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Posted by Seanan McGuire

…a copy of Backpacking Through Bedlam!

Hello, readers, writers, and terrifying couch gremlins, and welcome to the Thirteen Days of Hogswatch, the game where the points are made up but the rules really do matter.  This is our sixth giveaway for 2025! I hope you’re all excited!  Here are a few things you should know:

1. Every post will have its own prize, and its own rules.  This is to filter out people linked here from the “hey, free stuff!” blogs, who are less interested in our prizes than they are in the fact that they don’t cost anything.
2. There will be one redistribution draw for unclaimed prizes. Any remaining after that will be returned to my office to think about what they did. If you fail to claim a prize, you cannot win another.
3. I cannot afford international postage.  If you are outside the US/Canada, you must state so in your entry.  Someone else has volunteered to cover these costs, but I still need to know.
4. All posts automatically mirror to Dreamwidth.  For RNG reasons, comments left on Dreamwidth do not count as entries; you must enter via the root post on my blog (seananmcguire.com/blog) if you want to be eligible to win.
5. If you haven’t commented here before, your first comment will go into moderation, and be approved as soon as I see it. So if your comment does not appear, please don’t comment again. It still won’t work, until I manually approve you. I promise to approve before prizes are drawn.

So here.  We.  GO!

Our sixth prize this year is a copy of Backpacking Through Bedlam. It will be signed, unless you tell me you don’t want it to be. To enter…

1. Comment on this post.
2. Name your favorite cryptid.
3. If you are outside the US/Canada, tell me so.

All winners will be selected at 12PT on December 15th.  So now, as the sages say…

…GAME ON!

For a cat, with love

Dec. 6th, 2025 08:09 pm
sonia: Chocolate fluffy cat on a chair in the sun (basil chair)
[personal profile] sonia
Gina posted this lovely photo of a ramp her dad made for their 18 year old cat. The comments on the original post are worth reading too. <3

Photo of a ramp for an elderly cat )

Fic for flowing_river: Pitfall

Dec. 6th, 2025 10:47 pm
holmesticemods: (Default)
[personal profile] holmesticemods posting in [community profile] holmestice
Title: Pitfall
Recipient: flowing_river
Author: REDACTED
Verse: ACD Canon
Characters/Pairings: Sherlock Holmes & John Watson
Rating: G
Warnings:
Summary: An investigation in Kent goes awry.


Read on AO3: Pitfall
holmesticemods: (Default)
[personal profile] holmesticemods posting in [community profile] holmestice
Title: Doctor Watson and Nurse Holmes are IN
Recipient: Eardefenders
Artist: REDACTED
Verse: Sherlock & Co.
Characters/Pairings: Sherlock Holmes/Mariana Ametxazurra/John Watson
Rating: Explicit, 18+
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Summary: Even 8-month-pregnant women enjoy some erotic attention. Mariana's devoted partners conduct a very personal OB-Gyn check-up.

Read more... )

Daily Check In.

Dec. 6th, 2025 06:03 pm
adafrog: (Default)
[personal profile] adafrog posting in [community profile] fandom_checkin
This is your check-in post for today. The poll will be open from midnight Universal or Zulu Time (8pm Eastern Time) on Saturday to midnight on Sunday (8pm Eastern Time).


Poll #33926 Daily poll
Open to: Access List, detailed results viewable to: Access List, participants: 17

How are you doing?

I am okay
11 (64.7%)

I am not okay, but don't need help right now
6 (35.3%)

I could use some help.
0 (0.0%)

How many other humans are you living with?

I am living single
4 (23.5%)

One other person
8 (47.1%)

More than one other person
5 (29.4%)



Please, talk about how things are going for you in the comments, ask for advice or help if you need it, or just discuss whatever you feel like.
passingbuzzards: Black cat on its back on a cat tree, paws outstretched (cat: demon scream cat)
[personal profile] passingbuzzards

Okay okay, the “how to fix the trash fire that was this season” thoughts, I do have them (all lowercase / formatted the way it is until I get a chance to clean it up because I originally typed this out for texting to someone, you know how it is):

Andor Season 2 spoilers + what they should have written instead )

Additional Guideline

Dec. 6th, 2025 06:45 pm
kalloway: (Exos Bernavas)
[personal profile] kalloway posting in [community profile] videogamefanworks
One new guideline has been added to the community:

No AI Slop. Do not post anything created in part or in whole by generative-AI. Do not link to it and do not rec it. It is not welcome here and does not reflect the spirit of the community.

Thank you for being a part of [community profile] videogamefanworks.

Fic for B2BMilde: Together Forever

Dec. 6th, 2025 05:00 pm
holmesticemods: (Default)
[personal profile] holmesticemods posting in [community profile] holmestice
Title: Together Forever
Recipient: B2BMilde
Author: REDACTED
Verse: Granada TV Show
Characters/Pairings:
Sherlock Holmes & John Watson
Rating: Suitable for General Audiences
Warnings: No Warnings
Summary: "Watson stared at Holmes who sat in his armchair, smoking a cigarette. He could still hardly believe his eyes, that Holmes was here and alive and had been all these years. He almost felt as if he could not look away, lest Holmes vanish once again."

Read on AO3: Together Forever

Write every day: Day 6

Dec. 6th, 2025 10:33 pm
luzula: a Luzula pilosa, or hairy wood-rush (Default)
[personal profile] luzula
Well, it's great that it's the weekend, but my day was SO FULL and I'm very tired (in a good way) and did not even write an alibi sentence. Ah well. How about you?

Tally:
Read more... )
Day 5: [personal profile] china_shop, [personal profile] sylvanwitch, [personal profile] badly_knitted, [personal profile] goddess47, [personal profile] chestnut_pod, [personal profile] trobadora, [personal profile] brithistorian, [personal profile] sanguinity, [personal profile] cornerofmadness, [personal profile] carenejeans,

Bonus farm news: We went and got four trailer-loads of manure from a nearby farm with horses. The ducks thought Christmas had come early (they love eating worms).

Update to a fustercluck

Dec. 6th, 2025 12:59 pm
ysobel: (Default)
[personal profile] ysobel posting in [community profile] agonyaunt
[Originally posted in chat; I have added paragraphs for readability]

My brother has organized an ill-advised surprise party for my father's 75th birthday.

Our father is a complete introvert and also very exacting. He likes things to be a certain way, and gets tense and angry if everything is not perfectly to his taste. He hates loud places and large groups of people. Unfortunately, he's always used excessive alcohol to handle social engagements and gets belligerent when drunk.

Because of all of this, I was surprised when my brother, "James" told me that he'd planned a surprise birthday party of 30 guests for my dad at a new restaurant. The guest list includes the following extremely awkward confirmed attendees: our aunt (dad's semi-estranged sister) who is an overbearing religious fanatic none of us can stand; our mother (dad's ex-wife) who is resented by our dad and hated by our aforementioned aunt because of the divorce; and a number of neighbors who our dad has been feuding with off and on for the last 20 years.

I asked my mom why she was going along with this and she said James called in a big favor she owed him and she felt like she couldn’t say no, so he’s pulling out all the stops to make this happen.

I don't know how James could possibly think this is a good idea, except that he has a huge ego and believes this will be some fairy tale reunion where everyone will suddenly make nice. I don't mean that James is a bad guy but he has a tendency to steamroll over people and do things "for their own good." Every argument I've made against this party has prompted him to lecture me and act like he knows so much better because he's 7 years older than me.

It's true that my Dad can be difficult but I don't want him to feel ambushed on his birthday. If James keeps refusing to cancel should I warn my dad? Or do I just kick back with a glass of wine and watch the drama unfold?


response and update )

(no subject)

Dec. 6th, 2025 01:33 pm
skygiants: Moril from the Dalemark Quartet playing the cwidder (composing hallelujah)
[personal profile] skygiants
I am home! with my own cats! and my own computer!! This is very exciting because I have spent most of the last two weeks traveling, including last Monday when I spent about 24 hours total stumbling through different airports getting rerouted onto different flights before finally getting to achieve my dearest wish at that point, Be Horizontal.

In the course of that extremely long day I watched two French movies on planes:

Au revoir là-haut/See You Up There )

La venue de l'avenir/Colors of Time )
goodbyebird: Broad City: Illana gasps and is most delighted. (BC yassssss)
[personal profile] goodbyebird
+ Oh no I've pretty much eaten all my fancy chocolate :( I got a bag of random leftovers when I ordered a box for my mom for Christmas (Jentene På Tunet, BEST chocolate I've had in my life), and now there's only four pieces left. Rip.

+ I did pick up a packet of gf gnocchi yesterday, guess it's time for a very carb dinner :D

+ Decided to shuffle the list so I don't run out of femslash recs; today have a gen offering!

❄️ ❄️ ❄️ ❄️
Rec-cember Day 6


Brooklyn Nine-Nine
Jewish Christmas by [archiveofourown.org profile] ryfkah (632 words). Happy dancing whenever I find a cute holiday themed rec for this ;D
Ensconced in the supply closet, Jake told Amy, grimly, “Nutcracker Ballet.”

Amy gasped, her hands flying to her mouth.

“I thought it was bad when I caught her standing for 20 minutes staring at the tree in the front office --” Jake grabbed for Amy’s hands. “Babe, you gotta help me here. I am wildly unqualified to salvage Rosa’s Christmas. I have one single Christmas card to play, and while I’m obviously always happy to play that card --”

Amy winced, and shook her head. “You know Rosa still hasn’t forgiven Bruce Willis for A Good Day to Die Hard. Giving her a very Die Hard Christmas is just going to fill her with additional rage.”

Thirty Six Years

Dec. 6th, 2025 08:19 am
muccamukk: Single shamrock inside a white border. (Misc: Shamrock)
[personal profile] muccamukk
Thirty-six years ago today, a lone gunman murdered fourteen women at Polytechnique Montréal, before taking his own life.

The names of the women were:

Geneviève Bergeron
Hélène Colgan
Nathalie Croteau
Barbara Daigneault
Anne-Marie Edward
Maud Haviernick
Maryse Laganière
Maryse Leclair
Anne-Marie Lemay
Sonia Pelletier
Michèle Richard
Annie St-Arneault
Annie Turcotte
Barbara Klucznik-Widajewicz


CBC: Montreal to honour 14 victims of Polytechnique massacre at ceremony.

Globe & Mail: Progress on combatting intimate-partner violence stalling under new government, advocates fear.

Deth of Siv, etc

Dec. 6th, 2025 03:57 pm
oursin: Cartoon hedgehog going aaargh (Hedgehog goes aaargh)
[personal profile] oursin

What is this that this thing is, when, okay, one is aware of all the woozing and grumbling about the various delivery services, but here is the ROYAL MAIL being pretty bad.

Yesterday I had an email saying they had delivered a parcel.

There was no parcel.

I looked at the proof of delivery and behold, that was Not Our Front Door they were sticking it through, it was the wrong colour and one could see the corner of a glass panel (ours is solid wood).

So I went on to their site to try and delve a bit further and, my dears, it is HORRENDOUS, one suspects it is designed to make people Just Give Up.

For example, the 'contact us' link, that actually goes to a 'Help and Support' page that lists a whole range of possible contingencies that one has to sort through to discover one that matches the occasion.

And once I had come across the Advice relating to item (presumably) misdelivered to wrong address, advice was, to contact the sender.

I have no bloody idea who the sender was being as how I was not even expecting a Royal Mail delivery, have been back over my emails and texts and no, I did not receive any previous message involving that particular tracking code.

There is a passing allusion to possible scanning errors.

The only means of contacting them is by phone, and when I tried, and had made my way through the menu options, the wait to speak to a person was 50 minutes.

I am leaving all this pro tem in case a) it was misdelivered and gets put back into the system b) it never actually existed in the first place.

But, really.

And in other, perhaps more minor (?) annoyances of Modern Life, what is this thing that this thing is of 'Cooking Instructions on Back of Label'? that you then have to detach, in the hope that it will actually come off in one piece that one can actually decipher....

ETA Parcel has now turned up, either in today's post or popped through letter box by neighbour to whom it was delivered in error.... Is friend's book I was in anticipation of.

can't sleep, prestige TV will eat me

Dec. 6th, 2025 09:41 am
the_shoshanna: a close-up of Jensen Ackles's butt, suit pants pulled tight (hotass)
[personal profile] the_shoshanna
I have watched the first two episodes of Heated Rivalry, and omg it is so much fun (and I find it better than the book tbh; the book sometimes felt awkwardly written and the show just smooths out and amplifies so many great moments). I haven't watched the third episode yet and am desperate to, but I also kind of want to reread Game Changer first, just slam through it this morning, so I can better recognize the ways it's been adapted. (And of course I want to reread the book of Heated Rivalry as well, just to see if my memory is betraying me!) And I just learned twenty minutes ago that a sequel series to Spartacus just dropped and I'm dying to check it out. And how did I miss that there was a third series of Leverage: Redemption? (And on top of all those things that are sitting on my hard drive absolutely alluring me, I'm watching The Pitt with a friend -- her first time through it; my second -- and watching the current series of Shetland both with Geoff and with another friend, and already counting the days until the Call the Midwife Christmas special drops -- and omg it's specials, plural, we get one on the 25th and a second one on the 26th and then the new series presumably sometime in the spring.)

I have to prep to help lead service at church tomorrow morning, and all I want to do today is read Rachel Reid and watch TV. Can't I just stay home and worship at the Church of Bubble Butts?
[personal profile] tcampbell1000 posting in [community profile] scans_daily


Warning for psychological horror. This isn’t Black Swan or anything, but there’s some scary mind-control stuff, and the penultimate page shown here has an image that stayed with me for a few days. Also some mild misogyny.

The series title shifts from “Justice League International” to “Justice League America” (no “of”) to distinguish its team from Justice League Europe.

The story starts with that American team avoiding the ringing phone like a bunch of Zoomers.

Don’t fret, fellas, I’m sure the Atom didn’t REALLY need to reach you guys anyway. )

(no subject)

Dec. 6th, 2025 12:36 pm
oursin: hedgehog in santa hat saying bah humbug (Default)
[personal profile] oursin
Happy birthday, [personal profile] gillo and [personal profile] laughingrat!
passingbuzzards: Cartoon Kirk passing Spock a drink, both spectating (st: spock + kirk big yikes)
[personal profile] passingbuzzards

This week Gregory and I finally watched Season 2 of Andor, and I had this whole post lined up in my head after episode 8 about how it’s Not Good but I can be chill about it, since after all Season 1 was so much better than my wildest dreams that it doesn’t even matter if this one bombs, though I did still want to talk about what the issues were and how the season should have been handled to provide an effective connecting narrative between S1 and Rogue One...

...And then tonight we watched the last four episodes (the last three apparently written by Tom Bissell, a self-proclaimed Star Wars geek (...)) and those episodes were so absolutely, full-on unwatchably bad that actually I’m not chill about this, I’m viscerally offended by this crime against Rogue One in general and Cassian Andor in particular, holy fucking shit, that was TERRIBLE. Like, “had to stop actually watching and open another window to get through the last 30 minutes,” “wish I could drink alcohol” levels of terrible, just. WOW.

So actually I am not going to write that post today, I am going to go rinse out my brain and take a break from thinking about Star Wars! And possibly tomorrow I will write my essay about what S2 might have looked like from writers who actually understood the themes of......anything.....or even just basic narrative cohesion.....honestly, I’m not sure even filming during the Writers Guild and SAG-AFTRA strikes with no involvement from Gilroy for 6+ months is sufficient to explain the results here, holy incompetence by committee Batman.

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