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The Day in Spikedluv (Sunday, June 29)

I didn’t have to be to mom’s until 9am this morning, so I was able to get some chores done before I left: I dried and folded yesterday’s load of laundry, washed another load and got it in the dryer, did some hand-washing of dishes, baked chicken for the dogs’ meals, paid some bills online, swept the hallway, laundry area and kitchen, returned another book to the library, and scooped kitty litter.

I had scheduled it so I would be relieved at ~3pm so I could actually make supper, so when I got home I did more dishes, emptied the dishwasher, made supper, did even more dishes, shaved, tossed a load of bath towels into the washer and remembered to also put them in the dryer.

I finished Fugitive Telemetry and started the next Duncan Kincaid book, and watched the current ep of Resident Alien.

Temps started out at 61.5(F) and reached 78.2 (that I saw at 3:30pm), but 85 according to Pip. It was cool in the morning, but sunny with a nice breeze in the afternoon.

Mom Update:

Mom was tired today. ( more back here )

Trapped In Yesterday (Hit The Floor, Jude/Zero)

Title: Trapped In Yesterday
Author:

brokenhighways
Fandom: Hit The Floor
Pairing/Characters: Jude/Zero
Rating: R
Length: 12,000 words
Summary: Jude Kinkade is the CEO of a fledgling sportswear brand, and he's ready to throw his Hail Mary pass and do whatever it takes to save his company. Enter Zero, a washed-up former player who's more known for falling out of clubs than his three championship wins. Desperate for some publicity, his head of PR, Jelena, convinces Jude to hire Zero as the face of the brand, but is this a comeback story in the making, or a reckless gamble that will destroy both their reputations for good?

Notes: Based on the summary for 'In the Heat of the Spotlight- Kate Hewitt'

Link: Here @ AO3

Current Mood: accomplished
Current Music: Murder She Wrote

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Write Every Day Day 30

I believe I started with Stephen King, seems good to end with him too

How is this month over already? I’ll be back tomorrow with the final tally. And on July first we move to

nafs’s blog for WED.

It was an editing day Got about 600 words and the penultimate chapter of Dandelions posted.

Let me know what day you’re reporting in for. If I've missed you on the tally let me know. Feel free to jump in at any time.

Day twenty -nine

cornerofmadness,

the_siobhan,

sylvanwitch,

badly_knitted,

trobadora,

ysilme,

goddess47,

carenejeans,

chanter1944,

( other days )

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Along Another Path (The Untamed/Teen Wolf)

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!admin

Admin Post: Deadline!

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Current Mood: crappy
Current Music: Svengoolie

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Writerly Ways

I almost went for links only but I started reading today a revised edition (I think it's moving from self pubbed to traditional) of a novel called Pantomine by L.R. Lam and the main character is intersexed (and apparently the series had been popular)

This seemed like the best thing to end Pride month on. Lam goes on to talk about what the series meant to fans and why it was being revamped and rereleased and they mentioned something I've been talking a lot to

evil_little_dog and

sysann recently. I've mentioned it here before. There is no ONE right way to be something.

Lam put it as 'no group is a monolith' and my works won't be for everyone. I feel that was most likely added to the author's preface because of the hate you can get on social media (someone eld and I both followed on YT/FB committed suicide in part over the pressures and the hate directed their way last week). I wish fans could understand that. All too often you get people tearing down someone because the experience they read in the book was not their experience and therefore not valid.

It's hard. You know you can't please everyone. You don't want to accidentally hurt a group of people. On the other hand, people do need to realize that their way isn't the only way either. For example (which I used before) several years back pre-Covid my local writers group had four trans members. Not one of them had the same path or level of acceptance from friends and family so when I see someone screaming 'that's not how it is to be trans' I think of this. By this hard stance, you're saying only one of those four people are right.

And it's not limited to that of course. You pretty much name a group or career and someone will be there to screaming that's not how it's done. So how, as an author, can you minimize that?

Do your research. Provide sources in the author's notes if you can. Get sensitivity readers if you can (which isn't always easy or affordable especially if you're a self pubber). Know you can't please everyone. Do your best.

