drleevezan

[drleevezan]

At last, the 2023 Valentine's Special makes its way to the 925 Universe wordpress blog, now with twice as many words (or some reason)!

Come read the Land of Oz/Golden Age Superhero/Surreal Workplace Comedy crossover love story NOBODY wanted, now with even more comic captions, more inner turmoil about wanting to date Professor H.M. Wogglebug T.E., and a new illustration by the wonderful @aristidetwain!

Read Here: https://ninetwofiveuniverse.wordpress.com/2024/11/18/lovie-dovie-stuff/

[drleevezan]

At last, the 2023 Valentine's Special makes its way to the 925 Universe wordpress blog, now with twice as many words (or some reason)!

Come read the Land of Oz/Golden Age Superhero/Surreal Workplace Comedy crossover love story NOBODY wanted, now with even more comic captions, more inner turmoil about wanting to date Professor H.M. Wogglebug T.E., and a new illustration by the wonderful @aristidetwain!

Read Here: https://ninetwofiveuniverse.wordpress.com/2024/11/18/lovie-dovie-stuff/

[drleevezan]

Save my life 🙏🍉

Hi, my name is Saeed, I am 19 years old, I live in an unjust reality, the war on Gaza.

This war destroyed my ambitions to study engineering and robbed me of everything beautiful in my life that I lived with my family that embraced me, my father, mother, brothers, sisters and nephews. We had a beautiful house with its simplicity, where we lived a simple and beautiful life, but in this war our house was completely destroyed, our memories that we preserved and our unknown future, our present is more difficult than you can imagine. We have become living for the purpose of living only and escaping death, we die every moment to provide the necessities and requirements of life, we have felt the taste of death repeatedly, when you hear the sounds of bombs and explosions and see the remains and children and the panic that we live.

So we decided to travel from this place and move to a safe place, where we find the future and the present to build memories. But the cost of travel is very high and we cannot afford it. We need an amount of 5 thousand dollars for each person and my family consists of 9 people, as well as the cost after the travel until we find a safe haven. For the sake of humanity, for the sake of love, for the sake of humanity. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for reading the words I wrote about my suffering. Help me by donating and sharing.

Vetted by:

@90-ghost

Thank you all 🙏❤️❤️

Please help here 👇👇

[drleevezan]

If you want to help diabetics in Gaza, please donate or boost

[drleevezan]

The King in Yellow and the War Over the Mind

I think one of the most powerful aspects of Robert W. Chambers's The King in Yellow, and one which sets it apart from a lot of later Weird Fiction about academics who become too invested in the world of the arcane, is the idea that there just isn't anything explainably wrong with the play. People know there's something wrong with it, especially once you get to the second act... but if you just looked at the text itself, you wouldn't find anything.

'No definite principles had been violated in those wicked pages, no doctrine promulgated, no convictions outraged. It could not be judged by any known standard, yet, although it was acknowledged that the supreme note of art had been struck in The King in Yellow, all felt that human nature could not bear the strain, nor thrive on words in which the essence of purest poison lurked.' ~ The Repairer of Reputations

Despite how central it is, I completely missed it on my first reading (mainly because I was young and grappling with a particularly bad printing of it which made the text really small). I only started to grasp it when I listened to the concept album The King in Yellow by experimental post-rock band "Ah Pook, the Destroyer".

This album is largely inspired by Chamber's work, using that premise - an idea that you can't see but can still cause genuine harm - to talk about the current political climate. Songs touch on a wide array of cults and conspiracies - from the modern-day antisemitic ramblings of Qanon and Lizard People conspiracies to the strong figureheads and interpersonal conflicts of cults like Heaven's Gate. They even find time to touch on the Time Cube somehow, all under the framework of the King in Yellow propagating harmful ideas and bringing about the New Age of Madness.

But it's not as simple as just looking at these people and calling them mad. Okay, sometimes it is that (best exemplified in the gospel stylings of "The Tribulation of Alex Jones"), but there are cases where the characters are presented with genuine empathy, such as in "The Road to Carcosa" where we hear about the life of a man who, through exposure to the Yellow Sign (which here is attached to Right-Wing conspiracy theories) ends up destroying his relationship with his family. The singer gets a moment of lucidity in the refrain "The fall of my life came after; And all of my mind was scattered", though this fades away as we hear the end of this story: Him living alone in a gun-filled squalor.

Another thing that elevates this album is how it turns it all back on the listener. There's obviously a specific audience of Left-leaning listeners a project like this would attract, and those people are very unlikely to also share the beliefs of the average Qanon-minded person, but (much like in the book) it constantly emphasises that the actual specific beliefs don't matter as much as the spread of ideas. This is most visible in the refrain heard throughout the album:

The fall you believe Is not far as it seems And the deep can not be so alive The blithe poison meme That you did not believe But you saw and it entered your mind

Belief doesn't matter. Sheer exposure to these toxic ideas means that, in a way, you've already been harmed no matter what you take away from it. This idea is also present in the book, most directly in the story "The Yellow Sign".

In it, Mr. Scott is fully aware of the King in Yellow, but has actively tried to avoid its influence, partially due to the unfortunate fate of Hildred Castaigne (who featured in the story "The Repairer of Reputations" and at the very least wanted to do a monarchist coup of America that would place him as King - all after reading The King in Yellow). By all means, he should be doing the right thing - he has no interest in The King in Yellow and is actively avoiding the play... and it's not like anyone's staging it anymore, so he should be fine... and yet, after strange dreams, an erie watchman, and other bizarre events, he and his model, Tessie, are driven to read it. This is also a story the album quotes right at the start:

'Then, as I fell, I heard Tessie’s soft cry and her spirit fled: and even while falling I longed to follow her, for I knew that the King in Yellow had opened his tattered mantle and there was only God to cry to now.' ~ The Yellow Sign & Beautitudes

It's an idea I think is also evoked in the structure of the anthology. While the first 4 stories directly feature the King in Yellow in one way or another, the rest are tragic, sometimes supernatural romances with seemingly no connection to the title character, to the point where some reprints just do the first 4 and ignore the rest... though I feel it's deliberate when keeping this idea in mind. While the King is absent, Yellow is a recurring motif throughout the book, often emphasising death or danger, and reminding the reader of that titular presence. You have been exposed to the King in Yellow, and now your mind is his domain.

[drleevezan]

Happy Hallowe'en!

From the worlds of Disparate Minds and Zadellin, The Cheshire House is thrilled to show you two fantastic new releases!

This unsettling cover of Disparate Minds’ Halloween special, ‘Into the Redline’, was created by writer Plum Pudding.

Into the Redline is the Hallowe'en special for Disparate Minds, penned by Plum Pudding, and edited by Ostara Gale (@a-wartime-paradox) and Aristide Twain (@aristidetwain). In front of a corpse in an abandoned mineshaft on Halloween is the last place local tea-drinker Todd wants to be, but with Wick and Serena’s lives on the line, and Anthea counting on him, he can’t turn back. 

This amazing cover for Zadellin’s first mainline release, ‘0rigins’, was created by Heimeldat (@heimeldat), whose first Cheshire story is in this very collection! The logo near the top of this cover was drawn by Ryan Fogarty.

0rigins is a collection of eleven short stories which together act as the first mainline release of Zadellin. Featuring Zadellin herself, her crew, and her crew’s former coworkers, this collection has works from Theta Mandel (@theangelshavethephonebox), Ostara Gale, Aristide Twain, and newcomers to the series Gale Heimeldat, Molly Warton (@aquanafrahudy), and Plum Pudding. Edited by Theta Mandel, Ostara Gale, and Aristide Twain, from broken dreams and ghosts to zombies and betrayal, these stories provide insight into how the Agents ended up working at the Watch.

You can find us at CheshireHouseStories on Instagram, Cheshire_House on X/Twitter, and thecheshirehouse on Bluesky.

[drleevezan]

New Story - “The Trick-or-Treaters"

You reach the first of the lights, and stop in your tracks. It isn’t a trick-or-treater at all, nor is it a party-goer. It’s a Jack-O’-Lantern. An orange flame flickers from out of a carved grin, illuminating the doorstep on which it stands – the first familiar sight you’ve seen in the inky darkness. Looking about, you realise that the other lights, too, are grinning pumpkins – each of them sitting by a waiting door, practically begging any visiting trick-or-treater to knock and receive their long-awaited prize.

You smile, relieved, as the veil of horror seems to pull back from around you. Perhaps this is just a friendly street after all – if an unusual one.

You are suddenly aware, once again, of the emptiness of your basket. You have set out tonight to obtain the requisite treats, and you aren’t going to let a little trick like this stop you from doing so. Raising your basket, you carefully regard each of the doors which surround you. There’s nothing left to do but knock.

[drleevezan]

Happy Halloween from the Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids!

[drleevezan]

If you haven't looked at it before the Halloween Bestiary is a thing I've done for a few years now where I talk about obscure or lesser known Halloween creatures, most often totally nameless ones that exist only as a merchandise phenomenon - like sentient doorbells, owl-shaped things that obviously aren't owls at all, nonhumanoid mummies and so on. The only rule is I have to have seen at least three different examples, even if that's all I ever ran across! - the pumpkins incorporating metal junk for instance were only common one year, for some reason, and have been very rare ever since. This year's entry was doll-headed spiders, and at the end of the article are links to all past entries. There's 27 of them in all! It'll be something special when we get to 31 of them.

Also in uploading this art I found one I drew, but never made an article for:

I've definitely seen even more Skull Moons since this.

I also once collabed on a book version with @bynineb though it's been a while since I could afford to order and sell a bunch of hard copies. You can get them on amazon if you need but not much commission comes that way. It's been years since Amazon even sent me any money at all for any books I technically have up :')

[drleevezan]

Put up an official promo page for this with some previews of what my printed proof copy looks like! DIRECT LINK TO ORDER THE BOOK HERE I wrote The Day of all The Blood 15ish years ago and now it has a sequel along with many new stories that will only ever be in this little physical book!

[drleevezan]

Spider Witch

@bogleech

[drleevezan]

It's with a heavy but hopeful heart that I watch Palestinian families fundraiser on here, slowly accumulating the precious little money to go around that they need to survive. However, not everyone is so lucky. A lot of Palestinians that have not had that kind of luck, that did not get early verification, that did not get massive platforms behind them from large bloggers, have approached me in my inbox, asking me kindly to do what I can for them. It kills me that I have so little to give myself, but I've seen this platform collectively raise enough to change someone's life. I've made a list of Palestinian fundraisers that are extremely low on funds, in the hope that drawing attention to people who have not been lucky at all can help turn that luck around. I know most of us can't possibly give enough to get all of these families safe in one go. But please, reblog this list. Pick one or two fundraisers, give what you can, and then keep track of it. Slowly, collectively, we can make a difference in these people's lives. Share and donate as much as you can. https://docs.google.com/document/d/178EGDFKkHlh3y4TMVX82kqgITHsqtoMdNccI2f_94Os/edit?usp=sharing

[drleevezan]

Today I started putting Mortasheen monsters into simple square promo images with truncated pokedex style descriptions so I have a quicker way to post them on social media. In the buildup to the book's release it probably needs to have its own media feeds not mixed up with my personal posts or my other projects. If you're a new follower or just tuning in these are monsters for the roleplay setting I've been working on for 20 years and I've drawn around 1000 of them by now. If you're an old follower wondering about this, a couple of these did get name changes or lore changes for various reasons.

[drleevezan]

Stuff wot I've done

Pinned post with all the stuff I have inflicted upon the internet and/or the realm of the printed word. It is incredibly thorough, and, by dint of being ordered in order of publication, the quality of writing improves as you get further down the list. One should be able to jump in anywhere on the list, however several stories may be enhanced by context. Updated regularly.

As writer

2023

26 December - The Goblins, the Witch, and the Kitchen Sink and vignettes #2, #14, #18, #20, #21, and #23 of Our Finest Gifts We Bring in The Book of the Snowstorm (paperback, ebook)

2024

31 March - I'm Dreaming of a Cheshire Easter for The Cheshire House

4 April - The Noodle Magic Island and Epilogue to "The Noodle Incident" in The Noodle Incident

23 April - Jenny Everywhere and the Very Short Story, Jenny Everywhere and the Rather Annoyingly-Titled Sequel to “Jenny Everywhere and the Very Short Story”, and Jenny Everywhere and the Even More Annoyingly-Titled Sequel to “Jenny Everywhere and the Rather Annoyingly Titled Sequel to "Jenny Everywhere and the Very Short Story"”

28 April-7 May - Universe Registry

4 May - Doctor Who and the Completely Idiotic and Definitely Non-Canonical Attempt to Write a More Stupid, Metafictional, Self-Indulgent, and Downright Silly Story Than “Doctor Who and Gaming the System” by Highly-Acclaimed Creator of the Noodle Man Plum Pudding

31 July - Jenny Everywhere and the Shame Spirit page 5

13 August - The Jenny Everywhere Collaborative Novella (with various) (view on Internet Archive or Mega)

13 August - My Name is Jenny Everywhere

14 August-present - Jenny Everywhere webcomic chapter 1: The Awakening

15 August - Sang Mi Investigates! (with James Wylder) in Academy 27 series 2

29 August - Untitled drabble

3 September - The Life of a Shifter and London! in The Never-Ending Quest

20 September - Tears in the Dark

21 September - Semperdistans

27 September - Whatever You May Call It

As artist

to be added

As editor

2024

30 June - Beautiful Ghosts (with Ostara Gale, Theta Mandel, and Aristide Twain) in Disparate Minds

[drleevezan]

For anyone looking for a suitably supernatural series to get into this October, the official Faction Paradox website is currently making the full scripts of the original Faction Paradox Protocols audios available to read online for free, starting with episode one, The Eleven-Day Empire!

“This is where it starts, pretty much. With poor little Justine, all on her own, sent out to the edge of the city where nobody ever goes. Nobody human, anyway. Because, let's not kid ourselves, there were things living in the Eleven-Day Empire even before the Faction settled down there…”

[drleevezan]

Hi,🍉

This is me, Noura Ayman,

A medical lab specialist and I have been working in the Turkish Friendship Hospital for four years and studying a master's degree at Al-Aqsa University but have not yet finished it.

My story in short is that we have been out of Gaza for treatment in Egypt since July 2023, and we have done an “in vitro fertilization” to give birth after four failed operations in Gaza.

We had a very beautiful baby.

But sadly that the war happened in Gaza in October 2023 and we have been stuck in Egypt ever since without any source of income, and I don't know how to provide for my beautiful daughter's Hanan needs and how to pay for the house and the rest of life, plus our house was bombed in Gaza.

So please support me to set up my own medical analysis laboratory and complete a master's degree in Egypt.

I thank you very much for your interest and support. 🍉🍉

(vetted)

[drleevezan]

freaky little scavenger