Just finished: The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann. Did you know that the edition I have ends with an afterword from the author asking people to read his 1200-page book twice? Anyway I am very proud of myself as I managed to finish it around 30 minutes before the hold was due back at the library.
So, is it good? Yes. Do I totally get it? Not totally, though yes, more than I would have if I'd read it when I was 16. Definitely the time stuff, the illness stuff, the characters who are thinly veiled stand-ins for pre-WWI European political debates, yes. But of course, it's a very different world now—there is no longer the temptation to embrace illness as freedom, the idea that you can just convalesce for years in what amounts to a different reality, the fairy-tale world of the sanatorium. Which is why the ending hits so brutally hard. Structurally, the first half of the book is Hans Castorp's first three weeks on the mountain, and then it goes blurry, and the next seven years pass in a dreamlike state, with the changing of the seasons and the coming and going (through death and otherwise) of the patients being the only sense that time exists at all. And then there's essentially a massacre of half the cast in various ways, culminating in the arrival of WWI, and Hans disappearing into a viscerally described battlefield; time and history do exist after all, and it collides with the dream.
Reading it in 2026, of course, I am struck by the debates between Settembrini, representing humanism, and Naphta, representing totalitarianism (Catholicism/communism/fascism, but look, Mann was very much working out his political ideas in this book), but something I didn't talk about last week is Mynheer Pieter Peeperkorn (yes this is a character name) who pops up late in the book as Clavdia Chauchat's sugar daddy. He's a larger-than-life figure who gets described as kingly and charismatic despite being far too old for her, distracting Hans from the aforementioned philosophical debate with revels, partying, and a hella Freudian love triangle. I'm particularly struck by his speech patterns. Look, the guy is basically Trump; he is charismatic because the other characters (except Settembrini, who winds up being the only character who comes off well by the end) read meaning into his rambling words that isn't there. This book feels so incredibly apropos for our present day despite being over a century old.
Anyway, I finished The Magic Mountain, ask me anything lol.
Currently reading: Invisible Line by Su J. Sokol. You know, something light and fun after reading all that. Ahahaha. This is hopepunk but I'm assuming that the hope part comes in more towards the end. It was first published in 2012 and the first 50 pages were such that I had to text the author and ask if xe had like, rewritten it for the current edition to update it or something? Xe had not. I suppose the direction was obvious in 2012 where the political climate was moving but it's nonetheless one of those unsettling dystopian books, set in a crumbling fascist US rife with surveillance and police brutality.
Laek, a history teacher, Janie, his activist lawyer partner, and their two kids, Siri and Simon, are doing their best to live a normal life in New York, but Laek was a bit more of a spicy activist when he was a teenager, and his fake ID is no longer cutting it. So they make the decision to flee by bike to Montreal, which has declared itself a sanctuary city in tension with the Canadian government. It's basically too relatable, with a bunch of moments where the characters wonder if it's too much, if they should stay and fight the small battles they can or GTFO while it's still a possibility. There's a scene early on of a teachers' union meeting where a new policy means that the teachers must report their children to immigration, and it's the most accurate depiction of this kind of scenario I've run across in fiction, and yeah. If your feelings about living under fascism, or next door to fascism, are escapism, this book is going to be too real; if however, like me, you need to just read more about living under fascism, you'll be into it.
I don't think about my old neighbourhood very often, but today I received a message that mentioned the imminent sale of the Beacher Café (or maybe it's already sold--the website is gone), which triggered a frisson of nostalgia.
I remember the many fannish conversations I had at that café, a place that I still associate with an otherworldly, altered-state-of-consciousness period of intense reading and writing and imagining and analyzing (just like what I'm seeing now with friends who are immersed in Heated Rivalry creativity). For some reason--its lighting, its layout, the artwork on the walls, the general ambience--that particular café felt like a portal that, if entered at the right moment and in the right mood, might transport us to a dimension where we could catch a real-time glimpse of the universe and characters that preoccupied us so strongly.
It's been decades since I've lived in that time-forgotten lakeside neighbourhood, but I'll never forget the irreproducible synergy of people, ideas, and passionate inspiration of those days.
I hit Walmart while I was downtown, the library to return books on my way to visit mom, and Stewart’s on the way home from mom’s. It was my first in-person visit with her since Christmas Day!
I did a load of laundry, hand-washed dishes, went for several walks with Pip and the dogs, cut up chicken for the dogs' meals, scooped kitty litter, and showered. I made kielbasa for Pip’s supper.
Started another Amelia Peabody book, the last that takes place in the current timeline rather than going back. I watched an episode of House Hunters International and Secrets of the Zoo. I forgot to mention that my tea box arrived today! (It's this one. Link goes to Amazon.)
