Michelle Ravel

Delishiousness

2009-11-08T01:50:16Z

Guys. Guys.

For my wedding two months ago, from someone, I got a $90 gift certificate for the LCBO. (That's the liquor board of Ontario... where we buy booze.) So today, after a particularly stressful day at work, I went and bought:

750 ML OF LAGAVULIN, AGED 16 YRS.

That is correct.

I am drinking it right now, neat, but with like a teaspoon of tapwater in there to open of the flavahs. It is SO DELICIOUS. It tastes like a SCOTTISH CAMPFIRE IN MY GLASS, people.

I never thought it would be something I could own for myself. I have a half-finished bottle of 12-year-old Glenfiddich which is now my "cheap scotch". And some Canadian whiskey which will now only be tolerable when mixed with ice and club soda.

*cries with happiness*

(Speaking of snooby alcohol consumption, I wish people on the Nanowrimo 20-something forum would stop saying contradictory crap like, "I like beer--Miller lite." Well, which is it? Do you like beer or Miller lite? You can't like both, you cretin.)

Guys with beards...

2009-11-07T23:55:04Z

Guys with beards are hot.

Amirite?

Meme!

2009-11-06T05:32:06Z

Stolen from chickadilly ... the "If I were a vampire..." meme! (Post three things you would do if you were a vampire.)

If I were a vampire, I'd accidentally bite the inside of my mouth all the time with my fangs.
If I were a vampire, I don't think I'd spend any less time outside than I already do.
If I were a vampire, I would eat people I didn't like without being that emo about it.

Also, you know, when I was your age, "memes" were something invented by Richard Dawkins and LJ didn't exist.

michelle_ravel @ 2009-11-05T19:44:00

2009-11-06T00:54:18Z

Guys, I am so burnt out. Nano's been great so far, but of course, I've fallen behind in word count by now and I just feel totally exhausted by the idea of writing more today. You have to put your feelings out there, you know? Your soul. And it's hard work.

The problem is that I'm busy at my regular job, and it's the wrong kind of busy. I spend my days rehearsing for concerts and practicing for rehearsals. And it's sort of put-your-heart-and-soul-into-it work too, and I just feel... I don't know. Creatively tapped out?

I just wish I could do something boring, something that doesn't matter.

Today I'm writing a scene where my main character is caught between two men she loves. And I'm also practicing Beethoven's 7th symphony. And I'm just kind of fresh out of pathos. I have no more tragedy left in me.

And because I'm so soul-tired, I just don't want to go to the trouble of writing all those words or working out the notes in those tricky 1st violin licks.

Bah.

Nano nano nano

2009-11-02T05:35:38Z

I fucking did it, people. Day 1. 1687 words. Goal accomplished.

(The 87 made me a bit happy.)

It only took me about four and a half hours to do, not including procrastination. Oh god, I hope this gets easier. I mean, i know I'm a musician and everything, but not even I have five hours of totally free time every day for a month.

michelle_ravel @ 2009-10-13T18:30:00

2009-10-13T22:31:59Z

There's a bit of a bruhaha over the H1N1 vaccine that has reminded me that some people think that you shouldn't get vaccines.

*is pro-vax*

Who's with me?

Glee! Glee!

2009-10-03T00:30:57Z

OMG GUYS. GLEE! IS A GREAT SHOW!

I just watched all 5 episodes. I love the musical numbers. I love how fast-paced the show is... they often just go and do things without explaining them. I love that kid Kurt. I even think the football-playing hero kid is cute, and I usually don't go for the American quarterback look.

I went to an arts school, and the characters of the show are true to life, if you can believe it. Yes, they're over-the-top, but musical theatre kids are totally like that.

Cougar Town

2009-10-01T13:03:10Z

I checked out the first two episodes of Cougar Town because it's Bill Lawrence's new show. I've always been a huge fan of Scrubs, so I though, hey, let's check it out!

Fail on Cougar Town . It may have some snappy lines, but it doesn't make you immediately know and care about the characters like Scrubs did. In fact, after two episodes, I can barely tell the characters apart. The strangely old teenager's lines could have been said by any other one of the characters on the show, and it would have worked just as well.

Thinking back to Scrubs' excellent pilot, I can remember each character being sharply drawn for us--J.D., vulnerable, self-critical, whimsical, wanting to be a good doctor, wanting to make it, wanting everyone to like him; Dr. Cox, who turns out to be the good guy, gruff, ranty, but always almost patting J.D. on the back.

What are the Cougar Town characters about? What do they want? What's their thing? I don't know. And you can't say that it's impossible to introduce characters in two episodes, because Bill Lawrence has done it before. In Scrubs.

Random Children of Earth musings

2009-10-01T01:58:58Z

I think Jack was justified in his actions at the end of Children of Earth. There. I said it.

I don't think I would have been able to do it, but that's why he's the hero and I'm not.

michelle_ravel @ 2009-09-24T16:09:00

2009-09-24T20:14:32Z

I had my first lesson with my 14-year-old student today. She loves Twilight! She has read all four books and thinks they're great!

The thing is, for some reason, I was so delighted by this. I had never met a real live teenaged fan of Twilight before, and there she was, right in my living room! She has no idea what "YA" means, and she doesn't know about fantasy and sci-fi. She has started to read The Host because Stephanie Meyer wrote it. She says it's "different than Twilight".

I may have frightened her because of my enthusiasm, but I totally forgot we were having a lesson and started giving her book recs.

(Edited to add the disclaimer that I know Twilight sucks.)

michelle_ravel @ 2009-09-24T14:58:00

2009-09-24T19:00:46Z

Okay, I kind of feel like some Americans should take a few minutes out of their day to look up the terms communism, socialism, and fascism on Wikipedia. Because this is getting a bit tiring.

Dishes

2009-09-21T15:58:48Z

General poll--how many minutes of dishes are you supposed to do a day? I feel like, to keep up, I've been doing hours of dishes a day, and there are only two of us! Is this normal? Am I doing them wrong?

Did you realise that you have to eat, like, off of plates, three times a day, every day? WTF?

Children of Earth

2009-09-18T03:27:09Z

I waited until today to watch Children of Earth.

Holy shit, some serious fucking shit went down. Shit.

Committees

2009-09-17T14:13:05Z

Why? Why do I always volunteer to do stuff I don't want to do? What's wrong with me? It's like a compulsion. If there's a committee--any kind of committee--I have to be on it. Then I have to do a bunch of boring shit. For free. And I hate it.

The thing is, I secretly love being in control of my own little committee worlds. And I can't let someone else do the free, boring shit. Because they wouldn't do it right. Only I can do it. I must save the world.

Pity me.

Awesomeness

2009-09-15T21:13:30Z

Just read Isaac Asimov's I, Robot.

What a great frigging piece of science fiction.

It was a slow buildup. It started off okay, and then halfway through the book I realised it was kicking my ass.

Twilight

2009-09-14T14:16:37Z

I watched Twilight (the movie) last night. I'm quite surprised, because I went in with low, low, expectations, but it was even worse than I'd expected. There was no romance there. There was no reason for them to fall in love. She smelled good? That's why?

Also, I'm sorry to say that Robert Pattinson stunk up the screen whenever he was on it. Some of it wasn't his fault--his makeup was awful, and I think they ended up making a different movie than the one he was trying to act in. But, honestly, he was not pretty, the way he spoke was awkward, and he kept doing this weird bug-eyed thing.

Kristin Stewart, on the other hand, saved the movie. She made her awkward lines seem great, and I kind of suspect that she added extra depth to the character of Bella that doesn't even appear in the book. I felt sorry for her. She seemed like a great actress stuck in a bad movie.

To check my theory, I rented Adventureland, which also stars Kristin Stewart. Well, kids, she was great in that too. The camera loves her and the sort of awkward, boyish, ugly-pretty thing she has going on. She pulls off huge t-shirts and baggy pants. She has a low, interesting voice that hints she has troubles you can't even imagine.

Watch Adventureland.

Awesomeness

2009-09-08T00:47:40Z

Tonight, we went out for dinner at the Mill St. Brewpub. Then me, my mother (editor) and my brother (first year physics student) came up with a totally awesome plot for a YA sci-fi trilogy.

'Cause why do fantasy when you can do sci-fi? Spaceships, aliens, dystopias, oh my!

