#posting this for motivation and accountability too oops

[ovaryacted]

WIP WHENEVER THE FUCK!

I didn’t post this earlier in the week cause there's so much happening recently and obviously I didn’t want to share something I thought may come off as rude or distasteful with what we’re seeing in the news now. I guess, I just wanted to show to whoever is listening or interested that yes, I am working on the General Marcus Acacius story GUILTY AS SIN and making progress, I hope to have the next chapter out soon. Here’s a little snippet (it's getting angsty):

NP TAGS: @joelsdagger @pedrospatch @ozarkthedog @mrsmando @gothcsz @guiltyasdave @gutsby @almostfoxglove @pedroscurls @pedgito @javierpena-inatacvest @joeloverture @yxtkiwiyxt @zloshy @strang3lov3 @studioghibelli @evolnoomym @eupheme @saradika @joelmillerisapunk @joelsgoldrush @moonlight-prose (I can’t for the life of me remember more people but I hope my favs can see this post lmao 🩶)

[duckprintspress]

My 2025 TBR

@hullosweetpea pinged me (on my personal account, @unforth) to do a "9 books I plan to read in 2025" meme, but I'd been meaning to do a post about the silly method I used to make my TBR anyway, so I'm gonna do that instead.

I've never been good about keeping track of books I've wanted to read, but in 2024 when I really started digging in to read a lot, I came up with a plan - I put together a TBR from recently published books (so, from 2023) plus a few books I'd had lying around for a long time - I had an "imminent" TBR on my nightstand and an older "oops didn't get to these yet" TBR that I'd shoved in a bedside cabinet. I grabbed all the old TBR, mixed them together with the imminent TBR, and treated that as my "real" TBR. I then put it in an order that I thought would help motivate me to read the things I was less enthusiastic about (but still wanted to read!) and set about making myself read them in order. I didn't actually manage that - things got shifted as new more exciting releases came out, and when something I was less enthusiastic about came to the top, I often bumped it until I felt up for reading it. But I actually think my flexibility in approach helped cause it meant I didn't stall, and by the end of 2024 I managed to read every single book that was in my TBR pile at the start of 2024.

Of course, I then had a completely new pile of books that I'd acquired, been handed by my wife after she read them cause she thought I'd like them, or borrowed from friends.

So, given that this method essentially worked, I of course, inevitably, decided to do it even more for 2025! Even though my TBR going into 2025 is already bigger than my pile was going into 2024, I nonetheless decided to go to the deep dark depths of cold storage - I went up to the attic (where our library is!) and dug out about a half-dozen books that I've been meaning to read; some I've had around for 20 years without getting to them. And I took my existing TBR, and these new books, and I made four piles:

(stupid long post about my TBR follows, behind a readmore)

Pile 1: The Books On The Top. These are the books that either I got most recently and I'm excited for, or that have been on my TBR longest, and I decided to leave them as-is. These are the books I'm either most excited to read or most determined to read.

This pile can basically be treated as my answer to the 9 books meme, even though there are only seven of them. It's also slightly out of date - I took this picture a few days ago, I'm now reading top book.

The Disabled Tyrant's Beloved Pet Fish by Xue Shan Fei Hu

The Fall of the House of Tatterly by Shanna Miles

The Missing Piece by Kun Yi Wei Lou

The City We Became by N. K. Jemisin

You're Too OP by Yi Xiu Luo

Babel by R. F. Kuang

Dream of the Red Chamber by Tsao Hsueh Chin

Looking at this pile, I think it's pretty obvious which are the titles I bought and which are the ones my wife handed over to me after she read them, assuming you know anything about my usual reading habits (it's danmei. I read danmei, lmao). I yoinked the Chinese classic off my mom's bookshelves, I want to expand my familiarity with the roots of Chinese lit so that I understand more about what I'm reading now.

Piles 2, 3, and 4: The books I'm excited about (left), neutral about (middle), and the books I'm kinda meh about but still would like to read (right).

I took all the remaining books, both more recent and from the cold storage (literally cold storage, our attic doesn't have much heat lmao), and sorted them into these three piles. A lot of the books I'm actually most excited to read aren't out yet; those I'll add to the pile as I buy them, so the final pile will change. I collated these three piles - alternating things I was excited for, things I was neutral about, and things I was meh about - into a final complete TBR.

This is my TBR for the year - not everything I'll read, by any means, but I'll attempt, by the end of 2025, to have read all these books, plus anything else I come across, thus that by the end of 2025, I'll have once again ship-of-Theseus'd by TBR pile. This entire pile, plus sources:

The Disabled Tyrant's Beloved Pet Fish by Xue Shan Fei Hu (bought for myself)

The Fall of the House of Tatterly by Shanna Miles (passed over by my wife)

The Missing Piece by Kun Yi Wei Lou (bought for myself)

The City We Became by N. K. Jemisin (passed over by my wife - we also have the sequel, though she hasn't read it, and I expect if I like this one I'll probably read that soon after)

You're Too OP by Yi Xiu Luo (bought for myself)

Babel by R. F. Kuang (passed over by my wife)

Dream of the Red Chamber by Tsao Hsueh Chin (borrowed from my mom)

After the War by Stuart Sharp (bought for myself - this is an indie press title from the press I was vending next to at Readercon, it sounds really good!)

Where You Linger and Other Stories by Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam (another indie press Readercon acquisition, from Lethe Press)

The Fox and the Fallen Prince by Kate East (I traded a badly damaged copy of Aim For The Heart for this book at Flamecon, with a self-pub author who was vending across from me)

Slouch: Posture Panic in Modern America by Beth Linker (passed over by my wife)

Most Likely to Summon Nyhiloteph (another Readercon book, an anthology from Ghost Orchid Press)

The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi (passed over by my wife)

Black Cranes: Tales of Unquiet Women (this anthology was on the take a book-leave a book table at Readercon and looked interesting)

Winter's Orbit by Everina Maxwell (from cold storage, though I've not actually had it a long time; this is from a huge stash of queer books I stumbled upon at Goodwill one day and bought...all of.)

