Albany Folk'n'Shanty festival

Jul. 14th, 2025 08:08 pm
fred_mouse: a small white animal of indeterminate species, the familiar of the Danger Mouse Evil Toad (startled)
[personal profile] fred_mouse

Artisanat and I have made a short visit to Albany, coinciding with the annual Folk'n'Shanty Festival. I gather that this year was more heavily shanty and lighter on folk than previous; I was certainly exposed to more shanty singing than I'd see in an average decade.

Friday we left relatively early, took the short route (Albany Highway), with a stop in Williams to charge the car and find a light lunch (cafe off the highway, recommended alternative to the Woolshed), stop in Mount Barker (Plantagenet Wines, acquisition of two bottles, plus more lunch), and arrival in Albany with enough time to check in to hotel, charge the car, quick shop at the IGA, and make it to a venue (Wesley church) for the first act.

Lots of rambling details )

Whale photos (and one puffin)

Jul. 14th, 2025 07:50 am
sabotabby: raccoon anarchy symbol (Default)
[personal profile] sabotabby
You are not prepared.

DSC_1742

many )

Scotland, Day 1

Jul. 13th, 2025 10:56 pm
low_delta: (UK)
[personal profile] low_delta
I picked up Larry at 1:30. I wasn't originally going to leave that early, but he's a bit nervous about things, so I moved it up. We drove to (Chicago) O'Hare. I parked offsite and we got a shuttle to the airport. We had a little more time than necessary, of course, even factoring how slowly Larry walked. But that's OK. I didn't really have anything else going on that day.

O'Hare

It was a seven hour flight. We arrived at 8:30 local time, which gave us all day to see Edinburgh. First we took the tram to our hotel. I got us off at the wrong stop (Edinburgh Park Central vs. Edinburgh Park stop), and we had to walk ten minutes to our hotel. Fortunately, Larry had data on his phone so we could look up where we were supposed to go. So we dropped our bags and got back on the tram to city centre.

Edinburgh Castle

We got off in view of Edinburgh Castle.

see more )

Writerly Ways

Jul. 13th, 2025 08:29 pm
cornerofmadness: (Default)
[personal profile] cornerofmadness
I am sad. This is the second time in 6 weeks when I've run into a changing deadline from a publisher. I had finished a story I was pretty happy with. The pay for this open call was high. I KNOW the deadline because I checked it repeatedly. Got the beta edits back, checked to triple check the word count...and the date is changed. It's frustrating. It feels like a waste of everyone's time. Yes, I can probably find another open call this will fit eventually but this bullshit of closing early and changing deadlines sucks.

I'm trying to see it from their point of view. Maybe they have SO many submissions they can't handle it and close early. Still, I can't be checking every day to places I plan to submit to see if this is going on. Most of these publishers don't have blogs. Maybe they tell duotrope or another service something they're making a change but I don't know. You can't watch them all.

How do you all keep track of deadlines/places you're interested in?

Not the writerly ways i planned to give but this is what you're getting


Open Calls

Odysseus Odysseus from Greek Mythology


Horrorsmith’s Teen Forge Novel Line Young Adult speculative fiction of any genre

Baubles From Bones July 2025 Window Fiction that broadly falls in the realm of science fiction and fantasy

Dark Waters Volume 3 Whatever “dark waters” means to you – stories of trepidation, the unknown, the dangerous, the creepy, the suspenseful.

Space and Time July 2025 Window Stories with speculative elements

5 Paying Literary Magazines to Submit to in July 2025

39 Themed Submission Calls and Contests for July 2025




From Around the web

Why Intentional Storytelling Matters in an Era of AI and Algorithm-Driven Content

One Author, Many Faces: Managing Multiple Identities

What Isn’t Said Still Screams: Writing Subtext in Horror Fiction

Ambiguity and the Horror of the Unknown

The Art of Rewriting: Where Good Writing Goes to Die (and Get Resurrected)

