Reading Wednesday

Apr. 8th, 2026 06:58 am
sabotabby: (books!)
[personal profile] sabotabby
Well looks like this sorry, battered world is still there, at least this part of the world, so here's what I'm reading I guess.

Just finished: The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones. This whipped. Blood-soaked historical fiction set in the early 1900s as a Pikuni vampire tangles with a Lutheran minister in the wake of a horrific massacre. All of the trigger warnings, obviously as it's quite literally visceral, which is not the most upsetting thing about it. Jones is really quite a brilliant writer.

Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz. This is not the kind of thing that I normally like but works well as a chaser to the previous book, in that it's low-stakes, cozy, and fun. It's about a group of emancipated sentient robots, a car (also sentient), and a human who take over a ghost kitchen in the aftermath of a war between California and the rest of the US. If they don't pay off their debts, they'll be re-sold into slavery, but this is not the kind of book where that happens. It works for me largely because of the descriptions of the biang biang noodles, but it's also about the big theme of the year, which is who counts as a person.

Currently reading: About to start The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar.

Moon's haunted.

Apr. 7th, 2026 08:10 pm
goodbyebird: Star Trek Discovery (Disco Commander)
[personal profile] goodbyebird
ECLIPSE. April 6, 2026.  Totality, beyond Earth. From lunar orbit, the Moon eclipses the Sun, revealing a view few in human history have ever witnessed.

First photo from the far side of the Moon. Captured from Orion as Earth dips beyond the lunar horizon


Following the current Artemis mission + rolling around in art and nature photography is keeping me going atm. Slingshotting in space!

+ The seagulls are napping and grooming on our windowsills a lot and it's been a treat. I often find myself watching Bird TV. With the stains on the glass they don't seem to notice us there, so you get a wild animal puffing up and resting 30cm from your face. Always a delight.

+ If like me you're still enamored with Project Hail Mary and need images to make icons from, [personal profile] theskyisnew's got you covered 👎

+ Sad Starfleet Academy got cancelled, though I strongly suspected that would be the case. What I didn't expect was that they'd already finished shooting season 2. So that's something. Probably a cliffhanger nightmare but I'll take it.

Letter from Alex Kurtzman and Noga Landau. )

+ Already considering rewarding myself with a purchase after the trip. The Embodied Ecosystems TarOracle is looking like a strong contender, both for the art/theming, and the chunky guidebook it comes with. But then there's the fanmade X-Files tarot I spotted that's calling to me. Hmm. (I finished season 1 btw. Mulder didn't know lycanthropy transferred through bites/scratches?? Press x-files to doubt. S2 will have Scully revert back to not believing in aliens, huh? I remember being extremely annoyed back in the day and surely that can't have been based off s1. Mulder's hot takes have been deserving of a defenestration sometimes multiple times per episode.)

+ [community profile] 3weeks4dreamwidth is coming up, but I honestly feel there's not enough interest to make it work. I'm going to have to give it a think.

+ I'll be home in two and a half weeks so I'll just cling to that for now.

An observation.

Apr. 7th, 2026 08:54 pm
hannah: (Dar Williams - skadi)
[personal profile] hannah
As I said I would, I'm now starting Rome. I figure it's two seasons, I can breeze through it easily enough before moving onto other TV shows or another few movies.

Two minutes in, and I'm starting to suspect I'm going to need a few breaks to come up for air on account of the sensation of getting present-day news through prescient art.

Dear Fandom 5k Author

Apr. 7th, 2026 02:35 pm
beatrice_otter: Me in red--face not shown (Default)
[personal profile] beatrice_otter
I use the same name everywhere so I am [personal profile] beatrice_otter on AO3. Treats are awesome.

I would rather get a story you were happy with than "well, she said she liked x, so I guess I have to do x even though I don't like x and/or am not inspired that way." This letter is long with lots of suggestions and preferences if you find it helpful, but feel free to ignore it if it is not helpful. I'm fairly easy to please; I've been doing ficathons for a long time and am usually very happy with my gifts.

