What I'm reading #1

It's kind of a thing I have, where what I read has an impact (sometimes a very direct impact) on what I write, as well as my energy level for writing in general.  Sometimes in a positive way, such as when reading a story or fanfic or novel inspires me to work on something because it gave me insights into a character I want to create, or a plotline that I can suddenly see stretching clearly out in front of Faith or Dawn or Buffy or O'Neill... and sometimes in a negative way, where I read something and think 'Oh, HELL no, I'm not going to let that stand unchallenged' and I hammer at my keyboard while caught up in a whirl of righteous indignation.

At the moment, there's a little bit of both going on.
On the positive side, I'm rereading a novel called 'Brother to Demons, Brother to Gods', by Jack Williamson.  Williamson is one of those old-school, hugely prolific, hugely influential authors that most readers today will never have heard of; I barely know him myself, as this is the only book of his that I've read.  It's a simple little thing, and there are definitely flaws, but there's also a charm to it, and some interesting ideas gleam and glitter from its pages, like semi-precious stones strewn on a sandy beach.
It's also worth noting that he wrote this when he was 71 years old; I only hope I do as well when I'm that age (note that since I plan to live forever, writing at 71, and at 1071 years of age is something I fully intend to do :-)

On the negative side of things this week, I read a fair bit of a fanfic called 'Illusion'.
http://www.tthfanfic.org/Story-11011/chaoseternus+Illusion.htm
This is a crossover between Harry Potter and the movie Labyrinth.  I recently rewatched Labyrinth, and I really enjoy it, so I was hopeful for this story.  And yes, the author's writing mechanics are weak, and the story stumbles often, but again, like in the novel I mentioned above, charm and interesting ideas will buy you forgiveness for issues that are normally enough to turn me off of a story.  This did well enough for a while, and I liked the idea of Sarah coming to Hogwarts as an outsider to their world, but also as someone with access to powers they didn't fully understand, and also access to a culture they also didn't fully understand, the Goblins (who, as it turns out, are the SAME goblins that serve Jareth in the Labyrinth and the Goblin City--Neat!)
Unfortunately, as things went along, something odd happened.  Sarah got MEAN.  Yes, yes, I know Slytherin is the designated punching bag of the Potter stories, and nobody likes them because evil and awful and bigoted and blahblahblah, but nowhere in this story is that reputation earned.  Sarah never sees Malfoy or the others do anything awful and cruel to anyone, she merely hears them call someone a snarky name--uh, Sarah, did you even GO to school?  Any school?  That stuff happens.
So anyway, based on this (and as far as we're shown, ONLY this), Sarah turns into an incredibly harsh and persistent bully, who devotes herself to making life hell for Malfoy and the other Slytherin kids.
Again, if we'd seen the evil kids being evil, if Sarah's pranks and tricks and harassment were retaliatory, it would be different... but we never see that.  It's all her, using her powers to be the worst kind of bitch, and I honestly wouldn't be surprised if this led to something like the real-world cases where kids have been bullied to the point of committing suicide.
I had to stop reading somewhere around chapter 13; maybe it gets better later, but I'd basically reached my limit at that point.
Stories like this (in addition to JK's books themselves) have caused me to slowly build up a sizable store of sympathy for the Slytherins, and it's a very real possibility that the next thing I work on after this current chapter will be a reworking/relaunch of the 'Harry Potter and the Goddess of the Dawn' story, which is all about showing things from the Slytherin side (along with a mystical version of Upgrade(!)Dawn as the catalyst for the changes in the timeline).

Still not feeling great, physically.
Doctor's appointment tomorrow morning; hopefully they can fix me, so I can get back to work on things.

Alan
aka
DreamSmith