dorchadas | Network

From Hong Kong,

thevetia and I flew to Hangzhou, China (~2 hours' flight). Hangzhou, a sprawling city of over 11 million, is the capital of Zhejiang Province and is most famous for its West Lake. It was the capital city of the Southern Song dynasty from 1132-1276. It's where Chinese tech giant Alibaba is headquartered, is home to several universities, and has been referred to as a tech capital/Silicon Valley. Zhejiang Province's history includes the Neolithic Liangzhu culture (~3300-2300 BCE), and the region is known for its longjing ("dragonwell") green tea.

( Hangzhou )

( Logistical stuff )

fred_mouse

I've managed to winkle out some of the books that didn't get spotted while I was doing the catalogue check in 2024 (which finished, for logistics reasons, in about February 2025).

And I've just looked at the number of tags that I have (>2K) and decided that is ridiculous. The first pass I'm doing is changing all the old location tags to [year] - last seen (not the 'unchecked/not yet seen' ones, those I'm going to think about some more). Because where any book was in 2021 (etc) is obviously not right, or I would have found it there in 2024. Once I've done that for all years prior to 2024, I'm going to go poke at the various 'unchecked' tags and see what is there.

other things I've noticed that I want to reorder

mythology should be mythology - [country]
awards should be awards: [name]
I have juvenile and kids and junior fiction and possibly some others, as well as a set of age: [...] categories; need to think what I want to do here.

luminousdaze posting in

iconthat

I Feel: ☃️ cold

https://iili.io/fkyrXqP.png

Next picture: Flight of the Conchords
Characters: Bret, Jemaine, Murray

Mod note: This challenge/activity will be open until Monday night. :)

halcyonine

new year new post whee. gathering by month this year, rather than by date finished

january
all systems red, martha wells
artificial condition, martha wells

wyld_dandelyon

I Feel: impatient
Current Location: My Music Room
I Hear: in progress

I got the G-D diatonic autoharp completely restrung over the last few days. With 36 steel strings, having to remove each old string and then having to slide each one under the chord bars, that takes a while. This time was worse than usual.

The old strings were very old. I decided to restring the whole thing because the harp just didn't sound good, no matter how in tune the strings were. Harsh is probably the best word for what I was hearing. The strings were all, to a greater or lesser degree, corroded, fragile, and/or stubbornly set in their ways. I had to use my small pliers and a good bit of force to get some of the strings out of the string anchor; and some of the strings broke in a way that left just enough in the pegs that getting ahold of the bits to get them out was challenging. Of course, those bits had to be removed before a new string could be fed through the hole and the peg tightened.

So it took a while!

But now all the strings are new and shiny, and each one sounds a lot better than the one it replaced. If played one at a time, which, of course, is not how you play an autoharp. 36 steel strings put a lot of tension on the frame, which, once the strings have settled in means the weather doesn't pull an autoharp out of tune nearly as much as a guitar. Not having tuning pegs designed for fingers also helps, since no light bump will detune a string. Usually you can let autoharp strings remain for quite a while, unless they break, and all instrument strings break from time to time. I have gotten pretty good at replacing one string at a time and manually stretching it so it settles down pretty quickly.

But all new strings? All stretching and settling in at the same time? It's going to be a while before I get the thing enough in tune to play a whole song without wincing. And then I bet I'll have to retune it after each song for a bit, since the strings will stretch differently in response to being played at first.

So I'm once again remembering my sister's adage: Slow progress is still progress.

Still, I am happy to have gotten this far. Maybe tomorrow I'll replace the strings on the guitar I play most often. Those strings don't sound as good as they used to either. And it won't take anywhere near so long to retune and get the strings settled in!

Update: This evening's retuning wasn't as bad as I expected. Maybe I did a better job of stretcing them as I put them in than I thought! Fingers crossed!

dine

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pigshitpoet posting in

onesongaday

I Hear: Dove · Cymande

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tielan

I had a week off work - I think it was more a "work doesn't want to see full numbers of people back in the office until halfway through January, so if there's anyone who can be taken off the work roster during this time, do it".

Which, I had generally a good week, got some good writing in, managed to rejig the part of Nullifae 1 which had been giving me trouble, and have sorted out the "losing the mentor" part of the story and how we get there. Also, discovered a few things that will be relevant in later books (when we get there). A relief.

