minerva_fest ! Prompt Claiming is open Here Through June 1

This entry was originally posted at http://winterwitch.dreamwidth.org/109023.html and has comments. You can comment on DW using OpenID.

The fanfiction gods are gracious at the moment, giving us so wonderful Minerva goodness!

First, hp_beholder brought us one of the most wonderful Minerva-Severus fanarts ever. "Safe in your arms" (PG-13) shows this unique and unusual couple in the most perfect way IMHO, and contains for me the essence of this relationship and pairing.

And then, as you hopefully already know, the wonderfulminerva_fest is running again this year. Prompting has now started and is still running until the 15th, so go and do your duty! :o) 

Minerva_Fest! Prompt Posting Here Through May 15

(banner by featherxquill; art by Makani) This entry was originally posted at http://winterwitch.dreamwidth.org/108054.html and has comments. You can comment on DW using OpenID.

Yay, we managed, last Sunday already, and I'm so glad we did. I heard so many good things about the movie, and nothing of it was exaggerated. I can only firmly agree with everything therealsnape said about it her thorough comment on LJ.

This entry was originally posted at http://winterwitch.dreamwidth.org/107908.html and has comments. You can comment on DW using OpenID.

The main calendar page is to be found here. On this page, you'll find the link to the online page in two sizes of the current month, 1280x960 and 1024x768. The sheets are designed in size to be used as wallpapers or screensavers as well. You can watch each sheet online, download it singularly or a zip file with all the sheets of one size for personal use: Zip 1280x960 and 1024x768

On the main calender page, there are some thumbnails for each months, as well as the link to a sheet overview with the smallest size of the sheets available. I'm going to post each month an entry with the newest sheet/thumbnail and the links, and a translated text/explanation if existing.

Since I'm posting this publicly, allow me a little disclaimer: The calendar is a free gift for your personal use, and we kindly ask to respect that. Feel free to tell others about it and show them the calendar page or this entry in English, but don't pass the sheets or single images/sheets on yourself. Please do not use the images otherwise, do not copy and/or alter them or do something else with them. Thank you! The project is non-commercial and totally non-profit, we're just some amateurs showing some of our favourite pieces.

This entry was originally posted at http://winterwitch.dreamwidth.org/107765.html and has comments. You can comment on DW using OpenID.

I'm falling behind already with the fest-reading, not having finished the first week's entries and not even half through with the current week's... but I have three gems to share:

From the first week's batch, The Celestial Code is one of my absolute favourites so far. Its a wonderfully long reading and hitting several of my favourites: new parts of magical lore used, explained, and integrated; a story fitting well into canon - or rather, in this case, a  perfect re-telling of canon with a new factor added (the story is covering, in fact, the whole book canon period); and a Snape who stays perfectly in character, yet is shown so much more three-dimensional and real by observing him from a different POV.
Aurora Sinistra/Severus Snape, NC-17, ~29.000 words

Amorous Birds of Prey, Minerva McGonagall/Severus Snape, R, 3000 words
A lovely take on how the two of them got together, what they found in each other, and what came form that, while keeping both marvellously in character.

The Chelmsford List, Stan Shunpike/Mundungus Flechter, R, ~6000 words
Your typical Beholder story: two characters most people never gave much attention so far, brought wonderfully alife in the hands of a skilled author, adding a delightful piece to the Wizarding world we so love.


This entry was originally posted at http://winterwitch.dreamwidth.org/107278.html and has comments. You can comment on DW using OpenID.

Yesterday, we had tremendous fun with Iron Sky:



I was rather curious about the movie anyway, what with the way it was put together, financed, and produced, and what we've seen previously seemed rather promising as well. The end result was even better than anticipated, despite the odd lengthy moment, and presented itself as one of the most hilarious, absurd and fun movies I've seen for quite some time. I suppose they managed to get in every bloody cliché existiing about every subject touched in the movie, and they did it well. Like bringing the term "weapons of women" in whole new dimensions... *g*
I was in tears from laughing most of the time, like everybody else.
The end very bittersweet and not at all funny, but it doesn't take the fun out of the whole experience, and fits very well IHMO, making it just a little bit more than just a comedy and persiflage.

