ermingarden | Recent Entries

I enjoyed The Atlantic's annual roundup of superb owl photos (gift link) this morning. I didn't watch the game; my Sunday evening plans were just choir, as usual.

It's been a quiet weekend for me, and a chilly one - weather during the work week was fine, but the temperature absolutely plummeted yesterday, and it looks like more cold ahead.

I have made some progress in Mansfield Park, though I'm still not even halfway through; I just finished the first volume (of three), in fact. Honestly, it took me a while to get into the story, and to get a good sense of the heroine, Fanny - at first, I pitied her but wasn't otherwise too interested, but now I adore her! And on a personal level, as someone who was told many times as a child that she was too sensitive, I love that Fanny's sensitive nature doesn't seem to be condemned or shown as an obstacle she needs to overcome in order to come into her own. It's even a good thing to the extent that it makes her sensitive to others' feelings and needs, and to the demands of propriety - she's socially conscientious, in a way the Bertram siblings are not. What she needs isn't to be less uptight or to grow a thicker skin, but to trust her own judgment more.

Exciting developments planned for the week ahead: I start French classes Tuesday night! I've studied Spanish and Latin, but never French - so wish me bonne chance!

Current Mood: cozy

"Si sol splendescat Maria purificante / maior erit glacies post festum quam fuit ante."
Or: "If Candlemas is fair and clear / there'll be twa winters in the year."
Or: if the groundhog sees his shadow...six more weeks of winter!

I am dismayed that not only Punxsutawney Phil (overall accuracy: a dismal 35%) but also our local groundhog, Staten Island Chuck (overall accuracy: an impressive 85%), is reported to have seen his shadow this morning. Furthermore, the weather today was the nicest it's been in weeks. More winter it is, apparently!

My choir sang Arvo Pärt's setting of the Beatitudes this past Sunday, and I may be a little bit obsessed with this piece now - it's haunting! Here's my favorite version I've seen on YouTube:

We also sang at a special service for Candlemas this evening - all in Latin, with the church lit only by candlelight. (We sang, among other things, William Byrd's "Senex puerum portabat"; I love Byrd, so that was a favorite for me!) It was lovely, and was one of those moments in which one feels strongly a degree of continuity with the past - for how many centuries have people been celebrating this day in more or less exactly the same way? Though, of course, it's only to the modern eye that the candlelit church is an unusual sight! (Perhaps we should add in a blessing of the lightbulbs as well as the candles?)

Current Mood: chilly

probablybadrpgideas said "spell that halves your hitpoints but never kills you, a la zeno's paradox," and I immediately had to try to make that work. Here's what I came up with:

Zeno's Diminishing Dichotomies
5th-level Illusion

The target must make an Intelligence saving throw. On a success, the target takes no damage and the spell ends. On a failure, the target loses half of its current HP and must repeat the save at the end of each of its turns for the spell's duration. On a failure, the target again loses half of its current HP. On a success, the spell ends.

Damage from this spell can never take a target below 1 HP. If a target fails a save while at 1 HP, the spell does not end, but the target takes no damage from the spell that turn.

Components: V, S, M (a fragment of tortoiseshell)
Casting time: 1 action
Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute
Range: Touch (in true Zeno fashion, be prepared to argue with your DM about whether it is in fact possible for anyone to actually touch anyone else, since the person approaching must first reach the halfway point between the two, etc., etc.)

Some thoughts:
- I made it an illusion spell because it's based on a paradox. I was thinking that it's an int save because the target is trying to see through the paradox...but since seeing through the paradox would, here, be realizing that HP is not infinitely divisible and thus it's possible to be killed, that doesn't make perfect sense.
- I think making it a 5th-level spell (in 5e) is fair because (a) there's no guaranteed damage on the first turn (unlike, e.g., Immolation, another 5th-level spell), so you risk burning your spell slot for no payoff; (b) it's a touch spell; and (c) legendary resistances severely limit its utility against really powerful targets. That said, I could definitely see an argument for 6th level. (The 3.5 spell Avasculate, a 7th-level spell which reduces the target's HP by half once, has the caster make a spell attack rather than the target roll to save and isn't a touch spell; you also get a lot more higher-level spell slots in 3.5 than you do in 5e.)