Watch for it, coming to bookshelves near you 2014-ish. Seriously.

NaNoWriMo

2009-09-05T18:16:32Z

I've signed up for NaNoWriMo and intend to write an epic piece of fanfiction in the Avatar universe. I'm going to spend the next two months plotting and outlining, then write the whole damn thing, purely for my entertainment.

I never thought I could do something that scary and that complicated, but things just don't seem quite as scary anymore, after I completed this large project:

Name change win

2009-08-30T04:35:13Z

So I, um, got married. Wedding was the most awesome thing ever. I'll post a few pictures next week when I get them.

I will be known henceforth as Ms. Mylastname. I know it's hard to remember, but just think of the name I've always had, then keep it exactly the same, then that's my new name.

WHOOHOO!

2009-08-16T15:19:47Z

I was aiming for third place, too, like the Possum Lodge gang in the Red Green movie with their duct-tape goose. (Anyone who gets that reference is WAY too Canadian.)

PR0N

2009-08-03T04:25:50Z

So I wrote another porn fic. Why do I always write porn? I don't know. But I think it's better than the R/H porn I wrote a few years ago. Anyway, if you're an Avatar fan, here it is:

Title: Sleepless
Fandom: Avatar: the Last Airbender
Pairing: Zuko/Katara
Rating: R
Setting: takes place after Ember Island Players
Written for the Season 3 Summer Smut Fanfiction Challenge on Zutarotica
Challenge words used: grief, train, balk, enclasp, tryst
Word count: 1941
Summary: sexytiemz

Zuko sat on the beach, idly looking out onto the waves sparkling in the moon’s light. He had no intention of going to bed tonight—there was no way he was going through that torture again. Ever since they’d come to Ember Island, he had been unable to sleep, not with her lying in bed in the room next to his, driving him crazy.

He would lie awake every night with only a thin wall separating them. Every once in awhile, he would hear her bed creaking, and he would imagine her rolling over, changing positions, maybe her long hair getting tangled under her body—did she wear her hair down when she was sleeping? Did she wear those maddeningly innocent white underclothes of hers? As the night wore on, he would start to entertain wonderful, unlikely possibilities—that she didn’t wear anything to bed, that she was awake, running her hands over her body, that she was thinking about him.

He hadn’t known it was possible to want someone like this, to be this madly in love.

Zuko cursed, realising that his mind was stubbornly returning to the very forbidden thoughts he’d come to the beach to avoid. The way he felt about her was wrong. He wasn’t an idiot—he could see the Avatar’s little puppy crush on her. And he knew Katara was pretty young herself—what, fourteen? Fifteen? Agni, he hoped she was fifteen. She was shaped fifteen.

“Hey.”

Zuko jumped. There she was, standing over him—how had she snuck up on him without his noticing? She was wearing her Fire Nation outfit, the light of the moon behind her giving her silhouette an otherworldly halo. As Zuko took a sharp breath, he also noticed that she was clutching a faded red towel that he recognised as having belonged to his family. As she looked at him, her fists squeezed and unsqueezed the towel compulsively.

“Sorry to startle you,” she said. “I couldn’t sleep, so I decided to come sit out here for awhile, and then I saw you, and so, I figured… I’d say, um, hi.”

“Hi,” said Zuko.

Katara seemed to take his greeting as permission to sit with him. She unrolled the towel and settled down on it, lying back and supporting herself on her elbows. The moonlight glinted on her bare stomach, her one bare shoulder, as she arched her back and yawned.

Zuko immediately regretted coming to the beach tonight. He had thought Katara sleeping in the bedroom beside his was unbearable. But Katara lying on a towel beside him, stretching, was worse.

“So what’s keeping you awake?” she asked.

You, he thought. He cleared his throat and fought to keep his voice steady. “Thinking about fighting my father.”

Katara winced. “I guess, in a way, it was good for us to see that play tonight. It made everything seem more real.”

“It’s always been real to me,” replied Zuko. “And the play… wasn’t good. For a lot of reasons.”

“I hated seeing myself the way other people see me,” she said, her voice betraying some hurt. “Whiny and flaky.”

