Journal of Mistress Kat

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I was blessed (BLESSED I SAY) by five gifts from fandomtrees and now I'm going to brag about them and suggest you go check them out.

I got...

13 November - an absolute pitch perfect BTS Namjoon/Yoongi friends to lovers ficlet with love confessions via song lyrics (featuring: a solar eclipse metaphor) and Jin being a troll by celli. Utterly delightful.

Moth - a podfic of an old Firefly River/Inara ficlet I wrote to trialia many years ago. The reading by blackglass is gorgeous with lovely measured quality and sassiness when it's needed. As a bonus there is also a beautiful cover by rahvin.

A Very Real Fake Engagement - a delightful MCU fic by DifferentDances where Bruce and Tony get engaged for the legal protection such a move offers Bruce and the Hulk. There is some spot on banter, mutual pining, cake samples and... Actually I don't want to spoil the ending but... what's the other theme I love as much as 'friends to lovers'? Yeah, that one! Took me by surprise and was twice as good because of that :D

Slow Heart - an original f/f fic by theinstinct of a female astronaut and female alien (who is gratifyingly alien indeed) finding connection beyond language in shared curiosity and caring. Beautiful detail, light and hopeful.

A matter of trust - an original m/m fic by Sys of a vampire in need of a master and a 'cherished disappointment' of a merchant's heir who is more than he looks. This is wip and whilst I really hope the author finds the inspiration to continue, it stands on its own and already offers all of my favourite things from power dynamics to kneeling, oh boy.

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I'm also super pleased because I managed to create four gifts of my own, all in fandoms I haven't dabbled in before. (and poetry!! omfg i haven't written poetry in so long i wasn't sure i could any more but this poured out so easily)

I gifted...

These icons of Dune book cover art and illustrations

beautifully imperfect - a little Encanto ficlet of Isabela and Mirabel gardening

Gift - a little ficlet of what happened to Harry and Julenissen after the 2021 Posten Norge advert

little red, little dark - a dark twisted poem inspired by Little Red Riding Hood fairytale

The fics and poem will cross-posted to DW eventually when I get around to (sometime next week I'd imagine)


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Dearest all!

Just to remind you that Week of Poetry is starting tomorrow and it's not too late to join in!

What is involved? Basically, you pledge to post a poem per day every day. This could be a poem you wrote yourself or a poem by someone else.

Who is involved? Well, me, over at boneverse. And because I don't like to do these things alone, I have pressured convinced a few flisters (waves at pushkin666, teithiwr and darkangel_0410) to join me. You should totally do the same! Look, I even made a banner! (Why yes, I am a little sad. But look, pretty colours!) Which you can totally snag!

Lately, I've been feeling increasingly uncomfortable of posting poems and talking about poetry here. This is for two reasons:
So, after some thinking and planning, I've created a new journal exclusively for poetry related things.




I will use this journal for two main purposes:

This means that from now on all future poetry related content will be posted at boneverse and not at kat_lair. I have posted (back dated) everything there that was previously posted here, and old stuff can be accessed via the Masterlist. The poetry posts on this journal will be locked private and the old Masterlist of poems deleted.

So, if you want to follow my poetry-related posts, then please friend boneverse. I will automatically add back anyone I have also friended on this journal. Lurkers are still welcome, friending the poetry journal certainly doesn't obligate you to comment on the poems, but you might want to drop me a quick note here if we've never spoken before.

Have finally reached the 'writing on walls' stage of thesis/general writerdom. Spent some time this afternoon bluetacking paper onto the walls (I do want my deposit back) and scribbling down things... just... needed more room to visualise ideas than computer screen/notebook provided.

Dear people likely to visit me in the near future, I'm sorry for the level of crazy. I promise not to make you wear tinfoil hats or attack you with a meat cleaver.

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Heads up on poetry stuff: due to a) personal issues* and b) vague plans of submitting stuff somewhere somewhen, I'm feeling increasingly uncomfortable of posting poetry even under a general friends-lock.

Hence, I'm thinking of creating a new journal, just for posting poems and poetry related stuff. That way people who actually want to read it can friend that journal and I don't feel like I'm foisting stuff on people who don't care when posting here.

So... look out for an announcement about that in the coming weeks, I guess.

* It's not you, it's me etc.

O HAI!

I've had a week off from teaching/thesis work so actually opening the thesis chapter draft today counts for something, right? Granted, most I've done today is copy-paste some paragraphs around and feel detached about the whole concept of academia. Submitting PhD thesis before Christmas? Pfft, piece of cake. Presenting a conference paper that I haven't yet written in three weeks? Whatever, I'm sure it'll be fine.

This, ladies and gents, is what I like to call happy-go-lucky-denial. It's awesome.

It also leads to rambly updates.

So, I had a very relaxing week off. pushkin666 and I spent a rainy weekend in the country, drank wine, ate lots of awesome food, watched the Eurovision (I wanted Moldova to win, but was also hugely fond of Italy), and talked about writing (though did not get much actual writing done). On Monday we came back to Manchester, collected dreamersdare from the train station and spent the evening rocking out to Panic! At The Disco.


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No, I cannot be bothered to cut, pull your finger out of your arse and scroll past if you're not interested.

Panic @ Manchester Academy, 16th of May

Dude. Duuuuuuuuuuude, it was amazing. Academy's refurbishment has paid off and the venue is so much better now than three years ago when pushkin666 and I first saw the band there.

Speaking of, this was a very... different gig than the one three years ago. A different band, yes, but what really stuck out for me was how different Brendon was. He fucking owned that stage. Yes, part of it is growing up I'm sure, gaining more experience and confidence, but I think it was more than that. Three years ago it felt like Brendon was playing a part in someone else's band. Now, it felt like it really was Brendon on stage, fronting his own band, not a role he put on. And damn, it was hot. I approve the braces and bowtie combo hard.

You know what else was hot? Spencer Smith with a microphone. Throughout the show Brendon kept turning toward Spencer and playing to him, showing off and seeking approval like a good sub which gave me lots of special feelings. Yes it did.

This person had the best quality vids of the show, so have I Write Sins as a taster, beautifully illustrating Brendon's attitude, Spencer's fiersomeness, and Dallon and Ian's willingness to indulge in some delicious stage-gay.

Brendon wants us to sweat together:



You should also check out her/his vids of Mona Lisa and Nine In the Afternoon. (Oh, and filmed by someone else, here's the cover of Billie Jean they did. )

I cannot, however, not post this one. As SPN fans, dreamersdare, pushkin666 and I were ecstatic that the boys played Carry On My Wayward Son as one of the encores. This is like 6 minutes of guitar porn. Check out also Spencer being hot stuff on the drums, which the rest of the band rightfully acknowledge.



Yeah, it was good for me too, believe it.


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On Tuesday I poured dreamersdare and pushkin666 into their respective trains and then ambled over to the Northern Quarter to meet up with neppu and her friend who were in town for a gig. Got to introduce them to one of my favourite places in Manchester, Oklahoma cafe, and give tips of other places worth a visit.

Yesterday was at uni,  spending quality time with Turnitin software (plagiarism detection) and today I have pretended to do some work at home.

Tonight I have a poetry reading again and I'm currently trying to decide which of my old poems to read because haven't written anything new over the last couple of weeks. I've narrowed it down to either in babylon they laugh with broken teeth or Such Mercy, second opinions appreciated.

Right, enough of rambling. Later my beauties!

Sigh. So I did say I’d put this up about three weeks ago, but then my interest in the whole thing waned. Normally I’d be all over these masturbatory writing memes like lamprey eels on a heamophiliac  (…yeah, okay, I disgusted myself a bit with that simile) but lately I’ve been rather meh about my writing. I poke at it with a stick and the words just quiver uselessly like some formless gelatinous mass of drivel. Blaaaaaaaaaaaaah.

Anyway, let’s poke at it some more.

This only includes stuff that is both finished and posted. A fair bit of other things got written but they are either still in wip-status, waiting for later posting, or original stuff that is unlikely to see LJ ever.

( Fic by Fandom: )


( Lyrics/Poetry: )


( Meme questions: )

Aaaaaaaaaaaand we're done with that. I think. As always, I'd be interested to hear any thoughts, opinions or questions you may have of my writing. Please note that constructive criticism is always welcome. Oh, and I always have anonymous commenting enabled so feel free to leave questions or comments that way if you prefer.

I'm working on new stuff, I swear. But before that, comes traditional 'omg is this all I achieved last year' round-up of posted scribbles. With some self-indulged ramblings.

( Fics by Fandom )


( Lyrics/Poetry )




( Ramblings )

Happy Halloween!

Just to let you know that I'll be going away for a week to celebrate Halloween with friends. I wish you all some good scares, plump pumpkins and enjoyable, mystical, wonderful Samhain.

I shall leave you with a poem for Halloween / autum nights / being restless.


( Crimson Nights )