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For ljs (and other soap fans on my FL): a great audio interview with Lynn Herring on the We Love Soaps podcast. She talks at length about Lucy Coe, Kevin Collins, General Hospital, Port Charles and more!

In honor of Herring, here's a 1995 clip from GH in which Lucy strips for charity at the Nurses' Ball, back when Claire Labine was writing the show and utilizing the entire cast to perfection! I particularly enjoy Lucy's cavorting ex-husbands Tony and Alan...

Some highlights of Writercon:

There were many wonderful panels and presentations, including redeem147's Bollywood 101, general_jinjur's podfic presentation, and Kristina Busse's celebration of fannish tropes. I had a marvelous time moderating the Making Old Monsters New Again panel, during which harmonyfb, Debra Doyle, inkandchocolate and I, along with pretty much the entire room, enthusiastically discussed vampires and zombies and ghosts etc. etc. (And I got to talk about Dark Shadows, hooray!)

Speaking of soaps, I got to talk with nwhepcat and 10zlaine and willowgreen about Ryan's Hope, and rant with 10zlaine and callmesandy about GH! (I think 10zlaine and I spent pretty much the whole cocktail party talking about soaps...)

My favorite restaurant of the weekend was Hell's Kitchen, where I had breakfast a couple of times. I think I will be longing for those pancakes until I get back to Minneapolis. Also the hotel restaurant, Fire Lake, was awesome, and we ate there many times. Strangely I did not gain weight this weekend, which seems impossible. In general the hotel was by far the best we've had for Writercon, and rivals only the Concourse for my favorite con hotel.

It was so wonderful to see old friends and to talk with new ones. Big thanks to the concom for putting together such a lively and inspiring convention.

Writing: I'm almost done with the chapter 15 revisions. Still making a few pesky corrections, but nothing major. I still need to figure out the details of one major plot point for the novel, which may require a bunch of research, or possibly my backbrain will suddenly spit out the solution. Meanwhile I continue to listen to the Jo book playlist.

Reading: This weekend I finished reading papersky's Tooth and Claw and Amanda Cross's Death in a Tenured Position. Both were awesome. I'm about halfway through the very entertaining audiobook of Georgette Heyer's The Devil's Cub. Also about halfway through Ellen Klages's Portable Childhoods, and I've just started Stephen King On Writing. Still reading Portrait of a Lady and Agnes Grey via dailylit.com.

Ryan's Hope: Awesome awesome awesome. Even though I've seen these Jack/Siobhan scenes a zillion times, there's nothing like seeing them in the larger context of the story.

Soapy miscellanea: The Daytime Confidential podcasts continue to be wildly entertaining.

Weather: Too damn hot.

Writercon: I am really looking forward to it!

I'm still revising chapter 15 of the Jo book. It is very slow going, but today as part of my work on the chapter, I got to look at nifty photos of NYC newsstands. This weekend I finished revising a poem and sent it out. It's the first poem I've finished in ages--novels take up so much brain space!

Also this weekend I filled out my Rhysling ballot. And I watched a ton of Dark Shadows. In the 1970 eps I'm currently viewing, a malevolent head in a bell jar has been introduced. The Head is portrayed by an actor who, so far 1) has his eyes closed or 2) stares evilly at the camera. (Oh, and once he blinked. Accidentally, I think.) I wondered whether the Head actor would get an on-screen credit, and sure enough, he did! The credit roll listed the actor as portraying "THE HEAD." Heeeeee.

***

Trouble in Gaytime:

Around the time I was at Wiscon last month, a story broke in which an actor from The Young and the Restless, Chris Engen, walked off the set because he allegedly took issue with having to play a gay-themed story. He was fired and replaced with Michael Muhney (from Veronica Mars). Sure enough, immediately after Engen's final episode, Adam, the (straight) character he'd portrayed, seduced his gay male lawyer in order to keep said lawyer from investigating his nefarious deeds. This happened VERY off-camera--the characters didn't even kiss on screen. The irony is that, up until this point, Adam had set his father up for murder, injected Botox into his eyeballs (ewww) to fake blindness, and tormented his father's pregnant wife until she miscarried. But apparently Engen had no trouble playing any of this stuff--just off-screen gay sex. Fortunately, Michael Muhney, whose first episodes on Y&R aired last week, has quickly made the character of Adam his own and has surpassed Engen's portrayal.

