cobweb_diamond

Michael De Larrabeiti died.

I can't remember whether it was Terri Windling or I who bought paperback rights to The Borribles for Ace - I think it was I, right before I moved to Pocket. I do know that it, and the subsequent 2 Borribles books, were a real influence on our Bordertown shared-world series.

MDL, thanks for sharing your world with us.

[ADDED: Obituary; other obits]

* * *

It's going to be like this, isn't it? First, saying farewell to all the grownups I idolized when I was trying to become one . . . then checking out various friends who "really weren't that old" . . . and then, well - my favorite Vietnamese joint is next to the big Jewish funeral home, and there's usually something happening there around noon. Only yesterday it was the Cadillac station wagon with plenty of room for the pine box, sitting on the sidewalk. "Caddie," I thought. "Hmm. Your last ride in a Caddie . . . " and realized it was, indeed, the last ride you will ever take; the last car you will ever ride in, after a lifetime of transit. Interesting. Well, as they say, there's a first time for everything; so why not a last?

(And of course it's Richard Thompson on the speakers right now. I'll never forget the first time I saw him live, outdoors at the Newport Folk Festival - and a rangy teenage boy down front screaming his request: "DO ONE ABOUT DEAAAATH!!!" Which, considering his repetoire, ain't that hard. Love you, Richard!

(Don't die anytime soon, OK?)

Let's talk about THIS!


I can't tell if this is supposed to be live action or what. A live action Green Arrow movie would probably end me. I'm leaving for Comic Con tonight and I can promise you that I will be frantically looking for information on this. HOLY SHIT, please please let it be a live action Green Arrow movie!!!

I'm also pretty thrilled about Ollie being a main cast member on Smallville next season.

Lucero's at Spaceland tonight. Not well played on my part. Oh well. Why are things always on the same day? The Hushies are here the same night as Eddie Izzard as well. THIS IS NOT ACCEPTABLE. Oh well, I guess Jenn will have to get trampled by fanboys without me. It's been all of, what, six months at least since I saw Lucero? Wow, that's a fucking record.

Hello internets, I hear everyone loves "The Middleman." Unsurprising!

eta: In case you're not awesome enough to have her friended: bandom math proof Oh, yes.

This just in! The internet is full of hilarity! Fan history business pitch! I didn't bother to watch the pitch itself, the fun is all in the comments. You may notice some familiar names. This just gets better and better!

Is anyone else intrigued/annoyed that any mention of Apollo is absent from the previews of the post-Armageddon Authority issues? Did he go boom after all?

My editor just sent me a link to a review of CROOKED LITTLE VEIN at Ain’t It Cool News, coinciding with the paperback release.  AICN would be pretty much the last place I’d expect to get reviewed.  I haven’t read it yet, but, still, very nice of them to take the time, I thought…

(Automatically crossposted from warrenellis.com. Feel free to comment here or at my internet church at Whitechapel. If anything in this post looks weird, it's because LJ is run on steampipes and rubber bands -- please click through to the main site.)

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(Automatically crossposted from warrenellis.com. Feel free to comment here or at my internet church at Whitechapel. If anything in this post looks weird, it's because LJ is run on steampipes and rubber bands -- please click through to the main site.)

" Those who eat shall in the end control the earth!"

I owe singer-songwriter Sandy Cash a huge debt of gratitude from when she was a kid and gave up her half of the bedroom she shared with her teenaged sister Debra whenever I came up to Detroit to visit; uncomplaining, she slept in the basement, and never tried to bust into the room that was actually hers, even when Deb & I were talking about Interesting Stuff.

How nice to be able to repay her brat-free menschlichkeit by making sure you all get to see her new video on YouTube! (It is, ahem ahem, from her 2003 album A Thing So Real, where you can hear more of her songs - don't miss "The MadLibs Song"!)

Hello LJ! I have been away, first tearing around eastern Iowa with girlnamedpixley, and then staring forlornly at my non-functioning 'net access and murmuring whyyyyyyyy, world, whyyyyyyyy? I have made phone calls, and been assured of a new modem, and I've laid various mental offerings at the altars of several technical deities, so perchance I will be back for real tomorrow. Perchance!

I am brim full of love for all things Iowan at the moment, thanks to several days driving back roads and taking detours and slowing to a halt to let a heron cross the road in front of my car, and waving at a man and his little boy who were herding sheep, and spotting partridges, and horses, and dragonflies the size of airborne parsnips. (I suppose the latter is only charming if you're fond of a) dragonflies and b) parsnips, but luckily, I'm good on both counts.)

And so! How about some wee Iowa drabbles? Prompt me! Ever had a question about something that happened, or a piece of backstory you've wondered about? I will try and answer in wee bursts of comment fic as soon as I'm back online. I can't promise to write a drabble for every single prompt, but I will do as many as I can! (I'll also try not to compare bugs to root vegetables ever again. Promise. I don't think Iowa Rodney approves.)

