#last time i had a story published in an anthology i was 15

[up-in-flames-writing]

I'm getting published bitcheeeeeeees!

In a short story anthology, alongside 11 other amazing writers! Hehe...

Anyway, my story, the Island of Coloured Fields, has been accepted by A Coup of Owls Press to feature in their newest anthology, Other Worlds. Here's the post talking about it so that you know I ain't making shit up :

I am genuinely so excited, & I hope all of you are too. Sorry for everyone who missed the kickstarter, but you will still get a chance to buy the finished book come summer of this year when it officially releases.

Also, keep an eye out for some of my other projects. 2024 is gonna be very busy.

[sisaloofafump]

Batman Comics Reading Guide

The goal of this post is to provide a bunch of launching off points for people depending on what they're interested in. As such, this is not a checklist. These are just suggestions that hopefully provide some context to navigate different eras and get a proper scope of the Batman comic landscape.

The amount of background behind characters and arcs can make it hard to jump right in (though these recommendations are geared to be more beginner friendly than average), so sites like the dc fandom wiki and comicvine are invaluable resources to catch you up on context. However, you can also learn a lot by just opening up a series and picking up the character cues as you go along.

IF I HAD TO CHOOSE JUST ONE...

Batman: Hush (2002) is amazing at introducing so many important characters at an entry level: Bruce, Dick (Robin I/Nightwing), Tim (Robin III), Alfred, Harley Quinn and the Joker, and Gordon. It also reintroduces Catwoman and starts her relationship with Batman, and explores his friendship with Superman and Lois. It also gets into much more about his upbringing than just the night of his parent's murder. My only hesitation is that it came out right before the resurrection of the second Robin, Jason, and lays the early foundation for it, so it's important to have some backstory regarding that going in. The art and the writing is great and while the story line gets intense, it has plenty of lighter interactions and art. It was originally published as Batman #608-619.

FIRST, SOME CONTEXT

There are always 2 ongoing series about Batman/Bruce Wayne and his teams: Batman, and Detective Comics. Depending on the era, these are either totally independent stories (like they are currently) or meant to be read side-by-side. It can be worth reading collected volumes of arcs rather than one of these streams individually.

There are also a bunch of series dedicated to supporting characters and teams that often have a lot of crossover. There will be info panels in the comics that tell you where a storyline started if a crossover happens, and the wiki/comicvine can help guide you if you get lost.

GOLD/SILVER AGE

If you're interested in his goofy Gold and Silver Age comics-start with a highlight collection! I recommend Batman Annual #5 (1963) from the 1940 "Batman" run. My personal favourite sub-era to read is the early 60s because it is both weird and easy to read. This era was almost entirely anthology comics, so it is very easy to bounce around in read one or two stories at a time.

Prominent Series:

Detective Comics (1937–): It was originally an anthology series but (almost) each issue #27 onwards has Batman in it! There are stories about other characters like the Martian Manhunter, and various non-hero detectives in each issue too.

Batman (1940–): A Batman solo series. Often includes three stories in each issue.

World's Finest Comics (1941–): He has a solo story in the first 70 issues. Issue #71 onwards are team ups with Superman!

Batman Family (1975-78): A short bronze age anthology staring Batman, Batgirl (Barbara), and Robin (Dick), however it really focused on highlighting supporting characters like Vicki Vale, Huntress, and Ace the Bat-Hound. It mostly includes reprints but each issue should have an original story as well. This was later merged with Detective Comics for 15 issues.

Prominent Character Issues:

Detective Comics #27 (1939): Introduces Bruce/Batman

Batman #1 (1940): Introduces Selina/"The Cat"

Detective Comics #38 (1940): Introduces Dick Grayson/Robin

Batman #16 (1943): Introduces Alfred (although his last name is Beagle, not Pennyworth)

Superman #76 (1952): Oh no! There's only one room left on this cruise and we have to share (Batman & Superman's first meeting)

Detective Comics #233 (1956): Introduces Kathy Kane aka the first version of Batwoman

Batman #139 (1961): Introduces Bette Kane aka the first version of a Bat-Girl

Detective Comics #359 (1967): Introduces Barbara Gordon aka current canon's "first" Batgirl

Detective Comics #357 (1983): Introduces Jason Todd. (His backstory is rewritten a few years later however)

DARK AGE

These are a few very important comics to Batman's history and you'll often see them referenced. You don't have to read any of them but it's important to loosely familiarize yourself with the contents.

Batman: Year One (1987): When they reset all of DC's continuity, this was the Batman origin they created. It set a new gritty vibe that some people loved, some people hated, but needless to say it is one of the most influential comics DC has ever put out. Features Bruce, Gordon, Selina, Alfred, and Harvey.

Batman: The Killing Joke (1988): This is a majorly influential Joker story and quite dark. It solidified the Joker's modern characterization and parallels to Batman. Barbara Gordon/Batgirl is assaulted and permanently(ish) paralyzed in it.

Batman: A Death in the Family (1988): Robin 2/Jason's death arc. The readers had voted on whether he would live or die. This was the result. Also published as Batman #426-429

Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth (1989): Dave McKean illustrated this!!. That's all I should need to tell you. It is a very interesting abstract exploration of Batman and Gotham's rogues and leans heavily on the horror aspect. I'll warn up front that there is a lot of demonization of mental health issues. It established Arkham Asylum as a major part of Gotham lore.

also the very famous but non-canonical:

The Dark Knight Returns (1986): A hypothetical future story where Bruce comes out of retirement. Carrie Kelley is the the new (and female!) Robin and helps him fight the Joker, Two-Face, and Superman. This is the first (and the best) of a trilogy.

MODERN AGE

A lot of new characters were introduced in the mid/late 90s and early 2000s. These include Tim Drake (Robin 3), Cassandra Cain (Batgirl 4/Orphan), Stephanie Brown (Robin 4/Batgirl 5/Spoiler), Kate Kane (Batwoman), Damian Wayne (Robin 5), as well as a focus on Helena Bertinelli (Batgirl 3/Huntress). It also started a third continuous series called Batman: Shadow of the Bat which ran from 1992–2000.

It would probably be illegal for me to not mention the series Batgirl (2000) here for the writing is incredible. However, the hyper-stylized art may make it better as a series to read later on.

There are many prominent story arcs, and you can find collected versions of them as the individual issues were split accross various character's series. Some important ones are:

Knightfall (1993): The villain Bane breaks Batman's back, and a religious zealot vigilante Azreal takes over for Bruce.

No Man's Land (1999): An earthquake destroys Gotham and the vigilantes work to restore order to the quarantined city. Introduces Cassandra Cain and highlights Barbara, Tim, Helena, and Bruce.

Under the Hood (2005): The bloody return of Jason Todd/Robin 2, very often referenced in fandom

Batman and Son (2006): The introduction of Damian Wayne/Robin 5.

Batman R.I.P. and following (2008–9): During this era, Batman is presumed to have died during a major crossover event The Final Crisis. Dick Grayson (the now grown-up Robin 1) takes over as Batman, Stephanie Brown becomes Batgirl, Damian Wayne is Robin, and everyone else is doing weird stuff. A major sub arc is Battle for the Cowl where the former Robins fight for the right to take over as Batman.

There is also a lot of fun crossovers with the justice league if you'd rather not stay in Gotham, here are some good ones:

World's Finest (1990): This is a wonderful Superman & Batman team up from the early 90s and has really great interactions between everyone's various personas. Steve Rude's art is so much fun and his versions of Lois and Bruce Wayne make me want to cry with how beautiful they are.

Kingdom Come (1996): a hypothetical story about the Justice League dealing with a new generation of morally careless heroes. Deeply influential and famous but more importantly, absolutely gorgeous. Do yourself a favour and just go stare and Alex Ross' art for a while (including in 2005's series Justice)

Trinity (2008): A great look at Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, and the Justice League. The first half focuses on the Trinity's similarities and differences in what they symbolize. It has a very interesting integration of Tarot too. However, they're absent for the vast majority of the second half—focusing on what the rest of the JL does in their absence. You don't need to read all of it.

Superman/Batman (2003–2011): A team up book of the title characters. The first arc is an all time favourite, and it has little crossover with their solo series, making for a read with little need for background context.

NEW 52

The New 52 (2011) relaunch event made a few major backstory changes to the Batfamily. It unparalyzed Barbara and reinstated her as Batgirl. Cass and Stephanie both lost their Batgirl (and Robin) histories and were completely set back to ground zero, ready to be reintroduced with new origins. It does introduce Duke Thomas/Signal to the team, as well as Harper Row/Bluebird (though she is not in many non-N52 books).

Honestly just avoid all of the New-52 for as long as you can, but if you do get tempted later on:

We are Robin (2015) and Robin War (2016): Features Duke Thomas, his friends, and later Dick, Jason, Tim, and Damian. If you're going to read anything, read this. It is genuinely very good and worthwhile.

Batman & Robin Eternal (2015) focuses on the whole family (including Harper Row/ Bluebird!!) and re-introduces Cass and Azreal. It has a LOT of family bickering and team ups. Ironically, it doesn't really have Bruce or Damian in it.

REBIRTH & PRESENT

The Rebirth era and following (2016-) does mostly keep the same canon as the New 52 created. However, following the Dark Crisis event (2022), everyone's backstories were merged with their previous incarnations. It is not clear to what degree this effects each character, however Stephanie is back to having been Robin now.

