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Mar. 17th, 2026 03:05 pm
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[personal profile] conuly posting in [community profile] agonyaunt
DEAR HARRIETTE: I've recently gone sober for health reasons, and it wasn't an easy decision, especially because my social life has always involved going out for drinks, celebrating with cocktails and bonding over happy hour. When my friends and I went out last weekend, they were pressuring me to drink. I ordered a mocktail, and almost immediately, my friends started to laugh and said that it would be fine to just have one drink. This surprised me because I never thought that my friends would try to force me to do something that would actively have a negative effect on my health. It made me feel unsupported and, frankly, disrespected. At the same time, I don't want to lose my friendships or isolate myself socially just because I'm choosing not to drink. Now I'm anxious about future outings. I don't want every dinner or celebration to turn into a debate about my personal choices. How should I talk to my friends about setting boundaries without making things awkward? -- Sober

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Mar. 17th, 2026 01:51 pm
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[personal profile] conuly posting in [community profile] agonyaunt
Dear Eric: My husband and his ex-wife have 50/50 custody of their 15-year-old son. I despise this child. He is completely useless, rude, disrespectful, selfish, ungrateful and lazy. All he does is stare at his computer screen. I have carefully planned my entire life schedule around his schedule, to avoid being at the house on the days he is there for my husband's 50 percent custody.

My husband has just told me that his ex-wife is moving to another state far away and that he is going to take full custody of his son. This means the child I despise so much is now going to be living with me at my house full time, every single day, and there's nothing I can do about it. My husband refuses to let his son move away with his ex. How do I manage this?

– Fed Up


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Cabaret in Flames by Hache Pueyo

Mar. 17th, 2026 08:54 am
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[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll


A doctor is drawn into the search for her missing mentor.

Cabaret in Flames by Hache Pueyo
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[personal profile] rydra_wong
https://transrightsreadathon.carrd.co/

March 17-31, 2026

The Trans Rights Readathon is an annual call to action to readers and book lovers in support of Trans Day of Visibility (TDOV) on March 31st.

We are calling on the reader community to read and uplift books written by and/or featuring trans, nonbinary, 2Spirit, and gender-nonconforming authors and characters.


As before, I would like to request that people shout out their favourite eligible books in the comments!

This Rough Magic, chapters 6-8

Mar. 17th, 2026 07:18 am
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[personal profile] shewhostaples posting in [community profile] girlmeetstrouble
Next day (Monday), Lucy and Phyllida go swimming. Read more... )

Chapter 7 should be a quiet evening, but, as Lucy says, it doesn't work out that way. Read more... )

Chapter 8, and Lucy fights back. Read more... )

Well, after two peaceful chapters last week, there's plenty of action now. Comments are open for discussion. Please remember to put your diamonds in a safe place before diving in.

Chapters 9-11 for next week. And the whole book post is available for those who have read this before, or have already raced to the end to see if the dolphin's OK.
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[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll


A monstrously large horde of rulebooks, supplements, and sourcebooks for Trail of Cthulhu, the tabletop roleplaying game of eldritch Cthulhu Mythos investigations using the GUMSHOE System from Pelgrane Press.

Bundle of Holding: Trail of Cthulhu MEGA

Admin: Loss of a member

Mar. 16th, 2026 10:20 am
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[personal profile] cereta posting in [community profile] agonyaunt
As some of you already know, our wonderful [personal profile] minoanmiss left us on March 3rd. Her loved ones asked us not to make any public announcements for reasons involving her family of origin, but we've been given permission to announce to the community now.

Those here in [community profile] agonyaunt will remember her for her contributions from Ask A Manager, and her insightful comments on family, found family, and other topics. The wider fannish community will remember her for her amazing fiction and her art, particularly her drawings of Minoan culture. Others will remember her for her amazing fruitcake and other culinary adventures.

[personal profile] sabotabby created this lovely portrait. I think I will try to remember her this way.

Smile, Smile, Smile

Mar. 16th, 2026 09:18 am
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[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll


Five benefits to a thermonuclear war.

Smile, Smile, Smile

Paul R. Ehrlich is dead

Mar. 15th, 2026 10:31 pm
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[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll
Finally.

Interestingly, although he died a couple of days ago, I couldn't find a news article to which I felt comfortable linking.

Not So Recent Reading

Mar. 15th, 2026 05:07 pm
ase: Book icon (Books)
[personal profile] ase
I had plans to keep an up to date book log. Well, that didn't happen.

The Will of the Many (Hierarchy, Book 1) (James Islington) (2023): In audiobook, narrated by Euan Morton. At 17, protagonist Vis experiences unexpected elevation from the bottom of the Hierarchy's boot to its elite academic academy, a new player in several schemes related to the phlebotinum the Hierarchy runs on, except like all good pseudo-Rome fantasy with phlebotinum underpinnings, guess what, it might destroy the entire world or something, more to come in Book Two.

I spotted this while browsing at a romance bookstore, and based on the blurb, I couldn't figure out why it was there. Having listened through the audiobook, specifically the part where the girlfriend is strongly implicated to be lying through her teeth about A Lot and oh yeah, literally tries to stab him to death, I'm still not sure how it got there.

Is The Will of the Many playing every trope of Manly Man In An Epic, Fighting Against Overwhelming Empire, 100% straight? Sure looks like it from here. Vis spends a lot of time being emotionally tortured by memories of His Secret Past that He Must Keep Secret Or Die, and also performing physical feats of great strength, stamina, agility, etc. It must be nice to pull double all-nighters while running marathons and stuff.

The novel hammers in that the Hierarchy is Bad, and their primary opponents, the Anguis, are also Bad, because human rights violations and hypocrisy, there's no good choices, blah blah. In Baru Comorant style, Vis is forced to join with his enemies to investigate its secrets (and maybe trash the evil hegemonic empire) from the inside. Except the interesting non-hetero worldbuilding is missing.

The cool part of the novel would be the phlebotinum, if the author were interested in it. Citizens of the Hierarchy have Will taken from them, which deprives them of energy, but gives Will wielders super strength and "imbuing" powers to make small magic devices - super-locks, trackers, lights - as well as great public works, like magic flying trains. I guess you could also heal with it, if that was something the novel was interested in. (Spoilers, the novel doesn't seem that interested in it.)

I think it'd be deeply interesting to think about imperial pressure to participate in this transfer of energy / executive function / whatever as a metaphor for all sorts of stuff, but mostly the novel uses it as "and then we had plot convenient superpowers or trains or whatever," which is disappointing.

The plot builds to an epilogue revelation that the Will phlebotinum is connected to a technology to copy and split yourself across three linked (?) worlds (???) - Res, Obiteum, Luceum - which is also connected to an ancient Cataclysm that some idiot(s) might trigger again in their grasping at Moar Power or something. Also there's some Larger Conflict (tm).

Pretty sure Vis isn't going to do the smart thing, which would be to find the Final Boss protecting the Will technology core, then destroy the Will technology beyond reconstruction, at least not without two more novels of being emotionally and physically tortured by the author's fictional proxies. If we're lucky maybe he'll reconcile with the girlfriend who tried to kill him before she perishes at the hands of his enemies / sacrifices herself for him.

The Ministry for the Future (Kim Stanley Robinson) (2020) in large cast audiobook. Premise: addressing carbon emissions and by proxy climate change by legislation, also some terrorism.

I read Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy in my teens, and some of his other works between then and now. It feels like he has a specific utopian vision expressed repeatedly in his works, but as an American who read this in January 2026, his belief in a more peaceful, ecologically wise, equitable human future seems as dreamlike as Tolkien's First Age. That somehow this better world also comes into place through assassination and property damage doesn't help with my suspension of disbelief. Possibly the experience of one (1) pandemic, plus January '26, killed my willingness to believe in KSR's "if you build it" fiction.

Between the Islington and the KSR I reread some Scholomance as a "terrible schools and the societies that make them" palate-cleanser. After the KSR I reread a bunch of Radch series and Murderbot because sometimes you need to hang out with some unreliable and very angry narrators.

Bring the Jubilee by Ward Moore

Mar. 15th, 2026 08:50 am
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[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll


Hodge would like nothing better than to study American history. Be careful what you wish for.

Bring the Jubilee by Ward Moore
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[personal profile] neotoma
Lucy Glo apples, shallots, white potatoes, a small head of cabbage, carrots, celery, spicy bratwurst, thick-cut bacon, cranberry chevre, a loaf of whole wheat bread, a gallon of lavendar-lemonade, a pint of shiso-orange mint lemonade, peanut butter cookies, dark chocolate walnut cookies.
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[staff profile] mark posting in [site community profile] dw_maintenance

Happy Saturday!

I'm going to be doing a little maintenance today. It will likely cause a tiny interruption of service (specifically for www.dreamwidth.org) on the order of 2-3 minutes while some settings propagate. If you're on a journal page, that should still work throughout!

If it doesn't work, the rollback plan is pretty quick, I'm just toggling a setting on how traffic gets to the site. I'll update this post if something goes wrong, but don't anticipate any interruption to be longer than 10 minutes even in a rollback situation.

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[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll


Seven books new to me: four fantasies, one science fantasy, one science fiction, and I am not sure how to categorize the Shepard. At least three are series books.

Books Received, March 7 — March 13


Poll #34364 Books Received, March 7 — March 13
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 42


Which of these look interesting?

View Answers

The Lion and the Deathless Dark by Carissa Broadbent (July 2026)
5 (11.9%)

Teach Me to Prey by Jenni Howell (December 2026)
0 (0.0%)

Heart of Thieves by Jessica S. Olson (September 2026)
0 (0.0%)

The Dagger in Vichy by Alastair Reynolds (October 2025)
17 (40.5%)

Crows and Silences by Lucius Shepard (December 2024)
16 (38.1%)

Engines of Reason by Adrian Tchaikovsky (September 2026)
23 (54.8%)

The Heart of the Reproach by Adrian Tchaikovsky (July 2025)
17 (40.5%)

Some other option (see comments)
1 (2.4%)

Cats!
26 (61.9%)

A Christopher Brookmyre checklist

Mar. 14th, 2026 09:22 am
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[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll
I know my site is down. Giving it an hour before I pester the host.

Meanwhile Read more... )

February 2026 in Review

Mar. 13th, 2026 02:13 pm
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[personal profile] rowyn

Health and Fitness

I exercised 21 times in February! Pretty good for a short month. I'd thought maybe I'd done more cooking than usual? I've been making potatoes with broccoli, cheese and imitation crab every now and then since Eliyahu left in January. But it looks like I mostly did that during January and only once during February. I might have missed a time or two of cooking, though, since I wasn't as scrupulous about keeping my journal current as I have generally been for the last year and a half.

Dailies

I was not bad at keeping track of these! I have records for every day in February. I checked off editing 21 times, writing 19 times, drawing 17, and exercise 21. I was also pretty good about reading a little every day (usually manwha) -- 26 times on that.

Writing

I made more notes on Kingslayer, including starting to reorganize them to get rid of some cruft and make bits easier to find. The file is up to 4400 words, so 1100 words since January. I feel like I made more progress than this, but this is probably because I thought about it more than I wrote things down. Oops.

A Dragon's Secret is up to 59,000, so 4300 words for February. Perceptible progress, woo!

Business of Writing

My first readers were done with The Jewel-Strewn Night. Going through the comments and moving action items to the editing list took much longer than usual, but it was my only creative goal for February, so I made sure to finish it. 

Art

I finished the non-Olive-art, or at least pronounced it as done as I was gonna get it. It was based on a photo on Sandra Tayler's Discord server, so I shared it there and nowhere else. I remain weirdly more interested in painting than in showing anyone what I've painted.

After that, I went back to painting Olive, this time in a modern business suit. Her boymode in Time Princess is suit-inspired, with a neckcloth and a long coat. Even though it's much more interesting than a modern business suit, I kinda wanted to draw her in one anyway. So I did! I didn't finish it in February, though I got very close to done. To the point where most viewers will not be able to tell the difference between the version as of Feb 28 and the final version after several hours of additional work.

Reading

I started reading Tears on a Withered Flower, which probably won't finish for a few more years, alas. I didn't get to the end of the available episodes because I ran out of coins and figured I'd just let Webtoons bill me for another month of subscription in mid-March, as the most dollar-efficient method. When there aren't many episodes left on an unfinished story, I sometimes lose enthusiasm to catch up, because I know the last episode is unlikely to be satisfying. Not always, though; there's several series that I stay current on using Tapas.

I also started another unfinished series, What a Bountiful Harvest, Demon Lord! by BK_Moon, the same author who wrote The Greatest Estate Developer. Time Princess released the rest of The Coming Calamities, and I read a bit of it, but didn't get very far. I'm still enjoying it, just not patient enough to read it.

Social

I saw Kage, Sophrani, and Envoy every Friday in February, so that's on track! M also came down for a weekend, though he was mostly down to take care of financial things for Dad and related to Mom's passing. I was not very social during his visit, though we did go for long walks together with Rosie each day of it.

February Goal Scorecard

  • Provide care for Dad: Done!
  • Pay February bills & do withdrawal from brokerage: Also done!
  • Look at comments for The Jewel-Strewn Night and make an editing list: Took me until the last day of the month to finish, so way more challenging than I expected. But I finished it! And haven't wanted to look at it since, so that part is not great, but oh well.
  • Write 2000 words of A Dragon's Secret: I wrote over 4000 words! Woo, overachieved on extremely lowballed goal.

Stretch Goals Scorecard

  • Edit A Game to You: I made some progress on this. I even started assigning difficulty values to the various points on the outline, so at some point I may even be able to estimate how much progress I've made. I think probably less than 10%, but mostly because edits on this book are so much more extensive than I usually deal with.
  • Work on outline/notes for Kingslayer: I didn't write a lot of words, but I felt like I made progress on it, so sure, let's count it.
  • Exercise 15+ times: 21! Aw yeah.
  • Do some art: Finished the crypt piece and started a new fan art

March Goals

It's almost halfway through March and I have done very little creativity-wise, so I do not think this month is gonna be very productive at this point. 

  • Do not go into hermit-mode while siblings visit for Dad's birthday
  • Provide care for Dad
  • Pay February bills & do withdrawal from brokerage
  • Finish assigning values to A Game to You editing points. Break down the points that feel too complicated to tackle so they're more manageable.
  • Do a perceptible amount of work on something else. 2000 words on A Dragon's Secret or notes on Kingslayer or edit Jewel or make progress on A Game to You. Whatever. Enough that I can feel like "yeah I can finish this within a few years."

March Stretch Goals

  • Organize Jewel's editing list. Assign difficulty values to editing points.
  • Write 5000 words of A Dragon's Secret
  • Create a rough outline for Kingslayer (beginning, middle, end)
  • Make 5% of progress on A Game to You after settling all the values for the list
  • Any of my other usual stretch goals
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[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll


Is the current location of our Solar System the reason no one's coming to visit?

One More Reason the Aliens Might Be Avoiding Us

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