everything but the girl

Devastated

2022-06-04T20:39:45Z

legionseagle died earlier this week; I just found out today from shezan I am so very sad; she was my collaborator on things within fandom, as the Ombudsbeing for FictionAlley, and a guide for so many UK-impacting and analytical things at OTW, including the GDPR policies we rolled out 4 years ago. She was first a person I fangirled, then a friend, then a colleague on fandom projects, and whether certain theatrical productions were noninfringing under British law. We were supposed to have lunch in March, and maybe even in November; the last time I talked to her was in May when I needed a connection to counsel in the EU.

Susan was one of the best IP attorneys I knew, and a brilliant storyteller; some of you may remember her analysis of British law at Nimbus - 2003, or her clear explanations of the legality underpinning fan creativity. I never to be wrong, or wrong-footed, and her 2003-5 analysis of the legal system of the British Wizarding polity is an epic explanation for the ages.

Nobody wrote a better Neville, and nobody wrote better Neville/Draco.

She is one of the reasons British ISPs don't block for copyright infringement allegations.

May her words never be forgotten, may the trail she blazed lead millennia into the future, and may her memory be for a blessing.

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Yuletide Placeholder Thingy

2013-10-09T18:55:06Z

Will be here eventually.

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Yuletide noms!

2013-09-20T01:03:53Z

I have three that I definitely want to include: Tomorrow People 2013, Julian May's Galactic Milieu novels and Tuff Turf (for which there is absolutely NO fic on Ao3 and isn't that a crime of Downey-Spader proportions?).

But what should my 4th be?

Recommendations, suggestions and requests, while noting that Fantastic Beasts: The Movie Series is not eligible because Harry Potter.

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Harry/Comic Con!

2013-06-04T01:15:04Z

Sixth year running, we're doing a Harry Potter fan panel at Comic Con - this year it's at 4:15 in 6DE (same room as the last few years) and since it's one of the final panels at the Con, I'm strongly considering planning to decamp to a nearby bar for an hour or two afterwards to stave off post-con drop (and because my flight doesn't leave until 9:45).

Who's coming to Comic Con? Who'll still be alert and awake for our HP panel?

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It's Kindle Worlds, We're Just Living In It?

2013-05-22T14:33:33Z

Crossposted from Tumblr.

Amazon is working with WB to publish (read: sell) fanfiction from the Gossip Girl, Pretty Little Liars and Vampire Diaries 'verses. And they said that more "worlds" will be announced soon.

Basically, fanfic writers will be able to sell their fics - formatted for Kindle - via Amazon, and the restrictions are not as massive as you'd think!

No crossovers.

No excessive product placement for non-show brands.

No porn.

But here's the thing about porn! Amazon says they don't allow porn to be sold on their site, so as long as your fic content is no more explicit than anything that's on Amazon's site today (see: 50 Shades and anything in the erotica category) then it won't run afoul of Amazon's content restrictions - and if they say it does, then the Internet will stand behind you as if you were a Nutella fan barred from celebrating its wonderful tastiness.

HOWEVER, each World Licensor will be providing "Content Guidelines" for their specific 'verse - and I can't find those anywhere. THAT might make a significant impact on what types of fanfic one can and cannot sell, but until we've had a chance to look through them, we can't determine the specifics.

I don't think it's realistic to be concerned that the existence of Kindle Worlds will mean that tv show/film/book creators will stamp out freely given fics. At this point, Kindle Worlds will only accept things over 5000 words, anyway, and the longstanding laches issue that protects fics posted elsewhere and given away will still hold.

However, it does mean that people who write in the fandoms covered by Kindle Worlds and sell ebooks of those stories outside of the Kindle license may find themselves dealing with cease & desist letters. But there was always a chance they would because of the commercial aspect of that action.

Also, this will leave fandom with a lot of questions on issues other than legality be on fan-created gift culture, commissions, fundraising for charity, or even the ability of pro writers to write in other universes>

Does this further "legitimize" fan creativity (which I think has long been a pretty legit hobby), will it just create an additional outlet for story distribution, and what other fandoms will WB add?

I wouldn't be shocked if they bring Tomorrow People into this as the show launches in the fall, but what about things that are ending their runs like Nikita, or shows with massive fanbases and almost a decade of fan creativity, like the behemoth that is Supernatural?

