pameladean

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260517.html

Across the center of this spiral galaxy is a

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260517.html

Finished Three Moments of an Explosion by China Miéville, a collection of short stories technically ranging from flash fiction to novellas. The absolute best story was the last one— "The Design," a strange and spooky tale with far more than it says out loud (as it were) lurking at the edges of it; tl;dr, in early 20th century Glasgow, a med student discovers a cadaver with scrimshawed bones— but I would say my other favorites were "In the Slopes," about an archeological dig in a world a few ticks stranger than ours, and "The Rope Is The World," the brief, vivid history of life finding a way inside an abandoned space elevator. I also particularly enjoyed the stories that committed so wholeheartedly to a weird premise— the previously mentioned therapist-assassins; apocalypse by plague(?) where, if the infected stays in one place for too long, a circular trench starts to dig through whatever they're standing on, which as you can imagine is not great on, say, the upper floors of a building or in a moving vehicle; a kaiju story where the kaiju are the animated remains of scuttled oil rigs— that they landed on genuinely compelling. Overall, I'd say the flash fiction was the weakest part, at least personally, although there were some standouts: I liked the title story, and loved the variation(s)-on-myth of "Four Final Orpheuses."

catherineldf

Where in the world has Catherine been? Working mostly. Trying to keep track of ill, injured or moving out of the country friends (please stop with all this and the dying :-( ). Writing, reviewing SO MANY grant proposals, having a yard sale. In short, all the things. Had a very nice day tabling at Rochester Pride yesterday. And at the end of the day, the mom of a teen trans kid who I talked to at Rochester Pride some years back and gave some advice to about venues and marketing for her son's artwork (which was good even then - I still have one of his stickers). Turned out they took the advice, the son now has a burgeoning commercial art career, got a residency with TC Pride and all and is thriving. So that was lovely to hear. :-D

Anyhoo, this weekend is virtual WisCon!

Here is my Friday and Sunday schedule:

What's New in Queer Speculative Fiction

Online Zoom Room 3 • Reading, Viewing, and Critiquing Science Fiction • Fri 7:00 PM–8:15 PM

A discussion of everything new and exciting in queer science fiction, fantasy, and horror over the last two years. What great new stories are being told? Who are the exciting new voices to look for? What themes and tropes are popular right now? Panelists will share recommendations and analysis, as well as their thoughts on what they'd like to see more of in the future.

Never-Too-Late Futures

Online Zoom Room 7 • The Craft and Business of Writing • Sun 4:00 PM–5:15 PM

Publishing discourse loves "30 under 30," but many speculative fiction authors publish their first novel in their 40s, 50s, 60s, or later. This panel invites older debuts and late-blooming writers to talk about craft, career realities, disability and energy, caretaking, and ageism in the field. What pressures and freedoms come with starting "late," and what does a sustainable, politically engaged writing life look like beyond the hustle?

Queen of Swords Press will also be in the virtual Dealer's Room with books and deals! Come say hi!
And now to bed in hopes of kitty letting me sleep in a bit past 4.

brithistorian

A couple of days I ordered a Hong Dian M1 fountain pen. For those of you who didn't follow the link, it's an aluminum travel-travel fountain pen that's just over 4 inches long when closed. This is the third travel-sized fountain pen I've bought, and if I'm not happy with this one, then I'm going to write off travel-sized fountain pens entirely.

Anyway, it arrived today, and it looked great, so of course I had to fill it so I could see how it writes. I had a bottle of Noodler's waterproof ink that hadn't really worked with my Lamy Safaris, so I decided to try it with the Hong Dian. And it might have worked, except that the converter wasn't fully installed, so when I tried to fill it, then pen fell off the converter and into the bottle of ink. So I carried the bottle of ink into the bathroom, got a paper bowl, and poured the ink into the bowl so I could get the pen out. Once I had the pen out and cleaned, I tried pouring the ink from the bowl back into the bottle, but my hand slipped and I ended up pouring the whole bottle down the sink.

After cleaning the sink, I installed the converted and filled the pen with Pilot Iroshizuku ink. It worked well, and I'm very happy with it so far.

Also in pen news, Lamy has introduced the 2026 Special Edition Safaris. Apparently their theme for this year is "1983," because the colors of fluorescent yellow and fluorescent pink.

ysabetwordsmith posting in

birdfeeding

Today is partly sunny, breezy, and humid. It's warm now and supposed to reach the mid-80sF later.

I fed the birds. I haven't seen much activity yet.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 5/17/26 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 5/17/26 -- I dug a hole in the pawpaw patch.

