Subversive Subversions

subversa @ 2019-08-09T06:44:00

2019-08-09T11:44:32Z

Has anyone heard from mscoco62? It's been a long time since I've seen anything from her.

Happy Birthday, drinkingcocoa!

2016-08-22T15:47:46Z

Happiest of Birthdays to the inimitable drinkingcocoa! May your day be filled with all your favorite people and activities.
By the way, the Potions master would like a word.

On Writing

2016-04-14T09:25:01Z

I was 24 years old before I realized that every time I stood up and walked away from my desk, my mind was whispering, "And then she mounted her horse and rode away."

I'm not joking. I may not have the wording precisely right, but that's what was going on in my head, any time that I wasn't otherwise engaged: working, reading, watching TV, driving, being with SubHub. I wish I could tell you that I took the hint and began trying to write from that moment on.

When I was 26, I was a stay-at-home mom with a toddler. On a junk shop tour, I found an old desk with a mended leg and brought it home with me. I had a little typewriter, very much a product of its time, which required no ribbon - it would type on thermal paper, of all things. It was almost instantly made obsolete by PCs and laptops and I don't even know what became of it.

I put the typewriter on the desk and thought I'd write. I think I started a regency romance once. I doubt if I typed more than a page or two. I had no idea how to do it. And I had no stick-to-itiveness. And that is too a damn word.

When I was in my late 30s/early 40s, my son (the one who will graduate from the Iowa Writer's Workshop next month) would see me in the AOL chatrooms or playing games on the computer and say, "Why don't you write, Mom?" Because he certainly was writing. I wrote a clever comment or two here and there, but never a story.

I can remember reading Stephen King's On Writing then. As I recall, he had a writing prompt in the book, and he encouraged readers to write the prompt and send him that they'd written. I wanted to do it. I wanted to do it so badly. But I can remember sitting on my bed with the prompt and a pen and notebook and crying because I couldn't do it.

I have no idea why.

And then, loving Potterverse, and being so impatient to have Book 6 in my hands, and finding Mugglenet online one day during a quiet spell at work - and then finding fanfic. And reading through the categories out of curiosity. And then reading through the pairings under Romance for jollies. And being freaking HORRIFIED to find Severus Snape/Hermione Granger on the list. And not just one sicko writing a story about a 30-something man and his school age student. Nearly 100 of them (at the time). I clicked on one and began reading. When I wasn't at work, I was still thinking about the story. And finally it occured to me that I could log on at home and read the rest of it. And then another and another and another and then Ashwinder.

And then, "I could do this."

Fast forward 11 years. I've written 13 novel and novelette length stories and many one-shots and drabbles. This month is the 11th anniversary of me discoving fanfiction. And I'm still trying to write. Trying. It's all we can do. Keep trying.

Enough reminiscing from me. Carry on, my friends.

Happy Birthday to shiv5468

2016-04-04T13:37:38Z

Happiest of birthdays to shiv5468
May there be blondes and chocolates!
May there be SHOES.

Immanence

2016-04-02T11:09:13Z

Congratulations to Story Spring Publishing and to editor J.L. Aldis on the publication of a new short story anthology, called Immanence.

As you know, Story Spring Publishing was founded by fandom friends and many of the stories in the book were written by fandom friends. My alter ego, Murphy McCall, has a story within called Reboot.

It's an absolute bargain at $2.99, so I encourage you to support your friends (and new authors whose stories are amazing) and spring for a copy. I am gobbling mine up like candy.

And if you read something that strikes a chord, don't be shy - write a review on Amazon. ☺

I Just Woke Up ...

2016-03-05T12:18:19Z

From a thirteen hour sleeping binge.

I tried to get up after 8 hours, but fell asleep on the sofa and slept another five (with interruptions to go pee because I took a pee pill).

Perhaps it was due to the trauma of finishing my dental implant on Thursday, but aside from some soreness and swelling, that was nuffin' compared to the first two stages of putting it in place.

I feel like I lost a night of writing, but hopefully I'll get plenty done the rest of the weekend.

