Mon, May 28th, 2012 -- 02:46 pm

It is record-breakingly hot here in Chicago. I'm considering forming a permanent relationship with my air conditioner. I'm also seriously considering looking for jobs in Antarctica. Surely they need a project manager and I bet I'd never have to call anyone a cab.

So I'm staying inside and writing. I worked a little on Dead Isle, and then I wrote a fanfic, which was a nice way to break the TOTAL STALL I was in. And also, you guys get porn!

Title: Moving The Furniture
Fandom: Avengers (movieverse)
Rating: R (Steve/Natasha)
Summary: Steve thinks about sex a lot, and he'd like to have some, if he could just stop being an idiot around the people he'd like to have it with.

( It's not that Steve can't talk to women. )

Fake cut takes you to the fic at Dreamwidth.

I'm pretty sure this story makes it seem like I'm obsessed with Steve Rogers' virginity, but honestly, this one is all 51stcenturyfox's fault.

Foxy also got me an AO3 account, so that I can post this as a gift for her there. I'm not sure what my status vis-a-vis posting to AO3 is going to be in a permanent sense, but rest assured, all fanfic will also be posted at the Dreamwidth account and linked from here and the sam_storyteller LJ. (Posting is becoming quite the production number.)

Anyway, you can find this story here at AO3 as well.

Mon, May 28th, 2012 -- 01:52 pm

Oh god, I am so behind with this review.

I'm really bad at reading stuff my friends have had published, and I'm not proud of that; I think perhaps some of it is that my Advanced Reader Copies usually come in digital format, and that takes more effort than simply dragging a book onto the train with me. I really need to save up for an ebook reader of some kind.

But I've been working my way through Steam Powered II: More Lesbian Steampunk Stories and it's really good reading. I was sent a copy because a good friend, Jeannelle Ferreria, had a story in it, but I've been enjoying most of the stories in various ways. I mean, I like steampunk, and I like to support work that presents more diversity than one generally gets in big publishing, but the stories themselves are really well done so I'm happy to recommend the anthology wholeheartedly.

Jeannelle's story, A Thousand Mill Lofts Gray, almost seems out of place in a Steampunk anthology because it's so firmly rooted in a historical era and a specific culture, but as with all of her writing I love how she presents that culture: the tension between a poor Jewish factory worker and an upper-class gentile photographer is fantastic and detailed. It does have a lot of lovely steampunk touches; one of the heroines who has a functional, jointed ivory hand because she lost hers in an industrial accident. It touches on the darker side of steampunk in a way a lot of stories in the genre don't: the fact that Steampunk romanticises an era before labor laws and unions, when colonialism and class snobbery were at an all time high.

I think my other favorite story is Playing Chess in New Persepolis, by Sean Holland; I mean, clockwork steampunk chess tournament with bonus love story for the win.

There's a strong variety within the anthology as well; there are a lot of women of colour represented, from a charming Cuban submarine designer in Amphitrite by SL Knapp to the exceptional adventure story Dark Horse by AM Tuomala (who has also published with my friends at Candlemark & Gleam) which is about the adventures of an Englishwoman, Prudence, and a Moroccan woman, Suhailah, set in Istanbul and told through Suhailah's eyes.

So I've really been enjoying it, and I think you guys will too; four hundred pages of steampunk and awesome women, what's not to like? I don't usually link to purchase pages in my reviews, but the anthology is put out by a smallish indy press so I'd like to help them along if I can -- the anthology can be found here for $8.99 for eBook, and there's a preorder link for the paperback.

Mon, May 28th, 2012 -- 10:16 am

Good morning everyone, happy Memorial Day, and welcome to Radio Free Monday!

Ways To Give:

rising has a friend who is raising money to take Deon, a young boy who has hypophosphatasia (a form of brittle bones) to Disneyland for his 10th birthday. The money will go to cover medical costs and transportation, among other things.

Help with Housing:

neveralarch is moving to Minneapolis for grad school and looking for housing near the UMinn campus. You can find more information or offer advice here.

Emily is moving to Worcester, MA at the end of July. She's looking for advice on finding housing, as well as vets in the area and any other info folks want to pass along. You can find more information or make contact here.

News To Know:

One Million Moms, a conservative "pressure group" dedicated to sucking the fun out of life, is going after comic books for depicting homosexual relationships (among other things). According to the article, Joe Quesada has said that the most hate mail they get is over sexuality issues. So if you like comics and you support the inclusion of LGBT characters and storylines, you might drop 'em a line to counteract some of the missives from scribbling bigots. (If anyone has info on how best to do this please let me know and I'll put together a post or RFM blurb about it.)

