Title: Pi r Effulgent
Author: sockmonkeyhere
Fandom: Angel (the series)
Pairing: Spike/Fred
Spoilers: BtVS Seasons 5-7; AtS Season 5; Angel: After the Fall comic books
Disclaimer: The characters in this manifesto are the creation of Mutant Enemy; the comic book panels are the creations of IDW.

“The Cautionary Tale of Numero Cinco”:
Fred: You see that in the science?
Spike: No, Love, in the poetry.

“Hellbound”:
Spike to Fred: Well... might be a hug in your future after all.

( Read more... )

http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2009/07/day-2-of-ala-and-reading-things-aloud.html

Yesterday I had a breakfast with many librarians, then signed was interviewed in front of a crowd by Roger Sutton from Hornbook, signed for happy librarian-folk for three hours, then napped and went off to dinner with the Newbery Award Committee, the sort of dinner where you have each different course at a different table, and talk to everyone. Then I signed books for them (and for a few stray Printz Committee judges, who crept in).

This morning was Dim Sum with Jill Thompson for breakfast (Here is Jill. People always want to know where she got that bag, and she made it herself. I told her she should take orders for them for a ridiculous amount of money.) Then with Elyse Marshall, ace HarperChildren's publicist, to a local studio where I was interviewed for Barnes and Noble, then recorded some paragraphs from Kipling's The Jungle Book, Ray Bradbury's story "Homecoming" and James Thurber's The 13 Clocks. I loved doing them -- B&N will pick one sequence and have it animated and put up online.

Was fascinated by how different the voice of the narrator was in each case -- the voice of the book, and that reminded me that I had not yet answered this, and had meant to:

Neil ~ Thank you for many hours of entertainment, whether I'm reading your works, or you are! My daughter is finding that chapter books are a good thing, and wants me to read them to her. I'm glad to do so, but I'm looking for some suggestions from a masterful book reader (you) to a very coarse book reader (me). How do you keep the character voices straight in your head? I suppose it helps that you know the words particularly well since you wrote them, but any tips or suggestions? Any other pointers for engaging the listener? I know my daughter doesn't mind (she still wants me to read, after all!), but I'd like to be better for her and for me. Thanks and keep up the superb work, both here on the blog and in the offline printed universe! BRIAN

Let's see. Character voices are more or less easy: I sort of cast them in my head as I go. What's the person like? Who do they remind me of?

I'm appalling at doing accents, but not bad at doing people. And mostly you're not even doing impressions, just general brush strokes. How does a person sound? Well, you hold them in your head and generally sound like that.

When dealing with a larger than life story I'll sometimes go for a larger than life cast in my head: In (for example) The 13 Clocks, in my head, when I read it aloud, I tend to cast Marty Feldman as the Golux, and Peter Sellers (doing his Laurence Olivier in Richard the Third impression) as the evil Duke.

It's hard though, in a big book with a lot of characters, some of whom may nip off-stage for seven or eight chapters at a time. Do your best, and have a picture in your head. Borrow from your life. Steal voices shamelessly.

Most important, just do the voices (including the voice of the Book, which may not be your voice exactly, but should be close enough to it that it won't be a strain), and do not be shy. Even at your worst, you're doing better than you would if you didn't do the voices, and kids are a mostly uncritical audience, especially if you do it with confidence.

Read it as if you're telling a story. Read it as if you're interested and you care. And, the biggest and most important one, vary the tune.

I heard a young writer reading some of his own work in public a few weeks ago, and every sentence had exactly the same tune, the sime rising and falling cadences. They all ended on the same note. The beat that ran through the whole passage did not change from first to last. It was hypnotically dull.

Listen to people read who are good at it. BBC Radio 7 and BBC Radio 4 (here's the Radio 4 Readings website)are a great source of an ever-changing series of books and stories, fiction and non-fiction, all read aloud and read aloud well. Listen to the tune, where voices go up or down. Listen to what makes a reader speed up or slow down -- listen to what keeps you interested and where you lose interest. And do it as they do -- change the tune, change the pace, keep interested and it will keep interesting.

But mostly my advice is this: just do it. Enthusiasm and willingness to do it counts for most of it, and you learn by doing it and get better from doing it.

I've been reading in front of audiences now for almost 20 years. I've got significantly better in that time, mostly because I've done it so much. You learn as you go. You get better as you go. Practice makes if not perfect then at least pretty decent.

And that's all.


Except to wish Roz Kaveney happy birthday.

( Congrats! )



( Round #4 - Part I )


Changing Your Vote: After you vote in a poll, you can change your answers by clicking on the poll number, and then clicking the [ Fill out Poll ] link at the top of the page.


Poll will close @ 10 PM EST on Monday, July 13th, 2009.