“But you’re not really like that,” said Zuko fervently. “You’re… ” He couldn’t find a way to tell her what she was. He hurried on. “But I know what you mean. I hated watching myself, too. The play took my two biggest regrets and rubbed them in my face. Uncle believed in me when no one else did. He thought I could be a good person. And I let him down.”

Katara’s blue eyes filled with compassion. “Zuko, you are a good person now,” she said, her voice taking on that intense, urgent tone it did when she was about to give one of her speeches. “If your uncle could see you… “

“Yeah, I’ve kind of already been over this with Toph. She punched me.”

“Oh.” Katara smiled to herself, and Zuko wondered whether Toph had ever expressed affection for her in the same way. “Well, what’s your other one?”

“Hmm?”“Your other regret? You said you had two.”

Zuko paused, wondering whether he should go for it, whether he should tell her. He could brush off her question, go back into the house, and try to forget about her for another night. But with a sudden clarity, he realised that he wasn’t going to.

He reached for one of her hands, enclasped it in both of his, and said, “Betraying you in Ba Sing Se.”

Her beautiful eyes snapped to his face in surprise. “Zuko… “

He squeezed her hand, willing her to understand. “You know… I’ve never let anyone touch my scar before… I know I screwed it up, but… “

Unable to explain himself in any other way, he kissed her—an odd, sudden, attack of a kiss. He tried to take all of the grief over what he had done, all of his love, and shove it on her lips, which, he noticed, were silky and soft and tasted like jasmine tea. As desire exploded through his whole body, he registered that she hadn’t balked, that she was kissing him back, that her lips were moving against his, that she must want him too. Frantically, he pulled her closer, grabbing fistfuls of her hair.

He felt her smile against his lips. He threw a small kiss against the corner of her smile, and pulled back. “What?” he asked, stroking her hair, the nape of her neck, her shoulders. He felt dazed.

“Oh, nothing,” she said. “It’s just… you’re not the first guy to kiss me today.”

Zuko stiffened. “Aang kissed you?” He imagined Aang grabbing Katara’s hair, Katara’s lips softening under Aang’s kiss, and a pit of blackness formed in his stomach. He let go of her.

“Yes. At intermission during the play.”

Zuko hated that damn play with the fire of a thousand suns. “The effects weren’t really that good, you know. I mean, they’ve done better. They get trained animals and a whole pit orchestra and chorus when they do The Courtesan’s Tryst.”

“What?”

“For the play. You know. The effects.” Zuko wondered if it would be possible for him to just run into the ocean and swim far away. He felt cold all over.

“I told him I was confused,” said Katara, obviously unwilling to derail the conversation away from Aang.

“Are you trying to tell me that you’re confused?” Zuko asked, growling a bit more than he’d intended.

“No, Zuko,” and there was that warm intensity in her voice again. “I’m trying to tell you that—“ she paused and took a breath, her shining, smiling eyes widening up at him—“I’m trying to tell you that for every second I just spent kissing you, I got less confused.”

As relief crashed over Zuko like a wave, Katara thrust her face forward and planted a kiss on him. She missed his mouth, hitting the tip of his nose instead, and Zuko melted.

He kissed her on the nose back, and, as she giggled, he continued his kisses across the dewy skin of her cheek, to her jaw, and down her neck, breathing in her sweet scent. She was so warm. As his kisses reached her bare shoulder—oh how he loved that Fire Nation outfit on her—she made a contented mewling sound that was Zuko’s complete undoing.

He was going to do things to her, he thought, that would erase that little boy from her memory completely.

He returned his kisses to her mouth and pushed her back until she was lying on the towel. Slowly, he ran his hand down her side, starting at her shoulder, loving how his touch curved in at her tiny waist and out again as it skimmed over her hips. She shivered as he did this, so he repeated the motion on her other side, lingering this time at her stomach, training his fingers lightly over her bare skin.

Katara was shaking and making little noises, responding so artlessly to his caresses that he stopped kissing her to watch her reaction as he continued to tickle her lightly with his fingers. Her eyes were closed, and he could see goosebumps on her arms. He also saw, to his excitement, her nipples hardening, making little puckers in the red fabric of her top. Zuko stared at them, wondering desperately what her nipples looked like under her clothes, and if he would be allowed to touch them. Experimentally, he placed a finger on top of one of them, and Katara’s body jerked in response, but she didn’t tell him to stop. Very carefully, he placed a second finger on her other nipple, and rubbed them both through the red cloth.

