przed | Reading

dine

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pronker posting in

fancake

Fandom: Star Wars
Pairings/Characters: Kleya Marki & Luthen Rael from the Andor series
Rating: K
Length: 7,108
Creator Links: FFN Profile
Theme: Working Together

Summary: He was never meant to survive. So why is she risking so much to save the man who killed her family?

Reccer's Notes: Kleya does her duty, as does Luthen, in aid of the rebellion. When their wishes and deeds clash, it takes forever and a day to reach an equilibrium. I especially enjoyed the scenario of two rebels diminishing status once their seminal work concludes, because how do they fit in now? And do they want to? Fine characterization, and a what-if that we hope happens, in some other timeline, perhaps.

Fanwork Link: Questionable Provenance

Current Mood: calm
Current Location: sofa

mrkinch

I got started a little after 8 and walked out Loop Road and up Laurel Canyon. It was overcast to start and so quiet! It's that time of year. Activity did pick up by 10 because the sun came out, but no thrushes, no warblers; the only breeding migrants were three species of flycatcher. Almost Fall, I guess. The chainsaws were off to the west a bit, and it sounded like the local coyotes were objecting, but perhaps they were duetting. No particular highlights, unless it was actually seeing the two very raucous and demanding young Common Ravens in the very top of a tall pine, waiting to be fed. ( A short list: )

Today was a struggle. I always hope to go further up the Canyon, but today it was hard enough to get to the usual place.

spikedluv

I had a chiropractic appointment this morning. It was ~almost another no-shopping day, but I ended up stopping at the Feed Bag. I got in a walk around the park and I ran an errand for Pip, to pick up parts for the garage. (I rewarded myself with a McD’s smoothie.) I managed to get to mom’s around the usual time.

I washed and dried a load of whites (still need to be folded), hand-washed dishes, cut up chicken for the dogs’ meals, placed an online order, and scooped kitty litter. I made open-faced tomato and cheese (melted under the broiler) sandwiches for my supper and grilled steak for Pip’s.

I started and finished the next book in the Inn at Holiday Bay Kindle cozy series, and then started the next. They’re just so easy to read. Very little thought involved. I also typed in 1,000 words on my ‘new’ fic! (Only ~ 9,000 left to go! *g*)

Temps started out at 61.3(F) (it felt cool enough for me to wear a sweatshirt when I left the house) and reached 91.6.

Mom Update:

Mom had already sat on the porch and given it up as too hot by the time I arrived. ( more back here )

dine

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mific posting in

fancake

Fandom: Stargate Atlantis
Characters/Pairings: John Sheppard, Rodney McKay, Stephen Caldwell, Elizabeth Weir, Laura Cadman, Radek Zelenka, Lindsay Novak - the usual Daedalus and Atlantis suspects.
Rating: Teen
Length: 100,449
Content Notes: Contains descriptions of serious injuries, animal attacks, extreme environmental conditions, violence, murder. No AO3 warnings apply.
Creator Links: Sholio on AO3, Sholio's old SGA website
Themes: Working together, Action/adventure, Competence, Hurt/comfort, Novel-length, Epic work, Genfic, Worldbuilding

Summary: When a scientific mission goes wrong, the Daedalus crashes on an ice planet along with Atlantis's top scientists and a ruthless saboteur. Will rescue come before injuries and the elements take their toll? Roughly season two era.

Reccer's Notes: This is a gripping, full-blown novel. The Daedalus crash-lands on a Gateless, uninhabited, icy planet while carrying a number of Atlantis personnel (Rodney, Radek, Elizabeth and Cadman), while back on Atlantis, realising something's gone badly wrong, John, Simpson, Carson, Lorne, et al try frantically to locate them, then to reach them by puddlejumper. It's a thriller about surviving both a disastrous crash and the freezing, inhospitable planet, plus searching for the saboteur or saboteurs who caused the crash. There's tons of detail about how the two groups separately work together to survive, and to find and reach the crashed ship, and then once the relief party arrives their troubles aren't over, with the saboteur still working against them and the logistics of only having puddlejumpers to perform a complex rescue. Sholio weaves it all together masterfully and it's an extremely good read with excellent worldbuilding, better than most pro thrillers. Highly recommended.

