In the midst of this sea and on the edge of this desert.

 What did you just finish?
Tevye the Dairyman, Sholem Aleykhem
This was my pick for my book club's old age theme. Most of the group felt it fit the theme well enough considering it goes on until Tevye's quite old. I loved the narrative chat, even though I did feel like answering back, "yes Tevye I am well aware you are not a woman! God Forbid!" I sympathised a lot with Golde! They style was just so clever and involving though and basically made me sympathetic with everyone. There were quite a lot of times when I was singing the sentences in the head because I'm far too well acquainted with the musical which mostly quoted exactly from the book. And why wouldn't you! It's all gold dust! Considering I had goldfish called Topol (i was confused!) and Golde when I was very young I'm surprised it took me so long to read the book but it was a really evocative and touching read. 

What are you currently reading?
Haha Cryptonomicon, Neal Stephenson - now and forevermore apparently. I read for 30 minutes on the tube and I am lucking if I progress by even 1%. I am loving it so much though and I'm really excited that Shaftoe and Waterhouse just met. Also, "manual override" is the best way to refer to masturbation, for sure!
Also today I realised I am much further through A Feast For Crows, GRR Martin, than I remembered. it's been hiding under my bed for a while now. But I'm 690 pages in, the end is in sight! If only I could remember what happened up till now. I'm going to google some summaries or something because the next chapter opens on someone called Alayne and I have no clue who that is. 
I've also started with Code Named Verity, Elizabeth Wein, but I have to stay I'm struggling with the chatty style for the subject matter. Or perhaps I'm just struggling with the subject matter? Torture isn't my favourite thing to read about after work. But flying is! I am torn. 

What will you read next? 
I've seen Courtney Milan's The Heiress Effect recced in a lot of places lately so I have that at the ready. Also perhaps Elizabeth Bear's Blood and Iron. 

I'm just three episodes away from the end of Friday Night Lights. I really, really, don't want it to end.
These last two seasons its felt like there has been so much story to tell and not nearly enough time to do it all justice. The whole ensemble is so strong and so compelling. I'm watching all the deleted scenes too, trying not to miss anything.

If anyone ever read or wrote any Dallas Tinker fic, especially any Tinker/Luke Cafferty fic, I need to know about it!!! Surely somewhere there is a story capitalising on the moment Luke shows Tinker how to "love tap" his pig. This show!! 

And Matt Saracen's smexy college look! Guh! 

Why do I love Buddy Garrity so much now? 

I'm planning to go back and watch the first episode again when I'm through, just to get a sense of how it all began again. Although that first episode was pretty traumatic, but still. I don't want it to end! 

Ohhhhhhh my purimgifts story. Its left me a sobbing mess but it's so beautifully done! I wanted a Prim story from the Hunger Games and boy did I get what I asked for. I mean, I should be careful what I wish for, because this mystery author clearly wants to crush my heart in her/his hands. I'm longing for more! It's here: For The Kids Back Home (part 1)

<333333

The Bletchley Circle - Jean wasn't always a librarian you know! That ex-SOE and Bletchley lady has SO much backstory yet to be explored, and so much personal life hardly even hinted at. I love to think of her as gay, and possibly with cats and lots of caustic wit but feel free to go your own way and show me your Jean. Or any combination of the other girls! Millie/Susan, Millie/Lucy, Jean/Millie (Millie just has all the chemistry I guess, lol)

Bomb Girls - Vera is my Queen but I love all the girls. I love me some Betty/Gladys friends or fighting or loving, I love Sheila Corbett and would treasure fic about her, about her work, her relationships, her parents - particularly her mum of course. I'd love a Lorna story. Or some snippets about all the girls, perhaps post-war reconnecting? I would a love Carol story too, particularly with her relationship with Vera and all the girls getting resolved in some (kinky) way.

Bitterblue - Kristin Cashore - I just read this book and found it so interesting. I'd love more about Bitterblue working with the Council deposing all these other monarchs and thinking about her position as a ruler. I'd love a bit more about her and her sister Hava. I'd love a story about Bren and Tilda (and Teddy and a baby).

Some Girls - I love all the girls in this show but Saz is my ultimate girl. I love her anger and her pride and her mix of getting it so wrong and getting it so right. Her relationship with Viva is so interesting because she's the closest one to Saz on an intellectual level which means they have a lot of humour and understanding between them but their inner worlds are so different in terms of confidence, imagination and ambition.

Teen Wolf - I put down Talia Hale, Laura Hale and Claudia Stilinski just because any backstory on these three would make me wildly happy.

Vorkosigan Saga - Cordelia Naismith Vorkosigan, Alys Vorpatril, Kareen Vorbarra, Olivia Koudelka, Ludmilla "Drou" Droushnakovi, Sergeant Taura, Aral Vorkosigan's First Wife, Helen Vorthys - So many interesting characters from this series got nominated so I picked all the ones I was most intrigued to hear more about. I love Barrayar based stories but it would also be nice to get a sense of some of these barrayar ladies out in the wider universe. I love fish out of water stories, or perhaps, they're not fish out of water, perhaps they prefer life beyond Barrayar. I love the way Cordelia tries to change things on Barrayar but how much it frustrates her. Also the influence she has on many of the other women. I would love some Alys POV or Helen Vorthys POV. I would love an Olivia Kouldelka POV story. Feel free to go to town on pairings and ratings.

 
Thank you Purim Gifts author for offering to write one (or more!) of these fantastic fandoms! You have great taste, and also rock. I'm really easy to please so do not worry and just go with writing what you love! 

 Two bingos I've signed up for! <3 

Day 7
In your own space, create a fanwork. A drabble, a ficlet, a podfic, or an icon, art or meta or a rec list. A picspam. Something.

I'm about 100 pages from the end of A Place of Greater Safety. So here, have some hastily assembled Camille Desmoulins icons. USEFUL, I KNOW. 

  

Obviously people besides me arted Camille's portraits not knowing that one day computers would exist to help me ruin their work. 
(1. Fanny Boze, 2. errr ???, 3. Jacques-Louis David)

ETA: "The artist Boze is constantly giving him hard looks, and occasionally walks over to him and with unfeeling artist hands pulls his hair about. In his worse moods he thinks - get ready to be immortalized." (A Place of Greater Safety, Hilary Mantel, p 768)

In your own space, post a rec for at least three fanworks that you did not create... See if you can rec fanworks that are less likely to be praised: tiny fandoms, rare pairings, fanworks other than stories, lesser-known kinks or tropes. Find fanworks that have few to no comments, or creators new to a particular fandom who maybe aren't well known or appreciated. Appreciate them.

FANMIXES! I have listened to some fantastic mixes this year that have either buoyed me up or torn my heart in two.

colin_chaotic made A Journey of Fifty Thousand Words - a mix for nanowrimo (!) that was superduper cool and tracked the stages of that particular writing journey really well. I love how you can feel the ups and downs, the desperation and exhilaration all the way through it. 

somehowunbroken made Spark - a Hunger Games, Peeta/Katniss mix that really gets under the skin of how unsure they are of each other and how much they have the power to hurt each other even as they cling together. It's excellent. 

Savage Antinous is pure paincake of the Enjolras/Grantaire variety. Stabby and beautiful by The-Cynic on 8-tracks. 

hbics just posted my waywardmixes holiday exchange present, Live Like You Choose To which was Bomb Girls women inspired by Marge Piercy's The Low Road. It is exactly what you would want for a meeting of this show and this poem, about the women banding together and relying on each other and finding their voices. Her song choices are perfect. 

The same mixer has also done two really excellent Bible/Jesus Christ Superstar mixes that examine the relationships so well; the first, Stoic Minds and Bleeding Hearts is Jesus/Judas/Mary and is really well configured to the dynamics of that particular OT3; the second, Mary Go Round, is about Mary Magdalene and Mary, Jesus's mother becoming each other's surrogate family after the deaths of Jesus and Judas. Both of these are really interesting and really fantastic. 

And finally, mementis made a totally lovely and fun Due South, Ray K/Fraser mix, Time Make Us Wise last year that just makes me want to rest my chin on my hands and blink 2D hearts out of my eyes.

Go forth and listen! 

For klingonlady,

Subject: Sea Voyages
Title: Sea Fever
Notes: For the waywardmixes holiday exchange, for klingonlady who wished for "sea voyages". Sorry I couldn't do a mix for either of your pairings, but you'll see I did use a song from the mix that you made for NCIS, Are You in Love with Your Partner?, which I love so much. <333 Happy Holidays, Klingonlady!
I based the mix around the poem, Sea Fever, by John Masefield. Although on the cover I've quoted part of H.D.'s poem, Sea Heroes, which is also lovely. The art on the covers is by Janette Kerr.