kitewithfish: circulate that flask (john constantine needs a drink)
[personal profile] kitewithfish
We are all mortals. Sometimes the Wednesday Reading Meme comes on a Thursday.

What I Have Read

Deal with the Devil
- Mercenary Librarians #1 by Kit Rocha 

So this book is bad. Some reasons – it’s the first in an intended series, so the set up is dense and the payoff is lean.

The authors (Donna Herren and Bree Bridges) met while writing X-Men fanfic and this book reads like fanfic* - it is uninterested in establishing the characters as unique people; it takes as granted that the reader will find the romance between them compelling. At one point, the female romantic lead turns to the male romantic lead and asks that they end the conflict between them. Reader, it was maybe 10% into the book - there had been no conflict yet! They were already collaborating very well!

The dystopian worldbuilding is frustrating when it’s not intensely boring: Both of our main characters are modified supersoldiers and have run from their eeevil technological overlords. Their new goal? To find community in the vast network of free information they maintain as the Mercenary Librarians. Which should be fascinating, except none of it happens on the page. It’s shorthand to explain why they have lots of tech and food and live comfortably in a post-apocalyptic world.

This book knew things that good stories do and tried to do them? But it didn’t actually do them.

Drop of Corruption - Robert Jackson Bennett - The audiobook came and oooh, it's good, so I jumped in. The narrator, Andrew Fallaize, is very good at giving characters distinct pacing and intonation. (However, he is English, so he keeps saying “Ana” like he’s saying “Honor” and it’s jarring. Not offputting! But jarring.) Bennett excels at mysteries, and at complicated political situations, and this book is him rolling it both like a Labrador in a mud puddle. Highly recommend.

The Afterword was also very good. He takes a critical eye to fantasy’s fascination with monarchy, with kings as a trope of goodness and wholeness for a people. This books makes very plain what he thinks of them – slavers in fancy hats. Lest it seems didactic, it was not - obvious in hindsight, like a well-laid clue, but not grating. 

What I'm Reading

Space Opera by Catherynne Valente – I have started this book before- it always hits me as charming but a high demand read. Since it’s now up for a book club choice, I have the motivation. Already everything about this book is a masterclass in setup and payoff. I love Mr. Looney of the Tunes, point to Nani.

Alien Clay by Adrian Tchaikovsky - static from last week
The Revolutionary Temper — Robert Darnton – like 10% in? It’s a cultural and literary look at the French Revolution. Many characters are old friends, but with a more detailed look and a specific timeline leading up to the actual Revolution. The book has scope and pace. Jo Walton talked about this in her July reading round up and I'm enjoying the audiobook. 

Lent by Jo Walton - Re-reading this for a book club. I think this hits me in a particular place - I adore a character who is in a one-sided fight with a neglectful God (gee, wonder if I have mommy issues much) and I love fantasy lets you come at the same problem from a bunch of different angles. I often use the image of a gem and facets as a metaphor for my favorite kinds of fiction - the author picks up a topic and shows it to the reader, giving us views of the many shapes of a single thing by skillfully directing our attention. This book absolutely shows Walton as a similar kind of thinker. 

What I'll Read Next

The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin
Witness for the Dead by Katherine Addison
The Fortunate Fall Cameron Reed - this book came up at Arisia AND in the note about ReaderCon 2025, so I am intrigued that my book club has picked it. We are a ways out. 
Monsters and Mainframes?

*I hope that, since you are reading this blog, you have enough context to know that I adore fanfic. I use the comparison to point out a structural element that, in fanfic, is not a flaw. But in an original work, your characters deserve a decent introduction.

Ep. 13 Screencaps

28 Aug 2025 07:02 pm
veetvoojagig: (da qing)
[personal profile] veetvoojagig posting in [community profile] sid_guardian
Soooo in my quest to eventually make icons I wound up doing my own screencaps, starting with Ep 13 just because that's where I was in my rewatch right now. Here's a downloadable zip file of 202 screencaps, because I'm not about to upload those individually, LOL. I was largely on my ChuGuo agenda but I tried to get a bit of everyone!

Previews:



I didn't clean them up at all, but they're still pretty decent and now they exist.
magicrubbish: Anika from Ishqbaaz (Anika from Ishqbaaz)
[personal profile] magicrubbish posting in [community profile] your_favourites
Enpusevd o T47pt2ri o Fgpecutv o Swsgtppi o
Current favorite obsession - The rings of power .

