#So the first scene was them meeting up at target and Julia who is very recluses tries to buy her album

[glitterhoof]

anyways a doodle i drew of a scene me and my scene partner had written in two days

[oceanspray5]

I JUST FINISHED THE LAST 4 EPISODES OF COWBOY BEBOP AND I HAVE SO MANY THOUGHTS AND FEELINGS!

Here is my personal interpretation of the last 4 episodes. Obviously anyone is free to disagree but this is my view of it.

First off: YOU CANT TELL ME SPIKE DIDNT LOVE FAYE BACK. HE DID. HE LOVED HER AND NOBODY CAN CONVINCE ME HE DIDNT.

The two episodes before The Real Folk Blues basically proved he did imo. Spike is someone who shows he cares in very subtle ways and his real emotion all came pouring out in the two episodes before TRFB.

In Brain Scratch, the way he gently touches her face to make sure she's okay and check if she's alive once he finds her. The relief on his face when she wakes up! Spike cares. He's just really bad and scared of showing it because of his past but in that moment when she was really in danger of dying it came through in his expressions and actions!

In Hard Luck Woman he's completely unsurprised and doesn't complain AT ALL when he wakes up to find them on Earth which is miles off course. They lose their lead on a BOUNTY. Even Jet is annoyed but Spike? He is nonchalant, unperturbed. He has never shied from showing his irritation for Faye and her flakey non-serious attitude throughout the entire show but this time he's completely relaxed. He's not even mad that they lost the bounty. He just sits there and waits for her to come back because he knows it's important for her this time. He knows whatever her reasons were to drag them all to Earth, they're necessary and they couldn't wait. He knows about her past and how the lack of it haunts her better than anyone and he understands. So he doesn't say anything. Doesn't complain even once about the bounty or that she's taking too long to come back. Jet does but Spike doesn't. If that isn't someone who cares then what else is it?

And finally, The Real Folk Blues.

Both Jet and Spike are upset about Faye and Ed and Ein being gone, we know that from the start. Then Shin comes into the picture and tells Spike that everyone he's ever been close to is being targeted. What does Spike do? He calls Faye. Spike isn't one to call for help especially not from Faye if he can help it but this time he does. There's danger looming and he calls her almost as if to warn her and to ask for her help to take care of Jet but also to tell her where he's going. He has no reason to do that if he didn't care.

He asked her to come back and he said it was to help take care of Jet but it was so clear he asked because HE wanted her back too. Spike is too proud and detached to ask ANYONE, especially Faye, to come back but he did this time! It's because she means something to him.

I have a personal interpretation of Spike as he was in the past (how we see him in his memories) as well as the Spike in the present too. I felt there was a very big distinction between the Spike of the memories and the Spike in the present.

Past!Spike was in love with Julia. There's no doubt about it. The way he was with her, you could see it clearly.

Present!Spike cared about Julia but it didn't give me the impression he loved her still. His behavior and body language after meeting Julia all seemed to indicate he was conflicted about the past, slightly bitter too. He cared about her. But I don't think he loved her anymore. He'd moved on at that point despite the pain from the past.

When she dies he even tells Jet "there's nothing I can do for her" because she's dead. He admits he definitely isn't going to face Vicious for revenge. His reasons are personal. He's going for himself and maybe for the Bebop crew. They're still targets and Spike cares about them and they're still alive.

Then there's the scene with Faye. She points a gun at him. She almost shoots him to stop him and THAT HURTS SO BAD. She's crying too because she loves him but this is where I feel like Spike admits he loves her too even though it's VERY subtle and easy to miss.

One thing Spike says to Faye before leaving that feels almost like a confession: He says "I thought I was watching a dream that I would never awaken from... But then before I knew it the dream was all over."

He SMILES at Faye while saying the second part. As if it's meant for her, as if it's because of her. She woke him up by coming into his life. She already helped him start to feel alive. That, to me, feels like a confession more than anything else. In the most cryptic way possible, Spike tells Faye the truth without admitting it outright. He doesn't know if he's coming back, but he says what he can. He tells her he loves her in a way she won't realize what he's saying until later because in case he dies he doesn't want her to be in more pain than she already is. But he has to say it. So he tells her he loves her.. by telling her she's the reason he woke up.

And what's the first thing Vicious asks him when Spike confronts him? It's if Spike is finally awake.

I read the entire part of the episode of Spike going to fight Vicious, as him going both to confront his past and to try and keep his new friends, his new family, safe. He goes to tie it all up so he can move forward once and for all.

The flashbacks he's thinking on in the Swordfish while he's going there right after he leaves the Bebop? It's like he's contemplating the events in his life that got him to that point. His friendship with Vicious, his relationship with Julia. The mess it all made. Now that he's awake, he's finally thinking clearly about the events of his past while sitting in the present without it hovering over him.

He's ready to close that chapter, end it once and for all, and hopefully make it back alive for Faye and Jet (and maybe one day Ed and Ein if they come back).

Anyway, that's my interpretation of the last four episodes. As for whether Spike dies? I like to think he lives. The creator of the show, Shinchiro Watanabe, said it was up to us to decide but that he liked to think Spike lived too. Others may prefer to interpret it as Spike having died.

I choose to believe Spike lives. That his crew comes after him. That Faye goes after him and that he finally gets the chance to live the life he was unable to live.

This was just such a beautiful anime and I'm really glad it was my first. There's so much more I can say about these episodes and maybe I will at some point but for now I just had to get all my thoughts out because the last four episodes ran into each other so well forming such a perfect build up to the finale but creating the subtext to leave the lasting impact of impression of both Spike's character and his relationship with everyone else.

I'm gonna hold this interpretation and my version of the ending close whether anyone believes it or not. But one things for certain, the weight? It will be carried. There's no way it can't be.

[a-simple-gaywitch]

Composed of the Elements

Spencer Reid x Reader

Summary:  When a case takes the team to (Y/N)'s home town, her best friend Spencer helps her leave all the baggage behind.

Title Song: Sweet as Whole, Sara Bareilles

Word Count: 2705

Warnings: high school bullying, brief mentions of a case, smoking

“Behind every exquisite thing that existed, there was something tragic.” -Oscar Wilde

~

You walked into the bullpen with a coffee in one hand and your phone in the other.

“Morning, (Y/N),” your best friend, Spencer, called from his desk.

“Morning, Spence.” You sat down at your desk. Before you could get settled, JJ announced a case.

“We’ve been called in to a small town in Indiana,” JJ said, clicking on the slide projector.

“Wait. When you say small town…” you said, feeling your body tense.

“We’re going to (L/N)’s hometown,” Hotch confirmed. After going over the details of the case, he said, “Wheels up in thirty.”

Spencer reached for your arm, but you were up and moving to the bullpen before he could catch you. He watched as you grabbed your bag from your desk, ignoring Morgan’s attempts at conversation. Your usual peppy, outgoing self was gone, replaced with a stranger.

When the team gathered on the jet, they discussed the case together. You sat at the back of the cabin, staring out at the clouds, tapping on the table in front of you.

“Hey.” You looked up to see Gideon sitting in front of you. “Are you okay?”

You shook your head. “I never thought I’d be going back there. I thought I could leave and never look back.”

“Hey, I know it isn’t easy, but we need your help. You know this town and the people in it. That can help us.”

You sighed and stood up. “Fine.” Walking over to the team, you said, “One thing you need to know about these people: they don’t like outsiders. At all.”

“What do you mean by outsiders?” Hotch asked.

You scoffed. “Anyone who isn’t born and raised in the town. Even if you’ve lived there for years, if you weren’t born in Newton, you’re not to be trusted. You’ll see first-hand when we meet with the local PD.”

“What about the victims?” Derek asked you.

“I knew both of them in high school,” you said, flicking through the file. “But I don’t know what anyone has been doing with their lives.”

Spencer couldn’t help but notice the sadness in your eyes. Despite his aversion to touch, he reached out and rested his hand on top of yours. You were his safety net. He loved you, as more than just his best friend.

~

When the team got to the police station, you stuck to the back of the group while JJ and Hotch made introductions.

“Detective Miller,” Hotch said, holding his hand out. “I’m Agent Hotchner. You’ve already spoken to Agent Jareau. This is SSA Gideon, Dr. Reid, SSA Morgan, and SSA (L/N).”

“Wait. Little nerdy (Y/N) (L/N)?” the detective said, finally noticing you. “Wow, who would have thought you’d come back to Newton?” You swallowed hard, keeping your eyes down.

“Do you have a place we can set up a case board?” Spencer asked, noticing your unease.

“Sure.”

“Did you know the victims well?” JJ asked him.

The detective nodded. “We all do. Kelly’s my son’s teacher. Julia and I dated in high school. Our kids are friends.”

“Does everyone in town know each other well?” JJ asked as she helped you pin the crime scene photos to the board.

“Of course. We’re like a family. When your town only has 300 people, you have to look out for each other.” You couldn’t hold back your scoff. “You have something to say there, (Y/N)?”

“She’s Agent (L/N) to you,” Gideon interrupted. “JJ, Julia Coleman’s family is here.”

~

“You look different,” Detective Miller said to you as you worked late to help nail down the profile. “You look good.”

“Detective Miller-”

“Come on, you can call me Tim.” He stepped closer to you. “You don’t have to be so professional.”

“Excuse me,” you said, though it was no more than a whisper. You slipped out of the room and stood outside the precinct, leaning against the wall. You pulled a small box out of your jacket pocket.

“Since when do you smoke?” Spencer asked you, coming up next to you.

You lit a cigarette and took a drag before saying, “Since high school.” Seeing Spencer’s concern, you said, “Relax, I haven’t for a while. It’s only when I get really stressed.”

“You know, each cigarette takes about seven minutes off your life.”

“If it’s seven minutes I don’t have to spend with Timothy Miller or anyone else from this damn town, then I don’t care.”

“What did he do to you?”

You shook your head. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Come on, (Y/N), it’s me. Talk to me. Please?”

You looked at your best friend’s pleading eyes and sighed. You put out your cigarette and said, “You know I didn’t have a good high school experience. After my mom died, my dad moved us to his childhood home. I moved schools halfway through the first semester. I was the weird new kid who wore all black with braces and clunky glasses and was way too into Stephen King books. I was an easy target.” You cleared your throat. “Julia and Tim were my biggest tormentors. When they dated, it was worse.”

“What do you mean?” Spencer asked.

You chewed your lip. “Tim asked me to the prom when he and Julie were on an off period of their relationship. I got so excited, like an idiot. I mean, I knew he didn’t like me in that way. After all, why would he?” You laughed, but there was no joy behind it. Spencer felt his heart clench at how you saw yourself. He thought you were the most beautiful, amazing woman to ever exist.

“But I thought at least I’d have a friend, you know? I rented a dress and did my hair, all that stuff. Tim said he was going to pick me up. He never came.” Your eyes burned with tears at the memory. “The worst part was, my dad didn’t know there was anything going on. After-after my mom died, he gave up. When he wasn’t working, he was drinking and smoking.” You shook your head. “Tim just brought all those feelings back.”

Spencer reached out and wiped the tears off your cheek. “You didn’t deserve any of that. No one deserves that.”

“Carrie was my favorite book in high school. I wonder what that says about me.”

“Why don’t we head back to the hotel?” Spencer offered, holding his hand out to you. “Rest might help us with the case.”

~

The next morning, the team discovered there was another murder. Misty Lincoln had been killed in the same way as the other two victims. Spencer was graphing the geographical profile while you sat at the table, staring at the crime scene photos.

“You see something?” Hotch asked you.

“I’m not sure. Uh, could I- could I take like two hours? I think there might be something that’ll help us in my dad’s old things.”

“Sure. But you’re not going alone. Take Reid with you.”

You knew better than to argue with your boss. “Yes, sir.”

When you and Spencer got into the SUV, your fingers started tapping the steering wheel as you drove, letting muscle memory guide you. You pulled into the parking lot of a storage facility. Spencer followed behind you as you passed row after row of storage units. When you finally stopped, you flipped through your keychain until you found one you were looking for. You hadn’t spoken to Spencer since getting in the car back at the station, and he was starting to worry.

After you opened the door to the unit, you looked at Spencer. “After my dad died, I moved all his stuff here. I got rid of some stuff, of course. What would I ever do with an old couch that had more cigarette burns than upholstery?” You ran your hand over a white garment bag. The golden lettering was faded, but Spencer could still make out the word bridal, and what he could infer was the word boutique from the few remaining letters. “Some things I just couldn’t get rid of.”

“Hey, can I ask you something?” Spencer asked you, picking up a picture at the top of an open box. You were between who he could only assume were your parents, and you all looked happy. You looked just like your mother. The small you, who couldn’t be much older than 8, clung to the woman’s side. Your father had his arm around your mother’s waist. It all looked very domestic.

“Sure,” you said, digging through a box at the back of the unit.

“Why have you been acting so different since we got here? I mean, you’ve been acting so meek and timid, which isn’t you. I once heard you threaten a cop that you would, and I quote, ‘shove your foot so far up his ass that he would taste the mud on your shoe.’ What’s going on?” He set the frame back on the top of the box.

You shrugged. “I don’t know. I guess… I spent so long trying to distance myself from this place and when I came back, I was back to being a scared little 15-year-old.”

“But, you’re not, (Y/N). You’re strong and confident.” It was then Spencer heard you sniffle and noticed you were crying. “(Y/N)?”

You wiped your face. “Sorry. It’s just… I worked so hard for the image of me that you all see and-and I’m just so afraid that being here is going to erase all that. I worked so hard at the Academy to form an identity that wasn’t this and-”

“(Y/N), (Y/N), hey,” he said, taking your hands in his. “Breathe. Our image of you is not going to change just because your old tormentors are here. I- uh, we, the team, we love you. You’re our family. I think Garcia would riot if Hotch ever tried to get rid of you.” You chuckled at that and it made him smile. “Now, how about we get out of here and work more on our profile?”

~

When you got back to the precinct, Hotch asked you, “Did you find what you were looking for?”

“Yeah.” You pulled an old yearbook out of your bag. “All the victims are from the same graduating class, and they were all in the same extracurriculars. Look.”

“We’re ready to give the profile,” Gideon said after flipping through the book.

Your team gathered the police department to deliver your preliminary profile.

“We’ve come to the conclusion that our unsub can only be a local,” Spencer said. “He-”

“There’s no way,” Officer Miller interrupted. “No one in this town would do that. Besides, why would I trust this walking stick insect over the people I’ve known my whole life? You’re wrong, Stick-Bug.”

“How dare you,” you said, stepping forward. The rest of your team stepped away. They knew what was coming. No one would say it, but they all knew how you and Spencer felt about each other. “How dare you talk to Spencer that way. Captain Bell invited us here to help you find out who’s murdering members of your community. You have no right to talk to my family that way.”

“Your family? These people are your family?”

“A family is anyone who makes you feel loved, and by that definition, yes. These people are my family. And if you ever talk to any of them like that again, I will bring your life crashing down around you with one simple phone call.”

“Oh, look who’s finally got a backbone,” Tim laughed. “Little (Y/N) thinks she sounds all big and threatening.”

“It’s not a threat, Timothy, it’s a promise,” you said. “And I’m sure Captain Bell would take you off this case if I told him you have a conflict of interest. I’m sure he’d love to know you’d had an affair with one of the victims. You and Julia never could stay away from each other, could you?”

Spencer fought a smile at seeing you return to yourself, as well as seeing Timothy’s face pale. He chewed the inside of his cheek, trying to think of a way to thank you.

~

The case was finally over. Like always, Spencer had been right. The unsub was a guy from your graduating class who felt the women from your class shunned and mistreated him. Thankfully, you were able to sympathize with him and get him to come in without any extra violence.

Hotch was giving the team the night in the hotel before heading back to Quantico in the morning. You were flipping through the channels on the hotel’s TV, already in your pajamas by 8:30. You finally settled on some old reruns of Friends when there was a knock at your door. You groaned and extracted yourself from your blanket cocoon and trudged over to the door.

“Spence? What are you doing here?” you asked after opening your door to reveal Spencer, still in his work clothes.

“Come with me, I want to show you something.”

“Spencer, I’m in my pajamas-”

“That doesn’t matter. Just, come with me. Please?”

You tugged your old sweatshirt on and followed Spencer down the hallway, to the elevator.

“Where are we going?” you asked him.

“It’s a surprise.”

“A surprise?”

“You trust me, right?”

“Of course, I do, Spence. You know that.”

“Okay well,” he covered your eyes with his hands and guided you forward. He dropped his hands and said, “surprise.”

You were standing on the patio of the hotel’s restaurant, the tables had been pushed to the side and lights were strung up all around.

“Spence, what’s all this?” you asked as he gently pulled you to the center of the patio.

“A way to say thank you,” he said. When he saw the confusion on your face, he said, “For sticking up for me at the precinct. I know it must have been hard to stand up to Detective Miller. And-and I remember you telling me that you don’t have many good memories here, and then I thought about your prom story, so…” He held his hand out to you as music started playing. “May I have this dance?”

You smiled and took Spencer’s hand. He rested his free hand on your waist, and your free hand rested on his shoulder as the two of you gently swayed to the soft music coming from the patio’s speakers.

“How’d you pull this off?” you asked him.

His smile was a bit sheepish. “Morgan and Garcia helped me pull some strings.”

“Of course they did. Garcia is the all-powerful puppet master.”

Spencer laughed as the two of you continued to dance. When Spencer heard you sniffle, he stopped and pulled away.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” He brushed a tear off your cheek. “Did I do something wrong?”

You shook your head and smiled at him. “No. It’s happy tears.” When you saw that Spencer still looked confused, you explained, “I never thought I’d have someone in my life who cares about me this much. I mean, look at all this. You did this just to make me happy.” You rested your forehead against Spencer’s and wrapped your arms around his neck, your fingers playing with his hair. Spencer’s arms wound around your waist, pulling you closer.

“Of course I did. I love you. I-I mean, I care about you. Because you’re my best friend and-”

“Spence,” you said, stopping his rambling. You pressed a soft kiss to his lips, lingering for just a moment.

Spencer’s brain, which usually worked at three times the speed of the average person, slowed to practically a halt. You had just kissed him. The girl he’s been longing for just kissed him. She kissed him . You were about to say something to him when his brain finally caught up and he kissed you back.

When the two of you pulled apart, you said, “Well, I guess my prom was worth the wait.”

Spencer smiled at you and kissed your forehead before continuing to dance with you.

~

"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." -Anais Nin

[theviscountbridgerton]

Why do you think Bridgerton has been such a success?

It was a perfect storm of all the right ingredients coming together at the perfect time.

Firstly there’s the holy trinity of Shonda Rhimes, Netflix and Julia Quinn

Shonda is the queen of television. There’s a reason she’s the highest paid showrunner in the world. And even if she wasn’t really hands on for Bridgerton, the whole project is infused with her magic touch. She was the person who read the books and realised the potential in them. Historical romance has always been completely ignored by film and tv makers. If it’s not Austen or Dickens, they don’t want to know. Shonda knew better. She bought the rights to the books and used her power and position in Netflix to bring them to the screen. She gave the show to her protege, Chris Van Dusen, who deserves a lot of credit for what he has achieved. There are very few showrunners who are household names and Shonda is one. She’s known worldwide, her name is recognised. People who had never heard of Bridgerton had heard of Shonda and they tuned in.

Netflix believed in Shonda. They took a gamble on her when they signed a $100 million deal with her and when she came along and said I want to do this thing that nobody has done before, they fully backed her. The budget for Bridgerton is enormous. Other companies might not have let Shonda and Chris take the risks they did with the show, but Netflix did. They invested heavily and it paid off. They promoted the show, which can’t be said for a lot of the shows they produce. And because they’re the largest streaming service in the world they can reach an audience that no other company can. 

Julia Quinn. There are multitude of books, authors and series from the genre that could have been adapted. It’s not that Julia Quinn’s books are so much better than anybody else’s that only hers could have succeeded. In a lot of ways Julia won the lottery because Shonda had nothing else to read and picked up one of hers. But she is an established author with a massive fanbase. The books have been around for 20 years so they have a fanbase of their own. People who have been reading this genre for years know them and people who are new to the genre know them.

There are other factors too. 

For women, by women. Historical romance is a massively popular genre, totally overlooked and underestimated because it’s mostly for women and by women. Fans of the genre have been crying out for decades for shows like this and have been ignored because how can something be successful if only women like it? As if women don’t consume media voraciously. There’s been a trend over the past decade to try and make films and shows that target all the demographics - so instead of just catering for a female audience romcoms now try to target men as well to increase the audience. And what happened? Interest in romcoms has declined. It’s not because there’s no appetite for romcoms, it’s because the audience that normally eats it up was being turned off. Bridgerton is unashamedly for women. 

The diversity. Before the show was released, I had an ask from an Anon who was worried that the diversity of the show would hurt it because racist trolls were downvoting it on IMDb. But the diversity has been one of its greatest strengths. People who don’t normally get to see themselves represented on screen as Dukes and Queens and the heroic love interest, got to see all that in Bridgerton and they embraced the show because of it. I don’t think the show got it perfect by any means but it can and hopefully will do even better in future seasons.

Sex Sells. It does. We’ve seen it with Game of Thrones and 50 Shades of Grey. They got attention because of the graphic sex scenes. People talk about it. The media talks about it. People are titillated and tune in to see those scenes.

The hook. It’s Jane Austen meets gossip girl. Easy, simple. Nothing complicated or strange about that. And who doesn’t want to listen to Julie Andrews being catty and saying bitch? For whatever reason, we’re fascinated by the lives of the rich and famous. We always have been. Look at how incredibly popular the Kardashians are and what have they ever done apart from be rich and famous? Look at the level of interest in the British royal family all over the world. Why? Prince Harry is 6th in line to the British throne and Meghan Markle is a c-list actress. Prince William and Kate are two of the most boring, uninteresting people alive and yet millions are following their every move, celebrity sites are obsessed with them. We’re fascinated by the super wealthy and royalty and celebrity and Bridgerton tapped into that.

Hype begets Hype. There was a lot of hype around the show because of Shonda, the books, the promotion, the built in fanbase, the sex scenes. So people tuned in, and they enjoyed the show. Word of mouth spread and more tuned in. When Netflix announced it was projecting 62 millions viewers in the first month, that got widespread coverage and caught people’s attention and resulted in even more people tuning in so the actual figure was 82 million. (Netflix’s figures are sketchy but the audience is massive.) It’s got a lot of attention online, with things like the Bridgerton musical. That spreads the word and people who might have had no interest in it, tune in because they’ve heard so much about it, because everybody else is talking about it.

Timing. 2020 was a tough year for everybody. Bridgerton came along at the end of a year when we were all suffering from news fatigue and needed something fun, light, entertaining, romantic, sexy and escapist. Bridgerton with his bright colourful costumes, gorgeous swoonworthy leading man, the romantic story, the perpetual summer, swept us all away. It didn’t have much competition either because so many of the big box office releases have been postponed until after the pandemic. It’s only real competition at Christmas was Wonder Woman, released on HBO Max which has only about one tenth the audience of Netflix.

The Story. Funnily enough, Simon and Daphne aren’t all that compelling and their book is far from the most popular in the series, but it’s a good story, there’s great characters for people to be invested in. Chris Van Dusen did a really great job of adapting the book and making the leads more likable than the book. Whoever played Simon was always going to benefit from the Mr Darcy effect  but Regé really fits the bill of dashing, handsome, swoonworthy leading man. 

So all in all - right show, right time and right place.

[cinema-tv-etc]

‘Bridgerton’ Isn’t Bad Austen — It’s An Entirely Different Genre

Critics and viewers have dinged the show for being a cliché-ridden period piece or a sloppy historical drama. But it’s neither: It’s Regency romance, and it’s spectacular.

By Claire Fallon

I was deep in a Regency romance binge a few years ago when I pitched a highly self-interested piece to my editor: an investigation into why this didn’t exist onscreen.

This was a creature apart from the Jane Austen adaptations and sedate period pieces I already enjoyed, or sexy but bloody cable costume dramas. A Regency romance is set in a fantasy version of British high society in the early 19th century, and the central action revolves around the courtship between a woman (often a well-bred beauty) and a man (often a rakish peer). They consummate their attraction in improbably acrobatic sexual encounters, and then they live happily ever after.

In the post-2016 election malaise, these novels became my anxiety palliative of choice. They piled up next to my bed and in my e-reader. But sometimes I wanted more, wanted to see the gossamer petticoats and lingering glances and gently unfastened bodices. The piece I pitched never materialized, but the object of my longing did. On Christmas Day 2020, Shondaland’s “Bridgerton” arrived on Netflix.

What ensued was both somewhat exhilarating — getting to see my Regency escapism come to life — and unnerving. My private indulgence, one generally viewed with dismissiveness if not contempt by non-romance readers, had become the target of a full-blown cultural discourse. “Bridgerton” was met with valid and vital critiques, especially over its treatment of consent, but also ones that made me wince: that it was formulaic, predictable, vapid, historically inaccurate, best suited for teens.

Many of the critiques, understandably, seemed rooted in unfamiliarity with the genre’s conventions, or in the expectation that “Bridgerton,” which is based on a series of books by Julia Quinn, would resemble a “Pride and Prejudice” remake. “You don’t get it!” I wanted to shout. “That’s not what this is!” The historical romance has finally gone mainstream — and that means a whole new audience is learning how to read a genre so long relegated to the margins. Sometimes that can be a bumpy ride.

With its bounty of sherbet-hued satin gowns, scandal rags full of malicious gossip, unblinkingly earnest romance, and on-screen lovemaking, “Bridgerton” seems to defy easy categorization for many critics, journalists and viewers — and even Regé-Jean Page, who stars as the smoldering Duke of Hastings.

“It’s a little bit of Jane Austen meets ‘Gossip Girl’ with maybe ‘49 Shades [of Grey’],” he told The Wrap in a December interview. Critics and viewers, at their wits’ ends trying to make sense of this sexy, gossipy, frothy Regency costume drama, also tried to characterize it in terms of beloved on-screen classics: “Pride and Prejudice,” “Downton Abbey,” and, yes, “Gossip Girl.” These comparisons convey some bafflement, an uncertainty about how to categorize a show that isn’t really a realist historical drama, nor an edgy satire, nor a campy soap.

Though it’s true that Austen was the inspiration behind the whole subgenre — the first Regency romance novelist, Georgette Heyer, was emulating Austen’s work — it has evolved into a well-established genre with its own tropes, conventions and standards.

“There’s a way that those kinds of incredibly popular adaptations of Austen will make you, I think, expect that you’re watching a certain kind of thing, and romance novels are not trying to do the same thing at all,” critic Aaron Bady said in a phone conversation. “If you go in watching ‘Bridgerton’ and say, ‘I think I’m watching Jane Austen,’ you’re going to be disappointed. It feels a little Jane Austen-y, but it doesn’t work like a Jane Austen novel.”

Nor is period romance merely a form of realist period fiction. In her review of the show, Patricia Matthew, an associate professor of English at Montclair State University, placed it in a long artistic tradition of Black women depicted in Regency settings. But ultimately, she said in a phone interview, “Nobody’s reading Julia Quinn because they’re looking for disquisitions on historical precedent.”

Bursting though a romance novel may be with carefully researched, period-accurate details about Vauxhall entertainments, Almack’s vouchers or ribboned chemises, these novels really aren’t about the Regency era, or at least not primarily.

“Historical romance does a different kind of work than historical fiction,” Sarah MacLean, a popular historical romance author, told me during a phone call. “The work of the romance novel is not to tell the story of the past. It is to hold a mirror to the present.”

By building a love story between the primary couple, one that is guaranteed to end “happily ever after” or “happy for now,” a romance novel not only provides escapism and the heart-pounding rush of vicarious passion, but a space in which to explore how romantic relationships can and should be, and how women can find fulfillment and happiness. And that means these stories have little to do with how the marriage market of Regency high society actually functioned; they’re about what readers — predominantly women — want to see in their lives today.

“The appeal of the time period for readers is very much about being able to distance readers from certain kinds of social issues and then reframe them as a reflection of society now,” MacLean explained. In the 1970s, novels typically featured brooding alpha males who took what they wanted sexually ― a narrative device, MacLean argued, for the fictional heroines of the time to have plenty of sex without being seen as loose and deserving of punishment. Historical romance novels today often feature heroes and heroines having what seem like rather anachronistically tender exchanges about consent.

Ella Dawson, a sex and culture critic, sees period romance as a way to provide a balm — an experience in which violence and trauma are, if not absent, superseded by a reassurance of ultimate well-being — while also walking readers through more thorny questions.

“Romance as a genre is really interested in consent, in diversity representation, in political issues,” she said. “Romances are so infused with these issues that I [am] really passionate about, and they explore it through this really fun, romantic, swoony, but still very intellectual, thoughtful, accessible lens.”

As odd as it felt to see a straightforward romance adaptation dissected as if it were a failed attempt at matching Jane Austen, it makes sense. Because the genre is generally regarded with such disdain in mainstream culture, it occupies a rather marginalized niche. A non-romance reader is unlikely to have a firm grasp of many things about the genre, outside of well-worn jokes about throbbing members and Fabio’s flowing hair, and though romance is among the bestselling genres in the book industry, it’s rarely adapted for TV or film.

Why has this omission persisted for so long? “I can’t imagine that it isn’t a huge amount [due to] patriarchy, in the sense that for the same reason it gets disdained on the page, it gets disdained on the screen,” said MacLean. To this day, the people deciding which films and shows to finance are almost entirely men. Shonda Rhimes is that rare exception — a woman with creative control over a TV empire, and a fan of the Quinn series.

Practical obstacles to adapting romance also pop up. A novel stuffed with sex scenes and building toward a tidy happy ending may be tricky to adapt for network TV, which needs to keep things a bit cleaner — and keep the narrative drama going indefinitely.

And it’s not just the network TV standards and the tidy endings. The heightened reality and bodice-unclasping of the genre, Matthew said, rely on an intimacy between the reader and the page that’s difficult to translate to the screen.

“I think the plot lines are bananas. I think they’re so extreme that they strain credulity,” she said, laughing. “You have to believe that a sane man, an adult, would say, ‘Oh, I’m just not going to have children so I can spite my father.’ It only works if it’s you with a glass of wine, kind of throwing yourself over to the world of romance.” It’s awkward to sit with someone else, knowing they’re watching the same melodramatic story unfold, partaking in a pleasure that feels somewhat private, if not embarrassing. “We all have these fan worlds that when they’re exposed to other people that aren’t a part of that world we might feel protective of, or feel bashful,” she said.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/bridgerton-netflix-romance-genre_n_60086fd5c5b6ffcab969dafa?utm_source=pocket-newtab

[recentanimenews]

Random Reads 2/18/21

Are You in the House Alone? by Richard Peck Are You in the House Alone? came out in 1976 and though I totally could’ve read it when I was a teen—and thus still a member of its target audience—I never did.

Gail Osburne is a sixteen-year-old high school junior and native New Yorker who’s not at home in the quaint Connecticut village her family relocated to several years back. I knew that the plot involved Gail receiving menacing anonymous notes and phone calls, and I was expecting these events to get started quickly and the suspense to remain high throughout. But that doesn’t happen.

Instead, the story is told retroactively, so we know Gail survives. Also, obvious culprit is obvious. (I hope the reveal wasn’t intended to be a surprise, but perhaps readers were less savvy about such things in 1976.) Initially, much more of the focus is on Gail’s relationships with her parents, boyfriend, and best friend, and in particular how the latter two are in the slow process of dissolution. Eventually she receives some threatening notes and creepy phone calls, gets scared, is let down by people in positions of authority, and comes face-to-face with said obvious culprit. That happens halfway through this slim novel. The rest of the book is about Gail’s recovery from her ordeal.

I thought Are You in the House Alone? was going to be fun, suspenseful fluff, but it turned out to be fairly serious and occasionally (intentionally) infuriating. I really appreciated how Peck was able to weave in a couple of threads that seemed very random at first and make them integral to the denouement, too. Ultimately, I didn’t love the book, but I kind of… respect it, if that makes sense. It didn’t go the cheap route.

The Automatic Detective by A. Lee Martinez Mack Megaton is a hulking robot who was created to destroy. He developed self-determination, however, and went against his programming. Now, he’s a probationary citizen of Empire City, where mutagens and pollution have created a very diverse population. While some “biologicals” are still “norms,” others have been physically transformed (like rat-like Detective Alfredo Sanchez) and others have been changed in not-so-visible ways (like Mack’s friend, Jung, a talking gorilla with refined literary taste). Mack works as a cab driver and is trying to keep a low profile, but when his neighbors are abducted, he can’t help but try to rescue them. This gets him into all sorts of trouble, of course.

Despite its name, The Automatic Detective isn’t really much of a mystery. I suppose it’s more… sci-fi noir. Mack meets various thugs, beats some of them up, gets beat up himself, etc. Slowly, he makes progress on uncovering a huge conspiracy. At times, I felt like Martinez was a little too enamored of the gimmick he created, and places in the middle dragged a bit as a result, but the ending is pretty satisfying and overall the book was enjoyable enough, even though it’s quite far from the sort of thing I usually read.

As a final note: I really liked that Martinez limited himself when it came time to invent universe-specific profanity. Instead of the text being liberally sprinkled with words like “frell” or “frak,” the phrase “Oh, flurb” appears but once (during a moment where the meaning is 100% apparent) and made me laugh out loud.

I don’t know if I’m necessarily eager to read more by Martinez, but I’m glad I read this one.

The Inimitable Jeeves by P. G. Wodehouse When I read My Man Jeeves back in 2010, I was somewhat disappointed because so much of it was repetitive. While there are some common elements that recur within the eleven stories that comprise The Inimitable Jeeves, it is still so very much superior that I’d now say… forget about that first book. Start here. Go back and read My Man Jeeves for completist purposes, if that’s your inclination, but start here for the best introduction to these characters and Wodehouse’s uniquely charming and amusing writing.

First published in 1923, The Inimitable Jeeves contains a linked set of stories that typically involve affable Bertie Wooster being imposed upon by either his eternally lovesick friend Bingo Little (who is “always waylaying one and decanting his anguished soul”) or his mischief-making younger cousins, Claude and Eustace. One plot thread involves convincing Bingo’s uncle (who provides him with an allowance) to agree to Bingo marrying a waitress. Jeeves comes up with the idea to ply the uncle with romance novels featuring class differences to soften his heart, and it ends up that Bertie is compelled to go visit the old fellow and claim to be the author. In addition to containing the most elegant description of sweat I’ve ever seen—“The good old persp was bedewing my forehead by this time in a pretty lavish manner.”—this situation is referenced a few times in subsequent stories until Bingo succeeds in getting married to a different waitress who really is the author of those romance novels.

So, even though you’ve got episodic happenings, it’s rather a satisfactory conclusion. Bertie is endearing, Jeeves is competent, the writing is excellent, and it made me laugh. (I especially liked when a character was described as resembling “a sheep with a secret sorrow.”) I’m so glad that I didn’t give up on the series after the first book; now I feel as though I finally see what the fuss is all about. I’d also like to give credit to the fabulous narration by Jonathan Cecil. I’m not sure if it’s deliberate, but I hear echoes of Fry and Laurie in his performance, and I heartily approve. I will certainly seek out more unabridged versions read by him.

The Murders of Richard III by Elizabeth Peters This is the second in the Jacqueline Kirby series of mysteries. I haven’t read the first, and wouldn’t normally begin with the second, but the book promised an English country mansion plus “fanatic devotees of King Richard III” so my usual routine flew right out the window.

Even before university lecturer Thomas Carter likened himself unto Watson, I’d noticed the similarities between how this tale is told and the Sherlock Holmes stories. We are never permitted inside Jacqueline’s head. Instead, we see her how Thomas, hopeful of one day securing her romantic affections, views her. It’s fairly interesting, actually, because Thomas’ opinion of her fluctuates, sometimes peevishly. “You drive me crazy with your arrogance and your sarcasm and your know-it-all airs,” he says at one point. And though he soon after claims “I’m no male chauvinist; I don’t mind you showing off,” the fact is that earlier he was grumbling inwardly about her feigning “girlish ignorance” to reel in mansplainers and then walloping the “unwitting victim” with a cartload of knowledge. It’s true that Jacqueline isn’t especially likeable sometimes, but for remorselessly trouncing the sexist louts she encounters throughout the book, I must commend her!

The mystery itself is somewhat bland, unfortunately. The leader of a Ricardian society has received a letter purportedly written by Elizabeth of York, which would exonerate Richard of the deaths of her brothers, the “princes in the tower.” He calls a meeting of the society, with each attendee costumed as one of the historical personages involved, and summons the press, planning to unveil his find with much fanfare. But someone begins playing practical jokes on the Ricardians reminiscent of the fates of the people they are pretending to be. The book isn’t a long one, and soon the pranks start coming right on the heels of one another. Because of the swift pace—and some shallow characterization—the solution is rather anti-climactic.

Still, while I’m not sure I’ll seek out any more Jacqueline Kirby mysteries, this was overall a decent read.

A Perfect Match by Jill McGown The series of books featuring Detective Inspector Lloyd (whose first name is a secret for now) and Detective Sergeant Judy Hill begins with a short yet enjoyable mystery in which a wealthy young widow is found dead in a small English town on property she’d just inherited from her recently deceased husband. Unlike some mysteries of which I am fond, there’s no preamble where readers get to know the victim or the circumstances of their life. Instead, immediately there’s a policeman discovering the body and then Lloyd turns up to question the victim’s next of kin. This same lack of character development hampers the romantic tension between Lloyd and Hill, leaving me with no idea what motivated Hill to finally decide to act on her feelings for him, betraying her marriage vows in the process.

The mystery itself is interesting enough, however, involving long-married Helen and Donald Mitchell who have ties to both the victim, Julia—her late husband was Donald’s older brother and Helen thinks they were having an affair—and chief suspect, Chris, originally a friend of Donald’s who has fallen in love with Helen. I can’t claim to have mustered anything more than a mild curiosity as to what the outcome would be, but neither did I guess the specifics, so that was good. I liked the interrogation scenes, too.

McGown’s writing had some fun moments. I loved the super-evocative imagery of Lloyd telling Hill that her new perm makes her look like Kevin Keegan. I also really appreciated a recurring bit where each chapter ends with the point of view of wildlife. When Chris is eventually brought in by the police, his arrest is depicted from a bird’s perspective, for example. There are also ducks, a moth, a fly, a cat… I don’t know if this device recurs in later books in the series, but I look forward to finding out.

Reconstructing Amelia by Kimberly McCreight This is the second mystery/thriller I’ve read in which a single mom who is a lawyer with a cold and unfeeling mother of her own attempts to work out the mystery of what happened to a family member (the other being Girl in the Dark by Marion Pauw). Is that some kind of trend these days?

Kate Baron has a demanding job at a swanky firm, but she’s trying her best to be a good mom to her fifteen-year-old bookworm daughter, Amelia. She’s shocked to get a call from Grace Hall, the prestigious private school Amelia attends, saying that her daughter has been accused of cheating, and by the time she makes her way to the school, Amelia has evidently jumped to her death from the school roof. The police are only too happy to classify her death as a suicide, but when Kate gets a text that says “Amelia didn’t jump,” she starts trying to put together the pieces of what happened.

Reconstructing Amelia has quite a few problems. Despite her better judgment (and a promise to her best friend), Amelia joins a clique of bitchy girls at school who end up publicly humiliating her and trying to get her expelled when she falls in love with someone deemed off-limits. It’s hard to muster sympathy for what she ends up going through when one remembers the cruel prank she was willing to pull on someone else as part of the initiation process (largely kept off-camera to keep us from disliking her too much, I guess). We’re repeatedly told about the great relationship Amelia and her mom share, but never shown it. The subplot about Amelia’s dad is the literary equivalent of wilted lettuce. And the fact that the new detective who gets assigned to the case allows Kate to question suspects is absolutely ludicrous.

And yet, I couldn’t hate the book, largely because of Amelia’s friend, Sylvia. For much of the book she comes across as shallow and self-absorbed, but when Amelia really needs her, she’s there. She gives Amelia this tour of “great moments at Grace Hall” to cheer up her impressive pal, right before breaking down about her own legitimate pain. I never would’ve thought at the outset that I would have such immense sympathy for Sylvia, but I do. I find myself hoping that she’ll be okay.

Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane It sure is nice going into a book unspoiled, particularly one as twisty as Shutter Island. I was quite happy with the book as it began, with U.S. Marshals Teddy Daniels and Chuck Aule taking the ferry to Shutter Island to track down a patient missing from Ashcliffe Hospital for the Criminally Insane. It’s late summer 1954, and these guys are manly but accessible, and surprisingly funny. Consider this relatiely early exchange that cracked me up:

Pretentious Doctor: *makes remarks on the lives of violence the marshals must lead* Chuck: Wasn’t raised to run, Doc. Pretentious Doctor: Ah, yes. Raised. And who did raise you? Teddy: Bears.

For a while, all seems straightforward. Then Teddy confides to Chuck that he’s actually come there looking for a patient named Andrew Laediss, who was responsible for setting the fire that killed Teddy’s wife two years before. Gradually, one starts to doubt everything (and there was a point where all of the uncertainty got to be a little much for me) but the ultimate conclusion is a very satisfactory one.

Why Did You Lie? by Yrsa Sigurdardottir Set in Iceland, Why Did You Lie? starts out with three different storylines taking place a few days apart. The first involves a photographer on a helicopter journey to take pictures of a lighthouse on a rock in the middle of the ocean, the second is about a policewoman whose journalist husband has recently attempted suicide, and the third is about a family who returns from a house swap with an American couple to find some of their stuff missing and weird footage on the security camera. Of course, as the book progresses, these storylines converge, and it’s pretty neat when the police activity the helicopter flew over in chapter one turns out to be almost the culmination of the policewoman’s plot thread.

For some reason, I can’t help wondering how Ruth Rendell might’ve written this book. I think Rendell would’ve done a lot more with characterization, for one thing. There’s certainly some here, especially for the anxious husband who struggles to make his wife admit something really has gone wrong with their houseguests, but the primary concern seems to be getting on with the suspenseful action. Quickly, each plot features some kind of creepy lurker and then ominous notes (variations on the “why did you lie?” theme) figure in to all three, as well. Nina, the policewoman, digs around and talks to people and works out that everything connects to a supposed suicide from thirty years ago.

The result is certainly an entertaining book, but not one I could really love. One major issue I had is being able to predict something very significant. The number of characters who could’ve been angry enough about the 30-year-old lies in question to terrorize people in the present is very small. And once the existence of a certain person is oh-so-casually mentioned two-thirds through the book, I thought, “Oh, well, it’s them, then.” And then a little later, I figured out which of the characters it must be and I was right. This made for an anticlimactic ending that was clearly meant to be a shocking one. Also, I would’ve liked to have cared more that one character ends the novel poised to move on with life but, in reality, still in jeopardy.

I still would read more by this author, though.

By: Michelle Smith

[coke-and-candy]

London Daily Times: Breaking News

Parisian Startrain and Superheroes Makes a Surprise Stop Through Big Ben in Time for Tea

By: Julia Loenz

Published: 16 September 20XX 2:45 P.M.

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At around 11:35am (London Central Time) Londoners were shocked to a scene that can only be described as straight out of an American Hollywood science fiction film. According to numerous eye witness accounts, and several videos captured on mobile smart phones, CTV cameras, as well as the local weather and traffic helicopter, a portal opened up right above Big Ben before a bullet train, that has now been confirmed as the new state of the art Parisian Startrain, went straight through the top of the bell tower. Startling tourists, Londoners  and pigeons alike. 

Sources onboard the 10:00am train from Paris to London have stated that an Akuma—a butterfly infused with negative energies by the Parisian villain, Hawkmoth, which he then uses to corrupt and transform innocent people in villains to do his bidding—was found in the first-class car of the train. Passengers were able to evacuate to other sections of the train and managed to seal off the car with the Akuma inside. No one can say how, but it managed to escape and turned the driver of the train, Captain Amelia Kanté (age 41), into Hawkmoth’s next victim. 

The train was then turned, from a start of the art Earthbound shuttle, into an interstellar voyager, according to one very frightened fisherman it launched straight out of the English Channel. 

Luckily for all onboard, Ladybug and Chat Noir were able to transport themselves onto the space traveling train, most likely through some magical means, and with the help of a new unnamed hero, they were able to return the bullet train back to Earth. Saving all involved from a new life in a galaxy far away. 

The Startrain arriving in a timely manner in London was not a welcomed sight to many about to enjoy an early noon tea. 

One Jane Swanston (age 68), a London resident and retired army nurse, had this to say. “It was a bit quite rude of the Parisian government to not notify us here in London at the possibility of their train crashing into Big Ben. Honestly, it startled my poor dogs as we were out for our daily walk.” 

Street worker, Tommy O’harren (age 42) who witnessed the whole scene also gave a statement. “Scared me ‘alf ta death it did! There I wos mindin’ me own business, just doin’ me job, when all ov a sudden I ‘ear a noise, like somethin’ straight out ov Star Battles. I look up, and there I see a blooming’ portal open up, and then a blooming’ train falls straight out an’ inta Big Ben imself’! Ef I hadn’t given up drinkin’ before noon ten ‘ears ago I ‘ould’ve thought I was pissed off me effin’ arse!” 

Jessica Hernandez (age 22) an American student studying law at Oxford also gave a statement on what she had witnessed while on break in between classes. “I’m from New York City, so very little surprises me... But ya... a train coming in through some magic portal and slamming into Big Ben. Definitely in the top five strangest things I’ve seen in my life.”

Students at the nearby Saint Thames Academy were more than excited at the possibility of Ladybug and Chat Noir making an appearance in London. 

Sarah Bangi (age 13) was very livened at the thought of meeting the Parisian heroes. “I was in Paris during an Akuma attack a month ago and I even got a chance to see them in action! It was all very exciting and my friends were all jealous because I actually got to see real life super-heroes with actual super-powers!” 

Jonathan Thomas (age 16) was a little more reserved to see the heroes in action. “At first when I heard about all this so-called ‘magic’ and ‘heroes’ in Paris. I thought it was just another tacky tourist attraction, you know, the things that Americans tend to flock to. But seeing a train drop out of the sky and straight into Big Ben... I can honestly say I believe now, and on the downside I now owe my mate, Nick, £20.” 

Michael Chan (age 7) had other thoughts in regards to today’s events. “Why couldn’t they have crashed the train into the school?! Or Parliament so that they’ed cancel school!”  Apparently, young Mr. Chan had a mathematics test he wished to excuse his participation from. 

Schools and businesses resumed as usual within the hour. 

For many concerned about the astronomical costs it would have taken to remove a bullet train from the world renowned British bell tower, those worries were quickly alleviated with the signature sign of the ‘Miraculous Cure’ – a wave of magical ladybugs and energy that undo any damage caused by these super-powered incidents— washed over London, repairing any and all damages and safety transporting the Startrain and all of its passengers back to the Paris train station from which it had departed. 

Still, it was quite the sight to behold on this, otherwise, normal London day. Many hope that it remains a one time thing and that the villain, Hawkmoth, is not looking to target London next. 

As one disgruntled cab driver, Richard Farrowing (age 37) put it. “We already ‘ave @#$%^&* Brexit and Borris Johnson! We don’t need some wanker with *&%^$# up butterflies who wonts ta be next U.S president ta be showin’ his arse around ‘ere! I got bills ta pay and not ‘nough left over to buy the booze needed ta deal with this #$%@!” 

A statement from the Parisian government, and Ladybug and Chat Noir confided that Hawkmoth was still within the Paris city limits and there was no need for the British government to be concerned with the possibility of the magical terrorist changing locations. 

Ladybug also had this to say in a follow up interview to the London Mayor’s office. “Hawkmoth continues to mainly target Chat Noir and I’s miraculi, and all of his previous attacks have been limited to Paris. This was more likely his attempt to test out the physical limits and distance in which he can control his Akumas. Thankfully, this also works in our favor in providing with more intel on the full scopes of his abilities. We apologize for any scares or inconveniences that todays’ events may have caused any one. We would also like to reassure the British population and government that we will do our best to ensure this does not happen again, but should it happen Chat Noir and I will respond as quickly as possible.”

Thankfully, there were no permanent injuries or major damages done, and other than a delayed train, London and her residents were able to carry on their day and enjoy their midday meals and tea without any further interruptions. 

Today’s episode was actually good! There I was ready for the salt and then... we actually got some good content! An interesting Akuma, some decent character interactions. Some Adrinette action that made me squee in happiness! When was the last time we got something so damn cute from these two?

So rather than salt I thought ‘What are the British thinking?’. So I thought why not write something with a little bit of humor in it. I am not British but I tried to write this in the most Brit voice that I could.

Hope this made you all smile, but not the salty smiles, but happy ‘got a small laugh out of you’ laugh. This was just a small one time fic. 

[aion-rsa]

House of Dark Shadows: The Craziest Vampire Movie You’ve Never Seen

https://ift.tt/37TdnN3

This article contains House of Dark Shadows spoilers.

In 1970 House of Dark Shadows flipped the vampire subgenre on its head. While certainly a B-horror in the Hammer mold, this chiller wasn’t satisfied with one bloodsucker, or even two. Instead Dark Shadows would turn nearly its whole cast into the ravenous undead, indiscriminately slaughtering beloved heroes and heroines, not caring for a second that they were also the stars of a daytime soap opera—one that was appointment TV for millions of kids across America.

Clearly it was a different time. And therein lies its charm.

When the television series Dark Shadows premiered in 1966, it wasn’t an instant pop culture phenomenon. Creator Dan Curtis was savvy enough to see the appeal in a daytime melodrama draped in a Gothic aesthetic, but he didn’t yet have the necessary hook for his central character as she stepped off a train in New England. Sure, mysterious Victoria Winters (Alexandria Isles) would meet the Collins family, who more or less ruled over the town of Collinsport from their ancestral home of Collinwood, but the reason to stick around only came about a year into the series’ original run.

That eureka moment turned out to be the dapper and effortlessly suave Jonathan Frid. Cast as Barnabas Collins, the Canadian theater actor was initially hired for a single storyline (a set number of episodes) as the heavy: Barnabas was an ancient and forgotten vampire, who’d been buried alive like the family’s dirty little secret after a curse condemned him to drink blood in 1795. Now he was out and wreaking havoc by feasting on the locals and obsessing over Maggie Evans (Kathryn Leigh Scott), whom he was convinced was the reincarnation of his lost love Josette—a fiancée who threw herself off a cliff in the 18th century rather than become Barnabas’ corpse bride.

It was morbid, obviously, but also romantic at a time when vampires were defined by the coldness of Christopher Lee or the goofiness of Scooby-Doo. Instead here was the most pitiable of creatures, one who doesn’t wish to be a vampire, and through impeccable manners and courtesies revealed a soft love for the Collins family, even when he preyed on them. Rather than create a great villain, Curtis inadvertently invented a tragic hero who audiences flocked to, both the typical daytime target demographic and also, surprisingly, kids and teenagers, who’d rush home from school to be lost in a melancholy land of eternal loves, ancient curses, and of course fangs.

Thus Dark Shadows became a blender for all things Gothic. Following in the success of Barnabas’ introduction, the series would go on to add ghosts, werewolves, séances, multiple stints of time travel, and one particularly devilish 18th century witch named Angelique (Lara Parker). It also appropriated every classic horror trope from Bram Stoker, Mary Shelley, the Brontë sisters, and Edgar Allan Poe, and synthesized them for an audience that was now consuming it along with kid-friendly board games and trading cards.

So why not a movie, too? As early as 1968, Curtis began pursuing the idea of making a Dark Shadows movie, even while the series was still going. Eventually, House of Dark Shadows was the result. Released 50 years ago this week, this toothy amusement was the chance to do everything Curtis wanted with the series, but was prohibited from by Broadcast Standards and Practices censorship, budget constraints… and maybe even audiences’ good taste.

“Blood flows,” actor Roger Davis observed in The Dark Shadows Companion: The 25th Anniversary, which was edited by Scott. “It’s not like the serial. You have a few dabs of blood and the network brass have apoplexy. TV does a mock-up on life. This is in living color. And the vampires really bite.” 

Whereas Dark Shadows, the television show, was appointment TV for those still in middle school, House of Dark Shadows was aimed directly at the drive-in crowd with its emphasis on blood gushing from neck wounds and stakes violently going into almost every character’s heart. As Scott’s book surmised, the film was “entirely the child of its creator,” who would at last have his evil Barnabas. And at a glance, it is an American riff on what had already become kitsch by 1970 thanks to Hammer Film Productions’ seemingly endless line of Dracula movies, plus the knockoffs.

And to be sure, House of Dark Shadows is in many ways a Dracula movie. It’s also insight into how Curtis originally viewed the Barnabas character before Frid went on a charm offensive. Playing almost like a CliffNotes version of Barnabas’ first several storylines on the show, the vampire is awakened during the film’s opening moments because of the foolishness of groundskeeper Willie Loomis (John Karlen). Barnabas then forces poor old Willie to become his living slave and creates a fictitious narrative about being a distant cousin descended from the original Barnabas Collins, whom family lore claims sailed away to London in 1795, never to be heard from again.

Bringing back the “original” Barnabas’ family jewels to ingratiate himself, the Barnabas of 1970 is free to attend family gatherings, fix up an old ruined house on the estate, and even feed on cousin Carolyn (Nancy Barrett), a dear relative who becomes a dead ringer for Lucy Westenra in Bram Stoker’s famed novel. Even so, Carolyn cannot displace Maggie (still Scott) in Barnabas’ eyes, who he is sure is the reincarnation of Josette.

It very much has the narrative beats of a traditional vampire movie, but the charm that lingers a half-century later comes in part from seeing these actors, who are intimately familiar with their characters, going through the paces with better production values. That quality also manifests in Curtis’ sense of atmosphere, now liberated from the stage-bound quality of daytime drawing room drama. I would even argue House of Dark Shadows is one of the more satisfyingly atmospheric vampire movies to come out of the 1970s.

Curtis filmed in the upstate New York’s Tarrytown area, mostly on the actual Gothic Lyndhurst Estate, built in the 1830s, and shot much of the exteriors in the legendary Sleepy Hollow Cemetery. Whereas Hammer films tended to rely increasingly on sets during this period, and most B horror movies had no budget for evocative locations, House of Dark Shadows was filming its sequences in between tours of the Lyndhurst Mansion and in the same atmospheric cemetery that helped birth the myth of a Headless Horseman.

Regarding the filming location, screenwriter Sam Hall remarked, “It’s a wild house. I’d hate like hell to live in it.” 

This is only accentuated by the fact Curtis knows how to drain a spooky location dry. Images like vampire Carolyn standing in a window, draped in white, beckoning her lover to become one of the damned is a better use of Lucy iconography than any Dracula movie made before House of Dark Shadows. And the film’s ending sequence reaches an operatic opulence rarely seen, even in vampire cheapies. Barnabas, bathed in a blue light and shrouded in inexplicable fog in the interior of his decrepit home, beckons Maggie, now in a wedding dress, toward him as the famous melody of Josette’s music box twinkles, only now in a weeping minor key.

The corruption of that wistful melody is intriguing. An original part of the Dark Shadows television series, Josette’s music box, and Frid’s soliloquies about it, is what first gave Barnabas his soul, distinguishing him from the general depravity of other pop culture vampires. One could even say Barnabas is the first significantly sympathetic male vampire in fiction. In House of Dark Shadows, he has a more sinister mean streak, but the pathos remains.

Hence why the film plays at times like a gonzo delight. It may feature the original, more wicked Barnabas, but it is still derived from the genteel series, and many of those elements carry over. Take Dr. Julia Hoffman (Grayson Hall) spending half the movie trying to cure Barnabas, a subplot that eventually ends happily for the pair on the show, but less so here. It’s soapy pulp, yet it’s given as much stone-faced gravity as the Collinsport Police Department unquestioningly agreeing to patrol around town with standard issue police crucifixes. One might ask if they keep silver bullets in every squad car too?

The overall effect is bizarre, but endearingly so. It’s also fairly influential, as confirmed by what happened after Dan Curtis dropped Barnabas in favor of another vampire.

Read more

TV

Dark Shadows’ Witch Was As Influential As Its Vampire

By Tony Sokol

Movies

Bram Stoker’s Dracula and the Seduction of Old School Movie Magic

By David Crow

In 1974, following Dark Shadows’ cancellation, Curtis wrote and directed a Dracula TV movie for CBS that within its opening titles billed itself as “Bram Stoker’s Dracula.” Far removed from Stoker’s novel, the little remembered television film nonetheless starred Jack Palance as the vampire, and introduced several significant elements to the story by overtly making Dracula an undead version of historical figure Vlad the Impaler (which he is not in the novel) and turning Lucy into the reincarnation of his great lost love.

Curtis was in essence trying to recast Dracula as Barnabas Collins. Like House of Dark Shadows, Curtis even sought to build a Gothic atmosphere by filming in real locations, albeit now Eastern Europe. The result was effective in those scenes, even if the rest of the movie failed in no small part because Palance could never wear the tragic cloak so well as Frid.

In spite of its shortcomings, many have fairly speculated on whether Curtis’ Dracula influenced James V. Hart, the screenwriter of Francis Ford Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Hart was certainly more successful at turning Dracula into a lovelorn prince, and Coppola made that idea permanent in the pop culture imagination. Yet, at the end of the day, they were still remaking the pop culture image of Dracula so as to be closer in line with Barnabas Collins, instead of the other way around.

I would even argue that Coppola’s film is closer in tone with Dark Shadows, at least in its romantic moments, than Tim Burton’s big budget Dark Shadows movie was in 2012. Burton of course attempted to avoid some of the mistakes of House of Dark Shadows, namely by keeping Barnabas as the good guy who is trying to save his family instead of ultimately destroying them, as well as retaining the other fan favorite character, the witchy Angelique (who like all other non-vampire elements was omitted from House of Dark Shadows). But Burton also played her and the whole concept as pure camp, making the Collins’ a subject of ridicule, and their problems a punchline.

Admittedly, there is something faintly camp about the 1960s daytime series and its ‘70s drive-in remake; plots turn on ludicrous developments like Julia falling in love with Barnabas, and then intentionally sabotaging his vampire cure when she realizes he loves a younger woman. But they were sold with absolute sincerity, and in the case of Frid, a palatable conviction.

House of Dark Shadows continues that conviction, no matter how batshit things become. Thus the ending where, accepting he’ll never be cured, Barnabas transforms family patriarch Roger Collins (Louis Edmonds) and even the film’s version of Van Helsing (Thayer David) into vampires. And we get to a finale so madcap that it turns “Renfield” into the last remaining hero. Madness, indeed.

Ironically, House of Dark Shadows was blamed by some for the eventual death of the series. Every character in the film, including Barnabas, had to be written out of the show, for some weeks at a time, so the actors could go shoot a movie upstate (another reason Angelique and other significant characters were left out). This correlated with some of the series’ weaker storylines that lost audiences’ attention.

Additionally, it’s believed parents who went with their children to see the movie in October 1970 were appalled by the amount of blood and sensual subtext in the film. As a result, some may have forbidden their kids from watching the series further… with the show getting cancelled in April 1971.

“The TV ratings fell after the movie,” Scott’s The Dark Shadows Companion revealed. “It has been suggested by some that House of Dark Shadows led to the series’ eventual demise. Perhaps it was the audience’s reaction to seeing their hero Barnabas in an evil light. Perhaps it was because parents attended House of Dark Shadows with their children and, seeing the amount of blood spilled across the screen, discouraged their children’s choice of television viewing material.”

Star Frid was even more unsparing in his final analysis.

“[The film] lacked the charm and naivete of the soap opera,” Frid said. “Every once in a while the show coalesced into a Brigadoonish never-never-land. It wasn’t necessary to bring the rest of the world into Dark Shadows, which is what the film did.”

Nevertheless, both the series and movie left a few marks on the throat of pop culture. The series certainly paved the way for more multidimensional portraits of vampires to be explored, opening the door for, yes, the Coppola Dracula movie, but also Anne Rice and True Blood. In fact, even if House of Dark Shadows might’ve been considered too brutal by parents in 1970, decades of pop culture refinement would find a way to make the sympathetic vampire archetype much more tolerable when instead of drinking from his cousin, he sparkled in the daylight and told his prey they needed to wait until marriage.

Without Barnabas, his series, and his slice of bananas role is House of Dark Shadows, we may never have gotten Lestat, Edward Cullen, or Gary Oldman’s Dracula. At least not as how we know them. Fifty years on, that’s a bloody good legacy for a daytime drama and a B-movie you’ve never seen.

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[snowflake-apocalypse]

The Shanghai Hardrive Caper

-Notes: I was trying to turn the angst meter up to 11 on this one.

*Musical inspiration: Nails for Breakfast, Tacks for Snacks, Vitamin Sting Quartet: How to Save a Life (Or whatever version you like)*

|Prelude|

So 3 years have gone by. 3 years worth a capers and plotting and way too close of calls.

Once Mission Control is unveiled, the whole team, especially Carmen are worn to the bone. But one incident in particular really opened everyone’s eyes. They knew what they were doing was dangerous, but still. After Player unveiled Mission Control, he’s giving the grand tour and everyone can’t help but collectively stare at the 3 V.I.L.E hardrives on display in the center of the computer rig. Hard earn trophies of their conquests, though with a tired, forlorn spirits. It took a lot to get to this point.

Everyone has mostly settled in for the night. Carmen is sitting at the main computer, in some kind of thought, staring at the hardrives, when Julia quietly walks up.

Carmen: “Hey.”

Julia: “Hi.”

Carmen: “So what do you think of the place?”

Julia: “It’s brilliant. .. It took so much to get here.” Julia gazes up to the hardrives on display.

Carmen: “Yeah,.. it did. ...Berlin.” Carmen says with a fond smile as she places a hand on the Berlin hardrive.

Julia: “Shanghai.” She says sharply.

Carmen sighs and lowers her head in defeat. They didn’t really talk about Shanghai. No one did. Not really. Got a very stern talking to by Shadowsan and some comprehensive samurai training. But things cleared up a bit after the Big Apple Caper.

Julia: “ ...I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to sound so cold, it’s just no one talked about what happened. Not really.”

Carmen: “It was my fault. I was reckless and self-righteous. I resented V.I.L.E. so much I lost sight of myself. ... You know what the worst part was?”

Julia: “Being cooped up in that apartment for 2 months?” She was gonna say “Nearly bleeding to death?” But she bit her tongue.

Carmen: “Not talking to you for 2 months.”

{Flashback}

On the skyscrapers of Shanghai, Carmen has a V.I.L.E. hardrive in hand, she’s fighting Tigress, who isn’t relenting, she’s angry. Tigress gets a swipe in, razor sharp claws make contact with Carmen’s side and she digs in, with satisfaction. Carmen raises a leg to separate them, breaking Sheena’s arm, which gets Carmen kicked off the building. She shoots a line to a nearby ledge, only of it to be cut by a finely crafted origami star. Paper Star is here too. Carmen doesn’t have time to react as she hits a ledge and tumbles further down, eventually making it to the alley way with an additional broken leg. Julia watched the whole thing happen and she’s mortified. She doesn’t voice her concern out loud... ACME is everywhere. She rushes the quarter mile or so to Carmen’s side.

Julia: “Carmen... oh my-“ She doesn’t get another word in before Carmen is shoving the hardrive to her.

Carmen: “Run, Jules. Just take it and run.

Julia: “I am not just going to leave you here-”

Carmen: “Just go! ....Please.”

Reluctantly, Julia takes the hardrive and disappears into the night of the crowded city.

Player: “Zach, Ivy, Carmen needs help. Get there. Now.”

Ivy: “On it. Hang on, Carm. We’re coming for you. Click away.”

Then from out of the shadows and above, Tigress and Paper Star loom over Carmen. Tigress rips open her coat for the hardrive.

Tigress: “What..? Where is it?!”

Carmen: ”Ha... guess I lost it....” As the adrenaline is wearing off and she struggles to remain conscious. Sheena is pissed.

Tigress: “ ...ERR!” And a sharp blow to the head and Carmen is out cold and left for dead. Tigress and Paper Star run out into the city. All the while, Julia is listening to this entire conversation. Player kind of went into autopilot.. way to cope with what just happened.

Player: “Julia. You have the hardrive?”

Julia: “...yes. Zach, Ivy have you made to the alley yet?

Zach: “Just pulled up. Oh, man... Carm’s in bad shape. Real bad. We’re goin’ back to the hideout.” To much of Julia’s dismay, she thinks, “Because they could never go to a hospital, right?”

Shadowsan is contacted and meets them there.

|The Hideout|

Once at the hideout, Zach and Ivy are trying to keep Carmen from bleeding all over the floor, and stabilize her leg when Shadowsan appears from the window. Disappointment and also concern framing his face.

Shadowsan: “Get me needle and thread, boiling water, and gauze. A lot of gauze.

Ivy: “Yeah on it.”

Shadowsan: “Oh, Black Sheep...”

And then not to mention, Shadowsan ends up breaking into a blood bank for more blood to replace the all she lost...

|The Rendezvous|

Player: “Julia, I’ll send a red drone to rendezvous for the drive at your location.”

Julia: “Why is this the first concern right now?”

Player: “Because it’s important to Carmen.”

And Jules just drops her head in defeat.

(This is where Player and Julia differ, they both care deeply about Carmen, but Player is that tried & true person that’s going do whatever it takes to do right by their best friend. Julia however, she’s lived a bit longer, still somewhat new to this capering business(and certainly never one this brutal), she would rather Carmen be happy and healthy and alive, even if it meant letting V.I.L.E get away with one hardrive.

|A Week Later...|

So Carmen is stable. They moved hideouts between that time. Julia comes to see how Carmen is doing.

Julia: “How are you feeling?”

Carmen: “Oh, y’know, just a bit sore. How’s everything at HQ?” Carmen nonchalantly says, as Julia glances at the empty blood bags in the trash can.

Julia: “....I know how badly you want to take down V.I.L.E., Carmen.. but how much is enough?

Carmen: “... V.I.L.E. has to be destroyed. They’re toxic and corrupt and- It just- has to, Jules.”

Julia: “After law enforcement is standing over your broken body? Their broken bodies?” She motions to Zach and Ivy, who are, “not” listening from the other room. (And neither is Shadowsan from the balcony.) “You could have died..”

Carmen: “But I didn’t.” She says it in a very 😏 kind of way.

And Julia can’t take it, she growls in frustration and storms out of the building, slamming the door behind her.

Carmen: “Wha- Julia wait! I- ah..!” Carmen nearly falls off the couch, straining her injuries trying to go after her. But it’s too late, she’s gone. For the better part of 2 months. Carmen just smacks her head to her knee, “Stupid!” she berates herself. Zach cautiously walks out to the living room.

Zach: “..Did we just lose Jules?”

Carmen: “Yeah, I think we did.” Carmen mumbles in defeat.

Then the scene fades to black. Time skip

|8 Weeks Later...|

Everyone is still laying low for the most part, Carmen is mostly healed. Zach and Ivy are scoping out potential targets. Shadowsan is closely surveilling V.I.L.E. from the island. Through the 2 months of healing, Carmen had done everything she could to grow and become a better adversary for V.I.L.E..

Carmen: “Player. How’s decoding the hardrive going?”

Player: “It’s fine.”

Carmen: “Fine.... are you mad at me too?”

Player: “I’ll never be mad at you, Red. But Julia was right. You were getting too reckless.”

Carmen: “Yeah, she’s always right.” She mumbles, studying the passerbys and life outside of the apartment window.

Player: “Hm?”

Carmen: “Nothing.”

Player: “Hey, look at this! Turns out V.I.L.E. is pretty active in the stock exchange.... seems like a low impact caper. How are you feeling?” Carmen’s eyes widen at the sudden excitement in Player’s voice.

Carmen: “Fidgety and ready to get out of this dang apartment. Plus, white collar crime is where the real money is, after all.” As she packs a new hat and coat.

Player: “Booking the flight and calling the cavalry.”

Carmen: “New York City, here we come.”

| Continues in “The Big Apple Caper”|

[ch21con]

2019 Blog Tour: Interview with Julia Byers and ON THE COME UP Giveaway!

Hello, readers! Today we’re participating in the Ch1Con & Ch21Con 2019 Blog Tour, an annual tour in preparation for this year’s conferences, which brings original content from the Chapter One Events team to a number of fantastic, writing-related blogs. This is the 2019 blog tour’s FIRST STOP! Yay!

And: along with it comes a GIVEAWAY for a signed copy of ON THE COME UP by Angie Thomas! In order to qualify, you must:

tweet about the giveaway

follow one of our Twitter accounts (@Ch1Con or @Ch21Con on Twitter)

register for the conference

love Angie Thomas (which every human should anyway)

(Rafflecopter link for this giveaway here)

That is all pretty thrilling, but you know what else is thrilling? A nonprofit conference both for and by young writers, with lots of online events! If you are or know a writer between the ages of 11 and 29 who’s in need of a strong community, well, you’ve come to the right place.

What’s Chapter One Events, you ask?

Chapter One Events is a nonprofit organization that brings writing information and publishing opportunities to young writers—culminating in the annual Chapter One Young Writers Conference (Ch1Con, ages 11-20) and the brand new Chapter Twenty-One Conference (Ch21Con, ages 21-29). The Chapter One Events team is composed of a mix of middle school, high school, college, and twenty-something writers, who work together to create a unique, inclusive experience for young attendees.

The two conferences bring tweens, teens, and young adults together to hear from accomplished authors their own age, participate in professional workshops, and celebrate the influence young writers have on the world. With an atmosphere that combines the professional aspects of writing conferences with the awesomeness of hanging out with fellow young book nerds, Ch1Con and Ch21Con are truly can’t-miss events!

OK, so what is this post about?

To be clear, this post is NOT an advertisement, promoted post, etc. We (the Chapter One Events team) are just way too excited about this conference, and really want the right audience to know about it! That’s what the blog tour is all about: getting the info out so that young writers in need of community can find us.

This year we’re opening up the Ch21Con Tumblr to start off our 2019 blog tour, to let you know all about this year’s conference. (Don’t worry, if you fear you can’t make it, you totally can keep up with us through online events and live-streams!)

We’ve got an interview from the FOUNDER of Chapter One Events, Julia Byers, below. Even if you’ve never heard of us before, I would recommend reading through her interview! She’s got tons of awesome thoughts on the world of being a young writer.

(She’s also being interviewed by Ariel Kalati, a member of the Ch21Con team, who is a large fan of Panera Bread and complaining.)

READ MORE:

1. Can you tell us a brief history of how the conference came to be?

So, our original conference, the Chapter One Young Writers Conference, for younger writers ages 11-20, came about thanks to two things. First, there were these old writing forums for teens called Write It. A group of us on there had become close friends over the years but, being the internet (and us being minors), had never had a chance to actually meet one another. So, we lay the scene with that. Then, when I was sixteen, I began attending big writer's conferences in NYC--and I was pretty intimidated by the scale of the events and the fact that I was one of very few non-adults attending them, and also was frustrated because all of the advice shared didn't quite apply to me (because the speakers were talking about fitting in writing around taking your kid to theatre rehearsal, not, well, being the kid going to theatre rehearsal). So somehow, between these two things, I got it into my head that WE, the teens of Write It, should put on our own writer's conference--something small and fun and tailored explicitly to teenagers. And so, Ch1Con was born. As for our second conference, the Chapter Twenty-One Conference, for writers ages 21-29: fast forward to 2016, and I was graduating from college and moving to NYC to work in publishing, and I wasn't quite the awkward teen writer I used to be. (No, now I was an awkward *twenty-something* writer.) A number of our volunteers and attendees were also aging out of the target age group for Ch1Con. We all really loved the conference, though, and none of us wanted to give it up. So, we thought, "Why not make a similar conference, just targeting slightly older writers? And hey, while we're at it, we're all of age and full of existential dread now, so why not add alcohol?" And so the Chapter Twenty-One Conference was born as well. We officially launched Ch21Con in 2018 and I'm SO excited to see where both conferences go in the future! 2. What are some difficulties that face the average twentysomething writer, and how does Ch21Con help with these?

I think one of the biggest issues my twenty-something writer friends and I face is finding the time and energy to write. It's so easy to get over-scheduled, between work and/or school, chores, working out, cooking, errands, attempting to maintain some semblance of a social life--basically, it turns out life is very good at getting in the way. So, Ch21Con works to help carve out a space in everyone's busy schedules throughout the year, by hosting monthly online events such as Twitter chats on various writing-related topics and virtual write-ins where we all discuss our current projects and motivate one another to get in some words. Basically, we strive to give writers the opportunity to carve out the space in their lives they need in order to tell their stories. 3. What are you most excited about for this year's conference?

Ahhhhh this is such a hard one! I'm excited for everything??! That said, probably what I'm most excited about is hearing debut author Joan He speak. I've been lucky enough to know Joan for years now, and I've had her name tucked away to lead a workshop at the conferences pretty much since the beginning, just waiting for her to get a book published. Joan is such a talented, smart, hardworking young writer, it's going to be truly special to finally hear her speak at the conferences. (And I recently found out that we'll be the first conferences she'll be leading workshops at, which is super cool in itself!) 4. Tell us about your favorite book or publishing-related memories from the past year.

Oof another hard one. My day job is in the industry, most of my friends work in the industry, and I run Chapter One Events and write in my free time--so basically my entire life is favorite book or publishing-related memories. But hmmm. You know, a really, REALLY cool moment was, actually, walking into my hometown Barnes & Noble in Michigan a couple weeks back and seeing so many friends' books on the shelves. Being so immersed in publishing, it's easy to forget that the books we work on are the Real Published Books that go out in the world. But seeing them in my childhood bookstore so far away from NYC--the place where I met my first authors and dragged my parents every chance I got growing up--was surreal. It reminded me of the reality of what we're all doing, that we're MAKING BOOKS, like BOOKS BOOKS, that ACTUAL PEOPLE READ, and I full-on broke down crying in the middle of the YA section. Like a lunatic. 5. Accessibility is necessary in the publishing community. What are different ways that Chapter One Events makes our content accessible?

Our goal always as an organization has been to make information about the writing and publishing processes more accessible to the young people coming up in the industry, whether they're already aiming for publication or only just starting to figure out how to write their first novel. One way we do this, obviously, is through the conferences. We keep the price as low as possible (subsidizing the events as much as we can out of our own pockets) in order to make it as affordable as we can for young writers. We want them to be able to come meet the authors and publishing professionals who are speaking, build a network with their fellow up-and-coming young writers, and learn about craft. Along this same vein, we keep the conferences small and casual, with equal focuses on learning and fun, because we know how anxiety-inducing big professional events can be and we want this to be a safe space for those just starting out. Additionally, we put on free online events throughout the year, such as the aforementioned monthly Twitter chats and virtual write-ins, as well as events such as our annual Yule Ball, which is a live-streamed panel of young authors talking all things writing and publishing. (We like to think of it as a mini, free, online writer's conference.) We're also constantly working to come up with new ways to share information with the young writers of the world, such as the autumn mentorship program we've put on in the past. 6. Finally: if you had to describe the conference using only Panera Bread-related metaphors, how would you do it?

You know, you'd think I'd be prepared for this one after so many years of answering Panera-related questions for this org, yet this is STILL SOMEHOW THROWING ME (much like that time Panera added Parmesan crisps to their Caesar salad and I was like, "Whaaat?")

But okay. I've got this, I've got this. Ch1Con and Ch21Con are all the comfort food items on the Panera menu: the mac and cheese, the tomato soup, the toasted bagels smothered in melty honey walnut cream cheese. Even if it's your first time eating one of these items, they taste like coming home, much in the same way attending the conferences feels like coming home. (It's been a wonder to me over the years to hear new attendees say again and again that attending our conferences feels like finally finding the community with whom they belong.)

That said, the conferences are also kind of like all the "healthier" items on the Panera menu, the salads and smoothies, in that they seem like the "healthy" choice (networking! career development!), but they also taste really good at the same time (new friendships! meeting authors! free books! pizza!). Finally, Ch1Con and Ch21Con are also like Panera's excellent, super salty kettle chips, because we too are a salty bunch when it comes to discussing favorite book characters and least favorite series endings. (I'm looking at you, Ariel, haha.)

If that made you thrilled to go to this year’s conference, yay! (If not, that’s fine. We’re a nonprofit organization and we’re just happy to reach out to young writers at all! But also, please consider coming.)

Here’s all the info you’ll need about the 2019 conference:

This year, Ch1Con (ages 11-20) is bigger and brighter than ever, with more opportunities, cooler giveaways, and a new roundup of fantastic speakers headlining the conference. And the inaugural Ch21Con (ages 21-29) will feature the same speakers and opportunities—just tailored to a slightly older audience. Both conferences will take place Saturday, June 29th at the Hilton Garden Inn – Chicago O’Hare in Des Plaines, IL (a suburb of Chicago). Registration is currently open on the conferences’ respective websites for $99.99. (This price includes a complimentary pizza party lunch during the conferences, with alternate options available for those with dietary restrictions.)

The speaker lineup features Joan He (author of Descendant of the Crane – Albert Whitman & Co.), Riley Redgate (author of several books, including Final Draft – Abrams/Amulet), and more! Between the awesome presentations and workshops, attendees will have the chance to participate in literary trivia games and giveaways, with prizes including professional critiques, signed books, and advance readers copies (ARCs). There will also be an author panel open to any and all questions at the end of the conferences, followed by a book signing by participating speakers.

During downtime, all participants are free to explore Chicago, relax at the beautiful hotel (where a discounted block of rooms is available for attendees), and network with one another, establishing the sort of vital connections that can jumpstart careers and create lifelong friendships.

The conference weekend will kick off with parties on Friday evening. For the Ch1Con crowd, this will be a gathering in the hotel lobby, where lemonade and assorted snacks will be provided. For the Ch21Con crowd, the Friday night party will be an informal cocktail hour hosted at the hotel bar, the Garden Grille & Bar.

More information on transportation and lodging can be found on the Ch1Con and Ch21Con websites. Early bird registration is currently available here for Ch1Con (ages 11-20) and here for Ch21Con (ages 21-29). Those under 18 need a parent or guardian’s consent in order to register.

So, if you’re a young writer and you’re interested in these conferences, register ASAP! With a growing number of tweens, teens, and young adults discovering the magic of Chapter One Events, seats are sure to sell out fast. The last day to register before the higher late rate registration price begins is June 14th. For more information and to join the Ch1Con and Ch21Con communities online, check out the following links:

Chapter One Young Writers Conference (Ages 11-20)

Website: Chapter One Young Writers Conference

Twitter: @Ch1Con

Tumblr: Ch1Con

Instagram: @Ch1Con

YouTube: Chapter One Conference

Facebook: Chapter One Conference

 Chapter Twenty-One Conference (Ages 21-29)

Website: Chapter Twenty-One Conference

Twitter: @Ch21Con

Tumblr: Ch21Con

Instagram: @Ch21Con

Facebook: Chapter 21 Conference

And, of course, you can follow the rest of the Ch1Con & Ch21Con 2019 Blog Tour at: www.chapteroneconference.org or www.chapter21conference.org.

[themagiciansreccenter]

Five @ Five @adjovi

As a part of our author spotlight, we’ve asked each writer to highlight 5 fics and tell us a little about their experience writing (or reading) them.

1. Goodnight Moon

He felt a jolt go through him, with the intensity of a lightning strike. He jerked back, but the man held fast. He felt like his brain was splitting along the hemisphere. Everything was so fucking loud that it hurt. His legs felt weak, and he walked backwards, his knees hitting the coffee table and folding immediately into sitting. He was amazed the shitty particle board held his weight. All of it came crashing back at once, and he couldn’t stand the intensity. He began to weep involuntarily, rocked by the memories. ALL of it. His whole entire life. Growing up. His parents. Fillory. Julia. Brakebills. Magic was fucking real. Alice. Margo. Fuck. “Eliot.” His voice sounded like someone else’s, thick and slurred. He looked the monster full in the face. “What have you done with him?”

It smiled at him. The monster riding around in the Eliot meat suit. The eyes. That was what was so wrong. Fucking alien eyes. It smiled. “There you are.” Its voice was warm and full of affection. Quentin felt like he might vomit.

This was my putting my toe into a new fandom fic. Which—my last fandom was when Torchwood went off the air, so that was a long time ago. TBH, I really wasn’t even more than a casual viewer of the show up until S3, and then was like holy fuck. I didn’t even ship Q/El until this season, just knew that I wasn’t a fan of Q/Alice (sorry!), kind of agreeing with niffinAlice’s summation that their relationship had been a garbage fire. So, when the finale was coming to an end, I was like…holy shit! They are going to lean into Q/El! This never happens on shows that I love. Following swiftly with holy shit. Then, I got excited. Because I realized that it was going to be a slow and painful ride to get Eliot back. Also, Hale is going to kill it in this role, and Eliot is such a great choice because he is, IMHO, the emotional center of the show. Plus, if the monster gets all of Eliot’s memories, he’s going to have shitloads to pull from to torment Quentin with, and I am for it. Hence, this little fic was born. I wasn’t sure if I would stick around in the fandom, but I enjoyed writing this so much, that the fic ideas just started to flow.

2. The Long Way Around

“It matters because when you think I am not looking, you stare at me like I hung the fucking moon. The rest of the time, you avoid me because it seems like being around me causes you actual physical pain.” He took a deep drag from his cigarette, exhaling in a long plume. “And you say my name like it's a goddamn prayer.” He stared at Quentin, willing him to turn and face him, but Quentin continued his fastidious study of the ground. “So, the way I see it, we are either together in your timeline. Or, I am dead.” Quentin did look at him then, his eyes impossibly wide.

So, this was definitely a fic that was built around a bit of dialogue—the one above—that I wanted to center the fic around. Also, I am a sucker for stories where one character remembers and no one else does. I wanted it to be painful, and to force Q to be honest. The ending came to me when I was in the shower—I wanted something to anchor things to, and make it interesting. I tried writing this for Welter’s timeloops theme, but missed the deadline, but still liked the story enough to write and post it. Prompts are definitely my friend.

3. Situation Normal

“Oh, my God.” Eliot took a step back instinctually. They had been so wrong. About everything. He was wrestling with both shock and awe over the utter the depths of their stupidity. They had been told, over and over, that this Thing was feared by the Gods. The monster was ancient, and he realized dimly that they must look like mayflies by comparison. Their sheer arrogance that they could control It, they could win, was ultimately to be their downfall. He should have been used to losing by now, as apparently they were Wyle E. Coyote and the Universe was the fucking Roadrunner, and somehow they never, ever managed to see the anvil coming.

So, in my old Torchwood fandom, there was a challenge that was based on adapting the show around a movie—this could be a straight swap the characters out, or more subtle retelling of the show through the frame of a movie. My favorites were of the latter variety, and one of my very favorite fics to read coming out of that entire fandom was a Jaws/Torchwood crossover which never should have worked but was pretty much perfect. So, I wanted to try this myself. This was tough to plot out—didn’t want to reveal my hand too early on and keep people guessing. I literally sat in team meetings blocking out scenes and conversations in code. I was really happy with how this one came out, and want to try again with another movie. Please don’t tell my boss about that team meetings part.

4. The Zeppo

She wasn’t convinced. This meant something to him, she could tell. Nothing meant anything to him. He had been crushing hard on that geek since the moment he saw him, marking him as his target early and often. She actually couldn’t tell what Q had thought of that, he just seemed equally mortified pretty much anytime anyone aimed their attentions towards him. If she had been a betting woman, she would have put good money on Alice Quinn. That would have been delightfully awkward to observe and satisfying to tease. This? What was she supposed to do with this? It was absurd, she knew. But she hated not being in the know, even the tiniest bit, most especially when it came to Eliot, with whom she covetously and with great intent been entwined.

This was my first Margo POV, and I freaking loved it. She is so awesome, but there is something kind of mean girl from S1 but also super vulnerable when it comes to Eliot that I wanted to capture here. I also really loved writing about badass Margo who not only makes her own fun but kind of almost saves the day, with the help of the ladies. I really want to expand out the ladies winning everything in another fic, and also write more about Penny/Julia/Kady, which I never would have considered shipping before, so thank you S3 for my ot3.

5. Infinite Probabilities Ratios

Word of the Beast’s attack had spread quickly across campus, like the viral infection that it was. Eliot was completely shook. He made a hasty retreat to his room, unable to be around the others just now. He couldn’t look at their faces after seeing them all die, one by one, in horrific, albeit creatively different ways. He hadn’t realized there were so many means of eviscerating a person. He was currently staring at the Broadway poster of “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” on his wall, absolutely certain it was supposed to be the original book cover of “The Naked Lunch”. He had grabbed a bottle of whiskey and two glasses on his way up, not at all surprised when Quentin knocked on his door a short while later.

OK. So, I am actually in the process of writing a fiction book right now, which is all kinds of crazy. But, I wanted to try out the premise of that story—which is that the main protagonist has the ability to shift the world slightly away from the center, forcing the other characters to be in this sideways world. The changes are very subtle, but because the protagonist is the one who essentially builds this other world, there are things that are wrong. I wanted to do that here, with the shift being done by the monster, who guesses what their world should look like, missing out on the subtleties—for example, whiskey tasting like Kool-aid, or assuming Eliot would have a Broadway poster versus a one of a semi-obscure book about drug addled wanderings. Stuff like that.

[corneliusreignallen]

Trump’s Iran envoy reassigned a staffer after right-wing media accused her of disloyalty

Brian Hook, the State Department’s special representative for Iran, testifies during the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on October 16, 2019, in Washington, DC. | Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images

The State Department’s inspector general recommends disciplinary action against Brian Hook.

One of President Donald Trump’s highest-ranking foreign policy officials at the State Department forced out a career staffer over her ties to the Obama administration and outside pressure by conservative media outlets who questioned her loyalty.

That’s one of the main findings from a newly released State Department Inspector General report on a months-long investigation into Brian Hook, the Trump administration’s special representative for Iran, and other State Department officials over alleged politically motivated firings and staffing decisions.

The report says Hook and his team removed Iran expert Sahar Nowrouzzadeh — referred to in the report only as “Employee One” — from a senior policy-planning role on the Iran portfolio in 2017 not because of the quality of her work but rather because of perceptions that she hated Trump, had a preference for Democrats, and was loyal to Iran, not the US.

The Inspector General also looked into four other State employees for their alleged bias in personnel handling. However, the report “found no evidence that inappropriate factors played a role in relevant decisions” involving two of the cases, and not enough information to make an informed decision one way or the other on the other two cases.

But the case involving Hook’s actions toward Nowrouzzadeh is by far the most consequential of the bunch, as Hook is the senior official in charge of leading Trump’s maximum-pressure campaign against Iran and is close to top White House officials, including Stephen Miller and Jared Kushner.

The IG report lays out in stark detail how the White House’s paranoia about a “deep state” conspiracy of career government officials secretly working to thwart the president’s agenda — fueled by right-wing media outlets — has impacted the lives of dedicated public servants. As Politico notes, “civil service and foreign service employees” are “supposed to be protected by law from political retaliation.”

The report recommends that Hook and other political appointees receive training on “prohibited personnel practices and related Department policies,” but it leaves the determination of whether Hook should receive any additional disciplinary action up to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

Pompeo has said, according to the report, that he will “consider” whether to discipline Hook. But experts say the secretary — who is very close to Hook — is unlikely to do anything.

After the report’s release, Nowrouzzadeh tweeted out a statement: “It is my hope that the Inspector General’s findings pertaining to my case help prompt action that will guard against any further such misconduct by members of this or any future administration.”

Conservative media’s longstanding crusade against Nowrouzzadeh finds its way into the State Department

In early 2017, Sahar Nowrouzzadeh, a longtime civil service employee, was in the middle of a year-long assignment to the State Department’s Policy Planning Staff, the agency’s influential internal think tank responsible for crafting “independent policy analysis and advice for the Secretary of State.”

Nowrouzzadeh was given the Iran and Gulf Arab country portfolios. It was an assignment she was well qualified for, having worked for over a decade on Iran issues in both the George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations. During the Obama years, she served on the National Security Council and helped craft the Iran nuclear deal.

Born in Connecticut to parents who emigrated from Iran in the late 1970s, Nowrouzzadeh had been a target of right-wing media ire since her Obama days because of her work on the Iran deal and her brief stint working as an intern for the National Iranian American Council as a college undergraduate. NIAC is a US lobbying group that advocates on behalf of Iranian American interests, but its critics have long accused it of working on behalf of the Iranian government.

Soon after Nowrouzzadeh was brought into the Trump administration by Rex Tillerson in early 2017, the attacks against her started up again in the conservative press. Articles in Breitbart and elsewhere claimed she had cried after Trump won the election, and an article in the Conservative Review in March 2017 accused her of having “burrowed into the government under President Trump.”

That Conservative Review article found its way to the State Department thanks in part to former House speaker and current Trump booster Newt Gingrich, who sent it to multiple officials including then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s chief of staff.

Hook, who was then the director of the Policy Planning Staff (where Nowrouzzadeh worked), also received the article and sent it on to his deputy, Ed Lacey.

When Hook asked Lacey about Nowrouzzadeh during that time, Lacey said that many people working in the policy planning staff were Obama holdovers. “Their picks, without exception, were Obama/Clinton loyalists not at all supportive of President Trump’s foreign policy agenda,” Lacey emailed, adding that “all of these detailees have tried to stay on” in the team. “This is helpful. Let’s discuss on Monday,” Hook replied.

According to the report, Nowrouzzadeh was distressed by the article and reached out to Hook directly in an email asking for his help in countering the smear campaign and insisting that the Conservative Review article was full of “misinformation.”

Several officials I spoke to say they saw Nowrouzzadeh go into Hook’s office personally on March 20, 2017, in an effort to seek his help — which tracks with the report’s findings. Some told me they saw Nowrouzzadeh immediately after that meeting in her office and noticed she had been crying.

Then in April, Lacey wrote an email to Hook in which he said a colleague “asked me to initiate the process of wrapping up [Employee One’s] detail...Unless I hear otherwise from you, I will do so today.” Mr. Hook simply responded, “Yes I agree,” and Lacey then let Nowrouzzadeh go.

According to several people familiar with the situation and the report, Lacey told Nowrouzzadeh she was being removed from her role on the Policy Planning Staff because someone else was coming in to handle Iranian affairs. However, that new person — who didn’t know Hook personally — didn’t arrive until September, indicating that a normal staffing change wasn’t the real reason for her reassignment. Hook, I was told, never said a word to Nowrouzzadeh after her dismissal.

Hook’s defenders have long said he did everything by the book and that he had the absolute right to form the team he wanted. Nowrouzzadeh, as a holdover from the Obama administration, just didn’t gel with Hook, they say.

Based on the IG report, it looks like Hook’s critics had the story right.

What the IG report says

There are a lot of tidbits in the seven-page section of the report on Nowrouzzadeh’s case, but there are four points worth noting.

First, the report says that a staffer named Julia Haller once brought up Nowrouzzadeh’s national origin during a meeting out of concern it could cause a conflict of interest since she worked on Iran. Haller worried that Nowrouzzadeh’s loyalty to the US was questionable, but also that she was a closet Democrats aiming to thwart the Republican agenda. Again, Nowrouzzadeh was born in the US and has served in both Republican and Democratic administrations since 2005.

Second, as already reported by Politico, Haller also sent an email in which she claimed Nowrouzzadeh cried when Trump won and was born in Iran. Hook saw that email and replied to it stating it contained “helpful info.” In the same email, Hook said he would reach out to people who tracked the Iran deal for information on her. It’s worth highlighting, though, that some staffers found Haller’s theories to be “nutty.” Still, Hook found them “helpful.”

Third, Hook said he replaced Nowrouzzadeh because she wasn’t a “go-getter” and had the right to create his own team. But the report states that Hook didn’t know or meet the person who would become the new Iran staffer until April — after Nowrouzzadeh had been reassigned — and that the staffer wasn’t hired until September.

The IG also describes a dramatic scene of the two meeting, which is worth reading in full:

In late March, Employee One [Nowrouzzadeh] met with Mr. Hook and explained to him that she had received threats when her name had previously appeared in the media and she was concerned that similar threats could re-occur. According to Employee One, Mr. Hook said “virtually nothing” in response to these concerns. Mr. Hook told OIG that he recalled telling her that the article was “fairly standard” and to be expected for individuals working on high-profile policies. Mr. Hook told OIG that he told her that he had experienced a similar situation and advised that it was best to ignore the article.

Fourth, as mentioned above, there was clearly a coordinated outside pressure campaign to remove staffers perceived to be disloyal. Nowrouzzadeh bore the brunt of many of those attacks and clearly fell victim to them.

There’s more, but you get the idea: Hook reassigned Nowrouzzadeh not because her work was inadequate or because she worked against Trump, but rather over false fears of her political leanings and loyalty to Iran.

According to the report, “Mr. Hook’s own statements to OIG appear to be a post-hoc justification for terminating the detail early.” However, it does state “OIG acknowledges that it did not identify emails or other documents in which Mr. Hook suggested that he was personally motivated to end the detail because of Employee One’s perceived political opinions, perceived place of birth, or similar issues.” Instead, he let the culture that led to Nowrouzzadeh’s ouster fester.

Most government employees would surely be fired for such a move, but Hook’s close ties to Trump’s inner circle and Pompeo, his boss, makes that highly unlikely. Which means Hook, the person the State Department Inspector General said led a biased personnel process, is likely to continue working on Iran for the foreseeable future.

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[krissysbookshelf]

Free Ebooks (6/22/17)

    PLEASE REMEMBER THAT THE FREE PRICING IS ONLY A SPECIAL FOR THE DIGITAL FORMAT OF THE BOOK THAT IS LISTED AND IS ONLY AVAILABLE FOR A LIMITED TIME, SO BE SURE TO PURCHASE THE E-BOOKS BEFORE THE PRICE RETURNS TO ITS NORMAL LISTING. (Unless you want to buy them at full price:)

  Don't forget to check my Free Ebook page on Pinterest for more Free Ebook titles and genres not listed below!

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  Banger by Dick Hertz: Well-endowed Greyson James meets pleasure-seeking Katherine Clayton. She thinks he’s a temporary summer fling. He wants something more permanent. Will what they’ve found in each other be enough for happily ever after? Or will one summer fling be all they share?

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    Rise of The Iron Eagle: The Iron Eagle Series (Book 1) by Roy A. Teel Jr.: Justice has evolved! A new anti-hero for the 21st century, who sends his murder victims to their deaths with these final words, “May God NOT have mercy on your soul.”

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[topbeautifulwomens]

#Unveiling #the #Mystery #behind #Men’s #Beauty #– #Dating #Advice #for #Men #fashionphotography #fitmodel #hiphopmusic #lifestylemodel #makeuplife #photoshoot #punjabidance #scoutme #studio #sunset

Male’s everlasting search for seeking younger and enticing is current from time immemorial. In present day instances nevertheless, it has taken a huge soar in advance like never prior to. The concept of Beauty encompasses not exclusively use of beautys, but also a total gamut of ancillary support from hair, pores and skin, apparel, sneakers, jewellery and the record goes on. The whole differ can make a trillion greenback market place globebroad.

Folks, possibly men and women are heading all out paying wonderful variety of cash in salons and parlors, irrespective of regardless of whether it is a welcoming local salon or one operate by a mega company giant. All this to look younger, look much better for their own pleasure also for the sake of people all around them, so that other people see them as they need to have to be considered. Appeal and beauty turns into all the a lot more essential, given that they’re inseparable ideas as soon as looking for a courting husband.

People who are very stringent in their idea that beauty is only skin deep or real beauty lies inside may possibly consider the concept of bettering outer beauty a little bit presumptuous. Reputation or rejection of a dating partner based mostly on seems on your own is certainly merciless, but it truly is a fact of daily life and sooner we settle for it the better it is. In spite of your gender and irrespective of your popularity of a amateur or a veteran in the dating scene, I truly feel that it is a coronary heart-rending subject matter for debate.

The hefty target looks and attractiveness may seem unjustified for you but nevertheless it exists and you can neither evade it nor disregard it. And all this, in spite of the international liberalization, actions in opposition to racial discrimination, struggle against non secular oppression and aboveall modernization of world society in entirety. One particular would normally suppose that these kinds of slender-brained method to one more human getting as because genetically he hasn’t inherited the Adonis looks, is to my mind grossly adverse.

The fact of the matter is that when it comes to selecting a dating partner, what grabs our interest, very first and top, are the looks. Most of us will deny this. There are far more profound characteristics – like vitality of character, sensitivity, cultured mind, commonality of interest elements, so on and so forth will arise as the requirements of selection. In real truth however, we seem to live only on the first hand visual appeal of a particular person.

Even complete scientific studies has demonstrated that folks make the first alternative based on looks and it is those looks which create the first effect. Here is thanks our tutored mind, which over the several years had been conditioned by TV, journals and other media who have designed positive “position versions” in our minds. Individuals superstar looks have been entrenched in our psyche so much that all of us want to be a copy of Naomi Campbell or Brad Pitt. These genetically privileged and media-largelighted personalities have fashioned our minds entirely. Although our sensible mind tells us that these are remote goals and we shouldn’t chase a mirage by way ofout our fruitful years – I believe that there are several stages we can take to boost our appearance and actions which disguise up our problems and warts and make us naturally gorgeous and attractive.

So as first step, in which should you commence? Very first, make sure you be your own greatest friend. By this I mean, you should be completely pleased with oneself, the way you’re. This particular factor in one’s character, displays up as self-confidence and high level of self-esteem, which in turn makes one very alluring and attractive specifically to a dating partner. Yes, you should not end at this. Seem at what modern cosmetic research and development has carried out for us. In opposition to laser surgical procedure to perk up your nose to the shampoo for the most obstinate hair, its all there for you to decide on from.

Hair re-expansion items, skin toners and specialty make up products for working day and night time – the myriad of alternatives is sure frustrating. Then comes your wardrobe. What are you sporting? Of course some thing that makes you relaxed, but are you turning up to meet up with your day in you “favored” rag-denims which you chosen up in the ’80s? Imagine, may be the contents of your wardrobe would suit better for donation for philanthropic functions ! Pass for a entire overhauling. Since if you look good, you feel good and all this shows up in your experience and individuality. Then comes your entire body beautiful. Operate out to sustain it in shape. You never have to look like Sylvester Stallone, but a normal apply schedule retains you in shape, both mentally and bodily.

Medical psychologists prove that men seek beauty for quick-expression interactions whilst it becomes secondary when he’s looking for a devoted partner. Be that as it may, don’t forget it is eventually that much-coveted sex appeal which lands you at the correct place with the right person of your choice. Beauty, looks, outward appearance all these are very related when you are just moving into the dating situation, especially with amazing possibilities opening up through on the web dating and many others. All of us want a person to like us for the right factors, but you just cant aid the human mother nature of slipping for “beauty” first. Do not mind if you aren’t Julia Roberts or Pierce Brosnan, you can give it your best shot, to look the best you can.

The post Unveiling the Mystery behind Men’s Beauty – Dating Advice for Men appeared first on Beautiful Women.

source http://topbeautifulwomen.com/unveiling-the-mystery-behind-mens-beauty-dating-advice-for-men/

[cuckoomagazine]

Interview with the founder of  The Prosecco Van Ireland, Mark Farrelly.

photography by Julia Cuprina

Whether it's your wedding, debs or your 21st birthday bash, you want your guests to remember the occasion for all the right reasons. If you want your big day to impress you have to pull out all the stops. As they say – 'Go big or go home!' While some love to splash out on an ice-cream van or a candy stall, there's no better way to add that little touch of class to your day than the addition of a Prosecco van.

Cuckoo Magazine recently met with the creators of The Prosecco Van Ireland – a chic van that keeps the bubbles flowing all night. Mark, Laura, Joanna and Trevor are a team of dedicated entrepreneurs who have put their skills to the making and have created Ireland's trendiest 'must –have' for any event. Here, Mark tells us how this creative idea came to life.

Do you want to start by telling us a little about yourself?

I'm Mark Farrelly and I'm one of the 4 members of The Prosecco Van Ireland. We're launching our van as a mobile Prosecco van, delivering high end Prosecco on-tap to all sorts of events. We've had bookings from anything from 60th birthday parties to the afters of a wedding. We've also been contacted by Debs Ireland. The idea began when we were looking for a similar service for our own wedding – we looked around, looked at the market and there was nothing that really stood out or suited.

How did you think of the idea of a Prosecco van?

Laura tagged me on Instagram in a post for the Bubble Brothers in London. Their concept is really clever, especially how they market their brand. I did a lot of homework, as I always do, and I took ideas from each of the best vans in England and then decided to create my own. That was mine and Laura's part played, financially, and I suppose with time restrictions, having a new baby and planning for our own wedding, we felt we needed to add to the team. That's when Trevor and Joanna joined us. They were a great help and it's also made us more diverse. For example, in our very first booking the request was for two girls, and we wouldn't have been able to provide that had it just been Laura and I. So the addition of Trevor and Laura really opened up some doors for us.

Laura, Mark, Joanna and Trevor pictured at the Prosecco Van launch. 

It's not an original idea so I can't take full credit for this. Laura wanted this service for the wedding so that was what originally sparked the idea. In fairness, in relation to the vans in England – the most successful ones – there was nothing in Ireland that would even come close. I felt, with me being an electrician and being generally handy, that we could come up with something for the Irish market. I looked at the Irish market, which was really narrow at the time but has expanded already. There will always be competition but we just aim to be the best. That's why we have the uniform and the colour scheme that we have.

In theory, you're going to google 'Prosecco Van' and you're going to be brought to all the London websites, but if you re-google and include the word Ireland, hopefully we will be there. That's where the name and design came from.

We cover any event or occasion but the only restriction we have is that our licence doesn't cover public sale by glass. By that, we can't rock up to a street festival and sell it by the glass, because that would require a liquor licence which has to be attached to a premises, and obviously we are mobile.

Walk us through the process of creating the van?

It was a lot simpler than you might think. We looked at what model vehicles they were using in London. The most common one was already used in Ireland and we weren't happy with it. It's very small in height – not that I'm tall – and it's very niche I felt.  It's quite girly; pink and glittery. That doesn't suit every type of party so we wanted to do better and so found a bigger type of van that happened to be for sale in Ireland. That was a Thursday evening and on Friday we drove 280km to Galway to collect it. We brought it home and had a look at all the best ones around the world in Ireland, England, Italy and France and picked what we liked about each one. We combined those ideas in order to create our own. We then called in every favour: DN Flooring gave us the timber for the bar, my Dad made the bar, a friend of ours did all the welding, we did the lighting ourselves, Trevor's brother took care of the colour scheme and anything else we needed we bought local, which is extremely important to us.

How did you go about selecting the type of Prosecco to use?

We kept it as local as we could so I got in touch with a supplier in Mullingar – Gavin in Wines Direct. He was a very nice man, extremely clever, and he came to meet me with some samples. Of course, I don't know a lot about Prosecco but I know enough to know what's nice and what's not. So we ended up getting an Italian Prosecco, and that winery will guarantee us that the same product we get in the keg will be the exact same product they use in the bottle, which is extremely hard to come by. We took some bottles of it, invited some friends around and didn't tell them what the intention was. However, they loved it which was what sealed the deal.

What was the most challenging part about starting a business?

The online aspect. Creating content, knowing what is the right direction to bring it in and who to talk to. Some weddings can be tricky and I don't know whether to send them a website or a "behind the scenes" look on Facebook. I think you just have to go with your gut but I still struggle today with the online side of things.

Is it you or Laura who creates the content for social media?

Laura does a lot of it and she's very good with the creative visuals. We also had help from Aoife (bridetobee.ie) who I went to college with. She came and gave us help with the basics but she's very creative. Only for her, we wouldn't be where we are today. Since speaking to her our audience has doubled. However, if I was to redo it all over again, I would do a course in social media first.

What is success to you?

I think I already feel successful because for the first time in my life I'm really proud of something I've made. I look at it sometimes and think "I'm really proud of that". If it all fell apart, I would still have it at my wedding and be really proud of it. So success for me is what I've done to date and from here I think the team will take over from me. I feel successful already – which is a bit cringe but it's the truth.

What advice would you give to someone starting a business? Big or small.

I really put a lot of weight into research, and only for that I don't think it would have been as smooth as it was. A lot of the problems that popped up were easily solved because I knew the answer. I probably spent 4 weeks doing research, and when questions arose I felt very confident with the answers as I was giving – such as when I met the wine supplier for the first time. Do your homework, know your target market, know where you want to go with yourself and then just stick to it. That's all you can do really!