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Title: go on
Fandom: Original
Rating: G
Length: 100 words
Content notes: implied invasion/colonization in the past (science fiction)
Author notes: The title is from 10:10 o’clock by Lynn Moe Swe, translated by ko ko thett. I wanted to make this fit a fandom, but I got to the end and sat on it and I still haven't found one of mine for which this resonates.
Summary: In which two young people, not quite friends, on different sides of [something], talk anyway.

( Read more... )

kitewithfish

I skipped last week because, while I had done a lot of reading, I hadn't actually finished anything. I was burned out by the past few weeks at work and personal life, so I didn't write anything up.

What I Have Read

If you were a Mythical Thing by Kangofu_CB - Re-read bc I love this author. Solid romance between gym teacher Clint and Bucky, who is also a were wolf.

He Who Drowned the World - Shelley Parker-Chan - Book Club Re-Read. THis book rewards rereading. The characters all feel so real and could be main characters in their own stories. I had completely forgotten the last third of the book. Edit after book club: It also has a fascinating set of comparisons between many different characters - Zhu has so many connections and parallels in other characters, and in her relationships with other characters, that I loved to re-read and get a better sense of them. So many pairs of brothers in this set of novels and so many of them are vicious struggles for power; Zhu's closest friend and near-brother is willing to die for her, over and over. Deeply fractured and unequal marriages between men who disdain their wives - Zhu's wife adores her and is a trusted ally. Revenge is a continuing theme and every time someone gets it, it destroys them. Zhu wants a different kind of world and she's willing to be ruthless for it, and it's clear that is the only way out of a cycle of repeated revenge and power struggles.

My Favorite Thing is Monsters vol 1- Emil Ferris - Well written and the art is beautiful, however, the conceit is that the book is a handwritten child's notebook and so it's literally on lined paper and HARD TO READ. The POV of a young lesbian main character in 1960s Chicago and is deeply lovely -her fascination with classic movie monsters is so charming and so recognizable. Not a Hugos nominee this year, but the second volume is.

The Hunger and The Dusk vol 1. by G. Willow Wilson - A romance and adventure story - an orc healer is set to work with a team of human adventurers to face an enemy to both human and orc society, and fulfill a peace treaty between the enemy societies. I think this is mediocre, unfortunately . The art is lovely, but the writing is thin. They refer to tropes but don't actually depict them, so it feels very lazy and informed rather than characterized. Neither main romantic lead seems to have been really written, just assembled from tropes - and while I love romance novels and tropes, this isn't even using the tropes in the writing, it's just having the characters mention the tropes in their informed backstory. As a sidebar, I think the alliance between orcs and humans is supposed to be a commentary on racism in DnD settings - orcs are often treated as nonsentient and racially evil in gaming settings, while this books fleshes out orc society and culture and makes the secondary pairing into two really interesting people. If you want to pick it up, they are actually pretty interesting! However, the common enemy just.... evil hive mind nonsentient elves? Who maybe actually have a horrible king and a shared cunning plan? It kind of undercuts the exploration of orcs as sentient and worthy of attention and care if you turn around and assign the name traits to a different random fantasy species. Hugo award nominee, does not merit the award.

We Called Them Giants - Kieron Gillen - I read this immediately after The Hunger and The Dusk and contrast is striking. This book is also working hard from some tropes, but really works them and digs right in. The POV character is engaging with a terrifying and inhuman opponent, only to discover slowly that there is intelligence, compassion, and even communication. Overwhelmingly well done, great character work, the art is haunting and the pacing is excellent. It is a much tighter story with a simpler premise and delivers on it.

What I'm Reading
The Ministry of Time by Kailane Bradley – 25% ish,
Hunting Toward Heartstill by Blackkat -about 45%
The Antarctica Conspiracy Derin Edala – slightly on hold.
Someone You Can Build a Nest In – John Wiswell – 15%

