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bouteillebleuFound my driving license today, hidden away in a drawer, so now I have proper library membership. It's odd, though - after four and a half years spent mostly away from home, I'm not used to (a) getting novels from libraries rather than bookshops, or (b) libraries smaller than the UL. Cambridge has spoiled me, it seems, particularly the two years where I was in walking distance of at least four libraries.
Speaking of books, my second Amazon package arrived today, so I caught up on all the manga I ordered - Ouran High School Host Club 2-4, and Mars 8 and 9. Ouran is silly and light-hearted, with a group of young men hamming it up for the girls of their school, and a girl who's somehow ended up working with them. Mars, on the other hand... I've described it before as "shoujo with bite". It's a love story, yes, but one about two people who've been broken by what's happened to them in life. Secrets come out, hearts break and are repaired, and I hope they'll have a happy ending because by now, both of them deserve it.
Alas, I can't stay serious for long, as it suddenly struck me that if you crossed Ouran and Mars, you'd get Kodocha, another series I like, and have left at home because I can't fit another ten volumes of manga on the shelves, dash it all. Well, you'd probably have to combine Ouran and Mars and then inject liquid sugar into the result, just to get the correct amount of hyperness.
Finally, thinking back to yesterday's post, I forgot to mention the niggling idea for a fanfic that's caught me. After a friend enthused over Melanie Rawn's books, I bought a copy of The Mageborn Traitor from a charity shop, and many months later I finally read it. Two of the characters, Sarra and Collan, have a happy relationship, albeit one with interesting dynamics given the reversal of gender roles. I bought The Ruins of Ambrai, the first in the series of which "Traitor" is the second, and read it afterwards.
...For such a happy marriage, I definitely wasn't expecting them to dislike each other so much. And when it became clear that this would be a stereotypical "I hate you!" "I hate you too!" "You suck!" "So do you!" "...I love you!" "...So do I!" romance, as in the bad romance novels I've read summaries of, it suddenly made me realise why I thought Collan had chemistry with Sarra's younger sister, Cailet. Because there was more genuine affection there. In the second book, Rawn wrote a happy marriage between two strong personalities; but if I'd read the first to start with, I might not have read the second.
The fanfic idea isn't "what happens if he gets together with Cailet?". That wouldn't be simple, especially after the end of the first book and what Glenin did to them both, though working through that would be intriguing. But taking one of Collan's more impulsive actions and seeing what would happen if it went the other way, and what would happen to him, Sarra and Cailet at the end of "Ruins" and the start of "Traitor"... that would be interesting.
'Course, I haven't written fanfic since the Zelda stuff I wrote at school, unless you count a Pokemon fanfic involving two of my PokeMUSH characters. I think I'd fail at the "sound like the author" hurdle; then again, it's a challenge I've not faced yet. Developing my writing style, here I come!
Speaking of books, my second Amazon package arrived today, so I caught up on all the manga I ordered - Ouran High School Host Club 2-4, and Mars 8 and 9. Ouran is silly and light-hearted, with a group of young men hamming it up for the girls of their school, and a girl who's somehow ended up working with them. Mars, on the other hand... I've described it before as "shoujo with bite". It's a love story, yes, but one about two people who've been broken by what's happened to them in life. Secrets come out, hearts break and are repaired, and I hope they'll have a happy ending because by now, both of them deserve it.
Alas, I can't stay serious for long, as it suddenly struck me that if you crossed Ouran and Mars, you'd get Kodocha, another series I like, and have left at home because I can't fit another ten volumes of manga on the shelves, dash it all. Well, you'd probably have to combine Ouran and Mars and then inject liquid sugar into the result, just to get the correct amount of hyperness.
Finally, thinking back to yesterday's post, I forgot to mention the niggling idea for a fanfic that's caught me. After a friend enthused over Melanie Rawn's books, I bought a copy of The Mageborn Traitor from a charity shop, and many months later I finally read it. Two of the characters, Sarra and Collan, have a happy relationship, albeit one with interesting dynamics given the reversal of gender roles. I bought The Ruins of Ambrai, the first in the series of which "Traitor" is the second, and read it afterwards.
...For such a happy marriage, I definitely wasn't expecting them to dislike each other so much. And when it became clear that this would be a stereotypical "I hate you!" "I hate you too!" "You suck!" "So do you!" "...I love you!" "...So do I!" romance, as in the bad romance novels I've read summaries of, it suddenly made me realise why I thought Collan had chemistry with Sarra's younger sister, Cailet. Because there was more genuine affection there. In the second book, Rawn wrote a happy marriage between two strong personalities; but if I'd read the first to start with, I might not have read the second.
The fanfic idea isn't "what happens if he gets together with Cailet?". That wouldn't be simple, especially after the end of the first book and what Glenin did to them both, though working through that would be intriguing. But taking one of Collan's more impulsive actions and seeing what would happen if it went the other way, and what would happen to him, Sarra and Cailet at the end of "Ruins" and the start of "Traitor"... that would be interesting.
'Course, I haven't written fanfic since the Zelda stuff I wrote at school, unless you count a Pokemon fanfic involving two of my PokeMUSH characters. I think I'd fail at the "sound like the author" hurdle; then again, it's a challenge I've not faced yet. Developing my writing style, here I come!
