The Big Idea: John Wiswell
Jun. 17th, 2025 03:15 pm![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png){kind=small}
scalziwhatever_feed
An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind. Author John Wiswell tells us of a tale that usually ends in revenge and violence, but imagines a world where our hero chooses kindness instead. Follow along in the Big Idea for his newest novel, Wearing The Lion, and see where empathy takes us.
JOHN WISWELL:
You deserve better than revenge.
I know, you want to catch your father’s murderer and duel them to the death, but then you’ll leave the scene feeling hollow and unfulfilled. Or worse, the pursuit will corrupt you into becoming the kind of person you hated. And there’s a great likelihood that your quickness to action will make you hurt the wrong person, and then you’re inspiring revenge in others. Think better of it now, because I will throw the book across the room if you kill the villain’s entire crew but spare the villain at the last minute because otherwise you’ll be “just like him.”
So we know there are problems with revenge. But what are the alternatives?
It’s something I’ve been exploring for my entire life. It’s tough to begin thinking about because our narratives of justice overflow with blood. We’re taught to seek culturally fetishized violence. We’re promised that reprisal will give us catharsis and justice. Mythology is rich with these narratives. Every king has made enemies who would like to get back at him. And the gods? They never drop a grudge.
Mythology is the richest place to explore this theme. Myths tell us what we think about ourselves, which is why every generation wants to remix them, ear cocked for the sound of truth. What does it do to the traditional revenge narrative if the hero refuses to hurt anyone? No cracking goons’ skulls. No blowing up a dragon’s lair. Instead, we’d follow someone who was hurt and carried that hurt in his heart, but because of that, didn’t want to see more suffering in the world. Perhaps his entire journey toward “revenge” would actually be about finding the right thing to do.
Heracles (“Hercules” to the Romans) is such an interesting character from this point of view. His was never a revenge story. The gods drove him mad and made him slay his children, and for that he set out on the twelve labors in order to gain forgiveness. All that hydra-chopping and lion-punching was about being sorry. The modern eye jumps to thinking he shouldn’t be sorry, but vengeful toward the gods.
As it is, few Heracles retellings ever reflect on him slaying his family at all. He’s too busy doing epic stuff to be bothered with mourning. It’s like if Spider-Man never thought about Uncle Ben again.
That sort of violation would change you for the rest of your life. Doing violence with your hands ever again could be nauseating. You might do literally anything to avoid hurting others, especially if your labors were carried out to get justice for your children. When the gods said to kill that invincible lion, you could technically do it. You’d have Zeus’s strength. But that same strength would give you an opportunity to find another way through the labor. And in feeling like a monster yourself, you might find yourself relating to outcast creatures. You might find kinship with the invincible lion, and the hydra, and the titans. They might know what it’s like to feel wrong.
That became the heart of Wearing the Lion, my retelling of the Heracles myth. It changes the entire nature of his great labors. If you won’t hurt anyone—and if your power can’t solve your problems—then you have to adapt.
There is a long tradition in masculinity whereby those of us who have been hurt want to hurt others. It’s a lesson we learn before we can speak, treated as immutable nature. As I grew up, these narratives went from entertaining to exhausting. It hurts to see someone use their few resources on things other than supporting survivors, on sheltering people, healing and feeding them. There’s something about losing enough in your life (and helping others through their darkest times) that reveals how paltry retribution is. Survivors deserve better.
Yep! I accidentally wrote about the crisis of masculinity. I swear it wasn’t on purpose.
But it was important to me to write about someone wrestling with these principles and looking for a better response to loss. The harm cannot be fixed. This sort of loss is not something you just “heal” from. It’s the sort of vacuum that makes revenge appealing, because in uncertainty, norms call to us. When Heracles rejects revenge and instead goes on the labors to understand what is really happening in the heavens, he starts to sound truer to me.
In his struggle, he questions if anyone can understand what he’s feeling. He thinks he doesn’t fit in with the world anymore. That he doesn’t belong around people. Who understands feeling that lost? Monsters.
Yes, his first new friends are a giant lion and extremely opinionated hydra. The creatures his labors send him towards know what it’s like to not fit in. They know what it’s like to not have answers. Grief isn’t something you can get tough enough to ignore. Heracles’s struggle with his culpability, and his quest to figure out which god is behind all of this, requires more than strength. It requires sides of the character I fell in love with while writing.
When Heracles is set against monsters while starving for peace, there’s the potential for a different kind of family. A found family of the creatures that civilization would never let near itself. Rather than skinning the Nemean Lion, Heracles winds up carrying it everywhere on its shoulders, because it demands snuggles. It’s ferocious about snuggles. Heracles bonding with these creatures, learning how to give support and feel worthy of it himself, are things I didn’t know I needed to write.
Wearing The Lion: Amazon|Barnes & Noble|Bookshop|Powell’s Books|Oblong Books
Author Socials: Website|Bluesky|Instagram|Substack
Read an excerpt.
30 Years
Jun. 17th, 2025 01:28 pmscalziwhatever_feed
I have a lot to say about being married for 30 years — to the same person! — but I’m also on vacation and wandering around Venice, so I think I’ll save a big post on the matter for when I get back. Be that as it may, today is the actual 30th anniversary; on this day in 1995 the two of us said “I do” in front of a bunch of friends and family and haven’t really looked back from that. 30 years and there has yet to be a moment of regret. I know how lucky I got, and try to make Krissy feel like she got lucky too. She’s amazing, I look like a thumb, and we’re very happy together. I wouldn’t mind another 30 years.
— JS
Disgraced Return of The Kap’s Needle by Renan Bernardo
Jun. 17th, 2025 08:54 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
james_davis_nicoll
When the target world proves too inhospitable for colonization, colonists make a desperate bid to return to Earth on a failing starship.
Disgraced Return of The Kap’s Needle by Renan Bernardo
Daily Check-in
Jun. 16th, 2025 05:57 pmstarwatcher posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
fandom_checkinThis is your check-in post for today. The poll will be open from midnight Universal or Zulu Time (8pm Eastern Time) on Monday, June 16, to midnight on Tuesday, June 17. (8pm Eastern Time).
Poll #33261 Daily Check-in
Open to: Access List, detailed results viewable to: Access List, participants: 30
How are you doing?
I am OK.
20 (66.7%)
I am not OK, but don't need help right now.
10 (33.3%)
I could use some help.
0 (0.0%)
How many other humans live with you?
I am living single.
10 (33.3%)
One other person.
16 (53.3%)
More than one other person.
4 (13.3%)
Please, talk about how things are going for you in the comments, ask for advice or help if you need it, or just discuss whatever you feel like.
Celebrating Pride with further nb K/S headcanon details :D
Jun. 16th, 2025 03:29 pmanghraineI enjoy headcanoning both Kirk and Spock as nonbinary in the same "technically but badly closeted" way that I interpret them as very much bi4gay—but also, as pretty different types of nonbinary. Spock describes himself as both a man and not a man (within the same episode, the iconic "Amok Time"). In many respects, he possesses the most purely unassailable masculinity of anyone in the show (this is a significant plot point in one of the Maximally Gender episodes, "Charlie X"). He wears make-up in the style of female Vulcans like T'Pring and T'Pau more than like how most men wear make-up, while surrounded by people who don't even know the difference, and at the same time, he's not at all uncomfortable with being identified as a man. To describe Spock as a man is incomplete information, not false. His "nonbinariness" consists very specifically of Man and Not-Man, and he tends to be marked by a highly consistent presentation of himself that blends gendered conventions, as suits his unique experience, but also makes him the most supremely masculine figure around when that's an issue at hand—a specific sort of bigender quality with some pretty obvious resonance with his experience as a biracial Vulcan.
Kirk, I think, doesn't consciously consider that he could be anything but a man, and is broadly okay with that, if the range of his gender performance isn't compromised by external pressures. But when he is pressured to occupy some specific gendered role, his resistance seems to go from 0 to 100 very fast. I imagine nb!Kirk as the kind of closeted-even-to-himself nonbinary person who assumes everyone's experience of gender is as tied to performance as his own, and surely, it's just obvious that it's all kind of fake outside of social dynamics, it's just that social dynamics affect people's lives and psychologies, and thus matter (the reality is more complicated, obviously, but it is a not-uncommon perspective among some kinds of nb people still figuring our shit out, cf. Judith Butler—my headcanon is that he's less bigender or multigender than "agender diva who likes to fuck around with conventions around masculinity and femininity and whatever else, but feels little allegiance to any of them as a stable state of being"). I do think that being reduced to a specific, exclusively masculine role by forces outside himself (despite being sometimes useful) pretty evidently grates on him more than the somewhat effeminate roles he sometimes gets steamrollered into (also sometimes useful), but since he's strongly implied to be AMAB, that wouldn't necessarily be unusual (assigned gender often has more baggage for obvious reasons, even if it's not more or less "wrong").
