#like honestly i think a lot of publishers like after this round of line artists die off are just going to have the pencilers do

[fabdante]

genuinely i would kill to be a line artist yall have no idea

[mittensmorgul]

(re: trad authors vs fanfic authors and the “nine levels of removal") Yes. This. Story time! I went to a book event for a well known, critically acclaimed, best selling author once about 20 years ago. He'd never done a proper "book tour" before and as a fan I was excited. Myself and other fans from a Yahoo Group (RIP) met up at the event and gave Mr Popular Author a fan art book we'd put together. He later wrote that he’d had to go off to a corner of the bookstore to hide and cry for a few minutes because he'd always thought he was writing into a void. Then BOOM, there we were, a big group of us, right in front of him, loving his work and giving him feedback (and gifts!) He’d never so much as read a review of any of his books before. The sudden realization that actual humans had read (and liked!) his work was apparently very emotional for him. Fanfic authors don’t have the luxury of that distance. And I don’t envy them for it. The feedback they get is immediate and devastating. Trad authors often won’t even get told how many copies their book has sold for the first six months after publication. Fanfic authors see every single view and kudos and comment in real time.

Yep. This.

I mean, it’s shifted a bit in the last 20 years. A lot of traditionally published authors have websites, or twitter, or other social media. Before I ever came to fandom, I was trying to go the traditional publishing route, too. Heck, a decade later I’m still on author twitter (most of my twitter is authors/publishers/agents/editors because those are the people I befriended when I first started seriously writing). But there is a sense of removall still there between authors and readers. And twitter followers and interactions don’t always equate to readers.

I mean, look at any author’s twitter, and a lot of it is just... like anyone else’s twitter.

Authors can also go look at their reviews on Amazon or Goodreads or wherever else online, and see their book’s daily ranking in sales if they really want to, but trust me on this, everyone involved in the publication of their books has probably told them not to do this. It’s not helpful in any way, unless they’ve shot to the top of the bestseller lists. Learning their new release ranks 32502905 in their genre... isn’t worth bothering, you know? And there’s nothing to do by obsessing over it.

When your agent is sending you all the good reviews, all the positive feedback, and encouraging you to finish the draft of your next book or your next round of edits, you don’t HAVE to think about responding to every comment anyone makes on your work. You’re encouraged NOT to respond. Because those reviews are NOT FOR YOU. They’re for other readers, to help them decide whether or not to make a financial investment in your already published book.

Fanfic comments ARE NOT THAT. Fanfic comments are written directly TO the author. Sure, other readers might see them, and I’ve had conversations start in comments on my fic before so I know it happens. But when a reader writes a comment on a fic, it’s generally to thank the author for the story, for having entertained them for a while.

Not all fanfic authors reply to comments, but I think the vast majority of us TRY to at the very least. Thanking the reader for reading, expressing the happiness we feel that our work has brought someone else a bit of joy (or angst, or whatever feeling we’ve inspired with our words). Or else answering questions the commenter has asked, or otherwise expressing gratitude.

It’s a DIRECT CONVERSATION, the likes of which most people will never have with a traditionally published author. The absolute ridiculousness that anyone expects the works we publish on AO3, for free, can be compared in any way to a traditionally published novel is beyond belief. The conceit that works we write-- again, for free, in our spare time, out of love for doing it-- should be as polished and free of any sort of errors as works that have spent more than a year and often more than two years going through multiple rounds of editing, proofreading, line editing, typesetting, etc. where MANY PEOPLE have scoured it for errors and yet still a few slip by here and there... I mean, HOW can anyone hold writers working on our own, in our spare time, for zero pay, purely for our own enjoyment to the same level of exactitude that we hold commercial novels? It’s laughable.

And honestly, it reaches a point where we’d rather just post the thing and move on to the next thing. I have gone back and done minor edits to some of my older works. If I’m rereading and notice a typo, I’ll fix it, for example. I once switched a character and wrote it as a different character because I felt bad about how the original character was portrayed. But for the vast majority of them I have zero intent of going back and making major edits on anything I’ve written, because I have moved on. I’m writing something else now, and maybe that will be more polished for having written the previous things with the wonky sentence structure or the awkward choice of words.

Mostly I write because I want to tell the stories that are stuck in my head. I need to get them out or they wedge in there like a big old log jam. Enough words build up that if I don’t start lining them up and pushing them out, the pressure builds up and bursts out in really inconvenient and messy ways. I’m personally not writing fanfic as “practice.” Or because I hope to some day be “good enough” to publish original works for money. I came to fandom to write fanfic so I wouldn’t have to deal with the rest of the publishing industry lol. I don’t need encouragement or approval or advice on how to improve. I just need an outlet. And if other people enjoy anything I write, that’s just a bonus to me.

(I had a publishing contract in my hands, stared at it for three days and then cried as I tore it up... I didn’t want to put myself through the publishing mill... I was already burnt out just getting to that point, and couldn’t imagine it becoming my life for years to come. It wasn’t worth it to me, and then I found fandom and AO3 and fanfic, and got all the benefit from writing with none of the angst of commercial publishing. This is where I WANT to be, this is not a stepping stone or training ground for someday becoming a “real author.” Sure, it is for some folks, but for a lot of us, this is just what makes us happy.)

Can you imagine going to a craft show where everyone has spent their time making beautiful handmade things and walking directly up to each artist and critiquing their work? Going up to a knitter and complaining that you saw a nicer hat in Macy’s the other day and pointing out everything about her hat that you don’t like? Or going to a jewelry designer and saying you prefer gold to silver, and demanding to know why they chose to inlay green stones when clearly they should’ve used blue ones?

Same vibe on critiquing fanfic in the comments. Or at the author in general. It’s just rude.

[tigerkirby215]

5e Xayah, the Rebel build (League of Legends)

(Artwork by Riot Games)

Holy shit they actually just flip the artwork. No this is genuinely Xayah’s “official” artwork it’s just a flip of Rakan’s...

So uh I had this build prepared back in August... and then I forgot it. Luckily I did write it down! See? I’m smarter than Rakan!

Honestly I’m quite thankful for Tasha’s coming out because it made my Xayah build a lot better. So I’m happy that I’m publishing it now in February instead of back in August when I made the first draft. A lot of things get better with age and love’s also one of them~ 💓

GOALS

Dodging seems to be a weak spot of yours - Sick of only hitting one enemy at a time? Make some Clean Cuts to strike behind your enemy. That’s what’s known as efficiency!

Move your feet, or lose some toes - Ever tripped on a feather? How about having your heels slashed?

A thousand cuts is only the beginning - In case of emergency push R button to dodge damage, and send a ton of feathers at your foes!

RACE

Xayah is half bird, but her taunt flat out shows she can’t fly which leaves Aarakocra out of the picture. She’s also very chatty (holy shit have you seen how many voice lines Xayah and Rakan have?) so Kenku is definitely not an option. So when in Rome as a furry look no further than a Shifter.

All Shifters have Darkvision and their Shifting ability to gain temporary hitpoints, but everything else is determined by their subrace: you’re the girl with the plan for the hunt. The Wildhunt that is! Your Wisdom increases by 2 and your Dexterity increases by 1. You’re a Natural Tracker with proficiency in Survival. And your Shifting Feature will let you become one with nature for advantage on Wisdom checks, and you can up your dodging game so no enemy can hit you with advantage.

ABILITY SCORES

15; DEXTERITY - You’re a marksman. That means attacking with a ranged weapon, which takes nimbleness.

14; WISDOM - Wisdom will let you connect with the natural magic of the world. Most literally as you’re going to be using Wisdom to cast spells!

13; INTELLIGENCE - You’re the one with the plan.

12; CONSTITUTION - Ha ha ADC health bar go brrrr, but even if Xay is squishy in LoL that doesn’t mean we can’t grab Grasp for a bit more health.

10; CHARISMA - Xayah has a degree of rough charm to her. But I mean hey: you got Rakan to fall for you?

8; STRENGTH - As much muscle as dancing takes you don’t need it to cut through your foes.

BACKGROUND

You’re a freedom fighter. A rebel with a cause fighting as a Faction Agent for the Vastayan cause. You get proficiency in Insight along with any Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma ability. For a dance under the moonlight with Rakan get Performance proficiency: it takes two to tango after all! You also get proficiency in two languages: unfortunately Aarakocra isn’t an option but Auran (or rather Primordial) will serve well to speak the Vastayan-bird language. And to learn the ancient language of Ionia I’d recommend Sylvan.

As a vastayan rebel you can gain access to a Safe Haven for you and your allies. By using secret signs and passwords you can identify other rebels who can bring you to a safe house, give you a free place to stay, or assist you in finding information. They won’t risk their lives for you but as long as you remember the password they’ll be willing to help. Be sure to remember the password by the way. Because Rakan definitely won’t.

(Artwork by XhiliaJP on DeviantArt)

THE BUILD

LEVEL 1 - FIGHTER 1

Starting off as a Fighter for a few things known as saving throws, but also for skills like Acrobatics and Perception to see incoming skill shots and dodge them with grace. You also get Second Wind to heal for a d10 plus your Fighter level for some health pots in lane.

Your main choice as a Fighter at early levels is your Fighting Style and we’ll be grabbing a Bladecaller root very early thanks to Superior Technique from Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything. You learn a Battle Master Maneuver from the Battle Master subclass: we’ll be going for Trip Attack to hinder enemy movement. You then get a d6 Maneuver die to use on Trip Attack, and nothing else because spoilers: we won’t be getting other maneuvers.

LEVEL 2 - FIGHTER 2

Second level Fighters get their Action Surge, allowing them to take two actions in a turn instead of 1. For now that only means two attacks. For now.

LEVEL 3 - FIGHTER 3

Third level Fighters get to choose their Martial Archetype and to channel some magic into your “blades” (read: arrows, because you should be using a longbow) go for the magic of the Arcane Archer. Arcane Archer Lore will give you proficiency in Arcana or Nature (we’re actually going to be going for Arcana) as well as either the Prestigiation or Druidcraft cantrip (naturally as a naturalist we’ll be going for Druidcraft.)

"How can humans not hear the magic?"

"They're too busy building things."

"Why?"

"Because... they're afraid."

Of course the main feature of the Arcane Archer is their Arcane Shot. Once per turn when you fire an arrow from a bow, you can apply one of your Arcane Shots to that arrow. You decide to use the option when the arrow hits a creature, unless the option doesn’t involve an attack roll. You have two uses of Arcane Shot that come back after a Short or Long rest.

Let’s talk about your Arcane Shots then, hm? To root your foe (sorta) Grasping Arrow does an extra 2d6 Poison damage and lowers the target’s movement speed by 10. Additionally if they try to move without Flash (or other means of teleportation) they’ll take an extra 2d6 slashing damage. The target can use its action to remove the brambles with a successful Athletics check against your Arcane Shot save DC, or ask their support to do it for them. Otherwise, the brambles last for 1 minute or until you use this option again.

Piercing Arrow meanwhile doesn’t require an attack roll. Instead you target all enemies in a 30 foot line and force them to make a Dexterity save. On a failed save they take damage as if they were shot by the bow, along with an extra d6 of piercing. On a successful save however they only take half, but realistically if you’re hitting 3 or more people with this arrow it’s still worth it even if you miss.

(Artist unknown. Made for Riot Games.)

LEVEL 4 - RANGER 1

Feel free to take one more level in Fighter for an ASI but I’m going to go to Ranger now and grab Nature proficiency from the class, which is why we took Arcana earlier!

Also thank god Tasha’s is out because instead of the meme known as Natural Explorer we get Deft Explorer. Canny gives you Expertise in one of your skills (I personally opted for Acrobatics to evade any Shadow Assassins who may try to kill you, but honestly any one of your skills make sense for Expertise so feel free to pick whatever you think will be useful) and two language proficiencies of your choice. (Choose whatever you think will help your cause.)

But the more interesting feature is Favored Foe. When you hit an enemy you can choose to mark them to make your feathers just a little more sharp. The first time on each of your turns that you hit the marked target and deal damage to it (including when you first mark it) you can do an extra d4 of damage to them.

The bond lasts for 1 minute unless you get hit hard enough to lose your concentration because yes: this feature takes your concentration for some reason which is why we went into Fighter first for proficiency in Constitution saves. You can use the mark a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.

LEVEL 5 - RANGER 2

Second level Rangers get their Fighting Style, and since we didn’t take Archery from Fighter we’ll instead be taking it here.

But more importantly you get Spellcasting. You can learn two spells from the Ranger list: to keep enemies in place with Bladecaller take Ensnaring Strike. Alternatively if you want to increase your evasion with your Deadly Plumage Zephyr Strike will make it so enemies can’t make attacks of opportunity against you, and you can end the spell’s effects to do more damage with an attack and then increase your movement speed afterwards.

LEVEL 6 - RANGER 3

Third level Rangers get to choose their Ranger Archetype, and with Tasha’s Cauldron out we have an explanation for Xayah’s Deadly Plumage. Why, it’s a swarm of feathers of course! Xayah’s a Swarmkeeper! After hitting an enemy you can use your Gathered Swarm for a variety of different effects. You can do an extra d6 of piercing damage, force a Strength save or be pushed up to 15 feet horizontally in a direction of your choice, or you can move yourself 5 feet horizontally in a direction of your choice.

You also get Swarmkeeper Magic for a variety of spells. For one you get Mage Hand, and you also get Faerie Fire to light up all your enemies’ weak points. You can also learn another spell like Hail of Thorns for Clean Cuts through any foes who may be bunched up.

And to top it off you get Primal Awareness for a few extra spells. You learn the Speak with Animals spell, and cast it once per Long Rest without spending a spell slot.

LEVEL 7 - RANGER 4

4th level Rangers get an Ability Score Improvement. Increase your Intelligence by 1 and your Dexterity by 1, because why not replace one uneven ability score with another? "And an F, for effort."

LEVEL 8 - RANGER 5

5th level Rangers get an Extra Attack. Two attacks per round for a bit more attack speed.

You also get access to second level spells, and from your Swarmkeeper Magic you get the Web spell, which perhaps isn’t too fitting but you shouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth. Additionally Primal Awareness adds Beast Sense to your spell list, and lets you cast it without spending a spell slot. Perhaps not the most useful spell, but as Xayah would say: "Spiders are my spirit animal." And finally you can learn another spell too like Lesser Restoration for some QSS in case of emergency.

