historicalyafen | Member Posts

I was planning to type up some older ficlets I'd found in my notebook, including one for

no_true_pair, and when I opened the doc, found an all but complete one already typed up! So here's one I had mostly prepared much earlier but apparently gave up on for some reason.

For the Sept 2024 round of No True Pair, and also for

51pluscrossoverfandoms,

100fandoms &

allbingo Crime Classics.

Subdivisions (1073 words) by thisbluespirit
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Discworld - Terry Pratchett, The Chronicles of St Mary's - Jodi Taylor
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Death (Discworld) & Madeleine "Lucy" Maxwell
Characters: Death (Discworld), Madeleine "Lucy" Maxwell, Leon Farrell
Additional Tags: Crossover, Alcohol, Drunkenness, Community: no_true_pair, Community: 51pluscrossoverfandoms, Community: 100fandoms, Community: allbingo, Max would like it to be known that none of this would happen if Peterson could drive straight, Death just wants to talk
Summary: Max continues trying to cheat Death, even when Death just wants to buy her a pint.

isis

What I've recently finished reading:

The Fox Wife by Yangsze Choo, which was enjoyable, although I really dislike the structure of having one POV in first person past and the other POV in third person present, it just feels weird to me. Basically a whodunnit with fox spirits. I liked the old lady the best!

The Hyena and the Hawk by Adrian Tchaikovsky - the conclusion of the Echoes of the Fall trilogy, and really not so much about the hyena and the hawk, but it does make for a nice alliteration. This was a great ending for the series, really fascinating worldbuilding, and as usual (for Tchaikovsky) it plays with the concepts of Us and The Other, and how to bridge the gap of understanding in order to appreciate The Other as Persons. Speaking of which,

What I'm reading now:

Shroud by Adrian Tchaikovsky, which so far (20% in) is very much like Alien Clay except also very much not like it.

What I'm watching now:

We're about halfway through Pluribus. It's very slick and clever, a bit slow, I'm not sure if I like it, but I will watch the whole season, anyway. I am particularly charmed by all the random extras looking very much like regular everyday people. Also, Albuquerque! That's not too far out of my backyard...

What I'm playing now:

Still Ghost of Tsushima. I've rescued my uncle and am on to the second part of the story!

sineala

What I Just Finished Reading

Nothing. I have had a migraine every day.

What I'm Reading Now

Comics Wednesday!

( Avengers #35, Nova Centurion #4, Ultimate Endgame #2, Ultimate Wolverine #14 )

What I'm Reading Next

I mean, it'd be nice to get to read something. I do get to switch migraine medication. Maybe I will get my brain back. How is it that I am reading comics, you ask? Well, if you click on my reviews, I'm finding them very confusing. I'm also not reading as many as I would like to.

Current Mood: sick

thisbluespirit

In the midst of writing five ways Sir Robert and Catherine could have got together post-canon for

yuletide, the inevitable result was also thinking about what if they were just married already. And I hadn't yet actually written them for

100ships or TWB for

100fandoms, so I scribbled this down somewhere in between or after the assignment, and here it is.

when all the leaves are gold (1497 words) by thisbluespirit
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Winslow Boy (1999)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Robert Morton/Catherine Winslow
Characters: Robert Morton (Winslow Boy), Catherine Winslow
Additional Tags: Community: 100ships, Community: 100fandoms, Community: allbingo, Post-Canon, Edwardian Period, Marriage, Suffragettes, World War I, (outbreak of), Vignette, Happily married Sir Robert and Catherine, Established Relationship, 1910s
Summary: Catherine and Sir Robert, making a marriage work.

(

edwardianspinsteraunt, the second section centres around the imminent announcement of WWI and fears in that regard, but only discussions of it, and the first section is entirely war-free anyway, so you are definitely safe there.)

feather_ghyll

( Women )

( Men )

swingandswirl

Snowflake Challenge: A flatlay of a snowflake shaped shortbread cake, a mug with coffee, and a string of holiday lights on top of a rustic napkin.

Challenge #8

Talk about your creative process.

You know, I don't think I've ever sat down and thought through my creative process before. This should be fun.

My solo-written fic, as opposed to my cowrites (/waves to

rhi ,

ilyena_sylph ,

t_vo0810 and others/) is one of two kinds, usually: either it's written for an exchange fic, or a bunny ups and grabs me.

