but I sit silent and burning

Apr. 8th, 2026 05:25 pm
musesfool: boxing!Kara (but you can see the cracks)
[personal profile] musesfool
I was taken with the need to do an Orphan Black rewatch and there's so much I forgot! Tatiana Maslany is so good, which you all knew, and the supporting cast is *chef's kiss*. It makes very few missteps, and watching in marathon fashion means even storylines I disliked originally (CASTOR) work much better. It's on Netflix, so if you are in the mood and don't mind the grossout body horror, it's a good watch.

And this poem seemed fitting:

This Poem Will Get Me On Some Kind of Watchlist
by Jessie Lochrie

I'm dancing at a nightclub
when someone behind me
places a hand on my shoulder.
I assume it's a friend until
the hand slides down my chest.

Boiling with gin and rage
I grab his wrist, whip around,
and punch him in the jaw.
It doesn't land well—
I've never hit anyone before—
so I punch him in the gut,
just for good measure.

I look at him doubled over and spit
Never do that to a woman again,
and then I run. My friends laugh in the cab:
You punched a guy!
but I sit silent and burning.

In Crown Heights, in Union Square,
in South Williamsburg: men leer and
whistle and smack their lips.
I ignore them, or flip them off,
or tell them I'm married.

When they purr que guapa
I yell callate and they all laugh.
I can't tell if they're laughing at me
for being a white girl speaking bad
Spanish, or at the idea that anything
I say might actually shut them up.

In my impotent rage I dream of a world
where I am not public property. I would
start wars for my right to walk down a street
unafraid, a thousand wars for a single day
in which my body belongs to me alone.
An army raised against each cat call. A bullet
for every man who ever told me to smile.

***

Naruto: What Brings Us Together

Apr. 8th, 2026 09:37 pm
sasheneskywalker: (Default)
[personal profile] sasheneskywalker posting in [community profile] fancake
Fandom: Naruto
Pairings/Characters: Senju Tobirama/Uchiha Madara
Rating: Mature
Length: 6,014 words
Creator Links: [archiveofourown.org profile] Askerian
Theme: forced marriage, arranged marriage, asexual & demisexual characters

Summary: "Oh," Izuna said -- delicately, while studiously reading his folder, "I'm afraid we need someone with a ... strong personality for Naohime."

"Why's that?" Hashirama replied, just as painfully polite.

The daimyo's mediator kept watching them and scratching little pointy words in his notebook.

"Because if your man doesn't prove that he's dangerous and has the personality to use it on her if she pushes him, it's going to turn abusive," Madara drawled.

Hashirama stared at him for a blank second. The daimyo's envoy stopped writing; even his stone-faced Aburame bodyguard arched her eyebrows over her darkened spectacles.

Tobirama stretched out across the table without another word to take back one of the folders Izuna had spread around him.

--

The daimyo is over the whole Uchiha/Senju war. They're going to become one people if they know what's good for them.

Madara hates it enough without having to marry a woman too.

Reccer's Notes: Fun oneshot! Hot, with a really interesting relationship dynamic, and I also love how it touches on gray asexuality <3

Fanwork Links: What Brings Us Together
conuly: (Default)
[personal profile] conuly
"Huh. I wonder if that word is related to the word pelf" and, sure enough, it is! Probably!

Pelf sure is a stupid-sounding word, though.

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


Read more... )
oursin: Photograph of small impressionistic metal figurine seated reading a book (Reader)
[personal profile] oursin

What I read

Finished Never Had It So Good, and while I am less whelmed than I was on first reading it 50 years ago (aaarrgh), and consider that as panoramic social novel of provincial life, does not quite reach the level of South Riding, yet, that is the comparison one thinks of. I also mark up Mr Jones in contrast to The Angry Young Men who were his contemporaries over a whole range of issues.

Finished Considering The Female Man by Joanna Russ, or, As the Bear Swore, which was fascinating, and very readable, but has not somehow inspired me to rush off and do a re-read.

Then thought I should really read Adania Shibli, Minor Detail (2017), for forthcoming in-person book group.

In hopes of a change from that - it's grim - read Marion Keyes, The Mystery of Mercy Close (Walsh Family, #5) (2012), a recent Kobo deal, which was itself not entirely the most cheerful read.

On the go

Amazon helpfully alerted me to Kindle-only publication of Alexis Hall, Never After, currently in progress, also not really bringing the delicious froth - opium-addicted Victorian rent-boy rescued from homelessness on the streets by clergyman (unexpected and unwanted 3rd son in aristo family, put him into the church) with his own backstory baggage.

Up next

There's a new Literary Review.

