Thanks to T J Pennington for the heads up on this one: Spotted on Diane Duane’s LJ and the Guardian- Random House are inserting a morality clause into their contracts for children’s and YA authors:

If you act or behave in a way which damages your reputation as a person suitable to work with or be associated with children, and consequently the market for or value of the work is seriously diminished, and we may (at our option) take any of the following actions: Delay publication / Renegotiate advance / Terminate the agreement.

Apparently Random House will remove the clause if asked, which is the old “negative effect” thing which was made illegal in contracts and junk mail here a while back. The old “to take advantage of this offer you need do nothing” sort of malarkey.

I can’t believe that it is a direct reaction to William Mayne, as that was four years ago, they should have done this immediately if so. This - as the Grauniad rightly says - should affect all sort of “authors” such as Madonna, Jordan and even Sarah Ferguson - as I don’t think that being photographed sucking a man’s toes whilst topless is a great role-model for those tender young minds who love Budgie the Helicopter.

What’s next? A police check on all children’s authors in the same way that any person working with children is checked for employment?

And who is the moral arbiter here?  What standard are they using? Who, exactly, gets to say what is suitable? Are gays suitable? Adulterers? What behaviour will get you a bad name? How high is that bar?

It’s a nonsense, a dangerous precedent, a step backwards to the old days of Hollywood where the actors had such morality clauses in their contracts. Didn’t work then, won’t work now. Boo, Random House, boo.

I just posted here on fandom_lawyers about this case in which the Northern District of California stated that the Fair Use doctrine "permits limited use of copyright materials without the owner's permission."

A very important case for vidders, ficcers, wrockers, fanartists, teachers, librarians, academics, and basically anyone who creates transformative works of any type.

Well, I thought at least one part of the court's ruling was ( sparkly... )

ETA: Okay, this was really incongruous among all the SGA Is Cancelled and Devon Murray Isn't Coming to Dragon*Con misery on my flist. I don't even have a good LOLcat involving/invoking the court's ruling in the Universal case! But I'd love one!

UHNNNNNnnn This experiment was awesome! I am definitely going to make phyllo pizza again and soon!

Ingredients:
- 7 sheets of thawed phyllo pastry (phylo/filo/whichever)
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- Pam spray
- spaghetti sauce
- tomato paste
- pesto
- chicken sausage, thinly sliced
- white onion, thinly sliced
- four tomatoes, sliced about 1/4"
- julienned sun-dried tomatoes
- shredded cheese

Thaw your phyllo pastry in the fridge overnight. Don't try to rush the process or you'll get a sticky clump of dough.

Before you take the phyllo out of the fridge prepare your toppings and set the oven to 350F.

1. Thinly slice the sausage and fry in a pan until dry and crisp.
2. Thinly slice the onion and caramelize over medium-low heat. (this takes a while)
3. Slice your tomatoes, shred your cheese (I used cheddar but C. says we need mozza next time), and julienne your sun-dried tomato.
4. Let the onions and sausage cool enough to handle.
5. Mix a bit of spaghetti sauce and tomato paste together until you have a thick mixture. You don't want a lot of liquid when filling phyllo. Add pesto to taste.
6. Take a normal cake pan (I used a glass one) and spray it with Pam cooking spray.
7. Remove the phyllo, unfold, and store under a damp towel. (So the dough doesn't dry out. I actually didn't do this. I'm lazy as all get out.)
8. Lay a sheet of phyllo in the cake pan. Lightly brush with olive oil. Fold the edges over but don't bother to make it pretty, you want a rustic looking 'rim'. Brush the folded bits with olive oil.
9. Layer the remaining sheets of phyllo, brushing each with olive oil and folding the edges on each one then brushing with more oil. You can also sprinkle parmesean cheese between the layers after you brush with oil. You can also just use Pam spray but I preferred the olive oil.
10. Spread a thin layer of the tomato & pesto mixture on the phyllo.
11. Add the caramelized onion, chicken sausage, sun-dried tomatoes.
12. Single layer the sliced tomatoes on top.
13. Sprinkle with cheese.
14. Bake @ 350F for 30 minutes.

I slid it out of the cake pan onto a cutting board then cut into eight pieces with a pizza cutter. It served the two of us perfectly.

A bit of a hero of mine, for obvious reasons.  A man who did a lot, and probably no-one's heard of him. It's well worth watching the video to see the hideous homophobic cartoons that were appearing in the national papers when he was helping to herd in the changes in the anti-homosexuality laws.

Good for you, Leo. Good for you.  I hope they have a Rainbow parade for you, you deserve it.

1.  I have a copy of the Authority, Relentless. Squeeful. I also have mango/orange juice. *to die for*

For a non-comic reader (not really since I was about 10, anyway, and that was The Beano, the The Dandy and Bunty) it takes concentration to read these "new fangled" graphic novels.  They don't flow easily to my eye and they are so detailed and so amazingly drawn that you have to sit and study even the pictures with no words because they say so much.  But wonderful, all the same. Am very much looking forward to getting to grips with the characters. I'd really love the entire set, but sheesh - the PRICE. Not until I'm richer, I think.

2.  Does anyone have any resources for Elizabethan dialogue?  Not in plays but in everyday life? Letters, diaries, that sort of thing? No, I'm not planning to write something with ye authentic dialogge, as that would be rather funny.  There's THIS, but GUH, look at the price of the bloody thing, and no, my stupid library doesn't have it, not even in Norwich.

3.  No, that's not what I'm doing next, though - I've decided on that and I love it.  Can't say much yet. But if you know Black Narcissus and The Thing... mix those together, make it gay - you won't be far off. Bwahahaha!  *looks shifty as a certain Irishman looks daggers at me*  Sorry Fleury... the research is a bit daunting for me, right at the moment....

4. EPIC has delivered a statement about last year's EPPIES - specifically Lucinda Logan's "A Hidden Passion" which is... open to a little interpretation, if you don't mind me saying.

They say "After the first round of judging, the works of the finalists are sent to another panel of judges, and winners in all eighteen categories are selected."

Then go on to say: "During the judging is where any questionable book is reported and reviewed by the committee to identify any problems and disqualify any book involving plagiarism, which is what happened in this particular case."

If the problems with the book were reported and the book was disqualified, I can't work out how the book ended up in the FINALS of the GLBT category. I know that I emailed them on 14th December and the book was withdrawn later that day!

Consequently, I blame sanj.

Last night I passed a minibus belonging to a German hire firm called Link Shows Directly - presumably it hires vehicles for travel to concerts and things.

Their website: www.lsd-trips.de

Do you think they know?

WB just sent the following out to the websites - it's not for the press, they told me, but it is for the fans. Just some food for thought:

Many of you have written to me to express your disappointment in our moving “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” to Summer 2009. Please be assured that we share your love for Harry Potter and would certainly never do anything to hurt any of the films. Over the past 10 years, we have nurtured and protected each film, and the integrity of the books upon which they are based, to the best of our ability. The decision to move “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” was not taken lightly, and was never intended to upset our Harry Potter fans. We know you have built this series into what it is, and we thank you for your ongoing enthusiasm and support. If I may offer a silver lining: there would have been a two-year gap between “Half-Blood Prince” and the much-anticipated first part of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” which opens in November 2010. So although we have to wait a little longer for “Half-Blood Prince,” the wait from that film until “Deathly Hallows” will be less than 18 months. I am sorry to have disappointed you now, but if you hold on a little longer, I believe it will be worth the wait.

Alan Horn

President, Chief Operating Officer

Warner Bros.

(Hope everyone in the north and central parts of Florida is dealing with Fay easily, and did everyone know that the fabulous Rachel Maddow is going to get her own show on MSNBC as of September 1?)

A perfectly lovely review of Night Moves here.  She liked all the stories, but really loved Chiaroscuro. This was a nice boost as I'm in the horrible black place at the moment - don't know if other writers end up in it, but it's the place after the elation of finishing something and before the excitement of starting something new. It's dark and it's the place where everyone (imaginary everyone) tells you you suck.

Not that I don't miss Mother every day, but I miss her particularly for coming up with an idea that I can run with. I do have an idea, to be honest, but it think it might be just a bit too slow, being literally two men together for an entire book and no-one else. 

Anyway. T'is late, am off to bed wish I had something more exciting to say!

So, our alarm clock never went off this morning, I swear I set it... the only thing I can think of was that it got set twice... once on, and then again so it was off.

Which meant I had five minutes to get out of the house.

Which meant I left Ari to deal with the poultry issues (we'd put the broilers in the hen house last night because of the storm). And didn't make her lunch. Or coffee.

So get to work... ANGRY message from customer that doesn't like being jerked around with dates to his install. Threatens to cancel the only order that's really keeping us in business at this point. We CANNOT get a date out of corporate as to when his wood will arrive. Evidently they negotiated a cut-rate price with shippers, and now the shipper company is bumping our loads. And basically they don't have the balls to tell the shipping company to buck up and fulfill their agreement.

Then I find out the job that was supposed to get the finishing touches on today... evidentally I screwed up with a cut and things are 1/32 off on the doors and we have to redo it. Fuck.

Bosses go crazy. Yelling happens.

Phone rings. Job we did last year... cabinet with sink in it fell off the wall.

Plus, I wasn't told until I was in this morning that I have no ride home. It is amazingly inconvient for Ari to pick me up, so when this happens I usually drive her to work and take the car and pick her up. But, you know, this needs to happen BEFORE everyone drives to work in the morning.

Oh, and the guy we were supposed to do his patio this week? Despite my careful explaining on how his patio would be plastic-sheeted to keep any rain or anything out because our product cannot get wet during the curing process.... processed to water his lawn that day. Whole thing soaking wet. And then complains because 'the sales person didn't tell me I couldn't water my lawn while this was happening'.

So. Damn. Frustrated. And it's only 10 in the morning.

On the plus side I did get laid last night. And yes, it was very good.

ETA: Why do I let these things happen? The special hinges we needed for the job that was supposed to be finished today? Arrived. They fit in the doors fine. They do not, however, in any way shape or form fit into the receiving hinges on the cabinets. Bosslady swore up and down she was on the phone with them for an hour describing the receiving hinge and swore it would work. Not so much.

Son of ETA: Said boss-lady is now off getting her nails done. She says she'll only be a few hours. Guess we're not as busy as I thought were were.</unnecessarily>

It was inevitable that I would go and see WALL•E. My love of cute robots is well-documented, as evidenced by my embarrassing crush on Fender from Robots and probably traceable to early viewing of Benji, Zax and the Alien Prince, or an even earlier fondness for 7-Zark-7.

I watched it on tiny Screen 3 at the Bromley fleapit at 10:20 on Sunday morning, in the company of one small child and its father (the child was reasonably quiet; Dad, on the other hand, fell asleep towards the end and snored).

( Spoilers )

Back. Tired. Will post con report later.

Meanwhile, have not read LJ since Thursday, so if you posted something you think I should know about, drop me a comment.

Joy!

Linden Bay loved Frost Fair. I'm very relieved about this, as I was wondering if it was a little bleak - particularly at the start - but no, they loved it. They need a couple of things rewriting, which I'll get started on today. But. Squee!

Lucius was away 24 hours and came back. Perhaps his OTHER family are on holiday or something. Serves him right.

I'm playing Tomb Raider Angel of Darkness which is the worst of the series when it comes to handling. Literally you have to save between every single jump because she dies a bloody lot, she's so hard to handle. However the plot is interesting and there are sneaky ways to avoid traps that I'd normally try and leap over - like crawling on your belly - ah.. stealth games taught me so much. Plus its nice to be able to play games and not feel guilty that I should be writing. Nothing to write at the moment!  I haven't plumped on a new project but I need to decide SOON.

I've done a post for Unusual Historicals today about the English Civil War if you are interested.

Very disappointed, after all the great Olympic Spirit that's been shown by so many people (for example Beth Tweddle being resigned to being 4th for making small mistakes and passing off almost her entire career with a "oh well" which made me want to hug her) when there's suddenly Equestrian Wank and the British Team make a Fuss about being "forced" to withdraw one of their horses.

"Tim Stockdale accused some of Britain's rivals of unsporting behaviour, saying: "It is not in the concept of the Olympics.

"In respect of what John has done for show jumping it is disappointing. Some people should hang their head in shame.

"Medals are at stake, I suppose, and John is good and so people fear him. Perhaps some people saw it as an opportunity to get John out of the competition."

My new laptop table is AWESOME! I just spent my evening working on work stuff and it was effortless!

Fitday.com has evolved quite a bit since I was last visiting it regular. You can now set your goals and the site will calculate for you what your calorie intake should be in order to achieve your goal!

Normally I'd nap on the futon or watch telly for an hour at this point but instead I think I'll go for a walk, have a hot bath, and nom on some popcorn while attempting to write.

Today at work I overhauled a web site to not only display identical with CSS to the old tables layout but I also constructed a print css sheet and optimized the printing of the web content! I have definitely learned a thing or two today.

Right! Walk time! Maybe I'll see coyotes. =p

Yeah, not so much d0000000000m this time either. They tell us to consider it a "dress rehersal" for The Big One every time they cancel two or three days of school, government, city services, etc., and we end up with a storm that is indistinguishable to the naked eye from the sorts of storms we get three or four times a week in the summer. Yes, the keys are a mess and the gusts are heavy and tourists shouldn't be out and about there, but here on the far-east-coast of Florida, it's just another ordinary summer day.

But it was supposed to be a school day.

Ah well, we should be back on Wednesday and they do build extra days into the school year to deal with things like this.


Hope everyone on the west coast stays safe and dry and un-gusted, and everyone gets home (to Orlando and from Orlando) safely!

My local tube station was closed this weekend, and I decided to have a weekend of reading. On Saturday I read this month's issue of Harpers and found myself caught for the first time by the crossword, which was made extra-cryptic by the fact that ten items were without clues. We were told that these ten items were all related and I got "Carousel" quite early and then "The Sound of Music", but it wasn't until late yesterday that I decided that the ten items were all about Rodgers and Hammerstein and then with the help of the internets was able to use this to complete the crossword.

Yesterday I read Christian Wolmar's The Subterranean Railway: how the London Underground was built and how it changed the city forever, which was a gripping story and full of great anecdotes.

The wildlife, however, was rather taken by surprise by the quiet electrified trains. According to a history of the line, 'so many birds and beasts were killed by District trains on the countrified South Harrow branch that the District set up a natural history collection of stuffed creatures in glass cases, which was displayed at Charing Cross', including an otter killed in April 1911. [Later in the book, there is a photo of this collection, on the platform at Charing Cross.]

Canada produced a life-size statue of the Prince of Wales, made of butter. [I wonder what happened to it afterwards.]

The system was plagued by a variety of mosquito, culex molestus, which had led a relatively spartan existence until suddenly the massive influx of night dwellers provided a seemingly endless supply of blood. The population of the pest increased exponentially. Fortunately, though its bite caused itching, it did not carry any disease and the plague of insects was eventually brought under control, but not wiped out, by the spraying of its breeding grounds, mostly pools of water under platforms, with disinfectant and paraffin.

reported that 1,503 people slept there one night, '1,650 of whom seemed to be snoring'.

( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. )

Wow! Britain's number three in the medal table! *boggles* that's a first! ... It won't last, but sheesh it's nice! Of course it helps that we stopped concentrating on track and field and started to enter all the sports that no-one else does. "extrememe snail wrestling" and "pogo sticks on tar" and the like.

:)

I have to applaud the amazing AMAZING run by the Jamaican guy in the 100 metres. Just wow. And I see your Phelps and raise you a Rebecca Adlington!

Just off to Dad's for the day. iulia_linnea - I have started your story. No Lucius this morning, looks like he's off again. *heavy sigh* I don't mind so much as I'm pretty used to it now, but it upsets the balance AGAIN, Sevvie is all solicitude for me as if to say "don't worry mum, I still love you"

Back later!

I'm very sorry to say that Shelley the Leopard Tortoise passed away last night. I loved Shelley -- she was the highlight of my day, going to feed her, because she would race over (yes, really) to me and eat out of my hand, just so excited to see me.

Like most reptiles and amphibians, she didn't give us much warning something was wrong. Two days ago she was nipping at my toes as I cleaned the room, trying to get me to feed her; yesterday, she didn't want to eat at all. We were going to take her to the vet this morning, but she was gone when I went to check on her this morning.

I loved that l'il gal.



Shelley as a baby

Very sad around here this morning.

-- R.