Narrelle M. Harris's Blog, page 79

Melburnalia No 2 at fortyfivedownstairs

Tim and I went with some friends to the theatre last night.  A couple of years ago, fortyfivedownstairs (a fantastic theatre/gallery space at 45 Flinders Lane) did the original Melburnalia - which we missed because it sold out so quickly! This time we booked a week in advance!

Melburnalia No 2 is a set of five 20 minutes plays, each set in/inspired by a different suburb of Melbourne and linked with a binding tram theme. As a woman who has frequently expressed an intemperate love of her adopted to

Rekindling the love

I went to the Victoria Markets on the weekend, cos our fussy cat only likes certain kinds of very expensive dry catfood which we buy from the lovely people at Upmarket Pets. Walking home again, I heard Dance, Dance playing very loudly at a coffee shop, and saw them playing the video clip on the screen inside.

I popped in to buy a drink and watch. From inside, I couldn't hear the song but watched the mute story of daggy boys full of win at the Prom. Then I watched the mute story of Pete's dream wi

Hilariously rude hobbity hijinks

Not entirely worksafe. Entirely funny.

Oh Sam. Oh Frodo. Oh my goodness those are fully posable action figures.

Shopping alerts!

I discovered yesterday that McGills on Elizabeth St is closing down on Friday. :-( Tim and I bought books from them as often as we could, because we like to support small bookshop operators - but clearly the owners have decided to end it all, commercially speaking. The shop is having a big sale on its remaining stock, though, so if nothing else - stop in, say hi, pick up a book to remember them by.

Someone also alerted me to the fact that Threadless is having a sale on its website with US$5 and U

Instincts collide

I came home from writing the other night and Tim had downloaded the musical "The Producers" from Bigpond, and was half way through it. I sat down to watch the other half, and got to the point where they show-within-a-show comes on - "Springtime for Hitler".

And who should be singing the title song, but a bleached-blonde, blue-blue-blue-eyed, dazzlingly-smiling John Barrowman! All Aryan perfection in German uniform.

My first thought was "Wow! John Barrowman sure can sing, and man, he looks HOT"

My s

Illogical? I'm afraid not Captain.

I don't really want to be Troi, but I acknowledge that it's not a completely inappropriate match. I do wish I was Sulu though.

You are Deanna Troi Deanna Troi70%James T. Kirk (Captain)55%Uhura55%Chekov50%Will Riker45%An Expendable Character (Redshirt)45%Jean-Luc Picard40%Geordi LaForge40%Mr. Scott35%Leonard McCoy (Bones)30%Data27%Beverly Crusher25%Worf25%Spock22%Mr. Sulu10%You are a caring and loving individual.
You understand people's emotions and
you are able to comfort and counsel them.
Click he

Editing is a Good Idea

First round of editing is now at Chapter Eleven. There is an awful lot of eyebrow-raising going on. Vampires arch eyebrows at Lissa. She arches them defiantly back. It's a real eyebrow-fest.

I mentioned this to Tim, and how I was editing out a lot of eyebrows. He suggested I should just take a leaf out of PG Wodehouse's book, and just put in a line somewhere in the proceedings that "It was one of those big days for eyebrow arching".

I don't think I'd get away with it. Pity.

 

More common list of people who make me happy

Now that I've vented on those things and people who are vexing me...

Thank you to everyone who came to the launch of Mind the Gap last night, and to everyone who send messages of support. We had a great night, and sold a lot of books!

If you live in Australia and would like to buy a book, Tim has some left to sell through via paypal at The Darius Transitions. The first three chapters are available there so you can try  before you buy!

If you live in North America, go to the same site but follow the

A rare list of peoples I am fed up with

I try to be an optimistic person, fairly cheery and with a positive view of humanity. This is probably not wise, but I adhere to it nevertheless.

However, today I am fed up to the back teeth with:

helpdesks which are not in the slightest bit helpful. And which are also lazy and stupid and make me redo work I've already done cos they don't know where they've put the piece of paper which they failed to read properly in the first place. *I* used to be in customer service, people. I worked at a bank a

The mysteries of editing, or "How did that get in there?"

I've started editing the 100,000 odd words of 'Walking Shadows'. Occasionally that involves putting more words in.
For instance, I have been unnecessarily cryptic about some of Lissa's family background to the point where *I'm* not even sure what I was attempting to say. A more straightforward paragraph early on will make this less of a puzzle. I hope.

Mostly, however, it consists of knocking out words and phrases that make things too long-winded, too confusing or just plain wrong. A description