ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
ysabetwordsmith ([personal profile] ysabetwordsmith) wrote2025-11-04 12:39 pm

Birdfeeding

Today is  mostly sunny and mild.

I fed the birds.  I've seen a large mixed flock of sparrows and house finches.

I put out water for the birds.






.

ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
ysabetwordsmith ([personal profile] ysabetwordsmith) wrote2025-11-04 11:57 am

Poetry Fishbowl Open!

Starting now, the Poetry Fishbowl is open! Today's theme is "Fairies and Fey." I will be checking this page periodically throughout the day. When people make suggestions, I'll pick some and weave them together into a poem ... and then another ... and so on. I'm hoping to get a lot of ideas and a lot of poems.

I'll be soliciting ideas for fairies, seelie or unseelie sidhe, the Wild Hunt, elves, other types of fey, Radical Faeries, other queers, tricksters, contraries, rebels, adventurers, mentors, historians, explorers, magic users, partners, teachers, leaders, dark lords, superheroes, supervillains, teammates, fantasy species, activists, other unusual fantasy folk, doing magic, doing things backwards, causing mischief, breaking rules, caring for the land, exploring new territory, meeting new species, upsetting predictions, twisting tropes, flipping stereotypes, expecting the unexpected, teaching, adventuring, leaving your comfort zone, discovering things, adapting, improvising, troubleshooting, cleaning up messes, cooperating, taking over in an emergency, saving the day, discovering yourself, studying others, testing boundaries, coming of age, coming out, running away from home, going off the rails, subverting fate, learning what you can (and can't) do, sharing, preparing for the worst, fixing what's broke, upsetting the status quo, changing the world, accomplishing the impossible, recovering from setbacks, returning home, other fantastic activities, Underhill, faery rings, the forest primeval, underwater, underground, liminal zones, castles, ruins, dungeons, dragon lairs, schools, kitchens, campfires, libraries, apothecary shops, supervillain lairs, makerspaces, nonhuman accommodations and adaptations, farmer's markets, magical lands, foreign dimensions, other phantasmagoric settings, faerie magic, unusual magical systems, magical artifacts, enchanted musical instruments or weapons, quests, time periods other than medieval, governments other than monarchy, dragons, unicorns, enchantments, potions, reversals, contradictions, conundrums, puzzling discoveries, sudden surprises, fey time distortions, time travel, travel mishaps, the buck stops here, trial and error, polarity, weird food, secret ingredients, supplements that turn out to be metagenic, intercultural entanglements, asking for help and getting it, enemies to friends/lovers, interdimensional travel, superpower manifestation, the end of where your framework actually applies, ethics, innovation, problems that can't be solved by hitting, teamwork, found family, complementary strengths and weaknesses, personal growth, and poetic forms in particular.


Currently eligible bingo card(s) for donors wishing to sponsor a square:

Fairy Tales and Fantasy Stories Bingo Card 11-1-25


Among my more relevant series for the main theme:

The Adventures of Aldornia and Zenobia is about live happy lesbians in a quirky fantasy world.

Clay of Life is Jewish fantasy about a blacksmith and a golem.

Dragonsilk is about trauma and recovery.

Hart's Farm is a free love community with a few really exotic characters.

Monster House is suburban fantasy with a diverse household, where the line between truth and fantasy isn't always clear.

The Ocracies features all the political systems other than monarchy.

The Odd Trio is about a family consisting of a dwarf, an elf, and a human.

P.I.E. is urban fantasy about paranormal investigations,

Polychrome Heroics has ordinary humans, supernaries, blue-plate specials, superheroes, supervillains, primal and animal soups all trying to get along and figure out how to make a functional society. Eric the Elven King has interdimensional refugees. Officer Pink features centaurs and mystic shifters. Vybra of the Broken Angels specializes in fantasy sex and often dresses as a fairy.

Practical Magics is low fantasy with a prosaic focus.

Quixotic Ideas is contemporary fantasy where magic integrates with modern life in positive ways.

The Ursulan Cycle is genderbent King Arthur.

Or you can ask for something new.

Boost the signal to reveal a verse in any open linkback poem.

Read more... )
fbhjr: (Default)
fbhjr ([personal profile] fbhjr) wrote2025-11-04 12:28 pm
falena: Alan Rickman, image from Love Actually, caption: "no bloody fangirls" (no bloody fangirls)
språkspion ([personal profile] falena) wrote2025-11-04 01:04 pm

Singal Boost: A community for reccing fanworks in December

The lovely [profile] godbyebird came up with this idea. I miss the old reccing communities on LJ (crack_van be you'll always be in my heart!) and I feel guilty I'm not active enough in the one still-running multifandom thematic comm I know of here on DW ([community profile] fancake). However, I think I can definitely post a few times in December. The community to join/keep an eye on is: [community profile] rec_cember

HERE is the sign-up post!

