#AND i downloaded an ebook to my phone

[colorisbyshe]

packing your purse to wait in line for a concert might as well be packing for a weekend long vacation

[loxare]

Taking a moment to appreciate the AO3 volunteers who, if they were being paid would still not be getting paid enough to deal with this crap

[marvelingjules]

Me: Where is my digital reading device and the charger for it, the latest of @halliewriteshockey’s books is out and I must read about the goalies.

Me this morning: *stares into my former-room my folks turned into storage* fuck.

(Guess I know what I’m doing tonight.)

[stsebastiens]

peace and love guys but i do Not understand the emotional outpour that’s happening over a03 rn. “you survived 24 hours without the fanfic website and you were so brave about it” like girl. go outside

[pretypidge]

found my kobo cable AND my phone charger in the last hour god loves me after all

[do-this-one-thing]

So i was planning on doing daily logs on here again but then i thought a digital detox would fix me so now i can't. This is the problem with starting new projects all at the same time. Sometimes they don't work well together.

[z0mbiefrank]

It's down to personal preference really, use whatever is best for you.

Although USB drives have hard casings to protect them, they are only reliable for about 10 years.

Personally I like CDs because I like to use higher quality speakers like a CD player or car stereo, not my laptop, and enjoy the ritual of looking through my CD racks and picking a physical album to play through my morning.

I back up my albums onto a hardrive but I can't glance over a bunch of USB drives and know instantly which albums are stored on each. They are also difficult to store in an organised and visually pleasing way, they would likely end up in a drawer. With CDs, it's similar to bookshelves. Storage is functional, I can pull out whatever album I'm thinking of in seconds bc of spines and genre/artist grouping, and they serve as a nice display of my music taste.

I love the art and details musicians put into the liners as well as on the CD itself. When I make mixtapes, I make my own liner notes, and they end up as a little time capsule of who I was when I made that CD, or a love letter to whoever I made it for. The limited space on a CD also means each song is picked very carefully, and I get to know the songs intimately. Another bonus is I like to buy CDs directly from musicians at small local gigs. It's a momento from a good night, cuts out any online/store middleman so they keep more profit, and chatting to them in person is always a more memorable experience than buying it online.

That's why I personally prefer CDs, I'm sure other people have different reasons. But if storing a lot of music in a single small portable object is your top priority, a USB drive or ipod/phone would certainly work better than CDs.

HOLD THE LINE!! KEEP PUSHING!!!!!

[sensitiveaangel]

went to the library and checked out books the other day i feel like a newborn lamb in a luscious valley of flowing grasses

[bamsara]

A quick tutorial on how to Download Fics from AO3

After making this poll about the panic that comes when Archive of Our Own goes down, there seems to be a chunk of folks who didn't know they could download fics for offline use, or don't know how to go about it. Here's a quick tutorial for that.

You do not need an AO3 account (unless the fic you are trying to download is restricted to AO3 users only) you only need an internet connection and a device to download to, whether it's PC or a phone.

These instructions work for both desktop and mobile. At the top of the fic, where the chapter index is, there will be the download option on the right side, and an 'Entire Work' button the left side.

For One-Shots: Go ahead and click the download button.

For multiple chapter fics: In order to have the fic download all together instead of downloading each chapter individually, make sure you select the 'Entire Work' button. Like the names says, it displays the entire work on the webpage, and will download the entire fic with all it's chapters in the correct order when you go to download.

Click the download button. You've got a couple of options:

AZW3 - Amazon-developed ebook format that is designed for Kindles and Amazon's systems. Good if you want to read off of a kindle.

EPUB - Standard file format for Ebooks and is basically used as the default for pretty much most ebook readers. This is what I prefer to use when downloading to my phone.

MOBI - An older version of the AZW3. Older but standard as well.

PDF - Downloads the fics as a PDF. Can be read anywhere you can open a PDF.

HTML - Downloads an offline version of the exact webpage you are looking at. Fine if you want to keep the 'look' of AO3 but you can't change the text size or reading style like you can with ebook formats.

Not sure which one to download? Use EPUB since it's standard and readable by pretty much everything, retains images too.

You now have your fic downloaded to your device and can read it on whatever reading app you have. YAY!

Do keep in mind that these are offline files that do not synch with Archive. So if you download an ongoing fic that updates or is edited since you last downloaded, you will need to download it again to have the updated version.

Happy Reading!

[felixcloud6288]

It's Hurricane Season so I'd like to share some advice as a life-long Floridian who's experienced a few things. This is going to be directed primarily to people living in areas at risk of blackouts which could last several days.

Preparations

Aside from food, water, and gas, some things you'll want to make sure you have are flashlights and batteries. Make sure to refill any medications you might need.

From @dea-certe: Fill up all vehicles and maybe a few gas containers now. Firstly because it will be more expensive in the storm aftermath, but also because it will be harder to find. I went to five different gas stations to find fuel at one point and was kicking myself because I had used so much has keeping the phones charged and keeping the heat going.

Get raincoats in case you need to go outside cause the wind will destroy any umbrellas.. If you can't get one, take a garbage bag and tear a face hole into it and use that.

Also, get bug repellent, especially mosquito repellent. Mosquitos breed around still water and there will be a lot of still water.

And if you have an infant, make sure to stock up on diapers, baby wipes, etc. Even if you don't have an infant, baby wipes can be useful to help keep yourself clean.

You might want to buy some gardening gloves as well to make the post-storm cleanup safer.

SUPER IMPORTANT FOR SANITY AND SANITATION: get caught up on laundry and dishes. No power means no running water. Don't make things worse by not having clean dishes or clean clothes to use. While you're cleaning, change your bed sheets as well. Once you have power, change your sheets again.

Also, download any games, ebooks, shows, etc you can onto any battery-charged electronic devices you have. It will help your sanity when all you can do is wait.

From @metadata-uber-alles: My recommendation re: radio is to make sure you have an actual AM/FM radio, one that can run on batteries. You can probably thrift it if you don't have one already. Most radio stations stream online too, but if the power goes out you'll be rationing your phone battery and may not have internet.

Finally, while you should ideally board up your windows to protect them from debris, make sure at the minimum that all your windows are closed. Wind pressures are going to suck air out of any openings in your home.

Food and Water

First and most important: DO NOT BE A HOARDER!!

Even if your home has no power, that doesn't mean your local grocery store has no power. You can expect some reduced supply due to damaged supply lines and a spike in demand, but you shouldn't be worrying about empty shelves. At worst, have the amount of supplies you might need for 10 days. If you normally go to the grocery store every 2 weeks or longer, just stock up the amount you normally would.

Buy more items that are less likely to spoil and don't need refrigeration. When you have no power, prioritize eating anything which requires refrigeration (milk, cheese, meats) or has a short shelf life (bread).

Demand will be higher in preparation, and supply will be diminished for a bit, but supply issues only become unbearable when people start hoarding.

As for water, you'll need a surplus since you need water for so much. I cannot stress this particular part enough:

You need water to flush your toilet.

If there's somewhere with running water you can go when you need to poop, use that whenever possible, but you need water available at home to refill your toilet's cistern if you don't have that option (either time, distance, etc).

Make sure you have a supply of drinking water. Don't go buying every water bottle you can find (See the bit about hoarding), but you should buy more than you might normally use. Instead, gather water through things like your sink or from a hose into any sealable containers you might have . If you have a bathtub, fill it up just before the hurricane. If you have a pool, that's another source of water. If no debris got in the pool, you can use it for bathing. If you have empty buckets, you can get some additional water during the hurricane by filling them with large rocks or bricks and leaving them out in the open to collect the rain water.

Different water sources will be used for different purposes:

bottled, canned, or other store-bought water: Drinking, cooking, and refrigeration (explained later)

Water in unsealed containers: refill the toilet cistern

Water in a sealed containers: bathing and cleaning (Can also be used for the toilet)

As mentioned with food, supplies at your grocer will be reduced but not necessarily empty. You should be able to buy enough additional drinking water and be able to also use it for cleaning, giving you more water for the toilet. The tip about gathering rain water will only work once. There will likely be no rain for at least a week afterward.

In case you need to evacuate

Keep tabs on whatever emergency alerts are available. Check what your local radio channel is or what sites to check online. Make sure you know how to get to your local shelter, including alternate paths in case a road is inaccessible.

Load your vehicle with anything you might need to bring with you before the storm so you don't have to spend time looking for them and double checking when every minute could count. Pack some pillows, blankets, and extra clothes just in case. Also include anything you cannot risk losing for school or work like laptops.

Refrigeration

Without power, your fridge is now just a giant cooler and a ticking bomb to being a biohazard. Fill it up as much as possible. Cold air escapes easily when you open it and heat disperses fastest throw the air. Remember how I said you should buy extra water? A fridge filled with cold water will stay cooler longer. Any liquid will do. Fill your fridge with water bottles, soda cans, beer, fruit juice, whatever. As long as it doesn't spoil at room temperature. Milk can technically help too, but since it spoils you shouldn't keep much of it and should use it quickly.

Additional things like fruits and veggies will also help. What matters is you want to reduce the amount of empty space and fill it with anything which can keep the temperature down. Put a frozen block of iron in for all I care. Just don't have a super empty fridge.

If you have a generator

Good for you. You're not completely without power now. But you need to set priorities on what to use it for. Generators can only supply so much power at a time so you can't just hook everything to it and expect things to work out.

Top priority is the fridge. Twice a day, morning and evening, plug the fridge to the generator and let it run for two hours to cool things down. Don't hook up the fridge when you don't expect to open it (like when everyone is asleep).

Second priority should be charging cell phones, laptops, and anything else like that. Depending on your circumstances, you can charge them at work, from your car, etc so only hook them up when batteries are low.

Third, comfort. I understand this will be stressful, but hooking up your tv and gaming computer isn't the best idea. If you've done what I suggested earlier, you'll at least have something to watch or do without needing to hook it to your generator. Like with the above electronics, you might be able to find other ways to charge them, but only attach them to your generator when you don't need to worry about necessities.

Finally for the love of god, DO NOT HOOK AN AC TO THE GENERATOR!!. Air conditioners draw a lot of power, especially once the room is hot. But your generator can only do so much. The AC will kill your power supply really quickly. Use a fan or the AC in your vehicle if you need to cool down.

Also worth noting, if you have an electric vehicle, that could potentially be used as well. I don't know specifics, but look into that if you own one.

Final notes

This is not comprehensive and I may be wrong about some things.

Please refer to actual expert sources for comprehensive help.

This is just suggestions from someone who has to deal with this every year and has figured out how to deal with the aftermath. Your living conditions may be different so please check how to handle any concerns unique to you.

Stay safe and do not give up hope.

[dev-solovey]

"Everyone talks about trans victims. No one talks about trans victories."

This is a quote for my debut horror novella, Fever Dreams. As a trans creator, something that always bugs me is the fact that the majority of media with trans people shows them being depressed and hating their bodies. I hate that, I think it sends a bad message, so I decided to write a story about a kickass trans guy who knows he could fight a God and win. He wakes up to horrors, over and over again, faced with insurmountable odds, and he still retains a will to survive.

This book is now available for purchase and it's only $4 on Kindle. It would mean the world to me if my fellow queer creators could share this, even if you don't have the money to buy it. I want the world to know that, much like Thaddeus Morozov, I and all of my transgender siblings will continue to live on.

[traegorn]

Book update time! Back in January I published my first (non-graphic) novel, The Witch and the Rose (which you can buy here). I made it pretty clear that it was the first book in a series, and that more books would be coming.

And yeah, it's time to reveal that next book.

I'm excited to announce Bloody Damn Rite, the sequel to The Witch and the Rose and second book in the Mia Graves series, will come out June 11th on Kindle and paperback. Additionally, you can pre-order the Kindle eBook version of the book right now and it will be available on your devices immediately on June 11th.

So yeah! If you want some queer contemporary fantasy set in, of all places, an Indiana college town... I got two books for you.

There will be more.

[cameronspecial]

Let Me Tell You Something, Angel

Pairing: Frat!Rafe Cameron x Reader

Warnings: N/A

Pronouns: She/Her

Word Count: 0.7K

Summary: Rafe is a fictional man written by a woman and he never fails to remind Y/N of that.

A/N: This has a slight Twisted series spoilers.

Masterlist

It is no secret that Y/N loves reading, especially romance books. Sometimes she just needs a break from the academic side of life and to dive into another world. People said the books would give her high standards; she argues Rafe is the one who did that. He treats her like a fictional man written by a woman. However, there are times when she needs a reminder that he really is a fantasy come true. She is rereading one of her favourite series and it gets her thinking about her own relationship. She rests the open book on her chest, looking up at Rafe. He is sitting with his back against the couch while she lies down with her legs across his lap. “Rafe, what would you do if we broke up?” she questions. His eyes flick toward the book on her chest and he easily pieces everything together. “I would tell my dad that I won’t take over Cameron Development and move across the world to beg for your forgiveness. I would learn hundreds of ways to kill a man and a hundred more where I can make it look like an accident. I would abandon my dream vacation to keep you company. And finally, I would write you millions of letters begging you to come back home.” He doesn’t even look away from the game on TV throughout the whole declaration, telling her he has this response memorized and ready to go.

Her brow arches, “Did you read the Twisted series, Rafe?” He smirks at her. “Maybe I have, maybe I haven’t,” he teases, running his hand up and down her calf. She sits up to look him dead in the eyes, “Seriously, tell me the truth. When did you read it?” “After you finished reading it and would not stop obsessing over it. I had to know what my angel loved so much and see if I could use it to make her happy in real life,” he apprises. Butterflies fill her stomach, “How come I didn’t notice you were reading my books?” He holds up her phone to her and gives it a little shake. “Because I would read it when you weren’t home. And I didn’t love it 'cause you know I like reading a physical book, but I would read the ebook I downloaded when you were around.” “You sneaky bastard,” she giggles, giving him a little shove. “You read porno magazines because you didn’t like digital stuff and you are telling me that you bought an ebook just for me.” 

Rafe turns her so that she is snuggled under her arm. His lips press to her temple, “I used to read porno magazines. Now, the only thing I need is you, Angel. I did do all of that. You mean the world to me and if you like something, I want to know why.” 

“You didn’t have to do that just for me.”

“Let me tell you something, Angel. You are my whole world and I will do everything within my power to learn more about you. Even if it’s not related to something I like or my hobbies.” 

“That’s really sweet. I feel bad that I don’t do the same thing for you,” she pouts, guilt filling her to the seams. His eyebrows form a wrinkle, “Don’t worry about it, Angel. You do it all the time without realizing it. You come with me to golf even though I know you aren’t at all interested in the game. You know all my favourite things and you come to all my events.” A small smile starts to form on her lips. “It’s not as much as you do though,” she worries. He rests his palm on her cheek, “It only seems that way because you don’t need to put as much effort into doing it. It happens flawlessly.” Y/N doesn’t know how Rafe always has a way of making her feel better, but she is so thankful for it. She nods and sets her book on the side. “Thank you for making me feel better. Can I watch the game with you?” He grins, “Of course, Angel.” There are a lot of things that they love about their relationship, except their effort in reciprocity has to be both of their favourite things. 

Taglist: @winterrrnight @loves0phelia @thelomlisrafecameron @wickedlovely121 @thepatriarchykeychain @drewsmusee @starkowswife @maybankslover @forstarkey @loving-and-dreaming

[fangfic]

Tw: noncon, unconsciousness, werewolf

Inspired by a very stupid ad for a gay hook up site I keep seeing.

Imagine there is a hookup app that bans you if you don't hookup. Basically whoever likes your profile back you have to fuck. It sounds stupid and dumb at first but since your mind goes goblin mode whenever you're horny you dare to sign up.

In a matter of seconds you find someone interesting and they like you back. Instantly without even giving permission your location is shared and you can see on the map that your hookup is moving.

As you've both liked each other you get access to the previously blurred photos of your date.

Fuck, the guy has a ginormous werewolf knot, that's never gonna fit. You spend minutes staring at his pics in awe untill you hear him knocking on your door.

Suddenly your phone tells you to scan their qr code within a minute or you're gonna be banned and not refunded.

You run towards the door and open it, only to be forced back into your home by the guy, hungrily invading your mouth with his tongue and grabbing your ass.

He grabs your phone to scan the code and throws his and your phone on the couch as he carries you towards the bedroom.

You try to bring in some words, you don't even know his name but it's no use as he rips your pants off and unbuckles his while kissing you.

Once thrown on the bed you can feel the heat of his leaking knot on your stomach, it doesn't take long for him to line up his knot with your slutty fuckhole.

He enters without a warning and forces his knot deep inside you, something in your mind turns off and even though it hurts you already know this won't be the last time you'll have this magnificent cock stir up your insides.

He barely gives you time to breathe let alone speak and you moan into his mouth as he abuses your hole like you're a lifeless object.

As he absolutely ravishes your hole, sliding you up and down his massive rod you start to black out a little and the last thing you remember is him moaning as he fills you up load after load.

The next morning you wake up with a salty taste in your mouth and your hole hurting like hell. You find your phone next to you with a couple of video files ready to be downloaded and a heart ❤️ emoji.

"same time next week? I loved fucking your throat when you were out"

Before you can even reply a new match shows up, fuck if only you had been careful about who to like...

-

Read my longer stories for free on FangFic dot com where you can also find my ebook if you'd like to support me. 🖤

[kdmerchant]

Being a writer is wierd.

Being self-publushed even wierder.

It took me, like, 6 years to publish my one fully written book, and it's only around 200 pages. I'm more than positive there are still a few typos in the book.

I hired an editor. Their life must have been so hard cause I'm dyslexic and getting it back... so many corrections... I know more errors are there.

And I'm working on making the audiobook for it, but that whole "no one loves their own voice" thing is a struggle. And reading it out loud is scary.

And I think it's terrible 🤣

For so many reasons. I actually started to re-write it cause I dislike how it turned out so much after I bring it to voice . I finally got over it, and the big summer chores are over, so I should finish recording the audio-book.

I tried so hard to fit pieces together in that book. I wanted it to sound like Candide mixed with 1984 but on women's rights. Based off a terrible self-made question/ joke of Wisdom, Luck and Soul went go on an adventure. Soul dies along the way, which just leaves you with Wisdom and Luck. Where does that get you?

So Veda, Foust and Luck were born and a very simplistic version of a story that should have been waaaaayyyy more detailed rolled out.

I picked apart most of the emotion cause I wanted to let the reader see how the characters actions made them feel on a personal level. So I wrote it that simply on purpose, which was difficult.

Now I want to rewrite it with allllllllll the emotions packed inside.

Being a writer is wierd.

[pookie-mulder]

Converting plain text fics to .epub

Hey guys! As I’ve entered the wonderful world of The X-Files fandom, I’ve encountered many wonderful old-school fics that are hard to read because they’ve been shared in plain text (.txt) format. I’m sure some of you know already how to convert them to easily-readable epubs, but I thought I’d share how I do it just in case anyone has been suffering through terrible formatting.

Basic tutorial under the cut!

The first thing you need to do is download Calibre. It’s a life-changing desktop app that allows you to edit ebooks.

Once you’ve got Calibre all set up, go ahead and download the fic you want to convert. I’ll show you here with the legendary Tempest, found on Gossamer.

Gossamer has a handy download button, but not all of the old-school fanfic sites do. However, you can still download them as txt files using your browser. It’s different for every browser, but generally it’s under “file” and “export as” or “download page” or something.

Anyway, as you can see, once you download it as a .txt file, it messes up the formatting, making it incredibly annoying to read.

To fix this, you’re going to drag and drop the file into Calibre to add it to your library. Select it, then click “Convert books” at the top. There are a lot of settings you can change, but most of the time, you won’t need to mess with any of them. Just choose “epub” as your output format (top right), click OK, and you’re good!

(This process also works for other file formats like pdfs.)

Once it’s done converting, double click on the title to preview the book and make sure it looks good. If it still has issues, you can try converting it again with heuristic processing turned on (it’s located on the left side of the conversion screen). The conversion process isn’t perfect, but it will take care of the most egregious formatting errors.

Next, click on “edit metadata” at the top and locate the original txt file under the list of formats at the top right. Select it, then click the little green recycling icon to delete it. You can also change the title, author, cover, and series info while you’re at it.

Finally, go back to your library, click “save to disk” at the top, and choose “save only epub format to a single folder” to save the epub file to your computer. From there, you can import it into your ebook app of choice. I use iBooks, so all I have to do is open the file on my computer and it automatically adds it to the library on my phone and laptop.

That’s it! Now you have a readable ebook.

Let me know if you want me to add pictures of the process! I can’t guarantee I know the answers to any questions, but I’d be happy to try to help if you need it.

There’s also a Calibre plugin that allows you to combine multiple epubs into a single file. This is super helpful for fics with chapters uploaded separately. If anyone wants to know how to do that, let me know!