kate_nepveu | Reading

Clutter has been redistributed, cake has been baked, ziti has been put together and is in the fridge ready for the oven tomorrow, and the dishwasher has been run twice. I unfortunately did not get the baguette I ordered with my groceries, so tomorrow I will bake a loaf of KAF Italian bread so I can make bruschetta as an appetizer, since I did get the diced tomatoes.

I don't really have much other news. I read that the Dungeon Crawler Carl tv show got greenlit (I have SO MANY THOUGHTS about the fact that Matt Dinniman posts to the subreddit occasionally and also how similar and yet different the fan-types there are, but I'm sure you can guess what most of them are; I just wish they'd recommend more than the same three non-DCC books to each other), but I just can't see how Peacock is going to air this show, especially if it's live action? Idek how that is possible, given that the main character is a talking cat who can shoot lasers from her eyes. Yes, I know, CGI, but that is SO EXPENSIVE (they just cancelled that show "Ted" for being too expensive because of that and that was only for the stupid talking teddy bear), and that isn't accounting for the healing fairy, the ice fairy, the shape-changing tank lady, the talking goats, and the crocodile-headed guy! Not to mention the velociraptor, the mobile meatball, and the sapient sex-doll head! All of whom are regularly recurring characters. Some of it can certainly also be practical effects and makeup, but I'm really curious to see what it looks like if it ever even goes beyond an announcement. And that's not even getting into the intense amount of gore, the nudity, and the barrage of sex jokes, etc. (and the anti-capitalist themes).

*

Current Mood: accomplished
Current Music: The Shape I Found You In - Girlyman

lnhammer

He who assists a lord of men using the Way
Doesn’t use soldiers to control the realm.
Such actions surely [get] their proper return.
Where troops reside, thorns and brambles sprout;
After a great army, there certainly are bad [i.e., famine] years.^[29-1]
The skillful achieves [his goal] then stops,
And doesn’t dare attempt control.
He achieves and then isn’t vain,
Achieves and then doesn’t boast,
Achieves and then isn’t arrogant,
Achieves and then doesn’t covet things,
Achieves and then doesn’t control.^[29-2]
Creatures that get strong then get old:
This we call not [using] the Way,
And [those] not [using] the Way soon end.

^[29-1] Other texts omit this line.
^[29-2] One other text has “This we call achieving without control” and another text as “This we call achieving with control” — my guess is the latter's scribe dropped a “not”

以道佐人主者，
不以兵强天下。
其事好还。
师之所处，荆棘生焉。
大军之后，必有凶年。
善有果而已，
不敢以取强。
果而勿矜，
果而勿伐，
果而勿骄。
果而不得已，
果而勿强。
物壮则老，
是谓不道，
不道早已。

Continues the topic of chapter 29. Same realm/kingdom/world = “[all] under heaven” as in ch.29. The skillful one is traditionally understood as a commander/general.

Admin note: I’ve gone back and consistently retranslated 万物 previously “ten-thousand things” as “myriad creatures.”

---L.

rachelmanija

June is the month where every time I post about my shop, brave internet warriors call me a pedophile and a groomer. Joke's on them though: every time they comment, the algorithm boosts my post and gets my shop more publicity.

I had fun creating a display for Pride. The books rotate - I have lots that fit the categories I highlighted. Which slogan is your favorite?

duckprintspress

Bi and Pan Authors for Pride Month itch.io Bundle

A graphic with text that reads June 15 - 30 Bi and Pan Authors for Pride Month 19 books by bisexual and pansexual authors only $18! There are also hearts in the colors of the bi and pan pride flags, and both flags flying from a flagpole.

This is an awesome bundle of 19 books by bisexual and pansexual authors!! Our book Commit to the Kick by Tris Lawrence, first in the Twinned trilogy, is among the titles – Tris is bisexual. You can learn more about the other books and contributors by visiting the bundle.

Get the Bi and Pan Authors Bundle!

Pride Without Prejudice itch.io Bundle

Graphic with text that reads Pride Without Prejudice 40 books for only $40! From June 18 to 30. https://itch.io/b/3733/pride-without-prejudice

This bundle of queer books has 40 titles at a cost of only $1 per book!! Our anthology Scholarly Pursuits is among the cool and diverse titles in this one. There are short descriptions of all the books in the text accompanying the bundle, so make sure you check it out!

Get the Pride Without Prejudice Bundle!

james_davis_nicoll

A young woman with a very special knack is hired to acquire a stolen artifact.

The Mystery of the Bitten Peach by Cecilia Tan

skygiants

Earlier this week we saw new Black Swan musical, which felt so obviously necessary and important that it was only like a few days prior that I realized I had never actually seen the movie Black Swan. So! On Monday we watched Black Swan (2010) and then on Tuesday we went to see the show.