On Tuesday, B1 and I went to see the Ashes 5th Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground, had a good day of watching Aussies bat, a couple of hundreds gained, one of my sister's favourite cricketers play what could well have been his last innings (but wasn't), and saw Australia get ahead to the tune of about 230 runs - a nice cushion.

On Monday, we lost a chicken.

tw: not a peaceful going

Carambar was supposed to be one of our 'long-lived' girls. We bought two of a newly-developed heritage breed that were supposed to lay many eggs while still keeping going. It might be that their bloodlines may need a bit more breeding to properly settle, because the first one died with possible neurological issues having never laid an egg, and Carambar only laid for about 12 months before developing complications with laying, and needing a chip to keep her from laying.

She was otherwise perfectly healthy and surviving well. Unfortunately, while both B1 and myself were away from home, the neighbour's dog got out, chased her out of the yard and under the house. When we got her out (after the neighbour came and reclaimed her dog), she had been bitten about the head enough that she was bleeding and injured, and when we got her to the vet it turned out her wing was broken. We didn't have the resources and energy to try to get her back to health, so we had to have her put down.

The neighbour paid for the vet bill, but we're still furious about her dogs. She's nearly 70 and has two bouncing, energetic young spaniel-type dogs that she has always struggled to keep on a leash, and which she's been nice white lady oblivious to anything but her joy in gossipy conversation when walking them. They're probably companionship for her - her son is married, and her daughter self-terminated about 7 years ago - but she's not up to controlling them, and they keep getting out of her place. She's always apologetic, but that doesn't stop the fact that one of our chickens died because of her dogs!

Anyway. That was the start of the week.

By Wednesday the temperatures were rising, by Saturday it was nutso. 42C by 6pm...and then our street power went off. Just our street. *sigh*

A friend invited me over for a swim, and I spent a lovely hour in her pool with her youngest daughter, and then about 20 minutes discussing politics with her husband, brother-in-law, and older daughter. And when I went home, the power was back on again.

Today - first day back at work - has been tiring, but nothing dire. I did go to the gym this morning, and ended up walking 1. I have a call to Jury Duty, but I suspect I can't get out of it this time. Although my boss has just messaged me - apparently contracting is considered 'self-employed', so I might have a chance not to lose 3 months worth of income...

apod_feed

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260111.html

This floating ring is the size of a galaxy.

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260111.html

wildeabandon

I did not entirely manage to get caught up with my planned revision before my first exam on Friday, but I got reasonably lucky with the questions. Only 6 marks out of 54 were on areas that I felt under prepared on, and when I got home it turned out that my somewhat educated guesses were pretty much spot on for at least four of those marks, so assuming that I got most of the rest right, I'm looking at a pretty solid mark, on one of my two weakest subjects. And once I had removed any further revision for that exam from my schedule, I was almost back on track.

This morning I have my Hebrew exam, and by last night was still feeling underprepared for that as well, but I got an early night (by my standards), and managed to get up at oh-god-this-is-going-to-bed-time-o'clock in the morning and finish it off. I'm feeling pretty confident about this one. It's mostly based on translating and answering questions on the grammar of seen texts, of which there are about 100 verses (Deuteronomy 5.6-12 and 6.4-9, 1 Samuel 9, 1 Samuel 20 and Psalm 13), which is little enough that I've basically memorised them, including all of the more unusual verb forms. There'll also be a little bit of unseen translation, with glosses for more unusual words. There isn't much one can do in terms of revising for that, but I'm hopeful that the work I've been doing on the seen texts, and also other bits of translation I've been doing for my essay and my Psalms class will have given my muscles a reasonable workout. So, for that matter, will the Ugaritic translation that I've been doing for that class, as the languages are pretty similar, and learning the ways that they're different has been cementing my understanding of both of them.

I've then got a couple of days off before my "Introduction to the Anthropology of Religion" exam on Thursday. That's my other weak subject, but the assessment was half by portfolio (a ~2500 word essay on a subject of our choice, plus six ~500 word responses to questions reflecting on six papers or documents), and the exam is essentially a viva of our portfolio, so again the revision required is fairly limited. Friday is Old Testament:Psalms and Wisdom Literature, another oral exam, which should be fairly easy to prepare for.

