muccamukk: Matheson side eyes hard. Text: Srsly? (B5: Srsly?)
Muccamukk ([personal profile] muccamukk) wrote2025-10-23 10:37 pm

Boostle Update

Someone stuck both my boostle fic on goodreads. Which... sighs. Maybe that's where all the traffic is coming from?

I should figure out how to get them taken down, but don't have the energy to care.
lucymonster: (meesa back)
lucymonster ([personal profile] lucymonster) wrote2025-10-24 02:59 pm

Recently on page and screen...

The Incandescent by Emily Tesh was a delightful read. [personal profile] snickfic described it as "aggressively pleasant" but not life-altering, which I think is very accurate, but it won extra points with me because I am pretty much exactly the target demographic: bookish, bisexual younger Millenial women who formed a key part of their identity around Harry Potter but have since become conscious of flaws in the worldbuilding and grown to identify more with the adult characters than the kids. The Incandescent is about a teacher at a modern day magical boarding school who must battle the demonic forces threatening to devour her students while balancing her ordinary administrative obligations and her rather stunted personal/romantic life. It is drily witty, relatable to anyone who regularly deals with kids, and extremely fun if you're the kind of person who finds fantasy-flavoured bureaucratic tedium fun.

Pests: How Humans Create Animal Villains by Bethany Brookshire is pretty much exactly what it says on the tin: an examination of which animals we consider to be pests, how different animals have gained and lost the label in various times or places, and how rooted the very concept of a "pest" is in our own species' urge to exert control over our natural environment. Essentially, a pest is any creature with the temerity to exist where we don't want it, and our disdain for pests - not just a pragmatic need to preserve our grain stores, but a vicious, morally tinged desire for their total eradication - is tied to the Western imperialist mindset, to industrialisation, urbanisation, and an internalised sense of righteous dominion over nature itself. This was an enjoyable and informative read, though as someone who already keeps rats as beloved pets, I was disappointed by the author's choice to focus on more "palatable" pests and exclude invertebrates entirely. I was rather hoping she'd challenge me on my personal yearning for a worldwide cockroach extinction event. It deserves to be challenged, but I don't know how to do it myself - the kneejerk is too strong.

Thunderbolts* is the "just one more, for old time's sake" MCU movie I thought I was never actually going to watch. But I enjoyed it! Yelena, still mourning her sister's death, reluctantly partners with a squad of mediocre not-really-heroes to defeat a threat that even in-universe is very clearly more about mental health than superpowers. I appreciated that this one wasn't trying to escalate the stakes from prior films or convince us that it was an important part of some massive unfolding multiverse apocalypse; it was humans dealing with regular, relatable human shit, with the capes and telekinesis mostly just there for the aesthetic. It wasn't enough to resurrect my dead interest in the MCU as a fandom but I don't regret watching it.

Hunter x Hunter is more my husband's thing than mine, but it's so rare for him to get consumingly obsessed with a piece of media that I'm happy to be along for the ride! He's rewatching episodes. Listening to podcasts. That never happens.

Anyway, if you don't already know what this anime is about, I'm not sure I'm in a position to help yet - it's shonen fighting with your typical ill-defined superhuman powers? A plucky kid is on a quest to become a hunter and track down his absentee father? He's winning hearts and minds along the way? It's silly and fun and reminds me of the old days binge-watching Bleach, I guess mostly because it's from around the same era and aimed at the same demographic. I like the main characters but so far I'm finding the antagonists pretty much all uniformly repulsive, which is disappointing. There's a very horny serial killer dressed up like a deck of cards, and a nasty little middle-aged man with pungent feet whose evil schemes mostly seem to involve diarrhoea, and a creepy robot full of pins who shape-shifts into one of the heroes' even creepier abusive brother. Give me a proper, sexy villain who I can stan and THEN I suspect I'll suddenly find the plot much easier to follow.
settiai: (Critical Role -- settiai)
Lynn | Settiai ([personal profile] settiai) wrote2025-10-23 11:55 pm

Critical Role: Campaign 4, Episode 4

Okay, yeah, I think that I may no longer be watching Critical Role.

The first hour or so of tonight's episode made it very clear early on that there's no point in watching if you actually care about getting to know the characters, so fuck this. This isn't D&D. This is intentional cruelty, and I have no intention of watching something that punishes the viewers for watching.

If it turns out to be something that's intentionally planned, I'll considering trying to watch later in the week, but yeah. For now? I'm done. This isn't something that I have any interest in right now, not without knowing that what's happening was planned and not simply Brennan going with the dice and saying "fuck you" to anyone watching.
karanguni: (Default)
K ([personal profile] karanguni) wrote2025-10-23 09:15 pm
Entry tags:

Dear Yuletide Writer 2025

Dear Yuletide writer,

Thank you for writing for me! I'm a generally omnivorous reader and excited to read anything that you come up with – everything in this letter is optional. Have fun!

AO3: karanguni
tl;dr: I happily opt into gen, porn, unusual media types, and crossovers with fandoms I have read/written/requested before; ignore or take as many parts of this wall of text as you want! My AO3 account has gifts enabled for treats.

Initial D, Kamusari Series, Heike Monogatari, The Bedlam Stacks, The Culture )

soc_puppet: Dreamsheep, its wool patterned after the Bi Pride flag, in horizontal stripes of hot pink, purple, and blue; the Dreamwidth logo echoes these colors. (Bi bi bi)
Socchan ([personal profile] soc_puppet) wrote in [community profile] queerly_beloved2025-10-23 09:50 pm

Thursday Recs

Scooting in with some Thursday Recs!


Do you have a rec for this week? Just reply to this post with something queer or queer-adjacent (such as, soap made by a queer person that isn't necessarily queer themed) that you'd, well, recommend. Self-recs are welcome, as are recs for fandom-related content!

Or have you tried something that's been recced here? Do you have your own report to share about it? I'd love to hear about it!
cyphomandra: fluffy snowy mountains (painting) (snowcone)
cyphomandra ([personal profile] cyphomandra) wrote2025-10-24 03:18 pm
Entry tags:

Yuletide

Dear Yuletide writer,

I love Yuletide, as a challenge, a community and a tradition. I am thrilled to see what you come up with and I hope you enjoy creating it.

What I like hasn't changed much from previous years (including this sentence, its time come round again, slouching towards AO3 etc). I like humour that cares about the characters. I like characters who are outsiders in some way, but (sometimes even despite themselves!) become part of something larger - a relationship, a cause, a community. I like food as a way of showing character or worldbuilding (and for eating!). I like bittersweet endings. I like justified angst, pining, weirdness, and invention. I like pretty much any style of writing - epistolary, experimental, Dickensian - and even second person, if it works for the story. In a previous year I got IF for one story and that was fantastic. Artwise, I like quiet moments, possibly with tea or food, and prefer stylised to photorealistic. I love treats.

I have no problem with sexual content as long as it fits with the characters. I like stories that make me remember why I love the original inspiration as well as stories that make me think about it differently (and both! both is great). And I do like the canons themselves. I like these characters being part of their worlds, even when they struggle against them.

With my noms this year I am happy with crossovers (with other noms or any fandoms I've written). For AUs see specific fandoms. If you’re looking for short fandoms, either Dogsbody (one short book) or Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (one average movie) would suit.

DNWs: child or animal harm &/or death as a major plot point (outside of canon). If you’re looking back through old letters I have previously excluded earthquakes but it’s been over ten years and now I’m okay with them but would like them tagged. No noncanonical trans characters, please (exception for Jumanji - see below).

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle

Sheldon ("Shelly") Oberon
Jefferson (“Seaplane”) McDonough


I loved this so much, and it was so unexpected - I loved the van Allsburg book, really liked the Robin Williams film while being a bit disoriented about the undoing of the past, and went into this expecting it to be a bit of a let-down, and it was great. Everybody really leaned into the gaming aspects, NPC briefings, strengths/weaknesses, limited lives, and all, and this time the undoing of the past is actually heartbreaking in its consequence for Bethany as Shelly, and her/his relationship with Jefferson (I ship them in game but not in real life).

I've nominated the real world and game versions, but I'm much more interested in the experience in-game than in the real world. For this request I'd like to ignore The Next Level (although references to it welcome!), but apart from that, anything and everything goes. A sidequest within canon? AU where they don't make it past one of the challenges and have to find another way out? Another trip back into the game, just the two of them? Go wild.