What I'll Read Next
Hugo Nominees are out!
Track Changes
The Deep Dark
My Favorite Thing Is Monsters, Book 2
The Tainted Cup
Alien Clay
Service Model
The Ministry of Time
Someone You Can Build a Nest In
Star Trek: Lower Decks: Warp Your Own Way
Monstress, Vol. 9: The Possessed
Navigational Entanglements
The Butcher of the Forest
The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain
Speculative Whiteness: Science Fiction and the Alt-Right
The Brides of High Hill
The Tusks of Extinction
“Charting the Cliff: An Investigation into the 2023 Hugo Nomination Statistics”
“Signs of Life”
“By Salt, By Sea, By Light of Stars”
“The Brotherhood of Montague St. Video”
“Loneliness Universe”
“The 2023 Hugo Awards: A Report on Censorship and Exclusion”
“The Four Sisters Overlooking the Sea”
“Lake of Souls”

shipperslist

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cimorene

Neve the wild mini phalaenopsis orchid started to bloom! From above you can kinda see the size difference compared to Georges and Ella next to her. She's got so many buds already.

Wax's philodendron Jungle Boogie or Henderson's Pride, if that is in fact the one it is (apparently hard to tell, came without a proper label, on sale after being sadly mistreated at a hardware store), has made a new leaf recently and it's making a branch. I really love the leaves which are very majestic, but I keep trying and failing to get pictures of it. It's just so large and the light is from the wrong direction where it lives.

shipperslist

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cimorene

Speaking (as I did yesterday) of calligraphy practice, here's a quote from The Talisman that's funny, but not because it's homoerotic.

( transcription )

Final emphasis mine.

Lettered in modified Carolingian (or "Caroline") style in Diamine Jade Green with 1.1-mm oblique stub nib vintage Pelikan 400. Heading in Rotunda (aka southern european Textualis or gothic). Atribution in chancery cursive.

(Knowing Walter Scott's feelings about the famous flaws in medieval Catholic doctrine, I thought at first that this was deliberate. But it's highly unlikely, since The Talisman was published in 1825. That Austrian guy who noticed that deaths after giving birth were associated with doctors delivering after autopsies and famously got hounded out of medicine for advocating handwashing was not until 1847.)

And another calligraphy unrelated to germ theory or medicine:

( transcription )

Top: Humanist majuscule+minuscule in Sailor Yuki-akari ink with Lamy Safari 1.1-mm stub nib.
Bottom: Chancery cursive in Diamine Jade Green with Pelikan 400 oblique stub nib.

badly_knitted posting in

fan_flashworks

Title: Menagerie
Fandom: Torchwood
Author:

badly_knitted
Characters: Ianto, Jack.
Rating: PG
Word Count: 824
Summary: More alien creatures have fallen through the Rift and Ianto is starting to wonder how he’s supposed to cope with caring for so many different species.
Spoilers: Nada
Warnings: None needed.
Written For: Challenge 481: Charity at fan_flashworks.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Torchwood or any of the characters.

( Menagerie... )

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: my desk

malurette

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delphi

✓

kingstoken's 2025 Book Bingo: YA/Children's

Wildwood is a 2011 children's novel by Colin Meloy, also known for his work as frontman for the Decemberists, with illustrations by Carson Ellis. It follows the adventures of two pretty much contemporary American children, Prue and Curtis, as they set off into the woods to rescue Prue's baby brother (who was carried off by crows) and discover a secret civilization of people and talking animals who have lived in the Impassable Wilderness for centuries and are now locked in a brewing war for control over it.

Things that would have made me love this when I was a kid:

• The world-within-a-world element. A magical society living just outside a regular city? Hell, yeah.
• Rich and vivid language, with an appealing narrative voice.
• Its worldbuilding (although I'm going to put a pin in this), which generally walks a nice line between whimsy and grit, with rules that establish themselves with a light touch.
• The length. This is a brick by children's book standards. It's well-paced and the sort of a thing that could keep a voracious reader busy all the way to their next trip to the library.
• Its sensibility about the independence of kid protagonists in the real world.
• The nomadic society of bandits and their king.
• The illustrations, particularly the full-colour inserts.

This didn't quite hit for me as an adult, but I'm glad I finally checked it out after years of meaning to.

I think the main thing that kept me from really loving it was wanting a little more interiority for the main characters. I get that the book is aiming for more of a fairy tale and Narnia vibe, but: 1) some of the characters' important choices really do hinge on personal decisions and relationships, and 2) this is a 540-page book. Fairy tales aren't built to run for 500+ pages, and it's longer than the first two Narnia books put together. I found myself craving more depth and emotional weight, especially as it went on.

