Okay, so I was totally going to hold off until queenbitchfest was done with and then do one big recs post, but aaaaaah, Boys Keep Swinging is so amazing I couldn't wait. It's every teen movie you ever loved plus the ones that were awful only this time the premise is done right plus everything that's wonderful about taking a bunch of characters and putting them in an AU and seeing them be perfectly themselves in a new context.

QueenBitchFest is an anonymously-posted fic challenge, which is nice because I'm pretty good at making people dislike me and once I know someone dislikes me it's hard for me to read their fic, so this way I get to enjoy everything without feeling uncomfortable due to the idea that the author holds me in contempt or loathing. (NO SERIOUSLY THIS IS VERY STRESSFUL FOR ME A LOT OF THE TIME, AND I AM CLEARLY NOT THE ONLY PERSON WITH SUCH CONCERNS. I RUIN MY OWN FANDOM EXPERIENCE BY BEING GENERALLY HORRIBLE IN ALL WAYS AND A NASTY BITCH, BUT I PROMISE I DON'T SET OUT TO BE THAT WAY IT JUST KIND OF HAPPENS.)

The story I wrote for the Fest isn't up yet, and since it is the most blatant example of LOL MARY WROTE THIS ONE that you will ever see in your entire life, I'm sure it will be obvious as soon as it appears. But once the whole Fest is over, I will do a big giant recs post of everything sparkly, I promise.

I know you're all sick of this by now, but seriously. SERIOUSLY. Adam Lambert and Tommy Ratliff (if you must smush their names, please use RATBERT because that is the BEST SMUSH) on the AMAs.

I mean, afterwards Tommy tweeted "Rock n Roll is a prostitute...it should be tartted up", okay? And then Adam used the exact same Velvet Goldmine quote about the performance in his media interviews.

So here are three pictures of them. On live television in front of fourteen million viewers.

( Ivory and gold... um, maybe not so much. Glitter and spikes, more like. )

I seriously cannot tell you how much I appreciate that Adam Lambert exists, you guys.

I try not to duplicate everything from twitter here, because that would be tedious for people who follow me on both. BUT, I had to report this, because it made me smile.



And Erinna showed LynZ TACO BABY and all was right with the world.

Handed over the keys to the old place this morning. I am officially moved. As soon as I'm unpacked I'm going to photograph the shit out of the new place and y'all can appreciate my impressive collection of posters from gigs and second-hand furniture. Audrey took a photo of me through the cracks in the walls at the old place, so you'll see I wasn't kidding or exaggerating about living in a hovel.

Fall Out Boy have been totally fucking adorable yet again and thanked http://www.thefortysixthirtytwo.com/ in the liner notes for their new best-of collection, "Believers Never Die" -- the site is a mosaic image of the band, made up of the 4,632 names of their "believers" (though nobody can work out how the names were picked, as they don't correspond to any particular ordering pattern or sign-up process). My name's one of the ones in the edges of the light. It makes me feel all squishy to see it there.

But! While I'm all happy about that, clearly the important thing is for somebody who's got their preorder early to tell me if there's anything interesting in the Sixteen Candles video commentary -- apparently it's Andy and Joe talking about their facial hair, and Patrick talking about his hats, and Pete being lurky and quiet? Whatever, whatever, I don't care, this is the closest thing I get to new canon in my fandom of one, okay? Gimme.

I'm going into the city this evening to do more recording for future Outland Institute radio segments-- talkin' about the Umbrella Academy today, woo. I intend to say "I LIKE IT AND IT'S GREAT". That cultural studies education sure did make me articulate.

This evening preachelectric and I went to hang at the studio where The 7pm Project lives, despite us having nothing resembling tickets to be in the studio audience for said 7pm Project, because we are world-class at talking our way into where we're not meant to be, and what's the point of having a mutant power like that if you don't use it for evil?

