Cleolinda everywhere

1) Bella Swan: vampiring better than you since *checks watch* 2008. This is the same teaser that ran in front of The Hunger Games, so you may have already seen it (stop poaching Katniss's deer, BELLA). ( Read more... )

2) Meanwhile, shit got real: The Hunger Games' box office crushes the Twilight movies. All of them.

3) I seem to have hit a hypomanic upswing; mine, as I've explained before, are pretty mild. The only thing someone would really notice from the outside is that I'm a bit more upbeat, enthusiastic, and talkative--but when a movie I've really been looking forward to comes out, that doesn't seem out of place. (Honestly, I've started wondering--as I've said before--if you can trigger manic moods. If nothing else, I think it suddenly being SUMMER IN THE MIDDLE OF MARCH gave me an overdose of natural light, and that may have caused it as well. As I recall, my most pronounced upswings are almost always in the spring and summer.) Otherwise, I'm outwardly calm, but as I've gotten older, I've been edging further and further into mild mania, and the happy creative bursts have been "evolving" into something less comfortable. The upside at the lower hypomanic end is that I feel happy and creative (verging on hypergraphic); at the high, verging-on-manic end, I feel overcaffeinated, impatient, and irritable, I have all these ideas but I can't concentrate or focus, I have a hard time sleeping, and I don't want to eat. I have a sample of BPAL's Safari blend, and a dab on the back of each hand (so I can smell it while I'm typing) seems to have centered me a bit. Once I was able to actually focus, I got 1600 words written in a couple of hours last night (there's your hypergraphia), but it took me all day to be able to concentrate that long.

On the other hand, you get wackadoo flights of fancy like the mandatory Panem TV schedule, and like this:

@cleolinda: WHY IS THIS STILL HAPPENING RT @NikkiFinke: Hugh Dancy To Star In NBC Series ‘Hannibal’

@cleolinda: Look, save some time. Modern-day Sherlock Holmes hunts Hannibal Lecter. In a dystopia. With a vampire. An alien vampire.

@cleolinda: The alien vampire is on the run from a beauty pageant to the death. Also, Sherlock is a werewolf. His brother is a steampunk faerie.

@writingfreak88: No alien ninja turtles?

( Read more... )

I bring you a final (presumably) SDCC/movie linkspam. To begin:

@dcwomenkicknass: DC Comics SDCC panels: uncomfortable questions about female creators/characters. Apparently what happened was, a woman dressed as Batgirl (with a young girl dressed as Spoiler) (I don't know who Spoiler is) (just go with it) kept going to comics panels and asking questions: ( Read more... )

Some very sad real-world news in the previous entry. Thus, I endeavor to bring you escapism and raptors.

( Read more... )

Harry Potter is the Biggest Worldwide Debut Ever with $476M. That is to say, nearly half a billion dollars, blowing through the Eclipse midnight record, the New Moon opening day record, and the Dark Knight weekend record. From what I've seen of Comments on the Interwebs, Twilight fans and Batman fans are united in shouting YEAH WELL WAIT TILL OUR LAST MOVIE COMES OUT, and then they realize they're on the same side and run away to wash that icky fanboy/girl off. Whatever helps you sleep at night, kids.

Guillermo Del Toro and Emma Watson for Beauty and the Beast?; David Yates reveals his next project PP (post-Potter) (whoa, The Stand?); How Harry Potter Changed Publishing (three words: midnight release parties); 10 great, and 10 no-so-great, things about Harry Potter. And here's our discussion post, with a--well, not a defense, but an alternate take on the epilogue. Also:

@bestforfilm: We're opening a bar called Harry Shotters. Drinks include Margaritaskeeters, Cedric Daquiris, Mojicho Changs... #harrypotterdrinks

Concoctions include Pinot Gringotts, Episkey Sours, Mudbloody Marys, Blast Ended Skrewtdriver, Hex on the Beach, Ginny and Tonic, Ron and Coke, Creme De Menter, and my favorite, Madame Hooch.

Since y'all have waited ever so patiently, let's skip straight to TheOneRing.net Exclusive: Behold! Thorin Oakenshield and Orcrist! ( BEHOLD! )

CafePress is having a 25% off sale on orders of $60 or more until midnight. You have to put in the coupon code

(I am not making this up)

SPARKLE.

It's meant to be, y'all.

