Fanny Price... and fisticuffs

I am often late to the party when it comes to hilarious YouTube videos. However, on the off chance that you're an Austen fan who hasn't seen this yet... enjoy.

Sassy Gay Vikings?

Wherefore art thou, my immortal Viking hero? Hast thou received a make-over from the Sassy Gay Friend? "Friday Videos" at Smart Bitches, Trashy Books turned me on to this set of Othello, Hamlet, and Romeo and Juliet alternate endings.




Last week I struggled to edit the scene where my hero and heroine visit a museum to "borrow" a valuable relic. If he appeared as a Special Forces dude, I doubted the museum director would help, so I originally disguised Wulf as a documentary film maker in black glasses and a New York accent. Result: a scene no better than packing peanuts. Then I met the Sassy Gay Friend, and voila:

"An appointment would permit me to prepare." The white-haired gentleman who met them in the Danish National Museum's Great Hall stared over his reading glasses. "The snow delayed my staff. I am alone today."
"We are so so sorry. Our funding came through forty-eight hours ago and we had scads to pack." Wulf tilted his head as he held out his hand. "To save money, the donor used frequent flier miles, can you believe?"
"I see." The Director of Danish Prehistory nodded his understanding of donor peccadilloes. "Do you have a camera person?"
"His flight was delayed in Paris, so completely unfair." Wulf pressed one hand to his cheek and pulled his shoulders forward. "I looove Par-ee."
"We plan our shots in advance." Theresa stepped between him and the director. "For this segment we're interested in sword hilts of approximately 500 A.D." Behind her back she wiggled her fingers at Wulf.
Tone it down? She glared over her shoulder and Wulf blew a kiss. Not a chance, baby. I want to see you laugh.

Sassy Gay Friend, meet Wulf, the immortal Viking warrior. Readers, go forth and flip your glitter scarves. I'm spending the week finding every tiny mistake, every "just" and "still" and "stood up" and "sat down" that sneaked through previous edits of The Soldier. [Yes, I know the right side of the video is chopped off. Lots of things get chopped off in my book, so I'm not going to deal with this. Click through to youtube or SmartBitchesTrashyBooks if you need the whole thing.]

Total Eclipse of a Mullet with Headlights

Recently, I begged my school librarian to do some research for me regarding book trailers. This is all part and parcel of my "work smarter, not harder" campaign. I figured I could have my students compose book trailers as a final project. Through teaching them, I would learn how to do it on my own for later promotional purposes. Day job, dream career--two birds, one stone.

Lovely, isn't it?

I have yet to implement book trailers in my classroom. Happily, however, my librarian went on a hilarious research tangent that I simply must share with you all. Have you heard of literal videos? It's where someone changes the lyrics of a song so that they describe what's happening in the (ridiculous) video.

This has to be my favorite literal video. Do yourself a favor and watch the whole thing! Let me know what you think.

I'd Love to Taste You. No, Really.

I'm going to continue my line of thought for this week.

Enjoy the video! And feel free to post your thoughts on Twilight. Edward Cullen: sweet, or stalker?

The Love That Dare Not Speak Its Name

I was inspired by Zeek's Supernatural post awhile back. In it, she mentions the show's reference to the wide world of slash fiction. If you're not familiar, slash fiction is fan fiction that depicts romantic or sexual relationships between characters of the same-sex. In other words, stories depicting Captain Kirk and Spock making sweet, sweet love on the bridge of the Enterprise.

Now, one of the best academic discussions I've ever seen of slash fiction happened in the Bitch magazine article "Fan/tastic Voyage." Check it out if you want a truly thoughtful exploration of the implications of slash. (Slash writers = predominantly straight women. Slash audience = mostly other women. So why the focus on male/male romantic relationships? This is what the article explores.)

While I admire the article, I do not aspire to such lofty heights of feminist analysis here. I honestly just wanted to give you the recut Top Gun trailer. If you can't view the video at the top of this post, you can always follow the link here.

I don't know about you, but I thought the recut trailer was hilarious. If nothing else, it reminded me about the importance of editing! My, my... how it shapes a story...

What did you think? Did anyone else do a spit-take with their coffee?

Not-So Evil Dolls

Libba Bray is the fabulous, fantastic, fierce author of the Gemma Doyle trilogy-- some of the meatiest, funniest, creepiest, most inventive, best developed, and just gosh-darn greatest YA novels Kate D. and I have read in the last 5 years.

She has a live journal that is must-read material for anyone interested in the writing life, her phenomenal work, and generally funny stuff.

In February, she hosted a competition for fans of her fantasy series: create something that represents the trilogy, be it a song, skit, sketch, or story and win a role in her upcoming Vampire-focused ms. The winner has been chosen and crowned. And I implore everyone who loves the books, extremely condensed-retellings of long, complicated works, and doll humor to check it out:



If for some reason you can't play our embedded video, follow this link to the Doll Version of Gemma Doyle and Friends.