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james_davis_nicollmuccamukkrolanniBusiness First!
1 Today is the Book Day for the Diviner's Bow mass market edition! Those who prefer this format may purchase from their favorite vendor, and we here at the Cat Farm and Confusion Factory thank you very much!
2 eARC consumers! A Liaden Universe® Contellation Volume 6 is now available from Baen
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Yesterday's big event was the arrival of my socks, the culmination of a month-long tour of New England:
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Tuesday. Sunny and cold. Sitting in the comfy chair in my office with the happy light looking out over the long backyard, where Snow Devils are dancing in the Sun.
In my quest for rest, I've been going back to bed after I wake up at 5:00 or 6:00 instead of going to work, and sleeping for another hour or so. I did that this morning, so I'm late getting the day going.
Checking the mail, I see that B&H thinks my new tablet will be here tomorrow. That will be exciting.
Aside from the Gala Celebrations for the release of the mass-market edition of Diviner's Bow, I'll be cleaning up the piles as I've been swearing to do for 3 days and looking at the taxes. I'm probably calling the CPA.
An arduous day.
How's everybody doing today?
Firefly was helping me keep an eye on the Snow Devils.
Dictated to my phone
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Wow, it got late. I guess you'll either rest voluntarily or rest will come for you.
For those curious about the alpaca socks -- I'm never taking them off again. They are soft, they are warm, they are (bearing in mind that I am a Sock Person and not a Socks are the Devil's Work Person) -- comforting.
They are pricey at full-price, so yay! after-Christmas local shopping for the win.
I need to strip the bed and start a load of laundry -- any laundry at this point, and then I'll get with the piles (yes, yes, I keep saying this). Lunch will be canned salmon, veggie, and rice stirfry, Because I Can.
. . . I think I may need some rock 'n roll music to motivate me. And a glass of cold tea.
Onward.
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Aaand, I stoopidly corrected my email address with an organization where I was chief babysitter for a while, and now my inbox is ... annoying.
. . .
Let's go with annoying.
The SnowJoe is still charged, so the battery doesn't have to come out to be charged. Which means I have time to acquire a C-clamp, which I thought I had at least three, but I can't find them, and the crescent wrench won't open wide enough, nor the groove pliers, and as the problem is hand-strength, tongs is not my tool. I have to depress a button on each side of the battery while simultaneously pulling the battery off of its prongs. And Joe isn't heavy enough, even with my foot on him, to serve as a counterweight.
I did not, I'll note, have this difficulty last year.
Getting old sucks. You heard it here first.
I don't like to leave the battery in Joe, but I guess that's gonna hafta be how we go.
Lunch will be now, and I do believe it will include a rum 'n coke.
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Stirfry turned out great. I used some orange marmalade in my stirfry sauce. Also -- no rum 'n coke. A little while ago, a friend gave me a bottle of Barefoot Boy blueberry wine, which announces on the label that it! is! sweet! It's also very light -- 7.5% -- and? if you mix it into Sanpellegrino Limonata? makes a really nice drink.
And I? only have one more pile to bring under my dominion.
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Note to self: Do not listen to "Run away to Mars" ever again.
Still working on beating the last pile into submission.
In reviewing my email from B&H Photography, I note that my tablet is supposed to be reaching me tomorrow through the agency of FedEx, so I'm glad I didn't put any money on that proposition. The original prediction was that it would be here on Thursday, which is fine. The only thing that makes any of this tricky is that -- in B&H's worldview, anyway -- I have to sign for the package, and in order to do that, I need to be home.
I say the above with a certain amount of irony. The last time I remember us being told that someone would have to sign for a package was when we had ordered our Edge phones. I was due at radiation and Steve had been driving me, but I assured him that I could drive myself (which I did, so -- not forsworn, and we will skate lightly over the dicey bits) while he waited for the package.
Which! -- You're ahead of me, aren't you? -- The FedEx guy blithely left on the steps, and wandered away without even ringing the bell, which is where I found them when I came home.
. . . I wonder if there's a horror anthology in FedEx stories?