Open Calls

Of Love & Dragons Love stories between dragons and humans (Dragon lords, princesses, etc)

Twisted Dreams Press is open to Horror Novels and Novellas

Horrorsmith Fear Forge Horror Novels

Bullet Points Volume 11 Dark military science fiction

Infested Publishing Is Open To Novels and Novellas from UK Authors

Ongoing Submissions: GRADEside Middle Grade & Young Adult Horror

A Breath of Time Love where time itself is conquered (time travel, time bending, etc)

Diabolical Plots 2025 Window Science fiction, fantasy, horror (everything must have a speculative element, even horror).

25 New Literary Magazines (Seeking Fiction, Nonfiction, and Poetry)

Flame Tree Publishing they have a couple of open calls

From Around the web

How Writers Can Stay Hopeful in a Tough Publishing Climate

Need a Good Book Editor? Top Up-to-Date Recommendations

The Power of Reddit: Reach Millions Through Ask Me Anything Events (I had never even thought of using Reddit)

The Secret to Avoiding the Sagging Story: What Makes a Good Middle

Notes from the Editor’s Desk: June 2025

4 Unique Writing Habits of Famous Writers

Ten Books in Ten Years: A Conversation with Indie Author Tank Gunner

6 Steps to Self-Publishing a Book.

Marketing Planning For First-Time Authors

From Betty

Six Common Problems in Short Stories

Eleven Signs Your Story Depicts Abuse

Do You Really Have to Use a 3-Act Structure in Fiction?
Reader Friday-That Stinky Mood

The 3 Components that Keep Your Story in Balance

Silence the Inner Critic

Series Words of Wisdom

Help! My Romance Draft Is a Mess (Now What?)

Writing 101: Semi-Colons & Other Tricky Punctuation Marks

Should You Write What You Know or Aim to Experiment?

How to decide if a writer’s retreat is right for you

Not Every Quirk Is a Flaw: How to Identify a True Character Flaw in Storytelling

Three Questions Writers Can Ask When Feeling Overwhelmed or Confused

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Into a Bar: Jazz and Vodka

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FIC: A Blue Box in Kensington Market (Doctor Who/Slings & Arrows)

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Fic: What if there's a world where we don't have to live this way? (EPIC/Saint of Steel)

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Fic: The Thing With Feathers (Dungeon Crawler Carl/Stargate Atlantis)

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reclaiming my space (again)

I’ve blogged for basically my entire adult life.

LiveJournal, Tumblr, WordPress, here. There’s something about having a corner of the internet that’s mine - a space that isn’t a feed, isn’t an algorithm, isn’t speeding past at a thousand miles an hour. I miss that.

Lately, I’ve mostly been posting on Tumblr about tennis. And I love talking about tennis, but it’s started to feel like that’s all I do.

I go to work, I watch matches, I read. Sometimes I write. Sometimes I stare at the same three WIPs and hope they move. I’ve been telling myself that doesn’t leave me with much to say. But maybe that’s not true. Or maybe it doesn’t matter.

So: I’m coming back to Dreamwidth. I want this to be a quieter space. A bit rambly. A bit nostalgic. More fandom and life and writing and less “keeping up.”

I’m really hoping the new sunshine_revival community will help with that too - it feels exciting, like something gentle and welcoming is starting to grow again. I’m looking forward to seeing what the prompts will be.

I also need to figure out commenting again. I overthink it. I draft something and delete it and worry it sounds weird or too much or not enough. But I want to try. I miss the part where we actually talked to each other.

What you’ll probably find here:

snippets from whatever fic I’m poking at (shifter AU, packfic, omegaverse feelings, etc)
trope talk and character rambling
soft lifestyle things: what’s comforting me lately, little rituals, sensory joys
maybe playlists or screenshot dumps or prompt games
and the occasional “three things that got me through this week” kind of post

I’m aiming for 2–3 posts a week for now. Nothing fancy, just enough to make this feel like a living space again. If you’re here: hi. I’m glad you are.

Here’s to slow internet, quiet posting, and the kind of connection that doesn’t need to be loud to be real.

Dance of Dreams (Octopath Traveler II - Agnea/Giselle)

Title: Dance of Dreams
Author:

rubylily
Fandom: Octopath Traveler II
Pairing/Characters: Agnea Bristarni/Giselle
Rating: Mature
Length: 8073 words
Summary: Giselle had always hoped that Agnea Bristarni would one day be more than just a dear friend. But on that day Agnea and her companions brought back the dawn, Giselle swore that her feelings would remain hidden forever.

A year later and Giselle and her traveling troupe are back in Tropu'hopu – and they've been asked to team up with Agnea for the performance of a lifetime on Tropu'hopu's famous floating stage! And it's clear that those long-buried feelings are still as heartachingly, pulse-racingly powerful as before…

Surely turning back the clock would be a bad idea… except that it feels so very, very right!
Notes: Inspired by Jennifer Taylor's Best Friend to Perfect Bride.
Link: Read on AO3 | Read on Dreamwidth

Current Mood: hot
Current Music: Criminal Minds

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WED Rec-Your-Work Post 2025

Usually

zwei_hexen does this around half way through and I meant to but this month has been on fire. So why not at the end(ish) Let's see what you've been working on all month if you want to share. The rules of the game are lifted directly from

zwei_hexen's usual post.

Do you have a passion project, not-so-guilty pleasure, hot obsession, or slow-burn romance with a fandom? Newest fics you posted? Chapter updates? If so, would you share it with us? Whether it's a 300K WiP or a double drabble, please feel free to leave us a link to it in the comments.

A few simple considerations:

Age restrictions and content warnings: Please keep in mind this journal is public and has no content warning. For your convenience, we've put in an age restriction to this post only, so you can also post headers and summaries to more mature-rated stories. However, please put in warnings if what you share might contain possible triggers and put any mature and/or NSFW content (images, text examples, etc.) behind a text link only, to keep this journal a safe place to visit for everybody.

Comment size, images and headers: As cuts don't work on comments, please crop/downsize images to 600 pix max for the longest side and limit text samples to about 20 lines. If you post an AO3 header with a wall of tags, please limit them to about 4 lines here and indicate that there are more.

For ease of browsing, please name your fandom in the subject line of your comment and consider making different comments for each fandom you’re sharing, if you’d like.

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask them here or to drop a note to

cornerofmadness

We’re looking forward to seeing what you’ve been working on! Also, please check out the older rec-your-work posts you can find under the link on the top right of the journal; we try to keep the fandom tags updated on these entries for your convenience.

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The Day in Spikedluv (Saturday, June 28)

Another long day. Hopefully the final one. Today was Ian’s graduation party. Thankfully I did not have to be to mom’s as early as I feared so sister A could leave to get set up for the party. She said I could get there between 9 – 10am, so I split the difference and got there at 9:30am. Then I took mom to the party. Sister S relieved me at 7:30pm.

I did manage to get stuff done before I left the house: two loads of laundry (one dried and folded), hand-washed some dishes and did a load in the dishwasher, scooped kitty litter, took the dogs for a short-ish walk, and dropped a book in the library return box on my way to mom’s. I did more hand-washing of dishes when I got home and tossed some laundry into the dryer.

I watched the current ep of Murderbot, finished my book and started another (Fugitive Telemetry, finally). And, of course, attended Ian’s graduation party.

Temps started out at 64.4(F) and reached 87 (according to Pip). He couldn’t have been far off because it got HOT. (It was still 79.2 when I got home after 7:30pm.) My sister had moved Ian’s party from a tent at her house to the local fire house because we were supposed to have scattered thunderstorms all day, but we didn’t get any.

Mom Update:

Mom did well yesterday. ( more back here )

Current Mood: sick
Current Music: Midsomer Murder

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Write Every Day Day 29

I tend to write the stories I want to read so…

1630 words on my Hazbin

wipbigbang mostly is meandering and off plot so we’ll see if I keep it. It’s mostly character dynamics stuff. I love doing that but I’m not sure it’s advancing the plot.

