mme_hardy | Reading

The quotation below is a quotation

CSFFA (The Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association) is proud to announce the 2025 CSFFA Hall of Fame inductees.

Clint Budd, fan, convention organizer, modernized CSFFA and created the CSFFA Hall of Fame
Charles R. Saunders, author, journalist, and founder of the “sword and soul” literary genre
Diane L. Walton, editor, mentor, and a founding member of On Spec: The Canadian Magazine of the Fantastic

More information here.

Congratulations to the Inductees!

sovay

Rabbit, rabbit! I had to go for my annual physical this afternoon, but I stopped by Porter Square Books afterward to collect a book for my mother and look what was part of their summer sea-display:

I had wanted to write about so many queer films for June, but the month disappeared. Fortunately before we ran out of the formal observance of Pride,

rushthatspeaks and I made it to Rainer Werner Fassbinder's Querelle (1982) at the Coolidge. It was adapted from the 1947 novel by Jean Genet, but I have never seen anything onscreen that more resembled the novels of Chip Delany. Meant in sincere compliment, it is one of the sweatiest films I have ever seen. It looks like it smells like a porno theater. Its antihero is straight out of Tom of Finland with his sailor's tight, tight white trousers and muscular cleavage revealed by the barest excuse for an A-shirt, his boyish, chiseled, louche face under his insolently cocked bachi in the sullen, enticing haze that never varies from the sodium-smoke of just after sunset or just before dawn, a perpetual cruising hour. The sea-wall of its fantasized Brest is studded with stone phalli, anatomically complete with slit and balls. All graffiti in town is dicks. The chanteuse of the dive bar sings Wilde like Dietrich, but some of the construction workers with their buff hard hats are playing video games while the naval lieutenant who pines for Querelle records his poetically criminal obsessions into a portable tape recorder. The bare-chested, leather-vested cop at the bar actually is a cop outside of it, where he looks just as fetishistic in his fedora and black leather trenchcoat. Every interaction between men looks like a negotiation or a seduction whether it is one or not, although on some level it always is, regardless of the no-homo excuses manufactured to allow their bodies to meet. Constantly, metaphysically, literally, this movie fucks. Its hothouse, bathhouse sexuality must have come in just under the cutting wire of AIDS. I have no idea what it would offer a viewer with no sexual or aesthetic interest in men except its philosophy, although as my husband notes the philosophy is actually quite good, deconstructing its hard masc signifiers as much as it gets off on them, dissolving in and out of the words and ultimately the life of Genet; the theatricality of its interlocked sets and swelteringly flamboyant lighting would look entirely natural on the stage. It quotes Plutarch and stages a hand job that without a glimpse of cock would have caused mass apoplexies in the Breen office. (Send it back in time, please.) It was my introduction to Fassbinder and if I had seen it as an adolescent, I imagine it would have had much the same effect as Tanith Lee. It was introduced by the series programmer wearing leather in its honor and a T-shirt for Kenneth Anger's Scorpio Rising (1963). It made a superb date movie.

Current Music: Les Cowboys Fringants, "Marine marchande"

jayblanc

My read on today in Parliament.

Not as bad as the Truss lobby revolt, but pretty damn bad.
Last minute promises to amend the bill in committee to the satisfaction of the middle of the party, with dire consequences to be expected if they bring it back to the house without them.
Kendall got to save face by having some kind of reform agreed to.
Reeves is now left holding the bag of her fiscal rules being shattered unless she raises taxes.
McFadden's, and by extension the Cabinet Office's authority in tatters.
Starmer limps away having made firm enemies of enough MPs to start a leadership contest.

oursin

Wot a saga, eh, wot a saga, first time I have ventured significantly forth these many years -

And to start with, MAJOR HEAT EVENT.

In anticipation, I had - or so I thought - prudently booked a taxi via taxiapp, with a certain amount of leeway, just in case -

- which turned out very prudent, as when I went to check the booking this morning the app was showing 'network error' and this was clearly on their end rather than mine, and a little looking about suggests that this is not their first ~~rodeo~~ server problem.

So when, at designated time, taxi cameth not, I set out towards the Tube, not without some hope that a black cab might pass me on my way, but that Was Not To Be -

And on reflection, I should perhaps have waited for a Bank train, because getting out on Charing X platforms at Euston involves rather too many stairs.