Devotion by Anna Denisch (got this self-pubbed title at the Book and Comic Expo at The Shirt Factory last fall)

The Bad Guys Won by Jeff Pearlman (passed over by my dad)

The Dragons of Heaven by Alyc Helms (from cold storage, I'm sorry it's taken me so long to get to it @alychelms I've had it on my TBR since it first came out, oops)

(this one I can't remember the title on and don't feel like going to check, but it's a freebie/teaser that the guy vending next to me at The Shirt Factory gave me)

The Gilded Chain by Dave Duncan (from cold storage)

War of the Oaks by Emma Bull (from cold storage)

Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender (another Goodwill stash/cold storage book)

The Last Icon: Tom Seaver and His Times by Steven Travers (passed over by my dad; he passes me books about the Mets, in case that wasn't obvious yet, we both love baseball)

Fight Like a Girl edited by April Steenburgh & Christy Lennox (from cold storage; this was my first publication credit! but I've never actually read the whole anthology, oops)

The State of Us by Shaun David Hutchinson (another Goodwill stash/cold storage book)

Vicksburg: 1863 by Winston Groom (from cold storage; I am not only not-so-secretly a baseball fan, I'm also not-so-secretly a Civil War buff)

Sooo... that's 26 books, including some non-fiction that'll probably be slow going. But hopefully I can read it all this year!

But because that's enough... anyone who pays attention to my monthly reading posts or other posts about what I personally read has probably noticed I read a lot of graphic novels, so I can hear you going, "but unforth, there are no graphic novels on your TBR! where are the graphic novels?" and you are right. Because I maintain not one, but TWO other TBRs (three if you count my Libby account) specifically for graphic novel TBRs; I usually read them while reading other stuff.

Pile 1: physical library books and borrowed books.

I actually read Dungeon Critters last night; this is my current library pile, with the four on the bottom all books I borrowed from @tryslora.

Dungeon Critters by Sara Goetter and Natalie Riess

Galaxy: The Prettiest Star by Jadzia Axelrod and Jess Taylor

Hakumei & Mikochi: Tiny Little Life in the Woods vol. 1 by Takuto Kashiki

Silver Vessels by Steve Orlando

Ash's Cabin by Jen Wang

Yuri is My Job vols. 8 to 12 by Miman

Ask Me About Polyamory! by Tikva Wolf

Cannonball by Kelsey Wroten

The Flying Ship vol. 1 and 2 by Jem Milton

Signals vol. 1 and 2 by Nika

The Less than Epic Adventures of TJ and Amal by E. K. Weaver

How to Be a Werewolf vol. 1 by Shawn Lenore

That said, I'm going to the library tomorrow, so I'll presumably come back with more. I always do, lmao.

Pile 2: Libby

No photograph for this one, obviously, and I don't feel like grabbing appropriate screen captures, but. I have five libraries on Libby ( @queerliblib, the Japan Foundation of Los Angeles, my local library, the New York Public Library, and the Brooklyn Public Library - all these are free for me as a US and NYS citizen) and I'm mostly using them to read manga lmao.

Current Libby Borrows:

I Hear the Sunspot vol. 1 by Yuki Fumino

Yona of the Dawn vol. 5 by Mizuho Kusanagi

Chainsaw Man vol. 2 by Tatsuki Fujimoto

Too Close to Fall in Love by Akira Nakata

Haikyu!! vol. 18 by Haruichi Furudate

Jujutsu Kaisen vol. 1 by Gege Akutami

Kaiju No. 8 vol 5 by Naoya Matsumoto

Libby Holds (titles I'm waiting for - because they have strict due-dates, they'll jump the TBR line whenever the holds come through):

Demon Slayer/Kimetsu no Yaiba vol. 4 by Koyoharu Gotouge

I Think Our Son is Gay vol. 5 by Okura

I Shall Never Fall in Love by Hari Conner

Camp Damascus by Chuck Tingle

Spy x Family vol. 3 by Tatsuya Endo

Bury Your Gays by Chuck Tingle

How to Be Ace by Rebecca Burgess

Gwen and Art Are Not in Love by Lex Croucher

FANGS vol. 1 by Billy Balibally

Pile 3: The Yaoi Stash + a couple other odds and ends

So early last year I got a text from my brother that he was at a thrift shop and they had a pile of books that "looked like my kind of thing" and a photograph of a bunch of book spines, and I told him to go ahead and buy them all at $1 US a pop and I'd sort through what they were. This is most of those; excluded are a couple that weren't yaoi and I wasn't interested in, and a few that are incomplete cause I don't want to get invested in something like that. I haven't yet read any of this yet, I figure if I ever am low on library books or am just in the mood for some yaoi porn, I'll dip into this pile then.

Footnotes from the World's Greatest Bookstores is obviously not yaoi, it's a passed-by-my-dad art book about bookstores. It is, however, a quick read, and I've already read about half of it, so I threw it on this pile too because it had to go somewhere lmao

(blank spine) is actually an art book of MXTX fanart I got at Flamecon

Hero Heel vol. 1 and 2 by Makoto Tateno

New Beginnings by Kotetsuko Yamamoto

A Love Song for the Miserable by Yukimura

Tomorrow's Ulterior Motives by Sakuya Fujii

Love Share by Aoi Kujyou

Love Control by Ai Hasukawa

Star by Keiko Konno

Once Upon a Glashma by Jumiko Sukeane

Passionate Theory by Ayumi Kano

Hot Limit by Akira Kanbe and Minori Shima

Candy by Satomi Suerts

Red by Sanae Rokuya

Anyway. The TL:DR of all of this is I'm anal but if it keeps me reading it's worth it, and that I've got waaaaaaay too much I want to read in 2025.

But anyway, that's the answer to my 9, er, 50-something books I want to read in 2025 lmao.

[weirdly-specific-but-ok]

maybe tumblr will get me back into writing.

Hey my maggoty loves sooooo well, as you might know (because of this chaotic mess of a thread on Neil's blog, oops) I've rooted up a WIP from last February. And I want to finish it. The time on that thread that I said I'd write, I actually wrote for three hours and wrote 3000 words and actually had so much fun? And I haven't written since then but it's made me realise if I keep myself accountable on tumblr then I'll actually do this thing that brings me so much joy.

Sometimes you need to be kicked in the ass even to do things that you like. In chemical kinetics it's called activation energy, if I remember correctly. Ass-kicking energy has more pizzazz.

Sooooo I'll make a tag and I'll just keep making stupid lil updatey posts, y'all feel free to ignore it (or maybe, if you need to write too, take them as a reminder and motivation, the way I took Neil's post as my ass-kicking energy. anything you like). Writing is a messy messy thing but hey we can do it together!

