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Snowflake Challenge: A warmly light quaint street of shops at night with heavy snow falling.

In your own space, create a list of at least three things you'd love to receive, a wishlist of sorts.

0. No generative AI works.

1. An epic fanfic about any of my favourite fannish pairings or characters. I'd love new stuff, because I've mostly read through all the old, but I'd also take recs. I love action-adventure, drama, real conflict, internal questioning, and not-a-black-and-white-outlook. Complex questions and thorny problems that are dealt with by emotionally mature and politically savvy adults.

MCU

Maria Hill
Maria Hill & any character
Maria Hill/Steve Rogers

There are other pairings and characters I like in MCU, but those are easy to find. These are stories that I really really want and very few are willing or capable of writing them. So I ask.

I'll take AUs, vignettes, missing scenes, friendships, that really long epic story that nobody but me will ever write... I'm happy with just Maria-centric, but I want it in the context of the Avengers movies, not her taken out into another context. I want it to be her story, with cameos and interactions from the familiar characters - but she's the main character with the chief agency of the story. People can write it for random female (and male) characters throughout the canon, I just would love to read the equivalent for Maria.

Ignore Secret Invasion. It was stupid.

PS. If you're giving recs, if it's at AO3, I've probably already read it..

Pacific Rim

Mako Mori & anyone
Mako Mori/Raleigh Becket

One of the things I enjoy about this is seeing how Mako and Raleigh actually vibe together when they're not having to save the world by going through each others' minds. And really anything about Mako and her relationships with the people in the Shatterdomes. Even Chuck.

Ignore Pacific Rim: Uprising. Whoever wrote that missed the entire point of the original movie.

Stargate Atlantis

Teyla Emmagan
Teyla Emmagan/John Sheppard
Team

Again, one of those 'I can pick a needle in a haystack' options. Not the kind of thing most people will write (or would have written, back in the long ago days of SGA fandom) but still something that I long for and enjoy.

The best I get is the Stargate Atlantis: Legacy series of books, which is a six book "Season 6" for Stargate Atlantis, complete with plot arcs, character development, space battles, and a definitive 'ending' for the Wraith storyline. It does it inventively and cleverly, and doesn't leave any of the characters out. Which is something that one could never count on, even in the canon.

If anyone would like to write the story of the Stargate Project twenty years later - with Teyla as a major character - I would love to read that.

Stargate SG1

Sam Carter/Jack O'Neill
Team (whether with Daniel, Jonas, or Cameron)

One thing I really did enjoy about SG1 fandom was the number of longform fics there used to be for the team and for Sam in particular. Plot arcs, big long epics, and often a bit of Sam/Jack romance, with or without regs.

Ah, it was long ago.

Bridgerton

Kate Sharma
Anthony Bridgerton/Kate Sharma

Look, I'm a simple soul. I want a better story of their romance than they got. The series was too busy trying to launch Queen Charlotte, so they had Edwina be the sympathetic character to the Queen and the King at a point when they're just "old people" so that there was some interest in "what's their backstory" and they could get people to watch the other series.

If you have recs for this one, I'll take them. I haven't really trawled through the archive for this - too much risk of dross

Star Wars - Prequel-to-Original

Padme Amidala

Okay, so I've seen a few people ponder how the story might have played out if Padme had survived and been organised in the resistance.

I'd like recs for this. If you want to write your own story, that's fine, but I figure the fandom is wide enough and deep enough and broad enough and talented enough to already have those stories. I'd love to see Luke and Leia growing up knowing who and what they are and whether that makes a difference to who they become as adults.

2. Detailed comments on any of my fanfics. The more detailed the better!

3. A publishing contract. Or even the opportunity to sub to an agent. I have a finished manuscript, first draft, it presently sucks. I hope to have it whipped into basic shape in a month. There are some lovely people who are willing to plough through the early drafts, but in the end, there's nothing like an agent.

Hey, if you're going to aim high, why not shoot for the moon? :D

princessofgeeks

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has marked as possibly inappropriate for anyone under the age of 18. )

Current Mood: impressed

hamsterwoman

Challenge #5: In your own space, create a list of at least three things you'd love to receive, a wishlist of sorts.

