#did you guys know I'm a published author of non fiction

[luceafarul-de-dimineata]

"What will you do once I pass away?" The question came out of the blue, but such strange questions were par for the course at this point. Gamigin was nuzzling to your neck when you spoke, but he wasn't phased.

"I'll revive you. Death won't be permenent in Paradise Lost for as long as I'm around to stop it." You were running a hand through his blue hair, playing with a strand of it.

"But what if you don't revive me? If you can't revive me? What will you do then?" The dragon stopped kissing up your neck and shifted so he would be at eye level with you on the bed. He looked confused and hurt which almost made you ashamed that you asked the question.

"My staff can bring anyone back from the dead."

"Ok, but I age and demons don't what about that? What if I get so old I want to die to end my mysery."

Gamigin looked even more confused by your words. He didn't quite understand why humans aged so fast. He pouted in thought and stared at the ceiling. After a while, with a stern voice he asks "How long do humans usually live for?"

You try to remember your anthropology classes and what the avarage age of death was for your country, but you just can't put your finger on it. "I don't know, 70 or something like that." "70! Only 70 years!?!" He pushed you to the bed and pinned you to it with a shocked expression. His mind was working overtime trying to calculate just how long that timespan felt like.

Finally, he turns to you and holds your hands softly kissing them both. He stares determined in your eyes. "You are going to have the most exciting life ever. I promise you. What do you wish to do before you die?"

You've never seen him so stern, but the question was one that you've many times asked yourself yet never seemed to have an answer to. Gamigin's glare was starting to intimidate you so you gently slap his face.

"Don't look at me like that! You're making me nervous! I don't know what I want to do before I die. I just kind of want to see where life takes me."

Gamigin smiles like he usually does and pins you to the bed with a hug. His staff, which he kept in one hand at all times, jiggled lively as you both collapsed on the cottage bed.

"Well then, I want to cuddle with you and rewatch the 'How to Train Your Dragon' trilogy. And then we can play blackjack and whoever wins has to wash the dishes after dinner!" Gamigin proclaimed before kissing your cheek and nuzzling into it.

"Who tought you blackjack?" It was strange hearing your usually innocent boyfriend putting forth the idea of blackjack of all things.

"My brother Buer. He also thought me the dishes strategy as well. Jokes on him, I won." His giggle was contagious and you two ended up just cuddling and watching movies for the better half of the night.

If your relationship with Gamigin thought you anything, it was that you didn't have to live through bombastic experiences to enjoy life. You were having the time of your life just being close to him.

[krsnaradhika]

Fanfictions and Hinduism.

Those who are active on Wattpad, might know that there are many many writers (including myself) who tend to write fiction over itihāsa or historical epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, purely for fun and our love for them. It seems very odd, yes, and we do get to see blasphemy there too. People love some characters, hate the others with a burning passion and there are hour long debates over human nature, characterisations, myths involved, folklores and the many versions both of them have.

We have OCs, we make graphics and video edits, we pair the said OCs with CCs and sometimes with other OCs. The comment sections are the most fun things because writers and their audience interact there. Some works are much more impressive than published paperbacks while some are simply atrocious. You know it, shades are everywhere.

Now, very recently did I come to know that in Tamil literature, a fictional tale that is weaved around a couple or more incidents or points coming from the purānas or itihāsas is called a prabandha. Fun, right?

We do get to see fanfictions in Hinduism by the name of Pancharātram by Bhāsa (the one who also penned Svapna Vāsavadattā) and Kalidāsa's Abhigyāna Shākuntalam. While the latter romanticises and adds non canon events to the canon event of Lady Shakuntala and King Dushyanta's love story, the former is about a "what-if" scenario based on the Mahabharata.

So, do we promote fiction writings on such stuff? Definitely. I got much into the Sanatana culture solely via such fictions. They promote higher thinking skills, brainstorming, even fun facts many a times if the author is literate enough. And is that different from disrespecting scriptures and our very own ancestors? Also yes. Because neither of these authors claim to strictly follow the canon events. You do not like something you see, click away. As easy as that.

Do I support all of them, tho? For sure not. There are some which whitewash the bad guys and blackwash even the divine figures. Some straight up induce cringe. But that's just my opinion. A debate is always based on facts, not personal opinions. So yes, you do you.

But are they also dangerous? Umhm. Look at the Palace of Illusions by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni. One word : atrocious. Some modern day prabandha style novel which sat a little above average in my reading experience? Abhaya by Saiswaroopa Iyer is the one (she's also written Mauri, Avishi, Draupadi and a few more if I'm not wrong.) (Abhaya is an OC paired opposite Kanha and tbh their chemistry was chef's kiss jsjshdjsjd-)

Should you write such, if that is what you want? Yes! I'd love to read-

But do you have to be careful with the message you deliver via your work? Swayam vichar kijiye *wink wink*

Some fanfictions which I may recommend. Note : not all of them involve OCs. All of these are from Wattpad. The authors' usernames are in bold.

— To Love A Murderer, Hope Embodied, and Samsrishti ; ruhitherambler.

— Satata Haritam ; Ramayana_Lover.

— Hello Mahabharata and My Days In Mahabharata ; thewomanwhobleedsink.

— Sambhavāmi ; indeevara18ls.

— Mathuraraaj ; Shivran86.

— Ehi Murare ; kanakangi.

— The Diary Of A Gopika ; Thoughtshub.

[mulders-too-large-shirt]

s3 episode 20 thoughts

dare i say it, once again… new favorite episode??

okay, my previous favorite episode was an ENTIRELY different direction from this one, but i’d say there should be one best episode for serious stuff and one best episode for the silly!!! and this takes the silly crown!! and tbh i can't make an actual hard and fast rating anyway because there are so many great things to choose from- but this is amongst them, for me, in terms of legendary episodes!

please, join me on this ride, which i enjoyed each second of, and will need to someday rewatch without pausing every 0.5 seconds to jot something i noticed down. the live experience begins beneath the cut.

it’s been 84 years…. (3 days since i’ve seen an episode)

ooo, this sounds interesting! is scully going to work with an author?? are we gonna learn more about the things that she reads?? this is prime content to a person like me

stars…. space ship….. filled with tubes and wires and other such things…… just kidding!!! it’s a guy working on some electrical stuff. whilst two people drive by!! i thought they were mulder and scully at first but they are not

“um, i don’t want to scare you, but i think i’m madly in love with you” says this guy who is not mulder but actually named harold to this girl who is not scully but is actually named chrissy. OH! and this is the first date. so that was a weird thing to say. i thought it was quite sweet at first but that changes things for sure.

GASP! UFO be upon them. creatures are coming out to get them. she asks what they are and he says “how the hell should i know?” ooo ooo i know! they are aliens 👽 and then the two fall on top of each other like they are knocked out… and the aliens drag them away???? 

until a king kong looking fellow rolls up. very puppet-y. and the aliens don’t know what this creature is either!!! and also ask what that thing is and the response is “how the hell should i know?” haha i see what you did there... out aliening the alien

bum bum bum bum…. (<- my attempt at recreating the noise of the intro)

now, what was that? i'm stuck on the king kong and godzilla love child puppet….

scan up on mulder’s iconic poster!!! and a guy is here who is yet again not mulder. his name is mr. chung and mulder will NOT talk to him… oooh, what is their beef…?

mr. chung is saying he always felt alienated on this planet, who can even imagine actual aliens! and he has a point there.

oh! scully is a big fan of this fellow, which is why she agreed to talk to this guy!!! he calls her beautiful, which is true, but time and place 

so he isn’t even interested in aliens, but his publisher said he should write a book on the matter. he is going to create a NEW genre: non fiction science fiction, a gimmick that will give him money. this seems somewhat disappointing to scully, who must be a believer in artistic integrity, but i find his honesty refreshing.

she wants him to tell the truth, but apparently he spent 3 months in kass county where all this stuff went down, and NO ONE could tell him what actually happened. the truth is just as subjective as reality. which sounds like something i learned in history class. and, it helps explain why everyone with an alien story starts with some variation of, "i know this sounds crazy, but"...

so he wants HER version of hearing of the case. also he touches her arm and... let's slow down a little there, mr. chung.

OHHH we are seeing a story told in flashbacks!!!! narrated by scully!! how wonderful!!!

this girl is suffering from “missing time”, a phenomenon we have come to know well here on this blog. also her clothes are inside out and she has signs of abuse. not looking great for her.

apparently mulder prefers the term “abductee” to “experiencer”, which mr. chung has valid disagreements with. we go on, however.

this poor girl is seeing aliens that are not there and her nose is bleeding. WAIT! it’s the guy from before! harold and chrissy! he comes to her window to say he did everything he could but she rejects him, thinking he had drugged and assaulted her. yikes.

harold is testifying that he was abducted by aliens, but no one believes him. he stuck to his story UNTIL our agents arrived!

(MULDER SAYS SOMETHING VERY OUT OF POCKET HERE ABOUT GOING TO PRISON BUT LET'S KEEP MOVING)

despite this announcement of presumed prison time, mulder brings chrissy in for questioning. asking her if she has all the symptoms of “post abduction disorder”, which she confirms, while scully rolls her eyes with great force in the background. and he talks the girl’s parents into letting her do hypnosis.

