The Wordsmith's Forge

These are some posts from the later part of last week in case you missed them:
Refugees Then and Now
Poem: "Experience Stinks"
Community Building Tip: Community Garden
Moment of Silence: Miguel Civil and "The Scribe of the Evening"
Heating Patches for Clothes
Declining Life Expectancy
Emotional Intimacy Question: Thanks
Why Challenger Failed
Hard Things


The crowdfunding Creative Jam ran this weekend.

There will be a half-price sale in Polychrome Heroics this week.


Voting is still open for the 2019 Rose & Bay Awards. Please vote for your favorites. Review the nomination posts for more information about the nominees if you need it.

Art: ysabetwordsmith Nominate art! Vote for art!
Fiction: ysabetwordsmith Nominate fiction! Vote for fiction!
Poetry: ysabetwordsmith Nominate poetry! Vote for poetry!
Webcomic: ysabetwordsmith Nominate webcomics! Vote for webcomics!
Other Project: ysabetwordsmith Nominate other projects! Vote for other projects!
Patron: ysabetwordsmith Nominate patrons! Vote for patrons!


Poetry in Microfunding:

There are four open epics.

"Only If It Is Embraced" belongs to Polychrome Heroics: Damask and has 25 new verses. Pain's Gray has another talk with Clement about the importance of not mistreating Keane.

"A Cave Swarming with Strange Forms of Life" belongs to Polychrome Heroics: Iron Horses. Kenzie goes to Pretty Ears for counseling.

"Love Unflinching" belongs to Polychrome Heroics: Berettaflies." An ethical consultant arrives in Easy City, adopts a buggle, and meets Stylet.

"So Many Notes and Colors and Flavors" belongs to Polychrome Heroics: Shiv. Heron and Shiv are comfort-cooking, and not everything goes smooth.


Weather here has been mild. We got a little snow, but most of it has melted off quickly. Seen at the birdfeeders this week: a large flock of sparrows, a flock of dark-eyed juncos, a small flock of mourning doves, a pair of cardinals, a yellow-bellied sapsucker, a Bewick's wren, and a squirrel.

These are some posts from the later part of last week in case you missed them:
Wildlife News
Community Building Tip: Block Party
Valentines Bingo Cards 2-1-19
Emotional Intimacy Question: Sabbatical (survey says: Travel!)
Unsold Poems for the January 22, 2019 Poetry Fishbowl
Poetry Fishbowl Report for January 22, 2019
Cuddle Party


The next Poetry Fishbowl will be on Tuesday, February 5 with a theme of "personal or public ritual." Please mark your calendars, and I hope to see you then.

Voting is now open for the 2019 Rose & Bay Awards. Thank you for nominating projects and patrons. Please go vote for your favorites now. Review the nomination posts for more information about the nominees if you need it.

Art: ysabetwordsmith Nominate art! Vote for art!
Fiction: ysabetwordsmith Nominate fiction! Vote for fiction!
Poetry: ysabetwordsmith Nominate poetry! Vote for poetry!
Webcomic: ysabetwordsmith Nominate webcomics! Vote for webcomics!
Other Project: ysabetwordsmith Nominate other projects! Vote for other projects!
Patron: ysabetwordsmith Nominate patrons! Vote for patrons!


Poetry in Microfunding:

There are four open epics.

"Only If It Is Embraced" belongs to Polychrome Heroics: Damask and has 55 new verses. Pain's Gray and Keane head to the support area for mission followup.

"A Cave Swarming with Strange Forms of Life" belongs to Polychrome Heroics: Iron Horses. Kenzie goes to Pretty Ears for counseling.

"Love Unflinching" belongs to Polychrome Heroics: Berettaflies." An ethical consultant arrives in Easy City, adopts a buggle, and meets Stylet.

"So Many Notes and Colors and Flavors" belongs to Polychrome Heroics: Shiv. Heron and Shiv are comfort-cooking, and not everything goes smooth.


Temperature has varied radically this week, from frigid to mild.. Seen at the birdfeeders this week: a flock of sparrows, a flock of dark-eyed juncos, a small flock of starlings, a small flock of mourning doves, a pair of cardinals, a pair of downy woodpeckers, a Bewick's wren, and a squirrel.

These are some posts from the later part of last week in case you missed them:
Peacemongering 101
How to Feel Less Shame
Nonmale, Nonwhite, Nonbinary Characters
Resources on Kindness
How to Care Less About What People Think
Fainting(ish) Men
How to Deal with Writer's Block
Sustainability for Beginners
Snowflake Challenge Day 6: Fannish Wishlist
Mental Load
Burned-Out Millennials
Snowflake Challenge Day 5: Promote Others
Community Building Tip: Know Your Neighbors
Snowflake Challenge Day 4: Interact (57 comments)
The Other Gifts
Now in the Public Domain
Snowflake Challenge Day 3: Favorite Piece of Canon
Emotional Intimacy Question: Bucket List
Snowflake Challenge Day 2: Rec Fanworks by Someone Else
Hard Things
Snowflake Challenge Day 1: Happy Place


Nominations are now OPEN for all categories of the Rose & Bay Awards for excellence in crowdfunding. Please nominate your favorite projects and patrons. These are the handlers for the 2019 award season:
Art: ysabetwordsmith Nominate art! Vote for art!
Fiction: ysabetwordsmith Nominate fiction! Vote for fiction!
Poetry: ysabetwordsmith Nominate poetry! Vote for poetry!
Webcomic: ysabetwordsmith Nominate webcomics! Vote for webcomics!
Other Project: ysabetwordsmith Nominate other projects! Vote for other projects!
Patron: ysabetwordsmith Nominate patrons! Vote for patrons!

I have a lot of new readers from snowflake_challenge, addme, and other sources over the last month or so. I encourage you to look around now, because it's going to get a lot busier tomorrow.

The next Poetry Fishbowl will be on Tuesday, January 8 with a theme of "That's not a mistake!" (It's normally on the first Tuesday of the month, but I bumped it later figuring nobody would be available on January 1.) Mark your calendar so you can come give me prompts, or just enjoy the crosstalk and watch for free poetry to appear. Donations are welcome but not required, and prompters get a free backchannel copy of what they inspire. If you have any questions, ask me today because tomorrow I'll have my hands full with writing poems.


Poetry in Microfunding:

There are two open epics.  That leaves a slot open in case anybody wants to open a new one tomorrow.  \o/

"Only If It Is Embraced" belongs to Polychrome Heroics: Damask and has 3 new verses. Pain's Gray and Clement discuss first aid.

"A Cave Swarming with Strange Forms of Life" belongs to Polychrome Heroics: Iron Horses. Kenzie goes to Pretty Ears for counseling.


Today is gray and blustery. Seen at the birdfeeders this week: a big flock of starlings, a flock of sparrows, a flock of dark-eyed juncos, several robins, a pair of cardinals, a pair of mourning doves, a red-bellied woodpecker, and a rabbit.  The plant catalogs are beginning to arrive.  

These are some posts from the later part of last week in case you missed them:
Unsold Poems for the December 4, 2018 Poetry Fishbowl
Poetry Fishbowl Report for December 4, 2018
Poem: "Holiday in Handcuffs"
Poem: "Whatever You Seek"
Read "A Little Left of Normal" by Dialecticdreamer
In Praise of Leisure
Read "In Winter's Depths" by Siliconshaman
Yearcompass Booklet
Poem: "If You Have Almost Nothing"
Emotional Intimacy Question: Giver, Taker, Matcher
Bushfire Safety
Irresponsible Storytelling (54 comments)
Review: "Into the Spider-Verse"
#joinin
Read "Returning to Normal" by Dialecticdreamer
Good News


Poetry in Microfunding:

There are two open epics.

"Only If It Is Embraced" belongs to Polychrome Heroics: Damask and has 3 new verses. Pain's Gray and Clement discuss first aid.

"A Cave Swarming with Strange Forms of Life" belongs to Polychrome Heroics: Iron Horses. Kenzie goes to Pretty Ears for counseling.


It's raining here today.  Seen at the birdfeeders this week: a big flock of starlings, a flock of mourning doves, a flock of sparrows, a flock of dark-eyed juncos, several cardinals, a red-bellied woodpecker, a robin, and a squirrel.  

These are some posts from the later part of last week in case you missed them:
Poem: "The Compass That Guides Us"
Poem: "At the Subtlest Levels of Function"
Poem: "Only the Finest"
Poem: "Some Stages of Instability"
Poem: "Strength, Courage, and Victory"
Poem: "The Wily Princess"
Poem: "Unicorn Shadows"
Poem: "The Unicorn Mirror"
Poem: "The Prairie Horns"
Poem: "Like the Desert Wind"
Poem: "A Horror of the Color Yellow"
Poem: "Healing Horns"
Poem: "The Colors in His Tapestries"
Poem: "The Woman Who Built Herself a Clitoris and Rode That Bitch Like a Bicycle"
Poem: "Where They Built the Bodies"
Recipes: "Red-and-Green Holiday Salad" and "Red Palm Oil Vinaigrette"
Poem: "The Discovery of a New Dish"
Poem: "With a Warm and Tender Hand"
Updated "Santa Baby"
Kitchenware for the Blind
Works Entering the Public Domain
Storytelling Mistakes in Social Justice
Boycott Israel
The Fork Theory
Emotional Intimacy Question: Connecting
Poem: "Those Who Have Suffered"
Poem: "The House Behind the Gate"
Poem: "In the Garden of Eternal Spring"
Cuddle Party


The Holiday Poetry Sale went pretty well. You can find all the poems sorted into their series there, with links to those that have been sponsored and posted. Thank you all for your support, and happy Chrismahanakwanziyul to you!


Poetry in Microfunding:

There are three open epics.

"Only If It Is Embraced" belongs to Polychrome Heroics: Damask . Pain's Gray gives Keane what he needs.

"A Cave Swarming with Strange Forms of Life" belongs to Polychrome Heroics: Iron Horses. Kenzie goes to Pretty Ears for counseling.

"The Tree of Damocles" is now complete.  Watch Shiv and Simon make a Christmas tree that Shiv can actually enjoy.


The weather has been mild here -- so much that some of the daffodils are sprouting in the flowerbed beside the parking lot.  That's the earliest I've ever seen spring bulbs sprout, previously was January.  When I was little, they showed up in March.:/ Seen at the birdfeeders this week: a big flock of starlings, a flock of mourning doves, a flock of sparrows, some dark-eyed juncos, two pairs of cardinals, a downy woodpecker, a red-bellied woodpecker, a goldfinch, and two squirrels.  We flushed a red-tailed hawk out of the yard too.  :D

I will be participating in the snowflake_challenge for 2019.  This is a favorite fannish event.  :D

These are some posts from the later part of last week in case you missed them:
Metacognition in Dogs
Poem: "From This Intolerable Overload of Feeling"
Poem: "The Lair of the Dragon Scouts"
Poem: "Merely an Exaggeration"
Poem: "His Family's His Crew"
Native Foodways (look in the comments for a list of my recipes with indigenous ingredients)
Recipe: "Squash Toast" (plus comments give other people's Thanksgiving leftover recipes)
Read "Screwed" by Siliconshaman
NaNoWriMo: Challenges
Emotional Intimacy Question: Three Things
Poem: "You Can Only Go Forward"
Hard Things

The Christmas Thread -- These are poems about Shiv and the harassment at Blues Moon. Read them before you read "Virasana" by siliconshaman.
Poem: "Confused, Screwed Up, But Here"
Poem: "Unless You Let Us Know You're Down There"
Poem: "A Corresponding Clarity of Purpose"
Poem: "Emptier of Bad Thoughts"


As you can see from the list of posted poems, the half-price sale in Polychrome Heroics went well last week. I still have a couple to post from mama_kestrel that came in late last night, plus whatever the pool from ng_moonmoth winds up being.


Poetry in Microfunding:

There are two open epics. 

"Energy, Made Visible" is now complete. See what Shiv does with his new creme pastels.

"Only If It Is Embraced" belongs to Polychrome Heroics: Damask . Pain's Gray gives Keane what he needs.

"A Cave Swarming with Strange Forms of Life" belongs to Polychrome Heroics: Iron Horses. Kenzie goes to Pretty Ears for counseling.


The weather has been chilly and intermittently wet here.  It rained yesterday, followed by a dusting of snow that didn't stick much.  Seen at the birdfeeders this week: a flock of goldfinches, a flock of sparrows, a few mourning doves, some dark-eyed juncos, several house finches, several cardinals, and a squirrel.  I also saw a hawk roosting in the yard!  :D 3q3q3q!

These are some posts from the later part of last week in case you missed them:
Read the Mandelbear
Today's Adventures
NaNoWriMo: Post a synopsis!
Emotional Intimacy Question: Younger Self
Tactile Rubik's Cubes
Cuddle Party


The Poetry Fishbowl has gone pretty well.  Lots of prompts and some donations.


Poetry in Microfunding:

There are three open epics. We're full until at least one of these concludes.

"Energy, Made Visible" belongs to Polychrome Heroics: Shiv and has 3 new verses. Shiv really wants to keep going with the therapy questions.

"Only If It Is Embraced" belongs to Polychrome Heroics: Damask. Pain's Gray deals with Ham picking on Keane.

"A Cave Swarming with Strange Forms of Life" belongs to Polychrome Heroics: Iron Horses. Kenzie goes to Pretty Ears for counseling.

"Reconciled Differences" opened and closed very quickly.  It belongs to Path of the Paladins, where Johan takes steps to pull his life together.


The weather has been cold and windy here.  We saw a little snow, just enough to dust the bushes and fields.  Seen at the birdfeeders this week: a big flock of goldfinches (at least a couple dozen), a flock of sparrows, some dark-eyed juncos, several house finches, a few mourning doves, a pair of cardinals, a pair of Bewick's wrens, and a squirrel.  Leaves are on the ground, blowing in the wind, although some still cling to the trees in green-brown skeletons.

These are some posts from the later part of last week in case you missed them:
Recipe: "African Goatloaf 1.0"
Recipe: "Buddha's Hand Basil Chicken"
Gay Penguins Hatch Egg
Today's Adventures
How to Build a Novel from Themes and Symbols
Voting Guides
Thursday Yardening
Emotional Intimacy Question: Start a Business
Recipe: "Buddha's Hand Beef"
Read some stories!
Wednesday Yardening
Medications That Cause Memory Loss
Hard Things


I wrote some big meta posts this week. Easterns as a Genre introduces a type of entertainment popular in Terramagne-American television and movies. They're the mirror image of Westerns: set in the same time period in Eastern cities instead of Western wilderness.

I've also been mulling over inclusivity in games, and versatility of games that could be played in different situations. I started with an exploration of Games for Blind People or Blackouts, where I mention some extant options and lament the fact that very few games like this are available in local-America. I went to sleep with that in mind, and I woke up with a headful of T-American games that are optimized in those directions. If you read Inclusive Games from Terramagne on Saturday, check it again because I added more stuff late Sunday night. Most of these could be replicated with locally available materials.

As you can see above, we've also been doing some more adventurous food -- we've got a guest this week and Samhain is coming up. I may have more to share, depending on what ingredients we find.


Poetry in Microfunding:

There are three open epics. We're full until at least one of these concludes.

"Energy, Made Visible" belongs to Polychrome Heroics: Shiv and has 3 new verses. Shiv really wants to keep going with the therapy questions.

"Only If It Is Embraced" belongs to Polychrome Heroics: Damask. Pain's Gray deals with Ham picking on Keane.

"A Cave Swarming with Strange Forms of Life" belongs to Polychrome Heroics: Iron Horses. Kenzie goes to Pretty Ears for counseling.


The weather has been cool here, sometimes very windy, other times beautiful.  We got some rain.  Seen at the birdfeeders this week: a big flock of goldfinches, a flock of sparrows, several house finches, some dark-eyed juncos, a male and a female cardinal separately, a Bewick's wren, and three squirrels.   In bloom: salvia and sedum.  The crabapples and pears are ripe. Leaves are falling off without turning colors, although there's a little more color on a few trees.