If you're reading the Rebirth era, I recommend starting with the Detective Comics run rather than Batman. This is just personal preference but I strongly stand by it. It highlights lesser known characters (initially Kate/Batwoman, Steph, Cass, Azreal and Batwing, with Tim and Bruce) but most importantly, it's way better written. There are a lot of batfamily crossover events (like Joker War, or Fear State). So yourself a favour and read the collected editions so you catch all of it in one place.

Three major events happen that effect all Batman-adjacent comics, that (because they still fairly recent) I will not detail for spoiler reasons, however: Batman #50 (Sep 2018) and #77 (Oct 2019), and to a lesser degree Detective Comics #940 (Nov 2016), have lasting impacts on the series.

COMIC RECS

Batman and the Outsiders (2019) is amazing. It focuses on Cassandra and Duke. Read Detective Comics #983-987 first. B&tO is continuing off from it.

Batman: The Knight: a 10 issue series about Bruce's training years and the friendships he made. Introduces a prominent character who shows up a lot in Batman #100 onwards. This is just really great

Batgirls: If you like Barbara, Cass, and Stephanie, I highly recommend reading the first arc of this. The art and the story are a lot of fun

All-Star Batman (2016): features Duke Thomas with Batman blasting heavy metal music out of his chest. It's a series of contained stories and doesn't require context from other runs

Task Force Z: Jason is roped into leading a government team of resurrected villains. It is quite an interesting exploration of his current ethics. The rest of the family do make appearances as well.

And additionally:

Wayne Family Adventures: an official (but non-canonical) Webtoon about the various domestic shenanigans of the Batfamily. It's light and funny and heartfelt and updates every Thursday.

-------

Lastly, I want to recommend my favourite oneshot, and it has absolutely no bearing on any plot, characters, or world:

Batman: Dreamland (2000): It's Batman exploring Area 51 and he looks like this:

What more could you possibly want?

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

reading roundup: june 2024

before I get started on June, I have to issue a correction from May: I forgot to include a book!

last year I backed Iron Circus Comics' erotic anthology My Monster Girlfriend, edited by Andrea Purcell and Amanda Lafrenais, and it finally arrived just ahead of pride. My Monster Girlfriend contains 15 stories by all by different artists, and features protagonists who get it on with everything from the classic ghosts, werewolves, and vampires to a reality-warping angel (?) who contains infinite dimensions, a sleep paralysis demon, and an all-consuming flesh monster hivemind.

while I would have liked to see a little more variety in the freakishness of the actual sex, the anthology is a lot of fun and shows off a great diversity of art styles and scenarios in which one might get down to clown with a monster girlfriend. my personal favorites were Feather by Kanesha C. Bryant, in which an intrepid pervert boldly attempts to locate their girlfriend's genitalia; MonsterHER Under the Bed by Bont and Wes Brooke, which puts a cute, sexy little spin on the monster under the bed; Forest Wedding by Otava Heikkilä, which reads like an old timey fable except it ends in a giant forest woman getting crazy fisted by her new trans husband; and Girl Fiend by InnKeeperWorm, which is infinitely jackoffable even though, frankly, the hellhound should have stayed in her more monstrous canine form to fuck.

okay, now onto the June reading! I found myself reaching the end of the month surprised that I had added so few books to my 2024 spreadsheet, and then I realized: it's fucking PRIDE MONTH and I'm a career queer. I spent most of June either busting ass working various events or in a coma recovering from said events; no wonder I didn't read as much as I thought I would. I also gave up on one novel after sinking close to 200 pages in it, which means the list is even shorter, but trust me: the DNF was the right decision.

so, who made the cut for pride?

The Monsters We Defy (Leslye Penelope, 2022) - this book was a romp! it's fun! it's a hoot, dare I say! this is a historical urban fantasy that takes place in the Black society of 1920s Washington, DC. protagonist Clara and her band of ragtag magical misfits have a heist to pull off against one of the most powerful Black women in DC, with their own curses and powers at stake. it's a fun story with a neat magic system and lots of words that are capitalized so you know they're Magical and Important, and it's a read that goes down real easy. strong recommendation if you find yourself in a slump!

Just for the Cameras (Viano Oniomoh, 2023) - my first foray into independently published romance! and it was... fine. the plot's a little patchy, sure, but it's definitely not the worst romance I've ever read, and at least a throuple made for a nice change of pace. AND nobody's seething with jealousy or insecurity about multiple partners? you love to see it. this book was apparently originally intended to be a novelette and it definitely could have stayed that way, but if bisexual Black hotties sucking and fucking is what you seek then you're going to have a great time. TW: 2/3 main characters are British.

Strange Bedfellows: Adventures in the Science, History, and Surprising Secrets of STDs (Ina Park, 2021) - to the surprise of absolutely no one who knows me, this is one of my very favorite nonfiction reads of the year so far. I cannot emphasize this enough: if you like the way that I talk about STIs and sex ed on this blog then I think you'll really like this book, because having read this book I desperately want to be her friend. she brings so much passion and energy to her work that it bursts right off the page and is - pardon this awful pun - absolutely infectious.

Survivor (Octavia E. Butler, 1978) - for those you not in the know, this book is kind of a get. it's the only book of Butler's that was never reprinted, so now you can only read it if you get ahold of a super expensive original edition OR if you, hypothetically, find a PDF online and print off the entire thing on your work printer. and I'm so glad I did the latter, because holy shit this book whips ass. the book was apparently disavowed for its lack of connection to the rest of the Patternist series, which is true but oh my god, the story is SOOOO cool anyway. we've got a human woman named Alanna who grew up feral on Earth only to be adopted by a Christian cult who are GOING INTO SPACE to preserve the human race, but it turns out there are already intelligent people on the new planet and they have Feelings about what the future of these human missionaries is going to be. it's on Alanna to navigate the clashing cultures and tension between the humans and two warring groups of aliens, and it is fucking URGENT. I don't say this lightly but I think this has ascended to be in my top three Butler novels.

No Name in the Street (James Baldwin, 1972) - ooooooh my god you guys!! oh my god!!! I've never read any of Baldwin's long form nonfiction, but within pages I knew that this was going to pretty permanently change my brain. this memoir-ish book delves into, among other things, Baldwin's witnessing of the American civil rights movement, including the deaths of Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Medgar Evers. woven around that is the alienating experience of being a Black man with exactly enough cultural cache and social clout to sometimes isolate him from the people he grew up with but not nearly enough to buy acceptance or safety in a white society, emphasized by Baldwin's unfinished struggle to free a friend from prison after a wrongful murder charge. and somehow that's barely doing the book justice! it's so vast and incisive and weary and impassioned and it did, truly, have me jotting down the names of everything Baldwin ever wrote to make sure I can read it all. as much as I bemoan my habit of impulse reserving books from the library, I really am indebted to the Stacks podcast for getting this on my radar.

[jimhines]

2022 Writing Income

It’s that time again – for fifteen years now I’ve been writing an annual blog post about my income as a writer. Money tends to be an uncomfortable, even taboo topic, but I think it’s important to help counter the myths that we’re all multimillionaires living in Glass Onion-style mansions. (Side note: If anyone wants to pay millions of dollars for my book, I’ll happily update this blog post from my private island mansion.)

Remember, every writer’s career is different, and I’m only one data point.

Prior Years: Here are the annual write-ups going back to 2007: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021.

In 2016, instead of a personal income write-up, I did a survey of almost 400 novelists about their income.

My Background: I’m a primarily “traditionally published,” U.S.-based SF/F author with 15 books in print from major New York publishers. The first of those books came out from DAW in 2006. I have an agent, and have been with them since about 2004.

I’ve self-published a middle grade fantasy and a few short collections. I’ve also sold about 50 short stories to different magazines and anthologies.

I’ve never hit the NYT or USA Today bestseller lists.

I’m currently the sole parent of a teenager (at home) and a 22-year-old (at college). I have a day job that’s just over half-time, both for the paycheck and the benefits.

2022 in Summary: There’s no gentle way to say this. The last several years have kind of sucked. Losing my wife to cancer in 2019 completely derailed my writing. I was hoping 2022 would be a comeback year, but life had other plans…

I did write and sell two new short stories and one nonfiction piece, which was nice. I’ve got a finished middle grade book that’s been on submission for a while. I finished a standalone fantasy that’s been sitting with my publisher for a while.

Normally, my editor is pretty quick about responding, but last year wasn’t normal for DAW, either. DAW was acquired by Astra House. A lot of their time and energy went into that deal. I’m hoping for the best, but things still haven’t settled into the new “normal.”

Last year did see the release — finally — of Terminal Peace, the third book in the Janitors of the Post-Apocalypse series. I’m thrilled and relieved to see that book in print, but it came out right in the middle of the Astra House acquisition, which may have impacted things like promotion and publicity.

I also finished the first draft and started revising a new standalone middle grade fantasy with series potential.

2022 Income: The biggest check was the publication payment for Terminal Peace. All total, before taxes and various expenses, the writing brought in $13,957.16. While that’s absolutely nothing to sneer at, and I’m grateful for the success, it’s also a dropoff from the past couple of years. To be blunt, if you look at the cumulative graph, things have been slumping a bit.

Income Breakdown:

Patreon has been a small but steady and helpful source of income. My thanks to everyone for that!

As usual, my U.S. novels are the biggest piece of the pie. The short fiction category is a bit higher this year, thanks to those two new stories. I didn’t self-publish anything new in 2022, but if that middle grade book doesn’t sell, I’d like to publish that one later this year.

