Site and book news, for those that aren't following

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

Hi guys!

I know not everyone here frequents youngwizards.net and youngwizards.com on a regular basis, so I thought I might alert you guys to a couple of things you might be interested in over there. :D Firstly, the pages are getting a bit of a makeover, including some new features, which means they're all pretty and interesting to look at. If you haven't checked out yw.com, especially, for a while, they've got all sorts of interesting stuff there, like sitemaps, various introductory bits and bobs, fansite lists (if you have one and it's not there there's probably a way you can submit them), some pretty wallpapers...

And, secondly, what is I suppose technically a new feature. But it's SO exciting I can barely contain myself. ;) Okay, not THAT exciting, but still really really cool... The Errantry Concordance is, in the site's words, a WIP "encyclopaedia of the YW-verse" which will have occasional excerpts posted to the site. :D!

And thirdly, anyone who read the old three-chapter excerpt may be interested in knowing that there's a re-edited version- presumably the final to-be-published version- of the first chapter, which is different in small but significant ways to the original, and has replaced the old three. So yeah, check that out.

And Wizards At War's finished and at the publishers, in case y'all didn't know already; its estimated release date is July this year, so that's cool too. :D

Um. It would be nice to know how many people there are who find my periodic newsspam worthwhile; I'm still never sure how many people actually do visit the sites. So, er, just comment if you actually read this whole thing. ;)

Comments

[persephone-kore.livejournal.com]

I read it! I haven't been back to the site in a while and am going now.

(I am not sure having Wizards at War come out the same month as the next Harry Potter book is the world's best timing from a sales perspective, but what do I know? Anyway, yum, bookfeast this summer. I keep thinking something else I want is coming out, too. Maybe I'm thinking of Star Wars.)

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

Hooray! :D

(you know, you might be right about that. >.> Unfortunately, it was originally planned for november last year, IIRC, but was pushed ahead to early this year and then to its current date because DD had back problems and some personal issues that delayed it some. :( But yeah, books!!!)

[persephone-kore.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I remember it being delayed... hopefully it won't be a problem.

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

Mm. Well, it shouldn't be... maybe some opportunistic booksellers will put a stand of it up next to HBP, and it'll do better, not worse. ;)

[conuly]

The more posts in my beloved, if dead comm, the better.

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

*flexes fingers* I'm a-workin' on it. :D Eventually I'm sure I'll puch someone over the edge into actually making a post of their own... *plots*

[aohdwyn.livejournal.com]

I read! I visit! I appreciate! (I also have the urge to translate that into Latin... one I shall most valiantly resist, however, so do not be alarmed. <.<;;) I do find what posts make their way here interesting (this is one of the few comms I actually still have showing up on my f-page!) even if I don't post myself or comment much. I'm still a bit comm-shy. ^^;;

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

lego! visito! something-o! ;) (hey, Latin is COOL. I miss it. )

Wow, interesting?? I'm glad we make the cut! *g* But don't be comm-shy! We need all the posts we can get, right?

[deutscheami.livejournal.com]

I read it!

Ooh, and I didn't notice that there was a new bit of Wizards at War up before. Am currently happily (if a bit nervously- eeep, Tom and Carl!) reading through it.

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

Yay!

I know, it's exciting, isn't it? But WAH TOM AND CARL MY BOYS!!!

(It's kind of tragic when, excerpt-wise, you live for your minor characters. I mean, Nita's obviously more interesting & she and Dairine are my favourite characters, but Tom and Carl are just so much fun to read about! And so slashable, if you happen to think that way, which sadly I do. <.< >.>)

[conuly]

Oh for god's sake, that's not you. They're written gay.

[terrylj.livejournal.com]

You know, it took me 17 years to realize that. But once I'd been in online fandom for--what, two months?--I saw it instantly. :)

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

Fandom is like that. It's terrible though, now I can't read anything without slashing, and sometimes that's NOT a good thing.

