#i forget to read books about adult trans people

[dragons-and-yellow-roses]

Okay at 6am I wrapped all of my physical books that I haven't read in wrapping paper and then numbered them and then wrote the numbers on slips of paper and put them in a mug so when I'm done reading my Kindle book I can start on my physical books as a fun little surprise and also this year I'm gonna knit a book blanket. Different color for each genre, different amount of rows for how many stars I rate it. Nevermind that I haven't finished the shawl I started on October, or the blanket I started THREE YEARS AGO. This one will be different.

I'm going levels of insane that I never thought possible.

[fanonical]

Did you ever get my ask? I asked about what to do when a child loves something by a problematic author. How do you go about telling them if they’re too young? SHOULD you tell them? I’m talking about current 10 year old HP fans and children who like the Coraline movie. What do we do when it’s them and not adults? We forget about the target audience too much when we talk about things like this as if it were exclusively childhood nostalgia of Millenials/Gen Z

For fuck's sake, I didn't want to rise to the bait here, but this is making me mad because it's such a straw argument, so fuck it, I'm taking the bait. For context, this is anon's first ask:

Anon, first off, you are responding to a post that is five years old and about a subject that we pointedly do not post about anymore, and that alone makes me think you're not responding in good faith, but whatever.

Look, I work in a fucking library. We have HP books. If a child comes up to me and asks 'hey where's the HP books' I am not going to a) kick them in the face, b) tell them they're an idiot or c) refuse to answer. I am going to tell them where the fucking HP books are. I don't put them on displays I make, but I don't censor them, because we are legally not allowed to censor books in the library.

But I guess you're asking more if this is a kid who's in my life, as opposed to a kid who I just kinda come across. So, okay, I have a 9 year old neighbour whose family are friends with mine, we play video games together occasionally when her mum and dad need someone to watch her. And this kid reads books! And this kid reads fantasy books.

If I was seriously talking to her about the HP books, I might tell her about JKR! I would say something like 'I used to like the HP books, but then I learned that the author said some really nasty things about trans people like me. Now I don't like them so much any more.' And we could have a conversation about that, you know! I've talked to this kid about transphobia in terms that are appropriate for her age. We've had discussions about gender before. I think she'd listen to me, and form her own fucking opinion about it! 'I don't like the author of the HP books because she has said some nasty things' is a concept you can communicate to a five year old.

But also like. You're kind of acting like by taking away HP from this (hypothetical in your ask) kid they don't have any other books. Which...isn't true? If all copies of the HP books disappeared off the face of the earth tomorrow, kids would be reading other stuff, as they are currently reading other stuff! My 9 year old neighbour is a huge Jacqueline Wilson fan, she loves the Daisy Meadows rainbow fairy books. I want to introduce her to the Morrigan Crow books. We could get retro and start introducing kids to the Edge Chronicles, I fucking loved those books. Artemis Fowl. A Series of Unfortunate Events. There are so many other book series for kids in this world. I work in a fucking library! I can tell you that the kids are into Tom Gates, Dogman, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Percy Jackson, Babysitter Club, Dork Diaries, and (exasperated sigh) David Walliams books, based on a sample size of every kid I encounter at work. I get asked for all of them far more than I do for HP, actually.

I don't think you'd be ruining every kid's lives by taking away One Series from them. (Particularly not one that's losing some relevancy every day - and I mean that in the sense that it's not an ongoing series, the last book came out in 2007. Nearly 20 years ago. For a nine or ten year old, that's almost double their entire life.) And I don't think you necessarily would be taking it away from them to say 'hey this is the reason I don't like these books'. I trust your average ten year old to be able to have a reasonably mature conversation. You're making it sound like they're all Oliver Twist holding out their gruel bowl saying 'please sir I only read one book'.

Anyway. All this to say, I think kids have the ability to have conversations about media. And there are other books in the world. So, no, taking HP or Coraline or whatever away from kids is hardly snatching candy from a baby. Kids are smarter than you think.

[endcant]

Crossposted from my Tumblr Community: The Trans South

--

The Trans South Monthly Bulletin Board

Our pinned post for the month of November, 2024.

comment anything you want to add, and i'll add what fits in this month's post. i'll be making a new post each month, so you may need to resubmit any links that are applicable for multiple months. check the comments for anything i missed!

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

the bright side:

the fact that you're alive is good news to me!

"Good News: Some States Passed Protections for Abortion Access, Marriage Equality, and More" | Here is an article with some upshots and progress from the 2024 election.

"Lipstick Lounge Owners Break Ground on Sports Bar Venture" | "The Lipstick Lounge is one of only 32 open and operating lesbian bars in the United States registered with the Lesbian Bar Project."

"Florida's LGBTQ+ community defies queer repression with advocacy & preservation" | "I will not paint a desolate picture of the state. And, there still is hope."

"The Candy Shop: Columbia SC Rallies to Honor Landmark Black Gay Bar" | "Researchers and preservationists at Historic Columbia have joined the struggle to correct the way the club has thus far been "written over" in the historical record."

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

TTS crowdfunds:

help fellow transgender people in your community today!

Catgirl-smash needs help with bills and moving!

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

fun links:

things that gave me dopamine and kept me going

Read "When We Call a Place Home" by Chinelo Onwualu | "A utopian tale of historical memory, the dangers of forgetting…and vampires."

WEBFISHING | "WEBFISHING is a multiplayer chatroom-focused fishing game! Relax and fish (on the web!)"

Memory Games | I've been using these memory games to try to heal my brain a bit from long covid brain fog.

Mahogany's List of Black Banned Books | Read some books they don't want you to read!

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

useful links:

interesting resources and organizations you should know about

Trans Reads | "Trans Reads is an ambitious project created by and for transgender people to openly access writing related to our communities."

Southerners On New Ground | "SONG is a home for LGBTQ liberation across all lines of race, class, abilities, age, culture, gender, and sexuality in the South".

Winners from The LGBTQ+ Victory Fund | Check out this list of winning LGBTQ+ candidates for various political offices from around the U.S. who were supported by the Victory Fund.

Lambda Legal's Help Desk | "a resource for the community we serve in providing general legal information and resources relating to discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression, and HIV status."

Every State has a DD Council! | Did you know that it's federal law that every state must have a council whose job it is to hold their state accountable on behalf of developmentally disabled people?

Help the Palestinian People with a Click | "Your free click generates donations from our sponsors. Remember, you may click once a day, every day. Donations raised will go to UNRWA to assist the Palestinian refugees."

--

If you're an adult trans person in the U.S. South, join my Tumblr Community: The Trans South.

If you're a teen trans person in the U.S. South and you create a youth community for trans southerners, let me know and I'll link to it in The Trans South.

