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authorsadiethatcher · 2 months ago

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Summer is almost over. I'm writing this in the middle of the month, so we'll call this the State of the Thatcher Address for September and October. This post would have happened earlier, but I've been traveling, so there have been some delays.

With fall just about here, I'm wearing long sleeves more often and I keep having to check when sunset is to prevent getting caught out doing daylight activities in the dark.

I've got big plans for the next six weeks, not all of them bimbo related, but most of them writing related. Some projects I can talk about, others I can't. That's just how it is, but I'll share what I can.

A quick reminder that you can find my books on Amazon, Smashwords, Google Play Books, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and Everand. You can also read everything I’ve published under my Sadie Thatcher name since last May 2023 on Ream, which is a subscription platform built specifically for authors. You can check out my Ream page below.

Ream: https://reamstories.com/sadiethatcher

And speaking of Ream, I have a Ream exclusive novel called The Muse (extreme dollification) that is now complete. I’ve made the first three chapters available for free. All you have to do is sign up as a follower at the link above to get a taste of my first real story that is too extreme for Amazon. I'm thinking about writing another Ream exclusive, but I haven't had any ideas for it yet.

I also post the occasional bit of flash fiction for followers on Ream. I have one up already and plan to post another one this week. As soon as I’m inspired, I’ll add a new mini-story to Ream.

On the Libby Feron front, my fantasy writing has stalled. I have shiny object syndrome. I keep getting new ideas that distract me before I can finish anything. I'm back to wanting to write a series of novellas. I also am committed to writing Astra's first book this fall. Hopefully it all comes together soon. Since I don’t talk about my fantasy writing often, checking out https://libbyferon.com/ and signing up for the email newsletter is the best way to stay informed. At some point, there will be a free novella offered.

Now it’s time to talk about what to expect in the near future. I've finished two series already this month with The Stranger and Gullible. The omnibus of the latter was just submitted for publishing. And I've released the first book in the Country Club Series about an exclusive country club that wants a certain type of member and will brainwash people to fit the club culture rather than change to be more acceptable.

There are also several series that I haven't started yet, but will appear in the next six weeks or so. There's a series about a woman who gets turned on by being bullied and she lets the bully turn her into a bimbo as she gets off on it all. Then there is the yearly set of Halloween themed stories. None of these are fully thought out yet.

In addition to bullies and Halloween, it's also football season, and I have a football player TG story planned. Again, no details set in stone, but the football player will likely become a cheerleader. Or maybe there will be some sort of powderpuff game. I'm not quite sure yet. And finally, the end of October will feature the beginning of a breastaurant bimbo series.

So it's going to be an exciting and full few weeks. The season is changing.

#sadie thatcher #writing #buildingbettergiggles #story #state of the thatcher address

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ahb-writes · 10 months ago

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'The Hero Laughs While Walking the Path of Vengeance a Second Time' #4

The Hero Laughs While Walking the Path of Vengeance a Second Time #4: The Merchant, Mired in Greed by Nero Kizuna, Sinsora, Jake Humphrey

adventure

fantasy

gore

isekai

magic

revenge

swords and sorcery

violence

My Review: 2 of 5 stars

This novel series, this volume in particular, would be fitting for assessment by undergraduate students in fiction studies. From an academic perspective, facets of narrative focus, characterization, and symbolic continuity all vacillate so fantastically from volume to volume that an attentive student can pull reams of insight as to how one might (or might not) effectively compose horror fiction. To wit, THE HERO LAUGHS WHILE WALKING THE PATH OF VENGEANCE A SECOND TIME v4 is poorly written, despite integrating new and engaging characters, and retreading a script of familiar themes.

Kaito, now flanked by Minnalis and Shuria, hops over to a city called Dartras. Once there, he sets in motion an array of events queued to roil, embarrass, impoverish, and humiliate a mid-tier merchant named Grond Gordott. In his previous life, Kaito got the runaround from Grond. The greedy merchant funneled the hero's money into his underground criminal empire: drug manufacturing, human trafficking, child soldiers, secretive fight clubs. Grond was a busy guy, and his lust for coin resulted in an act of defiance that nearly tore Kaito's heart in two.

Naturally, revenge is on the table. The problem, in THE HERO LAUGHS…v4, is the author's resolutely terrible job of encouraging readers to care about the book's 230 pages of violence. The bulk of this predicament is structural. At the onset, the author strings readers along for nearly 50 pages before even partially clueing readers into what's actually going on (e.g., Kaito and the girls dig a random pit on the outskirts of town; Kaito spies on random people and makes vague arrangements; the narrative point of view hops into the heads of characters readers haven't been introduced to yet). The author lays on the foreshadowing extraordinarily thick, which is to say, quite lazily.

None of this does the story any good, because the nature this novel series isn't to surprise readers with Kaito's depravity, it's to connect them to it.

And that's the core problem: The Hero Laughs… is no longer about enmeshing readers into the emotional labyrinth of a man with nothing to lose; now, it's about overcommitting to the gore and incivility of its main cast, and nothing more. The previous volume hinted strongly of the author's inclination to diverge from this central premise. The current volume merely confirms the pattern.

Does the novel have interesting characters? Yes, but they're also awkward clichés. For example, readers meet a vicious young knife fighter, Nonorick, who is also an over-the-top, gratingly effeminate sadist. Readers again encounter Metelia Laurelia, a cleric and priestess with restored memories, who harbors an affection for Kaito. Except, readers encounter this mysterious priestess exclusively in an epilogue for the second consecutive volume. What a waste.

Is the violence clever and memorable? Yes, but it's also assiduously overwrought and unnecessarily confusing. For example, Kaito's fight with Nonorick is short and sweet and highly entertaining, but his end-game torture of Grond is hard to follow and goes on for more than 30 pages. The novel's first 50 pages will put one to sleep, and it's final 30 pages are no better.

Will readers learn anything new about the protagonist? Yes, but the details are nowhere near enough to warrant the spiderweb of chaos the author penned to justify them. For example, one of Kaito's soul blades, the Fang of the Close Shave, is a blade composed of "countless gnashing teeth" that chew the flesh of their victim. Very adroit. Or is it? The tool is wasted on a criminal underling, and the weapon is never used again.

THE HERO LAUGHS WHILE WALKING THE PATH OF VENGEANCE A SECOND TIME v4 is not a particularly good book. But readers who fancy deconstructing fiction for all of its curiosities may find something worth digging into. How much foreshadowing is too much foreshadowing? When are alternate points of view a benefit versus a burden to reader comprehension? What value do secondary characters possess when the novel's dramatic irony intuits their roles well in advance? What value do antagonists possess when their worth, to either the protagonist or the audience, is so foreign as to have been irrelevant prior to the novel's own events? What's the point of crafting a good foil if the character (or motive) in question never emerges from the epilogue's realm of possibility?

❯ ❯ Light-Novel Reviews || ahb writes on Good Reads

#review #light novel #the hero laughs #nero kizuka #jake humphrey #sinsora #kadokawa #yen on #2 of 5 stars #goodreads #kaito ukei #minnalis #too much foreshadowing #poor character motivation #overwrought violence #toothless antagonists

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jeannereames · 4 years ago

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Hi Dr. Reames, thanks so much for relaying all these fascinating analyses (I have to say, I find myself back on your blog multiple times a week just to check out more cool bits of information). I actually have two questions, but please feel free to only look at one! My first is, what was Alexander’s relationship with Parmenion initially? We know he was loyal to Philip, he served somewhat as an advisor to Alexander too, and then Alexander killed him because of the Philotas plot. I mean, he was a senior officer and had served the Macedonian court for so long—might Alexander and Parmenion have had a decent relationship at some point? And my second question is, how come absolutely nothing survives from the time of Alexander? Did his “successors” try to destroy things related to him (they did kill his son and his mother) so they could protect their own ambitions? I really appreciate your time, thanks for checking out my questions! Again, please feel free to just look at one and not the other :D

First, I’m glad people are actually reading these. LOL.