Novels (U.S. editions): $8,542.83

Novels (Non-U.S. editions): $473.25

Self-Published: $1158.24

Short fiction: $892.86

Audio: $521.04

Patreon: $1668.94

Other: $700

I mentioned earlier that things have been in a bit of a slump, and I need to focus on breaking out of that. Some things I can’t currently control. Tomorrow I could wake up to an offer from DAW on the book they’ve got, and maybe an email from my agent that the middle grade title he’s been shopping around went to auction and got a six-figure advance. But I can’t make these things happen.

Priority #1 is to keep writing. If I’m not doing that, other goals are pretty much moot.

Priority #2 is to figure out some alternate options. It may be time to put more time and effort into self-publishing as a complement to my traditionally published work.

The biggest thing making me anxious is that I’m pretty much out of contract. The paperback of Terminal Peace comes out this year, but for the first time in about 15 years, I don’t have the security, the luxury, or the deadlines of a signed contract. In some ways, this is freeing: I can write whatever I want. But there’s no guarantee as to when things will see print. Submitting to the traditional publishers is a long, slow process…

From talking to other writers who’ve been doing this a while, I’ve learned that pretty much every career has its ups and downs. Personal, pandemic, and publisher issues have been a bit of a perfect storm for me these past few years, but I’m not going anywhere. After 27 years as a writer, I’m excited to see what comes next.

Wrap Up:

I hope this has been helpful. As always, feel free to share the post and/or ask questions.

[queen0fm0nsterz]

I saw you post about Seafarers, but to me, your finest work will always be Fifteen Notes to You, reread all of it the other day and... yeah, it still hits like a fucking bullet train.

I genuinely don't think it's possible to capture Mono's descent into insanity better than you did here. It reminds me a little of The Last Weekend from the anthology Inside no.9, in that, you know, both from the story itself and the context it exists in, that it won't have a happy ending, but the humanization of the characters just forces you to cling to hope that something will go right. But that rarely, if ever, happens in The Nowhere.

FNTY... Now THAT'S a name I haven't heard in years...

Thank you so much!!!! I'm super grateful to see folks still enjoy my old stories :)it seems to be the general consensus even among my friends that FNTY is the best complete fic I've put out. Reading thru the comments, I remember one of a person who told me that it made them cry - and the comment made ME cry LMAOOOOOOO😭

I'm very proud of it myself as it was not only my first published fic, but my first multichaptered fic I ever completed as well. Though I am a slow writer (SEAFARERS CHAPTER 5 IS IN THE WORKS😭), for FNTY it was never because I had excessive trouble figuring out what to put on paper - especially never when in regards to the letters themselves. The most troubling parts were the in betweens, funnily enough.

Mono and Thin Man come very naturally to me when writing. I think it may be because I tend to interpret them as having very big feelings... like myself, I guess. And since the story itself is short, I suppose that I managed to make the thing itself feel like there are many big feelings in a tiny box. I will admit I got emotional myself a couple of times... then went on to edit like nothing was wrong LMAOOOO like this is how I looked writing and then editing vvv

For Seafarers, the emotional payoff has yet to come, and it will be different -- considering we have World's Most Emotionally Constipated Woman and Our Strongest Soldier (the PTSD has yet to hit because she's still actively experiencing the horrors) as the protagonists this time.

Six and the Lady are both considerably harder to write for me. I had my chance to write the Big Feeler at the very beginning because the stakes there were skyrocketing from the getgo, but now things have gotten considerably more... silent. The feelings are there but they're all kept in. OUGHHHHHHHHH

I also can't wait to introduce more stuff; I've been writing down concepts for shadow magic and powers, how the Maw works, the various things the Lady of the Maw has to look after to keep it afloat... and the Ladies. Look, I'll say that I'm really happy with what I'm doing with Teapot and Rascal. And with Teapot in general. I really like the characterization I pulled out of my ass LMAOOOOOO and the DESIGN... ok so I'm willing to share a couple of the Teapot's I've doodled

(She's genuinely very silly [read: sick in the head]... i gave all the Ladies some nice additional details because. Ik the point is that they all look very similar but I love designing outfits fuck it this is MY au i do what I want)

So right now I have a suspicion that Seafarers will hit better when it's finished and can be read from beginning to end. Since it's longer (I plan it to be... around 15 chapters? A bit longer if the events require it to be.), there will be more time to let the stuff brew until it reaches its climax as intended.

[angst-in-space]

july ‘23 writing progress

words written: 18.3k

most words written in a day: 1.8k

least words written in a day: 26

current yearly total: 103.8k

projects worked on:

- ya sci-fi book revisions - sylvix pacific rim au - matchablossom bed-sharing fic - altea rising ch 15 edits (AND I POSTED IT....AT LONG LAST...) - posted ch 9 of sylvix dreamscape fic - short story planning

works published in july:

you’re a dream (i’m never waking up) - chapter 9 (fe3h/sylvix) altea rising - chapter 15 (vld/klance)

july goals:

- write 30k for camp nano - rewrite 4-5 chapters of ya sci-fi book (up to ch 20-ish?) - post ch 9 of sylvix dreamscape fic - start editing ch 10 of dreamscape fic - start editing chs 3-4 of renga fic? - continue first draft of arctic monster book - work on various fics (sylvix pacrim, kazurei post-canon, matchablossom, red skies ch 8, etc.)

august goals:

- continue ya sci-fi book rewrites... erm... i’m way behind schedule but maybe will try to aim for like chapter 25 or so - edit/post another chapter of altea rising - finish sylvix dreamscape ch 10 edits and send to betas - continue editing renga fic if i have time??  - work on other misc fics  - maybe... work a bit on arctic monster book?? - write and submit short story

notes:

well.... this was an interesting month! because technically, in terms of word count, this was my most productive month of the year so far—but in terms of what i actually wanted to get done... well, not quite as successful LOL. but uhhh progress is progress, amiright?

i had hoped to write 30k this month and got to almost 19k so, missed my goal by about 11k lol (but still!! most words i’ve written in a month so far this year!).

i’d been hoping mainly to focus on book rewrites and get to chapter 20 or so but uhh... that did not happen either! i got Very Stuck on chapter 16 in particular so that took me most of the month. but i at least go through that and have almost finished chapter 17 as well! buuut i’ll have to rewrite... a lot more chapters this month if i want to stay on track to reach my self-appointed deadline. plus i’m having a lot of crises about my book in general lmao but guess that is all part of the process haha *gives a thumbs-up while tears roll down my face* ANYWAY. aiming for chapter 25 by the end of this month (and i’m trying to kick my own ass into rewriting like 1k words a day) so uhhh yeah. chuckles nervously.

in more positive news, i updated two whole fics in july after months of posting nothing so WOOOO!!! chapter 9 of sylvix dreamscape fic is finally posted after like 9 months, and chapter 15 of altea rising is posted after uhhh like 4.5 years lmao. with the latter, it’s been especially touching to see people so excited for it and that you were happy to see it update! honestly i had a LOT of anxiety about continuing to post it because i worried no one would care anymore, so it means a lot. :’) i definitely hope to keep working on both those fics and aim to update at least one of them by end of august!

i also planned out a short story that i’m hoping to write and submit to an anthology this month so *sweats* pray for me....i have not written a short story in ages, much less submitted short fiction anywhere lol but it’s something i’ve meant to try for a while!! 

otherwise, i’m not sure i’ll have time for much else because this month is going to be pretty busy for me on top of all the writing-related stuff i need to do. but hoping to maybe squeeze in some progress on other fics when i can (or when i’m feeling burned out on my book). sooo yeah i think that’s all for now!! 

[radwolf76]

2023 Tumblr Top 10

1). 17,079 notes - Jan 5 2023

Pika Sword Grandma

See also the final form and the reblog from @notpikaman​

2). 596 notes - May 13 2023

The RED DOT Has Been Caught

3). 407 notes - Jan 1 2023

Happy New Year 2023

(When your first post of 2023 gets more notes in less than 24 hours than anything you posted in 2022.)

4). 262 notes - Aug 16 2023

Erwin Beekveld's They're Taking The Hobbits to Isengard was originally uploaded on 16 Aug 2005, not 18 Aug 2005 like Know Your Meme Claims.

(Mashed Taters was uploaded on 18 Aug the year before, so you can still celebrate the anniversary of a different memetastic LotR song on that day.)

See also where I linked to a video of YouTuber Jeffiot debunking Know Your Meme’s claims about the origin of the Doot Doot Trumpet Skull gif.

5). 143 notes - Aug 26 2023

Lucky and His Love of Being Bopped by Empty Soda Bottles

See the followup posts with videos.

6). 123 notes - Apr 15 2023

Guess what kids? It's time for yet another entry in the hyper specific poll bandwagon!

(Yes, these were all just describing me.)

7). 113 notes - Nov 20 2023

Experimental Prototype Documentary Of Tomorrow

Sharing Kevin “Defunctland” Perjurer’s latest masterpiece.

8). 40 notes - Jan 28 2023

holy fucking beholder, what?! ꙮ3

Celebrating WotC/Hasbro putting the D&D System Reference Document into Creative Commons as damage control for their bungled attempt to milk their own Open Gaming License for more profits at the expense of 3rd Party Publishers. (Good thing too, seeing as how executive decisions are putting the D&D brand on a death march.) Also, credit to @nyancrimew​ whose Bingle post I totally ganked when making this.

9). 34 notes - Jul 17 2023

Bonded Pair

See also bonus cuddle.