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

i think you're onto something with the romance novels world and plot points needing to mirror the kind of outlandishness of the love story. bc the main characters are already inherently acting absurd just by falling madly in love in a month or whatever and then if you add in the contrivances of romance tropes, it starts to feel like whiplash trying to pretend the characters live in any sort of grounded "normal" world. Like when the author adds in a family conflict subplot where the MC is like in absolute shambles because her mom said something slightly passive aggressive at lunch. that reads as more jarring to me than like conflict being something ridiculous that her mom doesn't want her being a marine biologist bc they come from a long line of fishmongers. Give me absurd drama to match the over the top dialogue and character emotions, I knew it would be unrealistic it's a romance novel! I guess this applies more to romcoms, but the same would apply I think to an analogous serious scenario. Or at least that's my take on it

okay so having just finished genuinely the most boring romance novel I have ever read in my LIFE I'm going to expand on this a little so thank you for sending an ask that gives me such a great platform to do that

I personally generally prefer a romance that just gets fucking silly with it, like really outlandish. A Lady for the Duke (Alexis Hall) is obviously the dream, being a whole swoony historical trans-affirming fantasy, but contemporary fake relationship stories can also be fun in their sheer ridiculousness, like Love, Hate, and Clickbait (Liz Bowery), which I actually liked, and Unfortunately Yours (Tessa Bailey), which I did not like but was very funny. and let's not forget queen Helen Hoang's Bride Test, which has a premise that dances perilously close to human trafficking but all works out in the end!!!

BUT HAVING SAID THAT. I don't think that something needs to be totally implausible to be a good romance. two of my very favorites romance novels anywhere ever are Helen Hoang's Heart Principle (no one should be surprised Hoang is on her twice I adore her) and Akwaeke Emezi's You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty. both of these books are very grounded in reality but with very uncommon situations to heighten emotions and add urgency; in Hoang's case it's a character's adult autism diagnosis + death of a parent and in Emezi's case it's a very sudden and #problematic attraction coming out of absolutely nowhere. the stakes are very real, mostly centering around being true to yourself v disappointing your family, but the circumstances are still wild enough to make you say "god DAMN" and keep turning pages. hell, I'll even be extremely generous and include Mistakes Were Made (Meryl Wilsner) which is kind of a flop but does have the intriguing premise of "what if you were fucking a milf but her kid was YOUR BEST FRIEND and it was a secret?"

those are like the two sweet spots TO ME, and this book I just read (which was Thank You for Sharing by Rachel Runya Katz, I feel so bad putting it on blast but I know people are going to ask) really solidified it for me because TYFS didn't fall into either of those categories. I'm going to say something absolutely insane, which is that multiple times while I was reading it I found myself wishing that the book was fanfic, because on its own it just... didn't bring a lot to the table? it falls into the grounded category but doesn't really bring any of those heightened stakes to the story, it's just 330 pages of people in their late twenties complaining about dating and their office jobs. if I wanted that I could just ask my group chat! there's nothing particularly particularly gripping about watching made up strangers do it!

but then I was like oh hang on... if this was two fictional characters who are usually fighting with swords or throwing cars at each other or something this would be so gripping. it's literally the coffee shop AU principle, right? like seeing people in a very mundane setting having an office job and going to a bar is very shrimpteresting when they're normally defusing space bombs. I was explaining this to my housemates and I couldn't think of a straight couple to apply it to (the book is m/f) so I said Naruto and Sasuke, which is crazy because I've never seen a single episode of Naruto, but like. idk Naruto being a museum curator who has to work with Sasuke, a marketing specialist who he had beef with a summer camp 14 years ago, sounds kind of compelling, right? definitely more than just two people I don't know.

there's a post on here that I think about a lot that talks about why advertising a story with tropes doesn't work for original fiction as well as it does for fan fic because knowing the tropes is more helpful when you already have a sense of investment in the characters and their personalities, and I think this is related to that! I think sometimes you NEED to have a wider sense of scope for the characters for them to be interesting in a very mundane setting!

ANYWAY. much to consider, etc.

[kalinazlatkova]

"I clung to my bubble of bliss so tightly, that all the muscles in my small arms ached. I jumped, and danced, and I laughed with unburdened glee, as Katy Perry’s voice kissed me through the radio, and baptized me into the cherry tasting church of dance. Then my father burst in, roaring with disgust, and called me a freak. I said, “I like it,” at the same time she did, and his hand did the answering for him. He smacked the side of my head so hard; the impact launched me into the kitchen, and my skull dented the side of the fridge while cracking lights blurred my vision.  

I was ten years old.

With eyes worshiping the ground and a bloodied crumpled face, I crawled up the stairs and climbed up to my bunk, where I wailed until my mind buried away the memories of star spun curls and lulled me into sleep. I still smiled for her, and dreamt about her, up to the very day my mother asked if I liked girls. As I felt my brain burn and my throat close, I laughed “No! Are you crazy,” and I climbed up to my escape once more. She did not ask anew, and I never mentioned Grace either. Soon enough, the honey eyes changed school and moved away. I never saw them again, but they left behind in me a life-long, unsatiable hankering for bees."

Part of my story "One night at Garlands", under the cut. On how I grew up different, became non-binary, and found the love of my life in a self-made woman named Magdalena.

Non-binary and Trans people are here, have always been here and will always be here. Regardless of what the UK supreme court, or the US supreme court, or any soul sucking miserable jackal might say to the contrary. Don't you forget it. 💛🤍💜🖤🏳️‍⚧️

⋆｡°✩*ੈ✶⋆.˚✩‧₊˚⋆˚☆˖°⋆｡° ✮˖ ࣪ ⊹⋆.˚⋆˙⟡⋆✴︎˚｡⋆⊹.˚⟡ ݁₊˚⊹⋆☆˖°

If you enjoy my work, please consider supporting me on Ko-fi 👛🫙✨🖤 Thank you! 🥰

Christmas was always a specially hallowed type of affair when I was a child. There was a silent truce and a promise of best behaviours amongst the adults of my family, which meant that us kids could fully revel in the sacred peace of the moment. Not only because of the permeating joy around us, but because we were quite poor, and this was the only time of year besides our birthdays, when we could expect positive grown-up attention, as well as the material benefits that come with it.  

Once during the holidays, we visited a festive bazaar where roaming through the stalls, I felt a large LEGO set call out my name. My father promptly told me it would be “too big for Santa to carry,” and redirected me elsewhere. A few days later, on Christmas morning, I excitedly ran towards the generous package sitting under our tree. Lo and behold, it was not LEGOs, but the Barbie my father had pointed out to me instead, and which I had explicitly refused. Perhaps he thought I was being considerate of costs or exhibiting false modesties, when in truth I simply did not enjoy playing with dolls, much less did I want one. Not only as we could not typically afford them, but because they were tedious and boring.  

What I wanted, was to play with puzzles, model cars, wooden horses, and my uncle’s soviet toy soldiers. I found solace in crashing things together while picturing explosions, space missions, and sword fights. I also had better fun with the boys in my kindergarten than I did with the girls. They took me dirty, loud, rude, and only judged if I could not kick a ball hard enough. But it was somehow never proper for us to be together outside the confinement of our teacher’s gaze, even if I belonged with them more than I did any place else.  

School years came and went, and I kept struggling to be just enough of a girl to maintain what everyone thought to be the right kind of friendships. Then I met her, with her sunshine hair, golden skin, and honey eyes. I searched for her and found her everywhere. I read books, watched films, and sang songs that reminded me of Grace, and I thought, I do not want to play with dolls, but I would love to play with her. She was my best friend, and for a while, she was everything.  

I clung to my bubble of bliss so tightly, that all the muscles in my small arms ached. I jumped, and danced, and I laughed with unburdened glee, as Katie Perry’s voice kissed me through the radio, and baptized me into the cherry tasting church of dance. Then my father burst in, roaring with disgust, and called me a freak. I said, “I like it,” at the same time she did, and his hand did the answering for him. He smacked the side of my head so hard; the impact launched me into the kitchen, and my skull dented the side of the fridge while cracking lights blurred my vision.  

