(no subject)

[parthenia]

Are the stars in some sort of especially ugly alignment right now? So yesterday, I posted my merry return-to-form LJ item, and then almost immediately got a call from kids' club about E. being ill. Brought them home (no work), and well, what with one thing and another, ended up shouting at everyone and melting into a great big teary tantrum at about 7 pm.

Indeed, my meltdown was so awesomely, incredibly, majorly epic, I was beginning to slightly fear for my own mental health. B. brought me dinner in bed and E. brought me her softest teddy bear to cuddle. Anyway, cut to 11 pm and P. made a kind of sqeak from his bed, and that was the first of several bouts of sickness...

Bit of a sleepless night.

He's off school today and I either have a milder version of what he's got or alternatively, have yet another overdose of empathy-created illness. Good job I never tried to be a medic.

Anyway. Two things, no three:

1) Any recs for fanfic from HP or (gasp) Torchwood? Canon compliant, long, awesomely good?

2) Can I interest any of you good folk in a spare ticket for the Fratellis this coming Friday at the Albert Hall?

3) E. had her birthday and I made an overcompensating cake of purple awesomeness:



The other week P. had a much delayed party and I made a cake of lesser awesomeness (honestly, orange icing on chocolate would have looked nicer than black on grey);

but it made us both laugh.


On that note I think I will go and lie down.

Comments

[melusina]

Here's my Torchwood tag on delicious - it's mostly fic recs. . .

::hugs::

[dkompare.livejournal.com]

* hugs *

It never ceases to amaze me how our kids affect the physical and emotional state of the household. Good luck! Happy fic hunting!

[parthenia14.livejournal.com]

...yes, and how they stop the entire household in its tracks, if they want to.

Thank you! I'm working my way up to some thoughts on Dr Who and indeed on Torchwood. (Short version: liked a lot of it, was skeeved by the special effects and some aspects of Catherine Tate's acting).

[parthenia14.livejournal.com]

Ooh, thank you. I have thought there might be some interesting stuff here, to make up for the plot holes. I love Ianto, actually, so that looks veeery interesting.

[geoviki.livejournal.com]

Poor you! I am Mum, hear me roar!

The gutting of our bathroom is to begin momentarily, but here's a fic you might like. It's Teddy/Cedric and very plotty and cool.

http://midnitemaraud-r.livejournal.com/123071.html

[parthenia14.livejournal.com]

*squints*

Oh. Thank you. I'm ...out of practice with HP, to tell you the truth. What I think I really want is some Deathly Hallows-based stuff. Any type (het, gen, slash) but ideally with No Sex Whatsoever.

[ruric.livejournal.com]

Fabulous cakes...and sorry to hear about the meltdown.

If if helps you're not alone.

I'm having that kind of day, R is too and so are a couple of other LJ friends!

[parthenia14.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the reassurance. Perhaps 'batshit' is in my future?

Am feeling a bit better - ginger biscuits FTW.

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

...and me...

[amelia-eve.livejournal.com]

I have no fics to rec, but I have mad, mad cake love!

[parthenia14.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I found my old letter-cutters and made some lilac food colouring. P. feels that a Torchwood cake is much more sophisticated.

[jonem.livejournal.com]

You enjoy your meltdown. At least it's good for dinner in bed!

You cakes are, as always, fantastic.

[parthenia14.livejournal.com]

Ahh, I'm not really enjoying melting-down. I was kind of relieved today when I realised I was a bit ill as opposing to taking up my one way ticket to Hormonal Batshit Insanity Land.

It was good cake! E's is an egg-free spiced Victoria Sponge, sandwiched with raspberry jam and cream. Actually edible, too.

[cordelia_v]

Much cake love. If it weren't for amelia_eve, my kids wouldn't ever see anything like that.

And forgive yourself for the meltdown. We've all been there. I hope you're all feeling better soon, and still enjoying the de-cluttered household. That part continues to impress me.

[parthenia14.livejournal.com]

Ha! It is one of my islands of motherly accomplishment, kept in check by lack of time.

Thanks. I'm relieved to realise that illness as much as exhaustion was responsible for the meltdown, but one's tether is definitely only so long.

[sharonmarais.livejournal.com]

awesome cakes....

feel better soon all of you

HUGS

[parthenia14.livejournal.com]

Thank you :)

Gourmet egg-free cake - shame there's no market.

[sharonmarais.livejournal.com]

recipe????

[(Anonymous)]

I have been there with the meltdown - certainly on more than one occasion. It happens. : /

Fabulous cakes. : )

[(Anonymous)]

oh damn, that was me - aubrem. am having troubles staying logged in for some reason.

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

Brilliant cakes. Sorry about the meltdown - you really, really are not alone though.

[parthenia14.livejournal.com]

Are you in your bunk...with the cakes? I'm so bad at reading icons.

Thank you.

