(no subject)

[raven]

I last wrote something substantive here two and a bit months ago, which might be the biggest gap since the early 2000s. Anyway. Hi. Still here. I've been on sabbatical for those two and a bit months, and I don't even know what to say about it. It was a good idea, for sure; it's just crazy, hog-wild ridiculous, to have nothing to do. I'm not complaining; I'm just not used to it. A. finds it amusing to read me out the week's SIs from the National Archives' twitter and invite me to make complimentary or otherwise remarks.

I am not writing very much. I had hoped to be able to write for pleasure, at least; nothing has come to me, though, and I'm bit sad about that. I'm still editing for friends and have got through a novel, half a novelette, an academic paper and a piece of immigration advice, strangely, and maybe that's promising. I'm still skating intermittently and enjoying myself thoroughly and I want to write a story with an asteroid in it so I can call it Skate Skate Apocalyptic.

(Skating! So much fun! I'm still amazed that you can learn to do something by practising it a lot! All skating terminology sounds like a lesbian sex act but I can pivot and hez and shoot the duck!)

And other than that I am reading like it was just invented recently, and A. and I have been watching the new Quantum Leap and I am obsessed. Why fandom as a whole hasn't talked about it much is beyond me; the cynical part of me thinks it's because there are no white men to ship (there are no white men at all) and the less cynical part thinks it's because it takes a few episodes to warm up. But it's lovely, I love it, I have only five episodes left and when they're done I will be bereft.

Anyway. Here, here, still here, listening to Lizzo, watching the time travel show, missing giving detailed legal advice to people about things they didn't want to hear, and here though I didn't expect it.

Comments

[toft]

I'm really glad you're here, and enjoying reading and TV. I hope the writing comes back - I'm sure that it will, it sounds like you're very much in resting/healing mode.

[raven]

Thank you. <3 I really hope it does.

[philomytha]

Doing nothing but read and skate and watch fun tv shows sounds very healing, and I love the sound of pivoting and hezzing and shooting the duck :-D

[raven]

Heee, it is pretty nice! Some other ridiculous skate names for your delectation: the downtown! the zero! the chop!

[runpunkrun]

<3

[goss]

I have been watching the new Quantum Leap and I am obsessed

Awesome! I remember enjoying the original back in the day. Thanks for the rec - will add to my watch list. :D

[raven]

I hope you like it! It is such a warm bath of a show.

[chestnut_pod]

*waves* It's nice to see you around! I'm glad skating and reading are providing enjoyment.

[raven]

They really are! <3

[scribe]

Hallo it is lovely to internet-see you! Skating and reading and time travel tv sound quite nice, and I hope the writing comes back to you soon. <3

I didn't realize there was a new Quantum Leap! Do you think it would be equally enjoyable to someone with no knowledge of the original beyond the premise?

[raven]

Thank you, I hope it does too. <3 Yes definitely on QL! They're clearly aiming it exactly at that audience of people who have some vague notion of the original but nothing more than that and set out all the exposition accordingly. And it's a very good time!

[brainwane]

Glad to see you.

[raven]

<3 <3 <3

[petra]

Sometimes you have to fill the well, and it sounds like you're doing a lot of soul-feeding things right now.

I get all of my media news via fandom, all of which has been sleeping on the new Quantum Leap. A dearth of white men sounds very appealing as a casting decision!

[raven]

I love that phrase, "fill the well", thank you for reminding me of it. The main cast of QL are extremely lovely and have that old-school 2000s thing of being a team who all love each other. I highly recommend them.

[celli]

I am considering paying for Peacock to watch QL in the near future - I liked the first ep but I don't have broadcast TV and also I have a problem getting my brain through anything longer than a three minute youtube video these days. (Mind you, I will watch an hour's worth of three minute videos, so why not a show? who knows!) It's good to hear yet another person who likes it!

[raven]

I do, very much! And it's gentle, too - if you wanted to watch it in 5 min chunks, that wouldn't do it any harm.

[celli]

That is great! I think I'll do that when I finish my current kdrama!

[yiskah]

Hey I am so glad that you are doing this sabbatical, it sounds like a really good way of making space for things (like writing, I hope, for your sake and also for mine because I love your work) to come back in.

Please tell me what are the best books you have read in your rediscovery of reading!

Also: you asked about this elsewhere but I may as well answer here - here are the trips that I just did, could not recommend them more highly, absolutely f'n amazing:

https://oceanwide-expeditions.com/antarctica/cruises/pla31-24-antarctica-elephant-island-weddell-sea-polar-circle

https://oceanwide-expeditions.com/antarctica/cruises/hds31c25-atlantic-odyssey-to-cape-verde

[raven]

Thank you, I really hope this time away carries on helping - it's been good for me so far and it's a good environment for the writing to come back into even if it hasn't come yet. I have been looking at your the Antarctic links. I'm just blown away, they look INCREDIBLE. The little cabin for 35 days at the bottom of the world! How did you come to decide to do it? Was it a lifelong dream? (You know I think that A. worked for the Antarctic Survey for many years but never quite got to go! I wish he had.)

Best books from the recent reading! Definitely the Helios Syndrome, Vivian Shaw - it's a novella, I'm almost sure I've recced it to you earlier but in case not, it's just an all-out delightful novella about necromancy and plane crashes. How do you feel about Taylor Jenkins Reid? If you haven't read her already, I got through Carrie Soto is Back in a day, it's really smart and moreish and excellent. I'm sure you must have read Ocean's Echo! If you haven't please do with immediate effect. And The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy. And I'm reading one by Adrian Tchaikovsky I thiiiiiink I'm going to love but I need to know it sticks the landing so probably one more, but not yet!

[yiskah]

Ahhhhh it was so good! I guess you could say that it was a lifelong dream in that it's been my lifelong dream to go EVERYWHERE but basically: Clare and I planned a trip to Antarctica for December 2020 to make 10 years of travelling together, which was cancelled for Obvious Reasons; we rebooked for 2022, then for 2023, and somewhere in the midst of the deepest lockdown she found the link for the Atlantic bit and went: oh hahaha, wouldn't it be funny if we booked this too, and then two days later we had, because at that time both money and travel felt entirely imaginary. And now it is DONE and I want to do it AGAIN and also maybe live on a boat forever.

Books! I read Helios Syndrome based on your Twitter rec and loved it much more than I was expecting to, though maybe not the BEST book to read right before a flight. I have indeed read both Ocean's Echo and Winter's Orbit and WHEN will there be more Everina Maxwell. I have read Daisy Jones and the Six but I think that is the only TJR I've read so will read more! Have just bought The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy on your recommendation, and I have never read any Adrian Tchaikovsky so please do report back when you've finished it!

[raven]

Ahh, money and travel feeling like non-things is very familiar! Well it sounds like a brilliant lockdown decision and I wish I'd made one like it. So here's the Tchaikovsky, it's a novella called Elder Race - it's fascinating not-fantasy not-SFF with a really brilliant premise. I haven't always got on well with him elsewhere but Children of Time is an absolutely stunning book, if however you have any teeny tiny bit of a spider phobia it is not the book for you!

[zero_pixel_count]

Good to hear from you. (And, two and a half months really isn't long when compared against how long the Everything was stacking up for. <3)

(I'm also sure that learning things by practicing them doesn't sound at all right. ;) )