heavenly_pearl | Entries tagged with book

Thanks to Right Stuf's awesome birthday sale last month, I haven't had much money to spend on fun Sailor Moon merchandise on eBay, but I did manage to pick up a couple of things.

This is my favorite recent purchase! I remember seeing the Pegasus charm up for sale one time on its own, but somebody else ended up buying it before I could, so I was really happy to find this set. The two transformation brooches are actual brooches and the other three are charms. They're all really well made and heavy, not like most of the cheap gashapon charms I have.

( Read more... )

I also just won a Girls Memories Chibi Moon figure, but that hasn't even been sent off yet, so I'll just leave that pic for next time!

If you're curious as to what I bought from the Right Stuf sale: Yu Yu Hakusho: The Movie DVD, Amagi Brilliant Park DVD set, Okimono Kimono (a book about kimono written by CLAMP's Mokona -- the artist, not the cute mascot), Toradora Bluray/DVD bundle, RWBY Volume 4 DVD, Black Butler Season 3 Bluray/DVD set, Death Parade Bluray/DVD set, and Aromatic Bitters (a manga by Erica Sakurazawa).

Current Mood: okay

Usually I would be doing the usual "Year in Fic" meme like I do every year, but since I only posted three stories last year -- Melting Ice (Kaleido Star), Salvation (Sailor Moon), and Private Christmas (Harry Potter) -- it doesn't seem worth the trouble. I will say, though, that my top goal for 2014 is finishing Melting Ice. It will be done. *imitates Sora Naegino* It will, it will, IT WILL!

Current Mood: cold

Remember earlier this year, when I mentioned I had started a Percy/Penelope Christmas fic set during Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets but had decided to put it on hold until it was closer to Christmas? Well, even though I just remembered its existence a little over a week ago, I actually managed to finish it! Private Christmas has been posted at all the usual places, including my writing journal,

oyster_shell. I wish I could have spent a little more time on it before posting, but I wanted to get it out before Christmas, so I hope you enjoy it as is. Merry Christmas and happy holidays!

Gah, I'm supposed to be focusing on Melting Ice, so why do I keep getting plot bunnies for other stories? It's so frustrating!

Somehow, despite my resolve to focus only on Melting Ice, I've started two -- TWO! -- more stories over the course of the last month. One is a Harry Potter Christmas story. I've been rereading the series, and while reading the Christmas chapter in CoS where Harry and Ron are trying to sneak into the Slytherins' common room, I was curious as to what exactly Percy and Penelope were up to in the dungeons. I've written a couple of scenes so far, but I think I've managed to convince myself to wait until closer to Christmas to continue it. By then, Melting Ice should be done (hopefully), and it'll be more fun to write when it's actually Christmas time.

The second story is much more of a problem, because I really, really, REALLY want to write it now. Has anybody read the manga Demon Love Spell? I picked up the first two volumes last week and really enjoyed them. It's about the unlikely romance between a Shinto priestess and a sex-crazed incubus, and it reminded me that I always did want to wrhite a Helios/Chibi-Usa story featuring an incubus as a villain. I actually did use an incubus and a succubus as minor monsters in one of my first fanfics (Star-Crossed Lovers, I think?), but this story line is a lot more interesting, in which a revenge-seeking incubus takes the guise of Helios and seduces Chibi-Usa in her dreams, eventually managing to convince her to live with him in her dreams forever. The real Helios then has to find a way to awaken her from her never-ending dream before she dies.

Man, I'd much rather be working on that than Melting Ice... I'm so stuck on that story, it's not even funny. *sigh* Maybe it would be better to work on something else for at least a couple of weeks...

Current Mood: frustrated

Kerry's thread at .moon about giving away some of her story ideas gave me the inspiration to make this post -- which I hope to make a point of updating regularly -- listing all the story ideas I've had (and can remember). Unlike Kerry's thread, this really isn't about giving away fic ideas, but if something does catch your eye and it's marked as abandoned/unmarked, then feel free to take. Just leave me a note so I can read it when it's finished. ^_^ (Credit is nice, but not really necessary for most of these ideas, since they're so generic in the first place. You can probably even take an idea I'm actually working on and come up with a completely different plot than mine if you really want.)

