Something Just Like This

I wonder if this works for all filter words... How's it going? I soaked up a lot of local history today. I love using history in my writing. How about you? Day 4 brought about 1300 words, some on fandomtrumpshate story and on my Hazbin Hotel story The Porn Star Murders (posted the chapter) If I've forgotten you on the list, poke me

Day 4 cmk418, badly_knitted, cornerofmadness, sanguinity, trobadora, sylvanwitch, brithistorian,


( other days under here )

Ugh I meant to do more with these other than the tally but I'm barely keeping up with that this week. How did we do? I got about 1900 on day 3, finished cleaning up and posting two fandomgiftbasket stories and did more work on the fandomtrumpshate story

If I forgot you, let me know and let me know what day you're checking in for

Day 3 cmk418 brithistoriansylvanwitch trobadora luzula justphoenix sanguinity china_shop callmesandyk carenejeans cornerofmadness goddess47 the_siobhan



( other days under here )

How is it going? Successes? Alibis? It's all good. I'm slowly getting on track. On day 2 I managed about 1455 words mostly on my fandomtrumpshate story and a little editing one of my fandomgiftbasket stories.

If I missed you, let me know.



Day Two luzula badly_knitted trobadora stonepicnicking_okapi china_shop carenejeans cornerofmadness sylvanwitch goddess47 the_siobhan cmk418 brithistorian sanguinity callmesandyk

( other days under here )

EEEEEE allbingo is having their fall festival prompt this month. this is probably my all time favorite of the bingos! I want to do a blackout of my card. I don't have time but oh do I want to!!

Kill the person in the group who suggests that you split up. That will eventually get you killed.	virgin sacrifice	Statistically you will turn an ankle and the creature will get you	Anatomically Impossible	Butcher Knife
Holy Water	And the #1 rule for surviving a horror movie:DON'T HAVE SEX!!!	Raisin Demons	When approaching a room with a door that hasn't been opened in decades and the knob begins to slowly turn back and forth on its own back away! Do NOT ask loudly "Who's there?"	Listen to the Nerd if You Want to Live
Nothing is ever over if it is still nighttime.	If you are running for your life and are being chased by a monster/psychopath/axe murderer and you happen to be female take the high-heeled shoes OFF!	FREE SPACE	When you are trapped in a strange old house with your date NEVER say: "Let's try the basement!" or "Look! The stairs up to the attic!"	When it appears that you have killed the monster never check to see if it's really dead.
If you're searching for something that caused a mysterious noise and find out that it's just the cat leave the room immediately if you value your life.	Fell and Twisted her Ankle	B Movie.	As a general rule don't solve puzzles that open portals to Hell.	If you open a door and the room you see is not the room that should be there do not explore it. In fact even if you close the door and see the correct room after re-opening it vacate the house.
Listen closely to the sound track and pay attention to the audience since they are usually far more intelligent than you could ever hope to be.	When the family pet runs away DO NOT GO LOOKING FOR IT -- pets are usually not killed and even if they are it's just a warm-up for the next human victim.	Vampires Love Eclipses	Never ever ever turn off the paved road onto a gravel or dirt road.	Do not search the basement especially if the power has just gone out.

After calming down a bit from yesterday I realize I am probably partially at fault for yesterday. After 2 weeks post scan no one had contacted me (even to say see you in a year), I'm the one who made the follow up appointment not the doctor. He might not have had me come in period. (though someone should have called to say hey no need to visit, just repeat the ultrasound in a year)

Today was absolutely pissy at work. 6 weeks in and the online book stuff is STILL not fixed and is getting worse because students are getting locked out of the online stuff. This new way of doing it is going to be the end of us.

As a result I headed to Huntington an hour later than planned. That took the comic book store and Macy's off the list of stops. Bye Bye Books a Million. All I had time for was to buy stuff I don't need to spend my vouchers at Michael's (and one didn't work) and the homegoods for halloween (nothing I wanted was discounted enough to make it worth my time, got some food instead)

Nearly late to the abdominal CT scan. It's 7 o'clock and the hospital is spooky because it's nearly empty. I go up, am taken back and they have to put in my IV. It clots off instantly in my right arm and the vein explodes. This is common with me. I warned them. We get it into the left arm and it bleeds enough to get blood to test my kidney function (which was fine 3 weeks ago) I have to have contrast dye. It's kidney damaging potentially ESPECIALLY if I forget and take my metformin in the next 2 days (I pulled it out of my med pack)

But what no one told me was I had to drink barium. UGH it's like 32 oz of bullshit and you have to wait an HOUR before the testing could start O_O I say no one mentioned this to me. The tech rolled her eyes. They NEVER like to tell a patient back it. No, you don't understand I'm 85 miles from home. Do you know how late it's going to be? I would have reschedule this for earlier in the day. SIGH.

The actual scan took 10 minutes. So I was at my car at 830 which was great because I was starving. I wasn't allowed food for hours (contrast can make you vomit, not me mind you) I was thinking I'd get out so late I'd have to eat taco bell. But at this point Chili's is still open for more than another hour so I race there (people came in after me. Wow) And tried that three for 16. They messed up gave me bone in wings not boneless but it's late I wasn't sending it back (they're in the freezer for another dinner now) I ate the chicken tenders and the slabs of fried mozzarella smothered in honey-chipolte sauce.

I'm sitting there with dressings on both arms and a plastic hospital band still around my wrist. Sad looking p icture. I stop at Sheetz for coffee on the way home. Next to me in the parking lot is an audi convertible, top down while the driver is putting on make up in the light up mirror...it struck me odd.


It's so late so I'll do the book thing tomorrow. But the full Hazbin trailer dropped so here

Every part of this day was aggravating or downright infuriating. I had to go 80 miles to the surgeon. I leave in plenty of time because I have a gift card for Trader Joes from JK so my plan is to go further north to Dublin to go to TJs and then drop down to the surgeon's appt at 4.

My usual trip to Chillicothe (the halfway point) which is usually 45 minute drive took nearly 1 1/2 hours thanks to construction. I make a pit stop at TJ Maxx there because a) I need to pee and it's hours before the doctor and I don't think Trader's has a public bathroom b) to see if Halloween was on sale yet (yes but nothing I wanted).

It then takes me an HOUR to get to Circleville 20 miles from Chillicothe and 20 miles from the 270 beltloop around Columbus (Dublin and Grove Port are both suburbs of Columbus). This should have taken less than half that. OMG the construction. Holy shit. It's now 3:00 there is NO way to get to Columbus and then all the way up to Dublin and back so I pop in to see the main town square. I found 2 metaphysical stores which cool.

And then the traffic was SO bad, it took 55 minutes to go the 15 miles to the office. I barely made it. And then everything went downhill


The surgeon comes in while his nurse is STILL taking my vitals (in fact she had to finish after he left) he says, 'I'll see you in a year for another ultrasound as these are small now' and he turns around to LEAVE. He has been in the room a total of 60 second and I lose it. Very politely but I lose it.

Excuse me but isn't one of them a TR 4 with a moderate to high risk of cancer?

Surgeon - yes but it's very small

Me - then what is compressing my air way?

Surgeon - it's only as big as a fingernail, nothing to worry about

Me - then what is compressing my airway/ Shouldn't you at least do a needle biopsy on the TR4 ones?

Surgeon -No. maybe you need to see a pulmonologist

Me - or a Gastroenterologist because it's causing swallowing issues and hey I can see the lump in my neck right here (points because I wore a v-neck for that very reason) so there is something there. It's visible by the naked eye. I do have GERD, could this be Barret's esophagus?

Surgeon (eyes light up) when was your last endoscopy

Me - ten years and 20 on the colonoscopy

Surgeon (turns to his nurse) set her up for both and he's out the door.

She tries and the only day I wouldn't have to take off I'd have to go into Columbus and no way would I ask a friend to do that. I say I'll call you and hey, why wasn't this a zoom telehealth meeting? I drove 160 miles round trip for him to say I'll see you in a week.

I leave so damn furious I'm surprised they didn't need to haul me out of there kicking and screaming.

My new plan is Fuck this man and his whole department (if that's all he was going to do he could have worked me three weeks ago when that mix up happened) I wouldn't let him touch me if he was the last surgeon in Ohio. I'll be calling my PCP. I have the name of the ENT who did the work on my coworker's fiance. This needs a second opinion. (surgeons are cutters. That's what they want to do so this might not need surgeon but his cavalier attitude has pissed me the fuck off) I know this guy needs a referral so I'll call my PCP, get that and ask her for a referral to gastro and/or pulmonologist. Anywhere but with this guy.

So I get back into traffic to go 8 miles to the casino (where I plan to eat). 45 minutes later I'm still not there. When I finally roll in, I realize I made an error. I forgot that at the renn fest there was no internet so I had used all my cash. I was down to my last 30 bucks.

No problem, that'll carry me to 5:00pm when Guy Fieri's Trattatoria opens....only it didn't. I guess it's not open on a Tuesday. I didn't see that on the web page (it was there, I missed it) So I leave with my last 2 bucks and head to chillicothe.

Only an hour later and I'm still only 8 miles from the casino because of construction. I finally get past Circleville and to chillicothe and someone nearly hits me on the offramp by passing me on the right (in a construction zone) running me off the ramp and back onto the highway (we all somehow didn't die). No problem I'll get off the next exit. It's closed. I had to go all the way to the historic downtown exit and thread my way up. My sugar has dropped and I decide I deserve a treat: Red Lobster.

What a mistake. I was creeped out. I was the ONLY person there at 6 pm except for a couple they sat me behind (two more groups showed up about 10 minutes later) 6 people in a restaurant with 3 wings...They've changed the menu. Only 2 things were under 30 dollars and most were above 40. I could have gotten a meal and appetizer at Guy's (and that place aint' cheap). The cheddar bay biscuits were burnt and the size of 50 cent pieces and the hush puppies the size of marbles. Yeah there's a reason this place is empty (It used to be good. I go there a few times a year).

I had to make a pitstop in Jackson for money because I have to go all the way to Huntington tomorrow and my bank isn't in Rio or Gallipolis.


And since today was so pissy let me continue in that vein with my Fannish 50. I'm back to 'fans, for fuck's sake, no one owes you a damn thing. You don't get to dictate to the creator who and what their characters are and what they look like, date etc. Case in Point

1. The Amazing Digital Circus - someone decided to draw Jax as Daisy a transgendered woman, no problem. trans head canon is nothing new. However this has somehow stirred fandom who wants it at canon and this Daisy has dissolved into a toxic mess to the point Gooseworx who created it had to step in

2. Knights of Guinevere - remember me wondering if Frankie was trans. I'm not alone (keep in mind the only thing that exists right now is the pilot and that'll be the case for a while). The pilot has had like 10 million views in 10 days and there's a huge fandom already. So Dana Terrance (the creator) said 'Frankie is a cis woman, she just has a lot of nicknames' (even I side eyed that because most often we don't get called Franklin and Francesa, Frankie yes but Franklin? okay then) Anyhow, some of the fans lost their damn minds about that leveling death threats at Dana and the voice actors because Frankie isn't trans (Dana came back to say she's fine with trans head canons but Frankie is cis)

3. Hazbin Hotel - This is Husk (my favorite character btw) Original design pre-series and from the series

There is now fan onslaughts about 'why aren't you portraying Husk as fat?' 'Stop drawing him thin!' 'We all agree Husk has to be shown as fat.'

Eyes the canon art. Side eyes fans. Look, if you want to give Husk a dad bod, go nuts. You want him fat in your head canon? Ain't no one stopping you. You deciding to harass authors, artists and the original creators? Just stop. Husk is thin (dude doesn't eat, just drinks) In the future, I'm going to have to put feederism as a DNW in my challenges as this is not my kink but there is such a push to fatten up Husk (and Angel and Willow over in The Owl House) I do not understand why big vocal chunks of fandom insist their way is the only way to the point of threatening the creators when they don't get their way.



But to end on a happy note I had a break through on a novel I've shelved for two reasons. 1 it was getting too political and angry for the story I wanted to tell 2. the one character of color whose culture I was pulling from a few Indigenous groups was really at odds as well for the job at hand. I was borrowing the Navajo death aversion (for example) but this is a character who is working with dead bodies, adopted siblings with a necromancer and might need to kill in her job. It made her look weak and othered. I didn't like it. I didn't want to change her skin color but I did want a different culture for her and her people.

But seeing the trees changing colors, watching a gathering herb video the other day, I thought, what if their culture believes in animism and pull a page from William Murdoch's book. She doesn't need to do the sign of the cross at a dead body of course but maybe she has a little prayer for the departed, that she believes plants and animals and river etc all have their own spirit as important as her own. I think that would work.

I was going to write about mining dreams but a) I'm having one of my exhausted days b) rewatched the Emma Fielding on Hallmark Mysteries and it suggested another theme: not making your characters look like morons. What prompted my interest in this well in rewatching episode one of this series, where Emma is an archaeologist and the potential love interest is in the FBI, art fraud division.

So someone turns up at Emma's dig buried under a few inches of dirt with wounds to the head and both Emma and FBI dude are like 'do you think this is murder?' on more than one occasion. Nah, I think he bashed in his own head and then burrowed six inches under the ground to die. How am I supposed to root for these people when they're saying nonsense like this?

I think one way to avoid this is to read it out loud. It's not just a good way to catch awkward sentences, it's also good to listen and ask, would anyone actually talk like this? If you have beta readers, hopefully they'll catch you saying something weird before it gets out there (and you'd hope some editor would catch it) but since I know that tv shows often are doing last minute rewrites, idiotic stuff slips in. How many times have you sat there and thought 'why didn't the actor just refuse to say this.'

Have you seen this in stories before? Did you continue on? (if I hadn't been listening to the tv as background noise, I might have simply moved on) How do you avoid having characters say stupid things?


OPEN CALLS


RDG Books Is Open To Fantasy Novels

Helen of Troy!



Ghoulish Tales #5 Fun horror that aims to celebrate all things spooky.

Inner Worlds Science fiction, fantasy, or supernatural horror prose with a strong emotional or psychological focus.

Drek Death and Doom – Thanksgiving Folk Horror Thanksgiving Folk Horror

Eye to the Telescope #59 Speculative Poetry dealing with: Immortality

Gilgamesh

Flash Frog: Now Seeking Submissions


84 Manuscript Publishers with Geographic Limitations


From Around the Web (and see YT suggestions at the end)

So, Your Fantasy World Is Based on D&D

Audio Interview: Unlocking TikTok—the Slideshow Strategy for Authors with Dale L. Roberts and Marvin Wey



From Betty

Five Methods for Building Tension That Don’t Work

Removing the Creeps From Romance yes please


A Complete Guide to Beta Reading

Why English Needs Singular They

Five Authentic Depictions of Chronic Illness in Popular Stories

Could Your Writing Friend Become a Coauthor?

How to Use Weather to Create Mood, Not Clichés

Writing 101: How to Find & Write Your Character’s Voice

3 Tricks For Easily Jumping Between Projects

How Your Personality Type Affects the Way You Edit and Improve Your Manuscript

Writing Sprints Explained: How Writers Can Write More Words in Less Time

Big vs. Small Character Arcs: Understanding the Degrees of Change in Storytelling

How First Drafts Are Like Cauliflower

I Subverted Heroism. Here’s Why.



This editor popped up on YT and I liked his presentation and his topics so here have a few

It was a boring work day. Pretty sure I made some students think 'you bitch' guess that's my accomplishment of the day.

So have some fannish reccommendations. Nothing new from me this week.


Cloud Watching Torchwood

Frustration Stargate SG-1

Uncertainty Torchwood

Harassment FAKE

Some Enchanted Evening Stargate SG-1

Meet Me In Purgatory Hawaii Five-0

Manipulation Tactics Torchwood

Walking Away. Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Shanked Oz

Preparing for the Full Moon Teen Wolf

i know that you want me (fuck me lovely) Hazbin Hotel

The Care and Keeping of Oversized Lizards (and Other Unfortunate, Related Occurrences) Merlin

that I have BIG classes this semester and if I put all the tests on one day, I'll be working for hours to grade it all in one night. That was my entire day.

That and finding out one of my EOBs was a denial for my DexCom monitors and I wrote and asked them WHY they denied a claim from the company they INSISTED I use. I hope that gets straightened out because that's 1000$ to me if they don't.

We needed rain bad. We're now on day 4 and flooding. fantastic. Lost my power third day in a row too. It was raining inside my building again. Also someone turned on the heat. Again. It was 77 when I showed up to work outside so WHY the heat is on....


I did manage to finish a fandomgiftbasket story but I'm worried that it's toeing the DNW list (Jealousy is one request but so is no other pairings other than listed...)



What I Just Finished Reading:

Nothing Special vol 2 - a fantasy webtoon, it's cute

Jaws - I needed as J and one of my dentists handed me this to read. Someone's thesis on why there is so much malocclusion. Riveting (no, it's not)



What I am Currently Reading:

Cards on the Table - Agatha Christie - a good reminder she was a woman of her time and that Italians were NOT liked well in the 20s and 30s The victim seems to have deserved to die because Dagos are shifty and untrustworthy....it's not in there much but it was there in the beginning and I set this aside for years and now it's back about mid way in...

Colin Gets Promoted and Dooms the World - imagine Gavin or Lindsey trying to get promoted at Wolfram and Hart and you more or less have it. It's interesting but it's hard to root for Colin since he's actively evil and petty


What I Plan to Read Next: I'm so behind on my challenges. something for that.

As many of you know, there is another woman in Texas with my exact birthdate and name (what ARE the chances) with my same illnesses and for years United Health care had her on MY insurance and did jack shit. And in 2021 when I fell I found out there was a medicare supplement attached to my name (so I knew Other Dana was on SSI) I have fought this for the last 4 years.

So today, I had to call Riverside Hospital because they billed my Blue Cross insurance from 2 years ago. I get them and she says 'oh yes we saw we made a mistake. We've resubmitted it to your EverCare insurance.'

I'm like that is a medicare supplement. I DO NOT HAVE this insurance.

Riverside - oh...really?

Me - really.

I give them my real insurance and ask for the Evercare number. She gives me United Health Care (who owns EverCare) phone number and I'm like thanks but I meant the member number because half the time you call you can't get through the automated system without it.

So I call United Health care and explain why I'm calling. She says 'I have never heard of this. Let me get you to someone better.' She does and I explain it again and say this is messing up MY insurance and Other Dana's too since they keep calling ME.'

She is appropriately horrified and instead of saying I'll look into it and hanging up she says, stay on this line. I'm calling my supervisor. I agree (I have tuesday mornings off) They come back and say 'we can't take your phone number off this account because you're not the actual member BUT will you wait while we call Other Dana?' Fuck yeah I will.

At the end of this not only is my phone number off (and this is what we get for only using phone numbers/birthdays these days) the damn insurance I have the phone number and the name of Other Dana's caregiver at his request so if it gets fucked up again (which it could because again we have the exact same name and birthdate) I can call him and tell him because Other Dana keeps getting denied stuff because they call ME and I tell them I'm not in Texas.

But at the end of this I have a lot of sympathy for Other Dana in spite of all the years of drama because in spite of being the same age with the same illnesses, I'm not in need of a caretaker (my smart ass friends asked 'are you sure?') I don't need home health. She is very obviously incredibly ill and I feel bad about that.

Fannish 50 time.

I wish I had friends in Japan still. Because OMG, Hazbin Hotel is getting its own Maid Cafe in Osaka for a few weeks and there is SO MUCH merch for this both maid cafe merch and kimono merch. And it doesn't look like it'll be available anywhere else. Argh. I would kill for any of it (but especially Husk/Angel in the kimonos)

I admit it, I am into collecting bullshit I don't need but desperately want (in fact today, looking for a lost lab experiment I found a bag of The Crow cards from the 90s movie. I didn't remember I had them and I have NO idea what the hell they're doing at work). If I had room I'd have a room that was nothing but collectibles on display (I have enough of them) Heck my parents have a room like that so I come by it honestly.

If you want to see the merch here are some links

the announcement

her and her twin are high energy but I like this look at the merch

Come On, Angel dressed as an Oidon That is too perfect (no Dana, you aren't writing an AU for this)