Oh, and here't the royalty-related info:

Amazon Publishing will pay royalties to the rights holder for the World (we call them World Licensors) and to the Fic Author. Fic Author's standard royalty rate for works of at least 10,000 words will be 35% of net revenue.

In addition, with the launch of Kindle Worlds, Amazon Publishing will pilot an experimental new program for particularly short works (between 5,000 and 10,000 words). For these short stories—typically priced under one dollar—Amazon will pay the royalties for the World Licensor and will pay authors a digital royalty of 20% of net revenue. The lower royalty for these shorter works is due to significantly higher fixed costs per digital copy (for example, credit-card fees) when prices for the entire class of content will likely be under one dollar.

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Good Morning, Britain

2013-04-10T10:13:54Z

I'm a bit late on this, but I've been so offline since the news broke that she'd passed away. I wanted to get this all down in some form, and I'm skipping the obvious inclusions like Merry Christmas Maggie Thatcher, from the Billy Elliot musical, and you can find awesome playlists by Brits in places like The Guardian and NME. But here's my (all pop, no punk, lots of Red Wedge supporters) list:

Style Council (wow, everything but start with one that mentioned her): Life At a Top People's Health Farm

Blow Monkeys: Out With Her

Aztec Camera: Good Morning Britain

Elvis Costello: Shipbuilding (about the Falklands) and here's a gorgeous cover by Hue & Cry (oh, Patrick, I still swoon). Also their 1987 smash Labour of Love, where they harken back to Maggie as EdMin and get splashed with milk, a lot.

I once used The Housemartins' Five Get Overexcited in a Doctor Who vid, and matched up their line about Thatcher ("she just hasn't a heart") to Yvonne, who did; also check out their 1987 song Build.

And some words from Tracey Thorn of Everything But the Girl, and their songs Native Land and The Night I Heard Caruso Sing

I have to end this with a 1987 piece I remember reading in Smash Hits at the time, where their Tom Hibbert interviewed Maggie Thatcher. The Guardian reprinted it yesterday, and it's a must read look 25+ years back in time.

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Veronica Mars, Kickstarter and the Unseemliness of Funding Art

2013-03-14T14:01:35Z

Crossposted from Tumblr (and twitter, sort of):

astolat:

andthenisay:

i’d just like to take this brief time to remind everyone who asserts that the internet is full of leeches who pirate and steal hollywood’s “property” and don’t think that there needs to be a new business model for the way hollywood funds and markets film that a relatively small fandom of a relatively small show is about to raise 2 million dollars in 24 hours just because a cast they used to love asked for their help.

so much this

It marks a sea change in the interaction between creators (who are, re TV and film (and music) usually not the copyright-holders, or who have licensed away their ability to use the works they have created) and fans.

I've seen some concern about WB's role in this, and various industry websites say that WB is handling distribution & things related to that (the way 20th Century Fox did for Lucasfilm, or Disney did for PIXAR initially) as well as legal clearance issues (via their legal department). No, it's not an "indie" in the way we traditionally think of them, but many indies get picked up by studios at film festivals & events and distributed by majors; for this film, since WB owns the IP per whatever agreements they have from 2003/2004 with Rob Thomas, that structure was put into place ahead of time.

Fascinating discussion of the studio process, as well as the "ethics of using Kickstarter for something distributed by a major company" went on last night between Leverage's John Rogers and AtlanticWire's Richard Lawson (among others) who wrote something that I thought was frankly ridiculous yesterday (no, kickstarter is not for charities and nobody is saying the VM film is one; most backers are pre-buying a product they will receive and a few people are buying a chance to be in a film, which is their choice to do with their money).

The idea that those who back at the DVD level are being double-charged for the product is, imnsho, incorrect as cartoonist Gordon McAlmin discussed - and he also reminded me that "It's worth noting here that Kickstarter prohibits financial rewards including ownership and financial returns." As someone who saw Avengers twelve times in theaters, and paid for it ten times (two were sneak previews) was I deca-charged? If I was, was I totally okay with that? Or did I pay for something ten times, that I received ten times?

For those who think that the VM kickstarter is a bad use of their money, or who aren't interested, that's their call. Nothing wrong/problematic with coming to that decision. But acting (as mansplainer Richard Lawson did) like your view is the only correct or appropriate one by saying things like, "My gut still finds all the upfront money talk to be a bit unrefined, let's say. Art should exist for art's sake..." will cause a lot of people in the entertainment industry, and in the fandom for any show, film, book, comic, music or sports team, to laugh at you.

