#but here are myths about agents that new authors really need to understand:

[carriejonesbooks]

Literary Agents Behaving Badly

Literary Agents Behaving Badly

So, there’s a lot of scuttlebutt in the children’s book world about agents behaving badly, which sounds like a Spring Fling Road Trip kind of thing, honestly. But it’s more about agents being dicks and unprofessional. One recent superstar agent has been outed for allegedly “no longer agenting ethically” and not telling clients about their foreign rights, submissions, and speaking badly about…

[maddieinwonder]

The Seventh

Slight Spencer Reid x Fem!BAU!Reader

Genre: Fluff

Warnings: None at all

Word Count: 1.6k

Plot: Reader hears a lot of rumours about the BAU before she applies to join the team. (Part 2 here!)

Author's Note: I love the idea of the BAU being notorious in the FBI, because honestly, they totally would be! And I would be lying if I said I've never crushed hard irl on a mysterious genius boy...

Masterlist

------------

Before you decided to join the BAU, you had heard all kinds of gossip about its members. It was a hot topic among your colleagues, but you could hardly blame them for the shameless act, when you left one ear open for it yourself.

Professionally, if they weren't called the BAU, people called them the "serial killer guys", since they couldn't seem to escape them in their cases. But among your lunch group, they were called "The Seven".

It was an embarrassing name in your opinion, too easily implying that the BAU was elite, untouchable. But the more you learned about them, the more you thought there could some truth to it.

Number One was SSA Hotchner, the unit chief known for his stone cold attitude. You heard a rumour that he once threatened the BAU section chief without so much as batting an eye. Anybody else would have been fired on the spot, but it seemed that Hotchner was so unrivalled in his job that he was asked to stay anyway.

Hotchner's opposite was SSA Rossi, who seemed to be the more "human" of the two, but that didn't make him any less intimidating. He was famous both in and out of the FBI, having built the BAU from the ground up, and written multiple best-selling books about criminal analysis. Why he decided to return to the BAU was a mystery to everyone, but you had a feeling he actually missed it.

Then there was SSA Prentiss. Everyone's consensus was that she seemed nice, but ultimately professional. People theorised that her political upbringing made her into a politician herself, but you once saw her in the BAU office laughing so hard that tears started rolling down her cheeks, and that's when you decided she couldn't be as stiff as the rest made her out to be.

SSA Morgan was the one everybody liked, on a shallow level at least. All your fingers and toes weren't enough to count how many people you knew had a crush on him. You've seen grown women visibly swoon when he walked by, which was partially hilarious for you, but also partially embarrassing for womenkind. You could see the appeal, somewhat, but he wasn't your speed.

Your favourite was JJ. Jennifer Jareau was the BAU's communications liaison and the only one you'd dare call a friend. You'd worked with her on multiple cases in the past, and in fact, she was the one who recommended you for the new position. She's a complete sweetheart, but you also knew that she once headshot an unsub right in the BAU office to protect Penelope. That fact only increased your admiration for her.

She was also the one to introduce you to the BAU's infamous technical analyst. You had heard of Penelope Garcia prior to that, but she so rarely emerged from her office that you almost thought she was a myth. The real person was unlike an FBI agent at all, always donning some combination of bright colours, feathers, and/or sparkles. Most people who'd seen her labelled her as a weirdo, but there was something about her, a sense of positivity, that you loved.

Last but not least, the one that slipped under everyone's radar, Dr. Spencer Reid. People didn't talk much about Dr. Reid because, well, there was nothing really to talk about. He was the youngest person to ever join the FBI, had an IQ of 187, and you thought he was far too pretty to be doing a job this terrible, but that's where the conversations usually ended.

Everything that could be said, envied, or admired about the genius had simply been covered already, and he offered no new fodder for the gossip trolls to chew on; he rarely left the office, he didn't mingle with the other departments, and frankly, everyone thought he was socially awkward.

Yet, you found yourself continuously coming back to him in your thoughts. Maybe, subconsciously, you wanted to join the BAU so that you could figure him out.

The first time you met Dr. Reid, he was giving the profile of an unsub to the larger team. His words sped by so quickly, yet with so much insight and detail that you found yourself scrunching your face in concentration in order to get it all, and that impressed you.

You had always been a quick study but you instantly knew that Dr. Reid would be a challenge, both professionally and personally, and you hadn't even got to know him yet.

As you submitted the request to join the BAU, you admit that the excitement of that challenge was at the forefront of your mind. And when you were called into SSA Hotchner's office a few months later, the thought rang in your head even louder.

"Agent Hotchner, you called for me?" You asked at his door, suddenly feeling timid in the face of your potential boss.

"Sit down, agent," he said without looking up. As you took a seat, he opened a file that was undoubtedly yours and looked up. His eyebrows were furrowed, but if what you'd heard about him was true, this didn't necessarily mean anything bad. And you were right.

"I have your test results with me," he began. "Firstly, I'd like to congratulate you for scoring the highest in your class." You swore he almost cracked a smile.

"I've also heard a lot about you. Your boss had many good things to say about your work ethic, your field experience, and your commitment to justice," he continued.

Now it was your turn to smile.

"But I want to know the real reason why you want to join the BAU." Your smile faltered slightly, something that you're sure Hotchner would pick up on.

He leaned forward in his desk, purposefully applying pressure on the situation, and you let out a quiet breath in preparation.

"The reason I wanted to join the BAU may not be new to you, but I'm looking for a challenge. I want to make a change." You started. "I understand that those two may be contradictory principles, but I believe I can grow and do a lot of good with the BAU."

"And what if the job gets too much for you?" He asks, a flicker of emotion that I didn't recognise crossing his face.

"I'm prepared for that," you said determinedly. "I may not know what this job will take from me, but I'd like the opportunity to prove that I can grow from it, sir."

Agent Hotchner eyed you for a moment before standing up. "Very well, then." He reached out his hand. "Welcome to the BAU."

You looked at his hand for a second, the shock barely registering, before scrambling to your feet. "Thank you, sir! I won't disappoint you!" You shake his hand grinning.

"And next time, just call me Hotch." He said, this time smiling amusedly at your enthusiasm.

"Got it, and thank you again, sir." You said, excusing yourself from his room with a noticeable skip in your step.

You tried to cool yourself off walking back to your department to share the good news, but the excitement proved too much to hold in when a familiar voice calls out to you.

"Hey babygirl, considering you just came out of Hotch's office with a smile, I'm guessing you're going to be our newest teammate."

You turned around, trying to swallow your giddiness, when you realised that person was none other than SSA Morgan.

"Agent Morgan," you stuck out your hand in greeting. "Nice to meet you, and yes, I am."

"Derek." He corrected, grinning as he shook your hand. "Looking forward to working closely with you."

"Just call him Morgan. Don't need to get too close to this player." SSA Prentiss nudged Derek out of the way, raising her hand to meet yours. "I'm Emily Prentiss."

You giggled at their closeness.

The rest of the introductions quickly followed, including hugs from JJ and Penelope, and a starstruck moment when Rossi left his office to personally welcome you to the team. But there was one person whom you hadn't formally met yet.

Dr. Reid had finally separated his head from his work amidst the commotion (plus a very strong encouragement from one Mr. Derek Morgan to "go get her, pretty boy") and walked up to you, a nervous gait in his step.

He stuck his hand out to your surprise, having heard that the doctor was a tad germaphobic, and shook yours. "Dr. Spencer Reid," he said. "But you can call me Spencer, everyone else does."

"Nice to meet you, Spencer." You tried out the foreign name on your tongue. "Honestly, I'm quite a fan of your academic papers. I'm looking forward to working with you."

You knew the genius was a bit awkward, but he instantly turned beet red at your words and retracted his hand. The thought that this was the first time somebody had complimented him this way made you a little sad. But you thought his reaction was incredibly cute, and apparently so did the rest.

"Pretty boy, pret-ty boy, is that how you should react around a lady?" Derek sing-songed, putting his arm around the poor genius' shoulders, tugging him down.

JJ shot you an apologetic look for her childish teammates, while the rest joined in to poke fun at Spencer. Although he was frowning, his voice betrayed no hints of annoyance. Clearly they were all very close.

You laughed along, feeling a growing warmth in your chest, and wondered if you'd be a part of this family in the future.

But first, you’d have to get used to being the Eighth.

------------

(Part 2 here!)

[lilydalexf]

Old School X is a project interviewing X-Files fanfic authors who were posting fic during the original run of the show. New interviews are posted every Tuesday.

Interview with Mary Ruth Keller

Mary Ruth Keller has 42 stories at Gossamer, plus her stories are at AO3. She's written a number of short standalone stories, but she's thought through the X-Files mythology and written about it probably as much as anybody ever has. So if you want to dive into the mythology and all its drama, you need to go read her mythology fics ASAP. (But read this long, interesting interview first!) Big thanks to Mary Ruth for doing this interview.

Does it surprise you that people are still interested in reading your X-Files fanfics and others that were posted during the original run of the show (1993-2002)?

Quite frankly, yes. The Kuxan Sum Cycle branches off the actual series following the Third Season episode Syzygy. I took the myth-arc as it stood at that time, post Nisei-731, and the agents in mid-Rift. Although I didn’t quite realize it when I started out, I was most interested in moving the myth-arc forward in a continuously unfurling narrative, one where Scully and Mulder became an effective investigative team who support each other as partners and friends again. After I started writing in my little corner of the X-F universe in 1996, there was a lot of stuff on the show that just happened, with no real storytelling logic to it I could fathom, but that seemed to be popular. I stopped writing in 2000 because I was frantically busy at my new job (which consumed far too many twelve-plus-hour workdays and weekends) and because my sister and I were trying to take care of my elderly, increasingly frail, Mother. So, I never expected, when I started writing in 2018 and posting again in 2019 (I reposted all my stories, in order, to AO3 and fanfiction.net, because Chermera would never have made sense without them) for readers to take an interest in myth-arc and character issues that the series writers had simply abandoned to go chase, well, anything else, especially if it made no coherent sense whatsoever. What do you think of when you think about your X-Files fandom experience? What did you take away from it?

The fandom was a lot of fun. There were many interesting, engaging discussions I took part in with other fans of the show, some of whom I am still in touch with.

Social media didn't really exist during the show's original run. How were you most involved with the X-Files online (atxc, message board, email mailing list, etc.)?

All of the above. I spent a lot of time discussing writing and characters with other writers on ATXC, except when I was actively working on my novels. Since I was doing basic research into microwave remote sensing of the Earth while working at the Naval Research Laboratory at the time – yes, I was one of those dreaded Department of Defense scientists the show had a love/hate relationship with – my writing happened at night and on weekends. Novels, especially the longer ones, take me about a year from first words on disk until release, which meant I didn’t have all the time to participate on-line as I would have otherwise. But, I enjoyed chatting with the fellow denizens of the Endies Board, and on the EMXC, Scullyfic, and Je Souhaite mailing lists. I’ve saved some of those posts and conversation threads on my older computers, where it’s fun re-reading them from time to time. What did you take away from your experience with X-Files fic or with the fandom in general?

There were a lot of generous, funny, very intelligent fans involved with X-F back then (not that there aren’t now; there are, of course). I started writing because I wanted to get the myth-arc and the characters back on-track, the long-term story moving forward and the agents again being the smart investigators I loved hanging out with on Friday nights. But, outside of having read a lot of myth, literature, fiction, and non-fiction, I didn’t know enough about the mechanics of writing fiction. Several authors were willing to help out, some explicitly through E-mail conversations, and some from general comments about crafting stories that were posted to ATXC. I had a real problem with how I initially handled dialog, which I had some E-mail guidance on, that was very much appreciated. I also had two quite diligent beta readers, one an on-line fan, and one a real-life friend, both male, who helped me with the direction of the Scully-Mulder half of Anath. I was, at the time, utterly exasperated with how the pair of them had become such complete morons on the series, both totally incapable of investigating anything successfully, which was affecting my writing the characters in that story.   What was it that got you hooked on the X-Files as a show? Ooh, boy. I’d like to say I started watching with the show with the Pilot, but I didn’t, quite. Tom Shales was the Washington Post TV critic at the time the Pilot aired – yes, not only was I a government scientist, I was living in Alexandria, Virginia, in 1992. He was intrigued by the characters and premise and found Duchovny and Anderson engaging while playing their roles. At the time, I was wrapped up trying to work on a PhD while still employed at NRL, so I tucked the review away, waiting until I had Friday nights free to check it out. I’m a great lover of science fiction, so I thought to give the show a try, eventually. [Lilydale note: I found a couple things Tom Shales wrote about The X-Files premiere in 1993: Fall 1993 TV preview article and a “Pilot” episode review.]

The first episode I sat down to watch was the First Season Darkness Falls, where Mulder and Scully get trapped at the logging camp with the Earth Firster, Doug Spinney, the logging executive, Steve Humphries, the Forest Ranger, Larry Moore, and the gooey green bugs. I was amazed by that story. It was as perfect a little piece of science fiction as I have seen on TV (except for one bit toward the end), with an environmental moral to it as well, where all the characters make good and bad choices, and they all suffer or succeed because of them.

What hooked me, really hooked me, were the first/second acts, specifically, Dana Scully’s actions, once they find the desiccated logger in the tree. The investigation is handled logically, in that it’s not the big male agent who goes shinnying up the trunk to look at the evidence while everyone else stands around watching and wailing, “Whatever shall we do!” No, it’s little Dana Scully who takes the ride to the upper branches. This made oodles of sense, in that she was this tiny woman whom two men could lever up that far with a rope, a hand winch, and pulleys. When she gets there, after grimacing (who wouldn’t, considering what she saw), she starts investigating. She does an on-the-spot post-mortem exam, while Mulder makes an ooky male-body-parts joke, but everyone takes her results seriously. I was thrilled. Here was a female character I could really relate to, someone who could hold her own in a difficult situation, unlike most of those on the tube, then or now.

I made a point, over the following summer, of watching as many re-runs as I could, catching up on the episodes and characters. The stories ran to science fiction and horror, which are my preference. Further, although there was an emphasis on the paranormal, several of the first season episodes were written so both Mulder’s wanting-to-believe-but-needing-proof intuitive, emotional approach and Scully’s logical, scientific, justice-oriented viewpoint each got the narrative coherently from initial crime to identifying and apprehending a suspect. It was some spectacular, complex writing, and I was hooked, hopelessly hooked. I discuss this some on my old author web-page, which still exists, courtesy of the Wayback machine), so I won’t belabor it. What got you involved with X-Files fan-fic? The shenanigans within the Third Season, quite honestly. The myth-arc wasn’t moving forward, as it had during the Second Season, which I really couldn’t understand. Carter had given us this bang-up start in the ABC Trilogy with all these new fictional possibilities to explore, but instead, bupkis. The MOTW’s were retreads with no depth or moral/ethical weight to them, except for Darin’s stories. The intelligent agents I had enjoyed spending time with while they pursued their oddball investigations were evaporating before my eyes. Mulder had always been this deeply intuitive character who cared about others and knew he could get it wrong, so needed Scully’s logic in their investigations, even if he didn’t always want to hear her observations and questions. But that character was being replaced by a cookie-cutter misunderstood anti-hero, who wasn’t thinking, just running off to chase butterflies, who was always right because he was The Guy. Scully, as an investigator, the little agent who could, was simply being sidelined. Sure, she’d argue with Mulder, but the writers had stopped giving her and her logical viewpoint a real role in their cases, Darin excepted, again. As the series went on, the Agent and Doctor Dana Scully I respected was replaced with this snappish little female whose only notable skill was running in high heels, who spent her time standing around with her arms crossed, and made pruney faces at Mulder if she were required to do any actual investigating. I hated that character, but, apparently, the all-male writing staff just loved her.

I knew about the on-line fandom, so I thought to check out if anybody else had noticed these “improvements.” First, I spent time at ATXF, discussing the changes with the series, that disturbed a lot of folks, not just me. Eventually, I tripped onto ATXC. There were writers there who understood the two characters, quite well, but weren’t that interested in the other problems with the show that bothered me deeply.

Like many fan-fiction writers, I decided to try to bring in, or in my case, bring back, what I was missing in what was being aired. Sins of the Fathers was the result. As I mentioned above, it was a far from perfect story, but I learned much putting it together, and it got a lot of positive feedback. So I kept writing and trying to improve what I wrote. Folks appreciated it, then and now, surprisingly, which was endless encouragement to keep going. What is your relationship like now to X-Files fandom? With work and my Mom, as I mentioned above, I dropped out for a few years. My new job is still microwave remote sensing of the Earth, at a University-affiliated laboratory, not working directly for the government, but the NASA/NSF-type funding for the research I like to do is much harder to come by, so it takes up a lot more of my time to keep funded and working. Adding to that, I haven’t found places like ATXC in the 90’s or the Endies Board, but I suppose lightning only strikes once. Were you involved with any fandoms after the X-Files? If so, what was it like compared to X-Files?

Not really, no. I’ve enjoyed other TV series, but, I never felt those shows were just throwing away essential parts of themselves as X-F did, or, if they went bad, I simply stopped watching them. A fandom is, or can be, a huge time commitment, which, as I’ve noted, I don’t have that much of. I discuss this quite extensively in my author’s notes at the end of Chermera, so I won’t repeat myself. [Lilydale note: the long author notes are at the end of the story’s last chapter, not in the AO3 notes section.] Who are some of your favorite fictional characters? Why?

As a child, I loved reading myths and legends from many different cultures. So many amazing stories, so much that touches on truth. Greek myth, Norse legends, Islamic tales, Celtic fables, all of them. It goes without saying that discovering Tolkien’s fully-realized Middle Earth in my early teens was like falling into an river of endless delights.

In literature, perhaps the character I enjoy most is Sherlock Holmes. On television/in movies, I’d have to say: Beverly Crusher, (early) Dana Scully, Susan Ivanova of Babylon 5, Pa’u Zotoh Zhaan and (early) Aeryn Sun on Farscape, Samantha Carter on Stargate SG-1, Hermione Granger, and most recently, Lagertha on Vikings. Dunno, there might be a pattern there. Possibly. Do you ever still watch The X-Files or think about Mulder and Scully?

Yes, absolutely. I started rewatching the series when it ran on BBC America, enjoying the first two seasons again. I’d actually never stopped thinking about Mulder and Scully; I just lost the time to write about them, until two years ago, when I managed to land some long-term funding so I wasn’t staying up nights writing proposals every few months. I’d have a thought about how to advance the story that became Chermera, so I’d make a mental note and play with it in my head. I also have two more novels and a satyr play left to go in the sequence of stories I want to write, so I’m turning over plot-lines and potential arcs in my head all the time. Do you ever still read X-Files fic? Fic in another fandom? I do read X-F fan-fic. Since the series has wandered so far away from what engaged me, and most fan-fic keeps up with that, I don’t read very much. As far as other fandoms, one was enough. Do you have any favorite X-Files fan-fic stories or authors?

Reaching back into the dark ages, I’d say Pellinor and Nascent. They may both be available on Gossamer. [Lilydale note: Fortunately, they are!] What is your favorite of your own fics, X-Files and/or otherwise? Zurvan is the favorite of my older stories. It, like Twelfth Night (Denha on AO3 to avoid confusion with another X-F story named Twelfth Night), builds on the past stories in their trilogies and brings the overall arc to new places. It’s fun to uncover surprises when writing and develop challenges to address in the future, which both of those stories did. Do you think you'll ever write another X-Files story? Or dust off and post an oldie that for whatever reason never made it online?

I’d certainly like to. I had planned to write three trilogies with their satyr plays, each of them focusing on an aspect of the mythical Triple Goddess: Maiden, Matron, and Crone, in the X-F universe. Only, being me, I turned it around. Sandra Ann Miller (Samantha) is the Maiden, but I’ve just started telling that part of the arc with the transitional Anath and the first trilogy story Chermera. I’m approaching this trilogy as a coherent tale spread across the three novels, which is different from the other two. The Caroline Lowenberg Trilogy didn’t really get organized until Twelfth Night. It was only the third story I’d ever written, so perhaps I can be excused. The Dana Scully Trilogy was all interconnected, but that was more of an organic, rather than a pre-planned and deliberate, effort. I didn’t really grasp the full arc of what I was creating there until I was writing Chermera and looked back over the threads running from Rustic Suite through Anath. The next story in the Sandra Ann Miller Trilogy involves the exposure of the Japanese arm of the Consortium, but, I need to read up on Japanese history, myths and legends, and world view before I write it. After finishing and posting Chermera, that’s what I’ve been doing. The conflict between Amaterasu, the Sun goddess, and her ne’er-do-well brother Susanoo-no-Mikoto, the god of, among other things, storms, marriage, and love, as told in the Kojiki and the Nihongi (both written down in their near-final forms at the same time as we in the West were just recording the first skeletal versions of the Arthurian Legends), will definitely get worked into the Sandra Ann Miller Trilogy. I’m starting to put the arcs and plot-lines together, but, I’m not ready to begin writing yet. Do you still write fic now? Or other creative work? As I’ve discussed, I do. Part of why I take my time is because Mulder and Scully are owed real, challenging cases to solve - the two intelligent agents with their own approaches, strengths, and weaknesses, remember. Partly, because I have original fiction ideas I’d like to pursue. Trying to do the best I possibly can in the sheltered world of X-F where I attempt to create stories with universal themes, well-realized settings, coherent plot-lines, and original characters who resonate with my readers is practice for the original fiction. I’ll never write the Great American Novel (whatever that is), but I’d like to write stories that are as good as I can make them and fun for my readers, so I keep plugging. Where do you get ideas for stories? Reading and thinking, mostly. I try to look for ideas that haven’t been done to death, or different approaches to old themes. I have four original novels I scribble mental notes on. After I bring this myth-arc I’ve been working on to its (to me) logical resolution, I hope I’ll be able enough of a writer to get started on them. What's the story behind your pen name? Actually, it’s my real name. At the time I started writing, I didn’t think to do anything else. On ATXC and Gossamer, I wrote several of the shorts that are separate from the Kuxan Sum Cycle under the pen name Lise Meitner. She was a Twentieth Century theoretical physicist who explained nuclear fission, then was cut out of a Nobel prize because the judges of her day thought Marie Curie and Irene Joliot-Curie were “enough” women physicists working in radioactivity to be so honored. [Lilydale note: here’s her Wikipedia page. Among many other fascinating things talked about there, she was nominated for the Nobel Prize 48 times in two different categories and had the 109th chemical element, meitnerium, named after her. She also escaped Nazi Germany in a plot involving trains, boats, planes, and an emergency diamond ring. You really ought to read about her.] Do your friends and family know about your fic and, if so, what have been their reactions?

I’d shared the first five of my novels with my family back in 1996. They liked them, my sister especially. I’m not sure they knew what to make of them. I haven’t shown them to my in-laws, but, I think my sister-in-law found them on her own. We haven’t discussed them, as they aren’t her usual preference, which is Romance. One distant blood relation was thrilled to discover them on-line and wrote me about them. My sister, though, is my (self-admitted) biggest fan. When we were kids, she and I shared a bedroom, where I’d make up stories to tell her at night so she could fall asleep. She and I correspond regularly by E-mail (she’s in Florida and I’m in Maryland). Back while I was working my way through Chermera, she asked out of the blue if I was ever going to write any more. She was thrilled to hear I had been but she doesn’t have regular Internet access other than at her job. I made printed, bound copies of all my stories to mail to her last Christmas. She loves them, bless her. Is there a place online (tumblr, twitter, AO3, etc.) where people can find you and/or your stories now?

I’ve sent Chermera to Gossamer, but, it hasn’t been updated since July 2018. All the rest of the stories are there.

At AO3, my stories are under: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mrkeller. The Kuxan Sum Cycle is linked together at: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1555492.

I’ve published the Lise Meitner stories under my own name there: Faustus Mulder; Late Night Thoughts on Evolution, Hard Times, and Lost Pets; You Just Don’t Understand; and Lux Perpetua. Since I could separate out the trilogies into their own cycle, it just made sense.

At fan-fiction.net, they’re under: https://www.fanfiction.net/~maryruthkeller

Again, the Lise Meitner stories are under my own name. Since fanfiction.net doesn’t have a linked series option like AO3, I’ve added a header to all eleven of the stories in the Kuxan Sum Cycle so far explaining the order. The novels all are tagged with thumbnail versions of the covers I made for them. Also, the literary quotes I started each chapter and begin and end each story with, are kept in the AO3 versions, but are removed at fanfiction.net to avoid potential copyright issues. Shakespeare, Christine de Pisan, the Popol Vuh, the Ugaritic myths around Anath, and others are all long out of, or never were in, copyright, of course, but, just to be on the safe side, I’m following fanfiction.net’s rules.

If folks care to write, I’m still at my old eclipse address: mrkeller@eclipse.net. Is there anything else you'd like to share with fans of X-Files fic?

Enjoy it, use it as an opportunity to make connections and expand your horizons as a storyteller. Fan-fiction was much more of a home-grown effort back in the 90’s than it is now, when there are how-to books, of all things. But, don’t get so wrapped up one forgets about real life. That’s where all the best stories are.

(Posted by Lilydale on October 27, 2020)

[scarpool-gmk]

6 Part 2

Title: Godly Marine: Killed Author: Scarpool Fandom(s): NCIS, Percy Jackson & the Olympians Pairing(s): Gen Rating: PG/K+ Summary: Chapter 6 Part 2 (8/13) — Staff Sergeant Michael Kahale, Marine Corps Mechanic and Son of Athena, was murdered. Annabeth Chase is determined to find out who did it and why. She, along with Percy Jackson, Grover Underwood, and Clarisse La Rue, infiltrate NCIS where they team up with NCIS Agents Leroy Gibbs, Anthony DiNozzo, Timothy McGee, and Ziva David. Complete Genre: Fanfiction, Mystery, Drama, Humour, General, Action Warnings:  N/A

-Κλαρίς-

Clarisse had to hold in laughing as she saw Annabeth's eyes bulge in fascination as Gibbs used the iris scanner. With a hiss and a clunk!, the doors unlocked. He heaved the door open. "Welcome to MTAC, agents."

"Wow," Annabeth whispered as her eyes adjusted to the darkness.

"Sweet secret base you guys got going on," Clarisse praised.

"Thanks!" McGee beamed like he was the one getting complimented. "It's decked out with some great technology sensors. It's completely separate in terms of technology, components, and connection from the rest of the building. Best monitors, state-of-the-art firewall, and the-"

"You guys do any movie nights in here?" Clarisse cut in.

"I-well no. I mean, uh, maybe? I wouldn't know anything about that," McGee spluttered.

Clarisse smirked. "I'll take that as a yes."

"McGee," Gibbs said, saving his agent, "Connect us up with the Staff Sergeant's C.O."

McGee hurried to do as he was told, working with a row of tech. Clarisse wouldn't want to get too close to any of those. Could probably get the entire monster population of the East Coast fixated on their position with those many wires. Annie, Prissy, and Goat boy wouldn't appreciate it. Would make one heck of a battle story, though.

Gibbs, Annabeth, and Clarisse stood in front of the huge screen.

"Morning, agents," the commander said when he flashed on the screen.

"Nice to meet you, Commander," Annabeth said.

"I would rather have not, Special Agent Lima, Gibbs. I take it you still haven't found out who took out my mechanic."

"No, Commander," Gibbs said, "And it seems your mechanic was into a case of his own."

"What do you mean?"

"We believe he was following leads that might uncover cartel movement in D.C.," Annabeth explained.

"Can you tell us anything about anything the Staff Sergeant was involved in?" Gibbs asked, "Any ops that he was assigned?"

"No, sir. This is the first I'm hearing of this. He was designated to go on tour; we were called in to head into NAMRU-6."

"Peru?" Gibbs questioned.

"It was going to be smooth sailing," the commander affirmed. "A secret mission…He was one hell of a mechanic, and even then…"

"Commander?" Annabeth pushed.

"He was too smart for his own good. He wasn't going to be a simple Staff Sergeant for long. In fact, I'm surprised he held out for this long. His excellent, strategic mind and fighting skill, especially in close combat, had placed him in the fast lane for promotion. He may have wanted to be a simple mechanic, and I know he declined several offers, but as good as he was, he gained the attention of those who could force him into positions."

Clarisse frowned. Sounds like Michael had been way too noticeable. She didn't even think that the Navy and Marine corps would inspect mechanics that thorough. How did they test his strategy making?

"Sounds like he was a special case," Clarisse said, "Did he get any flak from his crewmates because of it?"

"Not really, ma'am. He wasn't exactly a social person to begin with."

"He never got into any disputes with anyone?" Clarisse asked.

"Only one, but I've learned to keep them apart."

"Reason?" Gibbs asked.

"Uh, they just didn't see eye-to-eye."

Clarisse almost snorted. Translation: he had no clue. What kind of Officer in Charge was this guy?

"Who's the soldier?" Annabeth asked.

"First Lieutenant Adrian Rodriguez."

"He antagonize a lot of people?" Gibbs asked.

"No, sir. He's actually very well-liked. It was very strange that he turned confrontational with Kahale. Same with Sergeant Kahale."

"And you have no idea as to why this was." Gibbs didn't phrase it like a question. At least they were all on the same page.

The C.O. on the big screen shrugged. "Those are two of the sea's finest. Rodriguez is soon to become Major. They don't have so much as an excuse to hang around each other anyway."

This time, Clarisse didn't bother hiding a sound of disbelief.

"Where is he?" Gibbs asked at the same time as Annabeth said, "Tell us about him."

Clarisse stepped back so the two could glare at each other better.

"He's a skilled Marksman," Commander Oblivious replied, "knows a lot about on-the-spot- field medic stuff…sings pretty good, too." Clarisse shared a glance with Annabeth. That sounded familiar. Annabeth would probably say that it was a textbook definition. Nerd.

"But he has not left the ship," the commander continued, "he's been on board the entire time."

"Then call him over," Gibbs said, "Maybe we can help solve what his problem with Michael Kahale was."

"You can't think-"

"The more we know about our victim, the better we can predict his movements and motives," Annabeth consoled.

The commander ceded the point and nodded at some staff who promptly left the room, presumably to find the First Lieutenant. He turned his attention back to the NCIS agents.

Gibbs continued on questioning him. "Did Staff Sergeant Kahale ever mention an Annabeth Chase?"

The man on the screen frowned. "The name rings a bell; give me a sec." He shuffled some papers around. "Oh! Yes, as one of the emergency contacts. Right there under his father. Annabeth Chase, relation as his sister."

Annabeth showed nothing. Instead, asking, "What is the contact information?"

"A phone number with a New York area code."

"Read aloud the number, please."

The commander read out the numbers as Annabeth instructed. Clarisse immediately recognized it as the mainline to the Big House.

"It's a different number than the one he called," Annabeth said.

"McGee," Gibbs called, giving silent instructions.

"Already on it," McGee said, "Number is to a farm, Delphi Strawberry Service. Located in Long Island."

Clarisse mentally cursed and tried not to self-consciously fidget at the glare Gibbs gave Annabeth.

"But he never spoke about his family. Or friends. Or life. Again, not the most social guy."

There was movement in the back, as the staff member came back with a soldier, who promptly stood at attention.

"First Lieutenant Rodriguez, meet NCIS Agents Gibbs, Lima, and…"

"La Rue," Clarisse supplied.

"First Lieutenant," Gibbs greeted.

"Sir!"

"At rest, First Lieutenant," Annabeth said.

Gibbs started the questions as Rodrigues shifted his stance. "What's your relationship with Staff Sergeant Michael Kahale?"

The soldier frowned, confused. "He was a mechanic assigned to this vessel, sir."

"We're told that you were uncharacteristically disruptive around him."

"Yes, but I haven't been in confrontation with him, as per C.O. orders. If he's said-"

"First Lieutenant Rodriguez," The C.O. cut him off, "Sergeant Kahale was shot two nights ago."

"Shot?" Rodriguez said in shock, "But… we're home…"

"We know that you've been on board the entire time," Annabeth said, "We just need to know more about who Michael Kahale was."

"I-I understand, Ma'am."

"What made you dislike the Kahale, First Lieutenant?" Clarisse asked him.

"It's not that I disliked him, ma'am. Kahale was actually a good guy. Introverted, sure. But he was a good soldier, amazing smart, and easy to talk with. But I…" He faltered. "I don't know. For some reason, the friendly conversations always turned into some sort of fight? Like a challenge I couldn't lose to? I guess?"

"Don't sound sure of yourself," Annabeth noted.

"I can't explain it. Every time, it just led to a fight over any stupid, little thing. I honestly don't know why. I don't expect any of you to understand."

Clarisse heard Gibbs sigh tiredly and mumble, "Oh, I understand perfectly."

"Can you give us some examples of what you fought over?" Annabeth asked.

"They were stupid, ma'am. Like over the name of a future vessel. He thought it should be named USS Zeus. I said it to be USS Jupiter. We also fought over his position. Kahale was a good Marine but could've been even better. But he kept at being a non-commission mechanic because he had an issue with the control of our Superior Officers. I know he even declined a promotion to Warrant Officer. He disliked how strict military life was and preferred the more laxed nature of the machinists. He believed that individuality and improvisation held more value in the field than the collective skill of the group and rigid structure. He did not trust others with making decisions for him and disliked giving orders himself. But I know several of my brothers who have similar opinions, and I've never fought them over it."

Annabeth nodded, humming softly and deep in that brain of hers.

"Did he ever mention some sort of mission?" Gibbs asked.

Rodriguez blinked. "No. Nothing ever like that."

"Mexican Cartels? Arms dealing?" Gibbs fished.

"What? No!"

'Freaking Hades,' Clarisse thought, 'I hope this information isn't supposed to be kept low profile.'

"What about mythologies?"

The First Lieutenant stiffened. He was definitely a demigod. Clarisse would have to see if Chiron knew an Adrian Rodriguez.

"What do you mean?" Rodriguez tried playing off.

"Gods, Roman myths, Greek heroes, monsters, that sort of stuff."

"No."

"Then that's all we need from you, for now, First Lieutenant," Gibbs said, taking a glance at Annabeth.

"Catch who did this to my mechanic, Agents," the Commanding Officer said before the connection cut off.

Gibbs didn't waste any time.

"What am I missing here?"

Annabeth lifted an eyebrow. "What are you talking about?"

"Some random mechanic gets murdered hours away from his assigned vessel because he was uncovering an entire operation that was way out of his league. His dying words were to some girl whom he listed as an emergency contact with a Long Island number. Suddenly, I've got NCIS agents from a Long Island branch I've never heard of. This case has brought too many outside factors, and I have the feeling my team is out of the loop on specific information that can make this case more manageable."

"We know as much as you do," Clarisse retorted, "And missing information comes with the job. This is a mystery. We investigate and find the answers, complications and all."

Gibbs considered her for a moment before relenting and leading them back out of the heavily secured room. "Fine. I'm going to head to the bar. McGee, get DiNozzo to call the Strawberry Farm. I also want the personal files of First Lieutenant Rodriguez and his C.O. Ziva! Gear up." He looked around at the rest of the agents expectedly.

"Er, trying to squeeze out info of Cartel movement in the area," DiNozzo said, "Not much luck."

"Talked to Abby," Ziva picked up next, "Her professors were able to translate some more of the notes. This Doughnut place is apparently definitely arms dealing with the Reynosa Cartel. Sinaloa involvement is suspected. Middle East connection is pure speculation. Michael also noted that he believed he was found out because he smelled."

DiNozzo made to comment but was silenced by a look from Gibbs.

"I'm still IDing all of Mr. Tarsibo's victims," Grover said.

"And customers," Gibbs added.

"…And customers…"

"No mention of Monster Donut on the web," Percy reported, Annabeth's laptop in hand, "Making sure that if anyone finds it, we'll be the first ones to know."

Gibbs nodded and then headed towards the elevator with Ziva in tow. Clarisse admired the way his silent command to get back to work hung in the air. Except for one problem.

Clarisse was back in the bullpen. She hated it.

-Ζήβα-

Ziva was debriefed about the meeting with the commander on the way to the Drowsy Owl.

"If the Staff Sergeant was being seen by superior officers and the Commanding Officer didn't know anything," Ziva said, "Perhaps our Staff Sergeant was granted a mission."

But why give such an advanced and dangerous mission to a mere mechanic?

"Michael Kahale had been in service for five years," Ziva said, answering her own question. "They had given him training- maybe advanced secret in-training. Kept him officially as a mechanic, using it as a cover."

"But why send him on a case that without providing him resources?" Gibbs asked.

Hm. True. Michael Kahale had lacked money, cover, and backup. The time limit was horrendously short; what he uncovered in such a short amount of time was astonishing. If he hadn't ended up dead, she would have thought that it was a controlled mission.

"You said that First Lieutenant Adrian Rodriguez responded to the mention of mythological connection. Is it possible that whatever mission the Staff Sergeant was on, was not external but internal? An internal audit? But if Rodriguez was his target, he would have responded to the reference of cartel involvement."

"What if the Cartel wasn't initially apart of this operation?" Ziva thought back to her previous line of thought. "What if Rodriguez was involved? As Michael's partner. The First Lieutenant is thought of highly as well."

"Don't get caught up on theories," Gibbs warned.

"Maybe I should just follow my gut," Ziva teased.

"It's always worked for me," Gibbs said.

"What does it say now?" Ziva asked. She looked at him when he did not answer.

"It tells me that the Long Island Agents know something that they aren't sharing."

Ziva frowned but said nothing.

They came up to the store. "See if anyone has seen Tarsibo," Gibbs said.

"Not many people to ask," Ziva grumbled.

Reshaun Sachs was beginning to blindly invite them to choose a place to sit until he looked up from pouring a pint of bitter. "Let me guess," he said, "Navy cops."

Ziva and Gibbs flashed their Identification.

"This about the young Marine or something else?"

"Same one," Gibbs said.

"Didn't realize you had such big teams."

"Neither did I."

Ziva sent Gibbs a look and decided to change the topic, unfolding the blown-up photo of Tarsibo.

"Do you recognize this man?"

"Sorry. No."

"He seems to be a customer of yours," Ziva pushed, "He may have been here during the past week."

The bartender frowned, "If he passed those doors, I would remember. Especially from this week." Ziva nodded. She didn't find him to be lying. There were other ways waste from this place could have gotten to the car rental.

"Do you mind if I talk to your customers?" Ziva asked

Sachs shrugged. "You can, but all of these guys are regulars that just come for their lunch break."

Ziva assumed as much. She left Gibbs to converse with the man.

Sachs was surprised that they had found traces of his business as far away as East Maryland. Like Gibbs, Ziva was getting her own list of negative answers.

She walked around the bar, trying to envision it on a full night with businessmen, college students, and Mrs. Kahale with her entourage. It was an open area, which meant open conversations that could be the center of attention or hidden by those that took that position. The only place that was really hidden was the way to the restrooms, which had its own hidden hallway that led to a back exit. That was where Ziva excused herself to answer her buzzing phone.

"What is it, Tony?"

"Get into any bar fights, yet?" Tony used as a greeting.

"It is still a bit early, but it has happened before."

"Well, don't go too hard on them. People who go this early are there to drown something."

Ziva thought of the three businessmen in the bar hunching over their drinks. He was too right. "As I'm sure you know, Tony."

"I'm not that old," he said.

"You are what? Forty?"

"No!"

"Mmm, but I'm close. How many years am I off?"

"…Two. I'm still young, just have a few years of experience."

Ziva hummed. She didn't tell him that she had more years until she hit thirty.

"Well, I'm sure you didn't call me just for this."

"No, I'm here to update you so you can update Gibbs."

"Why not call him instead?"

"Figured he'd be doing some unofficial interrogation. And I would never break that rule."

"Well, what do you have."

Tony sighed, "Pretty much nothing. Got in connection with the Director of the Strawberry Service, a Mr. Dee. Took forever to get a final answer. 'I have a faint recollection of an Annie Bell.'" Tony droned in imitation, "'Yes, the girl is quite a trouble seeker, although she is one of the brighter ones I have had to deal with. Says a lot about them. However, she left. I don't expect her to be back for a while.' That was fifteen minutes into the conversation. He ends with an 'I grow tired of your pitiable blather.' And just hangs up."

Ziva snickers. "Doesn't sound like a reliable witness."

Ziva could imagine Tony shrugging in the squadroom, "It's what I got."

"Alright. Thanks." Ziva hung up the phone and accidentally stumbled when she bumped into something. Or rather someone "Oh, sorry I-" Ziva stopped as she got a look at who she almost toppled. It was a young man who had just come out of the lavatory. He was of an average built, a bit on the shorter side with a head full of blonde hair. He was in some sort of customer service uniform, a nametag still latched on. But Ziva only gave it an unconscious look over. No, she was more captivated by his eyes. They were a sickly green, and the iris seemed alive, swirling like snakes in a pit. And were those scales on his cheekbones?

"Agent?"

She blinked, and all those features were gone. Snake filled eyes replaced with light hazel ones. No scales either.

"I'm sorry," She told the man who had snapped her out of her stupor. Just what was that? "For bumping into you," she specified.

He smiled at her, "No problem."