And so, from the front row of a teeny studio (seriously, the studio audience was forty people; most live shows on the network have several hundred), dosed up on free sugar, we got to watch as Pete Wentz talked about bushfires and Starbucks and how Wikipedia is wrong about Fall Out Boy being broken up. While he was wearing a Fuck City hoodie on live national television.

His handlers were whisking him out as soon as his segment was done, so all we had time for was me to say "love you, Pete" and do the \m/ rock hands, and for preachelectric to wave gleefully, and for him to smile with his pretty sparkly brown eyes and his wide smiley mouth at us, and oh, I really am so fond of that dude, he makes the world a more entertaining and exciting place to live.

Now I am going to go do some more packing! PS BUY MY BOOK, because I deserve a reward for restraining myself from saying give me the twenty-minute sixteen candles video, Pete in the seconds I had his attention. I think it showed admirable maturity on my part!

First review!

This book is a lot more inner turmoily then the first. It's dealing with several characters who has a lot of mental health issues, and Mary puts you directly into their heads. It's wonderful, and uncomfortable.

Unlike the first book, which is goth punk teenagers get embroiled in vampires, this is teens already soiled and spoiled by vampires dealing with what comes next. And it's good, oh it is good.

It's very raw, and sometimes, when reading it I was a little overwhelmed, because god life can suck for people. But Mary never writes a weak character, a lot like Terry Pratchett, in that respect. Every single one of Mary's characters have steel in their soul, and I love reading about how they continue to fight.

I really recommend this book. I'd do it if I didn't know Mary. I'd do it if I hated Mary and wrote her letters in my own blood and stuck them to her mailbox with thread made of my own hair.

Buy Roads and Crosses here.

The temperature outside has dropped below 35 degrees (that's, um, 95 for Americans, I think?) by a whole 0.2 of a degree now, so I'm going out to purchase much cola in order to stay up all night (when it's marginally cooler) packing, as I didn't do nearly as much as I wanted today due to the heat. Urrrrrgh this is a horrible week to move house, partly because of this ridiculous weather and partly because ( TMI of the female sort ). I bet y'all who clicked that cut are really glad you did so.

This afternoon's plans: go across street, buy all the cola. Go into city this evening to see about annoying that Wentz dude. Come home. Spontaneously somehow become industrious and finish all the remaining packing. Sleep. Wake up in morning, do edits on the proof of the new journal issue for work, die of heatstroke.

... WAIT WAIT NO HANG ON, THAT'S NOT IT. HERE WE GO:



If you have ever thought to yourself "hey, what did happen to those vampire stories Mary wrote with Audrey that time? I mean, she talks about them in Sharpest and she still won't shut the hell up about that fucking Fall Out Boy video, so clearly the stories were fairly special to her, but then she took them all offline, what's up with that?"... then you're probably me, as I can't imagine that anyone else thinks that much about the things I do.

However, if you have ever thought to yourself "GOSH I SURE DO WISH SOMEONE WOULD WRITE A ROAD TRIP NOVEL ABOUT PATRICK FROM THE SIXTEEN CANDLES VIDEO, HIS YOUNGER SISTER WHO IS ROSIE COTTON WITH BLUE HAIR, AND A TEEN GIRL HALF-VAMPIRE RORSCHACH FIGHTING CRIME TOGETHER" then you are clearly an awesome person, and also you might like my new book.

The second Wolf House novel, Roads and Crosses, follows two of the hunters as they navigate the aftermath of the shattering events of Origins and Overtures. Already prone to anger and self-doubt, Lily’s fight has become a fight against her own dark thoughts just as much as it’s a fight against the vampire gangs. And Will’s clinical, detached approach to vampire hunting has always helped him in the past, but now it threatens to cut him off from his emotions and his friends completely. And if they can’t save themselves, what good are they to Jay, Rose, and Bette?

The Wolf House: Punk is dead and it has fangs.