The biggest problem with discerning Alexander’s true relationship with Parmenion prior to the downfall of Philotas are the inserted “Alexander vs. Parmenion” conversations. You’ve heard them, if you think about it. “If I were Alexander,” Parmenion says, “I would …” “So would I,” Alexander replies, “if I were Parmenion.” Meant as a put down. Parmenion is repeatedly shown as overly cautious and a bit of a fuddy-duddy. It’s a deliberate motif, and most modern scholars recognize these as later insertions.

They seem to have several purposes: first, they showcase Alexander’s dashing bravery and brilliance as opposed to Parmenion’s plodding traditional approaches. Second, they backset conflict between the two. Third, they suggest Alexander didn’t really need Parmenion’s advice; he could have won all those battles by himself.

We suspect this is the work of Kallisthenes (the official court historian) before his own fall from grace. The Page’s Conspiracy happened after the Philotas Affair. Ergo, it appears in a number of the later histories. Some (esp. Badian) have suggested that Alexander was just looking for a way to get rid of Parmenion, and either seized on Philotas’s culpability, or even set up Philotas in order to get rid of Parmenion (Badian’s article on the Philotas Affair suggest Alexander was keeping some sort of FBI-style file on Parmenion and his family.) They’ve point out that he left him behind in Ekbatana when taking off to Baktria, but that was a damn important position! And Parmenion was c.70, by then. I suspect he was moving him towards administrative positions, out of active combat. Phiilotas’s stupidly forced his hand. Philotas was his last living son (Hektor had died in Egypt, Nikanor at Gaugamela). He couldn’t trust that Parmenion wouldn’t feel honor-bound to retaliate for his death (it was a matter of timē). And Parmenion was sitting on Alexander’s all-important supply lines; he could cut off the entire army and leave them to starve. (This, btw, doesn’t justify murder, but does explain it.)

After that, he almost had to inflict a hatchet-job on Parmenion’s reputation. Murdering Parmenion would look even worse if everyone could read how much he owed him.

If one takes those A vs. P conversations with a grain of salt and looks more widely, it’s clear that Alexander owed his kingship to Parmenion—and Parmenion was compensated (so to speak) by the high appointments of his sons, at least the elder two, and his other family members. Although Philotas was older than Alexander, he wasn’t a senior general, yet he got the plumb assignment of commander of the Companion Cavalry. His younger brother commanded the Hypaspists—the whole thing, not just the royal unit. Parmenion’s brother, Asander held high positions, as did another relative (another Nikanor) in the navy. The boys, at least, leapfrogged over older men who may have been more deserving. And Philotas seems to have flaunted his position and relations. We’re told in a couple places that, while his father was beloved, he was not. Certainly Krateros couldn’t stand him, although being an enemy of Krateros may not have required more than being in Krateros’s way. Ha. Krateros was kinda-sorta Parmenion’s understudy.

Alexander often took a good deal of Parmenion’s advice. For instance, there are actually TWO verions of the Battle of Granikos, and they’re almost mutually exclusive. One appears to be a rewrite for drama…and to get in a dig at Parmenion. It’s the better-known version, where the battle takes place in the afternoon, at the end of a long march, and is a cavalry-heavy battle because not all the infantry had arrived. It’s one of the first A vs. P exchanges, where Parmenion advises Alexander to wait for the rest of the army, then attack at night or at least in the morning. Alexander tells him he “won’t steal a march” and brashly attacks the Persians before they’re ready. And wins (after a significant loss of Companions).

The other version is more or less exactly what Parmenion advised: he waited till morning. It was still mostly a cavalry battle and much of what happened is similar…but he did what Parmenion suggested. Yet in that version, he looks less heroic…but more level-headed.

Guess which one is probably the true version. 😉

Philotas, btw, got himself in trouble for asserting that Alexander’s big wins weren’t really his, but Parmenion’s (and Philotas’s). Philotas may have been a blowhard, but at least part of that was true. Alexander consistently gave Parmenion the difficult but absolutely crucial positions at Issos and Gaugamela. He knew damn well that if Parmenion fell on the left, it didn’t matter what he did. That’s WHY he didn’t chase Darius either time, but especially at Gaugamela.

However difficult Philotas was, we’re told that Alexander was close to Hektor, the youngest of Parmenion’s sons. When Hektor died accidentally in Egypt, Alexander was heartbroken and threw him a huge funeral. Hektor is among the boys I had with Alexander at Mieza in the novels.

As for what Parmenion thought of Alexander, I expect he saw him as his best friend’s son, and therefore felt some responsibility for him, after Philip’s untimely death. Parmenion and Philip appear to have been real friends. Philip and Antipatros, not so much. Antipatros had been a friend to Philip’s older brother, Perdikkas, who apparently had a more philosophic turn of mind. And indeed, Antipatros and Aristotle later were fast friends. There’s a funny story of Philip and Parmenion playing draughts (and drinking), when Antipatros entered the room. Immediately Philip shoved the game board under his chair, like some naughty boy caught skivving off. It’s hysterical (the anecdote comes from either Plutarch’s Moralia or, more likely, Athenaeus’s Supper Party). Parmenion was older than Philip, but closer to him in age than Antipatros. Also, Antipatros and Parmenion didn’t really like each other. And there’s Philip’s famous quip that the Athenians should count themselves lucky if they could find 10 good generals every year (their custom of electing generals is what he’s referring to). In his time as king, he’d found only one. Parmenion. (It’s obviously a dig at Athens for poor generals; in Philip’s day they had only a couple decent ones, Phokion being the best.)

Anyway, given Parmenion’s closeness to Philip, I’ve always assumed that he would have backed the candidate Philip wanted on the throne, and that was Alexander. As I noted elsewhere, Philip’s last child was a girl, not a boy. So Attalos had no skin the game anymore. Ergo, even if Parmenion had married his own daughter to Attalos, when push came to shove, he shoved him under the bus (had him executed) when Alexander asked him to. I expect he didn’t do it for “free.” That’s why Philotas and Nikanor had their positions. He could always marry his daughter to someone else, and did: Koinos/Coenus, which is why Koinos was so eager to help “question” Philotas, his brother-in-law: to prove his loyalty to Alexander.

As for why we don’t still have the original histories of Alexader, written by contemporaries? Simple loss over time. I seem to recall reading stats somewhere that only a quarter to a third of (known) texts from antiquity have survived. No, I don’t remember where, but the percentage doesn’t surprise me. How do we know about missing texts? From “testamonia” in surviving ones, especially collections, or books like Diogenes Laertus which contains the lives of famous philosophers and their bibliography. D.L. is how we know Aristotle wrote 4 books of letters to ATG, 1 each to Hephaistion and Olympias, as well as letters to Antipatros.

Some quick terminology: “extant” means “still existing.” So an “extant” text is one we still have. A “testamonium” is mention of a text or author in another text. And a “fragmentum” is a quoted section from another text, or a paraphrasing. Keep in mind that while ancient memories were generally better than ours, fragmenta (when we can compare) often contain slight errors and rephrasings. The major collection of these in Greek was compiled by Felix Jacoby, Fragmente der griechischen Historiker, often referred to as FGrH or just “Jacoby.” The original 1923 version was just in Greek, but New Jacoby is translated, and now available as Jacoby Online!

Another super important source of information on ancient texts, people, and places unavailable elsewhere now is the Suda [Suidae Lexicon], a mid-Byzantine “encyclopedia” of the ancient Mediterranean world. It has LOADS of info otherwise unattested in our extant sources. Visit the Suda Online.

Anyway, back to our texts. Popularity is one reason certain texts make it. The fact we have FIVE different histories of Alexander (however varying in quality) is actually extraordinary, the most we have for any single individual from antiquity. And it’s not only popularity in antiquity, but popularity later. Plutarch was very popular in the medieval and Renaissance, so we have a lot of Plutarch surviving. More copies…more likely something will make it.

