a_t_rain: (wereflamingo)
a_t_rain ([personal profile] a_t_rain) wrote2014-11-21 09:44 pm

Randomly fannish notes

-- OK, so I finally got an AO3 account, and have been dutifully archiving stuff. (Pretty much all non-HP fic will eventually end up over there, plus, I guess, anything HP that I wrote after I more or less abandoned FictionAlley.) I'd totally forgotten how nerve-wracking the whole archive thing was. You can, like, see how many hits everything has, and that's something I'd rather not know a fair bit of the time. Still, it's probably something I should have done ages ago -- it's just that I am not very good at order and tidiness, being the sort of person who uses chairs as coat-racks and the living room table as a bookcase, and I have a bad habit of thinking of fanfic as fundamentally ephemeral and not the sort of thing anyone would ever want to find later.

-- I finally got around to reading those Vorkosigan saga books everyone kept telling me to read, and OMG THEY HAVE EATEN MY BRAIN. (Honestly, reading this series has probably been the best thing about an otherwise hellish semester.) There will definitely be fic. (I read them because someone gave a paper at Kalamazoo which argued that they were reworking Richard III, which is true, but why did they NOT mention they were ALSO about gender and performativity and all kinds of other things that are total CRACK if you're a Shakespearean?)

-- THE GLOBE IS DOING MEASURE FOR MEASURE. I don't think I will get to see it in person, alas, but they seem to be pretty good at making their productions available on DVD, and this one in particular would be amazing to have for the Late Shakespeare course, because WHY is there not a contemporary film version of M4M?
hamsterwoman: (Vorkosiverse -- Galeni)

[personal profile] hamsterwoman 2014-11-22 04:00 am (UTC)(link)
There will definitely be fic.

This is excellent news! :D

I'm very happy to hear you've become a fan (I'm just so ridiculously fond of this series, and always so happy when LJ and real life people discover them!)

And, huh, the Richard III claim is intriguing! I hadn't thought of it that way, even with Miles quoting from the play in Brothers in Arms, but I can see what you/the paper mean!

[identity profile] a-t-rain.livejournal.com 2014-11-22 04:05 am (UTC)(link)
I don't know HOW I did not read these books before, although it's true that my bar for getting-inspired-to-read is a bit higher for science fiction than it is for some other genres.
hamsterwoman: (Vorkosigan -- Cordelia motherhood)

[personal profile] hamsterwoman 2014-11-22 06:18 am (UTC)(link)
It took me a while to get around to reading them, too, and partly it was the awful covers -- I actually remember seeing them on the library racks and passing them by because the cover art was so terrible.

They are definitely my favorite sci-fi at this point, and were behind the realization that what I prefer now is "social" sci-fi and not hard sci-fi or whatever.

[identity profile] tempestsarekind.livejournal.com 2014-11-22 03:14 pm (UTC)(link)
I haven't read any of the books, but re: awful covers - apparently the last cover was so terrible that the booksellers at my local bookstore who were fans of the series drew up another slipcover illustrated with stick figures and sold the book that way. :)

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150236416393488.371420.61666748487

[identity profile] a-t-rain.livejournal.com 2014-11-22 04:44 pm (UTC)(link)
That is both AWESOME and a highly accurate set of Cliff's Notes.

[identity profile] tempestsarekind.livejournal.com 2014-11-22 04:50 pm (UTC)(link)
They always made me smile when I saw them on display!
hamsterwoman: (Vorkosiverse -- Dendarii)

[personal profile] hamsterwoman 2014-11-22 06:51 pm (UTC)(link)
Hee, that cover's great! I actually saw it on Tumblr, I think, but it's much cooler to meet someone with a local connection to them -- your local bookstore is awesome! :D (and, yes, that really is a great summary/blurb of the books :)

[identity profile] tempestsarekind.livejournal.com 2014-11-22 09:41 pm (UTC)(link)
Yeah, it is pretty awesome! I'm glad I get to give them (lots of) my money. :)

[identity profile] jesspallas.livejournal.com 2014-11-22 11:45 am (UTC)(link)
That's funny, my best friend just told me she's planning on going to see Measure for Measure at The Globe! She's a Friend of the Globe and goes a great deal but that was the one she was excited about.