I'll use the tag Asmi's birds of paradise because the ship name I use for my two OCs, Rian and Avi, is Avian. And well, avian = birds. Flashy queer birds. See I'm putting so much thought into this :")

Alright I'm going to write a scene I've been wanting to, where Rian (who knows nothing about cricket) has to commentate on a game of it along with Avi (who's extremely good at it but is out of the game because injury). I wonder if Avi will realise that Rian's not even trying to commentate properly, he's just trying to make Avi laugh. Fucking fools I love them.

Let's fucking go! @howmanyholesinswisscheese writing with me, dad? beating those cishet allegations?

[comesitintheclover]

Six Sentence Sunday Monday 📚📜🖊️

Thank you so much for the tag @bookish-bogwitch! your chart is awesome!

I will remember to try that/ a similar thing if I keep having issues with this fic I'm writing (but I should at least try to slog through a first draft of my trouble chapters first - i just get so anxious that I will fuck up the funny-conflict and make it miserable or something when it's 'perfect' (but vague af) in my brain and has been that way for 4 years...).

And thank you everyone who has tagged me in the last months/year <3 @nausikaaa, @ileadacharmedlife, @monbons, @supercutedinosaurs, @brendughh, @rimeswithpurple, and anyone else if I missed you because my tumblr notifs won't go that far back 😭💗💞💖 I love you all! Thank you for including me in the community even when I haven't been writing for a while! It's been so inspiring seeing what you all have been up to and I've finally started writing again so yay!

My goal is to finish this fic I've been writing for four years (i've written what I'm estimating is 50k words freehand and am transcribing and editing them onto my laptop and I still need to write the other half ... hahahaha 😅. But I love it. ) called *The Long Summer*, within a month (the first draft at least, I'll come back and edit it at a later date. I want to post it on ao3 over a summer so hopefully I will be ready next summer! I need to write it while I still love it!), and then I want to write the first draft of an original story for a month or so/NaNoWriMo, and then I will pick one of my Carry On WIPs to work on (hopefully just in time to celebrate snowbaz's anniversary!)

(The Carry On WIPs in question: I'm thinking I will probably pick my soulmate au fic called Meet the Parents/When You're an Adult You'll Understand, or a trans au called Fraternity house, orrrrr this magical Agony-Aunt fic called Basilton Grimm-Pitch’s 10 Step Plan for Getting Over*(letting himself be in love with) Simon Snow ).

And I'm planning to interact more with wip-wednesdays and six-sentence-sundays from now on to keep me motivated and accountable! (hopefully this works, battling my motivation is like trying to wrestle a fish or something... i'm constantly at a loss with my brain - oh why won't I do things that I love and have time to do??)

....Oh and I want to make some Carry On animations.... (this is probably why I don't do things... Too ideas many and hard to pick. I tried to make a schedule last night that included everything I wanted to do in a day and it was 35 hours long... oops).

*The Long Summer* is a harry potter fic, and since I know all of you lovely people from Carry On, and I know lots of people avoid hp stuff for obvious reasons (JKR is wrong! Trans liberation now!), I will keep the rest of this under the cut <3

here are the first six sentences from my 💗beloved fic💗:

Ron Weasley wasn't an introspective soul. By the time something actually rolled around to happening he would probably have had twelve chances to predict it, if he was Hermione. He presumed something like this would never have happened to Hermione. Summers were probably a lot more quiet in the Muggle world, as an only child, with parents who weren’t - well Hermione was so smart she probably already knew, no there was really no reason to write to her. And Harry - well he didn't want to write to Harry about it either.  Honestly, it would probably be better if he never found out.

(I wrote these when I was 16 and they may need editing but that's for future me to worry about - rn I'm trying to push out a first draft as fast as possible...)

Thank you to anyone who read this far!

Hi!'s, tags, and hand-hearts to everybody 🫶 @stitchy-queerista, @umdiasujo, @carpeosculum, and open tag to anyone who wants to be tagged! <3

[prize-pig-collection]

Only the Necessities

an inspirational story

Check out this post if you haven’t already. A recipe for a shake that’s about 3 gallons and almost 32,000 calories, and an update from the author who says she swears by it, and it’s a big part of what’s helped her blow up to 540 pounds as of about a year ago.

So that author @juliebelly and I were talking earlier. It turns out she’s 575 pounds now, and desperate to be 600 or more 😉

So desperate, in fact, that she wants one of these “little” shakes right now! But she said she needed a little motivation to get out of bed and to the store. Understandable at her size. Between that, and a little quirk of the recipe, that set off a little story in my head…

———

I can’t imagine what the scene at the grocery store is gonna look like…

Either you’ll roll up to the checkout on a scooter that’s struggling to handle your weight (it’s only meant for 500 lbs, after all!), or you’ll be sweaty and red-faced from all the waddling around the aisles you had to do. Hopefully you didn’t bump into anything in the aisles, because bending over to pick things up just isn’t your thing… someone who works there is gonna have to deal with that.

So either way, there you’ll be with your gallon of ice cream, gallon of milk, 3/4 gallon of cream, 4 cans of condensed milk, box of brownie mix, and 5 bottles of chocolate syrup.

One look at you, and the stuff on the conveyor belt, and despite how impossible it sounds, the cashier will just know, somehow, that’s all destined to get down your throat as soon as humanly possible.

I’m sure all the other times you go grocery shopping, and pile up junk food at the register, maybe they tell themselves, “Oh she’s having a big party…” or “Maybe she’s stocking up for a few months while there’s a sale.”

But I think this random set of ingredients makes clear in their mind: “She’s gonna drink this all together. I bet she somehow gets off on it too. Clearly this isn’t the first time she’s done this, I mean look at her…”

Maybe they’ll even tease you a little bit. Call over a manager and ask, “Hey there’s a deal over in Dairy, right, where if you buy a gallon of milk, a gallon of ice cream, and a gallon of cream, you get some money off, or something? I was just wondering if I should tell this piggy… I mean person, oops!… that they should go grab another quart of heavy cream, to make it a full gallon?”