Thoughts? I'd love to hear any opinions on this or suggestions for improvement!

1) We got a little over 10 inches of snow here in Manhattan, and that was enough for the Office of Court Administration to declare that all courts in NYC (except for criminal court arraignments) would be closed today - and my office closed as well. Which, in 2026, just means we all worked from home, but Queenie certainly enjoyed having me here all day!

2) Recent reads:

I finished The Lathe of Heaven, by Ursula K. Le Guin, over the weekend, and really enjoyed it - as I had expected to, given how much I generally like Le Guin! TLoH, which doesn't share a world with any of Le Guin's other works, is set in a near future (or alternate past, at this point, as it's set in 2002) ravaged by climate change and war, and centers on a man whose dreams can alter reality, and the psychiatrist treating him, who attempts to make deliberate use of those dreams - which, predictably, doesn't go according to plan.

This was my pick for the book club I'm in with some colleagues. The only rules restricting the book club picks are that they can't be (a) nonfiction about crime or law enforcement, (b) nonfiction about narcotics, or (c) procedurals - in other words, no books about work - so there's a lot of room for variety. So far, we've read Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman (LitRPG), The Tsar of Love and Techno by Anthony Marra (litfic, a collection of interconnected short stories set in Russia), and The Lathe of Heaven is our third book.

I wouldn't say TLoH is my absolute favorite of Le Guin's works, but it was excellent, and I would recommend it to just about anyone. I'm definitely looking forward to hearing what my colleagues think of it!

My officemate lent me a book called Unmasked: My Life Solving America's Cold Cases, by Paul Holes, an investigator who worked on the Golden State Killer case, and Robin Gaby Fisher, who has coauthored many memoirs. I thought it was all right; the parts about the investigations Holes has been a part of were interesting, though I frankly didn't care about his marital troubles. (And you very much get Holes' spin on things - he absolutely shouldn't have been romantically involved with his subordinate, and her colleagues were completely justified in worrying that she was getting preferential treatment, while his narrative seems to imply these were unreasonable concerns.) It was very interesting to read about what it was like to be working in law enforcement during the years when DNA testing was just coming on the scene in a big way, and a lot of cold cases were being cracked wide open all at once.

My officemate, before offering to lend the book to me, asked me if I like to read true crime; I'm not generally a fan. But while yes, technically, this is a true crime book, I would make a distinction between the kind of "true crime" book most people think about when hearing the phrase and a law enforcement memoir like this, which I think is a distinct subgenre. Anyway, the book was fine, I finished it, but I don't necessarily recommend it, and I think there are better books of this type out there.

Also, this is petty, but I feel the need to mention that at one point, when Holes is very pissed at the Orange County DA's Office (justifiably so, if his account is accurate), he comes out with this: "In all my years on the job, I had never had a DA's office intercede...Attorneys don't dictate investigations. They only get in the way." To which I can only say: Screw you too.

3) Alas! I still have not finished Mansfield Park.

4) Last post, I encouraged people who were able to do so to donate blood, and I've since found out about a very fun extra incentive: the "Blood Drive" prompt fest! If you donate blood (or any blood product); register as a marrow, stem cell, or organ donor; or volunteer at or help to organize a blood drive between December 1, 2025, and January 31, 2026, you can sign up and submit prompts for the fest; anyone can claim and fill prompts. (I'm not involved with organizing the fest in any way, but it seems like a fun idea, so I wanted to let people know about it.)

5) Finally, I doubt I have anything to say about what's happening in Minneapolis that everyone hasn't already heard from others. But I do want to share this list of organizations and mutual aid funds supporting immigrant communities in Minnesota right now, in case anyone hasn't seen it. (I've donated to the Midwest Immigration Bond Fund, the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota, and La Guadalupana Community Support Fund.)

Current Mood: cozy
Current Music: The Mountain Goats, "Jam Eater Blues"

1. I donated blood today, mentioned it in a text message to my dad, and received a reply asking "How did the blood removal go?", which is a masterful example of making something sound wildly ominous while still technically being an accurate description! ("Blood removal" went fine, as usual.) Side note: If you're in NY or NJ and are able to donate blood, please consider scheduling an appointment ASAP - we currently have less than a two-day supply and a blood emergency has been declared.

