I'm beginning to wonder what is wrong with me. I thought my Overlook story was formatted. It wasn't. I thought This Little Piggy story had a good ending (a story I have sent out in the past) and it literally trails off. I thought my test for tuesday was done and I just needed to clean it up. I was wrong. Is this part of worsening ADHD? Is this part of the depression? Me being overworked? I am falling further and further behind and I don't like any part of it.

But let's set that aside for now. I wanted to talk about writing monsters. I want to take my story Sharp Little Teeth and expand it into a novella. I think there is something in i t worth saving. It's a bit long for most open calls and at the end of the day, the ending is rushed just to fit it under 8k. There is enough to it to develop to three times its size. A gay mobster in 1947, his lavender marriage to a lady doctor, their forced exile from Boston to Las Vegas, some monster killing people building the new casino experiment.

I need to do more research into Vegas (collecting books now) but that's not my issue. I have used folklore to create the monster. I didn't find any colonizer monsters that fit what I needed, just some big foot knock offs. there is something in Paiute lore that does work and that's what I went for at the time (with only weeks to do this)

I did have the Native American character come up with how to get rid of them but still it feels like it's toeing the line of white savior and mystic native tokenism. I don't want either of those things obviously. So I was thinking I can use the thing from legend but it's not that. It's not the crybaby water things either. While they're working it out, more die.

But that means I have to make a monster. I know I want to keep the small child-like stature of them and of course the titular sharp little teeth but where do I go from there? I don't know yet but I need to think abou that. Might be time look at desert animals and go from there.


Open Calls




Vacations From Hell
Short horror stories about vacations


Hawthorn & Ash 2026 Window 100 and 500 word fantasy, speculative fiction, and horror stories

Sley House Times March 2026 Window

Untitled Folk Horror Anthology Folk horror of all types, preferring a twist on a known folk or fairy tale, but not required


From Around the World

How to Become a Professional Writer With Joanna Penn

How to Make Your Dark Event Pay Off

Should You Tie Up Loose Ends in Your Story—or Leave Them Open?

What Is Cozy Horror?


From Betty


How to Fix a Boring Sex Scene (honestly I think most sex scenes are boring)


Seven Tricks to Improve Your Minions

Must Romance Always Include a Breakup?

Narrative Distance

Using Contradictions to Create Masterful Microtension – Part 3

10 Editing Mistakes First-Time Authors Make (That Could Cost You Readers)

WITS Team Showcase - Jenny Hansen

How to Write Great Taglines in Seven Steps

Self-Editing Pop Quiz Redux

Why Readers Read

Mistakes Were Made

What Does a Character’s Fear of Change Look Like

8 Tips for Writing an Unreliable Narrator

Why Identity Is the Key to Character Development: How True vs. False Identity Shapes Every Story

The Complete Guide to Self-Editing for Writers, Part 4: Final Revisions and Beta Reader Feedback

7 Writing Mistakes That Hurt Your Story (and How to Avoid “Literary Leftovers”)



Who Are You? Part Two

Common Mistakes New Writers Make and How to Fix Them

Catching up on Question a Day Memage - End of February

26. When you leave your home, what essentials do you have with you?

If going to work? Purple backpack - with lunch, wallet, subway/work ID, book, pills for the day, kleenex, iphone, sometimes charger for headphones, headphones, smartwatch, pens, and umbrella, cloth grocery bags.

If not work - bag, with cloth grocery bags, wallet, phone.

27. Have you received a letter recently?

No.

28. Do you own many notebooks? What do you use them for?

Yes. Usually to write stories in, lists, journal, write down meds, notes for stories, character lists, sketches of people

And March 1:

1. Since 1990, Clean Up Australia Limited has sponsored a yearly Clean Up Australia Day. Have you ever taken part in a ‘clean up’ initiative where you live?

Yes. Years ago volunteered in a NY Cares Clean Up the Parks Day.

***

Sigh, I'm back to watching or rewatching Angel S5, Underneath. It's dialogue is better than most of the stuff currently on. Sad. But true.
And it made me laugh.

Tried Best Medicine, not bad. I may continue, don't know. Also tried How to get to Heaven from Belfast - which, well, I didn't like The Derry Girls, and it's by the same folks that did that? Rapid fire, heavy slang, Irish dialogue, loud, people screaming at each other at high velocity, and somewhat crude broad humor with annoying 30 something female characters that I'd run away from in reality? Subtle and witty - it's not. Reminds me a little of the same humor that's in Shameless? At any rate - it's not the best thing for someone recovering from a sinus infection or the sinus headache from hell?

