neh
Collection of short stories published by an independent editor
"I live in two worlds; one is a world of books"
Posts: 943
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Post by neh on Jul 10, 2007 3:48:19 GMT -5
HAHAHAHA! That's bloody genius - she's a genius! A procrastinating, irambling, insane Gilmore Girls-ish genius, and i love it!!! *applauds like mad* Thanks for posting this Sage! Fav moments: Kartik glowers in a corner. He looks exceptionally hot while he glowers. Kartik crosses and uncrosses his arms. It only adds to his hotness. PIPPA: (offering the bloody head) Goat? CIRCE: I've tried men's souls. Delicious--just like chicken. PIPPA: I think she should add the word "scrotum." Just for good measure. FELICITY: (still texting) Realms. Me. Partying. Now. MRS. NIGHTWING: I don't "feelings talk." I'm English. SIMON: By god, you ARE a sexy beast. Even I want to kiss you.
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sagedautumn
Collection of short stories bought by Random House
You Might Need This!
Posts: 1,509
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Post by sagedautumn on Jul 10, 2007 18:32:34 GMT -5
Hehehe SO GOOD!
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neh
Collection of short stories published by an independent editor
"I live in two worlds; one is a world of books"
Posts: 943
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Post by neh on Jul 10, 2007 20:09:34 GMT -5
Libba is now one more on the list of people i greatly admire and wish i could be mates with.
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sagedautumn
Collection of short stories bought by Random House
You Might Need This!
Posts: 1,509
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Post by sagedautumn on Jul 12, 2007 16:47:43 GMT -5
Another cool thing about her is that she has a glass eye!!! How freaking cool is that??!!!
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neh
Collection of short stories published by an independent editor
"I live in two worlds; one is a world of books"
Posts: 943
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Post by neh on Jul 12, 2007 22:34:20 GMT -5
It is very cool, yes, but it's terrible about her accident, the poor thing. It rather reminded me of Frida Kahlo, though obviously not quite as bad as that.
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sagedautumn
Collection of short stories bought by Random House
You Might Need This!
Posts: 1,509
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Post by sagedautumn on Jul 13, 2007 17:44:56 GMT -5
she was the artist right??What happened to Frida?
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neh
Collection of short stories published by an independent editor
"I live in two worlds; one is a world of books"
Posts: 943
|
Post by neh on Jul 13, 2007 20:53:57 GMT -5
Ooh, she was in a really really bad bus crash (and she already had polio, poor thing!)... hang on and i'll find the info: In September of 1925, Kahlo was riding in a bus when the vehicle collided with a trolley car. She suffered serious injuries in the accident, including a broken spinal column, a broken collarbone, broken ribs, a broken pelvis, eleven fractures in her right leg, a crushed and dislocated right foot, and a dislocated shoulder. An iron handrail impaled her abdomen, piercing her uterus, which seriously damaged her reproductive ability. Though she recovered from her injuries and eventually regained her ability to walk, she was plagued by relapses of extreme pain for the remainder of her life. The pain was intense and often left her confined to a hospital or bedridden for months at a time. She would undergo as many as 35 operations in her life as a result of the accident, mainly on her back and her right leg and foot. There you go - poor Frida!
But anyway, that was very off-topic of me. A question for you sage and all others: if all 4 girls were alive today, who do you feel, based on personality, talent etc. would have the best chance of a truly sucessful and happy life? Also, is this series a planned trilogy or is possibly goin on after number 3?? (i could easily look this up of course but i'm lazy!)
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sagedautumn
Collection of short stories bought by Random House
You Might Need This!
