boilingwater | Member Posts

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Free at my website.

The Motley Crew (The Thousand Nations). When a young man named Dolan flees from the north, he faces danger on all sides. The Northern Army wants him back. The Empire of Emor wants him dead. His native homeland of Koretia may not want him at all. And his only protection is a man with motives that are mysterious and possibly deadly.

New installment:

2 | Flight Through the Forest. When you're fleeing from high danger, you have little choice in your companions.

EARLY ACCESS

My readers at Patreon and Ream get the first look at Twisted (The Thousand Nations: The Motley Crew side story). That short story will go into general release next month.

BLOG FICTION

Tempestuous Tours (Crossing Worlds: A Visitor's Guide to the Three Lands #2). A whirlwind tour of the sites in the Three Lands that are most steeped in history, culture, and the occasional pickpocket.

New installments:

Royal chapel.

Ambassador's Balcony.

Introduction to the borderland.

Border Port.

NEWS & UPCOMING FICTION

As some of you already know, I posted last month's update two days after I tripped on an uneven sidewalk, banged my head three times against a metal fence, and acquired a concussion, not to mention a broken leg. (I consider that update to be one of the greatest accomplishments of my life.)

Unfortunately, the concussion delayed my completion of "Heir" and its accompanying Blood Vow omnibus, since putting together an omnibus requires a concentrated mind I just don't have at the moment. I've moved those two projects to next year's schedule. In their place, I've juggled my release schedule in order to offer my Ream and Patreon readers a side story this month from The Motley Crew.

The timing of my next e-book installment release is a little uncertain at the moment, since my recovering head is still at the stage where, every time I edit a story, I introduce more errors than I correct. However, I hold out hope that I'll be able to get a new e-book installment out in January. In the meantime, as you can see, I'm continuing to bring out blog fiction.

Fortunately, the concussion hasn't stopping me from writing stories. Among other things, I've finished composing Motley Mayhem, the third novel in the Thousand Nations series.

( Ways to offer me a tip, financial or nonfinancial )

kaberett

... to be expanded on tomorrow. <3

mellowtigger

If any regular readers here (whether you currently even have a Dreamwidth account or not) would like a regular Paid account for a year, then send me a private message from your Dreamwidth account through the Inbox. I will send you a gift subscription.

This post from Dreamwidth admins reminded me of their tradition of encouraging gift subscriptions at Dreamwidth. This FAQ page explains the benefits of Paid versus Free accounts. I don't really understand the point system, so I'm sticking with the Paid offer for this year.

rydra_wong

✨ holiday love meme 2025 ✨
my thread here

kore

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has marked as possibly inappropriate for anyone under the age of 18. )

lannamichaels

Summary: The titular girl turning 12 is Katie, a homeschooled girl in Kentucky in summer/autumn 2004. She is enduring the beginning of puberty -- having to wear a bra*, growing leg hair, getting her period -- while her best friends have temporarily moved to Wisconsin, she is getting bullied at church** youth group, discovering her budding feminist rage about dress codes, and, worryingly, might have a crush on a girl in her theater club. A midgrade graphic novel.

( Read more... )

kaberett

The terrible hyphenation one can reasonably attribute to a failure to invest in subject specialist proof readers (or possibly any proof readers at all, good grief).

The wildly ahistorical nonsense about the history of medicine? Less so. I begin to understand why there isn't a references section, and I've only made it as far as page 7 before needing to stop and shriek about it and also stare at a wall for a bit...

umadoshi

Reading: Since last weekend, I've finished reading Rebecca Mahoney's The Memory Eater and read Susan Cooper's Over Sea, Under Stone and Aster Glenn Gray's The Wolf and the Girl, and

scruloose and I finished listening to Network Effect. (One Murderbot audiobook left to go! At least until whenever the new one comes out next year.)

I'd never read any of The Dark is Rising [series] before, but a while back I got the whole set in an ebook bundle, and this week I remembered to actually ask around about which part of people read seasonally (or if it's the whole thing) and confirmed that winter solstice is indeed the season in question. So I expect to take a stab at reading The Dark is Rising [book] in a few weeks.

Seasonally related: Llinos Cathryn Thomas has a new seasonal novella out, All is Bright, which I understand can just be read like any other book but is written to work as an Advent countdown, one chapter a day. Hopefully I'll remember to start that on Monday, alongside whatever else I pick up next.

Watching: Having finally finished Network Effect,

scruloose and I dipped back into Silo season 2 last night. Three whole episodes down now!

I also succumbed to anticipatory fandom hype and watched the first two episodes of Heated Rivalry. I can't say I'm in love, but it looks like it's only six episodes total, so I expect I'll keep on with it. [Content note: the sex scenes are fairly graphic, at least by my fuzzy impression of standards for a mainstream show.] I have zero familiarity with the book, so no idea what's going to happen or how it is as an adaptation.

