silwritersguild | Member Posts

Challenge #5 – Dear Santa, I wish for...

1) Tolkien fanfiction archives, forgotten Tolkien-related LJ groups and accounts and Tolkien Yahoo groups to suddenly rise from ashes. For nostalgia’s sake. Not that I was old enough to even partake to those platforms in the early 00s (and I didn’t speak a lick of English) but eh.

2) More fannish, or non-fannish, interactions on DW. Invade my comment section and yap about whatever. I like enthusiasm.

3)

An in memoriam of sorts, or a tribute, for Aleah Stanbridge who passed away in 2016. She was Trees of Eternity’s singer, and Juha Raivio’s, doom metal band Swallow the Sun’s founder and guitarist, wife. Aleah was special. So beloved by fans. For those who aren’t fans, her posthumous album Aleah is quite good (I suppose it would be classified as folk gaze? Indie folk?)

Watch on YouTube

Challenge #6 – Tops of tops

Spontaneous, no thought given, top something of things I like.

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10) I can’t make it to 10, my brain is running out of things to talk about. Ask my top of something in the comments?

Challenge #7 – Things you like about yourself

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Challenge #8 – Creative process

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Current Mood: full
Current Music: Aleah Stanbridge - My Will

galadhir

Thought I would do this one because I thought it would (a) be difficult and (b) be good for me.

LIST THREE (or more) THINGS YOU LIKE ABOUT YOURSELF.

I am not malicious. I don't wish harm on anyone and I don't understand the appeal of revenge. I'm like a little mouse who just wishes everyone could get along. Most of my fic is based on the tenant 'if these people had just been treated decently in the first place, they would not have become villains.' I do understand the necessity to stand up against evil, with force if necessary, but even now it makes me sad that it should ever come to that.
At the same time I am naturally protective. I will put myself between people and those trying to hurt them, and I will be violent about it if necessary. (It never has been necessary so far.) But boy do I have an icy fury in me if I see someone being mistreated. Something in me just takes over and I gain all the courage I normally don't have. I do not feel bad about this despite (1.) because they didn't have to be jerks, so you know, FAFO.
I was very self conscious and shy as a child, and I still am really but I have learned not to let that get in the way of doing things I think I will enjoy. I'm 60 and very fat, and clumsy/ungainly. I sometimes feel utterly ridiculous among the belly dancers, but I love to dance, so I'm dancing. And dancing involves going out in front of audiences and putting on a performance, so I make myself look like I'm confident and I go out there and put on a performance - and I love it. I'm pleased that I can set that aside and do the things I want to do anyway.

rekishi

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fardell24

While we’re busy celebrating fandom, it’s good to remember to celebrate ourselves, too. Fandom is all of us! I know it’s often easier to talk about what we like about other people than it is to talk nicely about ourselves, but challenge yourself here --

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.

Post your answer to today’s challenge in your own space and leave a comment in this post saying you did it.

Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so. Also, feel free to entice engagement by giving us a preview of what your post covers.

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.

I'm Kind.
I'm Creative (kind of obvious if one is involved in fandom and writing original fiction, as well as creating alternate history maps.)
I'm Resilient. Being neurodivergent has never been easy, but others, especially my family, have been supportive. (And my faith has been a big part of that.)

rekishi

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fardell24

That Freya had remembered what they had looked at while in the Information Science Section the previous week didn’t surprise Alexia. Once Freya had lead them to the area, she found a shelf of the University blueprints that had been published over the last century. “I hope you’re right,” Alexia said, otherwise we still won’t know where we’re going.”

“That may be the case anyway,” Janara said.

“Surely you don’t go blindly into areas in your games?” Alexia asked.

“More times than you’d expect,” Janara said. “Sometimes that’s the point, especially in early stages of Real Time Strategy and Four X games.”

“I’m not familiar with that latter term,” Alexia said.

“Explore, Expand, Exploit, Exterminate,” Freya explained. “The acronym only makes sense in English of course.”

