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selkie's birthday was duly observed with my parents and my husbands, a meal of much carnivory, and an apricot marmalade cake doused in whipped cream, strawberry sugar, and candles that burned like driftwood salts. Many deeply goofy photos were taken of various combinations of us. So much is wrong with the world and it is still true that my family for an evening is happy. A photogenic snow began to drift the streets as I drove everyone home.

Current Music: Emitt Rhodes, "With My Face on the Floor"

kiya

I think this is a sign that my ADHD meds are also antidepressants?

Earth

none of us are built
to be this brave

the epics told the truth:
the inhuman weight
of necessary courage
makes monsters
of its warriors
(of its victims)

because

only monsters
can survive
valor

and not
lie beneath

mrissa

This is more partial even than usual, because I've had some download problems that I've since fixed. But we can let that filter out to the second quarter; time waits for etc. etc.

This Is Not a Love Poem, Alexandra Dawson (Reckoning)

I Met You On the Train, J. R. Dawson (Uncanny)

The Doorkeepers, A. T. Greenblatt (Uncanny)

Unsettled Nature, Jordan Kurella (Apex)

Straw Gold, Mari Ness (Small Wonders)

No Kings/No Soldiers, A.M. Tuomala (Uncanny)

Blade Through the Heart, Carrie Vaughn (Reactor)

Antediluvian, Rem Wigmore (Reckoning)

rachelmanija

An epistolatory novel about the friendship between an American Jew, Max, and a German, Martin. As Hitler rises to power, their relationship sours, in some expected ways and some less expected, as their characters are revealed.

Very short, very powerful, very technically skilled, a quick easy read with an unexpected and unforgettable outcome. Seriously, don't click on spoilers if there's any chance you'll read the book. That being said, I read it because Naomi Kritzer told me the whole story and it was still great. Thanks for the rec!

The book was published in 1939 under a male-sounding pseudonym, but the style feels almost modern and the themes feel incredibly modern. There's an afterword about what inspired the book, which which is worth reading. Taylor had some German friends who seemed like kind, wonderful people, who became fervent Nazis and abandoned their Jewish friends. In a question so many of us are asking now, she wondered, What changed their hearts so? What steps brought them to such cruelty?

( Read more... )

duckprintspress

https://www.tiktok.com/@duckprintspress/video/7620493106915396894?_r=1&_t=ZP-94vwKDxLVLb

(video ID: a white person with short reddish-brown hair and gold-rimmed glasses sits in front of a bookshelf, talking. /end ID)

Transcript: What is the most exciting part, and what is the most challenging part, of doing publishing?

The most challenging part is all of the nuts and bolts, but more than that, also, it’s convincing people that this is book that they wanna read. Because in the end, you can publish every book under the sun, but if nobody is gonna buy it and read it, then you’ve got a problem. You’re not really publishing books then, you’re just, sort of patting yourself on the back, self-congratulatory, all that.

Convincing people to actually buy the books is a big part. And then to also read them. Because, as it’s often joked, buying books and reading books are two different hobbies, but in the end, you cannot sustain a publisher if people aren’t enjoying the things that they read. So yeah, that’s… that’s the challenge I think, is actually getting the books in people’s hands. Especially in this current economic and political moment.

The most exciting part is finishing a book. I mean, it – and also seeing people enjoy that book. I mean, I love seeing unboxing videos. I love when we get reviews. I do try not to read reviews because… it… reviews aren’t for the writer or for the publisher. Reviews are for the readers – other readers. So I try not to let them stress me out too much, but it is still very nice to see a review and somebody really really liked something that you’ve poured a ton of work into.

The most exciting part is when it works, and when it goes the ways its supposed to do, you see happy readers and finished products out in the world.

Feel free to drop me any questions you might have for an indie publisher. Let me know what you think. Bye!

duckprintspress

A photograph of a copy of the complete works of William Shakespeare, with gold leaf on black leather, side by side with a copy of And Seek (Not) to Alter Me: Queer Fanworks Inspired by Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing.

Photograph of two open books. One shows the first two pages of Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare, with an etching of a scene from the play and the open lines of the play. The other is And Seek (Not) to Alter Me from Duck Prints Press, open to the last page of a story and to an art piece by Magnolia Porter.

Have you seen our collection of queer stories and artwork inspired by William Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, entitled And Seek (Not) to Alter Me: Queer Fanworks Inspired by Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing”? Well, now you have!

This week is Shakespeare Week, and all this week, 20% of the sales of And Seek (Not) to Alter Me made through our webstore and itch.io storefront will be donated to the Trevor Project as part of a fundraiser we’re doing for the Trans Day of Visibility.

Learn more about other books that are part of the fundraiser, running throughout the Trans Rights Readathon!

larryhammer

For Poetry Monday:

Suicide’s Note, Langston Hughes

The calm,
Cool face of the river
Asked me for a kiss.

---L.

Subject quote from Sailing, Christopher Cross.

flexagon

Just a week of re-entering "real life" after the more intense events of the (access-list-only) last post. Partly because I flung myself into helping a friend find an apartment, it took a few days just to work through post-Montana to-dos; it's all done now, including several hours and some performative unhappiness to get reimbursed by Alaska Airlines for their dumbfuckery. Which I did.

It does feel like recovering from something. Jet lag, ghost attack, a mild cold? The trip apparently has been fodder for other people's therapy sessions in the meantime, so that's made for interesting discussions. I've mostly just been sleeping a lot, and haven't really re-hit my stride on most athletic stuff. However, it's grounding to have now been back for a whole week, seen my friends, and had all my usual weekly stuff happen once including, ahem, dates. My dad finally emailed me; nothing about the trip, just about the Iran war; so that kind of stings, and it's also kind of nice to be back to normal there. I've ordered new sneakers to replace a pair that died on the way home, and a couple of small fitness things, including a "butt ball" which is basically a spherical foam roller.

Attempting some upkeep of my own home -- I took everything out of one bathroom vanity, with the intent of swapping out a faucet, and ended up buying two new sink drains instead. Stand back, I think we're going to try some plumbing.

Birdie and I also made a list of things to do together this summer.

I suppose it would be remiss not to mention Beat Saber? I'm playing through the campaign now and it's teaching me things. I beat my first-ever level on Expert.

heisenbug has been creating his first level in a level-editing program, which is objectively even cooler.

jesse_the_k

We were delighted by Shadow’s response to his first visitors last night. We kept him crated until they’d seated themselves ready to watch the first two eps of Slings & Arrows. He made not a peep when they arrived nor during our typically uproarious dinner. Once we let him out of the crate, he observed them closely. One guest had recently enjoyed a hot-and-sour sauce on her egg roll. She invited him closer and he licked her hands! He permitted the other to pet his back. He curled up in his bed (immediately below the TV) and peacefully admired the assembled multitude.

Early this AM MyGuy placed one of Shadow’s beds on my side of our bed. Around 6AM he tip tip tap tipped into the bedroom and curled up in it, keeping me company for 45 minutes.

He was in the breezeway with MyGuy 20 minutes ago, having just come back from his evening constitutional. Just as his lead was unhooked, the leonine March wind blew open the door to the backyard. Shadow was out like a shot. MyGuy called him back, but he kept backing up. At last, MyGuy leaned on the garage holding the door open, and Shadow scooted right back in to the breezeway.

The wisdom around rescues is a rule of 3: 3 days to decompress, 3 weeks to learn routines, and 3 months to feel fully at home. We’re on track.

(Got to get some Shadow icons!)

musesfool

After waiting as they spent a long, slow afternoon in the oven, I just went to town on some baby back ribs. Holy cats, they were good. Super messy, of course, but delicious! And I have leftovers, so I'll be able to repeat the experience this week!

The pecan shortbread (pic) turned out well, too. I'm a little sad there's no blood orange gelato to go with them, but once the chicken tenders are gone, I will definitely be making it!

In more fannish news, there was a post I saw somewhere on tumblr that talked about a crossover (or fusion? it didn't go into great detail) between Batfam and Dungeon Crawler Carl, and said that the Bats would all be outside during the collapse, and feel obligated to go into the dungeon. And I don't necessarily disagree? But I also don't necessarily agree, either!

In DCC, we're told the collapse happened at approximately 2:20 am PT, which means it was 5:20 am ET, and if you (and by "you" I mean me) believe Gotham is in New Jersey, that is probably after they are all home, and hopefully showering/sleeping, so I'm not sure they survive just by nature of being on patrol. Maybe if Tim is out in San Francisco with the Titans, where it would also be 2:20 am PT, he'd survive, but I'm not necessarily convinced he would go into the dungeon, either. Because there's whatever survivors on the surface to take care of also. Maybe they'd split up? Some would go into the dungeon to see what it was about and others would stay up top to manage any survivors, lead any fighting against alien invaders?

Like, could Kon take being underground for so long without access to sunlight? He should probably stay on the surface and help that way. (I also think this is a hard crossover to make happen simply because...there are canonical aliens in the DCU and also the Green Lantern Corps. So you'd have to do some fast talking/handwaving to get to the interesting parts, because how do the Green Lanterns not know about this? Otoh, you could go full AU/fusion and have Krypton be a world that was stripped ages ago and everyone is shocked to see Kryptonians on Earth. Same with Tamaran or Mars I guess.)

And I do wonder how Batman specifically would fare in a dungeon where killing is the preferred (by the System AI and the Syndicate running the thing and a large portion of the audience) way to survive and advance. He and Cass would find other ways, and I'm sure they would amass fans and, eventually, sponsors, but it'd be harder, I think, especially on the earlier floors. I think we have seen him kill aliens though, at least in the animated universes, so maybe he'd be okay at first with killing goblins and ogres and ghouls etc. Idk.

Jason, otoh, would be all, "I'm built for this!" and shoot his way to glory, or at least do the killing when Bruce and Cass couldn't. Steph and Dick might be pragmatic enough to come around to killing mobs, at least, ( spoiler for Dungeon Crawler Carl )

And while I think a fusion might be a better way to go than a regular crossover (I know there is someone writing a Superman and Carl are BFF in the dungeon, or at least creating art for it, but I don't know what they've chosen to use for backstory), I would love to see Damian interact with Princess Donut. Or the System AI deal with Oracle.

*

Current Mood: satisfied
Current Music: Fool in the Rain - Led Zeppelin

sovay

I must have slept ten hours. Hestia appears to be watching the rain with almost as much interest as the birds sheltering from it. May it and the recent snowmelt amend the drought. Tomorrow, of course, it is forecast to snow again.

selkie was safely collected from the Penn Station-alike that South Station has done its best to inhume itself into since her last visit, provided with an appropriate quantity of local barbecue for an obligate carnivore, and even successfully checked in to her hotel despite the mishegos attending every stage of her conference even before it started. At no point in this process did we apparently remember to take any pictures of ourselves.

My dreams seem to be branching out in terms of media, since last night's featured a youngish Alec McCowen starring in the radio version of a Tey-like crime novel as the ambiguously poor relation of an upper-class family who is not actually Kind Hearts and Coronets-ing his way through them, but needs to figure out who is before he's so handily scapegoated for the accidents escalating to murder ever since his arrival; he is, naturally, keeping a secret from the family, the authorities, and even the inattentive reader, but it isn't that. I was very pleased to find that a recording had survived, because the original novel had just been reprinted by the British Library Crime Classics. There were images mixed up in it in the way of dreams, but it was definitely on the Internet Archive.

Outside my head, I have been recently listening to Wu Fei & Abigail Washburn (2020), Jake Blount and Mali Obomsawin's symbiont (2024), and Huw Marc Bennett's Heol Las (2026), which I found through its ghost-boxish "Cân Gwasael (Wassail Song)." I like that I do not have to dream their remixes of folk and futurism and time.

Current Music: Arlo Parks, "Weightless"

oglaf_comic_feed

https://www.oglaf.com/brass/

conuly

In which this teacher earnestly wants a word to substitute for "chink" in Midsummer Night's Dream, and one person suggests kink which doesn't mean the same thing.

