Snowflake Challenge 2026: Day 2

Jan. 3rd, 2026 02:01 pm
adriennefae: (Default)
[personal profile] adriennefae
Challenge #2: Pets of Fandom. Post about your pets, pets from your canon, anything you want!

So this one is perfect for me because I just got a cat a few months ago and have been filling up my phone with pictures of him ever since. His name is Cosmo, he's about ten months old now and he's very cute and constantly in my way whenever I try to do things like cook, read, use my computer, pack for a trip, exist etc


rambling (mostly about cats both real and fictional) and cat pics )

Dept. of Evil Shit

Jan. 3rd, 2026 11:54 am
kaffy_r: Fan art of Bleach characters (Bleach Set the World on Fire)
[personal profile] kaffy_r
Jesus Christ, Venezuela?

He's saying that the U.S. is going to run Venezuela.

Christ on a cracker.

I'd suspended our effort to request permanent residency for Bob. It was easy to live in limbo because neither of us wants to move. But now? It's back to work on the application. 

Stranger Things: Fanfic: Sand

Jan. 3rd, 2026 02:35 pm
wearing_tearing: blue background covered with hearts with steve wearing eddie's vest and staring at eddie ([st] steddie)
[personal profile] wearing_tearing posting in [community profile] fan_flashworks
Title: sand
Fandom: Stranger Things
Characters/Pairings: Steve Harrington/Eddie Munson
Rating: PG-13
Length: 1,363
Content notes: spoilers for Stranger Things 5 finale!
Author notes: written for Challenge #502: Sand.
Summary: Eddie fucking hates sand.

Read more... )

runpunkrun: combat boot, pizza, camo pants = punk  (punk rock girl)
[personal profile] runpunkrun posting in [community profile] fandomcalendar
Photograph of a young Asian girl using a manual typewriter in an office and looking very serious as she stares straight into the camera. Her black hair is slicked into a low ponytail and her round glasses are so big they extend past her face. She's wearing a shirt and tie and an adult-sized yellow blazer that fits her like a dress, almost as if she has been shrunk. Text, in a typewriter font: Crack Treated Seriously, at Fancake.
[community profile] fancake is a thematic recommendation community where all members are welcome to post recs, and fanworks of all shapes and sizes are accepted. Check out the community guidelines for the full set of rules.

This theme runs for the entire month. If you have any questions, just ask!

Snowflake Challenge 2

Jan. 3rd, 2026 04:41 pm
kalium: (Default)
[personal profile] kalium
Loosely defined! Post about your pets, pets from your canon, anything you want!

HOW DARE YOU. I walk in here, say I'm NOT going to talk about fandom because I feel like a square peg, and then here comes this question that I can't not answer without talking about one of the few things I have that you could maybe call a fandom!

I joke, I joke. Because face it, I was always going to bring up Petz:



I'll always be a Petz player, even if I drift in and out of the community. Petz was one of the first things that got me online, got me into art, creature design, coding, all sorts of things. I guess it is a fandom but it doesn't call itself one, and it doesn't feel like one in the usual sense. It's just a thing that has remained constant and present while other communities grow and die. I'll always come back to this little sim game and everything around it.

My Petz pages - if you're into old internet stuff, too, the PC is one of the best windows you'll find into what it was like. Even now, people regularly showcase their creations on websites rather than social media. I have some breedfiles there, and some history notes on the series.

I'm not sure any of the roleplays/creature design spaces etc I used to be involved in would count as pets, though, although I've always had a fondness for the bond creature trope and I use it a lot in my own fiction. There was a lot of virtual pet and animal companion media around at the time that ended up as an influence and inspiration.

Snowflake Challenge #2

Jan. 3rd, 2026 08:07 am
potentiality_26: (Default)
[personal profile] potentiality_26
Challenge #2: Pets of Fandom

Loosely defined! Post about your pets, pets from your canon, anything you want!


I have 3 cats (one very old) and a dog. I also share property with a horse, but he isn't really mine. 

