highsmith | Reading

Okay, everything about the last 2 episodes of Abbott Elementary ("The Mall" parts 1 &2) was THE BEST.

( spoilers )

I haven't laughed so hard in a while.

In other news, my nephew and I keep texting each other "wtf?" about everything the Mets have done (or not done) this offseason. Today we were just like, "Wtf?" The Mets now have like 17 second basemen. Hopefully at least one can pitch and one can play left field, because those are the spots they needed to fill. Now they are going to put Bichette at third and Baty in left? What is happening!?! Also, have an obligatory fuck the Dodgers!

Meanwhile, the Rangers' sell-off begins. It's the right thing but ugh, it's going to be hard if Panarin goes to Florida. I can and do root for Detroit and Dallas, but I cannot root for Florida. I guess we'll see what happens. Maybe they'll be able to foist Miller off on someone else too. *crosses fingers*

*

Current Mood: pleased
Current Music: Gold Dust Woman - Fleetwood Mac

marina

I've officially completed all my birthday activities for this year, so I can like, breathe again.

There was recreational axe throwing, joint TV marathons, dinners, gifts and hugs. I chose not to have any kind of party or gathering this year, so just saw friends individually or in small groups, and it worked out OK. I also celebrated

roga's birthday (and will continue to tomorrow), so it all kind of worked out with multiple events.

How have you been doing, friends?

I'm feeling a bit better than I hoped to, at this time of the year.

ETA: I have cautiously started looking at social media again, in very very limited quantities, and as twitter seems like... not the place, I now have a bluesky. IDK IDK. But if you're on there I may also be on there sometimes too I guess.

gywomod posting in

getyourwordsout

We have now closed pledging for GetYourWordsOut 2026. If you did not submit a completed 2026 GYWO Pledge Form or did not submit a registered Dreamwidth account or OpenID that can access Dreamwidth, you are not a member for 2026.

The GYWO moderators are thrilled to spend the next year writing with 823 writers.

Those who have come by too late, we appreciate your interest, and we hope that while you aren't able to join us officially, you'll make your own writing goals and achieve them. You’re welcome to subscribe to the community to keep a look out for 2027 news, or follow us on gywo.bsky.social or

gywo for prompts, writing advice, and resources. Pledging for 2027 will open in December 2026.

Have a great year!

musesfool

I had a very long anxiety dream last night that involved trying to get home and failing repeatedly. First I told the driver I lived at my old address on the Upper East Side, then other people joined the ride and demanded to get dropped off before heading to Queens. The then driver bailed and a new set of passengers took over the driving and refused to exit the BQE to the LIE to get me home. Eventually I was dropped off on what appeared to be Hillside Avenue, which is not far from me in the waking world, but somehow in the dream the walk never brought me any closer. Ugh. I guess it was a new spin, since usually I'm trying to get to work in these dreams, but it felt like it lasted all night (I did sleep through for about 6 hours straight, so maybe it did).

Anyway, despite the ongoing trashfire, some cool stuff is coming:

- NEW SIX OF CROWS BOOK IN JUNE!!!! It's supposed to be the "private correspondence of Kaz Brekker with a mysterious person identified only as 'I.'" KAZ/INEJ EPISTOLARY STORY!??! I am seated and ready. Take my money, please!

- You probably already know this, but The Pitt was renewed for a third season last week.

- Pitchers and catchers report in less than 1 month. The Mets only got worse over the winter, so who knows what the hell is going to happen, but that is always a sign spring isn't too far away!

- The (NY football) Giants may be getting an actual factual head coach? I don't expect miracles but maybe they won't be embarrassing next season?

I feel like there were one or two other things I meant to post about but can't remember what they were. Oh, there's a new Fonda Lee novel coming, too! I do want to try out Matt Fraction's Batman at some point, and Cass's new book, but since I generally wait for the trade paperbacks (in ebook form anyway), they're not always top of mind. Still no release date for Alecto the Ninth (is it ever coming out?) and no kindle edition for DCC: Parade of Horribles but I keep checking!

*

Current Mood: excited
Current Music: Shake It Out - Florence + the Machine

evandar

Snowflake Challenge: A flatlay of a snowflake shaped shortbread cake, a mug with coffee, and a string of holiday lights on top of a rustic napkin.

Challenge #8

Talk about your creative process.

( Read more... )

So, that's how I write things. I quite enjoyed writing for this challenge: it was nice to thing about how I do things and compare them to how I used to do it. There's been a lot of trial and error over the years.