She watched him leave her, heading for the back exit. How did he know she was an Agent? Was her badge showing? No… Who was he? She searched her brain for the answers. Wait. She had seen his nametag before getting distracted by his face. (She shivered at the recollection. Was it something she ate?) Then it hit her; the nametag had a cheesy 'Hi, I'm Tommy' in Comic Sans Font. It also had a logo of a one-eyed monster munching on a doughnut.

"Monster Donuts," Ziva breathed out in realization. The back door slammed shut. "Hey!" Ziva shouted, "Wait!" She ran toward the door. Before she exited, she remembered that the store was arms dealing, and anyone connected to it should be handled as armed and dangerous. Pulling out her firearm and quickly collecting herself, she slammed her way out and was met with… no one?

Ziva surveyed the area, circling in a three-sixty. There was no one there. How could he have gone that fast? He was only out of her sight for a few seconds.

Gibbs was not going to be happy with her.

After making sure to uncover any possible hiding places, she went back inside empty-handed.

Gibbs frowned at her as she entered. Ziva trusted him to connect the dots and directed her words at Sachs.

"You didn't say you had someone in your restroom."

From the corner of her eye, she saw Gibbs change his stance, a mixture of weariness and drive to get the truth. However, the bartender seemed utterly confused. "There was? Oh, I had completely forgotten…"

Ziva shared a small look with Gibbs. Sachs seemed muddled all of a sudden. Strange and convincing. Ziva hadn't thought this man to be a good actor.

Ziva described him, more for Gibbs's benefit than Sachs's. "Yes, about this tall, blonde, green eyes, wearing a Monster Donut uniform."

Sachs's face lit up in realization. "Yes! He was one of the guys that the woman hangs out with, the one that the other agents knew, a Mrs. Kahale." His eyebrows scrunched together. "I can't believe I forgot about him coming in…"

Ziva shared another look with Gibbs. Either this man was telling the truth, or he was the best actor Ziva had encountered. Gibbs, although not outwardly changing his calm demeanor, seemed as dubious as she was.

"If he or anyone else from Monster Donuts come in," she said, "Please call us."

"They are connected with this Marko Tarsibo guy? What have they done?"

"A number of things," Ziva said.

The man gave an inquiring stare. Ziva expected that how dangerous they were could affect his business if he let continued to let them be customers at all.

"They are connected to arms dealing, Ziva said. "Also, have a connection to the death of multiple murders, including children."

"They've killed kids?" The statement seemed to call Sachs back from his confounded state. "You said that this guy was a part of this and that he was a car dealer, right?"

The agents nodded.

"The kids, were they middle-school-age? Older girl with Asian features?"

Ziva scrambled for her phone, bringing out the profiles of the most recent child victims. She shoved the phone in the man's face. "Are these them?"

"Yeah, I know them. They had come in, ordered some soda, burgers, and fries. They looked pretty street-savvy, I kept my eye on them to make sure no one slipped them anything or took an order for them. I got something about how they were headed for the Carolinas, I guess they needed a ride. That woman, Mrs. Kahale, spoke with them for a bit. I didn't hear what was said, but if they needed a ride and she knew this dealer, she could've gave them to him."

The NCIS agents didn't give him time to finish as they rushed out the door.

-Περσεύς-

Percy would never get an office job. He thought being a Federal Agent would have been so exciting. Sitting on a desk doing the same thing over and over again was killing him. He kept getting distracted by the happenings outside. (Hey, those windows were huge. Not his fault the outside world was more entertaining.) He couldn't help but feel a bit guilty every time Grover would snap him out of his daydreaming. He was supposed to be helping make official profiles of each victim, so that a) the families could be notified, b) Dr. 'Ducky' could analyze and create a deeper understanding of General Botsaris and his victims, and c) so that Annabeth could report back to Chiron, and they could contact the families of the demigods.

Percy did have to admit that Tony's conversation with Mr. D was quite funny. Although, he was only able to hear one side of the conversation.

'No, not Annie Bell. Annabeth.'

'No, I am not here for strawberries.'

'Yes, wine sounds wonderful, but-'

'So, did she work there or not? What do you mean, who? Annabeth Chase!'

And it just continued. Percy had cracked up as the agent repeatedly smacked his head on his hand while talking to the exasperating god. If only he knew how it felt to deal with Mr. D on a weekly, sometimes daily, basis.

Unfortunately, that was what felt like an hour ago. McGee had sent a file to Tony a while later and was on his way to escape to 'help Abby run prints.'

"I'll be using the system," McGee told Grover and Percy, "Hopefully, it won't slow down too much."

"It shouldn't be a problem." Annabeth walked in, looking a bit disgruntled after her talk with Chiron. "Although we are using the same system, it's coding and routes have changed, meaning it can still use the data and have access to an ever-updating network while not really using the same path and program you'll be using."

Percy would have totally zoned out from that explanation if it wasn't for Grover nudging him to make another profile.

McGee made a face. "You can do that?"

"Not really. It's the computer."

"What are the specs?" McGee leaned in to check Daedalus' laptop's design. "What's the brand? I don't recognize it."

"It's experimental."

"Huh, well I'm going to-"

"Not so fast, probie," Tony called.

Percy looked up. Tony had better not been calling for him. He eased up when it was apparent he was talking to McGee.

"Rodriguez also uses disposable, pre-paid phones," Tony said, "But he makes regular family calls. If we searched his family's phone records, we would find a record of regular calls coming in but from different numbers? Wouldn't that be the case if Michael did the same?"

"But we already checked the Kahale's phone records, Tony," McGee said.

"No. We only checked Patricia Kahale's, and she said she didn't even know Michael even joined the Marines. Daddy, however, had a better relationship."

"And when Percy and I spoke with him," Annabeth said, "He gave me the impression that he knew about Michael joining."

"McGee, pop up the man's phone calls," Tony said.

McGee shared his screen on the plasma. Window screens flashed on and off as McGee used keyboard shortcuts lightning quick, even using long sequences of code that Percy didn't know could be memorized.

"Okay, filtering for numbers that are no longer in service."

"Wow, that's a long list," Percy said. They weren't going to have to go through some sort of procedure on each one, were they?

"He is a lawyer," Grover said, "He must get tons of scam and calls from one-time numbers."

"It doesn't matter," Annabeth said.

"What do you mean it doesn't matter," Percy asked. Was Annabeth okay? How bad was the call with Chiron?

"I mean, I've found what we're looking for." She pointed to a six-minute call starting 12:52 A.M. yesterday morning. That was right before the approximate time of death.

"It's not the same number the Staff Sergeant used," Tony said.

"A spare phone," Clarisse said, "He uses one phone call on a pre-paid, dumps it, and then uses the second to make another call."

A demigod technique. Annabeth and Chiron told him of it when he went outside of camp. The only time it was safe to keep a phone after making a call on it was in or right by camp. Otherwise, it was a traveling beacon for monsters.

"The father made the call," Tony said, "McGee, can you find the location where the burner picked up?"

McGee clicked a couple of times. "Washington, D.C."

"Alright," Tony said. "I'll call Gibbs, and we'll pick him up."

"Sweet, let's go," Percy said.

"Wait, Percy," Grover said with big eyes, effectively killing Percy's hope. "I still need your help with this."

"It's fine. We got this," Tony said, him and McGee rushing toward the elevator.

Percy watched them as they disappeared with a ding. Great, the three people that were the least qualified for desk jobs were the ones left at the desks. At least they had Grover to stop them from accidentally blowing up the place and being labeled as domestic terrorists, yet the way the satyr was inhaling those paper clips didn't bode well.

The phone at Tony's desk started to ring. The four of them stared at it for a second. "Should we get Tony back?" Percy asked.

"Ugh," Clarisse rolled her eyes. What? What did he say? Gods, she was just so annoying. 'And rude,' he added as he watched her get up and answer the cop's phone, but he already knew that.

"Yeah," Clarisse greeted. She was silent for the ten seconds as the caller spoke. Percy wasn't even surprised as the daughter of Ares slammed the phone back down without another word.

"They found Botsaris's car," Clarisse said.

'That at least deserved a 'Thank You,' was Percy's immediate thought.

Annabeth jumped up. "Let's go."

Finally! "Did you get the address?" Percy asked, excited to get out.

"Duh."

Grover looked around as all of them got ready to head out. "Um, should we tell-"

"No!" Clarisse and Annabeth both said, or growled in one case.

Grover held his hands up in surrender. "Okay."

Percy made sure everything he needed was on him and swept the desk clear of a small pile of broken pen clips. When had those gotten there?

"Let's kick some butt!" Clarisse grinned. Percy couldn't agree more.

Previous Chapter Chapter List Next Chapter

[leotanaka]

J. August Richards has an exuberance about him.

He has good reason. The actor, known his more than 30 year career which has included roles on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., The Cosby Show, Angel, The Practice and more, just landed a leading role on the new NBC drama Circle of Dads. On April 20, he also rocked the internet by coming out of the closet as a gay man. The unplanned admission generated came in the context of discussing his Council of Dads role as Dr. Oliver Post, a gay, married African-American dad. The series follows a group of friends following the death of one of their friend Peter. Oliver, and several other men, come together to act as surrogate fathers to Peter’s children and to preserve the memory of their friend.

“I read your site every day!” Richards belts as we greet him on the phone. We warn him that we will need to use that quote in our piece. The two of us have made some time to chat about his coming out, the new show, and his experience as a queer, African-American working in Hollywood for more than three decades.

Council of Dads airs Thursdays on NBC.

So you’ve had an exciting few weeks. Exactly how are you feeling? What’s the state of your life?

Thank you for asking. Empowered.

Empowered?

Aligned. Clear about my purpose. That’s how I feel two weeks later. I will admit that I was on a bit of an emotional pendulum. In my imagination, there was a reaction that was the best reaction I could possibly get, which was supportive. But it exceeded that. Also I really did not expect it to go past my social media page. So that was a bit daunting. That was part of the emotional swing I was on.

Sure.

I had no idea that it would be picked up on various sites, which it was. And I didn’t even have a publicist at the time…

Oh my.

Yeah. So that’s how unplanned that was. I’ve hired one since because everything was going so far so fast that it was all a bit overwhelming. But when it went so viral, it made me feel like this emotional swing toward oh my God, why would you do that? No one even asked. That was the ultimate overshare. But fortunately, the pendulum has swung all the way back into the position of empowerment.

That’s so wonderful to hear. Now, when you describe it as an emotional pendulum, what are you doing as you walk around the house? How’s your mood shifting? What are you doing to take your mind off it all?

Yeah, it’s always surrounding a triggering question or triggering comment that I receive that really only triggered the fact that I was not expecting this attention. So that was the only thing that would scare me. It wasn’t negative at all. But, like, when people ask me, “Aren’t you afraid of how this will affect your career?” That question would really trigger me. I’ve obviously thought a lot about it. And that question doesn’t trigger me anymore.

I’ve talked to so many actors who have gone through a difficult coming out process and immediately have their agents or managers screaming “Why did you do that?” So it’s good to hear that it’s been so empowering.

I have a great agent. He’s been really supportive.

Now, you’ve said before that you’ve been out to people close to you for years. Have you had any blowback? People saying “why didn’t you tell me?”

No. Not one person. Anyone who needed to know, knew. And there were people who didn’t need to know that knew, just because they saw me out, or I went to a party. I’m living my life and doing whatever I want to do for the most part. People who know me, in my life, also know that’s not the kind of question I would entertain.

So let’s talk about your new show Council of Dads. Your role as Oliver, you’ve said, was part of what inspired you to go public. He’s a gay man married to another African-American man Peter, played by Kevin Daniels, and the couple has children. For you as an actor, what is it that speaks to you in a role where you realize it’s more than just a job? In other words, when the role changes you?

You know, honestly, it happens to me every single time.

Really?

Every single time, yeah. I think of it as my job to put something deeply personal to put on the line for myself. I have to find it, and I do with every role. This one is unique in that it pushed me up against a wall that I had created for myself. I think it served me when it had to. When I first started in the business, there were very few opportunities for a black actor.

Sure.

I jokingly say “I was too busy being black to be gay.”

But the industry has shifted enough to where there’s more LGBTQ representation and more black representation. And I just wasn’t mature enough as a human being to walk through life as a black gay man. Now, at 46, I have the confidence and the wisdom and the knowledge to be able to take it on. The reason I ended up talking about it publicly was that I saw a huge opportunity to be observant in a meaningful way, and I just could not pass it up. It was a very person decision. I wouldn’t be true to myself if I didn’t take the opportunity to continue a dialogue—it was started way before me. Black gay men, gay families—I would not have been happy with myself if I had not chosen to talk about it.

That speaks so well of you. One thing I really love about this show is the way it redefines community in a sense.

Yes.

There are right-wing voices that claim diversity is harmful, or focusing on it is harmful, that it’s all a myth. The series shows that community is defined by what is shared; in the case of the series, that’s a love for Scott Perry and his family. How do we encourage people to focus on what is shared, to accept one another?

Well, it oftentimes takes people knowing someone in a community, knowing someone that belongs to a community that is seen as “other” to break down that wall. Again, that goes back to the reason I decided to go public. The other great gift of coming out for me was that it made clear for me my true goal. I really want equality for all. I’m talking about groups that I belong to, and groups that I don’t belong to. Ultimately, we have to move toward a space where everyone can sit at the table equally. That’s one of the reasons I was so happy to be involved with this show. It has diversity, and it’s not cosmetic.

What do you mean by that?

It’s like there’s one of this and one of that. There are multiples of different in this world. As the season goes by, you’ll be able to understand even more what I mean by that. It really elevates the conversation about diversity in a way that I’m so proud of. You come home with Oliver & Peter. You come home with us, and a whole episode takes place in our house. So the other thing that attracted me to the show was that I’m not playing the “insert black gay guy here.” He’s a three-dimensional character. He’s not just the best friend. He has his own storyline. The character is not additionally marginalized by not giving him a full story.

I also love the way the show redefines masculinity.

Oooh! Mmhmm!

We have a trope in Western entertainment that fathers are either lovable buffoons like Homer Simpson or wisdom sages like Fred McMurray in My Three Sons. Either way, they are centers of authority and power. This show is different in that it shows men working together, sharing power, listening, conversing and making choices. It’s in the title: a council of dads. It’s not dictatorial patriarchy. Is that by conscious design, that Joan and Tony [series creators Joan Rater & Tony Phelan] had intended as much? Have you discussed it?

We’ve not talked about it, but I will say this: in developing the character one thing that you do as an actor is figure out the character’s super-objective.

Yes.

That means the one thing they want more than anything in life. It took me a while—call me slow—but I realized that what is important to Oliver is that he be a great father. That is the most important thing in his life. So I started to think about what makes a great father. I think the answer is different for each person depending on their father. So I think about Oliver’s past, and how his father did not accept him for who he was. He grew up in a household where he felt like an imposter, like love was conditional. He never got to fall into the arms of his parents and hear them say “You are ok as you are.”

Right.

So what makes a great father to Oliver is growing this invisible fence around the children where they are able to be themselves and thrive as who they are naturally, whatever that is. That’s what makes a great father to Oliver, and it’s a great gift that any parent can give their children.

Absolutely. As a working actor, I need to ask you about the cult of celebrity. In the social media age, actors are really encouraged to become a “brand” or a product to help promote their show. That includes putting private life on display. What is your experience dealing with that pressure? Is it fair to expect actors to perform on both sides of the camera, in essence?

Some don’t. There are still actors out there who don’t want to be stars, who don’t have social media at all. To a degree, I think it’s slightly a myth. Every job that I get there’s an actor in a pivotal role who is not on social media, or who didn’t have a big following. I don’t believe that a large social media following translates to viewers. If it did, Kim Kardashian would be in everything.

Lord help us.

So, like anything, you just have to decide who you want to be and rock out with that, win or lose. One of the places I’m at in my life is that I don’t feel like the world needs another f*cking celebrity.

[Laughter]

Nobody’s asking for one. I’m so tired of it. I’d just rather have an impact at some point in my life. If I can make the world a hair easier, or serve in the tiniest way, I’m so satisfied with that. The red carpeting thing is so played out to me. I’m so over it. So I think you’ve gotta make a choice about who you want to be, win or lose.

That’s great advice. So given the context of all of this, I also need to ask. This is a question that comes up a lot with actors I talk to. It came up with Billy Porter, with Nelson Lassiter, with Doug Spearman, and others. How can we encourage queer African-American men to come out and to feel safe in doing so?

That’s a big, big question. Number one, I’d say understanding. Just understand that it’s a lot to ask a person to own and take on another marginalized identity. As a black man moving through the world, you really have to live it to understand it: all of the concessions and adjustments that you have to make to the world just to get through your day. It’s a lot man, a whole lot. It’s a whole lot to ask people. I’m 46 now, and I said in another interview, if I had come out a day sooner, it would have been too soon.

Wow.

Only now do I feel like I have the understanding and the confidence and the clarity to move through the world as I do now. So the most important thing is understanding. I love the gay men in my life because they never pressured me to do anything. They only loved me and counseled me to be myself.

Beautiful.

Another way to help is to stand against racism. Working through the racism of our society might help people feel free to live in a world where they can feel like they can be themselves.

Amen to that. As a gay, African American man, what advice do you wish you could have had starting out in the business that you did not?

Actually I had wonderful mentors: African-American men who took me under their wings and advised me, counseled me, gave a call after auditions. Everyone showed up for me the same way they’re showing up for me now. My colleagues were the first ones to congratulate me.

That’s great.

But you ask me what I wish I could have known? That’s a difficult question. It was a different industry at that time. So I can’t answer that. I’ll have to think about it. It’s a great question.

[ginnyzero]

A Reason Why I’m Indie

Traditional publishing isn’t for everybody. And I’ve seen attitudes that if you don’t conform to word counts and genre conventions and all the rules, then you’re never going to get anywhere in publishing/as a traditionally published author. So, I guess you should suck it up and do it. Then, I’m proudly never going to get anywhere.

Before we go any further, I want to make a disclaimer. Agents do hard jobs. They became agents (most of them) because they love books and reading and want to see authors succeed. They don’t get PAID unless an author succeeds. They are as invested in an author’s book as much as the author is. Or, at least, the good ones are. (Yes, there are a few bad apples that you must be aware of.)

BUT

Agents can’t sell your book if there is no one in their contacts/on their list that will buy it for reasons.

And these reasons may not have anything to do with your writing quality, your world building, your storytelling or your creativity. These reasons have everything to do with the publishing world and the little arbitrary writing rules that they impose on well, everything. I’m squeezing my hands together so hard right now my knuckles are turning white because these rules make me angry.

It takes a lot to make me angry. I get frustrated sometimes fairly easily. But angry?

Well, bullshit makes me angry.

I have spent time going through the querying process. I have helped and watched my best friend, writing bff, collaborator and editor go through her querying process. And I have comforted and I have encouraged and I was there for her last night when she figured out that her book was being rejected not because of writing quality and or bad story or because she had unicorns.

Instead, it was being rejected because someone in the last four years decided that the themes of the types of stories she tells belong and only belong to a certain age group category younger than what she writes. And if she wants to write the type of stories she wants to write, the type of stories that she loves and she needed at the YA age level, she would have to change essentially everything about her story that she adores to get it traditionally published.

Or self-publish.

And as we know, self-publishing closes a lot of doors.

All because, she isn’t writing the “correct” theme for the “correct” age group.

And this pisses me off. (My friend is devastated because the book series she’s lovingly crafted and all her other ideas now won’t supposedly work for traditional publishing all without her knowing because someone instituted new rules. She's been in limbo for months over this.)

Because these things aren’t written down anywhere. And if they are, they’re in weird little articles that aren’t being taught in schools because probably the teachers themselves don’t know them. Or, they were things decided in the last half a decade and no one decided to you know, spread the word in such a way that authors querying would hear it.

Or maybe, just maybe, restricting themes to a genre or an age level is such extreme limiting and inappropriate bullshit it needs to be burned in a fire.

-Takes a deep breathe- See. Angry.

There are certain themes and certain plot structures/character constructions that defined or launched each genre. Romance being the most heavily structured in the traditional publishing world (and a lot of indies following the same rules/structure.)

Science Fiction (as we know it) was born out of the Cold War and the space race and the feeling of alienation and how is having world destroying weapons going to guide us as a species. It was a lot of “humans versus alien invaders” ID4 type of storytelling. Shelley’s Frankenstein started it. And there were different views of it in the beginning, Asimov delved into the perils of robotics and space flight. Herbert talked about ecological scifi. Heinlein tended to go political and then time traveling sexual hijinks. Star Trek was Horatio Hornblower IN SPACE.

Fantasy, especially high and epic fantasy, was born of the retelling of old legends, myths and religions and the triumph of the goodness of mankind in the hero's journey. Star Wars and stories like it (Andre Norton, Anne McCaffery’s Pern) merged the two into science fantasy (my favorite.) Urban fantasy became Sherlock Holmes solves/fights crime with vampires, werewolves and the rest of the fantasy kitchen sink.

