Month: March 2015

Film Talk: Pretty Guardian Sailormoon, Act 1

Posted March 31, 2015 by Lynn E. O'Connacht in Film & TV, Other People's Creations / 0 Comments

Tags:

Pretty Guardian Sailormoon: Act 1 (PGSM 1)Welcome back to the epic rewatch of the Pretty Guardian Sailormoon Live Action show! When last we left off, I discussed Act Zero and a general idea of what I was doing. This week, we’re into the series proper with the first episode, appropriately titled Act 1.

As it’s the first episode of the whole thing, there are technically no spoilers. Practically, there will be spoilers for Sailor Moon Classic, Sailor Moon Crystal and, of course, the manga. It’s kind of hard to avoid because I most likely will be drawing on what I know of all of them to go play Spot The Changes and have opinions on the matter.

Read More

Divider

Favourite Fictional Worlds: Part 7, Terramagne

Posted March 28, 2015 by Lynn E. O'Connacht in Miscellaneous / 0 Comments

Tags:

Promo. The text 'promo' underneath a pen and an inkwell.

This week’s post will be the last installment of Favourite Fictional Worlds answering the_rck’s question on what my favourite fictional world is. But only until I find a shiny new world to talk about! I’ve been having fun writing up these little comments and blurbs, so I reserve the right to randomly add new posts as I discover new worlds to talk about.

So before we get to this week’s post: what are some of your favourite fictional worlds?

And now, for this week’s post, I’ll be looking at Elizabeth Barrette’s Polychrome Heroics series. Again, there will be links rather than excerpts.

Read More

Divider

Book Talk: Shadowplay

Posted March 26, 2015 by Lynn E. O'Connacht in Books, Other People's Creations / 0 Comments

Tags:

Cover for Shadowplay by Laura LamLast year, I read Pantomime by Laura Lam as part of my Strange Horizons Reading Month and adored it. It’s taken me half a year, however, to get to the sequel, Shadowplay. Part of how long it took is practical: the third book was cancelled and Lam is seeking to self-publish it. There is no known release date and the first book already didn’t quite work as a stand-alone in its ending. I held off in hopes of being able to read the second and third book closer together.

But I really enjoyed this world. So, when I could, I picked up the short stories that Lam self-published in this setting. I read those. (More like ‘devoured’, if I recall) and… that helped me hold off from reading Shadowplay for a while. But only a while as I caved this February and finally read the book. (And lo it’s not exactly a cliffhanger ending, but it still left me wanting to wail about not having the third book right now.)

Anyway. I should probably give you the description.

The circus lies behind Micah Grey in dust and ashes.

He and the white clown, Drystan, take refuge with the once-great magician, Jasper Maske. When Maske agrees to teach them his trade, his embittered rival challenges them to a duel which could decide all of their fates.

People also hunt both Micah and the person he was before the circus–the runaway daughter of a noble family. And Micah discovers there is magic and power in the world, far beyond the card tricks and illusions he’s perfecting…

So just to remind you all: this has the kind of ending where you’ll probably want the third book now and, at the time I’m writing this, you can’t have it yet. Also, you may want to read The Tarot Reader prior to starting this book like I did. It’ll introduce one of the characters and give you lots of shiny shiny information you wouldn’t otherwise have. Alternatively, that might be a good reason to read it after this book. (If that’s the case, you’ll probably also want to hold off on The Card Sharp, which is the story of a young Drystan that is also relevant to the characters in this book. Just not as greatly as The Tarot Reader.)

And below the cut, spoilers!

Read More

Divider

Film Talk: Sailor Moon Crystal, Episode 18

Posted March 24, 2015 by Lynn E. O'Connacht in Film & TV, Other People's Creations / 4 Comments

Tags:

Sailor Moon Crystal: Act 18, Invasion, Sailor VenusWelcome back to another day of Sailor Moon Crystal commentary! Today’s episode is number 18 and I still have nothing of particular interest to say in the introductory comments, unless you count “I have actual snacks while I watch, which I normally don’t” as a comment of particular interest. Someone might! But let’s just move on to the episode.

Onwards! Into spoiler territory!

Read More

Divider

Announcing a New Serial: Sea Foam and Silence, a retelling of ‘The Little Mermaid’

Posted March 22, 2015 by Lynn E. O'Connacht in News / 0 Comments

Tags:

seafoam-fullShe warned of the pain. She did.
But no warning can prepare you.
Nothing can.

How could any of us have known
what it is like on the dry sand?
We just watched.

It’s hard, not being able to ask
questions, though I have learned some speech
with my hands. ˆ_ˆ

I miss my sisters. I love my prince.