I do tend to think of him as transfem-leaning nonbinary at heart (one of my many quibbles with Tumblr TOS fanon is that I genuinely think Kirk makes 100x more sense as transfem than transmasc, and that his presentation in the peak Kirk Enrichment Enclosure episodes is far closer to femme than butch too when accounting for the limitations of the era), but the cisheteronormativity of the 23rd century is alive and well. The specifics of how he would fully express his actual sense of gender in a less restrictive world don't preoccupy him much as long as he gets to be the diva he was born to be and doesn't feel (gender-wise) like someone is actively clipping his wings. So he's just sometimes going to slip into announcing that gender is an insignificant distraction from the common personhood of all people, if a fun one, before breezing onto picking flowers or throwing himself into the occasional community theatre production or fluttering his eyelashes to escape the third trap of that week.
Kirk, I think, doesn't consciously consider that he could be anything but a man, and is broadly okay with that, if the range of his gender performance isn't compromised by external pressures. But when he is pressured to occupy some specific gendered role, his resistance seems to go from 0 to 100 very fast. I imagine nb!Kirk as the kind of closeted-even-to-himself nonbinary person who assumes everyone's experience of gender is as tied to performance as his own, and surely, it's just obvious that it's all kind of fake outside of social dynamics, it's just that social dynamics affect people's lives and psychologies, and thus matter (the reality is more complicated, obviously, but it is a not-uncommon perspective among some kinds of nb people still figuring our shit out, cf. Judith Butler—my headcanon is that he's less bigender or multigender than "agender diva who likes to fuck around with conventions around masculinity and femininity and whatever else, but feels little allegiance to any of them as a stable state of being"). I do think that being reduced to a specific, exclusively masculine role by forces outside himself (despite being sometimes useful) pretty evidently grates on him more than the somewhat effeminate roles he sometimes gets steamrollered into (also sometimes useful), but since he's strongly implied to be AMAB, that wouldn't necessarily be unusual (assigned gender often has more baggage for obvious reasons, even if it's not more or less "wrong").
I do tend to think of him as transfem-leaning nonbinary at heart (one of my many quibbles with Tumblr TOS fanon is that I genuinely think Kirk makes 100x more sense as transfem than transmasc, and that his presentation in the peak Kirk Enrichment Enclosure episodes is far closer to femme than butch too when accounting for the limitations of the era), but the cisheteronormativity of the 23rd century is alive and well. The specifics of how he would fully express his actual sense of gender in a less restrictive world don't preoccupy him much as long as he gets to be the diva he was born to be and doesn't feel (gender-wise) like someone is actively clipping his wings. So he's just sometimes going to slip into announcing that gender is an insignificant distraction from the common personhood of all people, if a fun one, before breezing onto picking flowers or throwing himself into the occasional community theatre production or fluttering his eyelashes to escape the third trap of that week.
Things Coming Out Next
Jun. 16th, 2025 01:49 pmmarthawellsStoryteller: A Tanith Lee Tribute Anthology
Out in ebook and paperback on July 1. My story is "Data Ghost"
https://bookshop.org/p/books/storyteller-a-tanith-lee-tribute-anthology/a74b320486117220?ean=9798992595406&next=t
https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/storyteller-a-tanith-lee-tribute-anthology?sId=e0bafab6-32a8-4ffb-9436-2dcda473349c
Edited by Julie C. Day, Carina Bissett, and Craig Laurance Gidney. Stories by Martha Wells, Andy Duncan, C.S.E. Cooney, Nisi Shawl, Mike Allen, Alaya Dawn Johnson, CL Hellisen, Maya Deane, Rocío Rincón Fernández, Theodora Goss, Getty Hesse, Starlene Justice, Amelia Mangan, Michael Yuya Montroy, Marisca Pichette, KT Wagner.
Sixteen new stories from some of today's most renowned authors. All inspired by the master storyteller Tanith Lee.
Drowning cities and unicorns. Burning deserts and forgotten gods. Golems, elf warriors, and inner-Earthers. Alien lifeforms and museum workers. Ancient plagues and the future of humanity. The familiar and the fantastical. Each story in this anthology is both unique and compelling: from fairy-tale retellings to romance-tinged high fantasy, from nihilistic horror to gripping science fiction. Immersive, wide-ranging, and sublime, Storyteller features worlds and characters that are sure to travel with you long after the last page has been read.
***
Short Story: "Rapport: Friendship, Solidarity, Communion, Empathy" by Martha Wells
will be available on Reactor Magazine on July 10
Illustrated by Jaime Jones
Edited by Lee Harris
Perihelion and its crew embark on a dangerous new mission at a corporate-controlled station in the throes of a hostile takeover...
***
Summer of Science Fiction & Fantasy: Martha Wells in conversation with Kate Elliott
https://www.clarionwest.org/event/summer-of-science-fiction-fantasy-martha-wells-in-conversation-with-kate-elliott/
July 30 @ 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm PDT
The Clarion West Summer Reading Series will be held virtually and streamed live over Zoom during the Six-Week Workshop.
Join us for our final event, a conversation between Martha Wells and Kate Elliott!
This event will begin with a conversation between Martha and Kate. There will be time to take questions from the audience. Participants will be able to submit questions in the webinar.
***
The New Yorker announced "Platform Decay" will be the next Murderbot novella. No word on publication date yet.
***
Grimoire: A Grim Oak Press Anthology For Seattle Worldcon 2025
https://grimoakpress.com/products/grimoire-a-grim-oak-press-anthology-for-seattle-worldcon-2025
My story is a fantasy called "Birthright" which is reprint that's not currently available anywhere else.
***
Queen Demon, the sequel to Witch King, second book of the Rising World, is up for preorder and will be released in ebook, audiobook, and hardcover on October 7.
From the breakout SFF superstar author of Murderbot comes the remarkable sequel to the USA Today and Sunday Times bestselling novel, Witch King. A fantasy of epic scope, Queen Demon is a story of power and friendship, of trust and betrayal, and of the families we choose.
Dahin believes he has clues to the location of the Hierarchs' Well, and the Witch King Kai, along with his companions Ziede and Tahren, knowing there's something he isn't telling them, travel with him to the rebuilt university of Ancartre, which may be dangerously close to finding the Well itself.
Can Kai stop the rise of a new Hierarch?
And can he trust his companions to do what's right?
Bookshop.org https://bookshop.org/p/books/queen-demon-martha-wells/21751501?ean=9781250826916
B&N https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/queen-demon-martha-wells/1146167707?ean=9781250826916
Kobo https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/queen-demon
Audiobook Libro.fm https://libro.fm/audiobooks/9781250291981-queen-demon
Bakka-Phoenix (indie bookstore in Canada): https://bakkaphoenixbooks.com/item/3Czr8TaWU9-_fwJ25ytSCw
Out in ebook and paperback on July 1. My story is "Data Ghost"
https://bookshop.org/p/books/storyteller-a-tanith-lee-tribute-anthology/a74b320486117220?ean=9798992595406&next=t
https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/storyteller-a-tanith-lee-tribute-anthology?sId=e0bafab6-32a8-4ffb-9436-2dcda473349c
Edited by Julie C. Day, Carina Bissett, and Craig Laurance Gidney. Stories by Martha Wells, Andy Duncan, C.S.E. Cooney, Nisi Shawl, Mike Allen, Alaya Dawn Johnson, CL Hellisen, Maya Deane, Rocío Rincón Fernández, Theodora Goss, Getty Hesse, Starlene Justice, Amelia Mangan, Michael Yuya Montroy, Marisca Pichette, KT Wagner.
Sixteen new stories from some of today's most renowned authors. All inspired by the master storyteller Tanith Lee.
Drowning cities and unicorns. Burning deserts and forgotten gods. Golems, elf warriors, and inner-Earthers. Alien lifeforms and museum workers. Ancient plagues and the future of humanity. The familiar and the fantastical. Each story in this anthology is both unique and compelling: from fairy-tale retellings to romance-tinged high fantasy, from nihilistic horror to gripping science fiction. Immersive, wide-ranging, and sublime, Storyteller features worlds and characters that are sure to travel with you long after the last page has been read.
***
Short Story: "Rapport: Friendship, Solidarity, Communion, Empathy" by Martha Wells
will be available on Reactor Magazine on July 10
Illustrated by Jaime Jones
Edited by Lee Harris
Perihelion and its crew embark on a dangerous new mission at a corporate-controlled station in the throes of a hostile takeover...
***
Summer of Science Fiction & Fantasy: Martha Wells in conversation with Kate Elliott
https://www.clarionwest.org/event/summer-of-science-fiction-fantasy-martha-wells-in-conversation-with-kate-elliott/
July 30 @ 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm PDT
The Clarion West Summer Reading Series will be held virtually and streamed live over Zoom during the Six-Week Workshop.
Join us for our final event, a conversation between Martha Wells and Kate Elliott!
This event will begin with a conversation between Martha and Kate. There will be time to take questions from the audience. Participants will be able to submit questions in the webinar.
***
The New Yorker announced "Platform Decay" will be the next Murderbot novella. No word on publication date yet.
***
Grimoire: A Grim Oak Press Anthology For Seattle Worldcon 2025
https://grimoakpress.com/products/grimoire-a-grim-oak-press-anthology-for-seattle-worldcon-2025
My story is a fantasy called "Birthright" which is reprint that's not currently available anywhere else.
***
Queen Demon, the sequel to Witch King, second book of the Rising World, is up for preorder and will be released in ebook, audiobook, and hardcover on October 7.
From the breakout SFF superstar author of Murderbot comes the remarkable sequel to the USA Today and Sunday Times bestselling novel, Witch King. A fantasy of epic scope, Queen Demon is a story of power and friendship, of trust and betrayal, and of the families we choose.
Dahin believes he has clues to the location of the Hierarchs' Well, and the Witch King Kai, along with his companions Ziede and Tahren, knowing there's something he isn't telling them, travel with him to the rebuilt university of Ancartre, which may be dangerously close to finding the Well itself.
Can Kai stop the rise of a new Hierarch?
And can he trust his companions to do what's right?
Bookshop.org https://bookshop.org/p/books/queen-demon-martha-wells/21751501?ean=9781250826916
B&N https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/queen-demon-martha-wells/1146167707?ean=9781250826916
Kobo https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/queen-demon
Audiobook Libro.fm https://libro.fm/audiobooks/9781250291981-queen-demon
Bakka-Phoenix (indie bookstore in Canada): https://bakkaphoenixbooks.com/item/3Czr8TaWU9-_fwJ25ytSCw
Bundle of Holding: Troika Warehouse
Jun. 16th, 2025 02:27 pmjames_davis_nicoll
Many supplements and adventures for Troika!, the acid-fantasy tabletop roleplaying game from Melsonian Arts Council.
Bundle of Holding: Troika Warehouse
Another RPG Bundle - Troika Warehouse
Jun. 16th, 2025 07:04 pmffuturesAnother surreal RPG bundle for Troika!, the acid-fantasy RPG from Melsonian Arts Council; about half of it is new, the rest (rules etc.) has been in previous bundles.
https://bundleofholding.com/presents/TroikaWarehouse
Troika is an interesting game with some very varied settings and ideas. I sometimes find the material a little difficult to read due to aggressively varied typography and violently coloured illos, but there are some fun ideas and if you're a fan of different and silly scenario ideas it's worth a look. But if you've bought any of this material before I recommend checking and deciding how much of it you want - cherry-picking may work out cheaper if you're only interested in a couple of the books.
https://bundleofholding.com/presents/TroikaWarehouse
Troika is an interesting game with some very varied settings and ideas. I sometimes find the material a little difficult to read due to aggressively varied typography and violently coloured illos, but there are some fun ideas and if you're a fan of different and silly scenario ideas it's worth a look. But if you've bought any of this material before I recommend checking and deciding how much of it you want - cherry-picking may work out cheaper if you're only interested in a couple of the books.
Backyard Foraging
Jun. 16th, 2025 01:46 pmmarycatelli posting in book_loveBackyard Foraging: 65 Familiar Plants You Didn't Know You Could Eat by Ellen Zachos
A discussion of wild and garden plants in North America. Roots, flowers, leaves, fruit. . . how to harvest, what to check, what can be done to prepare them.
A discussion of wild and garden plants in North America. Roots, flowers, leaves, fruit. . . how to harvest, what to check, what can be done to prepare them.
First Dateaversary, 2025
Jun. 16th, 2025 05:13 pmscalziwhatever_feed
32 years ago today, Krissy and I went on our first date. Today, our most recent date included a gondola ride, because if you’re a tourist in Venice and you don’t have a gondola ride, they will probably kick you out of the city. We didn’t want that. Gondola ride it was.
And how was the gondola ride? It was lovely, and it’s also an attraction that leans heavily on the novelty of Venice’s canals. I mean, basically, we were cruising past people’s houses for 30 minutes. If we did that in a golf cart in a Florida retirement community, no one would think it was special. But on water in nifty boat, pushed along by a dude with an oar? Magical.
Of course, the most important thing was who I was with. As long as I’m with Krissy, gondola or golf cart, the date is going to be magical. I like her a lot. Even after 32 years, it doesn’t get old.
— JS
FAPA blues
Jun. 16th, 2025 08:39 amelfGot the most recent FAPA mailing, #351. It's fewer than 60 pages. While we're up to 21 members I think (I don't have it with me right now) - up from the 14-ish when I joined a few years ago - the page count has dropped recently, possibly in part because the Org Editor can no longer print people's entries for them. (He retired and no longer has access to the work printers.) So the overseas members are no longer sending in quarterly submissions.
( defining terms )
FAPA's contribution requirement is 8 pages a year, which can be 1 double-sided sheet of paper per quarter. This was not particularly onerous even in the days of hectographs. It is, however, apparently enough of a hassle that several current members only technically meet it - sending in that single sheet a quarter, and it's only a page and a half, and it's in 14-pt type and includes a picture covering a quarter of the page. If there were still a waiting list, they'd be bumped for failing to meet the contrib requirements. Since there hasn't been a waiting list this century, this is not an issue.
There are scans of some past mailings (or rather, parts of them) and scans of Fantasy Amateur, the official org zine (aka, the index & list of members), which stops right at the point where membership started dropping below the max of 65.
...Anyone want to join a venerated scifi institution that's been fading since the dawn of the WWW?
Requirements:
* Send 25 copies (currently) to the OE, minimum 8 pgs/year; can be sent quarterly, annually, or anything in between. ( More details inside )
( defining terms )
FAPA's contribution requirement is 8 pages a year, which can be 1 double-sided sheet of paper per quarter. This was not particularly onerous even in the days of hectographs. It is, however, apparently enough of a hassle that several current members only technically meet it - sending in that single sheet a quarter, and it's only a page and a half, and it's in 14-pt type and includes a picture covering a quarter of the page. If there were still a waiting list, they'd be bumped for failing to meet the contrib requirements. Since there hasn't been a waiting list this century, this is not an issue.
There are scans of some past mailings (or rather, parts of them) and scans of Fantasy Amateur, the official org zine (aka, the index & list of members), which stops right at the point where membership started dropping below the max of 65.
...Anyone want to join a venerated scifi institution that's been fading since the dawn of the WWW?
Requirements:
* Send 25 copies (currently) to the OE, minimum 8 pgs/year; can be sent quarterly, annually, or anything in between. ( More details inside )
Round 176 Theme Poll
Jun. 16th, 2025 08:46 amrunpunkrun posting in fancakePoll #33259 round 176 theme poll
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: Just the Poll Creator, participants: 89
Pick the next theme of fancake:
Books & Writing
28 (31.5%)
Protest & Revolt
23 (25.8%)
Working Together
38 (42.7%)
Clarke Award Finalists 2001
Jun. 16th, 2025 09:48 amjames_davis_nicoll2001: Labour narrowly wins a second overwhelming victory, Simon Darcount finds his calling, and Jeffrey Archer distracts people from that time he was accused of stealing three suits.
Bold for have read, italic for intend to read,, underline for never heard of it.
Which 2001 Clarke Award Finalists Have You Read?
Perdido Street Station by China Miéville
Ash: A Secret History by Mary Gentle
Cosmonaut Keep by Ken MacLeod
Parable of the Talents by Octavia E. Butler
Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds
Salt by Adam Roberts
Poll #33257 Clarke Award Finalists 2001
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 58
Which 2001 Clarke Award Finalists Have You Read?
View Answers
Perdido Street Station by China Miéville
39 (67.2%)
Ash: A Secret History by Mary Gentle
24 (41.4%)
Cosmonaut Keep by Ken MacLeod
17 (29.3%)
Parable of the Talents by Octavia E. Butler
28 (48.3%)
Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds
18 (31.0%)
Salt by Adam Roberts
4 (6.9%)
Bold for have read, italic for intend to read,, underline for never heard of it.
Which 2001 Clarke Award Finalists Have You Read?
Perdido Street Station by China Miéville
Ash: A Secret History by Mary Gentle
Cosmonaut Keep by Ken MacLeod
Parable of the Talents by Octavia E. Butler
Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds
Salt by Adam Roberts
Another Murderbot interview
Jun. 16th, 2025 08:42 ammarthawellsIn ‘Murderbot,’ an anxious scientist and an autonomous robot develop a workplace-trauma bond
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/tv/story/2025-06-13/murderbot-episode-6-alexander-skarsgard-noma-dumezweni
Leading a TV series is a first for Dumezweni, who has previously been cast in smaller roles. She wasn’t convinced by the initial pitch at first because sci-fi hasn’t traditionally had a lot of major roles for actors of color.
“Usually I’d come in and play the receptionist,” she says. “I love to watch sci-fi. But I wondered: Who am I going to be in this sci-fi world?”
However, once she learned more about the world and the character, the actor changed her mind.
“It was an absolute joy to discover that there was nothing that Chris and Paul had to change to make it representational,” Dumezweni says. “It’s lovely not to have to fight for people’s positions in the world based on their skin color.”
ETA: Wanted to add this one real quick from BlueSky:
Vestal Magazine: Noma Dumezweni -- Off Canvas
https://www.vestalmag.com/noma-dumezweni
Set in a near future where the line between machine and human is increasingly blurred, Murderbot explores themes of identity, autonomy, and what it truly means to be alive through the eyes of a self-aware security android. Adapted from Martha Wells’s beloved The Murderbot Diaries novels, the series blends gripping sci-fi action with sharp, witty humor. At the heart of the story is Noma Dumezweni’s portrayal of Dr. Ayda Mensah, the thoughtful leader of a pacifist civilization struggling to uphold her community’s ideals amid a universe dominated by corporate greed and political tensions. Noma brings to the role a grounded strength, embodying the delicate balance between idealism and pragmatism as her character wrestles with the burdens of leadership and moral compromise. The parallels between Noma and Ayda run deep: both choose to lead with heart, courage, and conviction. “Your head will try to talk you out of that feeling of expansion. It will tell you, ‘You can’t do this,’” Noma says. “Trust your body, trust your instinct. Your body knows the truth.” That instinct and bravery have guided her career, from becoming the first Black actress to portray Hermione Granger on stage, a landmark moment for representation in theater, to winning two Laurence Olivier Awards and becoming a beacon of inspiration for a new generation of actors. Like Ayda, Noma has forged a path not only of leadership, but of quiet, transformative power.
Lovely photos in this!
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/tv/story/2025-06-13/murderbot-episode-6-alexander-skarsgard-noma-dumezweni
Leading a TV series is a first for Dumezweni, who has previously been cast in smaller roles. She wasn’t convinced by the initial pitch at first because sci-fi hasn’t traditionally had a lot of major roles for actors of color.
“Usually I’d come in and play the receptionist,” she says. “I love to watch sci-fi. But I wondered: Who am I going to be in this sci-fi world?”
However, once she learned more about the world and the character, the actor changed her mind.
“It was an absolute joy to discover that there was nothing that Chris and Paul had to change to make it representational,” Dumezweni says. “It’s lovely not to have to fight for people’s positions in the world based on their skin color.”
ETA: Wanted to add this one real quick from BlueSky:
Vestal Magazine: Noma Dumezweni -- Off Canvas
https://www.vestalmag.com/noma-dumezweni
Set in a near future where the line between machine and human is increasingly blurred, Murderbot explores themes of identity, autonomy, and what it truly means to be alive through the eyes of a self-aware security android. Adapted from Martha Wells’s beloved The Murderbot Diaries novels, the series blends gripping sci-fi action with sharp, witty humor. At the heart of the story is Noma Dumezweni’s portrayal of Dr. Ayda Mensah, the thoughtful leader of a pacifist civilization struggling to uphold her community’s ideals amid a universe dominated by corporate greed and political tensions. Noma brings to the role a grounded strength, embodying the delicate balance between idealism and pragmatism as her character wrestles with the burdens of leadership and moral compromise. The parallels between Noma and Ayda run deep: both choose to lead with heart, courage, and conviction. “Your head will try to talk you out of that feeling of expansion. It will tell you, ‘You can’t do this,’” Noma says. “Trust your body, trust your instinct. Your body knows the truth.” That instinct and bravery have guided her career, from becoming the first Black actress to portray Hermione Granger on stage, a landmark moment for representation in theater, to winning two Laurence Olivier Awards and becoming a beacon of inspiration for a new generation of actors. Like Ayda, Noma has forged a path not only of leadership, but of quiet, transformative power.
Lovely photos in this!
Attending Dayton Drunk Theater’s “Shakespeare In The Park(ing Lot)”
Jun. 16th, 2025 12:50 pmscalziwhatever_feed
Have you ever been watching a Shakespeare play and thought, wow, this would be a lot cooler if the actors on stage were drinking, there was improv involved in every scene, and tons of audience participation going on? Well have I got just the thing for you! Dayton Drunk Theater is an amateur troop here in Dayton, Ohio who decided historically famous plays needed more of two things: laughter and liquor.
The founder of the troop, Bobbie, created Dayton Drunk Theater last year, and so far they have done Macbeth, Hamlet, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The fine print after the titles of these shows reads as “Kind Of,” as these aren’t exactly the truest adaptations of Shakespeare you’ve ever seen, but they are damn funny.
Saddling up at the Yellow Cab Tavern for all their performances so far, all their shows have managed to sell out! I saw A Midsummer Night’s Dream this past Friday, and my ticket was only twelve smackaroos. I had a friend in the performance so I wanted to go support him, even though improv isn’t usually my thing.
For twelve dollars you definitely get your money’s worth. A ticket gets you a chair and over two hours of entertainment, including the pre-show of improv games involving volunteers from the crowd.
Of course, there’s plenty of beverages to imbibe thanks to the Yellow Cab Tavern, and you can even buy the actors a drink for them to have during their performance. The way it works is that each actor has their drink of choice predetermined, and everyone has tally marks next to their name so no one ends up with ten drinks. You tell the bartender which actor you want to buy a drink for, and they have someone run their beverage out to them on stage (or behind the scenes if they aren’t on stage at that moment.)
If someone gets like three drinks bought for them at once, the bar makes sure to space out their beverages appropriately so everyone stays safe and upright! I think that’s a super rad system.
The performance itself was a riot, with improvised locations changing all the time, characters having to pretend like they’re in a Western or Noir film, people losing their place in the script, a chase scene involving a giant 3-foot dildo, it was wild all around.
If you’re looking for a perfectly performed, true to form Shakespearian play, this is not the show for you. However, if you want to have a beverage and watch a bunch of goobers do improv, be quick, witty, and slightly lewd, then this is the show for you, and I would recommend following them on Instagram or Facebook to see when their next show is going to be.
Plus, while the event is at a bar and it is called Dayton Drunk Theater, you don’t have to drink if you don’t want to! There was a great selection of mocktails and non-alcoholic beverages available. The person behind me I ended up talking with got a mocktail and it looked really yummy.
All in all, I really enjoyed my time at their show, and I hope to see the next one, which if I remember correctly is going to be Dracula. I think they’re doing auditions sometime soon, so if you’re in Dayton and are interested in performing, maybe check them out!
Does Dayton Drunk Theater sound like something you’d watch? What’s your favorite Shakespeare play? Let me know in the comments, and have a great day!
-AMS
Daily check-in
Jun. 15th, 2025 08:01 pmmecurtin posting in fandom_checkinThis is your check-in post for today. The poll will be open from midnight Universal or Zulu Time (8pm Eastern Time) on Sunday, June 15, to midnight on Monday, June 16 (8pm Eastern Time).
Please, talk about how things are going for you in the comments, ask for advice or help if you need it, or just discuss whatever you feel like.
Poll #33256 Daily check-in poll
This poll is closed.
Open to: Access List, detailed results viewable to: Access List, participants: 28
Open to: Access List, detailed results viewable to: Access List, participants: 28
How are you doing?
I am OK
17 (60.7%)
I am not OK, but don't need help right now
11 (39.3%)
I could use some help
0 (0.0%)
How many other humans live with you?
I am living single
7 (25.0%)
One other person
15 (53.6%)
More than one other person
6 (21.4%)
Please, talk about how things are going for you in the comments, ask for advice or help if you need it, or just discuss whatever you feel like.
IPQ 2025 PDPHs
Jun. 15th, 2025 08:00 pmidficmod posting in yuletideEvent: Id Pro Quo
Event link:idproquo
Pinch hit link: https://idproquo.dreamwidth.org/tag/pinch+hits
Due date: June 20th, 10pm EDT
Work Minimums: 2k fic or finished artwork
Event link:
idproquo Pinch hit link: https://idproquo.dreamwidth.org/tag/pinch+hits
Due date: June 20th, 10pm EDT
Work Minimums: 2k fic or finished artwork
PH 47 - Hazbin Hotel (Cartoon), Hazbin Hotel (Cartoon), Hazbin Hotel (Cartoon)
PH 49 - Clean Slate (TV), High Potential (TV), Crossover Fandom, Crossover Fandom, Crossover Fandom
Thank you for considering our pinch hits!