OH MY GOD
SO
So lots of things have happened that you don't really care about, but the upshot of them is that my book is coming out this year (it's not Phantom-related, sorry), and I just left my day job...
...which means FREE TIME. Which means REVIEWS. YES.
I will be starting back up where I left off - with Stefanie Cole's The Phantom Returns - and good lord, I hope it's a better comeback than last time. Also, if you've sent me an email in the past five months, look for me to finally respond to it while pretending not to be the worst internet correspondent in history.
Until then!
Monday, May 4, 2015
Friday, November 28, 2014
Hey, there, everyone!
Back from long radio silence, I'm almost about to be able to go back to reviews again soon. Things are going off to the publisher this next month, and I will be able to sleep the blissful sleep of the published-but-not-yet-savaged-by-critics. I look forward to that day, when I can work on the Cole book to my heart's content.
In the meantime, I have only snips and clips of time - not enough to get through a book or do a thorough review, but enough to make things better around here. I've been keeping the Progress Page up to date with new releases (oh my goodness, you have NO IDEA how excited I am about these new books from Sarah Fine!), and I even started up a Tumblr account because I have been having way too much fun stalking the Phantom fan community over there (but don't get all excited about following me - I am just as bad at updating over there as I am here).
My biggest project, though, is to clean up around here, and by clean up I mean edit a lot of old reviews. I've been working on this project for seven years, and during that time I've grown a lot as a person; I've learned new things, become aware of more issues in the world around me, and realized that life is a process of both learning good new things and unlearning bad old ones. The wee baby me who was fresh out of undergrad when she began this had good intentions, but she didn't always do a great job of carrying them out, so it's up to (slightly) more adult me to do that now.
So, I'll be working on editing old reviews for a number of things. I'll be trying to remove unintentionally sexist objections (oh man, you all know I love Christine but many years ago there was some pretty sad internalized badness that comes out in a review once in a while), jokes that I now recognize are harmful rather than funny, and my pretty rampant use of ableist terms. I hope there aren't too many of them, but I know I've seen some going over old reviews, and I know you all have, too. There's also been some fantastic fan research in the past few years into the origins of Leroux's story and inspirations, and this'll give me a chance to make a note here and there if need be!
In the meantime, thanks to all of you for sticking with me in spite of my blunders, and for being an awesome, fun, and supportive community. You rock.
Back to your regularly scheduled Phantom holiday extravaganzas, whatever they might be!
Back from long radio silence, I'm almost about to be able to go back to reviews again soon. Things are going off to the publisher this next month, and I will be able to sleep the blissful sleep of the published-but-not-yet-savaged-by-critics. I look forward to that day, when I can work on the Cole book to my heart's content.
In the meantime, I have only snips and clips of time - not enough to get through a book or do a thorough review, but enough to make things better around here. I've been keeping the Progress Page up to date with new releases (oh my goodness, you have NO IDEA how excited I am about these new books from Sarah Fine!), and I even started up a Tumblr account because I have been having way too much fun stalking the Phantom fan community over there (but don't get all excited about following me - I am just as bad at updating over there as I am here).
My biggest project, though, is to clean up around here, and by clean up I mean edit a lot of old reviews. I've been working on this project for seven years, and during that time I've grown a lot as a person; I've learned new things, become aware of more issues in the world around me, and realized that life is a process of both learning good new things and unlearning bad old ones. The wee baby me who was fresh out of undergrad when she began this had good intentions, but she didn't always do a great job of carrying them out, so it's up to (slightly) more adult me to do that now.
So, I'll be working on editing old reviews for a number of things. I'll be trying to remove unintentionally sexist objections (oh man, you all know I love Christine but many years ago there was some pretty sad internalized badness that comes out in a review once in a while), jokes that I now recognize are harmful rather than funny, and my pretty rampant use of ableist terms. I hope there aren't too many of them, but I know I've seen some going over old reviews, and I know you all have, too. There's also been some fantastic fan research in the past few years into the origins of Leroux's story and inspirations, and this'll give me a chance to make a note here and there if need be!
