, who uses a floppy? (Floppy discs, they were just the dodgiest things, weren't they? :lol:)

Ah, yes, that sounds about right. :-)

[thisbluespirit]

And not to be annoying or anything, but I don't think you were around so much in the winter - and both aralias and I made "why you should watch B7" posts.

My efforts: http://lost-spook.livejournal.com/309369.html
aralias's post: http://aralias.dreamwidth.org/1914664.html

[clocketpatch]

Not at all. I -wasn't- around much in the winter. My internet up until mid-way May this year was confined to one hour once a week library visits so... *plays catch up on posts*

I had the exact same reaction when I realized that floppies were going out of style. I loved floppies so damn much as a kid, even if you could only put like two decent-sized word .docs to a disc. I had (probably still have, kicking around somewhere at my mom's place) so, so many discs of half started novels and short stories. It was really a little bit ridiculous.

[thisbluespirit]

Yes, I thought it was only recently you've been able to play with the internet again properly. If you're still needing some distractions, I also did a Sapphire & Steel manifesto for het_reccers a while back. It's not as brilliant or as funny as eponymous_rose's, but it is quite funny, because I don't know why I decided to do that for a het comm, when it's sort of either epically gen, one possible OTP and maybe an OT3... (I should think my life choices through more carefully.) (And don't worry. I have done no more TV show manifestos, although actually I think I should because they're fun and I will keep watching so much obscure stuff.)

I think I finally went through mine and transferred anything that hadn't already onto memory stick before they all became too corrupt - but I had all my early efforts at novels (complete but terrible), my uni essays and my first online fanfic all stored away on them. And now that moment when you realise your story has got too long for one floppy just never happens any more... (And images! You might as well ask for the moon as try to put an image on a floppy...)

[swordznsorcery.livejournal.com]

Cool! Who knew Miss Marple had such cross-genre appeal! And congrats on being translated into Russian, too. There was once a very nice girl who used to translate my "Highlander" stuff into Polish, and would very kindly send a copy of each story for me to check over. Her confidence in me was touching, but sadly misplaced...

You seem a lot more chatty now. I hope you're feeling better. :)

[thisbluespirit]

And you didn't run it all into Google translate or the equivalent just for the lols? Because I did. Perhaps I'm just really bored, that's true. :-)

Thank you! I am feeling better, but it's only been a couple of days, so I'm still holding my breath it doesn't all go away again. But hopefully, yes, now summer's calmed down to normal and more acceptable British levels.

[pitry.livejournal.com]

YAY! Miss Marple to the rescue indeed (also, Luna Lovegood? :D)

Also, I think you're an awesome writer.

[thisbluespirit]

Well, Luna was in the one, the other had Dracula instead. ;-)

Aw, thanks. ♥