Then I've got a whole week off to prepare for Ugaritic and New Testament:Johannine Literature the following Monday and Tuesday. Ugaritic will be fairly similar to Hebrew, mostly translation of seen texts, although I think a bit harder because for at least some of it we'll be given the unvocalised texts and have to vocalise them (although we will get it transliterated rather than having to read the cuneiform). Also I think there's more text. It's 466 lines, and although that's a line on a tablet, which is considerably shorter than a verse in the bible, I'm fairly sure it's more words in total, even accounting for the fact that some of it is epic verse, and thus has quite a lot of repetition. There'll also be some unseen text, but we're allowed access to lexica and reference materials for that bit, so I hope that should be reasonably manageable.

As for the New Testament module, I'm not so much revising as vising, having skipped all the lectures except the first one. They're recorded, and we get given a list of 42 questions from which the exam will be chosen, so it's just a case of drafting bullet point responses to the questions as I listen to the lectures, and then memorising them. On the one hand, leaving it entirely to the last minute might seem a bit foolhardy, but on the other, at least everything will be fresh in my memory....

luthien

Challenge #6

Top 10 Challenge.

The category(ies) you choose are up to you. You can give top 10 Fics you read last year, the top 10 songs to create to, the to 10 guest stars on your favorite show, top 10 characters in your favorite book series, top 10... well, you get the idea.

Here's my Top 10 Shows of 2025, in no particular order:

( Top 10 under here )

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

which_chick

The weather sucks in January and I spend more time inside than outside, even for a relatively balmy January. This January I am working on an afghan for my couch. I spend a lot of time on my couch at home and it has "an afghan" but it's not a great one and I want a great one.

( As you know, Bob, I am a process knitter... )

merriamwebster_feed

https://www.merriam-webster.com/word-of-the-day/brackish-2026-01-12

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for January 12, 2026 is:

brackish • \BRACK-ish\ • adjective

Brackish, meaning “somewhat salty,” usually describes water or bodies of water, such as rivers, lakes, and estuaries. The word can also mean “not appealing to the taste” or “repulsive.”

// The river becomes brackish as we approach the tidemark.

See the entry >

Examples:

“The blood-testing organs don’t measure water levels but rather the concentration of salt, whose healthy range lies at almost exactly the same concentration as that of the brackish intertidal water in which vertebrates first evolved (which is about one-third as salty as seawater).” — Dan Samorodnitsky, Wired, 28 Sept. 2025

Did you know?

When the word brackish first appeared in English in the 1500s, it simply meant “salty,” as did its Dutch parent brac. Then, as now, brackish was used to describe water that was a mixture of saltwater and freshwater, such as one encounters where a river meets the sea. Since that time, however, brackish has developed the additional meanings of “unpalatable” and “repulsive,” presumably because of the oozy, mucky, and sometimes stinky (or stinkyish, if you prefer)—not just salty—qualities of coastal estuaries and swamps.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/word-of-the-day/brackish-2026-01-12

james_davis_nicoll

Had a person wander into the 2nd floor corridor looking for the women's washroom. Alas, our 2nd floor women's washroom stopped being functional this week end so all I had to offer was three gender neutral washrooms... one of which is usually the men's.

Then it occurred to me the corridor she came from is from the "new" part of Hagey, the accounting section. While she was hesitating, looking unhappy at the choices offered, I asked if that was where she was from. She said yes, so I told her that section has a very nice (zero barrier) women's on the main floor. Off she went.

Once she was gone, it struck me as odd that she would wander as far as old Hum looking for a washroom.t.

I mentioned this to my supervisor and yeah, apparently because it's an expansion of Hagey, it didn't have to have all the amenities an independent building of the same size would have to have. Thus the comparative lack of washrooms, and a total lack of elevators.

cornerofmadness

I Feel: depressed
I Hear: Killer Relationships

I don't have much. Today was frustrating. My power went out every 10-15 minutes from 9-2, just flicked on and off but every time it interrupted me trying to make sure my online class components were ready so I had to go to work to do it. I've spiraled down into a pretty big depressive episode today.