*fingers crossed*

At least we don't have Daylight Savings Time beginning until next weekend. And that *always* pisses me off.

~Cranky Subversa is Cranky~

Pat Conroy

2016-03-05T12:12:50Z

I loved Pat Conroy's writing. I can't say I loved all of his books equally, but I did love many of them. He could tell a story.

He had recently posted about his cancer (another point of light lost to pancreatic cancer, as was Alan Rickman), so the news was not a surprise.

Even so, I recognize his passing with sadness.

Happy Valentine's Weekend

2016-02-12T14:05:52Z

I found out last night that SubHub has made reservations for us to see the new Star Wars movie on Saturday and have lunch at a favorite restaurant. He really doesn't like to go to movies, so this is a special treat and a lovely surprise! I have wanted to share the experience with him.

Work is ... well, it's tax season, so work is busy. 'Nuff said.

For today, we are off to our quarterly diabetes check-ups. At least there is a decent Indian buffet close by where we can recoup over lunch.

And when I'm not partying with my sweetie, I hope to get some writing done this weekend.

Wishing everyone a lovely weekend, whether you celebrate the "holiday" or not.

Happy Birthday droxy !

2016-01-29T05:47:13Z

Barely sliding in under the wire to wish the happiest of birthdays to the incomparable droxy, whose cos-playing brilliance has brought me closer than I'd ever have otherwise come to Professor Snape.

You've given us all more than we can ever repay, Drox. Hope your birthday was divine.

Don’t Be Afraid to Grieve for Professor Snape

2016-01-15T12:22:58Z

From geekmom.com, author Anika Dane
http://geekmom.com/2016/01/dont-be-afraid-to-grieve-for-professor-snape/

Don’t Be Afraid to Grieve for Professor Snape

Twenty years ago I was in the same room as Alan Rickman. It was 1994, in between my first and second years of college, and I was in Oxford, England, studying with the British American Drama Academy. During the five-week summer program I was privileged to attend Master Classes and Lectures given by various British actors such as Fiona Shaw, Derek Jacobi, Jeremy Irons — and Alan Rickman.

Unlike the others, he was completely disinterested in inspiring us as young and hungry acting students. Although it was years before he took the role, he was very like Professor Snape: arrogant, vaguely bored, amused by our passion, deeply British, and utterly magnetic.

I will never forget it.

My favourite of Rickman’s many wonderful performances is Galaxy Quest’s Alexander Dane, with whom I share a name. Today I feel like I’ve lost a distant, but beloved relative. My brother felt somewhat the same way about the recent passing of David Bowie, and hundreds of people mourned Leonard Nimoy as an honorary grandfather last year. Yet others worry it isn’t healthy to be so attached to someone we’ve never met and know only through fiction.

Mourning is healthy. Failure to grieve as completely as possible can lead to clinical depression. This ‘completion’ requires a release of emotions including sadness, anger, guilt, even relief. Holding back any or all of the emotions an individual may be experiencing interferes in the grief process, and denying these emotions exist does more harm than good.

We allow ourselves and each other to grieve for family and friends. Grieving important political or social leaders is accepted, if not expected. Mourning unknown masses lost in a war, plague, natural disaster, or terrorist attack is regarded to be reasonable. Mourning actors, musicians, sports figures, or other celebrities is a grey area for many people and mourning fictional characters is generally, though not universally, considered silly, even crazy.

“Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?” – Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (J.K. Rowling)

The term ‘para-social’ interaction was first devised in a paper by Donald Horton and R. Richard Wohl in 1956. They defined it as a “seeming face-to-face relationship”, an illusion or simulation. The then new technology of television brought celebrities and characters literally into a person’s home where film or theater required a journey to a specified space, and a book required the reader to create the alternate world from their own imagination. Horton and Wohl believed this false intimacy encouraged the audience to become invested in the interaction despite its inherent narrowness.