When I sign up for exchanges, I try and craft my sign-up to get specific recipients, although I try and make sure that I can write for all potential recipicients. (I've only hit 'oh God no DEFAULT' levels of DNW a couple of times, which considering my Cursed Exchange Luck, I'm pretty proud of.) Once I get my assignment, I sit with the prompt that calls to me the most, and see what kind of story I can create that fits both the wordcount requirement and what the recip wants. Depending on how much plot there is, I throw myself on rhi's mercy for help, lol.

Once I've figured out what the story is, then I write it. Very rarely, I finish my first draft before deadline; usually I'm butting right up to it. (Being several hours ahead is a wonderful thing, sometimes. It feels like a sneaky little extension, lol.) I use the period between submission deadline and reveals to edit and polish my fic, although (thankfully) I write very clean drafts so there's rarely all that much editing, SPAG aside, to do. Sometimes my brain is a hunk of mouldy cheese and poor

rhi has to talk me down and remind me that I am a good writer and my fic will look better once I have had a snack and a nap.

When it comes to non-exchange fic, it usually starts with a bunny nibbling on me. Once the nibbling becomes too hard to ignore, I sit down and write - sometimes just scenes, sometimes snippets, sometimes whole-ass fic. Then I let the for-publishing stuff sit for a few days before going back over it, then getting it beta'd.

Regardless of whether it's exchange fic or for my own satisfaction, there's one step of the process I find utterly loathsome: titles. There's a reason most of my fics have either lyrics or quotes for titles - titling is the worst, even harder than summaries. I am in awe of people who find it easy. But works need titles, alas, and so far I've somehow managed, lol.

And that's my creative process! Feel free to ask me any questions you may have.

duskpeterson

ONLINE E-BOOK (html, epub, mobi, pdf, and xhtml)

Free at my website.

The Motley Crew (The Thousand Nations). When a young man named Dolan flees from the north, he faces danger on all sides. The Northern Army wants him back. The Empire of Emor wants him dead. His native homeland of Koretia may not want him at all. And his only protection is a man with motives that are mysterious and possibly deadly.

New installment:

3 | Suspicion of the Guards. Why bother to guard a man who has the ability to torment you?

REISSUES

Already available free at my website, these two omnibuses are now also available at AO3, SqWA, and Ream.

Law Links: Novel and Side Stories (The Three Lands). Few events are more thrilling in a young man's life than a blood feud between two villages. Or so Adrian thought.

Death Mask: Novel and Side Stories (Death Mask). For eighteen years, he has survived in an army unit where few soldiers live more than two or three years. Now he finds himself in circumstances where his life is a living hell. Will the soldier who defied death find that life is too great a challenge?

BLOG FICTION

Tempestuous Tours (Crossing Worlds: A Visitor's Guide to the Three Lands #2). A whirlwind tour of the sites in the Three Lands that are most steeped in history, culture, and the occasional pickpocket.

New installments:

Capital of Emor.

The City Court and Law Academy.

Physicians' Quarters and Medical Academy.

Engineers' Rooms and Engineering Academy.

NEWS & UPCOMING FICTION

As of January 20, Amazon Kindle began allowing customers to download some of its DRM-free ebooks in epub and pdf. I've opted in my e-books to this program.

My apologies to Ream readers for the formatting quirks in the Ream editions of Law Links and Death Mask. I worked with Ream's forever-patient customer service for eight months to try to work out the conversion problems I encountered, before I had to give up. The text isn't affected by the formatting issues, you'll be happy to know.

"Heir" (The Three Lands: Blood Vow side story) – delayed because of my concussion last year – will be my next release.

thisbluespirit

I continue to make slow progress with recovering, which is very dull, but still generally in the right direction, however hard it is to be patient. I haven't been able to keep up much at all here, only in bits and pieces.