How Niche Authors Can Use Long-Tail Keywords in Metadata

How to Recognize and Avoid Book Scams

How to Achieve Great Character Development in Your Story



From Betty

How to Deal With a Powerful Faction Helping Team Good

Six Tips for Doing More With Less

Why I Stopped Chasing Algorithms and Started Creating Experiences

Sovereignty: Owning Your Voice is the Ultimate Power Move

Write an Unforgettable First Line

The Star Does All The Good Stuff

How to Find Symbols in Your Settings

Three Hidden Reasons Writers Procrastinate

The Backwards Law for Writers

Moral Rights: What Writers Need to Know

How to weave more voice into a query letter

Professional Development for Writers

Writing a Meaningful Book Review

Postcard of the Day

Jul. 13th, 2025 04:33 pm

Photos (mostly whales)

Jul. 13th, 2025 06:49 am
sabotabby: raccoon anarchy symbol (Default)
[personal profile] sabotabby
If you're playing along, try to ID the whales. Also some forest pictures and some dead fish that wash up en masse this time of year.

whales! )

Even the pool was 95 degrees

Jul. 12th, 2025 09:13 pm
cornerofmadness: (Default)
[personal profile] cornerofmadness
today I went to my brother's place to a) see the new appliances b) to learn to use the new appliances and the new tv system because I'll be house/cat sitting.

My brother has a little pool. I spent hours hovering just at the waterline with my head (the rest of me submerged like a manatee) But with the water that hot, it wasn't that refreshing.

I had planned to go to the whiskey rebellion festival tomorrow but it was only friday/Sat. That's weird but oh well (it was too hot for festivals) I wanted to go to the Pittsburgh Pickle festival. (points to the too hot thing)

So what are you all doing this weekend? Anything fun?

Postcard of the Day

Jul. 12th, 2025 11:05 am

Fandom Friday

Jul. 11th, 2025 09:12 pm
cornerofmadness: the saiyuki gang looking around a door (fangirls)
[personal profile] cornerofmadness
Nothing interesting today unless you think my blood sugar going from 300 at wake up to 400 an hour later and then to 70 after lunch before going back to 300 is interesting. It's pissing me off.

So have the fannish 50 fandom recs including a story by me. But before that you might find this to your tastes

Alan Tudyk Launching New Podcast with Nathan Fillion called ‘Once, We Were Spacemen’


Title: Bad Reputation

Fandom: Hazbin Hotel


Summary: Husker needs some new security after an attack on his casino and he was always on the lookout for new acts to entertain his patrons. He could handle Arackniss when dealing with the security issues. However, entertainment meant he needed to turn to hell’s newest overlord now that Valentino was gone. All Angel Dust brought to his new role was his bad reputation and his never ending boundary crossing. Husker was not looking forward to this.

Rating: teen

Author Note - written for Overlord Husk week day 6 wild card and for spikesgirl58s 6 words challenge. The words were Bikes, Fragile, Legs, Theory, Efficacious, & Imminent

Story at above link or under here )




Dead Hand

The Ace Of Hearts Teen Wolf

Taking Care Of Business Torchwood

Anywhere With You FAKE

a knife between your ribs. The Murderbot Diaries

Our bestie SecUnit! The Murderbot Diaries


you’re so pretty, it kills me Arcane: League of Legends

All About the Accessories Stargate Atlantis


Munch. The Murderbot Diaries

solemnly swear 陈情令 | The Untamed (TV)魔道祖师 - 墨香铜臭 | Módào Zǔshī - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù

Safety in Numbers The Murderbot Diaries


Taking Care Of Business Torchwood

Reborn Buffy the Vampire Slayer

A Night With Diglett Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series)

Let’s Dating Nerd The Owl

Rocky Road Deadpool (Movieverse)/X-Men

Chris Reaches Out 911

Killcode The Murderbot Diaries

Birthday Cookies The Owl House

Fevered Faint Sherlock Holmes (1984 TV)

Voxtimization Hazbin Hotel

Massive photodump

Jul. 11th, 2025 07:17 am
sabotabby: raccoon anarchy symbol (Default)
[personal profile] sabotabby

I finally processed these. They're all from St. John's and Ferryland.

cut for photos )

I'm sure

Jul. 10th, 2025 09:21 pm
cornerofmadness: (Default)
[personal profile] cornerofmadness
You can't wait to hear about my busy day of tire rotation at Costco. Ha. If nothing else there were a lot of fun samples today, including a 75$ super greens drink they were parceling out like it was gold (tasted like someone scraped the lawn mower blades and put it in a ninja, made me glad I can't actually have greens) Sadly I didn't get anything fun.