Nice Things Happening:

taffimai has a ticket available for Don't Dress for Dinner in NYC.

thatrainbow is running a project where he collects wishes from people and turns them into paper stars. His post is on tumblr but he has anonymous "asking" turned on so you can leave a wish there.

Just For Fun:

nieseryjna linked me to an awesome Doctor Who "mini-sode" written by kids as part of a Blue Peter contest.

ljgeoff has found the most awesome birthday card ever.

When times get tough, remember: nobody can take away the porn you've already read.

And this has been Radio Free Monday! Thank you for your time. You can always post items for my attention in comments here (or on any post) or email me at copperbadge at gmail dot com. If you're not sure how to proceed, here is a little more about what I do and how you can help (or ask for help!). Remember, brevity is the soul of RFM.

Sat, May 26th, 2012 -- 04:00 pm

I have not roomba'd in WAY. TOO. LONG.

In my defence, the Roomba was sulking. Its battery wouldn't hold a charge, and even when it would, all it did was go around in a tight little circle, like it was afraid of the floor or something. Not even its true love, the automatic trash can (that's right, my trash can has motion sensors) could cheer it up.

I did email iRobot, the company that births Roombas, and their computer replied to me. Which is apropos, I guess.

Briskly slap the bumper 15-20 times to dislodge any debris in the bumper sensor. Direct compressed air into the gap under the robot between the bumper and main body.

I finally got around to laying down some newspaper and taking the Roomba to pieces, then took it out onto the fire escape and cleared it out with a can of compressed air. I reassembled it with clean brushes and an empty lint trap, fired it up, and LO AND BEHOLD, MY BABY HAS COME BACK TO ME.

So it turns out when your Roomba is sulking, all it needs is a spanking and a blow job.

How like life.

Sat, May 26th, 2012 -- 10:20 am

Happy Memorial Day Weekend! Given it's a three day weekend in the US (and @ajvsell dropped a hint) this is the perfect time

TO DECLARE MORNINGTON CRESCENT.

Mornington Crescent is a made-up game with made-up rules, like if Calvinball and a subway map collided at high speed. If you need a primer you can find it here, but essentially the idea is that you name train stations and argue about nonexistent rules until someone says Mornington Crescent. You can see some examples at the last Mornington Crescent.

As it is Memorial Day we will be playing by American Armistice Rules as laid out by Woodrow Wilson (not the more well-known Churchill Armistice Rules, which require too much drinking for a Saturday morning). This means absolutely no downdrafts, except after the tenth move, and direct crossplay when in the northeast quadrant.

And of course because I am in Central time, no F, E, or G plays after a snonk.

You will need your maps: We'll be basing play off the Standard Historical, but you may also need the Variant Modern and Standard Modern and, as a bonus, I'll throw in a Wild Card.

I'll start it, but play amongst yourselves; I'm off to get breakfast. Before you answer me, see if there are any others you can play with. Make friends!

Or enemies!

Belmont Red Line!

Fri, May 25th, 2012 -- 07:03 pm

Urgh, this story is going to be the end of me.

I haven't looked at Dead Isle in a week; I'm still collecting comments, and I know I haven't replied to the latest, but I needed a small break before re-tackling it. I've been fussing around with some fanfic but that's going nowhere; I thought I'd try working through my writing to-do list and landed on this one I'm calling Tunnel, which unless Valet catches on fire for me is probably going to be the next book I write.

I have the setting, basic concept, and something approaching a plot; I'm getting to know my protagonists. It's gonna be fun, all secret passages and magic maps and a dragon, social commentary, and a love story. It's just getting the damn thing jumpstarted.

Part of it has been a certain hesitance in how to tell the story: I've wanted to do it in shifting first-person POV, even though I know that's hard to do well and hard on the reader even when it is. Third-person omniscient is much easier. I've made the decision to rise to the challenge and give first-person a shot, but that doesn't mean I'm capable of just diving the fuck in.

All of my published work, Dead Isle included, has been a lot about identity, concealment of it, and revelation. Believe it or not, and laugh if you want, but I just noticed this today. It's not like I didn't know I was fond of that stuff, but I didn't realise how obsessive I've been about it. Tunnel isn't about identity, at least not so far, and not in the same way. This is good, it's an expansion of my focus, but it's also a struggle. For the most part my heroes are exactly what they claim to be, and the plot is about the way a city interacts with itself, the way classes within the city interact.

Sometimes I love the idea more than the work. I think that's natural enough for writers. But the work has to get done or the idea languishes. It's possible I'll need a push on it, which means not working on it any more until it's all I work on, but at least it's something different than rewrites to wrestle with for a little while.

