Zoie May's Library

Before I get sucked into the internet for the summer, I sat myself down and and read Mercedes Lackey's "Tales of the Five Hundred Kingdoms" series. Like her "Elemental Masters" series, they're reimaginings of fairytales, but set in a fantasy world instead of Edwardian London. I liked them okay, but even being printed by a romance publisher, the sex scenes in 'The Fairy Godmother' and 'Fortune's Fool' kinda took me by surprise and didn't really seem to belong. I mean, they didn't come out of nowhere, but they didn't really affect or advance the plot. And they are horribly full of purple prose.

'One Good Knight' and 'The Snow Queen' didn't have this, but 'The Snow Queen' seemed a little disjointed and the romantic couples weren't developed at all. The young man whose kidnapping drives the plot is pursued by his sweetheart, and then when they are reunited at the end they aren't paid any more mind. His mother apparently falls in love with his master on the journey to find him, but we don't see any mention of it until the very end. And the Snow Queen herself is also suddenly attracted to the other man on the quest in the last pages.

Now 'One Good Knight' I really liked. I guessed all of the plot-twists, but they were done well, and the romance was more believable and also done well.

I turn twenty tonight.

...

How did that happen?!

Hell week starts tomorrow. I know my lines and my blocking but I'm still nervous as all get out. I haven't gotten butterflies before a play in awhile, but then its been two years since my last one. And I've never done more than three performances, one per night; this play, we're doing three performances per afternoon for three days for the campus, then a final night performance for our families.

...

I just made the butterflies worse. Argh!

Oh my god, that was great! My first convention and it was awesome. We went first thing to one of the panel rooms to see and hear about "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" and sat through the panel for a television show called "Happy Town" that ended with a screening of the first episode. Its a suspense mystery kinda show, not usually my thing, but it was pretty good. Got to see a segment from "The Prince of Persia" as well as from "The Sorcerer's Apprentice".
Then we hit the floor, and it was packed. I had to hold onto Dad's sleeve so as to not get separated. Lots of cosplayers, but either we or they were heading somewhere so I only got a few pictures. We both enjoyed Stylin Online's booth though we ended up only buying the official Wonder-Con shirt. My favorites were six booths of cardboard boxes full of used comicbook paperbacks, in really good condition at half the new price, and twice I had so many that the vendor gave me half off of that for a few. And just before we left we found the table giving away the Iron Man 2 poster with Scarlett Johansson.

Went early to meet Dad for a ride home and while waiting for the walk light to turn, a man leaned out the window of a passing car and shouted "You're beautiful baby!". I have no idea if he was serious, being playful because its St. Patrick's Day, or drunk because its St. Patrick's Day, but it was still kinda nice to hear.

Papa seems to be alright now except for high blood pressure. All I've heard is that his heart "had an episode", but I'm not sure what exactly that means, or what exactly happened, or what will happen. We're all hoping that he doesn't have to have another stent put in.

For now my main journal is over on LJ, and this is just for commenting and stalking following other journals.

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I read a lot of books, and I love a lot of books, but the ones that I never get bored with are Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, Dressing a Galaxy by Trish Biggar,  the Elemental Masters Series by Mercedes Lackey, and  The Half-Brothers by Ann Lawrence.
Edit: I haven't read them as often yet, but two that are quickly joining the ranks are Clockwork Heart by Dru Pagliassotti and Movies in Fifteen Minutes by cleolinda

Movie de la semaine: Tim Burton's Batman. I know what I'm doing this weekend!

After being closed for roughly six years, a local movie theater has reopened and started showing no-longer-in-theaters movies. One of the flavors this weekend is the Errol Flynn 'Robin Hood' that was partly filmed in a local park. Its weirdly set up, like the seating for two modern theaters stacked together (really, really high up!), a screen only a third in size, and an itty bitty stage too. A small audience tonight, only twenty-five or so, but it was a lot of fun and the movie has aged well.