Just let me lie here on the tile

Got the link from therienne, read it, and laughed my head off.

The Exceedingly Sad And Very Touching Story of How Dr. Elizabeth Weir Died Saving Atlantis, by lavvyan. Slash, NC-17 (though I'd rate it R at most, myself). McKay/Sheppard.

Short, mean and very very funny.

flambeau has posted her answers to the story summary meme, where people ask you for summaries of stories you haven't actually written.

Her summaries are a joy, and also very cruel because I want to read the full stories now. And they don't exist! Woe! She makes an Eroica/Highlander crossover sound like an utterly logical match, and she has a Jeeves/Wooster story with Aunt Agatha's son Thos. in it (I die of love) and then, for SGA, she begins thus:

It took them quite a while to find the games on the Ancient database, and even longer to realize that they were games. Multi-user games, even. Rodney had written the whole subdirectory off as a manual for several different models of sailing ships that were obviously millennia out of date; it was Simpson who figured out how to set herself up as a pirate captain.

And there's more, and in various fandoms. Go read. :-)

If you haven't wandered over to the Great Vidding Truth Meme over at sdwolfpup's yet, it's definitely worth seeing and participating.

This is one long thread where you can leave anonymous feedback on the vids of any vidder who signed up. Criticism, squeeing, "I liked your vid but I don't understand X" ing, it's all good. If you want to tell me something about my vids, but you'd rather do it anonymously, go for it! And please don't be afraid to criticize. I really want to know.

I love seeing this meme grow and grow, and I've found several vids that I had lost track of, by vidders that aren't so well known. Here's a quick rec for gayalondiel's SG-1 vid to "Men In Black", which is a lot of fun and has some really excellent clip choices.

marthawells is giving away ten signed copies of Wizard Hunters, the first book in her Ile-Rien trilogy. She says:

"Right now there are 51 entries, so the chances aren't bad.

To enter, send an email between now and February 15 to WebAdmin @ marthawells.com saying you want to be in the contest. (Only one entry per person, please, even if like me you have about ten different email addresses.) On the 16th of February, I'll put all the entries in a hat and pull out ten winners. The winners will need to email me their mailing address so I can ship them the books. And overseas entries are fine."

I love this trilogy, and the only reason I'm not entering the giveaway is that I have a hardback copy. Go enter!

That's all I was going to say, but now I find I have to talk about the book a bit, even though I usually worry too much about whether I'm doing a book justice to even attempt a review.

I find Wizard Hunters riveting, and yes, it's the first part of a fantasy trilogy but it's a strong book all on its own - this is not one of those trilogies where the main character slowly acquires a telepathic horse, a quest and an adorable sidekick and sets off for adventure on the last page of book one, leaving you to grind your teeth and hurl the book against the wall.

Tremaine Valiarde doesn't have a horse, a quest or an adorable anything; she gets by on a gun, her wits and a bar of chocolate. I fell for her immediately. She's sarcastic, pessimistic, clever and unconventional, her character shaped by her unusual upbringing, and she lives in a wartorn world whose technology level is close to our own - early '20s, say - and where scholars of magic perform their experiments to try and stop the war. One of those experiments sucks Tremaine and several of those sorcerer-scholars into another world, a seemingly primitive one where sorcerers are inherently evil and must be hunted and exterminated. The first people she meets, Ilias and Giliead, are the wizard hunters in the title, and the clash and mesh of cultures as they fight their common enemy is a strong thread in all three books.

Ilias and Giliead are great characters in their own right, foster-brothers who have spent their lives dealing with rogue sorcerers and their curses, with a painful, strong history together that is slowly revealed during the trilogy. I can't say how pleased I am that Giliead and Ilias are returning in several prequel stories in the magazine Black Gate; I was really disappointed that there isn't going to be a whole prequel novel.

I always want quotes in reviews, to see what the author's writing is like, and I'm going to quote the very opening of the book here, because it sucked me in immediately and I think it gives a good feel for the book as a whole.