On the subject of pets in fandom, I really think animals can add a lot of interest and personality to a story. I'd like to particularly single out All Creatures Great and Small, the current tv show, the 1978 version (which I confess I prefer), and the books by James Herriot. Really wonderful stuff!
   

Supporting trans rights in the UK

Jan. 3rd, 2026 04:10 pm
rydra_wong: Lee Miller photo showing two women wearing metal fire masks in England during WWII. (Default)
[personal profile] rydra_wong
Because I happen to have a bit of RL knowledge and pulled this list together in a comment elsewhere.

In no order, and this is in no way intended to be comprehensive (if you've got other suggestions, please add them in the comments), but these are groups who I know are doing good work:

TransActual -- they've been taking the lead on campaigning after the Supreme Court ruling and are extremely on the ball: https://transactual.org.uk/

Gendered Intelligence -- support primarily focused on children and young people (up to 25), doing lifesaving work as so many trans kids and teens in the UK are really suffering right now, with the puberty blockers ban and also the overwhelming sense that the entire country hates them: https://genderedintelligence.co.uk/

The Trans Legal Clinic -- new organization providing free legal help for trans people in the UK; I know someone doing third-sector work who's met them and was incredibly impressed by them: https://www.translegalclinic.com

The Trans Safety Network -- a tiny group of people doing formidable investigative work: https://transsafety.network/

The Trans+ Solidarity Alliance -- impressively-organized political lobbying and briefing of MPs, again I think being done by a tiny group of people: https://www.transsolidarityalliance.com/

Not trans-led or trans-specific (unlike all the others I've linked), but the Good Law Project are fighting a bunch of the key legal cases at the moment: https://goodlawproject.org

They're much bigger and better-funded, though, so you might wish to send donations to the smaller groups for whom it'll make a lot more difference.

Also, if you're thinking of donating, some of these are legally charities (e.g. Gendered Intelligence) and some aren't because they're too "political" and are thus registered as CICs or suchlike (this is just relevant in terms of being able to use Gift Aid etc.).

Trans+ Solidarity Alliance and TransActual also have good info and advice on emailing your MP (including template letters), if you have the time/spoons free at some point.

The Icon Quest Reminder

Jan. 3rd, 2026 04:58 pm
tinny: Something Else holding up its colorful drawing - "be different" (Default)
[personal profile] tinny posting in [community profile] retro_icontest


♕ KING'S SPEECH ♕

Best wishes for the New Year, Lords and Ladies! Our quest is well and truly underway, six daring adventurers have already shared the results of their explorations! More secrets await!


See the quest post here for rules and the Logbook of original quests that you can go on.

There are currently three battles, two of which still need participants! Please consider signing up for those:

Elements Battle - current participants: 2 - still needs caps for earth and wind. At least one more participant needed!

Crop Battle - current participants: 5 - no caps needed, use your own

Fallout Battle - current participants: 2 - two Fallout caps per participant. At least one more participant needed!

Mystery bags are available for Quest 5. You can request a random mystery bag from me here. If you want to do that quest more than once (and have already posted your first one), you can request a second bag. You will not get the same bag twice.

The deadline for the whole round is January 16th. Deadline for the Melee (the only part where there is voting) is January 9th, and the battles all have their own deadlines. Please check the battle links.


The spreadsheet with all the points including your current class is here:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1JlFfBjXUDzjCx-c6mvG9aCAGUF45dT354YtbHP51P6M/

Snowflake Challenge #2

Jan. 3rd, 2026 10:41 am
stardust_rifle: A blue snowflake. (Snowflake Icon)
[personal profile] stardust_rifle posting in [community profile] snowflake_challenge
Introduction Post * Meet The Mods Post * Challenge #1

Remember that there is no official deadline, so feel free to join in at any time, or go back and do challenges you've missed.

Pets! We know them, we probably have positive associations with at least one type of pet, and they've appeared in our creative endeavors since time immemorial. Considering that, we felt that a challenge revolving around them would be appropriate.