(Artwork by Riot Games)

LEVEL 9 - RANGER 6

6th level Rangers see their Favored Foe damage increase to a d6. Additionally they get Roving from Deft Explorer for 5 additional moving speed and some help with swimming and climbing.

LEVEL 10 - RANGER 7

7th level Rangers can at least try to fly thanks to Writhing Tide. As a bonus action you gain a flying speed of 10 feet and can hover. The effect lasts for 1 minute or until you are incapacitated. You can use this feature a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest. It perhaps isn’t the most useful thing for mobility but it’s good to use your feathers to get the perfect angle on your foes, or to keep away from melee bruisers looking to slice your chicken.

You can also learn another spell at this level like Enhance Ability, for a boost to give 120% when you need it.

LEVEL 11 - RANGER 8

8th level Rangers get another Ability Score Improvement: to maximize the deadliness of your plumage take the Piercer feat from Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything. Along with a +1 increase to your Dexterity you can also reroll one attack roll that did piercing damage (your longbow does piercing damage) to hopefully turn a low roll into a high roll. But to top it off when you score a critical hit (that deals piercing damage) you can roll one additional damage die when determining the extra piercing damage the target takes. Any ADC can attack an enemy but Clean Cuts is what lets Xayah stand out from the crowd.

LEVEL 12 - RANGER 9

9th level Rangers get more spells. From Primal Awareness you get Speak with Plants, to understand why the land of Ionia is upset at the humans. You can also grab Conjure Barrage for a Featherstorm to cut down a full crowd. But if you want to evade with Featherstorm your Swarmkeeper Magic grants you the Gaseous Form spell, to become untargetable (to an extent) and still be able to move and dodge (to an extent.)

(Artwork by SplashBrush on DeviantArt. It’s considerably easier to find artwork of Xayah than it is to find artwork of Rakan :c)

LEVEL 13 - FIGHTER 4

Back to good ol’ Fighter to pick up that ASI I ignored. +2 to Dexterity? That’ll max out your hit chance and attack damage!

LEVEL 14 - FIGHTER 5

5th level Fighters get an Extra Attack... which you already have. "I can't even... I don't know where to begin."

LEVEL 15 - FIGHTER 6

6th level Fighters get more Ability Score Improvements! Since your Dexterity is maxed out you can choose to increase either your Wisdom for better Ranger spells or your Intelligence for better Fighter Arcane Shots. Pick whatever suits your fancy but remember that your Arcane Shots come back on a Short Rest while your Ranger spells are restricted by Long Rests.

LEVEL 16 - FIGHTER 7

Do you have a Magic Weapon? Well you do now! 7th level Rangers get Magic Arrow, which makes their shots magical for the sake of overcoming resistances and immunity. Is total level 16 way too late to be getting this? Yeah probably.

Good thing you also get Curving Shot! If you miss an attack you can redirect it with Clean Cuts, spending a Bonus Action to roll an attack on a different enemy within 60 feet of the original target. And to top it off you get another Arcane Shot option: Seeking Arrow is a good way to target backline enemies, but it’s also really useful to deal with any invisible foes. "Did they deserve it?" "They deserved it."

(Artwork by Riot Games)

LEVEL 17 - FIGHTER 8

8 is the magic number for more ASIs. Intelligence is nice; so is Wisdom. Increase what you want.

LEVEL 18 - FIGHTER 9

9th level Rangers can pick up Mercurial Scimitar and get out of CC with Indomitable. If you fail a saving throw, you can reroll it! But it’s only once per Long Rest. Note that you can reroll death saves, so don’t die or that would make Rakan sad.

LEVEL 19 - FIGHTER 10

10th level Fighters get another Arcane Shot option. Yup that’s literally it. Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth, I guess. Regardless this late into the game some CC would probably be good, so take Banishing Arrow.

LEVEL 20 - FIGHTER 11

Our capstone is the 11th level of Fighter for an Extra Attack that does stack, giving us three total! Cap off that attack speed to slice through foes like butter! "I love watching you kill." "I love killing for you." "Let's make out."

FINAL BUILD

PROS

Hurray; they all died - You’re really good at Fighting, almost like you multiclassed Fighter with a half-Fighter. You’re incredibly precise with a +13 to hit with your longbow and have plenty of tools to increase your overall DPS.

What? They were in my way - You’ve also got plenty of tricks up your sleeve. Arcane Shots, one use of Trip Attack, Gathered Swarm shenanigans, and plenty of dangerous utility spells.

Oops, your bad! - You’ve got quite a few aces up your sleeve to stop you from being blown up. Higher than average movement thanks to being a Ranger, and your Swarmkeeper abilities lets you increase your movement. Not to mention utility spells like Gaseous Form. And you also have two different ways to boost your health (Second Wind + Shifting), 17 AC with Studded Leather... oh and did I mention you have +17 in Acrobatics?

CONS

Can I just hate you to death? - You’ve got limited resources on top of limited resources on top of limited resources. Two Arcane Shots per Short Rest, spell slots that are limited by Long Rests, healing and temp HP that’s tied to a Short Rest... Be sure to ration out your abilities so you don’t run out when you need them most.

Chaos is the preferred state of nature - All your saving throws are rather mediocre, notably your Charisma which is a nice flat +0. Rakan’s the talker, but a beautiful smile will keep you out of any banishing spells.

Magic is not some river - So it turns out multiclassing two sorta-casters means that you can’t focus on either stat. If you can easily get a 19 in Intelligence (such as with a Hextech Headband) perhaps focus on Wisdom. If not? Well Point Buy is an option.

But if you were perfect why would you need Rakan? He’s there to pick up your slack, and you’re there to make sure he doesn’t screw up. Dance along with him and cut down anyone who stands in your way. There’s nothing you can’t defeat with the power of love... But a good plan is also helpful, so make sure Rakan actually remembers it this time.

"Hey, I have a plan."

"You... have a plan?"

"Yeah! I'll go on instinct!"

"That's the opposite of a plan."

(Artwork by Riot Games)

[ghostsofmemories]

Writing My Obituary (context on my weird poetry collection)

I realized today that I very casually bring up my poetry collection all the time and a large majority of my followers have no clue what I’m talking about, so here’s a WMO explanation post thing! I should definitely give a content warning though: this book deals with suicide, abuse (both physical and emotional, by both parents and other people), homophobia and transphobia, allusions to major appetite and stomach issues (which while reading sound a lot like eating disorders), toxic relationships, just a lot of really heavy emotions in general. Please don’t read the book or this post if those things could trigger you. This post also ended up super long, so the rest is under the cut.

So. first thing’s first, this collection is being published by Pure Print Publishing this fall (due to covid there aren’t any exact dates available). I didn’t query it, someone reached out to me after reading my poems on Instagram, hearing that they were in an unpublished collection, and basically connected me with their friend who runs the indie publishing house and is an author himself.

A big part of the reason this book is so difficult to talk about in context is because that requires getting pretty vulnerable - most of this book is just me dealing with everything I’ve struggled with over the last 4 years of my life. So if there’s discussion about the book in the replies, please keep it to the content of the book and not the validity of these experiences or details of things that happened to me.

The collection is about me and my journey from 13 to 17, starting with my suicide attempt at 13. There are several poems from around that time in my life, but they’ve changed a lot over the four years of editing. However, you can definitely still see changes in the way I write and the way I approach poetry by the end of the book - which was the goal. The book is centered around learning about identity, about how relationships should work, about friendships, about learning to handle mental and chronic illness, and above all, growing. There’s really no “breaking point” where everything about the way I write changes all at once, so in context, the change is almost difficult to see. So to sort of represent these changes, I’m putting a poem from the beginning, from the middle, and from the end all right next to each other (and some bonus analysis of my own poetry!).

Call me a monster is probably the most stark change from the past to the present. I almost never rhyme my poems anymore and if I do, they’re fleeting and mostly for rhythm. The lines are also extremely short, which I only do now when it really fits - in general, I make an effort to avoid consistently short lines. I like to tell myself that it’s symbolism I did on purpose to represent how all over the place my brain was, hopping from one thought to the next, but I don’t think it’s symbolism. I think my brain was really too jumbled to have more than five words in a line.

 I also took my own poems very seriously back then - writing a poem was an Occasion, so the first letter of each of those lines is capitalized like I’m some sort of English classics major. Both stanzas are also the same length (I still do that now sometimes, but back then it was in so many of my poems that I think I thought it was a requirement). Basically, I wrote this like I was going to turn it in somewhere.

Still pretty heavy on the capitalization here, but I definitely got more flexible with stanza length and slightly longer lines (7 whole words, yay!). This poem was somewhat of a turning point for me, basically realizing that I could not only vent through poetry, but still make it poetic and artistic in a lot of ways, and also explore contrast in my own emotions and conflicting feelings. For some reason, prior to this, I thought a poem could only be one emotion at a time, but now I think a poem can be one topic and the way multiple or conflicting emotions revolve around it. This is also one of the first poems I wrote that I was proud of from beginning to end.

This poem isn’t totally representative of the last couple changes I want to talk about (especially line length - for being relatively recent the lines are still pretty short), but I don’t want to use too many poems that haven’t been posted online before and this one has been posted and read aloud on an Instagram live, minus one stanza I added, which I’ll get to. I also wanted to choose this one because it has a direct reference to The Universe In You and several other poems, which gives me a chance to talk about how much I love referencing my other poetry in my poetry. Buckle up, this one might be long.

By this point, I had pretty much realized that there actually aren’t any rules at all. I’ve figured out what I want to say and I’ll say it however the hell I want to - I don’t need to capitalize things unless it suits the form, I don’t have to be totally consistent, I can repeat things as much as I want. I reached back into my 15 year old angst for this one, though, so I could more properly write about the relationship in a way that made sense. 

Now, I could honestly write a whole other book about how I reference other poems in each poem, but for now I’ll just break down the ones here.

Sort of a half reference right at the beginning: I have so much to say. I bring that up in different words in so many poems, both about my relationship and my dad. This is probably because, growing up as someone who had a speech impediment (meaning I talked too much no matter how little I said because of how long it took to say it), I always felt like I never had the space to say everything I wanted. It’s brought up in at least 3 other poems.

lost signals: a direct reference to my poem Thread Unavailable:

We’re riding down a dirt road in the middle of a conversation and lost signal. Message failed.

empty spaces: a reference to The Universe In You!! Pretty much the whole reason I included this poem.

burned poems: this one is basically just a reference to all the poems in the collection that are breakup poems, or poems where I directly addressed my ex saying don’t read this, you don’t have to read this, I shouldn’t have written this, etc. Specifically, A Long and Lonely Letter, Tired Eyed (The Homecoming Poem), and The Poem That Shouldn’t Exist.

another July come and gone and I didn’t write about you: this reference is hard to really understand the context of unless you know me in real life, but in two other poems I mention the month of July, in a couple others I reference summer, but there are dozens of poems that didn’t make it into my cut of the collection that talk about July. Basically, in context of the relationship, it was the only time we were actually happy and we split up and got back together over and over trying to replicate that fleeting, 30 day feeling that was overtaken by school, seasonal depression, and our own instability as people. For so long, all I could think about was that one month, and that line was my way of showing how I was done writing about it.

you told me, once, that we’re soulmates: this entire little stanza is directly copied from Tired Eyed (The Homecoming Poem). In order to continue talking about it I’ll throw a piece of that here:

If you want to come back, be sure of me. Be sure of yourself. I don’t want to be a consequence of your impulses.

You told me, once, that we’re soulmates. That once you find a person you want to spend forever with, it feels like nothing else matters. Do you believe that like I do?

That’s just a really short chunk of a really long poem, but basically the re-use of that section goes to say that me truly believing nothing else mattered was not good and extremely unhealthy. I put it there even though the poem was just fine without it because I really wanted to get that message across, especially since most of my target audience falls between middle and high school.

I know love in so many shades and I give it in every color: this references a couple different poems that aren’t in the collection, but in terms of the book, it’s a reference to Red, Like You, which is about color association and love and stuff? I I still don’t totally get it. I say in the poem that I don’t totally get it. No one totally gets it, but all in all I went from loving just one person in just one way to loving everyone in tons of different ways and realizing that those other types of love are just as, if not more, fulfilling to me, and that romance is not the be-all end-all of love and happiness.

All the other references are repetitions so I’ve pretty much already explained those. But anyway, that’s my book! It has 77 poems total, quite a few of them more than a page, and some that are probably several pages once in paperback format because, you know, I never shut up. Since I did my mini beta reading round (I got a lot of necessary feedback but that was so much to keep track of, I’ll probably just get a couple feedback partners next time), I’ve cut 34 poems and added 16 newer ones, edited the crap out of the whole book, and gotten the perspective of a professional editor.

 This book, even though there’s a lot of it I’ve grown out of, is super important to me and it’s so hard to let it go. Part of me wants to keep this book going forever and just keep growing until it has thousands of poems, but all of these “character arcs” in my life are finished. I left my toxic relationship and friendships, I figured out my gender and sexuality, I learned how to love openly, I cut off my dad for good. There’s obviously always more to learn about my relationships with these other people and myself, and I do that unconsciously every day. But in all honesty, I have nothing left to say about these people or events that would change the conclusions I’ve already come to - they would only further prove them to be true.

I absolutely always want to talk about this book, so if you have any questions, send an ask! Also feel free to scroll through the poetry tag on my blog and ask me about any poems I have posted there, there are a few that I’ve written since the completion of the collection that’ll (most likely) end up in whatever I write next. Basically, I’m obsessed with poetry and want to talk about it all the time. Please ask me about it.

[mobius-prime]

166. Sonic the Hedgehog #98

Sonic Adventure 2

Writer: Karl Bollers Pencils: Patrick "Spaz" Spaziante Colors: Patrick Spaziante and Nelson Ribeiro

Welcome to Sonic Adventure 2, everyone! Now, you would be excused for thinking that the comic would want to handle such a highly anticipated and ultimately successful game in the same manner as it did the first one, but you would be wrong! I'm going to spoil it for you right now - we only get part of the story in the comics. This one issue used to cover the entirety of the game, and as we'll see this presents some serious problems. But let's dive in, I'll save my rants for after we go over everything.

