#filipe getting eaten

[domi-scu]

Welcome, Filip.

The bed was far from comfy and so I was thankful when the alarm went off at 7 (or, according to Alex, 'at 5am??!' due to +2h timezone) so I had a reason to get up. It took almost an hour to convince him that I will starve to death if we don't go for breakfast and in the meantime, I attempted yoga. But without touching the carpet cause it was pretty questionable.

At breakfast, Alex made friends with an old man who was having a cigarette. In a mix of Russian, Romanian and English while I just listened and tried to get through my coffee to feel a bit more human.

First things first, we needed to find some suncream. It didn't take too long but somehow, I smeared it all over my crop top so the white stains on my boobs now look extremely questionable. We found out yesterday that couple of friends who are also coming to the wedding on Saturday are in Sofia too so we set out to meet them. Big kudos to this city for planting Linden trees around the roads. It smells really nice although my hayfever is not happy and my brain is itchy.

At this point, it was time to meet with Rasto and Eliska and figure out if they have any touristy plans because we are completely winging it and have no plan whatsoever. Turns out, their plan was as non existent as ours so now we were winging it together.

They took us to a pub in a park that they visited yesterday. The walk there lead past a famous church which we tried to go into but Eli's dress was too short and the guys were wearing shorts so, somehow, I was the only one allowed in (in a crop top). So since there was obviously no hope for our souls, we settled for beer.

We also realised we're planning to take the same train to Burgas the next day. We let Alex book the tickets (1st class!) online as he is the only one able to read Cyrillic and that was sorted.

One lunch later, we stopped for another drink/ coffee, which is when we realised that the groom to be will also be landing in Sofia this evening. And well.... Not like we have anything better to do, right? How about we go wait for him with a ridiculous sign? As he later pointed out 'only you guys can spend your one day in Sofia by looking for a stationery shop where people speak English.' like it's hard...

Let me put it this way... The sign involved a lot of pink cardboard, pink glitter glue that wouldn't dry, some very inappropriate inside jokes translated into Bulgarian and tears of laughter. While we were working on this masterpiece, Filip (the groom to be), informed us that he actually won't have time to meet us tonight and he'll see us in Sozopol before the wedding. Oh sweet summer child...

I'll be honest, our signs got many laughs and we were debating whether he still had enough time to uninvite us from the wedding but he seemed to love it. And since we were already there, he said he might as well have a pint with us. The number of mosquitoes was rather unfortunate because by the time we finished out drink and pizza, we were eaten alive but what can you do right... Buy a repellent I suppose. That's definitely on the agenda tomorrow.

Wish us luck with the train to Burgas, we were told that the train tracks sometimes get stolen.

[caspers-chibs-imagines]

Redemption

Summary

Riley Teller and her son move back to Charming. When Riley returns however, she is faced with the fact that she had to take on her responsibilities as a mom better than before when they are apart of The Sons. Allies are made and maybe a little something more with a certain Scotsman.

____

Chapter Twenty Three

“It’s just for one night. Why can’t they just let me stay?” I cross my arms against my chest as Tara awkwardly fiddles with her hands.

“It’s hospital regulations. You can come back tomorrow morning though-”

“To hell with regulations! I’m not leaving my son.” I interrupt her. My chest fluttered and my jaw clenched as Tara looked at me as her mouth opened and closed like a goldfish. “Either use your words or close your mouth.”

Tara closes her mouth and rubs her forehead with her right hand.

“I can… try to let you stay, but you’ve got to be quiet. No wandering around. You need anything you text me.” She explains and relief runs through my veins. My shoulders feel less strained and they sag back down from their tensed position.

“Thank you.” I mutter before she ushers me back into the hospital room.

“Close the blind, keep the noise down and I’ll be the nurse to come check up on Tommy.” Tara then leaves and closes the door behind her.

I turn back to Tommy as he slept in the hospital bed. Mom had brought me a bag of stuff from home, a few items being Tommy’s blanket and teddy bear. I had tucked him in with blanket and he cuddled his teddy with his left arm, resting his cast upon a pillow beside him. He wasn’t in any pain and after his last check up by Tara, everything will be fine. The cast will just be a constant reminder of how I didn’t protect my baby.

Fillip.

God I wish I could hear his voice right now. Feel his hand brush my hair while he whispers “tha’ everything will be fine.”

Not lay near enough comatose in a hospital bed with a hole stitched up in his head.

I didn’t know what to do. Still don’t. I had visited the room that Tara wrote down when she handed me the piece of paper earlier today. I walked up to the door, looked through the small window and froze.

There lay his shell.

It wasn’t my Fillip.

He was lifeless, hooked up to a machine that beep, beep, beeped away.

I stood for a while next to him, my knees locked and my calves and feet felt like TV static. I can’t begin to describe the feeling I held in my chest, but I can begin with that I can’t lose him. I never had closure with George, I never got to say goodbye or say one last ‘I love you’. I didn’t want to have that a second time.

But I wasn’t going to say goodbye because he was going to make it. We were going to see each other again. We’d say hello again.

***

I spent the night wide awake watching over Tommy. I concluded that the explosion had to have been Zobelle; which means that Clay is going to retaliate no matter what anyone thought. This was all the fuel Clay needed to have a full on blood bath in Charming – which could mean someone is going to either end up dead or behind bars. Watching Tommy sound asleep made me panic that that someone could be me. Was being a part of the club worth risking my baby?

The next morning the doctor came as Tara had already clocked off, it was easy to lie and say I’d only arrived moments before him. He gave Tommy a once over and deemed him fit enough to return home and rest there.

“Will everyone sign my arm mommy?” Tommy asked as I drove the truck back home. “Elliot had a cast in school and we all drew on it for him. Miss Harrison said it would make his arm better. Will it make my arm better mommy?”

“It will baby,” I assured him and smiled. “You can get all your friends to sign it at school.” With that Tommy seemed to beam the rest of the drive, happy to be able to get his cast signed by everyone.

We spent majority of the afternoon watching movies and playing with Tommy’s dinosaurs. Tommy had wanted me to sign his cast and I did so with purple heart and wrote ‘mommy’s soldier’. He beamed all afternoon about being a brave soldier, ready to fight the bad guys to protect his mommy.

The club hadn’t called or visited which most likely meant they weren’t going to consider me as a prospect in their decisions today. Which I am grateful for because I didn’t want a minute away from my son. Any chance I could grasp onto him and hold him in my arms, feel his little heartbeat in his chest, blow raspberry kisses on his cheeks, all moments that assured me that he was alive and well.

Coming up to dinner I still hadn’t heard anything from the club or even Jax. Silence is never good – with children or with men. Tommy had asked to call Half-sack at the hospital, after he had his surgery Tommy had been missing one of his favourite babysitters – I couldn’t lie and say I don’t miss him too. So whilst I prepared spaghetti and meatballs, Tommy sat on the floor against the fridge with my phone rambling on about his new cast to him.

“Mommy said I can get it signed by everybody!” Tommy falls silent for a moment, then nods his head. “I made a square for you to sign, next to Chibby!”

Filip…

I jolt as the door knocks. I wipe my hands on the kitchen towel before leaving Tommy still chatting away on the floor and go to greet my new guest.

“Got room for one more?” Mom asks as she holds up a bottle of whiskey. She has shadows under her eyes, her hair still styled to perfection but her shoulders hold onto an invisible weight as they slump.

“Meatballs almost done,” I step back and let her in. We walk back to the kitchen after I close the door. Tommy sees mom and almost drops the phone as he runs up to her to cuddle.

“Grandma is here. Okay. Bye Eddie!” Tommy beams up at mom and I take my phone back and put it on the counter.

Dinner is eaten in the living room with mom and I on the couch and Tommy sat on the floor and his plate on the coffee table. Scooby Doo and the gang run around trying to solve another mystery as I eat my meal and sip the whiskey mom brought. Tommy gasps when the monster is revealed to the previous owner of the land. Mom is silent. She greeted Tommy with warmth and a smile and she answered him anytime he spoke to her, but other than that it’s as though she’s lost in her own little world.

I don’t press her on what’s wrong; that’s a first class ticket to being berated about my own problems.

By the time Tommy is settled in bed and hugging his teddy bear, my own fatigue was creeping up on me. I walk into the kitchen just as mom opens a window, her other hand holding a pack of cigarettes and her lighter.

“Spare one?” I ask as I walk over to the counter below the window and sit on it. Mom passes me a cigarette and lights it for me. With my first inhale I realise that this has been the first one I’ve had in two days.

Mom lights up her own and we sit and stand in a comfortable silence.

“I never did get to say goodbye to your father,” Mom begins, exhaling smoke as she looks at me. A haunted shadow in her eyes fluttered by and said goodbye before I could question it.

“Only got to hear the words come from the sheriff where they found parts of his skull.” I shuddered. I took another drag and let it’s burn itch at my chest.

“I don’t remember the last thing I said to George,” I muttered. Mom shifts next to me, turning in to listen as she did when I was younger.

“I just remember we were shouting; I was trying to get him to come with me. To run back here and get help… but he didn’t want to run. I remember seeing blood and putting Tommy in the truck. But I don’t remember if I told him I loved him.” I sniff back the coarse feeling in my throat. My chest burns a deeper hole. The last thing I asked Fillip to do was take Jax’s side.

“The last thing Fillip said to me was my name. He called out to me before the van blew up. He saved my little boy. Now I don’t know if I’ll get to help him.” My head falls, I stare down at my feet. Mom wraps an arm around me and pulls me into her, her chin resting on my head.

“Does it ever stop?” I ask – beg.

“You never get over it.”

[potofsoup]

Witcher ficlet

Here’s a 500 word Witcher ficlet that happened in the 20 minutes before lunch:

-------

“We don’t want your kind here, Witcher!”

Vesemir pulled back and stared at the man pointing a pitchfork at him.  It’s Kevan, though now with a head of graying hair and quite a few extra wrinkles since he last saw him.  Vesemir remembered him to be kindly, though he didn’t look it now, snarling at Vesemir.  “Go away, baby-eater!”  Kevan spat in Vesemir’s stunned face.

“Baby eater?” Vesemir blinks, ignoring the wet trail of spit dribbling down his cheek.  “We’re not baby eaters.  In fact, I’m…”

Kevan waggled his finger.  “One of you monsters came through a decade back, spun some tale about monsters in the woods, and snatched Agata’s babe out of her arms.”

That was…  well, it wasn’t how Vesemir remembered it.  He remembered waiting in the cottage for his ma to come home, trying to keep the baby quiet lest the monsters in the forest heard the sound.  He remembered hearing his mother at the doorstep and hurrying to open the door for her.  He remembered her tears drenching his shirt as she hugged him, and the tall Witcher behind her who’d said, gently, “You’d promised the first thing you saw when you got home.”

Vesemir swallowed, and tried again.  “No, you’ve got it wrong.  *I’m* Agata’s child, Vesemir.  I didn’t get eaten, Kevan.  Remember me?  You used to give me mallow candies, and I’d show you the crickets I’d caught.”   Kevan had been kind to their family, and, by the looks of things, had moved into the cottage with ma while Vesemir was gone.

Kevan narrowed his eyes and looked Vesemir up and down, taking in his two swords and his armor, still bloody from when he took out the two drowners in the forest stream.   “So they turned you into a monster instead.”  He spat again, this time on the ground, and muttered. “Maybe better if they’d eaten you, instead of making more of their kind.”   Kevan gestured back down the road that Vesemir came from.  “Shoo.  Git.  Before Agata comes back and sees you.  She’s had enough hardship in her life, don’t need to find out her son got turned into a monster.”

Vesemir took a step back.  Then another.  Over Kevan’s shoulder, he could see the cottage, with the same crack in the window, though with some new trim.  In the garden beds, he could see ma’s favorite herbs, mixed with some bright blue flowers that he didn’t recognize.  “My brother.  Filip.  Did he grow up all right?”  

Kevan nodded cautiously, hands no longer gripped as tightly on the pitchfork.  “Aye.  Married a year past.  We’ve got three more, besides.”  He made one more shooing motion with the pitchfork, and finally, Vesemir wrenched himself back towards the road and the forest.  Before Kevan could see his tears — Witchers weren’t supposed to feel things, after all.

As he dragged his feet back down the path, Vesemir now understood why the masters at Kaer Morhen warned against going home.  Master Lukan was right.  The only family he had now were Wolf Witchers.

When, some days later, the woman he saved from an endreaga said she had no way to pay, Vesemir swallowed and said, “Give me the first thing you see when you get home, then.”

------

okay so I'd like to think that the Witchers really gauge their Law of Surprise claims based on the people's reactions.  Like, if the kid was cowardly or wouldn't make a good Witcher, they'd probably be like "um, yes, I'm sure you saw your radishes first."  Or with the Law of Surprise, well, if the parents were honorable and kept to their end of the promise, then that's a pretty good sign about the upbringing of the kid.  If the parents were horrible people, then all the more reason to get the child out of a toxic household.  And if it's something in-between, then ... maybe the Witcher just conveniently "forgets" to claim their Child Surprise.

(And of course, by Geralt’s time, there’s no way to make new Witchers, so why even try to build your family?)

[eddiemunsonsmiddlefingers]

Rambling below contains vague-ish but still spoiler-y comments about the Expanse season 5 finale.

Fuck Marco Inaros. Three solid years of razzing John Winchester ain’t got nothing on how badly I want to watch this colossal dickweed BURN. I hope Naomi nails him to the Ring with her bare fucking hands and then kicks him junk first into the void.

...Actually I sort of hope Filip flips on him when he least expects it and absolutely fucks his shit up and THEN Naomi ends him.

(I am...marginally sure...this is not how things go in the books, but given how many other things they changed for the show, I give exactly zero shits.)

Anyway, onto more positive subjects.

Spacewalking, death defying, “brave idiot” Naomi Nagata has my heart. I am glad she figured out a way to rescue everyone from the exploding castle. I was a little worried that solving the puzzle would be left up to the dude characters, thus dropping her into full on damsel in distress trope, but...no. She got her own damn self out (and then another woman noticed what she was doing and pulled her to safety!) and just...it was breathtaking to watch. As in, I literally could not breathe. I knew logically she couldn’t die, not after an entire season of trying to rescue her, but then again I just watched a show where I thought the person couldn’t die and then he did so...maybe she could, and what if...

She didn’t. It was so damn satisfying that she didn’t. Thank you, Expanse crew, for renewing a little of my faith in television.

Moving on: DRUMMER.

OH MY GOD DRUMMER.

I want you to go join the Roci’s crew, please. Bring the remnants of your family and join them with the remnants of Naomi’s, and have one big (eventually) happy polyamorous party ship, okay? Holden was raised in a poly family (which just so happened to be mentioned for the first time in ages in the finale)...like hell he’d object. You deserve that happiness, you badass bitch you. </3

Bobbie kicked ass, as she always does, and looked damn good doing it, too. (They all do, constantly, but Bobbie’s whole military/armor/I could end you with my pinky toenail deal is a special kind of attractive to me). If I remember right, she spent most of this season in the Razorback which is kind of sad, but worth it in the end.

I know Alex’s actor is a creep, but I’m glad his character got to go out doing something good instead of just off-screen ditching between seasons. I will miss Alex a lot, all things considered.

AMOS AND HOLDEN AND PEACHES AHAHAHA..!!! aaalkdjfald;ksfsd I can’t even, I cracked up so hard. I know I would want to murder Amos within a week (if he didn’t murder me first :P) if I knew him for real, but on screen he’s fantastic and I want him to win every time. 

Amos’s friend whose name I just forgot...I ended up liking him, and now I’m worried he’s gonna get eaten by the Ring. Damn it.

Holden is, as usual, the Jon Snow of the show (I mean, he even kinda looks like him). Nice to look at, entirely too noble, kind of a dumbass....I suppose every crew needs glue to hold it together, and he does a damn good job of it even when said crew is spread all over, so props to him.

Aaand finally...Avasarala. She and Miller (and the one lady Star Helix who saved Miller from being spaced that one time) were why I kept watching the show past the first 2-3 episodes, so it is good to see her come into her own. The price was terrible, but I think she’s finally in the right place. I keep hoping her husband will pop back on the radar, but...I suppose this isn’t really a fairy tale, is it? 

I’m so excited for season 6, and I don’t even know when it’s going to fucking air AAAAAAAAAH.

[violetwolfraven]

Elmer headcanons?

Ok!

He’s canonly the youngest of 9 so like. Damn. I only have one sibling and I can’t imagine how much that would suck.

I imagine him having 4 brothers and 4 sisters so El was the tie breaker.

After him his parents go yeah we’re done.

As far as I know Elmer’s siblings don’t have canon names so it goes like this (in 1885) Elmer (0), Hope (1), Adam (3), Jarek (5), Ada (7), Hubert (8), Karina (9) Filip (10), and Irena (13).

Anyway Hope is only a year older so Elmer isn’t even of the baby of the family by that much.

So by the time he’s like 6 he doesn’t get much attention anymore. Everyone’s more interested in his oldest few siblings getting their first jobs and Irena and Filip getting their first partners.

When he was really young, Elmer always tried to play with Adam and Jarek, but they already had each other as playmates, so they excluded him a lot.

And of course Hope finds it annoying when he sticks to her (like glue haha) so she lashes out.

Hubert, Karina, Filip, and Irena are so much older that they just don’t have anything in common or any time for him.

So Elmer gets used to fading into the background because Ada is the only one who ever pays attention to him and even then she’s enough older that they can’t have much in common.

In modern AU he meets the others in about 6th grade.

In canon era he meets them when he’s 9 (3 years younger than Jack) after Irena gets married and the family needs to send another kid to work to make up for losing her factory income.

Either way Elmer is kinda just... baffled by all this attention and affection he’s getting suddenly.

Like his friends roughhouse and joke around and sometimes jokes are at his expense but it’s never in a meanspirited way.

They listen when he talks and actively choose to be around him and in general just notice he’s there and he’s... never had that before.

Elmer is super touch-starved and once his friends figure that out they’re all eager to give him all the hugs he wants.

In both eras, it’s Jack who first notices that he has dyslexia and assures him that he’s not stupid, it’s just that reading is harder for him than most people.

In modern era since there’s a word for it there he gets tested and diagnosed and all that but in canon era for the most part Jack or Race just read the headlines out loud every morning to help.

In canon era Jack, Race, Buttons, and later Davey are the only ones who know.

Speaking of Buttons...

In canon era, he shows up when he and Elmer are 10.

They hit it off immediately because they have something in common the other kids don’t; they both still have families and multiple siblings.

The two of them start staying at the Lodging House most nights to escape the craziness of their families at age 12.

Elmer is a little clumsy, so Buttons often ends up patching up torn clothes.

And sometimes more than clothes which is totally not because Elmer keeps standing up for those no one else will stand up for.

In all seriousness Elmer is 500% ready to throw hands for literally any random stranger who needs his help, and also horses, cats, dogs, and one time a cow.

Buttons is pretty sure he’s got a death wish because he’s had to figure out real fast how to patch up wounds from broken bottles, wooden boards, and crowbars, among other things.

He angrily lectures Elmer to be more careful more than once and basically cue Elmer all like hot damn.

Something about Buttons’s fierce brand of kindness... he gets stuck on that. He needs to be near him.

He doesn’t realize he’s falling is love until during the strike—when they’re 14–and they don’t get together until they’re 18 and they’re leaving for better jobs and Elmer asks Buttons to stay.

Not in the Manhattan Lodging House, but with him.

Anyway in modern era, Elmer is just as eager to throw down in defense of others but gets a lot less opportunities.

He and Buttons take longer to get close.

They kinda know each other cause they’re friends with the same people but then one day some bullies decide to pick on Buttons and Elmer is naturally all just oh okay time to throw down now.

Cue Buttons all like hot damn but definitely too shy to do anything about it.

They don’t talk much for a couple months after that despite how Elmer does think Buttons is cute too.

Anyway Elmer spends a lot of time at other people’s houses in this era (mostly the Larkin and Dasilva houses) just to get away from the crazy crowdedness of his own family.

Then one day Jarek forgets to pick him up from mathletes (because you can pry modern!Elmer being Cady Heron’s national-level math nemesis out of my cold dead hands) and it’s pouring down rain outside.

Still, instead of calling someone to come get him Elmer naturally thinks I can totally walk 2 miles to get home through that and puts his hoodie hood up and gets moving.

Not even half a mile later he’s freezing, soaking wet, and starving cause he hasn’t eaten since lunch.

He’s pretty sure he’s about to pass out, and he really doesn’t want to do that on the sidewalk so he starts thinking about friends who live closer to the school than he does.

The nearest house happens to be the Davenports’.

Needless to say Buttons is pretty shocked when his crush shows up on his doorstep soaking wet but still with a big smile, all just hi Buttons can I crash here for a bit?

Unfortunately Elmer meant crash quite literally, as he straight up faints right then and there and Buttons has to drag him inside.

It’s probably a good thing Buttons is home alone at the time.

When Elmer wakes up he’s pretty disoriented but warm and (relatively) dry under a blanket on Buttons’s couch.

He looks over to realize that Buttons is sitting in a chair nearby just watching the movie he put on quietly in the background and just. Oh shit I just passed out in front of a cute boy.

He kinda panics like I should go sorry for barging in but Buttons is like wtf no you literally passed out you’re either calling someone to come get you or staying the night. Now drink some fucking hot chocolate and get some self-preservation instincts you idiot.

And Elmer feels like he should call someone to come get him but he also doesn’t really want to cause hot damn.

In the end he does call Jack to pick him up and Jack chews him out for trying to walk home in a storm but he also notices the look he and Buttons share at the door.

Elmer ends up texting Buttons and asking if he wants to meet up for coffee as a thank you for not letting me freeze to death in the rain.

They end up spending a lot of time together and eventually get set up by Jack by their friends who are all tired of their shit like good god guys we all know you’re in love just kiss already.

If Elmer was confused by all the affection he was getting from having a good platonic friend group, he’s very confused by the affection he gets being in a romantic relationship.

Buttons kinda wants to throw hands with his boyfriend’s big siblings for that but that’s besides the point.

Anyway it takes him a while to get used to even just small gestures like holding hands but once he gets used to it Elmer is 100% the cuddliest boyfriend ever.

He’s still super touch-starved so he’s lucky he’s got a bf who also loves physical contact.

He’s so in love with that boy and he’s happy and seen and finally has a family that appreciates him.

^both eras.

[thestagthatlovedthewolf]

This last weekend (+Thurday and Friday) was Comic Con Portugal, and I have things to share!!! This was the first time in Lisbon (better said, Oeiras, as they kept repeating because the “mayor��� wanted some points), which to me worked much better because I do not have to spend money in hotels or long distance trains... The space was huge and outside, so it was very good they changed it to September :) But in terms of the organization, they really need to decide better who they put interviewing people, there was one guy that was just really bad, and I know Joe Reitman can’t do them all (but his with Dolph Lundgren was so great - he was just so happy and excited), but can’t you bring in Mário Augusto to do some of them (not just the Disney panels).

First of all to the Americans, there will be this short movie making some festivals in the US, called Sleepwalk by Filipe Melo, and I want to tell you if you have the chance, check it out!! It’s a beautiful story inspired by a comic I read either last week of 2017 or first one of 2018, I had gotten it for my Dad as a Christmas present; I’m not sure if the comic has been translated, but the movie is fully in English and the story is very related to America.

Continuing on what I got to watch, I watch The Passage!!! Probably my favorite thing of the all Comic Con, I’ve been hearing about it since the episode “Red Queen” of The 100, and then all the press Henry Ian Cusick has been doing for it - I was very curious and I was blown away... The show did not look like something I would like, I just wanted to look at Ian (and I must say seeing him in a big screen is pretty awesome), and his performance was great, but then the story is really interesting and they leave open so many questions in the pilot, that I’m intrigued. But the best thing was the girl’s performance, Saniyya Sidney was adorable and so funny in all the interviews I had seen, but she was great in the show - she was fun and sweet, she could also really hold herself in moments of emotional pain... Really looking forward to January and the rest of season 1 (and still hoping that this show does not mean the dead of Marcus Kane, because it’s not good enough to forgive that).

Also watched the pilot of Outpost and Siren, which I know has been out in the US, they were okay, but did not intrigued me to continue watching. Also watched the movie The House with a Clock in Its Walls and it was not great - the story was not that good... and the acting from the kid was not excellent, and Jack Black was not a funny character... so I would only advise if you’re in love with Cate Blanchett - she was very good!!

This part is over and I want to talk a bit about the panels. Dan Folger (Jacob from Fantastic Beast) is one of the funniest people ever, he just couldn’t stand still and he would get up and yell at nothing, and tell jokes - he has a podcast and he’s going to put both panels he did in there, so check it out :) It probably won’t be as funny as with the visual, but still pretty good.

Then my favorite Dichen Lachman (Anya from The 100 and in the picture above), she was so sweet and nice, and I was really close to the front, so I could really see her!! And I really love the way she talks about Anya, it seems to be a character she really enjoyed playing, and she really wished that there could have been more, she feels that it’s a character with a lot of unfinished business and she would like a “Grounders” prequel. She also talked a lot about Reileen from Altered Carbon, so I’m starting the show now!!

Nicholas Hoult (the Beast from X-Men), he was so sweet!! He hugged a girl and she hadn’t asked, she was just wearing one of those free hugs signs and he just offered and it was the best thing - the girl was just so shocked!! And he talked about Skins a lot, because that show was huge here!! And I think he said one of his favorite scenes to film was when they stole Chris’ body and drove across the town - they did not close the streets, so they saw funny reactions to driving with a coffin through the streets

Then Dolph Lundgren (Ivan Drago from Rocky IV), he was just so awesome!! His stories about Rocky were just so excellent!! And him sharing stories about his own life was just so good - did you know he has a degree in chemical engineering? I’m super excited for Creed 2!!

Finally, Elyes Gabel (Rakharo from Game of Thrones), but sadly there was only one Game of Thrones related question, everything else was Scorpion talk, which I know nothing about...

These were the actor panels, which I feel that are the ones that people would want to talk about. If you have any questions about one of them or want more details, send me an ask!!

I also cosplayed this year, only in the weekend (the other two days just used fandom shirts - The 100 and Star Wars), I went with Drusilla Blackthorn from The Shadowhunter Chronicles, specifically from The Dark Artifices - she’s my favorite character of that particular series, and overall in the entire Shadowhunter world, she’s the one I most identify with, the way she talks about her body rings so true and it’s not something I normally see in media, especially fantasy. And then on Sunday, Clarisse La Rue from Percy Jackson and she’s my favorite - I LOVE HER!!! And these two girls, dressed in Hogwarts uniforms, actually asked to take a photo with me!!!

And to end this very long post, here are some of the things I bought!!! First the tote bags (Indiana Jones and Star Wars) were free, being given out by the channel “Hollywood” during their awesome concert of movie music (also a Mission Impossible tote bag, but I gave that one to my dad)

Saga (Volume 8) by Brian K Vaughan and Fiona Staples, it finally came out here!!! I’m so excited to read it!!!

I actually got some fanart this year, this ��Leia and Han” one is so beautiful and I regretted not buying it last year :) And it’s by an artist going by Little Black Spot - they have a website, www.littleblackspot.com!!!

Then these two beautiful stickers - Leia and Poison Ivy - by Inês Barros (inesbarrosillustration in instagram). If you follow me, you’re probably a asoiaf fan, and if you like Sansa Stark and/or Daenerys Targaryen, check her out, because she has these beautiful prints of them!! (I really wished she had some of Arya - I found no prints of Arya at Comic Con...)

Two Daredevil comics and they were 6 euros each!!! 6 euros, guys!!! 12 total!!! That’s was so cheap.... they are in Brazilian, which I do not love, because it’s confusing at time, but I’ll take it for the price. Also they have Elektra and Medusa!!!

Three mugs - they are not all for me... I saw the Battlestar Galactica and I had to get it for my brother (BSG has so little merch...), and then they had a deal of three for 20 euros (one is 8 euros) and I was taken... The Winterfell one is obviously for me - it’s so beautiful!!!, and the Batman and Superman one is for my dad

Then I wanted some Lost merch, because I’ve just been deep into the show lately. There wasn’t much, actually two POPs - cheaper than usual - Kate and Jacob, but I only get POPs for characters I really love, and while I have a few favorites in Lost, the only one I would consider buying is if they ever make a Penny one, because I LOVE her so much!!! But I got this Dharma pin with all the stations!! It was between this one and a Dharma beer pin...

And then a Martell pin, because I lost the one I got last year... and my Stark one was feeling alone. I need everyone to know where my allegiances lie :)

Also got a lot of Japanese food for my brother, but by now he has eaten everything!! (And one of the drinks, he didn't even remember to let me take a sip...)

This post is actually done now, to conclude this it was an AMAZING for days, and my favorite was definitely Friday!!! Not too many people, or too little, Saga came out, I watched The Passage and I had the panels with Dan Folger, Nicholas Hoult and Dichen Lachman!!!

[aion-rsa]

The Expanse Season 6 Episode 5 Review: Why We Fight

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This review of The Expanse contains spoilers.