And Count of Monte Cristo on PBS Passport - I may stay with this. It's the latest adaptation by the BBC, with Sam Clafin in the lead role and Jeremy Irons. The first episode was actually fairly good, so may stick with it.

Gracie got me up at 7:30 AM. I guess that I should be grateful for the extra 30 minutes.

Lily is so pretty and delicate. I love looking at her. Appearances can be deceiving though; she’ll smack Oliver, who usually deserves it.

Gracie doesn’t want to come in. At least, I got Bella in.

Booked a hair appointment. Ordered another stock.

I'm feeling like staying home today, but I have stuff on Facebook Marketplace to buy. I'll see how I feel after my nap and shower. The clock is a long drive away, but the nail gun is local.

Got Gracie in with the aid of a munchie bone. Now she’s eating Bella’s food. That’s okay; it’s the same food.

Napped. Oliver Snugglebug is snuggling. Had lunch. I think that I want another nap.

Gracie likes to nuzzle my ear for reasons known only to her.

Napped. I’m in the kitchen trying to wake up. Then a shower. I’ve decided that I’m going to stay in and work on the bathroom.

Showered. I’m wearing a pants and sweatshirt set that I bought a while ago. It’s like sweats but a thinner and nicer fabric.

Lily is parading around in my face, purring. (The cat food dishes are soaking.) My pets keep me grounded in the now.

Reading news on Iran. Sigh. On a happier note, the BBC had an article about Madeira, to which I’d like to go.

Hmm. Snow tonight.

You know that you’re getting old when you don’t recognize half the actors’ names in the Actors Awards.

Did a little work on the bathroom. Found a gazillon socks. But I want to get to bed early.

allbingo's craft fest month

Knitting Needles	Writing	Lacking Storage	Colored Pencils	Picnic Basket
Calligraphy	Ribbon	Embroidery	Painting	Tangles
Warm Knitted Sweater	Small Spaces	FREE SPACE	Patchwork	Time
Scrapbooking	Tension	Rope	Drawing	Ceramic Mug
Jewelry	Yarn	Velvet	Sewing	Laptop

Public


One of the all-time great stunts, with Yakima Canutt's "drop" from the stagecoach, but a very good classic Western all round. A young John Wayne shows real star quality, the cinematography is ahead of its time, there's plenty of subtle (or not) social commentary and parts of it are surprisingly funny. The worst elements, as expected for the genre and era, are the representation of the Apache as generic baddies to be picked off and the lack of care for the horse performers. The back projection is ropey enough to be distracting at times, but pretty much everything else is excellent and the film remains genuinely very watchable. ★★★★

I have gone back and fixed the typos in my last post which were not due to anything but tiredness last night but they were driving me crazy /o\

( Today was much better than yesterday, after middle sis arrived and I could see she really was okay. )

May I speak in the name of the living God who is Source of All Being, Eternal Word and Holy Spirit.
I wonder what your reaction to the phrase “born again”?

Maybe you’ve been asked “have you been born again?” by Christians – possibly in the street but also at church.

In the last 50 or so years it has become a phrase associated with a particular type of experience of the Holy Spirit, often involving speaking in tongues, and sometimes it seems to be used to imply people who have not had that exact experience are lesser Christians, or maybe not Christians at all.

Tonight we are heard the passage from which this phrase comes. The NRSV (the translation we use for our readings) opts for “born from above” but other translations go for “born again” – the Greek allows both interpretations. And it is “born again” that has entered our discussions of faith.

Here we have a Pharisee, Nicodemus, seeking out Jesus, who may have been a fellow Pharisee although one who was perhaps going further or in a different direction from his fellows. Nicodemus recognises Jesus as a teacher who has come from God, because of the signs that he has been doing.

Looking back at the first two chapters of John’s Gospel, we have so far seen Jesus being recognised by John the Baptist when he was baptised; calling disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter, Philip, Nathanael; then turning water to wine at the wedding at Cana; and at the Passover turning over the tables in the Temple, and maybe other signs – for John says “When he was in Jerusalem during the Passover festival many believed in his name because they saw the signs that he was doing.” Were there healings perhaps? Signs seems a bit broader than two actions.

Certainly enough to get Nicodemus’ attention. Who seeks him out, “at night”, when it was quieter and maybe less open to being observed by others. Some commentators read a spiritual significance into the “dark” but these make me uncomfortable both for anti-semitic implications (of the Jews being in spiritual darkness) and the way tropes of light and dark have fed white supremacy and the lie that people with darker skins are inferior to those who are fairer, a point made by the South Asian Bible commentary on this passage.

