honey and sting

 

hlh_shortcuts posted: SIGNUPS CLOSE TOMORROW.

 

I don't think I posted about this yet: https://us.macmillan.com/tours/martha-wells-queen-demon/

There's more info at that link, but here's a brief list of the tour stops and dates:


- Mon. Oct. 6 at 7:30pm: Brookline Booksmith with Holly Black, offsite at Arts at the Armory (Brookline, MA)

- Tues. Oct. 7 at 7pm: Politics & Prose (Union Market location) moderated by Leigha McReynolds (Washington DC)

- Wed. Oct. 8 at 7pm: The Strand, with Meg Elison (NYC, NY)

- Fri. Oct. 10 at 6pm: Let’s Play Books, with Chuck Wendig, offsite at Muhlenberg College (Allentown, PA)

- Tues. Oct. 14 at 7pm, Third Place Books (Seattle, WA)

- Wed. Oct. 15 at 7pm, Iron Dog Books, with Nalo Hopkinson offsite at Waterfront Theatre on Granville Island (Vancouver, BC, Canada)

- Thurs. Oct. 16 at 7pm, Powell's (Cedar Hill location) with Jenn Reese (Beaverton, OR)

- Mon. Oct. 20 at 7pm: Bookpeople, with Ehigbor Okosun (Austin, TX)

- Tue. Oct. 21 at 6:30pm: Murder by the Book (Houston, TX)

- Thurs. Oct. 23 at 6pm: Nowhere Bookshop (San Antonio, TX)

- Saturday Nov. 8-9 Texas Book Festival, Austin TX

- Sat. Nov. 15 at 2pm: Hyperbole Bookstore, offsite at Ringer Library (College Station, TX)

Thank you for making me a vid!

I have a couple things that I put outside the cut tag, because I have two visual triggers:

1) Fast, high contrast flashes of lights or colors. This can be triggered by strobe lights, strobe effects, glitch effects, full-screen lighting effects, or repeated lightning strikes. It can also be triggered by stutter cuts (very fast intercuts of 2-3 frames) where there is high contrast in the footage used for the stutter effect. Stutter cuts are fine between two similar scenes, but not between one dark green and one bright red lit scene, between a nighttime and daytime scene, etc. Flashing has to be very fast to bother me—think three lightning strikes in a second (dark, light, dark, light, dark, light, dark in one second).

2) Frame rate fuckery—when a show or a vid plays 24 fps footage in 30 fps or vice versa. So, like, when a film puts footage at the wrong frame rate to make it feel awkward or tense, which is super common in action films. (For example, the Bucky/Steve knife fight on the street in Winter Solider.) It can also happen by accident, if footage at one frame rate is put into a project with a different frame rate, or sometimes when a show needs to stretch or compress footage and they do it by duplicating every third frame.

I'll call these out in the source notes below for any fandom where they're relevant.

Please also feel free to run a sample by thingswithwings. She can explain them with examples if that would be helpful.

The rest of this post is additional details if you're interested!

( General Preferences )

I asked for: Babylon 5, Backspot (2023) [SAFETY], Bring Them Home / Aiskótáhkapiyaaya (2024) [SAFETY], Extraordinary Birder with Christian Cooper, Fancy Dance (2023) [SAFETY], The Great Canadian Baking Show (TV), Lego Video Games [UMBRELLA], Mythbusters (TV), Nikon Comedy Wildlife Awards, This Place (2022) [SAFETY]


( Babylon 5 )

( Backspot (2023) )

( Bring Them Home / Aiskótáhkapiyaaya (2024) )

( Extraordinary Birder with Christian Cooper )

( Fancy Dance (2023) )

( The Great Canadian Baking Show )

( Lego Video Games [UMBRELLA] )

( Mythbusters )

( Nikon Comedy Wildlife Awards )

( This Place (2022) )

I did a playlist for Witch King (https://marthawells.dreamwidth.org/627157.html) when it first came out in 2023, and now here's one for Queen Demon:



Seven Devils - Florence + Machine

Burning - Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Bando - ANNA with MadMan and Gemitaiz

Bringing Murder to the Land - Anton Newcombe and Dot Allison

Bulletproof vs. Release Me - The Outfit

I Owe You Nothing - Seinabo Sey

W.I.T.C.H. - Devon Cole

Egun (theme from Manhunt) - Danielle Ponder

Warm - SG Lewis

Disease - Lady Gaga

Which Witch (Demo) - Florence + Machine

you should see me in a crown - Billie Eilish

Bakunawa - Rudy Ibarra, with June Millington, Han Han, and Ouida.

Mint Twist (1584 words) by Gryphonrhi
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Highlander: The Series, Captain America (Chris Evans Movies)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Characters: Darius (Highlander), Jim Morita
Additional Tags: Inkvent, Prompt Fic, Crossover
Summary:

Planting peace is hard work that takes patience, many hands, and a willingness to weed.

Another Invent fic; enjoy! Now to go fight through more of them before December....

It's not December yet. I may actually make it through these prompts! Until then, however, have some more ink-inspired craziness:

Sam Axe trying to get some intel before the Losers do. Mind, Sam has no idea someone else is after it....

Mojitos and Gold Rushes (1221 words) by Gryphonrhi
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Burn Notice (TV 2007), The Losers (2010)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Sam Axe & Fiona Glenanne
Characters: Sam Axe, Fiona Glenanne, Franklin Clay
Additional Tags: Crossover, Inkvent, Prompt Fic
Summary:

Gathering intel is a skill; keeping it is a separate skill.

Sign up here.

If you need an AO3 invite, please contact the mods.



For those with a need to review AO3 processes:
HLH Shortcuts AO3 Signup Guide by @teratornis
HLH Shortcuts AO3 Submission Guide by @teratornis
How to Default

Your mods strongly encourage the use of betareaders, whether affiliated with the exchange or outside the exchange:
Betareaders Wanted/Betareaders Available

In case you need to review the 2025 dates:

• Sign Ups: October 1 to October 11, 2025 11:59PM CDT on AO3
• Assignments handed out: no later than October 14, 2025
• Default deadline: November 20, 2025
• Submission deadline: December 15, 2025
• First story posted: December 20, 2025

Please share far and wide.

The audio version of “Data Ghost” my short story from the recent Storyteller: the Tanith Lee Tribute Anthology is now online at Pseudopod!

https://pseudopod.org/2025/09/26/pseudopod-995-data-ghost/



Also, Queen Demon, the sequel to Witch King, will be out on October 7, in ebook, hardcover, and audiobook narrated by Eric Mok.

https://bookshop.org/p/books/queen-demon-martha-wells/b7abd63577bd30a5?ean=9781250826916&next=t