screechfox | Network

Here's a catch up of my life recently:

TV Shows

I'm still in the middle of going through Gilmore Girls with my daughter but she went to Europe for three weeks over the holidays. She just got back Friday, and we haven't picked back up with watching yet.

Heated Rivalry. I cannot even express how much I loved this show. I sort of knew I would, given that Jacob Tierney is the showrunner for Letterkenny (on my all-time favorites list) and Shoresy. I got a month of HBO Max just to watch it.

Once this month runs out, I plan to get a Netflix subscription and watch Stranger Things and some other things I need to catch up with.

Movies

I watched Red One on Christmas Eve. A very good time, loved JK Simmons as 'Red'. A good movie for what it is.

We did our bi-annual watch of the extended editions of The Lord of the Rings movies on Christmas Day. More than 20 years later and I still tear up.

Video Games

I'm on the last level of Pikmin 4. I love this game so much - it's a great combo of puzzle solving/figuring things out and combat.

I just started Winter Burrow this week. It's a bit of a farming/crafting game, but there is a survival/battle aspect to it, too. There are 4 health meters that you have to pay attention to, one of them being 'cold' because it takes place in winter. I'm really having fun with it.

Two of my close friends got Switch 2, one for Christmas, and I'm really fighting the FOMO. Especially because my Switch is having issues - like the joycons won't connect to the Switch for playing with it docked. My pro-controller works just fine though, so I'm trying to be good.

That's pretty much what I've been doing, except working two jigsaw puzzles I was gifted. I finished one, and decided to make it into a poster. I got some jigsaw sticker sheets to 'glue' the pieces together. I just need to figure out where to hang it. I've started the next one, but it's a more difficult one that will probably take me longer.

Current Mood: bouncy
Current Music: Wolf Parade - Fine Young Cannibals

spikedluv

I did not go downtown today. In fact, I went back to bed and slept a couple more hours after Pip left for work and I got the dogs in. \o/

I did a load of laundry, hand-washed dishes, went for several walks with Pip and the dogs, cut up chicken for the dogs' meals, and scooped kitty litter. Pip had leftovers for supper so I didn’t have to cook anything.

I went back to the Christmas Spice tea today. I typed in ~1,000 words on my fic! I’m not even halfway done, but I’m making progress!

I watched the first three eps of Heated Rivalry! No comments yet, because I plan to watch the whole thing, then watch it again once I’m not desperate to see the whole thing. *g*

I read some more in Amelia Peabody, watched new eps of Lottery Dream House and House Hunters International, and an ep of Secrets of the Zoo. Dr. Pol was my evening background tv.

Temps started out at 35.8(F) and reached 41.0.

Mom Update:

I talked to mom and she sounded good. (I like when she sounds good, because it’s better than when she could barely speak, but I’ve stopped thinking that because she sounds good she’s doing really well physically, which is a bummer.) Sister A had visited her earlier, which is nice.

linaewen posting in

writethisfanfic

Hello on Sunday! What kind of a writing day has it been so far today -- or if today hasn't gotten going yet, how did you fare yesterday?

- I thought about my fic once or twice
- I wrote
- I did some planning and/or outlining
- I did research and/or canon review
- I edited
- I've sent my fic off to my beta
- I posted today!
- I'm taking a break
- I did something else that I'll talk about in a comment

Sunday Discussion: It's a new writing week, how are you doing so far with meeting writing goals for the month?

galadhir

I got a personalized bingo card from An Owomoyela, here thank you!

unicorns	octopus	enemies to friends	magic	cozy
music	prehistory	world building	dancing	love
disability	ancient humans	FREE SPACE	sewing	spaceships
mercy	magic school	deep sea	dragons	narrowboats
elves	grace	tolkien	ecology	trees

When I wrote one of my age of sail novels, I wrote 100 drabbles to fit a prompt square, all interlinked, instead of a plot plan, and then expanded them into the larger story, and that worked really well. So instead of doing an individual short story for each of these, I think I'll do the same for the cozy fantasy I'm writing now, and use them as prompts for the chapters I have left.

Speaking of original fiction, I thought I would start a community in which original fic writers could discuss fic writing, get support and advice from each other etc. So if that would be a thing you are interested in, you can find it here https://original-fic.dreamwidth.org/

oursin

Happy birthday,

par_avion!

katzenfabrik

1. Number of fics posted

Six, totalling 21,457 words

2. Fandoms

One TGCF fic (my first in that fandom!) and five MDZS/CQL fics.

3. Categories

M/M: 3
Gen: 2
F/M: 1
Multi: 1

( I'll put the rest under a cut. )

Blank list of questions, taken from shipperslist's post:

Number of fics posted
Fandoms
Categories
Best title
Weakest title
Best opening
Best ending
Looking back, did you post more fics than you thought you would this year, less than you thought, or about what you predicted?
What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted last year?
What’s your favorite story this year? Not the most popular, but the one that makes you the happiest.
Okay, NOW your most popular story
Sexiest story?
Saddest story?
Most fun?
Story with single sweetest moment?
Most fucked-up story?
Hardest story to write?
Easiest/most fun story to write?
Did any stories shift your perceptions of the characters?
Most overdue story?
Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them?
What are your fic writing goals for 2026?

oglaf_comic_feed

https://www.oglaf.com/true-crime-fiction/

autumninpluto

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

Current Mood: accomplished

senmut

AO3 Link | One Two THREE Force Born?! (1609 words) by Merfilly
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Padmé Amidala, Anakin Skywalker, Mace Windu, Sheev Palpatine | Emperor Palpatine | Darth Sidious
Additional Tags: Crack Treated Seriously, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Kriffing Sith Plans
Summary:

It's Padmé with the nightmares, and a plan to head it all off.

One Two THREE Force Born?!

Padmé Amidala was a woman on a mission. Anakin might be completely in a panic over the pregnancy but she was going to head this off. It was just too convenient that she was now being plagued with dreams of her own death, the very night after an unavoidable dinner with the man she had a growing distaste for.

And, deep where she would never tell her husband, she had a nasty suspicion he was trying to shove Anakin off a cliff of irredeemable violence. The Chancellor might not have commented on her state, but his eyes were not as easily fooled by their shared heritage of concealing fashion.

Today, she was going to go enlist the aid of the Jedi, while Anakin was tied up being the poster boy of the GAR. She had all of her diplomatic shields in place, and had the perfect cover story to do this with.

After all, with Jedi having lost so many, surely the Force would be interested in adding a few more children to the future.

Vokara Che was every bit as imposing in her domain as Anakin had said. However, her status as a long time ally had convinced Master Fisto to bring her down to the Healer's Wing. She had pleaded with him, and the healer, that there could not be a father, not when she was a mature woman who knew how to guard against such!

"You were correct that the pregnancy is heavily Force-influenced," Vokara said after several minutes of making Padmé wonder if the healer was going to break her constructed version of events. "You are carrying two very healthy, very Force-active fetuses."

Two. TWO?!

She was not going to faint like the damsel of a holo-drama. "Thank you, Master Che. Given my precarious positioning within the advocates for peace, and past attempts, I could not, in all honesty, acquire medical aid in the typical fashion. Given how my dreams are affected, and having such strange hunches of late, I turned to your Temple in hope."

"A wise choice." For a long moment, Vokara held her eyes, and Padmé knew that the healer was not actually buying the spontaneous pregnancy. A twitch of the lekku, however, indicated the secret was safe. "These hunches, I believe that Master Windu should possibly help sort them out with you."

Oh. Well, that might be the right way to go as well.

Kit, even before the appointment in medical had ended, had gone to find his age-mate. He did so in one of the botanical rooms. "Master Windu," he began. "And Master Yoda," he added to be polite, despite the ancient peering at one of the plants intently.

"Hmm," came over top of Mace's cautious "Master Fisto", and Kit grinned a little that his creche-mate had already detected the mild mischief Kit was feeling.

They all needed a little bit of amusement.

"Senator Amidala has come, and is being tended to by Master Che," Kit began, and both men looked sharply at him. "I do wonder about that old prophecy that was discussed when Master Jinn found a boy on a desert world with no father… as she is here to see about a Force-induced pregnancy as well."

Yoda's ears went flat, Mace's eyes narrowed, and Kit merely smiled.

Mace looked at the woman who had been a solid ally, and the subject of not a small part of gossip. He did not, for a moment, believe the story of no father, but in her political setting, it was for the best to go along with it.

"Master Che said you have been plagued by hunches of late, ones that play out true."

He set a mild tisane in front of her, and took a second one for himself.

"I think the Force has concerns about the path we are on, despite recent developments. After all, if the Count has been neutralized, and Master Kenobi is on the trail of their general… who will keep the momentum up to line pockets with war money, and build such sizable powers through war-time legislation?" Amidala asked, meeting the man's eyes squarely. "I am all but certain you and your peers have had the same intuitions."

Was she — had she —

Maybe Skywalker had been more circumspect than Mace had believed. For all that Amidala was firmly an adherent of a peaceful resolution, her physical and vocal cues were running in tandem with the Council's own suspicions.

"Perhaps we are looking in that same direction," he said.

"If the other Sith, the one Dooku spoke of on our side, is out there, I am certain he would try to harm those touched so firmly by the Light Side as ones fathered by the Force," Amidala told him. "I shudder to think of what such a being might have done had they had access to your Knight Skywalker for all the years of this phantom menace over us."

That, Mace decided, was both accusation and… an invitation to look more closely at how the cards were laid out.

And he had to admit she had a point.

"Anakin!"

"Chancellor."

"I do hope the scandal hasn't harmed your friendship with the Senator."

"What scandal?"

The exchange, handled in the hearing of several itinerant reporters, brought their elder statesman up short, until someone added the right question.

"That she's pregnant with no father in sight," the reporter with blood money in his pockets called out.

"You really think Senator Amidala would stoop to such petty, low-brow nonsense?" Anakin asked them, in his best 'are you kidding me' voice, and he caught the frown on his old 'friend'. He was so glad Saesse Tiin had been able and willing to explore the past several years in his head. "She's having children as the will of the Force, and we Jedi take that kind of thing very seriously."

He then kept walking, leaving the Chancellor stewing, the reporters trying to digest how to spin this, and a feeling that he could not have handled it that way without the Council all suddenly intent on supporting him. He didn't know what had changed there, but he couldn't wait to tell Obi-Wan all about it.

And the Force Twins, because he had to admit, he really hadn't had a lot of time, and they both used precautions.

Chancellor Sheev Palpatine was in a fury. He had primed the well perfectly, and somehow… somehow every insinuation and control he'd put in place had been cut off in the Chosen One. All because of some insane story concocted by the woman that had long since outlived her usefulness.

Any day now, that wretched Kenobi would be returning, and Sheev would have to find a different way to acquire everything he wanted… unless he acted now? He went to his desk to find the comm unit. He needed to provoke the right circumstance, to make it clear he was saving them from the Jedi, but what would it take?

The comm lit up in his hand.

What?

With the Force, he flipped the hood of his cape up, securing it to conceal his features, and turned it on.

"What do you know, that frequency is picked up, Commander," came the very annoying, should-be-dead voice of the Togruta menace. He hastily turned it off, throwing it into the back of the locked drawers.

The knocking at the door that came next, including a call of 'Coruscant Security' sent chills down his back.

He wondered idly if his own Master had felt this the night Sheev had gleefully murdered him.

Mace pinched the bridge of his nose, then looked over at the newest Master of the Council who was pretending he didn't want to hurry out and see a certain Senator. He then looked at Kenobi, who was waiting to be briefed on how and why the Chancellor had been killed in the midst of being served with detention papers.

"A tip from an ally told us to double check Skywalker for undue influence," Kit said, looking entirely too merry in the telling.

"Padmé," Anakin offered cheerfully. "She's having Force twins."

Mace did not groan. It really did sound like Skywalker believed that.

"Removing that," Saesee said, "let us more clearly see the shape of a possible end game, orchestrated to cast us all as traitors."

"Meanwhile, Skywalker's commander had been working on another angle of the endgame," Agen said.

"Leading him and Tano to turning up a plan to make the man expose himself, using the very tools meant to kill us all," Kit said, "by triggering a comm device he should not have had while we were keeping him very securely under comm surveillance with Naboo's and CorSec's cooperation."

"How did you get CorSec to agree to such?" Kenobi asked.

"Amidala implied that she had noticed a malevolent presence while dining with the man, and could they please keep it under wraps that there could be such a threat near the center of government?" Shaak Ti said, eyes dancing with mirth.

"A very tidy end, I suppose." Kenobi then looked at Mace with a deadpan face. "So, how are those prophecies handling the idea of three Force-fathered children?"

Mace did not, as he wanted to, flip the man's hood over his head with the Force.

Padmé smiled, despite fatigue, as she held her daughter, and Anakin held her son. Eventually, they might admit the farce.

Then again, listening to Anakin telling Luke all about the wonders of what the Force could do…

… maybe it was better to leave it at this. What really mattered was that they were all saved from the Sith.

fred_mouse

hopefully this storygraph link goes to the public option, not the for me specifically option.

I'm choosing to not look at what was planned; I've already posted about my 5 star reads and some other thinking. This is me just reading through and having feelings.

The first (We Were Dreamers, Simu Liu, biography) and last (The House That Horror Built, Christina Henry, horror) sure are an interesting juxtaposition
The 'mood' graph seems weird and I wish it wasn't there
Going back to study had a noticeable effect on how much I was reading, which is not a surprise
I hate the way that storygraph does 'genre' because my top five are fantasy, science fiction, short stories, LGBTQIA+, and horror, only three of which I consider to be genres.
15 days per book as an average just shows how much my reading is an overlapping thing.
'top authors' - Katherine MacLean was 4 (that can't be right, there were 8 short stories, I must not have tracked them all), Premee Mohammed (3 stories, hmm, something odd there as well), and Dave Warner (3 books, that's a trilogy)
average rating 3.75 - probably because the DNF/0 don't get counted; I gave 11 2 star ratings, which seems more than I would have expected. Most frequent rating of 4 is also higher than I would have expected.
somehow there were 52 'new to me' authors, which is interesting because I felt like I was sticking to comfortable stuff.
DNF - 22 books; not sure if that feels high
read 24 of my books - I bet that this is an undercount, because I don't always mark books as owned, particularly if I only have them as ebook.
it is weird that my highest rated reads tend to be non-fiction, because I read so little of it

I clicked through to the more detail

most commonly applied tag is 'borrowed', applied to 21 books. 21 borrowed + 24 owned =/= the number read
I need to update the tags on some, because they don't have the -read suffix added

oldtoadwoman

Snowflake Challenge: A close up shot of an owl ornament hanging amidst pine boughs..

Snowflake Challenge, #3: A Love Letter to Fandom
( Dear Fandom, We need to talk (this got much longer and weirder than intended) )

Current Mood: weird

yhlee

(selling prints via the local game store)

stylized digital illustration: a fantasy lady, peacock-themed

Digital painting in Procreate, at 11"x17" print.

oldtoadwoman

Snowflake Challenge: A warmly light quaint street of shops at night with heavy snow falling.

Snowflake Challenge, #2: Pets of Fandom

For a few delusional moments, I thought I'd handle all of these prompts with art and after one quick initial sketch decided that I don't have time or I'll still be finishing these prompts next year. (I literally have art prompts from two or three Octobers ago that I keep saying I'm going to do "some day".)

I think sometimes starting an elaborate project might be a subconscious way of avoiding the project because deep down I know I'm never actually going to do the cool idea in my head.

That said, I do have a very clear idea of what my entry on Pets of Fandom should be.

So, I loved, loved, loved the 2025 Superman movie. I don't know how it landed with the younglings who didn't grow up with Christopher Reeve's Superman as the iconic version, but all of my friends that I've talked to had that same delighted reaction to this movie. It's fully modern and never even does any overt callbacks to the 1978 movie. But it has that same idealistic spirit, leans into the corniness without ever going too far, and just made me very happy. When I first realized the superdog Krypto was going to be in it, I think I cringed just a tiny bit. A CGI superdog was obviously going to drag things down, I thought. But. Oh, it was perfect. The fact that Krypto was a badly-trained chaos vector worked on so many levels. (My sister once had a dog that she always said she was going to take to obedience class when she had time but she never did and the dog eventually treated the entire house like a chew toy. Imagine that dog with super powers.)

If you didn't see Superman and were feeling done with superhero movies after a glut of them in the theater, I urge you to make an exception for the 2025 Superman. It's just so sweet.

A key character moment is when Lois Lane responds in disbelieve that Superman is about to put himself in danger for the sake of a dog. To which, Superman replies, "Yeah, and he’s not even a very good one, but he’s out there alone. And he’s probably scared."

Current Mood: ditzy

fred_mouse

Yesterday, I was having a conversation with Youngest about (SF) con-running. The topic was international guests, and what the timelines are for inviting them.

I said something flippant about 'well, that timeline would be doable these days, because everyone has email, at least we don't have to write letters'. And there was that moment where I could see Youngest's world view shift in real time, so we talked in a bit more detail about my memories of the first con I was involved in running*. That in 1996, when we were approaching people to be guests, email addresses were not ubiquitous**. That our primary method of contact was letters. And then I talked about the fact that we had to assume a best case scenario of a month turn around on anything we sent.

What I didn't think to say, is that because of that, there is a reasonably high chance that there is a letter from Douglas Adams in the WASFF archive. The reasons there might not be is that it might be from their agent, or it may have been lost when various documents were transferred to the archives.

* I was Treasurer for SwanCon 23 in 1998; that committee then did a quick reshuffle and ran SwanCon 25 in 2000. I started my committee habit early -- I was on the UniSFA (UWA SF club) as Fresher rep ('92), President ('93) and IPP ('94).

**We got into a side discussion about how rare email addresses were in 1992, when I got my first email address, when the uni I studied at decided to do the somewhat radical thing of provide an email address to any student who requested one, regardless of faculty. I'd love to know what the thinking was and whether it was 'this is going to become essential knowledge' or if it was something more.

hitokage

Snowflake #4: Rec The Contents Of Your Last Page

instructions unclear ... so have some podcats! No links, look them up on your pod-catcher of choice. Or don't, it's entirely up to you.

99% Invisible - general nerdery. In theory, this is an architecture podcast, but it's so much more than that. Started off on the actual radio with episodes starting at ~5min and slowly getting longer over time as they moved firmly into Podcast full time. I'm still working my way through the archive, but worth the deep dive.

Rachel Maddow Presents - political history and commentary. I highly recommend all of them, but her latest, Burn Notice, feels especially important right now. It's US history we aren't taught but probably ought to be.

You Are Good - film commentary. I've fallen behind due to The Horrors. They've got an eclectic mix of films they've discussed from a "how we feel" perspective and it's always interesting, even if I'm not that familiar with the film in question.

American Hysteria - pop culture. Chelsey has sometimes fallen into the white leftist trap of talking out their ass, but they generally mean well and are trying to de-construct America's moral panics of past and present in good faith.

Astonishing Legends - paranormal/supernatural investigation. Pay attention to episode length before jumping in on this one - true episodes are usually around 1-1.5hours with some installments running as long as 4 hours and some stories being told over 3-4 parts. I've been listening to this one for over a year now and I'm still in the archives because of how long the episodes are. XD

Current Mood: blah
Current Music: ATEEZ - BOUNCY (K-HOT CHILLI PEPPERS)

tielan

Challenge #4: Rec The Contents Of Your Last Page

Any website that you like, be it fanfiction, art, social media, or something a bit more eccentric!

Okay, so it's really easiest to go to my AO3 works page, which currently has a broad variety of fandoms on it, including some of my very old ones.

( 20 recs from Keltiad, Discworld/DCCU, Bridgerton, MCU, Pern, Pacific Rim, BSG 2003, Stargate SG1/Stargate Atlantis, and Narnia )

--

So looking through the stories, there's a really broad variety of themes and characters, quite a lot of fandoms, but also some recurring concepts: "found family", "true love isn't just the once and never again", "working through the complexities of a situation when you don't have a guidebook", and so forth.

igenlode posting in

writethisfanfic

It's the end of the week, and the day when we have the chance to show off what we have achieved recently!
Does anyone have any excerpts/fanart/songvids etc. that they want to share?

lovelyangel

Utage Kinoshita
Tamon’s B-side, Episode 1

The last couple of days I’ve been doing volunteer work for my church – and also working with medical clinics for evaluations. It’s not been a quiet week.

At times over the next two weeks I’ll be traveling and staying in cities on the West Coast to see concerts performed by TWICE. I love seeing TWICE – but generally hate to travel. Tomorrow I’ll be making checklists and itineraries, reviewing transportation and lodging logistics, preparing camera equipment, and packing for the first leg of the adventure. For a fair portion of mid-month I will be offline and unavailable.

Also, the new season of anime kicked off last week. I try to sample all the new shows within the first three weeks of the season – but I won’t be successful this quarter because of away time. Maybe I can post my assessment at the end of the month?

As of today, I’ve checked out 16 shows and have 13 yet to be reviewed (with additional shows premiering all the time). I’m not counting Jujutsu Kaisen and Fire Force and Oshi no Ko, which are known quantities – nor Frieren, which shows up in another week but without question is in my watchlist. I haven’t even started on HIDIVE. Anyway, there’s a lot to check out. Eventually.

ysabetwordsmith

I took some pictures yesterday but didn't have time to upload and post them until today. The night before, a windstorm blew down the contorta willow sapling that used to stand between the house yard and the south lot, near the big maple tree.

( Walk with me ... )

Current Mood: accomplished

twistedchick

I am pretty sure some of you here are fans of Arthur, Camelot, Lancelot, Guennevere and the whole Arthurian canon.

That said, here is the link to "Camelot Station", which John M. Ford wrote as a Christmas card some years back.

It blows my head apart, reading it, as if I were standing on a high place near a ruined castle looking at the people moving about below in the town, while knowing they were also at some point in that ruined castle beside me as ghosts or living humans. You'll see.

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screechfox

Page Summary

seleneheart - What I've Been Doing
spikedluv - The Day in Spikedluv (Saturday, Jan 10)
linaewen in writethisfanfic - WIP Challenge Check-in, Day 11 -- Sunday
galadhir - (no subject)
oursin - (no subject)
katzenfabrik - 2025 AO3 unwrapped
oglaf_comic_feed - True Crime Fiction
autumninpluto - dkbk fic: i can be just what you want
senmut - Fic: One Two THREE Force Born?!
fred_mouse - 2025 reading wrap up
oldtoadwoman - Snowflake Challenge: #3 Dear Fandom, We need to talk
yhlee - gratuitous digital art
oldtoadwoman - Snowflake Challenge: #2 What the hey, dude?
fred_mouse - (no subject)
hitokage - 3262. Snowflake #4: Recs
tielan - snowflake challenge 2026 - day 4
igenlode in writethisfanfic - CHECK IN: DAY 10
lovelyangel - Too Much At Once
ysabetwordsmith - Photos: Contorta Willow
twistedchick - A little late, but better than not...

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Base style: Brittle by sforzinda
Theme: Soft Green by dancing_serpent

Page generated Jan. 16th, 2026 06:46 pm

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Network

What I've Been Doing

The Day in Spikedluv (Saturday, Jan 10)

WIP Challenge Check-in, Day 11 -- Sunday

(no subject)

(no subject)

2025 AO3 unwrapped

True Crime Fiction

dkbk fic: i can be just what you want

Fic: One Two THREE Force Born?!

2025 reading wrap up

Snowflake Challenge: #3 Dear Fandom, We need to talk

gratuitous digital art

Snowflake Challenge: #2 What the hey, dude?

(no subject)

3262. Snowflake #4: Recs

snowflake challenge 2026 - day 4

CHECK IN: DAY 10

Too Much At Once

Photos: Contorta Willow

A little late, but better than not...

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