And in today's news -- heart attack

[rthstewart]

I came back to our rental property from an afternoon at the beach and found my mother in law trying to get into my laptop.  And my spousal unit, bless him, "Sorry, mom, but I don't know my wife's passwords."  Boundaries people.  Respect them. 

In other news, the Narnia Fic Exchange is going great guns!  Check it out!  Read!  Review!  snacky  and caramelsilver are doing an awesome job on it!

And what the heck, everyone else is, so... 
[Meme] If Alfred Hitchcock Made Cinderella
Seen in several places on the F-list:

If I made Cinderella, the audience would immediately be looking for a body in the coach.
— Alfred Hitchcock

What do you expect to find when I write a story?

Comments

[amine-eyes.livejournal.com]

Jesus talk about a panic moment! Thank goodness spouse saved the day :DDD

And what I expect from your stories?

Ridiculously awesome details, coming away learning things but not feeling like I've been lectured, all the feelings in the WORLD, and a damnably awesome sense of writing :DD

If YOU wrote Cinderella

[katharhino.livejournal.com]

Cinderella would be a person of color, there would be a detailed description of the political situation(s) attached to the Prince's marriage options (including scheming by several courtiers) and the Prince would have an original-character best friend who would end up being more interesting than the Prince to half your readers.

:-D :-D ;-D

[autumnia]

Yay for passwords on computers! Personal computers are, you know, personal.

Hmm. I expect to find lots of very well written Talking Animals, discourses on contracts, joint ventures and monarchical managements. And oh yes, all the glorious historical footnotes, etc.

And if you were writing Cinderella... I do not think she would be a slave of her stepmother. No, she would be serving her stepfamily not because she had nowhere to go, but because she learned the will was a forgery and is on the hunt for the real document so she legally throw them out of the house. Of course, she also has friends--Good Beasts of course--helping her by spying on stepmother and stepsisters and reporting back to Cinderella in Rat and Crow.

And her fairy godmother? I see her as a shrewd adviser of sorts, not unlike a lawyer or a banker. Cinderella does not go to the Ball to win the heart of a Prince, but to corner him so she could discuss revising the marriage and inheritance laws of the country.

[metonomia.livejournal.com]

D: That's just...well, good for your husband.

And when you write a story! I expect to learn a bunch of things I never knew or even thought of before, both in terms of detail and just general thoughts; I expect a certain...expository style of prose? If that makes any sense. Your narrative style is very distinctive to me, is what I'm saying. Lots of descriptive explanation but that makes it sound boring when it's not at all :) And always, always a mix of literal laugh out loud humor and tiny-but-meaningful comments or moments that hit hard, over and over, in the best of ways.

[cofax7]

Animals that behave like animals (even if they have intelligent brains and can speak).

Also evidence of research.

[lady_songsmith]

At least one instance of facts about animals I never imagined before!

[be-themoon.livejournal.com]

What the hell, why would she DO that? asd;lghsdkgh

I expect a lot of realism and really accurate facts and details that are hidden everywhere and that are like discovering Christmas presents.

[edenfalling]

Oh my god, I would die of embarrassment if people tried to read some of the things on my computer. It's almost exactly like reading a person's diary, and everyone knows that that is Not Done. Thank goodness for passwords and your husband!

What do I expect from your writing? A sort of wry humor laced through even relatively serious moments, lots of careful research into the natural world (carefully presented for the reader's general edification and comprehension), consideration shown to all characters, and Capital Letters deployed in places I was not expecting to find them. :-)

[(Anonymous)]

What do I expect to find? Well, the historical facts and research have been noted, but I'd particularly emphasize illuminating aspects of past society that one doesn't typically hear about, especially those that we might, in a self-centered fashion, consider too "modern" to have existed at the time.

I also expect to see characters dealing with adulthood. Not just growing up, but growing into who they are after the "up" part seems finished.

And yes, OCs that are every bit as interesting as the canon characters. And animals that act like animals (and not like we would expect).

-H

P.S. zOMG GAY FINCH LIFE PARTNERS!!!!!!! :-)

[animus-wyrmis.livejournal.com]

All the historical details, is what I expect from you! :DDD

[linneasr.livejournal.com]

What do I expect when you write a story?

Hm.

A piece of fiction that is well-researched (if set in This World), intelligently conceived with a worthwhile narrative structure, really amazing characters who I begin to think about while my attention should be on Latin, subtle humour (Jalur's toy otter, snort!), and, mostly, a mature understanding of the role emotions play in people's lives. How feelings colour, shape and motivate some of the most important bits of life, even while we're trying to be oh-so-rational about it all.

If my mother-in-law had ever tried to open my laptop, I would have wanted to bite her (hard). Then laugh, 'cause I keep some pretty raunchy things on the box, and it would almost have been worth it to see her face finding them. Rrrrrr.

Sigh. That's a bit of a fantasy. Realistically, I probably would've had a huge fight with my husband about his mother, and your anecdote inspires me to install passwords.

Gay finches??? Ahahahaaaa, wonderful. Thought: could finches all be gay by general predilection, and only find opposite-sex mates when in, um, heat? (What do birds have, anyway? It can't be estrous!) Tee hee!

[anastigmatfic.livejournal.com]

I expect airtight plots and snappy dialogue, fascinating digressions into history and/or biology that move the story at the same time, and delicious worldbuilding details piled in on each other like some kind of fractal MC Escher funhouse.

And smuttiness of the wink-and-nod variety!

[min023.livejournal.com]

WTF? That's just so, so... I don't know what it is, except you just don't help yourself to someone else's computer without an invitation. Just. Don't. AAAHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And as for expectations? Research. Challenging the stupid conventions and stereotypes, and going there. Witty, snappy dialogue. Wonderful, full chapters. Thought-provokingness (is that even a word?). OCs, oh yes please.

And PLEEEAAASE, write that Cinders AU ;-)

[linneasr.livejournal.com]

Deeeeee, that's just hilarious. Of course her name is Mathilde. Who does Mother's household budgets?