Parasocial relationships mimic social relationships. Studies show, in fact, that individuals form attachments to celebrities and fictional characters in the same way they form attachments to other individuals in everyday life. We create and invest in attachments to ‘fake’ personalities the same ways we do ‘real’ ones. Or don’t, as the case may be; those individuals who exhibit an avoidant attachment style are also slow to attach to a television character. Given that parasocial relationships are, for the individual experiencing them, as ‘real’ as any other social interaction, the loss of that relationship and the resulting emotional stress, must be addressed as if they were similarly real. Because they are.

My daughter is ten and has thankfully not yet lost a member of her family. But she has grieved for heroes — for John Hammond who created Jurassic Park (Richard Attenborough), for her favorite Ghostbuster Egon Spengler (Harold Ramis), for Old Spock (Leonard Nimoy), and now for Professor Snape. With Alan Rickman’s death, the billions of people who knew him as Severus Snape are mourning both the actor and the character — now Snape’s death in the eighth film of the series can never be undone — and that should be celebrated, not derided.

Science says grieving someone you only met through their art is normal, real, and healthy. And I say it’s beautiful.

Works Cited:
Cohen, J. (2004) Parasocial break-up from favorite television characters: the role of
attachment styles and relationship intensity. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships. 21 187-202

Derrick, J. L., Gabriel, S., Hugenberg, K. (2009) Social surrogacy: How favored television
programs provide the experience of belonging. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. 45 352-362

Horton, D. & Wohl, R. R., (1956) Mass communication and para-social interaction:
observations on intimacy at a distance. Psychiatry. 19 215-229

Smith, M. and Segal, J. (2014) Coping with Grief and Loss.

From Sir Ian McKellan

2016-01-15T12:08:00Z

ALAN RICKMAN (1946-2016)

There is so much that is matchless to remember about Alan Rickman. His career was at the highest level, as actor on stage and screen and as director ditto. His last bequest of his film “A Little Chaos” and his indelible performance as Louis 14th, should now reach the wider audience they deserve.

Beyond a career which the world is indebted to, he was a constant agent for helping others. Whether to institutions like RADA or to individuals and certainly to me, his advice was always spot-on. He put liberal philanthropy at the heart of his life. He and Rima Horton (50 years together) were always top of my dream-list dinner guests. Alan would by turns be hilarious and indignant and gossipy and generous. All this delivered sotto, in that convoluted voice, as distinctive as Edith Evans, John Gielgud, Paul Scofield, Alec Guinness, Alastair Sim or Bowie, company beyond compare.

When he played Rasputin, I was the Tzar Nicholas. Filming had started before I arrived in St Petersburg. Precisely as I walked into the hotel-room, the phone rang. Alan, to say welcome, hope the flight was tolerable and would I like to join him and Greta Scacchi and others in the restaurant in 30 minutes? Alan, the concerned leading man. On that film, he discovered that the local Russian crew was getting an even worse lunch than the rest of us. So he successfully protested. On my first day before the camera, he didn’t like the patronising, bullying tone of a note which the director gave me. Alan, seeing I was a little crestfallen, delivered a quiet, concise resumé of my career and loudly demanded that the director up his game.

Behind his starry insouciance and careless elegance, behind that mournful face, which was just as beautiful when wracked with mirth, there was a super-active spirit, questing and achieving, a super-hero, unassuming but deadly effective.

I so wish he’d played King Lear and a few other classical challenges but that’s to be greedy. He leaves a multitude of fans and friends, grateful and bereft.

-- Ian McKellen, London, 14 January 2016

Photo: Ian McKellen, Greta Scacchi and Alan Rickman at the Golden Globe Awards, 1997

Must sleep

2016-01-15T04:40:29Z

Have loaded up my Kindle with sshg fanfic and am off for a long nap. Big hugs to all my fellow grief-stricken Rickman lovers.

Lovely Comments From Alan's Friends & Colleagues

2016-01-15T04:08:21Z

Lovely Comments From Alan's Friends & Colleagues, from Mugglenet.

Colonel Brandon

2016-01-15T03:49:40Z

Emma on the Subject of Alan

2016-01-15T03:36:50Z

'Alan was my friend and so this is hard to write because I have just kissed him goodbye. What I remember most in this moment of painful leave-taking is his humour, intelligence, wisdom, and kindness. His capacity to fell you with a look or lift you with a word. The intransigence which made him the great artist he was — his ineffable and cynical wit, the clarity with which he saw most things, including me, and the fact that he never spared me the view. I learned a lot from him.

