As so often happens, I had several things I meant to post about and now they've mostly evaporated.

But I do know my tabs situation is staggering out of control. (Reliably over 1700 for at least the last couple of weeks.) Odds that I'll get to replying to all the posts I've read but opened in a tab to reply to later on...are currently very slim.

Have a link: Sarah Kurchak wrote about Heated Rivalry for TIME recently: "Heated Rivalry Handles Autism With Love, Care, and a Touch of Awkwardness".

Recently, I have become obsessed with buying doujinshi online, but my impatience means the wait of using a proxy has been wearing on me. It's like a paradox. Most doujinshi in Japan are quite cheap, from what I've seen, but the cost of international shipping incentivizes making slightly larger/weightier purchases to make the price of shipping 'worth it', which means its best to buy a handful of doujinshi at once. This wouldn't inherently be bad, but as I have to use a proxy service to buy them, the proxy fees add up REALLY fast, as they're typically charged by individual item/listing.

I tell myself it'll be better once I get the backlog out of the way, but if anyone knows any good places to buy doujinshi, let me know.

I did end up reactivating my old StoryGraph account, BTW. If anyone here is using it and feels like adding me, let me know. Especially if you have a different username there and you want me to recognize you, heh.

Challenge # 8

Talk about your creative process.

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.


And please do check out the comments for all the awesome participants of the challenge and visit their journals/challenge responses to comment on their posts and cheer them on.

And just as a reminder: this is a low pressure, fun challenge. If you aren't comfortable doing a particular challenge, then don't. We aren't keeping track of who does what.


I'm a plantser. I often write according to my muse, while also planning out where the story would go. But it varies from story to story. Sometimes I plan, other times I don't.

I post first to forums and my blogs, but these days there is hardly any feedback on the WIPs that way. (Most likely because I'm writing for a niche fandom, or if for a more popular fandom, writing a niche storyline or in a niche genre for that fandom.)

Then it would go to beta once an installment (or a sufficient portion of an ongoing saga) is complete, but that can be hit or miss.

I rewatched this one tonight, mostly for the Timov of it all, but also ...

( Spoilers for the episode )

The next Firewhiskey Fic event for the altered-states creation of fanworks along with lots of sociability amongst fellow participants will take place from Friday, February 13th to Sunday, February 15th. If you'd like to spend some time creating fanworks while either imbibing or doing the 420 in an environment of online partying with the FWF fen, join the comm at Firewhiskey Fic on Dreamwidth. No signups, no stress, no sobriety.

More info will be posted the week before the event.

Challenge #8

I'm posting a little early. I'm going to try to sleep tonight. What a concept.

16. Do you have a favourite genre of music?

I like so many things that it would be hard to pinpoint. I love musicals and love to listen to them while I work on a story. The next music is soft rock and classic rock. BTO, CCR, and ELO are three examples. I love some hard rock, but not too much. I listen to Christmas music all year long. I've even liked some by country artists. When it comes to Christmas music, I'll listen to just about anything. What about you? What is your favorite music?

Challenge #5

In your own space, create a list of at least three things you'd love to receive, a wishlist of sorts. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it and include a link to your wishlist if you feel comfortable doing so.

It's never a comfortable task, but I've gotten better at it with practice.

1. If you do any remote energy work, Reiki, etc., I could use some sent my way. I hurt my ribs on Sunday (left side), and it's actually hurting worse now than it was. Might have been the fact that I did quite a bit of walking yesterday. I didn’t think walking would make it worse, but I might have been wrong.

2. Yeah, I don’t have any expectations for this one, but if anyone has ever thought about writing a Miami Vice fic… (preferably Sonny/Rico). Or art, or songvid. It’s hard being in such a tiny fandom with so little content.

3.  How about a bit of self-promotion? Check out my community, vocab_drabbles It's a weekly prompt comm using mostly college-level and rarer words as inspiration. It's not just for drabbles anymore, as it grew beyond that quickly, but I haven't changed the name because I didn't want to confuse people (although it's a decision I've been contemplating) -- and Vocab Drabbles does have a ring to it. There are no deadlines, and we currently have fics in 115 different fandoms.

cultivativity is a community for cultivating creativity.

