Life is a nice place... but I wouldn't want to live there.

I'm sure most of you have already heard that our friend leni_jess died during the weekend. Her brother and sister have made a post here.

It's so terrible and unexpected, I'm still stunned. Leni... I've known her for almost 10 years, first her stories, then herself, and she's been such a constant presence in my fandom corner and has been active in quite a few others. A very gifted and courageous writer, with a special talent for dark fics, for thoughtful, often political stories, at times with a quirky sense of humour. I loved her stories, and will always treasure them. Her Harry/Lucius fics Resolution and Defiance, or her gen The Return of Draco Malfoy will always be among my favourites. She wasn't just a great writer, but also a wonderful, encouraging and exacting beta reader, and I kept marvelling at her skill at and love for writing Snape and Slytherin characterisation in general.

In person, I met her for the first time during Sectus. Last summer, she visited Edinburgh and we travelled down to Canterbury for DiaconAlley together, chattering about anything under the sun and again I was struck by her love for travel and books and the energy with which she approached life. I'm going to miss her terribly - she was a wonderful friend. It's comforting to know that she was on the road and meeting friends right up to the end, because that's what I think she enjoyed more than anything else.

Sleep well, Leni - you left us a lot of stories to remember you by, but it's your presence and personality we'll miss most.

As it says in the subject :). Have a great holiday season, all very best wishes for the New Year, and much, much love.

(and yes, 'posting more often' is one of my New Year's resolutions as soon as I have an internet connection instead of carrying Hedwig the Netbook to the internet cafe...)

(filched from midnitemaraud_r)

Top 100 SF and Fantasy Books

(I found the summaries really useful. And yep, there are some glaring omissions, but the list seems to have been fairly nominated and voted for)

Bold for read
Italics for intending to read
Underline for partial read series/books
Strikethrough for never ever reading

( Lots of Books )

When I stepped out of work this evening, I walked right into a group of about 30 late primary school age pupils on their way to the nearby park.

All with wee black cloaks down their backs, and carrying small broomsticks. Accompanied by a handful of adults, also carrying broomsticks.

It was definitely on the cute end of surreal, and looked like Hogwarts' first years heading towards the Quidditch Pitch for their first flying lesson. Utterly adorable, and quite proud and excited :).

I might have had to sit down at the bus stop with an attack of the suppressed giggles. Wish I'd asked what the occasion was ;).

Back from Diacon Alley after a day of sleep, and with a heavy heart because it was awesome, and it's already over.

I got to meet so many wonderful people again or for the first time, and I treasure every moment of it! I'll probably have to sneak around and friend a few unsuspecting souls in the near future :).

It was the perfect con really - a *lot* of Potter fandomers, but small enough not to feel overwhelming, one strand of programming so you didn't have to make hard choices, with a venue close enough together not to scatter people too badly. Plus, I just love staying in student accommodations because you get a *desk*. Everything in life is easier with a desk!

The programming itself was excellent. I particularly loved the women- and fandom specific panels, which gave me a lot of things to think about and quite a few insistent plot bunnies.

We got to go see DH2 by Knight Bus, and it is a pretty damn good movie, although I think I liked the first part a bit better. And we had the victory ball where everything from costumes to dinner to atmosphere was just perfect.

And best of all, there was a fifth column of Alex Rider fans among the crowd, so we got to have a meetup and lots of chatting about my two favourite fandoms ever all at once :).

I spent the Monday wandering around Canterbury, visiting their great Roman Museum, sitting in a street cafe writing Minerva/Alecto 7th year fic, and got back to E-Town at midnight after finally finished my long-term WiP on the train.

Still exhausted now, but very happy and grateful!

Um, would somebody be interested in beta-reading 23,000 words of Alex Rider fic (i.e. my spy_fest contribution that would very much benefit from a second pair of eyes with better English than mine)? Yassen/Alex, NC-17 (but not too much of it), with quite a bit of violence. Anyone?

Not that I'd blame you for rapidly backtracking in the opposite direction ;).

Off to bed now.

Yep, I am mildly preoccupied at the moment ;). Two thirds through the first season (of the 2005 version, that is).

Rose reminds me a lot of Buffy. Not just looks, also behaviour. That aside, I quite like her.

I always thought that 'Daleks' were the most stupid-looking 'evil robotic species' in SF Star Wars Phantom Menace thingies *not* included. They're still the most stupid-looking evil robotic species, but they're frigging *scary*. That entire episode was. Actually, the Doctor was scarier than the Dalek...

I absolutely love the time-travel mix between future, present day and past. It's like getting three of my favourite genres at once.

And on a different note, I'm going to see the new X-Men movie tomorrow, and am sort of excited about it :). I'm not reading the comic any longer, but I did for many years until the late 1990s, and have still a hugely soft spot for it.

This has been a *very* good weekend!

I went to see Iona (the band, not the island!) on Saturday night and it was damn awesome, although I'm so not the target audience. (And although I have huge issues with monotheism, perhaps there's a tiny bit of a redeeming element if it manages to inspire that sort of beauty.). And when I came back, my neighbour's adorable black tomkitten had escaped into the stairwell, and played with me for a while. I had the hardest time escaping into my flat :).

Then lazy_neutrino dropped by for a visit on Sunday which absolutely would have made for an awesome weekend all on its own (and also provided inspiration for a bout of house cleaning I was procrastinating over for, um, weeks).

And working four days a week now gives me Monday off, which is very, very nice, especially since it's been my least favourite day anyway. Yay for sleep and books and stuff :).

Have just started working again (in my new/old job of sorts), and already things are going mad. So mad that I didn't get in my last spy_fest recs when everything was neatly anon, damn!

Anyway, here goes:

Just a Day at the Museum by annephoenix [Alex, Tom; gen; PG-13]
Summary: From the school’s perspective, Alex Rider is not exactly a model student on field trips. And it looks like today will be no different. Why can’t things ever be simple?
Alex Rider with a carefully (and credibly!) applied touch of SF and superb emotional development. This is the Alex I love - clever, vulnerable, worried about his friends, and trying desperately to balance 'spy' and 'normal life' without much success. The 'school trip' fics that came out of this round of the fest were all awesome :).

And finally, I can squee over my own wonderful gift:

The Beat of Disillusion (Part 1 and Part 2) by capeofstorm [Yassen/Alex; Warnings; NC-17]
Summary: At MI6's insistence Alex goes back to Scorpia once again. He ends up in a situation he never thought he'd find himself in, with people he couldn't trust.
Dark and plotty and intense and absolutely impossible to put down even for a moment. The plot is wonderfully complex, with a great tough-but-vulnerable Alex trying to negotiate survival among his enemies, a superbly written Jack and an ending that left me biting my fingers, it's so intense. Great stuff! :)

Today is a very good day to share the video below (found on lolcats), which isn't just cute and hilarious, it's also pretty informative about the UK Alternative Vote Referendum tomorrow.


So if you can vote in the Referendum tomorrow, do! AV isn't the perfect solution (what's wrong with plain old proportional representation that actually allocates seats according to, well, votes?) but better than nothing.

"Otherwise, the country will go to the dogs!" (*snickers*)

(yes, I noticed the historical blooper, but it's still cute)