I know I was going to talk about open calls etc so let me ask you this, those of you using Duotrope, do you like it? Is it worth the money? I'm giving it hard consideration because too many open calls are going the theater audition route i.e. they post acceptances to duotrope only.

I have two dozen short stories that I think are decent enough to try and find a home for so I need better ways of finding markets. If you don't use duotrope, what do you use? What do you like about it? Thanks

Open Calls

Author Applications for “Beyond the Galactic Tide” are Now Open! Aces in Space. I would love to put in an application but I am not at all sure I could do a story in the time allotted (which isn't fast but my brain is a bag of snakes right now)

Sinister Systems SF Horror

Tales to Terrify : Women in Horror Month Flash Fiction Flash fiction from *previously unpublished authors* who are female-identified or femme-presenting

Defying Death

ECO25 The most compelling and thought-provoking ecofiction published in 2025

Doom Scroll Horror that is rooted in social dynamics, absurdism, and mundanity.

5 Paying Literary Magazines to Submit to in January 2026

51 Themed Submission Calls and Contests for January 2026

From Around the Web

How to Get Rid of Filter Words in Your Writing (and When to Leave Them Alone) This is even better than the site I've been using

The Crucial Ingredient Your Story May Be Missing

A Tale in Two Parts: Top Tips for Writing a Duology

The One Book Every Editor Wants to Publish

Writing builds resilience by changing your brain, helping you face everyday challenges

Unlocking Unforgettable Characters

How to Write What You Love and What Readers Want (Write Big, Ep 6)

Counting Down The Best Writing Tips From FWME In 2025

How to Balance Research and Writing.

From Betty

How to Write a Tournament Arc (for me I'm SO tired of this trope because I DO watch anime)

How to Write Short Stories That Captivate Readers

Depicting Characters Held Back by Fear

How to Describe Layout & Position

2026 Is the Year Writers Stop Being Invisible

What Developmental Editing Does for New Authors

Lighten Your Creative Load: A New Year Invitation

What a Difference a Day Makes

Make Retreats Part of Your Writing Life

Coping Mechanism Thesaurus Entry: Keeping Relationships Superficial

Helpful Picture Book Tips and Tricks (Plus a Giveaway!)

Tricks For Fixing A Sagging Middle

Tips for getting your creativity on track

What Football Teaches Writers About Success, Wins, and Perseverance

Choosing the Right Words: Why Word Choice Matters for Writers

How Secondary Characters Strengthen Plot, Character, and Story Flow

Publishing Paths for Writers: Understanding Independent Publishing and Long-Term Control

Why Writers Need to Change Their Passwords Now: Protecting Your Author Platform in the New Year

“Repair Shop” Your Manuscript

settiai

I Feel: accomplished

Ages ago, I said that I was going to start making posts about my various OCs in video game playthroughs since I mainly play TTRPGs. And then, you know, I never actually did it. So, since I actually managed to spend most of yesterday and today playing Baldur's Gate 3, let's talk about the playthrough that I focused on. Minor spoilers for early Act 3 and a few very, very broad ones for Acts 1-2.

Meet Taviana.

( More under the cut. )

tielan

The Sum of Their Parts (138205 words) by holdmybeer
Chapters: 11/11
Fandom: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Characters: Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley, George Weasley, Neville Longbottom, Susan Bones, Kingsley Shacklebolt, Portrait Dorea Black Potter, Andromeda Black Tonks, Dean Thomas, Ernie Macmillan, Anthony Goldstein, Hannah Abbott, Molly Weasley, Teddy Lupin, Fleur Delacour
Additional Tags: trio, Oaths & Vows, Dark Lord Harry Potter
Summary:

For Teddy Lupin, Harry Potter would become a Dark Lord. For Teddy Lupin, Harry Potter would take down the Ministry or die trying. He should have known that Hermione and Ron wouldn't let him do it alone.

--

Welp.

I never read much HP fiction for the most part, even when the fandom was a big thing. But this? I think I saw a post on Pinterest that mentioned a Dark Lord Harry story and I went looking for it.

Hoo boy. Did I find it!

This is a full and satisfying and complete read. It's the kind of thing that I, as someone who's been writing in fandom, would love to have written. It's hugely popular (at least by my standards) and brilliantly done.