I said I was done writing Overlord Husk week stories but walking back to Costco's bathroom Husk proved me wrong.


The [community profile] sunshine_revival had as part of their questions, communities we're in so I made a list of them, like a 2 page list. I'm going to share them a little at a time with all of you (even though some of you are in that group, not sure anyone else made an obsessive list of them). I didn't copy the all down but I did do some.

[community profile] otherworldly_chemistry This is a community dedicated to rarepairs in the Buffyverse fandom.


[community profile] trope_of_the_month A community for fanworks with a different theme each month.


[community profile] booknook it's about books (I'm a member)

[community profile] everykindofcraft For sharing information, advice and images about all sorts of crafts projects, old or new.

Postcard of the Day

Jul. 10th, 2025 08:51 pm
fflo: (bobby hill)
[personal profile] fflo
Can't decide whether to dignify this one with a post, so am going putting it behind a cut.

Today's booby Postcard of the Day here. )

Books with genAI?

Jul. 10th, 2025 03:53 pm
fred_mouse: line drawing of sheep coloured in queer flag colours with dream bubble reading 'dreamwidth' (Default)
[personal profile] fred_mouse

For Reasons, I'm looking for fiction books--preference for kids, but any age will do--with anything that looks a bit like generative AI. Chatbots in particular would be a win. I've been doing a fascinating dive into the librarything tag cloud*. Note that at this point it doesn't have to be a well written or readable book

adding: I'll take recommendations for artificial general intelligence as well; I'll care about the line between them later, when I've used them to generate the relevant keywords

What I've found so far

  • Do You Remember Being Born - Sean Michaels
  • Artificial: A love Story - Amy Kurzweil
  • The Future Happens Twice Trilogy - Matt Browne
  • We Solve Murders - Richard Osman (I didn't see why in the blurb, but the tag was there, and the library has it)
  • Tell the Machine Goodnight - Katie Williams

Not found, but remembered: "Better Living Through Algorithms" by Naomi Kritzer, which is questionable because it is probably meant to be artificial general intelligence rather than generative AI, but at this point I'm not being that picky because the hit rate is so low.

also! the closest I've got at this point in kids books is Wild Robot and the sequels; failing to work out where to find more. (in english. I've found a book that looks perfect in Chinese)

*so thankful that people put all sorts of tags on their books; I'm having a great time working out what maps to what tag. If I get it together I'll write a post off the clock about what I found that was truly batshit

Sunshine and books

Jul. 9th, 2025 09:03 pm
cornerofmadness: (books)
[personal profile] cornerofmadness
Sunshine-Revival-Carnival-2.png

What are your favorite summer-associated foods?
Creative prompt: Draw art of or make graphics of summer foods, or post your favorite summer recipes.


In the summer I barely want to eat. The heat makes me too nauseous to care. I suppose the answer here would be watermelon and all the berries. I'm diabetic so I'm not supposed to eat any of it but that would be my summer associated foods.

I'm on a time crunch for stories so I can't write something for this prompt but I can find some recipes!


watermelon and berries this way...okay so mostly my summer recipes are for me to get drunk and forget how much I don't like heat )


I finished my third Overlord Husk story for Overlord Husk week (and now I see someone else wants to do another next month. Ah well)

and this made me sad. I have always liked this hotel and they were remodeling it and the paranormal group was meeting there and I planned to go this fall. Hotel McArthur burns. It was built in 1839 and now it's a total loss.



And of course I have the book meme for you.


What I Just Finished Reading:

Kill You Twice - a pretty graphic the ending was hollywood over the top nonsense and I hate the detective (or at least I should say I couldn't respect him)

I Need You To Read This - this was a decent mystery but also with a dumb hollywood ending



What I am Currently Reading:

Pantomine - an LGBT (intersexed main character) fantasy, I like it but on the other hand not a lot is happening and I fear it'll end on a cliffhanger

Cinders of Yesterday - Buffy/Supernatural vibes, urban fantasy, lesbian partners (by a queer author) so far I like it a lot.

Zero at the Bone - an old true crime I found at the library sale and got because of the Z in the title (for my alphabet challenge)



What I Plan to Read Next: War Child - a Deep Space Nine Novel

the temps are wrong

Jul. 8th, 2025 10:41 pm
low_delta: (Default)
[personal profile] low_delta
My body seems a bit erratic regarding its temperature control.

It was hot here, for a week or so, and the air conditioning was running a lot. I was busy and outdoors a lot, so I was fairly warm, and didn't mind a little cooler temperatures than normal (for me) indoors. One day it was on 77°, and I was warm so I turned it down to 75. Later than evening, I put on a flannel shirt because I was cooling off.

After the temps came down outside, the house started to cool off. One day it was 74°. Shorts and a t-shirt with my flannel shirt was too warm. I switched to jeans and a t-shirt, and it was too cold. Or was that the other way around? So 74 is the wrong temperature.

Last night I was too cold, but after I added one I woke up in a sweat. I think I need to adjust the blankets. That third one was too heavy.

Fannish Tuesday

Jul. 8th, 2025 10:39 pm
cornerofmadness: (Riza and Hayate)
[personal profile] cornerofmadness
I have no idea where the time is disappearing to but it's making me anxious.


Today I got a hair cut. I'm not too sure about it but my hair was such a mess I had to get rid of it. Don't get me started on the color. It WAS violet and last week it turned this color...for the second time with two different purples from two different companies. My hair dresser said well you can get color safe shampoos with violets and then it dawns on me, omg I think MY color safe shampoo is auburn. gah.




The author's virtual meeting today didn't go well for me. I couldn't concentrate. My total word count is what I usually write in a 25 minute session. Sigh. But hey if you write chillers or thrillers and want to join PM me and we'll talk (ditto if you'd like to join my by email writers critique group)


So it's Fannish 50 tuesday and I'm back to the women of fandom. I'm now going back to my older fandoms in no particular order. I'll be starting with Fullmetal Alchemist but it's SO hard to pick one female from all the great ones in this, Riza Hawkeye, Winry Rockbell, Izumi Curtis, Olivier Armstrong Gracia Hughes just to name a few. Riza and Winry are probably the two more or less main characters and the best well rounded (along with Izumi)

I'm going with Riza for this because a) she was my favorite b) even though this was written by a woman, Winry was written for the male gaze and had a lot of that loud screamy nonsense as part of her character. (I still can't believe this started over 20 years ago. My god!) A lot of Winry's traits were very common back then when targeting the main audience teen boys.

Riza on the other hand is quiet authority. She is amazingly competent and loyal and smart. That she is deeply emotionally intimately entwined with Roy is clear in all the things she does (and she is not blind to his faults). I DID want more out of her back story with her father and why she follows Roy into the military. I wish she had had time to give Riza's back story more flesh.

It's clear that the rest of Roy's men know to obey her, that she's the default secondary ruler of their little group. Riza's hand gun expertise is pretty cool but on the other hand she barely has a life outside of work and that is sad. Arakawa said in an interview somewhere that Roy and Riza would never get the chance to be together and that's pretty sad too.

Even sadder, Bing brought up like ONE picture of Riza that wasn't fan art (okay okay I know it's old but really?) Google had a few more. I chose this one with her and Hayate.


I miss writing her. I miss the heyday of the Roy/Riza communities

Music

Jul. 7th, 2025 11:33 pm
cornerofmadness: (Default)
[personal profile] cornerofmadness
Since all I did today was laundry and write (and deal with family drama I don't want to share publicly), I'll just jump into music monday (and probably come back later to share the story)


So I'm still working through the Alphabet (and keeping myself to the last 5 years) and I'm up to N. Feel free to share your N song. Looking forward to them.

I don't have many Ns )


Also I have a little book review right here, mostly for [personal profile] spikedluv Murder She Wrote a Body in Boston


Here's another fast writing story

Title: I Can See Forever In Your Eyes

Fandom: Hazbin Hotel


Summary: Husker has been afraid to fall in love again. Angel, however, is making him rethink that.

at the above link or under here, written for Overlord Husk week )

Postcard of the Day

Jul. 7th, 2025 07:12 pm

four-day weekend

Jul. 6th, 2025 10:37 pm
low_delta: (Default)
[personal profile] low_delta
Thursday evening, after yard work, I went out to my dad's. Had some whisky and visited with him and Larry. Larry showed us his photos from our trip to Scotland. Other than that, I didn't do much this weekend, except for yard work. I mowed the lawn, and spent several hours pulling weeds in the wildflower garden.

