annavere | Network

I can say with some certainty that fandom's done more to influence my eating habits than anything else. Moving out of the dorms forced me to cook; people I knew from fandom helped shaped what I cooked and what I ate. The farmer's markets and keeping kosher are their own forces, and fellow fans are just as powerful.

Case in point: today I bought Duke's Mayonnaise because it was mentioned in a fic once. Because it's still something of a regional product, it took me a few months of checking around to find a place that carries it. But I did, again proving that if you can't find something in New York City, you aren't looking hard enough - and again proving that fandom is made up of taste-makers.

I'm thinking pasta and potato salads to work through the bottle I got, and buying another when tomato season rolls around.

Current Mood: recumbent
Current Music: nothing now

whimsyful

Once a Villain, by Vanessa Len

The third and final volume in the YA time travel urban fantasy Monsters trilogy, this definitely cannot be read without the previous two installments.

Continuing right where Never a Hero left off, the book starts off with main antagonist and Joan’s half-sister Eleanor having finally succeeded in creating a world where monsters rule over humans and she reigns over all, and the plot revolves around Joan and the othes desperately trying to find a way to undo this and return to the world they know.

First of all, I have to talk about that resolution to the love triangle—

major ending spoilers

I had suspicions from the structure of the earlier two books (ex. the division of page-time between the two male love interests) that Len might be going for a poly/throuple ending, but I wasn’t sure if she had the guts to go for it in a mainstream YA series. I’m very pleased to report that she did, in fact, have the guts to go for it! Even though generally the soulmate/predestined trope is not a romance trope I’m fond of, and having the predestined couple turn out to be actually be a predestined throuple all along only slightly mitigates my indifference, but otherwise I really liked how this played out. One of my worries was how she was going to flesh out the Nick/Aaron side of the throuple, but I thought Len managed to concisely convey the sense of a deep, intense relationship between the two in an alternate timeline, enough that I could buy the current versions working out—though I could have read an entire book about about gladiator!Nick and Scarlet Pimpernel!Aaron (hopefully the fanfic writers will tackle this).

The worldbuilding continues to be one of the most intriguing parts of this series, and in this installment I really liked the depiction of a dystopian alternate world where humans and part-humans were basically slaves. The time-travel continues to run on vibes and Doctor Who-esque rules, but I didn’t mind since we got some cool action sequences and juicy character interactions (in particular, I loved every instance where a character has to interact with a different timeline’s version of someone they cared about) out of it.

As for weaknesses, I thought Joan was a pretty reactive heroine in this book, and it did sometimes feel like she’s going along with the requirements of the plot instead of having a distinctive personality of her own that actively drives the plot forward. I also found the epilogue/ending to be a bit too unbelievably happy in terms how easily all the conflict between human and monster society were resolved—I would have preferred if it ended more on a hopeful work-in-progress instead. And as with the previous two books, I felt like the prose could have been prettier on a sentence-by-sentence level.

But overall, I quite enjoyed this trilogy, and thought Len explored some pretty cool ideas even if she didn’t 100% stick the landing. I’m definitely looking forward to her future works!

Goodbye, My Princess by Fei Wo Si Cun (trans. Tianshu)

A bit of an odd duck of a book. Translated Chinese webnovels have been steadily growing in popularity in the Anglosphere, but most of these are danmei (M/M). I’ve seen this book marketed as YA het fantasy romance, despite 1) covering some pretty mature topics (liked forced abortion), 2) there being exactly one fantastical element in the setting—a magical amnesia-granting river—and is otherwise full on historical fiction, and 3) having an infamous tragic ending, which would preclude this from being considered a romance by Western genre conventions. What this really is, is a tragic romance, and an excellent example of the genre.

