#free-ebook free report

[profitpulse36]

What if you could create beautiful eBooks in under 60 seconds? Here’s a tool you gotta see people. This is perfect for creating products, and lead gen reports. Click on the link for more details.

[avaantares]

Fanfiction Authors: HEADS UP

(Non-authors, please RB to signal boost to your author friends!)

An astute reader informed me this morning that one of my fics (Children of the Future Age) had been pirated and was being sold as a novel on Amazon:

(And they weren't even creative with their cover design. If you're going to pirate something that I spent a full year of my life writing, at least give me a pretty screenshot to brag about later. Seriously.)

I promptly filed a DMCA complaint to have it removed, but I checked out the company that put it up -- Plush Books -- and it looks like A LOT of their books are pirated fic. They are by no means the only ones doing this, either -- the fact that """publishers""" can download stories from AO3 in ebook format and then reupload them to Amazon in just a few clicks makes fic piracy a common problem. There are a whole host of reasons why letting this continue is bad -- including actual legal risk to fanfiction archives -- but basically:

IF YOU ARE A FANFIC AUTHOR WITH LONG AND/OR POPULAR WORKS, PLEASE CHECK AMAZON TO SEE IF YOUR STORIES HAVE BEEN PIRATED.

You can search for your fics by title, or by text from the description (which is often just copied wholesale from AO3 as well). If you find that someone has stolen your work and is selling it as their own, you can lodge a DMCA complaint (Amazon.com/USA site; other countries have different systems). If you haven't done this before, it's easy! Here's a tutorial:

HOW TO FILE A COPYRIGHT COMPLAINT FOR STOLEN WORK ON AMAZON.COM:

First, go to this form. You'll need to be signed into your Amazon account.

Select the radio buttons/dropdown options (shown below) to indicate that you are the legal Rights Owner, you have a copyright concern, and it is about a pirated product.

Enter the name of your story in the Name of Brand field.

In the Link to the Copyrighted Work box, enter a link to the story on AO3 or whatever site your work is posted on.

In the Additional Information box, explain that you are the author of the work and it is being sold without your permission. That's all you really need. If you want, you can include additional information that might be helpful in establishing the validity of your claim, but you don't have to go into great detail. You can simply write something like this:

I am the author of this work, which is being sold by [publisher] without my permission. I originally published this story in [date/year] on [name of site], and have provided a link to the original above. On request, I can provide documentation proving that I am the owner of the account that originally posted this story.

In the ASIN/ISBN-10 field, copy and paste the ID number from the pirated copy's URL. You'll find this ten-digit number in the Amazon URL after the word "product," as in the screenshot below. (If the URL extends beyond this number, you can ignore everything from the question mark on.) Once this number has been added, Amazon will pull the product information automatically and add it to the complaint form, so you can check the listing title and make sure it's correct.

Finally, add your contact information to the relevant fields, check the "I have read and accept the statements" box, and then click Submit. You should receive an email confirmation that Amazon has received the form.

Please share this information with your writer friends, keep an eye out for/report pirated works, and help us keep fanfiction free and legally protected!

NOTE: All of the above also applies to Amazon products featuring stolen artwork, etc., so fan artists should check too!

[morgana-pendragon]

educate yourself:

this masterpost of resources + ways to give by @stuckinapril.

website recommendations by @leroibobo.

this video by kei pritsker of breakthrough news details israel's racist origins & history, via @/komsomolka.

this report listing the 7,000+ killed in palestine over the past 20 days, via @spookyjun.

this masterpost of links via @killyfromblame.

free ebooks from haymarketbooks.

this masterlist by @palipunk.

monetary help:

gamesforgaza

use your voice:

ceasefiretoday.com

(us only) example of city council contact

global links:

amnestyinternational

the palestine children's relief fund

arab.org (click once every 24 hours to help!)

x thread for petitions

prewritten email and call script x thread

decolonizepalestine.com

this post is NOT intended as a one stop shop for all the information you'll ever need about how to help free palestine, simply an attempt to spread awareness to larger, better posts and ways for people to help. please, add on with more links and information if you can.

[ariaste]

I'm super excited for your new book, quick question though... I recently saw something about an author not getting much $ from amazon because of the way revenue/profit was allocated when the book was on sale. What are the best 3 ways to buy your book in terms of revenue for you? I'm assuming Amazon isn't great? What about B&N? small local book stores? From the link you shared? A different method?

That is an AWESOME question and extremely thoughtful! I will give the short answer and the long answer. Short answer for RUNNING CLOSE TO THE WIND specifically:

Buy the hardback from Allstora (GREAT) or my Bookshop.org affiliate store (still good) or Barnes & Noble (I won't get any extra money, but it's good for other reasons, see below) or your local indie bookstore (we love supporting small businesses)

Buy the ebook from wherever is best for you! Right now I make pretty much the same amount of money regardless of platform.

Remember to recommend it to your local library in hardback, ebook, and audiobook form. (I still make money when libraries buy my books, and libraries help new readers discover my books)

For readers outside of America: You should be able to get it everywhere, and buying it from any retailer is great! I recommend a local indie bookstore.

Longer answer for all of my books:

Right, so I do both indie publishing and traditional publishing, so this is where things get weird:

Allstora is amazing for authors. For physical copies of my books, I get between 10% and 40% of the sale price on top of the royalties i get from my publisher. It is sincerely a game-changer. Buying my books from from my Bookshop.org store, linked above, is also pretty good -- it gets me a little boost of 10% of the profits of any books you buy through my affiliate link. Pretty cool. Buying books from Barnes & Noble is good for different reasons, because while I do not get any extra money beyond my royalties, B&N is very good at reporting their preorder numbers to my publisher, which is useful data for them to know for things like how much of a marketing budget to give my books. As for buying from indie bookstores, that speaks for itself: They are the backbone of our literary society and supporting them is just a morally good thing to do. (For international readers looking to get the hardbacks: Whichever retailer you usually use is great! There's no clear frontrunner right now that gives me more benefit than any other)

For ebooks of my traditionally published books (A Conspiracy of Truths, A Choir of Lies, Finding Faeries, A Taste of Gold and Iron, and now Running Close to the wind), again, buying them anywhere is currently fine. I hear Allstora might be working on getting ebook functionality in the future, in which case that will become the answer :) For ebooks of my self-published works, however, get them from my Patreon shop. I walk away with about $8 off an $8.99 sale. It's incredibly good.

Again, recommending my books to your local library (there's usually an online form on their website) is hugely helpful because that's FREE for you and STILL MONEY for me! :D And libraries are awesome, so.