It was nine o'clock at night and Tremaine was trying to find a way to kill herself that would bring in a verdict of natural causes in court, when someone banged on the door.

"Oh, damn." A couple of books on poisons slid out of her lap as she struggled out of the overstuffed armchair. She managed to hold on to the second volume of Medical Jurisprudence, closing it over her fingers to mark her place. The search for the elusive untraceable poison was not going well; there were too many ways sorcerer-physicians could uncover such things and she didn't want it to look as if she had been murdered. Intracranial hemorrhage seemed a good possibility, if a little difficult to arrange on one's own. But I'm a Valiarde, I should be able to figure this out, she thought sourly. Dragging the blanket around her, she picked her way through the piles of books to the door. The library at Coldcourt was ideal for this, being large, eclectic and packed with every book, treatise, and monograph on murder and mayhem available to the civilized world.

The entry hall was dark except for one single electric bulb burning in the converted gas fixture above the sweep of the stairs. The light fell on yellowed plaster walls and rich old wood and a blue and gold patterned carpet on polished stone tile. Coldcourt was aptly named and Tremaine's bare feet were half- frozen by the time she made it to the front door. She had let the housekeeper have the night off and now she regretted it, but she had had no idea it would take this long to arrange things. At this rate she wouldn't be dead until next week.

You can read the first five chapters of Wizard Hunters online, here.

In decision, by flambeau. SGA, Sheppard/McKay, NC-17. This melted my brain.

No one was hurt. The city was quiet around him, at peace. John went on, not very far, and came to a halt. He stared at McKay's door until it trembled before him and slid open.

So, yes, I am going to default and not finish my second Hercules story before December 31st. You may now all mock me! In truth, I think I can probably finish it after all - but not post it, as I am going to be offline until January 1st.

Still, I have a story for you, because a very kind fan sent me one for a solstice present and gave me permission to post it. Here's Deb Arlens story Solstice Solace, and a lovely little story it is, just the thing to read when it's dark and cold outside and cosy indoors. If you like it, please comment and encourage her to write more! (I am going to forward all comments, accompanied by a little nagging of my own. *g*)

Title: Solstice Solace
Author: Deb Arlen
Rating: PG-13, slash
Pairing: Hercules/Iolaus
Size: 9 Kb

Hercules’ breath puffed out in frosty little clouds behind him as he loped towards the tiny village huddled beneath the crag of the mountain. The village was too small to have a name, though the mountain had several - none of them complimentary.

( Solstice Solace )

sockkpuppett has a new vid. It's an Angel vid called 'There There', and it's about Illyria.

If you're interested in vidding, or just want to watch a gorgeous new vid from one of the very best vidders, I urge you to download it. Trust me, having watched Angel is optional. (I've never seen any Angel except for the muppet episode, but I love Luminosity's vids in the fandom.)

New Lum vid! Yay!

Also, if you are interested in Lum's Scooby Road project, please see this post.

A package was delivered yesterday, but I wasn't home, so they dropped it at my neighbours' house.

Now I am home and they are not. Woe.

Want to bet these are the Vividcon DVDs?

In happier news, sockkpuppett is still adding names to the list of people who want her Scooby Road vid project on DVD. You could be one of those people. You should be one of those people, if you like vids or Buffy at all. Probably even if you don't. Lum is simply a fantastic vidder, one of the three whose vids I rewatch the most, no matter what fandom they're in. (The other two are killabeez and flummery, so that's really four people, but never mind.)

If you haven't heard about this before, Scooby Road is sockkpuppett's magnum opus - she took the whole of the Beatles' Abbey Road and vidded the whole of Buffy to it. I've only seen one small piece, one vid, and that was breathtaking. I can't wait to see the whole.

I've been reading bits of Stargate: Atlantis fanfic here and there, mostly following other people's recs, but I thought I'd rec this one, from a writer I'm not familiar with. It gave me the shivers.

Iterations, by maisierita, SGA, rated R for language.

The first time they rescued him, they came with explosives and stunners and guns. They shot the two guards, blew up the door to his cell, and killed three more people on the way back to the Jumper. Stumbling with fatigue, John tripped over a bloody, contorted corpse, and everything went black as he hit the ground.

