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Firstly:

So, farewell then, PSC, whose advice to the sexually-bothered (rather than the lovelorn) has so oft provided fodder to oursinial musings. Guardian G2 today includes 23 of the best Sexual Healing columns

Not sure if they are The Greatest Hits rather than molto tipico of the kind of thing she addressed: in particular we note (as she stresses in the interview about the lessons learnt over 10 years of agony-aunting):

The female orgasm is still a mystery to some people
I’m still getting questions that show me people continue to think that the only “correct” type of female orgasm is one that’s purely vaginal and doesn’t involve the clitoris. For people to still think that, or to have that as the ideal, is extraordinary, but there it is. They just haven’t had the education to understand otherwise.

There is a waterspout off Portland Bill (where Marie Stopes' ashes were scattered). Volumes of the Kinsey Report on the Human Female are spontaneously falling off library shelves. The shade of Shere Hite is gibbering and wailing.

We also note the recurrent MenZ B Terribly Poor Stuff theme, what with the one who appears to regard his wife's bisexuality as a USP meaning *3SOMES* and two or three where one feels she did not interrogate sufficiently whether the male querent was actually gratifying his female partner before offering reassurance/solution e.g. 'My stunning wife makes no effort with our sex life' where we should like to know precisely what effort he is putting in, ahem.

However, there are also some of the wilder shores there.

***

Secondly, and could we have a big AWWWW for this: David Attenborough seeks out London’s hidden wildlife:

Filming the wildlife of London requires an intrepid, agile presenter, willing to lie on damp grass after dark to encounter hedgehogs, scale heights to hold a peregrine falcon chick, and stake out a Tottenham allotment to get within touching distance of wary wild foxes.
Step forward Sir David Attenborough, who spent his 100th summer seeking out the hidden nature of his home city for an unusually personal and intimate BBC documentary.

fromtheheartofeurope_feed

Posted by fromtheheartofeurope

https://fromtheheartofeurope.eu/elidor-by-alan-garner/

https://fromtheheartofeurope.eu/?p=64671

Second paragraph of third chapter:

For a while the road passed charred stumps of buildings, and field rank with nettle. Dust, or ash, kicked up under Roland’s feet, muffling his walk and coating his body so aridly that his skin rasped. Flies whined round him, and crawled in his hair, and tried to settle on his lips. The sky was dull, yet there was a brittleness in the light that hurt. It was no longer wonder that led him, but dislike of being alone.

A recently reacquired Alan Garner novel, this one an intensely imagined story of four siblings who are drawn into the mythic struggle of the parallel world of Elidor from their home in early 1960s Manchester. Garner is very good at painting emotional landscapes with few words, and his realisation of Manchester and the surrounding territories in our world and in Elidor are very vivid. Glad to return to this one. You can get Elidor here.

Surprisingly perhaps, a Bechdel pass even though one of the brothers, Roland, is the viewpoint character; his sister Helen and their mother (whose name is I think given only as “Mrs Watson”) have a couple of exchanges which are not about men.

https://fromtheheartofeurope.eu/elidor-by-alan-garner/

https://fromtheheartofeurope.eu/?p=64671

fromtheheartofeurope_feed

Posted by fromtheheartofeurope

https://fromtheheartofeurope.eu/the-jinn-bot-of-shantiport-by-samit-basu/

https://fromtheheartofeurope.eu/?p=64636

Second paragraph of third chapter:

Bador and Lina are practiced loiterers: no one would suspect them of any untoward thoughts as they gaze innocently at Tiger Palace, with its immaculate white- brick walls and ever- sparkling rotating dome, at the historical hologram displays of Tiger Central heroes lighting up one by one on Jomidar’s Square, at the government tower complexes on the square’s east side with their sculpted vertical gardens, and the ever- shifting array of Tiger drones doing combat maneuvers in the sky.

One of the remaining books from the 2024 Hugo packet. There’s a nice innovation in that the viewpoint character is a drone-bot, but otherwise I’m afraid I didn’t have the patience for yet another secondary world and dropped it after fifty pages. You can get The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport here.

This was my top unread book by a writer of colour. Next on that pile is The Proposal, by Bae Myung-hoon.

https://fromtheheartofeurope.eu/the-jinn-bot-of-shantiport-by-samit-basu/

https://fromtheheartofeurope.eu/?p=64636

larryhammer

So Eaglet gave me a book, Dad Jokes by A. Grambs,* and I am annoyed. Not at the giving — it’s a perfect gift. Eaglet knows me well.

I am annoyed at the book itself.

People, this is not a good joke book. Weak wheezers, forced puns, tenuous connections, so many barely worthy of Uncle Benjamin from The Blue Castle. All too many pages evoke not even a single groan, only ugh — or in Eaglet’s idiom, a flat bruh. In fact, to compare we pulled out Eaglet’s own book, Laugh Out Loud Jokes for Kids by Rob Elliott, and opening either at random, the kids’ entries are better in every way.

I feel cheated, and disrespected as a dad. 1/5 do not recommend. (Not 0 only because there are a couple pages with something groan-worthy.)

* Copyright is by Alison Grambs.

---L.

Subject quote from In Your Eyes, Peter Gabriel.

james_davis_nicoll

Allowed Burglar Drake Maijstral is stalked by a mysterious foe.