-

fandomtrees reveals got pushed to Jan 17 because there are still some trees (16 as of this posting) that don’t have the minimum amount of gifts (at least 2) necessary for reveals. So, any fills for the needy trees listed here (real-time updates at the Google spreadsheet). Most of the fandoms I don’t know anything about (but hopefully some of you do!), but of the ones I do, there’s a request for the Raven Cycle, Discworld, and some Original Work requests, and a niche rec request.

- My tree does have the minimum number of gifts, so is not holding up the fest opening, but does list all kinds of things I want (fandoms: Chronicles of Amber, Discworld, Dragaera, Rivers of London, Taskmaster, Terra Ignota, Vorkosigan Saga, and critter art).

( More specific requests for Dragaera, Taskmaster, Elis&John fandoms and crossovers/fusions )

- I included this in last year’s Snowflake wishlist and it worked really well, so doing it again: I'm planning on Doing the Hugo Awards (and hopefully Worldcon) this year, and have just recently come to the realization that if I'm going to nominate some short fiction, I should actually, like, read some that was published in 2025. So, looking for recs for "Hugo-worthy" SFF short stories and novelettes published in 2025 that are ideally accessible online. Authors who tend to semi-reliably work for me in short form are Sarah Pinsker, Kelly Link, and Naomi Kritzer, to give some sense of what I like. And also happy for any recs for published-in-2025 novellas, Related Works, and dramatic presentation short form things (<90 min) that are standalone (i.e. not episodes of a serial show, but either a short(ish) film or part of an anthology show but standalone), and Astounding-eligible authors to check out.

Challenge #6: Top 10 Challenge. The category(ies) you choose are up to you. You can give top 10 Fics you read last year, the top 10 songs to create to, the to 10 guest stars on your favorite show, top 10 characters in your favorite book series, top 10... well, you get the idea.

After some consideration, I’m going to do my Top 10 Dragons :) I’m currently reading a book with dragons (To Shape a Dragon’s Breath, which I’m enjoying a lot), whose dragons are, so far, somewhat different than I’d been expecting, and that’s been making me think about various other fictional dragons I’ve known and loved and the universes they come from, so I figured I’d make a list of my favorites.

They can be dragons that can assume human form, or even spend most of their time in said human form, but they can’t be just humans who are for some reason called Dragons (i.e. no Sarkan from Uprooted or the Dragaeran Dragonlords). Moreover, I tried to keep it to one dragon per canon. So here we go!

( Top 10 dragons )

What about YOUR favorite dragons? Introduce me / sway me over to any I might've missed, or squee with me about my favorites :)

*

I think I was actually low-key avoiding the Taskmaster New Year Treat because I subconsciously resented it for being 2 episodes when I wanted CoC to be 2 episodes, lol. But I have watched it now, and it was fun!

Part 1 – Ooh, I knew one of the contestants (Rose) was deaf, but it was still jarring to see her interpreter sitting there next to Alex. Alex’s banter (OBE/oboe) and the several layers of bad joke was pretty fun. ( More, with spoilers )

My midpoint impressions are that I do enjoy Susie, but in exactly the same way I enjoyed her on Catsdown, so the “revelations” are Sam and Rose, who are both extremely adorable cuties whose cheeks I want to pinch. I’m very meh on the others – Jill’s doing well, but is a bit deadpan for me, and also I’m not a fan of how she brings up football all the time – like, I don’t feel like I’ve learned anything about her outside of her football career (in stark contrast to David James, who mentioned some footballers or travels associated with playing football, but talked about things like painting and just came across as a delightful massive weirdo – IDK, goalkeepers are different, I guess, was the consensus at the time). Apparently even the cat costume, which I did find cute, is a football reference, to her local football team, which someone on Reddit said she said in the studio taping. And Big Zuu is just kind of there… It sounds like he’s a charming person to work with, from all the podcasts, but as a viewer I have not been charmed.

Anyway, I don’t mind spending another episode with these guys!

Part 2 – Greg made me laugh out loud with his Alex intro: ( More, with spoilers )

And of course there was also the Series 21 cast reveal. ( Spoilers? )

I still have some Taskmaster stuff to catch up on – Acaster’s ultimate episode, the next installment of Taskmastermind, and some outtakes. But meanwhile ( WILTY has returned and is being a lot of fun )

cbc_topnews_feed

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/jerome-powell-federal-reserve-indictment-threat-9.7041699?cmp=rss

A person gestures while standing at a lectern.

U.S. Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell says that the Trump administration had threatened him with a criminal indictment and served grand jury subpoenas over congressional testimony he gave last summer regarding a Fed building renovation project.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/jerome-powell-federal-reserve-indictment-threat-9.7041699?cmp=rss

snickfic

Starting the year off strong with two winners! (And several DNFs, but they were left over from the last year, so I say they don't count.)

The Sisters of the Vast Black (2019) by Lina Rather. Several decades after a brutal civil war between Earth and the diaspora, a living spaceship full of nuns minister to the world amidst progressively more challenging circumstances.

This novella has:
- canon f/f
- an atheist nun
- a mother superior with a dark past and the beginning stages of dementia
- a theological dilemma involving a living ship's reproductive cycle
- a rising tide of authoritarianism
- daring heroics and a growing political resistance

The first half of the book is enjoyable enough, but the plot really turns on the jets in the second half and comes to a thrilling conclusion that I was all in on. Atheist rationlist Sister Faustina is my favorite, and I kind of ship her with kindhearted idealist Sister Lucia, especially by the end of the book.

This is Rather's longest work to date. I'm really looking forward to whatever she decides to write next.

--

Knock Knock Open Wide by Neil Sharpson. In 1979, Etain disappears, is held at a farmhouse in the Irish countryside, and escapes with no memory of what happened.

Boy, this book goes PLACES. It's about Irish mythology and fraught mother/daughter relationships; it's also about a bunch of other things that I would rather let you discover for yourself. It's about Ashling, a drama student at University College Dublin in 1999 whose mother hates her, who might be gay, and who is at any rate dating a woman that she's convinced can't possibly really love her. It's about various factions jockeying just beneath the surface of the world, to the point that sometimes it feels like an espionage novel only masquerading as mythological horror. There's even a spunky journalist turned old-school battleaxe who's never gotten around to losing her Barbie-pink suit.

It's nonlinear as hell, which Sharpson juggles with remarkable dexterity, so that even when we're switching between timelines mid-chapter--and there are a LOT of timelines--I was never in any doubt about where we were. I found the integration of mythology and plot generally worked well, even though I sometimes had trouble keeping track of it all and frankly think there was enough there to support a sequel or two rather than cramming it all into this one. The characters are great and messy and complex and almost all female, which I also really enjoyed. Playing out over such a long timespan, this novel really lets you feel the tragedy the follows the horror. And this novel is VERY Irish, which I especially enjoyed having been to Ireland a couple of times. They keep mentioning the Liffey, and I'm like yes, I know that river! :D And I could hear the accents sometimes in the dialogue!

Overall, a fantastic time and a wild ride. If you've read it or do in the future, I would love to compare notes! I looked it up in some of my usual discussion spots and it seems like it kind of slipped under the radar. I see Sharpson released another horror novel last year, which I'm now anxious to check out.

hannah

Some months ago, in an attempt to clear some congestion, I started adding ghost pepper flakes to my morning eggs. A few weeks ago, in an attempt to punch up the spice, I started adding a crushed up chile de árbol or two. Now I'm finding the issue with a meal's heat isn't the spiciness, but the temperature when it's served right from the stove.

I've now realized I don't have much of a context for what constitutes spiciness anymore. I can tell when there's some heat, I can tell when there's a fair amount of heat, and I'm going to have to keep looking for ways to get the kinds of lovely warm, playful sensations from good restaurants into my own kitchen. But not until I work through more of this bottle of ghost pepper flakes, because I've only got so much room in my apartment - which I suppose is all the more reason to try the Calabrian chili oil I bought on impulse a little while ago.