He was rewarded as her back arched, and her eyes flew open as she moaned, “Zuko… “ At the sound of his name on her lips, Zuko’s ardour doubled, and he took a deep breath, trying to maintain control. He knew he had to take this slow.He was busy trying to figure out his next move—how he could sneak her top off—when Katara reached up and cupped the hardness that was straining against his pants.

Zuko jumped. “Ka-Katara!” he yelped.

Katara was rubbing him now, her hands not gentle and teasing like his had been, but hard and insistent. She looked up at him, and Zuko was surprised to see a wicked fire and lust in her steady gaze. With her other hand, Katara grabbed a fistful of his tunic, and dragged him on top of her. They kissed urgently, and the next few minutes felt like a whirlwind to Zuko. He wasn’t sure whose clothes came off first, or exactly when, or whose hands were exploring whose body. He felt like he and Katara had fused into one person, and that everything was happening to both of them at once. When it came time to slide into her wetness, Katara thrust and bucked against him more wildly than even the imaginary Katara had in his nightly fantasies.

He had been doing this all wrong, he realised. At first, he had been making love to a delicate little girl, all light caresses and considerate advances. But she wasn’t a delicate little girl. She was Katara, his Katara, passionate and righteous, who gave as good as she got, who could beat him in a fight and who never gave up. As he rocked against her, she rose up to meet him, again and again, and it was an honour, he thought, for tonight he had glimpsed her private strength.

Soon after, Zuko collapsed on top of her, and they panted together, Zuko pressing kisses into her neck and murmuring unwisely romantic things in her ear—that he loved her, that she was all he wanted, that he would die for her. She threaded a hand through his hair and messed it up a bit, and pressed a tiny kiss to his scar, but didn’t say anything.

At some point before dawn, they would have to return to their rooms, then rise with the rest of the group, pretending they had been asleep all night and were ready for a new day of practicing and planning. As he held her in his arms, Zuko wondered idly whether Katara would be able to pretend that nothing had happened between them, or if she would blush, or stutter, or shoot secret smiles at him. He hoped so.

Zuko knew he would have no problem pretending he’d been asleep all night. He’d been dealing with sleepless nights for weeks. This one had been better than any he had imagined.

Thoughts on YA romance plots

2009-07-30T14:38:35Z

Now I'm listening to Trickster's Choice, by Tamora Pierce, as my trashy audiobook distraction. Okay plot so far, but really? The love interest is a crow-man who likes shiny things? Really? That's, like, the worst romance plot EVER.

This is from the woman who, in the 80's or whenever she wrote Alanna, had her dress up in a pretty dress on her 18th birthday, walk through the palace garden at moonlight, and be intercepted by her best friend, the hawt crown prince, then had him finger the contraception charm on her neck, and whisper in her ear, "Have you ever tried it out?" Then--I still remember this line because I read it in my impressionable teenage years--she writes, "Swiftly he kissed her again and again."

What I'm trying to say is that I know she CAN do it. I know she can write an entertaining romance. So why the crow guy?

Progress pics!

2009-07-29T01:45:57Z

Okay, I'm exhausted. I have to keep sewing, but I don't have the energy right now, so I'm wasting time by posting progress pics!

Bodice: (made of yellow dupioni silk. It's going to eventually be covered in ivory lace)

Skirt: (it will eventually have a train)

Musings

2009-07-28T19:02:26Z

Okay, is it just me, or does James Marsters' Harry Dresden voice sound like Carl Sagan?

Thanks

2009-07-28T01:39:15Z

Thanks to all of you who responded to my desperate "I CAN HAS TRASH?" post below. You have saved my wedding. I checked out all suggestions, and it lead me to some interesting internet research. Did you know that books for tweens about vampires are popular these days? Who knew, right?

I have decided to go with the Dresden Files as my next audiobook adventure. I do love me some James Marsters.

Any further trash suggestions will still be checked out by me. My dress has allover lace overlay so it's going to be a lot of handsewing, people. I am downloading all the audiobooks legally through audible.com. I think I'll have spent more on audiobooks in the end than on fabric.