My ‘trying to be better about healthy eating’ win today was staying out of the Valentine’s candy aisles. o_O
Temps started out at 26.9(F). This morning’s low is higher than yesterday’s high, though it’s only supposed to get up to 32. We’ll see . . . Well, it actually reached 41.0!! And there was sun, briefly. But then it almost immediately started going down because we were supposed to have rain, freezing rain, and a wintery mix coming in. Not fun. I’m already planning to leave the house later than usual tomorrow morning (presuming the roads are even good enough to travel ~then).
Mom Update:
I saw mom today and she was looking okay. Honestly, not as good as she sounded on the phone. Still very weak. I helped her write out some papers for her income taxes and with lunch. She has a meeting tomorrow (now today, Wednesday) with someone from hospice. I only know because her PCP office called while I was there and she told them; she said she hasn’t told anyone. I don’t know if she didn’t want anyone else there because she wanted to handle it herself or because she didn’t want one of us to have to deal with it?
Comment with Just One Thing you've accomplished in the last 24 hours or so. It doesn't have to be a hard thing, or even a thing that you think is particularly awesome. Just a thing that you did.
Feel free to share more than one thing if you're feeling particularly accomplished! Extra credit: find someone in the comments and give them props for what they achieved!
Nothing is too big, too small, too strange or too cryptic. And in case you'd rather do this in private, anonymous comments are screened. I will only unscreen if you ask me to.
Oh noes! Toomuchplor just posted a new HR fic but there's no fic! Must have taken it down after posting so as to fix something. *whimpers and waits impatiently*
The 3rd and final chapter of "Ember and Ice" dropped yesterday. Hilariously, fangirls on tumblr are getting stuck into the political situation in the story, which does leave a lot to be desired although the defeat of the Lunare by the Solari results in a slightly "captive fairy prince" situation which is always fun. I enjoyed this extra offering by the boys, but audio erotica as a medium does nothing for me, as opposed to the fanfic (and podfic) now being produced by the ton for Heated Rivalry, much of which is excellent and extremely hot. I find it more hilarious than hot to actually hear our heroes giving a blow job - all those wet sucking and smacking sounds - and I kept imagining the poor foley person having to slap their wet thigh, or something, when they were getting into serious fucking. Imagination works way better than surround-sound for me! Although, if "My Moon My Man" is the standout song of HR, "my moan my man" is definitely Hudson's theme song in Ember and Ice!
I've signed up for the Hollanov Big Bang as a writer, artist, and beta (not that I'm going overboard with this or anything). If you're interested, sign ups are here. Info and the schedule are here.
Excellent recs by lotstradamus, here. Almost all are explicit, with some great ideas and interesting writing.
If you're looking for another gay romance with a happy ending, try the movie "Bros". Where I live it can be rented from Apple+. It's more typical of gay culture than HR and the protagonists are a lot older (pushing forty), but it's very charming in its own way. Commitment-challenged bros to lovers in this case, not "enemies". I thoroughly enjoyed it.
A couple of days ago, I dug out a Wind Breaker fic I've been puttering on since June last year... Honestly, it's just every single character involved in this panel losing their shit over what happened in that moment, because why should I be the only one suffering?! But anyway, slapping an ending on it has been hard, with a lot of false starts. I outlined another one that's meh and started writing it -- at some point, one just needs to finish things!! There are a lot of good lines in the first few chapters at least XD
Then this morning I went back to edit the kn8 fic, as usual. Once I was done, I checked the notes app on my phone because I'm going somewhere today that I haven't been to in a long time, and sometimes I leave myself tips about directions, how long it actually takes, things like that.
I scrolled, and scrolled, and scrolled to try to find a note from around that time (which didn't actually exist btw), and stumbled across a detailed note with... an ending for that fic?! One that includes a super fun concept I'd never have thought of except apparently I did?! *shakes past-me* WHY DID YOU NOT TELL MEEEE?!?!!! Haha. I'll have to remove/adjust some of the stuff I wrote a couple of days ago because the characters are in different locations, but I really really want to use that idea now in some way now XD
This guest review comes from Lisa! A longtime romance aficionado and frequent commenter to SBTB, Lisa is a queer Latine critic with a sharp tongue and lots of opinions. She frequently reviews at All About Romance and Women Write About Comics, where she’s on staff, and you can catch her at _@thatbouviergirl on Twitter. There, she shares good reviews, bracing industry opinions and thoughtful commentary when she’s not on her grind looking for the next good freelance job.
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Cheerfully fun but also warmly heartfelt, Love at First Sighting is a supernatural delight that’s awash with that most alien of pursuits — finding romance. Loaded with absolutely delightful characters and a fun premise, my X-Files-loving heart sang as I read my way through it.
