ofearthandstars

Some day I'll get through a standard dental appointment without being stiff and sore in the shoulders next day, but not this time. However mindfully I relaxed my everything during the procedure and used muscle relaxants beforehand, it was clearly not enough. Wonder if I could spring some ativan from my doctor?

But did have an interesting dream after my early morning (still dark) pee break. I was clearing out, or clearing up, my stuff in a house I was renting with my quondem roommate AJC, pulling cardboard boxes from under the bed storage. There was an unplaceably familiar couple there, possibly moving in, who were I think French. I was telling AJC or them about a dream I'd had, in my dream, where Tintin (or possibly me thinking I was Tintin) was trying to persuade Papuwa's Takamatsu to come work for Eroica's Klaus. Certainly an unusual mash-up, but in my very nostalgic dream(s) it made sense.

kate_nepveu

The Next Great Gatsby?
At Readercon 33, Max Gladstone mentioned that The Great Gatsby flopped upon publication—and therefore was cheap to send to American soldiers abroad in WWII, which resulted its revival. He asked the audience to imagine how great a world would be in which, for some reason, copies of Sarah Caudwell's Thus Was Adonis Murdered were suddenly everywhere. What other books ought to be suddenly ubiquitous?
Ellen Kushner, Kate Nepveu, R.W.W. (Rob) Greene (moderator), Len Schiff

panel notes

Rob started the panel by talking about the reasons Gatsby was sent abroad, its canonization, and what that might mean for our panel. And, delightfully, he's put up a longer version of that in his newsletter, so that saves me so much typing right there.

Anyway, as Rob says over there, the first question was: "What book would create the most positive chaos if it suddenly appeared in every American household?"

Len: (who is a high school teacher, among other things): something Daniel Pinkwater, like Young Adults or The Education of Robert Nifkin

Ellen: mine! (Swordspoint, specifically.) because I've had a long time to collect reactions to it. remembers getting a negative reaction from Steven Brust, who said something like, "I didn't really like it, am I homophobic? No, everyone's just completely immoral and I couldn't handle it." Thinks some queer immorality would be good chaos. Also, even today still gets people remarking on how much of a difference the representation in it made to them

me: I don't know if it would be chaos exactly, but I had previously prepared the answer of Travel Light by Naomi Mitchison so I'm going to go with that, for the reasons in Amal el-Mohtar's essay: it's about a young girl who loses three homes and chooses the open road; it's beautiful, it's short, it's in conversation with other literature and a gateway into the author's other works.

Rob: Camp Damascus by Chuck Tingle, which is horror novel about gay conversion camp with demons.

(my notes are a bit of mess in terms of chronological order, I'm afraid, so I hope I haven't reconstructed things in a way that distorts)

me: I'm not sure how much I agree with the premise. when I was looking at just the text of this description and thinking about the panel—well, first I thought how great Thus Was Adonis Murdered is.

(we did talk about that, but for the sake of time and my hands, I'll refer you to my old booklog posts and move on. (Except that Ellen knew Caudwell! She met her on one of Caudwell's U.S. signing tours and then visited her in London. I was so starstruck.))

me cont'd: and I immediately started making rules for myself, because I'm like that, and one of the rules I made was that I could not use "this book could fix the world" as a criteria. partly because that's a hole I'd just never climb out of, and partly because it's just too unpredictable. books get misunderstood, they get taught to kids who aren't ready for them, people take away such personal things. of course books affect people, but maybe because I'm not a writer, my goal for this was much more humble: "wouldn't it be great if I could say to people, 'remember when Selena got super high at an orgy and ignored everyone in favor of reading Pride and Prejudice?', and they did."

me concluding: that said, when I eventually picked titles to write down, I deliberately chose all women authors. (I do not give myself a cookie, however, because they were all white.)

Ellen: I think a way to approach your objections is to think about ubiquity. everyone's read Gatsby (me: I haven't!); even if they haven't, it's part of assumed knowledge, the cultural conversation. (just to be clear: she was entirely correct about this and I was being a little bit silly.)

Ellen, a bit later: conversations about ubiquity have shifted to movies. Lord of the Rings has far more power/reach culturally now than it did except at its first wave of popularity in U.S. (where did massively influence environmental movement), and people always quote (Ian McKellen as) Gandalf saying, "All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us."

Ellen and Len also defended Gatsby as a work against the negative effects that Rob laid at its feet (see his essay).

Rob: mentioned something about A Tree Grows in Brooklyn being the second-most-taught book in the U.S., but I didn't write down the context for that

I think this is when Rob asked what the first book was that changed our lives/opened our minds/showed us what books were capable of?

Ellen: "'Repent, Harlequin!' Said the Ticktockman," by Harlan Ellison, for anarchy and chaos.

Len: The Dispossessed. the utopian impulse is not a thing to be dismissed. dystopia is culturally determined; what we have now in the canon is because people were disappointed by Stalin. it confirms shitty things we believe about people and self-propagates. instead foreground utopia. that said, discovered the book in a counterculture used bookstore, and canonizing things risks losing a lot of their charm

Len, later: did teach The Dispossessed to high schoolers and it went over like a lead balloon, they were just not interested in it.

(I did not jump in on this, though I thought of Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, by Mildred D. Taylor, which I read like twenty times in fourth grade or so.)

me: asks Len about a passing mention he made of The Hunger Games being taught in high schools. that seems like a good thing? inequality is bad, and the revolution needs more than a single teenager?

Len: haven't taught it, but thinks that as long as make authority abstract, can depoliticize it. I'm sure there's a reading of The Hunger Games in which the Capitol are all SJWs.

Rob: Ender's Game is one of the most popular books to be taught. used to be (?) taught as leadership in Marine Corps University.

me: Some Desperate Glory is in conversation with Ender's Game and is very specific about the fascist nature of the leadership

someone: ideally read them together

Ellen: just found out about Nghi Vo's The Chosen and the Beautiful, with regard to Gatsby

maybe in here is when Rob asked about dropping something else in place of Gatsby in high schools?

Len: refers back to Pinkwater

me: Piranesi, because Travel Light seems a little young for high school; Piranesi is also short, wonderfully written, has lots to chew on, is in conversation with other works (specifically The Magician's Nephew), and: "The Beauty of the House is immeasurable; its Kindness infinite."

Ellen: wants to keep all the old difficult books being assigned in high school, because that's the only time get help reading them! know someone who was assigned Dan Brown in high school, come on

me: I had two books on my list that I thought were too dense and complicated, maybe I should put them back on! (Cyteen, C.J. Cherryh, and—of course, are you surprised by this point?—The Fortunate Fall, Cameron Reed) but also, some things seem like high school is just too early; shudder at idea Moby-Dick in high school, it's so long and I can't imagine the teachers would like explaining the chapter that's just a dick joke

Rob: Parable of the Sower

Rob to audience (copied from his essay): If you were designing a new book-distribution program for today’s challenges — climate change, polarization, technological disruption, nationalism — what would be your first five titles?

responses:

never know what's going to speak to you, needs to be lots of titles (like the original)
almost anything by Terry Pratchett (this was from Delia Sherman, and she and I discovered that we read Night Watch very differently in terms of what Pratchett, or more fairly the text, thinks of the revolutionaries in that book, which was delightful)
Le Guin
The Mahabharata! "it covers it all"
of course books can change the world, Costa Rico has no standing army because a key figure there read Aldous Huxley. (I would love if someone could suggest more reading on this! Wikipedia is pretty bare-bones, and this article I found might be from a somewhat conservative-leaning publication?)

Anyway, that was very fun and juicy.

The final book on my list, which I did not get around to mentioning, is The Interior Life by Katherine Blake/Dorothy Heydt, which Jo Walton reviews usefully and which is free to download.)

Poll #33403

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 15

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+1 (thumbs-up, I see you, etc.)?

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conuly

Malcolm-Jamal Warner, actor who starred as Theo in ‘The Cosby Show,’ dead at 54

Black Sabbath's Ozzy Osbourne dies aged 76

troyswann

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

Current Mood: grateful

in_the_pipeline_feed

https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/downsides-therapies-and-what-do-about-them

Let’s look at a couple of downsides of cancer treatment, but before doing so, let’s state some ground rules. Every drug, every therapy, every medical procedure is a tradeoff. There is always a risk/reward calculation to be made. For small molecule drugs, that shows itself in various ways, and two that should be more familiar to the general public are: every drug has side effects, and every drug can be toxic if taken in large enough quantities and/or in the wrong way. Paracelsus was right, folks - the dose makes the poison, and one of the things we have been trying to do for the last hundred years or so in this business is to widen the space between therapeutic doses of things and their toxic doses. But just as there is always a dose below which a drug will do no good, there is always a dose above which it will do harm.