2. Recent reads:
- The Tsar of Love and Techno, by Anthony Marra, is a collection of interconnected short stories set in Russia, from the 1930s to the present (and arguably outer space in the near future, depending on how you read the last story). I read this for a book club with some coworkers and enjoyed it. Some stories are naturally stronger than others, but it's good throughout and at times excellent.

- New York Sketches is a collection of E. B. White's short pieces about NYC - vignettes, poems, brief essays, and assorted snippets resistant to categorization. It's very fun! A quick read, if you plow straight through it - I bought my copy at a bookstore in Washington Heights and finished it by the time I made it to Chinatown, so somewhere around an hour - but also a book amenable to being read in bits and pieces. Pages 35-44, devoted to the observation of pigeons and their nests (with illustrations!), particularly charmed me: "While [pigeon nests] endure we must note their locations, elevate our gaze above the level of our immediate concerns, imbibe the sweet air and perfect promise: the egg miraculous upon the ledge, the bird compact upon the egg, its generous warmth, its enviable patience, its natural fortitude and grace."

- Death in Dover is the latest book in Maureen Ash's Templar Knight Mysteries series. Unfortunately, it does not measure up to the earlier books in the series. I think it's primarily a matter of editing, or the lack thereof: The first eight books, through A Holy Vengeance, were traditionally published, but starting with Sins of Inheritance they've been self-published, and there's a noticeable difference. (Actually, I've noticed a distinction among the trad-published books as well: the first six were published by Berkeley, a Penguin subsidiary, while the seventh and eighth were published by a different Penguin subsidiary, InterMix, and there's clearly a bit less attention devoted to the seventh and eighth compared to the previous, including less detailed covers; I also believe that's when they started to be published as ebooks only, though I can't confirm that.) Even compared to the other self-published books in the series, though, Death in Dover disappoints. I hate to say this, I really do - you all know by now that this series is one of my favorites - but I unfortunately can't recommend this book.

3. I just started Mansfield Park, at the suggestion of

fiona15351, who wants to know what I think of it. I'm not far enough in to think much of anything yet.

4. Tomorrow is a red letter day: the anniversary of my adopting Queenie! Hard to believe it's been a year already! Cats may not keep calendars, but I do have a gift for her.

I don't know how I ever managed without a cat before!

There's an odd duality to 2025 in that, while the year has been a very bad one for my country and for the world in general, it's been kind to me: I adopted my wonderful cat, went from a bad work situation to an excellent one, and moved into a much better apartment. So on a personal level, I'm looking back on the year fondly and hoping for more of the same in 2026, even as I fervently hope the coming year will be dramatically different on the broader scale.

Reading-wise, I was fortunate enough to pick up some real gems this year:

- I've already talked about A Canticle for Leibowitz here: it's a classic for a reason, and I think a good read for these times. Brilliant, moving, dark but never grim.

- Spiderlight, by Adrian Tchaikovsky, was recommended to me by

fiona15351, whose taste is, as usual, excellent - this book is exquisite! Fiona described it as “a Last Unicornesque takedown of D&D alignments, with spiders” and noted that “there’s also a fireball-happy wizard.” The last is because she knows what I like - surprising exactly no one, Penthos was in fact my favorite character. One of the things I found structurally interesting about Spiderlight is that this is a book that doesn’t rely at all on surprise. I would go so far as to say nothing that happens is really surprising to the reader (though it definitely is to the characters!). Seeing things coming does not lessen their impact - if anything, it enhances it. I wouldn’t recommend Spiderlight to someone who hasn’t read a lot of fantasy, because much of the appeal lies in how Tchaikovsky plays with familiar tropes; I think at least some familiarity with the genre is required for full effect. But for someone who does have that familiarity, it’s a delight and I can’t recommend it more highly.

- I read Barbara Hambly's Windrose Chronicles books - the duology of The Silent Tower and The Silicon Mage, the sequel Dog Wizard, and Stranger at the Wedding, which isn't strictly speaking in the series but is in the same universe - and was immediately obsessed. I'd been dubious going in - '80s portal fantasy isn't something I'd have generally considered my cup of tea - but I really like a lot of Hambly's other works, so I gave it a try, and I'm so glad I did! This rocketed up the list to become one of my favorite book series ever, immediately. I love the wizard tropes, love the themes Hambly explores here (some of which are familiar from others of her books), and I even - unusually for me - really enjoy the romance between the protagonists, who are two extremely intelligent and pretty strange individuals meeting, perhaps for the first time, someone else who is operating on the same wavelength.