Posts: 1,509
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Post by sagedautumn on Jul 14, 2007 9:43:00 GMT -5
Wow that is so sad!!!! And she already had polio!! The girl that would probably be most successful would be Fee because she is ambitious and driven. I could totally see her busting out of her corset and donnning a business suit a la Madonna. In business they tell you not to look out for anyone but yourself and Fee is like that by nature (she is the most unhabited when her jealousy comes through her) so think of the damage that can occur!! When it comes to happiness I doubt she will find any because in order to find true happiness you must be fulfilled with what you have and that is an indirect relationship when comes to Fee's ambitions. HAPPINESS: I can see Gemma as the happiest because she is the most moderate of the four. Yes she gets jealous, yes she has vanity, and yes she feels sorry for herself but these are one of the many shades that make up who she is unlike the other girls who each have some defect that is all consuming to them. While Ann and Pippa look for men to solve their problem I think Gemma is able to understand that of all the things men can do is but add to your problems unless you have them under control (problems that is... not men!) Books after three? Libba said that the books were meant to be a trilogy and that is as far as they are going...As you can see she is having a difficult time finishing it
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neh
Collection of short stories published by an independent editor
"I live in two worlds; one is a world of books"
Posts: 943
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Post by neh on Jul 14, 2007 20:56:22 GMT -5
Hehe, i very much agree with your answers there Sage. When you referenced Madonna, instead of thinking business i could actually see Fee onstage in that cone bra outfit singing "Like A Virgin" ... although, no actually that would be quite a horrible song for her, i'm sorry! I didn't mean anything by it - she could be singing 'Vogue" - yes, that's much more pleasant! And yes, Gemma does seem the most 'together' of the bunch by far, which makes me feel fortunate that we have her as our protagonist... could you imagine the entire narrative told from Ann's perspective for example?! I'd want to shoot myself after about 5 pages!! (poor Ann) Sorry about the beyond-3-books scare; i am still a fairly ignorant fan, so i had no idea if anything had been set down. If Libba said trilogy, then trilogy it is. Tons of good things come in threes!
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sagedautumn
Collection of short stories bought by Random House
You Might Need This!
Posts: 1,509
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Post by sagedautumn on Jul 26, 2007 18:50:31 GMT -5
Sorry! Haven't posted in a while BUT...... I have a treat::::: Libba Posted again!!!
WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! The last time I pulled an all-nighter was in college, final exams time, when I drank an entire bottle of Mountain Dew by myself and vibrated for hours while pretending to study Biology. (I had to rely on my Latin to get me through, and I think I managed to pull a C. And I never drank Mountain Dew again.) I'm not a good night person. I'm usually voted first person to fall asleep at any party. But I actually pulled an all-nighter this week.
TSFT was due to my editor on Monday, and I ended up writing all day Sunday, Sunday night into Monday morning and all day Monday. By that night, EVERYTHING was funny to me: "Hey, how about pizza for dinner?" Me: (giggling) pizza. That's funny! "Uh, o-kaaaay...." Me: Okie dokie smokey pokey. (giggling)
Exhaustion is not pretty.
At 9:00, I hit the bed, face-first and did not move until 7:00 the next morning. I had Tuesday and Wednesday off and now I'm back at it again. As I'm reading through, it's started to hit me that this is IT. The end. Finito. And I feel sort of sad about that. Okay, I won't qualify it--I feel sad about it, no "sort of" involved. I've traveled a long road with these characters. It will be hard to let them go. But all things must come to an end. I hope I have brought it to a satisfying conclusion. And hey, there's always fanfic. :-)
For some reason, this song by The Dears has been my go-to song for Kartik and Gemma. Don't know why, just is. I've listened to it about four bajillion times now, and it's starting to make me all gooey. So I should probably stop listening to it, huh? I was thinking about romance a lot this week. I've never considered myself a terribly romantic person. My friend Laurie once described us thus: "I live in a Frank Capra world, but you, Lib, live in a Billy Wilder world." And I didn't disagree. Bittersweet is about as sweet as I get.
But here's what I discovered about myself while writing TSFT (among many, many things I discovered about myself...) I'm a closet romantic. Hi, my name is Libba and I'm a sucker for a good love story. So why is it that admitting that makes me want to walk around in a trenchcoat and dark glasses? So much of what makes a good romance is about admitting to being vulnerable, and that, well, that's some scary stuff.
Justine Larbalestier (www.justinelarbalestier.com) wrote a great, thought-provoking post about romance and what makes a good romance on her blog a few weeks back, and I encourage you to check it out, (because I'm shamelessly stealing from her here. Go, Justine--oi! oi! oi!)