EDIT 5/17/26 -- I planted the pawpaw.

I startled a bobwhite quail in the savanna, which scuttled into the deep shade of the Midwinter grove. :D 3q3q3q!!! The bright white markings make me suspect this was a male. It is not normal for them to live alone, so I don't know where the rest of the covey is but it's probably around somewhere. This is the first one I've ever seen in the yard, how exciting! But it turns out we've had them all along. I've heard the clear "bob-white" whistle frequently, I just thought it must be some other bird because quail seemed unlikely. I'm delighted to have them around.

I've also seen a mixed flock of sparrows and house finches, plus a starling, at the hopper feeder.

EDIT 5/17/26 -- I trimmed grass in the savanna around where I want to plant a serviceberry seedling.

EDIT 5/17/26 -- I dug a hole in the savanna.

EDIT 5/17/26 -- I planted a serviceberry in the savanna.

I've seen a male cardinal, a robin, a mourning dove, and a fox squirrel.

EDIT 5/17/26 -- I trimmed grass in the savanna around where I want to plant the second serviceberry seedling.

EDIT 5/17/26 -- I dug a hole in the savanna.

EDIT 5/17/26 -- I planted the second serviceberry in the savanna.

EDIT 5/17/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

EDIT 5/17/26 -- I sowed the four big pots around the septic garden with Green Striped Cushaw, Tiny Butternut, Landrace Zucchini, and Lofthouse Landrace Muskmelon.

I did more work around the patio.

As it is now dark, I am done for the night. *goflopnow*

Current Mood: busy

oursin

Last week's bread held out pretty well.

Grocery delivery came early enough that I had time to get going dough + tomato topping for a sardegnera for Friday night supper, with Salame Milano added before baking.

Saturday breakfast rolls: adaptable soft rolls recipe, 4:1 white spelt/dark rye flour, dried blueberries.

As I was going to an afternoon gathering chez coughingbear and hano, and time did not permit of making foccaccia, I made cornbread (plain white flour + baking powder, half and half with mixture of fine/coarse cornmeal, since sourcing medium cornmeal remains impossible) to take instead.

Today's lunch: had seabass fillets, and for the wild variety, cooked them thus, which worked quite well, served with baby Jersey Royal potatoes roasted in goosefat and asparagus steamed and splashed with lime butter.

james_davis_nicoll

In the last week, the volume of incoming spam email has dropped sharply.

rocky41_7 posting in

fffriday

Yesterday I was lucky enough to get to see a screening of the South African film Black Burns Fast. This story is set at a girls’ boarding school in South Africa, where straight-A scholarship student Luthando’s life is tipped upside-down when she meets headstrong Ayanda and is forced to come to terms with some things about herself.

In a lot of ways, Black Burns Fast is a typical coming-of-age/coming-into-your-queerness teen movie, but it was such a joy to watch that I didn’t mind retreading familiar ground. All of the main actresses put real heart into their performances, and Luthando is particularly captivating to watch. They’re so full of that bubbly, at times overflowing joie de vivre that is the province of teenagers.

The film centers not only Luthando’s coming to terms with her sexuality and her budding romance with Ayanda, but also friendship and family. Luthando’s relationship with her mother is a significant B-plot, and Luthando’s friendship with the other girls at school too—her longtime, equally dorky friend Jodie, and the “cool girls” with whom Ayanda immediately settles on arriving at the school. It was really sweet to see Luthando not only get to experience her first indulgences of lesbian desire and love, but also develop strong friendships with people who know her authentically (not always an easy thing to do for a young lesbian at a Christian girls’ school).

The racism the Black girls at the school face is touched on too, but only lightly. Luthando receives some backhanded praise for being a top student at the school, and when she snaps back at a white student who suggests Luthando is guaranteed to get into a good college because the school needs to “meet quotas,” it’s Luthando who gets sent out of class with detention.

The movie makes use of some video game-style overlays to show Luthando’s thinking which I found really charming. Alone in her dorm room, she envisions how to approach Ayanda for the first time, and switches between different “styles of Luthando” as she imagines trying a “cool” introduction, a gushy one, etc. After realizing she’s gay, she tentatively approaches the dining hall the next day with a little “love radar” pinging at the bottom of the screen as she scans the room to check if any of the girls there get her attention, now that she’s looking.

