Network

Current Mood: impressed
Current Location: Bamberg

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Pluribus 1.09 (Season Finale)

In which Buffy Summers already knew that the hardest thing in this world is how to live in it, Carol.

( Spoilers have to choose between the girl and the world )

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life

season's greetings

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Penric's Intrigues 4th collection coming in HC from Baen

https://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_posts/26257104-penric-s-intrigues-4th-collection-coming-in-hc-from-baen

I am delighted to announce that the 4th Penric & Desdemona collection on paper is coming from Baen Books in May, 2025, to be titled Penric's Intrigues. (I believe we had some title brainstorming on that a while back in a comments section on this very blog. Titles are always a challenge...)

It will contain the novel-length The Assassins of Thasalon, and the novella "Knot of Shadows".

I proofread the galleys last week. Cover art is not yet available, but the copyright page lists the artist as Kieran Yanner. This is a new artist to me, but a visit to his website looks promising.

Amazon has a listing already -- www.amazon.com/Penrics-Intrigues-Worl...

I hope Baen will be encouraged to reprint the mass market paperbacks of first two collections, which have been out-of-print for a while. (All the hardcovers, plus the paperback of Penric's Labors, remain available.)

Ta, L.

posted by Lois McMaster Bujold on December, 23

https://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_posts/26257104-penric-s-intrigues-4th-collection-coming-in-hc-from-baen

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memes: music,
music

meme: 30 songs of importance, post #8

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Current Mood: calm
Current Location: the home office
Current Music: Ateez "Aurora"

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Dept. of Mouse Patrol

Return of the Cute but Awful Little Mammals

You know, the Rexulti I'm on is really doing its job; when I went into our south larder yesterday (we have two sets of shelving units in the closets of our office, two in the north closet and two in the south, which has absolutely nothing to do with the subject at hand) to get some things, I discovered mouse droppings and their attendant dried leavings. We had blocked off their access after their last incursion a fair while ago but, as is all too often the case, hunger and cold weather made them desperate enough to gnaw through the very fine steel wool and the anti-mouse block that is sprayed like spray-on insulation and dries to a pretty hard substance that we'd laid down.

Did I swear up a storm? Yes, yes I did. But I did not descend into the kind of simmering rage that previous mouse incursions caused me. Instead, after about ten minutes of being pissed off at the world, I calmed down. We pulled everything off the bottom two shelves nearest where we figured the mice had come through, and we spotted two or three spots where they probably wiggled themselves in. We decided how we'd handle this - coarser steel wool, to be laid over the previous anti-mouse block, taped into place, and then a further layer of the mouse block. The coarser grade of steel wool should be tougher for them to get through.

And all this is happening three days before Christmas, which I agreed to hold dinner for just a few days ago. Six of us - our best friends in Chicago and one of Andys best friends, who's in a tough emotional space right now, and who needs some support.

But I don't feel too stressed about all of this. Is it because of the new pill? Is it just delayed maturity showing up at the last minute? I don't know, and I don't think I need to know. We're going to defeat mus musculus; I'm going to cook a fine Christmas dinner with Bob's help. It's all going to be good.

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inkingitout 2026 sign ups open!

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Current Mood: bouncy
Current Location: Bamberg

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greek mythology

Homer adaptations. Strike 2

Aaaaand the first teaser for Nolan's Odyssey is out. In some ways, my "will be the opposite type of adapatation of The Return " expectation came true - i.e. firm emphasis on the adventure on sea part of the story - in some it didn't, because Nolan seems to go for a traumatized war veteran aura around Odysseus (and his men) as well. Also - is that Tom "Spider-Man" Holland as Telemachus? This conjures up a few weird images. Oh, and, to give credit where credit is due: the aesthetics are gorgeous.

Watch on YouTube

Speaking of Greek myths adaptations, I never read a single one of the books, but I am following the tv series adaption of Percy Jackson on Disney + and am charmed. Definitely much closer to the myths than either Disney's past endeavours (*cough* Hercules *cough* or Marvel's relationship to Norse mythology), though am confused to why the second season apparantly (we haven't seen him yet, he just keeps getting mentioned in dialogue) has decided to include Polyphemus as a villain and yet no one has mentioned ( a major mythological spoiler. )

There are still free spots on the January meme list. Greek (and Roman) myths opinions totally count as a topic. Ditto if you want me to speculate how the Odyssey would have been adapted by: a) Orson Welles, b) JMS (given the Tennyson of it all on B5), c) Ronald D. Moore. Bonus: Charlie Chaplin.

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biggles,
commentfic

the inevitable commentfic

Sholio wrote a wonderful variation on the evergreen 'presumed dead' trope and invited continuations, and since there are certain kinds of temptation I don't even bother trying to resist, I wrote some more for it.

Sholio's fic (second one down)

( 1400 words of waking up after being presumed dead (Biggles gen) )

Current Mood: bitchy
Current Location: the home office
Current Music: The furnace. Mmmm, heat ....

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Dept. of Fuck These Lying Fucks

Reasons to Swear Up a Storm, Part the Bazillionth

I'll not go over what this image is about, because y'all know it. Thank you, superbly foul-mouthed political commentator Jeff Tiedrich for showing it to me and many others.

Here you go:

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"Pillar Of The Community." (Wake Up Dead Man) G

Title: Pillar Of The Community.
Author:

lannamichaels
Fandom: Wake Up Dead Man (2025)
Rating: G
Archives: Archive Of Our Own, SquidgeWorld

Summary: Martha Grace Wicks, from her first murder to her last.

( Flashfic! )

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life

this too shall pass etc

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!mod

2026 promo banner

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Mistletoe Challenge and fic

I have been putting up my Christmas decorations, and amongst them are my amazing wonderful Biggles Christmas decorations, generously made and given to me by

debriswoman. I shared a photo of them on discord, and inevitably this led to taking them as a fic prompt, and so now we have the very informal Mistletoe Challenge. The rules are, the fics must be inspired by these decorations, and less than 1000 words because it's a busy time of year. I have made a little AO3 collection for any resulting fics,

silversmith has already written a fic, and having accidentally started something, I had to write a ficlet myself!

The Mistletoe Challenge collection, if anyone else wants to write a ficlet.

( a photo of the decorations, and my drabble sequence about them )

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Buzzword reading challenges 2025, a masterpost

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Current Mood: cold
Current Location: the home office
Current Music: BSG "All Along the Watchtower"

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Dept. of Memes

Music Meme, Day 16

A song from a television soundtrack:

The reimagined Battlestar Galactica was one of the best SFF shows of the 1990s - in fact, it may be the best SFF show of all time (with The Expanse only a hair behind it), at least in my opinion. Its soundtrack by composer Bear McCreary is a major engine driving the story, underlying the incredible writing and acting that made BSG the classic that it became. McCreary, who also composed for shows such as Outlander, for which he won an Emmy, became known during his tenure on all four seasons of BSG for what fans lovingly termed "the poundy drums." They're here in this song, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

In his reimagining (there's that word again) of Bob Dylan's All Along the Watchtower, McCreary did what I initially thought was impossible. Who could be arrogant enough to rescore that song? He was, and despite my initial wariness, I came to love his version even more than Dylan's. It plays during a key point in the show's third season, and the show's producers were absolutely right to go with it. I'm including two versions here: the one on the Season 3 soundtrack, and a live version that McCreary directed during a night of BSG music played live several years ago.

Watch on YouTube

Before I add the live version, here are my previous meme answers, starting with Day 13 (which has a link to the 12 previous answers, and adding Day 14 and Day 15.

Finally, here's the live version of the song.

Watch on YouTube

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life

in a state of wtf

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Current Mood: pensive
Current Location: Munich

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Pluribus 1.08

In which someone becomes Sheherazade, but is it Zosia or is it Carol?

( Spoilers go on the charm offensive )

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Benoit Blanc Cinematic Universe: Wake Up Dead Man (2025), aka Knives Out 3

Summary: Benoit Blanc investigates a locked room murder mystery taking place in a Catholic church on Good Friday, the victim is a Catholic priest named Wicks that no one really liked. And then Wicks rises from the dead, and more people die. An extremely convoluted movie, which I enjoyed.

Spoilers and the rest behind cut.

( Read more... )

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Beneath the Rising by Premee Mohamed

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Current Mood: impressed
Current Location: the home office
Current Music: Annie Lennox "Into the West"

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Dept. of Memes

Music Meme, Day 15

I've been surviving very cold Chicago; I've been adulting, doing the Green Card renewal (which the CIS folks just sent me two letters stating my case is "in process," huzzah) and getting my Rexulti program application for 2026 ready for delivery to my delightfully old-fashioned shrink and The Amazing Nicki, and spending more time than I should cooking and baking rather than reading. But it's time to put all that behind me and return to my music meme, at least until I can think of interesting things in my brain that others might like to hear about. Therefore, I bring you -

A song from a movie soundtrack:

I've read The Lord of the Rings trilogy more times than I can remember. I also watched the three movies, both theatrical and extended release, dozens of times in total, in theaters, and at home. I love both the books and, with caveats, the movies.

I believe that the ending of The Return of the King, the third movie, is as close to perfect as it could possibly be. A major reason is the song written by Annie Lennox and Fran Walsh, with music by Lennox and Howard Shore. The words, which take from one of Gandalf's comments to Pippin before the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, and speak of Elves being called home to the Undying Lands, get me every time.

This could have been the song I chose as one that makes me cry, but it's for that strange mix of grief, awe, and yearning that is somehow transmuted into joy. And of course Annie Lennox's voice is the wind that fills the sails as the ships leave the Grey Havens.

Watch on YouTube

Here is a link to Day 14 and to Day 13; should you desire, you can see what I yammered on about in earlier meme iterations.

.