- Better late than never - this year was the first time I read anything by Jane Austen! I read Pride and Prejudice and Persuasion, at Fiona's urging, and definitely preferred the latter. (The yearning! Marvelous!)

- Other highlights included Ann Leckie's Translation State, which was excellent and may be my favorite Leckie yet, and Le Guin's short story collection The Compass Rose, out of which I loved best "The Author of the Acacia Seeds" and "Mazes."

I didn't write much this year - outside of work, at least. I posted two fics, one for the Silmarillion and one for Star Wars, both as part of exchanges and both written before I transferred to my current bureau in mid-May, so to the extent I predicted I might be writing more after the switch, I was wrong; the same goes for being more active here on DW. The day job has just kept me really busy, but it's the good, worthwhile kind of busyness.

So farewell, 2025, with gratitude for the good things you brought. And here's to the new year: May it be kinder than the last.

Current Mood: hopeful
Current Music: Auld Lang Syne

Some of you may remember that back in 2019, I posted the first half of a fic called "Screwtape on Maedhros", which is exactly what it sounds like: a Screwtape Letters fusion/pastiche. There it has languished, unfinished, for six years. I always knew where I wanted to go with this fic, but for one reason or another haven't made substantial progress - until recently! So I'm pleased to share a draft for the next letter from Screwtape, written following the Nirnaeth Arnoediad:
( Read more... )

Following directly on from last week's snippet:

"This was the first of their great mercies to us, in Beleriand," he said.

I followed his gaze to the half-completed tapestry, where the Sun's exuberant light gilded the edges of a barren landscape.

"Even when the Trees still lived, their light fell on Valinor alone. In Middle-earth there were only ever the stars. But the Moon and the Sun shine on Middle-earth just as they shine on Aman. They did not have to send them over the Sea - but they did!"

He fell silent; and when he spoke again, his voice was very low.

"You could not see the stars, from Thangorodrim. The fumes, the smoke of Moringotto's forges, blocked them out entirely. There was only the Shadow, unchanging, on every side, until you forgot that there had ever been anything but the Shadow, that there was such a thing as light; until it seemed the stars were not hidden but swallowed up, entirely and forever. Even the light of the Moon did not dispel that black veil, though it seeped through, diffuse - and that was marvel enough, in that place. But O, the Sun! O, the hallowed hour of its rising! The touch of that brave light dispelled the darkness as a dream upon waking."

For Six Sentence Sunday, albeit slightly belated, here are a bit more than six sentences of something I originally started for tolkienekphrasisweek - my first attempt at a reembodied Maedhros. (I thought it would be a short little ficlet...it got away from me.)

"At last the lady Vairë came to me, and asked me, if I would not leave the Halls, still to accept the gift of embodiment, and to come and work under her direction. 'For,' she said, 'it is not in the thought of the One, nor is it the wish of His servants, that anything should be wasted.' And so I acquiesced, and was embodied, but dwelt still in the halls of the Weaver as the living among the dead. And I worked, and I saw that the work of my hands was fair - that my hands, whatever else I had done with them, might still be turned to fair work."

Indeed, his hands were moving on the loom even as he spoke, threading wisps of cloud across a pale blue sky.

But why, I almost asked - and though I bit my tongue, perhaps he perceived the question in my face, or else his thoughts ran this way already.

"I know not why she came to me," he answered my unspoken question. "It was not for what craft was in me, for though I learned to weave in my youth, and liked it well, I did not then come to mastery - and in Beleriand my hand never touched the loom. Perhaps it was for love of Fíriel, her cherished handmaid, though she herself had never known me. What is certain is that it was not because I deserved mercy. I did not. I have never deserved any of their mercies, but they have been merciful to me regardless. Merciful beyond telling."

I could think of nothing more to say to that. His hands, the fair and the marred, kept moving smoothly on the loom, passing the bobbins in and out, in and out.

