thalia

Ten years have passed since I last posted on my journal.

While I did not write here, I still spent a lot of my free time on writing. Together with my friend Mika, I worked on a novel which we have now self-published.



"Stars and Ravens" takes place in an imaginary world. It is in many ways a detective/mystery novel with hopefully unexpected twists and numerous secrets which the reader can decipher alongside the characters.

We play with clichés and have interwoven motifs from the Gothic genre with bizarre elements; comedy, drama and horror go hand in hand.
Anyone who loves complex characters, diverse romances (slow-burn) and subtext should be happy.

As our novel is that monster understandably dreaded by publishers -- the first novel in a series of several books, very long and written by newbies -- we decided to self-publish it on Amazon for now. It is available as a Kindle eBook, and in several markets can also be purchased as a paperback.


In case you're interested, you can e.g. find it here:

Amazon.co.uk
Amazon.com
Amazon.de

We would be thrilled if you checked it out and -- in case you read and enjoyed it -- left a rating or review on Amazon or GoodRead.

The books I've read are marked in bold.
The books I have not read completely, are marked in italics.

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Yesterday, I finally watched the new Harry Potter movie.

I feel rather frustrated by this movie. Halfblood Prince is my favorite HP book - no doubt due to the fact that one plot line focuses on Draco Malfoy and another on Snape, my two favorite characters in the HP universe.

The movie does a great job when it comes to the visuals, e.g. the look of the Burrow, the Quidditch rehearsal, the pensieve scenes, Aragog's funeral. (Although I think they went over the top with the "bleached look".) Some scenes are caught perfectly, but overall they just lose one of the major plot lines of the book...

To me it feels as if the screenwriter/director didn't get a core theme of the book, i.e. Harry has to learn to look behind the surface.
Well, movie 5 also suffered from a similar problem. Here I thought a large point of the book was that Harry had to learn that father figures can make mistakes (e.g. his own father, Sirius and Remus reg. his treatment of Snape) and that he himself can make mistakes and still go on living (Sirius' death). But both of these themes were mostly lost, Sirius comes across as perfectly heroic and Harry never seems to doubt any of his father figures.

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Have now watched the movie for the fifth time:

Each previous time, I've thought that I heard a tribble purring in the first scene with Scotty. Now I have finally located it. There is a cage standing on Scotty's desk that contains exactly one tribble. :-)

In other news: The alien Scotty is working with is made of win. The scenes with him make me smile every time.
Does anyone know from which planet this alien is?

I have now watched the movie four times and have plans to watch it for a fifth and sixth time. There are times in once life where one has to be the tiniest bit fannish.

What I have noticed during my repeated watching is that the movie is very symmetrical: Many themes are repeated at least once and scenes echo one another.

Here are some examples:
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So I've finally seen the new Star Trek movie and enjoyed it tremendously. I've read the novelisation and read many reaction posts before watching the movie, so I was thoroughly spoiled, but I didn't mind one bit. On the contrary. I like being spoiled, because then I can focus on the details.

I know most people on my friends' list had problems with one particular developement, but to my own surprise I enjoyed this new official pairing. I've tried to write down why I feel this way.

More spoilery thoughts behind the cut.
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Only a week or so ago, I realised that a new Star Trek movie is coming out. At first, I had planned on ignoring it, but the pull of my first fandom proved to be too strong. I read some reviews, watched two clips on YouTube - and decided that I do want to see this movie after all. :-)

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Work is tough: I've felt overwhelmed by it for some weeks now and it will take several more weeks until I will get a grip on things again. There are many challenges my team will have to face, but we'll pull through... eventually.

I felt rather down today, just tired and worn out. And then I read the news and realized that I ENJOYED reading the news once more! Obama only became president one day ago (and what a great inauguration that was, and what an inspiring speech) and already there are good news to enjoy!

Only have the links to the German articles:
Guantanamo will be closed; a second order is drafted that ensures that top-secret CIA prisons will be closed; also any kind of torture will be forbidden:
http://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/0,1518,602917,00.html

Obama's speech to his employees concerning work ethics, lobbyism etc.
http://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/0,1518,602734,00.html

This morning I'm very cheerful.
It's amazing that so many people went to the election in America - 73 % or more? That's impressive!
I'm also delighted that Obama won! I believe that this is one of the moments in history that will be remembered for a long, long time.

More reactions behind the cut. I'm typing my thoughts down while I read the book and am still mostly unspoiled.

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