philomytha: Biggles and Ginger clinging to a roof (Follows On rooftop chase)
[personal profile] philomytha
A series of spy adventures written in the 40s and 50s and set from WW1 onwards. I found this series by wandering around the books on Faded Page tagged with WW1, and have been inhaling them this week, the perfect counterbalance to a bad cold and a somewhat stressful half term holiday. 'Manning Coles' is a pseudonym for two people, Adelaide Manning and Cyril Coles, who co-wrote the entire series, and Cyril Coles actually was an undercover agent in Germany during WW1 and based some of the plots on his own experiences; the WW1 story is notably more realistic than any of the others.

Drink To Yesterday, Manning Coles (1940)
The first in the series, and by far the most serious and dark of all the ones I've read. The book has a framing device of the inquest into the mysterious death of an unknown person; we then go back in time to young Michael Kingston's schooldays and his precocious skill at languages with his equally brilliant teacher Mr Hambledon. At the outbreak of war, Mr Hambledon vanishes from the school and young Michael itches to join up and eventually does so under a false name. From there he is then recruited for intelligence work and deployed to Germany as the fake nephew of Hambledon, who is also in the spy business. One of the fascinating things about this book is that the narration, which is mostly from Michael's POV, uses whatever name he's currently going by as his name in the narration; how spies have to adopt specific identities and completely subsume themselves in them is one of the recurring themes of the book. Anyway, while undercover they collect information of various sorts and Michael gets recruited by the head of German intelligence in the area (a war-wounded aristocrat with 'flashing dark eyes' who likes to take young Michael out for dinner and sardonic conversation) and sent back to England, and rapidly discovers that life as a spy is terrifying and morally complicated and involves killing innocent people and destroying their lives. He and Hambledon have a wonderful mentor-friendship-slashy dynamic, there are adventures galore and the whole story is a very good read, though with a rather dark and unhappy ending.

Toast To Tomorrow (also titled Pray Silence, 1940)
I think this one has been my favourite so far. While Tommy Hambledon was Presumed Dead at the end of the previous book, given that the whole series is about him, it's not much of a spoiler to say no, he is not dead. In fact he is in Germany, suffering from amnesia. While amnesiac he concludes that he was a good German soldier during the war, he makes friends with a wide range of people which unfortunately include Hitler, and rises to become quite powerful in the growing Nazi party right up to when he gets his memory back. The authors just throw everything at the amnesia tropefic aspect of this, it's great; in general they love to lean in to all the spy tropes and situations and dramas. Hambledon then sets about trying to make contact with London and sending them intelligence without getting himself killed by the Nazis. Tons of exciting adventures of Hambledon living undercover and trying to figure out how to make the best of his unexpected situation, with unexpected allies and enemies and all sorts of spy shenanigans and a fascinating depiction of Germany just before WW2 got started.

They Tell No Tales (1941)
Back in England in 1938, Hambledon and his faithful comrade acquired in the previous book settle down to live together near Portsmouth and are given a young and somewhat feckless agent to help them investigate why naval ships keep mysteriously blowing up. This one has a large and complicated cast and is closer to a murder mystery than a spy novel, though it's very good fun as that, with all sorts of shenanigans and near-misses and a ruthless German spy ring and Hambledon trying to teach his young agent some survival skills as he sends him out to tackle the problem. The story has disguises and mysterious shootings and red herrings and all the trimmings of a classic spy/crime drama and I had a blast with this one too.

Without Lawful Authority (1943)
This introduces two new main characters, Warnford and Marden. Warnford was a military engineer working on new designs for tanks who was cashiered after his designs mysteriously found their way into the enemy's hands; Marden is the gentleman burglar Warnford caught trying to rob his safe. In the classic Golden Age style they like each other instantly and team up to set about trying to clear Warnford's name and catch the spy who really did steal the tank designs. In the process of this they stumble across an amazing number of other spies, whom they capture, tie them up and leave with a note for Hambledon to tidy up, so then Hambledon is trying to figure out which rogue agents are catching German spies for him. It's a great romp of a plot, though somewhat marred by the ending which involves a showdown in a lunatic asylum which - well, it's period-typical, but not in a good way. But all the same it was a fun light read and Warnford and Marden are great.

And I am looking forward to reading more of these, I believe Hambledon returns undercover to Germany in the next one which should be excellent.
mific: (DS green)
[personal profile] mific posting in [community profile] fancake
Fandom: due South
Characters/Pairings: Benton Fraser/Ray Kowalski, Diefenbaker, Victoria Metcalfe, original characters
Rating: Explicit
Length: 19,093
Content Notes: no AO3 warnings
Creator Links: thehoyden on AO3, luzula on the Audiofic Archive
Themes: Uncommon settings, Friends to lovers, First time, Working together, Complete AU: academia

Summary: "What the hell is this, an Austen novel?"

Reccer's Notes: Complete AUs are unusual in due South, and this is that rarity, a dS AU set in academia. Fraser is a new professor, looked down on by his colleagues as he's from the University of Guelph, and only Ray Kowalski, a punky, nonconformist professor, befriends him. They both have offices on the unpopular top floor (Fraser as he's bottom of the pecking order, and Ray as he likes to get away from the rest of the department), which helps kickstart their friendship. The story is about the highs and lows of academic life and there are some great sections showing Ray's unconventional teaching style which the students love, and Fraser's more traditional, but solid, approach. There's academic politics and also drama with the return of Victoria, Fraser's ex and his academic rival. It's about character development, and about Fraser and Ray's friendship which blossoms gradually into much, much more. The fic's beautifully written, and an extremely good read - highly recommended.

Fanwork Links: Academic Punk on AO3, and the excellent podfic by luzula is here

Write Every Day: Day 31

Oct. 31st, 2025 07:55 pm
china_shop: Close-up of Zhao Yunlan grinning (Default)
[personal profile] china_shop
So, I talked through some of the main problems I ran into while writing the book, and how, instead of going, “Ack, problems, I quit!” I tried to say, “Ah ha, problems, that means things are getting interesting.”
I often think of Houdini in this context. If he came out wearing, say, a light windbreaker, and said he would now endeavor to get out of it - nobody’s fascinated. But if he’s got on a straitjacket and padlock and lets us throw him into the Hudson River - then we’re talking.
When a writer has a problem, the reader feels it, and then, when the writer identifies and addresses that problem - this feels like originality and innovation.

– George Saunders, via Substack

My day 31: I added another 639 words to my WIP, mostly at writers' hour. I think it's nearly done, but I spent the rest of the day reading the next Dorothy Sayers and dozing on the couch, wow, I sound eighty years old. Hoping to manage to finish it tomorrow.

Thank you all so much for being here, for this half of October -- it's been such a pleasure to get your check-ins! I'll post the final tally in a couple of days to allow for time zones. :-)

Reminder: [personal profile] alightbuthappypen is hosting November. See you over at their place!

The tally
Tally )

Day 29: [personal profile] badly_knitted, [personal profile] carenejeans, [personal profile] china_shop, [personal profile] cmk418, [personal profile] cornerofmadness, [personal profile] sylvanwitch, [personal profile] trobadora

Day 30: [personal profile] alightbuthappypen, [personal profile] badly_knitted, [personal profile] brithistorian, [personal profile] carenejeans, [personal profile] china_shop, [personal profile] cornerofmadness, [personal profile] goddess47, [personal profile] sanguinity, [personal profile] sylvanwitch, [personal profile] trobadora

When you check in, please say what day(s) you’re checking in for. You can join in or take a break at any time; you’re always welcome back. And please let me know if I’ve missed you.

Daily Happiness

Oct. 30th, 2025 07:29 pm
torachan: (Default)
[personal profile] torachan
1. I worked from home again today, which was nice, but the reason was not so much. I'm sick again. D: Yesterday afternoon I started to feel a tickle in my throat that just continued throughout the evening, but it was super dry yesterday so it was the sort of thing that could have just been due to the weather. Unfortunately when I woke up this morning it was definitely more of a proper sore throat. So far testing negative for covid, but I'll keep checking. (I will say that the time last year when we actually did have covid, it showed up on the tests right away. But I know it doesn't always, so I won't take an early negative as a sure thing.)

2. Our new coffee table arrived and is all set up! It was not a full DIY table like Ikea, just had to attach the legs, so it was very quick to do.

3. Finished up another puzzle today. This is one of the ones we got at Target recently. It's 500 pieces but felt easier than a lot of the other ones of that size we've done, though the foil made it annoying at times since the light would kind of glare off it.



4. Jasper is such a handsome guy.

and all the papers lie tonight

Oct. 30th, 2025 07:36 pm
musesfool: tim/kon (if it helps you breathe)
[personal profile] musesfool
got some good news at work I can't talk about yet, and then got more good news that we should be able to meet payroll through the end of the year (and hopefully get our SNAP and WIC funding to make us whole when it is finally released), and then got a $200 check from the State of New York for ~reasons~ (inflation refund? idek). all in all, a pretty good day.

I also had a dream last night where maybe I was Tim Drake? And I wanted a Robin-themed birthday party that I never got until I actually became Robin? idk, but it was very sweet.

*

unpopular opinions

Oct. 30th, 2025 06:02 am
yhlee: Alto clef and whole note (middle C). (Default)
[personal profile] yhlee
Saying that the creative process of creation/conception for a story/novel MUST START with character/goal/motivation is complete fucking nonsense. You will usually need it in the END PRODUCT (modulo weird edge cases like Olaf Stapledon's Last and First Men), but that doesn't have to be the inception.

cf. composing music, where this would be like saying to a composer: you MUST ALWAYS start FIRST with a melody or you MUST ALWAYS start FIRST with a harmonic progression or you MUST ALWAYS start FIRST with instrumentation etc. No??? You can start in any of a number of places and still wind up with music???

There are times you need to start with $XYZ because of the use case (if writing for a string quartet, that constrains your instrumentation, ranges, techniques).

But when writing music, I can START in ANY of these places (not a complete list) (and have done so at various points):

- instrumentation
- tempo
- time signature
- harmonic progression
- a rhythm
- a vibe
- key/mode/etc
- melody or leitmotif
- structure/form (e.g. theme and variations, ternary form)
- a transformation (e.g. diminution, retrograde)
- articulation(s) to feature
- trolling ("What if I rewrote Swan Lake's theme in 5/4?")
etc

You're not going to be able to tell which one from the RESULTING MUSIC as an end product.

For that matter, watching web/comic creators talk about story ideation is fascinating. A bunch of them start with "I drew this cool character, but who are they? what is their story?", which is absolutely not my process since I don't visualize, but it's a perfectly cromulent process!

Write Every Day: Day 30

Oct. 30th, 2025 06:10 pm
china_shop: Close-up of Zhao Yunlan grinning (Default)
[personal profile] china_shop
There will always be constraints—time, budget, materials and equipment. If you’re waiting for all of the roadblocks to be cleared before you begin, you might be waiting all your life. So stop waiting. Just do your best to put something into the world that wasn't there yesterday. We can do that. I hope you begin something today, maybe something you’ve been putting off or waiting on the just-right conditions for. Forget just right and try right now instead. You don’t have to know what you’re doing or how it will turn out. Just start.

– Maggie Smith, via Substack

My day 30: I added another 530 words to my WIP (and did a couple more Youtube art tutorials: a dragon and a black cat). Depending on how my arms are in a couple of hours, I might go to UK Writers' Hour and keep working on my WIP. It would be good to get it done.

One more day in October! Reminder that [personal profile] alightbuthappypen has offered to host for November.

The tally
Tally )

Day 28: [personal profile] alightbuthappypen, [personal profile] badly_knitted, [personal profile] brithistorian, [personal profile] china_shop, [personal profile] cmk418, [personal profile] cornerofmadness, [personal profile] sanguinity, [personal profile] sylvanwitch, [personal profile] the_siobhan, [personal profile] trobadora

Day 29: [personal profile] china_shop, [personal profile] badly_knitted, [personal profile] cmk418, [personal profile] sanguinity, [personal profile] sylvanwitch, [personal profile] trobadora

When you check in, please say what day(s) you’re checking in for. You can join in or take a break at any time; you’re always welcome back. And please let me know if I’ve missed you.

