Some writing links, both other people's things and my own

Feb. 4th, 2026 12:35 pm
ashelterofpages: (All the words!)
[personal profile] ashelterofpages
Get something nice for doing things for various flavors of good causes.

Listen, the world sucks right now. It sucks a lot! But there's also a lot of good and people doing good. If you are out there doing good, I would like to do something for you. It's apparently been like six years since I've managed to put one of these together but here we go:

If you have made a financial contribution to a good cause* between the beginning of 2026 and now, the moment you are reading this, or any point during 2026 thereafter**, I'd like to do something for you.

However, I am fully aware that not everyone can do financial contributions. So if you have volunteered, signed petitions, contacted your representatives***, protested, trained, networked, etc., I would also like to do something for you.


I might do something like this as well, though I'll probably only do it for original fic right now. I'm still trying to sort through fandom stuff. But it would be nice to give people things to give them a smile, and I already do this kind of thing on Bluesky most months, so why not here too?

~~

I mentioned a couple of posts ago that I got a couple of things published last year. I thought I'd link them here on the off chance you're curious.

Linger Just A Little - 100-Foot Crow
Thisis a drabble I wrote in October for the theme of haunt'. It felt really good to have this one be in the world because I had a bit of a hard go this last quarter of the year, and this was a little boost when I needed it.

This is also free to read.

Ripped At The Seams - meat4meat
This was a story I wrote in January and had initially gotten rejected, but when the anthology went better than expected, they reached out to me and bought the story. This is an angry little story about being forced to be in a body that shouldn't be lived in, and the things we do to fight against those who make us exist that way.

The overall theme of the anthology was body horror written by trans and disabled authors, so you can kinda get the idea of what you'll find here. You can't read this one for free, but the anthology is linked, and if you're really curious, I'll send you a file of just my story.

(no subject)

Feb. 4th, 2026 05:58 pm
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[personal profile] shadowhive
First off good news!


I’m going to see Waterparks next month! I’m just glad tickets were still there as I’d not been able to get them on release, or last month like I hoped.

And also I’ve got a ticket to the As It Is signing/show at Birmingham HMV in July (which is good cause I missed them when they toured last year). Hopefully the new album is good.

But ugh the last days have been… eh. I dunno something triggered in my brain Sunday (don’t ask me what cause I dunno) which made my low level sadness even worse and it’s been like that since to verying degrees. I’ve tried to distract myself as best I could but… eh.

It has meant I’ve been delayed doing the new February stuff I love thing (Ihad brainstormed 5 out of 10 things but then utterly stalled) but hopefully tomorrow or Friday at the latest.

But speaking of tomorrow there’s a new Nintendo direct so hopefully it’ll have info on the Resident Evil amiibo cause its partner stuff not first party. The last nintendo direct was last week on Tomodachi Life which looks fun and it was nice to confirm you can make characters that are non binary as well as gay or bi (or ace) which is nice.

Today there was the new Muppet Show which was fun, so everyone go see it so they get a series of it.

I’m thinking tonight of watching The House With Laughing Windows but it depends on how my brain feels.

I am thinking of going to the cinema Saturday, to see the new Looney Toons film and Kangaroo (cause Kangaroo is seemingly only showing until Sunday and Looney Tunes is getting earlier preview showings then) but that depends on my mood, will and weather.

I think I was gonna say something else but… it’s gone.
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FANFIC: replica (dc / wonder woman comics)

Feb. 4th, 2026 10:30 am
queenslayerbee: Cass, in her Batgirl suit with her mask off, leans over Barbara, who's sitting in bed. Cass looks at the bat in Barbara's chest, and Cass's shadow takes the shape of Batman in the wall behind her. (barbara and cass (dc comics))
[personal profile] queenslayerbee
Another crosspost of my 2026 fics (so far).

Title: replica.
Fandom: DC comics (post-crisis / Wonder Woman).
Pairing: Diana of Themyscira/Donna Troy.
Summary: written for the prompt: "Any, Any F/F selfcest, i just touch myself and say / 'i'll make my own damn way.'" in the Three Sentence Ficathon.
Word count: 100.

read more
-

It takes a village to raise Diana: grown warriors, scholars, pioneers, who see her as the child they once indulged —yet her body changes and her desire grows, itching under her skin with melancholic jealousy, barred from the women's games and rituals.