Rock of Ages (Drake Maijstral, volume 3) by Walter Jon Williams

spikedluv posting in

smallfandomfest

Title: Charitable Deduction
Author: Spikedluv
Fandom: Murder, She Wrote (tv)/Hudson & Rex (tv)
Pairing/Characters: Jessica Fletcher & Rex & Charlie Hudson/Sarah Truong
Rating/Category: PG13/Gen(/Het)
Prompt: Murder, She Wrote (tv)/Hudson & Rex (tv), Jessica & Rex & Charlie & or / Sarah, Charlie and Sarah visit Cabot Cove.
Spoilers: Takes place during early seasons of Murder, She Wrote and around season six of Hudson & Rex.
Summary: Charlie, Sarah and Rex visit Cabot Cove when a woman Jessica helped arrest in St. John's escapes police custody. Jessica is more concerned for the safety of her niece, Beatrice, than her own. And naturally, another dead body turns up.
Notes/Warnings: This fic takes place some time after Charity Ends With Murder, though it's not necessary to read that one in order to understand this one. Title is just me playing with the ‘charity' theme.

Read Fic @ AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/76715911

luzula

Becoming a Supple Leopard: the ultimate guide to resolving pain, preventing injury and optimizing athletic performance by Kelly Starrett (2015)
This book has changed my life. I know I sound like I'm doing a paid promotion or like someone who's joined some weird cult, and I know the book has kind of a silly title, but it's true. My mind is blown.

The thing is, I've had problems with stiffness and muscle ache for years. I've been trying to deal with it by exercise and stretching, but while exercise is obviously good for a whole host of reasons, it doesn't solve the problem of stiffness/muscle ache. And stretching doesn't do much, either. I've also gone to a massage therapist, which does partly help, but it's temporary and also costs a lot of money. And while the guy is much better in the practical application of massage than others I've gone to, and I like him, still I'm reluctant to keep going to him because he does do some things with a large application of force and I doubt his medical judgment (to say the least). In the last few years he has begun to spout conspiracy theories about vaccines and only drinks warm water because, as a man, he needs the yang energy.

Anyway, I figured the stiffness and muscle ache was just middle age and at bottom I just had to suck it up. Turns out THERE ARE EFFECTIVE TOOLS TO ADDRESS THIS THAT I NEVER KNEW ABOUT! Also they're cheap and I can apply them myself! I honestly feel like someone prone to headaches who has just, at the age of 46, discovered the existence of painkillers. But better, because this isn't a drug.

( Read more... )

selenak

Darth Real Life is still on my heels, but:

Katabasis - R.F. Kuang

Two different and both clever and sensitive explorations of what the aftermath of the novel might have been like for Alice and Peter:

The Next Step

The Raven's Paradox

The Last Unicorn - Peter S. Beagle

In that clear unpeopled space: the Unicorn's long way to her forest. Has the poetry, the beauty and the character growth of the book.

Lord of the Flies - Willliam Golding

I Remember (Don't Worry) : in which Ralph encounters Jack years post novel. Disturbing in the way the book is, yet with some glimpse of hope.

Penny Dreadful

mimics the lampllight's struggle with the dawn: After a night of victory, Vanessa and Hecate, separately, search for their footing. Missing scene from the second season's finale, with both women and Malcolm expertly drawn.

The Radiant Emperor Series - Shelley Parker-Chan

The Calligraphy of Disgrace: in which we get another take on these novels' entertainingly screwed up soulmates relationship, with an AU twist.

Frederician Historical Fiction

Five times Amalie saw Luise, and one time Luisa saw Amalie: in which the "Five Things" format is expertly used to portray the relationship between the Melanie Wilkes of the Hohenzollern court and her sharp-tongued sister-in-law.

Courting the Chamberlain : in which we find out how Frederick the Great's lover got married to the resourceful Caroline Daum.

The Ring of the Nibelung - Wagner

Loyalty only to me: Hagen learns many lessons from his father over the years.

Some Desperate Glory - Emily Tesh

Again two different takes on a novel's aftermath, the first focused on Magnus, the other on Avi, which also doubles a great take on his development across several timelines.

Some Desperate Hope

Salvation from falling into the sea of misguidances

Current Mood: bouncy
Current Location: Bad Wiessee

linaewen posting in

writethisfanfic

Hello on Tuesday! How are things going in the world of fic?

Did you write?

- Yes!
- No!
- Not yet!

If yes, what kind of writerly activity did you engage in? How do you feel about it?
If no, what were the obstacles/situations that affected your writerly pursuits? What will you do differently tomorrow to get more writing done?
If not yet, because the day hasn't gotten going yet, what kind of writing activity are you planning (or hoping) to accomplish?

vriddy

That's it!! I think I've exorcised the worst of the fandom fever with this one. It combines a lot of happy images (I don't care if it's all tell-don't-show until the kissing begins, it's telling nice things!! XD). It makes me happy to make them happy, too. The previous angsty fic didn't come out easily, with a new-to-me (well, new-to-the-entire-fandom really 😆) PoV that didn't make it any easier. This one was only hard to edit because of all the happy noises I made rereading :D

And I'm finally able to hear my abandoned kn8 fic making sad kaijuu meeps again, phew. While K-9 is very most certainly in my top fandoms at the moment (and I'm looking forward to requesting it in

candyheartsex in 2 days :D) (and also offer it, but, well, I also know how to keep my expectations in check for a fandom in which members can be counted on one hand XD) (wow totally got lost in my parenthesises here) ANYWAY I CAN ALSO THINK OF OTHER PROJECTS wooohoo who knew there were other things going on out there?!

Housewarming | K-9 | Fujimaru Jin/Hizuki Ren/Kagari Yukito/Oboro Yuushirou | 2.4k words | rated T

Summary: They didn't originally intend to move into the basement together.

Read it on Dreamwidth or AO3.

smallhobbit

Final list of the year. 8 books finished this month, bringing my total for the year to 82 - 7 above my goal.

Firstly, I continued to read for the Goodreads Challenges. Here my intention is simply to broaden my reading, but only choose something which specifically interests me, so I'm never going to complete all the sections within a challenge. For the Fall Challenge I achieved 5 out of 12, the first three being simply to read books over the months.

84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff
Short books category. I'm really glad I read this - it crops up every so often. The correspondence between the young American lady and the English bookseller is great and very entertaining. Thoroughly recommended to anyone looking for a short read.

The Cat who Saved the Library by Sosuke Natsukawa
Cosies category, cat sub-section. I do like a good cat book and for me this worked better than some of the others I've read this year. While the human characters have the main part, the cat has their own role to play. This is the second in the series and the first is now on my list for next year.

( Fall Challenge )

After which came all my Christmas reads:

Murder in Wintertime: Classic Crime Stories edited by Cecily Gayford
The last few books in this series haven't been as good, but this year I really enjoyed the selection.

Murder for Christmas by Francis Duncan
Written in 1948, I found this disappointing. Normally when reading a mystery I will speed up towards the end, but this time I didn't. And to me the solution was poor and unconvincing.

The Winter Spirits: Ghostly Tales for Frosty Nights edited by Bridget Collins
I'm not always a fan of spooky stories, but these I really enjoyed. Our library has the book from the previous year, so that's also on my list.

Murder for Christmas edited by Thomas Godfrey
Lots of classic short stories. Some of which I'd read at least a couple of times before (good ones) and several I didn't know. An excellent collection.

Death Comes at Christmas edited by C.L. Taylor
A modern collection of short stories which on the whole I enjoyed. Published last year, so worth looking out for.

Death in Ambush by Susan Gilruth
This year's British Library Crime Classics Christmas mystery. I normally treat myself to this for Christmas, but wasn't impressed. Too many boring domestic details, a narrator too sure of herself (think early Hastings) and bizarre behaviour from the police detective.

( Annual challenge )

For completeness, I'm also including the two audiobooks I've recently finished:

The Murder of Mr Ma by SJ Rozan and John Shen Yen Nee read by Daniel York Loh
Set in 1920s London amongst the Chinese community, I eventually enjoyed the book. It will not surprise regular readers of my posts that Lao, the narrator, annoyed me considerably.

The Four Deadly Seasons by David Hewson read by Richard Armitage
The third book in Hewson's Venetian Mysteries series. The premise is that there's an until now undiscovered autobiography by Vivaldi. The ramifications are both convoluted and deadly. I've stopped listening to a number of books Armitage narrates, since I haven't been enjoying them, but this is one series I do enjoy and get caught up in the story.

vass

Hi everyone. Sorry I've fallen off the posting again.

Here are some Yuletide recs:

Imperial Radch/Translation State - Ann Leckie: a perfect preservation (so we’ll never fall apart). If you haven't read Translation State yet, then I strongly recommend not reading this fic until you've read canon. Otherwise, recommended. (I was the recipient.)

The Lottery - Shirley Jackson/The New Yorker RPF: Why one small American town won’t stop stoning its residents to death

Goose of Soulmate Enforcement trope/Original Fic: #footscraygoose (Especially recommended for people from Melbourne)

Prophet - Sin Blaché & Helen Macdonald: Wrong Choice

The Raven Tower - Ann Leckie: k2, p2, yo, k2tog

Columbo, Princess Bride (1987)
The Princess Murdered

France's language watchdog has told government officials to use French fetish terms... (News Satire): Les immortels au service de la petite mort

Chalion/Les Mis: The Truth that Once Was Spoken

lauradi7dw

The woman who is easily distracted was going to write a somber piece about the potential terrible results from the move to change postmark dates, but then I found this article and was pulled in by the image.
I didn't know that there is an organization of tax professionals, but of course there is. The worries I have seen on social media have mostly been about the implications for vote by mail, but it's nice to have the POV from people with a different primary focus

https://nstp.org/article/usps-announces-changes-postmark-date-system

Also distracting - I was awakened (probably by my bladder) from a dream in which I was wondering why the fall of the Qing dynasty and the beginning of the last (thus far) Japanese occupation of Korea were so close to the start of WWI. Then I (not quite randomly) started wondering what benefit the Ottoman Empire thought came from being allied to Germany. I have other stuff to do today, so maybe trying to make sense of the world from say 1910 through 1920 will have to wait. Although I was interested to learn yesterday that Frances Perkins was a witness to people jumping/falling from the Triangle shirtwaist factory fire in 1911, which was an underlying factor in her eventual position as Secretary of Labor (her first experience observing factories was when she was a student at Mount Holyoke years before).

cimorene

People really watch Benoit Blanc movies without having ever encountered any detective fiction other than Sherlock Holmes and feel fully qualified to comment on the connections that they think they've made.