Some absolute geniuses (Isaiah Tanenbaum, Rob Casimir, and Dan Iwrey) at the NYC Conflict of Interests Board have created what I feel confident in calling the greatest employee ethics training tool ever created: A D&D 5e oneshot called Escape from the Dinkins Building which was emailed to all 300,000 NYC employees back in June. (It's freely accessible to everyone else at the link, too.) It! Is!! Glorious!!!

I ran Escape from the Dinkins Building for

fiona15351, and we had an absolute blast! I highly recommend it. It's designed for parties levels 2-5; we ran it with two PCs at level 6, one rogue and one paladin, and that worked fine. The setting is modern-day NYC, but magic and typical D&D fantasy elements are real and an acknowledged part of society. As adventurers, your characters are city employees in some capacity.

Here's the summary:

Having fallen asleep during a mandated training, the party awakens to find themselves trapped in the haunted basement of the Dinkins Building. To escape, they must face a series of challenges and find the sign-in sheet that proves they attended, lest they be cursed to repeat the training, forever.

As the summary suggests, it's a very funny adventure, although some of the jokes may be too obscure if you don't live in NYC, and many appeal primarily to city employees and other people very familiar with local government bureaucracy. (Fiona was forced to consult the Wikipedia pages for Fiorello La Guardia and Staten Island Chuck.)

There is a hilarious special mechanic, which I am going to discuss behind a cut. If you think you are likely to play Escape from the Dinkins Building as a player, don't read this; it's supposed to be secret from the PCs! ( Read more... )

The adventure is designed to take four hours, assuming the players and DM are experienced. As I recall, it took us less than that, and there are suggestions for what to cut if you don't have that much time. The module is clearly written, with a good amount of detail (and good maps!), such that I think it would be a good choice for an inexperienced or even first-time DM. It's ideal for players interested in roleplay and social encounters - this is definitely not a pure dungeon crawl - but the fights are solid as well. Overall, it's just a really fun oneshot and definitely worth playing!

I cannot say that I ever expected to use my dayjob tag on a post about a TTRPG, but I am so, so happy this exists.

Current Mood: amused

fiona15351 visited me recently, and we went to my excellent local game store, where Fiona acquired a two-player indie RPG called Dead Friend, by a local game designer named Lucian Kahn.

It's an excellent game! It was also the catalyst for perhaps the most genuinely unnerving experience of my entire life.

The way the game works is that one player is the living friend and the other is the dead friend. The living friend is summoning the dead friend through a necromantic ritual - there are some cool physical elements to the gameplay related to the ritual that make the game much more immersive and contribute to an eerie vibe. The living and the dead each have their own goals, and those goals are at odds. It's really a collaborative storytelling game, with a deck of cards (regular playing cards or Tarot cards - we used Tarot) providing the random element. The players pick the setting and tell the story of the past relationship between the friends and the dead friend's death, and at the end there's a final confrontation between the living and the dead.

At Fiona's suggestion, our story was set at a boys' boarding school in the early 20th century; the living friend (played by Fiona) was a student, the dead friend (me) his late classmate. We had a pleasantly spooky (and sad) time creating the story of their lives and the dead friend's death in response to prompts determined by drawing cards, and envisioning the ritual as it progressed.

We came at last to the final confrontation between living and dead. The "weapons" each has are determined by drawing cards. At one point, Fiona played the Ace of Swords, which - per the table in the game book - was "appeal to authority." She had the living friend challenge the dead friend's ghost to prove he was not malevolent by reciting the Lord's Prayer. I decided that, based on what we had established, the ghost would not be able to do that. Instead, playing the ghost, I recited the Lord's Prayer in Latin but introduced an error - voluntas mea, "my will," in place of voluntas tua, "Thy will."

Then I got a nosebleed.

And I mean I got a nosebleed immediately, and a fairly bad one - it was like something out of a horror movie! I was deeply freaked out and am still a little unnerved by the whole thing.

We eventually made it back to the game; the instructions said that the winner of the confrontation is determined by consensus, and we were in immediate agreement that the ghost had absolutely not won this one.

But overall, terrifying moment aside...it was a really enjoyable game.

Current Mood: unnerved
Current Music: Anúna, "Media Vita"

I got very into Dragonlance last year. And today, rather than talking about the novels I love, I for some reason want to talk about the 2008 animated movie Dragonlance: Dragons of Autumn Twilight (adapting the first book in the first Dragonlance trilogy, Dragons of Autumn Twilight).

I found out recently that (a) this movie exists and (b) it’s on YouTube, so naturally I immediately watched it. I also roped the lovely and long-suffering

fiona15351 into watching it with me, by which I mean we synced up our video timestamps so we could text simultaneously about all the shenanigans - of which there were many!

To be clear: The Dragonlance movie is a bad movie, and I do not recommend it. But some of the ways in which it is bad are really interesting.
( Read more... )

Current Mood: disappointed

Just Finished
I recently read Walter Miller's A Canticle for Leibowitz, which was utterly superb! It's definitely a classic for a reason, and I recommend it in the strongest possible terms. (It also put the current political situation, terrible as it is, somewhat into perspective, in that at least nuclear war does not seem to be imminent.) A dark book in many ways, certainly, but never a grim book.

Now Reading
I'm about halfway through Pride and Prejudice! This is in fact my first time reading Jane Austen at all;

fiona15351, during her recent visit, convinced me that now is the time to give Austen a go, and advised me to start with P&P, which is eventually to be followed by Persuasion. I'm enjoying it! I've somehow never seen an adaptation of P&P, either, so I came in with essentially no prior knowledge of the plot or characters, and my reactions have been amusing Fiona.

Up Next
I had just started Le Guin's Five Ways to Forgiveness when I was prevailed upon to read P&P, so I'll be returning to that.

Current Mood: sleepy
Current Music: I have "Parce Domine" stuck in my head

A fun little meme borrowed from

chestnut_pod: give us the links to your fics with the most hits, second most kudos, third most comments, fourth most bookmarks, fifth most words, and fewest words.

Most hits by far, with twice as many as the runner-up, is "Climbing Garden Walls", a nearly twelve-year-old fic for Attack on Titan, a fandom I was in for about a minute in high school, and that mostly because

sandavier was into it. (I've heard it ended horribly, haven't been keeping up.) Definitely the case of publishing a fic in the right fandom at the right time to get a lot of interest, and it still dominates my stats.

Second most kudos is "Special Assignment", and unlike in hits, this one is actually close - it's only 10 kudos behind Garden Walls and I expect it will overtake at some point. It's a Star Wars fic, Obi-Wan/Alpha-17, written as a pinch hit in the 2020 round of

swrarepairs, and is a product of my Emails Phase. Its (relative) popularity has always surprised me, as I've never been particularly satisfied with it, but re-reading it with some distance, I think I'm a little fonder of it now!

Third most comment threads is "Climbing Garden Walls" again (beaten handily by #1 "Letters from Himring" and closely by #2 "Special Assignment").

Fourth most bookmarks is "necessity", a very short Star Wars fic about Depa Billaba's apprenticeship that was written very specifically for

independence1776 - I didn't care at all if anyone else liked it, and am pleasantly surprised by how many people evidently do!

Fifth most words is "Special Assignment" again.

Fewest words is "Chicken Soup for the Ranger's Soul", a true drabble featuring Aragorn & Gandalf - and some Tolkien fic makes it into this meme at last!

Thank you so much for creating for me! I'm really excited to see your take on any of these worlds.

General likes and DNWs

I’m a big fan of epistolary fic, in-universe documents (including academic pastiche and social media pastiche), outsider POV, slice-of-life fic, primary source documents, academic debates, humor, and hopeful endings. I like hurt-comfort, as long as there’s at least a little comfort at the end.

DNW: rape/sexual assault, PWP/porn without plot, BDSM, omegaverse.

The Silmarillion

Religious practices in Beleriand, Elven funerary customs

I'm curious about the ways different groups of people in Beleriand relate to the Valar (or don't). In particular, how do the Noldor adjust to not having the immediate contact with the Valar they've been used to? Might they look to the practices of the Sindar or the Avari, and what would their opinion be of those practices? How do those who have never been to Valinor worship the Valar? (And what about those who don't?)

I'm also interested in how people for whom death isn't quite as permanent would mark it (or not). How is it different in Valinor as opposed to Beleriand, or among, say, the Noldor as opposed to the Sindar?