He was the finest of actors and directors. I couldn’t wait to see what he was going to do with his face next. I consider myself hugely privileged to have worked with him so many times and to have been directed by him.

He was the ultimate ally. In life, art and politics. I trusted him absolutely.

He was, above all things, a rare and unique human being and we shall not see his like again' - Emma Thompson on the death of Alan Rickman

Sick Day

2016-01-15T02:02:20Z

I haz a sad. Sick Day.

SubHub has gone out to bring in Subway sammiches.

I'm with you in spirit, and taking comfort from my people.

subversa @ 2016-01-14T08:32:00

2016-01-14T14:32:26Z

I left work just before the CNN alert hit my inbox. So I was on the road and clueless until I walked in the house. SubHub met at the door and held me as he told me. What a good, loving, understanding husband he is.

He also prepared a hot toddy for me, dear man.

And I just keep having little bouts of crying.

*group hug*

I Am Undone

2016-01-14T14:10:25Z

At least we learned the subtle science and exact art of potion making ... bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses.

RIP, Ziggy Stardust

2016-01-11T08:17:31Z

David Bowie, whose ground-breaking sound and chameleon-like ability to reinvent himself made him a pop music fixture for more than four decades, has died. He had just turned 69 last week. Bowie died Sunday after an 18-month battle with cancer, his publicist Steve Martin told CNN.

"David Bowie died peacefully today surrounded by his family after a courageous 18 month battle with cancer."

Many hugs to all my friends who were staunch Bowie fans.

2016 Begins

2016-01-01T15:46:41Z

Well, I worked the New Year in last night, but now I'm home, there's a ham in the oven, and my son and his wife (and dog!) are driving south from Iowa to spend a week in Texas. It will only be the second time we've seen him since he went off to the Iowa Writer's Workshop in 2014. AND he's taking me to see Star Wars (for the first time for me) at the 3-D Imax theater.

SO. Happy New Year, y'all!

Twas the day before the day before Christmas ....

2015-12-23T16:20:32Z

And I'm sitting here after a hard night's work, watching one of my favorite Christmas movies: Die Hard.

That's 2 Rickman Christmas movies on my list. We saw Love, Actually last week.

Hope most of your preparations are complete (if you are celebrating). As for me, I have one more night of work, then four days off for Christmas weekend.

Hugs and kisses to all!

Meme

2015-12-12T09:52:01Z

These are suppoesd to be the 100 greatest books in the English language, and you bold the one's you've read.

I am sadly under-read where greatness is concerned. Apparently.

