Haiku

Jan. 6th, 2026 02:07 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cats playing with goldfish (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
This is today's freebie, inspired by a prompt from [personal profile] jake67jake.


Maduro kidnapped --
he was quite unpopular,
but it was still wrong



* * *

Notes:

Read a discussion of Venezuela politics.


The Big Idea: Nicole Glover

Jan. 6th, 2026 07:09 pm
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Posted by Athena Scalzi

When you find there to be a lack of magic in your world, make a new one. That’s exactly what author Nicole Glover set out to do when crafting the whimsical world of her newest novel, The Starseekers. Come along in her Big Idea to see how the ordinary can be made just a little more magical.

NICOLE GLOVER:

I always found it a severe disappointment when I realized as a child that I was living in a world where tea pots weren’t enchanted, ravens didn’t linger on fence posts to give me a quest, and that dragons weren’t snoring away in caves. I didn’t need unicorns or griffins as pets and I never had the urge climb a beanstalk, I just wanted a touch more wonder in the world. 

So I did the only thing any reasonable person can do: I started writing fantasy.

From riffs on fairy tales, to tales of travelers seeking a library hidden in a desert oasis, to my current series, in my stories I explored what a world could look like with an abundance of magic. 

And with each story I found myself most intrigued by the quieter uses of magic.

The spells in my stories warmed boots, provided a bobbing light for the overeager reader trying to read one last chapter, or put up the groceries for a weary shopper. I found joy in writing about enchantments that made tea kettles bubble with daydreams or devising cocktails that made a drinker recall their greatest regrets.  The magic in my stories didn’t include epic quests and battles,  and if there were curses, they probably had more in common with jinxes and weren’t nearly as difficult to untangle.

Everyday magic, is the word I like to use for it. Such magic is small spells and charms, that are simple enough for anyone to use and often have many different uses.  In contrast to Grand magic which are spells that only a few can ever learn because they are dangerous, and just do one thing really well and nothing else.

Magic that’s in the background, in my opinion, is more useful than Grand spells that could remake the world. (After all what’s the use of a sword that’s only good for slaying the Undead Evil Lord, when the rest of the time it’s just there collecting dust in a corner?) Grand magic is clunky and troublesome, and can be like using a blowtorch when a pair of scissors is all that is needed. You ruin everything and don’t accomplish what you needed to do in the first place. It’s also very straight forward as the magic leaves little wiggle for variation or adjustment without catastrophe. And if a writer isn’t careful, duels involving magic can easily devolve into “wizards flinging balls of magical energy at each other.”

Magics with a smaller scale, leaves room for exploration. It can even allow you to be clever and to think hard of how it animates objects, impacts the environment, creates illusions, or even transforms an unruly apprentice into a fox. Most importantly, Everyday magic are the spells and enchantments that everyone can use, instead of magic being restricted to few learned scholars (or even forbidden). 

Everyday magic allows a prankster to have fun, a child could get even on the bully, let’s an overworked city employee easily transform a park, and have new parents be assured their baby in snug in their crib. 

It’s also the sort of magic perfect for solving mysteries. 

The world of The Starseekers, runs on Everyday magic. I filled the pages with magic that creates staircases out of books, enchant inks and cards,  brings unexpected utility to a compass, lends protection spells to bracelets, and even store up several useful spells in parasols. There is an air of whimsy to Everyday magic, giving me flexibility to have it suit my needs. Magic seeps into the surroundings, informing how characters move through the world and how they think about their acts. It allows me to consider the magical solutions to get astronauts to the Moon, how a museum may catalogue their collection of magical artifacts, or what laws on wands and broomsticks might arise and if those laws are just or not. 

Embracing Everyday magic is what made The Starseekers possible, because making the everyday extraordinary is one of the many things I aim for as a writer and a lover of magic.


The Starseekers: Amazon|Barnes & Noble|Books-a-Million|Bookshop|Powell’s

Author socials: Website|Instagram|Bluesky|Threads

[syndicated profile] jalopnik_feed
Despite their similar names, there are some notable differences between the 4L60E and 4L65E. These differences come in their appearance and their performance.

Poetry Fishbowl Open!

Jan. 6th, 2026 01:11 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cats playing with goldfish (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Starting now, the Poetry Fishbowl is open! Today's theme is "short forms." I will be checking this page periodically throughout the day. When people make suggestions, I'll pick some and weave them together into a poem ... and then another ... and so on. I'm hoping to get a lot of ideas and a lot of poems.

I'll be soliciting poetic forms of 60 lines or less, so basically below my epic range rather than only the short-short length of 10 lines or less. Free verse below the length limit is also fine. Here are 15 short forms with descriptions. Among my favorite short forms not listed there: hexaduad, indriso, sestina, villanelle. This list of 168 forms is alphabetical. Poets Garrett has my favorite list of forms, including a list of repeating-interlocking forms. Their main page has links to poetic forms of 3-10 lines. Plus a few of my own: A darrow poem is a short, haiku-like musing by dark elves. A khazal is a Whispering Sands desert poem in couplets. A moose track is a repeating-interlocking form. A tweet wire is a tiny 10-line poem designed for Twitter. Some short forms, like haiku and tanka, work well as verses in a longer poem. I have The New Book of Forms by Lewis Turco so most forms should be in there. You can also prompt with a link to any exotic form you find; I collect these things.

In addition to forms, I also need topical prompts. One-word or short-phrase framing will assist in keeping them small enough to fit within the theme. Here is a huge list of common themes. This page of idioms has alphabetical and topical listings. I love writing poems about an individual word; see The Phrontistery (WARNING! Black hole caliber time sink ahead!) for glossaries. Have an orientation that is not well represented in literature? Ask for a sexual, romantic, or other orientation! If it's not on any of my lists, just include a description or link to one. I also list gender identities and my characters with disabilities. Want to help me play with my bookshelf? :D I have The Conflict Thesaurus, The Conflict Thesaurus Volume 2, The Occupation Thesaurus, The Emotional Wound Thesaurus, The Urban Setting Thesaurus, The Rural Setting Thesaurus, The Emotion Thesaurus, The Positive Trait Thesaurus, The Negative Trait Thesaurus, and The Emotion Amplifier Thesaurus. Simply click "Read Sample" and view the table of contents for a list of cool ideas. You can prompt a sestina with six end words; I usually pick 5 short flexible words and one long exotic word, but I'll work with whatever I get. Favorite characters, threads, series, settings, etc. are also fair game but this is NOT the time for long plotty prompts. Consider combining a name or title with a short form, theme, or idiom. If you like to prompt with photos, this is a great opportunity for that. Just type in a topic (see above for possibilities) and click the Image link in your favorite search engine.

Read more... )
rachelmanija: (Books: old)
[personal profile] rachelmanija


Once upon a time, the moon Panga was industrial and capitalist and miserable. Then robots suddenly and inexplicably gained self-awareness. They chose to stop working, leave human habitation, and go into the wilderness. The humans not only didn't try to stop them, but this event somehow precipitated a huge political change. Half of Panga was left to the wilderness, and humans developed a kinder, ecologically friendly, sustainable way of life. But the robots were never seen again.

That's all backstory. When the book opens, Sibling Dex, a nonbinary monk, is dissatisfied with their life for reasons unclear to themself. They leave the monastery to become a traveling tea monk, which is a sort of counselor: you tell the monk your troubles, and the monk listens and fixes you a cup of tea. Dex's first day on the job is hilariously disastrous, but they get better and better, until they're very good at it... but still inexplicably dissatisfied. So they venture out into the wilderness, where they meet a robot, Mosscap - the first human-robot meeting in hundreds of years.

I had previously failed to get very far into The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, so I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this novella. It's cozy in a good way, with plenty of atmosphere, a world that isn't quite perfect but is definitely one I'd like to live in, and some interesting philosophical exploration. My favorite part was actually Dex's life as a tea monk before they meet Mosscap - it's very relatable if you've ever been a counselor or therapist, from the horrible first day to the pleasure of familiar clients later on. I would absolutely go to a tea monk.

I would have liked Mosscap to be a bit more flawed - it's very lovable and has a lot of interesting things to say, but is pretty much always right. Mosscap is surprised and delighted by humanity, but I'm not sure Dex ever shakes up its worldview in a way it finds true but uncomfortable, which Mosscap repeatedly does to Dex. Maybe in the second novella, A Prayer for the Crown-Shy.

And while I'm on things which are implausibly neat/perfect, this is a puzzling backstory:

1) Robots gain self-awareness and leave.

2) ????

3) PROFIT! Society goes from capitalist hellscape to environmentalist paradise.

Maybe we'll learn more about the ???? later.

But overall, I did quite like the novella. The parts where Dex is a tea monk, with the interactions with their clients and their life in their caravan, are very successfully cozy - an instant comfort read. And I liked the robot society and the religious orders, as well as a lot of the Mosscap/Dex relationship. I'll definitely read the sequel.
lebateleur: A picture of the herb sweet woodruff (Default)
[personal profile] lebateleur
Games: Travel and vacation schedules meant no board game gathering this week.

Miscellaneous: A couple of longform articles:
  • A Ghost Estate and an Empty Grave
  • We Still Live in Fast Food Nation

    Music: First house session of the new year; with only four of us there, a lot of opportunities to call sets, which consisted of a good mix of familiar and new tunes. One of the guys is, unfortunately, a noodler, playing into any and every silence, which makes it very hard to start sets. I will just have to be assertive about playing over him if he's there next week.

    Roleplaying: Newest D&D Homebrew campaign had our "Beach Episode" holiday one shot this past weekend. As ever, it was an absolute blast. I sound like a broken record, but our DM is phenomenal: she gets such a good mix of role play, exploration, and combat into every session, and you'd never know she is--by her own admission--winging things half the time.

    I played a kobold bard and loved it. As with my goblin rogue, I chose this critter because I wasn't convinced it would be fun to play, and as with my goblin rogue, she has become one of my favorite characters. Turns out, I really enjoy playing characters that don't quite get larger humanoids. And bards are just so versatile. It's been...five years since I last played this class, and man it was fun throwing all those spells and buffs into the mix and watching what happens. We'll be back to our main characters in the next session, but since this one shot took place in the same universe I hope we'll have a chance to revisit these ones as well.

    Television: We finished Max Headroom S1. The final episode, Blanks, is my favorite of the season, and I'm always surprised by how long the show takes to introduce them compared to the movie. Having blanked myself from as much 21st century Big Tech as I can, I feel a special affinity with those guys. (And again, damn, this show was prescient: social media-elected leaders, the attention economy, doomscrolling, ransomware--it envisioned them all.) We'll probably get started on S2 tonight.

    I also watched the first three episodes of Heated Rivalry. This is a very horny show. (Which, no complaints there. XD) But I had been anticipating something more along the lines of Our Flag Means Death, where the romantic relationships are one element of a larger general narrative, and not the primary focus of the show. (I was surprised and honestly a bit bummed that the hockey is just window dressing. I'd been expecting an ice hockey story with a romance subplot versus a romance story on an ice hockey stage set.) That said, the production values are good and the actors have excellent chemistry that they--blessedly--maintain even in the show's most explicit scenes...which unfortunately has not always been the case with other such offerings (I'm looking at you, Our Flag Means Death).

    I don't feel particularly participatory about this show (yet?), but I am very much enjoying it and will probably wrap up the final three episodes this week.

    Video Games: Finished my first game of the year, Botanicula, which is a perennial favorite. It's just such a visually beautiful game, with a great soundtrack and really clever puzzles. As ever, I have to space out my playthroughs so I don't just immediately remember how to solve everything the next time I play it. I'm trying to decide if I want to dive straight into Samorost 2 or opt for something a little more serious (e.g., Darklands or Pentiment).

    これで以上です。
  • [syndicated profile] jalopnik_feed
    The unique style of Subaru boxer engines might seem like they need unique forms of maintenance. Here's how their maintenance needs differ from other engines.

    duskpeterson: The lowercased letters D and P, joined together (Default)
    [personal profile] duskpeterson

    Most travellers to the Emorian borderland take the opportunity to visit the capital of Emor, located immediately north of the borderland.

    With walls higher and thicker than those of any other city in the Three Lands, Emor's capital looks from the outside to be a garrisoned fort. This appearance is deceptive. Once you pass through the heavily guarded gates, you will find yourself in a bustling city, full of trade and games.

    My strong advice is that your first task should be to find a place to stay. The capital's inns are crowded year-round; the more crowded they are, the higher the prices they charge. If it is at all possible, see whether you can find an acquaintance to stay with – though I'm bound to say that the capital's residents are so used to "friends" showing up at their homes without notice that many of them now charge boarding fees almost as high as those charged by the inns.

    You could easily spend a year perusing all the sights in Emor. I can only touch on a few of them here.


    [Translator's note: The gates to Emor's capital feature in a spiritual vision in Death Mask.]

    thatjustwontbreak: patrick and david in bed (patrick and david)
    [personal profile] thatjustwontbreak

    Write a love letter to fandom. It might be to fandom in general, to a particular fandom, favourite character, anything at all.


    Dear Fandom,

    I am so grateful for your generosity and your kindness. I think about author's notes on fanfiction.net, memes on livejournal, in-jokes on tumblr, role-playing on IRC, downloading fansubs, heartbreaking AMVs, beautiful shrines, and the list goes on. Like, we have been doing this work in a variety of different ways for so many years to connect to each other and show care for each other and we do it with no compensation and frequently minimal recognition. It's amazing.

    Fandom is to thank for a great deal of my knowledge and values. I have learned a ton about literature and gender and sexuality and politics and so many other things through fandom. 

     

    Thank you for being such a large and consistent part of my life. I have been participating in fandom one way or another for over twenty years and it has been a gift.

    Love, 
    TJWB
    [syndicated profile] jalopnik_feed
    If more buyers stop being able to pay these loans back, which is happening at an alarming rate, we might be looking at a Housing Crisis II: This Time It's Cars.

    Dept. of Music

    Jan. 6th, 2026 11:11 am
    kaffy_r: movie poster for Buckaroo Banzai across the 8th dimension (Buckaroo Banzai)
    [personal profile] kaffy_r
    Music Meme, Day 17

    A song that reminds you of somebody:

    When I first came to Chicago in 1981, I stayed with one of the friends I'd made when I attended Suncon, the 1977 world science fiction convention, and my very first convention. His name was Ed Sunden and he was overwhelming. He was awful and generous, outrageous and brilliant, manipulative and kind, and definitely sui generis. He loved music, and he loved introducing me to New Wave music that was definitely new to me - the Police and Elvis Costello among the groups he loved. 

    His way of introduction? He would tell me to sit down in the tiny living room of the basement apartment he shared with Joan, the woman who became his wife. Or rather, he would order me to sit down, and then he'd put on an LP, or power up a tape he'd recorded on his music system (primitive by today's standards, but incredibly impressive back in 1981.) Sometimes he'd play the same song twice, to make sure I understood the words. 

    All these years later, and 25 years after he died, it's Elvis Costello's songs that immediately bring Ed and that dim little apartment singing and shouting back into my mind.

    I thought of sharing "Oliver's Army" with you, because it's one of the Costello songs that really hit me when I first heard it. Unfortunately, and despite the fact that Costello wrote the song as an anti-fascist tune, it uses at least two racist slurs that I'm uncomfortable listening to these days. He wrote it after being in Northern Ireland during The Troubles, and the Oliver he sang of was Oliver Cromwell, who invaded and conquered Ireland. British fascists have taken Cromwell as one of their own, so Costello's brutal parodying of fascism and how it sucks working class kids into a losing game in this song is close to perfection in terms of the written word. Still, the racial slurs, parodies though they are, made me nix this tune. 

    In its place, and most definitely one that still makes me think of Ed, is "Pump It Up."  Enjoy, and if you want to know my previous answers, go to Day 17, and it will give you access to all the previous songs. 



    duckprintspress: (Default)
    [personal profile] duckprintspress
    A photograph showing a tablet on top of piles of books. The book cover on the tablet is Scholarly Pursuits, showing a dragon in a candle-lit room full of books, three bats in the background and a mouse atop a pile of books engaged in conversation with the dragon. One of the piles of books is also topped with the Scholarly Pursuits cover. Text reads: Now available! Scholarly Pursuits: A Queer Anthology of Cozy Academia Stories.

    Our most recent anthology, Scholarly Pursuits: A Queer Anthology of Cozy Academia Stories, is now available for general sales. Miss the Kickstarter and want to get a copy? Hearing about it now for the first time? You can buy Scholarly Pursuits from the Duck Prints Press webstore, request it from your library, order it at your local bookstore, or purchase it from one of the many retailers who sell our books!

    Blurb:

    Duck Prints Press presents 22 delightfully fluffy, happy, odd, snug, and cozy stories about queer characters pursuing academic excellence! From field research shenanigans to cooking adventures, from space station education departments to eldritch libraries, creators brought their vivid imaginings to life in these charming fantasy and science fiction stories. Settle into your favorite research carrel or prepare to read on the sly under your desk as you join us for “Scholarly Pursuits: A Queer Anthology of Cozy Academia Stories.”

    Buy your copy, as an e-book or print book, today!

    We also have limited quantities of leftover merchandise from the crowdfunding campaign!
    A graphic with text in the middle that reads "Scholarly Pursuits Merch!" The text is surrounded with smaller images. Top row, left to right: an enamel bookmark with artwork of a bird school in a glass dome; a rectangular art piece in deep browns and golds showing a person in a library descending a staircase while holding a candelabra; a pencil case with an argyle pattern and cute pride-flag-colored academia motifs; and a bookmark showing books and manuscripts and a bright moon through one window. In the middle, beside the text, is a black duck standing atop a pile of books. At the bottom is a tote bag with duck prints on it; artwork of a dragon working at a wooden counter while surrounded by books; and a library "due by" grid.


    If there was any merch you wanted, there’s no time like the present to make sure you get it before supplies run out.

    This, and lots of other awesome anthologies, books, stories, and bookish and queer merch are available on the Duck Prints Press website!

    PKE sound attempt

    Jan. 6th, 2026 04:36 pm
    [syndicated profile] ghostbustersreddit_feed

    Posted by /u/CodiwanOhNoBe

    PKE sound attempt

    It's not perfect but it's as close as I can figure out, what does the council of nerds think? lol

    submitted by /u/CodiwanOhNoBe
    [link] [comments]

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