However, Avanti kindly texted me the approx time my train would be boarding, and this all seemed set - although my (1st class) seat was aisle, backwards, there was nobody in the other 3 seats so I switched -

HAH.

When we reached Coventry, choochoo sighed and gave up, and we had to debouch and take the next Birmingham bound train - which was delayed....

At Birmingham New Street had considerable faff trying to discover a Way Out that would take me to a taxi rank.

When I finally arrived at hotel booked by conference organisers there was an immense performance trying to find the right group booking, as it was not under any title that I might have thought of but that of some hireling booking agency.

However, I am now in nice cool room and have had tasty room service snack. Even if I have had to wrestle with getting my laptop to talk to the free wifi...

askerian

TOTAL: 1 718...
... uuuuuuuuuuuugh. i mean for 10 days of that i was on vacation in greece but i had so much free time AND air conditioning and the rest of the month was also dead, so what gives, self. maybe it's the heat... :/

upside, i posted quite a bit! nice, nice.

POSTED !!! :
-cosplaying in another dimension with my tamagotchi! Chapter 2 (svsss, shen yuan/original luo binghe, adventure, OCs. (42 words XD)
-in This Economy chapters 9 and 10 ( bleach suburban ot4), seriously self post them slower BUT i managed to edit/fluff up the biggest issues i had with chapter 10, so it does in fact count like i wrote it this month.

IN PROGRESS
-cosplaying in another dimension with my tamagotchi! Chapter 3 (481 words)
-bleach suburban ot4 chapter 21 (946 words)
-naruto - cherry wine - madatobiizu ABO (180 words, very cool bit buuuut it contradicts early canon so hrthghgmmghghgh if can't fix then might not keep. not gonna post it.)

--
( teaserssss )

james_davis_nicoll

Only the brave, the arrogant, the naïve, or the desperate Men trespass in Arafel's Ealdwood. Into which category does the latest visitor fall?

The Dreamstone (Ealdwood, volume 1) by C J Cherryh

james_davis_nicoll

Jealous of all the people who support Aurora-finalist James Nicoll Reviews? Want to join them? Here are your options:

July 2025 Patreon Boost

james_davis_nicoll

Former Marvel Comics Editor-in-Chief Jim Shooter, 73, has reportedly passed away from esophageal cancer.

cupcake_goth

Last night my brain decided to give me a new stress nightmare, oh yay. In it I had taken all my bedtime meds on the drive to Seattle for next week's (!!!) MCR concert. I met up with

minim_calibre , we found our seats, and during the opening act I fell asleep, missing the entire MCR show.

WHAT THE HELL, BRAIN?!

This obviously won't happen in real life. But in that brief instant between sleep and waking out of the dream, I was SO UPSET.

Twelve days until the concert! The Seattle show is the first one of the tour, which means the band should be all riled up. And that I'll have no idea what the tour merch is, so I'll have to make my purchasing decisions in real time. Yes, there's a part of my brain that says buy it allllllll, but I'm trying not to listen to it. No really, I'm trying to, because I know I don't need all the Long Live: The Black Parade merch. Probably.

(buy it allllll)

nanila

Watch on YouTube

I can't quite believe how much has happened this month. At least 60 days of stuff were packed into June's 30. And now we're halfway through the year. Dear Time, Please slow down, Love, Me.

oracne

My schedule is finalized! I didn't list participants in case there were changes.

Who will I see at Readercon next month?

The Works of P. Djèlí Clark

Salon I/J Friday, July 18, 2025, 1:00 PM EDT

Our Guest of Honor P. Djèlí Clark rounded out his first decade as a published author with a Nebula and a Locus for his fantasy police procedural novel, The Master of Djinn, and both those awards plus a British Fantasy Award for his monster-hunting novella Ring Shout. His short story "How to Raise a Kraken in Your Bathtub" is short-listed for the Hugo this year. As a History professor at University of Connecticut, he investigates the pathways leading from West African storyteller/poets (griots, a.k.a. djèlí) to the American abolitionist movement. Help us celebrate the works of our honored guest!

