Marking myself safe
May. 23rd, 2025 08:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nanilaFor those who might have been worried, I did indeed pass through Hamburg train station today on my way back home, and I have not been stabbed.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm26v7n5y4eo.amp
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm26v7n5y4eo.amp
20 + 7 icons for retro_icontest
May. 23rd, 2025 08:12 pmtinnyOoof, I picked the by far most time-consuming challenge from ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
somein30 for our current retro_icontest round: All Things Random! I regret nothing! :D First I had to create all the randomized sets for the 13 people who signed up (7 of them entered sets, that's a great turnout!), and then I had to make my own set, and some of those prompts were *hard*!
This is the fourth time I've done this, the previous times are here and here and here.
Teasers:
( Here are all 20 icons without comments )
And then here's the same thing again (in a different order!) with prompts and inspirations and my comments:
( annotated table )
Comments are love - and concrit, too. <3 Take and use as many icons as you like, credit is appreciated. Texture and brush makers: here in my resource post.
Previous icon posts:
somein30 for our current retro_icontest round: All Things Random! I regret nothing! :D First I had to create all the randomized sets for the 13 people who signed up (7 of them entered sets, that's a great turnout!), and then I had to make my own set, and some of those prompts were *hard*!This is the fourth time I've done this, the previous times are here and here and here.
Teasers:
( Here are all 20 icons without comments )
And then here's the same thing again (in a different order!) with prompts and inspirations and my comments:
( annotated table )
Comments are love - and concrit, too. <3 Take and use as many icons as you like, credit is appreciated. Texture and brush makers: here in my resource post.
because I'm at it again ...
May. 23rd, 2025 07:38 pmtrobadoraAfter finishing my 520 Day fic, I'm not exactly writing a lot, though I am trying to get into the flow again, but I've been thinking about it, because this sort of thing happens to me so often after I finish something, or even while I'm in the middle of it. So, poll!
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 12
When I write or finish a fic, I think about (or actually start) a sequel ...
These sequels are actually finished and posted ...
Ticky boxes?
View Answers
ticky boxes!
4 (40.0%)
more tickyboxes
3 (30.0%)
tickyboxes propagating further tickyboxes
10 (100.0%)
Book Review Poll
May. 23rd, 2025 10:18 amrachelmanijaI have been reading much more than I've been reviewing. So...
Have you read any of these? What did you think?
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 42
Which of these books would you MOST like me to review?
View Answers
When the Wolf Comes Home, by Nat Cassidy. Horror novel about an out of work actress on the run with a little boy.
3 (7.1%)
The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi, by Shannon Chakraborty. The rollicking adventures of a middle-aged mom PIRATE in fantasy medieval Middle East.
20 (47.6%)
Diary of a Witchcraft Shop, by Trevor Jones and Liz Williams. What it says on the can: a diary of owning a witchcraft shop in Glastonbury.
10 (23.8%)
Sisters of the Vast Black, by Nina Rather. SPACE NUNS aboard a GIANT SPACE SEA SLUG.
17 (40.5%)
Making Bombs for Hitler, by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch. Children's historical fiction about Ukrainian children kidnapped and enslaved in WWII, by a Ukrainian-Canadian author.
4 (9.5%)
Under One Banner, by Graydon Saunders. Commonweal # 4!
6 (14.3%)
Archangel (etc), by Sharon Shinn. Lost colony romantic SF about genetically engineered angels.
8 (19.0%)
The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, by Stuart Turton. Historical murder mystery with time loops and body switching.
7 (16.7%)
Irontown Blues, by John Varley. Faux-noir SF with an intelligent dog.
3 (7.1%)
Blood Over Bright Haven, by M. L. Wang. Standalone fantasy that kind of looks like romantast but isn't, with anvillicious anti-colonial themes.
6 (14.3%)
An Immense World, by Ed Yong. Outstanding nonfiction about how animals sense the world.
14 (33.3%)
Spring, Summer, Asteroid, Bird: The Art of Eastern Storytelling, by Henry Lien ("Peasprout Chen"). Nonfiction, what it says on the can. Not all stories are in three acts!