For those of you who missed Black Swan (2010), it's just under two hours of tightly-wound ballerina Natalie Portman getting cast as the lead in Swan Lake and then dramatically unraveling betwixt the combined pressures of controlling live-in stage mom, ambitious shadow-double understudy [ft. hallucinatory toxic yuri], and psychosexually exploitative artistic director Thomas Leroy.

Black Swan (the musical) (2026) is also two hours of a tightly-wound ballerina getting cast as the lead in Swan Lake and then dramatically unraveling, but there are some key differences; most significantly, there is no psychosexually exploitative artistic director! Instead, towards the beginning of the show, the company manager explains that the celebrity guest choreographer for Swan Lake has had to pull out unexpectedly ["cancelled," the corps mutter sagely to each other] and is going to be replaced by a different celebrity choreographer, Margaux LeRoy, who appears and immediately delivers a speech about how in her Swan Lake Reimagined there will be NO prince! NO evil wizard! It's ALL about the swans!

I admit I do think it's really funny that Jen Silverman and Dave Molloy were like 'please clap we've made a Black Swan musical without heterosexuality -- sorry I mean this cool feminist choreographer character who is certainly not our in-text stand-in has made a Swan Lake without heterosexuality. and you should clap for her.' But also I am really sympathetic to and interested in the project -- this adaptation is making an argument that voyeuristic sexual exploitation by domineering men is not the only kind of horror story you can tell about ballet, that you can focus the horror explicitly on a pressure-cooker of women in a toxic system fracturing against each other in various ways and have it be just as sharp and scary and powerful. I appreciate this as an adaptation tactic; I think the show gets like 75% of the way to being something that could, if successful, be better than the film.

( unfortunately I don't think the show actually manages to prove its point; that said there was some stuff I really liked )

sovay

I left the house for this afternoon's doctor to discover that the mail had already brought my contributor's copy of Not One of Us #87, containing my poem "Gramarye." It owes a title to Susan Cooper and the rest to anger and the sea. It belongs to the talent issue, sharing double edges with the fiction and poetry of Joseph Hirsch, Marissa Lingen, J. Hellend, David Kopaska-Merkel and more. I love the alert, alien camera contributed to the cover art by John and Flo Stanton. Pick up a copy, add to the weirdness. Its digest-sized persistence is a gift.

I love the idea of adding Glasgow to Boston's roster of sister cities, or Boston to Glasgow's. I keep forgetting we're not officially twinned with Halifax.

WERS played Aretha Franklin's "Eleanor Rigby" (1971) as I was driving from

a_reasonable_man's to my mother's. I may have been given a new motto. It is fine that the tornado watch seems to have expired in a very brief monsoon.

Current Music: Belly, "Feed the Tree"

musesfool

My nephew Victor entered Mayor Mamdani's lottery for the 300 seats at City Hall for today's Knicks parade, and he won! So he and Trish got to sit through the ceremony and see everything from relatively close up! They said it was awesome. I watched but did not see them in the crowd. I enjoyed it. There were so many high points - Mamdani's speech, Brunson's speech, seeing Alvarado and KAT, who are local and really understand what this means to the city, dancing to Alicia Keys! Mariska Hargitay! Her and Brunson's mutual admiration society is so cute! A fitting end to a magical post-season.

*

Current Music: New York State of Mind - Billy Joel

sartorias

In Chicago now. Apparently the weather was so wild yesterday that they canceled the train that I would have been taking. They are folding them into today's train. It's gonna be PACKED.

On trains they put people with other people in the dining cars. I don't mind this; while I have trepidation at approaching strangers, heck, approaching anyone, anymore, except blood relatives who can't reject me) I don't mind when it's not my fault my old, boring, unaesthetic self is foisted on innocent parties.

Today's breakfast was with a gent who, after I told him I'd attended a book con in Montreal, said that he was writing a book. His first! After years as a successful businessman, he had this innovated idea . . . he isn't writing alone, but with a collaborator--AI! "This is surely new and innovative," he said cheerily.

I explained that actually, a lot of people have been experimenting with AI writing, and left it at that. If he tries to market it, he'll learn and in the meantime he's having fun. Nothing amiss with that.

So in a few hours I head home, saying goodbye to the miracle of rain in June, and the deep green that results!

the_shoshanna

Geoff and I walked in the Pride march last Saturday with my congregation as part of a multifaith coalition, and it was great: perfect weather, lots of people lining the streets cheering, multiple women wearing "Mom Hugs" t-shirts (why no "Dad Hugs"?), innumerable children of all ages waving rainbow flags. I do sort of miss the marches of my 20s in Boston, with so many thousands of people and dozens of groups marching (I was often with the Gaylaxians). But of course Boston is larger than my current city by, like, two orders of magnitude! As I remember them, the Boston marches always ended with the contingent of queer police, and they would get a huge cheer from everyone hanging out at the end of the route watching the marchers come in; that sure feels like a different era. Geoff and I walked around Kingston's post-march festival to check it out, but didn't feel any need to hang out for a lengthy period of time.

I had proposed getting takeout burgers for dinner, but Geoff pointed out that we were already downtown, so instead we had a huge late lunch at a downtown pub, which killed any need to have dinner at all. It was 2 pm and they served their breakfast menu until 3, so we both got their "breakfast burger": beef patty, lettuce and tomato and onion, a fried egg, cheese, bacon, and bacon marmalade. It was ridiculously good, especially the bacon marmalade. I took one bite and said, "I have to figure out how to make this"; but the research I did afterward suggested that homemade bacon jam has to be eaten within a week or two even if it's kept in the fridge, whereas the commercial stuff can last as long as any other commercial jam, so if I want some I guess I'll just buy it. First I need to figure out what, besides burgers, I could put it on, though -- we don't usually make burgers at home!

I have a Pride umbrella that I had brought to the march to loan to anyone who wanted to use it as a sunshade; it's tagged with my name, address, and phone, and I figured that either it would get back to me or someone else would make good use of it going forward. And indeed, I quickly lost track of who had it, and then yesterday someone from my congregation called me up and said she had it, was now a good time to stop by and give it back? Definitely, I said, pleased. Now it's back ~~in the closet~~ on the shelf until the next appropriate rally. I don't usually like to use umbrellas against rain, because I don't like having my hand tied up by holding it and I'd generally rather just be in a good raincoat and put a cover on my pack, but I'm very glad I have this one!

Tomorrow we go to Montreal for an overnight to see a friend and have a Father's Day dinner with Geoff's family, and then I immediately leave for eight days in rural PA with my best friend, our annual vacation together. Ever since the border reopened as the pandemic eased, we've rented a place halfway between us (except for last year when we went to see a third friend in NC) and we just hang out and talk and watch TV (I am going to show her Heated Rivalry! I cannot wait) and cook together (she is an amazing cook) and we're going to be staying next to a fair-trade farm-to-table chocolate-and-coffee factory; we stayed there two years ago, went on a tour, and then spent like $150 each in their gift shop. I brought so many treats back for Geoff and for my local book group! I expect the same will happen this year; plus this year we'll be there over my birthday, so I am anticipating a phenomenally good birthday dinner.

james_davis_nicoll

How can one defeat an enemy when being aware of that enemy means you have already lost?

There Is No Antimemetics Division by Qntm

gentlyepigrams

Our e-friend Jon who ran a Traveller campaign a while ago invited me and Michael to join a Pendragon game he's running on Saturdays. Actually he mentioned it and I told him I could not commit to every Saturday but I was interested in being there at least part-time and he was OK with it.

Everybody else had already built their characters so I built mine today: she is Dame Patience and she is a Pagan knight at the court of Sir Roderick of Salisbury. We did random builds using the Foundry VTT software so she's not perfectly constructed, but I think Pendragon is like Traveller: you roll your dice and you take your chances. There are three other PCs and Michael and it looks to be a good group, even though there are some players who are young enough to be my kids.

I am apparently also the teaboo and the Arthurian expert in this group, so this should be interesting.

Current Music: Silence is golden.

sovay

My plans for the day went over sideways, but in the evening

spatch treated me to barbecue from Blue Ribbon and we watched the after-sunset reflecting in Spy Pond. This weekend my father who has spent a lifetime not caring about sports cheered for the Knicks and I remain, like just about everyone, thrilled by Cape Verde's no-goal draw to Spain. I have made a cucumber soup for the first summer in years and put up my hair to take a bath for the first time in my life. Apparently this afternoon there was a flash mob for Irn-Bru on Boston Common. Widow's Bay (2026) stuck the landing.

Current Music: Thao, "Fossils"

kitewithfish

This is a week not without stress! The in-laws are visiting (slightly soccer related reasons) and it’s a lot.

What I’ve Read
There’s a Fire in Me – suzukiblu - https://archiveofourown.org/works/19040134 An Avatar fic where Earth freedom fighter Jet is revealed to have been secretly a Firebender. There’s trauma, there’s worldbuilding, there’s Zuko trying to be a teacher to someone other than Aang – it’s great and a very good read for a stressed out brain.

