lacrimae rerum

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Definitely Harry Potter! My kids will be as familiar with The Tales of Beedle The Bard as with Cinderella and Snow White. :D And Hogwarts will be another home for them, as it was for me. They'll also watch the movies over and over with me. <3

I'd also read or recommend to them the Narnia books, and The Hobbit (and we shall watch the Lord of the Rings movies together too; I'll let them read LotR when they think they're old enough). I have loved these books since my own childhood and they're definitely classics for children. I also loved Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre, Great Expectations and Oliver Twist from the age of seven or eight, and I'd start them off on abridged versions and then let them read the unabridged ones when they want to. Also, I grew up reading loads of Enid Blyton. I think the Famous Five series was my favourite; I had the entire set. My kids will grow up on those too, and The Secret Seven, The Five Find-Outers and Dog, Malory Towers, St. Clare's, and her Rewards short story collections.

And, of course, mythology. I grew up reading loads of Norse, Greek and Egyptian myths, as well as Hindu myths. Obviously, as a child I only had access to the censored versions; therefore I believed that the part of Osiris's body that Isis could not find was his leg, only finding out years later that it was his, ahem, phallus. XD

Some gorgeous Potter-related graphics that sum up my feelings perfectly:







^ There are a couple of typos, but I still think it's gorgeous.



^ I thought that was the most beautiful scene in the Half-Blood Prince movie: when all the students and teachers of Hogwarts, standing by Dumbledore's body, raise their wands together, and the light from all their wands dispels the Dark Mark in the sky.

And that is the sort of thing I want my children, nieces, nephews and godchildren to read. Books that teach them to believe in magic and the impossible. Books that teach them the importance of friendship and family and bravery and loyalty and faith and love and forgiveness and ideals, that provide strength and show them that you can use your brains to get yourself out of sticky situations (I <3 Odysseus, even if he is a bit of a dickhead at times). Stuff that instils in them a sense of awe and love for the ancient civilisations. Stories that develop a love for adventure and nature.

One of the reasons I am so fond of Potter is all the references Rowling makes to creatures and legends from all over the world; it led me on a merry treasure hunt to find all these things, like manticores and divination methods and alchemy and etymological roots and so on, and I learned so much. (It's also one of the reasons I <3 The Dresden Files - the way Jim Butcher makes use of so much fantasy lore - but it's hardly for children.) The series isn't perfect, of course, but if you asked me what I would read to my children, it's the first thing that comes to mind.

I've been on a cleaning/organisational frenzy at home since my job contract ended, and clearly it's extending to LJ. I thought I should try to collect all my fics (the ones I'll admit to, anyway) together in one place. I suck at ratings, so if you think something should be rated differently, please comment saying so. :)

Bear in mind that the earliest stories are most likely not all that good; I started writing fanfic in 2005 and I was only 12 going on 13 then. And that there is a fair amount of slash (male/male pairings: the pairings are stated clearly, so if it offends you, please don't read), and some of the role-play entries may be friends-locked (however, if you add my RP accounts as friends to read them, I will add you back ASAP).



( Harry Potter fanfiction  )


( The Chronicles of Narnia fanfiction ) . Autumn reminds Susan and Lucy of Narnia.

Perfumes of Narnia - Pevensies, Peter-centric, PG13, 2010. Peter is a man in a boy's body.

Constellations and Promises - Susan and Lucy, Lucy-centric, PG, 2011. It was hard to see the stars in London. [Titled Promise on FanFiction.Net]


( The Black Magician Trilogy fanfiction )


( Good Omens fanfiction )


( The Sandman fanfiction )



( Miscellaneous fanfiction )


( Role-Play and Original Fiction )


Hopefully I remember to update this thing. :D

Okay, so by the time I'm done it will be August 1st given the time now, but I started this on July 31st! :D Again, happy birthday to Harry and Jo Rowling, and happy belated birthday to Neville!



