cornerofmadness

I was going to write about mining dreams but a) I'm having one of my exhausted days b) rewatched the Emma Fielding on Hallmark Mysteries and it suggested another theme: not making your characters look like morons. What prompted my interest in this well in rewatching episode one of this series, where Emma is an archaeologist and the potential love interest is in the FBI, art fraud division.

So someone turns up at Emma's dig buried under a few inches of dirt with wounds to the head and both Emma and FBI dude are like 'do you think this is murder?' on more than one occasion. Nah, I think he bashed in his own head and then burrowed six inches under the ground to die. How am I supposed to root for these people when they're saying nonsense like this?

I think one way to avoid this is to read it out loud. It's not just a good way to catch awkward sentences, it's also good to listen and ask, would anyone actually talk like this? If you have beta readers, hopefully they'll catch you saying something weird before it gets out there (and you'd hope some editor would catch it) but since I know that tv shows often are doing last minute rewrites, idiotic stuff slips in. How many times have you sat there and thought 'why didn't the actor just refuse to say this.'

Have you seen this in stories before? Did you continue on? (if I hadn't been listening to the tv as background noise, I might have simply moved on) How do you avoid having characters say stupid things?


OPEN CALLS


RDG Books Is Open To Fantasy Novels

Helen of Troy!



Ghoulish Tales #5 Fun horror that aims to celebrate all things spooky.

Inner Worlds Science fiction, fantasy, or supernatural horror prose with a strong emotional or psychological focus.

Drek Death and Doom – Thanksgiving Folk Horror Thanksgiving Folk Horror

Eye to the Telescope #59 Speculative Poetry dealing with: Immortality

Gilgamesh

Flash Frog: Now Seeking Submissions


84 Manuscript Publishers with Geographic Limitations


From Around the Web (and see YT suggestions at the end)

So, Your Fantasy World Is Based on D&D

Audio Interview: Unlocking TikTok—the Slideshow Strategy for Authors with Dale L. Roberts and Marvin Wey



From Betty

Five Methods for Building Tension That Don’t Work

Removing the Creeps From Romance yes please


A Complete Guide to Beta Reading

Why English Needs Singular They

Five Authentic Depictions of Chronic Illness in Popular Stories

Could Your Writing Friend Become a Coauthor?

How to Use Weather to Create Mood, Not Clichés

Writing 101: How to Find & Write Your Character’s Voice

3 Tricks For Easily Jumping Between Projects

How Your Personality Type Affects the Way You Edit and Improve Your Manuscript

Writing Sprints Explained: How Writers Can Write More Words in Less Time

Big vs. Small Character Arcs: Understanding the Degrees of Change in Storytelling

How First Drafts Are Like Cauliflower

I Subverted Heroism. Here’s Why.



This editor popped up on YT and I liked his presentation and his topics so here have a few

I took the pill a little earlier today like 5 Am and I was better. Less nausea, less dizziness. It came in short waves but bearable. It is ratcheting up my GERD though. However my blood sugar was 125 today so it seems like it's working. Hopefully (cross your fingers for me) my body will adjust to this med and I can take it. I need to get the HGA1C down (and if there's weight loss, fantastic, if not, I'm still happy if I get the blood sugar under better control)

today I sat down to tutor one of my students who is so eager to do well and then scared her when I put my foot up on the table and show her where the medial malleolus is under the skin and she see's my ankle
'it's PURPLE' Yes, dear, that's varicose and spider veins. We'll discuss them for the final.

Today was the faculty/staff art show so I can say I have my art in a gallery again. Ha. I didn't stay until we got to see who 'won' the people's choice award. I'm sure I didn't win but that's not why I didn't stay. That nausea had come back. Here's my art



Forest Elegy is the one I've had planned for two years. the first time I tried to do the leaves, they crumpled (2023) then I decided to put them between wax paper, sealing it with an iron, colors didn't stay but the leaves did (2024). In the meantime I had lost my bones and had to borrow these from the wildlife lab.






Ashes of Them was a last minute idea that didn't quite work as planned (ah well) In the ashes are bits of my old poetry about lost love and you can't really see it in the ashes but there is a faux wedding ring. I set off my smoke alarm and nearly blistered a few fingers.

I was sad to see Robert Redford passing today though that was a nice long life there.


Fannish 50, well here are two unrelated fannish things. One is a trailer for Dana Terrance's non-Disney owned indie animation which really does fire shots across Disney's bow (she did The Owl house) It drops this weekend and it looks worth watching (it is horror)

And can I talk about how excited I am that the Halloween Baking Challenge has aired. I am not a baker. Like at all. My grandmother used to bemoan this. When I was injured and in the nursing home, Food Network was one of the few channels I got and I watched the spring baking challenge. It was fun though and then I found the Halloween one and this is up my alley. I was happy to start this tonight (though I'm annoyed AF by one of the home bakers already).

I think one of the reason I like this challenge is there isn't much of the drama, you know, the blaming, screwing each over over, the smack talking. This feels more friendly. I don't need to see the negative b.s. in so many challenge shows and none of the baking challenges seem to have them so those are the shows I like.

I managed to get out and go to the Book Fest at my local library but this is what it's like around here

Whatever fixes my current landlords put in have helped the flooding around my place but if it keeps raining (and it is) that won't last (speaking of landlords saw my old one at Kroger today)

I got D.M. Guay's second book (glad to see her as she's surviving stage 4 kidney cancer) and a mothman book from a former student of my university and I'm the one who hooked her up with contacts at this library (she lives in Point Pleasant) and Mindy McGinnis who is on the NY bestseller list is the biggest draw. Also saw the local author I often share a coffee house table with (but she does royal historical romances, not really my thing. I did get one last year at this but didn't finish it)

I had a bad night last night, dangerously low sugar and AGAIN the dexcom didn't alert. I need to look at why. Was up over an hour 2:30-4 AM

Tonight was good. Abney Park had another concert, a cyberpunk themed one. It was enjoyable.

and you've been waiting for it so here it is my sabbatical presentation

I planned to go to Gallipolis lights (they're lovely) and I wanted to stop at the office to take my plants to the greenhouse. My secretary asks am I coming to the holiday party. Uh thought that was yesterday in the snow. But yes I'll do free food and see what my holiday gift is this year. A stocking hat (happy holidays, Dad because I'm not keeping this) It was nice to see my coworkers and one brought his girlfriend. THey're young. He was at Galaxycon and is introducing her to the world of anime. She wanted my suggestions and had already seen Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood (my go to) She loves Disney. I'm like THE OWL HOUSE. Go watch it. Anything by Miyuzaki but especially Howl's Moving Castle. And oh Hazbin Hotel and Helluva Boss.



Advent Joy

Eat at a new restaurant or new cuisine. Okay I kinda did that. It's called The Cafeteria and to be fair, it was good. I had turkey/gravy, a corn pudding that was excellent (probably has my sugar back up to 300) and there were roast veggies, sweet potatoes/potatoes/brussle sprouts/beets. WHEE. I was excited until I had the beets. I'm like did they forget to wash them? It tastes like mud. My secretary looks at me and says I thought it was just me. Nope. This is dirt.

Day 12 tea - OMG finally a black one. Simpson and Vail does literary inspired tea blends and this one was Charles Dickens (I already have Edgar Allan Poe and Lewis Carroll in my collection and ha Edgar has my beets in it and doesn't taste like fucking mud) Dickens is black and oolong tea, black currants and cornflowers. It's very nice.


Here are the lights (not my video, I haven't gotten any of that up) It was also 25 degrees and several people had no coats on and/or had babies too young to shiver there. Eye roll.


I also forgot to post these galaxycon videos with my fannish 50




And while I do not expect anyone to watch all this (I sure didn't) it gives you a good idea of the lines in the first minute


And for thursday's community recs, here's some writing related ones, ushobwri it's twice a week and getyourwordsout's sign up for 2025 is open. I do habit for this one and also open for sign ups is inkingitout and I think I put in for 150K

No lie. It was very rainy today and the meterologists were off again. 57 today? Nope, never got over 44 but eh I'm okay with the cold (my knee says I'm nuts) On the way home in the rain the rainbow literally ended before me on the highway...

So I did spend a lot of money today on the car (oil/air filters) but that's done for now I drive so much so money well spent.

I saw the vascular surgeon. Good news: exactly as I read the report, my leg is fine. Bad news: he says you know stents fail.

Me: yes it's inevitable

Doc: it's behind your knee where it should never be but with the trauma there's no choice

Me: yeah I figured that (it is of course constantly being bent and kinked and even lying in bed, it's caught between the meat of my leg and the mattress)

Doc: We'll eventually have to fix it to save the leg. It'll be better to not replace the stent but bypass it

Me: Oh, okay (that's a surprise)

Doc: DO NOT do anything about your varicose veins. We're going to need those later to build a new bypass for your leg (or we'll have to go digging in your arms)

Me: ah...that's news to me. Okay sure.

Doc: Leaving you on every 6 months for dopplers.

Me: fine.

I'm okay to fly. No need to worry about the one blocked (trauma) artery as it is collateralized and I asked about neurogenic claudication. The back doc will deal with that but it often DOES NOT require surgery but rather injections (of what I do not know)

Then I go home and once again Medical Mutual proves to be the worst insurance on the face of the planet. After going thru 6 weeks of PT at their request, the once again denied the MRI to find out what is causing blood flow to my leg to stop saying it's not medically necessary because I didn't do any PT or drugs. Meanwhile yes I have. Calling them tomorrow but this insurance is good for one thing: making whoever has it feel hopeless. The only excuse I can think of is maybe the PT people haven't billed them (I need to go check)

I can't go on NSAIDs like they want because I'm on blood thinners (one is a NSAID). You add higher dose NSAIDs to that I can have a GI bleed, kidney damage or a hemorrhagic stroke and if these decisions were being made by doctors instead of bean counters this would not be an issue.


And for fannish 50 here are more recs and some vids

Sometimes you just have to laugh at your fandom and we have Honest Trailers to help us do that. Towards the end of this one I felt very called out when it puts up the 'please clap' signs because dammit if I didn't when I saw this at the theater.


Black Gryphon dropped a new Alastor song. Like I said I am in awe of how many fan songs I see these days (I mean we had filk songs back in the day but they weren't nearly as common as songs are now) Here's the new one, not quite as good as the first IMO but I liked it.

and I think I've shared the first one before and honestly I'm with the people calling for this one to get professionally animated (like Addict did)



Hope Can Be A Cruel Gift ~ Art The art for my Hazbin Hotel big bang

Claws Out Hazbin Hotel wip

Do You Remember? Torchwood

There's No Going Back Now Deadpool/Wolverine

The Scent of You The Owl House

Braids Final Fantasy

...well, better than the alternative Hazbin Hotel wip

Family Movies Teen Wolf

Things Unsaid Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Coming Down Hazbin Hotel

Sharp-Dressed Man FAKE

Love Can Be Dangerous Stargate Atlantis

Coping Torchwood

Everything's growing in our garden (They don't have to know that it's haunted) The Owl House

Root of Evil The Owl House

[ART] Is that all you've got? Deadpool/Wolverine

The Other Ianto Torchwood

The Truth Will Set You Free The Owl House

Raven's Wisdom The Owl House

now the need is met 陈情令 | The Untamed (TV)魔道祖师 - 墨香铜臭 | Módào Zǔshī - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù

Consulting with New Friends Teen Wolf

to start looking for doctors in Pittsburgh for an endoscopy. It would just be easier to do there. Let's see with my shit insurance. I'm long overdue for one and I'm back in the whole 'everything I eat gives me nausea and heart burn' and I'm literally maxed out on stomach meds.

I don't even know where today disappeared to so I'm just going to launch into music monday unless you want to hear my weird dream. You do? Sure.

I was at home (my parents') and a cat jumped on my bed. It was my cat (yet not one I've had) and I was like oh, how did you get out of the game room. I went downstairs and the double doors to the back room wouldn't shut as if they were suddenly too small. I called for my parents to come look at them and they were suddenly the doors from the 90s with the wallpaper that made them look like a garden. by the time my parents got there they looked like tatters of cloth. No idea what that means.

The second dream was I was at the school and there was craft show. Somehow I got there within an hour of closing. I hate that (I have a weird thing about being anywhere near closing time) I picked up a few things but everyone was packing up. I had this thing in my hand like a wind chime of mushrooms (I've gotten into goblincore this year) but I was like 'oh no, I got distracted and wandered off with this without paying' I tried to find the vendor but more and more of them had disappeared. I called over someone to help me but now it was more like a toy you'd put in a baby's crib and before our eyes it turned into something else. No idea what that means either.


let's continue with the Music Monday Alphabet theme with sharing songs that begin with a certain letter. Feel free to chime in with your favorite song(s) that follow the weekly letter. Hit me with your favs. I love hearing new music or revisiting older pieces. This week's letter is V

( Vees under here )

because today was long and after four days of festivals I was tired. No pictures. No cleaning. No writing. No laundry done. Did about 10 minutes of transcription of my notes. How is it nearly 11pm? Is my former student getting revenge because PT was hard today (good but hard but I did it all very well but my god are my muscles tight on the left. I think it's been so hard used as my anchor because the right is garbage, it's all tightened up)

So Saturday I did get some of the dvd situation taken care of. I have this 3 shelved thing holding them. I knew it was double stacked on the bottom. thought it was dvds...it was VHS!!! OMFG. Well a) obviously I never had those dvds off the shelf in a decade b)boy I had a lot of ballet vhs tapes (before YT obviously) c)vhs tapes meet the trash d) look the Star Wars ones before Lucas fucked it up. Keeping those even if they'll never play again e) ha, look a this collection of gay anime on VHS, hey FAKE (badly_knitted will approve)

So I put most of it back. Separated out multiple ones to get rid as I will never, ever watch them again, like the whole Vincent Kartheiser collection which was never very good and now that I know he's pretty much trash out they go. But I have to go redo the shelves. Why am I putting the dvds of the movies that are on tv constantly out on the shelves? Put them in the drawers because I won't need them. Why haven't I gotten rid of them? I'm a little afraid that this stuff will get locked away forever and I don't want to lose them. I have one more bin to go through so I can resort things then (was meant to be today but it didn't do it)

Also let's see if I can get my ass banned from pintrest which blurs out multiple Hazbin pins as 'adult content' but you can't even see what it was to appeal it. So I went off on that, them using AI to determine this AND if you're this concerned explain why the fuck I have to wade through multiple sexualized ads to even USE your site.


let's continue with the Music Monday Alphabet theme with sharing songs that begin with a certain letter. Feel free to chime in with your favorite song(s) that follow the weekly letter. Hit me with your favs. I love hearing new music or revisiting older pieces. This week's letter is U

( who knew I had so many U songs I like )

I'd see James Earl Jones trend on Twitter I'd catch my breath. Today the inevitable happened. R.I.P. Mr. Jones. You brought a lot of joy into this world.


Today I saw the allergist. When he asked about my health since I last saw him, he literally had the look of pity that hurt (and the young doctor to be seemed horrified) I looked and sounded so bad with my allergies I know have three new scripts. This should be fun.

I can't always get calls/texts at the house cuz I'm so rural. So while I was in town at the doctor's a shit ton rolled in including two from my insurance about an upcoming appointment and one trying to get my dexcom for me. Well fantastic. I'll have to make those calls tomorrow after the tv stand gets built. Also I couldn't get the dental appointment made. sigh.

I can't move the bookcase/media center if I need to because the 100 pounds of tv stand is up against them and they're too heavy to move without unloading them. sigh.

I have come to a conclusion moving all this bullshit around, I need to get another terabyte external hard drive and get rid of my music. I have SO many cds. Much like books I collect cds too (or did back in the day) Too many. I spent WAY too much and I think that's one of the reasons I've held on to SO many of these guilt over money perhaps ill spent. Especially the country music and all the crap from Columbia House (remember that?!?) Anyhow it's time. Save the songs I still want as MP3s and get rid of these things. (I'm talking hundreds of them) Decide what I want to keep (signed ones, classical, jazz and Native most likely) and move on the rest. I belonged to a classical music club. A jazz one. in addition to Columbia House. A lot of them because you couldn't sample before you bought in the later 80s and throughout the early 00s (or at least not like you can today) I have a bunch I never even liked once I bought them or I have the ones you bought after hearing one cool song on the radio and the rest sucked it. (I eventually instituted a rule, I had to like 3 songs before buying).

I am doing this because a) needs doing b) my place is incredibly cluttered c) my health sucks and I don't want anyone having to do it for me if something bad happens.

But speaking of music let's continue with the Music Monday Alphabet theme with sharing songs that begin with a certain letter. Feel free to chime in with your favorite song(s) that follow the weekly letter. Hit me with your favs. I love hearing new music or revisiting older pieces. This week's letter is S

( Come see me. I'm here in my music )

It was 101 in Chillicothe today.

My blood pressure was 170/80 which is HIGH. My pressure is usually 115/70 which is well documented so the ultrasound tech was worried. I'm worried. It'll be rechecked later this week. Also she was worried because she knows me.

I can't go within 100 miles any direction without running into someone I trained. It's both impressive and overwhelming sometimes (probably for both of us. It's no doubt a little weird to see your professor without pants on, just saying)

My blood vessels in my legs are perfect though so that's that for another 6 months. I'm glad of that.

I was less glad I wasn't allowed caffeine until my ultrasound was over because it's a vasoconstrictor (the last thing you want when you're looking at the blood flow thru a vessel) I didn't get out of there until 3 pm. Honestly that could have caused the pressure issue straight up withdrawal. I was shaky, sweaty and headachy by the time I rolled into the nearest good coffee shop.

So let's talk The Crow for my Fannish 50 this week. I am a huge The Crow fan



I HAUNTED comic book stores back in the late 80s waiting for more of this until I learned only ONE comic book (the one in pittsburgh naturally, nothing close to me) carried it and at that time, at least in my area, there was no such thing as a pull list. I have several 'special volumes' of this including one that came with a CD.

When Brandon Lee's version came out, I was nervous. I was afraid they'd mess it up (and let's be honest it's not a great adaptation of the comic book). And then Brandon died during the making of it which was heart wrenching. I was in the middle of my residency in NYC at that time. My friends Cat and JK got together to see this movie. I was coming off a 36 hour shift and I ate about a half pound of chocolate covered espresso beans before seeing it so I could stay awake (at that point I could probably see thru time)

And I loved the movie. I loved Brandon. I love J. O'Barr's art so much so I own a couple panels that I couldn't afford at the time. Right now two pieces of signed small prints and one large one are staring at me from the living room wall (I don't have the original panels here because of how far I am from a fire hydrant and a fire house). I have a half dozen or more signed posters.

I. Love. The Crow!

And I've put up with bad sequels (by not watching them) but there is something about the new movie that just sets my teeth on edge. For one, I think in general people are fucking TIRED of remakes/reboots/whatever you want to call them.

As I said I don't think Brandon's movie is a great adaptation but it was a fun movie. Yes I was a goth at the time it came out (well still am when I feel up to dressing) and Honest Trailer is always a laugh

On the other hand I saw this trailer a while back and thought god I'm bored.

So have I seen this movie? No. Am I? Maybe if it's free on TV. Am I really talking about this in spite of not seeing it? You betcha.

I actually like Bill Skarsgård, but there have been interviews that suggest he didn't want to be in this movie once it started. Have some reviews

The Crow Review: A Dull, Lifeless, Meaningless Remake

And from JK who found this review The Crow review – unfathomably awful goth remake

Yeah you can find good reviews but from a friend who writes horror for a living which goes to the whole 'you can't tell time in this movie' issue it seemed like Eric and Shelly only knew each other a couple days in rehab. so there is no motivation for his supernatural transformation.

For me the heart of The Crow was Eric and Shelly's innocence. They were truly innocent victims of random senseless violence, not living a high risk life style and rather sketchy themselves.

And it's the same question I ask every time I see an adaptation that's bad, if all you wanted was the name recognition a known property will bring your otherwise original, has nothing to do with the source material movie, why not TRY to bring it to us as an original movie. There are things I would have liked better had they done that (not necessarily this thing as I was super bored with the trailer)

Why is it so hard to find good adaptations?

Because I need something happy right? I took care of everything here and I don't want to go into how entirely unprepared my aunt is (she doesn't even know the security code to get back in her house, took a lot of trying possibilities) So to all the couples and wanna be ones out there, do not be the S.O. who lets your partner do everything because you don't want to know, like my aunt (and if the partner insists on doing everything leaving you dependent, that's a red flag)


The only thing else I did today was get annoyed by the income based repayment thing with my student loans because of the gov. challenges to even doing THAT much to help students, I can't do it online. No I have to go back to the old fashioned printing out forms and sending them. What a step backward (and what sense does it make?)

I also hid from pain in writing. So if you want something a little smutty I did something for summerofthe69 that you can find here on Ao3. Glitter and Gold.

Let's continue with the Music Monday Alphabet theme with sharing songs that begin with a certain letter. Feel free to chime in with your favorite song(s) that follow the weekly letter. Hit me with your faves. This week's letter is N

( the songs this way )