ermingarden | Reading

I’ll be at Readercon 34 this weekend after spending most of the last couple of weeks doing massive re-reads.

If you’ll be there, please feel free to stop and say hello! My schedule is below.

The Works of P. Djèlí Clark
Salon I/J Friday, July 18, 2025, 1:00 PM EDT
Andrea Hairston [moderator]; Leon Perniciaro; Rob Cameron; Tom Doyle; Victoria Janssen
Our Guest of Honor P. Djèlí Clark rounded out his first decade as a published author with a Nebula and a Locus for his fantasy police procedural novel, The Master of Djinn, and both those awards plus a British Fantasy Award for his monster-hunting novella Ring Shout. His short story “How to Raise a Kraken in Your Bathtub” is short-listed for the Hugo this year. As a History professor at University of Connecticut, he investigates the pathways leading from West African storyteller/poets (griots, a.k.a. djèlí) to the American abolitionist movement. Help us celebrate the works of our honored guest!

The Purposes of Memorable Insults in Sci-Fi and Fantasy
Salon I/J Friday, July 18, 2025, 5:00 PM EDT
Storm Humbert [moderator]; Anne E.G. Nydam; Charles Allison; Ellen Kushner; Victoria Janssen
Some of the most quotable lines in science fiction and fantasy are zingers. Wit can do a lot to build a character, a world, and a universe, and has the ability to either support or undermine reader expectations. This panel aims to explore and elaborate on the use of wit—and especially takedowns—in literature, exposing how a verbal jab can serve as more than just a punchline.

Moving from Traditional Publishing to Self-Publishing
Salon G/H Friday, July 18, 2025, 7:00 PM EDT
Victoria Janssen [moderator]; Cecilia Tan; Jedediah Berry; Sarah Smith; Steven Popkes
It’s becoming increasingly common to hear of authors whose self-published work was so successful that they were picked up by a traditional publisher. But what of the authors who have gone the other way, by turning their backs on traditional publishing and going into self-publishing? Panelists will survey the varying reasons for making this transition, how authors have navigated it, and what this might say about the state of publishing overall.

Kaffeeklatsch: Victoria Janssen
Suite 830 Friday, July 18, 2025, 8:00 PM EDT

The Works of Cecilia Tan
Salon I/J Saturday, July 19, 2025, 12:00 PM EDT
Victoria Janssen [moderator]; Charlie Jane Anders; Laura Antoniou; Cecilia Tan (i)
Our Guest of Honor, Cecilia Tan, has a publication history that spans Asimov’s, Absolute Magnitude, Ms. Magazine, Penthouse, and Best American Erotica, among others. Writer and editor of science fiction and fantasy, especially as they intersect with erotica and romance, she is also the founder of Circlet Press, an independent publisher that specializes in speculative erotica. Her own writing earned a Lifetime Achievement for Erotica in 2014 from Romantic Times magazine. She also contributes to America’s other pastime, baseball, in her role as Publications Director for the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR). Come hear our panel discuss Cecilia’s many talents and accomplishments.

Un-Kafkaesque Bureaucracies
Salon I/J Saturday, July 19, 2025, 7:00 PM EDT
Victoria Janssen [moderator]; Alexander Jablokov; J.M. Sidorova; Laurence Raphael Brothers; Steven Popkes
In fiction, bureaucracies are generally depicted as evil in its most banal form, yet many of the actual bureaucracies that shape our lives exist to protect us from corporate greed. How can—and should—we tell other stories about bureaucrats and bureaucracies, particularly as the U.S. stands on the precipice of disastrous deregulation? And might fantasies of bureaucracy (such Addison’s The Goblin Emperor and Goddard’s The Hands of the Emperor) be the next cozy subgenre?

The Endless Appetite for Fanfiction
Create / Collaborate Saturday, July 19, 2025, 8:00 PM EDT
Kate Nepveu [moderator]; Claire Houck/Nina Waters; Laura Antoniou; Victoria Janssen
In an article of the same name (https://www.fansplaining.com/articles/endless-appetite-fanfiction), Elizabeth Minkel discussed how “2024 was the year [fanfic] truly broke containment—everyone seemed to want a piece of the fanfiction pie, leaving fic authors themselves besieged on all sides.” Attempts to steal and monetize fanfic proliferated, as did reviews treating living authors as distant and unreachable. What do these trends say about larger changes in attitudes toward stories and creators? How can fans of all kinds nurture supportive connections to authors?

sunflower_auction

Hello!

A new round of will run this year, with the following dates:

23 July 2025 23:59 UTC to 13 August 2025 23:59 UTC – Creator signups
18 August 2025 23:59 UTC to 15 September 2025 23:59 UTC – Bidding
17 October 2025 23:59 UTC – Proof of donation due from winning bidders

If there are any issues, the dates can be moved about.

Quick links: FAQ * Supported Orgs

marthawells

A really thoughtful essay on Murderbot: ‘Even If They Are My Favourite Human’: Murderbot Just Explained Boundaries

https://countercurrents.org/2025/07/even-if-they-are-my-favourite-human-murderbot-just-explained-boundaries/

“I Don’t Know What I Want”: The Line That Changed Everything

In the final moments of the season, Murderbot says: “I don’t know what I want. But I know I don’t want anyone to tell me what I want or to make decisions for me. Even if they are my favourite human.”

This is not a dramatic declaration. It is confusion wrapped in clarity. A sentence that holds discomfort and self-awareness in equal measure. It reflects a truth often ignored in stories about intelligence and emotion: that it is okay to not know, as long as that unknowing belongs to the self. In a world that constantly demands certainty, this line opens up space for uncertainty without shame.

* And a great interview with Alexander Skarsgård!

https://collider.com/murderbot-finale-alexander-skarsgard/

So, it just wants to start fresh and get away, and figure out who it is and what it wants. It doesn't really know that. I quite enjoyed that Murderbot didn't end up having answers to all the questions or knowing exactly what it wants. It's more messy and complicated than that. But it definitely knows that it needs to find its own path and make its own decisions, to make its own mistakes, and not have the Corporation or anyone tell it who it is or what it wants.

pauraque

sunshine_revival's next challenge is:

Fun House
Journaling: What is making you smile these days? Create a top 10 list of anything you want to talk about.
Creative: Write from the perspective of a house or other location.

Birds always make me smile, so let's do a bird list! To narrow it down a bit, I'll talk about a few of the birds I only got to know after I left San Francisco and moved to New England. The order is going to be arbitrary because of course all birds are equally fantastic, but I'll play along with the top 10 theme.

( Top Ten New England Birds [photo heavy] )

hhimring posting in

tolkienshortfanworks

Author: Himring
Title: Goldberry's Song
Text type / Format: Poetry
Source / Fandom: Lord of the Rings
Rating: G
Word Count: 19
Summary: Prompt fill for the July challenge. Mostly the words of quotation prompt 1, rearranged as a shape poem (drop-shaped if you squint)

Link goes to Tumblr entry:
https://www.tumblr.com/hhimring/788965602992750592/esotolkienweek-early-contribution-for-day-4

grundyscribbling posting in

innumerable_stars

Photo of a polar bear underwater blowing bubbles.

(written by

hhimring)

Summary: Father Christmas Letters is an edited version of a series of letters that Tolkien wrote to his young children in the run-up to Christmas, for an impressive number of years (1920 to 1943). It is an elaborate take on the tradition that Father Christmas is real and receives children’s letters. Tolkien writes his answers in the name, voice, and hand of Father Christmas, and later also adds contributions by FC’s chief friends and helpers to the correspondence, North Polar Bear and the elf Ilbereth. This elaborate game of make-believe keeps growing more complex over the years, gradually building up a story ‘verse of Father Christmas’s life and adventures at the North Pole. The edited originals are real hand-written letters received by the children, with envelopes, hand-drawn illustrations, and hand-drawn stamps. The letters also remain responses to actual messages from the children, although their letters are not included.

Why should I check out this canon? Many reasons! Father Christmas and his growing number of friends are charming and fun, and their adventures get increasingly elaborate and exciting. There is a peppering of Tolkienian jokes. The artwork and calligraphy are wonderful (they also get increasingly colourful and complex). If you are looking for insight into Tolkien’s mind, while he was writing The Hobbit and The Lord of Rings, there are all sorts of tantalizing links to the Legendarium and related bits of lore (which of course just are asking for even more fic crossover to happen!) If you are interested in Tolkien’s conlangs (and his linguistic interest in Finnish and in writing systems), there are bits of that, too! If you are looking for insight into the experiences of Tolkien and his children, there are all sorts of touching and heart-warming hints and clues. There are bits of light verse, too, if you like Tolkien’s poetry.

Where can I get this? There are multiple editions, often as hardcover, and the book has been translated into many languages. The book should be relatively easy to get in local libraries or second-hand. Something to be watched out for are the two main editions under different titles: “The Father Christmas Letters” is the original selection made by Baillie Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien’s wife, in 1976, especially with young readers in mind. “Letters from Father Christmas” is a more comprehensive selection published in 1999 and is especially aimed at Tolkien fans. There is an audiobook version available on Audible and some readings from the work on YouTube. Electronic versions are not so easily accessible, although the Internet Archive has copies borrowable by readers with disabilities. Selections from the artwork can be found online and in books on Tolkien’s art.

What fanworks already exist? The AO3 tag has 23 works, most of them rated General or Teens and categorized as Gen. Among them, there is quite a high number of crossovers, many of them with other Tolkien works, but also with a handful of non-Tolkien canons. As you would expect, with such a canon, some of the fic is epistolary or includes letters! Perhaps partly because the canon includes so much original artwork, there is not a great deal of fanart, but you can find some on Tumblr at the links below:

https://www.tumblr.com/cycas/189739284354/merry-christmasinspired-by-letters-from-father?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/cycas/187421841269/the-elf-who-saved-christmas-story-art-special?source=share

elwendell

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

dolorosa_12

I returned home last night after a week's holiday in Shetland, where the weather was a delightfully consistent 14-15 degrees, the views were dramatic, and the ocean was a restorative and constant presence. Thank you to all who offered advice a few posts back — between your tips and our own research, Matthias and I enjoyed a trip that was a perfect mix of outdoorsy walking and views, museums and learning, and good food and serendipitous wandering.

I did journal a little bit while I was there, so if you want more details of what the trip involved, click behind the cut to see the transcript.

( The girl and the sea )

I would highly, highly recommend Shetland as a place to spend some time, especially if you live in the UK, and will happily expand on any of what I've written above in the comments, if you're interested. I've also got a lot of photos up over at

ronnidolorosa — it's a very photogenic place!

sholio

Watch on YouTube

I watched this like 4 times in a row. It definitely contain spoilers, but it's divorced enough from the actual plotline of the show that if you don't mind SOME spoilers and want to get an idea of what the show is like, this might be a nice one to watch. (Warning for some gore.)

On AO3

sholio

scioscribe gave me a delightful Murderbot TV-verse prompt, hidden because it's somewhat spoilery for the finale:

Click to view

Post-finale Gurathin, burdened with all these memories of Sanctuary Moon, still doesn't like the show but now can't resist getting into nitpicky arguments about it on futuristic forums, where he and Murderbot keep crossing paths and gradually realize who they're talking to and get very fond about it without admitting to anything.

( 600 words or so of future fan forum shenanigans )

marthawells

Here's a gift link for the New York Times interview with Paul and Chris Weitz, who wrote, directed, and produced Murderbot:

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/11/arts/television/murderbot-season-finale-chris-paul-weitz.html?unlocked_article_code=1.V08.exvw.M_qE37ROOT58&smid=url-share

skygiants

lest you think that having returned The Pushcart War to its rightful owner I went away with my bookshelves lighter! I did NOT, as she pushed 84, Charing Cross Road into my hands at the airport as I was leaving again with strict instructions to read it ASAP.

This is another one that's been on my list for years -- specifically, since I read Between Silk and Cyanide, as cryptography wunderkind Leo Marks chronicling the desperate heroism and impossible failures of the SOE is of course the son of the owner of Marks & Co., the bookstore featuring in 84, Charing Cross Road, because the whole of England contains approximately fifteen people tops.

84, Charing Cross Road collects the correspondence between jobbing writer Helene Hanff -- who started ordering various idiosyncratic books at Marks & Co. in 1949 -- and the various bookstore employees, primarily but not exclusively chief buyer Frank Doel. Not only does Hanff has strong and funny opinions about the books she wants to read and the editions she's being sent, she also spends much of the late forties and early fifties expressing her appreciation by sending parcels of rationed items to the store employees. A friendship develops, and the store employees enthusiastically invite Hanff to visit them in England, but there always seems to be something that comes up to prevent it. Hanff gets and loses jobs, and some of the staff move on. Rationing ends, and Hanff doesn't send so many parcels, but keeps buying books. Twenty years go by like this.

Since 84, Charing Cross Road was a bestseller in 1970 and subsequently multiply adapted to stage and screen, and Between Silk and Cyanide did not receive publication permission until 1998, I think most people familiar with these two books have read them in the reverse order that I did. I think it did make sort of a difference to feel the shadow of Between Silk and Cyanide hanging over this charming correspondence -- not for the worse, as an experience, just certain elements emphasized. Something about the strength and fragility of a letter or a telegram as a thread to connect people, and how much of a story it does and doesn't tell.

As a sidenote, in looking up specific publication dates I have also learned by way of Wikipedia that there is apparently a Chinese romcom about two people who both independently read 84, Charing Cross Road, decide that the book has ruined their lives for reasons that are obscure to me in the Wikipedia summary, write angry letters to the address 84 Charing Cross Road, and then get matchmade by the man who lives there now. Extremely funny and I kind of do want to watch it.

grundyscribbling posting in

innumerable_stars

A knight in armor, visor down. The hilt of a sword is visible against the chest. The entire scene is green.

(written by

dawn_felagund )

Summary: King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table are gathered for a Christmas feast when a strange guest arrives. A massive green man carrying an ax rides his horse out of the bitter winter knight and challenges those gathered to a game. The idea is simple: He will bare his neck and allow one person a single stroke with his ax with the understanding that, in one year's time, he is permitted to return the favor.

Arthur's young nephew Gawain rises to the challenge. He strikes the head from the green man … who then rises, resets his head on his shoulders, and rides off—after reminding Gawain of their date a year hence.

The tale follows Gawain through his adventure to find the Green Knight, where he will be challenged by the forbidding winter, tempted by love, and of course desperate to find a way to win the game and save his own life.

Why Should I Check Out This Canon? Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is one of the masterpieces of Middle English literature. For the literary-minded among you, the poem retains some of the vestiges of early English language, meter, and style during a historical period where English language and literature were increasingly influenced by French such that the poem is like a portal into a lost world. For the rest of you, the poem includes adventure, sex, and at least one beheading with a giant green ax.

Where Can I Get This? Tolkien translated Sir Gawain and the Green Knight from Middle English and it is available in the slim volume Sir Gawain and the Green Knight alongside his translations of the Middle English poems Pearl and Sir Orfeo. The poem contains 101 stanzas and is not a long read. What Fanworks Already Exist? As of this writing, there are 136 fanworks on AO3 tagged with Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. The #gawain and the green knight tag on Tumblr contains fanworks as well. Be aware that they are not necessarily based on Tolkien's translation; there are many translations available and a recent feature-length film based on the poem.

shirebound

Happy Birthday,

marta_bee!

sholio

I wrote another Murderbot 1x10 episode missing scene.

Echoes (gen, 2500 words, Gurathin-centric)
Summary redacted because of spoilers; basically Gurathin's POV on some of the events of the finale.

A few notes on the fic (spoilery for both fic and episode):

under here

• I kept tweaking Gura's final line to Murderbot, so it might be a bit different if you read an earlier version. (I felt like I needed to soften it from how it originally was. They are hard to write! Especially keeping their edge when they're so soft in the final scene.)

• We know Murderbot has trouble figuring out what it's feeling, but I also think it's very plausible that Gurathin has the same problem, if not as badly. He's repressed so much for so long. Asking himself to identify exactly what emotions he's feeling is something that some therapist or other taught him to do.

• This is not necessary context for the fic and it's entirely subject to interpretation, but what I was thinking when it wrote it is that Murderbot using "its" for augmented humans in its last line of dialogue to Gurathin is actually MB doing roughly the same thing (except more emotionally positive) that Gurathin is doing in the episode of the show where he's arguing with Mensah and calls it "he" and then corrects himself to "it." It's over-identifying and doesn't even realize that it's doing so; I mean, it's worried about Gurathin, obviously, and that's why it's here, but there's also a certain amount of "we are the same kind of creature" going on here, even though it doesn't realize it's relating to him on that level. It knows that he might have damaged himself with the data overload because it also knows that it might damage itself in a similar way, and he has much less storage to handle it. And it's just kind of subconsciously being concerned about him as it might be concerned about a fellow construct, or itself, having taken damage. Of course neither of them parses all of that consciously.

In other events, Terrible Temperature Troubles Flash Exchange revealed gifts tonight! I got two absolutely delightful gifts - An Official Complaint Against the Universe (Babylon 5, Vir & Londo, hypothermia and h/c) and Consequences of Cold (Biggles, Biggles/EvS, snuggling when chilled). I loved them!

And finally,

hurtcomfortex author reveals were tonight. I wrote Sleepover (MASH, 1700 words, Margaret POV) with huddling for warmth and light comfort after nightmares.

starspray

Fandom: Tolkien
Rating: T
Characters: Maglor, Elrond, Maedhros, various others
Warnings: References to torture and trauma
Summary: Maglor keeps a promise, and comes to Valinor, only to find the ghosts he thought he'd left behind are alive and waiting for him.
Note: This fic is a sequel to Clear Pebbles of the Rain, which is itself a sequel to Unhappy Into Woe.

Prologue / Previous Chapter / Next Chapter

( Read more... )

Current Mood: calm
Current Music: I'm Still Here - Treasure Planet

smilebackwards

Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut. Darkly funny history of the lead up to the in-universe end of the world.

Singled Out: How Singles are Stereotyped, Stigmatized, and Ignored, And Still Live Happily Ever After by Bella DePaulo. A kind of hilarious hit job on the American cultural obsession with marriage.

In TV I finished:

Murderbot (season 1): I think this got better as the season went on. I have some mixed feelings about how the PreservationAux team was adjusted from the book and seemed more slapstick than competent sometimes but the finale was great and I love them and Murderbot with my whole heart. Love how much Sanctuary Moon content we got! Season 2 already renewed yay!

I also watched The Old Guard 2 and it was not great but I enjoyed seeing the characters again. KPop Demon Hunters, however, I fully recommend for a fun time.

And Foundation season 3 is back! Let's goooooo!

