Beth Winter

Huh. My favourite book-merchant, Book Depository, is offering free ebooks, with over 11,000 titles.

As far as I can tell, it's all public domain texts, but offered in very nicely typeset PDFs of the kind that make far better ebooks than Project Gutenberg text files. There's the complete Sherlock Holmes, a lot of Victorian fiction and nonfiction, as well as the Chinese classic The Dream of the Red Chamber, or Schiller's The History of the Thirty Years War.

I believe it's time to top up my mobile phone's collection :)

I'm still alive, despite the best attempts of certain microorganisms. Weather's being utterly gorgeous, with white fresh snow everywhere ♥

Also, I started a dedicated Takarazuka journal, to free y'all from having to see babble about daily updates and gossip and random Youtube videos. I can now squee schoolgirl-style here:

yukinojou (DreamWidth)

And here's its LiveJournal feed to add to Friends pages if you really want to see the babble.

Thus far I've posted my long delayed Epiphany review and Battlefield for the Two of Us squee that would be a review if I only knew what was going on in the show ^^; I don't suppose anyone has seen the latter and can clue me in to what Ichiro and Tom were angsting so beautifully about?

Sliding in under the wire on the yuletide rec train, just before the reveal :) Like before, Yuletide was a trip and a half this year. I was in a worse emotional state, but I managed, and I'll post about my stories after the reveal.

This year, I was exceedingly lucky - I got so many stories and treats!

Takarazuka RPF, Yami ga Hirogaru - Kacha and Asako during Elisabeth rehearsals, with Kacha catching a glimpse of the loneliness that Asako forged into her role. This is 100% my take on them, from which I conclude that my Santa is psychic. My Nanowrimo (which fell by the wayside because of the aforementioned events) had these two as main characters, and I could paste this scene into it with just changing character names ♥ Thank you for the telepathy, m'dear!

Takarazuka RPF, Father's Day with the Hapsburgs: A bonus story from my Santa - backstage hijinks and Kiriyan! Kiriyan being her wonderful self.

Babylon 5, The works of creation: Susan Ivanova in her youth, a series of snapshots of her growing up, and growing tougher and more beautiful.

Elisabeth, Do Not Be Afraid: I remain in love with this story. It's Death taking Little Sophie, who's such a Character in this one. And Death is kind, for a moment. ♥

Cinderella, PSA: And to finish it off, tiny Daily Mail article about the dangers of fairytales :D

Other recommendations:

Night Watch, Never be lost: This is exactly the story I asked for last year, Kay after the events of the book, and Kay being happy.

Tanz der Vampire, First Step: How Alfred falls into his story. Be sure to read the ending!

Elisabeth, Guiding Light: Rudolf and Death throughout Rudolf's life. The best parental take on it.

Arthurian Legend, The other way: Mordred and Galahad and making far too much sense ♥ I started writing a story for the same prompt, but couldn't finish in time - it might be a New Year's story....

Vorkosigan saga: The Rules of Barrayaran Sex: Perfectly in-character and exceedingly amusing. Cordelia is always love, and so is Aral and his socks.

Vorkosigan saga: Sworn in Silence: Aral's view of the moments just after his mother's and brother's deaths, a breathless chase and plot and a very poignant view of Piotr Vorkosigan.

 Sandman: Ink Space Lucien's view of the new Dream. It's just a little heartwrenching, and full of a quiet love.

Sandman, Recoil and Grace - an AU ending for Lucifer and Morpheus that makes far more sense than it should.

Discworld, A place called home - The rarest thing, a Discworld fic that does justice to the world and the characters, and a perfect Drumknott (and Vetinari) study.

Discworld, Wizard Muddle:  What happens in UU when Ponder goes on a vacation.

The Cable and Deadpool Yuletide Special: Epic. Just Epic. Read. Even if you have no idea who Cable and Deadpool are, because Deadpool is King of Backstory, thankyouverymuch

After five days of twice-daily IVs, my dearest Tonio's results are much improved. And so is he - annoyed about the cannula, surely, but shiny and happy and jumping and eating ♥ His vet says it's going very well, and while there will be twice daily IVs for another week, I'd do them for months if it meant I can keep his furry self this happy. I know it's a serious, lifetime condition, but one day, one week at a time - he's only six years old :)

(And I think I owe Tomomin a four-page letter full of "OMG your fanclub mail saved my sanity", only then she'll think I'm really insane...)

In other news, here's the Phantom and Rock Phantom on Youtube - sound only, but you can see why I was so happy with my Phantom, the first Phantom I ever saw live, mesmerising 1300 people with a single note :D

Found this for the grandparents, but oh, why don't they make movies like this anymore? :)

So, my favourite joke about a certain Herbert von Krolock is that he could sing Phantom of the Opera as a duet with himself, ending included.

This is him doing The Song That Goes Like This, both sides of it:

( Read more... )

No words.

I'm almost entirely packed for Japan. Thank goodness for Google Street View, because I get to shadow-walk my way everywhere as a dry run before actual travel. It's going to be... fun? :)

Internet availability is pretty sure, but due to the sheer amount of stuff to see, I'll be limiting online time to skipping through the f-list. Anything that requires my attention should be emailed. (No texting, please, my roaming plan's extortionate.)

And once I get back from Japan, I may very well be buying a flat and getting a driver's license in the same month. Fun?

In the meantime, have a coloratura falsetto Abronsius: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8GKlvByZDI

Just noticed it's been almost two weeks since my last entry. I haven't fallen off the face of the earth, I'm just busy. There's work, there's the looming exam (ack!), I'm still doing Nordic Walking at least four times per week, and writing.

In what time I have free, I'm making my way through the published version of jo_graham's Hand of Isis. A full review upcoming once I finish (up to the Ides right now), but I can already say that whatever irked me before is gone now. And I may or may not have offered to do a plushie of another incarnation of Isis/Charmian *eyedart*

So, they finally revealed the costumes and some more of the casting. And dear me.

Sena looks like a gorgeous Death.

And a scary one too.

Kacha looks cute - she suits otokoyaku makeup better, but I love what they did with the eyes, and she looks like she's got a boatload of attitude.

Their attitudes in Wenn Ich Tanzen Will seem to be the correct ones.

I even like the idea of Kiriyan as Franz-Joseph. It's shaping up to be an interesting show.