My current fandom is HBO's The Pitt so that will surely feature the most in any reccing effort I'll try, but some of my old-time faves are the Rivers of London book series, anything by KJ Charles (so historical queer romance), the Murderbot Diaries, Generation Kill and A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones so those are likely to get a mention or two. Also I am a HUGE podfic fan so I'll try to include podfic whenever possible.

It seems like a friendly place and low-effort sort of challenge, if you're a fannish person you should consider taking part!

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days_unfolding ([personal profile] days_unfolding) wrote2025-11-03 11:13 pm
Entry tags:

Presentation and Choir Day

It looks like I'll be singing "Carol of the Bells" solo in choir. I need to scramble to practice it.

I did wake up at 4 AM. Ate breakfast, but I want to go back to bed. Got up at 7:45. I decided not to take a shower because I need to stay awake at lunchtime because we have a presentation in the afternoon.

Work is kind of a zoo with people changing last-minute stuff on the presentation. My boss said that it's "a miracle" that everything comes together.

I'm feeling arthritis-y.

I haven't heard from my pet sitter, so I think that I'm going to ask if the boarding place can take Zara and Lily too. Then I also won't have to finish cleaning, although I'd like to have the place neat before I go so that I don't come back to a mess. This actually sounds like a better plan (though Zara and Lily won't be happy).

The presentation went well. I contributed a picture of Gracie for our question slide, and people said that she was cute. Speaking of which, I was able to successfully shut all the critters out of my home office during the presentation!

Choir rehearsal went well and was kind of fun. Fed us all when I got home. I'm freaking tired.

cornerofmadness: (Default)
cornerofmadness ([personal profile] cornerofmadness) wrote2025-11-03 10:39 pm
Entry tags:

I'd like to return this monday

Woke up 20 minutes before the alarm and thought okay this day shall go well. Oh how wrong I was

I pull into the parking lot, put up my handicapped hang tag and it shattered into 5 pieces. OMFG. It was cracked but I didn't realize it was that bad. I'm gonna have to tape it together until I can get to the BMV.

Get inside to find out our secretary had a major health event and is in ICU on an ecmo which is needless to say serious shit. Scary.

the ladies basketball teams me they're leaving tomorrow for a full week and I have to move the test to be fair to them (which really isn't a problem) so long as they're here for the bone practicum this week.

And then I set up my practicum. 4 and a half hours because shit is missing AGAIN. I know who took it because it's always him. I screwed up the answer key and questions 3 times. I didn't leave work until 830 at night and didn't eat dinner til 9. blech.

I was going to share something fun for music monday that I thought [personal profile] shipperslist had but I can't find it so since it's writing month let's do music that we want to write to or have written to. One of the stories I want to get on is the "last" story in the All that Glitters Husk Overlord series (well it's where the whole series was heading, to husk/angel becoming a couple) so it gets the world's most sappy love song also for [community profile] lyricaltitles bingo challenge
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
ysabetwordsmith ([personal profile] ysabetwordsmith) wrote2025-11-03 09:51 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
ysabetwordsmith ([personal profile] ysabetwordsmith) wrote2025-11-03 09:28 pm

Photos: Lantern Terrarium Assembly Part 1 Gathering Materials

My air plants arrived today. :D So I gathered materials to start assembling the lantern terrarium. (Start with Photos: Fairy Garden Lantern Deconstruction. Continue with Photos: Lantern Terrarium Assembly Part 2 Testing the Fit.)

Walk with me ... )
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ysabetwordsmith ([personal profile] ysabetwordsmith) wrote2025-11-03 05:51 pm

Native American

22 Ways To Celebrate Native American Heritage Month

November is Native American Heritage Month, when we all come together to honor and celebrate the culture, traditions, history, and contributions of American Indian and Alaskan Natives.


