polydad | Reading

Hopeful Parting
By Dialecticdreamer/Sarah Williams
Part 1 of 1, complete
Word count (story only): 1802
[End of March 179-]

:: Laszlo and the trio share breakfast, then part ways. He finds a small gift later. Part of the “Lost Son” story arc in the Frankenstein’s Family universe. ::

The smell of cooking woke Laszlo. Dim light drifted through the layer of plain linen pinned around the window in the alcove where he slept. Laszlo dressed quickly, and stepped out. The smaller girl sat with her legs folded, feet tucked under the opposite thigh, as her skirt hugged against her legs. Her older sister combed through the younger girl’s hair in long, slow strokes.

Laszlo sighed and tucked his hair into the collar of his shirt, blushing faintly. He waved, then watched the woman as she poured a thin batter onto an unfamiliar pan. She tilted it, holding the handle beneath several layers of folded wool that was just as unfamiliar. Stained, streaky, the fabric seemed to have been badly dyed the color of walnut hulls. He pointed at the pan and shrugged.

The older girl waved to get his attention, then mimed rolling the little flatbread and biting eagerly into it.
( Read more... )

Current Mood: accomplished

twistedchick

Some brilliant person spent untold time gleaning all of Dr. Johnny Fever's comments and the songs he was cueing up over the entire series, and made a 3-hour composite recording that is *BRILLIANT*. Information and the recording at this link. I am listening to it and it is so good!

twistedchick

Putting the Substack on hold has already had some effects. Since I'm not thinking about politics when I fall asleep, my dreams have returned -- in living color.

Night before last I was dreaming about an enormous library or bookstore that had been made out of a former doctor's office, with all the little office areas being different topics, and the books on the walls looked different colors and styles in each.

Last night I dreamed I was talking with Dolly Parton before she went onstage and noticed that her hair was not only touching the floor, it was long enough to trip her up. I managed to trim off about five inches that was in floor contact. Then after her concert she came back and asked me to go on a trip with her as thanks for keeping her from falling off the stage -- and we started off on a road trip. Somewhere in there she turned into Meryl Streep and wanted me to try a tiny heart-shaped hallucinogen as we drove off on the Southern Tier Expressway (which is not a place to go tripping.). And at that point I woke up.

Thanks for returning, Imagination!

klb posting in

pod_together

Hey all, tomorrow is the podfic deadline! As long as your project is submitted while it's still August 24th anywhere in the world, you're on time!

If you don’t think you’ll be able to finish in time, read over the rules and request an extension. Please email us today if you need an extension instead of waiting until tomorrow.

Here is a checklist of everything you need when turning your project in!

If the text and podfic are in a single post:

Add every group member as a co-author on the AO3 post

Include a download link for the podfic at the TOP of the post

Include a streaming link for the podfic at the TOP of the post (either embedded streaming, or a link to where people can click to stream the podfic)

Make sure the post is published in the pod_together 2025 collection (don't just save it as a draft!)

Contact the mods to let us know you're finished!

If the text and podfic are in separate posts:

Create and publish an AO3 post for the podfic in the pod_together 2025 collection (don't just save it as a draft!)

In the podfic post, include a link to the text post at the TOP of the post

In the text post, include a link to the podfic post at the TOP of the post

In the podfic post, include a download link for the podfic

In the podfic post, include a streaming link for the podfic (either embedded streaming, or a link to where people can click to stream the podfic)

Contact the mods to let us know you're finished!

Also, if your project centers one or more characters of color, please feel free to add it to our Pod_Together Characters of Color Love collection to make it easier to find for listeners who would like to prioritize listening to those stories first!

Final stretch! Good luck to all, and don't forget to give your partner(s) some appreciation once everything's all done!

liv

One advantage of my unexpected free month was that I started reading books again. Not a lot but 6 complete novels and a longfic in 6 weeks, which is more than I have for years. Let me catch up with some brief reviews:

Since term properly, properly finished on 6 July, I have read:

Circe by Madeline Miller 2018, Pub 2018 Bloomsbury, ISBN 9781526612519
Coconut Unlimited by Nikesh Shukla (c) Nikesh Shukla 2010, Pub 2010 Quartet, ISBN 978-0-7043-7204-7
Will Super Villains be on the final? by Naomi Novik, illustrated by Yishan Li (c) Temeraire LLC 2011, Pub 2011 Del Rey, ISBN 978-0-345-51656-5
Some desperate glory by Emily Tesh (c) Emily Tesh 2023, Pub 2023 Orbit, ISBN 978-0-356-51718-6
Ancillary Mercy by Ann Leckie (c) Ann Leckie 2015, Pub 2015 Orbit, ISBN 978-0-356-50242-7
A free man of color by Barbara Hambly (c) Barbara Hambly 1997, Pub 1998 Bantam, ISBN 0-553-57526-0
I transmigrated into Cordelia Naismith! by Lanna Michaels, 2025

( Circe )

( Coconut Unlimited )

( Will Super Villains be on the final? )

( Some desperate glory )

( Ancillary Mercy )

( A Free Man of Color )

( I transmigrated into Cordelia Naismith! )

Current Mood: content

oursin

I was very taken with this article (from 2008) about a genre of nature writing, and how, really, it's very dubious to invoke wild and untamed NAYCHUR in our green and pleasant land.

