#first published drawing of Agatha

[twinkle-twinkle-up-above]

Carry On Countdown 2022 Day 18: Shepherd

The dryad gets away from us. Disappears. We stumble around, looking for her. "There!" Niamh whispers. A clearing. Through the trees. Where sunlight falls in solid gold bars.

@carryon-countdown

Close up (it's also less dark, in case your phone shows this image darker than it should be like mine does):

[mostlysignssomeportents]

AI “art” and uncanniness

TOMORROW (May 14), I'm on a livecast about AI AND ENSHITTIFICATION with TIM O'REILLY; on TOMORROW (May 15), I'm in NORTH HOLLYWOOD for a screening of STEPHANIE KELTON'S FINDING THE MONEY; FRIDAY (May 17), I'm at the INTERNET ARCHIVE in SAN FRANCISCO to keynote the 10th anniversary of the AUTHORS ALLIANCE.

When it comes to AI art (or "art"), it's hard to find a nuanced position that respects creative workers' labor rights, free expression, copyright law's vital exceptions and limitations, and aesthetics.

I am, on balance, opposed to AI art, but there are some important caveats to that position. For starters, I think it's unequivocally wrong – as a matter of law – to say that scraping works and training a model with them infringes copyright. This isn't a moral position (I'll get to that in a second), but rather a technical one.

Break down the steps of training a model and it quickly becomes apparent why it's technically wrong to call this a copyright infringement. First, the act of making transient copies of works – even billions of works – is unequivocally fair use. Unless you think search engines and the Internet Archive shouldn't exist, then you should support scraping at scale:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/17/how-to-think-about-scraping/

And unless you think that Facebook should be allowed to use the law to block projects like Ad Observer, which gathers samples of paid political disinformation, then you should support scraping at scale, even when the site being scraped objects (at least sometimes):

https://pluralistic.net/2021/08/06/get-you-coming-and-going/#potemkin-research-program

After making transient copies of lots of works, the next step in AI training is to subject them to mathematical analysis. Again, this isn't a copyright violation.

Making quantitative observations about works is a longstanding, respected and important tool for criticism, analysis, archiving and new acts of creation. Measuring the steady contraction of the vocabulary in successive Agatha Christie novels turns out to offer a fascinating window into her dementia:

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/apr/03/agatha-christie-alzheimers-research

Programmatic analysis of scraped online speech is also critical to the burgeoning formal analyses of the language spoken by minorities, producing a vibrant account of the rigorous grammar of dialects that have long been dismissed as "slang":

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/373950278_Lexicogrammatical_Analysis_on_African-American_Vernacular_English_Spoken_by_African-Amecian_You-Tubers

Since 1988, UCL Survey of English Language has maintained its "International Corpus of English," and scholars have plumbed its depth to draw important conclusions about the wide variety of Englishes spoken around the world, especially in postcolonial English-speaking countries:

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/english-usage/projects/ice.htm

The final step in training a model is publishing the conclusions of the quantitative analysis of the temporarily copied documents as software code. Code itself is a form of expressive speech – and that expressivity is key to the fight for privacy, because the fact that code is speech limits how governments can censor software:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/04/remembering-case-established-code-speech/

Are models infringing? Well, they certainly can be. In some cases, it's clear that models "memorized" some of the data in their training set, making the fair use, transient copy into an infringing, permanent one. That's generally considered to be the result of a programming error, and it could certainly be prevented (say, by comparing the model to the training data and removing any memorizations that appear).

Not every seeming act of memorization is a memorization, though. While specific models vary widely, the amount of data from each training item retained by the model is very small. For example, Midjourney retains about one byte of information from each image in its training data. If we're talking about a typical low-resolution web image of say, 300kb, that would be one three-hundred-thousandth (0.0000033%) of the original image.

Typically in copyright discussions, when one work contains 0.0000033% of another work, we don't even raise the question of fair use. Rather, we dismiss the use as de minimis (short for de minimis non curat lex or "The law does not concern itself with trifles"):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_minimis

Busting someone who takes 0.0000033% of your work for copyright infringement is like swearing out a trespassing complaint against someone because the edge of their shoe touched one blade of grass on your lawn.

But some works or elements of work appear many times online. For example, the Getty Images watermark appears on millions of similar images of people standing on red carpets and runways, so a model that takes even in infinitesimal sample of each one of those works might still end up being able to produce a whole, recognizable Getty Images watermark.

The same is true for wire-service articles or other widely syndicated texts: there might be dozens or even hundreds of copies of these works in training data, resulting in the memorization of long passages from them.

This might be infringing (we're getting into some gnarly, unprecedented territory here), but again, even if it is, it wouldn't be a big hardship for model makers to post-process their models by comparing them to the training set, deleting any inadvertent memorizations. Even if the resulting model had zero memorizations, this would do nothing to alleviate the (legitimate) concerns of creative workers about the creation and use of these models.

So here's the first nuance in the AI art debate: as a technical matter, training a model isn't a copyright infringement. Creative workers who hope that they can use copyright law to prevent AI from changing the creative labor market are likely to be very disappointed in court:

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/sarah-silverman-lawsuit-ai-meta-1235669403/

But copyright law isn't a fixed, eternal entity. We write new copyright laws all the time. If current copyright law doesn't prevent the creation of models, what about a future copyright law?

Well, sure, that's a possibility. The first thing to consider is the possible collateral damage of such a law. The legal space for scraping enables a wide range of scholarly, archival, organizational and critical purposes. We'd have to be very careful not to inadvertently ban, say, the scraping of a politician's campaign website, lest we enable liars to run for office and renege on their promises, while they insist that they never made those promises in the first place. We wouldn't want to abolish search engines, or stop creators from scraping their own work off sites that are going away or changing their terms of service.

Now, onto quantitative analysis: counting words and measuring pixels are not activities that you should need permission to perform, with or without a computer, even if the person whose words or pixels you're counting doesn't want you to. You should be able to look as hard as you want at the pixels in Kate Middleton's family photos, or track the rise and fall of the Oxford comma, and you shouldn't need anyone's permission to do so.

Finally, there's publishing the model. There are plenty of published mathematical analyses of large corpuses that are useful and unobjectionable. I love me a good Google n-gram:

https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=fantods%2C+heebie-jeebies&year_start=1800&year_end=2019&corpus=en-2019&smoothing=3

And large language models fill all kinds of important niches, like the Human Rights Data Analysis Group's LLM-based work helping the Innocence Project New Orleans' extract data from wrongful conviction case files:

https://hrdag.org/tech-notes/large-language-models-IPNO.html

So that's nuance number two: if we decide to make a new copyright law, we'll need to be very sure that we don't accidentally crush these beneficial activities that don't undermine artistic labor markets.

This brings me to the most important point: passing a new copyright law that requires permission to train an AI won't help creative workers get paid or protect our jobs.

Getty Images pays photographers the least it can get away with. Publishers contracts have transformed by inches into miles-long, ghastly rights grabs that take everything from writers, but still shifts legal risks onto them:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/06/19/reasonable-agreement/

Publishers like the New York Times bitterly oppose their writers' unions:

https://actionnetwork.org/letters/new-york-times-stop-union-busting

These large corporations already control the copyrights to gigantic amounts of training data, and they have means, motive and opportunity to license these works for training a model in order to pay us less, and they are engaged in this activity right now:

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/22/technology/apple-ai-news-publishers.html

Big games studios are already acting as though there was a copyright in training data, and requiring their voice actors to begin every recording session with words to the effect of, "I hereby grant permission to train an AI with my voice" and if you don't like it, you can hit the bricks:

https://www.vice.com/en/article/5d37za/voice-actors-sign-away-rights-to-artificial-intelligence

If you're a creative worker hoping to pay your bills, it doesn't matter whether your wages are eroded by a model produced without paying your employer for the right to do so, or whether your employer got to double dip by selling your work to an AI company to train a model, and then used that model to fire you or erode your wages:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/09/ai-monkeys-paw/#bullied-schoolkids

Individual creative workers rarely have any bargaining leverage over the corporations that license our copyrights. That's why copyright's 40-year expansion (in duration, scope, statutory damages) has resulted in larger, more profitable entertainment companies, and lower payments – in real terms and as a share of the income generated by their work – for creative workers.