12 (28.6%)
Blacktongue Thief, by Christopher Buehlman. World's greatest D&D campaign in a truly fucked world.
8 (19.0%)
Have you read any of these? What did you think?
acorn bread and açaí
May. 23rd, 2025 12:00 pmasakiyumeacorn bread
The leftover acorn meal I had in my fridge had gone moldy! Ah well. Fortunately I had acorns left over from last time, so I ground those up, leached them, dried them, and yesterday made a loaf of ... well it's mainly white bread--three cups white flour--but also a cup of acorn meal. So I am going to call it acorn bread, the same way you call a thing banana bread even though it's not mainly bananas.
Behold its majesty!
I still have leftover meal from this batch of acorns, but I will not make the same mistake twice by letting it linger. I intend to make acorn pancakes, or perhaps I'll use it to make some kind of meatballs or fish cakes.
Açaí
Or asaí, as they spell in in Colombia. We in America use the Brazilian (i.e., Portuguese) spelling. In Tikuna it's waira.
Açaí juice (wairachiim) is so beloved in the Amazon. And with reason--it's GREAT. Drink it sweetened, and with fariña, and it's a real pick-me-up:
The Açaí palms are very tall and very skinny. Traditionally, harvesting the berries involves a not-very-heavy person shimmying up the palm with a knife and cutting off the bunches of berries, as in the YouTube short below. (I say traditionally because in some parts of Brazil I think there are now large plantations, and they may have a mechanized way of doing this. But still--I gather--many many people do it the unmechanized way.)
The video specifies Brazil, but it'll be true anywhere that açai grows
My tutor's dad does this. Here's a picture not of her dad but of her boyfriend with a bunch of berries--gives a sense of how big they are:
And the process of making the juice is really labor intensive too. Here's my tutor's mom pounding it. You add water as you go along:
This year the river has really risen high, and in talking about it, my tutor said her dad had been able to go out in canoe and collect the asaí really easily. And I was thinking... wait... you mean the river's risen so high that he's up near the top of the trees? Is that what she's telling me?
I wasn't sure, so I did this picture in MS word (b/c I have no digital drawing tools) and sent it to her and asked, You mean like this?
And she said, "Yes, exactly."
Mind = blown.
The leftover acorn meal I had in my fridge had gone moldy! Ah well. Fortunately I had acorns left over from last time, so I ground those up, leached them, dried them, and yesterday made a loaf of ... well it's mainly white bread--three cups white flour--but also a cup of acorn meal. So I am going to call it acorn bread, the same way you call a thing banana bread even though it's not mainly bananas.
Behold its majesty!
I still have leftover meal from this batch of acorns, but I will not make the same mistake twice by letting it linger. I intend to make acorn pancakes, or perhaps I'll use it to make some kind of meatballs or fish cakes.
Açaí
Or asaí, as they spell in in Colombia. We in America use the Brazilian (i.e., Portuguese) spelling. In Tikuna it's waira.
Açaí juice (wairachiim) is so beloved in the Amazon. And with reason--it's GREAT. Drink it sweetened, and with fariña, and it's a real pick-me-up:
The Açaí palms are very tall and very skinny. Traditionally, harvesting the berries involves a not-very-heavy person shimmying up the palm with a knife and cutting off the bunches of berries, as in the YouTube short below. (I say traditionally because in some parts of Brazil I think there are now large plantations, and they may have a mechanized way of doing this. But still--I gather--many many people do it the unmechanized way.)
My tutor's dad does this. Here's a picture not of her dad but of her boyfriend with a bunch of berries--gives a sense of how big they are:
And the process of making the juice is really labor intensive too. Here's my tutor's mom pounding it. You add water as you go along:
This year the river has really risen high, and in talking about it, my tutor said her dad had been able to go out in canoe and collect the asaí really easily. And I was thinking... wait... you mean the river's risen so high that he's up near the top of the trees? Is that what she's telling me?