So our story doesn't actually begin where the previous issue left off. Instead, it begins three months ago, right on the tail end of the previous Sonic Adventure, in fact. The comics never really did address exactly what happened to Eggman in between being chased out of Station Square by Silver Sonic, and returning to Robotropolis. Well, as it turns out, he ended up being chased, somehow, all the way to one Prison Island, where Silver Sonic cornered him and blasted the ground out from under him, causing him to fall down a dark hole. Satisfied that it had killed him, Silver Sonic returned to Station Square to resume its defensive protocol there, but in actuality he had fallen into a secret lab with something very interesting hidden inside…

Now fast forward to a mere week ago. In the dead of night within Station Square, a mysterious figure broke into a top-security vault to steal the city's last remaining Chaos Emerald. Silver Sonic tried to prevent the theft, but…

News of the theft soon reached the desk of the city's president, who mistook the figure as the hero who had defended Station Square from Chaos mere months ago, because apparently in every Sonic canon, no one can ever tell Sonic and Shadow apart, not even Sonic's best goddamn friends. Seriously, at least in the anime it's explained as being a deliberate set-up by GUN to cover their own asses regarding the Project Shadow disaster years ago. I know I've joked before about Sonic being an extremely average-looking Mobian hedgehog which is why he's so easily mistaken for other people, but seriously, Shadow and Sonic's profiles and quill style don't even look alike, let alone their fur color.

That is a very bizarre-looking Rouge. For whatever reason, they decided to draw her a lot in this era with like… claw hands, and I don't even understand where they got that from. In the game itself one of her upgrades is called "Pick Nails" and I guess you could extrapolate that to mean razor-sharp nails under her gloves that don't show up on her low-poly 3D model or something, but all her 2D art depicts her with normal-looking rounded fingertips, so I don't even know. Anyway, the comic goes on about how the president put together an elite task force to track Sonic down and arrest him for his supposed crimes, and now they've finally found him just outside Knothole. Man, if some randos from Station Square could find where Knothole was, how the hell has Eggman not figured it out yet? They pull out actual, deadly rifles and start firing wildly at him, and he dances around cheekily, stealing their guns and taunting them. This ends when they shoot an electrified net onto him, and soon he's handcuffed in the back of their helicopter, being taken to the hidden city. Of course, we know how this goes from here - he breaks free inside the 'copter and bursts out its side, peeling off a strip of metal to use as his makeshift skateboard, because even though this isn't the 90s anymore, it's still the 90s.

We're then treated to a short montage of Spaz's interpretation of City Escape - landing on the streets, surfing down sloped roads, soaping on walkway rails and leaping over any obstacles in his way. Honestly, the action is a bit hard to follow - Spaz is certainly a talented artist in many respects, but I think his decision here to move on from his somewhat simpler designs from before hurts rather than helps, as the action and lines become so chaotic that you have to really concentrate to follow what's going on. There's just a bit too much happening, so that your eyes are drawn all over the place without really focusing on a specific focal point of each image. But anyway, we all know how City Escape ends - with the iconic GUN truck chase!

And that's… it! No, seriously, that's all we get for the actual story of SA2. The final text box invites us to play the game itself to see how it all ends, but there's a number of problems with that, the foremost being that the game takes place in an entirely different canon. We've got completely different circumstances that led up to these events. We've got characters missing - Tails still hasn't been returned to Knothole yet, Knuckles is off somewhere else struggling with his newfound powers, and humans aren't even the dominant species on the planet like they are in the game. This would leave any comic fan with a bitter taste in their mouth, as there's no actual resolution provided and no explanation for how the story will play out with so many of the original players out of commission. Many issues from now, Ian Flynn actually addressed this exact problem and gave a condensed version of events to explain exactly what we're missing, so at least we have that to look forward to in the future. There is one more story after this, and I have additional problems with that one, but let's cover the rest of the issue before I give my final opinions.

As the Shadow Awakes!

Writer: Ken Penders Pencils: Ron Lim Colors: Frank Gagliardo

So this story actually jumps us back fifty years to see Shadow's beginnings. Professor Gerald, Eggman's grandfather on his mother's side, has been working for a long time on his latest project, which he hopes will see the end of disease and untimely death and even be able to cure his granddaughter Maria's unspecified terminal illness. This project is, of course, Shadow the Hedgehog, who, as an excited and astonished Gerald watches, begins to move inside his pod. The inexplicably-brunette Maria suddenly calls him at his lab, telling him that she can see a military spaceship flying toward the ARK, their space station, and Gerald, in a panic, orders her to come to him. He knows that the military is here to take possession of his project, and believing them to be too simple-minded to understand his intentions for the project, wants to evacuate immediately. He's immediately proven right, as the military men who board the station scoff at the idea that an "old scientist and his crippled granddaughter" could pose any trouble to them as they intend to take the professor's project by force. Gerald sends Maria and Shadow, the latter now out of his pod, to evacuate in an escape pod, but of course, we know how this ends…

I think this is the only Sonic media I can think of that actually directly shows Maria dying. In both the game and the anime, the shot happens offscreen, and Shadow is ejected before Maria actually takes her last breath. I do have a problem with how the scene is portrayed here, however, as a big conflict that Shadow goes through during SA2 is his vast misinterpretation of her last request to him, whereas here she seems to just die immediately without saying another word. The military takes Gerald into custody, and shortly thereafter recovers Shadow from the escape pod, taking them both to Prison Island where they force Gerald to continue his work under their supervision. Gerald, however, is devastated at Maria's death, and thus plans out his revenge in secret under the guise of continuing his work as demanded.

The military eventually caught on to his nefarious plans, and had Gerald executed and Shadow sealed away in suspended animation on Prison Island, where it remained undisturbed and forgotten for the next fifty years. Of course, this is what Eggman found on the island, and now he's poised to use his grandfather's own work to conquer the world. My biggest problem with this story, ultimately, is that it essentially acts as one huge spoiler for the game. Everyone now, almost twenty years on, probably knows the general gist of the story, but this comic was published when it was still very new, and this entire story basically spoils the biggest twist in the game right off the bat. Furthermore, in this story, Shadow literally wakes up, goes straight to the pod, watches Maria - who he knows nothing about - die, and then gets sealed away in his stasis pod for fifty years. There's literally no time for him to even develop a personality, let alone a relationship with Maria, which is the single most important thing in his backstory. I believe this was later retconned, but this is still a huge thing to overlook in an adaption of this game.

But anyway, yeah, that's it. That's all we get for the time being. A few brief glimpses of Shadow, and one whole cameo from Rouge. It will be a while yet before Shadow gets to make his reappearance, since like in the game, at the end of their adventure he falls from space and is subsequently believed to be dead. Honestly, the entire thing kind of gives off the impression that they felt like they had to make some kind of comic tie-in to the game, but didn't feel like interrupting what they already had going with the whole "Sonic goes to high school" thing, which is clearly far more interesting of a story. So they basically went "yeah, something like this happened, but now let's just get back to the real story." It's honestly very weird, so weird that, again, they needed a later fix-it issue to explain everything, but for now, we'll just have to move on.

[paperclipninja]

Younger post-ep ramble 6x09

After the very public outing of Liza’s real age last week, it was no surprise that this week’s Younger episode, ‘Millennial’s Next Top Model’, was all about the fallout. In true Younger style we were treated to some unexpected twists and turns, saw Kelsey take control at work and in her personal life and welcomed back my #1 mega-villain who I hate-love fiercely, Quinn Tyler.  This ep was written by Grant Sloss, who is responsible for a number of my favourite episodes and lot of my fave moments in the series and one thing I am always blown away by is his ability to craft character interactions in which the sentiment and emotion are really palpable (plus the one-liners are always top of the game) and we certainly saw a number of those this week.  Even though Liza is 100% responsible for the position she now finds herself in, my heart went out to her this whole episode and Kelsey, Charles and Diana’s show of solidarity right from the get-go pretty much sums up everything I love about this show. 

I need to say upfront that while I know this episode is all about Liza, it is hands down my favourite episode of Kelsey’s in the series. In a time of real pressure and stress, we see Kelsey step up in the role of publisher, starting with the damage control team meeting in her office. I have big feelings about this opening moment, in which Diana proves why she is an actual Queen who rises above past grievances and now offers unwavering support of Liza while continuing to have zero time for Zane’s bullshit (the ‘well mercifully they have a paywall now’ to Zane’s New York Magazine tidbit was all of the yes). We learn of the deal with Infinitely 21 (was it just me or did anyone else get heart flutters at the thought of Kelsey, Diana and Liza being their brilliant selves and brokering that arrangement? Just me? Cool) and I have spoken of my love for the way this show parodies real life things but this might take the cake. Alexa, what are synonyms for ‘forever’? I just adore that it is very clear that Kelsey is in charge and that Charles and Diana are offering up potential solutions (Diana’s ‘rest her a bit’ is so in character I cannot. Between that and Charles’ thoroughbred thighs from season 4 I fully expect her to have a couple of horses upstate somewhere called Charles and Liza by the end of this series), meanwhile Zane clearly still hasn’t caught on to the fact that these three are not going to throw Liza under a bus.

Enter Liza as he’s ending his tirade about her poisoning the company (and lbh, what he is saying isn’t actually ridiculous from a business p.o.v but he’s talking about the best friend, girlfriend and (old) maid of honour of the people in the room) and it’s awkward af and pretty awful and I want to climb through my screen, wrap Liza in a blanket and tell her it’s all going to be ok. Zane’s extreme over-estimation of his importance in Liza’s life continues when he tells her that what he’s saying can’t be personal because ‘I don’t know who you are’ (worth it for Charles’ ‘Zane’ reprimand though amirite) and as I said after last week’s episode, I can’t even count on one hand the number of interactions Zane and Liza have had so yes Zane, that is accurate and nothing to do with her age reveal. At least once he discovered that Kelsey has known about the lie he FINALLY has a reason to be hurt (maybe? Still a little fuzzy on this one) and look Zane saying they’re all insane might be somewhat accurate but everyone in that room loves Liza and I love all of them so I felt personally attacked tbh.

Keeping with the stellar guest star casting this season, Shelly Rozansky (played by Annaleigh Ashford) is every kind of irritating as brand rep of Infinitely 21. Kelsey and Liza’s meeting with her, in which Shelly explains that 'the tea’ is that their authentic brand cannot be associated with Millennial’s inauthentic one (I love the moral high ground re: brand but I’m pretty sure Millennial doesn’t have factory workers making less than a living wage so…) and this very real ramification of Liza’s lie paves the way for one of Liza’s best moments on the show to date.

Taking that tea of Shelly’s and throwing it in her face, Liza’s monologue that 'everyone is pretending to be younger’ reaches it’s climax with the zinger, 'Millennial is not an age, it’s an attitude and if you can’t sell that, we’ll go somewhere else’, and Kelsey’s look of pride, same girl SAME. One thing I have commented on in the past is that as a '26 year old’ Liza rarely, if ever, really stood up for herself. The few times we’ve seen her do so have been as the forty year old who takes no crap from anyone (David, Charles, Don) so I am here times a million for strong ass Liza to finally shed that guilt, know her worth and be able to show this side of herself now that the lie is no longer in play (I feel like Diana will dig this very much).

Turns out Shelly was quite into Liza’s feisty outburst too ('what you screamed at me today, justifiably, we’re still friends promise…it resonated’ = award winning line/delivery combo), as she calls to let Liza know they’re going to unfreeze the partnership and asks Liza to be the face (and legs) of Infinitely 21’s Spring campaign. This phone call takes place in a very delicious looking cupcake shop where Liza and Charles are playing cards with his daughters in an all round delightful family situation that gives us a glimpse of the Miller-Brooks dynamic and makes the point that after a pretty terrible day, Liza is grateful to have this in her life to counter all the drama. I am also pleased to see that Bianca and Nicole have been located (meanwhile Caitlin, Beth and all of Josh’s friends remain stuck in the Upside Down or have become bunker people or something equally ominous I fear).

I am very into a number of aspects of this entire scene: a) Charles eating candy just up and gets me for some reason. I don’t know why, I can’t explain it, but it’s akin to seeing him walking round barefoot, it confuses my brain but I’m pretty sure I like it; b) Bianca is clearly the fave child with her cute little, 'I won’t take your last bag of candy Liza’ (lol at Charles’ 'wow’ when Liza offers that up for the taking btw, he knows that’s a serious gamble) though I was 100% Nicole as a kid; c) those kids are so not sleeping after all that sugar so I hope they’re staying at Pauline’s, while Charles’ dad game is strong with the breakfast cupcakes and; d) Charles kissing Liza on the cheek as she takes Shelly’s call is so damn sweet (pun intended) and supportive and I love that Liza suggesting he go stand with the girls in case she starts crying again indicates she has been an open mess around him. It’s writing like this that I really appreciate when there is so much to fit into an episode, because it provides insight into the kind of relationship Liza and Charles have when there simply isn’t time to show it.

While Liza is drowning her sorrows in candy and cupcakes, Maggie is at the brilliantly cringy art exhibit, 'Masculinity Detox: A Softer Male Gaze’. Look I have to be honest, I was really happy to see Oded Fehr because he can play a skeeze with charm like no other, but I don’t know how I feel about this entire plot. I can only comment on it from a straight perspective, so I am aware that I’m not really in a position to express an opinion in relation to the impact of showing a gay character thinking it’s a good idea to sample a penis every ten years or so, but I certainly feel like it’s problematic. In relation to this character though, it is consistent with Maggie sleeping with Tommy Minetti (and his sister Tammy) as a result of Berlin’s 'Take my Breath Away’ (I don’t know why I remember that, I can’t remember what month it is yet this stuff is right there) and there is no denying that there were actual sparks between Maggie and Rafael in the loft, the palpable chemistry that Grant Sloss’ eps seem to draw out on full display. 

Another dimension of Maggie that I love seeing emerge in this ep is that while she is usually a total badass in absolute control, every now and then we see that her judgement of character is just way off. There was Montana, those weirdo art collectors who actually collect artists and now this guy. I love that there’s a side of her that gets a bit blinded by flattery so she thinks 'what the hell?’ and the inevitable 'oh I CAN-NOT with this bullshit’ that follows, usually very publicly - Exhibit A: Maggie countering dirtbag Rafael’s, 'I’ll change you mind, I’m a flipper’ with a literal flip of the restaurant table once she realises she was simply another conquest. She seems so unflappable that these reminders that she’s fallible (I legit sometimes forget she’s not an actual super hero) are really great and maintains the 'flawed human’ aspect this show does so well. Honestly, other than Liza in a full tracksuit (sweat clothes?? I don’t know what it is in American but that cute pink sweat top and sweatpants combo) thinking they were being robbed and very confused by what had happened (so were we all lbh and Kinsey 9 LOL), it was Maggie equating sex with a man to being suffocated by a damp rug that was the highlight of this entire storyline for me. So damn funny.

Diana continues to have Liza’s back as she heads to the photo-shoot to steer her away from anything pleather (I may need a spin off of these two or some kind of one off special episode that’s just an elaborate Diana/Liza adventure, maybe rescuing Caitlin and co. from the bunker??), but not before we catch Kelsey still slaying it as a boss as she leaves a voicemail for the increasingly petulant Zane. Hearing her so firm and sure of herself is brilliant and the friendship vibe between Diana and Kelsey is peaking and I am loving every bit of it. I am so glad we heard Diana asking Kelsey how she took the lie, while Diana was able to forgive and move forward it would have been strange if we didn’t see her still processing some of it this week. Plus it’s Diana who points out that Zane’s tantrum is not because Liza is who he is upset with (and THANK YOU Kelsey for pointing out that Liza and Zane hardly know each other). 

Rather than letting the whole Zane thing fester away, Kelsey continues to impressively show initiative by going to Zane’s and offering to cook dinner (which Zane knows is a lol and it’s not long before he’s cooking, so well played Kels) to give him the opportunity to ask anything he wants and she will answer honestly. Once a proper explanation of why Liza lied and why Kelsey kept it from him is given, Zane suddenly reverts back to being a rational human being which is a relief because he was fast becoming the worst (though his comment that they were all bad liars, what now?? Yes they be cray but their lying game is strong friend). I am not particularly invested in Kelsey and Zane as a pairing but I always appreciate good storytelling and writing, and revisiting the fact Zane told her he loved her in past tense was an example of both of these. In order for any kind of relationship between these two to progress believably this needed to be addressed and hearing Kelsey call Zane out on his shitty and manipulative behaviour was great, but even greater was seeing Kelsey drop her guard.

Opening up about being mad at herself too and that maybe if they were both more open about their feelings they wouldn’t have wasted so much time denying how they really felt; that she felt, no, feels, the same way, present tense; the resetting of the timer so she can finish what she was going to say instead of taking the option of backing out; the honest conversation…you know what all this is? Growth. Kelsey Lorraine Peters, I am just so damn proud of you because I am the first to admit that I was not sure this character could be redeemed for me after last season but here we are. The emotion for this whole scene, you could feel it and Zane’s, 'oh that timer was for food’ was fab, before he just casually drops in, ’ I love you, but stay out of my kitchen’. OK.  Smitten mode activated.

Meanwhile, Diana is no doubt enjoying Shelly’s disbelief that she and Liza are almost the same age about as much as a root canal and Lauren appears with a 'bowflex for your face’ to combat the 5 o'clock jowls. Side note: Lauren and Liza really need to have a convo asap because I definitely feel like Lauren is not ok with the lie since it’s been revealed. Scene of the ep goes to Charles walking into the trailer (with flowers for Liza *swoon*) while Diana is flapping that contraption, before he slowly backs away and I tell you, I was howling so hard I almost ruptured something. Liza’s hideous romper/scooter combo is just no on many levels, she clearly feels super unnatural and the photographer snapping Charles and Liza, who are not expecting to be photographed while her being made up to look so young obviously makes them look very far apart in age and a bit awks means that yes, the daddy/daughter dance vibe is strong, though that line made me vom in my mouth a little bit.

Between shoots our extremely excellent villain Quinn pays Liza a visit to show her support and her well-polling glasses. Her real talk that the good news about the publishing reaction to Liza’s lie is that 'eight blocks outside of midtown, nobody cares’, is what we were all thinking and is def to be filed under 'G’ for Gold. So naturally Quinn drags her into a completely self-serving NY1 interview (bless Liza for thinking they wanted to interview her) and I freaking love Quinn, she’s such a delicious character coz she’s awful and funny and pretty and a total smart ass. I stan.

Before we jump to the second part of the photo-shoot I have to say that the very obvious ploy to try and juxtapose Liza’s relationships with Charles and Josh felt like it was trying too hard and was mostly disappointing to me because it felt so forced. I want to be very clear that it has nothing to do with who I like Liza with romantically, it would have felt contrived regardless and was the only aspect of the episode that I felt could have been crafted with a little more nuance. Or maybe that was the point? Perhaps the obviousness was part of the humour of it *shrug emoji* 

Either way, Liza is looking pretty exhausted when Josh turns up at the bar photo-shoot for reasons (whose name I am betting is Lauren Heller because there is no way he would just turn up and it is 100% in her wheelhouse to send him along after seeing the expressions on her face at the earlier shoot. I feel like this will def come out at some point and that really this whole shoot is serving to bring about stuff in future eps) and he doesn’t get to explain why he is there because he’s teasing Liza about being a model and I really do love their banter. Shelly has no idea what’s happening but she likes it and is thirsting pretty hard as she shakes his hand and I enjoyed hearing Liza talk about Josh as patient zero, her 'would you correct him?’ as she squeezed his cheeks made me smile. I know there have been a LOT of feelings about this scene expressed on social media, but I found the reminiscing, as Josh talked about how when he first met Liza he thought she was smart and sexy and he wanted to keep talking to her, really sweet (and quickly countered by his joking about being really drunk and it being dark).  

I actually love this dynamic so much and if this show had moved these two properly into the friendzone I would be celebrating this as a pin-up example of how to show romantic-platonic relationship transition. I still may, because at this stage there is nothing to indicate that Liza is anything but committed to Charles and Josh gave no impression of pining for her IMO, but as an experienced TV connoisseur (aka obsessive tv show watcher) I am not naive enough to think that this interaction mightn’t be setting in motion a resurgence of the triangle. By the same token, I do not see any triangle in play at the moment and one thing this show does excel at is surprising us, so time will tell, but I am going to keep my faith in the writers to tell good, compelling stories that stay true to all the excellent characters and narratives they have in front of them, as they have done up until now.

While Liza’s colleagues aren’t going to throw her under a bus, Quinn is not only more than happy to, I’m pretty sure she’d drive the bus herself if it served her own self interest.  Quinn saying that she found out about Liza’s lie the week before in The New Yorker article, ooomph, did you feel that? It was the wind being knocked out of all of us, along with poor Liza, as Quinn counters Liza’s suggestion that she knew the truth before she invested on live TV. It was evident fairly quickly that Quinn was using the interview as a campaign platform and Liza’s expression as Quinn betrays her so publicly is yet another credit to Sutton Foster’s incredible talent.

My Kelsey love was brought home this week when she met Quinn following the NY1 interview. She is unrelenting in her backing of Liza and unwavering in her stance to Quinn when she is asks her to fire Liza. From the moment she arrives Kelsey is so kick ass, she sees every one of Quinn’s attempts to bully her into getting what she wants and Kelsey’s, 'please don’t minimise the strength I bring to this meeting’ was such a hell yes moment. There is something so satisfying about seeing Quinn in a position where she needs something from Kelsey and Kelsey standing so firm. Kelsey’s 'are we done here?’ before walking away was such a power move and the transition into her own office the next day, with Charles reassuring her that she did the right thing, was wonderful. Seeing these two as equals, talking business with a bit of a mentor/mentee dynamic is a dream. It was on my season 6 wish list and I can’t wait to see more of it.

It is upon discovering that Audrey Colbert’s manuscript delivery cheque bounced and that Diana just heard one of the Jennifer’s, the sloppy one from publicity (this line, I swear and also I need to meet her), say her direct deposit didn’t go through that we discover Quinn has thrown the ultimate tantrum and pulled her funding and Mercurennial is broke.

Poor Liza feels that it’s all her fault, I’m sure partly because of the way her colleagues turn and look at her when she walks in the office and partly because it is, but Charles continues to play the role of ultimate supportive partner as they stroll down the street after work, pointing out that Liza attracted Quinn to the company in the first place (and we ALL know it was not the company she was attracted to). I am simple folk and Charles saying he’s spoken for as he put his arm around her made me melt into a puddle and if anyone is feeling concerned about Liza’s level of besotted, watch this final scene as Charles reassures her that, 'you know what’s great about the worst thing happening? There’s no place to go but up. Only good things ahead’. I may have actually died from the sweetness of the entire thing and Liza does exactly what any self respecting person would in that situation and kisses him before they walk off hand in hand. To live happily ever after…jokes LOL I mean it’s television and it turns out Infinitely 21 has the most efficient marketing team on the planet because their campaign is launched and whattya know, it looks as though Liza and her ex will be plastered all over the city. 

File under 'O’ for OF COURSE.

[lovelylogans]

stings and stripes

pairings: moxiety (which is new for me, I think!)

warnings: it’s too gosh darn stinkin cute. food mentions, I think that’s it?

notes: do I have a ton of prompts sitting in my drafts? yes. do I have not one but two wips? yes. am I doing this anyway? YOU BET.

I’m at a reunion right now, and one of my baby cousins noticed one of the oldest cousins has her fav animal as a tattoo, and so now my older cousin is The Coolest Ever, and I also have a plot bunny. tagging @tinysidestrashcaptain, because obviously (funnily enough this isn’t the first little sides fic I’ve written, but it’s the first I’m publishing) ON WITH THE FIC!!!

Logan’s favorite place ever was the park just down the street.

That suited Patton just fine; it just meant that whenever he deemed that his son needed some fresh air and a distraction from his latest learning obsession, he’d propose a trip to the park and Logan was out the door before Patton could say “Get your shoes on.”

Patton wasn’t entirely sure why: Logan loved libraries, schools, an apiary Patton took him to once, but he’d never puzzled out why this park was so special in Logan’s mind. Logan’s usual ideal day was one with lots of jam sandwiches and lots of books—Patton still wasn’t sure where he’d inherited that from, but as long as Logan was happy, Patton was happy.

This was one such day: Logan had been deep in researching bumblebees for the thousandth time when Patton proposed a picnic, and Logan immediately agreed.

Logan and Patton walked hand-in-hand as Logan happily told Patton about the construction of apiaries and Patton tried his best to keep the picnic basket from whacking into anyone passing on the sidewalk. As soon as they laid eyes on the park, Logan was practically vibrating until Patton let go of his hand with a chuckle and a “go on, then,” and he was off like a shot, straight to the playground, mostly ignoring the other children. Patton watched him clamber up a ladder fondly, and with only a bit of worry. Logan wasn’t very personable—not quite shy, just uninterested in people unless he especially liked or disliked them. Another reason why the park’s idolization was a mystery.

Patton scouted out a bench, and found a decent one in the shade with a good view of the park, and he settled, splitting his attention between tracking Logan and reviewing course materials for the fall. When he glanced up from a list of books for the first semester, it was to Logan bee lining straight towards him, immediately grabbing his hand.

“Papa he has a bee,” Logan said breathlessly, tugging him off the bench, and immediately dragging Patton.

“I—who?” Patton said cluelessly.

“Him.”

That narrows it down, bud, Patton thought, before he asked, “How does he have a bee?”

Logan did not deign to explain, and Patton was about to ask him to use his words when they rounded the corner of the playground and Patton saw one of the most gorgeous men ever. Patton felt his knees go weak.

He had black hair that glinted in the sun, and a number of silver piercings that did too—in his ears, his eyebrows, his lip, his nose. The silver pointy studs on the shoulders of his leather jacket did, too, and he was smiling a little, only enough that someone really looking could see—out at the playground, at the kids running around.

Logan did not have time for Patton to gawk; another tug, and they were heading straight for that beautiful man.

“Here he is,” Logan said breathlessly. “Can I see it again?”

The really offensively handsome man smiled at Patton. “You’re his grownup?”

Patton smiled—vague enough to be inclusive, and clear that he’d asked Logan to get his grownup to make sure Logan was comfortable.

“I’m his father, yes,” Patton said, before extending a hand. “Patton Kassipoeg.”

“Virgil Sanders,” the man says with a nod, before kneeling to Logan’s height, shrugging his jacket so it slipped down his shoulders, and tilting his head.

He had a bee tattoo on the side of his neck. Amongst others, Patton noticed, seeing the swirls of color down his shirt, and stop staring Patton he could be married.

“Wow,” Logan breathed, reaching forwards.

“Ask, Lo,” Patton said, and the very pretty man—Virgil—smiled at Logan.

“It’s all right,” he said, “just be gentle.”

Logan touched at his neck, tracing the outline of the bee tattoo. It was a little doodle, yellow and black striped with dashes behind, forming a little heart. Patton could only guess there was another bee below the neckline.

“Did it hurt?” Logan asked, hushed, and the man shrugged one shoulder.

“A bit,” he said honestly. “Kind of like getting a shot at the doctor’s office. I’m kind of used to it, though.”

Patton wanted to see the tattoos. He wanted to see all of the tattoos. He immediately scolded himself for leering at a park, next to his own kid.

“Papa said his hurt too,” Logan said, and Virgil lifted one studded eyebrow at him.

“You got ink?”

Patton shrugged with a smile. “Rather not take my shirt off in the park, if that’s okay with you.”

“Of course not,” Virgil said immediately. “Did you go to a studio round here?”

“Uh, Remy? Remy Spavati?”

Virgil made a noise of recognition. “I’m a tattoo artist, too,” He says. “Rem’s good. Neat linework. I’ve got a couple by him too.”

“DADDY,” a very loud little boy said, and Patton turned to see a boy—Logan’s age, he was guessing—reaching over to tug at Virgil’s leather jacket. “Show the coloring one!”

Virgil rolled his eyes. “Little brat,” he said, but his tone’s so fond it belied any of the harshness in his words. “Introduce yourself, please.”

The little boy puffed his chest out and held his hand out for Logan to shake. “Roman,” he said. Logan said his own name, and shook back with the kind of solemnity seen at business exchanges. Virgil shrugged off his leather jacket, revealing a tight purple t-shirt, and brandishing his (rather muscular) arms for Logan and Roman’s inspection.

Roman pointed proudly to one on Virgil’s forearm that Patton would wager was colored in with magic marker. “I colored that one,” he said to Logan.

“Meant for it to be just a black ink bit,” Virgil said to Patton, as Logan adjusted his glasses and looked closer. “Princey here has made it his personal coloring book.”

Roman gave his dad a toothy grin—Patton noticed a gap in his teeth.

“That’s cool,” Logan said immediately, and turned to Roman. “Wanna see something cool?”

“Yeah,” Roman enthused, and they dash off together, Patton blinking after them.

“Huh.”

“What?” Virgil asked, shrugging his jacket back on.

“It’s just,” Patton said, and shook himself. “Logan usually takes a bit to warm to people, that’s all.”

“Roman is the most extroverted person I’ve ever met,” Virgil said dryly, rising to his feet. “I really don’t know where he gets it from.”