I was ten years old.

With eyes worshiping the ground and a bloodied crumpled face, I crawled up the stairs and climbed up to my bunk, where I wailed until my mind buried away the memories of star spun curls and lulled me into sleep. I still smiled for her, and dreamt about her, up to the very day my mother asked if I liked girls. As I felt my brain burn and my throat close, I laughed “No! Are you crazy,” and I climbed up to my escape once more. She did not ask anew, and I never mentioned Grace either. Soon enough, the honey eyes changed school and moved away. I never saw them again, but they left behind in me a life-long, unsatiable hankering for bees.  

I never spoke of it, even as I made mention to my sister of the first girl whom my body loved. Neither did I mention how Angelina broke us both, when she let her brothers feed me their fists in the school toilets, while she stood by, idly watching. With self-loathing laughter in her eyes, she denied me, when once her lips had been enough to turn me into the most pious supplicant. It was in the divine of her fingers, that I understood why men go to war. I knew then that this female adoration would be the heaviest cross I could ever carry, and in its rapture, it would be holy, and violent, and unfathomably beautiful.

My university girlfriend, Sara, is another subject I have never broached. She was the first to openly muse, that if as a woman I felt myself difficult to want and to love, then maybe, I ought to be a man. I was a goldfish in a gumball machine, until she helped me find the most prize worthy way of being human. Hand in hand, we walked the streets of Liverpool at three o’clock in the morning, in full king drag. Drunk on giggles and glitter, and stumbling on our feet, I felt freer after one night at Garlands with her, than I had in all my youth put together.  

There are many things I have never brought up to my family, to my mother, about who I am. It is a funny kind of thing, in an ironic sort of way. Because when I was little, she used to make me debate fairytales, to argue their moral standing, and now I do not feel I can speak to her openly, at all. Today, we sit under the shade of the same tree where I used to play pretend and claim my throne as the ruler of the fireflies. Though what we are debating is not a thing of fantasy, but whether sexual health education, and gender ideology, should form part of the national curriculum. She leans towards yes, while my grandfather leans towards no. We argue the fight against general ignorance versus the traditional values of Christian families. My sister is already set at yes, for the freedom of knowledge and equality of the people. I hold firm agreement by her side, and it feels as if we have been having the same conversation for over a decade. Since before the legalisation of gay marriage, at least. I blazed with anger then and screamed out at the recollection of my own father’s treatment, even though he was straight. I cried about his parents, and how they had failed him too. I sobbed, that just because someone is heterosexual, it does not mean they would be a good parent; and just because someone is homosexual, it does not mean that they cannot be a great one.  

As we presently discuss school reform and the lack of quality education, I argue with data of teenage pregnancies, substance abuse, the impact on mental health, and youth suicide rates. I speak of statistics, but I think of Magdalena. A self-made woman who taught me I need not be a man, to truly be myself. Because I never hated being a girl, what I hated, was to be punished for it. In her arms I grew enough, to readily feel relief at the fact that I never have to be a man's wife or the mother of his children, to avoid becoming him altogether. Magda taught me how to love to the point of creation, not of other lifeforms, but of my own personhood. It is because of her, that I know a soul has no gender, even if her siblings still insisted on calling her “Brother.”  

I say none of this to my family, perhaps due to a lingering sense of self-preservation, or maybe because, deep down, I am less like the hero and more like the coward. I utter no names as I write them all in my notebook, over and over again. A prayer built upon the memory of girls, who have known me in ways I did not even know myself. I speak of political witch hunts and governmental propaganda, but the throbbing in my chest pleads for Magdalena. Because it has been more than a year since she took her life, but it will take more than a thousand for the flavour of her name to leave my mouth.  

I was a child when manliness lost its comfort and mandated that I am queer, and therefore I am culpable. But thanks to her, and all the women before her, I know now that my greatest sin, will only ever be my love; and even the highest of men's Gods knows, that is not a crime.

[steevejr]

could you expand on the ariaste trans character situation?

they don’t write transgender characters, period. and let me start with the fact that I (nonbinary) and my spouse (also nonbinary) have read EVERY book so I’m not talking out of my ass—there is a pattern. I’m a hater AND a scholar 🤓

read my review of Running Close to the Wind for an actual review and a good foundation to their writing quirks since I won’t touch on the sexualization of teens and bad writing in general here. and i also reviewed Ylfing on goodreads here (before i read any of their other works.)

in Choir of Lies (2019) they took a crack at a trans woman and made her predatory and creepy, and Some by Virtue Fall (2022) has a throwaway trans man who was lumped in with the women and treated as a woman (and there was an offhanded mention of a trans woman who (in canon!) had to leave the story to preemptively avoid being hate crimed by their society. I’m not making this up!) That’s the only 3 binary transgender characters they’ve ever written.

The rest of their books fixate intensely on cock, cock, and more cock and how yaoi = cock and and how woman = womb (I won’t even touch on the misogyny) and how pussy = woman’s parts (<quote!) It’s just the bioessentialism of it all. To the point that in Taste of Gold and Iron (2022) there’s some weird incest vibes as the protag (cis man) thinks on how his sister (womb haver) should be planning on getting pregnant again soon (SHE’S 3 MONTHS POSTPARTUM?) and by whom and how many men she should be getting knocked up by, since the more men women sleep with, the better their baby will be. I think they intended this to sound feminist, somehow.

And I know someone will say that they do a great job at nonbinary characters… do they? Is having Man, Woman and Weird liberating, or did we just reinvent the gender binary with an extra flavor? cool. I guess some people want the option to put an X on their passport instead of getting rid of the gender marker altogether. and what lies outside of that binary? (nothing :)) and when there is a character who seems to be not part of the gender binary (yay) you find out they come from a society with 1 binary gender, which they are! but don’t forget. they do have a pussy, but they own a lot of dildos, in case you were wondering how they’re having penetrative gay sex with men, for which you need a penis. I’m not exaggerating. All of this is stated on the page.

(and in canon there is a WHIFF of this character starting to explain their complicated relationship with the 1 gender binary (interesting! I want to read it!), but the protag cuts them off with ‘sorry I’m too stupid to understand. can we talk about something else?’ and the convo is dropped. presumably to avoid writing it. yay!)

also it’s interesting that intersex people in this world are assigned Gender 3 at birth (I only know this because they went out of their way to state this. For some reason.) hey, what does that mean? why are intersex babies assigned the ‘weird’ gender 3 category at BIRTH? and then why can you (presumably) transition to the Weird category as an adult? and why is Gender 3, the one for intersex people, also the one for asexuals? Is anyone else hearing this? it’s so cold and dark in here………

I wouldn't really care about their total lack of writing transgender characters if they didn’t CONSTANTLY bring up how they’re doing such #diversity win and how they’re really helping the community and how we should all be thankful for their diverse writing. Constantly. Sure, they want their fantasy world with 3 binary genders—whatever, your choice. But then to brag about how the queer community should be thankful for their total lack of transgender men and women and characters who identify OUTSIDE of the 3 gender binary? Who are living in this diverse world where everyone in fiction is so fixated on what genitalia you have? And don’t get it twisted—any they/them and çe/çir characters are side characters. protagonists are cis men. with cock. who only like other men, with cock.

Again, since this is the piss poor website: I’m not saying that nonbinary characters are not ‘trans enough’. my beef is with this specific author in particular, and how they—by definition!—will not write a character who is outside their 3 gender binary or transitions from gender A to gender B. and it’s weird that the three times they mentioned an explicit transgender character they were written… like that. and even the nonbinary gender 3 characters aren’t main characters! (And side note… all these worlds are like so insanely heteronormative? the only two gay men who seem to exist are the main couples. I guess there was a tradwife lesbian couple mentioned once, or something…) Write whatever the fuck you want, as poorly as you want, but I better not get talked down to about how these bioessentialist worlds are a blessed gift of representation to the LGBT community.

My partner asked them if their newest book will have any trans characters and they said ‘no :) but I’m nonbinary and my name is on the cover so it counts!’ And when they posted yet another ‘everyone be thankful I’m writing such genderqueer trans characters for you all’ and I (very politely!) asked ‘where? because the only trans woman you’ve written was predatory’ I was blocked without comment. Which leads me to believe they get that a lot, since they typically love to argue with haters. (Following this they went on a rant about how they don’t owe anyone anything and how rude it is to demand representation in THEIR books but like… if you’re not writing for me, a gay transgender reader, and you don’t want ME reading it, then who is your target audience? cishet fujoshis?)

and again. if they had a sensitivity reader or ANYONE to tell them hold up… maybe the bisexual men shouldn’t all be typecast as nasty whores…. There would be a glimmer of hope.

pirate their books. bioessentialist yaoi is not worth the $30 when you can read better fanfiction for free. they can’t be fucked to hire an editor or read their own writing so why should anyone pay to read it. Lol.

[solreads]

The Duke Steals Hearts & Other Body Parts - Review

Title: The Duke Steals Hearts & Other Body Parts

Author: Elias Cold

Genre: Fantasy

Audience: Young Adult

Format: Novel

Representation: Trans boy POV character

Summary: With the magic ability to pull off and reattach body parts from other people with just a touch, Phyllis is sure he will always live in the margins, feared by even the people he considers family. Only Lucent, Phyllis’s partner in stealing and ransoming body parts, looks at him without fear and all Phyllis has to do to keep this love is keep stealing for them.

Wycliff is nothing but another mark for Phyllis and Lucent – rich enough off his sister’s earnings to pay the ransom. But when Phyllis learns Wycliff cannot pay the ransom because his sister, Adeline, has disappeared and he sees the misery his theft has caused, his guilt catches up with him.

Despite his partner’s urging to forget about it, Phyllis starts poking around for clues to the mystery of Adeline’s disappearance. His investigations lead him in the direction of nobility which he infiltrates in the guise of Lord Philip, Duke of Rabbiton. When he finds Adeline and another missing girl, dead but reanimated by a magic not unlike his own, Philip is drawn into a web of secrets and crimes greater than he could have known. Even as the danger grows Philip can’t convince himself to escape back to his life with Lucent. The longer he keeps up the act the more ‘Philip’ and the life he’s creating feel more right and real than ‘Phyllis’, the isolated, guilt-ridden girl he used to be ever did.

Reflections: The ending brought down what had been an enjoyable book for me. Around 80% through the book, I realized how few pages were left and how much story there seemed to be left to tell, and I wondered how it would all fit. And then it didn't. The ending was abrupt. Many of the plot threads felt hastily resolved and some of the characters fell away. First Wycliff, then Adeline and Nyx, started with strong presences in the narrative in terms of their personalities and goals -- Wycliff and Adeline even being point-of-view characters -- before dwindling away. Lucent had a lot of set-up as a complex, tragic villain, but not a lot and not consistent development of those ideas. His main motivation ended up not really seeming to matter to him or anyone else. He drops it with very little prompting considering he's been pursuing this one goal for 400 years, killing for it and ruining his own happiness for it the whole time. **spoilers** (Also, if he cared so much about resurrecting his sister or at least tells himself he does, why kill the one man who's been shown to have resurrection powers? At least pretend a bit to consistent goals, you killed your lover for this.) **spoilers** Also, the tragedy of him living so long, but by his nature always falling into the same miserable and inescapable patterns is a compelling concept, but not shown off all that well.

What I liked:

Phillip's coming into himself as a trans man. Despite the fantastical setting and his unusual past, he reads true and relatably as a young trans person figuring it all out, both in his insecurities and fears and in this bright new self-assurance and comfort he starts to find as Phillip.

The trio of Phillip and the two undead girls. They had a sweet friendship developing even if, like many things in this book, I think it could have used more time to keep developing. Their support of each other and attempts to be honest and open with each other (a work in progress but something) were a nice contrast to the unhealthy relationship Phillip had been trapped in.

Lucent's love. Lucent's worst actions are done out of love and to people he genuinely loves. He's not just pretending to manipulate Phillip or Weevil. I think it adds something to the book's discussion of unhealthy relationships to acknowledge that there can be real love, care, and affection mixed with or driving the cruelty. And where other attempts to add complexity to Lucent's character fall flat, this one does work for me.

Warnings: Depictions of misgendering, deadnaming.

Notes on Rep: Character does not identify on-page as transgender, but is written as such, assigned female but identifying as a boy. 

[saturnsfrog]

Post COVID Depression

I missed out on a lot. My late teens are gone and I’m a young adult now. I never got to grieve those years I had to say in complete isolation because of my immune system— the world just started up again, some people never stopped living and doing things. I’ve had friend, or people I thought were friends, abandon me because I didn’t finish high school physically with them.

I never realized how fragile my relationships were until I saw them going out and doing things later on in the pandemic without asking me out. I caught COVID anyways after lockdown and it wrecked me. I already had POTS and ever since I caught COVID that first time my brain fog has gotten literally debilitating. I was wondering why I kept forgetting how to do things I know I can do or just straight up don’t things wrong that I’d normally have no problems with.

My brain fog has aggravated my dyslexia and furthermore aggravated what I assume is my undiagnosed dyscalculia. Back when I was younger I was diagnosed with dyslexia for read and math, gotta love the American education system✨

Anyways, I just feel so fucking helpless all the time and then, of course there’s my depression, I’m defeated because of my brain fog and then there’s the fast pace of college that I knew I wasn’t mentally well enough to handle but had to do something besides stay home. I can’t drive due to my condition every time I go to get my driving part of my exam something takes me out. It’s either my anxiety is particularly crippling, my body failing me to the point my doctors general don’t know what’s going on, my instructor is booked, she’s off, she’s out!

When I was sixteen COVID was still raging and perceived as a threat so I couldn’t take my driver’s ed class at my high school.

I’m just tired… so fucking tired of having to pretend to be okay to functionally in society. I lost three fucking years off my life! I’ve lost friends because of my isolation, I’ve lost valuable precious time, I lost my opportunities, I gained so much more anxiety! No one should have to suffer in silence to benefit those around them but I did!

My friends got tired of me being disabled and immunocompromised so they left and moved on with their lives. I faded into obscurity to the point when I was on id the last people still doing online classes THEY KICKED ME OUT OF MY SCHOOL ANS ENROLLED ME IN A ONLINE SCHOOL! I got my diploma and graduated from that high school that treated me like shit. They would never tell online kids about events like prom or homecoming you had to physically go to school to know when those would happen. I was fucked over advising wise— no one gave me my options and my fucking town is practically a cult so everyone was saying stay in state, go to the college up the road, the community college down the road is great!

I know college out of state is expensive but my advisors were supposed to help me find scholarships to the schools I wanted to go to! That had programs I was interested in! I didn’t even bother applying out of state because of my health, one minute I’m infantilized the next I’m told to suck it up. I believe this state is killing me and COVID showed me that… the past few years it hasn’t gotten better for me as trans person either. I feel so stuck and drowned out. I live a comfortable existence is this town I hate, but am I living? Am I doing what want to do? No. My mind is slipping and I don’t have the will to keep remembering how to do the things I love… I have to just do something, anything to make me feel normal again— how I felt before COVID…

[lemonadehtwooh]

So… tell me about your mastersona?

OKAY so I forgot to add that there's five Master OCs, but Romeo is my specific Mastersona/current main character (this is for anyone who needs clarification). The other OCs are: Maple von Roth, Ishaan, Mary, and Chance Finnick

Under cut is backstory info up to how he joins Chaldea's organization of mages (a very long read)

So he comes from a VERY wealthy family, and he was the youngest child. I can't remember ATM how many siblings he has, but I think maybe he had four older sisters and two older brothers. Anyway, he was slightly babied in his childhood, but he never really turned out arrogant (however, he tends to think of himself as too arrogant or selfish due to self-deprecation RIP). His parents weren't very emotionally close to him or his siblings, and instead would replace their lack of presence with gifts and money. He also wasn't very close to his siblings due to him not meeting social expectations very well. He was always very clumsy/very accident prone, awkward, quiet, and noticably "different" in a "bad way" that would get him rejected. So he grew up very lonely and very people-pleasing. However, he really loves to study and read (which is VERY important to remember later) and is very smart academic-wise, which was the one thing that gave him some redemption in his family

Where he comes from isn't specified like the other Master OCs, however he canonically is Latino mixed and speaks Spanish, English, and learned Latin. As well, his family was VERY high class and had a lot of social influence. Adding on, Romeo is trans and was able to socially transition when he was a teenager and was able to medically transition when he was a legal adult very easily. He had some privilege, however that's probably the only time he used it for himself

Soon after his 18th birthday, Romeo was put into an arranged marriage with a girl he grew up around. Although the reasoning is currently vague, I would assume it was for both social and business reasons. His marriage was very loveless, and quickly his wife isolated him from the world and his family. She forbade him from getting a job (at this point now, he never had a job due to his focus on academics) and used him for the money he would receive from his parents. So she was financially abusive and possibly had both physically abused him and sexually coerced him (he, years later, realizes he's gay and was never attracted to women at all, which was why he didn't want anything to do with her in their marriage and why he didn't love her like that). He was very lonely in his marriage, and only found happiness in reading and studying

Eventually he catches her in the act of cheating without being noticed. So he writes a note that he's leaving, leaves her some money and their house, packs a few things, and straight up leaves. He goes VERY VERY VERY far away. The note he left? It was misinterpreted as a suicide note due to excessive apologizing for not being a good enough husband and his horrible way of wording things. He's pronounced dead, despite no body being found. Romeo never finds out about this

He gets his first job. And immediately loses it for accidentally, SOMEHOW, setting things on fire. And he absolutely SUCKS at getting and keeping jobs due to weird accidents, coincidences, and clumsiness. But he's trying SO hard. He wants to work, he wants to make his own money. He wants to have SOMETHING to be proud of

The money he took with him runs out, and he's kicked out of the apartment he was living in. He's homeless now, and proceeds to wander. Soon, the teleportation-in-his-sleep problem kicks up, and he finds himself in a new area every single day. Every day, he wanders and walks and travels with no real direction or purpose. He doesn't have anything but his books and the clothes on him. Years pass, he believes his memory is worsening as he forgets information about himself. He doesn't remember where he's from, his last name, or his age. He has memories, but they don't really matter anymore

One day, Romeo wakes up freezing. In my AU, Chaldea is still in the arctics, BUT there's a huge forest surrounding it as the magical energy radiating from it caused the area to grow wild plants and trees. Romeo manages to walk around a little, but collapses due to his already failing health and him starting to freeze to death

Now Fou comes in, a mix between Fou liking to explore the forest area outside of Chaldea and Fou being attracted by Romeo's sense of despair, hopelessness, yearning for a purpose, and envy of people better/stronger than him. Fou quickly takes a liking to Romeo (the reasoning for now is that Romeo offered Fou some food), piquing Merlin's interest as Fou demands for Romeo to be saved

Merlin sees Romeo's potential future and looses his shit laughing as Romeo becomes one of Chaldea's top mages. He thinks the idea of this pathetic, weak man becoming not only a mage, but a powerful one, is hilarious. He thinks making Chaldea deal with this man would be the funniest joke, but also would be interesting entertainment. So, using his hero creation ability, Merlin has Romeo healed up a bit so Fou can lead Romeo back to Chaldea

Romeo manages to accidentally teleport himself and Fou into Chaldea, and passes out due to the temperature difference and exhaustion

Shenanigans happen, in which Romeo is hidden from the main staff by Chance and her Servant Astolfo, and then Maple joining in as Chance's friend, and then ALMOST EVERYONE also hides Romeo from the main staff so he wouldn't be kicked out because he is just so darn friendly and knowledgeable and helps everyone so much (Romeo is just happy to be making friends)

Obviously, Romeo is found out due to the fact he was snuck into the library so he could read. And during one of these trips, he accidentally gets his foot stuck in a bucket and gets help from "A very pretty lady", aka Da Vinci, and then some stuff happens later and he gets registered as a Mage-in-training with the promise he would continue studying and would work hard to meet hard requirements

Okay, so back to the fact he grew up loving to read! He was born with magical abilities in a mage-based family/community, very specifically he is one of the "breathing and walking" people, however he never realized he was using magic nor did anyone tell him. He thought it was normal stuff. And the books he would read were infused with magic and had very old, unknown magic techniques written in them, and just in general fed him information about magic. Without him knowing it was magic. So he is VERY strong magically, however his lack of proper training and his area of magic being luck AND emotional based makes him weak. Adding on the information he read was unknown, aka an isolated or unused study, which makes it harder to train him because his strong suit is just. Unavailable other than the books he has on him. And his specific magic is so,,, unknown percentages of probability and can fluctuate so crazily just from the fact if he's having a bad day or not, that it's hard to tell if he's doing things right

Adding on, at first when Romeo works for Chaldea, he has no reason to do so other than having a place to stay and eat. It's survival. But later on, shortly before he summons Mr. Utterson, he realizes he wants to fight for humanity because of his friends. And that's where he finds his purpose

[sophieinwonderland]

Hi!!

I hope you don't mind me reaching out, but my mind's in a whirl and I'm wondering if I'm a system, and you seem like a great place to ask questions.

So. Long story short, I've intermittently preferred plural pronouns ever since I found out about them (ie. like the royal we). They just feel lot more natural. And I've dealt with a lot of trauma and dissociation growing up bc trans, only recently remembering a bunch of stuff from childhood. Like growing up, I felt like a different person whenever I did trans stuff, cause that made it easier to forget.

And I've dissociated like hell plenty of times where I'll just be trapped in my mind with my body on autopilot, doing it's own thing, cause I'm just dealing with something so big and bad I can't be there.

And I've always talked to myself in my head to like talk myself through stuff. Like full on conversations with another voice that I don't really control, and if I do control it, it feels very forced and wrong. But it feels echoey. Like I'm saying it first and just parroting it back to myself with a different voice on top. And I've never really thought about it to much.

But I've recently come across a lot of plural content and've started thinking about all of it in a new light. And so I've been reading a lot of stuff, trying to do research, except I don't know enough to even know if what I'm reading applies. And I'm being really cautious about it cause I don't want to accidentally create someone if they weren't there already, cause I mean I don't want to go around snatching up diagnoses for fun cause that feels like just asking for trouble.

But a lot of the content I've been seeing is saying to be more gentle and to try and talk to them. And so I tried to reach out the other night and started talking with a girl named Mary and she's like really mother-y and patient and wants me to take care of myself. And I've been casually chatting with her since then. And she says she's been around for a long time to help take care of me and I don't really think I can deny that I'm part of a system now.

(I've also talked to other voices over the years, but never tried to contact them. I always thought of them as me talking to myself, and would do the mental equivalent of shouting at them if they wouldn't be quiet after I was done "talking to myself", sort of like trying to get rid of intrusive thoughts.)

And I'm sorry for dumping all this on you but I'm to nervous to tell anybody irl until I'm like certain. But I guess the big question this all comes to is does this sound like a system to you??? Am I just making this all up??? And on top of that, what does it feel like to share a head with someone??? And what does it feel like when someone else is fronting?? How do you front? And how do I let myself let go of my iron fist on the body? Taking it from my body to our body?

Hi there!

That sounds a lot like system stuff to me. Actually, I wrote an article about how to know if an "imaginary friend" is sentient, and what you're describing when you talk about the voice feeling wrong when you try to control it... that's literally my final test...

I ask that people try to control their potential headmate in some way to find out how it feels. So in my book, you already passed that test.

And if you have to mentally scream at the other people in your head to make them pipe down, then it's safe to say you're probably not making them up.

But it feels echoey. Like I'm saying it first and just parroting it back to myself with a different voice on top.

I would like to propose an alternative explanation here.

I bet that when you are speaking to somebody aloud, you plan out what you're going to say to them before you say it.

Now... imagine if you shared a brain with somebody. Each individual in the brain might have "loud thoughts" which are them actually speaking in ways intended to be heard. They might also have "quiet thoughts" which are the equivalent to thinking of what you're going to say before you say it. The reason it might feel echoey could be because they're thinking first, and you hear those quiet thoughts, before they speak to you with their loud thoughts.

I also think it's pretty common for systems to interpret different headmates as different genders. You might want to explore that a bit more, and see if "your" feelings towards things changed while exploring different gender identities.

Sharing a head with someone is... a little different for everyone. I think common themes though include things like hearing each other's voices internally in a way that's similar to your own inner monologue but distinct.

But it's not just the voices. It's often their thoughts and feelings too.

We can often sense when a headmate is happy or upset. And while those emotions are in our brain, we generally recognize them as belonging to somebody else. Except there's often bleedover too. So someone who isn't fronting being upset will cause the fronter to be miserable.

Have you ever asked the voice you talk to about itself to see what happens? Like, does it have a name? Does it want a name? Does it have different feelings towards people in your life that are distinct from your own? Does it remember things about your past differently than you do?

As for when someone else is fronting, it depends a lot on how conscious you are. If you're co-con, it might be like being aware of your body while it moves almost as if on autopilot. You know someone else is in the pilot seat, and you don't really feel connected to the body.

If you completely dissociate, you may not be aware of anything going on while it's happening, and only become aware of what's happened while you were gone after the fact when you switch in again. And that switch back to front may be a little disorienting while you readjust.

At least, that's how things work for us. Again, every system is different.

On letting go of the body, it may take time and I might advise you to not rush it. Discovering your system can be a bit jarring, and you don't need to do everything all at once. For now, just try talking to your voices and asking them questions, and pay very close attention to how they feel while you do.

Hope that helps! Have a wonderful day! And if you don't mind, wish Mary and the other voice a wonderful day from me too! 💖💖💖

[ghostblazewrites]

Melodies Of The Sky Intro

BASIC

genre: young adult, magical realism

status: working on 2nd draft, posting on wattpad

key themes: art, poetry, descriptive writing challenge, celestial symbolism, nature, mental health, sun & moon mythology, music, unlikely friendship, romanticizing life

♫⋆｡♪ ₊˚♬ ﾟ.♫⋆⋅˚₊‧ ୨୧ ‧₊˚ ⋅♫⋆｡♪ ₊˚♬ ﾟ.♫⋆⋅˚₊‧ ୨୧ ‧₊˚ ⋅♫⋆｡♪ ₊˚♬ ﾟ.♫⋆⋅˚₊‧ ୨୧ ‧₊˚ ⋅

STORY

In the heart of an unassuming town, Lavender embarks on a personal journey of self-healing, only to find herself entangled in a myth that spans centuries and generations. Everything begins with an encounter with an enigmatic boy, setting in motion a celestial narrative that may connect to them more than they thought.

CHARACTERS

Lavender (she/her)

Lavender let out a sudden laugh. She was like a princess. She felt like one. Her kingdom was this never-ending field of mayflowers, and her crown was made with her own hands.

age: 15

Kind, unique, and a daydreamer, Lavender finds beauty and joy everywhere she goes. While not having many friends, she loves being around people and she adores deep connections. She’s very creative and expresses herself with art, music, and poetry.

quick facts

INFP

bad ukelele player, but is great at piano

has a gray tabby cat named willow!

morning bird, she loves waking up to the sunrise

favourite colour is blue

Eli (he/him

"You- you have to feel it. The story. You have to play with your soul and your body and your heart and your mind. You have to love each chord." He picked up his guitar. "You have to immerse yourself in a story and forget mistakes." 

age: 15

Quiet, gentle, and compassionate, Eli is a soft-spoken individual who has a talent for music and a passion for poetic words. He is dramatic like Lavender, always looking to make metaphors and poetry from mundane situations. While he seems aloof or shy on the outside, Eli quickly gets adventurous, excited and spontaneous about the things he cares the most about.

quick facts

INFJ

obsessed with the Lakelily myth of 'Eclipse'

has a dog named Luna

loves playing electric guitar

favourite colour is green

trans boy

night owl- loves midnight walks

AESTHETIC

moodboard

FACTS

☾𖤓 i started this book in may 2023, the absolute low of my mental health- it was supposed to be a quick descriptive writing prompt exercise to get my mind off of things...and quickly became this beautiful story.

☾𖤓 music is a huge part of mots- every chapter has a lyric :D

☾𖤓 the plot is pretty vague, i'll probably go into detail about it more in another post but the mystery is why it's so fun!

☾𖤓 third person, in lavender's pov (except for the prologue)

☾𖤓 the story is set in Lakelily, Ontario (no, i'm not just making every story set in canada whattt)

LINKS

pinboard

spotify playlist

wattpad

♫⋆｡♪ ₊˚♬ ﾟ.♫⋆⋅˚₊‧ ୨୧ ‧₊˚ ⋅♫⋆｡♪ ₊˚♬ ﾟ.♫⋆⋅˚₊‧ ୨୧ ‧₊˚ ⋅♫⋆｡♪ ₊˚♬ ﾟ.♫⋆⋅˚₊‧ ୨୧ ‧₊˚ ⋅

hope you enjoyed, if anyone reads this lol!! i'm so happy and proud of melodies of the sky and hope to post the 2nd draft to wattpad more often. if you want to hear more, please tell me idk whether i'm shouting to the void anymore

[sock-to-the-third]

The Meet Cute Diary

By Emery Lee (e/em)

I cried.

Happy crying but I did. I knew coming into reading Lee’s fantastic story that one of the characters used neo-pronouns so it wasn’t a surprise with Devin.

But fuck, fam, like… you never know how much you need to see rep until you see it.

*sighs*

Yeah.

… Moving on. It’s a young adult novel staring teenagers. Admittedly, I haven’t had as much luck connecting with romance focused novels. Nothing against them, they just normally aren’t my cup of tea but The Meet Cute Diary… fuck, is it good.

1. Narrator

It’s first person perspective with Noah (he/him) as our lead. Such an opinionated, bullheaded fucker I love him to bits. Kiddo just kills it stealing the show wherever he goes. From his passion of his trans-love blog to the way he brings out such personality in other characters— it reminds me what a vibe of a time being a teenager is.

2. Trans stuff

Also. Binders. I did not expect a discussion about binders. Got me all nostalgic of my old binder & sports bra so tight it bruised. What a shitty time to be alive watching the clock to make sure you don’t pass the 8 hour mark and break a rib.

It’s so cool how Lee represents trans-mascs. It’s just real matter of fact. I also like how we get to see a trans-masc that isn’t masc-4-masc and super macho. It’s just so fun seeing Noah running around being his little queer self.

Honestly surprised me that there wasn’t some drop like “oh his parents are horrible” or “passable- but kinda dicks.” Weird to see that much acceptance. I kept on thinking “wow, this sounds like wish fullfillment” - entirely forgetting some trans folks just live. Like.. with loving families and I’m like.. noice 👍

Also, the fact that Devin shares eir pronouns without a disclaimer of where it’s okay. I feel old at 26 because you didn’t just blanket “yeah neo-pronouns wherever.” Like, especially if you were baby with pronouns, often you’d only do it around friends awhile. I wonder if the next gen will be like that.

3. Plot twists

I love how Drew’s arc plays out. It has all the corniness of a romance as things slowly devolve. *chiefs kiss*

The two have such awesome banter. Plus the way it devolves is so ouch, love it. I was surprised Drew lied about how long the divorce thing was happening. Thought Lee was going to go a different angle.

Also, totally convinced that Drew was the OG troll and in charge of the article— some wicked mastermind. In hindesight, I’m really glad Drew was less a Moriarty and more just an asshole.

It made the transition between the end of Drew and the start of Devin’s relationship with Noah, realization of love and Noah figuring out a new purpose for the diary to hit home.

It’s not like rom com drama but it hits the kind of beats that makes you shriek and laugh with joy. I’m really happy how it turned out and the surprises along the way.

4. Devine’s Meet Cute

Can we talk about Devin’s surprise for Noah and just how adorable it is? The kiddo had panic attacks and socializing is an ouchy point and the fucker went out, overnight talked to 5 people, one of them a stranger, to set up this elaborate scavenger hunt.

If I didn’t have roommates 🙏 I would’ve screamed that whole motherfucking chapter, it was so dang good!

FUCK! I LOVE THIS GOD DAMN BOOK!

*flips a table*

GAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!

…

Anyway, 10/10 book.

[pillarsalt]

Anon worried about her trans-identified friend again, I wish I had the words to express how much I appreciate your kind words!!! (Maybe admitting it made me tear up would help? haha) Your response was just as thoughtful and considerate as I thought it would be, but I never expected you'd write so much for a stranger talking about another stranger, let alone throw compliments my way. You're a truly special person and everyone on here, including me, is so lucky we get to hear what you have to say and chat with you :) (And see your wonderful art to boot!! Finding another bug-lover is such a lovely surprise!)

I'll keep your kind thoughts in mind whenever the rare friction comes up again between my friend and me. It was such a quick process for me to desist and become gender critical that I think it's easy for me to forget how much harder it is for people to change their minds on the trans topic when they're so much more invested in it than I was. (Feel the same way about religion too, even as a little kid I was asking questions about why certain things bothered me in the Bible and getting frustrated when I got shame instead of answers. Maybe being annoying and asking too many questions is just in my DNA haha. But all the more reason why it's important to help those who aren't naturally critical: they're the ones falling for unreality the hardest because of that fact.)

Ultimately I will keep being me and see what happens, like I've done before. If nothing comes of it, then there was nothing else I could've done differently anyway. I've asked her if she'd like to do gift exchange for the holidays. We're planning on getting each other a few embarrassingly nerdy collectibles we've been eyeing for a while :)

Thank you again for your help, I'll cherish your words always!!! Hope you have a blast on your trip and get to see all the little guys you could dream of!!!

I'm very glad to hear from you, anon! :) and thank you so much for the kind words! it makes me very happy to be able to help in any way. ❤️

It's funny that you mention questioning the bible as a kid. I went to catholic school and I remember being taught in first grade that we were supposed to love god more than anything. More than we loved our parents or even our dogs, and I just couldn't get past the notion that I had to somehow love the kinda mean, angry, invisible flying grandpa*, who never says a damn thing when I pray, over the actual people who had raised me. I stayed in catholic school until graduation despite opposing catholicism, argued a LOT. I think my point is that I've also kind of been primed for voicing unpopular opinions, so I'm biased when it comes to people who are more hesitant to take any position on the matters at hand.

*sidenote, around this time I obsessively read My Book of Bible Stories (1978) which was given to me by JW doorknockers. This is a bit uncanny, I haven't seen this since I was about 8. It was a treasured book to me, it's full of old testament stories and pretty brutal:

To demonstrate how young I was while reading this: the book refers to god as Jehovah, but I was still learning to read and thought he was called Joseph. So all the adults I told all these Joseph stories to were confused as to why I thought Jesus's stepdad was so OP. Anyway yes, Joseph was a scary guy in my mind, I mean look what he made abraham do before he said sike:

which really didn't give me much faith in him. Kind of a questionable thing to do to a guy tbh. Finally here's the illustration that basically inspired my URL:

Sorry to hijack your ask anon, for some reason your message sent me down memory lane. Finding that pdf was crazy.

ANYWAY: you made my night with yoir nice message, so thanks for that, hope you stay well. I'm happy that it's chill for the time being, and the gift exchange sounds like fun. Come around to chat anytime.✌️

[nappingpaperclip]

Unfortunately, despite a lot of community members, librarians, teachers, and parents speaking out against an amendment to a policy that would require our superintendent to establish a committee to review “sexually explicit material” in secondary school libraries (which they already have policies for, and is clearly meant to give power to the board to ban LGBT+ books), my school board passed the amendment

I’m so fucking sad and angry. Librarians are already underpaid and overworked, the schools already have policies for this, and parents already have the right to prevent their children from checking out books without their permission or at all AND the ability to submit books they’re concerned about for review.

I don’t even care about the stupid committee or the fact that they’re asking librarians to do even more unpaid work while having an existing staffing issue and are already budget cuts, cause most likely they won’t get any volunteers and they will likely just get sued. I don’t even care. Let them get sued and waste the school districts time and money and accomplish absolutely nothing.

I only care trans and gay children. Even if stuff like this gets struck down or fails they still see it. They still deal with the consequences and the culture it creates. They see this stuff, they see what school board members and community members say about them and they know that adults in power don’t care about people like them.

These adults don’t even have the guts to say it plainly either, they hide between words like “perversion” and “trends” and “loss of innocence,” but kids aren’t fucking stupid and they can read between the lines and see that these adults don’t want them to exist. They call our existence and identities a trend and ignore the fact that people like us have existed throughout all cultures for all of history.

I grew up being told I was going to hell and that God hates me. That I’m a perversion, not normal, a freak, don’t belong here. It has only gotten much worse and much more dangerous for LGBT+ children and especially children of color.

Days after Nex’s brutal murder. I’m so infuriated and disgusted.

Trans kids please know you are so, so loved. I can’t imagine how scary it is to have to go to school right now. It was scary for me four years ago and it’s only gotten scarier. My heart breaks every day thinking about what y’all are going through

Rest in Peace Nex 💔

We will never forget you. What happened to you should not have happened and we will never stop fighting to make sure it does not happen again.

[fredwendelin]

SoS Trilogy Book Update #2

So, it's a trilogy. Three books. Yeah.

The beginning of book 1? I think I got it down. I don't have the fine details out yet, but I did write an exchange between the protagonist and an old woman that made my friend irk when reading it, so I'm counting it as a victory.

The end of book 1, 2: i decided on playing on the last words of each book, but I don't know how exactly I'll do that yet. I have two ideas, but they cancel each other out. So I guess I'll wait and see.

The end of book 3: I've at least 4 versions written down already (not complete, finished scenes, just the basic structure and dialogue). I like the 4, but the 4 I cannot have. I guess this is yet ANOTHER thing I'll just 'see later'.

Some of the major plot points throughout the book: there are two minor romance pairs to this date; there's conflicting emotions for the protagonist on the love aspect (of course); there's an awful thing that's revealed around book 2 and which I doubled down and I really want to write and expose, but it makes my trilogy adult-only because I'm not dumbing it down; I have a trans character that is the most feisty character I've ever written (probably that I'll ever write) and I'm enamored; and that's what I can remember right now. I have around 20 important characters for this trilogy and I really, really, really want to give each of them a moment in the spotlight and something important to do and contribute to the overall plot.

I'm considering writing POVs from different characters throughout the books. So, there's the main protagonist in the first three chapters or so; then it cuts to the minor romance pair character for a chapter; then so on and so forth, but mostly the main character, of course. This needs to be carefully planned out so 1) it makes the reading fresh and interesting, there always will be something new going on 2) at the same time, I need people to root for my main character (mostly) and not forget him, so he still needs to be at the center of things; the other POVs need to be measured carefully.

So, basically, it's Durarara! (I only watched season 1) where my main protag is a male Celty and everyone else is important and contributes to the plot, while still making it interesting and about Celty. Yay. I might want to rewatch that season just for technique-watching because from what I remember, it was really good.

And I loved that guy that threw stuff

I suspect this will take a few years. The planning is beyond anything I've ever done and does involve research on specific topics as well, topics that are vast and complex and too symbolic for my pea-sized brain. Uhghh this is really a big passion project ever since I started planning it, and the puzzle of making it complex+interesting+symbolic is freaking awesome, but I really need to bite size 'each step of the way' so I can actually get stuff done, or I'll forever bemoan the labor.

[the-almighty-gob-john-langley]

Genderbenders, take note!

Yes, the 'Almighty Gob' has returned for another sideways swipe at those who should have their brains wired up to at least twenty car batteries.

Wouldn't the 'Bullshit Times' be a great title for a contemporary newspaper?

It seems that every day there's an issue where there needn't be one, and it's

always bullshit caused by someone having hurt feelings. Such as the wimpish

world this has become nowadays. However, on the plus side, it does give me

something to write about.

So, today’s offerings toward people who deserve to have their heads connected to

at least twenty car batteries as a wake-up call are as follows. The limp wristed,

adult nappy-wearing, haven't a clue as to whether they're Arthur or Martha,

Gen x,y, and z, fuckwit, oh so politically correct, anal wipe, gender

ideologoes employed by our uncivil service, who've put a lawyer employed

by an arms-length department of DEFRA in the frame for allegedly making

gender-critical comments at work. Such as stating her belief that only

women have periods.

If I'm incorrect in my belief, would any man out there who is reading this

and suffers from excessive bleeding through their penis every month as

the uterus sheds blood, mucus and cells please make yourself known.

Forget Dianne Abbot's threat of shooting, which was, of course, a turn of

phrase we all use from time to time in jest, when those who really do need to

face a firing squad of gunge-filled supersoakers are the pillocks who

disagree that biological sex isn't binary and immutable.

To add insult to injury, the lawyer at the centre of this bullshit,

Duemmer Wrigley is due to appear at an employment tribunal where she,

yes she, is being accused of harassment for daring to claim that being

gender-critical was a 'protected belief', and the claim against both

her and DEFRA further suggest that the department nurtures an

"intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating and/or offensive

environment". In all honesty, have you ever heard of such bullshit in

your life?

Of course, it goes without saying that behind this there'll be some

ambulance-chasing type lawyer out to further their career by making

a name for themself if they win the case, and grovelling to the complainant

instead of telling him/her/it/animal/vegetable/mineral to get a grip and

go do one.

Next, I turn my attention to the 'all about me' driven, egocentric,

self-entitled, gender-bending, parenting screw-ups, and loony left,

liberal-leaning, mindless moron academics and campaigners who

promote gender identity ideology in classrooms. Hopefully, that

is a politically correct, and fully inclusive description of all

involved in this lunacy. If not, then I apologise and will try to

do better in future.

Anyway, to my point. In the words of Pink Floyd - "Teacher, leave

them kids alone". If you turn back a few blogs you will note that

I've stated pretty much all of the things that are wrong

nowadays started at the beginning of this millennium, when being

candid with you, our previously stoic and robust society began to

disintegrate into the monumental clusterfuck it is now.

I've dedicated a few pages to this grating subject in my book

'The Sexual Philanthropist'- (https://amzn.to/3TzI5AQ), and totally

agree with the views of JK Rowling, and many other sane, rational

people on the subject, which have again been further explored in

my previous blog posts.

Trans activist lunatics are somehow being allowed to run riot

where this subject is concerned, and dare a teacher go against

such indoctrination, or call a girl a boy and the proverbial will

instantly hit the fan, with the teacher drummed out of the job -

and possibly an entire career.

If, by now, you haven't yet noticed the link between the two

subjects of this blog you need to read again to understand

exactly how the millennials and their progeny should not, in any way,

be allowed anywhere near positions of responsibility and decisions

where feelings overrule fact, and a good place to start would be

for one, the biological difference between men and women.

Thank you for reading my Substack. This post is public so feel free to share it with others who will also enjoy my satiric overview of life.