[unblinkered.livejournal.com]

Meep. Empathising on the mehness front....I've had days.....weeks.... months like this. It will get better.

At for fanfic....can I recommend this? It fits none of the above parameters, but is very, very funny. :D

[parthenia14.livejournal.com]

Hahahahaha!

nao he ded from turchwad, indeed.

Oh, now I'm ill. Better than mad. Er. :D :D

[lyras.livejournal.com]

I'm afraid I can't think of anything set around Deathly Hallows. I have, however, been working my way through fernwithy's Teddy Lupin chaptered fics, which are canon-compliant and very easy going, while remaining full of Fern's usual plottiness and interesting characterisation. I didn't read them when she first posted, because I was all 'next gen = BORING', but they are very good. Fern, incidentally, is the only writer who can make me read the hospital scene at the end of HBP with anything less than distaste.

Anyway, they're here if you're interested (start with Teddy Lupin and the Forest Guard).

*hugs you gently*

[parthenia14.livejournal.com]

Interesting, thanks.

I think the stories I'm looking for aren't on LJ at all. I'm somewhat prejudiced against the next generation because I'm not done with the current generation (speaking as someone who has read almost no fanfic in the last year). I may need to return to Fictionalley. Mwahahaha.

[lyras.livejournal.com]

Let me know if you find anything? Er, unless it's H/D, which is like my one squick pairing, sorry!

[parthenia14.livejournal.com]

You know what? I would like Ginny and Neville-centric fics set in the missing year at Hogwarts.

You're squicked at H/D? Awww. Mine is Snape.

...I'm not sure why I'm so uncertain about Next Generation; possibly that gets too close to 'fic about being a middle-aged parent' which I could basically do without.

[lyras.livejournal.com]

I would love to read DH-era Ginny and Neville. I may have just planned out a multi-chaptered story on this subject. Apart from the tiny collection of Harry/Ginny fans on my flist, everyone I know has either moved on to other fandoms or is writing about the next generation (mostly from that generation's POV, though, so not so much with the middle-aged parent viewpoint).

Sometimes I get nostalgic for the days when I used to trawl Schnoogle for good writing and didn't actually know anyone in fandom.

[meredyth-13.livejournal.com]

Your cakes rock!

*sends hugs and sympathy with a big cup of tea*

I will think on the recs and see if I can come up with anything brilliant!

[parthenia14.livejournal.com]

You're reading the H/D stuff, aren't you? I looked at worldcup and hyperventilated a bit at the volume (also? if those comments are critical, then I'm a willowy 6-footer). One of the most intriguing things is that you get really good stories which go completely off the boil once Draco appears. I think it has become really hard to write non-fanon Draco.

[meredyth-13.livejournal.com]

I'm reading, not all of it... but most of it. I didn't even go read them... my rant was more along the lines of 'I'm sick of hearing about this kind of crap' than anything more.

Funny, in my head you rather are a willowy six-footer - and it has nothing to do with what size or height you actually are.

I think I've only read two fics so far that didn't feel... young, or forced. I've had nice things to say about most of them, some I didn't have anything constructive to add, and some I didn't finish. But there's just a feel, so far, something not quite MY H/D. In all honesty, I'm hoping it's the prompts that they've chosen to post first, because it feels like the JOY (all caps) has gone out of writing H/D. Even the EWE and Fanon writers seem to have lost the spark of wonder that was key in the H/D that I love. There's been one or two fics with a real canon Draco - and he wasn't much joy, although very interesting. I think it's hard to remember just who Draco was in the books - when you read so much fic and don't go back to the source very often.

For me it was always about what we could do to canon Draco to make him... more - real, maybe. He was always a dimension or two short of a personality, and it was those leaps, the ones that felt good, whether they were light or dark, that I loved seeing bounced off Harry.

*sigh*

I talk too much. ;)

[parthenia14.livejournal.com]

I haven't really read good H/D since reading the Golden Age (hahahaha) stories that were written round about Order of the Phoenix. There must be some good stuff around the Half Blood Prince even if TDH was a bit of a damb squib in that regard.

I think I've lost my interest in the fanon creations, really, which seem to have become quite one-note.

[meredyth-13.livejournal.com]

*hugs*

Well, I'm clinging to Maya's fanon Draco, because OMG, I love her writing. Actually, I'm quite possessive of the small stable of H/D writers whose work I love. I cling to them like an annoying limpetty creature.

I have, however, just been sunk into the pits of despair. I KNOW there are some awesome writers writing for this fest... and one would like to assume that the teams were assisting each other and beta-ing, but OMG, someone just committed the Unforgivable, and I have gone into private flaily mode.

*sigh*

[parthenia14.livejournal.com]

See, I thought you were merely calling for drugs. :D Which was entirely understandable.

My 11 year old still says 'tooken', it's quite amusing.

[rhythmaning.livejournal.com]

What you describe seems like a perfectly reasonable reaction!

The cake looks wonderful.