The most important thing for me in a fic is that the characters are well-written and recognizably themselves. Even when I don't like a character, I don't go in for character-bashing. If nothing else, if the rest of this letter is too much or my kinks don't fit yours, just concentrate on writing a story with everyone in character and good spelling and grammar and I will almost certainly love what you come up with.

I have an embarrassment squick, which makes humor kind of hit-or-miss sometimes. The kind of humor where someone does something embarrassing and the audience is laughing at them makes me uncomfortable. On the other hand, the kind of humor where the audience is laughing with the characters I really enjoy.

General Likes and Dislikes )

Crossovers )

Rivers of London )

SWOT )

DS9 )

Moon Knight )

Enterprise )

TNG )

TOS )

Voyager )

Fic: Unexpectations (Mass Effect)

Apr. 7th, 2026 06:38 pm
settiai: (Samara -- bleeding_muse)
[personal profile] settiai
Unexpectations (2345 words) by Settiai
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Mass Effect Trilogy, Mass Effect - All Media Types
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Kelly Chambers/Samara
Characters: Kelly Chambers, Samara (Mass Effect)
Additional Tags: Complicated Relationships, Developing Relationship, Mass Effect 2, Mass Effect 3, Not Actually Unrequited Love, One Shot, Spectre Requisitions Rare Pair Exchange
Summary: Looking back, it wasn't something that came out of nowhere.
settiai: (Kaidan -- bleeding_muse)
[personal profile] settiai
Falling Apart, Coming Together, and Everything In Between (1975 words) by Settiai
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Mass Effect Trilogy, Mass Effect - All Media Types
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Kaidan Alenko/Female Shepard, Thane Krios/Female Shepard, Kaidan Alenko/Thane Krios, Kaidan Alenko/Thane Krios/Female Shepard
Characters: Female Shepard (Mass Effect), Kaidan Alenko, Thane Krios
Additional Tags: Break Up, Developing Relationship, Getting Back Together, Mass Effect 1, Mass Effect 2, Mass Effect 3, Mass Effect 3: Citadel, One Shot, Polyamory, Spectre Requisitions Rare Pair Exchange, Thane Krios Lives
Summary: Falling in love had been as easy as breathing.
musesfool: Daisy Ridley as Rey with lightsaber (you were not mine to save)
[personal profile] musesfool
Today's poem:

An Epistemology of Planets
by Annie Dillard

Mercury

A brook runs on all night;
a book, shut,
still tells itself a story.
So you, out of thought,
you, forgotten Mercury,
still spin and spend the circles of your fury.

Venus

Evenings, after I've eaten
dessert, you rise, you wear
your barest, shining skin.

Later, mornings, you up
and do it again.

Do you think I've forgotten so soon?

Earth

Planets, alone, and grieving,
look who you're running with:
look at our baby-blue planet the earth
and all of the people, waving.

Mars

Mars keeps its dignity,
its networks of cool.
Certain photographs reveal
an air of longing, still.

Jupiter

Swings, spattered
by shadows of Jovian moons:
Io, Europa, Callisto,
the giant, Ganymede.
Companionable, each

nonetheless keeps

the perfect arc of his distance.

Saturn

         It is to you I come in my dream,
you, dancing alone in the dark, light-heart,
       asleep inside your spinning hat!

Uranus

Uranus, cold face,
old rock and ice,
remembers a song
and sings it once
round the dark, twice.

Neptune

Banished, Neptune,
luminous, green,
sleeps, and dreams of the sun.
Awake, he holds her round
as tight as he can.

Pluto

Spends twenty years
wandering in Cancer,
that old celestial
crab. Takes years to touch
carapace, jointed foot
on jointed leg; nudges
mandibles, roving, awed,
in every season.
                          Getting to know
you, still, I find you clear-eyed,
cloistered, clawed.

