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Daughter of Mystery, Heather Rose Jones, 2014, has been on my to-read list for ages - since 2019, apparently, steadily creeping up in priority the more times someone recced it to me or it came up somewhere. My note said "fantasy Regencyish lesbian", which pretty much sums it up, but I will elaborate that it's a Ruritanian romance, taking place in Alpennia, a country located somewhere in the Alps between France, Germany, and Switzerland, it is low-magic fantasy but not quite no-magic, and would probably appeal to fans of Kushner's Swordspoint books. Exactly my sort of thing, in other words, as people keep telling me, and, yup, they were right, and I look forward to reading the rest of them (this is the first of several). (And perhaps I will ruminate a bit about whether there could be anything interesting to be explored in the idea of Alpennia coexisting with Orsinia or Gallacia...)
4/5. Slim scifi novel about a woman from the moon running currier jobs, while on the side she raises up baby Ais, who require care like extraordinarily precocious children.
I’m hard to charm so far this year, but this book managed it. It’s sweet in the right places, thorny in others, and does a fun/interesting tour of parts of this futuristic solar system. This pleased and distracted me during a difficult week with its space parrot and road trip.
I will say that it has odd pacing, which suddenly clicked into place for me when I looked up the author and discovered he’s previously written middle grade. Ding ding ding. This is a novel concerning mostly adult topics, but paced like middle grade. It may be less jarring if you go in knowing that.
Content notes: Violence, robots treated like property while obviously being people (not by the protagonist)
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scalziwhatever_feed Feb. 24th, 2026 06:05 pm)
Motherhood is a term that has many meanings, and looks a little different for everyone. It is also something that comes with a lot of questions, and though she may not have all the answers, author Danielle Girard explores these ideas in the Big Idea for her newest novel, Pinky Swear.
DANIELLE GIRARD:
Most of my novels have begun with a dramatic, explosive scene—gunfire, explosives, or at the very least, a murder. But the premise that caught me by the throat for my latest novel, Pinky Swear, was quieter and in so many ways, much more terrifying.
Pinky Swear is a story about a woman whose best friend agrees to be her surrogate and then, four days before the baby is due, disappears. It was the emotional immediacy of that hook that made it so compelling to write. Not only is the protagonist confronting her fear of losing a child (and one she’s never met) but also the abandonment of her best friend, and the persistent doubts about whether their decades-long friendship was a fraud.
What I didn’t expect initially was how the story opened up issues of motherhood itself. The most obvious ones are the grief of infertility and the question of what motherhood really means when biology refuses to cooperate. But beneath those is the larger theme of what makes a woman a mother? Is it biology? Pregnancy? Blood? Or is it intention, sacrifice, love, and the willingness to show up no matter the cost?
My father was an OB/GYN and, when I was growing up, babies and pregnancies were everyday dinner conversations—the joys and also the heartaches. Today, we seem to live in a culture that often defines womanhood and motherhood by a body’s ability to conceive, carry, and give birth. Infertility can feel like the unspoken failure at every baby shower, in every passing comment and well-meaning reassurance that doesn’t quite land.
In Pinky Swear, the protagonist has already endured that loss. Her inability to carry a child isn’t just a medical fact; it’s an emotional wound that reshapes how she sees herself and her place in the world. Turning to surrogacy is an act of hope, but also an act of profound vulnerability. She must trust another woman not only with her future child, but with her deepest wish.
In this dynamic, the story, rather unexpectedly to this author, became a conversation between devotion and betrayal, selflessness and selfishness. The pregnancy, like motherhood itself, carries an undeniable power, binding the two women together in ways that are both intimate and irreversible. The surrogate’s disappearance forces both the protagonist and the reader to confront uncomfortable truths: that love can coexist with resentment, that good intentions can sour, and that even lifelong promises—such as pinky swears made in childhood—can break under the weight of adult realities.
Writing this book meant sitting with uncomfortable questions. If you can’t carry your own child, are you somehow less entitled to motherhood? If another woman brings your baby into the world, where does ownership of that child’s love begin and end? And if a child is taken from you at the last possible moment, can you still call yourself a mother?
Pinky Swear asks readers to sit with the ache of unmet expectations and the messy, often painful reality of female relationships. It asks us to reconsider the stories we tell about motherhood, and to expand them beyond biology into something more human, more forgiving, and truer — that being a mother isn’t about carrying a child inside your body, but about the deep, resilient power of love, no matter the cost.
As I hope readers will do when they read Pinky Swear, I found myself asking not just what I hope I would do in such circumstances, but who I would be. Bitter or resilient. Closed off or open-hearted. Defined by loss or transformed by it. When the story ends, I believe the protagonist finds herself exactly where she was meant to be, and I hope readers will agree.
—-
Pinky Swear: Amazon|Barnes & Noble|Bookshop
I read The Bride Wore Black by Cornell Woolrich, the famous midcentury author of Rear Window and a whole heap of other bleak thrillers, apparently. I might read more later. The Bride Wore Black was obviously, to me, from the first sentence of the recommendation, a major inspiration behind Kill Bill. Tarantino is on my shit list, but I really enjoyed some of his movies, and Uma Thurman in Kill Bill is just iconic to me. Anyway, TBWB is a series of five short interludes where the Bride stalks and then kills five men in revenge. Her motive and even her identity are gradually revealed. This isn't a descendant of samurai films: she uses a new method each time, as well as a new disguise. If your curiosity is piqued, here's the review by JJ of The Invisible Event which sold me. I wouldn't rate it as highly, although it was a great read that I fully recommend; I couldn't put a book with a flaw this big on a Best Of list, and the whole last episode doesn't work for me, with a disappointing and rushed solution that felt too shallow. ( Read more... )
Yesterday I read another book from that list, Home Sweet Homicide by Craig Rice. This is a 1944 YA comedy murder mystery about the children of an ADHD single mom mystery writer trying to solve the murder that happens next door in order to matchmake their mom with the investigating detective. It's full of 1940s slang and affectionate family squabbles, the children outwitting and misleading the cops as they collect clues, and lots of evocative scenes of preparing and eating food and casual mentions of 1940s suburban life that were fascinating. The tone isn't just comic, but it isn't really a serious murder mystery, either; the puzzle and the mystery take a back seat to the children's adventures. But it's so much fun to read anyway that I heartily recommend it. The only significant flaw is the cops being sympathetic, but at least they're also constantly outwitted by the kids. Here's JJ's review that sold me. I should also say that this book predates the existence of the modern YA genre, and all the markers and conventions that I can't stand in it. I describe it as YA on the basis of the reading level, the child protagonists, and the less serious and complicated mystery.
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birdfeeding is a community started on January 1, 2023. It's all about birdfeeding, birdwatching, and other topics relating to birds. It also touches on nature in general, and observations that may effect bird activity such as local weather. Both text and image posts are welcome. Now is a great time to join as hungry birds are easy to attract with a feeder.Community resources include posts about birding events, nurseries that sell seeds or plants attractive to birds, bird identification apps, the benefits of birdwatching, and other useful materials. Check out the anchor posts from Three Weeks for Dreamwidth.
Recent posts:
Sighting a Siberian Superstar: Local birder secures rare red-flanked bluetail for life list
Homes for Birds Week
Photos: House Yard and South Lot
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I have a version of it sans-typos from when it was one of the HEA Collective novellas, but this is annoying me.
scalziwhatever_feed Feb. 24th, 2026 03:26 am)I can honestly say I’ve never heard of Bolo Gelado de Brigadeiro, or any of the words that make up this Brazilian dessert’s name, but when I came across the reel of Ash Baber making it on Instagram, I knew I wanted to give it a whirl.
Determined to try this chocolatey confection for myself, I went over to his website and took a look at the recipe. When you first look at this recipe, it looks very long and decently complicated. There’s three different sections, each with their own list of ingredients. While there are a lot of ingredients, if you look at them individually they’re really not that wild, it’s just that there’s a lot of them. What is wild is that there is butter, eggs, and oil, as well as white sugar, brown sugar, and sweetened condensed milk, so it really ends up feeling like you need a ton of stuff to make one cake.
You have to make the brigadeiro, make the cake, make the milk soak, and put it all together.
So, was it worth the hassle? How long did it really take? And, of course, how many dishes did I make in the process?
Let’s start with the cost of ingredients. Like I said, nothing was too out of the ordinary, so everything was easily attainable from my local Kroger. The only thing I would say I don’t regularly have on hand on this list is buttermilk, and it’s a 50/50 chance on whether or not I have heavy cream on hand. However, I happened to be out of a lot of things I normally have, so I had to buy some stuff for this recipe I generally would’ve just had.
I bought two cans of condensed milk, and I buy the Eagle brand one, so those were $3.49 each. Usually I have at least one can of sweetened condensed milk on hand, but I still would’ve had to buy one anyways since the recipe calls for two. I only bought a pint of the Kroger brand buttermilk, so it was just $1.29. For the Kroger brand heavy cream, I went ahead and bought a quart, so that was $5.99. Normally I have plenty of butter, but I was completely out so I got two 2-stick packs of Vital Farms Unsalted Butter. I also normally have vegetable oil, but I was down to about one tiny splash, so I bought a new 40oz Crisco Vegetable Oil for $4.79.While I did have eggs, the recipe calls for six (which seems like a lot) so I had to buy a new pack, and I bought Pete & Gerry’s Organic Free Range eggs for $6.99, but you could easily cut down on this cost by buying the Kroger brand large white eggs for $1.79. Also, this one is optional, but I bought Simple Truth Chocolate Sprinkles for $2.69.
All of that came out to $28.73. Not horrible but not cheap, either.
After acquiring the ingredients, it was time to make the brigadeiro:
I know this is only the first photo of many, but I forgot to include the actual chocolate in the photo. It was Ghirardelli. And then upon making I came extremely close to forgetting to put in the condensed milk. I was very scatterbrained apparently.
This part, while easy, was definitely time consuming. I felt like it took longer than I expected for the mixture to thicken up, but I also feel like maybe I didn’t make it hot enough at first. I think I was nervous to burn the cream so I tried to keep it pretty medium-low, but it wasn’t really thickening up much until I turned it up a bit. Technically the recipe doesn’t say how long it takes, but it took me about thirty minutes, and I was constantly stirring it, so that was tedious.
After it had thickened up to the point that I can only describe as “probably good enough,” I set it aside to cool a bit before putting some cling wrap over top and putting it in the fridge to chill.
Here’s the layout of ingredients for the cake portion:
Thankfully, this was basically just “throw everything in your stand mixer bowl and whip it together.” I put the cocoa powder and instant espresso powder (I know the recipe calls for instant coffee, but I assume this recipe can only benefit from the substitution) in the bottom of the stand mixer bowl first, then poured the hot water over it and whisked it into a smooth, thick paste:
I tossed everything else on top of it and got to mixin’. Here’s what we were looking like before the addition of the eggs and the buttermilk:
This was pretty damn gloopy, and weirdly grainy.
And after the addition:
The mixture was much more airy and light now, more like a fluffy texture. Almost mousse-like, but not quite at that level of lightness.
I opted to mix the flour in myself rather than with the stand mixer, because the bowl was honestly really full and it was a lot of flour. I didn’t want it to go exploding everywhere in the stand mixer.
When I started mixing the flour in, tiny clumps of flour started appearing all throughout the batter, like they didn’t quite mix in right. Definitely was starting to wish I had sifted the flour. I beat the clumps out best I could and poured it into the cake pan, then put it in the oven for one hour at 350 degrees Fahrenheit. There was so much batter in the pan that I was worried not even an hour would cook the cake all the way through, but when I used a knife to test it fresh out of the oven, it came out perfectly clean.
Putting that aside to cool, it was time to make the milk soak, which is just milk, cocoa powder, and sugar.
Once the cake and milk soak were both cooled, it was time to take the brigadeiro out of the fridge and put the whole dang thing together. Here’s the brigadeiro all thickened up:
Gawd dayum was this thicc. Rich and fudgy and oh so chocolatey. It was honestly incredible, but I was sure I was about to bend my spoon trying to mix it around. Handle with caution.
The cake cut in half easily, as it was very tall and made two very nice layers. I put the bottom layer in the cake pan I had baked it in, then poured half the milk soak over it. Scooped half the brigadeiro onto the first layer and smoothed it out over the surface, then slapped the top layer on top and poured the rest of the milk soak over it (I docked the top a bunch with a fork so the milk could go into the holes), and slathered that bad boy in the rest of the brigadeiro. There was so much brigadeiro on top, the cake pan could barely even contain my creation, the fudgy topping starting to spill over the sides.
The instructions say to let this puppy sit in the fridge overnight, and though it was hard not to slice right into it, I managed to let it rest in the fridge.
Once I took it out (it was heavy) and put sprinkles on top, it was glorious:
In the moment, I thought that was plenty of sprinkles, but looking at it now, I totally could’ve put more. It looks a little sparse.
I was eager to cut into it, and here’s the cross section:
My parents and I tried this cake at the same time and oh my gosh. It was probably the best chocolate cake I’ve ever had. I don’t even really like chocolate cake that much, but this one was so moist and rich, dense and fudgy and absolutely decadent. It was the kind you could only take a small slice of, and even then I needed some milk with it. It is not for the faint of heart, but it is for the fat of ass.
I had four of my friends try this cake and they all said it was incredibly banger, and even “dangerously good.” I was feeling pretty good that this turned out so yummy.
I will say this cake slides around a lot. The layer of brigadeiro in between the top and bottom cake layer make this thing slip and slide all over itself, and you can end up with a very slanted, divided cake if you aren’t careful. Cutting into it is messy, frosting it is messy, divvying it up into Tupperwares to give to other people is messy. But boy is it delicious.
For the dishes portion of this recipe test, this recipe is unique because it isn’t measured with cups and the like. You can measure everything on a digital scale, which made everything so much easier and made me use considerably less dishes. I used one bowl to weigh the brigadeiro ingredients in, one pot to cook the brigadeiro in, a rubber spatula to mix it, and another bowl to put in the fridge after it cooked. For the cake I used my stand mixer bowl, one attachment of the stand mixer, one whisk, a teaspoon, a tablespoon, and one rubber spatula to put it into the cake tin. I guess you can also count the cake tin in that, too. Oh, and a bowl for the eggs because I always crack eggs into a separate bowl first instead of straight into the cake batter. Finally, I used one small pot for the milk soak, a tablespoon, and another rubber spatula.
So, was it all worth it? The large ingredient list, the time that went into it, the dishes, and the cost (roughly, prices will vary for you, obviously).
I think yes! But this is definitely something to make for special occasions, or maybe for something like the holidays, when you need something to feed a lot of people. This cake makes a lot of cake.
I honestly liked making this cake and I’m very happy with the result. The dishes really weren’t so bad, and the praise you’ll get for how good this tastes outweighs the considerable effort of making it.
Have you heard of this dessert before? Do you usually like chocolate cake? Let me know in the comments, and have a great day!
-AMS
Anyway, have some brief thoughts on recent TV:
- Shrinking: ( spoilers ) This show remains hilarious and endearing.
- Pluribus: I finished it and I don't love it but I am interested in seeing where it goes. ( spoilers )
- The Pitt: ( spoilers )
*
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⌈ Secret Post #6989 ⌋
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scalziwhatever_feed Feb. 23rd, 2026 06:21 pm)
Heroes come in many sizes, shapes, colors, and… fabrics? Author R. Z. Nicolet is here to show that your choice in clothing can be more than just stylish, it can be functional, perhaps even magical. Don your finest accessories and check out the Big Idea for her newest novel, The Cloak & Its Wizard.
R. Z. NICOLET:
Have you ever been reading a book or watching a movie when you really wished you had a different character’s perspective on events? Maybe wondering what the tavernkeeper thinks of the rowdy adventurers or what the aliens think of the bumbling human explorers?
Some of my favorite books are those that literally take an alien viewpoint – like Chanur’s Pride by C. J. Cherryh or any number of recent novels by Adrian Tchaikovsky. What would it be like to see the world through another set of eyes? Or none at all?
Years ago, I watched Doctor Strange. It was fun, but Strange was Iron Man with magic and not that interesting. I was more intrigued by the other characters, especially the Cloak of Levitation. What was its story? What did it want out of existence? Why did it decide that this random sorcerer was worthy of its attention? When it gets muddy, does it go in the laundry?
I was in the middle of a very serious fantasy thriller manuscript, but I decided to write one chapter of something lighter. Just for fun. I took Doctor Strange, filed the serial numbers off, and out came a scene about the Cloak of Sunset and Starlight deciding that newly minted wizard Veronica Noble needed better outerwear (much to her chagrin) with as much snarky commentary about human foibles as I could pack in.
Just one chapter.
One chapter turned into two, which turned into three.
At this point, I realized I had a serious problem on my hands.
I’m normally an outliner. I start with plot and then cast my characters in the requisite roles. This time, I was doing it backwards: the vain and mischievous cloak came first.
The tricky part was turning the amusing sidekick into the lead. To emphasize the depth of the challenge: the folder on my computer that’s got all my drafts and notes is named “Untitled Cloak Book,” a reference to the video game featuring a notoriously chaotic goose.
Supporting characters have an advantage: they can be flavor instead of substance. Like Strange’s Cloak of Levitation, they show up as a convenient plot device or a humorous diversion and then fade into the background. They don’t have to make the hard decisions or save the world. Quirks don’t linger long enough to become grating. Character development is optional, as is backstory.
If I wanted to keep the cloak at the center of the narrative, I needed it to be more than just the sidekick.
A part of the solution was to let Noble, the wizard, act as the cloak’s foil. She’s the serious, dutiful contrast to the cloak’s love of excitement and drama. Her reluctance to act gives the cloak reason to intervene.
The rest was treating the cloak like any other main character. When I got to editing, I had to adjust those first few chapters to make sure the stakes were clear – and that it was the cloak dealing with them. The how is very different from a human character, but many of the deeper why reasons are similar – from wanting an interesting life to protecting its friends.
Perhaps that’s the real Big Idea: however peculiar the perspective, they’re still a person trying to be the hero of their own story. (And hoping to avoid a trip through the laundry machine.)
The Cloak and Its Wizard: Amazon|Barnes & Noble|Bookshop|Powell’s|Kobo
( Read more... )
Luke and Billy Finally Get a Clue by Cat Sebastian:
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You So Be So Lucky by Cat Sebastian:
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I mean, you can, but you shouldn't. There are cheap, crappy faucets at these stores!
What you should do is buy the reliable, standard, plumber-recommended workhorse brand of faucets, even if they cost a lot more.
So we have three faucets in our house, and two of them are ones we picked out at a hardware store and have given trouble from day one, and one is one that the plumber brought with him, and is a standard model of the standard brand that is in all the apartments around here.
The crappy kitchen faucet finally, after being a headache for the last six years, reached the end of its usable lifespan a couple of days ago when I turned it on and there was a loud KACHUNK! noise and then the two little plastic screen-thingies that were apparently just GLUED in the opening shot out into the sink. They were broken and impossible to put back. Since then the faucet has just had a big round open end like a garden hose (lol), and when you turn it on the water shoots out and sprays across whatever you're wearing unless you very carefully turn it on only a little tiny bit.
We have learned our lesson and are going to buy the same brand that's in our downstairs bathroom sink this time. We are not 100% sure if we can install it ourselves, in spite of having watched people installing sinks so many times in videos. I guess I need to watch a few more of those and then if we give up we can always call a handyman (we hope to avoid this because we don't like calling people).
scalziwhatever_feed Feb. 23rd, 2026 05:33 am)I promise you that I am doing other things with my time than just making cover songs, but I am making cover songs too. For this one I decided to actually play some of my stringed instruments, so whenever you hear guitar or bass on this track, that’s me fumbling about either on my Little Prince SG, or my Bass VI. I’m not ready to go on tour with either instrument, but it’s good enough (uh, with maybe a smidge of quantizing) for this song. Hope you like it.
— JS
I then baked some oatmeal for breakfast for the week, and made macaroni salad for a few days of lunch, and then for dinner, I made angel hair as planned, though when I actually read the recipe, it was not anything new to me - it was what I always do for a super quick tomato sauce, except they were adding chile crisp to it, which I guess is the thing nowadays - every recipe I read has chile crisp in it, but I'm not really a chile crisp person. I have the heat tolerance (in terms of spiciness, though I also don't like my food super hot temperature-wise either) of the whitest baby you know.
Anyway! It is a super easy but delicious meal and if you don't mind waiting a few extra minutes, you can do it all in one pot. Boil your pasta - angel hair is best for this, imo - and reserve a cup of pasta water before you drain it. Return the pot to the stove over low heat and add in a nice glug of olive oil (2 tbsp if you need a measurement), and then add a whole can or tube of tomato paste to the oil (so between 4 and 6 oz). Stir it around and season it as you like - I used garlic and onion powder, oregano and red pepper flakes and salt, but if you want to get fancy, you could probably saute a diced shallot and some minced garlic in the oil for a minute or two before adding the tomato paste - for 2-3 minutes, until it's all hot and sizzling. If you are so inclined, add chile crisp to suit your taste. Then add the pasta back, and about half the reserved water and toss it until the pasta is coated. I only used 4 oz of angel hair, so if you have more, you might need more water. Then put it in bowls and sprinkle it with parmesan cheese. If you are in an even bigger rush, you can sizzle the tomato paste in a frying pan while the pasta cooks and then combine it all back in the pasta pot. The couple of minutes you save isn't worth having to wash an extra pot to me, but it might be to some people.
*
⌈ Secret Post #6988 ⌋
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