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james_davis_nicoll Sep. 11th, 2025 03:35 pm)
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otw_news_feed Sep. 11th, 2025 06:06 pm)Forging Ghost, a Spike/Angel fanfiction archive, is being imported to the Archive of Our Own (AO3).
In this post:
Forging Ghost was a Yahoo! Group dedicated to fanfiction for Spike/Angel from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel: the Series. Ghostsforge, the moderator, preserved Forging Ghost when Yahoo! Groups was shut down in 2019 and asked Open Doors for assistance in importing its works to AO3.
The purpose of the Open Doors Committee’s Online Archive Rescue Project is to assist moderators of archives to incorporate the fanworks from those archives into the Archive of Our Own. Open Doors works with moderators to import their archives when the moderators lack the funds, time, or other resources to continue to maintain their archives independently. It is extremely important to Open Doors that we work in collaboration with moderators who want to import their archives and that we fully credit creators, giving them as much control as possible over their fanworks. Open Doors will be working with Ghostsforge to import Forging Ghost into a separate, searchable collection on the Archive of Our Own. As part of preserving the archive in its entirety, all fanart currently in Forging Ghost will be hosted on the OTW’s servers, and embedded in their own AO3 work pages.
We will begin importing works from Forging Ghost to the AO3 after September. However, the import may not take place for several months or even years, depending on the size and complexity of the archive. Creators are always welcome to import their own works and add them to the collection in the meantime.
We will send an import notification to the email address we have for each creator. We’ll do our best to check for an existing copy of any works before importing. If we find a copy already on the AO3, we will add it to the collection instead of importing it. All works archived on behalf of a creator will include their name in the byline or the summary of the work.
All imported works will be set to be viewable only by logged-in AO3 users. Once you claim your works, you can make them publicly viewable if you choose. After 30 days, all unclaimed imported works will be made visible to all visitors.
Please contact Open Doors with your Forging Ghost pseud and email address(es), if:
Please include the name of the archive in the subject heading of your email. If you no longer have access to the email account associated with your Forging Ghost account, please contact Open Doors and we’ll help you out. (If you’ve posted the works elsewhere, or have an easy way to verify that they’re yours, that’s great; if not, we will work with the Forging Ghost mod to confirm your claims.)
Please see the Open Doors Website for instructions on
If you have further questions, visit the Open Doors FAQ, or contact the Open Doors committee.
We’d also love it if fans could help us preserve the story of Forging Ghost on Fanlore. If you’re new to wiki editing, no worries! Check out the new visitor portal, or ask the Fanlore Gardeners for tips.
We’re excited to be able to help preserve Forging Ghost!
– The Open Doors team and Ghostsforge
Commenting on this post will be disabled in 14 days. If you have any questions, concerns, or comments regarding this import after that date, please contact Open Doors.
scalziwhatever_feed Sep. 11th, 2025 05:37 pm)
The word “sonder” refers to the realization that every other person is living their own, whole life outside of what you see. For author Ren Hutchings, she has experienced this with side characters in media, wondering about their lives outside of the story. Expanding on this idea, she ended up writing An Unbreakable World. Follow along in her Big Idea to see how this companion novel focuses on characters who are outside of the spotlight.
REN HUTCHINGS:
I’ve always had an interest in the relationship between history and folklore, a theme which has influenced so much of my speculative writing. I’m most intrigued by a close, individual perspective, viewing the past as a moving tapestry of small lives and stories, rather than a series of big, significant events.
Ever since I was a child, I’ve often found myself invested in a seemingly insignificant side character in a book or movie, that person who only pops up for a brief encounter and says three lines of dialogue. I’d be wondering about where they went next, or if they had a family, or what the rest of their life was like. Because of course they must have had a whole life that existed outside of that one time when they happened to cross paths with the heroes!
And so, when I set out to write a new novel set in the same universe as my debut, Under Fortunate Stars, I found myself pulled toward the stories at the outer edges. The result is a standalone novel that’s in many ways a companion piece to my first book, but in other ways its opposite. Because while Under Fortunate Stars was about a group of unexpected heroes who famously stopped an interstellar war and saved humanity, An Unbreakable World is very much about those folks on the periphery. In a vast galaxy fraught with intrigue and turmoil, this story asks what was going on with the people who didn’t become historical heroes.
The protagonists in this book are people whose names and deeds won’t be remembered in songs or poems. They’re people whose most important choices will never be known to history, whose motivations will never be examined by future biographers. The point-of-view characters are each struggling to find a meaning in their own lives, and looking in all the wrong places for an ever-elusive sense of purpose.
Almost everybody you meet in An Unbreakable World is experiencing deep isolation. Page is a petty thief who woke up from stasis without most of her memories, and while she searches desperately for any shards of her missing past, she closes her mind to the possibilities that the present is offering her. Meanwhile, Maelle has dedicated years of her life to plotting a long-game revenge scheme, and she’s likewise been ignoring every opportunity to take a new path.
On a distant world, Dalya of House Edamaun is an anxious young heiress growing up in a restrictive, sheltered society, on a planet that has intentionally cut itself off from the United Worlds of Humanity. She’s struggling with spiritual and existential questions, crushed by the weight of a responsibility she doesn’t feel ready for… until she comes to realize that she actually has more choices than she thinks. In forging small, intimate connections with others, each character finds the shape of their own story becoming clearer.
Both of the Union Quadrant books touch on themes about storytelling, memory, and the historical record. But the thing I really wanted to explore in An Unbreakable World is the way our search for a bigger meaning often begins with our most personal choices.
Most people will never do any epic deeds, or perform incredible galaxy-changing feats. And some people whose actions do have far-reaching effects won’t even realize it. Indeed, most of us will never know exactly how our lives will affect the fabric of history, or how far the ripples of our decisions travelled. But we can make choices about what’s important to us, about what we want to stand for and believe in. We can choose which things we find meaning in when our future isn’t clear and everything seems hopeless.
Sometimes, the journey to save yourself – and to accept that you’re somebody worth saving – can be just as monumental as a heroic quest to save the galaxy.
An Unbreakable World: Amazon|Barnes & Noble|Bookshop|Kobo|Powell’s
scalziwhatever_feed Sep. 11th, 2025 05:36 pm)Charlie knows you might be stressed out right now, and would like to offer you her carrot:
It’s dirty and slobbery, but that’s what makes it so special. She hopes you enjoy her gift to you.
-AMS
otw_news_feed Sep. 10th, 2025 11:01 pm)Over the past month, we rolled out behind-the-scenes upgrades and quality-of-life improvements across the site, including the addition of username links and chapter numbers to kudos and comment emails, respectively. We also made some major privacy and security enhancements, such as removing the email, birthday, and location fields from profiles and checking new passwords against known data breaches.
Special thanks and welcome to first-time contributors anna, Liz Watkins, Riya K, and theamandawang!
On July 15, we massively improved the user search used by admins.
Following some email-related changes in our July 24 deploy, embedded images are now always stripped from comment emails, and usernames in kudos emails now link to the users’ dashboards.
On July 28, we made a number of small improvements all around the site. There were some issues while deploying these changes, so we did another release to fix it all up on the same day.
On August 5, we deployed another batch of miscellaneous fixes.
On August 19, we deployed an important change to account security that checks new AO3 passwords to see if they’ve been part of a known data breach. We also began allowing CSS variables in site skins.
We upgraded to Rails 7.2 on August 26.
james_davis_nicoll Sep. 10th, 2025 10:04 am)
james_davis_nicoll Sep. 10th, 2025 08:58 am)
scalziwhatever_feed Sep. 10th, 2025 11:42 am)
All is fair in love and war. But what if instead of a bloody battle, wars were games to be played? Author T. A. Chan brings us a near future world in which violent wars are a thing of the past, and games usher in a new strategy of fighting each other. Follow along in the Big Idea for her newest novel, One Last Game, to see how the cards play out.
T. A. CHAN:
Big Idea: Must there be consequences?
My 21st Century Anxiety-induced Roman Empire has consisted of two things the past couple years: 1) Knowing Earth is a ticking time bomb from irreversible climate disaster at the rate things are going and 2) The ongoing wars in Ukraine and Gaza and other international conflicts.
One Last Game was my attempt of channeling those dreads into a more hopeful future where the climate disaster has been resolved and international conflicts are settled in a non-violent play-by-the-rulebook sort of way. Despite my attempts of creating a grounded utopia, I have somehow ended up with a world that is both so much better (yay for eco-friendly civilization practices!) and also so much worse (nay for lethal board games!) than today’s state of affairs. And it all started with how “ethical warfare” might look like in the future…So welcome, and enjoy the ride!
Why are we so predictable? And I don’t mean “we” as in you and me and them on an individual level, but rather “we” as a collective human society and our habit of settling major conflict via some sort of warfare, whether that be of the economic, psychological, or conventional variety just to name a few. It’s almost like there has to be consequences for anything to be taken seriously.
For the purpose of this Big Idea, let’s focus on conventional warfare.
What makes war bad?
I mean, obviously the list is loooongggg — from destroyed infrastructure to loss of lives, from environmental damage to the trauma imparted on whole generations. And yet even over the course of thousands of years, we haven’t been able to escape using “war” as a way to resolve conflict between tribes/kingdoms/nations/etc when verbal communication fails.
In a perfect world, all global disagreements could be resolved with talking and votes and things of that nature.
But if history is anything like a crystal ball, a war only ends when the cost to continue the engagement can no longer be afforded and/or justified.
But what if we minimize the cost and harm of war?
Imagine this: The year is 2145. Through the desperate will to survive, humanity has painstakingly implemented eco-conscious measures over the course of decades and restored Earth back to its healthy, environmental glory. Having barely escaped extinction of the human species, there’s a very strong consensus that minimizing environmental damage and protecting existing resources is Good.
Thus, bombs are banned, chemical warfare is banned, scorched-earth policy is banned, hell anything that leaves a scratch on a tree is banned. Human-on-human interactions have been tempered as conventional warfare is done away. Debilitating injuries, famine, home displacement, and painful deaths are relics of a bygone era.
The outcomes of international conflicts are settled simply: with a gameboard and players representing their respective countries.
What’s stopping countries from disregarding the outcome of a silly boardgame?
Yeah, I get it. Letting a game of chess determine who gets territorial claim over a highly contested shipping route does seem rather ludicrous.
Even nowadays, international agreements and treatises are broken with the implication–and occasionally, execution–of consequences ranging from economic sanctions to retaliatory acts. See Exhibit A: Paris Accord and Geneva Convention.
And so, herein lies the heart of the Big Idea: Must there be consequences for anything to matter?
I’m inclined to say yes, particularly with a grounded spec-fic set in the near future. And the consequences must be universal enough that it carries weight, no matter what culture or class you come from. In the particular case of One Last Game, this translates to human lives. After all, human conflicts should only affect humans, right? And death is ubiquitous and serious enough that no entity would want to wage needless war when there are less drastic methods of reaching an agreement between states.
Imagine this: It’s the year 2145 and you’re surveying the aftermath of a battlefield that took place in a city. All the skyscrapers gleam under the sunlight, unscathed and standing proud. Verdant leaves unfurl from oak trees in the parks while squirrels argue with pigeons over a slice of cheesy bread that missed the compost bin. It’s quiet, but you know by the end of the week, the streets will once again be bustling with civilians going about their day. On the news broadcast, a reporter discusses how Country A has formally ceded control over shipping routes to Country B after its latest game loss–along with the lives of citizens unlucky enough to be in the randomly selected city.
Their deaths were quick and painless.
Just like falling asleep.
But is it ethical? Is this the best we can do? Must there be consequences?
In conclusion, I don’t have a conclusion to the question of “is there an ethical way to conduct warfare?” But I know we can do better.
Humans are messy and so the solution will be messy. And I have hope that the collective we will strive to understand and recognize an individual’s humanity in all its messy glory, and find a better way forward.
One Last Game: Amazon|Barnes & Noble|Bookshop|Powell’s
scalziwhatever_feed Sep. 10th, 2025 09:49 am)Fun fact: John Darnielle, the leader and songwriter of The Mountain Goats, went to high school in the same town I did (different schools, though) and share friends in common with me from that era. However, we did not meet each other in person until about a decade ago, at Nerdcon, run by John and Hank Green. What a strange, small and weird world it is. I am glad to know him now, of course. The above song is from the band’s upcoming album, which you can read about here. Enjoy the song, and I’ll see you all tomorrow.
— JS
girlgenius_main_feed Sep. 10th, 2025 04:00 am)
The ball itself was wonderful. So many pretty people, guests and performers alike! If you are on IG, check out the one for the VMB. One of the performances was an aerialist who, instead of using silks or straps, used metal chains. She was wonderful to watch, but I felt they sympathetic need to coat myself in arnica.
Of importance to jengalicious: I saw your ex and his ladyfriend, but had no interaction with them. However, I can say that my all-white outfit was far better than theirs (I could tell he made her outfit by the usual last-minute construction flaws that were visible across a darkened room), and that he looks like the result of Baby's First Necromancy Kit. I took petty glee in both of those things.
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Yesterday I woke up with a terrible migraine. See, this is why I make sure I schedule a recovery day after an event, because I know my body hates me. Ugh.
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I may have figured out next year's VMB outfit. The white coat I wore for this year also comes in B&W stripes! All I'll need to do is remove that lace trim, add metal buttons on the front, and have the Madwoman in the Attic add pockets. Oh, and decide what color skirt and (sleeveless!) blouse I'll wear with it.
scalziwhatever_feed Sep. 9th, 2025 03:51 pm)
It’s never too late to tell a good story. Author Sharon Shinn has returned years later to her Twelve Houses series to bring you a fresh novel in a familiar world. Follow along in her Big Idea for Shifter and Shadow to see how she’s breathed new life into a finished series.
SHARON SHINN:
Sometimes I write a book with a grand theme in mind. I want to explore issues of racism, maybe, or cultural diversity, or colonialism or religion or grief. But sometimes I just want to follow a couple of characters around. I just want to tell their story.
That’s the case with Shifter and Shadow, a new short novel in my Twelve Houses world. I wanted to explain what happened between two characters, Kirra and Donnal, whose relationship had unfolded off the page between the end of the second book and the beginning of the third. During the seventeen years since I had published the last book in the series, many of my readers had asked for their story, and I finally decided to write it.
But the idea was a little daunting. First, I had to come up with a storyline that would be a bit more interesting than a reconciliation and a declaration of love. There was no real suspense involved, because anyone who had read the whole series already knew that Kirra and Donnal ended up together. So what plot could I devise that would slot neatly in the gap between those previous books? What obstacles could I throw in their path, what surprises could I manufacture, what tension could I generate from surrounding circumstances?
Even more difficult, how could I believably bridge the gulf that had always existed between the titled noblewoman and the peasant’s son? What could possibly move Donnal to openly admit his feelings when he had spent, oh, fifteen years trying to conceal them? How could Kirra convince him she returned his love when she had spent the entire second novel involved with another man?
Finally—seventeen years later—how successfully could I recapture the tone and rhythms of the earlier books and the personalities of the main characters? Kirra is one of my more irrepressible heroines and a lot of fun to write, but Donnal is significantly more reserved. Would I be able to tell a story from his point of view?
The questions about this particular book just added complexity to the task of writing a series, which can be challenging at the best of times. Simply keeping track of characters’ names, ages, heights, eye colors, and random personal details can be a monumental chore. (I keep a running file where I add pertinent details as they come up, but if I forget to update the file during the editing process, I end up doing a lot of searching through works-in-progress. “I thought he had two brothers, not one.” “Did she say she’d never been to the royal city?”) I find myself frequently rereading whole books in existing series every time I want to write a new one, hoping not to make a continuity error.
There’s also the ongoing problem of how much background material from previous installments needs to be reprised in the current manuscript. To some extent, an author writing any science fiction or fantasy book has to balance world-building with plotting, avoiding the infamous “info-dump” while still offering enough detail to bring an imaginary place to life. But in a series, it becomes particularly important to remind readers of pertinent events or relevant magic. One of my fellow authors says that there are always certain touchstones that readers expect to see and that the author has to include because they’re what make the books in a particular series familiar and unique.
I knew writing the book would be tricky. But I had characters I loved and a plot that I found intriguing—one that fit nicely around the romance. And anyway, there were already some built-in grand themes, because the Twelve Houses world always incorporates issues of bigotry, persecution, and fear-based hatred. In Shifter and Shadow, many of the secondary characters are forced to examine their own biases—and maybe overcome them, maybe not. They also have to make hard choices, weighing deep personal risks against powerful rewards. What can they live without? What can they never give up?
I’m not an artist, but I’ve always thought that painting a picture must be similar to writing a novel. I might spend a week on one scene, two days on another, but neither scene is meant to stand alone; each one should merely be part of one seamless narrative. Similarly, I imagine that an artist might spend hours getting the folds of a gown just right or capturing the precise way sunlight illuminates an ocean wave. But that particular section of the canvas will ultimately be viewed as part of the overall picture, something that is taken as a whole.
Ideally, I think, the background effort that goes into a creative endeavor should be largely invisible. The artist might be calculating angles and the implementing the rule of thirds; the writer might be strategizing about plot and pacing and strategic disclosures of information. But the hope is that the audience just enjoys the finished work. At least, that’s what I hope when someone is reading one of my books.
I recently saw a meme that first showed the front of a completed piece of embroidery, a beautiful piece of artwork with clean lines and lovely imagery. The caption reads, “What the reader sees.” Beside it is shown the back of the same piece, with all the threads chaotically crisscrossing and all the knots and trailing ends making a glorious mess. This time the caption says, “What the author knows.”
My goal in writing Shifter and Shadow was to keep track of all those threads and balance all those conflicting imperatives in ways that the reader would never notice. All that’s left, I hope, is the story.
Shifter and Shadow: Amazon|Barnes & Noble|Bookshop|Powell’s
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![Welcome to the Linguistics Department - It has been [2] [DAYS] since someone noticed that the Biology Department sign has a one-day-long singular/plural disagreement after it resets.](https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/biology_department.png "Welcome to the Linguistics Department - It has been [2] [DAYS] since someone noticed that the Biology Department sign has a one-day-long singular/plural disagreement after it resets.")
