Just a quick post to wish everyone who celebrates it:

Just a quick post to mention the couple of fics I wrote for dmhgficexchange. Authors have been revealed for a week now, but I've only just had time to post about it.

In both cases, the fics were written based on a song and they're both one-shots. I was a pinch hitter for the second fic and I think was actually more inspired than for the first one I wrote. The first fic is about Draco and Hermione in a secret relationship while the second fic is less about love and more about snark!

Thanks to everyone who commented during the exchange! :D

Faith (PG-13)

So Much to Lose, So Much to Gain (R)

And completely off-topic, my friend told me the new Wolverine movie trailer was on youtube earlier today and I'm so psyched!! You guys can check it out here - it looks AWESOME!!!

I feel much better! All traces of sore throat and cold are gone and I've been happily staying at home by the chimney avoiding the heavy snowfall outside. I LOVE snow, but it never really lasts around here - it's not cold enough yet. Has it been snowing in England too?

I've finally sent off my last 3 Christmas cards so if you haven't received a card from me already, it should reach you within a week or so. I've received two cards so far from lux_astraea and scent_of_autumn, which were great so thank you so much guys!! :D

I have to say, I love reading fantasy books. I read quite a variety of book genres, but fantasy is my personal favourite and when I tell people about it, I often heard A Song of Ice and Fire, George R. R. Martin's epic fantasy series mentioned as their favourite. I'd never got round to reading it before, but I picked it up at the local library (in French) and liked it so much that I bought the first two books on Amazon and just had to tell you guys about it!

So I recently finished reading A Game of Thrones, the first in the series (there are 7 in total) and I was thrilled! No spoiling here, only an overall review...

( Review where I gush about the book! )

Also, Amazon's recently released their Best Books 2008 series. If you're looking to buy fantasy books for the holiday season, here's Amazon's Best SciFi/Fantasy Books 2008

It features both the Editors' Picks and the Customers' Favourites of 2008.

So there's my review. At the moment, I'm reading The Constant Gardener by John Le Carré, which is captivating and I'll then be finishing A Clash of Kings.

What are you guys currently reading? Any recs?

*sniff* *sniff*

I have a cold. And a sore throat. It's my own fault because I went to a friend's b-day party Saturday night and spent most of the time outside on the balcony either smoking or chatting (and wearing only a strappy top) --> hence I'm now sick! :(

I hadn't smoked in months, not since my dissertation that dealt with the effects of smoking on teeth, but I simply couldn't resist a couple of ciggies....

Anyway, I'm now in bed, wrapped in a blanket and sipping cough syrup. I also feel exhausted because my mother decided to drag me around the local shopping centre all day to buy Christmas presents. Since when has it become a precaution to buy Christmas presents 3 weeks in advance and still have to deal with large crowds?!!

Job-wise: still nuthin'! Both jobs I was hoping to hear back from haven't contacted me so I'm starting to despair a little... There's no way I'll find anything now until January, no new jobs have been posted in days.

In other news:

- For everyone who asked for a holiday card and lives in the US, I sent your cards out last week so hopefully they should reach you soon. I'm not sure how long mail takes nowadays between US-Europe... For my European flist, I'm sending yours out tomorrow :)
- For all Dramione fans, the fourth round of the dramione_awards has begun and nominations are open!! You can check out details here and pimp your eligible one-shots here or to me! I've yet to nominate fics...
- I finally watched Dr Horrible's Sing Along Blog and thought it was pretty good. Nathan Fillion is hilarious as the vain superhero and I loved Neil Patrick Harris. He's great and I've recently started watching How I Met Your Mother as well, which is an awesome show! How come no one mentioned this to me before?! :D
- TV holiday break is killing me... no more Supernatural! :( Thank God, Gossip Girl and Heroes aired this week! I'm off to watch them now...

Hey, this was posted today and it shows lots more footage of the movie!! :D

If you don't want to be spoiled, ignore this post!