And it turns out they’re right, an extra quart would trigger the deal. It’s meant more for their commercial customers—restaurants, bakeries, and so on—but they’ll allow it for you. Nothing says a regular person can’t get the deal, just no one ever tried. Huh, that’s weird, isn’t it? Oh well, someone’s gotta be the first.

A closer look at you, though, and it’s obvious that to send you all the way back to the dairy aisle would be too much of a struggle. And there’s people in line behind you. You’re gonna need a little help if you’re gonna make this quick.

So the announcement goes over the loudspeaker: “Can an associate in Dairy bring over 1 quart of heavy cream to register 6? We’ve got someone here who wants the gallon of cream, gallon of ice cream, gallon of milk deal. The one that’s usually for business accounts? Just a regular person this time, but my manager says it’s OK!”

Then they realize: they didn’t actually ask you if you wanted the other quart of cream. But the way you’re eyeing the stuff already on the belt, trying not to drool, tells them they made the right call.

Good luck having the patience to get all the way home and firing up the blender before you start chugging away…

[sourrcandy]

KNIGHTS ; an update ↳ bc it's been 2 years since i began this wip

psd by @destimnesia

draft status. draft 1 ver 3 (aka the hoedition)

act 1 wc. 40,849

total wc. 51,709

more under the cut. bc goddamn this turned out to be a long post

the synopsis.

citizens of arkridge city call them puppeteers, rulers, monsters. fear is a weapon the round table wields with ease, but when the godfather of arkridge is murdered, the city is reminded that they, too, are only human.

with a multi-billion dollar inheritance and the fate of their father’s kingdom on the line, the nine clemonte children must navigate this elaborate arkridge game before the killer brings the city to its knees.

major updates.

i'm posting 2 different word counts because i write out of order and some scenes are done ahead of time since i have inspiration for those chapters!! the outline is planned for 3 acts so knights is predicted to be around 120k words in total.

after a long think (i wrote it down on actual paper instead of my notion) about all the characters and their motivations, i have decided to keep SELENA away from the main plot and only mention her briefly with she is 'out of town'. because she contributes nothing, her motivations are the same as aredhel's, and her actions can be covered by other characters.

so far our character motivations are :

serafine — to become ceo of clemonte corporations without the responsibility of her father's dirty empire + out of reginald's shadow

theodore — to be free from his promise / responsibility to reginald and forge his own path

aredhel — to prove her worth to being part of the family

violet — to tear down the clemontes' long legacy of being the roots of arkridge city's underworld and rebuild it in her own image

maribelle — to find the truth behind reginald's murder and change the city for the better with her experiences in the less wealthy districts before she was adopted

colette — to support her family no matter to cost and use the clemonte's influence to grow into herself

sage — to renovate the family and surpass her father's legacy

storm — to prove her worth to sage and simultaneously find her individuality away from sage

selena — in her overseas exchange era oops

side character updates.

blackbird — nothing major changing!! he is still going to be playing his part with bringing storm out of her shell while achieving his own means through her. act 2 is going to be more focused on why the round table and the kumiho gang have butted heads continuously and explain his motives on teaming up with storm

kit — he is going to be somewhat like sera's younger self -> hopeful, over-achieving, and taught to be accountable. BUT he is going to have a much more strict moral code and helps sera stray away from the cruel path knights usually take

morgan — i think i wrote her out to be more insane than she should, almost comical ngl. so i'm going to explore more of her genius / intelligence in act 2 to show that she is not just an insane person and delve more into her past with reginald

marcus — i have been pretty vague about marcus in act 1 bc it is mainly showing his dynamic / relationship with aredhel. he is going to enable a lot of aredhel's actions later on so i'm hoping to explore his motives subtly through the main characters before act 3

some of my favourite lines from knights so far.

finally. thank you to everyone (and ppl in wtw) who continuously showed interest in knights and for motivating me!! i know it's been a long ride and trust me, it's going to be a longer journey bc i am a slow writer. also kudos to mole and nicole for all your help / comments on my hoedition draft, it's what keeps me going <3

general taglist. @kazino @serpentarii @seasteading @lasbrumas @sympathyhouse @halcionic @janaisvu

knights taglist. @redbloodprose @writeblrfantasy @innocentlymacabre

— send an ask / put in tags to be added/removed.

[miss-katsune]

Welcome to my Page!!!!!!

hi! you can call me Uzi or Katie, whichever works best!

(currently preferrably Uzi though)

Uz/Zi/Kat as nicknames works too :3

I mostly do digital art but also occasionally do A Hat in Time modding stuff! Or... other stuff. whatever I feel like at the time LOL

My current main hyperfixations are Murder Drones and Voices Of The Void, so alot of what I make and reblog will be involving those in some way '^^ if im feeling silly enough maybe I also post OC content lol, im very inconsistent with my art motivation though

This account is very reblog heavy, so if you would like to see some of the stuff I've posted here, feel free to check these tags:

#misskatsune art = general art tag

#misskatsune modding = A Hat in Time modding stuff

(will add more prolly at some point maybe)

also im way more active and talkative on Twitter

(I also have a seperate account for my creative projects there so they're easier to find and go through)

ALSO MY CARRD WITH MORE LINKS OF MY SOCIALS!!!!!!

I'm still kind of trying to get used to using this site more actively since my ass has been stuck on twitter for so long oops lmao, but im getting the hang of it I think.

EITHER WAY I hope u enjoy my slop and have a good time :]

I hope this isnt too much bullshit text and I hope its understandable sdkjfhgsdf anyways kthxbye for real now

[complicitsacrilege]

So I just put this in the tags of another post but I think it deserves its own post.

Censorship and purity culture are erasure culture. You can’t have one without the other. The ENTIRE POINT of censorship, banning, restricting, and purity culture is to erase what causes discomfort because it’s uncomfortable and causes negative emotional responses or negative consequences (which is a whole other issue that I’m not going to get into here because then that delves way too far into political territory than I have the spoons to discuss). That’s it. That’s the bottom line.

When you censor, for example, a transphobic episode of a tv show, it erases the fact that it happened completely. It’s like it doesn’t exist. BUT it DOES still exist. It DID happen. And erasing it doesn’t fix the problem.

You know what does fix the problem?

Doing better.

Don’t censor it, use it as an example of what not to do and do better. Watch that episode, read that book, watch that video. Experience it and cringe, feel bad, whatever. But don’t - absolutely do not - use those bad feelings as an excuse to erase it because erasing it does not make the problem go away. It makes it worse, and worse, and worse until it causes direct harm because it isn’t there to LEARN from.

