#author applications

[sleepoverzine]

🔮 90s ANIME 🌙 SLEEPOVER ZINE 🌙

👾✨ 2 Weeks Left To Apply: May 1st ✨👾

➢ info ➢

☞ apply ☞

🎨 Illustrations (magazine covers, page illustrations, print ads, comics) 📚 Writers (fics, articles) 🥣 Recipes (food, baking, drinks, skincare, slime, etc.) 🎲 Activities (party games, quizzes, paper dolls, colouring pages, etc.) 🎁 Physical & Digital Merch (prints, stickers, pins, digital merch, etc.) 💖 SFW Zine ❤️‍🔥 NSFW Zine 👻 Spooky Story Mini Zine (urban legends, campfire stories, games & dares, etc.)

All spots are still open, but we're especially interested in receiving more applications for: recipe creators, activity creators, NSFW writers, and NSFW artists 💖

💌

Thanks for helping us get the word out! 💞 @zineapps @anizines @faneventshub @fandomzines @zine-scene @zinesubmissions @zineforall @zinefans @zinesunlimited

[side-sidecast]

the thing about queer exclusionism besides being blatantly hypocrytic is that it treats being opressed and discriminated as something meriting authority within the community. "youre not opressed so you cant be part of our community" who are you to decide what counts as opression? how can you judge an experience you havent lived? queerness has so many levels and intersections with other factors that you will never be able to completely santise it to your liking. there will always be people and labels that you dont understand and distinctions you think are futile in the grand scheme of things, but you have to learn to be civil towards them, you have to learn about intersectionality. you cant decide who is "opressed enough" opression doesnt have levels, its not something you can rate, its something you fight against and thats it. if you want to defeat opression, you cant use it as a unit of measurement.

[str4ngr]

sing my lullaby [ keegan p. russ ]

m' so tired just wanna give him a smooch n cuddle

cw: none, fluff, civilian & fem!reader, keegan n' cute aggressions.

When Keegan gets home from deployment, his biggest present is nothing but the comforting warmth of your body. Clothed in his t-shirt that was too big for you, your body was sprawled across the bed, the sweet sight brought a warm smile to his face. In careful silence, he leaned his weight onto the bed, letting his knee sink into the plush sheets, adoring your drooling face of dreaming.

His hands are so cold, making you whine as his hands slip under his your shirt. Cold palms gently rub your belly as he curls into the crook of your neck, kissing the soft flesh. Soft murmurs leave your lips, words incoherent even in silence until your dry voice croaks into his hair,

"Keegan...?" Although cracked from sleep, in his eyes, your lips move like soft clouds of the heavens as they utter his name. Your voice too angelic to be speaking such cursed name of a war criminal, his husky voice hushs you softly, lulling you back to sleep as his arms weigh on your body like bulky stones. "Missed you."

The strings of his heart tighten, utterly infatuated with you. Such simple words, only two words, has his eyes burning as he stared at your closed eyes, unable to restrain the beam of affection the grew on his face.

"Missed you too, princess." His heart empties itself in silence as he leans his body on top of yours, chests colliding as he purrs into your skin in satisfaction, kissing the shoulder exposed by the collar of his shirt. Two hands in motion, one twisting your hair, even when you told him not to mess with it, the other gently caressing your tummy. He wants to crawl into your skin, nibble on your supple, silken skin until it's all he wants, because it is all he wants.

Warm turned cold as your voice rang with an irritated whine, lazily searching for the blanket. His smile only deepened with adoration, lips sluggish to kiss your cheek, the hand you saw as the bane of your bad hair days reached for the duvet. Warmth envelopes both of your figures, even so, your bodies stay interlaced, his hand returning to cup your head.

You murmur in your sleep again, an exhausted chuckle escaping Keegans lips as your hands rises to pet his hair. His face heats up, his vision blurry as he melts into you, his most cherished woman, as the urge of sleep overtakes him mind. Quiet arpeggios echo in his ear, rich sounds even with your dry throat. Still damp, your hands caressed his hair, working like a tender pacifier, soothing his aching body to join yours into the mindless azure of sleep.

