#Cohesive Book Cover Series

[snek-panini]

March and April are always quiet bookbinding months for me, because I'm recovering from Binderary and this year I'm also in the market for a new printer. But I did take the time to make these very handsome fellows, and they're a new kind of project for me in a couple of ways. They're anthologies! With themes! Spaces Between is a collection of Good Omens ghost stories, and Roaming the Night is similar but with vampire and werewolf stories. They're both multi-author works and the stories within aren't affiliated beyond the fact that they're my favorites and mostly too short for case binds, but I think they came together really cohesively and I love them to bits.

More pics under the cut, including links to the stories at the end.

First, some individual photos. These are legal quartos, very nice to hold. That's marbled paper on the cover, though it is the lineco brand and I'm not sure if it's actually marbled or just printed. The text is silver foil htv. The spines and fore edges are book cloth. I had originally planned to do a more traditional 3/4 bind, with corner caps, but my marbled paper was a little too skinny to do the fore edge turn-in, and I've wanted to do a bind like this for a bit so this was an excellent opportunity. And it won't be the last time; I really like how they look and feel.

Spine view and top view. More silver foil, matching handmade endbands in red and black, and the same gray ribbon for the bookmark. I love making books in this pattern, where they're not a matched set but enough details are the same to make them feel like they go together.

Case in point, Roaming has the red cover with the gray paper for its endpapers, and Spaces has the gray cover with the red one for its endpapers. They're inverses of each other and I could not be more delighted with them.

Interiors for Roaming the Night. Vampires on the title page and werewolves in the table of contents. I couldn't decide between them so I incorporated them both. I'm trying to jazz up my ToC designs and this one turned out very well. Don't strain your eyes trying to read the titles; I've got links at the end to all but one of them.

Title page and Toc for Spaces Between. I wasn't originally going to have an image on the ToC for this one, but after I added one for Roaming I thought Spaces should have one too. And at least four of the stories in it involve a haunted building or structure, so a spooky key was definitely the way to go.

The titles for both books are my own invention; they are not named for any one story in the collections. I struggled with that a bit (I hate naming things, it's the hardest part of any creative project). I've done the whole "(Longest Story Title) and Other Stories" before and it's a fine approach, but given that there are multiple authors and they're not in sequence with each other it just didn't feel appropriate to elevate one writer's story over the others that way. I like what I settled on though, even if it was hard.

Typeset photos! They're pretty straightforward. I don't like to get too fancy on quarto typesets; I don't usually feel like there's enough space on the page. I've only just realized that the photos are both entanglednow stories, oops.

Another set of interiors that only fellow typesetters are going to think is neat. I finally figured out how to make Word put different headers in each section, so every story has its own title and author at the top of the page. I think this'll only be useful in anthologies, but I am very proud of myself and I think it looks very professional.

That's it for photos! Beyond this point are links to the stories, my reasons for loving them, and tags for the authors.

The stories included in Spaces Between are:

13 Days of Halloween (series by @entanglednow)--I always love entangled’s way with worldbuilding. Their stories always feel complete and lived-in and that’s a wonderful thing in fandom. Even though not every story in this series is an exact fit for the collection, I just couldn’t bring myself to leave any of them out. Filing Room 57 and A Friend in Need in particular have stuck with me for years.

Soaked (@racketghost)--a bit of a loose interpretation of the theme. There’s no ghost in it, nothing inexplicable and horrifying. The fear is entirely explicable and very sexy, in ways that the other stories here are not. But it absolutely nails the atmosphere. Spooky. Unnerving. It just so happens that it’s also playful. It’s a very interesting balance.

The Wrong Side of the Door (@holycatsandrabbits)--singularly unnerving. I love how the beginning so closely catches the feeling of sensational reality TV ghost hunters and then pulls the perfect shift and makes the horror real. I also love that in spite of our two leads professing how much they hate each other, they’d still run into a burning/haunted/otherwise terrible and dangerous building if the other was trapped inside. That’s devotion.

Last Crossing (also by holycatsandrabbits)--Atmosphere is everything to me in horror and Dannye always nails it. This is such an inventive premise, and it’s like I can see outlines of a bigger story; I want there to be more. Something about maritime disasters in particular resonates really hard for me and God the imagery in this one is so incredibly unnerving. I want to sink my teeth into it.

Haunted (@tawnyontumblr)--the one I went back and forth about including for the longest time. The ghosts in it are not real, are a manifestation of very old regrets, as opposed to the literal real ghosts in the others. But it’s a powerful story about accepting help when you need it, and about all the ways in which things can be haunted. And above all it feels like a horror movie, and even more importantly it’s my anthology and I wanted this in it. I am eating it up. Delicious.

the thirteenth night (@forineffablereasons)--I love how they’ve incorporated so many horror tropes into one story, and that the supernatural terrors retain their sense of menace even when the ones facing them are so strongly magical on their own. It’s still a believable threat even though they aren’t in an AU where everyone’s human. Brilliantly done, I love it.

The stories in Roaming the Night are:

In the Blood (entanglednow)--excellent character work, as always. There are no vampires in the Good Omens canon, but damned if this isn’t what they’d be like if there were. It’s also extremely sexy and has top-notch pining in spite of its relatively short length. I’ve always loved entangled's approach to unconventional sex practices and this is no exception. It was one of the first stories I thought of when I first conceptualized this anthology.

Love in the Wild (entanglednow)--love the trust on display between the characters. Again, they’ve got an unconventional relationship and they’ve had to adapt to that, and that willingness to make it work is the crux around which the whole story turns. The love is always there.

Night Walk (@snae-b)--I want this to be novel-length so badly. It’s got fantastic worldbuilding and I feel like I’m just getting glimpses of it from the other side of a curtain. Snae’s fic always has really unique settings, though usually their stories are much longer and often more overtly horror-focused. And I love how this one in particular preserves the forbidden relationship dynamic that’s so compelling in the Good Omens fandom. Delicious.

Food For Thought--tragically I can't link this one as it was a WorseOmens story and they removed all their fics at the end of last year. I had an offline backup saved or I wouldn't have been able to include it at all. You'll never see this, friend, and I know you must have had your reasons, but I know I'm not the only one who misses you and wishes you well.

Every Wolf Needs to Howl (tawnyowl)--another story that I knew from first conception had to be in this volume. The overwhelming majority of werewolf fics in this fandom are Werewolf Aziraphale, or Both Werewolves, or Oops All Porn. (Not that that’s a complaint. I just want some plot and character in my smut, and that’s where this fic delivers. And Werewolf Crowley is hot too.) It’s another star on the worldbuilding front; I’d read more chapters of this about the characters’ backgrounds and what it’s like living on the moors.

For Life (tawnyowl)--like a quarter of the GO werewolf fics of the right length for this book are Tawny’s. Thanks friend, please keep up the good work. Helping each other heal from trauma is always a compelling narrative, and again I would read more of this to find out about the world and watch the relationship develop. It’s got an interesting approach of shedding the “monster” identity by embracing it, using it to redefine the self. Both of our leads have done this and they’re using that experience to empathize with each other. And it’s hot. The communication and acceptance is hot and also the sex is hot. Both can be true at once.

Less Dark A Place (orphaned)--including this fic was almost an accident. I was looking for something to bump up the page count and accidentally found a gem. God it’s so compelling, it’s a tragedy that the author orphaned it, whoever they were. I’d love to read more about how their relationship changes and how they both handle the challenges that you know without a doubt they will face. This would have made an incredible novel-length work. Leaving them on the precipice is compelling in its own way though—they’re teetering on the edge of something new and scary and uncertain, which is a lot like how an intense new romance feels even in real life.

Doggone Batty (@kedreeva)--the reason I decided to do both werewolves and vampires in the same anthology. I love the asexual and aromantic approach to relationships. I’m asexual myself so I appreciate seeing those relationships done this well; they don’t need to do those things in order to want to be close. The relationship doesn’t even have room for that, it’s too full of other things for me to think about what it doesn't have. I love the hilarious misunderstandings in this fic, the bit where Aziraphale learns how to do a thing just because it’s fun (barking at a closed door like an idiot), the twist is ludicrous (compliment), and I want to give them both hugs and couch cuddles.

Phew! That's a lot of text. Hopefully tumblr doesn't get huffy with me for including too many links and tags.

[skyfallscotland]

Hi, so I was curious and wanted to ask. Which colors do you associate with each book in the Basgiath (Remi's Version) Series?(I also wanted to say I love your work with this series. I love Remi so much. She is so cool.)

You know what? I’ve been pondering this for a while and it’s not cohesive whatsoever, like I’m not sure it’s what I’d pick for book covers? But abstractly there are colours in my head for them (so weird!). The closest I can approximate is maybe:

Fear & Flame (#114511)

Dangerous Devotion (#07071c)

Truth & Talon (#071c07)

Love & Loyalty (#1c071c)

& thank you so much! I'm thrilled you like Remi 🥹🖤

[vintagerpg]

This is Denizens of Verekna (1993), the second Monstrous Compendium-esque supplement for the Role Aids Demons line. I have the title page for this one — Mike Nystul wrote it, Corey Barba drew it, including the cover. The book is, weirdly, dedicated to Jennifer Connelly, citing that scene in Career Opportunities (1991) as an important inspiration. I don’t buy it.

Unlike the previous volume, all the profiles in this book are of unique individuals: marshals, generals, governors and other infernal functionaries. Again, all of them are awful, and depicted as such. These seem less tormented than their brethren of Vecheron, though no less wounded and mutilated — they just don’t seem to mind. I remain impressed at the variety of demons on display. We’re now, counting the two box sets, on our fourth collection of infernals and while I do think this is the weakest set in terms of sheer bizarre variation, its only marginally lesser than the rest of the series. If I have a criticism, its that there is no real discernible pattern in all the different demon forms. Which is fine, Chaos rules and all, and there should be no expectation that otherworldly entities should conform to any terrestrial notions of sense. It does make it a little tricky to parse the large number of personalities and allegiances, though (like, this is something that Warhammer is very good at, providing bizarre variants that are also cohesive wholes).

[that-ari-blogger]

"Do It" (Destiny Part 2)

When you interact with a lot of similar media, you tend to notice patterns and recurring tropes. Most notably in this example is the final season darkest hour.

Typically, when a series wants to ensure that the stakes are higher for its final arc, it will end the previous in a very dark place. Avatar: The Last Airbender does this, and I just covered The Owl House doing a very similar thing.

But She-Ra has a lot more to it than just the singular convention. This is an incredibly cerebral series with a ton of moving parts. So, for the season four finale, I would like to examine a few of them, and what they do for the story.

Let me explain.

SPOILERS AHEAD: (She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, Marvel’s Cloak and Dagger, A Christmas Carol)

Context is important, and stories have an understated ability to draw together disparate elements into a cohesive entity through a consistent theme.

Here, that is twofold. The series as a whole has been about the cycle of abuse as portrayed through tragedy, specifically in its antonymic relationship with genuine love. But Destiny Part 2 zeroes in on the chronological geography of this. As in, there is a distinct sense of time in this episode, and a discussion of the past and future and their impact on the present.

Everything in this episode revolves around these two ideas, and so everything must be analysed through those lenses.

Starting with the runestones, which are an idea original to the 2018 reboot.

“It’s like…”

“…connection.”

Throughout this season, we have seen the princesses glow when they achieve camaraderie, and that glow is near identical to that of the planet balancing itself. Near identical. The runestones are shown to be more powerful than regular camaraderie.

We don’t actually know the origins of the Runestones, with the exception of them being native to Etheria. The Legend of the Fire Princess graphic novel has one in it that was created by the first ones, which implies that the others were not. But I am here to talk about the main series. (If you want me to discuss the book or any other supplemental media, my ask box is open).

As such, I find it important that the power of the Runestones, much like that of She-Ra, predates the First Ones, which means that it was not theirs to use.

In my previous post about She-Ra, I commented on the First Ones as colonialists, and this adds to that symbolism.

The First Ones co-opted something that was, by all accounts, sacred to the people of Etheria, or at least of significant cultural value. It was repurposed into a weapon that would, as a side effect, wipe out the planet. Cruel and uncaring. The First Ones viewed Etheria as a tool that could be cast aside when it was no longer of use, a worthy sacrifice.

In terms of our themes, this is most definitely abusive behavior, and that continues into the cyclical nature of that abuse.

I have also discussed how it doesn’t matter if the First Ones were the aggressors in their war or not. If the First Ones were under siege, then they felt the only way to defend themselves was to inflict more suffering on bystanders. The abuse they received turned them into the villains of this season. But I think the most important moment for this part of the episode is this:

In her desperation and powerlessness, Glimmer tries to destroy the Runestone.

The anger at being used has been turned against the First Ones, but they are using the culture of the people they have colonized as a shield. To get to us, you need to stab yourself.

It’s forcibly disconnecting the people from the symbol of their culture, metaphorically and literally breaking their connection and leaving them weak and in a place of vulnerability.

This wasn’t even intentional. I don’t think the First Ones sat down and schemed about how, when this master plan goes off, there will be one princess who tries to break the runestones. It was a side effect. All of this was a side effect.

The main role of this was to destroy a different force entirely, Etheria was never part of the equation. The First Ones were fighting a war with someone else, and Etheria was just a sacrifice that could be made.

Glimmer is technically surrounded by the corpses of her enemies here. That is the context for her statement that "we are the good guys". Yes, they are robots, but Emily is sentient, so...

Abuse is fundamentally selfish. To the abuser, it isn’t about the victim, it’s about the anger and often pain that needs to go somewhere. It’s about the power and control. The victim was just there. My feelings matter, my heart, my obsession, my anguish. You are a convenient scapegoat.

It is important to understand that this mindset is built on a misunderstanding.

There is a reason for it. Of course there is. Everyone has a reason for their behavior. That’s what the cycle of abuse is. You get so wrapped up in your own mind that other people stop existing, and you are left with empty shells around yourself. But having a reason does not make you right.

There are real people around the abuser and the abused. She-Ra is a series about those real people, hence why it is so human in almost every character. It is about the real people who are hurt by someone else’s drama, the real people who get burned by being too close, the real people who get caught in the crossfire.

The Runestones are symbolic of those real people en masse. Used as pawns, corrupted, and destroyed.

In that sense, they also relate to the episode theme of time. They are monuments of a distant past and a history even greater.

At the risk of oversimplification, Runestones in the real world are a Scandinavian concept that emerged before the Viking age but gained traction during it. The vast majority were dedicated to the fallen, but a fair few discussed everyday life and stand as monuments.

They also look nothing like those in She-Ra.

In She-Ra, the Runestones are aesthetically just gems and crystals that are big and look cool. So, why go with the name?

First and most obviously, it sounds magical. Runes sound magical and as any architect will tell you, a large part of any creation is the emotions it inspires. If you want a story about magic, saying “this is a glowing crystal called a runestone” is an easy way to do that.

Although, that does bring up an interesting meta question of why there is magic in this story? As in, what does it do for the themes?

I plan on delving into this question in more detail in a later post, so you have that to look forward to.

For the moment, however, the She-Ra has made a point of connecting magic to nature, and so the name “rune-stone” entangles magic to the ground itself. It is the bedrock of these civilizations.

The other reading is that the stones themselves serve as runes, which are in turn a form of written language and communication. They are the words of people long gone, although crucially, their descendants are still there.

This is how culture exists in a very real sense. Not merely through written words, but through the language and communication itself. Mythology and religion, history and philosophy. Word of mouth and art. Culture is not a static thing of aesthetics but a dynamic manifestation of shared ideas, and sometimes it dies out, but usually it just continues and evolves into new forms. It is everything that has come before and every word that is spoken.

I mean that literally. Every single word has a history and evolution that makes up its current form. The word "Silhouette" comes from a French who didn't like to spend money. Language is the manifestation of history and how it informs the present day. It’s part of everyday life, it is context.

The Runestones are that language as a physical manifestation that literally grants power, and the First Ones use them to destroy people. In this way, what the First Ones did was cultural appropriation, and I don't think my opinion is unpopular that this is, in fact, bad.

Moving on to Light Hope.

“Mara. Mara would not want me to… Mara was a traitor. She turned against her people.”

We have seen two sides of Light Hope. The one who Mara befriended, and the one whom has manipulated her way through half of the series. The weapon of war who couldn’t escape. The cycle of abuse come full circle.

We have seen Light Hope get humanised, and then cast that away. But as best we could tell, it was the system itself that overrode her free will.

This line, however, muddies the waters, because it reminds me of another in the same episode.

“People have hurt you, haven’t they? They didn’t believe in you. They didn’t trust you. Didn’t need you. Left you.”

Of all the people to draw a connection to, Light Hope’s dismissal of Mara is strangely reminiscent of Catra’s antagonism towards Adora.

The cycle of abuse hasn’t just happened before on a grand scale with the She-Ras themselves being destined for tragedy, but this specific plot has happened before, and look how it ended up.

Catra has spent the entire story addicted to power like a safety net. She craves being the highest ranked one in the room because it’s safer, but there isn’t much room at the top of the pyramid. You end up alone, and isolated, and with further to fall.

Catra has been trying to claim power like Shadow Weaver taught her, but has ended up like Light Hope. Alone in her tower, scheming, reminiscing, caught up in memory and spite.

This is a warning to Catra. Most obviously, change your ways. But just to be safe, don’t ever cut your hair and don’t ever start wearing white.

Once again linking back to the themes. The cyclical nature of this series is best exemplified by the threat of another season. This is a story that wants to end, to be free, but it keeps coming back to a song and dance.

I mean this as a compliment. This is the only series that makes me fear another season, but stay glued to my seat as I watch and love every moment. The screen protects me from what is happening inside, and the fact this is a story means that I can stop at any time. That isn’t a luxury the characters are given.

The aim of the series is to end.

And it will, that’s the key thing here. Everything ends. The cycle of abuse is not a true circle but a spiral that winds in on itself until disaster.

Light Hope and Mara are the emblems of a previous cycle. Their story ended in tragedy they couldn’t avert and that left naught but shattered people and places in its wake. Light Hope was Catra, she was someone who was happy. But now she is an instrument of the system that drove them apart, unable to understand or take comfort from Adora until the end, begging for Adora to "do it", begging for death. This is who Catra will be.

Don’t believe me? There is only one other person who uses the words “do it” in this episode. Can you guess who that is?

“What are you waiting for? Do it. Looks like we're both alone, Sparkles.”

There is, however one majour difference between the old story and the new. This rendition isn’t over yet.

I haven’t seen nearly as many Marvel films and TV series as I should have. I saw Infinity War and End Game, I saw Thor: Ragnarok, and I watched Moon Knight, but other than that, I mostly never cared for the series as a whole. I didn’t dislike the films, I just never cared that much.

Which is honestly weird, because I read comics on the regular, and got into comics through Marvel. I started with a Spiderman one shot in the Clone saga, and while I wouldn’t call myself a comic nerd by any stretch of the imagination, I was enough in the spaces to know who Jeff the Land Shark was before Marvel Rivals was a thing.

The reason I bring this up is to recommend a series I left out of the above list, Joe Pokaski’s Cloak and Dagger, which ran from 2018 to 2019.

I had read a few comics featuring the eponymous heroes before I saw the series, so I knew vaguely who these people were, but this was one of those series that got me at just the right time to leave a lasting mark on my psyche.

Most notably, this is the place from which I get the phrase “There’s always a point of no return. It’s called the end.” But there’s a little more to it.

The premise of this series is that Luisiana is always saved by two kids, and that one of them will always die in the process. Tyrone and Tandy (Cloak and Dagger respectively) spend the series trying to find a way to escape this cyclical tragedy.

The season one finale will always break me, because we see the moment when Tandy comes the closest to being the one to die, and it’s not in an overly violent fashion, it’s in a phone call.

The two are trapped in a surreal, timeless landscape, and Tandy is presented with a phone using which she can call her deceased father a moment before he dies. She picks up the phone, has a brief conversation, and then the line goes dead. She picks up the phone again and has the same conversation. Again, and again, and again. Just one moment.

Tyrone asks her to leave, she refuses, so he asks her how long she has been there, a question to which she has no clear answer.

If Tyrone hadn’t rescued her, Tandy would have as good as died there and then. Lost to a memory. Lost to the trauma of losing her father playing back to her over and over again.

Cloak and Dagger are played by Aubrey Joseph and Olivia Holt, and while Holt's performance as Tandy in this scene is the showstopper, it would be remiss of me to not mention Joseph's portrayal of Tyrone as he realises what is happening and tries to stop it.

There is always a moment of no return. It’s called the end.

You lose when all hope is lost. You lose when you give up. You lose when you let everything consume you. You lose when you stop trying to escape.

Cloak and Dagger keep getting told that one must live and one must die, and their response is “how about no?”.

Light Hope lost. She became the monster that created her. But that cycle ain’t done for the here and now, Adora and Catra can fix this.

This actually moves really nicely into the third and final element of this episode that I would like to discuss. The title.

Destiny and fate are funny things, aren’t they? They don’t actually mean anything. Not tangibly, anyway. Yes, yes, your fate and your future are one and the same. But that isn’t a fair metric, is it?

Is fate inescapable? Was I fated from birth to write this post? Was my future laid out for me? Or does it work slightly differently?

I am partial to the dichotomy between fate and free will. That being, a person with free will has the autonomy to make their own way in the world and decide their own fate, whereas everyone else is just pulled along by the strings of time. I think this is sweet.

In practice, I have found one way of writing destiny that I like. Nature.

For the record, I am including nurture within this. A person’s nature is just who they are, their history and goals, their fears and hopes.

Specifically, life experiences make up a person. If I find an arachnophobe and I give them a spider, I can be pretty sure how they will react. That is your destiny. It is the path set in front of you by yourself. There is freedom to wiggle within that, but everyone has a set of key components that make up their personality, and in the right circumstances, this can be manipulated.

I could go for the obvious here and talk about how God Of War: Ragnarök leverages this to talk about trauma. I could. It would certainly fit with She-Ra’s discussion of that concept through the cycle of abuse.

But instead, I am going to recommend you the video by Overly Sarcastic Productions (@comicaurora) about that very topic (link) and go further into the past with Charles’ Dickens’ A Christmas Carrol, or more photogenically, the Muppets film of the same name.

“Are these the shadows of things that will be? Or are they the shadows of things that may be only?”

A Christmas Carrol delves into themes of redemption and capitalism, and I will die on the hill that Charles Dickens had a wicked and very dark sense of humour that was brought about by the time in which he was writing. But for the purpose of this post, the book wields the future like a threat.

“Your chains are forged by what you say and do.

So have your fun, when life is done, a nightmare waits for you.”

In A Christmas Carrol, fate is just consequence. Cause and effect. The book is about three ghosts appearing to a miserable old man who thinks he is alone and unimpeachable and showing him multiple occasions when his life was directly impacted by others, for better and for worse, and the effect that his life is having on others.

It opens with a warning from the ghost of Scrooge’s business partner/partners. Cause: Greed. Effect: Chains. Easy one two punch.

It is crucial to me that when Scrooge finds his grave and asks if the future can be changed, the spirit gives no response. It doesn’t give him comfort, but it also doesn’t tell him his future is set. You can try and change your fate. Go for it. If you don’t you will end up here. Alone even in death, but still buried like every other man. There are no coins in your coffin, just memories.

The point of no return is called the end. You decide what that will end up being.

Adora and Catra have been thrust into this story by their natures, and they have been positioned in such a way that can only lead to destruction.

It was in Catra’s nature to take Adora leaving as badly as she did, because she has grown up being told that affection is exclusive and that a person can only care about one other person. She has been taught love in an incredibly dysfunctional way, and she is just a traumatised child, but she’s a traumatised child who is actively wrecking other people’s lives.

Similarly, Adora is a hero in the most self-destructive way possible. She has to save everyone, has to destroy herself for everyone else’s happiness. She is a pawn in a war and she will burn herself to the ground to feel any kind of warmth and it will kill her.

It is these two’s destinies which clash. The cycle of abuse is a spiral that leads to destruction. The tragedy is tragic. So, what do?

To change your fate, you make the decision to change your nature. An arachnophobe can overcome their fear, Scrooge could become a charitable man, Adora and Catra can escape.

If we lean back into the path metaphor. Your nature is a road that itself is moving towards a destiny. If you try and get off it, you will fall over. But you can reach the edge. You can break free. You can start moving in a different direction.

It is always possible to change.

Before I finish up, I want to discuss Horde Prime’s introduction, because he is fantastically incurious in a way that leans into what I have been saying about the inherent self-centredness of abuse.

“You have forgotten who you are. You truly think you are worthy to stand beside me, could be equal to me?”

If Horde Prime was reading Hordak’s mind, he would have seen the portal and the source of the energy reading. He would have been curious as to its use. But no, he projected.

It didn’t matter what Hordak did, it would never have been enough. The fact that he gave himself a name was sufficient to warrant animosity. Prime didn’t need a reason, he needed an excuse to show off his power to Glimmer, but also to himself.

Side note here, Horde prime is played by Keston John, who also plays Darius in The Owl House, and has a voice that can melt butter.

I say this because he turns that off like a switch as he shouts down the powerless Hordak. That grace and smoothness is gone for a horrible growl.

This tiny little gesture as Prime draws back his hand before he strikes. He's deliberately offering Hordak grace and kindness, deliberately making it clear that they were an option and he chose violence. He is giving hope so that it stings even more when he takes it away.

Which presents a question: Is Horde Prime actually put together? Is the snarling monster a tool that he uses? Or is it the real man? Does the distinction matter?

Prime has to be told about the weapon. He doesn’t think for himself, he just coasts off everyone else’s misery.

This man is a physical threat, sure. We have seen that in previous episodes. But here he establishes himself as a thematic force in the narrative. He is an abuser, he is a manipulator, he is selfish.

Horde Prime is terrifying.

Final Thoughts

I had meditations about Arcane and Shakespeare in this that I had to cut because this is one of the longest posts I have ever written.

I want to stress that She-Ra as a series didn’t go places. It didn’t cover new ground as it progressed. Episode two of series one shows a home destroyed by the trauma of a war and the psychological damage that the cycle of abuse can do to a person. She-Ra started here, it just got blunter as the characters got more and more wrapped up in their own heads. Eventually, the show literally wrote its themes on the walls.

This is a tragedy desperately trying to happen. That’s what’s so compelling about the final season yet to come. The character’s have one last moment to get their arses off that road to the end of the world.

Last chance. Last stop. The point of no return is called the end.

Next week we are diving straight into season five, so stick around if that interests you. Let’s do this thing!

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[buckys-little-belle]

Chapter Two - Backpack, Backpack

SFW - Please keep all interactions with this post, and this blog, SFW. 

Warnings - Mentions of Bucky’s ‘Old Life’, talks about slight “Violence” (Bucky’s past), talks of a first aid kit, feeling “scared” about being a little, fluff! Obviously! 

Word Count - 2164

Note - I've finished all of Bub and Buck's story now, and I have to say it's been crazy going back and blending chapters/blurbs together to create a more cohesive story. It's been fun, and crazy, and honestly I missed this little place that I loved so much. Cafe BigNSmall is the beginning of so much, not just this account. It was the first little writing thing I put out that really got traction and that led me to where I am now. Going to school in January for creative writing, beginning the process of writing my own book. This little fic that has brough comfort to so many, myself included, is so much bigger than just a fanfiction or just a writing process and I'm so thankful for everyone who has stuck by my side, who has liked, reblogged, and sent asks about it. I love every one of you, I love who you've helped me become, and I've loved every minute of re-writing this series and I hope you love re-reading, or even reading it for the first time. I just have so so so much love in my heart for this and for you <3

. ★ . ✪ . ★ .  ✪ . ★ . ✪ . ★ .  ✪ . ★ . 

Bucky sat at his same table for the umpteenth time, but this time he sat with a smile knowing someone was on their way to sit with him. For the first time in a while Bucky wasn’t sitting and watching everyone while feeling jealous, instead he watched as a Caregiver hugged their Little and felt hopeful that he might get to have that one day. 

“MR!” Y/n yelled from the entrance like she couldn’t believe he was there, sitting at their table ready for whatever she wished to do. “Hi!” She smiled at him when she got to the table, her usual overalls and t-shirt combo covered by a heavy sweater. He was happy she had covered up more than yesterday, the sky grey instead of blue, and the colder. 

“Hi.” He smiled back, Bucky was sure he looked goofy with how big his smile was but he didn’t care. “Chilly?” He asks as he watches them shiver slightly when the finally sit down. 

“Yeah.” Y/n tilts her head to the side as she seems to contemplate something. “I think ‘m gonna get a hot chocolate.” She rummages around her bag before finding her wallet and pulling out a five dollar bill. Bucky was quicker though, already on his feet and in the line. “What are you gonna get?” Y/n asks as she joins him in the line. 

“Well, I think I’m going to get a hot chocolate too.” He looks down at her, a silly grin on her face as she nods her head. “Their cake pops look good too.” Bucky points to the glass case full of baked goods and premade sandwiches. 

“I know!” Y/n practically jumps. “I had one once.” They frown. “But I never have enough moneys for one, maybe next week I’ll get one.” They nod their head, agreeing with their idea. 

Bucky already planned on buying Y/n a cake pop, but wanted to make sure she actually did like them. Finding out she’s only had one because she can’t afford them has him vowing to always buy her one whenever she’s here. 

The money Bucky got from the government after his treatment went public often sits in his bank account unused, he has what he needs, and most of what he wants, and he hates spending the money on useless things. Yet as he watches Y/n’s eyes flicker to the case full of sweet treats with a frown on their face he’s happy to know he finally has something, someone worth spending money on. 

“Hi, what can I get you today?” The barista smiles at Bucky, giving an extra sweet grin and a wave to Y/n. 

“Can I get two medium hot chocolates, please?” Bucky places his hand on Y/n’s shoulder to get her attention before asking. “What kind of cake pop do you want Bub?” 

“I can’t.” They shrug their shoulders, clearly not aware that Bucky’s already ordering for her. 

“I’m buying you one. Which one do you want, Bub?” He adds some clarification, leaning down slightly to be at Y/n’s height, pointing to the cake pops in the case. “I love vanilla, I think I’ll get a vanilla one.” He says, hoping that him getting one will make Y/n feel less nervous. 

She begins playing with her hands, twisting her fingers together, something Bucky’s noticed she does when anxious. “Um, I like chocolate.” She whispers, looking back at Bucky with weary eyes. “But I don’ wan’ you to buy it, I -” Bucky doesn’t let her finish her sentence, instead he stands and orders both cake pops before paying. 

With both hands on Bub’s shoulders he moves them over to the wait station. “When you’re with me I’ll be the one buying things, okay?” His tone is sweet but also somehow firm, hoping his words make sense and are final, but also hoping he doesn’t seem too overbearing. 

“Like a, like when.” Bub stumbled over her words before turning around to face Bucky, his hands dropping from her shoulders only for her to grab his left, glove covered, hand to fidget with it like she does hers. “Like a caregiver?” She asks, finally meeting Bucky’s glance. 

“Exactly like that.” Bucky nods. “I’ll act like your caregiver when we’re together, okay?” He regrets using the word ‘act’ the moment he says it, Y/n somberly nodding at his words. He wants to be her caregiver all the time, he doesn’t want to just act as one while around her, but he met her yesterday. Neither of them know each other well enough for that kind of trust, yet Bucky seems to feel like they both are on the same wavelength. Like they’ve waited long enough for someone to be their other, why wait a little longer. 

“I’d like tha’.” Y/n nods, turning back around in Bucky’s arms to wait for their cake pop and hot chocolate. 

. ★ . ✪ . ★ .  ✪ . ★ . ✪ . ★ .  ✪ . ★ . 

For a whole week Bucky and Bub met up everyday, getting hot chocolate and cake pops. Y/n kept giving Bucky colouring pages to take home with her signature at the bottom, his fridge now covered in them after a frantic late night trip to buy magnets. Walking into his house and seeing the fridge coloured in pictures made him love the fact that he bought a huge fridge able to store at least another week's worth of pictures without having to remove anymore of the ones he’s already been given. 

“Hi, Mr!” Y/n smiled as she sat down on her booth seat, her backpack placed on the table as she got comfortable. “I made you something.” 

“You did?” Bucky unpackaged her cake pop and placed it on a napkin, sliding it over to her along with her hot chocolate. “Careful it’s hot.” Bucky warned as Bub went straight for her drink the moment it was in her line of sight. 

“Otay.” She blew a breath onto the cup, though Bucky wasn’t sure how helpful her hot puff of air would be in cooling it down, instead pulling it back to himself and blowing cold air on it for her. “Here.” She placed a piece of paper onto the table. 

This picture wasn’t one from a colouring book, but one on regular plain paper, drawn by Y/n and coloured by her to. Two figures stood hand in hand with a box of crayons in the middle. One person was obviously Bucky, the other Y/n. Even if he couldn’t tell Bub had written their names “Mr” and “Bub” below each of their persons. “I love it.” Bucky smiled, sliding the, now less hot, hot chocolate back to Y/n, her taking a sip immediately and humming in content. “I’ll have to put in on my fridge.” He said aloud, though he meant to keep the words to himself, not sure if it was wrong to admit he had grown attached to Y/n enough to want her pictures on his fridge. 

“Really?” Her usually playful voice grew serious, her eyes filled with tears. “My drawing?” 

“Yeah, Bub.” He smiled, glad she seemed happy over the idea. “I have a few of your drawings on my fridge already.” He admitted. Before he could place it in his bag Y/n was up and out of her seat sliding into Bucky’s booth before wrapping her arms around him in a hug. “Oh.” Bucky lets out a surprised sigh. 

“I like you, you nice.” Y/n said as she pulled away, though didn’t leave the booth. 

“You’re nice too, Bub.” Bucky said in disbelief. He knew the two of them were making good steps towards fully being comfortable around one another, Y/n seemed to slip further and further into regression, showing she felt safe around Bucky, and she had even asked him if he was the Winter Soldier and hadn't run when he said yes. But he hadn’t expected her to feel comfortable enough to hug him, yet he wasn’t going to argue or complain. 

Y/n eyed his bag for a minute or so before asking a question. “Wha’s in your bag?” She asked, this being the first time she had truly seen it. 

“I’ll show you what’s in my bag, if you show me what’s in yours?” He offered, having been wondering what she brought with her to the cafe everyday. “Deal?” He asked, and she perked up, agreeing before sliding out and back onto her seat, something Bucky frowned at. 

“Otay!” Bub squealed, opening her green backpack before digging around a little bit. The first thing she pulled out was a small zipper pouch, the fabric printed with frogs and plants. “This has m’ keys, an’ my phone.” She pulled both out, her phone being secured in a bag inside her bag making sense as to why it took her so long to find it when her alarm went off. “An’ it has my tic tacs in it! D’ you wan’ one?” She asked with a smile, holding out tropical tic tacs to Bucky. 

“I’m okay, but thank you Bub.” He smiled, proud of her manners and willingness to share her things. He knew he couldn't take credit for her good behaviour, or her manners. She was a sweet girl even if he didn’t remind her here and there of her manners, yet he was still extremely proud of her. 

“M’kay.” Bub nodded her head, popping a few tic tacs in her mouth before moving on. “Dis, um, dis is my frog.” Bub’s once very confident attitude dulled slightly as she brought the frog stuffie out, like she was waiting for someone to say something rude. 

“He’s very cute.” Bucky reassured her, his hand brushing against the stuffed animal's foot, his fur in perfect condition. “What’s his name?” 

Y/n still seemed on alert, but opened up a little more. “I call him Green Bean.” She pats his head. 

“That’s a perfect name.” Bucky chuckles, loving how creative his Bub is. “Where did you get his outfit?” He asks, referring to the knitted overalls and t-shirt, identical to Y/n’s everyday outfit. 

“I made dem!” Bucky was happy to see her peppy spark come back as she spoke about her stuffy. Giving him the rundown on how she made them, and made clothing for all her other stuffies at home. Then she gave him the rundown on a bunny stuffie she really wanted that was identical to the one she has at home. Though “He’s no’ the same Mr! He’s a different colour!” something Bucky quickly made a mental note of. 

Bub only had her wallet and a sweater stuffed at the bottom of her bag, and a small bag of long forgotten goldfish that Bucky immediately threw out left to show. “Your turn.” Y/n reminded Bucky, gesturing to his backpack. 

“Well.” He started, opening his bag, pulling out his wallet, keys and phone. “These are the things I have on me at all times.” He said, watching Y/n pick up his keys and fiddle with them, clearly loving his accumulated keychain and key combo from the last 100 years. “Then I have a First Aid Kit.” He pulls out a bulky box, a few things banging around inside. 

“In case someone ge’s hurt?” Y/n asks, concern dripping from her expressions. 

“Exactly.” Bucky answers, though he doesn’t admit that he mainly carries it out of fear that he’ll hurt someone and need to patch them up, but he hopes that Y/n’s just thinking about scrapes and small cuts and not the carnage he’s left behind. 

“Do you have princess bandaids?” She asks with all seriousness. 

“I have princess ones, paw patrol, and starwars.” He playful one ups her, the two of them laughing before he continues. “Then I have extra crayons, colouring pages, and a couple water bottles.” He pulls out the extra things, Y/n’s hands immediately going to the colouring pages. 

“Can I do this one, please?” She asks, bouncing in her seat, her frog underneath her arm. 

“Of course, Bub.” He smiles, the frog page she chose the one he printed off last night in the hopes to give it to her. 

After the small show and tell the two of them sat together eating their cake pops and drinking their hot chocolate. Everytime he looked up Bucky realised just how lucky he was, to have found a Little who was as chill as Bub was, and as sweet as she was too. He realised that while he wished he could have met her sooner, he was happy he waited. 

“Why don’t we go to the park tomorrow?” He asked, thinking it could be good for them to get out somewhere other than just the cafe. 

“Yes!” Y/n practically jumped out of her seat at the idea, the two of them chatting about how excited they were for their adventure tomorrow.

[overlyenthusiasticfictionreader]

Fanbinding of The Perfect Song by dragonofdispair

The Perfect Song by dragonofdispair

To follow his dreams, Jazz offers his virginity and himself to anyone willing to pay. His buyer, Prowl, has a lot of loneliness and a kink for virgins, but dreaming isn’t something he’s capable of. Yet.

Fandom: Transformers - All Media Types Rating: Explicit Archive Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationship: Jazz/Prowl Characters: Jazz, Prowl, Ricochet, Barricade, First Aid, Sky-Byte

The Perfect Song by dragonofdispair 429 pages, letter-quarto/ 50,061 words

Accompaniment: Companion Pieces to The Perfect Song (Adagio, Coda, Cadenza, and Famous) by dragonofdispair 72 pages, letter-quarto / 4,751 words

The Perfect Song was requested as a bind during our local Renegade Exchange 2024 event. My giftee mentioned they liked quartos and also blue, and so I had the first inklings of a design. My giftee also mentioned they wouldn't mind additional gifts, so I decided to bind the rest of the series as a separate book, mostly because i thought it would look cool and then i would have a reason to make a case too (corral all those books together).

Photos and more discussion under the read-more!

First up is The Perfect Song! I have been wanting to bind a chonky book, and while I didn't reach maximum chonk, The Perfect Song is a respectable size and satisfyingly hefty in the hand. This book is a variation of the bradel binding style, which supports a thicker book well. I ran with the musical theme: the endpapers have musical notations, the text breaks are a treble clef, and I used the written music for Mendelssohn’s Midsummer Night’s Dream as the background image for chapter titles. I chose the font for titles and dropcaps because it reminded me of a musical scale. The blue bookcloth is homemade using a faux-suede fabric: fuzzy texture!

The black and while endbands were meant to invoke a piano keyboard: I'm not quite sure I got there, but they look classy regardless!

Next is the rest of the series (which I called Accompaniment for the purposes of rounding up the series in a second book), and it uses all the same themes. I like the cohesive look, and really, why mess with a good thing? This is a much slimmer book, bound in a different style from The Perfect Song. This is a modified conservation pamphlet bind.

For both books I used HTV to put a treble clef on the cover, and for The Perfect Song I had enough room to title the spine as well.

I wanted to make cases for all three sets of books (one for my giftee, one for the author, and one for myself). I ran with the same theme and materials, so nothing surprising there, but I think the books in their cases look really snazzy!

I'm very satisfied with how these books turned out! And I am thrilled to be able to gift a copy to the author! Sharing fandom is wonderful experience for me, and I hope some fanart let's the author know how much I appreciate that they shared their stories.

Also located on A03 here.

[sidewalkscienceguy]

Doing this the old-fashioned way...

BOOK REVIEWERS WANTED

DM me if interested

Hi. It's me. The guy from that post.

As the release of Book 5 in my Recovery series nears (May 2025) and my beta readers near the end of their edits, I have been going through the first four books of the series and updating/revising to finally, after 12 years, make a cohesive set of book covers, and incorporating elements from future installments into the past installments during revisions to better connect every thread together.

I am looking for 10-20 book reviewers who would be willing to provide honest reviews on your blog, Amazon, Goodreads, etc, in exchange for free copies of every book, whether Kindle or Paperback, which I will mail to you.

Paperbacks must be US-based. Kindle/Ebook can be international.

Timeline

Copies of Embassy would be mailed out by end of January. Copies of Resonance, Perihelid, and Belvun would be mailed out as I receive them throughout February.

Copies of Purnell would be mailed out by mid-April in order to have reviews for the release in May-June. Release date isn't 100% set, so there's some flexibility. Looking at Friday, May 23rd, tbh.

Overall Genre: Science-Fiction

Embassy: adventure romance Resonance: adventure romance Perihelid: drama Belvun: political drama Purnell: political drama

Link to read synopsis of all books.

One additional note before you decide: a lot of reviews on Amazon and Goodreads say that the books don't necessarily "feel" like sci-fi, and that although they generally wouldn't read sci-fi, it didn't push them away.

If you've reviewed for me before and would like to again, please get in touch! I'd love for you to have the fully revised and updated 2025 Editions, which are So. Much. Better. than the original editions, and the covers are gorgeous.

My biggest ask is that if you review Embassy, even if you hate it, please review them all.

Thank you everyone for considering helping me on this, and hope to speak with you soon! I won't "close" this post until I've achieved 20 reviewers. Monitor the count at the bottom.

Alex

Updated January 24, 2025

Currently Reviewing: 4/20 readers

[brilliantorinsane]

The Case of the Pennsylvania Gun

Hey what if I pick up this series I barely started six years ago and post it on my abandoned blog?

The Pennsylvania Gun is loosely (emphasis on loosely) adapted from The Valley of Fear. It was written and directed by producer Sheldon Renyolds, who also wrote the first two episodes. I was unsurprised to find the first three were written by the same person, as they have a more cohesive sense of character/relationship development than your average episode string in this series.

Introduction, Ep1 Pt1, Ep1 Pt2, Ep2, Ep 3, Ep 4

As in the books, Howard Holmes and Watson have personas they perform for the world, and often for one another. These personas are driven by opposite social desires and insecurities. Watson performs the Normal British Gentleman, anxious to be seen as a sane and respectable contributor to society. Holmes performs Eccentric Genius, driven by a horror of being perceived as normal, aiming at a persona of mystery and infallibility.

This episode demonstrates their temptation to cleave to people who reinforce their cover stories about themselves, contrasting this to the way they see and ground each other in their truer, more joyful, and far more embarrassing selves.

We begin in Baker Street, where the pair have already settled into the delights and annoyances of knowing one another all too well.

Here Holmes attempts to put on his performance for Watson: introducing Birlstone Manor, to which he means to entice Watson for a case, through absurdities about place names and the British national character. He then pretends his only interest in Birlstone is the fishing prospects, waving about tackle he will later employ to catch a clue. But already Watson knows him too well to fall for the show—he’s read about the Birlstone murder and guesses that Holmes means to investigate, and he clocks Holmes' lack of fishing knowledge at once.

Meanwhile, Watson is already forgetting to play 'normal' around his flatmate. If either of this pair was to be accused of being a little too excited over murder it would be Watson, and his understanding of his eccentric flatmate is just a little too complete a little too quick. Watson rattles off train times like a good little boy recites the Bible, and if you wish there is plenty to read into the domesticity of their mutual behaviour as they lounge about in bathrobes.

And so the conclusion of the opening shenanigans is entirely unsurprising. The pair harass a poor messenger boy—and I love these menaces to society, but the episode doesn't quite nail the pitch in this moment and their behaviour lands more as bullying than good-natured chaos. Still, I adore the messenger boy's final declaration: "mad as March hares, that's what you two are!" The boy leaves, and—they laugh. And so Holmes the madman and his friend the madman set off to investigate a murder (fishing pretense abandoned, but tackle in tow), stripped of their masks and delighting in themselves and each other all the more for it.

But that is at home.

Out in the world, for the third episode in a row Watson is tempted by the socially sanctioned approval of law enforcement, attaching himself to local Inspector McLeod. This is even more pronounced than his earlier affinity for Lestrade.

There are several potential causes for this. Perhaps Lestrade’s buffoonery was too pronounced. Perhaps Watson has a bit of a crush on McLeod (there are some moments that register in that way to me). It may even be a jealous reaction—the peak of Watson’s new allegiance occurs directly after Holmes develops his own affinity for a new player on the scene.

In any event, Watson increasingly sides with McLeod as the episode progresses, until at 11.15 - 17.50 he is positioned shoulder to shoulder with him while Holmes sits well across the room, Watson and his new crime buddy theorizing, laughing heartily, then biting back at Holmes’ contrary deductions with twin reactive pride.

As though to punctuate that this behaviour is a reversion to the facade of normality, McLeod echos the messenger boy’s declaration, “mad as a March hare” (21.9)—only now the jab is aimed only at Holmes, exempting Watson.

To my fascination, this alliance predicated on the performance of normality also involves performance of heterosexuality. At the peak of their allegiance, the inspector gives his theory that the murder was committed out of jealousy over a woman. After they hem and haw together over how the immutable species of Men and Women do be like that, Watson quips that he should call this "the case of the other man"—then he and McLeod laugh heartily, and at length (15.23 - 16.10). It's an odd exchange, stilted and socially scripted, with laughter that pushes longer than the weak quip justifies.

And I am not the only one to think it—in the middle of this laughter Holmes cuts in at last, unusually patronizing in his tone towards Watson as he mocks the vacuousness of their theory.

In the meantime, Holmes is constructing his own small drama. While I could be persuaded to read Watson’s behaviour around McLeod as a small crush, I find myself unable to read Holmes’ interactions with Morell, the suspected (but not actual) murderer, as anything but. I'll not go so far as to claim Doylist intent here, only that my brain refuses to process it otherwise.

(Holmes and Morell are rarely framed in a shot together, but this is them making eyes at one another at 23.46):

And if McLeod enables Watson’s preferred perception as stable and ordinary, Morell certainly elevates Holmes’ as an inscrutable and infallible genius. Consider this sample of lines from Morell: “At your service, Mr. Holmes”, “A very brilliant piece of deduction Mr Holmes!”, “An excellent application of applied psychology”, “I haven’t been tricked many times in my life [except by you]”.

That Holmes enjoys this is transparent—indeed his responses put me much in mind of Watson’s note in A Study in Scarlet: “I had … observed that [Holmes] was as sensitive to flattery on the score of his art as any girl could be of her beauty.”

But just as Holmes yanked Watson to earth when his and McLeod’s performance of normality turns gauche, Watson tugs Holmes from his heights. Holmes lets Morell’s praise go to his head, to the point of responding to Morell’s compliments by rather lording it over the man (24.39 - 24.55). Then Holmes makes the mistake of mentioning fishing, and his disinterest in it. Calling back to the opening scene, Watson cuts in and reminds him of the grand claims he never officially renounced on the topic of his fishing prowess (24.55 - 25.06).

Poor Holmes is caught out, magic trick deflated in the eyes of his travel crush and work husband in the same beat, and the quick retreat he makes from the room may well be an embarrassed flight. But also there is this: “I think we better start back to Baker Street immediately”, and a hand on Watson’s back, and glances towards Watson overflowing with fondness (25.12 - 25.17).

(Holmes' best smiles are always the blurriest 😒 )

Despite Holmes’ clear embarrassment, it puts me in mind of the start of the episode, when Watson’s fear is realized and he is seen for a madman, and safe with his friend he laughs. I like to think that in his turn, Holmes is realizing that he has something far more mortifying and nevertheless superior to worship: a home where he is known.

In the episodes to come neither will stop performing, even for one another. Some days the performance will seem a mere farce they engage in for mutual amusement; some days a genuine attempt at deception. But neither will they stop seeing through one another in the end, calling each other back to themselves.

Additional Topics

A few topics I didn’t have space for here but may touch in separate posts (I'll link them here if/when I do):

Data Gathering (explained in the linked post)

The Pennsylvania Gun as a Valley of Fear adaptation

Holmes and “throwing back the little ones”

A queer reading of the case they're investigating. Not because I think it was intended that way, but because I can and the past six years have not taught me self-control.

My Story

I’m realizing most of the story I built in my head was based on actual moments in the show, however far I blew them out of proportion for personal enjoyment, and I end up referencing most relevant points in the main analysis and highlights of these posts. So for most episodes this section will just be for shamelessly linking to the relevant chapter of my fic. Great news for the length of these behemoths!

Highlights

Okay look. It's just that at some point it occurred to me that the phrase "mad as a March hare" is specifically in reference to the mating behaviour of hares during the breeding season. It's a phrase typically used without thought for this connotation, so I'm not saying Reynolds considered this. But I've considered it, and it is used a). in reference to Holmes and Watson's behaviour with each other, and b). by McLeod in reference to Holmes after a period of he and Holmes sparring for Watson's attention. So I shall continue to consider it.

I love Holmes fiddling with fishing tackle throughout the episode, trying to pretend he knows how it works while trying to figure out how the fuck it works.

1.55 - 2.20: Holmes and Watson are bickering, and in the meantime Watson gets up for more tea and refills Holmes' as well without a thought. Married already.

3:48 - 3:58: This very average utilization of personal space:

6.59: Mrs Hudson mention! She sadly never appears in this series, but she at least gets a shout-out.

13.04 - 13.38: This image is this post's header. The context is that Holmes' crushes pay attention to each other instead of him for like four seconds, and he responds by being just so normal about it:

Please know he had to circle fully around Watson to do that 👆

10.15 - 10.24: Holmes is always talking to groups while only caring about Watson's attention. Some of my favourite instances are cases like this, where he tosses in a 'Watson' right at the end of the sentence as a twist 'surprise! I was only talking to my special person'. Single-minded detective is single-minded.

16.10 - 17.11: Another iteration of the above, this time regarding the deductions he uses to interrupt Watson and McLeod's 'i'm straight! i'm straight' laughter fest. He tosses in two 'Watsons' to specify his audience this time, because even though for case reasons its more relevant to convince McLeod of what he's saying, what's actually happening here is Holmes and McLeod competing for Watson's attention. Holmes doesn't acknowledge McLeod until he seems to have lost this round, when he resignedly says that "if you two are convinced ... I'm going fishing" (17.12 - 17.19).

He hasn't lost; McLeod storms off, but Watson as ever lets curiosity win over pride—he stays and questions Holmes, and in moments is promising with all delight that "of course" he wants to help with whatever the hell Holmes is up to (17.30 - 18.19).

Even Watson seems to read Holmes' behaviour in the above exchanges as having a touch of jealousy, for when Holmes asks him to get McLeod out of the way for an hour, he says teasingly that he might enjoy himself and stay out longer with the inspector—and then he winks (18.19 - 18.40). As I can't find anything he could be teasing Holmes for besides his vying for Watson's attention, to me this reads as a flirtatious acknowledgement of dynamics at play, and a promise of where his final loyalty lies. And if Holmes looks a little uncertain in his farewell, he needn't have worried—upon their return dialogue assures us that Watson and the inspector have been punctual to the hour (19.10 - 19.21).

18.28: "I don't know what you're talking about but I'll do it"—Watson thesis statement.

20.20 & 23.38: Holmes slides down the banisters, straight-up just for fun. He gives a case-related reason and it's the flimsiest excuse you've ever heard. He's not embarrassed. He doesn't give a fuck. And I love him!

Special shoutout to this exchange about the banister sliding: Watson - "What have you been doing while we were away?" Holmes - "Well first I fished, and then I slid down the banisters." Watson - "Why." Holmes - "Why not?" Watson - "Huh." - (20.14 - 20.29) Holmes' "Why not" is so pointedly delivered, and Watson's "huh," is such a genuine 'well when you put it that way'. It's a great entry into the genre of Holmes offering Watson freedom from the illogical barriers of convention. And I love them both!

21:42: Hand touch!! My favourite thing about this is that it is so extraneous and unself-conscious. Watson also holds the touch for a beat before removing his hand just a hairsbreadth; then as they get up Holmes taps his hand against Watson's in turn.

[whats-she-gonna-post-next]

So I just finished binding Trust Life by the absolutely amazing @chaiandsage (Hello, I am ready to be perceived now, I hope that I have done your story even the slightest bit of justice) and I just wanted to make a post both showing it off, and going through what I learned doing this bind because I did a few new things here and want to talk about it.

Also I'm not going to subject you all to this, so most everything but the final product here is going to be below the cut.

(Also so sorry that the photos aren't the best. I am... Very bad at photography, lmao)

Ok, so let's start off with some of the cool things I learned during this bind. Or, maybe not necessarily cool, but they are things I learned and I think that learning is cool!

First off, I learned how to download and add fonts to Microsoft Word, which while not interesting, does open up a whole world of fonts for future binds. Is it a little late in the game to have found this? Probably. But it is what it is. I actually downloaded a pretty good chunk of different ones, but the fonts I actually used were MF Love Dings for the heart motif dividers, which was a new download, and then a few standard fonts - Edwardian Script ITC for the title pages, Baskerville Old Face for the chapter headers, Book Antiqua for the chapter titles, and good old Garamond for the actual text of the novel.

Here is the divider and the title fonts. I just think they are neat.

Another thing I learned was how to make book cloth! I found these squares of white cotton fabric at a dollar tree and decided to give it a go. The way I did mine was by painting them first (a task in and of itself, and as you can see on the cover, did not turn out super even, but I love them nonetheless) and then I glued down a layer of tissue paper to give it a little stiffness and make it stick to the chipboard easier, it was a super cool process and I look forward to trying it again in the future now that I have done it once and have a better idea of how I can improve in the future

And now onto some of the other cooler parts of the process!

So I had a lot of fun doing the formatting, it's my favourite part of any binding process, I cannot tell you how many fics I have formated that I have yet to print out and actually bind because I enjoy the process so much (the answer is actually 5 that are completely formatted and ready to go, 3 that I am actively in the middle of formatting, 4 projects completed - including this one, which... may technically count as 3, granted 2 of them were gifts for other people - and 3 that I am planning on doing that I haven't gotten to start on yet. Oh, and a 5 part series that I have printed out but haven't actually bound yet. I have a problem, lmao.) As I mentioned, I downloaded a few fonts for this but it just ended up looking so good in the end. Here is what some of the inner formatting looks like (I did just take the screenshots from word, I thought it was easier than getting the pages in the book)

Something else! This was the first time I actually broke a single fic into multiple parts, and I do not regret it. Each section is fairly large on its own, so it would have been a monster all together. I gave them basically the same title pages and such, just used the main stories summary for all of them and copy pasted everything - work smarter, not harder - and kept the same format for the chapters and such. There were 2 obvious spots (at least imo) for breaking things up, those being at the end of chapter 24, and then again at the end of 57, if you know, you know. However, that made the divide be 24 chapter, 33 chapter, 9 chapters. I was a little worried about how that divide to affect the look of the books, but I was pleasantly surprised how well it worked out. Book 2 there is quite obviously the largest part (it's basically double the length of book 1) but book 3 was surprisingly long for being only 9 chapters and I think they look fairly cohesive together. I didn't realize how long the last nine chapters themselves were. The first and third ones are actually about the same size together as book two, which is pretty cool!

When it came time to put together the actual books, I stuck with my tried and true french link stitch, as I find it to be a sturdy stitch, and then used green, yellow, and red card stock for the end pages, I felt it thematic.

I'm super excited to have this as a physical book now, thank again to chaiandsage for allowing me to bind this amazing story and just for writing it in the first place! I read it like twice in the span of a month, and I swear I have read chapter 57 and 58 themselves way too many times to count. Not even going to mention the amount of times I read the last 6 chapters because I just love a good happy ending.

But yeah, I'm really happy how this bind turned out, I still have to put an actual cover in these - which I plan on doing, I have a friend who is going to help me with the cover design when they are free, so there will be an update at some point.

[geminibookbinding]

Alright it's time for the first photo dump of Binderary 2024!

Started off by making some author copies of a collab that happened in 2022 (I've had this project in the works since then.... we're not going to talk about it :x ). All fics were named after songs and the idea was to make a 'mixtape.

All books have similar yet different pink covers and I got to use a foil quill for the first time with... mixed success. (To be fair, I opened it and went 'yeah I can do this' with limited practice so that's on me)

AND I got to use Church paper (warm white, I don't think I'm ready for cream yet) and let me say I am obsessed with it now!

As for the works themselves and the creative titles, we have:

Wet Dreamz by kweenkatsuki, now kweenkatsuki-fics

One of Them Will Destroy the Other by kingkatsuki

A WHOLE FOUR PART SERIES by katsukikitten Hills Have Eyes E-GIRLS ARE RUINING MY LIFE She's a God Dark Red

If you look closely, each cassette has ABCD for which part it is

And Demons, and Dancing on my Own, by bakugotrashpanda

And finally, the main title art

I tried to keep all the art in the same style to keep the cohesion.

The two things I'm most excited about this year is getting to use the new finishing press I made (is that what they're called?) where I got the CLEANEST edges to date

and @rat-juicee gifted me a new stamp for my books! I have been WAITING for February so that I can make everything in my to be bound pile and use this!

(Completed: 2/3/2024)

[baalzebufo]

good ol fashioned razzmatazz

SO I wrote more... :) ive wanted to do a series of scenes from Gideon's life for a while now- moments in time we didn't see in the show. mostly past, maybe some present or future, depending. wanted to explore his life a little more, and the headcanons ive got surrounding it. drabbles is the best way to solve this because i cant write one long cohesive plot very well haha

ive got a handful of ideas in mind but this is the first one that i finished to any degree. just a little scene from his childhood. gideon makes his first sale, and learns something about himself.

‘What are you up to, sweetie?’

‘Shh- it’s a secret.’

Gideon hushed his mother as he ran over to the back door and shoved his face up against it, peering out through the frosted glass window into the car lot. His mother, Florence, turned her attention away from the oven for a moment to squint at him. He was wearing his favorite dress shirt, the dark blue one covered in golden stars- shorts and sandals for the weather, and his long hair was pulled back into a white braid. The sun caught on his hair through the window, and she could have sworn she saw it sparkle. What a strange little boy they had, she thought.

---

She remembers how tiny he was when she first held him, and how odd his shock of white hair had been. Odder still when she first saw the icy blue eyes he had- not like hers or Bud’s, not at all. Neither of them had even heard of what the doctors diagnosed him with before then. Some sort of ‘congenital condition’, for whatever that meant. All that fancy medical talk was a bit out of her area of expertise. All that mattered to her was that their little boy was alive- and now, at least on his way to better health.

Their little Gideon had been much more adventurous these days. Ever since the doctors had given him the OK during his last hospital visit, he’d seemingly been itching to get outside. He hummed loudly, like he was deep in thought.

Florence smiled. She reached over to the fridge.

‘Well, if you aren’t too busy with your secrets, could you do me a favor?’

‘Hm?’ He whipped his head over to look at his mother, who was holding a little tupperware container.

‘How about you go across the lot and take this to your dad for me?’

The wheels turned for a moment, and Gideon perked up instantly.

‘Y’mean it? On my own?’

‘Of course, hon. As long as you’re careful-’

He nodded, a smile creasing his face. Oh- she couldn’t help it, every time he smiled, she smiled too. Surely every mother thinks their child is the cutest kid on the planet, but well… she KNEW hers was. And she knew that they’d been very protective of him these past few months, what with the hospital scare and all. As much as she fretted about his health- she made a mental note to deep clean his room again this weekend- she couldn’t squash that spirit behind his eyes. It couldn’t hurt to let him out on his own for a little bit.

He took the container from her hands and tucked it under one of his arms, nodding solemnly.

‘Ah’ll handle it, ma’am!’ He stood up straight and gave a little salute, his face faux-stern, and she couldn’t help but laugh. He’d been watching too much TV lately, bless him.

She waved him off as he skittered out of the door, turning her attention back to the oven.

---

Gideon shielded his eyes from the afternoon sun. The worst of his sensitivity to it may have gone away with the treatments, but it still got awful bright out in summer. But he’d power through it. After all, he had a mission.

He took off at a run down the winding garden path, rushing through the gate onto the concrete car lot. The weather was hot, but there was that fresh summer breeze blowing in his face that made him glad to be out of his room. He liked it in there plenty- he had books and instruments and more toys than he knew what to do with- but being cooped up in bed for so long had him yearning for the outdoors. He squinted, spying the towering figure of his father through the light glinting off the windows of his work building.

Giggling, he sprinted across the lot as fast as his legs could carry him into the shop.

‘Dad!’ He burst through the door, startling his father. Bud Gleeful whipped around from where he was sat across a little plastic table with a skinny spectacled gentleman, poring over a contract. He wore a battered looking old suit but held himself with an oddly aristocratic air. He seemed out of place on a used car lot.

‘Woah there, sunshine-’ Bud started, his sentence cut off with an oof- as Gideon jumped onto his lap. ‘Heavens, boy! What’s gotten into you?’

Gideon looked up at him- and then across the table to his latest customer. He had put the contract down and was looking down at the two of them, a smile creasing his cheeks. Bud raised a hand, a little embarrassed. ‘Oh my, I’m mighty sorry for the interruption, sir-’

‘Oh, no. It’s quite alright.’ He laughed- he had that fancy city-folk accent, Gideon noticed. He tilted his head to the side to get a better look at him. ‘Now who is this fine little fellow?’

‘Oh, well this is-’

‘Gideon!’ He piped up, folding his hands across his lap with a smile. ‘Gideon Charles Gleeful!’

‘Haha- yep. That’s my lil’ Gideon.’ Bud finished for him, resting one big hand on his son's shoulder. ‘This is my son. Little fella ain’t been too well recently, but he’s lookin’ fit as a fiddle now. Acting it, too! Well now, why’d you rush over here in such a hurry, boy? Does your mother know you’re-’

‘Oh, yeah! I brought ya’ this from mom.’ He held out the container to Bud, who picked it up- turned it over, then hummed in understanding.

‘Hah, oh yeah. I s’pose I did almost forget about lunch, all caught up in negotiatin’.’ He mused. ‘Thank you kindly, sweetheart.’ He leant down to kiss his forehead, which Gideon responded to by playfully swatting him away.

The moment was interrupted then by the man across the table clearing his throat. Gideon and Bud both turned their attention back to him.

‘Mr. Gleeful, I have to be honest- I wasn’t sure if this was the right car for me, a few minutes ago. Forgive me for my bluntness, but I was worried this place might not be… on the up-and-up, if you catch my drift.’ Gideon felt his fathers hand slip off his shoulder, a subtle change in his demeanor.

‘But… well, seeing you here- you seem like a real family man, Mr. Gleeful. Trustworthy. I’m sorry for doubting you.’ He chuckled. ‘I suppose I thought this contract might be too good to be true for a moment there.’

‘Nah, dad’s the best at this stuff!’ Gideon piped up- he felt Bud tense up for a second, about to hush him, but he carried on. ‘I’m gonna learn to sell cars just as good as his, someday! So you can tell yer kids to come buy from me!’

Bud held his breath a moment, but then the customer burst out laughing.

‘Oh- goodness, how sweet. You know what, Gideon? I’ll have to remember that.’

‘That’ll be Mr. Gleeful to you!’

Bud picked him up then, lifting himself out of his chair and carrying his son high up to perch on his shoulder. ‘Okay, that’s enough teasing, boy-’

‘Haha! No, no, he’s got it right.’ The skinny man stood too, pushing his glasses up his nose. ‘You know what? You’ve got yourself a sale, Mr. Gleeful.’

He held his hand out- up, above Bud’s, to Gideon. He grasped it firmly, grinning ear to ear and shook his hand. The gentleman nodded his head, then reached into his pocket and pulled out a crisp 20 dollar bill.

‘Forgive me for being forward- but may I give the young man a commission?’

Bud startled, glancing at it- then back to Gideon- then back to the money. ‘Oh, my- that’s awful kind of you sir, it certainly is! Of course you can.’

Gideon’s eyes lit up. He eagerly took the twenty, held it up to the light- then slipped it into his pocket. He squirmed- a sign for Bud to pick him up and let him down on the floor again- and stood up straight with his arms folded.

‘Thanks, sir!’ He chirped, and Bud leant down to pat the top of his head.

‘Now Gideon, do you think you could let the grown-ups handle the borin’ part of all this paperwork?’ He crouched to smile at his son.

‘Sure thing.’

‘Alright, sweetpea. Don’t spend your money all in one place, y’hear?’

‘Okay, dad!’

His mission complete, Gideon padded over to the door- leant over his shoulder to wave at the man his father was now pushing a pen into the hand of- and left the room.

Stopping on the sun-soaked car lot, he reached into his pocket and felt the dollar again. Thought about the look on that man's face when he gave him the money, for nothing but a few words and a smile. His dad had a pretty easy job, he figured. But he didn’t really understand the whole sales thing- not yet, at least.

---

Gideon would spend the rest of the day playing in the garden- until he got too hot and tired, and retreated back to his shaded room for a nap. He wouldn’t think too much about what happened that day.

But that night, his father would take them out to the diner and boast loudly about how his son- barely in his fifth year!- had made his first ever sale. He’d let him order dessert- seconds, too. And he’d ask Gideon to stop by the lot more often, especially if he wants to learn to be a salesman someday. He was one talented boy, his parents told him. Showered him with that notion, really. He was destined to be a big shot one day with a personality as glowing as his.

'You have a face folks would never say no to!' His father told him. He didn't mean much when he said it- more of a joke than anything. But something about it settled with Gideon, still learning about the world. Nobody would say no to him, huh...?

He figured that sounded pretty nice.

[eriellelynx]

Don't Look Away / Just Look My Way (Blitzø's Version) by ErielleLynx

…Is what I would have wanted Blitzø to have said to Stolas if he didn’t have the emotional intelligence of a pebble.

Anyways! Rant / Explanation incoming haha.

First and foremost, none of the following is to somehow invalidate your love for any characters, ships, or dynamics. This is just one interpretation in a sea of different interpretations that might just not be suited to you. If this ain’t your cup of tea, that’s perfectly fine! Just please be respectful if you disagree haha.

So, I am by no means a songwriter, nor am I an experienced singer, but… I just couldn’t let this one go. I kept looking for something like this through YouTube, but I could only find AI covers. :,) I feel like there are so many things that just aren’t really being brought up yet and Stolas REALLY needs to hear them. I tried my best to add actual quotes (mostly Stolas’) and scenes from the episodes to show just how toxic their situationship had been up until this point.

Essentially, the original song would have been the romanticized perspective that Stolas had on their relationship, whereas Blitz’ version would be more… grounded in reality? Of course, it’s still from his perspective, so he doesn’t have the full story (i.e. “You lived the ideal!” Brother, no-), but it at least shows his side in a more… cohesive way? Thus, instead of asking for Stolas to “look his way”, Blitz does a reversal and is actually demanding he don’t look away from him, whether it be due to shame or guilt (Ya’ll remember Ozzies?), or because he literally can’t stand to look at him after the initial confrontation.

Some lyrics I wanted to point out:

“Your impish plaything” -> A call back to when Stolas LITERALLY calls him that to his face, and in front of his employees / daughter. Also, remember when he literally puts out a cigarette in his horns? (While also ignoring the fact that his body has burn marks and the implications of that action was seriously messed up? Like-) And then told him in that same scene that the Grimoire was much too important for such an “itty-bitty imp” to handle? ALSO, remember how in the original version of the song, Stolas even calls Blitz this exact same thing? Pepperidge Farm remembers.

“I’d play along that you were my king / And I was your shining knight” -> When they were in the amusement park at the start of the series, Stolas literally calls him this and is then upset that the M&Ms were the ones to rescue him. His full quote: “Where is Blitzy? He’s my knight in shining armor, not you littler ones”. You know, cause he doesn’t look down on imps.

“You’re not a friend, more like a patron” -> Ya'll, Blitz and Stolas were not friends when they were kids. The first and only time they interacted as children was because Stolas’ father literally bought Blitz for a day to spend time with his son, and he could because of their difference in status. From the very moment they met, their relationship was transactional; Blitz’ literal being was up for sale because it benefited his own father. In the present day, nothing had changed. You want my book? Give me your body. I saved you from the humans, didn’t I? Well, I expect you to give me something in return. Why was Blitz supposed to hope, let alone expect, that the dynamic would change? And so, is he really any different from any other imp servant he employs?

“I feel free from your chains” -> There is a literal scene that shows the audience that Blitz feels like he’s chained to Stolas, and that he can be pushed and pulled in any way because he’s beneath him. He knows he doesn’t really have any power in the dynamic, and so whether or not Stolas intended to so, he is still looking down on him based on the amount of control he has. Like… regardless of any serious feelings being developed further down the line, the fact that at some point that was his actual interpretation of the relationship is just… no. Of course, it’s in that same episode that Stolas then calls him his “Impish plaything”. Which, you know, probably doesn't help his view on the relationship and his lack of control of it, as well as his own self-worth.

“In the end, you made me plead” -> I absolutely hated that Stolas literally made Blitz grovel at his feet before presenting him with the Asmodean Crystal. He says he understands that Blitz has walls to protect himself with, but why did he think that this was the way to get him to be vulnerable? He can kneel down and be as soft-spoken as he wants to, he still threaten his livelihood, which would put himself, his daughter and the M&M’s, (whom are the only two constants in Blitz’ life) with no income, without an immediate explanation. So many ways that he could have done that interaction, and he chooses the absolute worst way possible.

“Your praise was merely noise” -> A callback to his rant with Fizz haha. Given all of the above, why would compliments and the occasional laugh be enough to change his mind about him?

“A lovely lie” -> Just him repeating Stolas’ own words in Stolas’ Song. It was all just a “comfortable lie”. Again, throwing his words back at him.

“A game of pretend” -> Much like the game of pirates they would play as children.

“Time to face / your mistakes” -> I’d like to think that he says that both metaphorically and literally. He’s telling Stolas that he needs to accept all the ways he did him wrong, but he’s also literally telling Stolas to look at him, the biggest mistake he has ever made.

Finally, I decided to end it with the original lyrics, not only as a callback to the original song, but to, again, throw those words back at Stolas. Yes, Blitz did in fact ask him to look his way, just like he wanted, but not for the reasons that he thought he would. It’s Blitz’ way of shattering that romanticized image of their relationship, of what it actually meant to be seen by him.

In conclusion, I’m upset at this bird haha. I hope these things get brought up somehow… Stolas giving him the crystal does not make up for any of these things, but it’s a start. Even so, it still feels like a transaction. The first genuine act of affection is still a material good. Accompanied by pretty words, yes, but he was still giving him something and hoped that would make it right and he would have his affection- or at the very least, his attention- in return. Oof…

Again, even if you don’t necessarily agree with this interpretation, I hope that ya’ll can still enjoy the song? ^^

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Just Look My Way” is from the show Helluva Boss, performed by Bryce Pinkham. The original song was composed and performed by ParanoidDJ. Links to these videos follow.

Official Music Video: https://youtu.be/rATbtwj1qls?si=ogkY16dCkl7mrjAk

Original Song: https://youtu.be/XrZ2vqVPTFM?si=QYW1oc3nEhFD0YDi

The instrumentals are not mine! They were provided by ‪sleeplessginger on YouTube. Check out the instrumental here: https://youtu.be/uB5xhmM4jTU?si=udHIkHoak4nXhAhX

Images were taken from episode 8, season 2 of Helluva Boss. Additionally, images from the trailer of the second half of season 2 were used.

Only the vocals (and the modified lyrics) are mine.

[vintagerpg]

Mothership encompasses and encourages many different visual vocabularies and yet, despite 3rd-party Mothership products looking wildly different from each other, they mostly have an often unmistakable SOMETHING that still encodes them as Mothership to my eye. Hull Breach (2023) is a hardcover anthology of scenarios, locations, tools, hacks and rules tweaks by gang of notable 3rd-party Mothership zine makers, and it’s a great example of this sort of…consistent variance.

The book sure looks like Mothership, but the contents, both thematically and visually, are remarkably varied (despite a certain cohesive framing provided by the layout, though even then, I count three separate hands at work). There are rules for playing as human-hunting aliens. There’s a retail chain with a series of back rooms that never end. There is a teleporter in need of testing, heh. I think my favorite is the funnel scenario, “Residue Processing,” which casts players as unwilling participants in a series of dangerous scientific experiments in a corpo lab. Everything is so well done and so different from each other that reading through the book is really like unearthing one delightfully horrible trinket after another; I got pulled along by the promise of ever-new ways to terrify and murder my players.

Lots of great art throughout (LF OSR, Sajan Rai, Joshua Clark and Daniel Vega). I’m particularly keen on Nikolai Fletcher, who contributed the front cover and some interiors. He’s got a very precise style that makes for believable sci fi environments, but then either through composition or color, manages to get this intense brooding feel. I love how dangerous the cover looks without breaking the stillness of the scene (the hole itself is slightly debossed, too, which is a nice, subtle design touch).

I’ll always love the myriad of Mothership products, but Hull Breach sets a high bar for the rest of the 3rd party. I’m keen to see other creators work to meet it.

[thehiddenbaroness]

Entry 12: Best Face Forward

2/11/25

I sat myself down last weekend to look again at what I’ve been putting off the past month: really narrowing down and ranking my cover illustrator top picks, but moreover trying – yet again – to figure out what I actually want. The crux, of course, as always is balancing what appeals to me versus what works, because while this is mine and I want to love its cover, it is, whether we like it or not, the most important marketing tool in the toolbox and by that token, likely to be the most significant monetary investment outside of audiobook production. 

I started sketching out ideas months ago, both literally and figuratively. I knew I wanted an illustrated cover, for example, rather than something that utilized stock imagery; but also that I wanted to avoid both the stereotypical fantasy ‘scene’ or character portrait and, contrastingly, the ornate flowery designs sans characters or even objects. I knew that I liked rich colors and chiaroscuro, double-exposure styles, and creative uses of negative space. I knew I didn’t want anything too feminine. I knew that ideally, there should be a strong cohesion between the covers in the series, so I needed an idea with elements that could be adapted over the course of at least two other books.

However. I also knew that regardless of my personal tastes, the cover needs to have certain cues that the target audience will recognize and be drawn to, and that I was still beholden to certain graphic design rules regarding composition, legibility, etc., and that some of my ideas would be too ‘niche’ or better-suited to a special edition. Money was/is also a factor. 

Trying to balance these known quantities, even after trips to physical bookstores and extensive market research in my genre, meant that I became a bit paralyzed. I had several sketched compositions that I liked, but I didn’t feel that balance. It constantly felt like the solution was just hovering in my periphery, and that I lacked the artistic skill to bring it all into full focus.

By the end of the weekend I managed to, at least, pull twelve artists from my rather long list I’ve been keeping: ones I thought not only were potentially feasible in terms of cost and accessibility, but whose style and typical subject matter was similar to what I’m looking for. I then ranked them according to preference but also suitability and (again) feasibility, with five at the top being relatively ‘interchangeable’. Just looking through all of their art and getting excited again about the possibilities made it easier to pick up my sketchpad and stare real hard at the options I had so far, and add some new ones. I tried to detach myself from my preconceived composition ideas, instead favoring holding onto elements and trying to envision how these artists might depict them. It helped.

It wasn’t until the early hours of Monday morning, lying in bed staring at the ceiling, that something finally clicked. Some of y’all probably saw the excited post. Though I can’t reveal much yet, I think I’m finally onto it – something that I really like, but that will also work. And if all else fails, I can do something different later -- little in this process is permanent.

Sketched out all three covers the following morning, and then created a proper reference file: reference images, yes, but also a design brief, areas I was more flexible on, and other information that an artist may want to know (regardless of who that artist ends up being). Yesterday morning I also went ahead and sent an initial query email to my top pick to try to get a ballpark figure! If for some reason that isn’t doable, I’ll work my way down my list.

The formal cover aside, it was also nice to hear back from a cover designer friend. She should be sending me some stuff by way of a portfolio soon; my thinking is that perhaps I can enlist her help with either the reader magnet eBook cover and/or the banner for at least the newsletter, so that I can try to hit my website ‘go live’ goal of the beginning of next month. I still have a lot of anxieties about my personal finances that are an uncomfortable echo of past feelings, but I’m going to do my best to stay positive. I am, after all, still facing and walking forward.

+++++ Baroness' Self-Publication Journal Masterpost I'm journaling what I uncover as I do more research for self-publication of my novel! I'll be using the tag "#sp journal". All of this will eventually wind up as part of a larger, more detailed guide for which I'm making notes.

[markantonys]

Seeing a few arguments that while s2 is the stronger season it's also less coherent/cohesive narratively and thematically than s1. In the sense that s1 had a specific goal of them getting from point a to point b, so s2 feels messier for some people cause it was more complex in the amount of plot threads being covered. I do wonder if some people are feeling that way cause they adapted two books rather than one and not enough time to cover everything? I don't necessarily think it's bad that some plot threads aren't resolved though cause that's something that happens in the books too, plots and character arcs spanning multiple books (and it's not like the books are cohesive all the time either so it is on brand for WoT 😂)

people deigning to praise an aspect of s1? now that is a fresh take! i get where they're coming from (it's undeniable that s1 has a much simpler & more straightforward plot structure than s2 because it basically is just 1 plotline for the whole season rather than several different concurrent plotlines). but it's just the nature of WOT, and of many ensemble stories, that we kick off with a small contained story and expand it more and more with each installment. numerous plot threads all over the continent is a hallmark of WOT! so if it's show-onlys making this complaint, fair enough, but if it's readers, they do not have a goddamn leg to stand on because this is literally what WOT is and has always been.

and i think s2 was still pretty cohesive. most of the arcs follow the basic structure of "characters start off dealing with the consequences of s1, learn more about their powers and encounter new threats, and head to falme for their own reasons that ultimately all end up coinciding with each other." rather than "every main character shares the same objective for the season", the story of s2 is instead "every main character has different objectives which all end up intertwining with each other". that's a cohesive story too, just a different format than the one s1 told!

and the vast majority of plot threads were resolved, with only a few left hanging because of course you need to leave some hooks to get viewers to come back next season.

moiraine & lan bond arc: resolved

rand accepting his duty as the dragon reborn: immediate arc resolved, but with a continuation teed up for s3

egwene overcoming impostor syndrome and learning to stand on her own two feet: resolved

perrin hunting for the horn and learning more about his wolf powers: immediate arc resolved, but with a continuation teed up for s3

mat proving to himself that he's a good person and a loyal friend: resolved

nynaeve breaking her block: not resolved, but teed up to be a major focus of s3

maybe the difference is that for a lot of these arcs, the objective is something internal (character undergoing growth) rather than something external like a quest, as was the case in s1. perrin is the only one who's like "i need to accomplish this specific external thing" in 2x01 (retrieving the horn), maybe moiraine too with her research, whereas the others have a series of smaller external goals (for example mat: escape cell -> get to cairhien -> go with rand to help egwene -> escape kidnapping -> help friends) with their overarching season-long goal instead being an internal one (that they aren't aware of; it's the narrative's goal rather than the character's). but, again, that's just a different type of story structure, because either way, the narrative does have coherent season-long goals that it's working towards and ultimately resolves.

but what especially makes s2 feel cohesive to me is the thematic aspect of it! every single storyline deals with at least one of the following themes and many of them more than one: isolation vs. togetherness, power & helplessness, control & leashing, duty & responsibility, and probably a bunch more if i were to think about it for more than 30 seconds (these were just the Top S2 Themes that immediately jumped to mind). there is a very very strong Thematic Cohesion across all the plot threads in s2, so i'm surprised to hear that anyone feels otherwise.

(as for 2 books in a single season, sure, there wouldn't have been time to tell 2 books in 1 season if that's what the show was trying to do, but it isn't. instead of saying "okay the first 4 episodes are TGH and the next 4 are TDR", the show put TGH & TDR in a blender and distilled it down to a single season's worth of story per character, and there WAS enough time to cover that 1 season's worth of story.)