5soulmates is a prompt table writing challenge that focused on the soulmate theme

kingstoken has posted their 2026 Book Bingo Challenge.

kitarella_imagines is running Funuary, a fun/funny themed prompt challenge, through the month of January.

traumaticexperiences, a (psychological) trauma themed multifandom exchange, is open for sign-ups until January 16th, 8PM PST.

threesentenceficathon has posted their 2026 schedule. Prompting will open on January 17th.

seasonsofdrabbles, an exchange for the creation of drabbles and drabble variants which runs 4 times a year, is open for sign-ups until January 18th, 11:59PM EST. Nominations will also remain open until sign-ups close.

seasonalremix is a quarterly, trope-based multifandom event where you sign-up and write a 1-5k work that is a remix of some sort. The Winter Round is currently open for sign-ups until January 24th, 11:59PM GMT and you can find out more info (including where to sign up) HERE.

lul_soulmatesex, a soulmate themed exchange, is accepting nominations until January 25th, 11:59PM AM CST.

smallfandombang, a big bang for small fandoms, is open for artist sign-ups until January 31st.

ksspringfever, a Kirk/Spock community, is open for sign-ups and prompt collecting for Kirk/Spock Spring Fever until January 31st.

wipbigbang is running International Fanworks Day Mini Bang for works that are too short for the regular big bang (has to be less than 7.5k). The writing period started on January 9th and the earliest posting is February 1st and will go till the 15th.

crackthewip, a challenge to help you finish your WIPs, is running and accepting sign-ups during the first half of the year.

This was a rough week, but overall...positive?

Dad went ahead for the cardioversion and it WORKED--his heart is back in rhythm! Now we figure out the other heart stuff and see if he's still on for his knee replacement in a month.

I stayed slow and sluggish through, basically, this past Sunday. I drove up to the fam on Friday and napped, and every day until I came home Wednesday. I had planned to leave Tuesday and get in a half day at work, but I was too worn out. So I was going to leave in the late afternoon and nope, I had to nap. After which I felt much better, and have stayed mostly much better since.

I have Thursday mornings off, but I have a daily 10am alarm to remind me to drink water which works as an alarm so I don't sleep too late on non-work days. Alas, it went off in silent mode?! and I woke up 45 minutes later. I am super hoping this does not happen again!!

After being meh about the return of 9-1-1 last week, it ended up being one of my favorite episodes in the whole season! Go figure. The characters were written like they liked each other again, which is a low bar, but hey. I'll take it. Buck dated and invited over a man and a woman (different times), and it was great to see him happy and having fun. And also name dropping Tommy, in that he is still baking and hasn't had anything real since they broke up. I try not to hope, but I really do want Tommy back and with Buck. I wonder if tonight will be another good one.

I'm intrigued by the possibilities of this season on The Pitt, and there's already been fun moments. I'll probably watch it and 9-1-1 tomorrow, since I'm off. YAY.

I'm working Saturday, but we're off Monday for MLK and I am excited to have a stretch of days in my apartment! I have a lot of resetting and unpacking and tidying I want to do and, God help me, one last (potentially contentious) convention meeting to go to. E and I brainstormed ways to prepare and a plan for interacting, and I'm going to have reiki beforehand--that always resets my brain and emotions!

Plus there's DnD, Candy Hearts to noodle on, and fandom_empire is back, and now I get to play with Heated Rivalry things, too! It's fun having pretty new fandoms.

I'm about halfway through the first book in the book series, Game Changers, and basically enjoying it. I can absolutely map most of the characters to their MCU counterpart, and her writing style is 100% Ao3 house style, which isn't my preferred novel writing style. But it is absolutely fun and I'm very excited to get to Shane and Ilya in the next book!

I am feeling caught up and on the ball at work tonight, which hasn't happened in what feels like ages. So I will end on that happy note.

1. I am ridiculous and not even managing to keep up with Dreamwidth.

2. Just listened to Bujold's Penric's Demon in audio. Aww!

3. Watching Younger on Netflix, and wow, nothing dates an American show like all of the regular cast members being white. In New York. (Other than that, it's light fun and about what I'm in the mood for. Kind of like an Amy Sherman-Palladino show with less wealth porn.) Also started season 2 of The Pitt, despite intending to rewatch season 1 first.

4. (Burying the lede.) Andrew's surgery went well! We played two games of Scrabble this morning. I'm spending most of my time at the hospital.[a] Halle is confused by his absence and seeking an injunction.


[a] I've spent so long in North American fandoms that I've forgotten when we put "the" in front of "hospital", but I'm pretty sure this is one of those times, it being a specific hospital.