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clickerflight · 10 months

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Joseph: Part 4 - Officer Muir

Masterlist

Part 3

YOOOOOOOOOOOOOO I'm so excited about this. This story has really grown in my mind and I have PLANS! You'll have to bear with me, though. Since it's been so long since I wrote the last piece there are a lot of differences. There are not goblins or werewolves in this world. Anyways! I hope you enjoy!

Content: Vampire whumpee, human caretaker, body horror, temporary blindness, grief, hospital whump (specifically the noise and isolation), overstimulation, panic attacks

Let me know if you want to be on the taglist

..................................

Officer Muir sat in his car, watching the cars pass by and checking their speeds as they went. It was always amusing to watch people slow down drastically when they spotted him, but he let them go by. He was quite content to sit and think.

He heard his radio crackle to life and a voice came over the radio.

"Distressed vampire on highway 60 between exit 820 and 821. A human male is keeping the vampire company currently. Ambulance dispatched. Are there any officers in the area that can evaluate the situation?"

Officer Muir picked up the radio and said, "Officer Muir here. I'm two exits down. I'll be there in a moment."

He put the radio down and turned on the lights and sirens. Vampire in distress really wasn't much to go off of. If there was a human there, it could be trouble. Vampires were usually very hostile when stressed out and could turn on the man easily.

Officer Muir sped past the cars that pulled aside for him and soon spotted a large mower and a man crouching in the grass over something. Officer Muir pulled up and got out of his car, looking over the situation. The grass hid what the man was looking at, but he got up, phone pressed to his ear as he talked with the emergency operator on the other side.

"Oh, an officer is here," the older man said. He was obviously human as his wrinkles and dull graying hair proved, which meant the vampire was laying under the coat that Officer Muir could now see through the grass.

"I almost ran 'im over with my mower," the man said. "I spotted ‘im just in time. I let ‘im drink from me. He's in bad shape."

"Gotcha. What's your name?"

"Lloyd Montgomary," he said as Officer approached the coat, noting the twitching movement underneath.

"Alright, Mr. Montgomary. Thank you," Officer Muir said. He crouched by the vampire and could hear the man's whimpers and whines over the sound of traffic.

"Yeah. He's a Moderna vampire. Wasn’t burning in the sun."

Officer Muir nodded and lifted the coat to get a better look.

The vampire was curled in on himself, but Officer Muir could tell he was missing limbs. Not in a torn off way, but in a growing them back sort of way.

"Hey, man, can you hear me?" Officer Muir asked, and the vampire turned his face to him.

Officer Muir recoiled from what he saw. The vampire was growing back much messier than most vampires he'd met. His sightless eye sockets stared out emptily and he still needed to regrow the skin on half of his face.

Office Muir collected himself quickly enough, putting a hand on the vampire’s back through the coat.

“Hey, man. I’m Officer Muir. There’s an ambulance on the way for you, okay?”

“Okay,” the vampire said breathlessly. He flinched and whined, long and drawn out. “It hurts,” he whimpered.

“I know, man. Hang in there. He’ll get you to the hospital and they’ll give you painkillers while you grow out the rest of the way, okay?”

The vampire nodded.

“I’m sorry,” Mr. Montgomery said anxiously as the sound of sirens became audible in the distance. “Was I not supposed to feed ‘im, I-”

“It’s fine.” Officer Muir soothed. “He’s going to be okay and what you did was very kind.”

Officer Muir turned back to the vampire and asked, “Hey, what’s your name?”

“J-Joseph.” The vampire looked faintly like he was going to be sick for a moment before he asked, “What year is it?”

Warning bells went off in Officer Muir’s head. “Were you held captive?”

“They, they put me in a box,” Joseph managed. A dry sob wracked through his body, making him spasm in pain.

“Hey, hey, it’s going to be okay,” Officer Muir said. “I’m here. They can’t do anything to you. They’ll have to go through me.”

Joseph nodded, his not-quite-formed hand reaching out blindly and Officer Muir held it. “What year is it?”

“2019.”

Joseph sucked in a shuddering breath.

“How long did they have you?” Officer Muir asked, leaning closer as the sirens got louder.

Joseph just wailed, gripping Officer Muir’s hand tighter, struggling to get closer. Officer Muir gently pulled him closed, settling on the ground so the vampire could hide his face in Officer Muir’s pant leg.

The paramedics were there soon enough, and they coaxed Joseph onto a stretcher. Other officers came and started taking Mr. Montgomery’s statement. Officer Muir was grateful for that because, despite the vampire only having about three and a half fingers in total, he had a deathgrip on the Officer’s hand.

“Sweetheart,” one of the paramedics said gently. “How about you let his hand go?”

“Please,” he whispered, sightless eyes turned to Officer Muir. “Please. Don’t leave.”

Officer Muir sighed. He turned his head and spotted Officer Granger, a vampire woman who often acted as his partner when he wasn’t on duty at the roads.

“Oi! Granger?”

She turned and he tossed her his keys. “Can you get someone to take my car to the hospital? I’m going in the ambulance. And could you let the chief know?”

She rolled her eyes. “She’s gonna tear you a new one when you get back.”

“No she won’t. She loves me!”

Granger sighed and shrugged. With that, he turned back to the vampire and climbed into the ambulance.

Joseph was breathing heavily, rolling his head around nervously as the paramedics got things ready for him.

“Alright, this should help a little with the pain,” the gentle paramedic said, gently poking a needle into Joseph’s half formed arm and plugging a drip to it that would feed in pain killers.

Over the course of the ride, Joseph started to relax, though he never let go of Officer Muir’s hand. After a long silence where the paramedics conferred and joked together, Joseph turned his head to Officer Muir.

“Three years.”

“What?”

“I was in a silver box for three years.”

The paramedic’s fell silent and Officer Muir found himself running his thumb back and forth across Joseph’s knuckles. “Want to tell it… from the beginning?”

Joseph took a steadying breath and nodded.

“David and I… er, David’s my sire, we were going to the store? Or maybe going out to get drinks? I don’t remember,” Joseph said sorrowfully. “A weird van pulled up and, and…. some guys grabbed us. Dressed in robes and stuff. They had silver weapons and there were a lot of them. I never was good at fighting.”

Joseph swallowed nervously. “They took us somewhere remote. They…. I think they were cultists. They tied us up and they poured silver on David’s face. Why would they do that? We weren’t even-” his voice broke off as he heaved another dry sob. He took a moment, the skin growing across his face as he fought for control. “They killed him.”

Officer Muir squeezed his hand, and Joseph squeezed back.

After a long moment of silence, Officer Muir asked, “Do you want to talk about what they did to you?”

Joseph’s breath quickened. “They cut my heart out.”

Officer Muir winced.

“Put me in a silver box and buried me, I think. Someone found the box. And someone put blood in me and cut a part of my heart off. Then I…… I don’t know how I got on the side of the road.”

Officer Muir frowned. “It sounds like they were testing for your age. There’s been a rise of crime rings selling the hearts of ancient vampires around for their knowledge. How old are you?”

“I was born 1984.”

“Kay. So they saw you were a modern vampire and probably tossed you out. You got lucky.”

Joseph shuddered. “Doesn’t feel like I did.”

“I know, man. But you did. You survived. You’re going to get healed up and get some help and you’ll be on your way. Did you have a coven?”

Joseph shook his head. “I’m Hemijeoa Moderna.”

Officer muir tightened his grip on Joseph’s hand. “David was your… bondmate then?”

Joseph was silent for a long time. Officer Muir could see him working his jaw, trying to say something, but all he could do was nod, skin creeping closed over his eye sockets.

“Please don’t leave me,” he whispered.

“Okay. Okay, I won’t,” Officer Muir replied. “I’m Officer Muir… but you can call me Joshua.”

