I flopped last year. Here's hoping I do better this time, lol.

Episode Tags and Missing Scenes	Wabi / Sabi	Journalist / Chronicler	Midnight	Found Families
Sacrifice / Letting Go	Neutral Colours	Revelations and Concealments	Kinetic Energy	Information is given off the record
Street Food	Truth or Dare	Wild Card	Landscape/Panorama	Superpowers
Ritual Marks and Body Decorations	Slice of Life	Pre- Slash / Femslash / Het	Coffee Shop AU	If only you'd notice me: Yearning and obliviousness
Documentation	Hopelessly Devoted	Epistolary fic: Emails, letters etc.	Loss of Faith	Flesh and Bone

Finished since the last reading post
Omon Ra, which was a short novel that did a great job of depicting the performative in the Soviet space programme and the disillusionment of a young man's dreams of space

Aristotle and Dante Dive into the Waters of the World by Benjamin Alire Sáenz, a sequel to the YA novel I read earlier in the year, continuing the protagonists' story into their last year of high school, growing up, making friends, and figuring out how they can be together

Salatun rakkauden historia by Heidi Airaksinen and Tiina Tuppurainen, a Finnish non-fiction book about glimpses into queer lives from about the middle of the 19th century. Some of the historical pieces were very brief and amounted to not much more than hearsay or reading between the lines; the second half of the book is based on interviews with people active in various LGBTQ+ circles since the 1960s. Interesting, but the overall impression for me was superficial.

Sinkkipojat (Цинковые мальчики) by Svetlana Aleksijevitš in Pauli Tapio's Finnish translation, devastating because of the simplicity and number of the personal accounts from different ordinary people involved in the war in Afghanistan.

Currently reading
Pohjoinen tanssi by Petter Kukkonen, which takes the protagonist to Macedon just in time for Philip II and Alexander.

Reading next
Mum and I went to the library yesterday and I made her borrow a few books for me, so one of the those, probably.

It was 102°F here today so physically I'm not ready to bust out the scarves, sweaters, and pumpkin spice. But emotionally, I am THERE.

PSL skelly understands.


I enjoy the fall very much and with it come some fun fannish challenges.

👻 I am looking forward to spook_me for spooky and fun stuff with ghoulies and ghosties and long-leggedy beasties, and things that go bump in the night. Since it's a zero pressure challenge, I'm sure I'll sign up this year once sign-ups open. Not sure if I'll keep plugging away with Grantchester or return to FK for it.

☕️ Meanwhile, another zero pressure option is this month's trope_of_the_month, which seems like a fun one and appropriate for PSL season. Theme is "Coffee Shops." That sent me down the internet rabbit hole about Coffee Shop AUs. I'm more of a canon divergence AU kind of person. But I can also see the appeal, and never say never. For the challenge, it doesn't have to be AU though, that's just an option. Canonical coffee shops work too. Because a cafe featured prominently in season 7 of Grantchester, I'm noodling through what I might do with that.

🎃 thefruitbat reminded me about ficortreat, a low pressure option for which you set the parameters of the types of "treats" you'd like to give out. I'm not planning to participate, but it's a fun concept!

seasonsofdrabbles has revealed its creators (very short anon period for very short fics). I wrote these two:

"Even the Smallest Possibility"
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
(G, gen, 100 words; Link, Revali; Minish | Picori legend)

"Reasons to Visit the Library"
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
(G, gen, 100 words; Link, Zelda; King Rhoam's secret study)

The folks who wrote so nicely for me, as previously posted, are now known to be kay_obsessive ("Legacy") and samifer ("Refuge"). Many thanks to them! And also thanks to senmut for generously beta-reading for me.

Here are some recent fannish things I've happened to see and would like to share!

Spotlight: I don't subscribe to Netflix, so I assumed I was going to miss out on K-Pop Demon Hunters. But then they released widely in cinemas for one weekend only and I happily got tipped off in time. I liked it even more than I thought I would! K-Pop isn't my genre, but thoughtful magical-girl adventures? Well, yeah. Imagine that the original Sailor Moon manga and the Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV show had a daughter and appointed High School Musical her fairy godmother. K-Pop Demon Hunters is joyful, hopeful, and deeper than it looks. It's a packed 90 minutes, with nothing missing and nothing to spare. (And I really enjoy "What it Sounds Like.")

Ficathons, fests & communities

• Create & engage
  • trickortreatex, where every gift is a "trick" or a "treat," has nominations through 9/08, sign-ups through 9/18, due 10/24.
  • yuletide_admin '25 is underway. Nominations through 9/26; sign-ups through 10/24; due 12/17.
  • fandomgiftbasket, a gifting fest a la Fandom Stocking/Trees, has sign-ups through 9/05 and reveals 10/12.
  • fandommixtapeex uses songs as exchange prompts. Nominations through 9/09, sign-ups through 9/21, due 11/16.
  • fffx, the "Five Figure Fanwork Exchange" (10K+ words), has sign-ups through 9/07; due 1/24.
  • aspecex is a fic exchange themed on asexuality/aromanticism. Nominations through 9/17; sign-ups through 9/20; due 10/07.
  • no_true_pair's 8-Character Challenge somewhat resembles Into A Bar, but everyone gets matched with everyone via distinct prompts.
  • 10itemsorless is for ships with >10 works on the AO3. Sign-up through 9/06; due 10/25.
  • 1character is a challenge community in which you claim a character and a prompt set and write 50 one-sentence micro-fics.
  • fandomwithbenefits is a low-commitment, no deadlines, monthly challenge/interaction community.
  • drabbleonficathon is a prompt-meme challenge. Prompts close 10/01; fills open now and indefinitely.
  • dreamwars is a community for all Star Wars.
  • vampiremedia is a community for all vampire media.
  • seasonsofdrabbles has released its summer event and will de-anonymize the works today.
  • pinchhits is a forum for pinch-hits in exchanges. For example, wipbigbang is seeking pinch hitters.
  • whenisitdue tracks many more events than I note here!
• Enjoy & share
  • fancake (themed fanfic recs); September theme: "food & cooking"
  • gensplosion (gen fanfic recs)
  • het_reccers (m/f fanfic recs)
  • fanart_recs (fanart recs)
  • recthething (fanwork recs)

Sidelight: Those who enjoy the ongoing Aurora webcomic by Red of Overly Sarcastic Productions (online | hardcopy) might like to know that Red is currently selling a pack of 4 character pins (Kendall, Alinua, Erin, and Falst). Shop the OSP store. Red's custom pins are always limited time, limited stock (though occasionally some do come back for deals around US Thanksgiving time, I wouldn't depend on that). I plan to put Kendall and Alinua on my work backpack.

For future reference, I thought I'd paste and backdate my 2025 summer seasonsofdrabbles requests here:

( General likes & dislikes across fandoms )

( D&DC )

( BSG78 )

( HL )

( JttW )

( TLOZ:LA )

( TLOZ:EoW )

( TLOZ:TP )

( TLOZ&Related )

seasonsofdrabbles released its summer game today (356 works in 199 fandoms). I received two The Legend of Zelda works, both thoughtful, exquisitely poignant, and very much to my taste:

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
"Legacy"
100 words, G, gen; Hero's Shade | Hero of Time | Golden Wolf
The author offers a different, compelling source for the Hero's canonical regrets than fandom often assumes.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
"Refuge"
200 words, G, gen; Malon & Link
The author shows, from Malon's perspective, what her farm and friendship offered Link in his darkest hours.

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.

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

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 González 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 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 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.