Suki Blue

New year, new layout. I'm going with a Nero banner this time. I think my infactuation with him will last as long as the game does, so best give him banner time while the urge is hot.

As years went, 2008 was okay. Some of it was fantabudastic, some of it made me wish I'd been born anyone but me and some of it was just fine.

I passed my OU course with a distinction, wrote two original novels, attended writerconuk, found several new fandoms, read a shit-load of books, comics, magazines and fanfic, got to know my family a little more ...

No wonder I'm exhausted!

My favourite books of 2008 were Anthony Horowitz's Alex Rider books, Mark Haddon's A Spot of Bother and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, and The House at Riverton by Kate Morton.

My favourite film was Iron Man. Not a good year for films. I actually found The Dark Knight to be somewhat of a disappointment. I feel a chick-flick phase approaching.

My fabourite TV shows were Torchwood, Doctor Who, Merlin and The Apprentice (When is that back on? I need some Sugar).

My favourite fandom was Torchwood (Jack/Ianto).

My favourite fics were Time Enough (Jack/Ianto) by veronicaluv, It Didn't Start Like This (Jack/Ianto) by szm, Take a Sad Song and Make it Better (Harry/Draco) by femmequixotic and Drop Dead Gorgeous (Harry/Draco) by Mistful.

My favourite dog was Indy, my favourite socks the red, stripy, fluffy ones, my favourite PJs the purple Eeyore with checked bottoms, favourite slippers the red slip-ons with pom poms. Fav perfume J-Lo Glow, fav body cream Molton Brown Yuan Zhi, fav people YOU GUYS!!!

Finished reading the latest three Torchwood books this morning. Good! Definitely worth getting. I couldn't fault Pack Animals, especially when you consider there was naked Ianto. Skypoint was an enjoyable read with some cool Tosh and Owen moments, but it needed to be about a hundred pages longer; it felt rather rushed and the result was minimal emotional content. Almost Perfect was hilarious. Gwen was a blast and Rhys was brilliantly funny. Poor Ianto was a little OOC at times, but one could argue there was a major reason why that was. Almost Perfect is the first TW novel to have only Jack, Ianto and Gwen, and as much as I love and miss Tosh and Owen, I was pleased with the amount of page-time Ianto got. Bless him and his Labrador bag, haha.

All three are definitely worth getting, along with the previous three, Trace Memory, Something in the Water, and The Twilight Steets.

The first three, Another Life, Slow Decay, and Border Princes I would only reccomend to die-hard fans who simply must have everything that says Torchwood on the front -- uh, fans like me. They are decent stories in their own right, but they lack characterisation and that Torchwood feel that we all love. I somtimes wonder if the first three novels were commisioned before the show was aired or even before it was filmed. The reason that book adaptions of motion pictures are often so dire is because the author is given a tight deadline and a script and told to go ahead and convert it into a novel. Because the movie often hasn't been filmed at that time or is still in production, the author finds it hard to visualise the characters and their quirks, the pace and feel of the plot that can only be bought to life by an actor on the screen. Just a thought.

Yesterday I posted a request for book recs featuring Dragons. I got a massive response and I want to say THANK YOU, and share all the recs back with you all. I posted for help at this and my main journal and at four different book communities, and I've linked them all in This Post

If you want to put the recs in your memories, please feel free, but do so from the from the post in the link and NOT from this post as I will be locking it.

Again, thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou!!

Excitement of the day:

I've just phoned O2 and upgraded my mobile to the Samsung d900i. I was going to get the U600, but I finally decided I couldn't cope with the touch sensitive buttons. I changed my tarrif while I was at it and for £5.00 less a month, I get double the free minutes I had and 5 times as many texts. The catch is that I can't upgrade for two years, which suits me because I don't upgrade every year due to my Lazyitis.

I've also just finished chap 4 of Parity Transformations and have sent to Ame for damn good betaing. I'm not happy with it so I think I'll be revising long into the night. Hee!


Now for some pimping of some published works:

Civil War - This is a Marvel title, which isn't normally my thing, but I was forced to read it by my Marvel Swapsie Buddy. The Government passes an act that forces all super heroes to register and submit to training. This effectively means that their true identities are to be put on record. Obviously, there are some super heroes who are not willing to go along with it, including Captain America and the Young Avengers. Brilliant art, wonderful storyline which actually gets you seeing both sides of the argument, and several good comedy moments. On the basis of this graphic novel, I am actually considering becoming a Spiderman fan. :oO

The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penney - Set in Canada 1867, a man is murdered and a woman's 17 year-old son disappears. She sets out across a dangerous and desolate land to find her boy, Francis, and the murderer in order to clear Francis's name. I don't know what attracted me to this book in the first place, other than the fact that Amazon had it really cheap, but I'm glad I went to the trouble. It's beautiful, engaging and wonderfully detailed. I completely fell for most of the main characters, especially Francis (you'll see why). Read it!

Continuing my efforts to read and review all the Buffy and Angel novels ever published, here is my opinion on Spark and Burn.

( Cut for book babble and a certain amount of book spoliers )