#grumblebug

[oolongnoon]

a few of my favorite petpetpets

[echoeternal]

@sundreamers-blog's Bored, featuring Princess the Plumpy and Grumblebug. The Grey Aisha part was originally a quick drawing I finished a few seconds too late for ArtFight.

[neoitem]

[extrahorribledynne]

i made koss expy dragons on flight rising. am i going to make koss expy neopets? ..... yeah probably. rarepair will infest all areas of my internet experience

[magax-destroyer]

I am buying every Grumblebug I can

[literaticat]

Hi Jenn. I've seen you mention in previous asks that naming social media or other websites could potentially date a book - which might not be a problem if the author wants to keep it set in a certain time period. What would be your advice regarding grocery stores? It can sound awkward to say "she popped into the supermarket" or "went down to her local chain store" and easier to say Tesco (if UK)/Target/Walmart, etc? Are stores like these, if not evergreen, a bit more likely to be stable staples?

Tesco has existed for many years and continues to exist. I think it's perfectly fine to mention the name of it in your book, assuming it's set in a contemporary era or past in which Tesco existed.

Naming a specific store might also give us some clues about the priorities, location, class, etc, of the character. A rich / bougie person in L.A. might pop down to Whole Foods or Erewhon. or particularly health-conscious person might pop down to the farmer's market, a person shopping for a huge family might go to CostCo in the US, somebody who is on a strict budget or in a rural area might go to the dollar store or Walmart for groceries because there are limited choices. Target has a different kind of demographic than Dollar Tree, just like Tesco has a different demographic than Harrod's Food Hall.

Of course, you also have no idea if Tesco will go bankrupt next year and all the locations will close, or if the CEO will be embroiled in some major scandal that reduces the name "Tesco" to being synonymous with the scandal, or if the company will be bought by some investment fund and all the locations will change their name to Grumblebug's. (Probably not! But hey! Things happen!)

So, sure, IF one of those things happened, yes, your book would be "dated" in the sense that it would clearly have been written Pre-Scandal. But also: WHO CARES? You can't account for everything that MIGHT happen in the world. And it's OK that books are "of their time", too. (Like, Jane Austen books talk about the fashions and trends that were popular in Jane Austen times. They are "dated" in that sense -- you can probably tell the decade they were written in/about even if you didn't know. Is that... a problem? Or is it just the nature of books, that the world moves on from the time in which they were written and are set, and that's fine!)

(Of course, if you are concerned about it you could also just make up the name of a store that has whatever vibe. "Hey, stop by PriceMart on your way home and pick up some bread and milk" or "I want to stop at Green Goddess for a kale smoothie on the way" -- there may not be a PriceMart or Green Goddess, but readers will know what you mean.)

[werekaiju]

Goes to work Checks phone Like 60 notifications on an old post Nice. I forgot I used to post neopets stuff on this blog.

[heatdrive]

Petpetpets are overpriced and useless but here are the ones I think are cute

[echoeternal]

[magax-destroyer]

Clearing out my SDB!

We got NEGGS! (ooh) We got PAINT BRUSHES! (aah) We got PETPETPETS! (whoa) (No Grumblebugs tho those are mine) Check out my shop! Check out my trades! Enjoy the deals!

[magax-destroyer]

I have. 419 Grumblebug

I am buying every Grumblebug I can