Current Mood: pleased
Current Music: nothing now

troisoiseaux

Read The Left Hand of Darkness (1969) by Ursula K. Le Guin, because I've been trying to catch up on my neglected sci-fi classics; it was a fascinating read. This book is famously interesting for the way it plays with gender, being set in an "ambisexual" world (essentially, everyone can, theoretically, physically both bear and beget children) narrated mostly by a character from Earth(?) who grapples with this societal genderlessness by referring to everyone as a "man" and using he/him pronouns— which I found threw me off more than, say, the universal she/her in Ann Leckie's Imperial Radch series?— but I was just really struck overall by the way that Le Guin uses language to fling the reader headfirst into this alien world: she uses made-up words for recognizable concepts, and recognizable English words as signifiers for world-specific/made-up concepts, and you've just sort of got to puzzle it out as you go. I was also surprised to discover that the one plot point I'd known about going in - ( ... ) - actually takes up less of the novel, and occurs later in it, than I had expected.

( Read more... )

Current Music: Virile - Suzane

tbutler

The Kansas Cosmosphere recently finished a renovation that's been running for a couple of years. I was worried about the heart of the museum - a face-to-face comparison of the early Soviet and US Cold War space programs - after seeing the first refreshed sections (too much featureless white walls), but it turned out all right in the end:

The Apollo section also turned out well:

thistleingrey

The Sundial scarf-shawl of oddments has been bound off. The request in black yarn plods along.

The same thing is wrong with the 2022/23 cabled cardigan that I left sleeveless and the 2018 cabled vest: for me, they need a few additional short rows near the top of the shoulder on the front panels, with a corresponding decrease to armhole depth. The upper back could probably use a few short rows as well, but the front lower hem is awkwardly too short even after wearing and tugging.

That isn't a pinch-and-pin modification for any garment I've worn so far (contrary to helpful sewing-analogue advice), but I think it is the right mod. Even storebought shirts and jackets marketed to AMAB men in vaguely me-compatible sizes lack a bit of needed garment distance near the yoke, left to right---indeed, 1) always between neck and shoulder along the top, and between sternum and armpit in front, and 2) sometimes across the back of the neck---as well as front to back, along where one's hand goes to give oneself a quick shoulder-rub. Those garments are a little to a great deal too large from mid-armhole to lower hem, but they're often dramatically too bulky in armhole and too shoulder-constrained at once.

My mother has brought me a random skein of fingering-weight yarn, a "handspun" singles in dark brown, not dyed. It has sat for a few weeks in a bag in the freezer, in case. What to do with 125 g of random jank? I'm not a yarn-collector, and my hands can't make socks at the moment. Best match is probably a straightforward end-to-end accessory, such as Lille Kolding, since 125 g isn't enough for a hood-scarf. (Warm hats don't fit my head well, and on some days it's been mid-30s F = 1-2 C when I walk tiny housemate.)

Alas, based on others' project notes, 125 g of unknown total length can't become the main/background color for a Sundial tee. Though Wool and Pine designs are a bit raw (I changed every "finishing" detail for the Sundial scarf), their design sense is good, and the modularity of this tee lets me see how to rewrite the upper yoke. I'm not cool enough to rewrite complex or well designed patterns; two garment WIPs from Yamagara and the cabled BT cardigan that hurts my hands to knit have been sitting for months while I ponder construction and drape.

Weaving with a backstrap and rigid heddle and weaving on an inkle loom with string heddles feel to me like almost opposite activities. Inkle loom users who chat about it online often prefer cotton; backstrap weavers use whichever materials they'd like. The string heddles I made for my first inkle-loom attempt are of #20 crochet cotton, and they don't stick to anything---but the sock yarn I've used as warp snagged a bit every time I changed sheds, and I ended the attempt early. Thicker string (or a rigid heddle, which enforces slightly more space between warp threads) might've helped.

cbc_topnews_feed

https://www.cbc.ca/sports/tennis/milos-raonic-retirement-9.7041675?cmp=rss

A men's tennis player walks off the court and waves to fans.

Canadian phenom Milos Raonic, a former Wimbledon finalist who has not competed since mid-2024, announced his retirement from professional tennis in an emotional social media post on Sunday.

https://www.cbc.ca/sports/tennis/milos-raonic-retirement-9.7041675?cmp=rss

cbc_topnews_feed

https://www.cbc.ca/sports/olympics/winter/figure-skating/canadian-olympic-figure-skating-team-announcement-9.7041662?cmp=rss

A team stands and poses with a large plane ticket.

