I got home last night, and it feels as though I've been away for months rather than just over a week. And, at the moment, the most noticeable thing I did on my holiday was caught a cold! So I am feeling rather ropey.

Mind you I seem to have arrived home to winter, anyway, so a cold seems reasonable.

Honestly - the sun was shining when I got home last night - but it now so dark, wet, and gloomy that, at 4.15 in the afternoon, I have the light beside me on.

Anyway - back to the trip, and back to last weekend in Coventry.

( Read more... )

Many farewells said, the numbers slowly dwindled - and, leaving my husband to make his own way home next morning, I set off for the station to head to London for a few days - of which there will be more in the next couple of days!

I seem to have been too busy to post much - and I have some rather nice pictures for my occasional 'country churches of the island' series ready to go. Maybe tomorrow.

I've been busy with on-line meetings to finalise stuff for the meet-up in Coventry this weekend, and then doing my bit towards making attendee badges, and a few interesting items for goody-bags. The wonderful bogwitch has done the goody bags for years, but last year she felt she done enough and handed it on. I totally appreciate, now if not then, just how much work she did!

Sadly there are so few coming this time that it may be the last such event - there is little energy to organise if no-one really wants it, and anyway there need to be enough people to make hiring the meeting rooms and so on viable.

I think it will be the major talking point at the usual Sunday morning AGM.

Still - if it is the last one, I want to do my bit to try to keep the organisation, and the goody bags, up to the high standard of previous years - so best get on with it!

I also am still trying to get to grips with my new toys - I posted pics here in Photoscavenger and an explanation as to why a shiny new smart phone, and a shiny new tablet, were posted in response to the challenge 'Oh dear!'. They have got to get me through the trip to Coventry and a further few days in London - but I think I'm getting there...

It is now 3 months before WriterConUK. And I would so love to see some more friends there.

It is a weekend get-together for fandom types - be you writers, artists, readers, vidders... The icon shows two of the fandoms that usually have a person or two there - but there are also Dr Who fans, Buffy fans, Sherlock fans, Supernatural fans, not to mention the fans of Forgotten Realms, Avengers, Merlin, Stargate, Vampire diaries, 'anything Danish' (Hmm - Carlsberg and bacon butties seems a reasonable fandom to me, but I have a feeling it is not quite what she meant!).

We chat, hold a quiz, chat, eat stuff, drink at the bar, gossip for a change, have talks on fandom related stuff, chat, eat Danish pastries (AHA! something Danish for Ningloreth!!), discuss cocktails as a change from fandoms, have a geeks' raffle (fandom related prizes - you bring one, you take one home - rather than winning your own geek...), chat about what we've won, eat more stuff... It is just a really fun weekend. I always learn something new, meet someone new, and laugh so much it hurts.

So - if there is any chance of getting to Coventry between the evening of 9th August and lunchtime on Sunday 11th, please, please, come and join in! There is always an offer from our chairgeek gillo, on the Sunday afternoon, to show anyone who would like her to either central Coventry or Kenilworth Castle. (The castle is fascinating and, as it is almost in her back garden, she does excellent guided tours.)

If you are already a member of the Community then the sign up post, with the details, is here (it's FLocked as we ask for a few details about you - like your fandoms, and any dietary requirements).

if you aren't a member the details are all in this post.

If you don't have either a Live Journal or a Dreamwidth one, you can read that second post and, if you want to come, just e-mail me, send me a PM, whatever. There is no problem with you coming at all.

And don't worry that you won't know anyone - you'll know me!. And you will soon feel as if you have known others for ages too.

My icon wombat is worn out - so am I. I have been busy for two evenings trying to put together a 'photo-album' online, to be printed as a gift to a family who are leaving church to move to Scotland. I tried it via Photobucket last night, as a lot of the pictures were there - I took about 3 hours and then discovered that it would be printed in the USA and the postage would cost $40.00! So I abandoned that and started again on Snapfish this evening.

It took me a couple of hours on Snapfish, as I had to re-upload some of the pictures from my originals to get better quality - but I am actually a lot happier with how it looks anyway - and total cost, including postage, is £11.98 - so about $18 or so. I'm sure it will be worth the effort though!

But it does mean that I didn't make the post here I meant to last night.

Firstly Where I Live Day - a long time ago a conversation on LJ began about how much we were learning about the realities of where other people lived - whether it was a city in our own country that we had never visited, or one on the other side of the world - and the idea came that it would be nice to have a Where I live Day when we posted pictures of... where we lived. The still missed Frimfram and I set up a community where people could post the pictures and so see places that others were willing to share even if not on each other's friends list. It is, however, a members' locked community so that the pictures were/are only on 'open display' if people choose to post them on their own journal, or anywhere else.

That first day was a great success - so much so that we have done it again a few times over the years, as some of the original members have moved on, and others of us have new friends who might like to take part. But one day seemed a bit restrictive... however the Comm has such a good name based on the original acronym - so wild_photos will be open for business for a whole week - July 28th - August 4th. Come and join the comm, you can browse the pictures already there, and post your own any time that week. Everywhere is of interest - everyone loves to see the realities of life in other places.

And it is so much easier to post pics now than it was back in 2005!

And the second 'pimp' is for the examples of really bad writing! we did for fun at the WriterConUK Event in Coventry a few weeks ago. The Bad! Romance! has sadly gone missing - crumbs! But the Bad!Sex!Scene! and the Bad!Death!Scene! are both there for your amusement.

S2C and I actually arrived in Coventry the day before the event started - as a committee member I really need to be there from when people begin to arrive, but it takes us leaving home at 7.45 am to get there at 4pm. Our trip on Thursday was, however, positively pleasant - and whilst S2C worked on his talk, I sat in gillo's garden enjoying catching up, cold cider, and eventually pizza and Dave's company, too, as the warm evening turned through dusk - and using her WiFi to find a couple of... interesting... illustrations for my talk on Saturday.

I have written all about the Friday evening, and Saturday, here in the community.

The hotel fed us well on Saturday evening - and then reserved the TV end of the bar for our use as we sat and giggled and heckled all through Eurovision - sadly we missed the first few minutes and so we didn't get to see Engelbert - but the rest most certainly kept us entertained. The male presenter was scary - he smiled all the time - as if his top lip had been glued to his teeth. kazzy_cee could be heard first muttering and then, eventually, yelling "Don't Smile! STOP smiling!" at him by the end of the show. Fortunately she valued her cocktail too much to throw her glass at the screen!

I mention the Bad!Elf!Porn! in my report. I won it in the raffle. It has a long history, starting in the early 1990s when rahira acquired it at a Convention in the USA. It remained in the back of a drawer in her house for many years until she put it up as a prize for a quiz on her journal a few months ago.

quinara won it, even though she was trying not to - and rahira posted it off to the UK. I hope Quinara did not try to read it before she did anything academically important as it would probably have made her brain trickle out of her nostrils - it really is that bad. Quinara donated it to the Event raffle. I actually tried to read some of it. I passed it to other people to try to read some of it; and we all agreed we were worried about our brains melting at the absolute awfulness of it. I think I will need to add my signature to the wrapper and take it back next year to become one of those annual booby prizes.

I have also posted my talk on the community - but I will say more about that in my next post here.

In other news it is TT Practice week and I am busy baking cake to be sold to the spectators in aid of church funds. Currently my tally is 16 chunks of chocolate chip flapjack (British not American), 16 pieces of chocolate fudge cake, 12 pieces of carrot cake, with 12 more ready to go, and 24 pieces of gingerbread ready to go.

S2C and I are off on the boat in the morning to go to Coventry. I know we are a day early - as a committee member it is nice to be there to welcome everyone, but we can't get any earlier than 16.30. So we go a day early, meet up with fellow committee members Gillo and Daiseechain, have a lie-in on Friday morning and then sort out break-times and things with the hotel staff on Friday morning - before retiring to the bar ready to greet everyone else as they arrive on Friday afternoon!

I will have time on the boat to put together a Powerpoint presentation with my headers on - and possibly the odd illustration... the talk is more or less written.

We will doubtless be blogging more or less live on the community - quite possibly including our thoughts on Eurovision through a slightly alcoholic haze...

If I don't post anything here over the weekend, we should be home on our small island on Monday evening.

Come and join in the fandom fun - there will be lots of it! Come and meet me in the flesh - of which there is also lots, I fear!

Registration for our fandom get-together in Coventry is now open. I know this because I posted it... HERE at writerconuk.

This year - so that we don't clash with the Olympic football taking place in Coventry in August - we are meeting in May - Friday May 25th to Sunday May 27th to be exact.

I would encourage all my UK friends to think about coming down for the weekend - the idea is that (despite the 'Writer' bit in the name - we took our cue from a US event to start with...) you are welcome whether you are a writer, a beta, a vidder, an artist - or a reviewer/reader. You really don't even need to be involved with fandom, to be honest; if you keep a live-journal you are a writer! But most of those who gather in the Ramada Coventry for the weekend are in some way involved in fandoms - kazzy_cee writes about what fandom is here.

It is so nice to meet people face to face - to be able to chat over coffee about geeky things and feel amongst friends.

Worried that you wouldn't know anyone? You know me if you are reading this on my journal. And remember everyone who goes only knew one or two of the others, only online, before we first ventured to a get-together. And I think everyone who has met up with our fellow online fans face to face have found we are instantly friends - even with the ones we hadn't even met online before!

Of course I do have a bit of a vested interest - I am the group's treasurer and have to fret about enough of us coming to pay for the meeting room... but I would so want to meet you all anyway! And really - a weekend with friends, no cooking, no washing up, laugh so much you might need pelvic floor exercises - how can you resist?

Hurrah! Long weekend! Although I have a feeling I might have to spend some time making a hundredweight of carrot cake; whenever we do anything at church that involves cake I get guilted into making it - "You will be making carrot cake, won't you? I particularly want some of your carrot cake." You can get bored making carrot cake after a while...



Now for the PIA. Especially for friends in the UK and Europe - although all are welcome - if you are at all interested in the annual get-together that is WriterConUK (anyone in any sort of fandom very welcome - writer, reader, beta, artist, vidder whatever!) but have thought 'Mid-August is not a good time for me...' then please, if you haven't joined the community before then do go and join so that you can Help decide when next year's event will be - go, vote for the months you are most able to come!