Character-perfect, with a believable plot, and excellent extrapolations, it marks the story of how Harry takes on the Ministry of Magic in an attempt to make the Wizarding World better, never mind that it will see him labelled a 'Dark Lord' and enemy of the Ministry. And sweet holy FUCK does it do a spectacular job of telling the story!

There are some really excellent lines in there, but the one that made me laugh out loud, even in the midst of dark shit going down was:

“Bad Dark Lord. Bad! No biscuit,” George said. Then he smiled, a little wry and a little tired. “I won't let you take the fall when I'm the one cheerfully working with a Dark Lord. You can't defend yourself under Veritaserum. Why should I?”

The author doesn't have any other works to their name; this is a one-shot under a psued (nobody drops this quality of writing out of nowhere), and it's bloody good.

It's long - 11 hours reading time, or so AO3 helpfully informs us, so set aside a good couple of days for it in-between your regular programming. Or else be prepared to binge-read it in the oldest traditions of fandom.

mxcatmoon posting in

vocab_drabbles

This week's word is

Futile

[ˈfjuːtʌɪl]

adjective

Incapable of producing any useful result; pointless:
"A futile attempt to keep fans from mounting the stage."

silveradept

I Hear: ROZEN - Midna's Darkest Hour

snowflake_challenge has sent up number 6 on the challenge list, and it's one of the ones I struggle more with than not, the recommendations-related one.

Every challenge we try to make at least one rec post, and each year, we try to find a new way to make it fun for everyone. This year's attempt:

Challenge #6

Top 10 Challenge.

The category(ies) you choose are up to you. You can give top 10 Fics you read last year, the top 10 songs to create to, the to 10 guest stars on your favorite show, top 10 characters in your favorite book series, top 10... well, you get the idea.

Can't think of 10 of anything? That's okay, 10 is just an abstract. It's totally up to you.

This is one of those situations where being profoundly multifannish is a disadvantage, because a top ten list of anything may or may not make it to me. Or I might not get so deeply into a fandom to where there would be enough material for a top ten list. And while I read and enjoy the gifts that get sent my way in the various exchanges that I participate in, they don't necessarily cohere to any kind of top ten list of anything, either.

Eventually, a random idea will settle into my head, and I can go forward with it and see what might happen from there. So, here you are:

( 10 roles one person played during my formative years )

lightbird

Challenge #6

Top 10 Challenge. Post your answer to today’s challenge in your own space and leave a comment in this post saying you did it.

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.

My top 10 film noirs!

(10) The Big Sleep (1946 original)

(9) The Maltese Falcon

(8) Diabolique (original 1955)

(7) M (original 1931)

(6) Key Largo

(5) Laura

(4) Shadow of a Doubt

(3) The Third Man

(2) Sunset Boulevard

(1) Double Indemnity

I was originally writing commentary for each, then I lost the post/it got overwritten and I couldn't piece it back together. So I just did the list, lol.

Previous Days
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5

snopes_feed

Posted by Jack Izzo

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/venezuela-project-2025-latin-america/

The claim surfaced following U.S. President Donald Trump's military intervention in Venezuela.

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/venezuela-project-2025-latin-america/

tielan

Snowflake Challenge: A warmly light quaint street of shops at night with heavy snow falling.

In your own space, create a list of at least three things you'd love to receive, a wishlist of sorts.

0. No generative AI works.

1. An epic fanfic about any of my favourite fannish pairings or characters. I'd love new stuff, because I've mostly read through all the old, but I'd also take recs. I love action-adventure, drama, real conflict, internal questioning, and not-a-black-and-white-outlook. Complex questions and thorny problems that are dealt with by emotionally mature and politically savvy adults.

MCU

Maria Hill
Maria Hill & any character
Maria Hill/Steve Rogers

There are other pairings and characters I like in MCU, but those are easy to find. These are stories that I really really want and very few are willing or capable of writing them. So I ask.

I'll take AUs, vignettes, missing scenes, friendships, that really long epic story that nobody but me will ever write... I'm happy with just Maria-centric, but I want it in the context of the Avengers movies, not her taken out into another context. I want it to be her story, with cameos and interactions from the familiar characters - but she's the main character with the chief agency of the story. People can write it for random female (and male) characters throughout the canon, I just would love to read the equivalent for Maria.