[Via The Rec Centre: "How ‘Heated Rivalry’ Became the Internet’s Favorite Show — Before It’s Even Aired".]

Householding: We've ordered a new upright freezer for the garage, since the current one is still being cranky. Once we've swapped the new one in (ETA: next weekend),

scruloose may take a stab at repairing it; that might've been the first step if it had been an appliance that's not full of food that needs to stay frozen, but with no idea what we would've done with said food during the attempt and troubleshooting and repair, and given how busy they've been lately, it wasn't a good choice right now. If they're able to fix the old one, we should be able to rehome it with someone who needs one.

Cooking: We did indeed make the Smitten Kitchen Roast Chicken with Schmaltzy Cabbage last weekend, and it was really good. I've been pleased about how many vegetables it turns out I can find palatable in some situations, but I think this was the most actual enjoyment I've had from one. (The cabbage didn't do as well as a leftover the next night as the chicken itself did, but was still fine.)

Current Mood: hungry

althea_valara

✨ holiday love meme 2025 ✨
my thread here

If you're not familiar with this: you comment on the post with your username(s), and then people ANONYMOUSLY leave comments on why they like you.

azurelunatic

The new dryer is just fine, except the top is ever so slightly slanted in a way that makes it a bad place to set your dryer balls.

Have I mentioned that especially after Colonoscopy Week I've had more trouble than usual walking? I've been using my cane inside the house for the first time in quite a while, and I'm limited in how much I can carry without (more) pain. It sucks. Belovedest has set up the short ramp against the shortest outside stairs, and while going up it is Bad, going up the stairs without it is Worse. (Both outside doors have stairs.)

I wasn't available to assist with any of the Thanksgiving cooking. Belovedest did it themselves! Including: turkey, the epic tray of dressing, biscuits from the mix, and instant potatoes made the way that erases the taste of Box. (There was also salad available, but there's quite a bit of vegetable in the sausage-cornbread dressing.)

Today we had some roof inspectors. The inspection's free; the quote for fixing things up is *sigh* very much not free.

kaberett

Spotted in today's book, with just as much of a medical theme as you might reasonably expect:

... biopsy-
chosocial...

umadoshi

A day off without sleeping in at all feels so expansive! (

scruloose had to be out a bit early all this week, so I've been getting up a bit earlier too to do my supervision part of the clowder's breakfast routine.) But I took the day off mainly to try to get some manga work done, so going back to bed after that seemed counterproductive. Somehow it's not even 10 AM yet? Incredible. (Could I have used the sleep, though? Oh yes.)

Happy day-after-Thanksgiving to the USians* observing this emotionally-complex holiday. I enjoy the food chatter from afar. Someone on a cooking feed on Bluesky posted about doing a stuffing flight, and now I really want a stuffing flight, although the specific types they'd made didn't sing to me. ^^;

*I've been seeing the edges of Discourse about this term on Bluesky, and several people complained about the pronunciation/having no good pronunciation options, which made me realize that to me it's strictly a term for writing, not saying. It works fine visually. *shrugs*

First Yule scent of the year: But Men Loved Darkness Better Than Light (2009 vintage). I'd forgotten how much I love this one.

Last year I had a pretty good streak of wearing Weenie scents, and then in November

scruloose's breathing was a bit rough, and we didn't think it was the BPAL, but I didn't wear any through the Christmas season. (It turned out not to be what was causing the problem, which has been IDed and dealt with.) So maybe this year. (As always, the Weenie and Yule updates tempted me dreadfully, but the added horror of current crossborder shipping gave me extra armor against getting in on a decant circle.)

I'm finally listening to the new Florence + The Machine album; listening to new music takes even longer now than it used to, and I've never been quick about listening or bonding. Given the season, after this album I'll probably switch to Christmas music while working. As long as it's good (wholly subjective, obviously, along with if you're a Christmas person and if seasonal music doesn't hit all the wrong buttons in general), Christmas music is kind of ideal for when I'm trying to just get some work done--it doesn't require the attention that beloved favorite music or new-to-me music does, even if it's not a recording I'm familiar with. Handy!

(Yesterday I deployed some for the first time this year. I didn't know Carole King had a holiday album, although it's never a surprise when a western musician does. *eyes Tori Amos holiday album* [Which I do listen to.] And now I've heard it once and never need to hear it again.)

Also on the music front, I finally cut off my Spotify subscription, and I'm trying out Qobuz after waffling between it and Deezer. Neither of them has native Linux desktop support or a Roku app, either of which would've weighted my decision significantly, and Qobuz allows you to actually buy music--apparently DRM-free, no less!--so I'm starting here.

