forestofglory

I've been meaning to write a rec list inspired by all the graphic novels and comics I've been reading recently for a while, but I kept getting sick or distracted. But I've finally finished it so you can go check it out here!

I think I've talked about most of these in my Media Roundup posts but you can think of this as the highlights version.

If you've been following along with my media round ups you might have noticed that I've been watching a lot of Chinese reality shows. So I decided to make a rec list to talk about some of my favorites

Chill Chinese Reality Shows Rec List

I have a new post out at ladybusiness "Adventures with Crossdressing Sword Girls" where I talk about some of the crossdressing girl media I've been watching recently and a bit about why I like this trope so much. Come tell me about your favorite crossdressing girl media!

For the first time I'm offering to create something for the Fandom Trumps Hate charity auction! I'm offering to create an annotated bibliography related to Chinese history. If you ever wished I would go down a research rabbit hole and tell you about it now is your chance!

See more here

2024 was another mixed writing year. I continued to struggle with hand pain (it’s getting better but slowly) and various issues that made it hard to focus but I posted some things I’m proud of.

As well as contributing to various group posts I wrote two long piece for Lady Business:

On Cozy SFF

This started out as a passionate defense of cosy SFF but then I realized that I don’t actually like a lot of stuff that gets labeled cozy. But I still have a lot of thoughts about the subgenre. This piece had an amazing reception! The comments on the post are so good and thoughtful, plus it got linked to in several other places and even inspired a panel at a con!

Chinese History Starter Pack
https://ladybusiness.dreamwidth.org/370188.html

I wrote this for the people who ask me where to start reading more about Chinese history! This rec list includes both books and papers with a little bit about why each one is worth reading and why it could be a good starting place.

For the third year in a row I recced a thing every day in December. This has been such a fun tradition I'm glad started doing it. All my recs from this year and previous years can be found under my #DecRecs tag.

I'm super proud of my first posted translation for classical Chinese: Wei Furen! This is the culmination of years of study, and I learned so much working on it. Not only language skills but also a lot about historical Daoism. I’m hoping to post some more translations on foreststudio this year.

I also posted what turned out to be the longest fic I’ve written, and separate annotated bibliography – the end notes just got way too long


Harmonious Kinship (20935 words) by Forestofglory
Chapters: 5/5
Fandom: 长歌行 | The Long Ballad (TV)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Ashina Sun/Li Changge
Characters: Li Changge, Ashina Sun, Li Leyan, Ashina She'er, Mimi (Chang Ge Xing), Princess Yicheng of Sui
Additional Tags: Canon Divergent AU, Arranged Marriage
Series: Part 1 of Harmonious Kinship
Summary:

Changge goes along with her mother's plan and is sent out of Chang'an to safety. Soon after she returns to the city, the emperor arranges to marry her to Sun to satisfy his agreement with the Ashile. Changge goes along with this for her own reasons and soon finds herself embroiled in complex politics.

Annotated Bibliography for Harmonious Kinship (3022 words) by Forestofglory
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: 长歌行 | The Long Ballad (TV)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Additional Tags: Meta, Research
Series: Part 2 of Harmonious Kinship
Summary:

An Annotated Bibliography for my fic Harmonious Kinship. I list the sources I used for research and talk a little bit about each one.

This doesn’t contain any spoilers for either The Long Ballad or my fic (unless you consider historical events to be spoilers) so it should be readable for people who are just curious about my research process.

Not sure what's next for me in writing I'm currently taking an indefinite break from writing fic, but I do have translation that I just need to read through one more time before I send it to beta, and I'm toying with some ideas for another long post for Lady Business.

9)Today rec for #DecRecs is Tiny Witch With a Tiny Familiar (by still unrelieved creator). The colors! The use of leaves!(CN: bugs) https://archiveofourown.org/works/60962314 (H/t donutsweeper)

10) For #DecRecs today I want to rec sticky rice pu'erh! One of of my favorite and frequently drunk teas!
It's pu'erh made with an herb called Nuo Mi Xiang (糯米香) -- which translates to sticky rice stent. It gives the deep earthiness of the pu'erh a bit of brightness and sweetness.
The one I'm drinking right now is this https://yunnansourcing.com/products/rice-scent-and-ripe-pu-erh-tea-mini-bricks? but I've tried several different versions and they've all been great!

11)Today's #DecRecs is The Women Who Ruled China: Buddhism, Multiculturalism, and Governance in the Sixth Century by Stephanie Balkwill, a really fascinating book about Empress Dowager Ling of the Northern Wei, women and power during her lifetime and the ways traditional historiography has failed women.

It's open access and you can get an ebook for free here: https://www.ucpress.edu/books/the-women-who-ruled-china/paper

12)Today is the 12th day of #DecRecs and I'm reccing Twig + Tale sewing patterns!

I just think that their patterns are so cute and comfy! I love their commitment to gender neutral language for their patterns, especially because some crafting spaces are very conservative. And I think all the different animal designs are just so much fun!

I haven't made all of their patterns but the ones I have made have been great, and I've made those repeatedly

https://www.twigandtale.com/

Harmonious Kinship (20935 words) by Forestofglory
Chapters: 5/5
Fandom: 长歌行 | The Long Ballad (TV)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Ashina Sun/Li Changge
Characters: Li Changge, Ashina Sun, Li Leyan, Ashina She'er, Mimi (Chang Ge Xing), Princess Yicheng of Sui
Additional Tags: Canon Divergent AU, Arranged Marriage
Series: Part 1 of Harmonious Kinship
Summary:

Changge goes along with her mother's plan and is sent out of Chang'an to safety. Soon after she returns to the city, the emperor arranges to marry her to Sun to satisfy his agreement with the Ashile. Changge goes along with this for her own reasons and soon finds herself embroiled in complex politics.

I've been very slowly mentioning this fic in various online places, because 1) self promotion sucks, and 2)this fic is less polished than what I usually post and I'm a bit ashamed about it. I've been working on it on and off for over a year, slogging through bad hands, a sometimes bad brain, and I am just ready to be done with it. So I finished the draft and I had it SPAGed (You do not want to try to read my work without copy-editing) and posted it.

I did do a lot of research for this fic so I'm working on an Annotated Bibliography which is pretty fun. I'm trying to make it readable to people who aren't into The Long Ballad and haven't read the fic because I think there's few of you who are interested in my research and such even if you aren't in the fandom.

After this I'm planning to take a break from fic writing and focus more on translation which I'm enjoying more than writing.

Today at ladybusiness I posted Chinese History Starter Pack with lots of recs for cool books and papers to read if you are interested in Chinese history but don't have a lot of background knowledge.

It was nice to take a break for writing my fic WIP which has been a struggle in multiple ways, and work on this which came to me pretty easily. (Now to avoid working on my fic I'm writing an annotated bibliography for it)

Last weekend at ReaderCon there was a panel inspired by my post about cozy SFF! kate_nepveu took excellent notes.

I also recommend checking out the rest of Kate's panel notes I'm still reading my way through all of them, but so far I have especially enjoyed Fantasies of Political Inagency and The Novels of Mo Xiang Tong Xiu.

Fandomtrees gifts where revealed on Thursday

I made two gifts a cosy fantasy rec list and a CQL ficlet

I received two sets of amazing inkstone icons! And some lovely fanart of the first fic I ever wrote.

This was a really fun event!