#I just need to find really good audiobook versions of them. I can't sit down and read anymore

[shikai-the-storyteller]

Went to the bookstore today and asked about their mythology section and this frickin guy had the gall to be like "Yeah it's over here, but these are really dense and difficult so let me show you the children's mythology section." I was so baffled I didn't say anything. Normally I would've been very offended, but I couldn't help but laugh because I was like "I've been reading those massive textbook-esque mythology books since I was a literal child as research for my novel, sir. But sure, show me the kid's section, I like reading kids' books too."

[olivieblake]

Hi Olivie! I am back with some praise for “The Lovers Grim”!!! I did read this in November but life went crazy (as it always does) so I am just now sending you my praise. (spoilers included). This is a bit long but most of its length just comes from me sending quotes I loved so hopefully if you just skim those it won’t be as long, I’m sorry :( 

I keep telling people that it was a lot sexier than the preceding books in the fairytale collections so that made it super fun overall!!!

Clara and the Devil: What a fun way to start! I love stories where the devil shows up and there’s temptation so I knew I was going to love this one, and I did! I love Clara, I find her super relatable to me. I keep notes in my notes app on my phone as I read your books and I just have written “this is just sexy and everyone is horny” so many times hahah (please take that as a compliment because it is). THE ENDING TOO LIKE 🥵  MY GOD I LOVED IT. Made me want to immediately go jump the WEBTOON, which I did and am obsessed with. The female version of the devil is 🥵 and I definitely have some theories on everything. I’m really liking the bargains with the universe part, I too make bargains with the universe in the hopes it will help me. I read the new update from yesterday too and ahhh so excited to see where everything goes. THE ART OF COURSE IS BEAUTIFUL SENDING MY PRAISE TO LITTLE CHMURA. 

I loved this line from the story “I’d asked him to meet me on the beach in the middle of the night, which were terms the devil readily agreed to. He was very agreeable that way, which I hated, but which I also understood. He was reliably available for my sins.”

Both the “Apple’s a bit much don’t you think” and Devil’s food cake made me laugh hahahaha. I also really liked the line “There is more to being good than simply abstaining from vice.”

Once it Happens: OLIVIE THIS STORY!!! It’s truly a story I always dreamed of wanting and just didn’t know existed so I’m super thankful you wrote it. I also did cry as well as feel a whole range of emotions (which as an emotionally repressed person is some of the highest praise I can give you). I’m a lover of the idea of being in someone’s orbit/fate drawing people together/invisible string/soulmates so this story was exactly what I needed. I consider this (and La Petite Mort obviously which I actually reread in December as a pick me up with the audiobook-also fantastic-and loved it even more the second time around.Thanks for that book❤️) my two matches made in heaven. This story actually explains why I ship certain ships, like nicolibby for example, just because I find this type of dynamic to be a super strong and important connection so it makes it hard to fathom them being with other people (for me specifically). Even the bit where “Once it happens, it can't unhappen. It can't be undone.” made me think of  “we met, so now we can’t detach” type thing. Most of my favorite ships have this type of dynamic so it made me love this story even more. This story is one I still think about 24/7 and it just made me think a lot/it said so much in so little and left such an impact on me. I think I tabbed every paragraph in this one like I loved it and could probably just sit here and write down every one and tell you all my thoughts etc but that would waste so much of your time so I shall refrain. Just know “I LOVE THIS STORY SO FUCKING MUCH” was written in my notes on this one about 100 times. Enjoy a few of my random rambles:

All the different times they could meet/that it happens and THE ICE CREAM SHOP BEING A COMMON THEME. 

“They are children together, opening gifts. They are teenagers, discovering life. They are adults, and sad ones, and when he tilts her chin up for a kiss she breathes something into his mouth he's certain is one word: Finally. He will marry her within a year.” THIS MADE ME CRY

“They live separately and their lives never cross. His children will have her smile and her sense of humor, and neither of them will ever know it.” THEY STILL HAVE THE THREADS OF EACH OTHER IN LIVES THEY DON’T KNOW EACH OTHER (this also made me cry)

The ice cream shop closing 😭😭😭 and then figuring out they grew up in the same town and they think about how they could have met a thousand different ways and didn’t, it’s funny how they came so close and she says she’s glad it finally 

THE ENDING PARAGRAPH I’M CRYING AGAIN

Literally thank you for this story and thank you for just writing all my favorite stories and books, much love❤️❤️❤️

Captain McIver’s Ship of Souls: This one was so funny and I loved seeing Arno just be confused about humans haha but I was so intrigued. My personal favorite thing was that the finfolk crave blood and the multiple blood sucking scenes, I don’t know what that says about me but hey it WORKS for me and made me just so very happy to see. THANK YOU QUEEN. The twist in this one was also super good, I didn’t see it coming. I have decided that Eilif from the TA6 universe is one of Arno’s cousins (it is canon in my heart and that is all that matters <3) Here’s some moments I absolutely loved. 

“Captain,” comes the voice of Eli's first mate. He's the one who was last to jump on Eli's orders, Arno notes, and dislikes him slightly, though without any particular reason.” We love when a love interest hates a person for just not respecting their love interest!!! ONE OF MY FAVS

To Make a Man: So interesting!!! I was trying to guess what type of creatures they both were the whole time and the stakes were super high so it was so hard to put down. Marcelo has some great lines like ugh THIS MAN he was down so bad. The angst in this is god tier. I just love that they each brought a little bit of peace to each other for a time, and in my head they can find their way back together in however many years.

“Lina, Lina, Lina. You are the softness of your skin, the sharpness of your mind. You are the knife-edge of your humor, which doesn't look like humor at first because, on you, joy looks like suspicion. You are the distance you so meticulously keep between us. You are the door, the latch, the key I understand now that I am an invasion; even with my best intentions, you can only trust me the way you'd trust a flood. There's no choosing which parts of me you accept or which parts of you I want. We seep in through each other's cracks, all or nothing” I LOVED THIS LIKE MY GOD I LOVED IT SO MUCH 

“He would have traded euphoria just to keep her, to make her the subject of his tedium. To live a colorless life in the shade of her bones, in the sound of her breath, knowing and eternally recounting the monotony of her details until he grinds himself down to nothing, never learning or experiencing another beautiful thing.” STOPPPP SO GOOD 

“Someday, she thought, she would remember this for all that it was, and for all that it wasn't. She would resurrect this very moment into countless perpetuity and embrace the searing pain of it; suffer the boundless joy. Because it had been real. Every moment of it. Every blessed thread.” PAIN 

Kill the Bachelor: Another dream I didn’t think to have but like two contestants on the Bachelor ditching him and falling in love??? Amazing. The TV script set up was so cool too it really made me feel like I was just watching episodes of the bachelor. All the satire in this was A+. This one also had me laughing a bunch. Anway, men suck and women are always better (but Josh’s crush on Lauren was cute too)

YAY woman in STEM!!!

“Do you ever feel like you're in this crowd of people and nobody really sees you? Like, you're there, but nobody gets you, you know what I mean?" Yes all the time 

KARA (sympathetically)

“A sad day for all Bachelor fans indeed, Craig."

CRAIG (nodding)

"Sure is, Kara! And now, Andrew with the weather."

That made me laugh out loud 

I’ll be sending my praise for YES super soon (hopefully soon at least lol I have condense my thoughts/praise to make it not a novel like I LOVED that book and CecilyPorter have joined the crowd of my beloved ships-they are up there with nicolibby, mayracal, and aldoregan for me and by now I’m sure you know how much I love those other 3-so yeah that probably says everything you need to know but I can’t wait to express more of my love of them to you later haha). I’m currently reading “Grow Your Own Optimist!” and loving it so far! 

-Amanda

hahaha never apologize! I'm so happy you enjoyed the stories and I'm never mad about getting to know which quotes you liked. I agree, "once it happens" is one of my favorite stories. I feel like that one might be the olivie brand in brief summation? just... about love and life and time and fate and also blowjobs and ice cream. anyway

OH I AM SO EXCITED ABOUT CLARA POSTING AGAIN. I can't wait for you guys to see the end of this season. I mean obviously you know by now I'm obsessed with chmura's art but also I'm pretty proud of how the story ends, because I never intended to keep writing in this universe and wasn't sure I could do a sequel that felt the same way, but I think (fingers crossed) I managed it. I'm really excited to show you the finished product!

[thinkaboutrunning]

Things I can't run without

I know, running is supposed to be the most basic of all exercises, except maybe walking. We should be able to run without any additional gear, even without special clothing. And if we must do it that way, we certainly can. But, it's so much more fun and so much more pleasant when we arm ourselves with available gadgets and gizmos. I've tried many and kept only a few I can't run without, sort of. From run trackers to podcast players, here's what I use.

I started "au naturel" wearing my ancient sports shorts from high school (I was lucky they made them so stretchy that I could fit in) and sneakers I bought for walking. They were comfortable and felt great. Sneakers were already moulded by my feet. Those were simple, chafing and blister-free runs.

The more serious I became about it, though, the more I started reading online and offline about things advertised as "essential" to improve my running. To tell the truth, I was mostly interested in finding a way to measure the distance I ran. Those were the days just before GPS became omnipresent. Sometimes I drove the route I was going to run to measure the distance on the car's odometer; on one occasion I even talked a friend into following me in a car. He avoids me ever since.

I turned to the internet, bought a Nike+ pedometer, put it on my shoes and paired it with my iPod. It was inaccurate, for sure — for example a marathon I ran with it was measured as a 45 kms run, full 3 kms longer than actual distance — but it was ingenious when it comes to motivation and goal-setting. Now I could set the weekly, monthly and other goals in distance and time. And, it had a feature I miss ever since - a "Power Song". I could pre-program my own pick-me-up tune and then play it whenever I want or need it during the run by pressing and holding iPod's menu button.

If you promise not to laugh at my taste in music, I'll tell you the song that carried me through the heavy-legged final stages of quite a few marathons and half-marathons; it was Christina Aguilera's "Candyman". Other than catchy melody and cheerful vibe, it also had the perfect beat-per-minute rhythm to which I could match my stride and get some badly needed speed. When I evolved to more sophisticated distance trackers, I lost that Power Song feature and miss it ever since!

I already outed myself as the non-purist runner. (The purists being runners who don't listen to anything other than the sounds of their surroundings and their own breathing.) Yes, I run with headphones, and am not apologizing for it. Nowadays, my phone is my tracking device and a few "essential" apps keep track of my runs and make them more enjoyable. Before I bare my running soul and sole in front of you, I want you to know that I'm kind of an old geek. I like to experiment and try new things all the time, sometimes to my own detriment. One can't know if something's really good until he tries it, right? So, here are my running essentials.

A GPS-capable smartphone is a must. I have an old-ish iPhone 8 which still tracks my distance quite well.

Comfortable headphones. My ears are large — I know, I'm not proud of them and didn't ask for them, but there they are. Most of the earbuds and other fancy small earphones won't stay in my ears. They wiggle and slide out after a few running steps. So, I'm looking for headphones that hook in place in some way. Trust me, running with an earbud that needs to be tucked back in every few steps can ruin your mood run! The current ones I have is the simplest of simple sets of Panasonic wired sport headphones with plastic hook over the ear. What I look for in headphones? I want them light, with some sort of hooking solution either over ears or around the head. Waterproof, or at least water-resistant is preferable. Because, no amount of sweat or rain can stop us, right? Bluetooth wireless are great, but tend to be heavier due to the battery they need to function, which makes them fall outta my ears easier. Also, some bluetooth headphones have connection problems, even though my phone is in my waist-belt less than a meter down from my ears. Further, I prefer earphones which sit outside my ear canal, thus allowing me to hear the sound of my surroundings. It's always useful to hear the car approaching. I know it spoils the sound quality, but ask yourself do you really need a studio-quality sound while running on the road?

I've seen people running with fancy over-the-ear noise-cancelling headphones — I'd love me a pair of those for when I'm on an airplane, but there are two problems I have with them in running situation: they tend to be hot and make me sweat even more; they make me unaware of the traffic and things approaching me outside my field of vision.

My favourite run-tracking app is iSmoothrun. It has more data of my run than I really need, but hey — better too much than not enough, right? It tracks the mileage on my shoes, too. It has easily programmable intervals with great audio feedback. And it syncs with many running community and tracking sites, from Strava to RunKeeper and many in between.

Running community site I use is RunKeeper. It's neither better nor worse than the others. I have used it since 2010, all my running data since then is there and even though I tried Strava and many others, I haven't found a compelling reason to switch, yet. RunKeeper is owned by ASICS, which sort of guarantees they'll be around for a while. But really, it's the matter of preference. I can only suggest that, when you find the site that works for you, stick with it and keep all your data in one place.

One more essential app or site is a weather app. I'm currently running in Europe and use two weather mobile websites which, between them, give me the most accurate hourly forecast: Yahoo weather and Norwegian YR. In North America I trusted The Weather Network the most. Whichever app you choose, I suggest check if it offers the wind speed data per hour. Also "feels like" feature for temperature, whether it's the humidex factor (humidity index) or windchill (in the winter) is very helpful when you need to decide what to wear for the run. All the sites I mentioned above have it.

When it comes to on-run entertainment, there is your music app, whether it's the streaming one (Apple Music, Spotify) or just music playing one. I can't help you much with it, as I'm using Apple Music because it's pre-installed and all my music is there.

Then, there's a podcasts app. Podcasts are radio on demand on any topic you can think of and many you never thought of. They are great way to break the monotony of a long run. My "weapon" of choice is Overcast.

Finally, for the book-loving runners among us, there's an audiobooks app of your choice. On Apple's platforms Apple Books app (former iBooks) doubles as an e-book reader and an audiobook player. Personally, I'm a big reader, but find the audiobooks not affordable, especially at my reading pace of 3-5 books a month. I tried Audible too, it gives one book a month within the subscription, the rest costs extra. Too much for my pocket!

Then I found the solution! There's an iOS app (I'm certain there's something similar for Android too) called Epub Reader. It not only lets me read ebooks, but it also reads it to me. There is selections of voices to choose from and some of them sound almost human. When a book is so good I can't put it down for a run, I listen to it in the same app, while running. My version of the app takes only epub formatted ebooks, but there are plenty free online book conversion sites to help if your book is in a different format. You can try ToEpub, or just search for "free epub converter online".

There you go — these are the gizmos that made my runs enjoyable for years. What are yours? Also, if you have any question, just ask!