You can also sign up for my newsletter or join my Discord server to get notifications of special events when you can buy autographed books directly from me! This gets me even more money than Allstora, but I only run these events a couple times a year for special occasions.

THANK YOU SO MUCH for asking this question! I hope this helped!

[cicerfics]

Heads up: AO3 has temporarily hidden/locked my fic, love, in fire and blood.

As far as I can tell, someone reported it because the final chapter's notes mentioned releasing a (free) ebook version of it someday and because I urged readers to consider donating to a nonprofit. This was, apparently, flagged as a form of 'solicitation'.

I am working with AO3's Policy & Abuse team to get the fic restored. Please sit tight, folks!

Tagging the folks who inboxed me about this issue to make sure they see this post. Thanks for checking in!

@fibbunny @broken-synchronicity @chansotherroom @my-life-me @fluffypurpleglitterdemon

[bubonickitten]

The ALA's State of America's Libraries Report for 2024 is out now.

2023 had the highest number of challenged book titles ever documented by the ALA.

You can view the full PDF of the report here. Book ban/challenge data broken down by state can be found here.

If you can, try to keep an eye on your local libraries, especially school and public libraries. If book/program challenges or attacks on library staff are happening in your area, make your voice heard -- show up at school board meetings, county commissioner meetings, town halls, etc. Counterprotest. Write messages of support on social media or in your local papers. Show support for staff in-person. Tell others about the value of libraries.

Get a library card if you haven't yet -- if you're not a regular user, chances are you might not know what all your library offers. I'm talking video games, makerspaces (3D printers, digital art software, recording equipment, VR, etc.), streaming services, meeting spaces, free demonstrations and programs (often with any necessary materials provided at no cost!), mobile WiFi hotspots, Library of Things collections, database subscriptions, genealogy resources, and so on. A lot of electronic resources like ebooks, databases, and streaming services you can access off-site as long as you have a (again: free!!!) library card. There may even be services like homebound delivery for people who can't physically come to the library.

Also try to stay up to date on pending legislation in your state -- right now there's a ton of proposed legislation that will harm libraries, but there are also bills that aim to protect libraries, librarians, teachers, and intellectual freedom. It's just as important to let your representatives know that you support pro-library/anti-censorship legislation as it is to let them know that you oppose anti-library/pro-censorship legislation.

Unfortunately, someone being a library user or seeing value in the work that libraries do does not guarantee that they will support libraries at the ballot. One of the biggest predictors for whether libraries stay funded is not the quantity or quality of the services, programs, and materials it offers, but voter support. Make sure your representatives and local politicians know your stance and that their actions toward libraries will affect your vote.

Here are some resources for staying updated:

If you're interested in library advocacy and staying up to date with the challenges libraries are facing in the U.S., check out EveryLibrary, which focuses on building voter support for libraries.

Book Riot has regular articles on censorship attempts taking place throughout the nation, which can be found here, as well as a Literary Activism Newsletter.

The American Library Association's Office for Intellectual Freedom focuses on the intellectual freedom component of the Library Bill of Rights, tracks censorship attempts throughout each year, and provides training, support, and education about intellectual freedom to library staff and the public.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation focuses on intellectual freedom in the digital world, including fighting online censorship and illegal surveillance.

I know this post is long, but please spread the word. Libraries need your support now more than ever.

[physalian]

IngramSpark: Good or Nah?

I decided to work with them last minute to set my book up for success, and, in case they screwed me over, I could hate them in a properly informed manner.

So!

IngramSpark (IGS) vs. Amazon (KDP) so far: A detailed comparison.

Spoiler Alert: FUCK INGRAMSPARK

Alrighty these are two proof copies (author copies) of the exact same book made with the exact same PDFs. IGS is on the left in all pics.

Stuff to note:

The IGS copy is slightly greener, the purple is less vibrant. KDP made the exact colors I painted this with in photoshop.

The KDP book is slightly thicker and while the spine print is slightly off center, the front cover is perfectly centered. Compare both of the lower moons on the right side and it's very obvious that IGS cut theirs incorrectly. It's cut incorrectly because their paper is thinner, thus needing a slightly narrower print PDF (which isn't something they would tell you).

KDP is slightly thicker because they used thicker paper. Theirs is less polished creme, you can feel more of a grain of the pages, but because they're thicker, they're less transparent. I can read straight through to not only the back of the title page, but straight onto the next piece of paper for the IGS copy, and theirs cost more to print.

KDP shipped in lighter packaging, which meant my copy got a little banged up as opposed to the cardboard coffin the IGS book was in. Pick your poison.

KDP

PROS

A breeze to work with in most areas. I did not need to use customer service, so I can’t comment on that, but I’ve heard it’s superior to IGS in every way. They do have a community chat that I have used when confused (more below) and pages upon pages of how-to resources.

Simple user interface, very easy to click through all the set-up menus and not once did it freeze or crash on me (more below).

Did not use their formatter or cover generator, I used Adobe and did my own so I can’t comment on their quality.

Their “print previewer” was fantastic. I could click through the whole book and they explained very thoroughly where some issues were and what I should look out for and they let me use my own files without issue instead of having to build them in the platform.

Their royalty rate is the best you can get in this industry, because they’re not selling to anyone but themselves so there’s no middle man taking a cut of the profit.

Print quality of the book itself is fantastic. Only thing I miss is the ability to emboss, but no print-on-demand company does that as far as I’m aware. The colors were an exact match to my design in Adobe, I have no complaints.

Instant reports and near-live report refreshes for ebooks. Print copies don’t register on reports until the book ships, but Amazon prints and ships within ~2 days.

Because it’s Amazon, even though proof copies aren’t applicable with Prime, my copy still got here in 5 days including print time. My print copy totaled the print cost plus $3 in standard shipping that I could have rushed.

It did get a little banged up on the bottom but I think that was during shipping not at the printing press.

If you’re really strapped for cash, they do offer free ISBNs *but these are KDP only ISBNs, you don’t own them, and they are non transferable between vendors and POD companies. Bite the bullet and just save up for your own ISBNs and buy them in bulk if you can and you plan on publishing at least 2 books in your lifetime (like a paperback and hardcover of the same book, even).

After I submitted my ebook for preorder, I kept finding little details to fix and lines I wasn’t happy with that got nixed at the 11th hour. Updating this was seamless and free and the updated versions were processed within 6 hours or so. Amazon did not lock in the files to the date the preorders were set like IngramSpark would have.