URLs )

Check In: Day 28

28 Aug 2025 06:36 pm
glitteringstars: (writing)
[personal profile] glitteringstars posting in [community profile] writethisfanfic
Helloooooo! Happy Thursday! We're almost through this week~

How did writing go today?

-Amazing!
-Okay!
-Got a bit done!
-Got some editing done!
-Got some brainstorming done!
-Too busy/Rest!

Discussion question: Because of my recent obsession with a new item of jewelry, I must ask, has anything you've ever gotten or bought inspired the creation of an OC or an interpretation of a cannon character?

[ SECRET POST #6810 ]

28 Aug 2025 06:45 pm
case: (Default)
[personal profile] case posting in [community profile] fandomsecrets

⌈ Secret Post #6810 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.


01.


More! )


Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 06 secrets from Secret Submission Post #972.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comics: Jack Kirby Day

28 Aug 2025 06:00 pm
dewline: Logo: Open comic book with Cdn. Leaf Symbol (comic books)
[personal profile] dewline
I understand that this is the anniversary of comics creator Jack Kirby's birth...?

FFA DW Post #2346 - Placeholder

28 Aug 2025 11:53 pm
sunnymodffa: (Man Detecting Walrus)
[personal profile] sunnymodffa posting in [community profile] fail_fandomanon
 
Placeholder

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trobadora: (Guardian - SID team)
[personal profile] trobadora posting in [community profile] sid_guardian
A gifting fest for Guardian and related fandoms: guardian-wishlist.dreamwidth.org

Sign-ups are open for Guardian Wishlist 2025!


The first wishlists go live and gifting starts on 5 September. Sign-ups close 15 September. Gifts will be revealed on 6 October (Reunion Festival).

Please check this year's rules/FAQ post before you sign-up.

And please help spread the word! Promo graphics and text can be found here.
smallhobbit: (Lucas 1)
[personal profile] smallhobbit posting in [community profile] 100words
Title: Chips and Doughnuts
Fandom: Spooks (MI5) - werewolf!Lucas AU
Rating: G

(no subject)

28 Aug 2025 04:55 pm
sorcyress: Drawing of me as a pirate, standing in front of the Boston Citgo sign (Default)
[personal profile] sorcyress
It's my birthday! gosh wow!

Long time viewers may be familiar with Kat's birthday lore, which is this: Please join me in celebrating my birthday! The way you do so is by eating ice cream and ideally snapping a photo of it, or you, or both and sending it to me. This can happen literally anywhere in the world, and it can happen literally anytime (I've been getting photos for about two weeks now!)

The "ice cream" part is not literal --anything that feels to you like a treat, ideally frozen, counts!

If you are local, there are two bonus celebratory options:

1) COME DANCE WITH ME TONIGHT! I am running a "no-planning-just-vibes" Scottish Country Dance tonight, Thursday, 8/28, 7-9pm in the NESFA clubhouse (504 Medford St, Somerville). We're gonna do mostly Scottish by people requesting dances or figures, but I might throw in some ceilidh, a few waltzes, heck, maybe a bit of blues...we'll make it work!

2) COME EAT ICE CREAM WITH ME TOMORROW! I am gonna do my usual Davis Square Ice Cream Adventure tomorrow, Friday, 8/29. I plan to be in Davis from about 7:30pm-11pm, and get ice cream for myself at 8pm and 10pm. Join in for as little or as much of that as you fancy! Bring a friend I've never met if that friend wants to eat ice cream! Wave at me as you ride through the square on your way to something else! Come at the last possible minute and encourage a bad decision staying-up-to-late party! The possibilities are endless, it's Friday night woot woot!

(there may or may not wind up being a "well dang I also really like Gracie's, y'all wanna hang in Union instead" at some point this weekend. Watch this space. Planning is easier when it's not also the beginning of the school year)

~Sor
MOOP!

All the songs I loved so well

28 Aug 2025 09:21 pm
[personal profile] cosmolinguist

The winner of today is my [personal profile] angelofthenorth who, when I realized at the bus stop on the way to the gym that I'd forgotten to grab my headphones, lent me hers (she was going swimming and couldn't use them anyway).

The gym playing Happy Radio (which includes plodding song in minor keys with depressing lyrics!) is bad enough but today it had Smooth FM on! Who wanted to get their reps in while the Carpenters sing "every shalalalala"?!

The Calvin Harris albums on my phone did a pretty good job of drowning out them and Celine Dion and so on.

