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VITAL STATS
Age: about five weeks away from 49, as of the time of this entry
Location: just outside Boston, Massachusetts
Fannish interests: Doctor Who, Doctor Who, and also, Doctor Who. (Okay, there's other stuff, too, like Star Trek: Discovery. But mostly, it's Doctor Who around here.) I am a fic writer and the chief mod of A Teaspoon And An Open Mind, the largest Doctor Who-specific fandom archive out there. (My fic is also available on AO3, where you'll find non-DW fic as well.)
Profession: I'm a UX designer. I am also a published author in my field. Special areas of interest include usability/user research, accessibility, and applying visual design appropriately to enhance usability. If you know anything about UX, I fall more on the technical side of the design/tech line and have done front-end development, but I am by no means a visual design n00b.
Most of my journal is locked. This is because my locked entries may discuss my work and/or my real name, so those entries are limited to people I know in person and/or have interacted with online for a long time. But I do occasionally post cooking, fic, and other entries publicly.
Anyway, hi there. Hope you like Dreamwidth!
Title: Once More, This Time to the Left
Fandom: Star Trek: Discovery
Characters/Pairing(s): Katrina Cornwell, Carl the Guardian of Forever, Michael Burnham
Rating: All ages
Word count: 500
Spoilers: None
Summary: You made your choice, Kat thought, and her body burst into starlight. Five connected drabbles about what happens to Kat after the torpedo explodes.
Author's notes: Covers prompts for “You made your choice,” “Seated together at a bar,” and “Where is Katrina Cornwell right now?” Many thanks to![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
lizbee, who both beta’d this story and inspired it with a question I wondered about when I beta’d her Katoberfest2024 story even though it turns out I already knew the answer because I'd beta'd previous stories of hers. All I can say in my defense is that it's been a long goddamned year.
::xposted to AO3 and Ad Astra
( fic, after the cut )
Fandom: Star Trek: Discovery
Characters/Pairing(s): Katrina Cornwell, Carl the Guardian of Forever, Michael Burnham
Rating: All ages
Word count: 500
Spoilers: None
Summary: You made your choice, Kat thought, and her body burst into starlight. Five connected drabbles about what happens to Kat after the torpedo explodes.
Author's notes: Covers prompts for “You made your choice,” “Seated together at a bar,” and “Where is Katrina Cornwell right now?” Many thanks to
lizbee, who both beta’d this story and inspired it with a question I wondered about when I beta’d her Katoberfest2024 story even though it turns out I already knew the answer because I'd beta'd previous stories of hers. All I can say in my defense is that it's been a long goddamned year.::xposted to AO3 and Ad Astra
( fic, after the cut )
2024 Hugo Best Novel nominees
Jun. 27th, 2024 06:22 pmAm I gonna have time to read everything in all the main literature categories before voting begins? Very definitely not! But I did get through 5.1 of the novel nominees and have a few opinions. ( after the cut )
Fic: Anonyparty (1/1, Adult)
Sep. 18th, 2023 12:15 pmTitle: Anonyparty
Fandom: Star Trek: Discovery, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds
Characters/Pairing(s): Katrina Cornwell/Original Universe Gabriel Lorca, Katrina Cornwell/Montgomery "Scotty" Scott, Pelia
Rating: Adult
Word count: 3,477
Spoilers: None
Summary: The invitation arrived in Kat’s Starbase 16 quarters wrapped around the napkin accompanying her replicated cumin lamb and noodles. ANONYPARTY 37. Storage bay Gamma-12 at 2100. No uniforms. No ranks. No shop talk. No regrets.
Author's notes: Look, sometimes you're having a nice Discord chat with a friend about whether Katrina Cornwell needs a boytoy and whether that boytoy would be Montgomery Scott and next thing you know, this happened. Many thanks tolizbee for the beta and the prompt "shore leave, no one is in uniform, conversations about jobs and ranks don't come until AFTER and then everyone is a sensible adult."
::xposted to AO3 and Ad Astra
( fic, after the cut )
Fandom: Star Trek: Discovery, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds
Characters/Pairing(s): Katrina Cornwell/Original Universe Gabriel Lorca, Katrina Cornwell/Montgomery "Scotty" Scott, Pelia
Rating: Adult
Word count: 3,477
Spoilers: None
Summary: The invitation arrived in Kat’s Starbase 16 quarters wrapped around the napkin accompanying her replicated cumin lamb and noodles. ANONYPARTY 37. Storage bay Gamma-12 at 2100. No uniforms. No ranks. No shop talk. No regrets.