Remember the terrible articles in the late 90s that repetitively and confidently asserted that Rowling had invented YA fantasy, or low fantasy, because they didn't bother to check a single library or bookstore?

badly_knitted posting in

fan_flashworks

Title: Fading Memories
Fandom: The Fantastic Journey
Author:

badly_knitted
Characters: Varian, Gwenith, Jonathan.
Rating: PG
Setting: After the series.
Summary: All Varian has left of Gwenith are his memories of her, and already they’re beginning to fade.
Word Count: 300
Content Notes: Nada.
Written For: Challenge 501: Amnesty 83, using Challenge 144: Memory.
Disclaimer: I don’t own The Fantastic Journey, or the characters. They belong to their creators.
A/N: Triple drabble.

( Fading Memories... )

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: my desk

annofowlshire

"[Surrealism is] the belief that nothing is ordinary; that everything in life is extraordinary. And being old is no more, no less, extraordinary than being young." - Leonora Carrington (Surreal Spaces)

Current Mood: thoughtful

ysabetwordsmith posting in

allbingo

I have made bingo for Amnesty this month. Counting each 5 fills as a bingo, I have made two. \o/

5-1-25 B3 "In a Splash of Color"
11-1-25 B3 "The Sand of Celebration"
8-1-25 B2 "Until the Rain Comes"
5-1-25 O5 "A Palette of Appetizers"
11-1-25 O5 "User Interfaces"

2-1-25 B5 "Protect the Inner Core"
5-1-25 B5 "The Marvels of Brush and Ink"
11-1-25 I2 "The Car That Didn't Like Bullies"
11-1-25 B2 "Learning New Skills"
11-1-25 O4 "The Unicorn Door"

Current Mood: busy

flowing_river posting in

traumaticexperiences

Nominations are open and will close on January 6th at 8PM PST! Make sure to read the nomination rules before you submit your nominations.

Tagset | Franchise Nomination Guidelines

You will be able to nominate up to 10 fandoms with up to 10 relationships or solo characters per fandom. You will also be able to nominate up to 10 freeforms. Please try to only nominate tags you are intending to request/offer.

Relationship or solo character nominations should be all be disambiguated with the fandom name or a recognizable abbreviation in parenthesis after the tag (e.g. "Aziraphale & Crowley (GO TV)"). Make sure the disambiguation is clear and specific, especially if there are multiple adaptations of the fandom you are nominating under (e.g. using "James "Rhodey" Rhodes & Tony Stark (MCU)" instead of "James "Rhodey" Rhodes & Tony Stark (Marvel)").

You can nominate both & and / relationships and solo characters. Nominations should be formatted as shown below. For more detailed formatting examples, check out the nomination rules.
- Character A & Character B (Fandom)
- Character A/Character B (Fandom)
- Solo: Character A (Fandom)

Crossover Nomination Formats (under “Crossover Fandom”):
- Character A (Fandom A) & Character B (Fandom B)
- Character A (Fandom A)/Character B (Fandom B)

Nominated freeforms must be related to the theme of the exchange. Incorrectly formatted nominations or freeform nominations unrelated to the theme of the exchange will be rejected.

If you have any questions, feel free to comment on this post or email us at traumaticexperiencesmod@gmail.com!

silveradept

It's December Days time again. This year, I have decided that I'm going to talk about skills and applications thereof, if for no other reason than because I am prone to both the fixed mindset and the downplaying of any skills that I might have obtained as not "real" skills because they do not fit some form of ideal.

( 29: w00t )

Current Mood: happy
Current Music: Infinte Rivals - The 13th Struggle (Luxord)

ysabetwordsmith posting in

allbingo

Dreamwidth offers a place to post pretty much whatever people want to share. However, a lot of creators put their stories, webcomics, etc. on some other platform and only share links on Dreamwidth. The same holds true for the recommendation communities for fiction and other topics: most rely on links that lead offsite. The problem with this is that more and more platforms are closing to nonmembers, becoming unavailable in some parts of the world, incompatible with some software or hardware, suffering service outages -- or shutting down entirely like Cohost did. That makes offsite links less useful than in the past, because there's no telling who can see the content or not. When creators post the full content on Dreamwidth in an open blog, however, anyone already using Dreamwidth can access that content. (Creators still have the option of using access lists and filters if they want to serve a more specific audience.) Furthermore, copying the material to multiple platforms increases the chance of more people seeing it and of it surviving if one platform collapses. We've lost enough fanwork archives already.

A signup post over at

goals_on_dw provides a place to list communities and individual blogs where people post full content. It will help readers find new sources to enjoy, and creators find new audience members. It supports goals related to blogging, reading, writing, networking, Dreamwidth, and so on. It's a bit like Three Weeks for Dreamwidth, except not limited in time and you can echo your work on other platforms in addition to this one. MOAR GOODEEZ for everyone! \o/

You can pick whichever challenge(s) you want to set as a goal in 2026 and reply with a comment. The post includes a list of sample full-content journals and a short form for listing what you have chosen. You can make a post in your blog like "I signed up for the Full Content on Dreamwidth challenge in

goals_on_dw" or similar. Then make a tag for it like "Full Content" and put that on the post; it should stick that way. Check your Interests page to see if you have Writing, Fiction, Science Fiction, Fanfic, Webcomics, etc. listed there, which helps people find you. You don't have to sign up to participate, it just helps spread the word and attract more readers.

Current Mood: busy

ysabetwordsmith posting in

allbingo

Happy Snowflake Season to all! As we prepare to kick off the 2026

snowflake_challenge, please feel free to promote this event within your own circles. You are welcome to use any of these new banners for that. The community page also has icons.

