Reading

Current Mood: hungry

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cooking log

Foodstuffs from last week

I was sort of kitchen-assistanting for both of last week's cooking ventures, with

scruloose doing most of the heavy lifting, but hey.

Last weekend we made this carnitas recipe that E.K. Johnston linked to (and she mentioned mango-lime salsa, which I hadn't had before but sounded good, so I bought some of that too, and liked it a lot), and it was really, really tasty. We got three meals out of it (and between that and a two-meal HelloFresh box, that pretty much covered last week's suppers).

Later in the week we roasted strawberries basically using this method (that recipe is also how I learned you can toast sugar, which I'd like to try sometime), but the only thing we added to the berries was sugar--specifically the summer fruit sugar blend from Silk Road Spices ("a delicious blend of maple and turbinado sugars with mint, ginger and freshly ground green cardamom"). This approach involves roasting the berries in a baking dish, while others do it by spreading them out in a single layer on baking sheets. I'd like to try it that way at some point too.

I also want to try slow roasting them at some point to compare the result.

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gastronomy

(no subject)

It turns out that North & South (2004) is not soothing to watch whilst stitching; I am not interested in the 1850's generally, I am in no fit state to be entertained by the Industrial Revolution and labor unrest, and the cinematography is bleak. Richard Armitage's jawline does not make up for these flaws.

The Three Sisters plot has begun giving me peas! It is surprisingly difficult to distinguish between "immature snap pea" and "mature snow pea". I should probably give up this plot next year, as the fee is almost twice as much as the one near my apartment, and getting there & back is annoying, and the plot is weed central ....but the raspberry patch! I got sour and sweet cherries at the farmer's market, which of course means that I made cherry-pit whipped cream to go with the cherry galette; it is now corn and zucchini season, which is one of my favorite seasons; I miss having a grill so much. It is absolutely perfect grilling weather.

Somehow I have three community events at the same time tonight: a embroidery meetup, a constituent outreach meeting with my city councilor, and a meeting of the neighborhood association board. ::facepalm::

Current Mood: silly

(no subject)

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Current Music: The Hives, "Enough Is Enough"

Went to the doctor, turns out I'm sick

My week seems to have started with catapulting myself on zero sleep to a specialist's appointment starting half an hour from the end of the phone call, so I am eating a bagel with lox and trying not to feel that the earth acquires a new axial tilt every time I turn my head. Paying bills, shockingly, has not improved my mood.

After enjoying both The Big Pick-Up (1955) and The Flight of the Phoenix (1964), I was disappointed by Elleston Trevor's The Burning Shore (U.S. The Pasang Run, 1961), which ironically for its airport setting never really seemed to get its plot off the ground and in any case its ratio of romantic melodrama and ambient racism to actual aviation was not ideal, but I am a little sorry that it was not adapted for film like its fellows, since I would have liked to see the casting for the initially peripheral, ultimately book-stealing role of Tom Thorne, the decorated and disgraced surgeon gone in the Conradian manner to ground in the tropics, because of his unusual fragility: it is de rigueur for his archetype that he should pull himself out of his opium-mired death-spiral for the sake of a passenger flight downed in flames, but he remains an impulsive suicide risk even when his self-respect should conventionally have been restored. He is described as having the face of a hurt clown. He'd have been any character actor's gift.

Mostly I like that Wolf Alice named themselves after the short story by Angela Carter, but the chorus of "The Sofa" (2025) really is attractive right now.

sky

Okay, should be able to post more regularly again -- or at least regularly enough to run a theme week, which this time will be words for the skies, starting with:

sky (SKAI) - n., the expanse of air over the earth; (often plural) the appearance of the upper atmosphere, esp. regarding the weather; the celestial regions, the heavens; the highest level or degree.

Thanks, WikiMedia!

This, as you might expect for a very basic word, is a very old one -- attested to around 1200 in Middle English forms sky/skie/ski, also used to mean cloud/mist, which unexpectedly came not from Old English but rather Old Norse skȳ, cloud (the Old English word for sky, heofon, instead became heaven), which ultimately goes back to a PIE root meaning conceal/hide. Interesting semantic shift there.

---L.

