#i've been slacking on interacting with stuff the past few parties but it's just as important if not MORE important than physically attendin

[leafofkudzu]

Hi! I was a bit too late for art party, but my friends were there from the start xD Is there any discord server to share art from this meetings?

Aw I'm sorry you didn't manage to make it, but at least you can live it vicariously through your friends!

As for your question, since the overarching theme of art parties is Big Community Engagement, rather than posting things quietly on a discord server everyone posts their art to their social media of choice (usually here on tumblr, but I've seen a few come up on twitter as well) under the same tag so it's easily found - for us it's #VSArtParty! This means once people have rested up and finished their art/writing/whatever, everyone knows where to go to look for things and start engaging with it! :D

[femmedplume]

I've seen that you read Anita Blake so I wanted to ask you some questions (to satisfy my curiosity and to meet people who love this book series as much as me haha) ! Have you read all the released books (and the last one, Crimson Death, obviously) ? What do you think of the title of the next book, Serpentine ? And who are your favorites characters (humans or non-humans) ? 😁

Ooh, another Anita fan!

Okay so, I’ve read most of the books, but I kind of slacked off in the past few years. The last novel I bought was Danse Macabre, I think -- and then the novella Flirt. But! I do love the series and the characters, and I’ll do my best to answer your questions!

I’ve always liked the titles Laurell K. Hamilton has chosen -- they’re very cool and usually right on the button about what the novel is going to be about. I’m assuming Serpentine means we’re going to be seeing some lizardy weres, like the naga or something?? That would be cool.

Favorite characters, ugh -- that’s so hard! Obviously, I love Anita, although I could wish she’d get over some of her more ridiculous personal issues -- like, if she doesn’t want to have to do the succubus-sex thing so often, just eat more! It’s literally the BEST DIET EVER! You can eat whatever you want and your psychic powers will burn the calories, like?? Yeah, girl is a little more extra than she needs to be, lol.

I LOVE Jean-Claude! I feel like he’s the rock of the series in a way (don’t tell me if this changes in the books I haven’t read yet!) I mean, he’s always thinking fifteen steps ahead, and he’s willing to sacrifice at the drop of a hat for the people he loves/cares about/is responsible for. He’s totally crafty and manipulative, of course -- but dude is a French vampire, so I guess we have to expect that, lol. If ever I were to see Anita be with one dude, it’d be Jean-Claude. I honestly think they’re soulmates; you know, the Necromancer and the Undead Prince? Totally epic romance right there.

Sidenote: The more I see Matt Bomer, the more I think he’d make a good Jean-Claude, lol. 

And I LOOOOOVE Damian! He’s so sweet and gentle and traumatized, and just...ugh. He deserves a nice human witch therapist girlfriend or something. Someone to help him work through all the abuse and PTSD. Plus, I want him to not have to live in the basement all alone. :’(

Also, I know he’s a ginger, but I keep visualizing him as that one time in True Blood where Eric Northman loses his memories and becomes all sweet and soft and like a big, fanged teddy bear. 

...I may have too many feels about Damian. :/

As for most of the other vampires and weres, I love their angsty backgrounds, and in a LOT of cases, I feel like they deserve better than Anita's been giving them. 

Which is my one problem with the story, I guess? Especially as time goes on, Anita personifies the Only Woman in the World trope, which is just... not fun. There seem to be no women in her life who aren't Jealous™ of her, which is like? No? Women have friends? And then like, you set up this woman to be the only woman who literally HUNDREDS of men are trying to fuck, and then you wanna act like the other women around her are just being petty bitches when they aren’t here for the Anita Pussy Party? Nah, fam. Just...nah.

This is the main reason I stopped reading them, because as I grew up, I realized I wanted to see more girls helping girls in stories, ya know? 

(That, and because I think LKH lost some sort of bet where she had to use the word “Spilled” ONE MILLION TIMES in her novels. Seriously. There was a point where it was on like, EVERY PAGE. >:( )

What I really want is for LKH to grow as a writer and realize that she can stop Mary-Sue-ing Anita and still have a wonderful world/story. I want to see more clever, good-hearted and powerful women, more platonic friendships, and more men who can stand on their own without Anita’s love/sex. 

Ooh! And I’d really like to see some of the men in Anita’s harem strike out on their own, make their own relationships, and have THOSE relationships become powerful. You know, maybe say something about the fact that Anita’s big heart has influenced the men in her life to the point where their own ability to love/bond makes them strong, even without her? Like they’ve graduated from living in her shadow, and can now spread the luuuuv, lol. 

Or! Have some of the men fall in love with other women, who are great and strong and powerful and NICE, and make it more of a true poly situation where Anita actually has to interact with other women as equals, etc. And mebbe Anita is jealous of these other women, and then finally realizes what it’s been like for all the women around HER all these years, and stuff? But she DOES grow, and makes friends, and then there’s a coven of super awesome ladies and teh various supernatural mens who love them and protect St. Louis TOGETHER! :D

And! AAAAAND!!!

Then Jean-Claude could buy them all a big country estate, where the weres could run around in the woods and the vampires could snuggle in the basement and there could be a big banquet hall for family dinners and....YAY!

Yes, dis is good plan. 

Except for Richard. That dude is a violent, misogynistic jerk and I want him to go away. He’s the epitome of Nice Guy™ syndrome. Ugh.

Oh wow, I rambled a bit there, didn’t I? What do you think? :D