The Purposes of Memorable Insults in Sci-Fi and Fantasy

Salon I/J Friday, July 18, 2025, 5:00 PM EDT

Some of the most quotable lines in science fiction and fantasy are zingers. Wit can do a lot to build a character, a world, and a universe, and has the ability to either support or undermine reader expectations. This panel aims to explore and elaborate on the use of wit—and especially takedowns—in literature, exposing how a verbal jab can serve as more than just a punchline.

Moving from Traditional Publishing to Self-Publishing [I'm moderating this one]

Salon G/H Friday, July 18, 2025, 7:00 PM EDT

It's becoming increasingly common to hear of authors whose self-published work was so successful that they were picked up by a traditional publisher. But what of the authors who have gone the other way, by turning their backs on traditional publishing and going into self-publishing? Panelists will survey the varying reasons for making this transition, how authors have navigated it, and what this might say about the state of publishing overall.

Kaffeeklatsch: Victoria Janssen

Suite 830 Friday, July 18, 2025, 8:00 PM EDT

Meet the Pros(e) party

Salon F Friday, July 18, 2025, 10:15 PM EDT

Program participants are assigned to tables with a roughly equal number of conferencegoers and other participants, and then table placements are scrambled at regular intervals so that everyone gets to meet a new set of people in a small-group setting. Think of it as a low-key sort of speed dating where you need never be the sole focus of anyone's attention, and the goal is just to get to know some cool Readerconnish people. Please note that this event will include a bar and is mask-optional, unlike most other programming.

The Works of Cecilia Tan [I'm moderating this one]

Salon I/J Saturday, July 19, 2025, 12:00 PM EDT

Our Guest of Honor, Cecilia Tan, has a publication history that spans Asimov's, Absolute Magnitude, Ms. Magazine, Penthouse, and Best American Erotica, among others. Writer and editor of science fiction and fantasy, especially as they intersect with erotica and romance, she is also the founder of Circlet Press, an independent publisher that specializes in speculative erotica. Her own writing earned a Lifetime Achievement for Erotica in 2014 from Romantic Times magazine. She also contributes to America's other pastime, baseball, in her role as Publications Director for the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR). Come hear our panel discuss Cecilia's many talents and accomplishments.

Un-Kafkaesque Bureaucracies [I'm moderating this one]

Salon I/J Saturday, July 19, 2025, 7:00 PM EDT

In fiction, bureaucracies are generally depicted as evil in its most banal form, yet many of the actual bureaucracies that shape our lives exist to protect us from corporate greed. How can—and should—we tell other stories about bureaucrats and bureaucracies, particularly as the U.S. stands on the precipice of disastrous deregulation? And might fantasies of bureaucracy (such Addison's The Goblin Emperor and Goddard's The Hands of the Emperor) be the next cozy subgenre?

The Endless Appetite for Fanfiction

Create / Collaborate Saturday, July 19, 2025, 8:00 PM EDT

In an article of the same name (https://www.fansplaining.com/articles/endless-appetite-fanfiction), Elizabeth Minkel discussed how "2024 was the year [fanfic] truly broke containment—everyone seemed to want a piece of the fanfiction pie, leaving fic authors themselves besieged on all sides." Attempts to steal and monetize fanfic proliferated, as did reviews treating living authors as distant and unreachable. What do these trends say about larger changes in attitudes toward stories and creators? How can fans of all kinds nurture supportive connections to authors?

james_davis_nicoll

The English-language rulebook and supplements for Broken Tales, the tabletop fantasy roleplaying game of upside-down fairy tales from Italian game publisher The World Anvil Publishing.

Bundle of Holding: Broken Tales

oursin

How is it the end of June already? Where did it go?

And tomorrow I have to travel to Birmingham for a conference.

I am telling myself that I survived the Hot Summer of 76 in an un-airconditioned office where, if one opened a window in came the noise and fumes of a heavily traffic-polluted thoroughfare.

Of course, I was Much Younger in those days.

I see that it is supposed to get somewhat cooler (and wetter) on Weds.

Current Music: Mad Dogs & Englishmen

james_davis_nicoll

2003: PM Blair embraces hilariously transparent lies to justify the invasion of Iraq, two million Britons reveal the power of public outrage when they protest the Iraq War to no effect, and the Coalition of the Billing (UK included) faces an occupation of Iraq that will no doubt be entirely without unforeseen challenges or consequences.