[identity profile] a-t-rain.livejournal.com 2014-11-22 01:10 pm (UTC)(link)
Hope she enjoys it!
velvetmouse: (Academia)

[personal profile] velvetmouse 2014-11-22 11:58 am (UTC)(link)
On AO3, if you go into preferences, you can switch off the hit count tracking, either for just your own works or in general...

And yes, the M4M production looks like it's going to be awesome. Also, clearly I need to start badgering you to come do a fellowship at the Folger, so you can come play with me in person!

[identity profile] a-t-rain.livejournal.com 2014-11-22 01:06 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh wow, I totally missed that you were at the Folger! (In my defense, it looks like I was in Ireland when you took the job.) Many belated congrats! (And my parents live in the DC area, so I'm definitely up for hanging out in person sometime.)

[identity profile] author-by-night.livejournal.com 2014-11-22 04:42 pm (UTC)(link)
Seeing hits won't do wonders for your confidence, and I don't like the kudos thing, but it can't hurt to have an extra place for fanfic. :)

I should probably post some of my fics there. I'll just have to decide what. I know I have fics online still, I should see if I have any "new" (read: older than 5 billion years old) reviews. Some of them were just awful though. (The fics, not the reviews. Well, some of the reviews too, but mostly I just got really weird ones that should have been insulting, but were too funny to be insulting. One person loved to leave me reviews like "this was happy but sad, boring but interesting." I actually kind of miss him or her, in some strange way.)

[identity profile] a-t-rain.livejournal.com 2014-11-22 04:46 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh, I like the kudos thing, but I'm lazy and kind of suck at writing proper reviews.

[identity profile] persephone-kore.livejournal.com 2014-11-22 06:57 pm (UTC)(link)
...The hits do wonders for my confidence, but maybe I just have low standards.

[identity profile] lareinenoire.livejournal.com 2014-11-22 06:18 pm (UTC)(link)
YAY! Welcome to the crazy place of crazy. I keep wondering whether I should put my HP stuff up on AO3, but I'm so lazy about it and it's already archived at FictionAlley...

Heee, the woman who gave that paper is the reason I read the Vorkosigan books. She sat me down a few summers ago and explained to me how the entire series was filled with Shakespeare riffs and as soon as I started reading, I was hooked. So she's clearly a good ambassador for LMB!

[identity profile] a-t-rain.livejournal.com 2014-11-22 07:14 pm (UTC)(link)
... Has she ever done anything with ACC and Twelfth Night? Because, OMG wow.

[identity profile] lareinenoire.livejournal.com 2014-11-24 04:14 am (UTC)(link)
She hasn't that I know of, but someone should...

[identity profile] a-t-rain.livejournal.com 2014-11-24 02:44 pm (UTC)(link)
Getting on it! I think it will have to be fic and not scholarship, though...

[identity profile] lareinenoire.livejournal.com 2014-11-25 12:18 pm (UTC)(link)
Y'know, I'm okay with that...

(Also, when you've run out of books, oh god, the fic. There is SO MUCH brilliant Vorkosigan fic.)

[identity profile] a-t-rain.livejournal.com 2014-11-25 01:34 pm (UTC)(link)
Any recs? Stuff involving the Vorrutyer cousins and / or Shakespeare would be particularly appreciated. (And yes, I already found the brilliant one about young!Miles playing Richard III.) Oh, and I haven't finished Cryoburn yet, so preferably no spoilers for that one.
Edited 2014-11-25 13:35 (UTC)

[identity profile] persephone-kore.livejournal.com 2014-11-22 11:53 pm (UTC)(link)
The idea of Vorkosigan fic from you is fantastic. Although, um, yes, I have occasionally wandered into FictionAlley and been sucked into rereading your fics some years after I mostly drifted out of HP fandom, so please don't think of it as something people wouldn't want to find again. :)

[identity profile] a-t-rain.livejournal.com 2014-11-23 01:05 am (UTC)(link)
Thanks for the vote of confidence!