Fanwork Links: The Killing Frost on AO3, or here

spikedluv

What I Just Finished Reading: Since last Wednesday I have read/finished reading: Death at the Manor (A Lily Adler Mystery) by Katharine Schellman, Clue in the Carriage House & Witness in the Wedding & Christmas in the Candlelight (The Inn at Holiday Bay) by Kathi Daley, and One Was a Soldier (Clare Fergusson/Russ Van Alstyne Mysteries) by Julia Spencer-Fleming.

What I am Currently Reading: Heir, Apparently by Kara McDowell.

What I Plan to Read Next: I have more library books in my hot little hands, so probably the next Amelia Peabody.

Book 73 of 2025: Death at the Manor (A Lily Adler Mystery) (Katharine Schellman)

I enjoyed this book. ( spoilers )

This was a good book and I'm giving it four hearts.

♥♥♥♥

Book 74 of 2025: Clue in the Carriage House (The Inn at Holiday Bay) (Kathi Daley)

Good book! ( spoilers )

I enjoyed this story and am giving it four hearts.

♥♥♥♥

Book 75 of 2025: Witness in the Wedding (The Inn at Holiday Bay) (Kathi Daley)

Okay book, mostly because I got really annoyed by some of the ‘guests' early on and even when I found out what was going on I couldn't let that go. ( spoilers )

I mostly enjoyed this story; I'm giving it four hearts.

♥♥♥♥

Book 76 of 2025: One Was a Soldier (Clare Fergusson/Russ Van Alstyne Mysteries) (Julia Spencer-Fleming)

I was worried that I wouldn't like this book because it dealt with some difficult subject matter, but I ended up enjoying it a lot. ( spoilers )

This book ended up being really good! I'm giving it five hearts.

♥♥♥♥♥

Book 77 of 2025: Christmas in the Candlelight (The Inn at Holiday Bay) (Kathi Daley)

I enjoyed this book. ( spoilers )

Good book, despite my niggles. I'm giving it four hearts.

♥♥♥♥

DNF'd: The Case of the Haunted Hotel (Ghostly Glenwood Mysteries) by B I Skinner

I've broken 75 books already! I'm close to my goal of 100, so maybe I will surpass that. Or, perhaps when I get to the end of one or two of the series I'm currently reading, I'll return to fanfic so I can complete my comment bingo card. Or maybe I'll catch up on all the tv I've been leaving hanging. (Resident Alien, I'm looking at you.)

just_ann_now

Hopefully only one or two more days to the current heat wave. Look at next week's forecast - all 80's! I hope they are not lying, but you never can be sure any more.

What I Just Finished Reading

Remember a couple weeks ago when I read Lucy by the Sea, and enjoyed it so much, and mentioned that the author had written several other books with the same characters? So this past weekend I read four of them:

They were all low-stakes, high emotional engagement strung-together short stories, very satisfying. But then after all those people and their problems I needed a palate cleanser, so I read Solo: A Star Wars Story, Expanded Edition, by Mur Lafferty. The expansion was excellent - lots of Elthree and Qi'ra, and holy cow a coda scene with Enfys Nest. Also very satisfying.

What I Am Currently Reading

Because it's midsummer, and I have no shame, and also LANDO CALRISSIAN, I am rereading Last Shot: A Han and Lando Novel. Hee!

What I Am Reading Next

I went on a Kindle shopping spree the other day and bought (including Solo) eight books:

so I am spoiled for choices right now!

spikedluv

Today was a no-shopping day!! But I got in a walk around the park while I was downtown. I spent time with mom and stopped at the library on the way home to return and pick up books. I did a load of dog sheets that got washed, dried and folded, hand-washed dishes, cut up chicken for the dogs’ meals, scooped kitty litter, and showered.

I started and finished another Kindle cozy and finally started Heir, Apparently. I also dug through my hand-written WIPs to find something to work on and found a surprise FINISHED FIC in the Jessica Fletcher, Agent of SHIELD series! I gave it a read-through to remind myself what the heck I’d written and just need to type it in. (50 hand-written pages, so it will be ~10,000 words typed in.)