However, I realised I was behind with crossposting

rainbowfic pieces, and I can do that:

Name: Turn To Dust
Story: Starfall
Colors: Warm Heart #25 (Spite); Azul #9 (Willpower); Colour of the Day - 30/10/2025 (Wheedle)
Supplies and Styles: Charcoal + Chiaroscuro + Graffiti (for October Challenge incl. bonus prompt "Psychological Horror") + Novelty Beads ("But I am alive. And I am not afraid." from

bookblather for Birthday Prompts 2021).
Word Count: 3808
Rating: Teen
Warnings: Mental manipulation, threat, injury, death.
Notes: Portcallan, 1313. Leion Valerno, Donn Chiulder, Tana Veldiner. (This isn't Psychological Horror as a genre per se, but I thought taken as a prompt, it fitted too perfectly not to use for this).
Summary: Leion faces his worst nightmare.

swingandswirl

two log cabins with snow on the roofs in a wintery forest the text snowflake challenge january 1 - 31 in white cursive text

So I had to take a break from posting because my eyes decided to act up (After a Deeply Stupid Eye Injury back in college, my left eye likes to throw the occasional tantrum to remind me it's got its eye on me, boyo) but I'm back with challenge #7.

Challenge #7

LIST THREE (or more) THINGS YOU LIKE ABOUT YOURSELF. They don’t have to be your favorite things, just things that you think are good. Feel free to expand as much or as little as you want.

Okay! Three things, huh? I'm going to go with one physical thing, one skill, and one emotional thing.

1. I try really hard to be kind.

Especially in the world we live in, where it's so easy to fall into snark, or into the trap of valuing nonexistent moral purity over imperfect action towards a better present and future, this is one of the things I like best about myself. So while I have certain bedrock principles I won't deviate from, I try very hard to give people grace, both IRL and in fandom. At the end of it, you've gotta be kind.

2. I am a good writer.

There's a Discord I'm in with a writing vent channel, and it always discomfits me a little to hear people tear their own writing down. Now, am I a literary great? Ha, nope. But I am a skilled writer, enough so that I enjoy rereading my own work, lol. Perhaps once Snowflake is over I'll create a self-rec list?

3. I like how my face looks.

So I grew up in a deeply colourist society, although I've been lucky in that my immediate family has never held with that or given me crap for it. What I didn't like about my face was that I don't have the kind of open-mouthed smile that is considered classically beautiful. (My teeth are fine, just small.) Add to that some baby fat that stubbornly stuck around, and nope. It took the pandemic, and seeing my face on Zoom for hours on end to realize that hey, just because I don't photograph well, it doesn't mean there aren't nice things about my face - how my eyes crinkle when I smile, how animated my expressions get when I'm excited about something, how well bright red lipstick contrasts with my dark skin. So yeah. It took a while, but I can safely say that I love my face.

shewhostaples

How Did the Fandom Snowflake Challenge Go?

Pretty well! I responded to all the prompts, more or less in the spirit in which they were intended, and it's still January as I write this last post. I didn't get much more involved in any specific fandom, but I do feel that I reengaged with fandom in general, which was my intention.

I am dreadfully behind with comments, both making and responding to, and am not going to become any less so tonight. But that's not exactly new!

I'm hoping to keep up the momentum and post more about my daily life, even if I don't manage much obviously fannish engagement for the time being.

Now I'm off to do the friending meme.

feather_ghyll

I meant to say in the previous post that ( Read more... )

shewhostaples

Create a promo and/or rec list for someone new to a fandom

Well, I was enthusing about The Count of Monte Cristo the other day, so I shall expand on that a bit. (Also see 2019 post here.

It's a French novel (original title: Le Comte de Monte Cristo) by Alexandre Dumas (père), first published in serial form from 1844-46 and then as a complete novel in 1846. (There were two Alexandre Dumas, father and son. The father is most famous for The Three Musketeers and the son is most famous for The Lady of the Camellias.)

The first part of the book stars too-good-to-be-true sailor Edmond Dantès, who is framed for a crime of which he is, obviously, innocent, and imprisoned in an island prison just outside Marseille. There he encounters the Abbé Faria, who knows where to find some hidden treasure on another island, tiny Monte Cristo, if only he could get free... Well, he can't, but Edmond is younger and stronger and has a much better chance.

The rest of the book follows the consequences - for Edmond (who has restyled himself as Count of Monte Cristo), and for the three men who stitched him up, and for their nearest and dearest. (Edmond has been in prison for a while, and they've all done rather well for themselves - implausibly so, in some cases.) They take a while to work themselves out, but they're very satisfying even as they're somewhat horrifying. It's revenge with an unlimited budget, and then having to come to terms with what that does to a person. (If absolute power corrupts absolutely, then unlimited revenge... erm. Anyway.)