I wasn't sure, so I did this picture in MS word (b/c I have no digital drawing tools) and sent it to her and asked, You mean like this?
And she said, "Yes, exactly."
Mind = blown.
Episode 3 Available Now
May. 23rd, 2025 10:47 ammarthawellsIt's Murderbot Day again, though the episode actually dropped yesterday on Murderbot Eve.
Here's an interview with David Goyer where he says nice things about me:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/timlammers/2025/05/22/murderbot-ep-david-s-goyer-on-alexander-skarsgrd-and-staying-true-to-martha-wells-books/
“No one was interested. They were like, ‘This is just RoboCop’ and we were like, ‘No, it's not at all. It's the anti-RoboCop,'” Goyer recalled. “It's about neurodivergence. It's about humanity.”
And an interview with Paul and Chris:
https://arstechnica.com/culture/2025/05/the-making-of-apple-tvs-murderbot/
Paul Weitz: The first book, All Systems Red, had a really beautiful ending. And it had a theme that personhood is irreducible. The idea that, even with this central character you think you get to know so well, you can't reduce it to ways that you think it's going to behave—and you shouldn't. The idea that other people exist and that they shouldn't be put into whatever box you want to put them into felt like something that was comforting to have in one's pocket. If you're going to spend so much time adapting something, it's really great if it's not only fun but is about something.
Here's an interview with David Goyer where he says nice things about me:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/timlammers/2025/05/22/murderbot-ep-david-s-goyer-on-alexander-skarsgrd-and-staying-true-to-martha-wells-books/
“No one was interested. They were like, ‘This is just RoboCop’ and we were like, ‘No, it's not at all. It's the anti-RoboCop,'” Goyer recalled. “It's about neurodivergence. It's about humanity.”
And an interview with Paul and Chris:
https://arstechnica.com/culture/2025/05/the-making-of-apple-tvs-murderbot/
Paul Weitz: The first book, All Systems Red, had a really beautiful ending. And it had a theme that personhood is irreducible. The idea that, even with this central character you think you get to know so well, you can't reduce it to ways that you think it's going to behave—and you shouldn't. The idea that other people exist and that they shouldn't be put into whatever box you want to put them into felt like something that was comforting to have in one's pocket. If you're going to spend so much time adapting something, it's really great if it's not only fun but is about something.
Fantasy Romance, Meredith Duran, & More
May. 23rd, 2025 03:30 pm![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png){kind=small}
smartbitches_feedA Demon’s Guide to Wooing a Witch
A Demon’s Guide to Wooing a Witch by Sarah Hawley is $1.99! This is book two in the Glimmer Falls series, which didn’t work for me as I prefer my paranormal romances to be a little darker. The heroine is a gym rat witch and the hero is a snarky demon with amnesia.
Calladia Cunnington curses the day she met Astaroth the demon, but when he shows up memoryless, why does she find him so helpless . . . and sort of hot?
Calladia Cunnington knows she’s rough around the edges, despite being the heir to one of small-town Glimmer Falls’ founding witch families. While her gym obsession is a great outlet for her anxieties and anger, her hot temper still gets the best of her and manifests in bar brawls. When Calladia saves someone from a demon attack one night, though, she’s happy to put her magic and rage to good use . . . until she realizes the man she saved is none other than Astaroth, the ruthless demon who orchestrated a soul bargain on her best friend.
Astaroth is a legendary soul bargainer and one of the nine members of the demon high council—except he can’t remember any of this. Suffering from amnesia after being banished to the mortal plane, Astaroth doesn’t know why a demon named Moloch is after him, nor why the muscular, angry, hot-in-a-terrifying-way witch who saved him hates him so much.
Unable to leave anyone in such a vulnerable state—even the most despicable demon—Calladia grudgingly decides to help him. (Besides, punching an amnesiac would be in poor taste.) The two set out on an uneasy road trip to find the witch who might be able to restore Astaroth’s memory so they can learn how to defeat Moloch. Calladia vows that once Astaroth is cured, she’ll kick his ass, but the more time she spends with the snarky yet utterly charming demon, the more she realizes she likes this new, improved Astaroth . . . and maybe she doesn’t want him to recover his memories, after all.