CONS

They still don’t have paperback preorder, but they do have a feature where you can submit for a future release, which is just giving your files over to go live on a set date. Thing is: When you get to the end of the setup, there’s a button that says something like “submit for publication” which does not actually mean “move your publication date to right now” like I thought. So I missed my paperback date by 2 days.

Their proof copy has that annoying grey “Not for Resale” stripe across the cover so it looks wonky in marketing images.

They have a “cover art size calculator” feature, which did not line up with the actual file size I needed come submission time, off by a few millimeters. Which meant resizing in Photoshop and it was incredibly annoying and tedious.

Upon finally hitting the “publish” button Amazon flagged my book and told me to fix the highlighted errors. Well there were no highlighted errors, and said error(s) could be anywhere across four pages of details. I had to consult the community notes to figure out what they were talking about (it was an ISBN issue) which was quite annoying.

IGS

PROS

Well-known as the best print-on-demand (POD) company with the widest reach, including Amazon, for expanded distribution. (NOT IN MY EXPERIENCE)

Also well-known as the highest quality self-publish paperback, that still doesn’t do embossing. (NOT IN MY EXPERIENCE)

They do paperback preorders (which I did not participate in).

Integrates flawlessly with libraries and retailers that Amazon won’t do (which is about its only claim to superiority). My book was searchable on Barnes & Noble within 48 hours.

IGS, like KDP, has free ISBNs (US only), with the exact same non-transferable issue. However, because they integrate across all sellers, Amazon included, if you only intend to work with them, you’ve reached every market anyway.

CONS

Their royalty rate sucks ass. I had to price my book $1 higher through IGS because I was literally at a deficit with all the printing costs and vendor discounts (so if you want my book for slightly cheaper, buy it through Amazon). Through IGS, I think I’m making about $1 in royalties, when all is said and done. And I’ve heard, shockingly, that that’s pretty good.

I didn’t try to use their customer service because I know it’s notoriously terrible. But it would have been helpful when their website crashed.

Their website crashed on me three times when trying to upload my files. Before it crashed, their “submit files” button simply did not work, so I had to go the roundabout way through their formatter and cover wizard (which I didn’t like) which then told me my 300DPI cover art was too small. The exact same file I submitted and had in my hands at perfect resolution to Amazon. It took almost 2 hours of running around in circles on their site to essentially start from scratch to get this up and running—and I did all of this with polished files from the get go because I knew revisions would be tedious. Can’t imagine the hassle if you aren’t ready to go immediately (this is why I didn't do a preorder with them).

I have heard that if you make changes to your files, they don’t go into effect until the next month, meaning if you have typos, and anyone buys your book before the next calendar month despite you fixing them in the system, that person is still buying the old version. I have also heard that generating reports is not seamless. After 60 days, revisions also cost you $25 a pop (KDP is free).

If you submit pre-made PDFs for your manuscript and cover (as in, you don’t format or generate them within their system) they do not have an instant previewer. Mine took 48 hours to deliver a link, when that shit should be automated and instantaneous and should allow me to use my own files.

IGS does not have Amazon’s monopoly on shipping, so to get my book here at all quickly, it cost me almost $20, rush fees applied for only 1 day faster than Amazon did. “Quickly,” being I ordered the proof on the 24th, and it won’t get here until the 28th. Meaning, that if you’re not paying rush fees, you’d have to wait longer.

They can be quite confusing with revisions during the preorder process. Per their website, they can begin printing your book “generally” 30 days before go-live. Which means someone who preordered your book on the 3rd gets the version of the book that was available on the 3rd, even if you update it on the 5th, because they print those immediately, even if the book’s official release date of the 30th hasn’t passed. You’d pretty much have to be completely done with revisions before setting up for preorder with them to be absolutely sure, which means wasted time. I don’t know why they don’t just queue up the books to be printed on a hard deadline a few days before release.

So. While I hate that Amazon has a monopoly, about the only thing IGS has going for it is their expanded distribution when everything about their business, from their platform to their user experience to the actual quality of books is at best dead even with KDP, but in my experience with my best foot forward, IGS annoyingly inferior.

I don’t think they’ll remain the “best POD company” for very much longer. I did not do hardcover for ENNS as of this post so I can’t comment on either service’s print quality, only what I’ve seen in other reviews. Some people like the jacket-less print-on-the-cardboard look (Amazon), some people (me) like the jacket, if only so I can use it as a bookmark.

*I wrote the above paragraphs before getting my proof copy from IGS and fucking hell they're not even competent at printing

It is also a massive waste of paper and shipping resources to have to print multiple versions of proof copies fixing errors outside of my control. My proof copy from KDP is perfect. IGS? Nope! But they wouldn't let me properly preview it so I had no idea this would happen.

Even as a consumer who might hate the idea of giving Amazon more money, there’s an argument to consider: I totally understand the desire to keep brick and mortar stores afloat and I don’t want Amazon’s monopoly on the market to grow even larger. However, Amazon makes sure that you’re making more than pocket change on your book, unless you jack up the prices for readers on the back end so the whole thing costs more all the way down the pipeline. I refused to do this.

That deficit that forced me to price ENNS even $1 higher than Amazon really bothers me with IngramSpark. That deficit exists because of a higher print cost and a 55% discount given to vendors so they can still make their cut of profit from stocking your book. IngramSpark had me sit through a whole video saying “if you don’t do this no one will stock your book” while saying you could go as low as 54% but that might scare off vendors.

In essence, at this time, KDP makes sure that you, the creator, make money. IGS makes sure that they and the businesses selling your book for you make money. I didn’t do any of this for profit, but it does hurt seeing all your hard work, possibly years of effort, have a royalty of $0.87.

So, yeah, is IngramSpark worth it?

I don’t yet know what their reach will amount to. It’s a dream of mine to see my book on a bookstore shelf, but signing up with IGS does not guarantee you sales, it just guarantees you the best chance possible at reaching potential buyers. But at the moment, all it looks like to me is fees, a bad UI, cheap printing, arrogance from perceived superiority in the market, and a business built boldly in favor of its own profits.

Amazon’s a shady-ass corporation, but I’m going to have to say they’re the better bet. At the very least, for your first book when you don’t have an audience and if making a profit is important to you.

—

I did not try to use any other POD like Draft 2 Digital or Barnes & Noble Press, as I already have KDP and IGS is the best platform to integrate with KDP.

See here for the cost breakdown of my debut novel from draft to publication.

[magicariot]

I'm pleased to report that I've added another way to get a copy of Magica Riot in ebook format.

Magica Riot is now available on Itch.io!