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In housekeeping news, helpful helpers are helping
Today's blog post title brought to you by the self-same "Run Away to Mars," from Talk
muccamukk![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png){kind=small}
otw_news_feedOpen Doors is pleased to announce the completion of 9 archive import projects in 2025, plus an additional 5 subcollections, a total of over 34,000 works! We hope that you will find old and new favorites in the collections listed below.
Completed: February 2025
Remembering Tiger Lily Roar is a memorial account for fanfiction written by Tiger Lily Roar, who was active in many fandoms, especially Young Justice. This memorial account was set up with the assistance of Open Doors with permission from Tiger Lily Roar’s family and is maintained by Eva.
Find works at the Remembering Tiger Lily Roar AO3 account.
For more information about the archive and its move to the AO3, see the Remembering Tiger Lily Roar import announcement post. To learn the history of the archive or to share some stories of your own, check out the Tiger Lily Roar Fanlore page.
Completed: March 2025
due South Seekrit Santa (dSSS) is an annual gift exchange challenge for fans of due South. The dSSS archive was originally on http://dsss.crocolanthus.com/. After many attempts to communicate with the server admin/owner went unanswered, the crocolanthus dSSS archive went offline, and the domain name was lost. To preserve the archive, the works from the 2004-2009 exchanges were imported to AO3 by Open Doors and dSSS.
Find works at the due South Seekrit Santa AO3 collection.
For more information about the archive and its move to the AO3, see the due South Seekrit Santa import announcement post. To learn the history of the archive or to share some stories of your own, check out the due South Seekrit Santa Fanlore page.
Completed: April 2025
Snow Lands was a fanfiction and fan comic archive for The Lion King (1994 animated movie) online until June 2023 and was run by Athari. The website hosted works in English and Russian and preserved some of the fandom’s masterpieces.
Find works at the Snow Lands AO3 collection.
For more information about the archive and its move to the AO3, see the Snow Lands’ import announcement post. To learn the history of the archive or to share some stories of your own, check out the Snow Lands Fanlore page.
Completed: May 2025
The Slash Advent Calendar was a multifandom slash challenge that ran every December from 2002 to 2005. Founded by kira-nerys at Lady Kardasi Productions, it included works from fandoms such as Star Trek, Harry Potter, The Sentinel, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The archive went offline in 2010.
Find works at the Slash Advent Calendar AO3 collection.
For more information about the archive and its move to the AO3, see the Slash Advent Calendar import announcement post. To learn the history of the archive or to share some stories of your own, check out the Slash Advent Calendar Fanlore page.
Completed: August 2025
My Mongoose is a Sentinel fanfiction and fanart ezine collection archive. In an effort to consolidate all My Mongoose Ezines, including all stories, art and miscellaneous, the creator and moderators decided to house the works at Archive of our Own.
Find works at the My Mongoose AO3 collection.
For more information about the archive and its move to the AO3, see the My Mongoose import announcement post. To learn the history of the archive or to share some stories of your own, check out the My Mongoose Fanlore page.
Completed: October 2025
Stayka’s Saint Seiya Archive was a Saint Seiya fansite that started in 1998. It was an important early contributor to the Saint Seiya fandom, as one of the first sites on the internet to use English, unifying the uniquely global and diverse fan following. The site went offline in 2019, after which Tracy began contacting individual creators and collecting permission to ensure permanent preservation.
Find works at the Stayka’s Saint Seiya Archive collection.
For more information about the archive and its move to the AO3, see the Stayka’s Saint Seiya Archive import announcement post. To learn the history of the archive or to share some stories of your own, check out the Stayka’s Saint Seiya Archive Fanlore page.
Completed: November 2025
Oz Magi is an annual gift exchange for the HBO Oz fandom that has been active since 2004 on LiveJournal and Dreamwidth. The moderator created an AO3 collection for Oz Magi in 2012, but wanted to also archive the earlier fanworks. This will be an ongoing import, with each year’s fanworks being transferred across to AO3 on behalf of the creators.
The related imports of HBO Oz archives Unit B and Twisted Sisterhood are still in progress.
