Expect Me When You See Me

I tend to get a variety of reviews, many of them quite odd, and of course, the most frustrating thing about them is that the ones you want to reply to have no way of replying to them. This is a roundabout way of saying please forgive me for ranting at a reviewer for a sec.

Dear Samwise O'Keefe,

Uric the Oddball and the Wild Hunt is set in 1680. I repeat, 1680. Not the 12th century, I promise. They had paper and potatoes and violins. They didn't have faucets, but I believe that wizards did have them or at least the equivalent. The same for sinks. Don't believe me? Blame Rowling for putting the Chamber of Secrets behind a sink.

I don't mind that you've obviously misread the date of the story (even if it is written very clearly in the summary!), but dear God, stop telling me in every review that I'm wrong. I'm an archaeologist. I do my fucking research when I'm writing historical stuff. Could you be any more patronizing?

Aaarrghhh,
Ariana Deralte

We now resume your regular programming.

So, my bro went to the doctor today, since for once, his cold was a lot worse than mine. The doctor tells him he has both a viral and bacterial infection. She says that from my symptoms it sounds like I only have the viral part, but if I get worse over the weekend, I'm to get my own trip to the doctor. *crosses fingers* May my symptoms not escalate. Amusingly, I'm drinking much more tea than normal (which for me is more than one cup a day). I knew there was a reason I brought home huge amounts of cheap British tea.

Since I haven't talked about anything serious here in awhile, my postgrad search has been... interesting. Basically, I gave up and emailed one of the experts in the field of Japanese Archaeology and she was enthusiastic and encouraging, despite her confirmation that there really is no where in the UK to do the PhD other than London, and even that is somewhat doubtful. I've also finally come to terms with the fact that I really need to learn to read Japanese before the end of the summer. This is kinda daunting since it simply takes me forever to learn kanji (the only way I've found that works is tons of repetition in various contexts), and I'm doing this all on my own which means my studying varies with my mood.

Was not all that enthralled by House last night. This might be because I'm not as obsessed with Stacy as House is. It was nice to learn more about Wilson, but I'm still wondering just why he and Cameron are suddenly best buddies.

Incidently, Naruto reviewers are some of the more violent I've ever encountered. Ff.net tells me I started posting fanfic in early 2001, and yet up until this month, I was able to say I'd only been threatened with bodily harm by a reviewer once. Now, I've had someone threaten to kidnap me, and another person threatened to *cue stiffled giggles* Desert Coffin me. *L* Is it wrong that I'm now considering holding out on a new chapter of Fake Flowers until someone threatens to 'raikiri' me? *L*

Why in the world do people ask you where you get your ideas when writing? Or your humour? The simple and obvious answer is from my imagination. It's not like there's some great blackmarket trade in ideas. "Award winning plot, guaranteed to win you a Nebula!" Bah. So the answers obvious, why do people ask? All I do these days is refer them to Neil Gaiman's essay anyway...

It's cute, but slightly disturbing to see that someone has changed their name to Beaux Folle on ff.net after reading Uric...

Happy Birthday, nentari and mctabby!

Recieved this review for Uric the Oddball's Fantastic Adventures today:
"Shit..."
*scratches head in puzzlement* Is the fic shit? Is the writing shit? Is she overly awed and is saying it's cool? Is she shocked? What's with the ellipses? No idea.

This is a reminder to all reviewers that authors cannot read minds. Thank you for your time:)

And sometimes odd things like this happen...:)

I'm very bemused by all the reviews I'm getting for Intersections in Real Time. The ones from people who've read Uric are interesting, since they mostly start off with telling me it isn't at all like Uric, even if it is still good, well-written etc. I find this fascinating simply because I don't think my writing style for either story is that different. Granted, for at least the first couple of chapters of Intersections I did make a bit of a concious effort to imitate JKR simply to give the readers a bit of familiarity while I throw a very unfamilar concept in their faces. But still, my writing doesn't change that much, it's only the characters who change. There's still humour in Intersections, but it's no where near the level of Uric because there's only so much humour you can work in while dealing with a rather serious Harry and Snape.

I also love the way some of my reviewers are reserving judgement until they read more. Perhaps I should have stated that my goal for the story was/is it write a common cliche plot realistically and while keeping everyone in character.

And then Wazoo called me a newbie on the Order of Reviewers thread...*L*

I would like to state that the Harry Potter Dragon Eggs are really odd. It was cute that I thought I was getting a Chinese Fireball, but when I unwrapped it, I discovered a second wrapping saying I had a Hungarian Horntail instead. Was a bit bemused by that. Then I bit into the egg and discovered two strange creams in green and orange respectively with a dragon shapped gummy...so I'm chewing on a Hungarian Horntail now. Not as crunchy as I'd imagined...

In other news,I'd sincerly like to thwap the next person who reviews one of my fics with only the intention of increasing their post count. And I'd really like to know why they are all choosing Uric the Oddball's Fantastic Adventures to do it on...end rant...

And, i hope i don't offend you or anyone by saying this, but i think Uric and Louis would make a cute, if improbable couple.

With the exception of NM's hilarious suggestions of future Uric fanfic and a few other random reviews, this is one of my most amusing reviews. Maybe it's because I write OC's, but I find it hilarious when people suggest I do something different, or even better, suggest I got something wrong. I have at least two reviews telling me I got it wrong and that Mena really is a Gryffindor, and one telling me that Louis belongs in Ravenclaw. As the author, you would think I would know;) But I find it flattering that people care enough about the characters to want to change them.