When you ignore mistakes, how can you expect to improve? If airplane engineers ignored problems and didn’t learn from them, I think flying would be a MUCH riskier way to travel, don’t you? What about car recalls? Oops there’s a mistake in the engineering that makes the airbags explode with shrapnel but if we ignore it and pretend like it’s not a problem, people WILL die from that.

The same goes for censorship of uncomfortable mistakes and subjects. Feel that discomfort and use it as a way to learn how to do better - or a motivator for you to learn how to do better.

It’s okay to be uncomfortable, but what is not okay is pretending that you didn’t make a mistake so you don’t have to be accountable.

[lunalemony]

What is COSAH?

Okay so I got 2 asks regarding COSAH which made me realize I’ve never posted anything about it to this account which is nuts to me. Then again I don’t really share my OCs too much (oops). So I’m sharing a few comics pages I made last year (mind you they’re pretty old and I was in crunch mode for school so they’re a little ugly.)

COSAH is abbreviated for The Circus of Stars and Hearts! The comics revolve around Clara Campbell and Octavius Starblazer. Clara is a 25 year old clown school dropout, who has been working kids parties to help pay off her student loans and earn enough to go back to college for something else. She has a strained relationship with her overbearing parents who shamed her for even wanting to be a clown. Although she wants to pursue a different career path, Clara has a deep love for clownery and circusry, and takes the ‘clowns code of ethics’ very seriously. Octavius is a 27 year old ringleader who started his own circus after running away from his family (who also ran a circus). Octavius was broke and had to squat in an abandoned grocery store, which he eventually makes into his Circus. The Circus of Stars and Hearts is Octavius’ chance to prove himself to everyone that he has good ideas and that he doesn’t need his family’s help to succeed. His cousin Stella joins the circus as an aerial performer, and the squatter who was living in the grocery store before Octavius, Benny, joins as a clown/stage hand.

That’s all I’m going to reveal about it because I’m rewriting a lot of it right now (even though I haven’t touched my comic pages since this summer) I made this comic as a project for school last year, but I really like the characters and world I managed to create out of it. Sadly I haven’t had a ton of time or motivation to work on it with school starting. During school I’m making a ton of comics for assignments and it burns me out pretty fast. I have a class next semester where I may be able to explore these characters more and I hope that I am able to!

Sorry for the lore dump. Here is the comic below!

[zarvasace]

PROGRESS POST

(10/4/23)

This is partly for accountability and partly just to get all this out of my head! This last month or two have felt so hectic, getting used to a new work and sleep schedule and all. I'm still not quite there.

If you're curious about what I've been working on and what my plans are in terms of writing and art for the rest of the year, read on. :)

I will say, though, that if you want more of a specific AU or story, the way to get it is by asking questions and leaving comments! Asks and comments remind me about things I'm doing and get me excited about them again! I have these plans, but I also am very good at chasing inspiration to unknown (and sometimes unimportant) corners!

By Fandom

Linked Universe Projects

I've been feeling less motivated to work on LU stuff, but I still plan on at least finishing what I have open, so you can look forward to some of that!

Writing

Disability AU—one small mobility trio fic in the works. A few vague ideas for doing backstory fics.

Council (1931 vampire AU)—this is still the "backburner to backburner" fic, but I do have some fun ideas. I just have been distracted with other things! I think this AU is a lot of fun and I'd love to do more with it. We'll have to see.

The Marvelous Misadventures of Wind and His Merry Band of Maybe-Human Misfits—chapter 7 (out of 9 or so) is in progress. I have it all outlined out, and it's fun to work on, but I have (again) been distracted! This is, I hope, going to be my main December project. It'd be nice to finish before it turns 2 years old next summer. Oops.

I have several other WIPs that aren't very exciting and probably won't see daylight, but they're there if I feel like them

Art

Coloring book—I'm part of the coloring book project! :) I have already finished 1/2 drawings, and they went so well, I'm considering doing more.

Shatterproof manga page—still on my radar! I'm doing the end scene from dazzling diamond danger, and my ambition keeps outgrowing my time.

Four Swords Projects

Writing

Fairytale AU—man I've started this Vidow BatB fic literally five times. I have an almost-complete draft sitting at like... 20k?? iirc, but I kind of hate a lot of it. I also like a lot of it. It's a bit difficult for me to work on rewriting something in that situation. Anyway. Another December thing probably.

Fright Fight—I have ideas for every week, but am currently unsure if I want to draw or write for them. Most of my October will be focused on filling these prompts!

Vampire Lords AU—I have strange as severe is this my fate open right now, with a fair amount of material... it just needs to be edited a bit. I do want to keep working on that, I've just... well. Distraction. A common theme. XD I might be feeling another little bite fic coming on, too.

Art

Fright Fight—see above

Fright Fight part 2—I have a few side things to do for this, like making graphics that I haven't quite finished yet. They shouldn't take long, I just gotta do em!

Non-Fandom

Stickers—I am in the process of drawing some stickers! Yay! These are for my work, but also just for me. I want some Halloween stickers. This is a backburner project.

Nanowrimo project—I need to spend some time figuring out a few things to really get going on my princess-verse. I'm going to be doing Nanolympics this year, so hopefully some of their preptober stuff will help!

Hearts Linked Together—my super-cool Linkverse. XD I love my dumb timeline, and all the characters, they're just filler drawings that I haven't had time to continue.

Secret Zelda project—I really really need to do this! I can't say much right now, but it involves a fair amount of work, both writing and art. I think I haven't gotten very far on it yet because I'm intimidated. Stop that.

Zine edits—I worked really really hard on an art piece for a LoZ zine coming up! This week is critique, and I anticipate a few edits later.

By Month

Facebook posts—a lady I know wants to commission pretty quote images to post on her Facebook. I need to reply to her text. And do them.

September

I primarily worked on the fic Blood-Sucker's Guide to High School. I also worked on and submitted one fic and one piece of art to two different zines, which I hope you'll see soon.

October

If you care, you may have noticed I'm not doing Whumptober this year! Part of this is because I'm a bit burned out from the above, and part of it is that the prompts just didn't seem very inspiring to me this year. Maybe that's just my mindset. I haven't been in a very whumpy mood.

I'm planning on filling weekly prompts for @fsfrightfight this month and maybe chipping away at some other fics, in addition to one more zine contribution. I'm also going to be planning for November and doing some scattered art work here and there.

November

NaNoWriMo! I considered skipping this... but I'm feeling really inspired and motivated to do it, especially with October as a break. I'm going to write some original work, and that will be the focus of my November. I'll likely get some other art done, too.

December

I hope to dedicate this month to finishing things up from this year! That means working on "backburner" projects.

[littlegoobus]

Why do I never have motivation to write fics when I can like. i’ll wake up in the middle of the night and have the entire script for a calron fic and then in the morning I’m like “ok but I’ll just reread these ones I like” I wish my brain could work properly :( I remember when I first picked up the magisterium series to reread it and I grabbed TBK by accident (yes it was as bad as u would expect oops) but didn’t bother to grab iron trial instead so I read it….. and halfway through I was like “ok there’s no way these two aren’t gay for each other what I distinctly remember callmara being canon and Aaron dying ???” and then when I got to the. the death scene. (Fuck my life oopsie) I was like “ok wait did I misremember??? was my young brain too stupid to grasp homosexuality??? because they are in love???” and then I went on to reread tsm aND SHIT NO I WAS RIGHT CALLMARA WAS CANON and I was like “ok I’m going to create an ao3 account… and write about calron…. even though no one else has read this series and has written fics about it AND THEN I FIND OUT THERES 100+ CALRON FICS ON AO3 (I have almost read them all) wait fuck what was the original point of this post

[td-scenarios]

hi! new blog here cause i......idk i just decided to make an account after not having one lolz

just wanted to introduce myself :3

and check in cause ive noticed you haven't posted in a while-

i kinda sound like a stalker oops, sorry

anygays! im orange or wisteria! nice to meet ya!

ahhh nice to meet you too ! i didn't mean to disappear for so long but i lost sm motivation </3 im fine now tho :] the new season trailers dropping has brought me back and im hoping to get thru as many of my reqs as possible rn :p

hope you and anyone reading this are having a good time rn !! <33

[duckprintspress]

Hi there, i'm not sure this is in your wheel house, and I hate to waste your time, but I had a question and wonder if you might be able to offer advice (no worries if you can't or don't want to). i write a lot of fan fiction, but also have lots of idea about non-fan fiction stories. when i've tried to write them, however, I find the idea of getting a whole story out to be sufficiently intimidating that i've never been able to do it (there are probably other reasons for this of course, too). i love the A03 capability of posting one chapter (which can be super short) at a time; it's a real impetus to keep going without having to complete an entire work up front, esp if the feedback along the way is encouraging. what is your take on getting an original fiction story out in a03, but then trying to get it published elsewhere afterwards (taking it down from a03 at that point if necessary)? is that something feasible to try to do?

or perhaps you have other recs? (I don't think my original stories (unlike my fan fic) is likely to be focused on LGBTQIA+ relationships or issues, and i'm straight, so i suspect it's not what your publishing house is focusing on)

thank you so much for even reading this message.

Howdy anon! So there's a few things brought up in this message, and I'll try to answer each.

First: yes, we love offering advice and getting asks! Srsly, you and everyone, don't hesitate to drop stuff like this in our inbox, I love answering them, and if I (hi, I'm @unforth, meatspace name Claire, pen name/editing name Nina, and I own the Press and run our social media accounts) don't know the answer, I can kick 'um to the DPP server and get more folks to weigh in!

Second: yeah, motivation is a constant challenge, and what works is always going to be different for everyone. Those comments each chapter can be all that keeps me going on a long fanfic sometimes (and even they're not enough sometimes, oops, shovels a bunch of unfinished wip under the carpet behind themself)

Specifically, you ask: what is your take on getting an original fiction story out in a03, but then trying to get it published elsewhere afterwards (taking it down from a03 at that point if necessary)?

So, works are absolutely converted from AO3 stories to published stories. I can think of a half-dozen examples off the top of my head (one of the most recent being Even Though I Knew the End by C. L. Polk, which started as a Dean Winchester/Jimmy Novak fic). However, I'd point out that original fiction gets very VERY low engagement on AO3. Most of the conversions I know of are people taking fanfiction and either scrubbing the barcodes (as in, swapping character names and removing/replacing canon references) or completely rewriting it. If the feel you're struggling with is "I want to get fanfic-like engagement but on a completely original work" I think you'd struggle to get that on AO3; virtually no one I know who has posted original works on AO3 has gotten that engagement on those works.

Publishing it as original fiction that you don't substantially change for publication will also weaken your ability to get it published. It'll guarantee that you can only apply with it to places that allow/do reprints, because you've already "used" the First Worldwide Publication Rights that most publishers will want for an original thing - because you already published it. So even if you remove it, the cat is already out of the bag on "first," and that will limit your options - another reason to do it as fanfic that you then rewrite. It's relatively hard to find places that will publish works, especially long works, that the First rights are already off the table (though we're one example of a place that will, we've published things that are up on AO3, and allowed the unedited versions to remain on AO3 when we've done so. For example, several of @tryslora's stories. We've also allowed the opposite; there's at least one original work on AO3 that started as a DPP exclusive for Patreon, and when the rights reverted back to the author, they chose to post it to AO3 with our blessing).

Of course, you can bypass these issues by self-publishing. Then what you keep and what you change, whether you keep it on AO3 or remove it, etc., is up to you, because you're the boss. Self-pubbing puts a lot more of the work on your shoulders tho - editing, cover art, marketing, typesetting, etc., all of it becomes your responsibility.

But: yes, taking works from AO3 to original fic publishing is feasible and is a thing that happens all the time. Depending on how you're publishing it and/or how extensively you rewrite it, you may not even have to take it down, but it would depend. Certainly, for most trad pub/big publishing houses, they would expect you to take it down.

Re: your last point about working with us, we require exactly zero disclosures from our contributors about their sexual or gender orientation. Our only requirement is that authors have posted fanfiction on a public, accessible fanfiction website. To the best of my knowledge, the vast majority of the people we work with are LGBTQIA+, but I also know for sure we've worked with at least one person who was cis and het. There are probably more. It's honestly none of my business. We've also published plenty with no LGBTQIA+ component. The way we work, we accept authors, and once we've got the author, we publish what they want to write, we're not particularly interested in policing that. Things without LGBTQIA+ don't tend to sell as well, because of the interests of our customers, but we'll put it out anyway *shrug*. I'd guess around a quarter of our catalogue has no explicit LGBTQIA+ rep, maybe a bit less.

Anyway! Hi, I'm wordy. TL:DR is: you can absolutely try to motivate yourself to write original fic by publishing it to AO3, but engagement is likely to be low, and doing so will make it harder to publish. If you feel you need the motivation that posting chapter-by-chapter gets you, it'd be better to write it as fanfiction with the intention of rewriting it later, as this will improve engagement without doing as much damage to your ability to publish it later.

and if you wanted to write with us, you'd be welcome; we recruit authors through our anthologies, and I expect our next open call to be sometime over the late spring or summer. We only juuuust started talking potential themes a few days ago.

Hope this helps!

-unforth

[rezdragon]

Project Updates (August 8th, 2024)

Art Show So the BIG news with RezDragon is that YES! My art has been accepted into a fine art show. Like a REAL fine art show, with judges and WINE. It's to promote the local artists of the Inland Northwest, which includes ME THIS YEAR! I tried to submit to this last year and I did not get in, but that's changed this year and I am VERY EXCITED AND HAPPY ABOUT IT! So what does this mean? Well, it means I'm going to be HARD focusing on preparing for the show for the rest of August (aside from one project, you know what it is). I have to get everything ready by September. One of the pieces I put in is an installation piece and that is the biggest prep I have. So kinda expect me to maybe go more dark than usual? I dunno, I might post pics as I work on shit.

The One Other August Project (You Know What It Is) It'll be out tomorrow.

TDA - Everyday With how shit my mental health has been lately, I haven't had the motivation to work on this. Rez keeps trying to drag me back in, but it's just not coming back to me yet. I want to start writing the script and I was GOING TO in August, but then the Art Show Acceptance letter showed up and WELL. Sorry Rez, best wait till September. I have been taking notes occasionally when I think of something new. She's on my mind, I swear.

Running With the Devil (what the fuck is this) RWTD is Ash's story that started out accidentally. I was writing up a lot of facts about Ash herself and then the next thing I knew, I started writing scenes and then a month and a half later, I had an 87 page novella. Oops, how'd that happen. This has VERY much been a comfort project to help keep my spirits up while I've been so unhappy lately, and it's been doing a good job of it. It is not meant to be good, it might be, I dunno. It's me giving in and writing cute romance between a demon girl and her lesbian girlfriend. But uh... you won't see it, at least not all of it. I'll be real with you as to why: it's an erotica story and I don't want erotica associated with the RezDragon name. It's not that I'm ashamed of writing it, I'm not, but once you start down that path, that's all you're known for and I do. not. want. that. So I will only be showing the non-horny chapters, or perhaps the story censored. Anyways, chapter 1 (30 pages, yes 30, 20,000+ word count) is available on Sheezy if you so choose. I didn't advertise this because I was a little too depressed to when I posted it.

Next Album Project(s) I have two new albums to place on the stove, or at least their concepts. First one I plan to have it be as raw and uncomfortable at Kintsugi and Tasukete- DE aka more depressing harsh noise crap. Working title right now is "Nothing Has Changed." Second one is another "story" album, i.e. like Horizon. Instead of space, this one takes place in the woods and back in the 80's. I won't talk about its full concept yet, giving myself a break from music work (and also I can't really work on music right now)

Not a Project, but a Health Update So I've been griping about it lately, but my left hip/pelvis/leg area has been in a lot of pain since April of this year. It went away near the end of May and I was able to return to work, but then it came back after a week. I tried to work through it, which only seemed to make the problem way worse. Since June, I have been in non-stop pain, with barely anything relieving it (it's why I've had a lot of extra time to write as of late). I've actually been in a lot of money trouble because of not being able to work and disability being a nightmare, but I've avoided talking about it on my RezDragon accounts (except for Sheezy) to keep that kind of stuff away from my art. I've started physical therapy, which has been going well in giving me some relief. I've been using a cane since April just to get around. I can't say I've noticed any improvements and I'm afraid I might be out of day job work until at least October. I can't even get a new job where I sit all day, because if I sit up for too long, that spikes up my pain; I have to sit reclined or lie in bed. I missed the whole summer, I wanted to go swimming :( So anyways, that's why I've been mostly focused on writing, it's the easiest thing for me to do atm.

[rinhaler]

Hey luxxx!! How are you doing with your back and everything?? I hope you found a solution :p

Do you happen to know any Megumi fics that come close to your own? You know, perfect character depictions, amazing writing, plot etc.

Ps. I’ve been checking your account every day in case you have uploaded WUSYANAME hehe

Have an amazing week pookie

Omg hi Angel!! I haven’t found a solution yet but hopefully it’s just gonna fix itself 😭 to be honest I am really slacking in my reading I haven’t read anything in months but I have SO many talented moots so if any of you wanna plug yourselves feel free hehe !! Otherwise I can direct u to my pinned post I have a reading rec list and stuff to be read if you haven’t checked there you might find something 🥺🥺 I’ve been slacking on all fronts tbh I’m tryna get back into writing I’ll try and motivate myself to get back to WUSYANAME but I’ve got sooooo many writing ideas and requests but I’m just playing video games always oops

Anyway I hope u have a lovely week too nonnie take care of urself and good luck!! 🥰🫶🏽

[friend-shaped-but]

I feel like they try to make drupad cruel to paint Drona in a better light. They take the "I can't be friends with you bcos you're POOR" incident be the whole thesis of Drupad's character.

Of course, Drona isn't a saint, and Drupad isn't satan incarnate like starbharat thinks, but that warrants a whole other post. Right now, I want to get into the specific episode you're talking about.

I LOVE that they made ARJUN the sexy lamp, the philosophical one, the mama's boy, the- (what starbharat made him outnumbers his actual names and also the previous sentence was all sarcastic. He has so much main character energy and NOT in a good way.)

Honestly, with Kunti's speech in that episode, I wanted there to be a difference of opinion between the pandavas. Let them have a Dialogue on doing what's Comfortable vs doing what is Right. It is actually one of the FEW moments where I sympathise with this serial's iteration of Kunti. She has an ADORABLE baby face which sometimes works for getting me to like her a little bit. But wise, shrewd, matriarch, strong Kunti isn't seen here, which is something I prefer. Also I cannot get over the ageism of starbharat in casting someone younger than the pandava actors to play Kunti. Like none of the women in the older gen are actually old like WTF bro.

But no, we gotta do the brotherly highfive tunnel digging sequences which gives us (mostly) ripped men covered in dirt. The two wolves inside me begin fighting at around this moment and do not stop until we get to slightly dilfy drupad and fem shikhandi.

@preyasi this is reminding me of your bheeshma video.

I wanted starbharat to do a very bold thing and show the pandavas chill and comfortable in the forest while they are uncomfortable in the palace. But ig that's too much to hope for.

NOW, coming to my favourite part: Drupad(And also why my pfp is Asshole Starbharat Drupad and not Good Dad BRC Drupad)

First of all, in my opinion, Starbharat doesn't take into account that all of the major families(Especially Panchal, Drupad was boutta make the homemade fucking kauravas with how many sons he had) in the epic are really complex joint families. Same with the yadavas, don't really show anyone except for the main 3 siblings(SATYAKI IS NOT THERE. KRISHNA'S OTHER WIVES ARE NOT THERE) and wtf was going on with rukmini being reduced to a 2d crybaby??? (I love the rukmini haran episode tho for the krishnarjun moments and it is so terrible it makes my day better with how camp it is if my day has been especially terrible)

Second of all, WHERE IS MY BOY SATYAJIT??? WHERE ARE MY TALENTED BABIES YUDHAMANYU AND UTTAMAUJAS?? WHERE ARE MY DARLING KUMARA-PANCHALYA?? WHERE ARE HIS KIDS YOU COWARD STARBHARAT?? (they are alone enough to squash the "Drupad can't have sons" thing he has going on)

Third of all, I hate what they have done to shikhandi. I do Not Like It. As the resident shikhandi obsessed person on this website(can be corroborated by many ppl who knew me b4 I started this blog) but that is again, a separate post where I rank all shikhandis across all adaptations and it's a Big Thing. anyways, back to this post.

this is why I loved workshopping and writing Drupad. Yes, he is a selfish, territorial asshole, he is awkward and cannot understand his kids despite being responsible for the messiness of his family, but he is also a deeply flawed character. my pfp is starbharat drupad because he looks exactly like I imagined him as a kid and also because looking at him every day fills me with a visceral anger what star plus did to him and my desire to make him a proper 3-dimensional character. He hate-motivates me.

But yes I love the banter between the pandavas when they sit down to eat. I just- it's one of the things this adaptation does well. Although I did NOT like the random south american fruits showing up.

OOPS- sorry for the long post

Re-watching Mahabharat (8/?)

Guess who has returned. Anyways, to refresh y'all's memories, this starts after the episode where Arjun discovers that the building is made of lac. So basically lakshagriha timeeee

NAURRR MOMMY DEAREST IS ABOUT TO EAT POISONED KHEER

Someone pls tell me if these ppl only eat kheer and sweets. pls. I hate sweets, ughhh.

LOL Kunti is about to eat poisoned kheer, and the cameraman is busy giving a sexy shot of Arjun. Priorities.

Yudi bro dropping the bomb, while Kunti gasps in surprise. Like really? Y'all are surprised? this is the same person who poisoned lil Bhima.

BBG Nakul complaining to Mommy how his pet died. uwu.

These kids really arent letting Mommy Kunti process the news, eh?

Kunti: *is confused and scared*. meanwhile Arjun: *proceeds to be sexy.*

Bhishma is also showing that smolder. Dude, your grandsons are about to die, ffs.

I see. Arjun hasn't entered his "i can't kill my relatives" phase yet.

LOL Kunti, won't it be better to have Duryodhan's crimes out in the public so that the court can literally remove him out of the line of succession or smth, instead of just asking your sons to give their right on the throne? Krishna is prolly banging his head in Dvaraka rn.

Kunti is not wrong. Dhritrashtra is really bad uncle. And in canon, he was a bad father too. He had an affair with a maid for a year because Gandhari couldn't physically intimate with him due to her pregnancy. That's how Yuyutsu was born. It wasn't a one time thing.

Is Arjun the only kid who can have heart-to-heart convos with his elders?

#seddramaticeffects

Another Krishna flashback, yayyyy

Arjun: idk what to doooo oh godddd. Le the God: here, have a flashback bestie!

If I had a coin for each time Arjun says "Mata saraswati" then I would have 3 coins, which is not too much, but well-

Arjun: i have to sacrifice myselfffff

Not the Pandavas playing passing the parcel with Kunti XDD

Y'all, he won't die. He is Arjun. He won't die till Krishna wants him to die which is never.

If I had a coin for each time Arjun says "Jyesth Bhrata jaiye-"

See what you have done Dhritrashtra. My poor Pandavas are now doing majdoori.

Kunti really wants to become tandoori kabab, doesn't she?

Everytime Gandivadhari Arjun plays, I'm reminded how he doesn't have the gandiva yet.

Bhishma: *moans sadly*

This scene with the praja of Hastinapur is both emotional and extremely funny at the same time for me.

Stop moping, Karna. You chose mitrata over humanity.

Karna is that friend who is equally into the bs the rest of the group does, but still has the gall to act as if he is disgusted.

Kripacharya(?) dropping the scroll as if it is the sindoor ki thali from Ekta Kapoor's daily soaps.

Bhishma, after finding out that the Pandavas are alive: me happy :>

Krishna going on a beach date with Rukmini AWWWWW

Okay but Drupad wasn't this huge of a POS in canon. Why is he downright cruel

Also you are so sexist, Drupad. It's YOUR chromosomes which didn't allow you to have a son.

erm...Daksh Prajapati had SONS too...BUT THE POINT IS NICE!

Poor Droupadi is already Drupad's unwanted kid, isn't she?

Bhima's personality is just eating and yelling at ppl out of anger. OH GOD.

Not Kunti crying over the food. Ma'am, the quantity is def enough for all of your sons. Also, they have eaten this type of food for 75% of their lives.

SERVE YOURSELF FOOD YOURSELF, ARJUN-

Bhima embodying "Dil to baccha hai ji"

Drou and Dhri about to be born yayyyyy