A friend of mine who is autistic has pondered whether Nicodemus might be autistic. In that reading, maybe seeking out Jesus by night was about being in a less sensory overwhelming environment – not in a large crowd and only the light of the moon – which was presumably still fairly full as we are at or just after Passover.
Nicodemus’ response to Jesus’ statement about being born again is a literal one – ‘How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?’ which is not what Jesus was talking about. He is talking about spiritual birth. “no-one can enter the kingdom of heaven without being born of water and Spirit” – does the reference to water here point to baptism? Jesus was himself baptised by John at the start of his ministry and it is the way that we are incorporated into the church. There are strands within Christianity which would say no this isn’t about baptism, that is an empty ritual which doesn’t guarantee spiritual birth. But that’s not been my experience of baptism. I was baptised as a baby at 2 months old and have grown up within the family of faith and come to claim that faith for myself. Others I know have been baptised after a conversion experience. Our journeys are different – the wind/spirit blows where she wills – but we encounter the spirit and something happens. For some that may involve signs such as speaking in tongues, but they are not compulsory. Paul writes about this in his first letter to the church at Corinth. He values tongues, but points to a more excellent way, the way of love. And Jesus here shows the cost of love as he points to his being raised up like the serpent in the wilderness so that that the world, the cosmos, is not condemned but saved. Something I talked more about when I preached on this passage on Holy Cross Day in September.

The passage we heard from Paul’s letter to the church in Rome has a similar theme. It’s not what Abraham did that was important but his belief/trust in God.

I struggle at times with Paul’s theology, or maybe with Calvinist readings of Paul which have dominated a lot how we read Paul. As with the language around being born again, there are those who use Paul’s words about faith and works to condemn other expressions of Christianity. To say claim that we’ve got it right and those people over there have got it wrong. But Christianity shouldn’t be about oneupmanship! We aren’t born again to smugness. The spirit blows where she will.

It’s hard to talk about this without ending up implying I’ve got it right and those people over their claiming their right are the ones who are wrong. But I think it’s about humility. It’s not about us, but about what God has done. We can tell others about the way in which Jesus’ death and resurrection has taken the pain and wrongness that we inflicted on the world and broken that cycle of violence.

And yet, we still see the cycle of violence continuing in our world. War is still happening. Christians support Trump who yesterday caused the bombing of a girls school in Iran. And Christians have been involved in horrors such as slavery and boarding schools for indigenous people and mother and baby homes.
So this Lent, what do these passages say to us, in 2026, in uncertain times? How do we build community that includes? That lives in the light of cross and the breaking of the cycle of violence? That says to those who would divide us that God came to save the world, not just Christian? That seeks to understand rather than hate?

In my last posts I described the start and progression of my tadpole adventures. Here's the next instalment.

As soon as the tadpoles started growing legs they changed rapidly. Within days the kinda dopey goldfish behaviour, like nibbling around the surface of the water, disappeared, they became very elusive and shy. Almost like as soon as they started thinking about being predators they realised they were also prey. It was a bit sad, because I really enjoyed watching them, but also necessary for them to become wild frogs. I was glad that I hadn't spoiled them for life on their own.
( Read more... )

Hot Uncrustables News!!! Toaster toasting is good BUT Air frying (with a touch of butter on both sides) is AMAZING!!!!! I mean it. So good.

Now the Jims.

Jim Down the Hall. The birthday party was fine. The cake was a fail. Gail (his girlfriend) is sweet but she is no baker. Turns out the icing was the key and she couldn't get it so she slapped on German Chocolate Cake icing which has coconut which is evil. So I didn't have to eat a bit of icing and only ate the cake part which was good but not the one his daughter made last year.

The hit was the gift his son gave him. It's the coolest. It's a giant book (like 24"x14") of the front page of the Washington Post on his birthday for every one of his 90 years. It's fascinating. And a true genius gift for an old person.

Jim Across the Hall. As I predicted. He threw the Tighty Whities out. Our trash room has two chutes - one for garbage and one for paper recycling. And a milk crate for bottles. He has, for a long time, just dumped whatever he wanted to get rid of into the milk crate - chip bags, half eat hambuger, unfinished salad, whatever. It spills out onto the floor. I told the Health Services direct several times that this presents a hazard for those on our floor. Joan is going to slip on a tomato slice and that will be the end of her. I used to clean it up. Noelle used to clean it up. We all decided not to do that any more. Timber Ridge needs to take responsibility for the problem. Jim is not going to change except get worse. Yesterday afternoon, this is what I found in the milk crate.



