SPEW Babble #44

[ToBeOrNotToBeAGryffindor]

This is just a friendly reminder that your Summer Swap stories are due in by the end of the day tomorrow, or earlier if you can swing it. If you have not done so already, please email your story to Jen, complete with the entry form and all HTML tags no later than midnight Pacific Time tomorrow (for Ariana; 8am BST). Please don't be late. /officialness


Does anyone plan on going on holiday anywhere?
Not really. I don't actually go on holiday.

Where is your dream holiday?
Staying at home with my computer. If that's not available, a return trip to Philadelphia or New York is always great. Places I've never been? How about good ol' London town, hehe.

Anything else you're doing over the summer?
Working and writing. Do people my age do anything else besides the former? I doubt it. >.>

[babewithbrains]

Well, long time, no babble, SPEW!

Where is everyone? I have my excuses -- school, essays, teachers who are absolute you-know-whats -- but has everyone else gone on holiday or something? Lucky you

School's over for me, now. I'm loving the extra sleep I'm getting

In other news: the epilogue of Checkmate has finally been validated, which means Checkmate is COMPLETE!!!!!!! I'm really happy it's all been posted. There are loads and loads of parts of it that I positively despise, but I kind of love it all too, and I'm glad it's all there now.

Some TQs, if the babblers decide to come out (and I will answer too):

Does anyone plan on going on holiday anywhere this summer?

Well, if you count London LOL. No, I don't plan on going anywhere, sadly. I shall be stuck in the back end of East London for my summer.

Where is your dream holiday and why?

I'd love to go to a secluded beach. Literally, where no one else is. I'd definitely prefer that over a crowded beach; I like being alone, you see, in beautiful places. So... I don't know what countries have secluded beaches, but whichever ones they are, yeah, them.

Anything else you're doing over the summer?

I don't think I'll be writing much fanfiction over the summer -- if anything, I'll be planning/writing bits and pieces of my OF. But only if the muse strikes. Currently, it's on hold, for some reason. Erm, other than that, I will be busy fasting, hopefully doing charity work and going to the mosque. Yep, my summer's sorted (I hope).

Wake up, SPEW!

[Simply Being]

I'm alive!

Congrats on your fic, Soraya!

Does anyone plan on going on holiday anywhere?
HARRY POTTER WORLD IN ONE WEEK. I'm so excited. I'm going to buy a wand, drink Butterbeer, visit Hogwarts...this is truly happiness, I think. It's the highlight of my summer.

Where is your dream holiday?
I think this question was asked in the SBBC, and I have the same answer: Paris. And I'm going this December! Also excited for that. I've been saving up spending money for college, and a large chunk of it will be dedicated to HP World and Paris.

Anything else you're doing over the summer?
Mostly getting ready for college/university. Because I'm stubborn/lazy, I usually don't bother using British spellings and terms on the forums, but now I always add "university" when I say college since I found out that college is a totally different thing in England...I am also culturally ignorant.

I have fics that I could be working on, but I wrote one a few weeks ago and I always take gaps between writing things. Let's say it's on principle and not because I'm lazy.

Also, I wish I had an OF. I feel so creatively unfulfilled. I just wish I had an actual idea. Inspiration, I command thee to strike!

Newwww question.
Do you have an OF? Novel length or short story? Will you try to get it published?

-Danielle (who is alive)

[MissMeg]

I've been really really busy with school. Since I missed a great deal of last year due to illness, in June I was doing ten hour sessions on weekends at the library finishing papers and everything. I then had a week of finals, one free weekend, then I went straight into summer classes. Right now I'm taking a year of Pre-calculus (which I missed last year) and a year of biology (which I also missed last year) in six weeks. So, I have six hours of class each day and homework. To sum up, I've had a lot of stuff to do.

Does anyone plan on going on holiday anywhere?
Nope, we were planning on going to Norway this summer, but since I'm taking classes while my mum's on her vacation, we can't go. However, my mum and I are planning to go to New York around September.

Where is your dream holiday?
I'm not sure. I really enjoyed Hawaii when my family went a couple years ago. I think that Italy is my favorite place that I've been. We were in the alps, and it was absolutely gorgeous. I'm not exactly sure where I'd really like to visit. Maybe, Italy or France.