Temps started out at 68.5(F) and reached 90.3. It was hot. Today (Wednesday) is also supposed to be hot, but tomorrow (Thursday) we have 49% chance of rain with a high of 68. 68!! In July!!

Mom Update:

Mom was doing okay today. ( more back here )

dine

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mrkinch

This morning was absolutely gorgeous! The fog threatened slightly but burned off instead. So much more bird activity than I've seen for weeks! I had so much fun. When I got down into the dip not long after dawn I noticed two suspicious lumps on a branch of a tall snag, two fledgling Great Horned Owls! Whom I almost certainly heard eeping down slope five days ago. Owls leave the nest long before they can fly, climb up to a branch, and wait for their parents to bring food, but I really don't know how they got to that branch. It was very high and its tree is very dead, so no cover and not a potential nest tree. Possibly the tree next to it? Great Horned Owls use old raptor or crow nests and the tree is rather near the trail for those species to nest in, wand when I heard them a few days ago the sound seemed further away. I just don't know enough. But they weren't the only very cool birds. The north end of the trail was great: three Wilson's Warblers moving around like Bushtits, two Wrentits in the elderberry again, California Quail and two sort of Towhees on the trail below, and hummingbirds! The probable Allen's Hummingbird was very active, chasing the local Anna's (and maybe another Allen's?), landing on twigs in the sun so that he almost glowed, and making his distinctive twitters. I wonder how long he'll stay? ( The list: )

No Common Ravens! None down at the Bot Garden, either. I wonder where they're off to? I sat only a short while in the Garden, submitted no list, but it was American Robin Town. Mostly flying back and forth between the lawn and the trees, still feeding young I guess, but there were also a few teenagers around, and I got my first good look at a full-sized but still spotted Robin in a long, long time.

mrkinch

It was overcast but not cold, and the sun came out by the time we were walking back from the Lake. The Swainson's thrushes only sang a couple of times, but I was at all times surrounded by them making their other calls. We could hear the Olive-sided Flycatcher from the parking lot, and I heard one Black-headed Grosbeak and one singing Warbling Vireo. Wonder if it was same one as three days earlier. But the biggest surprise was a singing Western Tanager, just one or two phrases but their tonal quality is unmistakable. ( The list: )

In the afternoon U and I went down to the decommissioned Alameda Naval Air Station, where the Least Tern colony is, to see the Caspian and Elegant Tern colony. The ranger in charge of the Least Tern colony offered her volunteers the opportunity to drive out with her to where we could see the birds far, far better an U and I managed a few weeks ago. She let us get out of the car at one spot but we got closer with the car as a blind. We saw adults and fledglings of both species and heard and distinguished their amazing calls. I think she said there were about 200 birds there, not a lot as these colonies go but really fun to watch. I'd certainly never seen either species as well as we did then.

marthawells

Tomorrow (Wednesday the 30th) Summer of Science Fiction & Fantasy: Martha Wells in conversation with Kate Elliott

July 30 @ 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm PT Register at this link:

https://www.clarionwest.org/event/summer-of-science-fiction-fantasy-martha-wells-in-conversation-with-kate-elliott/

It's free!

spikedluv

I hit Walmart while I was downtown and got in a walk around the park. I stopped at Stewart’s for gas and milk on the way home. (One of the things I had to pick up was wasp/hornet spray because Pip discovered - by getting stung three times - a wasp nest in the roof area of the front porch, where Midnight spends a lot of time. (TBF, Pip never completely closed up that roof area, so it's really his own fault. o_O))

I got two loads of laundry washed, dried AND folded!!, hand-washed dishes, emptied the dishwasher, baked chicken for the dogs’ meals, cut up chicken for the dogs' meals, and scooped kitty litter.

I posted my SFFest fic, finished the Clare Fergusson book, and talked to mom on the phone. We went to Texas Roadhouse for supper with friends!!!

Temps started out at 68.2(F) (and sticky) and reached 91.0.

