cornerofmadness

So I called the vet again and got Ms Surly this time who was appalled that I was not told to bring Rocket in immediately yesterday (I think I talked to the young one yesterday, the one Surly bit the head off last time when Rocket skinned his tail).

Good news - leg's not broken. Bad news - they think it's an abscess. They kept Rocket overnight for pain meds and high dose antibiotics. They might have to keep him tomorrow too as I got to work all day then to the interview then to the doctor. Honestly it's the best place for him as he refuses to stay inside.

However, he is a FIV + cat and an abscess is going to be bad, potentially fatally so. And since this is the apartment's cat, think anyone else around here is going to help foot the bill? Yeah no. Ah well, I can't let him suffer so I'll deal.



Challenge #11

In your own space, create a fanwork.

Post your answer to today’s challenge in your own space and leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

Title:
The Sweet and Uncertain First Steps


Summary: Hunter is attending school for the very first time and he is nervous, overwhelmed by the questions swirling in his head. Can he do this? What is his magic? Is he falling in love?

Rating: teen

Notes: Written for the getyourwordsout tarot card challenge. My cards are :
Two of Cups - Union, attraction, combination, affection;
Six of Swords - Adaptation, adjustments, science, travel;
Seven of Swords - Dishonesty, presumption, sneakiness, assumptions
And for the allbingo prompt of I wanna be loved by you.


Challenge #15

Fandom Snowflake Challenge's 2023 Fandom Wrapped!

Your top 5 fandoms for 2023 were:
1. The Owl House
2. Prodigal Son
3. Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel the series
4. Fullmetal Alchemist
5. Star Trek (all versions

Your top 5 fandom spaces (Discord, Twitter, etc.) in 2023 were:
1. AO3
2. Dreamwidth
3. Livejournal
4. Bluesky
5 Twitter

The top 5 things you did to contribute to fandom in 2023 were:
1. writing
2. reading/commenting
3. cheerleading
4. charity auctions like fandomtrumpshate
5. supporting exchange communities

Your top 5 most appreciated fandom contributions were:
judging by kudos it was

1. Burning from Within

2. Job Offer

3. Meaning in the Misery

4. Rescue Me

5. A confession of pain

They're all The Owl House except 5 which is Prodigal Son. Also I'd like to think my fandom trumps hates stories were well appreciated too

In Logan there was a Full Wolf Moon Misfit Market and I wanted to go. But it was meant to be raining and for some reason I thought it was outside. The FB page was sparse with info but the vendor names led me to believe this was going to be fantasy/pagan related.

Logan is only 50 miles. It's certainly closer than Huntington (my closest mall) and Columbus but it feels SO. Much Further because the other two you're on straight shot roads but Logan is on a straight shot too...if you love curves. You really can't set cruise and go. So it feels so much further.

I said screw it, you're going. I couldn't find it at first because it was inside a building with NO numbers, no name, nothing but a tiny sign pointing at it. I'm glad I went. It benefited the animal shelter and the vendors were cool. I got some beautiful dice and picked up a tip. Okay on her end, she was short circuiting her partner's dice sales. There were metal ones. I've been eyeballing them in the past. I had them in my hand thinking these are heavy and I said so. She admitted not only are they heavy they tend to chip stuff up, especially dice towers. While I don't have a tower, I'm thinking good to know and no than you.

I found a locket with gears (nothing I couldn't have made on my own) but also had a mini first aid kit inside them (they sold survival jewelry and I'm a little miffed I didn't buy the fire starter too). As I'm the ship's doctor with my air group I had to have this. I found another metal/rock pendant must have. Silver and stones are my weakness. I got a flower agate hunk for Mom for Mother's day.

So all and all it was good BUT I had no idea another friend of mine was going and I missed her. She got to play with the animals. I didn't know they even had them there (that was a bit of a fail on their part)

The dice goblin gets another set


The dice Mom got me for christmas

Challenge 5

Search in your current space, whether brick-and-mortar or digital. Post a picture (a link to a picture will be fine!) or description of something that is or represents:

( cutting for length )

Challenge #12 - Tell Us about a Personal Win.

Tonight was one of them. It's the first time in almost four months I went out to do something fun. I went to a Cirque Mechanics (the small traveling cirque du soleil troupe) show Zephyr. I met up with friends and we went. It was just wonderful. I have long been fascinated at what a human body CAN do. I still want to know what has to be hiding in the one acrobat's top knot that she can be hoisted in the air and swung by her hair. I'm still stunned by the strongman of the troupe holding a may pole on his forehead (no hands) while another little acrobat is doing her thing ten feet up on that pole Or how one of the male acrobats could jump backwards through hoops or another of the male acrobats on this spinning hamsterwheel some twelve feet up on the OUTSIDE of the wheel jumping rope.

Why me going to this was such a win is I've been stuck in the house after discovering I have endometrial cancer. I had to miss all of my favorite things for halloween out of fear of falling/hurting myself on paranormal investigations or getting covid. Nothing was delaying my surgery and then post losing a few organs I had to stay pretty much doing nothing much for 8 weeks to heal.

Another win was the fact, I dealt with the cancer diagnosis well. I managed to get from diagnosis to post op in a month.

Other wins include the fact I sold two short stories and a novel last year. In fact the novel is out next month. You can read about it here. I do have some arcs for review for These Haunted Hills if anyone is interested.

Last year I wrote about 240K of fanfic and 64K of original fiction and this year I'm at about 15K combined for fanfic/ofic

How can so much of it slip through my fingers. I've done...still nothing other than look over my two galley proofs and get them back to their respective publishers. Ugh. How could I do so little? How did going to the library and the grocery store seem to eat up much of my day?

Challenge #9

Rec Us Your Newest Thing. Post your answer to today’s challenge in your own space and leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

I have nothing that new. I can't stream so I'm out of the loop on many things. I have one show I'm really enjoying on Syfy Surreal Estate but it is not becoming that treasured obsession where I love playing in the fandom.

I have to go back a couple years to find that in both Prodigal Son and The Owl House, two shows that got killed in the second season (at least TOH got to wrap it up) for reasons literally no one understands. Disney admits canceling TOH was a mistake. Fox touted Son as the number one crime drama and then boom the day before the finale aired, canceled it taking the entire cast by surprise. Those were two that I highly rec to anyone. The fandoms are cool, Pson is cooling off but TOH is still pretty damn hot with daily comics among other things.

the other thing that I've gotten into lately is Critical Role. I got to watch Legend of Vox Machina at my brother's and I went back to listening. I had tried a few years ago and nope, at that point (mostly because if I'm at my computer I'm working either at the day job or writing at night) The problem with this is I can't get current because WOW most of these are 4 hours each and even the latest one which I tried recently is in the high double digits for episodes. This is such a huge time commitment (and so far Bells Hells isn't grabbing me like the other two) I might go back and try to catch up some more on The Mighty Nein as I like the characters better but if I'm doing that I'm not getting anything else done. Sigh. That said, Matt Mercer is very good at description and setting a scene and there is something to be learned there writing wise.

I had 4 hours to think. I had something I was very much looking forward to participating in but I thought it over. There was the displacement of the con mods by a more or less hostile take over after a couple disgruntled volunteers led a smear campaign with zero proof of anything. And I'm like why should I do this now? I loathe everything that happened so there's yet another thing I'm not going to get to do and the disappointment roll right on (at least I won't have to finish up that cosplay in a rush).

I'm also trying to decide on two winter shows that are freaking mid-week. One is 40 miles away in Athens (Cirque du soleil) and the other is 90 miles away in Columbus that I really want to do but I'd have to leave work FLY up the highway for this Renn faire in the Columbus Science Center at 6 pm and leave in time to go to my lab on friday...ugh (Now I'm feeling my age)

Challenge #6

In your own space, share a favourite piece of original canon (a show, a specific TV episode, a storyline, a book or series, a scene from a movie, etc) and explain why you love it so much. . Post your answer to today’s challenge in your own space and leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.


This is timely as this week is The Owl House's 4 years old. This is my latest fandom (which sadly got canceled after the second season but was allowed to do 3 hours of S3 to wrap up the damn cliffhanger). My current icon is Luz, the main protagonist. This was a Disney animation (of all things) There isn't a character I didn't like. The world building and story line were far more sophisticated than I expected in a show aimed at the 13-16 crowd (Luz is 13) in fact, break downs of the episodes on Youtube I've used as part of my how-to write posts, that's how good the story telling was. Also the villain is one of the best, most believable villain I've seen in a long time (I'm jealous he's not mine)

What did I love about it? Everything. Luz is the outsider at school (well that's all but cliche at this point but still it resonates with many) but she's also a Latinx bilingual bisexual. And she ends up in another world (which is a trope I don't even like normally) and that's not the thing that hooked me. It really was we have a female character of color as the protagonist and she's bi. She ends up with a girlfriend (Amity) by the end of S1.

We also have her mother figure, Eda whose curse can be read as a chronic illness and her former/future lover, Raine is nonbinary and everyone respects their pronouns. Luz makes friends with Willow and Gus. Willow has two dads. Gus is a character of color. Eda's sister, Lilith is asexual. Willow is pan and one of my favorite characters, Hunter (who enters in S2) is bi as well. Hunter is also used to illustrate the dangers of gas lighting and parental abuse.

So we have a show with great rep where race and all sexualities are normalized. It's a shame it was canceled. Disney thought there was little interest. They admitted after Comicon last year that they made a mistake seeing the size of the panel attendance and cosplay. (I'm currently doing Eda in her PJs as we're around the same age but her normal day clothes include heeled boots I can't do because of my own disability also because it's fun to run around a con in bunny slippers) I DO have to wonder if certain political pressures on Disney for being so woke had a role in the cancellation. I am sorry to see it gone.

I hope that there is new life to it somewhere and I'll be honest unlike a loud section of fandom I don't really want it 20 years down the road with Luz et al's kids. There's a time skip that could be rich with stories or right after the time skip when they start college. Or maybe some books. Ah well. Until then there's always fanfic and fan art. There are multiple artists out there doing daily comics (they are impressive)

Between two different software tutorials NOT happening next week (one is done and the other delayed yet again) I don't have my big all day faculty meeting. Did you see me turning cartwheels down the stairs in joy? The annoying cloud in this silver lining is the first tutorial happened yesterday with only one days notice...on holiday break...like we're monitoring our emails daily. OMG so yeah I missed it. I'll catch up on campus later)

It snowed. Makes me happy. But dad pulled a muscle and I don't know how to drive the big tractor to plow and if this light snow doesn't blow off I can't get out to go see my friend. Ah well. I wanted to too.

I wasn't going to do this. I'm not sure I have the right mental headspace for extras right now. Still debating on if I'm doing the one I'm signed up for. But eh, let's give it a try

Challenge #3

Create a wish list of fandom things (podfic, graphics, playlists, canon recs translations, research help, vids, sky's the limit!) that you'd like to receive. Post your answer to today’s challenge in your own space and leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

It's a short list. Mostly I'd love a story or two and my prompt and fandoms can actually be found right now at fandomtrees here. I never expect to see a vid (but it has happened) but Citizen Soldier's stuff is perfect for Malcolm (Prodigal Son) and Hunter (The Owl House, My Own Miracle really works for him)

But what I really want, more than anything fannish, is a) someone interested in joining our critique group (You'd be better off if you wrote SF/F/UF horror or mystery) or someone interested in a alpha/beta reading exchange if a group isn't your thing. (You can PM me if this interests you)

The joy of the day was getting to attend the Abney Park streaming concert.

Have a peek at this synopsis, see what you think. Yes it's a bit basic because it's not really for a query. They're already going to read the novel so it's not a query letter sort of synopsis.

( thanks )






Challenge #14

In your own space, do the Fandom Wrap Challenge. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.


( cut for length )

So I went to the podiatrist today because of the swelling in my big toe. I was nervous because as a podiatrist myself the worst case scenario was in my head, charcot changes (where the diabetes causes the bones to break), pre ulcers or if I was lucky a ganglion cyst. But he thinks (and it makes sense) that this is from a condition I've had all my life but not really thinking about. metatarsal elevatus of the first ray. It means the big toe (and the bone behind it) are not really contacting the ground (it's the same on the other side) I have been propelling off this toe because of my injury.

Basically treatment is orthotics (which have failed in the past) and rocker bottom shoes which I have already but he wants me to be in them always. eh, that's no big deal.





Challenge #12

In your own space, set yourself some goals for the coming year. They can be fannish or not, public or private. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.



1. send out my finished novel (I should do this one shortly)

2. finish my 1980s era monster hunter team novel (and find an alpha/beta reader)

3. keep working on my original short stories. I did very well in 2022 with this and I want to keep it up

4. take my health more serious especially mental health (where I have a poor track record)

5. keep pushing myself to get back into what I can post accident. it'll be 2 years next month and while some things I might never get back, I do want to get out hiking a bit more which means I need to get more local friends who want to go with me

6. clean this apartment better I'm hoping bitesizedcleaning will be the accountability I need for that.


And for music monday here's one that captures my feelings pretty well

Yeah my face is like Mustang's in the icon. Honestly day one wasn't that bad but some students didn't know TR meant Tuesday and Thursday and weren't there. The book store failed AGAIN. That's the biggest issue for me. Other than that my day is long and otherwise uninteresting so let me launch into some Snowflake challenges

Challenge #8

In your own space, create a quiz or a poll (or tell us your thoughts about answering quizzes/polls). Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.


I almost took a pass on this because my brain was a) WHEE love this idea b) I HAVE NO QUESTIONS. Snort. Here's something I half assed because it does interest me.






Challenge #9

In your own space, celebrate a personal win from the past year: it can be a list of fanworks you're especially proud of, time you spent in the community, a quality or skill you cultivated in yourself, something you generally feel went well. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

Okay fandom wise there are these stories I'm super proud of (They're all Prodigal Son)

Digging Up Bones the latest novel-length entry into my series where Ainsley tried to cover her crime by killing Malcolm and what happens when he survives.

Bound by Fear the latest novel-length entry into my series where Martin did try to kill Malcolm as a kid and what happens when he survives (are we seeing a pattern)

Forbidden my AU romance for unconventionalcourtship using Gil and Jessica (which is wild since in general I don't do AUs)

What the Hex Is Going On? A story with Edrisa and Malcolm (which tends to get much less notice) with a supernatural mystery flare for both fandomtrumpshate (a charity auction that might interest you) and spook_me (one of my favorite challenges)


Ignis Aurum Probat Episode 3X11 in a fan written virtual season for Prodigal Son. This was HARD. I don't like script writing much as it turns out and working with this many authors was more of a job than loads of fun. Still very proud of my script and the whole series.


Outside of fandom I'm very proud of Red of Tooth and Claw my 1980s era monster hunting college kids team story is 3/4ths the way done. I'd still love an alpha/beta reader for it and regardless I DID write a little holiday thing for it right here Fire Hazards

Also I went to New England on my own in spite of fears. For newcomers to my blog, in one month it'll be 2 years (somehow) since I had a serious fall and nearly lost my right leg. 2021 was me learning to walk and 2022 was continuing recovery. I was afraid to fly if the knee couldn't handle it and I wasn't sure I was up to a drive that big. As it turned out I had no issues at all.

Also very proud that I went HIKING with friends. Yes it was flat, yes it was short but that was my first time in the woods since the accident.

The librarians today said Dana come join us at Books and Brews a book club at the brew pub. YES PLEASE. Unfortunately a) it's classic lit, ugh no thanks, read that crap in h.s./college. I'm over most of it b) it's noon friday. Um I work. Even if I worked in town I wouldn't want to go back to work with beer breath. Oh well.

Just found out one of my favorite restaurants in town had their pipes freeze over and burst over Christmas. I was SO lucky to not have that happen here while I was gone.

I got my antibiotics from the rudest nurse practitioner I've ever had. I really wanted to say something but thought maybe her day is sucking hard and frankly I have what I want and I'm too tired to fuss.







Challenge #6

In your own space, post the results of your fandom scavenger hunt. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

Search in your current space, whether brick-and-mortar or digital. Post a picture or description of something that is or represents:

1. A favorite character
2. Something that makes you laugh
3. A bookshelf
4. A game or hobby you enjoy
5. Something you find comforting
6. A TV show or movie you hope more people will watch
7. A piece of clothing you love
8. A thing from an old fandom
9. A thing from a new fandom



Oh this one was FUN! ( but it also go long so it's behind this cut )