This does not play very well in public debates. If someone asks you “Is selenium an essential trace element that everyone needs in their diet to avoid cardiac and central nervous system problems, or is it a poisonous substance that can make your hair and fingernails fall out?”, the only honest answer is “Yes”. It is both of those. Depends on how much you take. “Choose your poison” is actually a very honest phrase when it comes to pharmaceuticals, and that goes for familiar ones that people around the world every day. Aspirin or ibuprofen can truly mess you up if you take a lot of them all at once (or too much all the time for a long time), and if you take a pile of acetominophen/paracetemol with too much liquor to wash it down with you’d better have a fresh liver transplant lined up, because you’re probably going to need it. Does that mean you shouldn’t take ibuprofen for occasional aches and pains? Not at all: it’s really an excellent drug for its intended purposes, and its risk/benefit ratio is very good indeed at the recommended doses. I take it without hesitation if I feel I need it.

But this means that drugs for more severe conditions are very likely to come with more severe possibilities for harm. Chemotherapy is pretty much at the top of the scale, with some drugs in this class being outright poisons by any definition of the word. But you are trying to kill cancer cells before they kill you, and that can be a desperate business. It is for every patient and their physicians to decide if the benefits of any given cancer therapy are worth the costs and the risks. Many times they are, and frankly, sometimes they aren't.

One of those risks is that some forms of chemotherapy appear to stimulate disseminated dormant tumor cells, which can lead to later metastatic cancer even if treatment of the original tumor is successful. The good thing about medical science is that we don’t have to just sit back and take this as our lot in this fallen world, because if we had that attitude we wouldn’t be looking for cancer therapies in the first place. This new paper looks into the mechanisms behind this effect and a possible way around it. The authors confirm with new tracing methods that the problem (as earlier hypothesized by other groups) is that many forms of chemotherapy induce senescence of fibroblast cells, which in turn leads to a chronic inflammation phenotype. That in turn causes neutrophils to form so-called “neutrophil extracellular traps” (NETs). Those are an immune defense mechanism discovered in the early 2000s, made of stretches of DNA and chromatin proteins with other enzymes attached to them, and they can bind and kill pathogens.

But they also have effects on the extracellular matrix, and when this happens in proximity to dormant tumor cells it can start them growing again, leading to metastases. The new paper linked above tried the popular “senolytic” combination of dasatinib and quercitin, when dosed along with the chemotherapy agent doxirubicin, seems to prevent this process in animal models of disease - presumably by interrupting the senescent-fibroblast part of the process. This would seem to be relatively straightforward to test in human patients, and I hope this can be done soon. I would like to see the "senolytics" idea be of some clinical use!

Another cancer therapy that can go on to induce later cancer problems of its own is radiation treatment. That can of course be a direct consequence of the radiation itself inducing mutations, which is a big motivation for the various methods developed to reduce the overall dose as much as possible while still maintaining efficacy. But as reviewed here, radiotherapy can also induce metastatic disease through effects on EGFR signaling. Radiation induces the synthesis of an EGFR ligand protein called amphiregulin, which goes on to send myeloid cells into a more immunosuppressive state and stimulates growth of metastatic tumors. Some way of blocking this effect and of screening patients who have more EGFR-sensitive myeloid cells to start with could help alleviate this problem. There are still a number of mechanistic details to be worked out, but at this point the overall picture seems valid.

So yes, there are indeed tradeoffs and possible bad outcomes. But the key is to attack these in turn, to figure out what’s really happening at the cellular and biochemical level, and to come up with further strategies. Every time, we learn more about both healthy and tumor cells, and get a chance to take another step up what is a very hard, but very important, journey up a very long ladder.

https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/downsides-therapies-and-what-do-about-them

conuly

It never rains, but it sure does pour.

(Although this really is a somewhat archaic construction and doesn't mean what I've formed it to mean here. I do know that.)

**************************

( Read more... )

susandennis

I suggested to Hazel that she just let me drop off the pee but, no, of course. She said she wanted to go and John was fine and she wanted out of the house. So we went. But, in the car, I told her she needed to include Bonny. That Bonny's feelings were getting bruised because she always came to me. She seemed like she understood. time... will tell.

I did get to hear - for the 8 millionth time - about how her sons delivered papers when they were kids and then picked up the old papers and sold them to recycling and then were able to buy their own first cars. Both of these 'kids' are now in their 60's. And about her hip replacement (30 years ago) and the problem with the pin, which she calls a nail, 5 years later.

We stopped at Safeway on the way home and I picked up a few things but totally forgot the one thing on my list and that is after I looked at my list once we were in the store. So I'm clearly heading for Hazelville myownself.

I have 2 hours before the cleaner comes. Yahoo.

rhi

This is not my work, not my doing, but it's too good not to share, and it's not like we've put out much of the fires yet. So. Here.

How to Write Fiction When the Planet is Falling Apart (2172 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: No Fandom
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Additional Tags: Meta, Writing
Summary:

I think a lot about writing and its place in the world. I wonder if it matters, if it's enough. I wonder how we're all going to survive. The world is on fucking fire and even in fandom we can't pretend that it's not.

