Then What Happened

[saltofthearth-deactivated202409]

[disgruntled-foreign-patriarch]

...oh

[windylyndy]

“Barabbas is me.”

[girlactionfigure]

There’s a pattern in Judaism/Torah. A pattern we don’t always want but we always need.

When G-d wanted to make David a king … He didn’t give him a crown. He gave him Goliath.

When He wanted to make Joseph a leader … He didn’t give him a palace. He sent him to prison.

When G-d wanted to elevate Moses … He didn’t give him a stage. He gave him decades in the wilderness.

When G-d wanted to make Esther a queen … He gave her a crisis, and Haman.

Time and again, we see: G-d doesn’t elevate people through ease, rather through struggle.

Because it’s not despite the challenge that we rise. It’s through it. That’s how the human spirit is made and rises higher.

We don’t know what the new year will bring. But we do know this: We were not born for comfort. We were born for meaning.

We weren’t placed in this world to hide from its problems—we were created to illuminate and solve them.

And if, this year, you find yourself walking through a wilderness … or standing before your own personal or professional Goliath … Remember: That’s not a detour from your destiny. That is your calling.

Written by Rabbi Mendel Mintz, founder of the Chabad Jewish Community Center in Aspen

[greater-than-the-sword]

Have you ever fainted?

Yes

Came close but didn't actually lose consciousness

No

Voting ended onDec 14, 2025

[windylyndy]

Just once. I cut my finger with a bread knife. Sat down to put pressure on it with a rag. Realized I might need stitches and called a friend to take me to the ER. Got up to unlock the door so she could let herself in. Vasovagal response, doc later said: I fainted on my feet. On the way down, I apparently crashed into a wall of shelves and woke up with a bleeding head. The cut on my finger quickly became a much more trivial thing. Fun times.

[engazed]

Blackbird, Fly

Chapter 36: The Storm at the End of the World

Read it on AO3.

[househuntingscotland]

2 bedroom flat for sale on Pollokshaws Road, Glasgow

Asking price: £225,000

[imakewordsandpics]

Made a few updates to my covers for @engazed amazing series The Fallen

[engazed]

Stunning artwork by @imakewordsandpics, to whom I owe a thousand thank yous.

[engazed]

Just reread all of the fallen, desperate for the rest! Do you happen to know when we might be getting the rest? I am excited to see you’re considering printing this story, I would be very interested in buying it.

I'm really hoping for this month. This chapter is rather important, climax-wise, and has required a lot of planning and research, including revisiting the transcripts from the first two series. So each bit has come slowly, but I've written more than half of it and am speeding onward toward the finish line. This is likely the penultimate chapter (depending on whether I do an official epilogue, etc.), not to mention the appendix (which I've included in the first two books, so I need to stay consistent).

And I very much want to make each of these books into a print copy because I certainly don't trust that the internet will preserve these stories for years to come.

[girlactionfigure]

[pressforwardsaints]

View this post on Instagram

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[engazed]

It took me years, but I finally made my way south to London to do the Sherlock Escape Room in Shepherd's Bush, and can I just say, every minute was a joy!

The strangest, most surreal part for me, though, was standing inside the recreated 221B. I have spent countless hours in the 221B of my imagination as I write my fics that the flat has become oh so very real to me. So standing in that space, it felt like revisiting a place I'd already been, a place I knew all too well, a place I've spent almost as much time in as my own home. They've done a marvellous job with the details, from the Union Jack pillow on John's chair to Billy the Skull on the mantel to the clutter on the tables and dressing on the papered walls. I wish I could have stayed a little longer and just revelled in being there. But there was a game to play. Happy to say, we successfully escaped. ;)

If you've not done so already and you're in London for a spell--and if you like to solve puzzles and crack codes and pretend that Sherlock and John are still out there doing the same--do take the time. For me, it was a dream.

[windylyndy]

Oh I would love to do that. I love escape rooms generally, but a Sherlock-themed one would be the top of my list! I spend a lot of mental time in 221B myself. I need to visit the UK, clearly!

[sannapersikka]

[engazed]

Blackbird, Fly

Chapter 35: Sherrinford

Read it on AO3.

Read it on FFN.

[engazed]

If I had known...

I know it's not worth an apology, but I feel compelled to offer one anyway.

I've drafted the next chapter of Blackbird, Fly. I'll read it over and make edits over the next day or so and will likely post it midweek. And I really thought this was to be the penultimate chapter. But I have a horrible habit of writing long chapters, and I did it again, so I'm actually going to split this climactic chapter into two parts: chapters 35 and 36. Because the chapter arc demanded it.

This aggravates me to no end because this bloody book is already 285K words, which is excessive. Blackbird, Fly should have been two books. I know that now. It's too late to split it (without deleting all the comments on chapters and reposting half the book), but in hindsight--and what I'll probably do if I create hard copies--I would end the first part after chapter 18. It's a natural place to end it, with the discovery and confession of Bill Murray.

This would have left me writing a tetralogy rather than a trilogy, which was never my intent but is what the story seems to have required of me. I'm grateful that fanfic doesn't place certain strictures (like word count) on authors, but at the same time, it's a lot to ask of readers to take on a 300K word fic. It's off-putting, I know. Thus, the apology. And if anyone knows how to split a book on AO3 without deleting and reposting, I'm all ears. But I don't think it can be done.

[windylyndy]

Will you be making hard copies of this book? I’d love one!

And I just want to say I love this story so much. I’ve been a loyal follower for years, and I’m always so thrilled whenever a new chapter drops. The Slash Man was long too, but I’ve read it several times without tiring of a single sentence. Your writing is exactly my style.

[engazed]

Blackbird, Fly

Chapter 34: Cherchez la Femme

Read it on AO3.

Read it on FFN.

[gasgaszsz-deactivated20250421]

i love this photo omg

[nhtmcat]

Benedict Cumberbatch talks about Sherlock and Martin Freeman

Interviewer: Sherlock, anyone knows Sherlock? Obviously, it has been wonderful, but you had said that being in Sherlock that was magic. Why do you think that?

BC: Um… It was a lot of things. It was Martin. It was a modern era take on it. It was Steven… first of all, Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss took something they were obsessive fanboys over with total respect, and they crafted a modern version of it with huge (amount) details, hugely rewarding loyalty towards the original stories, but with a very witty plot twist. And I think it was also, you know, it was the dawn of Twitter, and this guy was on the internet, and John Watson was blogging. And I think there was a synchronicity where television became, you know, it was pre streaming. It was sort of a water-cooler moment made digital. And I think that's why it went global. And I, I don't know, maybe it was the part that had just been waiting for me at the right time as well. I just loved it. It was just a heck of a thing. And again, the mental geek a bit. He had to be in the digital space the equivalent of the computers. He had to have an AI speed so that he was speaking as fast as most people think, but very quickly. And that was an acting challenge, and also to some extent having him work on this character, how that fits in society now, where you have asexuals, autists, whatever those, you know, you know, whatever theories of those kinds of wonderful superpowers are, you know. And I think that spoke to a lot of people, that he had a superpower. And socially incredible also such a lot of people take pleasure of other people being vicariously rude or straight, or direct.

Interviewer: No filters for him.

BC: Yeah, no filters for Sherlock. And I think that is a part of his appealing. He's brilliant. Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant mind.

Interviewer: What was the first time you walk around the street without being unnoticed?

BC: Oh, you know, it was a particular type of hair, which I don't normally have. You know, I have dark hair and I don't usually have it that long. When I just stepped out of some, you know, pre-production, it literally was that I'd go to the hairdressers and come out, dyed and with the shade, and people literally crack it and sort of, oh, Sherlock! It’s him. It was the first time. And I remember when we were making it, Martin was already very famous from the Office. And when we kind of spent time with each other, started all sorts of, you know, people would sort of go, oh, this is Tim Canterbury! ‘Yeah, yeah, I mean, he's being younger than me, doesn't he? Yeah, yeah…’ He just joked about it.

Interviewer: He's such a fun and nice guy.

BC: Yeah, he's great. He's very funny. One of the funniest human beings I've ever met. And just so inventive and brilliant. And he filled that role with so much nuances and care. He's a precision artist, he's technically brilliant, but he's also a musician I mean, he's got jazz in there as well as every other kind of music. He's wonderful to work with, and like I said, I think that was very early in my answer, that was a huge part of it - that chemistry - that I liked to be there really well.

Red Sea International Film Festival, Q&A, 10 December 2024

[engazed]

As the final triptych by wordsandpics. I'm blessed beyond words to have such artists read my work.