El Martin is a social media influencer who ought to have the whole world at her fingertips, but instead she feels completely unfulfilled by her avocation. She grew up as a child beauty pageant contestant and so much of her life has been based on surface appearances. By happenstance one night, she captures footage of what appears to be an alien sighting on her phone. El is exhilarated – finally, something interesting has happened to her! But now she has to deal with the government being in her business — specifically a very cute agent.
Agent Carter Brody, too, is dissatisfied with his career. He wants to do what his own dad did – investigate paranormal activity. Instead, he’s in the Private Intelligence Sector. He goes through mountains of online videos looking for genuine sightings — and it looks like El’s experienced one. He would know – this is what happened when his dad died fifteen years back.
Assigned to El’s case, he finds himself drawn deeper into her world. Brody is immediately arrested by El’s fearlessness, and love begins to bloom between them. But they have a big mystery to solve — is it really a UFO? Or is something else playing tricks on them?
Think The X-Files with a skosh of Men in Black – and plenty of romance – and you’ll get Love at First Sighting. It’s a story about figuring out who you are at core – in El’s case, who she is when she’s not using her phone and in Carter’s case, who he is beyond his position in intelligence.
The romance is delightful – Carter is a pure cinnamon roll and a good guy. El is likeable, too, and aware that her quarter life crisis is a big signal that she needs to start doing something fresh with her life. I wanted to see them get together, and I wanted to watch them build something important in the UFO-hunting world together. He falls first, and, man – again, Carter is just the best hero. I’d love to give him a mug of cocoa. El is a little harder to get a bead on, but I really ended up liking her and relating to her too.
The mytharc is a lot of fun to follow; Marlowe knows how to build up a mystery and leave you gasping for more information. The final twist that brings us answers about Brody’s father is perhaps a hair predictable – but it’s still a worthy conclusion.
But the book lands at an A- because it spends perhaps a little too much time focusing on El’s quarter-life crisis arc. There’s a lot of influencer talk in here, mostly during the first quarter of the book, and if that’s not your bag and you don’t want to deal with it you’ll have to grin and bear it while we get into that juicy mytharc and a lovely romance.
That’s a small wrinkle in what proves to be a truly terrific sci-fi romance. Love at First Sighting is a great piece of work — I had a lot of fun delving into the unknowable with El and Brody, watching them find love. After all, sometimes the greatest mystery in the world stems from the human heart.
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Life is full of things which are hard or tedious or otherwise unpleasant that need doing anyhow. They help make the world go 'round, they improve skills, and they boost your sense of self-respect. But doing them still kinda sucks. It's all the more difficult to do those things when nobody appreciates it. Happily, blogging allows us to share our accomplishments and pat each other on the back.
What are some of the hard things you've done recently? What are some hard things you haven't gotten to yet, but need to do? Is there anything your online friends could do to make your hard things a little easier?
This historic pump uses a mixture of flowing water and air bubbles to lift water high above its original level. While not as efficient as some other methods, it has two tremendous advantages: 1) It requires no electricity, fuel, or animal power. 2) With no moving parts, it avoids the problems of wear and clogs that threaten more complex pumps. Given the increasing issue of climate change, there is great value in any useful technology that runs entirely on renewable energy and doesn't need repair or replacement at all often.
"This was jazz of the highest order—challenging, yet accessible, eminently entertaining and arrestingly beautiful. Goosebumps were felt." — T'Cha Dunlevy, The Gazette (Montreal, Canada), 8 July 2025
Did you know?
When British physician Tobias Venner wrote in 1620 of houses "somewhat eminently situated," he meant that the houses were located at an elevated site—they were literally in a high place. That use has since slipped into obsolescence, as has the word's use to mean "conspicuously"—a sense that reflects its Latin root, ēminēre, which means "to stick out" or "protrude." All three meanings date to the 17th century, but today's figurative sense of "notably" or "very" is the only one now regularly encountered.
The Road Forward - 1193 words - Richie & Connor - On the cusp of the new millennium, Richie has been sent to New York for some training with Connor. But do you think these two are going to ignore a party this big? They're going to train. Really. Tomorrow.
This is a such a delightfully upbeat story, though it manages to weave in just enough melancholy that the optimism isn't immediately obvious. Richie and Connor celebrate the new millennium together (as they should, since of course the both survived to see it), and it's such a delight to see them meaningfully interact in a way that isn't about the Game. Since I was working with Richie and Angie in my own story, it was also wonderful to see another perspective on where they had ended up and why.
1. Internship offered me a special project but now I can’t get any answers about it
I’m a college student who recently finished a remote internship at a prominent company in a fairly niche field (the company has maybe 10-15 full-time employees). My main task was fairly generic — think setting up a filing system or similar — but I also got a lot of experience in the actual field. Towards the latter end of it, I had a great talk with the CEO about what I wanted out of the internship, and what was really exciting was that he said that he thought a good next step for me would be designing an accessory for one of their products. That sounded great to me, and I said so. He told me to get back to him with some ideas for products that I wanted to make an accessory to, and that he would meet in a week or two with some of the designers to talk about what they thought and hash out the plan for this.
