Open Discussion
Here is your monthly place to chat and get to know each other! Feel free to talk about anything, but be kind, this is a safe place.
How are you all feeling?
2021-02-18 15:01:00 +0000 UTC View Post
Catherynne M. Valente posts
On Valentine's Day
Hello, darlings. Forgive my slight absence of late, I am snowed under with deadlines but will be back on top of things shortly.
On this very special day, I wanted to dig up on of my best essays, posted long ago on Livejournal, and thus lost to the sands of the internet. I've edited it quite a bit, because ten years have gone by, and perceptions of the world and people change. And because when I initially wrote this, it was 2009 and being bitter and ironic and detached was what all the c...
2021-02-14 17:50:19 +0000 UTC View PostCharacter Post Card!
Hello my loves!
In further adventures in making this tier worthwhile for you wonderful folks when the Livestream poll doesn't get enough questions for a stream...
I am letting you choose the characters for the new monthly reward!
Leave a comment telling me which of my characters you want a postcard from. I'll create a poll from that which only the Unverified Research tier and up can vote in. Then I'll get on the phone to whoever you chose and see what's new in their lives......
2021-02-05 15:23:54 +0000 UTC View PostBrief Delay
So the Inauguration review and essay have morphed into one huge thing that borders on an original short story I’m writing for y’all...but due to it getting high-concept, I just couldn’t get it done today, despite it being the last day of the month.
It’ll go up tomorrow, and won’t affect the new round of February rewards. Thanks so much for your patience, there’s just...so so many puns to make. So many.
Thank you all for everything, I’ll try to keep the tardiness down...
2021-01-31 23:59:33 +0000 UTC View PostALLCAPS COOKBOOK PRESENTS: Absolutely Perfect Swinnish Meatballs
I FRICKING LOVE Swedish meatballs.
But I have never been able to make them to my own satisfaction. I’ve never even been to an IKEA in my life, I’m not EVEN TALKING about those, just the soft awesome meatballs in the rich brown sauce—and it’s the sauce that I’ve never really gotten right.
And then a few years ago, I was in Finland for Finncon and I ordered Finnish meatballs, which were mostly like Swedish but slightly different and served over crispy slabs of pup chips (f...
2021-01-30 20:47:04 +0000 UTC View PostOur Very First Character Postcard: Severin Unck
I have to admit I'm surprised and a bit gratified that you chose Severin for the first postcard--Radiance is a book I poured my everything into, but it doesn't get as much love as some of the others.
But here she is! With a bit of vintage flair. If you have trouble reading it, click to embiggen.
These will go up every month, with a different character, available to everyone at all tiers.
Thank you all so much for your support!
2021-01-29 16:50:15 +0000 UTC View PostOpen Discussion
Here is your monthly place to chat and get to know each other! Feel free to talk about anything, but be kind, this is a safe place.
How are you all feeling?
2021-01-21 15:01:00 +0000 UTC View PostMandatory Mad Fiction Media Dissection Table Poll!
All right, dearhearts. What shall I review this month?
2021-01-19 14:46:43 +0000 UTC View PostHOLY CATS 1000 PATRONS!
Hi everyone!
It's been a few days now and I'm still not quite sure I believe we've hit 1,000 patrons here in the Mad Fiction Laboratory. Sheer, amazing, but sheer madness.
Thank you all so much for your support and love and presence over the years--and we're just getting started, as the terrible action movies say! I am honored to be part of your lives and deeply, unspeakably grateful to each of you for making life as a full time writer and mother workable. I owe you all so much. Y...
2021-01-14 16:34:31 +0000 UTC View PostWhen This Is Over: A 2020 New Year
So many of my thoughts begin with this phrase now. Even though each and every word in it means other than what it says on the lip of this blue-dark ledge of the year. We all understand the code leaking out of each letter like flat champagne. We know what we mean, if the future will not.
When in some unknown era but maybe never
This the plague, the sorrow, the suffering, the loneliness, the lies, the fear
Is we cannot know if it ever truly will ...
2020-12-31 21:50:58 +0000 UTC View PostMandatory Mad Fiction Dissection Table: Things to Do in Ankh-Morpork When You’re Dead or I Just Love Hogfather So Much, You Guys, What Can I Say?
Hogfather is not something I am willing to entertain critical discussion on.
It is one of my all time top 20ish books.
It is beautiful and perfect.
I literally spend money to celebrate the fake holiday in it every year.
So I have nothing constructive to say about the book, audiobook, or miniseries. No deep dive into the physics or worldbuilding. I simply love it, and like some other things I love very very much, whatever weaknesses there may be in there ARE NO...
2020-12-30 20:01:24 +0000 UTC View PostALLCAPS (but not Death's) COOKBOOK PRESENTS: 2020 Edition Hogswatch Persimmon-Peppercorn Pork Pies and Sherry
I’m not going to relate the whole story of my relationship to Terry Pratchett’s Hogfather, mostly because this month’s media review is about that very thing. But I will say that as soon as I read it, I knew I wanted to add Hogswatch to my winter holidays and make the Hogfather’s traditional snack.
The trouble is, not to put too fine a point on it, but actual authentic English pork pies are kind of awful. That’s not just me being American, it’s part of Pratchett’s ...
2020-12-28 19:52:07 +0000 UTC View PostMandatory Mad Fiction Frog Dissection Lab!
We have beat the moon at her own game one more time and come round to choosing the form of the destructor once more.
What shall I essay about this month?
I'm not gonna lie, it's been a weird month. Depression does not tolerate good art ONLY TRASH FOR THE SAD RACCOON.
Once again, the tenor of the essay is in parentheses. Also I feel i should add that I don't mind, and in fact enjoy, yelling about things, so "mixed" and "negative" don't mean I don't want to review it.
2020-12-17 00:33:23 +0000 UTC View PostOpen Discussion Post
Here is your monthly place to chat and get to know each other! Feel free to talk about anything, but be kind, this is a safe place.
How are you all feeling?
2020-12-15 15:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostOkaytopia: American Ideation, the 21st Century, and The West Wing as Science Fiction
Here we are, my dears, a few scant weeks after the election, and y’all wanna hear what I think about The West Wing, i.e Lord of the Rings for suburban liberals which I guess makes some kind of sense.
BY THE WAY, for the purposes of this review, when I say the word “liberal” I am not using it as an insult. I KNOW. WHAT? THAT’S FUCKING CRAZY IT’S THE WORST WORD IN AMERICAN POLITICAL DISCOURSE ON THIS THE LEFT AND THE RIGHT FINALLY AGREE. No, I just mean basic-a...
2020-11-30 21:59:58 +0000 UTC View PostALLCAPS COOKBOOK PRESENTS: Crispy Baked Chicken Thighs with Creamy Two-Booze Date-Mustard Sauce
We haven’t gone shopping in awhile and are now afraid to due to crazy people guzzling toilet paper. So I just threw my hands in the air and started throwing things in a pan for lunch because I couldn’t take another frozen Trader Joe’s Fakeaway Special and hot damn what came out was so good it immediately got promoted to Patreon recipe.
I made it again the next night, too.
It’s kind of French-ish, and I’ll note here that I like my chicken thighs slightly overdone so slap ...
2020-11-22 22:37:23 +0000 UTC View PostMandatory Mad Frog Dissection Poll: What's on the Slaaaab?
Sorry for the radio silence around here--between funerals and deadlines (there's a grim pun there but my heart's not in it) it's been a pretty rough month around here. But rewards are starting today and will continue through the weekend!
So what shall I review for your lovely selves this month? As always the tenor of the review is in the parentheses so no one gets any sad surprises.
2020-11-20 22:43:48 +0000 UTC View PostOpen Discussion Post
Here is your monthly place to chat and get to know each other! Feel free to talk about anything, but be kind, this is a safe place.
It's only the 11th day of the month and it's been a whirlwind! Nailbiting election results! A vaccine? Probably a lot of other things we didn't notice because we were biting our nails!
How are you all feeling?
2020-11-12 02:55:01 +0000 UTC View PostThe Day Before the World Changes: Science Fiction and the Election and You and Me and Us and What Happens Next
Hello, my loves.
It is the day before Election Day here in the US, which means it is a crisp, moody, blustery day in November, full of golden leaves tumbling through the air like wishes and woodsmoke spiralling up through the New England clouds like dreams, and I want to throw up my soul.
I wanted to say this before it all happens, whatever happens. It feels important to me, though it may be trifling in the end. But it’s all I got in the store-room in terms of hope. So ...
2020-11-02 21:28:50 +0000 UTC View PostLove Is the *Loud Barfing Noise* Dimension: The Slick Yet Empty SF of Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar
There really is no better, easier, more warm and confident and secure time to write about the power of father and child relationships in a film that absolutely hinges on it being an actual physical force in the universe than right after your beloved father-in-law dies without being able to say goodbye!
And yet. The show must go on. Dry your eyes, kitten, there’s a dumbass movie to poke with a stick.
So let’s inter our stellars and talk about everything that is almost, but not ...
2020-10-30 18:25:47 +0000 UTC View PostALLCAPS COOKBOOK PRESENTS: The Stuff
The Stuff
Look, I know I’m a “professional writer” or whatever but words are hard. I don’t know what to call this thing I’ve been making pretty regularly for the last couple of months. It wasn’t even supposed to be what it is now. I originally made it with just a pre-packaged marinade and it tasted pretty gross, then I plopped it in a pan and added whatever I could find to fix it and it became AMAZEBALLS and now I make it all the time but I just keep calling...
2020-10-23 21:20:37 +0000 UTC View PostUpdate on Byron Lord of Cats
I wanted to give all of you a full update on my beautiful kitty that so many have come together to help.
Lord Byron Stormageddon is home and resting comfortably.
We still don't know what's wrong with him.
The blood transfusion probably saved his life. But he's still very anemic and not producing his own red blood cells. He had a rainbow of fruit flavor/testing yesterday and came back normal and/or negative for everything we tried. His heart is okay, though he has a slight mu...
2020-10-21 15:54:30 +0000 UTC View PostMad Fiction Mandatory Media Dissection Poll
This has not been much of a month for me consuming things other than grief and burritos. And grief burritos. But there is still some stuff for you to choose from!
I'm putting Interstellar back on even though I haven't watched it yet because I'm just so sure I'm gonna have a purse full of sideeye for it. And Love Island is there because I've started remote binge-watching with a friend who was all "I am so stressed out about RBG and the hearings, I need to watch something totally trash to...
2020-10-18 17:17:53 +0000 UTC View PostA Cat for All Seasons
Hi, darlings.
I just wanted to apologize for rewards being late this month.
Life is just not being very nice to me right now. More sick family, more family passed on, more COVID on our island, and my wonderful, beloved cat, Lord Byron Stormageddon (pictured), is so very sick. As we speak he’s getting a blood transfusion in hopes that more blood will enable them to make some kind of diagnosis. As of tonight he is in the hospital in critical condition. His prognosis is extremely i...
2020-10-15 23:40:25 +0000 UTC View PostOpen Discussion Post
Here is your monthly place to chat and get to know each other! Feel free to talk about anything, but be kind, this is a safe place.
How are you all feeling?
2020-10-07 17:23:25 +0000 UTC View PostMandatory Mad Fiction Dissection Table: The Haunting of Hill House
The Haunting of MY HOUSE
At some point, y’all are going to realize these reviews are optimally fun if I take issue with the Thing in Question. OMG IT’S SO GOOD is not a substantive review, WHY WON’T THEY HIRE ME is not in-depth critique, and it’s rough to make YELLY SARCASTIJOKES when you really just liked it so much and can’t wait for more. BUT THAT POINT IS NOT NOW.
Between What We Do In the Shadows and The Hauntin...
2020-09-30 20:57:05 +0000 UTC View PostALLCAPS COOKBOOK PRESENTS: Perfect Desert Nachos
Desert Nachos
This is one of those moments where I share with you my Very Special Secret Recipe from My Own House What I’ve Been Making & Not Writing Down for Years. Am I throwing awesomeness to the wind instead of hoarding it to myself so that people are forced to come and visit me in order to eat the Good Stuff? YES BUT I AM VERY GENEROUS AND A GOOD PERSON.
I just do not give a fuck for secret recipes. Life is short, I don’t want to have to ...
2020-09-23 21:25:28 +0000 UTC View PostMandatory Mad Fiction Dissection Table: What Shall I Review This Month?
It's that time again! What piece of media will I stare suspiciously at this month?
It's been a really rough several weeks with my uncle and grandfather passing on and so many other things I don't feel comfortable talking about online, so I didn't watch much, but there's options!
As always, the tenor of the review is in the parentheses so no one gets any surprises. And don't forget, Mad Post Doc Student tier patrons can request anything--which is a great way to get me to review som...
2020-09-22 17:07:50 +0000 UTC View PostLivestream in 10
I'm going live in 10, grab your popcorn, your festive drink, and your questions! See you soon! The link is up there and you can have it open in a tab, it'll start broadcasting when I click go.
2020-09-15 23:06:49 +0000 UTC View PostLivestream Tonight!
Hello, my loves. Everybody holding up ok during these interesting times?
It's been too long but the livestream is back! I’ll be doing it tonight, September 15, at 7:00pm EST.
I will be bringing a big fat glass of wine as my co-host but I need questions! Remember that you can ask anything, doesn’t have to be at all about writing, especially now. I’ll sing a song and do a dance, have done before, anything that’ll cheer us all up.
Here’s the official Quest...
2020-09-15 20:52:01 +0000 UTC View Post