Although the film tackles some real struggles, with homophobia, classism, friendship problems, and racism, it is ultimately a very light-hearted film. It is not looking to dig into the nitty-gritty of these things; it is ultimately a happy story about two teen girls experiencing a first same-sex relationship and not having to suffer inordinately for that. It’s a very sweet movie and I really enjoyed watching it.

lsanderson

As DFL sit-in ends, Minnesota lawmakers yet to vote on key issues before Sunday
Peter Cox and Cait Kelley
https://www.mprnews.org/story/2026/05/16/minnesota-lawmakers-race-to-pass-bills-before-end-of-session-on-sunday

Duluth Dylan Fest celebrates city’s most famous native son’s 85th birthday
Dan Kraker
https://www.mprnews.org/story/2026/05/17/duluth-dylan-fest-celebrates-citys-most-famous-native-sons-85th-birthday ( Read more... )

james_davis_nicoll

Believing the Ship is the whole universe is just common sense. So believe the people in it, but they are not the orphans of the sky they believe themselves to be.

Non-Stop by Brian W. Aldiss

sovay

The trees were ghost-green in the water with the hard white shine of the LEDs, but

spatch photographed me in the stoplight.

WERS came out with the menacingly catchy drive of the Clash's "London Calling" (1979) while I was running an errand and it felt just a little unnecessarily Ballardian. Nothing else has happened to me particularly, but reading any kind of news feels like choking on the future. I can remember not being this sick, this poor, this pressed, which differentiates me not at all from most of the people I know. The exhaustion feels unreal and the last ten years like a sociological demonstration in the capacity of things always to be worse.

Current Music: The Clash, "London Calling"

apod_feed

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260516.html

Like salsa verde on your favorite burrito, a green

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260516.html

coffeeandink

Found via

chestnut_pod.

There are so many posts I want to write, but this one is easy and also about books, so! I think everyone should do it so I can spy on your bookshelves.

Take five books off your bookshelf.

(I pulled everything from my physical TBR bookcase, in hopes that it will encourage me to read it.)

Book #1 -- first sentence: "Anyone can write about a large city--large cities are open to everyone--but small cities can only be portrayed by people who love them."

(Already ambiguities: I skipped the preface because this line is better.)

Book #2 -- last sentence on page fifty: "However, I haven't yet read V.W.'s book."

Book #3 -- second sentence on page one hundred: "What amazing childishness these old people were content to live in!"

(Unexpected challenge: do I pick the second sentence or the second complete sentence?)

Book #4 -- next to the last sentence on page one hundred fifty: "'I know.' Verna dropped the packages. A hard, harsh sob pressed at her throat. 'I hate him.' "

(Yes, I am treating one paragraph of dialog plus action as a single sentence for the purposes of the meme. Fight me!)

Book #5 -- final sentence of the book: "Eunice picked up her bag and guitar and closed the door to the storm."

Make the five sentences into a paragraph:

Anyone can write about a large city--large cities are open to everyone--but small cities can only be portrayed by people who love them. However, I haven't yet read V.W.'s book. What amazing childishness these old people were content to live in! 'I know.' Verna dropped the packages. A hard, harsh sob pressed at her throat. 'I hate him.' Eunice picked up her bag and guitar and closed the door to the storm.

I promise it wouldn't make any more sense if I chose another option for step 5.

Book #1: Friendly City by Sofia Samatar
Book #2: The Diaries of Sylvia Townsend Warner, ed. Claire Harman
Book #3: Ready or Not by Mary Stolz
Book #4: The Room Opposite and Other Stories by F.M. Mayor
Book #5: Mojo Hand: An Orphic Tale by J.J. Phillips

lsanderson

Once dismissed as weeds, native plants are now flying off the shelves
Gardeners across the country are flocking to climate-resilient native plants as concerns about extreme heat, flooding, and pollinators grow.
by Juanpablo Ramirez-Franco, Grist
https://www.minnpost.com/environment/2026/05/once-dismissed-as-weeds-native-plants-are-now-flying-off-the-shelves/

Report: Most of Minnesota’s public drinking water systems met safety standards in 2025
Kirsti Marohn
https://www.mprnews.org/story/2026/05/16/report-most-of-minnesotas-public-drinking-water-systems-met-safety-standards-in-2025 ( Read more... )

ysabetwordsmith posting in

birdfeeding

Today is cloudy, mild, and damp. It seems to have drizzled earlier.

I fed the birds. I haven't seen much activity yet.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 5/16/26 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 5/16/26 -- I sowed sunflower seeds gathered 10-8-25 along the south edge of the east-west strip in the prairie garden. That's the end of that envelope of seeds, and also all the sunflower planting in the prairie garden. \o/

The sun has come out somewhat, but the air is warm and humid. :P

I've seen more sparrows and house finches at the hopper feeder, along with a grackle.