They left out the Real Rent / Voluntary Land Tax movement, where people of non-indigenous heritage send money to the nearest extant tribe or sometimes a formerly-local tribe that was ousted to live elsewhere. If you don't have that option, you can also chuck it into any current fundraiser to obtain land for a tribe or fight legal battles over land. Closely related, if you own land -- especially big enough for some of it to be wild or nearly so -- consider programs to share access with tribal people. Some folks have negotiated deals where the tribe will help manage the territory in return for sharing use of it, which can grant you access to much better techniques.
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greghousesgf ([personal profile] greghousesgf) wrote2025-11-03 03:16 pm

(no subject)

Paid my rent this morning. The idiot squad didn't have any paper in their office and after their bullshit pretending they didn't get my rent checks TWICE AFTER I confirmed with my bank that those checks cleared I insist on getting rent receipts every time now so I went to the copy place and made a copy of my rent check myself and had them stamp it and sign it. Went out and got groceries and my damn legs are killing me but I'm having a cup of Keemun tea and I'm gonna make shrimp Creole for dinner tonight.
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ysabetwordsmith ([personal profile] ysabetwordsmith) wrote2025-11-03 12:51 pm

Science Fiction

Five Ways Science Fiction Can Expand Beyond Homo sapiens

* The Past
* Cryptic Populations
* Sideways in Time
* The Future
* Science!

It left out crossbreeding with other species (like Spock in Star Trek) as well as backbreeding where remnant genes become more prevalent due to environmental pressures until speciation occurs. Regarding the latter, Sherpas are already a borderline species because they can survive at higher altitudes than other Homo sapiens due to their Denisovan heritage.  They are at least a definable subspecies based on habitat adaptations, more realistically a remnant population of Denisovans with heavy Homo sapiens introgression.  But when you start talking about biological differences among humans, then humans immediately start doing stupid things, so most scientists won't do it.  Anyhow, if the Sherpas became isolated from other humans and stayed in the Himalayas, environmental pressure would push them toward more Denisovan-like traits.
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Stef ([personal profile] stefanyeah) wrote in [community profile] betaplease2025-11-03 07:47 pm

Beta Needed, Ghost/Mechanisms Crossover

Fandom: Ghost + The Mechanisms crossover
Characters/Pairings: Papa V/ Ghouls, hints of Copia/Ghouls, squint and you miss it Papa V/Jonny d'Ville (They insist on a sequel…)
Rating & Warnings: Overall E due to some ghoul orgies, gore and violence, temporary character death (including one immortal character shooting himself out of boredom)
Estimated Fic Length: 48-49k
Notes: This is for a big bang, the deadline is November 30th. I'd need this beta'd some time before this date.

If you'd like to beta this, I'm mostly looking for SPAG. But if you find kind words about what works and what reads off, I'd be happy, too.

The premise of this story: Ghost meet the Mechanisms but make it Cosmic Horror Sailor Moon

Papa V wants to connect with his grudge-holding twin, while Ivy Alexandrina searches for a tome in the Ministry's library. Shenanigans ensue, people get ripped apart and the Vatican gets spaghettified as we discover the secret behind the Emeritus bloodline.
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
ysabetwordsmith ([personal profile] ysabetwordsmith) wrote2025-11-03 12:43 pm

Birdfeeding

Today is mostly sunny and mild.   

I fed the birds.  I've seen a few sparrows and house finches.

I put out water for the birds.

My air plants arrived!  :D  So today I need to assemble the lantern terrarium.

EDIT 11/3/25 -- I took some pictures around the yard and started laying out pieces for the lantern terrarium.

EDIT 11/3/25 -- I've been working on the lantern terrarium, trimming the branch that will go inside and testing a few air plants to fit it.  Currently I have it soaking in a tray of water to rehydrate the lichens.

EDIT 11/3/25 -- I've done more work on the lantern terrarium.  I have the main branch soaked, and I picked up some more twigs and chips in hopes of creating more spaces to lodge the air plants.  I've glued the first piece in place, the chip I cut off the bottom end.

While I was outside, I saw the great horned owl and heard it hooting.  Then I heard a shriek.  A baby owl!  :D 3q3q3q!!!  I am 99% certain that the conversation translates to this:

Baby: "I'm hungry!"

Mama: "Shh.  Go to sleep.  Shh."

Baby: "FEED ME!"

Mama: "It is the middle of the DAY.   Now GO THE FUCK TO SLEEP."

EDIT 11/3/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 11/3/25 -- I did more work around the patio.

EDIT 11/3/25 -- I did more work around the patio.

As it is getting dark, I am done for the night.

profiterole_reads: (Without Reservations - Chay and Keaton)
profiterole_reads ([personal profile] profiterole_reads) wrote2025-11-03 05:38 pm

In Iron Stars by VT Hoang

In Iron Stars by VT Hoang was awesome! It's the sequel to On Silver Shores, but it's readable as a standalone. Inquisitor Saoirse must escort two scientists through the blight: her ex, Iza, and her ex's husband, Cas.