Same as other platforms, the book releases on November 1st. You'll get it in EPUB, MOBI, and PDF formats, DRM-free. I hope this provides a great alternative for folks who want to get out from under corporate bookseller DRM or who have trouble getting the book in their region!

[drrr-emporium]

What to do if Durarara over

I'm going to assume you've finished the anime and have not gone into anything else Naritaverse wise

So! You can read the novels. Since they're officially licensed by yen press, you can buy the soft cover books or get them as an ebook / kindle from barnes and noble or amazon. I don't really endorse this but I'm sure if you do enough digging around you can find old, still available, free translations like anni_fiesta who did a lot of translating back in the day. Here's the link to their Index of Translation. I still use it since it's the only place I know that has the white day story translated and it's one of my favorites (For Kadota Related reasons haha), plus a couple of other side stories.

(I think the internet archives have the novels if you do some poking around but for Narita Please Write SH 5 reasons, I'll ask you to dig those up lmao)

Speaking of Side stories, Kazinha-726 translated a bunch of drrr side stories But since they haven't updated in a while, you need to change the links from kaedesan721 to their new URL kazinha-726. I'll directly link what you need here

Izaya Spin Off Translations I don't think these are officially licensed for translation so it's fine for me to link. This is the story of Izaya now that he's been forced out of Ikebukuro, and there's two books as of writing this.

Durarara Gaidens It's some gaidens, but It's also a handful of translated convos from 3 way stand of alley relay, the links use that kaedesan721 link, so while I won't be fixing all those links for you, I can at least link the tag for all of them here. you can probably find audio for this game on youtube, though I'm not sure anyone's like.... fully translated? perhaps? Which ALSO reminds me of the relay manga

Durarara Epitome of Eighteen Histories Written along side the release of season 2, we've got some stories involving Kazane Kinomiya, who's the half sister of Shinra, and a reporter. They have all 18 listed there nicely EXCEPT the Erika and Walker Link is a little messed up, and if you search through the posts you can get to it but anyway here's the link to that story specifically

DRRR x Hakata Tonkatsu Ramens Actually I haven't seen HTR or read it so I can't really tell you about this one but if you're into that series--

There's ALSO MiniDura which are little gag comics of the durarara cast in chibis! there should be 4 books as of me writing this. Godspeed on finding translations they seem to be around.... but this post is long and I'm scared of losing it so I'll update later on how many chapters there are so you don't miss any, though I'm seeing up to 10 in my cursory search.

Shizuo, Izaya, and Celty are also in uh.... Dengeki Bunko's fighting Climax, which you might be able to find some stuff on on youtube. but since it's Dengeki Bunko you also have other series... I can only remember A Certain Magical Index / A Certain Scientific Railgun / the other titles in this series as being part of it whoops.

So you've done all that, what do you do next?

Well Narita has other series, like Baccano! which had an anime before DRRR did, which is 16 episodes. Since Funimation lost the license back in like... 2012 it's not officially uh licensed for viewing anywhere, so uh. wink wink. message me if you need more help here.

There's ALSO the novels which... there are so many more than there are for drrr, also available to purchase, though these are hardcovers! Last time I checked they had.... around 20 translated? Since I'm more drrr side I'd have to ask about fan translations and if I can still find them around. But again I don't really condone it since we want more written you know?

Narita also has a couple other series, but the one that's my favorite besides DRRR is Etsusa Bridge (It's pronounced Essa Bridge don't make the same mistake I did. )

And i NEED more people to read that one please please please please

Unfortunately, the person who did the fan translation closed their Blogspot to the public so uh. the first 4 books, and really what is the main story, is available on the internet archive here

Though I'm saying thank you to baka-tsuki for my life by having a page of links here, which includes the 5th book, 5656 part two (NARITA..... I NEED 5656 PART 2 PLEASE...... PLEASE)

and Vamp on the internet archive here and baka-tsuki here

I also know about Hariyama-san but i don't actually know... if anyone translated that one..... Narita has also written for Bleach and Fate Strange/ Fake if you're into those. Straight up just linking this wiki page in case you have any interest in other stuff he's written

And finally! Currently, Dead Mount Death Play (often shortened to DMDP) is a manga written (or co written?) by Narita! which is currently getting an anime and all of his attention.

All that being said I've been really into Trigun lately lmao

Anyone else feel free to add on or tell me what I may be missing

[maleficentmrsofallevil]

Love Etsy, hate Etsy sellers

This appears to be a lovely listing for how to make underwear from a vintage pattern book that you can purchase quite affordably on Etsy:

How nice!

Except that it's basically taken from the Antique Pattern Library, which provides these patterns for free for personal, non-commercial use:

Of course, Etsy makes money from this theft, so you can't report it. Only the Antique Pattern Library can. And I don't even want to guess the number of hoops an IP owner must jump through to convince Etsy to stop making money.

So, yeah. Etsy is great! But a lot of Etsy sellers are scumbags.

[acmoorereadsandwrites]

An Interview with Genoveva Dimova, Author of Foul Days

Genoveva is a Bulgarian archeologist living in Scotland and loves void cats, metal music, cheese, and Voice-y fast-paced books

Read here or on my substack

AC: Where did the inspiration for the witches’ shadows being linked to magic come from?

GD: Shadows are a common motif in Bulgarian folklore, and the idea that a person’s soul (or power, or essence) resides inside their shadow appears again and again. It is believed, for example, that stepping on someone’s shadow would bring the person ill health. If you’d like to get rid of an unwanted guest, a surefire way to do this is to sweep their shadow through the door. One of my favourite folkloric beliefs is the ritual of embedding, which is something that features prominently in Foul Days: the idea is that in order to make a structure, like a bridge or a wall, as solid and long lasting as possible, you need to embed someone in it, so that their spirit would protect it from evil. In some folk stories, the builders embed a living person, and in others—only the person’s shadow. It doesn’t matter which one of the two they choose, as a person without a shadow would grow ill and die within 40 days.

AC: The Foul Days are linked to the veil between worlds growing thin, which is present in Japanese, Irish, and Mexican traditions. Are there any cultural traditions in Bulgaria with similar ideas?

GD: I love this question! The short answer is—yes, absolutely. The long answer is that Foul Days is based around a real belief: in Bulgarian folklore, the Foul Days are the twelve days between Christmas and St John the Baptist’s Day, after the new year has been born but before it has been baptised, when the barriers between our world and the supernatural realm are thinnest, and therefore, evil spirits are free to roam the land. It was believed that during those twelve days, people should keep away from anything that would function as a doorway between worlds—all the mirrors in the house had to be covered, and washing had to be avoided, as water is a well-known method for transportation between realms. People also had to avoid going out after dark, hosting weddings or funerals, or conceiving, as any baby conceived during the Foul Days was sure to become a drunk or a rascal.