Reading some of the critiques leaves me with the strong feeling that one probably needs a certain cineastic background to appreciate all kinds of allusions (and I didn't get all anyway, since I haven't watched several classics among the Scifi movies, like Alien, or Flash Gordon.
It's also quite liberating and satisfying to have so free and easily poked fun at us Germans and that darn and difficult part of our past.


This entry was originally posted at http://winterwitch.dreamwidth.org/106759.html and has comments. You can comment on DW using OpenID.

I've been asked to write down an easy way to convert a fest fic posted on LJ, DW or IJ into Kindle format, so here it is.

I'm reading nearly all fanfic on my Kindle since I have it, and wanted an easy, simple, and fast way to convert the fics into a format that works on my device. In the case of fics posted at LJ and so on, I also wanted to just have the fic for reading, without comments and additional images and stuff from the LJ site itself. With the great help of mmadfan, who also introduced me to the very useful tool calibre (and who also offers her fics already in Kindle format ;o), go looking at her journal if you're interested), I found what I wanted and hopefully can explain it well enough here for you to reproduce.

If you're interested but have another ebook reading device, I suppose the process can be adapted easy enough; but as I don't have any experience with other devices, I can only describe it for the Kindle.
( Here we go )

---

I hope I didn't make any mistakes in describing the process and that everything is well understandable, too. Please let me know if you spot anything, or have problems with my suggestions.

This entry was originally posted at http://winterwitch.dreamwidth.org/106580.html and has comments. You can comment on DW using OpenID.

The first week of hp_beholder has run, and while I didn't manage to read all fics yet, I have some goodies to share, wonderful reads all of them: 

As you say, Severus Snape/Petunia Dursley, PG-13, 16.800 words.
They meet at Lily's birthday, at her grave, and discover a unique relationship for one day a year. We meet as unexpected a Petunia as a Severus, both being able to be a different self in these unusual circumstances, and drawing comfort from that.

Irma's Library, Irma Pince/several others (and supposedly at least one of the characters you love), PG-13, 2000 words.
A splendid take on the secret life of a librarian, a life most wouldn't even dare to believe exists.

Smiles of a Summer Night, Minerva McGonagall/Alastor Moody, R, ~8300 words.
A tale of a relatiionship re-kindled, if only for the moment, with all its beauty, intensity, and bittersweetness.

Under the surface, Abraxas Malfoy/Orion Black, PG, 1780 words.
A most unusual pairing for me, showing the humanity and sometimes bitter reality behind the surface of political and social choices and ties without glorifying nor ignoring the latter.


This entry was originally posted at http://winterwitch.dreamwidth.org/106180.html and has comments. You can comment on DW using OpenID.

Yay, one thing off the neverending todo-list: I've finally put all my fanfic, English and German, on the Archive of Our Own. Who would have thought that the little I wrote will take me two days to move? *g*
I've also collected the drabbles and small pieces into fewer and hopefully more condensed units. I planned this for ages, since I wanted to have AO3 as my main fanfic home, but all that editing-into-html seemed so much bother... I'm feeling rather accomplished now it's done.

You'll find my works here: Alcina's works

Since it's also working since some time, I've subscribed to all your AO3 profiles I knew of and am looking for those I might have missed.

I've also found out that downloading the offered mobi files to my Kindle provides for files full of special and unreadable characters, but downloading the html file and converting that in my usual way works just perfectly.

This entry was originally posted at http://winterwitch.dreamwidth.org/104983.html and has comments. You can comment on DW using OpenID.

I've quite some catching up to do, since our Easter holidays were quite time-consuming in a good way, what with family get-togethers, birthday celebrations and such, and then having my eldest niece over for a couple of days. It was great, but I didn't get close to the keyboard for more than ten minutes a day.