Author's notes: Look, sometimes you're having a nice Discord chat with a friend about whether Katrina Cornwell needs a boytoy and whether that boytoy would be Montgomery Scott and next thing you know, this happened. Many thanks to
lizbee for the beta and the prompt "shore leave, no one is in uniform, conversations about jobs and ranks don't come until AFTER and then everyone is a sensible adult."::xposted to AO3 and Ad Astra
( fic, after the cut )
Fic: BETTINA (1/1, all ages)
Sep. 5th, 2023 02:17 pmTitle: BETTINA
Characters/Pairing(s): Fourth Doctor
Rating: All ages
Word count: 6,397
Spoilers: None
Summary: The Fourth Doctor must protect a scientist and her invention from the people who want to exploit it. Entry for Big Finish's 2023 Paul Spragg Memorial Short Trip Opportunity.
Author's Notes: Obviously, I didn't win this year's Big Finish story competition – but I still love this story a lot. Many thanks to Platypus for beta work.
The engine technology described in this story is real, but not ready for commercialization yet.
::xposted to![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
dwfiction, and archived at A Teaspoon And An Open Mind and AO3
( fic, after the cut )
Characters/Pairing(s): Fourth Doctor
Rating: All ages
Word count: 6,397
Spoilers: None
Summary: The Fourth Doctor must protect a scientist and her invention from the people who want to exploit it. Entry for Big Finish's 2023 Paul Spragg Memorial Short Trip Opportunity.
Author's Notes: Obviously, I didn't win this year's Big Finish story competition – but I still love this story a lot. Many thanks to Platypus for beta work.
The engine technology described in this story is real, but not ready for commercialization yet.
::xposted to
dwfiction, and archived at A Teaspoon And An Open Mind and AO3( fic, after the cut )
Thanksgiving 2022
Nov. 25th, 2022 10:45 amHonestly, I feel like yesterday's meal was one of my best, which is good, because we've got enough leftovers for several days even after the guests took stuff home. ( a log for myself as much as anything else )
(no subject)
Oct. 29th, 2022 07:05 pmI don't post much publicly, primarily because a lot of what I post has to do with my work/clients, and that's not a thing I discuss where Google can find it. But there's nothing in this post that can't be posted where search engines can find it, so:
- I would like to be writing something. What, I'm not sure, but I am going to get something posted to Teaspoon or AO3 before the end of the year, dammit.
- Cooking! There's lots of that right now! Currently on the stove: waaaaay too much posole verde made with the St. Louis ribs we got from the fancypants butcher that someone to whom I'm married disappointingly refuses to eat as ribs, but will eat if stewed, so anyway, ribs + all the remaining green tomatoes from the garden + non-Goya hominy = posole verde.
- Also on the cooking front: Melissa Clark's gâteau Breton with fresh plums and cardamom from her book Dinner in French, because the CSA gave us fresh damson plums this week, and why the hell not? I'm not convinced this is going to turn out well – there was definitely some butter leakage from the springform pan (glad I put it on a foil-covered baking sheet!), and the recipe took a solid 30 minutes more than Clark specified. But I feel like with these ingredients, it's hard to go wrong, so we'll see.
- I don't normally turn over the garden on October 29, but I'm putting winter rye in for the first time as a nutrient-rich cover crop. Good for my garden, bad for my lower back, lol, but:
- Cortisone shot time on Tuesday for the lower back. This is my fourth one, but because these are related to disc issues and not joint ones, my spine guy has said I can have them for quite a while longer.
- Still, it would be nice to not have to have them at all.
- Or to be "I have a spine guy" years old.
- Anyway, still here, still on Twitter at @nonelvispub if you want to follow the public account, still planning on making that shithead's life hell in whatever small way I can now that he's bought Twitter.
Rara Avis (1/1, Teen, Gritty/Murph)
Jun. 17th, 2022 09:55 pmDid I mean to write Gritty/Murph-the-terrifying-new-NERF-mascot fic? No. Did I wonder if it existed, discover it didn't, and thereby set my brain off on a YOU MUST WRITE THIS spiral? Uh. Well.
Rara Avis, on AO3.
Rara Avis, on AO3.
(no subject)
May. 8th, 2022 09:05 amGOOD MORNING, WE HAVE A NEW DOCTOR
(I am pumped about this even if I realized I am also officially old enough to be the Doctor's mum.)
Anyway, just the other day I was wondering what new series I should pick up in my spare time, and I guess the answer is Sex Education on Netflix, since I've never seen Gatwa in anything.
WOOOOOOOO EXCITEMENT
(I am pumped about this even if I realized I am also officially old enough to be the Doctor's mum.)
Anyway, just the other day I was wondering what new series I should pick up in my spare time, and I guess the answer is Sex Education on Netflix, since I've never seen Gatwa in anything.
WOOOOOOOO EXCITEMENT
Fic: A Scattering of Stars (1/1, Adult)
Apr. 1st, 2022 10:39 amTitle: A Scattering of Stars
Characters/Pairing(s): Thirteenth Doctor/Dhawan!Master
Rating: Adult
Word count: 3,553
Spoilers: through Flux
Summary: After the Flux had chewed its way through the universe, after the Doctor had let her friends off for a brief stop to comfort their families, after she’d found herself flat on her back in the console room pointedly trying not to listen for her previous voices whispering to her from somewhere deep and unknown within her ship, she’d heard an entirely different voice calling to her and had known she had to follow it.
Author's Notes: Many thanks to my betaplatypus, who found all the rookie mistakes a writer makes when cranking up the fic skills after a year off.
::xposted todwfiction and ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
dwfiction, and archived at A Teaspoon And An Open Mind and AO3
( fic, after the cut )
Characters/Pairing(s): Thirteenth Doctor/Dhawan!Master
Rating: Adult
Word count: 3,553
Spoilers: through Flux
Summary: After the Flux had chewed its way through the universe, after the Doctor had let her friends off for a brief stop to comfort their families, after she’d found herself flat on her back in the console room pointedly trying not to listen for her previous voices whispering to her from somewhere deep and unknown within her ship, she’d heard an entirely different voice calling to her and had known she had to follow it.
Author's Notes: Many thanks to my beta
platypus, who found all the rookie mistakes a writer makes when cranking up the fic skills after a year off.::xposted to
dwfiction and dwfiction, and archived at A Teaspoon And An Open Mind and AO3( fic, after the cut )
... the Star Rats, that is.
In case you can't wait an entire month for Mystery Hunt, we on Team Palindrome now have an optional prologue available for your enjoyment at starrats.org.
In case you can't wait an entire month for Mystery Hunt, we on Team Palindrome now have an optional prologue available for your enjoyment at starrats.org.
What I haven't been doing this year: writing fic, doing the analysis I wanted to do for a Gally academic talk submission, drafting a proposal for a chapter in a nonfiction book about DW fandom.
What I've been doing instead: planning the MIT Mystery Hunt.
Registration is now open. If you like complicated puzzles, the Hunt is for you! Feel free to ask me questions about it here, though note that I will probably not be making any public posts about Hunt puzzles I wrote, because they have my real name on them, and this account does not 😅
What I've been doing instead: planning the MIT Mystery Hunt.
Registration is now open. If you like complicated puzzles, the Hunt is for you! Feel free to ask me questions about it here, though note that I will probably not be making any public posts about Hunt puzzles I wrote, because they have my real name on them, and this account does not 😅
Thanksgiving 2021
Nov. 27th, 2021 05:10 pmLogging this here for my own memory as much as anything else:
That was more than enough food for six, but my god, how good it felt to be able to have a proper Thanksgiving meal again. Also, the lightly smoked turkey is going to make one hell of a gumbo tomorrow night, but that's![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
columbina's responsibility. (If you'd like to cook along, here's the spouse's recipe writeup.)
- Cherry tomatoes stuffed with guacamole – do not do this again unless the tomatoes are much bigger, my god, what a pain in the butt no matter how good they were
- Cheese pennies, of which I have now made two batches in about as many days, 'nuf said
- Grilled turkey & gravy, bird butterflied, of course; a 12lb. bird on a grill in 50° weather took a bit more than 2 hours
- Vegetarian main: tater tot casserole, with many sautéed mushrooms instead of sausage
- Cranberry-tangerine conserve
- Cornbread dressing
- Roasted brussels sprouts with vegetarian fish sauce vinaigrette, all hail Bragg's Liquid Aminos
- GF biscuits
- Homemade pistachio-honey ice cream
- Mendiants with candied orange peel and walnuts, and hooray, I have enough chocolate and orange peel to do another batch
- GF cheesecake brought by my friend J
That was more than enough food for six, but my god, how good it felt to be able to have a proper Thanksgiving meal again. Also, the lightly smoked turkey is going to make one hell of a gumbo tomorrow night, but that's
columbina's responsibility. (If you'd like to cook along, here's the spouse's recipe writeup.)2021 Hugo nominees: Best Novelette
Sep. 3rd, 2021 09:22 pmNot quite as good a category as Novella, but still pretty consistently good: ( reviews and rankings, after the cut )
2021 Hugo nominees: Best Novella
Aug. 27th, 2021 06:53 pmAgain, no surprises if you follow me on Goodreads: ( some very brief reviews, and the ranking )
2021 Hugo nominees: Best Novel
Aug. 16th, 2021 09:15 pmIt's that time again! Or rather, it's past the usual time, but Worldcon was delayed for Obvious Reasons, so Hugo voting isn't until this fall. Which is good, because between work and Mystery Hunt planning, I haven't had a ton of brain for recreational reading.
Anyway, my thoughts on this year's nominees (with no surprises if you follow me on Goodreads): ( after the cut )
Anyway, my thoughts on this year's nominees (with no surprises if you follow me on Goodreads): ( after the cut )
Fic: The Destination (1/1, Teen)
May. 18th, 2021 02:11 pmTitle: The Destination
Characters/Pairing(s): Tenth Doctor/the TARDIS
Rating: Teen
Word count: 2,161
Spoilers: none
Summary: His ship took him nowhere without a reason. And that reason was ... fake marriage. Or maybe even the real thing.
Author's Notes: Happy birthday,nostalgia!
::xposted todwfiction and dwfiction, and archived at A Teaspoon And An Open Mind and AO3
( fic, after the cut )
Characters/Pairing(s): Tenth Doctor/the TARDIS
Rating: Teen
Word count: 2,161
Spoilers: none
Summary: His ship took him nowhere without a reason. And that reason was ... fake marriage. Or maybe even the real thing.
Author's Notes: Happy birthday,
nostalgia!::xposted to
dwfiction and dwfiction, and archived at A Teaspoon And An Open Mind and AO3( fic, after the cut )
2020 fic meme
Dec. 31st, 2020 12:18 pmI didn't do this meme last year, because I wrote one (1) fic in 2019, uggggh. But this year I have seven! It's a 2020 miracle!
( the year in fic, after the cut )
( the year in fic, after the cut )
The Sixteenth Move (1/1, Adult)
Dec. 30th, 2020 02:07 pmTitle: The Sixteenth Move
Characters/Pairing(s): River Song/Dhawan!Master
Rating: Adult
Word count: 2,544
Spoilers: none
Contains: pegging
Summary: "I assure you," River said, draping herself over the Master's back so she could nip at his earlobe, "the Doctor isn't involved in this in any way. And he definitely doesn't know I'm here, or he'd probably be here, too, trying to stop me from doing something he'd call 'foolish and dangerous.' Spoilsport."
Author's Notes: I wanted to write one more fic this year, and looks like there's no River/Dhawan!Master. Shame on you, fandom! Fortunately, this is a fixable problem.
::xposted todwfiction and dwfiction, and archived at A Teaspoon And An Open Mind and AO3
( fic, after the cut )
Characters/Pairing(s): River Song/Dhawan!Master
Rating: Adult
Word count: 2,544
Spoilers: none
Contains: pegging
Summary: "I assure you," River said, draping herself over the Master's back so she could nip at his earlobe, "the Doctor isn't involved in this in any way. And he definitely doesn't know I'm here, or he'd probably be here, too, trying to stop me from doing something he'd call 'foolish and dangerous.' Spoilsport."
Author's Notes: I wanted to write one more fic this year, and looks like there's no River/Dhawan!Master. Shame on you, fandom! Fortunately, this is a fixable problem.
::xposted to
dwfiction and dwfiction, and archived at A Teaspoon And An Open Mind and AO3( fic, after the cut )
Thanksgiving 2020
Nov. 27th, 2020 01:58 pmWe normally have three friends over to share dinner with us. This year, of course, that didn't happen, which was pretty depressing, but also didn't stop me from cooking enough food for five people. (Actually, that's not entirely true: there was enough capon for five, even though only three of us are meat-eaters; leftovers have been split into chicken salad and Sunday's gumbo.)
Anyway, the menu, just for my own records, if nothing else:
The sprouts and vinaigrette in particular are a real keeper of a recipe. We have some of both left over, so I think I'm going to roast some carrot chunks and toss them in on the grounds that pretty much anything will taste good with the vinaigrette.
Anyway, I hope you all had a good holiday, or at least as good of one as it's possible to have in this benighted year. May we all have a better one next year.
Anyway, the menu, just for my own records, if nothing else:
- Just enough chopped liver on buttered toast for two, since our picky cats won't eat giblets, WTF
- Capon roasted with the gochujang glaze from this recipe
- Mashed potatoes with caramelized onions (and two bags of caramelized onions frozen for future deliciousness, go me)
- Roasted brussels sprouts with cotija and this roasted jalapeño vinaigrette (some minor mods here, like all orange juice so I didn't have to slice up a lime for such a small amount of juice; parsley instead of cilantro to accommodate my spouse's defective cilantro gene; and a touch of simple syrup instead of agave nectar)
- The usual cranberry-tangerine conserve
- Pecan pie
The sprouts and vinaigrette in particular are a real keeper of a recipe. We have some of both left over, so I think I'm going to roast some carrot chunks and toss them in on the grounds that pretty much anything will taste good with the vinaigrette.
Anyway, I hope you all had a good holiday, or at least as good of one as it's possible to have in this benighted year. May we all have a better one next year.
IDK why I'm bothering to write down anything that vaguely approximates a recipe here, because of course I didn't measure a goddamned thing while I was working on these other than the crust elements. But anyway, if you too would like SHEER DELICIOUSNESS, I recommend these very highly:
( something almost but not entirely like a recipe, after the cut )
( something almost but not entirely like a recipe, after the cut )
