lullabymoon | Network

My mother just snatched my mint from my hand and gave me her mint because mine was full and her mint was a quarter of a mint. (Red Bird needs way better quality control)

So let me do this week's writing nonsense with a question. I just read 2 books with a similar beginning. We know how it ends in the very beginning and the book is about how we get there. It worked in one case and not the other. I think the difference is in how it was done. In the first, a suspense story, we know 6 women go on vacation together and we know someone dies. this worked because we don't know who is dead and the story opens like a blossom one petal at a time until we see it all.

In the second book, a horror, we know the protagonist is in a mental hospital trying to determine if she is sane and can be hung for murder and the story is about how she got there. But for me there was no mystery to it (not to mention I've seen this basic horror plot a million times)

The first added tension. The second deflated it. The question is, have you tried this scenario? Did it work? Have you read it? Did it work? I'm sure like most things there's no one answer but I have found what works for me and what doesn't.

Open Calls

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From Betty

Four Signs Your Story Escalates Too Quickly

How to Write Three Types of Friendship Arcs

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Amateur Sleuth Amateur Hour

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That Old-Time Omniscient

How to Write Unique, Memorable Character Voices.

Principles of Plotting Part IV: Intersection and Redirection

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Current Mood: nauseated
Current Music: The Ark

hannah

I can still easily enough drop and do ten push-ups.

I can still, not as easily, do ten more.

I could probably do another ten in a few minutes, but I think I'll move onto squats and curls for a little while. Just something to move a bit and make sleeping a little easier.

Current Mood: working
Current Music: nothing now

justmarriedmod posting in

justmarriedexchange

Matching has run!

There is currently 1 participants unmatchable on offers. If your username starts with M, please check the email associated with your AO3 account. Matching will be re-run as soon as these participants reply, or at 11:59pm UTC 13 July (~ 1 day from now), whichever is earlier.

If everyone is matchable after this, assignments will be sent out within several hours.

possibilityleft

Oops, I've had a busy summer so far, but it has included a lot of reading!

*****

( books! )

senmut

AO3 Link | Steady Progression (1704 words) by Merfilly
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Star Trek: The Original Series
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Leonard "Bones" McCoy/Spock
Characters: Leonard "Bones" McCoy, Spock
Additional Tags: Developing Relationships
Summary:

Spock picks up on something they share.

Steady Progression

It was the under-the-breath words that first caught Spock's attention after McCoy was assigned to the ship. Many people did not put their culture forward in the interests of keeping a professional ease with so many diverse backgrounds, and Spock could understand that quiet approach. He recalled his mother's teachings about the impact of centuries' long persecutions, and how slowly their culture had recovered from the trials of humanity's last major wars.

Fundamentally, it changed nothing in how Spock would approach his work when the doctor was involved —

— and that involvement was proving to be more prevalent than one would statistically think possible.

On realizing how involved McCoy would be making himself, joining any away mission he could despite his professed discomfort with teleporter technology, Spock realized that he should likely determine where and how their traditions overlapped.

At the very least, it would give them new material to debate outside of the Captain's decisions.

Spock entered McCoy's office after a brief pause to be noted, a data tape in hand.

"Doctor, over the course of this mission so far, I have observed certain habits that you have, ones that I recognized due to studying the culture of my human ancestry."

"Is that so, Mr. Spock?" McCoy questioned, moving to perch on his desk edge. It put him much closer, a physical proximity issue that continually cropped up on the bridge and missions alike. Spock had settled it as a 'quirk' in his deciphering of the doctor, noting he employed it in lieu of the more common hand on shoulder with others.

"I took the liberty to spool a data tape for your personal files that will convert stardates to a calendar you may find culturally relevant," Spock said, offering the tape over.

"A nice touch, Mr. Spock, but I don't need to have an atavistic connection to the North American calendar, no matter how many 'quaint aphorisms' I throw into my every day speech," McCoy told him, a smile present to defuse the 'hurt feelings' such a thing would cause in other humans.

"This is a much older dating system. To match the words you state for joys, losses, and necessary actions."

