Wordcount: ~114,000 Rated: Teen for swearing and violence No Archive Warnings Apply
Summary:
They saved the ship. Now everyone wants them dead.
Jacks Harrison and chief engineer Antony Watts avoided a catastrophic collision between their generation ship Peace and their three sister ships that would have killed every human in the fleet. But saving their people came with a cost, and now Jacks and Antony are wanted by the rebellious factions that overthrew Peace’s corrupt governor.
With Peace’s two cities in shambles and neighbor turning against neighbor, Jacks and Antony must fight their way to safety only to find that the people on Peace are still in terrible danger: the ship’s water system is bleeding out, and it’s up to them to figure out how stop it.
Along the way, Jacks must reckon with the violence she finds herself too comfortable with and Antony must confront his past complicity in the corrupt regime. Because Peace doesn’t hand out easy answers, and they both have to decide how far they’re willing to go to ensure they survive.
It's company meeting day! (Yes, we have these every month now. No, we're still not getting any more information than we used to.)
Important Company People are going to be in the office today for a different meeting, and it's been very funny (to me) to read all the notices and emails and signs Politely Informing us of this fact. (It's basically many variations of 'of course no one would act unprofessionally on any day, but maybe especially don't act unprofessionally on this specific day, just a suggestion, thanks, please don't make us look bad.')
Things I'm looking forward to:
*free coffee *free lunch *not being required to answer emails while the meeting is happening
If you want to have a little extra fun, be a little more yourself, and be part of keeping the site open for everyone in the future, we can’t wait to see you in our new subscription-based section with exclusive content and events.
Everything you’re used to seeing at the Hot Pink Palace that is Smart Bitches Trashy Books will remain free as always, because we remain committed to fostering community among brilliant readers who love romance.
Y’all, I am tired. This week has been so weird and we’re only halfway through it. Anyone else feeling off-kilter?
At the very least, it’s Cadbury Creme Egg season. My favorite time of the year. However, I’ve heard that the Cadbury chocolates, in general, are of better quality across the bond. Maybe one day I’ll get to taste test!
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This link was sent in by EC Spurlock:
This is a virtual tour company I have been following since COVID. It’s a great way to tour the world without leaving home! All tours are free to zoom, they just recommend that you tip the guide at the end. The guides can be hit or miss sometimes, and sometimes they can’t fit everything they want to in the hour format, but most of the guides I have seen have been very good and informative. All in all a worthwhile experience for $10-$20 depending on the guide and what you get to see.
If you sign up and can’t make it, most all of the tours are recorded now and they will send you a link to watch the recording at your convenience. You do have to sign up in advance the day before so be sure to spread the word!
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If you love and miss bonkers vintage romance reviews, I highly recommend the Tattered Pages newsletter. They wrote a review on reddit and I was dying.
Not a link, per se, but Sarah and I are kicking around ideas to revitalize the Smart Bitches Book Club. It’d be more like a read-along where people can engage as they read rather than trying to wrangle a Zoom or virtual chat across so many time zones and schedules. The tentative idea would be to run them quarterly and offer them for four different subgenres: historical, contemporary, SFF/paranormal, and dark/romantic suspense. Readers can participate in as little or as many as they’d like.
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Don’t forget to share what cool or interesting things you’ve seen, read, or listened to this week! And if you have anything you think we’d like to post on a future Wednesday Links, send it my way!
In the week leading up to and week of my moontime I mistakenly thought I'd relapsed into depression, because my PMS symptoms were that bad. The day after I finished bleeding, I wrote the rest of Dollshops & Deathmages, in a dramatic restoration of my spirits and creativity. I don't want to be miserable and listless for half a month, even if I'm in a creative flow for the other half. In quite the synchronicity, The Cozy Creative posted a video about how her menstrual cycle affects her creativity.
It made me feel better, knowing that I'm not alone in having to plan my writing work around moontime, but I really wish my symptoms would be limited to the week of moontime because two weeks is a lot of time lost.
Now to wait for the other authors participating in the cozy fantasy anthology to finish their stories. I've also talked to my cover designer about a cover for Dollshops & Deathmages, because after the anthology has run its course the participating authors will release their stories individually as they see fit. I'm hoping to make Dollshops & Deathmages an evergreen prequel novella and occasional reader magnet for the subsequent cozy books I have planned, so it needs its own cover.
Back when I was employed, I saved up and got myself covers for a couple of the cozy books I'm writing (Dragons & Debutantes and Pumpkin Jack Proposes) since covers are the biggest authorial expense. Dollshops & Deathmages wasn't planned for because I didn't know I was going to participate in a cozy anthology until the opportunity came up, and I crafted this story specifically for this anthology. So I have had to commission the cover for this now, not in advance like the others.
My parents are decently supportive about this indie author project and funded the cover for Dollshops & Deathmages, but I'm not decently grateful because I wanted their support long before this and didn't get it. If I'd gotten their support before this I would've had a job and would've been able to pay for my own covers. Their opposition to me taking that job was very gendered, so I don't feel privileged at all. Even though I am.
I'm bitter and prideful whenever I have to ask them for money, and when they sweetly tell me I have only to ask them, I'm overwhelmed by anger because they could have been supportive all along but only chose to be after I was driven into a corner and had no options left.
I think the contrast between them happily giving me handouts vs. their crashout when I wanted to work at the bookstore is probably because they like me being at home and dependent. I mean it makes no sense that they're supportive about this, but weren't supportive about the stable salaried thing.
goreswap is a multifandom exchange for fic and art, featuring gore. Assignments must be at least 500 words or a sketch on unlined paper, and contain significant gore content.
For details or to claim, see the pinch hit post above. These assignments are due April 12 at 11:59 PM EDT.
Pinch Hit #1: Art, Fic - The Starving Saints - Caitlin Starling, Trigun (Anime & Manga 1995-2008), Blue Eye Samurai (Cartoon), Dredge (Video Game), The Luminous Dead - Caitlin Starling
Pinch Hit #5: Fic - Night Prince - Jeaniene Frost, グノーシア | Gnosia (Visual Novel), Dracula Rising (Cartoon)
Pinch Hit #8: Art, Fic - Ice Nine Kills (Band), Resident Evil (Movies - Anderson), Cardinal (TV 2017), Shall We Date?: Obey Me! (Video Game), Harrow (TV), 9-1-1: Lone Star (TV 2020), Tracker (TV 2024), Murder Drones (Web Series), Original Work
Pinch Hit #9: Fic - Anne Rice's Talamasca: The Secret Order (TV 2025), Interview with the Vampire (TV 2022), Loki (TV 2021), The Night Manager (TV 2016), D.Gray-man (Anime & Manga), Merlin (TV)
Pinch Hit #10: Art, Fic - Undertale (Video Game), Deltarune (Video Game), The Owl House (Cartoon)
I apologize to those I misled or led on by attempting to create reality earlier; as our pinch hits are not yet all claimed, there is a further delay.
Pinch hit #32 is due at 11:59pm EDT, Thursday 26 March or your best offer. To claim, please reply with your AO3 name, and let me know if you're claiming 5k or 10k. You're also welcome to claim by emailing mod.modzilla@gmail.com.
If you have a current pinch hit, I'm happy to discuss extensions. However, your deadline is not automatically extended. Please contact me if you'd like more time.
Minimum requirements: An art gift must be a completed comic at least 10 pages or 40 panels long; a fic gift must be a story at least 10,000 words long. You can also fulfil a pinch hit by giving two complete half-length works, if your recipient has opted into that for the fandom(s) you are creating in. Any work must be for a fandom your recipient has requested and one character/relationship/worldbuilding tag requested in that fandom, and must avoid their DNWs.
Everyone needs contact comfort sometimes. Not everyone has ample opportunities for this in facetime. So here is a chance for a cuddle party in cyberspace. Virtual cuddling can help people feel better.
We have a cuddle room that comes with fort cushions, fort frames, sheets for draping, and a weighted blanket. A nest full of colorful egg pillows sits in one corner. There is a basket of grooming brushes, hairbrushes, and styling combs. A bin holds textured pillows. There is a big basket of craft supplies along with art markers, coloring pages, and blank paper. The kitchen has a popcorn machine. Labels are available to mark dietary needs, recipe ingredients, and level of spiciness. Here is the bathroom, open to everyone. There is a lawn tent and an outdoor hot tub. Bathers should post a sign for nude or clothed activity. Come snuggle up!
Fandom: Pride and Prejudice Pairings/Characters: Darcy/Elizabeth, Georgiana, Jane/Bingley Rating: Teen Length: 75k Creator Links: anghraine Theme: siblings, old fandoms, book fandoms, novel length, AU, family,
Summary: Without Lady Catherine's interference, a family catastrophe throws Darcy and Elizabeth down wildly different paths.
Reccer's Notes: This series is very much Darcy/Elizabeth, but they spend a lot of it going down separate paths. And on those separate paths, their closest relationships are with their siblings--Darcy and Georgiana, Jane and Elizabeth. I love the care that is taken with all of the different relationships in this story.
Uzma Jalaluddin, Detective Aunty (2025): when the landlord of her daughter's small clothing boutique is murdered, Kausar drops everything to go. Kausar's (white) friend feels sure that Kausar will find out what really happened. But her daughter wants help with housekeeping and child-minding, not an adult peer's support.
I'm only in ch. 3, I don't care currently whether books stick the landing (though I like this one so far), and ch. 2 is great for its tender forthrightness: when a kid (even a thirtysomething adult, like Kausar's daughter) is used to seeing a parent in a certain way, that's how the two are paused, unless the child makes an effort to grow a bit more. It's not something that the parent can shift solo.
Fandom: Marvel Pairings/Characters: Steve/Bucky Rating: Gen Length: 4k Creator Links:what_alchemy Theme: siblings, AU, family
Summary: Bucky was the eldest of four.
Reccer's Notes: Bucky has four younger siblings, and in 2015 they are elderly, crotchety, and determined to go see Steve Rogers. Getting there is an ordeal, and what they find there is a surprise. I love the way the characters are so well-drawn and realistic, and I love the humor.
The bitter Democratic House primary in Illinois’ 9th Congressional District, stretching across Chicago’s North Side, ended with progressive Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss narrowly winning a crowded field.
Finishing second was the also-progressive Kat Abughazaleh, the former Media Matters for America staffer now facing a bullshit federal indictment tied to protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids in Chicago.
That race—along with three other high-profile primaries in the city—was flooded with tens of millions of dollars from pro-Israel group AIPAC, the crypto industry, and AI-linked interests. Much of that money wasn’t just overwhelming. It was deployed in ways that were outright dishonest.
Political reporter Dave Weigel catalogued some of the worst tactics, including a crypto-funded ad attacking a Bernie Sanders-style progressive aligned with the Democratic Socialists of America as a “corporate pawn”—a blatant attempt to kneecap him in a progressive district.
Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss speaks during the 9th District primary debate in Chicago on Feb. 25.
And AIPAC was, as usual, the worst offender.
“Illinois pop-up groups funded by AIPAC, with innocuous names like ‘Elect Chicago Women,’ have spent millions on ads that falsely portray pro-Israel candidates as anti-Trump warriors and pro-Palestinian candidates as secret right-wingers,” Weigel reported. “The ads have dragged Democrats who otherwise have few policy differences into arguments about what they would owe their donors and whose money they wouldn’t take.”
Read Weigel’s story—it’s a clusterfuck.
Money in politics has always been a concern, but it hasn’t always been decisive. Candidates with the biggest war chests lose all the time. Kamala Harris significantly outraised President Donald Trump, and it didn’t matter. That’s not unusual.
But that dynamic assumes something we no longer have: a baseline commitment to truth and transparency.
What these super PACs are doing now is different. They’re flooding elections with disinformation, hiding behind shell groups, and counting on voters not being able to tell what’s real. That’s not just ugly politics. It’s corrosive.
“What hasn’t changed is that these PACs run on what their strategists believe will play with Democratic primary voters, not what their funders want to achieve,” Weigel wrote. “As a result, watching TV in Chicago makes you feel like a cordyceps fungus has taken over the Democratic Party—imitating its messaging to destroy it, just as the parasite does in the wild.”
Even Rahm Emanuel—who helped build this big-money system—acknowledged where things are headed. “You’re going to see more of this unfortunately,” the former Chicago mayor told Politico. “Illinois is literally the first stop on the way to an ugly future, where billionaires will be the dominant players and candidates will be pawns in their world.”
In the 9th District, AIPAC’s strategy was clear: siphon votes from both Abughazaleh and Biss, each a sharp critic of Israel. It didn’t work.
And it hasn’t worked elsewhere. In New Jersey, AIPAC-backed efforts to take down Rep. Tom Malinowski over his insufficiently hawkish stance ended up backfiring, helping elect outspoken Israel critic Analilia Mejia.
It dumped $10 million into the Senate primary backing Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, who added more than $30 million from his own war chest. His allies even spent another $1 million boosting OG Daily Kos candidate Rep. Robin Kelly in a blatant attempt to split the vote among his two Black women opponents.
On the other side, Gov. J.B. Pritzker put $5 million into a super PAC backing Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton.
Joined by Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, left, Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton speaks to residents at the Montclare Senior Residences of Avalon Park in Chicago on March 12.
All told, Krishnamoorthi and his backers spent over $40 million. Stratton and her allies? Roughly $18 million.
Thankfully, Stratton still won with about 40% of the vote.
So yes, money still isn’t everything. But the way that money is now being used is a serious problem.
These outside groups—crypto, AI, AIPAC—aren’t trying to win arguments. They’re trying to bury them under lies. They hide their motives, disguise their funding, and manipulate voters with messaging designed to deceive.
That’s not sustainable in a functioning democracy and is leading us down a dark path. And the longer it goes unchecked, the worse it gets.
On commentary again. I see you. I appreciate you. Mid term grades are due tomorrow so I am overwhelmed. And annoyed. And I will be busier and busier as we go. At least 5 of the 7 students who missed the midterm before break showed up today and took their exam (we had like three sports teams out that week) one had a good excuse for coming tomorrow and the other (who happens to be the one who's been cheating) didn't bother to let me know what they're doing so someone is gonna be surprised tomorrow when grades go in
I did want to say a lot of you did respond to my question about those scenes that won't leave you alone. Most do what I do as well, write them out and even if you don't use them, it's out of your head. While I do this I don't do it enough and I think that is because I'm afraid if I do, the whole thing will go quiet. I've had that happen. That's a whole different set of problems.
I'm not feeling St Patrick's day so it is also St Gertrude of Nivelles day, the patroness of cats among other things so let's combine the day with Women's History and here's more about her. Gertrude of Nivelles
I wasn't sure I was thrilled about the reboot but it grew on me the more I learned about it but can we as fans say how fucking tired we are of some exec making foolish choices based on their arrogance and feelings. Bragging how much you hated Buffy and didn't bother with it originally is not a good reason to make this choice.
Three seconds of research would show that 25 years later still has fans churning out a few dozen stories/art/articles practically daily. You're talking a rabid fan base ready for th is, not to mention a whole new generation of fans to woo. So Hulu is losing a ton of profit because of one man's ego. And this is not for the first time. We've seen this time and again, especially with these 25 y.o. male execs who seem to not understand their audiences at all.
The last time I was this infuriated was with Prodigal Son which Fox touted as it's number one show and then 1 episode from the end, cancels it taking everyone including the cast by surprise.
Since I took my vids site down years ago and then had my vidding machine crash on me, my vids have been spread scattershot in various places. A few on YouTube. A few on the Internet Archive. Most MIA. But I was poking around the basement and finally found the disk backups of a lot of them, so I'm going to start putting them back online and up on AO3.
First two show the fully crazy range of my vidding: wacky hijinks to existential dread.
The wacky hijinks part is on display in the first one:
Pop a Boner A multifandom vid using every instance of male nudity I could get my grubby little paws on.
The song is from the Zero Patience soundtrack. (Zero Patience is a Canadian musical about the alleged first AIDS patient. It's funny and uplifting and fuelled by furious outrage. You should watch it.)
And for existential dread, have a little Withnail and I:
The Fear The song is by Pulp, and I used every moment of dread and depression in Withmail & I. (Withnail is a really funny movie with a high angst quotient, and I chose the angst over the humour for this one.)
This is the vid I'm possibly most proud of, and I'd feared it was lost forever, so I was so happy to find it in my disk backups.
I have slightly more brain now and maybe enough energy to post more? Let's find out. I'm sure you've missed me posting about random video games.
Anyway, Slay the Spire 2, the sequel to my most favorite roguelike deckbuilder Slay the Spire came out in Early Access two weeks ago, and is apparently stunningly popular -- it had 500,000 concurrent players its first weekend, beating basically everything else on Steam at the time, which no one was really expecting from, you know, an indie card game.
I haven't played it enough to give a full review, because even in EA there is a lot more content -- there are five characters, two of which are brand new, all of which have new cards, and there are all sorts of new mechanics and events I haven't discovered yet. So far I have now beaten what exists of the game with four of the five characters and I know I haven't seen anywhere near everything yet. I think it's currently balanced harder than the original game, but the subreddit is full of people saying it is way too easy, so I guess we will see what happens when the balance patches start coming out.
But the really cool thing about this game is the multiplayer, which we only found out existed in a trailer that they released, like, two weeks before the actual game. It has co-op with up to four players! I only have one friend who plays this game, as far as I know -- gelishan, who actually introduced me to the original game -- and we played a game of it the other night, and I have to say that co-op is absolutely the most fun way to experience the game. It helps to be on voice chat, so you can coordinate things like 'who are we targeting first" or "if you have anything inflicting Vulnerable, please play that first" or "do you need this Strength Potion" or "do you want me to play Piercing Wail this turn so you don't take 35 damage straight to the face" or whatever, but I guess theoretically you could play it in silence and just deal with the fact that everyone is playing their turns simultaneously.
Anyway, that is clearly the way this game has always been meant to be played and I need to do this again at some point. The co-op multiplayer is absolutely amazing! I don't know that I would recommend the game in its current single-player state to people who haven't played the original, just because it is already a hard game and it helps to have some idea of how three of the five characters play, if you're going to play it by yourself. But if you are playing multiplayer, I think you can just go for it and you and your friends can take turns carrying each other through the game.
So, yeah, that's what I've been up to, as I slowly regain some brain. Slaying the Spire anew!
(Also it's really weird to actually talk to someone you have known on the internet for, like, 25 years, but you've never heard their voice before.)
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tassosss
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Happy Wednesday!
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