[  Mood: Happy ]
Urban fantasy has exploded in recent years with everybody and their mother (literally) writing books full of magic in the modern world. Some, like Jim Butcher, Kim Harrison and Rachel Caine do a very good job of it. Others botch it big time.

Into this world enters Ilona Andrews with the Kate Daniels series. Magic Burns is the second in the series, and it finds Kate settling into her new role as the liaison between The Order of Merciful Aid and the Mercenary Guild. In addition, she has been hired by the Pack to find a missing set of maps. Kate also ends up looking for a missing witch who seems to be connected in some way to missing maps. This leads Kate into a much bigger mess than she anticipated or wants.

This is an exciting, quick paced story with a very likable female main character. The world Kate inhabits is well thought our and in many ways original. This is one of the urban fantasies worth picking up.

[  Mood: Happy ]
[ Currently: Breastfeeding my son. ]
I actually made it outside today for one whole hour. That gave me the time to pick up a bunch of deadfall sticks from around our poplar. These I have kept because I can use them to protect my pea and bean sprouts from the pigeons who like to eat the tender shoots.

I also got two of our rainbarrells set up and ready to go. Ready to collect all the liquid goodness.

Finally I got part of a row of sugar snaps and snow peas each planted. Given that they can survive the cold better than most plants, this is a good thing. Next weekend I will plant some more to stagger the crop.

Oh! How I love getting my hands dirty.

[  Mood: Angry ]
[  Currently: Watching My son play ]
So Amazon thinks that books with GLBTQ content are "adult" and must be deranked to make their search results more family friendly.

Really?

Heather has Two Mommies (which was deranked but is now back) is too adult?

Really?

All I Could Bare – a memoir about being a stripper in gay clubs in Washington D.C. was deranked in February, but How to Make Love Like a Porn Star by Jenna Jameson was not. Heck they even let you look inside her book where she mentions showing her boobs to a tatoo artist when she was sixteen. There’s good wholesome, family friendly literature. I think I will read that to my son tomorrow night. (And bestiality has not been deranked. Excellent! I can buy Daddy Left Mommy for a Sheep for the boy).

Amazon initially told a young adult author that this policy was to make their searches more family friendly. Now they are saying it is a glitch and are denying that a hacker is responsible. Notice that they are not dealing with their earlier excuse. Nor are they dealing with the fact that this has been going on since February. Rumours are also swirling that this is an experiment that blew up in their face.

So what is Amazon’s real issue? Over reacting do gooders? Conservative whack jobs? Owners of an easily hackable database? Just plain incompetent?

The Internet will be the judge. Until then, enjoy the below.

Amazon rank.

[  Mood: Sleepy ]
Season 2 brought a lot of changes to seaQuest. Even though the ratings were good, NBC wanted more. To that end, Patrick Hasburgh was brought on to revamp the series. What resulted was a purging of older characters who were all replaced by, younger, sexier actors. Some turned out to be decent actors and were accepted by the fans. Others were just cute faces and becamed villified by the fans. Viewership would begin to dwindle in season two as plots became campy, b-grade sci-fi rip-offs and seaQuest became an industry wide joke.

seaQuest – Where Are They Now? – The Replacement Fillers

Michael DeLuise
The second son of Dom DeLuise and Carol Arthur, Michael was born into acting. He had his first role at ten and continued to land series roles and re-occuring guest stars until he was cast as Seaman Tony Piccolo in the second season of seaQuest. Piccolo was a navy enlisted man convicted of striking a superior officer. As part of an early release program, he agreed to have artificial gills implanted. Rebellious, he tried to escape when he was initially posted to seaQuest. He quickly replaced Krieg as the big brother/role model/best friend to Lucas, with whom he bunked. In the third season, Piccolo became a favourite of new captain Oliver Hudson. He was promoted to Warrant Officer and qualified for subfighter pilot training.

Since seaQuest, Michael has been busy. He stepped out directly from cancellation into the role of Andy Sipowicz Jr. in NYPD Blue. He also starred in the short lived Broklyn South. From there he has runs on Gilmore Girls as well as guest spots on Lost, Stargate and CSI:NY. He has also directed and produced a comedy called Between the Sheets.

Peter DeLuise
Peter came to seaQuest off his breakout role in 21 Jump Street. Playing Officer Doug Penhall brought Peter to the locker doors of the world. Including mine. Being the eldest son of Dom DeLuise and Carol Arthur, Peter was also exposed to Hollywood very young. As Dagwood, Peter played a Genetically Engineered Life Form, or GELF. As a prototype, Dagwood had some flaws that made him not what the customer ordered. Due to that, he ended up as a janitor in the UEO. After saving O’Neil’s life, he was invited to stay on seaQuest.

Since cancellation, Peter has kept busy with acting, getting guest spots in a variety of series. He has also taken a turn at directing, working in a bunch of Vancouver based shows. But it is in the various Stargate series that he has made his mark. Director, writer and producer, guest star, he has done it all. So much so that he is kind of a legend in Stargate fandom. Series producer, Joseph Mallozi called him “the walking Stargate omnipedia”.

Edward Kerr
While he had done a couple of made for TV movies, seaQuest was Edward (sometimes known as Ed) Kerr’s breakout role. As Lt. James Brody, he lead the security detail on the sub. A man’s man, he could fight, drink and charm with the best of them. He was also meant to be a sex symbol, someone the ladies could sigh about. Rumours swirled that Kerr was also not happy with the direction the series was taking, and asked to have his character killed off in the third season. The producers obliged, killin his character off midway through season 3.

Since his turn as Brody, Kerr has done quite well for himself on TV. In addition to his many, many guest spots, he had a lead in the short-run David Kelly series Snoops. Kerr also ended up in Legalese with James Garner. Finally, he has ended up in the Marco Sanchez produced video Ambition to Meaning: Finding Your Life’s Purpose along with other seaQuest alum, Don Franklin and Michael DeLuise.

[  Mood: Silly ]
[  Currently: Listening to CBC Radio ]
Canadian Doctor Who fans!!!

Space has picked up series 5 of Doctor Who.

This means, that unless the parent network of CTV does something amazing, it will not be shown in HD.

No, I am not dead. I have been busy with the ramp up to work, the podcast and my writing.

I am still working on the seaQuest, where are they now entries. The next installment should be out this week.

But until then, I had to share, especially given that Joe and hold that Soaps are Urban Fantasy:

What Daytime Soaps Taught Us (Well, Besides Sex)