In the meantime, thanks to all of you for sticking with me in spite of my blunders, and for being an awesome, fun, and supportive community. You rock.
Back to your regularly scheduled Phantom holiday extravaganzas, whatever they might be!
I put "worst Phantom holiday gif" into Google and this is what I got. Glorious.
Thursday, September 11, 2014
A quick update from the trenches! There's no new review yet, but that's not the current author's fault; it's mine. If anyone ever tells you that it's a good idea to try to get a novel and an RPG core book out at the same deadline date when that deadline is less than five months away, you should probably hit them in the face because they are an appalling liar. My busyness is through the roof so unfortunately the Phantom Project had to be back-burnered for a bit, but I hope to be back soon.
In the meantime, awesome Project follower Heather made this hilarious bingo card for use when reviewing self-published Phantom novels. I laughed, I cried, I thought of how true it was and got drunk.
Now you, too, can follow along with the self-pubs in your own libraries! I did a few for the greatest hits of the Pit of Infamy on the Project site, and oh boy, you can totally see them hitting all the high notes.
To the left, Becky Meadows' Phantasy; to the right, Etienne de Mendes' The Return of the Phantom: Le Coeur Loyale. Truly amazing.
In more serious news, however, some of you may not be aware that Universal Studios is currently planning to demolish Stage 28, which was the original stage on which the 1925 Julian/Chaney Phantom film was shot, and which was used again for the 1943 Lubin/Rains movie as well as for countless other Universal productions since. The Phantom set itself is being preserved, according to this Variety Magazine article, and hopefully moved to a new home as a historical attraction or museum exhibit, although we don't yet know where it will end up or in what shape (the article notes that it's unsure how much of it can be preserved when it's moved off the stage it's lived on for the past ninety years).
While I personally am pleased as punch that the set is being preserved and don't mind letting the stage go once it's been moved off, there is a petition started by fans of the first Phantom film adaptation and other Universal movies to try to stop its demolition, if any of you would like to go add your voices to it.
No matter what your feelings on it, now seems like a great time to go show the 1925 film some love, right? Let's get some Chaney up in here!
In the meantime, awesome Project follower Heather made this hilarious bingo card for use when reviewing self-published Phantom novels. I laughed, I cried, I thought of how true it was and got drunk.
Now you, too, can follow along with the self-pubs in your own libraries! I did a few for the greatest hits of the Pit of Infamy on the Project site, and oh boy, you can totally see them hitting all the high notes.
To the left, Becky Meadows' Phantasy; to the right, Etienne de Mendes' The Return of the Phantom: Le Coeur Loyale. Truly amazing.
In more serious news, however, some of you may not be aware that Universal Studios is currently planning to demolish Stage 28, which was the original stage on which the 1925 Julian/Chaney Phantom film was shot, and which was used again for the 1943 Lubin/Rains movie as well as for countless other Universal productions since. The Phantom set itself is being preserved, according to this Variety Magazine article, and hopefully moved to a new home as a historical attraction or museum exhibit, although we don't yet know where it will end up or in what shape (the article notes that it's unsure how much of it can be preserved when it's moved off the stage it's lived on for the past ninety years).
While I personally am pleased as punch that the set is being preserved and don't mind letting the stage go once it's been moved off, there is a petition started by fans of the first Phantom film adaptation and other Universal movies to try to stop its demolition, if any of you would like to go add your voices to it.
No matter what your feelings on it, now seems like a great time to go show the 1925 film some love, right? Let's get some Chaney up in here!
Monday, July 28, 2014
And boom! Your eyes do not deceive you - this is a third review in the same month. We should all celebrate. I know I certainly am.
Okay, it was a little bit of a cheat - it was a board game and apparently those are quick reviews. But since I see all of you voted for a book next in a giant landslide, we'll be able to go right back to spending weeks crying into our drinks and wondering what we did to deserve all this.