Ignore Secret Invasion. It was stupid.

PS. If you're giving recs, if it's at AO3, I've probably already read it..

Pacific Rim

Mako Mori & anyone
Mako Mori/Raleigh Becket

One of the things I enjoy about this is seeing how Mako and Raleigh actually vibe together when they're not having to save the world by going through each others' minds. And really anything about Mako and her relationships with the people in the Shatterdomes. Even Chuck.

Ignore Pacific Rim: Uprising. Whoever wrote that missed the entire point of the original movie.

Stargate Atlantis

Teyla Emmagan
Teyla Emmagan/John Sheppard
Team

Again, one of those 'I can pick a needle in a haystack' options. Not the kind of thing most people will write (or would have written, back in the long ago days of SGA fandom) but still something that I long for and enjoy.

The best I get is the Stargate Atlantis: Legacy series of books, which is a six book "Season 6" for Stargate Atlantis, complete with plot arcs, character development, space battles, and a definitive 'ending' for the Wraith storyline. It does it inventively and cleverly, and doesn't leave any of the characters out. Which is something that one could never count on, even in the canon.

If anyone would like to write the story of the Stargate Project twenty years later - with Teyla as a major character - I would love to read that.

Stargate SG1

Sam Carter/Jack O'Neill
Team (whether with Daniel, Jonas, or Cameron)

One thing I really did enjoy about SG1 fandom was the number of longform fics there used to be for the team and for Sam in particular. Plot arcs, big long epics, and often a bit of Sam/Jack romance, with or without regs.

Ah, it was long ago.

Bridgerton

Kate Sharma
Anthony Bridgerton/Kate Sharma

Look, I'm a simple soul. I want a better story of their romance than they got. The series was too busy trying to launch Queen Charlotte, so they had Edwina be the sympathetic character to the Queen and the King at a point when they're just "old people" so that there was some interest in "what's their backstory" and they could get people to watch the other series.

If you have recs for this one, I'll take them. I haven't really trawled through the archive for this - too much risk of dross

Star Wars - Prequel-to-Original

Padme Amidala

Okay, so I've seen a few people ponder how the story might have played out if Padme had survived and been organised in the resistance.

I'd like recs for this. If you want to write your own story, that's fine, but I figure the fandom is wide enough and deep enough and broad enough and talented enough to already have those stories. I'd love to see Luke and Leia growing up knowing who and what they are and whether that makes a difference to who they become as adults.

2. Detailed comments on any of my fanfics. The more detailed the better!

3. A publishing contract. Or even the opportunity to sub to an agent. I have a finished manuscript, first draft, it presently sucks. I hope to have it whipped into basic shape in a month. There are some lovely people who are willing to plough through the early drafts, but in the end, there's nothing like an agent.

Hey, if you're going to aim high, why not shoot for the moon? :D

princessofgeeks

I Feel: impressed

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has marked as possibly inappropriate for anyone under the age of 18. )

hamsterwoman

Challenge #5: In your own space, create a list of at least three things you'd love to receive, a wishlist of sorts.

-

fandomtrees reveals got pushed to Jan 17 because there are still some trees (16 as of this posting) that don’t have the minimum amount of gifts (at least 2) necessary for reveals. So, any fills for the needy trees listed here (real-time updates at the Google spreadsheet). Most of the fandoms I don’t know anything about (but hopefully some of you do!), but of the ones I do, there’s a request for the Raven Cycle, Discworld, and some Original Work requests, and a niche rec request.

- My tree does have the minimum number of gifts, so is not holding up the fest opening, but does list all kinds of things I want (fandoms: Chronicles of Amber, Discworld, Dragaera, Rivers of London, Taskmaster, Terra Ignota, Vorkosigan Saga, and critter art).

