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starting to notice a pattern with these two
STRUGGLE SESSION: Old Arrangements, Bi Romantics, Dan’s Baggage… and More!
May. 22nd, 2025 01:10 pm![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png){kind=small}
savagelove_feedGonna be a short one this week, as I’m headed home — and I’ve got lots of baggage (literal and metaphysical) and a long way to go. Dutch Lady had some good advice for BLAAHS, the bisexual woman who insisted on closing her marriage because her straight husband could fuck anyone he wanted (women) but … Read More »
The post STRUGGLE SESSION: Old Arrangements, Bi Romantics, Dan’s Baggage… and More! appeared first on Dan Savage.
On this episode of Sex & Politics, Dan gets to nerd out on urbanism, his (un)happy place. David Hyde and Sandeep Kaushik are the co-hosts of Blue City Blues, a podcast about what’s working – and what’s not – with the politics, governance and culture of the urban archipelago that defines blue America. They talk … Read More »
The post Sex & Politics #39: Blue City Blues appeared first on Dan Savage.
Book Review: The Everlasting by Alex E. Harrow (by Swiff)
May. 22nd, 2025 04:28 amfantasy_book_critic_feedBook Review: The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow
Book links: Tor Publishing Group | Goodreads
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Alix E. Harrow is the Hugo Award winning author of The Ten Thousand Doors of January, The Once and Future Witches, and various short fiction. Her Fractured Fables series, beginning with the novella A Spindle Splintered, has been praised for its refreshing twist on familiar fairy tales. A former academic and adjunct, Harrow lives in Virginia with her husband and their two semi-feral kids.
Publisher: Tor Books (Expected October 2025)
Formats: Audiobook, ebook, paperback
Told from an alternating second-person narrative (!) that echoes through time (!!), the story brings to mind Ken Grimwood’s classic Replay in all the best ways. Stories of this particular genre seem like they’d be especially difficult to execute, but Harrow does a remarkable job at harvesting all the seeds planted throughout the story.
I’m not going to divulge any further plot details as that would spoil some of the fun. Trust that the book is full of surprises and runs the full gamut of emotions, so prepare yourself for an immersive reading experience.
Sorry for cutting this short, but I have to go. If you need me, I’ll be waiting beneath the yew tree…
COVER REVEAL: God's Junk Drawer by Peter Clines (by Mihir Wanchoo)
May. 22nd, 2025 12:00 amfantasy_book_critic_feed
Official Author Website
Pre-order God’s Junk Drawer over HERE
Read Fantasy Book Critic’s review of Ex-Heroes
Read Fantasy Book Critic's review of Ex-Patriots
Read Fantasy Book Critic’s review of Ex-Communication
Read Fantasy Book Critic's review of Ex-Purgatory
Read Fantasy Book Critic's review of Ex-Isle
Read Fantasy Book Critic's review of The Junkie Quatrain
Read Fantasy Book Critic's review of 14
Read Fantasy Book Critic's review of The Fold
Pre-order God’s Junk Drawer over HERE
Read Fantasy Book Critic’s review of Ex-Heroes
Read Fantasy Book Critic's review of Ex-Patriots
Read Fantasy Book Critic’s review of Ex-Communication
Read Fantasy Book Critic's review of Ex-Purgatory
Read Fantasy Book Critic's review of Ex-Isle
Read Fantasy Book Critic's review of The Junkie Quatrain
Read Fantasy Book Critic's review of 14
Read Fantasy Book Critic's review of The Fold
Read Fantasy Book Critic’s review of The Broken Room
Read Fantasy Book Critic Interview with Peter Clines
Read Fantasy Book Critic’s second interview with Peter Clines
Read I See Dead People by Peter Clines (Guest Post)
Read Fantasy Book Critic Interview with Peter Clines
Read Fantasy Book Critic’s second interview with Peter Clines
Read I See Dead People by Peter Clines (Guest Post)
We are big fans of Peter Clines at Fantasy Book Critic and it's been a while since we have gotten to read some of Pete's fabulously twisted tales. So it is with great pleasure that we got news of the cover for God's Junk Drawer.
Peter's newest standalone book is being released by Blackstone Publishing on Nov. 11th 2025 and here's the snazzy cover for it featuring the talents of James T. Egan (Bookfly design).
Forty years ago, the Gather family—James, his daughter Beau, and his son Billy—vanished during a whitewater rafting trip and were presumed dead.