Current fandoms represented:

Sailor Moon - 18 stories, plus four crossovers
Kaleido Star - 2 stories, plus a crossover
Fruits Basket - 2 stories
Death Note - 2 stories
Witch Hunter Robin - Crossover
Card Captor Sakura - Crossover
Someday's Dreamers - 1 story
Princess Nine - 1 story
School Rumble - 1 story
Harry Potter - 1 story
Grey's Anatomy - Crossover
Ghost Whisperer - Crossover

Key:

Bold - Current Work-in-Progress
Italics - Back-burnered, may come back to someday.
Underline - Would like to write eventually, although there's no guarantee I will.
~~Striked-out~~ - Worked on some, decided to abandon. Slight possibility I may come back to it, but not likely. Up for grabs.
Normal - Random ideas I have no current plans to write, but you never know... Also up for grabs.

( Fic Ideas )

Current Mood: creative

Guys, I just went a little nuts at Amazon. >.< As if I'm not addicted enough to Sims 2, I decided I simply must have the rest of the Stuff Packs I needed to complete my set, like, yesterday, so I bought a $100 Visa giftcard at Wal-mart and ordered all four of them at once (Happy Holidays Stuff, Family Fun Stuff, Kitchen & Bath Interior Design Stuff, and Glamour Life Stuff). *laughs* Now all I need is the Apartment Life expansion pack, but I'm not in any real rush to get that one since it's the newest and easy to find in stores. (I actually had to buy two of the Stuff packs from the Marketplace, since Amazon wasn't selling them anymore.) I also pre-ordered the first volume of Tsubasa: Those With Wings (from the mangaka of Fruits Basket) and picked up Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle Vol. 20, along with a paperback copy of Anna Karenina, which I've wanted to read ever since my sophomore year in high school, when I stupidly chose to read Wuthering Heights instead for Pre-AP English. (I needed something under seven dollars to max out the card, so I figured it was as good as time as ever to get around to it!)

Only bad thing about online shopping? The wait.

I want my Sims stuff now!

*pouts*

Current Mood: crazy

I had a touch of insomnia last night, so I decided to get up and inventory all my anime, manga, and related merchandise. This is the result.

( The Inventory )

Current Mood: impressed

Okay, I have finally finished reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, so now I can finally weigh in on some subjects I've wanted to discuss, but didn't feel like I should without reading the book itself first.

First off, though, here's my final ranking of all the books in the series, after having reread the first six before getting to DH:

1. Goblet of Fire
2. Half-Blood Prince
3. Chamber of Secrets
4. Deathly Hallows
5. Sorceror's Stone
6. Order of the Phoenix
7. Prisoner of Azkaban

Deathly Hallows might have been a little higher had the first half not been so meandering. Once they actually found out what the Deathly Hallows were, the book was fantastic, but getting there was a little sluggish at times.

( Likes )

( Dislikes )

Now, onto the aforementioned subjects I wanted to weigh in on.

( Possibly unpoular opinions )

Heh, this got a lot longer than I thought it would. *laughs* I think that's about everything I wanted to say, but if I think of anything else, I'll edit it in later.

Current Mood: contemplative

Finally,

oyster_shell is officially finished! And way ahead of schedule, to boot. I was hoping to be done by the end of the year at the earliest, but posting SOF and ATR didn't take nearly as much time as I thought it would, even with all the annoying split chapters. In any case, feel free to friend it if you're a fan of my writing. Now that I have a writing journal, I doubt I'll be posting fics here anymore, although I may post links here to the writing journal when I do update. I haven't decided yet.

In other news, Dejana is awesome! She sent me a copy of Deathly Hallows! I probably won't read it any time soon since I'm in the middle of rereading the series and I'm only on OotP, but it'll be nice to have once I finish with HBP. ^_^ (It is awfully tempting to skip ahead, though....)

Current Mood: jubilant

You know what? A lot of people are avoiding the internet this weekend in fear of coming across spoilers for the last Harry Potter book, yet here I am, spending the morning actually looking for spoilers. *laughs*

Yeah, I'm in no real hurry to read the book. Current plans are to just wait until it comes out in paperback, since, as a general rule, I do not like paying more than ten dollars for a fictional book. (Nonfiction is different, since I care more about getting the most accurate and up-to-date information than what kind of cover it has.) However, if my mom offers to by me the hardback, I may take her up on it. I don't know... The spoilers I've read so far aren't exactly making me anxious to read it, since several of my favorite characters die. :( But at least it looks like my favorite theory was right, so that's something.

Current Mood: dorky

Considering my last entry, I just had to do this meme.

Name five crossovers you'd love to read or write one of these days, no matter how cracked-out or improbable.

1. Sailor Moon/Grey's Anatomy - I think it would be really interesting if either Ami or Mamoru ended up interning at Seattle Grace, and the hospital ended up having to deal with the casualties of a youma attack, having no idea what was going on.