As Rebecca Giblin and I write in our book Chokepoint Capitalism, giving creative workers more rights to bargain with against giant corporations that control access to our audiences is like giving your bullied schoolkid extra lunch money – it's just a roundabout way of transferring that money to the bullies:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/08/21/what-is-chokepoint-capitalism/

There's an historical precedent for this struggle – the fight over music sampling. 40 years ago, it wasn't clear whether sampling required a copyright license, and early hip-hop artists took samples without permission, the way a horn player might drop a couple bars of a well-known song into a solo.

Many artists were rightfully furious over this. The "heritage acts" (the music industry's euphemism for "Black people") who were most sampled had been given very bad deals and had seen very little of the fortunes generated by their creative labor. Many of them were desperately poor, despite having made millions for their labels. When other musicians started making money off that work, they got mad.

In the decades that followed, the system for sampling changed, partly through court cases and partly through the commercial terms set by the Big Three labels: Sony, Warner and Universal, who control 70% of all music recordings. Today, you generally can't sample without signing up to one of the Big Three (they are reluctant to deal with indies), and that means taking their standard deal, which is very bad, and also signs away your right to control your samples.

So a musician who wants to sample has to sign the bad terms offered by a Big Three label, and then hand $500 out of their advance to one of those Big Three labels for the sample license. That $500 typically doesn't go to another artist – it goes to the label, who share it around their executives and investors. This is a system that makes every artist poorer.

But it gets worse. Putting a price on samples changes the kind of music that can be economically viable. If you wanted to clear all the samples on an album like Public Enemy's "It Takes a Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back," or the Beastie Boys' "Paul's Boutique," you'd have to sell every CD for $150, just to break even:

https://memex.craphound.com/2011/07/08/creative-license-how-the-hell-did-sampling-get-so-screwed-up-and-what-the-hell-do-we-do-about-it/

Sampling licenses don't just make every artist financially worse off, they also prevent the creation of music of the sort that millions of people enjoy. But it gets even worse. Some older, sample-heavy music can't be cleared. Most of De La Soul's catalog wasn't available for 15 years, and even though some of their seminal music came back in March 2022, the band's frontman Trugoy the Dove didn't live to see it – he died in February 2022:

https://www.vulture.com/2023/02/de-la-soul-trugoy-the-dove-dead-at-54.html

This is the third nuance: even if we can craft a model-banning copyright system that doesn't catch a lot of dolphins in its tuna net, it could still make artists poorer off.

Back when sampling started, it wasn't clear whether it would ever be considered artistically important. Early sampling was crude and experimental. Musicians who trained for years to master an instrument were dismissive of the idea that clicking a mouse was "making music." Today, most of us don't question the idea that sampling can produce meaningful art – even musicians who believe in licensing samples.

Having lived through that era, I'm prepared to believe that maybe I'll look back on AI "art" and say, "damn, I can't believe I never thought that could be real art."

But I wouldn't give odds on it.

I don't like AI art. I find it anodyne, boring. As Henry Farrell writes, it's uncanny, and not in a good way:

https://www.programmablemutter.com/p/large-language-models-are-uncanny

Farrell likens the work produced by AIs to the movement of a Ouija board's planchette, something that "seems to have a life of its own, even though its motion is a collective side-effect of the motions of the people whose fingers lightly rest on top of it." This is "spooky-action-at-a-close-up," transforming "collective inputs … into apparently quite specific outputs that are not the intended creation of any conscious mind."

Look, art is irrational in the sense that it speaks to us at some non-rational, or sub-rational level. Caring about the tribulations of imaginary people or being fascinated by pictures of things that don't exist (or that aren't even recognizable) doesn't make any sense. There's a way in which all art is like an optical illusion for our cognition, an imaginary thing that captures us the way a real thing might.

But art is amazing. Making art and experiencing art makes us feel big, numinous, irreducible emotions. Making art keeps me sane. Experiencing art is a precondition for all the joy in my life. Having spent most of my life as a working artist, I've come to the conclusion that the reason for this is that art transmits an approximation of some big, numinous irreducible emotion from an artist's mind to our own. That's it: that's why art is amazing.

AI doesn't have a mind. It doesn't have an intention. The aesthetic choices made by AI aren't choices, they're averages. As Farrell writes, "LLM art sometimes seems to communicate a message, as art does, but it is unclear where that message comes from, or what it means. If it has any meaning at all, it is a meaning that does not stem from organizing intention" (emphasis mine).

Farrell cites Mark Fisher's The Weird and the Eerie, which defines "weird" in easy to understand terms ("that which does not belong") but really grapples with "eerie."

For Fisher, eeriness is "when there is something present where there should be nothing, or is there is nothing present when there should be something." AI art produces the seeming of intention without intending anything. It appears to be an agent, but it has no agency. It's eerie.

Fisher talks about capitalism as eerie. Capital is "conjured out of nothing" but "exerts more influence than any allegedly substantial entity." The "invisible hand" shapes our lives more than any person. The invisible hand is fucking eerie. Capitalism is a system in which insubstantial non-things – corporations – appear to act with intention, often at odds with the intentions of the human beings carrying out those actions.

So will AI art ever be art? I don't know. There's a long tradition of using random or irrational or impersonal inputs as the starting point for human acts of artistic creativity. Think of divination:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/07/31/divination/

Or Brian Eno's Oblique Strategies:

http://stoney.sb.org/eno/oblique.html

I love making my little collages for this blog, though I wouldn't call them important art. Nevertheless, piecing together bits of other peoples' work can make fantastic, important work of historical note:

https://www.johnheartfield.com/John-Heartfield-Exhibition/john-heartfield-art/famous-anti-fascist-art/heartfield-posters-aiz

Even though painstakingly cutting out tiny elements from others' images can be a meditative and educational experience, I don't think that using tiny scissors or the lasso tool is what defines the "art" in collage. If you can automate some of this process, it could still be art.

Here's what I do know. Creating an individual bargainable copyright over training will not improve the material conditions of artists' lives – all it will do is change the relative shares of the value we create, shifting some of that value from tech companies that hate us and want us to starve to entertainment companies that hate us and want us to starve.

As an artist, I'm foursquare against anything that stands in the way of making art. As an artistic worker, I'm entirely committed to things that help workers get a fair share of the money their work creates, feed their families and pay their rent.

I think today's AI art is bad, and I think tomorrow's AI art will probably be bad, but even if you disagree (with either proposition), I hope you'll agree that we should be focused on making sure art is legal to make and that artists get paid for it.

Just because copyright won't fix the creative labor market, it doesn't follow that nothing will. If we're worried about labor issues, we can look to labor law to improve our conditions. That's what the Hollywood writers did, in their groundbreaking 2023 strike:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/01/how-the-writers-guild-sunk-ais-ship/

Now, the writers had an advantage: they are able to engage in "sectoral bargaining," where a union bargains with all the major employers at once. That's illegal in nearly every other kind of labor market. But if we're willing to entertain the possibility of getting a new copyright law passed (that won't make artists better off), why not the possibility of passing a new labor law (that will)? Sure, our bosses won't lobby alongside of us for more labor protection, the way they would for more copyright (think for a moment about what that says about who benefits from copyright versus labor law expansion).