“Logan’s going to be outreading me in two years,” Patton reassured Virgil, sticking his hands in his jean pockets so he wouldn’t do something impulsive, like reach out and touch the bee tattoo. “No idea where he got it.”

Virgil gives Patton that same little smile, the hard-to-find one. “None at all?”

“None at all,” Patton said with a sigh. “I mean, I’m a kindergarten teacher—“

“So that’s where I know the name Kassipoeg,” Virgil said, and then shook himself. “Sorry, sorry, I interrupted.”

“No, it’s okay,” Patton said, smiling. “I didn’t think I saw a Sanders on my fall list this year?”

“You didn’t,” Virgil said dryly. “I wish you did, though, you seem—“ he pauses.

Seem what? Patton wants to ask, but he clears his throat. “If he’s in Foley’s, he’s with Logan.”

Virgil let out a huff of air. “Okay, good,” he said.

Patton tried not to smile. “Yeah?”

“Yeah,” Virgil said, and looked at him sideways. “It’ll be good to have a... friend. Amongst the parents. Sometimes they get nervous about,” Virgil said, and gestured to his whole being.

“Well, I’ll put a stop to it,” Patton said reassuringly, and cleared his throat. “Um. I’ve got a pretty good bench claim over there, if you—if you’d like to join me?”

Virgil smiled, a little wider. “Yeah,” he said. “Yeah, okay.”

They’ve barely sat down for a minute before Logan and Roman come crashing out of the playground, skittering to a stop just short of the bench.

“Hey there,” Patton said. “Explore much?”

“Lots,” Roman enthused, and flopped down in the grass. Virgil nudged him gently with his boot.

“If it’s okay with you, Virgil, I have some extras in the picnic basket?” Patton said, digging through it. “If you like jelly sandwiches, that is.”

Roman’s head popped up from the grass as Logan settled primly on the ground. “I love jelly sandwiches! They’re my favorites!”

Logan turned to gape at Roman. “Mine too!”

“No way,” Roman said immediately, sitting up.

“Yes way,” Patton said, amused, handing each child a jelly sandwich. “Virgil, chicken salad, turkey and cheddar...?”

“I’ll take turkey? If you don’t mind,” he said hastily. Patton handed it over.

Patton learned a lot about Roman as they ate. He learned that Roman turned five just two months ago, that he’s going into kindergarten, that he’s seen every Disney movie ever, and he is VERY EXCITED! that Logan is going to be in his class.

“You should give Mr. Sanders your number,” Logan said, in the voice that meant he was trying to be sly, and took a bite of jelly sandwich. “So we can play together.”

Patton narrowed his eyes a little at his son, who’s too smart for his own good sometimes.

“Yeah,” Roman said brightly, in a voice that also probably meant he was trying to be sly but mostly sounded like he was being mischievous, “Dad, definitely give him your number.”

“You two could talk about stuff too,” Logan said, noncommittal.

Which Roman immediately ruined by blurting out, “Like how you’re both single and ready to mingle~!”

Patton felt his cheeks burn bright red. Virgil said calmly, “I’m going to kill your Uncle Rem. You spend too much time with him.”

“No I don’t,” Roman said with a wide grin, and stuck out his hand to Logan. “C’mon, Lo!”

“You were supposed to be subtle,” Logan complained, and as Roman dragged him away, he chirped, “I don’t know the meaning of the word!”

“He really doesn’t,” Virgil said, and cleared his throat awkwardly. “Um, I’m—sorry, about him. He and Rem both have it in their heads that I’ve been single too long, and—“

Patton hesitated, before turned to face Virgil and he said softly, “You said. Earlier.”

Virgil has this look on his face, soft and guarded all at once. “Yeah?”

“That I seemed something,” Patton prompted. “Seemed like what?”

Virgil’s cheeks tinged pink, and he coughed. “Seemed,” he began, and looked out at the park. “Seemed lovely,” he said gruffly.

Patton took a breath, took a chance, and took Virgil’s hand.

Virgil’s eyes darted to his face, and Patton smiled, felt his cheek dimple.

“Well,” he said simply, and digs out his phone, offering it to Virgil. “That sounds lovely.”

a/n: Patton’s last name, Kassipoeg, is kitten in Estonian. which I thought was a) adorable and b) a great last name. in a similar vein, Remy’s last name is sleep in Croatian.

[queenangst]

1 - 30 😗

you’re insane, anon. love u. go big or go home

things i learned from answering this: i guess i didn’t write that much fic this year? at the very least, i didn’t publish much. 

list of my fics i mentioned: 

Flare Signal (BNHA), a wip longfic wherein Izuku is a villain, but he wants to be a hero. More Than Friends (PJO), a “wip” two part fic about classic PJO tropes!these old bones (VLD), a completed one-shot exploring Keith, told in three parts.what if this storm ends (and i don’t see you as you are now, ever again) (VLD), a short one-shot after Shiro’s breakup, when he is comforted by Keith.

1. favorite fic you wrote this year

Flare Signal, hands-down. i’m just having a good time!

2. least favorite fic you wrote this year

probably More Than Friends. i just didn’t execute it well!

3. favorite line/scene you wrote this year

tbh i debated about answering this bc it’s not published yet (spoilers for FS!): 

“I may not be a hero,” Izuku said lowly, limping forward, “but I refuse to die a villain.”

4. total number of words you wrote this year 

tbh i don’t know bc a mix of projects and wips and stuff. but about 90-100k!

5. most popular fic this year 

according to ao3, ruins with 6,622 hits this year, closely followed by Flare Signal with 6,613 hits!

6. least popular fic this year

these old bones, with 402 hits this year

7. longest completed fic you wrote this year

complete?? maybe 3k, these old bones. 

8. shortest completed fic you wrote this year

it’s probably an ask fill/request from tumblr, which usually round out to anywhere from 1-2k. on ao3, it’s what if this storm ends (and i don’t see you as you are now, ever again)

9. longest wip of the year

Flare Signal for sure. right now it’s at 72k!

10. shortest wip of the year

More Than Friends...? technically it’s complete since each chapter is a standalone, but it’s a two-parter that i never really. wrote the second part. 3k.

11. fandom you enjoyed writing for the most this year

i’ve been popping the biggest bottles in bnha! i just think the world and the characters are a blast to play with.

12. favorite character to write about this year

izuku lmao, what’s new!

13. favorite writing song/artist/album of this year

probably Melodrama by Lorde, or kobasolo!

14. a fic you didn’t expect to write

like, all of them, i bet! Flare Signal again; it’s much longer than planned (i thought it was going to be 50k, and then i realized it was going to be 100k, and now i’ve just given up guessing, though i have all chapters planned.) i honestly didn’t even expect to be sucked into bnha but here we are. 

15. something you learned this year

i have to give props to past!me for writing this question. good one. i think.... something i learned is that i’ve improved! and i’ve come a really, really long way. i’ve been writing since about 2012/2013, and for the past few years i’ve personally not noticed much change in my writing. but someone pointed out to me how much i’ve improved comparing one of my fics from around 2017 to my most recent wip, and it’s really gratifying to hear that and to make the realization that yeah, wow, i did improve. 

16. fic(s) you completed this year

i don’t finish anything tbh but:

17. fics you’ll continue next year

Flare Signal is the only planned fic that will continue next year! my vld fics are on unofficial hiatus, and i’ve really just been focusing on fs right now.

18. current number of wips

last time it was like, 21. this time it’s gotta be at least 30. maybe. who knows!

19. any new fics to start next year

nothing set in stone! i’m playing with a couple bnha ideas in my head that i think would be fun, but i don’t know. we’ll see :D

20. number of comments you haven’t read

i’ve read all of them in my email and in my fic comment section! however, ao3′s official count is 439. 

21. most memorable comment/review

this is only one of many but... 

"This. Is. SPARTA!!! YEET" 

I never thought I'd have those two phrases go through my kind at exactly the same time, yet here I am. 

22. events you participated in this year

honestly? i have no sense of time and i don’t really remember like, when 2017 ended and when 2018 began writing-wise. i was in the wild fyre keith zine, which was in the works last year, i believe, but finished this year. invictus/paladin magazine. riordanverse zine. lancito! zine. i think that’s it! a lot of projects were really long, so.

23. fics you wanted to write but didn’t

plenty plenty as always. uhhh something called the “distance soulmate airport percabeth au” which is fun and ridiculous and i love it! a different mortal percabeth fic where they meet in a sleepy beach town by chance years after breaking up as high school sweethearts, and they solve mysteries as they fall back in love. and a time travel percabeth fic called step forward, step back!

and plenty more. but let’s stop here.

24. favorite fic you read this year

i can’t stop at one. i particularly enjoyed Yesterday Upon the Stair by PitViperofDoom, but also every bnha fic i bookmarked! good stuff. oh and classic PeaceHeather coming back to hit me with Rend and Rebuild for that good, good, good merlin & arthur fic.

25. a fic you read this year you would recommend everyone read

maybe by fandom? 

bnha: could i but teach the hundredth part by terra_incognita on ao3.the penumbra podcast: Hyperion City, 5:30 AM by grantaire_dont_care on ao3.critical role: now seek the far horizon (sister, sail) by Attilavld: Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy by wingedflower

26. number of favorites/bookmarks you made this year

164!

27. favorite fanfic author of the year

hmm, don’t have one off the top of my head! maybe mysterytwin, writing for trollhunters.  

28. longest fic you read this year

probably Yesterday Upon the Stair, a hefty 365k. delicious.

29. shortest fic you read this year

idk :( i read a lot of fic all the time! 

30. favorite fandom to read fic from this year

bnha! like i said in the beginning, i just think it’s a lot of fun. and there’s some good dads, and some good whump. could use more whump.

[snorlaxlovesme]

7, 30, 41, 53 for the writer ask meme ^u^

7. Favorite author.

I’m p sure at this point I should just have it tattooed on my chest or something, lol, but if it wasn’t obvious my favorite author is Patrick Ness. He’s endlessly creative and I love the way he writes YA because, despite being a 40-something year-old man, I feel like he GETS teenagers in a way that a lot of other authors don’t. Like I’m only 22 years old and already I’m forgetting the feeling of being a stupid teen because I’m getting my Entitled Adult brain, but I think somewhere along the way Ness was able to keep his time as a teen intact enough to actually be able to encapsulate it properly. His characters don’t FEEL like characters a lot of the time, they feel like actual people because of the things they feel and the mistakes they make, and honestly I could write paragraphs and paragraphs about why Patrick Ness is a genius who understands the human condition better than all of us, but why read that when you can just read one of his books? (The Chaos Walking series is obviously my favorite, but The Rest of Us Just Live Here, Release, More Than This, and A Monster Calls are also amazing stand-alone books by him)

30. Favorite line you’ve ever written.

It’s amazing how I could write a 10,000 word essay about Patrick Ness’s writing, and when someone asks me what the best line I’VE written is, I can’t even begin to guess. I stg if I ever become a published writer I’m still gonna promote his writing more than mine.

I know that at SOME POINT I’ve written something really beautiful or really profound, but it’s late and I guess I’m feeling self-deprecating tonight bc I got nothing. So here’s a funny quote from Not Even a Cat Person

She’s quiet for a moment, so much so that Soul thinks he might have actually won this round, and that he’ll be able to go back to bed and sleep in until ten like he was destined to do. But then Maka finally responds, in her softest, most mournful voice.

“Please, Soul?”

And that’s how Soul ends up sitting in Maka’s bathroom at 4:11 am with a putrid-smelling cat in his arms and permanent frown on his face.

“You’re both dead to me, I hope you know that,” he says as he sits on Maka’s closed toilet seat.

Maka kisses him on the cheek, smiling brightly. “You’re the best, you know that?”

Manipulation at its finest.

41. How many stories do you work on at one time?

ALL THE STORIES

The amount of WIPs I have is frankly ridiculous and it would be marvelous to actually FINISH SOMETHING so I’d have less but alas, my spare time is really booked this summer. At any given time I’m probably working on at least 5 or 6 core fics, but I have a good 50 partially finished fics just lying around.

53. What does writing mean to you?

It’s been my Thing for as long as I can remember. Idk, especially when you’re young, it’s important to have a Thing, you know? A talent, a hobby, a sport, some kind of identifier that makes you YOU, and while my younger sister was the artist and my older sister was the runner, I was the Writer. In like third or fourth grade during my Enrichment Room class, we got to get together in small groups to make a children’s book. (Ours was about three pig brothers going on what they THOUGHT was a baking cruise but was actually a BACON cruise. They were almost eaten luckily escaped the ship and floated to a small island, met talking coconuts, and battled some jaguars) Anyways, during that assignment I realized how much FUN it was making up stories. All creative writing assignments after that became my favorite. By seventh grade I was just writing my own stories for fun on extra sheets of loose leaf. In eighth grade one of my teachers at my new school reprimanded me at a parent teacher conference for my essays sounding so informal and I remember my dad yelling back at her that I wrote how I spoke, and that’s what made my writing so special. It felt so GOOD to have my parents speak up for me like that, and to say that my style was something worth reading meant a lot to me.  It made my hobby that much more validating.

It was always a fun and creative outlet for me, and in high school it became what I wanted to DO as a career choice because I started reading a TON and realized with renewed interest just how impactful books can be.It made me realize that if I wanted to change the world I could do it through my writing. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to write the Great American Novel that I always dreamed of doing, but even if it’s just dicking around on the internet or scribbling out stories on loose leaf, my words mean something to people, which I guess is what I’ve always wanted.

[authorstalker]

The Author Stalker Interview with Sarah Enni

You probably already know Sarah Enni thanks to her podcast, First Draft, where she interviews all your favorite and soon-to-be favorite authors about their major influences, career journeys, and upcoming work. Now the interviewer has become the interviewee! Sarah let me ask all kinds of nosy questions in celebration of Tell Me Everything, her debut novel about art and anonymity in the age of social media.  

You host my favorite bookish podcast, First Draft, where you interview storytellers about how they make their magic happen. In honor of First Draft, I stole your standard first question: where were you born and raised? I’ll add: how did your hometown shape you as a reader and writer?

I’m so happy you enjoy the podcast! Thank you so much for listening, and for turning my own question around on me, ha! Honestly, it’s a complicated answer. I was born in Tacoma, WA, then moved to Tucson, AZ; Arlington, TX; San Jose, CA; back to Seattle, WA; then to Washington, DC; and then to Los Angeles. I’ve never lived anywhere longer than six years (though that streak is likely to end here in LA—I have no plans to move anytime soon!). 