Interestingly, though, two of my friends who still aren't slashers and weren't, at the time, especially into fandom, picked up on t/c anyway.

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

I know! I know they are. But non-slashers honestly don't see it.
>.>

Besides, it's such a dodgy ship. :-/ Even though I would totally pay small sums of money and large numbers of favours for more t/c.

[conuly]

But... they're written as gay characters! They couldn't be more obvious if they started wearing purple and going to pride parades!

I mean, it's not like harry/draco, where you have to ignore all the parts in the books where they mention Harry's crush on female people (and the fact that they hate each other), or anything sg-1 where you have to ignore the anti-gay policies of the American military. They're written as Gay. People.

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

I know. Believe me. I know. (But ew, purple. Which is to say, I love the colour purple, but it just is not a colour anyone should ever ever wear. Sad but true.)

*giggling*

I do agree with you... but then, as a fandom where the author is rather frank and MUCH more in contact with her fandom than in HP, you also have to deal with
-what she's said about slashing her characters (Less that she would mind than that she can't think of an appropriate slash ship. Basically, IIRC, the only people you could slash are Herewiss/Freelorn and that's a little bit self-defeating, I mean it's not truly slash, is it. Although I suppose you could say the same thing about Tom/Carl.)
-more importantly, what she's said about Tom and Carl... I've probably whinged about this before, but she's frequently mentioned that they are real people, like totally identical with the same names. Tom used to be her editor. Basically the only thing different- as far as you can tell from her blog- about them is that they're not wizards in real life, and also they live in LA. Um. And then someone asked her in one of her chats whether Tom and Carl were gay- actually, I wasn't there, I don't know if that was the wording or not- and she said "I don't know, I've never asked." Which is, um, I don't know, I find that a wierd thing to say, but still.

Yes, I've thought a lot about this 'ship, how can you tell?

[conuly]

Sounds like they're totally gay, but she's trying to avoid the Christian censors (did you know, somebody protested that it was wrong to show the "devil figure" being redeemed and forgiven? Because, y'know, that's just not Christian or anything....)

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it could definitely be taken that way. (And then you think of The Door into Fire and wonder whether it would really be news to conservatives.)

*sigh* That's really sad, actually. I mean, I'm obviously not Christian and certainly not conservative, but I've always sort of quietly appreciated how well the series accommodates almost all forms of religion in that sense- as an atheist I am totally comfortable with them, but a lot of very religious people seem to be equally comfortable with it, and fic it from a Christian perspective very beautifully. It's sad that the over-arching feeling of it is apparently incompatible with some forms of Christianity....

[agawa-jean.livejournal.com]

Heck, my mum thought those two were slashable! (No, I'm not kidding)

Personally though, I think Dairine beats everyone at being interesting. I guess it just depends.

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

Wow. Well, fine, if even your mother thinks they're slashy... ;) (I think that would scare me, having a mother who was a slasher. I'm fairly sure mine wouldn't even go Antonio/Bassanio, although I haven't actually checked.)

She is pretty awesome, it's just unfortunate that I like her most outside of HW. I'm not even sure why that is, it's just true.

[cha-aka.livejournal.com]

hey I read the whole thing :)

I'm a Christian and proud of it, however I am also a proud reader of YW. I don't really have a problem with the LP being redeemed, because I know that it isn't a blatantly Christian book series. I think that there are enormous parallels, and the books show wonderful ideals etc., but just because the books say it doesn't mean I have to believe it is essentially what I wanted to say. The Lone Power is not synonymous with the real Satan.

[conuly]

I don't pretend to understand the Shouting Sillies, but I do know they don't represent most religious people :)

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

Yay!

Well, obviously I take a different perspective to you, but as a long-time atheist reader of fantasy it sort of goes without saying that I constantly read stuff I don't believe in... of course I think it's easier for an atheist to suspend disbelief and, for the duration of the story, believe enough to empathise.