2. Card Captor Sakura/Ghost Whisperer - Melinda sees ghosts, Touya sees ghosts... It's a no-brainer. (See previous entry)

3. Sailor Moon/Witch Hunter Robin - I really do want to write this eventually. My idea has Robin, whose craft is fire, being related to Rei, a fact they discover when the STNJ starts investigating the Sailor Senshi, who they think are witches.

4. Someday's Dreamers/Harry Potter - A lot of HP crossovers from what I hear tend to be with series that don't really fit in with it, but Someday's Dreamers really would be a plausible HP crossover partner, IMO. Both series are about magical people learning how to use their powers, so I think they would complement each other well if done correctly.

5. Absolute Boyfriend/Chobits/Hand Maid May - *laughs* Yeah, I just want to see how somebody would handle a crossover with these three series about robots who look like people. I bet it would be a lot of fun. ^_^

5.

Current Mood: amused

Every time I see the trailer for the new movie, a little bit of my childhood dies.

Come on, people, Bridge to Terabithia isn't some fantasy novel about two kids trying to save some mystical world from evil or whatever. It isn't The Chronicles of Narnia. In fact, even though it's been a while since I've read the book, I don't remember the book focusing all that much on what Jesse and Leslie did in their made-up kingdom of Terebithia (which was just that, made-up). I certainly can't remember much, other than they made themselves king and queen and I think the dog was the prince. The book focused a lot more on what happened in the "real" world and the friendship between Jesse and Leslie.

*sigh* I can't imagine a movie adaptation less faithful to book canon based on the way it is presented in the trailer. Maybe I'm wrong, and the trailer is just amazingly misleading, but... I don't think so.

Current Mood: disappointed

So, I'm finally up to date on all the books. This one didn't manage to knock Goblet of Fire from the top spot, but I think it managed a solid second or third. (I can't decide if I like it better than Chamber of Secrets or not.)

For those who have yet to read the book...

( ...spoilers )

Current Mood: awake

Well, the outing was successful this time, but I have to say that it ended up being a rather disappointing day all around. I blame hormones. They put me in a bad mood all day long.

First off, when we got to the mall, we went to Barnes and Noble like we usually do. I wanted to get the new Someday's Dreamers manga, but they didn't have it. *sigh* I ended up buying a gift card instead to order it -- along with the upcoming Fruits Basket and Absolute Boyfriend volumes -- online, and Mom bought me the sixth Harry Potter book that finally come out in paperback a couple of days ago.

After that, we headed to the food court, where we had lunch before going to the movies. Mom really wanted to see Lady in the Water, but since I thought it looked stupid, we decided to see The Devil Wears Prada instead. While I really enjoyed it, Mom got bored halfway through, which made me feel bad since this was supposed to be kind of a birthday celebration. (Her birthday's this Saturday.) Anyway, afterwards, we went to a few other stores, but we couldn't find anything we wanted, so we headed to Best Buy.

To be honest, going to Best Buy was the thing I most looked forward to. I planned to buy the first season of Kaleido Star (what else?), but, again, they didn't have it. Nor did they have my second choice, the second season of Wedding Peach. (They did have the first season, which I almost got, but I really wanted the second, since I haven't seen all of it.) Luckily, they did have my third choice, the Evangelion movie boxset. I ended up getting that, but, because of the aforementioned stupid hormones, I was actually trying to keep from crying that they didn't have the Kaleido Star boxset.

Yeah, I was tearing up because they didn't have a boxset. *rolls eyes* Definitely hormones.

The rest of the day pretty much just went downhill from there. Not even The Mary Tyler Moore Show managed to cheer me up, and that show always cheers me up. I'm better now, but still... Sucky day.

There was one moment of brightness, though. Dad just gave Mom her birthday present, and it''s a new flat screen TV, which means I can rid of my little TV and switch to the old living room TV. Whee! Along with my reclaimed DVD player, I can now watch subtitled anime in the comfort of my own bedroom.

At least something good happened today.

Current Mood: grumpy

First off, I got the first disc of Kaleido Star in from Netflix yesterday, and it is excellent. How good is it, you ask? Well, let's just say that if the rest of the series is as good as the first five episodes, then this has the potential to be the series that knocks my beloved Fruits Basket from the number one spot on my favorite anime list, or, at the very least, tie with it. I never thought that would happen!