Title: What Clouds Do
Fandom: SGA
Pairing: McKay/Sheppard
Rating: R
Summary: Rodney’s not sure if that’s laziness or some manifestation of emotion as laziness, and he doesn’t care.
Warnings: generic s5
Words: 2,505
A/N: Title is from ee cummings

( What Clouds Do )

( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. )

1.) I think my laptop is not long for this world :( :( :( The spontaneous crashing/OMFG OPERATING SYSTEM CATASTROPHE/YOUR BIOS IS FUCKED UP, MAN!!!/BSOD messages have been coming faster and faster since they started a few days ago. I've uninstalled everything I've put on in the past month, and it doesn't seem to have made any difference. This sort of thing characterized the last days of my old laptop, so I am not very hopeful at this point.

2.) I have no butt. I put on a pair of new jeans today and looked in the mirror, and they fit everywhere, except my butt, where instead of a butt there is something approaching a concavity. Why? Why? I am curvy almost everywhere else, except there, and you could use my butt to rule straight lines on a wall. Typically I am not very body-conscious, but this bothers me for some reason.

3.) Three days in a row it has rained.

4.) Dissertations do not, in fact, write themselves. Not to torture the poor word, but... Why? Dissertations have been around for hundreds of years; you'd figure they would have evolved to the point where they are sentient, and instead of writing one, a doctoral student would have to hunt and capture the wild dissertation, and then fend off the committee that tries to steal it. If the student can defend the dissertation from thieves/predators/committee members, then the doctorate is awarded.

5.) The word "frankly" really really bothers me. It's probably my most-disliked word ever and causes my spine to go all weird and hackle-y when I read it. "Frank" isn't much better; "Frankish" makes me squirm. I don't even like typing them.

On the other hand "salacious" is a fucking fantastic word. Salacious.



Salacious.

[eta] Although my all-time favorite word, for the record, is "sloth."

( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. )

Someone asked me yesterday, "why do you do the thing with the self portraits?" And it’s like this: because people forget that there are other people on the other end of the internet. People forget that they’re side by side with other people every time they visit a website, that they’re talking with real people every time they post a comment. It’s too easy for people to let everyone become anonymous on the net. I don’t like that. This whole thing is made out of people. Once a year, I like to remind you.

Also, this site has always attracted interesting-looking people. Oh, and second row, far right — that’s comics writer/artist Brandon Graham. I think one of his first paid gigs would have been on a TRANSMETROPOLITAN page, in TALES OF HUMAN WASTE.

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(Automatically crossposted from warrenellis.com. Feel free to comment here or at my internet church at Whitechapel. If anything in this post looks weird, it's because LJ is run on steampipes and rubber bands -- please click through to the main site.)

On the horror serial GRAVEL, I work in a style called "scriptment." It’s partway between a full script and a "treatment," or detailed synopsis. It’s not quite a short story, not a Marvel-style outline, neither fish nor fowl nor arse eel. This thing then goes to Mike Wolfer, who adapts it into a full script. Some people have asked how much of GRAVEL is me and how much is Mike. Here’s the opening of the scriptment for GRAVEL #3, out in store this week:

* * * * *

GRAVEL
3
"ON ILKLEY MOOR BAHT’ AT"
22PP
WARREN ELLIS

OPEN ON: A TRAIN cutting through England in the morning.

Inside: in an otherwise empty carriage, William Gravel on the phone, his kitbag next to him on the seat.

Gravel: "…yes, she’s dead too. But you know that, or else you wouldn’t be asking me what’s next. Listen, I’m in no mood for stupid fucking games. I think it’s time you told me who you are."

Phone: "William, old sock. I understand you’ve been busy, but you’re really not thinking, are you?"

Gravel: "Yeah, and I didn’t go to fucking university or learn how to flex me arsehole for the pleasure of my betters. So I’m hanging up now."

Phone: "Who benefits from the Sigsand Manuscript being collected and reconstituted, Gravel?"

Gravel: "Me, with a bit of luck. Bye."

He switches the phone off, tosses it in his kitbag.

Pissed off, he settles back, looks out the window at the trees and fields.

A voice from off: "Shite, ennit? Southern England looks like it were made by fucking Lego."

"Aah, I dunno about that. I mean, rather here that up fucking north, know what I mean?"

And then he realises that he was alone.

Looks around.

And SYKES is sitting opposite him. SYKES is a very old man, but his hair’s still black. Dressed in a heavy, thick black jacket, a thick blue sweater under it, a black scarf, black trousers and heavy boots. He always has a tall shepherd’s crook in his hand, which he uses like a walking staff. Very very pale — the only colour in him is his blue eyes and the blue sweater, cobalt blue.

Gravel can only breathe "…Sykes." He is almost frightened. Certainly surprised.

"Aye. Sykes it is. I thought it were time we had a talk, Bill."

Gravel’s hand steals into his kitbag, closing around his gun inside there.

"A talk? Or another shot at killing me."

"Nay, I’ve got no trouble with thee, William Gravel, so you let go of your gun there. I want to talk."

He stands up. "But not down here. I get a rash on me privates if I come further south than Watford Gap. Come home to Yorkshire with me."