mild spoilers under the cut

The plot: Xiaofeng is a cheerful, naive young princess from the desert kingdom of Xiliang who has been in a loveless arranged marriage with Li Chengyin, the crown prince of the Li empire, for the last three years. It has not been a happy union—Li Chengyin alternately fights with Xiaofeng or ignores her in favor of his preferred noble consort, and Xiaofeng mainly copes with the stifling nature of court life by crossdressing and sneaking out of the palace to roam the city with her faithful maid/bodyguard A’du. Then one day she encounters a stranger who claims to be her lost love from a life Xiaofeng can no longer remember. As Xiaofeng tries to piece together what had happened in the past, she and her husband finally start growing closer, but what she doesn’t realize is how truly brutal the royal court is, and that some memories are better left forgotten.

The entire main story is told entirely from Xiaofeng’s first person narration, which was a very effective and immersive choice. She is a naive, kind-hearted and trusting person stuck with limited language and cultural fluency in a foreign court stuffed to the brim with schemes and intrigues, and everyone knows it. So you only get a glimpse of all the political intrigue as they all fly completely over her head (these schemes only get explained in full in the epilogue/side stories told by the side characters) and have to try to figure out for yourself what’s actually going on. There is also an excellently done character progression as she slowly loses her innocence and happiness and is ground down into despair—her voice starts off rather silly and childish and then grows both more mature and much more sad.

The author Fei Wo Si Cun has a reputation for angsty, obsessive, incredibly asshole male leads who are basically a forest of walking red flags. But it worked very well for me in this story because it becomes very clear after a certain point that the male lead Li Chengyin is also the main villain and primary antagonist of the story. In fact, the book can be seen as a deconstruction of the common “kind-hearted naive princess marries a cold ruthless prince from an enemy kingdom and then they fall in love” trope/storyline. Li Chengyin is incredibly ruthless and cunning because that was the only way to survive the intrigues of the royal court and stay alive as crown prince. Xiaofeng’s warm and open-hearted personality is like catnip to someone with his personality, but being a monster who loves only one person does not make him any less a monster, and so he loves her but he also destroys everything that she loves, and it all ends in tears.

Overall, recommended if you’re in the mood for what’s essentially a perfect tragedy, starring a pair of lovers so doomed even being granted a clean slate and a second chance by Fate is not enough.

A note about the translation: the English translation is by Tianshu, and this is one of the best Chinese-English translations that I’ve read recently. There is no awkward “translationese” or jerky sentences—the prose flows smoothly and is downright lovely in many parts, and overall feels like a labor of love. I also liked the choice to link footnotes to all the bits of classical Chinese poetry that’s quoted in text. The one choice I’m puzzled by is the change in structure; the original novel (or at least the version I found online) had 42 chapters in the main story, plus some bonus chapters that are snippets from the POV of certain side characters (these are technically not necessary to read but highly recommended). The English translation aggregates the text into four very long chapters/parts instead, plus the bonus side stories. I’m not sure why Tianshu decided on this grouping, as this means there is no easy point to take a break in the middle of a very long part compared to the original.

The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System, by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu (trans. Faelicy & Lily)

My first danmei cnovel, and I had a great time! About Shen Yuan, a young man who hate-read the entirety of a super popular and clichéd cultivation harem webnovel and died while in the middle of raging about how terrible the writing and plot holes are...only to wake up having transmigrated into said webnovel, as the villainous mentor who will face a brutal end by the OP Gary Stu male protagonist. Now he has to somehow get into the guy's good graces to avoid his canon fate and fix the original novel's plot holes...and of course this being danmei he accidentally changes the romance from M/F one-dude-with-a-massive-harem to M/M along the way.

Shen Yuan's running commentary mocking the the cliches of the hackneyed harem cultivation webnovel he's been unwillingly transmigrated into were hilarious, and I also loved every instance where he had to stay in character as this cool and unmoved master while internally swearing and freaking out. He's also a very funny example of an incredibly unreliable narrator.

My only complaints were that 1) I wish the female characters got more to do (not unexpected for a danmei, but it’s still disappointing to have several intriguing and layered male side characters whereas all the side female characters are much more flat in comparison) and 2) that sex scene sure was...something. Still, this was incredibly fun to read, and I'm definitely going to check out MXTX's other works!

maevedarcy

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shadowkat

It was hazy and rainy all day, until I got home and the clouds parted and sun swam through along with gale force winds. Brrr.

So today, cubicle wall mate aka Art History Major (AHM) and I were discussing Broadway shows. Apparently they had seen Hades Town and it went over their head, they didn't get it at all. (Hades Town is a musical retelling of the Orpheus and Eurydice myth).
( Read more... )

Why can't I find people offline that like/love the same things I do? It shouldn't be this hard?

****

In other news...I decided to listen to and kind of watch the 60 Minutes expose of the El Salvador Prison from Hell - that the Trump Administration is sending all these people to. After CBS yanked the segment from the US's 60 Minutes broadcast yet somehow forgot to yank it from Canada's broadcast - where it accidentally aired, got leaked on the internet and subsquently went viral. It was leaked repeatedly on the internet by various folks (as often happens with banned and censored content that people know about) - and as a result - is now the most watched episode or segment of 60 Minutes and by the most people since 60 Minutes inception. (That's kind of huge, 60 Minutes goes back to...1968, so it's roughly 57 years of age. And it's certainly had huge stories in the past - it first aired during the Vietnam War and prior to Watergate). It's the curiosity factor. I admittedly watched for the same reasons. (And I wouldn't have - if it aired on CBS as previously planned - since I've not consistently watch 60 minutes in ages.)

Internet: 1
CBS (aka Skydance Media): 0

I found it on Instagram. They keep yanking it from Youtube, so folks put up their own recordings of it on TikTock and share on Instagram. It's really hard to censor things in the age of the Internet. We have too many social media platforms, and folks perfected the art of sharing censored or banned content back in the early 00s, while they were in junior high and undergrads in college. They know how to share stuff. I know how to find and share stuff, and I'm not techie in the least.

I don't think I need to go into the gory details? ( sigh a brief summary and my reaction )

***

It's windy here, but no rain at least. My knee still hurts whenever I go up or down steps. Considering it is multiple flights of steps, this makes sense. I have managed to limit it a little - by no longer switching trains at 4ths and 9th Streets. I also rescheduled my hair appointment for late February - to avoid the steps at that stop for as long as possible. Icing three times a day. Doing my exercises. Hopefully it will improve. I live in fear of the MRI.

***

Angel S3 - Episode 6 - Billy - is oddly enough one of the better episodes of the series. Small wonder - it was written by Tim Minear and Jeffrey Bell.

The episode is perfect noir thriller, except for one thing? It is a wicked and biting critique of the noir genre - by exposing the misogyny within it, calling it out, and giving it a ripe spanking. I was impressed. Not only does it comment on the misogyny in our society and culture (which both series do rather well and at a time period in which that rarely happened - this was 2001 before the Me#Too Movement), it also manages to move forward various character arcs, and set up two new star crossed romances that span the series. This episode blew me away - I'd forgotten it - and is a great companion piece to That Vision Thing (Episode 2 of S3).
( spoilers )

Buffy S6

I'm rather enjoying these initial episodes. I always did. The middle is the weak portion of the season. And I see the cracks in the various couples romantic lives.

Putting a pin in that.

It's late and I need to go to bed.

maevedarcy

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cephy

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clauderainsrm posting in

therealljidol

I'll be posting the poll in a bit, but it occurred to me that the time when the most people might be paying attention is when they are expecting a poll. :D

So this was as good of a time as any to add more on things from MY perspective. Because that's what we all need right, more of *me* talking about me! ;)

***
I *really* liked the Wheel concept but I think there were areas where I would do it differently.

-Having essentially a free pass on that first week instead of an "OMG" moment - due to one of the "everyone's back in the game' twists I think took away from the fear aspect. Granted, it might have been good because it made people a little less tense about what was coming, because they knew there were more chances to return to the game if one of them took them out. But it still would have been nice to have more of the "What did I just sign on for???" moment right from the jump. It gets people excited and talking. Even if they are complaining, they are still talking!

- Having too many "No Twists" on that first wheel - definitely a mistake. I wouldn't have even had the first wheel at all in retrospect. Again, it dulled the early stages when some of the more outlandish twists could have really made an impact. Maybe add a couple more "no twists" to the main wheel and just scrap that first stage one. The Wheel is the attraction here of this mini season and I think that would have highlighted the danger. I think things picked up once I got rid of some of the "No Twists" from the board... but I also had to ask the Wheel first if I could do that. If it had said "No", we would have had it for the entire time.

- Some of my favorite twists never saw the light of day, including ones that can not fit into a regular season. Unless people *really* want a Shrapnel vote. (that takes out people around the middle of the pack) or a Gary-only voting!! :D Those are just a couple examples. Ultimately, I think more of my favorite twists ended up not showing up than not. I WAS quite happy that Chekov's Gun made an appearance, even though it really only scratched the surface of what the potential for that twist could have been. I was sincere when I said it couldn't be used against ME, or Idol.... because someone could have legitimately ended Idol entirely if I hadn't said that. That's how much power you had to throw around, if I hadn''t limited it beforehand!!! The only boundaries were your imaginations. It was used to save someone from elimination, which was a decent use of it. But I was hoping for some bigger swings when it made another appearance. But of course, that's one of those powers that can NOT show up in a regular Idol season. Much too "Calvinball" even in my world. Wow though, there is so much more fun that could be had with it!

- Killers. Overall I thought the concept was fun in this limited space. There are some people who thought the Killers had too much power. In retrospect, I don't think I gave them enough. I would LOVE to have given them one "fake antidote" for the season. They could decide when to employ it. Someone thinks they are being saved - but WHAM, it was actually the poison, double damage! I can hear your horrified shrieks already!!! :D

- Giving the antidote to the person with the most votes was a mistake. I wanted it to force them to make tough decisions. But the reality is that they didn't end up spreading it around much... because they usually felt like *they* were the biggest potential targets, and they weren't wrong! When I made it so that everyone had a vote, that upped the potential for chaos... it also gave people incentive to try to find the Killers... and the Killers more of a chance to disrupt that vote away from themselves.

- Speaking of, I was entertaining the idea of a "smokescreen". Again, maybe you could only use it once... but when the Killers thought someone was onto them, even if it was an accurate guess, if the smokescreen was deployed, I wouldn't confirm or deny the identity of a Killer. So they stayed alive, but there was doubt.

- One of my favorite moments of this entire season was getting to see

legalpad819 navigate the early stages of the game as a Killer. Honestly, if I could have handpicked someone, it would have been her. She maneuvered the path so well.... between recruiting and poisoning... and staying one step ahead of the pack the entire time right up until the end stages of the game. Honestly, my only major regret is the reaction to her reveal. No one signed up to be a Killer. It was literally "play this hand you are dealt" or be poisoned. Fortunately the Wheel gave me someone who was a HUGE fan of reality TV, who wasn't one of the people most people think of if they are asked to name an Idol contestant who is a fan of reality TV.

She didn't get a single comment about her incredible entries this season in her goodbye post. Or even about what a great job she had done as a Killer. She was given an impossible task and performed it better than I could have ever imagined someone doing with it. (Even if there was a point that due to Recruits, she lost control of the vote because she was outnumbered, so had to navigate that for awhile) I won't lie, that's a regret because I felt like by being chosen by the Wheel for that task, she got shafted out of the love and respect she deserves as a long-standing member of the community and an incredible writer. None of the other Killers got that treatment, but I think because everyone realized she was Alpha, that she caught the backlash that wasn't deserved. Which feels horrible knowing that I caused that to happen,and hope that it doesn't carry over from this.

- Would I do another Wheel season? Maybe. I think there is a lot of potential that was left on the table. I do agree that it works better with more people. So maybe that opportunity has passed and we will never get another shot to see what it *could have been*... I do think that it also works better with a more interactive and active host. Which I was not this year. I haven't been in a bit due to being depressed. I'm sorry about that. I NEED to be in a better place mentally to do justice to the 20th anniversary. I want that to be a celebration and you can't really celebrate if the voice of the whole project is feeling hopeless. Kind of doesn't work! :D

- I don't know how this is going to end. But I really like our Final 3. I've read 2/3 of the entries (as of this moment) and looking forward to the 3rd. I'm hoping that it will be an epic showdown between 3 worthy opponents!

raspberryhunter posting in

yuletide

Recs in 18th CE RPF/Sieben Jahre, Chronicles of Chrestomanci, The Incandescent, Her Smoke Rose Up Forever (anthology) x 3 (!), Der Ring des Nibelungen, Some Desperate Glory.

musesfool

The first lines of each month meme, 2025 edition:

( 2025 first lines from each month )
***

Current Mood: cold
Current Music: Rangers vs Canes on tv

starwatcher 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 Monday, December 29, to midnight on Tuesday, December 30. (8pm Eastern Time).

Poll #34017 Daily Check-in

This poll is closed.
Open to: Access List, detailed results viewable to: Access List, participants: 23

How are you doing?

I am OK.
16 (72.7%)

I am not OK, but don't need help right now.
6 (27.3%)

I could use some help.
0 (0.0%)

How many other humans live with you?

I am living single.
7 (30.4%)

One other person.
10 (43.5%)

More than one other person.
6 (26.1%)

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.

luminousdaze posting in

iconthat

Please, remember to cast your votes in Challenge 199 - Voting. Only five people have voted so far, the poll will be open until Wednesday. Thank you in advance! 💠✨💠😊💠✨💠

mallorys_camera

Temps rose just high enough last night so that snow turned to freezing rain.

Morning came. The rain continued to fall, the temps continued to rise.

By noon, the driveway was coated in three inches of slush.

So, this afternoon, I spent two and a half hours shoveling slush. And another hour sprinkling 50 pounds of rock salt along the layer of brittle ice (impervious to shovels) that had formed on top of the frozen ground.

Hey! It's a long driveway, & fuckin' Icky—who just bought a Tesla—is too cheap to spring for asphalt. Once upon a time, the driveway was a gravel track, but now it's kind of a drove road (thank you,

puddleshark!) Temperatures are going to plummet back down again tonight. And I don't want to have to deal with a skating rink whenever I drive the car home.

Slush is heavy, & it was a lot of work. Thank God, I've been going to the gym! Even so, I'm gonna feel it tomorrow.

I suppose I should congratulate myself on being physically up to the task.

But instead, I blamed myself for not being able to outsource. I'm flush for the moment & would cheerfully have hired someone—but who do you hire? This ain't plowing. Inherently lazy, I guess. C'est moi.

shipperslist

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tellshannon815

tellshannon815

Doing this again:

Substitution list:
*Over 300 Pages
*Book in Series
*LGBTQ+
*Recommended
*POC Author
*Multiple POVs
*Classic/Retelling
*Sci-fi/Fantasy
*Free Space
*Anthology/Collection
*Biography/Memoir
*Friendship
*Name in the Title
*Movie/TV Tie-in
*With a Woman Protagonist
*From the Library
*Thriller/Suspense
*Set Somewhere You've Been
*Non-Human POV
*Fairy Tale or Fairy Tale Retelling
*Under 100 Pages
*Romance Plot or Sub-plot
*Translated
*With a Blue Cover
*Horror or Paranormal
*Colour in the Title
*Seasonal Read
*Number in title
*Three word title
*Craft, Hobby or Cookbook
*Written by an author from your state or country
*Animal on the cover
*Disability or Mental health
*Read a book from the year you were born
*Mythology
*Title begins with first letter of your name
*Dystopian
*Book mentioned in another book
*Diverse reads
*One word title
*Award Winning/Bestseller
*Disabled Author
*Non-western Setting
*Set in your state/country
*Title is at Least Five Words Long
*Indigenous author
*Has illustrations (but not a comic or graphic novel)
*Re-read

silverusagi

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Current Mood: good

kalira posting in

smallfandomfest

Title: Ruined Bedsheets
Author:

kalira
Fandom: Marginal Prince
Ship/Characters: Ivy/Stanislav
Rating/Category: M/Slash
Prompt: Marginal Prince (anime), Ivy/Stanislav, bloodstains and bedsheets
Spoilers: N/A
Summary: Their playtime can be a little rough on the bedding. And the furniture. . . And each other, for that matter. And why not?
Notes/Warnings: implied/off-screen consensual bloodplay
Wordcount: 950

Read on AO3

luzula

Day 28: Busy with family; alibi sentence. How about you?

Tally:
( Read more... )
Day 28:

luzula,

china_shop,

badly_knitted,

trobadora,

brithistorian,

goddess47,

sanguinity,

sylvanwitch,

chestnut_pod,

cornerofmadness,

garonne,

brithistorian,

Day 29:

luzula,

china_shop,

garonne,

brithistorian,

stonepicnicking_okapi posting in

100words

Title: The wrong holiday
Fandom: Sherlock Holmes (ACD)
Rating: Gen
Notes: Mrs. Hudson is not amused.

( Read more... )

swan_tower

Man was this an unusual year for me and publications.

Not the part where I didn't have a novel out. That's happened before, and it will again, thanks to the vagaries of scheduling; I have years with multiple novels out which more than make up for it.

And not really the part where I only published two short stories, thanks to a drop-off in my production of new stories (after an absolute flood of short fiction writing for a few years prior). Those are:

"The Poison Gardener" (Sunday Morning Transport, paywalled)

"Mrs. Patterson's Home for Landlocked Men" (Flash Point SF, free to read online)

No, the unusual part is where I published EIGHT POEMS in 2025. There are plenty of poets who outpace that, but for me it's a lot! All are either free to read online, or out of their period of exclusivity so I have made them available myself:

"Hermit of the Crossroads" (terza rima, Haven Spec)

"Among the Briars" (villanelle, Rialto Books Review)

"Axis Mundi" (inverse mirror fib, Eye to the Telescope)

"Story Sits in Places" (rhyme royal, Worlds of Possibility)

"Hallucination" (free verse, Merganser Magazine)

"Cutting the Cord" (rhymed quatrains, Small Wonders)

"The Great Undoing" (modified sonnet, 4LPH4NUM3R1C)

"Our Rewards" (villanelle, Merganser Magazine)

. . . actually, I published nine poems, but one of them is a piece I tucked into one of my own self-pubbed collections as a bonus piece. There were two such collections this year:

The Atlas of Anywhere (secondary world fantasy; a "sequel" of sorts to Maps to Nowhere)
A Songbook of Sparks (stories based on folksongs; a "sequel" of sorts to A Breviary of Fire)

So that's it for 2025! I have three things slated to come out in January, though -- a short story and two poems -- so I'll be hitting the ground running next year. Let's see what else 2026 has in store!

(originally posted at Swan Tower: https://is.gd/9nTgOX)

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annavere

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Recent Reading: Asian Fantasy + Romance

End of the Year Reading Update

Monday Monday....Rainy Days and Mondays...

Snowflake Challenge 2026

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Daily Check-In

more voters needed

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needy trees!

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Fanfic, Marginal Prince, Ivy/Stanislav, bloodstains and bedsheets

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