McCoy's eyes went very wide, before he smiled broadly in response. "Thank you then. I've got a rough program to try and track the holidays, but stardates and our lives sometimes throw me off. I'll trust your calculations." He waved the data tape at Spock, before setting it down. "And Spock?"

"Yes?" Spock replied, noting the drop of the honorific, implying a more personal slant to the words.

"I'd be willing to discuss things, if you have questions about your research."

"Discussions with you being so bracing, I may find it interesting, to see the differences in your approach to the cultural ramifications on life as we live it, versus the ways I was raised to observe."

McCoy's jaw dropped, and Spock merely arched an eyebrow, perhaps with a minor lift of one corner of his lips in something almost like a smile, before he left McCoy to his duties.

Spock looked at the food in front of McCoy with a raised eyebrow, before meeting the man's eyes.

"Don't start."

"I was not 'starting' anything except my own meal."

McCoy grunted, and took another bite of the ham steak with red-eye gravy. Spock didn't say a word, well-aware that the concept of synthesized foods had been a subject of debate since it was first used.

McCoy, however, did choose to comment. "It's the only meal I could manage with a high enough sodium content to deal with the recent issue."

The logic slid into place swiftly. Of course the doctor needed to remediate his body in order to adequately take care of the rest of his duties. With the food itself being a matter of programmed assembly of synthesized proteins, it made sense.

"To take care of one's self is the highest priority here, magnified by your position of ministering to the health of the entire crew," Spock said, letting the doctor know he understood.

"Doesn't help my conscience, I brought it on myself, but I did look. The only other meal that it is programmed for at a high sodium count had ingredients that would have given me the trots," McCoy grumbled.

Spock didn't question that phrasing; he'd look it up later, or ask Uhura to parse it for him. He just settled to a companionable silence over a shared meal.

Len looked around the quarters as he ducked in at Spock stepping back to allow such. He found the decor quiet and calming, even as the different humidity level made itself felt swiftly.

He took a chair, and inclined his head to a silent offer of water.

"You wished to speak of a 'curiosity'?" Spock asked once he had two waters between them, and had taken a seat himself.

"I'd been wondering, actually, if, given your culture through Vulcan, you had been working with the Psalms on your ka'athyra."

Spock's eyebrow rose, and Len hoped he hadn't stepped on some invisible landmine with the man he'd steadily come to see as a true friend.

"I have been adapting some of the Terran composers who tackled such, but I have not yet found anything that meets my mother's approval," Spock offered in reply.

That had Len giving him a considering look, slotting one more piece into the puzzle of the science officer. "Well, we should keep our mothers happy," Len agreed. "So I won't press to hear them, if you feel they're not up to sharing."

"Perhaps, Doctor, we could listen to the Terran recordings, and you could offer insight to me on what makes them appropriate in your opinion, and we could then compare my compositions?"

Len couldn't resist a little humor, tweaking at Spock's sensibilities for his own joy. "Can we call it a date?"

Spock hesitated a heartbeat or two, then inclined his head. "If I am correctly understanding your usage of the word with multiple meanings, then yes."

Len's jaw almost dropped, but since the challenge had been picked up, he smiled. "I look forward to us both having an off-duty shift to share for that."

Len rubbed the back of his neck, trying to determine just where they now stood. They were never going to be very traditional in most of their aspects, given their lives. Yet, in the aftermath of Spock's 'divorce', so to speak, they had certainly crossed a threshold. He toyed with the metal band in his other hand, sitting there in the dark of his room, trying to decide if Spock's need of him was married (ha!) to a deeper emotional attachment.

Apparently his emotions were carrying further than his quarters, as the door opened onto the bright corridor, and Spock was outlined there before coming in and allowing it to close.

"You have concerns."

Concerns. A polite word for all that Len was feeling, but at least accepting the emotional state, and Len nodded.

"Trying to correlate the last couple of weeks with duty and who we are off-duty," Len admitted. "It's not like I have living parents to see to any of the more official ideas like a betrothal or a wedding," he said in a light voice, trying to bring his sense of humor up as a shield.

Spock actually frowned. His brow tightened, and the lips turned downward, and he was definitely not pleased by something Len had said.

"Spock, I'm just — "

"Pointing out that, for all that has been shared, the lack of ritual and contract has left you in a far more nebulous position than I intended."

Spock came to sit beside Len on the bed, as Len processed that from 'Spock' to 'Basic', and began to settle in his skin.

"We could skip the ritual… unless it would make your mother unhappy," Len offered. "I've made a mess of my relationships; you know that fully."

"I do not have the full facts of your first marriage, but then you only have the brief glimpse of my arranged one," Spock said. "And, second marriages follow far different customs."

"So they do," Len said, moving his hand to rest it on Spock's thigh slowly.

Spock covered it with his own, as intimate an acceptance of the need to make this official as possible.

"I will tell my mother, with a notice of when we expect to be free to come," Spock said.

Len would let his father's wedding band remain in his pocket for now, because that sounded like the best way to handle it.

"Can I ask that it not be that Vulcan wine?" Len teased, and Spock's lips turned back up at the corners.

"We'll leave it to my mother. With all the communiques I have sent her on the differences we have in our paths, I am certain she will find the right compromise."

Len breathed out in relief. "I trust her judgment in this a little more than yours," he teased, before turning his hand up, and letting the palms touch. They could — would — do this the proper way.

Kirk watched his two best friends having a mild debate over the dance they should have, before glancing over at the Ambassador's wife.

"Was the planning of your marriage this … spirited?" he asked, half an ear telling him the pair were close to a compromise.

Amanda Grayson smiled, turning her eyes from her son and his chosen to the Captain.

"More. We had to iron out how his culture and mine would mesh, after all, on the rituals and wording of the contract. Spock gets to start with that part already created as a precedent."

Kirk smiled, looking back to the two men. "Somehow, I think they'll still find ways to go where no one has gone before in this."

"No doubt, Captain… but at least they will be together, and have you as their friend to advocate for them."

"If they don't debate the problem into nonexistence first," he conceded, before turning the topic to what he should expect, and how it would all play out.

There was nothing that would keep him from making certain they had the best wedding possible.

princessofgeeks

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case posting in

fandomsecrets

⌈ Secret Post #7128 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

01. BERJAYA

[Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey]

( More! )

Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 30 secrets from Secret Submission Post #1018.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

snickfic

She's the He! (2026). A very indie high school comedy with an all-queer cast about two teen boys who, in order to show everyone that they're not gay for each other, hatch a plan to pretend to be trans girls. (No, this does not make any more sense in the movie than it does in that description.) Then one of them realizes she might actually be trans.

This has a lot of heart and is very funny, with a lot of genuinely laugh out loud moments. The two leads are great, with Misha Osherovich providing the heart and soul and Nico Carney providing the antics.

There were parts where the pacing didn't quite work for me, like the compressed arc of "I might be trans" to "Continuing to live as a boy might kill me" in the space of a few days. The entire football team trying to break into the girls' locker room felt a bit too real, tonally, compared to the rest of the film. The movie this reminded me of the most was Bottoms, but the climactic battle there felt a lot sillier and less realistically threatening. However, for a tiny indie film like this with its heart clearly in the right place, I'm willing to forgive a lot.

On a side note, the nonbinary love interest is SMOKING hot and has chemistry with literally everyone. (Maybe too much chemistry, as at first I misjudged whose love interest they were.) And the two leads have absolutely incredible eyelashes.

Overall a great time. There's some conflict with the trans girl's mom, if you're sensitive to that, but otherwise a hearty recommendation from me.

--

The Invite (2026). Bickering couple Angela (Olivia Wilde) and Joe (Seth Rogen) have the neighbors Hawk (Edward Norton) and Pina (Penelope Cruz) over for dinner, and things get complicated.

This is getting a ton of great reviews, with lots of people saying things like "thank god, finally they're making adult comedies again." It does have a lot of things you're supposed to laugh at, mostly Joe being rude or Angela being an anxiety-ridden control freak. Later on we find out that Hawk and Pina are poly, which Joe and Angela are shocked and pleasantly scandalized by, and I guess that's supposed to be funny, too. (Meanwhile I was like omg, they said the word "compersion" in a movie. Multiple times!)

I was mildly entertained through all of this, not sure where on earth we were going, and then things got serious in the final fifteen minutes, which I did not expect at all. After apparently existing in a comedy universe for most of the film, suddenly we ( thematic spoilers ) Honestly this worked pretty well, as a tonal turnabout. Is this how adult comedies usually work? I guess I haven't really seen many of them. Certainly it feels like a very A24 approach to the genre.

It's a tightly written script and Wilde directs very confidently. The performances are all very good, as you would expect. It's functionally a bottle episode, as the entire movie takes place in the one apartment outside of the opening scene, and I believe the four main cast members are the only ones with lines. More and more I've come to appreciate that kind of restraint in storytelling. The set design of the apartment is great and is part of the story, as it's Angela's main life obsession. Everything is seafoam green, even her shirt.

I didn't hate the experience of watching this movie, and overall I think the execution is very good. It just feels like it ultimately was not my kind of thing. However, if it sounds like your kind of thing, I definitely recommend it.

oursin

Last week's bread mostly held out.

Friday night supper: ersatz Thai fried rice with pepperoni.

Saturday breakfast rolls: eclectic vanilla, possibly a little on the stodgy side, but possibly the latest type of vanilla extract makes them more vanilla-y?

Today's lunch: chestnut mushrooms in olive oil, steamed asparagus in melted butter, Dulce Joya Vine Tomatoes (red and yellow) roasted in olive oil with basil, and cornbread (a little heavy: I think the baking powder, nearly at its use-by date, was possibly affected by weather/atmospheric conditions).

princessofgeeks

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conuly

( Ahem! )

luzula

Den nya gröten av Sébastien Boudet (2025) (translation: The New Porridge)
Very inspiring book on how to use cereals! It's like discovering a whole new area of food. The author has also written a book on baking. What I've used the most is to crush whole grains of wheat (or emmer, einkorn, dinkel, barley, oats, or rye) in our mill such that you get both large fragments and a bit of what's basically flour. This happens naturally when you grind it. Then you soak it in water overnight, but importantly you should use only half the amount of water as compared to grain (by weight). The purpose of this is to shorten the cooking time next day, but also to improve nutrition as the phytates get broken down when the grain thinks it's starting to germinate. The next day, you fry the grain in fat to get a browning reaction, then slowly add liquid and salt and cook under a lid until soft. This is the basic form, like a more delicious and flavorful version of bulgur. Keep the added liquid to a minimum. The flour component contributes a pleasing slight stickiness, like the starch in sticky rice. You can also of course do it without crushing the grain first, if you don't want any stickiness, but then the cooking time will be a little longer. Or you could sift away the flour.

This basic form can be used like rice, bulgur or pasta to accompany a sauce or stew or stir-fry. But you can do a lot more with it:
- Make a more flavorful, fiber-rich, and nutritious breakfast porridge than you get from oatmeal. For this you should soak the crushed grain in equal amounts of water, rather than half, to get a wetter consistency, and also add more water in the cooking step.
- Make an all-in-one "bolognese": after the first frying step, add chopped tomatoes/passata, chopped onions, some other vegetables of your choice, herbs of your choice, black pepper, some white wine, and either fried minced meat or cooked beans. Great for feeding a lot of people.
- Make a salad: after the grain is cooked, add chopped vegetables and legumes of your choice, then mix with a dressing of tahini, olive oil, pomegranate syrup, lemon juice, salt, and chopped parsley. At the end, add pieces of feta cheese and sprinkle with toasted sunflower and pumpkin seeds.
- Make a "risotto": fry the grain in lots of butter, and add chopped onions and celery, and dried bolete mushrooms. Add whatever other vegetables and legumes you want (or bacon). For the liquid, use white wine and stock alternately. At the end, add copious amounts of shredded parmesan.
- Make this (but modified to use crushed grains).
- Make this (but modified to use crushed grains).