For those who haven't heard of it, it's about this orphaned teenage girl named Sora who moves to America and joins a Cirque du Soleil-esque performing circus called Kaleido Stage. She's a bit behind the other members in terms of experience and skill, but she is destined for the stage, or so says the Fool, the ecchi, doll-sized "spirit of the stage" who only Sora can see. With beautiful animation, engaging characters, and a lot of humor and heart, I'd definitely say this is a must-see anime for all shoujo lovers. ^_^

Second, Mom just found my copy of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, which has been missing ever since I first finished it during the aftermath of Hurricane Rita. Apparently, it was underneath my video/DVD/manga bookcase the entire time, although how it got there in the first place, I have no idea. Now I'm glad I never bought a replacement copy like I was tempted to do a couple of times. I can't believe it finally turned up after all these months!

Third, still haven't finished FFIVA yet, although I've made it to the final boss a few times. *sigh* I'll have to work extra hard tonight, since I would really like to finish before tomorrow so I won't be distracted from writing again.

And, to finish things off, a meme from Kate.

INSTRUCTIONS:
1. The tagged victim has to come up with 8 different descriptions of their perfect lover.
2. He/she needs to mention the sex/gender of their perfect lover.
3. He/she must tag 8 more people to join this game and leave a comment on their comments saying they've been tagged.
4. If tagged a second time, there's no need to post again.

( Perfect Lover )

Tagged (if you want to do it): samuraiter, dejana, dark_branwen, papirini, sophiap, alex_lebeau, mythopoet_blue, sea_thoughts

Another Favorite Characters meme:

Post a list of up to 20 books/movies/anime/TV shows/video games/etc. that you've had an obsessive fannish love of at some time in your life. Have your friends list guess your favorite character from each item.

1. ~~Sailor Moon~~ - Helios
2. ~~Firefly~~ - Mal
3. ~~Harry Potter~~ - Ron
4. ~~Someday's Dreamers~~ - Oyamada
5. ~~Grey's Anatomy~~ - George
6. Gilmore Girls - Lorelai
7. ~~Card Captor Sakura~~ - Touya
8. ~~The Phantom of the Opera~~ - Carlotta
9. ~~Fruits Basket~~ - Shigure
10. Everwood - Ephram
11. ~~Ayashi no Ceres~~ - Tooya
12. Chobits - Chitose
13. ~~Evangelion~~ - Misato
14. Princess Nine - Seira
15. ~~RahXephon~~ - Haruka
16. Witch Hunter Robin - Doujima
17. ~~Desperate Houswives~~ - Bree
18. ~~The Babysitters Club~~ (... Shut up. I needed to fill up spaces.) - Claudia
19. Sweet Valley Twins (Again, don't say anything.) - Elizabeth
20. ~~Numb3rs~~ - Charlie

Current Mood: dorky

Write 12 of your favorite characters in any order (but number them). After you've written it, look at the questions.

1. Sasame (Pretear)
2. Tooya (Ayashi no Ceres)
3. Mal (Firefly)
4. Coach Kido (Princess Nine)
5. Haruka (RahXephon)
6. Helios (Sailor Moon)
7. Misato (Evangelion)
8. Ron (Harry Potter)
9. Oyamada-sensei (Someday's Dreamers)
10. Touya (Card Captor Sakura)
11. Shigure (Fruits Basket)
12. Chitose (Chobits)

( Questions )

Current Mood: okay

Well, I finished OofP last night. It was pretty good, but not as good as Goblet of Fire. I thought it lost quite a bit of steam once George and Fred made their dramatic exit from Hogwarts. Up until then, it was difficult sometimes for me to finally put the book down and go to sleep at night, but the last few chapters I had to push myself to finish. And again, what I thought should have been the main plot was treated like a subplot, but I'm not too upset about that this time because the whole Prophecy thing was boring. It was pretty weak even for a subplot. A few (rather dull) dreams, some occlumancy lessons with Snape, and a battle at the Department of Mysteries with no real build-up at all... Who really cared if Voldemort got his hands on the Prophecy, anyway? It's not like the rest of the Prophecy would have given him any clues on how to defeat Harry. All it said was that Harry has some power Voldemort doesn't understand and that one of them is destined to kill the other. Not exactly startling information. (Although it is interesting that Neville could have been the one Voldemort went after instead of Harry.) Voldemort should have just risked exposure and gotten the Prophecy himself if he wanted it so badly. Sure, it would have been a stupid move on his part, but it would have allowed the story to move onto more interesting things. (Besides, with Fudge and the others burying their heads in the sand over Voldemort's return, they probably still would have insisted he was dead even if he had turned up in the Department of Mysteries and stolen the Prophesy.)

Likes
- Luna and Tonks, two very cool new characters
- More Neville, who I always liked
- The battle between Umbridge and the school
- Fred and George and their wonderful inventions
- D.A.
- Learning about Snape's history with Harry's parents
- Harry/Cho

Dislikes
- The Prophecy subplot (see above)
- Umbridge (the b***h)
- A little too much gore for my taste (especially concerning Umbridge's special quill)
- Hagrid's subplot with his half-brother *yawn*
- Lee Jordan's Quidditch commentary -- he just wasn't at his best (I did crack up at the part when he talked about Angelina how kept rejecting him, though, and it made me think, "Ooo! Lee/Angelina!")
- Harry's anger. Sure, it was understandable, but it was a little much at times.
- Harry's stupidity. Dumbledore might have tried to take most of the blame for Sirius' death, but really, if only Harry had opened that two-way mirror Sirius gave him to contact him about Snape, he could have saved himself a lot of trouble. Not only would Sirius probably still be alive, but he wouldn't have had to sneak into Umbridge's office twice to use her fire.

Current Mood: lazy
Current Music: "Question of Honor" - Sarah Brightman

Here's hoping it's better than last year.

So, what to talk about? I know I haven't posted for a few days, but I was hoping more people would reply to the meme in the last entry. :( Oh, well.

I finished reading Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire a couple of nights ago, and I must say it was the best of the books I've read so far. The plotting was definitely much improved from the first three books. There was a main story, and it actually was the focus of the book, not like SS and PoA where it seemed like the supposed main story was more of one of several subplots. The only true subplot in GoF was Rita Skeeter and her tabloid articles, but at least that was pretty amusing.

Now, I assume I don't really need to put these spoilers under a cut since most fans have already read it, but if by chance you haven't and want to remain unspoiled (Kate, possibly), you might want to quit reading.

Likes
- Only a short appearance of the Dursleys. I can't stand them, so I was glad when Harry spent the rest of the holiday with the Weasleys.
- Bill and Charlie finally made an actual appearance. I've rather taken a liking to Bill. ^_^ He's supposed to hook up with Fleur in future books, right? I'll be very interested in seeing that. (Charlie's cool, too.)
- Speaking of Fleur, I loved the idea of meeting wizards and witches from other countries. I only wish we got to know at least a couple of the others besides Krum and Fleur.
- The Ron/Hermione exchanges. They so have the hots for each other.
- The surprise of who Mad-Eye Moody really is. If I hadn't done what I usually do and flipped to the end, I would have been really shocked to find out he was the bad guy. I actually liked him. He had a gruff exterior, but seemed really kind.
- Getting to know a little bit more about Sirius' personality, even if it was mostly through letters. I can see why so many people like him.

Dislikes
- No Quidditch, except for the World Cup at the beginning. Now, I'm not neccessarily disappointed in the absence of Quidditch itself, but of Lee Jordan's hilarious commentary of the game. I missed it. He should have have done the commentary for the Triwizard Tournament instead of Bagman.
- Draco didn't really do much besides taunting Harry over Rita Skeeter's articles and being a big supporter of the "Support Cedric Diggory, Harry Potter Stinks" campaign.
- Maybe it was because I knew that Cedric died beforehand, but his death was really anticlimatic. I mean, he and Harry are transported to the graveyard, and almost immediately, he's killed without even having a real chance to defend himself. He should have been given the chance to do something and die a hero.

Current Mood: complacent

I'll type up a longer update later, but I wanted to go ahead and type up my list of presents while they're still fresh in my mind. (My family always opens up presents on Christmas Eve.)

Pretear boxset
Ah, My Goddess! DVD
Vol. 13 of Ayashi no Ceres
Vol. 16 of Fushigi Yugi
Vol. 10 and 11 of Fruits Basket (one which came with a free mini-calender)
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Mariah Carey - The Emancipation of Mimi CD
Sarah Brightman - Love Changes Everything CD
Il Divo - Il Divo CD
Blue CD case
Black skirt
Teal satin blouse
Purple sweater with white collar
A couple of picture frames
Candy
A "Scorpio" journal and a couple of pens
A "Mystic Fountain" from my sister (Basically, a fountain that creates steam)
$190 (Twenty from Mom and Dad, twenty from Uncle Stan and Aunt Valeta, and the rest from "Santa")

I think that's about it. ^_^

Current Mood: sleepy

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Sweet Dreams

Entries tagged with book

Long time, no see!

Happy New Year

Christmas fic

Just what I need...

Story Ideas

The addiction keeps growing

Inventory

Yeah, I'm late to the party (Beware spoilers if you somehow managed to keep yourself unspoiled)

Wahoo!

Heh

Taken from Sophia

Bridge to Terabithia

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Girls' Day Out

Yume Hodgepodge

Meme from Sophia

Meme from Samuraiter

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Spoilers Ahead)