When he woke up, he was back in the dark, damp cell, chained to the wall again.

Hurray, the Escapade 2005 vid DVDs are on sale at last. And, to make things even better, they still have copies of the 2004 and 2003 sets for sale too. There's a complete list of vids, songs, vidder and fandom for each DVD set.

I highly recommend these sets. I wrote up a personal review for every vid on the 2005 set (except my own *eg*).

The 2004 set has Whatever by Luminosity and Sisabet, an Angel vid that kills me. It's hilarious and sexy and you don't need to have seen Angel at all to adore it. There is also All Soul's Night, a gorgeous Gladiator vid by Destina which takes the best parts of a movie that left me unsatisfied and turns them into a haunting character portrait, Come Together by Laura Shapiro, a creepy and dark Farscape vid, and We'll Meet Again, an utterly evil Stargate vid by Carol S. Among others.

All these vids are online, but I personally find watching small, compressed vids on my computer really unsatisfying. Seeing them at their best on the TV screen, in full size and picture quality, makes an immense difference to me - when I got my first DVD vids, the Vividcon set, I was blown away.

(X-posted to vidding)

I'm watching this anime vid by VegettoEX and laughing my head off.

It's a...well, instructional vid, almost, about what not to do if you want to make a well-edited anime vid, with titles pointing out various problems, like stray frames and talking faces (I say 'talky face', you say 'lip flap', let's call the whole thing off...). It was shown at AnimeNext 2004 as part of a panel on "Fine Tuning and Easy Things to Avoid" in vid editing.

My head feels like it weighs a ton, yet at the same time, there's nothing in it that wants to come out - be it in words, or vid bits, or anything else.

Let me point you to the good stuff, instead. :-)

ltlj has written a Hercules: the Legendary Journeys/Stargate crossover where Iolaus gets stranded in the SG universe. I adore it. I've never seen SG beyond the movie and an episode or two, and that didn't hinder my enjoyment of this story at all, nor do I think a SG fan who has never seen Hercules would have any trouble. It's got great snark, great character moments, and an appearance by one of my all time favorite original characters. Also, this story reinforced my conviction that Iolaus is incredibly sexy when he's pissed off. *g*

Been There, Done That, by Martha Wilson. PG-13. SG/H:tLJ.

"Look," Daniel tried again, "We're trying to help you."

"Are you?" Iolaus began in a tone that clearly communicated that he felt he was humoring a crazy man. "You're lousy at it. If you really wanted to help me, you'd let me go. Before Hercules comes after me." He looked at Jack steadily. "He saw you. He got there just as the blue swirly doorway grabbed us."

Frustrated, Daniel spread his hands. "The only reason we were able to get to your world at all was a fluke. We don't even know how we reached it. And even if there were stargates in your world, he wouldn't be able to come after you."

Iolaus regarded Daniel steadily. "That's what they told me when I was dead."

A while ago, dbw also wrote a Hercules/Stargate crossover. It's a fun adventure story which deals with the reverse situation: the SG team gating to ancient Greece. I love how Deb managed to work in details like the SG Thor versus the H:tLJ Thor, and the Stargate's resemblance to Xena's chakram.

False Gods, by Deborah Wright. PG-13. SG/H:tLJ.

"Daniel, what is he doing?" Jack stared at Hercules.

"I don't know."

"Well, find out. This is making my 'not exactly sane' theory look better and better."

Daniel stood next to Iolaus. Iolaus didn't seem concerned, though he did look curious. "What's going on?"

Iolaus shrugged. "Herc's trying to contact one of his relatives."

Last but not least, I was seduced into reading flambeau's new Stargate:Atlantis story by the sheer amounts of squee on IRC and my friendslist. I've never watched SG:A (is it even on in the Netherlands? I've no idea), and while I have absorbed reasonable amounts of SG-1 canon, I have only the vaguest idea of who these Atlantis guys are. And I'm telling you: it doesn't matter. This is a satisfyingly long, wonderfully entertaining story, with a neat mystery at its heart, and I recommend it whether you've watched the series or not.