“But it makes for a good mnemonic,” Janara said.

“Of course,” Freya said.

It didn’t take Alexia long to find a promising book. “Here we are,” she said.

“It’s from the turn of the millennium,” Janara commented.

“Not too recent, but also not too old,” Alexia said. “We want to be certain that it contains the information we’re after.”

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rekishi

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rocky41_7

I collect false treasures in empty wardrobes.

This quote by Paul Eluard opens book #14 from the "Women in Translation" rec list, which continues to fatten up my TBR list. This is Empty Wardrobes by Maria Judite de Carvalho, translated from Portuguese by Margaret Jull Costa. This novella, originally published in the 1960s, is about the ways in which women are subsumed by the men in their lives, or otherwise are buffeted about with less control over their lives than they ought to have.

The forward by Kate Zambreno is a wonderfully complementary piece. She talks about the anger she feels going to a woman's funeral and hearing the dead woman sanctified by men in her life who did nothing but take from her, who can speak of her only to praise what she did for others, and can say nothing about what the woman herself was.

Sometimes you can read a book and just know the author was angry when she wrote it. This is one of those. The book uses the phrase "discreet rage" about one of its characters, and I think that sentiment succinctly describes the whole book. The protagonist, Dora Rosario, is ten years into widowhood, and she has devoted her entire life to mourning her unremarkable husband as much as she had previous devoted her life to supporting his every opinion regardless of whether or not she agreed with it. Now, a decade on, her mother-in-law reveals something about Dora's late husband that changes her entire perspective.

I would like to believe we are moving away from the world portrayed in Empty Wardrobes (though not with as much success as I'd like), but this is a stark reminder of how even a few generations ago, in the Sixties, a woman's identity was so controlled by her husband's. There are only two men in this book--Duarte, Dora's dead husband, and Ernesto, the longtime partner of a side character--and they both, through social structures, exercise incredible control over the lives of the women around them without any respect or even knowledge of their impact.

The three main women in this book--Dora, her daughter Lisa, and the narrator--each take a different approach to the male romantic partners in their lives, and none of them comes out the better for it (well, perhaps for Lisa, but I personally doubt it will last), because the ultimate problem is societal attitudes about the way men and women are meant to relate to each other.

It's not a long book, and I can't say much more without spoiling things, but I also think it does some fabulous things with its narration and perspective, and the way it doles out information. Really an excellent framing that allows for a lot of fluidity and filling in gaps with your own visions while remaining clear in the nature of the story it's telling.

This book was only translated into English in 2021, which is a shame, because I think it would have struck a nerve much earlier, but we have it now! Costa does an excellent job with the work too; the writing is full of punchy phrases like the above, and she captures some realistic dialogue--characters repeating themselves, responding in ways that don't quite match up with what was asked, etc.--while keeping it natural-sounding.

starspray

Fandom: Tolkien
Rating: T
Characters: Sons of Feanor, Elrond, Feanor, Daeron, various others
Warnings: n/a
Summary: After years in Lórien, Maglor and Maedhros are ready to return to their family and to make something new with their lives--but to move forward, all of Fëanor's sons must decide how, or if, they can ever reconcile with their father.
Note: This fic is a direct sequel to High in the Clean Blue Air.

Prologue / Previous Chapter

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Current Mood: calm
Current Music: Beautiful Dawn - The Wailin' Jennys

rekishi

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openidwouldwork

or 'how to take a couple of min vacation'

https://www.window-swap.com/

fardell24

Challenge # 6
Top 10 Challenge. Post your answer to today’s challenge in your own space and leave a comment in this post saying you did it.

Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so. Also, feel free to entice engagement by giving us a preview of what your post covers.

The category(ies) you choose are up to you. You can give top 10 Fics you read last year, the top 10 songs to create to, the to 10 guest stars on your favorite show, top 10 characters in your favorite book series, top 10... well, you get the idea.

Can't think of 10 of anything? That's okay, 10 is just an abstract. It's totally up to you.