Challenge #2: Pets of Fandom

Loosely defined! Post about your pets, pets from your canon, anything you want!


Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so. Also, feel free to entice engagement by giving us a preview of what your post covers.

And please do check out the comments for all the awesome participants of the challenge and visit their journals/challenge responses to comment on their posts and cheer them on.

And just as a reminder: this is a low pressure, fun challenge. If you aren't comfortable doing a particular challenge, then don't. We aren't keeping track of who does what.

two log cabins with snow on the roofs in a wintery forest the text snowflake challenge january 1 - 31 in white cursive text

Happy New Year!

Jan. 3rd, 2026 08:58 am
oracne: turtle (Default)
[personal profile] oracne
While the church for my choir's New Year's Eve performance was not absolutely jammed, it was pretty full, including the balconies, and judging from comments from friends as I exited through the sanctuary, it was an excellent and meaningful performance. Jean, who used to sing with us, said she had cried through the entire part three. Whoa. It was also special because for one of our regular soprano soloists, Jess, it was her fiftieth performance as a soloist.

Rebecca and Jess are founders of Variant 6, my favorite local small vocal ensemble. Rebecca is on the left, Jess on the right, in gold:


"Laudamus Te" from last year's NYE Bach B Minor Mass.


After the performance, I was too wiped out for dinner; luckily, a bus came pretty quickly. I got home, ate dinner, removed my eye makeup, and crawled into bed. Surprisingly, after my afternoon coffee, I managed to get to sleep fairly soon. I don't recall hearing many fireworks (apparently, someone saved their illegal firecrackers for the night of New Year's Day...a lot of them).

New Year's Day, I had decided our menu was nachos and another small trifle. The nachos had cheese, pre-cooked chicken seasoned with adobo and mild salsa, and spinach. The trifle was in a glass loaf pan: more cinnamon graham crackers for a base, a layer of spiced peaches (from a jar), a thick layer of whipped cream, pumpkin snaps, blueberries, and a drizzle of the sugar syrup from the peaches. It all turned out great!

January 2, I hung out with [personal profile] drinkingcocoa and family.

Today is laundry and more Flight Rising. I have to go back to the dayjob on Monday, so I might do some cooking today or tomorrow as well.
tinny: Something Else holding up its colorful drawing - "be different" (Default)
[personal profile] tinny
Here's my last icon drop for 2025! All challenge icons I've made in November and December and haven't posted to my journal yet. For [profile] bestof_icon purposes, these icons were all made in 2025.

Teasers:


64+7 icons, mostly Wu Lei dramas, but also Guardian, Heated Rivalry, Love on the Turquoise Land, and some movies )

Concrit and comments very welcome! Take and use as many icons as you like, credit is appreciated. If you want to know whose textures and brushes I use, take a look at my resource post.

Previous icon posts:

i wake up dreaming

Jan. 3rd, 2026 12:27 pm
usuallyhats: close up of Jo Grant from Doctor Who; text reads "I don't know what I've been worrying about." (jo is cheerful (and sarcastic))
[personal profile] usuallyhats
Slightly belated happy new year one and all! I have decided to try and get back into posting and commenting on Dreamwidth this year, let's see if that bears any fruit beyond this post.

I am not making any big new year's resolutions this year, because there's some work stuff going on that is likely to eat a lot of my energy and I don't want to set myself up for failure on top of that, but I am considering a bingo card of things I'd like to do this year. I think I probably need 24 things to make a decent card, and I'm up to seventeen eighteen (thought of another one as I was posting this), so I'm getting there!

(Work stuff: my university merged with another university about eighteen months ago, the library is currently being restructured and is about to lose some helpdesk staff, so my helpdesk duties are increasing, plus we're losing working from home AND we haven't actually done any of the massive amounts of work it'll actually take to merge our systems yet, so in conclusion: bad.)