I posted my two cents' worth. I felt that banter was important--it's sexual tension in verbal form. But I also confessed that I am a sucker for the whole star-crossed lovers thing. There's a reason I read WUTHERING HEIGHTS straight through and then read it again. I loved THE THORN BIRDS, too.
Romance is deeply personal. I am left cold by many romantic comedies, but "Say Anything" and "Annie Hall" get me every time. I loved the Logan/Veronica Mars storyline on "Veronica Mars" (although toward the end I was tired of watching Logan with the same hangdog expression in every scene--and no, I STILL haven't seen the last episode so no spoilers!) And I remember reading once that the actress Geena Davis, when she was with Jeff Goldblum, set up tiny wind-up robots to walk past his door to wish him a happy birthday, and I thought, forget roses, now THAT's romantic. I love the ridiculous gesture, the absolutely true-there's-nothing-left-to-lose-so-I-have-to-say-this confession, the boombox in the rain (thank you, Cameron Crowe), the "Here's looking at you, kid", the realization that if life is impossible, then the only possible sane answer is the insanity of love. To quote Billy Wilder, "Well, nobody's perfect."
So I had to get over myself, admit to my inner love story geek, get vulnerable and commit it to paper. Here's to romance.
Now I put the question to you--what makes you weak-kneed? What do you love in a romance? What do you hate? Lay it on me.
***Just wanted to clear up any rumors about the movie. There is no movie yet. There's only a script. So, no casting has taken place. Nada. Nuttin'. Crickets chirping. Cows mooing in the distance. Okay, maybe not cows, but you get the picture. But as soon as I hear anything, I'll post it pronto. If you want to check out something cool that HAS been made into a movie, though, check out the Spiderwick trailer on Holly Black's website (www.blackholly.com). It is sooo cool and had me dying to see the movie.
Also, I promise to get back to answering posts/questions just as soon as the book is finished. So close, so close
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neh
Collection of short stories published by an independent editor
"I live in two worlds; one is a world of books"
Posts: 943
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Post by neh on Jul 27, 2007 18:41:50 GMT -5
Oooooh, excitement!!! Thanks for the post sage. And all that romance talk... yay for K/G shippers (myself included) I love Libba's blogs for the obvious reason that they are so often hilarious random rambles, but also coz they throw about terms that we know so well - fanfics (any author who acknowledges the importance of fanfiction - Jo Rowling, for example - gets my vote!), blogs, comments etc. You don't feel near as detatched from a great and successful author when you realise so fully that yes, they inhabit the same world as you do and even seem to do the same things! It's a buzz to know that, for me at least!
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sagedautumn
Collection of short stories bought by Random House
You Might Need This!
Posts: 1,509
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Post by sagedautumn on Jul 28, 2007 13:46:16 GMT -5
I love it when she posts the songs she is listening too. To me personally that makes me connect with her!