Snowflake Challenge: A flatlay of a snowflake shaped shortbread cake, a mug with coffee, and a string of holiday lights on top of a rustic napkin.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: busy

tinny

characters20in20 has loosened its rules so you can now also icon multiple characters from the same show. I claimed Nie Jiuluo from Love on the Turquoise Land for round 20, but for the category set I went with five different characters just because I thought it would be more fun. :D Oh, and the vampire queen got the red/green octopus.

( 20 Turquoise Land icons )

Every single comment is treasured. All icons shareable! Concrit welcome. Check out my resource post for makers of textures and brushes I use.

Previous icon posts:

firecat

Turns out that listening to an audiobook of The Witcher in the vicinity of an iThing can cause a mildly irritating problem

sparowe

SENT BY THE SPIRIT

And there was a prophetess, Anna …. She was advanced in years, having lived with her husband … and then as a widow until she was eighty-four. She did not depart from the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day. And coming up at that very hour she began to give thanks to God and to speak of Him to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem. (Luke 2:36-38)

It interests me that both of the people who meet the baby Jesus in the temple are people who are used to listening to the Holy Spirit. Simeon had a promise from Him, that he would see the Messiah before his own death. Anna is called a prophetess, though we don’t know anything more about her service; but we do know that she told everybody she could about Jesus.

No wonder they met Jesus on His first trip to the temple—God sent them there! And so they were able to hold Him in their arms, to rejoice and tell all their friends the good news.

And now it’s our turn. Because we, too, have the Holy Spirit living inside us. He is the One who brought us to believe in Jesus our Savior; He is the reason we know that Jesus gave His life to rescue us, and then He rose from the dead so that we could live with Him in God’s kingdom forever. Because of the Spirit, we rejoice and carry Jesus in our hearts. And we, too, can tell all the people we love about Him.

WE PRAY: Dear Holy Spirit, thank You for giving me trust in Jesus. Amen.

Reflection Questions:

What do you know about the Holy Spirit?
How does He help you in your life?
Ask Him to give you a chance to tell someone about Jesus. If you’re nervous, ask Him to make it so you’re already comfortably talking about Jesus before you even realize!

Advent Devotions were written by Dr. Kari Vo.

Current Mood: thoughtful

dine

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

siria

( My fic year in review: Biosphere, Doctor Who, ER, Fire Country, Interview with the Vampire, The Newsreader, A Nice Indian Boy, The Old Guard, The Pitt, Stargate Atlantis, Superman )

Added up, that gives me:

Word Count: 163,779
Fandoms: 11
Stories: 56

This is one of my all-time most prolific writing years, both in terms of total word count and in the fact that I averaged just over a fic a week. I guess vampires + doctors = inspiration. Who knew?

( My most average fics on AO3: word count, hits, kudos, bookmarks )

quixotic posting in

malagraphic

( Read more... )

chestnut_pod

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

Current Mood: mellow
Current Music: City Hall - Vienna Teng

meteordust

Normally Estival is the highlight of my Fallen London year. It's an annual event held in the northern hemisphere summer, and unlike the other regular festivals, it's a unique storyline every time. This year was the fifth one:

2021
2022
2023
2024

I haven't had as much time this year to play Fallen London, and I'm behind with some of the major storylines like Firmament. But I was still keen to take part in Estival, and I just hoped the scavenger hunt didn't require access to areas I hadn't unlocked.

For more details, including a day-by-day recap of events:

Timeline of events (on the wiki)
Gameplay guide (on the wiki)
Estival: Hell is Missing (official promo post)

It was a lot more experimental this year, and I didn't really get as hyped about it. It started off wild and interesting, with your character waking up to find the laws of reality have started going out of control. But after that initial fun exploration, things got a lot harder and less appealing.

On a mechanical level, some of the puzzles were so difficult or obscure, they felt impossible to solve unless you burned up a lot of actions trying different things. Though apparently, if you were on the Discord solving them together with other players, it was a good time.

Normally I'm fine with lagging behind the early adopters, and being guided by hints or even looking up solutions. But there's still a feeling of logic and choice. This time, it felt like I was glued to a walkthrough, jumping through arbitrary hoops to get a desired result.

There were also time limits on some stages, which meant if you took too long getting to that stage, it wasn't available anymore. For example, I missed out on doing the quest for the Book of All Hours, because I wanted to complete the quest for Pinning Down the Corners instead of skipping that activity.

And on a story level, it didn't really seize my imagination or get me deeply invested, the way past Estivals have. The emotional core of the story was about the Bishop of Southwark, one of the veterans of the war of 1868, and his survivor's guilt about his fellow soldiers who were imprisoned by Hell. And the plot climax of the story was when we were able to free those prisoners - sort of - by carving out a bubble of reality for them as their enclave, outside of the reach of Hell but also apart from the rest of the Neath. So a kind of bittersweet ending.

But more than that, even though I'm sure it was cathartic for Southwark, it felt like we were experiencing that catharsis secondhand. I don't know why freeing the prisoners from the Sixth Coil felt so emotional, and freeing the prisoners from Hell didn't.

There were things I enjoyed. I liked searching for the Urchins disguised as the Masters. I liked meeting Milton the Devil. I liked visiting the tutorial version of New Newgate Prison again. I liked the new activities of hunting rogue laws and forging new laws. I liked taking on the challenge of getting Scathless the hard way. But overall, it didn't hit the heights for me that past years have. But maybe that's too much to ask for every time.

Further discussion:

HELL IS MISSING had potential, but the execution was a mess
Thoughts on this year's Estival?

Failbetter Games has announced:

We're taking a break from Estival in 2026.

You'll be able to get Estival tokens and to spend them, and we may include a few other things as well. But there'll be no big overarching storyline. And given the nature of Estival, it seems right to emphasise – we're not being coy, and this isn't a fake out. There will be no falling stalactite. No broken law engines. The citizens of London will not need to come together to fend off some surprising threat to their fair city. For we have looked upon our spreadsheets, and reluctantly accepted that next year we cannot do everything we might wish in Fallen London while making adequate progress on Mandrake, which we're working to bring to Early Access.

It's obviously a lot of work to put together a brand new Estival every year, and have to meet the high expectations for the event, and manage the pace of player progress in real time. And you don't want to burn out. So a break sounds like a good idea.

(Of course the playerbase is like, "But this is what they would say if it was a fake out!")

Current Mood: thoughtful

apod_feed

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap251229.html

This is the mess that is left when a star explodes.

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap251229.html

$radiantfracture: Beadwork bunny head (Default)$

radiantfracture

Because when I make fan art, I like it to be as obscure as possible

Sure, it looks like a linocut of a loon but really it's a symbol of queer hockey transcendence

§rf§

[ETA: I want to use some of the shimmering ink* to create the iridescent effect of the black feathers and to do the red eye -- painting ink on overtop of the print didn't do what I wanted, so maybe painting it right onto the printing block somehow?]

* specifically, Octopus Fluids' Witch, pine green with purple sheen

xandromedovna posting in

fic_rush

Right, yes, 2026 is nearly upon us, when should we have our first Rush?

Poll #34019 Round 157 Dates

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 11

View Respondents

When should we have Round 157?

View Answers

2-4 Jan
5 (45.5%)

9-11 Jan
5 (45.5%)

16-18 Jan
5 (45.5%)

23-25 Jan
5 (45.5%)

30 Jan-1 Feb
3 (27.3%)

Fic Rush? sure Jan...
7 (63.6%)

the only thing I'm sure about is
5 (45.5%)

ticky box
8 (72.7%)

flareonfury

xmen100 and

mcu100 - both ends January 10.

Also at xmen100 we hit 100 drabbles made for the community! So *dance party*! If you've participated - ever, at any point - THANK YOU FROM THE BOTTOM OF MY HEART. Still have a ways to go for mcu100 (only 34 drabbles so far) but still proud of it. Hopefully more people join up & participate in both communities.

I managed to get a few gifts done for

fandomtrees, although not at many as I wanted - so hopefully I'll be able to work on some of those on New Years Day since I'm off both jobs. I meant to get more things done yesterday but I slept most of the day away (omg did I miss my bed and cats!!). Anyway there's some needy trees out there, if anyone is interested! (Not sure which ones exactly) for more information check it out HERE.

There's a gay bar in DE that is doing something for New Years Eve, and honestly I'm not one to celebrate the "holiday", like ever, but this year? I want to do something different and HOPEFULLY have some fun so I am actually going to go out to a gay bar. Maybe I'll meet someone? Or at least get some dancing in (hopefully??? IDK if there is a show or not). I need a good dance I think. It's been like years, and this past week kinda stressed me out. Yay family. Love them, but sometimes it just hurts being with them. Plus I want to try the apps (ugh) again, *fingers crossed* I don't spiral again.

Anyway Episode 6 of Heated Rivalry has met my expectations and was absolutely wonderful. I can't believe how fucking addicted I am to this show, my tumblr is basically just me reblogging all the Hollanov & Skip I can get my hands on. Just found out about a Hollanov Big Bang tumblr - not going to sign up but I will definitely be reading!!! Anyway I spent Friday night after everyone else went to bed on a couch at my sister's house with my headphones on trying to keep my squealing/joy quiet as I watched episode 6. I definitely need to rewatch it on a big screen though. Ugh, the actors were all brilliant. CANNOT wait until Season 2.

Did I just create a community for the show/books? Yes. Yes I did ---> check it out here

gamechangerhr - I invited a bunch of people to it (hopefully you don't mind) - I plan to post to the promotional DW communities once I get a banner set up. I'm thinking of making a friending meme within the week. And maybe a challenge? I have no idea yet.

Also watched Fallout episodes 1 & 2 of Season 2 - I definitely enjoyed them, although I was shocked at how much was familiar to a few fics I read for Cooper/Lucy, but they might have been after the S2 trailer had been released now that I think about it. I didn't see the trailer when it was released mostly because I feel like the trailers show too much of the shows/films.

Also fairly recently adopted

supergirl_tv (the community dedicated to anything Supergirl, not just the TV series although that's the majority of the content). I'm already planning a Supergirl Summer Drabble-a-Thon thing for it in honor of the new Supergirl movie coming out. Banner's been picked out & everything. The drabble-a-thon won't just be for the new movie, but for any universe Supergirl appears in. I don't have all the details worked out exactly, since we still have months away for that - I probably won't get details together/posting about it more until probably around May. April at the earliest.

Anyway that was my roundabout way saying I'm completely looking forward to the movie. I know it's not exactly my normal choice for Kara/Supergirl but I'm excited to see a new version of her. Plus I loved Superman (2025) and I have a feeling I'll enjoy this one as well even though I wasn't completely sure about it before the trailer was released. I do want to read the comic book it's based on though before the movie's release. We'll see if I actually get to it.