The Jasad Heir
The Jasad Heir by Sara Hashem is $2.99 and a Kindle Daily Deal! This is book one in The Scorched Throne series. I heard about this one through a reading newsletter one of my friends sends out. She isn’t a big romance reader, but had great things to say about this fantasy romance.
Ten years ago, the kingdom of Jasad burned. Its magic outlawed; its royal family murdered down to the last child. At least, that’s what Sylvia wants people to believe.
The lost Heir of Jasad, Sylvia never wants to be found. She can’t think about how Nizahl’s armies laid waste to her kingdom and continue to hunt its people—not if she wants to stay alive. But when Arin, the Nizahl Heir, tracks a group of Jasadi rebels to her village, staying one step ahead of death gets trickier.
In a moment of anger Sylvia’s magic is exposed, capturing Arin’s attention. Now, to save her life, Sylvia will have to make a deal with her greatest enemy. If she helps him lure the rebels, she’ll escape persecution.
A deadly game begins. Sylvia can’t let Arin discover her identity even as hatred shifts into something more. Soon, Sylvia will have to choose between the life she wants and the one she left behind. The scorched kingdom is rising, and it needs a queen.
In this Egyptian-inspired debut fantasy, a fugitive queen strikes a deadly bargain with her greatest enemy and finds herself embroiled in a complex game that could resurrect her scorched kingdom or leave it in ashes forever.
The Wraith King
The Wraith King by Juliette Cross is 99c at Amazon! I mentioned this on Get Rec’d because I was certainly suckered in by a Goodreads ad. I’ve also had good experiences with Cross’s books in the past.
A brutal, bloody war against the ruthless Wraith King has cost the light fae more than innocent lives. Una Hartstone, Princess of Issos, learns the price the Wraith King demands to end the war once and for all. Her. In exchange for the safety of her people, she agrees to give her life—and her body—to her greatest enemy.
Gollaya Verbane is determined to fulfill his destiny and his god’s prophecy. When his seer points to the Princess of Issos as the key to the rise of the dark fae, he demands her submission. But when she finally yields, he realizes Una is much more to him than a priceless weapon.
A mystery that has haunted Una for years awakens when she is abducted and dragged back to Näkt Mir. The palace hides many dark secrets…and at least one traitor. A traitor determined to take King Goll’s throne—and all he possesses. What he doesn’t know is that Una’s magick is more powerful than he can imagine, and that Goll will burn the whole world to save her.
The Duke of Shadows
The Duke of Shadows by Meredith Duran is $3.99! We always get lots of comments when we feature a Duran title; many are hoping she’ll return to writing someday. If you need hope, I found a Reddit thread that mentioned Duran had updated her “About” page in the last couple years and makes references to finishing a manuscript. Sarah reviewed it back in 2008 and gave it a B-:
Julian was tortured and noble, and though he didn’t change so much as come to own himself and the power at his disposal in both of the cultures that shaped him, his journey was fascinating. Julian was marvelous, and did things I wished heroes in other historical novels would do, including beating the ever living shit out of someone who truly deserved it, and being vindicated for doing so. YUM.
In a debut romance as passionate and sweeping as the British Empire, Meredith Duran paints a powerful picture of an aristocrat torn between two worlds, an heiress who dares to risk everything…and the love born in fire and darkness that nearly destroys them.
From exotic sandstone palaces…
Sick of tragedy, done with rebellion, Emmaline Martin vows to settle quietly into British Indian society. But when the pillars of privilege topple, her fiancé’s betrayal leaves Emma no choice. She must turn for help to the one man whom she should not trust, but cannot resist: Julian Sinclair, the dangerous and dazzling heir to the Duke of Auburn.