Nicked from dickgloucester

100. The Code of the Woosters (PG Wodehouse, 1938)
99. There but for the (Ali Smith, 2011)
98. Under the Volcano (Malcolm Lowry, 1947)
97. The Chronicles of Narnia (CS Lewis, 1949-1954)
96. Memoirs of a Survivor (Doris Lessing, 1974)
95. The Buddha of Suburbia (Hanif Kureishi, 1990)
94. The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner (James Hogg, 1824)
93. Lord of the Flies (William Golding, 1954)
92. Cold Comfort Farm (Stella Gibbons, 1932)
91. The Forsyte Saga (John Galsworthy, 1922)
90. The Woman in White (Wilkie Collins, 1859)
89. The Horse’s Mouth (Joyce Cary, 1944)
88. The Death of the Heart (Elizabeth Bowen, 1938)
87. The Old Wives’ Tale (Arnold Bennett,1908)
86. A Legacy (Sybille Bedford, 1956)
85. Regeneration trilogy (Pat Barker, 1991-1995)
84. Scoop (Evelyn Waugh, 1938)
83. Barchester Towers (Anthony Trollope, 1857)
82. The Patrick Melrose novels (Edward St Aubyn, 1992-2012)
81. The Jewel in the Crown (Paul Scott, 1966)
80. Excellent Women (Barbara Pym, 1952)
79. His Dark Materials (Philip Pullman, 1995-2000)
78. A House for Mr Biswas (VS Naipaul, 1961)
77. Of Human Bondage (W Somerset Maugham, 1915)
76. Small Island (Andrea Levy, 2004)
75. Women in Love (DH Lawrence, 1920)
74. The Mayor of Casterbridge (Thomas Hardy, 1886)
73. The Blue Flower (Penelope Fitzgerald, 1995)
72. The Heart of the Matter (Graham Greene, 1948)
71. Old Filth (Jane Gardam, 2004)
70. Daniel Deronda (George Eliot, 1876)
69. Nostromo (Joseph Conrad, 1904)
68. A Clockwork Orange (Anthony Burgess, 1962)
67. Crash (JG Ballard 1973)
66. Sense and Sensibility (Jane Austen, 1811)
65. Orlando (Virginia Woolf, 1928)
64. The Way We Live Now (Anthony Trollope, 1875)
63. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (Muriel Spark, 1961)
62. Animal Farm (George Orwell, 1945)
61. The Sea, The Sea (Iris Murdoch, 1978)
60. Sons and Lovers (DH Lawrence, 1913)
59. The Line of Beauty (Alan Hollinghurst, 2004)
58. Loving (Henry Green, 1945)
57. Parade’s End (Ford Madox Ford, 1924-1928)
56. Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit (Jeanette Winterson, 1985)
55. Gulliver’s Travels (Jonathan Swift, 1726)
54. NW (Zadie Smith, 2012)
53. Wide Sargasso Sea (Jean Rhys, 1966)
52. New Grub Street (George Gissing, 1891)
51. Tess of the d’Urbervilles (Thomas Hardy, 1891)
50. A Passage to India (EM Forster, 1924)
49. Possession (AS Byatt, 1990)
48. Lucky Jim (Kingsley Amis, 1954)
47. The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (Laurence Sterne, 1759)
46. Midnight’s Children (Salman Rushdie, 1981)
45. The Little Stranger (Sarah Waters, 2009)
44. Wolf Hall (Hilary Mantel, 2009)
43. The Swimming Pool Library (Alan Hollinghurst, 1988)
42. Brighton Rock (Graham Greene, 1938)
41. Dombey and Son (Charles Dickens, 1848)
40. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (Lewis Carroll, 1865)
39. The Sense of an Ending (Julian Barnes, 2011)
38. The Passion (Jeanette Winterson, 1987)
37. Decline and Fall (Evelyn Waugh, 1928)
36. A Dance to the Music of Time (Anthony Powell, 1951-1975)
35. Remainder (Tom McCarthy, 2005)
34. Never Let Me Go (Kazuo Ishiguro, 2005)
33. The Wind in the Willows (Kenneth Grahame, 1908)
32. A Room with a View (EM Forster, 1908)
31. The End of the Affair (Graham Greene, 1951)
30. Moll Flanders (Daniel Defoe, 1722)
29. Brick Lane (Monica Ali, 2003)
28. Villette (Charlotte Brontë, 1853)
27. Robinson Crusoe (Daniel Defoe, 1719)
26. The Lord of the Rings (JRR Tolkien, 1954)
25. White Teeth (Zadie Smith, 2000)
24. The Golden Notebook (Doris Lessing, 1962)
23. Jude the Obscure (Thomas Hardy, 1895)
22. The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling (Henry Fielding, 1749)
21. Heart of Darkness (Joseph Conrad, 1899)
20. Persuasion (Jane Austen, 1817)
19. Emma (Jane Austen, 1815)
18. Remains of the Day (Kazuo Ishiguro, 1989)
17. Howards End (EM Forster, 1910)
16. The Waves (Virginia Woolf, 1931)
15. Atonement (Ian McEwan, 2001)
14. Clarissa (Samuel Richardson,1748)
13. The Good Soldier (Ford Madox Ford, 1915)
12. Nineteen Eighty-Four (George Orwell, 1949)
11. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen, 1813)
10. Vanity Fair (William Makepeace Thackeray, 1848)
9. Frankenstein (Mary Shelley, 1818)
8. David Copperfield (Charles Dickens, 1850)
7. Wuthering Heights (Emily Brontë, 1847)
6. Bleak House (Charles Dickens, 1853)
5. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Brontë, 1847)
4. Great Expectations (Charles Dickens, 1861)
3. Mrs Dalloway (Virginia Woolf, 1925)
2. To the Lighthouse (Virginia Woolf, 1927)
1. Middlemarch (George Eliot, 1874)

