I wanted to share my line of Gothic /burton themed Xmas cards !

They are for sale at my shop! Please check them out! Perfect for the Goths in your life!


( Gothic Greetings )


http://www.ravenofskys.etsy.com

Hello. Not sure if this is okay to post here. If not, let me know, and I will remove it.

I am selling a signed hardback copy of the book Impetus of Dreams by the artist Daniel Merriam. (I have it listed on Craigslist, but will pull it and deal with any serious buyer via Paypal.)



Thanks :)

Vintage camera enthusiasts, help me out! My character is an American documentary photographer in 1949. He specializes in location work, nearly always outdoors and often in rough conditions. He's taking a solo trip to Mexico (probably by bus and train rather than by car, though that could change) to scout and shoot various subjects. I'm trying to determine what sorts of cameras/film/lenses he might haul along and what other supplies and tools he might need to do his work.
( Cut for details )

I'm looking for novels that have interracial relationships in them. We've been talking a lot about this subject in one of my classes and I'm just interested in reading a book with that theme. I'm surprised that I haven't come across more books that have interracial couples in them, to be honest, considering that it's relatively common nowadays.

I'm not really into fantasy or anything right now and I would prefer something that's set during modern times rather than an older seting. That's the only restriction I have. I really need some good recommendations because so far I haven't found much. Thanks in advance! :)

Gemma Doyle isn't like other girls. Girls with impeccable manners, who speak when spoke to, who remember their station, and who will lie back and think of England when it's required of them.

No, sixteen-year-old Gemma is an island unto herself, sent to the Spence Academy in London after tragedy strikes her family in India. Lonely, guilt-ridden, and prone to visions of the future that have an uncomfortable habit of coming true, Gemma finds a chilly reception. But she's not completely alone ... she's been followed by a mysterious young man, who warns her to close her mind against the visions.

For it's at Spence that Gemma's power to attract the supernatural unfolds; there she becomes entangled with the school's most powerful girls and discovers her mother's connection to a shadowy group called the Order. It's there that her destiny waits ... if only she can believe in it.

A Great and Terrible Beauty is a curl-up-under-the-covers kind of book ... a vast canvas of rustling skirts and dancing shadows and things that go bump in the night. It's a vividly drawn portrait of the Victorian age, when girls were groomed for lives as rich men's wives ... and the story of a girl who saw another way.
(From the publisher)

Publication: 2003
Genre: Fantasy
Length: Trade Paperback - 403 pages + readers guide

The last of the three Young Adult book I had planned to read, A Great and Terrible Beauty also took me the longest to get into. I took my BA in British Literature and spent four years studying and reading novels and other works all written in the 19th and 18th century so I was excited to read a supernatural novel set in 1895. That said, it was the first modern novel I've ever read to take place in one of those eras. It's not the first time I've read about the English in India, either, but it took me a few chapters to reconcile the language and tone with the setting. It's most jarring in India, where Gemma interacts with the outside world, but once she's established at Spence, the insular community there makes it feel like this story could be set in any time.

( Read more. )

Title: Resources for Writiers
Summary: A listing of my favorite software and books directed towards writers on the internet; click and see what you might find!

Down the Rabbit Hole, Alice

I'd gotten this image from the photo salon at SteamCon:



They offered a choice of color or sepia tone, but didn't have the capability of showing you what the image would look like in sepia. I opted for the color version and decided I'd play with it myself later.

( Here's what I did )

But that wasn't what I really wanted. I wanted what looked like an old daguerrotype. Luckily I have a friend with mad Photoshop skills. I forwarded her the image, and this is what she came up with:

( Read more... )

She's got examples of the kinds of work she can do posted to her journal here.

I am the enormous man who eats & eats.
I am the boy who pushed himself down the stairs.
I am the girl who compromised her beliefs.
I am so funny I laugh at my own jokes.
I am my own best friend.
I am the young man who can’t say no.