That was about one and a half months ago. I sent some messages after that attempting to follow up. Initially he just hadn’t gotten around to the meeting yet, which was fine, and said I should send him what product I was interested in working on, but then he didn’t respond to that. Once my internship wrapped up I sent a message thanking him for the internship, and saying that I would be more busy but still available during the school year and would love to work on other projects with the company. He replied saying it was great to have me there for the summer, but also that he was not sure what would be next with regards to project work as they are still figuring out what things will look like in 2026. I sent one more message a week and a half later, saying that I’d love to talk more about the accessory design project and once again affirming that I am free despite being in school, which I haven’t gotten a response to.
I have been in intermittent contact for other reasons with one of the designers who was my boss during the internship, and a few weeks ago I asked if the CEO had gotten a chance to talk to him and the other designer about the design opportunity, or if plans had changed. He said he would remind the CEO about it … and I haven’t heard anything about it since.
Should I send yet another message to the CEO asking about this? I don’t want to come off as pushy or badgering, considering I’ve already sent him at least four messages about it, but this would also a really exciting opportunity for me. I think it’s very possible that plans changed or he realized that he wouldn’t be able to actually offer me this opportunity, at least not right now, which I would understand. But in that case, I would just like to at least hear that, rather than continue getting radio silence.
It’s probably not happening right now, for whatever reason. You shouldn’t continue to message the CEO since four messages makes your interest really clear and the ball is now pretty firmly in his court. The one thing you could do, though, is to message your boss from the internship again and say something like, “I’m not going to keep bothering Cecil about this since I haven’t heard back and I’m guessing it’s just not something he can move forward with right now, but if you do think there’s anything else I should do on my end, please let me know! I’d love the opportunity if it might still be possible, but I realize it might not be.” But after that, I’d assume they’re just not able to make it come together right now.
2. Should we not hire candidates with wet t-shirt contest photos online?
I’m hiring for the restaurant and bar at a golf course, and we recently have had two openings for servers. We’ve had trouble finding suitable candidates until recently, when two university students who are both friends applied and interviewed back to back. They are literally the perfect candidates who we believe have the skills to help our team.
Upon checking their online history, however, we found out that last year they were overseas at a hostel and they joined a wet t-shirt contest. The hostel and nightclub posted some images on their website, with them both showing off their butts in thongs and also removing their shirts entirely, showing their breasts to the crowd. They actually finished first and second in the contest, and kudos to them! Personally, I don’t have an issue with this and I see it as good fun. I don’t see how this would impact the reputation of our golf course in any way, as the customers will not know and, even if they did, it’s not like they would view this as something the golf course was then up too. I really don’t think it matters. Neither does the other hiring manager, but they are hesitant because they “just know if you find something like that, you are not supposed to hire them.”
Do you think we should just hire these wonderful women who seem to be the right fit for our job openings or do you think the fact that their butts and boobs happen to be on a hostel website from overseas matter and we should pass? I personally think in today’s times that this sort of thing is okay and I think the other manager is living 20 years ago still.
You should hire them. Tell the other manager that the advice she’s heard is outdated and it only ever applied to certain types of jobs anyway (like jobs like teaching, where public image has traditionally been a big concern). It never applied to the majority of jobs, and it has zero bearing on their ability to do the work you need done.
3. Can I ask to use a “free” day off at a different time?
I work full-time in local government, in a small office of 12. Recently, our boss sent out an email announcing that as a thank-you for our hard work over the past year, she was giving us all one “free” day of personal vacation. We were all told to look at the calendar to see which day we were assigned to take off.
While I appreciate the thought, I was actually hoping I could bank the day off and use it towards a vacation later in the month I was already approved to take. Alternately, I wanted to ask to use my “free” vacation date on my birthday, also later this month.
Would you advise asking our boss if I could use the free day she is giving us towards another vacation or on another day? I don’t want to seem ungrateful or look at gift horse in the mouth, but the day I am assigned to be off is not a day I want to be off. She has never done anything like this before, at least since I have worked with her. She’s normally pretty tough about granting time off requests, so her willingness to randomly give us an extra free day took me by surprise.
Sure, ask! “Would it be okay for me to use this for January 30 instead? That’s my birthday and I’d love to use this to take it off.”
Or you could ask to use it for your already-scheduled vacation, but there’s more chance she’ll feel like you’re turning what was meant to be a feel-good perk into something more administrative since you already have that time scheduled — which doesn’t make logical sense, since it would mean you had an additional day to use down the road, but I suspect the birthday would be more in keeping with the spirit of what she’s trying to offer.
4. Should my exempt employees be using PTO for appointments?
I’m a faculty member at a university, and I supervise some staff members. These staff members are all exempt and have all been in their roles since before I became a supervisor. I’ve noticed that they will use a few hours of annual leave in order to take a pet to the vet or for various other things that might require coming in late or leaving early. They will also sometimes “make up” hours in the evening if they had to come in late or leave early during the week. Their roles are 8 am – 4:30 pm positions that require at least one of them in the office during this time.
From following your site, I was under the impression that, as exempt employees, they don’t need to be taking leave for these incremental hours of time they aren’t working. This all gets a little more complicated, because technically I supervise one person, and she supervises the other two employees. I have deferred to her on how she wants to manage office coverage and their tasks. She’s also been supervising employees for much longer than me, so I deferred to her on how leave is supposed to be used and reported. (Remember, this is a university, so I went from a regular faculty role with incredible flexibility to a supervisory role without being given any real information on how HR-type rules work. Academia!)
Ultimately, my question is whether these employees are unnecessarily using their leave. Should they be able to come in late (if approved) and not use leave? And if so, is this something that I legally need to fix? Would we be in legal trouble if it came to light that exempt employees were being required to use leave in this way?
So, first, the law on exempt employees doesn’t say anything at all about how they need to use their leave; it is exclusively concerned with their pay. Specifically, exempt employees must be paid their full salary for any week in which they do any work (with a few narrow exceptions, like if they’re working a partial week because it’s their first or last week of work). But the law doesn’t care if that money is coming from their paid leave or not; it only cares that they are paid. So there’s no legal issue here.
What does matter are your employer’s personnel policies, and maybe also what’s common practice in your department. Some employers (and some managers) strictly require that people use PTO for the sort of thing you describe (or make up the time). Others are much more flexible and figure there’s a give and take, and as long as people’s work is getting done, they’re not going to nickel and dime them on PTO. So the question for you, first and foremost, is what your university’s policy is on this and, if it’s fairly strict, whether you as a manager have standing to choose to implement more flexibility on your team.
5. Can I apply at an organization that’s not hiring?
How do I write a speculative application to an organization that isn’t hiring right now? Is that even something I should try?
I really want to get out of my current job (law enforcement) and have found an NGO that I’m a perfect fit for. Unfortunately they’re not hiring at the moment, but I’d like to send them my resume in case it’s something they’d consider now or in the future.
I’ve never sent a speculative application before. Is it a good idea? How should I structure it? Do I turn the email into a cover letter, or write a separate cover letter and attach it like I would for a listed job ad?
I wouldn’t be considering this if I weren’t certain that I’d be a great asset to the organization, and this level of self-confidence isn’t typical for me. But I don’t want to make a fool of myself and blow my shot in case it hurts my chances in the future. What would you advise?
You definitely can try doing this! There’s no guarantee it will lead to anything, of course, but there’s no reason you can’t give it a shot.
You’d make your email your cover letter, explaining why you’re contacting them and what you could offer them — and why you’re so interested even outside of any specific position being available — and then you’d say, “I’m attaching my resume so you can see my full professional background, and I’d love to talk if you’re ever hiring someone to do X.”
People do this a lot, especially with nonprofits (because they tend to attract a lot of people who want to work for that cause, specifically). It won’t hurt your chances for the future at all (if anything, it could help them).
finally watching season 2 of the live action Ronia the Robber's Daughter from 2024 and my kingdom for someone who will talk about the cinematography with me the way people are breaking down the Heated Rivalry longing gazes.
Also Ronia singing the wolf song and me being surprised about pronunciation of "Du varg, du varg" and then me realizing it's the exact same way anglos always mispronounce Greta Thunberg's name.
I've been a fan of TVXQ for years. They're who got me into k-pop, honestly. I first heard Rising Sun, although I found them around the time of Purple Line. I miss them as five. I did try to listen to their first album as a duo, and I wasn't that impressed, possibly because they still tried to get the sound of five.
Title: The Orphan's Tales: In the Night Garden Author: Catherynne M. Valente Illustrator: Michael Kaluta Genre: Fantasy, fairy tale
First book of 2026! This was The Orphan's Tales: In the Night Gardenby Catherynne M. Valente with illustrations by Michael Kaluta. I have no recollection of how this ended up on my TBR and I was a little skeptical checking it out in the library, but I'm glad I stuck with it because it ended up being a lot of fun and I will definitely check out the second volume.
You might be a little confused in the beginning, as In the Night Garden is a series of nested stories within stories and the style takes a minute to get used to, but it's worth it. Valente unfolds a veritable matryoshka of tales into neat blooms whose petals all fit together. Retroactive reveals and recontextualiations are delightful here.
