Officially a Woman

Not that I didn't always know it and feel it inside, and thanks to hormones becoming more feminine day by day on the outside, but I've finally got my gender recognition certificate, which means in the eye of the law I am a woman with all the rights, wrongs, priviledges and oppressions that all women have, so I can now marry a man, have a civil partnership with a woman, get sent to a women's jail if I break the law, all the pluses and minuses of being a woman apply to me and the law will back it up.

Additional
Now I just need to wait for my new birth certificate :)

The Wheel of Time Ends

Finally finished reading The Wheel of Time: A Memory of Light, it's only taken me 3 1/2 days too!  I didn't want to rush myself nor tarry too long as it's a monstrous read but one I was able to defeat in the end.  Much too early for spoilers, as I'm sure there's many others out there still to read this tale, but I will say this, it's quite a journey and well worth it.  Of course now the mind turns to thoughts of prequels and perhaps even sequels, after all there's is always that voice that asks, 'and then what happens?' but perhaps it's too early for that just yet.

An Unexpected Hobbit

Well after all the waiting (I booked tickets back in the middle of November, oh yes precious we didsies) The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey was unveiled to me and my friend Zoe today and it did not disappoint.  Crammed full of deadly orcs, villianous goblins, monstrous wargs and sizzling irishmen and the delectible Cate Blanchett, the film rollops along with all the fun and excitement of any of the sequel films.  One must not think of the Hobbit as a lesser work merely because it came first and it's not as long, the book crams its plot into its pages, so there's more than enough to go around for the duration this the first installment of the trilogy.  I don't want to go into too many spoilers here but there's something in this for die-hard LOTR fans as well as the newcomers.  Plus the fantastic scenary is a visual banquet for the eyes, much is made of the locations, there's a real sense of connection between the journey of Thorin's company and the one the Fellowship travelled upon, indeed much effort is made to link them up whenever possible, from Hobbiton to Rivendell there is a sense of homecoming for me as a fan of the Ring trilogy.  That said Hobbit has its own identity, it's own tone and it's own story to tell.  Much effort is made to recreate Gollum, one of the highlights of LotR, although here we see perhaps a happier Gollum, more care free and even happy and yet the danger of the character is never far away.  The ending of the first installment was more or less where I felt it might be after re-reading the book last month.  There's still so much of the journey to go and unlike our heroes I don't think the worst is behind them...

well that was November

and I completed NaNoWriMo for the fifth year running, despite a rather slow start, now comes all the editing to make the thing presentable.  I do try to edit the worst mistakes as I go along, but even so I always find some things that need changing/amending/deleting or even enhancing.  One story a few years ago I needed to swap quite a few scenes around because I'd taken a break while writing and put a logical error in it after resuming writing and I didn't notice it for nearly six months!  Plus a fresh look at a story after a little time away from it does add perspective.

Happy Birthday Benny

http://www.bigfinish.com/releases/quickinfo/many-happy-returns-775

renowned archaeologist, raconteur and barfly Bernice Summerfield 20 years young today, well at least her adventures are, and despite the release of the adaptation of Love and War last month the festivities continue in this special audio release :)

pilgrim's bounty

mostly done the holiday quests already :)

doing nanowrimo

it's coming along well this year, not quite so rushed as last year, taking my time a little more, as I don't want to lose any character moments in the rush to complete plot points