Network [Toby Atkin-Wright]

This is the list where you can choose different sellers. Here's the sale link --

https://earlybirdbooks.com/deals/1000-ebook-sale

**

Folks, I often don't open my laptop until noon or later. Since my timezone is GMT+7, that's awfully late for anyone in Europe, and these posts are fairly useless.

BUT! Note that there's a "subscribe" button at the top of the Early Bird Books page. If you subscribe, you'll get a daily email that lists a dozen or so discounted books, as well as early notification of these massive sales. (This one hit my inbox at 5:20 A.M.)

Also check out Bookbub -- https://www.bookbub.com/ If you sign up, you select the genres you like to read and your seller of choice. Then you get a daily email with approximately 15 to 30 discounted books in your selected genres. Bookbub doesn't have the massive sales like Early Bird Books, but often there are 3 or 4 titles "free" in the daily list. (At least, in the Romance genre.)

**

As always, feel free to share this post or info wherever you choose. Happy reading!

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A year and a bit ago, we acquired a weight bench (and the associated barbells, dumbbells and weights) from a transgym acquaintance. His partner was delighted to get it out of their loft and I was delighted to have it during the dark winter months when my ankle still wasn't up to walking to and from -- not if I wanted to actually do anything at the gym once I got there!

It served me well but isn't making good use of the space in my computer room now that it's easier for me to go to the gym. So today I passed it on to another acquaintance from transgym. He's so excited to have it and I'm so excited to have it out of my room! The circle of life.

I'm excited generally to be dealing with things that have been cluttering up the place. angelofthenorth said she'll take the stand mixer that we've never made enough use of.

(I know this sounds horribly middle-class of me, to be so burdened by possessions...and I am, but in my defense both of these were things I got from others, for no money.)

D and I walked Teddy this afternoon. Wintery mix overnight got us our first ice and/or snow this winter, a little of which has now re-frozen into black ice. With hiking shoes and a little of what my dad calls "duck walk" (apparently here it's called "penguin walk"!), D and I were fine. But Sylvia was so grateful that we showed up to walk the dog at all today. Which gave me the rare opportunity to be like "Don't worry ma'am, I'm from Minnesota."

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I'll have you know it's really hard to limit myself to only five. And of course this is highly subjective. For an entertaining alternative choice with two per German Bundesland (i.e. federal state), check out the two most recent episodes of History of the Germans here.

Aaaanyway, pondering deeply, this is what I have come up with from the depths of my Teutonic yet Southern Wessi German soul:

1.) The Rhine between, say, Düsseldorf and Koblenz. You can either go by boat on the river itself or take the train, but this is a combination of landscape, architecture and history which is both aesthetically pleasing and incredibly historically and contemporarily relevant. Parts of it are ridiculously romantic. Other parts visibly suffer from climate change.

2.) Berlin. I am the opposite of a Berlinerin, but it's the capital, and talk about being relevant for German history (though not beyond the last two hundred and fifty years or so) and present. If you don't visit in Winter, take a boat trip on the Spree as well.

3.) Munich. Was bombed as much as Berlin, did a better job at reconstruction, is the South to Berlin's North (and only three hours away from Italy via Autobahn or train), with the Alps next door. Offers Baroque splendour to Berlin's 19th century classicism. Speaking of German history of the 20th century: if you haven't visited the Jewish Museum in Berlin with its section devoted to the Holocaust, visit the NS Doku centre and the Jewish museum in Munich. (Don't visit the Dachau concentration camp if you're in a hurry, but do visit it if you have much more time, and don't do anything else on that day. It's stomach turning and it ought to do be. You can't do that in the morning and then hop over to the art collection at the Alte Pinakothek in the afternoon.)

4.) Lake Constance, aka der Bodensee. Most parts of this gigantic lake are either in the German state Baden(-Württemberg) or in Switzerland, but there's a Bavarian section as well, oh, and a Rhine connection. The individual cities located on the lake and the islands in it offer early medieval castles and Zeppelins (they were first built here, and if you have a lot of cash, you can still board one), 19th century German poets and prehistoric settlements, and lots and lots of vegetables and gardening and great food throughout the year. Oh yeah, and the Romans were there, too. And a famous Church Council featuring in opera and historical novels. (Have a pic spam.)

5.) ~~Bamberg.~~ Hamburg. Was bombed to smithereens, did a reasonable job at reconstruction, offers a legendary harbor which you can take a two hours boat trip to visit, two great towers to have a view from, an early morning fish market, an immigration museum, stylish nineteenth century villas, quite expensive shops, some good art musuems and the Reeperbahn. Look, it was as important in shaping the Beatles as Liverpool was, and so the world owes it a visit for this alone, okay? Also: three hours train ride to some spectacular northern sea beaches from there.

The other days

location: Munich

Mood::

chipper

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https://news.ansible.uk/a462.html

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Not complete, I am sure.

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Not just the usual cut and paste! This year I am eligible in a brand new category.

Annual Eligibility Post, Or Look On My Works Ye Mighty

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Fen is the worst sort of hostage: one who has outlived her usefulness to the state.

The King Must Die by Kemi Ashing-Giwa

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In winter
all the singing is in
the tops of the trees
where the wind-bird

with its white eyes
shoves and pushes
among the branches.
Like any of us

he wants to go to sleep,
but he's restless—
he has an idea,
and slowly it unfolds

from under his beating wings
as long as he stays awake.
But his big, round music, after all,
is too breathy to last.

So, it's over.
In the pine-crown
he makes his nest,
he's done all he can.

I don't know the name of this bird,
I only imagine his glittering beak
tucked in a white wing
while the clouds—

which he has summoned
from the north—
which he has taught
to be mild, and silent—

thicken, and begin to fall
into the world below
like stars, or the feathers
of some unimaginable bird

that loves us,
that is asleep now, and silent—
that has turned itself
into snow.

****

Link

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This year, both my assignment and the treat I wrote were based on historical novels but, I hope, manage to work outside of them (while doing their canon justice). Though last year I discovered with Stella Duffy*s Theodora duology two more novels about the Byzantine Empress I liked, Gillian Bradshaw's The Bearkeeper's Daughter is still my uncontested favourite. Aside from Theodora herself, the most intriguing character in it is for me is probably Narses, so I was delighted to get an assignment where one of the recipient's prompts asked more about him, which resulted in this story:

Of What is Past (3255 words) by Selena
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The Bearkeeper's Daughter - Gillian Bradshaw, 6th Century CE RPF
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Narses & Theodora, Justinian I Emperor of Byzantium/Theodora I Augusta of Byzantium, Narses & Anastasios, Narses & Belisarius, Narses & Justinian
Characters: Narses (The Bearkeeper's Daughter), Theodora I Augusta of Byzantium, Justinian I Emperor of Byzantium, Anastasios (The Bearkeeper's Daughter)
Additional Tags: Character Study, Backstory, Canon Backstory, Yuletide
Summary:

As he rises from castrated slave boy to one of the most powerful men in the Empire, Narses knows about prices - and worth.

As for my treat: It's a tough contest, but Stealing Fire (set in the aftermath of Alexander the Great's death; our hero fictional Lydias goes from suicidal traumatized soldier to starting a new life and new relationships healed survivor while teaming up with Ptolemy Soter and leading the most audacious bodynapping heist ever as he steals AtG's corpse for his boss) might be my favourite of the Numinous World novels Jo Graham wrote, though last year I via the audio version which I hadn't known before did a rehear/retread of Black Ships (based on the Aeneid, from the pov of the Sybil) and it's certainly up there. Anyway, one of the most interesting characters in the novel is Thais, a historical character, a hetaira from Athens who joined Alexander's campaign and was the long term mistress of Ptolemy with whom she had several children. Settiai had asked for more about Thais, what life with with Alexander had been like, how she reacted when Ptolemy eventually fell in love with another woman (as opoposed to political marriages), etc, and I swear I originally had more of a romantic mellow character piece in mnd. But then I actually read the ancient sources on Alexander. And thought: he must have been absolutely hell to live with at times, especially in his final years. I can't imagine a more dangerous combination than all powerful, depressed, hard drinking and already having killed friends in a rage before. Thinking this, I got an idea, and the tone of my planned story changed completely. With this result:

Her Last Confession (6796 words) by Selena
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Numinous World Series - Jo Graham, Stealing Fire - Jo Graham, Classical Greece and Rome History & Literature RPF, Ancient History RPF
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Ptolemy I/Thais, Alexandros III of Macedon | Alexander the Great & Thais, Thais & Berenike I. of Egypt, Thais & Chloe (Stealing Fire), Alexander III of Macedon | Alexander the Great & Ptolemaios Soter | Ptolemy I of Egypt, Alexandros III of Macedon | Alexander the Great/Hephaistion of Macedon
Characters: Thaïs the Hetaira (c. 4th Century BCE), Alexandros III of Macedon | Alexander the Great, Ptolemaios Soter | Ptolemy I of Egypt, Berenike I of Egypt | Berenice, Chloe (Stealing Fire), Demosthenes (c. 384-322 BCE), Kleitos ho Melas | Cleitus the Black, Callisthenes of Olynthus
Additional Tags: Character Study, POV Female Character, Talking To Dead People, Complicated Relationships, War, Angst, Reveal, Yuletide Treat
Summary:

Thais has always guarded her secrets well. It kept her alive in the years that saw her go from Athenian Hetaira to joining Alexander's campaign to conquer the world to settling down in Egypt where her lover Ptolemy became Pharaoh. But it also cost her. And now she is about to confront her past one more time...

location: Munich

Mood::

creative

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Fingers crossed! I know we can all make it that far!

*****************************

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1. Signups are now open for

purimgifts.

2. If you haven't recently downloaded everything from LJ you might want to back up, you may wish to do so now.

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https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260101.html

Auroral Corona

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260101.html

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I'm mostly done with the first day of this year. Some good stuff, some scary stuff, some disgusting stuff. Already feeling tired. There was an idea of my saying something useful if not witty, and the idea has escaped my grasp for the time being.

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Today I got to visit a dear friend I hadn't really spoken to in six months. A lot has happened, to both of us. It was great to catch up, but also exhausting, to try to take all that in and explain what's been kind of a slog of a time at work particularly.

I left just in time to walk Teddy...or so I thought. D kindly came to pick me up because I'd lost track of time a bit and it was getting a little late. But when we got to his house, it was quiet and there was no answer. Turns out it was a misunderstanding and they were there, but maybe it wasn't so bad that I didn't have to spend half an hour being dragged around by a labradoodle.

I made dinner, just pasta and sauce but I was glad to use up some of the vegetables that need using. Weird to do it myself, without D, but I'm glad I could give him a break on a rough day.

Then, because a transgym person is coming around tomorrow to pick up the weight bench I inherited from another Misfit and don't use any more -- it was incredibly useful while I was still actively recovering from my broken ankle, but now I can walk to the gym and that gives me a lot more and better options. I'm so excited to have some space back in the room where I work (even if it's also taken up with protest paraphernalia for now, the trestle table, tea urn and related supplies we take with us).

The minute, the very minute, I flipped down on the couch after I finished wrestling with wrenches, contemplating a beer, I got an email from my mom saying they were ready to talk. I hadn't been expecting to hear from them today and still don't know if I forgot her saying they'd call on New Year's Day or if she forgot to tell me, but it worked out. I had a surprisingly pleasant and coherent conversation with them.

And then I had a beer.

And now it's bed time.

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Happy new year! I was thinking about doing some sort of year-in-summary thing but it just seemed much too exhausting. I still have November and December booklog plus the year in review for that and honestly I've spent most of the past week lying around limply reading Yuletide stories. I was going to post about that also but again with the too much effort.

However, tragically tomorrow I have to go back to work, so I am having to bestir myself to prepare for that.

In the meantime, my washing machine broke on Monday, with a load of laundry inside it, and apparently all the washing machine repair people are off until next Monday. Dad very kindly came over today and wrestled it out of the slot, which allowed us to revive it for long enough to finish the last few minutes of the cycle it was doing; we still don't know why it started erroring, and I don't trust it enough to wash anything else, but I no longer have a pile of clothes festering in there and I'm taking that as enough victory for now.

I also finally built the bookcase I bought on my November IKEA trip, and while Dad was here he volunteered to rearrange it and the CD racks I was using it to supplement. I have reshelved everything, with gaps for future acquisitions, and it all looks very beautiful; I have one CD rack left which will need rehoming, but I haven't worked out what to do with it yet. Possibly overflow DVDs, but there's no room for it in the spare room with the rest of the DVD storage. ETA: have just tucked it in the corner by the door and will work out what to put in it later.

And now, time to make packed lunch for tomorrow and go to BED.

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The very first full-time employee of TSR, the company which created D&D, passed away last night after a sudden illness.

Kask's Wikipedia entry

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The Long Back Yard

So. Thursday. Grey and on-and-off snow showers. Yes, that means I now have a icy driveway with a coating of snow.

I went to bed more or less at my regular time, and got up more or less at my regular time. Tali came to keep me company while I sat with the Happy Lite, and after breakfast, all three of the cats hustled me back to Steve's office, with three very high tails: Oh, Good! Mom's gonna work!

Breakfast was -- all together now! -- oatmeal with peanut butter and chocolate chips (Note to self: get more peanut/almond butter). Lunch was chicken in butter masala over rice with grapes on the side (Note to self: get more chicken breasts). Before anybody gets too excited the sauce came out of a jar, but I quick defrosted the chicken and browned it, so, yay! Cooking.

I had to name a ship and a Scout Archivist team, so I only wrote about 700 new words, though part of that was:

"Is that humor?"

Jen Sin thought for a moment. "Do you know? I'm not certain."

Next up is putting away dishes, washing pots 'n pans and writing some notes for the next section of Agent of Change. I'll post a link when it's up.

How's everybody doing today?

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Music:: Every Snowflake's Different, Just Like You - My Chemical Romance

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Winter is here to stay...

5 SFF Worlds Threatened by Endless Winter (from 2023)

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The only impediments between Annae Hofstader and research glory are academia, her dismal supervisors and Annae Hofstader herself.

The Two Doctors Górski by Isaac Fellman

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Toby Atkin-Wright

Today only -- Jan 2nd -- ebook sale.

winter nesting

January Meme: Five Places everyone should visit in Germany

Ansible 462, January 2026

Tabletop roleplaying games that I have played at least once

Annual Eligibility Post, Or Look On My Works Ye Mighty

The King Must Die by Kemi Ashing-Giwa

White-Eyes by Mary Oliver

Yuletide Reveals: Ancient World Edition

Only 3 years and 3 weeks until the next Presidential Inauguration

Two PSAs

Auroral Corona

2026, Day One Almost Done

Busy new year

it has indeed been a long december

Tim Kask (January 14, 1949 – December 30, 2025)

Thursday. . .

Snowflake Day 1

5 SFF Worlds Threatened by Endless Winter (from 2023)

The Two Doctors Górski by Isaac Fellman

Links

July