So just two things for the moment: first, my heartfelt congratulations to all of you winning and/or getting nominated at the Spring Round ofhpfanficfanpoll !!! Truly well-deserved, of course, and I feel honoured to be on all of your flists! :o) 

And secondly, there's still some time left to claim one of the wonderful prompts at hp_friendship. There are still many claims with the non-student generation, so go forth and do your fangurly duty! :o) There never can be enough good older generation fanfic in the Potterverse.
I'm quite excited that one of my prompts got claimed, too! :o)




</user> This entry was originally posted at http://winterwitch.dreamwidth.org/104732.html and has comments. You can comment on DW using OpenID.

The main calendar page is to be found here. On this page, you'll find the link to the online page in two sizes of the current month, 1280x960 and 1024x768. The sheets are designed in size to be used as wallpapers or screensavers as well. You can watch each sheet online, download it singularly or a zip file with all the sheets of one size for personal use: Zip 1280x960 and 1024x768

On the main calender page, there are some thumbnails for each months, as well as the link to a sheet overview with the smallest size of the sheets available. I'm going to post each month an entry with the newest sheet/thumbnail and the links, and a translated text/explanation if existing.

Since I'm posting this publicly, allow me a little disclaimer: The calendar is a free gift for your personal use, and we kindly ask to respect that. Feel free to tell others about it and show them the calendar page or this entry in English, but don't pass the sheets or single images/sheets on yourself. Please do not use the images otherwise, do not copy and/or alter them or do something else with them. Thank you! The project is non-commercial and totally non-profit, we're just some amateurs showing some of our favourite pieces.

This entry was originally posted at http://winterwitch.dreamwidth.org/103809.html and has comments. You can comment on DW using OpenID.

Ahem. In November, I had the idea of making a photo series of the castle we live so close to, taking pictures regularly from the same window. As it happened, I took the first picture, prepared the entry, but that was it until last week when I stumbled over said prepared and thankfully saved entry. I have just posted this backdated; you can reach it and read the original idea with the tag <steinsberg>.

Here is only the second picture of the series, taken four days ago, but I hope I will manage shorter intervals from now on *whistles*.
If you squint, you see some new addtion to the castle: there is a new roof to be seen just over the inner wall, as well as some scaffolding. Turned out that the town council decided to do something about getting the castle back to its former glory and is in the process of reconstructing some of the destroyed buildings. So my first picture of the series at least shows the condition before. And if you compare both images, you'll know that we had a gorgeous autumn as well as a wonderful spring. ;o) 

This entry was originally posted at http://winterwitch.dreamwidth.org/103503.html and has comments. You can comment on DW using OpenID.

Since yesterady, the first season of Game of Thrones is to be seen in three parts in German free TV. We stumbled upon it by chance and spontaneously fell in love.

Since we're both not really interested in the latest TV stuff, rarely watch anything live thanks to your hard disk recorder, and are no real TV series fans, this was quite a nice surprise. Sure, I had heard about the series somewhere already (probably even from someone on my flist), and the Winterwizard who's the fantasy reader in the family, has had the books in hand once or twice. But nothing of that evoked enough interest to buy the books / be on the lookout for the show. We switched the TV on just as the first part started, and despite it length (episodes 1-3 without longer breaks) stayed until the end, and will do so tonight as well as tomorrow evening, even cancelling our planned cinema outing for today. But we both simply don't want to wait longer than necessary until we can see it *lol*.
The filming is awesome IMHO, with a satisfying love for detail and medieval authenticity (as far as that is relevant in a Fantasy world), and a complexity that seems to match the book quite well. Though I'm no real judge for that, of course, not having read any of the books yet. I particularly love some of the actors they choose, particularly for the Stark family,  Ned's brother Benjen included. And as far as quality goes, SUCH a relief in comparison to the atrocities they're currently broadcasting in German TV (though I have only had glimpses of previes, couldn't stand more of it) *shudders*.
When the first part was over, I couldn't resist and got myself the first book for my Kindle, spending half the night burying myself in the book and browsing around... and find it really well-written and capturing so far. I used to read quite a lot of Fantasy, but haven't done so for ages with the exception of the Harry Potter series, drifting more into the historic novel realm and mostly reading crime novels anyway. (And not for lack of opportunity, either; the Winterwizard has most of the contemporary fantasy worth reading standing around.)
Likewise, observing the off-putting ultra-hype that "The Hunger Games" filming is currently treated with, this feels so nicely solid and well-made.

This entry was originally posted at http://winterwitch.dreamwidth.org/102656.html and has comments. You can comment on DW using OpenID.

pale_moonlite and tetleythesecond came up with a wonderful idea for a fest: celebrating friendship in the Harry Potter world. It's a prompt-based fest, with prompting starting tomorrow, and with those two, the fest is in competend hands, as the several football bet fests proved so well. ;o)  Come and join the fun! 




banner by tetleythesecond

[Rules & Timeline] * hp_friendship at DW This entry was originally posted at http://winterwitch.dreamwidth.org/102474.html and has comments. You can comment on DW using OpenID.

test

ETA: Tested successfully. Last night, the posting interface at Dreamwidth was broken, and after it was fixed again I was asked to try if it worked for me, thus the test.

This entry was originally posted at http://winterwitch.dreamwidth.org/101872.html and has comments. You can comment on DW using OpenID.

kelly_chambliss's great movie review, and since I fear that it won't be shown long enough I will get another chance. The darn bug came along with a nice fever, bad chest congestion and all the trimmings, leaving me like a wet rag.

But I had awesome reading to pass the time as soon as I was up to it with dueltastic's wonderful new Snape/McGonagall epic, Circumstances of a Small and Accidental Nature. (Already rec'red by most of my flist, but for once I managed a fic so soon after publishing that rec'cing it isn't too embarrassing due to my lateness.)
Ok, despite Minerva and Severus being my favourite fanfiction couple ever, I somehow never really thought about the two of them having children. Not because of the age question, and also not because I dislike children or pregnancy fanfic stories about my favourite characters - I don't, if they're well done and not among those soppy cheesy "aaawwww-isn't-Sevvie-cuuuti-as-a-dad" atrocities. I have read some very well-written and realistic takes on the scenario with Severus, though not yet with Minerva. No, simply because it truly didn't cross my mind yet when I was working out my head-canon of these two. dueltastic manages admirably to tell that tale in a way that is not only utterly believable and realistic, but also firmly IC and fitting into canon, AND she shows a live-style for the two of them as parents and professionals that leaves nothing to wish for. If you haven't yet, go and read. You know you want to!

Oh, and by the way, here is another point pro reading fanfic on your kindle/ebook reader: I was too ill even for my netbook in bed, but the kindle was perfect, even better than a book, since I could prop it up while I was shivering under the covers, and you can "turn" the pages even through your coverlet. ;o)

Speaking of reading, I'm also having much fun with my current crime novel, the fourth of the Kluftinger-series; Laienspiel. I'm afraid it's not available in English, and the sub-genre is probably a bit difficult to explain as well. It's called regional crime novels in German, meaning crime novels taking place in certain areas and laying much emphasis on local pecularities, clichés, and dialects; also often playing much with typical and very regional allusions. Some of them are very well done, others much less so; and in my personal opinion it works best when you know at least a bit about the quirks and pecularities of the region. This series, taking place in the Allgäu, a region on the Southern border of Germany, is perhaps the most famous of the genre, but also the best in my eyes. And it always comes with banter to die for. ♥

We also had a wonderful cinema evening last week, when we spontaneously went to see Hugo Cabret (Hugo).


It was a very well-made, truly enchanting movie telling a lovely story, with a great cast. I particularly loved the cameos of Frances de la Tour (Olympe Maxime), Richard Griffiths (Uncle Vernon), Christopher Lee and Helen McCrory (Narcissa Malfoy), and even a short glimpse of Crookhanks was to be seen!   *g*

This entry was originally posted at http://winterwitch.dreamwidth.org/100922.html and has comments. You can comment on DW using OpenID.

