29 August 2025 @ 06:58 am
Hello investigators, criminal masterminds, and citizen detectives,

The collection is still set to open on Friday 29 August at 11:59pm EDT! [ In your timezone + Countdown. ] That's in over 24 hours from now!

Please ensure you finish your last round of edits before this time.

We have many amazing works in the collection that I can't wait for you to see. :)

See you tomorrow!
 
 
28 August 2025 @ 06:11 pm
I had a dentist appointment yesterday morning and I was hoping it would be the conclusion for treatment and I'd emerge with my permanent crown. No such luck, although things looked hopeful for a while. The dentist thought she'd found the right root canal, but it still eluded her. So she's referring me to a specialist for finishing off the root canal treatment and after that's done, I'll go back to her for the crown. She was confident the specialist would be able to sort out the root, so I'm hopeful. I certainly don't like the sound of the alternative, which is having her remove the tooth altogether and being referred to an implant specialist.

After the delivery fail on Friday, I immediately requested re-delivery to the nearby post office for Tuesday, but when I checked the tracking at Tuesday lunchtime, it looked like the request had disappeared into the ether: I could see it in the tracking but I'd never received any confirmation of it and the latest tracking status referred to the item's return to the delivery office on Friday. Despite the tracking page suggesting I should use one of the options to arrange the next steps, it didn't actually offer any. So it seemed to me the only option was to make a trip to the delivery office, which I did yesterday after work, and was able to pick it up. Now I have my new passport ready for arriving in Finland on Saturday.
 
 
27 August 2025 @ 08:03 pm
Finished since the last reading post
The Hollow Crown, which was very readable, but apart from being able to talk about the death of Richard III based on the recent archaeological research, I don't think it added much to what Lancaster and York that I read earlier this year talked about.

A Merciful Sea by Katie Daysh, the third book in her Nightingale & Courtney trilogy set in a Napoleonic wars and navy context.

Currently reading
Omon Ra by Victor Pelevin in Andrew Bromfield's English translation

Reading next
Not sure
Tags:
 
 
 

I'll start with the tl;dr summary to make sure everyone sees it and then explain further: As of September 1, we will temporarily be forced to block access to Dreamwidth from all IP addresses that geolocate to Mississippi for legal reasons. This block will need to continue until we either win the legal case entirely, or the district court issues another injunction preventing Mississippi from enforcing their social media age verification and parental consent law against us.

Mississippi residents, we are so, so sorry. We really don't want to do this, but the legal fight we and Netchoice have been fighting for you had a temporary setback last week. We genuinely and honestly believe that we're going to win it in the end, but the Fifth Circuit appellate court said that the district judge was wrong to issue the preliminary injunction back in June that would have maintained the status quo and prevented the state from enforcing the law requiring any social media website (which is very broadly defined, and which we definitely qualify as) to deanonymize and age-verify all users and obtain parental permission from the parent of anyone under 18 who wants to open an account.

Netchoice took that appellate ruling up to the Supreme Court, who declined to overrule the Fifth Circuit with no explanation -- except for Justice Kavanaugh agreeing that we are likely to win the fight in the end, but saying that it's no big deal to let the state enforce the law in the meantime.

Needless to say, it's a big deal to let the state enforce the law in the meantime. The Mississippi law is a breathtaking state overreach: it forces us to verify the identity and age of every person who accesses Dreamwidth from the state of Mississippi and determine who's under the age of 18 by collecting identity documents, to save that highly personal and sensitive information, and then to obtain a permission slip from those users' parents to allow them to finish creating an account. It also forces us to change our moderation policies and stop anyone under 18 from accessing a wide variety of legal and beneficial speech because the state of Mississippi doesn't like it -- which, given the way Dreamwidth works, would mean blocking people from talking about those things at all. (And if you think you know exactly what kind of content the state of Mississippi doesn't like, you're absolutely right.)

Needless to say, we don't want to do that, either. Even if we wanted to, though, we can't: the resources it would take for us to build the systems that would let us do it are well beyond our capacity. You can read the sworn declaration I provided to the court for some examples of how unworkable these requirements are in practice. (That isn't even everything! The lawyers gave me a page limit!)

Unfortunately, the penalties for failing to comply with the Mississippi law are incredibly steep: fines of $10,000 per user from Mississippi who we don't have identity documents verifying age for, per incident -- which means every time someone from Mississippi loaded Dreamwidth, we'd potentially owe Mississippi $10,000. Even a single $10,000 fine would be rough for us, but the per-user, per-incident nature of the actual fine structure is an existential threat. And because we're part of the organization suing Mississippi over it, and were explicitly named in the now-overturned preliminary injunction, we think the risk of the state deciding to engage in retaliatory prosecution while the full legal challenge continues to work its way through the courts is a lot higher than we're comfortable with. Mississippi has been itching to issue those fines for a while, and while normally we wouldn't worry much because we're a small and obscure site, the fact that we've been yelling at them in court about the law being unconstitutional means the chance of them lumping us in with the big social media giants and trying to fine us is just too high for us to want to risk it. (The excellent lawyers we've been working with are Netchoice's lawyers, not ours!)

All of this means we've made the extremely painful decision that our only possible option for the time being is to block Mississippi IP addresses from accessing Dreamwidth, until we win the case. (And I repeat: I am absolutely incredibly confident we'll win the case. And apparently Justice Kavanaugh agrees!) I repeat: I am so, so sorry. This is the last thing we wanted to do, and I've been fighting my ass off for the last three years to prevent it. But, as everyone who follows the legal system knows, the Fifth Circuit is gonna do what it's gonna do, whether or not what they want to do has any relationship to the actual law.

We don't collect geolocation information ourselves, and we have no idea which of our users are residents of Mississippi. (We also don't want to know that, unless you choose to tell us.) Because of that, and because access to highly accurate geolocation databases is extremely expensive, our only option is to use our network provider's geolocation-based blocking to prevent connections from IP addresses they identify as being from Mississippi from even reaching Dreamwidth in the first place. I have no idea how accurate their geolocation is, and it's possible that some people not in Mississippi might also be affected by this block. (The inaccuracy of geolocation is only, like, the 27th most important reason on the list of "why this law is practically impossible for any site to comply with, much less a tiny site like us".)

If your IP address is identified as coming from Mississippi, beginning on September 1, you'll see a shorter, simpler version of this message and be unable to proceed to the site itself. If you would otherwise be affected, but you have a VPN or proxy service that masks your IP address and changes where your connection appears to come from, you won't get the block message, and you can keep using Dreamwidth the way you usually would.

On a completely unrelated note while I have you all here, have I mentioned lately that I really like ProtonVPN's service, privacy practices, and pricing? They also have a free tier available that, although limited to one device, has no ads or data caps and doesn't log your activity, unlike most of the free VPN services out there. VPNs are an excellent privacy and security tool that every user of the internet should be familiar with! We aren't affiliated with Proton and we don't get any kickbacks if you sign up with them, but I'm a satisfied customer and I wanted to take this chance to let you know that.

Again, we're so incredibly sorry to have to make this announcement, and I personally promise you that I will continue to fight this law, and all of the others like it that various states are passing, with every inch of the New Jersey-bred stubborn fightiness you've come to know and love over the last 16 years. The instant we think it's less legally risky for us to allow connections from Mississippi IP addresses, we'll undo the block and let you know.

 
 
This “15-minute challenge” is filtered


links to past installments )

the usual details )

 
 
24 August 2025 @ 06:32 pm
A lot of reading I did this summer was for class, but I also managed to read a bunch of other stuff.

I read Shakespeare's 3 Roman plays, as mentioned in the last Reading Frenzy Post, this year's choices for Shakespeare Summer: Coriolanus, Julius Caesar, and Antony and Cleopatra. The first two were re-reads for me; the last was a first-time read. I'd seen Antony and Cleopatra performed, but had not actually read it, so this was a first-time read for me on that. The choice of these plays for this summer were spot on, and the specific timing of Coriolanus for Pride Month was *chef's kiss*.

News for All the People: The Epic Story of Race and the American Media by Juan GonzĂĄlez and Joseph Torres: this was the recommended book for the Race, Media, and International Affairs 101 class that I talked about briefly here, and select chapters were used in the class. I highly recommend this book (and the class has been excellent, too -- it goes through the end of August). The ebook is nearly 500 pages and thoroughly researched. It's a great and informative read and provides a solid primer of the background of media and its development in the U.S., how it was influential in pushing colonialism, shaped attitudes toward race and perpetuated stereotypes, often fomented violence; as well as exploring the history and information that was suppressed, and events that were all but erased. And it gives homage to the legacies, sometimes limited, of foreign-language press in the U.S., including Spanish-language papers, Chinese-language papers, etc., as well as non-white journalists and writers, many who are not remembered.

Dracula My Love by Syrie James: Dracula told from Mina Harker's point of view. I was not as thrilled with this as I expected to be. The beginning was interesting, but as it went on it felt too long -- though it's possible that it felt that way to me because I already knew the twists and turns of the plot. It wasn't a terrible read, but I just came away from the book feeling meh about it.

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford: This book was so good. Told from the point of view of Henry Lee, a Chinese-American who grew up in Seattle's Chinatown during World War II, the book opens in 1986 at the Panama Hotel, once a part of Seattle's Japantown and now re-opened under new ownership after being boarded up for decades. The new owner of the hotel has discovered a basement full of belongings of Japanese families who were sent to internment camps during World War II and left their belongings that they couldn't take for safekeeping. Henry is part of the crowd that witnesses the owner announcing what she found and displaying one of the items she found. The novel then moves back and forth between 1942, detailing the bonding and blooming friendship forged between Henry and Keiko Okabe, a Japanese schoolmate whose family is eventually evacuated to an internment camp, and 1986 and the Panama Hotel, where Henry gets permission to explore the basement and search for Keiko's family's belongings. It's a beautiful story, beautifully written, and really worth reading.

this is getting long so putting the rest under a cut )
 
 
I hath stolen this fic writer questionnaire from [personal profile] maevedarcy:

Which of your fics is your pride and joy?

Uhhhhhhh... not sure! I still think Two Truths and a Lie (Oz) is the best fic I've ever written.

But I have a really, really big soft spot in my heart for the absolutely redonk crackfic that is Squid Pro Quo (Forever Knight). Not even close to the best thing I've ever written, but it has a colossal tentacle monster and I am just not sure anything will ever make me happier than that.

What are your top three most commonly used tags on AO3?

Counting only the non-character, non-ship tags: Drabble (most from like 20 years ago for [community profile] hardtime100), Case fic, and Flashbacks.

What’s something you learned while researching a fic?

A few things:

In the 1950s, KY was by prescription so... writing 1950s smut problems lol.

Also, unrelated, I learned that originally, female RCMP officers had very different uniforms than the male officers. The female officers did not like them and in the 90s, they were permitted the same uniforms.

I have learned a lot about the history and government of Renaissance-era Venice.

Is there a character or ship you’d love to write for, but haven’t yet?

Fleur from Forever Knight.

What makes a fic ‘successful’ in your opinion?

If I enjoy reading it. I do actually go back and read my own fics from time to time. Operating in tiny fandoms, my expectations for kudos/comments are low (though FK and Oz fans tend to be generous <3).

What makes you happiest? New fic comments, kudos, bookmarks, user subscribers, story subscribers, or Tumblr asks?

New fic comments, 100%. (I don't actually know what "Tumblr asks" are to have an opinion about that.)

Does anyone you know in real life know you write fan fiction?

Yep.

Did you do anything special to celebrate finishing a fic?

No, but now I feel like I should.

What’s a story you’d love to write but haven’t even started yet?

A Grantchester "Christmas episode" fic. They only ever did one set at Christmas and I would enjoy that kind of thing again.

Do you ever prep your fics with outlines or warmups before you start writing, or do you just dive right in?

I'm all over the place in how I approach things.

How many times do you usually revise your fic/chapter before posting?

3.25 million times. Plus one more time. Plus again even after I post it.

A character you enjoy making suffer.

Well... I really hated Thomas Monroe from the Forever Knight episode "Faithful Followers" and enjoyed having a giant squid shove him in its gaping maw.

A character you want to protect.

Leonard Finch (Grantchester). At all costs.

What is your favorite fic to get comments/messages on?

I don't have a favorite per se. It is fun to get comments on the really, really old stuff though.

What fic took you the longest to write?

Dust to Dust (Forever Knight). It was a long story so it took me a while to write it. Off and on, over a year. I have another I've been working on (again, off and on) for over two years, but I swear it shall some day see the light of day.
 
 
23 August 2025 @ 03:43 pm
I imagine that several of you will be interested to learn that there's a new [community profile] vampiremedia community, devoted to "all things vampires." It's currently running a recommendations event. :-D Enjoy!

It's not for me, of course. Each to her own! I don't want to yuck your yum! Please skip the rest of this post if it bothers you that not everyone enjoys vampires.

I hope that it's okay to say, here in my own journal, that I personally find no appeal in vampires as a trope. As a metaphor, sometimes! But, mostly, it's just not for me. I love Forever Knight for its complex interplay of history, mystery, and metaphysics, with what I continue to insist, against all fandom opposition, are its beautiful and rich themes of choosing the hard right over the easy wrong, self-sacrifice over selfishness, salvation over power. And I love Dracula by Stoker as B-grade imperial-panic Victorian literature that tapped into our common humanity at a depth it had no right to yet absolutely owns. I appreciate Carmilla by Le Fanu as literary innovation and accomplishment... BtVS and AtS, of course, for their early excellencies that you know well... the UK version of Being Human... a nod to Tanya Huff... and that's it. That's all. You may notice that none of these stories try to suggest that vampirism is a good thing.

(I opened Twilight once and retreated before the acute adverb poisoning. I'm pretty sure that I was too born too old to enjoy Twilight.)

 
 
Hello investigators, criminal masterminds, and citizen detectives,

It's been a fortnight since you last heard from me. I have some great news.

The collection will be opening on Friday 29 August at 11:59pm EDT. [ In your timezone + Countdown. ]

All of the cases that were needed to be completed in order for us to open are in. Please take this time to review your assignment and ensure that you've dotted your i's and crossed your t's and added any tags that you've left off so others can find your work within the collection and your fandom tags.

If you're still jonesing to get your hands dirty with investigations, may I invite you to have a look at our pinch hitter's treats and have a look around the AO3 app to see if there's anyone else you'd like to create a gift for. Treats do not have to be 3,000 words minimum or its equivalent and they do not have to have a beginning/middle/end of a case being fully solved.

If you have any questions, please email me at gumshoeagency@gmail.com.

Thank you again to our wonderful pinch hitters for working hard to help us get all our cases solved! (If you'd like to put yourself up for a treat, please do head on over to the post!)

See you next week! đŸ©·
 
 
22 August 2025 @ 03:50 pm
If you're like me and enjoy low-key fandom challenges, [community profile] 1character looks to be a fun one. (Thanks [personal profile] trillingstar for sharing about it.)

You claim one character, pick a theme set (each set contains 50 prompts), and write 50 sentences inspired by the prompts in the theme set.

You can kinda do whatever you want with it. Write a story that incorporate the sentences. Or just write a single sentence for each prompt, not connected to any story. Sentences can be in any order. Once you claim a character, you get 3 months to finish.

Straightforward, low presh, my kind of thing.

And BTW, no one has claimed any FK characters yet.
 
 
22 August 2025 @ 06:20 pm
I knew it was a possibility, so it wasn't a great surprise I was out at the dentist when the postie attempted to deliver my passport on Wednesday morning. Looking at the tracking, it seems I'd been gone for about 10-15 minutes when he tried. That makes more sense than the time written on the "Something for you" card, which was later than when I actually got back home from the dentist, and the card was waiting for me.

No worries, I thought, and booked a re-delivery for today. I've sometimes noticed that Friday rounds seem to happen later than some of the other days, but it didn't occur to me at all when I was looking at the options. I did remember it when the tracking on the app said the expected delivery window was from 12.37pm to 4.47pm. I was actually planning to finish work by 4pm and be out of the house soon afterwards, but I had to wait. And wait. By the time it was 5pm I was mostly convinced it wouldn't be delivered today, but on the chance it might I felt I couldn't go until the tracking said something definite about it. And eventually it did, with a delightfully untruthful "Delivery attempted" update about an hour after the end of the expected window. I don't think any delivery was attempted, I think it just went back to the depot; certainly there was no new "Something for you" card. But by then it was late enough that my plans for tonight, to go to London for tonight's Prom, were out of the window.

Rather than endure another round of this, instead of hoping to be home for it on Tuesday (when I'm planning to be in the office), or Wednesday (another dentist appointment in the morning), I've booked a re-delivery to the nearest post office for Tuesday.
 
 
20 August 2025 @ 09:45 pm

Navigation: Rules/General Info | AO3 Collection | Sign Up Info | Medium Rulesets | Mod Contact: ficinaboxmod@gmail.com OR Screened Mod Contact Post

Swap Requests

Swaps is the part of the exchange where you can trade in 1k increments of your assignment for 1k increments of other assignments!* Requests for swaps are open until September 7th and the mods will finalize the swaps over the next few days. Swaps are voluntary, so you don't have to give up any part of your assignment if you don't want to. We also can't guarantee that you'll be able to swap, although the more people who send in swap requests the more likely it is!

Non-participants who want to pick up swaps are invited to join in.

(* The rest of this post is going to talk about wordcounts in increments of 1k, but obviously if you are a fanartist or podficcer or something it's equivalent wordcount. Just, that would get really wordy to write every time...and we need a sheet to do the swap math for us...)

Swaps FAQ

Click for answers to questions like:
  • What & why are swaps, in more detail than above?
  • What happens if I don't submit any swap requests?
  • Why are Swaps open when I don't know what my initial assignment will be yet?
  • If it turns out I like/dislike my initial assignment more than I thought, can I change my mind about my swap requests?
  • The instructions below ask for usernames for swap requests. Can't I just tell you what fandom/ship/medium I'd like to swap for? How do I find requests I'd like to submit swaps for?
  • I just want to make lots of stuff for lots of people, but I'm not picky about the details. What's easiest?
  • I'm extremely picky, can I give you a specific max swap wordcount for every swap I request? How do I increase my chances of getting one or more swapsignments?
  • I definitely want to keep a full 10k assignment, can I still participate in swaps?
  • I'm not signed up, can I submit a swap request and get a swapsignment?

What & why are swaps, in more detail than above?
Fic In A Box allows participants to split their 10k assignments up into multiple gifts – ten 1k fics, or five 2k fics, and so on. We also allow pinch hits to be picked up in 1k increments. In this way, you can think of every full 10k assignment as actually being made up of smaller 1k assignments, since each gift needs to be 1k or more unless certain length opt-ins are selected.

It's definitely fun to make a bunch of small works for the same person, but it's also fun to make a bunch of small works for a whole bunch of different people. Especially because there might be requests out there that you could make 1k for, but not a full 10k.

Swap requests let you tell the mods, "Hey, I actually don't want to do all ten of my 1k assignments for the same person, can I trade some wordcount in?"

For example:

  • After sign ups end you might find that your initial assignment is for X. You know you could create a full 10k for X, but maybe they haven't opted into any extra mediums, and you wanted to do some art for FIAB.
  • Looking around the requests, you see that A, B and C are all requesting art mediums you can do for fandoms/relationships you're interested in.
  • You submit a swap request form telling the mods:
    • You'd like the following swaps:
      • 1k for A
      • 3k for B
      • 1k for C
    • You need at least 2k for B because you want to make them a comic at least that long.
    • You want to keep at least 7k of your initial assignment for X.
    • You don't want more than 3 recipients total.
  • The mods get a whole bunch of swap requests like the one above and then do a huge spreadsheet puzzle to figure out who can actually swap what.
  • In the end, you will either get an email letting you know we couldn't make any of your swaps happen

  • 
or you will get an email with telling you about your swapsignments, which might be any of the following:
    • You've kept 7k of X, and now have 1k of A & 2k of B
    • You've kept 7k of X, and now have 1k of C & 2k of B
    • You've kept 7k of X, and now have 3k of B
    • You've kept 8k of X, and now have 1k of A & 1k of C
    • You've kept 8k of X, and now have 2k of B
    • You've kept 9k of X, and now have 1k of A
    • You've kept 9k of X, and now have 1k of C

What happens if I don't submit any swap requests?
You will get your initial assignment email from AO3 and that will be your full and only assignment. You'll need to make 10k worth of gifts for your recipient. This is a perfect fine and normal way to participate in Fic In A Box! Swaps are completely optional.

Why are Swaps open when I don't know what my initial assignment will be yet?
Some people know they'll want to swap no matter what their initial assignment is. Other people will be traveling for the rest of sign ups, or only rarely have access to the internet, so they wouldn't be able to submit any swap requests if we only had them open after sign ups close.

If it turns out I like/dislike my initial assignment more than I thought, can I change my mind about my swap requests?
Yes! Swap requests aren't final until swaps close, so if you change your mind about something just submit a new swaps request form. We'll use the most recent one.

The instructions below ask for usernames for swap requests. Can't I just tell you what fandom/ship/medium I'd like to swap for?
We have to handmatch swap requests, so it's too complex/time consuming for us to figure out which users are requesting the things you want to make for you. The big swaps puzzle spreadsheet we use only shows wordcounts and usernames.

If you really don't want to look through all the requests to find ones you really like, then you can select the "I would like to be able to swap to anyone I might be matchable to on AO3" checkbox and make your AO3 offers as broad or narrow as you'd like. Please remember swaps aren't guaranteed, so you shouldn't offer anything you can't make 10k for.

How do I find requests I'd like to submit swaps for?
Since the AO3 requests summary is terrible, use the Automagic App (link) to search requests!

I just want to make lots of stuff for lots of people, but I'm not picky about the details. What's easiest?
Use the google form to tell us the following:

  • I want to be assigned a total max of 10,000 words after swaps.
  • I want to keep at minimum none of my initial assignment.
  • I would like to be able to swap to anyone I might be matchable to on AO3
  • [Either skip the "I would like to swap to one of the following people:" question or input a list of usernames if you have them]
  • My swap assignments should be a max of 1k each.
  • I would like at most 10 recips after swaps, including my initial assignment.
  • [Skip the last question, probably]

You may keep 9k of your initial assignment and get a 1k new swapsignment, or you may keep none of your initial assignment and get ten new 1k swapsignments for different people, or anything in between. Do not make AO3 offers for anything you can't make 10k for.

I'm extremely picky, can I give you a specific max swap wordcount for every swap I request?
Yes, and we're glad to have you do so! The last question on the answer form lets you give this kind of granular detail, as well as any other miscellaneous info you think we need to know.

How do I increase my chances of getting one or more swapsignments?
Getting swaps is mostly about luck, since you can't control what other people are or aren't willing to swap, but the more usernames on your swapsignments list the higher the likelihood that at least one of them will have word count available to swap around.

I definitely want to keep a full 10k assignment, can I still participate in swaps?
Yes, in two different ways!

  1. If you don't want to make more than 10k but you'd be happy to swap your initial assignment for a full 10k assignment to someone else, you can tell us:
    • I want to be assigned a total max of 10,000 words after swaps.
    • I want to keep at minimum none of my initial assignment.
    • I would like to be able to swap to anyone I might be matchable to on AO3
    • [Either skip the "I would like to swap to one of the following people:" question or input a list of usernames if you have them]
    • My swap assignments should be a max of 10k each.
    • I would like at most 1 recip after swaps, including my initial assignment.
    • [Skip the last question]
  2. If you're sure you'll be able to make 15,000 or 20,000 words before works are due, you can tell us you want 15k/20k total after swaps and you want to keep all 10k of your initial assignment, then fill out the rest of the swaps form however you'd like.

I'm not signed up, can I submit a swap request and get a swapsignment?
Yes! Please do, in fact. There's more information about this below under the header "Swaps for Non-Participants"

Swap Form

The following forms will walk you through the information we need. You may fill these forms out as many times as you need, but only your final request will be used to make your swaps. These forms are identical except for the email part.

Manual Swap Requests

To enter into swaps without using the above forms, we need the following information emailed to ficinaboxmod@gmail.com. If you send multiple emails or use both the form and send an email, please make sure each submission contains your entire swap information. Only the most recent email or form submission will be used for your swaps.

Please copy the tiny form in this text box to your email:

(Click here for instructions about the tiny form above!)

Your AO3 username exactly as it appears on your sign up.
If you aren't signed up, note that the numbers below are assuming you're signed up so you will need to adjust accordingly.

What is the maximum amount total you would like assigned?
This is the absolute max we will assign to you in total, including your initial assignment and swaps. This amount must be at least 10k if you are signed up.

What is the maximum number of assignments you would like?
This is the maximum number of people you will be assigned to create for, including your initial assignment.

What is the minimum amount of your current assignment that you want to keep?
If all your swapping dreams come true, we'll make sure you have this amount of your original assignment still assigned.
You can keep as much as 10k (if you picked a max of over 10k) or as little as 0k. If you have no preference, put 0k. You can only keep wordcount in 1k increments, even if your assigned recip has shorter length opt-ins.

What other participants would you like to create for, how much would you like to create for them, and do you have any special notes?
You can provide either the exact AO3 username of the participant(s) you would like to create for as it appears on their FIAB requests, or say "I would like to swap to anyone I might be matchable to on AO3"

We need to know the amount of wordcount (in increments of 1k) that you would like to create for each participant listed. If opting to any match, please provide the maximum you'd like to be assigned to any single swap recipient.

If you have any special notes, we need those too! For example if you want to swap to someone to make them a map, we'd need to know you need to swap for a minimum of 2k, not 1k.

Please format the swap request information in the following way:

New Recip's AO3 name, Max amount you want to be assigned to this recip, Special Notes

Example:

Asymptotical, 2k
fencesit, 5k
tuesday, 5k, I need at least 2k to make a map

Swaps For Non-Participants + Initial Pinch Hit Info

Initial pinch hits won't come out until after Swaps because IPHs are of course super useful for swapping!

If you:

  1. aren't signed up but intend to create something for one of our participants regardless OR
  2. are signed up but intend to do additional treating on top of your assigned wordcount

...then you can get a pinch hit swapsignment!

If you're signed up, then you can indicate that you're willing to take 15k or 20k in the swap form.

If you're not signed up, then you can use the Non-Participant Swap Form (linked above) to get a pinch hit swapsignment!

We also would like to make people taking pinch hit swapsignments aware that swapsignments are likely not going to be like regular pinch hits:

  • regular pinch hits are recipients who genuinely have no one to create for them and who will go without a gift if no one steps up
  • swapsignment pinch hits are used to help make participants' swaps dreams come true.

Some of the Swaps puzzling does end up reducing or completely eliminating IPH wordcount, but that's not really the main goal. No one will go without a gift as a result of us having fewer or no swapsignments, so we'd like to encourage folks to only offer to take on that extra wordcount if they're very enthused to do so and feel it would be relatively easy for them to complete.

If you only want to pinch hit for requests who otherwise would have no one creating for them (entirely reasonable) you can simply wait for us to post our real initial pinch hits to the comm after Swaps conclude.

Final Note!

The FIAB Newbies Discord Server (link) is a great place to ask questions if you're still confused!

If you have any questions about swaps or sign ups that would give away what you're offering, please email us at ficinaboxmod@gmail.com or use the screened mod contact post to keep that info secret! You can also contact us via these methods if you're new to exchanges and have a question about exchange norms, appropriate sign up details, or other concerns.

 
 
20 August 2025 @ 07:59 pm
Finished since the last reading post
This Love by Lotte Jeffs, which I really liked, about best friends promising each other to have children together and choosing to become a family.

The Killer of Pilgrims by Susanna Gregory, with more dead bodies, stolen pilgrim badges, and other intrigue in medieval Cambridge. Another one that totally surprised me at the end.

