nothfan23

Mostly wrote and then had a surprise writers zoom meeting because I forgot we weren't doing them thursdays any more due to conflicts in half our schedules. I didn't do well but mostly because some fool lost the link to the big bad Pennsylvanian cryptid she wanted to use. Sigh. I could NOT find it again. I found the others I wanted to use as red herrings.

Still having blood sugar issues. Today's breakfast sent it almost to 400. By lunch I hit a critical low and then I knocked my damn monitor off again.

two hours later the monitor covers arrived from Amazon. In ONE day. I'm so not used to that (even Prime will not guarantee 1-2 shipping in my area).

Also in there was a book I ordered on Italian healing herbal meds and folklore/paganism. I've been testing herbs from other people's culture and looking so long at UK/Viking paganism because all I could find on Italy was Raven Grimassi who I did not like. I'm excited for this.


Let's share our music! It's music monday. I'm still doing the alphabet challenge and I'm up to J. I'm only doing the last 5 years but you can share whatever. This was not a good letter so I'm not even cutting it because there are so few. Also YT was on fire with recs today. Lately it's been doing nothing but AI music which is a no (even if it's fan tracks. I'll listen to it if the fan wrote the lyrics but otherwise not so much) I have several new bands to follow.

Before I get into my writerly ways let me just say, diabetes is going to steer me around the bend. Today I was bad. I ate fries for lunch and pizza for dinner. My sugar is 90. Two days ago I ate nothing but proteins and my sugar was 360.... WHY?

So into the writing crap. I have been thinking about timing of scenes this week. Early this week I watched The Night House and finished reading The Witch's Orchard. Let me start with House. This was a horror movie and without spoiling too much, she is learning terrible things about her dead husband (while dealing with what she thinks is his ghost). After learning this, when the ghost wants to get frisky, she's into it.

And I'm thinking what woman who learns her husband might have been murdering women who look like her is going to want him touching all over her? Had this scene come before she learned this about her husband, maybe it would have hit they way they wanted it to (unless disbelief was their goal)


Same thing with Orchard, it went a place SO many stories have gone. The protagonist nearly gets killed, does get injured and then in spite of having her leg torn open and breaking in meth lab explosion fumes, feels like having sex. If there is one thing you'll see in my sex scenes, they don't tend to come after times like this because it makes no sense to me. I suppose the whole 'nearly died celebrate life' thing is a trope. It's just one that has me rolling my eyes. Having had some serious injuries, I can tell you sex is the last thing on my mind in those times.

In my novel (still need to get more betas on this) I DID mess up the timing. I ended up having to reorder things and expand some of the beginning in order for the timing to not feel off.

How do you handle timing? Do you find timing issues that bother you?


OPEN CALLS

Anomaly July 2025 Window Science fiction stories under 300 words in length

Brink Literary Magazine July 2025 Window Hybrid fiction with the theme of Obsession

Fraidy Cat Quarterly Volume 7 Rage

The Quiet Ones 2025 Window Quiet Horror and Intimate-Scale Dystopian Fiction

The 13th Floor 30,000-50,000 word stories that take place on the mysterious 13th floor! (details in the post)

The Orange & Bee July 2025 Window Original and contemporary short stories, poems, and essays that explore, expand on, and subvert the rich traditions of international folklore, with a strong focus on fairy tales (though we also sometimes dabble in other forms of folklore, such as fables, myths, and legends)

Ten Manuscript Publishers Open to Direct Submissions in June 2025


Fish Barrel Review: Now Seeking Submissions

36 Themed Calls and Contests for June 2025.

star crossed



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From Betty

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Three Strategies for Creating Progressively Escalating Complications

The Importance of Beginning a Book with Publishing End Goals in Mind

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How Do I Deliver My Self-Published Book to a Reader?.

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Abney Park did an acoustic online concert tonight, in part because the lead singer's daughter was in a serious hit and run earlier in the year, the guy drove off and she and her friends ended up with serious, slow to resolve concussions. In the last few concerts they had other people running the lights/sound etc instead of her but she wanted to help again so they did acoustic so she could handle the sensory input.

Regardless, it was one of their better concerts. Occasionally the sound mix gets off but this more simple concert that didn't happen. It really sounded great.


I also went to the Italian deli today for some good gabagool and the pasta that doesn't jack my sugar up. Went to a non-associated Italian restaurant which was good but SLOW.

Visited my cousin in her assisted living home which has taken a serious downturn since Christmas. At Christmas it was clean and neat. Today the place reeked of piss so bad I was glad we were sitting outside. It got worse at dinner so I think some of that are the elder wandering around in wet adult diapers because damn. (not a surprise these places are criminally understaffed)

something stole one of my tomatoes and one flower. Didn't bite them off or anything. They're just pulled up and are gone. I'm unamused.

Since nothing interesting happened today have stories. Look I finished my intoabar story. I'm not as happy with it as I was the one that came before it last year but it's still fun

Title: Somebody’s Eyes

Fandom: Hazbin Hotel/The Owl House

Character/Pairing: Edalyn Clawthorn/Raine Whispers, Angel Dust/Husk, Charlie Morningstar/Vaggie

Summary: Edalyn decides to take Raine and Lilith through the portal to revisit the people she met at the Hazbin Hotel on her last visit. They have even more fun than last time.

Rating: teen and up

Author Note - Written for my into a bar challenge for 2025. My challenge was exactly the same as last year so how could I not write a sequel? My challenge was Eda Clawthorne goes into a bar and meets... Niffty (Hazbin Hotel)! And if you want to see last year’s story (they’re stand alones but if you want to, please do) head here to read To Travel is To Live

Also written for the lyrical titles album challenge 2025 using the Footloose album and the song Somebody’s Eyes by Karla Bonoff. (I was thinking of all the eyes on things in both fandoms. I admit it, it’s a lame title).

Also written for spikesgirl58’s six word challenge. The six words were Repeat, Amuse, Official, Sword, Captivate, & Reform and for the allbingo prompt of Nonbinary

( story at the above link or under here )


Here's my fannish 50 recs of the week


our sadness provides us a home Star Trek: Prodigy

A Blessing or a Curse? Hazbin Hotel

Invasion Of Privacy Torchwood

Out Of The Storm FAKE

Meraki The Owl House

Stupidity Torchwood

Kept Unspoken Criminal Minds

crawl into my heart, take me apart
时光代理人 | Link Click

The Outlier The Murderbot Diaries

Body Image The Owl House

New Discoveries The Owl House

Faraway Lands Torchwood

Bitter Victory Buffy the Vampire Slayer

nothing is better Star Trek: Voyager

Planning for the Winter Solstice Celebration
Stargate Atlantis/Stargate SG-1

Natural Hazbin Hotel

Pretty Boy Hazbin Hotel

The Night of the Third Task Harry Potter

Steve Week Shorties The Owl House

Stop and Smell the The Murderbot Diaries

Introducing the Hale Pack Teen Wolf

An Unexpected Form of Belonging Teen Wolf

The day was broken up into car maintenance, casino time and a webinar for data literacy by the Howard's Hughes Medical Institute. Two were boring but necessary.

The casino however, was better than expected. At first I was losing like there was a hole in my pocket. Finally found the Lucky 8 machine that I liked last time, every 8th spin it gives you all the wilds you hit in the previous 7 wins. I do good on these and made back the 60 I lost and got to 10 over. Mom was 100 over. We decided to go home and while I was waiting on mom who was in the restroom I found the haunted house machine. I love this older machine at my casino. Two spins, hit the bonus, won another 50$. whee. Would have won more but this machine is SO old that the bonus touch screen was dead and I couldn't select half the offerings. Ah well.

I think I recced some of these communities before.

fancake - a thematic multifandom recommendation community.

fan_flashworks - Multimedia, Multifandom Flash Challenges

drabble_zone - A community for people who enjoy writing 100 word drabbles.