kaberett: Trans symbol with Swiss Army knife tools at other positions around the central circle. (Default)
kaberett ([personal profile] kaberett) wrote2026-05-20 11:05 pm

some good things!

  1. Saw the goldfinch(es) again on my way home from gym + shop.
  2. Birthday cake continues to exist :)
  3. For five glorious minutes I was one of only two people in the gym (and the other one was very quiet, so it's just as well that other people showed up as I was starting to deadlift, really).
  4. Vanity: Read more... ).
  5. There are lots and lots of wildflower verges on my various perambulations and I cannot emphasise enough how much I am enjoying having ready access to both the hedges covered in sea pinks and patches of long grass mingled with poppies and (multiple colours of!) cornflowers and Margeriten.
rolanni: (Default)
rolanni ([personal profile] rolanni) wrote2026-05-20 05:59 pm

Wednesday Evening

Business first: The Fey Duology, Dark Fantasy by Sharon Lee & Steve Miller, stands at 196 pre-orders at Amazon.  In addition to Amazon, Apple and Smashwords are accepting preorders.  It will be available from Baen on June 1.

Long short day. The laundry's done. I need to change the bed, but not today. I also need to mop, ditto.

I have read some, but by no means all, of Steve's last draft of Trade Lanes. It's being tough going. I'll take another swing at it tomorrow.

In the meantime, Rook has made a motion, seconded by Tali, that it is Happy Hour. The chairwoman has tabled the motion. Rook has now moved that the chairwoman be removed. Tali declines to second, because, as I understand her to say, the Junior Member is Stoopid.

Everybody have a good evening. I 'll check in tomorrow.


lilly_c: Mirror!Kathryn and Mirror!Chakotay being affectionate in Cracked Mirror (Default)
Cat ([personal profile] lilly_c) wrote in [community profile] writethisfanfic2026-05-20 10:58 pm
Entry tags:

check in day 20

Sorry I missed yesterday. How is the writing going?

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 4


Today I

View Answers

wrote
2 (50.0%)

edited
3 (75.0%)

posted
0 (0.0%)

sent to beta
0 (0.0%)

researched
1 (25.0%)

planned
1 (25.0%)

had a break
0 (0.0%)

dealt with life
0 (0.0%)

rachelmanija: (Books: old)
rachelmanija ([personal profile] rachelmanija) wrote2026-05-20 01:17 pm

And The River Drags Her Down, by Jihyun Yun



A beautifully written, atmospheric riff on Pet Sematary, among other things, in which the women of a Korean-American family living in a small, mostly white town have the power to resurrect the dead. They only use it on small animals, primarily to resurrect their beloved pet rat Milkis every time he dies of old age, which is about every three years. (If the author hasn’t kept pet rats, I will eat my hat.) Theoretically they could resurrect humans, but family lore says it’s a very, very bad idea. Despite extreme temptation, the two teenage sisters do not try to resurrect their mom when she dies in a car crash. But when the older sister, Mirae, drowns in the river, her younger sister Soojin can’t resist…

This isn’t the kind of story that’s built around surprises – we know from the beginning that sometimes dead is better, and the whole idea of forbidden resurrection is about refusing to accept the fact of death, so that also must come into play—but rather about the journey. The book has a water-drenched, hothouse atmosphere, all claustrophobic relationships and emotions too intense to bear. It’s a bit spooky but mostly an exploration of grief and love via creepy magic. I thought it was great, but rat lovers should heed the note below. (Which is too bad because the pet rat character is great.)

Content notes: The same pet rat repeatedly dies of old age and is resurrected, a process which involves some physical mutilation of the corpse. This part didn’t bother me but the rat does also die one painful and violent death, which did. There is also a flashback story to earlier generations involving a chicken that gets repeatedly killed in a cruel way. Lots of body horror. The story is centrally about grief.
james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
james_davis_nicoll ([personal profile] james_davis_nicoll) wrote2026-05-20 02:04 pm
Entry tags:

Bundle of Holding: GM's Apprentice Decks (from 2023)



Hundreds of digital cards for fantasy, sf, horror, and steampunk stories

Bundle of Holding: GM's Apprentice Decks (from 2023)
gwynnega: (Your Monster)
gwynnega ([personal profile] gwynnega) wrote2026-05-20 11:05 am
Entry tags:

WisCon Online

This weekend I'll be participating in WisCon Online! I miss in-person WisCon, but I'm very much looking forward to this. Here is the programming I'm on:

Frankensteins and Their Monsters
Online Zoom Room 4 • Reading, Viewing, and Critiquing Science Fiction • Sat 7:00 PM–8:15 PM CDT
Prompted by Guillermo del Toro recent adaptation of Frankenstein let's talk about the adaptation history of the original text! How do the adaptations deal with the horrors of creation, revenge, and isolation? How do they feed each other, so that a Frankenstein adaptation adapts both the novel and the Universal monster? And what does it do to Frankenstein and the wretch to make them recurring characters on TV shows?
S.M. Hallow, Gwynne Garfinkle, Sophia Babai, Mod: Anika Dane

Embodiment, Planets, Health, Earth
Online Zoom Room 5 • Readings • Sat 8:30 PM–9:45 PM CDT
Speculative Poetry: on ecopoetics, disability, embodied ways of knowing.
Anonymous, Petra Kuppers, Gwynne Garfinkle

Never-Too-Late Futures
Online Zoom Room 2 • The Craft and Business of Writing • Sun 4:00 PM–5:15 PM CDT
Publishing discourse loves "30 under 30," but many speculative fiction authors publish their first novel in their 40s, 50s, 60s, or later. This panel invites older debuts and late-blooming writers to talk about craft, career realities, disability and energy, caretaking, and ageism in the field. What pressures and freedoms come with starting "late," and what does a sustainable, politically engaged writing life look like beyond the hustle?
Esker Park, Catherine Lundoff, Mod: Andrea Hairston, Gwynne Garfinkle, Sam Wilket
badly_knitted: (Get Knitted)
badly_knitted ([personal profile] badly_knitted) wrote in [community profile] get_knitted2026-05-20 06:48 pm

Check-In Post - May 20th 2026


Hello to all members, passers-by, curious onlookers, and shy lurkers, and welcome to our regular daily check-in post. Just leave a comment below to let us know how your current projects are progressing, or even if they're not.

Checking in is NOT compulsory, check in as often or as seldom as you want, this community isn't about pressure it's about encouragement, motivation, and support. Crafting is meant to be fun, and what's more fun than sharing achievements and seeing the wonderful things everyone else is creating?

There may also occasionally be questions, but again you don't have to answer them, they're just a way of getting to know each other a bit better.


This Week's Question: What do you wish you could get right first time, every time?


If anyone has any questions of their own about the community, or suggestions for tags, questions to be asked on the check-in posts, or if anyone is interested in playing check-in host for a week here on the community, which would entail putting up the daily check-in posts and responding to comments, go to the Questions & Suggestions post and leave a comment.

I now declare this Check-In OPEN!



silversea: A dragon reading a book (Reading Dragon)
silversea ([personal profile] silversea) wrote in [community profile] booknook2026-05-20 01:45 pm
Entry tags:

RIP (Read in Progress) Wednesday

Happy Wednesday again! What are you reading this week?
conuly: (Default)
conuly ([personal profile] conuly) wrote2026-05-23 08:47 am
yourlibrarian: Every Kind of Craft on green (Every Kind of Craft Green - yourlibraria)
yourlibrarian ([personal profile] yourlibrarian) wrote in [community profile] everykindofcraft2026-05-20 11:32 am
Entry tags:

Opalite Cylinder Spacers and Lapis Wire Work



I loved these opalite cylinders when I got them years ago. Still had a few left so paired them with some fiber optic, frosted glass and milky glass and tied them together with the silver cubes.

Read more... )
prisca: (icon promptly mod)
prisca ([personal profile] prisca) wrote in [community profile] icon_promptly2026-05-20 05:24 pm

Wednesday, May 21: Stock Photos

Hello everybody,

it's Wednesday and the first stock photo day of this community's life. Let's have lots of fun with prompting and creating icons.

Theme of the Day: Nature

Rules Reminder for prompting:
- Unlimited general prompts (no fandoms or characters)
- Prompts should be based on the daily theme, but it's up to you to interpret the theme.
- One prompt per comment.
- Prompt format as follows: general prompt

Rules Reminder for filling a prompt:
- One to three icons per prompt.
- Any fill should be based on a Stock Photo. General quotes are fine. NO fandoms or famous characters, please.
- You may fill your own prompts.
- You may fill prompts that already have fills.

Full rules here

If nothing today appeals to you, remember you can fill lonely prompts/refill prompts at any time. Check previous days or the prompt overview list.

Have fun, and don't forget to be nice. NEVER change a grabbed icon, or pass it off as your own. Thank you!
larryhammer: Yotsuba Koiwai running, label: "enjoy everything" (run run run)
Larry Hammer ([personal profile] larryhammer) wrote2026-05-20 07:52 am
Entry tags:

“Whilst yet the calm hours creep, / Dream thou—and from thy sleep / Then wake to weep”

Links for your enjoyment, two taken from the same subreddit:

Tuppi the cuneiform tablet stuffie is for sale at the University of Chicago museum. Some context. (via)

The cuneiform complaint letter to Ea-Nāṣir, copper merchant of Ur, read in the original Akkadian (with subtitles). (via)

Timelapse video taken by satellite of category 5 super-typhon Sinlaku. Sadly, no cuneiform here. (via)

---L.

Subject quote from “The flower that smiles to-day,” Percy Shelley.
leecetheartist: Photo of me coming at the camera, in my colourful mermaid gear (Default)
leecetheartist ([personal profile] leecetheartist) wrote in [community profile] drawesome2026-05-20 09:28 pm

MerMay The Twentieth

Title: Melusine's Bubblebath
Rating: G
Fandom: n/a
Characters/Pairings: n/a
Portrayed in the happy days before her husband broke his promise, Melusine enjoys her 'me' time.
Melusine is an elusive creature, being variously described as one of the Fay, or a devil, or a serpent or dragon, or water spirit. She's occasionally been described as having two tails, which sounded interesting, so I went with that.
She has some association with water Fay so she certainly has a place in MerMay, so here she is.
Drawn with a Rotring Art Pen, and, as usual, freehand, no pencil, drawing without a net as I call it.

To embiggen, click on the image.

Twin tailed and winged woman in a bubblebath
rolanni: (Default)
rolanni ([personal profile] rolanni) wrote2026-05-20 09:02 am

Sunny Wednesday

Well. Wednesday. Sunny and already warm.

We here at the Cat Farm and Confusion Factory have gone from oil heat to heat pump cooling. Yesterday, we broke every single record for high temps on May 19 -- 92F/33C in Portland. We here in Central Maine only hit 90F/32C.

Breakfast was the last of the yogurt with strawberry jam and wheat germ. Oatmeal cookie already lined up for Second Breakfast. First load of laundry is drying. Need to get the second load in the washer.

I realized this morning that, in my considerations of what to take to the ocean, I had forgotten to choose a traveling companion. I therefore put the matter to Sunny, who is an Old Orchard Beach native, adopted into the Lee-and-Miller household years ago, and he has agreed to ride shotgun. Sunny's paw pads used to change color under the influence of Solar Rays, but I don't think they do that anymore. So does age toy with us all.

Last night, I found the last draft of Trade Lanes, which Steve had set aside in frustration. I say "the last draft," but what I have is about 35,000 words, and a bunch of it is notes, rather than narrative. My job today, while all of the previous Jethri books are fresh in my mind, is to read this document.

With the help of System76, I have resolved the problem of the two computers that would not update. Honestly, System76 has the best help-desk people in the known universe. And now Fezzik the laptop and Steve's Short Meerkat/Sharon's Writing Computer have up-to-date POP!_OSes.

In addition to reading the incomplete draft of Trade Lanes, I have some correspondence to catch up on, and the laundry of course, so I can commence in to packing the purple duffle bag.

What're you doing today?

Here, have a picture of Sunny:


sabotabby: (books!)
sabotabby ([personal profile] sabotabby) wrote2026-05-20 06:58 am
Entry tags:

Reading Wednesday

Just finished: Five Points On an Invisible Line by Su J Sokol. I don't have a lot to add since I'd almost finished it last week, but the final setpiece, a massive, multi-tactic demonstration, is really well done. 

Currently reading: Written On the Dark by Guy Gavriel Kay. Time to start Aurora Awards reading. TBH I started one of the best novels—won't say which one—and found it very much unparsable in the way that some secondary world fantasy is just too much for me, so I moved on to this one. I'm around halfway through and the jury's still out.

This one is set in Fantasy Medieval France and follows a tavern poet who's recruited by the local provost to help him solve the murder of a duke who is running the country, since his brother, the king, suffers from an undisclosed madness. Great concept, cool characters, the setting is a breath of fresh air, and I cannot argue that Kay is a superb prose stylist.

And yet I almost always bounce off his work. There's a certain Tolkienesque narrative distance that I think works for Tolkien but feels peculiarly pre-modern. Objectively, I respect this as a deliberately alienating technique, but it means that I don't bond with it in quite the same way, and takes a tremendous feat of writing elsewhere to make me love it. It's entirely possible that this will hit that and I'm giving it a chance but so far I'm feeling that I like what he's doing but don't feel emotionally invested.
thesleepingbeauty: &copy; <user name=rizbef> @ <user name=resphonia> | <user site=livejournal.com user name=icon_overflow> (ladies | cinderella)
Cristi-Ann 🧜🏻‍♀️✨ ([personal profile] thesleepingbeauty) wrote in [community profile] retro_icontest2026-05-19 09:51 pm

Round 39: shire_icontest — challenge 39: tons of textures

I love this theme so much and felt very inspired by all the pretty textures, so I decided to make 15 icons in total for the challenge (10 are under the cut).



Bridgerton
Queen Charlotte
A Cinderella Story
You, Me & Tuscany
Halle Bailey

+10 )

links )
styletto: (donut)
styletto ([personal profile] styletto) wrote in [community profile] fandom_icons2026-05-20 01:57 am

274 dungeon crawler carl

x274 various, mostly Carl, Donut, & Mordecai

all here!