james_davis_nicoll: (Default)


Four books new to me. Three fantasy, one horror (maybe?) and at least one is part of a series.

Books Received, April 18 — April 24

Poll #34517 Books Received, April 18 — April 24
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 6


Which of these look interesting?

View Answers

The Drakon King by Terry J. Benton-Walker (November 2026)
0 (0.0%)

They Cry by Glen Cook (November 2026)
1 (16.7%)

The Raven at the Ash Door by K. A. Linde (June 2026)
0 (0.0%)

Monsters of Ohio by John Scalzi (November 2026)
3 (50.0%)

Some other option (see comments)
0 (0.0%)

Cats!
5 (83.3%)

muccamukk: Moiraine looks down on village life, face framed by stained glass. (WoT: Moiraine Watches)
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A couple years ago, I did a daily tarot prompt (see this tag), which I'm thinking about doing again, but realising that consistency isn't going to be my best point, I'm not sure if it's a good idea. I guess I could draw a card when I remember to do it, and not commit to writing a drabble/ficlet every day? I really did have fun last time, but I also wasn't... fully burned out. so

Thoughts?
james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
p+B11 is aneutronic (although the side-reactions aren't) and B11 is comparatively abundant in the Earth's crust.

A novel approach to proton-boron 11 fusion.
james_davis_nicoll: (Default)


What transformed Cheradenine Zakalwe into the superlative Special Circumstances asset he is today?

Use of Weapons by Iain M. Banks
james_davis_nicoll: (Default)


The complete Voidrunner's Codex Full Digital Box Set, the spacefaring expansion from EN Publishing for the Level Up! tabletop roleplaying game and Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition.

Bundle of Holding: Voidrunner's Codex

Read it and Weep

Apr. 22nd, 2026 12:23 pm[personal profile] shanmonster
shanmonster: (Tiger claw)
Two new poems of mine went live today. You can read "Cyanotype of a Burning World" and "Weeds" at ALOCASIA.

The remarkable long essay The Cuddled Little Vice, an interrogation of Neil Gaiman and Sandman is up for a Hugo award. I binge-read it yesterday. I was a huge fan of Gaiman's works for years, and for a time in the 90s-00s, considered him a friend. I used to lament that we'd never met in person, but realize now that I dodged a bullet. This essay was cathartic for me, and I hope it wins the award.

Search maintenance

Apr. 22nd, 2026 09:19 am[staff profile] mark posting in [site community profile] dw_maintenance
mark: A photo of Mark kneeling on top of the Taal Volcano in the Philippines. It was a long hike. (Default)

Happy Wednesday!

I'm taking search offline sometime today to upgrade the server to a new instance type. It should be down for a day or so -- sorry for the inconvenience. If you're curious, the existing search machine is over 10 years old and was starting to accumulate a decade of cruft...!

Also, apparently these older machines cost more than twice what the newer ones cost, on top of being slower. Trying to save a bit of maintenance and cost, and hopefully a Wednesday is okay!

Edited: The other cool thing is that this also means that the search index will be effectively realtime afterwards... no more waiting a few minutes for the indexer to catch new content.

Post-50 Blues

Apr. 22nd, 2026 08:08 am[personal profile] valkryor
valkryor: (Default)
Welp, it's official: I have arthritis. It's in the basal joint of my thumb and whilst my right thumb was the one imaged/diagnosed, my left is also showing similar early symptoms. I am not surprised, and yet this is a terrible party to want an invite to. :P

I saw an orthopaedic surgeon on Tuesday and walked out with a $130 brace and the option of $60 steroid shots. I was also informed of surgery, but removing one of the bones in my hand to alleviate the pain seems more than a little bit extreme to me at the moment. If my right was not my dominant hand, I would be a little less leery about that final solution, as removing a bone, even a small one, gives "crap shot" energy.

Sure, it could make everything less painful, but at the possible cost of functionality? No, thank you.

So, brace it is for the time being. It does what it needs to do, although I do take it off to sleep, cook, use the facilities, and so on. Yes, it can get wet, and yes, it's antimicrobial, but it doesn't feel very sanitary to leave it on when I'm handling raw chicken or cleaning the catbox.
james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
And I know 700 pages PDFs are a vote-loser.

Any of my reviews from 2025 that people especially liked?
james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
                  2022   2024   2025   2026   
Novel             1151   1420   1078   1153
Novella            807    962    739    807
Novelette          463    755    394    414  
Short Story        632    720    610    507
Series             707    677    621    687
Graphic/Comic      340    457    265    362
Related            453    775    431    479
Dramatic, Long     597    763    610    650
Dramatic, Short    386    490    451    471
Game               --     334    298    357
Editor, Short      319    530    322    305
Editor, Long       182    254    162    234
Pro Artist         233    270    214    228
Semiprozine        312    338    334    324
Fanzine            243    286    243    224
Fancast            384    693    376    370
Fan Writer         368    363    329    308
Fan Artist         230    180    186    176
Poem                --     --    219    202
Lodestar           451    345    268    244
Astounding         416    349    341    290

Dink Lump

Apr. 21st, 2026 11:14 am[personal profile] shanmonster
shanmonster: (Default)
I haven't done a link dump in years. My open tabs have taken over my computer. Time for a cull. I'll share them with you, because you too may find them interesting.

Queer Horror with David Demchuk: An interesting talk about the history of queer horror.

Cut and Shuffle Exercise: A tutorial on poem generation.

Inuit Myth: a listing of Inuit gods and goddesses.

Rachel Attituq Qitsualik: A collection of amazing Inuit stories and lore by a master storyteller.

Caribou shooting in Newfoundland; with a history of England's oldest colony from 1001 to 1895: by Samuel T. Davis, 1838-1908. I used information from this for some essays I wrote.

the birth of Newfoundland archaeology, and the
end of history
: A talk about the "first Newfoundland archaeologist" and the Beothuk

Fourth-Person Point of View. I hate that this is full of AI slop art, but I found the write-up informative.

Imaro: what may have been the first foray into the swords and sorcery genre by a Black author.

Photos from my trip to Newfoundland last year: Some gorgeous shots in here.

A Smurfy Tale: Papa Smurf Meets the Jehovah's Witnesses: This may very well be ground zero of the Jehovah's Witness urban legend about demonized Smurfs.

A Brief History of Killer Smurfs

Fabulous Animals, by David Attenborough. This is a documentary on cryptozoology that came out in 1975. Was missing for decades.

The Short List: Publishers who take stories up to 2500 words.

Anthony Casteel’s Account of Scalping Proclamations in Colonial Nova Scotia: Firsthand account of Englishmen held hostage by Mi'kmaq warriors.

Kishotenketsu - a plot structure without conflict: a four-act structure common in Asian storytelling.

Erika Krouse’s Ranking of 500-ish Literary Magazines for Short Fiction: Ranked according to circulation, reach, pay, and prestige.

How to Play a Jaw Harp: I want to work my way through these exercises and unlearn the poor technique I came up with without instruction.

Eskimo Folktales: Collected by Knud Rasmussen, these are a treasure.

A Discussion of the Inuit Artist Osuitok Ipeelee’s Sedna, Mother of the Sea Beasts

Ululijarnak: The Inuit Disembowelling Goddess: She used her knife to help people give birth and poop.

Sermerssuaq: The strongest, strangest Inuit woman ever: the Hercules of the Inuit world, and she had a giant clitoris.

The Not-Deer and Weird Appalachian Lore: Deer that don't act the way deer should.

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