AC: Are there any writers writing Balkan speculative fiction you wanna give a shout-out to?

GD: This is a difficult question as very few Balkan authors have been translated into different languages, and their works are therefore inaccessible not only in the West, but within the Balkans themselves. There are more than a dozen languages spoken on this fairly small piece of land (Google tells me it’s roughly the same size as Texas), which means that we, too, have to rely on translations to read authors from other Balkan countries or cultures.

Anyway, with this caveat, here are some of my favourites:

For people who like literary fiction with a speculative twist, I’d recommend Time Shelter by Georgi Gospodinov. For a book that reads like a folk tale, Baba Yaga Laid an Egg by Dubravka Ugrešić. There is a new Croatian publishing house called Shtriga, which specialises in sharing speculative literature by Croatian authors with the rest of the world—they have a great selection of ebooks, some of which are free, so definitely check them out. The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova is a novel about vampires that takes us on a journey through the Balkans. Finally, Dark Woods, Deep Water by Jelena Dunato is a dark fantasy blending folklore and gothic horror in a setting inspired by the Eastern Adriatic, and I can’t recommend it enough.

When it comes to short stories, I loved the collections Mars by Asja Bakić and Impossibly Blue by Zdravka Evtimova, as well as the individual short stories 'The Language of Knives' by Haralambi Markov and 'The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Reporter' by Daniela Tomova.

AC: I will second the shout-out for Dark Woods, Deep Water by Jelena Dunato. A strong fantasy-horror debut that deserves way more love.

AC: Is the hair being connected to a witch's power also connected to Bulgarian folklore?

GD: Yes, definitely – like in many traditional societies, a woman’s hair was a way to communicate her status. A respectable unmarried woman would always wear her hair braided in public, and a woman who was married would not only braid hers, but also cover it. Female mythical creatures, on the other hand, like samodivas and yudas (forest spirits) or chumas (the personification of the plague) were often depicted with long, loose hair, indicating that they were wild and dangerous. There are a lot of rules surrounding women’s hair: in some parts of the country, cutting it with scissors is forbidden, and a flint has to be used instead. Hair that was cut was never disposed of lightly—it was collected, made into braids, and either burnt, hidden within the walls, or buried with the woman after her death. I’ve also heard of a belief that if a woman lets her hair grow too long, she’s tempting the evil spirits from the underworld to pull her down by it. Essentially, hair was seen as a symbol of the woman’s femininity, which, when uncontained (braided) can be dangerous to the social order.

AC: Growing up in the US, we so strongly associate the Berlin Wall with Germany and perhaps not how the Iron Curtain impacted the Balkans. When you sat down to write this book about Bulgarian folklore, was it a personal goal to connect it to Bulgaria's more recent past?

GD: I suppose, in a way. I grew up with my grandparents’ stories from the early years after the Berlin Wall was built, and for them, it was always a symbol of division, loss, and entrapment. It was essentially the physical manifestation of the Iron Curtain, and therefore, of the totalitarian regime. It was not only a physical barrier, but because of the strict censorship and the ban on anything too Western on the Eastern side of the Wall, it became an intellectual prison, too. I come from a family that had a lot of friction with the regime—one of my great grandfathers was sent to a working camp, another lost his job shortly after the communists came to power, for no other reason than the fact he was educated in Germany. My grandmother, whose mother and grandmother both went to university in France, and who spoke fluent French, was never allowed to travel close to the Bulgarian border—they were so scared she’d defect. It was her dream to see Paris, and she finally got to do it after the Wall fell. This was what I tried to do with the Wall in my book: recreate that feeling of being trapped, of having nowhere to go, no matter how bad things got. I thought it fit nicely with my folklore-inspired setting, because what is worse than having your city attacked by monsters every year than having your city attacked by monsters every year and having nowhere to escape.

AC: Kosara and Roksana's names almost mirror each other and contain almost all of the same letters. Was that an intentional way to signal that they are foils?

GD: The short answer is ‘no’. The long answer is that the naming convention of Foul Days is a bit of an Easter Egg that would only register to Bulgarian readers. Most characters from Chernograd are given Bulgar names (the Bulgars were a tribe that settled on the territory of what is now Bulgaria in the 7th century, establishing the First Bulgarian Empire – prior to this, they were semi-nomadic, living in the steppes of Central Asia). During this period, Bulgaria was pagan, with the Bulgars known for being excellent horse riders and fearsome warriors—and, according to sources from neighbouring Byzantium, barbaric and bloodthirsty.

The characters from neighbouring Belograd have names associated with the Second Bulgarian Empire (established in the 12th century), which was Christian, deeply influenced by Byzantine culture, and in general, seen as prosperous and civilized.

Anyway, the issue with this is that while we know of plenty of male Bulgar names, since historical sources have recorded rulers and nobles, there are only a few female names preserved, mostly from a slightly later historical period: most contain an ‘r’ sound, many contain a ‘k’ sound, and they all end in a vowel. This is why the two names sound similar.

AC: Foul Days has zmey, kikimora, houses with feet, witches, and more. What was your favorite part of Balkan folklore to bring into the story/world?

GD: It has got to be the zmey! I'm a dragon girl at heart (like some people are horse girls, I suppose) and I think zmeys are so cool, especially with their dual nature of both friend/lover and foe. In Bulgarian folklore, zmeys are often presented as benevolent creatures, guarding villages against other, evil types of dragons, like halas and lamias. Despite their generally nice demeanour, they have the habit of taking on their human form of handsome, blond men with blue eyes, and using it to seduce women, marrying them, and taking them to their underworld kingdom. It is believed that when a zmey falls in love with a woman, she'll grow ill, pale, and sad, which is seen as a folkloric allegory for depression. The trick to avoiding marrying a zmey is checking your handsome blond lover's armpits, as it's believed that even in their human form, zmeys have tiny wings under them.

AC: Dragon Girls unite!

AC: There's all kinds of advice out there in regards to the writing process, but I've found that the best thing to do is experiment with a lot of authors' processes until you find a combination that works for you. What's your drafting process like?