The irony of this is, the VM Kickstarter was announced a few hours before we learned there would be a new Pope, and was fully funded just after his first prayers in Rome. Remember the days when the Pope and the church and the aristocracy were the primary Patrons of Art, and the riff-raff's theatricalities were at risk of shut-downs by The Powers That Be because of Indecency and such?

Now, we all know, anyone can create art, and because of the internet and the democratization of funding, anyone can support art - whether it's on ETSY or via a Kickstarter to bring a much-fanned-about story to the movies.

Isn't that awesome?

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The Two Million Dollar Mars-ian

2013-03-14T01:23:23Z

Spent a lot of time today discussing implications for IP/creative control & impact on fans & fandoms & Fannish creativity. Worst thing I read on this was in AtlanticWire by rilaws: The increase of rabid, vocal fandom is destroying conversation!
No. Fans create conversations and it is a good show runner - and exec office - that work with, not against, the fans as both support each other.
Yes, I'm helping Kickstart the Veronica Mars film though I rarely watched the show, because I support the concept of crowd funding creativity and see the involvement of WB as distributor as similar to a writer buying back rights to an out of print book so she can write a sequel.
So, on this, who else is in already?
Good piece on the implications by Mo Ryan, too.

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VID: Perfect Day (Hunger Games)

2013-02-20T17:00:53Z

Perfect Day: A "Hunger Games Highlights Showcase" Trailer

As Suzanne Collins wrote in The Hunger Games:
"...On Victor's Night...they replay the highlights of the Games on a screen over the stage where we did our interviews. The winner sits in a place of honor...
There's this sort of upbeat soundtrack playing under it that makes it twice as awful because, of course, almost everyone on-screen is dead...
Whoever puts together the highlights has to choose what sort of story to tell. This year, for the first time, they tell a love story...."

The premise behind this vid, which has been in my head since I saw the film for the first time last March, is that the Highlights Show producers (a) use "classic" songs from Panem's past during the Highlights show, and (b) make trailers that air while the Victor is recuperating, in the days before the actual Highlights show. So this vid is meant to be one of those trailers, and it's set to Hoku's Perfect Day, which I coincidentally listened to on the way home from seeing the film the first time (with Hllangel, who this vid is dedicated to as a belated birthday present).

Ships: The Capitol wants you to see Katniss/Peeta. So does Peeta.

( Watch it behind the cut )

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Richard III

2013-02-04T19:26:02Z

Crossposted from Tumblr:

The skeleton found in a Greyfriars carpark is that of Richard III, killed in the Battle of Bosworth.

Back in 2008 there was a discussion on HPfGU about "published" fanfic (some of that discussion ended up in Bookshop's I'm Done Explaining Why Fanfic Is Okay LJ post & comments thereto), and I rambled a bit about whether Josephine Tey's The Daughter of Time qualified as fanfic of Shakespeare's Richard III. In a pithy way, it may be, but it's more that it looks at the same source material, the historical record, and comes to a different storyline, set of characters and, in fact, conclusion.

As was pointed out to me at the time, Shakespeare puts Richard as Duke of Gloucester in a battle when he's eight years old, exaggerates his failings and blames him for the deaths of the princes when it was more likely an action by the Tudors and their supporters, because in Shakespeare's time, and world, the support of Queen Elizabeth was vital to his success. He was much better off lauding her grandfather and belittling the man Henry VII had deposed.

From the City of York's website, regarding Richard's plans for after his death, and what actually happened....

Richard even planned to be buried at York Minster, a radical ambition as English monarchs were traditionally interred at Westminster Abbey. He planned to build an enormous chantry chapel at the Minster where 100 additional chaplains would pray for his soul.

York looked to Richard to help it at a time of economic decline, and actively championed his short reign. The city sent troops to support his cause, including 80 dispatched to support him after Henry Tudor’s invasion. They were too late and the Tudor era had begun.

‘King Richard, late mercifully reigning over us, was through great treason . . . piteously slain and murdered, to the great heaviness of this city,’ reported the mayor’s serjeant of the mace a day after Richard’s death at the Battle of Bosworth on August 22, 1485.

So today the news heralds the disclosure that RIchard III's skeleton was found in a carpark, and I'll hope to make a trek there the next time I'm in the UK, as well as to wherever they set as his final resting place. Will he be brought to York, or to Westminster? Does the Queen make this decision?