A guide to writing anyway in the age of despair or, a love letter to writers.

oursin

Paging the ponceyness police, what?

It’s never been easier to build an impressive-looking library, especially if you’re mostly interested in the colour and size of your books. Is this necessarily a bad thing?

In an age of constant scrolling, there is social capital to be gained by simply looking as if you are a cultured person who listens to music on vinyl and reads lots of books. And creating an aesthetically pleasing bookshelf is now easier than ever, thanks to an increase in booksellers who trade in “books by the metre”.

You know, I would be just slightly more sympathetic with people who are about The Aesthetic of BOOOX if they would ever demonstrate a touch of quirkiness and have shelves of (okay maybe nicely preserved copies) old Penguins? or those rather nifty little volumes of The Traveller's Library. Or just something that would suggest that this is more than just a step up from manifesting your Posh by having a lovely set of Heron Books Collectors Editions (bound in sumptious leatherette).

I think that if you're going to have Randomly Chosen For the Decorative Vibe books scattered about your pad, you should actually have to read at least some of them. And be able to respond to somebody asking about them without having to resort to whatever garbled wifflewoffle some AI engine serves up.

Okay, I am now meanly recalling the complete set of the works of Bulwer-Lytton in very good condition that lurked on a shelf in a bookshop I used to frequent. And also wondering as to whether there are collected editions of CP Snow's yawn-worthy 'Strangers and Brothers' sequence.

On the other hand, they might pick up something that they enjoyed and found engrossing, and develop the habit of reading. I would be there for that, in fact.

My own aesthetic is, the books have taken over, what do you mean, curated? maniacal laughter.

sartorias

ambyr posted recently about culls and memory that got me to thinking about the complexities of reread, memory, nostalgia, and so forth.

For example, when I read Peter S. beagle's Folk of the Air it was the right time for that story. I've kept it ever since, but never reread it--his later work didn't click with me, making me hesitant to revisit that one lest the same thing happen.

As I keep culling, I've discovered books that seemed really progressive at the time--books I really enjoyed, or that got me through a difficult period--that time has caught up with and bypassed in significant ways. Patrick Dennis comes to mind. His book about divorce, The Joyous Season, got me past the emotional whirlpool of my parents' marriage breaking up when I was a teen. There were other aspects that I really liked, but there are now attitudes and language that makes me wince now. And yet I can't cull that book.

But others I can place in the donation box with a mental salute to find memory, and hopes it finds its readership somewhere else. This ambivalence can go for problematical authors, too. But these things I think have to be decided for oneself. So many aspects to balance.

mumblemumble

This is mostly for my own record, lalala.

( Legend of the Female General, Blossom in Darkness, Rebirth, The Awakening )

He's been so busy since Tibetan Sea Flower, I don't even know if there was a whole week of rest somewhere in there. 😔 Also, looking at this, it's pretty amazing to me that some of these productions with a proper budget and popular leads are still waiting for a license or whatever, but a gay little family drama with no budget and a cast of unknowns went from shooting to airing in like eight months. And even made it through censorship somewhat intact, until Youku got out the scissors. Look at it go. 🥹

susandennis

Last night, Hazel came in to ask me to take her to Bellevue this morning to turn in John's urine sample. They have two sons who live nearby and all of Timber Ridge services. But, they chose me. I'm over it. But, of course, I said yes. I said I'd like to go early so she said 10. 10, to me, is decidedly NOT early. It just means my morning is now eaten up entirely. She is sweet but so tedious. Last night she told me she couldn't drive because her eyesight was bad. And I'm sure she will tell me that again today along with everything else she has said over and over and over and over again.

I'm very tempted to say gimme the piss and you stay here. But, their health care provider is pretty sticky about stuff and I don't want to make the trip for nothing. So, I'll hang out and do nothing til 10. Take her and come home for lunch and then sit in the elbow while the cleaner cleans and finally get some me time about 2:30.

I do think that Hazel and I are going to have a chat about letting Bonny in on some of this action. I'm going to suggest we give Bonny a turn. I should have done that last night. Bonny has said many times to them and to me that she wants to help. Hazel somehow understands that Bonny's help is only available in the afternoon and she wanted to do this first thing. ARUGH. Regardless, I'm going to tell Hazel that Bonny is feeling left out.

The place we are going is very near other stuff, too. Like the shoe store I want to go to and a couple of other stores. But, not with Hazel.

Man, I am a whiner today!! I'd better fix my attitude before 10. Also I'm thinking there may be a gas purchase needed soon.

In other news. My $4 phone case from Amazon is perfect! 2 days with no case on my phone was stressful. That damn thing is slippery when naked. This case is slim and grippy and worth every one of those 400 pennies.

kate_nepveu

Take Your Novel to Work
In the genre of fanfic known as "take your fandom to work," favorite characters are placed in the author's work environment, often resulting in delightfully concrete and minute details about ecological field research or running a bodega or being a summer camp counselor. How do stories of everyday vocation enhance the experience of reading and writing fiction, and what works of speculative fiction take best advantage of the granular details of work life? What can bringing characters to work tell us about both the characters and the work itself?
Ken Schneyer (moderator), Marianna Martin PhD, Melissa Bobe, Sarah Pinsker

panel notes

Ken, who writes short fiction, amended the title of the panel to "Take Your Story to Work." And asked the panelists to talk about their work in their introductions.

Melissa: children's librarian

Sarah: writing professor, have been many other things including camp counselor, working with horses, nonprofit administrator, SAT tutor, singer/songwriter

Marianna: currently academic. formerly development executive for film and TV production, administrative assistant, film projectionist, IT, bartending training but not experience

Sarah: bartending experience but no training!

Ken: currently professor of humanities. previously IT project manager, ad hoc computer programmer, clerk typist, judicial clerk, lawyer in corporate law firm, dishwasher at deli, actor, director. several of those have found way into stories. asks: particularly good examples you've read, yours and/or not?

Marianne: caveat did not read novel Discovery of Witches, but TV really got minutia of academia right. Stross, Laundry Files, vibe of working in IT. le Carré, sounds very plausible!

(anyone interested in academia and/or Discovery of Witches must, must read this fic in which the author's note reads, "i'm not so much taking this fandom to work as i am meeting it next to the dumpster behind my workplace and engaging it in hand-to-hand combat for the honor of the field of human genetics"

pachytene phase (9096 words) by magneticwave
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: All Souls Trilogy - Deborah Harkness, A Discovery of Witches (TV)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Diana Bishop/Matthew Clairmont
Characters: Christopher "Chris" Roberts, Matthew Clairmont
Additional Tags: Epistolary

Summary: The Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics is pleased to invite you to the annual Clarence Berrigan Lecture. This year’s speaker is Matthew Clairmont, DPhil, who is giving a talk entitled: “Interspecies compatibility, meiotic flexibility, and the end of the infertility myth: insights from the southern red muntjac.” Please join us after Dr. Clairmont’s talk for a reception in the McNeil Family atrium at 5pm. Refreshments will be provided!

you don't need to know the fandom and it is hilarious)

Sarah: office vibes: Jeff Vandermeer, Authority (second one in trilogy that began with Annihilation); Several People Are Typing, Calvin Kasulke, someone gets uploaded into work Slack

Sarah cont'd: music: Randee Dawn's new one, The Only Song Worth Singing; really picky about those, good details about gritty. Elizabeth Hand, Wylding Hall

Melissa: read T. Kingfisher, A House with Good Bones, obsessed with research and entomology. own profession: Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher, Bruce Coville (alas no dragons at their library), probably led to becoming librarian

Ken: moments where certain details ticked off

Sarah: curse of being immersed something, is when encountering books where author learned by research. some do well: Dick Francis, glassblowers and meteorologists, seems like got it, at least from outside those professions. it's things that don't think to research that grate. music, people can only picture what rock star is like, not what slugging through every day. also categories where if write thing, prepare to get letters: guns, horses (I'm the one writing the letters), sailing, U.S. Civil War (and if you've done primary source research, often letters you get are wrong)

Melissa: authors try to get librarians right because know we'll buy the book

Melissa cont'd: remembered work meant to mention: The Public, movie, Emilio Estevez, made after watching interactions at LA public library. only thing not believable: entire staff but one person were all men (so much laughter)

Marianna: try to condense rant of many years. authors are like: I went to school, I know what faculty do, I don't need to look that up. get overly focused on research (academic conduct thereof). nothing about hiring, tenure, career track, which is what academics mostly care about: I don't care how in love you are, you are not leaving MIT to follow your lover and teach at an Arizona community college.

Ken: bias toward academia in mainstream novels, so think lot is accurate there. re: law: people view procedure through mainstream TV, movies, think understand. part is that day to day of law work is exceptionally boring. sitting for 12 hours a day in a library (me, to myself: Ken is showing his age: I sit for 12 hours a day in front of Lexis => ). almost threw book across room: passage in Orson Scott Card novel, character obtains divorce AND the arrangement of bifurcated child custody WITHOUT spouse's knowledge (caveat, not set in US and in future, suppose could imagine, but)

Ken cont'd: flip around other way: examples of juicy details re: something otherwise unfamiliar, what did that do for you as a reader?