Other life stuff: I am in the queue for ADHD and autism assessments! ADHD I hadn't really considered as a possibility until fairly recently, but the more I look into it, the more it fits, and my GP suggested it might be at least part of the reason I've spent my adult life just getting more and more exhausted. And I've been pretty sure I'm autistic for a long time without feeling a need to get formally diagnosed, but I'm hoping if I do I can parlay it into getting to keep some working from home as a reasonable adjustment.

Media round up! Here's some non-book media I've been into this year (books I feel like I've covered):

- I'm really out of the habit of watching films, but I loved both Wicked: For Good and Wake Up Dead Man recently. The nuance in Wake Up Dead Man's portrayal of belief and non-belief, and the things it was willing to make space for in service of that, was particularly excellent.

- [personal profile] tellitslant is visiting and has been showing [personal profile] alwaystheocean and me Pluribus, what an excellent show (we're six episodes in). In an age of AI I love that it's so clear that Carol's messy, genuine, individual rage and grief is wildly preferable to the plurbs' anodyne samey niceness, but I'm also appreciating how the show is resisting easy messages? Very good all round, so glad that season two is already being written.

- I have also fallen head first into Shetland, particularly the Ruth and Tosh seasons, but I also really enjoyed the Jimmy seasons too. I love its commitment to every character being a rounded and coherent individual, it's so satisfying.

- After really not loving Campaign Three of Critical Role, I'm very pleased to be incredibly into Campaign Four - it has the feel of a big chunky complicated fantasy novel and I am having an excellent time.

- I've also got into Dimension 20 this year and am having an excellent time meandering through their back catalogue.

- I was sure there was other TV I'd been into this year, but having looked through my TV app, apparently it has all just been the above plus Taskmaster and Game Changer? I'm also still very very slowly rewatching Classic Who in order and having a lovely time. It's in colour now!
valzhang: (kakania)
[personal profile] valzhang posting in [community profile] 10trueloves
Title: my baby here on earth
Fandom: Percy Jackson/Heroes of Olympus
Characters: Emily Zhang, Frank Zhang
Prompt: "Memory"
Rating: Teen
Spoilers/Warnings: N/A

Summary: These are the things you think about before you go up in flames.

Read on Ao3!
tinny: POI - The machine watching John Reese (poi_machine pov john reese)
[personal profile] tinny
Mount TBR 2025 Book #07 Rivers of London #07
Lies Sleeping by Ben Aaronovich
Rivers of London #07


Peter uncovers clues that the Faceless Man Martin Chorley is executing the final stages of a long-term plan rooted in London's two thousand bloody years of history.

thoughts - slightly spoilery

* I still like Peter's POV, although in some scenes he's still a little bit too naive considering all the things he's seen.

* What I liked a lot is that he doesn't always react ideally in tense/dangerous situations. I found that very realistic.

* I'm not quite sure what to think about the psychological stuff, the colleague who needed counseling after working with Peter, etc. I guess it's a good thing to be mentioned seven installments into a series, but Peter is still being very cavalier about it.

* I really liked how he went back to talk to the river, by making a sacrifice to the Mother, which he (not quite but mostly) knew how to do, which makes sense because he really knows a lot about the rivers by now. She accepted it because she knows and likes him and knows it was given in the right spirit. He still gets important parts wrong and almost suffocates in the process, angering the sewer authority friend he persuaded to let him go into the sewers alone, against regulations. All of this was just hilarious.

* I very much liked all the conflicts he had with Leslie in this book. Her motives are discussed, and they very uncomfortably reminded me of typical reactionary views. Which is kind of a pity, because Peter is often wrong with his quick judgements, and it would have been fitting to have him be wrong about Leslie, but I don't think he was.

* I also very much liked the fairy he found in his cell, and that she's related to Molly. That was so heartwarming and cute!

* There wasn't all that much about his immediate family (neither his parents nor Beverly), but what there was was cute, too. And some of it thought-provoking, because he apparently had never thought about the fact that Beverly is very very old and he is not, and what consequences that will have on a relationship. The Old Man and his wife were setting an interesting example there (and an option for the god to make his lover somewhat immortal).