But Saturday morning... I'd fallen asleep around 1 am. Then I woke up at three. Laid there until almost four. Went back to bed an hour later, but it was soon clear that I was not a bit tired so I got up fifteen minutes later, and went to the lake. I took my camera.

When I left the house, I could see east down the road that the sky over the lake was pink and orange, which was great. But soon I got a view of the sun to the northwest - it was red. Like, red red. I was really excited, but by the time I got to the park and walked to the lake it was merely orange. And it was high enough that it was no longer lighting up the low clouds, so there was no photo left for me. Not of the sun, anyway. But the rest of the sky and lake were still amazing.

Lake Michigan sunrise

Port Washington sunrise

I was back to my car before 6:00, when the park (and the gates) opened. I finally got tired, and went to bed at 8:20, and slept for over 2-1/2 hours.

Today was chilly and wet (never hit 70°), so I didn't go outside. I worked all day on CoPA stuff, sending out emails for our book project.

A Sunshiny writerly ways

Jul. 6th, 2025 07:31 pm
cornerofmadness: (Default)
[personal profile] cornerofmadness
My cousins came today and stayed for like 6 hours so I am socialed out and my brain ain't coming up with witty writing stuff so I'm combining it with Sunshine challenge #2

Sunshine-Revival-Carnival-4.png

Challenge #2

Tunnel of Love
Journaling: The romance of summer! What do you love? Write about anything you feel sentimental about or that gets your heart pumping.
Creative: Write a love poem to anyone or anything you like



Now that I'm a college professor and not seeing patients any more, I have one thing I like about summer. I'm OFF WORK. Other than college sucks. Yeah I love to garden and swim but you can do both of that indoors and that's my preference. I'm heat intolerant. Summer literally makes me sick. Yeah I'm an autumn/winter kinda lady.

Yes I can appreciate all the good things that comes out of summer but yeah not really for me.



But I do have something about love written...or at least sex... have that story I wrote in a week 15K + here is chapter one. I'm proud of this one If Anything's Worth My Love, It's Worth a Fight It's Hazbin Hotel and it's naughty





Open Calls


Eldritch Prayers (Cthulhu Mythos Poetry Anthology)

Anomaly August 2025 Window science fiction stories under 300 words in length

Unseen Agreements Speculative stories that explore hidden bargains, mysterious contracts, and eerie agreements by Canadian authors

Dark Age Press August 2025 Window For Fantasy and Science Fiction Novels Sci-Fi and Fantasy

Horror on the Range Horrifying Wild West Stories

Common Bonds 2 Stories that belong in the fantasy or science fiction genre, have a clear aromantic MC, & centers around a non-romantic relationship

Tractor Beam Volume 3 Speculative Fiction, Soilpunk (they're claiming to pay 1000$)

Ten Manuscript Publishers Open to Direct Submissions in July 2025

SQUID Online: Now Seeking Submissions.


22 Young Adult Publishers that Accept Unagented Submissions



From Around the web


How Authors Can Promote Books Using TikTok and Instagram

Juxtapositions Can Make Great Sentences

Generate Greater Book Profits in 4 Easy Steps

Gazingly (Lovingly) Into the Abyss—Introducing Horrormance, the New Genre-Blending Sensation so...apparently I've been reading and writing this without knowing it had a title

How to Subtitle Your Book to Encourage Sales

Story Development: The Overlooked Revision Opportunity.

Plot Holes? I Prefer to Call Them “Opportunities for Interpretation”

How Writers Can Stay Hopeful in a Tough Publishing Climate


From Betty

Constructing a Compelling Romance

Should Your Fantasy World Resemble Earth?

Adding Dance to Your Fictional Culture

The Gravity of a Single Word: Why Writers Must Choose with Care

Write Your Manuscript Like an Endurance Athlete Trains

The What Ifs of Building Believable Alternate History

How to Avoid Apostrophe Abuse


The Living, Breathing Novel

The Emotion Amplifier Playbook for Antagonists

Three Hidden Reasons Writers Procrastinate

How does a comp title help a self-published book’s marketing plan?

A Writer Can Rely on the Unreliable Narrator POV

Profile

smittenbyu: (Default)
smittenbyu

December 2024

S M T W T F S
1234567
891011121314
151617181920 21
22232425262728
293031    

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Jul. 20th, 2025 07:43 am
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios