opusculasedfera

prisca posting in

fic_promptly

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helloladies posting in

ladybusiness

Sidetracks is a collaborative project featuring various essays, videos, reviews, or other Internet content that we want to share. All past and current links for the Sidetracks project can be found in our Sidetracks tag. You can also support Sidetracks and our other work on Patreon.

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james_davis_nicoll

The corebook and 19 supplements for Tab Creation's tabletop fantasy roleplaying game Age of Ambition.

Bundle of Holding: Age of Ambition

oursin

I am given to understand that there is a campaign afoot to get a Blue Plaque for Dame Rebecca, as, quite shamefully, there is not one already.

***

Dorset Archives Trust seeks donations for archive catalogue: we feel they might foreground rather more than they do that this is for the papers of Sylvia Townsend Warner???

***

The Woman Who Invented the Penny Bank - I do not think I had heard of Priscilla Wakefield before.

***

Ladies of the Lights: Female Lighthouse Keepers in the UK and the US (Of course I knew about Grace Darling, even before Jessica Mitford wrote about her.)

***

Sadder stories of women: Hidden lives of female prisoners past and present:

The lives of female prisoners in the 19th Century and those experiencing the criminal justice system today are not dissimilar, a charity worker has said.
An exhibition at Newcastle Cathedral is documenting the untold stories from female prisoners at the former Newcastle Prison, which stood in the city's Carliol Square between 1828-1925.

Volunteers from a family history group have begun transcribing the records of at least 6,000 women, imprisoned by Cambridge University in the 19th Century. I have read the book by Biggs (The Spinning House) but was underwhelmed as a result of her stylistic narrative choices. I am all for this sort of project.

***

Hmmmm. While I would certainly agree that female desire is not taken seriously enough: A very paternalistic attitude’: why is female desire still not taken seriously?, I am massively, massively, massively cynical about the potential of the 'pink pill' or female viagra as I had several posts here some years back about the very unprepossessing results produced*. In particular I adduce this link to the ever sensible Dr Petra Boynton's thoughts. Is this just being bigged up by pharma entrepreneurs???
*And, of course, the notion that you can fix women's libidos with a magic bullet pill.

mific posting in

fanart_recs

Fandom: Heated Rivalry
Characters/Pairing/Other Subject: Rose Landry/Svetlana Vetrova
Content Notes/Warnings: none
Medium: digital art
Artist on DW/LJ: n/a
Artist Website/Gallery: ducktollers on tumblr
Why this piece is awesome: Svetlana and Rose under gorgeous bisexual lighting. Yum!
Link: outta their way gayboys, backup link here

oursin

Happy birthday,

oracne and

shadowkat!

james

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musesfool

Ugh, daylight savings, why are we still doing this???

Anyway, I got up at my usual workday time instead of sleeping in so I could get the onions in the slow cooker, and I did both the "soak onions in cold water in the fridge for 15 minutes" and wore the stupid onion goggles, and still by the 4th onion my eyes were extremely unhappy with me. *hands* Thankfully I only had 6 onions total, so it all got done, and for dinner I made French onion pasta as planned, and now I have dinner for 3 more days as well. I do love this pasta dish - and I always use bucatini, which is one of my favorite pasta shapes, so it was pleasing all around. Every time I make it after not having made in a while, I'm like, why don't I make this more often!? and then I remember the onion-slicing and how annoying it is. Anyway, definitely recommended for a delicious and easy dinner (except for the onion-slicing). I also made bacon so I have lunch for the week also.

I meant to mention this yesterday and forgot, but The Mountain Goats collaborated with Mary Chapin Carpenter to cover World Party: Put the Message in the Box (don't worry if you only recognize one or two of those names - the song is good!).

*

Current Mood: sleepy
Current Music: Put the Message in the Box - Mary Chapin Carpenter & the Mountain Goats

petra

I have started a repository for PDFs for Poem in My Pocket Day that I will share starting on March 15th. If you have any PDFs of poems formatted to be printed and you would like to share them -- especially if it's your poetry -- then hit me up at petralemaitre at gmail dot com.

Current Mood: holding on
Current Music: Holding to the ground as the ground keeps shifting

miscellaneous_section posting in

betaplease

Fandom: NCS (New Captain Scarlet)
Characters/Pairings: Captain Black|Conrad Lefkon, mentions of Scarlet|Paul and hints of Destiny|Simone. Conrad&Paul, past relationship: Destiny/Conrad.
Rating & Warnings: T (PG/PG-13)
Estimated Fic Length: Currently around 700 words long; will possibly get longer (hopefully not over 5,000 words long)
Notes: I wanted to experiment with using the word it as the character would describe itself as such; trying to separate itself from the identity of a former friend of the protagonist despite having his body and face. The fic is written to be almost like a soliloquy, but it's mainly written in third-person for that word usage.

It would help to have some knowledge of the show and characters I'm writing about, but it's not a requirement to know it like the back of your hand (inside and out; that kind of thing).

I need a second set of eyes for grammar, and seeing if the prose is getting too flowery/repetitious/formal. I feel like I also tend to tell too much rather than showing, and I worry sometimes that the "voice" doesn't sound in character. Also, I feel like something is missing to complete this fic (but what though?).

Either way, I hope I'm not asking for too much, and any help is greatly appreciated! :D

sholio

Recently I made:

• A gifset of Babylon 5 hugs
• A Londo & G'Kar text/image collage

Obviously these are wildly full of spoilers.

( A little nattering about giffing on Tumblr again )

oursin

This week's bread: a loaf of Marriage's Organic Country Fayre Malted Brown Bread Flour: quite nice but turned out a bit crumbly??

Friday night supper: ersatz Thai fried rice with chopped red bell pepper and chorizo.

Saturday breakfast rolls: Tassajarra method, strong brown flour, a spot of Rayner's barley malt extract, cinnamon, raisins, okay (cinnamon a bit past its BBF).

Today's lunch: a pie (bought-in puff pastry) of silken tofu + baby spinach + fresh coriander and flat leaf parsley + garlic - okay, but perhaps a little bland; served with steamed asparagus splashed with melted butter with lime juice and lime zest, and padron peppers.

james_davis_nicoll

The Heechee artifact could end hunger... if humans could somehow reach it.

Beyond the Blue Event Horizon (Heechee Saga, volume 2) by Frederik Pohl

oursin

Happy birthday,

wildestranger!

sholio

Three more older vids crossposted to AO3 in the last few days:

Waking Up in Vegas (Greatest American Hero) from 2021 - original DW post with a brief show manifesto as well. (I don't think the Youtube links still work, however.)

Landsailor (Star Wars OT) from 2015 - original DW post from when I made this right after the new movie came out.

Odds Are (Lethal Weapon movies) from Festivids 2015 - original DW post and original Festivids post from back when the exchange was anonymously posted on DW by the mods rather than run through AO3.

I've been checking the embeds and download links as I go, but let me know if you notice anything not working.

petra

Anxiolytic bugs me. Every time I look at it, I have to remember that it means "relieves anxiety" instead of "causes anxiety."

I suppose you could say it makes my temper [in]flammable.

This post brought to you by learning that someone I know has recently been prescribed Cymbalta without any of the "Quitting this might suck beyond the telling of it" warnings.

Current Mood: anxious
Current Music: Sturm und drang ain't the half of it my friend

musesfool

Went to the office yesterday and as much as I enjoyed seeing so many of my co-workers, almost no work got done. it is just not a good use of time if they want us to be productive. Since it's an open office and we are all sitting together with no walls between us, we just chat and jump into each other's conversations and people stop by and also join in, and it's great for socializing but most of my work is stuff that requires concentration and quiet, which is in short supply at the office. But the anniversary celebration is a lot of fun and I probably won't have to attend another one for 4 more years. *g*

Our next in-office day is in late April, and I floated the idea of maybe bringing in baked goods, so I'm already considering what recipe I might choose to make, since I can experiment.

Today, I made these orange shortbread cookies and they're good, though I would zest another orange (I did 2 this time) if I make them again. Also I didn't sift the flour and instead of rolling out the dough and using cookie cutters, I rolled it into a log and just sliced them (after chilling), since they are just for me so there was no need to get fancy.

I also planned to caramelize onions overnight in the slow cooker, but then I ended up engrossed in F.D. Signifier's Tyler Perry video (which is FOUR HOURS long - I have one hour left but I'm taking a break to watch the WBC) and didn't end up doing the slicing I need to do, so I figure I'll do it in the morning, let them slow cook for most of the day, and then make French onion pasta for dinner. Anyway, I have never seen a Tyler Perry movie or show, but F.D. Signifier's videos are always worth watching.

So yeah, I've been sort of paying attention to the WBC and why is the "S" in USA like a strip of curly bacon on the Team USA jersey??? Once I saw it I couldn't unsee it. Also so many of these unis could be cool and yet so many of them are just meh. Design fail, Nike! Come on! Also, I might be rooting for the DR since Juan Soto is on that team; if Lindor were in it, I'd probably be rooting for Puerto Rico. Though of course I was pleased for Clay Holmes just now, and will be interested to see Nolan McLean pitch.

*

Current Mood: thoughtful
Current Music: USA vs Great Britain on tv

resonant

( Cut for pet death )

oursin

Imagine! a good old fashioned scam without embedded link to dodgy site or anything, wow, the nostalgia is nostalgiaful, eh?

My humble greetings,
I feel the need to approach you securing and moving my late father fund. It's just My urgent need for a foreign partner/investor. I have a significant fund to transfer. My Whatsap [---] for more details

Awwwww.

This had a charming naivety lacking in yet another solicitation to become involved with some academic journal, in this case:

Given your expertise and contributions to medical and surgical research, we believe your involvement would greatly strengthen the journal’s academic quality and reputation.

It's bad enough when some predatory publisher cites My Important Work and it's actually a 500-word review, but this is above and beyond WHUT.

Plus they not only want a CV they want a photo. Tempted to send them one of the photobooth efforts I got done for passport purposes, which have 'inmate of criminal lunatic asylum, c. 1880' vibes.

***

In other nostalgic news, apparently the annual eight-day Thomas Hardy fest still occurs.

***

And I was utterly charmed when finally flicking through the pages of the most recent Travel Which to discover Madison WI rated one of the top less-visited North American cities (cannot find this online), bless, with particular mention of the Monoma Terrace.

Though I am honestly boggling a bit at the decision to run an article on North American cities as touristic destinations at the present time, even if a significant proportion of the actual recommendations do turn out to be in Canada.

kingstoken posting in

fanart_recs

Fandom: Merlin
Characters/Pairing/Other Subject: Arthur is the main focus with Merlin, Gwen and Morgana
Content Notes/Warnings: N/A
Medium: Digital
Artist Website/Gallery: klimtsonian
Why this piece is awesome: Lovely piece that is a little art nouveau and reminds you a little of a tarot card. The focus is on Arthur, but also hints at those behind his throne.
Link: Tumblr

sholio

I still have intentions of doing some proper rec posts of all the excellent fic that I read during my initial reading dive into the AO3 tags last spring/summer, but - since apparently that's not happening yet, I may as well start reccing as I go.

These are a couple of longer fics that I marked for later on my initial sweep through the archive and finally remembered to go back and read. One season one genfic, one late-season explicit fic in which I'm sure the main pairing will surprise no one.

( Two recs )

beamkatanachronicles posting in

fic_promptly

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james

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oursin

What We Lose When We Gamify Reading, well yeah, but this is someone who considers Middlemarch 'a slog'. I'm also, of course, thinking about previous allotropes of this kind of thing - actual libraries you could buy of The Best Books - and of course display them on your shelves - and I'm also recollecting The Provincial Lady who can never manage to actually read That Book That Everyone Is Talking About. Of reading as something that is not, reading that thing that you want to read, when you want to read it, at the speed that seems fit (which may involve stopping and starting and hiatuses).

***

If not a smaller, a more connected world than people maybe think: How likely is it that Alfred the Great sent two emissaries to India in the ninth century?:

Alfred’s embassy to India thus appears to be entirely historically plausible: India, with its Christian community and shrine of St Thomas, was probably always the intended destination, and its remoteness from early medieval England the very point of the embassy.

***

This feels like yet another story that might perhaps account for Why Are There So Few Women In [X] Field which is not down to actual aptitude and drive: There’s a long and embedded history of abuse in chess.

***

Home Free: Vivian Gornick, interviewed by Chandler Fritz

Everything depends on the writer’s relation to the first-person narrator. Some writers are released into storytelling through the fictional narrator; others are released by the nonfictional “I.” The first become novelists, the second memoirists. It’s all a matter of what kind of narrator lets you tell the story. When I was young I kept telling these stories about my mother and our neighbor Nettie, and everyone said, “That’s a novel!” But when I tried to write a novel the material just lay there like a dead dog: I couldn’t bring it to life. When I realized it was a memoir and the narrator was clearly me, suddenly I was home free.

***

The Cold War and the Soviet KGB's Same-Sex Entrapment Operations in the 1950s and 1960s: The Perpetrator in Focus. Intriguing. When I was employed in an institution which at the time came under the aegis of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office I was obliged to attend an FCO Induction Course. This had very little relevance to my job, and among the proceedings were cautionary films about being got at by Soviet agents. In one case although the surface level involved the patsy being lured by publication in a Red journal his relationship with the tempter seemed to have definite homoerotic undertones.

james_davis_nicoll

A friendly session of D&D for a worthy cause reminds former friends why they parted.

Rerolled (The Last Session, volume 2) by Jasmine Walls & Dozerdraws

skygiants

Sometimes you read a book at exactly the wrong time, and you're like 'god this stupid big fat fantasy novel. Why are you six hundred pages. Why is everybody Sexy. What's the point of you. I'm tired' and sometimes you read a book at exactly the right time and you're like 'thank god! actual worldbuilding!! somebody had a good time getting weird with this! please tell me more about how weird you're getting!!' and I think I could easily have gone either way on Tessa Gratton's The Mercy Makers depending on the four books I'd read just previous as well as the time of the moon. But as it happened, at the point I read it I was really hungering for something, ANYTHING that felt like it actually cared about depicting a unique and distinctive society with characters that felt like they actually belonged in that society, and The Mercy Makers gave me that in spades, so I ended up really high on it! I had a great time! Please understand that I mean it lovingly when I say that it felt like a visual novel high fantasy dating sim!

-- this is a bit disingenuous for me to say, I haven't actually played more than a bit of any of the long visual novel high fantasy dating sims I'm thinking of, but I have read extensively through

alias_sqbr's write-ups of them and the book profoundly reminded me of something like [

alias_sqbr's description of] My Vow To My Liege, where a player character has to play a lot of really dramatic political games to decide the fate of the kingdom, while surrounded by Hot People, and different elements of the plot will play out depending on which Hot Person she's closest to --

Okay, so we are in a fantasy empire that is built around a central religion that values Balance and forbids Heretical Magical Plastic Surgery and Medical Techniques. Our heroine Iriset, of course, is an atheist who's wildly gifted with Heretical Magical Plastic Surgery and Medical Techniques, and is also the daughter of a criminal mastermind. Iriset and her father have carefully crafted a secret identity illusion so that everyone thinks that someone else is the Heretical Magical Plastic Surgery Mad Scientist Genius and that the famous criminal mastermind's daughter is just a nice girl who's not really involved, so that when her father eventually gets arrested -- as indeed is the inciting incident of this book -- Iriset can hopefully stay free and rescue him instead of also getting arrested herself as a famous magical heretic.