10). 33 notes - Aug 15 2023

Thought I'd Share The Voids Being Cozy

This was the post where I mentioned that Red Crinkle Ball is Lucky’s cuddle toy, his teddy bear. See also this post for further evidence of this.

Honorable Mentions:

verpfwot’s Miette Halloween costume from 2021. At the end of 2021, it had 428 notes, and at the end of 2022 it had 6,186 notes. As of right now it’s up to a staggering 18,082 notes, making it my most popular post ever, even resoundly beating out Pika Sword Grandma above.

My 1,437 followers (up 25% from last year).

My Halloween Costume that was two scary for the cats.

My post about Billi the Cat giving a reminder that it’s time to take meds.

My Metamour’s short story Storage getting published in the anthology Manor of Frights, and read aloud on the Horror Addicts podcast. (Not that I had anything at all to do with either, but anyone who knows my tumblr knows I’m always reblogging my household to hype up their creative endeavours.)

My Spouse’s yarncraft and art. (See note above.)

Lucky falling off things.

Jinx and the giant sushi plush.

My Hero Forge Creations, especially this one I made for a friend. (I took the lessons learned from that 3D print in that post and tweaked it before I had it printed for her, so she got an even better one.)

The time Tumblr tried to sell me a Fallout Melee Weapon, and the many times they tried to sell me nothing at all.

Both of my Let’s Read Homestuck Upd8 posts from April and August, since this is the first time since 2019 I didn’t have one of those land in my Top 10.

My late cat Hennessy showing up as a Tumblr gif in someone else’s post, and of course we remember and miss Percy too.

Previous Year’s Top Tens: 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019 

Created by TumblrTop10

[youngjustus]

i know you’re not very interested in current dc stuff right now (and honeslty i feel the same) but what are your thoughts on the tim pride special? and how tim’s bisexuality has been handled so far?

anon, i feel like you're about to get me executed in the town square LOL

i think that the new story in the back of the pride special was boring. it would've been nice to actually see tim and stephanie's break up on panel in the initial urban legends issues instead of just alluded to, but at the same time i feel like we've already gone through this arc with the two of them way back in robin vol. 4 and red robin. i don't fully know what's going on in canon at the moment, but they both seem overall very regressive and probably way younger than they're supposed to be. are they supposed to be 15? they feel 15 years old. remember when steph was in college pre-flashpoint? and she had other friends that she hung out with? that was cool.

it's been A While since i've read all of robin vol. 4 (it was in 2017 lol), but with my personal interpretation of tim, i don't really see him as someone who would struggle and agonize over his same gender attraction. i think it would be something he was always vaguely aware of, and when he's a little older, and has the vocabulary for it, its just kind of like oh.... alright then. cause he's got other shit to worry about! that’s something he kind of says in the holiday issue of urban legends. and him being same gender attracted is something you can pick up on reading older stuff if you look for it, especially with his relationship with conner.

regarding tim's new boyfriend, if we’re being honest at the gig, bernard is a character i completely forgot about until he showed up again in urban legends. when i think of tim's civilian friends, my mind goes to ives before anyone else since he had been there from pretty much the beginning. i think i remember being annoyed by that whole high school arc in robin vol. 4 back when i was reading it, but i do like bernard now. or rather i like the idea of what he could be? them plucking a character out of continuity who hadn't been used in a long time was a good idea over creating a new one solely to be a love interest (stares at another dc book). i do hope that they make him more fleshed out and three-dimensional because there isn’t much to go on yet, and a lot of fan works already are very one note. i've also already made a few posts about how i don't like his current design because it really makes him and tim look like wiccan and hulkling from young avengers. like please give him back his don bluth haircut.

in summary, its all fine so far, i guess - i just would've done a few things slightly differently. its a miracle at all that this was even "allowed" to be published. i woke up to nearly 10 people messaging me about tim being bi when the issue was dropped last summer, including my mom. so this is a big deal! but i am still going to criticize it like i would any other story i read. i will say i was hoping that tim and bernard would kiss in either the main dc pride anthology or in the solo tim special because tim's been able to kiss all of his other love interests on panel. and i can only hope moving forward that bernard gets to be more of a real character with his own personality and motivations, and is not just A Love Interest.

[kellyvela]

Do you think we will ever get "the she wolves of winterfell" novella? George said he can't see story's conclusion until he is finished writing winds of winter. Do you think it's because of parallels with the current timeline? Or he is just busy with the winds and can't write anything else.

As far as I know, the tale is almost done (for years) but not finished....

He mentioned something about five Lady Starks running Winterfell -- the Wolf Women or something like that -- with four of them widows of a bunch of fairly recent former Lord Starks, and the current Lady Stark, whose 30-something husband is fading fast from a wound taken from fighting the Ironborn. (FEBRUARY 17, 2006)

[Have there ever been a ruling Lady of Winterfell or Queen of Winter?]

No. Although I do hope to someday write the Dunk & Egg story where they travel to Winterfell and meet the She-Wolves. (APRIL 15, 2008)

This one has the working title DANGEROUS WOMEN. Whether that will be the final title or not, I am less sure. Must admit, I do not love it; too generic for my taste. I wanted to call the book FEMMES FATALE, but our editor suggested that no one younger than forty would have any idea what that phrase meant. Which boggles the hell out of me, but what do I know? Could be we’ll settle on WOMEN WARRIORS. Though that’s limiting in a different sort of way. But whatever title it goes by in the end, it should be a helluva anthology. We have some great writers lined up, as we did with WARRIORS.

And yes, DANGEROUS WOMEN will include the fourth Dunk & Egg novella, the long-promised tale of their visit to the North, where they encounter the She-Wolves of Winterfell. I could tell you more than that, but then I’d need to kill you. (JULY 2, 2011)

* * *

Dunk & Egg #4, An original novella of Dunk & Egg. Working on it. Hope to have it done by worldcon. It's scheduled to be published in DANGEROUS WOMEN. A huge crossgenre anthology that Gardner Dozois and I are doing for Tor. Largely complete, except for Dunk & Egg. Well, we're waiting for three rewrites, but my own story will likely be the last one in, then we can move this one to "done and delivered." (JUNE 23, 2012)

* * *

GRRM had 'a lot' of the story written by Eastercon in the UK, where he was talking about it. So I assume he means it's not yet finished, rather than not written at all.

He also had a working title for it, THE SHE-WOLVES (or THE SHE-WOLVES OF WINTERFELL), but was apparently not 100% happy with it. My guess (not based on anything he said though) was that this was because the first three titles were a reference to Dunk, whilst this wasn't, so it might change to fit the first three. (Reported by George's friend Adam Whitehead - Sep 03, 2012)

* * *

I did originally plan on including a fourth in DANGEROUS WOMEN, the crossgenre anthology Gardner and I put out last year, but the book was past due and the story was not finished, so I substituted an abridged version of "The Princess and the Queen" instead.

The unfinished novella was indeed set in Winterfell, and involved a group of formidable Stark wives, widows, mothers, and grandmothers that I dubbed 'the She-Wolves,' but "The She-Wolves of Winterfell" was never meant to be more than a working title.  The final title, when I finish the story, will be something different.  There's also another Dunk & Egg novella that I've got roughed out in my head, with the working title "The Village Hero."  That one takes place in the Riverlands.   There's no telling when I will have time to finish either of these, or which one I will write first.  I don't expect I will know more until I've delivered THE WINDS OF WINTER. (APRIL 15, 2014)

Thanks for your message :)

[isamijoo]

My history as a, um, writer.

I don't know how you'd define a "published writer", but if it simply means having something you wrote be printed and published by a legit publisher, well, I already am one. Kind of?

When I was 14, a popular bookstore had a writing contest for teenagers. I got shortlisted as top 20 and attended the prize giving ceremony. I didn't win the grand prize but the bookstore (also a publishing company) published an anthology of all the shortlisted stories. My 800-words story was one of them. I signed a contract and got like $40 for it.

The following year, when I was 15, the bookstore/company held another contest, and I joined again, this time in the older category which had a 1200-word limit. This time I got Top 8. At the prize-giving ceremony, I met one of my then favourite authors (her books helped me passed school tests) and I told her I was her fan (my 15-year-old self was a Gryffindor).

The company published the shortlisted stories again, and my story was also included in that anthology. I also got $40 for it.

I donated a few copies to my high school library. I don't even know whether I still have them at home, which is quite a shame since the books are no longer in print. The first one didn't even have a memorable title. The second one was called "It's About Time" because the theme of the contest was about Time.

My next anthology is cheating because it was a fandom project. I guess you can think of it like a "zine" but an anthology would be more accurate because all the contributions were fics. When I was 19, a writer I adored in my previous fandom approached several writers to be in her project, and it was a big honour to be invited to contribute. I wrote a 25k word fic for this. It got illustrated by an amazing artist. The anthology was physical, printed by lulu.

I threw away all copies I had when I left that fandom, but I still keep the word file. I have changed all the names and edited the story a bunch. The fic doesn't age well, but it holds a special place in my heart. The title of this story was "Before I Go" because it was my last fic before I left writing.

My next book (?) was when I was 25. My friend and I co-wrote a simple guidebook for young doctors. I did the formatting and ISBN registration while my friend sent it to a local printer. The books were given to participants of a course for medical graduates. I wasn't paid for this, and the books were only given away at this one course.

So I only started writing creatively again last year, after 5 years of not doing it. I'm writing this now because I'm working to add another anthology under my belt. A local publishing company is looking for submissions (with a 10k word limit) and I'm aiming to send in my story for that. I don't know if I'll get accepted, of course, but I like the story I've written and I have a good feeling about it. Please wish me luck.

So that's my history! Thank you for reading this far. As for my current/upcoming projects:

I am still working on a sequel for my 2021 Sudsfest fic, My Darling My Everything.

I have signed up for Drarropoly 2022! 🎉🎉

For the sk8 the infinity fandom, I've signed up for Nanjo Reverse Bang and Matchablossom Reverse Bang.

For the Nu:Carnival fandom, The Carnival Zine will be released very soon. I am one of 45 contributors for it. I also joined an Edmond Zine and an Exchange fest.

Thank you to those who read and commented on my stories. I'm sorry if I'm not active. May you all have a brilliant day ❤️

[aeneaamoretto]

Thanks @serenesavagery for sparking all of this.

She really didn't do anything much other than leaving a passing comment that 'Brandon is a legend btw'.

That made me curious...

(That's never a good thing.)

So, I wanted to know what was his total written word count, what was his longest book and his shortest book...

And because I'm stubborn, I was going to do it myself. So armed with his official website, a calculator, a notepad and the internet, I began my quest.

Three books in, I switched to an Excel sheet because I am an idiot for even considering my first method was a good idea.

Here is where my overly investigative self went slightly off the rails. So not only did I have the book titles and the number of words in each book, I went on to include what category they fell under based on his site, if they were apart of a series, what type of book they were and their earliest publication date. I said earliest because some had two under different companies so I just went with the first one.

I'm here to share my findings after 2 days of research...

I mostly used the list of books from his website. So Arcanum Unbounded and Legion: The Many Lives of Stephen Leeds were used over the standalone versions. It saved me time in hunting down the others and calculating the overall word count was much easier if I didn't have to some subtractions along the way.

His four graphic novels were excluded from any of the final calculations because I couldn't get any accurate word lengths for them. For similar reasons, the audio book book he worked on was also excluded. I still put them on the list though.

The only other exclusions I had were his additions to the Unfettered, Unfettered III and Armored anthologies because I couldn't get my hand on those numbers.

I'm honestly surprised that I managed to get the one for Dreamer.

(If any of you do have them, could you please send them my way. Thank you.)

Also, I included the tentative word counts for Dawnshard and Rhythm of War because I wanted to include them in this crazy list...

There's also a fake release date for Dawnshard because I needed something there if I wanted to plot it later.

So feast your eyes on my crazy masterpiece

Yes, I also did a graph because I'm extra.

(Those sharp crazy increases were mainly due to Stormlight Archive, Mistborn, Warbreaker or The Wheel of Time. I checked.)

So the longest book he has ever written is undecided. It'll depend on how long Rhythm of War actually turns out to be but for now it's at number 1.

So his current Top 10 longest books:

Rhythm of War - 460,000 words*

Oathbringer - 454,768 words

Words of Radiance - 403,736 words

The Way of Kings - 383,181 words

A Memory of Light - 353,906 words

Tower of Midnight - 327,052 words

The Gathering Storm - 297,502 words

The Well of Ascension - 249,522 words

Warbreaker - 243,849 words

The Hero of Ages - 241,889 words

Since I don't have all the figures, his Top 10 shortest stories are up to deliberation but I do know that it'll take a lot of work to dethrone Dreamer at number 1.

Brandon Sanderson's Top 10 Shortest Works

Dreamer - 4,365 words

Mitosis - 9,034 words

First Born - 14,051 words

Defending Elysium - 14,743 words

Perfect State - 18,268 words

Snapshot - 25,079 words

Dawnshard - 35,000 words*

Infinity Blade Redemption - 37,681 words

Infinity Blade Awakening - 39,040 words

The Dark Talent - 51,711 words

Bonus: Here are the random calculations I did because I was bored and this is Excel...

(Again, his works from Armored and the Unfettered anthologies were not included in these numbers except for the final tally of works. That number is still inaccurate because I didn't get around to adding the shorter stories that became apart of Arcanum Unbounded and Legion: The Many Lives of Stephen Leeds.)

Can we take a moment of awe for this man? In the last 15 years, he has over 50 works credited to his name.

(My list only says 46 and I think like 10 of his other works didn't make the list because they were absorbed into the collections.)

He has published like 17 FREAKING EPICS !!!!!!

These lovely monstrosities are so long and he has released 17 of them.

His average word count for a single book, with the numbers I found, amounts to 149,147 words... I found the average of 39 different works and that still classifies as an epic.

What is he doing with himself? What am I doing with myself?

We need to applaud this man for everything that he was written for us and continues to write for us. He's written about 5.7 million words already and with Stormlight Archive not even halfway done, I'm not even going to be surprised if that number reaches 8.5 million. Especially considering that he has other active series going on and sequels in the works.

So, Brandon is a legend btw.

Next on my list of things that I'm going to research for the hell of it is Szeth's timeline... I really should do that before Brandon decides to alert me on exactly how much more complicated he wants it to be.

[ordinaryschmuck]

Marvel Facts That You Probably Know, But Also Probably Don’t #2

Hey, are you a casual Marvel fan who gets most of their information about Marvel characters from movies and TV? Well, here are some facts about some classic characters that you probably know, but also probably don’t. Facts involving their history and a few odd stories you might not have heard of.

Today, we’re going to be talking about facts connected to the following characters/groups:

Hulk

Iron Man

Spider-Man

The Avengers

Thor

Ant-Man and the Wasp

Doctor Strange

And one quick fact about Cyclops

Here are the facts:

What's technically the first big Marvel crossover is when the Fantastic Four went up against the Hulk in issue #12 of their 1961 run.

The Hulk's first solo run in 1962 only lasted for six issues.

And you know Hulk's sidekick Rick Jones? HE formed a team of teenagers called the Teen Brigade, who send messages around the world. And it's them who inadvertently brought the Avengers together when calling for help against the Hulk...I'm not kidding.

Like Thor and Ant-Man, Iron Man made his debut in an anthology comic, with his stories often taking place in Tales of Suspense.

Iron Man didn't get captured by the Nine Rings. He got captured by a Wong-Chu, an evil Vietnamese general...it was a different time.

Tony Stark used to need to wear an entire iron chest plate to keep himself alive, rather than just a small arc reactor.

He then painted his MK I suit gold after his lady friend Marien suggested it.

And if you think his suit in Avengers: Infinity War was OP, wait until you see his MK I suit from 1963. It was basically Batman's utility belt as it just so happens to have a dozen tools and attachments that allow him to do anything. It's kind of cool but also insanely lazy.

Did you know Steven Strange wasn't the first Doctor Strange? Because he wasn't. There was actually another character called Dr. Strange, who actually came close to killing Iron Man if not for his daughter ruining things.

Spider-Man was initially a one-off character in Amazing Fantasy #15. It wasn't until many fans demanded more did Stan Lee and Steve Ditko give him his own series in 1963.

In the very first issue of The Amazing Spider-Man, Peter Parker is referred to as Peter Palmer.

J. Jonah Jameson published both The Daily Bugle and Now Magazine.

Odin explicitly states that Thor is his favorite son...what a dick.

If Thor lets go of his hammer for sixty seconds, he'll revert back to Donald Blake. But if he's in Asgard, which is beyond Earth's time, Thor can stay as Thor indefinitely.

Also, Thor doesn't like publicity and crowds of photographers. He was too scared people would see through his god-like physique and see him as Donald Blake.

Loki was a blonde once...that is all.

And alongside telling stories of Thor fighting the villain of the week, Journey Into Mystery��would have Tales of Asgard, which basically had stories of adventures the Norse gods went before Thor's.

Hank Pym's Ant-Man used to be married to Maria Trovaya before meeting Janet Van Dyme...Maria was murdered by communists for betraying communism...it was a different time.

It was retconned that the main reason why Hank Pym became Ant-Man was because of Maria's death.

It was The Wasp who came up with the name for the Avengers...I bet she doesn't get enough credit for that.

Doctor Strange also started on an anthology comic, but it wasn't in his own like Iron Man, Thor, and Ant-Man. Instead, he shared a slot on Stange Tales alongside the Human Torch.

Unlike most superheroes, Doctor Strange's first story wasn't an origin. Fans didn't figure out how the good doctor came to be until his third appearance.

Doctor Strange also didn't start with his cloak of levitation. Shocking right? To find out that an iconic piece of a hero's costume didn't even exist when that hero was made.

Scott Summers, Cyclops, was originally called Slim Summers.

[the-bejeesus]

To Those Who Say “I’m not gonna catch up on One Piece until it’s finished. Why would I watch/read 1000+ episodes/chapters when I don’t even get to know how the story ends?”

      Now for the past few years, when I came across somebody who said this, my rebute would be something like “Well the series is great already. It doesn’t really matter if I don’t know how it ends, because the journey itself is enjoyable.” or “Man if that’s your excuse, who you gonna explain why you read/watch stuff like Berserk, Hunter X Hunter, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, and My Hero Academia? Newsflash, they aren’t done yet.” But it came across my mind that I can now apply a completely different approach:

“If you start watching/reading at this pace right now, it will be over by the time you catch up.”

      If you’re a fan of the series, you’ll know that for awhile now Oda has been saying that he plans to end the series in just 5-4 years. Now he’s made lots of claims in the past that turned out to be ridiculous. However, many One Piece researchers have compiled his claims and found out that they only get more accurate as time goes on, with the most ridiculous claims being found to be myths. And with the most recent claims of ending the series in less than 5 years, even his editors who are usually skeptical have started to trust that he can do this. After all, he has officially set there to be only one more saga (which isn’t necessarily one arc, but it’s either going to be 1-2 major arcs or an anthology of 5-6 shorter arcs). And now that we can trust this claim, we can essentially extrapolate how many chapters/episodes are left and what pace we have to binge to catch up at just the right time.

If you plan to read the manga (black and white):

The manga in black in white is a perfectly fine way to enjoy One Piece. It’s what Oda draws, it’s how he intends it to be viewed, and best of all, it will be the first version of publication to finish.

     Out of the 1223 weeks since the first chapter published in July 19, 1997, 1000 chapters have published, meaning on average he publishes 42 chapters per year, or in other words, there are only 10 hiatuses per year (including holidays where WSJ does not publish). Now if I wanted to be more accurate, I’d only look at the chapters published this year, to exclude outliers like how he had no hiatuses for the first 200 chapters, or how he had a 4-week hiatus during the timeskip, but 2020 has been a bit crazy, so we’re not doing that for this or any of the others.

     Going off of this, the final chapter would be chapter 1212 in December 28, 2025 (yes, the 28th would be a Sunday again.) So here’s how you’d calculate the pace in which you need to read One Piece, and really this is how we’ll calculate it for every version)

     Now I know math is boring, but the reason I’m showing this to you is because the amount of weeks until One Piece ends will vary based on when you start this binge. Chances are you aren’t going to start the day you see this post, and there’s an even greater chance you won’t see this post the day it’s posted. For every example I’m going to assume you started binging on December 28, 2020. Now let’s try to use it for this example.

     And there’s your answer, just read 4-5 chapters per week. By the end, One Piece should be nearly over or have very recently ended. To put that into a different perspective, you could purchase and read just two volumes per month and you’ll be at prime pace. Or you could read one chapter every day, but only on weekdays.  If you want to, you can see this calculation in action in graph form.

     While this is a very rudimentary graph, it’s a basic visualization of what we’re calculating here. We’re calculating what speed we need to binge to catch up at exactly the right moment. I say exact, but ultimately no one can predict how many chapters there will be exactly, nor how many hiatuses Oda will go on during it. It will be important, as you’re nearing the end, to find a spoiler-free way to keep up on how close One Piece is to ending. To know whether you ought to speed up or slow down.

If you plan to watch the anime (subtitled):

For years now people have hated on the anime “terrible animation!” “terrible pacing” but at the end of the day, it’s the more popular version. Or the more viewed version I should say. And personally, I think that once you acknowledge its problems and learn how to deal with them, it’s a perfectly fine experience. There’s enough good voice acting and enough good storytelling that you’re easily able to ignore the problems. Plus, the animation has substantially improved since Wano.

      Now for this we’re going to have to change a lot of variables to get this right. We’re going to have to adjust when publication started, and recalculate when One Piece will end by looking at how slowly the anime adapts the manga, and how behind it is. The anime aired on October 20, 1999, and has aired 956 episodes since then. This means on average they air 44.9 episodes per year, meaning there is pretty much only 7 breaks the entire year. With these 956 episodes, they have adapted 955 chapters, making the pace almost exactly one chapter per episode. However this is really inaccurate, considering all the better-paced arcs earlier on in the story. Looking solely at episodes 2012 and onwards, the anime adapts at a pace of 0.65 chapters/episode.

     Knowing that there are roughly 212 chapters left, and Toei adapts at 0.65 chapters per episode, we can assume that there are going to be roughly 324 episodes left. That sounds like too many, but keep in mind that there will be several, several instances where the manga will be on hiatus whereas the anime will keep on airing. Knowing there are approximately 324 episodes left, and that the anime only takes about 7 breaks a year, we can assume that it will take 7 years, or 374.49 weeks before the anime will end. So now we have the information we need to do the math again.

x = 1280/374.49

x = 3.417 episodes/week.

     It may seem like a more relaxed binge, since you get a whole 2 extra years to binge, and you only have to do 3-4 episodes per week, compared to the 4-5 chapters. But keep in mind that these episodes are 24 minutes each. Still not at all bad, but you will be spending more time on it overall.

If you plan to watch One Pace:

One Pace is a fan project that edits the anime so that filler and padding is cut, other edits will be made to make the anime more manga-accurate, such as reorganizing scenes, or adding title cards where absent. Originally only used by a niche number of One Piece fans, One Pace has grown in popularity, and has tried to improve its quality to accommodate more fans, such as making their episodes Dual Audio (meaning you can switch between the dub and original Japanese audio tracks), and including Spanish subtitles.

      You’d think we’d have to adjust for when One Pace began, how slowly One Pace catches up, and the works, but there’s not much to calculate. Fortunately for us, no matter how far behind One Pace is on editing the current arc, they always like to wrap things up just a few weeks within when an arc ended, if not the very same week. So really all we have to calculate is how many One Pace episodes there will be by the end of all this, so that we know how many you’ll need to watch per week.

      Looking solely at what they’ve covered so far, One Pace has taken 573 episodes and condensed it down to 259 episodes. That’s a pace of 2.21 anime episodes/ paced episode. Earlier we calculated that there would be 324 episodes of the anime left, making for 1280 episodes total. This would mean that there would be around 578 One Pace episodes by the end. And One Pace would probably wrap up in, let’s say 376 weeks, because as I said, they’ll probably finish editing the final arc a week or two after the last episode airs.

x = 578/376

x = 1.53 episodes per week

      Now that’s a relaxed pace. 1-2 episodes per week? That’s so slow, I’m not even sure if I’ll remember what I watched last week next time I watch some episodes. The only problem is some of the pre-timeskip still haven’t been edited. They’ll probably be done by the time they finish the final arc, but that’s not gonna work out fast enough. You’ll hit your first roadblock about 7 weeks in when you need to watch the Baratie arc and it’s not done. And don’t even get me started on how many arcs aren’t done in dub or Spanish sub yet. Hopefully you could just switch to the anime or manga when you hit these arcs, readjusting how many episodes/chapters you need to watch/read when you do. But that’s a bit of an excessive amount of math for something that’s supposed to be fun. So yeah, if you’re still convinced you shouldn’t get into One Piece until it’s ended, maybe this is the option for you.

If you plan to read the manga (Colored):

Since 2012, Shueisha has made a colorization of One Piece. It’s not a fan coloring, it’s as official as it gets. Many consider the color schemes portrayed in this version as the most canon, as the majority are pulled straight from whatever colored illustrations of Oda’s they can find. And quite frankly it makes the manga at least 10 times more beautiful. It’s especially great if you have trouble interpreting dense, small black and white panels.

      This one is a doozy. You’d think all I gotta do is calculate how far behind the colored manga usually and just adjust from there, right? Wrong. Because how far behind the colored manga is, or how frequently they release volumes in full color, is one of the most inconsistent things I have ever seen. You wanna see what I’m talking about? This is how they’ve chosen to release each volume since 2012:

Volume 1-12: July 15, 2012

Volume 13-23: September 28, 2012

Volume 24-63: December 4, 2012

Volume 64-65: April 4, 2013

Volume 66-68: December 20, 2013

Volume 69-70: August 25, 2014

Volume 71-72: September 16, 2015

Volume 73-75: October 4, 2016

Volume 76: December 2, 2016

Volume 77: March 3, 2017

Volume 78: July 2, 2017

Volume 79: September 4, 2017

Volume 80: December 4, 2017

Volume 81-82: March 3, 2018

Volume 83: October 4, 2018

Volume 84-86: August 2, 2019

Volume 87-92: September 16, 2020

     How I am supposed to find out how long it will take for Shueisha to colorize the final volume of One Piece is beyond me. I guess the first step would be to look at how far behind the manga each release was on average, but I’m going to ignore all the ones before 2013, because those were clearly just Shueisha catching up really fast cause they just started and didn’t want to be dozens of volumes behind forever. So of the 14 publications between 2013 and now, on average the last chapter of the last volume they colored was 97.78 weeks after that chapter had published in Weekly Shonen Jump. This means that if the final chapter of One Piece is chapter 1212 on December 28, 2025, then you can expect the final colored volume to publish November 14, 2027.

x = 1212/359

x = 3.37 chapters/week

     So if you prefer the manga but don’t want to read 5 chapters every week for 5 years, this might be a better option for ya. But yea, I have no doubt my prediction is at least a little off for this one.

If you plan to watch the anime (dubbed):

Unlike the 4KidsTV and Odex dubs of One Piece, the FUNimation dub is a perfect way to enjoy One Piece. The DVDs come with enjoyable commentary and a marathon mode, great for binging.

       FUNimation’s releases of the dub are inconsistent, although not nearly as erratic as the colored manga release. However, there was recently a 2-year hiatus we only just got out of. Since Episode 1′s dub in May 27, 2008, the dub has gotten as far as Episode 614. But that’s only looking at the DVD releases. If you’re willing to stream on FUNimationnow, the dub is as far as 641, and if you’re willing to digitally purchase it from an e-shop such as the Microsoft store, it goes all the way to Episode 654. With that being said, that would mean that on average, FUNimation dubs 1.004 episodes per week. Although if we go back to before the two-year hiatus so as to exclude it from the average, it’s actually 1.10 episodes per week. Not a huge difference, actually. And then if we look solely after the two-year hiatus, it’s actually 2.25 episodes per week, which is insanely faster. It’s hard to tell what the future of the dub will be. I can’t assume they’ll go this fast forever, so I’m just going to take the average of all 3 and say it’s 1.45 episodes per week. Don’t know if that’s the best mathematical approach, but the number seems about right.

     So knowing that the dub is at Episode 654 and looking at our previous guesstimation that the anime will be 1280 episodes long, we can predict that it will take 431 weeks before the dub catches up and ends. That would be in 2029! Sounds quick at first until you notice it’s 4 years behind!

x = 1280/431

x = 2.96 episodes per week

      Looks like it’s almost exactly 3 episodes per week. Not as much less of a workload as I expected, compared to catching up to the sub. You know, I figured those 4 extra years would make you binge a lot slower.

Final Thoughts:

      There’s a lot of my math that was estimation, approximations, extrapolations. Feel free to correct me or fact check me, especially if you plan on using this. I figured this would be a fun thought excercise. There’s also a lot of smaller variables I simply didn’t want to take into account because of how long this is already. For example, reading the black and white manga. The calculation can vary slightly depending on if you read it the day it’s published (which I assume would have to be a fanscan unless you can read Japanese), reading the weekly publication legally on Viz.com, waiting for the physical volume release. The dub can also vary depending on whether you buy from Microsoft, wait for the FUNimationnow release, wait for the DVDs, or wait for the Collection sets. So feel free to take this into account.

[jam-is-my-food]

writing asks. all of them. ( for 50 uhh just write a paragraph about how hot emmy raver-lampman is in a suit please and thank you </3 )

fUCK YOU NESSIE

THAT’S IT IM DOING IT JUST TO SPITE YOU

this is gonna be long asf click keep reading at risk of death or boredom

1.     Do you listen to music when you write?

not usually, it's distracting

 2.     Are you a pantser or plotter?

naturally pantser but if i wanna actually finish smth i gotta plot it hh

 3.     Computer or pen and paper?

computer i'm not a boOmer /j i so am

 4.     Have you ever been published, or do you want to be published?

bitch i wiSh

actually technically i was published in this anthology thing once? and i think i have a piece in a magazine somewhere on the internet i forget those are cool

but yeah bye getting a novel published is my d r e a m (gotta write a novel first tho lawl)

 5.     How much writing do you get done on an average day?

n o t  m u c h

unless i get one of my bUrsts aka finishing a 2.3K almoons chapter before 8am the other week after procrastinating it for like two months 

but yeah jdsghliuedskj it um depends often none

 6.     Single or multiple POV?

i answered that for kiri so i'll just copy paste it over loll

mmm it depends. usually i do single? but i do do multiple occasionally. i almost never do alternating chapters, though, it’s usually more like part one is narrated by person a, part two person b etc.

 7.     Standalone or series?

baha like i could ever write a series (please, please be jinxing yourself rn refster) aside from that one trilogy when i was 7 but uh yeah atm just standalones but a series would be so cool in future 

 8.     Oldest WIP

the aforementioned trilogy. chronicles of clara. it is incREDIBLE. 10/10. so good. so, so good.

 9.     Current WIP

i haven't actually mentioned it on tumblr yet but hehehe it's called the wordweaver's apprentice it's fantasy and i'm v excited about it :DD that was ooc but :DD

 10.  Do you set yourself deadlines?

(also answered for kiri, copy-pasting over)

hahahahhahahuhdkjashdglauhsdaugediuskjlkehdsgihkdskhgdkjx

i? try?

it does not go well?

but then i never finish my projects?

send help pls im dying

11.  Books and/or authors who influenced you the most

lmao the list is too long

 12.  Describe your perfect writing space

somewhere w/o distractions

 13.  Describe your writing process from idea to polished

hm. idea. that's cool. that's cool. write it down. hype myself up. forget about it within a week.

el em mayo

but like

f r LMAO

okay but fr fr idk i don't usually finish stuff but it'd be idea, brainstorm, plot (sort of), write, agonize, write, finish, throw in the other direction and never touch again bc revision whos she

 14.  How do you deal with self-doubts?

cry and spam my friends

 15.  How do you deal with writer’s block?

i don’t - mm. i don’t tend to get writer’s block? or like - idk what to classify as writer’s block? bc sometimes i get blocked for a certain story, but then i get really into like poetry or sum for a week so it’s fine idk

 16.  How many drafts do you need until you’re satisfied with a project?

o n e as i said i don't - revision is a no

 17.  What writing habits or rituals do you have?

uHhHhhhhh idk???

 18.  If you could collaborate with anyone, who would it be, and what would you write about?

*laughs in gfc*

 19.  How do you keep yourself motivated?

i don't. if you have any ideas please hmu i need it.

 20.  How many WIPs and story ideas do you have?

m a n y.

21.  Who is/are your favourite character(s) to write?

mmmmmmmmm i love cass i haven't written her in too long but i think she's probably my most well-done character to date and i'm so proud of her badkghewiludkjs

 22.  Who is/are your favourite pairing(s) to write?

c y i l l

though possible imeini (ship name needs revision) in future we shall see (from twa) (the aforementioned newish wip)

 23.  Favourite author

there are Many

 24.  Favourite genre to write and read

fantasy maybe? ooh dystopia is fun

 25.  Favourite part of writing

everything about it when i'm motivated hh, my problem is getting more motivation

 26.  Favourite writing program

oh idk huh?

27.  Favourite line/scene

idk?

 28.  Favourite side character

j o o s t

 29.  Favourite villain

i def have one but i forget

 30.  Favourite idea you haven’t started on yet

too many

31.  Least favourite part of writing

motivating myself :/

 32.  Most difficult character to write

mmmm i'm not really in the throes of a wip atm so idk

 33.  Have you ever killed a main character?

yessir

 34.  What was the hardest scene you ever had to write?

drunk will was surprisingly difficult in a fun way. def not the hardest but yeah

 35.  What scene/story are you least looking forward to writing?

god idk

36.  Last sentence you wrote

And then Mei was gone, and in the space that she'd filled, Imani whispered, "I wish I was like you."

 37.  First sentence or your current WIP

It is said that when we came to this stretch of Tatys land, it was empty.

38.  Weirdest story idea you’ve ever had

mm there was one about anthropomorphic chickens battling sentient fruits, the fruits in question also being six-year olds

 39.  Weirdest character concept you’ve ever had

s e e  a b o v e

 40.  Share some backstory for one of your characters

cass's mom used to have a drug problem & she would leave her alone for long stretches of time, she went to rehab and is now sober but it's where cass gets her abandonment issues from

41.  Any advice for new/beginning/young writers?

just write! no one taught me how to do anything, and there's no rules per se, aside from basic grammatical stuff. do what you wanna do, don't worry about others' reactions. this is cliche asf but true.

 42.  How do you feel about love triangles?

mostly gross, but they can be good.

 43.  What do you do if/when characters don’t follow the outline?

adapt. i  g o  w i t h  t h e  f l o w.

 44.  How much research do you do?

not much usually, depends on the genre of story. i do as much as i feel i need to. and ofc i have the random writer search history.

 45.  How much world building do you do?

in the past, not much. twa (once again my new wip) is fantasy, though, so i' m attempting to remedy that.

 46.  Do you reread your own stories?

i do! it's fun to look back at them after a few years and see how much i've improved.

 47.  Best way to procrastinate

random character headcanons/doodle writey spurt thingies

 48.  What’s the most self-insert character/scene you’ve ever written?

bAHA this one scene in the cHrOniCLeS of cLaRa book two when this girl lisa who was 100% self-insert got annoyed at her little sister daisy (sister-insert) for chewing too loudly and then proceeded to use her wAtEr pOwErs to like flood the house. that part was less self-insert.

 49.  Which character would you most want to be friends with, if they were real?

bye that's so hard. c a d m u s & l a u r e n t tho cinnamon rolls are liFE.

 50.  Write a paragraph about how hot emmy raver-lampman is in a suit please and thank you

i don't gotta write my own bitch i have everything i need to plagiarize from right here

"Raver-Lampman’s enthusiasm is contagious. So is her laugh. It comes from deep inside, just like her voice, and it rings out — ricocheting off furniture and walls. Her head is shaved, all except for a distinctive swath of tight curls on the top and left side of her head. She has the tiniest septum ring in her nose, and a tattoo of what looks like a musical note behind her right ear."

- the clearly gay jessica belt

thank you for the ASKS darLING and thank you if you read this idk why or whether you're okay but yup

[mothgender]

17 Questions Tag Meme

I was tagged by the lovely @displacerghost ! (Honestly so delighted that one of my favorite fanfic authors wants to know about me)

1. What’s the story behind your username? It’s actually my girlfriend’s fault. We were going through some playbooks from a ttrpg and there’s a section called Look. There’s 3 different things to fill out, with some generic options. One for your eyes (ex. skittish or kind), your hands (scarred, busy), and your gender expression. Now some of the gender expression options were pretty normal i.e. soft butch,  androgynous, conforming. But there were also some really fun ones like transgressing and gargoyle. Athena was reading them out to me and said goth, and I misheard her. And I love moths. So this is my brand now.

2. Zodiac sign? Aries

3. What are you currently reading (and/or watching)? (hoo boy that’s gonna be a long answer) So currently I’m reading Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff (and watching the show with Athena), Wastelands: The New Apocalypse by John Joseph Addams (an anthology of apocalypse stories and so far 90% of them have been gay woop), and in a few days my very specific book club will begin reading all of the Alien movie novelizations. Alien is probably my favorite franchise ever.

4. Last thing you googled? The lyrics for Matt and Kim’s On My Own

5. Song stuck in your head? It’s been going back and forth between This Is Love by Air Traffic Controller and death bed (coffee for your head) by Powfu

6. What’s your favorite instrumental/non-lyrical song? Asleep on a Train by Radical Face

7. What was the last dream that you had (that you remember)? A nightmare involving shrimp and a bug that I kept calling Corphish, like the pokemon?

8. What’s the weirdest food you love? I don’t know? I don’t think any food is really weird? But I’m a huge fan of that one time I had snail pizza.

9. What superpower do you wish you had? Let me control fire baybeee. It wouldn’t help me in any way in my life but it’d be cool as hell.

10. What’s your favorite holiday? I really love the vibes of Halloween but Christmas is great because I get to see the half of my family that I love.

11. What did you want to be when you grew up? Despite my fear of needles, a veterinarian. 

12. What's your dream job now? I switch between wanting to continue on with groundskeeping but not where I am now, or maybe something in publishing.

13. What stories were most influential on you? A Series of Unfortunate Events really kickstarted my adoration of reading and stories, and Twilight is what really got me into fandom when I was in middle school. Recently, everything I’ve ever read by Seanan McGuire has helped me realize I don’t have to have a perfect story for people to love it.

14. What are some of your favorite animals? Cats, dogs, foxes, FRUIT BATS

15. If you could be an animal, what would you want to be? Fruit bat!

16. What’s your favorite poem? I don’t necessarily have a favorite poem but my favorite poet is Upile Chisala. Her poetry is really uplifting and beautiful.

17. Did you have a best thing today? The beautiful anticipation of going to see Athena tomorrow!

I’m not going to tag anyone but thank you so much again for tagging me!

[adapembroke]

Using Progressed Moon Phases to Understand Your Life

Progressed moon cycles are a powerful tool. I've done a lot of technical explaining in my series on progressions (#secondary progressions), but moon cycles are—more than any other progression—a way of seeing the overall shape of a life, and lives are best shared as stories. 

So, I'm going to take you through my life step by step, showing how each phase of the moon cycle has reflected changes I've gone through as an individual.

Beginning

I was born two days before the Last Quarter moon phase, when the moon in Aquarius squared the sun in Taurus.

My first progressed New Moon happened when I was nine years old when the sun and moon were in my 10th house. This means that the 30 year cycle that followed was focused on my career.

If you could have placed bets on my career before I turned 9 years old, odds are good you would have bet on science. I was profoundly curious, loved my science classes, was fascinated with insects and birds, and desperately wanted to be an astronaut when I grew up. Within a year, everything changed. I learned that I would never go to space because I had severe, chronic knee problems. Becoming an astronomer was out of the question because I suddenly had a profoundly difficult time with math, and I learned that crickets (at least in captivity) are cannibals. My disgust turned me away from biology, the last refuge of my interest in science, but I kept a romantic love of nature. These revelations left me with no idea what to tell people when they asked what I wanted to be when I grew up.

New Moon in Taurus

When I was 9 years old, at the beginning of the New Moon phase, a teacher encouraged me to enter an international poetry contest, even though I would have been one of the youngest contestants. I wrote a poem about a chickadee, entered the contest, and won. In less than a year, I went from being science girl to writing poetry obsessively and having my stories and papers read in front of the class, a change that no one (least of all me) could have anticipated from the previous cycle.

First Quarter Moon

When I was 17, I experienced my progressed First Quarter phase. The progressed moon in 2nd house Virgo squared my Progressed Sun in 11th house Gemini. The questions being posed were: What communication (Gemini) goals (11th house) am I going to set? What skills (2nd house) am I going to develop (Virgo)? Because this moon cycle was about my career, these questions would be answered by my career decisions.

At the time, I didn't know what I was going to do. I was still writing poetry obsessively, but I knew that I couldn't make a career out of that, so I decided not to get a BFA in creative writing, which is what I really wanted. I knew that whatever I did, it would have something to do with communicating or teaching—both Virgo and Gemini are ruled by Mercury.

Because I didn’t do what I really wanted to do, I was extremely mercurial during this phase, switching programs and majors and schools with embarrassing randomness. My disorganization meant that, even with a nearly perfect GPA, it took me six years to get through undergrad.

Full Moon

When I was 24, I hit a few milestones all at once and entered my Full Moon phase with the sun in Gemini and the 11th house and the moon in Sagittarius in the 5th house. I graduated from college (Sagittarius) with a degree in English (Gemini). I became a community organizer (11th house). I started performing (5th house) at slam poetry (Gemini) open mics (11th house) in Boston and organized open mics of my own. I had settled on wanting to become a priest at that point, but the Episcopal Church decided not to ordain me as a priest, and I started my march out of Christianity (Sagittarius). I was accepted into an MFA in creative writing program (5th house, Sagittarius), retracing my steps back to that missed opportunity when I was 17. I started studying poetry and switched to fiction.

The period between my Full Moon phase and my Last Quarter phase was literally a highly visible time in my life. I was on stage performing and lecturing. I published stories and essays in magazines and anthologies. I ran an online literary magazine by myself and was the face of it.

Last Quarter Moon

When I was 31, I entered the Last Quarter phase with the sun in Gemini and the 11th house square the moon in Pisces in the 8th house. Just before I entered the Last Quarter phase, one of my stories was published in a "year's best" anthology, and a book with my work in it was on a shelf at Powell's, but I was shocked to discover that this success didn't mean anything to me. I was getting somewhere as a writer, and I suddenly wasn't interested in becoming a full-time professional fiction writer. The 8th house is the house of death. Less than five years after getting an MFA, my career was dying.

Not knowing that I was entering the waning phase of a moon cycle (or what it meant that my very driven Gemini Mars had just progressed into 12th house Cancer), I had an existential crisis. The realization that I didn't want to be a professional fiction writer was so traumatic for me, I refused to acknowledge it for years. I alternated between forcing myself to submit to markets I didn't care about and finding excuses not to. I could see the progression from poetry contest to creative writing degree, and I couldn't understand why this path that now seemed so logical was ending so soon—especially since I was succeeding. On the outside, nothing was happening to me, and yet I was changing.

I poured myself into learning (Gemini) astrology and Tarot (Pisces)—interests that I had developed in graduate school—and I started developing the psychic skills (8th house) that appeared out of nowhere during my Saturn return. I did readings (8th house), took the opportunities I could to teach (Gemini), and looked for others who were interested in things that I was interested in (11th house). I went back to my community organizing roots and helped bring people together at meetups and in online communities, and I was initiated into the Order of Bards, Ovates, and Druids.

Without realizing it, I was doing exactly what I needed to do. Kelly Surtees advises her clients who are going through the Last Quarter phase to withdraw from the world for awhile, go to school and re-train. Often you can't see where you're going until the New Moon phase, but you will intuitively know what skills to develop to prepare yourself for the future.

New Moon in Gemini...and Beyond

When I am 39, I will enter another New Moon phase. This New Moon will happen in Gemini and my 11th house and will mark a new phase of alignment between my identity and my personal goals.

During my first progressed moon cycle, I didn't really have any goals of my own. I entered a poetry contest because my teacher encouraged me to. I got English and MFA degrees because that's what people who are good at writing do. I started a literary magazine, wrote fiction, and submitted my work to magazines and anthologies because that's what people with MFAs do.

I can see now that when that moon cycle started to seriously wane, the standard script wasn't enough for me anymore. Success on society's terms didn't mean anything to me. I needed personal goals. I needed my own sense of mission. I needed to fulfill the promise of my 9th house Aries Mercury and do things my way.

And I needed to start embodying my 10th house sun in Taurus. At the end of this cycle, I'm finding myself returning to the place I was when I became a poet at 9 years old, when the sun and moon came together in that sign for the first time. I am remembering my love of nature. I am writing poetry again, and I am realizing that, even though the path of the scientist is closed to me, I can still serve the community with my love of nature as a mystic, Druid, teacher, writer, and poet.

What does that mean? I'm not sure. If I continue on the course I'm on, I will finish my training with OBOD by the time I'm 39. If I continue my work as a diviner, I will be celebrating my 15 year anniversary that year, and I will be marking almost a decade of work writing about divination and spirituality.

With my knowledge of progressions, I can look ahead.

When I am 47, I will enter the First Quarter phase again with my sun in 12th house Cancer, and the moon in 3rd house Libra. I see themes of spirituality, introspection, healing, art, communication, and peacemaking, all things that are in-line with being a Druid writer.

When I'm 53, I will enter a Full Moon phase with the sun in 12th house Cancer and the moon in 6th house Capricorn. Assuming all of the health signatures there don't indicate a preoccupation with health problems (Gulp!), I see themes of spirituality, introspection, healing, order-making, leadership, and service. All things that I would expect to see from continued growth along the path I'm on now.

I can calculate beyond that, but like Steven Forrest says in The Changing Sky, progressions show you the way a tree will grow if it grows from an acorn without too much interference from the environment. No one anticipated that a poetry contest at 9 years old would lead to earning an MFA at 26. I can't imagine how I'll feel when I'm in my 50s, but having the ability to trace the outlines of my past and seeing a way forward that gives me a sense of continuity makes me feel as if my life has a purpose and a track.

And that is really the most you can hope for from divination.