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Poetry Fishbowl Open!

Nov. 4th, 2025 11:57 am
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Starting now, the Poetry Fishbowl is open! Today's theme is "Fairies and Fey." I will be checking this page periodically throughout the day. When people make suggestions, I'll pick some and weave them together into a poem ... and then another ... and so on. I'm hoping to get a lot of ideas and a lot of poems.

I'll be soliciting ideas for fairies, seelie or unseelie sidhe, the Wild Hunt, elves, other types of fey, Radical Faeries, other queers, tricksters, contraries, rebels, adventurers, mentors, historians, explorers, magic users, partners, teachers, leaders, dark lords, superheroes, supervillains, teammates, fantasy species, activists, other unusual fantasy folk, doing magic, doing things backwards, causing mischief, breaking rules, caring for the land, exploring new territory, meeting new species, upsetting predictions, twisting tropes, flipping stereotypes, expecting the unexpected, teaching, adventuring, leaving your comfort zone, discovering things, adapting, improvising, troubleshooting, cleaning up messes, cooperating, taking over in an emergency, saving the day, discovering yourself, studying others, testing boundaries, coming of age, coming out, running away from home, going off the rails, subverting fate, learning what you can (and can't) do, sharing, preparing for the worst, fixing what's broke, upsetting the status quo, changing the world, accomplishing the impossible, recovering from setbacks, returning home, other fantastic activities, Underhill, faery rings, the forest primeval, underwater, underground, liminal zones, castles, ruins, dungeons, dragon lairs, schools, kitchens, campfires, libraries, apothecary shops, supervillain lairs, makerspaces, nonhuman accommodations and adaptations, farmer's markets, magical lands, foreign dimensions, other phantasmagoric settings, faerie magic, unusual magical systems, magical artifacts, enchanted musical instruments or weapons, quests, time periods other than medieval, governments other than monarchy, dragons, unicorns, enchantments, potions, reversals, contradictions, conundrums, puzzling discoveries, sudden surprises, fey time distortions, time travel, travel mishaps, the buck stops here, trial and error, polarity, weird food, secret ingredients, supplements that turn out to be metagenic, intercultural entanglements, asking for help and getting it, enemies to friends/lovers, interdimensional travel, superpower manifestation, the end of where your framework actually applies, ethics, innovation, problems that can't be solved by hitting, teamwork, found family, complementary strengths and weaknesses, personal growth, and poetic forms in particular.


Currently eligible bingo card(s) for donors wishing to sponsor a square:

Fairy Tales and Fantasy Stories Bingo Card 11-1-25


Among my more relevant series for the main theme:

The Adventures of Aldornia and Zenobia is about live happy lesbians in a quirky fantasy world.

Clay of Life is Jewish fantasy about a blacksmith and a golem.

Dragonsilk is about trauma and recovery.

Hart's Farm is a free love community with a few really exotic characters.

Monster House is suburban fantasy with a diverse household, where the line between truth and fantasy isn't always clear.

The Ocracies features all the political systems other than monarchy.

The Odd Trio is about a family consisting of a dwarf, an elf, and a human.

P.I.E. is urban fantasy about paranormal investigations,

Polychrome Heroics has ordinary humans, supernaries, blue-plate specials, superheroes, supervillains, primal and animal soups all trying to get along and figure out how to make a functional society. Eric the Elven King has interdimensional refugees. Officer Pink features centaurs and mystic shifters. Vybra of the Broken Angels specializes in fantasy sex and often dresses as a fairy.

Practical Magics is low fantasy with a prosaic focus.

Quixotic Ideas is contemporary fantasy where magic integrates with modern life in positive ways.

The Ursulan Cycle is genderbent King Arthur.

Or you can ask for something new.

Boost the signal to reveal a verse in any open linkback poem.

Read more... )
[syndicated profile] librearts_feed

Steinberg recently announced that they are changing the licensing of both VST3 and ASIO. VST3 is now MIT-licensed instead of GPLv3+/proprietary, and ASIO is GPLv3+/proprietary rather than just proprietary. Let’s pick the news apart bit by bit.

VST3

This iteration of the plugin SDK has always been available under the dual GPLv3+/proprietary license. Changing the license to MIT means two things:

  • Companies don’t have to sign any agreements with Steinberg anymore.
  • Steinberg, therefore, now cannot enforce any ridiculous policies on plugin developers the way they did it with VST2.

Here is what’s not going to happen:

  • Developers won’t release more plugins for Linux because of that.
  • Developers won’t release more plugin hosts (such as DAWs) for Linux because of that.

I’m not talking out of my arse here.

Building a VST3 for Linux is not rocket science, especially if you use a crossplatform framework like JUCE.

I was an early beta tester of Sinevibes plugins for Linux. Artemiy only needed to set up an Ubuntu system and a basic build environment, which only took a couple of hours. The rest was adding literally one line of code to define the path to where presets should be stored, launch the build, and write an install.sh. That’s really it.

Hollow VST3 by Sinevibes

VST3 availability under the terms of the MIT license is not changing the build process in any way. Nor does it make Linux more interesting all of a sudden.

What will affect plugin developers is availability of more proprietary DAWs on Linux. Something like FL Studio getting a native Linux port would probably make some developers reconsider their position.

As for hosts, nothing prevents DAW developers from releasing native ports, as is evidenced by Bitwig, Presonus Studio One, Reaper, etc. All they need is assurance that this will be worth the effort. Unfortunately, most are stuck in the vicious circle:

  • DAW developers want more proprietary plugins and more official audio hardware support for Linux.
  • Plugin developers want more proprietary DAW support for Linux.
  • Audio hardware vendors want more proprietary DAW and plugins support for Linux.

This really mostly applies to larger companies. Smaller companies and indie devs are more courageous. You can see it by how few Presonus-level companies make Linux releases as compared to how many indie devs build their plugins for Linux (check out this recent blog post by Amadeus Paulussen for an extensive list).

I’m not sure if CLAP’s moderate success affected the new VST3 licensing, but Steinberg’s policies were #1 reason for creating the new plugin API.

ASIO

Audio Stream Input/Output (ASIO) is a driver protocol that provides low latency when using audio interfaces on Windows for recording and playback. For ASIO, Steinberg dropped proprietary-only licensing and moved to the GPLv3+/proprietary combo.

This is where you may see some limited change. This will mostly affect free software that works on Windows. One notable example is OBS: Steinberg is now in a technical partnership with the project.

It’s entirely possible that some FOSS hosts will get a straightforward ASIO support on Windows, although I don’t really know of many. LMMS seems to be using PortAudio that already has ASIO support. Ardour definitely uses PortAudio with confirmed ASIO support, so there you go. Peter Kirn mentions VSV Rack though, and that sounds like a sensible idea.

For Linux users, the relevance of this licensing change is zero.

In conclusion

Personally, I don’t expect any major news for Linux users here. Neither VST3 nor ASIO licensing change will get us more software, FOSS or otherwise. All we realistically can do is vote by our wallets and give money to developers and companies who are friendly to this community. I mean this in the most sincere way.

Focusrite was among the several companies that supported FFADO back when Firewire was still cool, so I got Saffire Pro 24. Years later, they supported Geoffrey Bennett’s work on getting their USB audio interfaces first-class support on Linux, and so my next audio interface will a focusrite again (currently on Scarlett 2i4 gen1).

Pianoteq added Linux support early on, and I’ve been their customer since v5 (2013). The same goes for Sinevibes and a few more developers whose stuff I actually need.

Pianoteq

If we all do this sort of thing, this may not tip the scale to get Native Instruments to port their sampler engine and make a ton of orchestral libraries available. But it may give folks like David Healey of Libre Wave an incentive to produce more complex sample libraries and eventually get there.

[syndicated profile] smartbitches_feed

Posted by Amanda

A Governess’s Guide to Passion and Peril

A Governess’s Guide to Passion and Peril by Manda Collins is $2.99! This is book four in the Ladies Most Scandalous series. Have you read any of these?

Two friends reunite—and discover hidden feelings—while investigating a murder in this sensual, witty historical romance.

Jane Halliwell once dreamed of a home of her own—but those dreams (and her dowry) died with her father. Now, she works as a governess, preparing her charge for a future no longer within her reach. When her employer is murdered during a house party, however, Jane is forced back into the world of the ton. But stepping in as hostess will require working with the same lord who once broke her girlish heart.

Lord Adrian Fielding was too consumed with his job at the Foreign Office to pay young Jane much heed, but he always considered her a friend. Which is why he’s confounded by her icy demeanor now. More troubling still is his desire to melt the tensions between them. But his mentor’s murder means he must first find the culprit—and ensure Jane’s safety as she manages a house full of foreign dignitaries.

Only Jane insists on joining the investigation, and Adrian, despite all his diplomatic skills, finds himself seduced by her sharp wit and sparkling eyes. But with a vicious killer circling ever closer, will it soon be too late for their chance at forever?

Add to Goodreads To-Read List →

You can find ordering info for this book here.

 

 

 

The Serpent and the Wolf

The Serpent and the Wolf by Rebecca Robinson is $2.99! This is book on in the Dark Inheritance Trilogy. The main couple are in an arranged marriage for political reasons.

Perfect for fans of Raven Kennedy and Thea Guanzon, Rebecca Robinson’s thrilling romantasy debut combines high-stakes political intrigue and a steamy, slow-burn, enemies-to-lovers romance.

All her life, Vaasa Kozár has been sharpened into a blade.

After losing her mother—her only remaining parent—to a mysterious dark magic that has since awakened within her, Vaasa is certain death looms. So is her merciless brother, who aims to eliminate Vaasa as a threat to his crown. In one last political scheme, he marries her off to Reid of Mireh, a ruthless foreign ruler, in hopes that he can use her death as a rallying cry to finally invade Reid’s nation. All Vaasa has to do is die.

But she is desperate to live. Vaasa enters her new marriage with every intent to escape it, wielding the hard-won political prowess and combat abilities her late father instilled in her. But to her surprise, Reid offers her a deal: help him win the votes to rise in power, and she can walk free. In exchange, he will share his knowledge about the dark magic running through her veins—and help keep it at bay.

This proposal may be too good to refuse, yet Vaasa and Reid’s undeniable attraction threatens to break the rules of their arrangement. As her brother’s lethal machinations take form, everything is at stake: Vaasa must learn to trust her new husband, but how can she, especially when their perfect political marriage begins to feel like the real thing?

Add to Goodreads To-Read List →

You can find ordering info for this book here.

 

 

 

‘Til Death Do Us Part

‘Til Deal Do Us Part by Amanda Quick is $2.99! This is a gothic romance that received a C+  grade from Carrie, who said the mystery just didn’t deliver.

On the whole, though, I enjoyed this book. I’m a wimp with regard to romantic suspense, but this book had just enough mayhem to keep the story moving and not so much mayhem that I felt the need to hide under the covers. Even if this isn’t your catnip, you will probably find it to be a nice comfortable read. I’d grade it much higher if the last third of the book matched the promise of the first third of the book.

The author of the New York Times bestseller Garden of Liesreturns to Victorian London in an all-new novel of deadly obsession.

Calista Langley operates an exclusive “introduction” agency in Victorian London, catering to respectable ladies and gentlemen who find themselves alone in the world. But now, a dangerously obsessed individual has begun sending her trinkets and gifts suitable only for those in deepest mourning—a black mirror, a funeral wreath, a ring set with black jet stone. Each is engraved with her initials.

Desperate for help and fearing that the police will be of no assistance, Calista turns to Trent Hastings, a reclusive author of popular crime novels. Believing that Calista may be taking advantage of his lonely sister, who has become one of her clients, Trent doesn’t trust her. Scarred by his past, he’s learned to keep his emotions at bay, even as an instant attraction threatens his resolve.

But as Trent and Calista comb through files of rejected clients in hopes of identifying her tormentor, it becomes clear that the danger may be coming from Calista’s own secret past—and that only her death will satisfy the stalker…

Add to Goodreads To-Read List →

You can find ordering info for this book here.

 

 

 

Amberlough

RECOMMENDEDAmberlough by Lara Elena Donnelly is $2.99! Carrie read this one and really loved it, giving it an A. However, she warns of a cliffhanger, which means you might want to get the next book ASAP.

Le Carré meets Cabaret in this debut spy thriller as a gay double-agent schemes to protect his smuggler lover during the rise of a fascist government coup

Welcome to Amberlough City, the illustrious but corrupt cosmopolitan beacon of Gedda. The radical One State Party — nicknamed the Ospies — is gaining popular support to unite Gedda’s four municipal governments under an ironclad, socially-conservative vision.

Not everyone agrees with the Ospies’ philosophy, including master spy Cyril DePaul and his lover Aristide Makricosta, smuggler and emcee at the popular Bumble Bee Cabaret. When Cyril’s cover is blown on a mission, however, he must become a turncoat in exchange for his life. Returning to Amberlough under the Ospies’ watchful eye, Cyril enters a complex game of deception. One of his concerns is safeguarding Aristide, who refuses to let anyone – the crooked city police or the homophobic Ospies – dictate his life.

Enter streetwise Cordelia Lehane, top dancer at the Bee and Aristide’s runner, who could be the key to Cyril’s plans—if she can be trusted. As the twinkling lights of nightclub marquees yield to the rising flames of a fascist revolution, these three will struggle to survive using whatever means — and people — necessary. Including each other.

Add to Goodreads To-Read List →

You can find ordering info for this book here.

 

 

 

dancing_serpent: (Photos - Tea & Cherry Blossoms)
[personal profile] dancing_serpent posting in [community profile] c_ent
Hello everybody!

I'm trying to come up with new topics for future discussions and picspams, but I'm afraid my brain is going a bit in circles, so I'm hoping you could help me out a bit with brainstorming and suggestions.

What topics would you like to discuss? What kind of picspams would you like to see? Would you be interested in revisiting previous topics, and if yes, which ones?


Previous topics with links under the cut: )

Btw, all of the picspam posts are indefinitely open for people who want to add more pretty pictures! *g*

Just one thing: 04 November 2025

Nov. 4th, 2025 11:07 am
[personal profile] jazzyjj posting in [community profile] awesomeers
It's challenge time!

Comment with Just One Thing you've accomplished in the last 24 hours or so. It doesn't have to be a hard thing, or even a thing that you think is particularly awesome. Just a thing that you did.

Feel free to share more than one thing if you're feeling particularly accomplished!

Extra credit: find someone in the comments and give them props for what they achieved!

Nothing is too big, too small, too strange or too cryptic. And in case you'd rather do this in private, anonymous comments are screened. I will only unscreen if you ask me to.

Go!
runpunkrun: combat boot, pizza, camo pants = punk  (punk rock girl)
[personal profile] runpunkrun
Moody photograph of the ocean from an outlook. In the foreground, two dirty hands claw their way up over the edge toward the viewer. Text: Mystery & Suspense, at Fancake.
[community profile] fancake's theme for November is mystery & suspense. If you have any questions about this theme, or the comm, come talk to me!

My terrible confession

Nov. 4th, 2025 11:14 am
james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll
Because both shows feature a red-haired teenaged girl with a monosyllabic name and a troubled relationship with their family, my brain merged the continuities of Son of a Critch and Stranger Things.

Prompt: #467 - Package

Nov. 4th, 2025 10:55 am
sweettartheart: Ink text on paper (100 words on paper)
[personal profile] sweettartheart posting in [community profile] 100words
This week's prompt is package.

Your response should be exactly 100 words long. You do not have to include the prompt in your response -- it is meant as inspiration only.

Please use the tag "prompt: #467 - package" with your response.

Please put your drabble under a cut tag if it contains potential triggers, mature or explicit content, or spoilers for media released in the last month.

If you would like a template for the header information you may use this:

Subject: Original - Title (or) Fandom - Title

Post:
Title:
Original
(or) Fandom:
Rating:
Notes:




If you are a member of AO3 there is a 100 Words Collection!

TV Tuesday: Not My Usual, But Nice

Nov. 4th, 2025 09:10 am
yourlibrarian: Not Captain Hammer's Usual (HOR-NotMyUsual-iconsbycurtana)
[personal profile] yourlibrarian posting in [community profile] tv_talk

Laptop-TV combo with DVDs on top and smartphone on the desk



What do you think about mind-bending, experimental shows? What about eccentric, genius-type characters? Do they get too confusing or condescending, or do they ramp up your curiosity?

Which are examples for "weird done well"?
[syndicated profile] ebookreader_feed

Posted by Nathan Groezinger

Amazon has started rolling out some early holiday sales on Kindles. All three Kindle Kids bundles are on sale for Prime members right now. In fact, it’s cheaper to buy one of the kids bundles than it is to buy a regular Kindle on its own, so you’d have to be crazy to pay full […]

Me! Of All People!

Nov. 4th, 2025 03:07 pm
rionaleonhart: okami: amaterasu is startled. (NOT SO FAST)
[personal profile] rionaleonhart
I've resumed my playthrough of The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy: by far the longest game I've ever played, and also one of the weirdest.

The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy is a game about teenagers being forced onto the front lines of a harrowing war they don't fully understand. At one point you come down with a disease called Super Smartass Syndrome, meaning you can't be a smartass or you'll explode and die.

I was not at all prepared for Moko's wrestling hero to be called Anal Boss.

Everyone canonically falls asleep huddled together in the rec room in one of the routes, because their bedding was destroyed in a fire, and I think that's very important.


Notes on The Hundred Line. )


In conversation with Rei, the concept of Yugamu/Takumi arranged marriage fic came up. Yugamu goes, 'I know we're married, but I'm afraid I have to be true to my heart; I'm not going to kill someone I'm not in love with,' and Takumi goes 'g... good?' and is then very alarmed when feelings start to blossom.

On Tumblr, I once described The Hundred Line as 'a ludicrous child soldier simulator that feels like what happens when you've almost finished making your game and you accidentally drop it in a barrel of fanfiction', and I don't think I'll ever write anything truer.

I've now reached ninety of the game's hundred endings: only a tenth to go! I have been playing this game for a hundred and eighty-five hours. The developers are threatening to create DLC, because apparently they do not think this is enough.

I mean, they should release DLC, because there needs to be a route in which Yugamu makes out with and/or lovingly disembowels Takumi, but I think that's all we need for this game to be complete.
trobadora: (Luo Fumeng - defiant)
[personal profile] trobadora posting in [community profile] girlgay
forgetting any other tie but this (5410 words)
Fandom: 山河令 | Word of Honor (TV 2021)
Rating: Mature
Relationship: Liu Qianqiao/Luo Fumeng
Content Tags: Backstory, Canon Compliant, Getting Together, Ghost Valley, Ghost Valley Politics, Department of the Unfaithful, Worldbuilding, cameos by Wen Kexing and Gu Xiang, and several original Ghost characters

Summary: Something was wrong with Xi Sang Gui, and Liu Qianqiao couldn't simply sit and wait.

HaBO: Not a Mary Balogh

Nov. 4th, 2025 03:00 pm
[syndicated profile] smartbitches_feed

Posted by Amanda

This HaBO request is from SL, who wants to find this romance:

I’m looking for a regency romance. I thought it was a Mary Balogh book, but can’t find it, so it might be an author similar to Balogh.

What I know for certain: Hero either kills or wounds brother in a duel. Hero had meant to delope, but was young and a terrible shot…

Hero is either exiled by family or is self-exiled. He either goes to war or travels for years.

The book I’m looking for is NOT The Notorious Rake by Mary Balogh.

This may be a challenging one!

jacaranda

Nov. 4th, 2025 07:52 am
prettygoodword: text: words are sexy (Default)
[personal profile] prettygoodword
jacaranda (jak-uh-RAN-duh, jak-uh-ran-DAH) - n., any of several tropical South American trees and shrubs of genus Jacaranda with compound pinnate leaves and lavender-blue funnel-shaped flowers, especially J. mimosifolia; the hard, dark wood of these trees.


jacaranda in Pakistan
Thanks, WikiMedia!

Yes, South America and not, as I thought, South Asia -- the above picture being from Pakistan, as J. mimosifolia has been cultivated for its flowers in tropical areas worldwide. We got the name from Portuguese jacarandá, from Old Tupi yacarandá/jakaraná, meaning either hard-wood or fragrant -- Portuguese dictionaries of the time disagree here, and apparently no one in English has followed up on this important detail.

---L.

Voyager in Night by C J Cherryh

Nov. 4th, 2025 08:43 am
james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll


A trading voyage leads to first contact and a delightful process of mutual discovery.

Voyager in Night by C J Cherryh

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