spiralsheep: Sheep wearing an eyepatch (Default)
[personal profile] spiralsheep
Science! Always read the notes. Scientists hide all the funny stuff in the notes. From page 40 of 67 pages of notes, bottom of a long note 27 for chapter 8:
"In 1849, through exchange, Higgins gave the Yorkshire Museum 'fossil fishes from Lyme Regis'. Annual Report of the Council of the Yorkshire Philosophical Society for 1849, 20 (as well as donating a 'Turnip presenting a singular monstrosity of form' to the botany collections)."
Monstrous turnip! :D

Reading: on book 21. If anyone wants me to post a monthly list of my 4/5 and 5/5 books then please apply in writing to the management &c.

Friday Five:
Q1-4. )

5. What does it take to make you happy?
The chain of tiny everyday pleasures: cozy bed, daylight, hot drinks that are absolutely perfect in their moment, truly soft comfy old clothes, whatever the plants are doing this week (e.g. mistletoe spheres high in bare branches), my birb neighbours (get out of my chimney you jackdaw b@$t@rd5! Note to self - get capping pot replaced), my human neighbours acknowledging each other but not intruding when in our shared spaces, the bus queue chats, &c.
Ecstatic joy is a wonderful bonus but I don't need it.
yhlee: Alto clef and whole note (middle C). (Default)
[personal profile] yhlee
Wanted y’all to hear it from me: CROWNWORLD (book 3 of the Moonstorm trilogy) is canceled. I will not be completing the book (the trilogy). I’m very sorry to readers who were hoping for the conclusion.

This was a mutually agreed, amicable decision between the primary/US publisher (Delacorte), the UK publisher (Rebellion Publishing - Solaris Books), and myself.

Between sales and publishing realities (MOONSTORM sold poorly and its prospects are unlikely to improve for political reasons you can guess), this was a rare situation where this benefits both publishers and myself. I could not announce the cancellation earlier for legal/contract reasons, and can't "simply" release the partial draft of CROWNWORLD for same.

I didn’t plan on MOONSTORM being a market failure. But novel-writing is a career with baked-in instability and career risk. I knew that going in.

Abbreviated version of what happened on my end:
I have 66,000 words of a near-finished draft that I don’t plan on resuming. The breaking point was when I had a concussion in March 2025.

You might ask why I don’t “just” yeet the last 10,000 words to have a book for release to readers even if the print publishers are no longer interested in publishing it. After illness and family crises, I’m exhausted. More than one person close to me nearly died; I set writing aside for months to do caretaking. I have peripheral neuropathy (among other things); my hands and feet might recover, or they might get worse and curtail my ability to do the things that bring me joy.

Both my publishers extended incredible grace and kindness to me during this period. This is not on them. The trilogy existence failure is on me.

I’m moving on. I’ve spent the past several years writing ~three books every two years (or 1.5 books per year - releases won't line up because of production/publishing variables). This probably sounds slow/leisurely but was not sustainable with my health as unstable as it is. There would have been a breaking point down the line even if it hadn’t happened with this specific book. I'm going to spend some time on endeavors just for the joy of it.

I hope y’all have many books you’re looking forward to reading, by other writers.

Note: I’m not in financial distress at present. Please don’t worry on that account.

Best,
YHL
mark: A photo of Mark kneeling on top of the Taal Volcano in the Philippines. It was a long hike. (Default)
[staff profile] mark posting in [site community profile] dw_maintenance

Hi all!

I'm doing some minor operational work tonight. It should be transparent, but there's always a chance that something goes wrong. The main thing I'm touching is testing a replacement for Apache2 (our web server software) in one area of the site.

Thank you!

emotional support spinning

Jan. 29th, 2026 01:15 pm
yhlee: Alto clef and whole note (middle C). (Default)
[personal profile] yhlee
handspun silk yarn, fountain pen for scale

Silk handspun destined for [personal profile] ilyena_sylph!

There's a lot of need for emotional support right now. :]

Back to book edits (CODE AND CODEX).

In which there is Prototaxites <3

Jan. 24th, 2026 12:01 pm
spiralsheep: Sheep wearing an eyepatch (Default)
[personal profile] spiralsheep
I might have mentioned my favourite palaeontological mystery a few times so here's a link to a significant new paper on the subject, based on samples from the Rhynie Chert in Scotland:

[Science Advances] 'Prototaxites fossils are structurally and chemically distinct from extinct and extant Fungi.'

And, more relevant to most people reading this post, here's a link to Joe Botting, half of my favourite team nerd* @ Life Through Time, with an explainer vid:

[youtube] 'Life, but not as we know it... the Prototaxites mystery deepens again!'

Enjoy!

P.S. TUUUBES!!1!! ;-)

* Lucy Muir being the other not-appearing-in-this-film half. :-)

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Reileen van Kaile

April 2010

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