Just some examples here.

Much of the science fiction I’ve seen on the shelves still follows the formulas of Asimov and Heinlein and Orson Scott Card. The lone soldier against the terrible aliens must fight to save humanity. (In some instances, these are still the top authors hogging all the shelf space, add Herbert and Bova and Brian Sanderson the successor of Robert Jordan and LE Modesitt. And…….. yeah.)

And it’s boring. It’s tiresome. It’s time for a change. Our culture is changing and the media on our shelves isn’t. Tumblr is full of posts about how Earth is Space Australia and aliens that are simultaneously fascinated and accepting of the oddities of humans because their culture isn’t like that! We adopt strange little vacuum robots as easily as we bond to small furry creatures that OMG OMG it could KILL US. (And some not so furry creatures.) We have different types of friends. We do stupid shit for the fun of it. It’s funny. It’s heartwarming. It’s different.

People don’t want angry patriarchal werewolves anymore. They want more than dwarves that just love mining and speak in bad Scottish accents. (Best one I saw was Australian accents actually.) Readers are tired of gratuitous rape. They’re tired of abusive and bad relationships being portrayed as good. Toxic masculinity is getting old as is misogyny. Princesses no longer want to be rescued by dragons, they want to be protected by dragons from being forced into marriages they don’t want. Why must readers go through a sewer when they open a book to escape?

No. Not a lot of these new ideas have conflict or plot. But that’s not really up to the idea thinkers on Tumblr, that’s up to us the writers to see what the idea makers are looking for and come up with plots to fit those settings (if we like those ideas/settings.)

I doubt you’ll find it on bookshelves.

Fantasy has fallen into the grim dark crap sack worlds looking for the next GRRM. Storytelling that hasn’t advanced past trying to emulate Tolkien. Authors that emulate Lackey and McCaffery in the style of romantic fantasy being passed over for grim dark fantasy with assassins and the hot “urban fantasy.”

And understandably, Urban Fantasy is pretty new. LKH and Jim Butcher and other writers like Kim Harrison, Seanan Mcguire and Patty Briggs have been instrumental in making urban fantasy a ‘big deal.’ And I’ve read a lot of urban fantasy and finally I had to give up. I couldn’t take it anymore. Because it was all the same thing in different trappings. And I’m down for the same thing in different trappings to an extent. I really am. I’d just hope that at some point we can have more than Urban Fantasy mysteries. But no one is selling them on traditional shelves because publishers decided that Urban Fantasy people SOLVE CRIME is what the genre is.

This kills innovation coming to publishing houses. We see it in movies as well as books, new ideas, good ideas, are being passed over for the rehash of something from 20 to 30 years ago. (Think closer to 60 for some scifi, more for fantasy.) Because publishers have "genre rules" and are risk adverse because 'what if it doesn't sell?'

There are writers out there that are willing to turn themselves into pretzels to make their story fit a certain word count, a certain genre theme or follow these arbitrary rules to “get their foot in the door” and then they are told and believe that “once they are established” they can “break/bend the rules.”

It’s a lie. It’s a tasty lie. It’s so good of a lie you want to believe it. You want to delude yourself that “if I pretend I’m a man, get my book under 80,000 words, follow the exact conventions of my genre, that one day I’ll get big enough to break all of the rules and innovate my genre.”

That’s when you’ve sold your soul to the devil. You’ve stripped yourself of all your self-respect in order to chase that dream of the “traditional publishing deal.”

Indie is pushing back at traditional in good ways and in bad ways. Traditional with either adapt or continue its pushing back and rigidly holding onto the genre structures it has to its own downfall. The readers will decide on what they want to see/read. That, as an indie author is no longer my problem and completely out of my control.

My problem remains with the fact that traditional publishing houses, and agents aren’t being open and honest about their expectations for these genres that they’re pushing onto shelves. Get together. Form a consensus. Get that information out to authors by putting it on agent websites/blogs. Don’t expect newbies to just know it.

We’ve had enough dream crushing. Being rejected is difficult enough. There are enough gates to go through and hoops to jump. Don’t make lack of information that “everybody knows” yet another one. It's about doing the right thing. Anyone can write a fiction book. Anyone. There is no degree necessary. So, do the right thing, the moral thing and be clear about expectations for what you represent and the "rules" of the genre on your website where querying authors can find it.

(There is going to be writer blaming going on here. Writers/Authors aren't at fault. They can't know this if they aren't told it. You can't just "know things" out of thin air. If there is an expectation, then state the expectation clearly and where it's easily found. As agents, as publishers, putting the information out there that will get you the material you want to read and can sell to publishing houses to make it to stores is on you, not the writer. /soapbox)

Now, if you’re a lucky sod and not like me and does write in the box and naturally writes inside the box. Then, you know what, I’m happy for you. Honestly, my life as an author would be so much easier if I could write “X the werewolf solves crime and saves the world.”

I can’t. It’s not in me.

My job as a writer is to put out the best story that I believe in as a person. A story that is true to me, my feelings, my life journey and what I want to see on shelves/would want to read. If that story has too many genres mixed up, doesn’t follow genre conventions, is too long, isn’t the right “theme” or focuses on the wrong thing for the wrong age group, then, fine, it’s probably never going to be traditionally published. I can deal with that.

I’ll self-publish. I’ll continue to self-publish. I’ll be indie despite the reputation that comes with being indie. I’ll do the work to get my books out there to the world and appreciate the few readers I have and support my indie friends even if it's just with a "you can do it. Hang in there. I'm rooting for all of you." Because, it's all I can do and can control.

I still reserve the right to be mad. Cause that's my friend.

[calleo-bricriu]

Well, the book is finally getting into the title’s namesake, even if the definition of “pervert” so far is pretty tame.

This book, if you’ve missed it so far.

Oh, and even though I didn’t bother getting into chapter 13, I did skim the first page and had one of those, “Well, there it is, what he’s been hinting at the entire time with the descriptions of Mizpra.”:  “Her maternal and reproductive instincts had been starved and enfeebled by a life of wrong training and misdirected study, augmented by the unphysiologic life of the disappointed femme sole, and environed by the false and unhealthy ideas of the New England women suffragists."

So, Mizpra, basically:

Anyway, on to the chapters I did force myself through.

Chapter 10!

Three week time skip where Leigh had himself locked away in what amounts to a drunk tank despite the fact that he hadn't gone out drinking.

Also, he apparently didn't eat OR drink (anything) for those three weeks which is one of those sorts of things that, if you tried to do it, you would actually die.

Alas, I'm not so lucky. Leigh is still alive to bore us for a few hundred more pages.

No surprise he's having wild ass mood swings, not eating or drinking or sleeping for three weeks. Surprised he remembers his name is Leigh at this point. Thankfully, the author has remembered and rambled on for a good ten or so pages about how we should all feel sorry for the tortured genius of Leigh.

I realised another reason I dislike Leigh: He smokes cigars, and I just hate the smell of cigar smoke so not only do I have to hear this moron pretend he's a genius philosopher in my own head as I read this book, I can now also smell him while he's doing it.

Anyway, skipping the dozens of pages that have nothing to do with the plot and are Leigh going on about how he thinks religious people are stupid and why he's so smart and so burdened under the weight of all of his absolute genius.

A genius wouldn't name their kid Mops, as an aside.

Skipping more pages of an irrelevant exchange between some guy outside trying to sneak some guy inside some alcohol.

Now we're up to some thing about a Catholic woman who's gone off the rails, is fully nude because that's a relevant thing to bring up you creep, and is very clearly mentally ill and is locked up. Of course they want Dr. Bell and Leigh (who, I might remind everyone at this point, is still technically inpatient at this place) to see her because geniuses or something.

Don't care, not relevant to the plot. We get it, Leigh, you're a genius.

"She then uttered a string of filthy pornographic oaths that would have put Emulphus to shame." and the author isn't going to share a single one with us.

So, Leigh the genius, declares this naked raving woman perfectly fine and says she--just needs a cold bath. Okay.

So that's the end of chapter ten.

Chapter 11:

Leigh is back home and his wife is not concerned abou tany of this, only "exceedingly interested" in hearing about his struggle with his "other self".

This makes her, in the author's judgement, reasonable.

Obera is, however, getting really antsy to get Mizpra killed, so there's that.

Rev. Bell comes to visit and as part of his groveling hello, "I have heard your pæans shouted from the housetops, and have been anxious to meet such a well-known man." I already dislike him.

Also, sin is the root cause of all illness. Of course Leigh had to go on and on about that so he could be sure it was still clear that he is, in fact, a genius in every way.

10 pages and he's still talking about that.

All right, so Leigh finally said one reasonable thing: "The words 'insanity' and 'insane' should disappear from our scientific vernacular, as they carry with them an atomsphere of medieval superstition and prejudice. There should be no distinction drawn between a person ill with typhoid fever, consumption, or any other physical disease and one ill from disease of the brain; it is only a difference of the organ affected."

Probably the only reasonable thing he'll say.

So, he finally shuts up and Rev. Bald tries to ask him to hang out outside of the house sometime and gets immediately shut down by Obera going with, "Dr. Newcomber prefers his home and books," and he just sort of parrots that back as well.

Obera asks Leigh what he thought of Rev. Bald and gets, "He is an ecclesiastical bunco steerer," and she tells him he's not allowed to hang out with the guy because of--the thing with Mizpra trying to straight up murder Mops.

He tells Obera not to blame Mizpra because "she is not morally responsible" due to being mentally ill, which is all good and well, but she did try to murder a child and should maybe be made to take a tiny bit of responsibility for that.

His solution is to send Obera and Mops away. Cool.

Dr. Bell visits the next morning to tell him the hysterical naked woman ran off with "our big Swede, Andersen. He was a mere animal. We kept him under control by giving him the furnaces to attend".

Turns out, the naked raving woman was relevant as it was Leigh's sister, Marcia and he's not--at all concerned by any of this, just, "Eh, oh yeah, I forgot to mention, she's my sister and she's fucking bonkers, it's no big deal."

And that's chapter 11.

Back to Mizpra for Chapter 12.

"To stand upon the wreck of her brothers and sisters, offering them enough assistance to prolong their misery, was her ambition." Settle down a little Mizpra.

She decides they should all go to Chicago to look at real estate instead of to California, then sort of goes on for awhile about how real estate agents are all crooks.

Long rambling introspection to determine that her mother's side of the family "suffered from weak arteries in advanced years" (like everyone else?) which made her prone to having a stroke or three and that she's arthritic.

So the switch to going to Chicago was to "keep her mother in a low altitude for a few days, then rush her rapidly up the Rockies" hoping to trigger a stroke that would HOPEFULLY not be fatal and if she did die, oh well, can't murder someone by stroke, so she'd not be arrested.

"She must witness torture and cause pain. This was her life." That's the intro for a good few pages of Mizpra thinking over all sorts of torture scenes from mythology which I'm sure are meant to be shocking but the author is what the author is and there's not much for detail. You'd get more detail reading the actual myths.

At the end of that she decides not to throw diphtheria infected toys at Mops anymore and she's going to aim straight at Obera with some method she'd seen but we're not told yet.

Great.

Oh, it's just anthrax.

I was hoping for something a little more creative than more small scale biological warfare.

Trying to murder people by sending disease via post seems to be some sort of fetish for Mizpra.

By now Burke is getting kind of annoyed that Mizpra is treating him like a secretary and errand boy but, honestly Burke, she basically told you that was the arrangement from the start, why are you surprised?

"Burke Wood was one of those unfortunate bipeds whom men despise, women hate, and the females of pervasive instincts employ as useful adjuncts to their much-scorned skirts." Well, we all know what the author thinks of Burke now. Also, all we’ve seen from Burke so far is that he’s a genuinely decent guy who adores Mizpra.

So mom comes in and asks Mizpra if she thinks she's treating that poor idiot Burke correctly and we find out that she somehow made this man with no training her LAWYER not just her secretary. Anyway, her mother reminds her if she keeps being nasty to him he's probably just going to leave her.

Then it just gets weird with her mom trying to not so subtly hint she needs to start with the sex where Burke is concerned and reminds Mizpra that she has "sex instincts".

Not the sort of conversation I'd want to have with my mother and, apparently, Mizpra doesn't want to have it with hers either. She brushes it off and tries to change the topic but this is what mother wants to talk about tonight so here we go.

"I preferred to see you enthusiastic over the dissection of a cat rather than playing with feminine foibles," what is this family even? Well, she regrets doing that now because apparently she's even noticing that Mizpra has some--interesting--obsessions.

Now even her mother is remarking on Mizpra's big, coarse, bony, manly hands. No wonder Mizpra has bizarre anger issues.

Mother figures out, finally, that Mizpra doesn't love Burke and isn't even remotely attracted to him like everyone but her and Burke figured that out at the wedding.

What mom's concerned about is that Mizpra doesn't want to fuck Burke; mom needs to mind her business, and this is not her business.

The problem, of course, is that Mizpra has had TOO MUCH education not that all we've seen of her is everyone else going on about how ugly and mannish she is.

I don't really want to read this old woman lecturing Mizpra on how she needs to fuck more then maybe she'd be happier.

So Burke interrupts them as Mizpra sent him to pick out some books she might like to read and pack the rest, and he interrupted to ask about one and we find out that if the "History of Flagellation does not meet with your approval, then it is because you do not understand the degredation of the woman of the past and my efforts for her enthronment in the future."

She then orders him to sit down then just kind of jerks his head back (with those big ol' coarse, manly hands of hers) and STARES at him before kind of sarcastically asking if he sees "anything but love" in her eyes then gives some, "Sorry if I've been cruel, I'm worried about my mother."

...then she tries to hypnotise him to sleep only she does it...loudly. While holding his eyes shut with her fingers.

To test some of that, she takes her scarf pin (which was holding together her, of course, “masculine necktie”) and jabs him in the forehead with it, then pierces his ears with it, then opened one eye and just jabbed her finger onto it so apparently holding someone's eyes shut then loudly commanding them to--be hypnotised works.

On Burke, at least.

She could have given him earrings or something.

Anyway, she then stabs the pin through his entire cheek then decided this is all making her way too horny and runs off to the sink to dunk her entire head into cold water.

So Mizpra's got a fetish.

For stabbing sleeping men with scarf pins.

I'm going to just stop here.

[filmcourage]

(Watch the video interview on Youtube here)

Before A Screenwriter Types ‘Fade In:’ On A Screenplay via FilmCourage.com

Erik Bork, Author/Screenwriter: To me probably the most important thing is to understand what the elements are of a viable story idea and to make coming up with one your main priority and take time and get the feedback necessary on your just ideas before you launch into 6 months or a year or even several years writing and rewriting a script because you can write and rewrite a script endless times to make it somewhat better. But if it was based on an idea that always was going to have a tough time moving forward no matter how you executed it a manager or agent would call that somewhat wasted time.

Michael Hauge, Story Consultant, Author and Lecturer: Any story…you can talk about an epic poem, you can talk about a myth, you can talk about a fairytale, you can talk about a children’s book, they are all built on character desire and conflict. Every story that I can think of almost without exception if it’s a narrative story (has a beginning, middle and end) is going to be about a character that desperately wants something and something stands in their way.

Dr. Ken Atchity, Author/Producer: It has to have a hook that gets people instantly involved in the story and that is a huge part of the story itself. And it’s got to have a very strong character in the story that you care about. And other than that it has to have twists and turns that lead to a surprise ending and if I had to say just three things, I guess that’s what I would say the three things are. Every story needs that because a story about nothing is not going to hold anyone’s interest. And sometimes writers when they begin their careers think that they if they just write they can write about anything. But the truth is they need to write from their heart about things that matter to everyone and if you do that you can hardly go wrong. It’s not really about words or words choice. They are about conveying a power of a character facing a dilemma that you have no idea he or she will resolve and when you do that, you’ve got everyone’s attention.

Cecilia Najar, Writer/Story Consultant and Script Doctor: Stories in general are not plot. We think they are plot, but they’re not (they’re emotions). They are moments that generate emotion. So if you become more concerned with the things inside you that feel like they are emotional and you get those emotions on the page or in a scene, you can find ways to create the internal logic of a story to bring them together. So it’s just shifting from plot into emotion really…(Watch the video interview on Youtube here).

Want more Film Courage videos? Check out new videos 5:00 p.m. daily — subscribe to the main Film Courage Youtube channel. Subscribe to the second Film Courage Youtube channel here…

[sciencespies]

Atomic Bomb Scientists Wanted To Make A Cautionary Movie About Nuclear Weaponry. An Interview With Greg Mitchell About How Hollywood Destroyed Those Hopes

https://sciencespies.com/news/atomic-bomb-scientists-wanted-to-make-a-cautionary-movie-about-nuclear-weaponry-an-interview-with-greg-mitchell-about-how-hollywood-destroyed-those-hopes/

Atomic Bomb Scientists Wanted To Make A Cautionary Movie About Nuclear Weaponry. An Interview With Greg Mitchell About How Hollywood Destroyed Those Hopes

Greg Mitchell’s “The Beginning or the End.” Published in July 2020 by The New Press

Photo credit: The New Press

Better late than never, right? In July of 2020 The New Press published Greg Mitchell’s The Beginning or the End, which was about a 1947 Hollywood docudrama that portrayed the development of the world’s first atomic bomb. A little more than a year later, this week provides a stellar opportunity to talk with Mitchell about his book. That’s because August 6 is the anniversary of the day when the United States detonated the world’s first atomic bomb over Hiroshima, a Japanese city with a population of about 300,000 people. Three days later on August 9, 1945, an even more powerful bomb was detonated over the city of Nagasaki, which had a population of about 200,000. As acknowledged by the United States government, the number of civilian deaths in Hiroshima (immediate event + radiation sickness) was about 100,000. About 70,000 died in Nagasaki. Appalled nuclear scientists reached out to Hollywood for help informing Americans about the needless deaths their atomic bombs had caused. The movie that Hollywood produced merely fanned patriotic flames and elevated nuclear madness.

Welcome to Los Alamos

The Manhattan Project was the name of the effort sited in Los Alamos, New Mexico, through which atomic bomb technology was developed. Well before the bombs were dropped, seventy scientists from the Project had become aghast at creation. They signed a petition asking asked President Truman not to drop atomic bombs on Japan. Ultimately, of course, Truman disregarded their plea.

In 1945, shorty after the end of the war, some of those same scientists reached out to Metro Goldwyn Mayer’s Louis B. Mayer in hopes that we would make a movie that depicted the horrors that their weaponry had produced and that warned the world about the dangers of a nuclear arms race. They offered to serve as advisors to the movie.

Mayer thrilled at the idea. He imagined a potential blockbuster. The scientists were overjoyed.

Then they weren’t.

Circa 1935: Russian-born American film mogul Louis Burt Mayer (1885 – 1957), head of production at … [+] MGM. (Photo by General Photographic Agency/Getty Images)

Getty Images

Atomic Bombs Are So Conveniently Top Secret, Aren’t They?

Because the scientists who would advise the movie had top-secret information, Mayer gave Truman and General Leslie R. Groves (who led the Manhattan Project for the Army) script approval rights. Unfortunately, Groves’ and Truman’s vanity took over. They didn’t just edit sensitive information out of the script. They used the opportunity of concern about national security to put the script through meat grinders designed to make them sound good and look handsome. Meanwhile, MGM scriptwriters added romances and subplots. What eventually emerged was a hackneyed, over-hyped docudrama that glorified the president and the military and that created astonishing myths about why the use of the bombs had been the right choice for the United States of America and the world.

Author Greg Mitchell is a journalist who knows military history and United States politics well. He is the author of The Tunnels: Escapes Under the Berlin Wall and the Historic Films the JFK White House Tried to Kill; Tricky Dick and the Pink Lady (a New York Times Notable Book); The Campaign of the Century: Upton Sinclair’s Race for Governor of California and The Birth of Media Politics (winner of the Goldsmith Book Prize and finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize). He also co-authored with Robert Jay Lifton, Hiroshima in America. Mitchell is the former editor of Nuclear Times magazine and the writer/director of the 2021 documentary, Atomic Coverup.

 For Forbes.com, I talked to Mitchell about his nonfiction examination of the scientists’ motivations in reaching out to Hollywood and about Hollywood’s distortion of their intentions and message. Mitchell’s book is called The Beginning or The End — and that, by the way, is also the title of the MGM movie that so sorely disappointed the scientists involved. I have edited the conversation for length and clarity

The Conversation with Greg Mitchell

Rebecca Coffey: Your book tells the story of scientists who were sickened at the deaths caused by their work at the Manhattan Project. They wanted Hollywood to help them create a movie that would be a cautionary tale. What they got instead from Hollywood was a movie designed to help Americans feel good about the appalling Hiroshima and Nagasaki news. The movie didn’t raise moral questions about scientific matters. It celebrated nuclear weaponry and its “heroes.” Am I right about that?

Journalist and author Greg Mitchell

Photo credit: Barbara Bedway

Greg Mitchell: I think that’s a fair assessment. The country had mixed feelings about how the bomb had been used. The scientists had mixed feelings about what they’d created. Truman and Groves had script approval. A movie filled with distortions and outright lies was the result.

RC: I’m surprised at how good a job the movie did in creating lasting distortions. I mentioned to a well-educated, well-read, peace-loving friend the other day that I would be interviewing you and I also said that you had spent a significant portion of your professional life examining moral questions about the use of the bomb. He said, well, what is there to talk about really? Using the bomb was necessary. If we hadn’t done it the Soviets were about to do it. I responded that, no, Russia had spies at the Manhattan Project. That’s because they had no bomb. Japan and Germany didn’t have a bomb, either. Apparently, the wool that the government and this movie pulled over the eyes of even educated, peace-loving Americans has held up over the years. It still controls the narrative.

GM: That’s why I wrote this book. It’s what has motivated me for 38 years now. Last year was the 75th anniversary of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It was an opportunity for reassessment. That didn’t happen, perhaps because of COVID-19 headlines and the election. There was a best-selling book by Chris Wallace [and Mitch Weiss] defending the use of the bomb, but it included all sorts of errors. And there was Wallace’s Fox special about the bomb. But there was no impartial assessment 75 years after the fact. I’ve always wanted to promote an honest debate about what happened. I want all of the facts out there. I want Americans to have conversations and examine moral issues.

American actress Donna Reed (1921 – 1986), circa 1945. (Photo by Silver Screen Collection/Getty … [+] Images)

Getty Images

RC: If I remember correctly, one of the Manhattan Project scientists who had misgivings about the future of nuclear weaponry reached out to a former high school student. She was the actress Donna Reed. She brought her agent husband into the conversation and he sold Louis B. Mayer and MGM on the scientists’ idea about a movie that would warn audiences about the dangers and moral complexities of atomic bombs. Mayer was excited enough to call the movie the “most important story” he’d ever get the chance to tell. But the movie that MGM ended up making was not at all a cautionary tale. Do you know whether Mayer had a personal sense of loss about how the project turned out?

GM: I couldn’t find any testimony about that. I think he kind of bowed out. So many MGM movies needed his attention. This one didn’t seem to be a high priority, after all.

RC: The movie is a docudrama, though it’s hard for me to understand how any audience member accepted the supposedly nonfiction aspect of it given how predictable and corny the dialog is. Even so, they did. As a documentary-plus-drama, it was a “cross-genre” movie. And in some ways, your book is a cross-genre narrative because it’s about such serious matters but it incorporates lots of dark comedy. The photo on the book jacket’s speaks to gallows humor even more than it does to the book’s important historical information. Do you have any response to that?

The Beginning or the End (1947) Directed by Norman Taurog. MGM promotional photo. Shown: Tom Drake … [+] and his wife.

MGM/Photofrest

GM: I think there is a lot of unintentional comedy in it. There was the absurdity of trying to make a romantic, Hollywood blockbuster about the creation of a horrible, potentially world-destroying weapon. MGM went through all the usual promo processes, and they were oddly out of place. You know, “Here’s a beautiful actress getting her ID checked!” “Here are cool signs that say ‘Top Secret!’” Everything MGM said about the movie was inadvertently tone deaf. A nearly final version of the script had the Japanese receiving instructions on how to build an atomic bomb from Germans who arrived, as Germans apparently often do, by submarine. Having received the instructions, the Japanese took them to their secret atomic bomb factory … which was supposedly in Hiroshima! There was no factory in Hiroshima. No Germans were crawling out of submarines and bearing instructions for Japanese scientists. The script, the casting, the promotion, and the filmmaking process all were absurd.

Scientists and army personnel discuss nuclear science in MGM promotional shot.

Courtesy Greg Mitchell

RC: In general, Hollywood movies have clear heroes and villains. Your book doesn’t, but let’s just talk about its cast of characters. In the whole mess that was the creation and use of the bomb, is there a character who disgusted you most? Is there somebody whom you consider to be the true villain of the atomic bomb story?

 GM: I suppose I’d have to say General Groves. He had his finger in everything. He got the bomb built. He covered up radiation accidents at the Manhattan Project. He helped pick Hiroshima and Nagasaki as targets. He moved up the schedule so the bomb would get used earlier. After the cities were bombed, he covered up the effects of the radiation on the civilian population and later he pushed for building more and bigger weapons. He capped it off by getting a massive amount of money from MGM to advise on the movie. By the way, no one else got paid, even though the scientists were promised money. Then, when questioned, Groves denied taking the money. He ruined the movie that had the potential to bring some truth to millions of Americans. Because he had his finger in everything, he would have to be the villain

(Original Caption) 9/11/1945-Alamogordo, NM: Maj. Gen. Leslie R. Groves (r), and Dr. J. R. … [+] Oppenheimer.

Bettmann Archive

RC: What about J. Robert Oppenheimer, the chief scientist at the Manhattan Project? I’ve read several books that portray him as an unreliable, weird, and perhaps overly self-involved figure. He had to give his approval to the movie for MGM to use his name, and his name was so well-known that MGM really had to use it. Why did he give his approval to the script?

GM: One of the subplots of the book is the continual engagement between MGM and the scientists including Oppenheimer, Albert Einstein, and Leo Szilard. [Before the Manhattan Project, Szilard had conceived the nuclear chain reaction upon which atomic bomb technology relied. He’d also patented a nuclear fission reactor design and he’d convinced Einstein to join the Manhattan Project. In 1945 Szilard drafted the petition to Truman asking him not to use the bomb against Japan.] Some of the scientists were very famous and were hesitant about cooperating. Whenever they dragged their feet, MGM got nervous and came up with pseudonyms for them. Even Oppenheimer had a provisional pseudonym. It was “Whittier” — funny because it was WASP-y and he was anything but. I’m not sure why ultimately he gave permission and let the MGM screenwriters use his real name. He was being surveilled by the FBI, but there’s no evidence that he cooperated just to get J. Edgar Hoover off his back. He had gotten some changes made in the script. Maybe that was enough for him. Maybe he knew that he couldn’t stop the movie altogether or solve all of its problems. Maybe he liked the idea of being a character on the big screen. Even Einstein and Szilard approved the script eventually.

RC: Why do you think Einstein and Szilard approved it?

Albert Einstein (1879-1955), American theoretical physicist and winner of the 1921 Nobel Prize for … [+] Physics.

Bettmann Archive

GM: MGM brought Szilard out to the lot for a week or two. That might have been flattering and fun. And Szilard didn’t have a lot to protect. The movie just showed him in the lab early on doing some of the groundbreaking work on nuclear science. He got some changes made to the script. The movie may not have deeply upset him because it doesn’t portray or distort his attempt to stop the use of the bomb.

Einstein, on the other hand, was a little different. In the book, there’s an exchange of letters between Mayer and Einstein. Mayer tried to twist Einstein’s arm. Einstein held firm. Then, a couple of months later, Szilard seems to have told Einstein, “Look, I got some changes made. I think you should sign. No big deal.” Einstein may have thrown up his hands and signed. It seems that, in the end, when scientists believed they were being treated fairly on screen they signed. Maybe they’d just been worn down.

Leo Szilard. (Photo by © CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)

Corbis via Getty Images

RC: Did the scientists get anything for all of their trouble?

GM: MGM didn’t pay the scientists even though they’d promised to. With their dithering, though, the scientists did succeed in delaying production. By the time the movie was released, the bomb had disappeared from the headlines.

RC: Poetic justice?

GM: Well, if you’re bothered at the idea that the movie that was supposed to be a cautionary tale ended up having a pro-atomic-bomb message, at least you can take some comfort. The scientists succeeded in ruining the audience for the movie. They delayed so long that America had lost interest. Mayer’s “most important story” was a box office flop.

RC: What are your favorite darkly comic moments about the development of the movie?

(Original Caption) 1949: Official portrait of Harry S. Truman (1884-1972), 33rd president of the … [+] United States.

Bettmann Archive

GM: I like Donna Reed’s involvement because it’s so unexpected and strange. Another favorite of mine is the fact that Truman got the actor playing him fired for not having a sufficiently “military bearing.” The actor then wrote a letter to Truman that appeared to be respectful but, between the lines, was deeply sarcastic. He suggested that Truman should play himself. He said something like, “No doubt you would love to be the person who takes credit for this historic use of the bomb.” Truman wrote a polite letter back, evidently not having caught onto the actor’s mockery.

By and large, I found reams of jaw-dropping stuff in the Motion Picture Academy Library. For example, Groves, who was overweight and not happy about it, ordered MGM to remove from the script a second reference to him liking chocolate. He and Truman allowed incredibly large falsehoods about science to stay in the script but disallowed details that they didn’t make them look good. 

RC: Because for thirty-eight years you have researched this part of history, let me see if I can get you to opine about certain matters. In Einstein’s interview with the New York Times Magazine, he said that he believed we didn’t have to use the bomb. Do you agree with him about that?

GM: When I started writing about this in the 1980s and went to Hiroshima and Nagasaki for a month, I didn’t have an opinion. I just wanted to delve deeper into the story. Over the many years in which I’ve read more, I’ve become convinced that it was not necessary to use the bomb in that time period to produce a surrender in very short order. That’s what General Eisenhower and others believed. They could see there were other ways to end the war.

RC: Do you think President Franklin D. Roosevelt would have approved of using the bomb on Japanese cities?

GM: I’ve thought about it but I don’t have a firm opinion. The evidence is not crystal clear. I’m satisfied that I’ve raised some conversation about it. Could he have been bullied the way Truman was by Groves? Maybe not. But, like Truman, he wanted to end the war as soon as possible. He’d ordered the creation of the bomb.

RC: What about impersonating scientists on film? Do you think that getting B-grade actors to fiddle with flashing gadgets while pretending to be world-class scientists does a disservice to science — especially on matters as grave as this?

GM: The scientists who were impersonated in the MGM movie were disturbed by the screenings. Szilard ran out and kind of cowered in a waiting car. It wasn’t just that the movie celebrated the bomb. It was the hokey way scientists were portrayed.

The producers tried to placate the scientists. They pointed out that one major character functioned as a representation of the qualms of some of scientists. It was the character of Tom Drake. He appeared in much of the movie. He was a sympathetic-looking guy. He gave voice to their concerns about civilian casualties and the future of nuclear weaponry. But, of course, in the movie he was a tragic figure and he died, and in the very last scene his ghost came down and talked to his wife and said that the bomb is a great thing. It’s our salvation. God gave it to us.

This gets back to my motivation for writing the book. So many Americans remain ignorant about the history of nuclear weaponry in our country and the ongoing possibility of its use. Unlike many of our allies, we have a “First Use” policy! We reserve the right to use nuclear weapons first. Many Americans don’t know about the First Use policy. That fact is enough to keep me talking about the dangers of the nuclear arms race and inspiring me to write books like The Beginning or the End.

RC: Thank you so much for talking.

Greg Mitchell’s The Beginning or the End: How Hollywood — And America — Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb is gripping, surprisingly well-researched and fun storytelling about a devastating topic. Mitchell’s Twitter handle is @gregmitch. His news and politics newsletter is Between a Rock and a Hard Place.

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Marvel’s Loki Episode 3 Raises Some Questions About the TVA

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This article contains spoilers for Loki episode 3.

Back in the first episode of Marvel’s Loki, viewers get a helpful expositional rundown about the Time Variance Authority from Miss Minutes (Tara Strong), a friendly cartoon clock.

In a ‘50s style orientation video, Miss Minutes described how the Time Keepers created the TVA and all the employees within it to maintain the Sacred Timeline and avert temporal chaos. Makes sense! But in this week’s episode, “Lamentis”, we are provided some information that appears to be at odds with the “official” founding myth of the TVA.

As rogue Loki Variant Sylvie describes what it’s like to enchant people’s minds (huh, almost like she’s some kind of…enchantress?) to our lead character, she reveals that sometimes a mind is so strong that she must create a fantasy of a memory to lull them. Such is the case with Hunter C-20 (Sasha Lane).

“I had to pull a memory from hundreds of years prior before she even fought for them,” Sylvie tells Loki.

Huh…before she fought for the TVA? How could C-20 have had a life before the TVA if the TVA created her for time-policing purposes? It turns out that, according to Sylvie, everyone who works at the TVA are just like her and Loki: Variants lost on the Sacred Timeline. 

In classic Marvel Cinematic Universe fashion, this answer to a question leads to only more questions. Let’s endeavor to answer them.

What is the TVA’s Real Mission?

Marvel’s first Disney+ series WandaVision made it clear from the get-go that all wasn’t what it seemed to be. Conversely Loki appeared to end its first episode with all cards on the table. Sure, the science fiction premise was ambitious and at times hard to understand, but the TVA’s mission was outlined quite clearly in that aforementioned orientation video. Now one can’t help but wonder whether Loki isn’t more like WandaVision than we anticipated.

The TVA says its only mission is to protect the Sacred Timeline. As the series goes on, however, the very notion of a Sacred Timeline seems increasingly impossible. As discussed in this feature, which irreparably broke my brain, the lack of alternate universes in the TVA’s worldview is just not feasible. Where do all of these Loki Variants come from if not alternate universes or alternate timelines?

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Sylvie has a fundamentally different appearance from our Loki and, if she is to be believed, an entirely different family history. How could two such contradictory beings exist on one Sacred Timeline? The answer is that they can’t. The TVA claims that the emergence of just one alternate timeline branched off from the Sacred Timeline would have disastrous consequences. Clearly it doesn’t though as all the Variant Lokis already exist.

Perhaps when Miss Minutes and the Time Keepers say that the TVA maintains the Sacred Timeline, what they mean is that they guard it from external threats. Pruning Nexus events here and there is also part of the job, but the main goal is to make sure that the Sacred Timeline doesn’t come under attack from other timelines. If we buy into that logic, then of course the Time Keepers would bring brainwashed Variants aboard to assist in this mission.

Speaking of the Time Keepers…

Are the Time-Keepers Even Real?

Episode three brings us closer to meeting the Time-Keepers than ever before. C-20 tells Sylvie that the Time Keepers reside on the top floor of the TVA offices, accessible only through a golden elevator. Sylvie makes it quite close to invading their sanctum before Loki intervenes.

Now that a basic tenet of the TVA’s history is in question though, so too is the existence of the Time-Keepers themselves. Loki’s understanding of the deities is that they are three “space lizards” who oversee the timestream. While that would certainly be cool to see depicted onscreen, it now seems more likely that they’re a fairy tale.

The TVA’s own internal depiction of the Time-Keepers is too holy and sagacious to possibly be real. As evidenced by the bureaucratic nightmare around them, time keeping is not a sexy business. It requires hard work and determination, not ethereal space iguanas. Recall that the only character who claims to have met with the head honchos is Ravonna Renslayer (Gugu Mbatha-Raw). 

Is Miss Minutes the Big Bad Here?

If the Time-Keepers aren’t Loki’s main foe to be vanquished then who is? It’s possible that the answer was in front of us the whole time. Simply put: there’s something off about Miss Minutes. At first glance, she was just a funny satire of the friendly cartoonish faces that corporations use to hide their dirty work. Then episode 2 revealed that Miss Minutes is actually able to achieve something resembling a corporeal form as she quizzes Loki on TVA history from a desk.

This past week, The Hollywood Reporter had a chance to interview Tara Strong, the voice of Miss Minutes, and there were some intriguing tidbits uncovered. When asked about director Kate Herron’s assertion that Miss Minutes was about to go on an “interesting” journey, Strong responded:

“I can cryptically tease that you’ll see her again. There’s much more to be revealed, and it’s fun to watch that unfold. The beautiful thing about this character is you don’t really know who she is, where she’s from, what her origin story is, how sentient she is, if she has a horse in this race at all, and what her intentions are, if any.”

Strong made good on her promise to remain cryptic there, but it’s still surprising to hear just how much Miss Minutes content is yet to come. I suppose that’s to be expected from a character with her own poster and that played by a voice acting titan. It’s not out of the question that Miss Minutes will be revealed to be an antagonist of sorts, perhaps even the main one. 

For better or worse, Miss Minutes represents the TVA. What if the agency started with noble intentions before gradually becoming corrupted over centuries? And now Miss Minutes is the anthropomorphic embodiment of the flawed institution, stamping out timelines that don’t need to be stamped out. Perhaps she’s like HAL 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey. 

After all, does this look like the face of mercy to you?

Does Agent Mobius Know He Had A Life Before the TVA?

The biggest loser in the revelations of episode 3 might be poor Agent Mobius (Owen Wilson). Back in episode 2, Mobius had a conversation with Loki about how much he appreciates order in the universe rather than the chaos that Loki prefers. That same episode reveals, however, that Mobius might not be as straight-laced as he appears.

The man loves jet skis, calling them the perfect combination of form and function. Unlike his co-worker Casey (Eugene Cordero) who doesn’t even know what a fish is, Mobius likes to spend much of his infinite time reading jet ski magazines. We should have known right then and there that the TVA did not create its employees because why would they program in a love for something from the outside world? 

Mobius is probably a Variant conscripted into the TVA’s mission just like everyone else. The question is: does he know that? I’m inclined to think he does not. Though Mobius is a respected Agent in the TVA, he is continually shown to be shockingly far down on the totem pole. Judge Renslayer won’t let him meet the Time Keepers (probably because they don’t exist) and even Hunter B-15 bosses him around in the field. 

Although, there’s another possibility. In the comics, many higher/executive positions in the TVA were held by Mobius. Multiple Mobiuses. The Marvel Comics TVA had a policy of cloning its managers, rather than hiring/training new people, and since Mobius was great at his job, they made more of him. Perhaps the MCU Mobius is based on a Variant, one who did his job so well that they chose to duplicate him for more work. It would mean that he isn’t necessarily lying when he tells Loki the “creation myth” of the TVA agents, it might just be the only truth he knows.

Wilson also brings a sensitivity and world-weariness to the role that suggest deep down, Mobius knows something is missing in his life. On a subconscious level, maybe that’s why he’s so taken with Loki. The only being that can take down the Time Keepers and TVA’s strict order is the God of Mischief. 

The post Marvel’s Loki Episode 3 Raises Some Questions About the TVA appeared first on Den of Geek.

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How to Laugh at Work The DealBook newsletter delves into a single topic or theme every weekend, providing reporting and analysis that offers a better understanding of an important issue in business. If you don’t already receive the daily newsletter, sign up here. Taking humor seriously In 2014, the behavioral scientist Jennifer Aaker invited Naomi Bagdonas to give a guest lecture as part of her Stanford business school course on “The Power of Story.” Unbeknown to many, Ms. Bagdonas, a media and strategy consultant who was completing her M.B.A. at Stanford at the time, also spent evenings and weekends performing improv at comedy clubs. Though the lecture was ostensibly about combining stories and data, with detours into factor analysis and neurochemistry, Ms. Aaker watched with delight and surprise as students laughed to the point of tears over Ms. Bagdonas’s delivery. And when the course evaluations came in, students recalled Ms. Bagdonas’s points with more clarity and detail than they did for almost any other guest speaker. If stories have power, it seemed, funny ones had something close to magic. Ms. Aaker and Ms. Bagdonas now teach a course together at Stanford called “Humor: Serious Business,” which shows aspiring executives and entrepreneurs how to leverage laughter for better relationships and business results. They’ve also distilled their findings into a new book, “Humor, Seriously: Why Humor Is A Secret Weapon in Business and Life.” But can people really be taught to be funny at work? Should people be taught to be funny at work? If you explain a joke, its force disperses. The whole point of “The Office,” after all, is that it’s agony to work with a self-appointed comedian. And the framing of humor as a tool of self-advancement is somewhat unsettling, evoking the image of a sociopath calmly studying the human psyche’s soft spots to exploit them for professional gain. Humor at work is much less about wisecracks than about levity: the shared moments of lightness that propel relationships forward and balance the seriousness of labor. Levity is strikingly absent from a lot of adult life, particularly in professional settings. “On Tuesday, I did not laugh once. Not once,” a Stanford student wrote once in the “humor audit” the instructors ask students to fill out at the start of the term. Levity is a powerful bonding agent. A workplace that embraces laughter is likely one that also encourages the kind of creativity, authenticity and psychological safety that allows people to perform their best. Humor is a Trojan horse for humanity — and that, Ms. Aaker and Ms. Bagdonas argue, is the thing that knits people and organizations together. DealBook caught up with Ms. Aaker and Ms. Bagdonas over Zoom to learn more about professional levity, what comedy and sports have in common, and why a leader doesn’t have to be funny to build a team that embraces humor. The conversation has been edited and condensed. DealBook: What do people not understand about humor when they first come to your class — or open your book? Bogdanos: In the book, we break down four myths of humor. The first is the “serious business” myth, which is the idea that levity undermines the mission of your work, that you can come off as not taking your job seriously if you’re joking around. This is simply not true. Managers with a sense of humor are more motivating and admired. Their employees are more engaged. Their teams are more likely to solve a creativity challenge. There’s all this evidence around the R.O.I. of humor. And then the failure myth: People think that failing at humor is going to have these huge repercussions. We teach our students that it’s so much less about telling jokes. It’s about cultivating joy. There’s the “being funny” myth, which is that humor is about cracking jokes. Again, it’s really not about that. It’s about being more generous with your laughter. It’s about naming truths in our lives and giving a window into our humanity. And then lastly, the “born with it” myth, which is the idea that our sense of humor is either there or it’s not. In fact, it is a muscle that we can work. You make a great analogy in the book comparing the relationship between levity, humor and comedy to that between movement, exercise and competitive athletics. Bagdonas: Levity is a mind-set, an inherent state of how you approach the world. Similarly, movement is how we move through space. Minor adjustments in the way that we move, or in our mind-set around levity, have major adjustments in how we feel and how people interact with us. Humor then channels levity toward these specific goals. When you go for a run, you are using movement in a specific way. In humor, you hone levity into a specific outcome. Similarly, with comedy and with sports, there are specific moves you can make to get the outcomes you want. Comedians know exactly how to pause before the punchline, how to construct sentences, how to use the “rule of three” or contrast or exaggeration to get the outcome they want — which is, in this case, laughs. It’s just like how athletes know the exact form that they should use. That’s a good analogy. You can have a healthy, happy life as someone who exercises regularly but never crosses over into athletic competition. It sounds like it’s also fine to be a person who appreciates humor but prefers not to be the one cracking jokes. Aaker: It’s not about “trying to be funny.” That’s the Michael Scott problem. Dick Costolo, the former C.E.O. of Twitter, has said: “The easiest way to be funny is not to try — instead, just look for moments to laugh.” This isn’t about being funny. This is about being generous with laughter. You’re empowering others to use it, and showing up much more as a human — not a clown. How can leaders ensure the humor they’re encouraging is appropriate? Aaker: Many people who have used humor to good effect in the past often equate humor with their style of humor. Like, “I just threw out a joke, it didn’t land, I think it would have two years ago, therefore the world is not funny anymore.” The calculation is not that the world is humorless, per se. It’s that we need to better understand the diversity of humor styles that other people have, and better understand — through empathy more than anything else — how to better read a room and understand the dynamics of status. What’s interesting is that while trust in leadership is plunging — which is a problem for leaders who have used the same old jokes for a while — those organizations that somehow manage to maintain a high-trust environment are thriving. We know that when employees rate what characteristics inspire trust, their answers are things like, “My boss speaks like a regular person.” We’re living in a time when empathy, inclusivity and authenticity are important for all leaders. Humor is actually a secret weapon that can serve them well. So how do we keep levity alive on remote teams, when you don’t have the in-person benefits of facial expression and tone — or feel like you have much to laugh about? Bagdonas: This was such a pressing need that at the beginning of the pandemic that we created a course called “Remotely Humorous,” which is all about having humor in remote teams. Part of this is creating space for it. We need to have a norm that at the beginning of every call, we just talk like humans rather than jump right into the agenda. We talk about what just happened with our kids, or whose dog is running around in the background or what genuine mishap has happened in people’s lives due to this pandemic. Even though maintaining levity feels harder, there are also more creative ways to do it. It’s also more important than ever because the more technology-mediated our communication becomes, the easier it is to leave our humanity and our sense of humor at the door. When we’re constantly talking through machines, it’s easier to behave like one as well. When jokes aren’t funny What counts as boundary-pushing comedy to one person is downright rude to another. Here are rules for checking yourself to ensure your “material” doesn’t cause pain, according to Ms. Aaker and Ms. Bagdonas: Examine the truth. Is this observation still true or appropriate to share when the humor is removed? They offer the example of a recent Cisco hire who tweeted about having to weigh “a fatty paycheck against … hating the work.” It may have been intended as a laugh, but it essentially said that the author disliked the potential new employer. The joke failed and the offer was rescinded. Consider the pain and distance. Is it “too soon” to make a crack about a troubling recent event? Are you, the attempted jokester, not close enough to the issue to truly share the pain you’re trying to laugh about? Read the room. Are people in the mood for a laugh? Are there cultural differences, status differences or other reasons your audience might feel awkward about fielding a joke? The goal of office humor isn’t to get a laugh; it’s to make everyone in the room feel lighter and more at ease. Who to watch Steve Carell’s portrayal of Michael Scott on “The Office” is the perfect case study of how not to be funny at work. For better ideas, Ms. Aaker and Ms. Bagdonas suggest checking out these comedians instead: Sarah Cooper Before her social media lip-syncs of former President Donald J. Trump’s public statements became a pandemic-era hit, the former Google manager trained her comedic sights on meetings, email and other workplace absurdities. “Never look for what’s funny,” Ms. Cooper told Stanford students in a guest lecture. “Look for what’s true, and go from there.” Demi Adejuyigbe The comedian and writer for shows like “The Good Place” and “The Late Late Show With James Corden” finds the funny in everything, including technology’s tendency to overcomplicate our personal and professional lives. Amber Ruffin The host of “The Amber Ruffin Show” has been a writer on “Late Night With Seth Meyers” since 2014. She regularly appears with co-writer Jenny Hagel in the segment “Jokes Seth Can’t Tell,” where the two women deliver punch lines that would sound wrong coming from a straight white guy’s mouth, in any setting. What do you think? Is work better when there’s humor or should it be strictly business? Let us know: dealbook@nytimes.com. Source link Orbem News #laugh #Work

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Completely, for example , a South Korean man murdered his Vietnamese star of the event after six days of marital relationship. The husband did not disclose his schizophrenia when he accomplished his bride through a dating company. Inside the BBC’s 2019 report, that reported on a South Korean language man who bodily abused his Japanese wife.

A large number of Vietnamese wives or girlfriends in Southern region Korea sometimes find themselves susceptible to their husbands because their immigration position is determined by them. Agencies should additionally obtain the potential bride’s developed consent to launch her private get in touch with facts to the client. After getting this facts, the star of the event has the decision to accept or refuse interaction with the customer. The bonuses that drive lots of women to enroll as mail-order brides are like the situations that make trafficking victims extra prone to their traffickers. Often driven by poverty and unemployment, couples are tempted by videos photographs of Western life styles and vanish entirely their house international locations seeking a much better life.

Sandys’s tougher activity was convincing potential brides to come back to Jamestown. Fortunately, the financial obstacles to marriage in seventeenth-century Great britain labored in the favor. Securing a home and organising a domestic family have been completely expensive.

Rarely Know The Way To have a Mail Purchase Bride? Brightbrides Will Allow You To!

The price of expertise is normally not an impediment, and he abruptly has its own more qualified women vying for his attention. In 1854, in a tranquility convention in Fort Laramie, a remarkable Cheyenne primary requested of the U. T. Army the gift of any hundred white girls as wedding brides, however the armed forces refused. Russian immigrants brought with them the tailor made ofkoopla, whereby marriage brokerages were paid a fee to pair males with potential spouses from Old Country. Similarly, Chinese language and Japoneses obtained “image brides” of their homelands, women of all ages whom that were there come to recognise only via grainy images. Corresponding to historian Glenda Riley, Asian gals entered this sort of relationships as a result of parental pressure, to run away poverty, as well as to hide a sullied popularity.

The girls have been completely advertised in online and offline “catalogs” to To the south Korean men. The Korea Times memories that every year, thousands of Korean language guys join matches with Filipina brides using companies and by mail order. Based on data from the Korean language government, you will find 6, 191 Filipinas in South Korea who are married to Koreans. At the show-up the Korean guy picks a prospective partner from among the group, and in a matter of times they are hitched.

Whether you happen to be new to worldwide on-line seeing or a expert, should you happen to be looking for a email order star of the wedding you’ve arrive to the proper place – and we are pleased to brand new as a member. We strive to give you a lot of beneficial information about Russian ladies and throughout the world on-line marriage to reinforce your possibilities intended for achievement locate your Russian bride. Subscribing to our site is totally free and easy — really easy that in basically minutes we can easily open up stimulating possibilities meant for meeting suitable Russian ladies and perhaps a Russian bride. There have been several murders of mail-order brides to be in Southern region Korea. In June 2013, The Filipino embassy in Seoul reported that it had acquired many grievances from Filipinas who’ve betrothed Korean men by way of mail-order, regularly changing into “victims of grave abuses”.

The mindset diploma Dark brown got in 2000 helps him set up environment friendly jobs and do well within the work with relationship. There are countless myths and stereotypes regarding mail buy brides. Several may declare they’re cash-hungry, that they wish nothing nevertheless a Green Card or that any of them is going away you right after she is going to get almost everything she demands from you. In fact , there are much a lot easier the reason why these kinds of girls prefer to marry a foreigner. Trustworthiness is another component why we extremely advocate dating a mailbox order bride.

The answer is that it is actually legal so long as all incidents involved ready by way of the right channels. That is part of the answer why many worldwide matchmaking agencies shun the timeframe mail-order brides. Despite what the timeframe may suggest, nobody is certainly ordering one other human being meant for shipment with their doorsteps. Rather, many buyers of these dating businesses need to work with around the globe marriage broker agents to attach and meet their very own potential spouses. Want to search out hundreds of world-wide mail order brides whom desire meeting a person in the United States? Really want to find some reliable -mail order significant other websites with hundreds of proper profiles? Make certain that you gained’t eliminate your money or personal data?

Quality companies supply hassle-free payment strategies – standard bank playing cards Australian visa, Maestro, Master card, electronic purses Skrill, Neteller, Qiwi, WebMoney, Yandex, PayPal. We know the class of people that just favor a female with a specific area of living or perhaps habits that are going to correspond to your interests.

The answers are in this article — we feel that there are three main reasons why should you discover a foreign woman. We could proudly declare 1000’s of BridesChoice. net clients possess found take pleasure in right here. A large number of couples have been created, plenty of of relationships have been performed, and lots of Developed men and international brides to be become pleased with our aid. When you decide to hunt appreciate overseas, you`ll facial area an enormous availablility of mail order bride sites. Our objective is that will allow you to select the more effective and the fittest one. All of us verify all of them to study what providers they provide, how the help works, https://foreignbridesguru.com/australian-brides/ what background are posted there, what security procedures are used, and the approach a lot that prices. In the top, you get total evaluations on one of the best symbolizes and make a choice on which to sign up and fall in love.

They all are of various origins, age, and look, but all of the search absolutely adore overseas. Girls registered about dating sites happen to be truly beautiful beauties. It is onerous to face up to their caractère, and each man can be glad to understand their focus.

The worldwide marital relationship brokering transact thrives upon unrealistic warranties and deficiencies in knowledge given to potential brides. While the females could think of their better life, the boys just who purchase a spouse tend to find submissive, placid, and subservient ladies which they can reign over and control. The post workplace discipline quantity detailed for a great company at some time could also be finished the next, and the business that advertises itself as a matrimony broker could in fact end up being promoting porn material or prostitution. Though authorities compare these businesses to every factor from marital life mills to slave dealers, they usually are paid to provide a wife to a buyer. Instead, they will cost Their very own male clients for a report of women who the consumer can write.

In our case, all mail order brides have been labeled as the perfect women for relationship attachments. Potentially that is the initial question that comes to thoughts when one particular hears the time period mail-order brides.

They are guys like Arlie Patterson, who had been married three times earlier than he attained his Philippine wife, each and every time to ”spoiled American girls, ” or perhaps Dan Behnen, who was depressed with the ladies this individual met in Cincinnati bars. The girls, who are often poor, see marital relationship to a foreigner as a chance for a higher life.

Because the collapse for the Soviet Union, large numbers of jap European girls have sold themselves in this means, generally via Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, and Moldova. Men who record themselves in such books are labeled as “mail-order husbands”, although this can be a lot less recurrent. Some on line mail-order bride-to-be websites furnish matchmaking options. When joining, you fill in some particulars about yourself, your wishes within a future partner.

You must arrange 1000’s of phrases inside the text messages just before you meet an agent who has the identical worth and purposes. Any of the ladies on very good courting sites know what your sweetheart wants, and it is marriage with the best man. A lot of people marvel as to why on-line seeing overseas ladies and marriages with mail-order wives or girlfriends have come to be so common.

Some one hundred businesses in the United States together now are experts in selling mail-order romance, relating Asian gals with males from the Usa, Canada, Down under and European Europe. Even though mail-order relationships can’t be deemed very common, they’ve turn into increasingly well-liked within the last 10 years, consultants claim.

Tens of thousands of men write to Asian girls every year, and an estimated two, 000 to three, 000 of these discover girlfriends or wives in this fashion. In a property office full with a photocopier and typesetter, she compiles a catalogue of those ladies and directs it, for a fee, to 1000’s of males in the United States and Europe who definitely are looking for Oriental brides. Hans’s experience was far from unique — in fact , the change between offline and online energy is probably one of the major aspect at play in trendy dating between foreigners and Filipinas. Before a man involves the Korea, the lady contains the benefit, as a result of solely a fraction of Filipina women have the technological capabilities and British data to satisfy men internet. But the dining tables flip when the foreigner arrives within the nation.

In our case, mail order brides had been categorized as the ideal women for marital life attachments.

Perhaps that is the key query that comes to mind the moment one hears the term mail-order brides.

In any case, it is good to know that you’ve got the possibility to discover a spouse at any time of the day.

There isn’t any have to march outside the house and select somebody to be able to any theory about.

Still, thousands of ladies see that as a calculated risk, mailing their video clip to be put in a list they could by no means discover. For them 2 weeks . gamble that the unknown long term might be much better than an depressed present. In 2001, at 23, your lady discovered her approach to a fledgling internet coffeehouse in a close-by city and registered in Cherry Flowers, the most ancient and most set up mail-order bride-to-be service in the world. Cherry Flowers began publishing brochures of throughout the world women on the lookout for husbands in 1974, recharging foreigners a charge as a swap for a girl’s handle. In 2001, this company shifted it is whole procedure on-line—and Leonor began obtaining emails from an American in his 50s moving into Thailand, known as Dan McKee. No dating for years “to know one another better. ” Dating sites with mail purchase brides contain a minimum of one significant benefit more than well-liked dating apps like Tinder. Some folks there are trying to find some fun, many are on the lookout for hookups, and a few require a serious romantic relationship with someone special.

[allenmendezsr]

Write A Cookbook. Easy System To Publish And Sell Your Own Cookbook

New Post has been published on https://autotraffixpro.app/allenmendezsr/write-a-cookbook-easy-system-to-publish-and-sell-your-own-cookbook/

Write A Cookbook. Easy System To Publish And Sell Your Own Cookbook

 Buy Now

    NY Times Best Selling Author Ron Douglas Reveals The Secret System He Used to Sell Over 1.4 Million Cookbooks…

“Discover A Proven Blueprint You Can Easily Duplicate to Publish Your Own Cookbook and Make a Profit in 60 Days or Less”

The “Write A Cookbook And Make It Sell” Course Will Teach You Step-by-Step:

How to quickly assess the market to choose a winning theme and price for your cookbook

Where to find royalty-free non-copyrighted recipes

What free software to use to easily organize your recipes

How to get your cookbook designed and created inexpensively but still look professional

A risk-free method to fund your project with profits from customers instead of out of pocket

The shortcut tactic to get your cookbook selling on Amazon.com and Barnes & Nobles

Where to find high-powered Agents who will get you a book deal with a huge sign on bonus

How to avoid getting ripped off and wasting a ton of money on your cookbook project

An amazing marketing system which will have groups of people eagerly waiting to buy your cookbook before it’s even released.

And Much Much More…

Here’s What Our Customers Are Saying About Our ‘Write A Cookbook’ System

 Order Now or Continue Reading…

I Got So Sick Of All The Discouraging Myths and Misinformation Out There That I Decided I Had to Finally Reveal The Truth…

From: Ron Douglas

Tuesday 8:45am

  Dear Future Cookbook Author,

It’s a crying shame.  There has never been a better time to publish a cookbook, but most of the people I speak with don’t think they can do it.  You know the type of people I’m talking about – the ones who, even with opportunity staring them right in the face, will always tell you why they can’t do something.

As the founder of several popular cooking communities online (such as FoodPals.com, RecipeSecrets.net, etc.), I meet people all the time who have great ideas for a cookbook and could be making a lot of money.  Not just one time cash – I’m talking royalties for years to come just from a book you worked on once.  I really can’t think of a better investment of time. 

Heck, I’m still getting nice checks from a cookbook I released in 2003 called “America’s Most Wanted Recipes.”  Plus, after independently selling over 90,000 copies of that self-published title, a major publisher paid me a life-changing multiple-six figure sign on bonus plus ongoing royalties for the rights to to publish that title. My cookbook series went on to sell over 1.4 million copies.

As you can see, there’s a huge demand out there for cookbooks. However, despite this tremendous opportunity to earn passive residual income, 99.9% of people will never do anything because they’ve been influenced by what I call the “10 Myths of Publishing Your Own Cookbook.”

Don’t Let These Common Myths Prevent You From Sharing Your Passion For Cooking With The World!

Myth #1.  You need lots of money upfront.

FALSE.  My system will show you how to get started with little or no cash and increase your sales while spending profits instead of your hard earned savings.

Myth #2.  You have to be a chef or cooking expert.

FALSE.  Everyone has to start somewhere.  I wasn’t a chef when I first started but after authoring 6 cookbooks, I’m now known as a cooking expert.  All you really need is a good idea for a cookbook or a different spin on an existing idea.  I’ll show you how to find it.

Myth #3.  It’s too time consuming to get done.

FALSE.  My system shows you what free software and services to use to make creating a cookbook easy.  I’ll also show you where to find skilled freelancers overseas who are professional but super inexpensive by US standards.  These guys do excellent work and are just waiting for new projects.

Myth #4.  You need to have hundreds of recipes that only you know.

FALSE.  Having all your own unique recipes is always best, however, cookbooks can also be a collaborative effort with family and friends who have recipes to contribute.  Don’t let this common obstacle keep you from getting started.

Myth #5.  I will get sued if I accidentally use a recipe that someone else has published.

FALSE.  According to copyright law:

“Mere listings of ingredients as in recipes, formulas, compounds or prescriptions are not subject to copyright protection. However, where a recipe or formula is accompanied by substantial literary expression in the form of an explanation or directions, or when there is a combination of recipes, as in a cookbook, there may be a basis for copyright protection.”

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t advise you to steal other people’s recipes, but the law clearly states that you can use a recipe as long as you’re not using the “substantial literary expression” from the author’s instructions. 

Now, don’t go and re-write someone’s cookbook.  Be original, find you’re own idea.  But at the same time, don’t let this stop you from starting your cookbook – just ask your lawyer for advice.

Myth #6.  You need to be very tech savvy or a computer expert.

FALSE.  Like I mentioned, these days, user-friendly software and inexpensive freelancers will do everything you need done.  After publishing six cookbooks, I still don’t know Quark, PageMaker, Typesetting, PHP or any of that techie stuff.  If you’re savvy enough to log on and read this letter, I can show you how to get your cookbook done.

Myth #7.  You need to get a book deal or have a good agent.

The course does cover where to find a good agent and how to get your books in stores.  However, you can also do quite well by self-publishing because you keep all of the profits.  You don’t have to wait around for years hoping that a publisher gets interested in your cookbook.  These days it’s never been easier to publish your own cookbook at make sales both online and off. 

I’ll show you services that specialize in helping self-published authors.  And once you can demonstrate some sales and a demand for your cookbook, it will be much easier to get a book deal (if you still want one at that point).

Myth #8.  All the good cookbook ideas have already been taken and there is too much competition.

FALSE.  That’s probably the most ridiculous of all the myths that hold people back.  There is a lot of competition because a lot of people buy cookbooks.   People cook everyday and there are more cookbook buyers than you can imagine.  I have customers who collect cookbooks and read them like novels.  They purchase every cookbook that I publish or recommend.

If there was no competition I’d be more concerned.  Plus, if people are looking forward to you putting out a cookbook, they will buy it because YOU are what makes it unique. 

For instance, I have a Holiday Cookbook and a Low Fat Cookbook that still sell well.  All I did was put my own spin on a common idea.  In the course I discuss how to determine what the market wants and what will sell well before you spend any money.

Myth #9.  You have to spend a lot of money on advertising to make any sales.

FALSE.  My step-by-step “Quick-Start Marketing System” will show you how to get large groups of people eager to buy your cookbook before it’s even released.  I’ll even show you how to get others to happily promote your cookbook for you.  This free system has been proven to work with little or no money to start.

Myth #10.  You need to keep inventory and ship orders to customers yourself.

FALSE.  I’m currently shipping over a thousand cookbooks per month and I don’t keep any inventory or ship any books myself.  I’ll share with you the automated services I use for hands-free and worry-free fulfillment.  With my system, you only pay using the money you receive from customers.  Plus you can mention my name and get a huge discount :-).

Here’s What The “Write A Cookbook And Make it Sell” Course Covers  

CONTENTS

Module 1:  Planning Your Marketplace Penetration Strategy

How to quickly understand what the market wants in order to develop your strategy and plan of attack.  Planting the seeds for success.

Module 2:  Choosing The Best Cookbook Topic

How to determine if your cookbook topic will sell – in advance.  I’ll show you a surefire way to pick a winning theme for your cookbook and ensure that people will want to buy it. 

Module 3:  Recipe & Copyright Law

Everything you need to know to avoid legal issues.  Plus, a quick and easy way to get an ISBN number and copyright protection for your own cookbook.

Module 4:  Content Creation

Where to find recipes, royalty free photos, images, and other content for your cookbook.  What to add to your cookbook (besides just recipes) to make it stand out from the competition – and where to find it.

Module 5:  Designing Your Cookbook

Everything you need to know to design a ‘bookstore quality’ professional cookbook.  What free software to use.  Where to find skilled freelancers for cheap.  Editing, typesetting, cookbook layouts, cover design, binding options – how to get it all done.

Module 6:  Pricing & Profit Analysis  

How to increase the perceived value for your cookbook so that you can demand a higher price.  How to get the best deal on printing.  The printer I use to get cookbooks done for under $3 per book.  Options for starting off with an ebook version of your cookbook.  Everything you need to know to ensure that you maximize profits.

Module 7:  Promoting Your Cookbook Online and Offline

How to build up excitement from your target market and have them clamoring for your cookbook before you even release it.  Inexpensive and even free methods to create a huge demand for your cookbook.  How to get listed on Amazon Barnes & Noble.  How to ensure you get long term sales of your cookbook.  How to find an agent and position your cookbook to win a lucrative publishing deal.

Module 8:  Order Fulfillment, Inventory & Automation

I share with you the resources I use to manage my business.  You’ll never have to worry about storing inventory in your basement, carrying boxes, or making last minute runs to post office.  I’ll show you how to set up to handle unlimited orders without breaking a sweat.  Everything will be automated for you.

Module 9:  Ron’s Quick-Start System for Success

After publishing 6 cookbooks and selling over 1.4 million copies, I have developed a system that anyone can use to launch a successful cookbook in 60 days or less.  I’ll share with you how I started with $125 and built a publishing empire.  After absorbing these secrets, I guarantee you’ll be shocked, enlightened, super-charged and motivated to succeed.  This section alone is worth many times the price of the course.

“Ron, I think you’ve officially lost your marbles.  After using your course to launch my cookbook and make a nice 5-figure profit, I’m living proof that your system works.  However, I can’t understand why you would give away your secrets for such a low price.  Anyone who doesn’t jump on this offer is crazier than you are.  Thanks for all your help.”

Debbie Weaver

“If you’ve ever thought of writing your own cookbook, this comprehensive “tell all” course will eliminate all confusion for you.  It’s truly a blueprint for cookbook success.”

Publish a cookbook as a family heirloom, a church fundraiser, as a steady source of income for yourself, or just for the pleasure of sharing your favorite recipes with others.

Grab this priceless insider information now at the special introductory price and get started publishing your own cookbook today.

All For Just $47 $27

Special Introductory Discount Ends Soon – Order Now

Plus If You Order Today, You’ll Get The Following

Free Bonus Gifts

Free Bonuses (Only Guaranteed For Today)

Free Bonus #1 – Resale Rights to 30 Downloadable Cookbooks (A $432 combined value)

These are public domain and uncopyrighted cookbooks compiled in PDF format that you can download and resell.  You can offer them as a bonus with your cookbook or sell them as stand alone products.  You will have the full rights to the following cookbook collections:

Ultimate Chicken Wing CookBook: (Resale Rights/A $14.97 Value)

600 Recipes For Chili Lovers: (Resale Rights/A $14.97 Value)

Blue Ribbon Recipes, 490 Award Winning Recipes: (Resale Rights/A $14.97 Value)

101 Camping & Outdoor Recipes: (Resale Rights/A $14.97 Value)

101 Recipes For The Deep Fryer: (Resale Rights/A $11.97 Value)

111 Egg Recipes: (Resale Rights/A $11.97 Value)

1000 Atkins Diet Recipes: (Resale Rights/A $14.97 Value)

Recipes From Around the World: (Resale Rights/A $14.97 Value)

120 Lip-Smacking Good Jam Recipes: (Resale Rights/A $14.97 Value)

300 Chicken Recipes: (Resale Rights/A $14.97 Value)

470 Crock Pot Recipes: (Resale Rights/A $14.97 Value)

65 Tried And True Traditional Amish Recipes: (Resale Rights/A $11.97 Value)

Cat Head Biscuits And Garlic Fried Chicken: (Resale Rights/A $37 Value)

Cheesecake Recipes: (Resale Rights/A $11.97 Value)

Chocolate Recipes For Chocolate Lovers: (Resale Rights/A $14.97 Value)

500 Delicious Diabetic Recipes: (Resale Rights/A $14.95 Value)

Delicious Italian Dishes: (Resale Rights/A $12.95 Value)

Delicious Puddings: (Resale Rights/A $19.97 Value)

Ice Cream Recipes: (Resale Rights/A $11.95 Value)

Mouth Watering Apple Recipes: (Resale Rights/A $11.97 Value)

Recipes From South Of The Border: (Resale Rights/A $14.97 Value)

Smoothies For Athletes: (Resale Rights/A $9.95 Value)

The Appetizer Collection: (Resale Rights/A $11.97 Value)

The Big Book Of Cookies: (Resale Rights/A $11.97 Value)

The Ultimate Bread Machine Cookbook: (Resale Rights/A $11.97 Value)

The Ultimate Salad Recipe Collection: (Resale Rights/A $11.97 Value)

80 Seasonal Recipes From Around the World: (Resale Rights/A $9.97 Value)

Free Bonus #2 – Open Source Website Templates – (A 49.99 Value)

These are professional website templates which you can add your content to and use for your site.  Why waste hundreds of dollars on web design when you can download these customizable templates and make them your own.  Standard HTML and image files compatible with any HTML editor.

Free Bonus #3 – “How to” Online Business Videos – (A 39.97 Value)

How to Create a Professional Looking Ebook For Free

5 Easy Ways to Get Website Traffic For Free

How to Master Web Graphics in 10 Easy Steps

Insider Secrets to Get Your Site Listed in Google and Ranking Well

All For Just $47 $27

Special Introductory Discount Ends Soon – Order Now

Ron, I want to thank you very much!!!   The course answers many questions – very well written!  It is COMPLETE with no-strings-attached.  Many times you get partial info on something and you have to subscribe for the rest of the information.  Clear-cut and right to the point.  Everything from A – Z! 

I think this course is perfect!  Everything in it is very well explained.  Much detail and everything that is needed to know.  Anyone who does not follow this draft would be foolish – you’ve done all the work!

Marygrace,

Lackawanna, NY

After making your secure payment, you will see a link that says “Click Here to Complete Your Order.”  This link will take you to our private customer only area.  There everything will be explained to you so that you can easily download the course and bonuses to your computer.

Sincerely,

Ron Douglas

[nora099]

The CBD Six...with Jayme Cyk by Danielle Cheesman (@daniellesaid)

shorturl.at/zGQTU

! A new interview series that spotlights how women we admire incorporate CBD into their daily routine—to help with everything from parenthood to professional pursuits—and demystify its stigmas in the process.

Meet Jayme Cyk! With her distinct editorial point of view and strong understanding of content and commerce, Cyk spent years as the beauty director of Violet Grey, cultivating its highly-curated luxury labels. As a bonafide champion of indie beauty, she founded consulting agency Cannonball Theory to develop the stories of the most innovative brands. Here, the beauty authority talks to Fleur Marché about CBD—in six ways.

What was your first experience with CBD?

I first tried CBD about a year ago when Lord Jones came to meet with me while I was the Beauty Director at Violet Grey. Even before that, when I was first exposed to CBD, I was slightly terrified that I would react similarly to when I would get high in college—which I hated, by the way. I knew that CBD wouldn't get me to the same place as my college days unless it was infused with THC, but I used to get so paranoid and disconnected from my body for two to three days. Fast forward to 2018, I was chatting with Cindy Capobianco, the founder of Lord Jones, and she convinced me to test drive her topical cream, a product that is now essential when my period arrives and I need my cramps to subside. Let's just say I'll try whatever CBD product you throw at me, but most don't live up the expectation.

Take us through your daily routine!

Morning Must-Haves?

My morning skincare routine is as follows: Agent Nateur holi(c) Youth Skin Powder, Agent Nateur holi(water) Hyaluronic Pearl and Rose Toner, Epicuren Discovery Colostrum Luminous Glow Cream, and EltaMD UV Clear SPF 46. Then, I usually go to Pilates by Amanda around 7 a.m., which is my favorite workout of all time and I try to get there at least three times a week. Lastly, most mornings, I take L-Tyrosine, which is an amino acid that helps tremendously with focus. After taking ADD medication for over 10 years, I removed it from my routine full-stop and L-Tyrosine has been a lifesaver.

Afternoon Pick-Me-Up?

I love making a cold matcha latte with Aime Matcha Glow from Paris. It contains collagen and aloe and has this delicious nutty taste to it. It’s a recipe I stole from Jena Covello, the founder of Agent Nateur, and now I can’t live without it. I don't drink coffee and I never have so this gives me a nice little energy boost.

Nighttime Necessities?

I wash my face in the evening with Karyng Replenishing Cleanser, which is formulated by my dermatologist Dr. Karyn Grossman. I also use Differin, which is a topical retinoid gel that I get at the drugstore. It helps fight acne, lines, and wrinkles, so it's the ultimate anti-ager. Then I use Epicuren Discovery Colostrum Luminous Glow Cream for some extra hydration. Also, I love Lina Hanson's Eye / Neck + Treatment Balm, which I also use on my cuticles because it morphs from a balm to oil. Right before I brush my teeth, I put a dropper full of Juna Nude Drops under my tongue, so I have a restful night's sleep.

What are you like before and after your CBD dose?

It depends on the CBD format, but ultimately, I use CBD to mitigate period cramps and deepen my sleep. So before I take CBD, I'm planning to come down from the day. CBD starts and ends in the evening for me, whether it's a bath or a tincture so, usually, I'm a little bit more relaxed than before. I think my body knows it's time to slow down.

What is your favorite delivery method and why?

I prefer to ingest my CBD. I think my body has a really high threshold and therefore topicals usually just don't cut it. I tend to see no change in how I feel when applied with a cream or oil.

What myths, misconceptions or stigmas do you feel still surround CBD?

There are a few CBD products that I like. But I find the majority tend to have more of a placebo effect. But that's not always a bad thing if it makes someone feel good. I do think, as this category grows, that brands will have to step it up, educate more, and bring a bit of science to the forefront. The saying goes that the proof is in the pudding, but honestly, that's just half the battle. The confusion is real. Hemp vs. CBD, full spectrum vs. broad spectrum vs. CBD isolate. Customers and even editors sometimes find it to difficult to navigate.

You have to gift someone your favorite CBD product. What do you choose and why?

The Juna Nude Drops tincture. I was in need of a good night's sleep and this has helped me tremendously. Everyone deserves not just eight-plus hours of sleep, but a restful one.

shorturl.at/zGQTU

[mynameisdreartblog]

Devilish Deals

Aries: For a burning curiosity. It was a cool Monday morning and I was standing outside of the exact, brick and mortar building where I had the chance to restart something I could’ve sworn that I restarted many times before, and the wet, nearly drowned air of Monaghan was calming my oxidized sensibilities: A much needed accompaniment because I felt as if carbon-based lifeforms won’t be welcome in my new living-space. However, I’m clearly not the red one they’re looking for; I’m Dáithí, and I’m merely the one posing as the legally clean agent for them. I’ll be judgmental, but this is quite out-of-character for Redmond if they didn’t call me an hour later to explain they were looking for somewhere they could legally stay while they’re squating an old mill. Now, that was the Redmond I knew. […] The line was long enough for me to feel way more connections to the indirectly hostile environment than I was planning to: In other words, I had to get comfortable with the elderly cat sunbathing in one of the chairs that were designated as a waiting area. I filled my head with thoughts of snatching this potential apartment myself to cut off the mojo in the room, potentially betraying Redmond. But my ma always told me the thoughts of backstabbers are acceptable if you never perform said backstabbing, so I was fine. […] It was my turn to officially speak to the woman at the counter who looked like she didn’t mind she was half cigarette ash, and she said to me in a broken voice, «Oh, you must be, agh, the one called Dáithí, right?» I noticed the emphatic tone immediately, and all of my previous defenses immediately gave away and I felt like I lived twenty years of my life here. <The woman at the counter takes Dáithí’s hand and forces it open, and drops into it a key.> Well, I’m having more thoughts about the betrayal part ‘cause I think I’m gonna love this apartment since the old lady handed me a key with skulls on it. […] «Oh fucking please, I remember looking at a bathtub that looked the most like a deathtrap: It was vertical.» That was all I heard from her talking to the customer (or cat) below me, but what occupied by ears was the song of the broken bells that chimed when you entered. The fresh sight could be a new opportunity to close off again, but lo and behold, there was only a bathtub there… it was vertical. I hope Redmond can work around that.

Gemini: In a coastal inlet during nighttime. <Truce can be seen closing the last mailbox for the day, and the sun is shown overhead in a setting position behind the island’s primary volcano. They begin to rewrap the bandages around their feet to the tune of their mumbling.> We’re all on the same road, being written by an author who ascribes us with the same personality as theirs: Making us all a bit too intellectual in the right areas. That’s the thing with self-absorbed authors, they don’t know when ignorance is important and what types of ignorance are important to character development... But what would I know about authorship? I’ve never written a book in my life, nor have I ever written a letter: My job is just to deliver them and peak into them when the spirits aren’t watching me. [,] <Truce finds that there’s a splinter in their foot, they take pull it out swiftly, douse it with mudwater to stop the minor bleeding, and begin to rewrap their foot.> Let me tell you: I’ve gained a pretty good insight as to what ignorance looks like and how many flavors it comes in. Like I said before, I’m not a penman, but it’s far too easy to categorize these people into categories of stupid. First off, we have the Anklebiter: Someone who annoys the crap out of you for no other reason than the hell of it. <The splinter, now on the ground, is pulled down into the mud through emerging vines.> Second off, we have the Furphy: Someone who never stops when you wanna ask them for helpful advice. You have to play a game of catch-up with them if you just want bloody directions. <A cracked path of emerging, thorny vines begin following Truce’s path a stray nine feet behind them.> Third off, we have the Bludger: Someone who likes to think they’re always playing some game of manipulation, when they’re so obnoxiously sincere. <The vines begin to warp faster and closer towards Truce.> And finally, you have the Drongo: Someone who thinks that anything that moves and has a skeleton is against them, and they show that by being a prickly fellow. They’re probably my favorite type of idiot. [,] <The vines violently cuff Truce’s right foot and he’s thrown up into the air, now dangling nine feet off the ground.> Heh, that’s not even counting how these four personalities continually interact with each other in ways that form new idiots all the time: It’s an ecosystem of believable characterization that any traditional author couldn’t wrap their head around. <A substance akin to saliva drops onto Truce’s cheek.> It’s crazy how well you get to know people doing this job.

Scorpio: Offered a way out. «From adult fears stems a need and re-manifestation of childlike fears.» <Juyeon steps away from the cosmic forces that make her foresee futuristic visions for just a single moment.> Why would you want my fears? I thought adults were insistent about their “I have my own problems” attitude, but I guess that isn’t the case. I’m small, and not the mighty type of small; I’m the small type of small. <She uses some of her personal strength to fantasize shaking her fists towards the sky. Thereafter, she turns her focus towards Sonnim.> And when you’re small, everything’s big to you, right? But what I found out from my parents is that it’s in fact large regardless of how old you are. You become familiar, but not familiar enough: So like, we have only a finite supply of being familiar, right? Before I say anything else, I’m pretty weird in that I’m familiar with things I shouldn’t be: Like, stuff that isn’t from my culture. Should I feel bad about that? Like, I feel like I’m wasting the finite amount of familiarity I have. «I don’t know, Seong. Normally, I wouldn’t care much about that, but now you’re making me think about how much familiarity I’ve wasted. I was never really familiar with this idea before you introduced it to me. I mean, would it really be better if you spent that time doing boring formal stuff?» [,] I don’t think you get it Sonnim, there’s an imperative that I’m wasting time: I could be anywhere else but I’m stuck here talking with you about my problems. «I don’t know what the word imperative means, but it sounds bossy, so it’s probably commanding.» Ah, I guess that means you’re wiser than I am because you’ve spent more time doing what makes you feel like you aren’t wasting time with strange, impossible concepts. «Why are you so fascinated with the idea of wasting time?» Because… <Juyeon makes a deep sigh and pinches her temples.> I’m developing adult fears. «Seong, just because you’re past the age where you seriously think monsters are in your closet and the toilet doesn’t mean that you’re getting old. It just means you’re developing some sense.» [,] Sense? How am I making sense of things? I’m losing track of how the world previously made sense to me! How is that not bothersome to you? Are you telling me you actually listen to whatever’s on the news and not wait until they go to the weather section? «Well, I try to pay attention to both the news and the weather, and news about the weather.» […] «Well, Seong, if you’re so worried about losing your sense of understanding, you can just combine it with incoming knowledge and that’ll likely solve it. I hope that makes sense.» Yes…  I think you’re onto something. Like, this spooky house is gonna trap me if I go inside of it, and not the idea of debt trapping me financially, and there’s clearly someone waiting to nab me at the end of the hallway whenever I waste time instead of going to bed on time. <Sonnim tries to muffle their laughter.>

Capricorn: By entrance via murder. You know, all of these “primitive technology channels” on YouTube keep saying the same thing with a different face. Aside from the fact that they’re stealing my audience, they always post the same survival tips that I just know they learned from someone else who also had a primitive technology channel. It’s a vicious cycle you see: The more people we have creating content about why the Gregorian calendar is a myth and how you can construct a waterslide out of bamboo and harden stone, the more people we have regurgitating that content. Not to act like a Boomer or anything, but one of those videos was just two men building a pool using only tools gathered from the resources around them, and what they created looked more like a mosquito nest than a natural pool. [,] My strange reason for despising this content is that all those who participate in it are obviously fakers who can’t really commit to a primitive lifestyle, hence by their use of cameras. But I’m not here to critique them, I’m here to advertise myself instead. <A mock ‘80s intro plays and the video begins to shatter, skipping several important parts of the tutorial.> […] Now, for Vinnie’s survival techniques, all I need is my phone, some beef jerky, and a rake. With these three components, you’ll be able to create an optimal living environment for yourself, but none one you can commit yourself into but rather change from a whim. Because if there’s anything I’m good at, it’s being non-committal, and your sense of comfort should follow. [,] The specifics go as follows: It’ll set me for life, or up until the moment when my body has a sudden rush of energy to take me out of my squalor and into the open field of my living room. In that moment, I’ll contemplate why my body seems to be prepared to act ambitiously while my mind is occupied with laying ambition to rest. Not even the combination of my phone, beef jerky, and a rake could possibly stop my body from being fully content. Therefore, I barge out of my room and scare the only pets I have, making them wary to wander any closer to my doorstep. [,] Now, I hope you recorded those steps because they’re what you need to follow if you want the optimal amount of non-committal comfort. If you watched my previous video, the automatic generator you’ll develop from channeling spiritual energy from the earth will come in handy here, as that’s the source of Internet you need to use to keep you entertained before the jerky runs out and the novelty of the rake (as a back-scratcher) wears off. <The ‘80s intro plays again, this time deliberately revealing it’s a paper sign.> Someone in Guinea or somewhere did this, and I thought it’d be cool… No, it’s because I thought it’d be a good way to win back viewers. Online conduct codes?

[storm-does-stuff]

Small Town Frights

(Part 1) (Part 2) (Part 3)

It’s been so long since I’ve written something, then the urge hit like a freight train! haha.

“A murder-suicide?” asked Maude, looking at the case file that had been slipped into her hand. “Not to argue, sir, but isn't this a matter for a different department? Like, the local police?”

“Well, if you'd look past the cover page...” the man—Agent Macintosh—began. “You'd see that extremely high amounts of demonic energy was found at the scene.”

Maude blushed an flipped the page. “How much energy are we talkin' here?” the second page of the file was mainly pictures of the crime scene, with in-depth descriptions of where the bodies had been found, and what positions they were in. The next page was pictures of the home, and specifically the room the bodies were found in.

“Well, we don't exactly know.” said Macintosh, and Maude raised an eyebrow.

The third page of the file was of demagi-counters, basically Geiger counters for demonic energy, positioned in various places in the home where the crime seen was committed. Often times, it was very beneficial to see the location of the energy detector rather than just get the reading.

On the screen it didn't give a reading. It just said 'MAX'.

“It maxed out the demagi-counters?” Maude asked, squinting to make sure she was seeing this right.

“It did.”

“Those max out at, like, a million, right?”

“Ten million.” said Macintosh.

“This exceeds ten million?” Maude asked. A normal demon summing of a mid-level demon usually maxed out at three thousand. This was more than ten million. “And there were no signs of occult paraphernalia, no summoning circles, plain wax candles?”

“They didn't even have the demonology textbooks used in high schools.” said Macintosh. “And as for candles, they only had cinnamon-scented candles, and the wicks had never been burnt.”

Maude just hummed, skimming through the information for herself. “I assume I'll be wanted on-site for this?” she flipped back to the front of the packet. The house was located in New York state. A case this big would probably last a few weeks, man that would be fun in the most sarcastic way possible.

“You will.” Macintosh said. “All the pertinent information has been sent to your work account, your travel plans, and the team you'll be heading, as well as a copy of this file.” he smiled wryly. “Why the boss insists I still give out physical copies of case files, I'll never understand.”

Maude nodded and pulled her pager out of her pocket, sure enough she had four new messages.

“Oh, and spoiler alert, your flight leaves tomorrow, so I suggest you leave now to get packed.” Macintosh said, smiling.

“Understood, Sir.” she said, turning to take her leave. “Will you be coming as well?” she asked as an afterthought.

“No, I'm needed here.” he said, “Besides, demonology isn't really my field.”

“Of course.” Maude said, leaving and shutting the office door behind her. She left for the barracks, scanning her ID card on her way out, reading the message that dictated her team.

She would be in charge, of course, because of her high degree of knowledge and experience, though most of the members on her team were older than her. Though, she was thrilled to see that Kenna would be on the Nerd Squad for this mission.

This mission was taking her to a small town in northern New York state. They would be flying into the Newark airport, before driving three hours to get to their hotel, and all in all they would arrive at four in the afternoon that day. The actual investigation wouldn't begin until the next day.

Maude scanned the lock into her dorm, pulling the sliding door open and shouting, “I'm home!” even though she didn't expect anyone to be back for a while.

“Welcome back!” called another voice. “I'm in my room!”

“Kenna?” Maude said, stalking to her friend's room. “What are you doing here?”

“Boss gave me the day off so I could pack for the trip tomorrow.” said Kenna. “You know about that, right?”

“Sure did.” Maude said. “I just imagined the mission head would get the info before you, though.” she joked.

“Technically, I'm leader of the Nerd Squad for this.” said Kenna. “But yeah, the reason I was told early was so I'd have more time to pack due to my 'disability'.” she waved her hand in the air. “So that was kinda mean, but hey, paid time off is paid time off, am I right?”

“You're evil.” said Maude.

“Hey, the man offered me the time off, I didn't ask for it.” said Kenna. “Though, I am glad for the extra time to think. I'm trying to figure out what exactly to bring.” she had a wide array of different machines on her desk.

“Um, one that detects demons?” Maude suggested.

“Right.” Kenna laughed. “Alright, you're just distracting me, go do your own packing.” Kenna stood up from her desk chair, playfully pushing Maude out the door.

“Okay, okay, you didn't have to push me.” Maude laughed, holding her hands up.

“Yes I did, you would have taken forever to get out if I didn't.” Kenna argued. She reached up and tugged on Maude's curly hair. “Now go pack, Ms. Leader Lady.”

“Of course, Doc.” Maude waved her hand, and walked to her door one room down.

She didn't want to pack too heavy for this trip, despite it being one with an indefinite stay. She picked her green carry-on bag, and stuffed it full of clothes, packing a week's worth of civilian clothes, two extra uniforms and her dress uniform, filling the rest of the open space with pajamas and toiletries.

Then was her big suitcase, with tape wrapped around the sides labeling it as part of the NMII Demonology Department—basically telling the TSI not to worry about any items they found in the bag. That was where she packed most of the gear that she couldn't take on the plane with her, items like her gun, old dusty tomes, and other weaponry that she needed. By the time she was done with it, it was easily forty pounds.

Her last bag was a simple backpack she took on the plane with her, it carried her electronics, ID, and stuff like that.

“I'm done packing.” she said, walking back into Kenna's room. “And now I'm bored, so I'm gonna harass you, okay?”

“Of course, Maude.” Kenna rolled her eyes, hands drifting over her equipment. Her desk had barely any devices left on it, most of them unstable prototypes and duplicates. “I think I've packed all the electronics I need. Now I just need to pack my clothes.”

Kenna stood from her chair and drifted to her bed, grabbing her own NMII issued bag, this one with a label saying it was from the lab analysis department. “Help me zip it?” she asked, looking in Maude's direction.

“Sure.” Maude joined her at the bed, helping hold down the suitcase with Kenna pulled the zipper, at the end pressing the button that activated the closing ward, which would keep the bag closed unless authorized personnel tried to open it.

“Dang girl, how much stuff do you think you're gonna need?” Maude asked, pulling a few stray hairs out of her face.

“This is a major case, Maude.” said Kenna, pulling the bag off her bed and onto the floor. “You saw what the demagi-counters said, right? The energy there maxed out the machines at over ten million points! This is huge.”

“I know, and it warms all the cockles of your little nerd heart.” Maude said smiling. “But seriously, I'm excited too, I mean, I'm getting trusted with this big a case.”

Kenna just smiled and nodded, hand drifting to grab her own carry-on bag to fill with clothes. Mostly she put pajamas and her NMII normal and dress uniforms in the bag, before gently adding her sensor suit charging station to the bag. She filled the remaining space with some toiletries, but left some open space as her sensor suit wouldn't be allowed on the plane.

Her backpack was also filled with things to keep her entertained on the plane, some books and a tablet.

“It's my turn to cook dinner, right?” Maude asked as Kenna piled her suitcases at the door to her room.

“Um, it's Wednesday, right? So yeah.” Kenna said.

“Hm.” Maude paused in thought. “How do fish tacos sound to you?”

“Fine.” said Kenna. “I'm turning on the news.” she said, and went to sit on the couch.

“Oh! Play channel fourteen, I heard they're doing some sort of special tonight. It's something to do with before the Transcendence?” Maude said, heading into the kitchen.

“Okay,” Kenna said, settling into the cushions. “TV, turn to channel fourteen.” she commanded, pressing the control button on the armrest.

The TV turned on, and sure enough channel fourteen was having a special on myths before and after the Transcendence, and how there was proof that some time in the distant past there had been a sort of reverse-Transcendence.

“This is neat.” Kenna murmured absentmindedly.

Maude set to frying the fish in a pan, also listening to the story, nodding along as the vaguely British-sounding woman spoke. When she was sure the fish would cook without her supervision, she switched to the hot plate to cook some pre-made tortilla dough.

As she was turning off the heat to the fish, and pulling off the last of the tortillas she was going to make, the door slid open again.

“I'm home,” called Tyrone as he stepped in.

“Hey,” said Kenna, her attention still entirely on the TV program.

“We're having fish tacos for dinner.” said Maude. “Get in here and help me finish taking sauces out of the fridge.

Ty did as he was told, joining Maude in the kitchen and helping her pull guacamole and pico de gallo from the fridge while Maude was struggling to pull out a vat of sour cream.

“Kenna, you can come in now, food's ready.” called Maude.

“Sure.” she said, attention still on the TV. Maude rolled her eyes, grabbed the remote off the counter, and turned the TV off.

“Come eat food, you malnourished nerd.”

“I'm not malnourished.” Kenna defended, standing up from the couch and stretching before walking to the kitchen.

“Only because I force you to eat at least once a day.” Maude teased, lightly slapping Kenna on the back of the head.

“Probably.” Maude agreed. “Hey! Ty! Stop hogging all the meat!” she shouted when she noticed Tyrone was shoveling all the fish chunks onto his own plate. “And get some vegetables, you literal child.”

“Caught.” he groaned, putting about half of his fish back and shoveling some lettuce onto his tacos.

“What would you two do without me?” Maude wondered, grabbing her own plate and beginning to make her own tacos.

“Probably starve.” said Kenna.

“Or burn the house down.” Added Tyrone.

“Honestly.” Maude scoffed as she brushed past Kenna to dump an obscene amount of lemon juice on her tacos.

In the end, Kenna's tacos were the only ones that looked vaguely normal, having a decent amount of fish lined with guacamole and pico de gallo, while Ty's had a ridiculous amount of meat and a smattering of lettuce and sour cream, and Maude's were just fish and lemon juice.

“Oh, so we're going to be going on a business trip.” Maude said while she was eating around the table. “There's a huge amount of demonic activity in northern New York state, we're checking it out. Watch the house while we're gone.”

“You kidding?” Kenna asked. “Have you met Ty? He's going to hunt us down and join us on the trip anyways.”

“That's true.” Ty said, a chunk of food falling out of his mouth.

“At least let me pretend?” Maude groaned, taking another bite of her taco, wincing at the sourness. “Really, I don't mind. But I think the bosses are starting to get irritated that you pop up everywhere we go.”

Kenna nodded. “Honestly I'm surprised they let you live here.”

“It's only because he doesn't pay anything towards the apartment, his name's not on the paperwork.” Maude said.

“Little bit less than legal.” Kenna nodded.

“I am offended that you two would accuse me of illicit activities!” Tyrone exclaimed,  dramatically placing his hand on his chest. “And I call you my friends.”

“Can it, Dorkus.” Maude laughed, leaning over to slap him across the table.

“I'm being attacked!” Ty shouted, holding up his arms in front of his face.

“I'll show you attacked!” Maude shouted back, and stood up from her chair to get at Ty better.

“Not at the dinner table.” Kenna said calmly, pulling her plate closer to her and out of the line of fire.

“Of course Kenna dear!” Maude said, and sat back down. She held up 'watching you' fingers to Ty, and he playfully returned the gesture.

Kenna rolled her eyes, and quickly finished her taco. “I'm gonna head to bed early, travel day tomorrow.” she stood up and began walking away. “G'night.”

“Good night!” Maude called back. “I should probably go to bed soon too.” she said, shoving the rest of her taco in her mouth. Once she finished, she stood up.

“Good night.” said Ty around a mouthful of taco.

“Sweet dreams.” Maude said back, smirking before walking to her room.

As she walked down the hall, she noticed a bit of movement in Kenna's room. She had changed into her pajamas and pulled her carry-on bag back onto her bed and was wrestling with it, struggling to shove her sensor suit in.

“Do you need help?” Maude asked, leaning her head in he door.

Kenna jumped slightly, and spun to look at Maude. “That would be nice, thanks. I thought I left enough space for my suit, but it's not working.”

Maude jumped onto Kenna's bed, looking into the suitcase for herself. “If you flatten your pajamas and shove them in the side behind the charger, your suit should fit.” she suggested.

“Let's see.” Kenna muttered, and grabbed her rolled up pajamas, before doing as Maude suggested and shoving them behind the charger. She tried again to put her suit in, gently so that none of the sensor pads could be damaged, and found that it fit, but just barely. “It works, thanks Maude. Can you help me zip it?”

“Of course!” Maude said, and laid down on the top of the suitcase while Kenna pulled the zipper.

“Thanks.” said Kenna.

“No problem.” Maude said, “Good night, hugs.” she leaned across the bed and pulled Kenna into a bear hug.

“Maude! You're suffocating me! Get off!” Kenna squealing, squirming in Maude's arms. “Go to your own room.”

“Alright.” Said Maude. “See you bright and early tomorrow to get on the plane.”

Kenna just groaned. “Don't remind me, just get out of here.”

“Of course dear!” Maude said, walking out of Kenna's room and going to her own room. Unlike Kenna, she didn't have any last minute packing to do, so she just changed into pajamas and went to bed.

“Maude, did you forget set your alarm?” Kenna asked, shaking Maude's shoulders.

“Huh, what?” asked Maude, sitting up in bed. “What time is it?”

“I'll take that as a yes?” said Kenna. “It's eight-thirty, Maude. You need to get dressed like now, we're gonna be late.”

Maude groaned and rolled out of bed, dragging her covers onto the floor with her. “Okay. Give me a minute.”

“And we're not gonna be able to eat at the house. We'll have to pick something up at the airport.”

“Got it.” Maude said, and ushered Kenna out of her room. She got dressed in simple travel-day clothes, lose black pants and a baggy green shirt that reached her upper thighs. She put on her backpack, and grabbed her roll-along bags and began to tug her way out of her room.

Kenna was sitting on the couch, waiting for Maude to be ready. She, like Maude, was dressed for comfort, wearing loose blue pants and a red shirt—Maude didn't have the heart to tell her the colors looked horrendous.

Her head popped up when she heard Maude struggle with her bags on the carpeting. “Great, we can leave now.” she said, standing up and making her way to the door. She had her retractable red-white cane strapped to her wrist, but she wasn't using it. Kenna hovered next to the door, waiting for Maude to catch up and put her shoes on.

“Wait, Kenna!” Maude said last minute as Kenna opened the door. “It's cold in New York! You need a coat!”

Kenna groaned. “No, Maude, I really don't.” she began to argue, but Maude had already grabbed both her own and Kenna's coats off the rack and shoved them into her backpack.

“Don't be silly!” Maude said. “And hey, at least you'll have it! Just in case.”

Kenna rolled her eyes, but didn't argue the point any further. She turned to walk towards the elevators, vaguely listening to Maude make a huge show out of yelling farewells to Tyrone, even though he wasn't awake yet.

There was a taxi waiting for them in front of the building—Kenna had called one last night because she didn't like the idea of Maude trying to drive before ten in the morning. She could hear Maude's suitcases scraping along behind her.

“Kenna! Don't leave me behind!” she whined, coming to a stop next to Kenna.

“Wouldn't dream of it.” said Kenna.

“You two going to the airport?” the taxi driver asked, getting out of his car.

“Yes,” both Kenna and Maude said at the same time. The man popped open the trunk, and got out to help Maude fit all the bags in the trunk.

“Lots of luggage for two little girls, huh?” said the driver as they finally found a way to get everything to fit in the small trunk.

“Need lots of weapons for this trip.” Maude casually said, and the driver let the topic drop.

Maude and Kenna both rode in the back for the fairly short ride to the airport—the NMII office and barracks were strategically positioned in the middle of the airport and the hospital. The driver made small talk with them, talking about how long he's been driving, where he'd worked before, weird people he's seen on the streets. Honestly, none of it mattered to Kenna, who was listening to a podcast, but Maude was loving it.

“What do you mean you witnessed an exorcism on a street corner in down town?” Maude asked as they pulled into the drive way at the airport.

“Well—okay, so at the time I was living in downtown New York City, absolutely insane place, alright? I was stopped at a red light, and there was one of those people with a microphone and a big sign declaring it was the end of our days, all that jazz, and a man in a like, costume or something. I didn't understand it, and the dude was clearly all human, so not even a preter. And this guy, with his big sign and mic, just kept yelling for demons to 'leave this man in peace!'” the driver laughed. “It was insane! I sat through a couple of greens just to keep watching! I have a picture!”

“Oh!” Maude said. “Can I see it?”

“Yeah, sure, just lemme get parked. What airline are you two on again?”

“Oh, um...” Maude floundered for a bit, before poking Kenna to get her attention. “What's our airline?”

“National Airways.” Kenna said, pausing her podcast. “Are we there?”

“Not yet,” said the driver, right as he pulled up to the curb for their airline. “Now we are. Anyways, here's that picture I was talking about.”

It was exactly the scene the driver had been describing, except Maude noticed one thing.

“That's hilarious!” she said, and grabbed her own phone to take a picture off of the man's screen. “Thanks for showing me!”

“No problem! Here, I'll help you get your things out of the back.” said the driver as he got out of the car.

“Thanks,” Maude said. “Kenna, be careful, you're opening your door into traffic.”

“Okay,” Kenna said, rolling down her window so she could listen for approaching vehicles. Hearing none, she opened her door and stepped out, trailing her hand along the car as she walked to the trunk.

Maude had already gotten their bags out of the trunk, and was paying and tipping the driver when she got there.

“Here are your bags.” Maude said, pushing a few things toward Kenna, “And your backpack.” This one she put into Kenna's hand.

“Thanks,” said Kenna, grabbing her things.

Maude and Kenna walked onto the sidewalk, and the taxi drove away.

“So,” Maude started. “I thought the man in the picture the driver showed us looked familiar. I ran a facial recognition program on my phone. They're the same person.”

“Which man in the picture?” Kenna said.

“The one doing the exorcism, not the one being exorcised.”

“Hm,” Kenna said. “Think that could be his motive?”

“Well yeah, obviously he's crazy and paranoid. Though, that doesn't explain the amounts of demonic energy.” Maude said, gently pulling Kenna into the correct check-in line.

“You'd think someone that scared would be constantly purifying the air around them, almost compulsively.” Kenna said.

They were only second in line, a combination of the company paying for employees to fly business class, and Kenna's blindness. It didn't take long for a teller to open up for them, greeting them with a smile.

Checking in wasn't a particularly long or painful process, the woman just took pictures of Maude and Kenna to match up against the known passenger database, and printed out their boarding passes. She took their bags, put stickers labeled NY on them, and directed Maude and Kenna to the security machines.

On their way to security, Maude pulled out her and Kenna's NMII ID cards, and they let the guard check the validity of their cards before bypassing security all together.

“So, what do you want for breakfast?” Maude asked, hefting her backpack higher on her back, rolling her carry-on behind her, her other hand on Kenna's arm. “There are sandwiches, bagels, cinnamon buns, breakfast tacos... oh, breakfast tacos sound pretty good.”

“Yes, I know all about your taco addiction.” Kenna said, laughing.“But, I actually ate back at the house. You can eat whatever you want.” she had just as many bags as Maude, but she also had her cane in hand to help her maneuver.

“You ate without me?” Maude asked, sounding scandalized. “My best friend let me sleep through breakfast, only to wake me mere moments before we had to leave. You let me starve.”

“I figured you're a big girl and you can wake up by yourself.” said Kenna. “But if it makes you feel any better, I'll pay for your breakfast.”

“No, I can't take advantage of you that way.” Maude said, and completely missed Kenna rolling her eyes.

“Alright, big girl.” Kenna said. “Let's go get you a taco, you're obviously about to die.”

“And it's all your fault!” Maude laughed back.

The line for breakfast tacos wasn't long, Maude got a sausage and egg taco, while Kenna caved and got herself some pigs in a blanket.

“I ate at the house.” Maude teased as they walked to their gate.

“Yeah, well, you know, shut up.” Kenna stammered, laughing. “Let's just get on the plane.”

They arrived just in time—the woman at the desk was calling for passengers with disabilities that needed more time to board, so Maude and Kenna just breezed on up and got on the plane.

“You know, traveling with a blind person is really useful. I highly recommend it.” Maude joked as she and Kenna found their seats in row three, seats A and B.

“I know,” Kenna agreed. “You walk up with a red and white cane, and doors just start opening.” she smiled and punched Maude in the shoulder, gently.

“I call window seat!” Maude yelled.

“I get aisle, I guess.” Kenna said at a normal volume. She held out her hand, “Here, I'll shove your backpack under the seat while you get the carry-ons in the overhead.”

“Aw, thank you dear!” Maude said, handing Kenna her bag, and moving so Kenna could get into the row of seats, pulling both carry-ons with her. Another perk of getting on the plane first was there was no chance for them to run out of overhead space.

By the time other people started boarding the plane, Maude and Kenna were already settled in, with neck pillows out and headphones on.

“Hey, Kenna?” Maude said, “I'm gonna take a nap, wake me if the plane catches fire.”

Kenna just snored in response.

Maude laughed and curled up in her seat, resting her head on Kenna's shoulder. She fell asleep to the gentle thrumming of the plane taking off.