I think moving around shaped me into a reader because, though everything around me kept changing, books were constant. As far as writing, the landscapes of Washington state (particularly the peninsula) and coastal Northern California feel absolutely magical to me, and I’ve returned to them again and again in my books. Tell Me Everything is set in Sudden Cove, California, which is a very thinly veiled, fictional version of Santa Cruz. 

The first line of your author bio can serve as inspiration to anyone toiling away at a less-than-glamorous day job: Sarah Enni has come a long way from her first writing job, a journalism gig covering the radioactive waste industry. Were you always planning to be a writer or did you consider other career paths? When did you feel ready to focus full-time on your personal/freelance creative endeavors (which include writing books, producing a podcast, and moderating publishing panels)?

I went into college knowing that writing was the one natural talent I had. But it never occurred to me to pursue creative writing, because authors felt like magical creatures who lived in clouds—that, and I have a very pragmatic streak. I majored in English and Journalism, and worked for magazines and business publications for years after college. Writing and hosting and producing the podcast are each full-time jobs in their own right, so doing the journalism day job at the same time was burning me out. I was able to quit my day job a year and a half ago, which was amazing. It’s also a privilege that I try not to take for granted.

I love learning about how writers write. Do you write in a specific place or can you write wherever? Do you created a detailed outline or go with the flow? Music while you write: yes or no? Tell me everything (I say this constantly, so the title alone would have convinced me to pick up your book). 

I feel much more creatively energized out in the world, usually at coffee shops. Thankfully there’s a great community of writers in LA, so there’s almost always someone down to meet up and write with me, too.

I outline projects, though I constantly revisit and adjust that outline as I go. For Tell Me Everything I wrote a synopsis and a chapter-by-chapter breakdown. For my newest project—which is a rewrite—I also made a chapter-by-chapter breakdown of the five main relationships in the novel, so I could see how each chapter was moving all those arcs forward.

I absolutely listen to music while I write. I actually tend to find one song that suits the tone of the project I’m writing, and I’ll listen to that single song on loop for every writing session. My Spotify stats are completely wacked out.

Tell Me Everything is your debut novel. Can you describe its path to publication—how long did it take to write and then to sell? As a first-time author, which moments have been the most thrilling? The most surprising?

Tell Me Everything has had a somewhat unique path to publication. I’ve been writing fiction for 10 years, and at this point have written seven books. I was connected to my editor at Scholastic, Amanda Maciel, by a mutual friend. Amanda had been working on a nugget of an idea for Scholastic, and she thought I might be the right fit to write the book. It was just a paragraph, but I loved the concept for Ivy’s story right away. I wrote a sample chapter and synopsis, and Amanda really enjoyed my take on her idea, so we signed a contract in May 2016. But writing a book after selling it was a wild experience, and drafting Tell Me Everything (all three times) was tough. Thanks to Amanda’s guidance, I found the right way to tell the story and I’m so thrilled with the book.

I’ve been in the publishing world through writing and hosting First Draft for a long time, but it’s thrilling to finally be able to talk about and promote my own work.

Tell Me Everything is a timely book; it focuses on activism and anonymity, artistic control and free speech, all through the lens of a social media app called VEIL, which is a hyperlocal Instagram-Snapchat combo. VEIL is an artistic app with three caveats: 1) you can only see posts by users in a five-mile radius, 2) all posts are anonymous, 3) the content disappears at the end of each week. Lots of VEIL-inspired drama ensues, much of it thanks to Ivy, the novel’s socially anxious, VEIL-obsessed protagonist, who performs a random act of kindness whenever she discovers a poster’s identity. Why is Ivy so adamant about VEIL remaining anonymous when she goes out of her way to not only identify users, but to let them know she’s identified them?

Ivy wants VEIL to remain anonymous because that’s what allows the local artists to be so brave with what they post. But at the same time, she longs to know who the artists are because she’s been personally touched by their work. The inherent contradiction of those two things isn’t immediately apparent to Ivy, who’s also working through her fear of sharing her own art publicly. That’s the crux of the novel: sharing the vulnerable parts of ourselves is scary, but it’s also the key to creating personal connection. Ivy is struggling to grasp and accept that.

There’s a divide in the book between those who think the anonymity makes VEIL problematic and those who think it encourages free expression. Ivy, who I would describe as a Real Deal Artist, absolutely loves the app, though she’s not brave enough to post her own work. She’s a background player surrounded by activists; in a line I found at once patronizing and motivational, Ivy’s best friend tells her, “At some point you have to start participating in your own life.” Was VEIL ultimately good for Ivy or was it holding her back?

Ha, you are so right—Harold says that to Ivy, and he has his own issues. Namely, thinking he knows what’s best for everyone around him. I think VEIL was ultimately good for Ivy, for a number of reasons. One: it showed Ivy that artists are everywhere, around us at all times. Two: it allowed her to make the distinction between being shy and being anonymous. Even though the site was totally anonymous, she couldn’t bring herself to post there! So Ivy had to start thinking about what was really holding her back. And three: by seeking to engage with artists she found on VEIL, Ivy went outside her comfort zone and forged some IRL connections. By the end of the book, VEIL has done its job because Ivy doesn’t truly need it anymore.

Tell Me Everything lightning round! 

Favorite Jeff Goldblum movie?

THIS IS HARD! I’m a 90s kid, so I have to say Jurassic Park. It’s such a classic.

Garden gnomes or Bigfoot?

Bigfoot, hands down!

I have to know: how did you come up with the name Rake Burmkezerg?

Rake Burmkezerg is an anagram of Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook. It’s the most fun I’ve ever had naming a character.

Was Teenage Sarah more of a Harold or an Ivy?

In total honesty, I was an Ivy as a young teen, and grew into a Harold by the end. I was definitely pulling from personal experience in writing them both.

Last question! What advice do you have for all the aspiring writers out there?

Honestly? Patience and perseverance. Learn to revise—it’s the key to this art, and it will set you apart from 90 percent of other writers.

You can find Sarah Enni online at her website or on Twitter @SarahEnni. Her podcast is truly one of my favorites, so check out First Draft, too! Tell Me Everything comes out on February 26, 2019. 

[topicprinter]

Hey - Pat from StarterStory.com here with another interview.Today's interview is with James Rosone of Front Line Publishing Inc, a brand that makes military and espionage thrillersSome stats:Product: Military And Espionage ThrillersRevenue/mo: $19,000Started: December 2015Location: TampaFounders: 2Employees: 2Hello! Who are you and what business did you start?Hello. It’s great to virtually meet you all. My name is James Rosone and I are a thriller author and co-owner of Front Line Publishing Inc. I write military, political, and espionage thrillers, though I’m currently working on a military sci-fi series. My wife and I have published sixteen books, with another four more somewhere in the editing process, getting ready to be released over the next eight months.imageWhen I released my first book in December 2015, I was writing as a form of PTSD therapy. That month I earned $78 dollars. However, my most successful month as an author, December 2018, I earned $47,365 in a single month. Right now, if we include audibles, I believe we’re averaging somewhere around $19,000 a month, so we’ve done pretty well in the self-publishing space considering how long we’ve been writing.What's your backstory and how did you come up with the idea?Before I was a writer, I served ten years in the Army and Air Force, and then followed that up with another eight years as a contractor for the Department of Defense and the State Department. During that time, I lived for 3.5 years in Iraq and 3.5 years in Germany, and spent most of that time involved in hunting and capturing terrorists across the globe. Although the reality was quite different from Jack Bauer in 24, I held a unique job in the military as an interrogator. I’d spend twelve to sixteen hours a day interrogating Al Qaeda prisoners, and we’d use the information to capture or kill the rest of their terrorist cells throughout the country.It was an incredibly intense job. I’d go from huge emotional highs when we’d capture a top 10 high-value individual to immense lows when members of our capture teams would get injured or killed. It was a pure adrenaline junky job, right at the tip of the spear. I’ve interrogated a Saddam Hussein body double that I swore was really him. Other detainees I interviewed ranged from the top five members of the Al Qaeda organization in Iraq all the way down to a fourteen-year-old kid placing an improvised explosive device on the side of a road.Looking back on my time in Iraq, I have mixed emotions about it. I was honored to have served my country and I would do it again in a heartbeat. I’m also torn up at times with the guilt that I could have or should have done more. We lost twenty-six service members on missions derived from my interrogations, and more than a hundred were injured. I kept asking myself if I could have done something different, maybe asked another question or pushed a prisoner a little harder. Would it have changed the outcome? I struggled with that really hard when I left Iraq.imageWhen I stopped working for the government, I fell into a deep depression and my PTSD symptoms became so overwhelming it was hard for me to deal with them in a constructive way. I lost interest in the things that I once loved. However, one hobby I still enjoyed was reading. I became a prolific reader, often devouring one or two books a week. I enjoyed military thrillers, spy thrillers, and sci-fi the most. However, I found myself annoyed with some of the writing. To me, it lacked realism and authenticity. It’s not that the authors didn’t try—many of them did a decent job—but it seemed like they were just writing about stuff they’d never personally experienced. At best, they’d probably read about these topics.One day when I was talking with my VA counselor, he asked me a question: “Why don’t you try writing therapy?” It had never occurred to me that writing might help with my own PTSD symptoms. I kicked the idea around for a couple of years and wrote some things but never published them. Then, in February of 2015, I hit an emotional dead end. I suddenly found myself laid off just as my security clearance was in the process of being renewed.When my security clearance inevitably expired, all my chances of continuing to work in a classified environment also faded into the wind. For me, that had been my life, my purpose, my mission—and it was all suddenly taken from me. I fell into an even deeper depression and really struggled with thoughts of suicide at that point. I had a wife and two kids now, but I had no immediate means to support them. I sat there for one night in the dark thinking to myself, “Wow, I’m honestly worth more dead than alive.” Then I remembered what the counselor said to me a few years before, and the next day, I set off on a course to write the type of books that I liked to read.Take us through the process of designing, prototyping, and manufacturing your first product.Every author has their own style. Some people spend days or weeks prewriting a story. I would describe myself as more of a “Pantser,” meaning I tend to write by the seat of my pants. I’ll craft up an idea for a series with a start point and an endpoint. Now, how can I get from a to z is a constantly evolving process. When I outline a chapter, it’s usually only two or three bullet points.Once that basic outline is written, and it’s not much, I start to fill it in with the story. When I write my books, I tend to write to them with three perspectives in mind:1) The decision maker-level (all wars or operations are typically dictated by the policymakers so I show that part).2) The strategic level of how the military plans to implement the policy decision that’s been made.3) The operational level or the “grunt” that has to execute the decisions.My wife and I are a co-authoring team. We write and produce all of our books together, and at this point, we’ve become a pretty good team. I personally love it. We get to collaborate, and we work from home. We get to spend a lot of time with our kids, go to their school events, spend extra time with them or handle other appointments as needed all while working around our writing.Here’s how the process works for us. When I finish writing the book, I handed it off to my wife. She then goes in and adds some extra flair to the characters, makes sure the pacing of the books is good, completes a first-round edit and then coordinates and handles all of the editing changes from our professional editor and our beta reader team. While she’s working on book one, I’m already burning through book two, when I finish book two, I hand it off to my wife and then I start book three. At this point, book one is nearing completion with the editing process, which is when we put book one up for a 90-day pre-order.imageWe have essentially created a writing assembly line, with a book coming out every 90-days once we start the cycle. Then it’s just a matter of us keeping up with the pace we’ve set and working to ensure we maintain the quality of what we’re producing. We’d rather delay the launch of a pre-order than have to sacrifice on quality. We view writing as a business, and as such, we want to make sure the brand we’re building is known for producing good quality books, not rapidly published books riddled with errors and story plot holes because we didn’t take the time to do a couple of layers of quality proofs.Describe the process of launching the business.When I first started self-publishing, our start-up costs were relatively low. I found a book cover artist on Fiverr to produce a cover for under $100, and we were off to the races. As we’ve become more successful, our costs have grown. We now spend $300-$500 on the cover art. Initially, we spent very little on marketing, but now our average budget is between $2,000-$3,000 monthly. Once we could afford to move beyond our beta team for editing, we also started working with a professional editor, and each pass of a manuscript runs roughly $1,800. There are networking conferences that we now attend; for example, last year we went to Politicon for research. However, each of these expenses was added as we had the capital to do so.When I first started releasing books, I began to network with our readers on Facebook by creating a World War III series page. As I continued to post articles of interest about the military and emerging technologies, the followership grew, and I was eventually able to create ads using a lookalike audience for that group. I did make an error in naming the page after the series; had I known that Facebook does not allow renaming of pages, I would have originally created an author page. As it is, we are still trying to build our author page to the same level of followers as our series page.Back in 2016, Facebook ads were much more effective, but now, I do a lot more of my advertising on the Amazon Marketing Services platform. Then, this year, something changed on the algorithm with AMS, and many authors I’ve connected with say that this year’s costs on marketing have increased dramatically while sales have also decreased. We ended up financing the recording of some of our audibles with credit cards due to the declining sales, which is something I wish we could do-over. Each audible recording is around $4,000 for us unless it is worked out with a royalty sharing agreement, so a few of those can really eat away at our profits. On the other hand, the audible market is growing tremendously, and we didn’t want to lose out on that potential income.About a year ago, we discovered that although our works are copyrighted, there are a large number of websites on the dark web that attempt to sell our works illegally. There aren’t enough hours in the day to track down all of the piracy that happens out there, so I would highly recommend using a site like Blasty.com, which sends cease and desist letters to all of these scamming sites and works with search optimization algorithms to make sure that these results do not readily populate when someone searches for your book.Since launch, what has worked to attract and retain customers?The biggest strategy that we have used to capitalize on reader buy-through of our books is our 90-day rapid release strategy. Each time we release a book, we have the link for the pre-order of the next book in the back matter, ready to go. Now, this does require us to crank out books at a rapid clip, but we’ve managed to grow our followership substantially without investing as much in growing an email distribution list.imageAnother strategy we’ve implemented is asking readers for feedback. When we receive messages from readers who are critical or receive one-star reviews (these are inevitable), we have contacted that person and politely asked them how we could improve our work for the future. By not taking it personally and being willing to listen, we’ve even managed to turn some of our more critical readers into some very helpful beta readers.Finally, we’ve been very active in engaging our fans on social media. We’ve offered to allow fans to name characters and have at times, even asked for input in crafting our stories. This is vital in taking a group that might be casual observers into a collection of superfans.imageHow are you doing today and what does the future look like?Our business is still profitable and allows us to pay our bills without taking on a standard 9 to 5 job. As I mentioned above, there have been some challenges. Recent algorithm shifts for Facebook and AMS have made marketing less cost-effective. A popular advertising site, BookBub, which used to promote a wide range of books, now has shifted away from self-published authors and toward traditionally published authors as well. So we need to constantly change and adapt.We have spreadsheets for entering our books into contests, we’ve been looking into how to get our books into the library system, and we are trying to see if we can get our books into Army surplus stores. We will be trying something completely new and set up a table at one of the local gun shows as well. We are having to get creative and utilize a little guerilla marketing, but we are ready to meet this challenge head-on.In addition to these new avenues of marketing, we are trying to leverage our connections with other authors to cross-promote our books. Because there are so many readers out there who consume books so rapidly, we are not really in direct competition. None of us can produce stories of high quality fast enough to keep up with the readers, so it makes sense to partner together.We’ve put a significant amount of hours and financial investment into having our books turned into audibles this year. We are looking into different ways to promote audiobooks since listeners find their next books in different ways than readers do. This is a rapidly growing market, but the advertising industry hasn’t quite caught up with the demand in this field, so more work remains to be done on our end to capitalize on the expanding need for new audio content.Through starting the business, have you learned anything particularly helpful or advantageous?When I first started writing, I honestly didn’t know what I was doing. I didn’t understand marketing, I didn’t understand the need for even a basic author website or the need to create an author mailing list. I didn’t actually start creating an author mailing list until I was two years into this business.When I began creating my mailing list, I used the conventional wisdom at the time and tried to give away snippets of my books for free. Many authors do this, and will even give away entire novels just to get people to sign up. However, I quickly learned that those who are seeking free items will usually unsubscribe once they receive their freebie, or will seldom open future emails.I was rather discouraged when I saw this happening, so I changed my strategy. I now grow my mailing list exclusively through the links in the backmatter of my books. I don’t list build like many other authors do. My current list is somewhat small, right around 2,500, but it’s highly active, with an open rate of 70% or higher. Each time I send an email out, which is usually around once a month, I can generate between $500 and $2,500 per email. So while my list is small, it generates me money. It does grow, just much slower than what some of my author friends’ lists do.One thing I’d like to stress to people is that although I’m being transparent and open with how well our sales have gone, you have to understand this didn’t happen overnight. This is the result of a lot of incredibly hard work and sacrifice. I write every day and every week like I’m going to be homeless at the end of every month if I don’t reach certain writing goals. I don’t watch TV, I seldom go to the movies, and aside from playing with my three kids who are all under the age of six, I have no personal life. I work like a beast. I write seven days a week with maybe two or three days off a month. I write on average five to twelve hours a day. When I’m not writing, I’m reading other books in my genre to learn from them, I’m watching MasterClass.com learn from other successful authors, or I’m listening to marketing and business podcasts or YouTube videos.I’m constantly learning or working. I’m not going to maintain this schedule forever, but I am going to maintain it until I’ve hit a certain level of financial freedom. I think a lot of authors would look at my numbers and think they could easily replicate it, but I want to be clear—I often put in eighty to one hundred hour work weeks to make it happen. I research my subjects, interview, and talk with people, and really study up on what I’m writing about. That requires a lot of effort and time. I do believe a lot of people could reproduce these results, but most aren’t willing to put this level of dedication into it.What platform/tools do you use for your business?I use a couple of platforms to market our books. I initially started out using Facebook. That has worked in the past but frankly, they’ve made so many changes to the platform that I’ve found it hard to really keep pace with it and make it profitable.At this point, 90% of my ad spend is done on Amazon’s AMS platform. I typically spend around $3,000 a month on marketing with the bulk of it on AMS. I do, however, use Facebook when I launch a book which is around every 90-days. Most of my Facebook campaigns will usually last around two weeks before I flip back to using Amazon exclusively again.What have been the most influential books, podcasts, or other resources?From the beginning, I began networking with fellow authors. I’ve heard mentors say that “fortune favors the bold,” so I constantly approach people on social media and try to pick their brains about how they’ve become as successful as they have.Surprisingly, many authors have not only responded, but have been very helpful. This has led to some very good leads on book cover artists, editors, and other services, and introduced me to Mark Dawson’s Self-Publishing Formula group. Joining the SPF community has by far created the biggest impact in our publishing business and its profitability.imageIn addition to joining the SPF group, there are several books I’ve read that have been very influential. One to mention is Brian Meeks’ book on Amazon Marketing Services advertising. As you can see in the chart above, each of these events led to marked changes in profits.Advice for other entrepreneurs who want to get started or are just starting out?If you want to get into writing, then you need to sit down and ask yourself a couple of questions:Why do you want to get into writing?What do you hope to accomplish?How do you plan on making this happen?What are you willing to cut out of your life to reach your goals?There are two types of authors: hobbyists who write for fun and entertainment, and authors who view this as a business. There is no right or wrong author to be. It’s a personal decision you have to make. If your goal is to publish books for fun and making money isn’t the priority, then that is great. If, however, you want this to be your main source of income to support your family, then you have to take this very seriously. You have to develop a game plan and then execute it.I made a LOT of mistakes when I first started out. I didn’t know the first thing about building an email list, I didn’t have an author page and I had no clue how to write book descriptions, what made a good book cover or how to market my books. I spent hours and hours on YouTube trying to self-teaching myself these skills, but it wasn’t until I learned about Mark Dawson’s SPF program and then read Brian Meeks book on understanding Amazon Marketing Service or AMS ads that things really took off.The best advice I could give to any new author or someone wanting to become an author is to find a mentor. Find an author who produces good quality works and has a track record of success and then see if they will help you in your journey. I’ve done this with several new authors who wanted to get into the game. I share openly my failures, my successes, and what I wish someone would have told me when I first started getting into this business myself. You need to have someone else walk alongside you.Are you looking to hire for certain positions right now?This is a tough question. While we aren’t looking to hire a full-time employee currently, I certainly have areas I need business help in. A couple of areas I’m always looking for help in are beta readers. Our books tend to have a lot of technical details in them, so we have a large team that reads our books before they are released and helps us make sure we get those details right.Another job I desperately need help in is marketing and research. When I hire someone for a job, I tend to pay by the project. My last big project was creating 5,000 keywords for our AMS marketing plan. It wasn’t hard work, but it was tedious and time-consuming. Right now, I am certainly in need of someone who can help me with ways to increase our audiobook marketing or who is knowledgeable on getting books into the library system. It’s all telework, so if you have the internet, a laptop, and a cell phone, you would be able to accomplish the task. If you’re interested in a part-time job or a job that pays by project, make sure to look me up.Where can we go to learn more?WebsiteFacebookIf you have any questions or comments, drop a comment below!Liked this text interview? Check out the full interview with photos, tools, books, and other data.For more interviews, check out r/starter_story - I post new stories there daily.Interested in sharing your own story? Send me a PM