What will the confirmation of this discovery do for his reputation and place in history? Inquiring Ricardians want to know, and want to shape and impact the discussion.

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Curses! Entertained, again!

2013-01-08T19:55:19Z

LOVE. I MEAN I LOVE YOU ALL. Or at least, all of you who've been talking Teen Wolf. I finally had time to sit down and mainline every single episode and I just finished and it is the most adorable mess of a show that I have seen since maybe S3 of SPN (which, yeah, tonal parallels).

The (currently living) adults are all awesome, the (currently living) kids are all awesome, everyone is just awesome and I love all of it and nobody is ever totally dead and I've heard casting spoilers for next season but I choose not to believe they're absolute or definitive for all future things.

I have more to babble (like my growing adoration of Isaac and my perpetual adoration of Lydia) but I have to pick kids up from school, so just... please give me fic recs - anything gen or crossover, anything AU, and anything involving futurefic or far-past-fics involving Peter Hale/Chris Argent, and/or Chris/Sheriff Stilinsky please? I feel all these MWPP undertone-feels except everyone has a furry little problem.

When will S3 air? June???

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FIC: Political Animals (Yuletide Reveal)

2013-01-01T22:42:26Z

I got to write a Political Animals fic for tascioni, who asked for a fic in which TJ was happy, which let me mentally revisit Washington DC & Kramerbooks over the holidays, throw some Love Actually into the mix and title it with a line from the Panic! At the Disco/fun. song C'Mon, which is the TJ and/or Jack Benjamin Song of my Heart.

It's technically mature (Yes! I wrote shagging!!) and there's Thomas "T.J." Hammond/Sean Reeves, and you can find it here

What Would My Head Be Like?

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Happy New Year!

2013-01-01T13:56:31Z

Wishing you a wonderful and magical 2013.

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2012: Year in Review (Fandom Edition)

2012-12-31T14:28:37Z

Crossposted from LJ:

Your main fandom of the year? I was as multifandomish as I've been in any recent year, but I was probably mostly Avengers-focused, except for a brief Hunger Games moment.

Your favorite film you watched this year? AVENGERS! I saw it in theaters three times in two and a half days, in two different states, and managed a total of twelve times in theaters before it wrapped up. And I squee-ed every time!

Your favorite book read this year? I started the year reading Beth Revis's Across the Universe, and I can't wait for Shades of Earth next month! (And no, I didn't finish Casual Vacancy; I got strep when I was around a third finished, and wasn't able to concentrate on anything. Hope to finish it during travels in the next month or two.)

Your favorite album or song to listen to this year? iTunes tells me that my most played song that I first listened to in 2012 was fun.'s Some Nights (Intro)/Some Nights, which is one spot ahead of the fun. cover of Call Me Maybe. The original of Call Me Maybe is only a few spots back! So, basically, Top 40 Pop!

Your favorite tv show of the year? Doctor Who's Pond sequence ended wonderfully, with solid episodes, and I loved the three Sherlock eps from back in January. I'm still watching SPN but cannot get used to the Wednesday timeslot and tend to watch it on Friday mornings, still.

I really enjoyed Political Animals (except for the plane crash concept in the final episode) and wish it had been renewed for another season. It worked as a standalone series, though.

Oh, and does UP! With Chris Hayes count?

Your best new fandom discovery of the year? Does Cabin Pressure count? It made flying actually fun, and funny, and my kids have become fans of it, too. Yellow car!

Your biggest fandom disappointment of the year? Elementary not having a military background for Joan Watson, and not having time to watch either The Hours or Teen Wolf. Political Animals and Leverage not being renewed.

Your fandom boyfriend of the year? Still Tom Hiddleston, unless Neil Finn counts because of the song on the Hobbit soundtrack. (Please, give this man an Oscar nom!)

Your fandom girlfriend of the year? Surprisingly, because I didn't adore her in IM2, I found Natasha utterly awesome in Avengers.

Your biggest squee moment of the year? Going to the sneak preview of Avengers in NYC early in the morning of April 14, almost completely unspoiled (Coulson! Rag-Doll!Loki! Shakespeare in the Park!).

The most missed of your old fandoms? I still miss Heroes S1/2, when it was really good.