So I'm sorry to promote something delicious that requires you to have a grain mill and access to whole grains, preferably from local organic farmers! But really there are so many other good things you can do with that, like bake awesome bread! Do consider it. There are small tabletop electric mills that are a lot cheaper than the one I got. Next step: grow the grain ourselves. : D

princessofgeeks

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Current Mood: creative

eustacia_vye28

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m_findlow posting in

fandomweekly

Theme Prompt: #306 - Heartbreak
Title: Hard to say goodbye
Fandom: Torchwood
Rating/Warnings: PG. Spoilers for Children of Earth
Bonus: Yes
Word Count: 1,000 words
Summary: Gwen never thought her heart would feel so shattered.

( Read more... )

rydra_wong

Awesome, deeply thoughtful review by Niall Harrison of What We Are Seeking by Cameron Reed, putting it into context with The Fortunate Fall and also considering its relation to two different strains of SF:

https://locusmag.com/review/what-we-are-seeking-by-cameron-reed-review-by-niall-harrison/

N.B. It does spoil the book's unexpected centre-of-gravity shift, so for anyone who's interested but hasn't yet read the book and would like to be surprised (which I would recommend; I am usually fairly pro-spoiler, but this was a gorgeous book to have my narrative expectations upended by, and I'm just now realizing how that relates to the protagonist's experience too), here is the review minus the three paragraphs that get into discussion of plot and character details beyond the initial premise:

( Under the cut )

Also for anyone interested, here is a very generous free sample consisting of the book's first two chapters:

https://civilianreader.com/2026/03/17/excerpt-what-we-are-seeking-by-cameron-reed-tor-books/

penaltywaltz posting in

wipbigbang

So for anyone not on Discord, I had laptop issues that would have potentially changed the claims schedule dramatically, but fortunately it seems to have been resolved. However, since I want to be sure I'll have a working laptop to send out claims emails I'm going to extend snippets submissions to 11:59 PM July 13th and we'll keep the rest of the schedule as the same with the first round of claims starting on the 17th with one claim per person that round. If the laptop craps out again, I will update with whatever the modified schedule because someone is sending me a laptop I can use as a backup (bless them).

post_secret_feed

Posted by Frank

https://postsecret.com/2026/07/11/sunday-secrets-608/

https://postsecret.com/?p=53656

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The post Sunday Secrets appeared first on PostSecret.

https://postsecret.com/2026/07/11/sunday-secrets-608/

https://postsecret.com/?p=53656

post_secret_feed

Posted by Frank

https://postsecret.com/2026/07/11/postcards-emails/

http://postsecret.com/?p=24351

—–Email—–
—–Frank@PostSecret.com—–

Dear Frank,

Last week you were speaking in Portland, Oregon. I walked in a little late to a very crowded room. You said a few words, a few more and then, suddenly, I recognized my words:

15 years-ago . . . adoption . . . 1 year-ago . . . trick or treating . . .

Tears sprang to my eyes. You were reading MY secret. And I heard it. Everyone heard it. My heart was thumping so hard in my chest I was certain everyone could hear it too. I wanted to yell out “That’s my secret!”

I went home later, after buying a few books, and told my husband that you read my secret to hundreds of people. He smiled and hugged me. I asked him if he wanted to know what it was. He said; “No, a whole room full of strangers knows, and that’s enough.”

Thank you.

—–Email—–

Dear Frank,

I mailed in one of the secrets that made it into your book, PostSecet Confessions on Life, Death and God. Mine reads-

“When another woman steals your man, the best revenge is to let her keep him.”

Funny story, my ex-husband’s wife (the other woman) dropped my kids off at my house last week and saw my PostSecret book in the kitchen. She exclaimed,

“I love that book! Have you seen the one about stealing another person’s man? That one’s my favorite!”

She had no idea it was about her.

—–Email—–

Two weeks ago I was placed in a psych ward for attempting to take my own life. I was sitting alone until another boy came up to me and simply said, “You’re not the most fucked up person anymore.” For the first time in my life I didn’t feel like I was the only one struggling.

—–Email—–

Frank,
The message about the girl in the psychiatric hospital with the boy who let her in on the secret that she isn’t alone. I’m the girl. I sent you that 8 years ago. Two week after my suicide attempt. It stopped me in my tracks to see it again. I sent it to you on a whim. I can’t remember why. I struggled hard for a few years after this. I struggle still but am stable now. Thank you for honoring me and all of us in what you do.