Wild and not-wild is a false distinction, in this ancient, contested country. The contests are far from over. When the wild is protected by management, or re-created by the removal of traces of human history, you have to ask, who are these managers? Why do conservationists favour this species over that? Whose traces are considered worth saving, whose fit only to be bulldozed? If the landscape is apparently empty, was it ever thus?

I mean, we are all about nature, but here I am in London Zone 2 and we have wildflower plots at the edge of the local playing field and an eco-pond, and little copses of woodland and apparently an RSPB sparrow meadow in the local park, rus in urbe, hmmm. In fact London is one of the world's greenest cities, a development which might have surprised dear old Mad William when he was trudging along the chartered streets.

It's also wonderfully codslappy about a certain type of (male) writer going alone into the Wild Places (and not meeting the existential horror that attacked poor Moley in the Wild Wood before he found Badger's house).

It seems to me to resonate with this other thing I came across lately about Rights of Way. Which is of particular interest to me since I am pretty sure that the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act of 1949 owed rather a lot to my dear fubsy interwar progressives rambling and occasionally organising mass trespasses because the countryside was for The People and they had a Right to Roam. And was much more about collective enjoyment.

nebris

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LibreOffice

oursin

Happy birthday,

natlyn and

quinfirefrorefiddle!

phoebeandherunicorn_feed

https://www.gocomics.com/phoebe-and-her-unicorn/2025/08/23

Comic strip for 2025/08/23

https://www.gocomics.com/phoebe-and-her-unicorn/2025/08/23

rmc28

Last night I successfully got the jersey I wanted for my team, and many of the people I wanted to draft to my team, and here we are:

(except one guy who'd wandered off, I'll try to get another group photo with him in at some point, but that one is beautiful; look at those gorgeous jerseys and that sunset sky)

I am so happy with this team. I put in some time and effort to read through the draft grid and make my first-and-second choice selections, and I switched things up as I spoke to people before and during the draft, and in response to how our draft order went on each round. I know I have a bunch of good people, both on and off the ice. In particular I got my captain from last year Sean, who is also the only person here this year who has been on my team in both the previous years. I instantly made him my A, and he's been a delight in the role already.

Three (short) games today and three tomorrow, to see whether I'm as good at picking and running a team as I think I am ...

conuly

The money comes in and then it falls back out again.

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

( Read more... )

dialecticdreamer

Traveling Encounter
By Dialecticdreamer/Sarah Williams
Part 1 of 1, complete
Word count (story only): 1774
[End of March 179-]

:: Laszlo sets out on his planned trip toward the orphanage in Cluj-Napau. Part of the “Lost Son” story arc in the Frankenstein’s Family universe. ::

Three days of good weather left Laszlo nearly ebullient as he set up camp for supper. Just as he set a pot of water to boil, however, a gust of bitter wind dragged dull gray clouds toward the puffy white ones. By the time his vegetables were diced and ready for the pot, half the white clouds had been absorbed into the roiling stormfront.

The first crash of thunder brought a stamping, trammeling crowd of raindrops, fat and cold. Laszlo groaned, but collected his oilcloth cloak long enough to reposition the wagon and set up the awning rolled on one side. Only a little damp beneath the cloak, he resumed cooking his dinner while Boabe stood nearby, nibbling playfully on a bit of Măr’s mane. The gelding ignored the whole situation placidly, hardly noticing the fat raindrops dampening his back.
( Read more... )

Current Mood: aggravated

rmc28

A few months ago I heard a love song and thought "this captures how I feel about ice hockey" and thus was a playlist born:

three-plus years in love (with hockey)

Additional suggestions always welcome :-)

( full list, with exemplar lyrics )

(previous playlists, titles hopefully self-explanatory:

first game feels
second season:stepping up

I have completely normal feelings about this sport.)

oursin

Or maybe not.

Only over the past day or two there have been various things on listservs and social media relating to research I have done and published (and not just my research, much lamented Canadian historian in the same area's work) and I realise that this was Back in the Day and maybe it has fallen off the radar.

But how is this thing that this thing is that - I suppose this comes with working in a particularly niche area - that people are not aware of the Horrible Hystorie of the Heinous Synne of Onan?

I am almost tempted to go forth and offer a conference paper WOT.

I'm not sure I have anything in the way of startling new research to offer but a lot of the same anxieties have been popping up again around Precious Bodily Fluids etc.

On another paw somebody was advance-mentioning a book they have coming out and that made me think, though it's not directly related, that there's a piece of research I keep meaning to get back to that's a similar sort of story.

Meanwhile there is something a bit weird going on, I fear, with conference I have been invited to speak at next month, having had rather cryptic message from person who was liaising with me. Shall get on with book reviewing before investing any more energy in paper-prep.