Find works at the Oz Magi AO3 collection.
For more information about the archive and its move to the AO3, see the Unit B, Twisted Sisterhood and Oz Magi import announcement post. To learn the history of the archive or to share some stories of your own, check out the Oz Magi Fanlore page.
Completed: November 2025
InDeath.net Fan Fiction is a fanfiction archive for the In Death book series by Nora Roberts, writing as J.D. Robb. It was a sub-section of the InDeath.net forum community, and the forum had sections for discussing fanfiction posted to the InDeath.net Fan Fiction archive.
Find works at the InDeath.net Fan Fiction AO3 collection.
For more information about the archive and its move to the AO3, see the InDeath.net import announcement post. To learn the history of the archive or to share some stories of your own, check out the InDeath.net Fanlore page.
Completed: December 2025
Inugrrrl was a longtime fan and fanfiction writer of InuYasha and the InuYasha/Kagome pairing. In her own words, she was known for “writing characterization-breaking, smut-filled, angst-riddled, alternate universe pulp fiction without a hint of shame, regret, or apology.” She was active in the fanbase from 2005-2024. Inugrrrl tragically passed away in June of 2024 and her daughter wished for her mother’s fanworks to remain online for the fanbase to enjoy.
Find works written by Inugrrrl at the Absolution – The Inugrrrl Memorial AO3 account, and works gifted to Inugrrrl at the Inugrrrl’s Gifted Fics collection.
For more information about the archive and its move to the AO3, see the Absolution – The Inugrrrl Memorial import announcement post. To learn the history of Inugrrrl or to share some stories of your own, check out the Inugrrrl Fanlore page.
In June 2025, Open Doors imported the following subcollections from FictionAlley: AstronomyTower, HPInkPot, Riddikulus, Schnoogle, and TheDarkArts.
Find works at the FictionAlley AO3 collection.
ArtisticAlley is yet to be imported, which means the import of FictionAlley is still ongoing.
For more information about the archive and its move to the AO3, see the FictionAlley import announcement post. To learn the history of the archive or to share some stories of your own, check out the FictionAlley Fanlore page.
We want to give a huge THANK YOU to all of the archivists and volunteers who made these imports possible, as well as all the creators who have transferred or claimed their works! We look forward to importing more archives in 2026.
Commenting on this post will be disabled in 14 days. If you have any questions, concerns, or comments regarding these imports after that date, please contact Open Doors.
oursinThinking about the 'how can you do/think about normal innocuous quotidien things' while shocking horrors are going on -
(Am not actually going to invoke pet genre of 'look at all these novels being written at a time when World War 2 was just about to begin/beginning'.)
This was just a coincidental thing that occurred to me when I was talking about something tangentially related when being a Nexpert for a journalist yesterday.
Who wanted to know about a certain sex manual v popular in its day and its author -
In the course of which I mentioned that it was not prosecuted for obscenity** unlike Eustace Chesser's Love without Fear (1940). One would have thought that possibly people had other things on their mind in 1940 than maximising matrimonial happiness, particularly considering that families were being broken up by men being conscripted into service, women being evacuated with their children, etc etc, but anyway, it was published, and sold several thousand copies before, in 1942, it was prosecuted for obscenity by the Director of Public Prosecutions.
Again, one would think people had other things on their mind. Anyway, Chesser and his publisher decided to take the case to court and plead not guilty before a jury, bringing three medical witnesses for the defence. The jury was out for less than an hour before returning a 'not guilty' verdict.
***
Yesterday saw snowdrops appearing in the local park.
*WH Auden, Musée des Beaux Arts (1940)
**However, the Pope did put it on the Index.
james_davis_nicoll
ysobelrogaoursinMy feeling, on finding somebody who is apparently a reader in political theory at a well-respected institution of Teh Highah Learninz positing this, is that he may have read a lot of political theory, poor lamb, but maybe he should spend some time with dystopian science fiction if he's going to contemplate these sort of questions.
I suppose, with the Organ Donation register, there is an issue that a) it is Opt-In and b) presumably by the time many people reach that state when their organs come up for donation, those organs are probably past their Best Before date.
(I just now, in connection with an entirely unrelated transaction with a government body, was solicited to sign up with the Organ Donation Register. Already have, thanks, if anyone will want my tired old organs when the time comes.)
And on the intrusion of Commerce into this matter, has this person considered the sorts of things that have been happening - only, one admits, affecting the bodies of wymmynz? - over selling their eggs, or being surrogates, and the stories one hears are Not Pretty.
He might also consider Richard Titmuss' famous 1970 work The Gift Relationship: From Human Blood to Social Policy on blood donation:
[T]he author compares blood donation in the US and UK, contrasting the British system of reliance on voluntary donors to the American one in which the blood supply is in the hands of for-profit enterprises, concluding that a system based on altruism is both safer and more economically efficient.
In the 18th century, for example, some viewed being paid to sing as akin to prostitution, and professional opera singers, particularly women, could be deemed morally suspect. At that time, therefore, it might have seemed appropriate to subject professional singing to legal strictures, just like prostitution.
(I'm also thinking - has this one cropped up on ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
agonyaunt or have I seen it elsewhere - of that scenario in which member of a family - even an estranged member of family - is being heavyed into being a donor for a relative because they are A Match. Was it even child adopted but later traced?)
james_davis_nicoll
rolanniThe Long Back Yard
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Monday. Snowy and cold. Swept the snow off the front steps so I could open the door. About 7 in of really light fluffy stuff so we're fortunate it's so cold.
I am presently in the comfy chair in my office which doubles as my pillow fort, watching the snow fall with the happy light on, drinking my tea and eating a blueberry breakfast bar.
Pretty soon I'll start in to finish proofreading the page proofs and then I can get going with my day.
How's everybody doing?
Dictated to my phone
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Page proofs are done. I still need to get together a list of errors, and send it to Baen, but that can wait a minute.
Did PT homework, ably assisted by Firefly, who tells me that she's Scared. I told her that I'm Scared, too, but that I'm going to do the best I can to keep her and the other kids safe, as long as I can.
Swept the front steps again, to clear the door -- it looks like we're up to 10 inches on the ground here at the Confusion Factory. The plowguy came by around 9:30/10 last night to clear the drive to that point, but he didn't do the steps -- an observation, not a complaint -- so that's where I've been taking my readings.
The city plows were running the road last night, even after I went to bed, around 10:30. I think I've only heard one team go by this morning. The road looks sanded, none of the (very few) vehicles that have been past seem to be having any trouble. I'm not up on whether we're expecting sleet to finish this off, but we're not supposed to see the end of the storm until early tomorrow morning.
I believe my Plan going forward into the day is to clean up the piles I did not get to yesterday, do my duty the cats, warm up something for lunch -- oh, there's soup. Good deal. -- then start in on making my list of corrections. Tomorrow, I'm going to have to face the taxes again, but -- I just can't at the moment.
And that's the more-or-less midday report from Central Maine.
turpsjames_davis_nicoll - So, in my Outgunnedmuccamukk - I'd like my trash TV paramedics to be a little less trashy!rolanni - Would you find me in the stars?muccamukk - Is this a Canadian thing?otw_news_feed - Open Doors celebrates the completion of 9 (and one more) archive imports in 2025!oursin - While someone else is eating or opening a window*chickenfeet - Lise Davidsen "Live at the Met"james_davis_nicoll - City on Fire (Metropolitan, volume 2) by Walter Jon Williamsprincessofgeeks - scratching an itchprincessofgeeks - for those of you following along at home...princessofgeeks - Heated Rivalry rec WARNING HIGH VOLTAGEoursin - (no subject)ysobel - Flareup updateroga - that's it, 843 days later.james_davis_nicoll - This is a death trapoursin - Maybe get people to sign up to the Organ Donor register instead?james_davis_nicoll - Bundle of Holding: Shadowdark Compatiblerolanni - Weather or not...turps - (no subject)chickenfeet - GGS New Music Ensemble "After Hours"branchandroottimeasmymeasure
