InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "stop ripping off dita, kelly!"

Joe Reaves (featheredwolf) wrote in ageofsail,
@ 2007-12-31 14:11:00

Current mood:	accomplished
Entry tags:	intro, mod, resources

OT Post
Since I can't expect people to start posting fic within the first few days (unless any of you have any that you've posted elsewhere and you want to repost here) I'm going to make an OT post to try and start some discussion.

So - introduce yourselves. Tell me a little about who you are and what you're hoping to see here. Tell me what your favourite fandoms are or if you're an AU addict instead and are hoping to see loads of CSIM as pirates or NCIS as pre Civil War era marines. Post any links you think we'd be interested in.

I'll start you all off.

I'm Joe, your mod. I'm British and, despite my name, female. I'm currently hugely addicted to the Temeraire books, but I loved Master and Commander (the film, I haven't read the books), the Horatio Hornblower tv movies, and Pirates of the Caribbean. I love the whole feel of the period, the clothing, the adventures, and of course the way the character interactions differ from today because of rank/class and etiquette. I'm also a total AU whore and I run 50alternates where you can write either historical or fantasy AUs. I'm an historian (although this isn't the period I studied) and a geek so I am a huge fan of accuracy. I think research really makes a story set in this period come alive and it drives me insane when I see anachronisms.

I also have a *huge* bookmarks folder so let's find some links -

Ships of the Royal Navy in the Napoleonic period.
American Privateers in the War of 1812.
Measuring Worth a guide to the purchasing power of the British pound since the 13th century (this is really handy when you're trying to figure out roughly what coin Horatio might toss his cab driver as a tip ...)
Measuring Worth - the US dollar version from 1774 onwards.
18th Century British Naval Ranks
America and the Barbary Pirates
Pirates and Privateers - a history of maritime piracy.
Regency England
A History of Smuggling in Britain

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featheredwolf
2008-01-08 01:10 am UTC (link)

Lol OK if you insist on being 'myeterious'. :D

Pity about Empire. The annoying thing is in bigger comms when people talk about films I see loads of people saying they love it. It seems to have a load of fans and no fandom. Liv Tyler's annoying but then her character's meant to be a bit annoying so I ignore it :D Renee Zellwegger (Bridget Jones movies aside) is ten times the actress she is lol.

And now I'm off to post the first 9000 words or so of my Mag7 JanNo.

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	sweetsorcery 2008-01-08 01:26 am UTC (link)
	I do! I do! :) Yup, it's like that with 'Dawn of the Dead'. Cult movie. Hugely loved by horror fans everywhere. But apparently, none of them are fanfic writers. :\ Oh, you're good. I'm so behind on my writing obligations. I have four full-length Lucius stories to complete by February 15th, and four more ASAP. And that's not counting the LotR drabbles! (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	featheredwolf 2008-01-08 01:29 am UTC (link)
	I still owe people Christmas ficlets lol. Last year's Secret Santa for a list I'm on I had to post a 2000 word extract. I finally finished it this October lol. And the one I posted for this year's Secret Santa I actually started in July ... 2005. I'm very good at starting things. Hang on how can you say you don't like fantasy ... you write LotR! (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

sweetsorcery
2008-01-08 01:47 am UTC (link)

Oh yes, I'm a lot better at starting than finishing myself. I'm actually my own biggest obstacle, because I tend to leap between fandoms at the worst possible times. Such as when deadlines loom.

If you look again, you'll notice it says 'except LotR and HP'. I'm in those for the characters and grudgingly put up with the fantasy elements, and I steer well clear of the books. :)
My stories in those fandoms are frequently AU and rarely go into anything 'fantasy' to a great extent. And no dragons in sight!

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featheredwolf
2008-01-08 01:50 am UTC (link)

Lol well OK I guess. Other than the fact they're riding huge dragons (lol because that's such a tiny detail, right?) Temeraire is pretty low fantasy. It's very similar in feel to a Hornblower type story, but if you're not into that that's fine anyway.

I love fantasy myself but I do tend to prefer a little less magic (I love Harry Potter but the magic does have limits thank goodness). It makes it harder to plot things if any problem can be solved with someone waving a magic wand.

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sweetsorcery
2008-01-08 02:00 am UTC (link)

I don't believe I've ever written a scene actually involving dragons - huge or otherwise. :) If I should ever need to because it doesn't make sense otherwise, I'll bite that bullet. For example, a story I wrote had to touch on the thestrals, so I simply don't dwell.

The magic element isn't so bad. It can come in quite handy, really. It's the creatures that tend to make me cringe. (Dobby! Argh!!)

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featheredwolf
2008-01-08 02:04 am UTC (link)

The trouble with magic, from a writing perspective, is it's hard to make sure your characters can't get out of whatever 'peril' they're in by just waving a wand. There's always some simple magical way of getting round something you miss lol. I prefer the creatures to the magic.

I tend to like urban or low fantasy where you have fantasy races and such but not so much wand waving :D I'm like Snape - all that foolish wand waving bugs me ;)

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