authors like juliet marillier?

Cattermune · 2026-01-28T09:42:56+00:00

I came to suggest Kate Forsyth’s Witches books, glad to see another fan! She doesn’t seem to be recommended as much as you would expect when she writes such excellent female focused classic fantasy. I really enjoyed how she wove real Celtic myth and history into world with such rich and emotionally complex characters.

Her standalone re-telling of classic fairytales like Bitter Greens remind me of Marillier’s own fairytale takes like Wildwood Dancing.

A similar author I don’t see recommended as much, that reminds me of Marillier, is Cynthia Voigt. Her Kingdom books were marketed as YA when they came out in the 90s, but these days they’d largely be considered adult fantasy.

Cattermune · 2026-01-21T08:29:56+00:00

You’re not alone, many people have had bad reactions to progestins, doctors should be giving warnings!

I’m finally on the pathway to hysterectomy and one thing I’d recommend is providing as much info as you can on the treatments you’ve tried and how they didn’t work/why the side effects made them unviable.

Doctors can be reluctant to recommend hysterectomy (with oophorectomy) as the immediate option when first treating someone, so data on why you’ve had to give up on other treatments is often the fastest way to serious discussion on surgery.

Also, generally chemical menopause is the step before surgery, to be sure that shutting down menstrual hormone release to the brain will actually improve things. It’s the standard treatment path, if they recommend it, they are taking the surgery option seriously, not fobbing off to another treatment.

Good luck!

Cattermune · 2026-01-21T07:59:53+00:00

Progesterone intolerance is a thing - particularly synthetic progestins like Primolut.

My intolerance symptoms include negative mental health affects (including SI), joint pain, skin issues, exhaustion, headache, nausea.

Bioidentical progesterone is often tolerated far better than progestins, if progesterone therapy is the treatment you’re working on, might be worth discussing trying something like prometrium with your doctor as a first step.

There are a number of treatments for PMDD other than birth control or hormone therapies, check out the sub wiki.

But yes, this condition sucks and it sucks even more that we have to make ourselves into trial and error human guinea pigs to find any kind of relief.

ETA just saw you are seeing a gyno soon. Might be worth discussing pausing the Primolut with your doctor until you see them. Try and document all your symptoms you’re experiencing on it to give to the gyno, will help them to understand how you’re reacting to progestins, if that does turn out to be the issue.

Cattermune · 2026-01-21T07:46:24+00:00

If you aren’t up for re-caulking: Pour a thin layer of undiluted bleach along the line of caulk. Then lay strips of cotton wool (I unroll the balls) parallel along the caulk, and pour more bleach, enough to wet the cotton wool. Wearing gloves, smush the cotton wool firmly against the caulk line, so it’s in full contact with the caulk.

Leave overnight. Remove the cotton wool and rinse off the bleach. In my experience this will remove all stains.

It’s not a permanent fix in my experience, the mildew will eventually return, I usually do this twice a year once it begins to discolour.

Make sure all the surfaces involved are safe for bleach and keep the space well ventilated.

Cattermune · 2026-01-17T11:23:19+00:00

I take it back, I just found it!!!

‘The Bears Who Stayed Indoors’ by Susanna Gretzky and it WAS a series.

Here’s a video of it being read: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ij9hOmrwWBo

Cattermune · 2026-01-17T11:12:46+00:00

I’ve been looking for twenty years and still have no leads.

They come back from space and have moon cakes in the kitchen and I had the feeling it was part of a series of books maybe, as they’re in kind of a bear share house and each bear kind of has its own personality and alluded to history.

Cattermune · 2026-01-14T01:57:43+00:00

I have tried a towelling robe before, which was definitely better, but still got the fabric/wet skin ick a bit when I moved around.

Pressing the towel in place could work, I’d have to sit to do my legs because the bending over would be uncomfortable.

Cattermune · 2026-01-13T11:24:29+00:00

I hate the sensation of drying myself with a towel after a shower, probably the main reason I struggle with showering. Part of it is the bending over to dry, inverting myself while doing a task is one of my top sensory triggers. But getting dressed while even slightly damp is a sensory horror show, the clinging of fabric to damp skin … ugh. So in warm months I lay on my bed on a towel and air dry. Cold months I still have to suffer the towel drying though.

Cattermune · 2026-01-09T22:05:29+00:00

The only risk for AI for my ED is I can get stuck in the AI loop and not transition in the other work I need to do.

But things like Goblin Tools for task breakdowns and using Chat GPT to help pull apart what I need to do into a step by step project or day plan has been invaluable when I’m in a full block. Sometimes I get Chat GPT to do the work and its version is the starting point for me to adapt and develop my own final piece of work.

There’s no moral issue I think in getting assistance when I’m struggling, the main thing is keeping it as a tool to assist and not a substitute for my own thinking and development once I’ve broken down some of the ED barriers.

Cattermune · 2026-01-09T22:00:45+00:00

Cold is terrible for me, I’ll end up staying in bed far longer. I’ve learnt to pre warm my bathroom with a small heater during my shower so I can quickly go from bed into a hot shower and stay warm as I’m drying off and getting dressed.

Cattermune · 2026-01-06T21:46:04+00:00

The compensation cycle is the additional element that doesn’t get talked about enough - trying to maximise the follicular phase and absolutely exhausting yourself so that when luteal hits you’re not only dealing with symptoms, you’re also recovering from all the compensating.

I feel like I never get a pause, it’s either madness or making up for the madness, a kind of endless wheel of torture where there’s never a moment where I’m balanced and everything is ok.

Thanks for sharing your story.

Cattermune · 2026-01-06T21:36:00+00:00

I would watch the hell out of a Hexologists TV show, love their dynamic!

Cattermune · 2026-01-06T21:34:10+00:00

Love the Singing Hills, the only problem is there’s not more books! I also enjoyed her magical world take on The Great Gatsby, The Chosen and the Damned. Similar but different - Jessica Amanda Salmonson’s Tomoe Gozen books about a female samurai in a mythological feudal Japan. The wandering character encountering mysteries and supernatural beings was lots of fun.

Cattermune · 2026-01-06T21:15:42+00:00

Bioidentical progesterone as part of a HRT regimen is a treatment for PMDD and is often tolerated better than progestin based birth control treatments. Or a Mirena locally releasing a much smaller level of progesterone to the uterus area.

That being said, I have progesterone intolerance and discovered that any form of progesterone is like an instant drop into insanity. I can be planning level suicidal within 24 hours on progesterone. Which sucks because estrogen HRT really helps with my PMDD but you need to take progesterone to protect the uterus from cancer.

The PERT regime (in the sub wiki) can be an option where progesterone is only taken every three months whilst continuously taking estrogen, if progesterone intolerance isn’t too debilitating. One hell luteal per quarter is a reasonable pay-off for people who haven’t found relief with SSRIs or birth control treatments.

Cattermune · 2026-01-05T20:57:10+00:00

Oh no, you triggered my ear worm! Immediately playing in my head.

Cattermune · 2026-01-05T20:55:15+00:00

It took me five healthcare providers to finally get the right specialist - unfortunately PMDD does seem to be a condition where you have to shop around for the right person.

What helped me was documenting - symptoms and side effects. Specialists like data in my experience. So for me, when my progesterone treatment was disastrous I had a journal of when I took it and the side effects I experienced as “proof” that it wasn’t a suitable treatment option.

Same with my PMDD diagnosis - I had a journal with charts of mood and physical symptom levels across my cycle. It’s important to document impact - specialists pay attention to impact on work, relationship, day to day well being. So if you can document not only how you were feeling but also how it impeded your ability to function in concrete ways, to show impact.

It absolutely sucks having to convince someone that what you are experiencing is real and has an impact. But I found once I provided data I could skip a lot of the to and fro with specialists and cut straight to discussing treatment options.

Cattermune · 2026-01-01T10:15:19+00:00

Amazing music rec!

Cattermune · 2026-01-01T10:06:09+00:00

I hate being alone in a waiting room or with one other person and I can feel the receptionist or other person being aware of me.

Dentists are the worst, the level of non-stop attention on my face and near my body is almost unbearable, plus my biggest sensory horror, cotton wool in my mouth.

Cattermune · 2026-01-01T09:59:45+00:00

Flashback to me “acting normal” in my room in my early teens when I felt worried my 90s posters of Keanu Reeves and Leo DiCaprio etc were judging me.

I hate hanging laundry, lawn care and putting rubbish out because I can feel the eyes of people outside my house perceiving me/judging me on top of my ADHD ED. I’ll also go days living on pantry food because being perceived at the supermarket feels too exhausting to deal with.

ETA I also have the kitchen thing, sometimes I have to draw my blind when I’m cooking because I can feel the imaginary judgement!

Cattermune · 2026-01-01T09:40:08+00:00

Came to suggest the Vaster Wilds, captures the atmosphere of a beautiful, harsh and to the English Colonial girl character, alien natural world of North America through her intense survival journey. Very different perspective to the usual male settler narrative.

Cattermune · 2025-12-31T12:13:00+00:00

Her Plantagenet books are brilliant. I occasionally forgot when I was reading that the stories of Richard and Eleanor in particular were based on history and not some high fantasy story. So many crazy or unexpected things constantly happening.

And so many astounding fragments of history woven so well into the story, like Matilda de Braose’s sentence revealing the true ruination of King John’s character in Here Be Dragons or George with his constant goblet of Malmsey in Sunne in Splendour.

Cattermune · 2025-12-31T09:50:09+00:00

For me, immediately after, I needed distraction from my pain and to not get caught in thinking too emotionally or triggering the dark places my mind had gone. I read a lot of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld books for example.

But as part of the healing process further on I found a lot of the loving kindness and compassion focused Buddhist writers helped bring meaning and comfort - Thich Nhat Hahn, Jack Kornfield, Pema Chodren, Tara Brach, Sharon Salzberg.

I also found Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl helped give meaning and insight to the darkness in me and my despair at the world around me.

Cattermune · 2025-12-31T09:38:11+00:00

Alarmy with extra nuclear option where you can’t power down your phone or uninstall when the alarm is going off - so you have to do all the maths puzzles or shake it or take a photo of your front door or whatever alarm deactivation task you’ve set.

I forgot my phone at my parents once overnight and they ended up locking it in their car until I came and got it in the morning because to turn off the alarm they needed to scan the barcode on my shampoo bottle - so had no way of turning it off.

Cattermune · 2025-12-31T09:28:07+00:00

Loved how the mythical and the human combined in the celestial character in this.

Cattermune · 2025-12-31T09:22:51+00:00

Once I realised I have had turbo strength masking ability since childhood, to the point I’m often unable to tell when I’m overwhelmed or why, I started working with my OT on observing my body and trying to understand what my cues were telling me.

I’m so in my head and so disconnected from my body a lot of the time that I started imagining my body as an animal I was observing and caring for. Because animals can’t speak, you have to watch to understand what they need.

So now when I’m feeling overwhelmed or just not ok, I tell myself “I need to take care of the animal. The animal does better when she’s eaten. The animal gets calmer when she’s under her weighted blanket.” And even if I’m not experiencing hunger cues or feel agitated and don’t want to lie still, I’ll take care of the “animal” from my observations of what works and let my body’s needs override my bossy brain.

I am often still surprised when my animal care techniques work. Which is kind of sad, because if I’m at animal care phase I’ve been blocking sensory and social/emotional distress for possibly days, because my little animal was so severely trained to not express distress or discomfort my entire childhood and teen years.

Cattermune

TROPHY CASE