I sent the photo to health services and suggested they tell his family that having shit delivered to him is useless as it will get tossed. I suspect it's going to have to get way worse before anyone does anything. I also suspect that his family is not stepping up to the problem but that's pure speculation. I just hope Timber Ridge does not let it go on until someone gets hurt.

Who does not love a good line chart? I sure do. I asked Gemini today if there wasn't some easy, simple website that would take my weight data from Wyze (or Fitbit since Fitbit reads Wyze) and slap it into a website for easy tracking. Gemini game me a list of websites - with no links which drives me nuts. Also the first three were no longer available - including Fitbit's own dashboard. But, down at the bottom was this one labeled as 'simple'. TrendWeight. Some dude set it up for himself but made it pretty damn robust and still very simple. And it has a share URL for you...

When I'm using a new app, I generally pay if pay is an option. I want the ads to go away and I want to support the developer. BUT if it's more than $5, I think about it long and hard and often maybe even delete the app and don't use it at all.

This TrendWeight thing was so clever, I found myself venmoing the dude $10 without blinking an eye even though his page about paying clearly says in a couple of different ways that he does not need or want the money. It's not the money, it's the thank you with teeth.

I had a lovely swim today but I hit a batch of my music that needs to be deleted. I think it's from when I was on a Beats Per Minute kick. I'm off that kick. I'll swap it out today.

In fact, I think I'll do it now.

Could not be more perfect after my last post. Maybe I should do this every week...

1. What made you happy this week?
   Greens winning the by-election for my new MP.

2. What made you sad?
Remembering random things from my childhood that involved my grandparents looking after my brother and I, and being the only person who's still around to remember those things.

3. What made you angry?
The U.S. and Israel making the lives of people in Gaza as well as Iran harder.

4. What are you looking forward to in the next week?
In a way, I'm looking forward to D having a medical thing done next Sunday, even if it'll mean some discomfort and disruption for the next couple months. Because it's been going on for years and could've been sorted ages ago. But now it finally will be.

5. What are you not looking forward to?
Going back to work after a week off that felt more like three days off.

Work/life overall: Usually before a seasonal crunch starts at Dayjob I think to post something to the effect of "I'm about to be swamped, so while I'll probably/hopefully manage to keep up with reading posts, commenting will probably be mostly nonexistent, etc. etc.", and sometimes I feel a bit silly about it because I'm not as active a commenter as I'd like anyway and sometimes the crunch isn't that bad, and probably most people reading this already know that anyway...but I have some newer mutuals here now and I didn't think to post it, and friends, this crunch is CRUNCHY. Ohboy.

---

Media intake: LOL. (Okay, I did actually read a couple volumes of manga last night, and I did show ep. 1 of Heated Rivalry to scruloose last weekend. But I think that's it.)

---

Weather: We did get lots of snow early in the week, but somehow yet again didn't lose power. No complaints!

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Cats: Last week both of the blues had birthdays! Yona turned four on Tuesday and Sinha turned five yesterday. (It would be very convenient to have a pic of the two of them together that'd make a good idea, but the odds of that ever happening are not remotely good. Have an icon of baby!Yona.)

Posted by Lindsey

https://www.cakewrecks.com/home/sunday-sweets-a-black-tie-affair-2026

You are cordially invited to feast your eyes on something a bit more refined today: fabulously formal cakes!

By Laura Stankis of JaCiva's

Please note: black tie required.

King Kong definitely got the memo; check out his tie and tux on this fun art-deco topper:

Ack! So cute. He's even color-coordinated with the cake's monogram:

By Gateaux Inc.

 

But as every Downtown Abbey fan knows, white tie is THE most formal of all evening wear, and to dress accordingly. You know, like this all-white wonder:

By We Bake In Heels

Just look at that painstakingly perfect piping!

 

Can polka-dots be elegant? You bet!

Submitted by Nicole S. & made by Sugar Bakers

It doesn't get more classic than black and white with red roses all over.

 

Hey, remember that time on Downton Abbey when Matthew was forced to wear a black tie to dinner, and everyone acted like he had just shambled in wearing a holey bathrobe and flip flops? Ha! So funny. (Um, this show is better than I'm making it sound, honest.)

By Sharon Wee Creations

Don't worry; I bet no one would ever mistake this beauty for a waiter.
(Mostly because that wouldn't make any sense, but still.)

 

Ok, back to more civil matters. Remember that time on Downton when that thing happened to that person, and everyone was, like, really shocked? (Jen says I'm not allowed to give any more spoilers, but YOU know what I mean.)

Well, I guess we can only hope the person who that thing happened to will come back later. You know, for a...cameo:

By Mina Bakalova

But not as a horse.
I guess we can only dream!

 

And while we're dreaming, imagine the look on Mr. Carson's face if Mrs. Patmore baked this stunning cake and hung it up in the dining room, chandelier-style!

Made by Gateaux for  Betty Crocker

That's right, this cake is actually hanging from the top, like a real chandelier. Or chandeTIER, as I like to say it. Cake joke! (I've never actually said that.)

 

But I do love the hexagon-shaped tiers of this next cake. Aren't the hand-painted doodles dreamy?
File this under 'fabulous!'

Sub'd by Kate K., made by Sweet & Saucy Shop

That's worthy of Lord and Lady Grantham's finest dinner party. I bet even Granny would approve.

 

Sorry. I'm totally done talking about Downton Abbey, I swear. Let's talk about this damask cake:

By Sugarland

Ain't no damasquerading, it's lovely!

 

And here's one last extravagantly fanciful cake to remind you to make the rest of your weekend an occasion. And maybe watch more reruns of Downton Abbey. Again.

Sub'd by Su-Anne & made by Cile Bellefleur Burbidge

WOW.

Also:
"What is a weekend?"
(Couldn't help it!)

Happy Sunday, everyone!

******

P.S. More pretties!

Sterling Silver Tulip Earrings

The purple ones are my favorite, love that color gradient.

*****

And from my other blog, Epbot:

https://www.cakewrecks.com/home/sunday-sweets-a-black-tie-affair-2026

Not me specifically, I don't think, she just wants to offload a rabbit on somebody.

I actually would like a rabbit, but I think I probably have enough pets. Also, my sister would surely lose her mind.

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This week's thefridayfive questions:

1. What made you happy this week?
I managed to do all the things I particularly wanted to get done

2. What made you sad?
Some of the frustrations of grant applications, but nothing significant - I was fortunate that way.

3. What made you angry?
I try not to get angry at things I can't do anything about, but there are some people whose heads I would like to bang together very firmly.

4. What are you looking forward to in the next week?
Going to see New Adventures The Red Shoes at Cardiff on Thursday

5. What are you not looking forward to?
It's a busy week, so managing to do all the things I would like to get done.

This month's allbingo theme is National Crafting Month and this is my card

Spinning Wheel	Carpentry
Sketch Book	Papier-mâche

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!

Posted by Daily Otter

https://dailyotter.org/posts/2026/3/1/i-can-keep-any-of-these-stones

Via Tambako the Jaguar

https://dailyotter.org/posts/2026/3/1/i-can-keep-any-of-these-stones

Public

I've done the subject line in Welsh for the last few years, so I thought I'd do it in English today given the millions of Welsh people who speak that as their everyday language. As those who have been here a while will know, I have fairly strong Welsh heritage on my mother's side – various Davises and Lloyds appear before you go back too many generations – and for this reason, I (unfortunately!) have ended up supporting Wales at rugby union.

I like Wales a lot as a nation. It's a bit of a fool's errand to date a country (what criteria do you use?) but the word "Cymry" ("compatriots", used to describe themselves) comes from the Old Welsh/Brythonic "combrogi" and has been around for maybe 1,400 years. It didn't only apply to what we now call Wales, as that as a distinct political entity was still centuries away, but Celtic Brittonic peoples in modern northern England and southern Scotland too. Indeed, the county name "Cumbria" comes from the same root.

The Senedd (Welsh Parliament) elections take place this spring, and one of the challenges will be uniting the west and the east. I'm more familiar with the border regions, which often feel like Shropshire bar the bilingual road signs and have very strong links with the English Marches, but where the people definitely consider themselves Welsh: pubs don't show England matches even in Knighton, a town right on the border. People who live in Knighton do not always appreciate being dismissed as "Anglos" (one of those theoretically neutral terms that isn't always received that way) by those from Cardiff or Caernarfon.

The Welsh language is important to Welsh identity, and I always like to see and hear it being used. I hope it continues its recent resurgence. Welsh is a very old language, not as old as Basque or Greek but recognisable as a distinct language before English really was. But in a place like Knighton, it's little more relevant to everyday life outside specifically cultural contexts and certain jobs that require it than Irish is in Dublin. Knighton feels familiar to me in a way that Caernarfon doesn't. But it's still, as those pubs prove, very much Welsh.

Now, if the rugby team could learn to beat anyone at all, I would be a happier man, but that seems to be asking too much even for this proud small nation! Happy St David's Day.