troisoiseaux

Continued my nostalgic re-reads of formative 2000s YA with A Brief History of Montmaray by Michelle Cooper, a novel about the impoverished, eccentric royal family of a very small island - think Gibraltar, but legally independent, mostly abandoned, and on the other side of Spain? - in the years before WWII, in the form of the diary of 16-year-old princess Sophia FitzOsborne. (I only realized years after originally reading this how much it owes to Dodie Smith's I Capture The Castle, which I've still never actually read.) This holds up delightfully, although it feels almost embarrassingly self-indulgent, in terms of realizing how precisely it's calibrated to appeal to a certain type of teenage girl and how precisely I was part of that target audience, which might be best described as "former American Girl and Dear America girlies." (And, I suspect, Samantha girlies in particular?) Like, it's just sooo.... she's an orphan living in a crumbling castle (with secret tunnels, a slightly unhinged housekeeper, and possibly ghosts) on an isolated island! She feels herself the too-ordinary middle child among her more talented/charming/outrageous/etc. siblings and cousins, but she's our protagonist, of course she has hidden depths! Plot threads include Sophie's crush on slightly older family friend Simon,* whether to move to London to be Presented Into Society as her aunt insists,** and the looming specter of real-world 1930s geopolitics— the boiling-pot build-up to, you know, WWII - a reference to the fascist sympathies of the British upper class in one of Sophie's brother's letters here, a piece of news there - is chilling, but things get dramatic very quickly when two lost German "historians" (or so they claim) wash ashore.

( Footnotes )

ranalore posting in

chenqing_100

This week's prompt is: jindan/golden core.

You have until midnight your time on Friday, July 18, to answer this prompt. Please post your fills of the prompt as separate entries to the community (i.e. not replies to this entry), tagged with the prompt tag. You may post multiple standalone drabbles per entry in addition to drabble sequences and series.

As a reminder, this community has no official presence elsewhere. You are encouraged to share the prompt on social media, if you so desire. It may take me a bit to create the AO3 collection, so please be patient.

Also, I'm going to go ahead and drop a link to the prompt suggestions post here. New suggestions are always, always welcome.

marthawells

In Psychopomp, with me, Wole Talabi and Alix E. Harrow:

https://psychopomp.com/fantasy/issue97/interview-with-world-fantasy-finalists-part-one/

And in Scientific American:

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/were-light-years-away-from-true-artificial-intelligence-says-murderbot/

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Page Summary

oracne - Readercon 2025
sunflower_auction - 2025 round
marthawells - More Murderbot Articles
pauraque - Sunshine Revival Challenge #4
hhimring in tolkienshortfanworks - Goldberry's Song, by Himring
grundyscribbling in innumerable_stars - The Father Christmas Letters Promo Post
elwendell - Dressmaking
dolorosa_12 - Whale path, swan road
sholio - Murderbot fanvid rec: Bohemian Like You
sholio - Murderbot fanficlet: Sanctuary Moon forum flame wars
marthawells - Murderbot Interview
skygiants - (no subject)
grundyscribbling in innumerable_stars - Sir Gawain And The Green Knight Promo Post
shirebound - It's a birthday!
sholio - Another Murderbot TV fic, Temperature Flash, and Hurt/Comfort-Ex
starspray - High in the Clean Blue Air - Chapter Forty Six
smilebackwards - i could carve a better man out of a banana
troisoiseaux - A Brief History of Montmaray - Michelle Cooper
ranalore in chenqing_100 - Prompt: Jindan/golden core
marthawells - Two new interviews

Style Credit

Base style: Librarian's Dream by branchandroot
Theme: Rose Garden I by dancing_serpent

Page generated Jul. 16th, 2025 04:03 pm

Non-Actionable Puffery

Reading

Readercon 2025

2025 round

More Murderbot Articles

Sunshine Revival Challenge #4

Goldberry's Song, by Himring

The Father Christmas Letters Promo Post

Dressmaking

Whale path, swan road

Murderbot fanvid rec: Bohemian Like You

Murderbot fanficlet: Sanctuary Moon forum flame wars

Murderbot Interview

(no subject)

Sir Gawain And The Green Knight Promo Post

It's a birthday!

Another Murderbot TV fic, Temperature Flash, and Hurt/Comfort-Ex

High in the Clean Blue Air - Chapter Forty Six

i could carve a better man out of a banana

A Brief History of Montmaray - Michelle Cooper

Prompt: Jindan/golden core

Two new interviews

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Find Me Elsewhere

March 2025

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