So no, what we lack isn’t from any concerted effort to erase a text. The Successors penned their own histories (buffing their own reputations and skewering their rivals), but they didn’t try to systematically get rid of other’s writings. To do so would have been very difficult, if not impossible. Most of the contemporary histories were still available down into the early Byzantine era and probably beyond. We just don’t have them now.

#Parmenion #Parmenio #Alexander the Great #Alexander historians #Philotas #Nikanor #Nicanor #Antipatros #Antipater #Philip of Macedon #Philip II of Macedon #ancient Macedonia #Philotas Affair #Alexander's campaigns #asks #survival of ancient texts #Classics #Jacoby #The Suda

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jkottke · 5 years ago

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Archaeology of the 99%

Archaeologists are increasingly looking past the splashy artifacts of ancient elites to seek & find the dwellings and possessions of commoners. For Knowable Magazine (good title), Bob Holmes talked to retired archaeologist Jeremy Sabloff about the Archaeology of the 99%.

Archaeology frequently focused on big buildings and objects owned by elites because they were easier to find and more durable & abundant (elites had money to spend on nice things). But it was also a question of where the funding came from:

Before World War II, archaeological research was funded mostly by museums or wealthy individuals or foundations. They wanted spectacular finds -- temples and palaces, not the remains of perishable structures of everyday life. They wanted royal burials, such as King Tut's tomb, the royal treasures of Ur, great sculpture, murals, beautiful pottery, jade, what have you. They were looking for materials that they could bring back and display in museums.

Then a shift happened:

The makeup of the field changed significantly after World War II, and its practitioners became much more middle class. One reason is there were a lot more jobs available, particularly at state universities. And you started to be able to get grants for fieldwork that wasn't based on looking for objects or spectacular finds.

And new technology has helped as well:

The richer picture we're getting of the 100 percent is aided by tools that archaeologists 50 years ago just didn't have available. In terms of settlement-pattern mapping, one of the huge technical breakthroughs in recent years is remote sensing, particularly LIDAR, where low-flying aircraft or drones send down laser beams and you can see the ground without the trees. You can see stone courses. You can see the remains of houses, causeways, roads, defensive fortifications. That's going to make the mapping of sites much simpler, particularly in difficult situations like tropical rainforest or a heavily wooded area. We're able to cover much bigger areas with much greater detail and accuracy than ever before.

I am reading Mary Beard's SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome right now and in the first chapter she touches on what we know about ordinary Romans:

The reasons why we can tell this story in such detail are very simple: the Romans themselves wrote a great deal about it, and a lot of what they wrote has survived. Modern historians often lament how little we can know about some aspects of the ancient world. 'Just think of what we don't know about the lives of the poor,' they complain, 'or of the perspectives of women.' This is as anachronistic as it is deceptive. The writers of Roman literature were almost exclusively male; or, at least, very few works by women have come down to us (the autobiography of the emperor Nero's mother, Agrippina, must count as one of the saddest losses of classical literature). These men were also almost exclusively well off, even though some Roman poets did like to pretend, as poets still occasionally do, that they were starving in garrets. The complaints, however, miss a far more important point.

The single most extraordinary fact about the Roman world is that so much of what the Romans wrote has survived, over two millennia. We have their poetry, letters, essays, speeches and histories, to which I have already referred, but also novels, geographies, satires and reams and reams of technical writing on everything from water engineering to medicine and disease. The survival is largely due to the diligence of medieval monks who transcribed by hand, again and again, what they believed were the most important, or useful, works of classical literature, with a significant but often forgotten contribution from medieval Islamic scholars who translated into Arabic some of the philosophy and scientific material. And thanks to archaeologists who have excavated papyri from the sands and the rubbish dumps of Egypt, wooden writing tablets from Roman military bases in the north of England and eloquent tombstones from all over the empire, we have glimpses of the life and letters of some rather more ordinary inhabitants of the Roman world. We have notes sent home, shopping lists, account books and last messages inscribed on graves. Even if this is a small proportion of what once existed, we have access to more Roman literature -- and more Roman writing in general -- than any one person could now thoroughly master in the course of a lifetime.

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karingudino · 4 years ago

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Stray Dog Capital Invests In Fermentation-Based Alt Protein Company Chunk Foods

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Affect enterprise capital agency Stray Dog Capital has invested in Chunk Foods, a plant-based meals firm that’s utilizing fermentation applied sciences to fabricate complete muscle meat-alternative merchandise.

U.S.-based Stray Canine Capital, a enterprise capital that focuses on investing in different protein, has backed Israel-based Chunk Meals in its seed funding spherical that additionally noticed help from Good Seed Ventures, and the E14 Fund, amounting to a complete elevate of US$2 million for the startup.

Began by Amos Golan in 2020, Chunk Meals was born on the Massachusetts Institute of Know-how (MIT) and goals to make large-scale manufacturing of wholesome and whole-muscle meat options a actuality. With the assistance of solid-state fermentation and by combining plant-based substances and food-grade organisms, the startup is engaged on creating beef options with out utilizing any gums, stabilizers, or GMOs within the course of.

In a press launch seen by Inexperienced Queen, Associate at Stray Canine Capital, Johnny Ream, mentioned that the VC agency is past excited so as to add Chunk Meals to its portfolio. “Improvement of plant-based different proteins that resemble conventional whole-muscle merchandise comparable to steak is commonly thought to be probably the most troublesome and complicated to realize. We consider Chunk’s applied sciences and proprietary processes have sturdy potential to play a big function in bringing these kind of merchandise to market and we’re wanting ahead to being on this journey with the workforce.”

The quantity raised will assist Chunk Meals to enhance the standard of its merchandise in addition to make impactful hires that can take the startup to the following stage.

Founder and CEO of Chunk Meals Amos Golan mentioned of the spherical: “Customers count on wholesome, nutritious and clear label choices for his or her every day staples like meat and fish. They need their meals to be aligned with their values, they usually’re not prepared to make compromises.”

Improvement of plant-based different proteins that resemble conventional whole-muscle merchandise comparable to steak is commonly thought to be probably the most troublesome and complicated to realize. We consider Chunk’s applied sciences and proprietary processes have sturdy potential to play a big function in bringing these kind of merchandise to market

Johnny Ream, Associate at Stray Canine Capital

Golan added that complete muscle cuts of beef like sirloin, chuck or ribs have been the “Holy Grail for different meats as they account for about 60% of the meat market within the USA”. “We now have overcome the technological limitations of different approaches by naturally creating scrumptious and sensible merchandise with most of the attributes of meat, whereas guaranteeing a clear and brief ingredient checklist utilizing our novel fermentation expertise. Stray Canine Capital shares our imaginative and prescient of the way forward for meals and we’re excited to be partnering to make that imaginative and prescient into actuality.”

According to the Good Food Institute(GFI), in 2020 alone, different protein companies witnessed round US$3.1 billion in investments alone, and particularly firms like Chunk Meals which might be engaged on fermentation expertise, raised round US$600 million in investments final 12 months.

In an exclusive interview with Sally Ho from Inexperienced Queen, CEO and Common Associate of Stray Canine Capital, Lisa Feria, mentioned the large progress that the choice food-tech trade has confronted in simply previous the 12 months. “Due to millennials, Gen Zs and the youthful era, as they’re those demanding a greater meals system. It’s because they’re making and prepared to make the journeys to the second grocery retailer to choose up these merchandise to pay a little bit bit extra for them. They’re prepared to make some sacrifices with the long-term aim of constructing a extra strong meals system in thoughts. Up to now 5 – 6 years that we’ve been very closely investing, that dynamic has modified dramatically.”

Within the interview, Feria detailed Stray Canine Capital’s investments into cultured meat firm SuperMeat and Australian firm Deliciou who produces shelf-stable hen, beef, and pork analogues.

Lead picture courtesy of Stray Canine Capital and Chunk Meals.