The first book remains my favourite, as this one had too much sex for my taste. Apart from that, I loved the characters and all their interactions, especially the maths flirting. ^^

Saoirse is a Black female half-siren with a supernatural genetic defect. Iza is an Asian trans female half-vampire half-demon. Cas is a Latino lycan. There's major f/f/m and minor m/m (the pairing from Book 1).
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duckprintspress ([personal profile] duckprintspress) wrote2025-11-03 09:21 am

Cover Reveal for “Monsterotica: Tales of Unusual Courtship and Coupling”!

Later this month, we will be launching the Kickstarter campaign to fund publishing our next anthology, our second collection of erotica short stories – MONSTEROTICA: TALES OF UNUSUAL COURTSHIP AND COUPLING. This collection includes 16 incredibly hot stories of monsters – the more unusual, the better! – and their lovers courting and then coupling. Some stories are monster x monster, and all are very queer. Whether you’re into tentacles or wings, aliens or cryptids, beasts or gentlefolk, you’ll find something to love in this anthology of monsterfucking stories.

You can learn more about Monsterotica’s contributors be visiting our website.

Want to back the campaign to fund Monsterotica? Follow our pre-launch page on Kickstarter!

And now, without further ado… (drum roll please)… our gorgeous cover, featuring art by Siao Bell (Instagram | Bluesky)!

The book cover for "Monsterotica: Tales of Unusual Courtship and Coupling." It depicts an ambiguously gendered creature with a human-esque face and torso, but huge white, gray, and brown wings and bird-like legs ending in talons. They are looking toward something out of sight to their left, and are naked except for a necklace with blue stones which covers their breasts. They perch on a rock, blue sky behind them and blue water beneath them. FRom the water, several pink-purple tentacles emerge to carress them, one along their leg and torso, one brushing their cheek, and one between their legs.
 


ysabetwordsmith: Artwork of the wordsmith typing. (typing)
ysabetwordsmith ([personal profile] ysabetwordsmith) wrote2025-11-03 12:05 am
Entry tags:

Monday Update 11-3-25

These are some posts from the later part of last week in case you missed them:
Today's Cooking
Gaming
Birdfeeding
Worldbuilding
Art
Birdfeeding
Fairy Tales and Fantasy Stories Bingo Card 11-1-25
Philosophical Questions: Accuracy
Moment of Silence: Patricia Crowther
Birdfeeding
Holiday
Books
Wildlife
Garden of Repose
New Year's Resolutions Check In
Follow Friday 10-31-25: Kpop
Bingo
Climate Change
Birdfeeding
Today's Adventures
Sustainability
Birdfeeding
Good News

Trauma has 34 comments. Affordable Housing has 57 comments. Robotics has 95 comments.


There will be a Poetry Fishbowl on Tuesday, November 4 with a theme of "Fairies and Fey." I hope to see you then!


"An Inkling of Things to Come" belongs to Polychrome: Shiv and needs $191 to be complete. Maiara and Arthur discuss taking notes.


The weather is cool and fall-like now. It rained a couple of days. Seen at the birdfeeders this week: a mixed flock of sparrows and house finches, two goldfinches, and a male cardinal. A great horned owl has been hoo-hooing outside. :D Currently blooming: dandelions, marigolds, petunias, red salvia, sweet alyssum, snapdragons, blue lobelia, perennial pinks, oxalis, firecracker plant, tomatoes, violas. Tomatoes, ball carrots, and groundcherries are ripe. Fields are almost all harvested.
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cornerofmadness ([personal profile] cornerofmadness) wrote2025-11-02 11:37 pm
Entry tags:

Il Giorno dei Morti

So much was going on today I felt it deserved it's own separate post.

If my kitchen was fully functional, I might have tried some pane dei morti and you can find a little write up
here. and here.

I was going to share pictures that have been on my mind of my great grand mothers but for the life of me I can't remember what file folder they're in and it's been too busy of a day to find it.

Speaking of which, sorry I owe lots of comments. I am just slammed. I will get to them. Promise.

Last night [personal profile] ysabetwordsmith shared an article on New study: Viewing art in galleries 'immediately' reduces cortisol levels, boosts health which I found fascinating and I wonder what else art can do. With that in mind I did go to the Witch Walk art trail in Athens tonight (I was on the fence) Here is the facebook event post

A free, family-friendly “spooky art trail” featuring glowing upcycled installations and community-made magic along the Ora Anderson Trail. Costume friendly!
The Witch Walk is a first-year pilot designed to empower youth and foster multigenerational connection through hands-on creative collaboration. By transforming the Ora Anderson Trail into an immersive, upcycled art experience, the project fosters artistic skill-building, environmental awareness, and community pride—culminating in a free, one-night “spooky art trail” for all to enjoy.


Sounded fun. and it was...but would have been better if I didn't have to drive an hour to get there because it wasn't quite as expected. The Dairy Barn is open with free snacks, pizza and hot apple cider for us (the Dairy barn is now the arts center) and they had environmental booths set up and tons of stuff for the kids. There was an accordion player and an art scavenger hunt.

And Ora Anderson Trail turns out to be a one mile trail...up a hillside...through the wetlands...in the dark. Lit by luminieres. So being the I can do this person I am, I grab my cane and up I go. In the dark. (and OMG people why do so many of you need flash lights half blinding me. I can tell who has never been in the woods in the dark before).

I was expecting a different kind of art. It was basically upcycled stuff (tires, other detritus) turned into 'scary things' It was basically a horror trail with no one popping out at you. At the top of the hill was a theater, a puppet show on offer (sort of the big puppets you kinda wear) Well puppets are at least part of the Sicilian day of the dead (or so I read. I am not Sicilian) Also I hate puppets. I turned around and went back and that's when things got weird

I'm not more than a few yards from Puppet central when I feel someone behind me. Not surprising it's well attended but it's just me and a young man in all black with the barista hipster look going on, short beard, slightly longer hair. I invite him to go around me as I am slow with a cane going downhill in the dark. He does but around the next bend he is behind me again. And again. And when invited he doesn't go around me. When I can finally see the lights of the dairy barn, he isn't there. But I have to go through one more dark woods spot and there he is behind me again. It was strange (I feel a horror story coming on)

And let me share all the other fun stuff. [community profile] fandomgiftbasket opened and I got two Hazbin Hotel gifts (from the same person so thank you to them)


Emotional Support Pigs and the Cats They Sleep On and and a bunch of icons

As for me I wrote a few stories. Hope you like them

Someone in the Dark Hazbin Hotel

Evil Minds That Plot Destruction Buffy the Vampire Slayer

The Jealous Kind Hazbin Hotel


Are You the One That I’ve Been Waiting For? Hudson & Rex
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cornerofmadness ([personal profile] cornerofmadness) wrote2025-11-02 11:07 pm

Writerly Ways

I don't have much to say other than I rather miss Nanowrimo. I did it for, what? 21 years? In the latter years I almost never went to the forums, not because I had troubles, heck I stopped before there were problems. I no longer really needed them and they were more a distraction than a help.

I am doing smaller support groups this month and if you look back a couple weeks you'll see my post about nano substitutes. I'm not sure I had prowritingaid on there but they are doing something. Maybe I'll sign up. I have to think about it.

What I DO know is I don't want to write 50K. Why? Because I know I can. I did it for 2 decades. It's not a challenge for me. What IS a challenge is completing the damn things and that's what my aim is. I have a novel to work on. I have a dozen half finished novels. I have short stories. I'm sure I'll get caught up in the holiday exchanges. Let's see if I can finish some crap. If I have to put a word count on it, let's call it 25K but I have a very busy November so we'll see.

What I AM excited for is my old nano group is resurrecting itself (even if it's just about 3 of us) so I'll be driving out to Athens every friday. I'm looking forward to it. i miss these people.


Open Call


Black Cat Weekly : Science Fiction or Fantasy


Thema: While the Snowstorm Was Raging… relatively low pay

Cursed Morsels December 2025 Window Cunty Horrors, Cursed Concerts, Monstrous Dating Profiles, Batshit LinkedIn Posts, Nightmare Grifters (microfic to very specific prompts)

Views From The Overlook Yes I shared this last week but the date on this is one month later than the one I posted. It is something to keep in mind. My thought is my chances are almost zilch. I'm trying it anyhow (this story is already half written)

Emerald City Ghosts: Now Seeking Submissions

10 Magazines Accepting Young Adult Fiction

30 Magazines Accepting Longer Fiction




From around the web


The Art of Finishing Oh how timely for me

How to Create an Elevator Pitch That Hooks Readers Instantly

Why "Start With the Action" Messes Up So Many Writers


From Betty

Five Tips for Using an Arbitrary Magic System

How to Get Fans to Slash Your Characters

Nine Reasons for a Villain to Spare the Hero

How to Build Suspense into any Story

What Really Keeps An ADHD Writer Coming Back to the Desk? Hint- It’s Not Routine

WriteTip: The Stubborn Elephant

Coping Mechanism Thesaurus Entry: Altruism

The Counter Craft Halloween Horror Writing Guide

The last thing I wanted to write about

Setting Boundaries as a Writer: How to Protect Your Creative Time

The Real Purpose of the Second Act (And Why You Can’t Skip It)