Christmas Reads

2015-12-12T09:13:14Z

If you're like me, you enjoy reading favorite old fanfics at Christmas. In my busiest fanfic writing days, I delighted in putting Severus and Hermione into situations at Christmas and plotting the tale with SubHub. In fact, he brought a new plot bunny to me Thursday for an SSHG Christmas story, and I actually sat down at work and wrote 500 or so words of it. So I'll keep after that and see if I can produce a little something to post as Christmas reading.

But for now, I thought I'd list a few of my Christmas stories of those who might be looking for Christmas stories to read. All are posted at TPP, Ashwinder, and ff.net, but I'm only including links to TPP because that's how lazy I am.

Before I Saw Your Face at TPP

This is a story I wrote to prompt for the 2014 sshg_giftfest. It's a bit of BDSM erotica set at Christmas time.

His Poisoned Christmas Carol

This is the one I wrote the year I completed His Draught Of Delicate Poison. It's the story of Severus and Hermione's first Christmas as a married couple.

Mr Alister Comes Home: A Master of Enchantment Christmas Story

As the titled says, this one is set in the Master of Enchantment universe. After two years of marriage, Severus and Hermione find they are both thinking about having a baby.

Send Not To Know

My first story for the SSHG Exchange. I've had many people tell me that re-reading this fic is a yearly Christmas ritual for them. I have a very deep love for this Snape.

Siren Song

To be fair, this one is SS/OC, but the original character is our own dear keladry_lupin.

The Christmas Rose

This one was written in the Master of Enchantment universe as well. It is the story of Severus and Hermione's first Christmas as a married couple.

You Only Cross My Mind in Winter

A tale about a very lonely and isolated Potions master and the former student who loved him when he couldn't accept it.

There are also Christmas chapters in The Love You Take (chapter 10) and This Time (chapters 12 through 14).

As for me, my Christmas shopping (such as it was) is complete. SubHub and I have put up our little tree and my Christmas village, and we are enjoying the season with holiday nummies and beverages, while we watch our favorite holiday shows. I hope your holiday preparations, if you celebrate, are well underway.

Jingle Bells. ♥♥♥

Holiday Weekend

2015-11-29T09:02:10Z

Just finished a lovely "dinner and movie" date with SubHub. We've been having trouble syncing our schedules, so we made a specific date for tonight and he woke me up in time for it. Of course, dinner was at home and movie was a DVD from our collection. Tonight we watched Bridget Jones' Diary, which begins and ends at Christmas, and is therefore one our holiday movies. While we watched, I colored in my adult coloring book and drank coffee with the Cinnabon flavored creamer SubHub bought for me for our holiday. It was super sweet, when he caught my eye and echoed Mark Darcy's comment about Bridget - "I love you just the way you are. You know that, right?"

*melt*

In other news, it's been raining like a mother for three days, there are flash flood warnings all over the place, and we're very thankful that we do our shopping online. No need to venture out in the ark to accomplish holiday things.

And now I need to buckle down to some writing. I've put 30,000 words in the copy-edit folder this NaNoWriMo. I won't make 50k, but hey-when you only write on the weekends, 50k is hard to accomplish. I am very happy with my progress.

Love to all!

Happy Thanksgiving

2015-11-26T14:06:52Z

To all my American friends. To all my other friends, Happy Thursday! It's the same to me - I'm working today.

Tomorrow SubHub and I will carry in a Thanksgiving feast from a favorite restaurant and burrow in to eat it all weekend while we decorate for Christmas.

I love the holidays.