Second PIA (or possibly pimping...) Wonder why I'm using my Éomer icon? Friends who read in the Tolkien fandom you have got to go and read - MY HUSBAND is writing Éomer/Lothiriel... Actually it is an adventure story involving the Rohirrim, the Haradrim, Drow - but there is Éomer/Lohiriel romance, too - and rather well written romance even though he finds it the hardest bit to do. Legolas is in there, too - and he also writes a good Legolas & Gimli friendship I have found!

And if you are likely to have time on your hands this weekend - either because of the extra day off or, and keep safe folks, because you are holed up avoiding the big storm but still have power, then don't forget all the wonderful stories that were written for The Lord of the Rings Big Bang!.

I feel a bit like my default icon... We are still in Coventry because we have to leave at about 9.30am to get a boat home otherwise, so S2C and I stay in the hotel an extra night and set off home tomorrow.

It has been, as always, lovely to met up with LJ friends and also to meet some new people - but by this time on the Sunday I always feel worn out!

There have been some fascinating sessions, as always. Here is a brief résumé;

• using prompts - what works for some people and what doesn't;


• Music and fanfic;


• the devil is in the detail - get your facts straight;


• fanfic and poetry - including a piece of mass rewriting of a poem in the style of Blackadder;


• scent, smell, and writing;


• a fascinating session about making vids - I think it unlikely that I ever will, but I now have a much deeper understanding of how it's done, and why some vids 'work' and some don't.

The final 'creative' session was split into 3 art workshops - I was fascinated by Bogwitch showing us how to make artwork, wallpapers and so on using PowerPoint.

But there has also been hours of gossip in the bar and the break-out area, a meal in a very good Indian restaurant across the road from the hotel, our Event dinner - after which we listened to the sound-track of the musical Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode and somehow found ourselves singing along...

As usual the overheard conversations and odd discussions will remain with me - for example an innocent comment about Jack and Sam from Stargate led to a long discussion of a Fireman Sam/Captain Jack crossover - complete with the Welsh voices which evolved into something including kinky penguins (was it my fault that I heard 'You could use kink bingo...' as 'You could use kink Pingu'?), and ended with hysterical laughter and an all penguin Fireman Sam AU.

This morning's AGM covered such subjects as 'we are still solvent' and 'We will clash with the Olympics next year if we don't change the date...'. At this point I would ask that anyone who is even slightly interested in the possibility of coming next year joins the community as we will have to run a poll to help sort out the dates for next year...

And, because we are Brits, there was the raffle (free - everyone has a ticket in their goody-bag!); I won a hamper of New Zealand goodies. Oh - and we had an awards ceremony for such things as 'Cutest shoes' (Quinara in her Doc Martins), 'Best heckler' (Sueworld 2003), 'Best Excuse' (Daiseechain) and so on.

All in all an excellent weekend. Pity the shipping forecast tells us that the Irish Sea will be rough tomorrow...

I seem to have managed to post a few times this week despite poor old LJ being hit again. My life has not, though been any more exciting than usual - work, shop, cook, watch TV, write a bit, on-line WriterconUk committee meetings - but I also started to upload some of my Tolkien fics to a new archive which was started by one of the writers who left 'Lord of the Rings Fan fic' when it was declared a 'for as much profit as possible' site.

Esteliel's site is growing slowly - but I would recommend it to any Tolkien Writers, though - it is easy to read, easy to navigate, and easy to post to, as well! All styles andd ratings of Tolkien-related fic is welcome - and I have already found some good things that I had not previously read. Here is a link (I hope...!)




For those who didn't see it, I would also recommend the wonderful piece of silliness that is speakr2customrs' response to the furore caused by Keith Mander taking over the LotRFF site. To enjoy The Ring at Pooh Corner all you need to know is that Keith Mander was christened Sarumander by someone at an early stage, and he also runs a Winnie-the-Pooh site, and a Twilight fanfic one... Read and enjoy - but put anything containing liquids down first...

So - apart from the usual stuff, and uploading fics - I have also spoken to D-d a couple of times. She was having a fantastic time, been scuba diving and snorkelling, (both on the Great Barrier Reef), been in a rainforest, seen wild saltwater crocs, and also cuddled a koala and been intimidated by an emu. By now she should be fast asleep in a hotel room in Perth on her way to visit her grandparents and aunt and uncle.

I had a lazy day yesterday - and spent time sitting out in the garden reading. I had plans for today which involved taking my camera down to the south of the island - but it is damp and grey today - so grey we've actually needed the lights on in the mid-afternoon!

So there are no pretty pictures of The Sound as I had planned - but there are a few pictures that I took yesterday in the garden ( under the cut )

Next weekend it is WriterConUK - it promises to be small and bijou this year - but I'm sure it will be fun anyway. It should, hopefully, all progress smoothly - all the on-line committee meetings and the flurries of e-mails backwards and forwards between the three of us who are the committee, and also all the other wonderful people who help, go on behind the scenes like the feet of the swan...