[music] Trailures and Other Fiascoes

Oct. 29th, 2025 10:18 pm
yhlee: Alto clef and whole note (middle C). (Default)
[personal profile] yhlee
I committed a mini-album on Bandcamp of Trailures and Other Fiascoes (= "failure trailers"). Hybrid orchestra instrumental music because mopey foxmoth can't sing.

(I know voice lessons exist but for medical reasons, sore throat for over a year; singing is contraindicated.)



(This is accumulated composition/production from the past few months; I'm bowing out of a bunch of things currently due to ongoing health stuff. I don't want to discuss health details further, thanks!)

Daily Happiness

Oct. 29th, 2025 07:16 pm
torachan: ewan mcgregor pulling his glasses down to look over the top (ewan glasses)
[personal profile] torachan
1. I had a dentist appointment today (just a cleaning) and didn't want to go to work afterwards, so I just worked from home. Today is the hottest day of our heatwave, but it wasn't too hot in the house and I even took a walk in the afternoon, which I definitely wouldn't have been able to do at work because it's hotter down there plus there's hardly any shade in the neighborhood whereas the streets right around our house have a lot of tree coverage even midday.

2. Carla made pot roast for dinner. It was in the slow cooker, so it didn't heat up the house too much. It turned out really tasty! Haven't had pot roast in ages. It would have been nicer if the weather was still cool, but it still tasted good.

3. When Carla was moving stuff around to put books in her new bookcase, she moved some stuff out of this other bookcase and as soon as her back was turned, Chloe came to settle on the middle shelf lol.

(no subject)

Oct. 29th, 2025 09:15 pm
skygiants: Utena huddled up in the elevator next to a white dress; text 'they made you a dress of fire' (pretty pretty prince(ss))
[personal profile] skygiants
The other Polly Barton-translated book I read recently was Asako Yuzuki's Butter: A Novel of Food and Murder, which I ended up suggesting for my book club on account of intriguing DW posts from several of you.

Butter focuses Rika Machida, a magazine journalist, on the cusp of becoming the first woman in her company to break the glass ceiling and join Big Editorial, who decides that her next big feature is going to be an insider interview with the infamous prisoner Manako Kajii. Kajii is accused of murdering several men that she met on dating sites after seducing them with a fatal combination of sex, personal attention, and French cooking; in the eyes of the public, however, her greatest crime is that she somehow managed all this femme fatale-ing while being Kind Of Fat.

After a tip from her best friend Reiko -- a housewife who quit her own promising career in hopes of starting a family -- Rika, despite having no previous interest in cooking or domesticity, writes to Kajii about getting her recipe for beef stew. This opens the door for a connection that gets very psychologically weird very fast; Kajii, behind bars, tests Rika with various little living-by-proxy challenges -- eat some good butter! go to the best French restaurant in town! eat late night ramen! after having sex! and tell me all about it -- and Rika, fascinated despite herself, allows herself to be manipulated. For the interview, of course. And also because it turns out good butter is really good, and that eating and making rich food for herself instead of working to keep herself boyishly thin (the prince of her all-girl's school! One of the Boys at work!) is changing her relationship to her body, and her gender, and to the way that people perceive her in the world and she perceives them.

This is more or less what I'd understood to be the plot of the book -- a sort of Silence of the Lambs situation, if the crime that Clarice was trying to solve by talking with Hannibal was societal misogyny -- but in fact it's only about half of the story, and societal misogyny is only one of the big crimes under consideration. The other one is loneliness, and so the rest of the book has to do with Rika's other relationships, and the domino-effect changes that Rika's Kajiimania has on the other people in her life. The most significant is with Reiko, which is extremely fraught with lesbian tension spoilers I suppose ) But there's also Rika's mother, and her boyfriend, and the older mentor that she has secret intermittent just-lads-together meet-ups with in bars to get hot journalistic tips; all of these relationships are important, and usually ended up in places I didn't expect and that were more interesting than I would have guessed.

Not everything landed for me about this book, but this was one thing it did pretty consistently that I appreciated -- Rika would think about something, and I would go, 'well, that was didactic, you just said your theme out loud,' and then the book and Rika as protagonist would revisit it and have a more complicated and potentially contradictory thought about it, and then we'd go back to it again, and it usually ended up being more interesting than I would have thought the first time around. It's a long book, possibly too long, but it's equally possible I think that it does need that space to hold contradictions in.

It was however quite funny to read this shortly after Taiwan Travelogue -- another book I have not written up and should probably do so soon -- and also shortly after What Did You Eat Yesterday and also seeing a lot of gifsets for She Loves To Cook and She Loves To Eat ... fellas, is it gay to be really into food? signs point to yes!

it takes an ocean not to break

Oct. 29th, 2025 07:47 pm
musesfool: head!Six (and they have a plan)
[personal profile] musesfool
I really enjoyed this season of Slow Horses, though 6 episodes is too short. I don't need a full 22-episode season, but like 8 or 10 would be better. spoilers for all of this season )

I keep thinking about reading the books, but I haven't worked up the energy to do that yet.

There's still so much other TV I need to catch up on, but probably not until the World Series is done. I've been enjoying it a lot, though I went to bed on Monday night in the 12th inning, not really thinking they'd play 6 more! And when I woke up, I was like, as I expected Freddie Fucking Freeman walked it off, because that is what that guy does. Ugh.

Tangentially, I thought this was a really good read: Matt Berninger traded his notebook for a baseball. And the words kept coming. I'm not a huge fan of The National but I do like some of their songs and this was interesting.

*
jesse_the_k: Metal disk nailed in sidewalk reads "survey marker do not remove" (Survey marker)
[personal profile] jesse_the_k posting in [community profile] access_fandom

When I started working on WisCon access in 2007, some kind soul (name lost) gave me a black teeshirt printed in tactile gold--with both Latin letters and braille. It sang the praises of ELECTRICAL EGGS, who advocated for handicap accessibility in the 1970s and 1980s. I loved the shirt but didn't know their history.

So I was thrilled when the September 2025 Canadian Journal of Disability Studies, volume 14 number 2, starts off with Eric Vero's article:

Oral History of The Electrical Eggs: Science Fiction, Disability Activism, and Fan Conventions

https://cjds.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/cjds/article/view/1262

The journal offers PDF, HTML, and "simplified HTML" versions of each article; all are open access, peer-reviewed, and Creative Commons licensed CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.

ABSTRACT

Before the Americans with Disabilities Act was enacted in 1990, American science fiction fans in southern states organized, collaborated, and practiced accessibility at conventions. This grassroots movement began with the work of Samanda B. Jeude and a coalition of other science fiction fans who fought for visibility and access to convention spaces. In this oral history of their organization, “The Electrical Eggs,” I interview two key members decades after their participation in making conventions accessible. I complement these oral sources with brief histories of the role of eugenics and ableism in science fiction and the rise of disability activism in America. Although, the science fiction fandom still faces historical forces like ableism that have been present since its beginnings, the work of the Eggs is a testament to the power of collective action to provide accessibility in fan communities.

Whumptober: Last One Standing

Oct. 29th, 2025 10:03 pm
philomytha: Biggles, Algy, Ginger and Bertie (biggles team)
[personal profile] philomytha
This one's not particularly whumpy, but inspired by today's prompt anyway, a little ficlet, with thanks to [personal profile] tweague for pointing out that I could just skip the tricky bit!

No. 29: “I hope you see the sun someday in the darkness.”
Fainting | Broken Dishes | Last one Standing

Biggles team adventure )
spiralsheep: Sheep wearing an eyepatch (Default)
[personal profile] spiralsheep
The latest book I loved and wanted to enthuse about was The Possibility of Tenderness (5/5) by Jason Allen-Paisant which is local history of a hill-farming community where he grew up in Jamaica, told through the lens of memoir and family history but also intersecting with global history and economics, but I'm too tired to enthuse properly and maybe it's better to think of Jamaica in the present for the time being.

Instead here's the very latest fashion in book memes, brought to you by the letter T (for thistleingrey) and with an educational song from the letter M (for magid).

1. Lust, books I want to read for their cover.

None, but I did recently buy a relatively expensive book when it was first published, in hardback, so I could revel in the illustrations. And I'm especially glad I did because apparently my local independent bookshop were one of the few who managed to acquire stock from the publisher Unbound / Boundless before it failed and took authors' royalties and readers' pre-payments into oblivion with it. At least my local indie made some money. Oh, and I got one of the apparently rare copies complete with dust jacket (and postcard and bookmark and creators' signatures). So, Wild Folk, by Jackie Morris and Tamsin Abbott.

2. Pride, challenging books I've finished.

"challenging"? I mean, I congratulate myself every time I manage to key out the species of any biological organism I've never seen before. I've always read imaginative, creative, experimental, literary, academic, &c books so I don't consider the good ones a "challenge" to read. Bad books are always a challenge: they challenge me to dnf because life is too short. :-)

3. Gluttony, books I've read more than once.

I did this very often as a child, especially books I was still getting something new out of each time (and because I had limited access to books although I was lucky to be able to visit a good town library regularly). I re-read favourite books as a teen too, but more for familiarity ("comfort-reading" doesn't have to be cozy). As an adult I have less time for re-reading, and more access to new books. Also, since my mid-forties I've also been in a race with death to read as many new books as possible before my time runs out.

4. Sloth, books on my to-read list the longest.

I either read or divest regularly so the only long-term inmates of my To Read shelves are secondhand girls' own annuals I've bought as and when I've spotted them and not yet read because they're a limited resource and I'm in no hurry (if I die with precisely one remaining unread then I've won, lol).

Greed, wrath, and envy have been remaindered )

Wednesday Reading Meme

Oct. 29th, 2025 04:18 pm
sineala: Detail of Harry Wilson Watrous, "Just a Couple of Girls" (Reading)
[personal profile] sineala
What I Just Finished Reading

Nothing. Such a surprise.

What I'm Reading Now

Comics Wednesday!

Imperial #4, X-Vengers #1 )

What I'm Reading Next

No idea. So many books, so many migraines. Books are not happening.

Seven Deadly Sins of reading

Oct. 29th, 2025 08:53 am
wychwood: a room completely full of books (gen - stacks of books)
[personal profile] wychwood
I like the book meme that is going around - I saw it first on [personal profile] naraht's journal, but it seems to be spreading vigorously!

Lust, books I want to read for their cover:
I don't think there's anything at the moment, but I first read Flying Dutch by Tom Holt because of the Josh Kirby cover! Does that count?

Pride, challenging books I've finished:
Speaking purely personally, finishing Arcadia by Iain Pears was a real achievement, although I've no idea why I found it so impossible a read. I've read some books that would probably fall under the popular definition, but I feel like it doesn't count if I was reading them for fun! Maybe St Augustine's City of God; that did feel like a real achievement to get through, it's so enormous.

Gluttony, books I've read more than once:
I mean. Even these days roughly 40% of my reading is re-reading, and growing up it was a lot higher than that! I don't understand people who never re-read. Arthur Ransome's Swallows and Amazons can stand for the vast number.

Sloth, books on my to-read list the longest:
lol where to start. I acquired Consilience by Edward O Wilson in 2009, I think that may be the oldest physically sitting on my to-read shelves.

Greed, books I own multiple editions of:
The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan - I have a Penguin Classics copy, a giant hardback edition with illustrations that looks rather William-Blake-esque, and a tiny pocket hardback that used to live permanently in my rucksack pocket. Oh, and an ebook from Project Gutenberg.

I also have a few dozen audiobooks that duplicate paper or ebooks I already had, and an increasing number of ebooks duplicating paper I already had. Mostly I get one format or the other, but I've picked up quite a few cheap ebooks of favourites where I don't want to get rid of the original, or where I have the whole series in paper and don't want to give away the one or two I have in ebook, etc... I suspect I will gradually prune things down over time.

Notably I'm up to nearly 50 Chalet School ebooks now! But I have spent nearly forty years accumulating my paper set, and it's going to take a while before I'm ready to give them up. Greed indeed.

Oh, and five? six? Bibles? One in German. Plus a couple of New Testaments including one in Greek (I don't even read Greek, it was just so beautiful!).

Wrath, books I despised:
I'm sure there are a ton of better choices that will come to me after I post this, but such is life. I looked through my "Product of its Time" booklog awards and found some promising candidates, but then I remembered Ada Palmer's Too Like the Lightning, which left me with the sort of loathing that feels appropriate for this category. It's not that it was rubbish, because those mostly aren't worth despising really, it's that it was just persistently unpleasant in a gloating kind of way that left me wanting a shower. Ugh.

Envy, books I want to live in:
Relatively few, without a guarantee of being one of the lucky ones! Graydon Saunders' Commonweal books are pretty invested in everyone getting an equal chance, more or less, so that might not be too bad as long as I could be sure of being in the Commonweal and not one of Reems' slaves or something.

Otherwise mostly looking at positive high-tech futures, to be sure of having access to medication and/or medical treatment for my numerous chronic health conditions! Maybe Bujold's Vorkosigan saga? I'd like Beta, I think. But again, I could end up on Jackson's Whole, and that would not end well for me. Maybe a Star Trek novel, that universe is probably as safe as anywhere I can find.

emotional support dyeing?

Oct. 29th, 2025 10:43 am
yhlee: Alto clef and whole note (middle C). (Default)
[personal profile] yhlee
hand-dyed handspun yarn

A test batch to see how the colors come out. Next I start measuring out and doing this more systematically.

Three-ply handspun wool yarn.

Write Every Day: Day 29

Oct. 29th, 2025 05:28 pm
china_shop: New Zealand painting of flax (NZ flax)
[personal profile] china_shop
"…if you have a fear of failure, you’re never going to learn how to cook. Cooking is one failure after another. That’s how you learn. You’ve got to have what the French call ‘Je m’en foutisme’, or ‘I don’t care what happens.’ The sky can fall, and omelettes can go all over the stove… If you’re not going to be ready to fail, you’re not going to learn."

– Julia Child

My day 29: I added 558 words to a WIP. And then the sun was out, so I went for a walk along a shared pedestrian/mountain biking trail through the trees. (Posting this a bit earlier because my sister's coming over for Fringe tonight. :-)

The tally
Tally )

Day 27: [personal profile] alightbuthappypen, [personal profile] badly_knitted, [personal profile] brithistorian, [personal profile] china_shop, [personal profile] cmk418, [personal profile] cornerofmadness, [personal profile] goddess47, [personal profile] sanguinity, [personal profile] sylvanwitch, [personal profile] trobadora

Day 28: [personal profile] alightbuthappypen, [personal profile] badly_knitted, [personal profile] china_shop, [personal profile] sanguinity, [personal profile] sylvanwitch, [personal profile] trobadora

When you check in, please say what day(s) you’re checking in for. You can join in or take a break at any time; you’re always welcome back. And please let me know if I’ve missed you.

The Spire has been slain!

Oct. 28th, 2025 11:11 pm
sineala: Mac laptop whose Apple logo has no bite (Young Wizards reference); text reads "my other Mac is a manual" (Young Wizards: My Other Mac)
[personal profile] sineala
Yeah, yeah, I finally get my brain together and it's a video game post. I'm doing the best I can, okay?

I slew the Spire! )

Profile

eruthros: Delenn from Babylon 5 with a startled expression and the text "omg!" (Default)
eruthros

October 2025

S M T W T F S
   12 34
567891011
12131415161718
19202122232425
262728293031 

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Oct. 31st, 2025 02:21 pm
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios