yuletide | Member Posts

I was talking about story exchanges with friends and realized my kink list of yes/no/maybe in fiction dated to 2011.

And that that was 15 years ago.

I overhauled it, so for anyone interested in a dive into my kinks, by all means have at.

Current Mood: orderly
Current Music: Fracture my spine and swear that you're mine

js_thrill

I wanted more books about people exploring dangerous and mysterious alien spaceships! And I found some! This one was well written, and an engaging read, but I did wind up feeling like it answered too many questions and wrapped things up too neatly for good cosmic horror. I want them to end with me having some degree of feeling unsettled and pondering things.

This has more explicit gore/body-horror than Ship of Fools did, in case anyone is seeking/avoiding such things.

i would give this 4 stars

js_thrill

Today's song: Fresh Cherries in Trinidad

Watch on YouTube

I did not enjoy listening to this song! I think maybe a version without the ding ding ding duh duh duh ding ding of the casio keyboard would be good, but I was not a fan of this version.

The titular Trinidad turns out to be a town in California.

Current Music: Fresh Cherries in Trinidad — The Mountain Goats

trobadora

Running late again. Normal services should resume tomorrow!

Today's writing

More

fandomtrees work.

Tally

( Days 1-10 )

Day 11:

badly_knitted,

brithistorian,

carenejeans,

chanter1944,

china_shop,

cornerofmadness,

daegaer,

goddess47,

sanguinity,

shadaras,

sylvanwitch,

trobadora,

ysilme

Day 12:

badly_knitted,

brithistorian,

carenejeans,

chanter1944,

china_shop,

cornerofmadness,

goddess47,

luzula,

sanguinity,

shadaras,

sylvanwitch,

trobadora,

ysilme

Day 13:

badly_knitted,

brithistorian,

carenejeans,

chanter1944,

china_shop,

cornerofmadness,

goddess47,

luzula,

sanguinity,

sylvanwitch,

trobadora,

ysilme

Day 14:

badly_knitted,

brithistorian,

carenejeans,

chanter1944,

china_shop,

cornerofmadness,

goddess47,

luzula,

sanguinity,

sylvanwitch,

trobadora

Day 15:

badly_knitted,

brithistorian,

china_shop,

cornerofmadness,

luzula,

sanguinity,

sylvanwitch,

trobadora

Day 16:

china_shop,

trobadora

Let me know if I missed anyone! And remember you can drop in or out at any time. :)

schneefink

I'm behind on household chores and fandom things (my end-of-year post, snowflake challenge etc.) and the next few weeks are going to be stressful because I have weekend classes again and other plans; and yet the past few days I've spent most of my spare time (and some time when I should have been asleep) reading the first 4.5 books of Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman. I'd heard enough good things about it that I put a hold on the first two books immediately when my library got them, and when I was finished with them I immediately wanted to continue reading.
Unfortunately the ebook versions of books 3-7 are only available on amazon from what I've seen and I try to avoid giving them money when I can, so I joined the author's Patreon instead and am now reading the unedited versions of the other books. It's very hard to stop reading! There's always just one more thing I want to see how it goes, and then the next.

I enjoy the LitRPG and power-up fantasy aspects, but I think my favorite angle is the reality TV death game. Reminds me of the Hunger Games in that aspect, with bonus corporate politics in the background. I also like the characters, the main cast and the supporting cast, and I enjoy the crazy plans. Can't wait to see where it goes! ...except I have to because of chores and classes etc. etc. and I should also try to get enough sleep. Boo.

dhampyresa

Prompt 8 for this year is "Talk about your creative process." which made me realise it's been a while since I've had a Story Song. Usually when I have a story I'm working on I have a song that goes with it, that echoes some aspect of the plot, setting or character (dynamics) and yet lately... Nothing. Maybe that's why everything has been feeling so empty and been so hard to write?

ANYWAY all this is a long-winded way to ask for music recs.

petra

Stand With Minnesota.com has mutual aid opportunities and testimonals of what happens when the president decides he doesn't like a state and sends in ICE to harass everyone.

If you donate 25 bucks to any listed org, tell me about it, and I will write for you in any of my fandoms. Anonymous comments signed with a username are welcome, and I explicitly 100% do not want anything that doxxes you.

Stay safe out there and help each other.

Current Mood: determined
Current Music: When I look around me, I can't believe what I see

petra

Do you like to sing socially? Do you like traditional music and music in the style of trad music?

Youth Trad Song is a youth-focused but not youth-exclusive event focused on singing with an awareness of social justice issues underlying the trad song community. It's happening the last weekend of March, 2026, in Connecticut.

Registration has closed, but they have a lot of openings left, so get your name in for the waitlist ASAP!

( But money )

Current Mood: musical
Current Music: The moon o'er the combers looks downward to find us

maevedarcy

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has marked as possibly inappropriate for anyone under the age of 18. )

purplecat

A single standing stone. Straight edges and a diagonal at the top. Field, sea, hills beyond in the background.

A Stone of Stenness, Orkney

svgurl

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

Challenge #8
Talk about your creative process.

A lot of my process involves staring at a blinking cursor and wishing for the will to write. Does that count? But seriously, it depends on whether I'm writing for myself or am working on something related to an exchange. The former hasn't happened in a while and I keep hoping for that to change but there is a difference. When it comes to writing for myself, a lot of my fics do end up starting with me daydreaming about a particular scene and then end up thinking of a whole story to work around it. Sometimes a 'what if' idea will hit me. Like currently, I've been brainstorming a 9-1-1 (TV) story about platonic Hanahaki, centered around Christopher & Eddie (with Buck/Eddie) and it really came to me because I was thinking about Hanahaki and that led to me wondering about the platonic version and from there, the Eddie & Chris plot bunny struck. I'm sure many other people can relate to having their ideas and motivation to write at the worst possible time too! When I'm in front of a screen it is easier to get distracted by my phone or other tabs.

When it comes to writing for other people, I'm working based of their likes and any possible prompts they may have so I tend to let it linger in my head before narrowing it down to an idea and then I just sit down and write.

If I want to get into a certain mood to write, I will often listen to the type of songs that will help a little. I can't write with music though unfortunately, or at least not when I'm not a deadline. If I have a lot of time, then possibly, but if I am wanting to focus, I need silence. Sometimes, I just need to force myself to write and then I put myself on timed increments and just turn my phone face down and write. It will be something like "okay, I'm going to write for about ten to fifteen minutes straight and then take a couple of minutes break". Once I can get started, I can usually just keep going. If I need a breather, I'll take the break, but often times, I might not need that first one or I'll take the first one and then won't need as many subsequently because I'll be into the story.

For me, it's easy to just fall off writing, even if I enjoy it, so I'm hoping to find some sense of consistency this year. I tried last year but I was a little all over the place so my goal to write a bit every day, just so I can keep it going and not get into the habit of not writing unless I need to. Also I am going to try to remember that not every idea has to be a big story and then just stick to a scene that I want to write, and hope that takes off some of the pressure. Maybe in doing so, some of my routines will change as well.

Hoping for a productive and fun (because this is a hobby and should be fun!) 2026 either way! :D

rachelmanija

In this engrossing historical novel, three storylines converge on a single target, a female Nazi nicknamed the Huntress. During the war, we follow Nina, one of the Soviet women who flew bomber runs and were known as the Night Witches. After the war, we follow Ian, a British war correspondent turned Nazi hunter, who has teamed up with Nina to hunt down the Huntress as Nina is one of the very few people who saw her face and survived. At the same time, in Boston, we follow Jordan, a young woman who wants to be a photographer and is suspicious of the beautiful German immigrant her father wants to marry...

In The Huntress, we often know what has happened or surely must happen, but not why or how; we know Nina somehow ended up facing off with the Huntress, but not how she got there or how she escaped; we know who Jordan's stepmom-to-be is and that she'll surely be unmasked eventually, but not how or when that'll happen or how the confrontation will go down. There's a lot of suspense but none of it depends on shocking twists, though there are some unexpected turns.

Nina and Jordan are very likable and compelling, especially Nina who is kind of a force of nature. It took me a while to warm up to Ian, but I did about halfway through. Nina's story is fascinating and I could have read a whole novel just about her and her all-female regiment, but I never minded switching back to Jordan as while her life is more ordinary, it's got this tense undercurrent of creeping horror as she and everyone around her are being gaslit and manipulated by a Nazi.

This is the kind of satisfying, engrossing historical novel that I think used to be more common, though this one probably has a lot more queerness than it would have had if it had been written in the 80s - a woman/woman relationship is central to the story, and there are multiple other queer characters. It has some nice funny moments and dialogue to leaven a generally serious story (Nina in particular can be hilarious), and there's some excellent set piece action scenes. If my description sounds good to you, you'll almost certainly enjoy it.