I have made friends here. I have laughed with them,
learned with them, played with them.
I love them.

She said I would die if he loves someone else.
Will I die? At the beginning I wanted to. It hurts
so much. Life isn’t easy, will never be easy, but…
I don’t want to become sea foam.

Soon, I’ll be releasing a new webserial! And I said I wouldn’t release any this year! A few years back, Dreamwidth user alee_grrl prompted a retelling of The Little Mermaid. It turned into a brief asexual retelling of the legend that I’ve wanted to rework into a novel ever since. The story had slightly different ideas and decided that it wanted to be a verse novel. Or at least connected verses. I wasn’t planning on doing another serial, but this structure could work so well with it. I really want to give it a try. (Plus, more asexual protagonists.)

I haven’t worked out all the details yet, such as “Do I post it only on Dovelet or do I post it to all my blogs? If the latter, how do I go about it?” or “How do I tackle inviting audience participation?” and the story is far, so far, from being finished.

I’m excited! I know it might not sound like I am, but I am! (If I don’t sound excited it’s because I spent much of the day trying to reorganise everything and realising that some of the blogging shinies I’d made for this blog… were made wrong because I am forgetful and now I have to redo them all again and so I am grumpy.) I’m not setting any dates yet because I’m still in the process of figuring stuff out.

And… Yes. That’s it for now. I’m tired and grumpy and trying to do ALL THE THINGS ALL AT ONCE. But what else is new, right? ^_^

Divider

Guest post over at Earl Grey Editing

Posted March 20, 2015 by Lynn E. O'Connacht in News / 0 Comments

Tags:

News. The text 'news' underneath a big envelope. News and updates on the site.

Elizabeth from Earl Grey Editing kindly let me do a guest post on my first experiences with serialised fiction in honour of publishing A Promise Broken last month.

(Meep! My first guest post that’s not solely about my own writing.)

I hope you’ll enjoy it! And if you’re new to Elizabeth’s blog, please do check it out. She’s awesome.

Thank you for having me, Elizabeth! <3

Divider

Once Upon a Time IX Introduction Post

Posted March 19, 2015 by Lynn E. O'Connacht in Miscellaneous / 0 Comments

Tags:

Banner for Once Upon A Time IX
All this post’s art by Kimberly Kincaid, who graciously gave Carl permission to use it for this year’s banners.

In a couple of days, it’ll be time for Once Upon A Time again! WHOOT!

Once Upon A Time is a reading event (or challenge, depending on how you want to look at it) from March 21st to June 21st hosted by Carl from Stainless Steel Droppings. I’ve been participating since I learned of its existence and I’m excited to see it happening again this year.

Every year, I make an attempt to reach out to fellow readers and bloggers. Every year, I kind fail because social issues. Every year, I have a blast with the books I choose to read and/or the people I interact with.

Basically, the Once Upon A Time event is always loads of fun to participate in no matter how you participate. And this year there’s a new category to the ways that you can join in!

I should probably tell you about the ways to join in before discussing what’s new? Though Carl explains them much better than I can and you’re probably better off reading his official announcement post. But! I shall try anyway.

Once Upon A Time is an event dedicated to reading fantastical fiction: fairytales, folklore, mythology, and fantasy. As you can see, it’s quite broad in scope, but that should give you the general flavour of the kind of things that get discussed during the event.

There are a variety of official ways to participate: commit to reading one book, five books in any category, one in all, reading short stories, watching fantastical film or tv… And, new this year, playing fantastical games.

Last year, I spent some of Once Upon A Time talking about the fantastical games I’d played growing up. I’d planned to include film and tv as well, but that didn’t quite happen. We’ll see what does happen this year.

Read More

Divider

Game Talk: Divinity: Original Sin

Posted March 19, 2015 by Lynn E. O'Connacht in Games, Other People's Creations / 0 Comments

Tags:

Divinity: Original Sin

Ages and ages ago, that is to say, not all that long ago as time periods go, I heard about Divinity: Original Sin. I’m not entirely sure how I learned about the Kickstarter, but I was intrigued. It’s taken me a pretty long time to finish the game, though. Part of that is because the game is massive. It’s an old school-style RPG, so it has a tendency to sprawl.

The storyline is about two characters, Source Hunters, tasked with discovering what has happened in Cyseal. Along the way they discover that nothing is quite as they know. Treachery is afoot and the world is in peril and… Actually, if you describe it that way it’s a fairly standard RPG plot, isn’t it? Well, it’s all in how the game brings it and how it plays.

More comments below the cut! Because spoilers! (Seriously. I spoil the plot almost all the way up to the end.)

Read More

Divider