Gravel closes his hand around his kitbag, standing. "Listen, you’re here now, let’s just walk up to the buffet car, get a couple of pints and talk there…"

And suddenly he’s standing up on a blasted bleak Yorkshire moor under a sky that’s grey and black.

"…shit."

And Sykes turns away from him, walking across the moor. He sings:

"Where hast thou been since I saw thee? On Ilkley Moor baht ’at.

“On Ilkley Moor baht ’at! On Ilk-ley Moor bah-t’at…"

Gravel makes a face. "Do what?"

Sykes: "It’s a song, Bill. The oldest song I know. On Ilkley Moor baht ’at."

Gravel: "Does it translate into English, you Yorkshire bastard?

###

(Automatically crossposted from warrenellis.com. Feel free to comment here or at my internet church at Whitechapel. If anything in this post looks weird, it's because LJ is run on steampipes and rubber bands -- please click through to the main site.)

http://www.dicebox.net/chap8/birdsofafeather_8.htm#page30

Read all of Part 8 : Chapter 8 so far
Read all of Part 8 so far

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(Automatically crossposted from warrenellis.com. Feel free to comment here or at my internet church at Whitechapel. If anything in this post looks weird, it's because LJ is run on steampipes and rubber bands -- please click through to the main site.)

As always, most people will have seen this already, but I figure one more repetition can't hurt, especially if it helps the information get out there.

Here's my summation: Laura Hale is a bad person. (She goes by "partly_bouncy" and "purplepopple" on various other sites.) She used to be known as Michaela Ecks, and she's been riding the train of fannish history for a while. She used to have some fannish timelines posted on fanfiction.net, for example.

For details on the current problem, you can read here and here. And for some lovely damning quotes that illustrate how Laura wishes to ride fandom all the way to the bank, see Livia's post.

She's a bad person, y'all. Don't contribute to her wiki. Don't visit her site and make it look more marketable. Don't let her spread her poison in your journals, comms, or mailing lists. I know that this is fandom, and we usually don't want to exclude people like this, but believe me. This time, it's called for.

So it's not over, or at least, not yet. As we are--wait, let me quote this--right. A unique marketing opportunity.

liviapenn talks here about partly bouncy's ultimate motive for being an asshat--to wit, selling her wiki.

Quote from partly bouncy:

Had a great big chat with the major Fan History sysops regarding Fan History and its potential and if they'd be comfortable if I ever sold it, etc. The people who are the sysops pretty much realize that, for some of that, I'm sitting on a really nice, pretty comprehensive market research tool. That doesn't even begin to get into various other things I have compiled, like lists of LiveJournal communities that you can advertise your in fandom material on, contact lists, private demographic studies I've done, polling data, etc. The potential there for using that from a marketing perspective at fandom is nice. (It is why Fan History does NOT have a GNLU license and why our privacy policy is rather vague.)

*thoughtful* Well. I am glad her sysops were also awesome with this when she told them about it.

Only another 300 to go!

To join in this week, take a self-portrait and send it to warrenellis @ gmail.com.

sob

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(Automatically crossposted from warrenellis.com. Feel free to comment here or at my internet church at Whitechapel. If anything in this post looks weird, it's because LJ is run on steampipes and rubber bands -- please click through to the main site.)

I don't like making promises. I find them very stressful because I think some things have to be sacred (possibly this is some sort of uncomfortable post-religion coming out) so if you break a promise it feels like you're breaking something sacred, and taking away from yourself something valuable. Break enough promises, and you lose the whole concept for yourself.

I got a letter from my friend in America this morning. it was a lovely letter, and was a response to one I wrote him over a week ago, before last week's total slackness. So he said it was really good I'd started the new regime etc. He said he was looking forward to reading it when i've finished, and to email it to him if I like. I thought: well, it's nowhere near finished.

Obviously, the regime has largely fallen by the wayside for the last week and a half. I'm going to impose a deadline on myself, to see if that helps me focus.

I promise to send this version of my play, completed, to him in time for it to be waiting for him at home when he returns from America. He is due to fly into Heathrow on the 3rd September, so that means I have to send it, at the latest, on the morning of Tuesday 2nd September. Now, according to the editing diary, it has to be the best I can possibly make it by that point, because I'm not supposed to send it off to anyone if it still has problems I'm aware of and need to fix. This is pretty scary - just over a month to make it the best it's ever been, the best I can make it without editing by other people.

I'm going on holiday on 2nd August, so I'd like to be finished with the draft, and working on the dialogue by that point. I think that might be quite a pleasant, holiday-ish task to do. Also, that would give me a clear month to just work on the dialogue. Actually, it was on my last family holiday, almost exactly a year ago, that I first came up with this idea!

Lately i've been associating with someone who is super-dedicated, super-committed, and determined to reach his dreams. It's a very good reminder of just how hard I have to be prepared to work. There are writers who are working as hard in my field as he is in his.

Met up with a friend last night to talk about this collaborative writing project we've been working on, on and off, for ages. We currently think we'll have to do a pretty major re-write (as in, change almost everything), but it's exciting anyway. We've got a central idea we both really like, I think.