To the marble halls of London…
In London, they toast Sinclair with champagne. In India, they call him a traitor. Cynical and impatient with both worlds, Julian has never imagined that the place he might belong is in the embrace of a woman with a reluctant laugh and haunted eyes. But in a time of terrible darkness, he and Emma will discover that love itself can be perilous — and that a single decision can alter one’s life forever.
Destiny follows wherever you run.
A lifetime of grief later, in a cold London spring, Emma and Julian must finally confront the truth: no matter how hard one tries to deny it, some pasts cannot be disowned…and some passions never die.
Aunt Tigress by Emily Yu-Xuan Qin
May. 23rd, 2025 09:52 amjames_davis_nicoll
News that her supernatural aunt has been murdered upends a young woman's life.
Aunt Tigress by Emily Yu-Xuan Qin
The Fifth of the Recced Book Reviews: Calling Bullshit: The Art of Skepticism
May. 23rd, 2025 09:44 ambethbethbethOn May 8th, I offered to read the first five books people recced - assuming they were available (preferably from the library) - and I'd give a short review [https://bethbethbeth.dreamwidth.org/701769.html].
This is the fifth recced book review.
Calling Bullshit: The Art of Skepticism (2020) by Jevin D. West & Carl T. Bergstrom (recced by Snakeling)
So glad this was recced, especially since the 5 years since publication has seen bullshit grow ever more ubiquitous ("Blah blah this administration blah blah.")
The book touches on so many things: linguistics, whether animals can bullshit, the debunked but not-dead-yet theories of Wakefield about Autism, the way technology (inc. the printing press) has changed how we bullshit, communication theory, etc. And that's just in the first 2 chapters!
It also looks at ways of assessing whether something's bullshit, even when we don't have a background in the field (e.g., if we don't have expertise in vaccine side effects), and when & where - if possible - to refute bullshit when you see it (w/o being that "Well, actually...." person)
Caveat: I had to get the audiobook (regular print & digital books had 2 month waits). This proved to be a problem because some of the scientific examples were relatively technical and required referring to downloadable pdfs of graphs, charts, illustrations etc.
OverDrive used to allow audiobook downloads, even after Libby was introduced, but OverDrive no longer exists and Libby doesn't allow PDF downloading. This made following some of the arguments difficult.
What I'm saying is...if at all possible, read the book instead of getting the audiobook.
This is the fifth recced book review.
Calling Bullshit: The Art of Skepticism (2020) by Jevin D. West & Carl T. Bergstrom (recced by Snakeling)
So glad this was recced, especially since the 5 years since publication has seen bullshit grow ever more ubiquitous ("Blah blah this administration blah blah.")
The book touches on so many things: linguistics, whether animals can bullshit, the debunked but not-dead-yet theories of Wakefield about Autism, the way technology (inc. the printing press) has changed how we bullshit, communication theory, etc. And that's just in the first 2 chapters!
It also looks at ways of assessing whether something's bullshit, even when we don't have a background in the field (e.g., if we don't have expertise in vaccine side effects), and when & where - if possible - to refute bullshit when you see it (w/o being that "Well, actually...." person)
Caveat: I had to get the audiobook (regular print & digital books had 2 month waits). This proved to be a problem because some of the scientific examples were relatively technical and required referring to downloadable pdfs of graphs, charts, illustrations etc.
OverDrive used to allow audiobook downloads, even after Libby was introduced, but OverDrive no longer exists and Libby doesn't allow PDF downloading. This made following some of the arguments difficult.
What I'm saying is...if at all possible, read the book instead of getting the audiobook.
(#050: Stolen.) Tsukihime Fic: I Will Insist (With Pretty Scars Upon My Wrists).
May. 23rd, 2025 09:39 am
Ostrich
May. 23rd, 2025 05:39 amsartoriasIt'a tough to engage with the world and its events when the media largely pursues a bread-and-circuses approach in order to catch attention. I realize that that attitude doesn't come out of nowhere, that human beings do turn to look and linger at a crash site.
