We're all fine here, now. How are you? Sorry for the lengthy absence. I think that was a new personal worst for total silence. Rest assured, nothing is wrong, it's just summer and frankly we're all feeling a bit disconnected. But here's a great new picture of Han to make up for it.
Let's see, on my end, I read Crucible and now understand why there weren't really any spoilers out there before it came out. I'm not even sure what you'd spoil. There are no major revelations. We all knew already that the point of the book was for the Big Three to retire, and that's what happens in the end. The details that get them to that point are fairly convoluted and I'm still not sure what I read. Han and Leia certainly have some nice moments, although in between them they spend a lot of time within a centim of death so that's not quite so pleasant. I really don't even know what else to say about the book. I wouldn't rush out to read it, but if you're like me, you'll probably want to get around to it eventually.
Harrison has been making the rounds on some talk shows promoting his new movie "Paranoia" which I have no intention of seeing. At least not until it appears on HBO in probably a year. Check him out on Conan and Jimmy Kimmel if you enjoy a good laugh. He really appears to be having fun with all of this Star Wars talk. Or, more accurately, lack of Star Wars talk. I'm sure some people see it as him being a grumpy jerk or something but I think he's mostly playing a part. There are also some fun interviews circulating of him at ComiCon, so check those out if you're bored.
Episode VII news is slow at best. No revelations there yet. However, just today I saw that there are rumors that Ewan McGregor will be coming back as Obi Wan's Force ghost... which I have mixed feelings on. I will say, however, that he was one of the few bright spots of that travesty known as the prequel trilogy. So maybe it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world... provided nobody ever mentions anyone with the words Hayden or Christiansen in their name. There are also reports of the Emperor himself, Ian McDiarmid, will be back to reprise his role. Um, resurrected Emperor? Didn't we see that in like, a half dozen EU comic books? I suppose it could be cool if they did it right. And man, that dude is scary. Certainly makes for a convincing villain if we're forced to do without Vader.
Also, there is a tiny blurb from the new Leia book that comes out in October. Han is in it. It's like a paragraph long and, sadly, I already know I'll be out another $20 when it comes out. I keep thinking I'm going to be done with the books, and they keep figuring out ways to make me come back. Oh, also the Making of Return of the Jedi book will be out in October as well. Admittedly with my first two books I've only ever looked at the pretty pictures and not actually read them. Does that make me a bad person? Maybe someday.
So, that's it. We're not gone forever. Or at least I'm not. Please feel free to continue to comment here and keep things going and maybe eventually we'll get on a roll again!
I've kept myself busy writing and publishing at ff.net. It's been a great summer. Unfortunately, a week from tomorrow, it's all over and then I'll be devoured in the great maw better known as First Instructional Week. But we went to Puerto Rico last month and had a blast. I had fun writing on that trip, too ;)
ReplyDeleteIf anyone is feeling stressed out, please, do yourself a favor and put on the Indiana Jones trilogy bonus features disc. Harrison Ford will massage you with that deep, soft, sensuous voice of this the whole way through. He seems like he's a very calm person, or he's doing one hell of a job imitating one :)
Oh I will sooo remember that Indiana Jones thing for when I head to college! That sounds like just about the best stress reliever EVER!
DeleteIt's funny actually, me and a close friend of mine always refer to Indiana Jones as our "soft-core porn". Ha ha. But you know.....I mean, DAMN, Indy.
DeleteMy husband went back for "accountability week" this week so I know the pain.... so long home cooked meals and laundry slave. I think professors work twice as hard during the semester than the rest of us all year. Have to check out the Indy thing. I've always liked Han better as a character but have a soft spot for Harrison as Indy :D
DeleteYeah, most of us who give a flying fuck about our jobs work our asses off (although mine never seems to shrink). But semesters, with exams and grading, are only 17 weeks long, and you can do pretty much anything for 17 weeks. You know you'll get a break. I used to teach in summer, but haven't in a long time.
DeleteI'm in a division meeting right now, where basically the dean of Math and Sciences gets up and says, we have to work harder even though we haven't given you raises since the time of the dinosaurs, we have larger class loads but there's no money to give you raises, your students are paying more but there's no money to give you raises, you're going to become even more technology dependent because there's no money to offer you smaller classes and give you raises, you are restricted to 200 photocopies per month because we can't afford to spend the money and that includes no raises for you. And you're expected to publish at least once a year even though we have no money to give you and grants are going unfunded.
This is the meeting I'm in right now, It sounds like every other meeting I've attended since Monday.
This afternoon is a sexual harassment meeting. And no, they're not sending over Sexual Harassment Panda. (South Park reference.) May I just say that I wouldn't mind sexually harassing Han Solo.
Lol... sounds just like my husband's rant last night. He's a biostatistician. Must use blackboard. Must publish. Must attend all seminars and sign up to present one on your expertise but no extra pay... but then I remind him that he gets 3weeks off at the holidays and I get nada...
DeleteI may know your husband. I got my doctorate in biostats. I've moved on to statistical genetics, but it's a pretty small world out there ;)
DeleteIt's possible... his primary work was bison population genetics. He did some work on wolf populations in the early 1990's as well.
DeleteHey, Zyra! Cool to see an update. I bought Crucible, but haven't read it yet. Certainly has seemed like a good time to just chill hasn't it?
ReplyDeleteI found this clip and put it on the previous post, but thought I'd include it here since you mentioned Harrison making the rounds. Excellent laugh from Harrison in this one.
http://www.cnn.com/video/?/video/showbiz/2013/08/16/conan-harrison-ford-star-wars-bribe.teamcoco&hpt=hp_t2
Yay, new post! Zyra, it took a second read before I got your reference in the first sentence of the post. It must be high summer if I'm missing SW references! Stats, you have been on fire with the new stories! I don't know how you do it. And you've coined my new favorite piece of dialog from a fic: "Chewie, you bastard!"
ReplyDeleteMy latest story has the working title "sexfail," and that's pretty self-explanatory. I wanted to write something where our heroes had terrible, awful, no good, very bad sex, and see that that was like. But once I got into it, I needed to know why this had happened exactly, and how it would be resolved. So now it's turned into my first multi-chapter fic, and I'm hoping to start publishing early in September.
After reading Crucible, I feel a little bereft, like the story is over now. I'm counting the days until the new Leia novel, Razor's Edge, comes out next month. As for Crucible, I didn't hate it, but it seemed to end with more of a whimper than a bang. From what I've read, Denning wanted to end with a "mystical elevation" for the big three, kind of like them ascending to Valhalla or something. Since I (pitifully) have trouble with the idea of any of the three actually dying a mortal death, that kind of appealed to me. But I guess it got nixed for some reason.
The recent Ford interviews have been amazing. What a change! Before the last month or so, I think he genuinely would get pissed and huffy if someone mentioned SW (except for the rare Kimmel gag). For obsessive background reading on this, you can't beat Mike Ryan of Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/08/harrison-ford-han-solo_n_2097347.html. But now, he seems to have turned that attitude on its head and has begun to have fun with it... it's all very interesting!
I'm way looking forward to more of your stories!
DeleteI agree with Lady Peter - Stats, so many stories! Its unbelievable. You have me visiting FF.net everyday to check when I only used to every now and then.
DeleteGosh! I understand what you mean by being busy and being quiet! My own blog has been silent for weeks now (well, until I went back and made up the days I missed). Even Promises is now two weeks behind. I blame it on the fact that I move into college on Thursday, and there's just so much to get done before then.
ReplyDeleteI am loving Harrison and this Star Wars talk though. I watched his interview on Conan this afternoon and literally laughed out loud for a good while. Everyone else in my family is like "and this guy's your role model?" but I think it's brilliant. And taking the money too! Gosh that was great. On the note of Paranoia though, I have no intention of seeing that. I did watch Witness for the first time the other day though...and melted into a puddle during that barn scene. Multiple times over as I watched it again...and again...and you get the point.
I am soo excited for the new Jedi book coming out, although I fear I won't get my hands on it until Christmas, but still! I only have Empire, but I do also have The Making of Indiana Jones, which is another excellent book in the same series. As much as I love the pictures too though, you really should read them, or at least the Empire book. Some of my favorite Harrison Ford stories came out of there! Like the snowplow and vodka or the epic story of the making of the Carbonate Freezing scene. All great!
Actually, it's great to see a new post here. And I'm actually in a writing mood apparently so I should go make use of that!
Oh, my god yes! I LOVED the snow plow vodka story! Ha ha, I think I even shared that with my non-sw friends (but they're big drinkers---so I knew it would still amuse them ;-))
DeleteMan, I missed something and have the Making of Empire book, but sadly haven't read it. Snowplow and vodka? Do tell.
DeleteOnce again, I NEED to get this book. I've been putting it off far too long, it's getting silly now.
DeleteShare the vodka and snowplow story and no one gets hurt :)
DeleteAll right, *cracks knuckles* I'll test my flimsy memory and try to recall it for you guys (Lizzie, feel free to jump in if I get anything wrong)...
DeleteOkay, so they're filming in Norway. The weather is *terrible*. Like the worst storms they've had in years. Harrison Ford was actually not supposed to be there. All his ""Hoth" scenes (including when he rescued Luke) were originally slated to be filmed in the studios back in England. But due to the weather they couldn't film what they had originally planned (I can't remember what that was supposed to be), so instead, at the last minute they tell Harrison to fly in from England and film his scenes in Norway--that way they wouldn't lose those days of filming.
But the weather is terrible, right? So Harrison could only get so close to the hotel where they were filming. So they had to bribe some local who had a snow plow (or tractor, or something that could get through the snow) with a bottle of vodka to go and pick Harrison up from the train station, that was several miles away.
So off that guy goes (and some other crew or executive guy), and when they come back with Harrison several hours later (and close to midnight, I think), all of them stumble off the tractor completely drunk. They had all drank the bottle of vodka on the way back. Harrison then made some joke about "Get my agent on the phone...." or something.
Anyway, his wakeup call was really early the next day. So when you watch those scenes in ESB when he's making his way through the storm looking for Luke, just keep in mind: Han Solo must be *very* hungover. :p
Nice! Thanks Rose. Too funny. But geez, how hungover could Han Solo really get? ;) I'm sure Han had a few good ones in his time.
DeleteROFL! Imagine, navigating a snowstorm with a hangover. And I bet it was a nasty one, too :)
DeleteMan, Zyra, I was beginning to think that *I* would get around to updating before you guys ever did. ;)
ReplyDeleteIt's funny you brought up the "Making of...." books. I have the "Empire" one--and only because I lucked out and stumbled upon it when Borders was going out of business and got it for a song. What a find! Anyway, I've always kinda treated it like a coffee table book, just flipping through it at random times and looking at the pictures, BUT I went through a streak of extreme poverty this summer, and being poor and bored, I decided on a whim, "You know what? I'm going to actually sit down and *read* this mofo."
You know what? I totally recommend it! I'm less than halfway through, but it's really, really, interesting. Especially when you get to the part when they actually start filming. I'm enjoying it! And learning lots of silly tidbits that I didn't know before.
Anyway, it's nice to see some signs of life here! Hope everyone is having a more exciting summer than I am.
I'm going to make the most of my last week of vacation and watch IV, V and VI again. Write some fic. Hang with my granddaughter. Bake. Make the meals I won't have time to once it gets crazy. Class prep is done and the house is clean. I'm going to enjoy myself.
ReplyDeleteCan't say I'm interested in reading Crucible. I think you guys are far better writers than those who write the EU, at least most of them. (Timothy Zahn and AJ Crispin are good, but the rest? I'll pass, thanks.)
You should read Troy Denning or at least his book Tatooine Ghost. He's great at writing our lovelies.
DeleteActually, you're absolutely right. I did read it, and he actually did the best characterizations of our favorite screen couple. Admittedly, it's been a very long time since I read some of these books (we'd buy them and take them on vacation with us, and that was in the 90s). I re-read Crispin's Han Solo Trilogy on vacation and it was a great poolside read :)
DeleteYay new post! Thanks for taking the time to reassure us that you're just busy... I can absolutely empathise.
ReplyDeleteEveryone's talking about summer, but its cold where I am! (Australia)
It's slooooowly getting warmer, though. Thankfully.
I've been trying to write, but exams exams exams. They're time-consuming little buggers. I've done bits and pieces of writing, when I've had the time. As soon as this course is finished, I'm looking forward to much time spent writing AND reading. It's been so long since I read a book that wasn't required or research!
Anyway, thanks for the post- and the lovely picture! ;)
Great to see a new post! I've been passing time reading old fan fiction (and hungrily waiting for each new chapter of Push's 'It Is Your Destiny'). Harrison has been great on the talk shows and the last one on Conan was hilarious all the way around.
ReplyDeletePerhaps someone can help me. I've been searching for a story I read a little over a year ago. I think it was on ff.net, but I'm not sure now. Luke was dead and Leia was a Jedi. It was about Han being captured and tortured by these three 'witches', Leia rescues him and nurtures him back to health. Han is plagued by nightmares and he and Leia don't actually get together until somewhere in the middle of the story. Then Han leaves for some reason, Leia goes off to a Jedi temple. Eventually Han finds Leia at the temple, she's pregnant. The 'witches' turn up again as three kids and there is a final fight scene where Han has to choose helping one of the 'kids' or Leia's possible current love interest to save her. Any one familiar with this story?
I remember reading that one too, I think it was From A Certain Point of View.
Deletehttp://www.fanfiction.net/s/6553991/1/From-a-Certain-Point-of-View
Love this fic, one of my faves!
DeleteThat was it! Thanks.
DeleteI loved that one. Went bat to read it the other day.
DeleteYay, great to see an update guys :)
ReplyDeleteSo I'm bummed that we still have absolutely zero official episode 7 news. We had Comic Con, Celebration and D23 within a month of each other and what perfect opportunities to reveal something big, but we got diddly squat! What's with this movie? I am however enjoying Harrison having fun with the SW stuff at the moment, he's really loving it and such a contrast to the Harrison of just a few years ago.
Well, I don't have anything more to contribute than what's all readt been said. Busy month, glad to see all of you back. I've enjoyed Harrison on the talk shows and the new humor he's been showing. Bought Crucible, but only read a few chapters so far (I think I need the star wars wiki to hrlp me figure out some of these characters since I've really almost exclusively read pre New Jedi Order). Can't wait for the Jedi book since New Hope, Empire, and Indy are proudly on display in my new house.
ReplyDeleteAny and all fic updates these past few months have gotten me through dome 'hard times' without a tv, waiting in line, or working in some new places. Much appreciated.
seems like all we've done is run from here to there all summer. I keep waiting for the break and it doesn't come. I think when the kids go back to school next week my life will slow down!
ReplyDeletein SW news at my end, I won a contest on Troy Denning's facebook page and as a result my copy of Crucible was not only free but autographed, which was cool. and I had the opportunity to chat back and forth with him a bit about it which was also cool. one day I might manage a review.
like everyone else I am looking forward to the new Leia book but no one has mentioned the Obi Wan book coming out next week, which looks very interesting. it's about him coming to Tatooine with baby Luke and becoming "Ben" and struggling with how much to be involved in things. the excerpts I've read are pretty good but I am probably going to wait for it from the library and not buy.
we watched Air Force One and the Indiana Jones trilogy this summer with kids. I'd forgotten how much I loved Air Force One. the small boy requested his room be redone into a star wars room which took alot of weekend time. he now has a mural wall, lego planets hanging from the ceiling, and Yoda on another wall. next stage is building shelves for the lego creations including Falcon and his latest, Jabba's palace. daughter and I spent much of summer on a tear through season long DVDs of Doctor Who which she recently discovered.
on the down side have also spent much time resolving nasty identity theft issue and various medical crises. changed internet providers and didn't have access at home for a week in between - aaaaaargh, the horror - and then had a PC crash. suddenly PC does not believe I own my copy of MS Office. sigh.
have missed you all.
jzhanfan
Only five more days till first instructional day. Either every year it becomes more insane or I'm just older and less patient with the insanity. And all my students are about 8 years old.
ReplyDeleteI think we need another thread about sex. It's always the right size and never goes out of style :)
ReplyDeleteAh ha! Everyone is alive! Good. I've been busy recording an album all summer. The silence is understandable.
ReplyDeleteI'm totally looking forward to the Leia book as well as the ROTJ book...looks like I need to start saving up.
And you guys who haven't, need to read the ESB book. There's loads of interesting tidbits in there. I had to pull it out again, I had forgotten about the vodka story. I also like the one about Harrison sawing the console of his ship.
Also, good God, that photo. Drool.
Awesome that you've recorded an album!
DeleteAfter six months of practicing for my niece's wedding (I played there with my brother's band), I didn't unpack my keyboards till yesterday. It's Claude Debussy's birthday, so I had to at least play 'Clair de Lune.
High five, another keyboardist! Ah yes, gotta love Debussy...
DeleteTrust me, I am NOT a professional. I didn't even learn keyboards till I was in my 40s. I played violin in orchestra in school and bass guitar in jazz band. I was a barely proficient technician on the violin and a downright sucky bass player.
DeleteSo I have to ask... Has anyone besides me read the old Han Solo books by Brian Daley? Those are the ones that got me hooked on Han as a teen and I think they still define the character for me.
ReplyDeleteSex question for stats... would you ever write a pre HL sex scene for Han with another woman? Maybe between SW and ESB.... how would you write it??? How would you Leia react?
Sorry bout all the typos.. broken wrist is making typing difficult and I should nerve post on pain meds
DeleteOuch! Hope you feel better soon. How'd you break it?
DeleteYou know, I've never read the Daley Solo books, but I've only heard good things about them. Most people seem prefer them to the Crispin books. Are they still in print?
And I know you didn't ask me, but that was an interesting question you posed to stats. I"d imagine that Leia's reaction would vary depending on where on the scale between ANH and ESB this took place. You know, from feeling a small pinch of jealousy that she could otherwise shake off, all the way to that overwhelming, suffocating type of jealousy---which of course she would try really hard to hide, but would probably do a terrible job of it. :p
Okay, I should really be packing.....
Let's just say I am no longer a teen... fell off the trampoline while playing with my boys... unfortunately I do not bounce anymore.
DeleteI'll have to go see if the Daley books are still in print. I still have my dog eared copies from my teen days. I have the best dad ever who bought them for me when I was home sick.
Where are you going Stoned Rose? Somewhere fun I hope
Oh the sex question was for anyone... I just asked in honor of statsgrandma since she posed the request
DeleteAw, that's funny, my dad bought me the OT trilogy on VHS when I was homesick. Dads can rule sometimes. ;)
DeleteAh, I'm just flying to New Mexico for the weekend. Going to a wedding. I'm terrible about getting ready for these things though. I haven't even bothered looking for shoes to wear...and I'm leaving in seven hours. I suck.
That pretty much sounds like my packing, Rose. To the very last minute. Even before leaving when I got married, same thing. My maid of honor had to help me so that I could get everything done in time.
DeleteHope you feel better, Ymasolo.
That is an interesting question. I don't think I could write it myself. But I have a hard time seeing Han with anyone except Leia. I imagine she'd want to snatch the woman bald the closer it is to ESB. But that's just me.
Rose, don't worry about the shoes. No one is going to notice your feet. If you're desperate, get a pair of jeweled flip flops at the CVS or Walgreens. They're cheap and you can dance in them.
DeleteYma, I'm playing with an idea in the back of my mind that's kind of the opposite of your scenario. I've been thinking for a while about a story in which Leia has a relatively serious flirtation, or perhaps even an affair, with another guy in the ANH-ESB time range. My rules for myself are: the guy can't be Alderaanian or Corellian, and he can't be either completely good or completely terrible. At first I was just going to have her date the guy, but just this morning I was idly considering having her sleep with him. Sometimes I feel bad for Leia, having so little sexual experience before Han! Just for starters, how would she know how amazing he is in bed (and that's how we *always* write it!) without anything to compare it to?
DeleteYmaSolo, feel better soon. I know what you mean about not being a teenager.
ReplyDeleteHave any of you ever seen a more glorious refrigerator?
ReplyDeletehttp://imgur.com/gallery/ZhvusX0
That's too funny! But despite the fact that Mr. Stats' favorite Star Wars character is Han Solo, I don't think I could talk him into it :)
DeleteLove that... of course it would be me convincing my husband that I needed it while avoiding the jealousy from him on my major Han crush ;)
DeleteThat's too funny! But despite the fact that Mr. Stats' favorite Star Wars character is Han Solo, I don't think I could talk him into it :)
DeleteLove this of course but this is the fridge I want:
Deletehttp://25.media.tumblr.com/dd0a42bf145566e9dc4e8307a886e6ec/tumblr_mkr6nmUYsr1rkuy9co1_1280.jpg
jzhanfan
Love the Han fridge.
DeleteThose are nice, but I'd rather have a fridge with a picture of Han on the front ... full size, blaster at his side (wish I could post a picture here)... I'd never leave the kitchen.
DeleteAhh, see if this link works...pic.twitter.com/Vx3YCm1cKk. It's much better when we can see all of him and his face is not in pain :-)
DeleteStonedRose I love Albuquerque by I'm one of those last minute packers too...
ReplyDeleteLady Peter -I'd love to read your story about Leia. I do think it would be an interesting dynamic to the H/L story if Leia did have some experiences before she got serious with Han. Can't wait!
Now I'm wondering if Leia might have had the equivalent of a HS boyfriend.
ReplyDeleteMy thought exactly Stats. Was thinking about the "early college" romances that most of us went through. That is the age Leia is when she first meets Luke and Han and I could totally see her falling into that early college relationship with someone other than Han because he's too intense for her yet. Just musing... hoping one of you with talent will write it out for me :)
DeleteI can't promise you talent, but I think I'm going to take a shot at it.
DeleteLet's see if I can get my facts straight:
1. Leia is already a senator at 19.
2. She became involved with the Rebellion at 15.
3. I'm thinking maybe 16-17 she had a relationship with a guy who broke her heart. Big time.
Please correct me if I'm off on this one.
I think that is a good summary... that 17 year old crush that tears your heart out. Maybe an older man in the senate? Or an aide to her father...?
DeleteHere's another bit of almost irrelevant "news" that doesn't make a huge difference but I guess is a good thing: apparently they are shooting it on film rather than digitally. So, at least they seem to be trying. Now give us some damn REAL news!
ReplyDeleteLast bit of even more irrelevant news but apparently Harrison's latest movie "Paranoia" had the worst opening weekend of any wide release movie for 2013. That's... pretty darn bad. Like $3 million. Worst opening for one of his movies ever. On the plus side, it's not really "his" movie so I suppose we can't get too upset but rather it's more bad news for Liam Hemsworth who apparently isn't quite ready to carry a film even if he is working with 2 cinematic legends. It's just further proof that if Harrison and Gary Oldman were going to be reunited on screen the only logical reason is a sequel to Air Force One.
ReplyDeleteOh man, that movie looks so bad! I cracked up over the closing line from the clip shown on Conan: "Power is the juice. Get used to drinking it." Wha???
ReplyDeleteYes, I'm glad to say that my love for Harrison does, in fact, know some bounds. No way was I going to see this one. I figured if one day it was on HBO and I was bored enough, sure, why not? I wonder who they thought their audience was?
DeleteIs anyone else planning on going to see Harrison in Ender's Game? I loved the books as a kid so would go see the movie anyway but Harrison is just a nice bonus
ReplyDeleteEnder's Game, yes. It looks like the kind of movie I'd probably want to see even without Harrison so I'll almost certainly be checking it out. I might even read the book as I've heard good things.
DeleteYes! When I heard about the movie, the premise interested me so I (surprisingly) decided to read the book. Really enjoyed it, I hope the movie turns out good.
Delete