#also share a good laugh together in cyberspace

[kaus-fangirlis]

@krk-wa sorry to reply like this, but tumblr didn't save my answer correctly and now your Ask is lost in the cyberseas of this platform 😭😭

thanks for your explanation, and for allowing a future spam-liking session from me >:D seeing your cute drawings of the funny skeleman being loved and appreciated fills me with joy. i honestly love this more discreet side of the fandom where we can all just collectively appreciate the character we all love so much.

i also think it's brave to post and share this kind of Sans fanart online lolol as a "veteran" fan, i appreciate this rather new thing ("new" as in... "back in the days", how the fandom handled this kind of content was usually an absolute disaster lmaoooo hoo boi... there were exceptions, but wow), especially because i know i personally decided to delete almost all of my Undertale fanarts from 2016-2018/9 from my main blog (@kaus-quietis) and my former dA. but i was happy to find your message, so let me break this self-imposed rule of not posting fanart again, for the sake of a small gift – from uhh...

– from one Sans fangirl to another (oh gosh) –

i.................. well this is pure, 10000% fluff and *hides*

there we go xD again, thanks for your message, it made me smile, and i cry that Tumblr ate it :((((((( take care out there~

also sorry for turning off reblogs, i do this not to stress about engagement anymore OTL

[aband0ned-s0uls]

A like V - Part 1

-SPOILERS FOR ENDING- 

This is my first time writing a fic, and I’m so excited/nervous to share it with you guys! V gets a ‘lil birthday surprise. 

Also please excuse the dreadful formatting, I’m not a Tumblr pro. 

---------

V swirled the dregs of her drink around her glass as she leaned half against the bar of the Red Dirt, her head resting on her hand, letting the vibrations from the music flow through the cool metal of the worktop and into her body as she waited for the bartender to pour her next one.

After spending months cooped up in her apartment, watching shitty movies, eating cold burritos and recovering from having her own engram re-write the chip, V had been more than surprised when Kerry had called her on the holo and told her – not asked – that he had organised a birthday bash at the Red Dirt for her and her attendance was required. I mean sure, she'd had visitors, and Kerry had been a lifeline in enabling her to get drunk, release her built up frustration by smashing the shit out of everything in true Eurodyne style and reminisce about Johnny, but she never thought in a million years that Kerry Eurodyne would be organising a birthday party for her.

What might have been weirder was the fact that he had also invited her closest friends. Maybe she just wasn't used to people doing things out of the kindness of their hearts, but it all felt a little surreal.

She was lost in her thoughts as she studied the soft red and purple glow illuminating the edges of her glass, musing on how it reminded her of many an exhausted night of stumbling into her apartment, heading straight for her bed after a job and falling asleep to the sounds of Night City. The soft glow of the neon street lights from her window dancing underneath her eyelids as she drifted off. Of many a night listening to Johnny chastise her for falling asleep fully clothed, dinner neglected, asking her for at least one fuckin' cigarette before she passed out. She would launch a pillow at him and tell him to shut the fuck up, he would chuckle and call her a cunt as it sailed through his engram and hit the wall with a soft thud, and she would drift off with a small smile on her face.

Johnny. The thought of him, his absence, she felt it like a punch in the gut. Her fingers tightened around her glass. She'd made it out of Mikoshi alive, the chip re-written by Alt to contain her own engram. She was whole again, but she didn't feel like it.

The music from the band onstage, the animated voices from the people in the bar, strangers, acquaintances and friends alike washed over and around her, but she still felt so alone, and that made her equals parts sad and angry. She'd never really felt alone before – hell, she'd even enjoyed her alone time, but Johnny not being around was like missing a hole in her fuckin' head.

Why should I miss the ghost of a fuckin' asshole?

But V already knew the answer to that question. He wasn't just any asshole, he was her asshole. Johnny, who would tell her she looked shit warmed up and made sure she ate something when she'd forgotten to all day in the same breath. Johnny, who would cover her back and alert her to enemies she hadn't spotted so she didn't get another bullet lodged in her fuckin' skull, but would let her gladly stay unaware of an object at her feet when she stumbled into her apartment drunk, just so he could laugh as she tripped and face planted the back of her couch.

Johnny who had been given a second shot at life, Johnny who was the most inherently selfish motherfucker she'd ever met had turned around and traded it for hers.  

Johnny, who had brushed her hair behind her ear in cyberspace, and with more emotion in his voice than she'd ever thought possible, had said his only regret in this life was that they'd never get a happy ending.  

She'd relived that memory, over and over again. She'd thought he'd meant as two chooms, riding through Night City, shooting the shit after another relentless job, like her and Jackie. But when she'd looked in his eyes, she knew he'd meant more. They'd both shared thoughts and emotions, and the closer they'd got on their journey to Mikoshi, the more their feelings for each other had become intertwined. Never needing to – or at least willingly – be spoken out loud.

Until the end. The look on his face as she turned around one last time before she crossed the bridge. The thought of more, and the implications of what could have been, was what kept her awake at night.

She was torn away from her melancholy thoughts when the bartender slid her fresh vodka lemonade over to her. V looked up and forced a smile. V's vision blurred slightly, and she told herself it was the four drinks she'd already had, but as she blinked rapidly she knew that wasn't the whole truth. Fuck it, she thought. If this was going to be the tone of the evening, a little extra alcohol could only help. Besides, it was her birthday, and V decided if there was ever an appropriate time to get shit-faced, now was definitely it.

“Two shots of tequila too please, choom.”

“Coming right up, chica.”

The bartender came back quickly with her shots. 

One for Jackie, and one for Johnny. 

V threw them back, one after another. Her eyes watered after the second, and a warm flush enveloped her from her head to her toes. She was buzzed, and the alcohol felt like an emotional safety blanket. She couldn’t stop thinking about him, but at least after 6 drinks it hurt a little less. 

As the bartender took away her empties, V felt a familiar presence close in.

“Those are on me.” 

V turned to see the one person who always managed to lift her spirits, Panam. 

“Happy Birthday, V.”

V smiled, a genuine smile this time, and wrapped an arm around Panam's shoulder. V was relieved that was Panam was here. She was like the sister V had never had, and V held her memories with Pan laying awake, shit-faced and laughing underneath the stars in the Badlands as close to her heart as she did with her memories of Jackie. True friendship was hard to find, and Panam was truly an angel. 

A hot-tempered angel with a love for cold beer and fast cars, but an angel never the less.

“Pan! I didn't think you'd make it, 's good to see you.”

Panam laughed, her brown eyes sparkling with warmth, and V earned herself a nudge in her side from Panam's elbow. V chuckled.

“V, I hope you are joking. It's your birthday, of course I'd be here, you're family.” 

Panam took a swig of the Brosephs she had in hand and gave V a sly smile as she leaned her back against the bar. 

“We managed to finish our... business, right on time.”

V's arched a brow at Panam's choice of words, and was about to question why she looked like the cat who got the cream when she saw, to her utter surprise, Mitch and Kerry walking through the bar towards them. They were talking in serious tones, glancing every now and again at V, but the noise in the bar was too loud for V to hear them.

Now this should be interesting, V thought as she removed her arm from around Panam and reached for her vodka lemonade, taking a sip, her curiosity piqued. Since when the fuck were Mitch and Kerry chooms?

Both of the men broke out into shit-eating grins when they locked eyes on V. Kerry sauntered right over to V, clapping her on the shoulder.

“V! Kid, glad you made it.”

 He beamed at her, and shouted to the barman for another round of drinks. Him and Panam shared a knowing look as V readjusted her position, leaning so that her back was against the bar so that she could look at both of them.

“So, now that you're here, I have a preem birthday surprise for you, V. It's gonna blow your fucking socks off, I'm tellin' ya.” 

Kerry settled beside her, taking a drink from the freshly poured round on the bar. He winked before downing it in one go, as her face turned to look of confusion.

V looked between all three of them, taking another sip of her drink.

 “I'm guessin' all of you were involved in this surprise then, huh?”

Panam and Mitch smiled brightly, Mitch chuckling through a freshly lit cigarette. Before they could answer, Kerry banged down his now empty glass onto the bar, and clapped his hands together, looking at the stage. V followed his gaze and noticed that the music had stopped, and a group of stage hands were moving equipment around. Her eyes went wide as she noticed Nancy setting up her keyboard on the stage, followed shortly by Denny.

“Ker, what the fuck...” She looked at him. “You guys are playin' me a birthday gig?”

Ker laughed, clapping her on the shoulder again as he started walking backwards away into the crowd, heading towards backstage.

“You'll see V, like I said, it's gonna be FUCKIN' preem!”

With another wink and a finger pointed at her, he was gone.

V shook her head, smiling, feeling flattered and happy. She guessed she'd had a bigger impact on the people in her life than she previously thought. Hearing some of Samurai's music live on her birthday? It was going to be bittersweet. 

Still, she didn't understand Mitch's and Panam's involvement in this... V fidgeted with her leather skirt and twisted a strand of her long dark hair pensively whilst she waited for the show to start.

----------------------------- 

Kerry practically skipped backstage, slamming the doors wide open.

“Everythin' ready to go?” He asked, as he jumped in place, rolling his shoulders and wrists.

“Ready to rock and fuckin' roll.”

Ker looked over to the man sat in the corner, who outwardly appeared cocky and relaxed, cigarette in hand and legs up and resting on an amp.

But Ker knew better, far better. The nervous strum of metal fingers along the sideboard that hadn't ceased since they arrived and the empty pack of cigarettes laying on the floor told Kerry all he needed to know.

He gave his old friend a wide smile and smacked him on the shoulder.

“She's gonna fuckin' love it, Johnny. Now stop brooding, lets' go knock her dead.”

[communityglobalbuzrush-blog]

Ask any question and get an answer

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Question & Answer Website: https: //community.buzrush.com/

[kahuladragon]

(via Laugh Off The Sexism: The Counter Culture Of Feminist Memes)

With the increasing number of sexist memes on the internet, there has been a recent rise of feminist memes, which have countered the casual as well as serious sexism, that is frequently circulated on our social media.

When Shakespeare wrote, ‘All the World’s a Stage,’ he would not have foreseen the concept of a World Wide Web. The World Wide Web is the new age theatre, and all of us its spectators, as well as performers. Cyberspace is the latest capital place for cultural consumption. If language is the near equivalent of ‘god gone astray in flesh’ in the age of tangible ink and paper, memes and hashtags are the near equivalent of the same in the virtual age.

Origin of the word ‘meme’

The digital age has made global communication possible with a limited amount of words – 140 characters are sufficient to write about the matters of heart and of being, and a meme template makes it possible in even fewer words and by providing a pictorial presentation.

The word ‘meme’ was coined by Richard Dawkins in his 1976 book, ‘The Selfish Gene’. He described memes (rhymes with dreams, and is short for mimesis- from the word mimetic) as infectious ideas or any other things that spread by imitation from person to person.

Echoing the verity of the statement, memes are the latest cultural viruses that are contagious, prone to ‘personally attacking its victims’ and provoking a reactionary ‘same’ or ‘relatable’.

SINCE MEMES ARE CAPABLE OF PROVOKING REACTIONS, THEY NO LONGER REMAIN A NEUTRAL COMMODITY TO BE CONSUMED BUT ARE OF CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE AND COATED WITH MEANING.

Laughter’s dualistic role

Our age is the ‘Age of Offence’ and our generation is the ‘meme generation’. Combine the age and the generation together, and you get a meme generation living in the Age of Offence. It becomes necessary then to understand that both of them go together, hand in hand.

Apart from the relatability factor, what makes a meme stand out is its iconic power to make people laugh. Memes are crisp, funny, takes on what’s trending and a humorous way to troll. It is a virtual joke.

Since memes are ‘funny’, and ‘humorous’, it precipitates the urgency to understand that memes can be exploited to cement certain beliefs and ideas. In a layman’s language, humour can broadly be classified as ‘good humour’ and ‘bad humour’, and in a major throwback to the Ancient Greece, it comes as a surprise that Plato and his likes, thought of laughter to be a vice. It is only later that with revised scientific studies and experiments, and thinkers like Spencer and Freud who tried to negotiate the ancient and the modern thought that laughter, and synonymously with it, humour serve as the release of ‘pent up nervous energy’.

Humour, then can be understood as cathartic. Before we completely discredit Freud, let us also understand how Freud is relatable to the world of memes, when he says that the two emotions that are most repressed are sexual desire and hostility, and so most jokes and witty remarks are about sex, hostility, or both. In telling a sexual joke or listening to one, we bypass our internal censor and vent our libido. Similarly, in telling or listening to a joke that puts down an individual or group we dislike, we let out the hostility we usually repress.

Since memes are capable of provoking reactions, they no longer remain a neutral commodity to be consumed but are of cultural significance and coated with meaning, even the feminist memes. They serve as a convenient means to entrench sexist attitudes and perpetuate misogyny by reinstating gender stereotypes. They aid in subjugating women by circulating sexist ideas.

THEY SERVE AS A CONVENIENT MEANS TO ENTRENCH SEXIST ATTITUDES AND PERPETUATE MISOGYNY BY REINSTATING GENDER STEREOTYPES.

Cyberspace becomes the battleground for propagating sexist antagonism with memes serving as convenient tools for this discourse.

Memes as a sexist discourse

Let us look into a few memes that seem ‘normal’ and funny enough but actually reek of sexism.

The memes reinstate and normalize the idea that a woman’s place is limited to the domestic sphere, and that her ‘womanly instincts’ are prone to nurturing. One cannot also not unsee how these memes trivialize feminism as a movement, how there is an assumed pattern between beauty and privileges, and how a woman can easily be trampled upon for she belongs to the same place as a man’s shoes.

A Counter Attack

The good thing with memes is that they cannot be monopolised—you can write your own meaning on it. To combat the circulation of sexist memes, and stifle the sexist laugh, counter feminist memes are in circulation as well. These feminist memes employ subversive humour to overturn the sexist humour, being able to afford a laugh at their expense. From countering the claims that ‘she asked for it’, to proclaiming that women want to be heard but are silenced by men, these feminist memes subtly counter their sexist counterparts which try to reiterate the helplessness and hopelessness of women.

Conclusion

To be a part of the meme culture is to be a part of the sacrosanct pop culture. However, a mindless consumption of this culture contributes to trivializing the consequential. So many consumers start using/misusing the terms, overuse them till these lose their essence. One thoughtless share or like, and you become a part of a vicious chain that perpetuates sexism and misogyny.

It’s necessary for one to practise utmost care before initiating and further perpetuating a series of unfortunate misogynist and sexist thoughts with just a reckless click, for the sake of sheer pressure to be ‘dope’ and ‘lit’.

Thank you, next.

[nova0000scotia]

13 yr old’s first smartphone... mom’s 18 rules... and the story ...

Hofmann's letter to her son can be read in its entirety below: Gregory’s iPhone Contract 12/25/2012 Dear Gregory Merry Christmas! You are now the proud owner of an iPhone. Hot Damn! You are a good & responsible 13 year old boy and you deserve this gift. But with the acceptance of this present comes rules and regulations. Please read through the following contract. I hope that you understand it is my job to raise you into a well rounded, healthy young man that can function in the world and coexist with technology, not be ruled by it. Failure to comply with the following list will result in termination of your iPhone ownership. I love you madly & look forward to sharing several million text messages with you in the days to come. 1. It is my phone. I bought it. I pay for it. I am loaning it to you. Aren’t I the greatest? 2. I will always know the password. 3. If it rings, answer it. It is a phone. Say hello, use your manners. Do not ever ignore a phone call if the screen reads "Mom" or "Dad". Not ever. 4. Hand the phone to one of your parents promptly at 7:30pm every school night & every weekend night at 9:00pm. It will be shut off for the night and turned on again at 7:30am. If you would not make a call to someone’s land line, wherein their parents may answer first, then do not call or text. Listen to those instincts and respect other families like we would like to be respected. 5. It does not go to school with you. Have a conversation with the people you text in person. It’s a life skill. *Half days, field trips and after school activities will require special consideration. 6. If it falls into the toilet, smashes on the ground, or vanishes into thin air, you are responsible for the replacement costs or repairs. Mow a lawn, babysit, stash some birthday money. It will happen, you should be prepared. 7. Do not use this technology to lie, fool, or deceive another human being. Do not involve yourself in conversations that are hurtful to others. Be a good friend first or stay the hell out of the crossfire. 8. Do not text, email, or say anything through this device you would not say in person. 9. Do not text, email, or say anything to someone that you would not say out loud with their parents in the room. Censor yourself. 10. No porn. Search the web for information you would openly share with me. If you have a question about anything, ask a person – preferably me or your father. 11. Turn it off, silence it, put it away in public. Especially in a restaurant, at the movies, or while speaking with another human being. You are not a rude person; do not allow the iPhone to change that. 12. Do not send or receive pictures of your private parts or anyone else’s private parts. Don’t laugh. Someday you will be tempted to do this despite your high intelligence. It is risky and could ruin your teenage/college/adult life. It is always a bad idea. Cyberspace is vast and more powerful than you. And it is hard to make anything of this magnitude disappear – including a bad reputation. 13. Don’t take a zillion pictures and videos. There is no need to document everything. Live your experiences. They will be stored in your memory for eternity. 14. Leave your phone home sometimes and feel safe and secure in that decision. It is not alive or an extension of you. Learn to live without it. Be bigger and more powerful than FOMO – fear of missing out. 15. Download music that is new or classic or different than the millions of your peers that listen to the same exact stuff. Your generation has access to music like never before in history. Take advantage of that gift. Expand your horizons. 16. Play a game with words or puzzles or brain teasers every now and then. 17. Keep your eyes up. See the world happening around you. Stare out a window. Listen to the birds. Take a walk. Talk to a stranger. Wonder without googling. 18. You will mess up. I will take away your phone. We will sit down and talk about it. We will start over again. You & I, we are always learning. I am on your team. We are in this together. It is my hope that you can agree to these terms. Most of the lessons listed here do not just apply to the iPhone, but to life. You are growing up in a fast and ever changing world. It is exciting and enticing. Keep it simple every chance you get. Trust your powerful mind and giant heart above any machine. I love you. I hope you enjoy your awesome new iPhone. Merry Christmas! xoxoxo Mom

THE STORY:  COOL ...SO COOL Mom's phone code of conduct goes viral Leanne Italie, Tuesday, January 08, 2013 2:38 PM 　 　 NEW YORK — Janell Burley Hofmann honored her 13-year-old son's "maturity and growth" at Christmas with his first iPhone, but it came with strings attached. Eighteen strings, to be exact, in a written code of conduct that placed the mommy blogger at the center of the debate over how parents should handle technology in the hands of their teens, especially younger ones just entering the frenetic world of social networks and smartphones. Thousands of people, including those bemoaning too much helicopter parenting, commented and shared the funny, heartfelt agreement posted at the holiday by the Cape Cod, Mass., mom of five. The interest crashed her website and led her to appear with her eldest, Gregory, on morning TV. Hofmann's first order of business: "1. It is my phone. I bought it. I pay for it. I am loaning it to you. Aren't I the greatest?" She included caveats that some parenting and tech addiction experts consider crucial in easing new entrants onto Facebook, Instagram and shiny new mobile devices: You must share passwords with a parent, answer their calls, hand over said device early on school nights and a little later on weekends. You must avoid hurtful texts and porn and pay for a replacement if your phone "falls into the toilet, smashes on the ground, or vanishes into thin air." Of the latter Hofmann advises her teen, "Mow a lawn, stash some birthday money. It will happen, you should be prepared." Hofmann said in an interview that she decided on the contract as she pondered the power of the technology she and her husband were about to plop into their son's world. She was looking for a way to be present in his phone use without being a "creeper," his word for stalky, spying parents. She wasn't surprised that her list, which Greg agreed to, resonates with other parents. It also resonates with psychologist David Greenfield, a technology addiction specialist in West Hartford, Conn. "We have ritualized the gift of the smartphone," he said, yet many parents don't have the know-how, stomach, time or interest in actively guiding kids when they first jump into digital life. For some parents, he said, it's only when things go horribly wrong that attention is paid. He knows of parents who have gone so far as to jam all Internet and cell phone signals at home when they couldn't get their kids to power down. Police in Rocklin, Calif., said two girls, ages 15 and 16, used a prescription sleeping medication recently to spike the milkshakes of one's parents so they could log onto the Internet after 10 p.m. Greenfield recommends contracts like Hofmann's, if parents follow through. Others creep using apps and monitoring software. He thinks that's fine, too. There's little data broken down by age on the number of Internet users whose lives are negatively impacted by smartphones, tablets, laptops and other technology, Greenfield said. In the general population, studies range from 1 percent to 10 percent of users whose digital habits interfere with their lives. Greenfield estimates the reality is somewhere between 2 and 6 percent. Hofmann was looking for a way to open the conversation with her son. Many other parents are, obviously, concerned as well about what their teens are doing online, but also what is being done to them. In a recent report from the Pew Internet & American Life Project, 81 percent of parents with online teens said they are concerned about how much information advertisers can learn about their kids' behavior and 72 percent said they're concerned about how their children interact online with people they don't know. Nearly 70 percent said they're concerned about how their children manage their reputations online and 57 percent of kids ages 12 and 13 said they're very concerned about it. The report said parents are being more proactive, not just relying on parental-control tools such as browser filters. An increasing number are joining their kids on social media, but older parents may be approaching their kids' lives there with the wrong emotional filters. "We see it as a separation from social behavior. They see it AS social behavior," Greenfield said. "I'm not sure we're going to be able to bridge that difference generationally." More tech abuse education needs to be done in this country before teens are actively engaged, he said. In parts of Europe and Asia, for instance, kids learn how to handle their digital lives as formal training in third or fourth grade. "Here they think of it like it's part of their body, and they treat it that way," Greenfield said. Hofmann's contract is her own attempt at education. "Don't take a zillion pictures and videos. There is no need to document everything. Live your experiences. They will be stored in your memory for eternity." And she gets downright inspirational toward the bottom: "Leave your phone home sometimes and feel safe and secure in that decision. It is not alive or an extension of you. Learn to live without it. Be bigger and more powerful than FOMO — fear of missing out." Hofmann also urges her boy to, "Keep your eyes up. See the world happening around you. Stare out a window. Listen to the birds. Take a walk. Talk to a stranger. Wonder without googling." And her final word: "You will mess up. I will take away your phone. We will sit down and talk about it. We will start over again. You & I, we are always learning. I am on your team. We are in this together." Aisha Sultan in St. Louis studied parenting in the digital age as a Knight Wallace Fellow at the University of Michigan. As parents, she said, "We've sort of hit a tipping point. The conversation has shifted from wow, isn't all this technology cool to wow, how do we control it? We can't eliminate it completely." But parental frustration is mounting, Sultan said. She cited last year's case of a father who shot up his daughter's laptop over a profanity-infused Facebook rant against her parents. He recorded the act and earned more than 23 million YouTube views for his trouble. Before the conversation with our kids begins, Greenfield said, parents have to deal with their own digital obsessions. "Parents have to have limits, too," he said. "We have to be brutally honest with ourselves on our own use and abuse." Hofmann's letter to her son can be read in its entirety below: Gregory’s iPhone Contract 12/25/2012 Dear Gregory Merry Christmas! You are now the proud owner of an iPhone. Hot Damn! You are a good & responsible 13 year old boy and you deserve this gift. But with the acceptance of this present comes rules and regulations. Please read through the following contract. I hope that you understand it is my job to raise you into a well rounded, healthy young man that can function in the world and coexist with technology, not be ruled by it. Failure to comply with the following list will result in termination of your iPhone ownership. I love you madly & look forward to sharing several million text messages with you in the days to come.

4 Badass Angels: #Access4All #MentalHealth @TheWarAmps #bully #PTSD  #abuse #Grief #suicide #stigma #elders #survivor #stolengirls #inclusion #depression #climatechange #RedFriday #IG2020 #LoveisLove #MMIWG #BoysMattertoo #WhiteRibbon #Recovery #Homeless #Kind #IWD2019

[buzrushblog-blog]

Ask any question and get an answer

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Question & Answer Website: https: //community.buzrush.com/

[gethealthy18-blog]

Couples Who Troll Each Other Have the Strongest Relationship, According to Science

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Couples Who Troll Each Other Have the Strongest Relationship, According to Science

Saumya Gaur Hyderabd040-395603080 July 4, 2019

They say it’s easier to fall in love than being able to stay in it. And rightly so, isn’t it? At the beginning of a relationship, a lot of factors nudge the couple together and make them bond. There’s the rush, the excitement, the charm, and of course, one’s hormones are also in the overdrive.

But a couple of years down the road and a lot of people find that the passion they once had for their partners has withered away. Now, that doesn’t mean that they don’t love their partner, but it’s not the same.

This gradual dwindling of excitement and passion puts a lot of pressure on people’s relationships, wherein a lot of the relationships crumble under it. But there are some couples whose relationship only grows stronger with time. So, what’s their secret? Well, according to science, it’s humor! Curious to know how? Read on!

Couples That Troll Together, Stay Together

sonamkapoorfan / Instagram

Now, when we say “troll,” we mean good-natured banter. Whether it’s teasing each other over the guilty pleasure of dancing to masala Bollywood songs or taking a dig at their obsessive love for their favorite football teams — they all help in bringing a sense of togetherness and bonding in the couple, as long as it’s all in good fun.

What we mean to say is that as long as the couple is laughing together and not at each other, then laughter works like a strong adhesive glue that cements their relationship.

But nasty jibes and mean comebacks are a big no-no!

Scientific research carried out by the University of Kansas which was led by Professor Jeffrey Hall, from the department of communication studies, found that this playful equation is a great indicator of the mutual attraction between the couple (1). Talking about it to a newspaper, he said, “Playfulness between romantic partners is a crucial component in bonding and establishing relational security. Particularly, shared laughter is an important indicator of romantic attraction between potential mates.”

But Having A Funny Bone Is No Guarantee For Romance!

Shutterstock

Confused? Don’t be. The research analyzed more than 30 studies, observing more than 1,50,000 participants over a course of 30 years to determine the importance of humor in relationships (2). It found that the generic idea of having a sense of humor doesn’t translate to romantic attractiveness. Meaning, if you think you have a great sense of humor or if you’re always ready with a witty quip, that doesn’t mean that you’re always going to be considered a good catch.

What actually matters is that once you have found your soulmate, you continue to find moments of levity in your everyday life and evolve a shared humour, i.e. inside jokes. Because according to this study, such couples always find a way to work through the tough times.

If you’re wondering why, it’s because having a shared value for humor makes it easy for you and your partner to engage and participate in it together. It affirms you, and your relationship too. However, there’s a thin line between playful ribbing and aggressive roasting, and you must be careful to never cross it. For aggressive humor in the form of mean-spirited jokes often signals deeper troubles in the relationship.

Celeb Couples Who Are Going Strong Thanks To Their Roasting Game

deepikapadukone / Instagram

Well, this theory seems to be true, for in the ever-changing world of glitz and glamour there are a few couples who have managed to stay together courtesy their shared humor. Popular Hollywood-actor couple Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds can often be seen practicing this theory on their social media handles. Like the time she posted this picture of Reynolds from a promotional event with a slightly envious caption, on her Instagram handle.

blakelively / Instagram

While this couple’s hilarity is chronicled quite well on the cyberspace, the shenanigans of this couple are also pretty famous. We are talking about the celeb couple of musician John Legend and his wife, model, and cookbook writer, Chrissy Teigen. If you scroll down Chrissy’s ever-entertaining Twitter feeds, you will stumble across gems like the one given below.

Source: Twitter

Or the time she quite gently put him in his place.

Source: Twitter

And if you’re looking for inspiration closer home, then why not have a look at the unique equation of actress Deepika Padukone and her husband, Ranveer Singh.

We are sure, with science and real-life examples on its side, this theory would have won you over too! Besides, there is no harm at taking life with a pinch of salt, especially when it helps your relationship.

So tell us what you thought of this theory. You can share your views with us in the comments section. You can also tell us what helped you make your relationship with your partner stronger.

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[shutupxdance-blog]

THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES! 3

『♬♬♬』

It’s the FUTURISTIC SPACE YEAR OF 2002, and a HIGHWAY TO HEAVEN logo bounces around the sky behind Cíoroc, as pixelated stars shine above a poorly 3D-rendered city. “And in the end, it turns out that all Arno Cyberspace 2, the evil one, ever needed, was to be loved, and also for the evil AI that he made for some reason to be destroyed because nobody had thought of doing that before. But enough about our serious lore, and on to what really matters: the characters. They’re what we’re all here for, after all. That’s what some of our producers forget sometimes, you know? What we’re really here for. Welcome back to another segment of 『THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES!』” He pauses. “It’s a pun this time.”

“When I was younger,” Horang’s, or rather, Chan-yeol’s voice begins in the interview footage, “I would look at kkachi horangi paintings, which were totally weird looking, but fun at the same time. They meant something back then, but I don’t remember what.”  A young boy and his slightly older sister sit alone in the house, while a festival goes on outside. The footage, no longer as grainy as the VHS footage from previous segments but now afflicted by screen tearing, pixelated noise, frame skipping, and a wide variety of other playback glitches, switches to two adults, clearly the parents, gambling away in a smoky room. “Tigers are known to keep evil away and good luck in, which is what I fucking need. I’m not that superstitious,” Chan-yeol continues as the young boy gets older, attending high school, walking curiously down the streets of a red light district, surrounded by adverts for strip clubs and bars, “But taking on the name might give me something at least. Maybe at least confidence.”

“It sounds over the top and glittery,” STELLAR —Seishirou — says from across the table, green hair in stark contrast to Cíoroc’s pink, as a young boy in the low-res archival footage is shoved against a well by a trio of larger boys, a glitch obscuring the screen before he’s left wiping a bloody nose and being comforted by another boy as he cries, “I’m really into that.”

“What’s your price, baby?” Cíoroc asks, voice crisp and clear, winking behind his shades at the unfortunate souls on the other side of the table.

Chan-yeol walks into a cabaret, music thudding, drunk patrons cheering, someone dancing on stage. “The cabaret, as it is. My boss... y’see...” After the show, he approaches the dancer, the words they say to each other inaudible as the voiceover takes precedence, but a few months later he’s back, waiting tables, and even later than that, the footage flickering as it fast-forwards, everything advancing at an incredible pace, he’s a singer up on the stage, getting money and spending it as soon as he gets it, an unending cycle of fluorescent lights and the bottom of a bottle. One day, he comes in, and the man who he talked to on his first night is nowhere to be seen, a number of people hurrying to show him a pile of paperwork left on a table which he stares at with bleary confusion. “He ran away after signing my name under everything. All of it. He was the piece of shit who got me here in the first place and left me behind.” Meetings with unsavory people, men in black suits, midnight drives. “I... can’t keep a whole business afloat and worry if these people are gonna die because of me. I can’t live with that. “

Seishirou’s voice is as calm and conversational as ever, the version of him in the glitchy archival footage studying late nights, getting more and more confident as the years flicker by, the same boy who comforted him by his side the entire time. “Simply put; my medical license.” Seishirou is wearing a white coat and a smile as the voiceover continues, studying even harder. “It was more than just a piece of paper. It was even more than the proof of some years spent at school. I can earn it back if I make it through, of course, but nothing will replace that… physical proof that I survived.” He walks with his friend, the two happily talking, when all of a sudden the boy, now a man, is struck by a speeding bus. As the Seishirou in the footage runs over, forcing his panic aside to begin performing medical procedures, the voiceover is calm, if a little wistful. “That I didn’t kill myself and got to study what I love. The reminder of everything Hideki has done to help me… It meant a lot to me, that silly piece of paper. But Hideki means so much more to me.”

There’s another glitch, strange colours and dead pixels radiating out from the center of the screen, the sound alert of an error message playing over and over again, layering over itself until the voiceover is now Memory’s voice. Meri’s voice, cheerful and lighthearted. “Hmmm....Aha, you caught me there!” A building collapses violently on screen, an accident that must have killed dozens or hundreds and that likely doesn’t cross the mind of the young girl, no more than a toddler, being delivered to the front door of an elderly couple, far too old to be her parents. She doesn’t mourn, she doesn’t cry, she just goes about her life, going to school, talking to her grandparents, and going up to her room to use her computer, a cycle that just repeats over and over again, each brief conversation barely worth a frame of video. “I just thought it sounded cute…but I suppose I could say because I’m very reminiscent of the past, haha.”

A young Meri does make a friend, walking everywhere with a girl, wearing matching outfits, and then one day, she says something, her posture making it clear what it is: a confession. The girl shouts at her, recoiling, and leaves. Meri looks crushed, and the next few years of her life are dull, colours drained from the footage, going by in a low-res blur. The cycle continues, a non-existence, until she starts taking photos of herself in different outfits and a screen tear causes the audio to jump; when the video resumes, Meri is posing for the cover of a magazine. “My medicine. For my illness, that is,” she says, as the magazine crumples and falls out of view, Meri now dressed not in any designer outfit but in a hospital gown. “Haha. It was only important to me...like...physically. To keep me alive. I don’t really give a shit about them. Without them, I’ll probably die way sooner than expected. That’s fine though. I’d rather live a few weeks in happiness opposed to living like this for another miserable decade.” An IV is hooked up to her arm and she lies in bed, checking her phone, refreshing repeatedly before putting it down. “I can’t keep living like this anymore.”

The footage is crisp and clean now, right from the show, ad banners running along the bottom of the screen, and Seishirou, Horang and Meri are talking, laughing together, sharing a moment. A roll of distortion obscures them and then Seishirou is standing over his friend, lying with his eyes closed in a hospital bed, another doctor saying something that can’t be made out, vague electronic beeping the only indication that this footage ever had audio. “It’s nothin’ more and nothin’ less than the knowledge needed to cure,” the doctor keeps talking, and Seishirou’s posture gets tenser and tenser,  “Full body paralysis, specifically, irreparable nerve damage, anything I need to know to prevent unexpected complications. I want to-... I need to be able to do it myself. I can’t fail again.” There’s a skip, another barrage of error messages and for a few moments a frame of Seishirou’s friend lying, against a storefront is interposed on a frame of Meri sleeping in a hospital bed and then with the rapidly flickering images of Horang and Seishirou’s bodies. “Why? Maybe because I’m selfish. Maybe because I can’t let go of someone I care deeply about. Of course, Hideki is the only thing on my mind most of the time, but… That doesn’t mean I can’t keep using that knowledge for good after, right?”

“Everybody wants to feel secure, right? Everybody wants to feel like they can take care of themselves in the future. That they don’t have to spend their rent money on food or lose it all because... ha. They gambled it all away.” That’s Chan-yeol’s voice, of course. The scenes of footage are brief. Dancing. The bottom of a bottle. Singing. Wads of cash, thrown at him. A meal at a restaurant. Gambling. Dates with a number of different people; a graphical glitch seems to blur them all together at one point. “I just want to finally... settle my debt. I want loan sharks off my ass. I want my name off of any papers I didn’t actually sign. I just want to get out of the fucking underground.” The cycle repeats and it doesn’t stop, but soon there’s conversations with shady-looking men, and the dancing and singing are replaced with carrying strange packages, a man in a too-nice suit helping him go over paperwork. “I could... buy back jobs. Build a new cabaret. I could send my sister money. Ji-min... I could fund her whole life for her, if she wanted me to. Fuck, I’ll even send my parents to a retirement home in the future.” The lights of the red light district pulse and throb like the lights of the faerie world. “I just. I just want control, for once. Money has always been control.”

Chan-yeol is sitting in a casino, and then there’s a wipe and it’s Meri in a casino, faeries each jostling for her business, wide smiles and glowing eyes and eclectic outfits. A text box offers GLIMPSES OF THE FUTURE and she smiles at the faerie behind the table, who holds up a deck of cards enticingly. “I don’t actually care about modelling all that much. I just want the fame I used to have before it was taken away from me.” Archival footage is intercut, a girl who looks just a little but not quite like Meri wearing outfits like hers, smiling like hers, on the cover of every magazine. “Everyone who admired me. I want them back.” Back to the show, and Meri is staring into the distance, shellshocked. In her room, she puts on a mask. “I’m scared to die alone,” she admits in the voiceover, as the Meri on screen grips a sword tightly in her hand. “My career...The fame that came with it...it’s the only thing that’s ever made me truly happy. It’s the only thing that made living feel different from being dead for once.” There’s another digital glitch, and Chan-yeol — or should that be Horang? — goes down, blood staining his clothes. “I’ve never felt that before..besides when I found out I was dying and lost all that I cared about. Then dying felt much scarier than living. I don’t want to die afraid and alone.” Seishirou’s eyes widen as he looks at the scene — Meri turns to him and says something, the movement of her lips blurred out by errant slides of colour. “I want to die while I’m still happy. I want people to be sad. I want them to miss me. I don’t want my existence to be forgotten and meaningless.”

She’s talking to Cíoroc in the interview, happy, ready for the show to begin. “After all, I don’t have any family left to carry on my blood. I feel bad that...I don’t miss them like they deserve. I’m rather hypocritical for not wishing the same upon myself, huh?” Cíoroc listens, smile serene and implacable as always. Seishirou, or, well, STELLAR, bleeds out, expression peaceful. Horang lies on the floor.

Chan-yeol’s voice speaks as Horang Lee bleeds out on the floor. “...I visit my sister. I tell her... as much as I can about all the years we were apart. I don’t tell her about this show, but I tell her that some... big local talent show gave me a shot and I won. I tell her something, but bottom line,” and the footage begins to fade into nothing but electronic noise, “I spend the rest of my life taking care of her. I find everybody whose lives I ruined because of the cabaret and send them money. I buy a real apartment. Maybe I’ll get a cat. And I just... live as quietly and as peacefully as possible until I die. That’s my plan.” The lights of the red light district flash and pulse. It’s always the same; prices and prizes.

STELLAR and Meri… well, it’s Memory, right? — talk as the former dies. Instead of their voices, it’s Seishirou’s dub. “Help Hideki. He… Ahah, it’s weird. I know he wasn’t too keen on staying alive, especially the past years. How the tables had turned, right?” He looks serious as he gives the interview answer to Cíoroc. Far away, a man lies motionless in a hospital, hooked up to wires and monitors. “But I can’t… let him meet his end like this. Withering away in a hospital bed. Lucid but immobile. I want another chance at making him happy. Doing for him what he did for me. And, selfishly, I... don’t want to live without him. “ On the stage of HIGHWAY TO HEAVEN, STELLAR breathes his last breath. “After that, well… I just hope we can keep living. Together.”

The rest is familiar. Memory at the trial. The execution. Her smile at the interview table is bright and cheery. A glitch causes another screen tear, half of the pixels of the hospital bed visible onscreen instead of what should be there. “Live for however long I have left. Enjoy the admiration. Die happily and surrounded by people. Be remembered. I don’t care if it’s only a few weeks or so. As long as I...get it back. Hey, even if I don’t win though...hopefully I’ll be remembered- no, immortalized...through this show?”

And with that, it’s back to Cíoroc. He’s still smiling, but it’s a curious smile. It’s not a happy one. Is he, perhaps, actually sad? Nah, that’s impossible. “Hahahaha… it’s a funny thing, right? She’s just like me when I was younger. Oh, the good old days. Who’d have thought old Watershed from season three would end up a star like Cíoroc Mair, huh?” A pixelated portrait of Memory flickers into existence behind him inside an empty Paint window. “Don’t worry, Memory. Nobody’s going to forget a performance like that. Nobody. You don’t get the fame you wanted, but you’re not in bad company there, not with Kleos from season one, Taiyang from season two, Cathode from season five, Divinity from season seven, Gloria from season nine, Starlight from season ten, Parameshwara from season twelve, Sveca from season thirteen, Five from season fourteen, Yeong-gwang from season sixteen, Shirley from season eighteen, Ursula from season nineteen,  Bundy from season twenty-one, Uzuri from season twenty-three, Alexandria from season twenty-five, Glamorama from season twenty-seven, Shrine from season twenty-eight, Takibi from season thirty, Ganymede from season thirty-two, al-Aziz from season thirty-four, Zhuchiren from season thirty-six, and Blue from season thirty-seven!”

Although he names a lot of names, Memory’s portrait remains central, each portrait of another contestant circling hers in a curious sort of mosaic. After a few seconds, Cíoroc reaches out, taps the ‘save’ button, and continues as Horang’s portrait appears. “Wishing for money to get out of their problems we find Scoop from season one, Rat from season three, Cooper from season five, Marie Antoinette from season seven, Flashpoint from season ten, Don from season eleven, Real from season thirteen, Jinzi from season sixteen, Penny from season seventeen, Boxcars from season nineteen, Grendel from season twenty-three, Gatsby from season twenty-five, X from season twenty-nine, Rembrandt from season thirty-four, and Kisamata from season thirty-eight.” With another tap, a portrait of STELLAR joins them. “And wishing for the skills to save a friend or loved one, we see STELLAR joining up with Chaos from season four, Desperado from season eight, Bonnie from season thirteen, Sun Wukong from season nineteen, Gwydion from season twenty-five, and Sancho Panza from season thirty-two.”

He pauses. “This show’s been going on for a long time, huh? Kind of makes you wonder when it’s going to grind to a stop. Oh, wait, that’s right, never! The show must go on, and we’ve got an audience who wants to keep watching, right? Still, the longer we make it, the more it feels like everyone’s moving on. Even the people watching right now, you know? They’ve moved on in their hearts already. Showbiz, baby. It can be tough. See you all next episode, where we’ll be challenging our contestants to survive in the deadly wilderness of an on-studio location with a full camera crew! Constant scenery changes keep things from getting fresh and stale by letting characters interact in new settings, you know? That’s just a little showbiz secret!”

Cíoroc then proceeds to make robot noises for the entire remaining thirty-minute duration of the broadcast.  

[sarahemorin]

One of the joys of getting back into writing circles in the past four years has been getting to know so many other talented writers. In 2015, right after Waking Beauty was published, I ran an interview with W.B. Cornwell and A.N. Williams, who were also releasing their first book. Although Ben and Millie are still in their twenties, they have racked up the publication credits in the past three years. Already their publications include A Chill in the Air and The Shadows are Alive (under pen name Storm Sandlin), and A Day at Aunt Carrie’s. They compiled and edited Heart of Hoosierland: A Collection of Elwood Poetry. They were also contributors to Poets of Madison County and Paw Prints in Verse.

  Their newest release, Awaiting Dawn: The Story of Avalene, came out earlier this summer. I sat down with the pair at Logan Street Sanctuary in Noblesville to ask them about their latest endeavor. Ben is an outgoing and consistently upbeat young man. He’s full of energy and grateful to swap ideas with other writers. Millie is quieter at first, but focused, observant, and unafraid to interject insightful comments. Together the pair are ambitious, optimistic, and incredibly productive. Seeing the pair interact smoothly at the interview gave me an inkling of how they function as cowriters. At times they were so in sync they finished each other’s sentences.

Sarah E.: I love talking to local authors. What is your connection to Central Indiana?

Ben: Our great-great-great-grandmother was born here a month before Indiana became a state in December 1816. Our family were pioneers of the state, county, and Elwood, the city where we now reside.

Sarah E.: So you two share not only a literary relationship, but another type of relationship.

Millie: Yes, we’re first cousins and best friends.

Sarah E.: And that’s after surviving several books, a real test of friendship! What kind of literary works do you write?

Millie: All kinds. Under the pen name Storm Sandlin we write horror. Awaiting Dawn: The Story of Avalene is our first YA novel. We also write historical fiction and fantasy, poetry and prose.

Ben: We have separate projects as well. But yeah, we’re pretty eclectic. Imagine two collections of Edgar-Allen-Poe-inspired stories beside our children’s book.

Sarah E.: Tell me about the plot of Awaiting Dawn.

Ben: The story is set in a medieval time frame. A young princess’s family is murdered and she’s taken captive by the new king. He takes up residency in her home and gives her to his son. The whole book is about her trying to survive at her former house. It’s her palace, but it’s no longer her family. She’s no longer safe there. She’s in an abusive marriage and has a horrible father-in-law. It’s very much a story of survival.

Sarah E.: It’s like a crossover piece, fantasy and thriller.

Ben: It’s hard for people to understand how someone could be a princess and a slave at the same time.

Sarah E.: So politics are what bind her?

Ben: Yeah, if she left it would mean her life.

Sarah E.: That’s intriguing. Millie, who is your favorite character?

Millie: Starla. She is a servant in the place and becomes the only friend and companion that Avalene has. She’s a light in her life.

Sarah E.: Was her development your idea?

Millie: We created Starla together, but—

Ben: She was yours.

Millie: (Laughs.) She was my character. We planned out all the relationships between characters and plot points. And then we each took ones that were important to us and wrote the scenes.

Ben: We divide it as homework basically. You have five chapters this week. You have Avalene and her best friend. I have her and the love interest. And then we write and compare and edit together.

Sarah E.: Do you think an outside reader is able to tell who wrote what?

Ben: I don’t think so because sometimes it’s hard for us.

Millie: Yeah. I don’t remember which part we wrote.

Ben: It’s pretty fluid.

Sarah E.: That’s remarkable. But then your imaginative brains have been functioning side by side for a while.

Millie: Since we were little, we created games to play together and worlds and stories.

Ben: One thing that is bizarre is for first cousins—you really only hear about it with twins—we share nightmares.

Sarah E.: WOAH! That’s kind of cool. Not that I really wish nightmares on you.

Ben: Well, that’s the Storm Sandlin stuff.

Sarah E.: Right right. I can see the influence of the Storm Sandlin genre on this fantasy novel now that you’ve described it. It’s not as far away from your original genre as I thought.

Ben: Yeah, it’s not slasher. There’s nothing supernatural. But there is mental abuse, like you might see in a realistic horror story. It’s scary in a different way. Avalene is battered.

Sarah E.: Why do you choose to write those two genres?

Ben: (Laughs.) I guess we’re sick people!

Sarah E.: I don’t believe that.

Mille: I would say with Awaiting Dawn it’s a lot easier to answer that question. It’s because of the continued hope in the darkness, trying to fight back to the light.

Sarah E.: See, that was a good answer! When you are a reader, what genre are you pulled most to?

Ben: Historical fiction. My favorite author is Gene Stratton Porter. The first book I ever read of hers was A Girl of the Limberlost, published in 1909. That’s the birth year of three of my great-grandparents.

Sarah E.: That was my grandmother’s favorite author. She had collections of moths and butterflies pinned in boxes. And Millie, what about you?

Millie: I am typically drawn to very whimsical fantasy, anything that has that magical element. It started with Narnia.

Sarah E.: Fascinating that you, Ben, write historical fiction, and you, Millie, like whimsical fantasy, but that’s not what you write.

Ben: Well, I am a genealogist. I love anything that puts you into that time frame.

Sarah E.: It is true that the study of history ties in well to the world-building you do in fantasy. You have to invent a kingdom and which rules you’re following and which rules you’re changing. That’s sort of like being a historian. I say that because I’m a Conner Prairie girl.

Ben: Right. I think that’s cool you that.

Sarah E.: It’s pretty fun! So when I interviewed you two in 2015, you mentioned your inspiration was Alfred Hitchcock, Tim Burton, classical music, and nursery rhymes. Has that changed?

Ben: Actually L.M. Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables influenced Avalene.

Sarah E.: What’s the connection?

Ben: Anne’s not abused, but she’s alone in the world until the Cuthberts take her in. Her time with the family before is not good. It’s a story of survival. It’s incredible to see how Lucy Montgomery develops her characters. It helped me become a better writer. It’s really funny to think the process of how Anne of Green Gables came to be is similar to how Avalene came to be, which I didn’t find out til after it was published.

Sarah E.: Tell me more about that.

Ben: Anne of Green Gables started as a short story. Lucy was going to send it in to get published in a magazine and something told her, no, save it. Years later she took it out and turned it into a huge series. Well, Avalene started off as a three-part short story. When we first wrote it, it was vastly different.

Millie: That was five years ago.

Ben: We posted it on Facebook.

Millie: And on our blog.

Ben: I was reading it and said, “Millie, we need to bring new life to this.” So we removed it from cyberspace and edited what was maybe 4000-5000 words into a novel. It took—how many months?

Millie: We started last November.

Sarah E.: It just came out on Amazon June 5th. That’s fast!

Ben: We had a really great editor who is also an Indiana author named Samantha Boothroyd.

Sarah E.: I hear she’s nice!

(Note: At this point we all glanced at Samantha Boothroyd, who just so happened to be in the room and just so happens to be Ben’s girlfriend.)

Ben: She is! I’m fond of her.

Samantha: I can hear you, and for the record when I read it I didn’t know who wrote what.

Sarah E.: That’s amazing you were that smooth in your transitions.

Ben: A lot of people ask us, “How do you work with someone?” I couldn’t do it with everybody.  Millie and I can even cowrite a poem, where every single word matters, and be happy with it. That’s a really rare thing.

Sarah E.: You two are a really fascinating case study. Speaking about Anne of Green Gables, you have seen Anne with an E?

Ben: I have not.

Sarah E.: You might be interested because it deals much more with her past and that she was essentially a neglected child. It’s a much more psychological treatment than she’s traditionally given.

Ben: I feel like I would betraying Megan Follows, who did the original version. But I do want to see it.

Sarah E.: Here’s a quote from you two a few years ago: “With a writing partner, there’s no such thing as writer’s block.” Do you still find that to be true?

Mille: Yes.

Sarah E.: Do you ever have an artistic disagreement?

Millie: (Laughs.) That’s also a yes.

Ben: At first, if we didn’t like something—

Millie: —we’d just get really quiet. We wouldn’t provide feedback for each other. We were afraid of offending each other. But we sat down one day and had a conversation: if we’re not both completely happy with this, we shouldn’t publish it. And if there’s a different way you see this scene happen or saw this character, explain it. That’s how you know who your characters really need to be.

Ben: A lot of people will at some point work with a cowriter. It’s important when you’re doing that to have a shared mapped-out outline. You know what’s going to happen. If you write 12 chapters, and I’m writing 12 chapters that take place after that, and I discover you killed off a major character…you can’t do that.

Millie: You have to be communicating constantly to write together.

Ben: We get together twice a week for 2-3 hours for writing sessions. At the end of the session we have homework. You work on this scene, I work on that scene, then we get together and edit.

Sarah E.: How did you learn your craft?

Ben: I didn’t start taking writing seriously until high school. Then it was private. I threw a lot of it away. I didn’t see a point in keeping it.  Big mistake. Then when we started working together. I had a story I couldn’t finish, she had a story she couldn’t finish. I said, “You know what would be cool? If your character and my character were friends.” That’s what started our first collaboration. I do believe writing groups are important. We both belong to The Write Idea. I belong to the Last Stanza Poetry Association. Jenny Kalahar, who I know you know, is my literary godmother.

Sarah E.:  That’s a good description of Jenny!

Ben: She’s been more of a blessing than she will ever know. I recently sent her something to proof and she wrote back, “You’re getting better and better.” The joy that came from an adopted mentor telling you that is hard to explain.

Sarah E.: So Millie, how did you learn your craft?

Millie: I don’t remember a time I didn’t write. In elementary school I would start a story and get stuck, and throw it away, and start another story. I did that through middle school. I took two writing classes in high school. One was on poetry, and it almost made me not write poetry.

Sarah E.: Oh no!

Millie: I started to think it was all rules and meter. But then I rediscovered poetry and enjoy having more freedom. I also took a creative writing course and that helped me develop my thoughts into complete stories.

Sarah E.: Upcoming projects?

Ben: We are sending out a submission call soon for an anthology called Under the Cherry Tree: Thirty Great Poets Under Thirty. It’s a nationwide search for poets between the ages of 18 and 29. It’s kind of a hard age. There’s a lot of things for kids, and that’s great, and then you’re twenty and can’t do those anymore. But in your 20s, older poets don’t take you seriously sometimes. To the teenagers we’re old, it the older poets we’re children, and so we’re trying to give a publication for that awkward age group in the literary world. We’ll feature the 30 best poets we can collect.

Millie: We’d like to publish this in April 2019 for National Poetry Month.

Ben: After that we’ll do an anthology for Indiana poets. We’d like to constantly produce works that don’t feature just us. It’s an odd concept to not be working on 3-5 publications.

Sarah E.: Anything else we should know?

Ben: Elwood’s Poetry Month is coming up in October. In 2016 Mayor Todd Jones signed a proclamation we presented him. Elwood has a Poetry month now in remembrance of a poetry day Elwood use to have in 1976, which was started by my grandmother.

Sarah E.: What can folks look forward to this year?

Ben: We are still raising money from Heart of Hoosierland. Every dime raised til November 1 all the money goes to the city—to the library and the food pantry.

Sarah E.: Thank you, this was a fun time. You all fascinate me. Last thing, how can folks get copies of your books?

Ben: All our books are on Amazon. We publish through Create.Space. We also encourage folks to visit our Facebook page or read our pieces on http://goodkin.org/.

          WEBSITE

              Author Interview: W.B. Cornwell and A.N. Williams One of the joys of getting back into writing circles in the past four years has been getting to know so many other talented writers.