Piracy Is Stealing

In case you didn't know. If you translate a book of mine into, say, Spanish without authorisation and make the translation available for downloading on a torrent site or filesharing site, this also falls into the category of piracy. In case you didn't know.

I am, frankly, sick of readers who call themselves "fans", yet do not respect the rights of authors.

Shiloh Walker has written an excellent article on what piracy is costing authors and readers.

'Nother Update on My Reading Fest

I don't seem to have all that much luck with books this week. Started reading Mary Stewart's "Stormy Petrel", but soon found it rather blah, too. Then, last night, I bought a few e-books for a change - yet one of the books I wanted to buy was region-restricted and hence I couldn't buy it after all (you publishers of the region-restricted e-books: region-restricted e-books suck big time and don't really make me want to buy the dead-tree-version of your books!).



One of the books I was allowed to buy (sooo kind!) was Leann Sweeney's "The Cat, the Quilt and the Corpse". Started reading it last night. Was only mildly impressed. Continued reading it this morning. Was not at all impressed. Bored to tears, actually. Much of the dialogue in that book is absolutely superfluous, imo, and several other passages are bit too didactic for my liking. Such a shame. The cover is so pretty (and you know how much I love pretty covers!). I read about a third of the novel, then skipped to the end of the book. Hmph.

And now I'm reading Mary Stewart's "Wildfire at Midnight", which is set on the Isle of Skye (hmm, that reminds me of Kathy & Rory ...). So far so good. At the moment I'm still enjoying the story. :)

Update on the Mary Stewart Glom

Mary Stewart's novels have turned out to be something of a mixed bag for me. I really, really enjoyed "Madam, Will You Talk?" and "The Wind off the Small Isles" (aka the book I bought ages ago because it came with a letter from Dorothy Dunnett; fangirl, that's me *g*).



"The Ivy Tree", by contrast, was rather blah. I never warmed to the first person narrator and I thought the "I'm not who you think I am though I resemble her, oh wait, I am her, after all, didn't you know, oops and now he wants to kill me because he is a murdering bastard after all" going-ons a bit silly.

And "This Rough Magic"? Nice beginning, great setting, but, oh my gosh, the pace is soooooooooo slow. Slower than a snail. Read about half of the book, then jumped forward and read ending. Not much of a surprise there. Definitely not a keeper.

But the covers are stunning, aren't they?

"Lewis"

Eleven years ago, I spent three weeks in Oxford -- and fell in love with the golden "city of dreaming spires". What's not to love? The city centre is dominated by the local yellow stone, which almost seems to gleam when the sun shines. There are lots of colleges with mysterious nooks and crannies and arched entrances and porters who stand guard over the hallowed halls. There's a street full of bookstores, and there is the Pitt Rivers Museum (& Geordie the voodoo doll), the most intriguing museum imaginable!

So it shouldn't come as a huge surprise that one of my favourite TV series at the moment is "Lewis", the spin-off of the Inspector Morse series.

Both in Morse's and in Lewis's Oxford the sun is alway shining, which gives the series a light, airy look despite the serious subject matter, crime. In contrast to other popular crime series such as CSI, "Lewis" falls into the category of cozy mysteries. More often than not you don't see how people are killed, though you might be shown a glimpse of the corpse. But you do not see bodies cut open!!! Which is a huge relief since I don't particular care to see how bodies are cut open or bullets cut through muscles, organs and blood vessels. (Yuck!)

So what's your favourite crime series on TV?

Catching up on My Romance Reading

As you probably know, I'll be giving a seminar on British romance next semester. Therefore I thought it would be a good idea to dig into some of the "classic" authors and novels I haven't read before. (The things we do in the name of research! *ggg*) So I ordered a pile of Mary Stewart's novels as well as a pile of Rosamunde Pilcher's books.

A few years ago the German magazine "Wohnen & Garten" released some of Pilcher's short stories in a special magazine edition with lots and lots of pretty pictures - how could I resist? I have to admit that I didn't expect much, not after seeing snippets of those horrible, horrible German TV adaptations of her novels, which give the word "kitschy" a whole new meaning. To my surprise, the short stories in that magazine weren't kitschy at all. Slightly old-fashioned, perhaps, but in a very endearing way. So now I've ordered some of her novels to see whether these are just as charming.