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.

Top 10 novels on my shelves I recommend in no particular order.

The Lord of the Rings (The trilogy as an omnibus) JRR Tolkien at his best.
The Hunt for Red October. Tom Clancy hitting the ground running.
Pride and Prejudice. Jane Austen holds up.
Great Expectations
Little Dorrit. Both are Charles Dickens near his best.

Ringworld. Larry Niven introducing the concept very successfully.
Master and Commander. Patrick O'Brien started the Aubrey and Maturin series very well.
Treasure Island. Robert Lewis Stevenson. A classic for a reason.
Rebecca. Daphne de Maurier. An excellent example of gothic fiction.
Bridge to Terebithia. Katherine Patterson.

rekishi

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galadhir

I got a personalized bingo card from An Owomoyela, here thank you!

unicorns	octopus	enemies to friends	magic	cozy
music	prehistory	world building	dancing	love
disability	ancient humans	FREE SPACE	sewing	spaceships
mercy	magic school	deep sea	dragons	narrowboats
elves	grace	tolkien	ecology	trees

When I wrote one of my age of sail novels, I wrote 100 drabbles to fit a prompt square, all interlinked, instead of a plot plan, and then expanded them into the larger story, and that worked really well. So instead of doing an individual short story for each of these, I think I'll do the same for the cozy fantasy I'm writing now, and use them as prompts for the chapters I have left.

Speaking of original fiction, I thought I would start a community in which original fic writers could discuss fic writing, get support and advice from each other etc. So if that would be a thing you are interested in, you can find it here https://original-fic.dreamwidth.org/

fardell24

( 6th – 10th )

ermingarden

1. I donated blood today, mentioned it in a text message to my dad, and received a reply asking "How did the blood removal go?", which is a masterful example of making something sound wildly ominous while still technically being an accurate description! ("Blood removal" went fine, as usual.) Side note: If you're in NY or NJ and are able to donate blood, please consider scheduling an appointment ASAP - we currently have less than a two-day supply and a blood emergency has been declared.

2. Recent reads:
- The Tsar of Love and Techno, by Anthony Marra, is a collection of interconnected short stories set in Russia, from the 1930s to the present (and arguably outer space in the near future, depending on how you read the last story). I read this for a book club with some coworkers and enjoyed it. Some stories are naturally stronger than others, but it's good throughout and at times excellent.

- New York Sketches is a collection of E. B. White's short pieces about NYC - vignettes, poems, brief essays, and assorted snippets resistant to categorization. It's very fun! A quick read, if you plow straight through it - I bought my copy at a bookstore in Washington Heights and finished it by the time I made it to Chinatown, so somewhere around an hour - but also a book amenable to being read in bits and pieces. Pages 35-44, devoted to the observation of pigeons and their nests (with illustrations!), particularly charmed me: "While [pigeon nests] endure we must note their locations, elevate our gaze above the level of our immediate concerns, imbibe the sweet air and perfect promise: the egg miraculous upon the ledge, the bird compact upon the egg, its generous warmth, its enviable patience, its natural fortitude and grace."

- Death in Dover is the latest book in Maureen Ash's Templar Knight Mysteries series. Unfortunately, it does not measure up to the earlier books in the series. I think it's primarily a matter of editing, or the lack thereof: The first eight books, through A Holy Vengeance, were traditionally published, but starting with Sins of Inheritance they've been self-published, and there's a noticeable difference. (Actually, I've noticed a distinction among the trad-published books as well: the first six were published by Berkeley, a Penguin subsidiary, while the seventh and eighth were published by a different Penguin subsidiary, InterMix, and there's clearly a bit less attention devoted to the seventh and eighth compared to the previous, including less detailed covers; I also believe that's when they started to be published as ebooks only, though I can't confirm that.) Even compared to the other self-published books in the series, though, Death in Dover disappoints. I hate to say this, I really do - you all know by now that this series is one of my favorites - but I unfortunately can't recommend this book.