Currently reading
Still reading The Hollow Crown

Reading next
Not entirely sure, but I'll probably pick up something new to read alongside The Hollow Crown. I ended up buying four new books at the weekend when I dropped in at Waterstones and it's not like I was out of options even before that.
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19 August 2025 @ 08:12 pm
At work today, I made a note to myself to check the tracking on my passport delivery just to see if it was even in the system yet. But when I got home I found there was no need, because there was a Royal Mail "Sorry we missed you" card, as they'd attempted delivery. So they'll try again tomorrow, which could work out nicely because I'll be working from home tomorrow. But I'll need to head out for my root canal dentist appointment, so I might still miss the postie, depending on the time they turn up, and would need to either pick it up or get another re-delivery for Friday.
 
 
17 August 2025 @ 10:03 pm

During signups we're willing to take late nominations in comments on this post! Please only nominate tags that you intend to immediately request.


Late Relationship/Solo/WB Nominations

Limitations

  • We will add at most 10 fandoms per person.
  • We will add at most 10 relationship/Solo:/WB: tags per person per fandom.*
  • Tags must meet all of the below requirements.
  • We will not be workshopping or fixing any nominations at this point..

(*We will add in WB: Any tags to any new fandom free of charge, though.)

Requirements:

  • Late nominations must be in batch load format: Fandom,Tag,Tag,Tag(...)
  • Each fandom should be on a separate line.
  • Fandoms which are already in the tagset must be exactly as they appear in the tagset. If you're nominating a fandom that isn't in the tagset please let us know which fandoms are new.
  • Relationships and characters must be in the format listed in the guidelines. If you think a character may be confusing (such as characters that canonically have more than one version and need to be distinguished, or characters who have names that make them sound like inanimate objects or abstract concepts) then please include an explanation.
  • Worldbuilding tags must be in the format listed in the guidelines and adhere to all of the guidelines for WB tags. In addition, please include an explanation separate from the list for each worldbuilding tag for what it is (This doesn't need to be complicated, just enough that we'll know it fits the rules!). We will not be accepting worldbuilding tags that need workshopped, though you're welcome to workshop it yourself (or on the Newbie Discord Server if you need help!) and try again. You may find the nominations queries a useful reference.
  • If you are not logged in, you will need to sign your nominations with your Ao3 name.

Late Relationship/WB Nominations will close on August 30th at 10:00PM Eastern (Countdown)! Make sure you request them before then! No new tags will be added after that point because your usual late nominations mod will be traveling for the rest of sign ups.

 
 
17 August 2025 @ 09:45 pm

Sign ups!

Signups are open! Go to the collection here (link) to sign up!
Signups will be open until August 31st at 9:59pm EDT (Countdown)

You must be 18+ to sign up.

Other links:


What Are Sign Ups? )
Request Instructions )
Offer Instructions (On AO3, For Participants Offering Fic) )
Offer Instructions (Non-Fic Mediums) )
 
 
17 August 2025 @ 10:55 am
Felt I was primed to respond to this one: overtly literary (published in America by New Directions) with significant speculative elements, strong sense of place in the university city of Göttingen, themes of memory and haunting, even a touch of climate (geology?) fiction through its focus on the 2011 Japanese tsunami. Not to mention the Planetenweg. I mean, have a look at these blurbs:
"An exquisite, mysterious novel of mourning on a planetary scale." — Booklist

"A work of great delicacy and seriousness. Ishizawa anchors the temporal and the ghostly with a transfixing pragmatism, and the result is a shifting, tessellated kaleidoscope of memory, architecture, history and grief."
— Jessica Au

"The Place of Shells is a meditation on art, death, and belonging. It reads like an eerie, shimmering fever dream where the boundaries between past and present, reality and fantasy, life and death often shatter. A strange and beautiful memento mori of a novel."
— Jenny Mustard
The premise: "In the summer of 2020, a young Japanese academic based in the German city of Göttingen waits at the train station to meet her old friend Nomiya, who died nine years earlier in Japan's devastating 2011 earthquake and tsunami but has now inexplicably returned from the dead." She takes this very much in stride – or at least finds herself unable to speak about it or directly acknowledge its strangeness – but then more intrusions from the past begin to appear across the city...

What's interesting is how my genre expectations led me astray, because ultimately in its resolution I felt that Place of Shells was much more in the tradition of Japanese "healing fiction," along the lines of What You Are Looking For Is in the Library. In a way it's a social-harmony-restored novel. For me that didn't work, but I often feel that I'm reading Japanese literature in slightly the wrong key, or at least without sufficient genre context.

Although the novel addresses the Holocaust, and in a way uses mentions of the Holocaust to strengthen its themes around memory, loss and haunting, it is definitely not about the Holocaust. It would be a bit churlish to object to that: this is a Japanese novel set abroad, rather than one about Germany's past. But having been reminded by the Wikipedia article about the city that LeĂł SzilĂĄrd and Edward Teller were on the faculty at the university before the Nazis came to power, it strikes me that this could have been a bigger book (it's very slight), perhaps in conversation with When We Cease to Understand the World, or at least with the metaphorical tsunami of the atomic bomb and its impact on Japan. Author missed a trick, perhaps?

In summary: I've never read a book that was so strongly in the tradition of WG Sebald while at the same time being so completely unlike WG Sebald. Which fascinates me.

Review by Glynne Walley
Review by Anabelle Johnston in LARB
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16 August 2025 @ 10:53 pm
Creators are revealed, but the collection is still open for new works, of which we've had several already! And, of course, you can continue to read and comment to your heart's content.

Find more to read here!

Thank you to everyone who participated this year, and especially to all the pinch hitters who got us across the finish line--I appreciate you very much.

I also have an announcement to make:

Next year will be the tenth round of Fandom5K, if you can believe that! I've also decided it will be the last.

I've had a great time running this exchange, I've met some amazing people, and I've been delighted to see millions and millions of words posted to make other fans happy. However, ten years is a long time to do anything, and I'm ready to focus on personal projects. The exchange scene is much busier now than it was when CBMod and I kicked this off--hopefully participants can find plenty of other options throughout the year.

My plan is to retire the exchange rather than handing it over to a new mod, but of course anyone is welcome to start up an exchange on a similar theme. If you are interested in doing so and have any questions, I'd be happy to answer them.

To make the tenth and final year something we can all look forward to, two sub-announcements:

First, I plan to announce the 2026 schedule by 1 February, 2026.

Hopefully that way everyone who wants to join can plan ahead more easily, and hopefully I can keep myself from letting the schedule creep later and later every year, as it has a habit of doing.

Second, I am issuing an amnesty to anyone who defaulted late in 2025 or previous years, as long as that default occurred before the works due deadline.

That is, if you forgot to contact me during check-in week, or you checked in but then hit the default button before the deadline because something came up, you no longer need to create a make-up assignment to participate in the final round.

If you didn't default before the works due deadline--maybe you simply didn't show up on that date and never turned a work in, or you defaulted with an extension--I will still ask you to turn in a makeup assignment before signing up next year. This also may apply if you turned in a placeholder or your gift otherwise didn't fulfill our rules.

If you have any questions about how this amnesty applies to you, please let me know! I may take a little time to get back to you during the offseason, so I'd suggest asking early if you need to plan ahead.
 
 
15 August 2025 @ 11:52 pm

Navigation: Rules/General Info | AO3 Collection | Nominations Guidelines | Medium Nominations | Tagset | Mod Contact: ficinaboxmod@gmail.com OR Screened Mod Contact Post

Tagset Clean Up

This post is very specifically for issues with tags already in the tagset. If you have a question about a queried/rejected nomination or if you think tags you nominated got lost in the shuffle, please instead comment on the last Nominations Clarification post.

Your report must include:

  • The tag(s)
  • The fandom
  • The issue and if necessary what needs to be changed to fix it.

Things to definitely report to us

  • Wandering tags: These are tags that belong in one tagset fandom, but are showing up in others. This is usually caused by the fandoms being connected, but some tags just like to show up any ol place. Please indicate both the correct fandom and the fandom(s) being invaded.
  • Misspellings: Please tell me the correct spelling.
  • Duplicate tags: One will need to be removed, so please say which you would rather keep.
  • Doubled disambiguation: Sometimes we do this by accident, I will trim it back off.
  • Synning catastrophes: Sometimes a tag, or even a whole fandom, is synned to another thing in the tagset which then devours it. Make sure to tell me both the devoured tag/fandom and what is consuming it.
  • Tones/diacritics: Did you nominate Jiang Cheng/Wei Wuxian (The Untamed) and now the tagset has Jiāng ChĂ©ng/WĂši WĂșxiĂ n (The Untamed)? We'll fix this!
  • Ambiguous tags: Does a relationship in your fandom use a codename/alias/assumed name/etc that could apply to more than one character? Let us know which characters.
  • Confusing tags: Are you just not sure what a tag means? We might not be able to fix it, but we'd like to know.
  • Mod whoopses: Did we say to do things one way and then went and accepted it the wrong way? Hopefully this won't happen often, but if it does please report it here!
  • Other structural fixes: Things I missed that aren't on the lists below.

Things you don't need to report

  • Crossover tags with ambiguous or AMT fandoms – we're happy to leave picking the specific adaptation up to the creator for those tags.
  • Fandoms sorted into the wrong media category – official AO3 tag wranglers handle this, we don't have any control over it and thus can't fix it.
  • Anything in the "Unassociated Characters & Relationships" bucket at the bottom.
  • Weird spaces in your disambiguations: I probably put them there to fix some issue.
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