Scarlet Morning (Scarlet Morning, volume 1) by ND Stevenson
Feb. 10th, 2026 08:52 am
Two orphans escape their dismal island home for adventure in a slowly dying world.
Scarlet Morning (Scarlet Morning, volume 1) by ND Stevenson
Melody of Secrets: Fanfic: crossfire hearts
Feb. 10th, 2026 06:58 amMods please use the f: tv (category) tag
Rating: T
Length: 100 words
Content notes: reference to canonical character death
Author notes: The title is from No Gifts from War by Angkarn Chanthathip, translated by Tracey Martin.
Summary: Finally knowing the truth doesn’t mean that things aren’t still broken.
( Read more... )
Gerard Way is living his best life atm so that's a real plus
Feb. 8th, 2026 02:12 pm--Mental health quite bad recently, but am persevering.
--An allegedly Australian phrase I learned today: "I'm so hungry I could eat the arse of a low-flying pigeon."
--Am writing about 6 fics simultanously, which is very pleasing to my self-identity as 'person who writes things,' but one of them involves a lot of subject matter that is perhaps not great for the mental health as per above. If I finish it then I will be done with it? It's so close to done.
--Have had a song stuck in my head for days due to this frankly magnificent Festivid:
ASSHOLE (197 words) by cupidsbow
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Looney Tunes | Merrie Melodies, Multi-Fandom
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Bugs Bunny/Daffy Duck (Looney Tunes), Bugs Bunny & Daffy Duck (Looney Tunes)
Characters: Daffy Duck (Looney Tunes), Bugs Bunny (Looney Tunes), Tasmanian Devil (Looney Tunes), Elmer Fudd, Porky Pig (Looney Tunes), Marvin the Martian (Looney Tunes), Yosemite Sam (Looney Tunes)
Additional Tags: Talking Animals, Animation, Comedy, Slapstick, Pranks and Practical Jokes, Fanvids
Series: Part 62 of cupidsbow's fanvids
Summary:
I'd like to sing a song about the American Dream.
lucky me!
Feb. 10th, 2026 06:34 amOkay, this is one of those things I feel like I really SHOULD have known, and maybe I did know, sort of, at some point? But I saw a post about it on tumblr and suddenly it made more sense, and I tried it, and now I'm lucky AND I have more fics to read!
Here's how I usually find things to read on AO3:
*fandom tags
*ship tags
*other tags, because I love tags
*sorting by kudos
*the bookmarks of an author whose fics I like
*if a fic I like is in a collection, seeing what else is in that collection
But APPARENTLY some people are out there using the ACTUAL AO3 bookmarking system to find recs! You can click the number after 'Bookmarks' and see everyone who's bookmarked the fic, along with who gave it a little heart recommendation, and the notes or tags they added. All of this I sort of basically knew.
I genuinely NEVER THOUGHT to click the username of people who had bookmarked a fic I like, and then check the rest of their bookmarks for more stuff! Brilliant! I am in the lucky 10,000 for sure, except now I have a 50,000 word fic AND a 100,000 word fic in my tabs and I'm also supposed to be in the office today...
reading log: january 2026
Feb. 10th, 2026 10:31 amI actually really enjoyed reading this; I generally enjoy travel memoirs of women doing adventurous things PLUS I love travel memoirs that take place before cell phones. That, plus the author really had a great time on her trip and loved meeting local people, and the introspection stuff that's typical of a 20-something trying to figure out what to do with her life wasn't as annoying as it might've been because it was tempered with Buddhist philosophies.
Downside is she falls heavily into the "things are so much better for this primitive uneducated society because they don't have technology or money" mindset which is very surface-level, tbh. Maybe they're truly happy, maybe they're just showing you, an outsider, a positive face.
Second book: Peregrinations of a Pariah by Flora Tristan, translated by Jean Hawkes, another travel memoir but this time from the 1800s. It's basically about a French woman traveling to Peru to try and get some family inheritance, and then getting caught in a civil war.
She's an excellent writer (and the translator did a great job) but she definitely has the old-school traveler mindset of "everything but my home country is horrible"-- she hates the food, the people, the location, etc. Her personality is quite funny, though; she kept saying she could run the country if only she could find the right man to partner with, but she couldn't even convince her miserly uncle to part with any money for the 9+ months she lived with him. Ha!
Civil war coverage was a slog and took up a good 1/3 of the book-- which was edited down even more from the original, actually-- and while it was interesting to read about 1800s Peru the fact that the author hated nearly everything about it made for rough reading. I WOULD read her other books, though, one of which is about traveling to England (The London Journal of Flora Tristan, 1842) and another about labor reform in France (not sure if this was translated into English).
John Dies at the End - Jason Pargin (series)
Feb. 10th, 2026 01:25 amThese books, and especially the first half of book 1 (by far the weakest part of the series), are dudebro-ish and sometimes very early-2000s deliberately transgressive humor (i.e. South Park - this gets MUCH less as it goes on, but never really goes away), and they are sometimes lovely and insightful, and sometimes just incredibly stupid, and I can see why someone would bounce off them, especially considering how I struggled to get through the early parts of book 1. But after four books, I love these characters so much that I will follow them anywhere. Even through the stupid parts!
These books, especially the first one, are primarily narrated by Dave, a slacker dudebro in the general style of early 2000s movies etc (this is very clearly in the style of the Kevin Smith movies, South Park, and other things of that era). Dave is a depressed loner working at a video store whose best and only friend is John, a Bad Idea Friend who takes every drug he gets his hands on, belongs to a shitty band, and drags Dave into a never-ending series of terrible, terrible life choices.
The plot-relevant one of these is taking a new drug sweeping their depressed Midwestern town of [Undisclosed], a drug which looks like mobile and intelligent used motor oil. It turns out that it kills most of the people who take it, but they are among the few survivors, and are suddenly able to step outside time and space, and see everything going on their small depressed Midwestern town -- all the ghosts, all the cosmic entities. They can uncontrollably travel in time, they can freeze time, and they're swept up in an attempt to fix a series of goddawful cosmic horror rifts in time and space that are wrecking their whole dimension.
The third member of the group is drawn in during the first book when she becomes a victim and later a friend: Amy, who was shattered physically and emotionally in a car accident, and then comes to the attention of cosmic horrors; starts off as one of the people they're trying to help, and gets sucked into weird spacetime shenanigans with things that she (unlike John and Dave) can't actually see. It's with Amy's introduction that the first book feels like it really kicks off and gets good.
The body count is high and gory, there are tons of gore and grossout humor and some incredibly soft, emotional and deeply affecting moments as well. This is a series where
some spoilers for one of the books
the big dilemma can be how do we kill some giant extradimensional maggots that pretend to be adorable human children, who everyone else sees as adorable human children, while they munch gorily on their caregivers and no one else can see it ... or maybe it's the realization that the hideous maggots are also children, deserving of care and consideration as any other children, and maybe the people you need to stop are the government agents coming to kill them.If whether the dog dies is an important factor in your reading or viewing, please click
this spoiler
there is a dog, and the dog dies.These books are so hard to rec, because you have to slog through the worst part of the series (the first half of book 1) to get to the almost transcendentally good late middle of book one; it can be lovely enough to make me cry or just spectacularly stupid within a chapter or two. A lot of stuff is brought up and then never explained. But sometimes the explanations made me put the book down and have feelings for a while. It made me laugh a lot. There are so many bodily fluids and terrible bodily function jokes. Some of its best moments involve the characters being forced to contend with the fact that life is complicated and stupid and cruel, and the best thing you can do, maybe the only thing you can do, is to simply be kind, and make the kind choice, if that's the only choice you have to make.
Sometimes defeating the apocalypse cultists means sitting down with them and understanding their heartbreaking loneliness and convincing them to walk away because you can be the person who turns them around and becomes the only person in their lives to ever believe in them and tell them that they can be something better than this.
... And sometimes it involves a triple-barreled shotgun and a plan involving a room full of fake silicon butts. That's what this series is like.
( A spoiler from book 4 )
Hide Your Wallet: February 10th Release Week
Feb. 10th, 2026 08:00 am
Welcome back!
This is where the month starts to get beefy for new releases. There are contemporary romances, mysteries, and more!
What new releases are you excited for this week? Let us know in the comments!
Honey Bee Mine
Author: Sarah Dubb
Released: February 10, 2026 by Gallery Books
Genre: Contemporary Romance, Romance
In this small town, enemies-to-lovers romance from the author of Birding with Benefits, a type-A beekeeper and a former bad boy join forces to plan a summertime Honey Festival.
Like the bees she keeps, Penny Becker lives by a golden rule: never stop working. That mantra kept Becker Farms running when her grandfather, dad, and ex all left for greener pastures. But after taking out a loan for an expansion plan that crashed and burned, Penny has to find a way to pay or risk losing it all, and she’s betting everything on the Sullivan’s Glen Honey Festival. To save the farm, she has to make the festival bigger, better, and more successful than ever before—and she plans to do it all on her own.
Reformed bad boy turned restaurateur Zander Bouras left Sullivan’s Glen in a blaze of glory and vowed to never return. But when his ex-wife wants to go back for the summer, Zander grudgingly follows. He refuses to miss time with his son, and figures it’s finally time to deal with the farmhouse his grandfather left, for some reason, to him.
His first day in town brings Zander face to face with Penny, the girl whose perfect life mocked him from next door. It’s just his luck that his son loves her and her bees, and before he knows it he’s been volunteered to help plan a honey festival with the sexy, stubborn beekeeper whose braid he just wants to tug. As they learn to work together, Zander faces his demons and learns to see Sullivan’s Glen in a new light as Penny realizes that accepting help isn’t so bad—especially from the right person. But as the festival day and Zander’s departure draw near, they’ll have to decide if the romance buzzing between them can last past the sweet days of summer.
Amanda: Former bad boy has a kid who is obsessed with the heroine’s bee colony. I’m curious.
The Midnight Taxi
Author: Yosha Gunasekera
Released: February 10, 2026 by Berkley
Genre: Mystery/Thriller
When the last fare of the night turns up dead in her backseat, a Sri Lankan American taxi driver works off the clock to clear her name in this mystery novel by debut author Yosha Gunasekera.
Siriwathi Perera doesn’t quite know where she’s going in life. She never expected to be a taxicab driver in New York City, struggling to make ends meet and still living with her parents at twenty-eight. The true-crime podcasts that keep Siri company as she drives don’t do much to make up for the legal career she imagined for herself, or the brother she’s grieving.
When public defender Amaya Fernando gets into her cab, they make a quick connection through their shared Sri Lankan roots. Siri, whose social circle is limited to her grade-school best friend, Alex, thinks things might finally be looking up with this new potential friendship. But she’s suddenly dropped into her own true crime when she discovers her next passenger murdered in the backseat, and she has to call Amaya sooner than she’d expected.
Pinned as the obvious and only suspect, and desperate to clear her name, Siri chases down leads across the boroughs of New York City with Amaya’s help. But with her court date looming, they have just five days to find out who really killed the midnight passenger—or Siri’s life will be over before she can even truly live it.
Sarah: This book’s cover copy grabbed me because of the characters and the short time span – they have 6 days to figure out who killed Siri’s last fare. It looks so layered and interesting and I’m so excited to read it.
Murder Bimbo
Author: Rebecca Novack
Released: February 10, 2026 by Avid Reader Press / Simon & Schuster
Genre: Horror, Mystery/Thriller
“Murder Bimbo is Gone Girl for the Luigi Mangione era, and Rebecca Novack is one of our funniest and most acerbic new writers.” —Catherine Lacey, author of Biography of X
An exhilarating and provocative debut perfect for fans of My Sister the Serial Killer, Yellowface, and Killing Eve—the origin story of sex worker turned assassin turned unlikely folk hero, Murder Bimbo, as told by the Bimbo herself (and then revised, uncensored, and reconsidered).
A thirty-two-year-old sex worker is shocked when she’s approached by undercover government agents to aid them in a top-secret plot to assassinate a politician known as “Meat Neck.” But once the deed is done, she realizes what made her the perfect She’s 100% disposable.
Holed up in an off-the-grid cabin in the woods, she now has only two days, her wits, and a laptop to save her own life.
Her best bet is to reach out to the wildly popular feminist investigative podcast Justice for Bimbos. In a hastily typed series of emails, the newly minted “Murder Bimbo” explains how she was recruited and then trained by a cabal of code-named US agents to take out Meat Neck.
Then she starts a new series of emails. This time, they’re addressed to her ex, and the facts line up a little differently…
Constructed in three increasingly unhinged acts, each a more subversive, twisted version of the story than the last, Murder Bimbo can be read as a gloriously bold literary thriller, a satirical megalomaniac’s manifesto, or a raucous send-up of the political insanity we all live inside every day. Either way, it’s a dead-serious announcement of an electric new voice in American literature.
Elyse: I would probably buy this book just for the title, but the plot sounds delightfully bananas.
Operation Bounce House
Author: Matt Dinniman
Released: February 10, 2026 by Ace
Genre: Science Fiction/Fantasy
A man must fight for his planet against impossible odds when gamers from Earth attempt to remotely annihilate it in this epic, fast-paced novel from the New York Times bestselling author of the smash-hit Dungeon Crawler Carl.
All colonist Oliver Lewis ever wanted to do is run the family ranch with his sister, maybe play a gig or two with his band, and keep his family’s aging fleet of intelligent agriculture bots ticking as long as possible. As a fan of Earth television and culture, he figures it will be a good thing when the transfer gate finally opens all the way and restores instant travel and full communication between Earth and his planet, New Sonora. But there’s a complication.
Even though the settlers were promised they’d be left in peace, Earth’s government now has other plans. The colossal Apex Corporation is hired to commence an “eviction action.” But maximizing profits will always be Apex’s number one priority. Why spend money printing and deploying their own AI soldiers when they can turn it into a game? Why not charge bored Earthers for the opportunity to design their own war machines and remotely pilot them from the comfort of their own homes?
The game is called Operation Bounce House.
Oliver and his friends soon find themselves fighting for their lives against machines piloted by gamers who’ve paid a premium for the privilege. With the help of an old book from his grandfather and a bucket of rusty parts, Oliver is determined to defend the only home he’s ever known.
A brand new book from the author of Dungeon Crawler Carl.
Promise Me
Author: Sara Cate
Released: February 10, 2026 by Sourcebooks Casablanca
Genre: Contemporary Romance, Erotica/Erotic Romance, LGBTQIA, Romance
Series: Sinful Manor #2
He let him get away once… Now he has seven days to get him back.
Fifteen years ago, Declan Barclay left for uni with plans of becoming an artist and escaping his family’s heavy rule. What he didn’t expect was to meet a soft and enigmatic actor in desperate need of guidance…and a friend. Declan quickly took Colin Shelby under his wing and the two were inseparable ever since.
That is until the night before graduation, when lines were crossed and everything changed.
Now, after years apart, Colin is back in Declan’s life, but he’s not alone. He’s made a promise to marry someone else, and Declan only has seven days to win back the love of his life. There’s just one His family is counting on him to pull this wedding off at Barclay Manor.
With just one week until vows are exchanged, Declan must decide—stay silent and lose Colin for good, or risk everything and ask the one who got away to promise him forever.
Elyse: Cate is an auto buy for me.
She Made Herself a Monster
Author: Anna Kovatcheva
Released: February 10, 2026 by Mariner Books
Genre: Gothic, Horror, Historical: European
A heady, dark-hued Gothic gem of a debut novel: in nineteenth-century Bulgaria, a self-proclaimed vampire slayer—actually, a traveling con artist—joins forces with a teenage girl to create a monster deadly enough to vanquish their own demons.
We make monsters in order to destroy them. For thousands of years, we’ve named witches and burned them, suspected demons and exorcised them. When crops die and children fall ill, who better to blame than a monster?
In nineteenth-century Bulgaria, Yana rides from one desolate town to the next, staging grisly displays while the villagers sleep: animal corpses in the public square, eggs filled with blood in the chicken coop. She tells the stricken villagers stories of vampires that stalk the night. Then Yana eliminates the threat, and leaves seeds of hope in her wake.
The village of Koprivici, however, is plagued by exceptional illness and misfortune, its children rarely surviving infancy. There, Yana meets Anka: a headstrong orphan who the villagers blame for their curse. As Anka approaches womanhood, the village Captain is grooming her for marriage against her will. Anka is powerless against him—that is, until Yana arrives. Together, the orphan and the vampire slayer hatch a plan: to conjure a monster so vile, it might provide cover for Anka to escape. But their plan quickly takes on a horrifying life of its own…
Inspired by Slavic folklore, She Made Herself a Monster concocts a clever mix of witchery, ghost stories, heresy, and deception to spin a feminist fable about agency and the power of collective action. It is a haunting and astoundingly cathartic tale of two women who will stop at nothing to take control of their fate.
Amanda: Any book that uses Judith Beheading Holofernes for a cover is an automatic yes
Still Into You
Author: Erin Connor
Released: February 10, 2026 by Forever
Genre: Contemporary Romance, Romance
Two exes reunite for a make-or-break interview that will either bring them back together … or drive them apart forever.
Sloane Donavan dreamed of being a rock journalist ever since she posted her first MySpace blog. Now, one journalism degree, a failed internship, and dozens of backstage passes later, she’s struggling to land a full-time staff position. So when punk rock’s most notorious and elusive frontman offers her his first interview in eight years, Sloane should be jumping at the opportunity—but taking it would mean reconnecting with the only guy she’s ever loved (and lost), Dax Nakamura.
Unable to pass up a shot at making her name—and helping Dax clear the reputation that’s plagued his—Sloane agrees. It’s only a conflict of interest if anyone finds out. But the article Dax wants and the salacious tell-all Sloane’s editor is expecting are two completely different stories. And as old feelings resurface, Sloane’s journalistic integrity hangs in the balance. This is the career-making piece she’s been waiting for, but it comes with a the chance to rewrite the ending with her first and only love.
Amanda: The last second chance romance with a setting in music I read was a 5-star read, and I normally avoid those tropes. Let’s see if we can go two for two.
Dahlia: Connor’s debut, Unromance, was one of my favorites last year, so especially as a former rock journalist-wannabe, I’m excited to see what she brings back to the table. (Plus, demisexual rep!)
Throne of Nightmares
Author: Kerri Maniscalco
Released: February 10, 2026 by Little, Brown and Company
Genre: Fantasy/Fairy Tale Romance, Paranormal, Romance, Science Fiction/Fantasy
Series: Prince of Sin #3
‘Beware of waking the gods, their dreams are often our nightmares . . .’
A book of dangerous magic draws two readers into a perilous quest to find it – and their own happy ending – in this action-packed standalone fantasy romance from Sunday Times bestselling sensation Kerri Maniscalco.
A prince who prefers games of the head to those of the heart.
Prince Sloth hates leaving his enchanted library, but when a forgotten deity threatens the very fabric of the Underworld, he’s thrust into a race against time. He must find the Book of Nightmares – an ancient artifact that has the power to break worlds – before it unleashes a deadly game to free its master, the Goddess of Night. When a betrayal leaves him marked, and desperate, his path collides with a young woman who possesses the legendary Phoenix Tear – a portal stone unlike any other.
A librarian who is all sweet sunshine . . . until she burns.
Lore Brimstone has always loved getting lost in a book – but she never meant literally. Yet, after visiting a traveling caravan, she quickly finds herself transported to a terrifying but oddly familiar world – with a calculating prince at her side. Realizing they are living out her favourite novels one by one, they face off against an increasingly dark magic as they try to survive the story.
A twisted tale that means they can’t trust themselves – or their hearts.
As Lore and Sloth navigate the pages of her beloved novels gone wrong, she must channel her inner main character to defeat the Book of Nightmares before the wall between the gods and mortals comes crashing down, dooming them all.
Amanda: I’ve been enjoying this series (and surprisingly staying on top of it), so I’m excited to keep going!
And I Am On A Roll - Another Fic Post!
Feb. 10th, 2026 02:02 amFandom: Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
Character(s): Dorothy Shaw, Lorelei Lee
Rating: G
Summary: Playing dumb was not Dorothy's style, but desperate times called for desperate measures.
Constantine TV series last episode
Feb. 10th, 2026 05:14 amUnfortunately ( Read more... )
John Constantine as a character has a lot of precedent to work with so they've got a lot that is already compelling and they can just give him a showcase and watch him go. So you get a man who they keep calling arrogant, which he is, but he keeps solving things by finding the other people who can do what he cannot and encouraging them to believe in themselves, which isn't arrogant at all. Only turn that around and look at it the other way and you've got a con artist who talks other people into sticking their necks out for him over and over again. He'll risk his life over and over, especially for children, but you can never actually trust him, because he'll do what *he* thinks is right and damn the consequences. He believes he is damned with no hope of a way out, he keeps saying he'll pay when it's his time, but he'll do... so many things to put that time off. And he is *angry*. So angry. He thinks evil needs to be punished. Including his.
Fascinating and compelling character, who got more room to breathe on the other show.
Every wiki I read says that folding John into the Arrowverse retcons this series into the Arrowverse too, but I remain unconvinced. It could be a step sideways of all that.
Plus with the Crisis in the middle we see at least two versions of everyone anyway.
There were a lot of loose threads but they needed to do a Lot better at a great many things before I'd want this particular iteration of the story to be the one to tie them off.
Flawed stories with fascinating character in them.
I've only myself to blame
Feb. 9th, 2026 10:41 pm(The preamble is about 6000 words)
Daily Happiness
Feb. 9th, 2026 07:34 pm2. Since the dentist appointment was a good excuse and I didn't really have a pressing reason to go into the office, I just worked from home today. I think I'll have to go in every day the rest of the week, so it was nice to stay home today.
3. I love these sunny window shots!

Housekeeping Note, re: Emails and Big Ideas, 2/9/26
Feb. 10th, 2026 02:44 amHey, I neglected email for a bit in order to finish my book(s), including Big Idea queries, but now that they’re both in, I’m going to going to catch up with everything in the next couple of days. If you have a Big Idea query into me and haven’t heard back from me by this Friday, go ahead and resend it. Thanks.
— JS
Rawlin's New Hair
Feb. 9th, 2026 09:15 pmMarvel Comics - Ultimates (Earth-1610) | icons | Star Power
Feb. 9th, 2026 09:04 pmFandom: Marvel Ultimates
Rating: G
Content notes: None apply
Summary: icons of Ultimates Tony Stark - who is a star himself, everyone knows who he is, and there are star accents on the icons
( Star Power )
Wound care exposing a pregnancy.
Feb. 9th, 2026 05:51 pmDetails:
I have a story I'm currently working on set in a modern type world, and a plot point where one of the two main characters is attacked by a pack of street dogs and gets some minor scratch and bite injuries. I'm thinking just a few stitches at most. I can guess they'll need "just in case" antibiotics and rabies shots because of the bites, but would common care involve any tests that would expose an early pregnancy?
Goals:
I'm trying to keep the pregnancy a surprise for the other main character later in the story, so a "some hospitals would do these tests but some wouldn't" could be ruled that this time it wasn't done. But if it's very common to do certain blood or other tests that would easily reveal a pregnancy, that's a problem. And having the other main character who's acting as their savior/caregiver in this scenario decide not to get them treatment wouldn't be in character or suit his arc in the story, even with minor wounds that in theory could be treated at home.
Do I need to change details of the attack, or depict this medical team as negligent? Or is the stealth of this pregnancy safe?