3. I just started Mansfield Park, at the suggestion of

fiona15351, who wants to know what I think of it. I'm not far enough in to think much of anything, though I did accidentally text Fiona "Mary Crawford is such a butch omg" earlier today. I meant bitch! That typo is far too easy to make, in either direction.

4. Tomorrow is a red letter day: the anniversary of my adopting Queenie! Hard to believe it's been a year already! Cats may not keep calendars, but I do have a gift for her.

I don't know how I ever managed without a cat before!

Current Location: NYC

fardell24

4th January 2025: https://fardell24b.tumblr.com/post/804787956912177152/church-notes-4th-january-2026

11th January 2025: https://fardell34.blogspot.com/2026/01/church-notes-11th-january-2026.html

fardell24

11th
Proverbs 3:5 - 6

Psalm 62
Trust in the LORD

Trust
- Something that I am prepared to stake my life on.
vs 1, 2
David acknowledged that his soul found rest in God.
It is secure because it is from God, not from David's own efforts.

vs 7
God is your Rock or Fortress
vs 8
Trust to pour your heart out before God.

vs 9, 10

vs 11, 12

A deeper understanding of who God is.
Expectations
What outcome to expectations

David's expectation
- That God will be God.
- That God will provide according to His timing and means.

We should trust God for everything.

Trust in God and God alone.

Ephesians 3:14 - 21

rekishi

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galadhir

So, I've started brainstorming a cozy fantasy and am discovering that I have many questions about the genre. Chiefly worldbuilding. So far all the cozy fantasies I've read (a grand total of two of them) seem to be set in generic Dungeons and Dragons world.

I wonder if a lot of the appeal is in the safety and familiarity of that setting. Do you think it matters if I try to do something vaguely inspired by Ancient Babylon?

Knowing myself, I know that I am going to want to know where they get their water from, how they cook, who makes the laws and how they're enforced, what the basic theology is, why exactly the 'evil' forces are evil etc. And I will want that to be something other than standard D&D, because that's half the fun of fantasy.

Do you think a slightly more intricate focus on worldbuilding will turn the end product into something that isn't cozy enough?

I will want a little bit of peril, but I think I can keep that down to the level set in Legends and Lattes, the touchstone of cozy.

But I'm also not planning on including a romance. I had enough romance writing in the ten years of writing m/m, and that part of my writing soul is still recoiling in dread when I think about going back. (I hope to go back eventually but I'm so not there yet.)

Is it possible to be 'cozy' while just concentrating on one woman's failing out of wizard school and finding a new career in a fantasy hot country very loosely based on ancient Babylon?

My narrowboat novel has a similar issue of being one woman's rediscovery of herself while on a river journey and resolutely refusing to be in a romance (even though one is offered.)

These are, I think, the fruits of romance burnout, but they certainly don't make either book more typical of their kind.

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January 2026

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Page Summary

sauronnaise - Snowflake challenge - challenges 5 to 8
galadhir - Snowflake challenge 2026 #7
rekishi - So have you wondered how exactly the Rozanovs fit into political Russia?
fardell24 - 2026 Snowflake Challenge # 7
rekishi - The Pitt 2x01, 7 am liveblog
fardell24 - Mysteries of Aurora - The Manuscript Part 13
rekishi - Heated Rivalry, I see you
rocky41_7 - Recent Reading: Empty Wardrobes
starspray - A Hundred Miles Through the Desert - Chapter Forty Two
rekishi - (no subject)
openidwouldwork - Window swap
fardell24 - 2026 Snowflake Challenge #6
rekishi - A look at Heated Rivalry's Secret MVP, Svetlana Vetrova...plus hockey history
galadhir - (no subject)
fardell24 - 6th - 10th January 2026 Writings
ermingarden - Four things make a post
fardell24 - Church notes in January 2026 so far
fardell24 - Church notes - 11th January 2026
rekishi - Hockey Primer: How do I start with this sport?
galadhir - (no subject)

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