But all workers benefit from expanded labor protection. Rather than going to Congress alongside our bosses from the studios and labels and publishers to demand more copyright, we could go to Congress alongside every kind of worker, from fast-food cashiers to publishing assistants to truck drivers to demand the right to sectoral bargaining. That's a hell of a coalition.

And if we do want to tinker with copyright to change the way training works, let's look at collective licensing, which can't be bargained away, rather than individual rights that can be confiscated at the entrance to our publisher, label or studio's offices. These collective licenses have been a huge success in protecting creative workers:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/26/united-we-stand/

Then there's copyright's wildest wild card: The US Copyright Office has repeatedly stated that works made by AIs aren't eligible for copyright, which is the exclusive purview of works of human authorship. This has been affirmed by courts:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/20/everything-made-by-an-ai-is-in-the-public-domain/

Neither AI companies nor entertainment companies will pay creative workers if they don't have to. But for any company contemplating selling an AI-generated work, the fact that it is born in the public domain presents a substantial hurdle, because anyone else is free to take that work and sell it or give it away.

Whether or not AI "art" will ever be good art isn't what our bosses are thinking about when they pay for AI licenses: rather, they are calculating that they have so much market power that they can sell whatever slop the AI makes, and pay less for the AI license than they would make for a human artist's work. As is the case in every industry, AI can't do an artist's job, but an AI salesman can convince an artist's boss to fire the creative worker and replace them with AI:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/29/pay-no-attention/#to-the-little-man-behind-the-curtain

They don't care if it's slop – they just care about their bottom line. A studio executive who cancels a widely anticipated film prior to its release to get a tax-credit isn't thinking about artistic integrity. They care about one thing: money. The fact that AI works can be freely copied, sold or given away may not mean much to a creative worker who actually makes their own art, but I assure you, it's the only thing that matters to our bosses.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/13/spooky-action-at-a-close-up/#invisible-hand

[scarlet--wiccan]

Marvel unlimited just dropped a magical high school au starring Wanda and Agatha feat. Loki, Jericho, Nico, and strange fyi

The series is called House of Harkness, it's being written by Preeti Chhibber and drawn by Jodi Nishijima. #1 was published on Marvel Unlimited today.

It is, as you described, a magical high school AU. A 16-year old Wanda enrolls in a magical boarding school owned and operated by the Harkness family, and attended by young versions of other well-known Marvel spellcasters like Stephen, Jericho, and Loki. Agatha is the headmaster's daughter and resident mean girl who will apparently be Wanda's rival.

I don't want to be mean, but I will be honest-- I could not have been less impressed by the first issue. I've always disliked Nishijima's art style, and I've never been a great fan of Chhibber's, but this script fell beneath my already low expectations. It was vacuous, juvenile, and uncreative. A premise like this should be easy to infuse with whimsy and charm, and there was none here. And I know that what I'm about to say is unfair, but my I legitimately put my phone down after reading it and said, "wow, I feel like that was written by AI."

My second thought was "who asked for this?" I'm sure it has something to do with Agatha All Along, which will be airing in just a few weeks-- in fact, I believe "House of Harkness," or something similar, was one of the TV show's several cast-off titles. But boarding-school settings are hardly new ground for Marvel, and with so little merit or substance in this first issue, House of Harkness feels like a reductive, how-to-draw-shoujo-manga riff on Strange Academy. And I realize that modern writers and fans have zero interest in the actual Marvel comics character Agatha Harkness and would rather overwrite her completely with their M C U based OC, but I could not care less about reading Agatha as a teen girl or Wanda's peer.

I'll certainly keep an eye on it-- I'm not exactly getting my hopes for characterization, but I'm interested to see what Wanda's place in this re-imagined world of magic will be. And to his credit, color artist Ian Herring has done a better job committing to Wanda's skin tone than most of the people who've worked on Scarlet Witch or Avengers. Chhibber has teased the series' romance angle pretty heavily, and Jericho is there, so I'm crossing my fingers for some WandaJericho content.

He looks cute here. It's funny to see him without the white streak in his hair, but I guess with both Agatha and Stehpen in the main cast it would have been weird. Actually, in hindsight, it's weird that Stephen has white hair, since I'm pretty sure for him it was always just a sign of age, but for Jericho it was a magic thing......

[lovingsylvia]

!NEW RELEASE!

Title: Mothers of the Mind

Author: Rachel Trethewey

Publication date: 14 September 2023

Publisher: The History Press Ltd

Image source (cover & description): https://www.thehistorypress.co.uk/

About the book:

‘The relationship between my grandmother and her mother was very important and indeed crucial to her childhood and the very early days of her writing … So, to have more insight into this particular aspect of my grandmother’s early life is very valuable.’ Mathew Prichard, Agatha Christie’s grandson

Virginia Woolf, Agatha Christie and Sylvia Plath are three of our most famous authors. For the first time this book tells in full the story of the remarkable mothers who shaped them.

Julia Stephen, Clara Miller and Aurelia Plath were fascinating women in their own rights, and their relationships with their daughters were exceptional; they profoundly influenced the writers’ lives, literature and attitude to feminism. Too often in the past Virginia, Agatha and Sylvia have been defined by their lovers – Mothers of the Mind redresses the balance by charting the complex, often contradictory, bond between mother and daughter. Drawing on previously unpublished sources from archives around the world and accounts from family and friends of the women, this book offers a new perspective on these iconic authors.

You can order the book through their website or from other online shops.

[katewillaert]

Carmen Sandiego Dossiers

One of my biggest video projects currently is an epic, lengthy deep dive into the making of the original 1985 version of Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego? I've corresponded with everyone involved in the game, from the CEO to the guy who designed the box art.

In the interest of being thorough, I decided to ask around about the identities of the Broderbund employees who posed as the "suspects" in the original manual (back before dossiers were included right in the game). Here's what I found:

Carmen Sandiego was played by Marsha Bell (née Goodman) whose job title was Advertising / Marketing Secretary. She also appeared on the cover of the sequel, but she is not the woman on the cover of the first game. The cover model's identity is still unknown.

Merey LaRoc was an anagram for Carol Emery, who was the Product Acquisitions Secretary or "Acquisitions Eminence Grise" depending on who you asked.

Dazzle Annie Nonker was a partial anagram for Ann Kronen, Product Manager on such programs as Dazzle Draw and The Print Shop.

Lady Agatha Wayland was Kay Wayland, who was an Admin Assistant in Product Development before becoming a Product Manager for programs like Fantavision.

Len "Red" Bulk was Ken Bull, who'd become the lead programmer on the Carmen sequels after Dane Bigham left.

Scar Graynolt was Carmen co-creator Lauren Elliott. It's a shame Gene Portwood and Dane Bigham don't also appear as crooks, seems like it would've been an obvious thing to do? The name is an anagram for company co-founder Gary Carlston.

Nick Brunch was Dane's roommate Scott Shumway, who programmed various ports (including Carmen C64).

Fast Eddie B. was Ed Bernstein, Editorial Director of Product Development who oversaw all the Product Managers. He later founded Palladium Interactive, who published the MYST parody PYST.

Ihor Ihoravich was Alick Dziabczenko, a programmer who worked on The Toy Shop. If this is an anagram, I can't figure it out.

Katherine "Boom-Boom" Drib was Katherine "Cricket" Bird, who was one of two Product Managers on this very game, taking over for the previous Product Manager halfway through development. More on that in the eventual video.

[manuscripts-dontburn]

Fangs

Author: Sarah Andersen

First published: 2020

Rating:  ★★☆☆☆

I feel like I missed something since this book has such a high rating... I thought the idea was excellent and I liked the drawing style... but this is really just a collection of really lukewarm jokes.

The Fires of Lust: Sex in the Middle Ages

Author: Katherine Harvey

First published: 2021

Rating: ★★★★☆

After reading this book I was yet again amused at how little the ideas about sex have changed throughout the centuries. Perhaps because it worked the exact same way as it works now. In any case, this is a quite comprehensive study, that tackles its subject with much tact, a smile where one is due, and respect as well as sensitivity when discussing serious issues.

The Little Stranger

Author: Sarah Waters

First published: 2009

Rating: ★★★★☆

Reading Sarah Waters feels like gliding softly through a gentle stream of thoughts and feelings and even though her style is slow and thus her chapters are really lengthy, the book goes by surprisingly quickly. At first, I was a little disappointed because the "ghostly" aspect which had first attracted me to the story seemed to be just background noise to a family drama (though an intriguing one), but the second half of the book more than made up for that. in fact, there were moments when I had to opt for reading only during the day (but I am a scaredy cat so if you are a horror-lover, you might not feel the same).

Braiding Sweetgrass

Author: Robin Wall Kimmerer

First published: 2013

Rating: ★★★★☆

This is, in fact, an extremely sad book, because it shows us just a sliver of all the wisdom that has been lost as the Native Americans were driven from their land and systematically killed by European settlers. It points out our tragic and willful blindness to nature and the fact the exploitation of it will soon tip toward a complete catastrophe (if it has not already). But it is also a book that offers comfort, takes you into the woods and to the marshes, and shows you wild and wonderous things that are worth protecting. There were several instances where the beauty of the language and the message delivered drew tears into my eyes. I would not recommend reading the whole book all at once, but rather take it chapter by chapter when you need to relax and think.

The Murder of Mr. Wickham

Author: Claudia Gray

First published: 2022

Rating: ★★☆☆☆

If Agatha Christie decided to write Jane Austen fanfiction.... it would be so much better than this book. Easy to plow through, but frankly dull.

Pamela

Author: Samuel Richardson

First published: 1740

Rating: ★☆☆☆☆

I only managed to read this because I actually listened to it as an audiobook and I only managed to listen to it because Everand has cut me off from every single other book to listen to (if you know, you know). The story of the book is much more interesting than the book itself. The main character is a lowly maid who has made her virginity her entire personality as well as recording every single praise that is paid her, the main male is an entitled would-be-rapist and actual kidnapper who is not above hiding in closets and cross-dressing to get under Pamela´s petticoats. Had the book been taken more as a comedy and shorter by at least 300 pages, it might have fared better in my view. This is one classic you can skip and be happy about it.

Love, A Curious History

Author: Edward Brooke-Hitching

First published: 2023

Rating: ★★★★★

Of all the Brooke-Hitching´s books I have read so far, this one is absolutely my favourite. I just wished the text was larger.

The Arctic Fury

Author: Greer Macallister

First published: 2020

Rating: ★★★☆☆

This could have been so good. I mean: an all-female Arctic expedition? Female friendships and character arcs? The howling wilderness and nature shaping the human character? I was pretty hyped for all that. Unfortunately, all of the above is not explored as much as it could have been - and instead, the time and effort are given to a completely unnecessary trial. Reminded me of Where the Crawdads Sing in that sense. Generous three stars (for now).

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Author: Maya Angelou

First published: 2011

Rating: ★★★★★

A portrait of a black childhood in the 30s and 40s south of the US, that is both engaging and educational. This is one of those books you fall into and distinctly feel are in it for the whole ride.

You Made a Fool of Death With Your Beauty

Author: Akwaeke Emezi

First published: 2022

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Interesting premise, but more soul-searching and relationship exploration over explicit and numerous sex scenes would have been more to my personal taste in what I like to read.

Terrible Tsarinas: Five Russian Women in Power

Author: Henri Troyat

First published: 1998

Rating: ★★★★☆

Easy and quick to read, even though the particular bit of history involved was truly messy, this is a book I would recommend as a bridge between the biographies of Peter the Great and Catherine the Great by R.K. Massie.

The Warm Hands of Ghosts

Author: Katherine Arden

First published: 2024

Rating: ★★★★☆

Katherine Arden has a unique gift of weaving together reality and myth (or in this case the supernatural) in a way that is very believable as well as lyrical. As if there was no question whether or not ghosts and apparitions were an indisputable part of our world. But the readers should be aware that The Warm Hands of Ghosts is, above all other things, a study and portrait of the terror of war, of what it does to those thrust into it, and poses a question if it is possible to ever go back. In this, it is far from being the only one or overtly original, but I appreciate the fact that many who would shy away from All Quiet on the Western Front or similar books might easily be attracted by it and learn something. I think the book may have been slightly more impactful had it been strictly divided into a Part 1 dedicated solely to Laura, up until the point of somebody significant coming to her in the hospital and only then introducing Part 2, in which we would learn about Freddie and his experiences, only then mingling the two. I read it in a mere 2 days, which also speaks to how much I felt entrenched in the story. I am giving it 4 stars right now, because of all the analyzing, but there is a great chance I will bump up the rating later in the year if the book proves to be one of those I keep thinking about despite their imperfections.

[regardstosoulandromance]

the thing about the kiss at the end of the school for good and evil is that it makes so much sense for it to be queer. the entire first book is about the subversion of expectations in fairy tales- sophie thinks she’s “good” because she’s beautiful, agatha thinks she’s “evil” because she’s not like the other “good” princesses. sophie sends a lot of time trying to woo a prince because she believes that true loves kiss with make her good, that she’s a princess so she belongs with a prince. but in the end what saves her is true love’s kiss- but from agatha.

the first book was published in 2013 when young adult and middle grade novels were not as diverse as they are today. there were some queer books for teens but simon verses the homo sapiens agenda wouldn’t come out until 2015 which played a HUGE hand in making queer ya mainstream and marketable.

so you read a book in 2013 about the subversion of fairy tale tropes and the two girls kiss on the lips at the end, the obvious conclusion to draw is that they’re queer, that the author (a gay man) is subverting the “princesses end up with princes” narrative. but then no BAM BOOK THREE INCEST. the major plot twist of the third book in the series is that sophie and agatha are twin sisters. this is why true love’s kiss work. because sister love. not gay people, sisters, and everyone who thought they were going to end up together have actually been shipping incest the whole time because of course girl has to be with boy! that’s the Correct Fairy Tale Way.

familiar or platonic true love’s kiss is fine, a great concept to explore, and the first season of once upon a time (the final episode airing in 2012) did it best, having regina, henry’s adoptive mother, save him by kissing him on the forehead- because they’re mother and son. which is established. but one of the platonic/familial TLK ive seen happens on the lips. even in the maleficent movie, of which audiences are divided on if maleficent and aurora are maternal or sapphic, maleficent kisses aurora on the forehead.

anyway i talked about this on tiktok and now gay teens are arguing with me about how i should have seen kissing on the mouth as a gal pals activity that girl best friends do and not as gay because that’s so weird and im like THIS WAS A NATURAL CONCLUSION FROM THE FACTS I HAD IN 2013

[qnewsau]

Agatha All Along delivers the MCU’s first lesbian kiss

New Post has been published on https://qnews.com.au/agatha-all-along-finale-gives-us-the-mcus-first-lesbian-kiss/

Agatha All Along delivers the MCU’s first lesbian kiss

Disney+ series Agatha All Along, already the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s gayest project ever, has delivered the MCU’s first lesbian kiss in its big finale.

Kathryn Hahn plays the titular anti-hero Agatha, Heartstopper‘s Joe Locke as the ‘Teen’ and Aubrey Plaza is Agatha’s nemesis Rio Vidal. Patti LuPone (!) also played a witch earlier in the season.

Previously, Joe Locke’s mysterious ��Teen’ was revealed to be powerful, queer comic book character Billy Kaplan/Wiccan. Meanwhile, the sexual tension between Agatha and Rio (who is literally Death) was off the charts all season long.

