julesjones | Reading

http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2025/06/books-i-will-not-write-this-ti.html

(This is an old/paused blog entry I planned to release in April while I was at Eastercon, but forgot about. Here it is, late and a bit tired as real world events appear to be out-stripping it ...)

(With my eyesight/cognitive issues I can't watch movies or TV made this century.)

But in light of current events, my Muse is screaming at me to sit down and write my script for an updated re-make of Doctor Strangelove:

POTUS GOLDPANTS, in middling dementia, decides to evade the 25th amendment by barricading himself in the Oval Office and launching stealth bombers at Latveria. Etc.

The USAF has a problem finding Latveria on a map (because Doctor Doom infiltrated the Defense Mapping Agency) so they end up targeting the Duchy of Grand Fenwick by mistake, which is in Transnistria ... which they are also having problems finding on Google Maps, because it has the string "trans" in its name.

While the USAF is trying to bomb Grand Fenwick (in Transnistria), Russian tanks are commencing a special military operation in Moldova ... of which Transnistria is a breakaway autonomous region.

Russia is unaware that Grand Fenwick has the Q-bomb (because they haven't told the UN yet). Meanwhile, the USAF bombers blundering overhead have stealth coatings bought from a President Goldfarts crony that even antiquated Russian radar can spot.

And it's up to one trepidatious officer to stop them ...

http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2025/06/books-i-will-not-write-this-ti.html

found_objects_feed

Posted by irina

https://valdyas.org/irina/fo3/books/reading-notes-week-26-6/

https://valdyas.org/irina/fo3/?p=15321

can’t fight against the youth by Sour_Idealist. Prince Idra coming-of-age story. With very good Vedero.

Pawns and Queens, The Christmas Visitation, The Gilded Cage, Night Watchers, Sanctuary for a Stray (KITTY!), Strangers in a Strange Land, The Star-Crossed by Evie Delacourt. That’s probably all the 15th century Gwynedd fic except what Evie is writing right now. (Pawns and Queens is a novel, Strangers in a Strange Land is a novelette, the rest are short stories.) Addictive.

De Mosterdmoorden (The Mustard Murders) by Chris Bajema. Cozy mystery in the original Dutch. Someone must have recommended it because I requested it from the library, I didn’t just grab it from the shelves, but I can’t remember who or where. It’s so Dutch! It’s so cozy! There’s even a cat, though he’s not very in the foreground. There’s a somewhat understated love (but mostly friendship) story. The protagonist gives her ex his comeuppance. As I said to my other half “it’s not a good book but it’s a very enjoyable book!” I definitely couldn’t guess whodunnit (though I never completely trusted the person) until the very end. There’s a completely ridiculous list of discussion questions for book clubs at the end, which I suspect has been at least partially taken from a different book because there’s repeated mention of a character who doesn’t appear in this book at all. Every time I see a list of discussion questions at the end of a book my resolution never to join a book club becomes stronger.

Hardness of Hardiness Ever is Mother by blcwriter. Chenelo’s airship makes an emergency landing … near Arbelan’s house.

An Account of the Duel with Orava the Usurper by esmeraldablazingsky. Hanevis Athmaza saves his emperor’s life. Bittersweet.

Optimization by ExtraPenguin. Pneumatic girl turns out to be an engineer.

Chenelo’s Sister by Chelonie. Thever Sevraseched is not mad, merely autistic.

The Bishop and the Birthday Girl by EvieDelacourt. Sweet Denis-as-indulgent-uncle story.

Index of reading notes is here.

https://valdyas.org/irina/fo3/books/reading-notes-week-26-6/

https://valdyas.org/irina/fo3/?p=15321

james_davis_nicoll

Police introduce system to facilitate targeting neurodiverse people.

lexin

Today

aunty_marion and I went to Caernarfon Castle, which was lovely, and we bought fudge, then we ransacked a couple of charity shops, where I bought knitting yarn and a cross stitch kit. We also saw some sweet dogs.

Current Location: Bangor
Crossposts: https://lexin.insanejournal.com/324453.html

james_davis_nicoll

Three books new to me, all fantasy (Although the Stross is an edge case), and only one is clearly part of a series.

Books Received, June 21 — June 27

Poll #33298 Books Received, June 21 — June 27

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 54

View Respondents

Which of these look interesting?

View Answers

Until the Clock Strikes Midnight by Alechia Dow (February 2026)
16 (29.6%)

The Regicide Report by Charles Stross (January 2026)
32 (59.3%)

The Beasts We Raise by D. L. Taylor (March 2026)
4 (7.4%)

Some other option (see comments)
3 (5.6%)

Cats!
35 (64.8%)

daibhidc

So, you might remember that, ages ago, I did a "10 Alternate Universes" about my own author avatar and his muse. And then compounded the nonsense level by making the "In SPACE!" AU a meta discussion about how I was trying to set it in a universe I knew almost nothing about because I liked that it had a Space Scotland.

Well, since then, a setting I am familiar with has introduced a Space Scotland, so I thought I'd give it another go.
( In SPACE! Again! )

james_davis_nicoll

A schoolgirl abandons the UK's post-Brexit educational system for the comparative safety and comfort of a magical school designed to turn out magical soldiers in the war on eldritch horrors.

Vanya and the Wild Hunt (Vanya, volume 1) by Sangu Mandanna

kiya

Not sure how this one came out but it's there at least.

Iron

It turns out
I used to
Do
Blood
Wrong

And it left
My eyes
Bruised
And tired;

I don’t know
what being a man
Actually
Is

But now
I look at my face
Without wondering
What
Hit
Me

And that
Will do.

hrj

I finally tackled cleaning up the smallish patio. ("Patio" by virtue of having a concrete floor and a roof, though otherwise it's just a space behind the garage.) Standard distribution patterns of yard debris mean that winter deposits a layer of dead leaves, and my inattention to the calendar means that I never remember to put a winter dust-cover on the grill and smoker, so they need to get a thorough wash-down, as do the shelves and the patio furniture.

But a couple of work sessions took care of all those factors and earlier this week a fired up the grill just for the heck of it. (Corn on the cob, grilled eggplant from the garden, grilled lamb chops marinated in lemon juice.) It's one of those pieces of equipment where my desire to own it seriously overwhelms the actual amount I use it. (I own it for the fantasy life in which I have friends over regularly.)

Next job is cleaning out the fuel feed of the smoker (which I made the mistake of not emptying at the end of the season). Maybe it's baked enough that the pellets have un-concreted. I previously made a stab at disassembling it to clean out the stuck pellets, but balked at how much disassembly that seemed to require.

james_davis_nicoll

People adopt very different strategies when it comes to making up for mistakes.

Five SFF Stories About Making Amends

james_davis_nicoll

What could possibly go wrong with a little harmless Satanism between friends?

Golem100 by Alfred Bester

lexin

aunty_marion an I have been having a holiday of sorts, travelling hither and yon around North Wales to see various sights. Yesterday we went up the Great Orme on a tramway and had hot chocolate and a hot dog at the top. Lovely views.

On another day we went to a National Trust property called Plas Newydd in which is probably Rex Whistler’s finest work, a mural of a fantasy city on the dining room wall. It is so intricate that you could look at it for hours and still be finding new bits. It is fantastic, if you ever get a chance, do go and see it.

Current Location: Bangor
Current Music: Classic FM
Crossposts: https://lexin.insanejournal.com/324105.html

watervole

The average water consumption for people in the UK needs to come down as hotter summers increase the chance of drought.

"The EA said customers in England need to cut their water use by 2.5 billion litres a day by 2055 – down from an average of around 140 litres per person per day to 110 litres per day. "

I looked at our previous water bills. In summer, we use around 150L and in winter, significantly than that, but that's the total usage for three adults and a child who is with us for two days a week.

Which makes our individual water usage just under a third of the national average, and already within the target by a good margin. And that includes some water for topping up the pond and watering some of the plants.

We're on a water meter and pay about £170 per year for the household.

We've become very good over the years, at not using a lot of water.

LAUNDRY

A lot of people wear an item once, and automatically chuck it in the laundry (I was completely unaware of this until a woman told me that she washed her teenage son's jeans every day)

Me? If it isn't visibly dirty, and it doesn't smell when I sniff under the armpits, then it's back in the wardrobe, or wear for another day.

If you're selective in the fabrics you buy, you can dramatically reduce the need for laundry.

Linen is amazing. It really doesn't pick up body smells at all - that's because it naturally wicks moisture away from the body, in a way that synthetic fabrics can't.

I found this out while doing my English Civil War Reenactment. The bottom layer of clothing for women is always a linen smock. So, I made a linen smock. I washed it once, to soften the fabric a little, then -having been told that it softened very nicely with wear, started to wear it as a nightie. The most comfortable night garment I've ever worn. I kept on wearing it, every night, waiting for it to get smelly. It didn't. And the fabric now has a wonderful feel when you touch it (probably something to do with the natural oil in flax, but I don't know for sure)

Whereas if I wear something polyester based, it's often just one day's wear.

Cotton is very good as well - not quite so good as linen, but I can wear a cotton t-shirt as an under-layer and get quite a few days out of that before fails the sniff test.

What do you do to reduce your water consumption?

james_davis_nicoll

His Majesty the Worm, a megadungeon-crawling fantasy roleplaying game from Josh McCrowell at Rise Up Comus.

Bundle of Holding: His Majesty the Worm

ffutures

The His Majesty the Worm Bundle presents His Majesty the Worm, a megadungeon-crawling fantasy roleplaying game from Josh McCrowell at Rise Up Comus, plus other material including a "cozy halfling-village game" Under Hill, By Water and its travel expansion Walking Holiday, which might possibly draw some inspiration from a well-known fantasy author.

https://bundleofholding.com/presents/HisMajesty

Unfortunately I've received this on a day when I'm feeling seriously tired. I've taken a look and it seems to be well-presented and reasonably coherent, but the rule book alone is more than 400 pages and I am not going to be able to give it more than a cursory look any time soon, and a game that starts out by wanting me to buy some tarot cards to play it does not automatically get my seal of approval - I suppose the cards aren't much more expensive than a few dice at current prices, but if I bought this, intended to run it immediately, then discovered I needed cards I didn't have I'd be a little peeved.

The halfling book is mostly about trying NOT to have adventures and firmly avoiding the sort of stress that comes with strange parties of dwarves and wizards on your doorstep, and looks to be a lot of fun. The supplement is about halflings that commit the serious mistake of going out to explore beyond their village, and how to create the surrounding area and have horrible things happen there, like running short of food. Seriously, go home and smoke some pipeweed instead, at least that stuff takes a few years to kill you...

Overall this looks to be reasonable value - I suspect that if I ever wanted to run a fantasy RPG I'd be more likely to go with the halflings than the Worm, but if either appeals it's probably worth a look.

hrj

As you may know, a year ago I invested in a fancy (expensive) recumbent tricycle to support my bicycling habit in the face of the awkwardness sometimes falling over at stops due to the mild nerve damage in my right leg. So yesterday I'd made an appointment to get it an annual tune-up (plus replacing a part that needed fixing) and since the specialty bike shop is in Sacramento, this meant dropping it off in the morning then finding something to do while they worked on it.

I had no idea how long this might take (since it would depend on whether they got walk-in customers) but I figured I'd start with a romance bookstore in downtown Sac that I'd found on a list of such things, and then see where things went from there.

I also took the opportunity to contact some friends in town that I usually only see at conventions and arrange to meet for dinner.

The day started earlier than usual, having volunteered to drop Denise off at her colonoscopy appointment, but that was balanced by my refusal to take the suggestion of my map app of what appeared to be a ridiculous diversion off I-80...and ending up in about 30 miles of slow traffic due to construction. Dropped off the bike, then had to kill half an hour before the bookstore opened and found a cute litle patisserie nearby which served for breakfast.

The bookstore was a perfectly nice indie shop in a space they could easily fill more fully. It's divided into three "shops" on different floors, thought it's all the same establishment, with the romance shop being one floor. (Three narrow stories, but lots of open space.) It was the sort of place that works well if you want to buy books but don't have specific titles you're looking for: a combination of new releases and the sorts of older classics that can be guaranteed to sell regularly.

As usual, the romance section--though plentiful--was extremely thin on the sorts of titles I'm interested in, and I didn't find anything to buy, though I did pick up a newish Malinda Lo from the YA shelves elsewhere in the store. I chatted a bit with the proprietor and he noted that they get their biggest boost from author events.

While shopping, the bike folks called to say they were already done, so I picked it up and then had several hours to fill before dinner. So I found a park with shade and grass and I relaxed and read. Yes, people, I *can* just laze around doing nothing when I choose.

Dinner was a fairly standard (but delicious) Greek place. We chatted about books and publishing and careers and whatnot. Then back home and falling into bed.

james_davis_nicoll

Each would-be pet owner gets three simple rules for taking care of the exotic animals Count D supplies. How hard could it possibly be to follow three simple rules?

Pet Shop of Horrors, volume 1 by Matsuri Akino

theyoungprotectors_feed

Posted by Alex Woolfson

https://youngprotectors.com/typ4/fallen-ch2-page-16/

https://youngprotectors.com/?post_type=webcomic7&p=38679

Don’t try this at home. Cory’s a professional.

Please note: These are work-in-progress colors. Vero should get me the final colors soon.

You can talk about this page at The Young Protectors Community here.

(Disqus comments are still at the bottom of this web page!)

Link to preview page (page 17) for $5+ Patrons:

https://youngprotectors.com/typ4/fallen-ch2-page-17/

NEW PATRON THANK YOUS

The only reason I’m able to keep making The Young Protectors is because of the very generous support of readers like you on Patreon. Especially now. And we had 4 new folks sign up over this week! So, please join me in sending out a very special thank you and welcome to the new members of the Woolfpack this week!

Cherrypop, Vero, Xian M. and Tomás T.

Thank you so much for your amazing support, Cherrypop, Vero, Xian and Tomás!

ANNIVERSARY PATRON THANK YOUS

Your continued support has always been the reason I’ve been able to continue making this comic. And I am especially grateful to our readers who continue to support this comic month-after-month during this time. Thank you for letting me continue to create these pages. Thank you for being the real superheroes of this comic.

And so, I hope everyone will please join me in wishing a very special Woolfpack anniversary “thank you!” to those Patrons who have been supporting our work for a year or more!

And a heroic thank you as well as for a Woolfpack member who has been supporting our work for 36 months as of this week (June 22-28):

Michael C.

(Three years of support! Thank you so much, Michael!)

I’d like to send out a big thank you to a member of the Woolfpack who has been supporting our work for 48 months as of this week (June 22-28):

RavenWillow

(Four years of support! Thank you so much, RavenWillow!)

I’d like to give a massive thank you to members of the Woolfpack who have been supporting our work for 96 months as of this week (June 22-28):

Marcus B. and Mark D.

(Eight years of support! Thank you so much, Marcus and Mark!)

I’m sending a huge thank you to a Woolfpack member who has been supporting our work for 108 months as of this week (June 22-28):

Claire E.

(Nine years of support! Thank you Claire!)

And let me also send out my biggest howl to a member of the Woolfpack who has been supporting this comic and our work from the very beginning!

Here’s the awesome reader who has been supporting me and this comic for 120 months (10 years!) as of this week (June 22-28):

JWT

Thank you so much, JWT! Y’all are so awesome!

Thank you all so much for your amazing, ongoing support! It’s the consistent support that is what really allows me to continue making this comic. You all truly are superheroes!

(Would you like to make sure this comic continues? Ready to dive even deeper into The Young Protectors world? Learn more about all the benefits of joining me and your fellow readers as part of The Young Protectors tribe on Patreon and then join the fun!)

So!

So! Cory is going to try climbing down the hill to get close enough to the baby dino-monster to hear him whisper!

Is that wise? Will the dino be able to understand him? And if so, will he even listen?

Tune in next Wednesday to find out! Hope to see you there!

The Young Protectors: Fallen Chapter Two—Page 16

https://youngprotectors.com/typ4/fallen-ch2-page-16/

https://youngprotectors.com/?post_type=webcomic7&p=38679

ffutures

If there was a Time Lord called "The Lawyer" would they be good or evil? What would their TARDIS look like? And what would their reaction be to The Doctor, and vice versa?

Given some of the portrayals of the Time Lord idea of justice in e.g. Trial of a Time Lord I'm not convinced that their legal system is better than e.g. the wizarding world in the Harry Potter books, which is a frighteningly low bar to fail at. Any thoughts on this?

shewhomust

There will be more, and not too far off; but for now, it's over and we are back home.

D. researched restaurants in Berwick, and we booked Sunday lunch for the four of us at Audela (so called because it is immediately beyond the Old Bridge, though only if you approach from the south, which on this occasion we didn't). The causeway closed at 10.20 am, so we took both cars, and did our own thing: D. and

valydiarosada visited a stately home (Paxton House), while

durham_rambler and I visited the Union Chain Bridge for the first time since its renovation, and walked across it into Scotland. Since we still had some time, we drove further into Scotland, to Eyemouth (where once upon a time we used to breakfast after watching the sunrise - but that was long ago and much has changed since then).

Lunch was delightful. They offered a slightly incongruous mixture of haute cuisine and traditional Sunday roast, but I took my own advice, and had two starters: a very rich crab risotto with a sweet and juicy scallop on the top, a piece of chicken confit on an assortment of vegetables (less successful, and over-salt to my taste, which errs in that direction anyway); and a dessert which called itself cranachan but was unlike any cranachan I have met before, more raspberries than whisky cream, with a scattering of some sort of granola, all concealing an intense, ruby, sorbet. A glass of Puglian white wasn't earth-shattering, but refreshing and went well.

After which, Sunday afternoon was Sunday afternoon: I may even have slept, briefly. Later, I sat at the kitchen table writing the previous post, and thinking that the sky was getting darker and perhaps I wouldn't go for a walk after all - and then I saw this:

The building is the island's sewage pumping station, halfway between our cottage and the castle. It seemed like an appropriate 'last photo' (though I may post others in due course...

Yesterday, we stopped at Alnmouth on the way home.

Jules Jones

Yog's Law: Money flows towards the author

Books I will not Write: this time, a movie

Reading notes, week 26

I can see no way in which this could go horribly wrong

Visiting castle

Books Received, June 21 — June 27

One Alternate Universe - Daibhid and Bob

Vanya and the Wild Hunt (Vanya, volume 1) by Sangu Mandanna

Hrm.

Iron

Grilling Time

Five SFF Stories About Making Amends

Golem100 by Alfred Bester

Activities

Water use

Bundle of Holding: His Majesty the Worm

Another Fantasy Bundle - His Majesty The Worm

A Nice Day Out

Pet Shop of Horrors, volume 1 by Matsuri Akino

The Young Protectors: Fallen Chapter Two—Page 16

NEW PATRON THANK YOUS

ANNIVERSARY PATRON THANK YOUS

So!

Odd Doctor Who Thought

The holiday is over.

Profile

May 2025

Links

Most Popular Tags

Page Summary

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

Yog's Law: Money flows *towards* the author

Iron

NEW PATRON THANK YOUS

ANNIVERSARY PATRON THANK YOUS

So!

Links

Page Summary

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

Yog's Law: Money flows towards the author