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Places to Shoot in Bangkok Part 11: 'Airlab'

Welcome all Chromacoma brethren, I am looking to try something new this month and going for a 'two for one' kind of deal involving a useful place to know for film photographers (digital too for sure) with good facilities, people and equipment that also happens to be a place you can shoot at (even if the area is small) as there is a studio for rent there too!

Airlab has already been mentioned in this blog and within the main guide article (click the banner at the top of this page) but I thought it might be nice for bit more detail and a dedicated round up this month in the style of 'Chromacoma meets Airlab!', so let's get it started. First up, I think that there might well be a parallel to be drawn between this entry to the guide and the 'Chang Chui' post last year. This place also being the brainchild of a fairly well known chap within photographic/artistic circles (and Thai society circles also) who decided to create and open up his own place as a sort of hangout and cool zone for his artistic vision. Just to be clear, this isn't the same person or in anyway connected to Chang Chui, it's just another, similar example of a Thai artistic type with the vision and resources to make a place like this happen in Bangkok. If you check out their website HERE, I'm pretty sure you will be able to see more details about this individual himself but for the sake of his modesty and protocol, I'm choosing not to name him specifically in this article. Suffice to say, if you choose to visit Airlab, you'll probably meet him yourself and find that he is very cool, laid back and relaxed with a nice, welcoming down to earth sort of vibe.

The location itself isn't exactly one you are likely to accidentally stumble over, even if you live in Bangkok, but the good news is that it really is easy for anyone to get to. So easy in fact that I am not including a map as there is one on their website and I have a very simple way of explaining it to you: Take the BTS skytrain out of Bangkok heading down the main (old) Sukhumvit line towards the East (Bearing etc) and get off at On Nut station. Go down one floor and keep walking in the same direction that the train was heading in before you disembarked. Walk all the way in this direction as far as you can go to the station's end before you go down to street  level. Before you exit down, you should clearly be able to see Sukhumvit Soi 81 and its road sign ahead of you, on the left. Go down the stairs to street level, walk along to this street and turn down it (all on your left hand side), keep walking a little way and turn down the very first soi off of Sukhumvit 81 on the left hand side, follow that around a blind right hand corner and walk for a couple of hundred metres at the most, Airlab will come into view after a couple of minutes walk on the right hand side, it's a compound with a house inside and very clear signage. Trust me, it's very easy indeed and hard to go wrong, just wear a hat for the sun.

So, what did I find there? Well, lots of good stuff really. First up, there's a nice air con cafe with decent Thai food at local prices and proper fresh coffee on offer. So, even if you were to visit with people who might not be as keen on photography as you are such as with a partner or kids in tow, there's a haven for them to occupy for a while in relative comfort. There's also a huge all glass and air con shooting studio for rent plus a nice little leafy lawn area with some cool tiny artsy shops. Cool t shirts and the like were for sale here and there but it didn't come off as tacky, definitely a faint whiff of hipster (maybe that was coming from me)  but overall this is only too much at busy times. Apparently however, such really busy weekends as I had seen before at this venue are not as common now. That said, they do hold events from time to time and these are not only 'Airlab' events per se but also sometimes things done in conjunction with outside companies and brands as crossover into advertising and brand hyping circles so I guess it all depends on what's on. There's a small shop selling very high end and good condition camera gear including lots of Leica and classic Rollei gear, bodies, lenses etc. but it opens towards the later part of the day and not in the morning time. I can't comment on that much more as I have never purchased here and so I'm simply putting it out there.

Meanwhile at the other end of the lawn area there's somewhere to sit in the shade and have your coffee or tea (even a smoking area) and this backs up to a really impressive and fully equipped darkroom facility inside an old (air conditioned) familiar looking metal cube shape. I guess one man's shipping container is another man's darkroom, this is also for rent to those who would like access to it. You'll have to contact them for details re. pricing

I would just like to say that I didn't inform Airlab that I was going to be dropping by and taking photos for inclusion into the guide or recommendations to others, rather preferring instead to just turn up on spec as a random foreigner to see what sort of reaction or welcome I received. I'm not saying that I was trying to be deliberately sneaky or judgemental (I really wasn't) but rather I merely wished to try and see what would happen if you, dear reader, were to do the same and how it would be. I'm delighted to say that people either left me alone (as was the case when I first strolled in around 11am) or they then eventually came up to me and politely spoke in English. This wasn't done to hassle me either, a couple of people were genuinely making sure I was okay and letting me know they would help me if I had any questions, was I looking to buy or develop film? etc. Expanding on that last point, there's film for sale of many different types and they do a whole load of processing here, colour and black and white and even some really long lost ancient wet plate processes which is really cool. Again I won't comment too much on pricing but its reasonably competitive at the time of publishing this post and suffice to say that they accept most kinds of film for processing including even slides (E6) and will do very accurate push and pull processing too. It's not a Mickey Mouse all hipster and no skills outfit, it's a proper lab. There's also an 'express' option for those maybe leaving Thailand soon, scans of a very high quality also available. The guy behind the whole endeavour is certainly deeply into film photography and so you are not just going to be handing your film  over to a random outfit without any interest or skill. They have a lot of processing equipment, chems and machines actually onsite in addition to the fully set up darkroom. It's pretty full on. I deliberately didn't attempt to talk to the owner until the very end and he was very polite and friendly indeed. I am certain that  if you turn up on spec and behave respectfully as you would at anybody's 'open house' kind of business, the people here will be very accommodating indeed. It's open daily from around 10am and goes on till about 7pm ish. You might even bump into a Thai celebrity here and there....

As an aside, there were some lovely quirks that had been really well thought out here and there. One personal favourite example was perhaps in the public toilets extending off from the garden lawn area where I noted that the toilet roll holder was actually an old style Polaroid camera body adapted to this new role (maybe that should be 'roll'? ha!).  If you've ever felt like your photographic skills are slipping and your last roll was about as good as toilet paper, well hey...maybe you're not alone in such an assertion. Another nice touch was that the food menu of simple, classic Thai dishes was a full colour, medium format positive contact sheet showing the dish to be ordered, a simple but very effective idea that really caught my eye.

There's limited parking inside the compound but looks like you would be good to go on a weekday, although the street outside is legal to park on. Motorbikes would have no issues. Honestly though, it's probably easier to just take the BTS there. So, I hope this month's little entry proves useful both in terms of picking up film there, dropping it back off to have it devved or even booking their soft light, glasshouse (thankfully there's air con in there too!) kind of beauty/photo studio as a stunning location that is just crying out for great portraiture to be done there (as the owner has done many times and examples of which can be seen around). You could even then go on to rent their darkroom in which to develop the films that you've just shot in the studio at the same location. That's seriously cool and a fully contained (albeit 'shipping contained') 'one stop shop' option for serious dedicated film photographers in Bangkok. For that alone, and with no affiliation whatsoever, I have deemed it well worth inclusion in the places to shoot series for this month, enjoy.

CCP

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Writer and Illustrator Hallie Bateman’s Insatiable Appetite to Create

Call for Entries: The HOW Promotion & Marketing Design Awards extended deadline is TOMORROW, April 27, at 11:59 EDT!

Based in Los Angeles, California, Hallie Bateman is a freelance writer and illustrator who’s had her work published by The New Yorker, The New York Times, Buzzfeed, The Awl and others. Although she never had formal training in illustration, she received some powerful advice to “draw every day,” and since she began illustration she’s done just that, becoming a prolific artist who knows no bounds.

A print Bateman sold to raise funds for hurricane victims in Puerto Rico, with more than $5,000 contributed.

