#it's the same format of all the history book chapters i've been reading

[floralpunkbarton]

things i truly did not expect but absolutely should have: a year+ of reading A Lot of non-fiction has definitely changed my writing style

[raindrop-on-a-spiderweb]

Sending love to one of the best writers on ao3 😘💕 I check your page frequently and wanted to ask about the things that you enjoy doing or aspire to do

Hi Anon, it's so sweet of you to send this ask to ask after me. Rest assured your words are appreciated on this end; thank you from the bottom of my heart and top of my soul 🫂 I'm very glad you think highly of my work even after so long, and I'm so so sorry I haven't had any new content in such a long time. But I am hard at work on a oneshot that will definitely be published before the next chapter of Samarra, so the well won't stay dry for long! The summary is “A jaded prison nurse must come to rely on a man she hates and fears in the midst of a deadly prison riot.” I started writing it in the ward; it's based off of the Moundsville Penitentiary which is an especially spooky place I've been to–an old 19th century prison made of towering stone turrets, eerie high ceilings, and rusted iron cells packed together like pigsties. I'm hoping to get that atmosphere across; it's about ⅔ of the way finished so good progress is being made!

Well I enjoy writing, most of all, but I've already talked about that in detail a thousand times so I'll spare you. I love reading, of course (I just finished “The Five”, about the victims of Jack the Ripper, and it's a fascinating bit of history and an incredible and horrifying look at Victorian-era industrial Britain). I love exploring the mountains with my cats trotting along beside me and photographing what I find. In all honesty I'm a bit of a trappist–I rarely see people except hunters and cashiers, and most of my time is spent alone with myself or my dad. But each day is an adventure when you're in nature and each season brings primordial and beautiful changes– I collected watercress the other day and found the downy remains of a fawn. 

I love watching old movies. My dad and I were watching Laurel and Hardy last night and I swear it holds up a century later. Before that we watched King Rat, which is one of his–and my–favorite movie; about two men stuck in a Japanese prison camp and the Machiavellian and underhanded ways they survive there. The book is particularly good too, and the epilogue about rats devouring each other has haunted my dreams for a long time. 

On the same subject, a series that I highly recommend is called Tenko, which is very similar to King Rat, except the prisoners are women. It's so grueling, realistic and enrapturing; I've never seen anything that so squarely focuses on women's experiences, relationships with each other, the hardships they face, and how they struggle to survive together in a thankless, deprived environment. The backstabbing and despair that comes in their darkest moments, the love and support in which they uplift each other with, their mistrustful and uneven relationships with their captors that occasionally erupt in friendships and affairs–and all the episodes are on dailymotion, too!

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x74u4fi

I like dreaming most of all. So many of my story ideas come from my dreams. The worst thing in the world is waking up and trying to catch the stray strands of the dream slipping through your fingers. It's amazing to live so many lives–good or bad–inside your head. Sometimes when I wake up, I feel a sweeping, palpable sense of relief that I don't live in the world I conjured last night, and sometimes I wish I could just claw myself back into my brain and live in that little pocket world for the rest of my life.

I do not aspire to much. I don't really have any base wishes but to keep writing and live til 70. We all have our hopeful fantasies, of course, and when I finally do get Ragnatela on Amazon Kindle (Microsoft Word is trying to swindle me out of one hundred and fifty American dollars to use their dogshit platform, and since the manuscript is half-edited, I'm afraid to lose my formatting if I switched to a free program like Libreoffice) maybe it will get some attention. 

I still intend on writing on Ao3 until the day I die, though. Even with its unsavory content I have such a soft spot for its unrestricted freedom of speech and prose. Plus I don't want to give up talking to you guys and goofing off in the comments ☹️ I also aspire to stop drinking. I'm sure I've already shaved a few years off my lifespan with my tippling habit. But when one day is much like the other, is there much point in extending it?

I aspire to travel around the United States more. I took a trip through the Deep South to visit Savannah and it was enrapturing; something I will remember for the rest of my life. Rusted-out cars felted in green moss, skinny, grazing horses in windswept fields, peeling roadside signs advertising tent revivals, clownish golliwogs behind still windows of cafes, forgotten tugboats half-sunken into lagoons, highway strip hotels where craggy hookers peered at you suspiciously from their fold-up chairs, and derelict cemeteries separated between Union and Confederate. It was just post-Irma and we were often the only tourists at any of these places. The effects of the hurricane were stark and obvious, with the land in a state of shock before any official agencies came to clean them up. I remember boats crashed into the harbor and grandfather trees felled in front of opulent antebellum homes, and the sea churned brown and murky when we trekked to the beach. The sense of desolation, and not only from the hurricane, was chilling–but I loved being there and loved being swathed by the kudzu and history. My mother is very ill and before she dies we might make up briefly and take a trip to New Orleans together and explore rural Louisiana; I'd always wanted to write a story set in New Orleans. Louisiana is a fascinating state with its mixture of Napoleonic and Creole influences; and I've always been drawn to the grand, decaying tombs of New Orleans as much as I have been to the odd Francophone swamps and their hidden dialects and traditions. And one day I would like to go way, way out west and explore the Gold Rush ghost towns. All the mines where I am are filled-in, so I would like to venture underneath the earth just once. 

Most of all, I aspire to be alone, and live by myself for the rest of my life, far away from town, somewhere in the mountains like where I am now. I wish I didn't have to see another person for the rest of my life. Being alone with myself is bad enough, being with others is intolerable.

Anyways, I apologize for my undue pleonasm, you caught me in a chatty mood 😀 Here's an excerpt from the newest prison one-shot:

Rhoda had met Jesse Fitzner her first day on the job. It was midway through her shift, and she was taking a lunch break and grading her sister Sherise's homework in her office. The day had started with a white-knuckle ride in early morning mist so thick she couldn't see the taillights of the car in front of her. Midway through her preliminary tour of the prison, an inmate had stuffed his toilet full of socks, which promptly overflowed and leaked sewage out of the cell onto her high heels. The hoots and jeers had made her speed up, trying to avoid the leering eyes of her future patients. And her introduction to the mental ward, by a younger but just as pessimistic Fawna, had not lifted her mood any either.

So there she sat in her office, snatching a moment of calmness and frantically scribbling corrections over Sherise's homework before her sister turned it in tomorrow. And then the door swung open.

A blond man poked his head in and briefly raised his eyebrows. He was wearing the omnipresent, drab gray prison uniform, pants and a sweatshirt rolled up to his elbows. "What are you up to?"

She flipped the cover of the notebook over.

"Going over my sister's homework. Is there something you need?"

"Passing on a message to Nurse Judson. One of the inmates wants to switch his blood pressure medication."

"Oh, she'll be back soon. I think she's–doing something with the prisoners. Just give her a few minutes."

"No hurry." He pulled the chair opposite her and sat down in it. "So you're grading your kid sister's homework? Shouldn't she be doing that herself?"

The man had thick blond hair that stuck up in back like a duck's tail, and very rosy cheeks. He looked like he had just shaven, by the nicks on his neck. 

"It's a long story. I should be–"

"I've got time. If this is your first day, you need to take some time to yourself to relax--else you'll end up in the infirmary."

Rhoda laughed. He had a nice smile and a nice manner about him–very jovial and friendly. It was refreshing to see a man who didn't stare at her like she was a piece of meat. "Well, my parents died when my brother and I were still young. Seth was seventeen, I was fifteen. He went to work so we didn't have to break up the family, and I stayed home to care for my little siblings, all three of them. It wasn't fun. I always wanted to do more for them than what I was stuck with, so I'm making sure they get good grades and go to good colleges. That's why I got this job in the first place, to put some back for their college funds."

"That's real decent of you. I don't know a single woman who would go so far for their family. You'd best be proud of yourself. Where's your brother now?"

"He's working out of state in Pennsylvania. He found a good woman and has a concrete contracting business now."

"You got yourself a man?"

"Never saw the need. Someday, maybe, when I'm lonelier."

"Working here for a few years will train that loneliness for a man right outta of you." 

They both laughed at that, and Rhoda felt her tensed muscles begin to relax. "I didn't catch your name."

"Jesse Lee Fitzner." He reached across the desk to grip her hand. For being such a small-built man, he had a crushing handshake.

"Rhoda Ames. Pleased to make your acquaintance."

"I knew a few Ameses when I was on the outside. Where your folks from?"

"Beckworth, west of here."

"Oh, you're bullshitting me. I have folks from there too. You don't know a Harry Fitzner, do you?"

"Harry who used to run the car repair shop?"

"That's him! My uncle. He retired a few years ago. His lungs got to him. Too much time in the mines."