GD: I agree with you completely, and I’m actually still in the process of experimentation to try to find a process that works best for me. My drafting process for Foul Days was fairly chaotic, especially since it started with drafting the book in Bulgarian before half-translating, half-rewriting it in English for the second draft! I don’t do that anymore, even if it’s an excellent way to see the text through “fresh eyes” – it’s way too time consuming. What I do nowadays is:

1)    Come up with a pitch, in the style of a back cover blurb or a query letter, to make sure the fundamentals of the idea are there;

2)    Note down a handful of scenes I’m excited to write – those are usually the midpoint, the ending, and a scattering of fun scenes in between. I use those as motivation to push myself to draft, since it’s not my favourite part of the process (that’s revision)

3)    Start drafting!

4)    Get to the end of the first act, pause, and revise until it makes for a good foundation on which to continue building the narrative;

5)    Finish drafting!

6)    Revise, revise revise;

7)    Send the manuscript to a handful of trusted beta readers (usually 3-5)

8)    Revise, revise, revise;

9)    Send the manuscript over to my agent or editor;

10)    Revise, revise, revise;

11)    The end?

AC: Is it ever the end?

AC: Can we expect more dragon or shadow magic books in the future?

GD: Probably! I have a few ideas for books inspired by various other aspects of Bulgarian folklore, so I think I’m going to take a wee break from dragons and shadows, but given how much I love both concepts, I suspect they’ll continue to creep into my writing in the future.

AC: What's next on the horizon for you?

GD: So, Foul Days is completely done and out of my hair for the first time in six years, and I’m currently finishing up the revisions for the sequel, Monstrous Nights. Both are coming out within a few months of each other, Foul Days in June and Monstrous Nights in October, so I suspect I’ll be quite busy during that period. In the meantime, I’m working on a new story, which is likely going to be a standalone, set in a world inspired by the myths and legends of my hometown of Varna on the Black Sea coast – I don’t know if you find that where you’re from, but I always think coastal communities have their own separate culture, different from the in-landers, that comes with its own quirks, beliefs, and, of course, a tonne of sea monsters. So, I’m hoping that will become my next book—fingers crossed.

AC: Not sea monsters, for me, but aliens. And Big Foot. We love Big Foot in West Coast parts of the US.

AC: Some authors focus on food, others on clothes. What's your favorite way to worldbuild?

GD: You’re going to hate me for that answer – but it’s the vibes. Or, to use less wishy-washy terminology, it’s the atmosphere. I take a lot of inspiration from real-world places, and I like to stop and think about how they made me feel, and what I can do to translate this onto the page. As I’ve said above, for Foul Days, I really wanted to recreate the gritty, oppressive atmosphere of Cold War Eastern Europe, so I chose clothing, food, technology, celebrations, traditions—even weather—that in my mind, calls back to it. As an archaeologist, I’m very aware of how interconnected every element of a culture is with each other—how certain elements of clothing develop in tandem with access to certain foods, which is all related to trade, contact, technology level, and environment. So, when I worldbuild, I tend to start with a single high concept idea – like “fantasy Berlin Wall” – and attempt to find the elements that go together with that.

AC: Author as Brand gets thrown around a lot in some circles and not everyone likes it but it's impossible to stop the train at this point. What do you want your Brand to be?

GD: I’m in two minds about ‘author as a brand’, because I think it’s a phrase that gets used to mean two very different things. The first is, the brand of your writing, and I’m all for that – I’d like it if when readers see my name, they expect something based on Balkan folklore, with magic and witches, and probably monsters and murder, with flawed characters and lived-in settings. The second way I’ve seen ‘author as a brand’, used, however, is more like ‘author as an influencer’, and that is something I can’t get on board with, I’m afraid—it comes with an awful lot of expectations about you “curating” your online presence, and it also involves a lot of hard work and time, which is time that is ultimately spent not writing. So, I suppose what I’m saying is, I’d like my “brand” to come across through my writing, not through me as an individual.

AC: I couldn't agree more. Writers need time to actually write and edit and make the best books they possibly can. If they like social media, that's great, but if they don't, then it becomes a chore and perhaps a source of anxiety. 

AC: Is Kosara a metal fan or does she listen to bubblegum pop?

GD: What a cool question! As someone who’s really into music (I am, in fact, a metal fan), I actually spend quite a bit of time coming up with what kind of music various characters would be into – so I can tell you with absolute certainty that Kosara would tell you she only listens to old-school punk, but if you go searching around her record collection, you’ll discover she’s more into pop rock.

AC: We talk a lot in writers spaces about how you have to read modern authors to be part of the conversation going on in our genres. What books is your book in conversation with?

GD: I love reading recent books - I truly believe we're currently in the golden age of fantasy, when so many different voices are finally getting the chance to add their contributions to the genre. Some of the books Foul Days is in conversation with are recent novels inspired by various Eastern European folklores, like Naomi Novik's Uprooted and Katherine Arden's The Bear and the Nightingale. These books showed me that Slavic folklore is something readers enjoy which, as silly as it sounds, I previously wasn't sure about. They inspired me to write my own take, shining light on the folklore of smaller, South Slavic Bulgaria, and I really enjoyed playing with similar tropes, but adding my own twists to them, inspired by my own culture. One of the things I noticed about that modern "Slavic fantasy" movement is that it often features a romantic subplot between a young woman and an older, supernatural being - so, I couldn't resist but to turn this trope on its head, making my book also include such a romance, except it occurred in the past, the supernatural being never redeemed himself, and the relationship ended badly. Another book inspired by Eastern Europe I recently read and loved was The Sins on Their Bones by Laura R. Samotin, which similarly looks at the fallout at the end of an abusive relationship and the way some people become monsters.

AC: The Sins Upon Their Bones was wonderful. I think it's the first book I ever read exploring Ashkenazi Jewish folklore and I've recommended it to all my friends at this point.  

AC: Thank you so much for your time, Gen! 

Where to buy:

Mysterious Galaxy (and get a signed book plate while supplies last)

Waterstones

Amazon

Kobo

Barnes and Noble

Macmillan

Preorder Monstrous Nights:

Amazon

Kobo

Macmillan

[mostlysignssomeportents]

This day in history

I'm on tour with my new, nationally bestselling novel The Bezzle! Catch me in TUCSON (Mar 9-10), then San Francisco (Mar 13), Anaheim, and more!