As long as we're on the topic, I posted an essay over on my Wordpress today, Vocalizing Magic, where I talk about mystery's relationship to magic, and the gifts and consequences of pulling back the curtain.

Fri, May 25th, 2012 -- 08:25 am

Good morning! It's time for a FRIDAY PHOTO POST.

( Sexual aides, Marilyn Monroe, and Las Vegas. It's like I'm living the dream. )

Thu, May 24th, 2012 -- 02:50 pm

I have a brief RFM that seems to be too urgent to wait -- pixie117's dog is sick with a mystery injury, and she needs help both with funding and with research/advice. (Thanks to drgaellon and forest_rose who brought it to my attention.)

Managed to keep things going relatively smoothly at work today, given I'd been gone for three days. Though you'd think a bunch of people with lives, college degrees, and some with children would be able to pick up their own newspapers instead of shoving them in a heap on my desk.

Mind you, this did lead to me discovering The Red Bulletin which, sadly, is a magazine-sized ad for Red Bull and not a Communist newsletter.

Best quote of the day, from Awkward Coworker, talking about an upcoming event we're involved in: "So if you're a person who likes hanging around with other people, talking about stuff, this is for you!"

Wed, May 23rd, 2012 -- 04:52 pm

Okay, Forbes Magazine can still eat me (now and forever) but they just released their new "Richest 15 Fictional Characters" list, and it's nice to see they've updated a little. Saying Santa Claus is the richest man on earth is a total cop out.

Also LOL, Robert Crawley. Are they not up on the fact that his wife's money is the only thing keeping Downton Abbey afloat?

I can't really talk about overt capitalism, though. I'm sitting on my couch with three open, functioning laptops: my netbook (transferring files back to my personal laptop), my personal laptop (obvs), and my work laptop (I need to log into the VPN to get some research files). It's like I'm in a hacker movie sponsored by Dell.

Tue, May 22nd, 2012 -- 10:52 pm

I am home! I encountered no end of interesting people on the journey. The guy in the seat next to me took a lot of video while he was staying in Vegas, including some spectacular footage of late-night street fights being broken up by casino security. Also, there were four cops on the train I took home. I've never felt safer.

Now is all the bedtime. Or, given my body thinks it's only nine pm, all the watching TV for an hour or two and then bedtime.

Tue, May 22nd, 2012 -- 01:45 pm

WOULD YOU GUYS LIKE MY THOUGHTS ON LAS VEGAS

I THOUGHT YOU WOULD

( What Happens In Vegas Is Mildly Disappointing. )

When I was eleven or twelve I passed through the Las Vegas airport late at night, heading I can't remember where, and I recall thinking that this is what hell must be like, this airport. When I came through it on the way in for this trip I wasn't paying much attention, and I was totally prepared to re-evaluate this airport in light of that being twenty years ago, but no, I still think this is probably what hell is like. Hell with free wifi. This is a terrible airport, and I speak as one with authority on the subject of terrible airports.

Tue, May 22nd, 2012 -- 01:00 pm

I don't fly out of here until 4pm local time, but I'm at the airport because Mum wanted me to ride in with her. I just saw her off, so now it's time to find a quiet place to curl up with the fortunately free-of-charge internet at the airport.

We went to see Phantom of the Opera last night, which ended up being a great experience -- for me mostly because the others had a good time, but just in general it was fun, too. We had some kind of package deal with the Venetian where we got a steak dinner beforehand, which was excellent, and then when we got to the theatre we were early and they said they had better seats for us, so we ended up in the "house seats" at no extra charge. For those of you who aren't intimate with the box office, the house seats are the seats they hold just-in-case VIPs show up and want really great seats.

I was literally directly under the chandelier. Mum was almost directly under it, and when it (spoiler!) fell, she screamed like armageddon. It was awesome.

It's very hip in the theatre to be down on Phantom, and there are genuine good reasons for that, but hell, economics and aesthetics aside, it's a well-executed show and Mum and her BFF and Mr. BFF all loved it. So that was nice. In all, a good time.

Mon, May 21st, 2012 -- 08:50 pm

Ahhh, fake Venice!

Mon, May 21st, 2012 -- 04:50 pm

This is a thing that happens:

I sit down at a slot machine. I play five dollars. I lose five dollars, slowly but inevitably, while Mum watches and mocks me. Finally, Mum says "Move over one seat and stop pushing buttons. Push that button there. Just that button."

I move over a seat, feed a dollar into the machine, and push the button.

Ding ding ding. I now have five dollars.