And on the one hand, I'm sure they all have their hearts in the right place, but on the other hand, maybe they should collectively teach a different play instead. Shakespeare wrote plenty of comedies, just pick a different one off the shelf.

squidgiepdx posting in

whenisitdue

Here are items with dates between Sunday, March 22nd and Saturday, March 28th, as well as items added recently that started this past week. Remember, you can comment here on new items that need to be added to the list.

Items starting since the last update & this coming week

Open Date	Close Date	Community	Type of Challenge	Prompt/Information	Link
03/20/2026	04/01/2026	fan_flashworks (DW)	Fanworks	Multifamdom: Challenge 510: River	click here for details
03/28/2026	04/03/2026	sid_guardian (DW)	Fanworks	镇魂 \| Guardian: Request period for the 镇魂 \| Guardian Reverse Exchange 2026	click here for details

Items ending this coming week

Open Date	Close Date	Community	Type of Challenge	Prompt/Information	Link
03/12/2026	03/21/2026	worldbuildex (DW)	Fanworks	Multifandom: Signup period for Worldbuiding Exchange	click here for details
03/15/2026	03/27/2026	sid_guardian (DW)	Fanworks	镇魂 \| Guardian: Offer period for the 镇魂 \| Guardian Reverse Exchange 2026	click here for details

NOTE: Here are a few challenge communities that (can) have challenges that (usually) aren't part of the list:

Harry Potter fandom challenges can be found at PotterFests

The Vocab Drabbles Community does weekly challenges

The AU Challenge Community offers multiple AU challenges with no deadlines

The Froday Flash Fiction Challenge has weekly & other challenges

The Fic Promptly Community has daily prompts

The MCU100 Community offers weekly drabble challenges for the MCU fandom

The XMEN100 Community offers weekly drabble challenges for the X-Men fandom

The 10TrueLoves Community offers multifandom character prompts

lannamichaels

Title: The People You Meet Along The Way.
Author:

lannamichaels
Fandom: The Parent Trap (1998)
Rating: G
Archives: Archive Of Our Own, SquidgeWorld

Summary: Twelve years later, they meet at an airport.

( Meredith is so fun to write )

kiya

PSA

Did you know
Mental health is worse
In the population
We're trying to kill?

It's why
They can't be allowed
To be
Like that.

It's for their own good,
You see.
These laws
Are protection.

Left to their own devices
They make bad choices,
Which lead to
Negative outcomes,
Like living.

musesfool

I made this Shanghai scallion flatbread this afternoon and it is really good but if you should endeavor to make it, I have 2 warnings:

1. whatever you think is "medium heat" when you're cooking it is too high. No, lower than that. Or don't go the full 12 minutes recommended, but I think that might be harder to gauge.

2. be careful when flipping it over! Remember that sesame seeds will pop in hot oil and things will spatter, so really and truly, be careful!

Otherwise, it's delicious, A++ will make again. On lower heat next time. The only thing I did differently was use toasted sesame oil on the inside before I put the scallions on. Also, I think it could hold more than 1/2 cup of chopped scallions, but that is just me. Oh, and I used five spice powder instead of ground Sichuan peppercorns because I don't like that much heat and so I do not actually have Sichuan peppercorns in the house. Anyway, I did it all by hand and it was easy enough. I can't recommend a Danish dough whisk enough if you enjoy making bread and don't have a stand mixer.

I had big plans to also make blood orange gelato - blood oranges are in season right now and on sale! but the ones I got are like, bruised to hell, so that is probably why the sale price - but I don't have room in the freezer for it. Bah. Pre-made chicken tenders were also on sale and I bought them to make for lunch this week and they are taking up a lot of space (there are only about 12 in the bag but the bag is enormous. so annoying! I suppose I could rebag them in something less full of air. Hmm...). Anyway, I am contemplating zesting and juicing the oranges and freezing that, but again, space is at a premium in there. One day I will have a full-size fridge. or a chest freezer. Either way. and I will be so happy.