EDIT 5/16/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

EDIT 5/16/26 -- I did more work around the patio.

EDIT 5/16/26 -- I planted the water jug of partial shade flowers in the forest garden. I planted the water jug of 20th Anniversary wildflowers in the middle north-south strip of the prairie garden. Of the various jug experiments (fruit trees, native grasses, native wildflowers, and mixes) the mixes were by far the most successful as something out of the batch always grew. I do have two surviving tree seedlings and a couple of milkweed seedlings.

EDIT 5/16/26 -- I trimmed grass around the support wire for the telephone pole, added fresh topsoil around it, then sowed cypress vine seeds.

It's been drizzling off and on today, so I haven't gotten a lot done, but I managed some things.

As it is getting dark, I am done for the night.

Current Mood: busy

asakiyume

One thing I did on this trip was bring along some permanent markers and ask my friends and their kids to write or draw on my raincoat. The result is a wonderful memento that I've already had occasion to use.

Here are two of L and R's kids doing some decorating.

Two children drawing on a blue raincoat

And here's what the back of the raincoat looks like now:

blue raincoat with words and pictures on it

And one sleeve:

blue raincoat sleeve with words and pictures on it

The second-oldest of L and R's kids also gave me this, which I LOVE. I know my kids made things like this in school--I think it's a wonderful activity. This one isn't quite finished: it only goes down as far as the Department of Amazonas (equivalent of a US state), and interestingly, for places in Amazonas, she doesn't include her own town/city, Leticia. It does show Puerto Nariño, a town up the river a bit.

Mi lugar en el mundo/my place in the world (click through to Flickr to see it at a larger size--only possible with this photo; the others are sited here on DW and don't get any larger)

( and under this cut are three views of an ugly-cute handmade fish )

( Lai, the home-invading little goat )

I have maybe a couple more posts from my trip ... then it'll be back to your everyday Asakiyume.

Current Music: The Storm: The Fat Rat & Maisy Kay

oursin

Dr rdrz are by now aware that one way to irk the hedjog is to compile lists of the 100 Greatest Novels that Everybody Should Read.

Especially when a) you go culturally woezing:

Never has such a list been more needed. Dwindling attention spans, screens, Netflix; whatever we blame, reading for pleasure is a dying pursuit. Half of adults in the UK say they never read, and levels among children and young people are at their lowest in 20 years. This year has been declared the National Year of Reading to address this crisis. “Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them at all,” Henry David Thoreau advised. We are here to help.

We have so been there before with producing Books of the Month Clubs and curated tastefully leatherene bound libraries for your otherwise bare shelves.... There is A History.

And b) in There Is A History, the article actually admits that These Lists Change Over Time!!! and certain 'Big Beasts' who were considered Timelessly Major Urgent Phalluses some decades ago are Out! Out! Out!

Is anything more wearisome than the implicit 'should' that haunts these lists?

I am so there for this apercu:

But where is Nancy Mitford’s glittering 1945 The Pursuit of Love, which deserves a place for its last two lines alone? The comic novel, like science fiction and crime, rarely fares well in bookish horse races.

One notes with a slight groan what are considered (hattip to Stephen Potter) the 'okay' sff/crime titles.

Personally, we would not take reading advice from Mr Thoreau to begin with, and we sit here, hymning the work of those presses that are recovering the neglected and overlooked (perhaps overlooked is better than 'forgotten', I mutter to myself) works from the past that do not make the big bowwow lists like this - Furrowed Middlebrow, Persephone, British Library Women Writers and the mother of them all, Virago.

oursin

Happy birthday,

kaberett!

apod_feed

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260515.html

Comet R3 PanSTARRS might be best remembered as an Orion comet.

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260515.html

sovay

The sun came out just in time to set and I caught a handful of pictures in its gold flare of light, mostly lilacs and shadows.

( Dyna oedd yr awel, hwn yw y corwynt. )

I baked cornbread tonight with dinner, which I may not have done for a year. I had wanted some for weeks. Any time things could get easier, just for the hell of it.

Current Music: Hen Ogledd, "Amser a ddengys"

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pameladean

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Reading

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Weekend reading

WisCon Schedule! And stuff!

Fountain pen geekery

Birdfeeding

Culinary

Odd

Movie review: Black Burns Fast

2026.05.17

Non-Stop by Brian W. Aldiss

And I live by the river

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3W4DW book meme

2026.05.16

Birdfeeding

raincoat, my place in the world, ugly-cute, home invader

Even Middlemarch is not compulsory

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Dyna oedd ddoe a dyma yw heddiw

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December 2025

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