lannamichaels: Astronaut Dale Gardner holds up For Sale sign after EVA. (Default)
[personal profile] lannamichaels


Me: Oooh this new Mountain Goats song Cold At Night is so good!

Me, on repeated listens: hang on, who is that person doing backing vocals?

Me: That sounds like Lin-Manuel Miranda.

Me: That cannot be correct.

Anyway. Yes, it is Lin-Manuel Miranda.

God, what is it about the Mountain Goats and making me ache to write poetry. They really took up that space vacated by Leonard Cohen.

petra: Barbara Gordon smiling knowingly (Default)
[personal profile] petra
Challenge #1

The Icebreaker Challenge: Introduce yourself. Tell us why you're doing the challenge, and what you hope to gain from it.

Hi, I'm Petra. I'm a writer and avid reader, primarily focused on fanfiction and poetry, who will write damn near anything for a drabble or a limerick at a time in one of my many fandoms, and I currently have a writing offer open here if anyone has any relevant requests they'd like me to entertain.

I am still very stuck on Star Wars, but I have never been monofannish, so if something else on my list pings your brain, by all means, prompt me!

I don't write about my personal life much, so here's the tl;dr -- 40's, they/them pronouns, happily married, happily employed.

I like Snowflake Challenge because early January is dark and miserable in my area, and it helps to have something to look forward to.
petra: Barbara Gordon smiling knowingly (Default)
[personal profile] petra
Madalena's Ballad of Great Success provides the sheet music. And now, this link is where you can listen to the song! Come get it stuck in your head with me!

Yuletide reveal

Jan. 1st, 2026 05:05 pm
kass: omg wtf yuletide! (wtf (yuletide))
[personal profile] kass
I had the pleasure of rereading Naomi Kritzer's Catnet books and delving into them this Yuletide! I wrote:

Calm on Catnet (1548 words) by Kass
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: CatNet Series - Naomi Kritzer
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Rachel Adams/Steph (CatNet)
Characters: Rachel Adams (CatNet), Steph - Character, AI | CheshireCat (CatNet)
Summary:

Glimpses of what came next. (Set between Catfishing and Chaos.)

petra: Barbara Gordon smiling knowingly (Default)
[personal profile] petra
Look both ways (5531 words) by Petra
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Doctrine of Labyrinths - Sarah Monette
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Mildmay Foxe/Felix Harrowgate
Characters: Mildmay Foxe, Felix Harrowgate
Additional Tags: Brother/Brother Incest, bisexual awakening, Oral Sex, Anal Sex, Yearning, POV First Person, Yuleporn, Everyone's A Little Bit Janus
Summary:

"Going molly, Milly-Fox?" Keeper asked in my head whenever I thought about Felix and what it'd been like when he kissed me. And no, I fucking wasn't. I still liked women -- soft-breasted, soft-bellied, soft-hipped.

But maybe I was going a little janus, 'cause Kethe, but Felix had me turned inside out.



*

My favorite part of this is not "Everyone's a little bit janus" as a tag but it's a very close second.

*

De corporis et anima (1000 words) by Petra
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Doctrine of Labyrinths - Sarah Monette
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Mildmay Foxe & Felix Harrowgate
Characters: Felix Harrowgate, Mildmay Foxe
Additional Tags: Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Summary:

Most people's soulmarks can be covered by a simple band on the wrist. Felix is not so lucky.



*

I threatened to write the soulmark story when it first occurred to me a zillion years ago, so when there was an opportunity to put it on paper for a pinch hit, I was very pleased.

Yuletide Reveals

Jan. 1st, 2026 04:20 pm
settiai: (Yuletide -- liviapenn)
[personal profile] settiai
Yuletide reveals have happened, and I somehow ended up writing a total of nine fics this year. That included my main assignment, four pinch hits, and four treats. I'm still not entirely certain how I managed to pull off that many fics, but I did it. And I feel pretty good about all of them. Yay me?

Anyway, let's move onto the fics themselves!

First there was my original assignment:

Watchmen (Comic) )

Then I picked up four pinch hits (one of which is archive locked for obvious reasons considering the fandom):

Critical Role: Aramán (Web Series) )

Critical Role (Web Series) RPF )

Memoirs of the Borgia Sybil Series - Jo Graham )

Pathways: Chronicles of Tuvana (Webcomic) )


And then, last but not least, I wrote four treats:

Jaws )

Justice League International )

Pretty Baby (1978) )

Titanic (1997) )
duskpeterson: The lowercased letters D and P, joined together (Default)
[personal profile] duskpeterson

Twisted


FREE ONLINE E-BOOK (html, epub, mobi, pdf, and xhtml)


The Motley Crew (The Thousand Nations). When a young man named Dolan flees from the north, he faces danger on all sides. The Northern Army wants him back. The Empire of Emor wants him dead. His native homeland of Koretia may not want him at all. And his only protection is a man with motives that are mysterious and possibly deadly.

New installment:

  • Side story | Twisted. No matter how you twist away, you cannot escape fate. But you can determine how you meet it.


BLOG FICTION

Anahita Most Strong (holiday gift story). "Anahita leapt from a hundred times the height of a man and ran powerfully. Strong and bright, tall and beautiful of form, she sent down by day and by night a flow of motherly waters." An ancient Persian tale retold by me from a translation of the Avesta by James Darmesteter.

Tempestuous Tours (Crossing Worlds: A Visitor's Guide to the Three Lands #2). A whirlwind tour of the sites in the Three Lands that are most steeped in history, culture, and the occasional pickpocket.

New installments:


Round-up of fiction released in 2025 )


NEWS & UPCOMING FICTION

In reference to my concussion in early November: My head is close to normal again, so I'm able to do late-stage editing once more.

As I already explained to my subscribers, I've decided to drop early access fiction in favor of releasing my stories to all my readers at the same time. Next up on my release schedule is Suspicion of the Guards (The Thousand Nations: The Motley Crew #3).

I've put together my release schedule for 2026, though these days I often have to be nimble on my feet and juggle my schedule to fit what's happening in my life. I can summarize my 2026 schedule by saying that this year I plan to release fiction from Chronicles of the Great Peninsula and Turn-of-the-Century Toughs. Those of you who are readers of the Toughs cycle have been extremely patient with my delay in posting more fic; I appreciate it. I hope to reward your patience.

My Year in Reading ( 2025 version)

Jan. 1st, 2026 02:06 pm
glitteryv: (Default)
[personal profile] glitteryv
I know there was a book reading meme somewhere, but I can't find it so we're going a bit bare bones today. 😅


Total books I picked up to read: 51


Total DNFs: 14


Fave books

Sweep in Peace and One Fell sweep from Ilona Andrews' Innkeeper Chronicles series. They were the ONLY books I gave 5 stars to. Also loved Skyla Dawn Cameron's intense mystery set in the Canadian wilderness The Silent Places.


Biggest Disappointments

* Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll - A roman a clef abt the victims and survivors of Ted Bundy that was lauded everywhere. I still don't know WHO this book is for, LOLsob.

* Murder by Memory by Olivia Wilde - ANOTHER DISSENTING OPINION because the mystery was so weak that I decided to not continue the series. (But I'll continue to give this author a chance.)


Biggest Surprises

* The Wife Deserved It by Darby Kane - A shorter-than-expected novella that I enjoyed so much I'm going to read more books by this author.

* The Silent Places gets a tip of the hat as well cuz it was a good suspense novel that had the best ending I've read in a long while.


Worst books

* Make Room for Love by Darci Liao - Was excited abt a butch Chinese-American lesbian and a transgender Indian-American bisexual woman. But the story veered into a whole thing abt a student union and I ended up hating the whole thing.

* A Court of Deceit and Ruin by Jessaca Willis - Promoted as "a slow-burn sapphic fantasy romance perfect for fans of fairy tale retellings, dark magic, and star-crossed fates" --which turned out to be lies. The book WAS well-written, but this wasn't a romance, there was zero slow burn (again, NOT a romance), and the rest of the description is off. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

* Bitterbound by A.Z. Louise - An alleged "assassin x target romantasy" that had too many plotpoints that weren't quite resolved, a weak-ass romance, and a TERRIBLE ending (given the premise.)


Average rating for the year: 3. No idea how that happened.


Overall thoughts

It was a super strange reading year, NGL. I tried a lot of new-to-me authors (DNF'd a lot of them too, LOLsob) and had a meh reading year. Wished I'd tackled a lot more of my TBR and that I'd done Nonfiction November.

OTOH, I'm participating on two different reading challenges, so I'm going to not mood read as much as I did last year. :P


FICS

Total fics I picked up to read: 222 - I feel like this was lower than other years, huh.


Total DNFs: 103 - Way better than I expected given that there were months where I kept DNF'ing stuff left and right, LOL.


Total wordcount read: 2,126,551 - FTR, I don't feel one way or another abt this number. It's just interesting to know I've read 2.1M words, but there's no self-worth type of attachment from me toward it.


Highest reading month? January --which was 29 fics total. Makes sense to me!


Lowest reading month? April and August -- where I only read 9 fics each. IDK what distracted me in April, but I've got an idea that Summer SADs got to me in August.


Fandom I read the most: BTS. 😋 77 fics with Yoonjin being the ship I read the most (35).


Other fandoms 41 fics total split between Seventeen (multiple ships), TXT (multiple ships), TCGF (Hualian), BTVS (Buffy/Faith, Faith/Other), Shinee (Minho/Key)


Fave fics I read in 2025

* the last person i could ever love by [archiveofourown.org profile] miraclesofpaul (BTS, Explicit, Omegaverse, endgame ship is Jin/Yoongi, other background ships, 152k total ) - This fic was rollercoaster of LOLs, DRAHMAHZ, and many sweet moments. *Chef's kiss* due to it being a TRUE Enemies-to-Lovers AU.

* Interlude by [archiveofourown.org profile] duets (BTS, Rated Teen, Jin/Yoongi, 2.4k words total) - AU in which BTS never happens, but Yoongi ends up as a famous rapper and Jin is an actor. LOVED THE MIXED MEDIA format.

* You have seven [7] new calendar invites by [archiveofourown.org profile] andlovetoo (Mature, OT7, 5.8k words total) - BTS trying to sync their calendar is all you need to know abt this wonderful chatfic.

* Stacks by [archiveofourown.org profile] tender_tenderly (Explicit, RM/V, 9.8k words total) - A librarian AU of win with one-sided rivals-to-lovers, heheh.

* Growing Toward The Sun by [archiveofourown.org profile] Nevaeh - Non-Idol AU abt the ups and downs of queer life in Seoul. I loved the balance of angst and fluff.

* Break Thru Everything by [archiveofourown.org profile] aceaceaceace - (Rated Teen, established Minho/Key, 11.5k words total) SHINee's Key starts to organize with other queer idols to come out as a collective. Loved everything abt it (including the mentions of other idols who did come out too.)

* Sediment by [archiveofourown.org profile] belledamn (BTVS, Mature, Buffy/Faith, 27k words total) - A perfect Noir AU in which Buffy's a PI, Faith's a sex worker, and they have a hella complicated relationship. I liked the way the author integrated other characters into the story.
petra: Barbara Gordon smiling knowingly (Default)
[personal profile] petra
Role Reversal (0 words) by Fikturya
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Heated Rivalry (TV)
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Shane Hollander/Ilya Rozanov
Characters: Ilya Rozanov, Shane Hollander
Additional Tags: Fanvids, Canon Compliant, Angst with a Happy Ending
Summary:

Just another nancy boy. [fanvid]


*

Warning for flashing lights. Ilya is Going Through It.

January the first.

Jan. 1st, 2026 08:15 am
hannah: (On the pier - fooish_icons)
[personal profile] hannah
Attending a New Year's Eve party with my parents and their friends that doubled as one of the friend's birthdays had me the youngest in the room. By multiple decades, in most cases. It was fun, for all that - I talked to some very old-school socialists about addiction, definitions of fascism, public transportation, architecture, technical versus technological, and made a few people laugh.

I should reach back out to the host and thank him for the invitation again.

2025 book recs

Jan. 1st, 2026 07:52 am
valoise: (Default)
[personal profile] valoise
I swear this is the last post on my 2025 reading list, but I wanted to share my favorites this year.

Fiction
Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor
Memory's Legion by James S. A. Corey
Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky
The Incandescent by Emily Tesh
The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones

Nonfiction
How We Lived Then, 1914-1918 by Dorothy Peel
A Village Lost and Found by Brian May and Elena Vidal
The Queens of Animation by Nathalia Hold

Rereads
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
The Murderbot series by Martha Wells
vriddy: Injured Endeavor (ouch)
[personal profile] vriddy
Via [personal profile] synecdochic, and also what I see happening based on the latest post on [site community profile] dw_maintenance and comments there:

[personal profile] synecdochic: Please spread this far and wide so as many people see it as possible, because I really don't see English-language LJ continuing in its present form for much longer, and I know some people may still have things they care about there. It doesn't matter how you get it backed up, but it's absolutely crunch time for getting it backed up.

I saw this import FAQ being linked in the [site community profile] dw_maintenance comments for how to import into Dreamwidth, if that's the option you choose. So I take it this is working again, I remember there were issues a couple of years back, but better act quickly before that's no longer the case.

Link: Get anything you have left on LJ backed up ASAP by [personal profile] synecdochic
Link: How do I import my journal from another site? (dreamwidth.org)

vriddy: Hawks perched on a pole with sword-feather in hand (hawks perched)
[personal profile] vriddy
Candy Hearts sign-ups are OPEN!!! You can find the schedule here, and the sign-up info post there, and here's for a direct link to the sign up form, and to the tagset!

You will never guess which fandom is included in my sign-up... and which canon I wrote a canon promo comment for ;D Haha. I'm actually signing up with tiny beloved polyships in 3 fandoms this time (K-9, Wind Breaker, Kaijuu No. 8) and I'm seriously excited about receiving any of them. It's the first time I do a sign-up like this haha, in that normally I try to be serious or close enough, but instead this is just me kind of jumping around about "THEM" whichever THEM it happens to be about XD :D I'm excited. It's also the first time I sign up for an exchange so early I think!! Normally I procrastinate until dangerously late because I worry about forgetting something. I also linked to the K-9 primer in my request... XD

Anyway, I love [personal profile] candyheartsex (and its predecessor [community profile] chocolateboxcomm), it's a chill exchange with a small minimum (300 words fic or podfic, art) that reveals on Valentine's Day (but doesn't have to be valentine-themed, at all). Because of the low word count maybe, there's usually a fantastic treating culture around it, and it's just sweet and delightful fun all around. I'm really glad to be participating this year! I'll have to remember to check in a few days that I can match as well. I see BNHA and Wind Breaker people are starting to sign up so it should be fine :D Maybe see you there??
beanside: Papa Perpetua V from Ghost (Default)
[personal profile] beanside
As per tradition, I bring you the song from the movie Toys to ring in the new year.



On this first day of the new year, I'm starting it out sick. I feel like ass, and I'm coughing and generally miserable. This is not the way I want my year to start. I'm trying to baby it along in the hopes that I can play our five year Frostmaiden anniversary game, but it's not looking promising. I'm going to give it some time and copious amounts of tea, but we'll see.

I went ahead and cancelled our trip to Philly for the weekend. Even if we're mostly better by tomorrow, I don't feel like it would be a good idea to visit with our friends. I think we're better off just trying to take it easy here.

I have no idea what this virus is. It's testing negative on the flu/covid tests, so maybe RSV? Or just your standard cold, though that usually doesn't come with feeling achy and chills, which Jess has had. The whole family is down with it, lucky us.

Yesterday, I made it through work and spent the rest of the day pretending to be a potato. We took the dog out for a walk at 6, but aside from that, I did nothing. We were in bed long before the ball dropped, though I woke up coughing a few times, so I'm not especially well rested.

Today, I'm planning more making like a potato, and maybe a nap. I might watch the rest of Pacific Rim, and maybe listen to some good music. We'll see. Exciting plans I have there. If I'm physically capable, we'll have game.

Tomorrow is usually our busiest day of the year at work, so that'll be fun. Hopefully, I'm not coughing as much by then.

And now, I shall get to my plans. Everyone have an amazing New Year's Day!
vriddy: christmas gnome (gnome)
[personal profile] vriddy

Community Thursday challenge: every Thursday, try to make an effort to engage with a community on Dreamwidth, whether that's posting, commenting, promoting, etc.


Over the last week...

Commented on [community profile] senzenwomen.

Commented on [community profile] anime_manga.

Promoted [community profile] fandom50challenge.

Cross-posted the K-9 primer to PLACES! :D That I want to promote a bit individually, so here we go:

  • Cross-posted to [community profile] fanifesto, which is a comm I always enjoy seeing posts on (and wish that happened a bit more often!🕯️). The rules are so good ("This thing is amazing. Here's why.") Incidentally, years ago I pledged to make a post there as part of the [community profile] snowflake_challenge, which I thought would be about Hawks and DabiHawks, and although I'm ahem 3 or 4 years late I'm glad I have done it now :D K-9, K-9, K-9!
  • Cross-posted to [community profile] anime_manga (and at least one person mentioned they read all of K-9 based on it >:D \o/)
  • Cross-posted to [community profile] fourormore with even more OT4 pics XD Spoilers warnings I guess.

Then I linked to a couple of my K-9 fics on [community profile] polyamships and sneaked in a link to the primer too. Teehee :D

Signal boosts:

  • Since I mentioning the [community profile] snowflake_challenge above, it's returning for 2026! I know I have a few newer-to-dreamwidth folks in my circles and want to say, this is a lovely and chill challenge that runs through January, and a great way to meet and make new friends on Dreamwidth. I found many friends there and warmly recommend it!

Goodbye, 2025.

Jan. 1st, 2026 12:00 am
settiai: (Fail -- iconzicons)
[personal profile] settiai
Don't let the door hit you on the way out.

As per tradition.

Dec. 31st, 2025 09:42 pm
hannah: (Pruning shears - fooish_icons)
[personal profile] hannah
ride_4ever: (Fannish 50 Challenge)
[personal profile] ride_4ever
Any blogger can challenge themselves to an annual Fannish Fifty without signing up to the Fannish Fifty Challenge on DW, but if you want to be part of the "official" Fannish Fifty click here to sign up.

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