"Okay now push that button there."

Ding ding ding. I now have nine dollars and forty cents.

"And now that one there."

Ding ding ding.

This is why: a) I now have $15 when I started with $6 and b) I believe, despite being a reasonably rational person, that my mother is magic. Shit like this happens to her all the time.

Mon, May 21st, 2012 -- 09:14 am

Good morning all, and welcome to Radio Free Monday, coming to you live from Las Vegas!

Help For Free:

links to a story about Campbell Newman, the new Premier of Queensland, who has defunded a bunch of domestic violence programs in the state budget and cut off all support to Sisters Inside, an organisation that provide counselling and lifeskills support for pre- and post-released criminalised (imprisoned) women. There's a petition to reinstate funding to Sisters Inside here. And Campbell Newman's account, FYI, is @theqldpremier.

lferion linked to the FortuneCity Rescue Project, which is rescuing fannish history before it disappears forever due to FortuneCity going defunct. Find out how you can help!

News To Know:

justice_turtle has a link to a story about Argentina passing a law allowing transgender people to change their legal gender with no psychiatric or medical prerequisites, and making hormones and surgery part of their socialised health care system.

Relevant to last week's plagiarism discussion, stuttermoan has some more information and a wrap-up here.

Just For Fun:

LAZY HARP SEAL HAS NO JOB.

Subway systems across the world, independent of each other, have developed common aspects. I'm afraid skynet may come from the trains.

Teeny tiny guerilla libraries!

And this has been Radio Free Monday! Thank you for your time. You can always post items for my attention in comments here (or on any post) or email me at copperbadge at gmail dot com. If you're not sure how to proceed, here is a little more about what I do and how you can help (or ask for help!). Remember, brevity is the soul of RFM.

Sun, May 20th, 2012 -- 09:53 pm

So apparently this afternoon I ate the best gelato in the state of Nevada.

Mum and I went trooping around the casinos, just to see them -- I'd never been in one before -- and buzzed the art museum, but she'd already seen the Monet exhibit and I'd already seen the paintings in it, which came from the Boston MFA. (Plus, honestly, I'm not a huge fan of Monet's paintings.) Next to the art museum is a little bakery with a gelato case, so I nipped in to get a croissant for Mum and a cup of gelato for myself.

There was a couple at the counter dithering indecisively over what to get, and apparently unwilling to stand aside and let more decisive people go forward, so the woman behind them (in front of me) was getting visibly impatient.

"I just want a cup of gelato!" she said. "I've been waiting six years for this gelato."

"It's that good?" I asked.

"It's the best gelato in the state. The peanut butter or the dolce de leche. I've spent years waiting to get back to Vegas to eat this gelato. Why can't these fuckers hurry up?"

I can't eat peanuts, but I do love me some caramel, so I got a cup of dulce de leche. It was damn fine gelato, too. And a great story to tell.

Basically we played tourist today, did some window shopping, and came home to rest. We've spent the evening eating pizza and watching Cook's Country, where my mother ships Chris Kimball and Bridget Lancaster in a kinky food-based affair.

Me: Did I tell you about how I suddenly started liking black olives?
Mum: No. was it olive a sudden?
Me: I'm telling the internet you said that.

In an unlikely twist, we're also watching Sherlock tonight, the American airing of Reichenbach Fall. Mum happened to mention "I've been watching that Sherlock show. He's an odd guy, he's quirky" and I swear, my jaw dropped. I've considered trying to introduce her to Sherlock many times, but always dismissed it as being too intense and violent and...well, modern for her; she much prefers the safer, more blue-skies USA network shows.

I'm dying to know what she thought of Irene Adler in this, but I don't know if I dare ask for fear I might find out.

Sun, May 20th, 2012 -- 09:42 pm

This is the sexiest pizza box I've ever eaten out of.

Sun, May 20th, 2012 -- 01:56 pm

Mmm, conspicuous consumption...

Sun, May 20th, 2012 -- 01:13 pm

BEE AFRAID

Sat, May 19th, 2012 -- 10:45 pm

Oh my god there's more of her.

I've just met Mum's oldest friend and her husband, and so much about my mother is explained. I love her to bits but she's...strange, we are a strange family, and now I know we are not alone. Because her BFF, god love her, is exactly like my mother. It's cool, just...wow. Down to the fascination for tote bags.

But as it turns out Mum's BFF's husband works in the same field I do, so we've been discussing the concerns of the day while Mum and BFF catch up. I feel like the gentlemen just left to have brandy and cigars and the women are adjourning to the parlor.

Also we ate dinner at a restaurant full of bears.