I am your melted ice.
I am the one-woman show.
I am as powerful as Medusa.
I am the mortician & you look beautiful.
I am the cat with five lives left.
I am a deflated scarecrow.

It is the Fifth of November.
Consume: Bonfire toffee & parkin,
fireworks shot into the
midnight sky,
and we hear:
“A desperate disease requires
a dangerous remedy”
in the quiet, quiet, quiet.
I am Guy Fawkes! Let the canons fly.

I tried to tell them

I'm going through so much

It's like they're just brushing me off

You play it tough and that's never enough

Guess they don't understand what they don't know

God, please free my soul

I'm under everyone else's control but my own

my skin is as hard as a rock and a stone

Crying is not a sign of victory 

crying is my way to show my dignity

I'm just letting you know before you go

No one knows what they don't know 

Hello all fine steampunkers of the world wide web,

hope everyone is doing wonderfully well

So my first Boston Convention is coming up, and it just so happens to be a sci-fi / anime con, with some steampunk panels, and what a better reason then to dress up all nice and steamy!?

so i have been mentally designing an outfit for it, thats my design process xD in my head, to paper, to REALITY :0

xD so here is one of my sketchs,

( Pics! :3 )

the best time was had
higher than a kite in my room
all alone
it's happening now

a series of beats flowing
from where my heart would be
down my palm
and into my finger tips
and back again


i'm so happy
i'm so
warm
really goddamn warm

i could choke right now

i really could wack myself
bloody right now

Tell me more!

I go to Dragon*con every year over the Labor Day weekend, and, as is my wont, I pick up samples of every promotional bookmark and postcard that I see. I then prepare packets for the members of my science fiction and fantasy book groups who don't make it to the con. As it turns out, I picked up a helluva lot more stuff this year than usual. Enough to make at least three more packets of assorted bookmarks, postcards, and even a button or two.

If you like science fiction/fantasy/paranormal romance and would be interested in receiving a sample packet, post a comment telling me how much, and I'll pick three winners, also on Veteran's Day. This challenge is open to people in the U.S. and Canada.

This Halloween, I managed to wrangle a few others into dressing ( a little more steamy )

We need more steampunk aficionados in NOLA. If you're here, speak up!

(x-posted to steampunk_plus)

popebrandi is the winner of the second copy of "Dust", by Elizabeth Bear. Congratulations!

Moving on to our next giveaway, I inadvertently bought a second copy of "Silks", by Felix Francis (continuing in his father's long tradition of writing steeplechase-related mysteries), unabridged on CD. If you would like to be considered for a free copy of said audiobook, please post a comment, and I'll pick a winner at random on Wednesday, November 11, 2009, Veteran's Day.

BTW, if you are, in fact, a veteran, let me know, and I'll enter your name twice in the drawing. This giveaway is limited to people who live in the U.S. and Canada.

I've decided its about time I got a Blackberry (in fact, I did have one for a while but it got stolen so I know I like them) and am quite tempted by this deal on the 8520 Curve. Does anyone here use this handset, and would you recommend it? My main concern with these sort of devices is battery life.

Are there Aboriginal American myths or legends about Changelings, human children who are stolen and replaced with non-human children? Preferably, originating from groups that lived in the Midwest of the USA.

I've searched on google, but searching for "changeling" brings up a lot of stuff about "changeling: the dreaming," which is not helpful, and asked a research librarian I know.

Stories about children being flat out stolen, or stolen and eaten, are interesting but I specifically want to know if there's stories about children being REPLACED.

Thanks in advance.

Emboldened by the success of the other book identifying request, I decided to try with even less information: years ago, someone told me about a book with a wizard who's only good at making holes. For example, when asked to light a fire with magic, he makes a hole and lights the fire in it. This is all I know about that book, I have asked around to no avail, and it has been bothering me for over five years now. Does this by any chance sound familiar to anyone?

EDIT. Thank you, book found! And faster than I expected, too :) (I went to sleep nearly immediately after making the post.)