Five years later, Billy reappeared on the far side of the world, telling an impossible tale of a primordial valley populated by dinosaurs, aliens, Neanderthals, and androids. Little Billy became the punchline of so very many jokes, until he finally faded from the public eye.
Now, a group of graduate astronomy students follow their professor, Noah Barnes, up a mountain for what they believe is a simple stargazing trip. But they’re about to travel a lot farther than they planned …
Noah—the now grown Billy Gather—has finally figured out how to get back to the Valley. Accidentally bringing his students along with him, he’s confident he can get everyone back home, safe and sound.
But the Valley is a puzzle—one it turns out Noah hasn''t figured out—and they’ll need to solve it together if there’s any chance of making it out alive.
Pulling from Earth’s past, future, and beyond, Peter Clines has created a complex, dangerous world, navigated by a dynamic ensemble cast, and a story that is thrilling as it is funny and heartfelt.
Are you interested in helping keep OTW news post spaces a welcoming and safe space for engagement? The Organization for Transformative Works is recruiting!
We’re excited to announce the opening of applications for:
- News Post Moderator – closing 28 May 2025 at 23:59 UTC [or after 40 applications]
We have included more information on each role below. Open roles and applications will always be available at the volunteering page. If you don’t see a role that fits with your skills and interests now, keep an eye on the listings. We plan to put up new applications every few weeks, and we will also publicize new roles as they become available.
All applications generate a confirmation page and an auto-reply to your e-mail address. We encourage you to read the confirmation page and to whitelist our email address in your e-mail client. If you do not receive the auto-reply within 24 hours, please check your spam filters and then contact us.
If you have questions regarding volunteering for the OTW, check out our Volunteering FAQ.
NEWS POST MODERATOR
News Post Moderation is a Communications subcommittee that is responsible for moderating comments on AO3 and OTW News Posts as well as liaising with other OTW committees to respond to individual commenters as needed.
News Post Moderators freeze, hide, or disallow comments that do not comply with our News Post Moderation Policy. We approve comments that do comply, respond to user questions and concerns, and communicate with other OTW committees so that users can receive helpful, accurate answers.
We are looking for volunteers who can maintain a consistent level of work, ask for help and collaborate both inside the team and with other committees, and make fair and objective decisions about what comments to moderate.
Applications are due 28 May 2025 [or after 40 applications]
Apply for News Post Moderator at the volunteering page! If you have further questions, please contact us.
A man in a queer group chat saw that folks were talking about going to a bathhouse in their city for the first time. The caller explained what goes on there, how consent can be slushy, and trans men might not feel welcome. This shut down the conversation. Was he wrong to tell it like … Read More »
The post What Goes On at the Bathhouse? appeared first on Dan Savage.
I recently came home from a short meeting to find my husband in the bathroom with the door locked — locked to keep the kids out — meaning that he was secretly jerking off to porn while I was out. This has happened a few times before while I was home or out briefly and I’ve tried to … Read More »
The post Jerked Around appeared first on Dan Savage.
Book links: Amazon, Goodreads
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Adam Oyebanji was born in Coatbridge, in the West of Scotland, and is now in Edinburgh, by way of Birmingham, London, Lagos, Nigeria, Chicago, Pittsburgh and New York. After graduating from Birmingham University and Harvard Law School, he worked as a barrister, before moving to New York to work in counter-terrorist financing in Wall Street, helping to choke off the money supply that builds weapons of mass destruction, narcotics empires and human trafficking networks. His first novel, Braking Day, was a finalist for the Canopus Award.
Publisher: DAW (May 20, 2025) Length: 432 pages (Kindle edition) Formats: Audiobook, ebook, paperback
Esperance hooked me from page one and didn’t let go. I mean, how could it? It opens with an impossible murder - a father and son drown in seawater inside their 20th-floor Chicago apartment (with no water tank around, floors dry, and nail scratches on the ceiling). A dead barracuda is just lying there next to them. For me, that’s the kind of opening that demands attention, and trust me, Oyebanji knows exactly how to keep it.
All of this somehow ties to a woman in Bristol who dresses and speaks like she walked out of the 1930s Nigeria, has and builds tech that shouldn’t exist, and is on a very specific historical scavenger hunt. Yeah, I’m in.