As for Mary Stewart - oh my! I must have been living under a rock all these years! Why haven't I discovered her before??? I started with what was her first published novel, "Madam, Will You Talk?" of 1955. I thoroughly enjoyed the book, and except for one little passage, it doesn't seem dated at all (in contrast to, say, the bodice rippers of the 1970s). For today's standards the setting - the south of France - is rather unusual, which certainly added to the charm of the novel. On www.marystewartnovels.blogspot.com you can find descriptions of the locations in the novel pitted against photographs. Very nice indeed. :)

Dollface

Now that teh horribelz dragonz are slain, I've finally got time again for other things. A life, for example. :) As I mentioned a few days ago (oh, I posted that when I was working all through the night), one of the things I planned for The Time After was to sew a doll. So while I was printing out the dratted diss, I bought a pattern from Wee Wonderfuls, and after I had left the dratted diss at the photocopy shop to be bound, I went and bought some fabrics, too. And on Thursday, after I had handed in the dratted diss, I started the doll.

This is the front with the embroidered face (the eyes were supposed to be round, but apparently my satin stitch only lends itself to oval eyes)

And here's the finished torso, stuffed tight. As you can see from the wrinkles at the bottom and the knobbly bit on top of her head, I had some problems sewing her bottom and head shut where the triangular pieces from the back, front, and the sides meet.

This going to be dolly's hair: wrap wool around a piece of paper (or thin cardboard, if you're using a sewing machine) and then sew down along the middle of the wrap (or wherever you want dolly's hair to part).

Then remove the paper and sew wig onto dolly's head.

This is what the back of the head looks like. I chose multicoloured wool because the different streaks of colour make for a nice effect.

Now dolly only needs arms and legs and some clothes.

Well, and her hair needs to be trimmed a little bit. All in all, I'm quite happy how my first doll is turning out. :)

A Big Thank You ...

... for all the congrats, rejoicing, chortling and galumphing (well, the galumphing part - as well as the mad-chuckling part - was mostly done by me)! It meant a lot of me that so many of you stopped by to cheer me on in the past few months. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

Drum Roll, Please

You do know that in fairy tales the dragonslayer always cuts out the dragon's tongue(s) (=either one tongue or seven tongues, depending on how many heads the aforementioned dragon had), don't you? Imposters therefore don't stand a chance, since they might be able to produce the beast's carcass, but not the tongues. So in the end, the true dragonslayer always wins (except if has been killed by the dragon, of course!) and marries the virgin maiden (usually a princess).

I'm afraid I for one don't have any dragons' tongues to show for my deeds (besides, I don't want to ick you out!), but I actually can do one better: I've got photographic proof that the baggy monster has indeed been slain. Here it is:


'Tis not a dagger that you see before you, but the dratted diss, all ready to be handed in.



Look how big and fat it is! If necessary, it can also be used in self-defense against dragons: aim it at one of the dragon's voolnerable spots (eye, nose, etc.) and throw it with all your might. If you're lucky you either knock the dragon out or seriously slow it down. :)

O frabjous day!

Callooh! Callay!

This is the day on which I'm going to hand in the Dratted Diss!

FINISHED!!!!!!

Finished! Finished! Finished! Finished!!!!!

Now all I need to do tomorrow morning is to drag the whole dead monster to the photocopy shop and afterwards off to the bookbinder.

Psssst.....

I'm printing out the baggy monster!

4:00 a.m.

Finished inserting the corrections. Finished the title page. Finished the table of contents. Do you know what that means? The dragon is almost slain!!!

Now off to do the illustrations.

Dragons are killing me ...

Lying on the floor, riding an imaginary bike. Kitty very disconcerted. Floor very dirty.

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!!!!!!!!!!

Still inserting corrections.

The muscles in my thighs are cramping. I can't remember that I ever had to deal with muscle cramps when I was on deadline for a novel. Das macht alles gar keinen Spaß mehr. Just saying.

Waaaaaargh!!!!

Please save me! I'm still inserting corrections!!!!

Last Night with the Baggy Monster

I hope!

Please wish me luck and send me good vibes and all the cyber-chocolate you can spare!