The door slammed open again. An elderly prison guard, who had greeted her rather abruptly upon her hiring and who had a hard and wrinkled face, was standing in the doorway. When he saw Jesse, his face grew harder. "What are you doing here, inmate?"

Jesse raised his hands, still not moving from where he was leaning back on the chair. "Just dropping off a message for Nurse Judson."

"Next time, leave the message with Nurse Ames and promptly return to your cell. There's no reason for you to be here actin' so friendly."

To Rhoda's mild disappointment, the guard grabbed Jesse by his arm and yanked him out, harder than he needed to. Before he was escorted out, Jesse tossed a glance over her shoulder and winked at her. "Rhoda, you're a young lady, and I'm a bit of a spring chicken myself. I think we would get along real well outside these walls."

Rhoda couldn't help the giggle that bubbled up from her throat. She felt lightheaded. She was a rangy and abrupt woman with a working tan, and hadn't much experience with men flirting with her.

When Jesse was marched out, Rhoda stood up and grabbed her peaked nurse's cap, girding her loins for the next shift on the ward. While she was counting medications, the elderly guard–Miles–came in again and shut the door behind him. She flinched, expecting a dressing-down on her first day of work. I wasn't fraternizing with the prisoner, was I? Am I… am I gonna lose my job?

He sat down opposite her. "You ever hear that tale 'bout the lady and the snake?"

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to–"

"Old story; old, old story. One of them Aesop stories they wrote when people was still in togas and carved words in stone. A woman was walking home one day when she saw a frozen snake lying on the side of the road. It begged her to save its poor little self, this little creature of God. So taking pity on it, the woman brought it home and warmed it by the fire between her breasts. And as it thawed, it bit her breast. 'Oh, why would you do such a thing? Your poison will kill me,’ she wailed. And the snake smiled and said, 'You knew I was a snake before you brought me into your house.'"

Rhoda stared at him, puzzled. "I don't understand."

"You know what that fellow did to get in here? Fitzner was top dog in a motorcycle gang outside of prison. A real nasty one. He ordered a contract killing on a rival gang member. They snatched the poor fellow when he was leaving a bar. Hung him from a tree, broke his legs with doublejack hammers, used him as target practice with their sawed-offs, cut his dick off and shoved it in his mouth, then left and let him choke on it and bleed to death for the rest of the night. He was out, too, far out in the mountains, and they only found him weeks later when a hunter stumbled on him. One of the killers snitched on Fitzner in exchange for dropping a drug felony sentence he was staring at. That snitch went into hiding and changed his name. Two days after Fitzner was taken to this good penitentiary, he was found with his head beaten in, in a dry creek bed."

Rhoda's head began to spin in slow whirls. Her hand where Jesse had shaken it grew very clammy. She remembered his bright smile across the desk, his dark eyes, and felt bile and vomit churn in her throat.

"You both were talking for a while, I noticed. He's good at prising information out of people, Fitzner is. A boyish smile and a few good words and he can make both men and women melt like butter on yer tongue. See? Now he knows who you are, and where your folks live. Now he can get to you."

Rhoda tried to talk, but her tongue was paralyzed. She looked down and wiped her sweaty hands on her knees.

Miles got up and went over to the door. He looked out of the window set on top, and his hard face relaxed. He seemed much older in that moment, more wrinkled and exhausted.

"You'd best be careful of him, Nurse Ames. He's a bad 'un. I'll be glad to see the back of him."

As it turned out, Miles retired later that year and it was Jesse who saw the back of him. 

And Rhoda became very wary of him from then on. Whenever he saw her in the hall, in the chow line, in the infirmary, he smiled at her and tried to make small talk. She ignored him, or was curt with him.

Unfortunately, he seemed to take that as an invitation.

[bronzewool]

Dune is ruining my life.

I have not been able to stop thinking about the series ever since I stumbled across the sequel in the library. And since it's like 1/3 of the length of the original, I picked it up for some light reading just to see if there was something I was missing.

I am frustrated by how much I desperately want to learn more about this world, but I don't wanna read it in this format. The Worldbuilding is fine. The characters are fine. The relationships are fine. The history is fine. The conflict is fine.

I just hate the writing.

Dune Messiah does the same bloody thing in the first book, where it announces the motivations of each character and spoils many plot twists that would have been shocking to learn for yourself. The first chapter even starts with our four central antagonists in the same room talking about how they're going to overthrow House Atreides. So we know who to look out for before Paul even meets them, not that it matters since they're all so bloody incompetent, their plan to overthrow Paul is both way too complicated and laughably straight forward.

It's been 12 years since the first book, Paul got his revenge on the man who killed his father, overthrew the Emperor, and made himself the new Emperor with a devout Fremen army and a monopoly on the Spice extraction.

Except things aren't so perfect. Paul, who is cursed with clairvoyance and has seen the future for all humanity, is trying to avoid the extinction of the human race but, in doing so, has made himself the villain.

"At a conservative estimate, I've killed sixty-one billion, sterilized ninety planets, completely demoralized five hundred others. I've wiped out the followers of forty religions-"

His followers see him as a god and have become a cult who will cut down all non-believers in his name. He has brought water and wealth to Arrakis but is playing the long game, destroying the lives of billions of innocent people for the sake of trillions not even born yet. He's a hard character to root for when you've spent an entire book watching him struggle to earn his happy ending, only to then watch him commit mass genocide in the name of the greater good.

And the book doesn't tell you straight out the gate that Paul is now evil, but let's you digest the consequences of all his decisions. For example, Paul has full control over the Spice trade, a life-extending drug that most citizens have been exposed to at some point. The spice rightfully belongs to the people of Arrakis (even though Paul himself is not a native), but one of the drawbacks to ingesting spice is that withdrawal eventually leads to death. Everyone who takes one step on Arrakis can never leave or must depend on frequent shipments of the stuff in order to keep on living. We are never privy to the innerworkings of the shipment itself or how much it costs, but I couldn't help but compare the dependency on Spice to insulin, especially when Paul learns that someone has attempted to take one of the sandworms to manufacture their own supply of spice on another desert planet.

The book has great moments like that, but it's spliced with chapters of people sitting in a room talking about power, diplomancy, conspiracy, religion, fate, legacy, guilt. And going over those conversations with a Sherlock Holmes level of deduction to uncover hidden meanings, and talking in different rooms with different people.

There is a lot of talking in this book when the plot can be cut down to: Paul's Consort Princess (that he forced into a political marriage right after dethroning her father) has teamed up with the old reverend Mother from the first book to remove Paul from power with the help of a shapeshifter "face dancer" and a space guild navigator who is invisible to the powers of foresight. The Princess secretly drugs Chani, Paul's lover from the first book, with a contraceptive in order to stop her bearing any future heirs. The Guild Navigator presents an artificial human created from the remains Duncan Idaho, who died in the previous book, as a gift to the Emperor. And the shapeshifter has taken on the form of a Fremen.

The innerworkings of their plan are kept hidden from the reader, but the execution is lacklustre when the entire point of the book is that Paul can't lose. Chani is moved back to Arrakis to see a doctor, so the princess can't keep drugging her. The reverand Mother is apprehended early on in the book. Paul knows the resurrected Duncan is a trap meant to be his undoing, and any tension with the shapeshifter is pointless as Paul sees right through his deception, but plays along anyway.

Much like my frustration with the first book, there isn't a lot of narrative tension when it comes to the plot. The only real suprises in the book are, how the conspiracy plans to use Duncan to take down Paul, and near the end when Chani finally gives birth and Paul did not predict her bearing twins as he only ever saw the future of their daughter, and not a twin son who is hidden from Paul's powers and might change the future Paul fought so hard to achieve.

I both enjoy learning about Dune and hate reading it. To the point I'd rather just read the wiki articles. But I can't seem to get it out of my head and hate myself for not enjoying it more when it is so beloved by so many people I respect, and I dont know of its just because I'm not nearly smart enough to fully understand it

[threelivesthreeworlds]

@hyeyouuu asked : hello! this is the link to some excerpts from Lotus Step that mentions Shao Wan (and Mo Yuan). would you be able to have a look through it and translate anything that you find interesting from it? i’ve mostly relied on google translate so i’m not sure i get the nuance for some of the important parts 🥺 thank you!! have a nice day 🫶 https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_T_leG-kRcsj5PAC4ZwP4dGCMXwMKtDlgGOwAbkcLao/edit

Well, as the kids say, this is my division ; )

I've read all of this so none of it is really new information to me, but I will translate some excerpts for you since we're all content starved around these parts! A lot of these I see are really just passing mentions that don't have much to them, but I do see two excerpts that are a little meatier that I can throw down there for you!

If you're interested in Mo Yuan and Shao Wan and you haven't found it yet, you can also check out THIS COMPILATION of them that I pulled out of the pillowbook extra as well!