I used to have to write analyses of my own writing for university (my BA is in English Lit and Creative Writing, and we had to do that for the CW part) and it used to make me want to die inside from how fucking pretentious the whole exercise was. They were never really accurate either, mostly because they talked about symbolism more than "I wrote this for a grade and I hate this teacher, so fuck it." But now I'm now kind of wondering what an analysis piece would look like for one of my fics. Huh. Let me know if you want to see one someday, I guess.

Current Location: Hanoi - Vietnam
Current Music: Run - SKALD

scribblemoose posting in

snowflake_challenge

Introduction Post*
Meet the Mods Post

Challenge #1
Challenge #2
Challenge #3
Challenge #4
Challenge #5
Challenge #6
Challenge #7

Remember that there is no official deadline, so feel free to join in at any time, or go back and do challenges you've missed.

( Challenge #8 )

And please do check out the comments for all the awesome participants of the challenge and visit their journals/challenge responses to comment on their posts and cheer them on.

And just as a reminder: this is a low pressure, fun challenge. If you aren't comfortable doing a particular challenge, then don't. We aren't keeping track of who does what.

gywomod posting in

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Today is the ABSOLUTELY LAST DAY to make your pledge for

getyourwordsout 2026. We will not accept any pledges or membership requests made after January 15—no excuses or exceptions. You MUST PLEDGE to be a member. (If you are listed on the 2026 Writers list, you’re good to go.)

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After today you cannot make ANY further changes to your pledge or membership, so it's also the last day for second guessing and switching pledges.

If you're not sure if pledging has ended, a post announcing "Membership Closed" will be posted. You may pledge until that post goes up and the GYWO 2026 Pledge Form is deactivated on Jan 16.

isis

What I've recently finished reading:

The Tiger and the Wolf by Adrian Tchaikovsky, first book in the Echoes of the Fall series. This is a fantasy Bronze-Age-ish world where tribes not only identify with an animal-god, but tribal members can shapeshift into the form of that animal at will. Interestingly, people can see at a glance which animal-tribe people are part of, seeing their "soul"; each also has its own culture which seems appropriate for the associated animal, i.e. the Wolf people are pack-oriented, aggressive, dominating, while the Bear people are big and shambling and prefer their solitary caves. The story follows a teen girl, Maniye, who has two souls and therefore two forms - that of her father, the Wolf that raised her, and that of her mother, a captured Tiger - but it's more of an adult story than YA, even though it's largely a coming-of-age narrative. There are hints of dark things coming, the return of the "Plague People" who the people of this land came here to escape; these are people who have no souls, which again is something plainly visible. I liked this a lot! So I'm reading the second book now, The Bear and the Serpent.

(I should say, I really like the major Bear character, Loud Thunder, who basically wants to sit in his cave with his dogs and sometimes go out and hunt and not be bothered by, ugh, people, but unfortunately has a Destiny, and hates it. Also the major Serpent character - the Serpents in general are super interesting, sort of the wise elders of the world.)

What I'm currently watching:

We finished S1 and are now mid-S2 of The Empress. It's oddly butting up against The Leopard now as we're getting to the Italian provinces of the Austrian Empire agitating for freedom and a united Italy, even mentioned Garibaldi. I love the history of it all, the problems of an old world inexorably moving into the modern times, rulers having to face the collisions of the privilege they love and the reality of being a good leader. Also the costumes, especially the womens' gowns, are fantastic.

What I'm currently playing:

Still Ghost of Tsushima. It's so pretty! And I appreciate that there are a number of female swordsmen and archers, even if it's not strictly historically factual.

evandar

two log cabins with snow on the roofs in a wintery forest the text snowflake challenge january 1 - 31 in white cursive text

Challenge #7

LIST THREE (or more) THINGS YOU LIKE ABOUT YOURSELF. They don’t have to be your favorite things, just things that you think are good. Feel free to expand as much or as little as you want

1. I like my creativity. I think I'm a fairly solid writer, and I enjoy reading back over my own stuff at times because I'm the audience I write for the most. I've also spent the last year or so learning how to paint with oils, which has been pretty fun to explore.

2. I'm pretty adventurous. I'm up for trying pretty much anything at least once (my hard limit is cave diving), whether it's an activity or something to eat. I was raised to not say I don't like something without trying it first, and that's kind of stuck with me. It's led to me eating ready salted crickets (crunchy, but not much in the way of flavour), but it's stuck regardless. I also enjoy learning how to cook different things, and experimenting with putting new ingredients together.

3. I've developed some good boundaries. I used to be a bit of a people-pleaser, but I've become a lot more sure of myself in recent years. I've also stopped caring so much about what other people think of me, and while I'm still generally a kind and helpful person, I'm a lot more protective of myself.

Current Mood: awake
Current Location: Hanoi - Vietnam
Current Music: Ghost House Heart - Delain

evandar

Challenge #6

Top 10 Challenge.

I decided to write about the top 10 books and short stories that I read this year. I read less this year than I did in 2024. Partially due to availability: English books are possible to buy here, and I'm a big fan of a ~~not very~~ local second-hand bookshop that primarily buys from and sells to the expat community. The bookshop in my local mall also has a surprisingly large selection of foreign-language books, although they're a lot more expensive ~~and the organisation of that section relies on a system that I haven't been able to decipher yet, so there's no way to find anything quickly. You can only go if you're prepared to browse for hours.~~

Anyway, here's the list! It's not in any particular order; it's just ten things I liked.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: awake
Current Location: Hanoi - Vietnam
Current Music: Shoemaker - Nightwish

teaotter posting in

snowflake_challenge

Introduction Post * Meet the Mods Post * Challenge #1 * Challenge #2 * Challenge #3 * Challenge #4 * Challenge #5 * Challenge #6 *

Remember that there is no official deadline, so feel free to join in at any time, or go back and do challenges you've missed.

( Fandom Snowflake Challenge #7 )

And please do check out the comments for all the awesome participants of the challenge and visit their journals/challenge responses to comment on their posts and cheer them on.

And just as a reminder: this is a low pressure, fun challenge. If you aren't comfortable doing a particular challenge, then don't. We aren't keeping track of who does what.

musesfool

I barely slept on Sunday night - maybe about 3 hours in total? - so I called out yesterday and went back to bed. I felt better but not great upon waking again after actually sleeping for another 2 hours, and spent most of the day zoned out on the couch, looking at tumblr. Last night I slept hard and today I woke up feeling much better, but ugh, sleep should not be so hard!

I know it's just January and winter but I can feel myself withdrawing and hermiting up, so if I'm late in responses to comments, that's why - it's definitely not you, it's me.

*

Current Mood: hungry
Current Music: About a Girl - Nirvana

tjs_whatnot posting in

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I promise!

Our volunteers are from all over the world and have lots of different schedules so we can't always guarantee to have it at the same time each time. I know the last one was really late and that has made everyone (me included) nervous, but it is going up today within the next two hours. Thank you for reaching out. ❤️❤️

tjs_whatnot

Challenge #6

Top 10 Challenge.

Cheating big time! But finding the Top 10 books I read this year was too daunting (even when I cheated and counted a whole series as one 😍). So here, have a few Top 10s. These are all books I've read this year (mostly). I didn't count re-reads (of which there were many and would have skewed the results drastically).

( Queer Male Romances )

( Sapphic Stories )

( Trans/Non-Binary )

*and yes, I loved that their were two re-tellings of Pride and Prejudice in there. ❤️❤️

( Mixed Bag )

If you want to talk about ANY of these books, I am HERE for it! If you want to give me recommendations based on these lists I'm also here for that! ❤️❤️

digthewriter

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snickfic

Starting the year off strong with two winners! (And several DNFs, but they were left over from the last year, so I say they don't count.)

The Sisters of the Vast Black (2019) by Lina Rather. Several decades after a brutal civil war between Earth and the diaspora, a living spaceship full of nuns minister to the world amidst progressively more challenging circumstances.

This novella has:
- canon f/f
- an atheist nun
- a mother superior with a dark past and the beginning stages of dementia
- a theological dilemma involving a living ship's reproductive cycle
- a rising tide of authoritarianism
- daring heroics and a growing political resistance

The first half of the book is enjoyable enough, but the plot really turns on the jets in the second half and comes to a thrilling conclusion that I was all in on. Atheist rationlist Sister Faustina is my favorite, and I kind of ship her with kindhearted idealist Sister Lucia, especially by the end of the book.

This is Rather's longest work to date. I'm really looking forward to whatever she decides to write next.

--

Knock Knock Open Wide by Neil Sharpson. In 1979, Etain disappears, is held at a farmhouse in the Irish countryside, and escapes with no memory of what happened.