About A Lamp, by torch. NC-17. SG:A.

They went through another six sets separately, then started to solve them together when the matrices became more difficult. They argued for ten minutes about the twenty-fourth one, and then Rodney touched what was clearly the correct symbol, and the next set lit up. They argued for another ten minutes about the twenty-seventh one, and then Rodney touched what was clearly the correct symbol, and the wall beeped in a disapproving manner, blinked, and went back to the first set. "Oh, great."

"See? I was right." Sheppard grabbed the last piece of pepento fruit.

"We have to start over." Rodney paced in front of the panel. "I can't believe it resets back to the beginning. It couldn't go back just one step? This is going to take hours."

"Yes, it is. Hours and hours. And also, I was right." Sheppard bit the piece of fruit in half.

My ebook is empty. So is my head. Please! Pimp me something to read!

Any rating, any fandom. Satisfyingly long and plotty would be nice, so would a side of h/c and/or loyalty to the death. Or clever banter. Or both. Or sword fights. Or scary things from the netherworlds. Or making dinner. (What? I am a sucker for guys making dinner. Especially if they have to catch it first.)

For anyone else looking for the same, I recommend these. Some gen, some slash.

- lanning's Identical series (Smallville), which is becoming more and more canon, these days

- saffronhouse's Tristes Tropiques series (Sentinel), though not if you are alone and there are thunderstorms nearby, and Tatters (SG/Sentinel/Angel. No, it works. Really.)

- ltlj's When Hellmouths Collide (Buffy/H:tLJ. Ditto) and Home Is Where The Heart Is (H:tLJ). I reread these every six months or so.

- killabeez' incredibly powerful Bitter Glass (ST:TOS).

- flambeau's Before the face of the sun (Coldfire Trilogy). Okay, so maybe read the books first. But then! Then! Ahhhh.

What with one thing and another, I did not go to Escapade. I need an 'I sent my vid to Escapade and all I got was this lousy icon' icon. Except that it wouldn't be true, because
a) many people wrote con and vid reports that I pounced upon gleefully, and
b) others told me something of the crowd reactions, bless them, and
c) I got contributor's copies of the Escapade dvds! Yay!

So I had a vidshow in my own living room, without squeeing fellow fen but with my stripey fleece blanket for company, and I've typed up my thoughts about the vids below.

Summary: when the Escapade vid dvds are offered for sale at escapade_con, and I do hope they will be, I think you should buy them.

Aspect ratio questions
Some, but not all, vids with movie source on this set look wrong on my PAL TV, and I haven't seen anyone else mention it. By 'wrong' I mean that they have the wrong aspect ratio for my TV, and the picture gets stretched vertically. I know that movie source, at least widescreen DVD source, has a different aspect ratio than the 4:3 of TV, and I imagine a vid DVD can only be burned in one aspect ratio - is that why? Or is it something to do with PAL versus NTSC? Would this be solved by cropping/resizing a movie source vid until it’s 4:3 ratio? I really want to know, as I’m working with widescreen movie source myself at the moment. (Maybe that’s why the whole aspect ratio thing is so noticeable to me, and everybody else is going “What are you on about, ya freak?” *g*)
I noted down which vids on the Escapade disc had this problem and which didn’t, and I added that here because I imagine some of the vidders might want to know too.

( Escapade 2005 DVDs, disc one )

( Disc two )

There is a story by Cordwainer Smith, one of my favorite SF writers, called Golden The Ship Was - Oh! Oh! Oh!. It is all that one of its characters can say, after a battle in space that may or may not have happened.

Right now, I know how he feels. I want you to watch this vid by GF & TS. It is called 'Data's Dream' now, which is not its name, and by its name I knew it for years, long before I saw my first vid or knew any vid fans - it was that famous, and now it's remastered and online. And it was everything I thought it would be. It's about fandom, and flight dreams, and hope, and you should watch it. Golden the ship was - Oh! Oh! Oh!

In the discussion that followed roo2's fanfic peeves rant, it quickly became evident that I haven't read even half of the bad Hercverse fanfic out there, something for which I'm quite grateful. But I'm even more grateful to the good writers, the ones who delight me with new and satisfying stories, the ones keeping this fandom alive. Thank you all.

( H:tLJ picture and fan fic recs )

I love the obscure fandoms that fellow Yuletide ficcers have come up with, especially the book ones. Here are a few that I particularly enjoyed that haven't already been recced to death:

- modus vivendi. Chronicles of Chrestomanci, PG-13. This reads like Diana Wynne Jones, and that's the highest praise I can give. Tonino Montana (from The Magicians of Caprona) settles in at Chrestomanci Castle and encounters cats of various sizes.

- Unexpected Gifts. Barrayar, R. Three Barrayar stories for the price of one! Such good ones, too. And there is even a bit of Miles/Bel. (I admit, I chickened out and didn't add Miles/Bel to the pairings I thought I could write - because I rather thought I couldn't. Maybe next time.)

- Encore. Tintin, PG. I know what you're thinking: Tintin? But this story knocked my socks off. It's about La Castafiore, and it's gorgeous from start to finish: The first item on the programme was the Jewel Song from Faust. In private, she called it her party piece. It was thin music, suitable for a girlish Gretchen, and she had fattened it with her thunderous voice until few men dared take the stage opposite her.

I've never been so excited about Christmas as this year, and it's all because of While we tell of yuletide treasure, the obscure fandom Secret Santa project. I wrote a story for it that I never would have dared write otherwise (you'll be able to see which one was mine come January 1st, if you're curious) and I learned a lot about what a good beta can do for you.

As if that wasn't fun enough, I got a story of my very own in return. It's a Hornblower/Pellew tale called Knowledge, Late in the Day and it is gorgeous and I love it. My original Secret Santa defaulted, and this writer kindly stepped in at the last minute to write me this story, which makes it even more impressive. Let me quote my favorite line so you can see how amazing it is:

And neither, now, could he unlearn of this space he had in his body in which another man might sheathe himself: he would carry the knowledge of it around with him, indeed feel as though he newly carried the thing itself around, like a freshly grown limb.

Thank you very much, my mysterious Santa! You made me very happy indeed, and I hope you get a story just as good as this one.

And of course there are hundreds of other stories to read, a gift basket the size of a house. I haven't read more than a twelfth of them yet, but here are some I liked particularly:

- Fine: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. And Etta. Wonderfully written and characterized, a gem of a story.
- A Hogswatch Carol: Discworld. I've never seen a fanfic come so close to the true Voice of Pratchett. This one has it all - an original character who's no less engaging for being dead, Death himself, the Watch, an Igor, ladies of negotiable affection and a murder mystery. I loved it.
- A Helping Hand: Good Omens. This one captures Crowley and Aziraphale perfectly, from an outside POV that really works. And: footnotes!

There's a new spooky Hercules story up at Heroes' Path, along with a couple of stories in other fandoms: Web of Destruction by Angela Field.

I can't write a rec for it yet as I've only just downloaded it, but I've never read a H:tLJ story of Angela's that I didn't like. She captures the laid-back humor and fantasy adventure feel of H:tLJ very nicely, and her Hercules and Iolaus are very much in character.

Thanks to dbw's discussion of Sentinel fan fiction awards, I find that Martha has a LJ as soulcake.

And even better, she is still writing the occasional bit of Sentinel fiction, for sentinel_thurs.

If you've never read one of her stories, I urge you to try. She is so damn good.
Her story Snake Oil needs a 'this story will scare the pants off you' warning. I couldn't sleep after reading it, and I can't think of higher praise.
In a way, I think she's the perfect complement to Francesca. Martha writes angsty, gorgeously realized gen, whereas Francesca writes snarky, sexy slash. But their Jim and Blair voices are note-perfect, their characterization unrivalled, and they build worlds so riveting that you want to live in them.