Spoilers! ( Read more... )

Quinn has written multiple historical novels, mostly set during or around WW2. This is the first I've read but it made me want to read more of hers.

Content notes: Wartime-typical violence, gaslighting, a child in danger. The Huntress murdered six children, but this scene does not appear on-page. There is no sexual assault and no scenes in concentration camps.

dolorosa_12

I am absolutely flattened by work this week, and next week promises to be more of the same. It's the point in the academic year when all the Master's and PhD students have to hand in literature reviews and project proposals, and all of them suddenly panic and realise that the classes I taught them (carefully timetabled to coincide with the point at which they were meant to start work on their literature reviews and project proposals) actually contained crucial, useful information and they probably should have been paying more attention and doing the suggested follow-up activities while what I taught them was fresh in their minds. Because they haven't done this, they all, of course, contact me at once, now. It's good to be needed — I wouldn't have a job, otherwise — but I wish they didn't all need me so much and all at the same time.

Anyway, let's use another

snowflake_challenge prompt for the Friday open thread: Talk about your creative process.

I know a lot of you have already answered this in your own journals, so feel free to link to your posts in the comments rather than writing things out again. Or, answer in the comments if this is a brand new topic for you!

( My answer )

What about you?

umadoshi

As so often happens, I had several things I meant to post about and now they've mostly evaporated.

But I do know my tabs situation is staggering out of control. (Reliably over 1700 for at least the last couple of weeks.) Odds that I'll get to replying to all the posts I've read but opened in a tab to reply to later on...are currently very slim.

Have a link: Sarah Kurchak wrote about Heated Rivalry for TIME recently: "Heated Rivalry Handles Autism With Love, Care, and a Touch of Awkwardness".

Current Mood: busy
Current Music: Dessa — Rothko (live for The Current)

swingandswirl

RL and my

fffx fic contrive to eat all my spoons, and next week does not portend to be any better, but here, have this utter delight of an ad:

Watch on YouTube

brightknightie

If you enjoy Overly Sarcastic Productions (YouTube channel) -- as you will if you try them! they bring joy and knowledge of media, literature, and history in their own delightful ways -- but not so very much that you also listen to their podcast or subscribe to their Patreon, you may be wondering, hey, where's today's new video? What's a Friday without new OSP? How shall I press on through this vale of tears without new OSP to look forward to at the end of each workweek?

Well, after ~15 years of consistently posting a banger new video every Friday, and with Red's webcomic taking physical form via Andrews & McMeel, and Blue working on his second book, and both of them jointly publishing co-written short stories, they have declared 2026 to be "Chill Year." They will post a banger new video every other Friday, fortnightly instead of weekly (aka "not that biweekly, the other biweekly" as Red says of the podcast).

They plan to resume weekly videos in 2027. And they've explicitly promised that the much-loved annual installment of Red's animatic retelling of The Journey to the West will arrive on schedule, as always. ♥

tozka

🎬 Wake Up Dead Man: Directed by Rian Johnson. With Daniel Craig, Josh O'Connor, Glenn Close, Josh Brolin. Detective Benoit Blanc teams up with an earnest young priest to investigate a perfectly impossible crime at a small-town church with a dark history. 🔗

What I liked: the cast; how the director/writer obviously had an itch to scratch re: Christianity and the State of Things Today and really wanted to Say Something; how it's structured like an Agatha Christie novel almost exactly, or at least some old fashioned one (which in that context the plot pacing makes perfect sense). I also liked the makeup/wardrobe, which didn't glam up any of the actors except maybe Josh Brolin.

What I didn't like: the overly long introduction sequence which focused on characters that made barely any impact and weren't even good red herrings; the people who need to hear about the kinder Christianity stuff wouldn't watch this movie anyway so it ends up kind of like, well...preaching to the choir.

Unbeknownst to me, my parents were watching it on the same day-- but it turns out that we liked/disliked almost the exact opposite things. They loved the long intro!

nyctanthes

I will get to Challenge #6: Top 10 at some point. I want to talk about theatre I've seen, but that requires more time and thought than I currently have.

Also! Tomorrow!

threesentenceficathon begins! (pleasepleaseplease let me inspired just a leetle bit...)

Challenge #7: Three Things I Like About Meeee

1. When I start something, I finish it. This can be bad (sunk cost fallacy), but generally (see below) is a plus.

2. I’m funny. For a while I worried that my humor was too off-the-cuff, and I couldn’t translate it into writing. But that’s not true! I rather enjoy reading my own stuff and LOL-ing at my ~~occasionally~~ frequently juvenile jokes.

3. I say the thing that everyone’s thinking but is afraid to verbalize. When I was younger, I was too blunt, and this honesty was often off-putting. As I matured, I learned to leaven the truth with humor, to manage my tone, to not make it a personal attack, which really, really helps.

Challenge #8: Creative Process

Rather than get into the weeds of my process, which aren’t that interesting, including to me, I’ll just say that, at a macro-level, what most drives my writing process is that when I draft something and determine it’s worth pursuing, I finish it. Once I broke my two-decade plus writing drought, the third piece of fanfic I wrote was a 86K word novel. Did it receive any comments or kudos as I posted it, chapter-by-chapter? Not really. But by god I was going to finish it. Not just finish it, but edit it structurally so that it flowed better. One of the last pieces of fanfic I wrote was an even longer, Nancy Wheeler from ST story which had a very limited audience and required a whole lot of research. Didn’t matter. I *needed* to get closure on it before I could start writing original fiction and apply to graduate school.

This is helping me now that I’ve transferred my creative energy from fanfic to original fiction. Folks, writing a novel is a giant fucking pain in the ass that I do not recommend. And unlike fanfic, I have no guarantees that someone will eventually read it and love it.* Having practice finishing large projects is very helpful (“I know I can do this!”), as is my bull-headed** determination to cross an item off my to-do list.

(For me!) finishing a project is one of the best ways to learn and improve. The sense of satisfaction! The confidence boost! Unparalleled.

* Which eventually happened with both my fanfic novels. Not many people, but I write for niche audiences. :P

** Did I mention that I’m a Taurus and was born in the year of the ox?

nialla

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

extrapenguin

Slightly delayed by the fact that I only published 3 vids last year, even if I did finish a fourth and have a fifth only in need of like 10 seconds of clip. Anyway.

...Actually, let me publish the fourth one real quick. I vidded it last summer so I'll have it count here. So! Here's the 2025 published vids:

SW ST: Is There Anybody Out There?

vidukon_cardiff
Fox Volant: My Loss

ficinabox
Fox Volant: Sister Moon

ficinabox
SW ST: Wide Awake
(The unpublished fifth, Free Me, one is also SW ST, and part of my vid album project like the other two.)

( 2025 vid review )

Profile

Yuletide

while we tell of yuletide treasure

January 2026

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

Page Summary

petra - Fun things to do on a snowy Friday - Kink list updated
js_thrill - The Last Astronaut (David Wellington)
js_thrill - This Year 365 songs: January 16th
trobadora - Write Every day 2026: January, Day 16
schneefink - Dungeon Crawlers: kill, kill, kill
dhampyresa - Not really a snowflake challenge entry
petra - US Politics: Minnesota under attack
petra - US Music: Social Singers in the Northeast - Youth Trad Song Weekend waitlist is open
maevedarcy - Snowflake Challenge #7
purplecat - Random Neolithic Stones on a Friday
svgurl - snowflake challenge #7
rachelmanija - The Huntress, by Kate Quinn
dolorosa_12 - Friday open thread: your creative process
umadoshi - A very insubstantial post, but hey, there's a Heated Rivalry link
swingandswirl - Proof of life post
brightknightie - OSP's "Chill Year" 2026
tozka - watched: wake up dead man (2026)
nyctanthes - Snowflake Challenge #7-8
nialla - The Pitt?
extrapenguin - Vidding Year in Review

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Page generated Jan. 17th, 2026 02:21 am

Yuletide unofficial chat

Member Posts

Fun things to do on a snowy Friday - Kink list updated

The Last Astronaut (David Wellington)

This Year 365 songs: January 16th

Write Every day 2026: January, Day 16

Dungeon Crawlers: kill, kill, kill

Not really a snowflake challenge entry

US Politics: Minnesota under attack

US Music: Social Singers in the Northeast - Youth Trad Song Weekend waitlist is open

Snowflake Challenge #7

Random Neolithic Stones on a Friday

snowflake challenge #7

The Huntress, by Kate Quinn

Friday open thread: your creative process

A very insubstantial post, but hey, there's a Heated Rivalry link

Proof of life post

OSP's "Chill Year" 2026

watched: wake up dead man (2026)

Snowflake Challenge #7-8

The Pitt?

Vidding Year in Review

Profile

January 2026

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