The fandom you haven't tried yet, but want to? Teen Wolf looks fun, from the gifs I've seen, but I want to have the time to focus on it rather than have it in the background.

Your biggest fan anticipations for the coming year? LOKI TWO. Ahem. THOR TWO. Also IM3. More Sherlock, and hopefully something about the DW 50th Anniversary shenanigans!

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The most wonderful!!

2012-12-25T11:11:32Z

We're at Disney this week and will spend today in an über-version of the Jewish tradition of going to movies - we're off to Hollywood Studios! We did the MK yesterday and were in before rope-drop so it was basically empty for hours, so we got to have lunch at Be Our Guest and clock 25 rides/shows/meets.

And I woke up this morning to a delicious Galactic Milieu fic by an awesomely brilliant writer who clearly knows what I like and adore - angsty brothers! - and you can read it at http://archiveofourown.org/collections/yuletide2012/works/599720

My review was thus: You are the best Yuletide stalker ever! This is the most perfectly heartbreaking, kind-bending, beautifully soul-crushing set of Milieu tales and I cannot thank you enough. I'm crying here at six in the morning for all the utterly messed up Remillard boys in decade after decade and I'm off to save it in kindle so I can read it a dozen more times today.

Wishing everyone who celebrates a Merry Christmas and hoping everyone else either weeps a lot at Les Miz (I'm going on the 27th with my sister) or has a fun-filled day.

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Sandy fundraiser?

2012-10-29T17:32:49Z

I'm fighting a lingering case of strep, over traveled, and overinvested in watching polls about the presidential campaign and news out of the Northeast about Sandy. And my desktop internet access keeps going down.
But if anyone is interested in helping me set up a donation oriented project to help in the aftermath of Sandy later this week, please let me know. I'm not really sure how to do it on tumblr, but because so much finish this is over there now, you need to be some sort of promotional or informational purposes, or you can sign up and bid there too - any ideas on the process? Anyone able to help with graphics?
Of course, all of the procedures, little, text, etc. from Help_Haiti is usable in this context. Unfortunately.

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heidi @ 2012-10-06T07:56:00

2012-10-06T11:58:34Z

Things To Do While Tumblr Is Down:
1. Book a Flight to wincon (now I just need to book a flight home, too).
2. Catch up on LJ & DW
3. Read all the two-days-on posts about why Obama didn't mention the 47% Video during the debate and see that they all finally realized that at least a portion of it was because Romney obviously had a step-it-back paragraph memorized, and there's no justifiable reason to give him an opening to give that schpiel in front of a Live Studio Audience and massive viewers at home.
4. Save Big Bird!!
5. Watch the world spin.

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West Wing Reunion

2012-09-20T14:22:05Z

Political ad from Michigan. ( Awesome West Wing minifilm. )
Early voting may start in your state next week! Are you ready?

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Feeling oddly guilty

2012-07-27T23:01:08Z

I just realized something.
I've been liveblogging on tumblr and Twitter and a bit on FB
I have not OPENED LJ. Or DW.

Well, I have now, to post this. But, catch-up time tonight as I rewatch. If you didn't get to see it yet, no spoilers here, but it has been AWESOME!!

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I didn't read DH 5 years ago tonight

2012-07-22T01:14:52Z

I got a copy of the Carpet Book on July 16, and I read it on the 17th (it took a while to DL and extract) while YMing with a friend. Some of the bits of that conversation follow:

HT: Can I ship albus/gellert? Please?
SV: I'm sure you won't be the only one.

HT: Regulus was wonderful!
HT: But my god this is slow......
SV: Regulus didn't show up! He was just a story. *sad*
SV: I wanted him to be real.
HT: I know.
HT: But he is, for me.
HT: I want to go back to his story, the one I started back in
2001. Maybe I will....
SV: I mean, I wanted him to be alive.
HT: I know.
HT: Fucking inferi.

SV: My god, Heidi. After this, really and honestly....no more canon.
SV: No more Lupin.
HT: Wow.
SV: No chance of Sirius coming back...
HT: Wibble.
HT: That's why we have imaginations and AU's
SV: Yeah, but it's never really the same.

SV: Nothing new yet cept the epilogue, but don't read it, it
spoils the rest of the book.
HT: I know
HT: Remus gets dead, doesn't he?
SV: That actually isn't mentioned.
HT: Is it presumptive?
SV: Though I would say from some of the references in the
epilogue that he miiiiight be.
HT: Ok, thanks. I can live with that.
HT: Because? Wedding bonding? Is for life only.

HT: You know what I boggle at?
HT: Wizarding Law.
HT: The wizarding world just took it onto themselves to TAKE
the pottersl home and enshrine it
HT: Did anyone pay Harry for the taking?
SV: Well, if it was a rental property it might have been sold
to the gov't.
SV: What boggles me more is how vague the rest of the
government structure is.
HT: I mean, there's a value to the land. Technically
HT: [/real property]

SV: You're going to love ch 33
HT: Coool.
HT: Is regulus snogging barty in it?
SV: Better. Want to know?
HT: Not yet.

HT: Ok, I'm in snape's memories
HT: Oh love.
SV: See, told you that you'd like that
HT: Oh.
HT: Oh I knew it.
SV: HEE
HT: : copies this convo.....
HT: I told you!
HT: 10 hours ago, I said....
SV: You did! JEEZ!
SV: I can't believe you were right.
HT: : loves this book

HT: Sigh. Oh, hey! Naked Harry. Hellooooo daniel
SV: God, that part was boring.
HT: But will look soooo r-rated on screen. Haha.
HT: Fight the Dark Lord in the name of brave Regulus!

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Avengers @ Ascendio

2012-07-05T18:47:15Z

The info I've been waiting for since APRIL is finally available!

Yes, Avengers will still be in theaters during Ascendio!

So, if you want to go with me on Wednesday the 11th at 12:30 pm (or possibly 6:10 pm if the midday one is totally impossible) please let me know! I don't yet know if it'll be playing on Sunday evening, and I don't think I can get away any other times but I really, really want to see it with (a) fangirls and (b) margaritas!!

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Bennington?

2012-06-28T01:39:54Z

Anyone have a hotel rec in Bennington, Vermont that's good for a night or two this summer? Pool a plus.

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Somewhere like New York City sounds oh so pretty

2012-06-28T00:06:08Z

But let's leave the timing to fate.

“Whenever you give up an apartment in New York and move to another city, New York turns into the worst version of itself. Someone I know once wisely said that the expression “It’s a nice place to visit, but I wouldn’t want to live there” is completely wrong where New York is concerned; the opposite is true. New York is a very livable city. But when you move away and become a visitor, the city seems to turn against you. It’s much more expensive (because you need to eat all your meals out and pay for a place to sleep) and much more unfriendly. Things change in New York; things change all the time. You don’t mind this when you live here; when you live here, it’s part of the caffeinated romance to this city that never sleeps. But when you move away, your experience change as a betrayal. You walk up Third Avenue planning to buy a brownie at a bakery you’ve always been loyal to, and the bakery’s gone. Your dry cleaner move to Florida; your dentist retires; the lady who made the pies on West Fourth Street vanishes; the maitre d’ at P.J. Clarke’s quits, and you realize you’re going to have to start from scratch tipping your way into the heart of the cold, chic young woman now at the down. You’ve turned your back from only a moment, and suddenly everything’s different. You were an insider, a native, a subway traveler, a purveyor of inside tips into the good stuff, and now you’re just another frequent flyer, stuck in a taxi on Grand Central Parkway as you wing in and out of La Guardia. Meanwhile, you read that Manhattan rents are going up, they’re climbing higher, they’re reached the stratosphere. It seems that the moment you left town, they put a wall around the place, and you will never manage to vault over it and get back into the city again.”

—

“Secret to Life: Marry an Italian,” and Other Gems from Nora Ephron (via bbook)

I lived in New York for the first time the summer that When Harry & Sally came out, and I saw it in one of those small multiplexes on 6th Avenue a few blocks off Washington Square Park.

The boy I later married was living in NYC, near Washington Square Park that summer, but I don't know if we ever passed each other by as he was on his way to work in a law firm in midtown, and I was heading to the World Trade Center en route to the American Stock Exchange.

I'd wanted to live in New York forever before I saw that movie, and I had Sally's hair a year or so later, and her jackets and sweaters and jeans and I fancied myself a journalist (I was working for CNBC, after all). When Harry Met Sally confirmed that New York was for me, but by the time You've Got Mail came out, we were living in Miami and I was pregnant and we knew that we wouldn't live in New York again, at least not for years.

Today we talked about how much we missed it, why we wanted to go back, and whether there's any chance to do so before all the kids are off to college. The answers are: so much, for reasons, and probably not but hotel deals are possible and flights from here to there are usually cheap.