But it does no good whatsoever for anyone to feel my heart tearing in pieces over any news coming out of Washington DC, either engendered by the assclowns currently infesting governmental centers, or in the environs (the recent shooting) so my intention to ostrich becomes more vigorous. What's more, the spouse, who usually watches the news every waking moment, even turned off the yatter yesterday.
I try to fill my time with purpose and pleasure that harms no one. Plan things I hope will bring pleasure to others, like: my sister's seventieth is coming up. I took a slew of our old super eight films to a place to get them converted and color corrected, to surprise her with--I hope. One of those super-eights is from 1948, when the parents' generation were all young, all those voices gone now. Most of the films are from the sixties and early seventies, before my parents split; then they start up again in the eighties with my spouse having bought us a camera.
It's going to take time to convert that stuff--the small box I chose will be just under a grand. Phew. But I've been waiting years for the price to come down, and I figure I daren't wait any longer.
In just for me, I'm busy reworking some very early stories. And realizing that ostriching was a defense mechanism that started in when I was very young, coming out in my passion for escape-reading and for storytelling.
The storytelling urge was very nearly a physical reaction,a kind of invisible claw right behind my ribs, partly that urge, and partly a shiver of anticipation. I can remember it very clearly when I was six years old, in first grade. I already knew how to read, but that was the grade in which public schools in LA taught reading, so I got to sit by myself and draw while the others were taught the alphabet and phonics. Writing stories was laborious, and I got frustrated easily if I didn't know how to spell a word, but I learned fast that adults only had about three words' of patience in them before they chased me off with a "Go play!" or, if I was especially mosquito-ish, "Go clean your room!" or "Wash the dishes!" (That started when I turned 7)
But drawing was easy, and I could narrate to myself as I illustrated the main events. So I did that over and over as the other kids struggled thru Dick and Jane. This became habit, and gave me a focus away from the social evolution of cliques--I do recall trying to make myself follow the alpha girl of that year (also teacher's pet, especially the following year) but I found her interests so boring I went back to my own pursuits.
I do remember not liking the times between stories; I was happiest when the images began flowing, but I never really pondered what that urge was. It was just there. I knew that most didn't have it, and for the most part I was content to entertain myself, except when we had to read our efforts aloud in class, there was an intense gratification if, IF, one could truly catch the attention of the others and please them as well as self. I remember fourth grade, the two class storytellers were self and a boy named Craig. His were much funnier than any of my efforts. Mine got wild with fantasy, which teachers frowned on. I tried to write funny and discovered that it was HARD. It seemed to come without effort to Craig.
In junior high, I finally found a tiny coterie of fellow nerds who like writing, and we shared stories back and forth. Waiting for a friend to come back after reading one and give her reactions made the perils of junior high worth enduring. One of those friends died a couple summers ago, and left her notebooks to me. In eighth/ninth grade, she wrote a Mary Sue self-insert about the Beatles. I have it now--it breathes innocence, and the air of the mid sixties. Maybe I ought to type it up and put it up at A03. I think she'd like it to find an audience, even if it's as small an audience as our tiny group back then.
Anyway, a day is a great day if I have a satisfying project to work on...and I don't have to hear a certain name, which is ALWAYS reprehensible. Always. And yet has a following. But...humans do linger to look at the tcrash site.
But it does no good whatsoever for anyone to feel my heart tearing in pieces over any news coming out of Washington DC, either engendered by the assclowns currently infesting governmental centers, or in the environs (the recent shooting) so my intention to ostrich becomes more vigorous. What's more, the spouse, who usually watches the news every waking moment, even turned off the yatter yesterday.
I try to fill my time with purpose and pleasure that harms no one. Plan things I hope will bring pleasure to others, like: my sister's seventieth is coming up. I took a slew of our old super eight films to a place to get them converted and color corrected, to surprise her with--I hope. One of those super-eights is from 1948, when the parents' generation were all young, all those voices gone now. Most of the films are from the sixties and early seventies, before my parents split; then they start up again in the eighties with my spouse having bought us a camera.
It's going to take time to convert that stuff--the small box I chose will be just under a grand. Phew. But I've been waiting years for the price to come down, and I figure I daren't wait any longer.