For some reason, however, after her father's arrest, Iriset -- whom everyone knows is a criminal heiress but, once again, thinks is a nice and sweet criminal heiress who's not really involved, rather than an amoral heretic mad scientist -- is sort of non-consensually invited to become one of the handmaidens of the Emperor's hot sister as part of complex political schemes, so she spends the rest of the book in the palace, where she meets the following hot people:

- the Emperor, an earnest and well-intentioned young man who is really devoutly religiously dedicated to maintaining the Balance of the Status Quo
- the Emperor's sister, Iriset's boss, whose job as per official tradition for the Emperor's sibling is to be a priestess who placates the religion's divine devil-figure by going and being really sexy at a shrine every day, but has political visions and ambitions for the Empire far beyond her Sexy Role
- the Emperor's fiancee, a very sweet princess from neighboring island kingdom, who is a fundamental element of the Emperor's sister's overarching plans for an empire that expands through marriage alliance instead of conquest
- a mysterious, suffering, untrustworthy fairy sort of creature who has been publicly imprisoned behind the Emperor's throne for the past several hundred years and is now just sort of a standard part of the decor

In addition to these obviously romanceable characters, Iriset also has an existing criminal boyfriend on the outside of the palace who she's attempting to get in touch with and coordinate with about Operation Rescue Her Dad, and she also meets a palace maid and a fantasy-nonbinary magical architect (uses one of several archaic gender forms) who in the dating sim version of this would probably be secret or hidden routes.

The first, like, two hundred pages or so of this six hundred page book are mostly just Iriset wandering around the palace, trying not to be too obviously a heretical mad scientist, building various schemes for father-rescue and trying not to get distracted by much she would quite like to bang any or all of these hot people. And, again, at another time I might have gotten bored, but at this point in time I was really just enjoying the slow rich worldbuilding. It's weird! It's interesting! Everyone always wears elaborate masks and facepaint except for the foreign princess who's confused by the whole system, and we've reinvented a different kind of four humors system so everybody's like 'well of course she would act this way, she's got too much ecstatic force in her system', and the political conversation about marriage reform refers to the law that forbids conquered peoples within the Empire from marrying within their own ethnic group for a certain number of generations, and there are several archaic genders that are no longer used and people have chat about how actually we should bring them back because two is an imbalanced number and four would be much more balanced -- what I'm trying to get at is that it feels like the people in this book think in ways that are shaped by their world, and not by ours. The plot in its actual happenings is constantly contriving itself so that Iriset will be pushed into a position where, eventually, she'll have to Rebel Against Empire, but the thought patterns that get us there feel distinctive and grounded in the world and setting that Gratton has built.

But eventually, of course, we are going to have to get some plot and it is obviously going to have to involve Chekhov's Heretical Plastic Surgery and messy identity porn. ( the rest is spoilers )

musesfool

Work has been intensely busy these past few days, and tomorrow I have to go into the office because Assistant J is getting a pin for being with the organization for 5 years (even though it's more like six and a half at this point, but no one wants to hear my rant about how anniversaries work again), and I never get much done when I'm in, so we'll see what happens. I do have to take all my tax paperwork and scan it for my accountant. This is much later than usual, eep.

*

Shrinking: Dereks Don't Die
( spoiler )

*

Lost Recipes was a really good read "about the legal and logistical barriers arrayed against people trying to archive rap media." to quote the email from Defector that included the link. It made me think about how despite its many, many issues (about which I have heard no news of progress at all, btw), the OTW is doing that work for this section of media fandom, and how important that work is (and how no one else was gonna do it). There's already so much that's gone, and that impacts how our stories get contextualized and passed on (thinking of all the thinkpieces on Heated Rivalry that only reference yaoi and animanga fandom and not Western media fandom, for example) and whatever place in the larger history of media and fandom this corner of it might have. Idk. I do recommend reading that post though, even if you're not a rap fan.

*

Current Mood: melancholy
Current Music: Falling - Florence + the Machine

james_davis_nicoll

oursin

So, I may have mentioned I would be giving a paper in one of the Fellows' Symposia of the Institution with which I am now affiliated, coming up over the horizon very soon. And I had originally intended to revisit some research I did Before Events Intervened and Do Something with that, but it has not been coming together as I should like, needs more percolating I think. So I am instead returning to a project I put aside when other things supervened and demanded my attention, for which I did a preliminary paper or two, and can spruce up and get, I hope, some feedback on, and maybe kickstart this back into action.

Meanwhile....

I think I mentioned being solicited to give an entertaining and instructive talk on the history of johnnies/baudruches some months hence, which I have a fair amount of material already on hand for. However, what the organisers would like is An Image for publicity purposes, fairly soonish, and REALLY. One is tempted to go with the Dudley Hoard which require a good deal of imagination to reconstruct for their original purpose.

Younger scholar whom I have been somewhat informally mentoring has now submitted their PhD thesis and would like me to read it, and think of what might come up in viva.

The project which I was involved in for some considerable while which went very weird last year, with me being somewhat accidental being left out of the loop for some months due to error in email address, so I never really got the full story, is being revived in a smaller and more defined way as a journal special issue edited by Old Friend and Me.

Meanwhile I am in the process of getting the latest volume of the Interminable Saga prepped for publication.

james_davis_nicoll

Is human redemption beyond even a nigh-godlike superhuman?

The Paradox Men by Charles L. Harness

prisca posting in

fic_promptly

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oursin

Happy birthday,

afuna and

katharine_b!

james

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beamkatanachronicles posting in

fic_promptly

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james_davis_nicoll

This new Ninja Crusade Bundle presents The Ninja Crusade, the tabletop fantasy roleplaying game from Third Eye Games of ninja, conspiracies, and martial arts.

Bundle of Holding: Ninja Crusade

oursin

What I read

Finished A Slowly Dying Cause and she does seem to be grinding these out rather. Also I didn't actually check the details but there were some descriptive passages of places that seemed very similar, or least deploying the same epithets - 'the demilune beach' I think was one - that seemed a bit cut and paste. Also maybe more Havers, but when she finally appeared did we want that plot development??? And something entirely new (or rather, old and heritage) for Lynley to angst about.

Then read the latest Slightly Foxed.

Then onto GB Stern, The Woman in the Hall (1939), which it is longer since I last read than I thought. Still v good but not sure that I will be reccing it for the book group.

Then this already discussed - further thought that it was rather like hearing somebody tell one about book they have read - at least this bore a fairly close resemblance to the original, was not like that scene in one of E Nesbit's Bastable novels in which they talk about Charlotte Yonge's The Daisy Chain and all appear to have been reading entirely different book.... But still left a lot out.

On the go

After that I actually started Nicola Barker, TonyInterrupter (2025), Kobo deal/sortes ereader, which I was quite enjoying, and then -

Arrival of Barbara Hambly, Death at the Palace (A Silver Screen Historical Mystery Book 4) so am currently immersed in that.

Next up

And after that, imagine it will be straight on to Cat Sebastian, Star Shipped, which also published yesterday. Then maybe back to TonyInterrupter.

james_davis_nicoll

Two pair of linked speculative fiction stories.

I'm Waiting for You And Other Stories by Kim Bo-Young

oursin

Happy birthday,

sister_luck!

james_davis_nicoll

It seems comments of mine quoted on Wikipedia has angered someone.

This bit caught my eye: " I only paid attention to this page after looking up those for several authors whose works I'd enjoyed, only to be surprised by how Nicoll's opinions had been added to criticisms of their works. Looking at the edit history, it showed they had all been added by the same person - Nicoll."

Except I didn't and looking at the Simmons entry, which I did suspect is what set this off, I don't see why anyone would think I had.

james_davis_nicoll

Benford and Bear in the Epstein files

As far as I can tell, they weren't involved in Epstein's sex trafficking. Just there as big name authors. Bear at least is reported as unimpressed.

Oddly, the third Killer B doesn't seem to have been invited.

oursin

Have just been reading a very odd book - sortes ereader, something it appears I bought when you could still convert Kindle books to Kobo epub, cannot recall if it was something someone had recommended or what.

LH Johnson, Tell Me of a Girl (2018) - independently published, a retelling of The Secret Garden.

I am not sure why. Because usually if people are doing a retelling they are remixing or shaking up in some way? Okay, this did do some kind of vaguely different backstory of Mary's relationship with her mother, but otherwise it followed the story pretty exactly though leaving stuff out, and much of what was actually in the original seemed terribly washed out.

