Good heavens, you say, an update. Yes indeed. We do do them from time to time- every seven months whether we need one or not. (grimace) Apologies all round, of course. Bad enough when real life interferes with fandom. When fandom interferes with fandom, you're in trouble. What with people getting married, people working two jobs, people going to Japan, people going to China, and (darkly) people putting on cons, the poor little webpage has fallen by the wayside. As a measure of how desperate things have become, you've got me, Jeanne, doing the updates. That's why none of the links work, betcha.

This update should have happened last February, which is why it follows the old format. There will be changes coming soon. The move to text-only translations, more reviews and articles, and an every two months appearance-- which was already happening last year, in spite of good intentions. But for now, enjoy the current goodies.

We have a gaming article from Katchan and two articles from Nora, including one of those rare fanfic reviews. Busy busy people who put on cons don't have time to read fanfic except that Nora, ever the exception, does. Nora, ever the exception, seems to have read all of Wraethru (long long fantasy series in teeny-tiny typeface) and written a novel of her own while putting on a con. Nice for some people, she says with envy. For the Kodaka fans, yes, I will be continuing with the translations of Kodaka's dj series, Hana to Ryuu. There's two more chapters coming. More if Kodaka produces, of course.

Not much else to say from the fandom front, here. My Saiyuuki obsession continues, Mimi's text-yaoi in Chinese obsession continues, and we won't bore you by blathering on about them more than we have. We were at Shoujocon, and saw the inside of the Dealer's Room a lot, except that I occasionally got out to see the inside of a panel room, and rather more of New Jersey's highways than I wanted to. Why are NJ highways like yaoi? Because if you don't already know where it's going, you shouldn't be on it. That's as true as it needs to be, actually. I was having one of those 'why do I bother' conversations with someone who doesn't see yaoi, as in doesn't see why the Japanese do it the way they do do it if they must do it in the first place. Once we got over the 'But they're not gay' question (Answer: 'Never said they were') we got to the 'Why must there be semes and ukes' one. Now, most of us know that semes and ukes just are and what's the problem? But equally, I don't see why the cutoff for East Brunswick from the New Jersey Turnpike can't be marked, while most New Jerseyites just know that *that* road is the one to East Brunswick and what's the problem? Lord- could it be that the dreaded 'insider-outsider' virus has come to western culture at last?

Jeanne