Poll #33305 Clarke Award Finalists 2003

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 55

View Respondents

Which 2003 Clarke Award Finalists Have You Read?

View Answers

The Separation by Christopher Priest
10 (18.2%)

Kiln People by David Brin
17 (30.9%)

Light by M. John Harrison
14 (25.5%)

The Scar by China Miéville
22 (40.0%)

The Speed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon
29 (52.7%)

The Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson
30 (54.5%)

Bold for have read, italic for intend to read,, underline for never heard of it.

Which 2003 Clarke Award Finalists Have You Read?
The Separation by Christopher Priest
Kiln People by David Brin
Light by M. John Harrison
The Scar by China Miéville
The Speed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon
The Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson

rydra_wong

* SAVE OFTEN, especially in the early game when you may be very fragile and the game's auto-save is infrequent.

BUT -- don't reload from a save unless you actually die or otherwise hit a "game over."

This game is about failing, and it rewards you for playing forwards through failure. Some of the best moments in the game come from failed checks. There are always alternative routes and ways forwards. If you tried to savescum it, you would miss most of the game and all of the point. Embrace failure.

~~Okay there are those two specific checks where failing is so emotionally devastating I would not judge anyone for savescumming. But apart from those.~~

* You can just pick one of the Archetypes for a starter build, and leave messing around with custom character creation until you've seen the stats in action and understand how the system works. Don't stress about it. Or, if you want, you can throw yourself into custom character creation despite not having a clue how it works, and you will also have a fun time. Your initial build and your later choices about what you put points into will radically change your experience of the game, but you can't do it "wrong"; there are no optimal builds which are "better".

* Press tab to highlight objects you can interact with, or activate "detective mode" in the settings to do it automatically. Yes I know this is the sort of thing that is probably obvious to people who have played video games before.

* If your Health or Morale (displayed on the lower left of the screen) fall to zero, you have about 5 seconds to apply a healing item (if you have one) by clicking the cross above that stat.

This is the one timed element in the game, and also the one mechanic that some of us initially have trouble grasping.

With all the other mechanics in the game, you can not only learn them by flinging yourself in and floundering about, this is IMHO the best and most enjoyable way to learn them. No idea what the Thought Cabinet is or what Internalizing A Thought means? Try it and find out!

* Perhaps the most important tip of all:

If you feel you are flailing around and failing on most of the checks you try and you've just been informed you have acquired a Thought you can internalize in your Thought Cabinet and you have no clue what that means or maybe you just had a heart attack and died before you even got out of your hotel room or you had a nervous breakdown because a child insulted you and you have no idea what you're doing and it's been three days and you still haven't got the body down from the tree --

THIS DOES NOT MEAN YOU ARE PLAYING THE GAME "BADLY". THIS IS IN FACT THE UNIVERSAL DISCO ELYSIUM EXPERIENCE AND MEANS YOU ARE PLAYING THE GAME CORRECTLY. WELL DONE.

james_davis_nicoll

I survived another dance season. Go me.

21 works reviewed. 11 by women (52%), 9 by men (43%),1 by non-binary authors (5%), 0 by authors whose gender is unknown (0%), and 8 by POC (38%).

More details at the other end of the link.

larryhammer

For Poetry Monday, after an influencer of Pound, Pound himself—at least in part:

The Sole Survivor, Rai San’yō, tr. Ezra Pound

A force cut off
Fighting hard,
Shut around.

I burst the bonds,
I alone,
I returned,

Fleeing by night
Through the crags of the border.

My sword is broken,
My horse fallen.
The hero drags his corpse to his native mountains.

Rai (1780-1832) was an Edo-period historian and poet. In November 1915, Pound attended a London performance of sword dances by Itō Michio (1892-1961), some of which were accompanied by songs sung by Uchiyama Masami (I can’t find good dates on this guy), one of them being this. This translation (made with Uchiyama’s assistance, credited as “from notes by”) was first published in the Dec 1916 issue of Future without naming the author. The original title was “Kogun Funto,” which more literally means “exhausted warrior,” and the original form was a single four-line stanza.

—L.

Subject quote from Anti-Hero, Taylor Swift.

mildred_of_midgard

As for what I did with my 20 mile walk:

1. I saw a group of 3 deer very close up in the forest!

2. I gave a dog belly rubs. I went to pet it, and it immediately rolled over on its back and started begging for belly rubs. Friendliest dog ever! <3333

3. I went to the Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East.

4. I finally got that Persian ice cream all the way over in Watertown! The cardamom was the best, omggg. The place in Westwood that I like and will be moving far too close to :P doesn't have cardamom. Possibly for the best that the only cardamom ice cream is 10 miles from me and I'm injured, but omg, that was so good.

5. A number of American Revolutionary War plaques, signs, and memorials passed on the way. It was my first time walking through Arlington, and yep, they love their plaques. Oh, on the way from the museum to the ice cream, I was made to understand via multiple markers that I was traveling along the route that General Knox took when bringing the artillery from Ticonderoga, New York, to deliver to George Washington in Boston in the winter of 1775-1776, which was instrumental in driving the British out of Boston. (I don't actually know my Revolutionary War history very well; all my eighteenth century history studies have been European.)

green_knight

The EHRC consultation on their code of practice closes today. I learnt about it yesterday, which is not ideal, and have just spend around 2-3h hours filling it in.

https://transactual.org.uk/equality-act-campaign/responding-to-the-ehrc-consultation/

has guidance and talking points. You don’t need to fill out everything, but every voice helps.

It’s a transphobic mess. Their stance is basically that it’s fine to get trans people coming and going; they believe in the the ‘trans women are better athletes’ myth and don’t believe that trans women should see gynaecologists.

It’s ugly. I have little hope to have made a difference, but I am spitting mad.

Profile

mme_hardy

December 2022

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
				1	2	3
4	5	6	7	8	9	10
11	12	13	14	15	16	17
18	19	20	21	22	23	24
25	26	27	28	29	30	31

Page Summary

james_davis_nicoll - 2025 CSFFA Hall of Fame Inductees
sovay - J'm'installe sur le rivage pour te voir mon gros gars t'éloigner vers le large
jayblanc - (no subject)
oursin - Through dangers untold and hardships unnumbered, am in Birmingham
askerian - monthly word count - june
james_davis_nicoll - HAPPY CANADA DAY!
james_davis_nicoll - The Dreamstone (Ealdwood, volume 1) by C J Cherryh
james_davis_nicoll - July 2025 Patreon Boost
james_davis_nicoll - Jim Shooter (1951 - 2025)
cupcake_goth - Really, brain? REALLY?
nanila - 1SE for June 2025
oracne - Readercon 2025 Schedule
james_davis_nicoll - Bundle of Holding: Broken Tales
oursin - Because the sun is far too sultry And one must avoid its ultry-violet ray
james_davis_nicoll - Clarke Award Finalists 2003
rydra_wong - For anyone I've successfully lured: my top Disco Elysium tips
james_davis_nicoll - June 2025 in review
larryhammer - “slowly lurching toward your favorite city / pierced through the heart but never killed”
mildred_of_midgard - Fun day
green_knight - Civic Duty: Done

Style Credit

Style: Indil for Ciel by nornoriel

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags

Page generated Jul. 1st, 2025 10:34 pm

Interesting People

Reading

2025 CSFFA Hall of Fame Inductees

J'm'installe sur le rivage pour te voir mon gros gars t'éloigner vers le large

(no subject)

Through dangers untold and hardships unnumbered, am in Birmingham

monthly word count - june

HAPPY CANADA DAY!

The Dreamstone (Ealdwood, volume 1) by C J Cherryh

July 2025 Patreon Boost

Jim Shooter (1951 - 2025)

Really, brain? REALLY?

1SE for June 2025

Readercon 2025 Schedule

Bundle of Holding: Broken Tales

Because the sun is far too sultry And one must avoid its ultry-violet ray

Clarke Award Finalists 2003

For anyone I've successfully lured: my top Disco Elysium tips

June 2025 in review

“slowly lurching toward your favorite city / pierced through the heart but never killed”

Fun day

Civic Duty: Done

Profile

December 2022

Most Popular Tags

Page Summary

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags