#if i had a penny for every time someone commented on the blog name id had a very full pocket of pennys

[loveanddeepthroat]

Gurl- I fuckin love your user name ✨✨🥹

I have the humour of a teenage boy 🙃

[joaquinwhorres]

hey! don't mean to be annoying but do you know how to get notes for your fics? I've had tumblr for 5 years and I'm still a noob when it comes to this stuff. I've been wanting to post stories consistently for a while but when i do they don't normally get the validation that id like. thank you!

Oh man, I wish I knew the answer to this. I think it’s a blend of talent, consistency of posting, and good luck. Some vague observations:

1. You have to be active in the fandom you’re trying to post in. 

Before I post anything, I immerse myself in the fandom. I start reblogging a lot of stories and pictures and images I’m interested in. It helps to know what’s already out there, what the fandom likes to read (tropes, headcanons, etc.) and what holes are missing (nobody’s written a tutoring fic before…). 

It also helps to get your name out there and start making connections with other blogs that will read and REBLOG your post. 

Which brings me to…

2. You need exposure.

This is why authors harp on about reblogging all of the time. If you like a fic, reblog it. Because reblogging means more people are exposed to your writing and there’s a higher chance for notes.

3. Your story should be well-writen.

Know your characters. Write them with a personality consistent to the source material. 

Check your spelling and grammar.

Read your dialogue out loud in order to make sure it sounds realistic.

Don’t write in too high of a register or too low of one. 

Get someone to beta your work if you’re not sure about the above.

4. Wish on a star. Find a four leaf clover. Discover a penny heads up.

Basically, you need a good amount of luck. I have no idea why my story Public Knowledge blew up as much as it did. It’s good, but honestly, I think some of my other stories (Bottle Rockets) are much better. Obviously, the fandom disagrees. Such is the way of writing.

5. Don’t write for notes.

Ok, this one may seem cliche or hypocritical because I need constant validation. But I notice that when I write for notes, my stories aren’t the best. They don’t get as many notes as when I write stories I love & am passionate about. That isn’t to say every story I love gets notes. They don’t. (Probably because of the things above) But at least I’m happy with it. 

Also, I think it’s better to write for FEEDBACK. I always judge my worth as a writer (for better or worse) based on the number of asks I get about it, the length of my tag list, and amount of comments or tags, as well as people massaging me. 1 feedback > 25 notes. So, even when my things don’t blow up, if I have a solid “cult favorite” (for lack of a better term) I’m very happy.

If anyone else has any insight into this, feel free to add on.  I’m still not sure how I’ve gotten ½ of the notes I have. 

[daysofparker-blog]

Chapter 1: Meeting Virginie

New Post has been published on https://www.daysofparker.com/chapter-1-meeting-virginie/

Chapter 1: Meeting Virginie

I started this blog in June and to most, it’s unknown why I started it. Well, today I am finally going to tell you the reasoning behind my newfound inspiration. While writing my blog I left cryptic hints of something that was happening in my life. I kept mentioning October 2nd throughout my entire 100 days of blogging. In my 27th blog post, I mentioned that I made one of the most life-changing purchases to date. You will finally learn what that purchase was and why October 2nd was so important. Here we go!

This story starts way back on July 31st,  2016. I meant a stranger on a chat forum I regularly read but I rarely ever post on. On that night, I was bored and wanted someone to chat with about music or some other benign topic. Little did I know, this stranger would go on to change my life and flip my world completely upside down.

Most strangers I talk too usually go forgotten within a couple of days but this one was intriguing in so many different ways. We would send lengthy letter-like messages back and forth, talking about everything under the sky. This proceeded on for just over a month before we finally decided to exchange numbers. Once we had each other’s numbers the conversations would only come to an end when our eyes forced us to sleep. When we weren’t texting it would feel like time came to a stop. It was torture waiting for replies but it never lasted too long.

Finally, after two months of texting, I started to realize I was developing feelings for this person. I must admit, this felt very foreign to me because I always thought of myself as being single forever, given my situation. One night after returning home from a concert, I mustered up the courage to tell this person how I truly felt. I told someone who was not family that I loved them for the first time.

She told me that she also had feelings for me but she was not ready to use the L word yet. I was not discouraged because love is an exceptionally powerful word and shouldn’t be used lightly. We kept our conversations going but they were definitely a bit more personal from this point forward. The type of stuff you keep behind lock and key (not naughty stuff, you pervs).

One morning she was leaving for her parent’s house and we exchanged our farewells as usual but the last text she sent said: “I love you”. The feeling in that moment was unlike anything I have ever experienced. It was like a volcano erupted in my chest and the smoke was making me light-headed. She said I love you! I honestly read that text one-hundred times over because I could not believe it. I can safely say this was one of the greatest moments of my life but there were definitely more of those moments to come.

After we established that we were officially dating, we needed to figure out how to meet up in person. There was no way I was going to fly her to Arizona in the Summer and the Spring was to close at this point, so we decided on her flying to Arizona on October 2nd, 2017. Nearly a year away but it was good because we needed to save every penny possible.

Fast forward to February 8th, 2017 (my birthday!), a ticket from Lyon, France to Phoenix, AZ went on sale for ridiculously cheap. There was one small problem though, we were short a few hundred dollars. At the time, I had to pay off a recent ticket with the portion of the funds I was saving up. I was completely devastated because flying out of France isn’t cheap and this ticket was over 50% off the regular price. We both stayed positive and told ourselves another opportunity would come along. Deep down inside I knew that was very unlikely.

Later that day I was talking to my very good friend Willie about the ticket price and the situation we were in. A few months earlier he offered to buy the ticket for us but it did not feel right taking that amount of money from a friend. There was no way I could have paid him back in a timely manner. During our conversation, he offered once again to purchase the ticket for us. I honestly didn’t know what to say but Willie made it easy by only taking “yes” for an answer. That day Willie had given me the greatest birthday gift ever! He gave me the opportunity to meet the love of my life and I am forever grateful for that.

With ticket in hand, all we had to do now was countdown the days until we finally got to kiss. During this waiting period, we liked to talk about what the future might have in store for us. Where would we live? The U.S. or Europe? Initially, we agreed upon Europe but given my situation, it just was not plausible. How many pets? Children? We both don’t ever want children so that worked out great. Then we brought up marriage because that would be the only way we could live together. By this time, I knew this woman was my dream girl. I had never experienced this much chemistry before and I didn’t want to let it go. She was my lost treasure and I wasn’t about to lose it.

On June 27th, 2017 I made one of the biggest purchases of my life, I put a down-payment on a gorgeous Ruby and Diamond engagement ring. I chose a Ruby because we met in July and I knew she was not a big fan of Diamonds. I didn’t keep the fact that I wanted to propose to her secret because of our unique situation. However, I did keep the ring secret and how/when I would pop the question. We agreed it would be best for us to spend some time together in person to see if we continued to click before I purpose. I didn’t have a doubt in my mind that she was the one but it’s better to be safe than sorry.

Virginie’s engagement ring

Now that you are caught up with what has happened the past year, I suppose you probably want to know the name of this mystery woman. I would like to introduce you to the most beautiful lady my eyes have ever seen, VIRGINIE! Virginie is the lady who I can never stop thinking about and I love it!

Virginie!

  Chapter two will be released next Saturday.

[askpetethelibrarian]

Chuck Finley: Hero or History’s Greatest Monster

Burning up the news the last couple days is the story of a librarian who created a fake library patron named “Chuck Finley.” The purpose for creating this account was, according to the librarian in question, to check out books that were headed from the chopping block, thereby removing them from a list of books to be withdrawn from the library collection and giving them a reprieve. Like the President on Thanksgiving pardoning a turkey, this librarian was trying to give these books a new lease on life.

Let’s talk a little bit more about this story, what I think is accurate and what I think is nonsense.

First off, the city inspector general is saying that creating a fake library patron is creating a false public record, which is a serious crime. That part I think is nonsense. Yes, it’s a fake public record. But this, to me, likely goes below creating a fake ID to get into bars on the dastardliness scale. While technically accurate, this accusation puts fake library cards on the same plane as some much worse crimes. This fake library record looks like an innocuous, victimless crime so far, or at best one where somebody is reaching for a victim.

Next, this:

Though [the librarian’s] branch isn’t one of them, several libraries in his county receive funding based on their circulation numbers.

Let’s find a phone right there, and let’s hold it. 

I HATE when a news outlet does this. They’re bringing up an irrelevant fact to make this scheme seem a little more sinister. Some libraries receive funding based on circs, but not his? Then why would this matter?

This idea is posed in such a way that it gets you thinking, “This dude was trying to line his pockets a bit because higher circs meant he got more cash,” but it does not sound to me like he’d see a penny. Bad news, bad.

Okay, let’s talk about the other side of this.

The guy was checking out books that were, allegedly, headed for something we call the weeding list, a list of books that are slated for evaluation for possible removal based on a few factors, such as popularity, age, and likely condition.

Weeding is kind of a taboo subject in libraries, but it shouldn’t be.

Weeding is the removal of books from the library. Sometimes by way of recycling, sometimes by way of donation, sometimes by way of booksale. 

Weeding is a necessity. I’m sorry. We can’t keep everything. Where would it go? If someone can answer me that simple question, how do we get new stuff and keep ALL the old stuff, where is it all going to live?

Let me tell you about some low-hanging fruit, perhaps to help us better understand how/why weeding is done.

A library that doesn’t archive old materials should not keep, for example, out of date medical texts. 

That same library should not keep books about our solar system that cite Pluto as being a planet. Even though I’m pretty sure this is just a scheme by scientists to sell us more books and make up new mnemonic devices, whatever, we shouldn’t be keeping this inaccurate information.

That same library should not be keeping law books that are outdated as those laws are no longer applicable. 

That same library should not be keeping books about travel to the American southwest that are out of date as these materials will not be helpful to travelers.

That same library should not keep something like the Writer’s Market from 2002. That information is no longer valid. 

Coin values from 1999. Invalid. 

Now, this is all based on the idea of a common use library. I’m sure there’s someone out there for whom seeing old coin values is important, perhaps for research purposes. I’m not saying these materials need to be wiped out. I’m saying that, in order for us to get new, up-to-date materials, something has to go, and it often works out that the something that goes can be replaced by something that’s similar, but more accurate.

Fiction is where we really get into trouble.

Fiction weeding has been hard for me. I have offbeat reading tastes. I didn’t think that was the case, but especially when it comes to fiction, I’ve run through a list, pulled things, and seen many an item that was last checked out by me. It’s a weird, isolating experience to see that, and that’s my closest understanding to the nature of the weird, isolating experience of seeing that an adored book has been pulled off the shelf without your knowledge.

A favorite person of mine, author Connie Willis, posted a really great blog about this whole thing. Her point is that when she was growing up, the library was her only source of books. Therefore, it needs to offer a wide array of options. Maybe you don’t get a Connie Willis if the only reading options available to her as a young person are mainstream, super bestseller fiction titles.

Willis makes some good points about poor weeding decisions in her blog. For example, the weeding of a Colorado author from a Colorado library. This isn’t great. The inability to find Our Town, Moby Dick, or Three Men In A Boat in any library is also a problem.

What this illustrates to me, however, is that a lot of libraries are making a mistake. Not in the fact of weeding, but in the way they trust technology more than they trust each other.

I recently read a post by an older gentleman who is in accounting, and he was commenting about the usefulness of a liberal arts degree. Contrary to popular belief, he made a solid point about the need for artists in the world of work.

He said that business-educated people will often approach a new idea with the question “How does this advance my career?” A techie will approach a situation and see if there’s a technological solution. An artist will approach a situation and ask about solutions, but also ask important questions about ethics. He said that the times he’s worked with artists are the times he’s seen someone say, “Will this hurt someone unnecessarily?”

Weeding lists are a technological solution. And we like to view technological solutions as being perfect, but they are not. We like to view them as objective, but that’s also untrue because the ways in which they operate are set by people, who are almost never objective. 

Technological solutions are tools. We should be using those tools as guidance, as another source of information, but not as the end-all, be-all. That’s still best left to a person.

Just last month I worked on weeding a graphic novel collection. And there were lots of things that were flagged for weeding because of disuse that I felt would be foolish to get rid of. 

I know which things are being made into movies this year. The technology does not. I know which authors are starting in on writing much bigger titles, which means their old works are likely to become in-demand. The technology does not. I know that there are some very, very good books that don’t check out as often, but they are worth keeping in a rounded, balanced collection. The technology does not. I know who is coming to ComicCon this year. I know which TV shows are in the works. I know all these things because I choose to experience them, and the technology can’t make that choice. It can only go by the set parameters. How long since someone checked this out? How many times has this gone out? How old is it? No consideration for the fact that a graphic novel may have Princess Leia on the cover, and with a new Star Wars out and the passing of Carrie Fisher, this may attract a new audience. 

Will Eisner’s works haven’t been performing well. But I’m here to tell you that these are seminal works. I refused to mark those for weeding because anyone developing a deep interest in comics is going to explore Eisner.

Let’s get back to Finley, and let’s speculate. 

I’m going to speculate that Finley’s library, like many libraries, has developed a slavish devotion to the weeding list, prizing its wisdom over that of staff and valuing its numbers-based decisions over those decisions made by staff who work with their public every day, who clean off stacks of books from tables on the hour and see directly what people are using. Who are very likely to spend a good portion of their personal lives pursuing a very deep knowledge of books.

If this is the case, then I think Finley did the right thing. If his library, like many libraries, said that the only option for weeding is to follow the list, then he was backed into a corner. His knowledge of literature and what people want and need was going to waste until his plan started. He had to make a choice. He could do what he was told, or he could do what was right.

Sometimes, the only option is to be a rogue.

I’m with Finley. Honestly, I wasn’t at first, but I’ve come around. The reason being, we’re viewing what he did as less subjective than a weeding list, which is untrue. It’s just a different subjectivity. We’re viewing an individual as having less knowledge than a data table, which is not true. 

But more than anything, what I think people have ignored is the fact that this individual was willing to take a fairly large risk in order to do what he thought was right. At the very least, I think convictions that strong, expressed by someone with personal knowledge and who is willing to take big personal risk, warrants a much deeper exploration into how things are done.