FIC: Emorian council chamber (Tempestuous Tours)
Apr. 13th, 2026 03:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
duskpetersonIf you are not visiting the palace in order to attend the Chara's court, then chances are that you are here to visit the council. As you enter the east doors of the palace, turn right, then left, then immediately right. The long corridor before you leads north to the council chamber and council quarters.
Upon reaching the end of the corridor, you will once again find yourself facing high doors, this time plated with copper. Unless you are actually attending a council meeting, the door you want is to either the left or the right of the council chamber. Enquire with the guards as to how to reach your destination. Mainland visitors are likely to be escorted, under guard, to the room they are seeking.
Attendance at meetings of the Great Council are by invitation only. If you are invited, arrive early. If you have been asked to speak with the council, you will be shown to a chair at the bottom of the council table. Do not be insulted. This is where the Chara himself sits, when he is invited to speak with the council.
Remember those high doors? They were designed to keep out the Chara and his guards, back in the days when animosity still simmered between the Chara and the Great Council. These days, the animosity takes less blatant forms, but the Chara is still not permitted to enter the council chamber except with permission of the Great Council's High Lord.
If you are not here to speak with the council but wish to attend a council meeting, you will be shown to a chair at the back of the room. (If you are not accustomed to sitting in chairs, it is best to practice beforehand.) As in the court, your job will be to stay as quiet and motionless as possible. At only two points in the meeting should you move: rise from your chair when the High Lord of the Great Council enters the chamber, and rise again when he leaves. A herald will announce when this is necessary.
After the council meeting, you may wish to visit the council library, just off the head of the chamber. This lovely, light-filled room was added during the reign of the Chara Purvis, at the beginning of this century. It is considered the finest law library in the world, containing hundreds of books of commentary on matters related to the law. Do not to touch the books unless you are here to do research. To Emorians, law books – even books of commentary – are sacred objects.
Northern mainlanders should be aware that stealing a law book can be punished by death. If you must steal something in the palace, confine yourself to objects unrelated to the law.
[Translator's note: In order to visit the Great Council in session, as well as its law library, read Law of Vengeance.]
BDSM for Romance Writers Class: April 29th
Apr. 13th, 2026 02:08 amravenna_c_tanComing up at the end of this month, I’ll be teaching an online class that should be lots of fun: BDSM for Romance Writers. As the official description reads: “BDSM is more than just a collection of toys or a list of kinks, it’s a whole world of intense relationship dynamics. In this workshop, RT award winning author Cecilia Tan will cover key elements of BDSM and kink that can spice up a novel, as well as myths and stereotypes to avoid. We’ll leave plenty of time for Q&A, as well.”
The class is being hosted by Passionate Ink, which used to be the erotica and erotic romance chapter of the RWA, but which broke off into an independent organization a few years back.
(Aside: It’s almost amusing to think that when Sylvia Day founded the chapter, it was partly because many people in the RWA at that time didn’t feel that explicit erotic “open door” romances were worthy of support. Not too long after that, Sylvia’s own super spicy romances (i.e. Bared to You) topped the bestseller lists, paving the way for 50 Shades of Grey, and permanently turning the acceptable heat level way up on the entire romance genre.)
The class is free for members of Passionate Ink, $45 for non-members, so if you have been thinking of joining the organization, and are interested in the class… guess how much it costs to join for one year? The same $45. 🙂
I’d love it if those taking the class filled out a brief survey first, which has a slot for folks to put their questions in advance: https://forms.gle/qJhg7mwrEcetEgNt5
The class is appropriate for experienced and inexperienced writers alike, at all levels of career. Whether you’ve published dozens of novels or zero, whether you write for fun or for publication, if you’re looking to expand your palette to paint with the BDSM colors, that’s what this class is for.
The folks at Passionate Ink made a lovely graphic:
Mirrored from Cecilia Tan.
The case of the missing notifications
Apr. 11th, 2026 11:58 pm![[staff profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user_staff.png){kind=small}
denise posting in ![[site community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/comm_staff.png){kind=small}
dw_maintenanceI keep forgetting to post about this: we've been troubleshooting the "missing notifications" problem for the past few days. (Well, I say "we", really I mean Mark and Robby; I'm just the amanuensis.) It's been one of those annoying loops of "find a logical explanation for what could be causing the problem, fix that thing, observe that the problem gets better for some people but doesn't go away completely, go back to step one and start again", sigh.
Mark is hauling out the heavy debugging ordinance to try to find the root cause. Once he's done building all the extra logging tools he needs, he'll comment to this entry. After he does, if you find a comment that should have gone to your inbox and sent an email notification but didn't, leave him a link to the comment that should have sent the notification, as long as the comment itself was made after Mark says he's collecting them. (I'd wait and post this after he gets the debug code in but I need to go to sleep and he's not sure how long it will take!)
We're sorry about the hassle! Irregular/sporadic issues like this are really hard to troubleshoot because it's impossible to know if they're fixed or if they're just not happening while you're looking. With luck, this will give us enough information to figure out the root cause for real this time.
UPDATE: Dangerous Games (The Thousand Nations)
Apr. 5th, 2026 04:46 pmduskpeterson
ONLINE E-BOOK (html, epub, mobi, pdf, and xhtml)
Free at my website.
The Motley Crew (The Thousand Nations). When a young man named Dolan flees from the north, he faces danger on all sides. The Northern Army wants him back. The Empire of Emor wants him dead. His native homeland of Koretia may not want him at all. And his only protection is a man with motives that are mysterious and possibly deadly.
New installment:
Side story | Dangerous Games. Dangerous games benefit dangerous men . . . unless those games are played with leaders of dangerous men.
REISSUE
Already available free at my website, this omnibus is now also available at AO3, SqWA, Ream, and online bookstores.
Blood Vow (The Three Lands). He has taken a blood vow to the Jackal God to bring freedom to his land by killing Koretia's greatest enemy. But what will he do when the enemy becomes his friend?
BLOG FICTION
Tempestuous Tours (Crossing Worlds: A Visitor's Guide to the Three Lands #2). A whirlwind tour of the sites in the Three Lands that are most steeped in history, culture, and the occasional pickpocket.
New installments:
REVIEWS OF MY FICTION
Speculative fiction writer Jennifer R. Povey posted reviews of all six of my Three Lands novels in the space of less than three weeks. Occasional spoilers.
UPCOMING FICTION
Some of you may have noticed that I updated my website early this time. That was because I was uncertain when I would regain the ability to upload web pages, after my transfer to a new webhost. Thankfully, the transfer went smoothly, with no downtime for my website.
Also, I'm posting this update a day early because I'll be watching Artemis II tomorrow afternoon. :)
My next release will be the final part of the novel The Motley Crew: "Apprehended Ambassador."
My fiction announcements are also available by e-mail and feeds.
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Yay, it's poetry month!
Apr. 3rd, 2026 07:52 pmresonantTo The Words
by W.S. Merwin
When it happens you are not there
oh you beyond numbers
beyond recollection
passed on from breath to breath
given again
from day to day from age
to age
charged with knowledge
knowing nothing
indifferent elders
indispensable and sleepless
keepers of our names
before ever we came
to be called by them
you that were
formed to begin with
you that were cried out
you that were spoken
to begin with
to say what could not be said
ancient precious
and helpless ones
say it
by W.S. Merwin
When it happens you are not there
oh you beyond numbers
beyond recollection
passed on from breath to breath
given again
from day to day from age
to age
charged with knowledge
knowing nothing
indifferent elders
indispensable and sleepless
keepers of our names
before ever we came
to be called by them
you that were
formed to begin with
you that were cried out
you that were spoken
to begin with
to say what could not be said
ancient precious
and helpless ones
say it