Also I had a mad binge on Kobo the other day, mostly Dick Francises which had come down to promotional prices, but I also finally succumbed to the most recent Edward St Aubyn which has been tempting me. The previous one was so much less gruesome than the Melrose sequence that perhaps this will be the change of pace I'm looking for?

march booklog

Apr. 8th, 2026 04:28 pm
wychwood: Zelenka is worried because the city is in danger and McKay is winning at Tetris (SGA - Zelenka Weir Tetris)
[personal profile] wychwood
42. The Return of Fitzroy Angursell - Victoria Goddard ) I really liked this one - both as a view of his history and of his life as he steps away from being emperor. I'd like to re-read it and then follow up with the relevant parts of At the Feet of the Sun to see how they fit together, too.


43. Mountains of Fire - Clive Oppenheimer ) An interesting book; more human-focussed than I was expecting, but not in a bad way.


44. Something Human - AJ Demas ) Not my favourite Demas, but this was still pretty good.


45. Strange Houses - Uketsu ) The first book was weird in a fun way; this was mostly just weird, in the sense that even the characters that weren't supposed to be involved in creepiness are stranger than seemed at all reasonable.


46. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain ) Still relatively fun, though full of more horrible things than I'd remembered.


47. Irresponsible Adult - Lucy Dillon ) I can't quite call this a soothing read when Robyn starts out making so many mistakes, but it was satisfying and enjoyable.


48. Windmaster's Bane - Tom Deitz ) Not a bad example of its kind.


49. The Anglo-Saxons - Marc Morris ) A good survey of what we know about the basic history - kings and whatnot - of the era.


50. The Anthropocene Reviewed - John Green ) A delightful collection of extremely random reviews.


51. A Tempest of Tea - Hafsah Faizal ) Maybe it's just me, but I thought this was terrible.


52. The Raven Scholar - Antonia Hodgson ) I just don't understand why any of the half-decent folk would stay.


53. James - Percival Everett ) I still don't think I really know what Everett wanted to do with this book, but I'm not at all sure it worked.


54. Moonstorm - Yoon Ha Lee ) Normally I love Lee's writing, but this just didn't quite work for me somehow.


55. Slow Horses - Mick Herron ) Well-done, but I'm just not going to be a spy fan.


56. The Republic of Salt - Ariel Kaplan ) I really thought this volume was going to actually finish the immediate story; more fool me.


57. Faerie Queene vol 1 - Edmund Spenser ) The first part of this was genuinely fun, but all of the moral / religious underpinnings are so confused. Interested to see where volume 2 goes.


58. Swordcrossed - Freya Marske ) This does a good job of earning the resolution; I enjoyed it.


59. Chalet School Reunion - Elinor M Brent-Dyer ) A fun chance to see various early pupils twenty years down the line.


60. Couple Goals - Kit Williams ) Cute sports romance! With a sapphic relationship as well as a het one.

Community Recs Post!

Apr. 8th, 2026 10:54 am
glitteryv: (Default)
[personal profile] glitteryv posting in [community profile] recthething
Every Thursday, we have a community post, just like this one, where you can drop a rec or five in the comments.

This works great if you only have one rec and don't want to make a whole post for it, or if you don't have a DW account, or if you're shy. ;)

(But don't forget: you can deffo make posts of your own seven days a week. ;D!)

So what cool fanart/fics/fanvids/other kinds of fanworks/fancrafts/podfics have we discovered this week? Drop it in the comments below. Anon comment is enabled.

BTW, AI fanworks are not eligible for reccing at recthething. If you aware that a fanwork is AI-generated, please do not rec it here.

Reading Wednesday

Apr. 8th, 2026 06:58 am
sabotabby: (books!)
[personal profile] sabotabby
Well looks like this sorry, battered world is still there, at least this part of the world, so here's what I'm reading I guess.

Just finished: The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones. This whipped. Blood-soaked historical fiction set in the early 1900s as a Pikuni vampire tangles with a Lutheran minister in the wake of a horrific massacre. All of the trigger warnings, obviously as it's quite literally visceral, which is not the most upsetting thing about it. Jones is really quite a brilliant writer.

Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz. This is not the kind of thing that I normally like but works well as a chaser to the previous book, in that it's low-stakes, cozy, and fun. It's about a group of emancipated sentient robots, a car (also sentient), and a human who take over a ghost kitchen in the aftermath of a war between California and the rest of the US. If they don't pay off their debts, they'll be re-sold into slavery, but this is not the kind of book where that happens. It works for me largely because of the descriptions of the biang biang noodles, but it's also about the big theme of the year, which is who counts as a person.

Currently reading: About to start The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar.
conuly: (Default)
[personal profile] conuly


"Vree! Vreeeee! Pew pew pew pew pew!"

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


Read more... )
beatrice_otter: Elizabeth Bennet reads (Reading)
[personal profile] beatrice_otter posting in [community profile] fancake
Fandom: Bridgerton
Pairings/Characters: Anthony/Kate
Rating: teen
Length: 46k
Creator Links: [archiveofourown.org profile] ronandhermy 
Theme: Arranged marriage, AU, fork in the road, marriage of convenience, happy endings, marriage

Summary: At the age of eighteen Kate Sharma, after sending a desperate letter to her father's homeland, receives aid in the form of a letter from Lady Danbury who has arranged a match for the young woman. With only a letter, a promise and hope, Kate takes her mother and sister and sails to England where she is to marry Lord Anthony Bridgerton.

Reccer's Notes: I really enjoyed this take on how Kate and Anthony might have met when they were younger, and all the changes it would have brought.

Fanwork Links: A Red Thread of Convenience

An observation.

Apr. 7th, 2026 08:54 pm
hannah: (Dar Williams - skadi)
[personal profile] hannah
As I said I would, I'm now starting Rome. I figure it's two seasons, I can breeze through it easily enough before moving onto other TV shows or another few movies.

Two minutes in, and I'm starting to suspect I'm going to need a few breaks to come up for air on account of the sensation of getting present-day news through prescient art.
musesfool: Daisy Ridley as Rey with lightsaber (you were not mine to save)
[personal profile] musesfool
Today's poem:

An Epistemology of Planets
by Annie Dillard

Mercury

A brook runs on all night;
a book, shut,
still tells itself a story.
So you, out of thought,
you, forgotten Mercury,
still spin and spend the circles of your fury.

Venus

Evenings, after I've eaten
dessert, you rise, you wear
your barest, shining skin.

Later, mornings, you up
and do it again.

Do you think I've forgotten so soon?

Earth

Planets, alone, and grieving,
look who you're running with:
look at our baby-blue planet the earth
and all of the people, waving.

Mars

Mars keeps its dignity,
its networks of cool.
Certain photographs reveal
an air of longing, still.

Jupiter

Swings, spattered
by shadows of Jovian moons:
Io, Europa, Callisto,
the giant, Ganymede.
Companionable, each

nonetheless keeps

the perfect arc of his distance.

Saturn

         It is to you I come in my dream,
you, dancing alone in the dark, light-heart,
       asleep inside your spinning hat!

Uranus

Uranus, cold face,
old rock and ice,
remembers a song
and sings it once
round the dark, twice.

Neptune

Banished, Neptune,
luminous, green,
sleeps, and dreams of the sun.
Awake, he holds her round
as tight as he can.

Pluto

Spends twenty years
wandering in Cancer,
that old celestial
crab. Takes years to touch
carapace, jointed foot
on jointed leg; nudges
mandibles, roving, awed,
in every season.
                          Getting to know
you, still, I find you clear-eyed,
cloistered, clawed.

***

Pontificating on pulling to publish

Apr. 7th, 2026 03:50 pm
lupine_dreaming: Credit: LJ user croatoan6000 (Weird Tales)
[personal profile] lupine_dreaming
Over the last several years, I’ve seen a lot of discussion surrounding the phenomenon of filing the series numbers off of fan fiction so that it can be published as original fiction. (This is also known as “pull to publish.”)

And I am here to share my wishy washy inconclusive thoughts on the topic!!

Read more... )

April check-in poll

Apr. 7th, 2026 05:23 pm
redbird: closeup of me drinking tea, in a friend's kitchen (Default)
[personal profile] redbird posting in [community profile] thisfinecrew

There were seven posts in the community in the last two months.

On February 3, [personal profile] rydra_wong posted a link to Naomi Kritzer's Bluesky thread about ways to donate and otherwise help people in Minneapolis, Springfield, OH, or wherever else ICE invades

On February 14, [personal profile] petra posted about public comments about gender-affirming care for minors

On February 20, [personal profile] lyr posted about [reporting GoFundMe pages that help the murderers of Renee Good and Alex Pretti]{https://thisfinecrew.dreamwidth.org/324071.html)

On February 28, [profile] chestnutpod posted about logging in Oregon's old growth forests

On March 7, [personal profile] sathari posted about a global women's general strike

On March 9, [personal profile] petra posted about mandatory conversion therapy for trans immates

On March 11, [personal profile] flamingsword posted about protecting LGBTQ kids from a proposed change in HHS policy

Please use this poll, or leave a comment, to let us know what you’ve been up to, or are planning.

Poll #34452 April check-in poll
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 20


In the last couple of months, I...