He missed this, your voice, your soft hands. Keegan missed brushing his lips on your warm, supple skin, foolishly doing anything that you pleased. His body relaxed against yours, the weight of war rescinding from his strained shoulders. His hands paused, trembling in overwhelming love, heart rippling under the trained muscle across his chest as he pressed his nose further into your neck.

He wants to squeeze you in his arms until your head feels like it'll pop, he wants to memorize every millimeter of your perfect skin, he wants- needs to know every little of your body. He wants to pinch your cheeks until you squeal, wants to make sure eyes inch of your visible skin.

He sighs into your skin, mind numbing with your gentle tune that easily tamed his thoughts for the morning after, when he knew he could pinch and bite at you, even to your feigning of dismay, he knew you loved it.

Keegan knew you loved him, just as much as he loved you.

-ˋˏ✄┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈

him.

directory 

[witchhazelpublishing]

Witch Hazel is open for submissions!

Hi there! We are Witch Hazel Publishing and we're a new queer publishing co-operative. Whether you write poetry or prose, we want to work with you! Our aim is to build a community of queer authors that helps each other hone their craft, and get more independent writers published.

Here's everything you need to know about our first project:

Theme: queer life and community. This can be interpreted in so many ways, so feel free to get creative!

Format: whatever form of writing you like! Since this is a mixed anthology, we accept poetry, prose, essays or anything in between. Ensure the font is a legible style and size.

Word limit: 5000

Deadline: 23:59, 30th November 2024

How to submit: please email us at witchhazelpublishing@gmail.com with your writing attached as a doc/docx/pdf. 

Once you have submitted a piece for the anthology, you will have the option to join our co-operative. This means you will have a say in future projects and the running of the co-op. We want to hear your voice, especially if you are interested in working in the publishing industry. This anthology will be released as a digital-only zine, but we plan for our next book to have a physical release.

[masterkeynobi]

is there anything better in the world than Aabria Iyengar Wizard Arrogance. is there ANYTHING BETTER IN THE WORLD than aabria iyengar wizard arrogance!!! i don't fucking think so!

[text ID:

Aabria Iyengar I slam my staff on the ground, revealing it to be that tall, jagged glass spire of the citadel. [A sound of crashing glass] She's at her full 6ft tall, and pulled back a sleeve enough to see that, like, ring. This is a big enough city that they should know how to respond to this energy. Brennan Lee Mulligan Amazing. Go ahead and give me intimidate with advantage Aabria Iyengar Thirteen! Brennan Lee Mulligan What do you say to Oscar as he's standing in front of you? Suvi [Aabria] Move.

/end ID]

[leechjuice]

looking for an intimate, bloody lesbian horromance to sink your eager teeth into this summer?

e-ARC applications for my debut novel, IN THE END, YOU KILL US BOTH are now OPEN, and will remain open until JULY 19TH.

full synopsis + cws can be found on the application page! due to graphic content, please do not apply to receive an e-ARC if you are under eighteen years old!

click here to apply!

[aroaessidhe]

2023 reads // twitter thread

To Shape A Dragon’s Breath

YA fantasy

a young Indigenous girl finds & bonds with a dragon hatchling - the first time in many generations for her people - and is required to go to the coloniser’s dragon academy in their mainland city, to learn how to raise her dragon and the science of its magic

historical inspired setting on the cusp of industrial revolution with steampunk vibes

bi polyamorous MC, Black lesbian SC, nonverbal autistic SC

[colourmestoked04]

I want to marry a writer.

I want to marry someone who can string simple words together and create a fantasy world.

I want to marry someone who cares so deeply they obsess over a single sentence for hours because they ‘want to capture the character perfectly.’

I want to marry someone who will spend dinner telling me all about where they’re taking their story next with such passionate it illuminates them.

I want to marry someone who will read me their work when I’m struggling to sleep.

I want to marry someone who will appreciate my excessive analysis of chosen points in a story.

I want to marry a writer.

[psalmsofpsychosis]

people say "pro artist" like it matters for shit lmaooo "pro artist critiques students' work" who gives a fuck about his title, he's just another person with his own subjective opinions. "He makes money off his work and works in a big name company" WHO GIVES A FUCK HE'S JUST ANOTHER PERSON WITH HIS OWN SUBJECTIVE OPINIONS MARKETABILITY AND INDUSTRY WORK DOES NOT INDICATE QUALITY OF THOUGHT OR QUALITY OF WORK IT JUST MEANS MASS APPEAL

[popcorn-plots]

guys I posted something for the first time since August, are you proud of me

anyways

Peter spirals after getting rejected from MIT.

Noticing the Halloween decorations at MJ's work, Peter decides to go to the only person he knows can help. Doctor Strange suggests doing a little... convincing, but Wong sees right through Peter and suggests taking a different approach.

Peter feels horrible about it, but Wong steps up and... is a lot nicer than one would think. He just seems grumpy, but a big softie underneath and Stephen... Stephen isn't as scary as he seems.

[kurozu501]

Norea, who did a terrorist attack on a school and murdered a teenager on live space tv in front of thousands of people: hey nika did you know its your fault my home base is being attacked rn. its your fault because of all the info you weren’t able to tell anyone since we kidnapped you before you could tell anyone anything. yeah.

[clownfire]

Riptide’s themes of found family mean so much to me. 

Pirate crews are literally found families IN THE TEXT.  The way Roofus talks about the Black Rose crew choosing to collectively raise Chip and Lizzie. Jay’s arc can be read as being about the disconnection with one’s birth family experienced by many queer ppl. ALMOST EVERY CONVERSATION WITH DREY. Ollie is basically the Albatrio’s son.

I AM A SUCKER FOR FOUND FAMILY TROPE, ESPECIALLY ONES THAT DON’T JUST REPLICATE NORMATIVE FAMILY STRUCTURES!11!!1!!!!...!

ishouldmakeapowerpointpresentation...

[aquitainequeen]

Applicants for the Editorial Assistant position: I love reading and literature! I spend a lot of time on BookTok! I'm passionate about exciting narratives!

Me, alternating between assessing candidates and scrutinizing a manuscript to make sure there are no nasty permission surprises: Oh, you are applying to the wrong department, my friend.

[jcmarchi]

Virtual Personas for Language Models via an Anthology of Backstories

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/virtual-personas-for-language-models-via-an-anthology-of-backstories/

Virtual Personas for Language Models via an Anthology of Backstories

<!–

We introduce Anthology, a method for conditioning LLMs to representative, consistent, and diverse virtual personas by generating and utilizing naturalistic backstories with rich details of individual values and experience.

–>

We introduce Anthology, a method for conditioning LLMs to representative, consistent, and diverse virtual personas by generating and utilizing naturalistic backstories with rich details of individual values and experience.

What does it mean for large language models (LLMs) to be trained on massive text corpora, collectively produced by millions and billions of distinctive human authors?

In “Language Models as Agent Models”, compelling evidence suggests that recent language models could be considered models of agents: provided with a textual context, LLMs are capable of generating conditional text that represents the characteristics of an agent likely to have produced that context. This suggests that, with appropriate conditioning, LLMs could be guided to approximate the responses of a particular human voice, rather than the mixture of voices that otherwise emerges. If realized, this capability of LLMs would have significant implications for user research and social sciences—conditioned language models as virtual personas of human subjects could serve as cost-effective pilot studies and supporting best practices in human studies, e.g. the Belmont principles of justice and beneficence.

In this work, we introduce Anthology, an approach for steering LLMs to representative, consistent, and diverse virtual personas by providing richly detailed life narratives of individuals as conditioning context to models. In doing so, we also present methods to generate backstories from LLMs themselves as a means to efficiently produce massive sets covering a wide range of human demographics. By grounding language models in naturalistic backstories, Anthology allows LLMs to simulate individual human samples with increased fidelity, measured in terms of matching the distributions and consistencies of human responses.

Our Approach: Anthology

Conditioning Language Model Generation with Individual Life Narratives

A significant limitation of earlier methods in steering LLMs to virtual personas has been the inability to reliably approximate individual human samples. Prior approaches prompt LLMs with broad demographic information, e.g., “I am a 25-year-old from California. My highest level of education is less than high school,” which are essentially bodies of text generated from a tuple of demographic variables. With these methods, we are only able to approximate human samples at a population level, not at the individual level, which results in:

Responses prone to LLMs defaulting to stereotypical and/or prototypical portrayals, as they are only conditioned on demographic variables (e.g., race and gender)

Inability to provide important metrics of interest such as covariance and statistical significance, as individual responses are required for such compuatations

Anthology enables the approximation of individual subjects by conditioning with richly detailed backstories. Through these backstories, the model captures implicit and explicit markers of personal identity, including demographic traits and spontaneous references to cultural, socioeconomic backgrounds, and life philosophies. Our approach involves generating a vast set of backstories representing a wide range of demographic attributes via language models queried with unrestricted, open-ended prompts such as, “Tell me about yourself.” We then match virtual personas conditioned by each backstory to real-world survey samples.

Results: Closer Approximation of Public Opinion Polls

For evaluation, we compare the effectiveness of different methods for conditioning virtual personas in the context of approximating three Pew Research Center ATP surveys: Waves 34, 92, and 99.

Results on approximating human responses for Pew Research Center ATP surveys. Boldface and underlined results indicate values closest and the second closest to those of humans, respectively.

As measures of success in approximating human samples with virtual personas, we consider the following metrics:

Average Wasserstein distance (WD) between response distributions as a measure of representativeness

Frobenius norm (Fro.) between correlation matrices as a measure of consistency

Cronbach’s alpha as an additional measure of internal consistency

Prior to analyzing virtual subjects, we estimate the lower bounds of each evaluation metric by repeatedly dividing the human population into two equal-sized groups at random and calculating these metrics between the subgroups. We take averaged values from 100 iterations to represent the lower-bound estimates.

We consistently observe that Anthology outperforms other conditioning methods with respect to all metrics, for both the Llama-3-70B and the Mixtral-8x22B. When comparing two matching methods, the greedy matching method tends to show better performance on the average Wasserstein distance across all Waves. We attribute differences in matching methods to the one-to-one correspondence condition of maximum weight matching and the limited number of virtual users available. Specifically, the weights assigned to matched virtual subjects in maximum weight matching are inevitably lower than those in greedy matching, as the latter relaxes the constraints on one-to-one correspondence. This discrepancy can result in a lower demographic similarity between matched human and virtual users compared to the counterpart from greedy matching. These results suggest that the richness of the generated backstories in our approach elicits more nuanced responses compared to baselines.

Final Thoughts

Anthology marks a promising new direction in conditioning virtual personas in LLMs that could potentially reshape how we conduct user research, public opinion surveys, and other social science applications by offering a scalable, and at times, ethical alternative to traditional human surveys. However, the use of Anthology, as in any other application of language models in the social sciences, also brings several considerations to the forefront: although the generated backstories help create more representative personas, there remains a risk of perpetuating biases or infringing on privacy, so results should be used and interpreted with caution.

In terms of future steps, we envision our approach benefiting from a more expansive and diverse set of backstories, each representing a consistent life narrative of individuals. Additionally, a valuable extension of the work would be to consider free-form response generation, enabling more natural and nuanced persona simulations beyond structured survey formats such as multiple-choice. Finally, an exciting next dimension in applying LLMs in behavioral studies would involve simulating longer-term effects, allowing virtual personas to model and retrospectively examine changes over time.

All of these directions present multitudes of technical challenges; please let us know if you are interested in collaborating or want to discuss our work further!

Learn more about our work: link to full paper

@articlemoon2024virtual, title=Virtual personas for language models via an anthology of backstories, author=Moon, Suhong and Abdulhai, Marwa and Kang, Minwoo and Suh, Joseph and Soedarmadji, Widyadewi and Behar, Eran Kohen and Chan, David M, journal=arXiv preprint arXiv:2407.06576, year=2024

[castielsupernatural]

supernatural

[tdcloud]

Infaust eARC applications are open! If you've ever wanted to read a book early and help me drum up some attention via reviews, word of mouth, and general frothing, here's your chance! Apps will be open a week and eARCs go out once we hit April!

Apply now!