For the time being, you can watch the new version of Jane Austen’s Emma on YouTube until someone reports it and it gets taken down.

I own the Kate Beckinsale version (also on YouTube, though the video quality is rougher) and prefer Kate’s portrayal simply because her facial expressions aren’t as exaggerated. She also has much better posture.

The 2009 version is good, and everyone does a great job (I particularly like that they made Emma insecure about how little she gets out in the world), but I just prefer the Kate Beckinsale one. It’s part personal taste (if you enjoy your leading ladies lively and haphazard, the 2009 version is for you), and partly that I enjoyed the book and the 2009 version takes a few liberties with showing scenes that are only alluded to. The Beckinsale version keeps to the book more strictly and has an overall more authentic feel.

Also, I don’t think “Dumbledore” when I look at her father. (Yes, Dumbledore is in the 2009 one. He does much better at this role than his portrayal of Dumbledore, though.)

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1. Cat tells girl she’s a magical super hero who fights monsters.
2. Girl is bad at fighting monsters.
3. Girl finds local friends who fight monsters with her.
4. Girl likes mysterious guy who saves her from monsters all the time, but no one knows who the guy actually is.
5. Girl finds out who mysterious guy is and starts dating him after many trials in a “One True Love” sort of deal.
6. Girl finds older friends who fight monsters with her.
7. Girl finds space alien friends who fight monsters with her.

I loved writing fanfiction about Sailor Moon.  There are a lot of good characters to play with and a lot of interesting dynamics to dabble in.  My favorites are the blue-haired genius from the first group of friends (the girl’s inner circle), because she’s shy and thus I can identify with her and get into her head for a story; and the bubbly blonde from the inner circle, who (according to the canon comic book) used to be the leader of that group in their previous lives (instead of the main girl).  I find the blonde makes the most fascinating material for character studies, simply because she yearns to be outgoing and girly but has a heavy sense of responsibility too.

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I just finished A Stranger to Command and am in the middle of Crown Duel, and these books make me feel like an incompetent hack with a computer full of childish scribbles.

It’s not that they’re so similar to my work, it’s just that they make me feel so strongly, and I love them so much, I can’t help but think I’m not good enough when I read them.

I am in the midst of a bit of writer’s block.  I can’t start anything new without hating every word.  I’ve been working off and on toward completing a third book in the super hero series, but I’m also still shopping around for an agent for Frostbite (now titled Cold Snap) and trying to flesh out that world in general — I’ve created five new characters to use as background noise in another story, one that actually predates Frostbite/Cold Snap in the general chronology of the series.

I figure if I can’t get F/CS up and running, I can just work on the prequel until it’s ready to shop.  It’s a little darker, and a lot of the agents I’ve looked at seem to want dark and edgy.

I’m about as edgy as bunny slippers, but I’ll see what I can whip up.

I’ve been reading some fanfiction lately (don’t laugh at me), on X-Men: Evolution.  I’m a fan of Rogue and Gambit in particular, thanks to the original cartoon when I was a kid.  There’s just something beautiful about how starcrossed they are.  As for the cartoons, I just prefer the art style of Evolution.  I also wouldn’t understand all the references of real X-Men fanfiction and, frankly, X-Men: Evolution is for teens and that’s the age group I gravitate toward, as far as entertainment goes.

The show itself was kind of moralistic — it tried to teach lessons about being a true friend and how family always forgives and how you should talk things out.  That was okay, but it did get in the way of plot.  The best episodes were the ones that delved into the characters’ canon comic backgrounds, because that added surprising depth to a show that leaned too far toward after-school-special.  My favorite of these depth episodes was (obviously) the one where Gambit gets Rogue to help him out with something in his old hometown: “Cajun Spice.”  I won’t spoil the plot, but it’s the first (and only) real interaction the two have (the show got canceled soon after).

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Several years ago, I read Alex the Night World series by LJ Smith.  He liked them well enough, so I decided to record a man’s perspective on them for posterity.  This interview is several years old, but it’s still good.  :)

One warning — this interview has major spoilers for the series up to and including Huntress.  If you haven’t read them and want to, don’t read this interview.