* I'm not sure what happened with Mr. Punch in the end, and why it even worked. So I guess the main plotline of the book somewhat escaped me. Oops.



4 stars - very quick read as usual, and some things I really liked and hadn't expected



Because I forgot to take this draft with me on vacation, I'm posting it after the reviews for books 8 and 9, so this is the last post for my 2025 Mount TBR challenge. I failed it by three books. /o\ I blame work for this, and I hope that will be less stressful in 2026.

I was trying to catch up at the end, and got to "almost two" - if those had been the last two, I would have made an effort to finish them both. As it was, even that would not have helped, so I wasn't motivated to do that. Those will be the first books of 2026, then, since I've already started both of them.

1 - 5 stars - Shards of Earth by Adrian Tchaikovsky The Final Architecture #1 [DW link]
2 - 2 stars - Miss Merkel: Mord auf dem Friedhof by David Safier Miss Merkel #2 [DW link]
3 - 4 stars - Once Broken Faith by Seanan McGuire Toby Daye #10 [DW link]
4 - 1 star - Three Body Problem by Liu Cixin [DW link]
5 - 5 stars - Murderbot Diaries 1-4 by Martha Wells [DW link]
6 - 4 stars - Die Neuerfindung der Diktatur/We Have Been Harmonized by Kai Strittmatter [DW link]
7 - 4 stars - Lies Sleeping by Ben Aaronovich Rivers of London #07 [DW link]
8 - 3 stars - Der Markisenmann by Jan Weiler [DW link]
9 - 3 stars - The Village Teacher by Liu Cixin [Graphic Novel by Zhang Xiaoyu] [DW link]

Snowflake Challenge 2026 - Day 1

Jan. 3rd, 2026 06:46 pm
luthien: (Default)
[personal profile] luthien
Challenge #1

The Icebreaker Challenge: Introduce yourself. Tell us why you're doing the challenge, and what you hope to gain from it.

Hi, I'm [personal profile] luthien. I'm 50-something and Australian. I found fandom in 1998 and have been writing fic since 1999. While I've had quite a few fandoms in the past, I don't have any really active fandoms atm. But I've just done yuletide for the - counts - 12th time, so I'm still here and I'm still writing.

I've done the snowflake challenge quite a few times now. I find it's a really good way to plug myself back into fandom at what's otherwise a fairly quiet time of the year, particularly when there's no specific fandom making me engage on a regular basis. It's nice to stop and think about fandom and fannishness, to communicate, and to meet some interesting new people. It's also nice to be more active on DW. I miss the days when fandom was more conversation-driven, and snowflake tends to be a good entryway into all sorts of sometimes unexpected conversations.

Shows I've been watching over the past year include: Stranger Things (like everyone else I know), Pluribus (one of the best shows I've seen all year), the Gilded Age (which has beautiful costumes, Carrie Coon chewing up the scenery with gusto, and an absolutely fascinating look into the Black elite in 1880s New York as well as thinly disguised portrayals of the Vanderbilt family), Slow Horses (if you're not watching it, you should be), Severance (ditto) and I've yet to start on Heated Rivalry - a friend will be coming after me with a pitchfork if I don't start it very soon, though.

I like fine teas, especially Taiwan oolongs, interesting perfumes, especially Serge Lutens, and cats, of which I have three. Oh, and a very spoilt shetland sheepdog.


two log cabins with snow on the roofs in a wintery forest the text snowflake challenge january 1 - 31 in white cursive text

Fic - Bears the Crown

Jan. 3rd, 2026 07:42 pm
mab_browne: A favourite icon for The Sentinel (Jim and Blair)
[personal profile] mab_browne
A belt and braces posting for my TS Secret Santa fic, written for DuoIntheRain. I was hideously embarrassed and stressed by how long it took me to write this tiny bit of fic, although probably not as stressed as Ainm. But we got there and I didn't leave my lovely recipient hanging. I also had fic written for me by KateF, with a mix of Xmas celebration, Jim rising to the occasion and cases getting solved, which are all excellent things. :-)

1223 words, pure as the driven snow really, fluff and angst, first kiss, post-canon. Blair is a little stupid mixing alcohol and driving but nothing comes of it.

Solstice wreaths and epiphanies

Bears the Crown )

The End-of-the-Year Fic Meme

Jan. 2nd, 2026 09:58 pm
astrogirl: (Write)
[personal profile] astrogirl
All right, only very slightly belated, here's my year-end fic-writing round-up, as promised!

First, the list of what I posted this year (which includes a couple of things written at the end of last year for a challenge thingy that didn't reveal until January):

"Song in the Dark" (Gravity Falls, Ford/OFC Siren, Bill/Ford, 2,317 words, written for the Western Title Challenge)

"Run Away Home" (Gravity Falls, Stan, 100 words, written for the Western Title Challenge)

"Back from outer Space" (Gravity Falls, Bill/Ford, Stan, 7,354 words)

"Here Lies Stan" (Gravity Falls, Stan, Caryn Pines, 98 words, written for the 3 Sentence Ficathon)

"Meddling in the Affairs of Humans" (Doctor Who, Susan, Barbara/Ian, 3,986 words, written for Candy Hearts Exchange)

"You" (Gravity Falls, Stan & Ford, 1,167 words, written for Gen Prompt Bingo)

"A Stimulant in the Morning (The Impossible People Remix) (Doctor Who, Twelfth Doctor/Missy, Twelfth Doctor & Clara, 1,678 words, written for Doctor Who and Related Fandoms Remix)

"A Series of Notes Attached to a UNIT Equipment Requisition Form" (Doctor Who, Third Doctor & the Brigadier, 1,093 words, written for the Unsent Letters Exchange)

"Congratulations on Your Apotheosis" (Gravity Falls, Bill/Ford, 28,413 words, written for Gen Prompt Bingo)

"Meanwhile, Donna" (Doctor Who, Donna & Rose Noble, 100 words, written for Gen Prompt Bingo)

"We Don't Talk About That Here" (The Orville/Gravity Falls, Isaac, Sheriff Blubs, mentioned Blubs/Durland and Claire/Isaac, 1,611 words, written for A Ficathon Goes Into a Bar)

"At Least You Don't Have Food Poisoning" (RimWorld, OCs, 100 words, written for Gen Prompt Bingo)

"Maybe This Time" (Doctor Who, Twelfth Doctor/Missy, 2,599 words, written for the Just Married Exchange)

"Shooting Stars Break the Mold" (Gravity Falls, Ford & Mabel, 1,521 words, written for Gen Prompt Bingo)

"A Reevaluation of Prior Data" (The Orville, Kaylon Primary, 100 words, written as a treat for Seasons of Drabbles)

"Only Mistaken" (Gravity Falls, Ford & various, 600 words, written for Gen Prompt Bingo)

And now, the usual questions and answers. Once again, I've copied the same ones over from last year, because I'm far too lazy to go looking for new ones.

Q&A )

1996 Star Trek Merch

Jan. 2nd, 2026 07:41 pm
lennymacb: A portrait of Joseph Smith Jr edited to have long hair, golden eyes, and a chained neck like Alecto from The Locked Tomb series. (Default)
[personal profile] lennymacb posting in [community profile] little_details
Howdy! My screenplay takes place in rural North Dakota in November 1996, and two teenage characters are fans of Star Trek: The Next Generation. I know the bat'leth as a weapon was introduced in the show long ago, but when did replicas and toys become widely sold? Would it be realistic for a working-class young woman to have a mini bat'leth she could use as a knife in that year? I also read that the mek'leth (smaller Klingon scimitar) was introduced in DS9 and also appeared in First Contact. How early were replicas of those available to fans?
Thanks a million to you all! Would also love to hear any other miscellaneous stories or details of the TNG+DS9 fandom of the 90s, to give some extra oomph and care to an underrepresented community :)

2025 End-of-Year Writing Meme

Jan. 3rd, 2026 03:10 am
trobadora: (mightier)
[personal profile] trobadora
I haven't done this meme in a few years, but I thought I'd do it again this year!