I love the melodrama. I love the Gothic vibe. I love the canon lesbians (Eugénie, the daughter of one of the three villains and an impoverished friend who sings opera with her) who get a happy ending under their own author's nose. I love the background detail, Parisian society, the faint odour of decadence.

Warnings: the dodgy opinions you'd expect for 1846. Alexandre Dumas was in fact Black, but this doesn't stop him going unfortunately Orientalist in places.

Also note that it's very long - about 1200 pages in my edition. This is a plus for me: I read it in difficult times and by the time I get to the end something will have changed somewhere. It's worth being careful about the translation, as some of the older ones are also bowdlerisations and lose vital Eugénie bits. Which is a travesty.

sineala

What I Just Finished Reading

Nothing.

What I'm Reading Now

Comics Wednesday!

( 1776 #3, Iron Man #1, Sorcerer Supreme #2 )

What I'm Reading Next

IDK. Once again, I need fewer migraines.

Current Mood: exhausted

swingandswirl

Challenge #6

Top 10 Challenge. Post your answer to today’s challenge in your own space and leave a comment in this post saying you did it.

Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so. Also, feel free to entice engagement by giving us a preview of what your post covers.

( That got long, lol... )

And that's my top ten fandoms! What are yours?

feather_ghyll

The headlines of note from round 1 ( Read more... )

Round 2: ( Read more... )

Round 3: ( Read more... )

In the fourth round, ( Read more... )

shewhostaples

Make an appreciation post to those who enhance your fandom life. Appreciate them in bullet points, prose, poetry, a moodboard, a song... whatever moves you!

Dear friends (mostly, but not all, on Dreamwidth) who...

... are really enjoying that ice hockey series
... are really enjoying playing ice hockey themselves
... are really looking forward to the Winter Olympics
... are reading that book that everyone is reading
... are reading that book that everyone read three years ago
... are reading books that nobody's read for a hundred years
... are reading things I wrote when I could string more than ten minutes together at a time
... are knee-deep in an obscure spin-off of something I saw once
... are singing or playing
... are listening to other people sing or play
... are going out and eating delicious things
... are cooking delicious things for other people to eat
... are going to interesting places and seeing interesting wildlife and sharing pictures
... are doing small things (or big things) in pursuit of a better world

... I am really enjoying reading about your enjoyment and activity, though I never manage to comment as often as I'd like. Thank you for keeping me in touch with the fandom world!

TALK ABOUT A COMMUNITY SPACE YOU LIKE. It doesn’t need to be your favorite, or the one where you spend the most time (although it certainly can be). Maybe it’s even one that you’ve barely visited. But talk about that space and how it helps support fannish community.

Having talked mostly about Dreamwidth above, I'm going to go super literal here and talk about the bandstand in my home town. It's set at the centre of a park next the river, and every summer Sunday afternoon a different brass band from one of the surrounding towns and villages turns up to give a free concert. Programme-wise, you always know more or less what kind of thing you're going to get: a march or two, some film music, an arrangement of some classic rock, and so on, but since it's never advertised in advance you don't know the specifics. There's always a mixed audience: people who know it's happening and have turned up deliberately; friends of the band; people who were just wandering past and stop to listen; kids playing on the slides. Some people stop for a few minutes and then move on; some stay for the whole thing.

I love the energy of live music, and it's so good to have something that's so very relaxed, so very - literally - open.

swingandswirl

Snowflake Challenge: A warmly light quaint street of shops at night with heavy snow falling.

Challenge #5

In your own space, create a list of at least three things you'd love to receive, a wishlist of sorts. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it and include a link to your wishlist if you feel comfortable doing so.

Here are my (fannish) wishes for this year!

1. For fandom to be a source of joy for everyone, not just me. May your fannish experiences be what you want, or need, them to be, and may they bring only good things into your life.

2. Recs for a certain kind of HP fic. Back in the day, before HBP released, there was a specific kind of fic that was almost standard - Harry gets training from competent adults, the DA plays a big part, the Houses come together, there's all kinds of fun magic and worldbuilding. I'd love recs for fics like this, with the following DNWs: Snape being portrayed in a positive light or having a large role, Weasley, Hermione, or Fleur bashing, pureblood supremacist apologia, Muggles rules wix drool nonsense, the WW being terribly sexist/backwards.

3. Relatedly, I'd love some Viktor/Hermione fic, either recs or written. No Weasley or Harry bashing, please, and I'd love fics where Viktor is smart. (Because he is, in canon! He speaks at least three languages and does some pretty advanced Transfiguration!)

