corbae | Reading

Yuletide works are scheduled to go live a little under five days from now, at 9pm UTC 24 December (if all goes well and there are no further pinch hits needed).

COUNTDOWN TO REVEALS

Treats

Treats in both the Madness and Main Yuletide collections are enthusiastically welcomed. You can post a treat for someone in the main collection up until 9pm UTC 24 December</>, and in the Madness collection up until 9pm UTC 25 December. There's more information about posting treats here. If you're hunting for inspiration, see also the mini-challenges tag at

yuletide, and of course, please consider treats for pinch hitters.

Pinch hits

We’re still looking for intrepid writers to take on post-deadline pinch hits. As of this post, we need writers for:

PH #184: Aveyond (Video Games), Quasimorph (Video Game), Geneforge

PH #198: even if TEMPEST 宵闇にかく語りき魔女 (Visual Novel), Flowers Series (Visual Novels), Lkyt. (Visual Novel)

As well as offers from writers, we're keen to hear (yuletideadmin@gmail.com) from anyone with tips on how to consume or review details of these canons!

Please look at our outstanding pinch hit details, and help if you can!

Beta requests

Can you help out a fellow writer by beta-reading their work? Please check the hippo-want-ads at the Discord server, or email mods if you can help with one of the following requests and we’ll get you in touch.

As of this post, beta readers are needed for the following requests (click/expand to view):

1.2K T-rated Mayor of Kingstown
15k+ E-rated Damien/Gerald Coldfire Trilogy
7k Batman Wayne Family Adventures
Racepicker and sensitivity reader for a 10k fic featuring a young Black English girl
4.7k slang and other dialogue choices right for a Gen Z Black Londoner, Rivers of London
13k Lunar Chronicles
2.8k fic for The Odd Couple (TV 1970)
4k Nicked by M.T. Anderson

We also have some less time-sensitive beta requests in the server's betas-wanted channel:
WH40k
The Witcher III/Chronicles of Narnia
The Stakeout from Inside No. 9
Daria (Cartoon)

Meanwhile, please check your work

Please check that you uploaded the right draft. Mistakes can happen to anyone, but checking that everything looks right is a crucial part of posting. Make sure your work has a title and that the summary doesn't say "tbd". Please check that all the text is there and you didn't post the version with [name?] and [thing goes here] notes. Any uploaded version must be a complete story that is readable as it is, even if you're still making edits between now and reveals. Please don't risk disappointing your recipient or requiring mods to seek a back-up pinch hit.

Please check that all required characters feature in the work. This is likely to mean all the characters your recipient tagged, not just the ones they wrote prompts for. Or, if they selected Any, a character from the tag set. They may have selected additional tags that give further guidance about which characters to include - please check that too. If your recipient selected Worldbuilding and you're not sure there's enough of it, get a second opinion - a friend, a beta. If there is any doubt about whether your story contains all the characters it needs to contain, please check with mods. Prompts alone are not automatically permission to leave characters out. The use of additional tags may still leave some grey areas.

Please review your author's notes. Yuletide stories are anonymous for one week - do not give your name or link to your personal sites or socials in your author's note. Do not promise expanded, future, or replacement gifts - your work needs to stand alone. And do not apologise for your work in your author's note, or talk about what a struggle it was to write. People often feel doubt as well as excitement when giving someone a story, but don't give your recipient your doubts as part of their gift. In your author's note, please follow the principle that if you cannot say something positive, don't say anything at all.

Please check your recipient's Do-Not-Wants. Yes, again.

Please check your story in general! You don't have to get it beta read, but please check spelling and grammar. Please make sure that it’s not a wall of text with no spacing between paragraphs - and, conversely, that there aren’t too many blank lines between paragraphs.

(And, having fully prepared for reveals - we hope that you are excited for them! We are!)

Miscellaneous

If you're unlikely to be able to comment until the end of the anon period or later, consider letting your author know at the AFK post.
You can find beta volunteers at this post or at the Discord server.

cimorene

I've been thinking about Wake Up Dead Man some more even though I haven't gone and looked up the list of books, because I am not ready to purchase new ebooks yet, and that's what I'll have to do for the ones there I haven't read before.

Meanwhile though, I have been rereading some Agatha Christie. I am not exactly a giant Christie fan, but I have read most of Agatha Christie's works (and usually multiple times) because I like Golden Age mystery as a genre and my MIL was a superfan, so I have had convenient access to paperbacks of Christie's works.

And I realized with a start yesterday that while the setting and setup in Wake Up Dead Man is in some respects is EXTREMELY typical of Golden Age detective fiction, in another it's very very unusual - ( Some spoilers )

hannah

I made a cake for my dad's book group, as is customary, and it wasn't until late in the day, long after dropping it off, that I found out the book group had cancelled its in-person meeting - to be fair, they hadn't known that until the afternoon, what with someone coming down with something and everyone else electing not to drive.

It also turns out that my parents had a building party scheduled that same night. One my dad thought he wouldn't go to with the book group, but could attend since the commute would only be from the lobby to the apartment. One where he could bring a cake that I'd happened to have dropped off earlier that day.

The group had been reading Charles Dickens, and I thought an apple ginger spice cake would be fitting to the general vibe of the novel. It turned out to be a set of flavors that were just as fitting for a near-solstice wintertime party.

I'm always happy when something I've baked finds its way to a good home, and I'm even happier when there's a little story to go along with the cake.

Current Mood: pleased
Current Music: nothing now

glitteryv

For whatever reason, I was super sure I'd already posted this. IDEK.

Re-reads. HUH

None. I'd planned to reread a couple of things before the year ended. Unfortch, that doesn't seem likely. *pouts*

I DNF'd

* A King's Mage by S.E. McPhearson (Book 1 of Heart-Mage Trilogy, Fantasy polyamore romance) - Beau, the spare prince, becomes the heir. He's also got to marry Penny (his dead brother's fiance who hates his guts) despite him being in love with Elias,his personal bodyguard.

DNF'd at the beginning of Chapter 4

The writing is fine?

Sadly, the more I read, the less interested I became abt the story. If the setting up isn't enough to get me hooked. . .

Also, the worldbuilding was a total fail. Yes, this is a book in a fantasy setting, but the overall vibe gives "inspired by French monarchy" and that's abt it! Most characters' names were French or French-sounding. And yet, the dialogue was v. modern. But there was (as far as I could tell) no electricity, cars, etc.

Picked up this book in hopes that I'd get lost into a whole new adventure. Unfortch, I didn't connect with the story and found most of its worldbuilding v. confusing. Given that I have a lot of other books to read, I gave up on this one w/o any regrets. Which is sad cuz I was eager to read abt the M/M/F-as-endgame ship. Alas. I gave it a 1 out of 5.

Had an awesome time at first (but it all went downhill from there).

* That Weekend by Kara Thomas (YA Mystery) - Claire wakes up in the middle of a forest with no idea of how she got there or what happened during the previous 2 days. Also, even though she tries hard, she's got no idea where's Kat, her BFF, or Jesse (Kat's boyfriend) . . .

I'd read two of this author's other YAs a whole decade or so ago and distinctly remember liking them. For whatever reason, I decided to check this one out too.
This author has a v. clean writing style--which is something that's quite important in mysteries. Even more so in this instance since the narrator is totally unreliable due to amnesia. At no point did I get lost or confused as to what was happening. 👍🏾 for that.

I also feel this author has a flair for writing teenage characters that read like actual ppl. They've got insecurities, desires, good parts and bad ones too. Their interior lives are rich. This enhanced the plot in the best way.

As for the mystery, I REALLY enjoyed certain aspects of it. Especifically the reveal as to WHAT HAPPENED and, even more, WHY did the events happened. The motivations everyone had within themselves and how those desires (etc) kept the plot moving for the most part.

In a way, I'd say the keyword for this book is MOTIVATION. Sometimes, the characters' agendas ran parallel, oftentimes they ran against each other. And it was v. exciting to see everything being played out. Sometimes even within the same chapter.

Re the mystery: I did 🙄 at the explanation of HOW the events happened. It crossed the line into unbelievable. HOWEVAH, I shrugged it off despite how ridic it all was.

Claire . . . *sighs* OTOH, I think she was a good protagonist cuz her amnesia helped her become a conduit into the story. OTOH, once she got home, the pacing really slowed down and became repetitive with Claire self-medicating AND spiraling every waking moment AND being extremely selfish yet she was also traumatized.

MY problem was that she's someone who had severe anxiety. So, watching her being on the verge of an anxiety attack 24/7 while being unable to look away (due to her being the sole POV character + the fact that the story was told in 1st person) made this part of the book a deeply unpleasant reading experience. From time to time, I had to put the book to the side for 10 mins or so cuz it was exhausting and suffocating.

There were things that happen in the last two chapters that got me wondering what "inspired" the author to include a v. specific thing TWO CHAPTERS AWAY FROM THE ENDING. This meant that the book didn't land the ending but fully crashed it nose-first.

MEGA SPOILERS FOR THE ENDING AHEAD:

It turns out that Kat and Jessy are HALF-SIBLINGS BY BLOOD--which HUHHHH?

NGL, I didn't like the incest twist and how its repercussions (once OTHER CHARACTERS figured it out) were handled. I'm confused why Marian (Kat's own grandmother) wasn't clearer with Kat as to why she was so opposed abt Kat and Jesse's relationship, frex.

AND THEN, finding out that Jesse had known all along and didn't care made everything TEN TIMES GROSSER. My best guess is that the author wanted to add a major flaw to Jesse as a character since, aside from kinda leading Claire on a little, he hadn't done/said anything bad. And then, it's like "boom, yeah, we're half-siblings and I CHOSE TO NOT TELL YOU, but it's cool cuz we love each other." Me: 🤮🤮🤮🤮"

Averaging how I'd liked at least half of the book vs. that mess of an ending, I gave it a 3 out of 5..

* The Wife Deserved It by Darby Kayne (Domestic thriller) - Reid is over his marriage and, after much planning, he's decided tonight's the night his wife will die. But, the one thing that Reid has never considered is that his wife is READY for him. . .

The first half of the novella is tight. Excellent timing. I didn't mind how the story pushed and pulled me while the sense of utter dread abt the goings on kept building up. Good worldbuilding too. For a story with multiple POVs, everyone sounded like real people who had great and terrible motivations.

The keyword for this story was confrontation. Both in the sense of characters facing each other as well as facing (or not, in some cases) the truth as to who they really are.

OTOH, The story plateaued in the second half. I can't explain why w/o going into

FULL SPOILERS:

One of the POVs was Anna's (the wife). Somewhere near the beginning of the novella, she gets a full chapter where it's extremely clear she's made her choice. She will kill Reid as that's the only way out (and also cuz he's decided to kill her cuz he's a jackass.) The chapter includes a moment where Anna sees Reid searching for her and he's holding a knife.

Things get complicated and plans go awry..

THEN, starting around Chapter 15 and going on until Chapter 25, the story spends several POV chapters from Reid and Paige's POVs. With BOTH trying to convince Anna to get on their respective sides.

NGL, this was v. tiresome to read. ANNA HAD ALREADY MADE HER CHOICE! So IDK why the author made Anna appear unsure/wavering chapter after chapter. If anything, I'd have preferred that the author had made Anna's choice at the beginning of the novella uncertain. Because THAT would've kept up the suspense.

Instead, I spent those 11 (thankfully short) chapters mentally tapping my watch so Anna and Paige could help Reid shuffle off his mortal coil.

But the author had already made her choice and so I just had to keep waiting.

In the end, I liked it enough to give it a 3.3 out of 5 and will deffo read more of her books. 😛

It was . . . fine?

* Sweep of the Heart by Ilona Andrews (Book 5 of the Innkeeper Chronicles) (Urban Fantasy Romance) - Dina and Sean are chosen to host the space version of The Bachelor for one of the most powerful rules in the entire universe. There's additional drama via the disappearance of Sean's mentor. Oh, and the Costo lady returns . . .

There was worldbuilding (and how!) and plot (ditto) as expected from an IA book. I also gotta give 👍🏾 to having a character who is Black AND openly queer. Also how the latter was reflected on the selection of the contestants (with female and male hopefuls) without any of it being any kind of big deal.

Oh, and the plottier developments toward the end were hella yummy too.
The key word for this novel was EXCESS.

HOWEVAH, my brain sorta @ ____ @ many, many times over the multiple descriptions of each setting: from the individual teams' rooms to the locations where each trial and date took place. Although I do appreciate that, like the rest of IA's novels I've read, this one doesn't have White Room Syndrome, this time IA really went OTT in terms of creating a picture in their readers' minds. Quasi infinite accounts of what every nook and cranny looked like.

This was also reflected in the tons of accounts as to what everyone wore. Something that was underlined by the size of the cast.

Off the top of my head, this novel had around 40 or so MAIN CHARACTERS. NGL, there were moments where I lost track as to who was from which group/planet. Why couldn't IA had started with 6 hopefuls for the contest vs. 12? :|

There was also Too Much focus on the Bachelor plot, IMO. It ran for over 70% of the novel. Hell, I even FORGOT that the A Plot was abt rescuing Sean's mentor. AND THEN, when the story finally got back to that, the actual!rescue was gently pushed to the side.

And this is where the push-and-pull feelings I've got abt this novel rear their head cuz the last 2 chapters drop so many things that had me going WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA??? and OMAIGOOOOOO!! IF ONLY THE BOOK HAD CUT SOME OF THE BACHELOR-ESQUE SCENES IN EXCHANGE FOR MORE OF THE MAIN/A PLOT!!!! *Pouts*

FINALLY, I know this novel was initially published in serialized form over at IA's site.

What I don't understand (and irritated the fuck out of me) was the inclusion of summaries (of what had happened in the previous chapter) whenever there was a new chapter. Not only was it REALLY UNNECESSARY, but the jokey/hyuk hyuk tone was unpleasant EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.

I haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaated the summaries. IA mentioned at the start of the book that they left them in the book cuz they'd been so well received when the story was posted on their site. I'm sure it worked when the chapters were released once a week. But seeing them in sequence was OBNOXIOUS AND REPETITIVE.

The other extras (2 round of descriptions of the contestants) were USELESS AND REDUNDANT. But, at least, those extras were at the end of the book and not interwoven into the story in an unavoidable way like the stupid-ass summaries were. (Yes, I hated them THAT MUCH.)

The book DOES END ON A SOFT CLIFFHANGER. And, per the little I know, it'll be a while before IA gets working on the next story. Such is life. I'll happily dive in whenever Book 6 drops, that's for sure.

In the end, this isn't my fave entry of the series but, at the same time, I can't deny I had a good time reading it, LOL. I gave it a 3.2 out of 5.

Good vibes all around

* Sweep with Me by Ilona Andrews Book 4.5 of the Innkeeper Chronicles (Urban Fantasy Romance) - Dina and Sean are ready to celebrate the holidays Innkeeper-style. They're hoping none of the guests end up killing each other . . .

Such a DELIGHTFUL NOVELLA!!! There are some neat surprises within the pages of this book. I also love how the A plot (Dina and Sean trying to host some ~interesting folks without having anyone kill each other) and the B plot (Dina processing the events in the previous book and how it affected her own magic) intertwined.

I was, once again, dissatisfied with how few scenes abt Dina/Sean's romance were included. *Pouts*

Also, I did get the sense that IA overstuffed the plot by a smidgen. I could almost tell a point where IA nearly lost control of the goings on. Thankfully, things got back on track and the story landed in the best way possible. I gave it a 4 out of 5.

Current fic tally

Have picked up 217 fics, DNF'd 101. Things are fine!

Some thoughts

Had an uneven reading experience. Going thru the rest of the published entries for the Innkeeper Chronicles was fun even with the stumbles here and there. The two mysteries were solid enough for me to not DNF'ing them. Bonus: I'm deffo OJO abt Darby Kane's other novels. Sadly, the M/M/F was a big fail. Alas.

Up next

Last time: I've got the last two published books for the Innkeeper Chronicles, an M/M/F fantasy romance, and I'm reading the first book in a female detective series. Dunno why, but my yays for reading horror have sort of gone to ground? I might end up reading something scary next month, IDK. 😅

I paused the female detective novel cuz I'd planned to do a quick Non-fiction November reading thing. But that stalled HARD.

My current reads include two biographies from separate queer ppl, the fist book in a female detective series, a book abt #MeToo, another Darby Kane novel, and mayyybe a kinky F/M romance.

kass

Found via

laurashapiro, this is so worth one minute of your time. The last couplet in this clip is just -- ::chef's kiss!::

Hot Hanukkah

cimorene

The last time

waxjism rearranged plants she put the three biggest ones - trees, they are trees - all at the west livingroom window.

Left to right (above) are Benjamin the ficus benjamina or weeping fig - inherited from Wax's granny and at least 25 years old; Jules Feiffer the pachira aquatica or money tree - bought as a baby from a nursery because I really wanted it (love the braided trunk) between 2014-2016, so it's pretty old, but it's only ever grown up and it never gets any fatter and barely has any roots; and Nelly the Hibiscus × rosa-sinensis, known colloquially as Chinese hibiscus, China rose, Hawaiian hibiscus, rose mallow and shoeblack plant - this was MIL's pride and joy and I think Wax said it's older than her, so probably at least 50 now. Jules especially is apparently crazy about the light there, even though the grow light died and Wax replaced it temporarily with a normal lightbulb. The window is a jungle.

The north window shelf is covered with three Thanksgiving cacti, two dormant orchids, a philodendron Henderson's Pride, and a polka dotted begonia. This shelf has been more cluttered at times, but it still gives a very strongly planty impression.

jamethiel

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

settiai

In tonight's game, ( the rest under a cut for those who don't care. )

And that's where we left off.

Current Mood: sleepy

settiai

All fics that were due today have been posted! One of them might have been right down the wire, but it was posted on time so that's all that matters.

I'm giving it a rest until tomorrow, and then I'll go over them again to tweak a few things and maybe add one more scene to one of them. And then I can work on more Yuletide fics! Because it's me, and I'm bound and determined to write as many as I can possibly fit in before the archive goes live next week.

Current Mood: accomplished

hannah

As I've been saying over the evening: my father's book group usually meets in person, but due to one of the members coming down with the flu, the decision was made to meet on Zoom like it's 2020 all over again. But their loss was the party's gain. The cake I made for what would have been the book group's meeting instead went to my father's building's winter holiday party, so it still made its way to a good home. An apple ginger spice cake seemed fitting for Charles Dickens' London - they were meeting to discuss Bleak House - and it managed to slip into a general wintertime holiday festival without any issue or trouble. Once people started in on it, it went quick.

I'd had a stressful day, due to meeting with a therapist and my parents at the same time. It was necessary and it was useful and by golly was it stressful. After it was over, I simply went back to my apartment. Nothing else. Then I thought I could sit in my apartment or I could go to my parents' building winter holiday party. I went with the party. I'm fairly hammered at this point - it wasn't an open bar as such, but there was rum and there was tequila, and all I used as a mixer was a slice of lime and about a quarter cup of commercially made eggnog at one point. And the eggnog was with the tequila, not the rum, which isn't a choice I'll make if I attend another such function.

For all that I'm not anticipating tomorrow, with all its responsibilities, I'm good with having gone tonight.

Current Mood: drunk
Current Music: nothing now

yuletidemods posting in

yuletide_admin

The deadline has passed, and the main collection is temporarily closed. ETA - now open again!

Congratulations to everyone who has posted! Pat yourself on the back, take a breath, and then please check wordcount, formatting, html; check that you've uploaded the correct version, and that all your text is actually there. You can get to what you've submitted from your Statistics page, or from your Works in Collections. Your story should be marked as "complete" rather than one or more of multiple chapters yet to come.

To all who didn't make it this year: it happens, and we hope you enjoy the collection reveals.

To all who are still working on beta jobs, treats, or pinch hits: thank you and good luck!

Pinch hits coming!!
Post-deadline pinch hits will be available soon at

yuletide_pinch_hits. This next round will be due at 9 AM UTC, 22 December.

See what time that is in YOUR timezone
See countdown

Beta requests
We have outstanding beta requests on the Yuletide Discord (please see the #hippo-want-ads channel), and more betas are always welcome at the Dreamwidth beta post.

There is also an Away from Keyboard post up on the participant community, for you to (optionally) let your author know if it'll be a while before you can read your gift.

If there seems to be an issue with your posted work, we'll contact you via the email address associated with your AO3 account. Please check you can access that!

frayadjacent posting in

vidukon_cardiff

Programming suggestions for VidUKon 2026 are now open! We will be accepting submissions until Monday January 19 2026 at the end of the day everywhere.

Please submit your content suggestions, whether for shows, panels, or something else, in this google form. Most fields are not mandatory, so if you only have a vid show idea but not a panel or vice versa, that’s fine. Multiple ideas, if you have them, are welcome, but please submit them separately, just to make our lives a bit easier.

If you have an idea for something new that’s not quite a vidshow or panel, we’d love to hear that too.

As ever, we welcome programming ideas from first-time VJs and panellists as well as from veterans - if you’d like to give it a try but you’re not sure where to start, please get in touch! We’re happy to chat it through with you. You’re also very welcome to VJ as a pair or a group.

As the con has grown, so has the number of programming submissions. In the likely event that we have too many programme items to choose from, we will emphasise items that form a coherent and complementary programme, as well as trying to give new VJs and panellists a chance to shine. Last year we had to turn down many excellent suggestions, so if you're still keen on your submission from last year please feel free to resubmit, or submit a new one if you prefer.

Part of the reason we have had to turn down so many great programming submissions is because our standing programming, e.g. Vidder's Choice, Premieres, etc, now run much longer and take up more of the con time than they used to. For this reason, we have decided not to run one of our usual standing vidshows, Festivids, this year. This will free up time for one more curated vidshow or panel than we were able to do last year.

We will endeavour to let submitters know whether their item has been selected as soon as possible after the deadline, to allow plenty of time to prepare.

settiai

Okay, we're right at 16 hours to the deadline, so now I'm starting to feel a bit of pressure as I try to get things finished up.

I had a headache this morning and took off work to stay curled up in bed until close to lunchtime, so my sleep schedule is completely messed up again. Which, in this case, is probably a good thing, as I honestly tend to do better writing at night than during the day. My plan is to stay up until at least 2-3am working on finishing up my fic(s) or, at least, getting them to a point where they'd be considered a properly finished work if I were to get hit by a bus before I could get back to them to make additions.

I'm sure that I'll end up spending some more time tweaking things over the next week, cleaning things up and maybe adding some extra scenes depending on just how much my muse decides to cooperate tonight. Still, the important thing is getting everything finished.

So... I guess we'll see how it goes?

Current Mood: hopeful

green

I was all geared up to talk about The Game Awards, but now I'm mostly meh. I don't have anything new or exciting to say about it. Like with the actual awards? I'm not one of the cynics. I don't think E33 should have won fewer awards. It's just that good.

As for the announcements, I'm most excited about Exodus and the KOTOR follow-up, Fate of the Old Republic. Which I know won't be around for a few more years, since it was more of an announcement for hiring and funding use (and to get us RPG fans fired up wayyy ahead of time). Not at all impressed with the 'big reveal' they saved until last. A live-service hero shooter? THAT'S your biggest announcement? Yeah, fuck that.

I haven't yet played the new 'Thank You' DLC for E33 yet since I um. Started a new game? I can't help myself! Also hoping to play Dispatch soon. And I picked up Control from PS+.

I have about 2k of my epilogue/sequel to my FTH fic and I really hope I can finish it in time for the FTH deadline. If I don't, my recipient has already said it's okay but still. I was HOPING.

The new antidepressant is still working well! The only thing against it is the joint pain. I've got a pretty bad elbow out of it. But I'm used to pain so I'll take that if it means less to no depression.

Current Mood: happy

condnsdmlk posting in

vidukon_cardiff

Next year's con is taking place Friday 5 June to Sunday 7 June 2026 in Birmingham. As in previous years, we'll likely schedule some virtual-only pre-con programming on the Thursday evening.

For folks attending in person, the VidUKon 2026 hotel is the Novotel Birmingham Centre, about 1km from Birmingham New Street Station and accessible via tram. We did not receive a special rate for congoers, so we recommend booking directly through their website.

Rooms can accommodate up to three guests (one queen-sized bed and a pull-out sleeper couch). Room rates are subject to change (so the earlier you're able to book, the better), but current approximate rates for two nights B&B on 5 & 6 June are:

Single occupancy – £213 (non-refundable) / £245 (cancel free of charge)
Double occupancy – £245 to £281 (non-refundable) / £277 to £319 (cancel free of charge)
Triple occupancy – £367.05 (non-refundable) / £399 (cancel free of charge)

If you’re interested in staying at the hotel but would like to find someone to share a room with, comment on this post or take a look to see who has already commented!

The Novotel Birmingham Centre is pretty central, close to lots of food options, and the city itself is easy to get to, with a direct train line from London (90 to 130 minutes). The train from Birmingham Airport to New Street Station takes about 40 minutes.

Birmingham is a great city, filled with lots of cultural landmarks. Not only did it give birth to legendary heavy metal band Black Sabbath, Tolkien grew up there too! Check out Visit Birmingham to learn more about the city. Or even better, Video Game Cultures hosted their 2024 conference there and put together a great guide to Birmingham. It really is an excellent resource, so do check it out.

Lastly, if you have ideas for con programming, watch this space! We plan to put a call out for suggestions soon.

seekingferret

Oy to the World

I did not have high expectations for this year's Hallmark Hannukah movie and this about lived up to my expectations.

When Jake, Rabbi's son, and Nikki, Reverend's daughter, were teenagers, they were inseparable best friends, until high school academics made them rivals and brought out a dysregulated competitive streak in both that ruptured the friendship.

As grownups, they both seem to live stunted lives. Nicki appears to have zero adult friends and works at her father's small church as children's choir director. Jake has spent 20 years playing tiny NYC rock clubs and chasing a label signing (in 2025!) and refusing to visit his henpecking mother.

When the temple has a fire the week before Hannukah, the church invites their Jewish neighbors to make use of the church space to celebrate Hanukkah. This soon bizarrely evolves into a joint Chrismukkah with combined sermon ("Both Hanukkah and Christmas are about love," natch) and combined choir concert, as Jake and Nikki are guilted and manipulated into co-choir directing by their pandering parents.

The Chrismukkah merger is eerily frictionless. The movie is not at all interested in interrogating the reasons why Hanukkah and Christmas are distinct observances or exploring how Jewish people and Christian people are different and approach the world differently. Religion is represented as a sort of universal fiber, with the different versions no different than a comic book with variant covers.

This lack of friction extends to the film's romantic chemistry. Jake Epstein and Brooke D'Orsay are charming actors and it's clear that their characters like each other, but because all their seeming differences resolve so simply, we don't see their relationship really deepen. Everyone in both families is on board with intermarriage, nobody discusses what religion future children will be raised in, everything is just easy. At worst, Nikki is briefly confronted at dinner eith the fact that if she marries Jake, her mother in law will be the worst version of a stereotypical Jewish mother in law, but this is quickly papered over. Even the inevitable, overforeshadowed moment where Jake has to miss the concert to go back to New York and meet with a label is resolved without any argument, and doesn't actually force Jake to compromise. Surprise! Turns out he can make it to the concert after all, without missing his meeting.

Hallmark really fooled us with Round and Round. The past two years have been a reversion to the nonsense we used to get in Hallmark Hanukkah movies. I will continue to watch them, of course, but I am back to watching them with gritted teeth.

cimorene

1. ( Reread: Georgette Heyer mysteries )

2.( Reread: almost all my DWJ books )

3.( Reread: Agatha Christie Parker Pyne short stories )

4. ( Wake Up Dead Man, the new Benoit Blanc movie )

5. ( Heated Rivalry )

cimorene

My right shoulder has been making itself felt with a very small uncomfortable pain since I finished the first triplet sweater last Thursday. (Or before.)

You may remember that last spring I knitted way too much and did Something to it. When I consulted the health center advice, it said that barring certain more severe symptoms, you should rest it and take painkillers and just give it time and that it could take three months to feel better. So I did, and it didn't keep hurting after that. So I haven't talked to a doctor about it.

And that's why I was trying SO HARD to not knit too much when I started knitting again last month. I tried to knit only a few hours a day, though I did get into hyperfocus and knit for five hours a couple times. A couple of weeks ago I hit upon the idea of making myself read one complete paperback book per day to constrain how much time I could spend knitting. I thought it was going pretty well, but just the last few days I noticed this minor discomfort... I hoped it would go away with a few days of rest. But I've kept free of knitting, sewing, and even drawing and writing for five days now, and taken paracetamol even though it's not really that painful, more like mild discomfort.

But it's still like this! I'm afraid to start knitting in case it sproings again! And I'm even worried that targeted stretches might make it worse instead of better!

settiai

The deadline is officially in less than 48 hours at this point. I'm not quite at the point where I'm properly worried yet, but that may be coming by this time tomorrow depending on how much fic writing I'm able to get done between phone calls at work tomorrow.

Still, I try to save the proper panic for the minus 12 hours and counting point, so I still have plenty of time before that arrives. It's fine. Compared to some previous years, I'm doing significantly better already.

Current Mood: amused

yuletidemods posting in

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October 2022

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Page Summary

yuletidemods in yuletide_admin - Reveals approaching! Help us get there!
cimorene - More about the Golden Age detective fiction context of Wake Up Dead Man
hannah - Roundabout.
glitteryv - A somewhat belated book post
kass - This made me laugh a lot
cimorene - Aggressive trees and greenery
jamethiel - No depth found
settiai - Aurendor D&D: Summary for 12/17 Game
settiai - Yuletide: The Last Update (For Now)
hannah - General festivity.
yuletidemods in yuletide_admin - 2025 Deadline Has Passed - What Next
frayadjacent in vidukon_cardiff - Submit programming for VidUKon 2026!
settiai - Once more with Yuletide...
green - (no subject)
condnsdmlk in vidukon_cardiff - Hotel rooms for VidUKon 2026 | Find a roommate here!
seekingferret - (no subject)
cimorene - Books and Media
cimorene - Ominous music sting for the right shoulder
settiai - Yuletide
yuletidemods in yuletide_admin - (Less Than) 48 Hours to Deadline

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Page generated Dec. 20th, 2025 02:24 pm

I was a saint; I wed the breaking dawn

I've seen the darkness take you down with it, Mama - Let it rise

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Reveals approaching! Help us get there!

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Meanwhile, please check your work

More about the Golden Age detective fiction context of Wake Up Dead Man

Roundabout.

A somewhat belated book post

This made me laugh a lot

Aggressive trees and greenery

No depth found

Aurendor D&D: Summary for 12/17 Game

Yuletide: The Last Update (For Now)

General festivity.

2025 Deadline Has Passed - What Next

Submit programming for VidUKon 2026!

Once more with Yuletide...

(no subject)

Hotel rooms for VidUKon 2026 | Find a roommate here!

(no subject)

Books and Media

Ominous music sting for the right shoulder

Yuletide

(Less Than) 48 Hours to Deadline

When you post your story, please make sure...

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October 2022

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