So this weekend, a story broke that an actor from One Life To Live, Patricia Mauceri, who has been on the show since 1995, was fired for refusing to play a story beat in which her character Carlotta Vega, a Latina mother, expresses gay-friendly sentiment! "She objected to Carlotta's positive attitude about homosexuality, saying it conflicted with her personal beliefs." Needless to say, since this is a soap opera, the character of Carlotta is far from squeaky-clean, but apparently that never conflicted with the actress's personal beliefs.

It boggles my mind that, in this current economic climate, these actors have opted to trash their steady gigs because they can't bring themselves to do their jobs when gay material is concerned...

Noveling: Wrote 480 words of chapter 15 of the Jo book during lunch. I still need to continue planning certain aspects of the rest of the novel, but chapter 15 started yelling at me to start writing, so I did. Thanks to 10zlaine (who sent me some crucial NY Times articles from December 1975), I can now torment poor Jo with historical accuracy!

Reading: I'm still reading and loving Ellen Klages's Portable Childhoods and (via dailylit.com) The Portrait of a Lady. Also listening with glee to the audiobook of Georgette Heyer's These Old Shades, which is foptastic.

Weather: We're having an extended spate of June Gloom, to the point that I am wearing knee-high boots and a sweater-coat. Can't say that I mind, but it is a bit odd. Plus it's making my allergies go to town.

Ryan's Hope: Still awesome.

OLTL: Mostly awesome.

GH: So not awesome.

Lynn Herring joins As the World Turns (for six-eight weeks): apparently "GH never called." Stupid GH. I will be tempted to watch, as Herring's former screen partner Jon Lindstrom is also on ATWT. (Kevin/Lucy OTP!) ATWT is supposed to be pretty lousy these days, however. Oh well, if GH did rehire Herring and Lindstrom, they'd probably write crappy material for them anyway, like they just did for poor Emma Samms. Hmmph.

I'm back in LA (just in time for the California Supreme Court's lousy decision). I have Ye Olde Con Crud, which struck as I was packing my bags on Monday night, but it doesn't seem so bad. (It's the first bug I've had since I got home from Wiscon LAST year.) I've tackled my in box and caught up with Ryan's Hope and OLTL. At first the Garage Kitty gave me the silent treatment, but a little while later she relented (when she was hungry!).

Later today there will be a con report.

In Ryan's Hope news: a young Jerry verDorn played a doctor on one of this week's eps. According to Wikipedia, he would've started his decades-long stint on Guiding Light shortly after his RH appearance...

Weather: Colder than I'd expected. Even though it was in the forecast, I didn't believe it.

Chapter 13 of the Jo book: Still not done, though it won't be long now.

The Garage Kitty: was thrown for a loop yesterday when another cat started meowing from the nearby hillside.

Ryan's Hope: awesome.

OLTL: mostly awesome.

Y&R: ditto.

GH: Incredibly bad. Plus they've changed the lighting, and yesterday Sonny was as orange as his sofa. Also Ric managed to grow a goatee in one day. (Also, why has no one noticed that Lisa LoCicero looks just like Jackie Zeman? They missed a bet not making her a Spencer.) Why am I still watching this show? Well, I was happy to see Helena Cassadine, anyway.

I've said it before, but it bears repeating: my chiropractor is a genius.

( this week's Ryan's Hope )

There's a great podcast interview with Ilene Kristen (Delia on Ryan's Hope, Roxy on OLTL) here. My favorite line: "I remember the St. Patrick's Day episode where I wore the green glasses, when I had hysterical blindness!"

Here are some clips from The Edge of Night, circa 1976, in which Louise Shaffer (Rae on Ryan's Hope) gives a bravura performance as split personality Serena/Josie! Great stuff.

[ETA: OMG, the Soapnet website actually posted some new Ryan's Hope content, a cool Where Are They Now? feature with some great photos.]

Today is The Young and the Restless's 36th anniversary. One of the things I love best about this show is that it gives its eighty-something star Jeanne Cooper front-burner storylines, dual roles, and a love interest. Here's a little clip from today's anniversary show, in which Cooper plays Dead!Marge, doppelganger of Katherine Chancellor!

( this week's Ryan's Hope )

( OLTL )

Why am I still watching GH?