The master list has been updated.

Under the cut is a list of overdue claims that have been removed from the master list. If one of them belongs to you and you are still interested in/working on your manifesto, please let us know ASAP so that we can reinstate your claim.

We only remove claims that are at least 2 weeks late, and only if we have not heard from the claimant. If you ask, we will grant extensions. We want your manifestos, no matter how late they are, but we do need to be kept informed if there has been a delay.

( Late claims removed from Master list )

( And here is the list of manifestos to come! (And a few late ones..) )

If your manifesto is on the *Late* list and you are almost done, or partly done, or you've changed your mind, or whatever, please let us know by leaving a comment here on the claim post, so that we can either arrange a new submission date for you, or free up the pairing so it can be claimed again.

Also let us know if you spot a mistake, so that we can remove all evidence of our fallibility correct it. ;)


Interested in writing a manifesto of your own? Stake your claim here. (Please read the rules and requirements first.) Thank you. :)

DON'T FORGET TO KEEP AN EYE OUT FOR OUR NEXT HOTTEST SHIP POLL!

⌈ Secret Post #919 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

101.

( More! )

Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 16 pages, 385 secrets from Secret Submission Post #132.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 1 2 - broken links ], [ 1 2 - not!secrets ], [ 1 - not!fandom ], [ 1 2 3 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ], [ 1 - doing it wrong ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Hi all! I posted a while back but haven't done an official "Hi, this is me" post. First, a couple of OOTD then a question about how to wear a new shirt I got from TJ Maxx.

 

( OOTD - Museum & Derby )

And now a question about how to wear this new shirt I bought at TJ Maxx (size XL). I have a few options.

( Some slightly NSFW side/middle boob but lots of shirt pictures )

Your model is:
5'6, 215lbs-ish, 38/40B
Top: size L/XL, 14/16 Bottom: XL/XXL, 14/16/18

...I have three codes for Dreamwidth to give away. They keep giving me more, when I have nobody to give them to! Anyways, no catch, just let me know if you're interested.

i'm not the only one who can't stop laughing when koizumi goes "AIH LAAHV YUU" in endless eight am i?

ps is there a haruhi snark/joke community like guwwen_wagann and boobjection? my lj search powers are weak.

 Just something I thought sweet and worth sharing.

Title: Morning Birds
Setting: Post Shippuden, canon-verse.
Rating: PG-13, it has boy love implied.
Warnings: You might think of this as depressing if you see the distance between them and the fact that they can't be together all the time being depressing.
Word Count: A bit over or below 2.ooo.
Summary: Sometimes he found some plenitude at watching him sleep, slowly breathing in and then breathing out. To think that wonderful warmth by his side could have been forced into eternal slumber, so still his chest wouldn't move.

Read it...

• At fanfiction.net: (here)
• deviantArt: (here)
• My fic journal: (here)

Title:The Blessed Realm
Author:senior-witch/susanna (me)
Rating: M / R - from age sixteen
Genre:Romance, humor
Wordcount: 43k and growing
Summary: After Danzou has become Hokage of Konoha, Naruto has to leave the village. Sasuke, on the other hand, is forced by his team to find some legendary Blessed Realm. Both parties meet in a town that is familiar to us, but rather strange to our young ninjas, who suddenly find themselves confronted with modern world politics and modern world morality, including the acceptance of homosexuality.

chapter 1 at ff.net
chapter 15 at ff.net
chapter 1 at AFF.net
chapter 15 at AFF.net

TITLE: Fancy Man of Hogwarts
AUTHOR: sodpetly
RATING: PG-13
WORDS: 2,254
FANDOM: Harry Potter (Next Gen)
PAIRING: Teddy/James, past James/OFC
SUMMARY: James has something to tell his good friend Sam.

NOTES: Thanks to theemdash not only for looking this over, but for giving me a Teddy so that I could find myself a James.

( Of course, they held him late at work. )

X-POSTED: hp_tng, teddyjames, and teddyxjames

 I know sometimes mangaka will do stat sheets for their characters - you know, blood type, birthdates, etc. Did Okubo write those for his characters, and if he did how could I find them?

Also, is there seriously not a lj comm for Tsubaki/Mifune?

Title: The Lover of Science And The Drunk Nun
Rating: G
Pairing: Iris/Ema
Notes: For the kink meme, the prompt this OP gave was a drunk Iris being friendly and snuggle to someone she has never met in the games. The OP loved femslash and I think that Iris would have been good friends with Lana in prison so I chose Iris x Ema. The one I posted is a bit different to the one I posted on the kink meme. Enjoy the crackyness XD.
Disclaimer: Bikini, Iris and Ema Skye are copyright to the amazing Capcom.

Read it here~