“what is your opinion of hypnosis?”, mr. chung asks scully, which is something i also have been dying to know! i mean, we saw her do a little bit before, but it didn’t seem to be a positive experience. she says it has therapeutic value, but has never been proven to enhance memory; it even makes memory worse. a very balanced and doctor-ly answer! 

LMAO scully is so cute… mr. chung mentions another book he wrote and she proclaims it “one of the greatest thrillers ever written” <- STOP I LOVE HER SHE IS SUCH A NERRRRD 😭���

mr. chung said the FBI knew nothing about how hypnosis worked back during the MK ULTRA days… and he is fascinated by the idea of a person’s consciousness being transformed by listening to words. admittedly very fascinating! you could probably say the same about meditation, no?

(but he speaks to the power of storytelling, i realize now in hindsight! how we find ourselves wrapped up in the tales of things that never happened, how it fills us with sorrow or joy! how fascinating! i see what you did there, writers!)

cutscene to hypnotizing chrissy. who is seeing aliens. she is on a space ship wearing a fit that looks very similar to a lady gaga chromatica era performance, but it has tubes attached to her. harold is in a very similar contraption!!!!

she says the aliens are arguing without moving their mouths and she hears the lead alien in her head saying it’s for the good of her planet. and he is stealing her memories? um. for what purpose...

scully is serving looks in the corner while this goes down, looking mad as hell and very good. she says chrissy's abduction story seems a little TOO typical… and i have to agree! but mulder says no, there are TWO people with the same story! they can't both be lying, surely!

LMAOOOO they play with censoring the dude who comes in and yells at them… “well, of course he didn’t actually say ‘bleeped’” 

(BAHAHA i’m loving this insight into how scully’s memories operate. so this angry man is named detective manners)

“you still gonna hold the boy?” “oh, you bet your blankety-blank bleep i am” <- i am a simple woman, and an actor delivering these lines with a straight face whilst surrounded by other actors keeping a very straight face is going to make me cackle. look at her looking so bored while he says that. i’m howling!!!!

anyway, harold has a very different story on what went down that night, that did not seem to involve gaga-inspired fits, but instead they were both placed in electrified cages. while another alien in a nearby cage smokes a cigarette. he seems to be what i would call “an unbothered king”

in this story, harold claims that he will protect chrissy and never let anything happen to her, and of course something immediately happens to her while he hides in the corner like a baby. lmao.

and this alien is talking in english! not telepathically! he keeps repeating “this is not happening” until harold ALSO gets taken by the thing that took chrissy. 

mulder is trying to figure out what is going on, but his predictions aren’t lining up with what happened to harold. scully is pacing and looking pissed, and again, very pretty.

“you know when you’re a kid, and you tore the legs off a bug for no reason?”, asks harold (cutscene to mulder’s face with visible confusion) LMAOOOOOOO

scully getting to business: did you engage in consensual sexual intercourse that night? she is not messing around! she's had it up to here with the shenanigans of harold and chrissy!

harold is very very quiet until he says that her father will kill him if he finds out!!! gasp!!! confirmation!!!

so is this whole story just… a cover up??? for fornication???

scully vs mulder time. “so what if they’re having sex?” he asks, which is funny coming from him; and anyway, he claims it happened BEFORE the alien stuff went down. but she thinks they’re traumatized, and that is more likely than alien abduction. 

until detective manners bursts in and claims he has an eyewitness to what went down! he used more blanks and bleeps and again the straight faces killllll me

and ALL OF THEM telling their stories start with “i know how crazy this all sounds” just as mr. chung had described LMAOOO. now who tf is this dude who says he was an eyewitness?

(i’m taking soooo many notes because i keep laughing and noting things. which is a good problem to have!)

this dude, named roky, spent 48 hours straight writing down what he saw, and said that by looking at this, they are putting their lives in danger. so okay. better be juicy.

he says his garage door opened up, a car pulled in, and a man told him some facts about venus. he says they put him in a trance! and that they were in all black……

mr. chung says that myths of men in black garments are nothing new!!! so take THAT, men in black legends, you are one of many.

back at roky's place, the other dude in black says jimmy carter thought he saw a UFO once, but it was just venus. roky is scandalized, grabs his paper, and states that he is a REPUBLICAN.

(omg jimmy carter is going to be 100 in a few months god willing…..)

this man in black is saying that roky saw VENUS and nothing else, just VENUS. and not to tell anyone he saw anything but VENUS or he will die. and then the car drives away. 

so after that build up, he gives mulder the manuscript, and says he is packing up and leaving. bye bye roky. hope you find some peace.

mulder is reading this story to scully who is sprawled on the bed, looking, again, angry and hot. it seems he is describing that earlier puppet-y action.

oh! roky was the electrical guy from the very beginning!!! he hides in his truck but the king kong looking fellow says “be not afraid” and that he is needed for the good of the earth? what is with the good of the earth here.

cutscene to a very baffled looking scully laying in bed as mulder continues to read LMAOOOOOO

AND ROKY’S STORY SAYS HE WENT NOT TO OUTER SPACE, BUT INNER SPACE HELPPP!!!! now, inner space is towards the core, if you, like me, were unaware. also, king kong godzilla dude’s name is Lord Kinbote, so jot that down.

mr. chung says he has a copy of roky’s manifesto- which was sent to his publisher? and LMAOOO the story is disturbing both for its soul orgy scenes and the fact that it is written as a screenplay 

well, surely your partner didn’t believe any of it, mr. chung states! “mulder’s had his share of peculiar notions” is scully's carefully worded reply... LMAOOO 

cutscene to her sitting up from the bed and calling him nuts <- LMAOOOOO but HE says that whatever roky saw may have triggered some delusions, and that the only story that doesn’t add up is chrissy���s, so he is calling to get her re-hypnotized, much to scully’s indignation!

so back to the hypnosis. and chrissy is now mirroring harold's story exactly. oh! she says the people who took them are from the air force?? so where did the gaga slay outfits go... 

the air force men are arguing in front of her. and then they say to “rinse her out”. saying it is for the good of her country. and stealing her memories!

so WHO is doing the real memory stealing here….. the aliens or the government?? an age old question!!! one that is at the heart of this series.

scully and mulder fight over what is going on, and he thinks that this might have nothing to do with aliens, until detective manners shows up with news that a crazy blankety blank claims to have an ALIEN BODY!!

(what if it’s a raccoon with mange…)

again, the man recounting this story begins with “i know how crazy this is going to sound”, but then says he wants to be abducted by aliens. well! i’m sure that’s a sexual thing i don’t care to unpack.

cutscene to mr. chung interviewing this same man, who wishes to go where finding a job is not a requirement. he was looking in a field for UFOs. and when he called the authorities upon spotting one, the agents show up!!

he says that scully was a man dressed as a woman but not pulling it off??? RUDE AS HELL! jail for 10,000 years. "HER HAIR WAS A LITTLE TOO RED, YOU KNOW?" LMAOOOOO and mulder was the “tall, lanky one” with a blank expression. well yeah that is an accurate depiction.

AND ACCORDING TO THIS GUY'S ACCOUNT, WHEN MULDER SEES THE BODY, HE SHRIEKS LIKE A STARTLED SQUIRREL I’M CRYINGGGG. so scully says to wrap this body up!

BUT THEN SHE GRABS HIM AND SAYS TO NEVER TELL ANYONE HE SAW THIS I’M CRYINGGGG... that had to be such a silly scene to film 

okay, seeing the part about subjective truths now. this is so funny... why is this loser making scully a hater in his version!!!

she’s PISSED to hear he claims she said this LMAOOO and that is ridiculous!! they even let him view the autopsy!!

so mulder takes this weirdo’s camera and records the autopsy?? scully cuts his brain open. and the tape ends up on late night television LMAOOOO

SCULLY IS SO EMBARRASSED THAT SHE IS ON THIS ALIEN HOAX AUTOPSY TAPE... I’M CRYING SOMEONE SAVE HER!!! and the host of whatever show they end upon is STUPENDOUS YAPPI FROM THE CLYDE BRUCKMAN EPISODE!!!! i'm howlingggg

she’s mad that whoever got the film edited out all the important scientific findings!!! like the two layers of skin!!!

wait. it’s a zipper. this is a dead guy in an alien suit. LMAOOOOOOOOO

the weird UFO cameraman kid is ill after realizing it was an ordinary dead guy, and scully looks deeply pained as he runs away to get sick LMAOOO

so: who is this dead guy? he was in the air force! and his name is robert. but who arrives but more people from the air force!! are they here to bury him?? or question the agents…

the folks from the air force want robert back, so she has to break the news that he is dead, and being kept for investigation into kidnapping. can they see him? scully is like yeah sure but mulder says no!!! but you CAN talk to the other AWOL guy we brought in. GASP!! a bluff!!! and it works!! from this they learn there is another missing guy!

LMAOOOO except it doesn’t go as smoothly as intended, and mulder is all “hmm he was here a few minutes ago… guess he’s still AWOL… anyway wanna see the body?” I’M CRYING THIS MANNNN IS SO RIDICULOUS 

but bad news: the body is gone. 

cameraman UFO guy is sitting on his floor watching the autopsy tape. when in bursts… the men in black from the earlier garage scene!!!! they knock him out. 

he claims mulder slapped him back to reality. and that he ALSO threatened him... me when i lie.

so mulder doesn’t have the tape. but when he drives home a fully naked man is walking about in the woods. it’s the other missing lieutenant, jack!! he is repeating “this is not happening” in the same voice as the alien as before!!!!! HUH WHAT IS GOING ON?

mulder takes jack to eat. he claims to have piloted the "UFO", and that all the abductions are military stuff, and at the base the abductees are messed with mentally, until they come out convinced they were probed by aliens. 

well okay, if its all the government, than what abducted YOU, jack? he isn’t sure about anything at all anymore, even if he exists. until who walks in... but the military!!

wait, mulder points out, it can’t all be fake- who was the third alien? jack seems to know him by name- lord kinbote. HUH?

and mr. chung heard a story about that same night from the cook at the restaurant! apparently mulder ordered sweet potato pie? huh, that’s interesting. and he kept ordering more and more pies with each question he asked the chef. LMAOOOO I just KNOW that scene was hard to film!!!! scenes where people eat always make me wonder how many times they had to have that damn bite of pie. 

but he claims there was no jack, nor any air force personnel at all. just a hungry mulder. again, so what is the truth...

mr. chung points out that scully doesn’t seem too phased to learn about all the contradictions in this story, and she says well no, not after what happened next. because when he got back to the motel, the men in black were in her room, going through her stuff! they claim she went to get some ice. he’s got 'em at gunpoint, screaming WHERE IS SHE!!! all protective, okay i see you. but she really did go to get some ice???

okay… man in black says that some alien encounters are engineered by the government and then exposed to discredit truth seekers. and mulder counters, well, people say the men in black also do purposefully strange things, so that anyone describing them sounds crazy! they proceed to… try and hypnotize him?

BUT IT’S ALEX TREBEK WHO IS DOING THE HYPNOTIZING???? LMAOOOOO HAS HE BEEN THE QUIET MAN IN BLACK THIS WHOLE TIME??

mr. chung is GAGGED, and wants to know if it WAS alex trebek, but sadly scully cannot confirm, for has no memory of this!! 

she woke up the next morning to mulder in her room….? and mr. chung is also gagged to hear this. me too tbh like did he just sleep on the couch? well we know that is how he sleeps at home so i guess i'm not shocked.

mulder’s trying to explain that she didn’t just "let him in" last night, but detective manners calls and says they found a bleeping UFO.

and what is it but…. a plane!! a secret plane!! and who are they carrying away on stretcher but the missing airmen, jack and robert???? SO HOW DID THEY DIE!

mr. chung puts his pen down, baffled, and scully points out that this story may not have a lot of closure, but it’s more than some of their other cases, which is funny because it is true. and she’s playing with her earrings and it’s so cute.

cutscene to mr. chung typing at his place. until a shadow approaches and he holds a tiny gun!!!! he is ready for a showdown but it’s… mulder at the door?

WAIT how does chung recognize him… did scully show him pictures i'm crying

mulder is in chung's apartment, asking him to not write the book, because it will do a disservice to a field that has always struggled to maintain credibility. we can’t understand these alternate realities yet!!! well. compelling argument... but mr. chung needs a paycheck. 

OH! and mulder suspects that the book is a “covert agenda” of the military industrial complex. always theories upon theories with this guy...

mr. chung says the book WILL be written, but he needs an explanation from mulder: what really happened to those kids on that night?

his answer: how the hell should i know?

(it was so perfect, i thought the episode would end right here)

mr. chung says he has deadlines, and mulder looks very sad, very previously neglected shelter dog rizz, and walks out. back to mr. chung’s furious typing. 

okay, so the cameraman now works for the electrical company roky worked for. because roky moved to california, preaching on purification and the inner earth and core enlightenment. right right right makes sense.

cutscene to scully reading the finished book by mr. chung!!! she is fictionalized as “diane” who is “noble of spirit and pure of heart” but “nevertheless a federal employee” LMAOOOO

and mulder is “renard muldrake” LMAOOOOO that is such a funny name... he's watching something in bed shirtless as his fictionalized self is being described- “a ticking time bomb of insanity” AND HE’S WATCHING THE BIGFOOT TAPES BAHAHAHAHA

chrissy now is an environmental advocate and harold still loves her but it isn’t required. aww harold :(

mr. chung ends by saying that we are not alone in this universe, but in our own way, we are all alone.

NEW BEST EPISODE CONTENDER???

this feels like one of those posts where people make up a bunch of information and then it all gets proven wrong so it is described as a "net zero information gain" bahaha

but don't get me wrong, i don't fully understand what happened, but i loved it. i was laughing, i was enjoying seeing the subjectivity of one story to the next, i was enjoying scully and chung time, and despite all the silly, we still got clues on the whole "is it aliens or the government" thing. and sure, maybe it doesn't make immediate sense, but you have to ponder these matters to learn what is at their heart!

so what DID we learn? well, some alien cases might be the government! but i guess that is still a "might", so maybe we can't truthfully say we LEARNED it. we learned that scully is a big fan of mr. chung!!! we learned that mulder is fiercely protective of his line of work from all his years of being ridiculed! and that he watches the famous bigfoot tape for fun and also maybe like sweet potato pie? it was unconfirmed.

i really enjoyed the playing with perspective, seeing how one character saw things, and then another. and seeing mulder and scully threaten that dweeb was so funny because it was so out of character and had to be silly to shoot.

and i thought it was impressive how it managed to tie back to the big alien and government mystery while still making me laugh so hard. how many past episodes can be analyzed through the lens of certain things being faked for exposure? and what REALLY happened to those airmen? we still don't know if mulder's convo with jack even happened! and we never will!

i came to appreciate the company of mr. chung immensely, even though i thought he was gonna be creepy after calling scully beautiful and touching her arm, but i suppose that he was just a genuinely sweet fellow. you can't blame me for being suspicious after some of the things she gets put through, but i'm sure that if i picked one of his books off the shelf, i, like scully, would be a fan.

overall, i am deeply pleased, and would love to give this a rewatch sometime when i am not taking notes so i could appreciate the pacing in more detail. man, season 3 has really been killing it, huh? and i'm nearing the end!!

[nerdallwritey]

✨ writing interview tag game!!! ✨

Gonna go ahead and thank @busy-baker and @khywren for tagging me :) I'm very late to filling this out, but I wanted to really dedicate some attention to it!

I'm a yapper, I apologize in advance.

When did you start writing?

I started writing when I was in elementary school, I think. I know my fourth grade yearbook said I wanted to be an author when I grew up, and that's only KIND OF changed, I still want to write for a living, but for TV instead of novels (though I'm not opposed to that, should I ever have the right idea for one). I remember going to my friend's house after school all that time and using her mom's laptop to open a blank Word doc and just start writing. We wrote tons of stuff that we never finished, but I'd give ANYTHING to read some of it again, if only for a laugh. The only story I remember was about four teens being stranded on an island - we called it "Castaway." No clue what became of that, but our main characters were always based on ourselves ���� I didn't start writing fanfiction until 2022 and only started posting this past June!

Are there different themes or genres that you enjoy reading than what you write?

Hmm, that's a good question. I typically stick with what I like - romance, fantasy, silly - but it's fun to throw nonfiction in there every once in a while. Not sure how well I'd do at writing non-fiction without embellishing or getting narrative (even though I like reading those kinds of books as well). But yeah, usually I like to stick with what I know and enjoy most! It's also the best way to learn and improve; by reading a ton within the genre you love to write.

Is there a writer you want to emulate or get compared to often?

I don't......think so? I've always been told by English teachers and professors that I have a very strong voice in my writing, which I always interpreted as being unique. As corny as it sounds, I'm not trying to sound like anyone but myself. At the end of the day, I'm writing for my own enjoyment and am happy you guys found me along the way!

Can you tell me a bit about your writing space?

I don't have a dedicated writing space, but I often find myself writing either on my couch or in bed. Weirdly (or not that weirdly, considering most of us have day jobs) I write the best at night and I have to be alone so that I'm not distracted. Usually I'll find a song and play that on repeat while I'm writing (For Cheeks All Flushed, it was Resolve (Dark) from Fire Emblem Fates, and for Awfully Fond of You it was Climactic Return from Danganronpa 2). The music typically has nothing to do with the vibe of what I'm writing, I just need some sort of constant noise that won't distract me, hence why it's usually video game music with no words.

What's your most effective way to muster up a muse?

That's tough. The first idea I published on tumblr was the result of me making myself laugh when I was trying to fall asleep (If EYE were being propositioned by Astarion, my ass would probably be like "wait, what? Me? ME?! Why?"), but the others I've posted have come from just seeing where my brain takes me as I'm writing, known as the "flying by the seat of your pants" method. I have a pretty good sense of these characters by now so I think I know what they'd be up to at this point. Outside of fanfiction, it's really tough - I'll start with a small idea and then keep sitting on it until it's something I think I can write down. I'm definitely more of a planner when it comes to stuff outside of fics 😅 I guess my short answer is: No idea. It just happens. Someone please help me.

are there any recurring themes in your writing? do they surprise you?

OHHH this is gonna say a lot about me, but something I've noticed in my original scripts and even my first fic is that most of the time, my main character is deeply lonely (I'M FINE GUYS, I'm surrounded by friends and loved ones but I have Some Trauma there). It doesn't really surprise me, considering I know WHY I've felt those things, but it's still like.......yikes. Lol. Also humor. Gotta laugh it off, right? RIGHT?

what is your reason for writing?

To be honest, it's a good outlet for me. I went to school for screenwriting and my goal has always been to make people laugh and bring them joy - It's always been that way. I think if I weren't able to get my thoughts and feelings out on paper every once in a while, I might explode. It's also just fun and I like doing it! Piggybacking off of what Khy said in their post, BG3 has been a HUGE outlet for me creatively. The game is full and beautiful and complex, but there are still gaps that I want to fill in and roads I want to explore. What would happen if the player were given THIS option? How would this character react to THIS situation? It's been a blast and I've never felt this way in a fandom before. It's awesome!

Is there any specific comment or type of comment you find particularly motivating?

ANY comment makes my day. The fact that you took the time to read and put thoughts together to let me know how you felt about it is HUGE! It's such a good confidence boost (I second guess myself A LOT) and it always lifts my mood no matter where I am. I always love when people agree with my interpretation of Astarion's idiot tendencies 😂

how do you want to be thought about by your readers?

Hopefully as someone approachable. I'm a big dumb dummy and I love to chat/fan girl. If I can be someone to brighten their day with something silly that I wrote, that's all I need :)

what do you feel is your greatest strength as a writer?

Definitely my banter. I've always been a fan of quick snappy quips and have experience in sketch writing/performing improv, so it comes very easily for me when I need it to. I make myself laugh with it, so it's always really nice to hear that others like it too.

how do you feel about your own writing?

I really started writing as a way of entertaining myself, so the fact that it's able to entertain others is GREAT, but I am very self conscious about it at the same time. I know my interpretation of Astarion is goofier than most, I know I rely heavily on dialogue rather than scene descriptions and inner monologues, and I get very in my head about those things. My stuff has found its proper audience and I'm very grateful for that, but there's always the nagging thought of "this could be better," or "they wouldn't say this," etc etc. That's something I'll likely always struggle with. BUT! I always have fun when I'm writing and hopefully that comes through. I've become less of a perfectionist after posting my first fic, that's for sure.

when you write, are you influenced by what others might enjoy reading, or do you write purely for yourself, or a mix of both?

Aside from requests, where I'm trying very hard to make sure I get whatever it is right for the person who requested it, I'm usually writing for myself. I'm definitely writing what I think will be enjoyable, but it's usually what I personally would like to read. That's what I've been taught! Write what you know and write what you want to read! I'm so unbelievably grateful that you guys find it entertaining as well. My fave thing to do is slip inside jokes in for myself/my beta (calling Astarion "ass," turning to someone and saying "did you know those people?" after talking to a group of people you know very well, etc etc).

No pressure tagging: @maladaptive-menace, and @arzen9 (I know you're not a fic writer, but still!) - I think everyone else I know has been tagged 😅

[cup-and-chaucer]

One Thought About Each Book I Read This Year

Book Stats: 47 (possibly 48?) books; 60% fiction; 40% non-fiction; 57% female-identifying authors; 12.7% in translation

Sex with Shakespeare by Jillian Keenan: This woman gets me; like, yes, I too have figured out everything from grief to sexuality through shakespeare.

Galatea by Madeline Miller: sometimes we all need to write a caffeine-fueled one-shot piece of fanfic at 2am and some of us have access to professional publishers

I Am, I Am, I Am: Seventeen Brushes with Death by Maggie O'Farrell: Like every Maggie O'Farrell book, I read this, love this, cried at it, and no longer remember what it was about.

Hour of the Witch by Chris Bojalian: I wanted to bite everyone in this book. And not in a sexy way.

The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel: A tale of what happens when the gatekeep, gaslight, girlboss meme reaches its final form.

Notes from the Underground by Fyodor Dostoyevsky: Why I decided to read this when I was so depressed I could barely shower I don't know but I did and it didn't help. 10/10 read though.

Little Weirds by Jenny Slate: A book that is maybe bad but maybe saved my life.

The Testament of Mary by Colm Toibin: oh but this was an interesting one--a refocus on Mary as a mother.

Nomadland by Jessica Bruder: Important topic, bad execution.

Bolla by Pajtim Statovici: this man took every trigger warning that has ever existed and called it a book; jesus christ, my guy. nihilism is just exhausting

This is Water by David Foster Wallace: I loved this! So important!

A Practical Christianity by Jane Shaw: Fine.

The Good Lord Bird by James McBride: Mixed feelings! I'm glad I read it and will never read again; also frederick douglass wasn't a pedophile. i just. for the record.

This Will All Be Over Soon by Cecily Strong: I thought this was a beautiful book and I'm so glad I got to meet Owen through these pages.

How The Irish Saved Civilization by Thomas Cahill: LOL not great history but a GREAT read.

Sprit Run by Noe Alvarez: This was. Not Good. I'm sorry. I was rooting for you.

Tyrant by Stephen Greenblatt: This will be remembered not for being a great book on Shakespeare but for being an artifact of its time and that's alright with me actually.

Snow, Glass, Apples by Neil Gaiman: Fun rainy night read.

Gentleman Jack by Anna Choma; One of my favorites of the year and now I'm horny for a dead woman. Again.

Fludd by Hilary Mantel: I love nuns that spontaneously burst into flame too, hilary.

Blood Water Paint by Joy McCollough: NO

The Abolition of Man & The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis: I'm going to be honest with you, I skimmed The Abolition of Man but the Great Divorce maybe altered my brain chemistry or at least gave me a framework for my brain chemistry to exist

The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker: If you read this book and don't like this book, I'm going to bite you. Once again, not in a sexy way.

Bluets by Maggie Nelson: What a wonderful little volume about love and loss and color.

Becoming Mrs. Lewis by Patti Callahan: I liked this so much more than I thought I was going to! I would totally read more of her c.s. lewis fanfiction

The Education of an Idealist by Samantha Power: I have a crush on Samantha Power. also, a good introduction to the ideas behind liberal interventionism and the obama administration's foreign policy trajectory

The True Tragedie of Richard III by Thomas Legge: This made me laugh out loud multiple times.

The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry: a group of lovely characters looking at fOsSiLs. everyone in this book is precious to me.

If We Were Villians by M.L. Rio: guys, it's just a mystery novel and a rather unremarkable one at that.

A Grief Observed by C.S. Lewis: I mean what is there to say. beautiful.

Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata: i really want to go to a convenience store in japan.

All the Feels by Olivia Dade: the most heterosexual novel ever

House of Names by Colm Toibin: the first third of this is gorgeous and the last 2/3s are hot garbage

The Lost Daughter by Elena Ferrante: I need to call my mom both more and less.

I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jeannette McCurdy: what a back to back reading experience and i am also glad her mom is dead?!?!?!?!?

Disfigured by Amanda LeDuc: I wanted to like this so, so much and I am so, so sorry that I didn't

Rubyfruit Jungle by Rita Mae Brown: I wish i had this woman's body count.

Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage by Alan Lansing: THIS IS HOW YOU WRITE NARRATIVE NON FICTION THIS IS HOW YOU DO IT

White Nights by Fyodor Dostoyevsky: Lovely.

Orwell's Roses by Rebecca Solnit: meandering. gorgeous. impactful. nonsensical.

Deathless by Cathrynne M. Valente: it has been probably the book that has impacted my writing the most this year; people underestimate the power of this book, i think

I Was Better Last Night by Harvey Fierstein: i learned a lot about fierstein in this book but mostly about how you must fail to create art

Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman: now a sigyn/angroboda/loki shipper. i'm sorry, they rule my brain now.

Milk Fed by Melissa Brouder: JUSTICE FOR MIRIAM

The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ by Philip Pullman: Who knew that Jesus having an evil twin could produce the most boring book ever

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle: Calvin O'Keefe IS the reason I am still single.

The Swallowed Man by Edward Carey: You need to read the dedication to understand this book.

[anxiouspotatorants]

I agree with you and @stellaluna33 's tags on Mitchum. Even if you think that Rory wasn't cut out to be a journalist, his criticism was crap. He gave her no such constructive criticism, he didn't even have any reference to make that constructive criticism on except that she didn't speak up during a meeting at which she wasn't even a direct member of but just an intern at. She's here to observe and learn, not act like a regular paid worker when she doesn't even have the status of one. And his condescending suggestions make his criticism look even worse and blatantly show how to him, this type of thing is just a power move on his side because she's a young, inexperienced intern and he's a big CEO of a company. Like firstly, why are his only suggestions stuff like assistant/secretary? Is that truly the only thing she can do as a woman in the professional writing field? Rory doesn't even have to do creative writing solely, she could easily be a content writer/editor for any company that is in need of one. His suggestions border on subtly misogynistic given how Mitchum is because he takes one look at Rory and is all "meh, she can do for a secretary". And the whole "well he was right about her" again, make no sense and aren't true because he actually wasn't. Rory DID get her work published in journalism, she's worked as one for 10 years by the time AYITL takes place, she's just stagnated and lost the will to be in the business anymore. And that's perfectly fine? People switch careers all the time, just because Rory doesn't want to be a journalist anymore doesn't mean she can't still be a writer or have anything to do with the field. And she doesn't have to be a journalist till she dies in order to disprove Mitchum's point. Even with how tough the industry got later on, Rory was still a journalist for a period of time.

I know I'm getting repetetive with my initial reactions to your asks but yes!!! This!!!

Like I do still stand by my opinion that Rory's best future job isn't 24-hour news cycle type journalism (she's a wordy girl who reads doorstoppers and churns out essays like nothing and those types of news demand dry, short and to the point writing), but that doesn't mean I don't think she's fit for any journalistic writing. I mean the fact that her debut in AYITL is going to be a biography proves to me that she's a non-fiction writer moreso than a fiction-writer. She could do longer exposés, content writing like you said, non-fiction books about anything she wants from coffee around the globe to Stars Hollow history to the war of her choosing. Rory is very clearly some kind of writer and that kind is very close to if not directly journalism. In my head she either ends up being an editor for a not-so-giant but incredibly respectable paper or she writes non-fiction and freelances one-off articles and short commissioned pieces between books. But to get there she will need years of experience in the journalism business, which she canonically gets and is suited for.

I might be clouded by anger, but I think Mitchum is being downright misogynist in his review. The fact that he could be doing this all to mold her into the wife his family might accept for Logan is twisted enough on its own, but add his "you should speak up more" argument and the "you'd make a great secretary" and especially that damn vague "you don't have it"? Like does he mean that what she doesn't have is a dick, metaphorical or physical? All these arguments are textbook of sexist people with authority who don't think women are suitable to lead, and Rory's not even looking for a boss-like position! He's just the proverbial boys' club boss if you ask me, hiring only guys who are similar enough to him that he thinks they can do the job but not so similar they become a threat.

[snarktheater]

Hey, d'you have any French book recs? I'm trying to work on my French, and rn I have downloaded one of my favourite book series' French translations, but I figured maybe books already written in French might work better? Also have you read the Ranger's Apprentice series? 1/2

RA's def flawed - the books' narration does like to point bright arrows at the protagonists' intelligence, and the last few books def have the tone of 'old white man trying to write feminism', although at least he's trying? - and it's aimed more to the younger side of YA, but it is still a very fun series, and I can ignore the flaws fairly easily, at least partly due to nostalgia? This rather long lol but I'm wordy.

I'll start with the second question: no, although every time the series is brought up I have to check the French title and go "oh, right, I've seen these books in stores". But I've never purchased or read them. It sounds like something I probably would have enjoyed as a teen but I just missed the mark, and these days I'm trying to drown myself in queer books, so that probably isn't happening.

As for your first question, geez, I haven’t read a French book in years, so this is gonna skew middle grade/YA, though that may not be so bad if the point is to learn the language. I will also say that as a result, these may read a little outdated.

I'll put it under a cut, even if Tumblr has become really bad with correctly displaying read mores. Sorry, mobile crowd.

It's also likely that old readers of the blog will have seen me talk about most of these. I don't feel like going through old posts.

One last thing: while I was curating this list I took the time to make a Goodreads shelf to keep track of those.

The Ewilan books by Pierre Bottero

(It's a testament to how long ago I read these books that these are not the covers of the edition I own, and I can't even find those on Google. I'm settling for a more recent cover anyway since it'll make it easier to find them, presumably)

There are at least three trilogies (that I know of) set in the same world.

The first trilogy is essentially an isekai (so, French girl lands in parallel fantasy world by accident) with elements of chosen one trope, though I find the execution makes it worth the while anyway.

The second trilogy is a direct sequel, so same protagonist but new threat, and the world gets expanded.

The third one is centered around a supporting characters from the previous books, and the first couple of books in it are more her backstory than a continuation, though the third one concludes both that trilogy and advances the story of the other books as well.

Notably these books have a really fun magic system where the characters "draw" things into existence. It's just stuck with me for some reason.

A bunch of stuff by Erik L'Homme

I have read a lot of this man's books, starting with Le Livre des Etoiles.

They also skew towards the young end of YA, arguably middle grade, I never bothered to figure out where to draw the line. They're coincidentally also using the premise of a parallel world to our own (and yes, connected to France again, the French are just as susceptible of writing about their homeland), but interestingly are set from the point of view of characters native to the parallel world.

It also has a very unique magic system, this one based on a mix of a runic alphabet and sort-of poetry. I'll also say specifically for these books that the characters stuck with me way more than others on this list, which is worth mentioning.

This trilogy is my favorite by Erik L'Homme, but I'll also mention Les Maîtres des brisants, which is a fantasy space opera with a pirate steampunk(?) vibe. I think it's steampunk. I could be mistaken. But it's in that vein. It's also middle grade, in my opinion not as good, but it could just be that it came out when I was older.

Another one is Phaenomen, which was a deliberate attempt at skewing older (though still YA). This one is set in our (then-)modern world and centers a group of teens who happen to have supernatural powers. I guess the best way to describe it is a superhero thriller? If you take "superhero" in the sense of "people with individualized powers", since they don't really do a lot of heroing.

...I really need to brush up on genre terminology, don't I.

The Ji series by Pierre Grimbert

This one is actually adult fantasy, though it definitely falls under "probably outdated". It is very straight, for starters, and I'd have to give it another read to give a more critical reading of how it handles race (it attempts to do it, and is well meaning, but I'm not sure it survives the test of time & scrutiny, basically).

If I haven't lost you already, the premise is this: a few generations ago, a weird man named Nol gathered emissaries from each nation of the world and took them to a trip to the titular Ji island. Nobody knows what went down here, but now in the present day, someone is trying to kill off all descendants from those emissaries, who are as a result forced to team up and figure out what's going on.

I'm not going to spoil past that, though I will say it has (surprise) a really unique magic system! I guess you can start to piece together what my younger self was interested in. Which, admittedly, I still am.

Once again, this one also has a strong cast of characters, helped by rich world building and the premise forcing the characters to come from many different cultures (though, again, I can't vouch for the handling of race because it's been too long).

The first series is complete by itself, though it has two sequel series as well, each focusing on the next generation in these families. Because yes, of course they all pair up and have kids. Like I said: very straight.

A whole lot of books by Jean-Louis Fetjaine

OFetjaine is a historian, and I guess he's really interested in Arthurian mythos especially, because he loves it so much he's written two separate high fantasy retellings of them! I'm not criticizing, mind you, we all need a hobby.

The former, the Elves trilogy (pictures above) is very traditional high fantasy. Elves, dwarves, orcs, a world which is definitely fictionalized with a pan-Celtic vibe to it. The holy grail and excalibur are around, but they're relics possessed by the elves and dwarves with very different powers than usual. Et cetera.

Fetjaine also really loves his elves (as the titles might imply), and while they're not exactly Tolkien elves, there's a similar vibe to them. If you like Tolkien and his elf boner, you'll probably like this too. And conversely, if that turns you off, these books probably also won't work for you.

This series also has a prequel trilogy, centered around the backstory of one of the main characters. I...honestly don't remember too much about it, but I liked it, so, there you go, I guess.

I said Fetjaine did it twice. The other series is the Merlin duology, which, as the title implies, is a retelling of Merlin's story. Note that Merlin is also in the other trilogy, but it's a different Merlin; like I said, completely different continuities and stories.

This one is historical fantasy, so it's set in actual Great Britain, and Fetjaine attempts to connect Arthur to a "real" historical figure...but, you know, Merlin is also half-elf and elves totally exist in Brocéliande, so, you know. History.

Okay, that's probably enough fantasy, let me give some classics too.

L'Arbre des possibles et autres histoires - Bernard Werber

Bernard Werber is a pretty seminal author of French sci-fi and I should probably be embarrassed that the only book of his that I read was for school, but, it is a really good one, so I'll include it anyway.

It's a novella collection, and when I say "sci-fi" I want to make it clear that it's very old school science fiction. It's more Frankenstein or Black Mirror than Star Trek, what we in French call the anticipation genre of science fiction: you take one piece of technology or cultural norm and project it into the future.

It has a pretty wide range of topics and tones, so it's bound to have some better than others. My personal faves were Du pain et des jeux, where football (non-American) has evolved into basically a wargame, and Tel maître, tel lion, where any animal is considered acceptable as a pet, no matter how absurd it is to keep as a pet. They're both on a comedic end, but there's more heartfelt stuff too.

L'Ecume des Jours - Boris Vian

(no cover because I can't find the one I have, and the ones I find are ugly)

This book is surrealist. Like, literally a part of the surrealist movement. It features things such as a lilypad growing inside a woman's lungs (and, as you well know, lilypads double in size every day, wink wink), the protagonist's apartment becoming larger and smaller to go with his mood and current financial situation, and more that I can't even recall at the moment because remembering this book is like trying to remember having an aneurysm.

It is also really, really fun and touching. Oh, and it has a pretty solid movie adaptation, starring Audrey Tautou, who I think an international audience would probably recognize from Amelie or the Da Vinci Code movie.

I don't really know what else to say. It's a really cool read!

Le Roi se meurt - Eugène Ionesco

Ionesco is somewhat famous worldwide so I wasn't even sure to include him here. He's a playwright who wrote in the "Theater of the Absurd" movement, and this play is part of that.

The premise of this play is that the King (of an unnamed land) is dying, and the land is dying with him. I don't really know what else to say. It's theater of the absurd. It kind of has to be experienced (the published version works fine, btw, no need to track down an actual performance, in my humble opinion).

The Plague - Albert Camus

You've probably heard of this one, and if you haven't, let me tell you about a guy called Carlos Maza

I'm honestly more including this book out of a sense of duty. The other three are books I genuinely liked and happen to be classics. This book was an awful read. But, um. It's kind of relevant now in a way it wasn't (or didn't feel, anyway) back in 2008 or 2009, when I read it. And I don't just mean because of our own plague, since Camus's plague is pretty famously an allegory for fascism, which my teenage self sneered at, and my adult self really regrets every feeling that way.

Okay, finally, some more lighthearted stuff, we gotta talk about the Belgian and French art of bande dessinée. How is it different from comic books or manga? Functionally, it isn't. It really comes down more to what gets published in the Belgian-French industry compared to the American comics industry, which is dominated by superheroes, or the Japanese manga industry, which, while I'm less familiar with it, I know has some big genre trends as well that are completely separate.

The Lanfeust series - Arleston and Tarquin

This is a YA mega-series, and I can't recommend all of it because I've lost track of the franchise's growth. Also note that I say "YA", but in this case it means something very different from an American understanding of YA. These books are pretty full of sex.

No, when I say YA I mean it has that level of maturity, for better or worse. The original series (Lanfeust de Troy) is high fantasy in a world where everyone has an individual magical ability but two characters find out they're gifted with an absolute power to make anything happen, and while it gets dark at times, it's still very lighthearted throughout, and the humor is...well, I think it's best described as teen boy humor. And it has a tendency to objectify its female characters, as you'll quickly parse out from the one cover I used here or if you browse more covers.

But still, it holds a special place in my heart, I guess. And on my shelves.

The sequel series, Lanfeust des Etoiles, turns it into a space opera, and goes a little overboard with the pop culture reference at times, though overall still maintains that balance of serious/at times dark story and lighthearted comedy.

After that the franchise is utter chaos to me, and I've lost track. I know there was another sequel series, which I dropped partway through, and a spinoff that retold part of the original series from the PoV of the main love interest (in the period of time she spent away from the main group). There was a comedy spin-off about the troll species unique to this world, a prequel series, probably more I don't even know exist.

Les Démons d'Alexia

Something I can probably be a little less ashamed of including here.

Some backstory here. The Editions Dupuis are a giant of the Belgian bande dessinée industry, and for many, many years I was subscribed to their weekly magazine. That magazine was (mostly) made up of excerpts from the various books that the éditions were publishing at the time; those that were made of comic strips would usually get a couple pages of individual scripts, while the ongoing narratives got cut into episodes that were a few pages long (out of a typical 48 page count for a single BD album). Among those were this series.

For the first few volumes, I wasn't super into this series, probably because I was a little too young and smack dab in the middle of my "trying to be one of the boys" phase. But around book 3 I got really invested, to the point where I own the second half of the series because I had canceled by subscription by then but still wanted to know more.

Alexia is an exorcist with unusual talents, but little control, who's introduced to a group that specializes in researching paranormal phenomena, solving cases that involve the paranormal, that kinda stuff.

As a result of the premise, the series has a pretty slow start since it has to build up mystery around the source of Alexia's powers, but once it gets going and we get to what is essentially the series' main conflict, it gets really interesting.

Plus, witches. I'm a simple gay who likes strong protagonists and witches.

Murena

There was a point where my mtyhology nerdery led me to look for more stuff about the historical cultures that created them, and so I'd be super into stuff set in ancient Rome (I'd say "or Greece or Egypt" but let's face it, it was almost always Rome).

Murena is a series set just before the start of Emperor Nero's rule. You know, the one who was emperor when Rome burned, and according to urban legend either caused the fire or played the fiddle while it did (note: "fiddle" is a very English saying, it's usually the lyre in other languages). He probably didn't, it probably was propaganda, but he was a) a Roman Emperor, none of whom were particularly stellar guys and b) mean to Christians, who eventually got to rewrite history. So he's got a bad rep.

The series goes for a very historical take on events, albeit fictionalized (the protagonist and main PoV, the titular Lucius Murena, is himself fictional) and attempts to humanize the people involved in those events. Each book also includes some of the sources used to justify how events and characters are depicted, which is a nice touch.

It's also divided in subseries called "cycles" (books 1-4, 5-8 and the ongoing one starts at 9). I stopped after 9, though I think it's mostly a case of not going to bookstores often anymore. Plus it took four years between 9 and 10, and again between 10 and 11. But the first eight books made for a pretty solid story that honestly felt somewhat concluded as is, so it's a good place to start.

[bonusholegent]

For the fanfic ask game! :)

F, G, J, M, R, T

F: Share a snippet from one of your favorite dialogue scenes you’ve written and explain why you’re proud of it.

One of my favourite moments comes from the Steve and Bucky interaction in the start of Not My Type, But She’s So Right:

Bucky chucks a pillow at Steve’s face. “She’s not my type. She’s full of energy, dramatic, and wants to end up on Broadway someday. She swoons over guys with great singing voices and I can’t carry a tune in a bucket. If I ask out this girl, then you can ask out your girl.”

“You know what you’re doing. I… girls aren’t exactly lining up to date a guy they could step on, you know?”

“There are some girls who like stepping on-”

“I hate you sometimes.”

“You know you love me, Steve.” Bucky sticks his tongue out. “Anyway, if you ask out the girl that you have a crush on, I’ll ask out the girl that I have a crush on. Do we have a deal?”

This exchange worried me at the time. I almost backed out of publishing it. This fic is Steve/Peggy. Steve/Bucky shippers and Steve/Peggy shippers can have an adversarial relationship. I was worried people would have me for having Bucky say Steve loves him (platonically). Turns out, nobody cared.

G: Do you write your story from start to finish, or do you write the scenes out of order?

Nine times out of ten, I'm writing in order.

J: Write or describe an alternative ending to [insert fic].

You didn't list a fic. I’ll pick one, and you let me know what other fic you wanted.

Royal Vision was supposed to be longer. The power was supposed to go out, with Wanda and Vision searching for each other in the dark ballroom. I couldn’t get it to work, so I dropped the idea.

M: Got any premises on the back burner that you’d care to share?

Yes! Childhood friends to lovers Steve and Peggy, in a 5+1 format.

R: Are there any writers (fanfic or otherwise) you consider an influence?

Jo and Laurie, the other two-thirds of the Steggy Extended Universe writer’s group. I’ve started writing with them recently, but it’s been a wonderful experience. We all have different styles and preferred tropes, so it’s interesting melting them together.

For non-fanfic writers, Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven weaves many narratives together in a clever, engaging way, managing to jump all over the world with decade-long time jumps without ever being confusing. I’d love to write something that complex one day. House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski is pretentious, but it taught me that sometimes, the right answer to important questions the plot raises are “It doesn’t matter.” It’s been a decade since I read anything from Lemony Snicket but that style is still so good, and his work was my unwitting entry into postmodern fiction.

T: Any fandom tropes you can’t stand?

The idea that someone has tagged a fic a certain way to be mean. I know this might happen on occasion, but I think the amount of times someone has done that with good intentions outweigh people who want to be jerks online. There are no clear guidelines for what “counts” in a certain tag; it’s often up to author interpretation. I see this most often with the AO3 ship feeds on Tumblr. A person will tag a pairing because they’ve included it in their story even though it isn’t the main focus. (I’ve actually done this twice. Both the times were edge cases, and I put a note in the description explaining why I did it, so readers aren’t confused.)

If you feel like a work has been tagged incorrectly, contact the author and raise the concern politely. They might have made a mistake, or not know about other tags.

Also, if you’re posting directly to tumblr and your work is long, please include “Keep Reading” after the first couple of paragraphs! Scrolling past a very long fic is annoying.

[elementaryschooldropout]

You guys have to know there's actual things Ao3 needs to be criticized for. You guys have to know that.

I am someone who reads a lot, as well. I mostly read horror and tragedy, and am an avid consumer of extreme and upsetting media. I find it interesting. I read a lot of stuff most people would find unpalatable and appalling. I've spent 100s of hours of my life just reading about banned movies, video nasties, extreme cinema, and books too horrible to be made into films.

That's why I'm confident in saying this big 'kids just don't GET the real world' argument is bogus. You sound like a dad in a bad pop punk song, it's embarassing.

We both know that there are vastly different standards for what you're going to find a casual published physical copy of, and what you're going to find on the internet. At a library if you're digging deep you might get a copy of Blood Meridian, or American Psycho, or Flowers in the Attic. Maybe something really upsetting if you're a non-fiction fan. On the internet you'll just straight up find videos of real people horrifically dying and graphic tumblr blogs ran by nonces, etc.

Ao3 let's people host NSFW content written about real children. Not characters, but sexually explicitly real person fanfiction about real children. If Ao3 did the bare minimum and said 'hey uh, let's ban rpf of minors' those young people you're complaining about might actually be less angry. I know I used to be much more positive about Ao3 before I saw moderators defending their right to host it. I was a lot more positive about fandom before finding out that most of the people who shill for Ao3 agree with that policy.

There's a difference between censorship and reserving your right to not host abusive content. Ao3 would be expected to ban someone from their website who was doxxing people in comment sections, and everyone would agree with it. Because that's hurting real people. An actual child finding porn about themselves would also be incredibly fucking harmful.

All the time in real life actors are removed from shows, authors stop being published, movies stop being distributed or made because the copyright holders and executives do not want to be associated with terrible people. Is that censorship? Or is it people exercising their rights to not spend their resources on something morally reprehensible?

If I'm a 100% honest Ao3 can host as much weird gross original fiction as it wants, it does that already, I don't give a shit. But the fact that the GLARINGLY OBVIOUS GAPS IN MODERATING AND BASIC HUMAN DECENCY is something people can ignore or defend makes me feel like Ked Tacynzski.

Why do people have a parasocial relationship with a fucking fanfiction website?

after seeing yet another huge post where young people rail against AO3 and older people have to explain that censorship is bad actually, I gotta say that as someone who reads a fuck ton of books a year, these younger people could really benefit from doing the same for a little perspective. fucked up content is not just a fanfic thing, and with books, you don't get any warnings! you just turn the page and gaze upon the most fucked up scene of your life! these people do not know how good they've got it tbh just filter tags my lieges

[cameoamalthea]

I'm surprised you aren't more supportive of Roy Moore, seeing as you're pretty much a pedophilia apologist

I’m a survivor of CSA. I couldn’t consummate my marriage on my wedding night because I needed to have surgery first to repair some internal damage. I spent a year, beginning in summer 2016, in physical therapy, pelvic floor therapy, because even after the surgery the physical scar tissue and phycological scars (subconscious discomfort means I could never relax those muscles, not even to wear a tampon or have exams that I needed to have because I have PCOS). I blogged about it. It’s under my recovery tag. I’m in therapy, and DBT. 

And I’m learning to manage my triggers, but being called a “pedophile apologist” or insinuating I support child abuse is still a trigger and I really really really wish people like you would not insinuate that I wanted what happened to me.

How dare you. 

And you’re mocking my posts about the need to stop sexual exploitation of teenagers and the culture that enables it, because I’m pro-books, anti-censorship and tired of people tearing down works by queer creators?

“Call Me By Your Name” is an award winning novel, which won the  20th Lambda Literary Awards for gay fiction. 

Reviewing Call Me By Your Name for The New York Times, Stacey D'Erasmo called the novel “an exceptionally beautiful book”.[1]Writing in The New Yorker, Cynthia Zarin said, “Aciman’s first novel shows him to be an acute grammarian of desire”.[2] In The Washington Post, Charles Kaiser said, “If you have ever been the willing victim of obsessive love—a force greater than yourself that pulls you inextricably toward the object of your desire—you will recognize every nuance of André Aciman’s superb new novel, ‘Call Me by Your Name.’

The novel is by a Jewish POC author (he was born in Egypt, fled to Italy, and is now an American and a Proust scholar - so it’s fair to say he knows queer lit).  

The book has been adapted into a Film by Italian director Luca Guadagnino and written by James Ivory who are both gay men.

So this is a film written and directed by gay men, telling a gay love story about a Jewish gay boy, based on a book by a Jewish POC author.

 Call Me by Your Name was selected by the National Board of Review and American Film Institute as one of the top 10 films of the year.[122][123] It received eight nominations at Critics’ Choice Awards, including Best Director, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Cinematography.[124] It led the Independent Spirit Awards with most nomination, garnering six, among them Best Feature, Best Director, Best Male Lead, Best Supporting Male, Best Cinematography, and Best Editing.[125] At the 75th Golden Globe Awards, it was nominated for Best Motion Picture – Drama, Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama for Chalamet, and Best Supporting Actor for Hammer.[126]Call Me by Your Name won the Grand Prize at the Chéries-Chéris Festival.[127]Lisbon & Estoril Film Festival awarded the film NOS Audience Award,[128] and Chalamet received Best Actor award at New York Film Critics Circle.[129]Gotham Independent Film Awardsand Hollywood Film Awards both awarded Chalamet, with their Breakout Actor Awards.

The story is about a 17 year old who falls in love with a 24 year old student over a summer. It is not, as mischaracterized by @socialisttexan, a story that ‘normalizes grown men preying on teenagers’

A 17 year old character becomes friends with a 24 year old student and has a crush on him. The 17 year old brags about having sex with his girlfriend to see how the 24 year old will react. He sneaks into the student’s room while he’s not there and does creepy sexual things in Oliver’s bed while touching Oliver’s clothes without his knowledge or consent (you can read the summary yourself, it’s on wikipedia). He tells the 24 year old he has feelings for him, and the 24 year old tells him no. The 17 year old later kisses the 24 year old without his consent, the 24 year old stops him and says they can’t do more. They stop being friends, but after a few days of distance, the 24 year old admits that he likes his friend too and they sleep together. 

This is not an older man who sought out a younger man in order to use his youth or inexperience to coerce him into sex. This is a man who became friends with a younger guy while staying at the guy’s parents house, working for his dad, and was pursued by the younger guy. 

Rape is sex when there’s not consent. Preying on someone is manipulating or coercing someone to do something they do not want to do. 

This novel features sex between a 17 year old and a 24 year old  that is consensual, and the only one who did anything wrong was the 17 year old (who acted creepy, and didn’t take no for an answer).

In comparison, Roy Moore is a real a person who hurt real teenagers. He sexually harassed them. He was in his 30s at the time, not a peer or a friend. He met one victim after her mother asked him to watch her while she went into Court to testify, thinking she could trust her daughter with the assistant DA (the lawyer in charge of prosecuting criminals). Roy Moore explicitly used his position of power to force himself on his victims.

“You’re just a child, I’m the district attorney; if you tell anyone about this no one will ever believe you.”

[23]

[24]

Roy Moore is a sexual predator and a rapist. 

If you don’t see any difference between defending a novel and film depicting a consensual relationship with a age gap and a rapist forcing himself on teenage girls, then you don’t understand why rape wrong.

As a rape survivor, lawyer and advocate, let me give you a hint: IT’S BECAUSE YOU DON’T WANT THEM TO TOUCH YOU. 

Because you’re too young to ever understand what they’re doing. Because you don’t want to be touched like that and they’re hurting you. And you want it to stop, but you can’t stop it. And you blame yourself for not stopping it and still wonder ‘maybe I did something wrong?’

And look at old pictures of you as a child, posing for pictures, and wondering if maybe you acted too sexy, maybe you did something wrong. Because maybe that’s less scary than the truth that there was nothing you could have done to prevent it. Because the worst feeling in the world is to be helpless.

And then you deal with people telling you that you support child molestation and rape and that voice that says ‘your fault’ is there again. 

 I like books about people falling in love and wanting sex, because I could never have that when I was 17 - I’m too damaged, but I like seeing sex presented as something that can be good, and consensual and not about hurting you. 

And I like books in general. I have an English degree with a specialty in Fiction Writing. And I’m anti-censorship in general, I was vice-President of my law school’s ACLU chapter. And I don’t believe that books can only exist as moral guidelines and examples of healthy good behavior. Fiction isn’t instructional, you want the non-fiction section for that. Fiction tells stories. 

And you don’t have to like every book or read every book or see every movie, but maybe stop attacking gay works and holding them to this standard of only 100% morally right, especially since so much of the gay rights movement has been a fight for the right for gay media to be just as sexual and amoral as straight media.  

Because it’s hard enough for gay works to get published and get adapted into movies. Publishers don’t like gambling, and it’s already seen as a gamble because it’s ‘gay’ - if making it gay means a higher chance of backlash, then that’s not incentive to publish gay works. 

[lcmawson]

Hry, I just got a copy of the Lady Ruth Constance Chapelstone books from a friend, and I was struck by the lack of acknowledgments or a dedication in it like I'd normally see in a work of fiction. I guess I'm just wondering if you did the entire thing without even an editor? Like, I'm really impressed, they are so good.

:D I’m really glad you like them!

Okay, I’m gonna be honest here, I completely forgot that acknowledgements and dedications were a thing until right this second.

So, like, 97% of people read my books on either Kindles or the Kindle app and Kindles basically scan the book for back and front matter and then skip it. Like, it’s still there if you go back and look, but a Kindle book will start at the first page of the story, not all the way back at the cover page. And it’ll show you a screen asking you to rate the book/buy the next one as soon as the book itself is finished.

So I gave up on most front and back matter after my first book. I put a list of my titles in reading order (just in case someone doesn’t know where they are in the series) and I put in a copyright page to cover my ass legally. That’s it.

The paperback versions are basically the ebooks with a little extra formatting (I don’t care what anyone says, chapter header pictures in ebooks are the devil and I will not use them, but they do look pretty in paperbacks) and a slightly different cover, so they don’t have any extra front or back matter.

But, yeah, I should have an acknowledgements to thank my beta readers, if nothing else, because I owe those guys a lot. I’ve been toying with an author’s notes bit at the end of the book (with thanks in there, like I used to do when writing fanfic), but I’m not sure where to put it. Usually, I put a preview to the next book at the end of the book. If I put the AN after, Amazon will probably cut it off and, even if they don’t, anyone (like me) who doesn’t read previews won’t see it. And if I put it before, people might close the book without seeing the preview because they think it’s over.

Right now, I’m thinking of putting it before the preview and just saying up front that the preview will be on the next page.

To answer the question at the end, I have beta readers right now and that’s it.

And that is not a good idea! Like, even slightly! I know that, I’m not being cocky here.

I’ve had pro editors in the past, it’s just one of those intersections between anxiety and money that’s tough to navigate.

Like, it is hard to find a good editor who doesn’t need an autism 101 crash course and who I can afford.

(I swear, if I had a pound for every time an editor changed “autism” to “Asperger’s” with a note attached about how the character wasn’t “severe” enough to be autistic... Well, I’d have enough money for this to not be a problem.)

My books would be better with a pro editor. That’s not even a question.

But if twenty-two years of dyslexia have taught me anything, it’s how to write cleanly. I have about five different bits of editing/spell-checking software that run through my books for me and my beta readers have always been good at cleaning up the rest.

I also write well ahead of publishing (for example, I just finished the first draft of the ninth Freya Snow book which is scheduled for release in November), so I have plenty of time to read and re-read books for errors.

And no one’s ever complained about poor editing/typos on any of my non-edited books (there is a complaint in a review of one of my edited ones, but that turned out to be an error that cropped up when I reformatted the edited doc file that I’ve since fixed), so I’m taking that to mean that no one can tell the difference. If I got complaints, I’d try to figure out how to scrape some cash together for an editor, probably by slowing down my publishing schedule so that I don’t need so many books edited.

The same applies to cover design and formatting the book files.

If I had the money, someone else would be doing it, but I don’t and good editors/cover designers are expensive (as they should be - part of the problem is also that I won’t underpay someone even though I know there are more exploitative sites I could go through for these services).

So, yeah, my acknowledgements would basically be my beta readers and my review team and they’ll go in the author’s notes from now on (once I’ve figured out what else I want to say in the ANs...).

[tfrohock]

Pitch Wars 2019 and why I'm sitting it out this year ...

I’m posting this because several people have been asking me about my participation in Pitch Wars 2019, and I want to be perfectly upfront about what’s going on with me. Before I say anything else, I want you all to know that being involved with the Pitch Wars community was one of the most positive things that happened to me in 2018. The mentors are some of the most caring and nicest people that I’ve had the pleasure to get to know in the writing community, and I was flat out lucky that Elvin Bala submitted his work to me.

However, 2018 came with several personal problems for me. I turned in Where Oblivion Lives in February, but all novels receive editorial feedback, so part of 2018 was also spent in refining Where Oblivion Lives before I was able to turn to the sequel, Carved from Stone and Dream. Over the summer, I suffered a meniscus tear in my right knee, which was painful and threw me out of work for several weeks. Once I had the surgery for the tear, my husband suffered hospitalization for a heart issue. Then we had two hurricanes, during which one of them gave us a nine day loss of power, immediately followed by the holidays.

Of course, while all of this was going on, I was also working with Elvin on his Pitch Wars submission. This wasn’t a bad thing, because Elvin did all the heavy lifting on his book. I spent no more time reading and commenting on his book than I would have for any other author. My biggest problem was that all of the Pitch War deadlines hit at the same approximate time as my deadline for Carved from Stone and Dream, the novel that I simply couldn’t get a handle on for the longest time.

Michael R. Fletcher probably read thirty incarnations of that book and gave me some great advice every time. I’m not sure if I would have made it as far as I did in December without his help. Unfortunately, by December I had about 30,000 words of what needed to be an 80,000 word novel. I wound up taking time off work and writing non-stop—twelve and fourteen hour days of doing nothing but pumping my way through that book, which was due to be turned in almost a week before Where Oblivion Lives released in February 2019.

Michael, Judith Tarr, and Beth Cato all graciously gave me blurbs. David and the team at Harper Voyager helped me any way they could—they got a box of ARCs for World Fantasy Con and I gave them all away. Another hundred copies were given away on Goodreads. The book received a starred review on Publishers Weekly on Christmas Eve, and while the people who have taken the time to read it have generally been very complimentary about the book, Where Oblivion Lives is way behind everything else, and I’m afraid it’s too late to play catch-up.

Of course, there is a certain freedom to all this. Carved from Stone and Dream veered wildly away from what I wanted, meaning another quiet horror novel focused on a different character. Rather than the gothic tone of Where Oblivion Lives, Carved from Stone and Dream turned into Miquel’s and Rafael’s story, and it has a distinct military fiction/war novel flavor that is roughly equivalent to Band of Brothers meets The Bunker, but instead of an army of guys riding to the rescue, it’s Ysabel and her friend Violeta. Rather than force the story, I rolled with it, and for better or for worse, it is what it is.

So, with all that said, since the adventures of Diago and Company might very well come to end with this last book (for we all live and die by our sales), I want to focus one hundred percent on promoting Carved from Stone and Dream and making A Song with Teeth the best novel that I can write. I want to do this for the people who have supported these characters and their stories and who have all been so gracious with their feedback.

And that means spending a large portion of my time in 2019 and 2020 on those two things. Once I’m done, I’ll consider reapplying to mentor Pitch Wars again. As I said in the beginning, it was an incredibly wonderful experience, and I love being able to give back to up-coming-writers.

Meanwhile, watch for me …

[starklore]

So Sariah Wilson is a romance author who went viral recently bc she won some charity auctions and got to video chat with Daisy Ridley and Rian Johnson (separately) and she talked about how they answered her questions

Then earlier this week she got milkshake ducked for writing an article about her son's autism in which she compared autism to a terminal illness and said that she became an author to make money to pay for ABA.

She gave a kind of tepid non-apology that many autistic people, including me, felt was insufficient, but whatever. She did have the article taken down entirely, so I'm not gonna hassle her about it.

A few days later her new book came out and it's...extremely creepy, and not in a fun fictional way. It's basically just a RPF self-insert about Adam Driver. Calling it thinly veiled would almost be too generous; she did change his name in the book, but she's been very clear from the beginning that the book is based not just on him, but on a specific interaction she, personally, had with him (she met him at an awards show once.) She marketed the book as being inspired by him and that experience, and the book is dedicated to him.

It's kind of...a lot of little individual things that aren't necessarily bad on their own but when you combine them all together it just gets very unsettling.

This thread breaks it down using excerpts, although it does kind of assume prior knowledge of Adam Driver and the ST, which I remember you're not into, but suffice it to say that a lot of these details are lifted directly from Adam's career, costars, and personal life.

https://twitter.com/bensreys/status/1387474349150679040?s=21

This is the acknowledgments page.

https://twitter.com/impossumble_/status/1387466871415267329?s=21

A few notes

-The fact that she dedicates an entire paragraph to Adam Driver and every person he's ever met in his life

-The fact that she mentions every person he's ever met in his life except, you know, his wife

-The fact that she thanks a specific subreddit (r/adamdriverfans) that is notorious for hating Driver's wife and theorizing that they're divorced, that he's having or had an affair with Daisy Ridley, stuff like that.

Anyways though then someone found out that before she published contemporary romcoms under the name Sariah Wilson, she used to publish books under the name Sariah S Wilson, and what she published was this.

https://twitter.com/maggieofthetown/status/1387468942034313223?s=21

Book of Mormon OC fanfic! (Kind of. I think "Isabel" was actually in the book, she just didn't get a name or a personality or anything. I might be remembering wrong, though.)

Anyways so now people are mad about the blatant racism and historical inaccuracy of writing about a Christian society in pre-colonial Central America, and ex-Mormon reylos have to be like, to be fair, Sariah Wilson did not make that part up for a story, that's legitimate Mormon doctrine straight from TBOM that most Mormons genuinely believe actually happened in real life.

Which does not really make the concept less racist, but it does add context to understanding the full situation, and also it gives us a chance to dunk on Joseph Smith, which is a chance I will take at any given opportunity. Fuck that guy.

That's the saga so far, Wilson has not addressed any of this except for the autism stuff. Anyways someone compared her to Snapewives and I feel that is unfair to the Snapewives, honestly.

Yes to sound like a Snapewife apologist bc that's what I am (an apologist, not a snapewife) but like they were just vibing, don't drag them into this Sariah Wilson shit