Package-delivery updates cover such a bizarre spectrum. I currently have in my inbox: a) an update from a courier saying they've got my package and will deliver it this afternoon, with no indication of the sender, and I do not have a ship notification from anywhere that makes it obvious, so...I guess we'll see soon, and b) a Canada Post "Ship Notification for Item" (not to be confused with a "your item is out for delivery" notification) that didn't arrive in my inbox until a couple of hours after the CP person had already theoretically been by and attempted delivery. (Canada Post folks are better than others about actually attempting delivery, so I have to assume I just didn't hear the doorbell somehow, but the email timing remains bizarre.)

Current Mood: sleepy
Current Music: Florence + The Machine - One of the Greats

sage

✨ holiday love meme 2025 ✨
my thread here

julian

This is a Long Post because I have Thoughts, but the short version is, "Hey, my mom had a stroke, and isn't just sedated to the gills! Though she is that, too."

Less telegraphic version: My mom (who just turned 86!) has progressed, in her dementia, from anxious and logical to anxious and tangential, in both technical and non-technical senses. That is to say, to people who don't know her, it seems as if she says basically random stuff, whereas to people who know her, it's clear she's saying stuff that has connections in her brain but she doesn't seem to recognize that she needs to provide the connective tissue to make it explicable to people outside herself.

Mostly, up until now, if she's not tired, she's quite audible and quite understandable. When tired, she gets a little blurry, but not *very*. (Also, and this is irrelevant except for med issues, she gets delusions. All of which are quite harmless, so far, and seem to mostly involve expecting visitors for dinner and the like. My dad says there's like, consistent expectations/background to this, and things.)

She and my dad are both very wary of assisted living and don't want anything to do with it, in part because of a friend of theirs who they felt had basically been stuck into a facility by her daughter. (Mind you, this friend had dementia and kept falling down, so, warranted.)

My mom's also wandering, or, rather, taking walks and then getting lost in her own neighborhood, which isn't *quite* the same thing, but kind of similar. One can ask why my dad lets her do that, to which the answer is, he sometimes needs to pay a bill or something and she gets impatient. She otherwise seems to not have many interests -- she's not reading much (or, I suppose, able to read), she's not watching movies, she's not... doing things. Other than taking walks.

So the point is, yesterday, she was taking her third walk of the day, alone, and someone called 911 because she was apparently walking in the middle of High St, aka, a very busy street with a *lot* of rush hour traffic. (When I heard this I had an actual chill run down my actual spine. Things that happen in real life! Who knew!) A police officer stopped by, and she was apparently combative and/or belligerent, so he brought her to the hospital. (The same one I volunteered at when I was a teenager, let us timewarp now.) It seemed odd to me that since she was *registered* as a wanderer, he'd take her to the hospital rather than home, but there's a few possibilities, some of which are stroke-related, some of which are dementia-related.

( More details about various visits. )

Anyway, so, clearly, what we need to do is get her into a rehab facility and get the support system set up for getting her back home, hopefully. We've got a "light housekeeping" person coming in starting about a week from now, and I can call some nursing folks her doctor recommended, so, we have Planz.

In more emotional aspects of stuff, this now starts another kind of slippery slope toward possibilities like pneumonia and other things. And I don't want my mom to *die*, but on the other hand she's been telling my dad she's unhappy and doesn't want to exist anymore (though doesn't have any kind of inclination to kill herself), so I mean. If this starts that faster downhill slope, I'll be *sad*, but I'm not going to cling if she's wanting to slowly go that direction. Just. I'll be sad. I *am* sad. Sadness is.

ysobel

...which I'm sure has ~no~ correlation to having gone to the free thanksgiving meal my church did

two types of salad, turkey, ham, sage stuffing, peas and shallots, roasted brussels sprouts / carrots / onions, green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole, mashed potatoes, potato rolls, and like eight types of pie (including: pecan, pumpkin, sweet potato, apple, chocolate cream, key lime, and idk what else) with real whipped cream.

All homemade, all insanely good, and there was even a centerpiece that was a handmade cornucopia made out of bread and containing actual fruots and vegetables.

I ... am going to go into a food coma now, lol

Current Mood: thankful

jjhunter

Pick a thing or two that sums up how you're doing today, this week, in general, and tell me about it in the 5-7-5 syllables of a haiku.

=

Signal-boosting much appreciated!

lassarina

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

lannamichaels

Been meaning to update this for a while, so here goes:

After that, I relied very heavily for a while on the valved Aura (3M 9211+), it was how I got through summer 2024 since the non-valve Aura was just so hot. It was not the most comfortable, but between the Aura and the valved Aura, the valved Aura had advantages (both left marks on my face after wearing).

Then there was a combination of factors, including suddenly the valved Aura being out of stock where I was buying it and me stopping the habit of looking for them (if you want them, they're currently in stock in Uline, I assume also other places), because I'd switched entirely to the BNX F95 in both white and black, which are very light and breathable, which really outweighs the downsides (not many, but it feels like I do need to adjust it more than the regular Aura).