The Lord of the Rings

Relations between hobbits and Rangers

I'm sure various hobbits had many interactions over the years with the Rangers guarding the Shire, whether or not they knew what the Rangers were there for - some that went well, and maybe some that went...not so well. I'd love to see anything from a specific anecdote to a general retrospective overview of this history, from anyone's perspective!

The Chronicles of Narnia

Talking Animal customs

I'd love to see any thoughts you have on the customs of a group (or groups!) of Talking Beasts, whether extraordinary or mundane, from Mice to Horses and everyone in between. I'm curious about a few things in particular, if you want a starting point: How do Talking Beasts think of, and interact with, their dumb counterparts? How do the (presumably) varied life expectancies of different Beasts affect Narnian society in general and relations among different species? Are there Talking Insects of any kind, or are Mice as small as it goes? And speaking of Mice - we're told that the Talking Mice had their start with the mice who chewed through Aslan's bonds on the Stone Table. What was it like for there to be a new kind of Talking Beast? Or is that not unusual - have other kinds of animals begun to talk who weren't chosen at the beginning?

Current Mood: excited

I hope all who celebrate had a pleasant Superb Owl Sunday!

Very late, but here’s Snowflake Challenge #4: Set your own goals!

A big goal for me this year is improving my writing process, making it more systematic and having stronger divisions between the brainstorming, outlining, drafting, and editing phases. I'm mainly focused on my professional writing - learning how to craft better legal briefs - but I expect that what I learn will impact my fanfic writing as well.

Relatedly, if anyone has recommendations for books or other resources you found really helpful when it comes to improving your writing - product or process - I’d appreciate hearing them! (I’ve read Bryan Garner’s The Winning Brief, Brand & White’s Legal Writing: The Strategy of Persuasion, and Ross Guberman’s Point Made.)

Snowflake Challenge promotional banner with image of snow-covered mushrooms and green moss. Text: Snowflake Challenge January 1-31.

We'll just ignore the dates on the Snowflake promo banner, shall we? Anyway, I was delighted by the "Recs Countdown" format but then had a hard time coming up with categories appropriate for each number, so they're a bit random, but without further ado, I present to you...

Five Dragonlance fics:

Travellers (46k) by Allthatisnot
The Raistlin/Magius Dragons of Eternity fix-it my soul was yearning for.

Wither and Bloom (38k) by Skull_Bearer
Excellently unnerving take on both the Tower of Palanthas and the Curse of Raelanna, from a superb Dalamar POV. And it's gorgeously illustrated!

A Dragonlance Carol (9k) by fayolin
This was my Yuletide gift this year and it's amazing! Brilliantly Dickensian.

The Lord of Nothing Series (350k+, ongoing) by ceremonial_motions
Raistlin learns what his plan to kill Takhisis would have led to earlier than in canon. Raistlin/Dalamar, phenomenal canon divergence.

Lucky (1.5k) by

rachelmanija
A little bit of Raistlin & Tanis from the Chronicles days. A nice look at that relationship, with great Raistlin and Tanis characterizations.

Four favorite fics not on AO3:

Luke Skywalker and the Outer Rim Profiteer (Star Wars, 22k) by Niralle
A hilarious spoof of a certain kind of Expanded Universe novel. Excellent outsider POV!

Growing Pains (SW, 156k) by ruth baulding
A series of vignettes from Obi-Wan's apprenticeship.

The Tempered Steel (Silm, 113k) by Lyra
A rightly renowned account of Maedhros' captivity, rescue, and recovery.

A Long and Weary Way (LotR, 445k), and its appendices, by Canafinwe
Aragorn captures Gollum and brings him to Mirkwood. Things repeatedly go sideways along the way.

Three unexpected but brilliant crossovers:

Testing Limits (SW x Portal, 28k) by

atamascolily
"What if the AI Luke encounters on the Eye of Palpatine were GLaDOS" is a question I would have never thought to ask but that absolutely needed to be answered. A brilliant fic that can be enjoyed with minimal or no knowledge of Portal.

Love is All You Need to Destroy Your Enemies (Night Vale x Dresden Files, 222k) by shadydave
Carlos from WtNV and Carlos from the Dresden Files are the same person! Also, mind-bending time travel.

