Sleeeeep.

Last night, I actually had some!  More than  four hours, even!  And it was good.

Weird, weird dreams, though.  Megan and I were living in rural Wisconsin, and my family was visiting.  There was something about a secret family legacy and a plan to win money drag racing that are sort of confused and unmemorable.  And earlier in the night, I remember that I woke up mumbling in distress about a dream in which Megan and I had been arguing or fighting.  So of course the real Megan snuggled me until I was reassured and dropped back off to sleep.

I wouldn't bother recording these fragments, but it's by recording them that I tend to establish the mental habits which allow me to remember more.  So hopefully, watch this space for more interesting summaries in upcoming days.

Now for coffee and wordcount.

Anticipation.

Today's count is 1004 words on The Hellion Prince, which means that as soon as Megan has time to do a final editing pass, I'll have two more chapters posted. 

These are the first words I've written on The Hellion Prince in two months, but I think the hiatus has very much refreshed my brain -- if I didn't have other plans for the evening I've half a chapter resting in my brain, ready to be exorcised onto the page.  It's good to be back at it.

Book Tracking, belatedly.

Had a weird couple of weeks.

Um, in terms of actual factual novels, only two since my last post -- A Letter of Mary and O Jerusalem by Laurie R. King.  More Holmes & Russell mysteries, one taking on a murder investigation, the other set in a lacuna during Beekeeper's Apprentice.  The books continue to have a rich sense of world and a keen Sherlockian voice, but the characterization of the main character is still a bit uneven -- though the first book cast Russell as Holmes' equal, these volumes kept shunting her back to sidekick, arranging matters so that Holmes puts all the crucial details together and Russell isn't quite as keen.  Disappointing.  A Letter of Mary had a particularly strange section where the two of them split up to investigate things, and in the end all the relevant work is done offstage, by Holmes, while Russell's investigation dead-ends because the person she's investigating is 100% innocent.  A very baffling way to construct a novel.  Still, partway through that otherwise frustrating section,  ( Awesome Spoiler )

O Jerusalem deals with WW1-era espionage in Israel, and is fascinating because of it, but it also meandered some. 

I'm continuing the series, but the current volume I'm reading is as dreary and disappointing so far as the Baskervillian Moor upon which it is set.

That seems like not very much reading for me, but don't be deceived -- I have read well over one million words in the last week and a half.  It's just that most of it was fanfic.  Kyon: Big Damn Hero is an epic, ongoing piece of Haruhi Suzumiya fic which crosses its canon with TV Tropes.  This is as cracky and delightful as it might sound, very appropriate to the source material, and a rousing, complex plot combined with a dead-on narrative voice for Kyon make this possibly the best piece of fan-fiction I have ever read.  There's also some material that crosses over with Higurashi, but as I had never even heard of Higurashi before reading this, all I can say is that it works things in pretty seamlessly.  The author has a lot of other work in the same fandom, most of it just as good, and also writes a lot of Ranma fic.  If anyone thinks this sounds interesting, here's his website.

My other epic fanfic binge was Nobody Dies, an equally epic Neon Genesis Evangelion fic springing from a single point of departure:  what if Yui Ikari hadn't died?  The ramifications are wide-ranging and well-considered, and the author alternates cracktastic comedy sequences, classic Big Robot Fights, and psychodrama as dark and disturbing as the source material.  Sometimes, arguably, moreso.  The prose quality is sometimes uneven, and there are a lot of uncorrected typos, but if you enjoy NGE and absurdist comedy, as weird a fit as those two may seem, this story will entertain you.  If you decide to read it, be sure to check out the list of side stories here, because later on in the main fic several of them are folded into canon.

Next on my reading list:  the rest of the next Russell & Holmes novel, then The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.