I've put no non-canonical trans characters in my DNWs but for this fandom I am happy to have either/both (or anyone else) as trans.

Worrals series - WE Johns

Betty "Frecks" Lovell (Worrals Series - W. E. Johns)
Joan "Worrals" Worralson (Worrals Series - W. E. Johns)


So fantastic! So action-filled, with so many sudden reversals - and Worrals & Frecks are great, competent and brave, but never over-confident or perfect. I would love more adventures and I would also love femslash, h/c, spies, plane dogfights/crashes, coping with being in some form of wilderness after a plane crash, space AUs, or even just a quiet moment between the two of them in-between adventures. I like spies and betrayal and working with the Resistance, if you're looking for WWII themes, I would prefer the Nazis to not be massively emphasised and obviously I know that horrible things happened to British agents in reality but would prefer the narrow escapes and last-minute dashes of these books. I also love the plane bits and know almost nothing about planes so feel free to invent things.

I’ve read the first few non WWII ones (which unfortunately do have some terrible racial bits). I do have a slight preference for keeping the war setting BUT I am also totally up for leaping forward 10 years or more to see what the two of them are like. More spying? Test piloting? Involvement in the space program? Go for it. AUs of any kind fine as long as it's still them and there's danger and determination in bucketloads.

Dungeon Crawler Carl

Carl (Dungeon Crawler Carl)
Katia Grim
Princess Donut (Dungeon Crawler Carl)


I totally love this series, the world and the characters (I have read all seven books as well as listening to the audiobooks). Such a great concept, carried through with ruthless elan and with unexpected depths of feeling and insight. I love Carl, who is trying so hard despite everything being so stacked against him, and how he teeters between his goals and their costs. I love Princess Donut, who is very much a cat despite everything, and Katia, who has grown so much (ha!) during her time in the dungeon. I love the gamelit/RPG tropes (loot boxes! stat increases!) and the horror tropes and the pokes at reality TV. I love that everyone has their own agenda (look at Donut, running a revolution in her spare time) and I really, really love the way that Carl, even as he blows everything up and gets increasingly unstable, can listen to others, respect their opinions, and give them chances to make their own paths.

Prompts - go wild. Carl or Katia’s past, before they go into the dungeon? (Or Donut’s - what was she like as a kitten? What was her take on Carl when he first showed up?) A bit from Mordecai’s crawl? An outsider pov from a fan, an NPC, or another top ten crawler? Another convention appearance? An AU - feel free to design your own floor!! - or an outtake? What if, when they’d ended up in the Ghosts of Earth section, they’d been in a different area, or they’d lost their memories and thought they were back? What if they find themselves (apparently) outside the dungeon?

I do not ship any of the nominated characters - one of the things I like about DCC is that Carl hasn't had any sexual relationships since entering the dungeon. Canonical relationships (Katia/Bautista and I SUPPOSE Donut/Gravy Boat) are fine but I don't really want them to be the focus.

Feel free to play with formats. Please don't permanently kill any of the requested characters but otherwise darkness consistent with canon is fine. I am fine with gore. AUs - tbh you could probably do a terrifying coffee shop AU with this group and I would love it, as long as I still recognise the characters, but no American high school AUs, please.

Dogsbody, Diana Wynne Jones

Kathleen O’Brien
Sirius (Dogsbody)
Sol (Dogsbody)


I recently re-read this and it’s so good and so heart-breaking - DWJ is just the best at devastating endings, and this one, where Sirius hasn’t quite realised what his victory means, even while Kathleen struggles with yet another horrific loss, is still reverberating through me. I would love to read more. Does Kathleen meet Sirius again, or even end up becoming his companion - how, and what does that mean for her ties to Earth? What about Sol, who has previously avoided politics, and how do he and Earth feel about the loss of the Hunter? And Sirius, who has changed so much and come so far - what does he do now? And does he miss being a dog? I would be fine with canon AUs (perhaps a different bargain with the Wild Hunt) but am not looking for major setting/theme AUs, and it doesn’t have to end happily - but I do want more.


The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, Stephen R Donaldson

Linden Avery

Linden Avery was hugely important to me in my teens, when there weren't a lot of adult females in sf/fantasy I could see myself in. I still love her as well as what the Second Chronicles do with portal fantasy, which was fascinating and heart-breaking all in one, while Thomas himself is much more of an ambivalent reading experience. I have read only the first two of the third and am not yet convinced by them.

