gaptangle | Reading

lb_lee posting in

(words by Martha Bonds, music by Marcia McCombe)

Do I know you?
Are you dreaming of tomorrow?
If so, it seems you're a starchild, just like me.
The night's alive,
And we travel 'cross the light years,
TV screens and books of dreams can set us free.

Blurb: A fan (filk) song about how fans find meaning, joy, and other worlds through Star Trek.

Why is it worth your time?: It's an old fandom song about finding home and new worlds in the fictional. Definitely worth a listen to, for any fiction folk around!

Plural/1+ Tags: abuse not mentioned, creator speaks from experience, otherworld, fictioneers

Content Warnings: None

Accessibility Notes: I will post the lyrics in the comments! Otherwise, it is only available in The Complete Omicron Ceti III Lyric Book (not screenreadable) and the record album Only Stars Can Last.

lb_lee posting in

pluralstories

(words by Martha Bonds, music by Kathy Burns)

I know a place so far away, a place I long to see,
There's no way to travel there, I must reach it in a dream,
The dreams they are so special, they take me there again,
A thousand conquered dangers, heroes, lovers, friends.

Blurb: A song about "Fans' feelings about [Star] Trek."

Why is it worth your time?: It's an old fandom song about finding home and new worlds in the fictional. Definitely worth a listen to, for any fiction folk around!

Plural/1+ Tags: abuse not mentioned, creator speaks from experience, otherworld, dreamfolk, fictioneers

Content Warnings: None

Accessibility Notes: I will post the lyrics in the comments; you can also listen to it on YouTube! Otherwise, it is only available in The Complete Omicron Ceti III Lyric Book (not screenreadable) and on the album Only Stars Can Last.

lb_lee

Rogan: It was a tie between "Old Man Yaoi" and "Cult Comix" this poll, but December is dark enough without cultery, so I exercised my blogly fiat. Besides, "Old Man Yaoi" has contextual relevance, because it's about Coming In or Staying Out, which is now officially up for sale in the violet and bubblegum pink Riso edition! $20, 24 pages, printing so pretty you'll want to rub it across your face!

Image and textual transcription behind the cut!

( Biff doesn't know what an anime is and he does not care. He liked The Wind Also Rises though. )

Current Mood: silly

lb_lee posting in

pluralstories

(Learned of this poem thanks to

rybbot. Thanks,

rybbot!)

For it isn't your Father, or Mother, or Wife,
Who judgement upon you must pass.
The feller whose verdict counts most in your life
Is the guy staring back from the glass.

Blurb: A poem about the importance of honesty and being able to make peace with yourself.

Why is it worth your time?: It's a good poem! Probably not intended to be plural, but hey, if it's about making friends with yourself, who's to say it ain't? It's free, online, and almost a hundred years old, what more could one want out of life?

Plural Tags: abuse not mentioned, friendship

Content Warnings: None

Access Notes: Free, online, and screenreadable at https://www.theguyintheglass.com/gig.htm thanks to Wimbrow's children! Back-up link here: https://web.archive.org/web/19990428030413/https://www.theguyintheglass.com/gig.htm

Misc Notes: Wimbrow's kids list the context and copyright information of this poem here: https://web.archive.org/web/19991008172354/http://www.theguyintheglass.com/copyright.htm

lb_lee posting in

pluralstories

Submitted by

quailfence! Thank you,

quailfence!

Something—not a thought, but almost—flickered across her gray matter. The Smoulder, walking; looking at the faded wallpaper; feeling the flexion in her feet. And then it was a thought:

[This again?]

(Wait, were costumes supposed to remember—)

Blurb: In the future, sex worker Evie uses a technological 'costume' to help her with her job, and in particular a client of hers known as 'the company man'. But the costume has been starting to act strange recently...

Why is it worth your time?: It's good! I like how sex work is presented as just A Job in the story - not something uniquely awful but not exactly Great either. I also found the high-tech costumes to be an interesting piece of tech, and the story uses them very well

Plural/1+ Tags: bodyhopping, type:setting-specific, type:switching. Not really sure how to rate the abuse in this one??

Content Warnings: include spoilers; see comments

Accessibility Notes: Online, free, screenreadable here: https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/the-girlfriend-experience/ Back-up link here: https://web.archive.org/web/20250922133223/https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/the-girlfriend-experience/

lb_lee

Comics we got at MICE! All are great!

BE NOT AFRAID, by LSJM(?) Black, white, and red one-pager that’s like if the angel from Pet was giving you a Trump-era pep talk.
Secret Black Woman, by Ingrid Pierre. Autobio about anti-black racism, anti-Asian racism, passing, and being biracial.
Default, by JCJB. Poetry essay watercolor about fighting empire and suffering. We think Phosphor of hungryghosts would like this!
Prompted: an educator’s response to generative AI in the classroom, by Caroline Hu. Science, chatbots, and college. We think erinptah would like this!
Cannon Fodder, by Eric Alexander Arroyo. Queer mecha pilots in love during wartime. Got it for the sci-fi library; we have now purchased all three printings of this, haha.
Maintenance, by Cryptozoology. “What if a robot liked it when their creator performed upkeep on them (in a sexual way) and they were both girls???” Grabbed for sci-fi library.
Silhouette, by L/V. Navy blue Riso robot porn. May also end up in sci-fi library because the art is so gorgeous.

lb_lee

Rogan: holy shit guys, the color version of Coming In or Staying Out came out GORGEOUS. Just Right Press did an amazing job and I will absolutely be hiring them again! I cannot wait to put it up for sale and show it off!

And it’s been the bestseller at MICE so far! I’ll be working a final shift at table 32 from 11-2 tomorrow on Sunday; be the first on your block to have some pink trans dongs!

Current Mood: naughty

lb_lee

On Saturday December 6, 10:30-2 and 4-6 PM, Sunday December 7, 11-2, we are tabling with the Boston comics Roundtable at table 32 at MICE! Sorry for the double post, but we got an extra shift!

Current Mood: working

lb_lee

I don't know what sort of greenhouse the downstairs neighbors are running, but they are practically heating our own apartment for us. It is 20 degrees outside, we have YET to turn on the heat.

Through luck, we have ended up with the warmest room in the apartment. We wake up in the morning bathed in sunbeams and radiance. The heat is off, and I am comfortable just wearing a sweatshirt--no gloves no hat. It's a little rough in the summer, but right now, I am blessing those downstairs tropical neighbors.

Current Mood: grateful

lb_lee

Hey everybody, it's that time again: time to vote for which stuff gets the LiberaPay/Patreon money this month!

As always, anyone can vote (please do!), but LiberaPay and Patreon patrons get double weight for their votes. (Due to Patreon's porn purges, I really encourage you to use LiberaPay, if you get a choice.) If you want to see the blurbs for any of these works, those are here! (You can also leave your requests there; requesting a story or essay is always free!) If you don't have a DW and so can't do the poll, that's okay; just leave your vote in the comments below; anon comments are turned on.

Which works gets the money, and thus posted this month? YOU CHOOSE, readers!

Poll #33920 2025 December Fan Poll

This poll is closed.
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 19

View Respondents

Did you toss LiberaPay/Patreon money my way last month?

View Answers

Yes (my votes count double)
3 (100.0%)

What writing gets posted this month?

View Answers

Infinity Smashed: Born Lucky
3 (15.8%)

Reverend Alpert: the Traveling Exorcist
2 (10.5%)

Henchwench for Hire (F/F supervillainy)
3 (15.8%)

Rutless (trans omegaverse porno)
1 (5.3%)

Anatomy of a Dance (essay)
12 (63.2%)

The Boy Whose Heart Is Home (teen hardship)
5 (26.3%)

The Battleaxe and the Blood-Eater (pseudo Greco-Roman gladiators)
3 (15.8%)

two apocalyptic micro-stories
5 (26.3%)

What art/comic/zine gets posted this month?

View Answers

Cult Comix
8 (44.4%)

Death Watch
4 (22.2%)

Protection
6 (33.3%)

Freight Train Flirting
8 (44.4%)

Old Man Yaoi
7 (38.9%)

Current Mood: bouncy

lb_lee

Okay. Our health has been kinda rough and the fan poll and Patreon perks are a bit delayed, but hell or high water, we will be dragging our carcass through a couple shifts at the Boston Comics Roundtable (BCR) table at the Massachusetts Independent Comics Expo (MICE) this weekend:

Saturday, Dec. 6, from 10:30-2
Sunday, Dec. 7, from 11-2

MICE is at the Fuller Building at Boston University (808 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA), off the Green Line.

If all goes well, we will be debuting Coming In or Staying Out, the color edition, at MICE! (As in, we will be frantically stapling and folding it as you arrive, having picked it up from another tabler at opening.) Here's the sneak peek pics the printer sent us that we've been sitting on for a week due to computer breakage!

( CAKE THAT BEEF! CAKE THAT BEEF! EDIT: now with EVEN MORE spicy beef! )

It's being printed in violet and bubblegum pink on ivory paper. Exciting!

EDIT: also, I discovered that apparently all this time, the paperback of Infinity Smashed: Found Wanting had been set to international shipping rates. Eesh. We have reset the shipping to proper rates. I don't know how we fumbled it so badly, but at least it's fixed now. (And the person who ordered a copy even at that nosebleeding sum has gotten a partial refund to bring the shipping down to domestic rates.)

lb_lee

Okay. It's still November for 45 more minutes, so I'm still technically within deadline for this! (Our desktop broke. Those posts you've seen the past week were made on a broken old smartphone. Today I got a new desktop and frantically tried to finally get up the Patreon writing I've owed y'all all month.)

Many-Selved Family Portraiture has been uploaded to archive.org, in textual transcript form (of what I originally hoped to make, and then due to technical lack of savvy had to cut down), plus the 78 slides. The files are big!

I swear I will upload them to hm.com later. I am so tired.

EDIT: the alt-text apparently didn't export to EPUB and was lost in the save. -_- I'm sorry. I will have to redo it manually BUT NOT TODAY.

Current Mood: exhausted

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The Gaptangle

Reading

Do I Know You?, by Omicron Seti III (filk folk song, 1979)

Going Home, by Omicron Ceti III (Star Trek fan song, 1979)

Comic: Old Man Yaoi (2025)

The Guy in the Glass, by Dale Wimbrow (poem, 1934)

The Girlfriend Experience by C.Z. Tacks (sci-fi short story, 2025)

Deity Swag with Cartoonist Style!

(no subject)

LB’s expanded hours at MICE!

Tropical Neighbors

2025 December Fan Poll

LB and Coming In or Staying Out (color edition!) at MICE

Many-Selved Family Portraiture

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December 2025

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