Selenay's Ramblings

I know, it's been a very, very long time but I finally went in and put up a couple of reviews, validated a bunch more from paranoidangel42 and have 22 new fanfic reviews up. Woo!

It's quite the mixed bag in terms of fandoms:

Harry Potter 2
Pushing Daisies 2
Star Trek XI 2
A Dog's Breakfast 1
Alice in Wonderland 1
Blackadder 1
Buffy 1
Buffy, Dead Like Me (cross-over) 1
Diane Duane - Young Wizards series 1
Discworld 1
Doctor Who 1
Doctor Who, Harry Potter (cross-over) 1
Keeping Up Appearances 1
Lord of the Rings 1
Stargate Atlantis 1
Stargate Atlantis, Star Trek XI (cross-over) 1
The Thick of It 1
Vorkosigan series 1

Enjoy them!

ETA: OK, it's only 21. I had to delete one because the fic (and the author) have been taken down from the Web. Darn.

ETA 2: Yes, the link would help, wouldn't it? http://www.selenayhaven.com/reviews/

A few of you may have noticed that so far this year I have written exactly two short fics so far. Leaving aside the small matter of how many long fics I used to write in a year, the thing that I have been thinking about is that both of those fics are Doctor Who fics based around Donna.

Why have I been thinking about this? Because Donna seems to be my break-in character for Doctor Who.

I have got the beginnings of several Ace fics littered around my hard-drive. Try as I might, none of them seem to call me even though I really want to write fic for my favourite character and a much under-used Doctor. In classic Who, the only character that I've actually finished a fic for was Brigadier Bambera. Not anyone's first choice, I think, although she was great to write for. In new Who, I have vaguely considered writing fic for both Rose and Martha, but never got further than vaguely thinking about it. I love both characters to bits, yet they just don't speak to me.

This brings me to Donna, who should be the hardest of the new companions to write for because she's loud, brash, shouty, obnoxious and pushy. She's so easy to caricature that she should be incredibly hard to get right and intimidating for writers. And yet she's the character that I've written two fics for with another half finished and a couple more germinating in my brain.

I'm calling her my break-in character because she's the character that I finally found to write in DW.

It doesn't seem to be the character that I most identify with or that I share the background to and that holds true for every fandom. Buffy was my character in Buffy, it was Daniel in Stargate and Elizabeth in Atlantis. It's not necessarily the most popular because half of fandom seemed to hate Elizabeth and a lot of fandom still isn't sure about Donna. It's not a character that I feel needs redeeming or the prettiest or the most fun-loving or the funniest.

I guess the thing with all those characters is that they're the ones that I want to explore and that I have something to say about. Perhaps that's why I spend a couple of years writing for a fandom and then largely move on because I have nothing left to say. Fannish butterflies like me is an essay best left for another day. These are the characters that catch me up and that I can actually feel when I'm writing, who I don't have to struggle to create words for. I like exploring the sides to these characters that are hinted at on the screen but never explored hugely and I enjoy working out how they think.

Perhaps it's easiest to say that these are the characters that speak to me, except it's not a literal voices in my head thing! Just...they are the characters where the stories write themselves to a degree rather than the ones where I have beginnings littered around that never go anywhere without a monumental struggle.

I haven't found my Torchwood character yet. I assumed that it would be Tosh - computer whizz! - and it isn't. Except lately I've been getting the vague ideas for a Captain John Hart story and I'm not sure that I'm ready to write a sociopathic murder addict even if his story is starting to write itself in my head when I get quiet moments.

So, does anyone else experience this or am I just crazy?

Today is Monday and, as usual, my data warehouse has ground to a shuddering halt. I'm very glad that my big report got set up at yikes o'clock this morning due to the scheduler because at least it's likely to finish running by lunchtime. Anything that wasn't kicked off then is likely to remain unfinished by the evening. Apparently they had some 'issues' with the overnight batch processing. Go them :-)

I am not sure what I was doing in my sleep last night, but my back sure hurts from it. Silly me. Is it time to go back to bed yet?

In more cheerful thoughts, does anyone know when the new season of Atlantis is likely to start airing in the UK? If it's going to be while I'm in Canada (less than two weeks to go!) then I may just download the first couple of episodes now rather than attempting to record them. So far, Torchwood is scheduled properly (for around twelve hours after I return to the country), but I know nothing on likely air dates for Atlantis or the new version of Robin Hood that will probably be mightily bad with very unlikely pretty people but totally unmissable. So, info peeps?

In a show of intelligence, I did not begin watching Jane Eyre last night. I will be away for the second half. Plus I always want to slap Jane so watching the DVDs when my parents aren't around to laught at me is probably a good plan.

First, the fun:

( SGA: The Long Goodbye (spoilers ahoy) )

At the other end of the spectrum, something much more serious.

( Press Gang: Something Terrible )

I had a small revelation during the Atlantis episode tonight. The John/Rodney relationship (one might even say, courtship) rather echoes the Spike/Linda relationship in Press Gang and that may explain why I enjoy it so much - that combination of funny, UST in spades and a prickly character versus a super laid-back character seems to be what I look for in a ship, no matter the fandom or gender. Huh.

( Cut for possible spoilers )

I need to find a poster for signing at Pegasus One. Does anyone know whether there are currently magazines with Atlantis posters in them on the British newsagent shelves?

Also, I'm trying to come up with some designs for name badges for the con. They're a fun way to meet people and put names to the faces of people that I've spoken to on-line but never met, so if anyone wants one you can either leave a comment on this journal or email me privately on selenay936 at selenayhaven dot com. Even if you're a lurker who hasn't friended me and has never spoken to me, come out of the wood work and say hello.

Can't believe that it's less than three weeks now :-)

Apparently the first discs for season 2 are up for pre-order in places. I must investigate...

Squeeeeeeeeee!!

That is all *BFG*