Giving up on page 367

This last chapter is killing me -- which proves that it's not a good idea to keep working on a project for six years. Especially when you also plan to write two novels in those six years, thus improving your English by heaps and bounds and what not. AAAAAAAARGH!!!!!

Take this sentence: "Here, more than before, human qualities mix with those of a monster." (= elaborating on a passage about hero in Teresa Medeiros's The Bride & the Beast). It's not quite right, is it? "Here, more than before, human qualities blend with those of a monster" is much better, isn't it? These things drive me nuts! NUTS!!!! *head desk* *sob*

And the worst thing is: I've run out of chocolate!

Oh dear ...

I'm not going to make it today ... Enter panic, tears, and mayhem.

Almost there!

Can you imagine it? After years of labour, months of tears and sweat (okay, not that much sweat), the baggy monster is about to keel over, kick the bucket and fall down dead as a doornail. And then I will be released from the chains that have bound me to my computer. The prospect is slightly overwhelming.

I won't know what to do with myself when I've finally handed in the dratted diss!!!

Well, that's a lie. I *do* know what I'll do with myself. First thing: bake egg liqueur cake before the eggs in my fridge go off. BEsides, it's been ages since I've had egg liqueur cake, and you know how much I love it.

Next thing: sew! I've promised a tea cosy to one of my friends (well, three of my friends, really) and I also want to try my hand at quilting. This looks like a nice, easy, but utterly adorable project. And I want to sew a doll, too! One of these - aren't they darlings? Look, there's even a Flickr pool for pictures of dolls made from this pattern. :)

But for now -- let's kill the dragons dead!

On Today's DD Menu

Going over the dratted diss and checking whether all my sources have made into the bibliography. Compiling list of sources which haven't made it. (Sources are like sheep, aren't they? There are always a few that manage to get away.)

Nearly all of the lit on Tolkien didn't make it into the bibliography. They all went in search for some shiny ring, I bet.

"Kam ein Vöglein geflogen ..."

This is the beginning of a German children's song: "There came a little bird, sat down on my foot. In his bill it holds a letter, greetings from my mother." (It sounds much better in German!) Now, we all know that bloghopping can be rather dangerous - you might discover cute salt & pepper shakers in the shape of two birds, which were sold at Target earlier this year (or was it sometime last year?), but because you don't live in the USA and you've never been in a Target anyway, those cute salt & pepper shakers are not for you. How cruel! But then you look around on ebay (good, old ebay!) and lo! and behold, you find even cuter birdie salt & pepper shakers. You wait a few more weeks, months, before you actually buy them and then they are YOURS!

Well, mine, actually. Not yours. *g*

And here are the two little chaps. Aren't they adorable? And kitschy. But adorable nonetheless.

And now back to the dratted diss and teh horribel dragonz!

Signs of Life

Surprise, surprise, I've not been eaten by Teh Horribelz Dragonz! (Though it was near thing ...) And I'm deliriously happy to announce that by the end of next week all dragons will be dead as doornails - in other words, by the end of next week my baggy 390-page monster will be finished. (Woohoooo!!!!)

At the moment I still have to do all these annoying itty-bitty things like inserting final corrections, making sure the bibliography is complete, sorting out footnotes, etc. Have you ever noticed that if you write something in MS Word on Computer 1, transfer the file to Computer 2 and open it there, the formatting is not quite the same and you end up with a different amount of pages? Very annoying that. In order to prevent such things from happening, I'll have to connect the printer directly to the notebook. Too bad that the printer stands in one of these computer-cupboard thingies - it'll need advanced acrobatics to get it out of the cupboard thingie and onto the desk. Hmph.

So what will I do after I'll have finished the dratted diss? Well, first I'll have to mark papers and exams and such things *roll eyes* And afterwards ...

I'll sit in the garden and sew & embroider tea cosies. :) Or I'll try my hand at quilting. I've fallen in love with several of the Moda fabric collections and they would make such wonderful quilts.

And, of course, I'll return to my Regency England and - oh my gosh! - write!!! You don't know how much I missed writing in these past few months. It's horrible when you've got all these stories bottled up in you and you can't let them out. Waaaargh! Horrible, horrible, horrible, I tell you!