Laughter Through Tears

I first tried watching Seven Dials a while ago, with my mother, but she got bored and quit partway through. I was intrigued, and I usually enjoy Agatha Christie adaptations, so I watched all three episodes today, back to back.

It has the bones of a rather fun and intriguing story with three potentially clever and compelling characters. But unfortunately, it is not that story. Instead, it's a bit plodding, misses many of its swings when it comes to emotional beats, and has overwritten dialogue of the kind that makes allegedly clever characters appear rather foolish. Helena Bonham Carter in particular was disgracefully wasted.

Although I wanted to like it, I found the whole thing to be rather a waste of time.

Overnight, I got yet another notification for one of those scammy bot comments on AO3, shilling some bullshit "art" service, or something like that. I had one just like it, about a week ago, and I reported it for violating terms. However, by the time I got around to reporting this one (it came in while I was asleep), it was gone. Although the account is still active. I guess someone else beat me to the punch, since, as I mentioned, the bots tend to sweep through tons of fics randomly.

And it's a registered user, so it's not even as though locking my fics for logged in users would help. I hate this timeline.

Jesus Christ, Windows 11 is complete garbage.

No, I don't want to talk about it. I don't want your links or recommendations. I don't want to hear about Linux.

Sitting myself down and giving myself a stern warning that I'm only allowed to commit to Shiny New Story Idea if I'm still in love with it by Arbitrary Date.

I'm posting this letter on Thursday the 8th (unfinished) so that I can complete my sign-up. I intend to fill in the details by Saturday the 10th (inclusive). If I have failed to do that, you, my assigned writer, have my permission to just use the sign-up itself and go hog wild.

My requested fandoms: ( Fandoms )

General likes: ( General likes )

General DNWs: ( General DNWs )

Fandom-specific prompts:

( Unpacking )

( Seven Kingdoms: The Princess Problem )

( Alpennia )

( The Ministry of Unladylike Activity )

( England Series - K. J. Charles )

( Beware of the Villainess! )

( October Daye )

( Long Live the Queen )

( The Saint of Steel )

( SPY x FAMILY )

( KPop Demon Hunters )

Alarming to think that 2025 will be over in about 14 hours. Which means, in fact, that it's probably already over for someone who lives quite near the international date line, doesn't it?

NYE is not really much of a celebration for me. Well, when I was younger, I would take it a bit more seriously. A few times, I went out with friends. More often, it was something like a small house party, with drinking and music and maybe some games. As we got older, a lot of us drifted apart. The ones who still celebrated NYE often preferred to do it with their families.

Well, I celebrate with my family, too. Sort of. 1/1 is my mother's birthday. This year, we're planning something a bit special, which entails some baking on my part, so this morning I went out for supplies. And tomorrow morning I'll be baking with my sister.

I hope everyone has a good NYE, however you do/don't celebrate it. And I hope that 2026 brings some good surprises.

In between handling all of my boring (medical and financial) chores, this month, I managed to squeeze in a fair bit of reading and game-playing.

After finishing Loretta Chase's My Inconvenient Duke, I went back to reread the first in the series, A Duke in Shining Armor, which had been a favorite of mine when I first read it. I was curious to remind myself how the character of Jonesy had been handled, because I remembered him appearing (after having been a consistent character in Silk Is for Seduction and its sequels, which technically take place a few years later).

MID didn't quite give me what I wanted, but that might be because I was expecting something different. And I never finished the ADISA reread, for obscure reasons of my brain being weird. I often drop off when reading books, especially in the last third, and especially when rereading.

I also got the game Strange Antiquities on a whim, ostensibly as a reward to myself for being disciplined enough not to buy Blue Prince (which I've determined has a 100% likelihood of undoing all of my mental health/self-care progress, pretty much instantly). I played it relentlessly over one weekend, but have yet to go back for a second playthrough. The demo is extremely indicative of the gameplay. If you like it, you'll probably like the game.

Over the weekend, I started reading Tensei Shitara Dragon no Tamago datta: Ibara no Dragon Road, also on a whim. So far, it's a fun romp, slightly referential of the spider one, but the lore isn't as deep. Then again, I haven't read all of it, so maybe it goes deeper, later. Spider has the interesting property of gradually shifting from a survival horror game isekai to some kind weird existential horror myth arc. Then again, "reincarnated as a monster' is apparently a whole sub-genre. I mostly gravitate towards villainess romances, so I wouldn't know.

Yesterday was supposed to be a good writing day, but it wasn't. I'm trying to make up for it today, but I still don't know if I'll quite make it.

On the other hand, I did manage to weave in a wolpertinger reference, which was great fun for me. Not least because it's fun to say. Wolpertinger. Hehe.

My tear through Yuletide-nominated fandoms continues. I'm still watching the Blue Prince videos, and last night, I finished reading K.J. Charles's All of Us Murderers, which is a savage, hilarious, and lovely gothic horror pastiche. All of KJC's familiar trademarks are at play.

Often, I highlight lines in my Kobo e-books. Usually, it's blue for lines that I particularly like, and then pink for anything that I think might be foreshadowing. About halfway through the book, I started journaling my thoughts and suspicions, much of it based on my knowledge of gothic horror themes and conventions. I did not suspect all the right people, and some of my guesses were off the mark, but I did pretty well. It's not a classic "fair-play whodunnit", but it definitely felt good to make lists of facts and suppositions, and to try and draw conclusions from them.

Early in the book, I was prepared to hold onto my negative feelings for the second male lead (Gideon), part and parcel of my uncomfortable habit of questioning why characters don't just up and leave the plot. Real winners quit, and all. But the book does a very good job of both explaining why Zeb didn't leave, and of selling me on the romantic plot, so that by the time that unfolds, I had zero reservations.

It also has one specific (hilarious) line that is very clearly there for us writers.

Increasingly, I can no longer claim I'm not a horror reader. More like, I'm a selective and cautious horror reader.

I nominated some fandoms I'm excited about for this year's Yuletide, but given the workload on the new project (and some other factors), I've been putting off signing up. Part of me is not entirely sure that it's a good idea for my time management. If I'm stressed about making a gift on time, I won't even enjoy the process (or the gift I receive) as much. So I'm thinking about it.

Meanwhile, I'm taking a short break from playing Galaxy Princess Zorana and watching a bunch of Blue Prince videos on YouTube.