The main calendar page is to be found here. On this page, you'll find the link to the online page in two sizes of the current month, 1280x960 and 1024x768. The sheets are designed in size to be used as wallpapers or screensavers as well. You can watch each sheet online, download it singularly or a zip file with all the sheets of one size for personal use: Zip 1280x960 and 1024x768

On the main calender page, there are some thumbnails for each months, as well as the link to a sheet overview with the smallest size of the sheets available. I'm going to post each month an entry with the newest sheet/thumbnail and the links, and a translated text/explanation if existing.

Since I'm posting this publicly, allow me a little disclaimer: The calendar is a free gift for your personal use, and we kindly ask to respect that. Feel free to tell others about it and show them the calendar page or this entry in English, but don't pass the sheets or single images/sheets on yourself. Please do not use the images otherwise, do not copy and/or alter them or do something else with them. Thank you! The project is non-commercial and totally non-profit, we're just some amateurs showing some of our favourite pieces.

This entry was originally posted at http://winterwitch.dreamwidth.org/100589.html and has comments. You can comment on DW using OpenID.

I have been very quiet, these last weeks, journal-wise, so let me peek out of my figurative mousehole with some nice things to hear for brighten up one's mood. That is, nice for me, I don't know if I'm meeting anybody else's taste with this. *g*

Let me start with Katzenjammer, a Norwegian New-Folk-Band with a very special sound. I got their first album, "Le Pop", for Christmas, but am mostly watching Youtube clips since their live performances are awesome. They're playing mostly acoustic instruments, switching them very often among themselves, have awesome voices, and just seem to burst at the seems with joy and zest for life. I might have mentioned them again already.






The last two feature my favourite singer of the group, Marianne, who can do awesome things with her voice.

Another relatively new discovery for me was Omnia, a Dutch Pagan Folk Band. I'm having a strange experience with them, something that often happens to me: I hear a song or to, totally love it, get an album, and don't like it much. Still listen to it since I got it, and start to like it extremely some time later... in this case, I loved the first album I got, "Pagan Folk", to bits, but am not yet liking the second one, "Wolf love".
So have something from "Pagan Folk":

I know I have the weirdest wishes as far as learning languages is concerned, like Finnish and Breton, which this songs strongly reminds me of.





This entry was originally posted at http://winterwitch.dreamwidth.org/99686.html and has comments. You can comment on DW using OpenID.

Is it just my blog, or is LJ AGAIN not sending any notifciations out? I got several about comments made on my comments, but just found out that I don't seem to get any notifications of new journal entries... *sigh* 

This entry was originally posted at http://winterwitch.dreamwidth.org/99058.html and has comments. You can comment on DW using OpenID.

The main calendar page is to be found here. On this page, you'll find the link to the online page in two sizes of the current month, 1280x960 and 1024x768. The sheets are designed in size to be used as wallpapers or screensavers as well. You can watch each sheet online, download it singularly or a zip file with all the sheets of one size for personal use: Zip 1280x960 and 1024x768

On the main calender page, there are some thumbnails for each months, as well as the link to a sheet overview with the smallest size of the sheets available. I'm going to post each month an entry with the newest sheet/thumbnail and the links, and a translated text/explanation if existing.

Since I'm posting this publicly, allow me a little disclaimer: The calendar is a free gift for your personal use, and we kindly ask to respect that. Feel free to tell others about it and show them the calendar page or this entry in English, but don't pass the sheets or single images/sheets on yourself. Please do not use the images otherwise, do not copy and/or alter them or do something else with them. Thank you! The project is non-commercial and totally non-profit, we're just some amateurs showing some of our favourite pieces.

This entry was originally posted at http://winterwitch.dreamwidth.org/98419.html and has comments. You can comment on DW using OpenID.