#15yrsago Chinese gold farming https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2009/mar/05/virtual-world-china

#10yrsago Comment-spammers threaten to sabotage their victims through Google Disavow if the evidence of their vandalism isn’t removed https://ellis.fyi/blog/gordon-sands-threatens-seattle-bubble-google-disavow-comment-spam/

#10yrsago Obama whirls the copyright lobbyist/government official revolving door https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2014/03/obama-nominates-former-sopa-lobbyist-help-lead-tpp-negotiations

#10yrsago CIA spied on Senate committee writing damning torture report and Obama knew about it https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/05/obama-cia-senate-intelligence-committee-torture

#5yrsago Jibo the social robot announces that its VC overlords have remote-killswitched it, makes pathetic farewell address and dances a final step https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2019/3/4/18250104/jibo-social-robot-server-shutdown-offline-dead

#5yrsago Bowing to public pressure, Coinbase announces it will “transition out” the ex-Hacking Team cybermercenaries whose company it just bought https://www.vice.com/en/article/qvyndw/coinbase-says-ex-hacking-team-members-will-transition-out-after-users-protest

#5yrsago The NSA has reportedly stopped data-mining Americans’ phone and SMS records https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/04/us/politics/nsa-phone-records-program-shut-down.html

#5yrsago Facebook forces you to expose your phone number to the whole world in order to turn on two-factor authentication https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/03/facebook-doubles-down-misusing-your-phone-number

#5yrsago America is not “polarized”: it’s a land where a small minority tyrannize the supermajority https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/05/opinion/oppression-majority.html

Name your price for 18 of my DRM-free ebooks and support the Electronic Frontier Foundation with the Humble Cory Doctorow Bundle.

[amazonbooksauthor]

Elevate Your Worth: Conquering Inferiority by Meera Mandakini - Unlock Your True Potential

In a world where self-doubt can often hold us back, Meera Mandakini’s "Elevate Your Worth: Conquering Inferiority" offers a transformative journey towards self-empowerment. Available on Amazon in both ebook and paperback formats, this insightful book is a must-read for anyone looking to overcome feelings of inadequacy and unlock their true potential.

Discovering the Roots of Inferiority Mandakini begins by exploring the deep-seated origins of inferiority. She examines how societal pressures, early life experiences, and internalized negative beliefs shape our self-worth. By understanding these underlying factors, readers can start to unravel the complex emotions that contribute to their feelings of inferiority.

Practical Strategies for Self-Empowerment The book is packed with practical strategies that go beyond theoretical concepts. Mandakini offers mindfulness exercises, cognitive behavioral techniques, and other actionable advice that readers can easily incorporate into their daily lives. These tools are designed to build self-confidence and help individuals face challenges with renewed strength.

Real-Life Stories of Transformation To make her advice relatable and inspiring, Mandakini includes real-life stories of individuals who have successfully overcome feelings of inferiority. These narratives provide powerful examples of personal transformation, demonstrating that it is possible to conquer self-doubt and achieve one’s goals.

A Comprehensive Approach to Personal Growth What sets "Elevate Your Worth" apart is its holistic approach to personal growth. Mandakini emphasizes the importance of balancing mental, emotional, and physical well-being. She advocates for a lifestyle that includes healthy habits, supportive relationships, and continuous self-improvement, ensuring that readers can make lasting changes in all areas of their lives.

Acclaim and Praise "Elevate Your Worth" has received high praise from readers and critics alike. Reviewers commend the book for its insightful content, engaging writing style, and practical relevance. Many readers have reported significant improvements in their self-esteem and overall outlook on life after applying Mandakini’s techniques.

Accessible and Convenient Available in both ebook and paperback formats, "Elevate Your Worth" is easily accessible to a wide audience. The ebook format is perfect for those who prefer digital reading, while the paperback edition offers a tangible resource for regular reference. With the convenience of Amazon, this valuable guide is just a click away.

Conclusion "Elevate Your Worth: Conquering Inferiority" by Meera Mandakini is a powerful resource for anyone struggling with self-doubt. Through a blend of insightful analysis, practical strategies, and inspirational stories, Mandakini provides a roadmap to self-empowerment. Whether you’re aiming to overcome personal challenges or simply want to boost your self-esteem, this book is an essential addition to your library. Begin your journey towards a more confident and empowered self by getting your copy on Amazon today.

[secularbakedgoods]

The endangered lit brick

This is a crosspost of my newsletter! If you’d like to get posts like this direct to your inbox or RSS reader, subscribe here.

A friend of mine is currently having his novel shopped around by an agent, and what he's been hearing back is that the Big Five publishers almost exclusively want books with wordcounts of around 100 000 (to the point where authors with longer manuscripts, especially debut authors, are being told they should trim down to that length).

Near as I can tell, this has not always been the case; I can personally recall many authors within the last 30 years or so who debuted with 600-page doorstoppers. But longer books are more expensive to edit and manufacture, and so I can't help but wonder if this is a cost-cutting measure — publishers trying to produce their books as cheaply as possible, in order to squeeze more money out of each sale.

I don't exactly miss the 600-page doorstoppers, but it's good to remember that even the literary world isn't immune to the siren song of enshittification.

New Bundle: The Casefile of Jay Moriarty, Books 1 - 5

The Casefile of Jay Moriarty is a modern-day queer romance take on the iconic Sherlock Holmes villain, his partner Sebastian Moran, and the various crimes they commit together.

I've put together a bundle of the first five stories in the series, which is available now for $6.75 USD — a savings of 25% over buying each book in the series individually!

You can get the bundle on DriveThruFiction, Gumroad, itch.io, or Payhip.

New on Ko-fi: "Sebastian Moran Inflicts Six Traumatic Brain Injuries," Chapter 1

The first chapter of "Sebastian Moran Inflicts Six Traumatic Brain Injuries" is now on Ko-fi and free for anyone to read. Subsequent chapters will be posted on Tuesdays as supporter-only posts. You can also get the entire novelette as an ebook.

This Week's Links

Workers forced to stay at factory drowned during Hurricane Helene — while CEO snuck out and survived, scathing lawsuit claims

An hour later at 11:35 a.m., senior management including Impact Plastics founder and CEO Gerald O’Connor had “stealthily exited the building,” according to court papers. Workers had assumed they also were allowed to go home as local schools and other businesses announced closures because of Hurricane Helene, the suit alleges. Instead, Impact Plastics allegedly instructed its employees to report to work because the company “wanted to meet order deadlines,” court documents show.

FIN7 hackers set up a fake company to recruit for cyberattacks

Much like the website, Bastion Secure’s advertised vacancies look legitimate enough, too. The fictitious company is looking for programmers, system administrators and reverse-engineers, and the job descriptions are similar to those you’d find at any cybersecurity company. But Recorded Future said that FIN7 — under the guise of Bastion Secure — is looking to build a “staff” capable of conducting the tasks necessary for undertaking a range of cybercriminal activity.

When Does Instagram Decide a Nipple Becomes Female?