( For example... (Cut for Moderate Spoilers) )
Getting back to that asterisk next to the worldbuilding, I also found the story's decisions about diversity (or the relative lack thereof) occasionally distracting. I get it. Portland's pretty white, by design, and was even more so fifteen years ago. There are really only two characters from the real world and their direct relatives, and it wouldn't necessarily land well to be like, "All the characters of colour in this story are people lost in time, living in the woods."

But at the same time, among the predominantly 19th and 20th century settler-coded residents of the woods, you get these moments of groups with Indigenous coding who are either talking animals or white people—with the stereotypical two stripes of war paint and feathers in hair showing up in a picture of the latter. The text takes pains to characterize this group as Celtic, but that raises its own questions when a reference is made that seems to place them there before that territory's colonization, positioning a "since time immemorial" Irish population in the Oregon wilderness.

I often found myself looking at the aesthetics and thinking about those musical festivals full of severed pieces of Indigenous, Roma, and Celtic cosplay and felt like the fantasy here might be coming from a similar place.

The overall whiteness (and straightness, for that matter) of the book kept standing out because it's such a long story with such a huge cast. I did quite like large swathes of this book, but I think the length worked against it because the text kept offering more without necessarily offering more, if that makes sense.

This is the first book in a trilogy, and I have no idea if the subsequent books address or change any of this. I'm not racing to pick up the next one, but I might flip through it at the library sometime to see what it's like.

( An Excerpt )

luninosity

...and the final total for the ACLU fundraiser is... $2414.99! (Or roughly that; still some processing to go.)

That is pretty amazing, honestly! Thank you to all of you for the support - we hope you enjoy the reading and the awesomeness of a good cause! And many many thanks to R. Cooper for organizing us and taking the lead! And to Geneva Vand for being our intrepid third! (Er. Not in a kinky way. As authors. You know what I mean.)

If you missed the fundraiser but would still like to make an ACLU donation and show me your receipt, I've got a few copies left, and I could send you a copy!

Love you!

Current Mood: accomplished

dani_meows

Made an appointment to discuss Jasper's future with our vet. So tomorrow I'll know if he gets treatment or if the cancer is such that it'll be time to give my old man cat hospice cat.

Ob July 7th it'll be a year since my five year old cat passed away too.

I'm hoping that it's treatable but the fact that the eye removal didn't contain all of the mass that did turn out cancerous.

I'm not expecting good news.

Current Mood: melancholy
Crossposts: https://dani-meows.insanejournal.com/382686.html

nnozomi posting in

guardian_learning

部首
冖, 平宝盖
军, army; 农, agriculture; 冠, hat/crown; 冤, injustice/grievance ( pinyin )
https://www.mdbg.net/chinese/dictionary?cdqrad=14

词汇
台, platform; 电视台, TV station; 电台, radio station; 舞台, stage ( pinyin )
https://mandarinbean.com/new-hsk-3-word-list/

Guardian:
我是冤枉的呀, I was unjustly accused
我愿意给你提供一个更大的平台, I am willing to give you a bigger platform

Me:
他是我们的冠军儿。
她是在电台工作的。

shipperslist

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Current Mood: sleepy
Current Music: Dream Theater: The Best of Times

alexcat posting in

fan_flashworks

Title: None of Us Stand Alone
Fandom: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Rating: PG
Length: 681 words
Content notes: This is post Endgame
Author notes: My grandmother used to say 'Charity begins at home' because she never gave anyone anything.
Summary: Tony has a surprise for Steve at his charity ball.

( None of Us Stand Alone )

malurette

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nnozomi posting in

guardian_learning

部首
冂 (同字框)
内, inside; 册, book; 再, again; 最, most ( pinyin )
https://www.mdbg.net/chinese/dictionary?cdqrad=13

语法
Chapter 22 quiz: 把 sentences
https://routledgetextbooks.com/textbooks/9781138651142/quizzes.php

词汇
所, 场所, place; 所长, superintendent (pinyin in tags)
https://mandarinbean.com/new-hsk-3-word-list/

Guardian:
你听说过地君册吗, have you heard of the Dijun's Book?
只有你从来都没有把我当成怪物, you're the only one who has never treated me like a monster
所长发话了, the director has spoken

Me:
不要太把内娱的问题当回事了。
我不太喜欢这个场所，咱们快回家吧。

cimorene

1. I used to spend maybe 8-12 hours per week on a sideblog on Tumblr for images from the history of the decorative arts. Then I succumbed to the idea of talking to the followers directly (it has around 8000 which is waaaaaay more than my normal Tumblr or my pet photo blog) and got some asks that threw me into social confusion and then shame and avoidance and I just didn't update it for like three years. In retrospect, also, the amount of time I was spending on it shortly before I stopped was not practical and sustainable. But I got into a discussion about rococo, and started looking some things up in curiosity, and I had never posted very much about rococo before. And now I started posting there again a bit! (It's called

designobjectory.) It started a week ago with curiosity about the early output of KPM porcelain (the royal porcelain manufactory of Prussia originally, iconic) and has led to the discovery of Weimar classicism in the form of Goethe's house.

2. I inked my two 1.1-mm stub nib fountain pens — well, actually, a Lamy Safari 1.1-mm stub and a vintage Pelikan 400 (mine is brown tortoiseshell, a holiday present a few years ago) with a (pre-existing) custom oblique stub that is about 1.1. — and have been practicing calligraphy a bit, which I haven't done in a while because I haven't had any of my italic pens inked. I spent some time on Gothic capitals, because I want to do more Rotunda, and then Carolingian, which I haven't bothered practicing in the longest time.

cimorene

“Have you read anything interesting lately, Gregory?” said Geraldine.

“No. No improper books have come my way. And I am too young to read anything suitable for me. If I don’t have to hide my books from my mother, I can’t take any interest in them.”

—Ivy Compton-Burnett, Men and Wives

mekare

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Posted by Gail Carriger

https://gailcarriger.com/2025/06/02/habits/

https://gailcarriger.com/?p=32977

This one if for the authors at the back, Gentle Reader (Author?) Enjoy!

10 Habits That Improved My Author Life blog post lists

10 Habits That Improved My Author Life

Jealously guarded writing time and determining what time of day/system works best for me
Writing dates with other authors that I get to via walking or biking = social time, sunshine, exercise, and productivity
Writing retreats
Joining local author groups/clubs
Dedicated writing bag/backpack that includes noise cancelling headphones
Blocking out time for painful tasks (e.g. taxes)
Blocking out monthly brain breaks, usually a weekday where I’m not allowed to schedule anything, just give myself time to be creative
Understanding exactly how I value my time and how much my time is worth to me including what I must/should/enjoy doing most
Consuming writing podcasts and YouTube videos
Doing something small that makes me happy every single day

10 Habits That Improved My Author Business

Weekly agenda plus time on Mondays set aside to review that agenda each week
Systems and templates for everything (e.g. itinerary, invoices, newsletter) stored in the cloud
Dictating into the Notes app on my phone for emails, blog posts, social media, story ideas
Writing down goals: writing, business, life and then parsing each out into manageable tasks, so that they become SMART goals
Scheduling time to achieve those goals (and to review them 4 times a year)
Scheduling, time boxing, and batching social media
Refusing to engage with DMs on any platforms, instead using automated responses or redirects to email me about business or join my newsletter for fans
Automated bill payments
Tracking spreadsheet for all of my subscriptions and auto-pays (monthly, annual, or sporadic; on what credit cards; about how much they charge; and how to cancel them with links)
Jealously guarded weekends, when I have them and I’m not traveling, that are not for work

10 Tiny Habits That Improved My Life

Creating traveling kits for myself inside zipper pouches of different textures that all live in a go bag
Finding a sunscreen that I actually love wearing, and wearing it every day as part of a dedicated skin care routine (I may have to start buying these when in Thailand as the best filters are banned in the US)
Labeling and organizing my house accessories in clear plastic tubs
Using a thermos (with built in tea strainer) for my tea in the mornings instead of a teapot
Leveling up my compost bin, I mean literally, raising it up so it’s level with my countertop
Cooking mainly with an electric tea kettle, toaster oven, wok, or rice cooker (and not my oven)
A digital shopping list on my phone
Winding down in the evening with a scented candle
Creating zones in my apartment so that all items of one type (like cleaning or repairing) are together in one place and easy to find
Ensuring my entire house has conveniently placed charger, plug, extension cord combos and devices that work off of USB charging (e.g. speaker, lighter) rather than batteries

Yours,

Miss Gail

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