So yeah, we'll probably scale that wall again someday and get back into New York City, which we love so much. But tonight, we'll just watch When Harry Met Sally, and You've Got Mail and remember New York in the ten or so years when we lived in the heart of it.

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Quill Track Update

2012-06-19T10:48:59Z

Love books? Excited for the Ascendio Quill Track? Want to discover new books, both hot YA titles and books written by fellow Ascendio attendees? Ascendio's Authorpalooza/Book Fair event is for you!

If you're a fan of YA, the Ascendio Authorpalooza is for you! Everyone is invited to enjoy readings and signings by fantastic authors and peruse our Book Fair and Vendor Rooms!

Authorpalooza will take place from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Thursday, July 12th, as a pre-con event. Whether you've just settled into your hotel room and want some activities before Night of a Thousand Wizards 2, or want to attend a reading/signing between Wrock sets, or want to browse books after picking up your Registration pack, Authorpalooza is a great opportunity to interact with Ascendio authors, and get a preview of The Quill Track.

PLUS if you plan on pitching your novel to one of Ascendio's literary agents, Authorpalooza is where you'll get first dibs on the sign-up form!

We have a preliminary schedule of reading/signings. In addition to the readings/signings going on in Davinci and Michaelangelo, we'll have several tables outside Registration where you can browse books by fellow attendees, as well as meet representatives from companies such as Omnific Publishing and Wattpad, who can help you take your writing to the next level!

Davinci

2 p.m.: Beth Revis (A Million Suns)

3 p.m. Michelle Hodkin (The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer)

4 p.m. Lev Grossman (The Magician King)

5 p.m. Erotica hour (featuring Kele Moon, Diana Copland, Cecilia Tan and more!)

Michaelangelo

2:30 p.m. Mark Oshiro (aka: MarkReads)

3:30 p.m. Aimee Carter (Goddess Interrupted)

4:30 p.m. Lindsay Ribar (The Art of Wishing -- to be released by Dial Books in 2013 -- sneak peek reading!)

5:30 p.m.: Karen Morris (Law Made Fun through Harry Potter’s Adventures)

6 p.m.: Valerie Frankel (Harry Potter: Still Recruiting: An Inside Look at Fandom after Book Seven)

6:30 p.m.: Erin Pyne (The Ultimate Guide to the Harry Potter Fandom)

(Please note that Veronica Roth and Libba Bray will be doing readings/signings on Saturday of the conference -- a Saturday day pass will be needed to attend those events)

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I don't have a Les Miz icon yet

2012-05-30T10:47:20Z

( The trailer is online this morning. )

I am fascinated that they chose I Dreamed a Dream as the song for the first trailer. It's such a sad and tragic song, and Anne Hathaway sings it beautifully - as I understand it all the songs were recorded live during the filming, which is amazing and rare - but unless you already know and love Les Miz, will this trailer bring you into it?

But so many people around the world have seen Les Miz already, on stage, or on one of the DVDs, is there really anyone who'll see the movie as soon as it's released, who hasn't already at least seen one of the concert versions on YouTube or tv? It's an interesting marketing approach, and I'm curious to see the trade press perspective on it.

Regardless, it's LES MIZ! With an amazing cast! In December!

I've seen Avengers seven times so far, and I think that's my record for the most times I've seen a particular film in theaters - PoA was the prior winner, with six - but it's very possible that Les Miz may take the title, if not by the end of the year then by my birthday in January.

Can I preorder the cast recording on iTunes yet?

How about now?

Now?

Seriously, the first time I saw Les Miz, I was fifteen years old, it wasn't on Broadway yet, and my parents took me to see it in the West End and I started crying about ten notes into I Dreamed a Dream and I didn't stop until about an hour after the show ended and we were at dinner and my mom gave me wine to try and calm my crying.

I've seen it on stage sixteen times since then - once every year of college with classmates, on Broadway, and from the second to last row in London, in Miami and LA and on DVD and tv and youtube and back in the days when I had a battery-powered walkman, if it ran out of batteries, I would just sing the libretto in my head.

I don't have one single favorite musical - Joseph and Into the Woods and Chess all transport me in different ways - but Les Miz will always be my mental, emotional and social go-to hearts-in-my-eyes show, and I cannot wait to see this version of it.

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