4. I have fallen in love with the Electra McDonnell cozy thriller series by Ashley Weaver, and I would LOVE Electra/Ramsey fics. Just no kidfic, please!

5. This is an utter longshot, but hey, asking for the N3 extras got me a link, so. Does anyone have the complete prompt list, or even a partial one, for the numb3rs100 community? I do not relish the thought of scrolling through the entire community so I can note down the prompts manually.

6. This wishlist is mostly fic, I swear. If any Austen fans are around, I'd love some Jane Bennet/Colonel Fitzwilliam fic. Just no Bingley bashing, please.

7. Finally, and this is another longshot - if there are any fontmakers out there, I'd love an (English) font that is visually influnced by the Tamil script. All the India-influenced fonts I've seen use the Devanagiri script, because of course all Indians speak Hindi /rolls eyes/. One of my favourite fictional characters ever is Tamilian, and I'd love to have a font that reflects her heritage, and mine.

duskpeterson

If you want to thank someone in Emor for your inn's lavatory, this is the place to do so. Emor's engineers are the best in the world and are admirably eager to spread their wonderful inventions outside of Emor. If you wish, you may make arrangements here to have your own tribe's housing improved; some engineers are willing to travel as far as the mainland, if the job is interesting enough.

As you may have guessed by now, "Engineering Academy" means that engineering students are trained here. While the Law Academy and Medical Academy train only peninsulareans, the Engineering Academy opens its doors to mainlanders as well. You may apply for entrance into the Academy while you are here.

[Translator's note: The Emorian engineers are so discreet in their work that they aren't often seen. However, their Marcadian colleagues are the ones to blame for the terrifying catapult used in Empty Dagger Hand.]

Profile

historical and vintage lit for kids and teens

April 2024

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

Page Summary

thisbluespirit - Fic: Subdivisions (Discworld/Chronicles of St Marys)
isis - wednesday reads and things
sineala - Wednesday Reading Meme
thisbluespirit - Fic: when all the leaves are gold (The Winslow Boy)
feather_ghyll - TENNIS: Australian Open 2026 Finals and overview
swingandswirl - (no subject)
duskpeterson - UPDATE: Suspicion of the Guards (The Motley Crew #3) + online fic reissues
thisbluespirit - Starfall Stories 51
swingandswirl - Snowflake Challenge #7: Three Things You Like About Yourself
shewhostaples - Snowflake Challenge: day 15
feather_ghyll - TENNIS: Australian Open 2026 Quarter and Semi Finals
shewhostaples - Snowflake Challenge: day 14
sineala - Wednesday Reading Meme
swingandswirl - Snowflake Challenge #6: Top 10
feather_ghyll - TENNIS: Australian Open 2026 R1-R4
shewhostaples - Snowflake Challenge: day 12 and 13
swingandswirl - Snowflake Challenge #5: (Fannish) Wishlist
duskpeterson - FIC: Engineers' Rooms and Engineering Academy (Tempestuous Tours)

Style Credit

Style: April for Crossroads by branchandroot
Resources: Aria

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags

Page generated Feb. 9th, 2026 06:27 am

Historical and classic C/YA books

Member Posts

Fic: Subdivisions (Discworld/Chronicles of St Marys)

wednesday reads and things

Wednesday Reading Meme

Fic: when all the leaves are gold (The Winslow Boy)

TENNIS: Australian Open 2026 Finals and overview

(no subject)

UPDATE: Suspicion of the Guards (The Motley Crew #3) + online fic reissues

ONLINE E-BOOK (html, epub, mobi, pdf, and xhtml)

REISSUES

BLOG FICTION

NEWS & UPCOMING FICTION

Starfall Stories 51

Snowflake Challenge #7: Three Things You Like About Yourself

Snowflake Challenge: day 15

TENNIS: Australian Open 2026 Quarter and Semi Finals

Snowflake Challenge: day 14

Wednesday Reading Meme

Snowflake Challenge #6: Top 10

TENNIS: Australian Open 2026 R1-R4

Snowflake Challenge: day 12 and 13

Snowflake Challenge #5: (Fannish) Wishlist

FIC: Engineers' Rooms and Engineering Academy (Tempestuous Tours)

Profile

April 2024

Links

Most Popular Tags

Page Summary

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags