Same old, same old...

[wiseheart]

Utterly boring stuff behind the tag - read at your own peril. Or don't. It's up to you.

Real Life is eating up my time. Which means: either writing or doing research in whatever hour I can spare. Sadly enough, it means that no time for reading... at least no time for giving authors I haven't previously known a try. I do re-read some old favourites from time to time, but that's about all.

My reading habits have seriously deteriorated in the recent years. Since I rarely find the kind of stories I'd like to read, and since the people whose stuff I used to read and comment religiously rarely returned the favour, I've simply fallen out of the habit of reading. A shame, actually - I'm sure I'm missing some great tales. Well, perhaps when I'm retired - which is only a matter of oh, seven or eight years? If I live that long, that is.

Mum's going to have her next control CT at the end of the month, so she'll have another blood test tomorrow. Poor thing can't stop fretting. So far, all of her tests turned out negative - I hope it will stay so - but she's scared shitless all the same. I can't blame her. That thing last year was a shock, for both of us.

Am doing ungodly amounts of research for the Tosh/9th Doctor story, about 12th century Japan. Too bad that I suck at Internet research. Never really find the things I'm looking for. Must be the total lack of talent where finding the right search keywords is concerned. Ah, well, at least it's a real adventure this way. I never know what will turn up next. My head is humming from all those Japanese names like a beehive.


As I said: completely boring stuff. So, I think it's safe to allow comments, eh?

Comments

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I know what it's like. I never use one per cent of all the background trivia I dig out for every dratted story - I just like to *know* things. Like the names of Minamoto no Yoshitune's wife and daughter (never found them), or how old Taira no Monemuri's sons were when they got executed... that sort of thing. Or the very exact description of the Battle of Dan-no-ura. Or what kind of ships they used in that battle.

Short of that, if you could help me find an online English translation of "The Tale of the Heike", I'd be eternally grateful. All I could hunt down were two extremely short paragraphs cited somewhere, and they weren't even the parts I really needed.

Detailed descriptions of Japanese clothes around 1180-90, especially samurai armour and weapons would also be nice.

Yeah, I know I'm insane. I could write the next chapter without that. It's just this irresistible urge to *know* things...

[lhun-dweller.livejournal.com]

I think your love of and attention to details is one of the things that makes your stories so captivating! It's clear you didn't just sit down one night and dash off "Leggie-Loves-Borrie-#1,552,397." Alas, I know almost nothing about Japanese history and absolutely nothing about "Doctor Who" at this stage (I last saw it semi-regularly when Jon Pertwee was the Doc...), so I'm no help there. In fact, I don't even know what to look for when searching the magazine shelves at the bookstore (HINT HINT HINT!!!), and someone's birthday is soon to be celebrated (HINT HINT HINT)!

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

We can have words about that. In private. If you want to.

The fun part is, I've actually found out the name of Yoshitsune's wife. And that of his mistress. And I found a great website about 12th century Japanese clothes. Still looking for Munemori's sons, though. I think they have my picture in some encyclopedia next to the article "Obsessed with trivia". *g*

I've asked the_wild_iris to find me a copy of the book version of The Tale of the Heike (http://www.gotterdammerung.org/books/reviews/t/tale-of-the-heike.html); there's an English translation of it by someone called Helen Craig McCullough. But since she's my main source of Merlin and Dr. Who stuff, you might want to talk to her about it. You know I'm quite happy with the cheapest second-hand copies, as long as they're still in one piece and reasonably clean. (HINT, HINT). Also, there's a complementary book titled Yoshitsune (http://www.gotterdammerung.org/books/reviews/y/yoshitsune.html) by the same author,which also looks very yummy and helpful.

Speaking of exchanged gifts, have you ever found the time to listen to the "István a király" rock opera? And if yes, what do you thin about it?