***
pauraque: butterfly trailing a rainbow through the sky from the Reading Rainbow TV show opening (butterfly in the sky)
[personal profile] pauraque
This is the fifth and final part of my book club notes on The Black Fantastic. [Part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4.]


"Spyder Threads" by Craig Laurance Gidney (2021)

Disabled fashion models keep disappearing after they work with a mysterious designer. )


"The Orb" by Tara Campbell (2021)

An environmentalist cult creates an ever-growing, consuming entity. )


"We Travel the Spaceways" by Victor LaValle (2021)

A homeless man hears voices from deep space. )


"Ruler of the Rear Guard" by Maurice Broaddus (2022)

A Black American woman travels to Ghana to join a pan-African repatriation movement. )


the end

Though these last few stories weren't my favorites, the collection overall had some strong entries. It was noted that there was more group consensus about which stories we liked and which we didn't than there has been in some other books we've read, so the discussions ended up being a little shorter than usual.

The group plans to continue with This All Come Back Now, the first ever published anthology of speculative fiction by Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander authors.

Critical Role

Apr. 6th, 2026 10:30 pm
settiai: (Critical Role -- settiai)
[personal profile] settiai
I'm very, very, very behind on Critical Role at this point, and I'm very heavily considering starting Campaign 4 over the from the beginning to ease back into it and hopefully properly catch my attention again. Things were so hectic late last year that I was only half paying attention at times, which is really not a good thing for me when it comes to a new show and is probably why I've been struggling to get caught up. And, for all intents and purposes, CR4 is a completely new show from the previous campaigns despite still technically being Critical Role.

Things at work are quickly calming down, as this is one of our off periods, so right now I'm hoping that I can curl up on the sofa this weekend and properly watch at least the first few episodes ago. The hope is that will help get me re-interested in everything so that I can more easily marathon through the rest of it once I properly care for the characters again.

We'll see how it goes?
helloladies: Gray icon with a horseshoe open side facing down with pink text underneath that says Guest Post (guest post)
[personal profile] helloladies posting in [community profile] ladybusiness
Please welcome our anonymous reviewer!


The Poet Empress by Shen Tao is a debut Chinese-inspired fantasy centered on a poor village girl who rises from a concubine to the empress-in-waiting to an abusive prince heir. In a bid to save the kingdom from the tyranny of his reign, Wei decides to kill him in the only way she can, by writing a magic poem. Only deathly poems have to be love poetry, and only by knowing him well enough to love him can she kill him.

Read more... )

Monday night.

Apr. 6th, 2026 08:28 pm
hannah: (Interns at Meredith's - gosh_darn_icons)
[personal profile] hannah
Starting tomorrow, I'll have a full week and change where every day has some obligation or appointment, one Tuesday to another. Movie tickets, dentist visits, concerts, a whole bunch of stuff. Making a cake, too, though that's more within the bounds of my apartment and doesn't require me to show up anywhere besides the grocery store, and even then it's just to buy some fresh ingredients.

Is it strange I'm looking forward to it? There's parts that are going to be slightly inconvenient, and I'm looking forward to some things more than others, and overall I'm liking the idea of having places to go, things to do. Things to get done, really.

I started the at-home cataloging gig today. I didn't do much, just a few entries, because I wanted to touch base with the client as soon as was possible within the timeline of the project. I'm waiting on a response to let me know if it's what he wants, or what he wants changed. Certainly having other things to occupy my time is going to make waiting for an email or a phone call that much easier. There's only going to be so much Lunar live footage before they have to come back to Earth.

The latest book

Apr. 6th, 2026 03:59 pm
sholio: bear raising paw and text that says "hi" (Bear)
[personal profile] sholio
I finished edits on Luke over the weekend (Westerly Cove 4). Feel free to grab a copy 'til it goes live on Amazon on April 17!

book cover with a bear framed against a sunset

Get it on Bookfunnel:
https://dl.bookfunnel.com/30s06n16u7

(Blurb is still a work in progress.)
delphi: A carton of fresh blueberries. (blueberries)
[personal profile] delphi
Fandom 50 #8

For 1984, it's a song that was baby's first trans/gnc anthem and remains a classic of the Canadian drag scene.

Let It Go by Luba

Something cute to see on a Monday

Apr. 6th, 2026 01:45 pm
marinarusalka: (Default)
[personal profile] marinarusalka
Jackie and Shadow, the two BaldEagles nesting in Big Bear Valley, hatched two chicks over the weekend, yay!




I've been ridiculously invested in these eagles for over a year now, following their YouTube channel nearly every day. The chicks are the cutest little fluffballs, go look!

And hey, maybe also throw a few bucks toward the fundraising effort to stop a luxury condo development from being built less than a mile from their nest, which would seriously impact their foraging area and possibly drive them to abandon the territory all together. (I know this is small potatoes in the grand scheme of things these days, but I still don't think a bunch of rich assholes should get to mess up an important wildlife habitat just 'cause they feel like it.)
musesfool: time team! (time won't give me time)
[personal profile] musesfool
Today's poem:

Great Things Have Happened

We were talking about the great things
that have happened in our lifetimes;
and I said, "Oh, I suppose the moon landing
was the greatest thing that has happened
in my time." But, of course, we were all lying.
The truth is the moon landing didn't mean
one-tenth as much to me as one night in 1963
when we lived in a three-room flat in what once had been
the mansion of some Victorian merchant prince
(our kitchen had been a clothes closet, I'm sure),
on a street where by now nobody lived
who could afford to live anywhere else.
That night, the three of us, Claudine, Johnnie and me,
woke up at half-past four in the morning
and ate cinnamon toast together.

"Is that all?" I hear somebody ask.

Oh, but we were silly with sleepiness
and, under our windows, the street-cleaners
were working their machines and conversing in Italian, and
everything was strange without being threatening,
even the tea-kettle whistled differently
than in the daytime: it was like the feeling
you get sometimes in a country you've never visited
before, when the bread doesn't taste quite the same,
the butter is a small adventure, and they put
paprika on the table instead of pepper,
except that there was nobody in this country
except the three of us, half-tipsy with the wonder
of being alive, and wholly enveloped in love.

--Alden Nowlan

*
umadoshi: text: "I am very brave generally, only today I happen to have a headache" (headache (skellorg))
[personal profile] umadoshi
Easter Monday. I slept pretty badly (repeatedly waking, and not taking ibuprofen when I first woke with a headache; I've absorbed the notion of "if possible, don't take ibuprofen if you're going to be lying down right afterward" and this tends to result in this exact situation of "wake up in the night with headache, tell self you'll go back to sleep and it'll go away [which never works], wake again later with no reduction in headache, take ibuprofen when about to lie back down anyway").

I had slightly larger, albeit still small, ambitions for today prior to the bad sleep, but we ventured out briefly on an unsuccessful quest for scones (we verified the shop was open and I even called ahead to try to make sure they had scones, but I got voicemail and no one returned my call, so we gambled and lost). Ah well.

all the rest is various food talk [with a bit about eating + blood glucose aggravation] )

Music Monday

Apr. 6th, 2026 10:41 am
muccamukk: Jason Mamoa playing the guitar. (Music: Jason's Guitar)
[personal profile] muccamukk
Sting - "Shape of My Heart" (Live)

I think this is the first Sting song I ever heard. Still sounds good.

Melania, Part 2

Apr. 6th, 2026 10:04 am
sabotabby: plain text icon that says first as shitpost, second as farce (shitpost)
[personal profile] sabotabby
Yesterday, reviewing the Melania movie nearly ended me, but like Christ, I have RISEN to give you the harrowing conclusion. Truly, no one has suffered for their art as I have. Except, I guess, whoever had to edit this nonsense.

read on if you dare but horrors lie beneath )

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