In just for me, I'm busy reworking some very early stories. And realizing that ostriching was a defense mechanism that started in when I was very young, coming out in my passion for escape-reading and for storytelling.
The storytelling urge was very nearly a physical reaction,a kind of invisible claw right behind my ribs, partly that urge, and partly a shiver of anticipation. I can remember it very clearly when I was six years old, in first grade. I already knew how to read, but that was the grade in which public schools in LA taught reading, so I got to sit by myself and draw while the others were taught the alphabet and phonics. Writing stories was laborious, and I got frustrated easily if I didn't know how to spell a word, but I learned fast that adults only had about three words' of patience in them before they chased me off with a "Go play!" or, if I was especially mosquito-ish, "Go clean your room!" or "Wash the dishes!" (That started when I turned 7)
But drawing was easy, and I could narrate to myself as I illustrated the main events. So I did that over and over as the other kids struggled thru Dick and Jane. This became habit, and gave me a focus away from the social evolution of cliques--I do recall trying to make myself follow the alpha girl of that year (also teacher's pet, especially the following year) but I found her interests so boring I went back to my own pursuits.
I do remember not liking the times between stories; I was happiest when the images began flowing, but I never really pondered what that urge was. It was just there. I knew that most didn't have it, and for the most part I was content to entertain myself, except when we had to read our efforts aloud in class, there was an intense gratification if, IF, one could truly catch the attention of the others and please them as well as self. I remember fourth grade, the two class storytellers were self and a boy named Craig. His were much funnier than any of my efforts. Mine got wild with fantasy, which teachers frowned on. I tried to write funny and discovered that it was HARD. It seemed to come without effort to Craig.
In junior high, I finally found a tiny coterie of fellow nerds who like writing, and we shared stories back and forth. Waiting for a friend to come back after reading one and give her reactions made the perils of junior high worth enduring. One of those friends died a couple summers ago, and left her notebooks to me. In eighth/ninth grade, she wrote a Mary Sue self-insert about the Beatles. I have it now--it breathes innocence, and the air of the mid sixties. Maybe I ought to type it up and put it up at A03. I think she'd like it to find an audience, even if it's as small an audience as our tiny group back then.
Anyway, a day is a great day if I have a satisfying project to work on...and I don't have to hear a certain name, which is ALWAYS reprehensible. Always. And yet has a following. But...humans do linger to look at the tcrash site.
Slow Productivity
May. 23rd, 2025 08:03 amosprey_archerRecently sholio review Cal Newport’s Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout, and as I have long vaguely followed Newport’s career, and also am a choir who loves to be preached to about the problems of productivity culture, I picked it up.
Newport lays out a seeming contradiction I’ve vaguely noticed before but never formulated: the people who find productivity culture most enraging are often, in fact, very productive people, who yearn to achieve great things. But the contradiction is purely a matter of semantics: “productivity culture” enrages such people precisely because it often leads to a kind of distracted busy-ness that makes it hard to actually dig in and accomplish something meaningful.
The problem, Newport explains, is that current productivity culture privileges steady work, and moreover steady work that is pretty close to the outward edge of a worker’s capacity, whereas innovative artistic or academic work by its nature requires more slack. There are periods where you’ll work sixty hours a week (and be happy to do so! The ideas are flowing! Work is the thing you most want to do in the world!) but also periods where you’ll outwardly be doing nothing.
He illustrates the point with stories about artists and scientists from the past: Jane Austen, Isaac Newton, Marie Curie, New Yorker feature writer John McPhee. I love reading about people creating things, whether it be a novel or the theory of gravity, so very much enjoyed these interludes.
But my main takeaway from this book is that, although I enjoyed it, it’s not really the book I need right now. My problem in this moment is not “how to step away from meaningless busy-ness toward true accomplishment” but “how do I start writing fiction again?” (Obviously I’m still banging away at book reviews and letters to penpals etc. etc.)
The problem is twofold. One, I haven’t made time to write; and two, I don’t currently have a story I feel an urgent need to tell. I have written some short stories this year (eight currently in the caddy!), and when I’m excited about a story, suddenly it becomes easy to make time to write. But I think that if I were writing more regularly, I’d have more story ideas, perhaps even more long-form story ideas, which is really where my heart lies.
(Actually, the problem is not ideas per se, but ideas I’m so invested in that I’ll keep working through the frustrations inherent in writing a novel. You can scamper through a short story on inspiration alone, but a novel always has bits where you yell “This is the worst story ever written and I am the worst writer ever born!”)
However, if you make time to write and then sit down with nothing you want to write, you may just end up staring out the window at the Canada geese. There’s a bit of a chicken and an egg problem.
But the first step to fixing any problem is to define the problem, so at least I’ve done that?
sholio review Cal Newport’s Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout, and as I have long vaguely followed Newport’s career, and also am a choir who loves to be preached to about the problems of productivity culture, I picked it up. Newport lays out a seeming contradiction I’ve vaguely noticed before but never formulated: the people who find productivity culture most enraging are often, in fact, very productive people, who yearn to achieve great things. But the contradiction is purely a matter of semantics: “productivity culture” enrages such people precisely because it often leads to a kind of distracted busy-ness that makes it hard to actually dig in and accomplish something meaningful.
The problem, Newport explains, is that current productivity culture privileges steady work, and moreover steady work that is pretty close to the outward edge of a worker’s capacity, whereas innovative artistic or academic work by its nature requires more slack. There are periods where you’ll work sixty hours a week (and be happy to do so! The ideas are flowing! Work is the thing you most want to do in the world!) but also periods where you’ll outwardly be doing nothing.
He illustrates the point with stories about artists and scientists from the past: Jane Austen, Isaac Newton, Marie Curie, New Yorker feature writer John McPhee. I love reading about people creating things, whether it be a novel or the theory of gravity, so very much enjoyed these interludes.
But my main takeaway from this book is that, although I enjoyed it, it’s not really the book I need right now. My problem in this moment is not “how to step away from meaningless busy-ness toward true accomplishment” but “how do I start writing fiction again?” (Obviously I’m still banging away at book reviews and letters to penpals etc. etc.)
The problem is twofold. One, I haven’t made time to write; and two, I don’t currently have a story I feel an urgent need to tell. I have written some short stories this year (eight currently in the caddy!), and when I’m excited about a story, suddenly it becomes easy to make time to write. But I think that if I were writing more regularly, I’d have more story ideas, perhaps even more long-form story ideas, which is really where my heart lies.
(Actually, the problem is not ideas per se, but ideas I’m so invested in that I’ll keep working through the frustrations inherent in writing a novel. You can scamper through a short story on inspiration alone, but a novel always has bits where you yell “This is the worst story ever written and I am the worst writer ever born!”)
However, if you make time to write and then sit down with nothing you want to write, you may just end up staring out the window at the Canada geese. There’s a bit of a chicken and an egg problem.
But the first step to fixing any problem is to define the problem, so at least I’ve done that?
Torchwood: Fanfic: Naptime
May. 23rd, 2025 12:53 pmbadly_knitted posting in fan_flashworksTitle: Naptime
Fandom: Torchwood
Author:
badly_knittedCharacters: Ianto, Twins, Nosy, Flufflets.
Rating: PG
Word Count: 638
Spoilers: Nada.
Summary: Naps are essential for busy parents as well as for toddlers.
Content Notes: None needed.
Written For: Challenge 480: Nap.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Torchwood, or the characters.
( Naptime... )
The Week in Spikedluv (May 16 – May 22)
May. 23rd, 2025 07:21 amspikedluvLast Friday: I hit Price Chopper while I was downtown. I did three loads of laundry and changed kitty litter. I watched current eps of 9-1-1 and Leverage: Redemption, and read more in a book. Temps started out at 61.0(F) and reached 89.1. There was so much sun! The thunderstorms that were supposed to roll in about 1pm held off until after 9pm.
( more back here )
( more back here )