“Joshua,” Joseph whispered. “Joshua.”

Officer Muir hummed softly and Joseph relaxed a bit more.

“Where are you from, Joseph?”

“Mmm? Oh, It’s a small place. Forreston. Where are we going?”

“We’re going to Keaton. Have you been there?”

Joseph frowned. “No. I lived in Forreston my whole life.”

“It’s nice. It’s a small city, so it shouldn’t be too much of a problem.”

“And you’ll be here?”

Officer Muir ran his thumb over Joseph’s knuckles again. “I will probably have to leave at some point. I am technically on duty, but-” he said quickly as Joseph went pale and his breathing picked up again- “but, I’ll give you my number and I’ll come visit you when I get off, okay?”

Joseph took slow breaths again, calming himself down. Officer Muir couldn’t imagine what he was going through. Losing your pairbond like that and then being trapped in a burning box for three years? Officer Muir couldn’t begrudge the fact that the vampire was being clingy. It was actually kind of nice. He still didn’t have many friends in the city, after all.

It was too early to be thinking along those lines, though. Soon enough, the ambulance pulled up at the hospital and Joseph was taken to a room where he could grow out the rest of the way, another drip of blood being hung up alongside the pain killers.

After making sure Joseph was settled and comfortable, Officer Muir said, “I have to go, okay. I’ll be back this evening.”

He slid his hand from the vampire’s and pulled out his notepad, writing down his phone number and pressing it into Joseph’s hand. “You can call me if you need to, but I should be back soon,” he said.

Joseph nodded as he clung to the note, eyelids fluttering, though his eye sockets were still empty as the ocular muscles were only just beginning to develop. “Okay. Okay. Thank you.”

“Course,” and with that, Officer Muir left.

………………………………

Joseph sat and regenerated. Without the pain, there was just a tingling where his limbs were growing. The only thing he really didn’t appreciate was the noise. It was so loud here. The machines never stopped beeping, voices passed down the hall constantly, he could smell blood and fear and could hear screams on the other side of the hospital. Every so often a code would be called and he would jump out of his skin, his ears and heart throbbing with fear.

He pressed the blanket to his face, trying to distract himself with the feeling while avoiding the small bumps that were starting to form under his eyelids, biting his lip as his hair grew in and just kept growing until it reached the length it was when he was turned, ticking his ears and cheeks. He pressed his face into the blanket harder, shoulders up around his ears as someone laughed loudly down the hall and the beeping just kept going.

There was something crawling under his skin, something constricting around his chest making it harder to breathe and he still didn’t have feet to escape with.

Desperately, he dropped the blanket and put his hands over his eyes, muffling the sound, but they wouldn’t go away and now he could also hear the rush of blood in his palms.

He was crying, and now he could actually form tears, the droplets hot on his face as he tried desperately to breathe. He tried to keep the sounds down in his throat, his breathing almost unbearable to him, nevermind the stupid whimpers he couldn’t keep himself from making.

A warm hand touched his and he flinched back, opening his eyes. He could faintly see lights and blurs of darkness.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” a male voice asked. It wasn’t Muir. Stars, Joseph wished it was Muir. He’d felt safe when Muir was there.

“”S loud,” he whispered, unable to fight back the hot tears that were still traveling down his face.

“Okay, give me a moment,” the man said and the blur moved.

Joseph watched him go and covered his eyes, watching the blurriness around him for movement.

The man came back. Joseph smelled him coming and only flinched slightly when he felt another touch on his hand.

“I brought you some noise canceling headphones,” he said softly. “It’s pretty normal to get overwhelmed, especially if it’s your first time. Do you want any music?”

Joseph almost said no, but then he realized he really didn’t want to listen to his blood and heartbeat again. He needed something. He nodded.

“Kay. Is there a specific album you’d like? Something longer, if you can think of it, so you have time to get your sight back before you need to change it.”

Joseph shook his head. “Anything works- wait. No. Minecraft music.”

“Okay.”

The man put the headphones gently over Joseph’s ears and, after a very uncomfortable moment of listening to himself, familiar sounds of Minecraft music began to play, reminding Joseph of the mindless hours he and David played the game together.

He closed his eyes, willing himself to relax as he sensed the man leave again.

Joseph kept crying, but it wasn’t because of the pain or the overstimulation. All he could think about was David’s triumphant grin when they killed the ender dragon on their fifth attempt.

………………………………..

Muir stepped out of the Chief’s office, his ears still ringing a little bit from the bit of shouting she had indulged in.

Granger was waiting for him outside, eyebrow lifted and a little smile on her face. “Favorite, ey?”

“I am,” he replied snidely as he took his keys back from her. “And she was yelling at me for something else entirely anyways. She was only a little mad about me going to the hospital.”

“I see. Was he alright?”

“I think he’ll be okay. I’m not sure. I’m going to check up on him tonight, actually, after I finish some paperwork.”

“Okay,” she said. “You said he was a Hemijeoa, right?”

“Right.”

“Where’s his bondmate?”

“Died in the same incident that got him where he is,” Muir replied, making his way to his desk.

She raised her eyebrow. “You’d better be careful, then. He’s in a fragile state. He might try to pairbond with you.”

“And what would be so wrong with that?”

“Well, you’d have to stick around him a lot more. Plus, you’re human. You wouldn’t feel the bond enough to actually keep up with it and keep him healthy.”

“I thought humans pairbonded with vampires all the time?”

She huffed. “I guess. Still I don’t think it’s healthy.”

Muir rolled his eyes. “I don’t think you get to have opinions. You’re a Ferox yourself, aren’t you? You don’t need any bonds.”

She shrugged. “Just be careful. You don’t want to have to deal with a clingy vampire for the rest of your life.” Without letting him respond, she took off to her own desk.

Muir rolled his eyes and got back to work.

Joseph: @whumpsday @not-a-space-alien @why-not-ask-me-a-better-question

From Dust to Ashes: @whumpsday @writereleaserepeat @currentlyinthespiral

Let me know if you want to be added to either taglist. Joseph's taglist is stuff having to do with just this vampire, and the other one is for general stuff written in this whole world.

Part 5

#vampire whumpee #human caretaker #body horror #temporary blindness #grief #hospital whump #auditory overstimulation #panic attack #I love my boy #also #and officer muir is great #he's a main character now!

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octuscle · 5 months

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I've always been a well put together scrawny guy. Never really got along with other guys who were more masculine. I'm eager to see what's on the other end of life. A bear, hairy, with a big belly and a deep belly button. Can fart among other men openly, freely, and, most of all, proudly. The kind of guy who can fix a car with one hand while the other hand is scratching my belly button or drifting the stench of my farts up to my nose. I want to be as filthy of a man as can be, and I want to be proud of it!

As they say in an old Hollywood movie, life is like a box of chocolates… Do you like chocolates? Here's a box.

The chocolates are made of very dark chocolate. They smell of wood, leather and tobacco. Masculine. The first one has rings as a symbol and melts in your mouth. It tastes of whiskey. Very tasty. As the saying goes. A moment on your lips, a lifetime on your hips. You can feel your belly growing a little. And the piercings in your nipples feel great.

You can't really tell what's on the next chocolate… An eggplant? Maybe. It tastes… Musky? Your boner is growing in your pants as your belly swells over the waistband. Your foreskin grows back. You run your hand down your pants. Yes, that's good. You smear the precum. With your other hand, you take another chocolate.

It's a bear or something… Also filled with alcohol. But something different, tastes like beer. You have to burp. Your shirt stretches across your stomach and chest. You're growing fur. Everywhere. That was really tasty, you need another one of those. Hehehe, the burp was even better. Phew, how it stinks. Male! You have to take your shirt off before you tear it to pieces. You pull your hand out of your pants, the waistband is getting too tight. You smell your hand. Sweat and musk, sticky from the precum. You rub it clean on your hairy chest and then unbutton your pants. Your cock pops out like a jack-in-the-box.

There's another animal head on the next praline. Could be a bull. Your belly doesn't just swell, it bloats…. Brffffffffft! Phew, you can still put up with your own farts. And here comes another one. You take a deep breath. Yes, that's what a really good fart must smell like. You rub the bulge in your leather pants… It feels great. And the leather can tame a bit of your farts if necessary. If you want…

You haven't tried any of those yet. They have a geometric pattern on them. Your pecs have become man boobs. Big, powerful but soft. And decorated with tattoos that look like you've had them for decades. You get another one with an eggplant on it. Your balls and cock swell up. Your cock is rock hard. Shit, you have to cum. Your cum flies all the way into your beard. A deep puddle forms in your belly button. You rub it all into your fur with your calloused hands.

You've never had one with a wheel like this before. It tastes of oil. Kind of disgusting. And somehow hot. You put your heavy motorcycle boots down on the coffee table and adjust your muir cap. Shit, chocolate pralines don't really fit in your motorcycle workshop. But they do taste good. You have to fart again. And burp immediately afterwards. You hope no customers come in now.

The appetite comes with eating. You take two with a bear on them at once. The leather sofa groans under your weight. The muir cap feels great on your bare skull. The remains of your tobacco still cling to your mighty beard. Yes, you actually feel more like a good portion of Copenhagen or a cigar than a chocolate. But there are only two left anyway. One with a ring on it and one with a bull.

Shit, you can feel a hurricane brewing in your guts. You rub your belly and your tits. Your huge piercings in your nipples and glans are impressive. The leather strap stretches across your upper arm. One of your boys comes into your office and wants to ask you about the Fatboy that's due to be finished this afternoon. This is the moment you've been waiting for. Brbrbrbrbrffffffft! Shit, a bison would be proud. You take a deep breath. Your coworker turns pale. "Get used to it, boy!" you growl.

To apologize, you have given your employee an extra-large box of chocolates. He is to share it with the other boys. His questions are all answered. Now you need a midday nap. Your boys know that. For the next half hour, all they'll hear is snoring and farting coming from your office.

Pic found @musclefetish77

#male tf #muscle tf #reality change #chronivac #inked man #leather tf #bear tf #age progression

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scotianostra · 10 days

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Edwin Muir was born in Deerness, Orkney Islands on May 15th 1887.

He was the youngest of six children was initially raised on a farm before his family moved to the island of Wyre and then later the mainland of Orkney. His parents were farmers and when he was fourteen his father lost the family farm. This forced the Muirs to make another move to Glasgow where they hoped to secure their finances.

The move to Glasgow, from agricultural life to an industrial one, was extremely hard on the family. Within a few years, Muir’s father, mother, and two brothers died. These losses, added to the succession of poor jobs made his youth an unhappy one. He spent time working in factories and offices. The work was psychologically destructive to the young man but helped to inform Muir’s later poetic works. It was in 1913 that he began to write poetry, some of which was soon published in New Age. The passion seemed to drain from this pursuit quickly though and he turned to journalism.

A few years later, in 1919, he married Wilhelmina Anderson who was a teacher and linguist. The two moved to London together. Muir would later speak on his marriage as being the most important thing in his life. He and his wife would work together on a number of translations throughout the coming years, including Kafka, (those for which he is best-known). In the early 1920s, the couple lived in a number of different cities throughout Europe. In 1924 they returned to the UK where Muir began seriously publishing.

The translations that Muir and his wife worked on together became their main source of income. This was particularly helpful during the beginning of the second world war. The two worked on translating the works of Gerhart Hauptmann, Heinrich Mann, Hermann Broch, and more. This time period also saw Muir’s reputation as a critic grow. He wrote Latitudes and The Structure of a Novel. In 1927 Muir published his first novel, The Marionette.

The 1930s saw Muir begin a series of projects which included a number of travel and history-related works for Scottish Journey, a biography, and two autobiographical novels. In 1941 he accepted a position with the British Council and moved to Prague and Rome. The following years were highly productive and included his eventual naming as the warden of Newbattle Abbey College. His final collection was published in 1956 and he died in Cambridge in 1959.

Robert the Bruce (To Douglas in Dying)

'My life is done, yet all remains, The breath has gone, the image not, The furious shapes once forged in heat Live on though now no longer hot. 'Steadily the shining swords In order rise, in order fall, In order on the beaten field The faithful trumpets call. 'The women weeping for the dead Are not sad now but dutiful, The dead men stiffening in their place Proclaim the ancient rule. 'Great Wallace's body hewn in four, So altered, stays as it must be. 0 Douglas do not leave me now, For past your head I see 'My dagger sheathed in Comyn's heart And nothing there to praise or blame, Nothing but order which must be Itself and still the same. 'But that Christ hung upon the Cross, Comyn would rot until time's end And bury my sin in boundless dust, For there is no amend. 'In order; yet in order run All things by unreturning ways, If Christ live not, nothing is there For sorrow or for praise.' So the king spoke to Douglas once A little while before his death, Having outfaced three English kings And kept a people's faith.

#scotland #scottish #history #poet #translator #writer #makar #.-

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sindri42 · 1 month

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What books or graphic novels do you most frequently recommend? What are your all time favorite books or series?

That's a complicated question, and my memory is shit so I'll probably come up with a dozen better answers the moment after I hit post, but off the top of my head...

Basically everything by Seanan McGuire/Mira Grant is gold. Most of it comes in long series which are a big investment and have their ups and downs, and which will have different value to different people and mindsets, and I haven't read all of them because she just writes too damn fast, but I haven't encountered a single book from her that wasn't great. If you're looking for a one-off, Middlegame might be the best; it's about a couple of artificial people created by an ancient conspiracy attempting to attain godhood, and math, and language, and time travel, and what family means, and doing the same thing over and over thirteen thousand times in search of a better result. I'm also especially fond of Alien: Echo, which starts out as a cute little YA gay romance set in a sci-fi colony world, until halfway through you catch the name 'Weyland-Yutani' and abruptly remember which franchise the title is referencing and realize how few of these plucky teens are likely to survive to the end of the week.

You should probably read everything by Naomi Novik. The Temeraire series, starting with His Majesty's Dragon, is an alternate history of the Napoleonic Wars (officers and gentlemen, wooden ships and iron men, all that jazz) except that aerial combat is much more prominent than in our timeline, which gradually expands out into building a whole different earth exploring how numerous cultures and regions were affected by humanity not necessarily being the dominant species. The Scholomance books, starting with A Deadly Education are kind of like your standard magical boarding school, except unlike certain more famous examples of the trope actually makes sense; also it's consistently hilarious whenever it's not being horrifying as the story follows a girl who is clearly born to be an evil empress and who is very definitely not dating this stereotypical dashing hero guy, no matter how many times they save each others' lives. As standalones go, she's done Uprooted and Spinning Silver, both of which put wonderful new spins on classic fairy tale tropes and popular myths but this paragraph is already too long for me to elaborate.

The Murderbot series by Martha Wells is not only great as a sci-fi action series and as a worldbuilding exercise, but also the most realistic depiction of an anxiety disorder I've ever read. It starts with a security droid that hacked its own governor module to get the ability to disobey orders, but then because change is terrifying it continues to go through the motions of its terrible job, but now streams thousands of hours of media in the background while standing guard between crises; unfortunately, when something starts trying to kill the scientific survey team it's currently contracted out to, it discovers to its horror that it's actually starting to care about what happens to them.

Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones is a classic for a reason. Maybe you've seen the Miyazaki film? Doesn't matter, read the book anyway. It's a completely different story. (somebody described it to me as 'the book is what Sophie remembers, the movie is how Howl describes it after the fact')

If you're looking for books on tumblr you've probably heard of Tamsyn Muir's The Locked Tomb series by now; no need for me to elaborate on what others have said better.

Ooh, pick up Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Stugatsky; it might be the greatest Soviet sci-fi novel, and has had a huge cultural impact around the world. After you read it you'll realize that you've been seeing it everywhere, not just in a whole bunch of other sci fi literature but also from video games to anime to tabletops.

Moving into things that I personally love but don't necessarily recommend...

I want to tell everybody about The One Who Eats Monsters by Casey Matthews. It's a near-perfect blend of the adorable and the horrifying, and one of the best non-human perspectives I've encountered, following an elder god who could be mistaken at a glance for a teenage human girl as she simultaneously tries to figure out how to navigate "civilization" and fights a monstrous conspiracy to protect an (actual) ordinary teenage girl that she accidentally swore an unbreakable oath to defend because the moon was very full and she smelled very nice. It's great. but if you read it, then you would be in the same position that I am, waiting for the second book in the series, which was supposed to come out six years ago.

I love the Arcane Ascension series (Sufficiently Advanced Magic, On the Shoulders of Titans, The Torch that Ignites the Stars, and The Silence of Unworthy Gods) by Andrew Rowe; it's basically about an artificer attending a school for battle mages, using every trick and trap and gadget and clever scheme he can think of to keep up without having any direct combat magic of his own. The reason it's probably not for everybody is that as the story gets bigger and more elaborate, it starts interweaving with at least two other series of books by the same author (one of which initially looked like a completely different setting, and definitely operates on a completely different magic system), and none of the three are finished yet. Also the systems involved are intricate and there's a lot of little details going on, so you kiiiinda have to get obsessed in order to keep track of it all.

The Witcher books by Andrzej Sapkowski might be the best you'll ever find in the gritty "grimdark" fantasy category. The netflix series that everybody was obsessing over for a while before it shit itself too badly? Everything that they did right, is something that was better in the original books. Most of the best parts of the original books were removed entirely and replaced with complete garbage. The video games are a better adaptation, but still fall a bit short in writing quality and character depth. But it definitely leans into the Grimdark, possibly more heavily than you want to deal with.

The Valhalla trilogy by Ari Bach is good... conditionally. You can read just the first book like it's a standalone, and get a cool story subverting the classic Coming-Of-Age 'girl who never fit in is recruited by a secret society that tells her the thing that made her Different is exactly what they need to save the world' trope, except that the thing that makes her not fit in is her propensity towards brutal, remorseless violence. But you can't read the second book (which elaborates on why maybe maintaining world peace by deploying a secret society of ultraviolent killers with no oversight might not be a good idea) without committing to also reading the third, because the end of the second book will make you want to stop reading, and if you take the whole trilogy together then it's great but if you let the end of the second book be your last memory of it then that'll leave a bad taste in your mouth forever.

Jim Butcher's Codex Alera is six books, and five of them are absolutely magnificent. Unfortunately, the first volume is, in my humble opinion, dogshit. You can't skip it either, or you'll miss a bunch of vital setup and introductions. There's nothing you can do except push through a bunch of stuff ranging from simply dumb to downright offensive before you can get to the great part.

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minimalistartshop · 5 months

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Introducing our “Of all the paths you take in life, make sure a few of them are dirt” typography art print, featuring the timeless wisdom of John Muir. This delightful art piece beautifully combines the inspirational quote with an elegant typewriter font typography to create a stunning visual display. Perfect for nature enthusiasts, adventurers, and anyone seeking a touch of wanderlust in their space. The high-quality print makes a thoughtful gift for friends and loved ones. Add a touch of inspiration to your home, office, or outdoor-themed decor with this charming art print that celebrates the joy of exploring the great outdoors. Of all the paths you take in life, make sure a few of them are dirt. – John Muir Quote Typography Art Print

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ghostoftonantzin · 5 months

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Books I have read this year, 2023, roughly in order

I enjoyed doing this last year, so I thought I would do another little write-up of the books I read this year and what I thought.

I've read 52 books this year, hitting a goal I hadn't thought to set. That includes a few graphic novels, but not the audiobooks, which I listened to 15 of this year (I spent a lot of time driving). Same as last year, I've annotated the audiobooks with an asterisk.

I also started listening to Backlisted this year, which significantly influenced my reading choices.

Under a cut, because it got long

Swedish Cults, Anders Fager (1/2) - I saw this was originally published in 2009, and I feel like the first story in this collection somehow really echoes that time. Which is probably a strange thing to say about a horror story.

When Washington was in Vogue, Edward Christopher Williams (1/13) - very sweet, very interesting look at a time and a place I didn't know much about.

The Cement Garden, Ian McEwan (1/19) - I expected to enjoy this a lot more than I did, based on how it's often described as a great "fucked up" book. I think the teenage boy POV just didn't do much for me.

Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons (1/20) - a reread, for the first time since probably 2014 or so. I enjoyed it (and understood it) a lot better this time around. I got to the back half and couldn't put it down, which is a strange thing to say about a parody of the rural novels of the 1930s.

Nona the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir (2/12) - finally got this from the library. I didn't enjoy it as much as the first two books in the series

Fun Home, Alison Bechdel (2/24) - a reread. The final page always destroys me.

Cassandra at the Wedding, Dorothy Baker (2/25) - Very literary. I think I enjoyed it, though I can't muster up the energy to form a stronger opinion. The scene where Cassandra pulls out the bridesmaid dress she bought was memorable, though.

Are You My Mother?, Alison Bechdel (2/28) - a reread. Scratches the same itch as Fun Home, but doesn't tie the family narrative into the theoretical themes as cohesively.

Surviving the Applewhites, Stephanie S. Tolan (3/12) - another reread, to see if it was as good as I remembered from fourth grade. It held up for the most part.

The Secret to Superhuman Strength, Alison Bechdel (3/13) - finally, not a reread. Fun, erudite, perhaps not as tight as Fun Home, but another excellent Bechdel.

Ravishment, Amanda Quick (3/24) - sometimes you have to read an entire romance novel in an evening. This was fun, though its plot and that of "Mistress" (see below) blur into one another.

Season of Migration to the North, Tayib Saleh (4/7) - I think I would have enjoyed this book more if I had read it in a class where I could discuss it and learn more about the historical context behind it.

The Bloater, Rosemary Tonks (4/9) - of Backlisted fame. I should reread again, more slowly, to get a better taste for Tonk's use of language.

Mistress, Amanda Quick (4/15) - also a fun quick read, though I can't remember much of the plot.

Excellent Women*, Barbara Pym (4/25) - yet another attempt to get into audiobooks, and it semi-worked this time. Mildred sets a high bar for other Pym protagonists to follow, and I thought Pym created an excellent portrait of post-war life for unmarried women and the minor indignities and intimacies that accompany it. Also ridiculously funny, at least to me.

Clouds of Witness*, Dorothy L. Sayers (5/12) - I wanted to read Gaudy Night, but I figured I should read at least a few Peter Wimsey mysteries that came before it. I think my favorite character was Lord Wimsey's mother.

Star, Yukio Mishima (5/16) - an interesting portrait of a disaffected youth and of fame in Japan at the time it was written.

Strong Poison*, Dorothy L. Sayers (5/16) - the first Wimsey mystery to feature Harriet Vane, and my first encounter with Lord Peter's office of overlooked older secretaries, who provides the enjoyable detour of Miss Murchison making an important breakthrough in the case. Not bad, though not super memorable.

Have His Carcase, Dorothy L. Sayers (5/17) - the only Wimsey mystery I read instead of listened to, because neither library app had the audiobook. This one was too reliant on keeping timetables straight for my taste, but I still read it in a day.

Beyond Black, Hilary Mantel (5/22) - possibly the best book I read this year. Bleak, bleak, bleak, and wonderful for it. Yet one of the most cathartic happy endings I've ever read.

Thus was Adonis Murdered, Sarah Caudwell (5/28) - caught my sense of humor by the second or third page. Hilariously dry mystery, and understandable even if you don't know legal jargon.

The Feast, Margaret Kennedy (5/31) - this book is not even remotely a thriller, is in fact sort of an elaborate morality play, and yet I couldn't put it down. The conceit- that a cliff collapses onto a hotel and everyone inside dies, but not all the hotel guests were inside- keeps you guessing at whose sins are bad enough to merit a karmic death.

Starlight, Stella Gibbons (6/4) - a lot grimmer than I expected, and almost ahead of its time in terms of the (I'm going to say) pointlessness of its ending, in a "people come into the main character's lives, stuff happens, but the main two old ladies aren't actually affected" way. Not a book you would expect to find demonic possession in, but it's there and it's played straight!

The Shortest Way to Hades, Sarah Caudwell (6/6) - I find it interesting that all of these mysteries center around details of things like inheritance law and yet all feature murder as the main crime, and also that (spoilers) the villain is disposed of in a manner that does not require the main cast to get involved with the police.

The Sirens Sang of Murder, Sarah Caudwell (6/9) - by the second volume in this series I kept trying to guess who the murderer, and I was never ever able to do it. Not that I've ever been good at that part of mystery novels, but I do appreciate Caudwell keeping me on my toes.

Gaudy Night*, Dorothy L. Sayers (6/11) - finally, the book I read three prior mysteries for. I found this one fascinatingly slow for a mystery and much more focused on the life of women in academia in that era than I had expected. I particularly enjoyed the character of Miss de Vine, who at first seems like the classic absent-minded professor, only to reveal herself to be much wiser in ways of the heart than she appears.

The Black Maybe, Attila Veres (6/19) - short horror story collection, translated from Hungarian. Not bad, but none of the stories were super memorable.

Lessons in Chemistry, Bonnie Garmus (6/22) - I did not enjoy this and probably would not have finished it if my mom hadn't highly recommended it. The characters felt flat and the plot struggled to build enough tension for the emotional beats to hit. I also feel like the four-year-old character did not act anything like a four-year-old, though I'll admit I don't know a lot of four-year-olds.

Hackenfeller’s Ape, Brigid Brophy (6/26) - I would say this book wasn't that exciting, very dry and academic for its bizarre plot, but one detail near the end (which I won't spoil) knocked me sideways and tbh probably made the book for me.

Less Than Angels*, Barbara Pym (6/27) - I had to go back and add this while writing these reviews because I'd completely forgotten to list it at the time. Not as good as Excellent Women, though I also had to adjust to the multiple perspectives as opposed to just one.

Comemadre, Roque Larraquy (7/2) - a reread. Still one of the strangest books I've ever read. Highly recommend.

The Sky is Blue, With a Single Cloud, Kuniko Tsurita (7/3) - I'd had this collection of manga one-shots for about a year, and decided to finally read it when hanging out at the library when the water was out at my apartment. It's very interesting to see her style develop and to learn more about the alternative manga industry.

Mrs. Caliban, Rachel Ingalls (7/4) - I had been vaguely meaning to read this for a while, then found it on Hoopla. Looking back on it, it rivals In a Lonely Place (the Dorothy Hughes one) with regards to drawing California in the mind's eye, though the mood of their particular Californias are very different.

Black Wings Has My Angel, Elliott Chaze (7/8) - the tension at the end of this book is like pulling teeth, it's incredible.

Scruples, Judith Krantz (7/24) - absolutely frothy and frequently ridiculous, but also fun. Their are main characters named Spider and Valentine, and it's taken completely seriously. It's actually a really interesting look at the values and beliefs of the 1980's as reflected through pop culture.

Days in the Caucasus, Banine (7/28) - I was more interested in the sequel to this memoir, Parisian Days, but figured I should read this volume, about the author's childhood in Azerbaijan in the years leading up to its incorporation into the Soviet Union. It provided a really interesting perspective of the Soviet Union from a resident of one of its subject states.

Frederica, Georgette Heyer (8/6) - my first Heyer. I'm impressed by her ability to write annoying younger siblings and walk the line between "overly cute" and "overly aggravating".

In the Miso Soup, Ryu Murakami (8/17) - good, though not my favorite of the year by far. The violence depicted did manage to turn my stomach a bit.

My Man Jeeves*, P.G. Wodehouse (8/20) - I've realized that I need to listen to audiobooks that are fun if I'm going to survive long drives, so I turned to the Jeeves series (I only listened to the Jeeves stories in this one). An interesting introduction to the character, especially since it starts in America instead of the England of the more well-known tales.

Love in the New Millennium, Can Xue (8/29) - I'm not sure if this book is meant to be very surreal, if I'm missing cultural context, or both, but I will say it does serve me well to be a little befuddled by books sometimes. This book has a strange, flowing sense of perspective, where it moves between perspectives and the stories of its characters, only slowly unveiling where it's emotional weight lies. Very interesting.

The Inimitable Jeeves*, P.G. Wodehouse (9/1) - second collection of Jeeves & Wooster stories. Good, though Bingo isn't my favorite side character.

Flesh, Brigid Brophy (9/1) - the beginning chapters are incredibly sensual in a way I can't describe, but after that it inspired an incredible feeling of dread that something would go terribly wrong. Despite the fact that this is a satire of young adults in 1960s London, I could feel emotional catastrophe creeping around every corner. I don't think this was Brophy's intention.

Ice*, Anna Kavan (9/8) - somehow not anything like I had osmosed it being. The narrative flows between reality and fantasy so fluidly that it's incredibly easy to wonder if you spaced out and missed something important while listening to it. The plot is also fascinatingly simple and surprisingly free of actual conflict: despite impediments, the hero ("hero") rarely actually encounters any opposition that seems like it could truly keep him from his goal. This adds to the feeling that everything occurring in the book is barely-veiled symbolism.

The Glass Pearls, Emeric Pressburger (9/13) - the tension in this might have honestly been too much for me. Good, but I don't know if I can read it again.

The English Understand Wool, Helen DeWitt (9/16) - sometimes you read a book and recognize that it's very good, while also being annoyed that what it is is different from what you want it to be. I understood it worked as a morality tale, but I found it limiting and frustrating. I will also indulge in a bit of cattiness here and say that for a book about luxury and high-quality goods, the book design chosen by New Directions for this series feels like a cheap set of children's books. (I read this on an online checkout from the library, so I only saw the book itself in a bookstore.)

Right Ho, Jeeves*, P.G. Wodehouse (9/18) - The fact that Jeeves and Bertie were on the outs for this one did stress me out, I will admit.

In a Lonely Place, Karl Edward Wagner (9/22) - the stories pick up in quality in the back half, in my opinion, though none of them are true duds. The last story and standout in the collection, yet another twist on a vampire tale, really draws its strength from the grimy-yet-glamorous depiction of an art student's life in London.

Kissing the Witch, Emma Donoghue (9/27) - I enjoyed how each story folded into one another and found this book hard to put down. Also very gay, loved it.

The Drama of Celebrity, Sharon Marcus (9/27) - I was reading this for background for my fic, and it was somewhat helpful. It's really mostly an analysis of Sarah Bernhardt's career, with some light theory of celebrity to contextualize it instead of the other way around like I expected.

Malpertuis, Jean Ray (10/15) - I probably shouldn't have read the summary for this book before the book itself, but I'm not sure I would have fully understood the plot if I hadn't. Not a knock on the book itself.

The Great God Pan and Other Stories*, Arthur Machen (10/16) - I don't read a ton of nineteenth-century literature, so I was surprised by how compelling the title story was, especially when listened to. I also found some of the imagery in "The Novel of the White Powder" horrifying and would not be out of place in a modern horror story. The final story was a bit of a slog, though.

Heartburn*, Nora Ephron (10/20) - a relisten to the version narrated by Meryl Streep. I downloaded it based on a recommendation describing the audiobook as turning it into the one-woman monologue the book was meant to be, and I can't think of any higher recommendation to offer than that.

Casting the Runes and Other Stories*, M.R. James and others (10/30) - I knew about M.R. James from popular culture, but I honestly had not expected "Whistle and I'll Come to You, My Lad" to center so much around golf.

Invitation the the Waltz, Rosamond Lehmann (11/1) - I read most of this in one sitting, playing old music through my headphones, which felt really ideal. Setting most of it during one formal dance allows for a sense of insular-ness while allowing the details of the world to be woven in. If that makes any sense.

Crazy Salad and Scribble Scrabble*, Nora Ephron (11/3) - it's really interesting to listen to these essays written during the second wave feminist movement and realize that we've been having the same arguments for 50 years. It's also interesting to read about the minutiae of Watergate from the perspective of those watching it unfold in real time. So many weird, unmemorable cultural-political things that have gone down the hole of public memory! (I need to note here that the last essay in Crazy Salad is, based on my memory of the first time I read it (I skipped it this time around) very transphobic, so I can only recommend this collection with that heavy caveat.)

BBC Radiophonic Workshop: A Retrospective, William L. Weir (11/7) - I first learned about the BBC radiophonic workshop through the Backlisted episode about Rosemary Tonks, and this was a fascinating look into that period of British history and the origins of electronic music. It's also helped me pinpoint how to find that sort of music I think of as "alien abduction music", which is a bonus.

Joy in the Morning*, P.G. Wodehouse (11/10) - I didn't realize this wasn't in the 3-book arc that starts with Right Ho, Jeeves until I was partway through. Still, quality Wodehouse.

Good Morning, Midnight, Jean Rhys (11/17) - despite listening to the Backlisted episode before reading this, I didn't quite grasp what "modernist novel" meant, which meant I was surprised by the stream-of-consciousness flow of this novel. It's such gorgeous writing, though. Depressing as hell.

Winter Love*, Han Suyin (11/18) - beautiful and sad. The main character, Red, is frustrating, even though everything she does is perfectly understandable within the context she lives in.

The Girls, John Bowen (11/21) - the blurbs for this book ("Barbara Pym meets Stephen King") made it seem like this would be both lighter and more horrifying than it actually was. I found it to actually be very melancholy in parts, and surprisingly focused on the emotional aftereffects of murder. The ending, the final paragraph, is gorgeous.

Black Orchids, Rex Stout (11/30) - I'm now trying to find Nero Wolfe books in secondhand bookstores, though I'm limited by the lack of secondhand bookstores in my area (that may be a good thing). I enjoy how Nero Wolfe and Archie play off each other.

The Hearing Trumpet*, Leonara Carrington (12/1) - so, so good, and I'm glad I listened to it as an audiobook, because the narrator, Sian Phillips, is an elderly woman herself and therefore able to conjure up a whole range of different voices for the old women who populate this book.

Mistletoe Malice, Kathleen Farrell (12/6) - I was actually disappointed by this, which might have been a matter of mismatched expectations. However, the Christmas tree never caught fire, and I swore a review I read said it would, so I spent the whole book waiting in vain.

Venetia, Georgette Heyer (12/16) - A delight. Aubrey is a great character, and I enjoy how Heyer has the different characters play on each other.

Great Granny Webster, Caroline Blackwood (12/18) - did not expect this book to have a large section on "decaying old Anglo-Irish homes and their horrors", but I guess that's a richer vein in literary fiction than I realized (see: Good Behaviour by Molly Keane).

Sylvester, Georgette Heyer (12/21) - not quite as enjoyable as Frederica or Venetia, in my opinion, though that may be partly because I waited for almost 2/3 of the book for Phoebe's book to actually be published.

Providence, Anita Brookner (12/28) - beautiful prose, of the sort that makes me realize my own inadequacies in both my writing and my critical capabilities, because I can neither replicate it or describe what makes it so compelling. This book is also so tightly crafted for a story where almost nothing happens. It ends up exactly where it's been leading all along.

#ghost posts #oh my god this took forever to write #52 books! I'm surprised at myself #I really should make that list of “twentieth century queer or queer-ish literary fiction that I have read and can recommend”

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sunlit-gully · 11 months

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🤥 LYING - are they good liars? do they have tells to show they're lying?

Doing this for Mykola Tykhonovych Sokolenko from Anthologia Sovietica.

He was not a good liar. He was not a great liar. He was a consummate liar.

To be frank, this is an unwritten requirement in his job, aka foreign intelligence. Yes, Mykola worked as a KGB officer, a Major General upon retirement, so would it be any surprise that he had a co(s)mically big repertoire of false identities? To list his most frequently used identities, in the Centre he was Comrade Smirnov, in Britain he was Sir Alan Ross Norton, in Ireland he was Séamus de Búrca, in Australia he was Scott Hardy, in New Zealand he was Ewan Muir, and in Scandinavia he was Axel Hansen. But his contemporaries, they only called him one thing.

The Virtuoso.

In his personal life, though, Mykola could not hide shit to save his life (he would not have wanted to anyway). Medea had proven time and time again that she could be trusted with secrets (which is, frankly, to be expected for a doctor) and could handle the more unsavoury side of love (resolving conflict and all that), so Mykola saw little reason to lie about his thoughts and feelings in their relationship. As of his children, Mykola did somewhat deceive them, if you call putting on a stern, distant face after the mother's death qualifies as deception. To be fair, lying implied that a party was not aware of the truth; all his kids saw through the act immediately but chose not to comment on it to his face.

All in all, the stage missed out big time on Mykola Sokolenko the moment he entered KGB.

#writing nook #writeblr #wip: anthologia sovietica #writing ask game #my girl medea was aware of her husband's kgb bullshittery but guess what she's always up for bullshittery herself #rip my mountain lark you were the perfect accomplice in all things espionage #the two of them were so real for this #oc: mykola sokolenko #oc: medea kurauli

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kitewithfish · 1 year

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Wednesday Reading Meme for March 29 2023

What I've Read Piranesi by Susanna Clarke - Xing Book Club - I adored this - like Tamsyn Muir's Nona the Ninth, this is written from the POV of a character who has the least information about where he is and how he got there, and the novel is largely about him finding out what happened. This is about a haunted house, maybe, from the view point of the living man doing the haunting, or maybe a labyrinth from the view of the minotaur. The atmospheric descriptions of the vast and impossible structure put me in mind of descriptions of hikers talking about walking great swaths of a trail and getting to directly experience their own minds paying attention to minute details of the world around them. I have heard it compared to House of Leaves, which seems somewhat fair - they have both have an epistolary style and a focus on an impossible space - but Piranesi is far gentler. I really, really enjoyed it - read it in a day - and I'm a bit sad I can't sum it up better! The mere plot of the thing doesn't really live up to the experience.

A Gentleman and An Officer by Trudemaethien (Restricted) https://archiveofourown.org/works/46045405 -Star Wars Clone Wars AU bit of military fic, Cody/Rex

The Creche by Blue_Sunshine https://archiveofourown.org/works/36847618 - AU Star Wars fic with a bit of a series. Anakin/Obi-Wan. Anakin goes down to the Jedi Temple's creche for the first time, after being raised mostly by Qui-Gon Jinn, and meets the crechemaster.

the first church of the end of the world by withbloodstainedclothingon https://archiveofourown.org/works/4007173 - Supernatural - Dean and Lisa and Castiel, AU of The End

What I'm Reading True Colors - Karen Traviss - 23% - static - This is a Star Wars "Legends" novel that builds out a lot of the Mandalorian culture by focusing on the military fiction adventures of a subset of clone commandos who were raised and trained by one Mandalorian trainer in particular. There's a bunch of awkward stuff in this particular novel around a pregnancy and some real patriarchal BS, which is why I'm slow with it. But it's good background for my "Clones are Fun, Actually" reading.

A Restless Truth - Freya Marske - 55% - This is a fun fantasy with ship-board mystery and a sapphic romance that is both sweet and quite sexy. The first book in this trilogy was a delight and this is also adorable. I started this about three days ago and I have been blitzing thru.

Too Like The Lightning - Ada Palmer - A re-read bc a couple of my friends are starting it. It's a future mystery with a writing style like a 18th century novel, all breathless and Englightnment that I really enjoy.

Underline the Black by not_poignant https://archiveofourown.org/works/41396784 - Not_Poignant writes some really interesting fannish-feeling original work, and this seems like it's an Omegaverse AU of that - twisty and very hurt/moderate comfort.

On Earth as It Is in Heaven by samyazaz https://archiveofourown.org/works/833193 - Soulmate AU of Vikings - You don't need to know anything other than the first season or a vague sense of how history went down

What I'll Read Next Powers of Horror - Chapter 1 - For the Great Queer Supernatural Re-Watch. This is a nonfiction theory book that is referred to in many of the horror-focused sources that we have previously read. The Gothic A Very Short Introduction - After the last reading we did kind of didn't get into what The Gothic is in literature, I figured that this might be a good little supplemental piece.

The Calculating Stars - Xing Book Club

Mexican Gothic - Discord Book Club - A re-read for me, but I enjoyed the book the first time and I think it will be fun to get into again.

Babel - Looks like it will on the Hugos list eventually, I'm trying to get out ahead of things

Owned and need to read: California Bones, Raven Song by IA Ashcroft, Kraken's Sacrifice by Katee Robert, Even Though I Know the End by CL Polk, At The Feet of the Sun by Victoria Goddard, Tamryn Eradani's Enchanting Encounters Books 2 and 3, Like Real People Do by EL Massey, Tom Stoppard, invention of love. Smoke Gets in Your Eyes by Caitlin Doughty, "You Just Need to Lose Weight" and Other Myths about Fatness by Aubrey Gordon, Alisha Rai Partners in Crime, the Right Swipe, Aphorisms of Kerishdar

Owned and Read/Reading: Frey Marske's A Restless Truth, Susanna Clarke's Pirenesi,True Colors by Karen Traviss

#fanfic #star wars #books #supernatural is an ongoing project

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f1 · 2 years

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W Series season curtailed as organisers focus on 2023 funding

W Series have confirmed that their 2022 season will be cut short, with the final three races planned in the United States and Mexico later this month no longer going ahead. A press release issued by the championship highlighted that, as confirmed at the recent round in Singapore, “the required funding due to the business from a recent contracted investment was not received, forcing the remaining three races of the 2022 calendar into doubt”. HIGHLIGHTS: Watch the action from a dramatic Japanese GP as Verstappen seals his second World Championship It continued: “Since then, the decision has been made to focus on the longer-term fundraising process to enable the longevity and financial health of W Series into 2023 and beyond, and enable cost cutting by cancelling the remaining races in Austin and Mexico City.” W Series had been due to visit Austin’s Circuit of The Americas on the weekend of October 21-22, with a double-header scheduled at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez from October 28-30 – both in support of the F1 World Championship. The curtailed W Series season means Jamie Chadwick is crowned champion for a third straight time With the aforementioned rounds chalked off, Jenner Racing driver Jamie Chadwick – who sits 50 points clear in the drivers’ championship standings – is crowned W Series champion for a record-breaking third time. Chadwick has taken 11 wins, 10 pole positions and 18 podiums across three seasons in the all-female category (2019, 2020 and 2022), with no racing held in 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. READ MORE: 5 Winners and 5 Losers from the Japanese Grand Prix – Who mastered the wet conditions in Suzuka? Catherine Bond Muir, Chief Executive Officer of the W Series, said: “It’s with both great sadness and frustration that we announce that our much-anticipated final three races of the 2022 season in Austin and Mexico City will not go ahead. “As a start-up in only our third season of racing, we are always working hard to ensure regularity of funding as we continue to grow our business, but due to recent unforeseen circumstances outside of W Series’ control, we had not been in receipt of contracted funds due to us. “Therefore, we have been forced to make the unfortunate decision not to complete our scheduled calendar this season.” Bond Muir continued: “We are incredibly thankful for the help and support we have received in recent weeks following the news of the financial difficulties we’ve been facing, which has accelerated our fundraising process and given us great optimism as we look to 2023 and beyond. IN NUMBERS: The stunning statistics behind Verstappen's dominant title defence “While we aren’t in a position to make a formal announcement yet, there are many positive conversations ongoing and all parties share our passion for and belief in our mission to provide our incredible field of women drivers a platform to showcase their talents and to race in front of enthusiastic fans all around the world. “We are doing everything we can to ensure the long-term financial health of our business and we look forward to W Series’ continued growth and success.” via Formula 1 News https://www.formula1.com

#F1 #W Series season curtailed as organisers focus on 2023 funding #Formula 1

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burningdarkfire · 2 years

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2022 mid year reading wrap up

hello i invented this for myself by throwing together the things i want to talk about the most 😎

general progress:

i have read 105 books out of my goal of 120. this is a lot! most of the “extra” count comes from graphic novels, novellas, manga, etc. which i have read a lot more of this year

included in the above are 50 novels, which is exactly on pace

i had the goal in 2022 to read one book per month randomly picked from my tbr, which has been going great,

and the goal to read one book per month from the physical books that i own but haven’t read yet, and that has been going uhhh not as great. i’m only one book behind but reading books physically is hard since i do a lot of reading either at work or commuting to and from the office

list of new 5*s so far in 2022 that i would highly recommend:

A Marvellous Light by Freya Marske - a historical fantasy romance which reads like a fanfiction in all the best ways possible

Jade War by Fonda Lee - a sorta historical urban fantasy that has some of the best world-building i’ve ever read

Jade Legacy by Fonda Lee - ditto, solid finish to the above series

She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan - a historical fantasy retelling that has some of my absolute favourite characters and relationships of this year. the gender is off the charts. i am obsessed with the deuteragonist and the toxic trio of men in this book that no one ever talks about when pitching it but who are very spectacular

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke - a fantasy where the first few chapters absolutely blew my mind with how beautifully it was written

Jane, Unlimited by Kristin Cashore - a VERY fun genre-bendy YA book that i don’t want to say much about because i think it’s better blind

At Night All Blood is Black by David Diop - a historical war fiction, which is a genre i honestly usually hate so it says a lot about how absolutely fascinating this was. great poc perspective

[honorary mention] The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson - a fantasy that i only gave 4* but i would always recommend to people who have similar SFF tastes to me

list of other 5*s that are rereads or just severe blorbo syndrome:

Critical Role: The Mighty Nein Origins: Caleb Widogast by Jody Houser

The Wicked + The Divine by Kieron Gillen, Jamie McKelvie

Heartstopper: Volume One by Alice Oseman

Radio Silence by Alice Oseman

Jujutsu Kaisen: Volume 9 by Gege Akutami

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

most disappointing reads of the year so far:

One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston - months later and i’m literally still so annoyed at the ending of this book lol don’t get me started i will rant for 20 minutes

How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu - this was foolish “bought into the marketing” hype on my end. don’t let anyone tell you that this is like cloud atlas because it is not like cloud atlas. also personally i feel like this was a weird book to publish quote unquote after covid

Portrait of a Thief by Grace D. Li - i truly think some writers just need to be told no. because grace d. li’s writing is good (especially for a debut) but the heist frame of this story is the most incomprehensible thing ever and i can’t believe anyone thought this was a good idea

most unique reads of the year so far:

Jane, Unlimited by Kristin Cashore - deserves another shout out here though i mentioned it already above!

Death in Her Hands by Ottessa Moshfegh - literary fiction that’s kind of horror-y, kind of mystery-y. a book that really doesn’t hand you any answers

The Seventh Perfection by Daniel Polansky - fantasy novella with a neat structure. highly recommend taking notes while reading this one, i did and it was a great way of being engaged

Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin A. Abbott - satire but make it math but make it eldritch horror. the entire thing is narrated by a square, just to give you an idea

anticipated reads for the end of the year:

Babel, or The Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution by R.F. Kuang - dropping the full title out of respect 😤 standalone historical fantasy from the author of the poppy war trilogy .. yes please!!

Nona the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir - third book in the locked tomb series. i am rereading in preparation and i eagerly await the insanity

Locklands by Robert Jackson Bennett - third and final book in the founders trilogy. there have truly never been books that are more written for me and i’m fascinated to see how this will end

#my posts #reading wrap up #books #liveblogging books

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anarchytecture · 4 months

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Anarchist Literature Sample Text Search

Structure

' Indeed, the racial segregation of humanity emerged to buttress an already existing system of colonization structured by the identification of enlightened humanity with the reasoning mind, the indubitable value assigned to formal education, along with the veneration of the intellect, civility, and citizen spirit.'

Knowledge

'"’ ‘Bookchin would favour making space for new knowledges. He would surely also back new ways of communicating such knowledges.'

right

' Your mandatories having to legislate on everything, from lucifer matches to ships of war, from clearing off caterpillars from trees to the extermination of peoples, red or black, it must seem to you that their intelligence will enlarge the virtue of the immensity of the task" (Freedom 249, January 1910, 4).'righ

Control

' As shown by the allowance of this federal interference—as well as the greater federal control one could find in northern Mexico at the time—the state was certainly a part of revolutionary Mexican land reform.'

authority

' Yea further, the pride and ambition of the prelates being boundless, unwilling to be subject either to man or laws, they claim their office and jurisdiction to be Jure Divino, exercise ecclesiastical authority in their own names and rights, and under their own seals, and take upon them temporal dignities, places and offices in the commonwealth, that they may sway both swords.'

authority

' Like how I treat individuals like John Africa, John Moore, John Muir (yes 3 Johns), Henry David Thoreau and Edward Carpenter as individuals that I am impressed by and respect a great deal of what they did, while not considering them to be authorities on anything or providers of “the path”, my relationship towards Krishnamurti is more one of heroic appreciation, than of a follower adoring or venerating a teacher.'

city

' This would lead to similar exchanges emerging in several other provincial cities.[3] [4]The Bostonian anarchist Josiah Warren participated in several communistic Owenite communities in the United States and also left with the belief that a means of market exchange based on the LTV was a key part of a liberatory economic project.'

#The little sister #Data collection

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thecoinshop · 4 months

Photo

Great price on this 2005-P California State Quarter ONLY: $2.00 Released January 31, 2005, this is the 31st coin released in the 50 State Quarters Program and the first released in 2005. California, admitted into the Union on September 9, 1850, featured an image of naturalist and conservationist John Muir admiring Yosemite Valley's monolithic granite headwall and a soaring California condor. President William J. Clinton was in office when this legislation was signed. Three United States Mint Directors served under President Clinton's tenure; David J. Ryder of Idaho, Philip N. Diehl of Texas, and Jay W. Johnson of Wisconsin. https://www.thecoinshop.shop/state-commemorative-quarters/2005-p-california-state-quarter View MORE State Commemorative Quarters https://www.thecoinshop.shop/state-commemorative-quarters StatehoodQuarters StateQuarterProgram statequarters

#Statehood Quarters #State Quarter Program #state quarters

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scotianostra · 2 years

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July 30th 1335 saw the Battle of Boroughmuir where a body of Scots led by the Earl of Moray defeat an English force en route to join Edward III and his army at Perth.

This was a battle during the Second Wars of Scottish Independence, I covered the subject a fair wee bit in the past and concerns John Balliol’s son, Edward’s attempts to wrestle the Scottish crown from King David II, son of Robert the Bruce. An army of mercenaries and the Disinherited had invaded Scotland a couple of years before and “crowned” Edward at Scone.

Many of you will no doubt know the name of Boroughmuir from the School or sports fans from the rugby club of the same name, but the the space now known as The Meadows was once called The Borough Muir.

Fronted by Guy, Count of Namur, the English, bolstered by a considerable body of foreign troops from the Flanders region of Belgium, had marched up from Berwick expecting to bypass Edinburgh minus any drama, but it was not to be. The site of the battle has been a traditional place where Scottish armies mustered before heading south to pick a fight, most notably before the tragic events of Flodden in 1513.

In the Martial Achievements of the Scottish Nation, Patrick Abercromby records that the Namurois, when defeated by the Scots at Boroughmuir retreated into Edinburgh, where they entered further conflict, particularly as they entered St Mary’s Wynd near the Netherbow Port.

Citing a 14th century account that recorded the valorous efforts of one particularly formidable Scots fighter, Abercromby wrote: “Here (St Mary’s Wynd) a Scots knight, Sir David Annand, a man of incredible strength and no less courage, having received a wound from one of the enemy, was thereby so much exasperated, that, at once exerting all the vigour of his unwearied arms, he gave his adversary such a blow with an axe, that the sharp and ponderous weapon clave both man and horse, and falling with irresistible force to the ground, made a lasting impression upon the very stones of the street.

This story may seem a little too romantic, and I would not have related it had I not cited a very good voucher, John de Fordoun, who flourished in 1360, not long after it happened.” The Count of Namur’s troops dispersed across the city, some fleeing towards the countryside to the south of Edinburgh.

However, a sizeable number, the Count included, took refuge at Edinburgh Castle, which had lain in ruin since 1315 when Robert the Bruce ordered its to be destroyed to prevent its re-occupation by the English.

Battered, bloodied and desperate, the Count ordered all his horses to be slaughtered and used their carcasses to fill the gaps in the castle’s broken defences. Besieged by the Scots, the Count of Namur and his Anglo-Flemish army survived a day before “hunger and thirst compelled him to capitulate”.The victorious Earl of Moray sent the Count and his band of followers on their way, on the proviso that never again would they bear arms against the ruling David II in Scotland.

An interesting fact about the battle is that in the aftermath, it was discovered that at least one English combatant was a woman. The soldier had engaged with a Scot named Richard Shaw, with the two fighters felled by one another’s spears. Upon stripping the Flemish fighter of the armour, the “gallant stranger” turned out to be a woman.

Centuries later, in 1867, a great quantity of human remains, said to date from the conflict, were discovered around 5 feet below the surface of Glengyle Terrace on the northern verge of the Boroughmuir, at what is now Bruntsfield Links. The remains were reburied by the Town Council.

Ultimately Balliol lost out in his attempt and relinquished his quest to rule Scotland in exchange for a pension from the English dying in obscurity at Wheatley, Doncaster, where his body is said to lie under a Post Office.

#Scotland #scottish #second war of Scottish Independence #England #english #Edinburgh #history

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