I would like; more Linden! On Earth or visiting the Land, and I'm happy to ignore the third series or go AU from the second if you have a better idea. What if she’d gone to the Land first, instead of Covenant? What if someone from the Land comes to visit her world? I do like the third chronicles' idea of time-travelling within the Land's history, if you wanted to do that, and would love exploring more of the Land anyway. I also wonder how Linden reconciles her experiences with her everyday life on returning to our world, especially her healthsense given her job, and I'd like to see her finding some peace or happiness there, having healed from her past. I would also be interested to see Linden crossing into other fantasy worlds (for the Yuletide eligible, anything from Diana Wynne Jones or Piranesi).

I understand Covenant himself isn't everyone's cup of tea, and I haven't nominated him. I don't have strong feelings about him showing up or not; he is important to Linden, but not essential. I don’t mind either of the other nominated characters showing up; if you don't mind non-nominated, I have a weakness for Nom the Sandgorgon.


England series - KJ Charles

Archie Curtis (England series)
Daniel da Silva (England Series - KJC)
Fenella Carruth
Patricia Merton


My favourite KJC, and the one I am most likely to accidentally end up re-reading after just looking up one thing. I love everyone in these books (well, certainly all the nominated characters) - I love Archie’s reliability and Daniel’s spark, and Fenella’s well-concealed practical ruthlessness and Patricia’s determination. They’re all fantastic! I would be equally happy with slice of life or case fic, isolated country houses or London city life, supernatural AUs or inexplicably having everyone in space. I don’t want anyone to break up and I also don’t want any weddings, but otherwise I would be delighted by any and everything you can come up with.

Thanks so much!!
mistressofmuses: Image of nebulae in the colors of the bi pride flag: pink, purple, and blue (Default)
mistressofmuses ([personal profile] mistressofmuses) wrote2025-10-23 07:49 pm
Entry tags:

(no subject)

I've had a sore throat for two days now (I tried to lie to myself yesterday that it was 'just allergies'.)

It hasn't gotten better, but it hasn't gotten worse...

But if it doesn't go the fuck away, I'm going to be pissed.

I don't want to be sick for my time off. ;_;
lannamichaels: Astronaut Dale Gardner holds up For Sale sign after EVA. (Default)
Lanna Michaels ([personal profile] lannamichaels) wrote2025-10-23 07:59 pm

When you want an AU but everyone else who wants that AU wants it for different reasons



In my reading of Game Of Thrones fic, I developed an urge for fic where Elia Martell Targaryen (why some married women are only referred to by their maiden names and some are always only referred to by their married names, I do not know) and her kids don't die. It would be interesting to see what it would change!, I thought. Surely it doesn't need to change a huge amount necessarily, but it would great to see it!

And so I went looking and found a bunch and it turns out.

It turns out that when you want fic where legitimate claimants to a throne survive, you get a ton of fic about Targaryen restoration. You get so many fics that are love letters to the Targaryens.

I don't care about Targaryen restoration! I don't like the Targaryens and see no reason why I should! (Except for Aemon, the Targaryen maester who is still alive at the Wall, I allow that he's really intruiging.)

Also I will admit the first time I saw the pairing of Jon Snow/Rhaenys Targaryen, I had a full blown "why? why the fuck?"

But yeah I get it, if Jon Snow is her long lost half-brother, then it's true Targaryen heritage to ship them. I don't see it, I don't even like the ship, and it's interesting how I have no problem whatsoever with Jon Snow/Sansa Stark, who were raised as half-siblings, but my reaction to Jon/Rhaenys is "I'm completely uninterested in reading this". Also I'm not really into Jon/Daenerys.

Maybe it's the whole enforced-incest of the Targaryens? IDK.

But also.

Reading the fic.

Okay so I am never going to read the books, I have long since been warned off from all the grimdark rape, and I am never going to watch the show, ditto.