Current Mood: thoughtful
Current Music: Saja Boys: Your Idol

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Why KPop Demon Hunters pops

KPop Demon Hunters was an experience for sure. It felt slightly weird to watch because it uses distinctly Korean materials but from an outside perspective. The girls' exaggerated comic acting was very Western animation-y, and the traditional Korean medical clinic scene bore no resemblance to real life, obviously.

Even with Korean dubbing it had the distinct feel of a foreign film, because it was! Korean-speaking actors and dubbing artists speak very differently, and the voice acting was obviously dubbing-style because the original was in English.

I also felt like the story had a lot of potential that it didn't quite reach, and foreshadowed things that didn't actually happen. But that's pretty deep in spoiler territory so maybe I'll go there in a different, spoiler-cut post.

Where the movie truly shone was its stylish, energetic representation of K-pop, including in no small part its earworm soundtrack. Fans have been pointing out all kinds of K-pop tropes like the tiny powerhouse rappers Zoey and Baby, the similarity of the two bands to legends like Blackpink and BTS, and the way the male band debuted with a catchy bop ("Soda Pop") before coming back with a darkly cynical, technique-heavy number ("Your Idol").

It wasn't just the stars who got the spotlight; so did the fandom and community, from the fans who filled stadiums for their faves to online challenges and breathless anticipation for new releases. The movie also went into some, though by no means all, of the darkness behind this adoration, and made a good case for the potential destructiveness of such massive franchises and fandoms.

The love of the genre and the fandom, backed up by extraordinary music and production, was what gave the movie its heart and turned what could have been a gimmicky throwaway into a snapshot of an era. The depiction in KPop Demon Hunters of the love and fragility, the beauty and hollowness at the heart of K-pop was arguably more powerful than its scripted story. That's not a knock on the story so much as a statement on the nature of the narrative: K-pop is an age to be experienced in all its glory and corruption, not a tale to be told from a comfortable distance. It is one's own story to live and not someone else's to watch, and that is arguably the true power of KPop Demon Hunters.

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Readercon 2025

I’ll be at Readercon 34 this weekend after spending most of the last couple of weeks doing massive re-reads.

If you’ll be there, please feel free to stop and say hello! My schedule is below.

The Works of P. Djèlí Clark
Salon I/J Friday, July 18, 2025, 1:00 PM EDT
Andrea Hairston [moderator]; Leon Perniciaro; Rob Cameron; Tom Doyle; Victoria Janssen
Our Guest of Honor P. Djèlí Clark rounded out his first decade as a published author with a Nebula and a Locus for his fantasy police procedural novel, The Master of Djinn, and both those awards plus a British Fantasy Award for his monster-hunting novella Ring Shout. His short story “How to Raise a Kraken in Your Bathtub” is short-listed for the Hugo this year. As a History professor at University of Connecticut, he investigates the pathways leading from West African storyteller/poets (griots, a.k.a. djèlí) to the American abolitionist movement. Help us celebrate the works of our honored guest!

The Purposes of Memorable Insults in Sci-Fi and Fantasy
Salon I/J Friday, July 18, 2025, 5:00 PM EDT
Storm Humbert [moderator]; Anne E.G. Nydam; Charles Allison; Ellen Kushner; Victoria Janssen
Some of the most quotable lines in science fiction and fantasy are zingers. Wit can do a lot to build a character, a world, and a universe, and has the ability to either support or undermine reader expectations. This panel aims to explore and elaborate on the use of wit—and especially takedowns—in literature, exposing how a verbal jab can serve as more than just a punchline.

Moving from Traditional Publishing to Self-Publishing
Salon G/H Friday, July 18, 2025, 7:00 PM EDT
Victoria Janssen [moderator]; Cecilia Tan; Jedediah Berry; Sarah Smith; Steven Popkes
It’s becoming increasingly common to hear of authors whose self-published work was so successful that they were picked up by a traditional publisher. But what of the authors who have gone the other way, by turning their backs on traditional publishing and going into self-publishing? Panelists will survey the varying reasons for making this transition, how authors have navigated it, and what this might say about the state of publishing overall.

Kaffeeklatsch: Victoria Janssen
Suite 830 Friday, July 18, 2025, 8:00 PM EDT

The Works of Cecilia Tan
Salon I/J Saturday, July 19, 2025, 12:00 PM EDT
Victoria Janssen [moderator]; Charlie Jane Anders; Laura Antoniou; Cecilia Tan (i)
Our Guest of Honor, Cecilia Tan, has a publication history that spans Asimov’s, Absolute Magnitude, Ms. Magazine, Penthouse, and Best American Erotica, among others. Writer and editor of science fiction and fantasy, especially as they intersect with erotica and romance, she is also the founder of Circlet Press, an independent publisher that specializes in speculative erotica. Her own writing earned a Lifetime Achievement for Erotica in 2014 from Romantic Times magazine. She also contributes to America’s other pastime, baseball, in her role as Publications Director for the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR). Come hear our panel discuss Cecilia’s many talents and accomplishments.

Un-Kafkaesque Bureaucracies
Salon I/J Saturday, July 19, 2025, 7:00 PM EDT
Victoria Janssen [moderator]; Alexander Jablokov; J.M. Sidorova; Laurence Raphael Brothers; Steven Popkes
In fiction, bureaucracies are generally depicted as evil in its most banal form, yet many of the actual bureaucracies that shape our lives exist to protect us from corporate greed. How can—and should—we tell other stories about bureaucrats and bureaucracies, particularly as the U.S. stands on the precipice of disastrous deregulation? And might fantasies of bureaucracy (such Addison’s The Goblin Emperor and Goddard’s The Hands of the Emperor) be the next cozy subgenre?

The Endless Appetite for Fanfiction
Create / Collaborate Saturday, July 19, 2025, 8:00 PM EDT
Kate Nepveu [moderator]; Claire Houck/Nina Waters; Laura Antoniou; Victoria Janssen
In an article of the same name (https://www.fansplaining.com/articles/endless-appetite-fanfiction), Elizabeth Minkel discussed how “2024 was the year [fanfic] truly broke containment—everyone seemed to want a piece of the fanfiction pie, leaving fic authors themselves besieged on all sides.” Attempts to steal and monetize fanfic proliferated, as did reviews treating living authors as distant and unreachable. What do these trends say about larger changes in attitudes toward stories and creators? How can fans of all kinds nurture supportive connections to authors?

Current Mood: aggravated
Current Music: Star Trek OS

Entry tags:

Writerly Ways

I am sad. This is the second time in 6 weeks when I've run into a changing deadline from a publisher. I had finished a story I was pretty happy with. The pay for this open call was high. I KNOW the deadline because I checked it repeatedly. Got the beta edits back, checked to triple check the word count...and the date is changed. It's frustrating. It feels like a waste of everyone's time. Yes, I can probably find another open call this will fit eventually but this bullshit of closing early and changing deadlines sucks.

I'm trying to see it from their point of view. Maybe they have SO many submissions they can't handle it and close early. Still, I can't be checking every day to places I plan to submit to see if this is going on. Most of these publishers don't have blogs. Maybe they tell duotrope or another service something they're making a change but I don't know. You can't watch them all.

How do you all keep track of deadlines/places you're interested in?

Not the writerly ways i planned to give but this is what you're getting

Open Calls

Odysseus Odysseus from Greek Mythology

Horrorsmith’s Teen Forge Novel Line Young Adult speculative fiction of any genre

Baubles From Bones July 2025 Window Fiction that broadly falls in the realm of science fiction and fantasy

Dark Waters Volume 3 Whatever “dark waters” means to you – stories of trepidation, the unknown, the dangerous, the creepy, the suspenseful.

Space and Time July 2025 Window Stories with speculative elements

5 Paying Literary Magazines to Submit to in July 2025

39 Themed Submission Calls and Contests for July 2025

From Around the web

Why Intentional Storytelling Matters in an Era of AI and Algorithm-Driven Content

One Author, Many Faces: Managing Multiple Identities

What Isn’t Said Still Screams: Writing Subtext in Horror Fiction

Ambiguity and the Horror of the Unknown

The Art of Rewriting: Where Good Writing Goes to Die (and Get Resurrected)

How Niche Authors Can Use Long-Tail Keywords in Metadata

How to Recognize and Avoid Book Scams

How to Achieve Great Character Development in Your Story

From Betty

How to Deal With a Powerful Faction Helping Team Good

Six Tips for Doing More With Less

Why I Stopped Chasing Algorithms and Started Creating Experiences

Sovereignty: Owning Your Voice is the Ultimate Power Move

Write an Unforgettable First Line

The Star Does All The Good Stuff

How to Find Symbols in Your Settings

Three Hidden Reasons Writers Procrastinate

The Backwards Law for Writers

Moral Rights: What Writers Need to Know

How to weave more voice into a query letter

Professional Development for Writers

Writing a Meaningful Book Review

Hm. I thought we got a big bag of cat food

but it turned out to be a big bag of dog food.

This is... not so great, really.

*******************

( Read more... )

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Vorkosigan Saga - Memory - Lois McMaster Bujold

In a series where I love almost every book, it’s usually hard to pick a favourite, but Memory is unquestionably my favourite. It’s just emotionally so satisfying, the culmination the emotional investment as well as character development in the past 10 books. It’s so, so good!

( Memory )

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It's Alive!

Gonna run the Ukraine auction again.

If anyone wants to run a similar event (watermelon_auction?), I'm happy to share whatever I can (my backend post-automating code is already available here, though I haven't used it since).

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2025

2025 round

Hello!

A new round of will run this year, with the following dates:

23 July 2025 23:59 UTC to 13 August 2025 23:59 UTC – Creator signups
18 August 2025 23:59 UTC to 15 September 2025 23:59 UTC – Bidding
17 October 2025 23:59 UTC – Proof of donation due from winning bidders

If there are any issues, the dates can be moved about.

Quick links: FAQ * Supported Orgs

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Six Sentence Sunday

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Entry tags:

conclave

[Conclave] Ship sorter

Someone put together a ship sorter for Conclave pairings. I always find these kind of fun.

( My results )
Overall, nothing shocking here, though I'm surprised that Lawrence/O'Malley ranked above Benitez/Lawrence. And also that Bellini/previous Pope turned out number 1.

I suppose my logic with ranking was, aside from whether I like a pairing or not, is whether I would find it interesting. Bellini obviously had a lot of backstory with previous!Pope; I found his grief etc in the film very compelling. The whole thing with the chess set and so on. So I guess it makes sense.

Not surprised that Adeyemi/Tremblay was #5 for me. Like, neither of them is my favourite character, but they're both such troublemakers. And while they don't have a huge amount of interaction in the film, the amount they DO have is enough to latch onto. That damn cafeteria scene, man. Adeyemi's whole thing with "Judas. Traitor." Yeah, yeah, Tedesco's iconic vape hit, we've all seen it, but the delivery of Adeyemi's line...!

My only disappointment is that Lawrence/Tremblay isn't on the ship list, because like, I DO have opinions on that, unlike some of the stuff on the list. Partially thanks to Tremblay's route in Delectatio Morosa, but also thanks to the book, in which Lomeli is so very BEC about Tremblay and his sports-newscaster-esque good looks and his perfect hair, lol.

Current Mood: okay

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Weekly proof of life: mainly media

We made it to the little market down the road for the second week running and found the first vendor we visited down to his last several boxes of raspberries, so we bought two and headed back home. First raspberries of the season!

(I think yesterday was the first time I ever actually stopped and noticed why raspberries are called that.)

Reading: In non-fiction, I'm still reading through Tamar Adler's An Everlasting Meal: Cooking with Economy and Grace.

On the fiction front, last week I read Cameron Reed's The Fortunate Fall, relatively recently (and finally!) reissued under her current name after its first life as an award-winning SFF novel under her deadname literal decades ago. (I believe her upcoming novel is her first since this one!) It didn't actually hit my emotional buttons very hard (which isn't indicative of how anyone else might react), but it's beautifully constructed and executed. I see why it's so beloved by so many people. ^_^

I also read We Are All Completely Fine (Daryl Gregory), which I didn't realize was a novella until I started reading, so it went by pretty quickly. Interesting horror worldbuilding, although other than the characters' specific histories it's almost entirely hinted at or nodded to; I, at least, came away with almost no actual idea of what's actually going on on a larger scale.

And I read the new Murderbot story ("Rapport: Friendship, Solidarity, Communion, Empathy") that Martha Wells released for the show finale (note that Murderbot itself isn't actually present in the story).

Watching: No Leverage this week, I don't think.

scruloose and I have agreed to switch this to an "I watch this when I feel like it, and if they're around and feel like it, they'll watch with me" show rather than one we're Watching Together. They enjoy it, but don't feel a burning need to see every episode.

I kind of wonder if I haven't been started a show on my own for so long because I'm sort of subconsciously waiting to be able to watch the rest of Justice in the Dark whenever the whole thing is subbed somewhere.

We've seen the Murderbot finale, and I'm awfully glad the show's been renewed.

Beyond that, the two of us have now watched the very first episode of Silo, having had good luck with Apple SFF shows. I haven't read the books, so I know almost nothing about it.

(I have food stuff to talk about, but I think I'll call this a post and hope to write more later.)

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Whale path, swan road

I returned home last night after a week's holiday in Shetland, where the weather was a delightfully consistent 14-15 degrees, the views were dramatic, and the ocean was a restorative and constant presence. Thank you to all who offered advice a few posts back — between your tips and our own research, Matthias and I enjoyed a trip that was a perfect mix of outdoorsy walking and views, museums and learning, and good food and serendipitous wandering.

I did journal a little bit while I was there, so if you want more details of what the trip involved, click behind the cut to see the transcript.

( The girl and the sea )

I would highly, highly recommend Shetland as a place to spend some time, especially if you live in the UK, and will happily expand on any of what I've written above in the comments, if you're interested. I've also got a lot of photos up over at

ronnidolorosa — it's a very photogenic place!

Current Mood: cheerful
Current Location: Bamberg

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Foundation 3.01

In which we make another time jump, the Foundation is now in its monarchical phase, while Empire seems to approach its version of the Third Century Crisis. Also: Demerzel is still my favourite.

( Spoilers are explaining the Three Laws of Robotics and the Zeroth Law )

Current Mood: happy
Current Music: Jungle Boogie - Dr Teeth and the Electric Mayhem

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get down, get down

As I may have mentioned, Baby Miss L loves potatoes, so when I saw a t-shirt on Etsy that said, "Potatoes gonna potate!" around a picture of a potato, I thought, I have to get it for her! Unfortunately, it was only available in neon green, which I did not like the look of. Luckily, many other vendors were also selling t-shirts with pictures of friendly potatoes on them, so I got her this one that says, "Tater tot!"

This morning, I received a series of glamour shots and a video of Baby Miss L thoroughly excited about wearing the t-shirt. It was so great!

I also learned that The Muppets covering Jungle Boogie is one of her current favorite videos. AMAZING!

On all counts, her vibes are immaculate.

Tomorrow, I'm going to a birthday bbq at my brother's, and I'm bringing her the Batman and Robin t-shirts, plus some toddler books about Batman and the Justice League. Hopefully she enjoys them almost as much! (I also recently sent her a Captain America t-shirt, which I believe she wore for the 4th, and I also got pics of her in the Superman dress, with her arms up like she was flying. 😍😍😍)

In other news, I found this review of the new Superman movie really moving. Will I venture out to a theater to see it? Probably not, but I will be very excited to watch it when it makes its way onto HBO in a few months.

*

Current Mood: hot
Current Music: The Unexplained

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mia vita pazzo

Even the pool was 95 degrees

today I went to my brother's place to a) see the new appliances b) to learn to use the new appliances and the new tv system because I'll be house/cat sitting.

My brother has a little pool. I spent hours hovering just at the waterline with my head (the rest of me submerged like a manatee) But with the water that hot, it wasn't that refreshing.

I had planned to go to the whiskey rebellion festival tomorrow but it was only friday/Sat. That's weird but oh well (it was too hot for festivals) I wanted to go to the Pittsburgh Pickle festival. (points to the too hot thing)

So what are you all doing this weekend? Anything fun?

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Saturday Morning Exchange: My Gift

New Home (571 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The Aristocats (1970)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Duchess/Thomas O'Malley, Berlioz & Marie & Toulouse (Disney: Aristocats)
Characters: Thomas O'Malley, Duchess (Disney: Aristocats), Berlioz (Disney), Marie (Disney: Aristocats), Toulouse (Disney)
Additional Tags: Fluff, Domestic Fluff, Character Study, of sorts
Summary:

Thomas O'Malley reflects on his new home.