bryant

Honestly, I'm thinking about how except that I gave up the hotel room, it's not too late to bail, because kicking my interfusion membership forward a year isn't processed until after the event so it probably could actually go.

And then I wouldn't have been up all night accidentally although there were other things that contributed to that not all of them my being a dumbass

And there's really no contest as to which would be the more fun and fulfilling event. Interfusion is going to have available acro shibari every night. And maybe rope dancing. And definitely all sorts of other dancing and Acro and several different people I know who are going to be moving away shortly thereafter.

I'm reminding myself that I'm staying with someone up at ariza who I haven't seen in at least a decade and moved all the way away for a long while and I've set up seeing different friends where it's been at least a year if not well over a year.

But man it really turned out to be a bad decision to land at 11:00 last night home from Missouri expecting originally to be on a train about 10 minutes from now

I'm deliberately missing the 125 flight and just making sure to be there within 2 hours after it leaves.

I'm not expecting much out of the con.

There was someone who needed to be around people and it was important and that person joined me in covert at my place about half past 12:00 which was already getting stupid late and I was so tired and then somehow
I got a second wind after saying look it's three I need to go to bed and they left around 3:20 and then I was like okay I still need to get more stuff off the phone which I couldn't do while covert was sitting next to my computer for various reasons and decided over right I was going to up the die on the hair and there's too much stuff in the suitcase so that I didn't just bring the overtone to deal with that tonight and then I don't know what happened I kept being like a God it's so late oh my God and then the next thing I knew it would be even worse.

There's been pretty much daily protests in one way or another here in DC today is another ice out of DC as opposed to ice out for good or the union rally yesterday.

Tuesday there's a national walkout and lobbying. By flying away I can't help with any of those actions

this summary shared in a local southwest group suggests the recommendation was to just take the 2 hours at 1 o'clock (unless you prefer to be out longer) and then get back to business: "they are asking folks to be at Pershing Park because it is near the Wilson Bldg, and if Home Rule is directly threatened we may all need to get/gather there. This event is a way to start normalizing leaving jobs and other 'normal' activities to protest what is not a normal situation so that we can build the muscle to do more. The event is 1-3 pm and while they would like people to be there at 1, you can get there later (ideally by 1:30-45) if need be. And if you can only be there for an hour that is ok too.

This is not a dramatic walkout scenario. You are encouraged to take sick leave if that is available to you. Also DC residents may have access to paid sick/safety leave from DC. If leaving your job would put your job at risk you are encouraged *not* to participate. And this event is for all, not just people currently employed."

There's such a mess. Such a mess. Active lying from the administration obviouslying from the administration were obviously trying to lie with implication (. The new bed is announcing that Ross had internal bleeding, announced a full week later anonymously sources say they were told and oh right there's no method of injury consistent with the implications there although oh by the way bruising would technically count maybe because sure as hell the man stayed standing and walking normally and packed out a house the next day.

Ice shot someone else in Minneapolis yesterday. Seems not fatally.

The ones they shot in Portland they said that they were weaponizing the car. Are we going to believe that assertion in general anymore?

It's getting really scary out there.

xkcd_feed

https://xkcd.com/3194/

Some surfaces may seem difficult to glue. But if you research the materials, find tables of what adhesives work on them, and prepare your surfaces carefully, you can fail to glue them in a fun NEW way that fills your house with dangerous vapors.

https://xkcd.com/3194/

jazzfish

JOE: We're gonna have to live with them eventually.
HARRY: Who?
JOE: The Protestants, Harry. The other half of the population.

Watching a film set in the Troubles on the eve of travel to Minneapolis and after doing some reading about Palestine may not have been the wisest course. Then again, maybe it was. No time like the present.

"The Boxer" is mostly about Daniel Day-Lewis and Emily Watson's characters' relationship, but there's a lot of focus on Harry the IRA warlord and Joe the more political-minded IRA leader as well.

HARRY: And what are you offering, Joe?
JOE: Peace, Harry. Peace.
HARRY: Well, I'm sure you can deliver.

I'll be doing bus-stop watch for a couple of days, making sure kids can get home from school or seeing where they get taken if they don't. It's scary out here.

xkcd_feed

https://xkcd.com/3193/

I wanted to make the world's fastest yawl, so I made the aft sail bigger, but apparently that means it's not a yawl anymore! It's a real ketch-22.

https://xkcd.com/3193/

catherineldf

RIP, M.Christian

This is a heartbreaker of a post to write. I don’t remember when I first met Chris online, but we were all part of a fairly large community of erotica writers who also crossed over into other genres from the late 1980s to the early 2010s, by which point the literary erotica markets largely disintegrated. Everyone knew everyone else to some extent or another. We all shared TOCs, appeared in each other’s publications and socialized in person, if we lived close enough. Since I am in the Midwest, I didn’t get to do much socializing in person, but I did meet Chris and a bunch of other folks at an erotica writers conference in Vegas in the mid2000s.