Mortifying Ordeal by Windsoftime - https://archiveofourown.org/works/58454809 - This a soulmate AU of a fandom I have never read in, Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint. The gist is a character believes that his soulmate has rejected him but, in fact, his connection is lopsided – he’s receiving visions of his soulmate’s life (the norm) but his soulmate isn’t getting anything from him at all. I had a fun time – it’s a solid romance novel plot that I would happily read again. I do think that a different version of this fic would have more wallowing in the main character’s feelings of unworthiness, fear of being seen, but honestly, this is a very cohesive light fiction and I think it was fun.

What I’m Reading
Omniscience Reader’s Viewpoint – Vol 1 – I figured that the time had come and I might as well read a long ass web novel. It’s pretty fun – I have received some spoilers but none of them make a lick of sense, so I’m just here for the ride and to learn some tropes I’d never heard of before. (Happily, my partner has read enough manga/manhwa that I can get an explanation of certain tropes on tap, which the book does not see fit to actually provide.)

The Raven Scholar – 75% - It’s a bit odd how this book is structured so that bit events have happened precisely the 50% and 75% marks.

Shroud – Adrian Tchaikovsky – Dark and interesting and weird. I usually like his work so I’m going to continue on ahead.

What I’ll Read Next
More Hugos, more

gentlyepigrams

I'm going to start doing these every fortnight instead of every week. I'm trying to cut down my repetition for a lot of stuff so I'm dropping recording on Goodreads, Storygraph (ending subscription), Letterboxd (also ending subscription), etc. in favor of recording in Sofa (which is worth subscribing to). I did a bunch of imports and we'll see how that works going forward. I also dropped my subscription to the Sunday Morning Transport Substack because I'm not reading the stories.

Meanwhile, between life stuff and everything else, my reading and listening have been slow.

Books
A History of the World in 47 Borders: The Stories Behind the Lines on Our Maps, by Jonn Elledge. If I hadn't been dealing with things, I would have finished this a month ago. As it was, I had to get it back from the library. I think part of my problem may be that I need to stop reading books on my phone and start reading them on my iPad. As it is, this is a good bite-sized chapter book on an interesting aspect of history and politics. It wasn't great for me because I knew a lot of the things he talked about, but I think would be a lot better for an entry-level reader on these topics.

Music
Simone Dinnerstein & Baroklyn, Hourglass. Philip Glass, featuring the Hours and one of his piano concertos. Not sure if the name of the string ensemble is Baroklyn or Barokyn but they don't have their own page.

Current Music: Wind chimes.

rydra_wong

GFW's unisex boxer briefs are back (now with a modified design that allows you to wear menstrual pads with wings, and a wider size range):

https://www.gfwclothing.com/collections/boxer-shorts-unisex

They are the best.

gentlyepigrams

The Human League with Soft Cell and Alison Moyet opening. Texas Trust CU Theater, Grand Prairie. June 16, 2025.

( Under the cut to protect your flist. )

Current Music: Wind chimes.

james_davis_nicoll

This all-new Rider Bundle presents Rider, the Old West tabletop roleplaying game from Independence Games (Clement Sector) that adapts the Cepheus Engine rules to cinematic gunslinging adventures in the Wild West.

Bundle of Holding: Rider

coffeeandink

oh hey I'll be at Readercon this year. Let me know if you want to hang out!

duckprintspress

The cover of a book entitled Wild and Full of Marvels: Queer Fanworks Inspired by Folklore and Fairy Tales. It features an elaborate, fantasy-sinpired border in shades of blue and green, with fairies lifting a gauzy veil to reveal a fantasy scene below of a white mermaid with blonde hair drawing her hair back to reveal her bare torso and curve of her back, which segues into a pink-purple mermaid tail. In the foreground is a slim, muscular darker-skinned woman with long black hair in a braid held back by a bandana. She wears simple clothes and stands knee-deep in the water, and is pulling on a rope as if to tow in something not in view. Her gaze meets that of the mermaid, who raises a hand with webs between the fingers in an inviting beckon.

We are beyond thrilled to share the cover art that artist Jinx Inks has done for our next anthology, Wild and Full of Marvels: Queer Fanworks Inspired by Folklore and Fairy Tales.

This all-new collection, fourth in our Queer Fanworks Inspired By… series, features 23 stories, 23 art pieces, and a 10-page comic, all inspired by folklore, fairy tales, myths, and legends with personal significance to the creator. Teasers, excerpts, and trims of the art pieces will be shared throughout our Kickstarter campaign. Check out the contributor list and read their biographies!

We’re also offering some awesome merchandise, all featuring art by the anthology contributors. We’ll be sharing reveals for these pieces over the next couple weeks as we lead up to our upcoming campaign launch.