The experienced ice dance pair of Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier will headline a contingent of 12 athletes named to Canada's figure skating team for Milano Cortina 2026.

https://www.cbc.ca/sports/olympics/winter/figure-skating/canadian-olympic-figure-skating-team-announcement-9.7041662?cmp=rss

ysabetwordsmith

Snowflake Challenge 6: Recommendations

Top 10 Challenge. Post your answer to today’s challenge in your own space and leave a comment in this post saying you did it.

Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so. Also, feel free to entice engagement by giving us a preview of what your post covers.

Every challenge we try to make at least one rec post, and each year, we try to find a new way to make it fun for everyone. This year's attempt:

The category(ies) you choose are up to you. You can give top 10 Fics you read last year, the top 10 songs to create to, the to 10 guest stars on your favorite show, top 10 characters in your favorite book series, top 10... well, you get the idea.

Can't think of 10 of anything? That's okay, 10 is just an abstract. It's totally up to you.

A gold snowflake ornament is nestled amidst pine boughs

( Read more... )

Current Mood: busy

rebeccmeister

I only just learned about this paper (note, opens a PDF). It was apparently published in The Annals of Improbable Research, but my introduction was via a link to a talk the author gave, here: https://youtu.be/yL_-1d9OSdk?si=YyldHEMEdFnW2uY7

I wonder how long it took the author to compose the paper.

mecurtin posting in

fandom_checkin

This is your check-in post for today. The poll will be open from midnight Universal or Zulu Time (8pm Eastern Time) on Sunday, January 11, to midnight on Monday, January 12 (8pm Eastern Time).

Poll #34071 Daily check-in poll

This poll is closed.
Open to: Access List, detailed results viewable to: Access List, participants: 24

How are you doing?

I am OK
15 (62.5%)

I am not OK, but don't need help right now
9 (37.5%)

I could use some help
0 (0.0%)

How many other humans live with you?

I am living single
7 (29.2%)

One other person
11 (45.8%)

More than one other person
6 (25.0%)

Please, talk about how things are going for you in the comments, ask for advice or help if you need it, or just discuss whatever you feel like.

torachan

1. We went to the Indian market today and got lunch there as well, as they also have a small restaurant (cafeteria style). Everything was so tasty!

2. I contacted someone about making an appointment for a tattoo! I figured now that I know what I want, I want to get it done sooner rather than later, so it's fully healed by the time we take our trip in April.

3. Carla got a new suitcase backpack. It's about the size of a backpack, but opens like a suitcase. I think all the cats tried it out yesterday, except maybe Molly.

lebateleur posting in

100words

Title: End of Season
Fandom: Heated Rivalry
Rating: G
Characters: Scott Hunter, Kip Grady
Notes: Spoilers for episode 5

( Read more... )

wintermod posting in

pinchhits

Event:

wintertime_woes_exchange, an exchange for unhappy endings
Requirements: 500 words, or a sketch on unlined paper
Pinch hit link: https://wintertime-woes-exchange.dreamwidth.org/5688.html
Due date:January 17, 11:59PM UTC

~~PH 5 - fic - Thunderbolts (Movie 2025), Moon Knight (TV 2022), Dragon Age (Video Games)~~

PH 6 - fic - Deltarune (Video Game), Team Fortress 2, I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream - Harlan Ellison, Hazbin Hotel (Cartoon), The Electric State (2025)
https://autoao3app.fandom.tools/#/wintertimewoes2025/user/Kaz3313

To claim, please comment at the pinch hit post linked above, or email wintertime.woes.exchange@gmail.com. Thank you very much!

wintermod posting in

wintertime_woes_exchange

The assignment due date has passed! Reveals are currently scheduled for January 18, 11:59PM UTC, just under a week from now.

These are the post-deadline pinch hits, due January 17, 11:59PM UTC:

~~PH 5 - fic - Thunderbolts (Movie 2025), Moon Knight (TV 2022), Dragon Age (Video Games)~~

PH 6 - fic - Deltarune (Video Game), Team Fortress 2, I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream - Harlan Ellison, Hazbin Hotel (Cartoon), The Electric State (2025)
https://autoao3app.fandom.tools/#/wintertimewoes2025/user/Kaz3313

To claim a pinch hit, please comment on this entry (all comments are screened) or e-mail wintertime.woes.exchange@gmail.com with your AO3 name and the pinch hit number or recipient name.