Mom Update:

Mom had her first chemo treatment today (Monday). ( more back here )

dine

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spikedluv

Title: Hidden Treasures
Author: Spikedluv
Fandom: Murder, She Wrote (tv)/Shelter (2007)
Rating: PG13/Gen(/Slash)
Pairing/Characters: Jessica Fletcher & Shaun Andrews (appearances by Zach and Cody; Zach/Shaun mentioned)
Length: 3,700 words
Spoilers: Takes place during some unspecified early season of Murder, She Wrote and post-Shelter.
Summary: Jessica Fletcher is invited to teach a couple of weekend writing seminars at CalArts.
Author’s Notes: CalArts doesn’t have a Creative Writing program, but I had the thought, what if it did? o_O Written for

smallfandomfest for the prompt: Murder, She Wrote (tv)/Shelter (2007), Jessica & Shaun, they meet at a writer's conference (or place of author's choice). Title take from the quote by Wanda Hope Carter: "Family and friends are hidden treasures, seek them out and enjoy their riches."
Feedback: Would be greatly appreciated.
Disclaimer: None of these characters belong to me.
Posted: July 28, 2025

Read Fic @ AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/68299676

spikedluv

I washed, dried and hung up Pip’s uniforms, hand-washed dishes, made myself French toast for breakfast, stirred up tuna salad (without the usual celery) and added sliced cucumber for lunch at mom’s, and scooped kitty litter. After my visit to mom I washed, dried and folded another load of laundry, hand-washed more dishes, did a load in the dishwasher and shaved.

I printed off my SFFest fic and gave it a re-read. I finished the Kindle cozy and started the next Clare Fergusson.

Temps started out at 70.2(F) and reached 82.4.

Mom Update:

Mom was doing okay. ( more back here )

dine

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olivermoss

Really just fucking sick of people using 'oh but we are anti-TERF, we are the good guys' as a shield

* There was a Harry Potter film fest in Portland this weekend that was... pro-equality? It was put on by "SPEWW - the Society for the Promotion of Equality for Witches & Wizards" They say they are anti-TERF and it's totally striking back at her.

2 teeny, tiny problems. It was an HP film fest with artist alley at a location that absolutely and definitely only shows properly licensed movies and pays royalties. Since they run indie theaters, their split is worse than, say, what Regal pays. So, literally worse than seeing the films at national chains.

Second, I know some of the artists involved and certain people involved are absolutely transphobes. This is so not an anti-TERF event. I know a certain subsection of the Portland art scene very well, and that subsection is 'people who table at geek events'. Not just as someone who hits up as many as I can find, but also as someone who has run artist alleys and events, and also just as someone who is at a lot of events. I know what some of them have said about me behind my back, because they were within earshot. When I say 'behind my back' I am being literal.

So yeah, this is just a pile of bullshit.

* RomanceCon is an evolving situation right now and I want to start by pointing out that they have changed who is managing the con, but as far as anyone knows, they did not change ownership. Unless, new info comes to light, it looks like they involved an indie bookstore so they could go 'oh, look, it's run by an indie bookstore now, how wholesome, come to our con to support them!'

It looks the majority of authors have pulled out, a lot of the big names definitely did. I would like to have hard numbers, but most places I'd go to for sourcing have banned discussion of this about two weeks ago so the numbers are old. The management company bringing in Julie Soto and having a lot of focus on Harry Potter at the con was the point of contention. They were going to have several HP panels because 'fans don't have a safe space online' to discuss HP anymore and they are all about safe spaces. Basically, the romance con was going to have a huge HP focus and the attending authors were not expecting that.

Here's the thing, while authors were scattering they put out statements talking about how some of the panels were the idea of trans people and also if authors decide to return then they'll donate part of the table fee to trans charities. The table fees are non-refundable, so if the authors didn't come back it just goes to the con's owners. They really tried to pull 'we have trans staff, coming to our con is listing to trans people. And if you don't come money wont be donated to a trans charity'. What the shitfuck? When it comes to trying to use trans people as a shield this is just next level.

We've got enough shit going on without transparent and cynical attempts to use trans people as a shield. There is even a local bookstore that is making a point of carrying HP books because 'they are so important to queer people, the next gen of queer kids need these powerful experiences too'. What? Just carry the books or don't*. Stop with the weird using 'for queer people' or other weird insane bullshit. This convoluted 'oh but it's FOR people like you' bullshit is driving up a fucking wall.

(* I'd prefer not, obviously, and I have the option of shopping at stores that wont carry her. But like, don't try to paint carrying her as even more supportive)