#Something Terrible Happened Last Night

[samblakebooks]

Utterly thrilled with this review of #SomethingTerribleHappenedLastNight by @reads_eats_explores on IG who 'inhaled it' Yay!!

It's getting amazing reviews, I'm so delighted readers are loving it!

🔪Something Terrible Happened Last Night by Sam Blake🔪

Sam Blake is an auto-buy author for me; her murder mystery and crime thrillers are some of the best on the market.

It's Katie’s 17th birthday, and with her parents away, she has a ‘free gaff’, and her house becomes party central. What could possibly go wrong? Well, a lot, obviously, these teenagers have plenty of secrets, and there's plenty of double crossing going on, but no one would envisage the party becoming a crime scene.

After a huge fight breaks out, most of the kids scaper hastily, but Frankie returns to help with the clearing up along with new friend Jess and her cousin Sorcha. They soon find the body...

The local Gardai soon leap to the obvious conclusion when they learn that Rob Doyle, a small-time drug dealer with a stabbing conviction on his youthful record, was at the party. But horrified by the chance of a wrongful conviction and the real killer let go free, wannabe future lawyer Jess suggests that these best pals get on the amateur sleuthing and crack the case.

This being the digital age of the 2020s, much of this involves trawling the school’s anonymous “confessions” website, Rave-fess, and piecing together video and pictorial footage from the party where getting a good selfie or reel was a top priority, plus they're racing against time to capture those time-sensitive stories shared in real time via Snapchat, Instagram, TikTok and whatever else the youth are using these days.

This foray into Young Adult fiction doesn't disappoint. Think an Irish ‘Nancy Drew’ style read packed with some very relatable teens, loads of twisty page-turning suspense, and betrayal galore, all played out under the omnipresent and unforgiving glare of social media. This is a book easy to devour in one sitting, and I certainly want to read more books featuring these budding supersleuths! 4⭐

Order your copy here - it's in audio, kindle and there are links here to bookshops worldwide

https://www.samblakebooks.com/books/something-terrible-happened-last-night/

You'll also find more info about the characters and shots of Katie's house that we've created in the SIMS4 at my website :)

[asfdhgsdkjhgb]

god is swuarshing me beneath his thumb like i am an aphid or perhaps a clover mite. yeah. its slow and painful and im small. and also meek

[cinnamonsly]

re your vent art: this will be u in an indeterminate amount of time in the future

this actually made me feel better thank you

[heir-of-the-chair]

I DO NOT. HAVE TIME. FOR A NEW HYPERFIXATION. I DON’T HAVE TIME FOR THIS.

[blujayonthewing]

so in juniper's campaign we've just found ourselves in a high-stakes situation that I as a player do frankly find stressful and am anxious about, but hey hi also the DM was like 'okay here are the exact mechanics of how this is going to work because I don't want to surprise you with serious repercussions, also here are all the options you will have to try to do something about the situation-- [affected player] what do you think? honest feedback, I don't want it to feel unfair, I want to be clear that I am not just trying to kill your character, and if it ends up being badly balanced we can revisit it down the road' and oh my god I could COLLAPSE and WEEP with gratitude

[jessiesjaded]

There's something wrong with Tiga, he's limping and being weird so if my already bad start to the year wasn't bad enough 💖

[transgaysex]

i got hit with like. nauseating anxiety a couple hours ago and i dont know how to make it stop

[pearlpool]

hm.

[timothyslucy]

well would you look at that!! it's my chenford pregnancy fic reserecting back to life after... idk... 3yrs of abandonment????

[samblakebooks]

The Discover Irish Children's Books Campaign

Irish children's books champion Sarah Webb has increasingly realised that the Irish children’s top ten bestseller list rarely features ANY Irish books. And she's created the Discover Irish Kids Books campaign to do something about it...

Award winning author and champion of Irish children’s books, Sarah Webb (to whom Something Terrible Happened Last Night is dedicated) has increasingly realised that the Irish children’s top ten bestseller list rarely features ANY Irish books. From March to the start of August 2023 – twenty weeks – only ten books by Irish children’s authors or illustrators charted in the top ten. There were 123…

[dirt-str1der]

yk every time i see a post about somebody wishing bad things on another person i think ‘dirt-strider to kiryu’ you’ve broken me brain

You see a post thats like i want to stick him in time prison so that he gets so bored he starts breaking his own bones to get even a hint of stimulation and its tagged me at kiryu and you scroll down and its a post thats like i want to feed him chips from my cupped hands like a wild stallion and its also tagged me at kiryu also hiiiiiiiii

[ourceliumnetwork]

hey. hey universe. hey fucker universe.

no one said you could bring back the Wednesday Curse, bitch. fuck off with this shit i didn't need any of this first thing today.

[girlivealwaysbean]

.

vent

[ijustwantagoodurl]

:( VENT POST. Kind of an "AITAH?" vibe actually. If you read lemme know if im the asshole here

I just got in a sort of fight with my girlfriend.

Shes been pushinf for like a month for me to go to a place where we both have family, so I could ride with her and her family back home instead of spending money on transport.

Tomorrow they are leaving and thus so am i

I took a midnight bus from my hometown to where we have family, which is a 6hr busride not including transfer times. I got 3 shitty hours of sleep last night and have been awake since 530am, and am now gettinf ready to sleep at 1130pm.

Ive spent all goddamn day texting my girlfriend for any information about getting home and getting fucking nothing. Asking 3 simple questions every other hour since 10am: time and location? Pick up or drop off? No reply. Me and the fam have a lovely day but we collectively get more anxious the later it gets without a confirmed plan.

Sun has set. I could very well spend most of tomorrow with my fam for all I know??? Fam spends 2ish hours planning an elaborate breakfast for me at home, send people to the grocery store and back and assign different people drinks and parts of breakfast. Everyone is alerted.

8pm a half hazard plan is made, I confirm but dont get any confirmation back, so then immediately a different plan is made since my family feels insecure about me getting home and they want to do more to make sure i do. 10pm gf shares information that means that the breakfast moves up 2 hours earlier in the morning and that im not getting the luxury of sleeping in like I (and my fam tbh) wanted for me. Confirm plan B with gf and fam.

10:05-1130p asking gf why the fuck it took so long for me to learn or hear anything about the plan. Spend an hour explaining and then re explaining that ive recieved no communication from her all day and that it was stressful and upsetting. Feel like crying the whole time because im so tired and frustrated and im running out of empathetic patience. Plan B is canceled because Plan A was apparently confirmed hours and hours ago.

1133 say something kind of dickish but it is specifically to highlight a problem we have previously identified (that is the cause of todays miscommunication) and already talked through how and why jts a problem and what it looks like and how it affects our relationship and me. Figure its fine to send bc ive spent the rest of the conversation criticizing her communication today with specific examples and explaining why XYZ was unclear and anxiety inducing for me. Send a thank you text for her continued apologies and reassurance and empathy.

1134 "dont talk to me that way or get on a phone call now"

>>Fucks sake

aitah???

[booasaur]

Something really amazing happened in France, and I think it'd help us in the US to learn about it. Forgive the long read, but I think this is genuinely great both because of what happened and how.

So as some of you might have seen, in a decision historians will debate for years (mostly to figure out just WTF he was thinking, even though he is alive right now and can be asked), the French president, Emmanuel Macron, currently in power and THREE YEARS before the scheduled election, seeing the far right rise in popularity decided to dissolve the assembly and hold snap elections.

577 seats were up for grabs. Remember that number. Since half of that is 288.5, 289 seats are needed for a majority.

The first round happened last week and boy, was it bad. The far right made HUGE gains. It won or was in first place in so many races. And Macron's party ended up third!

Overall, this is how things ended up after the first round:

Far right bloc: 33%

Left bloc: 28%

Macron's centrist party: 20%

Conservatives: 7%

The way the French system works is that if a candidate gets over 50% of the vote, they win outright, and some of the far right did manage that. But, many races went to a runoff.

Immediate projections after were that the far right bloc might win anywhere from 240 to 310 seats, a catastrophe.

A shameful swing to the far right leading to the first time they'll be in power since the 1940s? Yes, but maybe not??

This is where things get interesting.

Unusually, a lot of these runoffs are 3-way, instead of a simpler 2-way choice. And in pretty much every case, that helps the far right.

So on June 30th, the night of the first round, this is how things went down:

Immediately, the left parties put out the call: anywhere they were third, they withdrew and their voters would go over to whoever was running against the far right candidate. Their goal: form a "republican front" to block the far right. The far right cannot get 289 seats.

Macron's bloc was not so...motivated. Different people put out different instructions: in some places, if they were third, they should drop out, but only to help the center left, not far left, in other places, see how far you are, only then drop out, that kind of thing.

The conservative party simply said they won't drop out and won't give their voters instruction either way in races they're not involved in.

Late night developments:

More people in Macron's party are now beginning to realize the situation and starting to coalesce around whichever candidate can beat the far right one. Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, from Macron's party, says clearly the priority is to block the far right. BUT, some Macron spokespeople on TV say they'll form a coalition only with the center left and conservatives, splitting the left bloc if needed. Some individual Macronists still saying they won't drop out, even if there's no hope of winning.

Lol.

So, now July 1st:

Only half so far. In one race, where the sister of Marine Le Pen (the far right leader and the face of their movement) was leading, the third place Macronist refused to bow out.

Excellent quote from another Macronist:

Perhaps realizing the same thing, that Macronist in the race against the Le Pen sister now drops out.

In some places, third place Macronists are dropping out DESPITE Macron bewilderingly telling them NOT to?

Halfway through the day:

Of the 311 3-way or 4-way runoffs, the number is down to 135 because of these candidates dropping out: 121 Left, 56 Macronists, 1 conservative.

Oh, there was this, in case people had any doubts about how terrible the far right are:

And to show the selflessness of the left:

July 2:

The deadline to decide if they want to stay in a runoff is today.

A dozen new third place Macronists who said they'd stay in have now dropped out. One got a call from both the PM Attal AND Macron to drop out, signalling the dawning understanding of the importance of this moment.

Even some conservative party members are now backing the left candidate who faces the far right.

A Macronist who had 30.55% of the vote in the first round and came in third to the far right's 33.11% and left's 32.73% and who would have been tempted to stay has dropped out.

The deadline to stay in or not has now passed.

Look at these far right shenanigans!

Macron still being a freaking loser:

July 3rd:

In the end, of the 311 3- or 4-way run offs, only 91 left. Some polls come out that have the far right getting between 190 to 220 seats.

July 4th:

New polls say the balance of the voting itself isn't transferring between the left and center and predictions have risen for the far right, now predicted to get between 210 and 250 seats.

July 5th:

New polls again, left voters now predicted to do better transferring vote to the centrists, decreasing the far right projections again.

However, scandalous reporting emerges: while Attal was trying to fend off the far right, Macron was not only NOT taking the far right seriously, he was undermining efforts to defeat them. His team shrugged off the first round results and celebrated a BIRTHDAY as the results were still coming in?

July 6th:

A few runoffs happened yesterday, nothing much unexpected, some left and center wins.

July 7th:

The day of reckoning. At this point, the expectations are that the far right won't come close to that 289 number but could still easily have the most seats.

GUYS.

It's over and the left are in the lead!

A LOT of cases where a leftist or centrist was 2nd in the first round and now won.

Amazing:

SO many lessons to take from this.

First, you have to vote! You have to. You can't do anything without voting. The freaking French, who'll protest for anything, are showing up to vote. If you're trying to achieve any kind of result and it's not going to happen by January 2025, you have to vote now.

But just as importantly, the left and center (and even conservative) parties made very key decisions. They were all lucky that Attal, who Macron chose, saw the big picture, bigger than indeed Macron could. A stupid selfish centrist leader could have still ruined everything if it were up to him.

TL;DR: After a disastrous first round in the national French elections where the far right was on the cusp of taking power, the left and center formed a strong coalition and through the power of voting and unity, overcame the far right AND their selfish centrist president to win.

[vonlipvig]

ok not gonna watch ep10 rn cause that was a good cliffhanger and i love torturing myself like that