#emmaskies

[high-quality-tiktoks]

I cant believe i forgot to include one of the two series’ that gave me this idea in the first place📚

[emeryleewho]

Saw a fun little conversation on Threads but I don't have a Threads account, so I couldn't reply directly, but I sure can talk about it here!

I've been wanting to get into this for awhile, so here we go! First and foremost, I wanna say that "Emmaskies" here is really hitting the nail on the head despite having "no insider info". I don't want this post to be read as me shitting on trad pub editors or authors because that is fundamentally not what's happening.

Second, I want to say that this reply from Aaron Aceves is also spot on:

There are a lot of reviewers who think "I didn't enjoy this" means "no one edited this because if someone edited it, they would have made it something I like". As I talk about nonstop on this account, that is not a legitimate critique. However, as Aaron also mentions, rushed books are a thing that also happens.

As an author with 2 trad pub novels and 2 trad pub anthologies (all with HarperCollins, the 2nd largest trad publisher in the country), let me tell you that if you think books seem less edited lately, you are not making that up! It's true! Obviously, there are still a sizeable number of books that are being edited well, but something I was talking about before is that you can't really know that from picking it up. Unlike where you can generally tell an indie book will be poorly edited if the cover art is unprofessional or there are typoes all over the cover copy, trad is broken up into different departments, so even if editorial was too overworked to get a decent edit letter churned out, that doesn't mean marketing will be weak.

One person said that some publishers put more money into marketing than editorial and that's why this is happening, but I fundamentally disagree because many of these books that are getting rushed out are not getting a whole lot by way of marketing either! And I will say that I think most authors are afraid to admit if their book was rushed out or poorly edited because they don't want to sabotage their books, but guess what? I'm fucking shameless. Café Con Lychee was a rush job! That book was poorly edited! And it shows! Where Meet Cute Diary got 3 drafts from me and my beta readers, another 2 drafts with me and my agent, and then another 2 drafts with me and my editor, Café Con Lychee got a *single* concrete edit round with my editor after I turned in what was essentially a first draft. I had *three weeks* to rewrite the book before we went to copy edits. And the thing is, this wasn't my fault. I knew the book needed more work, but I wasn't allowed more time with it. My editor was so overworked, she was emailing me my edit letter at 1am. The publisher didn't care if the book was good, and then they were upset that its sales weren't as high at MCD's, but bffr. A book that doesn't live up to its potential is not going to sell at the same rate as one that does!

And this may sound like a fluke, but it's not. I'm not naming names because this is a deeply personal thing to share, but I have heard from *many* authors who were not happy with their second books. Not because they didn't love the story but because they felt so rushed either with their initial drafts or their edits that they didn't feel like it lived up to their potential. I also know of authors who demanded extra time because they knew their books weren't there yet only to face big backlash from their publisher or agent.

I literally cannot stress to you enough that publisher's *do not give a fuck* about how good their products are. If they can trick you into buying a poorly edited book with an AI cover that they undercut the author for, that is *better* than wasting time and money paying authors and editors to put together a quality product. And that's before we get into the blatant abuse that happens at these publishers and why there have been mass exoduses from Big 5 publishers lately.

There's also a problem where publishers do not value their experienced staff. They're laying off so many skilled, dedicated, long-term committed editors like their work never meant anything. And as someone who did freelance sensitivity reading for the Big 5, I can tell you that the way they treat freelancers is *also* abysmal. I was almost always given half the time I asked for and paid at less than *half* of my general going rate. Authors publishing out of their own pockets could afford my rate, but apparently multi-billion dollar corporations couldn't. Copy edits and proofreads are often handled by freelancers, meaning these are people who aren't familiar with the author's voice and often give feedback that doesn't account for that, plus they're not people who are gonna be as invested in the book, even before the bad payment and ridiculous timelines.

So, anyway, 1. go easy on authors and editors when you can. Most of us have 0 say in being in this position and authors who are in breech of their contract by refusing to turn in a book on time can face major legal and financial ramifications. 2. Know that this isn't in your head. If you disagree with the choices a book makes, that's probably just a disagreement, but if you feel like it had so much potential but just *didn't reach it*, that's likely because the author didn't have time to revise it or the editor didn't have time to give the sort of thorough edits it needed. 3. READ INDIE!!! Find the indie authors putting in the work the Big 5's won't do and support them! Stop counting on exploitative mega-corporations to do work they have no intention of doing.

Finally, to all my readers who read Café Con Lychee and loved it, thank you. I love y'all, and I appreciate y'all, and I really wish I'd been given the chance to give y'all the book you deserved. I hope I can make it up to you in 2025.

[dear-sciaphilia]

Alright, I wanna talk about booktok and bookish space for a sec, that cool with you guys? Yes? Alrighty.

Booktok does have an issue when it comes to romance and erotica books and calling anyone who points this out misogynistic and lazy (looking at you Emma) is making it worse. Of course there is more to booktok than just smut but it's hidden under a thick layer of 'does it have spice' comments. To put it in perspective, let me use my country as an example, what's the first thing you think of when someone mentions Georgia? Maybe Khinkali or Khajapuri, or maybe the fact that it's English name is the name of a state in the United States, of course there's so much more to my homeland but this, our cuisine is something we are recognized for, that's because it's a very prominent part of our identity. Similarly, if you search up '#booktok' on TT or any other social media platform, you will get the same five books. If you walk into Barned And Noble, you will be greeted by a good-old 'booktok section' what will you find in that aforementioned section? You guessed it, the same five books. Of course certain books being popular is not an issue, the same way Georgia being famous for our food isn't an issue, but people demanding that YA books be more 'spicy', calling books filled with domestic and sexual abuse 'the most romantic thing they've ever read', calling character focused stories 'boring' and giving authors who are problematic and who write problematic things a huge platform, is. If I, as an asexual, want to find books with no romance / ace/aro rep that isn't a side character who was mentioned in passing, I have to dig my way through chilly pepper emojis, paperbacks with cartoon characters and e-books with abs on the cover. If you want a space where something other then white, cis-het romances are recommended, you have to carve it out for yourself, because booktok isn't for you, you have to make it yours, no matter how hard. And God forbid you talk about how hard that is, God forbid you talk about the fact that the majority of it is just erotica novels. Why, that's my only question here, why? Why must trans people, POC people, disabled people, not be able to talk about the fact that booktok needs to do better? Why must they be silent, lest they be called lazy and misogynistic? If one were to say that they didn't feel safe in my country, I wouldn't look at them and say 'if you want to find a community where you don't feel like an outcast, you should look for it yourself, you're lazy for saying that this space makes you feel rejected. If you don't like it here, find another place to be, we're not obligated to cater to your needs' because that would be an asshole move, wouldn't it EmmaSkies?

[aroaessidhe]

who do you like on booktok? I keep trying to see what's going on over there and not being able to find people whose recs actually work for me.

okay to be honest a lot of the people I follow have migrated elsewhere or only post light reading updates + other content these days (tho still update storygraph or w/e). I also think you have to figure out what you want to see - like I enjoy people who just casually talk about sff/queer books they like, as well as people who are detailed reviewers with completely different taste to me. I also get a lot from random fyp videos from people I don't follow which is a significant amount of it too.

but here's a list of people in no order: greekchoir, ladybug.books, ermreading, beforeviolets, starrysteph, discobooks, mynameismarines, fromthemixedupdesk, grapiedeltaco, kindagayash, emmaskies, cemeterygay, books.with.lee, katrinaslibrary, emilysarahart, yomireads, toriandbooks, theblerdlibrary, thegr8estangell, satrayreads, hobbithopeful, mousetache_reads, novelniah, 24hr_bookblog, feedthewriter, tesstellstales, sapphicreads, pagemelt, tinas_library, poetry.shaman, utopiastateofmind

[lena-in-a-red-dress]

A lot of these mostly read fantasy/romantasy but pretty diverse books across them and a decent chunk of their recs are wlw or mlm. At the very least they'll train the algorithm a bit:

EmmaSkies

SheBeReadinThemBooks

SometimesRobinReads

BookFixations (less up my alley but my friend swears by her recs)

CaitsBooks

Ezeekat

Eve_Reads_

AModelWhosRead

Do you mind sharing other answers you get? I'm also always looking for more to follow

Will do! Thanks for the recs! I'll also post any other thoughts that spring to mind.

[sophiecountsclouds]

June wrap up!

my June reading wrap up!

Hello! Every month I really try to make an effort to feel more present and make things feel like they’re going a bit more slowly, but then it’s the end of the month and I feel like I’ve missed it again! I was so optimistic about my tbr for this month but I got a little bit stuck. I only finished 5 (four and a half maybe…) books but according to the spreadsheet I’ve been using made by @emmaskies…

[bqstqnbruin]

WAIT YOU NEED TO TELL ME HOW YOU LIKE THAT BOOK ITS BEEN ON MY TBR FOREVER BUT MAYBE I MIGHT NEED TO EXPIDITR IT TO THE TOP OF MY LIST (it actually wouldn’t go on the top because im reading a series but it would go after the series im reading)

Bestie drop the series name

and I'm 150 pages in I started it last night before I went to bed and I'm low key obsessed?????????? one of my favorite book tokers, EmmaSkies raves about this book and she has never steered me wrong with books

[uwukechi]

Small Potatoes?

I DID IT GUYS I CRACKED THE CODE

I was scrolling through my dash and came across this post of Russian proverbs and guess what? The “small potatoes” line, as per ANY INTERACTION EVER with Akiren and Goro, DOES have a double interpreted meaning, hence the source of the idiom.

Specifically, I’d like to point out this proverb: 

Любовь не картошка, не выбросишь в окошко. LOVE IS NOT A POTATO YOU CANNOT THROW IT OUT A WINDOW (that is, love is not a small thing that is easy to get rid of)

Which brings me to this reblog:

For about TWENTY YEARS I have been wondering why, in the English-translated Chekhov play I read because it was on the summer reading list for my AP English class, someone says with no particularly enlightening context, “Death is not a potato.”

BUT THAT’S WHY, ISN’T IT. HE’S REFERENCING THAT PROVERB. LOVE IS NOT A POTATO; DEATH IS NOT A POTATO.

And boom. Both contexts give Akiren’s line of “this isn’t small potatoes” so much more depth and meaning. Love is not a potato; death is not a potato. This isn’t small potatoes.

The feelings Akiren carries for Goro aren’t potatoes. It’s more than just the typical meaning the idiom carries. (The idiom itself specifically refers to something small and inconsequential.) But looking at the origin, it’s so much more than just that. 

What Akiren is really trying to say here is not that “Goro’s life isn’t inconsequential”. Take into account the original proverb: Love isn’t a potato. What he’s trying to say is that his feelings -- no, his love for Goro is not inconsequential, that it’s not something he can just let go of that easily. When he says “This isn’t small potatoes” he isn’t only referring to having to fight Maruki. He’s referring to the entire situation, which is the reason he’s so vague about what “this” refers to. 

It’s a love confession wrapped up neatly in an idiom borne from a proverb.

Now, take Chekhov’s play’s line into account: Death is not a potato. It references the original proverb, and is equally applicable to this in context, and comes back to not being able to let go easily. Akiren would not be able to let go of Goro. 

And, if you do choose to do the right thing and fight Maruki, Akiren doesn’t let go. Up until the day he leaves Tokyo, Goro’s glove remains in his pocket, and on his last day there, he solidifies his promise within his heart again, and reminds himself that he has yet to keep it. 

These two are so used to speaking in proverbs and idioms and double entendres and quotes, it’s practically a language. 

[uwukechi]

I would argue that it's entirely plausible for one to do so! In/post-Sae's Palace, given that Futaba was able to activate the MetaNav remotely while Sae had the phone, it would make sense that anyone would be able to do it provided they had access to the phone. I don't think that Futaba would've been able to manage the Navigator itself, but rather have installed software on Akiren's phone that allowed her to control it remotely and open the app. Additionally! Right in the beginning, when going to Kamoshida's Palace the second time, Ryuji snatched Akiren's phone off him to open the app and find the keywords in the search history, and then activated it himself.

Question!

Could a normal person borrow the phone of one of the Phantom Thieves and use the Metaverse App themselves? Or is it necessary for you to have it on your phone?

[high-quality-tiktoks]

One more of these! (for now...?)📚

[ivydoomkitty]

The newest episode of VGB is “onus”! Crossplay comes to #PS4, #TellTale us in trouble, #Bowsette breaks the internet, + @realdavidwebb & @EmmaSkies have feelings about #Nagini. Spotify: https://t.co/Y86jjJqMuA iTunes: https://t.co/27LlcvM78p Website: https://t.co/5ehSl98Ny3 https://www.instagram.com/p/BoRo1ZXhpCj/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=91lo19bb5hyu

[sangklp]

@EmmaSkies @Raierae Mario Odyssey, Zelda Breath of the Wild, and soon Paper Mario Origami King are definitely games you would enjoy. Your subs can make you levels in Mario Maker. Smash Ultimate with subs. And the retro games in the eshop. You know there’s more than just animal crossing. https://www.youtube.com/c/lifesang

[tombraiderhorizons]

A total of 25 designs were showcased on the 2017 Her Universe Fashion Show runway, including designer Rachel Roth’s eye-catching ensemble, ‘Tano Couture’, which was modelled by cosplayer EmmaSkies.

Click HERE to read ‘Tano Couture’ Hits the Her Universe Fashion Show Runway!

[bqstqnbruin]

i like all sorts of books! love a good romance novel from time to time (bonus if it’s sports lol), but i also am really into like fantasy and mystery novels too

i’ll definitely have to check some of those out though so thank you! most tiktok recs are like either CoHo or completely unhinged like borderline incest-quadruple which like this isn’t meant to offend anyone that’s just not my cup of tea

If you want booktokers to follow I got you there, too

emmaskies

bookbaddiebri

billreads

ahayesthroughthebooks

readingwithkaitlyn

littledistrictbooks

radmartin_

books.with.lee

kevintnorman

thedogearedbook

wickedreads

li.reading

melissa.bookshelf

residentialreader

mynameismarines

tomesandtextiles

limmadi8

jackbenedwards

emmyreads444

[uwukechi]

So let’s talk about Goro’s Rank 3 Confidant.

Aside from the obvious fact that they were definitely kissing off screen, the “disguise” that Akiren uses on Goro is incredibly symbolic. 

Where does the symbolism lie? Within the glasses. 

It’s been long speculated that Akiren’s glasses are fake (which Ryuji confirms earlier on) and it’s confirmed within the artbook (I think) that he wears them to appear more unassuming, mild, and harmless. Essentially, it’s another manifestation of him masking himself to mirror others, and he constantly appears to be more comfortable with them on than off. 

(I think it’s also important to note the importance of his glasses getting knocked off when he first awakens, revealing his true self for the first time. In addition to that, when he sees his Shadow in Shibuya when he first arrives in Tokyo, it doesn’t wear glasses as he does.)

So, why is he so eager to let Goro wear his glasses, which are a way that Akiren protects himself?

Well, the first answer that comes to mind is that the situation calls for it. It’s more important for Goro to not be discovered, and Akiren is more than eager to put Goro’s needs before his own so that their meeting doesn’t get interrupted. 

But. If you look a little deeper into it. Making Goro look more like him could be Akiren’s way of showing Goro how similar they are. He ruffles his hair and gives him his glasses, his mask, and essentially, makes a few very clear points: 

Even when Goro’s appearance is changed, when Goro puts on a mask or a facade, Akiren can still recognise him, can still see him for who he is, and, unlike everyone else present, he will always be able to see, understand, and accept Goro. Even if Goro changes masks, even if he looks and acts different, Akiren will know it’s him. 

Akiren won’t hide himself from Goro, either. He takes off his glasses, removes the mask he dons in reality, the reflective mirrors his confidants see and learn from, and shows himself, his true self, to Goro and only Goro in reality. He’s allowing himself to be more exposed, more raw and vulnerable for Goro. 

He’s left the ball in Goro’s court, letting him know that even if Goro needs a mask or disguise, Akiren will stay true and honest to him, and will always know and understand, and will help him with it if it comes to it. 

And, as a bonus? You know how they say that the eyes are the windows to the soul? Even we as the player don’t actually see Akiren’s eyes that often (when we make choices as him, one eye is either covered by his glasses or he’s wearing his Joker mask -- the exception to this is in the Velvet Room, where he has no choice but to be his true self), and it’s quite apparent from his demeanour and even his posture that Akiren tends to avoid eye contact more often than not. Yet in this scene, he’s perfectly comfortable allowing Goro to look him in the eyes as he sits right across from him. He doesn’t have a way to hide himself from Goro in this scene, and Akiren is perfectly alright with it. 

It’s a whole new level of metaphor and intricacy and layering and complexity to their relationship, but it’s so, so, so meaningful, because every single interaction they have is so much more intimate and soul-baring than what it looks like on surface level. 

Aaaanyways, that’s all I got for today, folks, shuake canon thank you

[uwukechi]

If I may add on with one slightly more irrelevant point, I’d like to bring up that God created Adam first and Eve second, only to be Adam’s companion—and that Eve, as previously stated, was the one to first eat the apple, and was more distanced from God than Adam. This is also in line with how Maruki was Akiren’s therapist, met him first, and only involved Goro in order to fulfill Akiren’s wish. But Eve, of course, was her own person, not some fallacy made to fool Adam, just as the Goro in the third semester is real and not a cognition of anyone.

I said something on Twitter and now I feel like saying more about it here. I REALLY suck at explaining but:

According to what I know about the Book of Genesis… about the Adam and Eve story, the forbidden fruit comes from the tree of knowledge. The forbidden fruit DOES NOT symbolize sex (idk why people be mistaking it for that). It symbolizes awareness. Awareness of the forbidden knowledge. Adam and Eve were unaware and innocent but when they eat that fruit, they become aware about the forbidden knowledge (awareness about the world they’re in, awareness that they are naked etc.) that causes them to act upon that knowledge. Their disobedience causes them to be banished from the Garden of Eden.

In the case of P5R, Ren and Akechi represents Adam and Steve respectively (Gay version of Adam and Eve). The forbidden “knowledge” is the awareness of reality and that the dream world is fake. Ren and Akechi were already aware that the dream world is a fake reality when it began. They were aware of the strange happenings that everyone else was oblivious to. They act upon this knowledge, and it eventually throws them out of the Garden of Eden (the dream world).

Steve (Eve), was the first to eat the forbidden fruit and become aware. Steve then gave the fruit to Adam for Adam to eat so that Adam will be aware too. In P5R’s case, this happens at the beginning of the 3rd semester story. Akechi comes to Ren to have a private talk with him. To discuss that they’re living in a fake reality.

Lastly, this also explains why Ren and Akechi in the “bad ending” picture are the only ones looking at us (the player). They are AWARE just like how Adam and Steve became aware.

A little side note: Adam and Eve are spouses of each other. Which means Adam and Steve are husbands to each other. Also, Maruki seemingly legalized gay marriage in the dream world so HMMMMMM 🤔