Fascinating Stuff Happening to Other Folks

I had been short listed for my weird west thing but didn't make it in. I'm sad. I loved those girls. There is another weird west open call but the pay is low and I am not feeling it. Sigh. Had one for my watery colonial monster but that open call doesn't want historicals. Sigh. Sometimes it's hard to feel appreciated as an author that's for sure.

So have the book thing

What I Just Finished Reading:

Cinders of Yesterday - Buffy/Supernatural vibes, urban fantasy, lesbian partners (by a queer author) really liked this. It was set up for a second book but I don't see any yet. Maybe she'll be at the Gettysburg Steampunk con again


Zero at the Bone - an old true crime not badly written saggy in the middle

The Crossing Places - really a good mystery but my god the fat shaming in this

Victoria's Electric Coffin #3 - I had no idea this was gonna end in 3 books but in some ways I like that


What I am Currently Reading:

War Child - a Deep Space Nine Novel lackluster like most Star Trek books

The Wood - an urban fantasy I literally lost under my bed for years

Dark and Dangerous Journey - WWII mystery arc


What I Plan to Read Next:

Pantomine - an LGBT (intersexed main character) fantasy, I like it but i'm shelving it for a bit

I've been trying to go to the Pittsburgh Botanical Garden for days but it keeps raining. Today was beautiful. The high was 75 F (24C) and no rain with enough cloud cover so the digital camera wouldn't be washed out by light. And naturally it's not open on Mondays. Sigh.

At least the writers' zoom went MUCH better this time.



Journaling prompt: What games do you play, if any? Are you a solo-gamer or do you view games as a social activity?
Creative prompt: Write a story/fic around the theme "game night".

I've got nothing for the creative prompt but games...I don't get to play as many as I'd like. As a family we play poker, blackjack and Uno when we can. Online I basically play June's Journey right now (I love hidden object games and this one is free and while you can buy stuff to get further along you can still get everything you need without having to do that so that's a bonus (I mean most of the free games you have to keep buying things to clear a level and I won't do that)

I used to play video games like a fiend. In the 80s I haunted arcades. I would have killed to get an ESports scholarship like some of my students do today. I had an Intellivision in the house and then later a Sega. Then medical school happened and I had time for nothing.

By the time I was no longer seeing patients I had a nerve damaged hand and a lot of games are out of the question as a result. It's too painful. Also I tend to get obsessive about it and it is probably better I don't play.

I started playing Dungeons and Dragons and other TTRPGs when I was 13. I would still be playing if I could. There are no local games and I don't really want to do this online since every time I've played an online group game it has ended badly. Like SO badly. I don't want to go through that again. And that makes me sad.

I did get introduced to having a 'gaming office hours' at my work con this year and I love that idea. Instead of only coming to see the professor because you aren't understanding something, you come and play games with me and then if you need to ask questions you can. Also gamification is becoming BIG in teaching and I'm hoping to work up a game or two as a teaching tool. I do love my games.

And for another love of mine music! It's music monday. I'm doing the alphabet challenge where we're sharing songs that begin with a specific letter. We're up to P. I'm only sharing songs from the lasts 5 years (but you can share whenever you'd like)

( Not a lot of Ps )

this is less of a writing blog and more of a question for everyone. How do you write what could be a negative (but important to the character) without being utterly offensive. Yes, I know you can't avoid offending everyone but on the other hand you CAN offend the many if you do things wrong.

What brought this up is this book i'm reading The Crossing Places by Elly Griffiths. Someone recced this mystery to me (Can't remember if it was here or elsewhere) and while I like the mystery part, Ruth, the main character absolutely has me THIS close to quitting the book. (which will suck since it fits one of my popsugar prompts and I paid full price for this thing)

I'm overweight, by a lot. I do not like this about myself. On the other hand I'm not always thinking about this. I dress however I please for myself. Would I change this? Yes I'm working on it (and yes there are a subset of overweight people who find that alone offensive. I've run into that).

Anyhow Ruth in chapter 1 is talking about wearing only black because she's fat. Okay in the 90s and early 00s (this was pubbed in 09) that WAS the rec for overweight women. Wear black it's slimming. Uh huh. In ch 2, she is paranoid about getting into the car with the detective because what if the seatbelt won't go around her (I have never had this fear, in an airplane, yes, car no), images a siren blurting out from the seat giving away how fat she is. in ch 3, the detective is thinking about how fat she is, how she can barely do her job because she can't walk to the site (she's a field archaeologist) and how horrified his wife would be at how fat she is. ch 4 has her being picked up in a police car and she images it's for the crime of being single and fat. Thankfully the next few chapters don't mention her weight but....


So how fat is she? 12 stone. For the Americans of the group that's 168 pounds. Let that sink in. This woman is barely 30 pounds overweight. I thought she was going to be the size of someone who might have a weight-based show on TLC, my 600 pound life or something. I was put in mind of my friend at work and her struggles (she is in that weight range). ALL THIS FUSS and she's 30 pounds overweight. I'm literally 100 pounds more than here and I can still hike a few yards without breathing hard. Never have I worried I'm too fat for a car seat.

It made me a) want to not read this book b) wonder how to make a character unhappy with their physical appearance without being horrendously fatphobic or ableist etc etc

How do/would you handle it? I think in some ways I do a decent job of it (points to story in yesterday's post) For example while it's not really in the canon, it is in Viv's notes and is a huge part of fanon. Angel Dust hates his feet. I'd like to think I did a decent job of depicting that without being obnoxious or insulting.

There has to be a happy medium, right?

OPEN CALLS


The Final Girl Review: Now Seeking Submissions

81 Opportunities for Historically Underrepresented Writers (July 2025)


What’s Your Age Again? Comedic stories (speculative included) with a romantic age gap


Fascination Nature-fueled magical stories that both enchant and unsettle the reader

Cosmic Roots And Eldritch Shores August 2025 Window Well written original work in science fiction, fantasy, myth, legend, fairy tales, and eldritch, in written, podcast, video, and/or graphic story form, and from around the world.

Electric Spec November Issue 2025 Electric Spec prefers science fiction, fantasy, and the macabre, but we’re willing to push the limits of traditional forms of these genres

Best Served Cold A New Collection of Chilling Short Stories of Crime & Revenge very close deadline



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