Boy, this book goes PLACES. It's about Irish mythology and fraught mother/daughter relationships; it's also about a bunch of other things that I would rather let you discover for yourself. It's about Ashling, a drama student at University College Dublin in 1999 whose mother hates her, who might be gay, and who is at any rate dating a woman that she's convinced can't possibly really love her. It's about various factions jockeying just beneath the surface of the world, to the point that sometimes it feels like an espionage novel only masquerading as mythological horror. There's even a spunky journalist turned old-school battleaxe who's never gotten around to losing her Barbie-pink suit.

It's nonlinear as hell, which Sharpson juggles with remarkable dexterity, so that even when we're switching between timelines mid-chapter--and there are a LOT of timelines--I was never in any doubt about where we were. I found the integration of mythology and plot generally worked well, even though I sometimes had trouble keeping track of it all and frankly think there was enough there to support a sequel or two rather than cramming it all into this one. The characters are great and messy and complex and almost all female, which I also really enjoyed. Playing out over such a long timespan, this novel really lets you feel the tragedy the follows the horror. And this novel is VERY Irish, which I especially enjoyed having been to Ireland a couple of times. They keep mentioning the Liffey, and I'm like yes, I know that river! :D And I could hear the accents sometimes in the dialogue!

Overall, a fantastic time and a wild ride. If you've read it or do in the future, I would love to compare notes! I looked it up in some of my usual discussion spots and it seems like it kind of slipped under the radar. I see Sharpson released another horror novel last year, which I'm now anxious to check out.

tjs_whatnot posting in

snowflake_challenge

Introduction Post* Meet the Mods Post Challenge #1 * Challenge #2* Challenge #3* Challenge #4* Challenge #5 *

Sorry for the delay! It's been... a day. But no matter! Hopefully you had some time to catch up, to talk with new friends... or to nap. 😍

Remember that there is no official deadline, so feel free to join in at any time, or go back and do challenges you've missed.

( Fandom Snowflake Challenge #6 ) And please do check out the comments for all the awesome participants of the challenge and visit their journals/challenge responses to comment on their posts and cheer them on.

And just as a reminder: this is a low pressure, fun challenge. If you aren't comfortable doing a particular challenge, then don't. We aren't keeping track of who does what.

digthewriter

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snickfic

Incredible work by Noel's socmed person. The combo of text and image is *chef's kiss*. Original is here on his official insta. (No I am still not over Liam appearing on Noel's socials in case you were wondering!!)

snickfic

One of my favorite aspects of Yuletide has become making a list of stuff from the tagset that I'm interested in checking out and then orienting my fall reading/watching around it. I'm generally bad at reading on a theme, but it turns out "maybe I can write this for Yuletide" is a theme that does work.

I thought this year I'd record for posterity what all I tried:

The hits:
Moby Dick reread
Red Rooms (2023)
The Shadow of the Leviathan
The Secret of Chimneys
Short films My Sister and the Prince, Corvidae, Serpentine, Possibly in Michigan, and The Vampire Gastelbrau

The misses:
Strangers on a Train - did not enjoy this! DNFed with 60 pages to go!
Pern reread - wooof the misogyny
Crooked House (2017) - a deeply mediocre Christie adaptation
Battle Royale (2000) - idk man, it was fine?
The Starving Saints
The Incandescent
Rotherweird
The Ascent of Rum Doodle - this was Too Silly

The... other?
Crash (1996) - I can't tell if I liked it, but I wrote a fic for it, so!

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Highsmith

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Page generated Jan. 17th, 2026 05:20 am

I mean. Sometimes I write things.

Reading

better put your kingdom up for sale

a birthday has been had

Admin Post: Membership Closed

and every demon wants his pound of flesh

Snowflake Challenge #8

Fandom Snowflake Challenge #8

Admin Post: Last Day for GYWO 2026 Pledges

wednesday reads and things

Snowflake Challenge #7

Snowflake Challenge #6

Fandom Snowflake Challenge #7

i do hope you have a dime

The Challenge is Coming...

Fandom Snowflake Challenge #6

[ART] Quiet Night. Pansy/Hermione

books: Sisters of the Vast Black, Knock Knock Open Wide

Fandom Snowflake Challenge #6

[ART] A Kiss in the Cold | HD ERISED

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final Yuletide canons tally

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December 2022

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