I'll probably do the end-of-the year memes/questionnaires within the next few days since I definitely need to head off to bed soon.

lauradi7dw

I have spoken before about disliking Duolingo's AI-ification (and treatment of workers). The time to renew my paid subscription came up and I let it go. Now I have to watch ads for other games (or at least let them stream), endure frequent reminders that things would be better if I started paying again, and store up "energy" before they let me play. I'm used to ads in other contexts, but this makes it nearly unusable. The level of self-referential obnoxiousness ("we have made this very unpleasant. We know it. We are holding your time hostage") is startling to me. I would like to see stats on how many people just entirely quit.
It's a publicly traded company. Do the stockholders ever try a free account to see what the experience is like?

dialecticdreamer

Belated and Unexpected
By Dialecticdreamer/Sarah Williams
Part 1 of 1, complete
Word count (story only):
[December 28, 2016]

:: A few days after Christmas, Graham’s plans for the evening are utterly destroyed by the arrival of a postcard. Part of the Polychrome Heroics universe, including both the Mercedes and Finn Family story arcs, with the attentive presence of Genna Saint Croix (of the Strange Family arc). My thanks to

ysabetwordsmith for the suggestion! ::

:: PAY SPECIAL ATTENTION: I use some very, VERY disturbing imagery for the postcard that Graham receives. It is NOT a threat, but the point of it IS to disturb the viewer. If the reader wants to avoid it, skip from the beginning of the third paragraph to the * * * . They interrupt the flow of the scene, but are better than choosing a phrase. ::

Three days after Christmas, Graham dragged himself home after a long, frustrating session with a new client. He walked slowly up the steps, and paused to collect the mail.

Sandwiched between a flyer, business mail, and a bright green envelope from Halley, large enough to hold index-card sized printed photos, was a single handmade postcard.
( Read more... )</cut.

Current Mood: blank

flemmings

So the rain and the 6C temps yesterday removed the snow from the sidewalks as far as I could see, and the wind got up overnight and the temps dropped. So I was prepared for dry pavement today. The corners would still be pretty ridged, but easier to get over than Friday's slush. Only of course I woke up to more snow. This is clearly going to be one of Those Winters. Can only hope the Old Farmer's Almanac is right about December being the worst of it.

However snow on Friday did bring my nursing friend and her son to Christie Pits on Saturday, which is prime tobogganing territory, and they came up the street for a visit. A. has a car now, which is excellent news, because having a job and a kid who must be picked up from after school is extremely dicey with TO's unreliable transit system, especially in winter and especially in a winter like this one. She still has trouble with her rotator cuff: those things take forever to heal. But she brought me a box of chocolates and conversation, both of which were appreciated.

Rearranging books the other day, thought I might as well do a reread of Silverlock, especially now that there's google to tell me all the references I didn't get at 17. The 60 year old paperback is falling apart-- the front cover fell off almost immediately-- so best to read while the reading is good. This counts as putting my enforced homestuckness to a useful purpose, though kanji and Greek would be more so. Five years since my last review of the former, and ohh but those Papuwa doujinshi are reminding me of that fact.

torachan

1. Back to work today. A good chunk of the morning was spent catching up on messages from the past four days, and then I helped bagging downstairs for a couple hours (the week between Christmas and New Year is the busiest for us), and had a web meeting this afternoon, but otherwise did not have a ton of stuff to do so that was fine. I volunteered to help bag tomorrow and Wednesday, too. And then it will be another four day weekend!

2. Carla is planning to go to Wisconsin again for a few days at the end of January for her aunt's birthday. Originally it was just going to be Wednesday through Sunday, but one of her cousins texted today to ask how long she was going to be there and said she had hoped they could go into Chicago one day. Since that cousin has to work, and the birthday celebration will be Saturday, the only good day would be Sunday, but there wouldn't be time to do that and get to her flight on time. So we looked into changing the return day and were able to do it with no fee! So now she'll be coming back a few days later but will be able to go spend the day in Chicago with her cousins.

3. Yesterday I spotted Tuxie loafing on the lawn. He seemed very happy the sun was out after so much rain!

silver_chipmunk

Got up around 10:00ish. Had breakfast and coffee. Puttered online, then took a shower and dressed.

Put in a Shipt order, very small cause I'm short on money. Then I waited for it to come, which seemed to take a lot longer than usual. Finally it got here so I unpacked it and put it away.

Then I put on shoes and socks and took out a bag of cardboard recycling and walked around the block.

mashfanficchick called and we discussed plans for tomorrow and Wednesday.

Then I just killed time til 7:00 when I Teamed the FWiB. We talked til about 8:30. Then I had dinner, the last of the ham leftover from Christmas, and went and lay down and played solitaire and fiddled on my phone til pet feeding time.

Then I fed the pets, and here I am.

Gratitude List:

1. The FWiB.

2. Shipt.

3. The Kid texted so I know she got home OK yesterday.

4. Leftovers.

5. Not overly cold out.

6. Plans for New Years Eve.

Current Mood: cheerful

osprey_archer

And Picture Book Advent draws gently to a close. A note for my future self: although traditionally Advent ends on December 24, I think it would be nice to have a final picture book for the morning of Christmas. (My sister-in-law’s large extended family does a BIG Christmas, so we’ve simply ceded Christmas Day to them and have our own little family Christmas later on, which leaves Christmas morning open.)

