brightknightie

3weeks4dreamwidth runs April 25 to May 15 this year. The event celebrates the anniversary of, and promotes activity on, Dreamwidth, this lovely platform that you're enjoying right now.

Dreamwidth is my social media. I love this text-focused, algorithm-free, async format; it feels really comfortable and accessible to me. (I feel like I understand it, which is just not at all true of other platforms.) I love getting to keep up and interact with all of you! I wish only that more folks might feel like Dreamwidth is a place where they would like to engage these days, in general and overall, but especially fannishly. ♥

You? You're still here, evidently! What joy does DW bring you these days?

Last weekend, I went to the theater to see Project Hail Mary, on which I was almost completely unspoiled. I hadn't read the book and had seen only one preview; also, I'd been assured that it was hopeful, not doom-y, sci-fi. Overall, I recommend it as a good, satisfying, enjoyable, self-contained movie.

More than one moment felt like it might be the story's climax, but turned out not to be. This was not dissatisfying while watching; I mention it in order to observe, first, that I found myself consciously drawing on that reassurance that the story was indeed ultimately hopeful and not doom-y, and, second, to wonder whether perhaps, while I did enjoy it as a movie, would it have made an even better TV mini-series, with each such event capping an episode, perhaps even as a cliffhanger? I'm not sure, but it occurred to me later.

Another thing that occurred to me only later was that it is a pretty long movie: 2.5 hours (plus previews). I did not realize that while watching. Didn't cross my mind. My attention didn't wander. But as I walked out, I checked my watch, and whoa! Apparently, it was over 4 hours in initial audience previews; they trimmed it down.

I like seeing movies in theaters surrounded by other people, sharing the same story in the same space, sharing laughs or gasps and the experience, even if we share nothing else. Sometimes, folks behave poorly, with their phones or noise, but when everyone behaves well, the experience is a treat.

allbutromance, a gen exchange, has closed nominations and opened sign-ups. I didn't nominate, but I thought I'd participate if fandoms I'd like to write were nominated. Check out the tagset.

There's a fairly broad mix of recent and older stuff, including Highlander: The Series and the Buffyverse, as well as across media types, that I think a lot of people might well enjoy.

However, looks like a washout for me, personally, as a writing opportunity. There are several books and movies that I could offer/request to pad out a sign-up slate, but nothing I'm personally sufficiently jazzed about the chance of to jump aboard. I should have made time to nominate The Legend of Zelda, Dungeons & Dragons (Cartoon, 1983-85), the characters I personally enjoy most in HL, and a few other things. Ah, well. Lesson learned again!

I'll keep an eye on for stories to read.

I unfortunately got a weird (and inevitably mildly distressing) spam reply on the AO3 today, but the good news is that, between the last time I got one and tonight, the AO3 launched a convenient "Spam" button right there on comments. No fuss, no looking up how to report it. Excellent UI addition. Much appreciated.

Aurora Volume 2 by Red of Overly Sarcastic Productions is reportedly on bookstore and comics-shop shelves starting today. I presume that my pre-ordered copy will be at my local comics shop for me next week if not this coming weekend.

Of course you can also read the entire series online for free: check it out. A new page comes every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday (except for occasional vacations, because the author/artist is sensible enough to give herself those).

It's a fantasy story in an original world, pseudo-medieval but completely without the urban/political weight that often carries, with demi-gods running around a la classical myth but original, focused on found-family and team dynamics among a ragtag accidental band who started out just trying to survive themselves, and now their world is depending on them, though it doesn't know it and they don't seem to yet fully understand it themselves.

A week or so ago, I was listening to a back-episode of Sacred Realms: A Zelda Retrospective Podcast comparing Skyward Sword to Breath of the Wild, when the host off-handedly noted that SkSw, being fully linear (not open world), is "a forty-hour game at most."

Um. After months of play on Switch 2, I was one-hundred hours into SkSw. And I'm not a completionist or a mini-game aficionado (though I am a devotee of sidequests! mmmmm, sidequest stories). Of course he was speaking from the perspective of a much more skilled and experienced gamer, someone who can easily beat, on the first try, in hero mode, puzzles and bosses that take me many tries (and ragequits and internet searches). I thought I was pretty chill with my novice-tortoise gaming experiences, but...

This weekend, I reached the loftwing spin-attack tutorial. Good gravy! ( Read about how awful this tutorial is and how to cope with it. )

I was able to eventually beat it -- that is, to keep calm and play over and over -- because I was secure in the knowledge that it wasn't just me. Many people find the spiral-charge tutorial one of the hardest and most ridiculous things in the game. I learned that because a delightful thing happened when I searched for tips. Many of the sources -- and all the best sources -- were old-fashioned-style blog posts and forums! Folks sharing their experiences. Allow me to recommend this essay on the spiral-charge attack tutorial: "Of Challenges, Cheats, and Churls" (2021) by Zelda for Elders: Playing the Legend of Zelda with Cocktails. The authors learned the word "ragequit" over the spiral-charge attack tutorial. :-)

I think that this short book review (and likely the whole book it describes) may appeal not only to devoted fans of Stephen King, and to literary nerds like me, but to all of us who like to think about how reading and writing work:

"Monsters in the Archives by Caroline Bicks review – The writing secrets of Stephen King: A deep dive into the horror novelist’s archives reveals pedantry, penny-pinching, and a total redraft of Carrie"
by Kathryn Hughes; The Guardian (US); Mon 30 Mar 2026 02.00 EDT

Excerpt: "In the same manuscript, Bicks also finds the novelist resisting the copy editor’s attempts to replace the word “rattly,” which King has used to describe the labored breathing of the novel’s dying two-year-old protagonist, Gage Creed. The copy editor suggests “congested” would be better. But King knows that rattly contains within itself a whole ghastly set of subliminal associations including scavenging vermin and unquiet ghosts with their infernal chains. Congested is something a coroner would write."

(TIL that The Guardian (US) has a "book of the day" feature.)

Paramount has reportedly struck the sets for all its Star Trek properties. The new Starfleet Academy show, which my best friend hugely enjoyed and I haven't yet tried, was promptly canceled, reportedly for not cracking the top ten most streamed shows, though they had already filmed a second season and will presumably release it. Strange New Worlds, which I enjoy and look forward to, will air its fourth season sometime this year, and a fifth and final season sometime next year. (All seasons are ~10 episodes.)

In the midst of this, Paramount+ is raising prices again, even for the with-commercials tier to which I subscribe.

Trek is the only thing I watch on Paramount+ these days. It's always been the main thing. I originally subscribed for Discovery, and, for years, was genuinely content to pay what I thought of as my "Trek tax" through a continuous subscription. If they're not going to supply new Trek, I'm obviously not going to continue giving them money (completely aside from their corporate changes and etc. making them less attractive). The question is, how much trouble is it to unsubscribe and resubscribe and unsubscribe again for each of these final two seasons of Strange New Worlds?

I wonder if this is part of why they don't announce the dates for new seasons much in advance: subscription whack-a-mole. On the other hand, if they would produce 22-episode seasons of desired shows, and release episodes year-round, that would prevent such unsubscribing altogether. (As many have said, I would like longer seasons, with more character development, including "filler episodes," and would be delighted to take vastly fewer and/or cheaper special effects, sets, costumes, and props in trade.)

Here are some recent fannish things I've happened to see and would like to share!

Spotlight: I went to see Stand By Me on the big screen during its fortieth-anniversary return to theaters in March. I'd actually never seen it before, though I knew almost everything about it through cultural osmosis and felt, watching, almost as if I had seen it before. It's an excellent movie, of course. Well-crafted, well-acted, challenging, and satisfying. At this end of history, it was sometimes difficult to see the characters through their famous actors, like when the character played by River Phoenix vanishes as the narrative switches from past to present and the moment packs a doubled punch. It would not be made the same way today, and I think it would be the less for that. (Everyone knows the Pokémon Stand by Me trivia, right?) ( Read more... )

Ficathons, fests & communities

Create & engage
- fkficfest, the annual Forever Knight event, has prompting 5/03-16, with stories due 7/18.
- 3weeks4dreamwidth, an annual celebration of DW, runs 4/25-5/15.
- allbutromance, a gen exchange, has nominations through 4/16, signups 4/20-5/03, and works due 8/14.
- bitesizedfandomsex, an exchange for canons that can be consumed in 8 or fewer hours, has sign-ups through 4/12 and works due 5/30.
- whumpex, an exchange for stories in which characters hurt, has nominations through 4/18, sign-ups 4/21-5/04, with works due 6/02.
- seasonalremix, a match-by-trope remix event, has sign-ups through 4/11, with the original story due 4/18, and a matched remix due 6/20.
- whatif_au is hosting its annual AU bingo through 7/31.
- seasonsofdrabbles, a quarterly drabble exchange, has nominations and sign-ups through 4/12.
- spring_renewal, an open promptfest (panfandom + original works), has fills 4/10-30.
- bookclub_dw is a monthly reading club (one month to read the elected book, one to discuss it).
- allbingo's April theme is "flower fest."
- trope_of_the_month's April theme is "fake dating."
- pinchhits is a community for posting needed fills for exchanges. For example, goreswap is currently seeking pinch hitters.
- whenisitdue tracks many more events than I note here!
Enjoy & share
- fancake (themed fanfic recs); April theme: "arranged marriage"
- gensplosion (gen fanfic recs)
- het_reccers (m/f fanfic recs)
- fanart_recs (fanart recs)
- recthething (fanwork recs)

Sidelight: Last year was my year of re-reading Lois McMaster Bujold. This year, I think, will be Rex Stout.

I almost never post about non-fannish things here. I'm making a rare exception for this one. ♥

The third "No Kings" event is tomorrow, Saturday, March 28, everywhere. Go to https://www.nokings.org/, scroll down to "Find an event near you," and enter your zip code or address. You can sign up or just show up. Be peaceful, be joyful, show each other we're not alone.

After, find the next thing you can do, perhaps at https://indivisible.org/get-involved/find-a-group/. Stuffing envelopes, writing letters, making calls, giving rides ... there's something that suits you that will help.

(Thank for your indulgence of this non-fannish post. Back to all fannish here now!)

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3 weeks for Dreamwidth event

Project Hail Mary movie (no spoilers)

Allbutromance gen exchange

New (?) "Spam" button on AO3 comments

Aurora volume 2 hits store shelves this week

SkSw's loftwing spiral-charge tutorial is pointlessly hard; here are solid tips that worked for me

Book review rec: Monsters in the Archives by Caroline Bicks reviewed by Kathryn Hughes

No new Trek = No Paramount+ subscription

Fannish options & enthusiasms | April 2026

No Kings 3 is Saturday, March 28, wherever you are

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