Anything else you're doing over the summer?
As I already noted, I'm taking classes. I finish them August 5th, and I'll be going along on my cousin's college visits. I'm very excited to see MIT. I've been doing a lot of sewing, and actually really need to start my dress for another cousin's wedding. During late August, I need to take a bunch of finals to convince my high school that I actually do know the material to move forward into calculus.

-Meg

[welshdevondragon]

It has been quiet here...I just got back from Spain. Umm..certainly not a dream holiday but relaxing enough for two weeks. Now i have to sort my life out/ decide whether to transfer unis or not :/

Does anyone plan on going on holiday anywhere?


My sisters and I had planned to go inter-railing. This became a weekend city break. It's now not happening. I am NOT happy. I still think if I can find some cheap flights I might be able to drag them somewhere though. Here's hoping.

Where is your dream holiday?


Really, for just a relaxing holiday as opposed to travelling somewhere interesting and exotic, our holiday home in Devon. There's nowhere else where I feel relaxed the second I enter. I'm very annoyed at the recession- we're renting it out for a few weeks this summer. Still, get it back in a week I think.

Soraya- I'm completely with you on secluded beaches. They are gorgeous. Our local beach in Devon is like that in winter- you get a couple of dog walkers but that's it. When I was in New Zealand I went to this gorgeous beach- there was no-one else there and it was at least fifty metres long.

Anything else you're doing over the summer?


Going to a one day music festival - John Cale, Wild Beasts (who SO deserved a Mercury Award nomination- I'm really annoyed with that) and James Blake (who does deserve his nomination but he's mates with Radio One DJs- he's fine) so should be good. Don't know what else.

Do you have an OF? Novel length or short story? Will you try to get it published?

Yes. I do. It's a bit crap and probably at the moment tots up to 150,000 or so words- written bits of over three or so years. Yeah. I need to do some major restructuring. As to trying to get it published- I don't really know how. I've started sending my poems out to magazines and have a few nice rejection letters which, perversely, makes me happy because at least I'm trying. A family friend who has an agent told me I should start now because publishers like to see a progression and that you started young or something like that. As in she has friends from uni who are now respected writers and she was publishing in poetry and short story magazines with them. Her novel's been rejected by publishers twice but her agent thinks it's good so is giving it another go.

New TQ: DH Part II has come out and I won't give any spoilers. But what trailers before hand particularly caught your interest?

For me it was Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. First there was Gary Oldman, then Toby Jones, then Colin Firth looking serious, then Benedict Cumberbatch shows up and it's filmed in this dark, late sixties/ early seventies gritty style- yep. I'm sold.

[jenny b]

The first two Summer Story Swap fics are up at spewswap!

*runs out*

[ToBeOrNotToBeAGryffindor]

Oh, my lovely SPEWers, LiveJournal is intent on ruining the fun of all your hard work in the Summer Swap. If you are not able to access the stories, please let me know ASAP, and I will do what I can to remedy this. If you can and cannot comment, which is also a prevalent symptom of LJ's current wave of douchebaggery, feel free to use the babble. Just make sure you're specific about the fic for which you're leaving a comment.

As is, we have the following stories posted:

The Silent and the Damned, for Alex

When the Weather Turns Fine, for Meg

Release, for Jess

[babewithbrains]

Oh, this isn't fair I can't access them, as LJ has gone again. It keeps popping up every now and then, but now it's disappeared. However, I did manage to read When The Weather Turned Fine before LJ went down, and I loved it -- Percy/Audrey has never been of my interest, but I really liked how the author made the story of their relationship original. There are so few Percy/Audrey fics out there and I really liked this one, especially baby Molly

[babewithbrains]

Great idea, Jess! That way, the rest of the MNFF community can enjoy it too, which is always nice

[welshdevondragon]

I managed to save 'my' story to the desktop before LJ crashed. I loved it. I was just wondering - when do we get to hear who wrote the stories and shower praise on them by name instead of anonymous 'thank you so much''s? I really want to know who wrote The Silent And The Damned. I think I've got a good idea- but I want to read all the other stories first and compare styles

Are there any more stories up? Just so if LJ temporarily decides to work then I can be quick and read them.

For a test to see whether my SPaG had improved I just tried to get a story posted unbeta-ed. I failed, which I expected to do. Clearly, despite my best efforts, I still fail at comma errors. Which is weird because I know there's one person for whom I'm the only beta and, as far as I know, they get validated first time every time. Maybe I'm just better at defining other people's clauses than my own

Trying to get myself and my sister to Cornwall next week- it's proving difficult.