View Answers

called one or both of my senators
8 (40.0%)

called my member of Congress
6 (30.0%)

called my governor
1 (5.0%)

called my mayor, state representative, or other local official
3 (15.0%)

voted
4 (20.0%)

did get-out-the-vote work, such as postcarding or phone banking
3 (15.0%)

sent a postcard/letter/email/fax to a government official or agency
8 (40.0%)

went to a protest
8 (40.0%)

attended an in-person activist group
6 (30.0%)

went to a town hall
1 (5.0%)

participated in phone or online training
0 (0.0%)

participated in community mutual aid
6 (30.0%)

donated money to a cause
11 (55.0%)

worked for a campaign
2 (10.0%)

did text banking or phone banking
0 (0.0%)

took care of myself
13 (65.0%)

not a US citizen or resident, but worked in solidarity in my community
1 (5.0%)

committed to action in the current month
2 (10.0%)

did something else--tell us in comments
2 (10.0%)

As usual, you can comment on the pinned post or DM me if you want a tag added or other help with the community.

oh, good

Apr. 7th, 2026 03:53 pm
twistedchick: watercolor painting of coffee cup on wood table (Default)
[personal profile] twistedchick
The second box that I sent to my Canadian cousin arrived -- and she is thrilled.

I sent two pieces of artwork that I thought should be in the Canadian family somewhere, and a music book that dates back to 1920, "Everybody's Favorite Music", which is arranged to provide musical scoring for 18 instruments at once on each of its many songs. She's going to get it rebound, since the binding is falling apart.

The artworks are two signed, dated original prints, one of a four-masted ship on rocky seas and the other of Canada geese flying over snow under a golden moon. Mom bought the first one back in the 30s, but never remembered from where; the artist's signature is very hard to read. The geese print is by Richard Volpe, and I bought it at a sale at the first small college I attended in the 1970s, got it framed and gave it to her for Christmas. I suspect it's worth a bit more now than the $35 I paid for it.

I'm so glad they made it across the border without trouble.
oursin: The Delphic Sibyl from the Sistine Chapel (Delphic sibyl)
[personal profile] oursin

Personally I suspect Blake Morrison has either not read terribly deeply in memoirs of the past, because I could probably without too much struggle come up with instances which were not at all about being 'a geriatric, self-satisfied genre (politicians, generals and film stars looking back fondly on long careers)', but one sees that this is a position he has to take up in order to make his case about Ye Moderne Confeshunal memoiring.

‘Enough of this me me me’: Blake Morrison on memoir in the age of oversharing

(Harriette Wilson would like a word, just saying, for starters.) (We can so imagine dear Harriette on social media, no?)

I'm not sure he's really got an argument there rather than some vague blathering about published memoirs vs social media and blogs, especially given the, er, thinness of his historical grounding (though in some cases past memoirists prudently arranged for the work to published posthumously).

And as for people being somewhat lax with the truthiness of their memoirs, how about this chap: The schoolteacher who spawned a Highland literary hoax:

The book’s author and narrator, Donald Cameron, describes his early life in Blarosnich, a remote hill farm in the Western Highlands in the 1930s and early 1940s. The book presents a Brigadoon-like spectacle of an agrarian community seemingly little touched by modernity, populated by pious women, elderly aristocrats and lusty farm lads.
....
Donald Cameron was, in fact, a pseudonym of Robert Harbinson Bryans, an itinerant bisexual schoolteacher turned travel writer who was born in Belfast in 1928 and died in London in 2005. Also known as Robin Bryans, his name is now largely forgotten apart from among students of plots and conspiratorial claims.

He is not, I think, the only instance of totally faked autobiography taken as searing insight into a lost way of life.

that poet is doing it again!

Apr. 7th, 2026 02:40 pm
alatefeline: Painting of a cat asleep on a book. (Default)
[personal profile] alatefeline
Committing poetry!

(Along with fiction, demifiction, research notes, and other literary MAYHEM!)

Ahem. Announcing Ysabetwordsmith's Poetry Fishbowl, in which that writer collects prompts, writes like a MANIAC all day/night, and offers funding options to sponsor publicly sharing the goodies.

https://ysabetwordsmith.dreamwidth.org/15422855.html

My /personal/ challenge, for myself and others, based on a recent conversation:
Think of the weirdest science fiction you're read (or watched, played etc) recently.
(Other speculative forms also welcome).
Now think of something WEIRDER.
Now go prompt /that./

Prompt -- for the Poetry Fishbowl, and/or your favorite other author, and/or a fannish kinkmeme somewhere, and/or a patch of sidewalk in need of chalking...anywhere it's going to inspire people (not chatbots) to make things. Please!

You can even give /me/ a writing prompt. Ideas and plot bunnies welcome! But, my response tim,e varies from two minutes to two centuries, overall, and my creative time is quite crunched right now. Ysabet, on the other hand, WILL be writing something, TODAY.

I am ABSOLUTELY making this post for the linkback poetry reveal perk, FYI. But it's a fun event and a good writer and new prompters do get some freebies, so why not take a look?

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