CHAPTER 6.02

It made sense if this nine-colored lotus pond was God Zuti's apostle Shuang He. The formation Youwujie, after all, was made by God Shao Wan to protect God Zuti when cultivating.

The fact that Youwujie and the nine-colored lotus Shuang He appeared at the same mortal realm hundreds of thousands of years later required some thought, but wasn't impossible. After all, when God Zuti had feathered and gone in order to protect the mortals, she had not disappeared in the Realms, but rather the mortal world outside of them.

God Zuti, God Shao Wan - one was born from the first light in the universe, the God of Reality, and the other was the first god of the Demon Clan. These two goddesses of the ancient times were of the same generation as the former emperor of heaven and earth, Donghua, Kunlunxu's High God Mo Yuan, Qingqiu's Fox King Bai Zhi, and the owner of the Peach Blossom Forest, Zhe Yan. His Third Highness, born after the calamities of gods of the distant times in the upper time, was quite different from them generationally. When the world was first created, it was the ancient times. After the ancient times it was the distant times, and after the distant past, the upper past, and after that, was this time.

About these two infamous ancient goddesses, there were plenty of notes in the history books, but there were not many that could be found now. The books about Shao Wan have largely been hidden within Kunlunxu by Mo Yuan, and the books about Zuti were missing.

The world knew that God Zuti had feathered to help God Shao Wan send the mortals to the mortal realm.

At that time the mortals were weak, and could not survive long in the Realms. God Shao Wan pitied the mortals and used her godly power to open the Ruo Mu Door which connected the mortal world to the Realms, and sent the mortals there. Then, there were no seasons or mountains and rivers in the ten billion mortal realms that allowed the mortals to survive, and so God Shao Wan asked God Zuti to help. God Zuti spread out a path of hundreds of thousands of red lotuses and sacrificed herself to the chaos to birth all the things that allowed the mortals to live.

CHAPTER 22.02

"It's been many years since you last made a prophecy. You saw the outcome, didn't you?" The white-clad woman began, tails of eyes curving gently with the intention to smile. She was originally of a most beautiful but most cool appearance - as if her flesh and bones were made of ice and snow, dressed from head to toe in white and even the singular ornament upon dark hair was a white jewel encased in a phoenix feather. One could only think of a a frozen soul, a frozen earth. But her eyes were not of the same cool feeling - the ends flicked upward a little, and when she smiled her eyes became enrapturing.

"You know I found a way to open that door, but you don't want me to die." The white-clad woman sighed. "But no one can defy the will of heaven." As if she was resigned. "You are the light god, the god of reality, wise and able to see the will of heaven. You know it best, that it is destined to be and no one can change it, not you nor I." Her gaze settled on a place far away. "Mo Yuan - he can't either."

And then she changed the subject abruptly: "I came to find you because I know what your duty is. You know it as well. These tens of thousands of years you have been hidden away in Mount Guyao - isn't it because you've seen the final ending, and have been waiting for me to find you?" She lifts her eyebrow, and the tail of her eye lifted as well - cool and gentle and alluring, but with an edge, "Why now have you gone back on that decision?"

For a long moment there was only th sound of the wind. The yellow-clad one said: "I don't have the heart to."

The white- lad woman laughed as if surprised: "You can't bear it? But what is there not to bear?" She put her hand upon the other's shoulder, fingers sweeping past the yellow clad one's dark hair like chicken feathers. "The most unfeeling one in the world is you. Born from light - you don't know what the seven emotions nor the six desires are, but now you can't bear to see me die?" A hint of merriment appeared between cool brows. "No one in the realms can obtain a reluctance to part from you. I have obtained it and therefore I have no regrets in this life."

The yellow-clad one ignored her teasing, and shook off her hand. "No regrets? And about Mo Yuan?"

The white-clad woman's smile slowly disappeared from her face. After a long time, she said: "He…I never thought whether or not I regret it." She stepped back, and sat down on a stone stool to the side, fingers pressed against her forehead. Expressionless, now she seemed as cool as frost. After a long time, she said: "I can't have regrets, and I dare not to."

[onbearfeet]

1. Times New Roman, 12-point, double-spaced. It's effectively invisible to me, so I can focus on the words and not the letters.

2. I started out handwriting everything. I could do it again if I had a steady supply of comfortable pens. Unfortunately, my go-to was recently discontinued and I'm looking for a replacement.

3. I write when I'm home alone or when my roommate is asleep. I've always been a late-night writer...as in, staying up until 2 am to write novels at age 13.

4. "Alright". IT IS TWO WORDS AND A FINE HILL TO DIE ON IF I HAVE TO.

5. Never edit in the same format you wrote in. Also, the steel wastebasket and WW2-surplus office chair I inherited from my grandmother are writer-magic.

6. That I'll never stop being crap at it. (Doesn't matter that lots of people say I'm not actually crap. *I* know better.)

7. Rereading something I wrote and getting so absorbed in it that I forget what I was supposed to be doing (usually cleaning).

8. Tough choice. I think I'd flip a coin, and then reinterpret a fairytale.

9. I do not believe in ghosts except for the one ghost that visited me one time. But that was my grandmother, and I'm pretty sure she's her own category of entity.

10. Hahahahaha I literally have nightmares about my old work. Not least because my first novel netted me a stalker who's still popping up to ruin my day over a decade later. (Hi, this is a pseudonym.)

11. I am pretty ruthless. But some of my darlings do ACTUALLY go to a nice farm upstate, and sometimes they wander home again later on.

12. That something I write be loved by good people for many years after I'm gone; that something I write bring me financial stability (it needn't be the same something); that I write something that leaves the world better than I found it.

13. Sex is hard. Fights are easy. I'm aware of the absurdity.

14. I lend a lot of books, but I never lend a book I'm not willing to lose. I do lose a lot of them. Sometimes they come back.

15. I don't write in or dog-ear books unless it's a proof copy I'm marking up. I don't mind other people who do, so long as they don't do it in other people's books without permission. I would read in the bath if I had a bathtub. I think reading in the shower is ill-advised. We can still be friends as long as you don't maul my books.

16. A wooden marionette dressed as a clown.

17. Two of my leads, Maggie and Gabe, have entire backstories that just won't fit (and in Maggie's case, she doesn't know because it all happened before she was two). I know how Maggie's parents met, but it's just not narratively relevant; sometimes even crappy histories like hers aren't dramatic. Gabe, meanwhile, has TONS of drama and remembers it all when he tries but almost none of it matters to the story. Oh, and I know who his aunt is, but you'll never meet her.

18. In the first chapter of the book, Maggie interrupts some fash who are harassing a woman on the street for not "respecting" them. I've gotten some pushback from the more conservative members of my writing group who think it's "unrealistic" to have random street Nazis in my world and also to have them harassing people. I take a certain bitter pride in pointing out that 1) the scene is taken pretty closely from an incident documented by the US State Department in Berlin in 1933; all I did was change the location and let Maggie kick them in the head, and 2) we literally HAVE fascist street gangs in the US now, there's one that hangs out in the next neighborhood over from me, and this story is semi-post-apocalyptic, so if anything I'm letting people off easy.

19. I began making up stories when I was 3 and writing them down when I was 5. I accidentally started a cult in high school when other people got hold of my notebooks. Then I picked up a stalker, had to burn down my life to escape him, and am now reestablishing myself under a pseudonym. I just wanna tell fun lil stories that also jab certain people and societal forces in the eye; is that so wrong?

20. The one true love. I've learned to be satisfied with the results of hard work on my writing, but I'm acespec and I'm hot garbage at anything related to sex or romance. Magical assistance would be great, thank you.

21. I've gotten depressed enough to put it aside for a while. But it always comes back.

22. Notebooks, plus a sketchbook with little bits of index card stuck to the pages with poster putty. It sounds very organized. It is not.

23. Right now, I sit in a squishy beige recliner with my crappy kids' laptop, Potato, balanced on a lap desk. My mug of tea is at my left elbow, ALMOST out of reach, because I can't be assed to move it closer or to my dominant side. I'm in my living room, with a slightly busted beige couch along the wall to my left, a scarred coffee table in front of me, and my roommate's flat-screen to my right. I face my balcony door, which is usually open with the screen shut so I can hear the little fake streak burbling and eavesdrop on my neighbors.

24. The length of my prep is roughly proportionate to the planned length of my story. I like prepping; I learn a lot from it, and then throw most of it out.

25. Gabe likes black licorice.

26. I just kind of...hear voices and feel them? It's like sitting beside someone on a loveseat, but also 1/3 of your body shares space with 1/3 of theirs. It's blurry, is what it is. I don't usually regret going in there because my own head is worse.