( More specific requests for Dragaera, Taskmaster, Elis&John fandoms and crossovers/fusions )

- I included this in last year’s Snowflake wishlist and it worked really well, so doing it again: I'm planning on Doing the Hugo Awards (and hopefully Worldcon) this year, and have just recently come to the realization that if I'm going to nominate some short fiction, I should actually, like, read some that was published in 2025. So, looking for recs for "Hugo-worthy" SFF short stories and novelettes published in 2025 that are ideally accessible online. Authors who tend to semi-reliably work for me in short form are Sarah Pinsker, Kelly Link, and Naomi Kritzer, to give some sense of what I like. And also happy for any recs for published-in-2025 novellas, Related Works, and dramatic presentation short form things (<90 min) that are standalone (i.e. not episodes of a serial show, but either a short(ish) film or part of an anthology show but standalone), and Astounding-eligible authors to check out.

Challenge #6: Top 10 Challenge. The category(ies) you choose are up to you. You can give top 10 Fics you read last year, the top 10 songs to create to, the to 10 guest stars on your favorite show, top 10 characters in your favorite book series, top 10... well, you get the idea.

After some consideration, I’m going to do my Top 10 Dragons :) I’m currently reading a book with dragons (To Shape a Dragon’s Breath, which I’m enjoying a lot), whose dragons are, so far, somewhat different than I’d been expecting, and that’s been making me think about various other fictional dragons I’ve known and loved and the universes they come from, so I figured I’d make a list of my favorites.

They can be dragons that can assume human form, or even spend most of their time in said human form, but they can’t be just humans who are for some reason called Dragons (i.e. no Sarkan from Uprooted or the Dragaeran Dragonlords). Moreover, I tried to keep it to one dragon per canon. So here we go!

( Top 10 dragons )

What about YOUR favorite dragons? Introduce me / sway me over to any I might've missed, or squee with me about my favorites :)

*

I think I was actually low-key avoiding the Taskmaster New Year Treat because I subconsciously resented it for being 2 episodes when I wanted CoC to be 2 episodes, lol. But I have watched it now, and it was fun!

Part 1 – Ooh, I knew one of the contestants (Rose) was deaf, but it was still jarring to see her interpreter sitting there next to Alex. Alex’s banter (OBE/oboe) and the several layers of bad joke was pretty fun. ( More, with spoilers )

My midpoint impressions are that I do enjoy Susie, but in exactly the same way I enjoyed her on Catsdown, so the “revelations” are Sam and Rose, who are both extremely adorable cuties whose cheeks I want to pinch. I’m very meh on the others – Jill’s doing well, but is a bit deadpan for me, and also I’m not a fan of how she brings up football all the time – like, I don’t feel like I’ve learned anything about her outside of her football career (in stark contrast to David James, who mentioned some footballers or travels associated with playing football, but talked about things like painting and just came across as a delightful massive weirdo – IDK, goalkeepers are different, I guess, was the consensus at the time). Apparently even the cat costume, which I did find cute, is a football reference, to her local football team, which someone on Reddit said she said in the studio taping. And Big Zuu is just kind of there… It sounds like he’s a charming person to work with, from all the podcasts, but as a viewer I have not been charmed.

Anyway, I don’t mind spending another episode with these guys!

Part 2 – Greg made me laugh out loud with his Alex intro: ( More, with spoilers )

And of course there was also the Series 21 cast reveal. ( Spoilers? )

I still have some Taskmaster stuff to catch up on – Acaster’s ultimate episode, the next installment of Taskmastermind, and some outtakes. But meanwhile ( WILTY has returned and is being a lot of fun )

dialecticdreamer

I Feel: blank

Breaking Bread and Breaking an Impasse
By Dialecticdreamer/Sarah Williams
Part 2 of 2, complete
Word count (story only): 1061
[Monday, May 11, 2020, late afternoon]

:: The Teagues’ preparation for a dinner guest is interrupted. Part of the Edison’s Mirror universe. ::

Conversation lagged for several minutes.

Garegin shivered, swallowed, and turned to Aidan. Curiosity slowly brightened the depths of his walnut-brown eyes. “What were you talking about, something with onions, earlier?”

Aidan nodded, accepting the distraction. “There is an enormous supply of onions at the food bank because a shipment was made in error, and they are taking up so much room that other goods cannot be stored. I mentioned making pickled onions, which I can do if I have the large crocks. The vinegar would have to be purchased as I don’t have a month to make it from scratch, which is disappointing.”

The younger man leaned into the idea as if it were a life raft on a stormy sea. “Have you ever used canning jars?”
( Read more... )

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dorchadas

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Another rainy day

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