mrsgordo

Because not a lot of interesting things happened today.

Let's talk fannish 50 and this time it's all about the last episode of The Amazing Digital Circus.

( hjsakldfhl, and yes there will be spoilers )

It's late somehow. I spent the day on the diabetes rollercoaster starting out at 350 and staying there until suddenly I was 80 at 5 pm. So I'm tired. I'm groggy. I'm not going to have much energy for writing thoughts today but can we talk about call backs.

Do you do them? Do you like them? I have not used many and I like them well enough. This is front of mind for two reasons. At my book club thing, one of the ladies was talking about what she hated about the indie book she had was it was forced call backs done badly. She said she liked call backs but this one went on and on. And without spoilers, The Amazing Digital Circus had a massive and wonderful call back. Everyone was praising the foreshadowing of that.

But I'm also thinking...was it? What if they just simply rewatching/reread earlier stuff and thought hey, you know what... ha. (that would be how I'd end up doing it)

Open Calls


The Cookout Anthology Science fiction and fantasy stories by Black authors from the African Diaspora, centering on the beloved traditions of the cookout: the joy, drama, and delicious food! - Fantastic pay on this one my friends if you're in the target group.

Sinister Scales Anthology Reptiles featured prominently in the story Genre: Science fiction and fantasy

BloodClot!Zine Revolution including personal, social, technological, and spiritual upheaval Genre: Speculative fiction, literary fiction, poetry, and personal essays - Also only open to people of color

WERE-2 Creative stories centered on were-creatures other than werewolves Genre: Primarily urban fantasy, but science fiction, fantasy, steampunk, and other speculative genres are welcome - Another pro rate pay. This one I hope to try for (look at the anchor authors)

Goblins & Galaxies Magazine Adventure driven stories featuring sword and sorcery, dark fantasy, or science fiction elements

84 Opportunities for Historically Underrepresented Writers (March 2026)



From Around the Web

9 Tips for How to Write Dark Stories Responsibly (And Make Hope Feel Earned)

Genre as Delight, Not Dictator: How Learning About Genres Helps You Write Better

The Most Important Lesson I Learned After a Decade of Writing



From Betty


What Is a Throughline in Writing?

Seven Ways to Clarify Critical Information

Is Your Subconscious Messing with Your Writing Identity?

Awaken Your Creativity

We Become the Stories We Tell Ourselves

The Greatest Feeling

From Idea to Page: The Journey of a Romance Novel.

How Fear Shrinks Your Character’s World Over Time

Coping Mechanism Thesaurus: Catastrophizing

YouTube for Writers, Part 7: Why Captions Matter and How to Use Them

here.

Before You Share That Post: A Writer’s Guide to Verifying Information and Building Trust Online (Part 2).

The Facebook Copyright Hoax Is Back: Why Writers Must Verify Before They Share (Part 1)

The Power of Goal Setting for Writers: How Clear Goals Help You Finish Your Book

Why Author Newsletter Replies Matter (and How to Get More Reader Responses)

Finding The Heart of the Story

Stuck: Further thoughts on Pride and Prejudice.

And what a first day of spring it's been. It's 75 degrees. I went to my first book club meeting at the new bookstore (run by one of my former students) where I got them interested in my book, These Haunted Hills and it was a fun book club where we only had to read 'a green book' and talk about it. Next month is an assigned book. To be honest I don't really go to book groups because I rarely like the genres we read. We'll see how this goes. I did find out a major mystery writer I like will be there in May. Yay.

And I really really need to read the specs on fan merch I buy. I always don't do that and I always get surprised often in a bad way (like my itty bitty husk/angel things) However this time the surprise is in a good way. I got the Valentine's day cards for Hazbin because I liked the art. I thought I was getting a few art cards. I got a damn box of stationary. Wow.


And holy hell episode 8 of The Amazing Digital Circus dropped tonight. It was amazing. It's up there in second place for me. I'll have to watch it again and I'll have more thoughts about it later.

Today also saw the passing of Chuck Norris and Nicholas Brendan who played Xander on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. In watching Buffy recently I realize I dislike Xander even more now than I did back then. That said, I am sorry that Nicholas passed so relatively young.