Characters who are vivid presences in the original seemed muted (Martha, Ben Weatherstaff, Dickon, the robin) - and devoid of Yorkshire speech to boot.

One might have expected that maybe a retelling might do what that recent reworking of Katy did and be a bit more disability positive, but no.

Mary Lennox is already a stroppy young person who doesn't exactly need to grab more agency, hmmm?

It's also done in a rather annoying typographical style.

At the end the author indicates that it's not only in dialogue with Burnett's original but with a whole swathe of scholarship on Golden Age children's lit. Maybe it came out of the project for a course???

I could see it sort of working as the basis of a rather moody atmospheric movie version?

Has anyone else come across this? I'm really not sure what to make of it.

prisca posting in

fic_promptly

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james_davis_nicoll

Stories about nuclear war don't usually feature popular, pre-existing characters...

Four Times Familiar Characters Faced Nuclear Armageddon

james_davis_nicoll

A rescue places two space miners in the cross-hairs of a ruthless corporation.

Heavy Time (Devil to the Belt, volume 1) by C J Cherryh

mific posting in

fanart_recs

Fandom: Heated Rivalry
Characters/Pairing/Other Subject: Shane Hollander/Ilya Rozanov
Content Notes/Warnings: none
Medium: digital art
Artist on DW/LJ: n/a
Artist Website/Gallery: semi-artomatic on tumblr
Why this piece is awesome: A nicely moody version of the nightclub scene with the boys staring hotly at each other. Atmospheric!
Link: this is not enough , backup link here

james

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oursin

Two reading groups - one in person, one online - on consecutive days - plus various assorted frazzlements - has left me not feeling like coming up with the wonted witty badinage and repartee to delight dr rdrz.

(Who said 'What witty badinage and repartee'???)

Moderately entertaining coincidence: RL book group was being hosted in a part of London in which (lightly disguised) work discussed in online group takes place (snarked at by the author). I suspect it has changed Quite A Lot since those days....

***

Talking of London: Square Mile strikes back: how the City of London is fighting disinformation about crime. I discover from that that we have a Lady Mayor of London, and upon further research, she is not even the first woman to hold the office but the first to take the style of Lady Mayor, go her.

***

Do we not find it annoying when academic publishers do not reveal, until you have actually made a purchase, that their ebooks can only be consumed via their walled-garden app? In this particular instance at least the work was open-access and I had not taken a loss except in the expenditure of time in the process. But really. If you are offering your product as a ebook, I think this should be made clear from the outset.

musesfool

I really enjoyed this season of Bridgerton despite being mostly indifferent to Benedict as a character. Yerin Ha as Sophie was everything - I really hope this launches her into a long, bright career. ( spoilers )

In other fannish news, I saw some folks on bsky discussing who the best lightsaber duelist is in Star Wars, and since I didn't really know the people being quoted, I took myself to tumblr to post about it. I also texted my eldest nephew, who is the biggest Anakin and Obi-Wan fan I know (which, given some of the fangirls I know, is saying something) and his knee-jerk response was Anakin*. Which is the wrong answer, so we argued back and forth a bit, and he came around to my way of thinking that it has to be Obi-Wan, even though we never see him go up against Palpatine or Mace Windu (who may have beaten Palpatine if not for Anakin).

I did see people saying Ahsoka, because she survives Maul, Vader, and very briefly, Palpatine, but as much as I love her, she survives and escapes. She doesn't win. The list of Obi-Wan's duels is extensive and no one ever even lays a blade on him that I recall (though he doesn't beat Dooku, which was an argument my nephew made, and Anakin eventually does) until he puts up his saber and lets Vader kill him. Like, is Obi-Wan destroyed emotionally and psychologically by dueling with Anakin? One hundred percent! But he still wins until not winning is the best way to win in the long-term.

*I think you can make a case for him when he's Vader, but even then, Obi-Wan beats him on Mustafar and he only wins on the Death Star because Obi-Wan lets him. In the OWK show, he maybe sets Obi-Wan on fire a little but Obi-Wan takes no real damage in any of their fights until the Death Star.

*

Current Mood: thoughtful
Current Music: The Sweetest Thing - u2