Let me know what day you’re reporting in for. If I've missed you on the tally let me know. Feel free to jump in at any time.

Day twenty -Seven

cornerofmadness,

sylvanwitch,

lilly_c,

badly_knitted,

cmk418,

trobadora,

china_shop,

carenejeans,

shadaras,

sanguinity,

china_shop,

the_siobhan,

brithistorian,

goddess47,

( other days )

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Fic: Serendipity (Mulan/Avatar: The Last Airbender)

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Current Mood: tired

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Tea. Lady Grey. Steaming.

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Current Mood: busy
Current Music: NCIS

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I have regrets

So yesterday I cut out the saplings (elm and ash) from my garden. I've been fighting the for years. I didn't get a chance before I left and with all that rain, they are more than sixty percent of the garden and the poison ivy from across the way is now everywhere too. Two years ago one of my two roses was half dead and then all dead last year. this year my remaining rose is nearly dead. It'll be gone by next year.

So I came to the sad conclusion I have to strip the garden down to bare earth. I can't win this fight. My disability makes gardening hard enough. Removing a shit tons of stumps and poison ivy is a bit beyond me. I'm waiting for the fall because I CAN save the lilies and I do have a lot of them.

I've been having my exhaustion episodes. Today was so bad I woke up, tried to read, fell back to sleep. Could hardly stand until 1 in the afternoon. I did what I wanted to do, dug into my bedroom closet and I learned nothing from doing the same in the coat closet. At least this didn't take 4 days to undo the mess but the living room is barely passable and my bedroom is barely usable but I put four garbage bags of shoes/purses/belts/clothes in the car for donation. 1 garbage bag of unsalvable garbage removed. two more piles of t-shirts sorted (one I can wear as work shirts the other are ones I want to use to do quilts)

Why did I still have 6 pairs of high heels in there? (argued with my boomer father over them because he's sure a) I'm too old and fat to be attractive b) women wear them for men only and still wear them in spite of me telling him I spend all my days with young women and for the most part they do NOT wear them any more and there aren't that many for sale in stores these days)

Why do I have a sweatshirt from 1987?

Why do I keep so much junk?

Why does cleaning make me so ill. I DID wear my damn mask. My chest is tickling. I'm coughing. My throat is sore.

I also have three giant bags of manga in there for donation. I managed to get most of it back in the closet. You can't tell i took out 5 literal bags of shit. I'm ridiculous.

And I'm not going to clean all the things I wanted to between selecting that closet AND finally opening the utensil drawers to find out the mouse shit in them. Well fuck. Now I have to go get my gloves, bleach, a better mask, new drawer inserts, fire.... I could cry

One of the artists I like for Hazbin's computer died and they were doing a live VA thing with the people they do that with so I chipped in a few bucks. At least there is something I don't regret about today.

I even regret not holding Rocket who was so desperate to sit on me at the computer he managed to tear bloody ruts in my leg trying to get up on my lap.

The Wedding's Off - Hi-De-Hi! - rated G, multiple ships

Title: The Wedding's Off
Author: colisahotnorthernmess
Fandom: Hi-De-Hi!
Pairing/Characters: Gladys/Clive (mentioned), Spike/April, Spike/Ted, Gladys/Jeffrey (implied)
Rating: G
Length: 1318 words
Summary: Glamorous Welsh beauty Gladys Pugh's husband to be left her standing at the altar and wedding planner Spike Dixon was only too happy to fill in. Be Gladys' husband. For however long she wanted. What better way to escape his unhappy relationship than by marrying his kind and caring friend-cum-colleague..?
Notes: Based on Society Page Seduction – Maureen Child

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/66857152

Current Mood: excited

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(no subject)

We are coming up to the point in the year where I usually post a warning that we are coming into the two weeks of the year where I get very excited about the sportsball...

...except, I don't know if you've noticed at all over the last year...

... but I haven't exactly *stopped* being very excited about the sportsball. At All.

I keep most of my squee and ramblings to my tennisblr but you can absolutely feel free to come friend me over there, should you wish to experience the full impact.

So. Um. FORZA JANNIK! 🧡🎾🦊😁