Soon, I will take the rack of babyback ribs I bought this week (not on sale alas) and give them a dry rub before they go back into the fridge overnight to be roasted low and slow tomorrow. And in the morning, before I have to devote 4 hours of oven-time to the ribs, I plan to make pecan shortbread because I still have like 2 lbs of pecans from my Christmas candied pecans project. It's an Ina Garten recipe, so I anticipate it will be good! And I will eat a few of them for breakfast each morning next week.

And after reblogging this post, I have also been contemplating making gyoza for Easter since I'll have a 4-day weekend and could do it in stages, though I have never done it and don't know how to pleat them so I'm going to have to watch some videos - any recs for that? I'll also try to clear out some space in the freezer to freeze some for later. *g* But they look so good! I do love a dumpling.

*

Current Mood: satisfied
Current Music: Mrs Robinson - Simon & Garfunkel

sovay

The afternoon's mail brought my contributor's copy of Not One of Us #86, containing my poem "Northern Comfort." I wrote it out of my discoveries of the ghost-ground that has been directly underfoot all my life and longer, from King Philip's War to Pomp's Wall, and this administration and its murderous terror of history. It shares a page and an issue of emptiness with a precisely targeted incantation by Gwynne Garfinkle as well the equally hollowing fiction and poetry of Kris Schokrowsky, Penny Durham, Carsten Cheung, Jennifer Crow, and more. I almost referred to the covert art by John and Flo Stanton, obscured by shattered webs of negative space or the rust-light of abandoned industries. Subscribe! Contribute! Make the right kind of strangeness in this world. I am off to South Station to collect one north-traveling seal.

Current Music: Jake Blount & Mali Obomsawin, "The Green Road"

kiya

Rat

The poem says
Hope is a sewer rat
Adapted
For survival

Despite the plague
And the filth
And the hate

And I
Got the t-shirt
The one with the rats
That says
"You will not
Exterminate
Us"

That they
Resurrected
For rats
Like me

But I am
Sick
Of gnawing
A way
Out

And so tired
Of the stench.

duckprintspress

The Sixth Annual May Trope Mayhem Starts Soon!

What is May Trope Mayhem? It’s Duck Prints Press’s annual multi-fandom/original work creation event! Our creators have shared their favorite tropes, and we’ve picked 31, one per day of May, to make an awesome, fun, diverse list of prompts to inspire your creativity. Come May 1st, we invite everyone to create a ficlet, artwork, gif set, photo montage, or whatever else they feel like, inspired by the trope of the day. We’re open to any fandom or no fandom at all, original characters and old faves, any ship (yes even that one) or no ship or reader inserts or, or, or… If you can imagine it, we’d love to see you create it!

Check out past May Trope Mayhem’s…

No changes are being made to the rules for 2026, so you can get the gist by checking out the past challenges.

phi

Network

Navigation

Just took time to say, I'll drop you a line

I got nothing but poetry

Earth

Short stuff I've liked, first quarter 2026

Address Unknown, by Kathrine Kressman Taylor

AMA: Most Exciting Part? Most Challenging Part?

Have You Seen Our Shakes-queer?

This week is Shakespeare Week, and all this week, 20% of the sales of And Seek (Not) to Alter Me made through our webstore and itch.io storefront will be donated to the Trevor Project as part of a fundraiser we’re doing for the Trans Day of Visibility.

“it’s not far down to paradise / at least it’s not for me / if the wind is right you can sail away”

Recover, re-enter

Shadow Update: Hosting & Bedding

like a star that can't wait for a night

Re-reading our texts from the strawberry days

Brass

So here's this thread

Items with Dates between Sunday, March 22nd and Saturday, March 28th

"The People You Meet Along The Way." (The Parent Trap - 1998) G

Really, really winning.

PSA

we'd like to help you learn to help yourself

You are just the fingertips of something

Depression is winning today

Rat

Coming Soon: May Trope Mayhem 2026!

The Sixth Annual May Trope Mayhem Starts Soon!

The 2026 May Trope Mayhem List will be released on April 2 2026. Follow us on the social media of your choice to make sure you don’t miss it!

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