In my experience, Chris was kind and genial, loved to write, wrote very well and enjoyed supporting other writers. Their body of work, between erotica, horror, science fiction and nonfiction, was enormous and well worth reading. I appeared in at least 3 of the anthologies that they edited and they sent me a great lesbian ghost for one of mine. I also had a short essay in Chris’s nonfiction book about writing and selling erotica. I have no idea how many TOCs we shared, but it was a lot. I blurbed a couple of his/their books along the way, as well. Most recently, I released a new edition of Chris’s terrific gay vampire novel, Running Dry through Queen of Swords Press.

Chris’s fiction ranged from the smoking hot to the atmospheric and suspenseful. While they finaled for multiple awards, they never really got the wins and recognition outside the erotica writing community that they deserved, which is a damn shame. I was reaching out to Chris to tell them that I had just nominated Running Dry for the SSBA Awards in the Horror category when I got the bad news. 😢

As I’ve posted elsewhere, I’m trying to track down an estate contact. In the meantime, I plan to keep their book in print until I hear otherwise. Author royalties will be set aside until I have a designee or will be donated to some of the organizations they cared deeply about. In the meantime, remember them for their work. Read it, enjoy it and pass it along to your friends. Chris would like that.

https://books2read.com/runningdry

And their website: http://www.mchristian.com

UPDATE: I have spoken with Chris's brother and have gotten permission to keep Running Dry in print and to pay him the royalties. In the meantime, Samuel needs help getting to Eugene, covering associated expenses, etc. If you're in a position to help, his Venmo is @Samuel-AddisonMuncy

yhlee

(selling prints via the local game store)

stylized digital illustration: a fantasy lady, peacock-themed

Digital painting in Procreate, at 11"x17" print.

mmcirvin

So there's a lot of controversy going on in the roller-coaster-fan community about the big coaster YouTubers fluffing Six Flags Qiddiya, the massive Saudi Arabian amusement-park project that includes a coaster over 600 feet tall. I don't think I'd participate in that, but I feel a bit sheepish about being too critical, since when all this broke I was, myself, busy having adventures in a country that is no bastion of liberal democracy. I do think it's also difficult for an American to throw stones: I think the current regime in the Republic of Singapore does care more about basic competence and the well-being of its residents (and certainly about maintaining a diverse, tolerant, multi-ethnic culture) than the one currently in federal power here.

That said... we spent a day of our trip on Sentosa, an island south of the main island of Singapore that allegedly used to be a hideout for pirates but today is a massive cluster of resorts. I'd been here before but had not gone to Universal Singapore, the highest-profile park there. My kid was not interested--but this time, she's old enough that she could go off and do other stuff with a friend who had come along.

The Singapore park has a reputation for being the runt of the Universal chain, and it kind of is, but there's plenty of interest there. Unfortunately the park was slammed with crowds, queues got very long and we didn't have a lot of time. At rope drop, we prioritized the things we wanted to ride together, so the waits there were relatively short. The first ride we did was Revenge of the Mummy, an indoor dark-ride/coaster hybrid memorialized by Huang Yongquan here:

Watch on YouTube

I haven't ridden the US versions of Revenge of the Mummy but I understand they have more of a metafictional, fourth-wall-breaking hook, about the set of a fictitious sequel to the Brendan Fraser Mummy being cursed by the actual Mummy. This one is more straightforward: some theorize that it's the story of the movie they were making in the other rides. But I'm not sure it's all that coherent. There are a lot of good scary effects, but it felt like it ended kind of abruptly, as if the actual finale were missing. I suppose I can't complain too much about the plotline of a roller coaster.

It is more of a roller coaster, and less of a pure dark ride, than, say, Escape from Gringotts at Universal Orlando. There's some speed and force in the coaster segments, a brief backwards section and a surprise turntable transition.

Next we did the Jurassic Park Rapids Adventure, a version of the Jurassic Park/World water ride that exists at the other Universal resorts, but, uniquely, this one is a raft ride rather than a flume. Here's XtremeCoasters' POV:

Watch on YouTube

As a raft ride alone this is middling but as a storytelling ride, it's superb. You can guess what happens: it starts out as a majestic ride through dinosaur habitats at Jurassic Park (similar to a real-life water ride we'd ridden at the River Wonders zoo/aquarium earlier in the week!), then things go horribly wrong; the dinosaurs get loose, floodwaters sweep you into a dino-infested "backstage" area where you're not supposed to be, and you end up menaced by an overhead Tyrannosaurus while ascending an elevator lift to the climactic drop.