And I got some writing done plus I have a new open call for you this weekend, another one with big name anchors and pro pay about were creatures. I was spitballing ideas with evil little dog tonight. We'll see what happens.

I went back to Prodigal Son this week for my story




Title: Numb Little Bug

Summary: In the aftermath of what happened in the woods, Malcolm is recovering somewhere far from the green growing things that might remind him of that day. But all he really wants is to come home.

Rating: teen

Notes:Written for the allbingo prompt of drawing and for spikesgirl58’s 6 word challenge. The six words were Convict, Profuse, Imbibe, Blow, Support, & Fish

( Story under here or at the above link )


And I did another meta post for Hazbin Hotel for the marchmetamatterschallenge


Lute's gun

You can find it on AO3 at that link or ( under this cut )

Here's the fannish recs for Friday's fannish 50


Cross My Heart Hazbin Hotel

Too Much Blood Torchwood

Looking On The Bright Side FAKE

Witches and Grimwalkers and Zombies, Oh My! The Owl House

Sensible Precaution Torchwood

Gone Fishing The Fantastic Journey

you are the hill I will live for and die on
Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses

High Above The City. Torchwood

Reclaimed エクソシストを堕とせない | Exorcist wo Otosenai | Make the Exorcist Fall in Love

Feeding the Masses Stargate Atlantis

The First (and Last) Emerald City Costume Contest
Oz (TV)

Sinful Touch Oz (TV)

Frosted Flakes & Snickerdoodles Oz (TV)

Mistletoe Matchmaking Oz (TV)

Musical Santas Oz (TV)

Seeing the Doctor Oz (TV)

Sunshine, Fresh Air, and a Boring as Hell Book Oz (TV)

Ornaments Oz (TV)

I was going to but I started to feel very nauseated and cold. Came home sat down to play a game, woke up an hour later. I'm feeling a little better but not great. Not going was the right call.

Got the midterm grades in. Can't wait for the crying tomorrow.

I looked up the Ohioana book festival because I know it's up and coming but there was a library staff change and the festival was canceled. I'm bummed and angry. I didn't make it last year for reasons and now I don't know if it'll ever be back.

What I Just Finished Reading:

The Snow Child - depressing

I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream by Harlan Ellison. Would have been better without the misogyny and sexual abuse (but would it be Ellison without the misogyny?)


What I am Currently Reading:


Violet Thistlewaite is not a villain any more so far, I really like this one

With Friends Like These by Alissa Lee


What I Plan to Read Next: La Grand Familia, and Luna Park history

It was 78 yesterday. Today my students freaked out and raced through lab because it was snowing its brains out. I wasn't going to go to water aerobics but my friend peer pressured me. We came out of that, wet headed, to 2 inches of snow on our cars. OMG

Water aerobics was good, weird but good. She doesn't use music. I've never done this without music. we were too busy laughing at each other anyhow. I'm the only one who had ever done water aerobics before. That pool was empty. It's also...awful. 20 years I've never been in there. it was closed the first five years I was here. I have always avoided it because I didn't want in the pool with students and it was always 'booked up' and another faculty member said no, it's always empty. it needs painted badly. It's a soulless structure but it is a pool.

Hope I won't be too sore tomorrow.

And it was a rough night. I woke up at 4 to an alarm. It was my dexcom. My sugar was at 51 and crashing out. Fun times.


Speaking of actual fun times, both of my panels, (my sabbatical research on the first lady doctors, and a panel on Victorian/Edwardian medicine) were accepted by the Gettysburg Steampunk festival. I'm very excited about this. I'm thinking of doing something for Tsubasacon as well

Another panel I'd like to offer up next year would be women of horror in the Victorian/Edwardian era (and maybe one of the same group for SF/F) and to that affect let me offer up for Women's History month not our dark queen Mary Shelley but rather Charlotte Riddell who wrote ghost stories that were also tied into social restrictions and social commentary. You can read more about her here.


It's music monday 30 weeks of music. This week's prompt is 17 A song that got you into this artist Share your faves too.

( I'm sharing my first songs for several artists. Love to see yours )





here's the whole prompt list

( It's under here )

Not only did three dozen shingles go flying, the top vent of the garage went bye bye too leaving a hole in the garage's roof. Luckily the roofer's been here already got half of it finished. Will finish tomorrow. I also head back home tomorrow. I wonder if any of my apartment is even there after all this weather (tornados were in my area)

I picked up the branches blown down into the yard plus 2 birch trees. Well kinda. There were WAY too many to get on my own but I got a lot. Gonna have a bonfire eventually with all that stuff (it's all too small to do much else with)


Went to see my aunt and collected another of my grandparents' things from the house (while I can). I didn't know this old Bavarian cuckoo clock was one of my grandfather's prized possessions until today. The cuckoo no longer works (thankfully) but it's a pretty clock with some damage besides that. Those weights for it are so heavy you could brain someone with them.

Went to my brother's and his wife, played with the cats, drank some rye. It was nice.

Wow finally watching an Inspector George Gently mystery where I don't want Bacchus dead. It's S4E1, its taken him four seasons to not say something misogynistic, racist or homophobic. eye rolls.

I also sent in two stories to different places, the latter of which evil_little_dog and justphoenix were huge helps with. Thank you very much. It's very appreciated.

So I was looking around for today's mention for Women's History and I remembered picking up my non-major biology book and seeing Rosalind Franklin in regards to DNA and thinking WTH is this? The answer is another woman written out of her discoveries for years and along with her there's Marthe Gautier someone I had not heard of until today but did most of the work to illuminate the genetic component to Down's syndrome, and another woman with stolen research. And while I'm mentioning Rosalind, want to know when I found out there was an university named for her, yeah today.


Dr Rosalind Franklin

Dr Marthe Gautier


And have some links for Science Saturday

ChatGPT as a cognitive crutch: Evidence from a randomized controlled trial on knowledge retention

1,900-year-old double Scythian burial in Ukraine contains toxic red mineral

'Blackwater' lakes and rivers in the Congo Basin are now emitting ancient carbon into the atmosphere

'Interstellar messenger' 3I/ATLAS could be nearly as old as the universe itself, James Webb telescope observations reveal

2,000-year-old Phoenician coin was used as bus fare in England, but 'how it got there will always be a mystery'

'More advanced' farming women married hunter-gatherer men in Europe thousands of years ago, ancient DNA reveals

Scientists tracked faint signals from the stars — and may have turned up hundreds of undiscovered planets

Could gut microbes hold the secret to aging well? A researcher unpacks the emerging science If you haven't looked at all the gut microbe articles coming out, you should. It's fascinating

So the winds are over 60 mph and my parents' shingles are in the yard. Needless to say Dad is pissed. This is a 50 year roof (about 20 years in) but the tar proved to be dried out and this wind took the whole of the roof from what we can tell.

Naturally my 83 y.o. father decides he must go on the roof to try to stop this. He doesn't want help. I'm like fine. And when you blow off....

He didn't. Blow off the roof nor stop the zipper effect. You can still hear the nails pulling free even after 5 hours every time the wind picks back up. At first it was just 5 shingles. By dark it was 3 dozen. Better hope it doesn't begin to rain before an insurance adjuster gets out here. Two hours on hold with the insurance company waiting for someone pick up ended with the call disconnecting at their end.


Before that we had spent the afternoon with my favorite cousin my dad's age in her senior living center. That was very nice. We barely made it home before the wind.

I tried to figure out if my insurance pays for jardiance and dexcom but now it's decided my password isn't my password and any attempt to get it to email me a password reset has failed.

And I called my endocrinologist this morning to see if I could come 30 minutes late (because she's always an h our late anyhow) they were going to call me back. Never did. the problem? They put the appoint on the only day I can't be there without canceling work. And I could have sworn it was monday. It was SUPPOSED to be monday.


I was researching something for a Hazbin Hotel story (not the one below) and I needed to see who was the first woman newscaster in America. The answer was Dorothy Fuldheim in 1947 which is way before I imagined. (Mostly I was double checking to see if Vox could have had a female co anchor in the time period S2 depicted)

I thought she was interesting so have DOrothy's history for Women's History month. You can read about her
here.


So for the fannish 50 part of this, here's my story and my recs

Title: Not Licensed For This


Summary: Angel finds himself caught between a feuding Vox and Val and tries to help them be better partners. What else could he do? An annoyed Val was a dangerous Val and Angel wasn’t putting up with it today.

Rating: teen

Notes:Written for Sarajaye in the three sentence ficathon for the prompt Hazbin Hotel, Angel+Vox/Valentino, he unwittingly ends up playing couples therapist for them.

This was also written for the allbingo prompt of tension and for spikesgirl58’s 6 word prompt challenge. The six words were Spirit, Jump, Bracket, Detector, Baby, & Pudding

For some reason I set this pre-season. Just seemed like an interesting time to explore a little.

( Story at the above link or under here )


Box Of Treasures Torchwood

Into The Light Stargate SG-1

House Call Teen Wolf

for tradition, of course 陈情令 | The Untamed (TV)魔道祖师 - 墨香铜臭 | Módào Zǔshī - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù

While He Sleeps Torchwood

dust cleared (on a hell changed forever) Hazbin Hotel

Carving Out Space The Owl House

but turn it does The Murderbot Diaries

Sexy Sunday The Professionals

flowers and gems Star Trek: Voyager/Star Trek: Prodigy

Sharing Secrets Stargate SG-1

Sterling Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses

resting my eyes Star Trek: Voyager

gifts and greetings 陈情令 | The Untamed (TV)魔道祖师 - 墨香铜臭 | Módào Zǔshī

Conspiracy Lasagna Hazbin Hotel

Finding Happiness Torchwood/Doctor Who

Dead Girl Walking The Sentinel

Tumbleweed Oz - L. Frank Baum

take me home, it's getting hard to breathe out there Hoppers (Pixar Movie 2026)

ladies in pastels and black 陈情令 | The Untamed (TV)魔道祖师 - 墨香铜臭 | Módào Zǔshī - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù

Controlled by the Darach Teen Wolf

ladies, you know what i mean, and you know what you need, and so does he Hazbin Hotel

Nothing but storms, high winds and tornado warnings (nothing spinny here in PA but who knows about back home).

So I did nothing but taxes (smaller refund and less pay in general, shocker) and grading ALL the things. I worked from 11-7. My brain is tired now.

So you'll get my books and one thing I've been forgetting for forever.

What I Just Finished Reading:

At Death's Dough - a so-so mystery. It took forever to get started and the ending was dumb

The Final Problem - mystery set in the 60s talk about dumb endings

I Want to be a Wall - a lavender marriage with an aro-ace BL loving girl and a gay man in love with his childhood friend. It was decent but not even for me to read more.


What I am Currently Reading:

The Snow Child - so far depressing. It's for my ugly prompt of dealing with infertility. It's a retelling of the

Violet Thistlewaite is not a villain any more so far, I really like this one



What I Plan to Read Next: With Friends Like These, La Grand Familia, and Luna Park history


I keep forgetting to post about kingstoken's reading challenge which you can see here. It's a prompt bingo. I'm going for a black out.

This is what I have so far (too tired to link them up, sorry, also I need to get up soon. Been sitting too long)

I'm just sharing the ones I've done

Main character over 30 The Final Problem by Arturo Pérez-Reverte

Graphic novel/comic book Heavy Vinyl Complete Collection by Carly Usdin

Set at a school/university - Murder Made Her Wicked by Elizabeth Hobbs

No sex/romance - Murder in the Ranks by Kristi Jones

Figures without facial features on the cover - Murder Made Her Wicked by Elizabeth Hobbs

Crime/mystery - Sugar and Vice by Eve Calder

Book Older than you are - Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

Female author - Tell-Tale Treats: A Magical Fortune Cookie Novel by Jennifer J. Chow

A favorite author blurbed it - This Is How You Lose the Time War by Max Gladstone and Amal El-Mohtar

Banned book - Parable of the Sower: A Graphic Novel Adaptation by Octavia Butler & Damian Duffy

YA/Children’s - A Curious Kind of Magic by Mara Rutherford