But when some guy had just swiped my kettlebell when I put down next to my foot so I could rest before my last set (my gym doesn't seem to have very high awareness of sets... or putting things back where they belong so people can find them and not trip over them -- it's a lot more about young men showing off for each other -- so I appreciate he saw someone staring into space and figured any nearby equipment had been abandoned), and just as I was finishing the final set with the next-size-up kettlebell that the universe was apparently telling me it was time for, a new song started and I thought to myself no, I draw the line at that fucking Chris Isaak song, I'm done.

I left just in time to miss both buses home and get sworn at by a scrote on an e-bike for not getting out of his way when I hadn't seen his black-clothed black-bike no-lights ass coming right at me in the dark on the sidewalk. But I still think I left at just the right time!

Trees and Flowers

28 Aug 2025 02:09 pm
yourlibrarian: Long Time Ago for Spike and Angel (BUF-LongTime-sfwolfpup)
[personal profile] yourlibrarian posting in [community profile] common_nature


I wish I'd had our car in this photo as a reference point for how large those trees were, At least in the next photo you can see a park building in the bottom left which gives you some idea. It was very impressive to be driving through these roads of giants.

Read more... )
redbird: closeup of me drinking tea, in a friend's kitchen (Default)
[personal profile] redbird
I just had a reassuringly boring dental visit. I called yesterday because I'd been having pain on and off for the previous three days, and they gave me an appointment for this morning.

I felt much better last night and basically OK this morning, but I still wanted the dentist to check in case there was a problem—intermittent symptoms can be hard to diagnose. The dentist looked inside my mouth, poked in a few places, and took two X-rays, finding nothing wrong. His best guess is that something was caught between my gum and bone, and I got it out by cleaning my teeth yesterday; I don’t know why the previous three days of brushing and flossing hadn’t done the job.

The dentist did see a little tenderness in the area that had been hurting, and wrote me a prescription for something to rinse with. Other than that, call if there are further problems, or come back in three months for my usual cleaning.

I am pleased with the outcome: it stopped hurting, and the dentist confirmed that there's nothing wrong, so I don’t need unpleasant and possibly expensive dental work.

The dentist said to hold the prescription rinse in my mouth for “a few seconds,” then rinse with water, and I only need to rinse that side of the month. The printed prescription label says 30 seconds and not to rinse for 30 minutes afterwards, which I assume are the standard instructions for this medication.

spinning cont'd

28 Aug 2025 01:17 pm
yhlee: Alto clef and whole note (middle C). (Default)
[personal profile] yhlee


Current WIP: a gorgeous merino-silk-angelina blend.

Testing out a Dreaming Robots e-spinner, the Electric Eel Wheel 6.1. It's terrific and very easy to assemble and get running (at least after the learning curve on the Ashford Traveller treadle wheel). I hear the even more budget-friendlier Electric Eel Nano 2. (about $140 USD) 1 is fiddly, but I wonder. My use case for this is plying, which I find ungodly miserable.



Meanwhile, the local fiber animal is "helping" again. Cloud's floof is VERY spinnable so we're just randomly gathering catten floof while brushing her incredibly soft coat (she's mostly undercoat, and it's WILDLY soft).



(Sorry for the messy floor...I'm still under the weather and spinning is soothing/)

Birdfeeding

28 Aug 2025 01:18 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Today is partly sunny and mild.

I fed the birds. I've seen a few sparrows and house finches.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 8/28/25 -- I planted 2 yellow Harvest of Memories and 2 red War Chief irises under the maple tree at the edge of the house yard.

EDIT 8/28/25 -- I watered the irises.










.

Community Thursday

28 Aug 2025 06:42 pm
vriddy: Tokoyama and Dark Shadow ready to fight (tokoyami)
[personal profile] vriddy

Community Thursday challenge: every Thursday, try to make an effort to engage with a community on Dreamwidth, whether that's posting, commenting, promoting, etc.


Over the last week...

Promoted [community profile] newcomers, [community profile] snowflake_challenge, [community profile] sunshine_revival, [community profile] booknook, [community profile] thisfinecrew, [community profile] tv_talk, [community profile] c_ent in comments. And now here too ;D

And a whole bunch of Signal Boosts:

Blu-ray BBC Narnia series

28 Aug 2025 06:32 pm
vivdunstan: Test card (television)
[personal profile] vivdunstan
There’s a digitally remastered version of the BBC Narnia various TV series coming out in November. Complete with new documentary. Instant preorder for me!

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