Finally, despite a brutal 110-minute wait, I just had to try out the park's most thrilling ride, the roller coaster Battlestar Galactica: Cylon. XtremeCoasters again:

Watch on YouTube

This big Vekoma coaster is a bit of a time capsule by now--it went up in 2010 when the revived Battlestar Galactica series was a big deal, and it had two dueling tracks, a non-inverting ride representing the Human side in the conflict and an inverted looper for the Cylons. I only had time to be a Cylon. The long wait was in part because of technical and operations issues: the ride got overhauled in 2013-15, replacing the originally four-across trains with lighter, two-across ones, which reduced capacity but I suspect were needed to reduce structural stresses on the ride. They were also doing metal-detector tests for loose items at the beginning AND end of the queue. I was wondering if they'd detect my metal knee (I am a bit of a Cylon myself) but it wasn't a problem.

The queue, at least, was all indoors and air-conditioned, and had clever shiny-chrome/biomechanical-horror theming and amusing video spiels from Michael Hogan and Tricia Helfer as their characters in the show. And I made friends in the queue: a guy from Pakistan who was there with his daughters and bailed after about half an hour of waiting, and a very nice family who gifted me with a front-seat ride because their kid was too nervous to ride in the front.

After all that, the coaster itself turned out to be really good, way better than I expected! It started with a powerful, fast LSM launch up the lift hill (I'd forgotten it did that so this was a surprise), and the inversions were all as smooth as they were forceful, with a fighter-jet feeling and none of the jank people associate with early Vekoma coasters. One maneuver dipped into a mist-filled trench below ground level. It was interesting to see that the track itself had the "new Vekoma" design they use with their current major coasters--it must have been one of the earliest ones of those.

My spouse saw the "Lights, Camera, Action!" special-effects show, and some roaming performers playing "Waterworld" characters, while I was waiting for this--she enjoyed them a lot. After I was free of this ride, we needed to get lunch somewhere but found, mysteriously, that most of the food joints at the park were closed--the only one available was a counter-service pizza place. Not sure what was going on there.

But we had our pizza, then headed over to the somewhat less slammed Adventure Cove Waterpark, a repeat favorite. The big attraction here is their amazing lazy river, part of which goes through sea-life tanks--here's Theme Park Family World Wide:

Watch on YouTube

Good times, all in all.

xkcd_feed

https://xkcd.com/3192/

We're going to need to modify the surface to mount it on the test stand. Which ocean basin do you like the least?

https://xkcd.com/3192/

rydra_wong

On Monday evening I had the BEST time being repeatedly summoned by someone who (it gradually became clear) was wildly lost in the Duke's Archives.

Context: in Dark Souls, you can put down a summon sign so that other players can* summon you into their game to help them out (at the risk of also opening themselves up to potential hostile invaders).

You can only be summoned by people in the same rough level range as you, so if I don't feel like moving on yet from an area after I’ve completed it, I often put down my summon sign and hang around for a bit before I level up out of the usual range for that area. It’s been a lot of fun.

VERY IMPORTANT CONTEXT: there is no channel for voice or text communication. There's a very limited menu of gestures, and a few signals (e.g. repeatedly tapping the block button to jiggle your shield or weapon, which generally seems to communicate "I'm here, let's go!") which the fandom has evolved by default.

This makes communication challenging. But it also means it makes zero demands on my capacity for verbal conversation or pretending to be a semi-normal human being.

( Cut for length )

gwynnega

It is David Bowie's birthday, so I've been listening to Bowie today. But since yesterday I haven't been able to stop thinking of Phil Ochs's "I Kill Therefore I Am," especially these lines:

"Farewell to the gangsters
We don't need them anymore
We've got the police force
They're the ones who break the law
He's got a gun and he's a hater
He shoots first, he shoots later

I am the masculine American man
I kill therefore I am"

ninamazing

HELLO FRIENDS. Guess who hasn't posted in a million (okay, five) years despite all best intentions? But continues to be straight-up desperate to replace all other social media with Dreamwidth? I'm all set up with Tuta Mail, too, and I've been using Ecosia for awhile. We can have the internet without psychic damage, damn it.

In 2025, I got married, moved into a condo, and started a new job. New job is great with pay and benefits and low on drama, so far—fingers crossed. I'm gradually working through all the traumatic aftereffects of finally being a children's book editor, then not being a children's book editor, then surviving the first few years of a pandemic, then being a children's book editor again, then not being a children's book editor again. But I am currently working on my first small press picture book (with an artist I found in Armenia, no less!) so I suppose I can't be stopped.

These are...terribly anxiety-making times, but I am so lucky to have the friends I have and the quality romance stories (who else is into Heated Rivalry especially the Kip/Scott parts? let's chat!) to boot. In 2026 I hope to continue to serve my communities and heal. Love to you for being here.

yhlee

Terminated my SFWA membership as of today (modulo administrative steps), which I wrote and requested. My contact was friendly and efficient.

I requested this for multiple reasons, of which the recent Nebula-and-AI rules change handling fiasco was only the latest. I'm done.

To sf/f writer-folk, good luck out there.

I'm running an infection and I have work to do; comments disabled.

catherineldf

This was going to be a cheerful post, but then Minneapolis got invaded and a member of my community was murdered and a bunch of others were kidnapped, including local high school students. "Rage" is such a little word, it doesn't begin to cover it. And yes, as with 2020, I'm living blocks away from the epicenter.

But for those worried about me personally, I am living alone, unemployed and taking care of a sick cat who requires regular medical attention. Add into that a bum leg and ice-covered streets and I'm not out much at night except for planned activities where I am meeting with or being driven by friends. Am I going into areas where folks have been targeted? Yes. I was at the Mercado Central yesterday for lunch after a post office run. It was largely deserted because people are justifiably terrified, but I got lunch from the lady making pupusas (one of the very few places that was open) and toiling away to feed the 10 or so people who were there. The front door was locked and building security was much in evidence. This is a reminder to support local immigrant-owned businesses.They need all the help they can get right now. I am also planning on going to the rally this Saturday, but will skip the march. Other than that, I am supporting my good electeds and local organizations, writing emails and will be doing some volunteering on related things (online, etc.) as time permits.

What else is going on? Well, today I'm "auditioning" for a part-time gig at a nearby local bookstore. A long time staffer is leaving and they're hoping I'll be a good fill in option. Not the week I would pick to start a retail gig in Minneapolis, but that fault lies neither with the bookstore or me. It's close enough, I think I can work out the med and event schedule with the store's needs, but we'll see how it goes. Shu is still hanging on, albeit with a few more periodic bad days (no more seizures so far, at least) - he still wants loves and cuddles and food and brushing so I'll try and keep him going until he wants to go. A friend just sent me a Reedsy invite so I need to get my editing info together and post out there as the bookstore gig will not cover all of my expenses. I did get some good financial news recently so not desperate, just want to make sure I don't become so and I need to avoid going on Social Security for a while longer or life will get even more problematic.

Other news:

Queen of Swords Press is celebrating its 9th birthday this month! Also known as "Holy Shit! We Made it!" Huge thank you shoutout to everyone who's helped along the way! We are having a birthday sale this week - use code BIRTHDAY at check out to get a discount when buying direct from us through 1/11 and you'll get entered in our prize drawing!
Jennie Goloboy and I are co-teaching "To Market, To Market" at The Loft Literary Center on 2/28. Get help from a prominent literary agent and an award-winning small press publisher on getting your book submitted and potentially published and all that good stuff.
I just added some things to my Ko-fi store, including a couple of signed copies of an out of print award-winning collection.
I have a Patreon where I post fiction, nonfiction, Queen of Swords Press news and more. This supports me in the sense of paying me for my publishing work.
You can hire me to edit, teach, write and all that good stuff! Check out my Professional Editor's Network page here.
Blue Moon (the next werewolf book) has cleared 18k words, I'm working on a queer Arthurian story for an anthology invite, I'm starting on a nonfiction piece for a successful pitch and I have a novella and a short story in progress. Working on building my nonfiction portfolio and helping people remember that I used to be a pretty well known fiction author so definitely open to more projects!

More bulletins as we go along. Please stay as safe as possible out there and do good work!
EDITED: Looks like the bookstore gig will work out once we get schedules and stuff sorted. Which means you'll be able to see me at DreamHaven Books in Minneapolis more often!

guppiecat

I am not native to Minnesota. I choose to live here.

I’ve traveled the world, and while there are places that are warmer, friendlier, cheaper, and easier to live in, Minnesota feels right. The people here leave one another alone - and what others view as standoffishness, I see as respectful distance. But when someone needs help, people show up. It isn’t perfect - no place is - but it’s right for me.

People who haven’t spent much time here don’t understand the cycle of the seasons. Spring isn’t bright and green like it is elsewhere; it’s brown and muddy. Summer is hot and humid - sometimes among the hottest places on the planet—, sometimes smoky from wildfires, sometimes thick with mosquitoes. But the days are long, and the hiking and nature can be spectacular.

Fall is a time of coming together. While it’s not really my thing, as seasonal affective disorder starts to creep in, I can appreciate how important it is for others to gather—to share food, stories, and warmth.

Winter, however, is cold.

In snowy winters, the snow piles up and just keeps going. The joke is that by mid-January, two-lane roads become single-lane roads, and by early February—when there’s nowhere left to put the snow—the roads just start getting taller. This is when people ski and skate, take winter hikes, or retreat indoors to cook, read, watch TV, and spend time with family. This aligns with the public image of Minnesota: a place where time slows, where people are nice to one another in warm, yellow-lit houses while we wait for the cold, dark blues, greys, and whites to thaw.

But that isn’t all Minnesota is.

Minnesota is also about people working together and supporting one another. It’s about protesting injustice, as we’ve seen in response to the killings of Philando Castile, George Floyd, Amir Locke, and so many others. It’s about defending the most vulnerable—immigrants and Native people, the poor, people of color, and those whose sexuality or gender identity puts them at risk.

Minnesotans - more than anywhere I’ve lived, and more than most places I’ve visited - are deeply engaged politically. Even those who claim not to be involved are often only a degree or two removed from people in office or people who have served. We donate money, time, resources, our bodies, and sometimes our own lives to make things better for all of us.

And even in winter, even in the darkness, the sun still comes out some days.

When it does, things melt a little. Tree branches shed their weight and rise. Hard-packed snow turns to slush, and things begin to move. It doesn’t even need to get above freezing. I’ve seen water running down the driveway on a bright day when it’s well below zero.

That’s the thing about Minnesota: even in the darkest days of winter, we make our own sunshine. We come together. We help one another thaw and reshape ourselves. We jump each other’s cars, clear driveways, bring food - because if we don’t help one another, collectively, we don’t survive. At least not as the people we want to be.

It’s in that context that I fiercely oppose the cold-blooded killing of Renee Nicole Good this morning by federal “law enforcement” operating far outside their jurisdiction. It’s why I support those attending tonight’s vigil, and the protests in the days ahead against this violence—and the violence still to come from those who claim to be governing this country.

I can’t do otherwise.
We can’t do otherwise.

Because in Minnesota, even on the coldest days, the bright light of the sun melts ICE.

xkcd_feed

https://xkcd.com/3191/

It's important to teach yourself to feel responsible for random events, because with great responsibility comes great power. That's what my wise Uncle Ben told me right before he died; he might still be alive today if only I'd said rabbit rabbit that year!

https://xkcd.com/3191/

gingicat

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

rydra_wong

As well as Venezuela, I think you might want to start phoning your representatives and screaming about how very much you do not think the US should invade and occupy Greenland.

I don't know how it's being reported on in the US, but it's looking extremely imminent over here:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/06/trump-greenland-control-us-military
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jan/07/france-and-allies-discuss-possible-response-to-donald-trump-us-invasion-of-greenland
https://news.sky.com/story/trump-is-likely-gambling-he-could-get-away-with-greenland-grab-as-nato-needs-us-more-than-he-needs-it-13491116

marthawells

I updated my sticky post with: PSA: if you get an email out of the blue that is supposedly from me, offering to help you with marketing or other publisher services, or asking for money, it is not me, it is a scammer. Also, if you see me on Facebook or Threads or XTwitter, that's not me either.

This is a very common scam now, one of the many scams aimed at aspiring and new writers.

***

I'm still sick, ugh

***

Nice article on Queen Demon on the Daily KOS:

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/1/5/2361356/-The-Language-of-the-Night-Martha-Wells-takes-on-colonization

One of Wells’ most compelling gifts as a writer is the way she interrogates trauma, and trauma is very much in evidence in her recent works, especially in both Murderbot and The Rising World. Where the Murderbot stories form an enslavement narrative as personal journey and healing, the Rising World series applies a wider cultural lens to trauma and loss.

Kai has seen his world ripped apart twice: the way to the underneath, the world of his birth, is shut off; the world of his above existence, the world of the Saredi, is also gone, both of them murdered by the Hierarchs. (You could argue that the third traumatizing loss-of-world is losing Bashasa, but that lies in the gap between past and present narratives.) In the past narrative, a vanquished Kai himself is imprisoned in the Summer Halls until Bashasa frees him and he joins the ad hoc rebellion.