Soledad's Journal

Chapter 12 - Revelations has been posted to hiddenrealms. I'm not entirely happy with the last couple of paragraphs, so I'll postpone adding it to FF.Net, in the hope to tweak it a little before posting it there. Opinions and suggestions about the ending are welcome.

Chapter 04 of "A Big Fat Torchwood Wedding" has been posted to otherworlds_lib.

In which Tom goes on his first field mission, we meet action!Jack, they make a gross found on the Weevil hunt (no, not that sort of Weevil hunt, sorry), Gwen gets told off by Monsieur Richarte, and the Torchwood gang theorizes a lot about Weevils, while Tom does the autopsy.

I also posted Chapter 4 of Brothers-in-Arms, titled "Taking Shield Again" to FF.Net.

Enjoy!

Chapter 09 - Dining With Princes has just been posted to otherworlds_lib.

In an attack of unchanneled creativity, I decided to end this particular story with the next chapter, as it will become the first part of my "Torchwood Virtual Season 3"-trilogy. The second part will be an alternate version of CoE, in which Jack and his helpers will set things right, and the third one will tell how Jack travelled to the past to find Ianto and with what results.

Yes, I know it's mean of me to bring such a twist into the whole thing, but this is the only hope to keep things at a size that I can actually handle. So sorry, folks. *ducks*

Yeah, another one. I used the weekend well. The story is shaping up nicely - I might even start to see how it will end. Yay!

Chapter 07- Courtly Affairs in Aber has been posted to otherworlds_lib.

Gwen is finally accepting the ugly truth. It doesn't make things any easier, of course - on the contrary.

Warning: this chapter is for readers who are at least 14 years old - or older. Just to be on the safe side.

The "Gwen-and-Ianto-in-12th-century-Wales" story, now more or less permanently titled "Lost in the Past", has been updated. I've just posted Chapter 05 - First Steps Towards Understanding to otherworlds_lib.

Yeah, I know, the new title isn't particularly original, either, but at least it fits the story better than the working title used to do. I hope you'll enjoy Gwen's first meeting with medieval clothes and Ianto's first steps to establish a dialogue.

Chapter 03 - Prince Owain Weighs In of my "Gwen and Ianto in 12th-century Wales"-story has been posted to otherworlds_lib. Have fun!

Chapter 08 - Prodigal Sons has been posted to hiddenrealms. Just in case anyone might be interested, although I don't have high hopes. One would think such a small fandom would appreciate when a story gets picked up after a longer hiatus, but FF.Net doesn't show much reaction, either. Ah, well, I'll wait for Mira's arrival.

Another week of holidays, and I might actually finish the story. But with school restarting on Monday, I'm rather doubtful about that. Oh, well. :(

Chapter 06 - A Disputed Grant to Farewell has been posted to hiddenrealms and to FF.Net.

Enjoy!

First and foremost (and I'm really sorry I don't know how to make much, much bigger letters on LJ):
I HAVE FINISHED "SPARROWS"!!!
Yeah, baby, I have! Granted, I still have to type up the last part of Chapter 10 as well as the short epilogue, and then the beta still have to go through it with the fine-toothed comb, but IT'S DONE!!!

Erm. Yes, Sorry for the shouting. But finishing a long-ongoing story is an incredibly good feeling. I'd never have managed to get it done without picowrimo, so a great part of the credit goes to the incredibly nice and supportive people there, as well as to the folks at little_details, who helped out with a few, well, little details. *g*

Oh, ladies and the few guys on my flist, I feel like I'd won the World Cup. Or something like that. Now I can attack "Brothers-in-Arms" in peace. And I put the newly acquired Cadfael bunnies (all three of them) firmly back into the kennel. No new thing will be started before I've finished at least another ongoing WIP, and that's a fact!

*eyes plotbunnies warily*

In other news, I've pre-cooked three different dishes for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, so that only the finishing touches will be needed, half-decorated the Christmas tree (only final touches, etc. tomorrow), arranged my 12 sorts of Christmas cookies on a huge tray (made photos, will post them tomorrow, or at least soon) and went to the audiology examination. Go me!

Oh, and I got a shiny from artemis10002000! Postal service must be congratulated this year. All my parcels, the ones I sent and the ones I received, arrived before Christmas Eve. That alone is reason for celebration, right?

Oh, and have I mentioned that I finished "Sparrows"?

Yesterday, I got my Christmas prezzie from the wonderful lissas_elves: the complete "Cadfael" tv-series. Greedy-gut as I am, I've already watched the first episodes last night. My impressions so far:

1) Casting
- Sir Derek Jacobi makes an excellent job (and I particularly like the inverview with him, in which he complains about the close friendship between Cadfael and Hugh coming too short and the loss of Hugh's marriage with Aline and his entire family life, with which I whole-heartedly agree), but as much as I'm trying, I just can't see him as Cadfael. The visuals are so very different from the description given in the book, and generally, he's way too refined for the part, IMO. For comparison, here is my Cadfael:



- Contrary to my expectations, I liked Sean Pertwee as Hugh Beringar. The colouring is all wrong, of course (what is this with TV and movie people preferring blonds while the character is clearly given as black-haired anyway?) but I love his sarcasm that's spot-on.

- The characters in "The Sanctuary Sparrow" were... strange at least. I couldn't for my life understand while Daniel Aurifaber would have been considered such a desirable young man by all, had I not read the books. The women were generally very well-chosen, especially Susanna and Margery; Rannilt I'd have imagined a lot thinner and with much darker hair, but she was okay. Liliwin wasn't bad - the type fit, although he looked a lot older than I'd have imagined from the book. Baldwin Peche was great, and so was the daft boy working for him. I'd have imagined John Boneth a lot younger and perhaps taller and better-looking, but I can live with the casting choice.

- Interestingly enough, I find Brother Jerome way too young; Prior Robert isn't bad, but he hasn't had too much to do so far. I mourn the loss of Brother Mark - it seems they go with Brother Oswin all the way. Understandable, as there are too many characters as it is, but still, Mark was the best of Cadfael's sidekicks, ever. Abbot Heribert is cute - I wonder if they bring in Radulfus eventually or stick with him.

- Gilbert Prestcote was, visually, a grab into the toilet. Will Warden is very different from the book description, too, but I like the look. What is it with me and men with long hair, I wonder? Adam Courcelle mysteriously mutated from a reddish-haired, handsome guy to a dark villain - clichéd much? I liked Aline's looks, too bad that she was only in the first episode.

2) Plot choices
All in all, I had no objections in these two episodes. I liked how they showed things that were only mentioned in the books; it made the whole thing a lot more active and lively, which, I guess, is important in a visual medium. My absolute favourite was the fact that they actually made John Boneth fall in love with Susanna Aurifaber - something I've done in "Sparrows", without knowing that they'd already done it in the series. The subtext must have been very suggestive, I suppose.

3) Sets
Liked Cadfael's hut, but was a bit disappointed that we haven't got to see much of the abbey, so far. All was saw was the dark church (no visible details) with only the faces of the monks as they sing the hores. I so hope for gorgeous shots about a gothic cathedral, but so far, no such luck. And all the outside scenes seem to take place in the same barn - which they probably do, for budget reasons. I understand that, but it's still a bit disappointing.

All in all, I love the series so far. I already dread the episode in which Sean Pertwee will be replaced, but who knows, I might like his successor, too. Even if he does look like a big fat Viking.