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Isa
Administrator
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Post by Isa on Aug 2, 2007 12:27:43 GMT -5
OK, I've just finished the first volume of the trilogy and I'm trying really hard not to read what you guys have been talking about because I don't want to find out what happens in Rebel Angels before I've had a chance to read it. But here are my thoughts and impressions: I didn't think it was excellent, but it certainly was really good. I couldn't help but wonder how much of the novel was inspired by the Harry Potter series (there are many similarities between the two stories) and although I didn't think it was as good as HP, I liked the fact that it seemed to target a more mature audience - not that HP is strictly for kids, but I can't imagine reading about Hermione having a torrid dream about Ron, you know what I mean?! I also thought it was well written for the most part, but I have to admit that it took a while before I got used to the present tense first-person narrator. I usually prefer a present tense third-person narrator or a past tense first-person narrator, unless the book is meant to be a diary or an epistolary novel. But maybe that's just me! As for the story itself, I really enjoyed reading about what could have gone through the minds of young Victorian women. I don't think it was an entirely accurate portrait - and I'm sure Libba Bray would be the first to agree - perhaps a bit too modern at times, but it was entertaining and it really made me think about life back in those days. Appearances were so important during the Victorian era that we almost tend to forget there was such a thing as teenagers back then! And although many 19th century novels touch on the subject, I can't think of one that honestly depicts the dreams, feelings and needs of young Victorian women, probably because it would have been judged too scandalous for publication! So I guess the truth lies somewhere between Gemma Doyle and Elizabeth Bennet I also think the whole magical aspect of the novel took on more meaning with teenage protagonists because they're at an age where whatever goes wrong in your life goes TERRIBLY wrong!! As you get older, you learn to deal with even the most serious problems without so much as shedding a tear sometimes, but when you're a teenager, I think you're at that stage where you're just letting go of the comforts of childhood and naivety and have to learn for yourself that life can be harsh and unfair. To me it explains why the characters were so keen on using magic, even against their better judgement. So all this to say that I'm really looking forward to reading Rebel Angels, I hope the character of Hester Moore will be in it because I've got a feeling there's more to her than what was portrayed in the first volume, and I'm assuming sexy Kartik will be back too! ;D
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neh
Collection of short stories published by an independent editor
"I live in two worlds; one is a world of books"
Posts: 943
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Post by neh on Aug 2, 2007 18:10:34 GMT -5
Oh yes, Miss Moore is DEFINATELY in RA Jefie, and she won't dissapoint, i'll say that much. As for Kartik..... mmmmm..... *leaves computer to go drool some* *returns reluctantly* Yes, the whole aspect of depicting the more 'modern' thoughts and feelings of the girls has been a source of debate amoungst readers as to whether it was refreshingly realistic or not at all contextually correct but Sage and i feel that for the most part it's only natural that they would be thinking and feeling bascially the exact same things we do today - that context can only dominate and dictate to a certain extent and then the rest is all down to the fundamentals of human nature, which never change. The fact that a girl in the late 19th century could be 'emo' or that teens could go get drunk and laugh about sex may seem a little forced and fake at first - and indeed, it did to me, to be honest - but then i sat and thought about it and considered 'why not?!' . In that age in particular, with all it's stiffling social contraints, such things could perhaps be even more prominent and pressing than today, but they'd just be hidden, 'behind closed doors'. A question for you Jefie - do you think the title of the novel could also refer very much to Pippa and her plight?
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Isa
Administrator
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Post by Isa on Aug 3, 2007 8:36:57 GMT -5
Oh yes, Miss Moore is DEFINATELY in RA Jefie, and she won't dissapoint, i'll say that much. Yay! I always love a good teaser As for Kartik..... mmmmm..... *leaves computer to go drool some* *returns reluctantly* ;D ;D ;D As for whether I think the story is "refreshingly realistic or not at all contextually correct", I'm gonna have to go with "refreshingly inaccurate" I agree that girls were not that different a hundred years ago and probably felt and wanted many of the same things we do now but that it was simply covered up by the puritanism inherent to the Victorian period. But there are still quite a few things in teh book that don't seem to fit the period context at all. One example that comes to mind would be Felicity's relationship with her father. I don't think a girl back then would long to see her father or be disappointed when he doesn't show up simply because father-daughter relationships were practically non-existent. Also, we musn't forget that most women were completely clueless when it came to sexuality because they hadn't been told anything about it. Most got married without having any idea of how babies were made, or that their husband had something called a penis - I mean, there are so many stories of women who started to cry when they saw "it", thinking their husband was some kind of a freak! So for these reasons, I find it hard to imagine these girls thinking and talking about sex when they really had no idea that such a thing even existed! Well, maybe Felicity did... But that being said, the inaccuracy did not bother me at all, it is after all a work of fiction and it does not pretend to be a historical novel. I thought that putting modern ideas into the mind of Victorian characters made the story different, fun and interesting - I'm always in for something new and clever! As for the title, I do think it refers to Pippa. Actually, for a very long time I was intrigued by the title because Gemma is not described as being beautiful - and the title of a book usually has something to do with the heroine - so I kept wondering what it was all about. And I know that in the book that phrase refers to magic/power, but now after having finished the novel, I do think it's also a tribute to Pippa's character.
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