( The five designs, as you may recall )

Internets, I am not feeling so good. Just sinus blarg and a low fever, but I have been sleeping a lot. So that's where I've been.

Two bits of writerly advice:

@victoriastrauss: Agent Andrew Lownie on how to blow your chances in the first line of your email.

@MaryRobinette: Debut Author Lessons: 10 things about signing books.

Linkspam: movie news and your chance to be a werewolf, for really real. ( HOW CAN YOU BEAT THAT VALUE )

I've been holding on to some wtfery in the linkspam department for a while, and I feel like it's time to dump it all on you. I'll start you off easy.

Shrek 4 banner: "Where my witches at?" 

Jennifer Love Hewitt wrote a book, and that book contains the actual sentence, "Guys hate to spoon -- they prefer to fork, lol!"

Nicholas (The Notebook) Sparks writes Greek tragedies in the footsteps of Sophocles, or something. Also, when asked, Miley Cyrus says that The Catcher in the Rye is her favorite coming-of-age story (whether you believe she's actually read it), and Sparks says that his is... A Walk to Remember. Which he wrote.

Freakishly Lifelike Jack Sparrow figure is FREAKISHLY LIFELIKE.

An update from yesterday: the Robert Pattinson wax museum figure has been up for like ten minutes and already it's being mobbed. This is a thing, y'all. This is a thing that is happening. 

Seattle man who said he was a vampire and had bomb arrested. "He said he was a vampire and wanted to eat people. Staff asked him to leave, and the man then said he was a space cowboy and showed what looked to be a pipe bomb attached to his wrist." Police were able to subdue the man before he was able to declare himself the Pompatus of Love.

(And it wasn't even a REAL pipe bomb! You are not very good at vampiring, sir.)

Also from the Pacific Northwest: Police detain sword-waving, knife-throwing hunter.

A scraped-up, shirtless man armed with a sword and several throwing knives was detained by police today.

The man had been seen waving the sword near the ProBuild hardware store off High School Road just before 1:45 p.m. Witnesses said he had also been visiting the nearby Ace hardware store.

The man told police he was hunting werewolves and “chuds.”

I wouldn't tell him about Maurice over there with the pipe bomb if I were you.

Feeling a smidge better. Got a good bit of work done yesterday, even though I was stuck wrangling fussy dogs for eight hours while my parents were on a church orchestra daytrip. (Sam parked himself in front of the door out to the garage once 5 pm rolled around, because that is The Time Mommy and Daddy Come Home, and yet they did not. So he barked at it for two hours.) Today I got up and went straight to work in the den, instead of getting up and faffing around on the computer and/or sleeping on the couch (both also in the den). I'm in there anyway, usually by 7 am, because "I have to keep an eye on the dogs" is a good way to add structure to my day. ANYWAY. I'm starting a new book for my novel research (although, as I noted, there's a point where research is about finding out things, and then there's a point where it's about the fear of not having found out enough, and I've been at that second point for a long, long time now), but I'm also checking Twitter.

@scottEweinberg: This Pattinson kid is on my TV. He looks like a cross between @TheJoeLynch and a Lycan.

O rly?

Ah, the Remember Me publicity circuit has started. I had plenty of time to read my book during commercials, because as American viewers of the Olympics know, NBC is now 85% advertising content.

@cleolinda: Al Roker's outside the Today studio saying Robert Pattinson's name over and over just to hear the girls scream.

@cleolinda: Matt Lauer: "Harry Markopolous!" Herd of fangirls: "... Wooooo?"

( Wonderella refuses to save him; werewolves competed in the Olympics )

ETA: WARNING: Before you run off and buy The Great Big Werewolf Book of Werewolves, I have to warn you--the reviews on Amazon are terrible, and now that I've gotten into the actual encyclopedia-style entries, I'm starting to see why. There's an entire entry about aliens and UFOs, a really sketchy attempt to connect Elizabeth Bathory to lycanthropy (she totes hung out with wizards and vampires and werewolves, you guys!), and the tale of a French guy who was really more of a ghoul than a werewolf, see, but while we're here... And if you can tell me what Charles Manson has to do with lycanthropy, believe me, I'd love to know.

So tired. Did not sleep at all last night, between the rainstorm and the cramps (again: you needed to know this, I'm sure). Headache now. The kind of long day where nothing actually gets done. Did see my doctor for a medicine check; we're going to raise the Lamictal from 150 to 200 (but leave the other two meds alone). And that was the target dose she thought would be best in the end, so I guess we're finally going to work up to that; it was originally (or primarily?) an anti-seizure drug, so what it's supposed to do is help the bipolar cycle even out. I just know that increasing that particular drug too quickly in the past sent me into a deep tailspin, so I'm going to have to be on the lookout for that. The thing is, I went into a dark patch this spring anyway, so the worst case scenario is that I go into another one--one that I'm expecting and watching for--and the best is that I don't, and it helps regulate the mood cycling better.

Also, there is no chocolate in the house. This vexes me. Thus, in this spirit of sleep-deprived vexation, I bring you a smattering of linkspam that might or might not provoke more discussion than usual, I don't know.

Headshots of the four main Airbender actors in costume. DO NOT SNIPE AT EACH OTHER IN THE COMMENTS OR I WILL PULL THIS JOURNAL OVER AND COME BACK THERE. I'VE DONE IT BEFORE, I'LL DO IT AGAIN.

Emma Watson on the scene I always think of as Voldemort Ships H/Hr: "I'm going to end up kissing both of [the boys] in the last film. Ugh, it's horrible." But! Emma Watson had the hots for Tom Felton.

Meanwhile: LA Times: Michael Gambon "Sees No Point in Reading" Harry Potter Books by JK Rowling. Maybe I'm crazy, but I love the Gambledore. I'm not saying he's Perfect Exact Book Dumbledore; I'm just saying I love him.

Danny Huston Takes the Crown in 'Robin Hood.' Aw, I love him! I feel kind of warm and fuzzy now.

A major deleted death scene from the director's cut DVD of Watchmen. ... a little less fuzzy now.

What Does Ryan Reynolds’ ‘Green Lantern’ Role Mean For ‘Deadpool’ Movie?

TCM's 'Summer Under the Stars' Posters are Phenomenal.

With ‘True Blood,’ HBO Revives Its Fortunes.

Kodi Smit-McPhee Might Be Oskar in the 'Let Me In' Remake.

'The Wolfman' Gets Down On All Fours: "Rumors of reshoots have been dogging the Wolf Man movie for months. Now we know the truth: instead of paying homage to the original film, the film-makers have reshot key scenes to put Benicio Del Toro on all fours. [...] And then he faces off a much fiercer CG-ed up werewolf. Yes that's right the crew that made a movie based on the Wolf Man now think the Wolfman is lame and did bounding reshoots, so the Wolf Man could be scarier and face off with a werewolf."

Everything Wrong with the Internet in One Gaming Banner Ad Campaign [Badvertising].

It's been a bad week, in terms of the depression thing. I'm just at a point where I'm afraid to talk about it. I finally let my mother in on the severity of it, and she immediately went into I JUST WANT TO FIX IT mode. And she knows she did, and she knows she can't. BUT OMG IS THERE ANYTHING SHE CAN DO TO FIX IT? NO REALLY, IS THERE? I've made about six different attempts at this paragraph and backspaced them all. My inner Elinor is flaring up and I'm afraid to say anything about how I feel now, because mostly I feel moldy and selfish and unmotivated on the best of days, and hellaciously cranky/stupidly weepy on the worst. And I am so, so afraid that if I don't post regularly enough (mmm, aged news! Delicious), readers are going to wander away, but I know I have to hold off if that's what I need to do. And meanwhile, I want to talk about this the way I usually talk about depression, but I just--can't. I don't know. Maybe I'll do a voice post or something--I feel like y'all would need to hear from my actual tone of voice that I'm not falling to pieces over this. It's just... heavy.

And please know that even when I'm not posting, I'm flagging stories for later, not all of which I even end up using. So really, I am keeping up with things, and if I don't compile a linkspam, you can still see what's going on there, if you want.

Re: Tonner SDCC exclusives: They're apparently going to be selling whatever's leftover on the direct site, so I think I'm going to try that (or eBay) rather than ask an unknowable number of readers to try to track down a slightly variant Tonner Edward. As much as I appreciate y'all offering--and, I mean, I did ask--I'm just not sure how that would not end up being a total clusterfuck, since no one would know if anyone else had managed to get one, and we'd end up, with, like, seven.

Also: they're going to have a Black Canary exclusive as well.

Also-also: I think I have found the Uhura I want.

( Linkspam: Yes, I *did* hear about the getting kinda-hit by a cab thing )