^ Yeeeaah, that's me and that came out in the local paper on 13th July, the day before the movie was released. They ran a long, lovely feature on Harry Potter, the franchise, the fandom, its impact and the end of a decade-long journey, and also interviewed some local fans on the end of the franchise.

To me, July 31st this year is special because, like in July 2007, it feels like the end of an era all over again. I've already seen Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II twice, and I will admit, I cried both times. The first time I saw it was on its release date/my birthday, July 14th, with my sister and her best friend, and I was sobbing so much into my cloak. I think it was beautifully done, it did justice to the book, and the music and acting and everything... ;_; It was heartbreaking. The second time I saw it, I brought Mum, and I cried again.

"Does it hurt?"
"Quicker than falling asleep."

*sobs*

And at the end of the movie, the entire theatre started clapping; it was a wonderful moment. One of the things I love about the Potter fandom is moments like that. The sense of belonging, of spontaneously doing things together, of bonding over Potter and fangirling... it's a lovely experience. The Star Wars and Star Trek fans have their generation; I like to think I'm part of the Potter generation. I was lucky enough to experience the thrill of waiting for the new books and movies, attending launches, discussing theories, etc, and I treasure that.

Here's the full text of what I said to the reporter:

( ... I look forward to watching Harry's greatest victory in this final film, and being proud of him. He's come a long way from the little boy living in the cupboard under the stairs. )

What about you, f-list? What are your thoughts on the end of the Potter decade, and what are your favourite things about the franchise and/or fandom? <3

Also, randomly: having seen Ralph Fiennes play Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights (which he did wonderfully), I kept wanting to hear Voldemort say, "I cannot live without my life! I cannot live without my soul!". XD

So on the 9th of July, I attended a Potter party to celebrate ten years of Harry Potter, held at the Multipurpose Room at the National Library. I made my own costume and everything. :D (Well, I'd gotten the Gryffindor scarf free with my Collector's Edition box set of the Order of the Phoenix DVD, but I made the wand and cloak myself.)




( Making the wand... )

( Making the cloak... )

Party:

Sarah, the organiser, talks about it on her blog here. Occasionally I'll use some of her photos with credit given; if they've got her URL they're hers, but most of them were taken by her friend sanzochan. If no credit is given then they're my own photos.

( Party! With tons of photos! )


We were all very sad that it was over, and my deepest thanks to Sarah and friends for organising such a wonderful party. The decor, food, hosts, games, prizes and everything were perfect. Harry Potter was and is a big part of our lives and the last movie definitely deserved an amazing celebration. 

*raises glass of Butterbeer* To Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived. And to all the wonderful people I have met through his story.

Today I returned home from another awesome day out (I rarely spend my days off at home these days, it seems; friends and family are all clamouring for my time. I feel loved.) and was placing my necklace and earrings back in one of the tiny drawers I keep my [numerous] accessories in, when I noticed something that most of the contents seemed to have in common.



I was wearing that long necklace of polished garnet chips, those red-and-brass earrings, and that red-and-beige wooden bead bracelet with a red tartan hair scrunchie and glittery red hairband, a figure-hugging red blouse, a long ochre skirt with a few flowers embroidered in red and green thread and with red tartan on the hem, and very dark red shoes. And even my pottu was dark red and gold. GUESS WHAT MY FAVOURITE COLOUR IS. XD

So, in the morning I met Vatchala, an old friend of mine (she's seven years older than I am and used to be one of my mum's favourite students years ago; she became a family friend :D) for some delicious brunch and catching up. Awesome food, awesome company. <3 We need to meet up more often! :D

Later I went to Gena's house so we could work on our appeal letters for the universities together. We only got a little bit done, though. >_> Then we packed up and went to another friend's (Liying) house. Gena and Liying are singing at some charity performance to raise funds for dyslexic kids, so they were practising; they're really good singers. Alvie joined us later and we had lots of fun. :D

On to the book meme!


( 16. Adaptation: What book would you most like to see made into a film? Do you like to read the book first or see the film? Any books you have read after seeing the film version? )


( 17. What is the most difficult book you’ve ever read? )


( 18. Your favourite book series & your favourite book out of that series )


( 19. Your favourite picture, junior fiction and Young Adult books )


( 20. Least favourite plot device employed by way too many books you actually enjoyed otherwise )

Now to read some fanfiction minselding  has sent me. :D

  In this post I mentioned going out with my friends, and the lovely snake ring I bought, and my regret that I hadn't been able to buy the angel wing earrings as well. Yesterday afternoon, after Kinokuniya called to inform me I was hired, my sister texted me asking if I wanted to meet her at Plaza Singapura (I knew she'd been planning to go there to get some stuff for her fish tank). I said sure, showered, dressed and went to meet her.

  I was walking past some of the shops in Plaza Sing, looking for her (she wasn't answering her phone) and then I saw her coming towards me, and after the greetings and the complaints that she wasn't answering her phone, she showed me a beautiful set of blue rings she'd bought at Diva. I showed her the snake ring I was wearing, saying I'd gotten it at Diva the day before. She said, "I figured as much. By the way, I got you something." And then she handed me the same pair of angel earrings I'd been eyeing the previous day.

 I think my initial reaction was "??!? OH MY GOD, YOU SAW MY BLOG POST?" and then I hugged the stuffing out of her. XD I honestly hadn't been expecting it; the most I'd expected was walking past Diva, having to pull her into it, and getting myself the earrings.

 



My iMac webcam's flash is a bit bright; the earrings don't actually shine quite that brightly, but they're gorgeous.

We had a delicious meal at PastaMania (their mushroom baked rice is amazing), walked around a bit and laughed at some stuff in Times (although I was also drooling over a Hellblazer graphic novel); they have spoof books like The Dragon with a Girl Tattoo. XD Then we went to the aquarium shop to get her pump and new fish and stuff, and took a cab home.

Now, on to the book meme.

3. Your favourite book aged 9 ½, or 13 ¾, whichever you remember best.

That's an easy one, as I remember both clearly. XD At the age of 9 ½, my favourite books (I couldn't choose at the time) were the first three Harry Potter books. :D

About a week before my ninth birthday in July 2001, my dad, his younger sister, his younger brother, my cousin (dad's sister's son) and I were seated at a table in a nursing home with my dozing paternal grandfather; my dad and I, and the others, went to see him every Sunday afternoon. My aunt handed me a nicely wrapped package, saying it was an early birthday gift. I opened it immediately (I was eight going on nine!) and was quite gleeful to find new books; they were Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.

I remember stretching out on my stomach on the living room sofa at home and reading Philosopher's Stone. I remember flipping to the back cover to look at the artwork of Dumbledore when he was described in the book. It was a wonderful new world for me, and I fell in love. I was half-living in Harry's world, so much so that when I was telling my mother and sister that my primary school principal was leaving to work at the Ministry of Education, it accidentally came out as "Ministry of Magic" before I realised it.

Philosopher's Stone also spawned my current reading habit when it comes to new books that are really good; I speed-read the first time through, enthralled by the plot, though I don't miss out on much. (I do read, write and talk very fast.) After I finish reading it the first time I immediately re-read the book; this time I take my time with the descriptions, the nuances of character interaction etc, taking in details I may have missed out now that I'm no longer in a hurry to see what comes next. This is how I read most new books unless they're not that amazing or really thick (though LotR was an exception, I think I read it three times straight), this is how I read the entire HP series, and it started with the first HP book.

I also remember what my favourite book at the age 13 ¾ of was: JRR Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. I had found it in the school library the previous year, when I was still 12 ¾, and since I was already a huge fan of all three movies I looked forward to finally reading the souce material. And I was utterly blown away, in love all over again.

I renewed and returned and re-borrowed and renewed my loan of the book, tattered and torn as it already was (though I took care of it, it was already very old when I found it), so that it was in my possession for more than a year, taking up lots of space on my school desk (there were multiple copies in the library, so I felt no guilt). A teacher eventually confiscated and returned it since I couldn't keep my hands and eyes off it for long. XD Two years later, considering that it was literally in pieces (the cover separate from the books, the pages themselves torn into two thick sections, pages missing) the library condemned it to be shredded and I rescued it, using copious amounts of scotch tape to put it back together and photocopying the missing pages from other copies, cutting them out, gluing them back to back, and pasting them into the book so that it was whole again. I took it home and today it is still on my top shelf, together with all the other Tolkien books I own. And to this day, despite all the other authors I've fallen for, The Lord of the Rings remains my all-time favourite book and Tolkien my favourite and most respected author.

What about you, friends-list? What spawned your first fandom obsessions?

The lovely jolantru  has recently published a book, Wolf at the Door, and last night I attended her book launch party at a nice little place called The Garden Slug. Other members of the Speculative Fiction Writers of Singapore were there too, and a lovely time was had.

Sadly, I didn't have the presence of mind to snap pictures of the food before we attacked it (June did take pictures though, and when/if I see those, I'll post them here if she gives me permission). Everything looked good, and the vegetarian pizza I shared with Mint Kang and a couple of other people was delicious. But the best thing was the dessert. *__*



Sadly, this is just what was left when Mint and I stopped long enough for rational thought and realised a picture would have been a good idea; before that, we were in a happy dessert-induced daze. This dessert platter was ambrosial.

The brown chocolate thing on a popsicle stick was a brownie popsicle, coated in fudge and deliciousness. The remnants of brown powder and cream next to it were all that was left of the tiramisu. That lump of white ice cream scored by our forks is actually vanilla gelato. And the stem attached to a tiny piece of brown flesh, with another piece of flesh nearby, is all that was left of the amazing stewed pear. According to the menu, it was stewed in white wine and cinnamon. It arrived still warm and soft and cinnamon-scented and it was SO GOOD. Especially when you ate a piece together with a forkful of gelato; you had a heavenly explosion of sweetness in your mouth. The grapes and strawberries were sweet enough, I guess, but after several mouthfuls of stewed pear and gelato, the berries seemed too sour. XD

Joyce held a mini quiz and I won signed cover art and a bag of chocolate. :D I passed the chocolate around and, sadly, forgot to get it back before leaving. XD Unfortunately I'd had to leave early, it was already nearing 9.30 by then and I'd told my family I'd leave by 9 plus, so I had to miss Joyce's reading.

Today I went for a job interview at Kinokuniya! The interviewers were nice, but I'm scared I might have been too nervous and talked extra-fast. There were probably too many 'Um's too. And I wasn't expecting the mathematical questions at the end - silly of me in retrospect since I was applying for the positon of cashier, but I didn't think I'd need to convert Japanese yen to SGD! I haven't done Maths since the end of my O Levels in 2008; I'd better brush up on my mental arithmetic. I really hope I get this job; I'd love to be able to work in a bookstore. Kinokuniya is an amazing bookstore with a fantastic selection and I'd be surrounded by books and aiding the cause of getting people to read more and... *____*

In other news, I'm poking at my fanfic100  challenge again; I edited some of Chapter 2 but I'm still stuck at the end, as I was over a year ago. I'm going to beg steadfast  for help. XD I'm also considering joining the 2011 rs_games  writing challenge; I haven't written Harry Potter fanfiction in aaages (this was my last piece, I believe) even if I lurk and read quite a bit, so I should probably write a few drabbles as practice or something before tackling the challenge itself.

Meanwhile, it's time for my annual re-read of irisbleufic 's Crown of Stars series. *goes to read*

This story is poignant and beautiful and funny and makes me sad, with the thought of what might have been. ;_;

It's called Scenes from Another Life and shows Harry meeting Ron on the Hogwarts Express and arriving at Hogwarts, interspersed with memories of Sirius's reaction to finding James and Lily's bodies, proving his innocence to the Ministry, winning custody of Harry from Petunia, and how both Sirius and Remus brought Harry up. I highly recommend it.

From vnfan !

Rules: Don't take too long to think about it. Fifteen books you've read that will always stick with you. First fifteen you can recall in no more than 15 minutes. Note that the wording is "will always stick with you" which I'm going to say does not mean favorite, which we've done before. It could, in theory, be something horrible that you hated, but can't shake off.

As far as I'm concerned, comics/graphic novels count as books. Especially if they're by Neil Gaiman or Mike Carey. Also, I cheated by putting quite a lot of series there. XD

1. The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien
2. Harry Potter (series) by JK Rowling
3. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
4. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
5. The Chronicles of Narnia (series) by CS Lewis
6. River God by Wilbur Smith
7. I don't remember the title of this very very thin yellow volume for young readers, but it was about the Norse myth of Loki and Baldur.
8. The Sandman (series) by Neil Gaiman
9. The Famous Five (series) by Enid Blyton
10. Everworld: Discover the Destroyer by KA Applegate (I think. It has been years since I looked at that book)
11. What Katy Did (series) by Susan Coolidge
12. Little Women (series) by Louisa May Alcott
13. Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
14. Ramses (series) by Christian Jacq
15. Lucifer (series) by Mike Carey


It's really hard to cut myself off at 15 minutes because I have a huge bookworm and I will freely admit that I like showing off my reading list. I'm always glad to see someone else with similar lists and will gladly talk books with them. If you've read this, I'd like to see your list. Consider yourself tagged! :D

Regarding 7 - I found that book in a cupboard together with my audiobooks (as a kid, I had a lot of those book-plus-cassette combos) when I was very small (preschool, I think, or maybe kindergarten). The book was REALLY thin, a very simplified version, but none of the emotion was lost and I found myself weeping for Baldur and absolutely HATING Loki for killing him, and the old woman who refused to weep for him. (Later on I came across versions in which it was either Loki or Hel pretending to be the old woman, but I don't remember whether or not this book just had the old woman as a separate character or not. Since I remember wishing that I could make the old woman cry, it probably stopped there.) I suppose Loki was the first character I truly hated as a child. XD

Regarding 10 - That book is on there because it stays with me, but NOT because I like it. In retrospect, and with the help of Google, I think that had I discovered it in the past couple of years, I would have liked it. As a very young child, however, I was probably a little too young for it. I found myself drawn in by it, but at the same time I was rather uncomfortable with a lot of it. I found it in a bookshelf and it was probably my brother's, but I had found it in my parents' room, so perhaps it had been confiscated from him.

It was certainly a lot darker than the usual things I read at that time - I believe it started with the main characters having their hearts taken away, pulled out of their chests, and replaced by rubies by Nidhoggr - and while I recognised the names of Loki and Huitzilopochtli and a few others, and the satyrs and nymphs, at the time I had not yet read enough to catch all the mythological references like Nidhoggr himself, or the Celtic fairies and the cauldron of the Daghda. Years later, as I read more mythology, I wondered why these names sounded familiar before realising that I had indeed read about them before. But as I said, when I read Everworld: Discover the Destroyer at that age, I was unable to catch all the references, and things like David's obsession with Senna, and Chris's jokes, and a lot of other things about the young adult (I think) characters, made me feel slightly uneasy. At the same time, as I said, I was strangely drawn in by the book and read it a few times over some years, but it was a sort of love/hate relationship. I think I gave it away later. I know some of you are not fans of the 'you're too young for this book' idea, but I honestly think I was too young for that book, at that time, and I wish I could have discovered it now instead.

It's the 27th of March!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JAMES POTTER!!!

Not a big fan of the movie version, but.