The Expanse Season 6 Episode 5

No matter how explosive the coming finale might be, The Expanse season 6 will best be known as the most well written set of episodes where not much happened. There is no argument that “Why We Fight” is thematically very rich and filled with amazing dialogue, but aside from satisfying our need to have Drummer front and center for the final battle, this penultimate episode doesn’t scratch many itches. We can see that everything is coming to a head, but the journey towards whatever next week has in store has not been nearly as dynamic as the precedent set by previous seasons.

That being said, there were plenty of tête-à-têtes to enjoy as we watched the pieces fall into place, and many of them related directly to the episode title, “Why We Fight.” Avasarala scraps with Bobbie about whether she’s gone soft in caring about the inhabitants of Ceres. Bobbie in turn convinces Amos that “the only thing that matters is fighting for the one who’s covering your flank.” And Naomi laments with Drummer that “all we can do now is to stand by the people that we love.” A plethora of examples of why everyone fights in The Expanse!

Even Marco gets the speech from Rosenfeld about being a better father as she shows him Filip’s stirring speech about war and “no turning back now.” But honestly, who cares what motivates Marco at this point? He fights for his own ego while Filip finds a sudden friendship with a man wracked with guilt over killing his own brother in the Ceres explosion. It’s an interesting intellectual exercise before whatever final battle is to come, but the self-reflection  doesn’t really hold the interest that the relationships we care more about command.

Marco’s sulking about the uprising on Iapetus makes it almost impossible to give him any credit for putting a rail gun defense system on the inertialess ring station, even though he deserves it. It’s a great idea, and we do get a moment of action when the gutsy MCRN goes after Medina, but the sneak attack is completely disconnected from the villainy of Marco and the Free Navy, which hasn’t been intimidating since The Expanse season 5.

Read more

TV

The Expanse Season 6: Who Is Rosenfeld?

By Michael Ahr

TV

The Expanse Season 6: The Plan for the Series End

By Michael Ahr

It’s enough to make us agree with Holden when he finds out that going through the ring gates risks being eaten by whatever malevolent force lies in the between space. He implores Avasarala to act, saying “This is bigger than the war,” and a majority of the audience nods vigorously, thinking “That’s right! It is!” The disappointment of realizing we’ll never get to address that part of The Expanse’s story is heartbreaking.

Not quite as heartbreaking as watching Camina Drummer lose the last remnants of her communal family, though. In the best part of the episode, we watch the Belter leader get rejected by her own kind when given clearance by the UN and manipulated into an alliance with Earth that she knows is necessary no matter how distasteful it is to her. Seeing Drummer come to that realization while futilely trying to push Naomi away was just an emotional punch in the gut — but how glorious the pain!

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

So we can see where this is headed, right? The story on Laconia continues to suggest a protomolecule ecology that can “fix” damaged life, but in its own unnatural way. And we’ll be left wondering what Pandora’s box the rogue Martians have opened while Marco flails about in what’s sure to be a satisfying but ultimately inadequate final battle in The Expanse series finale. However, the handshake between Drummer and Avasarala was spine-tinglingly majestic, and so we raise a glass to watching them and the Rocinante crew kick ass next week, together one last time.

The post The Expanse Season 6 Episode 5 Review: Why We Fight appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[kazosa]

Secrets - SoA: Chapter 12

Summary: Reader has lived in a life full of secrets. When her father dies unexpectedly and sends her on a trip all over the country, she finds out just how much like her father she really is. The end of her trip brings her to Charming, CA where she finally gets some big pieces of her family puzzle put back in place and form new relationships with the people there. Chapter 12: the reader is in jail Warnings: language A/N: If it wasn’t clear before, this takes place after the events of the final episode, SPOILERS! Italics are for Chibs side of the story. Bold is for the reader’s inner thoughts. Word Count: 2100 Tags: @telford-ortiz-teller  @sam-samcro  @tstieff  @yourcroweater  @kacilove26  @hiddlelove  @evilsorceress  @reallynigga21  @suz-123  @between-shades-of-winchester  @caitcrook  @i-was-made-of-nutella @charlottecl  @gunsnrosesislife  @yoonjigu  @mkindoll2016  @confidencerush  @jade770

IF YOU WISH TO BE TAGGED, PLEASE LET ME KNOW IN SOME WAY. ASK BOX IS SAFEST WAY, BUT I DO TRY TO LOOK AT ALL COMMENTS AND REBLOGS. COMMENTS WELCOME! Secrets Masterlist

“It’s the hot cars that make me think it’s all a smoke screen,” you tried to explain your theory. “The throw away cars, the Hondas and Cavaliers, etc., they’re the diversion.”

“So, do you think there’s more than one person at this?” Jarry asked.

“With as many cars as were stolen and dropped in such a short amount of time each night, and then there’s the ones that were not recovered, it makes me think there were at least four people doing the throw-away cars and at least three on the valuable cars. One person drops them at the car they boost then pick up once they’re ready to ditch the car. The hot cars need more time to scope and plan but that was probably one person dropping off and one doing the boost. Sometimes the drop off is the lookout, but doesn’t have to be. The person doing the boost is probably the one orchestrating this whole plan, too. In a town like this, if they were coming from outside, that would get noticed, so they’re probably a local team.”

“Do you know anyone that looks good for this?” Jarry asked after considering your words.

Of course, Jarry knew it wasn’t you. Either she, or someone from her department, had been watching you since you arrived in Charming, only proving that Happy was right and she had surveillance on the Sons. With that kind of coverage, there was no way it could have been you and Jarry not know. Jarry had worked stolen car cases before and they never really ever got resolved. Those small cases were nothing in comparison to what she had to deal with regarding the high-end cars that were missing. In the case file, she’d included possible suspects for the thefts, all of which had priors for GTA.

“Out of the ones you gave me, only this one looks good,” you handed the mug shot through the bars. “He could be the one good for the high-end cars, maybe even running the show, hard to say. The other ones will be kids, probably no priors, get one of them, they can point you to the leader.”

A few moments passed as Jarry thought over everything you had told her. A look of resignation had crossed her face. She knew with certainty it wasn’t you and it was because she had the surveillance set up. Jarry had thought that when Filip had come back to her, it was because he still cared for her. She’d regretted letting him go and had spent a lot of time trying to get him back. She’d reasoned that the surveillance was necessary for the safety and well-being of the community since SAMCRO had quite the reputation in Charming. If she happened to find out Chibs’ whereabouts as a result, then it was just icing on the cake. You coming into town had thrown a wrench in the works.

“I’ll take all of this now,” she said stiffly. She was not happy at all. The scene that greeted her with the three of them sitting like a picnic pissed her off. Chibs was smiling at the bitch, not like she had said something funny, but like he was…proud of her? But ‘proud’ wasn’t the word. He looked at her with love in his eyes.

You gathered all of the papers and supplies and handed them back to her. It looked like Jarry was about to walk out without another word, but you weren’t that lucky. She stopped just as she got to the doorway and turned back to face you.

“It’ll never work between you two, you know that, right?” she asked plainly.

“Excuse me?” you said. How in the hell would she know?

“You’re too different. If you knew all of the things he’s done for and because of the Sons, you’d run for home right now. He would get calls while he was in bed with me and would go take care of whatever mess your useless cousin got them into, doing whatever it took to clean it up. We could never tie him to anything though. Even so, he’s been in prison for very serious offenses. And you, you’re just a princess with a silver spoon up her ass, moonlighting on the dark-side. Stupid kid stuff when you were younger.” She looked at you with pity.

You couldn’t believe your ears. Her impression of you was completely wrong. You’d stolen everything you could get your hands on up until the incident with Brandon, but you’d always been very careful. Your dad had been very successful as a businessman, but the wealthy part didn’t come until you were almost out of high school. You’d had to work hard for everything you had. You were no stranger to hard work, but you weren’t above taking a five-finger discount.

“Thought you should know before he breaks your heart,” Jarry told you and turned on her heel to leave.

Sitting down on your empty cot, you almost laughed at her assumptions. The container holding the brownie was next to you, calling out to be eaten. Leaning back against the wall, you ate the brownie your sweet boy got you and hoped to hell he called Jack.

“Hey kiddo, how are ya?” Jack answered.

“Is this Jack?” Chibs asked.

There was a pause on the other end, “Aw shit. Is this Chibs? Is she okay?”

“Yes, to both,” he said. “She’s in jail, though. Needs a lawyer, said ta call ye.”

Chibs could hear Jack sigh heavily on the other end, “Tell me everything you know.”

Chibs told him everything about what Jarry had been doing, watching the club, stalking him, the party and what had happened that day.

“Well, sounds like Sheriff Jarry is a clever one, hauling her in on a Sunday,” Jack grumbled. “Alright,” he continued, “I’ll be out as soon as I can. You know I have to tell Debbie, right?”

“I think the lass would prefer ye didn’,” Chibs suggested.

Jack outright laughed, “Yeah, I’m sure she would, but I would prefer to keep my head attached to my shoulders!”

“Shit,” he conceded. “Best o’ luck, bruv. Let me know when ye get in. Need a ride from the airport? I’ll have the lass’s phone.”

“Nah, it’s okay. I have it covered. Thanks, Chibs, see you soon.”

He didn’t know what to do with himself without (Y|N) and while he had to wait for Jack to fly in. It was barely after two on a Sunday afternoon, but he decided to take a chance on going to the clubhouse. There was usually someone in there. He put the phone in his jeans pocket, grabbed his kutte off the peg and made his way down the hall to the clubhouse doors.

Happy and Tig were sitting at a table, drinking beers, listening to classic rock, smoking and bullshitting. He was glad they were there. Tig saw him first.

“CHIBS!” he popped up from his seat and greeted his brother with the customary bro hug complete with the sound of hands slapping on leather backed kuttes. Happy soon followed. Tig grabbed a round of beer and they all sat down at the table.

“What’s goin’ on, Chibs, thought you’d be with that sexy badass gettin’ laid,” Tig asked. “Or did she figure out what a bum you are and ditch you?“

Tig wasn’t too far from the truth. He worried the lass was going to decide he wasn’t worth the trouble anymore. He took a long drink from his beer.

“(Y|N) is in jail. Jarry brought her in for questioning,” Chibs explained.

“What for?” Happy asked, instantly angry.

“Why didn’t she tell Jarry to fuck off?” Tig wanted to know. “Why isn’t she here if it was just questioning?”

“Jarry wanted her to look at a car theft case she’s working, thought the lass could help,” Chibs said.

Tig had a confused look on his face, “Why would (Y|N) be able to help?”

“The lass used to steal cars,” they both were still looking at him with blank expressions. “A lot. Everyday. Only arrested twice. Once on the first time, and once on the last when she wrecked the car. Jarry thought she could look at the case and give her a lead. Told (Y|N) if she didn’t help, she’d press charges.”

Chibs was sure his brothers had seen her leg, at the very least, at the party. It was hard to miss.

“I knew I liked that girl,” Tig said.

“It pissed off the lass something awful, Eglee said. But (Y|N) looked at the case anyway. The cars caught her eye.” Chibs wanted to drink himself into oblivion, but he needed a clear head for when Jack arrived and maybe he’d get to go down to the jailhouse to get (Y|N) out, too.

“So, she looked at the case anyway and Jarry didn’t drop it?” Tig asked.

Happy chimed in, “Want me to get her out, Pres?”

“Yeah Chibs, I don’t have a problem shooting that gash, Jarry. It’ll be fun, like old times,” Tig looked nostalgic.

Chibs considered their offers for a hot minute ultimately deciding against it.

“No,” he shook his head, “the lass needs us on this side o’ the bars.”

Happy sat back in his chair, a disappointed look on his face.

“I want to kill something,” he said.

“I know ye do, bruv,” Chibs empathized. He would have liked to shoot Jarry, too. The lass didn’t deserve being treated the way she was just because she was with him.

“Five years ago, we woulda done it,” Tig mused.

“Aye and five years ago, we would have been in there with her,” Chibs said. “We need to stay clean so we can earn clean. I’m not putting anyone in danger again.”

Bored. To. Tears. You were desperately trying not to over think things, but when you had nothing to do but count the bricks in the wall, your mind wandered (there were 492). Eglee had asked you about any tattoos or distinguishing scars that needed to be documented, which led to more photographs and more questions. You did cut Eglee some slack, she was very nice about how she asked.

Telling the story about how you wrecked the Porsche was easy enough. You had no memory of the actual event, just the burning pain and rehab after. You’d accepted all of the details about what had happened long ago. Bringing up Brandon and what he’d done was completely different and was almost impossible to talk about without being nauseated or crying. You remembered every second of what he did to you. You just let Eglee assume that it was from the crash, just like you let Filip believe the same. The cops had caught Brandon and he went to prison where karma caught up with him.

Eglee probably suspected you weren’t telling her everything but she just let it go. You didn’t want to tell her all of the gory details anyway. There was no way you were going to tell Eglee that part of your life before you told Filip. Lying through your teeth and keeping secrets was always something you’d been good at, but now, after being with Filip, it was like you were finally getting a conscience about it all. It felt wrong not to tell him.

Before Charming, you’d never had a problem being alone. Sitting in your cell, you were feeling very alone and you were lonely for Filip. The last week had been the happiest of your life and it was because of him. The attraction had been immediate, but it was more than just lust, you genuinely liked him and got along with him so well. Being with him was like going home, it was so natural, as if you’d always been together. You’d finally found someone that treated you like a queen, cared about you and it was all in jeopardy.

You leaned back against the cell wall and tried to clear your mind. If Filip called Jack, he would be on his way as soon as he could, you were sure of it, maybe even close to landing. Jack would call your mother, there was no question on that point. He’d been keeping track of you more than just to make sure you were okay. Your mother would have found a way to annoy the hell out of you if Jack hadn’t been the go-between. He was the one that relayed the details to your mother so you didn’t have to.

God, I hope she didn’t come with him, you thought to yourself.

[domi-scu]

Tour de stationery

The bed was far from comfy and so I was thankful when the alarm went off at 7 (or, according to Alex, 'at 5am??!' due to +2h timezone) so I had a reason to get up. It took almost an hour to convince him that I will starve to death if we don't go for breakfast and in the meantime, I attempted yoga. But without touching the carpet cause it was pretty questionable. The breakfast was free from the hotel. Maybe to compensate for our missing shower door?

At breakfast, Alex made friends with an old man who was having a cigarette. In a mix of Russian, Romanian and English while I just listened and tried to get through my coffee to feel a bit more human.

First things first, we needed to find some suncream. It didn't take too long but somehow, I smeared it all over my crop top so the white stains on my boobs now look extremely questionable. We found out yesterday that couple of friends who are also coming to the wedding on Saturday are in Sofia too so we set out to meet them. Big kudos to this city for planting Linden trees around the roads. It smells really nice although my hayfever is not happy and my brain is itchy. We were curious is Rasto and Eli have any touristy plans because we are completely winging it and have no plan whatsoever. Turns out, their plan was as non existent as ours so now we were winging it together.

They took us to a pub in a park that they visited yesterday. The walk there lead past a famous church which we tried to go into but Eli's dress was too short and the guys were wearing shorts so, somehow, I was the only one allowed in (in a crop top). Since there was obviously no hope for our souls, we settled for beer.

We also realised we're planning to take the same train to Burgas the next day. We let Alex book the tickets (1st class!) online as he is the only one able to read Cyrillic and that was sorted.

One lunch later, we stopped for another drink/ coffee, which is when we realised that the groom to be will also be landing in Sofia this evening. And well.... Not like we have anything better to do, right? How about we go wait for him with a ridiculous sign? As he later pointed out 'only you guys can spend your one day in Sofia by looking for a stationery shop where people speak English.' like it's hard...

Let me put it this way... The sign involved a lot of pink cardboard, pink glitter glue that wouldn't dry, some very inappropriate inside jokes translated into Bulgarian and tears of laughter. While we were working on this masterpiece, Filip (the groom to be), informed us that he actually won't have time to meet us tonight and he'll see us in Sozopol before the wedding. Oh sweet summer child...

I'll be honest, our signs got many laughs and we were debating whether he still had enough time to uninvite us from the wedding but he seemed to love it. And since we were already there, he said he might as well have a pint with us. The mosquitoes were rather unfortunate because by the time we finished our drink and pizza, we were eaten alive but what can you do right... Buy a repellent I suppose. That's definitely on the agenda tomorrow.

Wish us luck with the train, we were told that the train tracks sometimes get stolen.

[stupendoustaleobservation]

Nutrition

Nutrition

Nutrition Nothing's perfect, right? That includes things that are good for you, like super foods. I have written a few articles (and even a book) on super foods; mostly glowing accounts of their nutritional value and potential health benefits. Those are all true and good things, of course, but there are also some possible unusual side effects you may face when you eat large amounts of these foods. They are harmless, but they may make you say, "ick" or in case of a couple of, scare you a little bit. Asparagus Pee: Asparagus contains sulfurous chemical compounds that give your urine an unusual odor. It does not happen to everyone, but it's fairly common. It happens quickly, too, so if you have eaten asparagus and you have not smoked anything funny, next time you peed, you are not one of the lucky ones who have this reaction. Aside from the unusual odor, asparagus is good for you. A and C. It is also possible that the compounds in asparagus can reduce your liver breakdown byproducts of alcoholic drinks - as long as you go before asparagus to eat it in low-calories, high in-fiber, high-fiber. out drinking Here's a lengthier description of asparagus pee. Green Leafy Poop Spinach and kale are two fabulous super foods because they are rich in vitamins, minerals, fiber and a bunch of phyto chemicals that may have health benefits. If you eat lots of them, you will also have green stool. It may be more common if your "transit time" is too quick and the greens are not properly digested. It may scare you the first time you notice it, but it's rare for green poop to cause any type of health issue. It's the other colors you need to worry about. Amber Tresca, our Inflammatory Bowel Disease Guide at About.com, has scoop on colored poop. Red Beet Pee Yeah, I know there's kind of an excretory theme here. If you eat a healthy help of beets, you may notice that red or pink urine later that day or next. It can be horrifying because it looks like blood, and peeing blood is never a good thing. Red beet pe is harmless and it is actually a official name: Beeturia, which I think sounds like a good name for a Pokemon. Red urine is not a reason to give up on beets. They are low in calories, high in vitamins and fiber, plus some of these red pigments may have some health benefits. Peggy Trow bridge Filip pone, our Guide to Home Cooking here at About.com, has everything you need to know about picking and cooking beets. Garlic BO Nutrition Garlic makes almost all the super foods lists and there is a ton of research on it's health benefits. It can help reduce cholesterol, and aid in high blood pressure. Some people believe it helps prevent many forms of cancer as well. The thing is, if you eat lots of llic (or some laxlic supplements), you may probably be going to suffer from the lens of induced body odor. It's probably due to your body's unfortunate reaction to allicin, active chemical found in garlic. Dr. Cathy Wong, our Alternative Medicine Guide, has the lowdown on garlic. (Did you notice I did not make any garlic vs vampire jokes?) Carrot Skin Nutrition Carrots are rich in carotenes, which are related to vitamin A. They are found in the orange pigments and are good for you, but, if you eat lots and lots of carrots, you can make your skin a yellow or orange cast . It's mostly noticeable on the soles of your feet and palms of your hands. If you have every "sawless tanning pills," they probably are just high dosage beta-carotene pills. You will not get tan, you will turn orange. Officially this condition is called carotenemia and it is the most common in children, since they are less (do not worry - it's harmless). Dr. Vincent Iannelli, our Guide to Pediatrics, has the details on carotenemia. I guess I could also give a "honorable mention" to legumes and cruciferous vegetables like brocoli, brussels sprouts and cauliflower. They are all good for you, but their high-fiber content can also lead to potentially large bouts of flatulence.source HumariWeb. Read the full article

[khalilhumam]

As election looms, Serbia's leading party wants to defend citizens from dinosaurs

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New Post has been published on http://khalilhumam.com/as-election-looms-serbias-leading-party-wants-to-defend-citizens-from-dinosaurs/

As election looms, Serbia's leading party wants to defend citizens from dinosaurs

This is scaremongering taken to an new level

Photo: Screencap from video clip featuring dinosaur chasing a time traveler by Serbian Progressive Party.

Serbia has entered a an election silence before a vote scheduled for Sunday, June 21, which is probably a good thing. Since the biggest opposition parties have declared a boycott, blaming the government for a failure to provide conditions for fair elections — including freedom of media — the issue of voter turnout has taken on particular importance. In order to undermine the legitimacy of the ruling parties, some opposition groups like “Don’t Let Belgrade D(r)own” (“Ne da(vi)mo Beograd” in Serbian) staged protests. The most recent one was in front of the Parliament, featuring their symbol, the rubber duck.

Danas ispred Skupštine #Bojkot2020 sutra na završnoj reči na suđenju Jutki u Kruševcu.#PravdaZaMarijuLukić#PravdaZaSveŽeneBrusa pic.twitter.com/zHwooq8uXf — Ne davimo Beograd (@nedavimobgd) June 18, 2020

Tweet: Today in front of the Parliament #Boycott2020, tomorrow at the closing of the trial to Jutka in Kruševac  #JusticeForMarijaLukic #JusticeForAllWomenOfBrus Video: Today we are in front of the Parliament. We call upon the citizens to join the boycott of the fake elections on Sunday. While the fight for free and democratic Serbia is taking place, another  struggle is taking place tomorrow in Kruševac, the trial of [suspected sexual predator] Milutin Jeličić Jutka and we hope for justice for Marija Lukić and all women of Brus.

On June 17, the day before the silent period, the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) concluded its series of controversial election videos with one addressing people who would abstain from voting. The video titled “Don't remain in the past, vote for the future!” vent viral across the Balkan region. In a warning tone, the clip presents citizens who would stay at home on election day on Sunday as potentially responsible for the demise of the economy and chaos that would ensue if the opposition unites. This messaging was complemented by a footage showing “people going crazy” — fighting in the streets and looting. If the video had ended there, that would be pretty standard scaremongering. However, the campaign ad then went to a very strange place.

Када схватите да сте направили велику грешку, јасно вам је да не можете платити кирију. Када схватите да не можете платити кирију, једино што вам преостаје је да направите времеплов, вратите се назад кроз време и гласате. Када употребите времеплов који сте направили како би сте се вратили уназад и гласали, случајно се вратите у далеку прошлост и поједе вас диносаурус! Зашто би сте хтели да вас поједе диносаурус? Немојте остати у прошлости, гласајте за будућност!

By the time you realise you've made a big mistake, it will be clear that you can't pay the rent. When you can't pay the rent, the only thing left for you to do is build a time machine, go back in time and vote. When you use the time machine you've built to return back in time and vote, you might accidentally travel to distant past and get eaten by a dinosaur! Why would you like to be eaten by a dinosaur? Don't remain in the past, vote  for the future!

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IL-wUjcl87k] The ruling SNS has named it's electoral list after their leader Aleksandar Vučić, who is currently the president of the country, despite these elections being parliamentary rather than presidential ones. The SNS has spent its campaign promoting Vučić's cult of personality, drawing on the president's time during a pandemic and generally draining state resources. This is unlikely to earn the party any attention from anti-corruption authorities, however.

Screen shot of the website of Socialist Party of Serbia, with their election slogan “We stand firm” (Ми стојимо постојано) in the header.

Its nominal competitor, the Socialist Party of Serbia, a junior member of the populist ruling coalition, has made campaign missteps of its own. That party botched its initial campaign video based on the phrase “Count on us” — a phrase made famous in a once-popular Yugoslav patriotic song — by making zombie-like animations of voters the centrepiece. Their follow-up slogan “We stand firm” (“Mi stojimo postojano” in Serbian) was taken directly from the song “Hey Slavs” – the anthem of disbanded Yugoslavia.

Ми стојимо постојано Кано клисурине, Проклет био издајица Своје домовине!

We stand firm like the big cliffs, May he be damned, the traitor of his homeland!

SPS official campaign videos tend to use music from former Yugoslavia, such as anti-fascist partisan songs from World War II like “Through valleys and over hills.” The irony of the fact that this party, and its late leader Slobodan Milošević, were among the chief perpetrators of the bloody destruction of Yugoslavia, has been largely ignored by the mainstream media. Also glossed over are ideological inconsistencies. Such as the fact that the socialist party's website has as a key feature a photo of its leader the Serbian Minister of Foreign Affairs Ivica Dačić posing with Donald Trump — a politician who would usually be considered an opposite of socialist. All these paradoxes aside, Serbia is getting ready to vote. The number of people who are supporting the boycott will remain unknown until Sunday evening.

Written by Filip Stojanovski · comments (0) Donate · Share this: twitter facebook reddit

[halliewriteshockey]

🌹 🌹 🌹 🌹 🌹

If you think I’m so great, why are you here to take my job? He didn’t say it, kept the words locked behind his teeth with an almighty effort. It wasn’t the fault of the young man currently digging into his pasta like he hadn’t eaten in a week. But Filip couldn’t help the jolt of resentment in his chest, like the kick of a mule when he looked at Sixten’s big hand folded carefully around the fork that looked so small in his grip.

Send me a  🌹 if you’d like a random line from one of my WIPs! (Specify fanfic or original, or you’ll get whatever I like most)

[leavingcertnightmares]

Underdevelopment is caused by unfair terms of trade imposed by the west in collaboration with local leaders in developing countries

I agree with this statement. The western developed countries of the world impose rules on developing countries that almost always benefit themselves. The idea of ‘Free Trade’ is ethical only when all countries stand on equal ground. Otherwise, as is the case today, those with more take advantage of those with less. The winners keep winning and the losers keep losing. There are far too many examples of communities that have become so dependent on foreign industry that they have to bend and adapt to the will of the companies or risk losing them altogether, e.g San Filipe and Bangladesh.

One Industry guilty of this is the fashion industry. The modern idea of ‘fast fashion’ requires new styles and collections being released constantly. The sheer amount of clothing being made ensures the employment of huge numbers of garment workers. For this to be profitable companies must use cheap labour and cheap materials, which come from the exploitation of third world garment workers. Huge competition within the industry calls for constantly lowering prices, until workers are paid next to nothing and companies are forced to cut corners. Work environment and safety deteriorates but is ignored by local authorities, because these companies are supplying jobs. Unfortunately this often leads to accidents in factories where safety standards are not being met.

On April 24 2013 an eight story garment factory named Rana Plaza collapsed. The search for the dead ended on May 13 with a death toll of 1134. Approximately 2500 injured were rescued. The building contained clothing factories, shops, apartments, and a bank. After cracks in the building were discovered the shops and bank were closed, but the buildings owner ignored warnings to avoid using the building for fear of losing business. Garment workers were ordered to return to work the following day, and the building collapsed during morning rush hour.

Despite this and many other tragedies, the World Trade Organisation notes that ‘developing countries insist that any attempt to include working conditions in trade agreements is meant to end their cost advantage in the world market’. While this argument for free trade persists, workers globally pay the price. Leaders Globally fail to see that these industries are not helping the development of poorer countries, they are hindering it, and that free trade comes with a price.

This fits almost perfectly into Andre Gunder-Frank’s dependency theory. In this example the west is the metropolis, thriving off of the cheap goods and keeping developing countries as satellite in a state of dependency and underdevelopment. Frank criticizes this and states that a capitalist system is a cause of underdevelopment, not a solution. On the other hand, the theorist Robert Nozick has opposite views. He would be strongly against the idea of ‘Fair Trade’ as he believes that as long as a transaction is legitimate, state interference should be limited. Certainly the fashion industry operates legitimately, after all, the workers choose to work at the factories.

Another example of a company having a bad effect on development is Coca Cola’s bottling plant in San Felipe. The plant provides jobs to help develop the area, but the urban growth has gradually eaten-up the agricultural land. Plots of land passed down for centuries are now being bought for urban sprawl. San Felipe is one of thousands of towns across Mexico where corporate water consumption has taken precedence over local need. Advocates are scrambling to reign in a range of public health consequences that have arisen from a lack of water. In 2016 the bottling plant in San Felipe used over 1 million litres of water a day, and Coca Cola was cheaper to buy than bottled water. As a result of this residents were forced to walk miles to get water from wells or drink the unsafe tap water in the area.

However, Coca Cola is making efforts to reimburse communities affected. They reached their goal of balancing inflow and outflow five years ahead of schedule by returning 191.9 billion litres of water to the communities in which its bottling plants are located. Nozick would say that Coca Cola should not have to reimburse communities as they agreed to work at the plant and let their water be used by the company. It is a perfectly legitimate transaction, but not an ethical one.

Putting all of these factors together; job loss, economic imbalance, deplorable working conditions, and environmental degradation, it’s clear that Free Trade falls on the negative side of any economic equation. It’s bad for job growth, bad for the global economy, bad for equality, and it certainly develops underdevelpoment in satellite communities.  

[topworldhistory]

Two of Christopher Columbus’ ships were so small that men had no refuge to sleep and poor food storage led to wormy meals.

On August 3, 1492, Christopher Columbus and his crew set sail from the port of Palos in southern Spain on three vessels: la Santa Clara (Niña), la Pinta and la Santa Gallega (Santa Maria). Two of the ships, the Niña and Pinta, were tiny by today’s standards—only 50 to 70 feet from bow to stern—but prized for their speed and maneuverability. The Santa Maria, Columbus’s flagship, was a larger, heavier cargo ship.

For 35 days, Columbus and his crew of 86 Spanish sailors sailed westward searching for a passage to China and India. With the men close to mutiny against their “foreign” captain, Columbus was about to turn back when the cry went out at 2 a.m. on October 12 that land had been sighted.

Columbus hadn’t found a western route to India, of course, but his success in crossing the Atlantic is due in large part to the ships he chose for the perilous voyage, particularly the diminutive Niña and Pinta, which were a speedy type of ship called a caravel.

READ MORE: Why Columbus Day Courts Controversy

When the royal decree went out in 1492 from Queen Isabella of Spain to fund Columbus’s first voyage, it read, “By these presents, we dispatch the noble man Christoforus Colón with three equipped caravels over the Ocean Seas toward the regions of India for certain reasons and purposes.”

The caravels of Christopher Columbus, the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria.

Caravels Were Cutting Edge in the 15th Century

Though only two of Columbus’s ships ended up being caravels, Isabella’s decree speaks to the popularity of the vessel during the 15th-century “Age of Discovery.” Starting with Portuguese explorations of the African coast in the mid-1400s, caravels were prized for their sleek, lightweight hull and their uncanny ability to sail into the wind.

Luis Filipe Viera de Castro, a nautical archeologist at Texas A&M University, says that the earlier Portuguese caravels, known as the caravela latina, were rigged with lateen (triangular) sails that hung at 45-degree angle to the deck.

“Lateen sails are […] almost like wings,” says Castro. “You can point the bow of the caravel with an angle of just 20 degrees off the wind and still get enough lift on the outer edge of the sail to propel forward.”

The lateen-rigged caravels were critical in the Portuguese voyages to sub-Saharan African, where strong coastal winds blow north to south. The versatile caravel could speed south along the coast and easily return to shore against the wind.

For Columbus’s maiden journey, he used a Spanish update to the caravel known as the caravela redonda, a three-masted ship where the first two masts were rigged with conventional square sails for open-ocean speed, and a third was rigged with a lateen sail for coastal maneuverability. That rigging combination made ships like the Niña and the Pinta some of the best sailing vessels of their time.

In addition to their versatile rigging options, 15th-century caravels moved the rudder to the rear center of the ship. In the 14th-century caravels popular in the Mediterranean, the rudder was still on the side, says Castro, like Viking ships. The new position allowed for far greater control.

Small Ships Offered Advantages—But Also Discomforts

Small caravels like the Niña and Pinta could only carry between 40 and 50 tons and were crewed by fewer than 30 sailors each. Their lightweight design and rounded bottom meant that they rode high in the water. This proved critical when Columbus needed to navigate the shallow island coastlines near modern-day Cuba.

The bulkier Santa Maria, which was a 110-ton cargo ship called a nau, ran aground on Christmas Day 1492 and had to be abandoned.

Yet the main advantage of the Spanish caravel, namely its compact size, was also its greatest disadvantage. Life aboard a short ship like the Niña or Pinta would have been absurdly crowded and uncomfortable.

Columbus Sailed on These Modern Ships (TV-PG; 1:24)

Unlike the Santa Maria, which at least had tiny cabins where sailors could sleep between eight-hour shifts, the Niña and Pinta had a single small deck at the rear of the ship with only one cramped cabin reserved for the captain.

“If you’re a sailor on a caravel, you’re living on the deck and sleeping on the deck,” says Marc Nucup, public historian at The Mariners’ Museum in Newport News, Virginia. “You’re trying to stay out of the way of the sailors who are working. There’s almost no private space.”

Work was relentless on any 15th-century ship. The 20 sailors on the Niña and the 26 crewing the Pinta would have been constantly engaged with adjusting the rigging, trimming the sails, inspecting for leaks and plugging them with spongy scraps of old rope called oakum.

“Cathedrals, castles and ships—those were the most complicated things that humans had built up until that time,” says Nucup. “There was always something to do.”

The round-the-clock workload meant that even if you were off-duty, good luck trying to sleep on the deck while the other sailors stomped around you. Hammocks weren’t yet in use on ships in the 15th century, says Nucup.

Christopher Columbus and his crew.

Food Aboard Ships Was Dry and Often Filled With Maggots

And then there was the food. Columbus stocked a full year’s worth of food for the journey, not knowing how long it would be before they could return to Spain. For food to last at sea, it needed to be dry. Staples included dried and salted anchovies and cod, pickled or salted beef and pork, dried grains like chickpeas, lentils and beans, and of course hardtack biscuits.

The word biscuit comes from the Latin bis coctus for “twice-baked.” The hardtack biscuits “enjoyed” by Columbus’s crew would have been prepared by baking a hockey puck of flour and water multiple times, then crushing it into tiny pieces, reconstituting it with water and baking it again. Hardtack biscuits were so rock solid that they could only be eaten if softened with water or dipped in the communal slurry served every meal in a large wooden trough.

Yet tooth-breaking, dry biscuits were still preferable to those that had been spoiled by exposure to water in their storage barrel. Ferdinand Columbus, the explorer’s 14-year-old son, reported on the conditions on Columbus’s fourth voyage to the Americas.

"What with the heat and dampness, our ship biscuit had become so wormy that, God help me, I saw many who waited for darkness to eat porridge made of it, that they might not see the maggots,” wrote young Ferdinand, “and others were so used to eating them that they didn't even trouble to pick them out because they might lose their supper had they been so fastidious." 

from Stories - HISTORY https://ift.tt/2VzsmUk October 09, 2019 at 09:57PM

[epicurioustraveler]

Friends and Wine. Is there a better combination?

To me, the best thing about traveling, isn’t the site seeing, exploring the architecture of a city or the beautiful countryside, nor is it experiencing the local culture and its culinary specialties. Please don’t misunderstand me, those are all fantastic and I cherish each one. When I reflect back on any adventure or journey, what I most fondly recall are the encounters with locals and other travelers that blossom quickly into friendships. God directed my journey, controlling the decisions I made of where to stop and how long to stay, so He could bring me to this exact spot at this exact time.

After four days in Porto, and having met Bens, Stefan, Alvaro, Torbin, Alice, Andres, Mia, Joana, Emily and Joan, it was difficult to leave these new friends that my soul yearned for after 40+ days on the road. Don’t get me wrong, I had met friends along this journey that I plan to stay in touch with in the future. The Dane’s I met at British Bar in Lisbon, Marcel, Jesse and Phil from Sunset Destination Hostel in Lisbon, Emily & James at Room in the City hostel in San Sebastian, Max & Lucas at Casa Azul hostel in Sintra, and Filip at Rainbow Hostel in Doolin, all put a stamp on my life’s passport. But the gang at Wine Hostel have found a secure and cherished place in my heart given the close bond we created over the 4 nights that I was lucky enough to have experienced in that beautiful city.

First of all, the staff (Alice, Mia and Andres) at Wine Hostel love their jobs and it shows in how they interact with the guests. The Portuguese women working there have a great way of making you feel like a long time friend and one of the gang. It seemed that Alvaro was a staffer there as he was so inviting, interacted with the staff as if he had been working there for months but he had only been crashing here (in the room I was in) for a week while looking for a job as a chef. He cooked for us each night and would go to the market with us to select the food. Alvaro should be hired quickly as he is a fantastic chef and made delicious meals for anyone who pitched in with purchasing the ingredients each night. Torbin was just passing through for the night, but his Irish personality was so even keeled and polite that everyone loved him. He was off to do a ‘workaway’ program helping a family farm about a 2 hour journey northeast near the border of Spain. Joana, Joan and Emily were there for a few nights and I enjoyed their conversation and sarcasm. The two I clicked with and hung out with most were Stefan and Bens. These young Belgian gentlemen are around 21 or 22 and have an amazingly wise world view yet embody the innocence of their future life’s journey. Alvaro and I immediately got along as he is from Costa Rica (Alajuela) and we had much to talk about on that topic. I had lived in Costa Rica for 3 months in 2008-2009 and had traveled there many times over a 3 – 4 year span.

Making fast friends with Bens (Wouter) and Stefan, as we shared interests in investments, stocks, and banking, as well as politics, we would spend pretty much the entire day and night together touring Porto, shopping with Alvaro and cooking food each evening at the hostel. One afternoon we rented bikes and headed out for about 4 hours to the south of Porto along the beach. The waves were huge and rough that day. Pounding the rocks that were the protective barrier between the released harnessed power of the ocean and the surrounding calm of the landscape lying just on the other side of the bike and walk path. We climbed atop the rocks, teased the breaking waves to get soak us (and they did) and then would hop back on our bikes and peddle a bit further down the coast. Both Stefan and I experienced a fall in which our back landed firmly on a rock, Stefan’s shoe and sock almost found their way into the oceans abyss as did my cell phone with my credit cards and cash. But thanks to Bens, both Stefan and my possessions were saved. Biking back to the hostel in the cooler temperatures and slight breeze did not make for a comfortable stroll. Back at the hostel, after a tough long uphill climb where I left Bens and Stefan in my wake (all those spin classes with Judi B. over the years definitely paid dividends), we got our shopping list together with Alvaro and headed to the market. The meal began with rice and sausage for starters with the entrée, Mussels on rice in sauce. Honestly, I have no idea what the dish was called but with Alvaro’s touches it was excellent. Topping it off with a 2 Euro bottle of wine made it even that much better.

The next afternoon, the weather had turned cooler and windy, but the gang (Alvaro, Stefan and Bens) and I hopped the bus to Matosinhos about 15 minutes away. Alvaro works on Costa Rican (similar to Indian) time where everything is just “5, 10 minutes” away. Bens, Stefan and I kept remarking, “I think we are walking all the way there”. Eventually we did catch the bus and enjoyed a nice stroll along the northern coastline of Porto. Wandering out to a lighthouse which was barricaded by very thick concrete walls, again we teased the sea to soak us. And soak us it did. Wet, cold and hungry, we hopped on a bus and headed back to the hostel. I needed to get a couple of things done so the gang went on to the market to get the food. On their walk back the rains came. . .hard! They were drenched when they arrived, but luckily I was now warm and dry.

Alvaro prepared our meal again, Stefan retired to the room to avoid having to help (we noticed Stefan, haha) while the rest of us pitched in to help. Tonight’s starter was a delicious broth with spinach and the main course was meat and veggies. Delicious! Oh, and brownie’s (home-made :). Again, everything goes down better with a 2 – 3 Euro bottle of wine.

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Delicious

The gang before our meal

Preparing the food for Alvaro to cook

Porto Wine Hostel Living Room

Entree night #2

My room was upper right, balcony door open

Exterior of Porto Wine Hostel

brownies! yummm!

delicious meal and wine

The next morning Bens and Stefan departed for their flight around 7 AM. We said our goodbye’s and promised to stay in touch (and we have over a month later, as I write this). I remained in Porto for one more day and night. It was a rainy day so I nestled in and worked. Alvaro and I hung out that afternoon and he was headed out for a job interview as a chef that Mia had helped line up. In a way the day and night was depressing with 50% of your gang not there. I got a good nights sleep and would depart the next morning as Alvaro walked me to the train station.

It was tough to leave Porto as it is a lovely, welcoming and warm city. What made it harder to leave was knowing those memories forged in those 4 days would be carried in pictures but the details would fade. The laughs, the experiences along the water, the food eaten and the late nights would only be remembered in the future for its past. But those 4 days in Porto couldn’t have been a better blessing or come as such an incredible surprise. I have made great friends for life. Friends who were each just as welcoming, warm and loving as the city in which the intersection of our lives merged into one another for those four epic days in February!

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Drying off and enjoying a nice beer

Biking along the beach

Portugal meets Costa Rica flag

Atop the Dom Luis I Bridge

Large waves crashing into rock barrier

Lighthouse Shower

Strutting the boardwalk!

Torbin leaving Hostel

Getting our bikes 2 Bai de Bicla

Friends admiring the scenery

I’m the king of the world!

Friends + Wine = Porto Wine Hostel! Friends and Wine. Is there a better combination? To me, the best thing about traveling, isn't the site seeing, exploring the architecture of a city or the beautiful countryside, nor is it experiencing the local culture and its culinary specialties.

[char27martin]

Understanding Crowdfunding as a Self-Publishing Option, Part 2

Over the few years, the popularity of crowdfunding sites for funding a variety of projects has lent itself to becoming a legitimate option for writers. It provides them with the opportunity to fund their self-publish dreams without breaking the bank. The upside of crowdfunding is being your own publisher. You’re in control of everything. Of course, that’s also the downside.

[Want to learn how to define a crowdfunding strategy and pick a site? Check out part one of this post!]

This guest post is by Diane Shipley. Shipley is a freelance journalist who writes about books, pop culture, technology, and psychology—or any combination of the above. Her bylines include The Guardian, The Los Angeles Times, Writer’s Digest, and Mental Health Today.

She’s also a frequent contributor to Twitter (@dianeshipley).

Administrative tasks can be more stressful, time-consuming, and costly than authors anticipate. Kelly Thompson says that these tasks have eaten up a fair amount of her time, meaning that she is currently writing a book every two years rather than every year, as she had originally planned. She asked for $8,000 on Kickstarter in 2012 for her first novel, The Girl Who Would Be King, the story of two young women with extraordinary powers. Although she raised $26,478, she ended up paying $5,000 out of pocket and going into credit card debt in order to fulfill her orders, mostly because she underestimated shipping costs. She also had to make multiple trips to the post office and says that parcels took over her fourth-flight New York walk up. In 2014 she raised $57,918 for her second book, Story Killer, and temporarily moved to her parents’ house in Utah so she could ship books more easily. “We had 709 backers for the first one and almost double that for the second—there is no way I could have done that [from my apartment in] New York.” Because she was more organized and had better calculated her costs, Story Killer was profitable from the start.

However, it hasn’t generated as much buzz as The Girl Who Would Be King. In early 2013, a writer for influential science and culture site io9 gave the book a glowing review, which sparked renewed interest in the book. It’s since become an Amazon bestseller and been optioned twice, most recently for television. Thompson had originally tried to get the novel traditionally published, and even came close with one of the big five, but kept getting feedback that it was too dark, not YA enough, and didn’t fit neatly into a particular genre. She now thinks those are the elements that have made it a success. “I found it interesting that Story Killer didn’t find the same success when The Girl Who Would Be King seemed like a much riskier model. But I think it goes to show that people want something different, and when they see it, they respond to it.” She understands why publishers are cautious about acquiring this type of book, but she thinks they’re missing an opportunity by not looking to crowdfunding success stories for new talent with a built-in audience.

Crowdfunding Success Stories

To Be or Not To Be: That Is the Adventure: Ryan North’s choose-your-own-adventure version of Hamlet raked in a jaw-dropping $580,905 on Kickstarter.

Hello Ruby: This children’s book by Linda Liukas that uses storytelling to teach the principles of computer coding, raised $380,747 and was republished by the Macmillan imprint Feiwel & Friends.

The Serendipity Foundation: Sam Smit’s debut, a thriller about ‘terrorism with a social conscience,’ is the most-funded novel on Unbound, raising 132 percent of its goal.

Magpies: Sara Lando raised $30,566 on Indiegogo for this beautifully rendered graphic novel about love and loss.

Abomination: After Earth screenwriter Gary Whitta used Inkshares to sell 9,198 copies of his historical fantasy set in England during the reign of Alfred the Great.

Wollstonecraft: This adventure story by Jordan Stratford, about the adolescent versions of real-life feminist heroes Ada Lovelace and Mary Shelley, raised $91,751 on Kickstarter.

Consider Hybrid Crowdfunding Options

You don’t necessarily have to choose between traditional publishing and going it alone. Hybrid publishers are filling a gap for authors who are happy to self-promote but don’t want to handle the production and distribution process. Filip Syta’s novel The Show is a dark satire about the seedy underbelly of a huge tech company. Instead of using a crowdfunding platform, he turned to Inkshares, a publisher that uses crowdfunding to pay for the books it publishes. Authors upload projects to the site for sixty days, during which time at least 750 people have to preorder a copy. For copies sold beyond this initial amount, authors receive 50 percent of paperback and 70 percent of e-book sales. Kingsnorth’s publisher, Unbound, works in a similar way but doesn’t disclose how many books an author needs to presell and only reveals what percentage of the goal has been reached.

Although you don’t earn any money up front, you also don’t have to go into your own pockets. And because Inkshares and Unbound function as publishers, they are able to get books into stores like Barnes & Noble and to be considered for review by major publications. Syta sold 1,001 preorders and says that knowing people were waiting to read his book spurred him to keep writing.

As well as posting about The Show on Facebook and Twitter, and writing guest posts for blogs, Syta connected with potential readers in real life, a tactic he recommends to other authors. “Go to events that have something to do with the subject of your book or where there’s a crowd you think would be interested. Define your audience and where they are, and then go to those places.” Once you’re there, emphasize what people will get from the book rather than why you want them to buy it. For The Show, that pitch would be something like: “It’s a book to help people realize it’s never too late to follow their dreams.” Syta thinks that hybrid crowdfunding will become increasingly common. “There’s a lot of talent out there, but to score a traditional publisher is time-consuming and extremely difficult. [Novels published through crowdfunding go] straight to the reader without asking an agent or someone at a publishing house for permission.”

Jane Friedman says that working with a hybrid crowdfunding publisher is ideal for authors who enjoy collaboration, but that they should be realistic about how much their book will benefit. “Just because you work with one of these companies doesn’t automatically mean you’re going to see more sales or a better marketing campaign; a lot of the responsibility is still on your shoulders.”

Whichever crowdfunding site you choose, making your publication dreams a reality will depend on your plan of attack, some loyal followers, and an indefatigable spirit. And your first crowdfunded novel doesn’t have to be a one-off. “We’ve seen a bunch of repeat creators,” says Maris Kreizman. “As long as you have fans who want to be a part of it, you can have unlimited success.”

Top Tips for Crowdfunding Success

Read the crowdfunding bible(s). The Kickstarter Creator Handbook (com/help/handbook) and the Indiegogo help section (support.indiegogo.com/hc/en-us) will guide you through every step of a campaign.

Time your campaign wisely. Avoid the holidays—people are too preoccupied (and broke) to donate. You can usually choose how long your project runs, but Wharton researchers recommend thirty days for best results.

Be tax smart. Any profit you make above the cost of making and shipping your book is treated as income by the IRS, so keep detailed records and start and finish your campaign in the same tax year to avoid complications. (Consult an accountant to be on the safe side.)

Be available. Most crowdfunding sites allow potential backers to ask you questions. Answer as promptly as possible, so they’re confident in your ability to deliver.

Don’t stretch out. When a project funds quickly, some creators add “stretch goals,” extra rewards for additional funding targets. This can incentivize donors, but usually involves more work for creators, so remember they’re not compulsory.

Want more? Pick up Novel & Short Story Writer’s Market

Novel & Short Story Writer’s Market 2017 is the only resource you need to get your short stories, novellas, and novels published. It includes:

— Find listings for book publishers, literary agents, fiction publications, contests, and more — Get all the contact information, submission guidelines, and other essential tips you need — Gain insight from best-selling and award-winning authors — And more!

Order your copy now from our show and get a bonus one-year subscription to WritersMarket.com’s searchable online database of fiction publishers, as well as a free digital download of Writer’s Yearbook, featuring the 100 Best Markets.

If you’re an agent looking to update your information or an author interested in contributing to the GLA blog or the next edition of the book, contact Writer’s Digest Books Managing Editor Cris Freese at cris.freese@fwmedia.com.

The post Understanding Crowdfunding as a Self-Publishing Option, Part 2 appeared first on WritersDigest.com.

from Writing Editor Blogs – WritersDigest.com http://www.writersdigest.com/editor-blogs/guide-to-literary-agents/understanding-crowdfunding-self-publishing-option-part-2