( New trailer! )

I was in London this past weekend with my parents, picking up the rest of my stuff from various friends' flats. It was pretty tiring and the drive back was so looong! Since I got back I've been busy sorting, cleaning and finding space for my stuff, which was a relief as I got all my books again along with my notebooks I use for writing, but also just an accumulation of random crap I kept throughout the past year.

Anyway, two things today...

1) My one-shot for elyaeru is finally here!

Title: Draco Malfoy is a jerk!
Author: hathorx
Rating: PG
Summary: Draco and Hermione making out in a closet... but are they alone? Drabble turned one-shot for elyaeru, who gave me the prompt 'skeleton'! Enjoy :D

( Draco Malfoy is a Jerk! )


2) I won draco_chorus' icon challenge #84! The icon I sent in was actually the first one I made since I got Photoshop back so I'm quite pleased :D

I've finished my first prompt for elyaeru, which eventually became a 2,000 word one-shot, and am in need of a beta-reader! It's a Draco/Hermione fic, rated PG-13.

I just need someone to check over my spelling and grammar for this one-shot... can anyone help me out?

I'm also working on dcrjsnider's prompt, which is a Rose/Scorpius one-shot, and have also been playing around with photoshop a lot. I can't believe how much I missed it! I'll post a bunch of icons soon from HBP, Twilight, Supernatural and possibly other things. :D

Here's just a fun video I found about Halloween! Hope you all had a scary night and had fun partying in costume! I actually ended up going to see Quantum of Solace, the new Bond movie, which was pretty good and then went home to watch a couple of horror films :D

( Halloweeeen )

I haven't got anything planned this weekend except writing so I'll be posting some drabble/one-shots soon! Thanks for the prompts!

Job hunting: Available jobs seem to have decreased by 50% since the crisis and it's now been several days since I've last applied for a position. Tomorrow or Monday, I should finally hear back about the 3-month contract job I'm hoping to get and interviews for the uber important job won't be till the end of November now. That's twice already that interviews have been pushed back but I don't mind since it'll hopefully give me time to do the 3-month contract job in between....

Right, well Halloween is upon us and I have nothing planned for the day! Halloween isn't celebrated over here like it is in the US or the UK and since most of my friends are back in London, looks like I'm going to be staying at home. However, I do intend to celebrate with a bag of sweets and a couple of horror movies to watch with my brother. We've so far opted for The Strangers with Liv Tyler and perhaps an old school Halloween or Friday the 13th movie. I've also got hold of the old movie adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's The Pit and the Pendulum, which scared the hell out of me as a kid!

In any case, I have a lot of time on my hands this weekend and decided to spend it doing creative stuff: so drabble/icon time!!

-Drabbles: send me a prompt and I'll write you a drabble (yes, I know I'm feeling generous tonight!) I write mostly HP, but if you have another fandom in mind, let me know and I'll give it a shot!
-Icons: I'll make anything! I recovered Photoshop a couple of weeks ago and have been playing around with it without actually posting anything. Give me a prompt, pic, movie, actor/actress and I'll make you some icons! :D

What are your plans for Halloween? If anyone's going to a costume party, post some pics!!

I really enjoyed the book and am excited about the movie coming out November 21st!

For anyone who hasn't seen the final trailer for Twilight, which was recently released, here it is:

Job hunting: I've been lazy on my job applications, but I've just sent off my CV for a 3-month contract job on a Roman sanctuary site. The lady I talked to on the phone was really nice and very helpful so I'm keeping my fingers crossed!!!

In the meantime, I have been reading like mad any sort of fantasy book I can get my hands on and decided to open a blog!!

Check it out here: frenchfantasygirl.blogspot.com

frenchfantasygirl.blogspot.com

frenchfantasygirl.blogspot.com

It's basically a bookclub of sorts where any fantasy fan can read books along with me and comment about the story, characters, writing style, etc. I quite interested in deciphering what makes a good story/book and what ruins them. I'm currently reading George R. R. Martin's A Game of Thrones. Ooooh and if anyone is considering buying books using Amazon, I would love you forever if you used the widget link on my blog page! :D

In other news: Guillermo Del Toro talks dwarves and dragons on making The Hobbit. I'm really excited about this movie and hope it won't stray too far from the LotR movies.

EDIT: New Lost promo season 5!!!

So apparently Hugh Jackman showed up at Comic Con yesterday and showed exclusive footage of the new Wolverine movie coming out next year... footage that includes Gambit!!

Here's a link to Hugh Jackman's intro.

No one was allowed to film the footage apparently, which sucks! But I really really hope that footage will be on internet sometime soon! I know some of you are currently at Comic Con, so if you saw the Fox panel, tell me all about it!! :D

This is my third entry for brigits_flame. The prompt was "Happiness is...". This is my take on it.

( Happiness is the key )

So I'm spending my time at home applying for jobs and I just spent most of the evening writing my CV and writing various cover letters.

First thing I noticed - my CV isn't very impressive... There's lots of education stuff but very little actual work (unless you count archaeological experience which is in a separate section). The covering letter, however, is the worst cause I really have to sell myself for jobs that I have little experience in (recording and drawing standing buildings, anyone?). Still, I really want this particular job because it sounds so interesting and the pay is good.

In any case, writing covering letters I found out today is freaking nerve-wracking!! I've never had a serious job before wheere I had to write these so f any of you have any tips or advice about writing them, do tell! :)

Some good news... chapter 14 of Here Without You is up here and chapter 15 is already planned out in my head!

I've finished all my work at the museum and have been home all day... pretty boring! I'm off to Paris tomorrow, hopefully for a week of hot, sunny weather during which I'll be lounging around in my garden, catching up on my reading.

I'm currently starting a trilogy called Millenium by Stieg Larsson - I was told it's quite popular world wide and a good page-turner for the summer. I also recently bought American Gods by Neil Gaiman and look forward to reading it (absolutely loved Stardust and Neverwhere!)

Anyway, my train's doesn't leave till late afternoon, so till then... anyone have interesting news/fanfic to share? Any fun memes going round LJ at the mo?

*looks around f-list with puppy eyes*

This is my second entry for brigits_flame July round. The prompt this time is "It hurts when I do this".

Thank you to everyone who was kind enough to comment last time :)

( Memories )

--

I have finally upgraded my LJ to a paid account after winning £15 today from helping out my uni, YAYZ!!!!

Take a look at my new layout and my new icons!!! I can finally use all the icons I'd been saving for this occasion - including Doctor Who (Rose/doctor), X-Men (gorgeous Rogue/Gambit icons I've been dying to use) and more!!! Most of them I lost when my laptop was stolen, but I've found a few again since and intend on getting more. Does anyone have links to Slytherin icons?

Problem is - I have so many icons now, I don't know which one to use! *g*

Right, back to writing chapter 14 of HWY. I'll hopefully be posting it this weekend :D

This is my first entry for brigits_flame July round. The prompt is "heavy".

( Heavy )

Is anyone else in London enjoying the hot weather? I'm loving it, but now that it's nearly bedtime, grrr. I walked back from the museum today all the way to Camden and I thought I was going to die from the heat. It's the only time I go out in the sun really, so I try to make the most of it. My room is like a furnace though at the moment and opening the window doesn't seem to help. I guess having the computer on doesn't help either... I really need to go buy a fan before we get hit by a massive heatwave!

It's funny because the museum basement is very cool, sometimes even cold so I have to bring a hoodie or sweater to keep warm. I'm going to be there until mid-july so if anyone comes by the Museum of London before then, let me know!!

Everyone on my f-list, please ignore this post... I decided to join brigits_flame and was asked to make an intro post in my LJ.

( Quick rant about me )