C.E. Murphy's Blog, page 82

Recommended Reads: Hunter, Tzavelas, Sperring

The other day on Twitter someone said she’d just finished all the Walker Papers, and now what was she going to read! So I made some suggestions, and not only she but several other people were delighted. So I thought maybe I’d try to make Recommended Reads a regular blog feature (in so far as anything is a regular blog features these days @.@), separate from the Recent Reads I generally try to do.

I figure the point of this isn’t just to list names—I could do that for weeks—but to give a few mo...

man flu

Judging from the series of pathetic sounds I was making earlier, I have Man Flu. :) (I feel that if my husband moaning and moping around like I was doing means he’s got the Man Flu, it’s only fair that I should too.) Anyway, it’s sick in this house. Poor Ted is actually the only one who isn’t sick, and he was driven out of our bedroom last night by my snoring, out of Young Indy’s by his snorting, and out of ours AGAIN by my snoring, only to end up on the couch, where nobody gets any good slee...

3…2…1…REDEEMER!

It is *surprisingly* nerve-wracking to launch a Kickstarter, even if you’ve run half a dozen or more crowdfund projects. But we’re doin’ it, ladies and gentlemen!

First! Let me invite you to read the Redeemer Proposal Chapters and submerge yourself into the world of the Redeemer!

Then when you’ve just gotten invested and find that the proposal comes to an end, dash over to the REDEEMER Kickstarter and help make it happen as a project! Go little Kickstarter go!

(I will now gnaw my knuckles for t...

Kickstarter Ahoy: The Redeemer Chronicles!

Guys, I TOTALLY CHANGED MY MIND, okay?

I kept trying to work out the reward levels for the Old Races project and just couldn’t. It just wouldn’t work without knowing how long the main event, KISS OF ANGELS, was going to be, and I couldn’t bring myself to write it right now, so I wibbled and wobbled and flopped around and went through all of my “I wish I could do this” projects and finally landed on REDEEMER, which is what happens when I mash up Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Rosie the Riveter in...

Picoreview: Serena

Picoreview: Serena: I walked out.

Spoilers after the cut, including How I Would Have Done It.

It wasn’t badly acted, but I didn’t like any of the characters and it was very clear that at least one and possibly both of the leads would end up dead because of the other one, but with none of the graceful inevitable tragedy of a Chinese film. It reminded me of Legends of the Fall, a movie which I didn’t like at all (except for the title: I think it’s an awesome freaking title) but regarded as being...

Captain America!

I have blogged less this month than I think I ever have. This is because I was first making fudge and then making a Captain America costume. Most of the fudge efforts have already been consumed (possibly my favourite comment: “It tastes like poetry.”), and the costume is now done.

So yes. That’s what I’ve been doing. I have some vague hope of returning to more regular blogging in November.

While I’m doing NNWM. #headdesk :)

The post Captain America! appeared first on The Essential Kit.

the making of fudge

I have made just about All The Fudge In The World. I’ve added it up, and all told it’s going to be 75 pounds (there are a couple left to do this weekend). That’s a lot of fudge. A LOT of fudge.

Here are the ingredients, from The Big Shopping Excursion:

Prepping a 12 pound quadruple batch. This is NOT for the uninitiated: I came very close to screwing this up. Expert level fudge-maker only.

This in no way conveys just how much fudge is on the platter. 12 pounds is a huge amount of fudge.

The plat...

too busy to post

I’m at that stage again where I’ve got a backlog of posts I want to write and am apparently never going to get to them so I should let it go

(let it go, can’t hold me back anymore / which reminds me that yesterday Young Indiana pulled all my hair over one shoulder so I would be “like Elsa” and so this morning I said to him “should I braid my hair like Elsa’s?” and he said yes and I did and he said “That’s not like Elsa. Elsa’s braid is on the other side.” And I was like “…yes. yes it is, now...

Here come the brides!

And grooms!

Alaska will start issuing same-sex marriage licenses at 8am this morning, after US District Circuit Judge Timothy Burgess struck down the one-woman one-man amendment to Alaska’s constitution as illegal in a ruling yesterday afternoon following a hearing on Friday.

This is not only a joy to me because it’s my home state, but because I have family involved in this case. I cannot wait to see pictures from the courthouse this morning. #sniffles all over everything

The post Here come the...

New Senyaza Kickstarter!

guys guys GUYS guys guys

I have been terribly remiss in shouting about Chrysoula Tzavelas’s Senyaza Kickstarter. This is for her third book in the MATCHBOX GIRLS series, and I’m in the middle of reading it right now and it is so. good.

Like, early on (because it’s set in Seattle, mostly, sort of, and bcaus I’v got crossovers on my mind) I was reading and I tweeted to Soula that we should really do a Walker Papers/Senyaza crossover good.

Then a couple hours later I was like “or maybe not because...