I did not realize how small the amount of time the Targaryens have actually been ruling in Westeros. They only showed up like 300 years ago???? In a setting where people are like "my family has been ruling in this one spot for 10,000 years" or whatever, the Targaryens are new kids on the block who showed up with dragons, conquered everyone, had several (!) really bad rulers, constantly married each other (in violation of the local religion, and no one else was allowed to copy their behavior because they're special), seemed to do very little marrying out to the locals because who needs to shore up support, dealt with civil war/rebellion, lost their dragons, had a really fucking awful last king, and then, surprise, they were overthrown.

And you want those folks back? You are nostalgic for the wonderful days of the people who showed up five minutes ago and were generally terrible?

Also blowing my mind was, okay, I had been told over and over again that Baratheons all look a certain way since time immemorial and so that's why obviously if you look into it, Cersei's kids can't be Robert's.

But the Baratheons were founded as a new house by a Targaryen bastard. The looks of the Baratheons are the opposite of the Targaryens. Also this is also only like 300 years ago, and Westeros seems to enjoy a society where there are several pathways to ensure that only one or two of your sons are allowed to have children (maesters, the wall, endless wars).

So all this is kind of amusing from a "reading fic without knowing canon" perspective, the slow unfolding of, oh my god, what is going on in this canon. But also the mismatch of people who have actually read/watch this canon and what they want to write (Targaryen restoration, Targaryen incest) vs. me who has not done that, and what I want to read.

But actually what I want to write is a fic where Jon Snow actually is Ned Stark's bastard. Ah, yes, I see here that "Ned Stark is very honorable". Uh-huh. Well, he had an affair with a woman who is a sex worker/laundress/woman who was interested before his marriage and then, because he is so honorable, he took the child in and raised him, rather than leaving Jon Snow to live in poverty.

This explains nothing about why Ned Stark wouldn't tell Jon Snow about this mother but I'm sure we can come up with something (the mother was already married? who cares).

But I'm not writing this, entirely because I have no idea of a plot to go along with this. Oh and also I'm not reading/watching this, but I wrote an MDZS drabble without reading the book/finishing the show.

hekateras: (Default)
hekateras ([personal profile] hekateras) wrote in [community profile] wipbigbang2025-10-24 01:00 am

WIPRB - Rosid (Original Works)

Project Title: Rosid
Fandom: OW
Link: Tumblr, AO3
Summary: A blossoming deer.
Warnings: None
Characters: Deer
Pairings:
When I Started: The sketch is from 2011! It was drawn for a SketchFest prompt.
How I Lost My Shit: 2023, it was pretty close to done but I just dropped it
How I Finished My Shit: Just needed some cleaning up!
mecurtin: Icon of a globe with a check-mark (fandom_checkin)
mecurtin ([personal profile] mecurtin) wrote in [community profile] fandom_checkin2025-10-23 08:22 pm
Entry tags:

Daily check-in

This is your check-in post for today. The poll will be open from midnight Universal or Zulu Time (8pm Eastern Time) on Thursday, October 23, to midnight on Friday, October 24 (8pm Eastern Time).

Poll #33756 Daily check-in poll
Open to: Access List, detailed results viewable to: Access List, participants: 20

How are you doing?

I am OK
12 (63.2%)

I am not OK, but don't need help right now
7 (36.8%)

I could use some help
0 (0.0%)

How many other humans live with you?

I am living single
6 (31.6%)

One other person
9 (47.4%)

More than one other person
4 (21.1%)



Please, talk about how things are going for you in the comments, ask for advice or help if you need it, or just discuss whatever you feel like.
kindness_says: (yuletide - swap all the things)
Kat ([personal profile] kindness_says) wrote in [community profile] yuletide2025-10-23 02:01 pm

yuleswaps 2025 announcement <3

Hello! A few people have been wondering in the Yuletide Discord whether we would have swaps this year... tl;dr it was dicey, but YES!

You may thank [personal profile] morbane (even more than usual ;)) for following up on everyone's behalf; Livi and I had been having an extremely slow/distracted convo about it since early September, but as always, knowing people are waiting on us motivated me LOL. But neither of us will be your primary mod this year! It will be the lovely Helen ([personal profile] patrokla), who started helping out last year. <3

Here is the lil statement I made in Discord, very slightly modified for DW:

Hi everyone! Official announcement (and thank you, Morbane, for playing go-between while we worked things out behind the scenes :)) -- yuleswaps WILL go forward this year, we hope, and we're sorry for the delay!

Indeed I (Kat/Kindness on AO3/[personal profile] kindness_says) had some commitments in Sept/Oct and did not think I'd be able to prioritize swaps this year, and Liviania/[personal profile] anialove is also pretty busy irl atm -- but Helen/[personal profile] patrokla (a great longtime swapper who joined our team last year) is stepping up to give it a shot in spite of their own busyness! We're meeting tomorrow in hopes of getting sign-ups open by the end of this weekend and matches out in early November so as to stay roughly on the usual timeline. Perhaps ambitious, but we will try!

If anybody else was interested in running swaps, Morbane absolutely was speaking for me that we're not offended, and please feel free to DM me comment or email (yuleswaps at gmail) if you're interested in helping out. ESPECIALLY if you are at all code-savvy/great at answering emails efficiently/bursting with ideas for future improvement. <3

You might hear from me again, or you might not! I will def be helping on the backend, for at least this year/as long as I can, and we really appreciate your patience if we're a little slow or clunky this year as we try to sustain/transition. I also apologize to anyone who didn't get fully covered after January (haven't done 2024 cleanup yet... will try if there's time)!

I have LOVED running swaps, well mostly I have anyway ;) for the past 15 (!!) years. Back in the day I did not read coal but was always charmed when friends occasionally sent me screenshots of anons thrilled about swaps, and I similarly really enjoyed skimming like...1-2 years' worth of this discord not long after Morbane emailed me (was very tempted to answer some super old questions but refrained lol). Your enthusiasm has absolutely been the thing to make all the time and headaches worth it.

<3 <3 <3

So that's that!

Love/candy/books/drinks always,
Kat

P.S. For any newer Yuletiders who are interested (or just confused as to what Yuleswaps is), here is last year's sign-ups post, which links to our FAQ, etc. This year's sign-ups post will come soon, if all goes to plan!
yuletidemods: A hippo lounges with laptop in hand, peering at the screen through a pair of pince-nez and smiling. A text bubble with a heart emerges from the screen. The hippo dangles a computer mouse from one toe. By Oro. (Default)
yuletidemods ([personal profile] yuletidemods) wrote in [community profile] yuletide_admin2025-10-24 10:08 am
Entry tags:

Last Day to Sign Up for 2025

Sign-up instructions
Collection
Letters post

Countdown to Sign-Ups Closing


Some notes/reminders:
  • If you don't select characters in a request, it's your author's choice which character or characters to include from the tag set. Please don't say you want a particular character more than others when you have not selected character tags.

  • Please check the additional tag you've selected makes sense for the characters you've selected. For example, "One or more characters (giver's choice)" doesn't make sense if you select several characters and you really want at least two to interact.

  • Please check you can access the email associated with your AO3 account. Mods may use this to reach out to you with questions.

  • If you are open to treats, feel free to say so - it isn't greedy! It's just letting people know that you haven't disabled the treat setting.


Schedule, Rules, & Collection | Contact Mods | Participant DW | Participant LJ | Pinch Hits on DW | Discord | Tag set | Tag set app

Please either comment logged-in or sign a name. Unsigned anonymous comments will be left screened.

Whatever ([syndicated profile] scalziwhatever_feed) wrote2025-10-23 08:39 pm

The Big Idea: J. R. Blanes

Posted by Athena Scalzi

While some ideas get shelved entirely, some ideas are merely on the back burner for a while before becoming fully realized ideas and narratives. Such was the case for author J. R. Blanes, who kept returning to the idea that ended up becoming his newest novel, Portrait of Decay. Follow along to see how a friend inspired Blanes to have this idea in the first place.

J. R. BLANES:

A friend once asked me, “If you couldn’t create, what would you do?” Since I’ve been a creator all my life—writing stories, playing music, and any number of other creative endeavors—I’d never considered what would happen if that was taken from me. My entire identity, my life even, is intrinsically tied to my imagination. Without the ability to create, I wouldn’t be the same person. I don’t know who I would be. For all I know, I might not exist. 