My flat is approaching 'packed'! Kind of. Sorta maybe. I've still got a slog to go but the dust mask is horrible to wear and it's hot and I have no attention span, so I'm updating livejournal as a break. Hullo!

I've tried to hold off updating until the new Wolf House book is ready, but the delays gremlin has its claws in the file-upload system my publisher uses and so it's still not done. Soon, my pretties. Soooon.

BUT! On a related front, look at the new review I got to put up on the site:

"Electrifying. Chilling. Enthralling. Amazing. One of the truest young voices I've ever heard, with a plot that keeps you stuck to the pages and stops the breath in your throat. This is a writer who will go farther than perhaps even she imagines."

And who said that amazingly nice thing? LJ FREAKING SMITH. LJ SMITH. The reason I am a YA vampire fiction writer at all. I am sort of speechless here. Like, okay, The Wolf House is done, we can all go home now. (Except I still have two more books to write, la la)

Oh! And I made a post about Kindred: The Embraced in the site's blog too, ahaha. Because I am so sick of packing, blaaaaah. I need less stuff.

Um what else -- I didn't win the Diva competition, the pink flowery design did. But! JESSICKA ADDAMS (FORMERLY OF JACK OFF JILL. JACK OFF JILL) would love for me to interview her for Kylie's zine. JESSICKA ADDAMS.

LJ SMITH.

TODAY IS PRETTY NEAT.

Now includes my interview with Henry Jenkins, and a new introduction by me with insights like:

How does the mosaic that is Robin’s meanings change shape when we include, for instance, the reality television show American Idol’s eighth season? Adam Lambert, the consistently over-the-top, theatrical, larger-than-life glam rock performer who came second in the competition, was asked “Batman or Superman?” on the social networking site Twitter. His response was:

Batman fo sho. Him and Robin are real hot together. haha.

As well as being a highly visible pop figure in contemporary music, Lambert is openly gay, and so his response reinforces Batman and Robin’s relevancy in the cultural conversation of pop, glam, and camp. But as well as reinforcing, Lambert complicates and adds to Batman and Robin’s meanings: in one video appearance, he explains to the eighth season winner Kris Allen that Kris, due to his smaller stature, is the Robin of the pair, rather than the ‘Batman’ which his winning status might otherwise suggest.

Allen is straight, married to his teenage sweetheart, but both he and Lambert have spoken many times in the media about the deep friendship and respect they share, and often engage in lighthearted, flirtatious banter. This ease within complexly coded cultural dynamics echoes the examples of My Chemical Romance and Fall Out Boy, which I outline in the main text of this study, but Allen and Lambert’s popularity is more mainstream and occurred within a traditionally culturally conservative text – American Idol – and so the resultant complexities reflected back onto Robin are differently charged.

YEAH, YOU KNOW YOU FUCKING LOVE ME.

Also it is cheaper now, and oh yeah ALSO IT HAS THIS AMAZING NEW COVER, GODDAMN LOOK AT THIS SERIOUSLY FLY SHIT RIGHT HERE:



Download for $4

Get paperback for $13.12

I am so glad I came to Audz's. I have been coddled and given pizza and juice and tea and well-mannered British detective shows.

Thank you so much to all the commenters on my last post. I will respond to each and every one of you when I'm done hiding from reality. For now, know I'm grateful. I love how the internet can create instant affinity groups in times like this. I feel much less lost and alone.

What I ACTUALLY started this post in order to say is, do the popslash alumni remember the story that was a Pern AU wherein Justin had a gold dragon? I THINK THIS NEEDS TO BE AN AMERICAN IDOL STORY. Because because because, you guys, if Adam Lambert had a dragon, there is no way he would have any other dragon than the GOLDIEST OF THE GOLDS. And Kris has a brown, obviously, and then they have the glorious nonsense that is ~*~dragons made them do it~*~ mating-flight sex, and yep.

I want to preorder Adam's album from his site but you can only get it if you're in America. WHY DO YOU HATE MY MONEY, ADAM LAMBERT?

In other news, Grant Morrison is amazing, the end.

I signed the lease on my new flat today! It is sunny and freshly painted and has an actual shower and real walls and stuff. I won't know what to do with myself. Though the pretty clean walls mean I probably can't put up the nine million posters I have from gigs I've gone to, alas and woe. I'll think up some kind of solution eventually, I'm sure.

Now comes the part where I start trundling over everything which doesn't need a professional removalist, woo. The new place is on the third floor, which means I'd feel to guilty to chivvying my friends into doing it like I did last time. I will pay some burly individuals to lug my crap around, but only the big crap I can't possibly do myself.

The old flat and the new flat are only about three blocks apart, and it's a sunny day, so it's not like this is the most awful way to spend a day off I've ever had. It will serve as a lesson to me the next time I want to buy something: Mary, do you like this thing enough that you would carry it for three blocks and up two long flights of stairs? Yes? All right then.

Here is a picture Gracie sent me today:

HOPE JUST SENT ME THE LINK TO THIS SHIRT AND NOW I NEED IT TO LIVE.

I SUSPECT THAT THE SHIRT DEPICTS WHAT HAPPENS ONCE BECKETT FINALLY CONVINCES PETE AND PATRICK THAT EMO VAMPIRES ARE BORING, BITING PEOPLE IS AWESOME.

ALSO, HI.

Edit: this shirt is from the same site and it is TRUE FACTS, okay.

I know excellent people: both Gracie and Bex sent this picture to me during the night, to make sure I saw it:



I LOVE YOU ADAM LAMBERT, PLEASE CONTINUE TO PLAY DRESSUPS AS A ROCKSTAR VAMPIRE FOREVER.

Uh, what else... Erinna won't agree with me on the theory that going to an Insane Clown Posse show is practically obligatory if the opportunity arises in one's life. I pointed out that Thursday all agree with me, and she said that Thursday didn't count which is essentially blasphemy, so she is wrong.

So then I asked HeyChris his opinion on the matter, as we were wandering the city of Melbourne in the same large pack of excellent people as him at the time, in search of food (we ended up at Grill'd, who make the best veggie burgers of all time, even better than Lord of the Fries YEAH I SAID IT WHATCHA GONNA DO ABOUT IT), and Chris agreed with me so suck it, Erinna, being surrounded by juggalos remains a valid future life choice.

Chris was a fantastic speaker, as he was last time, though there's a distressingly high urine content involved in hanging out with that dude (something I also already knew from last time). He and his biffle Pete Wentz originally bonded over their shared love of peeing on the pile of coats found in spare rooms at parties. He keeps my zine Sharpest on his bedside table but, as Megan pointed out, said bedside table also features bottles for him to wee into so he doesn't have to get out of bed at night. You know, I don't feel I say often enough that BOYS ARE GROSS.

Except you, Adam Lambert. I'm sure you don't have piss bottles beside your bed.

It was a lovely weekend, though. I got to see a bunch of friends I don't see nearly often enough, due to distance or to hectic work schedules, and catching up with them always makes me feel brighter.

Today I will put down the bond payment for the new apartment, yaaaaaaaay. Then I'm seeing the not-so-wee babysitting charge briefly before her hip-hop class, as our scheduled hanging out later in the week has to be put off due to me getting the chance to see another bunch of friends I don't see nearly often enough. Social lives are hard! I want an assisstant. Man, being personal assisstant to Mary Borsellino would be the worst job in the world, seriously.

Oh HEY HEY, before I go off to attempt to pack for moving (why oh why oh why do I have so much stuff, ugh), have you voted for me yet? Go do that!

It's kind of funny that I love Ellsworth as much as I do in Deadwood, considering how irritating I find Supernatural's Bobby (in seasons one and two, anyway; haven't caught up on anything since then). He never offers information until the last possible second when it might be useful, preventing any chance the Winchesters have at useful planning! Yes, I do remain vexed about this, years after Devil's Trap first aired! Bobby be more useful! Raaargh! ELLSWORTH ILU. Hope, did you write a fic where they were the same person or did I imagine that?

Thanks to everyone congratulating me on finding somewhere to live. I am SO PLEASED about this, and so grateful that my mother is loaning me the money to pay the tenancy bond on the new place. This whole experience has taught me how quietly and quickly really unstable living situations can creep up on someone -- if I wasn't able to ask for help in scraping the money together for the switch-over, I'd be looking at a month of couch-surfing while I saved up the money for it, since banks aren't able to loan for bonds, and I won't get back the bond on the place I'm moving out of until it's been processed and I've given notice and all that, and while I make enough to always pay my rent in time, I don't make enough to pay a month's rent twice in one month. I'm a professional woman with a permanent part-time job, freelance work, and a disability pension, with a good credit rating, and I'm still only a paycheck's worth away from homelessness at any given time. Yuck.

I get to see lots and lots of friends tomorrow YAAAAAAAAAAAY. HeyChris is speaking in Melbourne and I am going to do my best to not be a brat at him, but that's probably not gonna work out so good.

ALSO I have seen the first three episodes of Torchwood season three finally, and I love Gwen and Rhys so dreadfully much, I really do, GWEN ORDERS A PIE AND CHIPS and it is adorable and they are in a potato truck being adorable and also I love Jack and Iaaaaaaaaaaaaanto, and Jack's daughter and Ianto's sister and just ALL OF THE CHARACTERS ARE NEAT, especially that government spy assassin lady who is basically who the Ninth Doctor and Jack like to think they are but they are both actually fuzzy kittens and she is a panther. AND OH PC ANDY YOU ARE EXCELLENT TOO.

Last night my not-so-wee babysitting charge and I watched the vampire episode of Xena (STILL AWESOME, I LOVE YOU XENA BE MY MEAN WIFE) and a bunch of Futurama, and seriously, Zap and Kif are basically exactly the Kirk and Spock who live in my brain, HOW DOES THE SHOW DO THAT. Leela/Zap is also the closest one can get to Captain Mal/Captain Kirk, which is doubly hilarious every time I think about it.

No, seriously, I love them so much.

... I really love those dudes, you know. Forever and ever.

From Here:

American Idol star Adam Lambert took some time off from recording his new album and hit the party celebrating Star magazine’s 5th Anniversary party.

At the bash Adam was sitting in the corner of the dance floor, holding hands with his boyfriend and laughing with friends. Later on he was spotted checking out Cobra Starship’s performance.

GIMME LOVE STORIES ABOUT ADAM AND DRAKE AND GABE, FANDOM. NOW.

Today the newspaper asks, Is Kanye West a modern day dandy?

Kanye's dress sense is more complex than this definition suggests, though -- it's got roots in 1980s urban black New York appropriation of designer logos in their graffiti and dress, and the visible wealth attributes such as diamonds and expensive clothing worn by rap and r&b performers, and more than a little dash of the avante-garde pop aesthetic which started in the sixties and spontaneously birthed Lady Gaga along the way, and a variety of other influences.

But really, it's a bad idea to get me started on dandies, so I'll just hush now.

Oh, Pete Wentz, why do you always find ways to make me give you all my money? Jerk.

Guys, I know this has been asked many times before, but why hasn't anybody yet written a story in which Frank is an obnoxiously pretty computer hacker in the early 1990s and Gerard is a troubled and beautiful comic-book artist with a lot of feelings? Or, alternately, the one where Ryan Ross chews his way out of his mother's womb and the first thing he sees is the French Quarter, and Pete and Patrick have a random question mark at the end of their band's name.

In actual-writing news, sometime in the near future I have to write my Adam Lambert story for the Bowie challenge, and I am considering writing a time-travel one which is sort of fucked up and which probably nobody but me will like. Woo!