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FIC: From the inner garden to the Chara's quarters (Tempestuous Tours)
May. 21st, 2026 05:33 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
duskpetersonReturning through the door to the previous corridor, we now reach the point where the corridor is met by another corridor running toward the south. This corridor is actually an extension of the corridor to the north that leads to the council chamber; however, it is broken by the court.
Following it south, you will first pass, on your left, the [chapel]. This is a chamber intended for use by anyone, residents or visitors, who seeks a place of quiet contemplation or prayer. Like the royal chapel in Koretia, it is filled with foreign aids to prayer, but most often it used for public recitations of law passages by devotees of the Chara and his law. At other times, palace residents may be found here during their breaks from work, quietly reading law books.
Further along, on the left, is the treasury. As you might imagine, this chamber is well guarded, though much of the Chara's wealth is spread across the empire, often in the form of land. The royal treasurer plays an important role in the Emorian government, authorizing payments for the Chara's many projects. He does not take well to attempted bribes.
Further down, again on your left, is the chamber of the Chara's clerk. Behind this unassuming door is one of the largest sets of rooms in the palace, where dozens of scribes prepare the documents that track the workings of Emor's vast bureaucracy. Behind the scribal rooms is a corridor to the Chara's documents room, followed by the actual chamber of the Chara's clerk. If you are tempted to break into either room to steal a document, you might wish to keep in mind that nearly all of the scribes are boys. You may be able to creep past dozens of prankish boys without being detected; I have never managed this.
[Translator's note: Just why a chapel exists in the notoriously nontheistic land of Emor is explained in Law-Lover. To visit the chamber of the Chara's clerk, read Breached Boundaries. To visit the documents room, read Empty Dagger Hand.]
Purrcy posting is back! and a question about glucose testing
May. 20th, 2026 12:05 pmmecurtinI haven't posted in more than 2 months because my sciatica pain got to be this constant low-level pain that drained my life force. I started doing PT, it got WORSE. Finally last week the ortho gave me a shot that *helped*, I feel MUCH better, I'm going to try to get back to Purrcy posting.
Behold the morning trap! so loving, so fluffy, so dangerous:
Those of you who do daily home glucose testing, how do you dispose of your sharps? Dirk & Beth now have to do this, I'm setting up testing stations for them.
I have book posting, too, but that's getting so long I'll make it a separate post.
Behold the morning trap! so loving, so fluffy, so dangerous:
Those of you who do daily home glucose testing, how do you dispose of your sharps? Dirk & Beth now have to do this, I'm setting up testing stations for them.
I have book posting, too, but that's getting so long I'll make it a separate post.
(no subject)
May. 16th, 2026 12:30 pmbeatrice_otterDoes anyone work on the Open Doors project at AO3? Or know someone who does? I am trying to do something similar on Ad Astra, and need some advice from someone who knows the OTW archive software better.
Specifically, there are a couple of people who had accounts and fic on the old Ad Astra archive who are now dead, and we would like to make sure that their works are preserved by transferring them to the new archive. We would like them all to have the same format that unclaimed works imported by Open Doors have on AO3--"by name [archived by archivist]". We have successfully achieved that with shorter works, but I'm trying to import a fic with 363 chapters and half a million words. It cannot be imported; the archive times out. I thought that if I imported the first chapter and then uploaded the rest of the chapters manually, it would work, but trying to import only the first chapter timed out the archive as well. Then I thought about importing another work that would import, changing the title and chapter text to the one I wanted, and then manually adding further chapters. But it's listing it as just "Archivists" in the author space, without the name of the original author.
Help!
ETA: figured it out myself!
Specifically, there are a couple of people who had accounts and fic on the old Ad Astra archive who are now dead, and we would like to make sure that their works are preserved by transferring them to the new archive. We would like them all to have the same format that unclaimed works imported by Open Doors have on AO3--"by name [archived by archivist]". We have successfully achieved that with shorter works, but I'm trying to import a fic with 363 chapters and half a million words. It cannot be imported; the archive times out. I thought that if I imported the first chapter and then uploaded the rest of the chapters manually, it would work, but trying to import only the first chapter timed out the archive as well. Then I thought about importing another work that would import, changing the title and chapter text to the one I wanted, and then manually adding further chapters. But it's listing it as just "Archivists" in the author space, without the name of the original author.
Help!
ETA: figured it out myself!
Never mind, I figured it out myself!
The issue is that when you are uploading a fic for someone else, you are required to put their email in the box so they are contactable. This person is dead and I have no idea what their email address was when they were alive, so I put in the archivists' email. So the system decided that it was just by Archivists despite having the name of someone else and having the box checked that it was someone else's fic that archivists was posting.
I made up an email to put in instead, and it posted as "by name [archived by archivist]" just as it should.
Southern Stars and Western Skies
May. 16th, 2026 09:52 pmadelheidSo I’ve kept mentioning choir recently and I thought it was worth writing about because honestly, this is my entire weekend.
For as long as I can remember, the choirs in this area have done the Three Choirs Festival every couple of years. This year, however, it is the Four Choirs International Festival, including a choir from Arizona, whose director used to work in this area back in the early 2000s. (She also went to the same college as my mother, in the same program, a couple of years behind, and they get along incredibly well.) So she managed to bring out 44 choristers and orchestra to combine with a hundred odd from around north east Victoria, and today and tomorrow are our concerts.
Our program is entirely American and Australian composers, and almost all of them are living composers, which is unusual for choirs that focus on classical repertoire:
The Awakening - Joseph Martin. Fairly sure this is an American composer.
Sutherland’s Grave - Paul Tasker, words from a poem by Henry Kendall (1839-1882). Paul is the current director of one of the choirs, and has set a poem by 19th century poet Kendall about the man who gave his name to an entire Shire south of Sydney. The music is gorgeous, especially the orchestral prelude!
Kyrie from “Memorial” - Rene Clausen. Clausen was a professor to both the director of the Arizona choir and my mother. So I already found this piece incredibly meaningful, and THEN when I read the program notes today I discovered it was written in response to 9/11. So how I’ll get through that one tomorrow who knows.
The Firebird - Daniel Brinsmead. This piece is incredible and we had the honor of singing it today in front of the composer. (Also contains a phrase that may still be illegal in Queensland…)
A Canvas of Electricity - Dan Walker. Another localish composer, he was going to come to the concerts but in the end wasn’t able to. This is probably a good thing as it’s the weakest piece (performance-wise) in the concert. There are so many words and we are really not good at looking at the conductor during it… It also makes me think of Billy Elliot, which I’m sure it’s not meant to!
Pemulwuy - Paul Jarman. Our choir has done this one a couple times but it is so nice to sing it in a big choir (where there’s more cover for your mistakes. Jarman is Indigenous but has explicitly said that he wants white choirs to sing this piece. I absolutely love singing this one even though I also feel like I shoudln’t be, as it’s very definitely in an Indigenous voice, facing the invader.
Saguaro Song - Craig Bohmler.Incredibly difficult but once we finally had the orchestra with us it made so much sense. Gorgeous contemporary classical song cycle about the saguaro cactus. So glad I’ve had a chance to sing this!
If Music Be the Food of Love - David Dickau. Another piece with ties to Minnesota (like the Clausen). An awesome conclusion to the program.
For as long as I can remember, the choirs in this area have done the Three Choirs Festival every couple of years. This year, however, it is the Four Choirs International Festival, including a choir from Arizona, whose director used to work in this area back in the early 2000s. (She also went to the same college as my mother, in the same program, a couple of years behind, and they get along incredibly well.) So she managed to bring out 44 choristers and orchestra to combine with a hundred odd from around north east Victoria, and today and tomorrow are our concerts.
Our program is entirely American and Australian composers, and almost all of them are living composers, which is unusual for choirs that focus on classical repertoire:
The Awakening - Joseph Martin. Fairly sure this is an American composer.
Sutherland’s Grave - Paul Tasker, words from a poem by Henry Kendall (1839-1882). Paul is the current director of one of the choirs, and has set a poem by 19th century poet Kendall about the man who gave his name to an entire Shire south of Sydney. The music is gorgeous, especially the orchestral prelude!
Kyrie from “Memorial” - Rene Clausen. Clausen was a professor to both the director of the Arizona choir and my mother. So I already found this piece incredibly meaningful, and THEN when I read the program notes today I discovered it was written in response to 9/11. So how I’ll get through that one tomorrow who knows.
The Firebird - Daniel Brinsmead. This piece is incredible and we had the honor of singing it today in front of the composer. (Also contains a phrase that may still be illegal in Queensland…)
A Canvas of Electricity - Dan Walker. Another localish composer, he was going to come to the concerts but in the end wasn’t able to. This is probably a good thing as it’s the weakest piece (performance-wise) in the concert. There are so many words and we are really not good at looking at the conductor during it… It also makes me think of Billy Elliot, which I’m sure it’s not meant to!
Pemulwuy - Paul Jarman. Our choir has done this one a couple times but it is so nice to sing it in a big choir (where there’s more cover for your mistakes. Jarman is Indigenous but has explicitly said that he wants white choirs to sing this piece. I absolutely love singing this one even though I also feel like I shoudln’t be, as it’s very definitely in an Indigenous voice, facing the invader.
Saguaro Song - Craig Bohmler.Incredibly difficult but once we finally had the orchestra with us it made so much sense. Gorgeous contemporary classical song cycle about the saguaro cactus. So glad I’ve had a chance to sing this!
If Music Be the Food of Love - David Dickau. Another piece with ties to Minnesota (like the Clausen). An awesome conclusion to the program.
UPDATE: Apprehended Ambassador (The Thousand Nations: The Motley Crew #4)
May. 14th, 2026 11:35 amduskpeterson
ONLINE E-BOOK (html, epub, mobi, pdf, and xhtml)
Free at my website.
The Motley Crew (The Thousand Nations). When a young man named Dolan flees from the north, he faces danger on all sides. The Northern Army wants him back. The Empire of Emor wants him dead. His native homeland of Koretia may not want him at all. And his only protection is a man with motives that are mysterious and possibly deadly.
New installments:
4 | Apprehension of the Ambassador. A border crossing gone awry turns an escape into a new realm of danger.
Historical Note. [The historical note appears at the end of the omnibus, after the side stories.]
BLOG FICTION
Tempestuous Tours (Crossing Worlds: A Visitor's Guide to the Three Lands #2). A whirlwind tour of the sites in the Three Lands that are most steeped in history, culture, and the occasional pickpocket.
New installments:
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