Valente's vivid prose brings together her fantastical tales with such clarity; she attends frequently to all five senses, so that the reader knows what the characters are not only seeing, but hearing, smelling, tasting, and feeling as well. There's obviously a lot of fairy tale inspiration here, but Valente definitely brings her own flavor. Women are almost always the hero of Valente's tales (though they play the villains too!) and there are such a great variety of them. Monsters abound too, but they get their chance to tell a tale too. (There's also some gentle ribbing at the Arthurian legends, with one witch lamenting about "all that questing" princes get up to.)
I was so engrossed in the work I didn't realize until quite late in the book how little romance factors into it. In a fairy tale inspired book like this, I would have expected a great many characters motivated by romance, but I can only think of two here who are primarily motivated by a love interest, and this delights me too. I'm arospec myself and while I enjoy a good tale of romance, I also weary of how frequently and totally it is centered in stories, so I was really enthused by how little that's the case here.
Friendship and family relationships do make frequent appearances though, and the friendship between the orphan teller of tales and the young boy hanging onto her words is the framing story. Love between mother and daughter, between brother and sister, even between strangers is a common thread.
She also avoids a pitfall I see in various modern fantasy stories which are so keen to explain the magic of their world they strip it of all mystery. Valente's world remains largely unexplained and asks the reader to simply take it as it is, which I found fun and appropriately mysterious.
The style of the book allows Valente to pull in a great many diverse characters and voices, which she does it well. Most impressive though is her ability to pull a cohesive tapestry out of all the various threads she's juggling.
A really fun and unusual story which I enjoyed a lot--a great start to a new year of reading!
First book of 2026! This was The Orphan's Tales: In the Night Gardenby Catherynne M. Valente with illustrations by Michael Kaluta. I have no recollection of how this ended up on my TBR and I was a little skeptical checking it out in the library, but I'm glad I stuck with it because it ended up being a lot of fun and I will definitely check out the second volume.
You might be a little confused in the beginning, as In the Night Garden is a series of nested stories within stories and the style takes a minute to get used to, but it's worth it. Valente unfolds a veritable matryoshka of tales into neat blooms whose petals all fit together. Retroactive reveals and recontextualiations are delightful here.
Valente's vivid prose brings together her fantastical tales with such clarity; she attends frequently to all five senses, so that the reader knows what the characters are not only seeing, but hearing, smelling, tasting, and feeling as well. There's obviously a lot of fairy tale inspiration here, but Valente definitely brings her own flavor. Women are almost always the hero of Valente's tales (though they play the villains too!) and there are such a great variety of them. Monsters abound too, but they get their chance to tell a tale too. (There's also some gentle ribbing at the Arthurian legends, with one witch lamenting about "all that questing" princes get up to.)
I was so engrossed in the work I didn't realize until quite late in the book how little romance factors into it. In a fairy tale inspired book like this, I would have expected a great many characters motivated by romance, but I can only think of two here who are primarily motivated by a love interest, and this delights me too. I'm arospec myself and while I enjoy a good tale of romance, I also weary of how frequently and totally it is centered in stories, so I was really enthused by how little that's the case here.
Friendship and family relationships do make frequent appearances though, and the friendship between the orphan teller of tales and the young boy hanging onto her words is the framing story. Love between mother and daughter, between brother and sister, even between strangers is a common thread.
She also avoids a pitfall I see in various modern fantasy stories which are so keen to explain the magic of their world they strip it of all mystery. Valente's world remains largely unexplained and asks the reader to simply take it as it is, which I found fun and appropriately mysterious.
The style of the book allows Valente to pull in a great many diverse characters and voices, which she does it well. Most impressive though is her ability to pull a cohesive tapestry out of all the various threads she's juggling.
A really fun and unusual story which I enjoyed a lot--a great start to a new year of reading!
Hi everybody - we're glad you're having a great time signing up and nominating things! Just as a quick reminder, fandom tags that end in "- All Media Types" or "& Related Fandoms" can be a real pain when it comes to working out assignments, because Purimgifts matching is exact. That means that if you request, say, "Star Wars - All Media Types" and someone else requests "Star Wars Original Trilogy", the two of you won't match. So where possible, please try to nominate the most specific version of the thing you want.
We know there are some fandoms where the All Media Types tag really is the most logical thing to request (ah, Transformers - All Media Types, my old frenemy, we meet again). So if you've got one of those, don't worry, you can still nominate it! But if you do, please send us an email at purimgifts@yahoo.com so we know it was on purpose. And if AO3 doesn't have a canonical tag for the individual entry you want, like "Pacific Rim (Movies)" when you only want the first one, we can still put the individual movie in the tag set for you to request. We've got options!
snowflake_challenge is currently running throughout the month of January! You can jump in and catch up anytime.
gamechangerhr is a community dedicated to Game Changers book series/Heated Rivalry TV series. Discussions & fanworks on Rachel Reid's other Hockey Romance books are also allowed/welcome.
bookclub_dw is a Monthly Book Club where a host will pick three books, participants vote on them, and everyone reads the winner/discusses later.
moodthemeinayear is a low-pressure community dedicated to creating a custom mood theme
allbingo is running a Public Domain Bingo Fest through the month of January. There are pre-made cards or you can create your own based on the available prompts.
Not that I shall stop looking as they pattern their wild will each night across an inchoate sky, but I must see them with a different awe. If I trace their flames’ ascending and descending – relationships and correspondences – then I deny what they have just revealed. The sum of their oppositions, juxtapositions, led me to the end of all sums: a long journey, cold, dark and uncertain, toward the ultimate equation. How can I understand? If I turn back from this, compelled to seek all answers in the stars, then this – Who – they have led me to is not the One they said: they will have lied.
No stars are liars! My life on their truth! If they had lied about this I could never trust their power again.
But I believe they showed the truth, truth breathing, truth Whom I have touched with my own hands, worshipped with my gifts. If I have bowed, made obeisance to this final arithmetic, I cannot ask the future from the stars without betraying the One whom they have led me to.
It will be hard not ask, just once again, see by mathematical forecast where he will grow, where go, what kingdom conquer, what crown wear. But would it not be going beyond truth (the obscene reduction ad absurdum) to lose my faith in truth once, and once for all revealed in the full dayspring of the sun?
I cannot go back to night. O Truth, O small and unexpected thing, You have taken so much from me. How can I bear wisdom’s pain? But I have been shown: and I have seen.
I originally wasn't going to do this one because it got me thinking about Phoebe and I was sad, but then I decided I wanted to talk a little about Phoebe and let myself be sad.
Challenge #1: The Icebreaker Challenge: Introduce yourself. Tell us why you're doing the challenge, and what you hope to gain from it.
I'm svgurl. I'm in my 30s, and have been actively part of fandom on and off since 2007, when I created my LJ. The SV part of my username stands for Smallville, which was my original fandom and I was very mono fandom for years.
My profile is up to date and gives a little background history and the fandoms/ships I'm interested in. I'm focused on 9-1-1/Buddie these days, but I still love MCU, Smallville, Gilmore Girls, and past favorites do come up from time to time.
I can be found on various places: AO3: svgurl410 Tumblr: svgurl410 Discord: svgurl
I mod: comment_bingo: a bingo challenge that promotes commenting on other fanworks using the provided prompts rarefemslashexchange: a rare f/f fandom exchange that runs once a year
This is my 5th year participating in the Snowflake Challenge and I really love the way it gives everyone a chance to interact with people that you normally wouldn't. I am not comfortable with just going to someone's journal and talk to them out of the blue, so it's nice that this gives you a chance to do just that. I am looking forward to doing more of that and meet more people on here as well! :)
This poem is from today's Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from dialecticdreamer. It also fills the "Seas Beneath" square in my 1-6-26 card for the Public Domain Day Bingo fest. This poem has been sponsored by fuzzyred. It belongs to the Kraken and Mercedes threads of the Polychrome Heroics series.
"Beneath the Sea" -- a hexaduad
[Monday, September 25, 2017]
Jules reads job feeds. Come work beneath the sea! Stock Cans; room and board free. He knows it's good work and good pay, but should he go or should he stay? Tides rise and fall, feelings, sea call. Beach, a liminal place; teen, in similar space. Jules scans the shore, texts, Tell me more.
Author: Audrelite
Title: He Could Never Understand
Fandom: Yugi-Oh 5Ds
Prompt: #476 — Regret
Rating: T
Characters: Kalin Kessler and Yusei Fudo
Word Count: 100
Summary: No. Yusei Could never understand. The darkness had not swallowed him up, And never would.
This is your check-in post for today. The poll will be open from midnight Universal or Zulu Time (8pm Eastern Time) on Tuesday, January 6, to midnight on Wednesday, January 7. (8pm Eastern Time).
The name yaybahar (pronounced /jajba'har/) has Turkish origin. It is a composite of two words: yay means a "string" or a "coiled string" and bahar means the season "spring." According to Gorkem Sen, the name is derived from the idea of a new life or a new beginning. [1]
I assume this is the third one of its kind the artist has made.
Back at work, but thankfully 1. I don't have to commute, and 2. we are having no-meeting week, so I can just cross one major task off my list every day without adding new things like meeting notes or whatever.
I think the thing I've enjoyed most about the ancillary explosion of joy around Heated Rivalry is the two hockey podcasts that engaged fully and open-heartedly with it (well, and the proliferation of "Ilya gets added to the WAG chat" fic). Normally hockey podcast bros are not a species I have time for (aside from not being good at podcasts or audiobooks in general), but the Empty Netters dudes were super adorable in their reviews, and they also interviewed Ksenia Daniela with great excitement and are scheduled to have Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie on soon.
I also enjoyed What Chaos's less in-depth but still positive look at the show, and they have a couple of interviews with Jacob Tierney available that I haven't watched yet. I was also very pleased when, during a discussion about Shane's ginger ale habit, one of the dudes started talking about a restaurant(?) that lets you choose ginger ale or 7Up for your Shirley Temples, and I was like, "gotta go with ginger ale on that" and then the guy was like, "and the ones with ginger ale are great!" Because that is the legit truth, my friends. I'm not saying I won't drink a Shirley Temple with 7UP, but I am saying that the ones with ginger ale are 1. how we made them when I was a kid, and 2. better. I was reminded of how we ordered one every night at the free cocktail hour on that cruise we went on back in 2015, which definitely made an impression on the staff. *g* (Princess Donut also approves.)
So I feel like those were a great extender of joy, if you are in need. It's really lovely to see some cishet hockey dudes becoming fans of m/m romance.
In other fannish news, I just read that Sebastian Stan may be in Matt Reeve's The Batman, Part 2 and I don't want to get my hopes up or get fixated on a specific part for him to play, but like, wouldn't he be a fantastic Harvey Dent/Two-Face??? GIVE IT TO ME.
Scarlett Johansson has also been rumored to be involved somehow, and she'd have to be like, Poison Ivy, right? Though maybe they're going with more of a Mask of the Phantasm type thing and she'll be Andrea Beaumont? But I am not sure I buy Battinson as having a girlfriend before Selina, and also, why would you try to compete with Mask of the Phantasm? It's so good, you're just setting yourself up for not measuring up. (I guess she could be Talia, but I hope not.)
I guess we'll see what materializes! I'm kind of sad that they are not in continuity with James Gunn's Superman, because that would be fun to see.
Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 31 secrets from Secret Submission Post #991. Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ]. Current Secret Submissions Post:here. Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.
*sheepish look* 2026 has been here for nearly a week. (I have some good excuses for not posting at the time, but they're a bit long to explain here.) My sincerest apologies for the delay in getting this post out!
It is most definitely the end of wishlist posting time.
I want to encourage everyone to continue to fulfill wishes as they are inspired/able. The AO3 collection is always open for fanworks created to fulfill wishes.
If you requested people contact you regarding items being shipped, etc., please make sure to check your PMs and/or email so you don't miss any messages.
I know that everyone has been replying with thanks to comments fulfilling wishes, and appreciate that! (If you forgot, now is a good time to reply with your thanks.) If you received an anonymous gift during this wishlist season, you're welcome to leave a comment on this post to thank the gifter.
Thank you all for participating and fulfilling wishes, and best wishes for everyone in this new year!
I've enjoyed running this community for the 2025 season, and hope to see all of you again in November.
We need to abolish negative gearing and we need to push for it NOW.
Housing affordability is unattainable unless we get rid of negative gearing. More supply won't matter if negative gearing continues to drive up prices and encourage investors to snap up all the affordable homes.
Pressure on this issue is building up in the Labor Party. Every three years they have a national conference where members debate and hash out policy. July 2026 is the next one so we won't have another before the next election.
Send multiple emails. Get others to do so too. Send one every month BEFORE July this year!
This is our chance to fight for this issue before they resolve to ignore our pleas for the next 3 years. So let's make noise while we can. ( sparing the rest of you )
Now confirmed! I am delighted to report that in Spring 2026, I'll be offering two standalone (but related) modules with SPACE (Signum Portals for Adult Continuing Education) online via Signum University. Each focuses on an important novel related to the same real-life, true-crime unsolved case.
Now confirmed! Here are the details of the new three-part online module for SPACE (Signum Portals for Adult Continuing Education) that I'll be offering for Signum University in Spring 2026.
Rebellions Are Built On Hope: A Star Wars Series
Over nearly half a century of storytelling, Star Wars has challenged audiences to find their own agency and power in the face of injustice and tyranny. The Star Wars works Andor (2022, 2025), Rogue One (2016), and A New Hope (1977) fit together to provide a story of resistance, resilience, and rebellion built on a deep engagement with history, philosophy, and political thought. Join Dr. Amy H. Sturgis as we consider how Star Wars wrestles with big ideas, invites conversation and action, and inspires hope in unprecedented times.
This SPACE series consists of three hybrid modules:
Module 1(Only 1 seat left!) (Feb. 2026) covers the series Andor, Season 1 (more info here);
Module 2 (March 2026) covers the series Andor, Season 2 (more info here); and
Module 3 (April 2026) covers the films Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope (more info here).
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hlh_shortcuts! This is my favorite exchange and the only one on my docket that's a "must do" every year.![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
brightknightie.
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official-auspol as I know more Aussies here)