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source https://fikiss.net/stray-dog-capital-invests-in-fermentation-based-alt-protein-company-chunk-foods/ Stray Dog Capital Invests In Fermentation-Based Alt Protein Company Chunk Foods published first on https://fikiss.net/ from Karin Gudino https://karingudino.blogspot.com/2021/04/stray-dog-capital-invests-in.html

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deehollowaywrites · 7 years ago

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A serendipitous confluence of events occurred over the past several days when one of my favorite television shows returned with an unexpected side character, the AWP writing conference took over downtown Tampa, and three Kentucky Derby preps ran, including a much-contested San Felipe Stakes.

If these seem disjointed, know that horses are always--shall we say--the glue of my spiritual landscape.

A few friends who also watch the soapy, sneakily feminist Lifetime twist-buffet UnREAL admitted that they didn’t want to spoil my delight at the inclusion of a jockey character, however briefly poor, much-maligned Norman was onscreen (I assume my Twitter reaction delivered). The show, which is a dramatized take on the Bachelor empire of reality TV, attempted to lampshade the ingrained humor of a petite man trying to win the affections of a statuesque woman by having all the characters involved remark on this apparent absurdity. Producers Rachel and Quinn, Everlasting’s star Serena, and Norman all know he’s being played for giggles. A few heated conversations and a drunken bathroom tryst later, Serena cuts Norman from her lineup of possible future husbands. Knowing the show, he might pop up again, but I was sorry to see only one episode devoted to exploring this particular corner of heteronormative masculinity.

“So you’re a jockey jumper, then?” asks the protagonist of Jason Beem’s racetracker novel Southbound. The narrative elaborates, noting that most of the women one might reasonably class as race-rider groupies are “at least five foot seven,” and then moves onto the more pressing topic of whether the woman in question, beautiful and popular paddock host Maria, might shift her interest to the horseplayer protagonist. Despite the novel centering around various racetracks, jockeys rarely show up; there are 44 instances of the word in a 400-page novel. When jockeys do appear, they’re at a distance, on horseback or in the saddling paddock, and seen through a specific, borderline-hostile lens: that of the horseplayer who mistrusts riders. Jockeys are there to be yelled at by spectators, to “stiff” bettors, to do anything other than their jobs, and most saliently, they’re “notoriously horny little creatures” who can be trusted neither to ride their horses honestly nor remain faithful to their partners. Simultaneously sexualized by their in-group and unsexed by external observers, (male) riders are shrouded in layers of marginalization. How is it possible for a rider to be trite joke fodder in one context and erotically imposing in another? In both the universes of UnREAL and Southbound, jockeys fuck women but they’re not meeting the parents--the difference lies in admission, in context required for comprehension.

“I’m an elite athlete!” Norman protests, standing on his five-five dignity, and later, as it seems Serena might be opening up to him, starts a spiel about how his profession is misunderstood. But Serena is intent on hiding their hook-up once she’s sober again, the show’s narrative turning ambiguous as to whether her shame is rooted in poor decision-making, loss of control, or the fact that the guy giving it to her doggy-style was half her height. Meanwhile, Maria the paddock host is casual about dating or sleeping with riders; protagonist Ryan is the one with opinions about it, and so the reader’s attitudes are directed by this point of view. It’s normative but distasteful, where the cast and producers of Everlasting find the idea of a jockey romantic lead neither normative nor tasteful.

Readers of the nonfiction canon of Thoroughbred writing will see reference to a few superstars of the sport edging into popular consciousness as viable romantic heroes. These nearly always fit within a certain profile: white, blond, all-American. Steve Cauthen, Chris Antley, Gary Stevens. Norman of UnREAL is, of course, white. Observers might also note that the current lineup of rock-star jocks is heavily Latino. The sport relies on sexy imagery to sell itself as glamorous and attractive but limits this imagery to female spectators and participants, largely sidelining the appeal of male participants. Barbara Livingston’s infamous beefcake calendar notwithstanding, racing is shot for, marketed to, and discussed almost totally within the realm of the heteronormative male gaze. It’s impossible to untangle the overarching reputation of jockeys from their status within the sport, their concurrent location at its center and its fringes. Physically, according to UnREAL and the accepted romantic tropes it trades on, riders cannot fit the profile of a romantic lead (they might tick the box marked abs with a bullet but they’re--gasp!--short). According to Southbound, reams of five-foot-seven-and-above women are willing to set this deficit aside, and starfucking can’t always account for taste, since low-level Portland Meadows riders get their fair share too.

It’s almost like the height-gap trope beloved of romance enthusiasts only applies to tall men and short women. Who’da thunk?

My favorite panel out of the two days I attended AWP’s writing conference was “Shooters Gotta Shoot: Voice in Sports.” Never have I felt so understood by a bunch of strangers! Author and panelist Katherine Hill noted that football players talk a lot, an offhand comment that kicked the hamster wheel of my brain into high gear. Do jockeys talk? Not where horseplayers can hear them, usually. What they say is filtered through the lens of what the trainer wanted from the race, how the odds stacked up, whether their horse won or lost. Their voices are reduced and fragmented from intersecting angles:

English may be a second language;

The sport of racing itself is a niche one, replete with specific, exclusive vocabulary;

Secretiveness prevails on the backstretch, while the pop-media view of Thoroughbreds relies on tired images of corruption, rigging, and under-the-table deals;

The riders’ place within their sport is layered with uncertainty, from physical danger to the tentative handshake that confirms a mount or takes it away.

If certain trainers had their way, jocks wouldn’t talk at all and no one would request it of them. They would be emotional whipping boys for the losing horse, emotionless mannequins for the winner. Within the shelves of fiction, it’s also rare to hear a jockey speak, likeliest in the crime-novel aisle under Francis. On Harlequin’s website, a search for “football” returns 142 titles, while “baseball” gets 94 options and “hockey” 73. These are the Big Three of sports romance, with basketball, soccer, tennis, NASCAR/F1, and all Olympics-related sports making minor showings as well. Horse racing, when it shows up, falls largely into historical-romance settings--a scandalous duchess at Newmarket, a sheikh’s stable girl--or again in crime and suspense, with horse-theft plots and murdered barn managers. Trainers appear as romantic hero/ines almost to a fault; out of Harlequin’s 9 results for “jockey,” only 2 titles feature an actual Thoroughbred jockey, and both characters are female. While I’m always pleased to read (and write) about female jocks, I don’t find it cynical to assume that these books exist in part because short women are palatable and appealing romantic heroines, while short men are perceived as having Napoleon complexes or little-guy syndromes, and generally being 200 pounds of testosterone in a 115-pound body. So who gets the happily-ever-after? Viking-esque hockey hotshots, American-beefcake ball players, and any hero who falls within an appropriate, narrow conception of heterosexual masculinity. Whose voices are reflected and amplified within the larger field of sports fiction? Whose experiences are projected as normatively male and typically American? Whose bodies are portrayed and received as alluring and desirable, and whose are operating within a historic context of abuse, control, and ownership?

I ground up my nerve to ask a question in that “Voice in Sports” panel, which I rarely manage because I’m a shy doofus. After the panelists’ conversation shifted to the imperial "we” of sports fandom, I asked Hill and poet Jason Koo to discuss how the collective love of fans for their sport can turn toxic--how the boundary is transgressed, at what point possessiveness becomes ownership and how that in turn affects how players are permitted to speak. I was thinking, as I am always thinking, of the relationships between horseplayers, trainers, owners, and jockeys; of that word, owner, and racing’s intertwined history with slavery; of a sport built on the underpaid and sometimes unpaid labor of people of color; of the vitriol casually displayed on the apron, as two days later at Tampa Bay Downs I’d listen to a man next to me yell SHITHEAD! at Julien Leparoux in a post parade. I said that racing is my sport of choice, waited for someone to say that racing isn’t a sport. I said after the panel, thanking Hill and Koo for their remarks, that I write romance--that I have marginalized my own voice in my choice of sport to write about, and my choice of genre to frame that sport, and my choice of mostly queer characters to people that sport’s fictional world.

Nonetheless Javier Castellano has his better story, his voice triumphing over Mike Smith’s. Nonetheless I write on, delighted in the space in which I’ve found myself, continue to find myself.

It’s my job as a romance writer to depict race-rider leads and love interests as exciting, sexy, and appealing. It’s my pleasure as a racing fan to depict jockeys themselves as multifaceted, compelling, and human.

#Urban Hayseed #diana's writing

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pnrrish · 7 years ago

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where did you find that nora post, this is relevant to me deciding whether I can ignore tfc being shoved down my throat once and for all

i stumbled onto her blog without realizing it was hers, and i couldn’t for the life of me find the post again if i wanted to (and a. i don’t want to because b. i don’t want to scroll her blog anymore) but it’s for sure not the only post of hers along those lines.

if you’re trying to decide whether you should read tfc and decide for yourself, they’re available through the kindle store for less than $4 total (the first one is free) so it’s not too horrendous an investment but

like, i was never satisfied with the vibe i got from the books. i ended up invested in the characters because i have the compulsive need to finish books, so by the time i was done i was sort of in love with most of them and i at least tolerated the rest. so i’m heartbroken that the author is...like this. the fandom is at least nice.

if you do decide to go ahead and read it anyway, here are some things i picked up on that i think i should warn you about: (uhhhhh warning for freaking everything? rape murder gore abuse &c.)

-not necessarily relevant but it’s self-published so the typos really shine

-first of all it’s a college sports novel, but the sports is a fictional game called exy which is essentially indoor lacrosse, which nora invented so she wouldn’t have to google any sports rules, which isn’t a crime or anything but i already dislike her on a personal level

-the whole plot of chapter one is that the main character is rather violently coerced into signing for the Foxes, the worst exy team in the nation. due to his history the publicity will put his life in danger. after he signs he has a panic attack/vivid flashback to his mother’s abuse.

-every single main character has a deeply traumatic backstory, which is part of the gimmick that the main character’s team is deliberately handpicked from the most broken homes imaginable. ostensibly due to the coach’s vision of giving these traumatized kids a second chance. the upshot is that every single one of them is an intolerable asshole.

-i guess the lesson is that just cause someone’s behavior is understandable doesn’t mean it’s excusable. i certainly don’t excuse it.

-oh while we’re on the subject the coach regularly calls each and every one of them, individually and collectively, r*t*rd and is never taken to task for his poor choice of vocabulary

-and while we’re on the subject of poor vocabulary one of the main characters (the most intolerable of them) is almost exclusively referred to as “psycho” or “monster,” for the crime of being on medication** as part of his court-ordered parole (which would be sort of understandable due to his intolerable asshole behavior, except that everyone who knew him before he was medicated prefers him doped up) (**the medication also isn’t really working the way it’s supposed to but that’s neither here nor there)

-just in the first half of the first book the main character is coerced into attending a party several hours’ drive from campus, then at that party he is drugged by his teammates and left to fend for himself

--when he chooses to hitchhike back to campus instead of being driven back by the intolerable asshole who dragged him out in the first place and helped drug him, he gets reamed out by coach and asked if he’s “actually that r*t*rd*d”

-just in the first half of the first book he is repeatedly abused during practice by the captain of his team--made to run drills until he collapses, told that he’s a worthless addition to the team, &c.

-twice during the series the main character is kidnapped and brutalized almost to the point of death. the second time this happens the whole ordeal is described over the course of several chapters in loving, almost fetishistic detail

-an offscreen attempted suicide is nevertheless described in detail

-an offscreen successful suicide is mentioned and then immediately blamed on the main character

-a murder occurs on screen and is described in gory detail

-said character was murdered while in the act of raping one of the main characters

-in the second book the main character essentially allows himself to be kidnapped and abused by an opposing team in order to prevent another character from being abused, but the abuse occurs anyway (albeit offscreen)

-said opposing team is described as cult-like and every team member is deeply traumatized by it although most of them probably aren’t aware

-because said opposing team is run by the japanese mafia, it is considered acceptable

-as part of each character’s 3edgy5me backstory, several past murders are described in loving detail

-one character gets into a relationship which he has to keep secret for two books so that his brother doesn’t kill his girlfriend. later on, said brother discovers said girlfriend and threatens her. he tells another character that he would have killed her if he had a weapon on hand.

-said brother/the aforementioned most intolerable asshole routinely threatens to kill people, often to their face. that’s just a thing he does. nobody cares. i think at one point someone politely requests that he consider maybe not doing that anymore.

-said brother/asshole actually does try to kill the captain of their team in the third book

-the best that can be said for any character development is that most of them end up slightly more stable than how they started out. when you’re constantly stacking new trauma on top of old trauma it doesn’t leave much room for growth.

-the main character ends up fuck buddies with the one character who has repeatedly told him, to his face, “I hate you.”

-the fandom likes to pretend they’re uwu softboys who are in a soft loving relationship but that is not the case at all

-at best, in the epilogue when one says this is, in fact, a relationship the other doesn’t verbally disagree. imo this is the fandom equivalent of going to a fancy restaurant that only serves plain toast and penning a rave yelp review complimenting the taste of the jam you brought yourself.

-so uh, yeah

#aftg critical #dear god i wish i didn't end up liking the characters so much #tl;dr yikes #Anonymous

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not-poignant · 11 months ago

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January 2024 - Update Schedule

January chapter update schedule:

(Tier+ = This tier or any higher, as every higher tier accesses all rewards in lower cost tiers)

Monday 1st -> Saturday 13th - [POSTING HOLIDAY]

Saturday 13th - Birthday Spotlight - Dr Gary Konowalous

Sunday 14th - A Stain that Won't Dissolve 29

Tuesday 16th - Constellations 01/05 (AO3 & Patreon + Ream - Gary&Efnisien Tier+)

Wednesday 17th - Birthday Spotlight - Nathaniel 'Nate' Prince

Thursday 18th - Underline the Black 76

Tuesday 23rd - Underline the Blue 09/12 (AO3 & Patreon + Ream - Augus&Gwyn Tier+)

Thursday 25th - Underline the Black 77

Sunday 28th - A Stain that Won't Dissolve 30

Tuesday 30th - The Nascent Diplomat 40/41 (AO3 & Patreon + Ream - Augus & Gwyn Tier+)

This month is quiet, and I'm continuing with the doubling up - if a chapter from an early access story releases, then the actual early access chapter will go up that day as well. So far folks don't seem to mind this, so I'm going to keep trying it :D February goes back to a more regular schedule. :D

You'll notice new slots on the schedule - Birthday Spotlights! These aren't chapters, but special Tumblr posts which spotlight a character and their birthday, and shares quotes, details, the stories their in, what they're known for, and some trivia about them. All of Fae Tales and other worlds are pretty huge now - nearly over ten years of writing! - so this is a way to reminisce over favourite characters, discover new stories, learn about alternate universes, and find out about characters you might not know much about yet! You'll all get to learn the character's birthdays, and see if they match your sun signs, hehe :D

TRADEWINDS is LAUNCHING in January though I haven't picked a date yet. This is an original and complete Fae Tales novel that will only be exclusively available via Patreon and Ream in the Gary+Efnisien tier+. This story follows the journey of bird shifters and merchants, the Seelie Matan (a Malayan Peacock Pheasant) and the Unseelie Udir (a Lammergeier shifter), in an enemies-to-lovers tale filled with intrigue, secrets, a quest to break a quest, and a look at the lives of fae in the southern hemisphere.

Stories with updates as yet undetermined: Palmarosa (I managed four updates in December, so hopefully this continues well in January!)

Most chapters go up between 6-7pm GMT+8 (or the time that you’re already used to me putting chapters up, lol). For those who are anxious to know when chapters are updating, hopefully this helps! If there's ever an emergency, or a scheduling issue (like a surprise family dinner) I generally put up stories a day early and not late.

#housekeeping #not poignant #thespectaclesofthor #tradewinds #stuff be happening #i hope folks enjoy the birthday spotlights!#every month has at least one sdklajfasd

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authorsadiethatcher · 5 months ago

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Summer is here. While much of the USA has already experienced exceptionally hot temperatures, this coming weekend brings that weather to where I live. I'm set up just fine for it, but it will still be hot.

I ended up skipping writing a State of the Thatcher Address in June. The start of the month was busy and by the time I had time to write one, the month was over halfway over. But now it's July and I'm definitely not missing it this time. I feel like the image I selected for this month is a good summer image. She dressed for the heat.

This is also a good time to mention that my writing goals in the past two months did not always happen, especially when it came to my fantasy writing. I've also tried a few new things recently, which I hope readers have enjoyed. More about what to expect this month further down.

A quick reminder that you can find my books on Amazon, Smashwords, Google Play Books, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and Everand. You can also read everything I’ve published under my Sadie Thatcher name since last May on Ream, which is a subscription platform built specifically for authors. You can check out my Ream page below.

Ream: https://reamstories.com/sadiethatcher

I also post the occasional bit of flash fiction for followers on Ream. I have one up already and plan to post another one this week. As soon as I’m inspired, I’ll add a new mini-story to Ream.

On the Libby Feron front, my fantasy writing has stalled. I have shiny object syndrome. I keep getting new ideas that distract me before I can finish anything. My current novel plan is to write a fantasy novel with time travel and that is heavily inspired by Cinderella. But with the time travel element, I need to get multiple timelines figured out before I begin writing. Hopefully soon. Since I don’t talk about my fantasy writing often, checking out https://libbyferon.com/ and signing up for the email newsletter is the best way to stay informed. At some point, there will be a free novella offered.

Now it’s time to talk about what to expect this month. First, I just released the first story in the Bimbo Religion Series. The first book is about the beginning of this new religion. The second book will be about getting an influential person to adopt it. The third book will be about converting an entire town. That third book will also include a return to Bimboton, which showed up in a Christmas story from a few years ago.

I also have a series in the works that will include rewriting people's lives to bimbofy them. This will be a classic three bimbos in three books series, which was my original bread and butter. It should be fun.

And finally, at the end of the month I will be introducing a series that is inspired by the Olympics called The Bimbo Games. Actually, I got the idea from the Enhanced Games, which is just dumb, but what better way to call something out than by parodying it. I don't know exactly how the books will work yet, but expect some fun there.

That's it for July. If I'm not writing this month, I will either be out running, hiking, or on my brand new paddle board. Have fun, everyone, and stay cool out there.

#sadie thatcher #writing #buildingbettergiggles #story #state of the thatcher address

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sicklyscribe · 5 years ago

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‘sickly’scribe update because I want something more long-form than twitter

I’m putting this in a tag (which’ll spoil the punchline for those of y’all who don’t follow my twitter!), because everyone keeps telling me community is a good thing even though the concept of there being a community at all is not something I can wrap my brain around. If you’re part of that, hey there, my story below.

I really wanted to use this week for writing. I wanted to use it on fic, on short story projects, poetry projects, novel projects. I knew I wouldn’t be able to do everything, knew that I would let myself down sometimes.

I really wanted to write an article tonight, to blow off steam, and I got a few hundred words in before the fog absolutely descended.

I have a word for it now! The thing that nearly forced me to drop out of college a second time? that prevented me from finishing the theses I loved in the way that they deserved?

The thing that absolutely paralyzed me in seventh grade as I was staring at a pile of books on Joan of Arc at 1AM, knowing I had to write two more flash cards for my research project and feeling as though my brain was smoldering ashes as soon as I attempted a thought.

I have a new diagnosis for my pain! It also comes with a neurological component that effects focus. And task initiation/completion. And memory. And energy.

I thought I was just a scatterbrained ditz who couldn’t respect other people’s time or manage my own. Now that I know it’s a symptom, it doesn’t necessarily make it any better.

I’m jumping ahead because I already broke all of the news and the story on twitter. I don’t want it to just be there, I want it to be here under my amy-rants-about-her-medical-experiences tag, which, if you have ever encountered it, operated under the belief that my constant pain was a result of flat feet. I have reamed out paragraph after paragraph about what the search for that diagnosis did to me.

It took a decade of my life to get that diagnosis. I sobbed and fretted and begged and developed serious psychological issues with the way I viewed myself and others that I don’t think I can ever recover from in order to get. that. diagnosis.

It felt so fucking good to have that diagnosis, it didn’t even matter much to me that the treatment itself barely helped. I had two words that meant my pain was real, I had a label that people could understand and could try to help me with.

That got knocked over like a buncha bowling pins a few months ago. Overcoming mountains of anxiety over seeing my doctor for a tingling in my toes, and then being referred to a podiatrist -- even more anxiety, Everest anxiety -- they took x-rays of my feet and the man walked in and said ‘everything looks great! I don’t know who gave you this flat feet diagnosis, but...’

We proceeded to talk about the tingling, and the possible causes, and finally I was able to explain that I was diagnosed with flexible flat feet. I stood up and showed him.

He agreed with that diagnosis, but his manner didn’t really change. As he was explaining why I didn’t have serious flat feet (which I already knew) I was able to clarify. “So you’re saying that the level of pain I experience cannot be explained by this diagnosis?”

“No, I don’t think it can.”

While I did have flexible flat feet, I was doing everything (other than exercise) to treat the condition, and there was no reason why I should be in constant widespread pain. He recommended that if I wanted to try other avenues of treatment that I see a rheumatologist or endocrinologist.

Rheumatologist was first.

This was a fucking trip, you guys. I didn’t even know if I trusted the foot doctor with the confident smile and the earnest evaluation. I’d had a foot doctor with a confident smile and an earnest evaluation before, and I didn’t know who was wrong. Now he was telling me to go see other people if I wanted answers.

I’d had my answer taken from me, or at least thrown into doubt, and it felt like hell. I can’t explain to you how awful those weeks were, doubting. I didn’t have effective treatment in my entire life with this pain, but I’d finally gotten a diagnosis when I was twelve and it was my only fucking solace.

Drowning again. Went to the rheumatologist.

She presses a few places along my legs, my arms, my neck, my face. My side. “Does this hurt?” she’d ask, the answer always yes.

Guys, she starts asking me questions. She knew from my file that I had depression, so that box was already ticked. Then came

“gastrointestinal complications?” “Yes, these two in specific.”

and “trouble sleeping?” “yes, for as long as I can remember.”

“can you tolerate exercise?” “tolerate is a good word for it.”

“do you experience full-body aches and pains regularly?” This one caught me off guard. “Yes.” No doctor had ever really took particular note that when I came in with allergies or a cold my answer to “aches and pains?” was always “can’t tell if they’re more than usual?” so I’d figured it was something that I could explain away. I explained it away for her.

“But I never exercise, don’t sleep well, you know.” “Not exercising shouldn’t cause you to be in pain all the time.”

Oh. I thought. When you say it like that.

I sat there in that plastic chair and took in for the first time that the pain in the upper half of my body was way worse than I let myself acknowledge. Almost as bad as the pain in my legs. And for the most part, very similar in flavors. I hated it. I hated realizing that. I didn’t want to realize that. I didn’t want to give those aches the time of day.

The questions continued. “Do you have trouble concentrating or with short-term memory?”

At this point I was anxious, a little bit uncomfortable, and very very curious as to why this woman was reading off a list of everything I hated about myself when all she had on her records was ‘depressed, flat feet’. “Yes. Constantly.”

I’m a poster child for Fibromyalgia, and I always have been. It’s possible, she said, that I really did have ‘growing pains’ as a child that were so bad that they triggered fibro, which is a condition that typically has a triggering physical or mental trauma. I still don’t know if I believe her. I still have ‘growing pains’ today, and they’re still exactly the same. Haven’t grown an inch in years.

She had to do some tests to rule other things out, to officially give me a diagnosis of exclusion, but it all came back negative, as she expected. We had a whole talk about all of the myriad things that people do to treat it. The medications for it would all interfere with my antidepressant, which is currently pulling triple its weight by also treating my two gastro diseases. And all of them had side effects that added to the neurological impairment.

The neurological impairment is called ‘Fibro Fog’, which I had no idea existed and no one I knew did either. But it’s the worst fucking part of being in this body at the moment -- doesn’t matter that my entire digestive system is a minefield, that my muscles and bones are constantly screaming -- it’s the mental parts that I can’t bear. The depression is being treated and it is well under control -- but there’s no direct treatment for the fog. And the fog, I’m just now realizing, is the reason why even in this new era of my life with depression under control and relationships healthier than ever -- that I can’t write like I need to. Or do any other creative or active thing for myself.

The absolute weirdest thing about all of this is the fact that it is known. It is not a closely-guarded secret or a rare one-in-a-million occurrence. Reading about it, reading what other people say about it, is so bizarre I can hardly breathe. It’s like I was a hermit, I told my mom recently. I was living in a place that other people couldn’t get to and couldn’t understand, and I was alone, and I was dealing with it. Almost content with it, with the space that I’d made my own and the experiences that I was trapped with.

Reading other people’s stories is like suddenly realizing thousands of people have been living in my house, on my land, this whole time. My first reaction was honestly fear. I DON’T WANT YOU HERE!

My second reaction was loneliness, and I’ve been bouncing between the two ever since.

I’m a writer who can’t write most of the time. Artist who often cannot paint. Musician who barely plays and sings. I need these things. I need especially to write. And it’s not the pain or the intestines or the sadness that have been the main obstacle all this time, and I know it now, and I’m staring it in the face and screaming at it daily. I’m screaming into this fucking fog and it doesn’t make anything better, but at least I know its name?

My toes are still tingling, by the way.

#'sickly'scribe #fibromyalgia #amy rants

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mercerislandbooks · 8 years ago

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Laurie Frankel & Ashley Ream

It’s always fun to welcome an author to the store, but what’s really exciting is hosting two at the same time. Writers in conversation with each other seem to be much more revealing than they are when they’re presenting by themselves. It’s just a more natural mode of expression. For us in the audience it’s like eavesdropping instead of listening to a canned speech, and I think we get our fill of those on the news these days, don’t you? Anyway, two authors = double the fun. When those two are the two we have on tap for next week? Well, that’s a real thrill.

One of those is Ashley Ream, who’s written a novel, The 100 Year Miracle, that we’d be fond of even if it weren’t set on a Northwest island. This particular fictional island is off the coast of Washington, surrounded by tiny organisms that glow once every century. Since time immemorial these sea creatures have been merely striking to see, but in the present day, one obsessive researcher believes they hold the answer to curing a debilitating disease. She, and a man who is suffering its effects, have only one week before the bloom will fade and perhaps their hopes with it. Cutting-edge medical science meets riveting personal drama, set on local shores--not to be missed.

The other author on the bill is Laurie Frankel, someone you may remember from a Modern Love column she wrote for the New York Times last fall, a piece that went viral so fast it made Ebola look mild. That column, about her daughter’s first days of school, was a snapshot of the experiences that helped inspire the novel she’ll be sharing with us next Tuesday. This Is How It Always Is is the story of a mom and a dad raising an all-boy clan the size of a basketball team, a family that might be abnormally large but is otherwise as normal as anyone’s, full of chaos, joy, and petty bickering. But then one day the youngest of the bunch announces that he wants to be a girl when he grows up. It starts as a secret that stays in-house, but like all secrets it has to come out eventually. And then what? It’s no spoiler to say that the lesson of this big drama is that it’s a lot like everybody’s little dramas. Kids grow, things change, and it’s never easy, regardless of who you are or who you want to be.

These books are a perfect combination because they’re exactly what most of us look for when we read. Both take inspiration from zeitgeisty current topics that make us think, and both convert those big ideas into approachable human stories that make us feel. They’re about lives like ours, happening to real people like us, just a little smarter, funnier, more tumultuous, and more interesting, and you’ll feel all of the above after you take signed copies of Ashley and Laurie’s books home with you.

In case my little theory about author combos, life, the universe, and why we read doesn't convince you, I have a pro waiting in the wings. Laurie Frankel herself has been kind enough to provide some thoughts about how and why she writes. Her (our!) exclusive essay is just a taste of the treats in store when we meet on May 30th.

--James

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Writing a novel while raising children is a lot like trying to defuse a bomb while someone is hitting you over the head with a Nerf baseball bat while complaining about you.

—Derek B. Miller, author of Norwegian by Night and The Girl in Green

The first thing novel-writing demands is lots and lots of quiet time in which to do it. Novel-writing is long. I often compare the process to a marathon but feel a little self-conscious doing so here as Ashley Ream is not just a marathoner but an ultra marathoner. She looks at someone running 26.2 miles and thinks: Wuss. So maybe a different metaphor is required here, or maybe that’s where we’ll begin our conversation May 30th: Is writing a novel more like a marathon or an ultra marathon? Suffice it to say that novel-writing takes a lot of time. First you have to write many, many words. Then it turns out most of them are terrible, so you have to cut them and write many, many more. Then most of those are terrible too but maybe slightly less terrible, or at least more salvageable, so then you have to fix them, make them suck less, make them actually better, make them actually good. So you need a lot of time.

And not just any time. Quiet time. Novel-writing requires immense concentration. Because it’s such a long marathon of a process, it’s hard to keep it all in your head at once. Questions I ask myself daily include: Has that happened yet? Does that happen at all? Does that character still possess that trait that this whole scene hinges upon? Is that character even still alive right now? Oh, wait, that’s not this book. That’s the last book I wrote. Wait, no, I didn’t write that book; someone else wrote that book. Shit.

Children, you’ll have noticed if you have some or even have ever seen some on the street, are enemies of quiet time and concentration. They are loud. They are relentlessly demanding. They draw all of your focus and everyone else’s too. They also preclude the things which would help. So for instance, maybe you find some child care and so you have some quiet time, but unfortunately, you haven’t slept in two months so your concentration is lacking.

All of which is ironic because I find children also up the stakes of the novel-writing game immensely. This is another question we can pose to Ashley on the 30th. As the mother of a newborn, asking her to write up a short blog post is literally less reasonable than asking her to run fifty miles, but I have no doubt she has finely honed thoughts on how sleeplessness contributes to art and literature. Myself, I find paying for child care extraordinarily motivating. The temptation to piddle away hours messing about online is significantly lessened by having to pay twenty bucks apiece for them, and their being in such short supply makes them precious. I write from the moment my kid gets on the bus to go to school every morning to the moment she gets off every afternoon because those moments are few, and they’re the only ones I have.

And never mind the difficulty of scheduling around them, children are also motivating in the very fact of themselves. Simply, hugely, it is this: I try to write books that make the world a better place for my kid to grow up in. On too little sleep, with too little focus, too tired, and without enough time, that’s a tall order. But I think it’s the one to strive for anyway. Kids make clear the goal, even as they strew the path to it with a thousand tiny Legos you will step on tomorrow morning in bare feet having slept only four hours, and even as they give you only forty-five minutes to navigate said path (less whatever is required to pick up those Legos), and even as their presence means you no longer remember how to walk down paths. They’ll make you walk anyway. And they’ll stickily hold your hand while you do it. And truthfully, I wouldn’t want to write any other way.

--Laurie Frankel

#Laurie Frankel #Ashley Ream #This Is How It Always Is #Island Books #The 100 Year Miracle #James Crossley #Derek B. Miller #The Girl in Green #Norwegian by Night #author readings #writers in conversation

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authorsadiethatcher · 7 months ago

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I love summer, but May is my favorite month. Why? Because it's my birthday month. And I chose the picture to go along with this month's State of the Thatcher Address because my favorite color is blue. If you've paid attention to my covers, you've probably noticed that. There's a lot of blue outfits.

April was filled with family obligations, travel, and some medical stuff. I still got lots of writing done, for both of my pen names, but it was not just a work month for me. May will definitely have more words get written as I have deadlines approaching.

I'll talk about May's writing a little further down, but this month should be a good one. And the current weather forecast has the rain giving way to warm temperatures and sun just in time for my birthday. I can't complain about that.

A quick reminder that you can find my books on Amazon, Smashwords, Google Play Books, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and Everand. You can also read everything I’ve published under my Sadie Thatcher name since last May on Ream, which is a subscription platform built specifically for authors. You can check out my Ream page below.

Ream: https://reamstories.com/sadiethatcher

I also post the occasional bit of flash fiction for followers on Ream. I have one up already and plan to post another one this week. As soon as I'm inspired, I'll add a new mini-story to Ream.

On the Libby Feron front, my fantasy writing is going decently well. I'm working on a series of novellas or short novels that was initially inspired by the pirate attack on Port Royal in the Pirates of the Caribbean movie. But on top of that, I'm also got an idea for a time travel fantasy novel percolating in my head. More on that another time. However, since I don’t talk about my fantasy writing often, checking out https://libbyferon.com/ and signing up for the email newsletter is the best way to stay informed. At some point, there will be a free novella offered.

Now it’s time to talk about what to expect this month. First, I've already released the first book in the His Dreams Series. This is the first time I've written specifically from the male perspective for an entire story. The entire series will be like this.

I also have one last book left in The Secret Series. I plan to finish writing it today and will be submitting it for publishing May 3.

And then there's the new content. I have two new series that will begin to appear in the middle and then the latter part of the month. First is an alien hucow story. A town will be taken over by aliens and the population turned into livestock for the aliens. I'm not sure of all the details yet, but I'm excited to write it.

Finally, there's a series idea I've had for a while that I'm looking forward to. It's been documented that if a male dominated workplace has a single woman, nothing will really change. Instead, the woman is far more likely to conform to the male points of view, playing along so that she can be one of the boys. While the reality of that is unfortunate, it makes for a good setup for a bimbo story, which I'm calling Tokenized, at least for now. All titles and ideas are subject to change with my whims and muse.

So that about does it. You can also hopefully expect a fantasy novella from me as Libby Feron at the end of the month called A Throne of Bones. What a month this will be.

#sadie thatcher #writing #buildingbettergiggles #story #state of the thatcher address

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authorsadiethatcher · 10 months ago

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It's time for another State of the Thatcher Address. I tried writing this earlier, but I just ran out of time. But now you get it here, with my latest updates on what's happening in the Thatcherverse.

Last month I talked about being behind on my writing. The good news is I've caught up. And I've got a lot of fun stuff planned for you, which I'll mention specifically below.

This month I need to lead off with the fact I have books up for several awards and you can help me win. The 2023 Golden Pigtails is a series of erotica awards hosted by Alexa Sommers. The categories aren't necessarily great fits for my books, but this is my first time being involved. Check out the awards and you can vote for your favorites. This is the semifinals. Voting in this round goes through February 14.

2023 Golden Pigtails: https://alexasommers.com/the-golden-pigtails-2023-semifinals/

A quick reminder that you can find my books on Amazon, Smashwords, Google Play Books, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and Everand. You can also read everything I've published under my Sadie Thatcher name since last May on Ream, which is a subscription platform built specifically for authors. You can check out my Ream page below.

Ream: https://reamstories.com/sadiethatcher

And speaking of Ream, I have a Ream exclusive novel called The Muse (extreme dollification) that is approaching completion. I've set new chapters to release twice per week (Tuesdays and Fridays). When not writing new stories, I'm spending my time writing The Muse.

However, as soon as I finish The Muse, I will redirect that free time toward my other pen name, Libby Feron. As Libby, I write modern fantasy romance. I'll have a free novella available to prepare for a new trilogy that I hope to publish this year. The trilogy will be focused on a previously introduced character as she heads off to a college for magical people. I don't talk about my fantasy writing often, so checking out https://libbyferon.com/ and signing up for the email newsletter is the best way to stay informed. And that free novella will be exclusive to newsletter subscribers, so you'll want to sign up for that.

Now to focus on this month's upcoming books. In addition to the ending of The Muse, I will be finishing the Protest Babes Series. At the time of this address, the third book hasn't been published yet, but it will be called Vexing the Vixen. I've also just started an auction themed series, understandably titles the Bimbo Auction Series with Ring in the Bimbo. A ring plays an important role. A pair of panties and a hairbrush will be important in the other books in the series.

Some of the other upcoming books I've got in the pipeline for this month is a series based on a future glimpse that will lead women toward bimbodom. And then the one I'm really excited for, which won't see the light until the very end of the month is a series inspired by the time loop in the movie Groundhog Day. I considered moving it up to coincide with the holiday, but I decided against it, because other than the time loop inspiration, the movie and the series will have little in common.

So that's what you can expect in February. It's a packed month, especially because there are only 29 days (yay leap year). My favorite part is how sunset occurs later every day. That's true in January, too, but it's less noticeable.

Have a sexy and bimbo-filled February!

#sadie thatcher #golden pigtails #buildingbettergiggles #state of the thatcher address

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authorsadiethatcher · 8 months ago

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It's a new month and that means it's time for another State of the Thatcher Address. I considered doing an April Fool's post where I would announce my retirement from writing, but that could easily be taken the wrong way and I'm not going anywhere. I've got a ton of great content upcoming, which I'll highlight toward the end.

It's also properly spring now, which I love. And after a rough March where I felt like I was constantly playing catch-up with my writing deadlines, I am finally ahead, meaning I can relax and push the fun angle a little more, at least in my writing process.

A quick reminder that you can find my books on Amazon, Smashwords, Google Play Books, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and Everand. You can also read everything I’ve published under my Sadie Thatcher name since last May on Ream, which is a subscription platform built specifically for authors. You can check out my Ream page below.

Ream: https://reamstories.com/sadiethatcher

And speaking of Ream, I have a Ream exclusive novel called The Muse (extreme dollification) that is now complete. I've made the first three chapters available for free. All you have to do is sign up as a follower at the link above to get a taste of my first real story that is too extreme for Amazon.

I also post the occasional bit of flash fiction for followers on Ream. I have one up already and plan to post another one this week. This week's flash fiction story will be called Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.

This month I plan to actually spend some time on my other pen name, Libby Feron. As Libby, I write fantasy romance. I've got two projects I'm working on. The first is a series of novellas that could stretch into novels by the end of the series. The other is focusing on the sister in Magic's Most Wanted as she heads off to college. I don’t talk about my fantasy writing often, so checking out https://libbyferon.com/ and signing up for the email newsletter is the best way to stay informed. At some point, there will be a free novella offered.

Now it's time to talk about what to expect this month. First, there is one last book in the Spirit Week Series. That will be a double transformation with an orgy at the end. Be wary of the Bimbo Blonde hair dye. I will also be releasing a series about body glitter that turns people who touch it into bimbos. That should be a lot of fun.

The big one that I'm looking forward to, and will begin writing as soon as I finish writing this post, is College Investigation Journal. There is a dorm section at Thatcher College that keeps turning out bimbos. Every woman who lives there turns into a bimbo. And the college is sending in a graduate student to discover why. This will be written in a diary or journal format, similar to Experiment in Submission.

After that, I've got two more series that will appear toward the end of the month. One is about using bimbofication to hide secrets. The other will involve dreams somehow. I haven't figured out the details beyond that yet.

So as you can see, there's a lot of cool stuff coming this month. And I'm hoping April makes for an all around good month for my followers and readers.

#sadie thatcher #writing #buildingbettergiggles #story #state of the thatcher address

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