Agatha All Along concluded with a two-part finale on Disney+ this week.

In it, Agatha makes a deal with her nemesis – and ex-lover – Rio. If she can convince Billy to surrender to Rio then she has to leave Agatha alone for good.

Agatha fails to keep up her end of the bargain, and Rio attacks her. But Billy then comes to the rescue, infusing the powerless Agatha with his magic, resulting in the two women going head-to-head.

Ultimately, Agatha chooses to sacrifice herself to save Billy, and does so in an extended, passionate kiss with Rio. We love to see it.

Agatha All Along is streaming on Disney+ now.

Agatha and Rio kiss in 'AGATHA ALL ALONG' pic.twitter.com/5ECvhv23Uq

— Marvel Updates (@marvel_updat3s) October 31, 2024

WE GOT #AGATHARIO KISS BUT AT WHAT COST #AgathaAllAlong pic.twitter.com/OcI6WmbnUY

— Trost|Agatha Spoilers (@VagitarianTrost) October 31, 2024

AGATHARIO KISSED AND THIS SCENE IS SIMULTANEOUSLY THE BEST AND WORST THING THAT HAS EVER HAPPENED TO ME #AgathaAllAlong pic.twitter.com/MOsZDCJZxF

— berry (@sckberry) October 31, 2024

agatha closes her eyes but rio is in disbelief so it takes her another beat to close hers and hold agatha's face but she's so overwhelmed her hands eventually just drop and she sinks into the kiss before she goes back to hold her wrists to make sure the moment doesn't end- pic.twitter.com/ApEVdqiPeV

— m (@lezzie0lsen) October 31, 2024

Thinking about how Agatha could have enticed Rio to blast her again and draw her into a fight to get her power, but decided to spend her final living act kissing Rio and dying in her embrace. A soft and calm death. Unlike her whole life. I’m not okay #AgathaAllAlong pic.twitter.com/O0Qu885EUl

— The Kilted Menace (@fb_iona) October 31, 2024

if you genuinely believe agatha ONLY kissed rio as a way of killing herself then u might be delusional bc????? hello the PASSION?????? im dead on the floor rn pic.twitter.com/qygcn0mhik

— lily | agathario’s no1 defender (@agatharioluvr) October 31, 2024

For the latest LGBTIQA+ Sister Girl and Brother Boy news, entertainment, community stories in Australia, visit qnews.com.au. Check out our latest magazines or find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.

[dollycas]

COVER REVEAL - Keeled Over at the Cliffside by Nancy Stewart

Keeled Over at the Cliffside by Nancy Stewart Cozy Mystery 1st in Series Setting - California Independently Published (August 15, 2024) Number of Pages - 254 Kindle ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0D3CB8HH1 In the charming seaside town of Saltcliff on the Sea, Dahlia Vale's life is about to take a dramatic twist. Leaving behind her monotonous job as a defense contractor, Dahlia inherits her late sister Daisy’s cozy inn and a new role as guardian to her spirited niece, Diantha. But Saltcliff holds more than just new beginnings; it hides whispers of past loves, local feuds, and a string of suspicious deaths that soon draw Dahlia into their depths. Navigating her new life with the loyal Taco, her service dog, at her side, Dahlia stumbles upon secrets that Daisy left behind. The quaint Saltcliff Bed & Breakfast becomes center stage for these mysteries as Dahlia uncovers links between a controversial local chef's death and her sister’s secretive gardening habits. As Dahlia delves deeper, aided by the astute Detective Owen Sanderson, she finds herself untangling a web of betrayal, blackmail, and hidden motives—all under the guise of serving the perfect morning scones to her guests. With each chapter, Dahlia transitions from an outsider to a beloved figure in the community, piecing together clues with a charm only a true amateur sleuth could possess. Amidst the culinary delights and scenic walks on the beach, “Keeled Over at the Cliffside” crafts a tapestry of intrigue and murder, testing Dahlia's wit and pulling her further into the heart of Saltcliff's darkest secrets. Will Dahlia serve justice as adeptly as she serves her guests? Step into the pages of this culinary cozy mystery, where every character has a story, and the truth is as layered as a well-baked pastry. Perfect for fans of a good puzzle and a great plate of food (or those who just love a loyal Labrador), this book promises to be a delicious read from start to finish. Join Dahlia, Diantha, and Taco as they discover that even the most picturesque towns can hide the most sinister secrets. Preorder Your Copy Today!  Amazon About Nancy Stewart Nancy Stewart is the cozy pen name of USA Today bestselling rom-com author Delancey Stewart. This is her first cozy mystery, despite being raised on a steady diet of Nancy Drew and Agatha Christie, and supplementing that in adulthood with mysteries and thrillers whenever possible. She writes from her home near Denver, Colorado, where she lives with her former Marine hubby and two teenage boys. And of course, her dog, Charlie Taco (who appears in her mystery series as Taco the service dog.) Author Links Website    Facebook   Amazon Have you signed up to be a Tour Host? Click Here to Find Details and Sign Up Today! Want to Book a Tour? Click Here Your Escape Into A Good Book Travel Agent Read the full article

[chrisjake-cp]

[ENG TRANSLATION]

[Interview] A look into the <Trade War’s> Jake Hsu’s treasure book list

BY EACHEN LEE AND SUNNY TSAI

PUBLISHED: 2024/04/30 in Harper's Bazaar TW

Jake Hsu, who graduated from the Drama Department of the National Taiwan University of Arts, started his acting career by participating in works of the ‘Q Series’, and then successfully gained popularity by taking on roles like Meng Shaofei in the 2019 BL series <HIStory3: Trapped> and the heart-warming twin brother Lin Zhenye in the 2022 Netflix series <Shards Of Her>. In 2024, Jake Hsu set his first steps in the suspenseful business-war themed TV series <Trade War>, in which he played a manservant with a complex personality, showcasing not only different aspects but also allowed the audience to witness his acting power. 

As a new generation actor, Jake shared that he maintained his reading habit, ever since his studies. Not only can he keep the fun of browsing through books that way, but it simultaneously is of great help to his acting skills. Let us now take a look at the reading world of our “considerate reader” Jake Hsu. 

Q: What was the book that started nurturing your reading habit? Do you have a daily reading plan?

Jake:  Looking back on it now, the first book that I was crazy about reading is <The Power of Film> (by Howard Suber). It was also the first book I read about movies. It introduced the complicated elements of movies in a simple way. At that time I had just entered University, and that book was like a treasure trove to me, with every page filled with amazing knowledge. 

A memory that is still vivid to this day is when I was waiting to go on [stage] in the black box theatre, snuggling up to the smallest of lights and roaming leisurely through the book. Although I don’t have a fixed reading plan, reading books still fills me with delight and is irreplaceable. 

Q: Do you have any special habits while reading?

Jake: I don’t know if everyone has the same experience as me, but when I start a book, I can’t read another one before I finish the first one, otherwise I would get confused. If I’m reading a novel that has many characters in it, I even draw character interrelationship diagrams, otherwise I would easily forget who is who. 

Q: Do you pay attention to certain rituals when reading?

Jake: I have to play instrumental music while reading, especially Lo-Fi style music, which can make me concentrate better. 

Q: Apart from work-related books, what kind of books do you prefer?

Jake: I was fascinated by world literature at one point. I would often go to the university library’s translated novel section to look for treasures there. I still remember that after I closed the last page of <A Thousand Splendid Suns> (T/N by Khaled Hosseini), I sat beside myself (from excitement) in front of my writing desk for a long time. These days, most of the books I read are materials related to movie creators or famous people, or knowledge reference books. 

Q: Have you ever starred in an adaptation of a literary work that you liked? Or have you ever become a fan of the book because you acted in an adaptation?

Jake: When I was studying drama in university, I performed in the classic <The Mousetrap> by famous British writer and playwright Agatha Christie. From then on, I started loving the deductive logic of this queen of detective (writers). Her most representative character Hercule Poirot has been adapted into television works that I enjoy ardously, such as <Murder On The Orient Express>, <Death On The Nile> and <A Haunting in Venice>.

Q: Please share with us the book that has had the most profound impact on you with respect to your life, and your acting.

Jake: The book that left the deepest impression on my life is <Just Like The Speed of Walking: My Daily life, Creations and the World> by (movie) director Hirokazu Kore-eda in which he describes several philosophies in life. 

(T/N: Jake then shares an excerpt from the first chapter, but I won’t attempt to translate a Chinese translation of a Japanese original book into English). 

The director’s perspective on the world, on roles/characters and on a person has had a very big impact on me. 

And the book that influenced my acting the most is <A Challenge For The Actor> (by Uta Hagen) which I studied while in University. Even though I have developed my own thoughts on acting at this point, the exercices and homework for actors in <A Challenge For The Actor> laid a lot of foundation during my first venture into acting that are still useful today. 

Q: If you have to go live on an uninhabited island for a year, and you could only bring one book with you, which one would you choose?

Jake:  Since it would be a deserted island, I would like to bring the whole series of <One Piece> (Eiichiro Oda), which I hope to finish in due time. If I can’t bring multiple books, I would like to take with me <Freeing The Natural Voice> by Kristin Linklater, practice it diligently for a year and see what happens. 

Q: Finally, please share three of your favourite recent books? 

Jake: First, the two-volume manhua <Shen Ming Convenience Store> by Xie Donglin that I rediscovered at the Taichung Comic Museum. [The author] has turned Taiwan’s traditional gods and deities into characters and tells the stories in a clear and humorous way. I couldn’t stop laughing and really love it. 

The second book is <Selected Film Reviews of Steven Tu: A Decade 2012-2022> which collects his masterpieces of ten years of film criticism. It’s like browsing a map of the film world of the past ten years through the eyes of Teacher Tu, which is close to reaching nirvana. 

Finally, the book in my hand called <Voyage With Kiki Kirin>, which covers the period from 2007 until Kiki Kirin’s passing in 2018. During those twelve years, director Kirokazu Kore-eda and Kiki Kirin conducted scattered interviews in different situations and different times. I feel like I have spent countless wonderful afternoons with this book. 

[awiola]

Normal update, winter XXIV

BUT IT'S NOT WINTER ANYMORE HA! Happy after-equinox to y'all. I planned to write the update in march and it's still technically march but, like, y'know, it's the first day of spring so it feels kind of late, ig? Not that it really matters here and I drew Morana on fire so all is good.

This is not completely [un]related but I'm trying to complete the 'draw sth for 100 days straight' challenge and rn it's going okay though I have to admit I'm being a lazy ass. But hey, a bad sketch a day is still a drawing. Not sure if that's the reason I wasn't able to complete my easter sketch dump but knowing me it wouldn't be finished anyway so whatever ig. AND YES, I WILL DRAW FATHER DAKI ON TIME. I planned to do it when I was drawing Agatha for thug in PE's style but oh well... You'll see both ot these pics on the first of april.

Also, like, in case anyone was interested, I finally decided to learn how to adult and might open comms this year? I tell myself I'll open them since, like, 2020 so yeah. Maybe. I think I will, tho.

Current game stuff

Mushroom game... Yeah... It exists and I technically haven't dropped it but yeah... Yeah... Tbh I even hid the link from my page but it's still public and all... But yeah... It goes into the "finally finish it in 2024, you stupid fuck" list - which, incidentally, is a mouthful so from now on it's gonna be "24 >:C" - together with Enmity and all.

Remember the golem game? Yeah, we don't see its non human form but I did technically draw it. Humanoids are, like, so last decade. It's called Sorcerer's golem and because I was not the lead, we managed to nicely finish it on time ✨ [Unrelated but I wonder what happened to the old unicode emotes, I need to look into it]. There's not really a lot I have to say here, tbh. It's short, it's wholesome, I'm totally not gonna go almost fully lineless again. I almost died and it was only two sprites. Never again proceeds to do that again later anyway.

Some time after, or maybe during, I can't really remember, I heard of Queer Vampire Jam and ofc had to join because I wouldn't be me if I managed to stop myself from joining yet another jam. It just so happened I both felt like shit and read something from my SF gods at the time so I commited this open ended 3k long story and it's, like, really obvious how I felt and what I was reading but then I decided to go yolo and publish it anyway, especially since I got an editor and made laby draw for me. Just had to publish it at that point. Enough about that, though - let's see what is it all about. Vani vani, because Tas tatum was deemed too lame of a name is a story about a [queer obviously] vampire who's kinda dead inside and it shows. I did say it was obvious I felt like shit. I'm not sure if it ended up being too edgy or not... I mean, I made it really obvious it's, like gestures vaguely y'know? I don't wanna spell it out but, like, the theme and everything there was so obvious I'll be disappointed in you if you didn't get it based on the pun title [the other two layers of puns there aren't as obvious] and the page/thumbnail. Unless, of course, you never heard about it at all which might be the case for people from other continents, I wouldn't know. I realise that doesn't say a lot about the contents but I mean, it's more of a progress update, I'm not actually trying to market anything here lol So whatever. It might be the only game ever where I put a whole nsfw scene of a sexual nature... Or it might just be the beginning of my unsexy h scene adventures. I even asked others how to make it as unsexy as possible and I hope I succeed. Going into gore or kink migh be sexy for some but boredom? Probably to no one who actually reads it. And, as is the case with my other personal games, not a lot of people read them. So I think I succeed at that. It's just the beginning of my SF adventures, though. Be prepared.

Now for the thing that might interest the potential reader the most because I saw the statistics and I bet all the follows are alse due to that - Impostor Syndrome. I know the page is pretty much silent but we are working on this. The common route received a lot of notes to make it longer, more cohesive, funnier and possibly better for all the gremlins that wanted a troll mode. Or at least that was the plan. Route wise we had something but after some consideration, it had to be basically scrapped. I won't go into all the details here as for why, but the rewriting of the outline is proceeding. Slowly cause it's kinda hard to find the best time to talk when you have multiple people from different timezones to consider but I think it's looking good. There's a sliiight possibility it might be a bit less vanilla than, like, your typical sfw otome but I don't think any vanilla lover would think it's too much or anything. Not nearly kinky enough for that. I think labelling it as having a soft dom MC might even be false advertising. Maybe. Hell if I know, I suck at tags. But yeah, it's proceeding. Obviously it won't be out during winter but I do think it will be finished this year. Most likely.

From other game stuff... I might have a monster type project made with Ameena for you. Or I might not. The designs are done but is anything gonna come out of them? We'll see. Leaving the possibility open.

I helped Doibats [who I helped with Cool Days before] with some art. This time it's an rpg, currently still in development. The cool art direction is still there so I think it would be worth a play when it's out. I think I'm more of a guest artist than an actual member of the team, though lol But yeah, check it out when it's done, I'll link it then.

Yet another game where I didn't do much - The Villainess Just Wants To Eat!! had its full, official release 🎉 Congrats to the team [check out their gui, btw]. I was mostly helping with this or that due to the usual jam team stuff that happens but yeah. Syd wrote afterstories for the charas, too. They're technically linked on the game's page, too, but you can read them on her tumblr, too.

I kind of forgot to mention, which also ties with my next point, but she hosted the Ossan jam again which I planned to join with my nano project about Wedding crashers but I overestimated my ability to write energetic chaos so... umm... Well, it's not dropped and while it won't get done in time for nano, I think I'll manage before Ossan jam ends. It started as a loose idea that kinda parodied romcoms and then the protag became an AAA battery but also aplatonic and then I got some concepts from tea[? - dunno how they want to be called 'officially' and this one seemed safe but?] and yeah. I'm trying to work on this, though. Even though I feel so stupid attempting to write an anthropologist. Should've stuck to writing mostly what you know like with Vani vani, eehhh... Wish me luck o3o

The last thing, or two, probably, is more of a... forecast? I happened to help with the editing of a certain 18+ otome game but I'm not on the team or anything so I can't really tell you more since I don't know how much should I reveal to the potential player but from what I've seen, the development goes well since they started making it for nano and might actually be finished before Otome jam ends so I'll link it then.

The other thing is that in an unspecified future I might have a yet another AAA battery protagonist, this time replacing the MC of an otome isekai story. I'm not sure how much I'll help with [maybe just editing, maybe we'd become a two person team, who knows] but it has a hight possibility of being developed eventually. No set dates or anything, though.

Pariiish noootiiiceees

Remember Tentacle jam and Insect [adjacent] jam? They're still happening, I'm just being lazy setting the pages up. The working date is from around the middle of august to the middle of october due to all the other jams happening at the time. I think it's the final date, though. It's come to my attention there's also the Monstrous Desires jam that also shares the timeframe almost perfectly so, y'know, why not make a game that lets you join all three of them? Just a thought.

---

My god, this thing became so long. Like half the length of my typical personal project orz I had to add all the Ps and BRs manually. Damn you, html shakes fist

Over.

[nivalvixen]

Girl Genius written by Phil & Kaja Foglio of TPU, with drawings by Prof. P. Foglio for #webcomicwednesday From the FAQ: Girl Genius is a Gaslamp fantasy set in Europe, 18 years after the Heterodyne boys went missing. Okay, what's a "Gaslamp Fantasy?" Influences include Jules Verne and H. Rider Haggard. Expect big, clanking Victorian-style tech, old-fashioned clothes, Frankenstein monsters and airships. Lots and lots of airships. Is it magic? Is it science? A little of both, I suppose – it's Mad Science. ... Agatha Clay is having a very bad day: she is robbed by ex-soldiers and her locket is stolen, she's late for her lab assistant job at the University, another one of her robotic creations has exploded, and Baron Wulfenbach - the tyrant that rules the city - has just arrived weeks early with his son to inspect the lab. And so Agatha's adventure begins 😄 Agatha has to take a crash course in learning about people and the world outside of the University and her parents' mechanic shop, and sometimes that's literal crashing 😅 Agatha's story starts off in black and white but soon turns to colour when the locket is lost, with those colours becoming bolder and brighter as more time passes. Agatha's confidence in herself and her abilities grows within the first volume alone, and I'm looking forward to seeing where she goes and what she does. These have also been published into books and are likely in your library 😄❤️ It's not quite steampunk, though there are airships, and it's not just magic, though there are sparks involved - like the FAQ said, it's Mad Science 😄 #girlgenius #girlgeniuscomics #webcomic #webcomic #gaslampfantasy #fantasy #magic #steampunk #madscience https://www.instagram.com/p/CoqAMUKSDpo/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[redpiperfox]

...well alright then XD

Yknow, I've gotten 2 notable pieces of fanart: one from a scene in Interstellar, of Minho, Chan, and Lily running home; and another from one of my spotify drabbles, of Minho-Jungwoo-Minju, of Minho's car overlooking the city. Both really touched me!! I've tried to do some fanart of some of my works-- I think the first I tried was of the whole htbaf because my sister absolutely adores them and begs me for more from that au haha I think any of the AUs with all the kids? I feel like they would be really grand fun pieces: the whole Interstellar crew, Chan's Wind and Wish fantasy family, the Rosette Village, htbaf crew on the beach, wolves packhouse, Cleansed By The Sea Breeze beach day, etc... but I also do think some AUs are more visually built towards art than others? Like, for instance, Silent Cry and the dragons are all very visually built? Starchasers maybe, and the jedi-ish imagery? The Mers in Vast and Deep for sure, I've tried doodling them a couple of times XD I tried doing Show Goes On! circus art of Hyunjin Ryujin and Kyujin, because that atla inspired imagery is strong! I did a piece for Chaeryeong in They All Cry For Me... Scraps on the Floor was based on a little kids doodle someone on twt did that became Jeongin's drawing haha... Ooooh Talk that Talk 2hwang dragons is a vision? GREY WAIT-- Grey imagery is so strong, especially when Chan and Yeji have all the dyes on the floor and are coloring their hair haha... Dead Man Runnin' either Chan with Yuna in one of the last scenes on the train or like a scene of the train and all the guests sitting Agatha Christie whodunnit style XD Just Can't Prove It is also pretty visual, tho I can't think of one scene in specific.... maybe Yeji and Hyunjin on top of the hill overlooking the island, Hyunjin smoking, the forest all foggy? That was a HUGE driving imagery for writing that work! Brightest Stars oh oh Minho with the kids looking up at the sky and stars~~... Felix the cat in a dragon's claw while Minho watches in Me-ow? XD Or Felix held up in a lightning spell while Minho shouts from the group in my Kingdom AU that was what I imagined writing the whole thing, that and Minho holding Felix close to his chest!.... I should stop before I name a scene from, like, every work of mine XD Honestly, any art from any fic makes me absolutely alight in delight because writing fic is a very visual process for me, and if I can get that vision into my readers, than I feel like I've done well!!!

Oh ho YES! @the-sunshine-dragon dropped by on my crack zombie fic and I was delighted haha XD Twas the start of a great friendship!!!! And then @maelstromdeparture commented on Dead Man Runnin' and I was so so honored at the enjoyment Mael had for it! @felix8felicis always go back and forth about unreal, her fics are some of the biggest ones I first read and to find her in my angsty works was a treat haha There's been a couple others that I don't think are on tumblr, Momo_Momowrites, my first friend Tan, str4y on the first chapter of interstellar was so unexpected XD and then ofc YOU EI!!!! I was so delighted to see you in my kudos and comments!!! I think I get that initial "Wait a sec, I read you, why are you reading me??" that quickly turns into a friendship of mutual admiration, which I love <333

Oooh depends who asks!!! I had enough not fic short-stories published that I do like telling people usually that I write, but lately it's been just fic, so unless that person also writes fics or participates in DnD or something, I tend to not share as much? XD

GOOD QUESTION. IDK DUDE. XD For some stories I have this "cheat" sheet where I keep track of characters and stuff? But uh if the work is multichaptered I often forget to update it lol I'm great at self-sabotage like that XD This would in fact be why I'm better at one-shots where I can keep things in my head or know exactly where in the fic I need to reference and stuff!! I've already run into problems with Interstellar where people have called me out on inconsistency things alsdkjfhalskdjfh and also part of why I'm paralyzed to finish, sad to say T-T

If someone were to make fanart of your work, what fic or scene would you hope to see?

Have you had a writer you admire comment on your fic? What was that like?

When asked, are you embarrassed or enthusiastic to tell people that you write?

When it comes to more complicated narratives, how do you keep track of outlines, characters, development, timeline, ect.?

Everytime I try and answer this I get a pop-up about error in failing to process so lemme just make sure it's not the "answer" feature itself....

[ellesliterarycorner]

How to Title your Story

Ah, titles. Unfortunately, every book has to have a title. Some people spend years obsessing over the perfect title for their book. I wouldn’t say it’s that important, but titles do carry a lot of weight. Titles are just like our own names. Certain names conjure certain images, and certain titles conjure certain images as well. Do you want your audience to think of a spooky, mystery thriller when they hear the title of your book, or do you want them to think of a comforting rom-com novel? Even though we shouldn’t just a book by it’s title or it’s cover, I would be a liar if I said that I had never picked up a book simply because the title sounded super cool. Now that doesn’t always work out, but that’s just how people are. We’re more likely to pick up something that looks interesting or sounds interesting. Your title is the reader’s first impression of your writing, so to pull those readers in, here are some tips for titling your story!

Brainstorm, Brainstorm, Brainstorm!!

Brainstorming is good advice for pretty much anything! Sometimes you instantly think of something that is the most amazing title, and other times you have a list of 20 or 30 that you need to wittle down to that one perfect title. Ask yourself questions about the book. Is there a certain theme or motif that you really want to be a part of the title? Or does the story revolve around a singular character that will eventually give the series its name? It honestly depends on what you want your story to project, and what you want readers to feel when they the title. I would say that coming up with titles is a great place to use your trusty beta readers! If you’re really torn between two prospective titles, you could ask beta readers which title they feel fits the book better having read it. If you’re still in the early title brainstorming phase, you could ask your beta readers to come up with a word or a phrase that they think really represents the book and go from there!

Don’t Be Basic About It

We’ve all been there before: you just finished reading the most incredible book in the whole world. Well-rounded characters, an amazing plot, and absolutely perfect wordbuilding. You know that it is your duty to share this amazing book with your friends. Yet, as you go to tell your best friend about the perfectness that is this book, you forget the title. Never fear, you promise to text them the title. Alas! You forget to text them when you get home. The book has lost a potential reader, and your friend has lost the chance to make his life better. A missed opportunity for all. Real talk though, sometimes you geuinnely cannot remember the title of a book because the title just wasn’t that memorable even if the book was. Especially in today’s publishing climate (which I talk more about later), a lot of book titles sound really similar. It’s getting harder to come up with an orginal title because publishers seem to want all the book titles to be relatively uniform. Choose a title that your readers will instantly remember forever. I didn’t necessarily love the Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, but that is one book title I will never forget. Also, when you’re thinking of titles, maybe do a quick Google search to see if a super popular book already has that title. Book titles aren’t copyrighted, I don’t think, so you could use a name already used by a popular book, but you probably should steer clear of them!

Maybe A Sprinkle of Foreshadowing??

Not only do titles draw readers into your story, some titles also give the reader a little bit of a glimpse of what they should expect from your book. Say what you will about Agatha Christie, but for the most part all of her books have very straightforward titles. Now, part of that is reflective of the time she wrote it, but also being forthright can be a good thing. If a book is titled Murder on the Orient Express, it would most definitely be reasonable to expect someone to get murdered on the Orient Express. The reader knows exactly what to expect, and they can’t get bamboozled when inevitably, someone does get murdered on said Orient Express. Of course, your titles can also still have the same meaning, but be a little bit more philosophical in nature. I love when I read a book completely not understanding the title, but then I finally finish the book, and now I have a completely new understanding and appreciating for the writer. There’s also that lovely little aha moment when a character finally says the title of the book in the book, or if the title references an object, when that object finally appears!

Elle’s Bonus Tip: Don’t Worry About It

Honestly, the best advice is to not worry about it! Especially if you do end up going the traditional publishing route, there is a very high chance that your publisher/agent/editor will change the title that you may have worked incredibly hard to come up with it. It’s jut the way things are, and it’s actually one my biggest gripes with YA publishing (especially fantasy) at the moment. It seems like the title of every book that comes out is some variation of ‘Of (something) and (something).’ It’s a publishing trend that I’m honestly not all that fond of. But, the point of that mini-rant is that placeholder titles are perfectly acceptable for the long-run if traditional publishing is your goal. My newest WIP that I’ll be writing for NaNoWriMo in November is placeholdered (not a real word, ik) as Project Starlight. It’s my newest project, and it takes place in space which makes me think of starlight. Boom! Project Starlight. Don’t overthink it or stress about it!

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I based this drawing of niamh and Agatha off of one of my fav photos from Eye to Eye by JEB, which is described on bookshop.org like this:

In 1979, JEB self-published her first book, Eye to Eye: Portraits of Lesbians. In a work that was revolutionary for its era, JEB made photographs of lesbians from different ages and backgrounds in their everyday lives--working, playing, raising families, and striving to remake their worlds… Eye to Eye signaled a radical new way of seeing--moving lesbian lives from the margins to the center, and reversing a history of invisibility.

Not saying Agatha is specifically lesbian, but I think a lot of wlw grow up with the experience of having a totally invisible sexuality even to urself, like feeling like ur desire is either unnamable and out of control or totally undetectable, and I see this with Agatha - and I see her also opening, blossoming under niamhs regard. She can be truly seen by niamh, in a way she wasn’t by any one else Agatha has romantically pursued before.

@rainbowrowell thank u for giving us these characters :,)

[butterscotch-brigade]

thinking about your post urging people to reading various genres and content and to challenge their reading skills... and i agree with you so much i definitely think it can strengthen one's reading comprehension and broaden prospective. like even if the quality isn't good or the genre isn't your thing, it can be a fun experience to read something outside of what you're used to. your post just makes me think how nice it can be to just read and gain anything, whether that's maybe knowledge or new queries, out of something new.

also i have to ask do you have any book recommendations? :)

YOU!!!! YOU GET IT!!!!!! one of the many values of reading is what you GAIN from books, and how you can apply that to ur life - whether its philosophical/existential questions or entertaining moments or parts that made you emotional in some way. even if you didnt like a book, walking out of it with the feeling that youve gained/felt something new or intriguing is its own reward.

and as for recommendations.....i have to say my favorite genre is definitely murder mystery, and my favorite author is agatha christie!!! the queen of plot twists imo. her books can be offputting to some bc a lot of the time her books dont always open up with the murder itself; many chapters are dedicated to the events LEADING UP to the murder in order to provide context and drop hints. not all of her books do this, but i can see why some people might become impatient when reading some of her work. that being said, my favorite book of hers had got to be the murder of roger ackroyd, but i also love the abc murders and hercule poirot's christmas.

as far as standalone books go, one book ive been devouring recently is i'm glad my mom died by jennette mccurdy, an autobiography about a former child actress who faced considerable abuse both in her home life and on set for some of her most famous works, most notably "icarly" and "sam and cat." its a hard read that contains descriptions of abuse, eating disorders, trauma, and child exploitation (sometimes sexual). ultimately, though, it becomes a book about healing as she describes life before and after the death of her abusive mother. mccurdy's writing style is so creative and snarky and clever, with some dark humor thrown in. not for those sensitive to the discussed themes, but definitely an engaging read.

i would also like to recommend a book that ive recommended to other people in my life before: penpal by dathan auerbach. this is a horror novel with themes of stalking, death (both humans and animals), and kidnapping. it originally started as a series of short stories online before being published as a full book. i dont want to talk too much about it bc i dont want to spoil anything, but its one of the most suspenseful and chilling stories ive ever read. highly recommend going into it blind bc it hits so much harder when u dont know whats coming.

finally, and this is a VERY different and more unconventional choice, i strongly recommend reading calvin and hobbes. it was a newspaper comic strip that ran from 1985-1995, and it was what inspired me to start drawing and writing stories in the first place. there are several books and collections containing various comics from the strip's run, and theyre all fantastic. they will make you laugh, cry, and think. i know what youre thinking: "how can a newspaper comic be so good?" but trust me, TRUST ME, its one of the most inspirational works of art i have ever come across. without calvin and hobbes i likely wouldnt be where i am today, it literally changed my life. please read calvin and hobbes i am BEGGING you.

theres a LOT of books i love but i am currently living in an apartment farther away from my hometown, where i have a bunch more on my bookshelf. so sorry if these recommendations arent extensive enough i dont have access to my actual Book Supply akskdkdkd

thank u for letting me talk abt books!!!!! have a wonderful day/night/etc and always remember to keep reading :)