Marianna: le Carré, spoiler alert I'm definitely not a spy, not just telling you that to throw you off scent. made me want to write spy novels, so good at lot of details but not overwhelming with. particularly love when get book like Perfect Spy: how does this person spend their time on an average day? what is the macro running in the back of their head? everyday stuff that you might not think about.

(le Carré came up so much at the con and every time I have to google his name to remind myself of the capitalization and also copy the accented e)

Ken: and we know that he had experience in British intelligence. can you remember particular detail?

Marianna: how much time he spent with radio when holed up in safehouse, had code keys, sitting around waiting to hear message

Melissa: because in hotel, thinking about Kate Stayman-London's Fang Fiction—

—at this point, I very rudely interrupted to ask for a repeat of the title, which caused her to completely lose her train of thought. I apologized then and also after. wait until people are done talking to ask for repeats of titles, self!

anyway the publisher's page on Fang Fiction indicates that the main character is a hotel manager, and also it sounds fun.

Sarah: talking about a lot of jobs that do exist, but made think of jobs that don't but believe that do: Peter Beagle, I'm Afraid You've Got Dragons, about dragon exterminator, like mice in the walls. hates his job because loves dragons, makes reader believe in this guy who knows he has to do, emotions resonant. mild spoiler for early part: protagonist tries to save some, sneaks away as pets.

Ken: The Martian, the book. main character has master's in botany and engineering conveniently. remember being struck by the thought process. no idea what experience author has, not point: I do know enough about electrical circuits to know that you need to know what gauge of wire, so completely sold that character knew what talking about, and did make me feel like I was there.

Melissa: A Magical Girl Retires, Park Seolyeon, very short, characters are all working as magical girls of X or Y, get sent on jobs, very much feels like 9-5 in hilarious way

Ken: more completely imaginary jobs?

Marianna: Stross' Laundry Files. wonderful balance between grounding familiar IT work but for government agency dealing with paranormal stuff

Sarah: all those little jobs in Terry Pratchett novels, e.g., candle snuffer. looks at Melissa: the Librarian though

Melissa: look, we take all representation

Ken: even the witches, does mundane detail so well, yeah, a real witch has to do that, more of a human interaction than anything else

(me, to myself: also, research witches.)

Ken: 15 years ago, talking with Elizabeth Hand, who said how in Glimmering, included nitty-gritty details of boat building which made real effort to research, surprised by great number of positive responses to that part specifically, not necessarily by boat builders, people who just really enjoyed. readers in general, American in particular, love to know how stuff is done, procedural details

(me, to myself: which is the joke in the Field and Stream review of Lady's Chatterley's Lover)

Ken cont'd: is detail good in and of itself, or does it have to advance plot/character/theme to be worthwhile?

Sarah: love granular detail and think is a danger of too much, either "I've suffered for my research and so must you", or because genuinely love the subject—haven't written horse novel because of risk get too in weeds. new novella Haunt Sweet Home, protagonist is working at reality show as production assistant (PA), very bottom of ladder. got lots of feedback from ex-PAs, used to live from someone who was a set dresser got some flavor from her. the things sometimes skip between big plot moments, are what make the job and character pop, so that when get to plot, believe in fully rounded character and ability/inability to do thing

Ken: remember in your A Song for a New Day, early on, step by step to get into venue and set up, played really real to me, felt like there and put me on her side

Sarah: makes it really hard to read those in public readings, not most dynamic

Marianna: just crystallized, what really sells me on details being necessary, is when feels like answering question already had, or didn't know needed until got. joy of discovery for reader, not only having fun but just learned something. can get away with a lot

Melissa: always comes back to how well written. joke never want to represent someone going to toilet, but that's first story in Cursed Bunny by Bora Chung, really works. as writer, always worry that losing audience when writing library

Ken: been moments where you as reader has been lost?

Melissa: hard to lose me, find a lot of things interesting

Sarah: if I do one good thing this con, it's getting people to go read Molly Gloss, in particular The Hearts of Horses, horse trainer novel; sequel of sorts, Falling from Horses, Hollywood stuntman. details ARE the story. not SFF, basically Westerns. nobody does it better than her.

Ken: granular details about occupations as tool of worldbuilding. thinking about economy of language, classic example "the door dilated"

(me, to myself, once again: can I tell you about The Fortunate Fall????)

Melissa: Evil, CBS series, investigating Catholic Church, which everyone gets wrong (never heard priests complain, think happy to have people talking about). does get details wrong of church, but climbing and motherhood details were really interesting and well done (in the same character)

Sarah: from writer's perspective, stuff make sure to show to beta reader, especially someone who knows field really well if not your area, or if your area, to someone who doesn't know

Marianna: one of best pieces of advice ever seen, if in situation where danger of infodump but exposition needs to happen: get two characters having intense emotions, maybe even conflict, about information. can get away with so much more and also tell readers about stakes

Ken: decades ago, reading SFF story about lawyer, remember character bemoaning that his pleading-generating software was so outdated and running so slowly; opened up entire world of, what does law practice look like when there's genuinely good AI that can generate pleadings. no big commentary on that in the story, just one little detail

Sarah: going back to annoys: music related: describing music in way that music critic would. stories that do music right, talk about emotions of playing, hearing. Lewis Shiner always gets right, also LaShawn M. Wanak

Ken: reminds of TV show M*A*S*H. there are lots of doctors shows, almost always have consultant on set to ask questions of. one for M*A*S*H said, usually actors ask how to hold this instrument, they always asked how would it feel. showed in series

Ken: asks Marianna about mundane occupations in fantastical setting

Marianna: always fascinated by genre as magnifier, makes things bigger. only way to do that is to ground in mundane in one way or another. PhD dissertation about Whedon in Buffy would have outrageous situations but mundane jobs like bartending at demon bar, or inverse, to really push contrast

Ken: reminded of very short story, 15 years ago, "Accounting for Dragons" by Eric James Stone, very tongue in cheek, also satire. when look at fantastical through lens of mundane, casts light both ways

Melissa: ongoing manga, Kowloon Generic Romance, about realtors: feels very grounded but in a fictional city where things shift and disappear

(me, to myself: is manga particularly good at this? or do I just happen to hear about examples there?)

audience: reality is stranger than fiction. experience is that weird shit happens more often in real life than is written out. sparks some of my best ideas. any of that that forms heart of why you write?

Sarah: hard thing is that because so much stranger, sometimes don't read as true; wife works for liquor board, her stories are so weird (snakes falling out of ceiling onto fire marshal who was trying to figure out what rustling noise was), haven't found way to make fiction

audience: Snow Crash opening: the Deliverator was speculation, but sheer terror and anxiety is all of our delivery services now

Marianna: genre wonderful tool for laundering these things

In the rush to get notes out, I haven't been saying, "this panel was great," but if I didn't say something, they were. however, it's worth saying, and it's true: this panel was great.

Poll #33401

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 15

View Respondents

+1 (thumbs-up, I see you, etc.)?

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+1
15 (100.0%)

larryhammer

A few links things I found interesting:

How the Muppets were filmed outside before CGI. (via)

There’s growing evidence that wheels were invented by miners (to help haul out ore) in the Carpathian Mountains around 3900 BCE. (via)

“Nothing is untranslatable. Anything left untranslated is what you’ve decided doesn’t matter anyway.” (via

janni)

---L.

Subject quote from happier, Olivia Rodrigo.

senmut

Required Rudeness (200 words) by Sharpest_Asp
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The Lord of the Rings - Peter Jackson movies, Sword-Dancer Saga - Jennifer Roberson
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Samwise "Sam" Gamgee, Sandtiger [Sword-Singer Saga]
Additional Tags: Double Drabble, Alternate Universe - Fusion
Summary:

Samwise has to be rude, to keep his people safe.

Required Rudeness

The surly horse actually caught Samwise's attention before the man, but then he took note of the shoulder-scabbarded sword and decided he'd best do his duty. They didn't need more trouble at all, and he meant to make that happen!

"Here now, traveler, the Shire has no wish of men that live by the sword," Samwise said in a direct breach of being kind and hospitable. Then again, it was his job to be brusque, as he knew the signs of danger better than most.

"Seeking directions to a place called the Grey Havens," the man said in an accent Samwise could not place. "Word is my basha headed that way."

Samwise's eyebrows rose into his hairline, but if the man was bent on that pilgrimage, he'd let the elves deal with it.

"West a bit more, straight on to the river," Samwise offered.

The man nodded and rode on, taking his strangeness — and that well-used sword — away from the Shire. Maybe nothing would have come from inviting him to rest with them a time, but Samwise didn't put his faith in maybe. He dusted off his hands, well-shod of duty for the day and went to find a pipe.

Or read at the community

used_songs

Watch on YouTube

spikedluv

I took some photos the other day. Most were of the pumpkin patch. (Pip has planted pumpkins of which he says that family can take some, but no one else, because they’re for the deer, lol!)

Wide view; with bonus Ti!

