Photos: House Yard
Dec. 4th, 2025 11:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmith posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
common_natureToday I took pictures of icicles and snow, mostly in the house yard, some down the driveway.
( Walk with me ... )
( Walk with me ... )
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Venom #251
Dec. 4th, 2025 07:01 pmlaughing_tree posting in scans_daily
Writing Otto was a real treat. Once I noticed how often I was making him toss out a literary allusion to show off how clever he is, his whole personality just locked into place. -- Al Ewing
( Read more... )
Recent Reading: The Sunset Years of Agnes Sharp
Dec. 4th, 2025 06:27 pmrocky41_7 posting in booksBook # (checks notes) 13! From the "Women in Translation" rec list has been The Sunset Years of Agnes Sharp by Leonie Swann, translated from German by Amy Bojang. This book concerns a house full of elderly retirees who end up investigating a series of murders in their sleepy English town.
This book was truly a delight from start to finish. I loved Swann's quirky senior cast; they were both entertaining and raised valid and very human questions about what aging with dignity means. It did a fabulous job scratching my itch for an exciting novel with no twenty-somethings to be seen. Now Agnes, the protagonist, and her friends are quite old, which impacts their lives in significant ways. However, I felt Swann did a good job of showing the limitations of an aging body--unless she's really in a hurry, Agnes will usually opt to take the stair lift down from the second floor, for instance--without sacrificing the depth and complexity of her characters, or relegating such things merely to the youth of their pasts.
The premise of this book caught my attention immediately, but after a lifetime of books with riveting premises that dismally fail to deliver, I was still wary. I'm happy to report that The Sunset Years of Agnes Sharp fully delivers on its promise! Swann makes ample and engaging use of her premise.
The story itself is not especially surprising; if you're looking for a real brain-bender of a mystery or a book of shocking plot twists, this is not it. But I enjoyed it, and I thought Swann walked an enjoyable line between laying down enough clues that I could see the writing on the wall at some point, without giving the game away too quickly. There are no last-minute ass-pulls of heretofore unmentioned characters suddenly confessing to the crime here! The main red herring that gets tossed in the reader is likely to see for what it is very quickly, but for plot-relevant reasons I won't mention here, it's very believable that Agnes does not see that.
Agnes herself was a wonderful protagonist; I really enjoyed getting to go along on this adventure with her. She had a hard enough time wrangling her household of easily-distracted seniors even before the murders started! But the whole cast was endearing, if also all obnoxious in their own way after decades of settling on their own way of getting through life.
Bojang does a flawless job with the translation; she really captures various English voices both in the dialogue and in Agnes' narration. The writing flows naturally without ever coming off stilted or awkward.
I really had fun with this one, and I'm delighted to here there's apparently a sequel--Agnes Sharp and the Trip of a Lifetime--which I will definitely be checking out.
This book was truly a delight from start to finish. I loved Swann's quirky senior cast; they were both entertaining and raised valid and very human questions about what aging with dignity means. It did a fabulous job scratching my itch for an exciting novel with no twenty-somethings to be seen. Now Agnes, the protagonist, and her friends are quite old, which impacts their lives in significant ways. However, I felt Swann did a good job of showing the limitations of an aging body--unless she's really in a hurry, Agnes will usually opt to take the stair lift down from the second floor, for instance--without sacrificing the depth and complexity of her characters, or relegating such things merely to the youth of their pasts.
The premise of this book caught my attention immediately, but after a lifetime of books with riveting premises that dismally fail to deliver, I was still wary. I'm happy to report that The Sunset Years of Agnes Sharp fully delivers on its promise! Swann makes ample and engaging use of her premise.
The story itself is not especially surprising; if you're looking for a real brain-bender of a mystery or a book of shocking plot twists, this is not it. But I enjoyed it, and I thought Swann walked an enjoyable line between laying down enough clues that I could see the writing on the wall at some point, without giving the game away too quickly. There are no last-minute ass-pulls of heretofore unmentioned characters suddenly confessing to the crime here! The main red herring that gets tossed in the reader is likely to see for what it is very quickly, but for plot-relevant reasons I won't mention here, it's very believable that Agnes does not see that.
Agnes herself was a wonderful protagonist; I really enjoyed getting to go along on this adventure with her. She had a hard enough time wrangling her household of easily-distracted seniors even before the murders started! But the whole cast was endearing, if also all obnoxious in their own way after decades of settling on their own way of getting through life.
Bojang does a flawless job with the translation; she really captures various English voices both in the dialogue and in Agnes' narration. The writing flows naturally without ever coming off stilted or awkward.
I really had fun with this one, and I'm delighted to here there's apparently a sequel--Agnes Sharp and the Trip of a Lifetime--which I will definitely be checking out.
Snowy Sights
Dec. 4th, 2025 05:36 pmyourlibrarian posting in common_nature
A big flock (larger than we captured here given their frequent movement) of common starlings were circling about this week. It seemed like we might be a food stop on their way to someplace else.
( Read more... )
Absolute Green Lantern #9
Dec. 4th, 2025 12:59 ammastermahan posting in scans_daily
Introducing the Absolute versions of not one, but two of the most beloved characters in DC history!
( Read more... )
Vampire, Weak End: ACTION COMICS #577, JUSTICE LEAGUE INTERNATIONAL #25 (JLI 32)
Dec. 3rd, 2025 08:36 pmtcampbell1000 posting in scans_daily
Warning for mass grave scenes, likely suicide, and overall “humanity sucks” vibes. After establishing themselves as “the funny League,” Giffen, DeMatteis, and Templeton would spend about six issues going dark, and that run starts right here. But before that…
In Action Comics #577, 1986, Keith Giffen broke out one of his AP English vocab words and created Caitiff, the first and now-last vampire. The word “caitiff” means “wretched, contemptible person” or occasionally “villain,” and it shares roots with “captive.” But the word wasn’t generally associated with vampires, AFAIK, until the launch of Vampire: the Masquerade in 1991. It’s possible that VtM got the idea from this. Dialogue by Robert Loren Fleming.
Right from the start, Caitiff lived down to his etymology.
( He was hiding in the sewers and didn’t even make it look fun the way the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles did. )
The Mortal Thor #3 - "The Father of Lies"
Dec. 3rd, 2025 06:02 pmlaughing_tree posting in scans_daily
Weirdly, I’d actually been the last person to touch Donald Blake after Donny Cates gave him the role of God of Lies – I was writing a crossover between Thor and Venom, and the main plot point Donny requested was that Blake should become the Serpent at the end, so he obviously had some plans for that status quo that were sadly curtailed, so I wasn’t planning to do much with them at first. But then, the closer I got to actually writing the story, the more Blake wove himself back in. -- Al Ewing
( Read more... )
(no subject)
Dec. 4th, 2025 12:24 amspiralsheep posting in endingsThe words were surfacing, crackling, like a person drowning in the waves. "Must be a no-signal area," he said... eep appearing and disapp...
He glanced at the phone. The only remaining signal bar blinked, then vanished.
He glanced at the phone. The only remaining signal bar blinked, then vanished.
Gen Prompt Bingo Round 29
Dec. 2nd, 2025 08:38 pmpurplecat posting in ![[site community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/comm_staff.png){kind=small}
dw_community_promo
genprompt_bingo is a low commitment multi-fandom, multi-media bingo challenge.Its aim is to provide bingo cards of gen-style prompts to be used as inspiration in creating fic, images, meta, fanmixes, vids or any other kind of fannish activities. Although the prompts themselves are "Gen" (i.e., no prompts are specifically about romance or sex) fills may be of any genre, style or rating.
Prompt lists are renewed at the start of December and April. New cards can be claimed then even if a previous card has not been completed.
Round 29 is open
Mod Post: Off-Topic Tuesday
Dec. 2nd, 2025 09:35 amicon_uk posting in scans_dailyIn the comments to these weekly posts (and only these posts), it's your chance to go as off topic as you like.
Talk about non-comics stuff, thread derail, and just generally chat among yourselves.
The intent of these posts is to chat and have some fun and, sure, vent a little as required. Reasoned debate is fine, as always, but if you have to ask if something is going over the line, think carefully before posting please.
Normal board rules about conduct and behaviour still apply, of course.
It's been suggested that, if discussing spoilers for recent media events, it might be advisable to consider using the rot13 method to prevent other members seeing spoilers in passing.
The world situation is the world situation. If you're following the news, you know it as much as I do, if you're not, then there are better sources than scans_daily. But please, no doomscrolling, for your own sake.
I hope that those who celebrated Thanksgiving did so in as harmonious a manner as possible.
In the UK, our own Right Wing extremist wannabe cult leader, Nigel Farage countered claims of Anti-Semitism and racist behaviour in his school days by saying that he had "never directly racially abused anybody"... which managed to make the word "directly" do more heavy lifting than an Olympic shot-put team.
However bad your workday was, the odds are that it was better than whoever at the Office for Budget Responsibility pushed the button which accidentally released a detailed response to, the UK Government's Budget report, several hours before the UK Government actually announced it's Budget report.
The Terry Pratchett Estate has announced that in Discworld terms, following 2025 being "The Year of the Luminous Lemur", 2026 will be "The Year of the Curious Squid".
Stranger Things, Season 5 Pt1 dropped. Having forgotten to actually watch most of Season 4, I made do with the recap and don't think I missed too much. I suspect a lot of shippers will be unhappy with some choices being made but, whilst sympathising with them of course, never having been that invested in it myself, I think I actually liked the realisation at the end of the last episode of this part. I've also seen these episodes described as being "A lot of build up, but not much actually happens", which is probably fair but that's what happens when you split a season in two for marketing purposes)
Hey look, they've made a sequel to the weird by excellent (IMHO) 2022 Norwegian monster movie "Troll" and it's on Netflix!
Talk about non-comics stuff, thread derail, and just generally chat among yourselves.
The intent of these posts is to chat and have some fun and, sure, vent a little as required. Reasoned debate is fine, as always, but if you have to ask if something is going over the line, think carefully before posting please.
Normal board rules about conduct and behaviour still apply, of course.
It's been suggested that, if discussing spoilers for recent media events, it might be advisable to consider using the rot13 method to prevent other members seeing spoilers in passing.
The world situation is the world situation. If you're following the news, you know it as much as I do, if you're not, then there are better sources than scans_daily. But please, no doomscrolling, for your own sake.
I hope that those who celebrated Thanksgiving did so in as harmonious a manner as possible.
In the UK, our own Right Wing extremist wannabe cult leader, Nigel Farage countered claims of Anti-Semitism and racist behaviour in his school days by saying that he had "never directly racially abused anybody"... which managed to make the word "directly" do more heavy lifting than an Olympic shot-put team.
However bad your workday was, the odds are that it was better than whoever at the Office for Budget Responsibility pushed the button which accidentally released a detailed response to, the UK Government's Budget report, several hours before the UK Government actually announced it's Budget report.
The Terry Pratchett Estate has announced that in Discworld terms, following 2025 being "The Year of the Luminous Lemur", 2026 will be "The Year of the Curious Squid".
Stranger Things, Season 5 Pt1 dropped. Having forgotten to actually watch most of Season 4, I made do with the recap and don't think I missed too much. I suspect a lot of shippers will be unhappy with some choices being made but, whilst sympathising with them of course, never having been that invested in it myself, I think I actually liked the realisation at the end of the last episode of this part. I've also seen these episodes described as being "A lot of build up, but not much actually happens", which is probably fair but that's what happens when you split a season in two for marketing purposes)
Hey look, they've made a sequel to the weird by excellent (IMHO) 2022 Norwegian monster movie "Troll" and it's on Netflix!