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[personal profile] zwei_hexen
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Days 1-15 )

Day 16: [personal profile] badly_knitted, [personal profile] carenejeans, [personal profile] chanter1944, [personal profile] china_shop, [personal profile] cornerofmadness, [personal profile] glinda, [profile] goddes47, [personal profile] luzula, [personal profile] sanguinity, [personal profile] sylvanwitch, [personal profile] the_siobhan, [personal profile] trobadora, [personal profile] yasaman, [personal profile] ysilme

Day 17: [personal profile] badly_knitted, [personal profile] carenejeans, [personal profile] chanter1944, [personal profile] china_shop, [personal profile] cornerofmadness, [personal profile] glinda, [profile] goddes47, [personal profile] luzula, [personal profile] sanguinity, [personal profile] sylvanwitch, [personal profile] the_siobhan, [personal profile] trobadora, [personal profile] yasaman, [personal profile] ysilme

Day 18: [personal profile] badly_knitted, [personal profile] brithistorian, [personal profile] carenejeans, [personal profile] chanter1944, [personal profile] china_shop, [personal profile] cornerofmadness, [personal profile] glinda, [profile] goddes47, [personal profile] sanguinity, [personal profile] sylvanwitch, [personal profile] the_siobhan, [personal profile] trobadora, [personal profile] yasaman, [personal profile] ysilme

Day 19: [personal profile] badly_knitted, [personal profile] brithistorian, [personal profile] carenejeans, [personal profile] chanter1944, [personal profile] cornerofmadness, [profile] goddes47, [personal profile] sanguinity, [personal profile] sylvanwitch, [personal profile] the_siobhan, [personal profile] trobadora, [personal profile] yasaman, [personal profile] ysilme

Day 20: [personal profile] badly_knitted, [personal profile] brithistorian, [personal profile] chanter1944, [personal profile] china_shop, [personal profile] cornerofmadness, [personal profile] glinda, [profile] goddes47, [personal profile] sanguinity, [personal profile] sylvanwitch, [personal profile] the_siobhan, [personal profile] trobadora, [personal profile] yasaman, [personal profile] ysilme

Day 21: [personal profile] badly_knitted, [personal profile] carenejeans, [personal profile] chanter1944, [personal profile] china_shop, [personal profile] cornerofmadness, [profile] goddes47, [personal profile] luzula, [personal profile] sanguinity, [personal profile] sylvanwitch, [personal profile] trobadora, [personal profile] yasaman, [personal profile] ysilme

Day 22: [personal profile] badly_knitted, [personal profile] carenejeans, [personal profile] chanter1944, [personal profile] china_shop, [personal profile] cornerofmadness, [personal profile] glinda, [profile] goddes47, [personal profile] luzula, [personal profile] sanguinity, [personal profile] sylvanwitch, [personal profile] the_siobhan, [personal profile] trobadora, [personal profile] yasaman, [personal profile] ysilme

Day 23: [personal profile] badly_knitted, [personal profile] carenejeans, [personal profile] chanter1944, [personal profile] china_shop, [personal profile] cornerofmadness, [personal profile] glinda, [profile] goddes47, [personal profile] luzula, [personal profile] sanguinity, [personal profile] sylvanwitch, [personal profile] trobadora, [personal profile] yasaman, [personal profile] ysilme

Day 24: [personal profile] badly_knitted, [personal profile] carenejeans, [personal profile] chanter1944, [personal profile] china_shop, [profile] cornerofmadess, [profile] goddes47, [personal profile] sanguinity, [personal profile] sylvanwitch, [personal profile] trobadora, [personal profile] yasaman, [personal profile] ysilme

Day 25: [personal profile] badly_knitted, [personal profile] brithistorian, [personal profile] carenejeans, [personal profile] chanter1944, [personal profile] china_shop, [personal profile] cornerofmadness, [profile] goddes47, [personal profile] luzula, [personal profile] sanguinity, [personal profile] sylvanwitch, [personal profile] trobadora, [personal profile] yasaman, [personal profile] ysilme

Let us know if we missed you or if you didn't check in for a while, so we can add you. Of course joining the fun is possible at any point.

~ ~ ~

[personal profile] ysilme here: today, a new character introduced himself, desiring to become part of my Valleyverse headcanon. He's quite insistent, so I made him welcome and started to write his back-story. I had to stop at 600ish words as I also have several kilos of peaches demanding my attention, but that's a neat result for a preservation day.

[personal profile] sylvanwitch here: 256 words and a strong sense of an ending on the alibi story for me today.
anneapocalypse: Ariane Clairière, an Elezen Warrior of Light with light skin, green eyes, and dark blonde hair. (Default)
[personal profile] anneapocalypse
dw_news | Mississippi legal challenge: beginning 1 September, we will need to geoblock Mississippi IPs ]

I don't have anything to add to this except that I'm grateful DW is fighting the fight. Though I never expected they'd roll over on age verification, it's heartening to see.
dolorosa_12: (teen wolf)
[personal profile] dolorosa_12
I've had this Rebecca Solnit essay bookmarked for a few days, because it's such a clear distillation of my own personal and political outlook that rather than write the ten millionth iteration of my own 'behave as if you have agency' rant, I can now just point to Solnit's post and call it a day.

I might quibble with some of her specific illustrative examples, but the overall shape of what she's saying aligns exactly with my thinking. And while I'm on this topic, I'll add (yet again) that constant awareness raising about iniquities and atrocities absent any specific instructions about concrete action to take in response to those iniquities and atrocities provokes exactly the kind of demoralising, despairing-in-advance apathy Solnit deplores in her essay. The only people who should be raising awareness are those whose job it is to do so: people who work in the media, or people who functionally fill a media-like role (paid or unpaid) by virtue of the content they've decided to disseminate via social media, and the large audience they have there. Even in those latter cases, awareness-raising without context does more harm than good.

Hope is an action. This doesn't mean a naive, apathetic confidence in the status quo. It means being clear-eyed about the gravity of the situation and the potential societal and personal risks it causes, and using what agency remains to you as an individual, a community and a society to push back against the tide, without being overwhelmed by the knowledge that it will be a marathon, not a sprint, comprised of lots of tiny little moments of concrete action. (And being able to handle the fact that the greater the atrocities and injustices, the less likely it will be to stop them with one grand action, and to be able to acknowledge the weight of this without being steamrollered into apathetic despair.)

None of these complaints are directed at anyone on my Dreamwidth reading list, which (to my good fortune) is comprised of sensible, thoughtful people who are better than most at understanding the motivating (and demotivating) power of words and information. But I felt, in the wake of Solnit's post, that it was time to set out my own thoughts on this particular nexus of issues once again, with as much clarity as possible. (And thank you to [personal profile] muccamukk for giving me the push I needed to set words to screen.)
[syndicated profile] smartbitches_feed

Posted by Amanda

A Novel Love Story

A Novel Love Story by Ashley Poston is $1.99! The heroine finds herself in a small town romance novel and I’m definitely tempted by the meta-ness of it all. However, Poston’s romances have always been middle of the road for me personally.

A professor of literature finds herself caught up in a work of fiction… literally.

Eileen Merriweather loves to get lost in a good happily-ever-after. The fictional kind, anyway. Because at least imaginary men don’t leave you at the altar. She feels safe in a book. At home. Which might be why she’s so set on going to her annual book club retreat this year—she needs good friends, cheap wine, and grand romantic gestures—no matter what.

But when her car unexpectedly breaks down on the way, she finds herself stranded in a quaint town that feels like it’s right out of a novel…

Because it is.

This place can’t be real, and yet… she’s here, in Eloraton, the town of her favorite romance series, where the candy store’s honey taffy is always sweet, the local bar’s burgers are always a little burnt, and rain always comes in the afternoon. It feels like home. It’s perfect—and perfectly frozen, trapped in the late author’s last unfinished story.

Elsy is sure that’s why she must be here: to help bring the town to its storybook ending.

Except there is a character in Eloraton that she can’t place—a grumpy bookstore owner with mint-green eyes, an irritatingly sexy mouth and impeccable taste in novels. And he does not want her finishing this book.

Which is a problem because Elsy is beginning to think the town’s happily-ever-after might just be intertwined with her own.

Add to Goodreads To-Read List →

You can find ordering info for this book here.

 

 

 

The City We Became

The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin is $2.99! I believe this deal is good for the week. Jemisin is a brilliant author and you should snap up any book when it’s on sale.

Five New Yorkers must come together in order to defend their city in the first book of a stunning new series by Hugo award-winning and NYT bestselling author N. K. Jemisin.

Every city has a soul. Some are as ancient as myths, and others are as new and destructive as children. New York City? She’s got five.

But every city also has a dark side. A roiling, ancient evil stirs beneath the earth, threatening to destroy the city and her five protectors unless they can come together and stop it once and for all.

Add to Goodreads To-Read List →

You can find ordering info for this book here.

 

 

 

Garden Spells

RECOMMENDED: Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen is $1.99! This author became an auto-buy for me after I read this book as a part of a Goodreads reading challenge. I would liken this book to women’s fiction with a magical realism slant. It’s heartwarming and beautiful. I even wrote a Keeper Shelf squee for it; that’s how much I love this book.

In a garden surrounded by a tall fence, tucked away behind a small, quiet house in an even smaller town, is an apple tree that is rumored to bear a very special sort of fruit. In this luminous debut novel, Sarah Addison Allen tells the story of that enchanted tree, and the extraordinary people who tend it.…

The Waverleys have always been a curious family, endowed with peculiar gifts that make them outsiders even in their hometown of Bascom, North Carolina. Even their garden has a reputation, famous for its feisty apple tree that bears prophetic fruit, and its edible flowers, imbued with special powers. Generations of Waverleys tended this garden. Their history was in the soil. But so were their futures.

A successful caterer, Claire Waverley prepares dishes made with her mystical plants—from the nasturtiums that aid in keeping secrets and the pansies that make children thoughtful, to the snapdragons intended to discourage the attentions of her amorous neighbor. Meanwhile, her elderly cousin, Evanelle, is known for distributing unexpected gifts whose uses become uncannily clear. They are the last of the Waverleys—except for Claire’s rebellious sister, Sydney, who fled Bascom the moment she could, abandoning Claire, as their own mother had years before.

When Sydney suddenly returns home with a young daughter of her own, Claire’s quiet life is turned upside down—along with the protective boundary she has so carefully constructed around her heart. Together again in the house they grew up in, Sydney takes stock of all she left behind, as Claire struggles to heal the wounds of the past. And soon the sisters realize they must deal with their common legacy—if they are ever to feel at home in Bascom—or with each other.

Enchanting and heartfelt, this captivating novel is sure to cast a spell with a style all its own…

Add to Goodreads To-Read List →

You can find ordering info for this book here.

 

 

 

The Footman

The Footman by S.M. LaViolette is 99c at Amazon! LaViolette is the other pen name of author Minerva Spencer. I’ve heard good things about this one and have seen it pop into the SBTB comments from time to time.

Lady Elinor wants nothing to do with love. Her arranged marriage—and one glorious but ill-fated kiss with a handsome footman—cured her of any romantic notions she’d ever entertained. Now a widow, all Elinor plans to do is rebuild her life—without a man in it. She certainly has no intention of falling for the charming and entirely too tempting American who seems so determined to win her favor…

Stephen Worth is no longer the impoverished footman who lost everything because of the impulsive actions of a reckless young lady. Having reinvented himself long ago, his sole focus now is revenge. He’ll do whatever it takes to extract a pound of flesh from all who wronged him so long ago. And if that means ruining the lovely Elinor in the process? So be it.

But it’s not long before Elinor finds herself drawn to Stephen despite her best intentions—and before Stephen starts to wonder if maybe a life with Elinor is worth more than his revenge. Can Stephen and Elinor overcome their painful pasts and take a second chance on love? Or is the cost of trust simply more than they’re willing to pay?

Add to Goodreads To-Read List →

You can find ordering info for this book here.

 

 

 

HaBO: He Finds Her at a Wife Sale

Aug. 26th, 2025 02:00 pm
[syndicated profile] smartbitches_feed

Posted by Amanda

This HaBO comes from Ashley, who wants to find this historical romance:

I have scoured the internet and triple checked my reading history, but have not been able to find this book or the series it belongs to. This is my last ditch effort before I give up and write the book myself because it must not exist outside of my head.

The book in question is a historical romance where the nobleman (can’t remember if he was titled or not) runs across a wife sale where the woman being sold is someone he knows and used to love (I think). She’s very shy and sweet and doesn’t expect much except that it will be better than her current marriage. I think she has some self worth/image issues. I want to say she’s given pearls or some sort of jewelry and told to behave in very specific way while the male lead teaches her how to serve him. Then there’s a dinner where a friend and fellow former spy (I think) of the new man comes to meet her and tells her that new man loves her.

There’s another book in the series about a former spy trying to get revenge on a woman who tricked him in his work a while ago. He accidentally abducts that woman’s twin(?) sister instead and tries to break her through seduction. The abducted woman was tricked by her “evil” sister to take her place. The “good” sister also has had a baby from an American soldier that’s dead now (maybe). The “evil” sister might be keeping the baby hostage but then ends up dropping it off at the house of the spy. At the end of the story, the “good” sister tried to take revenge on the spy by doing the same thing to him that he did to her, but it just turns into a love story ending where they find out she’s pregnant again with spy man’s baby.

I hope someone from the Smart Bitches, Trashy Books community can help me out!

We must HaBO!

Plymouth

Aug. 26th, 2025 12:26 pm
cmcmck: (Default)
[personal profile] cmcmck
We've travelled through Plymouth many a time and changed trains at the station but we've never actually spent time taking a look at the city.

It was well worth the time to do so.

We explored the old seaport area, the Barbican and also the Hoe.

There is one heck of a lot of history to the place.

The Dolphin hotel is a pub with a very fine frontage:


More pics: )

The Day in Spikedluv (Monday, Aug 25)

Aug. 26th, 2025 07:24 am
spikedluv: (summer: sunflowers by candi)
[personal profile] spikedluv
I hit Walmart while I was downtown and got in a walk around the park. I hit Stewart’s (for milk, finally) on the way home.

I did two loads of laundry (both washed, dried AND folded), hand-washed dishes and emptied the dishwasher, went on a couple of walks with Pip and the dogs, cut up chicken for the dogs' meals, placed a couple of online orders, scooped kitty litter, and shaved.

Pip finished up the bbq chicken quarters for supper (I haven’t cooked a new meal all weekend! I love it!). And there are still enough leftovers for him to take to the garage tomorrow.

Pip had to release the dogs to save Smokey from a buck! Smokey was out hunting at the edge of our lawn/where the high grass in the field begins. Two deer were heading up to the bird feeder through the high grass. The buck realized there was ~something there and turned to check it out/stomp it to death. I called out the window to Smokey, but he just turned to look at me PUTTING HIS BACK TO THE DANGER. What a hunter. *shakes head* So the dogs chased the deer away and Smokey was saved, but he probably had no idea what the deal was.

I finally finished Hatshepsut and watched some HGTV programs. And I handwrote ~800 words on a new fic! I’m hoping that it will be my entry for [community profile] smallfandombang. If you guessed, based on the fact that I recently re-watched the movie (to take notes) that it’s in the Olympus Has Fallen fandom, you’d be right!

Temps started out at 60.4(F) and reached 81.3. It was only supposed to be 70 today! Needless to say, I changed my morning capris for shorts when I got home from downtown. We got a teeny bit of rain later on, but not much.

ETA: I forgot to say, Thank You to [personal profile] kat_lair for my birthday fic! It's Primeval (Nick/Stephen) and you can read it here: Celebrate Tonight by MistressKat


Mom Update:

Mom was doing about the same today. more back here )
meridian_rose: pen on letter background  with text  saying 'writer' (Default)
[personal profile] meridian_rose
This year we've got the "Bulls in the City" in Birmingham. It's raising awareness and selling themed souvenirs (everything from pencils and pin badges to tote bags and t-shirts) to support Birmingham Hospice. After the events the sculptures will be auctioned off too.


About the Event

photos and more after the cut )
thenewbuzwuzz: Spike at computer, caption says EDITOR (Herald)
[personal profile] thenewbuzwuzz posting in [community profile] su_herald
Willy: (loudly so everyone hears) Hey! It's the Slayer. What brings the, uh, Slayer down here?
Several vampires at the bar get up and quietly leave.

~~Amends~~




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[syndicated profile] smartbitches_feed

Posted by Amanda

Happy Tuesday!

It’s the last release week in August. How are we feeling? Because I have to tell you, September is looking brutal for new releases. I personally had to whittle my preorders down to five books.

This week, a highly anticipated release from a known bestseller, a historical romance, and shifters, make it onto our to-read lists.

Which new releases made it onto your TBR piles? Let us know in the comments!

The Gilded Heiress

The Gilded Heiress by Joanna Shupe

Author: Joanna Shupe
Released: August 26, 2025 by Avon
Genre: ,

From USA Today bestselling author Joanna Shupe comes a spicy Anastasia story full of secrets and betrayal, set among the glittering streets of New York City’s Gilded Age.

In 1880 a baby was stolen from the wealthiest family in America. Though no ransom was ever demanded, the Pendelton family never gave up hope . . . and their reward became the stuff of legend.

After being raised in a children’s asylum, Josie Smith ends up on the streets and quickly learns how to take care of herself. Her singing voice draws crowds on every corner, and she’ll stop at nothing to become famous and travel the world, loved and adored by all. Maybe then she won’t think about the family who gave her away as an infant.

Leo Hardy isn’t afraid to use his charm and wits to make a fast buck, especially with a mother and five siblings to support. When he stumbles upon a beautiful young woman singing on the street, Leo notices her striking resemblance to the infamous missing baby’s mother, Mrs. Thomas Pendelton. The Hardys lost everything thanks to the Pendeltons, and once Leo sees Josie, he seizes the opportunity to settle the score. All he needs to do is pull off the biggest swindle of his career.

As the two are catapulted into Knickerbocker High Society, they grow closer to their goal, as well as to each other. But secrets can only stay hidden for so long. Soon the truth unfolds, and both Josie and Leo must separate what’s real from what’s just gilding.

Amanda: Uh…”spicy Anastasia.”

Claudia: What Amanda said! I’m also here for Gilded Age romance anytime.

Add to Goodreads To-Read List →

Katabasis

Katabasis by R.F. Kuang

Author: R.F. Kuang
Released: August 26, 2025 by Harper Voyager
Genre:

Two graduate students must set aside their rivalry and journey to Hell to save their professor’s soul, perhaps at the cost of their own.

Alice Law has only ever had one goal: to become one of the brightest minds in the field of Magick. She has sacrificed everything to make that a reality—her pride, her health, her love life, and most definitely her sanity. All to work with Professor Jacob Grimes at Cambridge, the greatest magician in the world—that is, until he dies in a magical accident that could possibly be her fault.

Grimes is now in Hell, and she’s going in after him. Because his recommendation could hold her very future in his now incorporeal hands, and even death is not going to stop the pursuit of her dreams. Nor will the fact that her rival, Peter Murdoch, has come to the same conclusion.

Amanda: We all know this is going to be an instant bestseller.

Elyse: Anything by Kuang is auto-buy for me.

Add to Goodreads To-Read List →

Love’s a Witch

Love’s a Witch by Tricia O'Malley

Author: Tricia O'Malley
Released: August 26, 2025 by Gallery Books
Genre: , ,
Series: The Scottish Charms #1

From the New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author Tricia O’Malley, a cozy romantasy about a Scottish witch returning to her ancestral village to break a family curse—only to clash with one stubborn warlock determined to protect his town from her haywire magic.

She’s hexed. He’s vexed. And for Scotland’s most magical small-town, their feud might just spell disaster.

Sloane MacGregor swore she’d never return to Briarhaven, but with her twenty-fifth birthday looming—the day witches come into their magic—her grandmother summons her and her sisters back for one tiny task: break the centuries-old curse haunting their bloodline.

Knox Douglas, Briarhaven’s grumpy mayor, has worked tirelessly to make his town a haven for magical folk. The last thing he needs is a cursed MacGregor wreaking havoc. It doesn’t matter he once crushed on her. For the sake of Briarhaven, Sloane has to go.

But magic has other plans—and in Briarhaven, love really is a witch.

Sounds like a good release to get ready for fall. 

Add to Goodreads To-Read List →

The Secret Crush Book Club

The Secret Crush Book Club by Karmen Lee

Author: Karmen Lee
Released: August 26, 2025 by Afterglow Books by Harlequin
Genre: , ,

A dedicated single mother and a librarian with a secret write their own sweet and sexy love story in this small-town rom-com about family, friendships and embracing the next chapter.

Nothing cures a lonely heart quite like a good book

and an unexpected crush…

For Dani, life is a juggling act. As a single mom devoted to her son and family, she barely has a moment to herself. But when her sister announces she’s moving out of the house, the ache of loneliness creeps in, and Dani can’t help but wonder if there’s something else she’s been missing in her life…

Zoey came to Peach Blossom eager to start her new job as the town’s librarian and do a little research for her next book. Yet she never expected to find inspiration in fellow book club member Dani, whose captivating brown eyes tell a story of their own. Before they know it, lingering glances over their favorite fiction turn into first dates and sizzling nights.

As their connection deepens, the two women must decide if they should turn the page on what their lives used to look like or if this thrilling plot twist is the happily-ever-after they’ve been chasing all along.

From showing up to glowing up, the characters in Afterglow Books are on the path to leading their best lives and finding sizzling romance along the way. Don’t miss any of these other fun titles…

Shana: This series makes me happy.

Add to Goodreads To-Read List →

To Kill a Badger

To Kill a Badger by Shelly Laurenston

Author: Shelly Laurenston
Released: August 26, 2025 by Kensington Books
Genre: ,
Series: Honey Badger Chronicles #6

Laugh-out-loud humor, a feminist outlook, and one-of-a-kind shape-shifting romance come together with the continuation of the fan-favorite Honey Badger Chronicles from New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Shelly Laurenston.

Nelle Zhao is a social media maven who knows what matters. And the only thing that matters right now is survival. Not easy, though, when her honey badger teammates attract trouble the way she attracts attention. She didn’t know when it became her job to protect the ones she cares about from themselves, but even she has to admit…she’s really good at it. Too bad some people don’t appreciate when she’s being helpful. Especially Keane Malone, who doesn’t know how to accept a friendly paw. But Nelle excels at helping! And at ignoring other people’s irrational demands, such as doing it all alone. Keane, poor pretty kitty, doesn’t understand the kind of assistance a shit-starting honey badger like Nelle can truly offer . . .

Keane knows two things—he doesn’t like other people, and he is going to crush the de Medicis, an evil coalition of male lion shifters who are not only snatching innocent humans for fun and profit, but also killed his father. And for once, he may not be able to fight this fight alone, forcing him to let long-legged, jet-setting Nelle join the fight. And getting close to Nelle is suddenly bringing out his roar . . .

Book six in Laurenston’s Honey Badger Chronicles.

Add to Goodreads To-Read List →

[syndicated profile] notbecauseofvictory_feed

actually, offenbach (despite being mostly a lame musical pun) might be my favorite opera composer. He’s not going to yank on your heartstrings, plumb any too-deep wells of feeling, but his music is lighthearted, sincere and yet satirical enough that modern productions exhale, and let their players have a good time just putting on a show.

[syndicated profile] thebibliosphere_feed

thebibliosphere:

Hello from 30,000 feet. Look at my fucking in flight entertainment lmao

MY BLORBO FROM MY SHOW

I just noticed the blurb says “Bruce Wayne” up there instead of Thomas and that’s quite the feat considering Bruce Wayne won’t be alive for another 30 years or so in this universe.

So they’re offering season one episode 2 and episode 2 only, and the captions are wrong. Amazing. No notes. The dude watching in front of me is so confused lmaaaao

denise: Image: Me, facing away from camera, on top of the Castel Sant'Angelo in Rome (Default)
[staff profile] denise posting in [site community profile] dw_news

I'll start with the tl;dr summary to make sure everyone sees it and then explain further: As of September 1, we will temporarily be forced to block access to Dreamwidth from all IP addresses that geolocate to Mississippi for legal reasons. This block will need to continue until we either win the legal case entirely, or the district court issues another injunction preventing Mississippi from enforcing their social media age verification and parental consent law against us.

Mississippi residents, we are so, so sorry. We really don't want to do this, but the legal fight we and Netchoice have been fighting for you had a temporary setback last week. We genuinely and honestly believe that we're going to win it in the end, but the Fifth Circuit appellate court said that the district judge was wrong to issue the preliminary injunction back in June that would have maintained the status quo and prevented the state from enforcing the law requiring any social media website (which is very broadly defined, and which we definitely qualify as) to deanonymize and age-verify all users and obtain parental permission from the parent of anyone under 18 who wants to open an account.

Netchoice took that appellate ruling up to the Supreme Court, who declined to overrule the Fifth Circuit with no explanation -- except for Justice Kavanaugh agreeing that we are likely to win the fight in the end, but saying that it's no big deal to let the state enforce the law in the meantime.

Needless to say, it's a big deal to let the state enforce the law in the meantime. The Mississippi law is a breathtaking state overreach: it forces us to verify the identity and age of every person who accesses Dreamwidth from the state of Mississippi and determine who's under the age of 18 by collecting identity documents, to save that highly personal and sensitive information, and then to obtain a permission slip from those users' parents to allow them to finish creating an account. It also forces us to change our moderation policies and stop anyone under 18 from accessing a wide variety of legal and beneficial speech because the state of Mississippi doesn't like it -- which, given the way Dreamwidth works, would mean blocking people from talking about those things at all. (And if you think you know exactly what kind of content the state of Mississippi doesn't like, you're absolutely right.)

Needless to say, we don't want to do that, either. Even if we wanted to, though, we can't: the resources it would take for us to build the systems that would let us do it are well beyond our capacity. You can read the sworn declaration I provided to the court for some examples of how unworkable these requirements are in practice. (That isn't even everything! The lawyers gave me a page limit!)

Unfortunately, the penalties for failing to comply with the Mississippi law are incredibly steep: fines of $10,000 per user from Mississippi who we don't have identity documents verifying age for, per incident -- which means every time someone from Mississippi loaded Dreamwidth, we'd potentially owe Mississippi $10,000. Even a single $10,000 fine would be rough for us, but the per-user, per-incident nature of the actual fine structure is an existential threat. And because we're part of the organization suing Mississippi over it, and were explicitly named in the now-overturned preliminary injunction, we think the risk of the state deciding to engage in retaliatory prosecution while the full legal challenge continues to work its way through the courts is a lot higher than we're comfortable with. Mississippi has been itching to issue those fines for a while, and while normally we wouldn't worry much because we're a small and obscure site, the fact that we've been yelling at them in court about the law being unconstitutional means the chance of them lumping us in with the big social media giants and trying to fine us is just too high for us to want to risk it. (The excellent lawyers we've been working with are Netchoice's lawyers, not ours!)

All of this means we've made the extremely painful decision that our only possible option for the time being is to block Mississippi IP addresses from accessing Dreamwidth, until we win the case. (And I repeat: I am absolutely incredibly confident we'll win the case. And apparently Justice Kavanaugh agrees!) I repeat: I am so, so sorry. This is the last thing we wanted to do, and I've been fighting my ass off for the last three years to prevent it. But, as everyone who follows the legal system knows, the Fifth Circuit is gonna do what it's gonna do, whether or not what they want to do has any relationship to the actual law.

We don't collect geolocation information ourselves, and we have no idea which of our users are residents of Mississippi. (We also don't want to know that, unless you choose to tell us.) Because of that, and because access to highly accurate geolocation databases is extremely expensive, our only option is to use our network provider's geolocation-based blocking to prevent connections from IP addresses they identify as being from Mississippi from even reaching Dreamwidth in the first place. I have no idea how accurate their geolocation is, and it's possible that some people not in Mississippi might also be affected by this block. (The inaccuracy of geolocation is only, like, the 27th most important reason on the list of "why this law is practically impossible for any site to comply with, much less a tiny site like us".)

If your IP address is identified as coming from Mississippi, beginning on September 1, you'll see a shorter, simpler version of this message and be unable to proceed to the site itself. If you would otherwise be affected, but you have a VPN or proxy service that masks your IP address and changes where your connection appears to come from, you won't get the block message, and you can keep using Dreamwidth the way you usually would.

On a completely unrelated note while I have you all here, have I mentioned lately that I really like ProtonVPN's service, privacy practices, and pricing? They also have a free tier available that, although limited to one device, has no ads or data caps and doesn't log your activity, unlike most of the free VPN services out there. VPNs are an excellent privacy and security tool that every user of the internet should be familiar with! We aren't affiliated with Proton and we don't get any kickbacks if you sign up with them, but I'm a satisfied customer and I wanted to take this chance to let you know that.

Again, we're so incredibly sorry to have to make this announcement, and I personally promise you that I will continue to fight this law, and all of the others like it that various states are passing, with every inch of the New Jersey-bred stubborn fightiness you've come to know and love over the last 16 years. The instant we think it's less legally risky for us to allow connections from Mississippi IP addresses, we'll undo the block and let you know.

[syndicated profile] notbecauseofvictory_feed

I would love to! Trust me, if there was wizard I could summon from a tower, a fairy queen who wanted to spirit someone away for a year and a day in exchange for their heart's desire, or a devil that would meet me at the crossroads (literally any crossroads! I'm flexible!!) we would not be in this situation.

[syndicated profile] notbecauseofvictory_feed

Not my invention at all!

"Old Nick" as a name for the devil comes from...well, not mythology, to call it such gives it more gravitas than it deserves, but various strains of English folk belief. For example, Swansea in the UK has an "Old Nick" statue, which dates back to the 1890s. While there are lots of suppositions---maybe it's connected to St. Nick? maybe it's rooted in "nicked" as slang for theft or other (heh) devilry?---it's undeniable that the Christian devil has been referred to as "Old Nick" for a a couple centuries at least.

And given how weird it would sound if Johnny called the Devil "Scratch", "Satan", or "Lucifer", "Nick" was the most reasonable name I could find.

[syndicated profile] notbecauseofvictory_feed

Ah yes! La fille du régiment, which is a silly story about how to impress your girlfriend's 13-25 dads, and also some woman who technically gave birth to her, I guess. It's a riot! I can recommend the Met Opera's version, which is fun and charming, and doesn't try to get too complicated with it; I watched it with a friend a couple years ago.

(Akhnaten, which I also watched with that friend, is....not that. Wildly impressive! But Philip Glass doesn't know how to write music that's 'not complicated'.)

The point is that if you are taking your first, tentative steps into opera, I encourage you to start with whatever jives with your taste. Some people love a harpsichord and a plot that only vaguely makes sense, in which case there are many, many baroque operas to enjoy. (I particularly like this production of Camdus et Hermione, and this delightfully staged production of Hercules---the Handel opera I saw this weekend falls into this category too.) Other people want some musical heft, but aren't willing to travel too far down the path---Mozart is great if you're in this category, there is a wonderful version of The Marriage of Figaro on youtube; there's an English language Die Zauberflote or The Magic Flute. Donizetti, who wrote Daughters of the Regiment, showed up just as this chapter of musical history was closing.

Or hey, maybe you want something with real weight---this is where you get into the Romantics with a capital R, your Verdis and Puccinis, your Tchaikovskys and Wagners. This is when opera starts to sound like opera, whether it's high drama and slightly scandalous (Bizet's Carmen, when it first premiered was considered wildly naturalistic and shocking) or a warmly comedic journey (if The Tales of Hoffman has a moral, it's 'Poetry Is Better Than Sex'). If you have a robust library nearby, they probably have at least a few filmed operas from this era in their catalogue. If you don't---youtube is lousy (really) with (yes) options (so many options).

And....well, honestly, this is the point where I tend to tap out; past the Romantics you get into modern or contemporary operas, and I connect a lot less. (I just can't hang with Britten, I'm so sorry.) That said, I ended up loving this double bill of Gilbert & Sullivan + a contemporary opera about sex and politics, and I have a weak spot for The Exterminating Angel, which is deeply inexplicable and fascinating. I've seen a few others on stage that I could suggest---but I would reserve this category for when/if you've tried out the others and decided you absolutely love opera.

Or hey, maybe you're the kind of person who listens to skrillex music on repeat! In which case, please find your way to a Philip Glass opera immediately. He wrote them specifically for you.

Recent Reading: The West Passage

Aug. 25th, 2025 05:41 pm
rocky41_7: (Default)
[personal profile] rocky41_7 posting in [community profile] books

Today I finished The West Passage by Jared Pachacek. This is a fantasy novel about a massive palace that encompasses the entirety of the state where the protagonists live and is ruled over by the godlike and somewhat tyrannical Ladies. The ancient Beast, the enemy of the Ladies, is threatening to rise again, as it has done in the past, which leaves our protagonists, Pell and Kew, youths of the Grey Tower, to try to raise the alarm.

I’m usually a fan of stories that throw you right into things, but The West Passage did leave me turned around for a while. I struggled to conceptualize what was being explained, and it’s definitely a book that asks a lot of your powers of visual imagination regarding the palace.

However, I loved the general creativity of this book. I don’t think I’ve ever read a fantasy novel so firmly and intentionally grounded in the medieval. A lot of Western fantasy is generically medieval/pseudo-medieval (a la the Ren Faire), but The West Passage clearly took time to more securely set itself in this era. The technology is not always strictly medieval, as this is a fantasy world with all manner of fantastical beasts and tools, but the medieval setting is far more than window dressing here. To cap off the mood, the book is peppered with charming medieval-style illustrations at the start of each chapter and separating each “book” within the novel, showing our protagonists on their adventure.
 

Read more... )

 

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