(no subject)

Oct. 27th, 2025 11:14 pm
skygiants: Hazel, from the cover of Breadcrumbs, about to venture into the Snow Queen's forest (into the woods)
[personal profile] skygiants
Speaking of literary sff about how humans project out their loss and grief, Mai Ishizawa's The Place of Shells is sort of the opposite of Luminous -- where Luminous sprawls out into big branching intersecting plotlines and detailed, evocative worldbuilding, The Place of Shells spirals in on itself, carefully layering its metaphors on top of each other as the world echoes its protagonist's own interiority.

The unnamed narrator is a Japanese PhD student studying medieval saints in Göttingen, Germany, in the summer of 2020. The first quarantine regulations are just beginning to relax, and, as the world opens up a little bit again, she's visited by her old grad school friend Nomiya, who unfortunately died in the 2011 tsunami, and whose body was never recovered. The meeting is, inevitably, a bit awkward, mostly small talk -- it's hard to make a connection after nine years, especially when one person has been changing and moving through the world and the other has not -- but Nomiya seems to be enjoying Göttingen. He decides to stay for some time. The narrator feels that it would be rude to ask him whether he's going to return home to Japan for the Ghost Festival.

As the summer unfurls, in a series of encounters and re-encounters with friends new and old, the city of Göttingen gets stranger. The planet Pluto, which was removed from Göttingen's scale-model planet-themed walking trail some time ago, keeps intermittently re-appearing. The narrator's roommate keeps taking her dog out to look for truffles and instead the dog finds strange lost objects, all of which seem to have profound significance to somebody. Nomiya comes to dinner with the narrator's old grad school advisor and brings a friend, a nice man who appears to be experiencing the city from approximately a century previous. In fact, time is slipping all over Göttingen: and what is time, or memory, except something that lives in a landmark or an object? The narrator studies medieval saints. She understands things in terms of iconography.

I picked this up largely because it was translated by Polly Barton, who also translated Where The Wild Ladies Are and Butter (post on which forthcoming) and at this point I've decided I should probably just read everything she translates because it's clearly going to take me interesting places. This book, absolutely another data point of reinforcement.

UK Boys' Boarding Schools circa 1914

Oct. 27th, 2025 10:39 pm
dragonbat2006: Canon Error (Default)
[personal profile] dragonbat2006 posting in [community profile] little_details
 I tried Googling and got general info on curriculum, specific schools, and alumnae pages, but not the specific details I'm looking for.

My main character is an upper class 13-year-old boy who, due to long-term illness/frailty was educated by tutors at home, but is now being sent away to school. (Probably England, but since he lives in Yorkshire, I'm not completely opposed to it being Scotland if it turns out that there are significant differences in school experiences between the two countries and Scotland would work better for my character.)

1. Would most pupils begin classes in the fall term as is typical today? As in, would it be realistic for him to begin in September? Or was it more of a rolling admissions thing?

2. How far in advance would his father need to contact the school to enrol/register him? Would there normally be an entrance exam, or would it normally be, 'We accept anyone who can pay the fee, provided there's space'?

3. When it comes to letters to and from home, would there be any reasonable expectation of privacy, or would it be common for staff to read each piece of correspondence? Specifically, the boy has a female cousin of the same age with whom he's quite close. Would he get into any sort of trouble for writing to her or would her letters to him be delivered?

4. If she were in the vicinity of the school, would it be possible for them to meet under the auspices of a chaperone, or would that be totally unheard of?

5. How much would the outbreak of WWI impact him? I would guess that some of the younger teachers would have enlisted over the summer and some of the older boys talking about hoping it won't be over before they get a chance to get in it. Would that mean larger than expected classes? 

Thanks so much!
musesfool: Chidi & Eleanor (feelings are stupid)
[personal profile] musesfool
Holy forking shirtballs, The Good Place isn't on Netflix anymore! And when I tried to cue it up on Prime, it wouldn't play - I got an error. So I ordered the dvds. I can't be having with this bs anymore. I also need to buy Leverage at some point, and The Expanse. Maybe I will for Christmas this year, as long as I'm not furloughed or anything.

*

Strictly week 5 - Icons week

Oct. 27th, 2025 08:11 pm
shallowness: Fred and Ginger dancing in foregroud, him in tails, her in a dark gown, background a white circle (moon or spotlight) (Fred and Ginger dancing)
[personal profile] shallowness
First, the big Strictly news of last week Read more... )

Watched live:

Read more... )

Watched on catch-up: Read more... )

Results show (also watched on catch-up):

Read more... )

This and that

Oct. 27th, 2025 05:52 pm
selenak: (Breaking Bad by Wicked Signs)
[personal profile] selenak
Got my Yuletide assignment, which is going to be fun - I just have to refresh my canon memories, and it's not a long canon. Also, I just finished the (short) first season of Dark Winds. Now I dimly remember reaidng one of Hillerman's novels decades ago, but only a very few details remained with me - the asking about the clans, for example - which meant that basically I went into this unspoiled. And was v. amused that apparantly Noah Emmerich now gets typecast as an F.B.I agent, though Stan from The Americans and High Pockets here are very different types.

Spoilers thought it was a solid first season and will continue the show )

Meanwhile, thinking back to ye olde days when shows had 22 episodes per season, I just found this well crafted retroscpective on Six Feet Under, which reminded me of how much I loved and appreciated it:


The Family Tomb: A Six Feet Under Retrospective
linaewen: Girl Writing (Girl Writing)
[personal profile] linaewen posting in [community profile] writethisfanfic
 Hello on Monday! How's the day going so far for fic? (If you haven't gotten started on your day as yet, how did yesterday go for writing fic?)
 
    - Excellent!
    - Terrible
    - Somewhere in between
    - Nothing doing
 
How much time have you spent on writing fic today, roughly?
 
    - None
    - 30 minutes or less
    - 30-60 minutes
    - 60-90 minutes
    - More than 90 minutes
 
In five words or less, how do you feel about that?
 

fic: denoument

Oct. 27th, 2025 08:45 am
lirazel: Alice from Luther in her knit cap ([tv] the mind is its own place)
[personal profile] lirazel
Hey, I woke up at 2:30 this morning and wrote something really fucked up, and I am just stupidly proud of it!

denouement (500 words) by Lirazel
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The Pitt (TV)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Melissa "Mel" King/Frank Langdon, Melissa "Mel" King & Frank Langdon
Characters: Frank Langdon
Additional Tags: tagging both / and & because i honestly don't know, Hurt No Comfort, Angst, Just angst, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, POV Second Person, there is nothing but bleakness here, You Have Been Warned, addiction is a helluva drug
Summary:

Santos takes longer to put two and two together. It gives Langdon enough time to increase the collateral damage.

[Or: exactly 500 words of how it could have been]

Alphabet meme

Oct. 27th, 2025 07:29 am
tassosss: Shen Wei Zhao Yunlan Era (Default)
[personal profile] tassosss
Ooh a meme!

Rules: How many letters of the alphabet have you used for [starting] a fic title? One fic per line, 'A' and 'The' do not count for 'a' and 't'. Post your score out of 26 at the end, along with your total fic count.

A - Accidental Documentaries (Supernatural, Teenchesters)
B - Blueshit (Star Trek AOS, Kirk/Bones)
C - Chicago and Change (due South/NCIS, Gen)
D - Dress Me Up Take Me Out (Guardian, Shen Wei/Zhaou Yunlan)
E - Eight Crazy Pilots Serenity Didn't Keep (Firefly/Many, Gen)
F - The Five-0 Job (Hawaii 5-0/Leverage Crossover, Gen)
G - The Gatekeeper and the Keymaster (Buffy/SG1, Gen)
H - Heart of a Lion (Buffy, Gen)
I - In Want of a Hyperdrive (Star Wars, Gen)
J - Just Another Provincial Town (Merlin, Merli/Gwaine)
K - Keeping Up Appearances During the Holidays (Leverage, Parker/Hardison)
L - Let's Play Pretend and Live Our Lives (The Untamed, WWX/LWJ)
M - Mornings Between Jobs (Leverage, OT3)
N - A Nude Awakening (Dragon Age Origins, Alistair/Zevran)
O - of cheese and carrots (Dragon Age Inquisition, Alistair/Cullen)
P - Perspective Dispersion (Teen Wolf, Werewolf!Sheriff)
Q - Quintessent Entanglement Theory (Voltron: Legendary Defender, OT6)
R - Reflects in Moonlight (Teen Wolf, Werewolf!Sheriff)
S - Slats: Moments in Time (Buffy/Stargate SG1, Gen)
T - The Thin Wall (Teen Wolf, Derek/Stiles)
U - Untaken Roads (Farscape/SGA/Supernatural)
V - Variations on a Square Dance (Haven, Audrey/Duke/Nathan + Jordan)
W - Weather Every Rack (Pirates of the Caribbean, Elizabeth/Will)
X - NA
Y - NA
Z - NA

23/26 - Not bad! I have 146 fics total. I forgot I had a Q and U in there. I set my works to most kudos and went from there, so these are the more popular of my fic over the years. It's a pretty good spread of my ouvre, I think, although light on the Farscape, most of which I wrote before AO3 + being a smaller fandom.

Volunteers for November

Oct. 27th, 2025 10:56 am
lilly_c: Kate Mulgrew and Robert Beltran wearing all black against a purple lights background and mine! in purple text (Default)
[personal profile] lilly_c posting in [community profile] writethisfanfic
This takes us into the first week of December, at least, it does if I've got the dates right.

Week 1: 2nd to 8th
Week 2: 9th to 15th
Week 3: 16th to 22nd
Week 4: 23rd to 29th
Week 5: 30th to 6th

November sign up

Oct. 27th, 2025 10:56 am
lilly_c: Kate Mulgrew and Robert Beltran wearing all black against a purple lights background and mine! in purple text (Default)
[personal profile] lilly_c posting in [community profile] writethisfanfic
It's time to sign up for the November WIP challenge! Some people join the challenge mid month, or comment on check-in posts without signing up, which is fine -- I'm glad there's a way for the challenge to be useful in a variety of ways. For those of you who find the commitment of signing up useful, please leave a comment with the below information.

Sign-ups will be open until the end of November.


    Level of challenge: 1 chapter, 1000 words, 1 fic finished, whatever you like
    Fandom(s) involved: if you know at this point
    What you're looking for from the challenge: this could be as vague or specific as you like: someone to be accountable to, someone to remind you to write, someone to bounce ideas off, etc.
    What you could offer other participants yourself: ditto!
    How people should contact you: DW message, e-mail, IM etc.
    Time zone: useful for seeing who might be up for a writing session at a time convenient to you


Copypaste below:



The post for hosting the daily check-in is here and thanks to everyone who helps out with this. If you're interested in helping out and there are still slots available the post remains open until the last week of the month and we generally run our week Sunday to Saturday, I'm happy to chat via PM on DW for anyone who might need it.

If you have ever completed a fic through this challenge we have a collection on AO3 and on SquidgeWorld both collections are open and unmoderated. Should there be an issue with adding a work, let me know and I'll see if there's a fix for it.

Pumpkin chocolate-chip cookies

Oct. 26th, 2025 09:18 pm
sonia: Quilted wall-hanging (Default)
[personal profile] sonia posting in [community profile] gluten_free
I had a can of pumpkin and a bag of chocolate chips and wanted to make cookies, so I searched online and this is the first recipe that came up.
Gluten-Free Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies by Erin Collins at Meaningful Eats.

See notes at the end for substitutions. This is a very substitution-tolerant recipe!

Time
15 mins prep, 15 mins baking, approx. I had to bake them in two batches, so nearly an hour altogether.

Ingredients
1 cup granulated sugar 200 grams
1/2 cup lightly packed brown sugar 105 grams
15 ounce can of pumpkin 100% pumpkin (uses the whole can, yay!)
1/3 cup oil, vegetable or coconut will work
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups gluten-free 1:1 baking flour 375 grams
1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips (slightly less than one bag of chips)

recipe )
alethia: (GK Doc)
[personal profile] alethia
The Magic Touch (5418 words) by Alethia
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The Pitt (TV)
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Jack Abbot/Michael "Robby" Robinavitch
Characters: Jack Abbot (The Pitt), Michael "Robby" Robinavitch, Samira Mohan, Parker Ellis
Additional Tags: Post-Season/Series 01, Under-negotiated Kink, First Kiss, First Time, Porn, baby's first sub inkling
Summary:

Jack just laughed and shoved him a little harder into the door, a visceral, physical reminder: he was in control now. He expected Robby to bitch him out, sharp like he got when cornered—

Except instead Robby slumped, his breath out almost relief, like all the fight had drained from him. He didn't say anything, just took a few shaky breaths, body shivering under Jack's—

...oh.

(no subject)

Oct. 26th, 2025 02:14 pm
aurumcalendula: gold, blue, orange, and purple shapes on a black background (Default)
[personal profile] aurumcalendula
I had a pretty nice birthday yesterday!

The weather was colder than I'd like, but still nice for archery. I ended up trying a dessert from a local bubble tea place afterward that was very tasty. It was called strawberry pancakes on the menu (which makes me think of flapjacks by default), but was more like mini crepes or the pancakes than come with moo shu filled with a strawberry and whipped cream.

photos of the dessert in question )

I also saw both a Downy Woodpecker and Carolina Wren at the suet feeder the other day, which was neat!

photo of birds )

to get out and find a tight end

Oct. 26th, 2025 03:10 pm
musesfool: these are but wild and whirling words (writing is a form of prayer)
[personal profile] musesfool
As seen all around these parts, the AO3 alphabet meme:

Rules: How many letters of the alphabet have you used for [starting] a fic title? One fic per line, 'A' and 'The' do not count for 'a' and 't'. Post your score out of 26 at the end, along with your total fic count.

A - Another Gravity (Firefly, Mal/Zoe)
B - The Boys of Summer (Hot Corner Rag) (SPN, Sam & Dean)
C - Courtship Rituals of the World's Most Awkward Superheroes (Avengers/Amazing Spider-Man, Steve/Peter)
D - the dream of flight persists (Star Wars/Firefly, Anakin/Kaylee)
E - Eight the Hard Way (Ocean's 8, Amita/Daphne)
F - The Forces Ranged Within Us and Against Us (SPN, Sam/Dean)
G - Girl, You're Like a Weird Vacation (Blue Beetle, Brenda/Paco)
H - The Hubbert Peak (Dark Angel, Max/Alec)
I - The Injurious Internet Meme Incursion (The Middleman, Wendy, MM, & Ida)
J - Joy has he whom she embraces (Amelia Peabody, Peabody/Emerson)
K - Katie, Bar the Door (DCU, Jason, ensemble)
L - A Little Less Conversation, a Little More Action (Ocean's 11, Danny/Rusty)
M - Mother Is the Name for God (Star Wars, Leia & Padme)
N - No Exit (Star Wars; Darth Vader/Ahsoka)
O - Only where love and need are one (L'Engleverse, Adam/Joshua)
P - Paint a thank-you on my palm (Six of Crows, Inej, ensemble)
Q - Quality (LotR, Faramir)
R - Retail Therapy (DCU, Cass, ensemble)
S - Stuck in the Middle with You (Star Wars, Anakin, Obi-Wan, Ahsoka)
T - There's Still Time to Change the Road You're On (Star Wars, Anakin, Luke, Leia)
U - Until the Sea Shall Free Them (The Iliad, Achilles/Patroclus)
V - Visiting Hours (DCU, Alfred & Jason)
W - with our way lit only by stars (Earthsea, Ged/Tenar)
X - Xue Bai, Xue Hong (Firefly, Mal/River/Simon)
Y - you and your high top sneakers and your sailor tattoos (Avengers, Steve/Darcy)
Z - The Zombie Love Bug Concatenation (SPN/The Middleman, Dean/Wendy)

26/26, out of 950 stories on AO3. I ignored the ones that start with parentheticals and numbers. I also went mostly on vibes, so it's not a real overview of my stuff, but it is one title for every letter of the alphabet.

*

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