The pacing is perfect - the short chapters told from two points of view (Detective Ethan Krol and Abi) fly by quickly thanks to the right mix of action, mystery, and those oh-crap moments where everything shifts. The sci-fi elements are there, but Oyebanji doesn’t over-explain them, which somehow makes them even cooler. I found the twists top-tier, but your mileage may vary. Anyway, just when I thought I had things figured out, nope. With that said, it’s possible some readers won’t be crazy about police procedural elements, but since I love them, I had no issues here.
I also loved the dynamic between Hollie and Abi. Hollie is basically most of us. Abidemi, on the other hand, is an enigma - charismatic, dangerous, and inhumanly brilliant. Their relationship had the odd but interesting energy, and I loved how their interactions went from trust and suspicion and back.
Even the antagonist had motivations that actually made sense. There’s logic to their actions, even if their methods are, let’s say, a lot.
By the time I hit the final act, I was all in. The twists come fast, the revelations hit hard, and the ending is equally satisfying and unsettling. I feel it’ll stick with me. If you’re into Blake Crouch-style thrillers, Neal Stephenson-esque tech mysteries, or just a smart, fast-paced story that refuses to be predictable, Esperance is absolutely worth your time.
Or a natural disadvantage, depending
Homosapien Press, publisher of multi-fandom fanzines including Samurai Errant, Homosapien, and Pure Maple Syrup, is importing the zines’ fanworks to the Archive of Our Own (AO3).
In this post:
- A bit of background explanation
- What this means for creators who had work(s) in Homosapien Press’s fanzines
- And what to do if you still have questions
Background explanation
Homosapien Press was based in Australia and run by Julie Bozza, publishing various fanzines from 1988 to 2004. Julie is keen to preserve this part of fandom history, with the explicit permission of the creators.
Please contact us if you had works in these zines and would like them to be imported!
The fanzines to be imported are:
- Samurai Errant: Fanlore page and AO3 collection
- Homosapien: Fanlore page and AO3 collection
- Espresso: Fanlore page and AO3 collection
- Pure Maple Syrup: Fanlore page and AO3 collection
- The Deal/Juliet is Bleeding: Fanlore page and AO3 collection
- Westering Boundaries: Fanlore page and AO3 collection
- Horatio Hornblower & the Prix d’Amor: Fanlore page and AO3 collection
The purpose of the Open Doors Committee’s AO3 Fanzine Scan Hosting Project (FSHP) is to assist publishers of fanzines to incorporate the fanworks from those fanzines into the Archive of Our Own. It is extremely important to Open Doors that we work in collaboration with publishers who want to import their fanzines and that we fully credit creators, giving them as much control as possible over their fanworks. Open Doors will be working with Homosapien Press to import the fanzines listed above into separate, searchable collections on the Archive of Our Own. As part of preserving the fanzines in their entirety, all art in the fanzines will be hosted on the OTW’s servers and embedded in their own AO3 work pages.
We will begin importing works from Homosapien Press’s fanzines to the AO3 after May 2025, where we have explicit permission from the creators. However, the import may not take place for several months or even years, depending on the size and complexity of the task. Creators are always welcome to import their own works and add them to the collections in the meantime.
What does this mean for creators who had work(s) in Homosapien Press’s fanzines?
We will send an import notification to the email address we have for each creator. We’ll do our best to check for an existing copy of any works before importing. If we find a copy already on the AO3, we will add it to the collection instead of importing it. All works archived on behalf of a creator will include their name in the byline or the summary of the work.
All imported works will be set to be viewable only by logged-in AO3 users. Once you claim your works, you can make them publicly-viewable if you choose. After 30 days, all unclaimed imported works will be made visible to all visitors.
Please contact Open Doors with your creator pseud(s) and email address(es), if:
- You’d like us to import your works!
- You’d like us to import your works, but you need the notification sent to a different email address than the publisher has a record of.
- You already have an AO3 account and have imported your works already yourself.
- You’d like to import your works yourself (including if you don’t have an AO3 account yet).
- You would NOT like your works moved to the AO3, or would NOT like your works added to the fanzine collections.
- You are happy for us to preserve your works on the AO3, but would like us to remove your name.
- You have any other questions we can help you with.
Please include the name of the publisher or fanzine in the subject heading of your email. If you no longer have access to the email account the publisher has a record of, please contact Open Doors and we’ll help you out. (If you’ve posted the works elsewhere, or have an easy way to verify that they’re yours, that’s great; if not, we will work with Homosapien Press to confirm your claims.)
Please see the Open Doors website for instructions on:
- importing your works to the AO3
- adding your works to the new collections listed above
If you still have questions…
If you have further questions, visit the Open Doors FAQ, or contact the Open Doors committee.
We’d also love it if fans could help us preserve the story of Homosapien Press and its fanzines on Fanlore. If you’re new to wiki editing, no worries! Check out the new visitor portal, or ask the Fanlore Gardeners for tips.
We’re excited to be able to help preserve Homosapien Press’s fanzines!
– The Open Doors team and Julie Bozza
Commenting on this post will be disabled in 14 days. If you have any questions, concerns, or comments regarding this import after that date, please contact Open Doors.
that sports bra cost as much as a nice used car
We are incredibly excited to announce that AO3 now has over 15 million fanworks! Last year in May we celebrated 13 million works on the site. Two million new works in one year is an incredible achievement. And to think it took more than four years to reach one million works when AO3 was first founded!
We would not be here without your love for fandom, your dedication, and your ceaseless enthusiasm and creativity. Kudos to all of you! However you choose to contribute to fandom, you are invaluable to our community.
In keeping with the spirit of the occasion, comment below your favourite ways of engaging with fandom. Are you a creator? Do you translate works? Create podfics? Run exchanges? Are you an avid commenter on other people’s works? What do you enjoy most about how you engage with fandom?
Thank you for 15 million fanworks, and here’s to many more to come!
The Policy & Abuse committee (PAC) is responsible for enforcing the AO3 Terms of Service (TOS). To help users better understand the TOS, we’re posting a weekly spotlight series about the TOS and our policies. We’ll also be reading comments and answering questions on this and our other spotlight posts.
PAC handles both major and minor policy infractions. We get tens of thousands of reports each year about a lot of different types of TOS violations, but approximately half of all reports are about one specific thing: the violations we call “non-fanworks”. In this post, you’ll learn about some of the most common types of non-fanworks, why we don’t allow them, where to put this type of content instead, and what you can do if you see a non-fanwork on AO3.
Don’t go looking for things to report.
Please do not start searching for non-fanworks to report after reading this post. We know that non-fanworks are a problem on AO3. However, when people deliberately search for works to report, we end up getting a lot of duplicate tickets about works that have already been reported. Every ticket we receive is reviewed by a PAC volunteer, so we only need one report in order to investigate an issue. We know it seems like sites only respond to mass reports, but on AO3, duplicate and mass reports increase the time it takes our volunteers to investigate.
AO3 is an archive for fanworks, not other kinds of content.
AO3 has a very specific purpose: to host fanworks, and only fanworks. Our definition of “fanwork” is broad: fanworks can take many shapes and forms, including fanfiction, fanart, podfics, fanvids, fancrafts, fannish non-fiction, original works that use fannish tropes, and more. AO3 was designed by and for fans to be a place where fanworks like these could be safely preserved and shared. We will not expand our mission or services to host non-fanwork content.
What are some examples of non-fanworks?
Works that are not fanworks should not be posted to AO3. These include (but are not limited to):
- Fic searches or requests for recommendations
- Advertisements for roleplay partners or servers
- Personal messages to other users
- Updates, polls, or announcements
- Reaction, blog, or vent posts
- Spam, shitposts, or memes
- Reposted novels or other published works
- Placeholders and other empty works
- Links to or lists of works you’ve read or created
- Ideas or prompts for fanworks
- Requests for other users to provide you with ideas or prompts for fanworks
AO3 has many features that you can use instead of posting a non-fanwork.
There are many AO3 tools and features that are designed to assist you with finding, recommending, and creating fanworks. Please use these features instead of posting a non-fanwork.
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Tags and Search: AO3 has an extensive tagging and searching system, which you can use to browse for works you might be interested in or find a specific work.
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Bookmarks: You can use bookmarks to save or share fanworks hosted on AO3 or other sites. AO3 bookmarks can be organized using tags, notes, and collections.
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Series and Collections: You can make a series to organize your fanworks so that other users know what order to read them in, or a collection to group similar kinds of fanworks together. Fanworks can be placed in multiple series or collections at the same time.
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Prompt Memes: Prompts or ideas for fanworks that you would like to see (or requests for others to give you ideas for fanworks to create) are not themselves fanworks. Instead, you can request or post prompts using a prompt meme, which is a specialized type of collection that lets multiple users share and fulfill each other’s ideas.
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Drafts: All works on AO3 must be fanworks; empty placeholder works aren’t fanworks. You shouldn’t post a placeholder work that has no content, nor should you remove all the content from your work while you’re editing it. If you have a work in progress that you aren’t ready to post yet, please save your work as an unpublished draft instead.
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Profile and Notes: You can share links to your accounts on other sites or provide updates on your writing progress by editing your profile or adding notes to your fanworks.
If you need help using any of AO3’s features, please contact Support.
I’ve seen others post these “non-fanworks”. Why can’t I?
As our TOS FAQ explains, we don’t review content until it’s reported to us. You may have seen somebody else post a fic search or a prompt as a work on AO3, but that doesn’t mean it’s allowed. All it means is that nobody has reported that non-fanwork to us yet, or that we haven’t finished processing the report.
What if I plan to delete it as soon as possible?
Works on AO3 must be fanworks. By posting a non-fanwork, you’re violating our TOS. If someone reports your work to us, we may still take action even if you’ve already deleted the work.
What will happen if I get reported for posting a non-fanwork?
First, we’ll review the reported work to confirm that you violated our TOS by posting a non-fanwork. If we determine that your work is a non-fanwork, we’ll hide the work and send you an email telling you to delete the non-fanwork. In some cases, we may offer you the chance to edit your work instead.
We’ll only ever contact you by email, and only after we’ve determined that your work is a non-fanwork. We will never comment on your work or contact you through social media. Please make sure to keep your account’s email address up to date and check it regularly (including your spam folder), or else you may miss our warning email.
If you repeatedly post non-fanworks, you may be temporarily suspended. Continuing to violate the TOS will result in you being permanently banned from AO3. You can learn more about warnings and suspensions in our TOS FAQ.
What should I do if I encounter a non-fanwork?
You can give the creator a heads up by politely commenting on their work and linking to the TOS FAQ or this post. Alternatively, you can report the work to us.
How do I report a non-fanwork?
Although we ask that you do not deliberately seek out non-fanworks to report, if you come across a non-fanwork while browsing, you can report it using the Policy Questions & Abuse Reports form, which is linked at the bottom of every page on AO3.
Please don’t report more than one user at a time or submit multiple reports about the same user. When reporting multiple works by the same user, please submit only one report with links to each work you’re reporting, so that all information about that user is in the same place.
For example, a non-fanwork report might look like this:
Link to the page you are reporting: https://archiveofourown.org/works/00000000
Brief summary of Terms of Service violation: Non-fanwork
Description of the content you are reporting:
This work by USERNAME is a search for a fanfic.
If you are reporting additional works, please include all relevant links and other information in your report description:
Description of the content you are reporting:
This work by USERNAME is a search for a fanfic.Some of their other works are also not fanworks:
https://archiveofourown.org/works/23456789 is a request for roleplaying partners.
https://archiveofourown.org/works/34567890 is a list of prompts.
You can add more details if you like, but this example provides the basic information we need:
- Who posted the non-fanwork(s): Tell us their username or if the work is anonymous or orphaned.
- Where we can find the work(s): Enter one URL in the “Link to the page you are reporting” field, and (if applicable) include links to any other violating works in the description of your report.
- What violates the TOS: Explain why you think each work you’re reporting is not a fanwork. A brief description of the work is fine; you don’t need to be very detailed or quote an entire TOS or FAQ section.
You’ll receive an automatic email confirming that we received your report, and our volunteers will investigate when they get a chance. Please be patient and do not submit another report about the same work. While PAC investigates every report we receive, it can take several months for us to process a report, and not every report will receive a reply.
What if I have more questions about non-fanworks?
PAC follows a strict confidentiality policy. Therefore, while you are welcome to ask general questions in the comments of this post, we will not give information on specific cases, publicly rule on a work, or update you on the status of a report you have already submitted. Comments on this post that discuss specific works or users will be removed.
If you think you’ve found a non-fanwork on AO3, or if you want to know whether a particular work is a fanwork, please report the work to us as described above. For more information, you can read our TOS FAQ for examples of fanworks and non-fanworks.
If you are still uncertain, you can comment below or submit a question through the Policy Questions & Abuse Reports form.
