#i hope this author buys a grammar book and keeps at it. they had good concepts.. the execution was just so bad

[alicewonderao3]

Diamonds and Flowers

Title: Diamonds and Flowers

Warnings: None

Pairing: Dean Winchesterxreader

Authors note: I had a whole theme and setting for this and then a cold just ripped its way through my house and halfway through writing this, I lost inspiration and re-wrote using two of the three items, a diamond bracelet and a bouquet of flowers. I'm still taking care of a sick kid, so it's not as well polished as I'd prefer, but here it is. All spelling and grammar mistakes are mine, but I wanted to keep posting for @the-slumberparty I am enjoying this so far.

Today was my birthday. One of my favorite days of the year, a day when Daddy spoiled me rotten with anything I asked for, although if you asked my mother, he did that every day anyway. I slipped on my favorite pink dress, the sleeves long enough to cover my arms, with soft white flowers on the skirt. I slipped on my favorite pair of off-white vintage heels and with a quick spray of my jasmine perfume, I headed downstairs to the kitchen for breakfast. 

I pushed through the swinging door and saw Daddy standing in the kitchen with mother. Neither noticed me at first, and it was clear that whatever conversation they were having wasn't a good one. Before I could alert either to my presence, Daddy's eyes met mine and he forced a smile. 

"Happy Birthday Princess!" He said, holding his arms out for a hug. I let him hug me and asked, "What's wrong?" Mother, who was sipping a cup of coffee near the sink, just said as she left the kitchen, "You tell her, George." 

I frowned, turning toward Daddy. He explained that he had several business meetings today and that he wouldn't be able to take me to lunch as he planned. Before I could frown, he said, "You're still going, but I won't be able to join you until later." I let it slide, happy in the knowledge that he would join me later, so I resolved to have fun. 

After breakfast, I spent most of the morning shopping. But I wasn't like most of the other girls I'd grown up playing with as a kid. Those girls were dripping in designer clothing and expensive jewelry, and that just wasn't my thing. I much preferred to shop at vintage stores and bookstores, surrounded by old books and quiet corners where I could sip coffee and immerse myself in another world. 

I was walking down an aisle in one of my frequented and favorite bookstores when a tall shadow fell over the book I was looking at. I glanced up and had to hold back the frown that threatened to spread over my face. Dean. Dean was my daddy's right-hand man, always there at his side for business meetings, and his main protector. His brother Sam was his attorney, serving him in court as needed. 

If Dean was here, Daddy wasn't coming. I sighed. "Daddy isn't coming, is he?" I asked, meeting his intense green-eyed gaze. Dean shook his head. "No, but he sent me to give you his apologies. He's just busy." I frowned, especially when Dean handed me a small velvet box. "From your dad." I held the box in my hands for a moment before opening it. 

Diamonds glittered in the light as I opened the box. The diamond bracelet was pretty and expensive, something I'd never buy for myself on my own. I closed the box with a snap and dropped it in my purse. I glanced back at Dean as I shelved the book and forced a smile. "Be sure to thank him for me." I felt tears forming, today just wasn't a good birthday. "I just want to go home." 

Dean didn't even try to convince me. He just nodded and was silent the entire ride back to my parent's house. Dean escorted me back home and was gone in seconds, back to see my father, no doubt. I skipped dinner and went to bed early, hoping that tomorrow would be a better day. The next morning, however, I walked down to breakfast to see a bouquet of beautiful flowers. Daisies and tightly closed roses, with a scattering of babies breath, met my gaze. There was a card next to the flowers. 

I frowned, picking up the flowers and breathing in the scent of the flowers. They were pretty and the daisies were my favorite flower. I picked up the card and opened it, skipping past the cover to the inside. There in a messy scrawl that could only belong to one person were the following words, "Happy birthday sweetheart. It's not much, but I hope you like them. I know daisies are your favorite. Dean." 

I felt a bit of warmth on my face as I stared down at the card. Dean always called me sweetheart, and it always did something to me. I wasn't ready to admit I might or might not have feelings for the handsome man who served my Dad so faithfully, but I picked up the flowers and hugged them to my chest for a moment. I softly whispered, "Thank you, Dean." 

I was startled by a deep voice, "You're welcome, sweetheart." I whirled around to see Dean standing in the doorway, a smirk on his lips. I felt very underdressed in my dress and bare feet, but I simply said, "I didn't see you there." Dean chuckled, "I can see that. I didn't mean to startle you, I'm sorry." 

I busied myself by putting the flowers in a vase and I asked him if he wanted any coffee. He shook his head, "No, I came to talk to you." I turned to face him, "Me? Are you sure?" He nodded, walking close to me as I turned and started arranging the flowers in the vase, nervous about having him so close. "Sweetheart," Dean said, his voice soft. I took a deep breath and felt his hands gently turn me toward him, a single rose in my fingers. "Look at me," He softly commanded, and I raised my face to meet his, my breath taken away by the soft look in his green eyes. 

His eyes were soft and kind as he said, "Let me take you to dinner." It wasn't a question, and normally I would bristle at such a command, but it was delivered so softly and so sincerely that I couldn't help but nod my head. "What time?" I asked, unable to tear my eyes away from his. Dean smiled and leaned in close, "I'll pick you up at seven."

Before he could do much else, his phone rang and his whole demeanor changed in an instant. "Winchester. Yes. Yes." He hung up the phone and turned to me, ready to say something, I wasn't sure what, when I set the rose in the vase and scooped the vase up in my hands. I leaned up on tiptoe and gently pressed my lips to his cheek softly. As I passed him, I said, "I'll be waiting for you at seven, Dean." 

I left him standing there in the kitchen, and heard his footsteps as I climbed the stairs to my room. He gave me a wry sort of grin and headed out the door. Maybe this date wouldn't be so bad after all. 

[vee-nvs]

SEARCHING…: GIFTS

🏷 — TARQUIN X READER, TAMLIN X READER, ERIS X READER, RHYS X READER, AMREN X READER, EMERIE X READER

📍— their love language is giving gifts

🔖 — modernau!, gn!reader, blanket stealing, fluff, hurt/ comfort, angstish in some parts but nothing major, grammar mistakes (?)

TARQUIN

tarquin is quite good with words, but he also has a lot of money. and he likes to investe in your relationship. taking you to different places for your dates, no matter how expansive they’re, buying all the tickets to a specific movie session so you guys have the whole room for yourselves. eventually he also gets the habit of buying expensive things he knows you like away to often, but since the moment he fell in love with you, he invested a lot on your dates.

“you rented a yacht?!”

“it’s actually the family yacht.”

“tarquin, you didn’t have to…”

“‘course i had! you said you’ve never been in one. maybe now you’ll understand why i love the ocean so much.”

.

“you sure we are in the right room? it’s empty.” you ask him as you check the room number in your ticket.

“yes, i am.” he answers, holding the popcorn and the soda. a prideful smile on his face.

“tarquin, what’ve you done?”

“i bought all the tickets for this session.”

“tarquin!”

TAMLIN

tamlin is just one of many in this list with a communication issue. since his childhood, he finds it hard to verbalize his feelings. and once things between the both of you got serious, he made sure to tell you at least that - that he loved you even if he was unable to express it through words. so every time he messes up or you conquer something, he’s buying you whatever you have been eyeing recently. and if he doesn’t know what it is, he checks your wish list or asks your friends and family.

“congratulations, princess”

“oh, tam! it’s- it’s…”

“you favorite author’s new book? yes.”

“and it’s autographed?”

“just the best for my princess.”

.

“so, can i sleep in our bed tonight?” he asks, hope shining in his eyes. the sofa isn’t bad, but it sure isn’t as comfortable as sleeping in a bed. by your side.

“tam, those flowers are pretty. and this is my favorite dessert. but it doesn’t change the fact that you steal all the blankets every night!”

“i know! and that’s why i also bought more blankets.”

“you better not steal those too.”

“that means we’re sleeping together tonight?”

ERIS

eris has the hardest time expressing what he feels through words. he grew up in a less than favorable environment to express himself, having to keep on an act for most of his life. so even now that beron isn’t on the picture anymore and he has no reason to hide anything from you, eris still find it difficult to express himself. so be it because he feels like a “sorry” is not enough of a apology, or because saying “i love you” isn’t quite easy enough yet, eris buys you a present as a way to tell you what he fells.

“here. for you.”

“what’s it?” you ask, tone cold, still not forgiving the words he said to you a few moments ago. you try to not show any interest as you inspect the box. it is from your favorite store, and having such an observation boyfriend as eris you can guess what is inside.

“it’s… an apology.”

“eris, this…”

“i know. i know can’t erase what i said expanding money on you, but it’s the only way i can show that what i said didn’t mean anything.”

you let out the breath you had been holding, putting the gift on the table before opening your arms.

“com’ here” eris didn’t falter one second before getting into your arms.

.

“what… eris, what’s it?”

“your valentine’s day present?”

“all those flowers?! are you crazy?!”

“just what you deserve” he says before kissing your lips.

RHYS

rhys likes to celebrate. he enjoys it and think it’s extremely important. so doesn’t matter what date it is, he’ll find a way to gift you - because he’s bad at planning celebrations. and sometimes, he comes up with random excuses to buy you expensive things.

“here, darling. happy mother’s day.”

“u-hm… r-rhys? we don’t have kids”

“no, but you act like a mom to mor and cass when they are drunk, so… here, for you.” he extends the bag from the expensive cake store in town.

.

“darling~”

“rhys, i’m really busy right now”

“but darling! do you know what day it’s today?”

“… friday?”

“it’s national wine day!” he says as he shows you an expensive bottle of wine and a bouquet of red roses. “let’s celebrate”

AMREN

another one who has a hard time expressing feelings! but amren also loves luxury, she enjoys living a good (& expensive) life and wants you to have all from the best. wines? the oldest. clothes? made for yourself if you don’t find anything you like. food? only the best, most delicious ones. she demonstrates her love by taking care of you and making sure you enjoy your life.

“amren, we can just look in another store”

“why, love? if you liked this one, i’ll just have it made in your size.”

.

“this wine is older than me.”

you choke on the wine, before going to check how old it is. just to roll your eyes at her comment.

“it’s a lot older, ‘ren!”

“what means that’s a really good wine, love.”

EMERIE

emerie isn’t as (stupidly) rich as the others in this list. but she’s also the best at communicating here. so her presents are simple, but meaningful, what makes them really nice. she went shopping with nes and gywn and saw a candle in your favorite smell? she’s getting it. a new book you’ve been talking about? she’s buying. oh, just a cute keychain that reminds her of you? it’s already yours and she might get two so you can match.

“babe! i loved it! it’s so cute.”

“i know, right? it remembered me of you.”

“… a cat keychain remembered you of me? what are you trying to say?” you ask, a obviously fake offended tone in your voice since you don’t bother hiding your smile as you hug her.

“that you occupy way too much space in our bed” she whispers in you ear, hugging you back.

“hey!”

[nintendousimp]

Train of Thought...

Part: 5 I think I’m in love?

Previous👈 Master 👉 Next

Word Count: 3k

Released Date: February 26th, 2021

Warnings: NSFW, nothing too crazy maybe some language and grammar errors. It might get a little angst 😅.

Disclaimer: All characters in this story are aged up!

Authors note: I’m sorry this part has been so delayed! The last few weeks have been a chaotic mess. I’m so sorry it took so long to get this released, but I’m super excited because this is the end (not counting epilogue) I really enjoyed making this story and I hope you guys enjoyed as much as I did writing it.

Enjoy the last past part of this story!!!

It’s been almost a year since you saw your ex-best friend. To be completely honest, you still can’t get it over your head that this happened. It seems like a thing of the past now. All those memories the two of you made together now have a bittersweet taste to them. It’s strange to think that this would be the outcome of something you thought would never end. In the end, life goes on.

In an attempt to make amends, you decide that it’s been long enough, and you’d like to hear her side of the story.

You get in your car and drive to your old friends’ place. To your surprise, she still lived in the same apartment complex. You enter the complex and make your way towards the elevator. As you press the number to her floor, you can’t help but be nervous. It’s been a while since the two of you talked, let alone seen each other. There’s so much you’d like to know, but you mainly wanted closure from her as well. You were deep in thought when the elevator opening brought you back to reality.

You get off the elevator and head towards the direction of your friend’s home; you stop at the door. You stood there, hand on the doorbell but couldn’t press it. You didn’t know why you couldn’t ring the doorbell. Part of you was afraid She and Tsumu’s stories weren’t going to match, but another part was asking itself why you were so worried about this when you’ve moved on.

You know deep down that what you're feeling are your insecurities. The pain that both she and Atsumu put you through made you insecure about your person. There were mornings where you’d get up and head straight for the mirror that’s hanging on your bedroom door, and you’d look at yourself. At the time, you hated how you looked and even began to compare yourself to said best friend. She had long hair, so you started growing your hair long. She was more girly, so you began buying more feminine clothes. You did little things to change your appearance. You started wearing makeup and went out drinking. Doing all of those things never made you happy. Part of you was trying to fill in for the pain you were feeling, something you hadn’t noticed, but someone else did.

Flashback...

That morning while you were getting ready, Akaashi had stopped by your home. It was nothing new to him since the two of you became insanely close; one could say you both are best friends. You had given him and Bokuto a house key since they both spent most of their free time in your home. As he enters your home, he can hear you in your bedroom drying your hair. He makes his way to the door of your bedroom and just stands there in silence, watching you get ready for the day. He can’t help to think how beautiful you are, even if you changing yourself saddened him.

You notice him resting his back onto the doorframe. “How long have you been standing there?” you ask.

“Not too long, I just got here,” he says.

“ I’m glad you’re here, help me pick out an outfit for the day!” you said to Akaashi as you take his hand and drag him to sit on the bed.

“Which one of these outfits do you think would look better?” you ask.

“What’s the occasion?” He asks.

“I’m going to go meet up with an old friend,” you said. Trying not to go into detail about what friend you were going to go meet up with.

Akaashi’s looking at the two outfits you picked and then looked back at you.

“y/n anything would look great on you, but if you want my input, I think you look beautiful when you are yourself,” He says.

Something about the way he looks at you brings warmth to your heart. The way he stares at you with those pretty blue eyes can bring comfort to your troubled mind. You’ve been trying to change the way you look, to hide the insecurities that were planted deep in the back of your mind. But Akaashi, with one look, took all those negative thoughts away. You don’t understand what these feelings are. But being with Keiji makes you feel at home.

End Flashback…

You rang the doorbell and waited a few moments.

“What are you doing here y/n?” she asks.

“I’m here to hear your side of the story,” you said. Your old friend stood there, not knowing what to say. It’s been a year since she last saw you. She couldn’t believe that you were here at her front door, wanting to hear her side.

“Can I please come in?” you ask.

“We can talk in the living room,” your friend says as she points you to the living area.

“Can I offer you something to drink?” she asks.

“Thank you, but I’m okay,” you said as you sat on the corner sofa.

It’s clear to both of you that this meeting is going to be an awkward one. It was hard to confront Atsumu about his infidelity, but now you want to hear how this all started.

“ I want to know why Atsumu cheated on me with you,” you said. At one point, you would’ve been in pain to hear the truth, but it’s been too long that now you just want to end this chapter of your life for good.

“It happened when you started writing your first book. You began spending nights at work,” your friend continued to tell you how one evening she came over to your house and found Atsumu drinking. She said they drank together and talked about how he felt like you no longer spent time with him and that the only thing you cared about was work.

“ One drink led to another, and before we knew it, we were both making out,” she said as she proceeded to tell you that she and Atsumu were supposed to be a one-time thing. Still, they both became dependent on each other.

“ He told me he never cared about me the way he cares about you and never to get any ideas about him ever leaving you,” She finally finished.

So they’re both telling you the truth. To finally hear both sides of the same story made you feel like you can yet breathe again. But there was still one question that kept plaguing your head, so you decide to ask her.

“ Why did you keep going back if you knew what you were doing was wrong?” She didn’t look at you; instead, she pointed her head towards the ground and said.

“ I fell in love with Atsumu; that’s why I kept going back.”

Your best friend fell in love with your ex-husband. Part of you was not expecting that answer. You can’t help but believe her; There’s sincerity in her words. Her expression gave sadness.

“The day you found out about us. I not only lost you as my friend, but I also lost Atsumu.”she continued by saying that Atsumu broke things up with her as soon as you left the house. To think that day, all three of you lost someone important. You’re glad that you’ll finally be able to close this chapter. To finally be able to move on is a breath of fresh air.

“ I don’t think we can ever go back to the way it was, but for what it’s worth, I forgive you, old friend,” you get up from the sofa and head towards the door to take your leave. You thank her for having you in her home. Before you were about to leave, you looked at your friend and gave her a warm smile.

“You should let Atsumu know he’s a father.”

“How did you,” you cut her off.

“ Bokuto saw you at the cafe we used to go to. Don’t worry; Kou promised he wouldn’t mention anything to Atsumu. But should tell him. I know him too well. He wouldn’t live with himself if he has a kid and didn’t take responsibility for it,” you said as you waved goodbye and left your friends’ home.

There were tears in your eyes as you were heading out of the complex. You’ve known for a couple of weeks that Atsumu has a child. Who would’ve thought that the pain they both put you through would grow into a fruit that is Atsumu’s child?

“ I hope that you’re a good father to your son Tsumu,” You whisper to yourself.

...

You get in your car to make your way home. As you buckle your seat belt, you get a call from Keiji.

“Hey Keiji, I just got done with my friend. What’s up?” you said.

“ Would it be okay if I take you somewhere tonight?” He asks.

“ Of course! Can I ask where you’re taking me?” Akaashi said he wouldn’t go into details about where he was taking me out of fear that he’d ruin the surprise for me.

“Would seven o’clock work for tonight?” he asks.

“Yes, seven o’clock is fine,” you said.

“ I’ll see you at seven then y/n,” he says his goodbyes before he hangs up.

“What are you planning, Keiji?” you say to yourself as you head back home.

…

Evening time came faster than you would’ve anticipated. You didn’t know why you were so nervous. You’ve gone out with Keiji before. So why does this feel different from the previous times? “What is this I’m feeling for you, Akaashi?”You say as you finish getting ready. You’re gathering your things when you hear the front door open.

You look back and notice Keiji.

“Ready to go?” he asks.

You nod as you grab your jacket and your purse.

…

On the way to this secret location Akaashi spoke of. Neither one of you spoke during the entire car ride. There was this one time you glanced at him and noticed his face was a blushed red. Was he nervous? Trying not to overthink this, you go back to look at the buildings that passed as Keiji drove you guys to this secret destination.

You didn’t know how long you stared at the buildings passing by. It must’ve been a while because before you knew it, you passed out. Akaashi noticed you were asleep from his side view. Even in your sleepy state, you look so beautiful to him. Trying not to scare your tired self, Keiji gently rubs your shoulder to wake you up.

“Wake up, sleepyhead were here,” Keiji says.

“ I don’t remember falling asleep,” you say while rubbing the back of your neck.

“Must’ve been tired y/n,” He says.

You removed your seat belt and got out of the car. From a distance, you notice the ocean. Akaashi made his way to you with a picnic basket and a blanket at hand.

“Ready to go?” he says.

You nod and take the blanket that was on top of the basket. It doesn’t take too long to find a place to set up this picnic. You put the blanket on the ground as Akaashi takes out the fresh onigiris along with two cups and a bottle of sake. You thank him for the food as you grab an onigiri and take a massive bite out of it.

“Hungry much?” Akaashi says while smiling at you.

“Very, I forgot to eat lunch today,” you said as you sip on the sake that’s in your cup.

“I went to see bff/n today,” you whispered while you gulped sake from your cup.

“Bokuto was right; she was pregnant and didn’t deny the baby being Atsumu’s.” You look up from your cup to take the ocean view. There was a time when you and Atsumu had tried to conceive but never succeeded. All hope shattered when your gynecologist told you that you’d never be able to become pregnant. Tears began running down your face. The pain and the reminder that you’ll never have children still lingers in your heart.

“I envy bff/n,” you said while you continued with.

“ I hate that she became someone I never will be.” you pour more sake into your cup; instead of taking sips like you were doing, you decide to chug the whole cup in one go.

Akaashi removes the distance between the both of you. He pulls you in his arms and holds you there while you begin to cry. Having him embrace you in his arms brought a comfort you thought you only felt with Atsumu. Being with Keiji gave you a sense of peace, something your mind would not let you feel when you were alone. He can quickly shut down all those negative thoughts that plagued your head.

Spending your time with Akaashi became a routine. At first, you’d only hang out with him and Bokuto so you wouldn’t be left alone with your thoughts, but as time flew by, you began to look forward to seeing Keiji the next day. Every day began and ended with him. You hated when you had to say goodbye, you couldn’t stand a minute without wanting his presence around you. You were so accustomed to having him around that it felt strange when the two of you weren’t together.

Were you really that oblivious towards your feelings for Akaashi? Why did it take you so long to figure out that what you’re feeling for Keiji is more than just friends? Feelings you thought you’d never feel again came right back when he made eye contact with you. Those blue eyes are like portals to another dimension. It’s so easy to get lost in them, especially when they stare at you in adoration, waiting to worship your every move. You wanted nothing more than to look into Keiji’s eyes for the rest of your life.

“I think I’m in love,” you said in a whisper, loud enough for Akaashi to hear.

“ You think you’re in love?” Akaashi asks.

“Yes,” you said as you made contact with him once again.

Akaashi’s mood shifted when he heard that you were in love. You never mentioned seeing anyone. You spent most of your time with him. It hurt him to think he’s going to lose you. Tonight was the night he was finally going to confess his feelings for you. He’s been in love with you for a long time, but making you happy came above all, and that includes his feelings for you.

“I’m happy for you, y/n. When do I get to meet them?” Keiji says as he gives you a sad smile.

“Them?” you said in a confused tone.

“Yes, when do I get to meet this person you fell in love with?” He says.

You can’t help but burst out laughing. You thought Keiji caught on to you confessing to him, but instead, he thinks you love someone else. Keiji was confused as to why you were laughing.

“What is so funny?” He asks.

You try to calm your laughter as you sit up and adjust yourself to look at Akaashi.

“Keiji, you didn’t let me finish my sentence,” you continued by saying.

“ What I meant to say was that I think I’m in love with you.”

He never thought in a million years that the woman he fell in love with months ago would reciprocate his feelings back. There are tears in his eyes as he stared into your own. He’s speechless. Keiji can’t get a word to come out of his mouth.

“Keiji, Are you okay,” you ask in a worried tone.

He doesn’t say anything; instead, he pulls you in for a kiss. Keiji’s lips were soft and tasted sweet even though he had been drinking sake. Ever the gentleman, the kiss was slow yet passionate. His mouth was trying to show you what his words couldn’t say. It’s like he wanted you to know that he felt the same way with each kiss he planted on your neck. You don’t want these moments to end, but your lungs betray you from the lack of oxygen they have been deprived of.

You pull away to look back at Akaashi. His hand rested on top of yours while the other was caressing your cold face. He promised to himself that he’d never take you for granted, and he’d become a man worthy of you. As you both look into the night sky, Keiji thanked whoever was out there in the universe, for allowing him to make you happy.

He takes his eyes off the night sky to focus on you. Your eyes shine brighter than the illuminated sky. The sparkle in your eyes could make the stars jealous. He knew how he felt and he had to tell you, so he spoke up and said.

“Hey,y/n?”

“Yes, Keiji.”

“I’m in love with you.”

...

That’s all for now folks!! Just kidding! I’ll be writing the epilogue soon. For now I’m taking a break from this story to work on a new one! Thank you so much all for taking your time of day to read my story!

Summary:

L/N F/N a young adult working on their first ever book with the help of editor and friend (Akaashi). Discovers that their husband has been cheating on them for the past few months that they’ve  been working nonstop. Heartbroken y/n decides to drown herself in their work. Will they be able to Forgive their cheating husband from his infidelity or will they approach the man who fell in love with them while working on their book?

© All fiction rights of the story belong to @nintendousimp​

Characters belong to the Haruichi Furudate.

taglist: @h0wab0utw3d0ntd0that​, @brnda7rdrgz , @tsukkiswifeey,

[wychive]

𝙪𝙣𝙨𝙥𝙤𝙠𝙚𝙣 𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙙𝙨

summary // you found your pile of ‘letters’ to hyunjin that contain thoughts that have never been said and decided to write to him one last time.

pairing(s) // hyunjin x gn!reader, hyunjin x oc, slight minho x reader

genre(s) // angst, letter fic 

warning(s) // mentions of food, themes of being forgotten, vulgar wording, humiliation, overthinking

word count // 2.0k

author's note // happy birthday @noya-sannnn​ !! im sorry this was so late hhh you know how i am irl,, but i hope you enjoy this! i love you so much, jane <3 i apologize for the many grammar mistakes gn. i recommend listening to iu’s ending scene while reading this! btw y/n/n means your nickname.

[10/01/14, 3:55am]

dear jinnie,

hi there! it's y/n <3 i hope you're doing okay - i mean of course you are pfft anyways, just writing this short letter (more like paragraph)  sort of as a venting mechanism? for things i cant tell you about lol  im not so sure how you would call it, since you're so much better at words than i am. basically were like:

hyunjin: ow a brain freeze!

me: haha brain go brrrr

anyways haha yea <3 it's 4am so like,, ill see you at school!

signed,

your loser,

y/n/n

[15/02/14, 12:34am]

yo heartthrob!

im back with this kinda stuff haha it's been a whole? week? since ive written one of these so like yes..hi! i just wanted to say thanks, for today. you really know how to cheer me up huh? you really outdid yourself by setting up that little picnic for us. congrats on making the strawberry cake so perfectly <3 this day will always stay as a core memory in the back of my brain. you're too caring sometimes,,, istg you'll pay for this [maybe hugs?] >:) 

signed,

your partner in crime,

y/n/n

[30/02/15, 01:29am]

jinnie-senpai~~

LMAO you hate me calling you that, doesn't change a thing though. hehe,, nways i hope you enjoyed your birthday present :) i got you that really cool skateboard that you wanted. i worked my ass off for that in my mother's garden so like,, you gotta thank me for that a thousand times :D nah jk, its a sincere gift, from me to you. i rarely do this for ANYONE so consider yourself lucky to have a best friend like me -3- also, seungmin is like….kinda the cutest person ever. introduce me to him pls, thank!

signed,

<your bestest friend3,

y/n

(p.s. you're kinda cute too,,,, ig,,, still stinkee tho)

[13/04/15, 9:04pm]

hey 'baby' (HAHAHA ihy for this)

i hope your day was okay! i didn't see much of you today (which was sort of a bummer but wtv) so like…. uh yea. you told me you were doing okay over text, which kinda surprised me because like?? we always video call lol this is kinda the first time,, but its okay, i trust you! (i really hope youre doing alright tho, i'll beat anyone up if they make you sad >:( ) you also called me 'sweetheart' today which was like…. omg wtf haha????????? that was so weird to me for some reason… a good kind of weird :D we haven't done those kinds of nicknames in a while so…. happy to know that they're back in session <3 i talked to the new girl today, she's really cool! like she knows the bean song on tiktok so like its a total win heh, ill introduce you to her tomorrow! you'll love her a lot

signed,

your 'lover',

y/n/n

[08/06/16, 10:23pm]

hey howl (hehe go back to that movie night we had)

this spring break sucks so much,, esp because youre not here (you still couldve brought me along :'[ ) but wtv i hope youre enjoying yourself. ive been hanging out with yeonnie lately and i found out she likes conan grey too like pls i love her sm. can we adopt her?? please???? she told me you guys have been video calling too and that makes me so happy!! you two are getting along so well aaa my precious babies </3 

what if you developed a crush on her? haha…..jk unless?? (no jk dont shes all mine, stay away >:) ) anyways, i hope the three of us hang out soon. maybe go to that ice cream parlour where they serve the best cookies and cream?  

signed,

your daisy,

y/n/n

[19/07/15, 01:23am]

peepee poopoo hello

heyheyhey!! (heh, haikyuu thingz) i hope youre doing okay! i mean sure you are, with everything going so well. also i feel like you're not telling me something. maybe it's just me? is it? i hope it is because you tell me everything,, we've been talking less these days but its okay! i know how busy you are, especially with your dad always bugging you,,

also, i think yeonbin likes you :0,, she keeps talking about you whenever we hang out. don't get me wrong, its not bad that she likes you but...something doesn't feel right. i feel like i'm being the third wheeler here and like ugh idk. haha laughs yea i think its just me.. im sorry, i didnt mean to do you like this,, anyways, ill see you soon + her too ofc- yall are inseparable lmao

signed,

your moonlight,

y/n/n

[23/07/15, 01:56am]

greetings, kind sir

lol more like mean sir but like aight KSKSK,, anyways,, how have you been? we haven't really talked in a while,, our convos are always so short with it being one-sided :/ i wish you were online more. yeonnie is ignoring me,, do you know why? i think you do,,, but when i asked you just said you didnt know. did i do something wrong? pls tell me.. 

she blocked my contact the other day and she won't even smile at me when i pass her in the hallways. its,, sad and stressful especially because she was the only one that would genuinely talk to me. i hate to say this,, but i miss you. us, hanging out like the best trio we are, yknow? but i dont think you miss me the same way. sorry, im getting out of hand. i know im just overreacting. im just gonna sleep ig,, good night! sweet dreams,,

signed,

your pink lemonade,

y/n/n

[25/07/15, 03:25am]

hi there

i heard you and her got together?? congrats, jinnie! im so proud of you,, especially because you never had even considered getting a girlfriend a few months earlier lmaO you really woo the ladies huh? anyways,, i hope you've been well since we last talked,, how many days has it been?? i would say nearly a week or so but honestly it feels like a hundred years,, considering you and i used to talk every day. but you have her now to keep you company.

keep this a secret but can you possibly tell me why it hurts when i see her? or when i mention her or even think of her?? is it because she's connected to you? but.. you're my best friend, so why? is it because i miss you? is it because im alone now? is it because you left me with a simple 'i have to go now,, bye y/n/n.'? im not sure either. im being silly, i apologize. ill figure it out sooner or later. sweet dreams, jinnie

signed,

your asswipe,

y/n

[25/07/15, 04:30am]

jinnie

it's because i love you. 

signed,

your butterfly,

y/n

[??/08/??, 05:??am]

you

i miss your lame jokes. i miss your smile. i miss your laughs. i miss your funny faces. i miss the way your eyes twinkle. i miss th way you would make me happy just by doing the bare minimum. i miss the disaster you made when cooking breakfast. i miss the night when you snuck me out just to go to that pretty lantern event. i miss when you would call out my name everytime we met. i miss when we would share earbuds in train rides. dont you get it, hyunjin? i miss you.

[??/??/15, ??:??am]

asshole.

please tell me that isn't true, please. you're too kind to do these kinds of things, right? + i was your best friend,, then, why, why did you hurt me like this. i didnt do anything wrong.. you couldve just told me you didnt like me,,, why did she have to tell me? out of all people. 

youre so pathetic for this,, i thought you were brave, bold - but youre just a fucking coward. i loved you, i really did. and i realised too late… im sorry. she,, i shouldn't have talked to her in the first place, right? i bet you knew she humiliated me, in front of everyone. of course you did, you were the only one that knew. you told her. fuck, i hate you so much (yet why do i long for you on a night like this?). you know how much that'll affect me and yet, there you are, laughing about it with her.

signed,

fuck off,

you know who i am.

[31/08/15, 03:41am]

ah, jinnie

please tell me this is just a nightmare. please, please. stop just reading my texts, please answer them. jinnie. i miss you so much. i dont care bout her, please just let me be in your arms. i dont care if you love me back, please just talk to me at least. tell me what i did wrong,, jinnie,, please,,, clear these tear stains on my cheek with kisses.

signed,

your fuck-up,

y/n

[15/09/15, 04:59am]

jinnie

why do i keep crying because of you? its been a few weeks since everything has happened. please, nothing has changed. i still love you the same even with all the hatred i have pent up in this stupid brain of mine. i wish i could just walk back in time, to where it all began.

when i first met you in third grade and you pushed me while playing soccer or maybe when we took those ridiculous prom pictures, remember those? i hope you still have them,, because i do too. i hope the pictures of us on your wall still hang there,, it'll remind you of the happy times. hm,, maybe you don't need them. 

you already have millions of pictures with you and her,, i bet you printed some and replaced those with ours right? sly dog. 

signed,

friend,

y/n/n

[04/02/16, 12:57am]

hey

i went to the park today and saw both of you being happy. it's nice to see your smile again. im sorry i didnt go up to you,, i just thought it would be awkward. when i heard that adorable laugh of yours, it made me realise that i lost something special. but it's okay isnt it? as your happiness matters more than mine. 

signed,

y/n

[06/01/20, 08:00pm]

dear hyunjin,

im doing fine here. how about you? gosh,, how long has it been? years? since we last talked to each other. i havent heard from you since. i would just like to say i still think of you sometimes, when watering the plants or dancing while making pancakes. sometimes i think you're here with me too, just being the pals we were. 

sometimes i'd see you out, just reading a book in the park or buying pasta sauce at the grocery store. it's nice to see you having a stable life. im not sure if you're still with her or not, but its good to know that you still have that large friend group. also! you're never gonna guess who im dating--

it's minho! do you remember him? the one that i used to hate,, uh yeah. he asked me out the other day- you may wonder how tf,,, i too do not know how tf but he gives the best hugs ever. he gave me the love i wanted from you. he stitched my heart back together after it broke,, i love him so much, jinnie..

it's snowing,, do you remember when we would skate on the frozen lake in front of your house? are your parents well? i wonder if your mother still has those earrings i bought for her birthday. i never told you this but your laugh and hers sound so similar. 

i would just like to say thank you, for everything. you were a big part of my life, up until now. when we see each other after this, we would just be strangers. maybe flash a little smile or give a little wave whenever we greet each other but nothing more. some memories of us would flow in every now and then but it'll just be a short teaser. well, i'll be going now. smile for me, okay?

signed,

the one that loved you the most,

y/n.

taglist // @/noya-sannnn, @crvgio​ , @neo-shitty​

reply to be in my gen taglist!

[everyhowlmarksthedead]

“IT WORTH IT”

Ezequiel “Ez” Reyes x Coco's sister!reader

Anon asked: if it’s okay for you could you write a ez Reyes x coco’s sister!reader ?

Word count: 1.8k

Warnings: soft physical abuse and smut.

Author comments: I hope you all enjoy. English isn’t my first language, I’m sorry if I have some mistakes with grammar. The gif isn't mine.

Thanks to my lovely @starrynite7114 for helping me reading it before posting, looking for mistakes.

Tag list: @starrynite7114 @chibsytelford @dazzledamazon @mara-mpou 💥 (if you wanna be tagged, send me a message!)

When Coco founds you and told you he killed your mother, you started to laugh uncontrollably. You couldn’t believe it was true. That bitch, and never better said, forced you to ‘work on the streets’. Besides, every dollar you earned, she kept it. Your brother had a serious gesture in his face, telling you without words that he wasn’t joking. Your eyes started to cover in tears, setting up a knot in your chest. Hell was over. You hugged him, putting your arms around his waist, letting all the pain out of your body. Took some seconds to Johnny to do the same, holding you in his arms next to his body. It was time to go back home.

You slept non-stop for the next two days, getting up off the bed only when you were needing to eat something or go to the bathroom. Coco took care of everything. He paid the debts your mother left in your name and also gave you some money to buy decent clothes to wear. While Letti was recovering her life too, going to high-school as a girl of her age, your brother found you a new job. It wasn’t your favorite thing on earth, but it was a decent job.

Felipe was Angel and EZ’s father. An old man with a strange past, like Coco said, who needed some help with his carnicería. From Monday to Thursday, he hired you to serve the customers in the morning. At first, you thought that could be boring, but that man was really funny, kind, and intelligent. When everything was calmed and there wasn't any client to attend, he used to talk to you about books and the kind of poetry his deceased wife loved. An old and wise man who understood that you were forced to destroy your life, and now you were looking for a second chance.

After some months working there, Felipe trusted you more than his children and for that he asked you to close the shop Friday night. You didn’t asked, you never did and you’ll never do.

It’s almost ten when the last customer left the place, closing and locking the door, sighing as you did. You leave the apron hanging in the wall coat rack, before washing your hands with soap and disinfectant. Then, you’re ready to count the money and keep it safe in the warehouse. You write down in the notebook an orders summary of the day and how much was the total, as your boss showed you to close the day. After leaving everything clean and changing your clothes, you go out through the back door to the alley, locking it with the keys he gave you. Coco told you to go to the MC where they’re having a party, but the only thing you wanna do is go home, eat something, watch a movie and sleep.

You walk down the empty avenue with hands inside your pocket and your eyes looking straight ahead, but you’re not paying attention to anything that is happening around you, thinking in your own business. Because of that, you don’t see it coming. Long fingers grab your hair, pulling you back. The scream, that you utter falling down to the floor, finishes when your head hits it. A sharp beep settles in your ears, when you see blurry. A man lays on top of you and starts to punch you. One fist goes to your cheek making it burn in pain. You try to set yourself free, moving desperately behind him. The second fist goes to your mouth, breaking your inner lip and leaving the metallic taste of blood runs down by your throat. It hurts. It hurts too much. You ask for help, but you know how Santo Padre works. If a chulo is hitting one of his bitches, anybody is gonna separate him from you. But you’re not that shit anymore. And you try to fight.

When you’re pretty sure the third fist is gonna leave you knocked out, the arm stops raising in the air. Coco is there. Angel, Gilly, Creeper and EZ too. The youngest Reyes helps you to get up, wrapping in his strong arms guiding you to his bike. The guys are fucking up the man that dared to mess with you, after being paid with a huge amount of money. You’re crying harder, hiding your face against EZ’s chest till he makes you sit on his motorbike.

“Hey, hey… Look at me.” He took your cheeks between his big hands, having a look of your face to know if you’re okay. But they’re not gonna bring you to the hospital, they’re gonna take care of you by themselves. He hugged you again in the warmest way, giving you a kiss on top of the head, before Coco could walk next to you. He kisses you too, feeling protected when the men stuck around you.

“Probably will send some of his men tomorrow.” Creeper said looking at the guy laying on the ground unconscious.

“Eh, boy scout, could she stay with ya’ tonig’? She will be safe in the roulotte, near the ' ‘clubhouse”. Coco doesn’t want him to do it, he wants to protect you. But Johnny knows he must burn the fucking place where that man locked you once.

“I’ll take care of her. Rest is yours”. EZ nodded, helping you to fasten the helmet, before driving away.

He presses the wet cotton in alcohol against your inner lip, after cleaning the blood that was running through your jaw and neck. He’s doing it softly without wanting to hurt you more, while you're holding a bag of frozen peas on your check. The pain is fading, but you know well that tomorrow you’re gonna have some bruises in your face. EZ is very concentrated in his task, doing it slowly till seems better.

“I’m sorry”. You finally say with your eyes down, trying not to cry again.

“Why?” He looks confused, putting apart the cotton. He gets up off the small bed to bring you some water.

“You were having fun, I just… I ruined it”.

“No, you didn’t, (Y/N)”. He shakes his head, taking a seat in front of you, more close than you can really notice. “Coco thinks that should be fun if you come with us and Letti. And Angel was worried about you closing the shop alone. He wasn’t wrong.”

EZ simply shrugs. He knows you. He knows you well, ‘cause the time he isn’t with the MC, he visits you and his father in the carnicería. He also is always recommending you books to read in your free time, to talk about them after you finish them. He was kind to you since you met him, everybody is, but he does the most. So, you’re not sure when you decided it was a good idea to kiss him. But there you are with your hands supported in his knees, pressing your lips against his. At first, he can’t react, keeping his eyes open. And you’re about to put yourself away when he pushes you into him with his hands on your waist. Sitting on his lap, the kiss goes deep. Even the pain in your mouth doesn’t stop you to receive his curious tongue looking for yours. It feels good. It’s not your first one, but it’s the first time you do it ‘cause you want it without being forced.

As the seconds go by, it gets more passionate and needy. You two have been avoiding it because of Coco, but you’re about to die or something worse. His hands run over your hips, your back and your breast, letting him strain a hand under your dress looking for your panties. When he slices it down your legs, the next move is put down the zipper. He's hard, more than you could feel when your hips were dancing on top of him seconds ago. You do when he rams you without expecting it. Your groan meets his roar in your pressed lips against his. He doesn't make another move, waiting to you to feel comfortable with his hardness invading your narrowness. It's not your first time, he knows. But it's been a long time since your last and, of course, it's not the same.

You want please EZ and he wanna do you the same. Maybe it's not about love or maybe it is. But you two feel the desire running in your veins. And you want to do it before Coco arrives and kills you both. You start to move your hips, from up to down, slowly. Enjoying for the first time with your hands on his nape and his on your waist. You move faster according to, to feel more pleasure, forehead against forehead, with his light brown eyes on yours to not miss a single detail. He loved the way you whispered his name, moaning against his lips, once and again.

“You like it… uh?” He asks in a whisper, knowing what he is referring to.

“Ye-Yes. I really do, EZ”. You nod with your chin before get kissed slowly than the moves of your hips do by inertia.

The youngest Reyes smiles softly, feeling how the heat begins to focus in his cock. He doesn't know how he should ask you, but you were with more men that you wanna remember and you feel it. No words needed. You want him to do it, so pull him out it's not an option. Moving faster, your moans meets again, you can't avoid it. Both are sweating and you're tongues are fighting inside his mouth. Feels so good. And you think you can touch the sky when he finally cums inside you, with a fury roar drowned in his throat. Your orgasm comes too a few seconds later with his full name going out your lips.

The only things that break the silence inside the roulotte are your heavy breathing and some complicit laughs.

“Do you... know is the first time someone… ‘do it’? You whisper with a low tone in your voice, trying to make him know that never before anyone cum inside you, nor make you come to an orgasm.

His proud smile appears from nowhere, giving you some short kisses without moving an inch.

“When I get the patch, I'll ask Coco for you”. He confesses laying his back against the wall to have a better view of you. “Will you wait for me?”

It's a question you don't expect. At least, not in a moment like this. But, yes. You're going to wait as long as it takes.

[topsytervy]

Book Lovers ~ Pope Heyward

Blurb: You have a crush on Pope and Pope has a crush on you. Your love for books brings you together.

Word Count: 3,376

Warnings: swearing, poorly written towards the end cause I'm bad at ending writings, probably spelling/grammar errors, I think thats it.

I started writing this as a whole bond over books thing and then it kind of got away from that a bit but not really I don't think.

Also, the way i was going back and forth between writing this and something Calum Hood related cause its his birthday and I love him was insane.

~~~~~~

You sat on the beach on a towel, a book in hand as the sounds of screams and waves filled the air.

Not too far away sat Pope, staring at you as JJ, John B and Kie surfed. He watched as you brushed some hair behind your ear before turning the page, completely engrossed by whatever it was you were reading. 

"Are you serious?" Pope jumped as his head swiveled to look at the voice that spoke.

Kie stood there, surfboard under her arm with an eyebrow raised, the two other boys behind her.

"What?" Pope shrugged, acting as casual as he could.

"Really? Playing dumb Pope? Thats JJ's job." She answered, setting down her board and sitting next to him.

"I take some offense to that, Kie." JJ told her which only caused the curly-haired girl to roll her eyes.

"Just go talk to her, Pope."

Pope widened his eyes. "Are you crazy, Kie?"

"If talking to someone you like is crazy then have me committed but last time I checked it was normal." 

"What would I even talk to her about?" 

"Oh, I don't know. She's only reading a book. Gosh if only you read." Kie told him, sarcasm dripping from her voice.

Pope sighed before getting up. 

"Go get 'em, tiger." John B grinned as him and JJ took a seat next to Kie, watching as Pope made his way over.

He was about halfway to you before he turned around and walked back, shaking his head. "I can't do it. It's rude to interrupt someone's reading ya know. That and Toppers walking towards her." 

JJ scoffed. "Really, man. Toppers got nothing on you. Besides, I'm pretty sure they're just friends."

"Oh quite the opposite, JJ. He's got money and a way nicer boat." 

John B shot Pope a look. "How dare you insult the HMS Pogue like that."

"You know what I mean. He can buy her literally anything she asks for." 

"Okay. So he's got money and a nice boat. That means he's trying to compensate for something. Any guesses as to what that is?" Kie stared at Pope.

JJ grinned, deciding to answer for his best friend. "His di-"

"Personality, JJ" Kie cut off the blonde. "What he lacks in personality, he makes up for with money. Topper is boring as hell. He doesn't know the meaning of excitement and adventure. You do. I'm sure you have way more in common with her than Topper does." 

Pope took one last look at you, book open but ignored as Topper chatted with you. You just smiled and nodded before standing up and gathering your things, waving a small goodbye to Topper as you did. 

You glanced over and saw the Pogues watching you so you brought up your hand and sent them a small wave, blushing when Pope smiled and waved back at you.

The next time Pope saw you was at the library. He was getting a couple of books for a paper he had to write and you were there, scanning the shelves, trying to figure out what book you wanted to read next.

Pope had looked over and froze when he saw you just a few feet away from him, fingers ghosting over the spines of books as you read the titles. 

You had agreed to ride with Kelce to the library considering he needed a specific book to read and you needed a new book to read. You chewed on your lip, focusing on each one before pulling one out that caught your eye, reading the blurb before ultimately deciding that you didn’t want to read that one now. 

Pope took a deep breath before scanning the titles himself, attempting to find one that he had already read that he thought you would enjoy. He finally found one and grabbed it, walking over to you.

"Having troubles?" He asked.

You jumped slightly before looking at him. "Little bit. It's hard to find which one to read next, ya know."

Pope nodded before handing you the book. "You might like this one. I read it and could hardly put it down. It's definitely on my list of books to own." 

You took it with a smile. "Thanks."

 "It's no biggie." Pope shrugged. 

You smiled again before walking backwards towards the checkout counter. "I'll see you around, Pope." 

Pope grinned at the fact that you knew his name. "I hope so, Y/N."

You blushed slightly before turning around, meeting up with Kelce who immediately noticed your reddened cheeks.

"What's going on over here, Y/N/N?" He asked, pointing to his own cheeks.

"Nothing." You mumbled, placing your book and library card on the counter. 

Kelce looked around, trying to spot who was making his best friend blush before shrugging.

Later that night, you and Kelce were sitting on his living room floor with Rafe and Topper, a board game set out in front of the boys as you read your book and listened to their conversation. 

"Topper, St.Louis is not the capital of Illinois." Rafe said for what felt like the hundredth time. 

"What are you talking about? Yes it is!" 

Kelce took a deep breath before looking at Topper. "Top, sweetie, if you think St.Louis is the capital of Illinois, then what's the capital of Missouri?"

"Boise?"

You peered over your book with a blank look on your face, Kelce and Rafe having the same look on theirs.

"Come on guys, you know I'm bad at geography." Topper whined.

"I think," Rafe started, looking at Kelce, "We need to bust out that Sequence state capital game from second grade."

"I think I lost a brain cell during this conversation," Kelce rubbed his temples.

"Good thing you're not playing fucking jeopardy or you'd really be screwed, Top." You said.

Topper turned his attention to you. "Not all of us are book smart, Y/L/N." Topper leaned over to look at the page before squinting. "Whatcha reading that's better than playing a game with us, anyway?" 

You held up the book enough so they could read the title and Rafe raised an eyebrow. "Where'd ya find that one?"

"Someone recommended it to me." You blushed a little at the interaction with Pope earlier that day.

"Oh ho ho. That is the same blush you had at the library. You like this person." Kelce pointed.

"Shut up, Kelc."

"Wait. She was blushing? Oh snap."

"Spill the name, Y/N."

You rolled your eyes at your friends before replying. "I don't have to tell you three anything."

"Come on. If you're not gonna tell us then how will we tease you?" Rafe whined.

"That's exactly why I'm not gonna tell you. You'll just tease me and then whenever he's around, you'll act all juvenile."

Topper looked at the two boys before turning towards you. "If we promise that we will keep the teasing to a minimum when he's not around and that we act mature about this, will you tell us?"

You bit your lip before hesitantly nodding. Rafe, Topper and Kelce's eyes widened, eager to hear the name about to come out of your mouth.

You sighed, bookmarking your page. "His name is Marcel. He wears glasses and wears a sweater vest. A bit on the awkward side but very sweet."

Kelce and Topper shot each other confused glances, never having heard that name before. Rafe, on the other hand, cocked his head to the side with an unamused look and a 'really'.

"You know this Marcel, Cameron?" Topper asked.

"Yeah. If you watch the Best Song Ever music video, you'll meet him. I do have two sisters, remember." He answered.

You shrugged. "Worth a shot."

"Come on, Y/L/N. Just give us the name." 

You held up your hands in surrender. "Okay, okay." Your three friends leaned forward, staying quiet with raised eyebrows. "Pope Heyward." 

"Oh my God," Topper breathed.

"Can we not do the usual 'traitor' bullshit please? I feel like my mom is already going to have a fit."

"What makes you think we'd do that?" 

You shot each of them a look before standing up. "I gotta get going. You guys have fun and Topper," you looked at the blonde, "learn your damn capitals."

And then you were out the door.

****

Pope walked into The Wreck a few days later and spotted you in the corner, book in hand while you ate your food. Pope was so focused on you that he didn't even notice Kie appear next to him with a water pitcher in her hand.

"You gonna stand there all day or you gonna sit down with her and start up a conversation."

Pope whipped his head to look at his friend before shrugging. "I guess I could but sh-"

"She's reading and its rude to interrupt someone whos reading. I know." Kie rolled her eyes before walking over to your table.

He saw you smile at Kie and greet her before nodding. You looked past Kie and saw Pope. You grinned and waved him over which Pope happily did, taking a seat across from you.

"Want anything Pope?" Kie asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Just get me the usual." 

Kie smiled before walking away towards the back.

"I finished that book you recommended to me last night and I was speechless. The ending was...wow." You leaned back in your chair, taking a drink of water. 

"I know right. That book made me want to read all his other works and they're all just so amazing." Pope grinned.

"His writing is so poetic that I was surprised I wasn't reading an actual poem."

"Exactly. He's such a good writer."

You two talked for hours about different authors and books you guys liked, eventually both of you started writing down names of books and authors for the other to check out.

"How long have they been like that?" John B asked, JJ sitting beside him along with the kook boys who joined them unexpectedly with no hassle whatsoever. 

"Lets see. You five have been here for 45 minutes to an hour, Pope showed up a couple of hours before you. So...almost four." Kie smiled before scurrying off to wait on another table.

"Four what? Hours?" JJ asked. 

"Yes, dumbass." Rafe rolled his eyes before turning his attention back to the table where you sat with Pope.

"They both look so happy." Topper commented.

"Because they are. They're in love." Kelce sighed with a dopey smile on his face, resting his head against his hand.

"Aren't they a little young for love?" John B raised an eyebrow.

Kelce shot him a look which caused John B to raise his hand in surrender. 

"What do you think they're talking about?"

"They're both nerds. Take a guess."

JJ opened his mouth to object, offended on behalf of his best friend but John B stopped him. "No, no. He has a point."

You glanced at your watch before standing up, saying something to Pope who nodded, handing each other your phones. 

JJ smirked. "My boy is getting some." Rafe, Kelce, and Topper all turned to look at JJ, unamused with his words. "Or not."

*****

Pope shook his head. "No way. That is one of the dumbest and most cliche tropes ever." 

It was a week later and you and Pope sat at The Wreck again, having a conversation about whatever you recently read and now, apparently, your favorite and least favorite tropes.

"I have to disagree. Enemies to lovers has my heart." You responded, taking a bite out of your burger after you spoke.

"One bed and they have to share reigns supreme." Pope popped a fry into his mouth like that was the end of discussion. 

You held up your finger as you finished chewing before swallowing. "You have to have some love for the enemies to lovers trope then because a lot of enemies to lovers involve sharing a bed." You pointed out.

"What about friends to lovers? Hmm? Hmmm? That right there is practically gold and bed sharing comes into play." 

You rolled your eyes. "At some point, a friend likes another. I can tell you in confidence that I had a crush on Topper, Kelce, and Rafe at some point in our friendship. It was bound to happen because we hang out so much. Enemies to lovers though? Who willingly hangs out with their enemy? No one." 

Pope laughed. "Alright. Sure. Whatever." 

"Don't whatever me Pope. I'm right and you know I am." You laughed. 

Pope held his hands up in surrender.  "Sure. Whatever helps you sleep at night."

Kiara walked over to your table and you smiled. "Lets ask Kie."

"Ask me what?" Her eyes darted between you and Pope.

Pope turned to Kie. "I want you to be honest with me, Kie. Which trope is better? Best friends to lovers or enemies to lovers."

Kie blinked slowly as she spoke. "I was just coming here to ask if you need refills or anything else."

"This is more important. Best friends to lovers or enemies to lovers?" 

You both looked at the girl expectedly and she shrugged. "I'm more of a fake dating girl myself so neither."

"Or both." You raised your eyebrows.

"True. Enemies could fake date or friends could. Sounds like a both thing for me."

Kie just turned and walked away, shaking her head with a small smile. 

Your phone dinged and you looked down, seeing a text from your mom. "Thats my mother paging me." You sighed as you stood up. "This has been a fun date, Pope." 

"Date?" 

You felt your face heat up from embarrassment."Oh, was this...not- I shouldn't have assumed. I'm sorry."  

"No, it was. I just didn't think you'd think of it as one." Pope quickly said.

You smiled before kissing his cheek. "I'll talk to you later then.'

Pope blushed as he watched you walk away, paying for your half of the meal before exiting the building.

****

It's been a month since you and Pope became official. A lot of your dates were either study dates, beach dates, or dates that consisted of you two eating at The Wreck while discussing anything under the sun.

Pope was kind of scared when you asked him what he wanted to do for a living, considering everyone else thought it was weird but you were supportive.

"That's cool." 

Popes eyes widened in shock at your words. "Really? No 'why would you choose a coroner' or 'why the hell would you wanna work with dead bodies'?"

You shrugged as you stole one of the fries from his plate. "I think it's cool. It's a job not many people want but it's an important one." 

That was probably when Pope knew that he was in deep with you. The fact that you didn't judge the things he was passionate about and what he wanted to do. That just made him fall for you more and let him know that you were the perfect girl for him.

Now here you were, spending the weekend together in the best way.

You sat in Pope's living room, okay laid in Pope's living room, watching Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Pope had the house all to himself for the weekend and invited you over for a Harry Potter movie marathon since you two just finished rereading the entire series. 

So here you were, curled into your boyfriend's side with his arm draped over your shoulders, holding you closer if that was even possible. 

You sighed as Alan Rickman appeared on the screen. "I miss him."

Pope kissed the top of your head as he rubbed your arm. "I know, sweetheart. You say that everytime he pops up on screen."

"I can't help it. He was just such a good soul." 

Pope smiled, twirling some of your hair around his finger. He loved listening to you talk about things and people you were passionate about. The smile on your face whenever someone, usually him, brought up one of those topics was worth it and he could listen to your voice for hours on end, which usually happened when a topic of interest was brought up. 

"Are you even listening to me?" You'd ask, tapping his wrist.

"Every word."

You'd lean back and cross your arms, a smirk on your face as you raised one of your eyebrows. "Oh really?"

He'd nod before speaking. "You were saying how you think iced coffee is better than regular hot coffee."

You'd make an impressed face. "Are you going to say anything at any point in this conversation."

He'd pretend to think about it before shaking his head. "I'm good." 

You'd roll your eyes before purposely bringing up a topic that would cause him to talk some because just like him, you were obsessed with seeing his smile when he was interested in a topic and hearing his voice.

"Pope, did you hear me?" 

Pope blinked before shaking his head. "No. Sorry. I was spacing this time."

"I asked if you wanted to make stir fry tonight?" You laughed lightly at the space cadet you called a boyfriend.

Pope smiled and nodded. "Sounds great. I'll ask dad if we can raid the store for whatever we don't have." 

You both pulled out your phones, you to get the recipe and Pope to ask his dad if it was okay to take whatever was needed for dinner. 

You walked into the kitchen and started pulling out whatever you could find that was needed for the stir fry before writing down on a notepad what was left.

"We got the go ahead." Pope told you and you held up the notepad.

"Then let's go on an adventure." 

You two paused the movie and made your way down the street towards Heywards hand in hand.

"Have you ever seen the Percy Jackson movies?" You asked, genuinely curious if Pope had or not. Pope shook his head and you let out a laugh. "Oh boy. We might have to take a break from good ol' HP so you can watch them." 

"Why?" Pope swung your arms as looked at you.

"You might find them...interesting. That's all." You shrugged.

"Are they good?" 

You smiled up at him as you leaned your head on his arm. "You'll have to see."

Normally, you wouldn't recommend watching the movies to anyone but when it came to Pope, you wanted him to see it. You wanted to see him rant about all the differences and how bad this adaptation was. You wanted to see him get all flustered at the smallest details that the movies got wrong and complain about how this doesn't do the books any justice. 

"Are you setting me up?" A small smile sat on Pope's lips.

You placed a hand to your heart.  "Ouch Pope. That stings."

He just laughed before kissing your temple as you approached Heywards. Pope unlocked the door and you followed him inside, picking up the rest of your ingredients before walking over to the counter and pulling a 20 out of your pocket, sliding it under one of the boxes for Mr.Heyward to find.

"Really? You know my dad loves you right? Like you don't have to pay him for this stuff. He gave us the okay." Pope said.

You shrugged. "It's fine and it's only right. I mean, I'm taking things from his store. The least I can do is pay him." You turned to the security camera and waved before pointing to the box the cash was under and doing the hand signal for money.

"You do know he cant check the system from his phone right?" 

"Yeah but if he plays it back, he'll know and no one else will see the footage." You smiled before turning back to your boyfriend. "Ready?" You asked as you placed your things in a bag. 

Pope grabbed your hand and the bag as he nodded. "Lets get cooking." 

You laughed as you followed him back outside, waiting for him to lock the door before beginning the short journey back to his, the pair of you thinking about how lucky you were to have someone like the other.

~~~~~~

[rigelmejo]

march 3/15/2021

im trying to read through tae kim’s grammar guide right now because i’m officially further in the nukemarine LLJ  memrise decks (there’s tae kim grammar guide sections in there) than i am in actually reading the grammar guide. And obviously these example sentences in the memrise deck would teach me more if i CLEARLY understood why they’re like how they are. which i... need to read the grammar guide section to understand lol.

my goal rn with japanese is? to get further in the nukemarine LLJ decks than i did last time. I’ve already mildly accomplished that (have done officially MORE of the tae kim section than before, have NOT redone the 190 common words i did last time i did this though). there are about 400 more cards in this tae kim section (LLJ 4) and then 1000ish cards in the common word section (LLJ 5). I would love to get them done. 

it would be sweet if i could get them done before April 22?/24? whenever Nier Replicant comes out because then I could play that baby in english and japanese! Then Nier Automata! ToT The Entire thing that kicked me back into wanting to study japanese was my old love for certain video games and desperately wanting to know what their stories/characters are like before translation/localization. So it would be cool if I could play them a little ;-; or at least check out lets plays. 

(which, checking out the kh2 lets play has been going pretty well so far... also that part where namine says “we aren’t meant to exist” and roxas says “how could you say such a thing? even if it were true” he says in japanese like “thats brutal/harsh to say. even if its true.” ...great to know that line is equally raw and heartbreaking in japanese lol. KH2′s localization did real good on like equal vibe to original just like ‘less nuanced’ if that makes sense. also thanks to the chinese hanzi i know now watching the KH2 lets play means i can figure out a lot of noun’s writing even though i don’t catch the pronunciation... also i’m catching a lot of words that mean like ‘beautiful/good’ as in like ‘great move’ and ‘dang’ lol.)

i had to stop myself from redoing the chinese flashcards i’ve done in the past! because i get ‘into a zone’ lol. And i really don’t need to waste time redoing those 2000 cards. i also needed to stop myself from doing the hsk 5-6 cards. because realistically? i know half of them, i should just set a lot to ‘ignore’ on the computer but im too lazy, and i’m learning a lot of vocab from reading right now. i don’t need hsk words to pass any test. The words i’m learning right now in reading are a lot more applicable to the actual shows i watch/things i listen to/things i read. its more useful to me to keep reading. and also to not sidetrack my japanese lol. i have read... 39 chapters this month... this month is only half over! hanshe is truly motivating ToT it also helps the story CONSTANTLY ends on cliffhangers so i keep clicking next chapter. who knows, maybe hanshe will help me kick up my reading speed. it already shaved off 10 minutes per 20 pages - now my 20 pages are down to 30 minutes to read, which is better than a few months ago. hanshe has 155 chapters so i HOPE it speeds up my reading lol.

hanshe is increasing my vocab though, its definitely noticeable over time. and hanshe has really good repetition of vocab which helps with learning and later the payoff means i never have to look up the word in future once its learned while it remains useful to me and i keep being reminded of it. after i get bored of hanshe OR i finish it, whichever comes first, its either back to a priest novel or into another pingxie fanfic written by hanshe’s author. The author did one fanfic that’s only 33 chapters so that would be NICE to do after this one lol ToT

summary of what’s turned out to be my studying methods this month:

Japanese:

reading through grammar guides (the one yue-muffin made and tae kim’s). so just grammar explanation reading.

doing nukemarine LLJ decks (in the ACTUAL order they are in the deck to completion - last time i did like 3 per time and never finished any lol. this is bolded because it’s the primary activity i’m prioritizing). so SRS flashcards. it’s working well right now because i can just put this activity in anytime i have downtime, like when i pause shows (since we know me i gotta take a break from a show every 20 minutes lol). i am bafflingly in a flashcard mood and i’m trying to take advantage of it while i got it. 

*when i feel like it: watching kh2 lets play. so some immersion where i look up words. (and when Nier Replicant remaster releases next month I’m likely to at least a tiny bit try to play it in japanese ToT lol we’ll see)

so grammar reading, srs flashcards covering some grammar/listening/reading/vocab, and some optional immersion.

(a note: i gave up on the japaneseaudiolessons for now because i got bored. its a great resource! i just don’t feel like it right now. and from an efficiency perspective, nukemarine LLJ decks cover vocab, grammar, audio, reading - so I don’t need another resource for that right now).

Chinese:

reading through hanshe. so immersion reading, intensive reading looking up unknown words. (unknown words are happening less so its getting less ‘intense’ lol)

listening to Chinese Spoonfed Audio. so listening to audio flashcards. for building up listening comprehension/repetition to pick up some more common words. (i’ve been doing this during daily walks making it much easier for me to consistently do, doing it mainly to supplement the Reading Heavy study i’m doing, i can drop this and pick it up later if i want since its mostly easy background listening)

*I am slowly rereading the grammar guide on www.chinese-grammar.com for explicit grammar clarification. but this is not a high priority, since I sort of implicitly understand a lot of this and i’m not working on fixing production mistakes yet. i just... miss knowing wtf is going on in the grammar lol.

*when i feel like it: Listening Reading The Glass Maiden/Love and Redemption Novel. I’ve done 2-3 hours of it this past week, but i don’t know when or if I’ll just stop. Thankfully l-r is beneficial somewhat even if i switch up books later. i WANT to L-R you have no idea (to Silent Reading and Guardian REALLY badly lol). But its so time intensive, and requires a lot of focus, and i have to really plan to do it for an hour at a time usually. I am so bad at doing stuff for that long consistently. I was in the mood earlier this week! ToT 

*when i feel like it: watching chinese shows raw. I was super in the mood this month because Word of Honor came out, and Killer and Healer came out, and Rattan came out, and I didn’t want to wait for subs. As a result I watched a LOT of raw episodes this month. However, english subs have caught up and since I’m lazy I’m inclined to just watch the subs - especially since youku ITSELF just put english subs on their most-ahead viewing schedule version of the eps on youku vip. so guess who’s buying youuku vip today? -3-)/ That said... even if I stop for a while, if Rattan subs move too slow I’ll probably watch those raw. And as SOON as 2ha’s drama Immortality drops I am highly likely to watch the raws for that since I likely won’t be able to wait. Watching shows is pretty highly dependent on how much I want to watch something and if subs take a while lol. 

so reading, and listening. and a little listening-reading method too. mainly just working on reading, listening, vocab acquisition. chinese is going good - for a few months now i’ve just had the plan ‘read often while looking up unknown words, and add some listening study activity when i have time.’ It’s simple, and its been working well.  later on down the road i’ll need some explicit grammar clarification again, but this is bare bones enough of a study plan at the moment. i’m clearly picking up words and phrases and hanzi at a reasonable pace. its not the Fastest obviously, but it is causing improvement over time and since i’m enjoying it i see no reason to change it up.

ending things

...who knows WHY i am so well focused this month with so much energy... tbh... i track how many chapters i read a month/audio i listen to/show episodes i watch etc, and this month is like as much as 3 other of my usual months combined. also my japanese has been basically ‘dabbling only’ prior to this month.

 although... maybe in part its how i’ve gotten better at reading hanshe? Reading being easier certainly motivates me TO read more. And watching shows was MUCH easier this month (still not ‘easy’ but following the main plot is) which definitely makes me Want to watch more. Also i am... unbelievably motivated by a challenge. I think i got it in my head that i ‘really want to do more of Nukemarine’s LLJ courses and see how much i understand after them’ and now... i really want them DONE. so maybe the current things motivating me will hold out for a while. 

(On the listening-reading front meanwhile, that activity takes SO much concentration its hard to do if i’m tired, BUT i have so many TRANSLATED novels i want to read recently and honestly its fun hearing the chinese narration and audiobook actors so like... i very much Want to do l-r so i can hear them as i read the translation... immovable object of me tired versus how much i’m interested in them lol ToT).

also thank u thank u @a-whump-muffin for sending me those lets plays because honestly it got me so excited again and its so cool to see them!!! <3 <3 and its so much easier to watch them versus committing to playing a whole game myself just yet ToT 

[bookishdiplodocus]

What happens after you get accepted by a publisher?

As some of you may know, I’m a professional editor who used to work as an in-house editor. I see many posts about how to query and stuff, but very little describing what happens after you sign the contract. Of course, this varies between publishing houses, but I’ve worked as an in-house editor in three publishing houses, and I will relate my experience with them.

I’m your primary contact person. I will send you the contract, signed by the publisher (my boss), and answer any questions you have before signing it and sending it back to me.

Then you probably won’t hear from me for a few weeks. I’m thoroughly reading through your manuscript, and usually simultaneously a few others as well. When I’m done, I will get back at you, to let you know if there’s any rewriting work to be done on your book. There usually is. In fact, over the years, I’ve only had one author whose book could be sent to the text editor straight away. So don’t take it as a bad sign.

Major rewritings can also happen before you sign your contract. This means we see your potential, and it’s big enough for me to invest my time in you (my salary costs money too), but you have to prove that you can rewrite it. See my other post on “What if your publisher asks for a complete rewrite” and some nuance and other nuance for more information on, well, complete rewrites.

I will never put you to work without helping you, and you can always call or email me if you’re stuck or if you don’t know what I want. In fact, I’d rather have you contact me than you trying to hide the fact that you will most probably miss your deadline.

After the rewrites have been done, what happens then? In the bigger publishing houses I worked at, a freelance editor corrects your grammar and spelling and stuff. They work on a sentence and word level. In the small publishing house, that was also done by me. That doesn’t change anything for you.

I will send you the manuscript with the corrections for you to approve. Usually, authors agree. If you don’t understand or don’t agree, just let me know and I can either explain it to you or see if you have a point.

Meanwhile, I will put the cover designer to work. I will tell them what kind of a book it is, which genre, which target audience. If I have ideas for similar covers they can use, I tell them as well, but usually I trust the designer to do their work. I think in words, they think in images. To each their strenght. If you have ideas for a cover, we will look at them. (But usually cover ideas by the author are not commercially interesting, and they end up liking the cover we designed better.)

I will send you some unfinished cover ideas, or sometimes the one cover we all agreed on. You usually have veto power, but authors rarely veto a cover (”It looks so real now!”) because our cover designers know their job ^-^ The cover needs to be approved by a lot of people: you, me, the publisher, the people from marketing, the salespeople... Negotiation about 14 conflicting opinions is part my job.

By now, you’re probably done with approving the corrections in your manuscript. I check it one last time and send it to the lay-out people.

The publisher decides on the format of your book (softcover/hardcover/fancy edition...), based on what is financially possible and commercially interesting.

The lay-out person sends me a sample, usually the first five pages. I print it to see if the font, margins, interline, readability... are okay. They usually are, and I give the lay-out person a “go!” to lay-out the entire book. A few hours later they send me your book in pdf.

I will now send it to a second freelance editor, whose job it is to check for typos and weird line breaks etc. They will send me their corrections and the lay-out person will take care of it.

I will send you your final, clean manuscript and you will beam with pride to see your book as a “real book”! ^-^ (Similar feelings as when I send you the first cover.)

I will have written a blurb, sometimes based on your query letter. Everyone who had to have an opinion on the cover will be consulted again for the blurb. I will send you the definitive version, but to be honest, in practice, you can’t change much about it, unless you have Good Reasons, because this is the version the 14-headed monster - I mean, committee of colleagues - agreed on.

The cover designer now makes a back and spine cover.

Now there is nothing else for you to approve, you’ve seen everything. I’ll send the covers and the text pdf to the printing house, confirm the publishing date and then we play the waiting game!

Next, my colleagues of the marketing devision can take over, or sometimes they take over earlier in the process, or sometimes they don’t consult you at all.

When your physical books arrive on my desk, you can be sure that I am as proud of you and your book as you are. After some happy unboxing and bothering my colleagues - “just LOOOK at this BABYYY!” - I will send you a few copies through the snail mail for you to unbox and bother people with. (At least, if this is stated in your contract. At the publishing houses I worked at, usually it said that an author gets 5 copies of each edition.)

We usually don’t organize and pay for a launch party, but if you want to have one, go ahead. For debutants, a launch party doesn’t help selling copies that wouldn’t have been sold anyway. Journalists don’t scour book launch parties, it’s usually the author’s friends and family who attend, and they were going to buy a copy anyway.

And then it’s time to keep your fingers crossed, hope for good sales, and start writing on your next book!

***

I hope this was helpful. Don’t hesitate to ask me any questions, and happy writing!

Follow me for more writing advice, or check out my other writing advice here. New topics to write advice about are also always welcome.

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[surveys-at-your-service]

Survey #337

“if i showed you my soul, would you cover your eyes?”

What's your favorite brand of chips? I like Lays best. Are you a good painter? My Painting teacher when I was in college last said I did wonderfully, but I definitely beg to differ. Before buying a car, do you usually test drive it? N/A Have you ever written a poem and then read it aloud? No, but a teacher has. It was so fucking awkward; it was very pacifist, the topic being about war, and it had some depressing tones of death; there was just silence at the end of it, and I still don't know if it was shock or "what the fuck, she's messed up." There was this one guy that went, "Nobody is going to clap at that?", though, which I thought was pretty nice and reassuring. Do you like pineapple? Yeah, I do. Have you ever met your favorite author? I don't have a favorite author. Have you and your best friend ever liked the same person? No. Do you have any freckles? Not on my face (though oddly enough, I did as a kid?), but on random parts of my body. How many different languages can you say goodbye in? English, German, and then Spanish. Do you like or hate the smell of fish? I hate it. Have you ever been to Sea World? As a child, yes. I'd never go as an adult. Do you know someone who suffers from short-term memory loss? I don't know how this is actually diagnosed, but my memory is absolutely fucking nightmarish, almost exclusively in short-term situations. I can remember the most obscure events from my childhood, but not what I said to you five seconds prior. I'm rather sure my medications have made it worse over time. Have you ever read any of John Green's books? I got like, one chapter or less into The Fault in Our Stars before the book got replaced with the Wings of Fire series, so I never finished it. Are you a protective person? I'm an immensely protective person over those that matter to me. Have you ever experienced an earthquake? No, thankfully. I'm terrified of earthquakes. What's one thing that makes everything in life worthwhile? The fact that to our proven knowledge, this is the only one we'll ever experience. What type of waffles do you like? (Plain, blueberry etc..) I prefer plain, but I can eat chocolate chip ones as well as blueberry and strawberry. Have you ever seen the show Wife Swap? Yeah, I actually quite like it. Do you like chicken or beef better? Or do you not eat meat? Chicken, I think. I eat meat, but wish I didn't. What brand of dish soap do you use? Dawn, usually. Do any of your neighbors have dogs? Yes, and they never shut up. Do you believe in fortune tellers? They're money-driver bullshitters. Have you ever been to one? No, and judging by the fervor in the above question, I hope you can tell I never would do so and thus monetarily support them. Do you like regular or chocolate milk better? Chocolate, of course. But I love normal milk, too. Once again, wish I didn't, though. Forcing a cow to constantly reproduce to lactate is pretty fucking cruel. Growing up, did you listen to country music? I actually did. Do you normally wash your hands in warm or cold water? If it's just a quick wash, it's usually cold because our water takes quite a few moments to warm up. However, if I'm looking to thoroughly wash my hands, it's gotta be relatively hot. Do you believe in mediums? I see them in a worse light than I do fortune tellers, so... Like sure, manipulate grieving people for profit, sounds great. Have you ever been to one? Obviously not. Have you ever dated someone on the football team? No. Do you have a gazebo at your house? No. Do you like tomatoes? Solely when straight from a garden and on a bacon and mayonnaise sandwich. Otherwise I am noooot a fan. Are you a competitive person? Not very, but there's a tiny spark in me, really when it just comes to photography. I hate it. Google or Bing? Does literally anyone use Bing? What's your favorite brand of bottled water? Essentia. Do you have any ceramic animals in your house or outside? Ummm I don't think so. Have you ever given someone flowers? Yes. What is something you might eat with a hamburger? Fries or mac and cheese. What is a sport that you’ve always wanted to play, but never got a chance to. None. What is a fruit that you might eat in the morning? A banana. Who might you send a selfie to? I don't send selfies to anyone. About how many pages is the longest book you’ve ever read? I THINK it surpassed 1,000? At least in the high hundreds. Who would you call first after getting engaged to tell them the news? Probably Mom. Around what time do you start feeling tired enough to go to sleep? Truth be told, it's usually arouund 7-8. I rarely make it to 9:00 nowadays. What trends do you refuse to give in to? I don't even know what's trendy right now. What subjects in history interest you most? As dark as it is, I find the Holocaust interesting to learn about. Are you superstitious in any way? No. How do you get rid of anxiety? What a relevant question, being in a partial hospitalization program right now. Coping skills that help me are doing deep breathing, mindfulness exercises, and a little jerk back to reality is splashing freezing cold water on my face. It also helps to talk it out with somebody, just get my feelings into words. Then if it's a true anxiety or panic attack, I have my "emergency" anxiety prescription. Are there any items of jewelry you never/rarely take off? My lip and tragus piercings never do, and I always wear two rings. Do you find yourself correcting people’s grammar often? Not really, no. It just seems rude and snobby to me, honestly, if it's not in an educational setting, like helping someone with an essay. Correcting someone in your average conversation is just... unnecessary, imo. Now if you're talking like in surveys and stuff, I definitely do in questions and such, but I don't point it out. Gummi worms: Yay or nay? Yay, love 'em. What do you do when you have ‘me time’? I only ever have "me" time, so what I always do... Do you lack common sense sometimes? I have a horrible lack of common sense, shit's embarrassing. Have you ever poured glue on your hand just to peel it off for fun? No. How do babies make you feel? "Nervous. They’re so damn breakable." <<<< Mood. Would you/Have you milked a cow? No, and I'm not interested. What really gives you the creeps? #!: seeing a baby move inside its mother's stomach. It will actually make me scream and/or cry because it just grosses me the fuck out. Whale sharks' mouths also creep me out big time. Do you ever eat leftover pizza cold? Yeah, I love cold pizza. When you're wanting a midnight snack, what do you normally get? We normally have cashew bars that I like if I'm really hungry. Which cartoon character would you want to keep as a pet? Obviously Pikachu. My niece loves Pikachu anyway, so she'd be ecstatic to see a real one. Or well, maybe I'd go for an Eevee. Not as dangerous with electricity and all but just as cute and small. Do you like marshmallows? Yeah. If you had the opportunity to live forever, would you take it? No. It would ruin so many factors of the temporary nature of life. Things would lose meaning, get old and boring, it'd be much easier to take advantage of things... There are many reasons why I have no desire to live forever. Hell, I even wonder if I want an afterlife for those same reasons. Did you ever really believe in Santa Claus? As a little kid, yeah. Do you like quesadillas? I like cheese, chicken, and shrimp ones. What's the greatest/most influential song you've ever heard? Ozzy's "Life Won't Wait." Do you prefer to pull off band-aids slowly or quickly? I tend to do it slowly. What was the last thing someone told you that had you at a loss for words? Uhhh I feel like Sara said something, but I don't remember what. What was the last health scare you had? Ugh... I'm kind of living in one now. As my legs have been worsening, I'm becoming increasingly concerned I'm eventually going to need a wheelchair for "walking" longer distances. And mind you, "long" for me is probably short for the average person. My knees do nothing but crack incessantly and burn when I use them, and they frequently feel like they're going to give way, and in a few rare instances, have. It's my own fucking fault for not sucking it up and exercising with my mom in the room, so I'd like to move on. What is your favorite filling for a piece of chocolate? Caramel. Do you enjoy the sound of birds chirping? I do. If applicable, what’s your favorite drug, and why? I don't do drugs, so. What was the last TV show you binge-watched? Avatar: The Last Airbender with Sara. Would you rather eat burgers or tacos? Definitely burgers. I don't like tacos. Did your mother change her maiden name when/if she got marred? Yes. What was the last job you applied for? Did you get the job? Deli worker, and yes. Do you use TikTok? No. What decorations do you have in your bathroom? None. Our bathroom is pretty small. Well, the one we use, anyway. The one attached to the master's bedroom isn't cleaned up yet, but we'll use it in case of emergency. What year was your favourite band formed? (Before people think I'm smart, no, I looked the dates up, haha.) Well Ozzy was Black Sabbath's vocalist, and the band formed in 1968, but Ozzy became a solo artist in 1979. What's your favourite fruit? Strawberries. Have you ever had an out-of-body experience? No. Do you prefer gory horror films or the psychological ones? I prefer psychological. Are you easily paranoid? Yeah. Do you have a favorite obsession? Meerkats and Mark are kinda tied, haha. Are you a workaholic? No. Have you ever given a tattoo before and would you like to? No and no; that would be an awful idea, given I have bad tremors in my hands. Have you ever seen the movie Labyrinth? I actually have not. Would you rather be called pretty or hot? Pretty. Have you ever gotten a serious injury at school? What happened? No. Have you ever performed in front of my large group of people? Yes; I was a dancer for many years. Have you ever fundraised? If so, what for? You know how Facebook recommends making fundraisers for a charity of your choice for your birthday? I've done that for the Trevor Project and two charities for ovarian and pancreatic cancers. Are you wearing earrings right now? Ugh, no, even though I want to be. The first holes in my ears are just too stretched for normal earrings because I wore heavy ones too often, and I just don't have nice earrings. I still want to get very small gauges to put in the stretched holes. Name a singer whose voice makes you swoon? Fall Out Boy's Patrick Stump can do that, holy shit. "America's Suitehearts" does it for me, man. Y'know, when his voice goes all deep. Do your pets follow you when you walk around the house? My cat Roman is quite literally my shadow. Where I go, he goes. What do you do online? I seem to only exist online, really, so I've got a lot on my plate to choose from, yet I'm still bored half the time, haha. I'm essentially always watching or listening to YouTube, I play World of Warcraft for varying amounts of time depending on the day, I scroll through deviantART, check KM periodically, do surveys obviously, "work" at the wikis I contribute to, wander around on Facebook... idk, that's all I really do at least semi-regularly online. Haha oh, wait, I also check Craigslist like... every day for tarantula and hognoses even though I can't currently get either. Let me dream. Do you have any scars on your face? I have a couple on my chin from when I fainted and busted it open. What countries were your grandparents born in? In the US. What was the most damaging relationship (romantic or not) that you’ve ever been a part of? Ultimately, with Jason, because of how it ended. The relationship itself wasn't at all damaging to me, but the breakup shook my entire fucking world. When in your life was your self-esteem at its lowest point? Self-esteem? Now. I'm very unhappy with my weight going back up, my body is just in poor health in general, I'm not employed, not in school... I just feel like a lowlife. Who was the last person you cut out of your life? Do you regret it? I want to say my sister's mother-in-law. Sure don't, considering she revealed her disgusting support for conversion therapy. I'm civil around her in person, but I kicked that woman off my Facebook so fucking quick when I saw that shit. Who is the most attractive person you know personally? That I know personally... I would say Alon, but I haven't seen even a picture of her in forever. Summer, though, shares selfies frequently, and by god is she gorgeous. I know a lot a lot of beautiful women, asldkjf;awe. It's funny that I'm blanking on men, at least involving people I still "know"/are somehow present in my life. Would you rather look older or younger than you are? I'm fine looking my age. Have you ever dated someone who was very vastly different from your “type”? No. What is the biggest project you’re currently working on? I suppose you can count an RP plot as a "project." I'm procrastinating so bad on it because it is going to be A LOT of writing. Is there a person from your past that you wonder about frequently? Who? Take a shot in the dark for me. Who knows you best, excluding romantic partners? My mother. What are your thoughts on human creation? I believe we evolved. How many people have you had sex with? One. Have you ever had a yard sale? Yeah. Have you ever been surfing? No.

[opheliakeeauthor]

No Lies!

It's up! I just got all ten parts of Dream Therapy uploaded to Amazon! Each short read part is only $.99 or FREE to read with Kindle Unlimited! Better yet, If you want them all at once, you can purchase the complete volume for half off at only $4.99. Jace Weda is an immortal bear shifter whose dream inversion gift has crippled his life. He is an accomplished pilot, but can’t handle the stress of driving a car. When he and his brother take a mission to hunt a rapist for Fox, his life changes drastically, and leaving California for Draoithe in the summer of 2016 is the only solution to avoid disastrous blowback from a deadly enemy. Living at Draoithe grants him a new perspective and an opportunity for a brand new life with therapy and counseling for the dream magic he was born with. It also brings an unexpected encounter with the deaf architectural design artist. One-touch, and he is hooked. When he catches the contractor beating her, he loses his mind and beats the fool unconscious, but that is where his life gets complicated. He wants the contractor's head, but taking care of the beautiful deaf designer takes precedence. When he learns that she is in trouble because of the work she did in designing his new home, he realizes that all his hope for something more with her could simply vanish like smoke on the wind. Jace must find a way to help the fiercely independent woman he desperately needs and keep her safe from the pitfalls of his world.

Over 200 short read titles!

Yeah, it's official. With Dream Therapy, I have finally published over 200 one hour short reads. I must be crazy, but I like my brand of insanity. I love writing and publishing. Marketing I may never get the hang of, but I refuse to give up. Also, I think the stories have gotten sharper. For each 10,000 word part of the miniseries, I went through it line by line and edited it again. I did that with all the stories so far. My writing style is still there. The story remained the same. It is simply better punctuated with better grammar. 

Behind the Scenes

When I started writing this blog, I promised that I would never lie. So I have not. My real name is something anyone could deduce. But I chose to use a pen name to protect my professional self. I intend to continue to use it although the profession I was originally protecting may never be mine again. There are valid reasons for that. *The saga is not finished. *I currently have over 200 titles published in that name. *My pen name has meaning behind it. Ophelia was once the name of a peepshow place in a seedy part of town near my grandparents' homes. Kee was my great grandmother's last name. She was an amazing woman who believed that I deserved whatever I worked hard for. They say that the truth shall set you free. So for me, I am refusing to buy lies and am airing all the truth about the work I have been doing. My Author Walk has been crazy and fun. The experience has been amazing. If I had the time machine, I still would not change a thing. Do I know it all? Nope. Probably never will. Do I really ever make any money? Still Nope. Also, probably never will. Will I stop writing and publishing? No way. Why? I love to write. There are a handful of people who enjoy reading my stories and have requested that I continue. So I will for them and for me. I am lucky to live in a time when people all over the world have an opportunity to seek out and enjoy literatur in the genre that they enjoy. For those who like reading PNR/ Adult fantasy I hope you will consider choosing one of my stories to escape with. Do I think my stories will change the world? LOL, NO! I write them to entertain and allow the mind to escape. If all they ever do is aid a few in leaving the stress behind and enjoying a fantasy, then they served well.

Up and Coming!

Draoithe: The Library is launching part 1 this Friday. If you have been keeping up with the saga, the next piece is almost here. Part 2 will release the following Friday with the rest of the story publishing in parts by the end of the month. Relax, all parts will be only $.99 and it will be FREE with Kindle Unlimited! I hope this volume helps to paint a clearer picture of where the series is headed and offer information about what needs to occur in order for Luke to win the war he wages with an enemy who is far more powerful and dangerous to the dream than he knew. The saga is heating up and getting really good.

Social Media!

I have to give a shout out to author abdullah on Instagram.  This was sweet and seriously touched me! I want to say thank you for lifting my day! This author has a YouTube channel that might interest anyone who is seeking to write their own stories. Author Abdullah Kazi. It is in the beginning stages, so subscribes and likes are always helpful. On occasion it is far better to help others than to promote myself. This author has a book coming out soon as well. The cover reveal is this Friday! Watch for it. 

I have to get back to work. As always, if you read, please be kind and leave a review. Be Careful! Happy reading, ​Ophelia Kee

[helenarasmussen87]

Writing Asks

This the post where I know no one is going to ask me anyway.

1. Describe your comfort zone—a typical you-fic.

Something that is like a “Oh hey, what happens if we do THIS!” and go from there. Usually ends up having loads of emotions, comfort, angst, introspection, loads of kitchen sink dialogues, not too much action. Families, happy endings.

2. Is there a trope you’ve yet to try your hand at, but really want to?

Fluffy stuff and humourous stuff. I am a little too serious for either one and my humour is drier than the desert and very odd. So no.

3. Is there a trope you wouldn’t touch with a ten foot pole?

Teacher and Student relationships. Necrophilia, abuse of all sorts, underage. Just not my thing. I’ve gotten unable to stomach a lot of grimdark and super dark stuff as I get older so I won’t write it. But go ahead if that’s your thing.

4. How many fic ideas are you nurturing right now? Care to share one of them?

Two, since I can’t have more than two on the burner. Learned THAT early on and they’re Terror AU’s One is a fixit, but with health complications and angst. The other is a Modern Day AU which has two professors falling in love after one gets injured and the other worked as an EMT and helps to take care of him and they fall in love.

5. Share one of your strengths.

I can offer insights on what flows and what doesn’t. I can also happily shred my own drafts if they don’t work. 

6. Share one of your weaknesses.

Action. I work at it, but it’s not my favourite. Or war writing. 

7. Share a snippet from one of your favorite pieces of prose you’ve written and explain why you’re proud of it.

“Danny had to turn his head away to hide his smile, because he knew that it was a legitimate concern for Jose. Most of the time, he had jumped into bed with his partners first and then did the mating dance. 

Although extremely smart in other aspects, dating and social interactions were always a bit skewed, because he was always second-guessing himself and nervous as hell.

“That’s actually how things work out in these situations. At least it did for me and my ex and for me and Claude.” Danny explained calmly, making Jose nod and take another pull of his slurpee.

“So what do I do? Like is there a time when I bring up the possibility of us sleeping together?” Jose asked, the words slightly mumbled as he chewed on the straw.

“You don’t bring it up. You’ll just know when the time is right for it to happen. Sex isn’t what a relationship should be built on. Yes, it’s nice and it’s part of it, but it’s not the end all to be all. Trust me on this. It will happen if it’s meant to happen.” Danny explained, hoping that he had put it all in the plainest and simplest terms he could for his friend.

I am proud of this because it was majorly borrowing from life and I can see the difference from earlier writing. 

8. Share a snippet from one of your favorite dialogue scenes you’ve written and explain why you’re proud of it.

“Sergio laughed shortly. “I’ve already done enough of that, and look at where it’s gotten you. Yeah, legally I hold claim over you. I could make the club buy out your contract and sit at home all day, having litter after litter.”

Iker’s blood froze at that and he turned to look at Sergio to see if he really meant it, but Sergio’s face gave nothing away.

“Or I could sign your rights to the club and let them sell you wherever or to whomever. Take you out of Spain, or sell you to Getafe or Malaga. All of these things I could do. The club actually did bring it up at that meeting you didn’t show up for.”

Iker blinked, his hands going numb as Sergio’s wickedly honed words hit home.

“I’m not telling you this to hurt you. Or make you feel indebted. I’m telling this to you because you’re this close to losing your spot and that’s the last thing I want for you. But there’s only so much I can do for you.”

He sighed and looked at Iker dead in the eyes.

“I miss him too, Iker. I miss Antonio every fucking day. And I miss you.”

Iker swallowed hard as Sergio abruptly turned and left, slamming the front door and freeing him from the command so suddenly that Iker fell onto the couch and curled up in it.

He had no energy to do anything else. Not when he was all too aware he’d fucked up and fucked up big and needed to fix it.

Borrowed from life again and it was more of a dialogue that needed to be had when you finally realize how much you fucked up and how much you need to stop coasting and make it right. 

9. Which fic has been the hardest to write?

ALL OF THEM! Kidding. I want to say the one I’m working on right now. I was lucky enough I got a ton of help fleshing it out. I can see the end of the 1st chapter and I am having a hell of a time writing Goodsir’s chunk. He’s turned out more emo and romantic than I was expecting. 

10. Which fic has been the easiest to write?

The QuiObi prompts for the prompt week. Took me like two hours to knock them off and post. 

11. Is writing your passion or just a fun hobby?

Its a passion and a hobby. It helped me through a lot of rough patches and keeps me sane. 

12. Is there an episode above all others that inspires you just a little bit more?

Mostly music or a change in life. I tend to write when everything is in flux with me.

13. What’s the best writing advice you’ve ever come across?

Just write. Worry about editing later. Once you have something on the paper, fixing it up becomes easier. 

14. What’s the worst writing advice you’ve ever come across?

Edit as you write. You don’t get anything done.

15. If you could choose one of your fics to be filmed, which would you choose?

Oooh. I think it’s a toss up between my Qui-Gon/Jango fic in a pastoral setting where they have put their pasts behind and are farmers on Concord Dawn. Or the Werewolf fic I wrote during my RPF phase.

16. If you only could write one pairing for the rest of your life, which pairing would it be?

Bloody hard. I would have to say Fitzier (Commander Fitzjames/Captain Crozier)

17. Do you write your story from start to finish, or do you write the scenes out of order?

Depends. Sometimes I go straight from beginning to end and sometimes I end up writing the middle and not figuring it out until later.

18. Do you use any tools, like worksheets or outlines?

Outlines. I have notebooks I jot down point form notes about the characters and the plot.

18. Stephen King once said that his muse is a man who lives in the basement. Do you have a muse?

Mine is a librarian or an alchemist trying to figure out answers and how things fit in.

19. Describe your perfect writing conditions.

A good playlist. Alone, in my room.

20. How many times do you usually revise your fic/chapter before posting?

I revise it along the way when I sit down to write. Then before I post, I give it a once over to make sure it flows and makes sense. 

21. Choose a passage from one of your earlier fics and edit it into your current writing style. (Person sending the ask is free to make suggestions).

All my old fics are honestly gone so I’m skipping this one. 

22. If you were to revise one of your older fics from start to finish, which would it be and why?

Honestly? The Duo and Heero one I wrote about them being in an abusive relationship where they split up, then got back together again. I was again writing from life, and I have seen couples who did overcome it, but looking back, I think I should have written it that they separated and went their own ways. 

Keep in mind I was very young when I wrote this, and I was in an abusive relationship myself and didn’t realise it at the time. He hit me once, apologised and never did it again. But he did end up manipulating me, gaslighting me, and emotionally abusing me until I finally had enough and left. 

23. Have you ever deleted one of your published fics?

Yes. Loads of them due to me not wanting to finish them. Or the hosting sites going under. 

24. What do you look for in a beta?

Someone who is honest, someone who knows the way I write, and has suggestions to fix those said things. But someone who is themselves is the best. Because they know what they want. Same here. 

25. Do you beta yourself? If so, what kind of beta are you?

I do, simply due to lack of steady betas. Flow and story telling, but I also look for syntax and formatting as well as grammar. I will miss typos, so I run spell-check too. I mostly use a mental rubric. Teacher training.

26. How do you feel about collaborations?

I haven’t had a successful one due to the second person always deciding that they can’t follow through or up and disappearing. So I don’t do them.

27. Share three of your favorite fic writers and why you like them so much.

Oh my God! I read so much and so many different people that I can’t pinpoint three. I usually end up reading a fic or two, so I can’t say why I read the author.

28. If you could write the sequel (or prequel) to any fic out there not written by yourself, which would you choose?

I haven’t done that. I do admit to having inspired by fics. I wouldn’t ever presume to do that. It just feels like a snub.

29. Do you accept prompts?

Not really. I can’t tailor write stuff consistently. 

30. Do you take liberties with canon or are you very strict about your fic being canon compliant?

Oh always! I end up liking the characters that somehow never make it until the end. And in the Terror, unless you want to write angst all the time, you HAVE to ignore canon. And I mean BOTH the book and the show, since the book is nasty. The show is amazing, but oh my god is it depressing.

31. How do you feel about smut?

Yes damned please!

32. How do you feel about crack?

Depends on how well it’s done. Sometimes it is needed. Sometimes it’s like “Why?”

33. What are your thoughts on non-con and dub-con?

A bit tricky. I don’t mind non-con, but it has to be handled well. Dub-con, especially in A/B/O happens within context and it is usually dealt with. So I can tolerate that more than the first. Outright abuse, no.

34. Would you ever kill off a canon character?

Yes. Not often thought. But yes. I usually try and keep as many alive as I can though.

35. Which is your favorite site to post fic?

AO3, its a wild place and I love it for that reason.

36. Talk about your current wips.

It’s an AU where two professors that live in the same building and work in different faculties get thrown together and start to get to know each other. Due to circumstance, one gets injured and the other kind of volunteers to help take care of him, where they fall in love. The others in the vicinity do also. There’s Canadian shenanigans and baking. 

37. Talk about a review that made your day.

That they really liked how I wrote Frank Randall and would like to see more with his son, an OC I created for the story.

38. Do you ever get rude reviews and how do you deal with them?

I either delete, or give a generic reply and leave it. I’ve got stuff to do.

40. Write an alternative ending to [insert fic title] (or just the summary of one).

Nope. It just doesn’t work for me.

*somewhere I fucked up on the number but here you are*

Whoever wants to do this.

[joylee56]

Getting Above Himself

For Fluffaplooza 2020

I prompted a variation on this for #Worryinglyinnocent ‘s Super Fluffy Smutty Sunday. (Her’s is better. Check it out at https://worryinglyinnocent.tumblr.com/post/190606882004/fic-the-measure-of-a-man It’s got Moe as Mrs. Bennet.) But was so taken with the idea that I wrote my own Edwardian version.

Summary: The toffs were interested in Gold for his money. And he had enough of it that they were willing to invite him to dine and even an occasional party. He never expected to be accepted for more than that.

.

>>>>>>.

The ballroom glittered as couples swirled in complex patterns. Standing off to the side of the room, Gold calculated that between the candles and the flowers Lady Blanchard had spent enough to feed a family of four for a year.

Or pay for one of his suits. He was really in no position to be judgmental.

Mostly he was bored. Conversation was impractical over the music. Assuming he could find someone who wanted to discuss something other than the latest gossip. Lord Blanchard had done himself no favors by inviting him to this ball. If he wanted to convince Gold to back his new son-in-law in the upcoming parliamentary elections, he should have considered that a ball hardly constituted entertainment for a lame man who did not gamble. (Well, not with cards or dice at any rate.) If he had not been interested in learning what the government was planning to propose in its next budget he would have left long since.

Sighing he headed back to the refreshment room. With any luck there would be some decent wine.

The refreshment room was nearly empty. A couple of boys, barely old enough to be out on the town, with laden plates were eating like they had not seen food in a week. Gold had to smile. Bae still picked at his dinner, but would no doubt soon be eating like those two.

The only other occupants were an older lady dozing over a half finished glass of wine and her younger charge who appeared to be deeply interested in a book.

Presented a choice of Champaign or mediocre sherry, Gold opted for tea instead. From the tea table he was able to get a better look at the young lady and realized it was Lady Belle. He had been paired with her a week ago at dinner when Lord Blanchard introduced him to his son-in-law. Gold, while hardly expert on the subtleties of high society, knew enough to know that assigning an attractive, young peeress as his dinner partner meant that she must be a very poor relation of the Blanchards indeed. One whose marriage prospects were so lacking as not to be worth pairing her with any of the more eligible men at the table.

Not to mention that the son of two seamstresses could spot a twice turned gown even by the poor lighting of the Blanchard’s formal dining room.

She had been an intelligent and witty conversationalist though. Gold had enjoyed that dinner more than any society event he had ever been invited to. All those young men with political aspirations were missing a jewel by ignoring her in favor of the better dowered young ladies. A smart wife would get them farther than any amount of money.

As he contemplated whether that dinner was sufficient introduction to approach her now, and whether she would even want to have her reading interrupted, she looked up from her book and smiled at him.

It would be rude not to respond. He approached the table. “Good evening, Lady Belle.”

“Mr. Gold.” She nodded. “Are you enjoying the ball?”

“Uhm…” He knew what he was supposed to say to that, but she had seemed to enjoy forthright conversation. He hedged. “It’s not really to my taste. And you, my lady, you do not dance?”

She sighed. “When given the opportunity I enjoy dancing, but there are more young ladies than gentlemen who dance to partner them so I retired here to read rather than requiring our host to stretch the partners even thinner.”

“By your own choice or on a hint from Lady Blanchard?”

Pursing her lips did not quite hide her smile. “Her sister actually. Although being cognizant of my indebtedness to Lady Blanchard, I would have withdrawn in any event.”

Gold made a mental note to make discreet inquiries as to what that ‘indebtedness’ involved. But it would not do to embarrass her by asking outright. “Since I am one of the gentlemen distorting the numbers and keeping you from the dance floor, may I at least bring you some refreshment?”

“Thank you that would be most kind.”

A small tip to one of the waiters for the delivery of a wide selection of both sweet and savory items solved the problem of how to manage both dishes and his cane. She opted for tea rather than wine even though he assured her that his own choice was based on the quality of the available beverages rather than any moral censure.

“If a gentleman of good tastes finds the wine lacking I see no reason to doubt his assessment.” She had responded.

“I’m not sure I’m strictly entitled to either accolade, my lady.”

“Your good taste is evident from your reading habits and wardrobe, and your manners proclaim you a gentleman.” She shook her head. “Having fended off the advances of more than one drunken young officer whose birth should proclaim him better than that, I have come to be something of an expert on the subject.”

He would have thought her title would be sufficient to keep young men in line. Then again drunken louts were a problem regardless of their social standing.

Over their ices they fell into a discussion of promoting education of the working class. The book she was reading advocating it as a means to improve the morals of the poor.

“I don’t know about morals,” Gold told her, “But an educated workforce is a boon to any employer. And gives the brighter lads a way to improve themselves generally. I bless my aunts for making sure I was able to attend Grammar school.”

“Mama gave me my lessons.” She looked wistful. “We had hoped I would be able to go away to school when the time came, but we lost her before that. At least I was able to share Mary Margaret’s tutors after I came to live with the Blanchards.”

It seemed wise to make the conversation less personal after that. Although it did give him a starting point for his inquiries. A question about what else she had recently read led to an enthusiastic description of a new author she was taken with. He was a ‘futurist’ and had written an exciting adventure entitled The Time Machine. Gold found the whole idea a bit far-fetched, but the delight with which she described it had him resolving to buy a copy to read on the train back to Glasgow.

They had just discovered a shared preference for Thomas Hardy, when Lord Blanchard appeared. “Ah, Gold, this is where you’ve got to. The Chancellor has arrived and he wants to meet you.”

Wants to meet his wallet more like, but this was the chance Gold had been waiting for so he regretfully excused himself. “Forgive me, Lady Belle, I’m sorry to leave such an interesting conversation.”

“I too have greatly enjoyed our talk.” She bit her lip, a gesture Gold found oddly charming. Then hesitantly said, “We are at home on Thursdays. Perhaps, if you are not otherwise engaged, we could continue this conversation then?”

She wanted him to call? Gold was left speechless for a moment. Then he rallied. Blanchard wanted his support badly enough that he doubted even Lady Blanchard would object to his calling. “I look forward to it, my lady.”

Blanchard eyed him like a prize ram at market as they left the refreshment room. Clearly coming to a decision, he suddenly grinned. “I’ll let Regina know to expect you on Thursday.”

Which Gold interpreted to mean Blanchard would be directing his lady to be gracious to the jumped up tradesman. Blanchard slapped his shoulder and continued. “Lovely girl Lady Belle. Bit of a bluestocking but lovely. My cousin’s daughter you know. Fine family if a bit down on their luck. Now let's find the Chancellor.”

Gold did not extract as much information from the Chancellor as he had hoped. He was too dumbfounded at the prospect that Lord Blanchard appeared to be actively promoting a match between himself and Lady Belle. He did not have enough money to be regarded as even remotely suitable to court an actual Lady.

Did he?

A vision of Lady Belle’s blue eyes danced before him. If he did not he could make more. Making money was easy. Finding a woman like Lady Belle was not.

[commodorecliche]

Hey Lindsay, I've read a few of your fics and I love the way you write :) I've been trying to write a story but i'm just stuck at the outline. So, I was wondering if you could, perhaps, make a little tutorial or a walk-through your process? I'd like to have my story points defined before I start writing but I don't have a structure that I can follow and I really love your style *-* It's okay if you don't feel like it though. I understand. Thank you in advance ^^

hey there friend! i’m not sure when you sent this ask today, i so hope you haven’t been waiting all day for my reply!! i just saw it.

first things first - thank you so much for your kind words about my writing. they really mean the world to me. and i am SO EXCITED to hear that you’re working on your own fic. that’s amazing!! 

now to the meat!

so i don’t know if i have specific or... super organized... process, per se, and i don’t really do a ‘strict’ outline, in the most traditional sense of the word (meaning i don’t have a document full of numbers and bullet points and such). and everyone’s process is going to be a little different, so bear in mind, what works for me might not work for you. but once you get the feel of writing your story, you’ll get a better sense of what your own writing process is. and you’ll figure out what works and doesn’t work for you. the way i do things might not work for you, but that’s totally okay, you’ll come into your own as you go along. and hey, maybe this will work for you! who knows!

but what i generally do when i start a new fic is:

1: i type out my rough and basic idea. i like to do this (and most of my outlining/drafting) in all caps, it helps keep me focused and helps me organize what i have ‘drafted’ and what i have properly written lol.

so for example, um, In the House We Remain, my first idea was jotted out like this, at the top of my document: SAPPY GHOST STORY, AZIRAPHALE BUYS A COTTAGE THAT CROWLEY USED TO OWN, CROWLEY DIED THERE. CROWLEY WAS AN AUTHOR AND HIS BOOKS ARE STILL IN THE HOUSE, WHICH IS HOW AZIRAPHALE GETS TO KNOW HIM.

that’s my base level idea, and i kept it at the top of the document.

2: from there, i start thinking about what are some MAJOR scenes i want to have happen. not the minute details, just the major scenes that were popping in and out of my head when i was daydreaming about the fic. these can be as minimal or as thorough as you like. for In the House We Remain, i had a pretty set idea on how i wanted the story to progress from start to finish, so i had a lot of scenes already in mind.

using the same fic as an example, these are some of the scene ideas i wrote in my fic document, underneath my top line idea: SCENES: - AZIRAPHALE SEES THE COTTAGE (ANATHEMA IS THE REAL ESTATE AGENT) AND HE LOVES IT. HE BUYS IT THAT DAY. (DEFINE THE LANDSCAPE AND HOW THE COTTAGE LOOKS, PROBABLY WANT A POND IN THE BACK, THAT COULD BE HOW CROWLEY WAS MURDERED. COTTAGE SHOULD BE COZY AND DREAMY, A LOVELY THING SET OUT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE COUNTRYSIDE. LOOK UP PICS FOR REFERENCES.) - GUNNA HAVE TO MENTION SOMETHING ABOUT THE HOUSE THAT’LL CONNECT TO HOW CROWLEY DIED, SOME VISUAL INDICATORS OF HIS SPIRIT. MAYBE WATER STAINS ON THE FLOOR? LIKE DRIPPING WATER MIGHT POOL AROUND A WET PERSON’S FEET? AM I GOING WITH DROWNING AS CAUSE OF DEATH? DUNNO.***COME BACK TO THIS. - WHILE UNPACKING AZIRAPHALE SEES A BUNCH OF UNFAMILIAR BOOKS IN THE STUDY AND IS CURIOUS ABOUT THEM. - AZIRAPHALE TALKS TO ANATHEMA ABOUT THE BOOKS AND THE AUTHOR. LEARNS THAT CROWLEY IS THE AUTHOR, AND THAT HE OWNED AND DIED IN THE HOUSE MYSTERIOUSLY. - AZIRAPHALE READS THE BOOKS, LOVES THEM, FEELS A CONNECTION WITH CROWLEY. - AZIRAPHALE SOMEHOW CONNECTS WITH CROWLEY’S LINGERING SPIRIT IN THE HOUSE (DETAILS TO COME) - THEY START COMMUNICATING. CROWLEY REVEALS THAT HE WAS MURDERED - I WANT THIS TO BE AN EMOTIONAL SCENE, AZIRAPHALE VERY UPSET AND DISTURBED BY WHAT HE’S BEEN TOLD. ALSO AFRAID CAUSE HE’S MADE CONTACT W/ SOMEONE WHO’S VERY DEAD. MAYBE HE EVEN CALLS ANATHEMA AFTER TO REVEAL THE NATURE OF CROWLEY’S DEATH. - NEED SCENES OF AZIRAPHALE GROWING OLD IN THE HOUSE WITH CROWLEY’S GHOST, THEN EVENTUALLY DYING AND ACTUALLY UNITING WITH HIM. SAPPY, EMOTIONAL, THE WORKS. - AZIRAPHALE AND CROWLEY’S SPIRITS LINGER IN THE HOUSE, EVEN AS A NEW COUPLE MOVES IN.

those were my major scenes that i needed to write and that would make up most of my story.

3: flesh out the aforementioned scenes. break these scenes down individually and think about them, picture them like a movie in your head. when aziraphale sees the cottage, what’s happening around him? has he gotten out of the car? what is the weather like, is it a dreamy setting? should the wind be gently rustling the trees and his hair? is he in awe? does he take a moment to take in the exterior of the house. what does the house look like? picture that entire scene from start to finish, then jot down your thoughts. remember, you aren’t actually doing Proper Good Writing out. you’re just getting the ideas down and the draft ideas fleshed out. 4: once i have those scenes fleshed out (always typed in all caps for me lol), i start the actual ‘writing’ process. I drop the all-caps, start using proper grammar, and go into I’m Telling A Story Mode. I usually try to start writing at the beginning, because i tend to visualize my stories as movies that play in my head. i need to mentally see it progress as i write it, like i would do if i were watching a movie or reading a book. but sometimes that doesn’t happen - sometimes beginnings are the hardest part. if you struggle with the beginning, skip to the first most fleshed out scene you have, the one you feel most comfortable with, or whatever scene you feel REALLY ready to write. this writing doesn’t have to be perfect (it definitely won’t be lol). but you’ll start to get a feel for how you want to actually present this story and these scenes once they’re all finalized. you can edit it and make it prettier later, but for now, just get some words on the paper as if it were a story you were ready to tell. 5: once you have your main scenes fleshed out, you need to start making connections between them. stories need depth and background, so you need to be able to go “okay, i have aziraphale loving the house and buying it, then i need him to find the books in the study, how am I going to connect those two scenes?”

you can do this part either as you go along (example: you’ve written your first Major Scene, and you want to progress onto your next scene, so you write the connections first, then once you have the connection scenes done, you can then move on to the next Major Scene from your draft) OR you can get all your major drafted scenes written, and make your connections AFTER those scenes are done. you just gotta see what works for you. 

i prefer the first method, i try to write the major scenes and the connection scenes as i go along so that i have a natural flow. that also allows me to make some changes to a later Major Scene before i actually write it. (example: hm, i was gunna have Aziraphale do XYZ in the next scene, but with this connection, I think having him do ABC in that scene might work better).

if you don’t have a clear-cut idea yet for how to connect your scenes, go back to the all caps ‘drafting’ mode, where you’re just throwing ideas on the page in between, like: ‘AZIRAPHALE HAS JUST MOVED IN AND IS READY TO UNPACK, I NEED HIM TO BRING HIS BOOKS TO THE STUDY TO START UNPACKING THEM AND SHELVING THEM. THAT’S WHEN HE SHOULD NOTICE CROWLEY’S BOOKS THAT HAVE MYSTERIOUSLY APPEARED ON THE SHELVES.’ from there, go back into ‘proper writing’ mode when you’re ready, and flesh out that scene - what is aziraphale doing while he’s unpacking? are his boxes of books already in the study, or do i need him to have a reason to bring them into the study? maybe a mover accidentally placed one in the wrong room. this is your connector that will get you between scenes. 6: once you have all your scenes done in a proper first draft, go back, do re-writes, add new things that you think you might need, take out things that aren’t necessary, check your grammar and spelling, and do your final proofing. (read your story out loud too - it’s the easiest way to catch typos, errors, or weird phrasing)

7: don’t be afraid to write ANYWHERE. many of my ideas for scenes popped up in the middle of a work day, and every time that happens, i text myself. i send myself a text, all caps, with the scene idea, and i don’t open it until i’m ready to write. it helps me keep track of things. i did a lot of writing in notebooks, on post-it notes, wherever really. i even have googledocs installed on my phone so i could access a fic from anywhere if i had a sudden idea. and if i had something new to add to the document, i put it in all caps, so i would know i needed to address it later.

8: act things out! seriously, i’m not kidding. act your scenes out with yourself. especially dialogue scenes. have those dialogues with yourself, think about how you want dialogue to progress, and talk those ideas out in a way that sounds natural to you. that’ll help you write your dialogue later. (the number of times my husband has walked in on me running through some dialogue aloud......... goodness).

9: don’t be afraid of music :) maybe it’s silly, but i make a playlist for every fic i write because i like to listen to music to get me into the correct mood for what i’m writing. it helps me a LOT. maybe it won’t be as helpful for you, but always worth a try.

and that’s really.... the extent of my process. it’s a little messy, i know, and maybe it’s not the best advice. and i just hope that it at least a LITTLE bit of sense... but i hope it will at least be of some help to you! if you’re confused about anything, please don’t hesitate to message me. 

or if you want to chat one-on-one, that’s totally fine too. i 100% don’t mind if you send me a chat message. i’m always happy to help.

[kidgezine]

FAQ

General Questions

Are these the same mods that did [insert failed zine here]? No. None of our mods have ever run a failed zine. Some of us have been contributors for them though so we know your pain. We are doing everything we can to be sure that doesn't happen to us. All our mods have access to the zine email and socials as well as contributor submissions so if one of us were to disappear the rest would be able to pull it together. Finances are being handled by our head mods (umbraja and kdxart) who are both professional graphic designers with experience in small business management and print publications. The rest of the mods are being given updates and could take over finances if the head mods were to die in a firey laptop explosion.

Are these the same mods that did last year's Kidge Zine? Yes. Most of us anyway. We lost a few but also added some new faces and learned a whole lot - mostly about the horrors of shipping and taxes. We did a good job last year and hope to do even better this time around! We've also padded our schedule so there shouldn't be as many delays.

I'm so excited - when will the zine come out? As of right now we are shooting for a delivery date of early June, 2020. We may have an early (kickstart) round of preorders in the new year (with Valentines Day merch) for those who are super dedicated to getting this thing made but that's not set in stone. We may modify the schedule if we fall behind or need to take more orders to reach our stretch goals. See our Tentative Schedule for more information.

OMG I NEED this, how can I help make this zine a thing? The best thing anyone can do is reblog our posts to help get the word out. If you want to do more you could make a money donation to help cover costs (and enter to win a Limited Edition Bundle). Just buy Pidge some coffee on Ko-fi: ko-fi.com/kidgezine.

Zines are usually self-financing so why are you talking about money donations? Because it lets those of us who have extra money subsidize the cost for those that can't afford it so we all get a better product. A self-financed publication has to price itself to cover the full cost of production but that severely limits the number of artists and writers we can put into it and what merch we can sell alongside it. Last year we had over 50 contributors create a 200 page full color book with lots of merch and priced it all considerably under cost so that our community could actually afford to buy it. We still lost money in the end but it was less than our finance officer had put aside to cover it and that is thanks to the many, wonderful people who were willing to kindly donate.

How do I go about donating to help cover costs? First, thank you so much for the willingness to help out. All you need to do is buy Pidge some coffee on Ko-fi: ko-fi.com/kidgezine. This will also enter you for a chance to win a Limited Edition Bundle when the zine comes out.

Are profits from zine sales going to a charity of some kind? No. Unless you would consider next year's Kidge Zine a charity, then sure. Truth is we don't expect to make money. We hope it does better than last year so we don't end up covering a loss but we're pretty sure it's not going to profit. In the very unlikely event that we do turn a profit the funds will stay in the Kidge Zine account for use next year.

Contributor Questions

Will contributors be paid for their work on the zine? We would love to pay our contributors but, due to legal and logistical concerns, the staff voted that no one should get paid for this endeavor - not even the staff. We are giving contributors a free digital copy of the zine and a discount on buying the physical copy and merch. The discount amount will depend on stretch goals so we can't provide specifics at this time.

I want to give you content for this zine, how do I do that? Read over the Requirements and fill out the applications listed there.

What kind of content is allowed? We're pretty chill but we do have a few Requirements to follow. Check that link for specifics but the short of it is pretty much anything featuring Keith and Pidge in some sort of fantasy situation. It doesn't have to be romantic, AUs and canon are both allowed, so long as those two are together in some way. We're not even going to limit it to the usual digital art and narrative writing so if you want to do something unusual give it a try. We'll accept: cosplay photos, sculptures, journals, poetry, songs, schematics, editorials, things I can't even think of right now - pretty much anything Kidge related is welcome.

I want to write but English is not my first language, is that OK? Some of my favorite authors don't speak English at all and some of my favorite fanfics are written by people who only know it as a second or even third language. So long as you can get your writing translated to English our staff will work with you to get it polished and sounding natural. You just have to be willing to go through that editing process with us.

Will everyone who applies be accepted as a contributor? We're going to try and include everyone but since the zine is a print publication it's going to cost real money for every piece we include. If we get too many submissions and put all of them in the book it would end up costing too much for most of y'all to afford. Nobody wants that. So we might have to leave some things out of the book itself but will be more than happy to include any work that gets left out in the pdf version so long as it follows all the rules. This will allow us to produce a better product while not excluding anyone from participation.

How will contributors be chosen? Our staff will use the samples provided in your application to judge your average quality of work so be sure to give us good examples. We will be looking at your work only, not your popularity or participation in the fandom, so don't worry if you're new to the ship or just don't know anyone. Some of our staff don't know many people and our production designer hasn't even seen the show (she just does very good work). Art will be judged on overall aesthetic, perspective/proportions appropriate for the style, composition/balance, and technique. Writing will be judged on overall readability, characterization, plot, style, and flow. We will not judge grammar because we want to include non-native English speakers. Just be ready for an editing process where we'll help you get the grammar fixed before publication.

When will I know if I'm accepted as a contributor? Acceptance emails will be sent out November 1st. Everyone should get an email so if you don't get yours then ask a mod to see what's up. We had trouble with emails getting lost in junk filters last year so be sure to check for that.

Do you have a deadline for submissions? We have multiple deadlines to keep y'all on track but the finished work should be turned in by February 15th. See the Tentative Schedule for more information.

Is this canon only or are AUs allowed? We're not gonna limit setting so canon or any other universe is allowed. Have fun with it.

What if I don't want to write/draw something Fantasy themed? Fantasy is such a broad theme that we are going to be strict about it this time but we're certain y'all will be able to find something you like that fits. Pretty much anything that's not limited by real world physics is, technically, Fantasy. So canon universe is Fantasy. So are superheroes, any sort of mythology, folklore, most horror, sci-fi, steam punk, supernatural, occult, and way too much else for me to list.

[brynwrites]

What I learned while self-publishing.

@milkyteefs asked:

I'm unsure about the entire self-publishing world! Do you have a basic outline of the process? Some key highlights/headings of how you started and what connections you needed to make? Thanks again! <3

I went through the process of self-publishing Our Bloody Pearl this summer. Even with all the guides in the world it turned out to be a very grueling experience. I’ll be doing it again with Quasi Stellar soon, but I also hope to traditionally publish The Warlord Contracts trilogy.

First, let’s get this out of the way: Self published books are often very bad.

But they don’t have to be.

Self publishing requires you, the writer, to either wear the hat of everyone else at a publishing house, or be your own investor and pay for professionals to do the jobs you can’t. If you’re willing to put in that effort and money then you can come out with a more professional book than you might have had you published traditionally. If you’re not, then self publishing might not be the right road for you.

Now then, how do you self publish in a way that produces a professional book?

Fifteen Basic Steps to Self-Publishing:

1. Write and edit the book.

This is, understandably, the step that a lot of people get stuck at. Writing a novel is hard. Don’t worry about how or when you’ll publish it until it’s finished.

Just write it.

During this time you should also be marketing yourself as a writer. Learn more about that via my marketing tips tag.

2. Beta readers and critique partners.

Getting feedback from handpicked peers is essential for any book no matter which publishing route you choose. If these terms are new to you, learn more about beta readers here and critique partners here.

During your first book (or two) I recommend starting with critique partners and then moving to beta readers afterward, because critique partners will shred your novel down to the bare bones, which you usually really need the first few books you write. Critique partners will also generally pick at your grammar and typos though, which can be very useful at the end of the editing stage so that your manuscript looks cleaner to an editor (or agent, if you traditionally publish.)

3. Write your blurbs and summary.

While your story is in the hands of your final group of readers, you should already be working on blurbs and summaries. By the end of the publishing process you will need:

A back of the book blurb.

A one-two sentence logline style blurb.

A one page summary of the story.

Don’t put these off! They won’t get any easier if you wait. You can find tips on writing blurbs in this article.

4. Determine that you’re done making changes to the manuscript.

A writer who’s growing and learning will forever feel as though there’s something they can change in their manuscript, but at some point you have to decide that what’s done is done. You will always have another awesome book which will be even better than this one.

If you have trouble determining when this point should be, check out this explanation!

5. Make a publishing timetable.

Give yourself more time on your timetable than you think you need! Traditional publishing takes about two years for a reason. A lot of the steps below this point seem relatively simple compared to writing and editing a book, but they require you to learn new skills and spend a lot of time waiting for other people with busy schedules.

Five and a half: Start book two.

You might have already done this during the beta reading stage, but if not, start another book! Writers should never stop writing and editing (outside of planned vacations, emergencies, and mental health breaks, of course), so pick that pen back up and start pounding out another book.

6. Find a content editor.

If you ran a beta reading stage with 10-20 critical and knowledgeable beta readers in your target audience then congratulations, they served the purpose of a content editor already!

6. Find a copy editor.

A copy editor is the person who checks your grammar, sentence structure, flow, and word usage. I found my editor though the editorial freelance association directory. The main things to look for when choosing an editor:

Experience. This should include testimonies, information about any publishing companies they worked with, and the works they edited in the past. If you can’t easily access and double check these things, then keep looking.

Sample edits. Any editor worth your time will offer you a free sample edit. (For copy editing this is generally 750-1k words of your novel. I’m not sure about other types of editing.) Take advantage of this! Send the same sample to the top four or five editors who fit your price range and see who returns feedback that you jive with and feel comfortable paying.

What if I can’t afford a copy editor?

In general, you can probably get away without hiring a professional copy editor if you (a) find 3-4 solid critique partners who are willing to do a very detailed line edit and proofread of your final draft (do not take advantage of your fellow writers!! Offer them the same in return!!), (b) get free sample edits from a handful of freelance authors to see if they catch any major formatting issues you do regularly, and (c) learn what a style guide is and make at least a simple one for yourself while you do another round of proofreading.

Remember though, traditionally publishing exists specifically so that you, the writer, can get a professional edit without having to pay for it. If you want a professional book without putting in the investment, then querying an agent might be the better option for you.

7. Prepare to offer ARCs to reviewers and friends.

Getting reviews for your book is the most important marketing activity you can do. The sooner you contact reviewers about this, the more reviews you’ll have when the release date comes. Note that the large majority of book reviewers you contact will never respond. If you email 20 reviewers, expect to get one or two reviews out of it, most likely in 4-6 months. (Which is why you should email all your friends and past beta readers too.)

How do we maximize the number reviewers who will read our books?

You know those neat little lists of book blogs who will review indie books? Don’t use them. Anything that with nicely compiled and easy to get reviewer lists is going to be overcrowded with blogs who have two year wait-lists and 97% of them will never even email you back.

Instead, try searching for reviewers you already follow on twitter and tumblr. Look for semi-popular goodreads reviewers who put positive reviews on books similar to your own and check if they have a link to a blog, or an email for review inquiries. Find less well known booktubers that youtube links to off your favorite popular booktubers.

8. Format the book.

You can pay someone to format your novel, but its rather expensive for something that’s relatively easy to learn to do yourself using guides off the internet. Paperback and ebook formatting must be done separately, and your first time I would set aside a full Saturday to tackle each of them, just to be safe. If you have a program like scrivener, with a little tweaking you should be able to get a nice looking ebook with none of the hassle of learning html. There are many other options though. Do a little research to find the one which works for you!

(Note: If you’re printing a paperback you cannot get a paperback cover until you’ve formatted the book and know final page count for your print size!)

9. Hire a cover artist.

The book cover is the most important part of your book, so far as sales and success are concerned.

There’s a huge trend in self published books to skip this stage and work with photoshop or cavna instead. I would not recommend this. Cover artists for professional books do what they do full time. They know the market. They know what sells. So do some writers, but the truth is, many of the writers who think they can design covers, turn out the sorts of designs that are easily pegged as self-published books.

If you want a professional looking book that pops in the amazon charts, hire a professional.

There are a multitude of ways you can go about this. Some large cover art sites like damonza offer bundles which can get pricey, but let you back out with no charge if you don’t like their first drafts and include unlimited changes if you commit. There are also many freelancers who specialize in book covers, for a wide range of prices.

What if I don’t have the money to hire a cover artist?

If there is anything you don’t want to go cheep on, it’s your cover art. But let’s say you absolutely have to get a cover for cheap or free. There are people who do cover designs for $5 on Fiverr, and I think some of them actually turn out half decent covers for very specific genres, but its a gamble. A couple writeblrs do cover design as part of their day job and might be willing to do something cheep or for a trade. You could also learn how to design covers yourself, but if you want to compete with books whose designers went to school just to do what they now do full time, you’ll either have to put in a lot of time or be lucky enough to have a very good, easily executed idea for your particular novel, and hopefully not one with requires any stock photos unless you want to purchase rights to them.

Now, there are some exceptions. Some writers have a natural design brain, and some writers are in fact designers themselves. Sometimes you write a book where the perfect cover design is very simple and easy to produce yourself. But that won’t be most people, with most books.

So far I have seen exactly two of the hundreds of self publisher made covers I’ve seen have actually made me want to buy the story. I’m not trying to be mean. It’s just the truth.

10. Offer ARCs to more reviewers.

Now you have a nicely formatted book and everything! Who can resist that?

11. Do a cover reveal, and during the cover reveal, offer everyone there an ARC.

Cover reveals come in many different forms. Some writers just post the cover on their blog, some do livestreams on facebook, some do question and answer sessions leading up to the reveal, some even go all out and have other writers come talk about their books on their site for a full day prior to the cover reveal.

Do whatever works best for your schedule. The goal is to attract attention for the book, so make sure you link to anything you’ve already set up from #12, so people can easily find your book when you release it!

And, as always, give out ARCs.

12. Get your book and author profile set up on everything.

Prior to your book’s release you should have a goodreads author page, an amazon author page, and a bookbub author page, all with your book attached. You should also have a website and a mailing list (linked to via your ebook), prepared release announcements for every social media site you work off of, and be ready with attractive and easily noticeable links to the book’s sale page off your tumblr blog and website.

Keep in mind that some of these things will take a decent chunk of time to set up, and a few of them require a live human being to confirm you are who you say you are. Start them as early as possible!

13. Release the book!

Time to actually put the book out there for all to buy. You can do a similar hype release as you do with a cover reveal, if you so desire. Make sure you remember to post all your announcements and put up all your links.

Try not to check on the book’s sales until the following day! It does not help their growth or your mental health to constantly be haunting your sales charts. When you do check them, keep in mind that a book which sells two thousand copies in its entire life time has done well, all things considered.

The fantastic thing about self publishing is that you never have to stop selling your book. If you sell fifty copies your first month and then twenty the second and then five the third, you can always dive back into marketing, run a discount, apply for a bookbub ad, focus on marketing yourself as an author and gaining followers. You chose whether your book is done selling.

To offer pre-orders or not?

This is a toss up. In my experience, pre-orders aren’t a good idea for your debut self-published novel, even if you think you have a large audience who will buy them, because they take away from the sales you could have your release week, and the boost those sale give you on the amazon charts. If you do wish to offer pre-orders though, try going through ingramspark instead of amazon advantage, to save yourself tears and heartache.  

To go amazon exclusive or not?

Many authors claim that you have to try both to know what’s right for any particular book. Do your own research and decide what you think is best for you.

Thirteen and a half: Start book three.

At this point you should already have finished at least the rough draft of second novel, so don’t forget to start your third book at some point!

14. Offer people read for review copies.

Especially if your debut novel is aimed toward broke teenagers and younger adults, there will be a lot of people who are interested in the book but aren’t motivated enough to actually buy it on faith alone. By offering free ebooks on a read for review basis, you...

Grow your reviews.

Create fans out of people who may have never read the book otherwise.

Have higher paperback sales, because readers who loved the ebook you gave them may decide to buy themselves a paperback.

15, unto infinity: Keep promoting your book into the sunset, while writing new books!

The time to stop promoting you book is whenever you feel you’ve had enough sales and reached enough readers. Until you reach a point where you’ve published so many books that you can’t handle marketing them all, you should still be trying to expand your readership!

And don’t forget to have a little bit of fun along the way. You worked hard for this. Celebrate it.

But what if I just want to get a book out there?

If your goal is not to publish a professional looking book with will expand your fanbase and set you on a path to full time authorship, but rather to have a piece of your writing available in a book format your friends and family can buy, then there’s no reason not to publish exactly how you wish to.

Are all these steps really necessarily?

I believe they are, at least for a debut novel. In fact, there are probably more steps which I missed entirely. But, if you can find multiple self-published authors who went through a less rigorous publishing process and still received hundreds or goodreads reviews, then by all mean, follow that process instead (and let me know about it!)

So which book did you self publish?

This one here! You can support me and my ability to keep giving writing advice by purchasing a copy today =D

[dandyfics]

taste ; lee minho ☆

━━☆

— summary: as many say, even the smallest things can create small clusters of happiness. what if that happiness comes from somewhere familiar? perhaps the local creamery you’ve grown too fond of?

— genre: fluff, a whole lot of fluff, ft. other skz members — pairings: ice-cream boy!minho x office worker!reader — word count: 2.6k — warnings: explicit language, cursing 

— author note: beware of spelling & grammar errors ! this was based on some random sub reddit so uhm– it doesn’t really have a theme ?? but i hope you enjoy my first **published** fic nonetheless bubs ! and of course, gender neutral !

You hate Mondays. The endless demands from your co-workers to grab some coffee, the hideous traffic anywhere you go, your boss shouting like a bewildered orangutan, and of course the ravenous feeling that washes in your stomach. You fear that you’re not going to make it by the time lunch break rolls in.

Obviously, this doesn’t only apply on Mondays. But the fateful day decided to be a special snowflake to you and your work ethic, which makes it ten times shittier than any other day. Not to mention the hefty piles of paperwork that you need to finish at home before August. A year into the work experience in Seo’s Publishing & Co. and you still struggle to get that promotion you’ve been opting since January. At least they pay you well.

But you weren’t alone on that exact Monday. Summer and it’s endless supplies of heat waves decided to enter your life before you even know it. As Han Jisung likes to say, what a great time to be alive. Not.

“It’s so fucking hot.” Felix limps on his desk chair, frantically fanning himself with a big blue binder. You, on the other hand, already prepared long before with two hand fans screeching atop your desk. “Why is the AC off?”

“Because Mr. Seo said ‘fuck global warming’, which is ironic since his office has two air conditioners that are always on,” Kim Seungmin says, plopping on his chair before turning on his brand new industrial fan that he keeps on bragging about since the beginning of July, claiming that he’s got the weather ‘under control’. Felix doesn’t respond at this rate, instead, he oggles weirdly at the fan Seungmin got from God-knows-where.

You groan miserably. “Turn that damn thing off, you’re perpetuating hot air onto my face.”

“I’ll do that. Once Jisung stops wasting all the cold air from the fridge.”

“I swear to God, Han. If you eat my frozen waffle once again.” Typical Felix who will always protect his food. That kid will protect his cream cheese bagel even if WWIII decided to occur.

Jisung frowns childishly. “It’s just too hot. I’m evaporating, literally.”

“Maybe it’s because I’m in the room.” Hwang Hyunjin merrily waltzes into the conversation, earning a few annoyed gazes and grouses from his co-workers.

“Choke on a baguette.” Seungmin grunts, throwing a crumpled printer paper at him. “Your presence isn’t needed here anymore, not after that promotion of yours.” Hyunjin smiles smugly, taking a sip from his ‘Best Uncle’ coffee cup. 

Yearly promotions have gotten a toll on you, ever since Hyunjin got his place as the assistants’ assistant, he’s been moved to the 3rd-floor cubicle; located right next to the main office, which – you’ve guessed it – is completed with a working air conditioner. Big headed Hyunjin has and will never stop mentioning it. ‘We’ll stay together till one of us gets fired’ my ass.

“You’re just jealous because I earned that cool cubicle on the 3rd floor. Unlike y’all peasants who rely on factory industry fans.” Hyunjin scoffs, emphasizing on the last sentence. Seungmin chokes on his coffee mug.

“You got a problem with Becky?”

“It has a name?” Jisung half-whispers at you, earning a shrug.

“Shut up, Hyunjin, just go back to your fancy little office and do your five stacks of paperwork that you haven’t touched since last week.” You quip, earning a high five from Felix. “Oh, and neither your niece nor nephew likes you, Hwang.”

Hyunjin gasps dramatically, hiding his graphic cup from your sight. “How DARE you.” Jisung cackles his ass off as if he’s enjoying some random Netflix show, watching Hyunjin as he takes an indignant sip from his cup whilst trying to explain that his niece just ‘mildly dislike him and nothing more’. You – being the only one with a sane state of mind – take a glance at the clock.

“Oh, shit. It’s already 12.” You murmur. “Anyone down to get out and grab lunch? I’m not talking to you, Hyunjin.” Felix goes in for another cheeky high five as Hyunjin flouts.

Seungmin pushes his glasses from the bridge of his nose, sighing. “Look, Y/N. As hungry as I am, I’m not going to burn into a crisp of bacon outside in this weather.” He retorts, continuing on his Pdf file. “Fun fact, it’s almost 34° Celcius outside. I’d rather starve to death than sweat to death.” Jisung sheepishly agrees, engulfing in the cold fridge air.

You turn to Felix sympathetically, expecting him to join you. “Can’t you see that I’m hyperventilating?” Felix whines like a wet dog, thudding his head repeatedly on his messy desk. You click your tongue at the pathetic sight.

“Okay, so no one’s gonna join me?” You ask for the last time. Rethinking again about getting burned in the midst of the July air. Was it worth it? Should you really drag one of your co-workers in the ungodly weather?

Silence.

You huff, disappointed lacing your features as a genius idea draws onto your mind. “Well, I’m heading to the creamery near the park. Don’t come at me trying to get a lick from my rocky-road cone.”

“Shit, ice cream sounds great right now!” Jisung squeaks from the floor.

“Please, Y/N, can you get me the mint chocolate one? I need something to cool me off.” Felix jolts from his seat seemingly refreshed and youthful again. Seungmin cheers from his desk, presumably also in the mood for something cold and creamy. Hyunjin screeches like a pterodactyl from the corner of your eye, screaming something about chocolate.

Your co-workers haven’t really grown up, have they?

“Suddenly I’m your servant? Nice try.” You reply playfully, raising an eyebrow at your half-melting co-workers. They all groan in unison. “Nothing is free. Everything comes with a pri–”

Jisung surges from his butt. “Tell you what, I’ll buy you dinner. Chinese at that place you always wanted to visit!” He offers, making the others try to think of a better deal than his. “Only if you get me the cheesecake ice cream.”

Seungmin follows up. “Y/N, if you get me a cup of cookies and cream, I’ll finish reviewing that book for you. Oh, and also a stack of your paperwork. What do you say?” Jisung boos at Seungmin’s boring choice of flavor.

“I’ll give you a foot massage!” Felix adds.

“Tempting.” You snicker smugly before turning to Hyunjin. “Aren’t you going to offer me something, Hwang? Anything?”

Hyunjin avoids eye contact with you before crooning. “Fine, I’ll give you a ride in my convertible for the rest of the month.” You mentally tap yourself in the back for getting great deals just for a bucket of cheap ice cream. Drastic time does require drastic measures, they say. You grab your bag and walk towards the elevator with a jolly good feeling.

“You all got yourself a deal. Better be ready for that foot massage, Lix.”

Dori Creamery. The sweet scent of vanilla and cream whiffs onto you as you walk near the entrance. You spent almost all of your college days being a customer in the said creamery. The place is medium sized, petite but fancy. The light neapolitan colors being the aesthetic of the shop brings back all the memories. You recall the seconds when you had your first date, celebrating your graduation with a cup of mango-sorbet, and your heartbreak spent accompanied by a tube of berry delight.

You liked the place. No, you loved the place. Hints of nostalgia always hit you whenever you enter the calming aura of the room, only this time, the creamery is packed with people. And not just any people; sweaty, loud, body-odor inducing people.

You managed to squeeze in the back of the line, avoiding the nasty body-sweat that lingers around. You can also go to another shop, but hey, where’s the fun in that? If you can’t even get some ice cream, what’s even the point?

“Excuse me, coming through.” You mumble as some guy nearly bumps you out of the line. The whiff of wind in the room is prominent, but the body heat everyone seems to be sharing nearly evaporates you apart.

You opted on scrolling through your phone while you wait for the person at the very front to make up their mind about ‘I’m on a low sugar diet but I really want to try the strawberry shortcake, should I?’. After a while, the line started to dry out, until there’s only you and a few others before you.

Everything was fine and dandy until you feel a force coming from beside you, nearly shoving you down to the floor. “Hey, what the hell?” You scold. A woman suddenly stands in front of you, cutting your precious time and line.

“I’m in a hurry.” She claims, whipping her head to decide on her order.

If you’re in a hurry why the fuck did you stop for ice cream?  A rasp of vexation coils in you, leaving you to do nothing but scowl at the woman. The heat isn’t helping either. A part of you wanted to flip everything off – including the woman – but you remind yourself that you’re no cavemen and it’s just some ice cream, it’s no big deal.

You couldn’t do much but sigh and wait for your turn, hoping that no one else would do something as ignorant as she did. Not even a single sorry? Great, just what you needed.

The woman finally decided on a pistachio order and storms off with a receipt in one hand and a double-scoop cone on the other. You irkly glance before walking towards the counter, repeating the order in your head.

“Uh, hi. I would like a cone of–”

“Rocky road with whipped cream?”

“Yeah, that. And– wait, how did you know?” You eyed the cashier, who’s smiling meekly at you. Nearly staring in awe, you almost forget about the whole order after meeting the enthralling smile painted on his face. “Do I… know you?”

He chuckles lightly, handing his co-worker a slip of paper. “No, it’s just that you always order that. Don’t you ever get bored of it?”

“It’s too good to be bored with.” You say, beaming idly. Finally, a nice–decent human being with good manners. “So, you’re not new here?” You mention, raising an eyebrow. The boy beams, reminding you of the Cheshire Cat – mere charisma laced in his smile. 

He shakes his head, denying your question. “Actually, I own this place.”

Your eyes widen. “Really? How come I’ve never seen you before?”

“You ask a lot of questions.” The boy teases. “I mostly work at the kitchen, perfecting my secret recipe. But I always know my customers.” He playfully answers. “Oh, and if you don’t mind, I added your order to that woman’s receipt. Can you imagine cutting a line just for a cone of caramel and pistachio?” Your eyes widen. Not so sweet after all, huh?

“Wh– isn’t that illegal or some shit?” You ask, worrying that your favorite ice cream parlor will shut down because of the FBI finding out about your stupid cone of rocky road. The boy shrugs innocently.

“Not if you don’t get caught.” He winks.

You scoff, an unfamiliar feeling clusters in your stomach, just like the thrill of first crushes but with a different – slightly bizzare taste. “I’m still ordering something else, though. Tell me, is the rocky road free?” You ask, still unsure of what just happened. Free ice cream isn’t something you get every day, come to think of it. He pretends to think for a while before nodding.

“But,” He says. “You have to do me a favor in return.” You raise your eyebrow, preparing yourself for any stupid favor he has in mind. The blossoming feelings doesn’t stop pounding in you, and suddenly it’s middle school all over again. “How about your number? That seems fair, yeah?” He smiles coyly. You snort.

“Sir, am I hearing things wrong or are you flirting with me?”

“Well, do you want your precious rocky road cone or not?” He playfully sniggers at you. You cognitively slap yourself back alive, lured in by his small tricks. You had no choice, do you? Hey, at least the boy’s cute.

You grab a piece of tissue from the counter without answering. “Do you have a pen?” Handing you a pen, he rests his head on top of his palm, watching you write down your number carefully – trying not to rip the tissue or create a hole. He smirks in satisfaction, watching you as your face washes in a flustered demand. “What’s your name?”

“Minho. Lee Minho.”

“As in the actor? Wow, I’ve never thought he’ll be selling ice cream downtown.”

“I wish.” You giggle at his response, handing him the nearly ripped tissue paper. 

“I’m Y/N, by the way.” You say, awkwardly rubbing the back of your neck. Minho slides the paper on his pocket, handing you a cone of rocky road with whipped cream and sliced strawberries on top as an extra dressing. “Thanks, I’m also ordering two medium buckets of cookies and cream with chocolate and mint-choco with blueberry cheesecake. No toppings, please.” You finally excecute the order after countless unsuccessful rehearsals in your head.

Minho writes down the order before sliding the paper towards his co-worker who seems to be wiggling his eyebrows from your view. “Wow, that’s a lot to eat in one sitting. No toppings?” You shake your head again.

“It’s for my co-workers. Oh, and spit on the chocolate one, if you may.”

“Kinky, but it’s not something I’ve never tried before,”

“I’m just kidding, geez.” You huff, trying to hide the bubbling smile as you wonder, trying to imagine what happened to occur that precise course of action.

“You work at the publishing company now, huh?” He asks, pointing at your nametag as he passes your two buckets of ice cream. You nod enthusiastically. “I remember you coming here late at night in your pajamas doing calculus while shoving cookie dough up to your face. Good times.”

A coral blush crept from your cheeks. “Okay, now you just sound creepy.”

“Well,” He says, his face panning closer to you as you flinch back in surprise. “I’d like to stay and chat, Y/N. But you’re holding the line.” Minho reminds you, cocking his head towards the line. “Let’s continue some other day, yeah?”

You glance at the clock and then at the line behind you. “Oh shit, you’re right.” Clicking your tongue, you mention silently. Disappointed that you have to go back to your crusty co-workers, who’s probably whining over the fact that you’re still not back yet. “How much for the two tubes?”

“Twenty five.” He answers watching you run swiftly through your wallet. “But if you’re willing to go to dinner with me next Saturday, it’s free.” Minho says. Your heart does a cartwheel as you stare into the boy, wiggling his eyebrows at you. What more can you ask from a good looking guy like him? Cheeky bastard.

“How can I say no to that?” The coral blush that tinges on your cheeks fades into a deep red. “To be honest, I’m baffled. You sure know a lot about me, but I don’t know much about you, Minho.”

He hums. “Let’s fix that, shall we?”

“You got yourself a date, Mister. Now if you’ll excuse me, someone at the office owes me a foot massage.” Minho winks one last time before you leave the ice cream parlor.

With heart in your hand and ice cream in the other, you walk out the creamery with a delighted feeling. Maybe, just maybe, you’ll melt away like ice cream in scorching hot weather if you think about the ice cream boy too much.