Avast!

Happy Talk Like a Pirate Day, arrrr!

Here be an instructional video.

A few pirate books, mostly YA:

Pirates! by Celia Rees Nancy Kingston travels from Bristol to her father's Jamaican plantation, after his death, only to discover that her brothers are marrying her off to a reprehensible Brazilian plantation owner. What are she and plantation slave Minerva Sharpe to do, but run off to sea and become... PIRATES? Fast-paced and fun.

Piratica: Being a Daring Tale of a Singular Girl's Adventure Upon the High Seas by Tanith Lee After a fall down the stairs at her chilly and aloof girls' boarding school, Artemesia Fitz-Willoughby regains long-lost memories of her childhood... and her mother, the famed pirate queen Piratica. Artemsia changes her name to the suitably piratical Art Blastside, and sets off to find her mother's crew, take up her tradition of cleverness over cruelty, and find a hidden treasure! Twisty plot, full of the fantastical, and once again, much fun. There's a sequel coming out in November, Piratica ii: Return to Parrot Island.

Bloody Jack: Being an Account of the Curious Adventures of Mary "Jacky" Faber, Ship's Boy Orphaned by the plague at eight, young Mary Faber has been a street rat ever since. But a change of boy's clothes and a chance encounter with the British Navy's recruiting officers change everything for Mary. She changes her name to Jacky, distinguishes herself from the rest of the rabble by belting out "I can read," and is taken aboard as a ship's boy. Sequels are Curse of the Blue Tattoo: Being an Account of the Misadventures of Jacky Faber, Midshipman and Fine Lady, Under the Jolly Roger: Being an Account of the Further Nautical Adventures of Jacky Faber, and not yet out, In the Belly of the Bloodhound: Being an Account of a Particularly Peculiar Adventure in the Life of Jacky Faber (Admittedly, there are more pirates in the third book than the first one, but still!)

And of course, The Princess Bride by William Goldman Fencing. Fighting. Torture. Poison. True love. Hate. Revenge. Giants. Hunters. Bad men. Good men. Beautifulest ladies. Snakes. Spiders. Beasts of all natures and descriptions. Pain. Death. Brave men. Coward men. Strongest men. Chases. Escapes. Lies. Truths. Passion. Miracles.

In lieu of actual content...

... return of the random links! Various things that have collected over the past few months. Some of this may be old news by now.

When I left the school in June, I got assorted wee gifties from the kids. One of my grade five library helpers gave me this figurine, which I think is absolutely lovely and wanted to share.

Jeanette Winterson has written a children's novel.

Jeeves & Wooster T-shirt designs. Hee.

A Survey of the Lesbian Fiction Publishing Industry

The winners of this year's Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest have been announced. This is the contest where people try to create the worst opening sentence of a novel ever. "You've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel loquacious?' - well do you, punk?"

The Top Five Ways to Totally Sabotage Your Comic Submission The top five things NOT to do, and show you how looking at the flip-side of each huge mistake reveals a way to really make your submission stand out from the rest of the pack (or, in this case, from the rest of the envelope pile). From the current submissions reviewer at Dark Horse Comics.

Harper Lee Writes Rare Item for O Magazine "Harper Lee, author of the novel "To Kill A Mockingbird," has written a rare published item _ a letter for Oprah Winfrey's magazine on how she became a reader as a child in a rural, Depression-era Alabama town."

When love flourished in M for medical textbooks "Two weeks ago, Rachel Cooke sparked a nationwide debate by standing up for libraries under threat of closure by penny-pinching bureaucrats. Now, we publish a personal account of how libraries have the power to change lives for the better." By Eva Ibbotson.

SGA reference material: A Primer To Allergic Reactions And Anaphylactic Shock. Also, Heat Stress. 'nough said.

The International Eating Etiquette Test, Don’t Gross Out the World. Is a flash thingie with music, be warned. (I love their question about Canada. It's about the Inuit, and kind of makes me question the validity of the rest of the quiz.)

This one's for devohoneybee: pretty necklaces! (Though she may have seen it because I think I found the link on Neil Gaiman's blog.)

Pippi Longstocking icons, yay!

Forever Knight season three is coming out on DVD. However, I think the DVD releases are the US episodes, which are each short a few minutes from the aired Canadian versions. Can anyone confirm or deny?

From afterellen.com, Batwoman's Lesbian Identity is No Secret to Comic Book Fans

A federal judge Monday temporarily barred the Miami-Dade County School District from removing a children's book on Cuba from school libraries.

Regender is a translation page for pronouns.

nestra is collecting stories in comments about whackjob professors.

Livejournal Dungeon Adventure! "Enter your LiveJournal username, or that of any friend or enemy, to explore a dungeon magically generated from their interests and friends list, a dark, underground realm of treasure and monsters and slightly surreal background details." A highly amusing way to waste much time.

Teresa Neilsen Hayden on Fanfic In a purely literary sense, fanfic doesn’t exist. There is only fiction. Fanfic is a legal category created by the modern system of trademarks and copyrights. Putting that label on a work of fiction says nothing about its quality, its creativity, or the intent of the writer who created it.

Heads Up: 'Princess Diaries' Author Has a New Calling—Not Suitable For Children! "But for this particular story, I really feel like the blowjob just hasn't had enough coverage in literature. I was like, "Damn it, I'm going to put that in, because we girls need to talk about it. I did that on purpose because I do feel like there has been a lot of talk lately about adolescent girls doing the whole blowjob-at-parties thing, and I feel like they're not getting the point. You've got to get something back, because it's great if you're going to do that for him, but what's he going to do for you? So I feel like that is something that older women think about, that I don't know necessarily if girls are. That's my calling—to put the blowjob back in literature. It just hasn't had enough exposure." The truly fantastic Meg Cabot, talking about her adult fiction.

The Regeneration of Doctor Who: The ninth Doctor and the influence of the slayer "The new series of Doctor Who and the extent to which it has been influenced, both generically and thematically by US imports, specifically Buffy the Vampire Slayer."

fish_like_bikes Introducing: Fish Like Bikes, (aka The Female Stargate Characters Fanfiction Kink & Cliche Challenge. "Fish Like Bikes" for short.)