The Reading Room Continued - discussion for next week?

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

What with all the upset and faffing on lj at the moment, I'm feeling the need for some cheer-up Prosfic, and it occurred to me that it was Thursday but no Reading Room this week, so I thought I might have a go at a Reading Room Continued post! As various people said in comments to jaycat92's last post, it was a lovely project to have here at the comm, and it doesn't have to end just because it's not regularly scheduled any more (and there's franceskerst who's going to rec a fic in October too), so...

...shall we have a Reading Room Continued fic this week? I shall read Babysitting Tommy by Rebelcat, and post a rec for it next Thursday. Hopefully there might be one or two of you who fancy joining in both reading and some chat about it!

Oh, and via the author's fic website, here's the original post for if you've not read it before and would like to leave feedback!

Title: Babysitting Tommy
Author: Rebelcat
Link to story: at Circuit Archive or at The original post.

Comments

[moth2fic.livejournal.com]

Thanks for that! Have downloaded and will read while away - and might even join in discussion if I end up online!*g* But will definitely read discussion eventually!

As to the LJ brouhaha, I am so angry with them - I have seen various explanations and excuses but the bottom line should always be default opt-out. I thought the Google Buzz disaster would have taught everybody that! And yes - it's nice to have something to look forward to instead!

*wonders how the lads would have coped with the information flying around t'internet... wondering brought on by watching Identity on ITV Catchup*

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Excellent! It's a fun story - hope you enjoy it! *g*

And hee - I had the lads all internet-era in Who Caught and Sang the Sun (http://hatstandfic.net/viewstory.php?sid=583&chapter=1), and they coped pretty well... and I adore Angel_ci5's iLads (http://hatstandfic.net/viewstory.php?sid=578&chapter=1) fic... *g*

[moth2fic.livejournal.com]

Yes! I know you did and I love Angel's fic, too. I was thinking more of a story centred round the rapid internet transfer of what should be private information as an integral part of a case. And I suppose more how CI5 as a whole would cope than the lads themselves because I'm sure they would get to grips with anything! Hmm, plot bunnies begging for carrots there...

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

I suppose it'd depend on whether/how much CI5 had had to integrate with other government departments and their online security - have you read the Firewall series, by Elspeth Leigh? It's not totally current any more, but I do rather love it and that deals with the idea of it all... actually it's been ages since I read them, I must have another look too! *g* Actually that'd be another good story for a rec/discussion one day... See, I can think of things now that I no longer need to... I always was lousy under quiz-type pressure... *g*

[moth2fic.livejournal.com]

Will look out for that rec and where to find it...

I always said if I tried to do a mastermind type quiz I'd forget my name and address. And I am totally and incurably hopeless at remembering names and titles even though I recognise them when other people mention them.

[constant-muse.livejournal.com]

I'll enjoy joining in without having made even the slightest effort. *g* Thanks for this and for the links.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Hee - like being on holiday and watching other people go to work in the morning! ci5hq has always been for recs and reviews and discussions, and there's no reason it should stop just cos the regularly-scheduled RR has stopped... lots of people seemed to hope it would go on informally, so I figured I'd give it a go... *g*

[angel-ci5.livejournal.com]

I rarely joined in with the Reading Room, but I did enjoy catching up with the discussions when I got the chance, so it's lovely to see there's still going to be RR reviews popping up here!

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

I think there were quite a few people who often read the discussions but didn't join in for one reason or another - and I was guilty of that myself more times than I can count - so it'd be nice to see them carry on, even if it's just every now and then! And hopefully we'll have some more rec-challenges and so on, too... must get my thinking cap on - all ideas welcome! *g*

[starlite876.livejournal.com]

What if we pick a theme for reccing fics for each month?

When we were discussing From Here to Eternity by Ginny and Hestia (http://community.livejournal.com/ci5hq/137948.html) you mentioned there hadn't been a list of ghost stories done at palelyloitering, so maybe for October we can discuss supernatural/ghost stories, and in November we could pick another theme (eg Thanksgiving)?

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Ooh, I like that idea! So... we'd have a sort of announcement that (for example) in October it would be great if people recced/reviewed supernatural/ghost stories - were you think just as they liked, or on a particular day each week? And we could even have more than one rec on that day, or...? And if someone couldn't post the first Thursday of the month, they could post the next one instead, and if there were two recc posts in one week, that would be okay? That sort of thing? *g*

D'you fancy doing a post to CI5hq in general to suggest this? I reckon people would quite enjoy that, for Reading Room Continued!

I hate to tell you this, but what with Pros being set in the UK and all, the lads didn't celebrate/recognise/probably even know much about the American celebration of Thanksgiving... *g* There is the odd fic out there, but it's either anachronistic or involves the lads having met an American... although that could be a topic in itself, I guess! *g*

[starlite876.livejournal.com]

Sure … I can do a separate post to ci5hq as a general suggestion for October. I'll post something after this weekend when (and if) I get through the Father's Day celebrations with the family.

I was actually trying to think of some holiday themes for November relevant for the US / UK / Australia. The only one I could think of was Thanksgiving for US, none for UK, and the Melbourne Cup (The Race that Stops a Nation (http://www.cultureandrecreation.gov.au/articles/melbournecup/)) for Australia, and even then I don't think the rest of Australia are as horse mad as the Melbournians who have a public holiday devoted to a horse racing event. *g*

Oh wait….. maybe we should do a cricket theme for November. Doesn't The Ashes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ashes) takes place around Nov-Jan? *g*

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Excellent...

The only thing about making November relevant for the US / UK / Australia is... erm... why do you want to make it relevant for the US and Australia? What with Pros being set in the UK, and Prosfic being based around that? There'd be precious little Prosfic that mentions the Melbourne Cup, and same for Thanksgiving as a result - and why would it? If you're thinking of fanbases, you'd need to include Germany as well, cos Pros was massive over there, and there's quite a number of German Pros fans on lj and here in the comm...

If it's Prosfic we're wanting people to list though, there'll be more fics set around things that are traditional to the UK, so if we're hoping for good discussion, I'd say stick to those things for the themes... So Halloween works; cricket in general could for November, though of course when the Ashes are played in England they're played in July/August... *g* Or maybe a general "winter" or "autumn" theme for November? Or a "rainy weather" theme, even! *g* It's just that we've got to be able to find fic for the themes, you know?

[merentha13.livejournal.com]

I'm one of those that read but remained silent. I have a review/recce that I'd like to share - my first one! Being a "rookie", I'm not sure where or how to post. If you would help me with that, I'll get things typed up and help to keep this discussion group going!

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Oh brilliant - and welcome! It's been fab having Reading Room as a regular post, encouraging reading and discussion - ci5hq has always done that, but it was much more sporadic before jaycat started Reading Room, so it'd be great if we could keep things up! I'm going to post a review of Babysitting Tommy today, and it'd be great if you posted your review at any time - even the same time! *g*

Basically, you post your rec to this comm (and you're already a member, so that's great!) - and how you do it will depend a little bit on how your lj is set up. If you have the navigation bar always at the top of your lj then you should be able to click "Post to this community", which I think will be in the bottom middle-ish of the navigation bar. If you don't have that bar, then go to the CI5hq user info page, and on the right hand side near the top choose the option there - "post to this community"! Then simply type, or cut and paste your review into the posting box.

If it's a very long review then it's kind to use an "lj-cut", which hides some of the text so that it doesn't take up too much space on people's Friends Pages. Again, how you do this will depend on whether you're in a "Rich Text" or "Html" window to post - check the tabs at the top right of the posting box itself. If you're in Rich Text (which I never use because it seems to break quite often!) then I think there's a button for making lj-cuts. I find it much easier to post in Html, because then I know exactly what I'm asking it to do, and I can see if I've done something wrong (I'm old-fashioned like that! *g*). If you use the Html tab, then just before the writing that you want to put under the cut, type <*lj-cut text="Here is my review"*> but without the asterisks! The < means you're starting to tell lj some code, and the > tells lj you've finished giving it instructions. You can type whatever you like in between the quotation marks - that's the only part that will show up on the screen when you're done. The asterisks mean that instead of doing the code, lj will type out the letters of the code instead - otherwise you wouldn't be able to see it, if that makes sense!

When you're happy that your post says just what you want, then click "Post" under the box - and voila! If you decide you want to change something then there should be an option to "edit post" somewhere (I think that's for free as well as paid accounts) - it might be an icon of a pencil, or it might be in words, depending again on how your lj is set up.

Hope it doesn't sound too complicated - I shall look forward to your post, and if you get stuck, or want to ask something, then do feel free! Yeay Pros fic recs! *g*