Now, I think what my friend was really asking was what I’d do for a career if I couldn’t create, but that first interpretation of his question stuck in my head. I was struggling with my identity as a writer at the time. I’d spent years writing literary fiction with increasingly less satisfaction and very little success. Frustrated, I returned to my roots and my first love: horror. I’d grown up reading the likes of Mary Shelley and Edgar Allan Poe before graduating to Stephen King and Clive Barker (my biggest influence). Even after I began writing horror again, I wasn’t sure what kind of horror writer I wanted to be. I wrote some short stories—a few published, many others thrown into the trunk to rot—and hoped that one day soon I’d find my voice. 

Portraits of Decay started as a short story about a young woman who travels to see a swamp witch to buy a poison that will trap her cheating boyfriend under her control. As far as story plots go, it was very thin, which was why I shelved it for a while for other projects. Yet I kept coming back to it, knowing there was something there. I just didn’t know what. I really wanted to write about New Orleans and the effect the city had on me during the years it was a home away from home while I worked for a private passenger train company out of Chicago. I yearned to invoke its culture, its traditions, and its folklore through the lens of my imagination. Still, all I had was a somewhat cliché revenge tale. I knew there needed to be more. 

My friend’s question sparked a conflagration: What if I explored what happened to an artist when he no longer had the ability to create—as he slowly lost his identity (or soul, if you will) while withering into nothing? I imagined what emotions I’d feel if I was trapped with the ideas, thoughts, and anxieties in my head. The dark path I might take with no outlet to express these pieces of myself. A path that would surely lead to depression, anger, and even madness. While contemplating such an existence, I endured extreme panic attacks and bouts of intense fear. It’s with these intense emotions that I painted the main character of Portraits of Decay, Jefferson Fontenot, as he suffers at the hands of his girlfriend Gemma Landry after she doses him with a concoction from swamp witch Mirlande St. Pierre.

To ground these themes of obsession and control, I turned to another form of art well-remembered from my time in New Orleans. I remembered checking out the galleries around Royal Street, the Bywater, and Faubourg Marigny: The art I witnessed captured the vibrant atmosphere, multiculturalism, and colorful landscape of NOLA. It also captured the dark lore that ran through its streets and floated along the swamps of the bayou. Writing from the artists’ point of view provided the narrative with a visual aspect to the loss of identity. My descriptions of the emotions and struggles my characters move through in the course of the novel are framed through the lens of art. To make this world as visceral and instinctive as brushstrokes on canvas, I spent many hours researching the art world—talking with artists, visiting galleries, and working with my editor who is a painter herself. 

What would I do if I couldn’t create? My novel Portraits of Decay is the closest I can come to an answer. In writing this book, I found my voice as a writer amidst the terror of its loss.

—- 

Portraits of Decay: Amazon|Barnes & Noble|Bookshop|Apple Books|Kobo|Ruadán Books

Author socials: Website|Instagram|Bluesky

Additional links: Animated cover on Bluesky

shadowhive: (5SOS Micheal Red)
shadowhive ([personal profile] shadowhive) wrote2025-10-23 08:18 pm

Dead is just a word

So today I ended up going to the cinema again. My original intent was to go and see Black Phone 2 and Paranorman, but I didn’t feel up to watching a second film (and felt there might be too much noise). There was a morning showing and an afternoon one, with the afternoon being my original intent but at the last minute I decided to go to the morning one.

That seemed a wise decision, because after rain yesterday (and rain forecast) today was a decent day. In town I just got a drink and then went to the cinema to see Black Phone 2.

Trailers were ones I had seen before: The Bone Temple, Keeper, Shelby Oaks and Fnaf 2. I’m planning on seeing 3/4 of them. Also there was a standee up for Frankenstein! Yay! And a poster for Shelby Oaks. My intent is to see both next week, but I’m really hoping my glasses are sorted by then.

Anyway! Thoughts on Black Phone 2 under the cut (though trying not to be too spoilery in case anyone wants to see it)

Read more... )

After the film I had half an hour till the next train so I went to cex (to see if they had the IT films which the site said they did but alas I didn’t see them), the bank to put money in (I’m glad I did more on that soon) and smiths to get the new fantastic four.

On the train I used the net to send a message and bam! I got hit by news of 5 Seconds Of Summer doing a tour! This isn’t a surprise, preorders of the album on the uk site are meant to include a presale link, but ugh. First off yay! There’s a Birmingham date, but also boo presale is next week and it’s at the venue I saw Sleep Token.

Anyone around when I got the Sleep Token ticket will know that was insanely stressful and took forever. I should be able to get a ticket if I’m lucky (vip is likely out of the question though) but I’m really not looking forward to it.

(I guess it’s good I didn’t use those birthday voucher or got anything from the flying tiger Halloween sale)

Once I got back home I just flopped and dozed off, cause ugh I feel a cold has come on. It seems the net is back to acting up, disconnecting for a minute or two randomly and I dunno why. Blah.

I’m hoping tomorrow is a lazy day, cause Saturday is heading to the vet (hopefully Naryu will be fine and not need anything other than her jabs)

But now I’m just gonna flop some more and watch the new Taskmaster ep
wychwood: the side of Ronon's face (SGA - Ronon eye)
wychwood ([personal profile] wychwood) wrote2025-10-23 07:57 pm

navigating tiny scissors in mirror image is SO HARD you guys

I'm feeling outrageously exhausted, but also I can only slack off so much because I'm in the office tomorrow, out all weekend with the Augustinian no-longer-youths, and then going to Mum's for the week on Sunday afternoon, which means I need to be more-or-less ready for the next ten days by bedtime. This is not in fact going to happen, but at least I've packed my work bag.

Of all the indignities of middle age that I was warned of, the most annoying so far is one that no one mentioned: my nose hair has suddenly started growing so long and luxuriant that it starts tickling the inside of my nostrils. What is this bullshit. Constant random tickling! I did not sign up for this!!

My flu jab went ahead fine (and no side effects except for the bruise) but they didn't have any private COVID vaccine on hand. They were supposed to get back to me about it, but they haven't yet, which I assume means they're having trouble finding it... and I'm not going to be available to pop in until November now anyway so there's not much point chasing right now.

We are solidly into Dehumidifier Season now. I've been trying to get at least some open-window time just for ventilation (it's smelling fairly stale in here) but it's so dank outside it makes the humidity worse if I'm not careful! Although I did manage to get the kitchen hygrometer up to 89% earlier this week, and it's not that wet outside even if it's still raining heavily. Ah, the joys of a damp climate.
glitteryv: (Default)
Glittery ([personal profile] glitteryv) wrote in [community profile] writethisfanfic2025-10-23 03:35 pm
Entry tags:

Check In: Day 23

I know the weekend is calling all of us, but let's focus on today. ;)

Poll #33755 DOUBLE RAINBOW!
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 8


Thursday vibes are...

View Answers

great! (I wrote)
4 (50.0%)

cool! (I planned/outlined)
4 (50.0%)

nice (I daydreamed/bounced ideas with someone else)
1 (12.5%)

fine (I rested)
0 (0.0%)

I keep track of my writing...

View Answers

with a planner/journal (digital or physical)
2 (25.0%)

a spreadsheet (my own or someone else's)
4 (50.0%)

by posting here!
0 (0.0%)

keeping track of my writing? Erm...
2 (25.0%)

thisbluespirit: (viyony)
thisbluespirit ([personal profile] thisbluespirit) wrote2025-10-23 08:22 pm

Starfall Stories 50

I've left it a while since I did a crosspost for [community profile] rainbowfic, which was because I was doing a very long sequence divided up into five parts and wasn't sure what to do about it now it's complete - it's something like 28k altogether (this is what has been absorbing my whole writing time for four months, when I've had any). Anyway, I've decided I might as well crosspost all the parts at once and move on. People certainly aren't obliged to read any of it, let alone all of it.


Name: Calla Island
Word Count: 5053
Rating: PG
Summary: Viyony visits Calla Island, the ancestral seat of the Allin family.


Name: Dazzled
Word Count: 5364
Rating: PG
Summary: Viyony explores a sacred cave and gets considerably more than she bargained for.


Name: Assignations
Word Count: 8293
Rating: Teen
Warnings: Death, blood, injury.
Summary: Viyony arranges an assignation with Leion, but she's not the only one with plans for midnight.


Name: Storms
Word Count: 5326
Rating: PG
Warnings: Threat of drowning, sea-sickness.
Summary: Viyony's determined to get Leion off the island.


Name: Harbour
Word Count: 5079
Rating: Teen
Summary: Leion takes Viyony home.