27. A genderswapped reinterpretation of Sherlock Holmes. The OG looms large in my childhood imagination, and even though I'm one of those people who gets called smart before we're called anything else, writing super-smart characters is hard for me. How deep into the weeds can I get before I lose the audience? Herlock (not her name) lived in that gray zone and was MISERABLE about it. All my childhood neurodivergent isolation welled up in her. It was rough.

28. I haven't actually written her down yet. She's currently called the Bear Mother. She's like a warm cup of tea sitting in a corner of my brain.

29. Things just ... happen to me. I've lived and read enough that my brain is full of random bits of knowledge and experience and they all collide sometimes. Moat often the trigger is someone asking me a question or telling me I can't do something.

30. I've read in dreams, but not written. And yes, I've used my dreams in my writing. I have a recurring nightmare that informs the aesthetic of a Very Bad Place in one of my stories. If you're reading something of mine and you see chessboard floor tiles or white walls with black wrought-iron decor, be afraid.

31. Thank you. You are Best Humans, and the bears love you, each and every one. 💜

32. All of Nation by Terry Pratchett. I won't choose.

33. I sew, draw, paint, and bake. And yes, particularly the sewing. Every outfit my characters fight in CAN be fought in.

34. You don't have to use it in every circumstance because it's not always strictly necessary, but also excuse you sir that is my emotional support punctuation.

35. Minimum paragraph length? Kiss my ass. I will have paragraphs less than one word long and the words won't even be in the dictionary.

36. Lots of things, most of them strange and all of them terrifying if you think long enough about them. But for a short list: American evangelicalism, archery, quilting, how to swear in at least 12 languages, how to perform a convincing (and quick) fake exorcism (ritual also works as a curse), Shakespeare, teddy-bear design, the history of carousel horses, and how to make friends with wolves.

37. "Some writers have issues; this one had longboxes."

38. I use what I call a socratic process, in which I ask myself a series of questions and then write down both the question and the answer. I frequently argue woth myself, which makes the results ... interesting to read.

39. The belief that someone out there needs it. There's such a thing as the right book for the right person at the right time, and the idea of having that book and not setting it free to find its person horrifies me.

40. "Bone to ash and soul to sky;/One to scatter, one to fly." -The start of the best poem I've ever written, from a book that will never be published now. I'm still glad I wrote it, though, and Peter Beagle said he liked that line.

Weird Questions for Writers (because writers are weird)

1. What font do you write in? Do you actually care or is that just the default setting?

2. If you had to give up your keyboard and write your stories exclusively by hand, could you do it? If you already write everything by hand, a) are you a wizard and b) pen or pencil?

3. What is your writing ritual and why is it cursed?

4. What’s a word that makes you go absolutely feral?

5. Do you have any writing superstitions? What are they and why are they 100% true?

6. What is your darkest fear about writing?

7. What is your deepest joy about writing?

8. If you had to write an entire story without either action or dialogue, which would you choose and how would it go?

9. Do you believe in ghosts? This isn’t about writing I just wanna know

10. Has a piece of writing ever “haunted” you? Has your own writing haunted you? What does that mean to you?

11. Do you believe in the old advice to “kill your darlings?” Are you a ruthless darling assassin? What happens to the darlings you murder? Do you have a darling graveyard? Do you grieve?

12. If a genie offered you three writing wishes, what would they be? Btw if you wish for more wishes the genie turns all your current WIPs into Lorem Ipsum, I don’t make the rules

13. What is a subject matter that is incredibly difficult for you write about? What is easy?

14. Do you lend your books to people? Are people scared to borrow books from you? Do you know exactly where all your “lost” books are and which specific friend from school you haven’t seen in twelve years still possesses them? Will you ever get them back?

15. Do you write in the margins of your books? Dog-ear your pages? Read in the bath? Why or why not? Do you judge people who do these things? Can we still be friends?

16. What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever used as a bookmark?

17. Talk to me about the minutiae of your current WIP. Tell me about the lore, the history, the detail, the things that won’t make it in the text.

18. Choose a passage from your writing. Tell me about the backstory of this moment. How you came up with it, how it changed from start to end. Spicy addition: Questioner provides the passage.

19. Tell me a story about your writing journey. When did you start? Why did you start? Were there bumps along the way? Where are you now and where are you going?

20. If a witch offered you the choice between eternal happiness with your one true love and the ability to finally finish, perfect, and publish your dearest, darlingest, most precious WIP in exactly the way you've always imagined it — which would you choose? You can’t have both sorry, life’s a bitch

21. Could you ever quit writing? Do you ever wish you could? Why or why not?

22. How organized are you with your writing? Describe to me your organization method, if it exists. What tools do you use? Notebooks? Binders? Apps? The Cloud?

23. Describe the physical environment in which you write. Be as detailed as possible. Tell me what’s around you as you work. Paint me a picture.

24. How much prep work do you put into your stories? What does that look like for you? Do you enjoy this part or do you just want to get on with it?

25. What is a weird, hyper-specific detail you know about one of your characters that is completely irrelevant to the story?

26. How do you get into your character’s head? How do you get out? Do you ever regret going in there in the first place?

27. Who is the most stressful character you’ve ever written? Why?

28. Who is the most delightful character you’ve ever written? Why?

29. Where do you draw your inspiration? What do you do when the inspiration well runs dry?

30. Talk to me about the role dreams play in your writing life. Have you ever used material from your dreams in your writing? Have you ever written in a dream? Did you remember it when you woke up?

31. Write a short love letter to your readers.

32. What is a line from a poem/novel/fanfic etc that you return to from time and time again? How did you find it? What does it mean to you?

33. Do you practice any other art besides writing? Does that art ever tie into your writing, or is it entirely separate?

34. Thoughts on the Oxford comma, Go:

35. What’s your favorite writing rule to smash into smithereens?

36. They say to Write What You Know. Setting aside for a moment the fact that this is terrible advice...what do you Know?

37. If you were to be remembered only by the words you’ve put on the page, what would future historians think of you?

38. What is something about your writing process YOU think is Really Weird? If you are comfortable, please share. If you’re not comfortable, what do you think cats say about us?

39. What keeps you writing when you feel like giving up?

40. Please share a poem with me, I need it.

[darthmaclunkey]

since I did it with films, woe: all the books I've read so far in 2024 and my brief thoughts on them be upon ye:

some desperate glory (emily tesh) - very underrated (so far), great debut sci-fi with a very well crafted MC. highly recommend if you're into space opera

hurdy gurdy (christopher wilson) - looked funny, was kinda funny, but contemporary references were a bit unsubtle. immediately gave to my dad after reading. it's a liberal dad kinda book

the doloriad (missouri williams) - I got #influenced by an instagram book account to read this because they said it was too gross for them. it was interesting and very poetic, but by talos did it need a paragraph break or two

tender is the flesh (agustina bazterrica) - subtle as a brick. didn't really like the way it was written but I'm never really sure if that's a valid criticism when something is translated

eileen (otessa moshfegh) - actually loved this. more gross woman protags pls

the mother tongue (bill bryson) - I had the original edition (library book) so some of it was a bit out of date but still interesting and fun to read

the terraformers (analee newitz) - worldbuilding was decent but man was this badly written. I ended up speedreading just to move onto another book and immediately donated it to the local free library shelf

hell bent (leigh bardugo) - very enjoyable, but I think it should have been hornier, actually, considering how much word count was spent on darlington's glowstick dick

on writing (stephen king) - genuinely great advice. my copy has about 1000 sticky tabs and notes in it now

system collapse (martha wells) - i ♥ murderbot forever and always

in ascension (martin macinnes) - this was so boring. rip to all the ppl who loved it but what was it saying, really, that couldn't have been said in a sub-5,000 word short

cursed bread (sophie mackintosh) - enjoyed, but I don't really remember much about it. probably because I read it in a crowded airport while waiting for a heavily delayed ryanair flight

camp zero (michelle min sterling) - didn't feel like it fully explored all the routes it should have, but the chapters written from the collective perspective of the researchers were interesting

klara and the sun (kazuo ishiguro) - oof ouch owie my feelings

the beauty (aliya whiteley) - technically a short story but I read it in book format. it was fun

shadow and bone (leigh bardugo) - if I'd read this when I was 12, you best believe I'd have spent my teenage years writing fanfiction about the darkling. as a 29 year old, wasn't really for me tho

the player of games (iain m banks) - talented, brilliant, incredible, amazing, showstopping, spectacular, never the same, totally unique, completely not ever been done before, unafraid to reference or not reference, put it in a blender, shit on it, vomit on it, eat it, give birth to it. RIP iain banks, you are sorely missed

lord jim at home (dinah brooke) - visceral read. probably best read in one sitting if poss, the pacing is breakneck

the word for world is forest (ursula k le guin) - to paraphrase a shelf label under her books in my local indie bookshop: "JUST READ HER!! READ ANYTHING BY HER!!!!"