( 8 more back here )

gingicat posting in

thisfinecrew

The three registered voters in our household each got a folded postcard from our local Board of Elections in a small Massachusetts city. On the outside, one side has the name and address; on the other side, it has a voter confirmation form. On the *inside*, there's the following:

"Dear Voter:
Our records show that you have not answered the annual street listing (census) as required by law (Massachusettes General Law Ch. 51 S. 4). Therefore, your name will be designated as "inactive" on the voting list.
If you have not moved or if you have moved to a new address in the City of Medford, please return the attached postage-paid postcard and you will be restored immediately to active voter status.
If you have moved to another City/Town or State, complete, sign and return the attached postage-paid postcard and your name will be removed from the voter list in Medford. You must register to vote in your new City/Town. You may use a mail-in form or online at www.registertovotema.com to register in Massachusetts .
If you do not return the attached postcard, your name will be removed from the voting list if you do not vote in at least one of the next two federal elections or take other action that would reinstate you as an active voter. (per M. G. L. Ch. 51 S. 37A)"

N.B. - I returned our city census and we have all voted in the last three elections.

So yeah, voter suppression exists even in this very blue state, and they're probably hoping people will ignore this reminder in a local elections year. Check your mail! And you can find out how to check your voter registration in another state at vote.org.

daily_otter_feed

Posted by Daily Otter

https://dailyotter.org/posts/2025/7/22/okay-i-get-it-you-dont-like-this-outfit

Via Sea Life Birmingham

https://dailyotter.org/posts/2025/7/22/okay-i-get-it-you-dont-like-this-outfit

spikedluv

I can’t believe we’re this close to the end of July already!

I hit Walmart and CVS (for mom’s potassium) while I was downtown and got in a walk around the park. I threw a load of laundry in the washer and hand-washed dishes before I headed downtown and hand-washed more dishes when I got home. I also went for another short walk with Pip and the dogs before lunch and cut up chicken for said dogs.

I visited mom after lunch and stayed until my usual time of 3pm. I stopped at Stewart’s for milk and gas on the way home. Coming home meant yet more hand-washing of dishes, tossing the laundry in the dryer and folding it, later tossing another load in the washer, scooping kitty litter, and shaving.

The other day mom suggested that I take a day off to get things done and it put a thought in my head. So today I called and scheduled a massage for tomorrow (aka, today!). It was sudden, but my thought was that I might need to spend more time with mom on Thursday, after her port procedure, and next Tuesday (my usual massage day) would probably be out because it's the day after chemo.)

I started the next Duncan Kincaid book.

Temps started out at 61(F) and reached 76.1.

Mom Update:

Mom was doing okay. ( more back here )

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Page Summary

flemmings - (no subject)
kate_nepveu - Readercon: The Next Great Gatsby?
conuly - (no subject)
troyswann - New Writing Comm
in_the_pipeline_feed - The Downsides of Therapies - And What to Do About Them
conuly - And another interview today
susandennis - It was fine and it is done
rhi - On creativity and the world is too much with us
oursin - Think they should be obliged to READ a certain percentage, hmmmm?
sartorias - Mulling rereads
mumblemumble - Zhang Kangle's upcoming projects
susandennis - Timber Ridge Taxi
kate_nepveu - Readercon: Take Your Novel to Work
larryhammer - “so find someone great but don’t find no one better / i hope you’re happy but don’t be happier”
senmut - No True Pair: Crossover MiniEvent
used_songs - Good morning! Here's a mash-up for you :)
spikedluv - Photos!
gingicat in thisfinecrew - voter registration shenanigans
daily_otter_feed - Okay, I Get It, You Don't Like This Outfit
spikedluv - The Day in Spikedluv (Monday, July 21)

Style Credit

Base style: Crisped by timeasmymeasure
Theme: Argyle by krja

Of Earth and Stars

Network

(no subject)

Readercon: The Next Great Gatsby?

(no subject)

New Writing Comm

The Downsides of Therapies - And What to Do About Them

And another interview today

It was fine and it is done

On creativity and the world is too much with us

Think they should be obliged to READ a certain percentage, hmmmm?

Mulling rereads

Zhang Kangle's upcoming projects

Timber Ridge Taxi

Readercon: Take Your Novel to Work

“so find someone great but don’t find no one better / i hope you’re happy but don’t be happier”

No True Pair: Crossover MiniEvent

Good morning! Here's a mash-up for you :)

Photos!

voter registration shenanigans

Okay, I Get It, You Don't Like This Outfit

The Day in Spikedluv (Monday, July 21)

Profile

July 2025

Page Summary

Style Credit