Catherynne M. Valente

Open Discussion

Here is your monthly place to chat and get to know each other! Feel free to talk about anything, but be kind, this is a safe place.

How are you all feeling?

On Valentine's Day

Hello, darlings. Forgive my slight absence of late, I am snowed under with deadlines but will be back on top of things shortly.

On this very special day, I wanted to dig up on of my best essays, posted long ago on Livejournal, and thus lost to the sands of the internet. I've edited it quite...

Character Post Card!

Hello my loves!

In further adventures in making this tier worthwhile for you wonderful folks when the Livestream poll doesn't get enough questions for a stream...

I am letting you choose the characters for the new monthly reward!

Leave a comment telling me which of my characters...

Brief Delay

So the Inauguration review and essay have morphed into one huge thing that borders on an original short story I’m writing for y’all...but due to it getting high-concept, I just couldn’t get it done today, despite it being the last day of the month.

It’ll go up tomorrow, and won’t ...

ALLCAPS COOKBOOK PRESENTS: Absolutely Perfect Swinnish Meatballs

I FRICKING LOVE Swedish meatballs.

But I have never been able to make them to my own satisfaction. I’ve never even been to an IKEA in my life, I’m not EVEN TALKING about those, just the soft awesome meatballs in the rich brown sauce—and it’s the sauce that I’ve never really gotten...

Our Very First Character Postcard: Severin Unck

I have to admit I'm surprised and a bit gratified that you chose Severin for the first postcard--Radiance is a book I poured my everything into, but it doesn't get as much love as some of the others. 

But here she is! With a bit of vintage flair. If you have trouble reading it, click t...

Open Discussion

Here is your monthly place to chat and get to know each other! Feel free to talk about anything, but be kind, this is a safe place.

How are you all feeling?

Mandatory Mad Fiction Media Dissection Table Poll!

All right, dearhearts. What shall I review this month?

HOLY CATS 1000 PATRONS!

Hi everyone!

It's been a few days now and I'm still not quite sure I believe we've hit 1,000 patrons here in the Mad Fiction Laboratory. Sheer, amazing, but sheer madness.

Thank you all so much for your support and love and presence over the years--and we're just getting started, as t...

When This Is Over: A 2020 New Year

So many of my thoughts begin with this phrase now. Even though each and every word in it means other than what it says on the lip of this blue-dark ledge of the year. We all understand the code leaking out of each letter like flat champagne. We know what we mean, if the future will not.

Whe...

Mandatory Mad Fiction Dissection Table: Things to Do in Ankh-Morpork When You’re Dead or I Just Love Hogfather So Much, You Guys, What Can I Say?

Hogfather is not something I am willing to entertain critical discussion on.

It is one of my all time top 20ish books.

It is beautiful and perfect.

I literally spend money to celebrate the fake holiday in it every year.

So I have nothing constructive to say about ...

ALLCAPS (but not Death's) COOKBOOK PRESENTS: 2020 Edition Hogswatch Persimmon-Peppercorn Pork Pies and Sherry

I’m not going to relate the whole story of my relationship to Terry Pratchett’s Hogfather, mostly because this month’s media review is about that very thing. But I will say that as soon as I read it, I knew I wanted to add Hogswatch to my winter holidays and make the Hogfather’s ...

Mandatory Mad Fiction Frog Dissection Lab!

We have beat the moon at her own game one more time and come round to choosing the form of the destructor once more.

What shall I essay about this month?

I'm not gonna lie, it's been a weird month. Depression does not tolerate good art ONLY TRASH FOR THE SAD RACCOON.

Once again,...

Open Discussion Post

Here is your monthly place to chat and get to know each other! Feel free to talk about anything, but be kind, this is a safe place. 

How are you all feeling?

Okaytopia: American Ideation, the 21st Century, and The West Wing as Science Fiction

Here we are, my dears, a few scant weeks after the election, and y’all wanna hear what I think about The West Wing, i.e Lord of the Rings for suburban liberals which I guess makes some kind of sense.

BY THE WAY, for the purposes of this review, when I say the word “lib...

ALLCAPS COOKBOOK PRESENTS: Crispy Baked Chicken Thighs with Creamy Two-Booze Date-Mustard Sauce

We haven’t gone shopping in awhile and are now afraid to due to crazy people guzzling toilet paper. So I just threw my hands in the air and started throwing things in a pan for lunch because I couldn’t take another frozen Trader Joe’s Fakeaway Special and hot damn what came out was so good ...

Mandatory Mad Frog Dissection Poll: What's on the Slaaaab?

Sorry for the radio silence around here--between funerals and deadlines (there's a grim pun there but my heart's not in it) it's been a pretty rough month around here. But rewards are starting today and will continue through the weekend!

So what shall I review for your lovely selves this mo...

Open Discussion Post

Here is your monthly place to chat and get to know each other! Feel free to talk about anything, but be kind, this is a safe place. 

It's only the 11th day of the month and it's been a whirlwind! Nailbiting election results! A vaccine? Probably a lot of other things we didn't notice be...

The Day Before the World Changes: Science Fiction and the Election and You and Me and Us and What Happens Next

Hello, my loves.

It is the day before Election Day here in the US, which means it is a crisp, moody, blustery day in November, full of golden leaves tumbling through the air like wishes and woodsmoke spiralling up through the New England clouds like dreams, and I want to throw up my sou...