Of breakfasts and 'bots

Am in the middle of trying to wrangle some virus updates that *I've paid for* out of Symantec.

And I'm not really having caramel sponge cake for breakfast. Carry on.

Happydance!

The Paul Kidd book, A Whisper of Wings, I won on eBay arrived today. Fabulous condition, bigger than I expected, gorgeous cover and interior artwork by Terrie Smith. If it's anything like as good as his other one (The Rats of Acomar) I'm in for a treat. Woo!

Now, to revise for UCCP exam this afternoon. Hah!

Bizarre crossover idea

I have a Harry Potter t-shirt that has a picture of Harry alongside an excerpt of Mr Ollivander's dialogue; "...holly and phoenix feather, eleven inches...". Lucy just misread it as "Holy phoenix feathers", which immediately sounded to both of us like something Robin would say; "Holy phoenix feathers, Batman!!" (snerk) Surely this could be worked into a crossover...

Parents, Pooches and Papers

Well, the 'rents are home, they had a marvellous time, brought me a lovely Bendigo Pottery party plate...well, I dunno what else to call it, it's got a place for crackers and a built-in dip bowl, so party plate works ;-) The dog was impressed to see them - he's been so *sad* these past three weeks, poor little dude.

Exams - gaaaark, that was a fucking hard one. UCCP is all about linking files between applications, and although I do know it, I'm a little shaky. Took me THREE hours but I did get right through it. Missed a class, but no great loss. Had mometary heart failure when the files were'nt on the A drive, but stupid me had saved them all to the C drive- thank Christ I checked before handing it in. I aced last week's presentation, tho (76 out of 80 yeehaw).

Tole Mum about the LJ thing - I'd like her to get a bit more net-savvy and really, getting online did such marvelous things for my social, inner, creative and intellectual lives that I really think she'd get a buzz too if she could just get started.

Book review on the fly

Wow! 30-odd pages in to "A Whisper of Wings" and I can already tell lightning did not merely strike once with Paul Kidd - this is just as good, if not better than "The Rats of Acomar". He has a talent for shaping fantasy worlds (believe me, I've read enough bad ones I can spot a good one damn quick) He seems to like writing in the vein of long-long-after-humans-ruined-the-earth type stories, without getting preachy but instead using it as a nifty springboard for his narratives and, even better, serves as a basis for his civilisations to build their mythology on. It's so nice to read fantasy that doesn't rip off Tolkien (one reason why I'm only just now sliding back into the genre after a 10-year hiatus). He also writes anthropomorphic characters - the people in this one are a beautiful mix of fox and butterfly, and the book is gorgeously illustrated by Terrie Smith to boot. The main character is pretty, plump (yay) and mute, and her sister, (who I haven't seen a pic of yet but sounds gorgeous in description, with glossy black fur and black and electric blue wings) has some excellent femslashy vibes...very slashy and it looks as if Paul can write it without making it sound like a Genus wank fantasy. He's written wank fantasy in the past, but he's demonstrated he can do better, anyway...

Oh, and set in an Australian landscape - our trees, our wildlife, and refelctions of Aboriginal culture. Typical that he had to go overseas to get it published. Feh.

unfair wank comment

That comment in my last post needs clarification - yes Paul Kidd writes/as written wank fantasy but a) don't we all and b) his are *always* worth reading. They're *classy* wank. Or at least intentionally funny.