Bateman studied creative writing in college, and although she didn’t study art in school she taught herself illustration. There were no classes or instructors to mold her artistic capabilities or provide her with a process. She learned on her own. “When I was starting out, I devoured all the interviews and books I could find. (Letters to a Young Illustrator by R.O. Blechman is great.) On Twitter and Instagram, I followed every illustrator whose work I loved. This allowed me to witness the day-to-day lives of illustrators, and eavesdrop on conversations between them on favorite pens, how to deal with clients, etc.” Learning on her own and producing work outside of a school system was an entirely self-reliant and self-made endeavor. And there’s been no problem with motivation because she’s always had an appetite to create.

Bateman’s mug designs sold at MoMA’s design store Colossal, as well as others vendors.

Bateman says that she started illustrating in 2010—”for no money, of course”—and her first paid work might have come sometime in 2012. For those starting out—with or without a degree in art or illustration—Bateman suggests building a relationship with yourself and not waiting for a client to hire you. “At least for comics/illustration, it’s a very small world, and most of the people in it are kind and generous. Even if you’re starting out, and aren’t very experienced, you can still relate to working artists if you post your work and show that you have a passion for making art and working hard. Share the work of your heroes along with your own work, and eventually you’ll feel yourself becoming a part of the community. Also, go to comics festivals even though they can be intimidating at first. You will find your people there.”

“Runners,” a personal sketch from 2016.

“World Map,” a personal work from 2013.

Even though she wasn’t being paid for approximately two years, she started calling herself an illustrator when she began illustrating. But it took her longer to call herself a writer, and as she wrote more, enjoyed writing more, and was published more, the title felt appropriate. “Honestly, after I read the book Zen in the Art of Writing by Ray Bradbury, something clicked for me. Some of my terror lifted, and I started to open up way more in my writing.”

“Night Drive,” a print Bateman sold in 2016 that raised more than $2,000 for Planned Parenthood.

Routines and Molds

Whether finding client work on her own as a freelancer or making her own projects, she’s continued to draw every day, create every day. “I bring my sketchbook almost everywhere and love to draw from life. It also functions as my journal, and I often need to draw just to sort out some feelings or release some energy. I’m not very precious about it. I am careful to make my sketchbook a very accepting and safe place. If I’m working on a book or another large project, I’ll draw at roughly the same time each day and keep a detailed list of work to be done. I take satisfaction in crossing items off it each day. I’ve found becoming super organized is the only way to get through a huge project like that.”

A Feb. 2017 illustration for Mother Jones that appeared in an article about food deserts.

Book cover for Among the Woo People made in 2017.

If you take a look at Bateman’s portfolio of work, the first thing you’ll notice is the range. She has done different things over time, and continues to do different things. There’s not one mold that you could fit her work into, and admittedly, Bateman herself strives to constantly break out of molds. For an illustrator, especially one with a signature style or rendering technique, it can be easy—or even desirable—to become known for that style. But not for Bateman. “I say ‘no.’ Often, I’ll make a type of work, which generates demand for more similar work. For a while, this can be an exciting opportunity to explore my own work and learn a lot. Eventually, I feel like I’m being asked to replicate old work.” Saying “no” might seem like the last thing a freelancer should do, but for Bateman, it’s proven to be an asset. “I think I break out of a mold when I start to say ‘no’ to the work I’m known for, ‘no’ to the things I’m good at, and head in new, scary directions. I break out of molds when I let myself keep failing and trying and learning.”

Related: HOW Design Live speaker Emily Cohen on the art of saying “no.”

This cartoon from an essay at BigCartel was a “predecessor/companion to the Artistic Licenses” that Bateman now sells.

Creative License

Reinvention and breaking out of molds has served Bateman well, allowing her to take on any number of projects, any kind of project. I first noticed Bateman’s work online, when her Artistic Licenses began making the rounds on social media. They started out as a fun side project for herself, and now you can get your own Artistic License, with your very own portrait drawn by Bateman.

Bateman’s Artistic Licenses, a project she enjoys doing for other people.

For Bateman, the process of making the licenses is both educational and rewarding. “I love drawing each person’s face, and learning a little about them.” For the owners, getting a license is not only fun and games, but it’s also an opportunity to “banish self-doubt” when family members ask about career or life choices. Bateman has had positive reactions to the licenses, especially because they can help people “dissolve their doubts.”

As an illustrator and writer, making the leap into books seemed like a logical next step, and she’s made that leap by making her own books. Bateman’s creative journal Brave New Work was published in 2017 by MoMA and her latest book, What To Do When I’m Gone, comes out in April 2018.

A spread from her book What To Do When I’m Gone.

What To Do When I’m Gone is a book for mothers and daughters, for anyone who’s lost somebody, or anyone who will one day lose somebody. Bateman sees the book as good preparation, an icebreaker of sorts, to assist people before they lose a parent, before the grieving happens. Making work that is both positive and helpful to people has always mattered to Bateman, and What To Do When I’m Gone does exactly that in so many ways.

Writing, Illustrating, Amplifying

When I spoke with Bateman about her own work, we also had an opportunity to chat about work that inspires her, and she cited filmmakers Mike Mills and Miranda July. Mills and July, who are married, have both “worked so fearlessly in so many mediums” and Bateman hopes to “reach anything near to their level of pan-artistic freedom someday.”

In Mills’ work, a blurring of boundaries happens and that appeals to Bateman, especially when it comes to the blend of documentary and artistic elements and how “he pulls from his own life and interviews with friends and strangers.” It’s about both truth and fiction, rather than a clear separation between the two. “I love the idea that there’s not such a hard line between truth and fiction—that there’s truth to be found in the gray areas. I love this because I strive to be an emotional reporter, parsing and playing with facts and experiences to find and amplify emotional truths.”

In her own writing and illustration, Bateman has proven herself capable of doing just that, finding and amplifying emotional truths. In all likelihood, she will continue to do so, and if she keeps breaking out of molds, there seems to be no limit to what she will do next.

Caption information for artwork provided by Hallie Bateman.

Check out more of Bateman’s work at her website and on Instagram.

The post Writer and Illustrator Hallie Bateman’s Insatiable Appetite to Create appeared first on HOW Design.

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This Software the Future of Creating Legal Remixes Filled with Samples

There’s a large problem going through artists in the age of virtual tune. Programs for downloading and remixing songs make the method noticeably clean, so DJs and manufacturers are churning out lots of track. Their mashups and remixes are then posted on-line – and speedy slapped with copyright infringement moves by using offerings like YouTube and Soundcloud. If you’re a small artist who relies on those websites for distribution, the final aspect you want to do is have your account blocked. But at the identical time, your remixes and mashups most effective comprise parts of the songs, so the final product is still technically original. Who’s responsible: overzealous artists and labels looking to guard their works, or inspired people looking to piggy-backpedal some other’s success? Perhaps there’s honestly a third culprit: a loss of proper licensing that could make certain each event proportion the wealth. That’s wherein Applications like MixBANK come into play.

MixBANK is what’s known as a Rights Management System (RMS), and it’s looking to change the manner remixes are certified. Right here’s the way it works. An artist or manager will sign up for the service, with a view to submitting their song to a worldwide registry – permit’s call this specific tune Tune X. The artist will simply how plenty of Tune X they need to open up for usage on which platforms. For example, they could say they want Song X to only get included into remixes on Spotify, However, have the unique on Apple song. Then, on every occasion a remix is uploaded by a distinctive artist to any taking part offerings (Spotify and Apple track each being partners with MixBANK), that remix routinely gets analyzed with the aid of the RMS and licensing rights are assigned according to the contents of the remix. RMSes from the world over are all linked, and that community shares licensing of the remix accurately. As an example, if Remix Y was more often than not made of Tune X However also had samples from a Dutch artist, an RMS from the Netherlands referred to as Buma/Stemra would be connected thru the community and given partial licensing as well. The very last product is the vital component: Apple tune can monetize the music, the artist that uploaded Remix Y receives paid, Music X’s writer receives a share, the Dutch artist additionally gets their cut, and most importantly nobody receives in hassle and the remix isn’t removed.

There are actually large mashup and remix groups online that would substantially advantage from software like this starting up. Most of those artists publish to Soundcloud and YouTube due to the shortage of charges, however the way those websites perform leaves the artist accountable. They’re what’re called ‘safe harbour‘ sites – a prison term created in the infancy of the Net that protects sharing websites from being held accountable for what their customers percentage. Look at it this way: YouTube is vital for the unfold of unfastened statistics on a line, so having to continuously warfare court cases that threaten their operation wouldn’t make experience if the content in question became most effective a considerable minority of what they virtually percentage. So, websites that share that kind of user-generated content material are labeled as secure harbors, meaning it’s no longer absolutely on them to police their users. Of path that’s a piece over-simplified – both YouTube and Soundcloud have computerized detection structures to help rights proprietors make sure their licensing stays intact – But customers are running and get round it. That craftiness on safe harbor websites reportedly prices the track enterprise almost 1000000000 bucks in misplaced revenue, so you ought to see why Rights Control systems are preferred.

Why Your Business Should Use Online Accounting Software

Cloud software has revolutionized the arena of contemporary commercial enterprise, permitting people to work together remotely in real-time -wherever they are inside the global. The Cloud lets in multiple customers to collaborate on portions of work and feature get right of entry to the identical documents and enterprise files from a Computer, computer or mobile phone.

In case you’re acquainted with cloud sharing, you may have additionally heard of cloud accounting. In a great deal the same way that The Cloud lets in customers to collaborate on pieces of labor and access documents remotely, it also enables enterprise proprietors and their accountants to work collectively to balance the books whilst on the pass.

In case you’re strange with cloud sharing, you may be daunted with the aid of the possibility of online accounting software program. you may worry it will be difficult to put into effect and confusing to understand; you might additionally be involved approximately the security of your account information, mainly In case you’ve not used cloud software program before.

However online accounting turned into created with the intention of creating lifestyles simpler and greater flexible for commercial enterprise proprietors. It’ll help you connect to your numbers, as well as financial advisers, at any time using any device. not only that But you ought to acquire a complete setup, implementation education and ongoing aid out of your provider.

Not best will you be able to access your money owed at any time, However using on-line accounting software program may even offer you with a time-saving payroll solution. You’ll have to get right to entry to a picture of your payroll and leave statistics and extraordinary bills at any time. high-quality payments and tax updates could also emerge as automated.

This means that You’ll now not need to spend hours inside the back office manually getting into your payroll records, or pay someone to do it for you: a sensible laptop gadget will contend with it at the same time as you get on with running your enterprise.

You can even get admission to your payroll for your cellular cellphone, so In case you’re on the road more regularly than you’re sat at a desk, You may have the entirety you need to manipulate your enterprise from your pocket.

Invoices may also be less difficult to control. You can send an invoice the minute a job has been completed, and you will realize whilst your patron has opened it. They’ll then be able to pay you quick and without problems. Your guide team has to also be able to help you manage your vintage invoices and keep on the pinnacle of your incoming bills.

Most accounting apps also encompass an on hand receipt-scanning function, allowing you to tune your expenditure as and while it happens. So no more seeking to keep receipts organized and having to input figures manually.

Driving the Future

As we reflect consideration on learning to pressure in whichever you’re isn’t always it time to think about how your driving will alternate through the years. With all this speak about self-driving cars and now there’s information that one agency is deliberating designing an automobile which can fly too, wherein is we going.back to the future full movie free.

Back to the future franchise

I have sat down and idea what have been humans considering when the main shape of riding turned into using a horse or using in a carriage which changed into drawn by a horse. If they have been to tour forward in time what would be their thoughts on our driving.future new songs 2015.

Might they be thinking that we are all loopy riding across the country at what they would call rapid speeds

They possibly assume that we might be crazy doing all this stuff. So what are your very own mind on a vehicle riding its self around with you sat in the riding seat with you studying or watching something?

The cars that are being examined for driving on their very own are being slowly brought onto the roads around the world.

So allow’s positioned you in a state of affairs, you are being pushed down the Motorway in yourself-using vehicle and also you see issues beforehand do you leap in before the auto reacts to the state of affairs or do you notice what the auto is going to do as you have been informed it is absolutely secure to let the automobile power for you.

in the world, we have slowly emerged as more technical however additionally plenty lazier and for me, a lot fatter as I do less on foot and extra sitting. So why will we want to have the auto power for us, we need to learn how to dive even supposing the car is going to drive for us, we still might also need to take over. So why now not go away the self-using vehicle and let us do something as we travel around.

I am completely glad for changes however maybe we must take a step returned and look at what we are doing to ourselves making even lazier than we’re in the meanwhile. I’m guessing next the scientist goes to begin searching at methods to grow wheels out of our fat so we do much less walking as properly.

Creating Models Out of Ordinary People: Who Are Scouts and How Do You Get Scouted?

A whole lot of humans start doubting or questioning themselves when a scouter methods them whether or not modeling might surely work for them. We communicate a little bit approximately the work of scooters and provide some recommendations on the way to get scouted.

Scouting overall performance equates directly to the industry overall performance

Modeling is a various industry starting from youngster to senior abilities. All unique varieties of sizes, heights, and looks are sought after. There isn’t a fixed requirement (apart from fashion or stick insect levels) that an ability version needs to suit in maximum cases. The dearth of constantly preferred method scooters should pass both by means of experience and instinct in maximum instances.creating a website page.

Tyra Banks, for instance, become rejected by means of six groups before she got her first process, and confronted many demanding situations in her direction. Believe if a totally beautiful person lacks the self-assurance and preliminary push; they won’t even consider being a version. This is why scouts are ever so important! They discover a talent and provide them encouragement to pursue a line of labor they’ll now not even have taken into consideration. How well the modeling industry performs is at once dependent on the way a scooter lures new talent.free website hosting.

Scouting is a tiring task and one that requires accurate understanding of the industry

With first-rate strength, comes exceptional duty correctly applies to scooters. Clients and the overall enterprise count on the nice candidate and plenty of sparkling faces all the time. Scouters want to be strongly informed on this discipline and sign the aspirant, who will perform as much as expectancies. Additionally, they must be suitable at advertising their very own business enterprise nicely enough to convince fashions of their capability opportunities and boom. This manner may suggest gaining knowledge of on key warm spots including live shows, activities, and central urban regions, style indicates, in which there will be better probabilities of spotting top abilities. They could literally be on their 2 ft all day searching for a celebrity, with maximum uncertainty. Even thinking about it can make one worn-out; Imagine the scouts who have to be at their high-quality on a daily foundation.