children of time (aidrian tchaikovsky) - really good. I will never look at spiders the same way

giovanni's room (james baldwin) - astonishing. one of those classics where you're like 'I'm sure this will be good' but then you read it and you're like 'nobody quite conveyed just HOW good tho'

red rising (pierce brown) - hated this tbh. the hunger games for redditors. darrow is a textbook mary-sue but ppl in the goodreads reviews don't seem ready to have that conversation

for thy great pain have mercy on my little pain (victoria mackenzie) - interesting speculative history, very beautifully conveyed

brutes (dizz tate) - do I know what was going on? no, but I really liked it, so well observed

the discomfort of evening (lucas rijneveld) - another one where I was #influenced because an instagram book person said it was too gross for them. I think it was actually a bit too gross for me too, but I can appreciate that it was well written

pride and prejudice (jane austen) - only read it because I'm going to a p&p themed party but my god, they're not lying, it really is THAT good

currently reading: islands of abandonment (cal flyn)

I am on storygraph if you find my taste in books compelling; I'm always looking for book recs: storygraph

[legobiwan]

Book of Boba Fett: 1.3 "Chapter 3"

Was there a title for this episode? Somehow I missed it.

Anyway, uhhhh, what is going on with diamond spider here in the intro? Come on, Disney, up your CGI game a little bit. (Also, did Obi-wan have to fight a giant spider at some point during his stay on Tatooine?)

Oof, these Tatooine "present-day" sequences are a lot of exposition dumping.

Now this, I find interesting. Imagine, if you would, a semi-underground cult following of Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader after the fall of the Empire. Imagine a bunch of Tatooine-born young adults modding their bodies the same as Anakin/Vader would have (of course, that's not the reality of it, but history has a way of getting warped). We get zero character development for the Back to the Future/Star Wars hoverboard gang, but there's part of me that would like to believe that the impetus for such body modifications lies in some seriously distorted history re: Anakin, especially considering their employment prospects seem no better under the New Republic than the Empire.

That speculation aside (and damnit, Sith cults would have been the perfect setup for the Sequel Trilogy one day I will outline my plot for the Sequels including all the known characters but with a wildly different plot arg). ANYWAY, Boba Fett's interaction with the BTTF-gang had me doing a bit of whiplash. I went real fast from, "oh no, don't be a Boomer" to "okay, this guy gets it." (And, like, the economics of Tatooine, especially post-Empire and post-Jabba, would be fascinating to get into and tie into Boba Fett's haracter development if this show could actually a) choose a storyline and b) be longer than Disney's seemingly codified 6-8 Episode format. Everything is just so fucking rushed.)

I do have to laugh at the BTTF-gang a little bit. I swear I've seen this party somewhere in [redacted city] before.

Full honesty, here. I prefer Clone Wars Pyke Syndicate. They were creepy as hell and "The Lost Ones" is a wildly under-appreciated episode if for nothing else, the absolute sense of inexorable demise present the entire time (not to mention the A+++++ duel with Dooku).

At least Fennec has her priorities straight. Enjoy the damn food, Boba. (This is like, an almost Hannibal-esque montage).

Exactly.

As for the rest of the episode, nothing much of interest really happens. I always enjoy a good Danny Trejo cameo (I'm assuming he'll die horribly just as he did in Breaking Bad) and I already made my Back to the Future parallels post earlier.

Unfortunately, this episode did rather little to forward the narrative. I also am fully aware of how the next two episodes play out and to be honest, I am not convinced we will get any kind of satisfying story out of this show. I will wait to pass ultimate judgement until the end, but so far, I would have been happier to have stuck with the Sandpeople/Boba Fett finding-a-new-identity narrative and leave out the supposed "underworld" dealings (which have been milquetoast at best).

I will say this. The relationship between the twin Hutts could be read as a little incestuous, which is probably the most interesting thing to happen in the present-day Tatooine narrative thus far.

Ugh. I really want to like this show, but between this and some of Disney's recent Marvel shows, everything just feels a bit...beige, or at least, algorithmic. Like, I love the concept of Boba Fett forging this new identity and hanging up his mercenary boots, but the execution with the narrative has just not worked, especially in the present-day Tatooine sequences. Apparently the Mando episode is very good, so we will see when I get to that installment. Episode 3 = 6/10, mostly for the Back to the Future references.

[yostresswritinggirl]

100 Followers Special

(And how to participate) you don't need to be a follower to vote ack

~yostresswritinggirl

Hello AGAIN, with your back to back followers special! Exiled here, very tired, as I just closed the requests box for our 50 followers special. I asked for some recommendations and no one helped me so this is what I came up with!

Granted, it's nothing that special, I literally just dumped my notes into this so—

Please make sure to follow the guidelines and read this thoroughly to properly participate!

1. You will be given a long list of fic prompts specific to a character that I've come up with for weeks on end, please don't steal, as I will remove them after this event is done!

2. Voting! You now have the power to influence my writing schedule haha- what you need to do: is to pick three prompts from the list and send it to me; either through reblog tag, a reply, or in my ask box (not anon so we can count fairly, will not publish these answers tho so worry not)! Not in messages tho! It should be in this format:

1. Character - prompt or prompt title

2. Character - prompt or prompt title

3. Character - prompt or prompt title

example:

1. Albedo - Citrinitas

2. Zhongli - Braid

3. Xingqui - Author!Reader

The top three most voted prompt and character will be the next fics I'll publish after I'm done with the current reqs. Speaking of: Voting ends when I finish the current reqs. You'll know it's done once the counter in my blog desc reaches 12/12.

3. In addition to the three prompts, you also get to add your own prompt to it! My prompts list does not include ALL the characters that's why I wanted to give you this option too! Add a fourth number and specify a character, a prompt/idea, and the format of the fic! Format it this way:

4. Character - Prompt/Idea (Format)

4. Kaeya - What's under that eyepatch? (Scenario)

After I pooled the answers, I'll randomly pick between the bonus answers and write them last! So give it your best shot!

4. Tags-list! I thought this would be necessary for this kind of a whim special, so if you wanna be tagged, just put Tag Me! at the end of your vote. Please make sure that you're actually able to be tagged because I just tried and some users are not in my orbit huhu, look here

5. If a pocket watch/series prompt gets chosen, I will only post the first chapter, not the whole damn fic pls. Have mercy,,,

I will post a counter of the top three in my blog description and will be updated as frequently as possible. Any questions, please direct to this post or my dms <3

Without further ado, here is your choice list!

Xingqui - "My liege, would you care to accompany me on my reading break? I've picked up a romance novel and it reminded me of us."

-> Author!Reader: You met Xingqui at Wanwen Bookhouse when delivering a batch of your newly-published book. But as a ghost writer, no one knew it was you that authored such books. Safe to say it was cute watching the noble bookworm fanboy about you in front of you. [FLUFF] [FIC]

-> Headcanons with a reader older than Xingqui who's a close family friend of the Feiyun Commerce Guild. Fascinated after meeting you in a party, the noble boy aspires to become the best man for you despite the difference, promising to be the best suitable partner for you in the future. [FLUFF] [HEADCANON SCENARIO]

Childe - "Hey there, comrade! What a coincidence that we had a break at the same time, care to accompany me for a walk? I promise I won’t lead you to a fight haha... hey, don’t look at me like that!”

-> Antinomy -  The 10th Harbinger (You) and the little shit they had to mentor (Childe), this fic enumerates the trials of the 11th before he became a Harbinger under your care. From strangers to mentor to friends to love- Childe made a grave mistake, now you’re once again strangers. [FLANGST] [ONESHOT]

Albedo - "Ah, it's you. I've heard of fleeting rumors that you've been pestering a certain someone just to see me. Next time, just come directly to me, I wouldn't mind the assertiveness."

-> Refer to these three as well: Albedo Fic Ideas [FLUFF/FLANGST/FLANGST] [ONESHOT/ONESHOT/SERIES]

-> “You’re Enough”: A year into being the new Chief Alchemist of Mond, Albedo finds himself holed up in his room in the dead of night, haunted as he continuously comes out empty on his research to bring his master back, feeling inadequate. So you reminded him of what he’s capable of. [FLUFF?] [ONESHOT INSPIRED BY You Are Enough - Sleeping At Last]

-> Under the Artificial Sky: Michaelangelo Scenario focused on Albedo’s sketching aspect. Grand Master Varka and Acting Grand Master Jean figured Albedo needed a break and a change of scenery, and sent him off under the guise of a commission in Liyue. What he didn’t expect was another artist from Fontaine accompanying him in this big project.(Albedo and Reader are tasked to paint the new Jade Chamber within 7 days) [FLUFF] [SERIES - 7 CHAPTERS]

-> Albedo SMUT: I had this idea while laying wide awake at 3 AM. The alchemist had been trying all remedies to shake off the stress and fatigue in his system and they all seemed to fail, no amount of sketching or discoveries can pull him away from it. So when you offered a solution he hasn’t heard, he’d jump at it immediately. “You know, some people say having intercourse with someone is a good stress-reliever.” “Intercourse? If it’s true, then please, I wish to have intercourse with you.” “Wha- wait Albedo, do you not know what that is? It’s only done between lovers!” “Convenient, I love you, anything else?” (Two virgin dumbasses do the thing to relieve stress) [SMUT] [ONESHOT]

Xiao - “I’ve taken care of every threat around this area, you can relax now, I made sure of that.”

-> What is it with you and Qingxin flowers? The Traveler had once heard of Xiao’s affinity for Qingxin flowers, and they’re flying companion boldly asked this lingering question to the adepti himself. His pupils dilate and sharpen before Paimon could finish her sentence. (An origin story about his favorite flower, and his favorite person) [SLIGHT FLANGST] [ONESHOT]

-> Just how harmful is adeptal energy to normal humans? You both found out in the worst way possible: silently, deadly. (Slight spoiler: you fucking die) [ANGST] [ONESHOT]

-> Nightmares Taste Horrible: He’s seen that look in your eyes and the ancient soul within it; you’ve lived long ago, and the only thing your soul carried now was the nightmares of a macabre timeline. Was it him or was it demons that brought you that fear? No matter, he’ll protect you even from yourself. (eating the nightmare of a dead soul reincarnated to you) [FLANGST?] [ONESHOT]

-> Go for the throat: The seal that marked you had made it all too late for him to remedy. Bleeding eyes, growing fangs, it’s just another demon to vanquish just like he’s done for centuries. What makes it different was it was sealed in you. (Inspired from Melanie Martinez’s song uhu) [ANGST] [ONESHOT]

Zhongli - “Mortals are capable creatures that evolve and adapt for means of survival, but they advance in ways that changes the world around them. This retirement, may be harder to me than it is to them.”

 -> “In human history, there’s a certain noble and powerful connotation to rulers who braid their hair.” Convince to braid his hair using some historical braid trivia; that long hair behind his back should not be ignored for any longer. [PURE FLUFF] [DRABBLE]

-> History has its eyes on you: A traveling theatre hailing from the land of entertainment finds its way to Liyue for their last caravan. A certain Geo Vision man seems to resonate with your newest script: fighting and protecting your land, building up its nation, before being forced to let go of it. He resonates maybe a little too much. (Musical!Reader with heavy references to Hamilton hehe) [FLUFF] [ONESHOT]

Venti - "Can you hear the symphonies of the wind as it sings to you? That's me, guiding you and protecting you! Whenever you hear it, know that you're safe and sound under my protection!"

-> the one the bard once loved: like actual bard, you are the archer or smth, loved by Venti and Barbatos. Yandere!Barbatos undertones, very unhealthy relationship. This hurts the kokoro. [PURE ANGST] [ONESHOT]

-> The Caravan: (related to the Zhongli and Musical!Reader up there) Your caravan stops at Mondstadt for a whole week before it reaches its final destination. This new fanfare pulled in a peculiar bard who now wants to tag along for the fun of it. "I have no more responsibilities in this free land!" Just what kind of responsibilities does a broke bard have in the first place? [FLUFF] [ONESHOT/HEADCANON]

Diluc - "You look weary, and you still managed to pull yourself here. Here, a fresh and cold glass, on the house. A relieved smile should be enough payment."

-> Abandoned by The Altar: A timeline oriented story focused on your once perfect childhood relationship as Diluc's bride to be, soon becoming estranged after the death of his father and his neglect. You only wish now that he looks at you the same way he did when you heard you were supposed to be together forever when you were young. [FLANFF] (The ending gets better pls; Inspired by Still Into You - Paramore) [ONESHOT]

-> There are No Laws Against Homelessness in Mondstadt: My favorite title out of all of this ahahhaa- who says adventurers can't be broke? You're the living embodiment of that. (Good boi Diluc with a broke ass reader) [FLUFF] (Warning: homelessness) [ONESHOT]

Scaramouche - "Let's go already, the sun is setting and we're nowhere near our destination. If you wanted to linger just to spend more time with me, I would have indulged you behind closed doors anyways."

-> Scaramouche Finally Does the Fandango: Have you ever wondered how Scaramouche is like working with other people? His first assignment was to accompany you in your main region and he sees you in your natural habitat, entranced. [I dunno how to tag this, NORMAL?] [ONESHOT/SHORT]

-> Skincare bitch, how I headcanon Scaramouche as someone actually conscious and always tending to their skin. Look at that smooth skin, cute cheeks, let me pinch, eyeliner glory— In which case, that hat has more purpose than being a frisbee. (May or may not include reader. (based from a reblog convo with chels-void) [GOOD VIBES] [HEADCANONS]

-> Once Supreme: Before Scaramouche, there was someone else higher than him. Before Balladeer there was just a young man fighting for his beliefs and her Majesty. Before Mondstadt, his smile wasn't just for deception. "Someday, someone would take advantage of that smile, Scaramouche. It's not appropriate in this work environment." The day you break a man. (Harbinger!Reader again, and lots of HCs for Scaramouche, same format as Antinomy) [I also do not know how to call this, eventual ANGST] [ONESHOT]

Kaeya - "What are you doing out here in the dead of night? Citizens like you should be cozied up in bed and leaving the patrols to us Knights. Come, I'll accompany you back home."

-> Honey Whiskey: A mysterious band of dancers from Sumeru visits Mondstadt and its taverns to offer a night of alluring dances. What was supposed to be a night of drinking for Kaeya and his troops ended up becoming a tipsy surprise mission when the main dancer steps down from the stage— and ignores him?! How scandalous! (Slightly suggestive themes/You're a bad guy) [COOL?] [ONESHOT] [slightly inspired by song with the same name]

General:

-> A Musical!Reader but with a scenario with every other character, most probably headcanons master post.

-> Genshin Food prompts: From that one post, I ended up making a whole storyline of oneshots related to their special dishes. Oneshots connected to a bigger picture. By impulse you've ended up leaving your normal life behind to pursue your cooking career, starting from Mondstadt, to learn all the cuisines to establish the first ever international restaurant. With the implications of magic and peculiar customers, your simple dream turns into a harder goal. [GOOD SHIT] [SERIES] [CANON-COMPLIANT]

-> God of Time!Reader that hails from Fontaine. Do you wish to know more about their origins and their purpose in this world? [CANON-COMPLIANT] [HEADCANONS] (General since it deals with all the characters/interactions)

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Tagslist-for-my-thirsty-homies:

[shinahbee]

October Favorites 2020!

Hello!

i'm going to start bringing these favorites of the month from my deviantart to here on tumblr. Hopefully you will find something good out of the things that I have been liking recently, please leave in the comments anything that you have been liking this month ( books, manga, anime, tv shows...etc) I have been a little uninspired for a while, but I'm still working on a few new digital art pieces as well as continuing my painting hobby, so there's a lot of content on the way!

okay so on to the things that I've been liking this month.

So if you've seen my latest digital art " who's baby is it?" I have been delving into web toons which I have not read other than mo dao zu shi since I watched the anime and It just suddenly stopped after season 2. I thought reading the web toon would answer some of those questions  i had. It lead me to reading a bunch of webtoons all in the shounen ai category for some reason...lol. and I've been really liking some of the stories, Until this point web toons never really interested me since I've been reading manga since I was younger , so i've been used to just seeing the black and white pages of art, since web toons have coloured pages, it makes me appreciate the effort they used to colour every panel, so a lot of work went into these so i appreciate it for what it is even if the story inst great.

let me preface by saying that even though i'm delving into BL, i've been exposed to yaoi ever since I was in high school by one of my best friends, she lent me her favorite anime which was " gravitation" and all remember was wanting a man that was like yuki...lol. don't we all?

since then I have been reading some yaoi manga...only ones that are NOT predicated on sexual violence and abuse, which I know is prevalent in this category, I just don't like it and the message it sends, so i avoid that all together.

unless of course it has a particular message it wants to convey, not glorifying it. if that makes sense.

okay so here are my recommendations, i'll give a very brief summary of each of them

Manga/Manhwa:

----------------------------------------------

Who's baby is it? 

- “a man named yi yun wanted to be an actor and is part of an acting company for several years and still was not successful, apparently it was because he was born with really bad luck, so to change his life perspective he decided that he wanted to be a surrogate father and donate his sperm to a surrogate mother in order to have a child that is his blood. So he and his child were living happily together through yi yuns work periods and suddenly there is a man that claims he is the child's actual blood related father and wanted to take the child into his custody.”

please read the summary I have in my fan art, I've wrote my thoughts on this manhwa.

To be or not to be

-  “A company president diagnosed with cancer and died has been transmigrated into his favorite novel, where he was reborn as the antagonistic emperor that the main character defeats in the end, on top of which the main lead is currently the captive of said emperor, so in order to survive he will do anything to protect the protagonist and make sure he stays alive inside the novels universe.”

oh to be or not to be that is the question...lol. it really is. currently is is one of my favorites, I like how modern day people  can look at the acts of history and modify certain things so that it would less likey repeat itself for the worse, we need this sort of mentality at this moment...

Social temperature

- “Song Yuan is indifferent when dealing with people he is an elite student at T- university as a science major, one day his friend started to question his sexuality and set him up with a month trial dating app as a joke, as soon as he went to delete the app on his phone, he was suddenly matched with a boy named "Mu", who turns out to be his classmate/ rival in his science program, his named is Xaio Mu , he is an exchange student abroad and got into this elite science program, hoping to meet new friends he approached song yuan and proceed to converse with him only to be ridiculed by him saying that he wears too much perfume and it made him sick so then he became the class social outcast.But after using the app to converse with "Mu"...song yuan became curious as to what he is actually like...using the fake name and bio of " Andrew " they start to get to know each other more.”

omg , this is triggering for me, since Mu is basically me a few years ago when I was also in a medical science program minus the talking on tinder thing lol, I felt as though everyone in that program was in it for themselves and I didn't not like the how people think they are entitled to everything...that's why i'm not in it no more.lol. there are a few plot holes in the story that I don't really get but other than that I really like this story I read the chapters that are out so far like 3 times cause I'm waiting for the rest to be translated. I also actually read the Novel by the same author of the manhua called " social outcast" so if you just want to read it in text format please read that novel instead, I like the novel up to a point and then it didn't really make sense after wards..lol.

so i can't say that i recommended it completely. Also Mu's character design I really like, thus i'm going to make a fan art of him soon...omg he's so beautiful, i'm in love lol.

Salad Days  ( tang liu zang) 

- “This is the story between a young innocent ballet boy and a passionate, determined boxing boy. The two met at the children’s palace, and since then, they have grown up together supporting each other. May there be hardships, may there be obstacles, yet they never stopped pursuing their dreams. The beauty of the salad days is the sweat from the hard work and the bonding of friendship. Although they have completely different paths set up for them, what never changes is their beautiful friendship.”

wow this story so far is really beautiful, I was in ballet for 3  years so it was slightly relatable to me, I feel like the over all message is that people sacrifice a lot for their dreams and if you are very passionate about it, there's no on that can really stop you, the only one that can stop you is you. I can't wait to see this story progress further  

K-dramas:

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it okay to not be okay - this probably has been mentioned as everyone's favorite, but rightfully so, I really like ko mun young's character as a person who seems like an assertive and powerful woman, but is suffering from a social disorder. and how moon gang tae has to not only deal with mental patients at his job but also his older brother being autistic, he himself is suffering from mental illness. this drama is  something not a lot of dramas portray in dealing with mental illness and how the patients/ loved ones  are feeling when watching them go through it all. I liked the story and the message  and it made me cry in every episode, so fair warning...have tissues beside you as you watch.

itaewon class- I was not going to watch this because of the mixed reviews but I did any ways, and it was really good, a really good depiction of how money and power isn't the end all be all , and being happy  is really the best revenge you can get, it also addresses racism and prejudice on one character and sexism on a trans-gendered woman. I also think this is a story that protrays something that really hasn't been exposed to in k-dramas specifically. It depends on your morals and what you understand so far in your life wether you would like this drama or not, so i understand the mixed reviews that it gets, but for me it was a really good story.

Anime/ TV shows:

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I don't have any anime recommendations this month mainly cause I have not been watching any, but there are some that i might watch soon  so I will list those below, let mew know if any of you have seen them and should I be watching them.

- Nobelese

-yasha hime ( inuyasha  new series)

-Haikyuu  new season

-heavens official blessing ( same author of mo dao zushi) - just started watching

-scum bag saving system- just started watching

Music :

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so I have just been listening to a lot of OSTs,

I really recommend the itaewon class soundtrack, all the songs are so good!

my favorite on is " crush- No words "

also my friend has been sending me NCT  and super M practice  videos so I've been listening to their music as well, please listen to make a wish by NCT U, it has been stuck in my head and I cant get it out...lol.

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that's all for this October faves summary. please comment below if anything interested you for the month of October, I would also like to read your recommendations as well, please also take care of yourselves especially now with all that's escalating in the world.

take care!

sheena

[booksandwords]

The Melbourne Book: A History of Now by Maree Coote

Read time: 2 Days Rating: 4/5

The quote: Melbourne in a word? Passionate. There's an undercurrent always there, whether it's footy or art or politics... even eating. The value under the surface here. It's deep. Very deep. — Vince Colosimo

This is the fourth edition of The Melbourne Book published in 2013. as such and as one may expect it has date likely a decade since the research things have changed. Something greatly some minorly. That said it is a good read. It is a succinct as possible history of a city and some of its important/ notable people. It is well-formatted with a mix of write-ups, photography and full-page portraits with quotes. It is fairly well balanced and the portraits break up the blocks of writing well. It's relatively difficult to discuss this in individual sections so I will do dot point of some of my fave not worthy sections, which will likely be long.

The writing at times can come across as highly critical of the changes made by the Victorian governments over the years. It feels like more than nostalgia. Some of the information is just plain wrong, not outdated wrong. The section about the Spirit of Tasmania and the Devilcat would have been easy to be fact check. Broadly the book is broken up into four sections Opportunity, Sanctuary, Passion and Beauty. I found that Beauty was the weakest of the four, beauty just doesn't have the pull of the others. That said some of it was interesting. There is a section on fashion that can read as downright catty if you are so inclined. There are some great descriptions sections on the rivalry between Sydney and Melbourne (including its origins), the weather, the Shrine of Remembrance and sport (though I had some serious reservations about the content of that section).

I never knew the origins of Buckley's chance. William Buckley, who survived in the bush with aboriginal people well longer than he should have.

"There is no use having a perfect voice unless you have brains, personality, magnetism, great willpower, health, strength and determination." — Dame Nellie Melba.

"It is the responsibility of Capital to provide work. If it fails to do this, it fails to justify itself." — Sidney Myer. We really need more men like Sidney Myer in business now. Also, this is more about him and Myer than I've ever known.

I'm so glad Ferdinand von Mueller is heavily discussed. He deserves to be better known. Not only did he doa lot for the Botanic gardens. But he was very generous in his donations of cuttings to new gardens and cemeteries. I didn't know of him import to the Zoo either. He pairs well Guilfoyle (his successor) but we lost that generous spirit.

"A history lesson of Melbourne is this: here, this time, we all get a chance to get it right. Let's not forget our origins and need a third chance. It's highly unlikely there'll be one." — This is really just a nice idea.

In the chapter on bridges and ferries there is a mention that the first ferry company was run by a father-daughter enterprise, The Charon. Why oh why would you name ferry The Charon, Charon the ferryman of Hades who carries souls of the newly deceased across the river Styx. He is neutral neither good nor bad but there are so many cultures that believe in the harbingers of death, Charon would count.

"Home of Australia's very first Luna Park, St Kilda is where Melbourne keeps its sense of humour. Like Toyland on acid, it is wacky, novel, was once bohemian and is always slightly nuts." — I mean fair. How did I not know Luna Park was designed by the same people who designed Coney Islan. Also, the suburb is named after a yacht? Just why? Some creativity, please.

Ellis Rowan I have no words for how much I respect this woman. She was a woman in a man's world and walking to the beat of her drum. If she lived even a bit later she may not have married Charles Rowan, not had her son, Puck. I can't help but think that might have been a good thing, married life was not = for her. Puck's end was bad partially due to his absentee mother. He wasn't even mentioned in the book I read about her, not a shock given its demographics. But Charles Rowan is a legend, a 19th-century man wife's unusual passion.

"Along with the art came explosive liaisons, love triangles, infidelity and abandonment, in a set of complex relationships as intense and complex as the paintings themselves." — This is about the Heide a country homestead and art collective. All I could think was can someone please make a soap opera about the Heide, it's begging for it. And oh good lord Sweeny Reed had a strange and potentially bad upbringing. His early death is not a surprise.

To be honest the write up for Ned Kelly just made me laugh a little. And I make no apologies for that, the author is clever about how she writes it. Included in something I'd never seen or if I had taken I've never taken the time to read. An article from The Argus on the sentencing, including essentially a transcript between Judge Redmond Barry and Ned Kelly. Ned Kelly was an intelligent man the Jerilderie letter was not a once off. The last line Kelly says to Barry at the sentencing is "I will go a little further than that, and say I will see you there where I go.". Redmond Barry died only 12 days after Ned Kelly hung I didn't know that.

"Melbourne's temperature range is more conducive to reading than sunbaking — which contributes to its intellect more than Sydney, where the sun beats down and turns people into lizards that lay basking. I always enjoyed Melbourne's winter. It increased my reading exponentially." — Phillip Adams

Helena Rubinstein is not a woman I'd ever heard of but she's an impressive woman. Successful woman, entrepreneur and philanthropist who left the world a much better place than she found it by establishing scholarships, trusts and prizes for her causes. Oh, and at 68 she married a Prince 20 years her junior. Good for her.

This book really isn't for everyone. Parts of it make it much more easily understood and are relatable if you are a local. If I was reading it in 2013 I may have rated this higher but I can't justify it. It's just too out of date now. I would definitely read the fifth edition if Maree Coote decided to write one. What is here does encapsulate Melbourne well and talk about some important characters and players in Melbourne's history.

[thesecretbookstore]

This Week’s Expert Picks

While it is not a regular (if there is such a thing) book of poetics, Dana Gioia's Can Poetry Matter? is a profound and important book for those who appreciate poetry and those looking to appreciate more. In 1991, Dana Gioia's provocative essay "Can Poetry Matter?" was published in the Atlantic Monthly, and received more public response than any other piece in the magazine's history. In his book, Gioia more fully addressed the question: Is there a place for poetry to be part of modern American mainstream culture? Ten years later, the debate is as lively and heated as ever. Adam Kirsch of The New York Sun praised the book as “Undoubtedly one of the most important American books of poetry criticism of the last 50 years.” And I can't agree more. Any person, poet or otherwise, should buy and read this book immediately. RB

Ryan Buynak is a rock & roll poet and the author of a number of poetry collections.

I dove into another classic this week and not just because it has a dog in it.

Just kidding! That was 100% why I chose this book, hello? Have you ever seen an Alaskan sled dog? Cute AF!

Anyway, basically, Buck, this adorable fucking, fluffy, sled-Husky, well, he is just chilling in the Yukon, and everyone everyone starts freaking out about gold.

Gold! Gold! Gold!

Well, how are they gonna get this gold? Right? Like you’d think they’d plan ahead a little but they just kinda showed up. Well, it turns out that they need this one specific kinda sled dog to pull their little sled carts or whatever because it’s the 1890’s and cars aren’t a thing yet and horses are useless at those temperatures.

So, naturally, Buck, being that specific kinda dog, is in high demand.

So someone just steals him and makes him fight the other dogs in the wild to be the top dog or something.

Like, um, kinda like on the chef shows when Gordon Ramsey emotionally abuses the people without GED’s until they make the one kinda macaroni and cheese with the crumbles that makes it gourmet?

You know what I mean.

Okay, what was I saying?

Oh yeah! This has a dog in it so obviously 100/100. An absolutely great read. You gotta get this one next. LAW

Lauren is more of a writer than a reader and many, many, many people aren’t sure which is more concerning.

I know some people will never touch nonfiction or books that look like they're 900 pages (it's only 344) but I have to recommend this book to all (US) Americans.

Battle For The Marble Palace is a masterpiece of US socio-political history. Michael Bobelian impressed me and endeared himself to me with his first book Children Of Armenia and in this grander endeavor he employs the same narrative structure that makes the book read almost like a novel. Bobelian has an uncanny ability in both of his books to give the reader hope for a different ending, despite reading (meticulously researched) history.

The chapters are arranged in such a way that the narrative builds intrigue and tension with references to contemporary events that are not only helpful (to me, a reader who wasn't alive for the Eisenhower, Johnson, or Nixon administrations) but also enrich the narrative and the general thesis of the book: these events came to dictate how our judicial, legislative, and executive branches of government not just interact with each other, but how they function in their own rights.

Bobelian is nimble with his prose, uses humor and parallels to construct a three dimensional environment that allows the reader to fully understand how and why each signifying event in the Supreme Court's history (between Eisenhower and Nixon) came to happen. He builds suspense and moves the story in real time.

This is one of the most difficult books I've read in a long time time but I feel enriched as a person for it. I want to engage more with US history and follow Bobelian's journalism more closely.

The sole flaw I can find in the piece is that the margins are tiny.

Bonus: 130+ pages of references, notes, bibliography, etc. SE

Sarah Elgatian is a writer living in Iowa. She currently spends her days in isolation wondering how long her hair will get before quarantine ends.

This is the first Ottessa Moshfegh (such a cool name) I’ve read, despite having a number of her works on my to be read list. Homesick for Another World is a collection of fourteen short stories, covering self-deception across a spectrum of individuals representing the human condition.

Moshfegh’s writing could be described as a literary grotesque. She depicts these reprehensible characters with such merit and blam. It's why I love Bukowski, he highlights the lowlights of people, the squalor type of existence. Showcasing people in the periphery of society, ignoring societal normalcy for a unique existence that people often don’t get to see. Her characters in these short stories all strive to connect to others or another world in which they are excluded.

As I mentioned, I love her writing but I think I would prefer it in a novel format as opposed to this collection of stories (obviously a personal preference). Her novel Eileen which won the PEN/Hemingway Award and was a short-lister for the 2016 Man Booker has been on my read list for a while. I look forward to checking out more of her work, and I recall David Sedaris mentioning liking her writing, and who doesn’t love David? Ottessa infuses the outrageous with compassion and I can’t wait to read more of her work. CJH

Callahan J. Herrig is a writer from Iowa. He is here to tell you more about nothing and less about everything. He owns CallahanCreative.

[theinkstainsblog]

Hello! I am currently trying to tackle the opening couple chapters of my fantasy novel set in a fictional world. I'm struggling to introduce the ideas of the world to the reader without being too abrupt while accommodating for the fact that they don't know the world like I do, seeing as I've been living with it for a while. Do you have any tips or suggestions for avoiding the dreaded "info-dump" while still providing the reader with enough information and context for the rest of story? Thanks!

Hey nonnie, I’m really sorry it took me a few days to get around to answering this for you! I’m right in the middle of exams and job interviews at the moment and busy starting off my own fantasy novel so as I’m sure you can imagine its pretty hectic. I really hope this is still in time to help you out though! 

For those of you who don’t know, info-dumping is a form of telling rather than showing that goes on for a while - sometimes for pages at a time. Usually they occur in narration but it can happen in dialogue too. Rather than introducing your world smoothly it just dumps everything in the reader’s lap and it can be a huge turn off to read in fantasy and sci-fi.

So what can you do about it?

Make sure everything you are telling the reader is necessary for them to know. You might know the entire history of your world and how many kinds of bird species there are or whatever but unless it is needed for the plot, your reader doesn’t need to know. 

Even better, after checking that this is something they need to know make sure they need to know it at that specific point in the novel. You can foreshadow of course, but don’t tell them stuff at random moments - only when it is needed. 

If it works for your story a good thing to do can be what I call the Harry Potter vs. Ron Weasley. For Harry everything in the wizarding world is as new and alien to him as it is to the reader so we explore and learn together making it feel like part of the narrative. Ron acts as the teacher or guide for this. But this won’t work for all stories of course. 

You could try using epistolary texts. This is when you have chunks of books or newspapers or text books or something like that that only exist in the world of your book. These are sort of an info-dump but a more interesting format of them. 

If in doubt, less is probably better. Your reader will be able to make connections a lot better than you think - your job is simply to act as a guide to them. 

Make sure to give things like character backstories in smaller parts rather than all at once. This makes it feel more natural and flow better but it also builds suspense because the reader doesn’t know the whole story yet.

Something that George RR Martin did that I found really interesting was to have different idioms. So instead of saying “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it” a character says “I’d rather face that enemy when he enters the battlefield.” This means the exact same thing and so the reader is able to understand it through context but it also reveals more about the world and the importance of war in that society. Context is everything - you can give tiny bits of information but with the right context you will stay tonnes.

To double check, when you’ve finished your story get beta readers and make sure to ask them about this. If they have any questions about the world, make that clearer but if chunks were boring, make sure to rewrite them.

That’s what I can think off of the top of my head so I really hope this helps! I might make a more detailed post about this when I have the time though so keep an eye out for that. And happy writing!

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