crysonna

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Success is Dependent on Secret Information

A lot of career success depends on you and the work you put into it, as well as luck beyond your control, but sadly, it also depends on secret information, magic words, and stupid little tricks.

That's not fair. I don't like it, but we can help by sharing that secret information--which is the antidote to gate-keeping. That's why I recently wrote this in my Authors of Nonfiction Books in Progress substack:

It can be really disheartening to realize that, when you thought you failed at something because you didn't do well enough, other people had the magic words. For instance, some injustices I've witnessed (that may or may not always be the case, or maybe not anymore!) include:

A good athletic score doesn't get you into a college sport--having a coach or parent talk to the college coach is mandatory

Many school-sponsored scholarships are often not tightly linked to grades, test scores, or financial need, but whether the student said the right words ("I can't afford that") to the right person (presumably some financial office person.)

Apparently, some aspects of some degrees are cheated on by most students (if that's the case, we should tell all students that it's ok to cheat on that so they don't waste their time on something that apparently wasn't important anyway, or worse, fail out just for being ethical.)

Especially related to books: Few people will mention that you can get grants! Not my agent, not my publisher, not the 1 zillion "pros and cons of trad publishing" articles out there mentioned grants (Grant eligibility is a HUGE benefit of trad publishing.) I got more money from grants than my entire book advance!

Let me know what magic words/secret knowledge you've learned, that you wish you knew sooner. Or: the widespread understanding of what information would make a field more fair?

And please share ANBIP with anyone writing, publishing, or seriously about to start writing, a nonfiction non-memoir book, especially if they're interested in the more practical side (I share more about resources and strategy than craft.)

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The best milk commercial ever

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Great ranking from a British magazine for British readers, but certainly not a representative list of the 100 best punk rock songs

The Dead Kennedy's must have gone through immigration procedures 🤔😂

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Plus Size Sewing Pattern Database

I've seen some people on here express interest in making their own clothes, and I recently discovered this database for plus size/size inclusive sewing patterns and wanted to share.

All of the patterns/brands on the list accommodate at least a 60 inch hip measurement, though the actual size ranges and other measurements vary, and there’s even a search function that allows you to plug in your own measurements (both imperial and metric) and find brands that can fit them. The site also does a monthly pattern roundup sharing specific patterns that meet the sizing criteria, which I think is neat.

A lot of these *do* tend to max out around the 60-65 inch range, so it's not the most inclusive for superfats, but it's still waaaaay more inclusive than the big-brand sewing pattern companies tend to be.

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Remembering Marvel's Stan Lee on his 102nd birthday!

Excelsior!

Photo from when Bauhaus’ Peter Murphy performed a duet of “That Old Black Magic” with Stan the Man.

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The deeper contradiction is that the Tech Bros need educated workers, but the MAGA movement needs uneducated voters to keep them in power.

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An Ivory Okimono Of a Dragon Having His Teeth Examined. Meiji Period, Signed Nimin/Futsumin.

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the pun “Have U Herd?” haunted me from the moment I sketched these idiots until well after they came out of the kiln

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"How might Small(tm) fantasy creatures use bows?"

Tiny bow was surprisingly fun to wield. Might use that again sometime 😁

Patreon still exists for all your art reference and bonus content needs!

And you can find more fantasy creatures doing archery here:

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Merry Hexmas, my friends. Hope you’re enjoying the holidays.