Because of the way the dates of Advent fell, I had only two books left to review. First, The Wee Christmas Cabin at Carn-na-ween, by Ruth Sawyer, illustrated by Max Grafe, a picture book version of a story I first read in Sawyer’s story collection The Long Christmas. After a lifetime helping out in one cabin after another, with never a home of her own, old Oona is at last driven from her final house on Christmas Eve… only for the Good Folk to build her a house, and grant her wish that every white Christmas hence, the hungry and the lonely will be able to find her home for succor.

A lovely story. Another solid example from Sawyer that the spirit of Christmas is “generosity” and not “copious evergreens.”

And second, The Christmas Sweater, Jan Brett’s new Christmas book this year! Theo’s Yiayia knitted an extremely gaudy Christmas sweater for his dignified pug Ari. Hoping to win Ari over to the cozy warm sweater, Theo takes her for a snowshoe in the woods… only for a fresh fall of snow to obliterate his tracks! But fortunately, Ari(adne)’s sweater caught on a twig near the edge of the woods, so they can follow the unraveled yarn back home.

From the dedication, it looks like one of Brett’s children married into a Greek family, and this book is an homage to that family connection. I particularly enjoyed Ari’s expressive face, and indeed all the dogs running around in the snow in this book.

catherineldf

It was one heck of a year!
We released 3 titles:

Point of Hearts (Astreiant #6) by Melissa Scott
Running Dry by M.Christian
The Complete Astreiant by Melissa Scott and Lisa A. Barnett

Award News:

Point of Hopes (Astreiant #1) by Melissa Scott and Lisa A. Barnett won a Midwest Independent Publishers Association Award for speculative fiction
Catherine Lundoff won an Alice B. Readers Award for her body of work in sapphic fiction
Terror at Tierra de Cobre by Michael Merriam was a finalist for the Inaugural Small Spec Book Awards, Horror Category
The Language of Roses by Heather Rose Jones was nominated for the Indie Ink Awards in 2 categories, including Aromantic/Asexual Representation
The Complete Astreiant by Melissa Scott and Lisa A. Barnett is eligible for the Hugo Award for Best Series this year

Other Cool Things:

The University of Minnesota Library Upper Midwest Literary Archive is officially collecting us, with a finding guide and everything, crossed listed with the Tretter Collection.
Point of Hearts was reviewed in Locus Magazine, our first title in Locus.

Apart from that, we did 36 events this year! That includes conferences, book festivals, bookstore readings, book events at breweries and other venues, podcasts and probably something I'm forgetting. It was a lot! If you were one of the folks who hosted us, bought our books, reviewed our books, supported our Patreon and/or generally helped us get the word out about our books, you rock! Thank you!

And a big thank you to our authors, cover designers, book designer and my assistant, Alexa, for all your hard work this year! Additional shout out to Kate Larking who did a bunch of marketing and publicity work for us! See you all in 2026!

Profile

kitewithfish

December 2025

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Page Summary

oursin - This icon is doubly appropriate
fromtheheartofeurope_feed - Elidor, by Alan Garner
fromtheheartofeurope_feed - The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport, by Samit Basu
larryhammer - “love, i don’t like to see so much pain / so much wasted and this moment keeps slipping away”
james_davis_nicoll - Rock of Ages (Drake Maijstral, volume 3) by Walter Jon Williams
spikedluv in smallfandomfest - Fic, Murder, She Wrote/Hudson & Rex, Jessica & Rex & Charlie/Sarah, Charlie & Sarah visit Cabot Cove
luzula - Learning more things I didn't know that I didn't know
selenak - Yuletide Recs 2
linaewen in writethisfanfic - WIP Challenge Check-in, Day 30 -- Tuesday
vriddy - New K-9 fic: Housewarming (Ren/Oboro/Fujimaru/Kagari)
smallhobbit - Books - December 2025
vass - Update
lauradi7dw - I walked by that PO yesterday
cimorene - Object permanence issues
badly_knitted in fan_flashworks - Memory Challenge: The Fantastic Journey: Fanfic: Healing The Healer
annofowlshire - Nothing is ordinary
ysabetwordsmith in allbingo - Bingo
flowing_river in traumaticexperiences - Nominations are Open!
silveradept - December Days 02025 #29: w00t
ysabetwordsmith in allbingo - Signup Post: Full Content on Dreamwidth in 2026
ysabetwordsmith in allbingo - Snowflake Challenge
tinny - 20 Turquoise Land icons for characters20in20
firecat - Consequences
sparowe - Daily Devotions from Lutheran Hour Ministries: 30 December 2025 (Advent Devotional)
dine - save your energy. save yourselves. avoid the planet Earth at all costs
siria - 2573 / Fic Year in Review, 2025
quixotic in malagraphic - [ ICONS ] JIN, XENOBLADE CHRONICLES 2
chestnut_pod - A whole entire year's worth of nonfiction
meteordust - Building the reality we can live with
apod_feed - (no subject)
radiantfracture - Art Post: Stupid Canadian Wolf Bird (Gavia immer)
xandromedovna in fic_rush - Round 157 Poll
flareonfury - (no subject)
lauradi7dw - you bet you better finally decide
dialecticdreamer - Belated and Unexpected (part 1 of 1, complete)
flemmings - (no subject)
torachan - Daily Happiness
silver_chipmunk - Another slow day
osprey_archer - Picture Book Advent Wrap-Up
catherineldf - Year in review, Part the Second: Publishing

Style Credit

Style: Ivory Alcea for Mobility by branchandroot
Resources: Mitsuba Aoi

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