My writing year started out strong; then I crashed for a few weeks in March, and by the time I was recovering, it all fell into a ditch due to work-related lack of time and sheer exhaustion. July and August ended up my worst writing months since the start of WED. But I recovered toward the end of the year, even though work picked up again in November, so the end result was pretty good anyway!

Some statistics:

Total number of posted stories in 2025: 12 - one fewer than in 2024; I hope to write more things again in 2026!

Total word count (posted): 88,174 - about 18k more than 2024: while I wrote fewer stories, many more of them were on the longer side. In fact, this is the second-highest amount of words I've posted in a year, only beaten by 2018 with 97,933 words.

Total word count (written): 155,611 - about 6k more than 2024. The last time I wrote more than this was in 2018; I hope to get back there some day.

Highest monthly word count (posted): 30,631 (December) - almost 20k of this is due to [community profile] ficinabox reveals being delayed for three weeks; the rest is Yuletide.

Highest monthly word count (written): 57,548 (February) - my best writing month since I started keeping track in a spreadsheet back in 2014! Of course part of that was that I ditched my [community profile] highadrenalineexchange fic post-deadline and wrote something entirely new, LOL. Maybe it's no wonder that I fell into a slump after HA reveals in early March. *g*

Most words written in a day: 6,583 (1st March) - the final rush to the HA finish line!
Fewest words written in a day: 1 (9th September) - before my writing started to recover a bit towards the end of the month.

Months I actually posted fic: 6 - one fewer than 2024.

more meme and numbers )

Do you have any fanfic or profic goals for the New Year?

Mainly, I want to write more words than in 2025, finish more stories, and post fic in more months.
sovay: (Lord Peter Wimsey: passion)
[personal profile] sovay
The afternoon's mail brought my contributor's copy of Not One of Us #85, containing my poem "The Avalon Procedure." It is the Arthurian one, in debt to and argument with Bryher. It belongs to the outsider issue which kicks off the 'zine's fortieth year of alienation, characteristically incarnated by the short fiction and poetry of Steve Toase, Devan Barlow, Lauren Hruska, and Gwynne Garfinkle among others. The threshold shadow of the cover art by John and Flo Stanton is an excellent advertisement, or harbinger. Pick up a copy or contribute to the strangeness yourself. I remain so glad it sneaked into our reality.

"These clocks are like Time herself. Magnificent edifices, but secretly fragile. In need of constant attention . . . Forgive me. My pet subject, Time." I didn't realize until I opened the jewel case that Sigil (2023) was dedicated to the memory of Murray Melvin: it was his last recording for Big Finish, released posthumously. It starts like a classic M. R. James with a series of weird and hauntological misfortunes attending a three-thousand-year-old bronze bird ever since its ill-omened excavation in the Victorian era and then it twists much more cosmic, with a pure sting of Sapphire & Steel. I can't tell if it was designed as a farewell, but it makes a tantalizing final communiqué from Bilis Manger, a gorgeous, wickedly silken and knowing performance from Melvin whose voice caresses a stone circle because it's "an ancient timepiece" and can put a harvest-withering contempt into a statement like "I've never owned a scatter cushion in my life." There's a sort of promotional interview at the end of the CD, but it poignantly does not include Melvin. The last we hear of him is in definitive character, so much time echoing backward and forward in his voice that was then eighty-nine human years old and still made you think there could be younger barrows, meadows, stars. "What could murder a murder of crows?"

I had no idea about this historical reenactment at Prospect Hill, but I am happy to read of its turnout in the new snow. I have not gotten the sestercentennial onto my mental calendar. I am still not convinced of this decade at all.

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thisbluespirit

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