#idk what tags to promote books with

[regularbeans]

Gonna rep my sister's book here!

Hi!

Have you ever read a book?

Do you know what books are?

Do you yourself happen to be a book?

If you answered yes or no to any of these questions, you might be interested in this offer!

My sister (Helyna L. Clove) published a book recently titled Skylark in the Fog! A new adult/adult space opera/adventure!

Jeane Blake, captain of the Skylark, makes her living by looting dead worlds, remnants of a universe-breaking catastrophe hundreds of years ago. She only wants to be left to her smuggling business, but when her crew stumbles upon a dangerous invention, they draw the hungry eyes of the Union—and the empire will stop at nothing to get what it wants.

Maura Tholis, freshly crowned queen of the planet Miyoza, is fighting a losing battle for everything she holds dear. Plagued by grief, doubt, and fear, she has to leave her war-torn home behind, and the power she carries has the potential to change the course of history forever.

Forced to assist the refuge-seeking royalty, the Skylark crew is pursued by power-hungry militants and desperate rebels. The team has to work together to save their skin, their homes, and to preferably not destroy the universe in the process. But how do we go about saving the world when we haven’t even found our place in it yet?

⚓ get the e-book: here ⚓ see it on Goodreads: here ⚓ read the first two chapters free: here

She's worked on this book for some 10+ years, she's a huge sci-fi nerd so if you're into space stuff, Star Wars, Star Trek, other less mainstream sci-fi that I, a filthy normie have never heard of, then this is gonna be Right up your alley.

Please check it out, get it if you're interested, support her, give her a rating or a... ionno what bookworld accolades there are... nominate her for a... book oscar?

Or if you're a follower of mine, a reblog would be appreciated too, just to get her book out there and let the world find out about her Writing.

You can check out her official website here and you can go find her on twitter and see how cool she is over here

[prozacwhorehouse]

instagram feeds - mgg x snl cast member gf ⭐️

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hey guyss so this is not the promised piece because im still working hard and hardly working BUT i am happy with this sort of trailer for concept 😌

all pictures are taken from Pinterest but collages made by me !

instagram feed concept entirely inspired by @gibson-g1rl i love your insta aus 💗💗

hope you enjoy and i cannottt wait to get the full works out xx

y/ny/l/nforreal

❤️112k 💬 9k | liked by gublergram, marcellohdz and others

y/ny/l/nforreal not a moment of peace in this office @snl

marcellohdz: who is that dashing gentleman in the first pic

—> y/ny/l/nforreal: @marcellohdz idk I think it’s Colin Jost?

longfellow_michael: YOU are the reason there’s no peace.

❤️ by author

—> egonwodim: longfellow_michael disrespect my baby one more time. 😡

martinherlihy: Hey so I think you put the wrong selfie because I’m not in that one lol 😂😂

—> y/ny/l/nforreal: Noo i dont fink so

criminalmindsfanatic: MATTHEW LIKED???

—> hotchqueen4: HELLO??

—>mggrumple: THR FRIENDSHIP WE NEVER KNEW WE NEEDED

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mggupdates

❤️8k 💬358

mggupdates: Matthew with mystery girl in New York City, rumored to be comedian and SNL cast member y/n y/l/n

y/nfan: YUPPP THOSE ARE HER NAILS AND SHE HAS THAT RING!!!

—> unknown9495: @y/nfan I noticed that too!!

mggy/nfanclub: someone posted that they saw them it’s def her!!!

—>user63: @mggy/nfanclub pls tag me omg

movieluvr: livinggg for this friendship/relationship 😫

—> girlpwr88: @movieluvr46 i want him so bad

—> prncsspch: @girlpwr88 him?? I want HER

spencerreidswife: we lost him guys 💔

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y/ny/l/nforreal

❤️ 116k 💬 13k | liked by gublergram, marcellohdz and others

y/ny/l/nforreal recently in nyc

marcellohdz: sonny ANGEL 💜

—>y/ny/l/nforreal: @marcellohdz you need to be stopped

gublergram: rubber duck

❤️ liked by author

—> randomuser281: @gublergram MGG WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE??

—> whore4spencerreid: @gublergram HUH??

—> mggstan: @gublergram oh they for suree dating

—> spencerreid2005: @mggstan they could also just be good friends??

—> emilyprentissfan0: @randomuser281 someone PLEASE tell me if they’re dating

janewickline: coffee dates with my wife >>>

—> y/ny/l/nforreal: @janewickline marry me.

—> janewickline: @y/ny/l/nforreal I do. 💍

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y/ny/l/nforreal

❤️106k 💬18k | liked by y/ny/l/nforreal, yourbsfuser and others

y/ny/l/nforreal my friend wrote a book and it is quite nice. now he’s giving free copies out on his book tour which is why he’s broke anyways go read 💚

gublergram: thank you y/n this is the best publicity I’ve ever recieved!

—> y/ny/l/nforreal: @gublergram sure thing do you need a money loan too

—>yourbsfuser: @y/ny/l/nforreal Y/N 😭😭😭

—>spencerreidwhore: she ends him every day and I love to see it

y/nfancentral23: BROKE SHE CAME FOR HIM BYEEE

user18834: FRIEND?? we were all ROOTING for you 💔💔

randomuser: can we talk about how cute it is that she’s promoting his book 🥹🥹

—>matthewy/nshipper: @randomuser890 IK I love them so bad 😭

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gublergram

❤️382k 💬30k | liked by y/ny/l/nforreal, kirstenvangsness and others

gublergram you make me laugh every day. maybe it’s because you’re a comedian im not sure happy birthday 😊

y/ny/l/nforreal: wow thanks get rid of these pictures

—>gublergram: @y/ny/l/nforreal no

cmaddict: he’s def so in love with her omg

—> snlbiggestfan: @cmaddict1 I meannn who wouldn’t be

—>randomuser: THE it couple I love them so bad

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gublergram

❤️300k 💬27k | liked by y/ny/l/nforreal, aubreyplaza and others

gublergram bet you didn’t know y/n is also a professional makeup artist. i look spookier than ever @y/ny/l/nforreal

y/ny/l/nforreal: I just screamed

❤️ by author

cmfan3747: stoppp she’s doing his gublerween makeup now 🥹🥹

—> hater123 @cmfan3747 she’s almost 20 years younger than him. mad weird

—>yourshipnamestan @hater123 so they’re both adults hope this helps! ❤️

y/nfandom45: when is it my turn for a relationship like theirs 💔💔

—>user284: real asf 😖

—>troller293: so you want an inappropriate relationship with an inappropriate age gap?

—>user48: bro shut up

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y/ny/l/nforreal

❤️130k 💬 22k | liked by gublergram, marcellohdz and others

y/ny/l/nforreal it appears your smile has always been contagious. happy birthday old man

gublergram ❤️

gublergram: old man? i retract my previous comment.

❤️ by author

bsfsusername: THE LAST PIC HELLO

—> y/ny/l/nforreal: @yourbestfriendsuser the og hitch hiking ant

marcellohdz: gross ushy gushy caption delete this

—> y/ny/l/nforreal: @marcellohdz I still love you!

—> marcellohdz: @y/ny/l/nforreal better. 😊

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mgg x SNL cast member tag list <3

@sarcasm-and-stiles @mystargirl-interlude @rubyirene @ashrrams @ghostatrixx @forevermorepassionate @saint-boudica @reidmarieprentiss @awakeforu @spencerlicious @kittycat-april @baudarling @delusional-4-fake-people @avenlymars @angelinajolie0213 @arusio @littleslayofhorrors @jezabelle9299 @jaemnationnn

[marlenesluv]

book lover. (LN)

summary: you’re a booktuber, always posting about your books, coffee, music, and of course, your amazing boyfriend, lando norris.

warnings: none!

note: i’ll probably write another book reader for daniel as well. (the polls were close and idk i think they’d both be cute.) also, another note, haley pham, sara carroli, and destiny sidwell are bookstagram/youtubers, so keep that in mind while reading. this is for my taylor swift and books lovers, cuz me too.

masterlist here -> masterlist link

^ check my list for all posts! ^

liked by: landonorris, haleypham, and 246,275 others

y/n.user: “and it would’ve been sweet, if it could’ve been me”

view comments…

landonorris: are you breaking up with me????

|> y/n.user: HUH??

|> landonorris: the caption??????????

|> y/n.user: thats a taylor swift quote, lan. and it’s about the book i’m reading

|> landonorris: you NEED to update me on these posts before you post them

|> oscarpiastri: he was literally running around the paddock thinking you were mad at him

|> y/n.user: oh no, my baby 🙁🫶

haleypham: i cant wait for your new video :))

|> y/n.user: :))

|> booksfan: Y/N AND HALEY COLLAB????

georgerussell63: how on earth did you take a picture of your phone with your phone…

|> y/n.user: that’s not my phone….

|> georgerussel63: we’ll it isn’t landos?

|> y/n.user: i have other friends besides lando

|> landonorris: *boyfriend*

|> y/n.user: right, he’s also my only boyfriend

readerpop: live, laugh, love, y/n <3

_______________________________________________

liked by: y/n.user, danielricciardo, and 346,015 others

landonorris: my little book worm🫠❤️

view comments…

danielricciardo: what book is she reading, lando?

|> landonorris: i think “the tales of the housewives”?

|> y/n.user: i’m reading THE HANDMAIDS TALE LANDO

|> landonorris: i was close

f1wagsupdates: OUR book worm, actually

landonorris.fanpage: they are too damn cute

carlossainz55: mate, i think she rather read than be with you rn😬

|> landonorris: she said she’s “escaping reality”

|> oscarpiastri: so “escaping you”

|> landonorris: what

|> y/n.user: THATS NOT TRUE, STOP STRESSING HIM OUT

formula1.fp: cutest f1 couple

_______________________________________________

liked by: landonorris, des.sidster, and 251,947 others

tagged: haleypham

y/n.user: new video out with haley!! we read, drank wine, played uno, and suffered listening to lando and ryan talk about football🙁

view comments…

haleypham: literally, suffered. but at least we got reading time

|> y/n.user: so true

f1.edits: am i obsessed with the fact that y/n gives us lando snippets? yes, yes i am

|> y/n.fans: just wait, she said a while ago that she’s posting a video from game night with the grid

|> y/n.fp: is that even still happening??

|> y/n.user: mwahahaha, soon

|> y/n.fp: i think i j shit my pants omg

landonorris: everyone go watch my girlfriends new video!! she’s so pretty and cool and awesome and sexy and funny and adorable and etc

|> charles_leclerc: there isn’t a better promotion for this video

|> y/n.user: thanks lando! my boyfriend is also so pretty and cool and awesome and sexy and funny and adorable and etc!

|> landonorris: you think i’m pretty?🥹

|> y/n.user: my pretty boy

|> landonorris: ive passed out

|> maxfewtrell: YOU BROKE MY BSF

_______________________________________________

liked by: y/n.user, carlossainz55, and 401,284 others

landonorris: date nights consist of book shopping, reading, and y/n taking pictures of me in a golf cart!

view comments…

y/n.user: good thing you’re the photographer in this relationship

|> landonorris: and you can read enough for the both of us

f1wags: cuties are being cuties

bookstagram.edits: so y/n has GOOD book taste, i see

alex_albon: i think y/n has an eye with the camera

|> landonorris: don’t lie, alex

|> lilymhe: at least y/n can read

|> y/n.user: GO OFF QUEEN LILY✊

formula1updates: pls pls why are they so sweet, WHY AM I SINGLE

carlossainz55: how did you manage to get a girlfriend who reads and deals with you

|> y/n.user: he offered to buy me books, so i give him gf content

|> carlossainz55: ah yes, this makes sense

|> landonorris: thats not funny

|> y/n.user: hehe

|> landonorris: let’s see how “hehe” that is when i don’t cuddle you tonight and throw ur books away

|> y/n.user: NO MY BOOKS

|> carlossainz55: AHHHAHAHA MATE OMG

|> landonorris:…..cuddles……

|> y/n.user: I MEAN- OH NO I NEED MY CUDDLES

f1xupdate: omg the comments HELP

_______________________________________________

y/n’s instagram story:

seen by: landonorris, maxverstappen1, and 324,048 others

_______________________________________________

liked by: landonorris, saracarrolli, and 399,824 others

y/n.user: “he was sunshine, i was midnight rain” (lando its just a t.s. song lyric i love you.)

view comments…

landonorris: i love you more☺️

taylorswift: you guys are adorable! i wish you nothing but happiness and love <3

|> y/n.user: TAYLOR!? OMG YAYWBFLWNR KENT FI CSMT OWKFKS HELP DIDKSD OMGBRODK

|> pierregasly: uh oh, taylor broke y/n….

|> des.sidster: OMG Y/N TAYLOR AHHHHHHHH

|> y/n.user: IK AHHHHHH WKEKDOSK IABRFKDJE

|> maxverstappen1: lando. your girlfriend is glitching

|> landonorris: she’s sobbing in my arms, she’s more than glitching, mate

f1.edits: i am LIVING for taylor being here

y/nxlando.fans: where did taylor, mother, come from?

y/n.user: GUYS TAYLOR FOLLOWED ME. TAYLOR ILY AND I HATE JAKE GRRRR JAKE

|> arthur_leclerc: GRRR?????

|> olliebearman: i get it

_______________________________________________

(reposts, comments, and likes are appreciated!^-^)

[manysketchbook]

Firffels: the Wuzzles Competitor That Disappeared

Recently, I found this toy at my local thrift store. I thought it was an oddly cute nativity toy, but upon closer inspection the tush tag read "FIRFFELS. I'm glad to be a SHAMEL." I did a quick search online and the first result was this page on Ghost of the Doll, a toy collector's site that archives information about 80s/90s toys and includes a forum where anyone can seek help with identifying toys. This lead me down a rabbit hole of figuring out just what Firffels were: a failed line of toys promised to be the next hot phenomenon, with minimal documentation online and a handful of toys floating around in thrift stores.

Other than Ghost of the Doll, I found info about Firffels in this 2010 blog post by Trish Babbles (written in an edgy, mean-to-be-funny style that I think is too uncharitable, but it was a different time to be online lol) and this blog post by AF Blog. My other info comes from Othello Bach's website dedicated to the book itself (her personal site is no longer functional) and from a handful of youtube videos I found of a Firffels commercial. Many thanks to these sources, without them there'd be like, nothing online about these creatures.

Firffels are based on the children's book Who ever Heard of a Fird? by Othello Bach, first edition published in 1984 by Caedmon Childrens Books (upon Googling, it appears that Caedmon is owned by HarperCollins now and focuses on audiobooks). The story follows Fird, a fish-bird hybrid, as he travels the world to find other firds. Along the way he encounters a goofy, lovable cast of other hybrid animals who have all never heard of a fird. The story ends with fird learning to love his uniqueness and find peace with being who he is. As is apparent in the Amazon link above (not sponsored, just showing my work), a used copy is $86 dollars right now. An audiobook narrated by Joel Grey (an actor that I'm unfamiliar with who is apparently known for his role in Cabaret) was also released on cassette, listed on Ebay for $75+. Luckily, there is a youtube video of someone doing a complete read through of the book, but the camera angle is poor. This is the only visual record I could find online of the interior illustrations by Michelle Dorman, other than a brief look at a few in a low quality VHS promo rip I'll get to in a minute, and the image below from an Ebay listing. There may be a few more photos in some Etsy listings that I missed.

In Trish's blog post they complain that Shamel is an ugly monstrosity and there were a few comments on Ghost of the Doll's forum of the same nature about Shamel, but I think Shamel is the cutest one! It just looks like a new breed of camel, meanwhile Fird in the background here is...he's so cartoonishly goofy. Idk how else to describe him. He's so fuckin' goofy. He'd make squeaky Spongebob-esque sound effects when he walks, I imagine.

The book was allegedly a hit and Remco bought the merchandising rights. They went all in, as is detailed in the 5 minute promotional video below. Based on a cast of 6 characters, plush toys and posable action figures hit the market with a promise that Hanna Barbera would develop an animated tv show starring Firffels, housewares would be made, there'd be a clothing line, and Design-a-Firffel contests would be held. A few housewares seem to have been made and plush toy sewing patterns were released, but I was unable to find evidence that anything else moved forward.

Absolutely fucking insane fact: according to this video, Caedmon Publishing was owned by Raytheon at the time. Thanks Raytheon for these cuddly children's toys and also, uh, horrific weapons of war?

After I bought Shamel, I went back to the store to see if there were more. There were! I found Bertle and Elephonkey, who still had the original tags. I swear the day earlier I had seen a frog toy with butterfly wings but it wasn't there anymore. I remember passing over it and thinking "eh, butterfly wings on a frog aren't cute," and did not bothering even looking at the tags. My mistake. Turns out that toy was worth a decent amount of money and was part of this whole story.

Bertle's pink belly super bright in real life, like neon. There is a sunbleached spot on it's front.

Elephonkey is the only one with original tags. I also included an image of the tush tag. For each toy the tush tag is the same but displays the character's name.

Hybrid animals are not a unique concept. Wuzzles, a line of plush toys that were animal hybrids with wings and likely made to compete with Care Bears, are brought up in most posts and forums where Firffels are mentioned--usually to disparage Firffels as being knock off, less successful Wuzzles. Wuzzles weren't exactly successful either, though they definitely lasted longer and had more reach, likely due to the backing of a Disney/Hasbro budget. AF Blog in 2015 makes a good point that I agree with: it's unlikely that Wuzzles and Firffels were ripping each other off due to production timelines. Toy lines can be in development for years before any information is made public. It takes a long time to design toys, then get them to a manufacturer, then go through the revisions process. Not to mention the time it takes to ship things out, negotiate contracts at every step of the way, etc. And, as AF Blog notes, Whoever Heard of a Fird? was released in 1984, a year before the first Wuzzles tv episode aired, and Firffels hit the market a year later.

People draw hybrid animals all the time. For example, furry adoptable artists draw hybrids all the time (take a shot every time you find a closed species that is a feline with a fish tail or deer feet or some other animal's defining trait), the Lego movie had Unikitty, and I literally went to Walmart today and in the toy section there was a miniature rabbit-like rainbow animal with wings and a unicorn horn there. The thing that makes these toys potentially appealing, in my opinion, is that they choose safe and popular traits: sparkly horns and feathery wings, for the most part. Things that are easily marketable.

The thing with Firffels is that they combined animals with traits that are less immediately appealing. Image below from Ghost of the Doll.

Some of them are cute but the others miss the mark. Personally I like Shamel and Bertle (the plush version only tbh).

Worth pointing out is that the character illustrations do not match the toy designs. If you go back and watch the commercials included in the 5 minute promo video, you can see that the Bertle plush and action figure are brown and green rather than pink and blue, and that Shamel's hair is brown instead of purple. I saw varied photos of the Butterfrog plush: some were lighter green while others were darker. Could be an issue with differing cameras, but I don't know for certain. And then there's Elephonkey, who is the most inconsistent of the bunch:

The first image is the prototype toy as it appears in the commercial. It is grey and flesh colored, with odd looking plastic hair. The second image is from Ghost of the Doll, of how the Elephonkey action figure actually appeared in stores. Third is a photo of my Elephonkey plush. Compare it with the official character art...well, he's not my favorite design in any incarnation.

I think the toys in the commercials were prototypes that were changed to brighter colors so as to appeal more towards girls. In the 30 second plush commercial there are 4 girl actors and 1 boy actor, with the camera shots getting closer to and focusing more on the girls' faces, so it would make sense. In contrast, the action figure commercial features 1 girl and 2 boys, and most of the camera shots are of the kids' hands playing with the toys, giving off a more boyish, gender-neutral vibe. Classics of gendered marketing, am I right? lol. But I think the change was a good one. I wouldn't have picked up Shamel if I hadn't seen the purple hair, and I definitely would not like Bertle if he wasn't pink. It gives the toys more of a cohesive style, a unique identity, and they fit in more alongside the Wuzzles/Care Bears visuals with the vibrant, happy colors. There's more of a toy-like quality to them, which increases the cuddle-ability and inspires more of an urge to play.

Discovering and logging all this inconsistency has been pretty fun. But it makes me think that these toys were probably doomed by a chaotic, unorganized development process behind the scenes. And given that the book was published in '84 and toys hit the market in '85...the signs seem to point to production being rushed.

To be fair to Firffels, it was probably a little harder in the 80s to hit it big with kids. You had to be lucky, you had to have connections with the right distributors, you had to anticipate what is universally appealing to children--one of the most unpredictable audiences out there--and you had to pay to air your commercials during prime child viewing hours. These are all things that are still true, but we have the internet now and the advertising power of the internet is scary. Going viral on TikTok has the potential to skibidi someone's toilet career. iPad babies are growing up into grade school kids who throw birthday parties every year and get toys as gifts. We are living in an era where mass-producing cheap little polyester plushies and plastic figures is easier than ever and corporations have massive budgets to pump into kids' eyeballs through every advertising avenue they possibly can. They don't even need to come up with the designs anymore, they can just partner with whatever Roblox game is popular right now and capitalize on that. Maybe Othello Bach should get on Roblox.

Actually, it appears that Bach was given the short end of the stick by the time Firffels were pulled. Though her personal website is no longer up, her other website dedicated entirely to Whoever Heard of a Fird? has some info:

At the height of Fird's success, with over 100 licensees cramming the store shelves with children’s merchandise and an animation contract with Hanna-Barbera, the book and all the merchandise suddenly vanished from the shelves.  Although she lost the rights to several other published children’s books at the same time, Othello has never received a reasonable explanation for what happened.

So this passage actually clears something up for me. This whole time something that hasn't really lined up is that I had assumed that Othello Bach published the book first and then was approached for merchandising rights after the book sold well. I actually think now it's possible that from the get-go the book was written with the intention for it to become a worldwide sensation. Not so much Bach's intent, though. I have some professional familiarity with licensing and other such creative publishing contracts, particularly with books. Based on what I know, I believe it's more likely that Bach pitched her manuscript to Caedmon Publishing and Caedmon, seeking to create popular IP, was like, "this has potential and we are going to sign you on not only for the book, but for more." That might be why the character designs are so strange: they were trying too hard to get famous quick and had instructed the illustrator (it is regular practice for publishers to pair authors with an illustrator and given how much was on the line for this IP, Bach might not've had much input here) to design characters that could also become toys. It's unlikely that Michelle Dorman, a kids book illustrator, had product design skills needed to make standout, awesome toy designs. Not a knock on her, illustrators just have niches within their field that they're best at it. It's why you see so many illustrators complain about how often they get approached to design logos--that's not what we do, thank you.

What's sad is that clearly Bach had signed a bad contract that gave away most of her rights as the writer to the publisher. She openly says so above. My guess is that Caedmon told her they needed more rights than usual to be able to conduct so much merchandising (like signing contracts with Remco, much easier to do when you don't have a third party also involved), and because they were pouring so much effort into it on their end. Bach is just the writer, so while the original idea is hers, Caedmon would have matched her with an illustrator and taken charge of all the licensing and merchandising. For a publisher this is a huge commitment financially and personnel-wise, so it makes sense why they would have put forth a contract that gave them so many rights. If Firffels had become as popular as they'd hoped, they don't want to not own the IP. They would have poured all those resources into it and not be able to reap all the rewards because that pesky author would own it. It's almost like contracts like these are predatory and only serve the interests of the publisher. Almost like publishers are companies existing in a capitalistic system and therefore only serve profit, not people. Almost like companies will never truly have artist's best interests at heart, and if you are ever to sign a contract with a big publisher you need to have a good lawyer by your side.

It makes me so sad to read that they didn't even give her a reasonable explanation as to why everything was cancelled. She does not even appear to have any of the merchandise on hand, as all the photos on her website are from Ghost of the Doll. In hindsight we can guess, obviously, why the cancellation happened but I'm in the moment it was probably upsetting. It's still upsetting, given that she has included this in her website for the...revamped book!

However, like Fird, Othello refused to give up. For the next 20 years, she tried to regain the rights to her work. Entertainment attorneys assured her it would never happen.  They said, "It can't be done!" But... it could be done and Othello did it, regaining the rights back to all her work.

Yeah, so, I actually think this is the saddest part about the whole thing. She managed to get some of the rights back and republished the book with...new art...that looks so fucking BAD. Image from her website:

Sorry to this illustrator, but got damn. There is no sauce to this art whatsoever. It is unseasoned, not even salt and pepper. This looks like ass and would never fucking fly with any editor worth their chops. It took me ages to figure out that the long yellow curved line is Fird's tail. Like, this is so unbelievably sad to me. I don't even really like the original art a whole lot, but compared to this...

My informed guess as to what happened is that Bach lawyered up and fought. As we know, Caedmon is now owned by HarperCollins. I can't say for certain but there was probably some case to be made that Caedmon being sold breached the contract, or nullified parts of it, or perhaps the contract expired. It could even just be that HarperCollins didn't care about an old, unprofitable IP and granted Bach her rights back. There is also Remco to consider: they also hold some of the rights, but probably just for the merchandise? Given how prominently their logo is displayed on the toy tags, they might actually own a significant share. Perhaps they were happy not to have anything to do with the book so long as the merch rights weren't touched. I don't know! There's no info about it on the site and this stuff is usually under NDA.

So Bach got her rights back, but she's just the writer. She doesn't own any of the art, so in order to republish the book she had to hire a new illustrator. She likely did not have a huge budget for it, maybe even paying for it out of her pocket because the Choice Books logo she has in several spots on the Fird website appears to be for a distribute on demand service, in place of a traditional publisher.

As the writer, she also would not have gotten the rights to use the original audiobook, so she had one re-recorded. It also appears like she does not have the rights to the name "Firffels" either, as the only places it appears on the site are in photographs of merchandise and in titles specifically referring to the work that is still owned by Caedmon. She carefully refers to her own work as "Fird" for short or the book's full title, probably because she cannot legally imply that she owns or made anything else.

I dug into this thinking it would be a quick look at some strange, forgotten toys from a bygone era. Instead I found a story about how an artist can so easily be shafted by publishers. Everything always loops back around to workers' rights, it seems. Stories like this about shitty publishing contracts (see: Webtoon if you want to get into something current) still appear so often, man. It's depressing, and indicative that the publishing industry needs some reforming ASAP. Like, Illustrators, when are we getting a proper union?

But I'm glad Bach got her rights back and got her book republished within her lifetime. I'm sad she didn't have the budgets for a better illustrator. Sorry to bring that up again, I work as an illustrator irl and I have opinions about craft, lol. Also I just think that given how hard Bach had to fight, she deserved to have better art made. That being said, here's another link to her current website. There's not much there but what is there is a monument to a battle she fought and won, and is proud of.

The lack of detailed, clear, centralized documentation of these toys frustrates me. One of the most frustrating things about the internet for me is that there are few easily accessible, publicly available archives of toys--even for modern toys. I've had to use Amazon reviews and Ebay listings and broken online stores to decipher publication years. With this in mind I decided to do a write up and provide clearer pictures of the toys that I have (I'll take hi res pics in natural lighting too someday). Archives are important to me and the internet kinda sucks for it, I say as someone who started this blog for that purpose. If Tumblr goes down, so does everything I've posted here. As an artist who works primarily digitally, one of the scariest things is knowing that I'm laboring over an ephemeral body of work. It's just not going to exist for very long unless I print it out on archival materials. Data is not the same as a physical object. My Firffels have survived for 39 years but the digital art I draw every day is unlikely to last past 10 years because websites die and files get deleted.

I bought the Firffels from my thrift store thinking I'd resell them. I'm low income so I sell many of the things I thrift. I prefer to buy the older toys or the ones that need cleaning because it makes me feel better about being a reseller (I don't want to take away options from low income kids in my area, ya know?). But I'm putting in the labor to freshen them up and I'm putting in the effort to make unavailable toys available again, at least for one person. And I don't have a whole lot of shelf space to display the toys in my collection...but for now I think I'll keep them.

[lovemyromance]

Do you think Sarah and BB not announcing the next book while the shipwar continues is intentional or not? I’ve seen both arguments and I lean toward not because if i’m correct Sarah doesn’t really get on social media and yes BB would most likely have a media team or someone to help Sarah with marketing but I also feel like the shipwar is mostly within the fandom and not something the average reader would know about and so it might just be “a few bad apples” to someone on a media team or something scrolling through tags not like a full blown issue and not just that but you do have to manually turn on timestamps on posts on tumblr and it’s not always obvious when a tiktok was posted and from experience towards the end of TOG while it wasn’t anything as bad as this with tiktok not being around/popular yet it was the same level of anger and hatred over ships on tumblr like it tends to cycle through toward the end of Sarah’s series where things are wrapping up and all the sudden the fandom is in flames for a while

Honestly I think SJM has a really shit PR/Media team. They have never done a really good job with promoting any of her books and other than the random book signing and instagram live here and there, they're really doing a poor job of capitalizing on the popularity of her books.

In regards to the ship war, I think it only really exists online. Most casual readers ship Elriel or Elucien, and do not have any stake of interest in what is endgame or not. Gwynriel isn't even something that ever comes up, let alone is considered.

I don't think festering the ship war is intentional, as I don't think BB even knows of its existence. Even if it did know, it probably wouldn't know how to use it to their advantage anyways (sorry not sorry). I think the only reason it's taken this long to get the next ACOTAR book out is because SJM was working on CC, her tv show thing (idk if it's even happening still), etc.

If they were trying to be intentional about the ship war, the recent articles that have been published would've hinted at that. But most articles only mentioned Elriel, referring to Lucien as just someone who is her mate who she does not speak to lmao. If you think back to the twilight craze, we allllll knew Bella was going to end up with Edward. But there was still such a big ship war and it was purely just marketing. We had celebrities out here putting #team Jacob on their Twitter bios, teenage girls with full Team Edward merch, and whatnot.

So yeah, long story short, the next ACOTAR is taking a while because SJM is the bottleneck here, not BB trying to prolong some toxic ship war

[felgueirosa]

i was tagged by @speculatives for 9 people you'd like to know better! so here goes!

top 3 ships

hella x adelaide x adaire (but hella x adelaide in particular): ugh i've talked a million times about how i love hella and how the way that ali played her changed me as a person, but i just can't stop listening to hieron over and over again because i can't escape the dynamic of hella murdering adelaide, being haunted by her, and then falling in love with her after death and that being a factor in her changing her ways. like what if you are evil and you kill someone and then fall in love with them as you are haunted by them and your decisions. and also you're both girls. evil lesbian awakening.

idk i really like certain characters and am invested in their relationships because we have relationships with everyone, positive or negative, and they define our lives, so of course i'm invested in their relationships, it is their relationships to other people that helps create who they are as a character and also forms the plot but i don't really consider myself a shipper and also i can't think of any more right now and also i'm kind of a little bit drunk so if i think of more i will add them, hella adaire and adelaide just came to mind. idk like i said hope this makes sense i had some tequila.

most recent song: boadan nuppi bealde by mari boine (i started listening to my sámi playlist last night and then i was like. i should go to bed. shameless promotion of my sámi playlist. it's one of my great masterpieces)

first ship: spock x kirk. no comment.

currently reading: the traitor baru cormorant by seth dickinson. listen. i've been reading this book for months. i love it, it's my girlfriend's favorite series and she's gotten drunk with seth before, but it's very heavy and has some very personal themes to me so it's been taking me a while to read it. and i had to put it on hold for a bit bc some things happened in my life and i got super depressed and had to read something a bit lighthearted for a bit. but i love it and am still reading it.

last watched: derry girls. it's a comfort show and i still hadn't seen the most recent season(s) so i'm like now i have to watch it all over again.

currently craving: yuca frita. for days. i need to go buy some yuca and make it myself bc my sister came home from uni and brought the air fryer and the yuca frita at my fave venezuelan restaurant doesn't travel super well.

tagging: @bisexualmoses @librarycards @transboydororo @stenchblossoms @loveydoveykirk @minglana @misspickman @shadeslayer @discworldwitches if yáll want to and also anyone else who wants to! hope im not being annoying i love talking about myself

[hella1975]

hella idk what to send to you for aftg im either bored or annoyed and I don't wanna just say bad things about it 😭 like that's just rude and yall obviously like it I DONT WANNA BE SOME DEBBY DOWNER MDMWKEM

I looked at the anti aftg tag too to see if I could intermingle there and last I checked it was a mix of fans obsessed with the series and haters being just a tad harsh imo, so i couldn't even do that RIP. I'm so lonesome in what is maybe a whole group of people gaslighting me 😔👊

honestly ive said this before and i always have to tread a very fine line with it because this isn't me saying it's OKAY or like. promotable. but i do think to an extent that aftg's problematicness is actually an aspect of what draws people in a lot. like the characters and their reactions to things feel real for who they are, what they've been through and the environments they were raised in if that makes sense? and then you go in the anti-aftg tag and it's just again and again 'they said THIS thing and acted THIS way in response to THIS scenario and it was PROBLEMATIC' and like. yeah. outside of the internet bubble you're in people do actually do that. like that behaviour exists. it IS problematic, well done. you pointed at a wall and called it a wall. but like? in real life people - PARTICULARLY deprived, traumatised people that typically don't ever get therapy or community or someone telling them why something is bad - DO act this way. ive said half of my love for andrew is literally just because he took an awful backstory and let it make him a complete cunt and ive NEVER seen a character do it as shamelessly as him before. and yeah there's the argument for how it's never resolved in the book where nora ties it with a bow and points at the bad behaviour so the readers can go 'see, this is wrong' and we all clap, but idk it just for me feels that when people point at the aftg characters and go problematic! problematic! problematic! it's like they're missing the point a bit.

the point being? that we need to be putting WAY more heat on the author. i really dislike her and a lot of her writing choices and her insistance of using slurs that aren't hers to reclaim and just because it happened to make the characters feel just that bit more authentic i can still acknowledge that she CLEARLY wrote it without characterisation in mind and just added all that problematic shit anyway. like i never get why there's so little focus on nora's writing decisions and thousands of posts just fucking CRUCIFYING the characters themselves and 'let's explain in detail why this behaviour is Morally Reprehensible and they should be Locked Up Forever'. like if u want to focus on the characters so bad and pretend they're the sole reason why aftg is Problematic and Bad then why is it so hard to acknowledge that someone raised the way they were might have some misinformed, ignorant beliefs. idk lol

[waywardangel-wilds]

Tag Game Tagged by @thesweetnessofspring

Thank you for the tag!

Favourite painter: I actually do have a few there's, of course, Van Gogh -- mostly because I watched many documentaries on his life, and he is depicted as someone truly kind. There's also John William Waterhouse for Circe, as well as all his maiden and knight paintings. Davinci for being unhinged. And, I am ashamed to add, Jean-leon Gerome because his paintings promoted orientalism, which is bad, of course, but I also very much love the colors and the way he painted veils and skin.

Favorite writer: oh, this is impossible because it changes constantly. Right now, I would say Katherine Arden, Suzanne Collins (obviously), Tyson Yunkaporta, and S.A. Chakraborty. Each one of these authors has written one or more books that I've truly loved.

Favourite band: Hm. I actually don't know. I used to listen to specific bands more often, but now I listen to music song-by-song. I think the artist that I listen to the most is Natalia Lafourcade and Los Macorinos. They're not technically a band, Natalia does a lot of solo work, but I love them together.

Favourite meal and drink: OHOHO, okay, this one is easy. I could crush my spicy chicken with potatoes and rice any day. I make it with those canned chipotle peppers and lots of sour cream its soooo good. My favorite drink would probably be either earl grey, matcha, or just mango-guava juice. Let's go for mango-guava 😋

oh! and if you wanna eat something else that's amazing try steak in jalapeño cream. OMG it's the best but it's only good if you go to Latin America and eat it there haha. I have my hands to cook it tho😆

Favourite outfit aesthetic: This one is an extremely specific answer. It's probably best described as seductive vampire meets office-inspired-but-not-appropriate meets early 2000's cooky love interest. Do you know what I mean?

Favourite singer: I can't say Natalia sooo other singers that I love are Mon Laferte and Shakira.

Favourite item I own: I really like my bike rn. It came in from the Netherlands even tho I bought it at a local shop that told me they just had to 'ship in' the one in the color I wanted from a nearby location. Turns out the nearby location was fucking Europe.

Favourite perfume: I have 2 perfumes that I actually wear but my fave is by Bvlgari and its au the blanc a.k.a. white tea.

Favourite possession: does this mean like valuable item? Hm... idk. I don't really own valuables. Oh! I have this miniature replica of a Bernini sculpture, the Rape of Prosepina. I got it off amazon if you can believe it! Someday I want to see it in person. Here's a picture:

tagging:@mollywog @triassictriserratops @tetheredfeathers @everdares @loungemermaid @endlessnightlock @thesmileykate @wistfulweaverwoman and everyone else who would like to join!!

[isekaid-bitches-tournament]

Sorry to bother you even more about the shen Qingqiu vs Kim dokja poll since everyone is on fire about it. But I just wanna say I think it's kinda sad how some ppl have devolved to insulting the other book in their hasty bid to promote their favorite. Like esp the tags I've seen calling scum villain disgusting or trash or whatever, or the ppl still insisting that orv isn't an isekai. I think an actual discussion here would be funnier than whatever dumpster fire we have going on rn bc these are BOTH cringe fail losers from overly complicated messy unreliable narrator stories and they have so many parallels.

Saying all this I do gotta say it's also hilarious that ppl promote Kim dokja on the basis of being gay and in love with yoo joonghyuk to where ppl in the story ship them because I wonder if they know that KDJ is up against a man who had that exact same thing happen except he actually got married in the end lol (hence why I voted sqq lol).

Like it's that sorta thing where I feel like if ppl on both sides looked at the other side here w an open mind, they'd probably see a book with a lot of whacky stuff they'd really enjoy. Idk I just feel bad for all the vitriol that's gotta be going on in ur notes rn 🫡 you're stronger than me fr for being able to handle it at all

oh i 100% agree I'd rather see uplifting than putting others down here. and please people remember: every character here got submitted. it means all of them are someone's blorbo. before you write something nasty about a character try to imagine what you would feel like reading that about a character you love. at the end of the day we're all people trying to have fun here

[vinylattes]

8 shows to get to know me better

thanks for the tag @little-orcs-hurrarrumm !! <33

ABBOTT ELEMENTARY (2021-)

my current fave!! i’ve been seeing it a lot both here and in twitter literally the first months it started airing, but i’ve been busy and all that. binged the whole thing recently, and it deserves a long run! story’s well-written, scenes are very wholesome and fun to watch, and what an amazing ensemble of cast and characters!!

DIRTY LINEN (2023-)

pinoy pride!! tfw when you watch a trailer and you just Know the entire thing’s gonna be good? (and they knew what they were doing with those posters)

i’ve never seen a teleserye i truly love since the killer bride and la vida lena, like, this is the first time i’ve been invested in a filo show so far (there’s just something abt revenge girlboss dramas)

neways, international fans can still watch it thanks to the subtitles in iwanttfc and youtube. but i hope filipinos love and promote it even more.

WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS (2019-)

i thought i would be Normal abt it, now i’m a changed person. a mutual rb’ed a gifset of memo being insane with the “and if one day he doesn’t, well...”, and i was Intrigued so i binged all three seasons in one day.

i have to confess that i finally tuned in because of taika, but i’ve found reasons to stay: nadja, guillermo, matt, harvey, the characters, the silly plot, have i mentioned nadja and guillermo?

YONDERLAND (2013-2016)

ult fave! this show just GETS me!! i wasn’t there when it aired, so i’m not really sure if it’s a hit in the uk or us but i don’t think i would’ve discovered this show if i didn’t watch ghosts. deserved a lot of awards and recognition. just a silly goofy show that i didn’t and wouldn’t want to know what’s happening most of the time, and i love and enjoyed every single bit. society needs more shows like this one but this masterpiece will never be replaced imo

BBC GHOSTS (2019-)

i’m still in denial that this show is ending, but i think it’s their time. i would still definitely watch fillers after fillers as they drag the whole thing, but just like yonderland— that’s not very idiots of them to do so.

nevertheless, it’s a very comforting show! love how they truly understand the characters they write and portray. a found family of a bunch of dead losers, what more could you want!!

THE FLASH (2014-2023)

arguably the first fandom i’ve been kinda active in after my long hiatus from fandoms i think ? (i was more of an observer than a contributor back then)

the first seasons were so good. i miss westallen so much. eobard was so cunty. harrisco were my first attempts in giffing and editing in general. i still love them, but idk if i’m gonna be able to actually finish the show (i stopped after s7)

OUR FLAG MEANS DEATH (2022-)

actually a great show, but no longer one of my faves bc the fandom ruined some things for me sorry. it was fun waiting for ep 7 and 8 to air, but i do wish i was there since the beginning when it was still fun and quiet. neways, i miss the brainrot that possessed me to learn giffing.

GOOD OMENS (2019-)

i was there when this baby was born but didn’t get the chance to be involved until they’re like a toddler. the brainrot was insane when i used up my savings for the funkos, the original books and the script book like !! i miss them so much and i can’t express how excited i am to see them again this summer !!!

tagging @larryrickard @autisticharrywells @spineless-lobster @baynton @bluntbeard @moondogss @fiovske @horuuuuu and anyone who wants to give it a go! <33

[mineonmain]

9 People You'd Like To Know More

Thanks for tagging me lovely @incandescentflower 💛

Last song: I may or may not have had I Need Love by DKB on a loop for the past few days. Sorry for listening to good music ig ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Currently watching:

Jun and Jun (i have so many issues with this show, the top one being it's so boring!! I'm living for the Mr. Heart cameos and that's it rn i'm so sorry to all the girlies enjoying it. big fat nothing sandwich for me)

Hidden Agenda (a little slow on the 'plot' so far but i'm obsessed with joongdunk joongdunk-ing all over the place so i'm fucking living. no comment)

Minato's Laundromat 2 (just waiting for it to end so i can see how it ends. will we get any major character development? will we officially have 2 couples?? will minato stop being allergic to physical contact?? tune in next week!)

I Feel You Linger In The Air (just saw ep one the other day and it's looking SO FUCKING GOOD, if y'all aren't watching it you absolutely have to)

About to start:

idk. i'll have to see what's coming up and see if it looks interesting. Might tune in to the Korean Why R U remake just to see how bad it is lmaooo

Just finished:

Sing My Crush (underrated and not hyped up enough!! Nothing groundbreaking but a grand time, for a change it doesn't have a lot of the usual tropes and that's really refreshing!

Currently reading:

Not actively in the middle of a book bc I just finished one, but i'm starting the Good Omens book next.

Current obsession:

I don't know if I have a specific obsession over any one particular thing at the moment, but maybe it's ZB1 (or as I like to call them, Bepler)?? I've been following their journey since day 0 (stan our fruity king Jiwoong) and it's just been so much fun. I'm also following a whole bunch of the trainees who didn't officially debut with the group, hearing a lot of news of them debuting now too (and that too with a lot of their fellow trainees too - i haven't seen another survival show that was this popular that this many trainees have debuted together - you have the upcoming jellyfish ent team, haruto's new group, the redstart ent group, wumuti and jay and jongwoo are busy promoting, and wang zihao's just debuted)

uhhhh who can i tag. my usual girlies i guess @whatisgodtoanonbeliever @liyazaki @onstoryladders @webetterlove @respectthepetty @rythyme @antisocial-burrito @disasterbabygirlnick @dribs-and-drabbles @bisexualhedgehog @vegaspetesupremicy (that's not 9 yes i know, i am not jared 19)

[nalyra-dreaming]

I'm honestly so pissed off at the AMC social media marketing strategy like what are they thinking

And after that MW post everyone is extra mad. Is it that hard to make a new page?

Also two account can joint tweet now so just mad a new one?

What about the IWTV fans who don't watch MW,or when award seasons happen whom will they tag? When ppl want to follow for IWTV but find MW instead what then? If new shows get added still the same page? How long will the back and forth happen?

It's just so stupid.

And short-sighted. I don't get the reasoning behind it. It would be clever to have an "Immortal_AMC" account and then "Immortal_IWTV", "Immortal_Mayfair"... whatever. THAT would fit.

@neilcfreak said it's because they were unprepared for a fandom... while that may very well be true... that just makes me even more mad tbh. They buy these books for an enormous amount of money, want to spin 7 series out of it... and don't anticipate that the cult books The Vampire Chronicles might have fans? While their main actor has been a fan for decades? If only one tenth of what Rolin Jones tells of how he turned back after that initial meeting and said "hold up" is true, then that alone should have informed them of fans of those books, right there.

And no - it is NOT hard to make an extra page, or build up a following for an official series. I have done it for fan projects and that is work, because you're not official, but even then... they're just.. IDK. Stupid.

That first MW post... I can understand... from a very naïve, short sighted POV. They looked at the numbers and went "whoa".

While totally forgetting WHY those numbers are even higher now, despite the critics, and the rating and the... miserable tweets. Personally I like the Mayfair Witches alright enough, but I find it a good show to.... scroll my timeline to. That would NEVER happen with IWTV. There's just no comparison. Mayfair Witches is pretty sometimes, but it lacks depth. And chemistry. I wonder how the numbers will develop -.-

And... then to not give IWTV proper promotion right now.

Thats's just....

I really can only call it stupid.

I am a bit afraid though that they will just continue to do as before... if people don't tell them very clearly now that they want their own channel. I don't use Twitter anymore, but I will be telling at least their Instagram exactly that.

Maybe that'll help -.-

[thisisadecisionimayregret]

mid-year book podcast freak out 2023

Got tagged by @allcountersarehipheight, which thank you so much for tagging me, I love to be tagged in things lol, but uh

I kinda realized that I haven't read enough books to actually do this lmfao. I did start reading Ancillary Justice this past week, and I read the book How to Keep House While Drowning (definitely recommend), and I've read a decent amount of fanfic.

But (as you know) I've had some Big Life Changes this year. Who knew, looking for apartments, packing, moving across the country, and starting a new job seriously eats up time and makes reading books difficult lol.

So anyway. The only media I've actually really consumed this year are podcasts, cause the move if anything only increased the time available for listening to podcasts. And this looked fun. So I'm gonna just. freak out about podcasts for a minute

Best book podcast you’ve read heard so far this year

The White Vault. Hooooly shit y'all. This show. I'm feeling so insane about it rn, and I am really looking forward to their next season whenever it releases and listening to their patreon-only miniseries in this world. I am just in awe of their entire production, the writing, the creeping dread and terror (my roommate laughed at me for my reactions), the fucking sound design!!!! lemme say, having Done sound design work myself, shit is hard and they really made this show next level real. And god it is impossible not to fall in love with the characters and sucked into the plot. If you hear it, it hears you too....

Best sequel you’ve read heard so far this year

The PALISADE season of Friends at the Table!! Another installment in their Divine Cycle stories and it continues to be my favorite podcast on the planet. It makes me feel so much I have trouble putting any of it into words. I can only scream incoherently and reblog the gorgeous wonderful fanart for this show. Everyone needs to listen to fatt right now immediately. This is not news to anyone who follows me lmfao

New release you haven’t read heard yet

The new season of Life with LEO(h)! I loved the first season, and I am really excited to listen to the second one that's releasing now. I haven't quite gotten around to it though, it's one of the shows where having both earbuds in helps me keep track of everything, and since I'm usually listening to stuff at work where I can't have both earbuds in, it's just been. Sitting in my playlist, waiting to be played.

Most anticipated release for the second half of the year

Within the Wires season 8, definitely. I've been listening to the show since the first episode released in 2016 and it has remained one of my all time favorite podcasts for that entire time. I have no idea what the next season's focus will be, it's always something different, and it always always wrecks me, and it is always rearranges my brain. October can't come soon enough.

Biggest disappointment

The Two Princes. I had listened to the first season whenever that came out, but didn't follow it when it went exclusive on spotify, cause fuck spotify, but this year they quietly gave up on making it spotify exclusive. And maybe the fact I had enjoyed but felt pretty meh about season one should've been a hint for my reaction, but hey, they autodownloaded, so I decided to listen to seasons 2 and 3. And y'know. It was fine. It just wasn't particularly good. Idk, maybe I'm not the target audience for that show.

Biggest surprise

Lost Hills: The Dark Prince. It's a surprise cause it's not something I would've sought or picked out to listen to on my own. But you know the thing some shows do, where they go "hey, we're promoting another podcast, so we're dropping their first episode in our feed, enjoy" and you just go along with it instead of skipping, and afterwards you go "hm well I haven't cared about malibu or surfing At All my whole life, but now i just Gotta know the fucked up history of this One Dickhead who had a huge influence on the surfing culture that extends into the present day." Well. Here we are.

Favorite new author (debut or new to you)

Fool & Scholar Productions! Not debut, but new to me. They're the team responsible for The White Vault (among other shows I am looking forward to listening to). Seriously, their writing and their audio production are so so so excellent and I really admire their dedication to Getting things Right, particularly in regards to how they write international characters and go to great lengths to cast people from those cultures and who speak those languages to act. And although I haven't had a chance to listen to their TWV patreon-miniseries Imperial, the whole thing about using an endangered language in it and working with speakers and scholars of that language to get things right is just. Wow. It's incredible and I am (again) so excited to listen to it and their other shows, this team really just makes the language nerd and audio nerd in me vibrate

Newest fictional crush/newest favorite character

This was so difficult but I gotta say, Vivian Exler from the Upstairs and Downstairs game of fatt Road to Palisade. Gardner/groundskeeper who gets the revolutionary zines and is constantly bickering with the mechanic. I am predictable and quickly become a fan of any Jack de Quidt character and Vivian was no exception.

Book Podcast that made you cry

Yet another win for The White Vault here. It made me cry multiple times, for sad reasons, and I mean this another glowing recommendation for this show. Love to be made to feel emotions

Book Podcast that made you happy

Ologies with Alie Ward!! Literally this podcast is just a constant source of joy and makes me so happy to be on this planet. Every single ologist Alie interviews is so genuinely excited about their subject and it is endlessly fascinating to learn more about the world around us. There's episodes that definitely can be bummers, but even the bummer episodes ultimately instill in me optimism and hope and appreciation. And also I get to leave every episode with a handful of fun facts I can bring out at parties when I'm anxious.

Alright, there we are! I'm gonna tag @housetalis (eternal thanks for introducing me to TWV) and @grand-magnificent. Feel free to do the original book freakout or do a podcast freakout or to not do it at all — no pressure either way!

[artinandwritin]

So ever since I handed in my portfolio for the first part of this semester, I have been playing the Sims with one goal in mind. Wait, no, two;

The first is to procrastinate the work I have to do for my grading in one and a half weeks.

The second is to create the perfect Niv from GusSiri's combined DNA (which sounds weird lmao)

So far;

I tried to start building a house for them but got distracted by the gallery. So I just picked a cute gallery house and redecorated it

Created GusSiri!! They look absolutely adorable together but for some reason they keep forgetting each other's name

Siri has developed bad vision??? So she wears glasses, which is funny cuz in her canon story she's an archer and has really good eyesight

Gustav became an introvert somehow. Um. Idk how that happened?? But he is a freelance writer which is funny. He's really following in his hero Snotlout's footsteps

On that. I keep having him write books on his adoration for Snotlout. It's very funny to me lmao

Siri is a babysitter and had a promotion after the first day!! And it means she has more time to do romance things >:)

GusSiri are going very slow but they are vibing so hard. The bed bugged and now one keeps sleeping on the couch

GusSiri eloped lmao. They're married AND IT'S NIV TIME!!!

I just realised the house may be a bit small for a family lmao but i am too lazy to fix it rn

SIRI IS PREGNANT AND SHE'S LOOKING SO ADORABLE

Also her with her lil glasses is so cute

Gustav keeps being a little shit and doesn't do anything in the house while his heavily pregnant wife is taking care of everything herself. HELP HER YOU LIL SHIT

OH HE'S FINALLY DOING SHIT GOOD JOB SON

Yeah maybe because you keEP SPENDING MONEY

IT'S BABY TIME

THEY HAD TWINS I REPEAT THEY HAD TWINS. I SWEAR FIRST THEY HAD A BABY BOI AND I WAS SO HAPPY CUZ BABY BOI MEANS NIV. AND THEN THE GAME SAID THEY HAD A BABY GIRL TOO

So in this game Niv has a twin sister and her name is Elisabeth (curtesy of @beebooca who I kinda have been livestreaming this game to lmao) I love them sm

Oh no I gotta upgrade the house now. I hope GusSiri have made enough money.

So far it's going great and the twins are great babies. Niv and Siri just became besties!!! I hope the new infant stage is gonna be just as easy

OKAY I KID YOU NOT BUT THE GAME MADE A NIV. BLACK HAIR GREEN EYES THE WHOLE LOOK AND I DIDN'T EVEN NEED TO CHANGE ANYTHING

LOOK AT HIM HE'S SO CUTE. ALL I HAD TO DO WAS GIVE HIM CUTE OUTFITS AND BOOM WE HAD A NIV

SWEET BABY ELISABETH LOOK AT HER!!!

Oh I love the twins sm. I must resist the urge to make Elisabeth canon in some way.

Someone left baby Niv outside??? Bro this is so sad SOMEONE COME PICK HIM UP

Why are infants so hard. Gustav just has permanent bags underneath his eyes and Siri has to sleep so much

Siri and Niv are bonding. This is what we are doing this for.

I cant wait until the kids are toddlers smh. Also

Same

Anyways um. This was it for now? If anything interesting happens I will keep you updated lmao

@rosiethedragongeek for the tags!

[amiscreations]

Thank you for the tag @de-luxeviolets ! 

Nickname: just Ami!

Sign: Capricorn

Height: 4′11

Last thing I googled: Discogs.com

Song stuck in my head: Slow Ride by Foghat (I'm learning it on bass atm)

Number of followers: idk, I never check on here bc its the only social media where followers do not mattar at all to me

Amount of sleep: anywhere between 3-10 hours lmao, it depends on what I'm doing

Dream job: it honestly changes every year or so, but I think my ultimate dream job would be to create art for bands and films etc, either for marketing or promotion. but right now realistically, I'd love to work in Lush again, I worked there a year ago and it was genuinely the happiest I've been and I miss working there every day. It’s retail tho so there are just no vacancies and the ones that do come up are very competitive where I am lmao

Wearing: my dark blue starry top and my green blue and yellow mandala harems, and ofc lots of random layers under those bc its cOLD😂

Books that summarize you : Coraline by Neil Gaiman, The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R Tolkien

Favorite song: this changes a lot, but one that always comes to mind is Move With Me Slowly by Def Leppard! Some honourable mentions are: Shelter Me by Cinderella, Quicksand Jesus by Skid Row, Stand Up (Kick Love Into Motion) by Def Leppard, Man On The Rocks by Mike Oldfield, We Sink by Of Monsters And Men and lots of others!

Favorite instrument: bass and also maybe cello or harp. I can play bass but not the other two😂

Aesthetic: 70s-80s glam metal, and also hippie/boho

Favorite author: Patrick Ness or Richard Ayoade

Random fun fact: I'm (apparently) distantly related to Bill Wyman, he’s my mum’s third cousin or sth. He most definitely doesn’t know I exist tho😂

Tagging: @mccoys-killer-queen @and-i-want-and-i-need @anotherhitandrun @hungercityhellhound @elliearty @thiswatch-lepparddef-werehi (idk who else to tag lmao and sorry if you've already been tagged a bunch!)

[astrolotte]

Sorry for reblogging this again but I wanted to address these prev tags:

I'm gonna be awfully bold here and say that they are definitely not doing that. In part because it's a huge no-no to kill a baby in films/books/etc, but also in part because... well, she's an established character.

If you don't already know, they didn't invent May "Mayday" Parker for this movie. In fact, she was one of the original Spider-Verse characters, if not the first ever (I'm not an expert lol)

Mayday first appeared in a What-If? comic in the 90s, a series dedicated to random what if scenarios, and the prompt for this one was "What if Spider-Man had a daughter who also had powers?"

Soon after she got her own comic that went on for 100 issues before being renewed, which is the longest unbroken comic line for any female Marvel character.

Actually, Mayday almost didn't get those 100 issues. Spider-Girl faced cancellation many times, but every time fans would write letters to Marvel, begging them to not cancel the comic. And it worked all the way up until comic 100 :p

She may not have had the most fans in the world, but those who loved her loved her dearly. Her comics are fun to read and she's a very enjoyable character :)

This is all to say that... well. If they were to kill her off it would be a HUGE mistake. Mayday has a lot of history (and a record), and a very dedicated fanbase. There are many people who want to see her finally be in a movie, and this is her first chance at that, baby or not. If they killed her off a lot of us would be devastated... We love Mayday as a character, and want more people to love her too.

(also if people like the idea of Mayday in the movie they might bring back her comic/finally introduce her into the mainline Spider-Man series please Marvel please)

But along the note of them not killing Mayday off: I don't think they're gonna kill of Peter B, either. One bit of Mayday's original comic that I liked is the fact that she didn't have a treasured family member die to teach her about responsibility: she didn't need to. She's the daughter of Peter Parker, of course he's gonna teach her about responsibility. Girl's gonna have that ingrained into her skull. Neither Peter nor MJ nor her eventual brother Benji had to die in order to teach her anything. She was able to figure it out by herself.

They did eventually kill Peter off, to my personal chagrin, in order to get her to join the plot of the original Spider-Verse comics. I regard this as a dumb bitch move because Mayday didn't need anyone to die in order to join a fight that threatened the multiverse (which her universe is obviously part of), but I'm unfortunately not writing these comics.

(also the writer for Spider-Verse, Dan Slott, would come out with a comic series about his own spider-daughter character, Annie-May Parker, just a few months after Spider-Verse ended. I'm not accusing him of ruining Mayday to promote his own character but I am very miffed with his decisions.)

But anyway I bring this up because I feel like it'd be weird to kill off a major character in your story like that, along with the fact that May's (original :/) story didn't include his death as all, so there'd be no reason to write it into this version. She doesn't need any lesson to be responsible in the future or anything, and it'd just be a little weird to give her a big tragic backstory out of nowhere. Girl doesn't need that she's cool on her own.

Anyway. Sorry for the long ass history lesson um my excuse is I have a hyperfixation <3 If they kill off my fav superhero I will march straight up to Sony and idk probably kill someone

Papa Peter B. Parker and his daughter Mayday Parker 🕷