I've also dabbled with the BNX H95B, which has a different shape from the F95. It doesn't fit as well but it's also very light. It's basically a nice light mask for when I don't need to wear a mask for too long or talk or whatever.

But if I'm, for a wild example, waiting in a hospital waiting room for hours and hours, very nearly the only one masking, then the BNX F95 is absolutely the mask for that.

At this point, the Auras just live in coat pockets and backpacks as "oops, forgot to grab a BNX mask" backups. Because the Auras are great masks but they are much hotter and much tighter than the BNX ones.

mellowtigger

Yesterday, there was dense fog in Minneapolis. I could see almost (but not quite) a full block away. Later that afternoon, there was some rain. Overnight we got our first snow. It was light snow at my house. I got only about 2.5cm/1in deep, but I still had to go shovel the sidewalk and alleyway to move some snow-and-leaves combo that would be unpleasant if allowed to stay. They got significantly more snow farther north around Minnesota.

The temperature in Minneapolis is just slightly below freezing right now. We're expected to get -17C/1F low temperature over the weekend. Winter is here.

sage

books
still reading: A Companion to Women in the Ancient World by Sharon L. James (Editor), Sheila Dillon (Editor). I did not expect this book to be so fucking triggery, so it's slow going.

Yuletide
I've reviewed canon a million times, inflicted canon on my beta (bless them), and now I'm rereading fic I wrote back in the day...trying to lure the muses back, I guess? IDK. I am blocked. I am stymied. I am in awe of my past self as a writer. I used to be so good! Now all that energy is going into crochet, or so it seems. I'm so frustrated. I mean, I should be able to do two things well, right? Creativity isn't a zero sum game. And yet. I'm really considering defaulting, even though I don't want to. I just can't seem to get my brain working. (I've never defaulted. I think this is my 20th? Yuletide & I don't want to break my streak, and yet. And YET.) :(((

yarning
Rockstar Lestat in the gold pants looks so GOOD! I'm so pleased. I've made him a little microphone out of wire and painted glitter onto his face. Not sure how much glitter to put on his chest, yet; the screencaps are inconsistent there. Could be the gold necklace is enough.

Yesterday I added wire rings to his index fingers, such as he has fingers, but this pic is from before that. Point is, I'm really happy with him so far. Maybe I'll keep him and make others to sell. Also, I went to yarn group Sunday and had a good time. Another new person came, and I worked on a gold and yellow kickbunny to replace the one that sold. A lot have sold in the last few weeks, which is great, as I need the $. And I just got a commission to make an orange fish cat kicker, so that'll be fun to work on over Thanksgiving.

etsy sale!
My Black Friday sale is here! Most things are 25% off, which is a deeper cut than is entirely reasonable, since I try to keep my prices as low as possible, but I really want some things to find their forever homes. Go to Sage's Handmade to have a look around. Also, commissions are open!

healthcrap
I've got to have yet another doc appt to fill out medical transportation forms, drat it all. ION my scale said that I'd lost 4 pounds last week alone, but! It turned out the ten year old scale was BROKEN. New scale came Sunday & proved the ridiculous weight drop was false, whew!

#resist
#50501 We (the People) Dissent Protests: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1f-30Rsg6N_ONQAulO-yVXTKpZxXchRRB2kD3Zhkpe_A/preview
#50501: Thanksgiving/Black Friday Boycott of Amazon, Target, and Home Depot

I hope all of y'all are doing wonderfully! Have a safe and happy holiday if you're in the US & a lovely week if you're elsewhere. <333

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Boiling water without burning it

April 2020

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Page Summary

duskpeterson - UPDATE: Flight Through the Forest (The Motley Crew #2) + Thousand Nations early access fiction
kaberett - vital functions is once again a placeholder
mellowtigger - a gift year at Dreamwidth
rydra_wong - It's been a hard year
kore - Sleep for grief
lannamichaels - Turning Twelve by Kathryn Ormsbee, illustrated by Molly Brooks (2024)
kaberett - [pain] oh this book is bad
umadoshi - Weekly proof of life: media, an appliance, and chicken and cabbage
althea_valara - it's that time again!
azurelunatic - Post-Turkey (well, there are leftovers...)
kaberett - [pain] a strong contender for The Worst Possible Hyphenation
umadoshi - Day-off mishmash post: not my holiday | seasonal scents | music listening | package-delivery oddness
sage - Holiday Love Meme!
julian - Welp!
ysobel - my appetite has mysteriously vanished...
jjhunter - How Are You? (in Haiku)
lassarina - What Are You Playing Wednesday
lannamichaels - Update on last year's mask reviews
mellowtigger - first snow of the 2025 season in Minneapolis
sage - What I'm Doing Wednesday

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