A Star to Steer By (SW x Stargate, 99k) by dogmatix and norcumi
Honestly, I know nothing about Stargate. But I do love this fic. Absolutely fascinating AU take on the Jedi and the clones!

Two fics that felt like sequels to canon:

Ciel D'Oro (The Name of the Rose, 19k) by CenozoicSynapsid
After leaving the abbey, William and Adso get tangled up with a murder in Pavia. This was a Yuletide gift for me back in 2020, and it still blows my mind whenever I reread it - it truly feels like a sequel, and it's just utterly brilliant!

The Lost of Winter (Cemeteries of Amalo, 20k) by

fiona15351
Set after The Grief of Stones, as Thara tries to adjust to the loss of his abilities as a Witness vel ama and he and Iäna inch vaguely in the direction of romance. Also, there's a mongoose. (Full disclosure: I did beta this fic - but that's not why I think it's great!)

And one thing I wrote myself:

The Archives of Beleriand series is probably my favorite of the things I've written; it is also the reason I know how to code footnotes on AO3. Check it out if you like weird academic pastiche! (And the art by

fiona15351 and Fandom_fun13 is so lovely!)

Current Mood: sleepy

I have very big news: I've adopted a cat! This is Queenie, and she's possibly the sweetest cat in the world.

Black-and-white cat wearing a pink bowtie

Here she is, in a bowtie to go with her stylish tuxedo!

As I write this, she's lying on my desk keeping me company. I met her and brought her home from the city shelter last Saturday, and she made herself at home in my apartment on day one - even sleeping on my bed that night, and every night since! She's an older girl, about 13, and she's very affectionate and comfortable with people. (She wasn't even bothered when I took her to and from the vet on the subway; clearly a city cat through and through!)

Current Mood: enthralled

A Second Chance: A Federal Judge Decides Who Deserves It by Judge Frederic Block
My Rating: ★★☆☆☆

David Lat recommended A Second Chance as an "engaging and enlightening new book" about the First Step Act (FSA). Unfortunately, I have to assume he didn't read the book in its entirety before describing it that way.
( Read more... )

Current Mood: disappointed

Snowflake Challenge promotional banner featuring feet in warm socks, a mug of hot chocolate, a notebook with 'dreams' written on the cover, and a guitar. Text: Snowflake Challenge January 1-31

Today's challenge is to talk about my "fannish origin story." My first fandom was Star Wars, especially the old Expanded Universe novels. Like many people, I was writing fanfic before I knew there was a word for it, and certainly before I knew about online fanfic archives and fan communities! (I actually had a secret ambition of writing a Star Wars novel myself someday.)

Someone pointed me toward fanfiction.net before too long. I joined FFN in 2012, and when I checked the dates on my profiles I was shocked to see that I only joined AO3 in 2013 - in my memory the stretch of time when I was on FFN but didn't know about AO3 is longer, for some reason.

When I was first entering fandom, a lot of the people I looked up to were active in journal fandom, and I was honestly pretty intimidated. It took until 2018 for me to get up the nerve to join the cool kids on DW, and I'm very glad I did! The conversations I've had here have shaped my attitude toward writing and fandom in a really positive way - and, of course, I've made friends <3

Current Mood: nostalgic

Navigation

Find Me Elsewhere

February 2026

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

Page Summary

Syndicate

Style Credit

Base style: Librarian's Dream by branchandroot
Theme: Rose Garden I by dancing_serpent

Page generated Feb. 25th, 2026 09:45 pm

Non-Actionable Puffery

Recent Entries

Superb Owl Sunday

Candlemas and a Bad Forecast

Zeno's Dichotomy Paradox, D&D Edition

Snow Day!

Four things make a post

Farewell, 2025!

Snippet Sunday

Snippet Sunday

Six Sentence Sunday

TTRPG Review: Escape from the Dinkins Building

TTRPG Review: Dead Friend

What Went Wrong with the Dragonlance Movie

Reading (Ash) Wednesday

AO3 Meme

Dear Worldbuilder

Snowflake Challenge #4: Goals

Snowflake Challenge #12: Recs Countdown

Meet Queenie!

A Second Chance: A Federal Judge Severely Disappoints Me

Snowflake Challenge #2: Fannish Origin Story