Hiding fandom in the underwear drawer since 1977

autumnia

• The fate of Captain David Lowrey after the Dieppe Raid
• The knife Asim loaned to Peter on the Oxford train platform
• The Hierophant

ilysia_039

autumnia

• Chapter 1 - Digs, In which Digory receives an Alarming Invitation
• Chapter 2 –Tetchy, In which there are Alarming Introductions and Peter mistakenly mentions King Kong
• Chapter 3 -Tea and Sympathy, In which Peter starts an argument about camels and there is Inappropriate Conversation

So, let’s see…

Big Bang is at 41,000 words (including a glossary and cast of characters so that you can keep track of how a Sten is different from a Bren).  I’m guessing maybe 10,000 words left?  Granted, that's a BIG bit to do in a week for a rough draft but I actually have a pretty coherent outline and as I’m following an order of battle, it’s not, as things go, a huge challenge.  So I say now.  Gawd.  A war story.  I'm such an idiot.

I’m assuming that the H&M update got hit by ff.net being down or something -- possibly something.  Thanks so much to those who did persevere against the site problems and comment!  In less chipper news, I have been called out in two separate things on ff.net for harassment and flaming.  I responded to one and didn’t bother with the other.  My thanks to those who have assisted/weighed in/provided moral support.

A burning question.  Why is my world not full of the new Upstairs Downstairs and the promised relationship between Alex Kingston/Emilia Fox  aka River Song/Morgause?  Why?  Why?  Where is the fic?  Where are the gifs?  WHERE WHERE?  Show me NOW.  Cross over madness I tell you.  This is the sort of thing that drives me to the sort of infringing conduct that is not age appropriate.

intrikate88 has been doing some terrific Once Upon A Time Fic  exploring Belle and Rumpelstiltskin so do check that out.

Which brings me to the related issue that I have finally seen Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.  It was a typical and very grown up sort of thing – a late matinee with Important People in the audience and no one under the age of 30.   I dearly love Le Carre’s book and it and Conant’s The Irregulars inspired a lot of TQSiT and my TSG AU.  I enjoyed the film and Oldman plays a very, very cold Smiley.  It’s a good adaptation in a 2 hour film.  The challenge is that so much of Smiley is internal and he reveals practically nothing to others.  That can get dull in film.  Le Carre is not great with his women characters and the film I thought provided a critique of that – we never see Lady Ann’s face.  She could be anyone.

It seemed every respected British male actor working was in the film, except maybe Alan Rickman and Jim Broadbent.  So the eye candy was excellent.

Some spoilers – if you don’t know who the mole is, you might not want to read.

Not thirty minutes into the training flight and the deck of the Waco they were trapped in was awash in the vomit of hardened men.  He was, quietly, proud that he’d retched on only four of the twelve training flights.  That was eight better than his CO.  Major Howard had gotten sick every time they went aloft in the Waco.

For his fortitude, Peter won win twenty schillings and 9 cigarettes in the Company-wide betting pool.

But this lead me to the realization that it was all exposition and so I should write, you know, real time vomiting and why Peter was pretty much inured to the smell of it being accustomed as he was to the stench of giants, wet sheep, and stewing offal meats.  Which meant he had something to fix his gaze on which meant I needed to know what was inside a Waco CG-4 glider.  (Yes, I will explain why everyone is sick in the first place).  15 minutes of google-fu later and I hit the jackpot.
138 years of Popular Science available on line.  For free.  This is from the February 1944 issue.  On page 94 is the article about the gliders. Also on page 104, Daily Workouts Guard Your Health is the 1944 version of softcore porn in a science magazine.  What is cool is that these are the actual scanned magazines so you get the ads and diagrams and it's a wonderful slice of history.  And science!  [edit -- RAWRR it won't let me link to the pages directly so you'll have to go to the table of contents and link to pages 94 and 104 or scroll through it or search "glider" and "workout."]

An hour later, I've been skimming science articles about Darwin from 1894 and a long discussion about kangaroo like dinosaurs  from the 1920s and the history of how mental illness was assumed to be the result of demonic possession.  It's time to shut the browser.