When her shadow self crosses the mirror, Diana finds a long-sought, secret companion; a girl her age, her reflection, who laughs much like her, thinks much like her, wants much like her. Someone to touch, tie up, caress, spoil —two girls, one of clay, and one of light, acting in reverent imitation of the adults in Paradise island.

-

Author's note: Not long ago I thought about how if femslash got more attention, this pairing (and other amazon/amazon ships) would definitely get more action LOL.

I also love the version of Donna's origin where she starts out as Diana's doppelganger, coming to life through a spell and a mirror (then later on kidnapped and put under a curse by a sorceress that got them mixed up and condemned Donna to live through endless lives of torment, as one does: Comics). The prompt made me think of them, and about recent thoughts about Diana growing up and going through puberty in an island where she was surrounded by caretakers that were also incredible women. All of that goes into these 100 words xD
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Minor operations; testing new serving path

Feb. 3rd, 2026 10:25 pm
mark: A photo of Mark kneeling on top of the Taal Volcano in the Philippines. It was a long hike. (Default)
[staff profile] mark posting in [site community profile] dw_maintenance

Hi all!

I'm doing some minor operational work tonight. It should be transparent, but there's always a chance that something goes wrong. The main thing I'm touching is testing a replacement for Apache2 (our web server software) in one area of the site.

Thank you!

Poem: "The Evolution of Self-Publishing"

Feb. 3rd, 2026 10:08 pm
ysabetwordsmith: (Fly Free)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
This is today's freebie. It was inspired by a prompt from [personal profile] elinox. It also fills the "Breaking the Rules" square in my 2-1-26 card for the Valentines Bingo fest.

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This got so much longer than I thought it would.

Feb. 3rd, 2026 09:50 pm
ashelterofpages: (made of tiny stories)
[personal profile] ashelterofpages
So, one of the things I really, really like hearing about is how people keep track of things/how they organize themselves. (Hearing people talk about how they use spreadsheets gives me the good brain tingles. XD) The other day, I asked [profile] jennet about the things she tracks in regards to her writing/reading, and then [personal profile] wearing_tearing asked me about mine.

I was going to answer them in a comment, but I thought it might be fun to talk about the whole mess of it.

So, I'm going to start with reading because that's much shorter than writing.

This feels brief and yet somehow overly complicated.
Basically, I primarily read short stories. Like, to the point where I read a single digit amount of anything longer than 10k. Part of this is because it's the length I write in but part of it is that I just really enjoy reading shorter things. I also pivoted a lot when as my vision got worse and worse. Even when I started doing primarily audio reading, I read much more short fiction than long.

Anyway, so what I wind up doing with this is that I have a tab stack where I pull up things and store them. I do a new stack each month. Literally anything fictional I want to read goes in that stack. As I read them, I save them to a bookmarks folder that's labeled with the year and the month that's then filed under 'Monthly Read Archive'. I'll do the same thing with the stories I don't get to either and put them into 'Monthly Unread Archive'. I like having them saved so I can go back through the year and pick stuff out when nothing I have pulled up is grabbing my attention.

When it comes to stories I really enjoy and might want to read again, I have a file where I save the story title, author, where I read it, and a link to the story. I then also write a little off-the-cuff review for it and save all that. Not only do I do this for my own reference, but I use all this for when I'm writing the newsletter I mentioned a few posts back.

I want to find a way to do some better archiving for stories I maybe read and liked, but don't feel like I want to shout about. With the bookmarks folder, I save *everything* I want to read, but it'd be cool to have a way to glance through just the things I really liked, but maybe didn't love or have things to say about it.


My writing stuff is a little more involved.

God, this is so much longer.
Things to know:
- I (at this point) exclusively write original fiction. I cut my teeth in fanfic and love it, but I fell out of writing it years ago. (I do, however, have the 3SF pulled up, so who knows what might happen. >.>)
- I write short fiction for submission (most of the time).
- I use multiple spreadsheets but you could probably knock these down to a single one if you're building your own. I, however, am not that talented.
- You can also probably use spreadsheets for *everything* I track, but I don't quite get there.

So, okay, with all that in mind, here we go.

I'll start with the part that's not in a spreadsheet. What that winds up being is maintaining a list of submission calls that are coming up through the year. This is a living document so I'm updating it when I run into interesting things, and clearing out things if I miss the deadline, decide I'm not going to actually submit, or did manage to get a story in.

I have a section for each month of the year, as well as a section for things that are opening for multiple months. If a venue opens multiple times a year, each opening gets its own entry.

In every entry I include:
- Opening and closing dates.
- A link to the submission itself with a title that mentions the venue itself
- The general theme/vibe that they're looking for
- Wordcount.
- Sometimes I include payrate but I don't do this all the time because it's not always important to me.
If something has multiple categories, I'll make a new entry for each one. So, one for fiction, one for poetry for example.

If I have an idea for a story that might work, or one I want to try and get into shape, I note down that story in a bullet point. If there are multiple possibilities, I put them all down.

So, that's part of it.

Everything else lives in spreadsheets.

Speaking of, I have:
- The new draft wordcount spreadsheet is what it says on the tin.
- The edited draft wordcount spreadsheet is also what it says on the tin. I like having these two counts separate because they're different kinds of mindsets, and 100 fresh words is very different feeling than 100 edited words.
- My GYWO habit tracker.

- The story notes tracking sheet is it's own thing.
In this one I have a few sections. First is the date, then the designation/title, the word count (and I mark if I did edits or new words), my overall mood as I was writing/how I felt when I finished, the things that went well/easily for me, the things that I struggled more with, and finally just a section for random notes. I use these for whatever I feel like. Being excited, talking about what I'm going to do next with it, random commentary about my characters being ridiculous. Anything goes for the notes section.

Each month gets a new page in the overall spreadsheet until I get through the whole year, then I make a whole new one.

And finally, I just have the "Full Story Tracking" collection. One day I'll name this something better or...something. It's not a great label for it, but I know what's in it, so I guess that's what matters most.

This one has a few separate sheets inside it.
- The stories themselves.:
This one holds all the stories I've written. WIPs, finished, published, or still submitting. On this sheet I have sections for story title, wordcount, whether it's finished or not, how many times it's been rejected, where it's been accepted, how much I got paid for it, and some kind of link to it. In the section where I mark down the number of rejections, I make a comment and list out exactly where those have come from so I'm sure I don't resubmit, or if I do, it's been several years and I know the story is significantly different than the last time they saw it.

- Yearly Submissions.
Each year I make a new sheet for noting down the actual story submissions. Here, I write down the story being submitted, the venue it's at, the day it got submitted, the day I heard back, and whether it was accepted or rejected. Something I keep meaning to add into this section is if the story can be submitted to multiple places at once (some venues want to be the only place looking at the story), but I keep forgetting to do that.

- And this last sheet is just my yearly stats
Each year has a row to itself and the columns are year, total submissions made, new submission stories written, new poems written (this is more hoping for the future than anything), new for-fun stories written (I try and have a healthy mix of Serious Writing and silly things that might involve characters in my RP or something), the total number of rejections, the total number of acceptances, the total number of hold notices, and finally, the total number of personal rejections.


So yeah, that's all of it I think. Are there more elegant ways of tracking all this? Oh, I have zero doubt. One day I might even let myself take out the two wordcount spreadsheets and just use my GYWO one and mark in there whether the words are new words or edited ones. Yet, this is how I've managed to scrape things together. It works well enough for me, and I guess that's what matters, right?

Poetry Fishbowl Open!

Feb. 3rd, 2026 01:01 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
The Poetry Fishbowl is now CLOSED. Thank you for your time and attention. Please keep an eye on this page as I am still writing.

Starting now, the Poetry Fishbowl is open! Today's theme is "Books and Literacy." I will be checking this page periodically throughout the day. When people make suggestions, I'll pick some and weave them together into a poem ... and then another ... and so on. I'm hoping to get a lot of ideas and a lot of poems.

I'll be soliciting ideas for readers, writers, storytellers, scribes, editors, publishers, students, teachers, caregivers, children, parents, bookworms, nerds, bookstore owners, librarians, an anonymous benefactor, activists, volunteers, superheroes, supervillains, other bookish people, reading, writing, delighting the reader, editing, publishing, bookbinding, shopping for books, telling stories, teaching, inviting students to a lesson, demonstrating tools, educating the whole child, learning, studying, parenting, lending a hand, cooperating, concentrating on a current task, volunteering, supporting people in hard times, respecting people, modeling manners and skills, learning to trust others, observing the environment, engaging all the senses, cultivating a full life, creating intimacy, making friends, getting to know each other, cooking together, choosing your own goals, discovering things, improvising, adapting, cooperating, bartering, sharing, making mistakes, fixing what's broke, changing the world, accomplishing the impossible, other educational activities, books, scrolls, magical tomes, printing presses, pens and pencils, bookstores, libraries, Little Free Libraries, book nooks, windowseats, Montessori schools, other alternative schools, preschools or daycares, Montessori homeschool, prepared environment, colleges and universities, beautiful places, craft centers, community centers, coffeehouses, outdoor classrooms, parks, nature centers, other spaces designed for learning, Triton Teen Centers, mentor circles, intentional communities, clubs, quiet rooms, inclusive workplaces, Thalassia, the Maldives, the Lacuna, the Aqademy of the Qrossroads, Waldorf toys, Montessori materials, intrinsic motivation, child independence, respect for the child, freedom to choose, freedom of time and uninterrupted work periods, absorbent mind, post-traumatic growth, individualized education, three-part cards, language lessons, mathematics, diverse ages and abilities, self-correcting toys and lessons, natural consequences, freedom of movement, intentional neighboring, diversity, inclusivity, emotional closeness, nonsexual intimacies, first contact, rescue, interspecies relationships, trial and error, trust issues, teamwork, found family, complementary strengths and weaknesses, personal growth, and poetic forms in particular.


Currently eligible bingo card(s) for donors wishing to sponsor a square:

Valentines Bingo Card 2-1-26

Among my more relevant series for the main theme:

An Army of One involves education and reading in the Lacuna.

Arts and Crafts America focuses on fine arts and practical crafts, sometimes education. Bookbinding would be a logical craft.

The Bear Tunnels has future books in a past culture.

Daughters of the Apocalypse have to rediscover many historic skills for survival, including earlier methods of sharing knowledge.

Frankenstein's Family has two scientists teaching villagers to be thoughtful instead of stupid, and after a few years, several more people keenly interested in books and education.

Not Quite Kansas started with mishandling a book of spells, and involves trying to learn about a whole new world.

Path of the Paladins includes the Canticle of Thorns and other books.

Peculiar Obligations has Quakers in organized crime. The Religious Society of Friends has been greatly involved in education, including abolitionist and natural science publications.

Polychrome Heroics is largely about people learning things. Threads particularly focused on this include Antimatter and Stalwart Stan, Aquariana, the Big One, Danso and Family, Dr. Infanta, Iron Horses, Officer Pink, Rutledge, and Trichromatic Attachments.

Quixotic Ideas is set in a world with plenty of magic and a positive tone, where people often help each other and solve challenges peacefully. It includes a healthy magical school.

Schrodinger's Heroes save the world from alternate dimensions, and they learn a lot along the way.

Or you can ask for something new.

Linkbacks reveal a verse of any open linkback poem.

( New to the fishbowl? Read all about it! )
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Wildlife

Feb. 3rd, 2026 12:06 am
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Hundreds of new species found in a hidden world beneath the Pacific

As demand for critical metals grows, scientists have taken a rare, close look at life on the deep Pacific seabed where mining may soon begin. Over five years and 160 days at sea, researchers documented nearly 800 species, many previously unknown. Test mining reduced animal abundance and diversity significantly, though the overall impact was smaller than expected. The study offers vital clues for how future mining could reshape one of the planet’s most fragile ecosystems.


Bluntly put, mining would destroy that very delicate ecosystem, and it would not recover. Also the ocean as a whole is struggling to cope with the damage humanity has already caused, and hasn't got the fault tolerance left to cover more.
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Holiday Poetry Sale

Feb. 2nd, 2026 11:06 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
With today's posts, all sponsored poems from the 2025 Holiday Poetry Sale have been posted.  You can now check the sale page for title links to see if you missed any earlier.
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Poem: "To the Beat of Plunging Hooves"

Feb. 2nd, 2026 10:43 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
This poem came out of the January 7, 2025 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from [personal profile] helgatwb. It also fills the "Plunging Hoofs" square in my 1-1-25 card for the Public Domain Day Bingo fest. This poem has been sponsored by a pool with [personal profile] fuzzyred.


"To the Beat of Plunging Hooves"
-- an indriso


History is often late
To record what's done or said
By the needful, not the great.

Soleated, harnessed, led
Horses drive the wheels of fate
From behind or by the head.

History, like mountains, moves

To the beat of plunging hooves.

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Content notes for "Each Diverse Human Gift"

Feb. 2nd, 2026 10:06 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Damask smiling over their shoulder (polychrome)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
These are the content notes for "Each Diverse Human Gift."

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Location notes for "Each Diverse Human Gift"

Feb. 2nd, 2026 09:03 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Damask smiling over their shoulder (polychrome)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Here are the location notes for "Each Diverse Human Gift."

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Activism

Feb. 2nd, 2026 06:27 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Read "May we raise children who love the unloved things" by Nicolette Sowder.
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Poem: "Each Diverse Human Gift"

Feb. 2nd, 2026 05:11 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Damask smiling over their shoulder (polychrome)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
This poem is spillover from the December 3, 2024 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from [personal profile] fuzzyred. It also fills the "Fresh-baked Bread / Rolls" square in my 11-1-24 card for the Sleepytime Bear Bingo fest, and the "Adaptive Equipment" square in my 9-1-24 card for the People with Disabilities Drabble Fest Bingo. This poem has been sponsored by a pool with [personal profile] fuzzyred. It belongs to the College Arc of the Shiv thread in the Polychrome Heroics series.

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Watch

Feb. 2nd, 2026 05:35 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
There's a new Greenland Defense Front video, "Not For Sale." :D
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Wildlife

Feb. 2nd, 2026 05:06 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Some polar bears are getting fatter despite a warming Arctic

Polar bears tell you a lot about what’s going on in the Arctic. When food is hard to find, their bodies show it fast. When hunting gets easier, they put weight back on. Less sea ice has meant thinner polar bears and fewer of them.

That’s what makes the situation near Svalbard – midway between the northern coast of Norway and the North Pole – so unexpected. Despite ongoing sea ice loss, adult polar bears there are not in worse shape.

Many are actually heavier than they were years ago. Extra fat is not a small detail for a polar bear. It often decides whether the animal gets through the year.


This is super exciting because for years I've been reading about Alaskan polar bears starving. If this other population is getting fatter, then maybe there is hope for the species. :D

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Buffalo Seed Company Order

Feb. 2nd, 2026 02:24 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Today we ordered some landrace seeds from the Buffalo Seed Company. They have a lot of great options. This is also a step toward my goal of planting more landraces.

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Birdfeeding

Feb. 2nd, 2026 02:20 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Today is cloudy and cold.

I fed the birds.  I've seen a large flock of sparrows and a male cardinal.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 2/2/26 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

I put out more birdseed and a new peanut suet cake.

EDIT 2/2/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

EDIT 2/2/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

EDIT 2/2/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

EDIT 2/2/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

I am done for the night.
 
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Website Updates

Feb. 2nd, 2026 02:14 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Thanks to [personal profile] nsfwords, the series Quixotic Ideas is now up to date. \o/  This is upbeat fantasy with magic integrated into everyday life.
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Monday Update 2-2-26

Feb. 2nd, 2026 02:40 am
ysabetwordsmith: Artwork of the wordsmith typing. (typing)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
These are some posts from the later part of last week in case you missed them:
Review: "Maple Syrup: 40 Tried & True Recipes"
Birdfeeding
Valentines Bingo Card 2-1-26
Today's Adventures
Books
Bingo
Art
Birdfeeding
Philosophical Questions: Intelligence
Recipe: "Thumbprint Cookies with Cornstarch"
New Year's Resolutions Check In
Birdfeeding
Gaming
Poetry Fishbowl Report for January 6, 2026
Follow Friday 1-30-26: Literature
Birdfeeding
Community Thursdays
Alien Romance
Website Updates
Early Humans
Birdfeeding
Hard Things

Safety has 25 comments. Food has 40 comments. Wildlife has 26 comments. Animal Communication has 49 comments. Food has 64 comments. Robotics has 134 comments.


There will be a Poetry Fishbowl on Tuesday, February 3 with a theme of "Books and Literacy." I hope to see you then!

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