“I'm really interested in algorithmic enforcement and generally understanding the impact that algorithms have on our lives,” Ada Ada Ada told me in an interview. “It seemed like the nipple rule is one of the simplest ways that you can start talking about this because it's set up as a very binary idea—female nipples no, male nipples, yes. But then it prompts a lot of questions: what is male nipple? What is a female nipple?”

---

I watched Abigail and The Guest more or less back-to-back recently and have discovered my cat is entranced by Dan Stevens. She wouldn't stop staring at the TV whenever he was onscreen. I don't know what to do with this information.

-K

[museqmeg]

Alrighty vashmeryl nation… here is the exciting news for Reporter’s Notes *drumroll*…

1. The FINAL epilogue chapter for Reporter’s Notes will be published tomorrow.

2. I am currently overhauling both Reporter’s Notes and Sheets for better grammar, punctuation, and wording.

3. I am currently creating illustrations to add to each chapter of Reporter’s Notes and Sheets. I will announce when each chapter has been updated with its illustrations and they will be released in sequence.

4. A new fic titled, “Snapshots,” will be added to the Reporter’s Notes series. It will be purely a filler, fluff fic with more ideas for cute vashmeryl moments I have tucked away in my pocket. It will also be illustrated… eventually.

5. Once Reporter’s Notes is truly complete as a series, I will be releasing as a complete ebook to download for FREE. All three fics will be compiled into one with the chapters being in their intended sequences.

[adrianastrix]

Pre-Dracula vampire fiction (1)

Since Halloween is upon us, I decided, as a treat, to rescue my "live reading" tweets about the most important books of vampire fiction (according to Myself, of course) in the form of a reading log. (The things between [ ] are notes I'm interpolating now, for clarity.)

And, since Dracula Daily is coming quickly to a close, I'm inviting you all to a deep dive into the almost two centuries of vampire tradition that Stoker had behind him when he wrote Dracula.

We will start with Augustin Calmet's treatise on the undead (1749), then we will jump to a special edition I have of The Vampyre (the first vampire piece of prose, that we know of, from 1817) with some fanfic short stories based on it attached and then we will visit the Dracula's Brood anthology and a few similar ones (that you only find on Amazon BR). Depending on my ADHD, we may or may not have some highlights of books on folklore vampires (mainly my complaints about them, but there are positive highlights).

ANYWAY LET'S GOO

17/07/2002 - 12:35 am

"I'm reading the vampire reports analysed by Augustin Calmet (a monk that lived around the end of the 17th century and the beginning of the 18th and OH MY GOD MY BRAIN IS SCREAMING. It's too much information in a huge tangle. But the reports he collected ARE the materials that most classical vampire writers read.

I've previously read summaries of his work, not the book itself. I'm reading this free version: https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/29412 This log is my way of organizing all the info in a way that is useful to me.

17/07/2002 - 12:56 am

I'm reading a PT-BR version of the vampire reports, they start at page 243 of the Gutenberg ebook.

In case you don't know, Calmet's treatise is his way to give a Catholic Church perspective on what are essentially paranormal stories that were spread by magazines and newspapers as true. [It was written in 1745, a few years after the Vampiromania started in Europe (we will talk more about that later).]

He talks about ghosts, vampires, revenants, angels, demons and more. We will focus on the vampires.

17/07/2002 - 12:57 am

We start with the first (highly controversial) folk ethymology for "vampire" as a derivation of "oupire", both meaning "bloodsucker". They are classified here as a type of revenant, or "those who come back".

[You would THINK we know what the word "vampire" actually means and from which language it originally comes, by now, given how much interest there is on the topic, and you would be naïvely, DELICIOUSLY wrong.]

17/07/2002 - 12:58 am

Another cool fact he adds is that vampires only *sometimes* cause their victim's deaths. As for what causes the vampirism cases known at the time, he lists four possible things: 1 - nothing, it's just superstition; 2 - people buried alive [yikes]; 3 - dead people that God allowed to come back and haunt the living; 4 - Satan shenanigans

17/07/2002 - 12:59 am

I think cause 3 is cool, because when was it the last time you've read a story of a person that became a vampire because God Himself told them "no, no, they really screwed you over, go back and drink a couple liters of their blood to teach them a lesson"?

17/07/2002 - 1:05 am

Here Calmet enters a tangent about cases of actual ressurrections, Lazarus-style. I'm skipping that, it doesn't interest me. Let me get back to action on page 261, with M. Vassimont's case.

17/07/2002 - 1:13 am

Hahahahahaha oh my GOD this is my favourite case. So, the vampire is the ghost of a shepherd that sometimes appear as a man, sometimes, as a dog. He attacks people [not by drinking blood, but] by making them feel weak, and he also ties the tails of two or more cows together [because he is also a petty jerk, apparently].

So, when the peasants decide to stake him to pin him on the ground, he flat out LAUGHS at their faces. The corpse mocks them, saying that the stake is just a stick to shoo dogs, and keeps tormenting him until he is dragged out of the village and burned to ashes.

17/07/2002 - 1:22 am

I love so much the mental image of a group of peasants around the coffin, tired and soaked with blood after staking that jerk and he just keeps LAUGHING at their faces.

17/07/2002 - 1:28 am

Calmet keeps repeating the signals that a corpse is a vampire: its blood is still red and liquid, rosy faces and flesh that is soft, pliable and devoid of worms. And to illustrate it, he offers cases of people that didn't decomposed after death and how things around them sometimes move by themselves.

17/07/2002 - 1:29 am

It's interesting because the vampires in those reports are considered revenants, too, but they don't rise from their tombs and drink blood. Instead, they cause poltergeist phenomena in their former homes, throwing rocks and messing things around.

17/07/2002 - 1:37 am

Another case of vampirism. This time, the vampire appears to his son after his death and asks for dinner. The son feeds him and the old man disappear. The next day, he does the same. The next morning, the son dies. When they exhume the old man's corpse, it's *breathing*.

[TO BE CONTINUED...]

This was an eventful early morning. It was 5 months after the beginning of the quarantine and I my home office work didn't have official hours, so my sleep patterns had already gone to space at that point.

At this point, I think it's important to notice how vampires bring signs of life to the corpses they inhabit, and sometimes these signs not necessarily include the corpse moving around. I mean, for all his laughing around, the jerkish vampire shepherd above never did anyting to stop the stake or his own burning.

You will see so much more that sadly never made its way into fiction tomorrow. At the end, I'll make a summary of what was a vampire at that point, before the Germans muddled it all (yeah, the Germans, bet you didn expect it - although the French also had a hand on it). Stay tuned!