On to the next round of votes - on, I say!
Okay, it was a little bit of a cheat - it was a board game and apparently those are quick reviews. But since I see all of you voted for a book next in a giant landslide, we'll be able to go right back to spending weeks crying into our drinks and wondering what we did to deserve all this.
On to the next round of votes - on, I say!
Tuesday, July 22, 2014
It's time! A new review to go on the fancy new Comics page! It's weird. Be prepared for weirdness.
The voting tied this time, so I have to choose between a book or a game next. I'm autocratically electing a game, because this board game has been burning a hole in my living room game shelf for a while, but it should go considerably more quickly than a book, and I'll be back for the next round in no time!
Let's hit that voting booth again!
The voting tied this time, so I have to choose between a book or a game next. I'm autocratically electing a game, because this board game has been burning a hole in my living room game shelf for a while, but it should go considerably more quickly than a book, and I'll be back for the next round in no time!
Let's hit that voting booth again!
Monday, July 21, 2014
I realized this month that the Phantom Project's website hasn't been updated, cleaned up, or really in any way made less embarrassing since I started it. Which was seven years ago. How time flies when I'm being lazy. So therefore you'll see some cleaning up and streamlining going on this week, which will hopefully help keep me more organized and make life easier for all of you that like to visit and don't appreciate being lost in a forest of poorly marked lists.
At the moment, I've updated the following:
That's all for now, but I'm planning to also brush up the FAQ and possibly see what I can do about making the whole place look a little more pleasing to the eye and a little less like what it is, which is someplace I occasionally copy and paste a lot of words and then ignore for weeks at a time. If you have any requests for things you'd like to see or suggestions that would make getting around on the site easier for you, I'm all ears; I can't promise I'll have the skills to pull them off and it's always possible I'll hate your ideas, but most likely I'll be willing to give it a shot in the name of internet harmony.
Back to reviewing for me!
At the moment, I've updated the following:
- The Progress Page now separates materials by type and provides better information about their publishing and authoriship. For those of you who have been using it as a list of possible materials for years and struggling through the messy giant list format, hopefully it'll be a little easier on the eyes and the navigating fingers now.
- Comics now have their own separate page instead of being lost in the flood of other printed works. They deserved it; they're really an art form of their own.
- Book reviews now have subheadings to separate out childrens' books, fiction and nonfiction, again to help break up these big ugly lists of things.
- Similarly, film reviews are now separated by feature films and adult films, so it's no longer a surprise when you're clicking along and suddenly porn happens.
- The iframe situation for the blog is less ugly now, and there are no more terrible nested scrollbars.
That's all for now, but I'm planning to also brush up the FAQ and possibly see what I can do about making the whole place look a little more pleasing to the eye and a little less like what it is, which is someplace I occasionally copy and paste a lot of words and then ignore for weeks at a time. If you have any requests for things you'd like to see or suggestions that would make getting around on the site easier for you, I'm all ears; I can't promise I'll have the skills to pull them off and it's always possible I'll hate your ideas, but most likely I'll be willing to give it a shot in the name of internet harmony.
Back to reviewing for me!
Tuesday, July 15, 2014
It's here! The review that launched a thousand ships!
Now that that's finally on the site, I feel like having a milestone party and celebrating with something fun next. And as luck would have it, comics won the last round of votes, so fun times it is! Below it's time for a new vote, and for this round I'm going to just collapse ebooks and books together - they're basically the same and y'all don't care if I'm reading them on a Kindle or in my hands, after all.
On to Comicstown!
Now that that's finally on the site, I feel like having a milestone party and celebrating with something fun next. And as luck would have it, comics won the last round of votes, so fun times it is! Below it's time for a new vote, and for this round I'm going to just collapse ebooks and books together - they're basically the same and y'all don't care if I'm reading them on a Kindle or in my hands, after all.
On to Comicstown!
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