wetranscripts | Member Posts

Community Thursday challenge: every Thursday, try to make an effort to engage with a community on Dreamwidth, whether that's posting, commenting, promoting, etc.

Over the last week...

Posted & commented on

bnha_fans.

Commented on

fourormore.

Current Mood: bouncy

mount_oregano

Anthologies tend to make less money than novels, yet they keep appearing. And I keep reading them. An anthology offers the chance to read a carefully curated selection, and I love short stories as an art form.

Apex Book Company asked me if I’d like to read an advanced copy of ECO24, The Year's Best Speculative Ecofiction, and offer a blurb if I liked it.

I liked it a lot. Like every good anthology, the stories offer a range of approaches, including literary science fiction, magical realism, and dark fantasy. Some are set in the present, such as the war in Ukraine, others in the future, and they feature settings around our planet and beyond. Some are grim, many hopeful.

My favorite is “The Plasticity of Being” by Renan Bernardo, which illustrates the paradoxes of offering help to poor people. I also especially enjoyed “Bodies” by Cat McMahon about the dangers of being a clone, and “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackened Husk of a Planet” by Adeline Wong about the emotional weight of being a student, with hints of poetry. But I could go on. There’s the quiet wisdom of “Batter and Pearl” by Steph Kwiatkowski, and the aspiration of “Father Time Dares You to Dream” by Trae Hawkins — and both stories take place near me.

My blurb:

Each author offers us a unique ecological niche to reveal what our present and future could be, ranging from wrenching disasters to elating possibilities of recovery. These stories are personal and lyrical, and the breadth of imagination and styles make this anthology dazzling. Every story is a gem.

ride_4ever

Voted first place by the FWF participants for best use of prompt.

My FWF First Place Winner - Category: "Best Use of Prompt" - Shocktober Edition

Title: Things Counter, Original, Spare, Strange
Fandoms: due South, Wristcutters
Rating: Mature
Category: Gen, M/M
Pairing: Benton Fraser/Ray Kowalski
Characters: Robert "Bob" Fraser, Benton Fraser, Ray Kowalski, mention of Uncle Tiberius Fraser, mention of Diefenbaker (the half-wolf, not the former Canadian Prime Minister), mention of Nanuk (from Wristcutters), mention of Raife Kneller (from Wristcutters)
Word count: 400 (quadruple drabble)

Summary: Sergeant Robert Fraser -- dead Robert Fraser -- knows first-hand that All Hallow’s Eve is when The Veil between the living and the dead is at its most thin...but he doesn't know anything about Halloween-themed sex toys until Ray Kowalski has something to say about it.

Author's Notes: Written for the recurring Firewhiskey Fic Challenge, a 48-hour period during which fanworks creators drink "adult beverages" or "do the 420" and create their fanworks "under the influence" with no editing allowed. Participants then view all the fanworks and vote on them in the categories of Most Coherent Entry, Least Coherent Entry, Funniest Entry, Favorite Entry, Best Use of Prompt, and Best Smut.

Fic on AO3.

Current Mood: awarded
Current Location: near the lake they call Michigan

vriddy

Hey it's me ~~Mario~~

vriddy... talking about... writing!! Everybody, act surprised!!! Haha. Thanks for indulging on my last post related to this. Rationally I knew it was just my brain being silly but sometimes knowing doesn't help, you have pop that cork by actually getting the stupid thoughts in the sun where they can burn the way they should.

Anyway! I'm nearing the end of this round of cursed witch revisions. Current tally: 87 hours over the last 4 months. That makes it longer than the actual chunky round I called "prose editing" (where I added tons of descriptions and worldbuilding too) which took 81 hours over, huh. Five months. Would have sworn it was 3. So this round will probably end up around 5 months too (to be followed by another round of proofreading in a couple months or so, with all the new stuff I need to look at). However, the work felt a lot nicer overall thanks to allowing chill fic breaks, I think. I still need to be careful how I handle this to avoid Shiny New Project syndrome, but I think that went well.

I basically have the last chapter/epilogue left to edit, as well as the last scene from the previous chapter. The beginning of that penultimate chapter also saw extensive changes that I'm SO EXCITED ABOUT, sets up more worldbuilding and also sets up some of the foundations for the sequel that I'm really really excited to get on with writing hopefully soon.

However, I have to figure out what I want to do with the ending itself. ( Read more... )

I will absolutely need another set of eyes on this version. Even if I were to change nothing else and leave the epilogue as is, the story leaves the readers with completely different feelings now. Antagonistic(ish) characters that were easy to hate aren't anymore (...I think). I need to understand if this works for other people, too.

Normally after a big round of editing I'm like "THIS IS THE FINAL ONE I AM SO SICK OF IT" but... I'm not totally sure if fixing some of the major issues didn't make formerly minor ones more obvious now, and I'm curious about what's been surfacing *pokes* *pokes* I'll have to see what I think when I'm done for real, and get an external perspective. I think it's also interesting that I believe I would have the stamina for another round (however, no interest in spending another 80+ hours on it). I also like that I'm being more cautious about working on the ending. My previous way of doing things meant that I was so sick of it by the end I always rushed it once the end was in sight. Allowing small mental breaks, but not ones that completely take over (just one or two days here and there) has been really fruitful for my process, I think.

vriddy

My little corner of the northern hemisphere is getting colder, and the weather has been utterly horrendous, cold and wet and WINDY with gusts of sleet and rain aaaaah. Miserable.

Which can only mean...

It's Skyrim time!!

As usual, I'll probably end up stopping whenever I've built a house to my liking (one needs a home blacksmith forge you know!!) (sometimes two), but we'll see :D

And no I still have never finished the game despite pouring hundreds of hours in it over the years, and starting many many new games!! It could happen someday, though!

Do you have any seasonal games you replay? :D

Current Mood: ready for hot choc

lydamorehouse

One really fun thing that I did lately is finally listen to/read The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

This came about because my son has heard me go on and on since I read Frankenstein for the first time earlier this year about how GAY Victor Frankenstein was for his most sincere friend Henry Clevral. Being Mason, he said, "Oh, huh. Have you ever read Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde? I recommend it," without, of course, spoiling the fact that it's pretty much common knowledge the Robert Louis Stevenson had based Jekyll and Hyde on his real life gay friends.

If you doubt me, check out the Wikipediea entry's "inspiration and writing" section: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strange_Case_of_Dr_Jekyll_and_Mr_Hyde#Inspiration_and_writing Stevenson apparently literally named Jykell after a reverand who was very likely gay and several of his known gay associates, specifically John Addington Symonds. Symonds apparently read Jekyll and Hyde and said (and I paraphrase), "I am in this book and I don't like it."

Anyway, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is short and well worth the read.

Having thoroughly enjoyed that experience, I have been pondering if there are other classics that I've ignored over the years due to the trauma of having been an English major. (When one is forced to read a lot of classic leterature, one grows weary of its ponderousness.) My friend

naomikritzer has talked me into trying out Anne of Green Gables. I'm not sure how well this one will stick because it is in no way genre or genre adjacent like Frankenstein and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. But, we'll see. I found someone on Spotify who did a lovely podcast of Anne of Green Gables with multiple voice actors playing the various roles, so it could generally just be a fun way to experience the book.

I know it's not Wednesday, but what are you reading? Anything fun? Anything weird? Anything AWFUL?

china_shop

read through story A and return to beta
write story B from the zero draft I made yesterday ✅
catch up on comments ✅
catch up on email ✅
political submission! *stabs things* ✅
read ✅ (briefly)
Yuletide canon review
play with coloured pencils ✅
change vacuum cleaner bag ✅
make/eat dinner ✅
early night ✅

I might manage four of those? The last two are non-negotiable.

ETA: Some of those check marks are from over the weekend. :-)

vriddy

Community Thursday challenge: every Thursday, try to make an effort to engage with a community on Dreamwidth, whether that's posting, commenting, promoting, etc.

Over the last week...

Posted & commented on bnha_fans.

Commented on booknook.

Signal boosts:

Via dw_community_promo, a new werewolvesden to chat about all media involving werewolves/wereanimals/shapeshifters! :D Inspired by vampiremedia and both great ideas.

china_shop

Pandemic life
My mother-out-law's birthday dinner on Sunday was my first meal inside in a crowded restaurant in a long time.

Previous poll review
In the "Time is" poll, 48.9% of respondents answered "relentless", and 31.9% said "elusive". In ticky-boxes, "blue-haired punk red pandas" and "colouring in" tied for second place (51.1%) after hugs (72.3%).

Reading
Finally finished Five Red Herrings. It was fine -- I mean, it kept me reading till the end. I missed Bunter being more active, though. Now I'm a quarter of the way into Have His Carcase.

In audio, I'm still listening to Inventing the Renaissance by Ada Palmer, read by Candida Gubbins, and I've also started Katabasis by R.F. Kuang, read by Morag Sims and Will Watt, which is fun so far, though I'm slightly perplexed by the choice to have Alice's dialogue be American but her inner narration to be British. Also, I was hoping Will Watt would get more to do; I've really enjoyed some of his other performances.

Still dipping back into Take Off Your Pants! by Libbie Hawker. And I forgot to mention last week that I tore through Alison Bechdel's Spent! a while ago, before returning it to the library at the last minute.

Kdramas
Typhoon Family is getting a bit "this script was written in crayon", but I'm engaged and I like the main characters. I miscounted the Mystic Pop-Up Bar episodes; we finished yesterday. It was good but didn't quite hit me in the feels. (I'm a bit neutral on Hwang Jung-eum.)

Other TV
Nobody Wants This -- season 2 is less of the cross-cultural stuff and more "addressing psychological quirks", which isn't as interesting to me. Oh well.

Half of the latest season of Slow Horses -- the episodes always feel so short! I guess this is what successful pacing is like. A bit grimmer than earlier seasons, but I'm enjoying Ho a lot. (It helps to have read the book, I think.) We're finishing that tonight.

All of You (Apple+) -- a movie starring Brett Goldstein and Imogen Poots, which maxes out on the "pining while fucking" concept. Great chemistry and Big Feels.

Spoilers.

Contains infidelity and an unhappy ending.

Rewatched some Bluey, plus a couple of episodes of Krapopolis season 3. :-)

Audio entertainment
Writing Excuses, Letters from an American, Tech Won't Save Us, and Ex Urbe Ad Astra.

Writing/making things
I came up with a great title for a fic I'm working on and am now 20% more motivated to finish it up and post it. Other than that, I feel like I'm still juggling a bunch of things, but my general intention is to finish this one, bash out a flashfic for the FISH challenge on

fan_flashworks, and then dig into my Yuletide assignment, for which I've been doing canon review.

Note to self: Don't forget about Guardian Bingo!

I bought a pack of coloured pencils yesterday and have been watching a few Youtube "technique" videos and practising blending. I still can't actually draw, but hey.

Life/health/mental state things
Down Under writers' hour is currently at 10am New Zealand time (8am Melbourne time). In winter, when it's at 8am here, writers' hour is the first thing I do in the day; that means I get started early, spend most of the morning at my keyboard, and sometimes spud in for the afternoon too. In the transitions periods (when only one half of the globe has switched into or out of daylight savings), it's at 9am here, and I generally try to get the dishes done beforehand. This sets the tone for the day -- I do more chores overall, more offline stuff. Now writers' hour is at 10am: I get up and exercise, then sit down mid-morning to write. By the time I'm done, it's 11am, and if I have lunch plans, I have to get my skates on pretty quickly. And because I've primed myself to exercise, I've been going for walks more in the afternoon and generally being more active. Which is great, but... *grabbyhands at keyboard* tl;dr, I am controlled by scheduling.

Good things
Coloured pencils, and colour generally. Guardian and the Slo-Mo Rewatch. Sleep. Podcasts. Kdramas. Biking, TV-watching dates, walking. Chocolate. You all, hi!!

Note: Poll results are private; please vote freely.

Poll #33831 Making friends with chatbots

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: Just the Poll Creator, participants: 55

In the last seven days, I've used AI

for work
5 (9.1%)

for fun / personal reasons
0 (0.0%)

for interacting with organisations
0 (0.0%)

against my will
14 (25.5%)

not at all, that I'm aware of
37 (67.3%)

other
1 (1.8%)

ticky-box full of fandom-adjacent profic
15 (27.3%)

ticky-box full of fish fish fish fish fish
19 (34.5%)

ticky-box full of vague groaning noises
19 (34.5%)

ticky-box full of alpine octopuses practising their yodelling
22 (40.0%)

ticky-box full of hugs!
37 (67.3%)

mount_oregano

Cover of book

I translated the poems in Liquid Sand / Arena Líquida with my Spanish friend Christian. One of us would draft the translation of a poem, then we would pass it back and forth, debating words, lines, and meaning — the goal of a translation is always to maintain the meaning. We didn’t quibble much. Translation is easiest when the original work is well-written.

In the opening poem, “Nadie / No One,” Ulysses returns to Ithaca to become a specter among his own memories. While there’s no way to summarize a collection of 42 poems, the theme of time occurs often. Time moves, and we move, but in different directions for different reasons, as the poem “Negro Sol / Black Sun” says:

The afternoon weighs heavily

toward its settlement. Ours

is due to a harder sun

and we have had to learn

to walk beneath its burden.

Liquid Sand / Arena Líquida is the first major bilingual collection of poems by Jorge Valdés Díaz-Vélez, one of Mexico’s most respected contemporary poets. Published this month by Shearsman Books and available from most bookstores, it gathers works by Valdés Díaz-Vélez selected from six previous collections that span more than two decades of writing.

Madrid Review Magazine says:

“In these pages, Valdés Díaz-Vélez explores time, memory, and the fragile equilibrium between movement and stillness. His poems evoke the physical and emotional geographies of the Americas while questioning belonging, transformation, and endurance. The English versions retain the clarity and meditative strength of the originals, inviting readers to cross the line between two languages and two sensibilities. To read Liquid Sand / Arena Líquida is to encounter poetry that is precise, reflective, and alert to the unseen rhythms of contemporary life. It is a landmark publication for readers of bilingual and Latin American literature.”

vriddy

I recently watched this movie about the Wonder Woman creator and assumed most people except me had heard of it, since the Wonder Woman franchise is generally well known? So far 0% of the people I mentioned this to had heard of it though, so I thought it warranted a post since I quite enjoyed the movie!

Honestly the main reason I picked it up is because I was told this is inspired by the bdsm poly triad the creator, his wife, and their lover were involved in, and how much that inspired the character and adventures of Wonder Woman. It makes me happy to hear about IRL poly relationships, and to see them represented in mainstream media as well! I take all recs always.

A woman standing behind another woman while tying her up

vriddy

The start of episode 20 in the last season looked SO MUCH like Nirei and Suou were taking Sakura out on a date, but hadn't told him. Versions of this vignette have been rattling in my head since then XD :D

Our Sakura | Wind Breaker | Sakura/Nirei/Suou | 1.5k words | rated T

Summary: Suou and Nirei take Sakura out on a date. Not that Sakura realises it.

Read it on Dreamwidth or on AO3.

lydamorehouse

Here in St. Paul, we woke up to a light dusting of snow.

I reported my CoCoRaHS amount of melted snow (barely 0.01 of an inch), but I have fully forgotten how to report the actual snowfall. So today at lunch time, my plan is to watch the snow webinar that is posted on the CoCoRaHS main site.

I also need to take some time to do some personal science, by which I mean that I need to schedule my mamogram and a physical so that I can get some prescriptions renewed. Wow, okay, I just popped off to do that on the other screen and I could get a mamogram today (though late in the evening, which is not great for me), but my doc can't see me until January. So much for the so-called convenience of non-socialized medicine. I always hear from my UK friends, "Oh, well, at least you can get in to see someone right away." I would not say that a two month out appointment to get prescriptions that need renewing this month is actually at all convenient, myself.

I'm sure I have more to report, but I need to go make gravy to have with our lunch (which are leftover pasties from dinner last night. Yum!)

ride_4ever

Canadian humor!

Who got why this is funny? Who didn't get why this is funny?

Current Mood: humorous
Current Location: near the lake they call Michigan
Current Music: Barrett's Privateers

vriddy

Watched the 5 episodes-long "Let's Go Karaoke" anime a few days ago, immediately lost my sanity (also managed to grab the ankles of a couple of friends as I fell to my doom mwahahaha we suffer together now 😌). If you like age gap relationships and yakuza danger & protectiveness antics with the occasional blood splatter... you're welcome in our hole XD

I'm stuck on 3 lengthy(ish) projects that all need massive edits at the moment, annoyed about the 2 fics in there because this wouldn't have happened if I had actually outlined with the snowflake method! Which I know always works well for me!! But here we are. I suspect this is why I'm writing drabbles, because editing a drabble is more like rereading with maybe minor tweaks. As much as possible, I don't get stuck in rewrites when editing drabbles or it's basically like starting from scratch. At least that's how it is for me!

Stained | Let's go karaoke! | Kyouji/Satomi | 600 words | rated T

Summary: Satomi is going to have to pull away from him first, because Kyouji just can't. He's tried, honest, but he just can't.

Read it on Dreamwidth or AO3.

ride_4ever

I've got a "milestone" birthday coming up and I bought myself a birthday gift of something I've wanted for a long time: the complete Red Green DVD collection -- yep, all 300 episodes! And

amedia made a whole bunch of Red Green icons for me (one of which you see here).

A big TYK to

amedia for the timely icons!

Current Mood: pleased
Current Location: near the lake they call Michigan

lydamorehouse

It's been a day for weird email interactions.

First up is Silent Book Club Singapore. Silent Book Club Singapore contacted me about "highlighting" Unjust Cause (a curious choice being the second in a somewhat unpopular series) for their November 15 gathering. Of course, the inital email mentions no fees, but I could smell it on them. There are plenty of legit places that will offer to have you Zoom in to a club meeting, so I was a tiny bit hopeful. Hope springing as it does, eternal, I wrote back and said, sure, tell me more...

Alas.

The second email was immediatly, "for the low, low price!" ($100, not actually low, friends.)

So, fellow authors? Beware. They're not legit.

Next, when I should be working on the sequel to Boy. Net, I wandered over to my ancient Hotmail account to clean it up. It occured to me that I actually have a lot of mail from many years ago on just stilling unread on Hotmail (now Outlook, but it still functions) and it behooved me to start trying to clean that stuff up. So, I'm clicking away, registering names only long enough to determine whether or not the email is worth saving, and there, in the middle of 2020 is an email from an old high school friend. The email came to me shortly after George Floyd's murder and it's from the one high school friend that I really, really wanted to have reconnected with. I had two besties in high school and one of them completely disappeared on me... and here she was, reaching out FIVE years ago. She wrote to ask after good places to donate post-the uprising and, I guess to make the email feel worth it, tell me about how her children (and dad and dog) were surviving the pandemic and lockdown.

Both of these emails were deeply demoralizing.

I sent my old high school friend a "hey, I guess I ghosted you five years ago? Hey, awkward, but I didn't mean to," email from my real gmail account, but I'm not expecting a reply. I've actually tried to reconnect with this particular friend several times over the years and have gotten zip. I suspect that I was just a sudden "Oh, I know someone in Minnesota I can ask about good charities" stray thought and not a real desire to reconnect, since... well, I did write several tims over several decades. And, maybe those also ended up in email accounts barely checked? But, also? I'm not actually hard to find. I mean, I guess Googling "Lyda Morehouse email" you do get directed to my Hotmail, something I should figure out how to correct that, but dang.

Anway both interactions I kind of made me feel... I don't know, not "used," but definitely not loved for myself.

lcohen pointed out last night when we were chatting that I have been posting a lot of things lately that make it seem as though I'm down on myself (or my writing career,) and I just want to assure you all, I'm doing fine. There is, alas, an ebb and flow to one's writing career and I've been in the ebb (whichever one is the lowest) for a long, long time now. So, that does wear on me? But, it's also just where I am. Tomorrow or in five years, maybe I'll be back in the flow. You never know.

But sadly, the ebb is where all the scammers find you and try to prey on you.

And I dunno, missing an email from my friend just sucks.

vriddy

Community Thursday challenge: every Thursday, try to make an effort to engage with a community on Dreamwidth, whether that's posting, commenting, promoting, etc.

Over the last week...

A short one! I posted & commented on

bnha_fans.

Current Mood: happy

Profile

Writing Excuses Transcripts

November 2025

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
						1
2	3	4	5	6	7	8
9	10	11	12	13	14	15
16	17	18	19	20	21	22
23	24	25	26	27	28	29
30

Page Summary

vriddy - Community Thursday
mount_oregano - ECO24: The Year’s Best Speculative Ecofiction
ride_4ever - Fannish 50 Challenge 2025: Post # 39: My Firewhisky Fic First Place Winner - Shocktober Edition
vriddy - Nearing the end of another extensive revision round
vriddy - It's that time of the year...
lydamorehouse - Where Have I Been? What Have I Been Doing?
china_shop - this evening (a to-do list)
vriddy - Community Thursday
china_shop - Me-and-media update
mount_oregano - ‘Arena Líquida / Liquid Sand’ by Jorge Valdés Díaz-Vélez, translated by Sue Burke and Christian Law-
vriddy - Movie rec: Professor Marston and the Wonder Women
vriddy - New Wind Breaker fic: Our Sakura (Sakura/Nirei/Suou)
lydamorehouse - Snow Season!
ride_4ever - Fannish 50 Challenge 2025: Post # 38: Canada Fandom
vriddy - First Let's Go Karaoke! fic: Stained (Kyouji/Satomi)
ride_4ever - Fannish 50 Challenge 2025: Post # 37: Red Green Fandom; C6D Fandom
lydamorehouse - Weird Email Day
vriddy - Community Thursday

Style Credit

Base style: Patsy by sforzinda
Theme: Clay Deco by timeasmymeasure

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags

Page generated Nov. 20th, 2025 05:50 am

Navigation

Writing Excuses Transcripts

Member Posts

Community Thursday

ECO24: The Year’s Best Speculative Ecofiction

Fannish 50 Challenge 2025: Post # 39: My Firewhisky Fic First Place Winner - Shocktober Edition

Nearing the end of another extensive revision round

It's that time of the year...

Where Have I Been? What Have I Been Doing?

this evening (a to-do list)

Community Thursday

Me-and-media update

‘Arena Líquida / Liquid Sand’ by Jorge Valdés Díaz-Vélez, translated by Sue Burke and Christian Law-

Movie rec: Professor Marston and the Wonder Women

New Wind Breaker fic: Our Sakura (Sakura/Nirei/Suou)

Snow Season!

Fannish 50 Challenge 2025: Post # 38: Canada Fandom

First Let's Go Karaoke! fic: Stained (Kyouji/Satomi)

Fannish 50 Challenge 2025: Post # 37: Red Green Fandom; C6D Fandom

Weird Email Day

Community Thursday

Profile

November 2025

Most Popular Tags

Page Summary

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags